Oh, Gervase! cried Margaret, full of pity. But why did she want you so particularly to please them just now?
He stared at her for a moment, then laughed and nodded his head. Youd just like to know! he said, but she didnt mean me to be nice to you , Meg; for shes always afraid Ill be driven to marry you though a man must not marry his grandmother, you know.
Margaret repented in a moment of the flush of anger that flew over her. You can make her mind easy on that point, she said gravely; but oh, Gervase, I am afraid it will make them very unhappy if you go on with this fancy; they would never let you bring her here.
Fancy! he cried, Im going to marry her. You cant call that a fancy; and if you think you can put me
off it, or the whole world! Get along Meg, I dont want to talk to you any more.
But I want very much to talk to you, Gervase.
Gervase looked at her with a smile of foolish complacency. I dare say you think me silly, he cried, but heres two of you after me. Get along, Meg; whatever I do Im not going to take your way.
You must do as you please, then, said Margaret in despair; but remember, Gervase, she said, turning back before she reached the door, your father is old, and you might drive him into a fit if you go on as you did to-night and where would you be then? she added, with an appeal to the better feeling in which she still believed.
Why, Id be in his place, and shed be my lady, cried the young man, with a gleam of cruel cunning, and nobody could stop me any more, whatever I liked to do.
But next evening there seemed to be in his mind some lingering regard for what she had said. Gervase left his father alone, and devoted himself to his mother, who was more able to take care of herself. He offered to wind her silks, and entangled them hopelessly with delighted peals of laughter. He took her scissors to snip off the ends for her, and put the sharp points through the canvas, until Lady Piercey, in her exasperation, gave him a sudden cuff on his cheek.
You great fool! she cried you malicious wretch! Do you want to spoil my work as well as everything else? I wish you were little enough to be whipped, I do; and I wish I had whipped you when you were little, when it might have done you some good. Margaret, what do you mean sitting quiet there, enjoying yourself with a book and me driven out of my senses? Thats what he wants to do, I believe to drive us mad and get his own way; to make us crazy, both his poor father and me.
No, I dont, cried Gervase, and you oughtnt to hit me Ill hit back again if you do it again. It hurts youve got a fist like a butcher, though youre such an old lady. He rubbed his cheek for a moment dolefully, and then again burst out laughing. You look like old Judy in the show, mamma, when she hits her baby: only youre so fat you could never get into it, and your voice is gruff like the old showmans not squeaky, like Mrs. Punch. Ive cut all the silks into nice lengths for you to work with aint you obliged to me? Look here, he said, holding out his work. Poor Lady Piercey clapped her fat hands together loudly in sheer incapacity of expression. It made a loud report like a gun fired off to relieve her feelings, and Sir Giles looked up from his quiet game with Dunning, not without a subdued amusement that she should now be getting her share.
Whats the matter, whats the matter, my lady? Is that cub of yours playing some of his pranks? Its your turn to-night, it appears, and serves you right, for you always back him up.
Oh, you fool, you fool, you fool! cried the old lady in her passion. And then she turned her fiery eyes on her husband with a look of contempt and fury too great for words. Meg! she cried, putting out her hand across the table and grasping Mrs. Osbornes arm, If youre ever driven wild like me, never you look for sympathy to a man! when they see you nearly mad with trouble they give you a look, and chuckle! thats what they always do. Put down the scissors, you, you, you
Oh, and to think, she cried wildly, that thats my only son! Oh, Giles, how can you play your silly games, and sit and see him the only one we have between us, and hes a born fool! And me, that was so thankful to see him stay at home, and give up going out to his low company! And now I cant abide him. I cant abide to see him here!
This happened on the night when Patty, frightened and dejected, shut herself up in the room which she had meant for her bridal bower, and cried her eyes out because of Gervases absence. The poor Softy was thus of as much importance as any hero, turning houses and hearts upside down.
CHAPTER XI
Whether Ive given him the sack or hes found some one he likes better, dont matter much to any one as I can see. Ill go to my work, father, if youve got nothing more sensible than that to say.
Sensible or not, hes gone, and
a good riddance, said her father. I aint a fine Miss, thick with the rector and the gentry, like you; but I declare, to see that gaby laughing and gaping at the other side of the table, turned me sick, it did. And I hopes as well see no more of him, nor none of his kind. If you will have a sweetheart, theres plenty of good fellows about, stead of a fool like that.