Much I care for any one coming! I can take my walk alone, thank you, Mr. Gervase, and you had better go home. I cant abide to see you spending your time here morning
and night.
Why shouldnt I come here, Patty? It is the nicest place in all the world to me.
But it oughtnt to be, cried Patty; your place is in Greyshott Manor, and this is only a little inn upon the edge of the downs. What pleasure can you find in this parlour, with all their pipes going, and the smoke curling about your head, and the silly talk about Blacksmith John at the smithy, and how he shod Farmer Georges mare?
Well, if I dont object to the talk; and what reason have you against it? Its always good for trade.
Its not even good for trade, said the girl. Do you think they like you to be here, these men? No; not even father dont, though its to his profit, as you say. It stops the talk: for theres things they wouldnt say before you: and it makes them think and ask questions. It aint pleasant for me when they takes to ask each other, Whats the young squire after for ever down here?
Well, you can tell them, said Gervase, with his foolish laugh; I make no secret of it. Pattys what Im after, and she knows
They had gone down upon the open ground where the seven thorns, which gave the house its name, stood in a cluster, ghostly in the white moonlight, some of them so old that they were propped up by staves and heavy pieces of wood. Patty had moved on in the fervour of her speech, notwithstanding that she angrily rejected his request to take a turn. With the blackness of that shade between them and the house, they might have been miles, though they were but a few yards, from the house, with its murmuring sound of voices and its lights.
Look here! said Patty, quickly. No man shall ever come after me that goes boozing like you do at beer from morning to night.
Patty, though she generally spoke very nicely, thanks to the Catechism and the rectors favour, was after all not an educated person, and if she said like you do, it was no more than might be expected from her ignorance. She flung away the arm which he had stolen round her, and withdrew to a distance, facing him with her head erect. Youre a dreadful one for beer, Mr. Gervase, she said; its that you come to our house for, it isnt for me. If there was no Patty, youd want a place to sit and soak in all the same.
Thats a lie! said the young man; and I dont take more than I want when Im thirsty. Its only you that are contrary. Theres that Roger; you let him have as much as you like
What Roger? cried Patty, with a flash of her eyes, which was visible even in the moonlight. If its Mr. Pearson you mean, he never looks at beer except just to stand pots round for the good of the house
If thats what pleases you, Patty, Ill Ill stand anything to anybody as long as as long as Poor Gervase thrust the hand which she would not permit to hold hers, into his pocket, searching for the coin that he had not. At which his tormentor laughed.
As long as youve anything to pay it with, she said. And you have not and that makes all the difference. Roger Pearson since youve made so bold as to put a name to him has his pockets full. And youre running up a pretty high score, Mr. Gervase, I can tell you, for nobody but yourself.
I dont know how he has his pockets full, Gervase said, with a growl; it isnt from the work he does roaming the country and playing in every match
You see he can play, said Patty, maliciously; which some folks couldnt do, not if they was to try from now to doomsday.
But it dont get him on in his business, or make money to keep a wife, said the young man with a flash of shrewdness, at which Patty stared with astonishment, but with a touch of additional respect.
Well, Mr. Gervase, she said, making a swift diversion; I shall always say its a shame keeping you as short as you are of money; and you the heir of all.
Isnt it? cried Sir Giles Pierceys heir. Not a penny but whats doled out as if I were fifteen instead of twenty-five or Id have brought you diamonds, before now, Patty, to put round your neck.
Would you, now, Mr. Gervase? And what good would they have been to me at the Seven Thorns? You cant wear diamonds when youre drawing beer, she added, with a laugh.
I cant abide you to be drawing beer, cried the young man: unless when it is for me.
And thats the worst I can do, said Patty, quickly. Heres just how it is: till you give up all that beer, Mr. Gervase, youre not the man for me. Its what I begun with, and youve brought me round to it again. Him as Ive to do with shall never be like that. Father sells it mores the pity; but I dont hold with it. And, if I had the power, not a woman in the country would look at a man that was fond of it: more than for his meals, and, perhaps, a drop when hes thirsty, she added, in
a more subdued tone.
Thats just my case, Patty, said Gervase; a drop when Im thirsty and most often I am thirsty
Thats not what I mean, neither. If you were up and down from morning to night getting in your hay, or seeing to your turnips, or riding to market well, then Id allow you a drink, like as I would to your horse, only the brute has the most sense, and drinks good water; but roaming up and down, doing nothing as you are taking a walk for the sake of getting a drink, and then another walk to give you the excuse to come back again, and nothing else in your mind but how soon you can get another; and then sitting at it at night for hours together till youre all full of it like a wet sponge, and smelling like the parlour does in the morning before the windows are opened Faugh! cried Patty, vigorously pushing him away, it is enough to make a woman sick!