Personal disgust is the one thing which nobody can bear; even the abject Gervase was moved to resentment. If I make you sick, Id better go, he said sullenly, and find another place where they aint so squeamish.
Yes, do; there are plenty of folks that dont mind: neither for your good nor for their own feelings. You can go, and welcome. And Im going back to the house.
Oh, stop a moment, Patty! Dont take a fellow up so quick! It isnt nice to hear a girl say that, when you worship the ground she stands on
The smell of beer, said Patty, sniffing audibly with her nostrils in the air, is what I never could abide.
You oughtnt to mind it. If it wasnt for beer
Oh, taunt me with it, do! cried Patty. If it wasnt for beer, neither Richard Hewitt of the Seven Thorns, nor them that belongs to him, that once had their lands and their farms as good as any one, and more horses in their stables than you have ever had at the Manor, couldnt get on at all, nor pay their way Oh, taunt me with it! Its come to that, and I cant gainsay it. I draw beer for my living, and I ought to encourage them that come. But I cant abide it, all the same, cried Patty, stamping her foot on the dry and sandy turf; and I wont look at a man, if he was a prince, that is soaking and drinking night and day!
She turned and walked off towards the house with her quick, springy step, followed by the unhappy Gervase, who called Patty! Patty! by intervals, as he went after humbly. At last, just before they came into sight of the loungers about the door, he ventured to catch at her sleeve.
Patty! Patty! just for one moment! Listen do listen to me!
What were you pleased to want, sir? said Patty, turning upon him. Another tankard of beer?
Oh, Patty, said the young man, if I was to give it up, and never touch another blessed drop again
It would be real good for you the very best thing you could do.
I wasnt thinking of that. Would you be a little nice to me, Patty? Would you listen to me when I speak? would you ?
I always listen to them that speaks sense, Mr. Gervase.
I know I aint clever, said the poor fellow; and whether this is sense I dont know: but you shall be my lady when father dies, if youll only listen to me now.
Pattys eyes danced, and her pulses beat with a thrill which ran through her from head to foot. But she said:
Ill never listen to any man, if he would make me a queen, so long as he went on like that with the beer!
CHAPTER III
all the windows white with the whiteness of her light. The avenue was a wonderful feature at Greyshott, and even the mere passer-by had the good of it, since it was closed only by a great gate of wrought iron, which would also have been worth looking at had the spectator been a connoisseur. The fault of the avenue was that it was a short one not above a quarter of a mile long and it was now used only by foot-passengers, who had a right of way through the little postern that flanked the big gate. Important visitors drove up on the other side, through what was called the Avenue, which was just like other avenues; but the Beeches were the pride of Greyshott. To think that the one slim shadow that came into the moonlight in the midst of them, with a wavering gait and stooping shoulders, should be the future lord and master of all those princely older inhabitants, with the power of life and death in his hands! A few years hence, when old Sir Giles had come to the end of his existence, his son could cut them down if he pleased. He could obliterate the very name of the great trees, so much more dignified and splendid members of society than himself, which stood in close ranks on either side of the path: he so little and they so great, and yet this confused and bewildered mortal the master of all!
If Gervase walked with a wavering gait, it was not because of the beer against which Patty had made so strong a remonstrance. He had, indeed, had quite enough of that; but his uncertain step was natural to the Softy, as all the country called him. He went along with his head stooping, his hands in his pockets, his eyes traversing the path as well as his feet, keeping up an inane calculation of the white pebbles, or the brown ones, among the gravel. He had long been in the habit of playing a sort of game with himself in the vacancy of his mind, the brown against the white, counting them all along the level of the road, occasionally cheating himself in the interests of the right side or the left. This occupation had beguiled him over many a mile of road. But it had palled upon him since he had known Patty, or rather, since she had surprised him into that admiration and enthusiasm which had made him determine to marry her, whatever difficulties might be in the way. It was, perhaps, because of the rebuff she had given him that Gervase had again taken to his game with the brown and white pebbles in the road, which, indeed, it was not too easy to distinguish in the whiteness of the moon. He walked along with his head down, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders up to his ears, and the moon was very unhandsome in the matter of shadow, and threw a villainous blotch behind him upon that clear white line of way. There was a light in the front of the house to which Gervase was bound; a sort of querulous light, which shone keen in the expanse of windows, all black and white in the moon, like the eyes of an angry watcher looking out for the return of the prodigal, but not like the father in the parable. It was, indeed, exactly so: the light was in his mothers window, who would not go to bed till Gervase had come home. It was not late, but it was late for the rural household, which was all closed and shut up by ten oclock. Sir Giles was an invalid, his wife old, and accustomed to take great care of herself. She sat up in her dressing-gown, angry, though anxious, with all the reproachful dignity of a woman kept up and deprived of her natural rest, ready to step into bed the moment her vigil was over; a large watch ticking noisily and also reproachfully on the table beside her, with a sort of stare in its large white face, seeming to say, late! late! instead of tick, tick to the young mans guilty ear.