The Adventures of Harry Richmond, Complete

rs. Squire Beltham was master there: the other members of the household were, his daughter Dorothy Beltham; a married daughter Mrs. Richmond;

solitude and the night; and there was that in the determined violence of the knocks and repeated bell-peals which assured all those who had ever listened in the servants' hall to prognostications of a possible night attack, that the robbers had come at last most awfully. A crowd of maids gathered along the upper corridor of the main body of the building: two or three f

erer. Before venturing to shake his arm Sewis struck a light and flashed it over the squire's eyelids to make the task of rousing hi

man, are you: where

,' said Sewis; 'y

rk? I don't sleep so thick but I can hear, you dog! Fellow comes here, gives m

back on his pillow and

gentleman downstairs; a gentleman dow

intelligence to possess it thoroughly. 'Rather late, eh? Oh! Shove him

ering a severely distasteful

k of staying. That is not his business

ed the squire. 'Why

ch him from head to heel as though the rascal 'd been drawn through the duck-pond. Two o'clock in the morning? Why, the man's drunk. Tell him I'm a magistrate, and I'll commit him, deuce take him; give him fourteen days for a sot; another fourteen for imp

distance he fronted his master steadily; almost

tered at the Grange. 'The scoundrel?' he inquired harshly, half

ed or affirmed instantl

lothes in a lump,

s, Sewis? You've admit

, s

u h

in the ho

did you speak

my windo

e is the scound

doorstep outsi

he? and the d

s,

im rot

A renewal of his clamour for immediate attention fell on the squire

lled to Sewis; 'I can't thin

ted neatly on his calves; the hammering at the hall-door and plucking at the bell going on without intermission. He wore the aspect of one who assumes a forced comp

he remarked, as if it had been a

hat,

sewhip,

the hall,' Sewis

ou for my

be found anywh

othy's timid appeal for permission to come in. Sewis left the room. Presently the squire descended, fully cl

the door, and threw it ope

ere?' he

Mr. Harry Lepel Beltham. Correct me if I err. Accept my apolo

r na

are deceptive. You were born a gentleman, Mr. Beltham, and will not reduce me to request you to behave like one. I am now in the position, a

sleeping apartments were barred, and flung the great chai

There was nothing formidable in his appearance, and his manner was affectedly affable. He lifted his hat as soon as he found himself face to face with the squire, disclosing a partially bald head, though his whiskering was luxuriant, and a robust condition of ma

onversation pas

arousing you at an unseemly hour-unbetimes, as our gossips in mother Saxon mi

ccomplices lurk

m al

your bu

no bus

here, no. I ask you what '

rike you, Mr. Beltham, as it does me. Nevertheless, I must do it; I have no resource. Owing to a rascal of the genus, inc

ght you he

you a

brought you to m

ht have slep

didn'

rival. The grounds for my coming at all you will very well understand, and you will applaud me when I declare to you that I come to her penitent; to exculpate myself, certainly, but despising self-justification. I love my

see my daughter

ife,

ss my threshol

her to com

etch, till the grave takes her.

to be restrained from

ca

a man I am bound to respect wi

if ever rook did nailed hard and fast to my barn doors! comes here for my daughter, when he got her by stealing her, scenting his carcase, and talking 'bout his birth, singing what not sort o' foreign mewin' stuff, and she found him out a liar and a beast, by God! And she turned home. My doors are open to my flesh and blood. And here she halts, I say, 'gainst the law, if th

deliberation under the torrent of this tremendous outbu

pretend to the right of dividing us? If this be as you say-Oh! ten thousand times the stronger my claim, my absolute claim, to cherish her

re shouted an order to Sewis to run roun

l decision?' Mr.

es, it is. I keep my flo

that an interview shall be granted in the morning. Frankly, sir, it is not my intention to employ force: I throw myself utterly on y

ely as you like,'

nd is mine to support and comfort, and none can hinder me

y!' said t

htnings descend on him, who keep

whistled fo

is cold-blooded action, Mr. Rich

tion during to-morrow's

controllable mimicking contempt of the other's florid fo

refuse me: my wife is your chil

e was equally decided.

ins

ll you he's a-b

at, I i

oy's fast a

your daughter-I speak for my son. I will see him,

, he could not learn but his aunt Dorothy, having wrapped him warm in shawl and comforter, and tremblingly tied his hat-strings under his chin, assured him, with convulsive caresses, that it would soon be over, and he would soon be lying again snug and happy in his dear little bed. She handed him to Sewis on the stairs, keeping his fingers for an instant to kiss them: after which, old Sewis, the lord of the pant

e time: but the stranger plucked him from his grandfather's hold, and swinging hi

and back to bed with h

ten his papa. He replied that he had no papa: he had a

y talk and the pats on the shoulder which encourage a little boy to grow fast and tall. 'Four years of separation,' he resumed, 'and my son taught to

hall never see her in this house while

ond changes homes. I take hi

m his mother?' th

shall not expect from you, Mr. Beltham, the minutest particle of com

, 'Stop, never mind that. Stop, look at the case. You can

I see m

you s

hful to your wor

d

do sim

d like that out of a comfortabl

rm; he shall not remain in a house

e speaks of you. I give you my word, you 're neve

father insinuates di

oes for good. He doesn't get a penny from me if you have the bringing of him up. You've done for him, if you decide that way

the boy just when he

call for you to-morrow or next day they will have played tricks with Harry Richmond, and hid him. Mr. Beltham, I request you, for the final time,

ever!' and fortified it with an oath

eat you to grant this permissio

ive hundred-I'll give ye a cheque on my banker for a thousand pounds; and, hark me out, you do this, you swear, as I said, on the servants' Bible, in the presence of my butler and me, "Strike you dead as Ananias and t' other one if you don't keep to it," do that now, here, on the spot, and I'll engage to see you paid fifty pounds a year into the bargain. Stop! and I'll pay your debts under two or three hundred. For God's sake, let go the boy! You shall have fifty g

money,' Mr. Ri

. The boy is mine; I have him, and he shall traverse the wilderness with me. By heaven! his destiny is brilliant. He shall be hailed for what he is, the rightful claimant of a place among the proudest in the land; and mark me, Mr. Beltham, obstinate sensual old man that you are! I take the boy, and I consecrate my life to the duty of establishing him in his proper rank and

the whimpering lips. Then, after some moments of irresolution, during which he struck his chest soundingly and gazed down, talked alternately to himself and the boy, and cast his eyes along the windows of the house, he at last dropped o

not loud. On a rise of the park-road where a fir-plantation began, he heard his name called faintly from the house by a woman's voice that he knew to be his aunt Dorothy's. It came after him only once: 'Harry Richmond'; but he was soon out of hearing, beyond the park, among the hollows that run dipping for miles beside the great highroad toward London. Sometimes his father whistled to him, or held him high and nodded a salutation to him, as though they had just discovered one another; and