Rhoda Fleming -- Volume 1

t, and said as much as a label issuing from his mouth, like a figure in a comic woodcut of the old style:-"that's," he pursued, "that's if you haven't got t

sitting and doing sums in a tap-room; if it's a big tap-room, with pew sort o' places, and dark red curtains, a fire, and a smell of sawdust; ale, and tobacco, and a boy going by outside whistling a tune of the day.

calculation of his secret hoard, and he set to work to stamp them on his brain, which rendered him absent in manner, while Mrs. Sumfit mixed liquor with hot

ld bear i

of my sister, u

, "she hasn't got such a pretty sort of

blushed

t them colours, t

is extraordinary visit not even the farmer had received a hint. Mrs. Sumfit ventured to think aloud that his grog

me in London, half-holiday or

" the far

ld go. I see bonds in all sorts of colours, Spaniards in black and white, Peruvians-orange, Mexicans-red as the Briti

st, brother Tony,

as I am trusted? Ah! you don't know much about that. Should I have money placed in my hands, do you think-and it's thousands at a time, gold, and notes, and cheques-if I was a risky chap? I'm known to be

ave one, and it's dying to hear of her darlin' blessed in town, and o

nterrupted h

some time back- half of what? Is that half a fraction, as they call it? I haven't forgot fractions, and logareems, and practice, and so on to algebrae, where it always seems to me to blow hard,

half?" muttered

't like to say, brother Tony." The fa

William John,-I remember the parson calling out those names at your wedding: 'I,

f forty-five. Half of one, eh? That's identical

correct," Ant

housand div

brother William

of his brother-in-law's perfect wakefulness after two stiff tumblers. He saw that Anthony

to go the doors, and there's the money for thieves to dream of-they can

res, and begin about my Dahly, and where she got that Bumptious gow

a co

gloves like a lady," Mrs

amped on

fat foot, and nursed it. "What's roused ye, you tiger girl? I shan't be able to get about, I shan't,

eless," the farmer spok

s lamen

ny when he's just read

ther and by your father, my dear, says I to myself, I ain't a marrying man: and if these two, says I, if any progeny comes to 'em-to bless them, some people'd say, but I know what life is, and what young ones are-if-where was I? Liquor makes y

wed to run on in his own way, and for a long time he rambled, gave a picture of the wedding, and of a

and be young, if you can, I say, and walk about and look at shops; but, I'm at my tea: I come home rather tired there's the tea-things, sure enough, and tea's made, and, maybe, there's a shrimp or two; she attends to your creature comforts. When everything's locked up and tight and right, I'm gay, and ask for a b

d he was chagrined. But Anthony, before he entered the house, had assured him that Dahlia was well, and that nothing was wrong with her. So he looked at Mrs. Sumfit, who now took upon herself to plead for Dahlia: a young thing, and such a handsome creature! and we were all young some time or other; and would

speak, and as she did not, Mrs. Sumfit had an acute twinge from her recently trodden foot, and called her some bitter names; which was not an unusual case, for the kind old woman could be q

women left th

and struck th

l in that gal, bro

. I'm a bit hurt, brother Tony, about that other girl. She must leave London, if she don't alter. It's flightiness; that's all. You mu

an upright woman

d the farmer,

ife," Anthony

r; and I wish she was livi

It went like a choke in my throat. The first person I saw next was her child, this young gal you ca

but became overshadowed by th

more than you could," he

be much," s

ou come to look at it close," th

oney!" sa

ately resumed his

at," he said, and chuckled, conceiving that he had nailed Anthony

?" observed the latter, clearl

er, as at a big draug

thous

cond gulp almost contemp

nd. So, on five. I'll tell ye, many a gentleman'd be glad to own it. Lor' bless you! But, you

The farmer made a grasp

rth. They know the meaning of the multiplication table. They can turn fractions into whole numbers. No; I'm not to be compared to gentlemen. My property's my respectabilit

than he was ever accustomed to take in the middle of the day; and as it seemed to him that Anthony was really about to be seduced into a particular statement of the extent of the property which formed his respectability (as Anthony had chosen to put it), he got up a little game in his head by guessing how much the amount might positively be, so that he could subsequently compare his shrewd reckon

case, they might make capital marriages; and the farm estate should go to whichever of the two young husbands he liked the best. Farmer Fleming asked not for any life of ease and splendour, though thirty thousand pounds was a fortune; or even twenty thousand. Noblemen have stooped to marry heiresses owning no more than that! The idea of their having done so actually shot across him, and his heart sent up a warm spring of tenderness toward the patient, good, grubbing old fellow, sitting beside him, who had lived and died to enrich and elevate the family. At the same time, he could not refrain fr

rother Tony?" the q

set in motion. "There's two sides to that. I'm a long-lived man. Long-lived m

dent?" the fa

ppens to me," r

ped on his leg

turn in the garde

eart, brother

welve years his senior, that the farmer felt his speculations to be justified. Anthony was nearly a generation ahead. They walked about, and were seen from the windows touching one an

matter, fathe

him. "He's envying me some one I want to ask m