Secret Bread

uccessfully achieved for him, went to his head and caused him to "show off." The thought of how he had chattered and boasted, talking very loudly and clumping wi

e table was taken by Annie, Archelaus, defiant and monosyllabic, on her left, and Lawyer Tonkin, glossy with black broadcloth, on her right. The lawyer had a haunting air as of cousinship to things ecclesiastical, and, indeed, he was lay-preacher at a Penzance chapel. Tom, who had taken care to set himself on his other hand, kept a careful eye for his plate and glass, being particu

same time to make her feel herself a good woman, one of the saved, and the piquancy of the double sensation was the hidden drug of Annie's life. She dallied with thoughts of eternal suffering as a Flagell

e widow-woman, the owner, but for Ishmael, of the biggest estate in all Penwith, that Tonkin's current of consideration flowed, whereas hers, after her religion, was perpetually set about Archelaus. He, the beautiful young man with the round red neck and the white arms and the strong six feet of height, whom she had made

roving too potent for him. The room was intensely hot, the prevailing notion of comfort being to shut every window at night, and a large fire, before which the side of mutton had been gravely twirling for hours, was only now begi

Jacka's John-Willy into conversation-a difficult matter, since, though he had been placed there instead of in the barn for

h, like all self-respecting Cornishwomen, she wore thrust inside the front of her stays. Philip Jacka, who was now headman at the farm, presided at the labourer's supper in the big barn, whither everyone would presently repair, including Ishmael, if he were not too sleepy. The Parson divided his

g voice ears seemed visibly to prick down the length of th

ear, and I'll give ever so much bigger suppers, with beef and pasties and beer as well

th her was the precursor of storm. Help for her outraged feelings and a

arson quietly; "it is your mother. And unless you show yo

burning flush, his eyes stung with tears he was too proud to let fall. All his wonderful day had fallen about his ears, and it seemed to him that such a mortification, added to his own shamed sense of having disappointed Da Boase, would burden him so that he could never be happy aga

's corner, and Phoebe's fingers curled round his as she whispered: "Don't '

n he was struggling with emotion. "I'm not cryen' toall. But

who, rather to Ishmael's resentment, was smiling as though nothing had been the matter, c

the horizon and swimming up inflated, globulous, like a vast aureate bubble. Save for that one glow everything looked as chill as underseas; the whitewashed walls of the out-bu

the rafters and trembled slightly as the flames flickered, so that the whole roof seemed spun over by some gigantic spider's web, while the shadow-patterns thrown by the lanterns on to the floor below looked like great spiders dropped from the meshes. In this impalpable tangle sat the men and women-tenants of cottages, labourers, farm servants and their children, all who had been helping with the harvest. Jenifer Keast was there, flushed now instead of with that mysterious pallor

o clear the floor. The long trestle tables were pushed to one side and everything that lay upon the dusty boards swept away, even to the form of ol

done at once. Picking the boy up, he stood him on the table, just where a lantern, hitched to the wall, threw its beam of light, for the Parso

e, had christened and married many of them, he knew their individual count of kindness and coarseness and self-seeking; knew how hard-working they were, how thriftless, how generou

"who is even more of a trust to me than any of you. He is a trust to you too-to me because I am his guardian, pledged to see that he grows up into a man who will make a good and just Squire to his tenants, to you because you are those tenants. I think I can promise you that as your Squire grows up it will mean better and better times for all of you, that things won't be so hard. There

idea that they would themselves benefit by the restoration of Cloom and its owner to the old position of gentry had never occurred to them. It was true that it would mean the elevation of this intruding child, who was merely the son of their Annie, whom they all knew, but at the same time it meant certain oblig

ive, though not long enough to be turned ov

you," he bade h

-a poise, a confidence of touch which was his by inheritance, though so long unsummone

rally after a day alone with the Parson: "I'm very glad you could come. I hope I'll often see you and that we'll all be very h

, staring in front of him; a murmuring of "the pretty lil' dear" ... ran a

on that able blend of sentiments all voices met with a roar.

adn't think Ishmael can do it al

nging her up, he stood her also on the table. "Shaw

little dance that consisted of jigging up and down in the s

offee an'

haps an' th'

you go an' ho

llow when yo

mael for the promised dance. But the Parson bade him say good-night and come away. He remained deaf to all appeals from Phoebe for just one dance,