THREE:
THREE:
THREE:Sometimes there would be males too, and Reuben[Pg 279] found that he could be jealous on occasion. It annoyed him to see a young counter-jumper from Rye sitting in the parlour with an unmanly tea-cup, and he would glare on such aristocracy as a bank-clerk or embryo civil servant, whose visits Rose considered lent a glamour to Odiam. Like a wise woman she used her husband's jealousy to her own advantage. She soon grew extremely skilful in manipulating it, and by its means wrung a good deal out of him which would not otherwise have been hers.He could now gaze out on Boarzell uninterrupted. The sight of the great Moor made his blood tingle; his whole being thrilled to see it lying there, swart, unconquered, challenging. How long would it be, he wondered, before he had subdued it? Surely in all Sussex, in all England, there had never been such an undertaking as this ... and when he was triumphant, had achieved his great ambition, won his heart's desire,[Pg 108] how proud, how glorious he would be among his children....
THREE:"And if he has," returned the dusty-foot, "he cannot have a greater cause. It is all very well for the great,it looks well upon them; and even the decent chapman and yeomen get little harm by it: but for the poor man to be proud; to have the swelling heart and the burning cheekoh! it is a curse!" He raised his voice as he spoke, and then sinking it to a whisper, added"and if it is a sin, surely it has its punishment."
THREE:And all our limbs do shake...."
THREE:
THREE:She managed to persuade him to go his different waythough the actual moment of their parting was always a blur in her memory. Afterwards she could not remember if they had kissed, touched hands, or parted without a word. Her throat was still full of sobs when she came to Odiam; she was panting, too, for she had run all the wayshe did not know why.Reuben struck his fist on the table, and she dropped the paper with a little cry.
THREE:She heard of Reuben's plan with some shrinking.
THREE:"Sir King, I would first have this knave well whipped for riding in my presence."