"May He, in whose hands are the ends of the earth, preserve thee, my son, from evil. And oh! may He bless this house!"Reuben moved away from the crest and stood looking round him at what had once been Boarzell Moor. A clear watery light had succeeded the sunset, and he was able to see the full extent of his possessions. From the utmost limits of Grandturzel in the south, to the Glotten brook in the north, from Socknersh in the east to Cheat Land in the westall that he could see was his. Out of a small obscure farm of barely sixty acres he had raised up this splendid dominion, and he had tamed the roughest, toughest, fiercest, cruellest piece of ground in Sussex, the beast of Boarzell.
THREE:Reuben had never been spoken to like this by his daughter. He turned on her angrily, then suddenly changed his mind. For the first time he really saw what a fine girl she wasall that Alice was not.
TWO:"Await my pleasure!" replied the baron scornfully. "Did you consider my pleasure, monk, when you presumed to set at nought my prerogatives?"Reuben could not help feeling relieved at Albert's death, but he had noticed with some alarm Pete's definitely religious phraseology. He hoped that Ades had not corrupted him from his pure churchmanship, the honourable churchmanship of the Backfields. Being[Pg 376] a Dissenter was only one degree better than being a Liberal, and Reuben swore to keep a firm hand over Pete in future.
TWO:"Master Neville," said Holgrave, "can the king's grant make a freeman a slave? or can the king's order give you authority to molest a man who has committed no crime? I owe no fealty to King Edward, except as a freeman, and as you yourself are bound to do. I stand here as free as any man of you, and no one shall compel me to become a slave.But it is to you, foul murderer!" glancing fiercely on Calverley, who shrank from his gaze"it is to you I owe this! Were my poor mother's death, my own ruin, and the loss of my farm and my home, not enough, that you continue to hunt me down like a wild beast?"
"Nay," said Wells, "you know I am slipping my cable, and you shouldn't grudge a parting salute; but, however, don't stand aloofI give you the word of a sailorI cannot say of an honest one, but that's nothingone man's word is as good as another's if he means to keep it, and so I give you my word that I will not offend again, and now give me your hand, and I will trust my secret to a sinless maiden.""Well, it'll be done now, surelye. It'll show the folk here I mean businessand that I'm a chap wud ideas.""Jemmy's gone for a sailor."
荣誉榜
THREE:Saturday came, the day which had always been Robert's Sabbath, with a glimpse into Paradise. He toiled miserably with the horses, Reuben's stern eye upon him, while hatred rose and bubbled in his heart. What right had his father to treat him so?to make a prisoner and a slave of him? He vowed to himself he would break free; but how?how?... A chink of pence in Reuben's pocket seemed like a mocking answer.
THREE:... "Mother, how much did this chocolate cost wot we're drinking?" Reuben's voice made them both jump.
