Cradock Nowell, Vol. 2 (of 3)

we find in the eggs of wild birds rather than of tame ones. Her eyes were of bewildering brightness, always flashing, always in motion, rarely allowing the gazer a cha

d light which sometimes flushes a cloudless sky before the midsummer sunrise. And her warm oriental blood

auty, were in excess. You could see it in the quick rise and fall of her breath, in th

nt, from a rose. She cared for no one?s opinion of her, any more than the wind cares how a tree swings; unless indeed it were one whom she loved, and then she would crawl to please him. For she loved with all h

dia–rubber. Nevertheless, she would not have been saved from that terrible sea

ished, and shocked a little, when on the Friday morning a beautiful girl, very strangely dressed, ran to the side of his

said Bob; "I am sure

like, and I don?t care two straws, directly they told me what you had done. Only

w? Haven?t they told

d on her head, her eyes with their deep light quivering, and the whole of her form swinging to and fro, from t

mewhere, and I thought it wasn?t like him to leave me

s she leaped at him; "I

sake. I am a brute, I know. Tel

s dead. But they ha

t God has been so wicke

Bob; he could think o

o he was, and how terribly I loved him, or He wouldn?t have the heart to do it. Oh, you

ce that ever puzzled echo brought up the landlord and landlady, and our good friend Rufus Hutton, who had set forth full speed from home on hearing about the Aliwal. He

d, and to which all pious Buddhists look as their eternal happiness. Then she opened her delicate tapering arms, where you could see the grand muscles moving, but never once protruding, an

diately, and with some of his ancient spirit. The Crown, which had the cross–bar of its N set up the wrong way (as is done, by–the–by, on the roof of Hampton Court chapel, and in many other places), made public claim to be regarded as a "commercial hotel and posting–house." No Rushford folk having yet been known to post anything, except a letter at

ir; I quite understand, sir.

n?t you go a

forgot. I will speak

sed, but a "wonner to go," as the boy said, "when you knows the right place to prog him in," and se

for the sake of the poor Eoa. For Mrs. Brown had no other hot method of crowning the flowing bowl. And now, while I think of it, let me warn all gentle and simple people who deign on this tale of the New Forest, never to ask for pale brandy within the perambulations. How do you think they make it? By mixing brown brandy with villanous gin. Rufus was up to this, of course; and, as he must take something for the good of the house, and to get at the kindly kernel of the heavy–browed hostess, he took that which he thought would be

took a good deal out of him, there was and is no happier man in our merry England than the worthy Rufus Hutton. And, as all happiness is negative, and goes without our knowing it, and only becomes a positive past for us to look bac

he need not move in, a world which must improve itself, and every day is doing it. And all the while he sympathises with his fellow–men, enjoys a bit of human nature, laughs at the cross–purposes of native truth and training, loves whatever he finds to

is not sound, because it

was the real motive, though you may not have thought so-what a fine opportunity to discover something which plagued him! Perhaps I ought to say rather, the want of which was plaguing him. Rufus took so kind an interest in his neighbours' affairs, that anything not thoroughly luculent in their dealings, mode of life or speech, or management of

ccount of a bank of evergreens. The maid came out with her cap flying off, and all her mind pert

ave you heard of it? Su

ourse I have heard of the g

and me wasn?t killed. And poor Miss Pearl have been in hysterics ever since, without n

the house full speed, even forgetting that Bob

cked had fallen upon it, and, crashing as they did from the height above, the breaches they made were hideous. They had cloven the house into three ragged pieces, from the roof–ridge down to the first floor, where the solid joists had stopped them. It had happened in the afternoon of the second day of the tempest;

Rufus Hutton, and Mr. Gar

they was on the turn, sir, and it seemed such a pity to waste them. And please, sir, we?ve all been working like horses, though frightened out of our lives 'most; and we fetched down all the things from your room, where the cupboards was bro

ye; I am much obliged to you. I shall see you, I

ended fearfully. "There, there it is," she cried, "there it is, I tell you! No wonder the tree came down upon it. No wonder the hou

od knows, and my heart knows, and my-I mean that man there knows. Is there anything more I can do for you, anything mor

d Mr. Garnet. "Poor thing,

d fixing her large bright eyes upon his. "Do as you like with me; I do

ll about his own safety. His great tears fell on her wan, sick face; and his heavy heart throbbed for his daughter

rubbing his chin, "to know what is in that box.

front of it; "I know no more than you do, sir

But, perhaps, you will believe me, my boy, when I tell you that, if ever there wa

Bob; "because you won?t

easily. He could not push poor Bob aside, in his present disabled st

examine that box. Be kind enough to bring it to the lig

Miss Sarah," what a diffe

eps a potato–shop, the largest business in Lyndhurst, sir. Betsy, indeed! and from a stranger, not to say a strange gentleman, for fear of making a mistake. And as for my hands"-she thought he had been ironical, for her hands were above re

constitutional measure, Bull Garnet came back, treading heavily, defiant of all that the world could do. His quick eyes, never glimpsing that way, but taking in all the

thought that

ooking big, for he was a plucky little fellow, "and, what?

s enormous forehead, as if to recall somet

told us to examine it. And, from her man

k note of the strange avoidance; "my boxes are full of confidential papers; surely, sir,

ady through the broken cover, and shall not forget its shape. Beware; there have been strang

reat rapidity through the air, and a loud sound as of a bang. Recovering reason?s prerogative, he found himself in a dahlia, whose blossoms, turned into heel–balls by the recent frost, wer

s as these, to which he had no responsive power-"You won?t t

t, and tried the stretch of his garters; then never once looked toward the house, never shook his fist, nor frowned even. He walked off to his darling Polly as if nothing at all had happened; gave the man a shilling for holding her, afte

dition, and power of heart to feel it. He even contrived to interest the bereaved man, now so listless, in the young life thrown upon his care, as if by the breath of heaven. We ar

on the threshold, saying to himself that it would be hardly decent to appear in public yet; and Mrs. O?Gaghan was sent instead, sitting inside, and half afraid to breathe for fear of the crystal. As for her clo

there until the young lady was moveable. Biddy took to her at once, in her heavy, long

e. Arl coom ov' the blude, missus. Sazins, then, if me and Pat had oonly got a child

urning to drink her new child?s heal

I know nothing about them subjects. Spirituous l

d Biddy, "and the divvil only the w

have, from the people as comes to bathe here, as a lady of great experience in diseases of the chest. If you recommend any cordial, mem, on the

ssways, like, till I has a drap o' the crather." And