Colin Clink, Volume 1 (of 3)

edings against him recorded in the last chapter; and also hints at a cowardly piece of re

helpless, despicable thing as she is, where in the world is it to be found?-and if any steward knows how to do it better than I do, why, I 'll give him leave to eat me." With which bold and magnanimous reflection he bustled along the road, almost heedless of the straggling briers which every now and then caught hold of his face or his ankles, and as though fully conscious only of the pleasing fact that each additional step brought him still a step nearer his revenge. Besides this, ha

, and ultimately stole privily down the side of the boundary-wall which inclosed the northern side of the plantations, intending to creep through a small private door, placed there for the convenience of the gamekeepers, which conducted to a path in the immediate direction of his own house. But, notwithstanding all his trouble, fortune again turned her wheel upon Mr. Longstaff; he fell into the very trap that he had taken so much trouble to avoid, and what-to a man already in a state of aggravation-was still worse, he fell into it solely because he had endeavoured to avoid it. Had he taken the common road, he would have arrived at home uninterrupted; as it was, scarcely had he reached withi

his whip upon its stock like a horizontal wheel, "how has it ende

rse job than I expected," do

bad job

" sighed the unfo

't she be persua

a deep curse on Mrs. Clink, "she to

elp in exchange, eh

hed she had)"-worse than th

Mr. Lupton; "that is imposs

is left foot with the toe of his right, and with a dolorous face, dra

breath in a prolonged whistle, not unlike an autumn blast through an out-door key-ho

move off the ground homewards, "I 'll kick her and her

re corruption of t

f Mrs. ?neasina Longstaff. He therefore crossed the corners of two other fields again, on to the high-road, and walked into the Cock and

better man half a mile off than between two such walls. As he passed the kitchen-door, everybody within turned to look at him; and, when he got into the parlour, he beheld four of the village farmers round the table, all of whom were smiling, evidently at something very funny. Mr. Longstaff, by that peculiar instinct which usually attends men in suspicious circumstances, knew, as well as if he had been told, that it was at him. He could not endure the company, the house, the landlord and his wife,

Government despatch by telegraph. By the time her husband arrived at home, then, she was, as a necessary consequence, not only filled with grief at the discovery that had been made, but also was more than filled,-she was absolutely overflowing-with feelings of jealous rage against the faithless barbarian, with whom, as she then thought, the most perverse destiny had united

s. Longstaff attacked him before he came in sight: and, in all probability, such an oratorical display of all the deprecatory figures of speech,-such disparagements, and condemnations, and denunciations; such hatreds, and despisings, and contempts, and upbraidings,-were never before, throughout the whole range of domestic disturbances, collected together withi

, that, as Mrs. Longstaff cooled, she really began to entertain very serious fears whether she had not carried matters rather too far; and, perhaps,-for the thing did not to her half-repentant mind appear impossible, had driven her husband, in a moment of desperation, to make away with himself. Hour after hour passed on; and the time thus allowed her for better reflection was not altogether ill-spent. She began to consider the many chances there were of great exaggeration in the report that had been brought to her; the fondness of human kind in general to deal in a

nation of the whole transaction from the mouth of Mr. Longstaff himself; wh

round to the fire; and, shortly afterwards, at her especial suggestion, he consented-much to his inward gratification-to take a little supper. This led to a kind of tacitly understood reconciliation; so that, eventually, the same subject which had caused so much difference in the afternoon, was again introduced and discussed in a manner truly dove-lik

ed with great cordiality, still farther urging him on to their immediate fulfilment, so that by the time he had taken his usual nightly allowanc