Part 19 (1/2)
Amos bowed.
”I hope you find your sister well, Mr Huntingdon,” he added; ”it is very kind of you to visit us in our humble dwelling.”
The other replied that he did not find his sister looking as well as he had hoped, but trusted that she might soon be better.
”The better for my absence, I suppose you mean,” said his brother-in-law sneeringly.
Amos made no reply.
”Well, sir,” continued the wretched stroller, whose swaggering manner was evidently merely a.s.sumed, ”every man's house is his castle, and therefore mine must be so too. I haven't much to offer you in the way of welcome just now, but, before we part, I should like a word in private with you.--Is the other room occupied?” he asked of his wife.
”No; Mrs Allison has put it at my service this morning.”
”Then, Mr Huntingdon, will you be so good as to follow me?” Saying which, he led the way to the other parlour, and, when they had entered, locked the door, to the surprise and not particular satisfaction of Amos, who gave just one glance at the little window, and thought he saw two eyes peeping through the little holes.
”Pray be seated,” said the player.
Amos accepted the invitation and sat.
”You have brought some money, I understand, from my father-in-law for his daughter,” began Mr Vivian abruptly.
”I have,” said the other, after his questioner had waited a minute or so for a reply.
”Would you have the goodness to hand it to me?” continued the player.
”I brought it,” replied Amos, ”for my sister's own private use and benefit, and cannot therefore give it to you.”
”Ah, indeed!” said the other sarcastically; ”but you know, sir, that a wife's goods belong to her husband, who, as I think the Bible has it, is the head of the wife, so that what is hers is his, and indeed his more than hers.”
”Perhaps so, under ordinary circ.u.mstances,” replied Amos; ”but this is a free gift from a father to a daughter, and I am sure no kind or reasonable husband would wish to deprive her of it.”
”Deprive, sir? No,--deprive is not the word. Husband and wife are one, you know: the wife is the weaker vessel, and the husband the stronger; and it is only right and natural that the stronger should have the money, that he may use it for the benefit of the weaker.”
”Mr Vivian,” said Amos firmly, ”all this, and you must know it, is mere idle talk. I cannot give you the money.”
”And I on my part say, sir,” replied the other, ”that I must have it. I want it. I cannot do without it.”
”I have told you my decision,” said Amos.
”Indeed,” said the other. ”Then I am driven to an unpleasant line of persuasion, though very reluctantly.”
He rose, and Amos did the same.
”Do you see this?” he said, taking from his pocket a revolver.
”I do,” said Amos.
”Should I be disposed to use this by way of compulsion, what would you say?”
”That I am in G.o.d's hands and not in yours,” replied Amos, looking Vivian full in the face, who quailed before the calm, steady gaze of the young man.