Part 33 (1/2)
”I trust I have shown no signs of discontent. I should indeed be difficult to please if an apartment like this did not suit me. Besides, allow me to observe, that although I stated that the apartments at Arnwood were on a grander scale, I never said that I had ever been a possessor of one of them.”
Patience smiled and made no reply.
”Now that you know your way to your apartment, Master Armitage, we will, if you please, go back to the sitting-room,” said she. As they were going back into the sitting-room, she said-
”When you come over on Monday, you will, I presume, bring your clothes in a cart? I ask it, because I promised some flowers and other things to your sisters, which I can send back by the cart.”
”You are very kind to think of them, Mistress Patience,” replied Edward; ”they are fond of flowers, and will be much pleased with possessing any.”
”You sleep here to-night, I think my father said?” inquired Patience.
”He did make the proposal, and I shall gladly avail myself of it, as I am not to trust to Phoebe's ideas of comfort this time,” said Edward, smiling.
”Yes, that was a cross action of Phoebe's; and I can tell you, Master Armitage, that she is ashamed to look you in the face ever since; but how fortunate for me that she was cross, and turned you out as she did! You must forgive her, as she was the means of your performing a n.o.ble action; and I must forgive her, as she was the means of my life being saved.”
”I have no feeling except kindness toward Phoebe,” replied Edward; ”indeed I ought to feel grateful to her; for if she had not given me so bad a bed that night, I never should have been so comfortably lodged as it is proposed that I shall be now.”
”I hope you are hungry, Edward,” said Clara; ”dinner is almost ready.”
”I dare say I shall eat more than you do, Clara.”
”So you ought, a great big man like you. How old are you, Edward?” said Clara; ”I am thirteen; Patience is past sixteen: now, how old are you?”
”I am not yet eighteen, Clara, so that I can hardly be called a man.”
”Why, you are as tall as Mr. Heatherstone.”
”Yes, I believe I am.”
”And can't you do every thing that a man can do?”
”I really don't know; but I certainly shall always try so to do.”
”Well, then, you must be a man.”
”Well, Clara, if it pleases you, I will be a man.”
”Here comes Mr. Heatherstone, so I know dinner is ready; is it not, sir?”
”Yes, my child, it is,” replied Mr. Heatherstone, kissing Clara, ”so let us all go in.”
Mr. Heatherstone, as was usual at that time with the people to whose party he ostensibly belonged, said a grace before meat, of considerable length, and then they sat down to table. As soon as the repast was over, Mr. Heatherstone returned to his study, and Edward went out to find Oswald Partridge, with whom he remained the larger portion of the afternoon, going to the kennel and examining the dogs, and talking of matters connected with the chase.
”I have not two men that can stalk a deer,” observed Oswald ”the men appointed here as verderers and keepers have not one of them been brought up to the business. Most of them are men who have been in the army, and I believe have been appointed to these situations to get rid of them because they were troublesome; and they are any thing but good characters: the consequence is, that we kill but few deer, for I have so much to attend to here, as none of them know their duties, that I can seldom take my own gun out. I stated so to the intendant, and he said that if you accepted an offer he had made you, and came over here, we should not want venison; so it is clear that he does not expect you to have your pen always in your hand.”
”I am glad to hear that,” replied Edward; ”depend upon it, his own table, at all events, shall be well supplied. Is not that fellow Corbould, who is leaning against the wall?”
”Yes; he is to be discharged as he can not walk well, and the surgeon says he will always limp. He owes you a grudge, and I am glad that he is going away, for he is a dangerous man. But the sun is setting, Mr. Edward, and supper will soon be on the table; you had better go back to the house.”
Edward bade Oswald farewell, and returned to the intendant's, and found that Oswald was correct, as supper was being placed on the table.