Part 18 (1/2)
He continued walking by her side, beating his boot with his riding whip.
At length he began to grow impatient at her silence.
”You have got a voice I know, for I heard it sound very sweetly just now. Can't you use it just to say something? It's not pleasant when a person speaks to a young lady not to have a word in return.”
Still May was firm in her determination not to speak. The youth, probably unaccustomed to such treatment from the young women he usually a.s.sociated with, entirely lost patience.
”Come, come, Miss, let's be friends! Though you do live with the Miss Pembertons, there's no reason you should look down upon a young man who is in a respectable position, and would make you an independent lady if you would let him.”
As he spoke he tried to seize her hand, and put his other arm round to draw her towards him. She started back to escape his touch, and as she did so, looking over her shoulder, she saw Jacob following in the distance. She turned and flew towards him faster than she had ever run in her life. Jacob hastened to meet her. She took his arm panting and scarcely able to speak as she told him the insult to which she had been subjected.
”I saw some one walking alongside you, and thought it wasn't by your wish, but couldn't tell, you see, though I ought to have known better.
But the impudent fellow shall rue it, that he shall. I'll serve him as I would a conger!” exclaimed Jacob. ”Let me be after him now--I'll catch him before he has got far, and I'll warrant he shall never speak to you again.”
”Oh, no, no! pray do not, Jacob,” said May, leaning on his arm to support herself. She was more agitated than she could have supposed.
”Let him alone, whoever he is, though I suspect from what he said that he is a son of Miles Gaffin. It will be only necessary, I hope, to warn him not to behave again as he has done; and as I shall tell Miss Pemberton, she will probably speak to him, and that will be sufficient.”
”If the audacious young scoundrel is Miles Gaffin's son, and he is like his father, he will care neither what Miss Pemberton nor any other lady says to him,” exclaimed Jacob, doubling his fist, while his eye a.s.sumed a fierce expression it seldom wore. ”He will care what this says to him though, and I'll make it speak in a way he won't like, that I will. But don't you be afraid, there is no harm will come of it. How he should have dared to speak to you is more than I can tell; but I will find out if he has a tongue to answer me, and it will be the last time he'll try it.”
Had young Gaffin heard Jacob, and seen his brawny arm and huge fist, he would have had no inclination to fall in with him; but feeling that it would be wise not to encounter the st.u.r.dy protector to whom May had appealed, he had, after pursuing her a few steps, leaped over a gate and run into a wood, which concealed him from sight. It is possible that, from his place of concealment, he might have observed May leaning on Jacob's arm as they proceeded towards Downside.
”Thank you, Jacob, for your kindly succour,” she said when they reached the door. ”You will come in and see the ladies, for they will wish to thank you as I do.”
”Oh, May, you don't fancy that there is any need of thanking me--no, not even if I had saved your life, for that would have made me happier than I can tell you,” answered Jacob, with a half reproachful look. ”As to that villain, I will find him out, and then I'll come and tell the ladies how I have served him.”
”I must again entreat you not to use any violence,” said May. ”It will be quite sufficient if you can learn who he is, that I may be protected from his insults, but for no other reason do I even wish to ascertain his name.”
While they were speaking, Miss Jane, who had heard their voices, came out, and May hurriedly told her what had occurred.
”May has spoken very properly to you, Jacob,” she said. ”Do no more than she has advised.”
Jacob's countenance a.s.sumed a more dogged look than May had ever seen it wear, and, unwilling to receive more of Miss Jane's stem exhortations, or May's milder entreaties, he wished them good evening, and casting a look expressive of his devotion at May, hurried away.
As May was able to identify the youth who had spoken to her with the young man who had appeared at church on the previous Sunday, Miss Jane, with her usual sagacity, ascertained that he was staying at the Texford Arms, and that Miles Gaffin, the miller had met him on his arrival. It was supposed that he was the eldest son of that person.
”I fear there will be but little use complaining to the father,”
observed Miss Jane; ”but it will be more prudent, my dear May, for you to confine your walks to the grounds till he has left the place, unless you accompany Mary or me. Jacob will undoubtedly let his parents know what has occurred, and we shall, probably have the dame up here to make enquiries. I will then tell her not to expect a visit from you till you are no longer likely to be subjected to the same annoyance.”
May agreed to the wisdom of this proposal; indeed she would have been very unwilling to venture beyond the grounds by herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
THE SMUGGLER'S VAULT.
The appearance of young Gaffin at Hurlston must be accounted for.
The old mill on the cliff, which belonged to Sir Reginald Castleton, was in a somewhat decayed condition, and had long been unoccupied, when a short time before the period at which our story commences, a stranger, calling himself Miles Gaffin, a miller by trade, called on Mr Grooc.o.c.k, and offered to take it. As he was ready to give a better rent than the steward expected to receive, he was glad to let it.
Miles Gaffin had occupied the mill for about a year, when, leaving it in charge of his man, he disappeared for a time and returned with a wife and three boys, whom he placed in a neat cottage at some little distance from the mill. His wife was a foreigner, of dark complexion, who spoke no English, a care-worn, spirit-broken woman, it was said.