"Take my arm, Mrs Glaire," said the vicar, gently; and, the excitement
past, the overstrung nerves slackened, and the woman reasserted itself,
for the doting mother now realised all that had gone, and the risks
encountered. Trembling and speechless, she suffered herself to be led
into the counting-house, and placed in a chair.
"I--I shall be--better directly," she panted.
"Better!" shrieked her son, who was pacing up and down the room;
"better! Mother, it's disgraceful; but I won't give way a bit--not an
inch. I'll bring the scoundrels to reason. I'll--"
"Dick, dear Dick, don't. See how ill poor aunt is," whispered Eve.
"I don't care," said the young man, furiously. "I won't have it.
I'll--"
"Will you kindly get a glass of water for your mother, Mr Glaire?" said
the vicar, as he half held up the trembling woman in her chair, and
strove hard to keep the disgust he felt from showing in his face--"I am
afraid she will faint."
"Curse the water! No," roared Richard. "I won't have it--I--I say I
won't have it; and who the devil are you, that you should come poking
your nose into our business! You'll soon find that Dumford is not the
place for a meddling parson to do as he likes."
"Dick!" shrieked Eve; and she tried to lay a hand upon his lips.
"Hold your tongue, Eve! Am I master here, or not?" cried Richard
Glaire. "I won't have a parcel of women meddling in my affairs, nor any
kind of old woman," he continued, disdainfully glancing at the vicar.
There was a slight accession of colour in Murray Selwood's face, but he
paid no further heed to the young man's words, while, with her face
crimson with shame, Eve bent over her aunt, trying to restore her, for
she was indeed half fainting; and the cold clammy dew stood upon her
forehead.
"Here's a mug o' watter, sir," said the rough, sturdy voice of Joe
Banks, as he filled one from a shelf; and then he threw open a couple of
windows to let the air blow in more freely.
"Don't let anybody here think I'm a child," continued Richard Glaire,
who, the danger passed, was now white with passion; "and don't let
anybody here, mother or foreman, or stranger, think I'm a man to be
played with."
"There's nobody thinks nothing at all, my lad," said Joe Banks, sharply,
"only that if the parson there hadn't come on as he did, you'd have been
a pretty figure by this time, one as would ha' made your poor moother
shoother again."
"Hold your tongue, sir; how dare you speak to me like that!" roared
Richard.
"How dare I speak to you like that, my lad?" said the foreman, smiling.
"Well, because I've been like a sort of second father to you in the
works, and if you'd listened to me, instead of being so arbitrary, there
wouldn't ha' been this row."
"You insolent--"
"Oh yes, all raight, Master Richard, all raight," said the foreman,
bluffly.
"Dick, dear Dick," whispered Eve, clinging to his arm; but he shook her
off.
"Hold your tongue, will you!" he shrieked. "Look here, you Banks," he
cried, "if you dare to speak to me like that I'll discharge you; I will,
for an example."
Banks laughed, and followed the raving man to the other end of the great
counting-house to whisper:
"No you wean't, lad, not you."
Richard started, and turned of a sickly hue as he confronted the sturdy
old foreman.
"Think I didn't know you, my lad, eh?" he whispered; and driving his
elbow at the same time into the young man's chest, he puckered up his
face, and gave him a knowing smile. "No, you wean't start me, Richard
Glaire, I know. But I say, my lad, don't be so hard on the poor lass
there, your cousin."
"Will you hold your tongue?" gasped Richard. "They'll hear you."
"Well, what if they do?" said the sturdy old fellow. "Let 'em. There's
nowt to be ashamed on. But there, you're popped now, and no wonder.
Get you home with your moother."
"But I can't go through the streets."
"Yes, you can; nobody 'll say a word to you now. Get her home, lad; get
her home."
It was good advice, but Richard Glaire would not take it, and his mother
gladly availed herself of the vicar's arm.
"You'll come home now, Richard," said Mrs Glaire, feebly; and she
looked uneasily from her son to the foreman, as she recalled their
conversation in the garden, and felt unwilling to leave them alone
together.
"I shall come home when the streets are safe," said Richard, haughtily.
"They are safe enough for you, but I'm not going to subject myself to
another attack from a set of brute beasts."
"I don't think you have anything to fear now," said the vicar, quietly.
"Who said I was afraid?" snarled Richard, facing sharply round, and
paying no heed to the remonstrant looks of cousin and mother. "I should
think I know Dumford better than you, and when to go and when to stay."
The young men's eyes met for a moment, and Richard Glaire's shifty gaze
sank before the calm, manly look of the man who had so bravely
interposed in his behalf.
"Curse him! I hate him," Richard said in his heart. "He's brave and
strong, and big and manly, and he does nothing but degrade me before
Eve. I hate him--I hate him."
"What a contemptible cad he is," said Murray Selwood in his heart; "and
yet he must have his good points, or that sweet girl would not love him
as she evidently does. Poor girl, poor girl! But there: it is not fair
to judge him now."
"Of course, you must know best, Mr Glaire," he said aloud, "for I am
quite a stranger. I will see your mother and cousin safely home, and I
hope next time we shall have a more pleasant meeting. You are put out
now, and no wonder. Good-bye."
He held out his hand with a frank, pleasant smile upon his countenance,
and the two women and the foreman looked curiously on as Richard shrank
away, and with a childish gesture thrust his hand behind him. But it
was of no use, that firm, unblenching eye seemed to master him, the
strong, brown muscular hand remained outstretched, and, in spite of
himself, the young man felt drawn towards it, and fighting mentally
against the influence the while, he ended by impatiently placing his own
limp, damp fingers within it, and letting them lie there a moment before
snatching them away.
Directly after, leaning on the vicar's arm, and with Eve on her other
side, Mrs Glaire was being led through the knots of people still
hanging about the streets. There was no attempt at molestation, and
once or twice a faint cheer rose; but Mr Selwood was fully aware of the
amount of attention they drew from door and window, for the Dumford
people were not at all bashful as to staring or remark.
At last the awkward steps were reached, and after supporting Mrs Glaire
to a couch, the new vicar turned to go, followed to the door by Eve.
"Good-bye, and thank you--so much, Mr Selwood," she said, pressing his
hand warmly.
"I did not think we should meet again so soon. And, Mr Selwood--"
She stopped short, looking up at him timidly.
"Yes," he said, smiling. "Don't be afraid to speak; we are not
strangers now."
"No, no; I know that," she cried, eagerly. "I was only going to say--to
say--don't judge dear Richard harshly from what you saw this morning.
He was excited and hurt."
"Of course, of course," said the vicar, pressing the little hand he held
in both his. "How could any one judge a man harshly at such a time?
Good-bye."
"Good-bye."
"And with such a little ministering angel to intercede for him,"
muttered the vicar, as the door closed. "Heigho! these things are a
mystery, and it is as well that they should be, or I don't know what
would become of poor erring man."
Volume 1, Chapter IX.