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"'Tis well enough to know this foot and that foot," said Mr. Spinks. "'Tis long-headed, in fact, as far as feet do go. I know little, 'tis true I say no more; but show me a man's foot, and I'll tell you that man's heart." "You must be a cleverer feller, then, than mankind in jineral," said the tranter. "Well, that's nothing for me to speak of," returned Mr. Spinks. "A man lives and learns.
Flossie for propriety's sake would be making a little conversation as he went by; but Rickman had always the shut mouth and steady eyes of invincible determination. What was it that Razors was so determined about? To marry Flossie? Or not to marry her? That was the question which agitated poor Spinks from morning till night, or rather from night till morning.
I like more of a fancy style." "I see you do," said Miss Bishop solemnly. "Yes, that's because she's a bit of a fancy article herself," murmured a voice from the back drawing-room, where Mr. Spinks had concealed himself behind a curtain, and now listened with a voluptuous sense of unlawful initiation. "I sy, we shall have to stop, if he will keep on listening that wy."
"Yes, those people embarked on board her; and what then?" "I wish to know who was her commander; what sort of a man he was; and what sort of a crew he had," I replied. "Oh, well, then, her master was one Stephen Spinks.
It was Spinks who explained the nature of the connection. Poor Spinks, who had made the suggestion with an almost suicidally honourable intention, was to his immense astonishment merely sworn at for his interference. And when Flossie brought Keith his tea that evening she found him in a most ungentlemanly humour.
"Nay, Jack," he said, when by signs I offered him to ride and tie: "never rode o' horseback but once, and then 'pon Parson Spinks his red mare at Bideford. Parson i' those days was courtin' the Widow Hambly, over to Torrington: an' I, that wanted to fare to Barnstaple, spent that mornin' an' better part o' th' afternoon, clawin' off Torrington.
Not if he tried from now till next year. Not if he went on his bended knees to me." Spinks reflected that Rickman's knees didn't take kindly to bending. "Haven't you been a little, just a little hard on him? He's such a sensitive little chap. If I was a woman I don't think I could let him go like that. You might let him have another try."
From the information I gained from him, and from other merchants of whom I made inquiries, I learned that Captain Stephen Spinks was a very respectable man in appearance and manner; and that Mrs Clayton, having met him, was induced to take a passage in his brig, just on the point of sailing.
With a burst of indignation, he rushed out, and caught little Spinks in the act of making off with his second capful of apples. "`What! Spinks? I should not have expected this of you, said Tom, releasing my little victim. "`I didn't want to do it, whimpered Spinks; `but I couldn't help it. "`Yes, yes; I understand. Who was it that set you on? "`Please, I don't want to tell.
Spinks, bound by his honour, had used no words in divulging his agony; but their unspoken confidences had gone so far that Miss Roots at last permitted herself to say that it might be as well to find out whether "it was on or off." "But," said the miserable Spinks, "would that be fair to Rickman?" "I think so," said the lady, with a smile that would have been sweet had it been rather less astute.
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