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He was what seems to me to-day the worstest thing unhung he was a Puritan. Like Winthorpe's, his blood was black and icy and vinegarish. Like Winthorpe But there. I mustn't abuse Winthorpe any more, and I must try to forgive Milton. Milton wrote seven good words, and Winthorpe unwittingly opened a lover's eyes to his condition."
Mrs Winthorpe's face appeared to be that of a woman ten years older, and her agony was supreme; but like a true wife and tender mother ah, how little we think of what a mother's patience and self-denial are when we are young! she devoted her whole energies to administering comfort to her sorely-tried son.
"The priest has received advancement he is probably to be made a bishop," inferred Maria Dolores; "and Signor Prospero is congratulating him." The men resumed their walk; but for quite a minute John kept his hand on Winthorpe's shoulder, and again and again gently patted it, murmuring, "I am so glad, so immensely glad."
As if these were signals to indicate to the animal life of the fen that all was right, sound after sound arose such as he had heard before; but there was one so different that it filled Dick Winthorpe's ears, and as he listened he seemed to see a man in a punt, who had been crouching down among the reeds, rising up softly, and silently lowering a pole into the water to thrust the boat onward from where it had lain.
If, however, Winthorpe's face was the face of a Puritan, it was the face of a Puritan with a sense of humour the lines about the mouth were clearly the footprints of smiles.
"You are a fool and an idiot, and not worth speaking to again." Whack! That is the nearest way of spelling the back-handed blow which Tom Tallington delivered in his old school-fellow's face, while the straightforward blow which was the result of Dick Winthorpe's fist darting out to the full stretch of his arm sounded like an echo; and the next moment Tom was lying upon the ground.
"Yes," he said, "it's a circumstance to be thankful for, because, like Winthorpe himself, though for different reasons, I'm unable to contemplate marriage." His voice sank sorrowfully, and he made a sorrowful movement. "Oh ?" said Maria Dolores, her sympathy becoming more explicit. "Winthorpe's too beastly puritanical and I'm too beastly poor," said he. "Oh," she murmured.
Just then came another faint hail from a distance. "That's Dave," said Hickathrift, smiling all over his broad face; "any one could tell his hail: it's something between a wild-goose cry and the squeak of a cart-wheel that wants some grease." The hailing brought out everybody from the house, Mrs Winthorpe's first inquiry being whether it was the Tallingtons.
John was lean and sinewy, but rounded off at the joints, and of a pliant carriage, so that it never occurred to you to think of him as thin. Winthorpe's spare figure, spare and angular, with its greater height, held unswervingly to the plane of the perpendicular, appeared absolutely to be constructed of nothing but bone and tendon.
"Who can run away with a donkey crying out at him like that!" said Dick to himself; and in spite of his misery, he once more seated himself upon the bed-side and laughed. It was more a hysterical than a natural laugh; but it relieved Dick Winthorpe's feelings, and just then the clock struck two. Dick sat on the bed-side and thought. He was not afraid to go far from it.
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