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The gruff voice was gruffer than ever, as the old gentleman said abruptly, after the dreadful pause, "So you're not afraid of me, hey?" "Not much, sir." "And you don't think me as handsome as your grandfather?" "Not quite, sir." "And I've got a tremendous will, have I?" "I only said I thought so." "But you like me in spite of it?" "Yes, I do, sir." That answer pleased the old gentleman.
At one side was a big house, a house whose occupants he knew instinctively, for he had seen the shadow of a woman, hands outstretched, as she passed the light-strewn shade of a window on the second floor. More, he had heard her voice, supplemented by gruffer tones. And then it came again. It was pleading, and at the same time angered with the passion of a person approaching hysteria.
She felt as if she ought to take leave for the night and go. But where? Presently the old man came back, crosser and gruffer than when he went away. He kicked aside the dry shoes his wife had prepared for him, and snarled at all she said. Mary attributed this to his finding her still there, and gathered up her strength for an effort to leave the house. But she was mistaken.
For there, awaiting him, stood Lieutenant Tibbetts in the glory of his raiment helmet sparkling white, steel hilt of sword a-glitter, khaki uniform, spotless and well-fitting. "Everything is all right, sir," said Bones, saluting, and Hamilton thought he detected a gruffer and more robust note in the tone. "Mail-boat's just in, sir," Bones went on with unusual fierceness.
As soon as my meal was over I relieved Bob, and he went below for his share of the good things; and though Miss Ella had been very demure with me, I soon discovered, by the peals of musical laughter which, mingled with Bob's gruffer cachinnations, floated up through the companion, that the two had completely broken the ice between them.
All day long, as Stanley described, he had been grinding away at his native report in a gruff, determined silence: a silence even gruffer and more determined than usual.
Morgan's gruffer mirth joined her, and Joe found himself straining to hear, although he despised himself for spying and eavesdropping, even on guilt. "We can get on without the diamonds," said Morgan, "and I don't suppose you've got any ball dresses or sealskin cloaks?" "Three calico wrappers that he's bought me, and a dress or two that I had when I came," said Ollie, bitterly.
Flora knew that he liked her visits, however; so, with prayers in her heart and the Bible in her hand, she persevered hopefully, yet with such delicacy that the gruff old man became gruffer daily, as his conscience began to reprove him for his gruffness.
The poultry was soundly disturbed squawking, cackling, shrieking their protests noisily while the deep baying of a dog rose savagely above the general turmoil. "Something doing there!" quoth Tom Cameron, slowing down. "A chicken hawk, perhaps?" suggested Ruth. A woman was screaming admonition or advice; occasionally the gruffer voice of a man added to the turmoil.
He consumed his coffee and roll in the manner of ordinary mortals, not once flourishing his dainty hand or shaking his ambrosial hair. Elgar was very stiff from his ascent of Vesuvius, and he too found that "the foam of life" had an unpleasant after-taste, suggestive of wrecked fortunes and a dubious future. Mallard was only a little gruffer than his wonted self.
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