 Chapter 8 of Mary Annerley. Fame, that light of love trusted by so many, and never a wife till a widow. Fame, the fair daughter of Fusson Caprice, may yet take the phantom of bold robin life by the right hand and lead it to a pedestal almost as lofty as robin hoods, or she may let it vanish like a bat across leth, a thing not bad enough for eminence. However, at the date and in the part of the world now dealt with, this great free trader enjoyed the warm, though possibly brief, embrace of fame, having no rival and being highly respected by all who were unwort by a sense of duty, and blessed as he was with the lively nature who proceeded happily upon his path in life, notwithstanding a certain ticklish sense of being shot at undesirably. This had befallen him now so often, without producing any tangible effect, that a great many people, and especially the shooters, convinced of the accuracy of their aim, went far to believe that he possessed some charm against wholesome bullets and gunpowder, and lately even a crooked sixpence dipped in holy water, which was still to be had in Yorkshire, confirmed and doubled the faith of all good people by being declared upon oath to have passed clean through him, as was proved by its being picked out quite clean. This strong belief was of great use to him, for like many other beliefs, it went a very long way to prove itself. Steady left hands now grew shaky in the love of the carbine, and firm forefingers trembled slightly upon draught of trigger, and the chief result of a large discharge was a wail upon the markman's shoulder. Robin, though so clever and well-practiced in the world, was scarcely old enough to have learned the advantage of misapprehension, which, if well handled by any man, helps him in the cunning of paltry things, better than a truer estimate, but without going into that he was pleased with the fancy of being invulnerable, which not only dabbled his courage, but troubled the discipline of his followers and secured him the respect of all tradesmen. However, the worst of all things is that just when they are establishing themselves and earning true faith by continuance, out of pure opposition the direct contrary arises and begins to prove itself, and to captain Lyb this had just happened in the shot which carried off his left earring. Not that his body or any fleshly member could be said directly to have parted with its charm, but that a warning and a diffidence arose from so near a visitation. All genuine sailors are blessed with strong faith as they must be by nature's compensation, their bodies continually going up and down perpetual flexation. They never could live if their minds did the same, like the minds of stationary landsmen, therefore their minds are of staunch immobility to restore the due share of firm element, and not only that but these men have compressed through generations of circumstance from small complications, simplicity. Being out in all weathers and rolling about cell, how can they stand upon trifles, solid stays and stanchions, and strong bulwarks are their need and not a dance of gnats and gossamer hating all fobs. They blow not up with their own breath, misty mysteries and gazing mainly at the sky and sea, but leave purely on God and the devil and aware these sailors have religion. Some of their religion is not well pronounced but declares itself in over strong expressions, however it is in them, and at any moment waiting opportunity of action, a shipwreck or a grape shot, and the chaplain has good hopes of them when the doctor has given them over. Now one of their principal canons of faith and the one best observed in practice is, or at any rate used to be, that a man is bound to wear earrings. For these, as short tradition shows, a nopias mariner would dare to doubt act as a wet stone in all weathers to the keen edge of the eyes. Symbol, as the lawyers say, that this idea was born of great phonetic facts in the days when a seaman knew his duty better than the way to spell it, and when, if his outlook were sharpened by a friendly ring from the captain of the watch, he never dreamed of a police court. But Robin Leith had never cared to ask why he wore earrings, his nature was not meditative, enough for him that all the other men of Flamborough did so, and enough for them that their fathers had done it, whether his own father had done so was more than he could say, because he knew of no such parent, and of that other necessity a mother he was equally ignorant. His first appearance at Flamborough, though it made little stir at the moment in a place of so many adventures, might still be considered unusual, and in some little degree remarkable, so that Mistress Annerley was not wrong when she pressed upon Lieutenant Caroway how unwise it might be to shoot him, any more than Caroway himself was wrong in turning in at Annerley Gate for breakfast. This he had not done without good cause of honest and loyal necessity, free-trading Robin had predicted well the course of his pursuers, rushing eagerly up the dyke and over its brim with their muskets that gallant force of revenue men steadily scoured the neighbourhood, and the further they went the worse they fared. There was not a whore standing down by a pool with his stiff legs shut up into biped form, nor a cow staring blandly across an old rail, nor a sheep with a pectoral cuff behind a hedge, nor a rabbit making rustle at the eyebrow of his hole, nor even a moot that might either be a man or hold a man inside it, whom or which those active fellows did not circumvent and poke into. And none of these, however, could they find the smallest breach of the strictest laws of the revenue, until at last, having exhausted their bodies by great zeal both of themselves and of mind, they braced them again to the duty of going as promptly as possible to breakfast. For a purpose of that kind few better places, perhaps, could be found than this annerley farm, though not at the best of itself just now because of the denials of the season. It is a sad truth about the heyday of the year, such as August and Yorkshire, where they have no spring, that just when a man could like his victuals to rise to the mark of the period to be simple yet varied, exhilarating yet substantial, the heat of the summer day defrauds its increased length for feeding. For instance, to cite a very trifling point, at least in some opinions, August has banished that bright content and most devout resignation which ensue the removal of a petted pig from this troublesome world of grunt. The fat pig rolls and wallowing rapture define his friends to make pork of him yet, and hugs with complacence unpickable hams. The partridge among the pillared wheat tenderly footing the way for his chicks, in teaching little balls of down to hop, knows how sacred are their lives to others as well as to himself, and the less paternal cock pheasants scratches the ridge of green-shouldered potatoes without fear of keeping them company at table. But though the bright glory of the griddle remains in suspense for the hoary mornings, and hooks that carried woodcocks once and hoped to do so yet again, are primed with dust instead of lard, and the frying pan hangs on the cellar nail with a holiday gloss of raw mutton sweat. Yet is there still some comfort left, yet dappled brown and bacon streaked, yet golden-hearted eggs and mushrooms quilted with pink stain, spiced beef carted with pillow-sid fat, buckstone cake, and brown bread scented with the ash of gorse bloom, of these and more that paved the way into the goodwill of mankind, what lack have fine farmhouses. And then again for the liquid duct, the softer and more sensitive, the one that is never out of season, but perennially clear. Here we have the advantage of the gentle time that mellows thirst, the long ride of the summer sun makes men who are in feeling with him, and like him go up and down, not forgo the moral of his labor, which is work and rest, work all day and light the rounded land with fruit and nurture and rest at evening, looking through bright fluid as the sun goes down. But times there are when sun and man by stress of work or clouds or light, or it may be some process of the equinox, make droughts upon the untilted day, and solace themselves in the morning. For lack of due, the sun draws lengthy sucks of cloud quite early, and men who have labored far and dry and scattered the rhyme of the night with dust find themselves ready about 8am for the golden encouragement of gentle ale. The farmhouse had an old porch of stone with a bench of stone on either side, and pointed windows trying to look out under brows of ivy, and this porch led into the long low hall where the breakfast was beginning, to say what was on the table would be only waste of time, because it has all been eaten so long ago. But the farmer was vexed because there were no shrimps. Not that he carried half the clip of a whisker for all the shrimps that ever bearded the sea, only that he liked to seem to love them, to keep Mary at work for him. The flower of his flock, and of all the flocks of the world of the universe, to his mind, was his darling daughter Mary, the strength of his love was upon her, and he liked to eat anything of her cooking. His body was too firm to fidget, but his mind was out of its usual comfort, because the pride of his heart, his Mary, seemed to be hiding something from him, and with the justice to be expected from far clearer minds than his, being vexed by one, he was right for the relief of snapping at fifty others. Mary, who could read him as the sailor reads his compass by the corner of one eye, awaited with good content the usual result, an outbreak of words upon the indolent willy, whenever that young farmer should come down to breakfast, then a comforting glance from the mother at her will-yum, followed by a plate kept hot for him, and then a fine shake of the master's shoulders, and a stamp of departure for business, but instead of that what came to pass was this. In the first place, a mighty bark of dogs arose as needs must be when a man does his duty toward the nobler animals, for sure it is that the dogs will not fail of their part, then an inferior noise of men crying, Good dog, good dog, and other fulsome flatteries in the hope of avoiding any tooth mark on their legs, and after that a shaking down and settlement of sounds as if feet were brought into good order, and stopped, then a tall man with a body full of corners and a face of grim temper stood in the doorway. Well, well, captain now, cried Stephen Annerley, getting up after waiting to be spoken to, the breath of us all is hard to get with doing of our duty, sir, come in and sit doing to table, and his majesty's forces along with you, Captain, Alice and Dick be damned, the lieutenant shouted out to them, you shall have all the victuals you want by and by, cross legs and get your winds up, captain of the coast defense, I am under your orders in your own house. Haraway was starving as only a man with long and active jaws can starve, and now the appearance of the farmer's mouth half full of a kindly relish made the emptiness of his own more bitter, but happened what might be resolved as usual to enforce strict discipline to feed himself first in his men in proper order. Walk in, gentlemen, all walk in, Master Annerley shouted as if all men were alike and coming to the door with a hospitable stride, glad to see all ye, upon my soul I am, ye have hit upon the right time for coming too, though there might have been more upon the table. Mary run, that's a deer, and fetch your grandfather's big Sabbath carver, then picky little clams almost puts out all my shoulder blades and want to bite through a twin of gristle, plates for all the gentlemen when he lasts, bill, go, and draw the black jarge full yell. The farmer knew well enough that Willie was not down yet, but this was his manner of letting people see that he did not approve of such hours. My poor lad Willie, said the mistress of the house, returning with a courtesy the brave lieutenant's scrape, I fear he hath the room again overheating of himself after Sungate. I forgot he hath to heat himself in bed again with the sun upon his cover lid. Mary love, how many hours would ye, your daughter sir, answered the lieutenant with a glance at the maiden over the opal gleam of froth, which he had headed for him. Your daughter has been down the dyke before the sun was, and doing of her duty by the king and by his revenue. Mistress Annerley, your good health, Master Annerley, the like to you, and your daughter and all of your good household. Before they had finished their thanks for this honour, the court pot was set down early. A very pretty brew, sir, a pretty brew indeed. Fall back men, have heat of discipline, a chucked line is what they want, sir. Mistress Annerley, your good health again, the hour is now thirsty in the morning. If those fellows could be given a bench against the wall, a bench against the wall is what they feel for with their legs. It comes so natural to their, yes, yes, their legs, and the cook of their heels, ma'am, from what they were brought up to sit upon. And if you have any beer or brood for washing days, ma'am, that is what they like, and the right thing for their bellies. Cadman, Ellis, and Dick Hackerbody, sit down and be thankful. But surely, Captain Caraway, you would never be happy to sit down without them. Look at their small clothes, the dust and the dirt, and their mouths show what you might make of them. Yes, madam, yes, the very worst of them is that. They are always looking out here, there, and everywhere for victuals everlasting. Let them wait their proper time, and then they do it properly. Their proper time is now, sir. Winnie, fill their horns up. Mary, wait you upon the officer. Captain Caraway, I will not have anybody starve in my house. Madam, you are the lawgiver in your own house, men of the Coast Guard. Fall too upon your victuals. The lieutenant frowned horribly at his men, as much to say, Take no advantage, but show your best manners. And they touched their forelocks with a pleasant grin, and began to feed rapidly, and verily their wives would have said that it was high time for them. Feeding, as a duty, was the order of the day, and discipline had no rank left. Good things appeared, and disappeared with the speedy doom of all excellence. Mary, and Winnie the maid, flitted in and out like carrier pigeons. Now, when the situation comes to this, said the Farmer at last, being heartily pleased with the style of their feeding and laughing, His majesty have made an officer of me, though void of his own writing. Mounted fensibles, filly-briggers, called in the foreign parts brigaders. Not that I stand upon sermenry about it, except in the matter of his majesty's health, as never is due without ardent spirits. But my wife hath a right to her own way, and never yet I knowed her go away from it. Not so by any means, the mistress said, and said it so quietly that some believed her. I never was so much for that. Captain, you are a married man, but reason is reason, in the middle of us all. And what else should I say to my husband? Mary last, Mary love, wherever is your duty, the captain hath the best pot empty. With a bright blush, Mary sprang to do her duty, and those days no girl was ashamed to blush, and the bloodless cheeks savored of smallpox. Hold up your head, my love, her father said it aloud, with a smile of tidy pride and a pat upon her back. No call to look at all ashamed, my dear, to my unmind captain, though I may be wrong, however, but to my mind this little maid may stand upright, and the presence to downright anyone. There lies the very thing that never should be said. Captain, you have seven children, or maybe eight of them justly, and the pride of like, Mary, you be off. Mary was glad to run away, for she liked not to be among so many men, but her father would not have her triumph over her. Speak for yourself, good wife, he said, I know what you have got behind, as well as rooks no plow tail. Captain, you never heard me say that the last was any booty, but the very same as God hath made her, and thankful for straight legs and eyes. Howsoever, there might be worst-favored maidens without running out of the riding. You may ride all the way to the city of London, the captain exclaimed with a clinch of his fist, or even to Portsmouth, where my wife came from, and never a failing to maid fit to hold a candle for Mary to curl her hair by. The farmer was so pleased that he whispered something, but Carroway put his hand before his mouth and said, Never know, never in the morning. But in spite of that, Master Annerley felt in his pocket for a key and departed. Wicked, wicked is the word I use, protested Mrs. Annerley, for all this frible about rooks and looks and holding of candles and curling of hair. When I was Mary's age, oh dear, it may not be so for your daughter as captain, but evil for mine was the day they invented those proud swinging glasses. That you may pronounce, ma'am, and I will say amen, by my eldest daughter and her tenth year now. Come, Captain Carroway, broken in the farmer, returning softly with a square old bottle. I suppose the fighting with the crappos now. Put your legs up and light your pipe and tell us all the news. Cadman and Alice and Dick Hackerbody, the lieutenant of the Coast Guard, shall it? You have fed well, be off men, no more neglective duty, place an outpost at Fork of the Suebury Road and strictly observe the enemy while I hold counsel of war with my brother officer, Captain Annerley. Half a crown for you if you catch the rogue, half a crown each in a promotion of two pence. Attention, eyes right, make yourself scarce. Well, now the rogues are gone, let us make ourselves at home. Annerley, your question is a dry one, a dry one, but this is uncommonly fine stuff. How the devil has it slipped through our fingers. Never mind that, enter, amigos. Sir, I was at school at Shrewsbury, but as to the war, sir, the service is going to the devil for the want of pure principle. The farmer nodded and his looks declared that to some extent he felt it. He had got the worst side of some of the bargains that week, but his wife had another way of thinking. Why, Captain Carroway, whatever could be purer. At sea, had you ever a man of the downright principles of Nelson? Nelson has done very well in his way, but he is a man who was risen too fast as other men rise too slowly. Nothing in him, no substance, madam. I knew him as a youngster and I could have tossed him on a marlin spike. And instead of feeding well, sir, he quite wore himself away. To my firm knowledge, he would scarcely turn the scale upon a good Frenchman of half of the peas. Every man should work his own way up, unless his father did it for him. In my time, we had fifty men as good and made no fuss about them. And you are not the last of them, Captain, I dare say. Though I do love to hear of the Lord's Lord Nelson, as the people call him. If ever a man put his own way up, madam, I know him and respect him well. He would walk up to the devil with a sword between his teeth and a border's pistol in each hand. Madam, I leaped in that condition in depth of six fathoms and a half into the starboard mizzen chains of the French line of battleship, peace and thunder. Oh, Captain Carroway, how dreadful! What had you to lay hold with it? At such times, a man must not lay hold. My business was to lay about, and I did it to some purpose. This little flash across my eyes struck fire, and it does the same now and by moonlight. One of the last men in the world to brag was Lieutenant Carroway. Nothing but the great thirst of this morning and strong necessity of quenching it. Could ever have led him to speak about himself and remember his own little exploits. But the farmer was pleased and said, Tell us some more, sir. Mr. Xanderly, the captain answered, shutting up the scar, which he was able to expand by means of a muscle of excitement. You know that a man should drop these subjects when he has got a large family. I've been in the army and the navy, madam, and now I'm in the revenue, but my duty is first to my own house. Do take care, sir. I beg you to be careful. Those free traders now are come to such a pitch that any day or night they may shoot you. Not they, madam. No, they're not murderers. In a hand-to-hand conflict they might do it as I might do the same to them. This very morning, my men shot at the captain of all smugglers, Robin Lythe, of Flamborough, with a hundred guineas upon his head. It was no wish of mine, but my breath was short to stop them, and a man with a family like mine could never despise a hundred guineas. Why, Sophie, said the farmer, thinking slowly with a frown, That must have been the noise come in a window when I was getting up this morning. I said, Why is there some poacher fellow popping up the conies? And I went straight to the war and to see three gunshots, or my own and four. How many men was you shooting at? The force under my command was in pursuit of one notorious criminal, that well-known villain, Robin Lythe. Captain, your duty is to do your duty, but without your own word of it, I never would believe that you brought four gun muzzles down upon one man. The force under my command carried three guns only. It was not in their power to shoot off four. Captain, I never would have done it in your place. I call it no better than unmanly. Now, go you not for to stir yourself amiss. To look thunder at me is what I laugh at. But many things are done in a hurry, Captain Caraway, and I take it that this was one of them. As to that, no, I will not have it. All was in thorough good order. I was never so much as a cable's length behind, though the devil some years ago split my heel up like his own sir. Captain, I see it, and I ask your pardon. Your men were out of reach of hollering. At our time of life, the wind dies quick for one to blow an oftener. Stuff! cried the Captain. Who was the freshest that came to your hospitable door, sir? I will foot it with any man for six leagues, but not for half a mile, ma'am. I depart from nothing. I said fire, and fire they did, and they shall again. What do volunteers know of the service? Stephen, you shall not say single other word. Mistress Annerley stopped her husband thus. These matters are out of your line altogether, because you have never taken anybody's blood. The Captain here is used to it. Like all the sons of Belial, brought up in the early portions of the holy writ. Lieutenant Carolway's acquaintance with the Bible was not more extensive than that of other officers, and comprised little more than the story of Joseph and that of David and Goliath. So he bowed to his hostess for her comparison while his gaunt and bristly countenance gave way to a pleasant smile. For this officer, the British crown had a fact of strong features, and upon it, whatever he thought was told as plainly as the time of day as told by the clock in the kitchen. At the same time, Master Annerley was thinking that he might have said more than a host should say concerning the matter which, after all, was no particular concern of his, whereas it was his special place to be kind to any visitor, all thus he considered with a sound grave mind and then stretched forth his right hand to the officer. Carolway, being a generous man, would not be outdone in apologies, so these two strengthened their mutual esteem without any fighting, which generally is the quickest way of renewing respect, and Mistress Annerley, having been a little frightened, took credit to herself for the good words she had used. Then the farmer, who never drank cordials, although he liked to see other people do it, set forth to see a man who was come about a rick and sundry other business, but Carolway, in spite of all his boasts, was swift, though he bravely denied that he could be, and when the good housewife insisted on his stopping to listen to something that was much upon her mind and of great importance to the revenue, he could not help owning that duty compelled him to smoke another pipe and harken. End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of Mary Annerley This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Elsie Seltwin Mary Annerley by Richard Dudridge Blackmore Chapter 9 Robin Cox Scruffed Nothing ever was allowed to stop Mrs. Annerley from seeing to the bedrooms. She kept them airing for about three hours at this time of the sun's ditch, as she called all the doings of the sun upon the sky, and then there was pushing and probing and tossing and pulling and thumping and kneading of knuckles till the rib of every feather was aching, and then, like dough before the fire, every well-belabored tick was left to yeast itself awhile. Winnie the maid was as strong as a post and wore them all out in bed-making. Carolway heard the beginning of this noise, but none of it meddled at all with his comfort. He laid back nicely in a happy fit of chair, stretched his legs well upon a bench, and nodded, keeping slow time for the breaths of his pipe, and drawing a vapoury dream of ease. He had ferried many stony miles of foot that morning, and feet, legs, and body were now less young than they used to be once upon a time. Looking up sleepily, the captain had an idea of a pretty young face hanging over him and a soft boy saying, It was me who did it all. Which was very good grammar in those days. Well, you forgive me, but I could not help it, and you must have been sorry to shoot him. Shoot everybody who attempts to land, the weary man ordered drowsily. Maddie, once more, you are not to dust my pistols. I could not be happy without telling you the truth. The soft boys continued, because I told you such a dreadful story, and now, oh, here comes mother. What has come over you this morning, child? You do the most extraordinary things, and now you cannot let the captain rest. Go round and look for eggs this very moment. You will want to play fine music next. Now, captain, I am at your service if you please, unless you feel too sleepy. Mistress Annerley, I never felt more wide awake in all my life. We at the service must snatch a wink whenever we can, but with one eye open. And it is not often that we see such charming sights. The farmer's wife, having set the beds to plump, had stolen a look at the glass and put on her second best Sunday cap in honor of a real officer. And she looked very nice indeed, especially when she received a compliment, but she had seen too much of life to be disturbed thereby. Um, captain, care away, what way you have of getting on with simple people while you are laughing all the time at them? It comes of the foreign war experience going on so long that in the end we all shall be foreigners, but one place there is that you can never conquer nor bone apart himself to my belief. Ah, you mean flamborough, flamborough, yes, it is, a nest of cockatrices. Captain, it is nothing of the sort. It is the most honest place in the world. A man may throw guinea on the crossroads in the night and have it back from Dr. Up-and-Down any time within seven years. You ought to know by this time what they are, hard as it is to get among them. I only know that they shut their mouths, and the devil himself, I beg your pardon, ma'am. Old Nick himself never could unscrew them. You are right, sir. I know their men are well. They are open as the sky with one another, but close as the grave to all of the world outside them, and most of all to people of authority like you. Mistress Annerley, you have just hit it. Not a word can I get out of them. The name of the king, God bless him, seems to have no way to among them. And you cannot get at them, sir, by any dint of money, or even by living in the midst of them. The only way to do it is by kin, of blood, or marriage. And this is how I come to know more about them than almost anybody else outside. My master can scarcely win a word of them even kind as he is, and well-spoken. And neither might I, though my tongue was tenfold, if it were not for Joan Coxscroft. But being Joan's cousin, I am like one of themselves. Coxscroft? Coxscroft? I have heard that name. Do they keep a public house there? The lieutenant now was on the scent of duty, and assumed his most knowing heir, the sole effect of which was to put everybody upon guard against him. For this was a man of no subtlety, but straightforward, downright, and ready to believe. And his cleverest advice was to seem to disbelieve. The Coxscrofts keep no public house, Mrs. Annerley answered with a little flush of pride. Why, she was half a niece to my own grandmother, and never was beer in the family. Not that I would have been wrong if it was. Captain, you are thinking of widow precious, licensed to the cod with a hook in his gills. I should have thought, sir, that you might have known a little more of your neighbors having fallen below the path of life by reason of bad bank tokens. Banking came up in her parts like dog madness, as that might have done here. If our farmers were the fools to handle their cash with gloves on, and Joan being robbed by the fault of her trustees, the very best bankers in Scarborough, though Robin never married her for it, thank God. Still it was very sad, and scarcely bears describing of, and pulled them in the crock of this world's swing to a lower pitch than if they had robbed the folk that robbed and ruined them. And Robin so was driven to the fish again, which he always had hankered after. It must have been before you heard of this coast, Captain, and before the long war was so hard on us, that everybody about these parts was to double his bags by banking, and no man was right to pocket his own guineas for fear of his own wife feeling them. And bitterly such was paid out for their cowardice and swindling of their own bosoms. I have heard of it often, and it served them right. Master Annerley knew where his money was safe, ma'am. Neither Captain Robin cockscroft nor his wife was in any way to blame. Answered Mrs. Annerley, I have framed my mind to tell you about them, and I will do it truly, if I am not interrupted. Two hammers never yet drove a nail straight, and I have a will of silence when my bedders wish to talk. Madam, you remind me of my own wife. She asked me a question, and she will not let me answer. That is the only way I know of getting on. Mistress Caraway must understand you, Captain. I was at the point of telling you how my cousin Joan was married before her money went, and when she was really good-looking, I was quite a child, and ran along the shore to see it. It must have been in the high summertime, with the weather fit for bathing, and the sea as smooth as a duck pond, and Captain Robin being well-to-do, and established with everything except a wife, and pleased with a pretty smile and quiet ways of Joan, for he had never heard of her money mind, put his oar into the sea and rode from Flambeau all the way to Philly Brig, with thirty-five fishermen after him, for the Flambeau people, made a point of seeing one another through their troubles, and Robin was known for the handsomest man and the unermost fisher of the landing, with three boats of his own in a good berth and long sea alarms, and there at once they found my cousin Joan, with her trustees, come over land, four wagons and a cart and all of them, and after they were married they burned seaweed, having no fear in those days of invasions, and a merry day they made of it and rode back by the moonshine. For everyone liked, and respected Captain Coxcroft, on account of his skill with the deep sea lines, and the openness of his hands when full, a wonderful, quiet and harmless man, as the manner is of all great fishermen. They had bacon for breakfast whenever they liked, and a guinea to lend to anybody in distress. Then suddenly one morning when his hair was growing gray and his eyes getting weary of the night work, so that he said his young Robin must grow big enough to learn all the secrets of the fishes, while his father took a spell in the blankets, and suddenly there came to them a shocking piece of news. All his wife's bit of money and his own as well, which he had been putting by from year to year, was lost in a new fangled bank, supposed as faithful as the Bible. Joan was very near crazed about it, but Captain Coxcroft never heaved a sigh, though they say it was nearly 700 guineas. They're efficient of still in the sea, he said, and the Lord has spared our children. I will build a new boat and not think of featherbeds. Captain Caroway he did so, and everybody knows what befell him. The new boat, built with his own hands, was called the Mercy Robin, for his only son and daughter, little Mercy and poor Robin. The boat is there as bright as ever, scarlet within and white outside, but the name is painted off, because the little deers are in their grave. To him nicer children were never seen, clever and sprightly and good to learn. They never even took a common bird's nest, I have heard, but loved all the little things the Lord has made, as if with a foreknowledge he came back very tired one morning and went up the hill to his breakfast, and the children got into the boat and pushed off in imitation of their daddy, and came on to blow, as it does down there, without a single whiff of warning, and when Robin awoke for his midday meal, the bodies of his little lones were lying on the table. And from that very day Captain Coxcroft and his wife began to grow old very quickly. The boat was recovered without much damage, and then he sits by the hour on dry land, whenever there is no one on the cliffs to see him. With his hands upon his lap, and his eyes upon the place where his dear little children used to sit. Because he has always taken whatever fell upon him gently, and of course that makes it ever so much worse when he dwells upon things that come inside of him. Madam, you make me feel quite sorry for him, the lieutenant exclaimed as she began to cry. If even one of my little ones was drowned, I declare to you I cannot tell what I should be like, until lose them all at once, and as his own wife perhaps would say because he was thinking of breakfast, and when he had been robbed and the world all gone against him, ma'am it is a long time thank God since I heard so sad a tale. Now you would not Captain, I am sure you would not, said Mistress Annerley, getting up a smile yet freshening his perception of the tear as well. You would never have the heart to destroy that poor old, coupled by striking the last prop from under them. By the will of the Lord they are broken down enough, they are quietly hobbling to the graves, and would you be the man to come and knock them on their heads at once? Mistress Annerley, have you ever heard that I am a brute and inhumane? Madam, I have no less than seven children, and I hope to have fourteen. I hope with all your heart you may, and you would just serve them all for promising so very kindly not to shoot poor Robin Lithe. Robin Lithe? I never spoke of him, Madam. He is outlawed, condemned, with a fine reward upon him. We shout at him today, we shall shoot at him again, and with my duty to the king, the constitution, the service I belong to, and the babes I have begotten. Blood, money, poisons, all innocent mouths, Sarah, and breaks out for generations, and for it you will have to take three lives, Robins, the captains, and my dear old cousin Jones. Mistress Annerley, you deprive me of all satisfaction, it is just my luck when my duty was so plain and would pay so well for doing of. Listen now, Captain, it is my opinion and I am generally born out by the end, then instead of one hundred pounds for killing Robin Lithe, you may get a thousand for preserving him alive. Do you know how he came upon this coast and how he has won his extraordinary name? I have certainly heard rumors, scarcely any to a like, but I take no heed of them, my duty was to catch him and it mattered not a straw to me who or what he was, but now I really must beg to know all about him and what makes you think such things of him, why should that excellent old couple say me an honestly worth it man without any cheating of his majesty? Captain Caroway, his hostess said, not without a little blush as she thought of the king and his revenue. Cheating of his majesty is a thing we leave for others, but if you wish to hear the story of that young man so far as known, which is not so even in Flamborough, you must please to come on Sunday, sir, for Sunday is the only day that I can spare for clacking, as the common people say. I must be off now, I have fifty things to see to sit with his legs up in a long clay pipeline on him down below his waist or to speak more correctly where it used to be as he might indeed almost say the very same to me and then not to speak a word but hear other folk tell stories that might not have made such a dinner as himself and as for dinner sir, if you will do the honor to dine with them that are no more than in the volunteers, a saddle of good mutton fit for the bodyguards to ride upon, the men with the skins around them all turned up will be ready just at one o'clock my dear madam, my shell scarcely cared to look at any slice of victuals until one o'clock on Sunday by reason of looking forward. After all, this was not such a gross exaggeration Annerley Farm being famous for its cheer, whereas the poor lieutenant at the best of times had as much as he could do to make both ends meet and his wife, though a wonderful manager could give him no better than coarse bread and almost coarser meat and sir, if your good lady would oblige us also no madam, no madam could cry with vigorous decision having found many festivations spoiled by excess of loving vigilance we thank you most truly but I must say no she would jump at the chance but a husband must consider you may have heard it mentioned that the lord is now considering about the production of an eighth little caraway captain I have not or I should not so have spoken but with all my heart I wish you joy I have pleasure I show you in the prospect Mr. Annerley my friends make writhed faces but I blow them away I say, touch, sir, at the rate we now are fighting in exhausting all British material, there cannot be too many, sir, of metals such as mine. What do you say to that, madam? Sir, I believe it is the Lord's own truth, and truth is also that our country should do more to support the brave hearts that fight for it." Mrs. Annerley sighed, for she thought of her younger son by his own perversity launched into the thankless peril of fighting England's battles. His death at any time might come home, if any kind person should take the trouble even to send news of it, or he might lie at the bottom of the sea unknown, even while they were talking, but caraway buttoned up his coat and marched, after a pleasant and kind farewell. In all of his comforts which need not have taken very long to count, in the course of hard service he had seen much grief and suffered plenty of bitterness, and he knew that it is not the part of a man to multiply any of his troubles but children. He went about his work and he thought of all his comforts which need not have taken very long to count, but he added to their score by not counting them, and by the self-same process diminished that of troubles, and thus upon the whole he deserved his Sunday dinner, and the tale of his hostess after it, not a word of which Mary was allowed to hear for some subtle reason of her mother's. But the farmer heard it all and kept interrupting so, when his noddings and the jockeys of his pipe allowed, or perhaps one should say compelled him, that merely for the courtesy of saving common time, it is better now to set it down without them. Moreover, there are many things, well worthy of production, which she did not produce for reasons which are now no hindrance. And therefore most of those reasons is that the lady did not know the things, the second that she could not tell them clearly as a man might, and the third and best of all that if she could she would not do so. And what she certainly was quite right for it would have become her very badly as the cousin of Joan Coxcroft have removed it upon the mother's side, and therefore kindly received at Flambeau and admitted into the inter-circle, and allowed to buy fish at wholesale prices if she had turned round upon all these benefits and described all the holes to be found in the place for the teaching of a revenue officer. Still, I must be clearly understood that the nature of the people was fishing. They never were known to encourage free trading, but did their very utmost to protect themselves, and if they had produced the very noblest free trader born before the time of Mr. Cobden, neither the credit nor the blame was theirs. Recording by Elsie Selwyn. Mary Annerley by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. CHAPTER X ROBIN LIFE Half a lead to the north of Bouldflinborough Head. The billows have carved for themselves a little cove among cliffs which are rugged but not very high. This opening is something like the green shot of a mill or a screen for riddling gravel, so steep as the pitch of the ground and so narrow the shiny ledge at the bottom, and truly in bad weather and at high tides there is no single ledge at all. But the crest of the wave volleys up the incline and the surf rushes on to the top of it. For the cove, though sheltered from other quarters, receives the full brunt of northeasterly gales and offers no safe anchorage. But the hardy fishermen make the most of its scant convenience and gratefully call it north landing, albeit both wind and tide must be in good humor, or the only thing sure of any landing is the sea. The long desolation of the sea rolls in with a sound of melancholy. The gray fog droops its fold of drizzle and the leaden tinted troughs. The pent cliffs overhang the flapping of the sail and a few yards of pebble and of weed are all that a boat may come home upon harmlessly. Yet here in the old time landed men who carved the shape of England, and here even in these lesser days, are landed uncommonly fine cod. The difficulties of the feet are these, to get ashore soundly and then to make it good and after that to clinch the exploit by getting on land, which is yet a harder step. Because the steep of the ground, like a staircase void of stairs, stands facing you and the cliff upon either side juts up close to forbid any flanking movement, and the scanty, scarped denies fair start for a rush at the power of the hill front, yet here must the heavy boats beach themselves and wallow and yawn the shingly roar while their cargo and crew get out of them, their gun wail swinging from side to side in the manner of a porpoise rolling and their stem and stern going up and down like a pair of lads at Seasaw. But after these heavy boats have endured all that, they have not found their rest yet without a crowning effort, up that gravely and glittery ascent which changes every groove and run at every sudden shower, but never grows any the softer, up that the heavy boats must make clambers somehow, or not a single timber of their precious frames is safe. A big rope from the cap stand at the summit is made fast, as soon as the tails of the jackasses, laden with three count of fish apiece, have wag their last flick at the brow of the steep, and then with yo heave-ho above and below, through the cliffs echo over the dull sea, the groaning and grinding of the stubborn tug begins. Each boat has her own special course to travel up and her own special berth of safety, and she knows every jag that will gore her on the road and every flint from which she will strike fire. By dint of sheer sturdiness of arms, legs, and lungs, keeping true time with the pant and the shout, steadily goes it with hoist and haul, and cheerily underlates the melody of call that rallies them all with a strong will together. Through the cliffs echoing over the dull sea, the groaning and grinding of the stubborn tug begins. Each boat has her own special course to travel up and her own special berth of safety, and she knows every jag that will gore her on the road and every flint from which she will strike fire. By dint of sheer sturdiness of arms, legs, and lungs, keeping true time with the pant and shout, steadily it goes with hoist and haul, and cheerily underlates the melody of call that rallies them all with a strong will together, until the steep bluff and the burden of the bulk by masculine labor are conquered, and a long row of powerful pinaches displayed as a mounted battery against the fish-full sea. With a view to this clambered ruggedness of life, all of these boats receive from their cradle a certain limber rake and accommodating curve, instead of a straight pertinacity of keel so that they may ride over all the scandals of this arduous world. It happened what made to them when they were at home and gallantly balanced on the brow line of the steep, they make a bright show upon the dreariness of coastland, hanging as they do above the gullet of the deep, painted outside with the brightest of scarlet and inside with the purest white. At a little way off they resemble gay butterflies preening their wings for a flight into the depth. Here it must have been, and in the middle of all these, that the very famous Robin Live, prophetically treating him but free as yet of fame or name, and simply unable to tell himself, shown in the doubt of the early daylight as a tidy, sized cod it forgotten might have shown, upon the morning of St. Switham, AD 1782. The day and the date were well remembered long by all the good people of Flamborough from the coming of the turn of a long bad luck and a bitter time of starving. For the weather of the summer had been worse than usual, which is no little thing to say, and the fish had expressed their opinion of it by the eloquent silence of absence. Therefore, as the whole place lives on fish, whether in the fishy or the fiscal form, goodly apparel was becoming very rare, even upon high Sundays, and stomachs that might have looked well beneath it sank into unobtrusive grief. But it is a long lane that has no turning and turns are the essence of one very vital part. Suddenly over the village had flown the news of a noble arrival of fish from the crossroads in the public house and the licensed headquarters of pepper and snuff and the loophole where sheep had been known to hand and times of better trade, but never could dream of hanging now also from the window of the man who had had a hundred heads superior to his own, shaking at him because he set up for making breaches in opposition to the women and showed a few patterns of what he could do if any man of legs would trade with him. From all these head centers of intelligence and others not so prominent but equally potent into the very smallest hole it went like the thrill in a troublesome tooth, that here was a chance come of feeding, a chance at last of feeding. For the man on the cliff, the despairing watchman, weary of fasting his eyes upon the sea through constant fog and drizzle, length had discovered the well-known flicker, the glassy flaw and the hovering of gulls and had run along Wayne Lane so fast to tell his good news in the little village that down he fell and broke his leg exactly opposite the tailor's shot and this was on St. Swithin's Eve. There was nothing to be done that night, of course, for mackerel must be delicately worked but long before the sun rose all flamborough able to put leg in front of leg and some who could not yet do that gathered together where the landhold was above the incline of the launching of the boats. Here was a medley, not a fisherfolk alone and all their bodily belongings but also of the thousand things that have no soul and get kicked about and sworn at much because they cannot answer. Rollers, buoys, nets, kegs, swabs, fenders, blocks, buckets, cages, corks, buckypots, ores, poppies, tillers, spritz, gaffes and every kind of gear more than theocritus himself could tell, lay about and rolled about and upset their own masters here and there and everywhere upon this half-acre of slip and stumble at the top of the boat channel down to the sea and in the faint rivalry of three vague lights all making darkness visible. For very ancient lanterns with a gentle horny glimmer and loopholes of large exaggeration at the top were casting upon anything quite within their reach a general idea of the crinkled tin that framed them and a shuffle of inconstant shadows but refused to shed any light on friend or stranger or clear up suspicions more than three yards off and rivalry with these appeared the pale disc of the moon just setting over the western highlands and drawing straws through summer haze while away and the northeast over the sea slender a regular wisp of gray so weak that it seemed as if it were being blown away but tokened the intention of the sun to restore clear ideas of number and figure by and by but little did anybody heed such things everyone ran against everybody else and always eagerness, haste and bustle for the first great launch of the flamborough boats all of which must be taken in order but when they laid hold of the boat number seven which used to be the Mercy Robin and were jerking the timber shores out one of the men stooping under her stern beheld something white and gleaming he put his hand down to it and lo it was a child in imminent peril of a deadly crush as the boat came healing over old hard cried the man not in time with his voice but in time with a sturdy shoulder to delay the descent of the counter then he stooped underneath while they studied the boat and drew forth a child and a white linen dress heartily asleep and happy there was no time to think of any children now even of a man's own fine breed and the boat was beginning much to chafe upon the rope and thirty or forty fine fellows were all waiting loathe to hurry Captain Robin because of the many things he had dearly lost yet straining upon their own hearts to stand still and the captain could not find his wife who had slipped aside of the noisy scene to have her own little cry because of the dance her children would have made if they had lived to see it there were plenty of other women running all about to help and to talk and to give the best advice to their husbands and to one another but most of them naturally had their own babies and if words came to action quite enough to do to nurse them on this account Coxcroft could do no better bound as he was to rush forth upon the sea then lay the child gently aside of the stir and cover him with an old sail and leave word with an ancient woman for his wife when found the little boys slept on calmly still in spite of all the din and uproar the song and the shout the tramp of heavy feet the creaking of cap stands and the thump of bulky oars and the crash of ponderous rollers away went these upon their errand to the sea and then came back the grating war and plashy jerks of launching the plunging and the gurgling and the quiet murmur of cleft waves that child slept on and the warm good luck of having no boat keel launched upon him nor even a human keel of bulk as likely to prove fatal and the ancient woman fell asleep beside him because at her time of life it was unjust that she should be a stir so early and it happened that Mrs. Coxcroft followed her troubled husband down the steep having something in her pocket for him which she failed to fetch to hand so everybody went about its own business according to the laws of nature and the old woman slept by the side of the child without giving him a corner of her scarlet shawl but when the day was broad and brave and the spirit of the air was vigorous and every cliff had a color of its own and a character to come out with and beautiful boats upon the shining sea flashed their oars and went up waves which clearly were the stairs of heaven and never a woman come to watch her husband could be sure how far he had carried his obedience in the matter of keeping his hat and coat on neither could anybody say what next those very clever fishermen might be after nobody having a spyglass but only this being understood all around that hunger and salt were the victuals for the day and the children must chew the mouse trap baits until their dads came home again and yet in spite of all this with light some hearts so hope outstrips the sun and soars with him behind her and a strong will up the hill they went to do without much breakfast but prepare for a glorious supper for mackerel are good fish that do not strive to live forever but seem glad to support the human race flamboronians speak a rich burr of their own broadly and handsomely distinct from that of outer Yorkshire the same sagacious contempt for all hot hasten hurry which people have been patient fiber are too apt to call it a drawl may here be found as in other Yorkshire guiding and retarding well that headlong instrument the tongue yet even here there is advantage on the side of flamboron a longer resonance a larger breath a deeper power melancholy and a stronger turn up of the tale of discourse by some called the end of a sentence over and above all these their dwell and little Denmark many words foreign to the real Yorkshiremen but alas these merits of their speech cannot be embodied in print without sad trouble and result is successful still more saddening therefore it is proposed to let them speak in our inferior tongue and to try and make them be not so very long about it for when they are left to themselves entirely they have so much solid matter to express and they ripen it in their minds and throats with the process so deliberate that strangers might condemn them briefly and be off without hearing half of it whenever this happens to a flamboron man he finishes what he proposed to say and then says it all over again to the wind when the lavings of the island as the weak part unfit for see and left behind were politely called being very old men women and small children full of conversation came upon their way back from the tide to the gravel brow now bare of boats they could not help discovering there the poor old woman that fell asleep because she ought to have been in bed and by her side a little boy who seemed to have no bed at all the child lay above her in a tump of stubbly grass where Robin Coxcroft had laid him he had tossed the old sail off perhaps in a dream and he threatened to roll down upon the granny contrasts between his young beautiful face white raiment and readiness to roll and the ancient woman's weary age which would be ungracious to describe and scarlet shawl which she could not spare and satisfaction to lie still as the best thing left for her to do now this difference between them was enough to take anybody's notice facing the well-established son Nancy Pegler get up with ye kind a woman even older but of tougher constitution same on ye to the League of Boats though be ye brought to bed this time of life a wonderful fine baby for such an old mother another proceeded with an elegant joke and formed swaddles too with soul gore upon them this day every one of ye ought to the way cried ancient nanny now wide awake as ever master Robin Coxcroft give me the Baron and nobody shall have him but Joan Coxcroft Joan Coxcroft with a heavy heart was lingering far behind the rest thinking of the many merry launches when her smart young Robin would have been in the boat with his father and her pretty little mercy clinging to her hand upon the homeward road and proddling of the fish to be caught that day and insomuch as Joan had not been able to get face to face with her husband on the beach she had not heard of the stranger child but soon the women sent a little boy to fetch her and she came among them wondering what it could be for now a debate of some figure was arising upon a momentous and exciting point though not so keen by a hundredth part as it would have been twenty years afterward for the oldest old woman had pronounced her decision tell ye what a death and think but would ye ban might he a frog ban this caused some panic and a general retreat for though the immortal Napoleon had scarcely finished changing his teeth as yet a chronic uneasiness about crop us haunted the coast already and they might have sent this little boy to pave the way being capable of almost everything frog man cried the old woman next to her by birth and believed to have higher parts though not yet ripe nah nah what frog man here frog man has skinny shanks and larks heels and holds down their bodies like lampurns no sign of no frog boot young Baron as fair as a wench in clean as a tyke a malta almost born to flamborot and what girl how crop was got poor devils this opened the gate for a clamor of discourse for there surely could be no denial of her words and yet while her elder was alive and out of bed the habit of the village was to listen to her say unless any man of equal age arose to counter veil it but while they were thus divided Mrs. Coxcroft came and they stood aside for she had been kind to everybody when her better chances were and now in her trouble all were grieved because she took it so to heart Joan Coxcroft did not say a word but glanced at the child with some contempt in spite of white linen and yellow gold what was he to her own dead Robin but suddenly this child whatever he was and vastly so ever inferior opened his eyes and sent home their first glance to the very heart of Joan Coxcroft it was the exact looker so she always said of her dead angel when she denied him something for the sake of his poor dear stomach with an outburst of tears she flew straight to the little one snatched him in her arms and tried to cover him with kisses the child however and a lordly manner did not seem to like it he drew with his red lips gathered up his nose and passion flew out of his beautiful eyes higher passion than that of any Coxcroft and he tried to say something which no one could make out and women of higher consideration looking on were wicked enough to be pleased at this and said that he must be a young lord and they had quite foreseen it but Joan knew what children are and soothed him down so with delicate hands and a gentle look of warming his cold places that he very soon began to cuddle into her and smile then she turned round to the other people with both of his arms flung round her neck and his cheek laid on her shoulder and she only said the Lord hath sent him End of CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI of Mary Annerley This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Mary Annerley by Richard Dodridge Blackmore CHAPTER XI MR. UP AND DOWN The practice of flamborough was to listen fairly to anything that might be said by one truly of the native breed and to receive it well into the crust of the mind and let it sink down slowly but even after that it might not take root unless it were fixed in its settlement by their two great powers the law and the Lord They had many visitations from the Lord as needs must be in such a very stormy place whereas of the law they heard much less but still they were even more afraid of that for they never knew how much it might cost Balancing matters as they did their fish when the price was worth it in way lane they came to the set conclusion that the law and the Lord did not agree concerning the child cast among them by the latter a child or two had been thrown ashore before and trouble once or twice had come of it and this child being cast no one could say how to such a height above all other children he was likely enough to bring a spell upon their boats if anything crooked to God's will were done and even to draw them to their last stocking if anything offended the providence of law in any other place it would have been a point of combat what to say and what to do in such a case as this but Flamborough was of all the wide world happiest in possessing an authority to reconcile all doubts the law and the Lord two powers supposed to be at variance always and to share the weak between them in proportions fixed by lawyers the holy and unholy elements of man's brief existence were combined in Flamborough parish in the person of its magisterial rector he was also believed to excel in the arts of divination and medicine too for he was a full doctor of divinity before this gentlemen must be laid for both purse and conscience's sake the case of the child just come out of the fogs and true it was that all these powers were centered in one famous man known among the laity as Parsons up and down for the Reverend Turner upround to give him his proper name was a doctor of divinity a justice of the peace and the present rector of Flamborough of all his offices and powers there was not one that he overstrained and all that knew him unless they were thorough going rogues and vagabonds loved him not that he was such a soft spoken man as many were who thought more evil but because of his deeds in nature which were of the kindest he did his utmost on demand of duty to sacrifice his nature to his stern position as pastor and master of an uphill parish with many wrong things to be kept under but while he succeeded in the form now and then he failed continually in the substance this gentleman was not by any means a fool unless a kind heart proves folly at Cambridge he had done very well in the early days of the tripos and was chosen fellow and tutor of Gonville and Chaos College but tiring of that dull round in his prime he married and took to a living and a living was one of many upon which a perpetual pastor can barely live unless he can go naked also and keep naked children now the Parsons had not yet discovered the glorious merits of hard fasting but freely enjoyed and with gratitude to God the powers with which he had blessed them happily Dr. Upround had a solid income of his own and, like a sound mathematician he took a wife of terms coincident so without being wealthy they lived very well and helped their poor neighbors such a man generally thrives on the thriving of his flock and does not harry them he gives them spiritual food enough to support them without daintiness and he keeps the proper distinction between the Sunday and the poorer days he clangs no bell of reproach upon a Monday when the squire is leading a lady into dinner and the laborer sniffing at a supper-pot and he lets the world play on a Saturday while he works his own head to find good hands for the morrow because he is a wise man who knows what other men are and how seldom they desire to be told the same thing more than a hundred and four times in a year neither did his clerical skill stop here for Parson Upround thought twice about it before he said anything to rub sore consciences even when he had them at his mercy and silent before him on a Sunday he behaved like a gentleman in this matter where so much temptation lurks looking always at the man whom he did not mean to hit so that the guilty one received it through him and felt himself better back in Paris in a word this Parson did his duty well and pleasantly for all his flock and nothing embittered him unless a man pretended to doctrine without holy orders for the doctor reasoned thus and sound it sounds if divinity is a matter for Tom, Dick or Harry how can there be degrees in it he held a degree in it and felt what it had cost and not the parish only but even his own wife was proud to have a doctor every Sunday and his wife took care that his rich red hood Carries mere small clothes and black silk stockings upon calves of dignity were such that his congregation scorned the surgeons all the way to Beverly happy in a pleasant nature kindly heart and tranquil home he was also happy in those awards of life in which men are helpless he was blessed with a good wife three good children doing well and vigorous and hardy as the air and climb and cliffs his wife was not quite of his own age but old enough to understand and follow him faithfully down the slope of years a wife with mind enough to know that a husband is not faultless and without hard enough to feel that if he were she would not love him so and under her were comprised their children two boys at school and two girls at home so far the rector of this parish was truly blessed and blessing but an every man's lot must be some crook since this crooked world turned round in parts and up rounds lot the crook might seem a very small one but he found it almost too big for him his dignity and peace of mind large goodwill of ministry and strong Christian sense of majesty all were sadly pricked and wounded by a very small thorn in the flesh of his spirit almost every honest man is a rifle owner of a nickname when he was a boy at school he could not do without one and if the other boys valued him perhaps he had a dozen and afterward when there is less perception of right and wrong and character in the weaker time of manhood he may earn another if the spirit is within him but woe is him if a nasty foe or somebody trying to be one annoyed for the moment with him yet meaning no more harm than pepper smite him to the quick adventure in his most retired and privy-conscious toll and when this is done by a non-conformist to a doctor of divinity and the man who does it owes some money to the man he does it to can the latter gentlemen take a large and genial view of his critics this gross wrong and ungrateful outrage was inflicted thus a leading methodist from Filey town who owed the doctor half a guinea came one summer and set up his staff in the hollow of a lime kiln where he lived upon fish for change of diet and because he could get it for nothing this was a man of some eloquence and his calling in life was cobbling and to encourage him therein and keep him from theology the rector not only forgot his half guinea but sent him three or four pairs of riding-boots to mend and let him charge his own price which was strictly heterodox as a part of the bargain this fellow came to church and behaved as well as could be hoped for a man who received his money he sat by a pillar and no more than crossed his legs at the worst thing that disagreed with him and it might have done him good and made a decent cobbler of him if the parson had only held him when he got him on the hook but this is the very thing which all great preachers are too benevolent to do doctor up around looked at this sinner who was getting into a fright upon his own account though not a bad preacher when he could afford it and the cobbler could no more look up to the doctor than when he charged him a full crown beyond the contract in his kindness for all who seemed convinced of sin the good preacher halted and looked at Mr. Jobbins with a soft, relaxing gaze Jobbins appeared as if he would come to church forever and never cheat any sound clergyman again whereupon the generous divine omitted a whole page of menaces prepared for him and passed prematurely to the tender strain which always winds up a good sermon now what did Jobbins do in return for all his magnanimous mercy invited to dine with the senior church warden upon the strength of having been at church and to encourage him for another visit and being asked as soon as ever decency permitted what he thought of Parsons up-round's doctrine between two crackles of young Grisken come straight from the rectory pigsty he was grieved to express a stern opinion long remembered at Flamborough Can you yon mon Dr. Oprund? I can on Dr. Opendun From that day forth the rector of the parish was known far and wide as Dr. Oprundun even among those who loved him best for the name well described as benevolent practice of undoing any harsh things he might have said sometimes by a smile and very often with a shilling or a basket of spring cabbages so that Mrs. Upround when buttoning up his coat which he always forgot to do for himself did it with the words my dear now scold no one really it's becoming too expensive shall I abandon duty he would answer with some dignity while a shilling is sufficient to enforce it Dr. Oprund's people had now found out that their minister and magistrate discharged his duty toward his pillow no less than to his pulpit his parish had acquired through the work of generations a habit of getting up at night all alive at Cock Crow and the rector well very new amongst them tried to bow or rather rise to night watch but a little of that exercise lasted him for long and he liked to talk of it afterward but for the present was obliged to drop it for he found himself pale when his wife made him see himself and his hours of shaving were so dreadful and scarcely a bit of fair dinner could be got with the whole of the day thrown out so in short he settled it wisely that the fishers of fish must yield to the habits of fish which cannot be corrected but the fishers of men who can live without catching them need not be up to all their hours but may take them reasonably his parishioners who could do very well without him as far as that goes all the week and by no means wanted him among their boats at his own time of day and no more worried him out of season than he worried them so it became a matter of right feeling with them not to ring a big bell which the rector had put up to challenge everybody's spiritual need until the stable clock behind the bell had struck ten and finished gurgling for this reason on St. Dwayne's Mourn in the said year 1782 the granny's wives and babes even up to help the launch but could not pull the laboring oar nor even hold the tiller spent all the time till ten o'clock in seeing to their own affairs the most laudable of all pursuits for almost any woman and then with some little dispute among them the offspring of some nearest accident they arrived in some force at the gate of Dr. Upround and no woman liked to pull the bell and still less to let another woman do it for her old man came up who was quite deaf and everyone asked him to do it in spite of the scarcity of all good things Mrs. Coxcroft had thoroughly fed the little stranger and washed him and undressed him and set him up in her own bed and wrapped him in her woollen shawl because he shivered sadly and there he stared about with wondering eyes and gave great orders so far as his new nurse could make out in gibberish, as she said and flying into a rage because it was out of Christian knowledge but he seemed to understand some English although he could only pronounce two words, both short and in such conjunction quite unlawful for any except the highest spiritual power Mrs. Coxcroft, being a pious woman hoped that her ears were wrong or else that the words were foreign and meant no harm though the child seemed to take in much of what was said and then asked his name answered wrathfully and as if everybody was bound to know but now when brought before Dr. Uprow no child of the very best English stock could look more calm and peaceful he could walk well enough but like better to be carried and the kind woman who had taken him up was only too proud to carry him whatever the rector and magistrate might say, her meaning was to keep this little one with her husband's good consent which she was sure of getting said him down, ma'am the doctor said when he had heard from half a dozen good women all about him, Mistress Coxcroft put him on his legs and let me question him but the child resisted this proceeding with nature's inborn and just loathing of examination and tears and swore with all his might at the same time throwing up his hands and twirling his thumbs in a very odd and foreign way what a shocking child cried Mrs. Uprow who has come to know all about it Jane, run away with Miss Janetta the child is not to blame said the rector but only the people who brought him up a prettier or more clever little head I have never seen in all my life and we studied such things at Cambridge my fine little fellow shake hands with me the boy broke off his vicious little dance and looked up at this tall gentleman with great surprise his dark eyes dwelt upon the parson's kindly face and with a power of inquiry which the very young possessed and then he put both little hands into the gentlemen's and burst into a torrent of the most heartbroken tears poor little man said the rector very gently taking him up in his arms and patting the silky black curls while great drops fell and a nose was rubbed on his shoulder it is early for you to begin bad times why how old are you if you please a little boy sat up in the kind man's arm and poked a small invigorating finger into the ear that was next to him and the locks just beginning to be marked with gray he said sore and toss his chin up evidently meaning make your best of that and the women drew a long breath and nudged at one another well done four years old my dear you see that he understands English well enough said the parson to his parishioners he will tell us all about himself by and by if we do not hurry him you think him a friend's child I do not though the name which he gives himself Aizoun Sabay is a French aspect about it let me think I will try him with a French interrogation Par est-vous français, mon enfant? Dr. Uppround watched the effect of his words with outward calm but with inward flutter for if this clever child should reply in French the doctor could never go on with it but must stand there before his congregation in a worse position than when he lost his place as sometimes happened in a sermon with wild temerity he had given vent to the only French words within his knowledge and he determined to follow them up with the Latin if worse came to worse but luckily no harm came of this but contrary wise a lasting good for the child looked none the wiser while the doctor's influence was increased ah ha the parson cried sure that he was no Frenchman but we must hear something about him very soon for what you tell me is impossible if he had come from the sea he must have been wet it could never be otherwise whereas his linen clothes are dry and even quite lately fullered ironed, you might call it please you worship cried Mrs. Coxcroft who was growing wild with jealousy I did up his little things ah you had night work to be sure were his clothes dry or wet when you took them off not to say dry your worship and yet not to say very wet a bit too extreme between like my good masters when he cometh from a pour of rain or a heavy spray and the color of the land was upon them here and there and the gold tags were sewn with something wonderful my best pair of scissors wouldn't touch it I was frightened to put them in the tub, your worship, but they up and shown lovely like a tailor's buttons my master had found him, sir and it lies with him to keep him and the lord hath taken away our bob it is true seduct her up round gently and placing the child in her arms again the almighty has chastened you very sadly the child is not mine to dispose of nor yours but if he will comfort you keep him till we hear of him I will take down in writing the particulars of the case when captain robin has come home and had his rest say at this time tomorrow or later and then you will sign them and they shall be published for you know, mrs. cockcroft however much you may be taken with him you must not turn kidnapper moreover it is needful in some wreck though none of you seem to have heard of any that this strange occurrence should be made known then if nothing is heard of it you can keep him and may the lord bless him to you without any more ado she kissed the child and wanted to carry him straight away after curtsying to his worship but all the other women insisted on a smack of him for pity's sake and the pleasure of the gold and you confirm the settlement and a settlement it was for nothing game of any publication of the case such as in those days could be made without great expense and exertion so the boy grew up tall, brave and comely and full of the spirit of adventure as behooved a boy cast on the winds so far as it goes his foster parents would rather have found him more steady and less comely for if he was to step into their son's shoes he might do it without seeming to outshine him but they got over that little jealousy and time when the boy began to be useful and so far as was possible they kept him under by quoting against him the character of Bob bringing it back from heaven of a much higher quality than ever it was upon the earth in vain did this living child aspire to such level how can an earthly boy compare one who never did a wrong thing as soon as he was dead passing that difficult question and forbearing to compare a boy with angels be he what he will his first need after that of ittles is a name whereby his fellow boys may know him is he to be shouted at with come here what's your name or is he to be called as if in high review boy and yet there are grown up folk who do all this without hesitation failing to remember their own predicament at a bygone period boys are as useful in their way as any other and if they can be said to do some mischief they cannot be said to do it negligently it is their privilege and duty to be truly active and their maker having spread a dull world before them as provided them with gifts of play while their joints are supple the present boy having been born without a father or a mother so far as could yet be discovered was driven to do what our ancestors must have done when it was needful that is to say to work his own name out by some distinctive process when the person had clearly shown him not to be a Frenchman a large quantum lease spread itself about by reason of his gold and eyes and hair and name which might be meant for Isaac that he was sprung from a race more honored now than a hundred years ago but the women declared that it could not be and the rector desiring to christen him because it might never have been done before refused point blank to put any Isaac in and was satisfied with Robin only the name of the man who had saved him the rector show deep knowledge of his flock which looked upon the Jews as the goats of the kingdom for any Jew must die for a world of generations ere ever a Christian thinks much of him but finding him not to be a Jew the other boys instead of being satisfied condemned him for a Dutchman whatever he was the boy throwed well and being so flouted by his playmates took to thoughts and habits and amusements of his own indoor life never suited him at all nor to much hard learning although his capacity was such that he took more advancement in an hour than the thick heads of young flamborough made in a whole deep year of Sundays for any flamburian boy was considered a brain scholar and a head language when he could write down the Parsons text and chalk up a fish on the way board so that his father or mother could tell in three guesses what manner of fish it was and very few indeed ever passed this trial for young Robin it was a very hard thing to be treated so by the other boys he could run or jump or throw a stone or climb a rock with the best of them but all these things he must do by himself simply because he had no name a feeble youth would have moped but Robin only grew more resolute alone he did what the other boys would scarcely in competition no crag was too steep for him no cave too dangerous and wave-beaten no race of the tide so strong and swirling as to scare him of his wits he seemed to rejoice in danger having very little else to rejoice in and he won for himself by nimble ways and rapid turns on land and sea the name of Leith or Leith and made it famous even far inland for it may be supposed that his love of excitement, versatility and daring demanded a livelier outlet than the slow toil of deep sea fishing to the most patient persevering and long suffering of the arts Robin Leith did not take kindly although he was so handy with a boat old Robin vainly strove to cast his angling mantle over him the gifts of the youth were brighter and higher and he was born fitness for the lofty development of free trade eminent powers must force their way as now they were doing with Napoleon and they did the same with Robin Leith without exacting tithe and kind of all the foremost human race End of Chapter 11 Recording by Keith Salas Chapter 12 of Mary Annerley This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Mary Annerley by Richard Dodridge Blackmore Chapter 12 In a Lane Not Alone Stephen Annerley's daughter was by no means of a crooked mind but open as the day in all things unless any one mistrusted her and showed it by cross questioning when this was done she resented it quickly by concealing the very things which she would have told of her own accord and so it happened that the person to whom of all she should have been most open was the one most apt to check her by suspicious curiosity and now her mother already began to do this as concerned the smuggler knowing from the revenue officer that Mary must have seen him Mary being a truthful damsel told no lies about it but on the other hand she did not rush forth with all the history as she probably would have done if left unexamined and so she said nothing about the earring or the run that was to come off that week or the riding skirt or the host of little things including her promise to visit Bempton Lane on the other hand she had a mind to tell her father and take his opinion about it all but he was a little cross that evening not with her but with the world at large and that discouraged her and then she thought that being an officer of the king as he liked to call himself sometimes he might feel bound to give information about the impending process of free trade which to her would be a breach of honor considering how she knew of it upon the whole she heartily wished that she had never seen that Robin Leith and then she became ashamed of herself for indulging such a selfish wish for he might have been lying dead but for her and then what would become of the many poor people whose greatest comfort he was said to be and what good could arise from his destruction if cruel people compassed it free trade must be carried on for the sake of everybody including Captain Caroway himself and if an old and ugly man succeeded a young and generous one as leader of the free trade movement all the women in the country would put the blame on her looking at these things loftily and with a strong determination not to think twice of what anyone might say who did not understand the subject Mary was forced at last to the stern conclusion that she must keep her promise not only because it was a promise although that went a very long way with her but also because there seemed no other chance of performing a positive duty simple honesty demanded that she should restore to the owner a valuable and beyond all doubt important piece of property two hours she had spent in looking for it and deprived her dear father of his breakfast shrimps and was all this trouble to be thrown away in herself perhaps accused of theft because her mother was so short and sharp in wanting to know everything and to turn it her own way the trinket which she had found at last seemed to be a very uncommon and precious piece of jewelry it was made of pure gold minutely chased and threaded with curious workmanship informed like a melon and bearing what seemed to be characters of some foreign language there might be a spell or even witchcraft in it and the sooner it was out of her keeping the better nevertheless she took very good care of it and lambs wool and peeping at it many times a day to be sure that it was safe until it made her think of the owner so much and the many wonders she had heard about him that she grew quite angry with herself and it and locked it away and then looked at it again as luck would have it on the very day when Mary was to stroll down Bumpton Lane not to meet anyone of course but simply for the nearest chance her father had business at Drifield Corn Market which would keep him from home nearly all the day when his daughter heard of it she was much cast down for she hoped that he might have been looking about on the northern part of the farm as he generally was in the afternoon and although he could not see Bumpton Lane at all perhaps without some newly acquired power of seeing round sharp corners still it would have been a comfort and a strong resource for conscience to have felt that he was not so very far away and this feeling of want made his daughter resolve to have someone at any rate near her if Jack had only been at home she need have sought no further for he would have entered into all her thoughts about it and obeyed her orders beautifully but Willie was quite different and hated any trouble being spoiled so by his mother and the maidens all around him however in such a straight what was there to do but to trust in Willie who was old enough being five years in front of Mary and then to try to make him sensible Willie Annerley had no idea that anybody far less his own sister could take such a view of him he knew himself to be and all would say the same of him superior in his original gifts and his master of making use of them the rest of the family put together he spent a month in Glasgow when the whole place was a stir with a ferment of many great inventions and another month in Edinburgh when that noble city was aglow with the dawn of large ideas also he had visited London for most of his family and seen enough new things there to fill all Yorkshire with surprise and the rest of such wide experience was that he did not like hard work at all either could he even be content to accept and enjoy without labour of his own the many good things provided for him he was always trying to discover something which never seemed to answer and continually flying after something new of which he never got fast hold in a word he was spoiled by nature first and then by circumstances of his ancestors and unacknowledged blessings of a farmer really dear will you come with me Mary asked to him that day catching him as he ran down the stairs to air some inspiration will you come with me for just one hour I wish you would and I would be so thankful child it is quite impossible he answered with a frown which set off his delicate eyebrows and high but rather narrow forehead you always want me at the very moment when I have the most important work in hand any childish whim of yours matters more than hours and hours of hard labour oh Willie but you know how I try to help you and all the patterns I cut out last week you come for once Willie if you refuse you will never never forgive yourself Willie Annerley was as good natured as any self-indulged youth can be he loved his sister in his way and was indebted to her for getting out of a great many little scrapes he saw how much he was in earnest now and felt some desire to know what it was about moreover which settled the point he was getting tired of sticking to one thing for a time unusually long with him but he would not throw away the chance of scoring a huge debt of gratitude well do what you like with me he answered with a smile I never can have my own way five minutes it serves me quite right for being so good natured Mary gave him a kiss which must have been an object of ambition to anybody else but it only made him wipe his mouth and presently the two set forth upon the path toward Bempton Robin Leith had chosen well his place for meeting Mary of which he knew every yard as well as he knew the rocks themselves was deep and winding infringed with bushes so that an active and keen-eyed man might leap into thicket almost before there was a fair chance of shooting him he knew well enough that he must trust Mary but he never could be sure that the bold coast riders despairing by this time of catching him at sea and longing for the weight of gold to put on his head might not be setting privy snares to catch him in his walks abroad they had done so when they pursued him up the dyke and though he was inclined to doubt the strict legality of that proceeding he could not see his way to a fair discussion of it in case they're putting a bullet through him and this consideration made him careful the brother and sister went on well by the footpath over the uplands of the farm and crossing the neck of Flamborne Peninsula tripped away merrily northward the wheat looked healthy and the barley also and a four-acre patch of potatoes smelled sweetly for the breeze of them was pleasant in their wholesome days and Willie having overworked his brain according to his own account of it strode along loftily before his sister casting over his shoulder an eddy of some large ideas he had been visited before she interrupted him but as nothing ever came of them they need not here be stated from a practical point of view however as they both had to live upon the prophets of the farm it pleased them to observe what a difference there was when they had surmounted the chine and began to descend toward the north upon other people's land here all was damp and cold and slow and chalk looked slimy instead of being clean and shadowy places had an oozy cast and trees wherever they could stand were facing the east with wrinkled visage and the west with wiry beards Willie who had among other great inventions a scheme for improvement of the climate was reminded at once of all the things he meant to do in that way and making as he always did a great point of getting observations first a point whereon he stuck fast mainly without any time for delay he applied himself to a rapid study of the subject he found some things just like other things which he had seen in Scotland yet differing so as to prove more clearly than ever the resemblance did the value of his discovery look! he cried can anything be clearer the cause of all these evils is not as an ignorant person might suppose sunshine or too much wet but an adequate movement of the air why I thought it was always blowing up here the very last time I came my bonnet strings were split you do not understand me you never do when I say inadequate I mean of course incorrect inaccurate, unequable now the air is fluid you may stare at it as you like Mary there has been proved to be a fluid very well no fluid in large bodies moves with an equal velocity throughout part of it is rapid and part quite stagnant the stagnant places of the air produce this green scum this mossy unwholesome and injurious stuff while the over rapid motion causes this iron appearance this hard surface this narrow sterility by the simplest of simple contrivances I make this evil its own remedy an equal impulse given to the air produces an adequate uniform flow preventing stagnation in one place and excessive vehemence in another and the beauty of it is that by my new invention I make the air itself correct and regulate its own inequalities are to be sure exclaimed Mary wondering that her father cannot see it oh, Willie you will make your fortune by it however do you do it the simplicity of it is such that even you can understand it all great discoveries are simple I fix a prominent situation in a large and vertically revolving fan of a light and vibrating substance the movement of the air causes this to rotate by the mere force of the impact the rotation and vibration of the fan convert an irregular impulse into a steady and equable undulation and such is the elasticity of the fluid called in proper language the air that for miles around the rotation of this fan regulates the circulation modifies extremes annihilates sterility and makes it quite impossible for moss and green scum and all this sour growth to live even you can see Mary how beautiful it is yes, then I can she answered simply as they turn the corner upon a large windmill with arms revolving merrily but, Willie, dear would not Farmer Topping's Mill perpetually going as it is answer the same purpose and yet the moss seems to be as thick as ever here and the ground is naked chush! cried Willie's stuff and nonsense when will you girls understand goodbye, I will throw away no more time on you without stopping to finish his sentence he was often out of sight both of the Mill and Mary before the poor girl who had not the least intention of offending him could even beg his pardon or say how much she wanted him for she had not dared as yet to tell him what was the purpose of her walk his nature being such that no one, not even his own mother could tell what the conclusion he might come to upon any practical question he might rush off at once to put the revenue man on the smuggler's track or he might stop his sister from going or he might, in the absence of his father order a feast to be prepared and fetch the outlaw to be his guest so Mary had resolved to tell him until the last moment when he could do none of these things but now she must either go on all alone or give up her purpose and break her promise after some hesitation she determined to go on for the place would scarcely seem so very lonely now with the windmill in view which would always remind her henceforth of her dear brother William who is perfectly certain that Captain Robert Lythe whose fame for chivalry was everywhere and whose character was all and all to him with the ladies who brought his silks and lace would see her through all danger caused by confidence in him and really it was too bad of her to admit any paltry misgivings but reason as she might her young conscience told her that this was not the proper thing to do and she made up her mind not to do it again and she laughed at the notion of never ever even ask and told herself that she was too conceited and to cut the matter short went very bravely down the hill the lane which came winding from the beach up to the windmill was as pretty a lane as may anywhere be found in any other country than that of Devon with a Devonshire lane it would not resume to vie having little of the glorious garniture of fern and nothing of the crystal brook that leaps at every corner no arches of tall ash keyed with dog-rose and not much of honeysuckle and a sight of other ones which people feel who have lived in the plentitude of everything but in spite of all that the lane was very fine for Yorkshire on the other hand Mary had prettier ankles and more graceful and lighter walk than the Devonshire lanes she would echo something for the most part seem accustomed to in the short dress of the time made good such favourable facts when found nor was this all that could be said for the maiden, while her mother was so busy pickling cabbage from which she drove all intruders had managed to forget what the day of the week was and opened the drawer that should be locked up until Sunday to walk with such a handsome tall fellow as Willie compelled her to look like something too and without any thought of it she put her best hat on and a very pretty thing with some French name and made of a delicate peach-coloured silk which came down over her bosom and tied in the neatest of knots at the small of her back which at that time of life was very small all these were the gifts of her dear uncle Papowell upon the other side of Phile who might have been married for forty years but nobody knew how long it was because he had no children and he made Mary his darling and this ancient gentleman had leanings toward free trade whether these goods were French or not which no decent person could think of asking no French damsel could have put them on better or shown a more pleasing appearance in them Mary's desire was to please all people who meant no harm to her as nobody could and yet to let them know that her object was only to do what was right and to never think of asking whether she looked this, that or the other her mother, as a matter of duty told her how plain she was almost every day but the girl was not of that opinion and when Mrs. Annalee finished her lecture as she did nine times in ten by turning the glass to the wall and declaring that beauty was a snare skin deep with a frown of warning instead of a smile of comfort then Mary believed in her looking glass again and had the smile of comfort on her own face however she never thought of that just now but only of how she could do her duty and have no trouble of her own mind with thinking and to justify her father when she told him all as she meant to do when there could be no harm done to anyone and this as she heartily hoped would be tomorrow and truly, if there did exist any vanity at all it was not confined to the sex in which it was so much more natural and comely for when a very active figure came to light suddenly once toward Mary she was lost in surprise at the gaiety not to say grandeur of its apparel a broad hat looped at the side and having a pointed black crown with a scarlet feather and a dove-colored brim sat well upon the mass of crisp black curls a short blue jacket of the finest Flemish cloth and set, not too thickly a strong brown neck while a shirt of pale blue silk with a turned-down collar of fine needlework fitted without a wrinkle or a pucker the broad and amply rounded chest then a belt of brown leather with an anchor clasp and empty loops for either firearm or steel supported true sailors' trousers of the purest white and the noblest man of war cut and were these widened at the instep shown a lovely pair of pumps with buckles radiant of the best Bristol diamonds the wearer of all these splendors smiled and seemed to become them as they became him well, thought Mary how free trade must pay what a pity he is not in the Royal Navy with his usual quickness and self-esteem which added such luster to his character the smuggler who believed what was passing in her mind but he was not rude enough to say so young lady, he began and Mary with all her wisdom could not help being fond of that young lady, I was quite sure that you would keep your word I never do anything else she answered showing that she scarcely looked at him I have found this for you and then good-bye thanks and to know what made me dare to ask you after all you had done for me already to begin again for me but I am such an outcast that I never should have done it I never saw anyone look more thoroughly unlike an outcast Mary said and then she was angry with herself for speaking and glancing and worst of all for smiling ladies who live on land can never understand what we go through Robin replied in his softest voice as rich as the murmur of the summer sea when we expect great honors we try to look a little tidy as anyone but a common bore would do and we laugh at ourselves for trying to look well after all the knocking about we get our time is short and we must make the most of it oh please do not talk in such a dreadful way said Mary you remind me of my dear friend Dr. Upround the very best man in the whole world I believe he always says to me Robin Robin what is Dr. Up and Down a friend of yours Mary exclaimed in amazement and with a stoppage of the foot that was poised for quick departure Dr. Up and Down as many people call him so the smuggler with a tone of condemnation is the best and dearest friend of Captain and Mistress Coxcroft who may have been heard of in an early manner Dr. Upround is our magistrate and clergyman and he lets people say what they like against me while he honors me with his friendship I must not stay long to thank you even because I am going to the dear old doctors for supper at seven o'clock and a game of chess oh dear oh dear and he is such a justice and yet they shot at you last week and it makes me wonder when I hear such things young lady it makes everybody wonder in my opinion there never could be a more shameful murder than to shoot me and yet but for you it surely would have been done you must not dwell upon such things said Mary they may have a very bad effect upon your mind I forgot that I was robbing Dr. Upround of your society shall I be so ungrateful as to not see you safe upon your own land after all your trouble my road to Flamborough lies that way surely you will not refuse to hear what made me so anxious about this bobble which now will be worth ten times as much I never saw it look so bright before it it must be the sand that has made it shine the maiden stammered with a fine bright blush it does the same to my shrimping net ah shrimping is a very fine pursuit there is nothing I love better what pools I could show you if only I might pools where you may fill a sack with large prawns and a single tide pools known to nobody but myself when do you think of going shrimping next perhaps next summer I may try again if Captain Carroway will come with me that is too unkind of you how very harsh you are to me I could hardly have believed it after all that you have done and you really do not care to hear the story of this relic if I could stop I should like it very much but my brother who came with me may perhaps be waiting for me Mary knew that this was not very likely still it was just possible for Willie's ill tempers seldom lasted very long and she wanted to let the smuggler know that she had not come all alone to meet him I shall not be two minutes Robin Lythe replied I've been forced to learn short talking may I tell you about this trinket yes if you'll only begin at once and finish by the time we get to that corner that is a very short measure for a tale said Robin though he liked her all the better I will try only walk a little slower nobody knows where I was born any more than they know how or why only when I came upon this coast as a very little boy and without knowing anything about it they say that I had very wonderful buttons of gold upon a linen dress adorned with gold lace which I used to wear on Sundays Dr. Upround ordered them to keep those buttons in his own care but before that all of them were lost saved too my parents as I call them from their wonderful goodness kinder than the ones who have turned me on the world unless themselves went out of it resolved to have my white coat done up grandly when I grew too big for it and to lay it by in lavender and knowing of a great man in the gold lace trade as far away as Scarborough they sent it by a fishing smack to him with people whom they knew thoroughly that was the last of it ever known here the man smore a manifest that he never saw it and threatened them with libel and the smack was condemned and all their hands impressed because of some trifle she happened to carry and nobody knows any more of it but two of the buttons had fallen off and good mother had put them by to give a last finish to the coat herself and when I grew up she had to go to sea at night they were turned into a pair of earrings but two of the buttons had fallen off and good mother had put them by to give a last finish to the coat herself and when I grew up and had to go to sea at night they were turned into a pair of earrings there now Miss Annerley I have not been too long and you know all about it oh very lonesome it must be for you said Mary with a gentle gaze which coming from such lovely eyes went straight into his heart to have no one belonging to you by right and to seem to belong to nobody I am sure I cannot tell whatever I should do without any father or mother or uncle or even a cousin to be certain of all the ladies seem to think it is rather hard upon me Robin answered with an excellent effort at a sigh but I do my very best to get on without them and one thing that helps me most of all is when kind ladies who have good hearts allow me to talk to them as if I had a sister this makes me forget what I am sometimes you never should try to forget what you are everybody in the world speaks well of you even that cruel lieutenant caraway cannot help admiring you and if you have taken to free trade what else could you do when you had no friends and even your coat was stolen I minded people take that view of it I know but I do not pretend to any such excuse I took to free trade for the sake of my friends to support the old couple who have been so good to me that is better still it shows such good principle my uncle papa well has studied the subject of what they call political economy and he says that the country requires free trade and the only way to get it is to go on so that the government must give way at last however I need not instruct you about that and you must not stop any longer Miss Annerley I will not encroach upon your kindness you have said things that I never shall forget on the continent I meet very many ladies who tell me good things and make me better but not at all as you have done a minute of talk with you is worth an hour with anybody else but I fear that you laugh at me all the while and are only too glad to be rid of me goodbye may I kiss your hand God bless you Mary had no time to say a single word and to express her ideas by a look before Robin Leith with all his bright apparel was conspicuous by his absence as a diving bird disappears from a gun or a trout from a shadow on his hover or even a debtor from his creditor so the great free trader had vanished into lightsome air and left emptiness behind him the young maid having been prepared to yield him a few yards more of good advice if he held out for another corner could now only say to herself that she'd never had met such a wonderful man so active, strong and astonishingly brave so thoroughly acquainted with foreign lands yet superior to their ladies so able to see all the meaning of good works and to value them when offered quietly so sweet in his manner and voice and looks and with all his fame so unpretending and much as it frightened her to think it really seeming to be afraid of her End of chapter 12 Recording by Keith Salas