 Book 2, Chapter 21, of Adam Bede. Bartle Masses was one of a few scattered houses on the edge of a common, which was divided by the road to Treadleston. Adam reached it in a court of an hour after leaving the whole farm, and when he had his hand on the door-latch, he could see, through the curtainless window, that there were eight or nine heads bending over the desks, lighted by thin dips. When he entered, a reading-lesson was going forward, and Bartle Masses merely nodded, leaving him to take his place where he pleased. He had not come for the sake of a lesson to-night, and his mind was too full of personal matters too full of the last two hours he had passed in Hetty's presence, for him to amuse himself with a book till school was over. So he sat down in a corner, and looked on with an absent mind. It was a sort of scene which Adam had beheld almost weekly for years. He knew by heart every arabesque flourish in the framed specimen of Bartle Masses' handwriting, which hung over the schoolmaster's head, by way of keeping a lofty ideal before the minds of his pupils. He knew the backs of all the books on the shelf running along the whitewashed wall above the pegs for the slates. He knew exactly how many grains were gone out of the ear of Indian corn that hung from one of the rafters. He had long ago exhausted the resources of his imagination in trying to think how the bunch of leathery seaweed had looked and grown in its native element. And from the place where he sat, he could make nothing of the old map of England that hung against the opposite wall, for age had turned it of a fine yellow-brown, something like that of a well-seasoned meershawm. The drama that was going on was almost as familiar as the scene. Nevertheless, habit had not made him indifferent to it. And even in his present self-absorbed mood, Adam felt a momentary stirring of the old fellow feeling, as he looked at the roughed men, painfully holding pen or pencil with their cramped hands, or humbly laboring through their reading lesson. The reading class, now seated on the form in front of the schoolmaster's desk, consisted of the three most backward pupils. Adam would have known it only by seeing Bartlemas's face as he looked over his spectacles, which he'd shifted to the ridge of his nose, not requiring them for present purposes. The face wore its mildest expression. The grizzled bushy eyebrows had taken their more acute angle of compassionate kindness, and the mouth, habitually compressed with a pout of the lower lip, was relaxed so as to be ready to speak a helpful word or syllable in a moment. This gentle expression was the more interesting because the schoolmaster's nose, an irregular acryline twisted a little on one side, had rather a formidable character. And his brow, moreover, had that peculiar tension which always impresses one as a sign of a keen, impatient temperament. The blue veins stood out like cords under the transparent yellow skin, and this intimidating brow was softened by no tendency to boldness, for the grey, bristly hair, cut down to about an inch in length, stood round it in as close ranks as ever. Nay, Bill, nay, Bartlemas saying in a kind tone, as he nodded to Adam, begin that again, and then perhaps it'll come to you what D-R-Y spells. It's the same lesson you read last week, you know. Bill was a sturdy fellow, aged four and twenty, an excellent stone-sawyer who could get as good wages as any man in the trade of his years. But he found a reading-lesson in words of one syllable a harder matter to deal with than the hardest to stone he had ever had to saw. The letters he complained were so uncommon alike there was an old tellium one from another. The sawyer's business not being concerned with minute differences such as exist between a letter with its tail turned up and a letter with its tail turned down. But Bill had a firm determination that he would learn to read, founded chiefly on two reasons. First that Tom Hazelow, his cousin, could read anything right off, whether it was print or writing, and Tom had sent him a letter from twenty miles off saying how he was prospering in the world, and had got an overlook as place. Secondly that Sam Phillips, who sought with him, had learned to read when he was turned twenty, and what could be done by a little fellow like Sam Phillips, Bill considered, could be done by himself, seeing that he could pound a Sam into wet clay if circumstances required it. So here he was, pointing his big finger towards three words at once, and turning his head on one side that he might keep better whole with his eye of the one word which was to be discriminated out of the group. The amount of knowledge Bartle Massey must possess was something so dim and vast that Bill's imagination recoiled before it. He would hardly have ventured to deny that the schoolmaster might have something to do in bringing about the regular return of daylight and the changes in the weather. The man seated next to Bill was of a very different type. He was a Methodist brickmaker, who, after spending thirty years of his life in perfect satisfaction with his ignorance, had lately got religion, and along with it the desire to read the Bible. But with him too, learning was a heavy business, and on his way out to-night he had offered as usual a special prayer for help, seeing that he had undertaken this hard task with a single eye to the nourishment of his soul, that he might have a greater abundance of texts and hymns, wherewith to banish evil memories of the temptations of evil habit, or in brief language the devil. For the brickmaker had been a notorious poacher, and was suspected, though there was no good evidence against him, of being the man who had shot a neighbouring game-keeper in the leg. However that might be, it is certain that shortly after the accident referred to, which was coincident with the arrival of an unawakening Methodist preacher at Tretleston, a great change had been observed in the brickmaker. And there he was still known in the neighbourhood by his old suprakay of Brimstone, there was nothing he held in so much horror as any further transactions with that evil smelling element. He was a broad-gested fellow, with a fervid temperament, which helped him better in imbibing religious ideas than in the drive process of acquiring the mere human knowledge of the alphabet. Indeed, he had been already a little shaken in his resolution by a brother Methodist, who assured him that the letter was a mere obstruction to the spirit, and expressed a fear that Brimstone was too eager for the knowledge that puffeth up. The third beginner was a much more promising pupil. He was a tall but thin and wary man, nearly as old as Brimstone, with a very pale face and hands stained a deeper blue. He was a dyer, who in the course of dipping homespun wool and old women's petticoats had got fired with the ambition to learn a great deal more about the strange secrets of colour. He had already a high reputation in the district for his dyes, and he was bent on discovering some method by which he could reduce the expense of crimson's and scarlet's. The druggist at Tretleston had given him a notion that he might save himself a great deal of labour and expense if he could learn to read. And so he had begun to give his spare hours to the night-school, resolving that this little chap should lose no time in coming to Mr. Mass's day-school as soon as he was old enough. He was touching to see these three big men, with the marks of their hard labour about them, anxiously bending over the worn books and painfully making out, the grass is green, the sticks are dry, the corn is ripe. A very hard lesson to pass to after columns of single words all alike except in the first letter. It was almost as if three rough animals were making humble efforts to learn how they might become human. And it touched the tenderest fibre in Bartle Mass's nature, for such full-grown children as these were the only pupils for whom he had no severe epithets and no impatient tones. He was not gifted with an imperturbable temper, and on music nights it was apparent that patience could never be an easy virtue to him. But this evening, as he glances over his spectacles of billdowns, the soya, who is turning his head on one side with a desperate sense of blackness before the letters D-R-Y, his eyes shed their mildest and most encouraging light. After the reading class, two youths between 16 and 19 came up with the imaginary bills of parcels which they had been writing out on their slates and were now regret to calculate offhand, a test which they stood with such imperfect success, the Bartle Massie, whose eyes had been glaring at them ominously through his spectacles for some minutes, at length burst out in a better high-pitched tone, pausing between every sentence to wrap the floor with a knobbed stick which rested between his legs. Now you see, you don't do this thing a bit better than you did a fortnight ago, and I'll tell you what's the reason. You want to learn accounts, that's well and good. But you think all you need to do is learn accounts, is to come to me and do sums for an hour or so, two or three times a week, and no sooner do you get your caps on and turn out of doors again, then you sweep the whole thing clean out of your mind. You go whistling about and take no more care what you're thinking of than if your heads were gutters for any rubbish to swill through that happened to be in the way, and if you get a good notion of them, it's pretty soon washed out again. You think knowledge is to be got cheap. You'll come and pay bottle-massage sixpence a week, and he'll make you clever of figures without your taking any trouble. But knowledge isn't to be got with paying sixpence, let me tell you. If you're to know figures, you must turn them over in your heads and keep your thoughts fixed on them. There's nothing you can't turn into a sum, for there's nothing but what's got number in it, even a fool. You may say to yourselves, I'm one fool and Jack's another. My fool's head weighed four pound, and Jack's three pound, three ounces, and three quarters. How many penny-weights have I would buy by head, beath, and Jack's? A man that had got his head in learning figures would make some for himself and work him in his head. When he sat at his shoemaking, he count his stitches by fives, and then put a price on his stitches, say, half a farthing, and then see how much money he could get in an hour, and then ask himself how much money he'd get in a day at that rate, and then how much ten workmen would get working three or twenty or a hundred years at that rate, and all the while his needle would be going just as fast as if he left his head empty for the devil to dance in. But the longer the shorter it is, I'll have nobody in my night school that doesn't strive to learn when he comes to learn as hard as if he was striving to get out of a dark hole and a broad day-date. I'll send no man away because he's stupid. If Billy Taft, the idiot, wanted to learn anything, I'd not refuse to teach him, but I'll not throw away good knowledge on people who think they can get it by the six penny-worth and carry it away with them as they would an ounce of snuff. So never come to me again if you can't show that you've been working with your own heads, instead of thinking that you can pay for mine to work for you. That's the last word I've got to say to you. With this final sentence, Bartlemassey gave a sharper rap than ever with his knobbed stick, and the discomforted lads got up to go with a sulky look. The upper fupils had happily owned their writing books to show in various stages of progress, from pot-hooks to round text, and mere pen-strakes, however perverse, were less expass-sprating to Bartle than false arithmetic. He was a little more severe than usual on Jacob's story's zeds, of which poor Jacob had written a pageful, or with their tops turned the wrong way, with a puzzled sense that they were not right somehow. But he observed an apology that it was a latter you never wanted hardly, and he thought it had only been there to finish off the alphabet like though I'm peasant and would have done as well for what he could see. At last the pupils had all taken their hats and said their good-nights, and Adam, knowing his old master's habits, rose and said, Shall I put the candles out, Mr. Massey? Yes, my boy, yes, all but this which I am carrying to the house, and just lock the outer door, now you're near it," said Bartle, getting his stick and the fitting angle to help him in descending from his stool. He was no sooner on the ground that it became obvious why the stick was necessary. The left leg was much shorter than the right. But the schoolmaster was so active with his lameness that it was hardly thought of as a misfortune, and if you had seen him make his wail on the schoolroom floor and up the step into his kitchen, you would perhaps have understood why the naughty boy sometimes felt that his pace might be indefinitely quickened, and that he and his stick might overtake them even in their swiftest run. The moment he appeared at the kitchen door with a candle in his hand, a faint whimpering began in the chimney-corner, and a brown and tan-coloured bitch of that wise-looking breed with short legs and long body, known to an un-mechanical generation as turnspits, came creeping along the floor, wagging her tail, and hesitating at every other step, as if her affections were painfully divided between the hamper in the chimney-corner and the master whom she could not leave without a greeting. "'Well, Vixen, well, then, how the babbys,' said the schoolmaster, making haste towards the chimney-corner, and holding the candle over the low hamper, where two extremely blind puppies lifted up their heads towards the light from a nest of flannel and wool. Vixen could not even see her master look at them without painful excitement. She got into the hamper and got out again the next moment and behaved with true feminine folly. They're looking all the while as wise as a dwarf, with a large old-fashioned head and body on the most abbreviated legs. "'I've got a family, I see, Mr. Massey,' said Adam, smiling, as he came into the kitchen. "'How's that? I thought it was against the law here.' "'Law? What's the use of law when a man's one such a fool as to let a woman into his house?' said Bartle, turning away from the hamper with some bitterness. He always called Vixen a woman, and seemed to have lost all consciousness that he was using a figure of speech. If I'd known Vixen was a woman, I'd never had held the boy from droning her. When I got her into my hand, I was forced to take her. And now you see what she's brought me to, the sly, hypocritical wench!' Bartle sprang these last words in a raspy turn of reproach and looked at Vixen, who poked down her head and turned up her eyes towards him with a keen sense of a probryum, and contrived to be brought to bed on a Sunday at church-time. I wished again and again I'd been a bloody-minded man, that I could have strangled the mother and the brats with one cord. I'm dead. It was no worse. A cause kept you from church,' said Adam. I was afraid you must be ill for the first time in your life. And I was particularly sorry not to have you at church yesterday. "'Ah, my boy, I know why. I know why,' said Bartle candidly, going up to Adam and raising his hand up to the shoulder that was almost on a level with his own head. "'You've had a rough bit of road to get over since I saw you—a rough bit of road. But I in hopes there are better times coming for you. I've got some news to tell you. But I must get my supper first, for I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Sit down, sit down!' Bartle went into his little pantry, and brought out an excellent home-baked loaf, for it was one extravagance in these dear times to eat bread once a day instead of oat-cake, and he justified it by observing that when a schoolmaster wanted was brains, an oat-cake ran too much to bone instead of brains. Then came a piece of cheese and a caught jug with a crown of foam upon it. He placed them all on the round, deal-table which stood against his large armchair in the chimney-corner, with Vixen's hamper on one side of it, and a window-shelf with a few books piled up on it on the other. The table was as clean as if Vixen had been an excellent housewife and a chequered apron. So was the quarry-floor, and the old, carved, oaken press, table, and chairs, which in these days would be bought at a high price in aristocratic houses, though in that period of spider-lengths and inlaid cupids Bartle had got them for an old song, where as free from dust as things could be at the end of a summer's day. Now then, my boy, draw up, draw up, we'll not talk about business till we've had our supper. No man can be wise on an empty stomach. But, said Bartle, rising from his chair again, I must give Vixen her supper, too, confound her, though she'll do nothing with it, but nourish those unnecessary babbies. That's the way with these women. They've got no head-pieces to nourish, and so their food all runs either to fat or to brats. He brought out of the pantry a dish of scraps, which Vixen at once fixed her eyes on, and jumped out of her hamper to lick up with the utmost dispatch. I've had my supper, Mr. Massey, said Adam, so I'll look on while you eat yours. I've been at the whole farm, and they always have their supper bit times, you know, that don't keep your late hours. I know little about their hours, said Bartle dryly, cutting his bread and not shrinking from the crust. It's a house I seldom go into, though I'm fond of the boys, and Martin Poise is a good fellow. There's too many women in the house for me. I hate the sound of women's voices. They're always either a buzz or a squeak. Always either a buzz or a squeak. Mrs. Poise keeps at the top of the talk like a fife, and as for the young lassies, I'd as soon look at water-grubs. I know what they'll turn to—stinging-nats, stinging-nats. Here, take some ale, my boy. It's been drawn for you, it's been drawn for you." "'Nay, Mr. Massie,' said Adam, who took his old friend's whim more seriously than usual to-night. Don't be so hard on the creatures God has made to be companions for us. A working man would be badly off without a wife to see to the house in the middle, and make things clean and comfortable. Nonsense! It's the silliest lie a sensible man like you ever believed, to say a woman makes a house comfortable. It's a story got up because the women are there, and something must be found for them to do. I tell you, there isn't a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all, but what a man could do better than a woman, unless it's bearing children, and they do that in a poor makeshift way. It'd better be left to the men. It'd better be left to the men. I tell you, a woman will bake your pie every week of her life, and never come to see that the hotter the oven, the shorter the time. I tell you, a woman will make your porridge every day for 20 years, and never think of measuring the proportion between the meal and the milk. A little more or less, you'll think, doesn't signify. The porridge will be awkward now, and then, if it's wrong, it's summit in the meal, or it's summit in the milk, or it's summit in the water. Look at me. I make my own bread, and there's no difference between one batch and another, from year's end to year's end. But if I got any other woman, woman, beside Vixen in the house, I must pray to the Lord every baking to give me patience if the bread turned out heavy. And as for cleanliness, my house is cleaner than any other house on the common. There the half of them swarm with women. Will Baker's lad comes to help me in the morning, and we get as much cleaning done in one hour without any fuss as a woman will get done in three, and all the while be sending buckets of water after your ankles, and let the fender and the far arms stand in the middle of the floor half the day for you to break your shins against them. Don't tell me about God having made such creatures to be companions for us. I don't say, but he might make Eve to be a companion to Adam in Paradise. There's no cooking to be spoiled there, and no other women to cackle with and make mischief. There you see what mischief she did as soon as she'd had an opportunity. But it's an impious unscriptural opinion to say a woman's a blessing to a man now. You might as well say, adders and wasps and foxes and wild beasts are a blessing, when they're only the evils that belong to this state of probation, which is lawful from a man to keep as clear of as he can in this life, hoping to get could of them forever in another. Bartle had become so excited and angry in the course of his invective that he'd forgotten his supper, and only used the knife for the purpose of wrapping the table with the haft. But towards the close the raps became so sharp and frequent at his voice so quarrelsome, the vixen felt it encumbered on her to jump out of the hamper and bark vaguely. "'Quiet, vixen!' snarled Bartle, turning round upon her. "'You're like the rest of the women, always putting in your word before you know why.'" Vixen returned to her hamper again in humiliation, and her master continued his supper in a silence which Adam did not choose to interrupt. He knew the old man would be in a better humor when he'd had his supper and lighted his pipe. Adam was used to hear him talk in this way, but had never learned so much of Bartle's past life as to know whether his view of married comfort was founded on experience. On that point Bartle was mute, and it was even a secret where he had lived previous to the twenty years in which happily, for the peasants and artisans of this neighbourhood, he'd been settled among them as their only schoolmaster. If anything like a question was ventured on this subject, Bartle always replied, "'Oh, I've seen many places. I've been a deal in the south.'" And the loam-sha men would as soon have thought of asking for a particular town or village in Africa as in the south. "'Now, then, my boy,' said Bartle at last, when he had poured out his second mug of ale and lighted his pipe, "'Now, then, we'll have a little talk. But tell me first, have you heard any particular news today?' "'No,' said Adam, not as I remember. "'Ah, that'll keep it close. They'll keep it close, I dare say. But I find it out by chance, and it's news that may concern you, Adam, else I'm a man that don't know a super-faceted square foot from a solid. Here, Bartle gave a series of fierce and rapid puffs, looking earnestly the while at Adam. Your impatient, loquacious man has never any notion of keeping his pipe alight by gentle, measured puffs. He's always letting it go nearly out, and then punishing it for that negligence. At last he said, "'Satchel's got a paradigm stroke. I find it out from the lad they sent to Treadleston for the doctor before he leaves the town. He's a good way beyond sixty, you know. It's much if he gets over it.'" "'Well,' said Adam, I dare say they'd be more rejoicing than sorrow in the parish at his being laid up. He's been a selfish, tail-bearing, mischievous fellow. But after all, there's nobody he's done so much arm-ass as to the old squire. Though it's the squire himself who's to blame, making a stupid fellow that a sort of man of all work, just to save the expense of having a proper steward to look after the estate. And he's lost more by ill management of the woods, I'll be bound, than a pay for two stewards. If he's laid on the shelf, it's to be hoped he'll make way for a better man. But I don't see how it's like to make any difference to me.' "'But I see it. But I see it,' said Bartle, and others, besides me. The captain's coming of age now. You know that as well as I do. And it's to be expected he'll have a little more voice in things. And I know, and you know, too, what would be the captain's wish about the woods if there was a fair opportunity for making a change?' He said in plenty of people's hearing that he'd make you manager of the woods to-morrow if he'd the power. Why, Carol, Mr. Elmins Butler, heard him say so to the parson not many days ago. Carol looked in when we were smoking our pipes a Saturday night at Cassons, and he told us about it. And when of anybody says a good word for you, the parson's ready to back it, that I'll answer for. It was pretty well talked over, I can tell you, at Cassons, and one and another had their fling at you. For if Donkeys sets to work to sing, you're pretty sure what the tune'll be.' "'Why, did they talk it all for performance to burge?' said Adam, or wasn't he there a Saturday?' Oh, he went away before Carol came, and Casson, he's always for sitting other folks' right, you know, would have it burge was the man to have the management of the woods. A substantial man says he, with pretty near sixty years of experience of timber, it'd be all very well for Adam me to act under him, but it isn't to be supposed to scarred a point a young fellow like Adam when there's his elders and betters at hand. But I said, that's a pretty notion of yours, Catten. Why, burges the man to buy timber. Would you put the woods into his hands and let him make his own bargains? I think you don't leave your customers to score their own drink, do you? And as for age, what's that's worth depends on the quality of the liquor. It's pretty well known who's the backbone of Jonathan Burge's business.' "'I thank you for your good word, Mr. Massey,' said Adam. But for all that, Casson was partly of the right for one's sake. There's not much likelihood like the old squad of a consent to employ me. I offended him about two years ago, and he's never forgiven me.' "'Why, how was that? You never told me about it?' said Bartle. "'Oh, there's a better nonsense. I made a frame for a scream for Miss Liddy. She's always making something with her worsted work, you know. And she'd give me particular orders about this scream. And there was as much talking and measuring as if we'd been planning a house. However, it was a nice bit of work, and I like doing it for her. But, you know, these little frigging things take a deal of time. I only worked at it in over hours, often late at night. And I had to go to Treadleston over and over again about little bits of brass nails and such gear. And I turned the little knobs on the legs and carved the open work after a pattern as nice as could be. And I was uncommon pleased with it when it was done. And when I took it home, Miss Liddy sent for me to bring it into her drawing room, so she might give me directions about fastening on the work. Very fine needlework. Jacob and Rachel are kissing one another among the sheep like a picture. And the old squire was sitting there, for he mostly sits with her. Well, she was mighty pleased with the screen. And then she wanted to know what pay she was to give me. I didn't expect her to give me the money. You know, it's not my way. I calculated pretty close, though I hadn't made out a bill. And I said, one pound thirty. That was paying for the materials and paying me, but none too much for my work. The old squire looked up at this and peered at his way at the screen and said, one pound thirteen for a gim-crack like that, Liddy and my dear, if you must spend money on these things, why don't you get them at Rosseter instead of paying the price for clumsy work here? Such things are not work for a carpet like Adam. Give him a guinea and no more. Well, Miss Liddy, I reckon, believed what he told her. And she's not over fun departing with the money herself. She's not a bad woman at bottom, but she's been brought up under his thumb. So she began fidgeting with her purse and turned as red as a ribbon. But I made a bow and said, No, thank you, madam. I'll make you present at the table. I've charged the regular price for my work, and I know it's done well, and I know, biggie is on as pardon, that you couldn't get such a screen at Rosseter under two guineas. I'm willing to give you my work. It's been done in my own time and nobody's got anything to do with it but me. But if I'm paid, I can't take a smaller price than I'd ask, because that'd be like saying I'd ask more than was time to say any more, for she stood with the purse in her hand looking almost foolish. I didn't mean to be disrespectful and I spoke to as pylite as I could, but I can give in to Norman if he wants to make it out as I'm trying to overreach him, and in the evening the footman brought me the one pound thirteen wrapped in paper. But since then I've seen pretty clear as the old squire can't abide me. The squire is cute enough. That's likely enough," said Bartle meditatively. The only way to bring him round would be to show him what was for his own interest, and that the captain may do, that the captain may do. No, I don't know," said Adam. The squire is cute enough, but it takes something else besides cuteness to make folks see what's be their interest in the long run. It takes some conscience and belief in right and wrong. I've gained as much in a straightforward way as by tricks and turns. Besides, I've not much mind to work under him. I don't want to quarrel with any gentleman, more particularly an old gentleman turned eighty, and I know we couldn't agree long. If the captain was master of the estate it'd be different. He's got a conscience, and a will to do right, and I sooner work for him, nor for any man living. It'd be gone about its business, that's all. You must learn to deal with odd and even in life as well as in figures. I tell you now, as I told you ten years ago when you pommeled young Mike Coldsworth for wanting to pass a bad chilling before you knew whether it was in jest or earnest, you're overhasty and proud, and apt to set your teeth against folks that don't square to your notions. It's no harm for me to be a bit fiery and stiff-backed. But where's the use of all the time I've spent in teaching you writing and mapping and menstruation if you're not to get for it in the world and show folks the some advantage you're having ahead on your shoulders instead of a turnip? Do you mean to go on turning up your nose at every opportunity because it's got a bit of a smell about it that nobody finds out but yourself? It's as foolish as that notion of yours that a wife is to be that to fools that never got beyond a sum in simple addition. Simple addition enough, add one fool to another fool, and in six years' time six fools more they're all of the safety domination big and little's nothing to do with the sum. During this rather heated exhortation to coolness and discretion, the pipe had gone out. And Bartle gave the climax to his speech by striking a light furiously, after which he was trying not to laugh. There's a good deal of sense in what you say, Mr. Massey. Adam began, as soon as he felt quite serious, as there always is. But you'll give in that it's no busy to mind to be building on chances that may never happen. What I've got to do is to work as well as I can with the tools and materials I've got in my hands. If a good chance comes to me, I'll think of what you've been doing with your hands and my own headpiece. I'm turning over a little plan for Seth and me to go into the cabinet-making a bit by ourselves and win her extra pound or two in that way. But it's getting late now. It'll be pretty near eleven before I'm at home. A mother may happen to lie awake. She's more fidgety nor usual now, so I'll bid you good night. Well, well, well, go to the gate with you, it's a fine experience, and without further words the three walked out into the starlight by the side of Bartle's potato-beds to the little gate. Come to the music at Friday night if you can, my boy," said the old man, as he closed the gate after Adam and leaned against it. I, I," said Adam, striding along towards the streak of Pale Road. He was the only object moving on the wide common. The two grey donkeys just stood as still as limestone images, as still as the grey thatched roof of the mud cottage a little farther on. Bartle kept his eye on the moving figure till it passed into the darkness, while Vixen in a stated divided affection had twice run back to the house to bestow a parenthetic lick on her puppies. I, I," muttered the schoolmaster as Adam disappeared, there you go just talking along, but you wouldn't have been what you are if you hadn't had a bit of old lame Bartle inside you. The strongest calf must have something to suck at. There's plenty of these big lumbering fellows that never had known their ABC if it hadn't been for Bartle-massy. Well, while Vixen you foolish went, what is it? What is it? I must go in, must I? I, I, I'm ever to have a will of my own any more. And those pups, what do you think I am to do with them when they're twice as big as you? For I'm pretty sure the father was that hulking bull terrier of Will Baker's. Wasn't he now, eh? You sly hussy! Here Vixen tucked her tail between her legs and ran forward into the house. Subjects are sometimes broached, which a well-bred female will ignore. But where's the use of talking to a woman with baddies, continued Bartle? She's got no conscience, no conscience. It'll run to milk. End of Book 2, Chapter 21 Recording by Simon Evers Chapter 22 of Adam Bied This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, auto-volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Tony Ashworth Adam Bied by George Elliott Chapter 22 Going to the Birthday Feast The 30th of July was come, and it was one of those half-dozen warm days, which sometimes occur in the middle of a rainy English summer. No rain had fallen for the last three or four days, and the weather was perfect for that time of the year. There was less dust than usual on the dark green hedge-rows and on the wild chamomile that starred the roadside. Yet the grass was dry enough for the little children to roll on it, and there was no cloud or any ripple, high-high up in the far-off blue sky. Perfect weather for an outdoor July merry-making, yet surely not the best time of year to be born in. Nature seems to make a hot pause just then. All the loveliest flowers are gone. The sweet time of early growth and vague hopes is past, and yet the time of harvest and in-gathering is not come, and we tremble at the possible storms that may ruin the precious fruit in the moment of its ripeness. The woods are all one dark monotonous green. The wagon-loads of hay no longer creep along the lanes, scattering their sweet-smelling fragments on the blackberry branches. The pastures are often a little tanned, yet the corn has not got its last splendor of red and gold. The lambs and calves have lost all traces of their innocent, frisky prettiness, and have been lost. But it is a time of leisure on the farm that pause between hay and corn harvest, and so the farmers and labourers in Hayes Lope and Brockston fought the captain did well to come of age just then, when they could give their undivided minds to the flavour of the great casque of ale which had been brewed the autumn after the air was born and was to be tapped on his twenty-first birthday. The air had been merry with it, and everyone had made haste to get through the needful work before twelve, when it would be time to think of getting ready to go to the chase. The midday sun was streaming into Hettie's bed-chamber, and there was no blind to temper the heat with which it fell on her head as she looked at herself in the old-spec glass. Still that was the only glass she had in which she could see her neck and arms, for the small hanging glass she had fetched would show her nothing below her little chin and that beautiful bit of neck where the roundness of her cheek melted into another roundness shadowed by dark delicate curls. And today she thought more than usual about her neck and arms. For at the dance this evening she was not to wear any neckerchief, and she had been busy yesterday with her spotted pink and white frock that she might make the sleeves either long She was dressed now just as she was to be in the evening, with a tucker made of real lace which her aunt had lent her for this unparalleled occasion, but with no ornaments besides. She had even taken out her small round earrings which she wore every day, but there was something more to be done apparently before she put on her neckerchief and long sleeves which she was to wear in the daytime, for now she unlocked the drawer that held her for months since we saw her unlock that drawer before, and now it holds new treasures, so much more precious than the old ones that these are thrust into the corner. Hettie would not care to put the large coloured glass earrings into her ears now, for see she has got a beautiful pair of gold and pearls and garnet lying snugly in a pretty little box lined with white satin. Oh, the delight of taking out that little hearted, my philosophical reader and say that Hettie, being very pretty, must have known that it did not signify whether she had on any ornaments or not, and that moreover, to look at earrings which she could not possibly wear out of her bedroom could hardly be a satisfaction, the essence of vanity being a reference to the impressions produced on others. You will never understand women's natures if you are so best yourself of all your rational prejudices as much as if you were studying the psychology of a canary bird, and only watch the movements of this pretty round creature as she turns her head on one side with an unconscious smile at the earrings nestled in the little box. Ah, you think it is for the sake of the person who has given them to her, and her thoughts are gone back now to the moment when they were put into her hands. No, else why should she have cared to have earrings rather than anything else? And I know that she had longed for earrings from among all the ornaments she could imagine. Little, little ears Arthur had said pretending to pinch them one evening, as yet he sat beside him on the grass without her hat. I wish I had some pretty earrings she said in a moment, almost before she knew what she was saying. The wish lay so close to her lips it would flutter past them at the slightest breath. And the next day it was only last week. Arthur had ridden over to Rosseter on purpose to buy them. That little wish so naively uttered seemed to him the prettiest bit of childishness. He had never heard anything like it before, and he had wrapped the box up in a great many covers, that he might see Hetty unwrapping it with growing curiosity, till at last her eyes flashed back their new delight into his. No, she was not thinking most of the giver when she smiled at the earrings, for now she is taking them out of the box, not to press them to her lips, but to fasten them in her ears, only for one moment to see how pretty they look as she peeps at them in the glass against the wall, with first one position of the head and then another, like a listening bird. It is impossible to be wise on the subject of earrings as one looks at her. What should those delicate pearls and crystals be made for if not for such ears? One cannot even find fault with the tiny round hole which they leave when they are taken out. Perhaps water-nixies, and such lovely things without souls, have these little round holes in their ears by nature ready to hang jewels in. And Hetty must be one of them. It is too painful to think that she is a woman with a woman's destiny before her, a woman spinning in young ignorance a light web of folly vain hopes which may one day close round her and press upon her, a rancorous poison garment changing all at once her flattering trivial butterfly sensations into a life of deep human anguish. But she cannot keep in the earrings long, else she may make her uncle an aunt wait. She puts them quickly into the box again and shuts them up. Some day she will be able to wear any earrings she likes, and already she lives in an invisible world of brilliant costumes, shimmering gauze, soft satin, and velvet, such as the ladies made at the Chase has shown her in Miss Lydia's wardrobe. She feels the bracelets on her arms and treads on a soft carpet in front of a tall mirror. But she has one thing in the drawer which she can venture to wear today, because she can hang it on the chain of dark brown berries which she has been used to wear on grand days. With a tiny flat scent bottle at the end tucked inside her frock and she must put on her brown berries her neck would look so unfinished without it. Hetty was not quite as fond of the locket as of the earrings, though it was a handsome large locket with enamel flowers at the back and a beautiful goldboard around the glass which showed a light brown slightly waving lock forming a background for two little dark rings. She must keep it under her clothes and no one would see it. But Hetty had another passion only a little less strong than her love of finery and that other passion made her like to wear the locket even hidden in her bosom. She would always have worn it if she had dared to encounter her aunt's questions about a ribbon around her neck. So now she slipped it on along her chain of dark brown berries and snapped the chain around her neck. It was not a very long chain only allowing the locket to hang a little way below the edge of her frock. And now she had nothing to do but to put on her long sleeves her new white gore's neckerchief and her straw hat trimmed with white today instead of the pink which had become rather faded under the July sun. That hat made the drop of bitterness in Hetty's cup today. For it was not quite new everybody would see that it was a little tanned against the white ribbon and Mary Bird, she felt sure would have a new hat or bonnet on. She looked for consolation at her fine white cotton stockings they really were very nice indeed and she had given almost all her spare money for them. Hetty's dream of the future could not make her insensible to triumph in the present. To be sure Captain Donathon loved her so that he would never care about looking at other people but then those other people didn't know how he loved her and she was not satisfied to appear shabby and insignificant in their eyes even in a short space. The whole party was assembled in the house place when Hetty went down all of course in their Sunday clothes and the bells had been ringing so this morning in honour of the captain's 21st birthday and the work had all been got done so early that Marty and Tommy were not quite easy in their minds until their mother had assured them that going to church was not part of the day's festivities. Mr. Poiser had once suggested that the house should be shut up to take care of itself. Four said he, there's no danger of anybody's breaking in, everybody will be at the chase, these and all. If we lock the house up all the men can go, it's a day they want to see twice in their lives but Mrs. Poiser answered with great decision. I never left the house to take care of itself since I was a Mrs and I never will. There's been ill looking tramps anew about the place this last week to carry off every ham every spoon we've got and they all collogue together them tramps as it's a mercy they have to come and poison the dogs and murder us all in our beds before we know it some Friday night when we've got the money and the house to pay the men and it's like enough the tramps know where we're going as well as we do our sins for if old Harry wants any work done you may be sure he'll find the means. Nonsense about murdering us in our beds said Mr. Poiser there's a gun in our room and an eye and these got ears as it's find it out if a mouse was gnawing the bacon however if thee wouldst not be easy Alec can stay at home in the four part of the day and Tim can come back towards five o'clock and let Alec have his turn they may let Growler loose if anybody offers to do mischief and there's Alec's dog too ready enough to set his tooth in a tramp if Alec gives him a wink Mrs. Poiser accepted this compromise and thought it advisable to bar and bolt to the utmost and now at the last moment before starting Nancy the Dairymaid was closing the shutters of the house-place although the window lying under the immediate observation of Alec and the dogs might have been supposed the least likely to be selected for a burglarious attempt the covered cart without springs was standing ready to carry the whole family except the men's servants Mr. Poiser and the grandfather would meet in front and within there was room for all the women and children the fuller the cart the better because then the jolting would not hurt so much and Nancy's broad person and thick arms were an excellent cushion to be pitched on but Mr. Poiser drove at no more than a walking pace that there might be as little risk of jolting as possible on this warm day and there was time to exchange greetings and remarks with the foot passengers who were going the same way checking the paths between the green meadows and the golden corn fields with bits of movable bright colour a scarlet waistcoat to match the poppies that nodded a little too thickly among the corn or a dark blue neckerchief with ends flaunting across a brand new white smock frock all Brockston and all Hayeslope were to be at the chase and make merry there in honour of the hare and the old men and women who had never been so far down on the side of the hill for the last 20 years were being brought from Brockston and Hayeslope in one of the farmers wagons and Mr. Irwin's suggestion the church bells had struck up again now a last tune before the ringers came down the hill to have their share in the festival and before the bells had finished other music was heard approaching so that even old Brown the sober horse that was drawing Mr. Poiser's card began to prick up his ears it was the band of the benefit club which had mustered in all its glory that is to say in bright blue scarfs and blue favours and carrying its banner with the motto let brotherly love continue encircling a picture of a stone pit the carts of course were not to enter the chase everyone must get down at the lodges and the vehicles must be sent back while the chase is like a fair already said Mrs. Poiser as she got down from the cart and saw the group scattered under the great hoax and the boys running about in the hot sunshine to survey the tall poles surmounted by the fluttering garments that were to be the prize of the successful climbers I should have thought there wasn't as so many people in the two parishes mercy on us how hot it is out of the shade come here Totty else your little face will be burnt to a scratchin they might have cooked the dinners in that open space and saved the fires I shall go to Mrs. Best's room and sit down stop a bit stop a bit said Mr. Poiser there's the wagon coming with the old folks in it it'll be such a sight as when I come over again to see him get down and walk along all together you remember some on him in their prime eh father I said old Martin walking slowly under the shade of the lodge porch from which he could see the aged party descend I remember Jacob Taft walking 50 miles after the Scotch Rebels when they turned back from Stonerton he felt himself quite a youngster with a long life before him as he saw the hay slope patriarch all say the Taft descend from the wagon and walk towards him in his brown nightcap and leaning on his two sticks well Mr. Taft shouted old Martin at the utmost stretch of his voice for though he knew the old man he could not omit the propriety of a greeting you're hearty yet you can enjoy your sin today for all your 90 and better your savant best's your savant said Father Taft in a treble tone perceiving that he was in company the aged group under care of sons or daughters themselves born and grey passed on along the least winding carriage road towards the house where a special table was prepared for them while the poiser party wisely struck across the grass under the shade of the great trees but not out of view of the house front with its sloping lawn and flower beds or of the pretty striped marquee at the edge of the lawn standing at right angles with two larger marquees on each side of the open green space where the games were to be played the house would have been nothing but a plain square mansion between hands time but for the remnant of an old abbey to which it was united at one end in much the same way as one may sometimes see a new farmhouse rising high and prim at the end of older and lower farm offices the final remnant stood a little backward and under the shadow of tall beaches but the sun was now on the taller and more advanced front the blinds were all down and the house seemed to sleep in the hot it made Hetty quite sad to look at it Arthur must be somewhere in the back rooms with the grand company where he could not possibly know that she was come and she should not see him for a long long while not till after dinner when they said he was to come up and make a speech but Hetty was wrong in part of her conjecture no grand company was come except the Irwins for whom the carriage had been sent early and Arthur was at that moment not in a back room but walking with the rector into the broad stone cloisters of the old Abbey where the long tables were laid for all the cottage tenants and the farm servants a very handsome young Britain he looked today in high spirits and a bright blue frock coat the highest mode his arm no longer in a sling so open looking and candid too but candid people have their secrets and secrets leave no lines in young faces upon my word he said as they entered the cool cloisters I think the cottages have the best of it these cloisters make a delightful dining room on a hot day that was capital advice of yours Irwin about the dinners to let them be as orderly and comfortable as possible and only for the tenants especially as I had only a limited summer after all although my grandfather talked of a carte blanche he couldn't make up his mind to trust me when it came to the point never mind you'll give more pleasure in this quiet way said Mr Irwin in this sort of thing people are constantly confounding liberality with riot and disorder it sounds very grand to say that so many sheep and oxen were roasted whole and everybody ate who liked to come but in the end it generally happens that no one has had an enjoyable meal if the people get a good dinner and a moderate quantity of ale in the middle of the day they'll be able to enjoy the games as the day cools you can't hinder some of them from getting too much towards evening but drunkenness and darkness go better together than drunkenness and daylight but I hope there won't be much of it I've kept the Treadleston people away by having a feast for them in the town and I've got Cassin and Adam Bede and some other good fellows to look to the giving out of ale in the booths and to take care things don't go too far come let us go up above now and see the dinner tables for the large tenants they went up the stone staircase leading simply to the long gallery above the cloisters a gallery where all the dusty worthless old pictures had been banished for the last three generations mouldy portraits of Queen Elizabeth and her ladies general monk with his eye knocked out Daniel very much in the dark among the lions and Julius Caesar on horseback with a high nose and laurel crown holding his commentaries in his hand what a capital thing it is I've saved this piece of the old abbey said Arthur if I'm ever master here I shall do up the gallery in first rate style we've got no room in the house the third as large as this that second table is for the farmers wives and children Mrs Best said it would be more comfortable for the mothers and children to be by themselves I was determined to have the children and make a regular family thing of it I shall be the old squire to those little lads and lasses someday and they'll tell their children what a much finer young fellow I was than my own son there's a table for the women and children below as well but you will see them all you will come up with me after dinner I hope yes to be sure said Mr Irwin I wouldn't miss your maiden speech to the tenantry and there will be something else you'll like to hear said Arthur let us go into the library and I'll tell you all about it while my grandfather is in the drawing room with the ladies something that will surprise you he continued as they sat down my grandfather has come round after all what about Adam yes I should have written over to tell you about it only I was so busy you know I told you I had quite given up arguing the matter with him I thought it was hopeless but yesterday morning he asked me to come in here to him before I went out and astonished me by saying that he had decided on all the new arrangements he should make in consequence of old satchel being obliged to lay by work and that he intended to employ Adam in superintending the woods at a salary of a guinea week and the use of a pony to be kept here I believe the secret of it is he saw from the first it would be a profitable plan but he had some particular dislike of Adam to get over and besides the fact that I propose a thing is generally a reason with him for rejecting it there's the most curious contradiction in my grandfather he tends to leave me all the money he has saved and he is likely enough to have cut off poor Aunt Lydia who has been a slave to him all her life with only 500 a year for the sake of giving me all the more and yet I sometimes think he positively hates me because I'm his heir I believe if I were to break my neck he would feel that the greatest misfortune that could befall him and yet it seems a pleasure to him to make my life a series of petty annoyances ah my boy it is not only women's love that is unloving love as old Aeschylus calls it there's plenty of unloving love in the world of a masculine kind but tell me about Adam has he accepted the post I don't see that it can be much more profitable than his present work though to be sure it will leave him a good deal of time on his own hands well I felt some doubt about it when I spoke to him and he seemed to hesitate at first his objection was that he thought he should not be able to satisfy my grandfather but I begged him as a personal favour to me not to let any reason prevent him from accepting the place if he really liked the employment and would not be giving up anything that was more profitable to him and he assured me he should like it of all things it would be a great step forward for him in business and it would enable him to do what he would long wish to do to give up working for Burge he says he shall have plenty of time to superintend a little business of his own which he and Seth will carry on and will perhaps be able to enlarge by degrees so he has agreed at last and I have arranged that he shall dine with the large tenants today and I mean to announce the appointment to them and ask them to drink Adam's health it's a little drama I've got up in honour of my friend Adam he's a fine fellow and I like the opportunity of letting people know that I think so a drama in which friend Arthur peaks himself on having a pretty part to play so Mr. Herwin's smiling but when he saw Arthur Culler he went on relentingly my part you know is always that of the old foggy who sees nothing to admire in the young folks I don't like to admit that I'm proud of my pupil when he does graceful things but I must play the amiable old gentleman for once and second your toast in honour of Adam has your grandfather yielded on the other point too and agreed to have a respectable man as steward oh no said Arthur rising from his chair with an air of impatience and walking along the room with his hands in his pockets he's got some project to other about letting the chase farm and bargaining for a supply of milk and butter for the house but I ask no questions about it it makes me too angry I believe he means to do all the business himself and have nothing in the shape of a steward it's amazing what energy he has though well we'll go to the ladies now said Mr. Herwin rising too I want to tell my mother what a splendid throne you've prepared for her under the marquee yes and we must be going to luncheon too said Arthur it must be two o'clock for there is the gong beginning to sound for the tenants dinners end of chapter 22 recording by Tony Ashworth chapter 23 of Adam Bede this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Adam Bede by George Elliott chapter 23 dinnertime when Adam heard that he was to dine upstairs in large tenants he felt rather uncomfortable at the idea of being exalted in this way above his mother and Seth who were to dine in the cloisters below but Mr. Mills the butler assured him that Captain Donathon had given particular orders about it and would be very angry if Adam was not there Adam nodded and went up to Seth who was standing a few yards off Seth lad he said the captain has sent to say I'm to dine upstairs he wishes it particular Mr. Mills says so I suppose it'd be behaving ill for me not to go but I don't like sitting up above thee and mother as if I was better than my own flesh and blood thee not take it unkind I hope nay nay lad said Seth thy honour is our honour and if thee gets'd respect these'd won it by thy own desserts the further I see thee above me the better so long as thee feels'd like a brother to me it's because of thy being appointed over the woods and it's nothing but what's right that's a place of trust and thee to above a common workman now I said Adam but nobody knows a word about it yet I haven't given notice to Mr. Burge about leaving him and I don't like to tell anybody else about it before he knows for he'll be a good bit hurt I doubt people will be wondering to see me there and they'll like enough be guessing the reason and asking questions for there's been so much talk up and down about my having the place this last three weeks well thee canst say thee was'd ordered to come without being told the reason that's the truth and mother'll be fine and joyful about it let's go and tell her Adam was not the only guest invited to come upstairs on other grounds than the amount he contributed to the rent roll there were other people in the two parishes who derived dignity from their functions rather than from their pocket and of these Bartle Massie was won his lame walk was rather slower than usual on this warm day so Adam lingered behind when the bell rang for dinner that he might walk up with his old friend for he was a little too shy to join the poiser party on this public occasion opportunities of getting to Heady's side would be sure to turn up in the course of the day and Adam contented himself with that for he disliked any risk of being joked about Heady the big outspoken fearless man was very shy and diffident as to his love-making well Mr. Massie said Adam as Bartle came up upstairs with you today the captain sent me orders ah! said Bartle pausing with one hand on his back then there's something in the wind there's something in the wind have you heard anything about what the old squire means to do why yes said Adam I'll tell you what I know because I believe you can keep a still tongue in your head if you like and I hope you'll not let drop a word till it's common talk trust to me my boy trust to me I've got no wife to worm it out of me and then run out and cackle it in everybody's hearing if you trust a man let him be a bachelor let him be a bachelor well then it was so far settled yesterday that I'm to take the management of the woods the captain sent for me to offer at me when I was seeing to the polls and things here and I've agreed to it but if anybody asks any questions upstairs just you take no notice and turn the talk to something else and I'll be obliged to you now let us go on for we're pretty neither last I think I know what to do never fear said Bartle moving on the news will be good sauce to my dinner I I my boy you'll get on I'll back you for an eye at measuring and a headpiece for figures against any man in this country and you've had good teaching you've had good teaching when they got upstairs the question Arthur had left on settled as to who was to be president and who vice was still under discussion so that Adam's entrance passed without remark it stands to sense Mr. Casson was saying as old Mr. Poiser as is the oldest man in the room should sit at top of the table I wasn't Butler fifteen year without learning the rights and the wrongs about dinner nay nay said old Martin I can up to my son tenant now let my son take my place the old folks have had their turn they would make way for the young ins I should have thought the biggest tenant had the best right more nor the oldest said Luke Britton who was not fond of the critical Mr. Poiser there's Mr. Holdsworth has more land nor anybody else on the state well said Mr. Poiser suppose we say the man with the foulest land shall sit at top then whoever gets the honour there'll be no envying on him hey here's Mr. Massey said Mr. Craig who being a neutral in the dispute had no interest but in conciliation the schoolmaster ought to be able to tell you what's right who's to sit at top of the table Mr. Massey why the broadest man said Bartle and then he won't take up other folks room and the next broadest must sit at bottom this happy mode of settling the dispute produced much laughter a smaller joke would have sufficed for that Mr. Cassin however did not feel it compatible with his dignity and superior knowledge to join in the laugh until it turned out that he was fixed on as the second broadest man Martin Poiser the younger as the broadest was to be president and Mr. Cassin as next broadest was to be vice owing to this arrangement Adam being of course at the bottom of the table fell under the immediate observation Mr. Cassin who too much occupied with the question of precedence had not hitherto noticed his entrance Mr. Cassin we have seen considered Adam rather lifted up and peppery like he thought the gentry made more fuss about this young carpenter than was necessary they made no fuss about Mr. Cassin although he had been an excellent butler for fifteen years well Mr. Bede you're one of them as mounts huppered to pace he said when Adam sat down I've never dined here before as I remember no Mr. Cassin said Adam in his strong voice that could be heard along the table I've never dined here before but I come by Captain Donothorn's wish and I hope it's not disagreeable to anybody here nay nay said several voices at once we're glad you're come who's got anything to say again it and you'll sing us over the hills and far away after dinner won't you said Mr. Chown that's a song I'm uncommon fond on Pee! said Mr. Craig it's not to be named by side of the scotch tunes I've never cared about singing myself I've had something better to do a man that's got the names and the nature of plants in his head isn't likely to keep a hollow place to hold tunes in but a second cousin of mine Adrovia was a rare hand at remembering the scotch tunes he'd got nothing else to think on the scotch tunes said Bartle Massie contemptuously I've heard enough of the scotch tunes to last me while I live they're fit for nothing but to frighten the birds with that's to say the English birds for the scotch birds may sing scotch for what I know give the lads a bagpipe instead of a rattle and I'll answer for it the corn will be safe yes there's folks as fine pleasure in Undervalium what they know little about said Mr. Craig why the scotch tunes are just like a scolding nagging woman Bartle went on to notice Mr. Craig's remark they go on with the same thing over and over again and never come to a reasonable end anybody had think the scotch tunes had always been asking a question of somebody as deaf as old taft and had never got an answer yet Adam minded the less about sitting by Mr. Casson because this position enabled him to see Hedy who was not far off him at the next table Hedy however had not even noticed his presence yet for she was giving angry attention to Totty who insisted on drawing up her feet onto the bench in antique fashion and thereby threatened to make dusty marks on Hedy's pink and white frock no sooner were the little fat legs pushed down than up they came again for Totty's eyes were too busy and staring at the large dishes to see where the plum pudding was for her to retain any consciousness of her legs Hedy got quite out of patience and at last with a frown and pout and gathering tears she said oh dear aunt I wish you'd speak to Totty she keeps putting her legs up so and messing my frock what's the matter with the child she can never please you said the mother let her come by the side of me then I can put up with her Adam was looking at Hedy and saw the frown and pout and the dark eyes seeming to grow larger with petish half-gathered tears quiet merry bird who sat near enough to see that Hedy was cross and that Adam's eyes were fixed on her thought that so sensible a man as Adam must be reflecting on the small value of beauty in a woman whose temper was bad merry was a good girl not given to indulge in evil feelings but she said to herself that since Hedy had a bad temper it was better Adam should know it and it was quite true that if Hedy had been plain she would have looked very ugly and unamiable at that moment and no one's moral judgment upon her would have been in the least beguiled but really there was something quite charming in her petishness it looked so much more like innocent distress than ill-humour and the severe Adam felt no movement of disapprobation he only felt a sort of amused pity as if he had seen a kitten setting up its back or a little bird with its feathers ruffled he could not gather what was vexing her but it was impossible to him to feel otherwise then that she was the prettiest thing in the world in his way nothing should ever vex her any more and presently when Toddy was gone she caught his eye and her face broke into one of its brightest smiles as she nodded to him it was a bit of flirtation she knew Mary Burge was looking at them but the smile was like wine to Adam End of Chapter 23 Chapter 24 of Adam Bede This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Adam Bede by George Elliott Chapter 24 The Health Drinking When the dinner was over and the first drafts from the great cask of birthday ale were brought up room was made for the broad Mr. Poiser at the side of the table and two chairs were placed at the head it had been settled very definitely Mr. Poiser was to do when the young squire should appear and for the last five minutes he had been in a state of abstraction with his eyes fixed on the dark picture opposite and his hands busy with the loose cash and other articles in his breeches pockets When the young squire entered with Mr. Irvine by his side everyone stood up and this moment of homage was very agreeable to Arthur he liked to feel his own importance and besides that he cared a great deal for the goodwill of these people he was fond of thinking that they had a hearty special regard for him the pleasure he felt was in his face as he said my grandfather and I hope all our friends here have enjoyed their dinner and find my birthday ale good Mr. Irvine and I are come to taste it with you and I am sure we shall all like anything the better that the rector shares with us all eyes were now turned on Mr. Poiser who with his hands still busy in his pockets began with the deliberateness of a slow striking clock Captain my neighbors have put it upon me to speak for him today for where folks think pretty much alike one spokesman's as good as a score and though we may happen got contrary ways of thinking about him any things one man lays down his land one way and another another and I'll not take it upon me to speak to no man's farming but my own peace I'll say as we're all a one mind about our young squire we've pretty nigh all in us known you when you were a little in and we've never known anything on you but what was good and honorable you speak fair and you act fair and we're joyful when we look forward to your being our landlord for we believe you mean to do right by everybody and I'll make no man's bread bitter to him if you can help it that's what I mean and that's what we all mean man said what he means he'd better stop for the ale will be none the better for standing and I'll not say how we liked the ale yet for we couldn't well taste it till we drunk your health in it but the dinner was good and if there's anybody has to enjoyed it it must be the fault of his own inside and as for the rector's company it's well known as that's welcome to all the parish wherever he may be and I hope and we all hope as he'll live as old folks and our children grown to men and women and your honor a family man I've no more to say as concerns the present time and so we'll drink our young squires health three times three here upon a glorious shouting a rapping a jingling a clattering and a shouting with plentiful de capo pleasanter than a strain of sublimest music in the ears that receive such a tribute for the first time I had felt a twinge of conscience during Mr. Poiser's speech but it was too feeble to nullify the pleasure he felt in being praised did he not deserve what was said of him on the whole if there was something in his conduct that Poiser wouldn't have liked if he had known it why no man's conduct will bear too close an inspection and Poiser was not likely to know it and after all what had he done gone a little too far perhaps in flirtation but even in his place would have acted much worse and no harm would come no harm should come for the next time he was alone with Heady he would explain to her that she must not think seriously of him or of what had passed it was necessary to Arthur you perceive to be satisfied with himself uncomfortable thoughts must be got rid of by good intentions for the future which can be formed so rapidly that he had time to be uncomfortable and to become easy again before Mr. Poiser's slow speech was finished and when it was time for him to speak he was quite light hearted I thank you all my good friends and neighbors Arthur said for the good opinion of me and the kind feelings towards me which Mr. Poiser has been expressing on your behalf and on his own and it will always be my heartiest wish to deserve them in the course of things we may expect that if I live I shall one day or other be your landlord indeed it is on the ground of that expectation my grandfather has wished me to celebrate this day and to come among you now and I look forward to this position not merely as one of power and pleasure for myself but as a means of benefiting my neighbors it hardly becomes so young a man as I am to talk much about farming to you who are most of you so much older and are men of experience still I have interested myself a good deal in such matters and learned as much about them as my opportunities have allowed and when the course of events shall place the estate in my hands it will be my first desire to afford my tenants all the encouragement a landlord can give them in improving their land and trying to bring about a better practice of husbandry it will be my wish to be looked on by all my deserving tenants as their best friend and nothing would make me so happy as to be able to respect every man on the estate and to be respected by him in turn it is not my place at present to enter into particulars I only meet your good hopes concerning me by telling you that my own hopes correspond to them that what you expect from me I desire to fulfill and I'm quite of Mr. Poiser's opinion that when a man has said what he means he had better stop but the pleasure I feel in having my own health drunk by you would not be perfect if we did not drink the health of my grandfather who has filled the place of both parents to me I will say no more until you've joined me in drinking his health on a day when he has wished me to appear among you representative of his name and family perhaps there was no one present except Mr. Irvine who thoroughly understood and approved Arthur's graceful mode of proposing his grandfather's health the farmers thought the young squire knew well enough that they hated the old squire and Mrs. Poiser said he'd better not has stirred a kettle of sour broth the bucolic mind does not readily apprehend the refinements of good taste but the toast could not be rejected had been drunk Arthur said I thank you both for my grandfather and myself and now there is one more thing I wish to tell you that you may share my pleasure about it as I hope and believe you will I think there can be no man here who is not a respect and some of you I am sure have a very high regard for my friend Adam Bede it is well known to everyone in this neighborhood that there is no man whose word can be more dependent on than his that whatever he undertakes to do well and is as careful for the interests of those who employ him as for his own I am proud to say that I was very fond of Adam when I was a little boy and I have never lost my old feeling for him I think that shows that I know a good fellow when I find him it has long been my wish that he should have the management of the woods on the estate which happened to be very valuable not only because I think so highly of his character but because he has the knowledge and the skill which fit him for the place and I am happy to tell you that it is my grandfather's wish too and it is now settled that Adam shall manage the woods a change which I am sure will be very much for the advantage of the estate and I hope you will by and by join me in drinking his health and in wishing him all the prosperity and life that he deserves but there is a still older friend of mine than Adam Bede present and I need not tell you that it is Mr. Irvine I am sure you will agree with me that we must drink to no other person's health than his I know you have all reason to love him but no one of his parishioners has so much reason as I come charge your glasses and let us drink to our excellent rector three times three this toast was drunk with all the enthusiasm that was wanting to the last and it certainly was the most picturesque moment in the scene when Mr. Irvine got up to speak and all the faces in the room were turned towards him the superior refinement of his face was much more striking than that of Arthur's when seen in comparison with the people around them Arthur's was a much commoner British face and the splendour of his new fashion clothes was more akin to the young farmer's taste in costume than Mr. Irvine's powder and the well-brushed but well-worn black which seemed to be his chosen suit for great occasions for he had the mysterious secret of never wearing a new looking coat this is not the first time by great many he said that I have had to thank my parishioners for giving me tokens of their good will but neighbourly kindness is among those things that are the more precious the older they get indeed our pleasant meeting today is a proof that when what is good comes of age and is likely to live there is reason for rejoicing and the relation between us and as clergymen and parishioners came of age two years ago for it is three and twenty years since I first came among you and I see some tall fine-looking young men here as well as some blooming young women that were far from looking as pleasantly at me when I christened them as I am happy to see them looking now but I'm sure you will not wonder when I say that among all those young men the one in whom I have the strongest interest is my friend Mr. Arthur Donathon for whom you have just expressed your regard I had the pleasure of being his tutor for several years and have naturally had opportunities of knowing him intimately which cannot have occurred to anyone else who is present and I have some pride as well as pleasure in assuring you that I share your high hopes concerning him and your confidence in his possession of those qualities which will make him an excellent landlord when the time shall come for him to take that important position among you we feel alike on most matters on which a man who's getting towards fifty can feel in common with a man of one in twenty and he has just been expressing which I share very heartily and I would not willingly admit the opportunity of saying so that feeling is his value and respect for Adam Bede people in a high station are of course more thought of and talked about and have their virtues more praised than those whose lives are passed in humble everyday work but every sensible man knows how necessary that humble everyday work is and how important it is to us that it should be done well and I agree with my friend Mr. Arthur born in feeling that when a man whose duty lies in that sort of work shows a character which would make him an example in any station his merit should be acknowledged he is one of those to whom honour is due and his friends should delight to honour him I know Adam Bede well I know what he is as a workman and what he has been as a son and brother and I am saying the simplest truth when I say that I respect him as much as I respect any man living but I am not speaking to you about stranger some of you are his intimate friends and I believe there is not one here who does not know enough of him to join heartily in drinking his health as Mr. Irwin paused Arthur jumped up and filling his glass said a bumper to Adam Bede and may he live to have sons as faithful and clever as himself no hearer not even Bartle Massey was so delighted with this toast as Mr. Poiser as his first speech had been he would have started up to make another if he had not known the extreme irregularity of such a course as it was he found an outlet for his feeling in drinking his ale unusually fast and setting down his glass with a swing of his arm and a determined rap if Jonathan Burge and a few others felt less comfortable on the occasion they tried their best to look contented and so the toast was drunk with a good will apparently unanimous Adam was rather paler than usual when he got up to thank his friends he was a good deal moved by this public tribute very naturally for he was in the presence of all his little world and it was uniting to do him honour but he felt no shyness about speaking not being troubled with small vanity or lack of words he looked neither awkward nor embarrassed but stood in his usual firm upright attitude with his head thrown a little backward and his hands perfectly still in that rough digging which is peculiar to intelligent honest well-built workmen who are never wondering what is their business in the world I'm quite taken by surprise he said I didn't expect anything of this sort for it's a good deal more than my wages but I have the more reason to be grateful to you captain and to you Mr. Irvine and to all my friends here who've drunk my health and wished me well it'd be nonsense for me to be saying the pleasure of the opinion you have of me that'd be poor thanks to you to say that you've known me all these years and yet haven't sense enough to find out a great deal of the truth about me you think if I undertake to do a bit of work I'll do it well be my pay big or little and that's true I'd be ashamed to stand before you here if it wasn't a true but it seems to me that's a man's plain duty and nothing to be conceited about and it's pretty clear to me even my duty for let us do what we will it's only making use of the spirit and the powers that have been given to us and so this kindness of yours I'm sure is no debt you owe me but a free gift and as such I accept it and am grateful and as to this new employment I've taken in hand I'll only say that I took it at captain Donothorn's desire and that I'll try to fulfill his expectations I'd wish for no better lot than to work under him and by getting my own bread I was taking care of his interests for I believe he's one of those gentlemen as wishes to do the right thing and to leave the world a bit better than he found it which it's my belief every man may do whether he's simple or gentle whether he sets a good bit of work going and finds the money or whether he does the work with his own hands there's no occasion for me to say any more about what I feel towards him I hope to show it through the rest of my life in my actions and in his opinions about Adam's speech some of the women whispered that he didn't show himself thankful enough and seemed to speak as proud as could be but most of the men were of the opinion that nobody could speak more straightforward and that Adam was as fine a chap as need be while such observations were being buzzed about mingled with wonderings as to what the old squire meant to do for a bailiff and whether he was going to have a steward the two gentlemen had risen and were walking round to the table as the boys and children sat there was none of the strong ale here, of course but wine and dessert sparkling gooseberry for the young ones and some good sherry for the mothers Mrs. Poiser was at the head of this table and Toddy was now seated in her lap bending her small nose deep down into a wine-glass in search of the nuts floating there How do you do, Mrs. Poiser, said Arthur Weren't you pleased to hear your husband make such a good speech today? Oh, sir, the men are mostly so tongue-tied forced partly to guess what they mean as you do with the dumb creatures What? You think you could have made it better for him, said Mr. Irvine laughing? Well, sir, when I want to say anything I can mostly find words to say it in, thank God not as I'm a finding fault with my husband for, if he's a man of few words what he says he'll stand to I'm sure I never saw a prettier party than this, Arthur said looking round at the apple-cheek children my aunt and the Miss Irvines come up and see you presently they were afraid of the noise of the toasts but it would be a shame for them not to see you at table he walked on speaking to the mothers and patting the children well Mr. Irvine satisfied himself with standing still and nodding at a distance that no one's attention might be disturbed from the young squire the hero of the day Arthur did not venture to stop near Heady but merely bowed to her as he passed along the opposite side the foolish child felt her heart swelling with discontent for what woman was ever satisfied with apparent neglect even when she knows it to be the mask of love Heady thought this was going to be the most miserable day she had had for a long while a moment of chill daylight and reality came across her dream Arthur, who had seemed so near to her only a few hours before was separated from her as the hero of a great procession is separated from a small outsider in a crowd End of Chapter 24 Chapter 25 of Adam Bede This is LibriVox Recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Father Xyle Adam Bede by George Elliott Chapter 25 The Games The great dance was not to begin until eight o'clock but for any lads and lasses who like to dance on the shady grass before then there was music always at hand for was not the band of the benefit club capable of playing excellent jigs, reels and hornpipes and besides this there was a grand band hired from Rosseter who with their wonderful wind instruments and puffed out cheeks were themselves a wonderful show to the small boys and girls to say nothing of Joshua Rand's fiddle which by an act of generous forethought he had provided himself with in case anyone should be of sufficiently pure taste to prefer dancing to a solo on that instrument Meantime when the sun had moved off the great open space in front of the house the games began of course well-so poles to be climbed by the boys and youths races to be run by the old women races to be run in sacks heavy weights to be lifted by the strong men and a long list of challenges to such ambitious attempts as that of walking as many yards as possible on one leg feats in which it was generally remarked that Wirie Ben, being the lissimist springest fellow in the country was sure to be preeminent to crown all there was to be a donkey race that's sublimest of all races conducted on the grand socialistic idea of everybody encouraging everybody else's donkey and the sariest donkey winning and soon after four o'clock splendid old Mrs. Irwin in her damask satin and jewels and black lace was let out by Arthur followed by the whole family party to her raised seat under the striped marquee where she was to give out the prizes to the victors stayed formal Miss Lydia had requested to resign that queenly office to the royal old lady and Arthur was pleased with this opportunity of gratifying his godmother's taste for stateliness old Mr. Donathon the delicately clean, finely scented, withered old man let out Miss Irwin with his air of punctilious acid politeness Mr. Gawain brought Miss Lydia looking neutral and stiff in an elegant peach blossom silk and Mr. Irwin came last with his pale sister Anne no other friend of the family besides Mr. Gawain was invited today there was to be a grand dinner for the neighboring gentry on the morrow but today all the forces were required for the entertainment of the tenants there was a sunk fence in front of the marquee dividing the lawn from the park but a temporary bridge had been made for the passage of the victors and the groups of people standing or seated here and there on benches stretched on each side of the open space from the white marquees up to the sunk fence upon my word it's a pretty sight said the old lady in her deep voice when she was seated and looked round on the bright scene with its dark green background and it's the last fate day I'm likely to see unless you make haste and get married Arthur but take care you get a charming bride else I would rather die without seeing her you're so terribly fastidious godmother said Arthur I'm afraid I should never satisfy you with my choice well I won't forgive you if she's not handsome I can't be put off with amiability it's always the excuse people are making for the existence of plain people and she must not be silly that will never do because you'll want managing and a silly woman can't manage you who is that tall young man Dauphin with the mild face there standing without his hat and taking such care of that tall old woman by the side of him his mother of course I like to see that don't you know him mother? asked Mr. Irwin that is Seth Bede, Adam's brother a Methodist but a very good fellow poor Seth has looked rather downhearted of late I thought it was because of his father's dying in that sad way but Joshua Rand tells me he wanted to marry that sweet little Methodist preacher who was here about a month ago and I suppose she refused him ah I remember hearing about her but there are no end of people here that I don't know for they're grown up and altered so since I used to go about what excellent sight you have said old Mr. Donathon who was holding a double glass up to his eyes to see the expression of that young man's face so far off his face is nothing but a pale blurred spot to me but I fancy I have the advantage of you when we come to look close we need small print without spectacles ah my dear sir you began with being very near sighted and those near sighted eyes always wear the best I want very strong spectacles to read with but then I think my eyes get better and better for things at a distance I suppose if I could live another 50 years I should be blind to everything that wasn't out of other people's sight like a man who stands there well and sees nothing but the stars see said Arthur the old women are ready to set out on their race now which do bet on Gwane the long-legged one unless they're going to have several heats and then the little wiry one may win there are the poisers mother not far off on the right hand said Miss Irwin Mrs. Poiser is looking at you do take notice of her to be sure I will said the old lady giving a gracious bow to Mrs. Poiser a woman who sends me such excellent cream cheese is not to be neglected bless me what a fat child that is she is holding on her knee but who is that pretty girl with dark eyes that is Hetty Sorrel said Miss Lydia Donathon Martin Poiser's niece a very likely young person and well looking too my maid has taught her fine needle work and she has mended some lace of mine very respectably indeed very respectably why she has lived with the poiser six or seven years mother you must have seen her said Miss Irwin no I've never seen her child at least not as she is now said Mrs. Irwin continuing to look at Hetty well looking indeed she's a perfect beauty I've never seen anything so pretty since my young days what a pity such beauty is that she's gone away among the farmers when it's wanted so terribly among the good families without fortune I dare say now shall marry a man who would have thought her just as pretty if she had round eyes and red hair Arthur dared not turn his eyes towards Hetty while Mrs. Irwin was speaking of her he feigned not to hear and to be occupied with something on the opposite side but he saw her plainly enough without looking saw her in heightened beauty because he heard her beauty praised for other men's opinion you know was like a native climate to Arthur's feelings it was the air on which they thrived the best and grew strong yes she was enough to turn any man's head and any man in his place would have done and felt the same and to give her up after all as he was determined to do would be an act that he should always look back upon with pride no mother and Mr. Irwin replying to her last words I can't agree with you there the common people are not quite so stupid as you imagine the commonest man who has his ounce of sense and feeling is conscious of the difference between a lovely delicate woman and a coarse one even a dog feels a difference in their presence the man may be no better able than the dog to explain the influence the more refined beauty has on him but he feels it bless me Dauphin what does an old bachelor like you know about it all that is one of the matters in which old bachelors are wiser than married men because they have time for more general contemplation your fine critic of woman must never shackle his judgment by calling one woman his own but as an example of what I was saying the roughest preacher I mentioned just now told me that she had preached to the roughest minors and had never been treated with anything but the utmost respect and kindness by them the reason is though she doesn't know it that there's so much tenderness refinement and purity about her such a woman as that brings with her heirs from heaven that the coarsest fellow is not insensible to here's a delicate bit of womanhood coming to receive a prize I suppose said Mr. Gawain she must be one of the racers in the sacks who had set off before we came the bit of womanhood was our old acquaintance Bessie Cranage otherwise Chad's Bess whose large red cheeks and lousy person had undergone an exaggeration of color which if she had happened to be a heavenly body would have made her sublime Bessie I am sorry to say had taken to her earrings again since Dina's departure and was otherwise decked out in such small finery as she could muster anyone who could have looked into poor Bessie's heart would have seen a striking resemblance between her little hopes and anxieties and headies the advantage perhaps would have been on Bessie's side in the matter of feeling but then you'll see they were so very different outside you would have been inclined to box Bessie's ears and you would have longed to kiss Hetty Bessie had been tempted to run the arduous race partly from mere hedonish gaiety partly because of the prize someone had said there were to be cloaks and other nice clothes for prizes and she approached the Marquis fanning herself with her handkerchief but with exaltation sparkling in her round eyes here is the prize for the first sack race said Miss Lydia taking a large parcel from the table where the prizes were laid and giving it to Mrs. Irwin before Bessie came up an excellent gallgrom gown and a piece of flannel you didn't think the winner was to be so young, I suppose, Aunt said, Arthur couldn't you find something else for this girl and save that grim-looking gown for one of the older women I have bought nothing but what is useful and substantial said Miss Lydia adjusting her own lace I should not think of encouraging a love of finery in young women of that class I have a scarlet cloak but that is for the old woman who wins this speech of Miss Lydia produced rather a mocking expression in Mrs. Irwin's face as she looked at Arthur while Bessie came up and dropped a series of curtsies this is Bessie Cranage mother said Mr. Irwin kindly to his daughter you remember Chad Cranage the blacksmith yes to be sure said Mrs. Irwin well Bessie here is your prize excellent warm things for winter I'm sure you have had hard work to win them this warm day Bessie's lip fell as she saw the ugly heavy gown which felt so hot and disagreeable too on this July day and was such a great thing to carry she dropped her curtsies again without looking up and with a growing tremulousness about the corners of her mouth and then turned away poor girl said Arthur I think she's disappointed I wish it had been something more to her taste she's a bold looking young person observed Miss Lydia not at all one I should like to encourage Arthur silently resolved that he would make Bessie out of money before the day was over that she might buy something more to her mind but she not aware of the consolation in store for her turned out of the open space where she was visible from the marquee and throwing down the odious bundle under a tree began to cry very much tittered at the while by the small boys in this situation she was described by her discreet matronly cousin having just given the baby into her husband's charge what's the matter with you said Bess the matron taking up the bundle and examining it you ensweltered your son I reckon running that fool's race and here they begin you lots of good gogram and flannel as should have been begin by good rights to them has had the sense to keep away from such foolery you might spare me a bit of this gogram to make clothes for the lad you are narrow nature best I never said that on you you may take it all for what I care said Bess the maiden with a pettish movement beginning to wipe away her tears and recover herself well I could do it if be you want to get rid on said the disinterested cousin walking quickly away with the bundle less Chad's niece should change your mind but that bony cheeked lass was blessed with any elasticity of her spirits that secured her from any rankling grief and by the time the grand climax of the donkey race came on her disappointment was entirely lost in the delightful excitement of attempting to stimulate the last donkey by hisses while the boys apply the argument of sticks but the strength of the donkey mind lies in adopting a course inversely as the arguments urged which well considered requires as great a force as the direct sequence and the present donkey proved the first rate order of his intelligence by coming to a dead standstill just when the blows were thickest great was the shouting of the crowd radiant the grinning of bill downs the stone saw and the fortunate rider of this superior beast which stood calm and stiff-legged in the midst of its triumph Arthur himself had provided the prizes for the men and bill was made happy with a splendid pocket knife supplied with blades and gimlets enough to make a man at home on a desert island. He had hardly returned from the marquee with the prize in his hand when it began to be understood that Wirie Bend proposed to amuse the company before the gentry went to dinner with an impromptu and gratuitous performance namely a hornpipe which was doubtless borrowed but this was to be developed by the dancer in so peculiar and complex a manner that no one could deny him the praise of originality. Wirie Bend's pride in his dancing an accomplishment productive of great effect at the yearly wake had needed only slightly elevating by an extra quantity of good ale to convince him that the gentry would be very much struck with his performance of his hornpipe and he had been decidedly encouraged in this idea by Joshua Ron who observed that it was nothing but right to do something to please the young squire in return for what he had done for them. You will be the less surprised at this opinion in so grave a personage when you learn that Bend had requested Mr. Ron to accompany him on the fiddle and Joshua felt quite sure that though there might not be much in the dancing the music would make up for it. Adam Bede, who was present in one of the large marquees where the plan was being discussed told Bend he had better not make a fool of himself a remark which at once fixed Bend's determination. He was not going to let anything alone because Adam and Bede turned up his nose at it. What's this? What's this? said old Mr. Donathon. Is something you've arranged with Arthur? Here's the clerk coming with his fiddle and a smart fellow with a nose-gay in his buttonhole. No, said Arthur. I know nothing about it. By Jove he's going to dance. It's one of the Carpenters. I forget his name at this moment. It's Bend Carnage. Why Ray Bend, they call him, said Mr. Irwin. Rather a loose fish, I think. And, my dear, I see that fiddle scraping is too much for you. You're getting tired. Let me take you in now that you may rest till dinner. Miss Anne rose assentingly, and a good brother took her away while Josh was preliminary scrapings burst into the white cockade from which he intended to pass to a variety of tunes by a series of transitions which his good ear really taught him to execute with some skill. It would have been an exasperating fact to him if he had known it that the general attention was too thoroughly absorbed by Bend's dancing for anyone to give much heed to the music. Have you ever seen a real English rustic perform a solo dance? Perhaps you have only seen a ballet rustic smiling like a merry countryman in crockery with graceful turns of the haunch and insinuating movements of the head. That is as much like the real thing as the bird waltz is like the song of birds. Why Ray Bend never smiled. He was as serious as a dancing monkey, as serious as if he had been an experimental philosopher ascertaining in his own person the amount of shaking and the varieties of angularity that could be given to the human limbs. To make amends for the abundant laughter in the stripe marquee Arthur clapped his hands continually and cried, Bravo! But Bend had one admirer whose eyes followed his movements of gravity that equaled his own. It was Martin Poiser who was seated on a bench with Tommy between his legs. What does think of that? he said to his wife. He goes as pat to the music as if he was made of clockwork. I used to be a pretty good at dancing myself when I was lighter, but I could never add it just to the air like that. It's little matter what his limbs are, to my thinking that's what Martin Poiser is. He's empty enough in the upper story, or he'd never come jigging on, stamping in that way like a mad grasshopper for the gentry to look at him. They're fit to die with laughing, I can see. Well, well, so much the better it amuses him, said Mr. Poiser, who did not easily take an irritable view of things. But they're going away now to have their dinner, I reckon. Well, move about a bit, shall we, and see when he's got to look after the drinkin' and things. I doubt he hasn't had much fun. End of chapter 25