The Greatest Works of Sheridan Le Fanu (65+ Novels & Short Stories in One Edition). Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
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Название: The Greatest Works of Sheridan Le Fanu (65+ Novels & Short Stories in One Edition)
Автор: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Языкознание
isbn: 9788027221325
isbn:
“How is Uncle Silas?” I eagerly enquired.
“Old L’Amour says he’s queerish still; but he’s not so dull as yesterday,” answered she.
“Was not the doctor sent for?” I asked.
“Was he? Well, that’s odd; and she said never a word o’t to me,” answered she.
“I’m asking only,” said I.
“I don’t know whether he came or no,” she replied; “but what makes you take that in your head?”
“A chaise arrived here between two and three o’clock last night.”
“Hey! and who told you?” Milly seemed all on a sudden highly interested.
“I saw it, Milly; and some one, I fancy the doctor, came from it into the house.”
“Fudge, lass! who’d send for the doctor? ‘Twasn’t he, I tell you. What was he like?” said Milly.
“I could only see clearly that he, or she, was tall, and wore a cloak,” I replied.
“Then ‘twasn’t him nor t’other I was thinking on, neither; and I’ll be hanged but I think it will be Cormoran,” cried Milly, with a thoughtful rap with her knuckle on the table.
Precisely at this juncture a tapping came to the door.
“Come in,” said I.
And old L’Amour entered the room, with a courtesy.
“I came to tell Miss Quince her breakfast’s ready,” said the old lady.
“Who came in the chase, L’Amour?” demanded Milly.
“What chaise?” spluttered the beldame tartly.
“The chaise that came last night, past two o’clock,” said Milly.
“That’s a lie, and a damn lie!” cried the beldame. “There worn’t no chaise at the door since Miss Maud there came from Knowl.”
I stared at the audacious old menial who could utter such language.
“Yes, there was a chaise, and Cormoran, as I think, be come in it,” said Milly, who seemed accustomed to L’Amour’s daring address.
“And there’s another damn lie, as big as t’other,” said the crone, her haggard and withered face flushing orange all over.
“I beg you will not use such language in my room,” I replied, very angrily. “I saw the chaise at the door; your untruth signifies very little, but your impertinence here I will not permit. Should it be repeated, I will assuredly complain to my uncle.”
The old woman flushed more fiercely as I spoke, and fixed her bleared glare on me, with a compression of her mouth that amounted to a wicked grimace. She resisted her angry impulse, however, and only chuckled a little spitefully, saying,
“No offence, miss; it be a way we has in Derbyshire o’ speaking our minds. No offence, miss, were meant, and none took, as I hopes,” and she made me another courtesy.
“And I forget to tell you, Miss Milly, the master wants you this minute.”
So Milly, in mute haste, withdrew, followed closely by L’Amour.
Chapter 37.
Doctor Bryerly Emerges
WHEN MILLY joined me at breakfast, her eyes were red and swollen. She was still sniffing with that little sobbing hiccough, which betrays, even were there no other signs, recent violent weeping. She sat down quite silent.
“Is he worse, Milly?” I enquired, anxiously.
“No, nothing’s wrong wi’ him; he’s right well,” said Milly, fiercely.
“What’s the matter then, Milly dear?”
“The poisonous old witch! ’Twas just to tell the Gov’nor how I’d said ’twas Cormoran that came by the po’shay last night.”
“And who is Cormoran?” I enquired.
“Ay, thee it is; I’d like to tell, and you want to hear — and I just daren’t, for he’ll send me off right to a French school — hang it — hang them all! — if I do.”
“And why should Uncle Silas care?” said I, a good deal surprised.
“They’re a-tellin’ lies.”
“Who?” said I.
“L’Amour — that’s who. So soon as she made her complaint of me, the Gov’nor asked her, sharp enough, did anyone come last night, or a po’shay; and she was ready to swear there was no one. Are ye quite sure, Maud, you really did see aught, or ‘appen ’twas all a dream?”
“It was not dream, Milly; so sure as you are there, I saw exactly what I told you,” I replied.
“Gov’nor won’t believe it anyhow; and he’s right mad wi’ me; and the threatens me he’ll have me off to France; I wish ’twas under the sea. I hate France — I do — like the devil. Don’t you? They’re always a-threatening me wi’ France, if I dare say a word more about the po’shay, or — or anyone.”
I really was curious about Cormoran; but Cormoran was not to be defined to me by Milly; nor did she, in reality, know more than I respecting the arrival of the night before.
One day I was surprised to see Doctor Bryerly on the stairs. I was standing in a dark gallery as he walked across the floor of the lobby to my uncle’s door, his hat on, and some papers in his hand.
He did not see me; and when he had entered Uncle Silas’s door, I went down and found Milly awaiting me in the hall.
“So Doctor Bryerly is here,” I said.
“That’s the thin fellow, wi’ the sharp look, and the shiny black coat, that went up just now?” asked Milly.
“Yes, he’s gone into your papa’s room,” said I.
“‘Appen ’twas he come t’other night. He may be staying here, though we see him seldom, for it’s a barrack of a house — it is.”
The same thought had struck me for a moment, but was dismissed immediately. It certainly was not Doctor Bryerly’s figure which I had seen.
So, without any new light gathered from this apparition, we went on our way, and made our little sketch of the ruined bridge. We found the gate locked as before; and, as Milly could not persuade me to climb it, we got round the paling by the river’s bank.
While at our drawing, we saw the swarthy face, sooty locks, and СКАЧАТЬ