With a Silken Thread, and Other Stories

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI. TRUTH AT ANY PRICE. Cruel as sin, sure as death, the next morning early Cousin Alick Farmer stood at the little gate of Eose- hill, his hat slightly on one side, switching his light riding-whip as he patted his mare's moist nose and soothed her rather fidgety temper by the stock endearments of...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI. TRUTH AT ANY PRICE. Cruel as sin, sure as death, the next morning early Cousin Alick Farmer stood at the little gate of Eose- hill, his hat slightly on one side, switching his light riding-whip as he patted his mare's moist nose and soothed her rather fidgety temper by the stock endearments of the stable. He stood there waiting for some one to relieve him of his animal, with serene assurance that his victims could make no escape this time. The game was trapped, and flight or fight was alike impossible. They might delay as long as they would? it must come at last; and if they chose to prolong the agony of anticipation, that was their affair, not his. So he waited serenely enough, caressing his mare and humming opera-tunes in between whiles, till at last the servant girl came to the gate, and Mr. Alick Farmer passed up the gravel-walk. Both Amy and Charley felt more like wild beasts hunted to their lair than like ordinary English gentlefolks receiving an ordinary morning visitor, when the man entered their dingy house with that brisk, wellpreserved air of his, of itself enough to madden the down-trodden sufferers from sin. He looked so gay, so careless, so happy, so free from moral blame or personal shortcomings;?while poor Charley, with his lank soft hair falling over his drooping face, as if ashamed to look the world between the eyes, seemed almost to collapse as he entered, though Amy stood by, feverish, brave, defiant. Nothing could be brighter or brisker than Mr. Alick Farmer when he entered; surely by manner the lightest-hearted fellow that ever played with life ? tossing up human crimes and tears as if they were a juggler's painted balls wherewith to make an audience merry by his dexterity. Well he said, as he came forward with both hands exten...