I told nobody of what I suffered, and when
Mistress Pennyquick noticed that I was pale and heavy-eyed
sometimes in the morning, she did but suppose it was due to a
closer application to books than I had known formerly, and
forthwith increased my daily allowance of milk.
My father, if he had known of these doings, would doubtless have
taken strong measures to put a stop to them, for the older, though
not the worse, of the two bullies was a nephew of his own. His
sister was married to Sir Richard Cludde, of a notable family whose
seat lay north of Shrewsbury, towards Wem, and it was his only son,
named Richard after his father, who made one of this precious
couple of harriers. There was little coming and going between the
houses of the two families, for Mr. Ellery had not approved his
sister's match, Sir Richard's character being not of the best, and
heartily disliked the fine-lady airs which she put on when she
became wife of a baronet; while she on her side resented her
brother's cold looks, and nourished a special grievance against him
when he adopted me and announced that he would name me his heir. I
make no doubt that she gave tongue to her feeling in the hearing of
her son Dick, for among the many taunts which he and his boon
fellow Cyrus Vetch cast at me was that I was what they pleased to
call a "charity child."
I have mentioned Cyrus Vetch. If I feared Dick Cludde, I both
feared and hated his companion. Cyrus was the son of a well-to-do
merchant of the town--a man little in stature, but stout, and
wondrous big in self esteem.
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