The steward, Mr. Johnson,
an active, silent man, employed me alternately in practical work
upon the estate--felling trees, repairing fences, and so.
forth--and in keeping his books, for which latter duty my service
with Mr. Vetch had in some sort fitted me. For a week I saw nothing
of my master, and caught but fugitive glimpses of the members of
his family. I suspected, and rightly, as it turned out, that he was
deliberately keeping out of my way, but receiving careful reports
of me from Mr. Johnson.
His name, I learned, was James Allardyce, and his rank was
something above that of a yeoman. He was choleric in temper and
hasty in judgment, but the soul of kindness and generosity, and the
servants loved him. The boy I had felled was his only son, just
home from the school at Rugby; and his niece, Mistress Lucy, as
everyone called her, had but lately become a member of his
household. She was an orphan. Her father had been a planter with
large estates in Jamaica, and on his death she had been brought to
England at his wish by an old nurse, and delivered into the care of
her mother's brother. She had another uncle, it was said--a squire,
her father's brother, who lived somewhat north of Shrewsbury. 'Twas
Susan who told me this; she was a chatterbox, and would have talked
all day to me had I not discouraged her, and then she said I gave
myself airs.
But it was from Roger Allardyce I learned things so surprising that
I wonder I did not betray myself.
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