He treated
me as his equal, and once, when I alluded to my dependent position,
his curiosity, which with excellent well-bred delicacy he kept in
check, got the better of him, and he begged me to tell him all
about myself, swearing never to reveal it to a soul. But I cleaved
to my determination; all I would tell him was what he knew already,
that I was a penniless orphan bent on making my way in the world.
Well, one evening, when I returned from my work in the fields, I
found him waiting for me with excitement plainly writ on his open
face. He dragged me to his outhouse, and having shut the door,
said:
"I say, Joe, there's a storm brewing, and we may need your fists.
You remember I told you about my cousin riding over from
Shrewsbury? Well, his father came today--Sir Richard Cludde, a big
red-faced bully of a man. He's Lucy's uncle, you know; her father
was his brother, and they quarreled, and hadn't seen each other for
twenty years. But now he declares that he is Lucy's legal guardian;
his brother died suddenly and left no will, and he came today to
claim her as his ward. Father wouldn't hear of it; but told him
Lucy had been brought here by the express command of her father,
and he refused to give her up. The squire was in a terrible rage:
'tis said he has fallen on evil times, and is set on getting a hold
on Lucy's property in Jamaica, and making a match between her and
his son Dick--the lubber I told you of. There was an angry scene
'twixt him and father, you could have heard him roaring all over
the house, and he went away in a towering passion, swearing that
we'd not heard the last of it, and he'd go to law, and he'd beat us
even though it cost him his last penny, and more to the same
effect.
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