“So we kissed like a pair av girls, and off
he was driven, leavin’ a great hollow inside
the rim av the hills. An’ I ran up to the
windy dormitory, stumblin’ at ivery third step
for the blindin’ tears, and watched um from
the window there growin’ small along the road.
’Ye Mountains av Gilboa,’ said I, shakin’
my fist at the hills, ’let there be no dew,
neither let there be rain upon ye;’ for I hated
the place now that Jemmy was gone.
“Well, ’twas the ould story—letters
at first in plenty, then fewer, then none at all.
Long before I came over to try my luck I’d lost
all news of Jem: didn’t know his address,
even. Nor till to-day have I set eyes on um.
He’s bald-headed, me boy, and crooked-faytured,
to-day; but I knew him for Jemmy in the first kick
av surprise.
“I was evicted this mornin’, as I’ve
towld ye. Six years I’ve hung me hat up
in those same apartments in Bloomsbury; and, till last
year, aisy enough I found me landlord over a quarter’s
rent or two overjue. But last midsummer year
the house changed hands; and bedad it began to be
‘pay or quit.’ This day it was ‘quit.’
The new landlord came up the stairs at the head av
the ejectin’ army: I got up from breakfast
to open the door to um. I’d never set eyes
on um since I’d been his tenant. Bedad,
it was Jemmy!”
O’Driscoll paused, and poured himself another
glass of hock.
“So I suppose,” I said, “you ran
into each other’s arms, and kissed again with
tears?”
“Then you suppose wrong,” said he, and
sat for a moment or two silent, fingering the stem
of his glass. Then he added, more gently—
“I looked in the face av um, and said to meself,
’Jemmy doesn’t remember me. If I
introduce meself, I wonder what’ll he do?
Will he love me still, or will he turn me out?’
An’ by the Lord I didn’t care to risk
ut! I couldn’t dare to lose that last illusion;
an’ so I put on me hat an’ walked out,
tellin’ him nothing at all.”
I.—THE FAMILY BIBLE
There lived a young man at Tregarrick called Robert
Haydon. His father was not a native of the town,
but had settled there early in life and became the
leading solicitor of the place. At the age of
thirty-seven he married the daughter of a county magistrate,
and by this step bettered his position considerably.
By the time that Robert was born his parents’
standing was very satisfactory. They were living
well inside an income of L1,200 a year, had about
L8,000 (consisting of Mrs. Haydon’s dowry and
Mr. Haydon’s bachelor savings) safely invested,
and were on visiting terms with several of the lesser
county families.
