said the squire, 'that you do.I should like to try my horsewhip on you for your insolence.' 'Pray, Mr Hamley,' replied Mr Preston, coolly, 'curb your temper a little, and reflect.I really feel sorry to see a man of your age in such a passion'
- moving a little farther off, however, but really more with a desire to save the irritated man from carrying his threat into execution, out of a dislike to the slander and excitement it would cause, than from any personal dread.Just at this moment Roger Hamley came close up.He was panting a little, and his eyes were very stern and dark; but he spoke quietly enough.'Mr Preston, I can hardly understand what you mean by your last words.
But, remember, my father is a gentleman of age and position, and not accustomed to receive advice as to the management of his temper from young men like you.' 'I desired to keep his men off my land,' said the squire to his son - his wish to stand well in Roger's opinion restraining his temper a little;but though his words might be a little calmer, there were all other signs of passion present - the discoloured complexion, the trembling hands, the fiery cloud in his eyes.'He refused, and doubted my word.' Mr Preston turned to Roger, as if appealing from Philip drunk to Philip sober, and spoke in a tone of cool explanation, which, though not insolent in words, was excessively irritating in manner.'Your father has misunderstood me - perhaps it is no wonder,' trying to convey, by a look of intelligence at the son, his opinion that the father was in no state to hear reason.'I never refused to do what was just and right.I only required further evidence as to the past wrong-doing; your father took offence at this' - and then he shrugged his shoulders, and lifted his eyebrows in a manner he had formerly learnt in France.'At any rate, sir! I can scarcely reconcile the manner and words to my father, which I heard you use when I first came up, with the deference you ought to have shown to a man of his age and position.As to the fact of the trespass -- ' 'They are pulling up all the gorse, Roger - there'll be no cover whatever for game soon,' put in the squire.Roger bowed to his father, but took up his speech at the point it was at before the interruption.'I will inquire into it myself at a cooler moment; and if I find that such trespass or damage has been committed, of course I shall expect that you will see it put a stop to.Come, father! I am going to see old Silas -perhaps you don't know that he is very ill.' So he endeavoured to wile the squire away to prevent further words.He was not entirely successful.Mr Preston was enraged by Roger's calm and dignified manner, and threw after them this parting shaft, in the shape of a loud soliloquy, - 'Position, indeed! What are we to think of the position of a man who begins works like these without counting the cost, and comes to a stand-still, and has to turn off his labourers just at the beginning of winter, leaving -- ' They were too far off to hear the rest.The squire was on the point of turning back before this, but Roger took hold of the reins of the old mare, and led her over some of the boggy ground, as if to guide her into sure footing, but, in reality, because he was determined to prevent the renewal of the quarrel.It was well that the cob knew him, and was, indeed, old enough to prefer quietness to dancing; for Mr Hamley plucked hard at the reins, and at last broke out with an oath, - 'Damn it, Roger! I'm not a child; I won't be treated as such.Leave go, I say!' Roger let go; they were not on firm ground, and he did not wish any watchers to think that he was exercising any constraint over his father; and this quiet obedience to his impatient commands did more to soothe the squire than anything else could have effected just then.'I know I turned them off - what could I do? I'd no more money for their weekly wages; it's a loss to me, as you know.He doesn't know, no one knows, but I think your mother would, how it cut me to turn 'em off just before winter set in.I lay awake many a night thinking of it, and I gave them what I had - I did, indeed.I hadn't got money to pay 'em, but I had three barren cows fattened, and gave every scrap of meat to the men, and I let 'em go into the woods and gather what was fallen, and I winked at their breaking off old branches, and now to have it cast up against me by that cur - that servant.But I'll go on with the works, by -- , I will, if only to spite him.I'll show him who I am.My position, indeed! A Hamley of Hamley takes a higher position than his master.I'll go on with the works, see if I don't! I'm paying between one and two hundred a year interest on Government money.I'll raise some more if I go to the Jews; Osborne has shown me the way, and Osborne shall pay for it - he shall.I'll not put up with insults.You shouldn't have stopped me, Roger! I wish to heaven I'd horsewhipped the fellow! He was lashing himself again into an impotent rage, painful to a son to witness; but just then the little grandchild of old Silas, who had held the squire's horse during his visit to the sick man, came running up, breathless, - 'Please, sir, please, squire, mammy has 'sent me; grandfather has wakened up sudden, and mammy says he's dying, and would you please come; she says he'd take it as a kind compliment, she's sure.' So they went to the cottage, the squire speaking never a word, but suddenly feeling as if lifted out of a whirlwind and set down in a still and awful place.
