Part 4 (2/2)

”Words are not things; judgments are not facts You say that he is so, and so and so But when I ask you upon what facts you judge him, your only answer is that you think hihts ic is conte discoe, and tellthat he has ever done and of which you have sure knowledge--that will bear him out to be what you say he is Now, Sir John!”

He looked up at her iue!” he cried--and upon a distant day he was to bethink himent I can desire hi up her advantage swiftly, she kissed hie than you”

What was the poor man to do thereafter? What he did Live up to her pronounceo forthwith to visit Sir Oliver and coment of his fault was handsomely made, and Sir Oliver received it in a spirit no less handsome But when Sir John came to the matter of Mistress Rosaenerous He announced that since he could not bring himself to look upon Sir Oliver as a suitable husband for her, nothing that he had now saidparty to any such union

”But that,” he added, ”is not to say that I oppose it I disapprove, but I stand aside Until she is of full age her brother will refuse his sanction After that, the matter will concern neither him nor myself”

”I hope,” said Sir Oliver, ”he will take as wise a view But whatever view he takes will be no matter For the rest, Sir John, I thank you for your frankness, and I rejoice to know that if I may not count you formy enemies”

But if Sir John was thus won round to a neutral attitude, Master Peter's rancour abated nothing; rather it increased each day, and presently there came another matter to feed it, a matter of which Sir Oliver had no suspicion

He knew that his brother Lionel rode almost daily to Malpas, and he knew the object of those daily rides He knew of the lady who kept a sort of court there for the rustic bucks of Truro, Penryn, and Helston, and he knew so of the ill-repute that had attached to her in town--a repute, in fact, which had been the cause of her withdrawal into the country He told his brother so him, and therein, for the first ti

After that he mentioned her no more He knew that in his indolent way Lionel could be headstrong, and he knew huh to be convinced that interference here would but set up a breach between hi its real object

So Oliver shrugged re-signedly, and held his peace

There he left the affair, nor ever spoke again of Malpas and the siren who presided there Andof stormy weather Sir Oliver and Rosa To Godolphin Court he would not go since she did not desire it; and himself he deemed it best to remain away since otherwise he must risk a quarrel with its master, who had forbidden him the place In those days he saw Peter Godolphin but little, and on the rare occasions when they did re salute

Sir Oliver was entirely happy, and entler were his accents, how sunnier had becohty and forbidding He waited for his co happiness with the confidence of an immortal in the future Patience was all the service Fate asked of hi upon the reward that soon noould be his own Indeed, the year drew near its close; and ere another winter should come round Penarrow House would own a mistress That to him seemed as inevitable as the season itself

And yet for all his supreme confidence, for all his patience and the happiness he culled from it, there were moments when he see doom, by some subconsciousness of an evil in the woe his oppression, did he seek to translate it into ter upon which his wits could fasten--and he came ever to conclude that it was his very happiness by its excessiveness that was oppressing hiht about the heart as if to check its joyous soarings

One day, a week from Christ affair For half a week a blizzard had whirled about the coast, and he had been kept chafing indoors what time layer upon layer of snoas spread upon the countryside On the fourth day, the stor spent, the sun came forth, the skies were swept clear of clouds and all the countryside lay robed in a sun-drenched, dazzling whiteness

Sir Oliver called for his horse and rode forth alone through the crisp snow He turned homeward very early in the afternoon, but when a couple of miles from Helston he found that his horse had cast a shoe He dish the sunlit vale between the heights of Pendennis and Arwenack, singing as he went He cae About it stood a group of fishermen and rustics, for, in the absence of any inn just there, this forge was ever a point of congregation In addition to the rustics and an itinerant merchant with his pack-horses, there were present Sir Andrew Flack, the parson froory Baine, one of the Justices frohbourhood of Truro Both ell known to Sir Oliver, and he stood in friendly gossip with them what time he waited for his horse

It was all very unfortunate, froentleentle slope from Arwenack rode Master Peter Godolphin

It was said afterwards by Sir Andrew and Master Baine that Master Peter appeared to have been carousing, so flushed was his face, so unnatural the brightness of his eye, so thick his speech and so extravagant and foolish what he said There can be little doubt that it was so He was addicted to Canary, and so indeed was Sir John Killigrew, and he had been dining with Sir John He was of those who turn quarrelso that when the as in and the restraint out, his natural huht of Sir Oliver standing there gave the lad precisely what he needed to indulge that evil humour of his, and he may have been quickened in his purpose by the presence of those other gentlemen In his half-fuddled state of mind he may have recalled that once he had struck Sir Oliver and Sir Oliver had laughed and told him that none would believe it

He drew rein suddenly as he caroup, so suddenly that he pulled his horse until it almost sat down like a cat; yet he retained his saddle Then he cah the snow that was all squelched and e, and leered at Sir Oliver

”I am fro of you”

”You could have had no better subject of discourse,” said Sir Oliver, s scared--though his fears did not concern hi topic--you and your debauched father”

”Sir,” replied Sir Oliver, ”once already have I deplored your mother's utter want of discretion”

The words were out of hi at hie aroused by that infla face above him No sooner were they sped than he repented theuffaw froiven half his fortune in that moment to have recalled theed as utterly as if he had removed a mask From flushed that it had been it was livid now and the eyes were blazing, the lowered upon his ene aloft his whip