How should he
show he is a gentleman but by hectoring a bit now and then,
'specially to such a rogue as thou, coming back when thy betters are
lost. That is always the way, as I found when I lost my real silver
crown, and kept my trumpery Parliament bit."
"Ah, Deb!" pleaded Diggory, "thou knowst not what danger is! I
thought thou wouldst never have set eyes on poor Diggory again."
"Much harm would that have been," retorted Mrs. Deb, tossing her
head. "D'ye think I'd have broke my heart? That I'll never do for a
runaway."
"'Twas time to run when poor Farmer Ewins was cut down, holloaing for
quarter, and Master Edmund's brains lying strewn about on the ground,
for all the world like a calf's."
"'Tis your own brains be like a calf's," said Deborah. "I'd bargain
to eat all of Master Edmund's brains you ever saw."
"He's as dead as a red herring."
"I say he is as life-like as you or I."
"I say I saw him stretched out, covered with blood, and a sword-cut
on his head big enough to be the death of twenty men."
"Didn't that colonel man, as they call him, see him alive and merry
long after? It's my belief that Master Edmund is not a dozen miles
off."
"Master Edmund! hey, Deb? I'll never believe that, after what I've
seen at Worcester."
"Then pray why does Mistress Rose save a whole pigeon out of the pie,
hide it in her lap, and steal out of the house with it at midnight?
Either Master Edmund is in hiding, or some other poor gentleman from
the wars, and I verily believe it is Master Edmund himself; so a fig
for his brains or yours, and there's for you, for a false-tongued
runaway! Coming, mistress, coming!" and away ran Deborah at a call
from Rose.
Pages:
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78