The Holly-Tree Inn by Charles Dickens (books to read in your 20s female TXT) đ
- Author: Charles Dickens
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âWe are going to be married, Cobbs, at Gretna Green,â returned the boy. âWe have run away on purpose. Norah has been in rather low spirits, Cobbs; but sheâll be happy, now we have found you to be our friend.â
âThank you, sir, and thank you, miss,â says Cobbs, âfor your good opinion. Did you bring any luggage with you, sir?â
If I will believe Boots when he gives me his word and honour upon it, the lady had got a parasol, a smelling-bottle, a round and a half of cold buttered toast, eight peppermint drops, and a hair-brush,âseemingly a dollâs. The gentleman had got about half a dozen yards of string, a knife, three or four sheets of writing-paper folded up surprising small, a orange, and a Chaney mug with his name upon it.
âWhat may be the exact natur of your plans, sir?â says Cobbs.
âTo go on,â replied the boy,âwhich the courage of that boy was something wonderful!ââin the morning, and be married to-morrow.â
âJust so, sir,â says Cobbs. âWould it meet your views, sir, if I was to accompany you?â
When Cobbs said this, they both jumped for joy again, and cried out, âOh, yes, yes, Cobbs! Yes!â
âWell, sir,â says Cobbs. âIf you will excuse my having the freedom to give an opinion, what I should recommend would be this. Iâm acquainted with a pony, sir, which, put in a pheayton that I could borrow, would take you and Mrs. Harry Walmers, Junior, (myself driving, if you approved,) to the end of your journey in a very short space of time. I am not altogether sure, sir, that this pony will be at liberty to-morrow, but even if you had to wait over to-morrow for him, it might be worth your while. As to the small account here, sir, in case you was to find yourself running at all short, that donât signify; because Iâm a part proprietor of this inn, and it could stand over.â
Boots assures me that when they clapped their hands, and jumped for joy again, and called him âGood Cobbs!â and âDear Cobbs!â and bent across him to kiss one another in the delight of their confiding hearts, he felt himself the meanest rascal for deceiving âem that ever was born.
âIs there anything you want just at present, sir?â says Cobbs, mortally ashamed of himself.
âWe should like some cakes after dinner,â answered Master Harry, folding his arms, putting out one leg, and looking straight at him, âand two apples,âand jam. With dinner we should like to have toast-and-water. But Norah has always been accustomed to half a glass of currant wine at dessert. And so have I.â
âIt shall be ordered at the bar, sir,â says Cobbs; and away he went.
Boots has the feeling as fresh upon him at this minute of speaking as he had then, that he would far rather have had it out in half-a- dozen rounds with the Governor than have combined with him; and that he wished with all his heart there was any impossible place where those two babies could make an impossible marriage, and live impossibly happy ever afterwards. However, as it couldnât be, he went into the Governorâs plans, and the Governor set off for York in half an hour.
The way in which the women of that houseâwithout exceptionâevery one of âemâmarried and singleâtook to that boy when they heard the story, Boots considers surprising. It was as much as he could do to keep âem from dashing into the room and kissing him. They climbed up all sorts of places, at the risk of their lives, to look at him through a pane of glass. They was seven deep at the keyhole. They was out of their minds about him and his bold spirit.
In the evening, Boots went into the room to see how the runaway couple was getting on. The gentleman was on the window-seat, supporting the lady in his arms. She had tears upon her face, and was lying, very tired and half asleep, with her head upon his shoulder.
âMrs. Harry Walmers, Junior, fatigued, sir?â says Cobbs.
âYes, she is tired, Cobbs; but she is not used to be away from home, and she has been in low spirits again. Cobbs, do you think you could bring a biffin, please?â
âI ask your pardon, sir,â says Cobbs. âWhat was it youâ?â
âI think a Norfolk biffin would rouse her, Cobbs. She is very fond of them.â
Boots withdrew in search of the required restorative, and when he brought it in, the gentleman handed it to the lady, and fed her with a spoon, and took a little himself; the lady being heavy with sleep, and rather cross. âWhat should you think, sir,â says Cobbs, âof a chamber candlestick?â The gentleman approved; the chambermaid went first, up the great staircase; the lady, in her sky-blue mantle, followed, gallantly escorted by the gentleman; the gentleman embraced her at her door, and retired to his own apartment, where Boots softly locked him up.
Boots couldnât but feel with increased acuteness what a base deceiver he was, when they consulted him at breakfast (they had ordered sweet milk-and-water, and toast and currant jelly, overnight) about the pony. It really was as much as he could do, he donât mind confessing to me, to look them two young things in the face, and think what a wicked old father of lies he had grown up to be. Howsomever, he went on a lying like a Trojan about the pony. He told âem that it did so unfortunately happen that the pony was half clipped, you see, and that he couldnât be taken out in that state, for fear it should strike to his inside. But that heâd be finished clipping in the course of the day, and that to-morrow morning at eight oâclock the pheayton would be ready. Bootsâs view of the whole case, looking back on it in my room, is, that Mrs. Harry Walmers, Junior, was beginning to give in. She hadnât had her hair curled when she went to bed, and she didnât seem quite up to brushing it herself, and its getting in her eyes put her out. But nothing put out Master Harry. He sat behind his breakfast-cup, a tearing away at the jelly, as if he had been his own father.
After breakfast, Boots is inclined to consider that they drawed soldiers,âat least, he knows that many such was found in the fire-place, all on horseback. In the course of the morning, Master Harry rang the bell,âit was surprising how that there boy did carry on,â and said, in a sprightly way, âCobbs, is there any good walks in this neighbourhood?â
âYes, sir,â says Cobbs. âThereâs Love Lane.â
âGet out with you, Cobbs!ââthat was that there boyâs expression,â âyouâre joking.â
âBegging your pardon, sir,â says Cobbs, âthere really is Love Lane. And a pleasant walk it is, and proud shall I be to show it to yourself and Mrs. Harry Walmers, Junior.â
âNorah, dear,â said Master Harry, âthis is curious. We really ought to see Love Lane. Put on your bonnet, my sweetest darling, and we will go there with Cobbs.â
Boots leaves me to judge what a Beast he felt himself to be, when that young pair told him, as they all three jogged along together, that they had made up their minds to give him two thousand guineas a year as head-gardener, on accounts of his being so true a friend to âem. Boots could have wished at the moment that the earth would have opened and swallowed him up, he felt so mean, with their beaming eyes a looking at him, and believing him. Well, sir, he turned the conversation as well as he could, and he took âem down Love Lane to the water-meadows, and there Master Harry would have drowned himself in half a moment more, a getting out a water-lily for her,âbut nothing daunted that boy. Well, sir, they was tired out. All being so new and strange to âem, they was tired as tired could be. And they laid down on a bank of daisies, like the children in the wood, leastways meadows, and fell asleep.
Boots donât knowâperhaps I do,âbut never mind, it donât signify either wayâwhy it made a man fit to make a fool of himself to see them two pretty babies a lying there in the clear still sunny day, not dreaming half so hard when they was asleep as they done when they was awake. But, Lord! when you come to think of yourself, you know, and what a game you have been up to ever since you was in your own cradle, and what a poor sort of a chap you are, and how itâs always either Yesterday with you, or else To-morrow, and never To-day, thatâs where it is!
Well, sir, they woke up at last, and then one thing was getting pretty clear to Boots, namely, that Mrs. Harry Walmerses, Juniorâs, temper was on the move. When Master Harry took her round the waist, she said he âteased her so;â and when he says, âNorah, my young May Moon, your Harry tease you?â she tells him, âYes; and I want to go home!â
A biled fowl, and baked bread-and-butter pudding, brought Mrs. Walmers up a little; but Boots could have wished, he must privately own to me, to have seen her more sensible of the woice of love, and less abandoning of herself to currants. However, Master Harry, he kept up, and his noble heart was as fond as ever. Mrs. Walmers turned very sleepy about dusk, and began to cry. Therefore, Mrs. Walmers went off to bed as per yesterday; and Master Harry ditto repeated.
About eleven or twelve at night comes back the Governor in a chaise, along with Mr. Walmers and a elderly lady. Mr. Walmers looks amused and very serious, both at once, and says to our missis, âWe are much indebted to you, maâam, for your kind care of our little children, which we can never sufficiently acknowledge. Pray, maâam, where is my boy?â Our missis says, âCobbs has the dear child in charge, sir. Cobbs, show Forty!â Then he says to Cobbs, âAh, Cobbs, I am glad to see you! I understood you was here!â And Cobbs says, âYes, sir. Your most obedient, sir.â
I may be surprised to hear Boots say it, perhaps; but Boots assures me that his heart beat like a hammer, going up-stairs. âI beg your pardon, sir,â says he, while unlocking the door; âI hope you are not angry with Master Harry. For Master Harry is a fine boy, sir, and will do you credit and honour.â And Boots signifies to me, that, if the fine boyâs father had contradicted him in the daring state of mind in which he then was, he thinks he should have âfetched him a crack,â and taken the consequences.
But Mr. Walmers only says, âNo, Cobbs. No, my good fellow. Thank you!â And, the door being opened, goes in.
Boots goes in too, holding the light, and he sees Mr. Walmers go up to the bedside, bend gently down, and kiss the little sleeping face. Then he stands looking at it for a minute, looking wonderfully like it (they do say he ran away with Mrs. Walmers); and then he gently shakes the little shoulder.
âHarry, my dear boy! Harry!â
Master Harry starts up and looks at him. Looks at Cobbs too. Such is the honour of that mite, that he looks at Cobbs, to see whether he has brought him into trouble.
âI am not angry, my child. I only want you to dress yourself and come home.â
âYes, pa.â
Master Harry dresses himself quickly. His breast begins to swell when he has nearly finished, and it
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