Silas Marner George Eliot (christmas read aloud .TXT) š
- Author: George Eliot
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What was he to do this evening to pass the time? He might as well go to the Rainbow, and hear the talk about the cockfighting: everybody was there, and what else was there to be done? Though, for his own part, he did not care a button for cockfighting. Snuff, the brown spaniel, who had placed herself in front of him, and had been watching him for some time, now jumped up in impatience for the expected caress. But Godfrey thrust her away without looking at her, and left the room, followed humbly by the unresenting Snuffā āperhaps because she saw no other career open to her.
IVDunstan Cass, setting off in the raw morning, at the judiciously quiet pace of a man who is obliged to ride to cover on his hunter, had to take his way along the lane which, at its farther extremity, passed by the piece of unenclosed ground called the Stone-pit, where stood the cottage, once a stonecutterās shed, now for fifteen years inhabited by Silas Marner. The spot looked very dreary at this season, with the moist trodden clay about it, and the red, muddy water high up in the deserted quarry. That was Dunstanās first thought as he approached it; the second was, that the old fool of a weaver, whose loom he heard rattling already, had a great deal of money hidden somewhere. How was it that he, Dunstan Cass, who had often heard talk of Marnerās miserliness, had never thought of suggesting to Godfrey that he should frighten or persuade the old fellow into lending the money on the excellent security of the young Squireās prospects? The resource occurred to him now as so easy and agreeable, especially as Marnerās hoard was likely to be large enough to leave Godfrey a handsome surplus beyond his immediate needs, and enable him to accommodate his faithful brother, that he had almost turned the horseās head towards home again. Godfrey would be ready enough to accept the suggestion: he would snatch eagerly at a plan that might save him from parting with Wildfire. But when Dunstanās meditation reached this point, the inclination to go on grew strong and prevailed. He didnāt want to give Godfrey that pleasure: he preferred that Master Godfrey should be vexed. Moreover, Dunstan enjoyed the self-important consciousness of having a horse to sell, and the opportunity of driving a bargain, swaggering, and possibly taking somebody in. He might have all the satisfaction attendant on selling his brotherās horse, and not the less have the further satisfaction of setting Godfrey to borrow Marnerās money. So he rode on to cover.
Bryce and Keating were there, as Dunstan was quite sure they would beā āhe was such a lucky fellow.
āHeyday!ā said Bryce, who had long had his eye on Wildfire, āyouāre on your brotherās horse today: howās that?ā
āOh, Iāve swapped with him,ā said Dunstan, whose delight in lying, grandly independent of utility, was not to be diminished by the likelihood that his hearer would not believe himā āāWildfireās mine now.ā
āWhat! has he swapped with you for that big-boned hack of yours?ā said Bryce, quite aware that he should get another lie in answer.
āOh, there was a little account between us,ā said Dunsey, carelessly, āand Wildfire made it even. I accommodated him by taking the horse, though it was against my will, for Iād got an itch for a mare oā Jortināsā āas rare a bit oā blood as ever you threw your leg across. But I shall keep Wildfire, now Iāve got him, though Iād a bid of a hundred and fifty for him the other day, from a man over at Flittonā āheās buying for Lord Cromleckā āa fellow with a cast in his eye, and a green waistcoat. But I mean to stick to Wildfire: I shanāt get a better at a fence in a hurry. The mareās got more blood, but sheās a bit too weak in the hindquarters.ā
Bryce of course divined that Dunstan wanted to sell the horse, and Dunstan knew that he divined it (horse-dealing is only one of many human transactions carried on in this ingenious manner); and they both considered that the bargain was in its first stage, when Bryce replied ironicallyā ā
āI wonder at that now; I wonder you mean to keep him; for I never heard of a man who didnāt want to sell his horse getting a bid of half as much again as the horse was worth. Youāll be lucky if you get a hundred.ā
Keating rode up now, and the transaction became more complicated. It ended in the purchase of the horse by Bryce for a hundred and twenty, to be paid on the delivery of Wildfire, safe and sound, at the Batherley stables. It did occur to Dunsey that it might be wise for
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