Silas Marner George Eliot (christmas read aloud .TXT) đ
- Author: George Eliot
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At that moment there was a knocking at the door; and Eppie was obliged to rise without answering Silas. Beautiful she looked, with the tenderness of gathering tears in her eyes and a slight flush on her cheeks, as she stepped to open the door. The flush deepened when she saw Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Cass. She made her little rustic curtsy, and held the door wide for them to enter.
âWeâre disturbing you very late, my dear,â said Mrs. Cass, taking Eppieâs hand, and looking in her face with an expression of anxious interest and admiration. Nancy herself was pale and tremulous.
Eppie, after placing chairs for Mr. and Mrs. Cass, went to stand against Silas, opposite to them.
âWell, Marner,â said Godfrey, trying to speak with perfect firmness, âitâs a great comfort to me to see you with your money again, that youâve been deprived of so many years. It was one of my family did you the wrongâ âthe more grief to meâ âand I feel bound to make up to you for it in every way. Whatever I can do for you will be nothing but paying a debt, even if I looked no further than the robbery. But there are other things Iâm beholdenâ âshall be beholden to you for, Marner.â
Godfrey checked himself. It had been agreed between him and his wife that the subject of his fatherhood should be approached very carefully, and that, if possible, the disclosure should be reserved for the future, so that it might be made to Eppie gradually. Nancy had urged this, because she felt strongly the painful light in which Eppie must inevitably see the relation between her father and mother.
Silas, always ill at ease when he was being spoken to by âbetters,â such as Mr. Cassâ âtall, powerful, florid men, seen chiefly on horsebackâ âanswered with some constraintâ â
âSir, Iâve a deal to thank you for aâready. As for the robbery, I count it no loss to me. And if I did, you couldnât help it: you arenât answerable for it.â
âYou may look at it in that way, Marner, but I never can; and I hope youâll let me act according to my own feeling of whatâs just. I know youâre easily contented: youâve been a hardworking man all your life.â
âYes, sir, yes,â said Marner, meditatively. âI should haâ been bad off without my work: it was what I held by when everything else was gone from me.â
âAh,â said Godfrey, applying Marnerâs words simply to his bodily wants, âit was a good trade for you in this country, because thereâs been a great deal of linen-weaving to be done. But youâre getting rather past such close work, Marner: itâs time you laid by and had some rest. You look a good deal pulled down, though youâre not an old man, are you?â
âFifty-five, as near as I can say, sir,â said Silas.
âOh, why, you may live thirty years longerâ âlook at old Macey! And that money on the table, after all, is but little. It wonât go far either wayâ âwhether itâs put out to interest, or you were to live on it as long as it would last: it wouldnât go far if youâd nobody to keep but yourself, and youâve had two to keep for a good many years now.â
âEh, sir,â said Silas, unaffected by anything Godfrey was saying, âIâm in no fear oâ want. We shall do very wellâ âEppie and me âull do well enough. Thereâs few working-folks have got so much laid by as that. I donât know what it is to gentlefolks, but I look upon it as a dealâ âalmost too much. And as for us, itâs little we want.â
âOnly the garden, father,â said Eppie, blushing up to the ears the moment after.
âYou love a garden, do you, my dear?â said Nancy, thinking that this turn in the point of view might help her husband. âWe should agree in that: I give a deal of time to the garden.â
âAh, thereâs plenty of gardening at the Red House,â said Godfrey, surprised at the difficulty he found in approaching a proposition which had seemed so easy to him in the distance. âYouâve done a good part by Eppie, Marner, for sixteen years. It âud be a great comfort to you to see her well provided for, wouldnât it? She looks blooming and healthy, but not fit for any hardships: she doesnât look like a strapping girl come of working parents. Youâd like to see her taken care of by those who can leave her well off, and make a lady of her; sheâs more fit for it than for a rough life, such as she might come to have in a few yearsâ time.â
A slight flush came over Marnerâs face, and disappeared, like a passing gleam. Eppie was simply wondering Mr. Cass should talk so about things that seemed to have nothing to do with reality; but Silas was hurt and uneasy.
âI donât take your meaning, sir,â he answered, not having words at command to express the mingled feelings with which he had heard Mr. Cassâs words.
âWell, my meaning is this, Marner,â said Godfrey, determined to come to the point. âMrs. Cass and I, you know, have no childrenâ ânobody to benefit by our good home and everything else we haveâ âmore than enough for ourselves. And we should like to have somebody in the place of a daughter to usâ âwe should like to have Eppie, and treat her in every way as our own child. It âud be a great comfort to you in your old age, I hope, to see her fortune made in that way, after youâve been at the trouble of bringing her up so well. And itâs right you should have every reward for that. And Eppie, Iâm sure, will always love you and be grateful to you: sheâd come and
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