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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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943 ‘A fool of me!’ exclaimed Arthur. ‘Trust your old master not to be fooled by pretty faces, Peg; no, no, no--nor by ugly ones neither, Mrs Sliderskew,’ he softly added by way of soliloquy. ‘You’re a saying something you don’t want me to hear,’ said Peg; ‘I know you are.’ ‘Oh dear! the devil’s in this woman,’ muttered Arthur; adding with an ugly leer, ‘I said I trusted everything to you, Peg. That was all.’ ‘You do that, master, and all your cares are over,’ said Peg approvingly. ‘When I do that, Peg Sliderskew,’ thought Arthur Gride, ‘they will be.’ Although he thought this very distinctly, he durst not move his lips lest the old woman should detect him. He even seemed half afraid that she might have read his thoughts; for he leered coaxingly upon her, as he said aloud: ‘Take up all loose stitches in the bottle-green with the best black silk. Have a skein of the best, and some new buttons for the coat, and--this is a good idea, Peg, and one you’ll like, I know--as I have never given her anything yet, and girls like such attentions, you shall polish up a sparking necklace that I have got upstairs, and I’ll give it her upon the wedding morning--clasp it round her charming little neck myself--and take it away again next day. He, he, he! I’ll lock it up for her, Peg, and lose it. Who’ll be made the fool of there, I wonder, to begin with--eh, Peg?’ Mrs Sliderskew appeared to approve highly of this ingenious scheme, and expressed her satisfaction by various rackings and twitchings of her head and body, which by no means enhanced her charms. These she prolonged until she had hobbled to the door, |
