"gp46w10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Parker Gilbert)

Belward was impatient, and to hurry the story he made as if to start on.
Becky, seeing, hastened. "Dear a' dear! The red-top were afore him, and
I tryin' to make what become to him. He throws arm 'round me, smacks me
on the cheek, and says he: 'Tell Jock to keep the mare, Becky.' Then he
flings away, and never more comes back to the Court. And that day one
year my Jock smacks me on the cheek, and gets on the mare; and when I
ask: 'Where be goin'?' he says: 'For a hunt i' hell wi' Maister Robert,
mother.' And from that day come back he never did, nor any word. There
was trouble wi' the lad-wi' him and Maister Robert at the Court; but I
never knowed nowt o' the truth. And it's seven-and-twenty years since
Maister Robert went."

Gaston leaned over his horse's neck, and thrust a piece of silver into
the woman's hands.

"Take that, Becky Lawson, and mop your eyes no more."

She gaped.

"How dost know my name is Becky Lawson? I havena been ca'd so these
three-and-twenty years--not since a' married good man here, and put
Jock's faither in 's grave yander."

"The devil told me," he answered, with a strange laugh, and, spurring,
they were quickly out of sight. They rode for a couple of miles without
speaking. Jacques knew his master, and did not break the silence.
Presently they came over a hill, and down upon a little bridge. Belward
drew rein, and looked up the valley. About two miles beyond the roofs
and turrets of the Court showed above the trees. A whimsical smile came
to his lips.

"Brillon," he said, "I'm in sight of home."

The half-breed cocked his head. It was the first time that Belward had
called him "Brillon"--he had ever been "Jacques." This was to be a part
of the new life. They were not now hunting elk, riding to "wipe out" a
camp of Indians or navvies, dining the owner of a rancho or a deputation
from a prairie constituency in search of a member, nor yet with a senator
at Washington, who served tea with canvas-back duck and tooth-picks with
dessert. Once before had Jacques seen this new manner--when Belward
visited Parliament House at Ottawa, and was presented to some notable
English people, visitors to Canada. It had come to these notable folk
that Mr. Gaston Belward had relations at Ridley Court, and that of itself
was enough to command courtesy. But presently, they who would be
gracious for the family's sake, were gracious for the man's. He had that
which compelled interest--a suggestive, personal, distinguished air.
Jacques knew his master better than any one else knew him; and yet he
knew little, for Belward was of those who seem to give much confidence,
and yet give little--never more than he wished.