Page:The Toll of the Bush.pdf/93

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VII
FLETCHER READS HIS LETTERS
77

close under the window. His mind disturbed by these movements, Mr. Fletcher turned his face from the window, and his eye fell on a text pinned to the wall: ‘Be merciful, and thou shalt obtain mercy,’ said the text in bold black letter.

Mr. Fletcher tore the local note across, and going to the fireplace, he put a match to it, and watched the pale flame curl up around it. A knock came to the door, instantly followed by the appearance of a lad of eighteen—the youngest hope of the MaHow family—who looked curiously at the burning paper in the grate.

‘Your horse is ready, Mr. Fletcher,’ he said.

The minister hesitated, thrust the other letter into his pocket, and taking his hat and riding whip from the wall, followed the boy out in silence.

Winnie had not anticipated Mr. Fletcher’s stay in his study would be so brief, and she had gone up the bank to the well; but Mabel, who was on the watch, heard him and came out. ‘What time shall you be back, Mr. Fletcher?’ she asked.

‘Probably not till this evening,’ was the reply; ‘but I do not wish the household arrangements disturbed on my account at any time.’

‘Poor Winnie is sorry for what she said,’ Mabel continued in a lower voice. ‘She hopes you will forgive her, and not be angry.’

‘It was a highly improper remark,’ Mr. Fletcher returned, with a partial recrudescence of his colder manner; ‘both because it was uncharitable and also because it was untrue.’ He looked searchingly at her as he spoke.

‘It was untrue,’ Mabel admitted, ‘if it suggested

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