It
was kind of you, and I am bound to be thankful. Take her back news of
the mortgage; and, as for you, leave my house. You may go scot-free this
time; but I pledge my word for a sound beating when you next enter these
doors. I'll pay it to you with interest. Leave my house, I say!" "A mortgage," said I, in a low voice, and affecting not to hear his
commands; "that will be sad news for my friend. Why, sir, you are a
fortunate man. Malverton is an excellent spot; well watered and manured;
newly and completely fenced; not a larger barn in the county; oxen and
horses and cows in the best order; I never set eyes on a finer orchard. By my faith, sir, you are a fortunate man. But, pray, what have you for
dinner? I am hungry as a wolf. Order me a beef-steak, and some potation
or other. The bottle there,--it is cider, I take it; pray, push it to
this side." Saying this, I stretched out my hand towards the bottle
which stood before him. I confided in the power of a fearless and sedate manner. Methought
that, as anger was the food of anger, it must unavoidably subside in a
contest with equability. This opinion was intuitive, rather than the
product of experience, and perhaps I gave no proof of my sagacity in
hazarding my safety on its truth. Hadwin's character made him dreaded
and obeyed by all. He had been accustomed to ready and tremulous
submission from men far more brawny and robust than I was, and to find
his most vehement menaces and gestures totally ineffectual on a being so
slender and diminutive at once wound up his rage and excited his
astonishment. One motion counteracted and suspended the other. He lifted
his hand, but delayed to strike. One blow, applied with his usual
dexterity, was sufficient to destroy me. Though seemingly careless, I
was watchful of his motions, and prepared to elude the stroke by
shrinking or stooping. Meanwhile, I stretched my hand far enough to
seize the bottle, and, pouring its contents into a tumbler, put it to my
lips:--

"Come, sir, I drink your health, and wish you speedy possession of
Malverton. I have some interest with Eliza, and will prevail on her to
forbear all opposition and complaint. Why should she complain? While I
live, she shall not be a beggar. No doubt your claim is legal, and
therefore ought to be admitted. What the law gave, the law has taken
away. Blessed be the dispensers of law! Excellent cider! open another
bottle, will you, and, I beseech, hasten dinner, if you would not see me
devour the table." It was just, perhaps, to conjure up the demon avarice to fight with the
demon anger. Reason alone would, in such a contest, be powerless, but,
in truth, I spoke without artifice or disguise. If his claim were legal,
opposition would be absurd and pernicious. I meant not to rely upon his
own assertions, and would not acknowledge the validity of his claim till
I had inspected the deed. Having instituted suits, this was now in a
public office, and there the inspection should be made. Meanwhile, no
reason could be urged why I should part from him in anger, while his
kindred to Eliza, and his title to her property, made it useful to
secure his favour. It was possible to obtain a remission of his claims,
even when the law enforced them; it would be imprudent at least to
diminish the chances of remission by fostering his wrath and provoking
his enmity. "What!" he exclaimed, in a transport of fury, "a'n't I master of my own
house? Out, I say!" These were harsh terms, but they were not accompanied by gestures and
tones so menacing as those which had before been used. It was plain that
the tide, which so lately threatened my destruction, had begun to
recede. This encouraged me to persist. "Be not alarmed, my good friend," said I, placidly and smiling. "A man
of your bone need not fear a pigmy like me. I shall scarcely be able to
dethrone you in your own castle, with an army of hostlers, tapsters, and
cooks at your beck. You shall still be master here, provided you use
your influence to procure me a dinner." His acquiescence in a pacific system was extremely reluctant and
gradual. He laid aside one sullen tone and wrathful look after the
other; and, at length, consented not only to supply me with a dinner,
but to partake of it with me. Nothing was more a topic of surprise to
himself than his forbearance. He knew not how it was. He had never been
treated so before. He was not proof against entreaty and submission; but
I had neither supplicated nor submitted. The stuff that I was made of
was at once damnably tough and devilishly pliant. When he thought of my
impudence, in staying in his house after he had bade me leave it, he was
tempted to resume his passion. When he reflected on my courage, in
making light of his anger, notwithstanding his known impetuosity and my
personal inferiority, he could not withhold his esteem. But my patience
under his rebukes, my unalterable equanimity, and my ready consent to
the validity of his claims, soothed and propitiated him. An exemption from blows and abuse was all that I could gain from this
man. I told him the truth, with regard to my own history, so far as it
was connected with the Hadwins. I exhibited, in affecting colours, the
helpless condition of Eliza; but could extort from him nothing but his
consent that, if she chose, she might come and live with him. He would
give her victuals and clothes for so much house-work as she was able to
do. If she chose to live elsewhere, he promised not to molest her, or
intermeddle in her concerns. The house and land were his by law, and he
would have them. It was not my province to revile or expostulate with him. I stated what
measures would be adopted by a man who regarded the interest of others
more than his own; who was anxious for the welfare of an innocent girl,
connected with him so closely by the ties of kindred, and who was
destitute of what is called natural friends. If he did not cancel, for
her sake, his bond and mortgage, he would, at least, afford her a frugal
maintenance. He would extend to her, in all emergencies, his counsel and
protection. All that, he said, was sheer nonsense. He could not sufficiently wonder
at my folly, in proposing to him to make a free gift of a hundred rich
acres, to a girl too who scarcely knew her right hand from her left;
whom the first cunning young rogue like myself would _chouse_ out of the
whole, and take herself into the bargain. But my folly was even
surpassed by my impudence, since, as the _friend_ of this girl, I was
merely petitioning on my own account. I had come to him, whom I never
saw before, on whom I had no claim, and who, as I well knew, had reason
to think me a sharper, and modestly said, "Here's a girl who has no
fortune. I am greatly in want of one. Pray, give her such an estate that
you have in your possession. If you do, I'll marry her, and take it into
my own hands." I might be thankful that he did not answer such a
petition with a horse-whipping.