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took him to the hunt to sell him for me the other day, and after hed made a bargain for a hundred and twenty with Bryce, he went after the hounds, and took some fools leap or other that did for the horse at once. If it hadnt been for that, I should have paid you a hundred pounds this morning. The Squire had laid down his knife and fork, and was staring at his son in amazement, not being sufficiently quick of brain to form a probable guess as to what could have caused so strange an inversion of the paternal and filial relations as this proposition of his son to pay him a hundred pounds. The truth is, sirIm very sorryI was quite to blame, said Godfrey. Fowler did pay that hundred pounds. He paid it to me when I was over there one day last month. And Dunsey bothered me for the money, and I let him have it, because I hoped I should be able to pay it you before this. The Squire was purple with anger before his son had done speaking, and found utterance difficult. You let Dunsey have it, sir? And how long have you been so thick with Dunsey that you must collogue with him to embezzle my money? Are you turning out a scamp? I tell you I wont have it. Ill turn the whole pack of you out of the house together, and marry again. Id have you to remember, sir, my propertys got no entail on it; since my grandfathers time the Casses can do as they like with their land. Remember that, sir. Let Dunsey have the money! Why should you let Dunsey have the money? Theres some lie at the bottom of it. Theres no lie, sir, said Godfrey. I wouldnt have spent the money myself; but Dunsey bothered me, and I was a fool, and let him have it. But I meant to pay it, whether he did or not. Thats the whole story. I never meant to embezzle money, and Im not the man to do it. You never knew me do a dishonest trick, sir. Wheres Dunsey, then? What do you stand talking there for? Go and fetch Dunsey, as I tell you, and let him give account of what he wanted the money for and what hes done with it. He shall repent it. Ill turn him out. I said I would, and Ill do it. He shant brave me. Go and fetch him. Dunsey isnt come back, sir. What! did he break his own neck, then? said the Squire, with some disgust at the idea that in that case he could not fulfil his threat. No, he wasnt hurt, I believe, for the horse was found dead, and Dunsey must have walked off. I dare say we shall see him again by-and-by. I dont know where he is. And what must you be letting him have my money for? Answer me that, said the Squire, attacking Godfrey again, since Dunsey was not within reach. Well, sir, I dont know, said Godfrey hesitatingly. That was a feeble evasion; but Godfrey was not fond of lying, and not being sufficiently aware that no sort of duplicity can long flourish without the help of vocal falsehoods, he was quite unprepared with invented motives. You dont know? I tell you what it is, sir. Youve been up to some trick, and youve been bribing him not to tell, said the Squire, with a sudden acutenes which startled Godfrey, who felt his heart beat violently at the nearness of his fathers guess. The sudden alarm pushed him on to take the next step; a very slight impulse suffices for that on a downward road. Why, sir, he said, trying to speak with careless ease, it was a little affair between me and Dunsey; its no matter to anybody else. Its hardly worth while to pry into young mens fooleries; it wouldnt have made any difference to you, sir, if Id not had the bad luck to lose Wildfire. I should have paid you the money. Fooleries! Pshaw! its time youd done with fooleries. And Id have you know, sir, you must ha done with em, said the Squire, frowning and casting an angry glance at his son. Your goings-on are not |
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