God's Good Man - Marie Corelli (i want to read a book .txt) š
- Author: Marie Corelli
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āThat will do, Bob!āthat will do! You must learn not to repeat all you hear, especially such objectionable words as may occasionally be used by aāa--a gentleman of Sir Morton Pippittās high standing.ā
And here he squared his shoulders and looked severely down an the abashed Keeley. Anon he unbent himself somewhat and his eyes twinkled with kindly humour: āWhy didnāt you bring the Maypole here?ā he enquired; āI suppose you thought it would not be as good a āspec as Badsworth Hall and the London gentsāeh?ā
Bob Keeley opened his round eyes very wide.
āWe be all cominā āere, sir!ā he burst out: āAll on usāever so many on us! But we reckoned to make a round of the village first and see how we took on, and finish up wiā you, sir! Kitty Spruce she be a- keepinā her best ribbin for cominā āereāwe be all a-cominā āfore twelve!ā
Walden smiled.
āGood! I shall expect you! And mind you donāt all sing out of tune when you do come. If you commit such an offence, I shallālet me see!āI shall make mincemeat of you!āI shall indeed! Positive mincemeat!āand bottle you up in jars for Christmas!ā And he nodded with the ferociously bland air of the giant in a fairy tale, whose particular humour is the devouring of small children. āNow you had better get back to Badsworth Hall with my message. Do you remember it? My compliments to Sir Morton Pippitt, and I will write.ā
He turned away, and Bob Keeley made as rapid a departure as was consistent with the deep respect he felt for the āPasson,ā having extracted a promise from the butcher boy of the village, who was a friend of his, that if he were āquick about it,ā he would get a drive up to Badsworth and back again in the butcherās cart going there for orders, instead of tramping it.
The Reverend John, meanwhile, strolled down one of the many winding garden paths, past clusters of daffodils, narcissi and primroses, into a favourite corner which he called the āWilderness,ā because it was left by his orders in a more or less untrimmed, untrained condition of luxuriantly natural growth. Here the syringa, a name sometimes given by horticultural pedants to the lilac, for no reason at all except to create confusion in the innocent minds of amateur growers, was opening its white āmock orangeā blossoms, and a mass of flowering aconites spread out before him like a carpet of woven gold. Here, too, tufts of bluebells peeked forth from behind the moss-grown stems of several ancient oaks and elms, and purple pansies bordered the edge of the grass. A fine old wistaria grown in tree-form, formed a natural arch of entry to this shady retreat, and its flowers were just now in their full beauty, hanging in a magnificent profusion of pale mauve, grapelike bunches from the leafless stems. Many roses, of the climbing or āramblingā kind, were planted here, and John Waldenās quick eye soon perceived where a long green shoot of one of those was loose and waving in the wind to its own possible detriment. He felt in his pockets for a bit of roffia or twine to tie up the straying stem,āhe was very seldom without something of the kind for such emergencies, but this time he only groped among the fragments of Sir Morton Pippittās note and found nothing useful. Stepping out on the path again, he looked about him and caught a glimpse of a stooping, bulky form in weather- beaten garments, planting something in one of the borders at a little distance.
āBainton!ā he called.
The figure slowly raised itself, and as slowly turned its head.
āSir!ā
āJust come here and tie this rose up, will you?ā
The individual addressed approached at a very deliberate pace, dragging out some entangled roffia from his pocket as he came and severing it into lengths with his teeth. Walden partly prepared his task for him by holding up the rose branch in the way it should go, and on his arrival assisted him in the business of securing it to the knotty bough from which it had fallen.
āThat looks better!ā he remarked approvingly, as he stepped back and surveyed it. āYou might do this one at the same time while you are about it, Bainton.ā
And he pointed to a network of āCrimson ramblerā rose-stems which had blown loose from their moorings and were lying across the grass.
āThis place wants a regāler clean out,ā remarked Bainton then, in accents of deep disdain, as he stooped to gather up the refractory branches: āIt beats me altogether, Passon, to know what you wants wiā a forcinā bed for weeds anā stuff in the middle of a decent garden. That old Wistaria Sinyens (Sinensis) is the only thing here that is worth keeping. Ah! Yāare a precious sight, yāare!ā he continued, apostrophising the āramblerā branchesāāFor all yer green buds ye aināt a-goinā to do much this year! All sham anā āumbug, yāare!āall leaf anā shoot anā no flower,ālike a great many people I knows onāah!āanā not so far from this village neither! Iād clear it all out if I was you, Passon,āI would reely now!ā
Walden laughed.
āDonāt open the old argument, Bainton!ā he said good-humouredly; āWe have talked of this before. I like a bit of wild Nature sometimes.ā
āWild natur!ā echoed Bainton. āSeems to me natur allus wants a bit of a wash anā brush up āfore she sits down to her masterās table;ā anā whoās āer master? Man! Sheās jest like a child cominā out of a play in the woods, anā āer āairās all blown, anā āer nails is all dirty. Thatās natur! Trim āer up anā curl āer āair anā sheās worth looking at. Natur! Lorā, Passon, if ye likes wild natur ye aināt got no call to keep a gardāner. But if ye pays me anā keeps me, ye must āspect me to do my duty. Wherefore I sez: why not āave this āere musty-fusty place, a regāler breedinā āole for hinsects, wopses, āornits, snails anā green caterpillarsāah! anā I shouldnāt wonder if potato-fly got amongst āem, too!āwhy not, I say, have it cleaned out?ā
āI like it as it is,ā responded Walden with cheerful imperturbability, and a smile at the thick-set obstinate-looking figure of his āhead man about the placeā as Bainton loved to be called. āHave you planted out my phloxes?ā
āPlanted āem out every one,ā was the reply; āLikewhich the Delphy Inums. Anā Iāve put enough sweet peas in to supply Covint Garden market, bearinā in mind as āow you sed you couldnāt have enough on āem. Sir Morton Pippittās Lunnon valet came along while I was a- doinā of it, anā āe peers over the āedge anā āe sez, sez āe: āWeedinā corn, are yer?ā āNo, ye gowk,ā sez I! āEver seen corn at all ācept in a bin? Mixed wiā thistles, mebbe?ā Anā then he used a bit of āis masterās orānary language, which as ye knows, Passon, is chiceāparticāler chice. āEvil communications cārupts good mannersā even in a valet wot āas no more to do than wash anā comb a man like a āoss, anā pocket fifty pun a year for keepinā of āis haristocratic master clean. Lorā!āwhat a wurrld it is!āwhat a wurrld!ā
He had by this time tied up the āCrimson ramblerā in orderly fashion, and the Reverend John, stroking his moustache to hide a smile, proceeded to issue various orders according to his usual daily custom.
āDonāt forget to plant some mignonette in the west border, Bainton. Not the giant kind,āthe odour of the large blooms is rough and coarse compared with that of the smaller variety. Put plenty of the ācommon stuffā in,āsuch mignonette as our grandmothers grew in their gardens, before you Latin-loving horticultural wise-acres began to try for size rather than sweetness.ā
Bainton drew himself up with a quaint assumption of dignity, and by lifting his head a little more, showed his countenance fully,āa countenance which, though weather-worn and deeply furrowed, was a distinctly intelligent one, shrewd and thoughtful, with sundry little curves of humour lighting up its native expression of saturnine sedateness.
āI suppose yāare alludinā to the F.R.H.ās, Passon,ā he said; āThey all loves Latin, as cats loves milk; howsomever, they never knows āow to pronounce it. Likewhich myself not beinā a F.R.H. nor likely to be, Iām bound to confess I dabbles in it a bit,āthough thereās a chap wot I gets cheap shrubs of, his Latinās worse nor mine, anā āeās got all the three letters after āis name. āOw did āe get āem? By reason of competition in the Chrysanthum Show. Lorā! Henny fool can grow ye a chrysanthum as big as a cabbage, if thatās yer fancy,- that aināt scientific gardāninā! Anā as for the mignonette, I reckon to agree wiā ye, Passon-the size aināt the sweetness, likewhich when I married, I married a small lass, for sez I: āLittle to carry, less to keep!ā Anā thatās true enough, though sheās gained in breadth, Lorā love āer!āwot she never āad in heighth. As I was a-sayinā, the chap wot I gets shrubs of, reels off āis Latin like chollops of mud off a garden scraper; but āe donāt understand it while āe sez it. Jesā for show, bless ye! It all goes down wiā Sir Morton Pippitt, though, for āe sez, sez āe: āMY cabbages are the prize vegetable, grown by Mr. Smogorton of Worcester, F.R.H.ā āEās got it in āis Catlog! Hor!āhor Passon, a bit oā Latin do go down wiā some folks in the gardāninā lineāit do reely now!ā
āTalking of Sir Morton Pippitt,ā said Walden, disregarding his gardenerās garrulity, āIt seems he has visitors up at the Hall.ā
āāE āas so,ā returned Bainton; āRegāler weedy waifs anā strays oā āumanity, if one may go by outāard appearance; not a single firm, well-put-down leg among āem. Mosāly ālordsā and āsirs.ā Beinā so jesā lately knighted for buildinā a āospital at Riversford, out of the proceeds oā bone meltinā into buttons, Sir Morton couldnāt aā course, be expected to put up wiā a plain āmisterā takinā food wiā āim.ā
āWell, well,āwhoever they are, they want to see the church.ā
āSeems to me a sight oā folks wants to see the church since ye spent so much money on it, Passon,ā said Bainton somewhat resentfully; āThere oughter be a charge made for entry.ā
Walden smiled thoughtfully; but there was a small line of vexation on his brow.
āThey want to see the church,ā he repeated, āOr rather Sir Morton wants them to āinspectā the church;āāand then his smile expanded and became a soft mellow laugh; āWhat a pompous old fellow it is! One would almost think he had restored the church himself, and not only restored it, but built it altogether and endowed it!ā He turned to go, then suddenly bethought himself of other gardening matters,ā āBainton, that bare corner near the house must be filled with clematis. The plants are just ready to bed out. And look to the geraniums in the front border. By the way, do you see that straight line along the wall there,āwhere I am pointing?ā
āYes, sir!ā dutifully rejoined Bainton, shading his eyes from the strong sun with one grimy hand.
āWell, plant nothing but hollyhocks there,āas many as you can cram in. We must have a blaze of colour to contrast with those dark yews. See to the jessamine and passion-flowers by the porch; and there is a āGloireā rose near the drawing-room window that wants cutting back a
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