God's Good Man - Marie Corelli (i want to read a book .txt) đ
- Author: Marie Corelli
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ââDarkness makes clear, that Light must be near,ââI am sure that is true!ââmurmured John, as he swung along at a quick pace through a green lane leading out of the village into the wider country, where two or three quaint little houses with thatched roofs were nestled among the fields, looking like dropped acorns in the green,ââIt must be true,âthere are so many old saws and sayings of the same kind, like âThe darkest hourâs before the dawn.â But why should I seek to console myself with a kind of Tupper âproverbial philosophyâ? I have no black hour threatening me,âI have nothing in the world to complain of or grumble at except my own undisciplined nature, which even at my age shows me it can âkick against the pricksâ and make a fool of me!â
Here turning a corner of the road which was overshaded by a huge chestnut-tree, he suddenly came face to face with the Reverend Putwood Leveson, who, squatted on the hank by the roadside, with his grand-pianoforte legs well exposed to view in tight brown knickerbockers and grey worsted stockings, was bending perspiringly over his recumbent bicycle, mending something which had, as usual, gone wrong.
âHullo, Walden!â he said, looking up and nodding casuallyââHavenât seen you for an age! What have you been doing with yourself? Always up at the Manor, I suppose! Great attraction at the Manor!âhe-he- he!â
A certain quick irritation, like that produced by the teasing buzz of some venomous insect, affected Waldenâs nerves. He looked at the porcine proportions of his brother minister with an involuntary sense of physical repulsion. Then he answered stifflyâ
âI donât understand you. I have not been visiting at the Manor at all. I dined there the night before last for the first and only time.â
Leveson winked one purple puffy eyelid. Then he began his âHe-he-heâ again to himself, while he breathed hard and sweated profusely over the rubber tyre of his machine.
âIs that so?â he sniggeredââWell, thatâs all the better for you!â you do well to keep away! Men of our cloth ought not to be seen there really.â
And scrambling to his feet with elephantine ease, he brushed the dust from his knickers, and wiped his brows with an uncleanly handkerchief which looked as if it had been used for drying oil off the bicycle as well as off the man.
âWe ought not to be seen there,ââhe repeated, disregarding Waldenâs steady coldness of eyeââI myself made a great mistake when I wrote to the woman. I ought not to have done so. But of course I did not knowâI thought it was all right.â And the reverend gentleman assumed an air of mammoth-like innocenceââI am so mediaeval, you know!âI never suspect anything or anybody! I wrote to her in quite a friendly way, suggesting that I should arrange her family papers for herâI thought she might as well employ me as anyone elseâand she never answered my letterânever answered a word!â
âWell, of course not!â said Walden, composedly, though his blood began to tingle hotly through his veins with rising indignationâ âWhy should she? Her family papers are all in order, and no doubt she considered your application both ignorant and impertinent.â
Levesonâs gross countenance flushed a deeper crimson.
âIgnorant and impertinent!â he echoedââCome, I like that! Why she ought to have considered herself uncommonly lucky to receive so much as a civil letter from a respectable man,âsuch a woman as she is!â âMaryllia Vanââhe-he-he-he!â
Walden took a quick step towards him.
âWhat do you mean?â he demandedââWhat right have you to speak of her in such a manner?â
Leveson recoiled, startled by the intense pallor of Waldenâs face, and the threatening light in his eyes.
âWhat right?â he stammeredââWhyâwhy what do yon mean by flaring up in such a temper, eh? What does it matter to you?â
âIt matters this much,âthat I will not allow Miss Vaneourt to be insulted by you or anyone else!â retorted Walden, hotlyââYou have never spoken to her,âyou know nothing about her,âso hold your tongue!â
The Reverend âPuttyâsâ round eyes protruded with amazement.
âHoldâmyâtongue!â he repeated, in a kind of stupefactionââAre you gone mad, Walden? Do you know who you are talking to?â
John gave a short laugh. His hands clenched involuntarily.
âOh, I know well enough!â he saidââI am talking to a man who has no more regard for a womanâs name than a cat has for the mouse it kills! I am talking to a man who is an ordained Christian minister, who has less Christianity than a dog, which at least is faithful to its master!â
Leveson uttered a kind of inarticulate sound something between a gasp and a grunt. Then he fell back on his old snigger.
âHe-he, he-he-he!â he bleatedââYou must be crazy, Walden!âor else youâve been drinking! Iâve a perfect right to speak of the Abbotâs Manor woman IF I like and as I like! All men have a right to do the sameâsheâs been pretty well handed round as common property for a long time! Why, sheâs perfectly notorious!âeverybody knows that!â
âYou lie!â
And Walden sprang at him, one powerful clenched fist uplifted. Leveson staggered back in terror,âand so for a moment they stood, staring upon one another. They did not hear a stealthy rustle among the branches of the chestnut-tree near which they stood, nor see a long lithe shadow creep towards them for the dense low-hanging foliage. Face to face, eye to eye, they remained for a momentâs space as though ready to close and wrestle,âthen suddenly Waldenâs arm dropped to his side.
âMy God!â he mutteredââI nearly struck you!â
Leveson drew a long breath of relief, and sneaked backward on his heels.
âYouâyouâre a nice kind of âordained Christian ministerâ arenât you?â he splutteredââWith all your humbug and cant youâre no better than a vulgar bully! A vulgar bully!âthatâs what you are! Iâll report you to the Bishopâsee if I donât!âbrow-beating me, and putting me in bodily fear, all about a woman too! Great Scott!âa fine scandal youâll make in the Church one of these days if youâre not watched pretty closely and pulled up pretty sharplyâand pulled up you shall be, take my word for it! Weâve had about enough of your high-and-mighty airsâitâs time you learned to know your place---â
The words had scarcely left his mouth when a pair of long muscular arms seized him by the shoulders, shook him briefly and emphatically, and turning him easily over, deposited him flat in the dust.
âIt is timeâyea verily!âit is full time you learned to know your place!â said Julian Adderley, calmly standing with legs-astride across his fat recumbent bodyââAnd there it isâand there you are! My dear Walden, how are you? Excuse my shaking hands with youâ having defiled myself, as the Orientals say, by touching unclean meat, I must wash first!â
For a moment Walden had been so taken aback by the suddenness of Levesonâs unexpected overthrow that he could scarcely realise what had happened,âbut presently when the Reverend âPuttyâsâ cobby legs began to sprawl uneasily on the ground, and the Eeverend âPuttyâ himself gave vent to sundry blasphemous oaths and curses, he grasped the full humour of the situation. A broad smile lit up his face.
âThat was a master-stroke, Adderley!â he said, and the smile deepened into sudden laughterââBut how in the world did you come here?â
âI was here all the time,ââsaid Adderley, still standing across Levesonâs prostrate formââReturning to the habits of primaeval monkey as I often do, I was seated in the boughs of that venerable chestnut-tree-and I heard all the argument. I enjoyed it. I was hoping to see the Church militant belabour the Church recusant. It would have been so newâso fresh! But as the sacred blow failed, the secular one was bound to fall. Donât get up, my excellent sir!â donât, I beseech of you!â This to Leveson, who was trying by means of the most awkward contortions to rise to a sitting postureââYou will find it difficultâamong other misfortunes your knickers will burst, and there is no tailor close at hand. Spare yourself,âand us!â
âOh give him a hand, Adderley!â said Walden, good-naturedly. âHelp him up! Heâs had his beating!â
âHe hasnât,ââdeclared Julian, with a lachrymose air of intense regretââI wish he had! He is less hurt than if he had fallen off his bicycle. He is in no pain;âwould that he were!â
Here Leveson managed to partially lift himself on one side. âAssault!â he stutteredââAssaultâcommon assault---â
âAND battery,ââsaid JulianââYou can summons me, my dear sirâif you feel so inclined! I shall be happy to explain the whole incident in courtâand also to pay the five pounds penalty. I only wish I could have got more for my money. Thereâs such a lot of you!âsuch a lot!â he repeated, musingly, âAnd Iâve only sailed round such a small portion of your vast fleshy continent!â
Walden controlled his laughter, and stooping, offered to assist Leveson to get up, but the indignant âPuttyâ refused all aid, and setting his own two hands firmly against the ground, tried again to rise.
âRemove your legs, sir!â he shouted to Julian, who still stood across him in apparent abstractionââHow dare youâhow dare you pin me down in this fashion?âhow dare---â
Here his voice died away choked by rage.
âYou are witty without knowing it, my fat friend!â said Julian languidlyââLegs, in slang parlance, are sometimes known as âpins,â- therefore, when you say I âpinâ you down, you use an expression which is, like the âmobled queenâ in Hamlet, good. Be unpinned, good priest-and remember that you must be prepared to say your prayers backwards, next time you slander a woman!â
He relaxed his position, and Leveson with an effort scrambled to his feet, covered with dust. Picking up his cap from the gutter where it had fallen, he got his bicycle and prepared to mount it. He presented a most unlovely spectacleâhis face, swollen and crimson with fury, seemed twice its usual size,âhis little piggy eyes rolled in his head like those of a man threatened with apoplexyâand the oily perspiration stood upon his brow and trickled from his carroty hair in great drops.
âYou shall pay for this!â he said in low vindictive tones, shaking his fist at both Walden and AdderleyââThere are one or two old scores to be wiped off in this village, and mine will help to increase the account! Your fine lady at the Manor isnât going to have everything her own way, I can tell youânor you either, youâ youâyou upstart!â
With this last epithet hurled out at Walden, who, shrugging his shoulders, received it with ineffable contempt, he got on his machine and worked his round legs and round wheels together furiously away. When his bulky form had disappeared, the two men he had left behind glanced at one another, and moved by the same risible emotion burst out laughing,âand once their laughter began, they gave it full vent, Waldenâs mellow âHa-ha-ha!â ringing out on the still air with all the zest and heartiness of a boyâs mirth.
âUpon my word, Adderley, you are a capital âthrowerâ?â he said, clapping Julian on the shoulder. âI never was more surprised in my life than to see that monstrous âton of manâ heave over suddenly and sprawl in the dust! It was an artistic feat, most artistically executed!â
âIt wasâit was,âI think so myself!ââagreed JulianââI am proud of my own skill! That pious porpoise will not forget me in a hurry. You see, my dear Walden, you merely threatened punishment,âyou did not inflict it,âI suppose out of some
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