SQUIRE ARDEN.
VOL. I.
SQUIRE ARDEN.
BY
MRS. OLIPHANT,
AUTHOR OF
“CHRONICLES OF CARLINGFORD,”
“SALEM CHAPEL,” “THE MINISTER’S WIFE,”
ETC., ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
HURST & BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1871.
The Right of Translation is Reserved.
PERTH:
Samuel Cowan & Co., Printers.
Chapter I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII., XIX., XX., XXI., XXII., XXIII., XXIV., XXV., XXVI., XXVII., XXVIII.
SQUIRE ARDEN.
CHAPTER I.
“What are the joy bells a-ringing for, Simon?” said an old woman, comingbriskly out to the door of one of the pretty cottages in the prettyvillage of Arden, on a pleasant morning of early summer, when all theleaves were young, and the first freshness of the year was over theworld. “There’s ne’er a one married as I knows on, and it aintWhitsuntide, nor Holmfirth fair, nor——”
“It’s the young Squire, stoopid,” said the old clerk, gruffly, leaninghis arms upon the little paling of the tiny garden and looking at her.“He’s come home.”
What he really did say was “he’s coom whoam;” but the reader will be sokind as take it for granted that Simon Molyneaux was an old Lancashireman, and talked accordingly, without giving a pen not too familiar withthe dialect the trouble of putting in all the o’s that are necessary.Simon said coom, and he said loove, and moother;{2} but as there is nomoral meaning in the double letter, let us consent to leave it out.
“The young Squire!” said the old woman, with a start.
She was a tidy fresh old woman, with cheeks of a russet colour, halfbrown half red, yet soft, despite all their wrinkles—cheeks thatchildren laid their little faces up to without feeling any difference oftexture; and eyes which had stolen back during these years deeper intotheir sockets, but yet were