Springhaven | Page 7

silk hose,
with a taper descent to ankles as fine as a lady's, and insteps bright with
large silver buckles. Yet that which surpassed all the beauty of the

clothes was the vigor of the man inside them, who seemed to quicken
and invigorate the whole, even to the right sleeve, doubled up from the
want of any arm inside it. But the loss of the right arm, and the right
eye also, seemed to be of no account to the former owner, so hard did
he work with the residue of his body, and so much did he express with
it.
His noble cocked hat was in its leathern box yet, for he was only just
come from Merton; but the broad felt he wore was looped up in front,
and displayed all the power of his countenance, or rather the vigor; for
power is heavy, and his face was light and quickness. Softness also,
and a melancholy gift of dreaminess and reflection, enlarged and
impressed the effect of a gaze and a smile which have conquered
history.
"Why don't 'ee speak up to 'un, Cap'en Zeb?" cried young Harry Shanks,
of the Peggy, the smartest smack next to the Rosalie. "Whoever can 'a
be, to make thee so dumb? Doth 'a know our own business afore our
own selves? If 'ee don't speak up to 'un, Cap'en Zeb, I'll never take no
more commands from thee."
"Harry Shanks, you was always a fool, and you always will be," Master
Tugwell replied, with his deep chest voice, which no gale of wind
could blow away. "Whether he be wrong or right--and I won't say but
what I might have done it better--none but a fool like you would dare to
set his squeak up against Admirable Lord Nelson."

CHAPTER IV
AND HER FAITHFUL CHAPLAIN
"I am not a man of the world, but a man of the Word," said Parson
Twemlow, the Rector of Springhaven; "and I shall not feel that I have
done my duty unless I stir him up to-morrow. His valor and glory are
nothing to me, nor even his value to the country. He does his duty, and
I shall do mine. It is useless to talk to me, Maria; I never shall have

such a chance again."
"Well, dear, you know best," replied Mrs. Twemlow; "and duty is
always the highest and best and most sacred consideration. But you
surely should remember, for Eliza's sake, that we never shall dine at the
Hall again."
"I don't care a snap for their dinners, or the chance of Eliza catching
some young officer; and very few come while this peace goes on. I
won't shirk my duty for any of that."
"Nothing would ever make you shirk your duty, Joshua. And I hope
that you know me too well to suppose that I ever would dream of
suggesting it. But I do want to see you a Canon, and I know that he
begins to have influence in the Church, and therefore the Church is not
at all the place to allude to his private affairs in. And, after all, what do
we know about them? It does seem so low to be led away by gossip."
"Maria," said the Rector, severely sorry, "I must beg you to leave me to
my conscience. I shall not refer to his private affairs. I shall put leading
truths in a general way, and let him make the home application."
"Put the cap on if it fits. Very well: you will injure yourself, and do no
one any good. Lord Nelson won't know it; he is too simple-minded. But
Admiral Darling will never forgive us for insulting him while he is
staying at the Hall."
"Maria! Well, I have long given up all attempts at reasoning with you.
If I see a man walking into a furnace, do I insult him by saying
beware?"
"As I am beyond all reason, Joshua, it is far above me to understand
that. But if you escape insulting him, what you do is far worse, and
quite unlike a gentleman. You heap a whole pile of insults upon your
own brother clergymen."
"I do not at all understand you, Maria: you fly off in such a way from
one thing to another!"

"Not at all. Anybody who is not above paying attention must
understand me. When he is at Merton he goes to church, and his Rector
is bound to look after him. When he is at sea, he has his Chaplain, who
preaches whenever the weather permits, and dare not neglect his duties.
But the strongest point of all is this--his very own father and brother are
clergymen, and bound to do their best for him. All these you insult, and
in so many