[Christie Johnstone by Charles Reade]@TWC D-Link bookChristie Johnstone CHAPTER XVI 8/13
30 sec. Total: 14 m.
30 sec. They came in to the pier, Christie sitting quietly on the thwart after her work, the boy steering, and Flucker standing against the mast, hands in his pockets; the deportment this young gentleman thought fit to assume on this occasion was "complete apathy"; he came into port with the air of one bringing home the ordinary results of his day's fishing; this was, I suppose, to impress the spectators with the notion that saving lives was an every-day affair with La Famille Johnstone; as for Gatty, he came to himself under his heap of nets and jackets and spoke once between Death's jaw and the pier. "Beautiful!" murmured he, and was silent.
The meaning of this observation never transpired, and never will in this world.
Six months afterward, being subjected to a searching interrogatory, he stated that he had alluded to the majesty and freedom of a certain _pose_ Christie had adopted while hailing him from the boat; but, reader, if he had wanted you and me to believe it was this, he should not have been half a year finding it out--_increduli odimus!_ They landed, and Christie sprang on shore; while she was wending her way through the crowd, impeded by greetings and acclamations, with every now and then a lass waving her kerchief or a lad his bonnet over the heroine's head, poor Mrs.Gatty was receiving the attention of the New Town; they brought her to, they told her the good news--she thanked God. The whole story had spread like wildfire; they expostulated with her, they told her now was the time to show she had a heart, and bless the young people. She rewarded them with a valuable precept. "Mind your own business!" said she. "Hech! y' are a dour wife!" cried Newhaven. The dour wife bent her eyes on the ground. The people were still collected at the foot of the street, but they were now in knots, when in dashed Flucker, arriving by a short cut, and crying: "She does na ken, she does na ken, she was ower moedest to look, I daur say, and ye'll no tell her, for he's a blackguard, an' he's just making a fule o' the puir lass, and if she kens what she has done for him, she'll be fonder o' him than a coow o' her cauf." "Oh, Flucker! we maun tell her, it's her lad, her ain lad, she saved," expostulated a woman. "Did ever my feyther do a good turn till ye ?" cried Flucker.
"Awel, then, ye'll no tell the lassie, she's weel as she is; he's gaun t' Enngland the day.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|