CHAPTER FOUR
DUNSTAN CASS, setting off in the raw morning, at the judiciously quiet
pace of a man who is obliged to ride to cover on his hunter, had to
take his way along the lane, which, at its farther extremity, passed
by the piece of unenclosed ground called the Stone-pit, where stood
the cottage, once a stone-cutter's shed, now for fifteen years
inhabited by Silas Marner. The spot looked very dreary at this season,
with the moist trodden clay about it, and the red, muddy water high up
in the deserted quarry. That was Dunstan's first thought as he
approached it; the second was, that the old fool of a weaver, whose
loom he heard rattling already, had a great deal of money hidden
somewhere. How was it that he, Dunstan Cass, who had often heard
talk of Marner's miserliness, had never thought of suggesting to
Godfrey that he should frighten or persuade the old fellow into
lending the money on the excellent security of the young Squire's
prospects? The resource occurred to him now as so easy and
agreeable, especially as Marner's hoard was likely to be large
enough to leave Godfrey a handsome surplus beyond his immediate needs,
and enable him to accommodate his faithful brother, that he had almost
turned the horse's head towards home again. Godfrey would be ready
enough to accept the suggestion: he would snatch eagerly at a plan
that might save him from parting with Wildfire.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56