But now the
mist, helped by the evening darkness, was more of a screen than he
desired, for it hid the ruts into which his feet were liable to
slip- hid everything, so that he had to guide his steps by dragging
his whip along the low bushes in advance of the hedgerow. He must
soon, he thought, be getting near the opening at the Stone-pits: he
should find it out by the break in the hedgerow. He found it out,
however, by another circumstance which he had not expected- namely, by
certain gleams of light, which he presently guessed to proceed from
Silas Marner's cottage. That cottage and the money hidden within it
had been in his mind continually, during his walk, and he had been
imagining ways of cajoling and tempting the weaver to part with the
immediate possession of his money for the sake of receiving
interest. Dunstan felt as if there must be a little frightening
added to the cajolery, for his own arithmetical convictions were not
clear enough to afford him any forcible demonstration as to the
advantages of interest; and as for security, he regarded it vaguely as
a means of cheating a man, by making him believe that he would be
paid. Altogether, the operation on the miser's mind was a task that
Godfrey would be sure to hand over to his more daring and cunning
brother: Dunstan had made up his mind to that; and by the time he
saw the light gleaming through the chinks of Marner's shutters, the
idea of a dialogue with the weaver had become so familiar to him, that
it occurred to him as quite a natural thing to make the acquaintance
forthwith.
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