'If it was you stole my money,' said Silas, clasping his hands
entreatingly, and raising his voice to a cry, 'give it me back- and
I won't meddle with you. I won't set the constable on you. Give it
me back, and I'll let you- I'll let you have a guinea.'
'Me stole your money!' said Jem, angrily. 'I'll pitch this can at
your eye if you talk o' my stealing your money.'
'Come, come, Master Marner,' said the landlord, now rising
resolutely, and seizing Marner by the shoulder, 'if you've got any
information to lay, speak it out sensible, and show as you're in
your right mind, if you expect anybody to listen to you. You're as wet
as a drownded rat. Sit down and dry yourself, and speak straight
forrard.'
'Ah, to be sure, man,' said the farrier, who began to feel that
he had not been quite on a par with himself and the occasion. 'Let's
have no more staring and screaming, else we'll have you strapped for a
madman. That was why I didn't speak at the first- thinks I, the
man's run mad.'
'Aye, aye, make him sit down,' said several voices at once, well
pleased that the reality of ghosts remained still an open question.
The landlord forced Marner to take off his coat, and then to sit
down on a chair aloof from everyone else, in the centre of the circle,
and in the direct rays of the fire. The weaver, too feeble to have any
distinct purpose beyond that of getting help to recover his money,
submitted unresistingly.
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