'
Here Mr Macey paused, perhaps expecting some sign of emotion in his
hearer; but not observing any, he went on. 'And as for the money for
the suit o' clothes, why, you get a matter of a pound a-week at your
weaving, Master Marner, and you're a young man, eh, for all you look
so mushed. Why, you couldn't ha' been five-and-twenty when you come
into these parts, eh?'
Silas started a little at the change to a questioning tone, and
answered mildly, 'I don't know; I can't rightly say- it's a long while
since.'
After receiving such an answer as this, it is not surprising that
Mr Macey observed, later on in the evening at the Rainbow, that
Marner's head was 'all of a muddle', and that it was to be doubted
if he ever knew when Sunday came round, which showed him a worse
heathen than many a dog.
Another of Silas's comforters, besides Mr Macey, came to him with a
mind highly charged on the same topic. This was Mrs Winthrop, the
wheelwright's wife. The inhabitants of Raveloe were not severely
regular in their churchgoing, and perhaps there was hardly a person in
the parish who would not have held that to go to church every Sunday
in the calendar would have shown a greedy desire to stand well with
Heaven, and get an undue advantage over their neighbours- a wish to be
better than the 'common run', that would have implied a reflection
on those who had had godfathers and godmothers as well as
themselves, and had an equal right to the burying-service.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125