But you're getting
rather past such close work, Marner: it's time you laid by and had
some rest. You look a good deal pulled down, though you're not an
old man, are you?'
'Fifty-five, as near as I can say, sir,' said Silas.
'Oh, why, you may live thirty years longer- look at old Macey!
And that money on the table, after all, is but little. It won't go far
either way- whether it's put out to interest, or you were to live on
it as long as it would last: it wouldn't go far if you'd nobody to
keep but yourself, and you've had two to keep for a good many years
now.'
'Eh, sir,' said Silas, unaffected by anything Godfrey was saying,
'I'm in no fear o' want. We shall do very well- Eppie and me 'ull do
well enough. There's few working-folks have got so much laid by as
that. I don't know what it is to gentlefolks, but I look upon it as
a deal- almost too much. And as for us, it's little we want.'
'Only the garden, father,' said Eppie, blushing up to the ears
the moment after.
'You love a garden, do you, my dear?' said Nancy, thinking that
this turn in the point of view might help her husband. 'We should
agree in that: I give a deal of time to the garden.'
'Ah, there's plenty of gardening at the Red House,' said Godfrey,
surprised at the difficulty he found in approaching a proposition
which had seemed so easy to him in the distance. 'You've done a good
part by Eppie, Marner, for sixteen years.
Pages:
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252