The Soldier's Wife — page 67: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

/ 5A THE SOLDIER’S WIFE. opening the letter-bag whicl the mail-cart had|parture, Bates sat himself down in his shop te just brought over from the town of Middleton.|veflect’ with continued wonderment upon tke “And so there’s a conspiracy against me in the village—eh?” said Bates to himself; “and they are negotiating to get another barber, are they? Well, then, I will have a conspiracy against chem, for | don’t mean to be postmaster for nothing. If I don’t find out all their secrets, my name isn’t Obadiah Bates. Thosa who ask the tradesmen at Middleton who su »ply them with goods, for longer eredit—those who have given bills and can’t tak them up, but want _ renewals—and those who go writing scandal to their friends in other pla:‘es, and get scandal whitten them back in return- -shall all be found out. I will get them all int’ my power, and ‘teach them what it is to offend a man like me.” discovery he had made by the violation of the letter addressed to Mr. Davis the bailiff. CHAPTER XIV. THE LETTER, Rerurn we again to Portsmouth, where we shall find Frederick Lonsdale becoming daily more and more disgusted with the life upon which he had entered. At the same time he bore up with fortitude against the sorrows -of his lot, as well as against the petty tyrannies to which he was subjected on the part of Ser- Bates took the bag with him into his little) geant Langley and the non-commissioned offi- back room—snut himself in the letters. and began sorting Those that were for the Manor House he put apart by themsel7es, with a| string tied round them. cers. le maintained the strictest guard over his conduct; for perceiving that he was a marked man, he resolved to afford no opportu- Next he proceeded| nity for the visitation of a direct and positive very deliberately and carefully to open a letter] act of vengeance on Langley’s part. addressed to Mr. Clegg—then another to Mr. | Judkins—then one to Mr. Mummery—and three or four more; and having made himself master of the contents, he sealed them up again in such a manner that it was impossible to dixeern that their sanctity had been violated. “Hah! here’s a letter for Davis the bailit¥!” Three months had now elapsed sinee he had quitted Oakleigh; and during this interval he had received several letters from Lucy, These epistles, which breathed the holiest and purest atfection, had proved a source of some consola- tion to his wounded spirit. We qualify our remark by the word “some,” inasmuch as those he said to himself, turning the packet over and| letters, tender as they were and all that a lover over in his hand. too—an enclosure in it! mark? London—eh! writing: a gentleman’s, evidently! like very much to see what this letter contains. Peter Davis sometimes looks precious high and haughty at me. They say he is well to do and waim: but who knows? There’s no telling what a manis. Why, there’s Mummery: one would think that he had saved money—and yet by the letter I have just read, it’s very clear he has not got a ten-pound note in the world to bless himself with—or else he wouldn’t write to borrow money of his brother-in-law at Carlisle. But this letter to Davis? Some how or another I feel uncommon curious about it. It’s a plain seal, and looks as if it was stamped with the top of a pencil-case; so it’s easy to re-seal it with this stamp that I have got. Well, here goes!” | Thus speaking, Mr. Bates very carefully broke the seal of the letter, and was speedily deep in the contents. As he read on, an expression of the utmost surprise gathered upon his countenance, ee increasing into posi- tive wonderment—while abrupt and jerking ejaculations escaped him as he continued the verusal. “Who would have thought it? What a Ousiness! Well, I never! ‘This beats every- thing. The cunning fox! Ah, what a mystery !’—and in this manner did the barber give vent to his startled feelings as he read the letter and the enclosure. Having finished the perusal, he re-sealed the packet with the nicest precaution; and by the time he had done it, the man why was employ- ed to deliver the letters made his appearance to fetch them. When he had taken his de- The young fool! “And a good thick letter|could hope, nevertheless failed to impart a What’s the post-| perfect solace, because they most painfully And what a nice hand-) made him reflect upon the happiness he had J should) for the time lost by the failure of the plan that was to have un‘ted him without delay to Lucy. The letters weve addressed on the outside in the handwriting of Martha, so that there might be no clue at the village post-office to show from whom they really emanated. But on each occasion Lucy enjoined Frederick not to write to her in return for the present, as she had no confidante in the village to whom such letters could be addressed; and if he wrote under cover to Martha, her father might pos- sibly take it into his head to intercept and open the correspondence. Therefore Frede- rick was debarred from the solace and gratifi- cation of pouring forth all the fervor of his love in an epistolary form to his adored Lucey. We must observe that she carefully forbore in her letters from making the slightest allusion to Gerald Redburn and his constant visits at the cottage. As she felt perfectly resolute in her own mind that these visits should result in nothing so far as she was concerned, she did not choose to increase the manifold sources of her lover’s sorrows by making him aware of the persecutions to which she was being sub- jected, and of the mysterious understanding which evidently subsisted between her tather and Gerald. Therefore in consequence of this generous forbearance and delicate consideration on Luey’s part, Frederick remained in complete ignorance of all that was going on at the cottage. At the barracks, the moment tive newspaper arrived, the very first column tha* was looked at by the soldiers, was the one con‘aining the Gazette with the notifications fron the War re <) m amilicelexeye) (E(@) co ot AS ep