The Argosy — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

20 Lhe Master of Greylands. CHAPTER III. AT THE DOLPHIN INN. THE Dolphin Inn, as already said, stood in the angle between the village street and the high road that branched off to the open country. It faced the road, standing, like most of the dwellings in Greylands, somewhat back from it. A substantial, low-roofed house, painted yellow, with a flaming sign-board in front, bearing a dolphin bright with various hues and colours, and with two low bow-windows on either side he door. A yard lay to the side with out-houses and stables, and there was some good land behind. Along the wall, underneath the parlour windows and on either side the entrance door, ran a bench on which wayfarers might sit; at right angles with it, near the yard, was a pump with a horse-trough beside it. Upon a pinch, the inn could supply a pair of post-horses: but they were seldom called for, as Stil- borough was so near. It was the only inn of any kind at Greylands, and was frequented by the fishermen, as well as occasionally by more important guests. The landlord was John Bent. The place was his own and had been his father’s before him. He was considered to be a ‘‘warm ” man; to be able to live at his ease, irrespective of custom. John Bent was independent in manner and speech, except to his wife. Mrs. Bent, a thrifty, bustling, talkative woman, had taken John’s in- dependence out of him at first setting off, so far as she was concerned: but they got on very well together. To Mr. Castlemaine especially, John was given to show independence. They were civil to each other, but there was no love lost between them. Mr. Castlemaine would have liked to purchase the Dolphin and the land appertaining to it : he had made more than one strong overture to do so, which John Bent had resisted and resented. The landlord, too, had taken up an idea that Mr. Castlemaine did not encourage the sojourn of strangers at the inn; had done his best in a quiet way to discourage it, as was observed in regard to the Grey Ladies. Altogether, John Bent did not favour the Master of Greylands. On one of the days of this self-same month of February, when the air was keen and frosty and the sea sparkled under the afternoon sun- shine, John Bent and his wife sat in the room they mostly occupied, the best kitchen. The room was on the side of the house, its large, low, three-framed window and its outer door facing the beach. Underneath tl.e window outside was another of those hospitable benches, for cus- tomers to sit down on to drink their ale when it pleased them. Mrs. Bent herself liked to sit there when work was over, and criticise the doings of the village. Whatever might be the weather, this door,like ° ll- r neighbours sten- the front one, stood open; and well-known guests, or ne ight 38 en- UC (C(O) mn —_)