The Argosy — page 389: what you’re looking at

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

368 : The Village Blacksmth. beyond the passing trivial thoughts common to us all, which occupy so much of ourtime. The truth is, if we analyse our thoughts we shall find the most concentrated thoughts, the most consecutive thoughts, the most sustained thoughts, are those of which our own ego is the pivot round which they turn; the most thoughtless, the most frivolous, the most uneducated, the most undisciplined minds can generally manage to spend many consecutive minutes in deep thought on this topic of all-absorbing interest to each individual. But to return to Mark. If he could have known the next morning that at eight o’clock no one was stirring at the Rectory he would have been still more alarmed, but this was the case nevertheless. The servants slept through the alarum set at half-past six in each of their rooms; Holmes was accustomed to be called an hour later by Mary; but no Mary came to call her, so she slept on. The Archdeacon had laid awake till six after Raleigh woke him the night before and then fell asleep; and Mrs. Ryot-Tempest was a late riser and never attempted to stir till Holmes brought her a cup of tea at eight o’clock. On this Tuesday morning, however, eight o’clock struck and no one woke; the hall-clock chimed the quarter-past and still the household slept. At half-past, however, Mrs. Ryot-Tempest woke, and finding how late it was, rang her bell violently for Holmes. She con- tinued to ring again and again, but no one answered. And then, remembering the trial began at ten, she jumped up, and putting on her slippers and dressing-gown went to see why she was thus neglected. To her amazement the house was as still as if it were midnight, and looking over the stairs she saw the doors were still shut ; evidently no one was up. Fuming with rage at the laziness of the servants she went into the hall, seized the big dinner-bell and went to the servants’ rooms ringing it violently as she walked, and making noise enough to wake the dead. It succeeded in rousing the drugged servants, and in ten minutes’ time Holmes stood by her mistress’s side full of apologies. “If you please, ma’am, we all overslept ourselves, and we all have bad headaches, and Mark Brown has run away, and we think he must have put something in the beer to make us sleep last night.” * Don’t talk such folly, Holmes; Mark is up and about his work. He is the only one of you worth his salt. Oversleeping yourselves indeed in this disgraceful style! Go and tell the others that unless breakfast is on the table as the clock strikes nine, you, every one of you, leave this day month.” Mrs. Ryot-Tempest’s servants were afraid of her, so her message had a stimulating effect on them. Breakfast was nearly ready at nine, and finished by half-past, when Captain Raleigh arrived. But that did not deter Mrs. Tempest from administering a good scolding to the household when they assembled for prayers, which on this Eomichbooks.co