TWO:"I do, monk, and I will fulfil my vow. Stephen Holgrave, to you I give the charge of collecting all my bondmen;see that they are assembled here to-morrow morning. They shall be freed; and from henceforth, as I vowed, there shall be no more bondage in Sudley; and, by my faith! I believe I shall be better served by freemen than serfs."
TWO:A winter sunset sparkled like cowslip wine on the wet roofs of Odiam. It slipped between the curtains of the room where Reuben watched beside his dead father, and made a golden pool in the dusk."Baron of Sudley," replied the monk, in a voice which though scarcely elevated above the ordinary pitch of colloquial discourse, was nevertheless in that clear distinct tone which is heard at a considerable distance"Baron of Sudley, I am no hypocrite, neither have I forgotten to render to C?sar the things that are C?sar's. If I pronounced the nuptial benediction over a bondwoman and a freeman without your lordship having consented, it was because you had first violated the trust reposed in you. You are a master to command obedience, but only in things that are not sinful; yet would you sinfully have compelled a maiden to swear at the holy altar of God to love and honour a man whom her soul abhorred. It was because you would have done this, that I, as the only being besides your lordship who could"
TWO:Farewell, farewell, you jolly young girls!"She wur purty s?afe to say thatfor who'd have her back, I'd lik to know? Larmentable creature she always wur, spanneling around lik a mangy cat. Always thin and always miserableI'm glad to be shut of her. But she seemed cheery when you saw her?"
TWO:A long shudder of disgust went over Reuben's flesh. He was utterly shocked by what he saw. That such things could go on in his house struck him with horror, tinctured by shame. He went out, shutting the door noisily behind himthe softer feelings had gone; instead he felt bitterly and furiously humiliated.
