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404 |
THE HAUNTED MAN |
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" Strong and brave, my boy," returned the old man.
It was quite a sight to see Mr. William shaking hands with his father, and patting him on the back, and rubbing him gently down with his hand, as if he could not possibly do enough to show an interest in him.
" What a wonderful man you are, father!—How are you, father? Are you really pretty hearty, though?" said William, shaking hands with him again, and patting him again, and rubbing him gently down again.
" I never was fresher or stouter in my life, my boy."
" What a wonderful man you are, father ! But that's exactly where it is," said Mr. William, with enthusiasm. "When I think of all that my father's gone through, and all the chances and changes, and sorrows and troubles, that have happened to him in the course of his long life, and under which his head has grown grey, and years upon years have gathered on it, I feel as if we couldn't do enough to honour the old gentleman, and make his old age easy.—How are you, father? Are you really pretty well, though?"
Mr. William might never have left off repeating this inquiry, and shaking hands with him again, and patting him again, and rubbing him down again, if the old man had not espied the Chemist, whom until now he had not seen.
"I ask your pardon, Mr. Redlaw," said Philip, "but didn't know you were here, Sir, or should have made less free. It remiuds me, Mr. Redlaw, seeing you here on a Christmas morning, of the time when you was a student yourself, and worked so hard that you was backwards and forwards in our Library even at Christmas time. Ha ! ha ! I'm old enough to remember that; and I remember it right well, I do, though I'm eighty-seven. It was after you left here that my poor wife died. You remember my poor wife, Mr. Redlaw ?"
The Chemist answered yes.
" Yes," said the old man. " She was a dear creetur.—I recollect you come here one Christmas morning with a young lady —I ask your pardon, Mr. Redlaw, but I think it was a sister you was very much attached to ?"
The Chemist looked at him, and shook his head. " I had a sister," he said vacantly. He knew no more.
"One Christmas morning," pursued the old man, "that you come here with her—and it began to snow, and my wife invited the young lady to walk in, and sit by the fire that is always a burning on Christmas Day in what used to be, before our ten poor gentlemen commuted, our great Dinner Hall. I was there; |
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