She put
the something in white into them and there was a little puling cry.
"Married a year come Christmas," whispered old Inskip, "and the babby's
five weeks old to-morrow."
A serving-woman bustled out of another room, and the lady and child were
affectionately driven off to bed under her escort. Sir James came slowly
back.
"My wife and son, Mr. Wheatman," he said. "You must meet them to-morrow.
The young rascal cries out whenever I desecrate him with my touch. It
would have served him right to have christened him 'Oliver.'"
I laughed heartily, for he was fighting himself again by gibing at me. He
sent off the old man to scour the pantry for a supper for me, and then
pushed open the door and led me into the room.
For size and dignity, it was a room to take away the breath of a poor
yeoman. It seemed to me a Sabbath day's journey to the great blazing
hearth, where two men were sitting; the high white ceiling was moulded
into a wondrous design, with great carved pendants hanging from it like
icicles from the eaves of the Hanyards. Many bookcases ran half-way up the
walls round the greater part of the room, filled with stores of books such
as my heart had never dreamed of, great leather-bound folios by platoons,
and quartos by regiments.
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