'Pillory the fellow, here he is at last!' cried John, in the very height and zenith of his distress.
'Brisk enough, sir!' replied John, looking at the place where the horse had been, as if not yet understanding quite, what had become of him.
'Young John, I am very sorry to have been hasty with you, but--ha-- some remembrances are not happy remembrances, and--hum--you shouldn't have come.'
'I feel that now, sir,' returned John Chivery; 'but I didn't before, and Heaven knows I meant no harm, sir.'
John was requested to order home a dozen or so of little pots and an extra quantity of sugar, for their own currants were ripe and were to be attended to at once.
She longed to run home, bib and all, and ask Mother to lend her a hand, but John and she had agreed that they would never annoy anyone with their private worries, experiments, or quarrels.
'Maclean gave me four hundred pounds to put in the bank, sir,' began John; 'and I'm sorry to say that I've been robbed of it!'
'I can't say anything else, sir; I was just robbed of it,' said John, in desperation, sullenly.
But John Harned followed Maria Valenzuela to Quito, and it was quickly clear to us--to Luis Cervallos and me that she looked upon John Harned with great kindness.
John Harned was seeing it for the first time, and he could not escape the excitement--the sight of the man, armed only with a piece of cloth, and of the bull rushing upon him across the sand with sharp horns, widespreading.
"That I should, sir," said
John, "but I would not stand in his light for the world."
'She's been asleep all night, and was, all yesterday, except for a minute or two now and then,' replied
John Browdie's choice, 'and I was very sorry when she woke, for she has been SO cross!'
"It is much against my will," said Robin Hood, "ne'ertheless, if thou dost wish it, get thee gone, but bear thyself seemingly, Little
John, for thou art mine own right-hand man and I could ill bear to have harm befall thee."
John, love, kiss Ma and Lavvy, and then we shall all be at home and comfortable.'
He was often near to something or other very clever, by his own account: this lumbering, slow, honest
John; this
John so heavy, but so light of spirit; so rough upon the surface, but so gentle at the core; so dull without, so quick within; so stolid, but so good!
