Roxobel Volume 1 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: p which she set behind him. I then had an opportunity of observing his features, which were regular though on a large scale; and, indeed, he might have been accounted a handsome man had not his air and expression been singularly coarse, vulgar, and stupid. Having settled himself in his chair and lighted his pipe, his eyes fell upon me, seated on my stool in the corner; and, being quite at a loss what to make of me in my blue cloak, he uttered several inelegant exclamations, and called to the hostess to know what sort of animal she had got there. Mrs. Gwynne was ready with her answer. " It's only a little lad from over the mountain, Sir," she said: " but would you choose, Sir, that I should mix your grog?" at the same time putting two or three lumps of sugar into the tumbler. " No molasses, no molasses," roared the hero of the buff waistcoat: " you know that I hate sweeteners." And then followed a dialogue between the hostess and her guest, which, not being particularly to my taste, I forbear to recount. After a while, however, he resumed his pipe, and his large blue eyes again fell upon me, and he returned to the charge, asking me if it might be the custom for lads to wear blue cloaks in my country; using certain expressions which excited my indignation in no small degree; and I was about to answer, and might have exhibited more choler than judgment, when suddenly my attention was attracted by the figure of the taller of the two ladies, whom I had previously seen coming out from the parlour. She was now descending the stairs, in the centre of which she stood still, looking even taller than before, in her present elevated situation, while her sallow face stood out in strong relief from her dark drapery and her black hood, or bonnet. At the sound of her step, brother...