Tinman tore away.
“You mistake, you mistake, you’re entirely wrong,” he said, as he pursued with desperation his task of rendering every word unreadable.
Van Diemen stood fronting him; the accumulation of stores of petty injuries and meannesses which he had endured from this man, swelled under the whip of the conclusive exhibition of treachery. He looked so black that Annette called, “Papa!”
“Philip,” said Tinman. “Philip! my best friend!”
“Pooh, you’re a poor creature. Come along and breakfast at Elba, and you can sleep at the Crouch, and goodnight to you. Crickledon,” he called to the houseless couple, “you stop at Elba till I build you a shop.”
With these words, Van Diemen led the way, walking alone. Herbert was compelled to walk with Tinman.
Mary and Annette came behind, and Mary pinched Annette’s arm so sharply that she must have cried out aloud had it been possible for her to feel pain at that moment, instead of a personal exultation, flying wildly over the clash of astonishment and horror, like a sea-bird over the foam.
In the first silent place they came to, Mary murmured the words: “Little Jane.”
Annette looked round at Mrs. Crickledon, who wound up the procession, taking little Jane by the hand. Little Jane was walking demurely, with a placid face. Annette glanced at Tinman. Her excited feelings nearly rose to a scream of laughter. For hours after, Mary had only to say to her: “Little Jane,” to produce the same convulsion. It rolled her heart and senses in a headlong surge, shook her to burning tears, and seemed to her ideas the most wonderful running together of opposite things ever known on this earth. The young lady was ashamed of her laughter; but she was deeply indebted to it, for never was mind made so clear by that beneficent exercise.
Etext editor’s bookmarks:
Adversary at once offensive
and helpless provokes brutality
Causes him to be popularly
weighed
Distinguished by his
not allowing himself to be provoked
Eccentric behaviour
in trifles
Excited, glad of catastrophe
if it but killed monotony
Generally he noticed
nothing
Good jokes are not always
good policy
I make a point of never
recommending my own house
Indulged in their privilege
of thinking what they liked
Infants are said to
have their ideas, and why not young ladies?
Lend him your own generosity
Men love to boast of
things nobody else has seen
Naughtily Australian
and kangarooly
Not in love—She
was only not unwilling to be in love
Rich and poor ’s
all right, if I’m rich and you’re poor
She began to feel that
this was life in earnest
She dealt in the flashes
which connect ideas
She sought, by looking
hard, to understand it better
Sunning itself in the