He saw no disgrace in
it, yet he was unhappy. Something was wrong, somewhere, he thought,
but his wife always managed to carry her point.
She sat in the office and interviewed inspector and overseer; she
stood in the store-room and weighed out stores for the cottagers.
Everybody who came on the estate asked for the mistress, nobody ever
wanted to see the master.
One day he took the children past a field in which cattle were
grazing. He wanted to show them the cows and cautiously took them up
to the grazing herd. All at once a black head, raised above the backs
of the other animals, stared at the visitors, bellowing softly.
The lawyer picked up the children and ran back to the fence as hard as
he could. He threw them over and tried to jump it himself, but was
caught on the top. Noticing some women on the other side, he shouted:
"The bull! the bull!"
But the women merely laughed, and went to pull the children, whose
clothes were covered with mud, out of the ditch.
"Don't you see the bull?" he screamed.
"It's no bull, sir," replied the eldest of the women, "the bull was
killed a fortnight ago."
He came home, angry and ashamed and complained of the women to his
wife. But she only laughed.
Pages:
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345