Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/187

183 with sharp but not unkindly eyes. "So thou art my nephew Jonathan. Why, thou looks varry near as old as I am! Come thy ways in to t' fire, and sit thee down, thou's welcome. I thought thou'd be here, and I hev waited tea a bit for thee."

He was a thin, rosy-cheeked old man, with eyes as quick and bright as a ferret's, and plenty of money wrinkles around them; very tall, but remarkably erect, and even when quiet, giving an idea of extreme pugnaciousness. He wore a rather shabby corduroy suit and a scarlet night-cap, and on Jonathan's entrance rose, pipe in hand, to welcome him.

The tea was quickly placed upon a small round table between them, and without any preliminaries the subject of Burley's troubles introduced. "I hev heard a good deal," said Shuttleworth, "but I want to hear it all from thy own lips. Tell me t' whole truth just as if I was thy lawyer, and don't thee be afraid to let out any bit o' meanness thou hes been forced to do; I'm none too clean-handed mysen."

The subject was one on which Jonathan always waxed eloquent. He described his mill, his house, and his beautiful daughter