Page:Eliot - Adam Bede, vol. III, 1859.djvu/101

Rh Mrs Poyser was less severe than her husband. We are often startled by the severity of mild people on exceptional occasions; the reason is, that mild people are most liable to be under the yoke of traditional impressions.

I'm willing to pay any money as is wanted towards trying to bring her off," said Martin the younger when Mr Irwine was gone, while the old grandfather was crying in the opposite chair, "but I'll not go nigh her, nor ever see her again, by my own will. She's made our bread bitter to us for all our lives to come, an' we shall ne'er hold up our heads i' this parish nor i' any other. The parson talks o' folks pitying us: it's poor amends pity 'll make us."

"Pity?" said the grandfather sharply. "I ne'er wanted folks's pity i' my life afore . . . an' I mun begin to be looked down on now, an' me turned seventy-two last St Thomas's, an' all th' under-bearers and pall-bearers as I'n picked for my funeral are i' this parish an' the next to 't. . . . It's o' no use now . . . I mun be ta'en to the grave by strangers."

"Don't fret so, father," said Mrs Poyser, who had spoken very little, being almost overawed by her