Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/56

46 do, I most sincerely thank you: for all the evil you have done me, and all you would have done, I pray God to pardon you, and make you of a better mind."

Here the door was thrown open, and Messrs. Huntingdon and Hattersley appeared without. The latter remained in the hall, busy with his ram-rod and his gun; the former walked in, and stood with his back to the fire, surveying Mr. Hargrave and me, particularly the former, with a smile of insupportable meaning, accompanied as it was, by the impudence of his brazen brow and the sly, malicious twinkle of his eye.

"Well, sir?" said Hargrave interrogatively, and with the air of one prepared to stand on the defensive.

"Well, sir," returned his host.

"We want to know if you're at liberty to join us in a go at the pheasants, Walter," interposed Hattersley from without. "Come! there shall be nothing shot besides, except a puss or two; I'll vouch for that."