Page:The works of George Eliot (Volume 23).djvu/409

 thought David, and emptied the jar. Jacob grinned and mowed with delight.

"You're very good to this stranger, Mr Freely," said Letitia; and then spitefully, as David joined the party at the parlour-door, "I think you could hardly treat him better, if he was really your brother."

"I've always thought it a duty to be good to idiots," said Mr Freely, striving after the most moral view of the subject. "We might have been idiots ourselves—everybody might have been born idiots, instead of having their right senses."

"I don't know where there'd ha' been victual for us all then," observed Mrs Palfrey, regarding the matter in a housewifely light.

"But let us sit down again and finish our tea," said Mr Freely. "Let us leave the poor creature to himself."

They walked into the parlour again; but Jacob, not apparently appreciating the kindness of leaving him to himself, immediately followed his brother, and seated himself, pitchfork grounded, at the table.

"Well," said Miss Letitia, rising, "I don't know whether you mean to stay, mother; but I shall go home."

"Oh, me too," said Penny, frightened to death at Jacob, who had begun to nod and grin at her.

"Well, I think we had better be going, Mr Palfrey," said the mother, rising more slowly.

Mr Freely, whose complexion had become decidedly yellower during the last half-hour, did not resist this proposition. He hoped they should meet again "under happier circumstances."