Gales
of compunction blew; of self-interest also; and the common judgment
veered with them.
After the inevitable verdict had been recorded, a fresh jury was
empanelled, and there was a stamping of sturdy Cumbrian feet up the inn
stairs to view the pitiful remains of another human being, botched by
Nature in the flesh, no less lamentably than Melrose in the spirit. The
legal inquiry into Brand's flight and death was short and mostly formal;
but the actual evidence--as compared with current gossip--of his luckless
mother, now left sonless and husbandless, and as to the relations of the
family with Faversham, hastened the melting process in the public mind.
It showed a man in bondage indeed to a tyrant; but doing what he could to
lighten the hand of the tyrant on others; privately and ineffectively
generous; remorseful for the sins of another; and painfully aware of his
mixed responsibility.
Yet naturally there were counter currents. Andover, the old Cumbrian
squire, whose personal friction with Faversham had been sharpest, left
the inn with a much puzzled mind, but not prepared as yet to surrender
his main opinion of a young man, who after all had feathered his nest so
uncommonly well. "They may say what they d--n please," said the furious
and disappointed Nash, as he departed in company with his shabby
accomplice, the sallow-faced clerk, "but he's walked off with the dibs,
an' I suppose he thinks he'll jolly well keep 'em. The 'cutest young
scoundrel I ever came across!" which, considering the range of the
speaker's experience, was testimony indeed.
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