Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell Read Free Book Online Page A

though she did not, how much she was winning on
my father. She asked a few questions which showed that she had followed
his explanations up to that point; possibly, too, her unusual beauty
might have something to do with his favourable impression of her; but
he made no scruple of expressing his admiration of her to her father
and mother in her absence from the room; and from that evening I date a
project of his which came out to me a day or two afterwards, as we sate
in my little three-cornered room in Eltham. 'Paul,' he began, 'I never
thought to be a rich man; but I think it's coming upon me. Some folk
are making a deal of my new machine (calling it by its technical name),
and Ellison, of the Borough Green Works, has gone so far as to ask me
to be his partner.'
    'Mr Ellison the Justice!—who lives in King Street? why, he drives his
carriage!' said I, doubting, yet exultant.
    'Ay, lad, John Ellison. But that's no sign that I shall drive my
carriage. Though I should like to save thy mother walking, for she's
not so young as she was. But that's a long way off; anyhow. I reckon I
should start with a third profit. It might be seven hundred, or it
might be more. I should like to have the power to work out some fancies
o' mine. I care for that much more than for th' brass. And Ellison has
no lads; and by nature the business would come to thee in course o'
time. Ellison's lasses are but bits o' things, and are not like to come
by husbands just yet; and when they do, maybe they'll not be in the
mechanical line. It will be an opening for thee, lad, if thou art
steady. Thou'rt not great shakes, I know, in th' inventing line; but
many a one gets on better without having fancies for something he does
not see and never has seen. I'm right down glad to see that mother's
cousins are such uncommon folk for sense and goodness. I have taken the
minister to my heart like a brother; and she is a womanly quiet sort of
a body. And I'll tell you frank, Paul, it will be a happy day for me if
ever you can come and tell me that Phillis Holman is like to be my
daughter. I think if that lass had not a penny, she would be the making
of a man; and she'll have yon house and lands, and you may be her match
yet in fortune if all goes well.'
    I was growing as red as fire; I did not know what to say, and yet I
wanted to say something; but the idea of having a wife of my own at
some future day, though it had often floated about in my own head,
sounded so strange when it was thus first spoken about by my father. He
saw my confusion, and half smiling said,—
    'Well, lad, what dost say to the old father's plans? Thou art but
young, to be sure; but when I was thy age, I would ha' given my right
hand if I might ha' thought of the chance of wedding the lass I cared
for—'
    'My mother?' asked I, a little struck by the change of his tone of
voice.
    'No! not thy mother. Thy mother is a very good woman—none better. No!
the lass I cared for at nineteen ne'er knew how I loved her, and a year
or two after and she was dead, and ne'er knew. I think she would ha'
been glad to ha' known it, poor Molly; but I had to leave the place
where we lived for to try to earn my bread and I meant to come back but
before ever I did, she was dead and gone: I ha' never gone there since.
But if you fancy Phillis Holman, and can get her to fancy you, my lad,
it shall go different with you, Paul, to what it did with your father.'
    I took counsel with myself very rapidly, and I came to a clear
conclusion. 'Father,' said I, 'if I fancied Phillis ever so much, she
would never fancy me. I like her as much as I could like a sister; and
she likes me as if I were her brother—her younger brother.'
    I could see my father's countenance fall a little.
    'You see she's so clever she's more like a man than a woman—she knows
Latin and Greek.'
    'She'd forget 'em, if she'd a houseful of children,' was my father's
comment on this.
    'But she knows many a thing besides, and is wise as well as learned;
she