Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

to top, up
your glass?"
    "Thank you"
    As they moved towards the stairs which led up to
the living rooms of the house, Pascoe added:
    "In fact it was our experience of last
autumn which finally decided me to take this action."
    "You mean the failure of the Carnmore
Copper Copper Company?'.'
    "Yes....:. No doubt, fighting it out as,
you fought it out in the arena all the time - you could feel the pressure of
the hostile interests, the other copper companies and the banks concerned,
plainly enough. But sitting here - you know I hardly ever go out-sitting here
in this quiet bank one was aware, of s-subtle stresses too."
    " Also hostile."
    Also hostile. I was not, as you know, directly
interested in the copper venture. It is not my business - as a custodian of
other people's money to take speculative risks. But I was aware that if I had
been so concerned I should not have been strong enough; to stand the strains
that could have been put on me. Credit is an unpredictable thing-as unstable as
quicksilver. One cannot box it up. One can only give it away - and once `given
it is elastic' up to the very point of breakage. Last autumn I realised that
the days of the one-man bank are over. It-disturbed me-shook me out of a
comfortable rut in wh-which I had been for many years. All this year I have
been feeling my way towards some broader organisation:
    They went up the stairs to dinner.

Chapter Four
    When Francis got home it was just after six. He
had had to ride into the teeth of the wind all the way, and there had been a
half dozen torrential showers, some of them with more than a suggestion of
hail, to stream off his horse's head and his cape and to strike at his face
under the insecure hat, to trickle down his neck and soak his riding breeches
above the leather leggings. Twice too he had nearly come off when his horse
slipped in mud-filled ruts more than a foot deep. So he was not in a good
temper.
    Tabb, last of the two remaining house servants,
came to take his horse and began to say something; but a gust of wind and
another flurry of rain bore it away and Francis went into the house.
    It was a silent house these days; and already it
showed signs of poverty and neglect: wild weather and salt air is hard on man's
work, and there were damp stains on the ceiling of this fine hall and a smell
of mildew. Portraits of the Poldarks and the Trenwiths stared coldly across the
unfrequented room.
    Francis tramped to the stairs, intending to go
up and change, but the door of the. winter parlour flew open and Geoffrey
Charles carne galloping down the hall.
    "Daddy! Daddy ! Uncle George is here and
has brought me a toy horse! A lovely one! With brown, eyes and brown hair and
stirrups I can put my feet in!"
    Francis saw Elizabeth had come to the door of
the winter parlour, so now there was no escape from greeting an unexpected
visitor.
    As Francis went in George Warleggan was standing
by the fireplace. He was wearing a snuff-coloured coat, silk waistcoat and
black cravat, with fawn breeches and new, brown riding boots. Elizabeth looked
a little flushed, as if the surprise call had pleased her. George came seldom
these days, being not too sure of his welcome here. Francis had queer moods and
resented his indebtedness.
    Elizabeth said " George has been here an
hour. We were hoping you would be back before he had to leave."
    " Quite an honour these days." Francis
bent to satisfy Geoffrey Charles with admiration for his new toy. " Now I
am here you'd best stay till this shower is over. I've been anointed many times
on the way home."
    George said evenly: "You've lost weight,
Francis. So have I: We shall all look like sans-culottes before the century is
out"
    Francis's eyes travelled over George's broad
frame. "I notice no change for the better.''
    The cream curtains in this room were inches
farther across the windows than Francis liked them; they diffused the light,
giving it a tactful and opaque quality which irritated him. He went across and
pulled