You might then invite
people with safety, but it is very different now, when they have nothing to
do but put themselves into the express train and whisk down in a few
hours.'
'Well, but, confound him, I didn't ask his horses,' exclaimed Jawleyford;
'nor will I have them either,' continued he, with a jerk of the head, as he
got up and rang the bell, as though determined to put a stop to that at all
events.
'Samuel,' said he, to the dirty page of a boy who answered the summons,
'tell John Watson to go down to the Railway Tavern directly, and desire
them to get a three-stalled stable ready for a gentleman's horses that are
coming to-day--a gentleman of the name of Sponge,' added he, lest any one
else should chance to come and usurp them--'and tell John to meet the
express train, and tell the gentleman's groom where it is.'
CHAPTER XIV
JAWLEYFORD COURT
True to a minute, the hissing engine drew the swiftly gliding train beneath
the elegant and costly station at Lucksford--an edifice presenting a rare
contrast to the wretched old red-tiled, five-windowed house, called the Red
Lion, where a brandy-faced blacksmith of a landlord used to emerge from
the adjoining smithy, to take charge of any one who might arrive per coach
for that part of the country.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178