“Ho, Abigail!” he cried.
“Who calls Abigail?” demanded the woman, turning sharply round.
“Hither, hussey, and see!” returned Shedlock, drawing up before the porch. “Verily thou art a stubborn stock, and stiff-necked, as was Israel of old. Thou must be bent to obedience, woman, by a strong hand, and an outstretched arm. Surely, the spirit shall make me strong to prove thee.”
The woman to whom his rebuke was addressed, and whom the last moment had brought close up with them, was about fifty years of age, and had the appearance of an inferior domestic, or, to use a modern phrase, servant-of-all-work. She was, as has been remarked, a short, squat figure, which time appeared to have strengthened and braced up, rather than impaired. Her features were harsh and rigid, and marked, just below the mouth, on the ball of the chin, with distinct traces of a beard, partly sandy-colour, and partly grey. Her appearance was rendered doubly unprepossessing, on a closer survey, by her mean and slovenly attire; which, not only from its cut, but in its materials, was unsightly in the extreme, and was no way improved by its sundry varied patches of grease and grime.
She did not make any reply to the reproof of Shedlock, but, raising her small brown eyes, she looked him full in the face, and thus waited whatever he might say further.
“Now I see in thee the iniquity of Jeroboam, which caused Israel to sin,” cried Shedlock. “Wilt thou take these beasts, or not?”
The woman sulkily stepped forward, and, with some show of impatience, caught up the bridles of the two horses, and twisted them round her brawny arm. Sir Walter and Shedlock, without taking any notice of her demeanour, then alighted, and passed through the porch into the house.
Crossing the hall within, Shedlock led Sir Walter to another apartment, less capacious in its dimensions, at its further end. Here he invited him to be seated; and Sir Walter, who did not need a second invitation, threw himself into the only chair in the chamber, and prepared to make himself at home.
“Hast thou ever a draught of water in thy reach, Master Shedlock?” he inquired, on thus disposing himself. “By my lady’s hand, I could now look pleasantly on a flowing spring.”