“And you are well lodged! Your garden does you honour.”
“I’ll be honest enough to own I have no claim to the credit,” said Gerard. “I am but a lazy chiel.”
They entered the cottage, where a hale old woman greeted them.
“She is too old to be my wife, and too young to be my mother,” said Gerard smiling; “but she is a good creature, and has looked after me many a long day. Come, dame,” he said, “thou’lt bring us a cup of tea; ‘tis a good evening beverage,” he added, turning to Egremont. “and what I ever take at this time. And if you care to light a pipe, you will find a companion.”
“I have renounced tobacco,” said Egremont; “tobacco is the tomb of love,” and they entered a neatly-furnished chamber, that had that habitable look which the best room of a farmhouse too often wants. Instead of the cast-off furniture of other establishments, at the same time dingy and tawdry, mock rosewood chairs and tarnished mahogany tables, there was an oaken table, some cottage chairs made of beech wood, and a Dutch clock. But what surprised Egremont was the appearance of several shelves well lined with volumes. Their contents too on closer inspection were very remarkable. They indicated a student of a high order. Egremont read the titles of works which he only knew by fame, but which treated of the loftiest and most subtle questions of social and political philosophy. As he was throwing his eye over them, his companion said, “Ah! I see you think me as great a scholar as I am a gardener: but with as little justice; these books are not mine.”
“To whomsoever they belong,” said Egremont, “if we are to judge from his collection, he has a tolerably strong head.”
“Ay, ay,” said Gerard, “the world will hear of him yet, though he was only a workman, and the son of a workman. He has not been at your schools and your colleges, but he can write his mother tongue, as Shakespeare and Cobbett wrote it; and you must do that, if you wish to influence the people.”
“And might I ask his name,” said Egremont.
“Stephen Morley, my friend.”
“The person I saw with you at Marney Abbey?”