"Yes," he nodded; "the canting humbug!" He looked at her sullenly, even resentfully, she thought; and she trembled with fear as she noticed his shaking hands and quivering lips.
Then he burst forth into a volley of oaths, and she gleaned that he was angry with her for having sought refuge with the Moyles on the preceding night. He stormed against her, against Silas and his wife, against everyone, in short, who had remonstrated with him that day. Apparently, his neighbours had been telling him some plain home truths which had not been pleasant hearing.
"Oh, father, don't say any more!" Salome pleaded in great distress. "Oh, please don't swear so frightfully! What could I do? You turned me out of my home, and I did not know where to go, except to Mrs. Moyle's. Oh, don't speak of her like that! It was out of pure kindness she took me in. You would not have had me spend the night out of doors in that lashing rain, would you? Oh, father, you are cruel indeed!"
The reproach in her sorrowful eyes enraged him beyond measure.
"You dare stand up for those who insult your father!" he shouted in a fury; and clutching her by the shoulder, he shook her savagely, then flung her from him with some violence. Losing her hold of her crutches, they fell to the ground; and staggering forward with a frightened cry, she knocked her forehead against a corner of the mantelpiece, and the next moment, lay white and unconscious at her father's feet.
[CHAPTER XII.]
A Brief Repentance.
IT was about half-past nine o'clock that same night, that the Vicar of Yelton opened the Pethericks' garden gate, and stepping determinedly up the path, rapped at the door of the cottage.
Returning from an evening's fishing an hour previously, he had been stopped in the village, on his way home, by Silas Moyle, who had poured into his ears an excited tale about Josiah, whom Silas had taken upon himself to remonstrate with upon his cruel conduct to his daughter on the previous night, with the result that Josiah, inflamed with drink, had struck him, and had received in return a black eye and an injured cheek.
"You know, sir, I'm a man of peace, and don't hold with brawling," Silas had said; "but I own I lost my temper to-night. Josiah's a regular blackguard when he's drunk."