After a moment’s hesitation, it was produced from the waistcoat pocket. Dr. Sneyd set the boy free, bade him make haste to do his master’s bidding, and quietly doubling the chain, laid it down on a distant table.
“He never made haste in his life, sir,” protested Mr. Temple. “You do not know the lad, sir, believe me.”
“I do not: and I am sorry to hear such an account of him. This is a place where no one can be allowed to loiter and be idle.”
Ephraim showed that he could make haste; for he lost no time in getting out of the room, when he had received his final orders. At the moment, and for a few moments more, Dr. Sneyd was relating to his daughter the contents of the letters received from England the night before. Mr. Temple meanwhile was stirring the fire, flourishing his handkerchief, and summoning courage to be angry with Dr. Sneyd.
“Do you know, sir,” said he, at length, "that boy is my servant? Let me tell you, that for one gentleman to interfere with another gentleman’s servants is——"
Dr. Sneyd was listening so calmly, with his hands resting on the head of his cane, that Temple’s words, somehow or other, failed him.
"Such interference is——is——This boy, sir, is my servant."
“Your servant, but not your slave. Do you know, Temple, it is I who might call you to account, rather than you me. As one of the same race with this boy, I have a right to call you to account for making property of that which is no property. There is no occasion, I trust, for you and me to refer this matter to a magistrate: but, till compelled to do so, I have a full right to strike off chains wherever I meet with them.”
"You may meet with them in the woods, or as far over the prairie as you are likely to walk, my dear sir, for this lad is a notorious runaway: he has escaped three times. Nothing short of such an offence could have made me do any thing which might appear harsh. If he runs away again, I assure you I shall be compelled to employ the restraint in question: I give you warning that I must. So, if you should meet him, thus restrained, you know——"
"O, yes; I shall know what to do. I shall take off the chain that he may hie the faster.——I see your conservatory is in great beauty. I imagine you must have adopted Arthur’s notion about warming it."