"Little Derrice," he murmured, and he put the sketch back in the box and replaced it on the shelf. As he did so, his eyes fell on a framed crucifixion on the wall. His expression altered again, and ejaculating, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!" he fell on his knees and sank into a paroxysm of prayer.
CHAPTER V.
A PASTORAL VISIT.
Justin Mercer's former monotonous life was at an end. With a faint red spot on either cheek, and with much internal diversion, he sat at the breakfast-table the next morning watching his wife.
At first she would eat nothing. Her disdainful glance played over the porridge dish, the slices of cold meat, and the cold bread and cheese that were all the table contained, and she successively refused every one of them. Then, just as he was deliberating what to do, Captain White came to the rescue.
"I'll toast you a slice of bread, miss," and, suiting the action to the word, he sprang at the loaf like a benevolent tiger, and hastily cutting a slice rushed to the fire with it, suspended on one of Mrs. Prymmer's best silver forks.
That lady surveyed him in speechless indignation while he nicely browned the bread, buttered it, and handed it to the girl who, thanking him by a smile, sat eating it with her gaze riveted on him. He, with eyes twinkling phosphorescently, demurely finished his porridge, and held out his saucer for more, that was reprovingly bestowed on him by Mrs. Prymmer.
Justin saw that Derrice was completely fascinated by his cousin, on account of his resemblance to her father, and also because of his kindness of heart that with feminine insight she readily divined under his odd manners.
His mother repelled her, though at the same time the exaggeration of the mother-in-law attitude seemed to afford secret and irrepressible amusement to the young girl. Mrs. Prymmer's repugnance was too overwrought to be genuine, too ridiculous to be taken seriously. There were stormy times ahead for him with these two women. The daughter-in-law would ridicule the mother-in-law; the mother-in-law would, probably, fall into a rage with the daughter-in-law, and, perhaps, drive her from the house. He would have to take sides; but there was no use in anticipating the storms, and with calm but surreptitious interest he watched Derrice as she scrutinised the room.