Читать книгу Gallybird онлайн

20 страница из 87

Gervase laughed out loud at his memories, and the passing cow swung her head at him. It had been a famous sight—that sour black stick of a man gaping there with the child in his arms, and the mountebank running away . . . she had got to the fence before anyone thought of stopping her. Of course at first they had all believed it a joke—that she had been paid by some wag to plant her brat on the Puritan. But it was the man himself who had stuck for the truth of her words. He would have it that this was his own child, his own sin, the Lord's rebuke for a wantonness, twelve months old. Nay, he would tell them all how he had met a tinker woman at a fair and been tempted to his undoing.

"For twelve months I've borne the secret smart of my sin. Now the Lord has discovered my shame and visited his condemnation upon me."

All the time his wife was railing at him; for she believed him. It appeared that his manners to her a year ago had agreed with such a story.

"I knew well you'd been up to some wickedness. You were hang-dog and shamefaced and scrambling for a week or more. Nay, filthy! I know thee now."