The Distracted Preacher Read Online Free

in lower tones.
    Stockdale was made so uneasy by the circumstance that as soon as the miller was gone, he said, “Mrs. Newberry, are you aware that you were watched just now, and your conversation heard?”
    â€œWhen?” she said.
    â€œWhen you were talking to that miller. A man was looking from the laurel-tree as jealously as if he could have eaten you.”
    She showed more concern than the trifling event seemed to demand, and he added, “Perhaps you were talking of things you did not wish to be overheard?”
    â€œI was talking only on business,” she said.
    â€œLizzy, be frank!” said the young man. “If it was only on business, why should anybody wish to listen to you?”
    She looked curiously at him. “What else do you think it could be, then?”
    â€œWell, the only talk between a young woman and man that is likely to amuse an eavesdropper.”
    â€œAh yes,” she said, smiling in spite of her preoccupation. “Well, Cousin Owlett has spoken to me about matrimony, every now and then, that’s true; but he was not speaking of it then. I wish he had been speaking of it, with all my heart. It would have been much less serious for me.”
    â€œOh, Mrs. Newberry!”
    â€œIt would. Not that I should ha’ chimed in with him, of course. I wish it for other reasons. I am glad, Mr. Stockdale, that you have told me of that listener. It is a timely warning, and I must see my cousin again.”
    â€œBut don’t go away till I have spoken,” said the minister. “I’ll out with it at once, and make no more ado. Let it be Yes or No between us, Lizzy, please do!” And he held out his hand, in which she freely allowed her own to rest, but without speaking.
    â€œYou mean Yes by that?” he asked, after waiting a while.
    â€œYou may be my sweetheart, if you will.”
    â€œWhy not say at once you will wait for me until I have a house and can come back to marry you?”
    â€œBecause I am thinking—thinking of something else,” she said with embarrassment. “It all comes upon me at once, and I must settle one thing at a time.”
    â€œAt any rate, dear Lizzy, you can assure me that the miller shall not be allowed to speak to you except on business? You have never directly encouraged him?”
    She parried the question by saying, “You see, he and his party have been in the habit of leaving things on my premises sometimes, and as I have not denied him, it makes him rather forward.”
    â€œThings—what things?”
    â€œTubs—they are called things here.”
    â€œBut why don’t you deny him, my dear Lizzy?”
    â€œI cannot well.”
    â€œYou are too timid. It is unfair of him to impose so upon you, and get your good name into danger by his smuggling tricks. Promise me that the next time he wants to leave his tubs here you will let me roll them into the street?”
    She shook her head. “I would not venture to offend the neighbors so much as that,” said she, “or do anything that would be so likely to put poor Owlett into the hands of the excisemen.”
    Stockdale sighed, and said that he thought hers a mistaken generosity when it extended to assisting those who cheated the King of his dues. “At any rate, you will let me make him keep his distance as your lover, and tell him flatly that you are not for him?”
    â€œPlease not, at present,” she said. “I don’t wish to offend my old neighbors. It is not only Owlett who is concerned.”
    â€œThis is too bad,” said Stockdale, impatiently.
    â€œOn my honor, I won’t encourage him as my lover,” Lizzy answered earnestly. “A reasonable man will be satisfied with that.”
    â€œWell, so I am,” said Stockdale, his countenance clearing.

CHAPTER III
THE MYSTERIOUS GREAT-COAT
    Stockdale now began to notice more particularly a feature in the life of his fair landlady