The Mill on the Floss Read Online Free Page B

ourselves."
    The fixed inquiring glance with which Mr. Tulliver had been
watching his friend's oracular face became quite eager.
    "Ay, now, let's hear," he said, adjusting himself in his chair
with the complacency of a person who is thought worthy of important
communications.
    "He's an Oxford man," said Mr. Riley, sententiously, shutting
his mouth close, and looking at Mr. Tulliver to observe the effect
of this stimulating information.
    "What! a parson?" said Mr. Tulliver, rather doubtfully.
    "Yes, and an M.A. The bishop, I understand, thinks very highly
of him: why, it was the bishop who got him his present curacy."
    "Ah?" said Mr. Tulliver, to whom one thing was as wonderful as
another concerning these unfamiliar phenomena. "But what can he
want wi' Tom, then?"
    "Why, the fact is, he's fond of teaching, and wishes to keep up
his studies, and a clergyman has but little opportunity for that in
his parochial duties. He's willing to take one or two boys as
pupils to fill up his time profitably. The boys would be quite of
the family,–the finest thing in the world for them; under
Stelling's eye continually."
    "But do you think they'd give the poor lad twice o' pudding?"
said Mrs. Tulliver, who was now in her place again. "He's such a
boy for pudding as never was; an' a growing boy like that,–it's
dreadful to think o' their stintin' him."
    "And what money 'ud he want?" said Mr. Tulliver, whose instinct
told him that the services of this admirable M.A. would bear a high
price.
    "Why, I know of a clergyman who asks a hundred and fifty with
his youngest pupils, and he's not to be mentioned with Stelling,
the man I speak of. I know, on good authority, that one of the
chief people at Oxford said, Stelling might get the highest honors
if he chose. But he didn't care about university honors; he's a
quiet man–not noisy."
    "Ah, a deal better–a deal better," said Mr. Tulliver; "but a
hundred and fifty's an uncommon price. I never thought o' paying so
much as that."
    "A good education, let me tell you, Tulliver,–a good education
is cheap at the money. But Stelling is moderate in his terms; he's
not a grasping man. I've no doubt he'd take your boy at a hundred,
and that's what you wouldn't get many other clergymen to do. I'll
write to him about it, if you like."
    Mr. Tulliver rubbed his knees, and looked at the carpet in a
meditative manner.
    "But belike he's a bachelor," observed Mrs. Tulliver, in the
interval; "an' I've no opinion o' housekeepers. There was my
brother, as is dead an' gone, had a housekeeper once, an' she took
half the feathers out o' the best bed, an' packed 'em up an' sent
'em away. An' it's unknown the linen she made away with–Stott her
name was. It 'ud break my heart to send Tom where there's a
housekeeper, an' I hope you won't think of it, Mr. Tulliver."
    "You may set your mind at rest on that score, Mrs. Tulliver,"
said Mr. Riley, "for Stelling is married to as nice a little woman
as any man need wish for a wife. There isn't a kinder little soul
in the world; I know her family well. She has very much your
complexion,–light curly hair. She comes of a good Mudport family,
and it's not every offer that would have been acceptable in that
quarter. But Stelling's not an every-day man; rather a particular
fellow as to the people he chooses to be connected with. But I
think
he would have no objection to take your son; I
think
he would not, on my representation."
    "I don't know what he could have
against
the lad," said
Mrs. Tulliver, with a slight touch of motherly indignation; "a nice
fresh-skinned lad as anybody need wish to see."
    "But there's one thing I'm thinking on," said Mr. Tulliver,
turning his head on one side and looking at Mr. Riley, after a long
perusal of the carpet. "Wouldn't a parson be almost too high-learnt
to bring up a lad to be a man o' business? My notion o' the parsons
was as they'd got a sort o' learning as lay mostly out o' sight.
And that isn't what I want for Tom. I want him to know