When the moment came to get out of the buggy, Samuel looked at his
companion dumbly; a sort of paralysis seemed to hold him in his seat.
When he did move, Dr. Lavendar heard him gasp for breath, and in the
darkness, as he hitched the sorrel to a staple in one of the big
locusts, his face went white. The large manner which had dominated Old
Chester for so many years was shrinking and shrivelling; the whole man
seemed, somehow, smaller....
Benjamin Wright, in his mangy beaver hat, sitting quaking in his
library, heard their steps on the veranda. As soon as supper was over,
he had dismissed his rejoicing grandson, and long before it was
necessary, had bidden Simmons light the lamps; but as night fell, it
occurred to him that darkness would make things easier, and in a
panic, he shuffled about and blew them all out. A little later, he had
a surge of terror; he couldn't bear _that voice_ in the dark!
"You! Simmons!" he called across the hall. "Light the lamps!"
"I done lit 'em, suh--" Simmons expostulated from the pantry, and then
looked blankly at the black doorway of the library. "I 'clare to
goodness, they's gone out," he mumbled to himself; and came in, to
stand on one leg and scratch a match on the sole of his carpet
slipper.
"Don't light all four, you stupid nigger!" the old man screamed at
him.
When Simmons left him he lit a cigar, his fingers trembling very much;
it went out almost at once, and he threw it away and took another.
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