Take it, I say. It will give thee comfort an' me happiness."
He would hear no refusal, and again the coat changed owners, giving
happiness to the old and comfort to the new.
Then Trove went down the rickety stairs and away in the darkness.
VI
A Certain Rick Man
Riley Brooke had a tongue for gossip, an ear for evil report, an
eye for rascals. Every day new suspicions took root in him, while
others grew and came to great size and were as hard to conceal as
pumpkins. He had meanness enough to equip all he knew, and gave it
with a lavish tongue. In his opinion Hillsborough came within one
of having as many rascals in it as there were people. He had tried
to bring them severally to justice by vain appeals to the law,
having sued for every cause in the books, but chiefly for trespass
and damages, real and exemplary. He was a money-lender, shaving
notes or taking them for larger sums than he lent, with chattel
mortgages for security. Foreclosure and sale were a perennial
source of profit to him. He was tall and well past middle age,
with a short, gray beard, a look of severity, a stoop in his
shoulders, and a third wife whom nobody, within the knowledge of
the townfolk, had ever seen.
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