So eager was she
in the search, that she even let her tongue rest a little, and deep
silence reigned in the room.
Suddenly this silence was broken by a voice; which seemed to come
from the courtyard. It was a soft, sweet voice that cried: "Hodge,
dear Hodge, are you there? Come to me in the court, only for a few
minutes! I want to have a bit of a laugh with you!"
It was as though an electric shock had passed through the room with
that voice, and struck at the same time both Gammer Gurton and
Hodge.
Both startled, and discontinuing the search, stood there wholly
immovable, as if petrified. Hodge especially, poor Hodge, was as if
struck by lightning. His great bluish-white eyes appeared to be
coming out of their sockets; his long arms hung down, flapping and
dangling about like a flail; his knees, half bent, seemed already to
be giving way in expectation of the approaching storm.
This storm did not in fact make him wait long. "That is Tib!"
screamed Gammer Gurton, springing like a lioness upon Hodge and
seizing him by the shoulders with both her hands. "That is Tib, you
thread-like, pitiful greyhound! Well, was I not right, now, when I
called you a faithless, good-for-nothing scamp, that spares not
innocence, and breaks the hearts of the women as he would a cracker,
which he swallows at his pleasure? Was I not right, in saying that
you were only watching for me to go out in order to go and sport
with Tib?"
"Hodge, my dear, darling Hodge," cried the voice beneath there, and
this time louder and more tender than before, "Hodge, oh come, do
now, come with me in the court, as you promised me; come and get the
kiss for which you begged me this morning!"
"I will be a damned otter, if I begged her for it, and if I
understand a single word of what she says!" said Hodge, wholly
dumfounded and quaking all over.
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