The
breach in his head was healed, but that which separated his family
remained the same--
"As rocks that had been rent asunder."
They knew the fellowship of man and wife only in so much as was
absolutely essential to the keeping up of appearances to the public
eye--a matter necessary to maintaining her lord in the possession of his
dignity; which, as it conferred honor and profit, through him, upon her
also, it was of necessity a part of her policy to continue.
There had been a brush--a small gust had passed over that fair region of
domestic harmony--on the very morning upon which the outlaw and his
party rode up the untrimmed and half-overgrown avenue, which led to the
house of the writ-server. There had been an amiable discussion between
the two, as to which of them, with propriety, belonged the duty of
putting on the breeches of their son Tommy, preparatory to his making
his appearance at the breakfast-table. Some extraneous influence had
that morning prompted the sheriff to resist the performance of a task
which had now for some time been imposed upon him, and for which,
therefore, there was the sanction of prescription and usage.
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