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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14533-0.txt b/14533-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b1b190 --- /dev/null +++ b/14533-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11897 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14533 *** + +HOCKEN AND HUNKEN + +A Tale of Troy + +by + +Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch ('Q') + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +BOOK I + +CHAPTER + +I. CAPTAIN CAI HAULS ASHORE. + +II. THE BARBER'S CHAIR. + +III. TABB'S CHILD. + +IV. VOICES IN THE TWILIGHT. + +V. A TESTIMONIAL. + +VI. RILLA FARM. + +VII. 'BIAS ARRIVES. + +VIII. 'BIAS APPROVES. + + +BOOK II + +IX. FIRST SUSPICIONS. + +X. REGATTA NIGHT. + +XI. MRS BOSENNA PLAYS A PARLOUR GAME. + +XII. _AMANTIUM IRAE_. + +XIII. FAIR CHALLENGE. + +XIV. THE LETTERS. + +XV. PALMERSTON'S GENIUS. + +XVI. IS IN TWO PARTS. + +XVII. APPARENTLY DIVIDES INTO THREE. + + +BOOK III + +XVIII. THE PLOUGHING. + +XIX. ROSES AND THREE-PER-CENTS. + +XX. A NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH. + +XXI. THE AUCTION. + +XXII. THE LAST CHALLENGE. + +XXIII. PASSAGE REGATTA. + +XXIV. FANCY BRINGS NEWS. + +XXV. CAI RENOUNCES. + +XXVI. 'BIAS RENOUNCES. + +XXVII. MRS BOSENNA GIVES THE ROSE. + +XXVIII. JUBILEE. + + + + + +BOOK I. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +CAPTAIN CAI HAULS ASHORE. + +"Well, _that's_ over!" + +Captain Caius Hocken, from the stern-sheets of the boat bearing him +shoreward, slewed himself half-about for a look back at his vessel, the +_Hannah Hoo_ barquentine. This was a ticklish operation, because he +wore a tall silk hat and had allowed his hair to grow during the passage +home--St. Michael's to Liverpool with a cargo of oranges, and from +Liverpool around to Troy in charge of a tug. + +"I'm wonderin' what 'twill feel like when it comes to my turn," mused +his mate Mr Tregaskis, likewise pensively contemplating the _Hannah +Hoo_. "Not to be sure, sir, as I'd compare the two cases; me bein' a +married man, and you--as they say--with the ship for wife all these +years, and children too." + +"I never liked the life, notwithstandin'," confessed the Captain. +"And I'll be fifty come Michaelmas. Isn' that enough?" + +"Nobody likes it, sir; not at our age. But all the same I reckon there +be compensations." Mr Tregaskis, shading his eyes (for the day was +sunny), let his gaze travel up the spars and rigging of the +Barquentine--up to the truck of her maintopmast, where a gull had +perched itself and stood with tail pointing like a vane. "If the truth +were known, maybe your landsman on an average don't do as he chooses any +more than we mariners." + +"Tut, man!" The Captain, who held the tiller, had ceased to look aft. +His eyes were on the quay and the small town climbing the hillside above +it in tier upon tier of huddled grey houses. "Why, damme! +Your landsman chooses to live ashore, to begin with. What's more, he +can walk where he has a mind to, no matter where the wind sits." + +Mr Tregaskis shook his head. Having no hat, he was able to do this, and +it gave him some dialectical advantage over his skipper. + +"In practice, sir, you'd find it depend on who's left to mind the shop." + +"Home's home, all the same," said Captain Cai positively, thrusting over +the tiller to round in for the landing-stairs. "I was born and reared +in Troy, d'ye see? and as the sayin' goes--Steady on!" + +A small schooner, the _Pure Gem_ of Padstow, had warped out from the +quay overnight after discharging her ballast with the usual disregard of +the Harbour Commissioners' bye-laws; and a number of ponderable stones, +now barely covered by the tide, encumbered the foot of the landing. +On one of these the boat caught her heel, with a jerk that flung the two +oarsmen sprawling and toppled Captain Hocken's tall hat over his nose. +Mr Tregaskis thrust out a hand to catch it, but in too great a haste. +The impact of his finger-tips on the edge of the crown sent the hat +spinning forward over the thwart whereon sprawled Ben Price, the stroke +oar, and into the lap of Nathaniel Berry, bowman. + +Nathaniel Berry, recovering his balance, rescued the headgear from the +grip of his knees, gave it a polite brush the wrong way of the nap, and +passed it aft to Ben Price. Ben--a bald-headed but able seaman--eyed it +a moment, rubbed it the right way dubiously with his elbow, and handed +it on to the mate; who in turn smoothed it with the palm of his hand, +which--being an alert obliging man--he had dexterously wetted overside +before the Captain could stop him. + +"That's no method to improve a hat," said Captain Hocken shortly, +snatching it and wiping it with his handkerchief. He peered into it and +pushed out a dent with his thumb. "The way this harbour's allowed to +shoal is nothing short of a national disgrace!" + +He improved on this condemnation as, having pushed clear and brought his +boat safely alongside, he climbed the steps and met the Quaymaster, who +advanced to greet him with an ingratiating smile. + +"--A scandal to the civilised world! _There's_ a way to stack ballast, +now! Look at it, sproiled about the quay-edge like a skittle-alley in a +cyclone! But that has been your fashion, Peter Bussa, ever since I +knowed 'ee, and 'Nigh enough' your motto." + +"You've no idea, Cap'n Cai, the hard I work to keep this blessed quay +tidy." + +"Work? Ay--like a pig's tail, I believe: goin' all day, and still in a +twist come night." + +"Chide away--chide away, now! But you're welcome home for all that, +Cap'n Cai,--welcome as a man's heart to his body." + +Captain Cai relaxed his frown. After all, 'twas good to return and find +the little town running on just as he left it, even down to Quaymaster +Bussa and his dandering ways. Yes, there stood the ancient crane with +its broken-cogged winch--his own initials, carved with his first +clasp-knife, would be somewhere on the beam; and the heap of sand beside +it differed nothing from the heap on which he and his fellows had pelted +one another forty years ago. Certainly the two bollards--the one +broken, the other leaning aslant--were the same over which he and they +had played leap-frog. Yes, and yonder, in the arcade supporting the +front of the "King of Prussia," was Long Mitchell leaning against his +usual pillar; and there, on the bench before the Working Men's +Institute, sat the trio of septuagenarians--Un' Barnicoat, Roper Vine, +Old Cap'n Tom--and sunned themselves; inseparables, who seldom exchanged +a remark, and never but in terms and tones of inveterate contempt. +Facing them in his doorway lounged the town barber, under his striped +pole and sign-board--"_Simeon Toy, Hairdresser_," with the s's still +twiddling the wrong way; and beyond, outside the corner-shop, Mr Rogers, +ship-broker and ship-chandler--half paralytic but cunning yet,--sat +hunched in his invalid chair, blinking; for all the world like a wicked +old spider on the watch for flies. + +"Ahoy, there!" Captain Cai hailed, and made across at once for the +invalid chair: for Mr Rogers was his man of business. "Lost no time in +reportin' myself, you see." + +Mr Rogers managed to lift his hand a little way to meet Captain Cai's +grasp. "Eh? Eh? I've been moored here since breakfast on the look-out +for 'ee." He spoke indistinctly by reason of his paralysis. +"They brought word early that the _Hannah Hoo_ was in, and I gave orders +straight away for a biled leg o' mutton--_with_ capers--_an'_ spring +cabbage. Twelve-thirty we sit down to it, it that suits?" + +"Thank 'ee, I should just say it _did_ suit! . . . You got my last +letter, posted from the Azores?" + +"To be sure I did. I've taken the two houses for 'ee, what's more, an' +the leases be drawn ready to sign. . . . But where's your friend? +He'll be welcome too--that is, if you don't hold three too many for a +leg o' mutton?" + +"'Bias Hunken? . . . You didn't reckon I was bringing him along with me, +did you?" + +"I reckoned nothin' at all, not knowin' the man." + +"Well, he's at West Indy Docks, London,--or was, a week ago. I saw it +on 'The Shipping Gazette' two days before we left the Mersey: the _I'll +Away_, from New Orleans; barquentine, and for shape in tonnage might be +own sister to the _Hannah Hoo_; but soft wood and Salcombe built. +I was half fearing 'Bias might get down to Troy ahead of me." + +"He hasn't reported himself to _me_, anyway. . . . But we'll talk about +him and other things later on." + +Mr Rogers dismissed the subject as the Quaymaster came sidling up to +join them. Mild gossip was a passion with the Quaymaster, and +eavesdropping his infirmity. + +"Well, Cap'n Cai, and so you've hauled ashore--and for good, if I hear +true?" + +"For good it is, please God," answered Captain Cai, lifting his hat at +the word. He was a simple man and a pious. + +"And a householder you've become already, by all accounts. I don't set +much store by Town Quay talk as a rule--" + +"That's right," interrupted Mr Rogers. "There's no man ought to know +its worth better than you, that sets most of it goin'." + +"They _do_ say as you've started by leasin' the two cottages in Harbour +Terrace." + +"Do they?" Captain Cai glanced at the ship-chandler for confirmation. +"Well, then, I hope it is true." + +"'Tis nothing of the sort," snapped Mr Rogers. Seeing how Captain Cai's +face fell, he added, "I may be wrong, o' course, but I reckon there was +_two_ tenants, and they wanted a cottage apiece." + +"Ah, to be sure!" agreed the honest captain, visibly relieved. + +But the Quaymaster persisted. "Yes, yes; there was talk of a friend o' +yours, an' that you two were for settin' up house alongside one another. +Hunken was the name, if I remember?" + +Again Captain Cai glanced at the ship-chandler. He was plainly puzzled, +as the ship-chandler was plainly nettled. But he answered simply-- + +"That's it--'Bias Hunken." + +"Have I met the man, by any chance?" + +"No," said Captain Cai firmly, "you haven't, or you wouldn't ask the +question. He's the best man ever wore shoe-leather, and you can trust +him to the end o' the earth." + +"I can't say as I know a Hunken answerin' that description," Mr Bussa +confessed dubiously. + +"You've heard the description, anyway," suggested Mr Rogers, losing +patience. "And now, Peter Bussa, what d'ye say to running off and +annoying somebody else?" + +The Quaymaster fawned, and was backing away. But at this point up came +Barber Toy, who for some minutes had been fretting to attract Captain +Cai's notice, and could wait no longer. + +"Hulloa, there! Is it Cap'n Cai?--an' still carryin' his gaff-tops'l, +I see" (this in pleasant allusion to the tall hat). "Well, home you be, +it seems, an' welcome as flowers in May!" + +"Thank 'ee, Toy." Captain Cai shook hands. + +"We was talkin' business," said the ship-chandler pointedly. + +"Then you might ha' waited for a better occasion," Mr Toy retorted. +"Twasn' mannerly of ye, to say the least." + +"Better be unmannerly than troublesome, I've heard." + +"Better be both than unfeelin'. What! Leave Cap'n Cai, here, pass my +door, an' never a home-comin' word?" + +"I was meanin' to pay you a visit straight away; indeed I was," said +Captain Cai contritely. "Troy streets be narrow and full o' friends; +and when a man's accustomed to sea-room--" He broke off and drew a long +breath. "But O, friends, if you knew the good it is!" + +"Ay, Cap'n: East or West, home is best." + +"And too far East is West, as every sailor man knows. . . . There, now, +take me along and think' that out while you're giving me a clip; for the +longer you stand scratching your head the longer my hair's growing." +He turned to Mr Rogers. "So long, soce! I'll be punctual at +twelve-thirty--what's left of me." + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +THE BARBER'S CHAIR. + +"This _is_ home!" Captain Cai settled himself down in the barber's chair +with a sigh of luxurious content. "I've heard married men call it +better," said Mr Toy, fetching forth a clean wrapper. + +"Very likely." The Captain sighed again contentedly. "I take no truck +in marriage, for my part. A friend's company enough for me." + +"What's his name, Cap'n? The whole town's dyin' to know." + +"He's called Hunken--Tobias Hunken." + +The barber paused, snapping his scissors and nodding. "Bussa was right +then, or Bussa and Philp between 'em." + +"Hey?" + +"'Tis wonderful how news gets abroad in Troy. . . . 'Hunken,' now? +And where might he be one of? I don't seem to fit the name in my mem'ry +at all." + +"You wouldn't. He comes from t'other side of the Duchy--a Padstow-born +man, and he've never set eyes on Troy in his life." + +"Yet he takes a house an' settles here? That's queer, as you might +say." + +"I see nothing queer about it. He's my friend--that's why. And what's +more, the Lord never put bowels into a better man." + +"He'll be a pleasure to shave, then," opined Mr Toy. + +"No, he won't; he wears his hair all over his face. Talkin' of that +reminds me--when you've done croppin' me I want a clean shave." + +"Chin-beard an' all, Cap'n?" + +"Take it off--take it off! 'Twas recommended to me against sore throat; +but I never liked the thing nor the look of it." + +"Then there's one point, it seems, on which you an' your friend don't +agree, sir?" + +The barber meant this facetiously, but Captain Cai considered it in all +seriousness. + +"You're mistaken," he answered. "Between friends there's a +give-an'-take, and until you understand that you don't understand +friendship. 'Bias Hunken likes me to do as I choose, and I like 'Bias +to do as _he_ chooses: by consekence o' which the more we goes our own +ways the more we goes one another's. That clear, I hope." + +"Moderately," the barber assented. + +"I'll put it t'other way--about an' make it still clearer. Most married +folks, as I notice, start t'other way about. For argyment's sake we'll +call 'em Jack an' Joan. Jack starts by thinkin' Joan pretty near +perfection; but he wants her quite perfect and all to his mind--_his_ +mind, d'ye see? Now if you follow that up, as you followed it between +'Bias and me--" + +"I don't want my missus to wear a beard, if that's what you mean." + +"'Twasn't a good illustration, I admit. But the p'int is, I like 'Bias +because he's 'Bias, an' 'Bias likes me because I'm Cai Hocken. +That bein' so, don't it follow we're goin' to be better friends than +ever, now we've hauled ashore to do as likes us?" + +The barber shook his head. "You're determined to have off your +chin-beard?" + +"_To_ be sure. I'm ashore now, aren't I?--and free to wear what face I +choose." + +"You won't find it so, Cap'n." + +"T'ch't! You landsmen be so fed with liberty you don't know your +privileges. If you don't like your habits, what hinders you from +changin' 'em? But _do_ you? Here I come back: here's th' old Town Quay +same as ever it was; and here likewise you all be, runnin' on as I left +'ee, like a clockwork--a bit slower with age maybe--that's all. +Whereby I conclude your ways content ye." + +"You're wrong, Cap'n Cai--you're wrong. We bide by our habits--an', +more by token, here comes Mr Philp. 'Morning, Mr Philp." The barber, +without turning, nodded towards the newcomer as he entered--a short man, +aged about sixty, with a square-cut grey beard, sanguine complexion, and +blue eyes that twinkled with a deceptive appearance of humour. +"Here's Cap'n Cai Hocken, home from sea." + +"Eh? I am very glad to see you, Cap'n Hocken," said Mr Philp politely. +"There's a post-card waitin' for you, up at the Office." + +Captain Cai sat bolt upright of a sudden, narrowly missing a wound from +the scissors. "That will be from 'Bias! To think I hadn' sense enough +to go straight to the Post Office and inquire!" + +"'Tis from your friend, sure enough," announced Mr Philp. "He paid off +his crew last Toosday, an' took his discharge an' the train down to +Plymouth. He've bought a wardrobe there--real wornut--an' 'tis comin' +round by sea. There's a plate-chest, too, he thinks you may fancy-- +price thirty-five shillin secondhand: an' he hopes to reach Troy the day +after next, which by the post-mark is to-morra." + +"Mr Philp," explained the barber, "calls in at the Office every mornin' +to read all the post-cards. 'Tis one of his habits." + +"Recent bereavement?" asked Mr Philp, before Captain Cai could well +digest this. + +"Eh?" + +"Recent bereavement?" Mr Philp was examining the tall hat, which he had +picked up to make room for his own person on the customers' bench. + +"That's another of his aptitoods," the barber interpolated. +"He attends all the funerals in the parish." + +"In the midst o' life we are in death," observed Mr Philp. "That's a +cert, Cap'n Hocken, an' your hat put me in mind of it." + +"Oh, 'tis my hat you're meanin'? What's wrong with it?" + +"Did I say there was anything wrong? No, I didn't--God forbid! An' no +doubt," concluded Mr Philp cheerfully, "the fashions'll work round to it +again." + +"I'll change it for another." + +"You won't find that too easy, will you?" The barber paused in his +snipping, and turned about for a thoughtful look at the hat. + +"I mean I'll buy another, of a different shape. First the beard, then +the headgear--as I was tellin' Toy, a man ashore can reggilate his ways +as he chooses, an here's to prove it." + +"They _do_ say a clean shave is worth two virtuous resolutions," +answered the barber, shaking his head Again. "And you're makin' a brave +start, I don't deny. But wait till you pick up with a few real habits." + +"What sort o' habits?" + +"The sort that come to man first-along in the shape o' duties--like +church-goin'. Look here, Cap'n, I'll lay a wager with 'ee. . . . +Soon as you begin to walk about this town a bit, you'll notice a +terrible lot o' things that want improvin'--" + +"I don't need to walk off the Town Quay for _that_." + +"Ah, an' I daresay it came into your head that if you had the orderin' +of Bussa you wouldn' be long about it? The town'll think it, anyway. +We're a small popilation in Troy, all tied up in neighbourly feelin's +an' hangin' together till--as the sayin' is--you can't touch a cobweb +without hurtin' a rafter. What the town's cryin' out for is a new +broom--a man with ideas, eh, Mr Philp?--above all, a man who's +independent. So first of all they'll flatter ye up into standin' for +the Parish Council, and put ye head o' the poll--" + +"Tut, man!" interrupted Captain Cai, flushing a little. "What do I know +about such things? Not o' course that I shan't take an interest--as a +ratepayer--" + +"_To_ be sure. I heard a man say, only last Saturday, sittin' in that +very chair, as there was never a ship's captain hauled ashore but in +three weeks he'd be ready to teach the Chancellor of th' Exchequer his +business an' inclined to wonder how soon he'd be offered the job." + +"A ship's captain needn't be altogether a born fool." + +"No: an' next you'll be bent on larnin' to speak in public; and takin' +occasions to practise, secondin' votes o' thanks an' such like. +After that you'll be marryin' a wife--" + +"I don't want to marry a wife, I tell 'ee!" + +"Who said you did? Well, then, you'll get married--they dotes on a +public man as a rule; and for tanglin' a man up in habits there's no +snare like wedlock, not in the whole world. I've known scores o' men +get married o' purpose to break clear o' their habits an' take a fresh +start; but ne'er a man that didn't tie himself up thereby in twenty new +habits for e'er a one he'd let drop." + +"Go on with your folly, if it amuses you." + +"Then, again, you've taken a house." + +"So Rogers tells me. I don't even know the rent, at this moment." + +"Twenty-five pound p'r annum," put in Mr Philp. Captain Cai--released +just then from his wrapper--turned and stared at him. + +"I had it from the Postmistress," Mr Philp's tone was matter-of-fact, +his gaze unabashed. "Bein' paralytic, Rogers did your business with the +widow by letter; he keeps a type-writin' machine an' pays Tabb's girl +three shillin' a-week to work it. The paper's thin, as I've had a mind +to warn 'er more than once." + +"'Twould be a Christian act," suggested Mr Toy. "If there's truth in +half what folks say, some of old Johnny Rogers' correspondence 'd make +pretty readin' for the devil." + +"But look here," interposed Captain Cai, "what's this about doin' +business with a widow? _Whose_ widow?" + +"Why, your landlady, to be sure--the Widow Bosenna, up to Rilla Farm." + +"No--stop a minute--take that blessed latherin'-brush out o' my mouth! +You don't tell me old Bosenna's dead, up there?" + +"It didn' altogether surprise most of us when it happened," said the +barber philosophically. "A man risin' sixty-five, with _his_ habits! + . . . But it all came about by the County Council's widenin' the road +up at Four Turnin's. . . . You see, o' late years th' old man 'd ride +home on Saturdays so full he _had_ to drop off somewhere 'pon the road; +an' his mare gettin' to find this out, as dumb animals do, had picked up +a comfortable way of canterin' hard by Four Turnin's and stoppin' short, +slap in the middle of her stride, close by th' hedge, so 's her master +'d roll over it into the plantation there, where the ditch is full of +oak-leaves. There he'd lie, peaceful as a suckin' child; and there, +every Sabbath mornin' in the small hours, one o' the farm hands 'd be +sent to gather 'em in wi' the new-laid eggs. So it went on till one day +the County Council, busy as usual, takes a notion to widen th' road just +there; an' not only pulls down th' hedge, but piles up a great heap o' +stones, ready to build a new one. Whereby either the mare hadn' noticed +the improvement or it escaped her memory. Anyway--the night bein' +dark--she shoots old Bosenna neck-an'-crop 'pon the stones. It caused a +lot o' feelin' at the time, an' the coroner's jury spoke their minds +pretty free about it. They brought it in that he'd met his death by the +visitation o' God brought about by a mistake o' the mare's an' helped on +by the over-zealous behaviour of the County Surveyor. Leastways that's +how they put it at first; but on the Coroner's advice they struck out +the County Surveyor an' altered him to a certain party or parties +unknown." + +"I mind Mrs Bosenna well," said Captain Cai, rising as the barber +unwrapped him; "a smallish well-featured body, with eyes like bullace +plums." + +"Ay, an' young enough to ha' been old Bosenna's daughter--a penniless +maid from Holsworthy in Devon, as I've heard; an' now she's left there, +up to Rilla, happy as a mouse in cheese. Come to think, Cap'n Cai, you +might do worse than cock your hat in that quarter." + +But Captain Cai did not hear for the moment. He was peering into the +looking-glass and thinking less of Mrs Bosenna than of his +shaven-altered appearance. + +"'Twould be a nice change for her, too," pursued Mr Toy in a rallying +tone; "an adaptable man like you, Cap'n." + +"Eh? What's that you were sayin' about my hat?" asked Captain Cai; and +just then, letting his gaze wander to the depths of the glass, he was +aware of Mr Philp shamelessly trying on that same hat before another +mirror at the back of the shop. + +"Hullo, there!" + +Mr Philp faced about solidly, composedly. + +"I was thinkin'," said he, "as I'd bid you three-an'-six for this, if +you've done with it. I've long been wantin' something o' the sort, for +interments." + +"Done with you!" said Captain Cai, reaching for it and clapping it on +his head. "Only you must send round for it to-morrow, when I've found +myself something more up-to-date." Again he contemplated his shaven +image in the mirror. "Lord! A man do look younger without a +chin-beard!" + +"Ay, Cap'n." Barber Toy, knuckles on hips, regarded and approved his +handiwork. "The world's afore 'ee. Go in and win!" + + +As he stepped out upon the Quay, Captain Cai lifted his gaze towards the +tower of the Parish Church, visible above an alley-way that led between +a gable-end of the Town Hall and the bulging plank of the "King of +Prussia." Aloft there the clock began to chime out the eight notes it +had chimed, at noon and at midnight, through his boyhood, and had been +chiming faithfully ever since. + +Yes, it was good to be home! Captain Cai would have been astonished to +learn that his thirty-five years at sea had left any corner for +sentiment. Yet a sudden mist gathered between him and the face of the +old clock. Nor had it cleared when, almost punctually on the last +stroke, a throng of children came pouring from school through the narrow +alley-ways. They ran by him with no more than a glance, not +interrupting their shouts. In a moment the Quay was theirs; they were +at leap-frog over the bollards; they were storming the sand-heap, +pelting a king of the castle, who pelted back with handfuls. +Captain Cai felt an absurd sense of being left out in the cold. Not a +child had recognised him. + +All very well . . . but to think that these thirty-odd years had made +not a scrap of difference--that the Quay lay as it had lain, neglected, +untidy as ever! Thirty-odd years ago it had been bad enough. But what +conscience was there in standing still and making no effort to move with +the times? As Barber Toy said, it was scandalous. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +TABB'S CHILD. + +"Three hundred pounds a-year . . ." mused Captain Cai between two puffs +of tobacco smoke. He repeated the words, rolling them in his mouth, as +though they tasted well. "You're pretty sure 'twill come to that?" + +"Sure," answered Mr Rogers. The pair had dined, and were now promoting +digestion with pipes and grog in Mr Rogers' bow-window overlooking the +harbour. "You might put your money to an annuity, o' course, an' live +like a lord: but I'm reckonin' it in safe ord'nary investments, +averagin' (let's say) four per cent. An' that's leavin' out your +thirty-odd shares in the _Hannah Hoo_, when she's for sale. +Ship-auctions be chancey things in these days, an' private purchasers +hard to find." + +"I never knew 'em when they weren't," said Captain Cai. + +"When d'ye pay off, by the way?" + +"Not till Saturday. There's no hurry. When a man drops hook on his +last cruise I allow 'tis his duty to tidy up an' leave all ship-shape; +in justice to hisself, you understand. There's Tregaskis an' the crew, +too,--old shipmates every one--" + +The chandler nodded. + +"Ay, you're to be envied, Cap'n. There's others--masters of oil-tanks, +f'r instance--as makes their pile faster; some of em' in ways that +needn't be mentioned atween you an' me. But slow an' honest has been +your motto; an' here you be--What's your age? Fifty? Say fifty at the +outside.--Here you be at fifty with a tidy little income and a clean +conscience to sit with in your pew o' Sundays; nothing to do o' +week-days but look after a few steady-goin' investments an' draw your +little dividends." + +"That'd be more business than I've a mind for, Rogers," answered Captain +Cai; "at any rate, while you live. I've a-left my affairs to you these +twelve year, an' mean to continue, please God--you knowin' my ways." + +The chandler blinked. "That's very han'some o' ye, Cap'n," he said +after a long pause. "But--" + +"There's no 'but' about it," interrupted Captain Cai shortly, looking +away and resting his gaze on the _Hannah Hoo_ out in the harbour, where +she lay on the edge of the deep-water channel among a small crowd of +wind-bounders. Her crew had already made some progress in unbending +sails, and her stripped spars shone as gold against the westering +sunlight. "No 'but' about it, Rogers--unless o' course you're +unwillin'." + +"What's willin' or unwillin' to a man broken in health as I be? +That's the p'int, Cap'n--here, set opposite to 'ee, staring 'ee in the +face--a hulk, shall we say?--rudder gone, ridin' to a thread o' life--" +"You'll ride to it a many years yet, please God again." + +"I take 'e to witness this is not my askin'." + +Captain Cai stared. "'Tis my askin', Rogers. I put it as a favour." + +"What about your friend? I was thinkin' as maybe _he'd_ take over the +job." + +"'Bias?" Captain Cai shook his head. "He've no gift in money matters; +let be that I don't believe in mixin' friendship in business." + +Mr Rogers pondered this for some while in silence. Then he struck a +hand-bell beside him, and his summons was answered by a small +short-skirted handmaiden who had waited table. + +"Pipe's out, my dear," he announced. "An' while you're about it you may +mix us another glassful apiece." + +"Not for me, thank 'ee," said Captain Cai. + +"An' not for him, neither," said the girl. She was but a child, yet she +spoke positively, and yet again without disrespect in her manner. +"'Tis poison for 'ee," she added, knocking out the ash from her master's +churchwarden pipe and refilling it from the tobacco-jar. "You know what +the doctor said?" + +"Ugh!--a pair o' tyrants, you an' the doctor! Just a thimbleful now--if +the Cap'n here will join me." + +"You heard him? He don't want another glass." + +Her solemn eyes rested on Captain Cai, and he repeated that he would +take no more grog. + +She struck a match and held it to the pipe while the chandler drew a few +puffs. Then she was gone as noiselessly as she had entered. + +"That's a question now," observed Captain Cai after a pause. + +"What's a question?" + +"Servants. I've talked it over with 'Bias, and he allows we should +advertise for a single housekeeper; a staid honest woman to look after +the pair of us--with maybe a trifle of extra help. That gel, for +instance, as waited table--" + +"Tabb's child?" + +"Is that her name?" + +"She was christened Fancy--Fancy Tabb--her parents being a brace o' +fools. Ay, she's a nonesuch, is Tabb's child." + +"With a manageable woman to give her orders--What's amiss with ye, +Rogers?" + +Captain Cai put the question in some alarm, for the heaving of the +ship-chandler's waistcoat and a strangling noise in his throat together +suggested a sudden gastric disturbance. + +But it appeared they were but symptoms of mirth. Mr Rogers lifted his +practicable hand, and with a red bandanna handkerchief wiped the rheum +from his eyes. + +"Ho, dear!--you'll excuse me, Cap'n; but 'with a manageable woman,' you +said? I'd pity her startin' to manage the like of Fancy Tabb." + +"Why, what's wrong wi' the child?" + +"Nothin'--let be I can't keep a grown woman in the house unless she's a +half-wit. I have to get 'em from Tregarrick, out o' the Home for the +Feeble-Minded. But it don't work so badly. They're cheap, you +understand; an' Fancy teaches 'em to cook. If they don't show no +promise after a fortni't's trial, she sends 'em back. I hope," added +the chandler, perceiving Captain Cai to frown, "you're not feelin' no +afterthoughts about that leg o' mutton. Maybe I ought to have warned +'ee that 'twas cooked by a person of weak intellect." + +"Don't mention it," said Captain Cai politely. "What the eye don't see +the heart don't grieve, as they say; an' the jint was boiled to a turn. +. . . I was only wonderin' how you picked up such a maid!" + +The chandler struck again upon the small hand-bell. "I got her from a +bad debt." + +"Seems an odd way--" began Captain Cai, after pondering for a moment, +but broke off, for the hand-maiden stood already on the threshold. + +"Fancy Tabb," commanded the chandler, "step fore, here, into the +light." + +The child obeyed. + +"You see this gentleman?" + +"Yes, master." Her eyes, as she turned them upon Captain Cai, were frank +enough, or frank as eyes could be that guarded a soul behind glooms of +reserve. They were straight, at any rate, and unflinching, and very +serious. + +"You know his business?" + +"I think so, master. . . . Has he come to sign the lease? I'll fetch it +from your desk, if you'll give me the keys." + +"Bide a bit, missy," said Captain Cai. "That'd be buying a pig in a +poke, when I ha'n't even seen the house yet--not," he added, with a +glance at Mr Rogers, "that I make any doubt of its suiting. +But business is business." + +The child turned to her master, as much as to ask, "What, then, is your +need of me?" + +"Cap'n Hocken wants a servant," said Mr Rogers, answering the look. + +She appeared to ponder this. "Before seein' the house?" she asked, +after a moment or two. + +"She had us there, Rogers!" chuckled Captain Cai; but the child was +perfectly serious. + +"You would like me to show you the house? Master has the key." + +"That's an idea, now!" He was still amused. + +"When?" + +"This moment--that's to say, if your master'll spare you?" He glanced +at Mr Rogers, who nodded. + +"Couldn't do better," he agreed. "You've a good two hours afore dusk, +an' she's a proper dictionary on taps an' drainage." + +"Please you to come along, sir." The child waited respectfully while +Captain Cai arose, picked up his hat, and bade his host "So long!" +He followed her downstairs. + +Their way to the street lay through the shop, and by the rearward door +of it she paused to reach down her hat and small jacket. The shop was +long, dark, intricate; its main window overshadowed by the bulk of the +Town Hall, across the narrow alley-way; its end window, which gave on +the Quay, blocked high with cheeses, biscuit-tins, boxes of soap, and +dried Newfoundland cod. Into this gloom the child flung her voice, and +Captain Cai was aware of the upper half of a man's body dimly +silhouetted there against the panes. + +"Daddy, I'm going out." + +"Yes, dear," answered the man's voice dully. "For an hour, very likely. +This gentleman wants to see his new house, and I'm to show it to him." + +"Yes, dear." + +"You'll be careful, won't you now? Mrs M--fus'll be coming round, +certain, for half-a-pound of bacon; And that P--fus girl for candles, if +not for sugar. You've to serve neither, mind, until you see their +money." + +"Yes, dear. What excuse shall I make?" The man's voice was weary but +patient. The tone of it set a chord humming faintly somewhere in +Captain Cai's memory: but his mind worked slowly and (as he would have +put it) wanted sea-room, to come about. + +They had taken but a few steps, however, when in the narrow street, +known as Dolphin Row, he pulled up with all sail shaking. + +"That there party as we passed in the shop--" + +"He's my father," said the child quickly. + +"And you're Tabb's child. . . . You don't tell me that was Lijah Tabb, +as used to be master o' the _Uncle an' Aunt?_" + +"I don't tell you anything," said the child, and added, "he's a +different man altogether." + +"That's curious now." Captain Cai walked on a pace or two and halted +again. "But you're Tabb's child," he insisted. "And, by the trick of +his voice, if that wasn't Lijah--" + +"His name _is_ Elijah." + +"Eh?" queried Captain Cai, rubbing his ear. "But I heard tell," he went +on in a puzzled way, searching his memory, "as Lijah Tabb an' Rogers had +quarrelled desp'rate an' burnt the papers, so to speak." + +"'Twas worse than that." She did not answer his look, but kept her eyes +fixed ahead. + +"Yet here I find the man keepin' shop for Rogers: and as for you--if +you're his daughter--" + +"I'm in service with Mr Rogers," said Fancy, who as if in a moment had +recovered her composure. "If you want to know why, sir, and won't chat +about it, I don't mind tellin' you." + +"You make me curious, little maid: that I'll own." + +"'Tis simple enough, too," said she. "He's had a stroke, an' he's goin +to hell." + +"Eh? . . . I don't see--" + +"He's goin' to hell," she repeated with a nod as over a matter that +admitted no dispute. + +"Well, but dang it all!" protested Captain Cai after a pause, +"we'll allow as he's goin' there, for the sake of argyment. Is that why +you're tendin' on him so careful?" + +"You mustn't think," answered the child, "that I'm doin' it out o' pity +altogether. There's something terrible fascinatin' about a man in that +position." + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +VOICES IN THE TWILIGHT. + +"I don't see anything immodest in it," said Mrs Bosenna looking up. +She was on her knees and had just finished pressing the earth about the +roots of a small rose-bush. "The house is mine, and naturally I am +curious to know something about my tenant." + +Dinah, her middle-aged maid, who had been holding the bush upright and +steady, answered this challenge with a short sniff. "He don't seem over +curious, for his part, about _you_." She, too, glanced upward and +toward the house, the upper storey alone of which, from where they +stood, was visible above the spikes of a green palisade. A roadway +divided the house from the garden, which descended to the harbour-cliff +in a series of tiny terraces. "They've been pokin' around indoors this +hour and more." + +"You don't suppose he caught sight of us?" + +"Maybe not; but Tabb's child did. That girl 've a-got eyes like +niddles. If he don't come down to pay his respects, you may bet 'tis +because he don't want to." Dinah, being vexed, spoke viciously. +Her speech implied that her mistress's conduct had been not only +indelicate but clumsy. + +"You are a horrid woman," Mrs Bosenna accused her; "and I can't think +what put such nasty-minded thoughts into your head." + +"No more can I, unless you suggested 'em," Dinah retorted. + +"You were willing enough to come, when--when--" + +"When you proposed it," Dinah relentlessly concluded the sentence. +"Of course. Why not?" + +"And you were excited enough--you can't deny it"--her mistress insisted, +"when you brought the news this morning, that his ship had arrived. +But now, and only because you happen to be put out--" + +"Who said I was put out?" + +"As if I couldn't tell by your tone! Now, just because you happen to be +put out, I'm indelicate all of a sudden." + +"I never said so," Dinah protested sullenly. + +"_Said_ so?" Mrs Bosenna, rising, faced her with withering scorn. +"I hope you've a better sense of your position than to _say_ such a +thing. Oh, you content yourself with hinting! . . . But who owns this +house and garden, I should like to know?" + +Dinah, though remorseful, showed fight yet. "Then why couldn' ye take +the bull by the horns an' march in by the front door?" + +"Why? Because you agreed with me that to plant a two or three roses for +him would be a nice attention! . . . You can't start planting roses in +the dusk, at the end of an afternoon call; and, as it is, we've only +just finished before twilight." + +Dinah was minded to retort that, as it was, the planting had taken a +long time. But she contented herself with glancing again at the house +and saying evasively that the new tenant appeared to take more interest +in fixtures than in flowers. + +"I own," sighed Mrs Bosenna, "I thought he'd have been eager to take +stock of the garden before it grew dark. Such a beautiful garden, as it +is, in a small way!" + +"When a man has passed his whole life at sea--" + +"True," her mistress agreed. "Yet how it must enlarge the mind! +So different from farming!" + +"It must be ekally dependent on the weather," Dinah opined. "At least. +More so, takin' one thing with another. Oh, decidedly. It stands to +reason." + +"I'm romantic perhaps," confessed Mrs Bosenna; "but I can never think of +any ship's captain as being quite an ordinary man. The dangers he must +go through--and the foreign countries he visits--and up night after +night in all weathers, staring into the darkness in an oilskin suit!" + +"'Tisn' the sort o' man I should ever choose for a husband, if I wanted +one," maintained Dinah. + +"Who was talking of husbands, you silly woman?" + +"I don't see how else the men-folk consarn us, mistress." + +"You're coarse, Dinah." + +"I'm practical, anyway. If they choose to toss up an' down 'pon the sea +they're welcome, for me. But, for my part, when I lay me down at night, +I like to be sure o' gettin' up in the same position next mornin'; and +I'd to feel the same about a husband, supposin' I cared for the man." + +"I often think," mused Mrs Bosenna, "that we're not half grateful enough +to sailors, considering the risks they run and the things they bring us +home: tea and coffee, raisins, currants, with all kinds of spices and +cordial drinks." + +"Oranges an' lemons, say the bells o' St Clemen's. Oranges--" + +"I wasn't thinking of this Captain Hocken in particular," interrupted +the widow hastily. "Take a Christmas pudding, for instance. Flour and +suet, and there's an end if you depend on the farmer; just an ordinary +dumpling. Whereas the sailor brings the figs, the currants, the candied +peel, the chopped almonds, the brandy--all the ingredients that make it +Christmassy." + +"And then the farmer takes an' eats it. Aw, believe me, mistress, +Stay-at-home fares best in this world!" + +"I don't know, Dinah," sighed Mrs Bosenna. "Haven't you ever in your +life wished for a pair o' wings?" + +"To wear in my hat? Why, o' course I have." + +"No, no; I mean, for the wings of a dove, to fly away and be--well, not +at rest exactly--" + +"No, I haven't, mistress. But 'tis the way with you discontented rich +folks. Like Hocken's ducks, all of 'ee--never happy unless you be where +you baint. . . . I wonder if that Hocken was any relation--S-sh! now! +Talk of the devil!" + + +Captain Cai and Fancy had spent a good hour-and-a-half in overhauling +the two cottages. Their accommodation was narrow enough, but Captain +Cai, after half a lifetime on shipboard, found them little short of +palatial. The child could scarcely drag him away from the tiny +bath-rooms with their hot and cold water taps. + +"Lord," said he, gazing down into the newly painted bath in No.1. +"To think of 'Bias in the likes o' this!" + +"You may, if you care to," said Fancy. + +"'Tis a knack of mine," he apologised. "We'll suppose him safely out of +it, an' what happens next? Why, he'll step across to the linen-cupboard +here, wi' the hot pipes behind it, an' there's a clean shirt dried an' +warmed to his skin. He gets into that--the day bein' Sunday, as we'll +suppose--an' finishes his dressin', danderin' forth an' back from one +room to t'other; breakfast gettin' ready downstairs an' no hurry for +it--all his time his own, clean away to sundown. Up above the lower +window-sash here with the Prodigal Son in stained glass, and very +thoughtful of the architect, too--" + +"It isn't stained glass," the child corrected; "it's what they call a +transparency." + +"I hope you're mistaken. . . . I must try it from the outside before I +let 'Bias undress here. As I was sayin', through the upper pane he'll +see his cabbages comin' on at the back; an' in the front, under his +window, there's the bread-cart--" + +"But you said 'twas Sunday." + +"So I did. . . . Well, there's the milk-cart anyway, an' a boy janglin' +the cans. You can't think how pretty these shore-noises be to a +sailor-man. An' down in the town the church bell goin' for early +Communion, but he'll attend mornin' service later on. An', across the +road, there's the garden, full o' flowers, an' smellin'--an' a blessed +sense as he can pick an' choose an' take his time with it all." +Captain Cai had wandered to the front window. He let fall these last +words slowly, in a kind of reverie, as he gazed out on the garden over +which the twilight was fast gathering. + +"With all this time on your hands, I reckon you won't be takin' a look +round the garden?" hazarded Fancy. + +"Certainly. Why not?" + +"Well, 'tis drawin' in dusk. But there! I wouldn' disappoint Mrs +Bosenna, if I was you." + +"Eh?" + +"She's been down in the garden this hour and more, waitin' for you to +take her by surprise." + +"Oh--come now, I say!" + +Fancy nodded her head. "I don't know as I blame her," she said +judicially. "She's curious to know what you look like, that's all; or +else she's curious for you to know what she looks like. Anyway, she's +down there, if you've a mind to be polite." + +Seeing that he hesitated, the child led the way. Captain Cai followed +her in something of a tremor. Across the road they went and through the +garden-gate; and the sound of their footsteps on the flagged pathway +gave Mrs Bosenna warning. By the time they reached the second terrace +she was down on her knees again, packing the soil about the rose-bush, +which Dinah obediently held upright for her. + +"Losh, here's visitors!" exclaimed Dinah. + +Mrs Bosenna turned with the prettiest start of surprise, and sprang to +her feet. If there was a suspicion--a shade--of overacting, the +twilight concealed it. She had a charming figure, very supple and +maidenly: she bought her corsets in London. The kneeling posture and +the swift rise from it were alike noticeably graceful, even in the dusk. + +"Visitors?" she echoed. "And me in this state to receive 'em, earthed +up to the wrists!" She plucked off her gardening-gloves, handed them to +Dinah, and stooped to snatch up one of a pair of white cuffs--badges of +her widowhood--that she had laid aside on the turf before starting to +work. While slipping it over her wrist she found time to glance up at +Captain Cai, who fumbled confusedly with the rim of his tall hat. + +"Excuse me, madam--no wish to intrude. We'll take ourselves off this +minute, eh?" He turned to the child, who, however, did not budge. + +"Please, don't go. You are--?" + +"Caius Hocken, ma'am--of the _Hannah Hoo_--at your service." + +"Dear me, what a very pleasant surprise!" (Oh, Mrs Bosenna!) She held +out a hand. "I am glad to make your acquaintance, Captain Hocken." + +"I hope I see you well, ma'am?" Captain Cai took the hand and dropped it +nervously. + +"Quite well, I thank God. . . . They told me your ship had arrived, sir; +but I could not count--could I?--on your coming to inspect the house so +soon." + +"If I've been over hasty, ma'am--" + +"Not at all," she interrupted. "There now! I put things so clumsily at +times! I meant to excuse _myself_; for, you see, the house has been +yours since Lady-day--that's to say, if you sign the lease,--and +Lady-day's more than a week past. So 'tis _I_ that am the intruder. + . . .But passing the garden yesterday, I'd a notion that half a dozen +dwarf roses would improve it, without your knowledge. You're not +offended, I hope, now that you've caught me? I dote on roses, for my +part." + +"I--I take it very kindly, ma'am." + +"'Tis a funny time o' the year to be plantin' roses, isn't it?" asked +Fancy. + +"Eh?" In the dusk Mrs Bosenna treated her to a disapproving stare. +"Is that Elijah Tabb's child? . . . You've grown such a lot lately, I +hardly recognised you." + +"I noticed that," said the child with composure, "though I didn't guess +the reason. But 'tis a funny time to be plantin' roses, all the same." + +"And pray, child, what do you know about roses?" + +"Nothing," answered Fancy, "'cept that 'tis a funny time to be plantin' +'em." + +"When you grow a little older," said Mrs Bosenna icily, "you'll know +that anything can be done with roses in these days--with proper +precautions. Why"--she turned to Captain Cai--"I've planted out roses +in July month--in pots, of course. You break the pots in the October +following. But there must be precautions." + +"Meanin' manure?" + +"Cow," interposed Dinah tersely, "it's the best. Pig comes next, for +various reasons." + +"We need not go into details," said Mrs Bosenna. "I sent down a +cartload this morning and had it well dug in. Provided you dig it deep +enough, and don't let it touch the young roots--" + +"I thank you kindly, ma'am," said Captain Cai, "and so will my friend +'Bias Hunken when he hears of it." + +"Ah, my other tenant?--or tenant in prospect, I ought to say. He has +not arrived yet, I understand." + +"He's due to-morrow, ma'am, by th' afternoon train." + +"You must bring him over to Rilla Farm, to call on me," said Mrs Bosenna +graciously. + +Captain Cai rubbed his chin. He was taken at unawares; and not finding +the familiar beard under his fingers, grew strangely helpless. "As for +that, ma'am," he stammered, "I ought to warn you that 'Bias isn' easily +caught." + +"God defend me!" answered the widow, who had a free way of speaking at +times. "Who wants to catch him?" + +"You don't take my meanin', ma'am, if you'll excuse me," floundered +Captain Cai in a sweat. "I ought to ha' said that 'Bias, though one in +a thousand, is terrible shy with females--or ladies, as I should say." + +"He'll be all the more welcome for that," said Mrs Bosenna relentlessly. +"You must certainly bring him, Captain Hocken." + +Before he could protest further, she had shaken hands, gathered up +trowel and kneeling-pad, given them into Dinah's keeping, unpinned and +shaken down the skirt of her black gown, and was gone--gone up the +twilit path, her handmaiden following,--gone with a fleeting smile that, +while ignoring Fancy Tabb, left Captain Cai strangely perturbed, so +nicely it struck a balance between understanding and aloofness. + +He rubbed his chin, then his ear, then the back of his neck. + +"Lord!" he groaned suddenly, "where was my manners?" + +"Eh?" + +"I never said a word about her affliction." + +"What might _that_ be, in your opinion?" + +"Her first husband, o' course--or, as I _should_ say, the loss of him. +Shockin' thing to forget. . . . I've almost a mind now to follow her an' +make my excuses." + +"Do," said Fancy; "I'd like to hear you start 'pon 'em." + +"Well, you can if you will. Come over with me to Rilla to-morrow +forenoon. I'll get leave for you." + +"That'd spoil the fun," said Fancy, not one risible muscle twitching; +"but go you'll have to. Mrs Bosenna has left one of her cuffs behind." + +She pointed to a white object on the turf. Captain Cai stooped, picked +it up, and held it gingerly in his hand. + +"She didn' seem a careless sort, neither," he mused. + +"Not altogether," the child agreed with him. + + +"Dinah," said Mrs Bosenna, halting suddenly as they walked homeward in +the dusk, "I've left one of my cuffs behind!" + +"Yes, mistress." + +"'Yes, mistress,'" Mrs Bosenna mimicked her. "If 'twas anything +belonging to you, you'd be upset enough." + +"I'd have more reason," said Dinah stolidly. "Do 'ee want me to run +back an' fetch it?" + +"No--o." Her mistress seemed to hesitate. "'Tisn't worth while; and +ten chances to one somebody will find it." + +"That's what I was thinkin'," agreed Dinah. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +A TESTIMONIAL. + +Captain Cai's sea-chest had been conveyed to the Ship Inn, Trafalgar +Square (so called--as the landlord, Mr Oke, will inform you--after the +famous battle of that name), and there he designed to lodge while his +friend and he furnished their new quarters. + +His bed, a four-poster, was luxurious indeed after his old bunk in the +_Hannah Hoo_, and he betook himself to it early. Yet he did not sleep +well. For some while sleep was forbidden by a confusion of voices in +the bar-parlour downstairs; then, after a brief lull, the same voices +started exchanging good-nights in the square without; and finally, when +the rest had dispersed, two belated townsmen lingered in private +conversation, now walking a few paces to and fro on the cobbles, but +ever returning to anchorage under a street lamp beneath his window. +By-and-by the town lamplighter came along, turned off the gas-jet and +wished the two gossips good-night, adding that the weather was +extraordinary for the time of year; but still they lingered. +Captain Cai, worried by the murmur of their voices, climbed out of bed +to close the window. His hand was outstretched to do so when, through +the open sash, he caught a few articulate words--a fragment of a +sentence. + +Said one--speaking low but earnestly--"If I should survive my wife, _as +I hope to do_--" + +Unwilling to play the eavesdropper, or to startle them by shutting the +window, Captain Cai very delicately withdrew, climbed back into bed, and +drew the edge of the bedclothes over his ear. Soon he was asleep; but, +even as he dropped off, the absurd phrase wove itself into the midnight +chime from the church tower and passed on to weave itself into his +dreams and vex them. "If I should survive my wife--" In his dreams he +was back in Troy, indeed, and yet among foreigners. They spoke in +English, too; but they conversed with one another, not with him, as +though he might overhear but could not be expected to understand. +One dream--merely ludicrous when he awoke and recalled it--gave him real +distress while it lasted. In it he saw half a dozen townsmen--Barber +Toy, Landlord Oke, the Quaymaster, and Mr Philp among them--gathered +around the mound of sand on the Quay, solemnly playing a child's game +with his tall hat. Mr Philp took it from the Quaymaster's head, +transferred it to his own, and, lifting it by the brim, said reverently, +"If I should survive my wife," &c., to pass it on to the barber, who +recited the same formula to the same ritual. In the middle of the +sandheap was a pit, which appeared to be somebody's grave; and somewhere +in the background, on the far side of the pit, stood Mrs Bosenna and +Tabb's girl together, the one watching with a queer smile, while the +other kept repeating, "He's going to hell. He couldn't change his +habits, and it's high time the Quay was improved." + +From this dream Captain Cai awoke in a sweat, and though the rest of the +night yielded none so terrifying, his sleep was fitful and unrefreshing. +The return of day brought with it a sense of oppression, of a load on +his mind, of a task to be performed. + +Ah, yes!--he must pay a call on Mrs Bosenna. She had as good as engaged +him by a promise, and, moreover, there was her cuff to be returned. + . . . Well, the visit must be paid this morning. 'Bias would be +arriving by the afternoon train; and, apart from that, when you've a +daunting job that cannot be escaped, the wise course is to play the man +and get it over. + +Still, he could not well present himself at Rilla Farm before eleven +o'clock--say half-past eleven--or noon even. No, that would be too +late; might suggest a hint of staying to dinner--which God forbid! +He resolved upon eleven. + +He grudged to lose the latter half of the morning; for the gardens--his +and Hunken's--had yet to be explored, and the rainwater cisterns in rear +of the houses, and the back premises generally, and the patches where +the cabbages grew. Also (confound the woman!) he could well have spent +an hour or two about the streets and the Quay, renewing old +acquaintance. The whole town had heard of his return, and there were +scores of folk to remember him and bid him welcome. They would chase +away this feeling of forlornness, of being an alien. . . . Strange that, +wide awake though he was, it should continue to haunt him! + +But Troy, on all save market mornings, is a slug-a-bed town; and even at +nine o'clock, when he issued forth after an impatient breakfast, the +streets wore an unkempt, unready, unsociable air. Housewives were still +beating mats, shopboys washing down windows; ash-buckets stood in the +gutter-ways, by door and ope, awaiting the scavenger. + +"These people want a Daylight Saving Bill," thought Captain Cai, and +somewhat disconsolately wheeled about, setting his face for the Rope +Walk. Here his spirits sensibly revived. There had been rain in the +night, but the wind had flown to the northward, and the sun was already +scattering the clouds with promise of a fine day. Cleansing airs played +between the houses, the line of ash-buckets grew sparser, and the +buckets--for he had encountered the scavenger's cart on the slope of the +hill--were empty now, albeit their owners showed no hurry to fetch them +indoors. + +A row of houses--all erected since his young days--still blocked the +view of the harbour. But just beyond them, where a roadway led down to +the ferry, the exquisite scene broke upon him--the harbour entrance, +with the antique castles pretending to guard it; the vessels (his own +amongst them) in the land-locked anchorage; the open sea beyond, violet +blue to the morning under a steady off-shore breeze; white gulls +flashing aloft, and, in the offing, a pair of gannets hunting above the +waters. + +Captain Cai took no truck (as he would have said) in the beauties of +nature; but here was a scene he understood, and he began to feel at home +again. He halted, rested his elbows on a low wall and watched the +gannets at their evolutions--the poise, the terrific dive, the splash +clearly visible at more than a mile's distance. The wall on which he +leaned overhung a trim garden, gay with scentless flowers such as tulips +and late daffodils, and yet odorous--for early April has a few days +during which the uncurling leaf has all the fragrance of blossom: and +this was such a day, lustrous from a bath of rain. To our uninstructed +seaman the scent seemed to exhale from the tulips; it recalled his +attention from the gannets, and he drew in deep breaths of it, pondering +the parterres of Kaiserskroon and Duchesse de Parme--bold scarlet +splashed with yellow--of golden Chrysoloras, of rosy white Cottage +Maids. Unknowing it, he had a sense of beauty, and he decided that +horticulture, for a leisured man, was well worth a trial. + +"That's the best of living ashore," he told himself. "A man can choose +what hobby he will and, if he don't like it, pick up another." + +He climbed the hill briskly, to view his own garden and take stock of +its possibilities. . . . The roses planted by Mrs Bosenna had scarcely +flagged at all, thanks to the night's rain. Around them and to right +and left along the border under the walls of the two first terraces, +green shoots were pushing up from the soil--sword-like spikes of iris, +red noses of peonies, green fingers of lupins. Into what flowers these +various shootlets would expand Captain Cai knew no more than Adam, first +of gardeners. He would consult some knowledgeable person--no, not Mrs +Bosenna--and label them 'as per instructions': or, stay! 'Bias Hunken +had a weakness for small wagers. Here was material for a long summer +game, more deliberate even than draughts; to buy a botanical book and +with its help back one's fancy, flower or colour. A capital game: no +doubt (thought Captain Cai) quite commonly played among landsmen +possessing gardens. + +At this point he made a discovery he had missed in the dusk overnight. +His eyes fell on a flat-topped felt-covered roof, almost level with his +feet and half-hidden between two bushes (the one a myrtle, the other a +mock-orange; but he knew no such distinctions). There was yet a third +terrace, then; and on this third terrace--yes, by the Lord, a +summer-house fit for a king! Glass-fronted, with sliding sashes; +match-boarded within, fitted with racks and shelves for garden tools; +with ample room for chairs and a table at which two could sup and square +their elbows. Such a view, moreover! It swept the whole harbour. . . . + +Captain Cai's first impulse was to search around for a rack whereon to +stow a telescope: his next, to run to the party-wall and hoist himself +high enough to scan his friend's garden. + +Yes! 'Bias, too, had a summer-house; not precisely similar in shape, +however. Its roof was a lean-to, and its frontage narrower; but of this +Captain Cai could not be sure. He was short of stature, and with toes +digging into the crevices of the wall and hands clutching at its coping +he could take no very accurate survey. He dropped back upon _terra +firma_ and hurried up the flights of steps to the roadway, in haste to +descend from it into 'Bias's garden and resolve his doubts. + +For you must understand that the two cottages comprised by the name of +Harbour Terrace were (according to Mr Rogers) "as like as two peas, even +down to their water-taps," and even by name distinguished only as +Number 1 and Number 2: and that, taking this similarity on trust, +Captain Cai had chosen Number 2, Because--well, simply because it _was_ +Number 2. If inadvertently he, being first in the field, had collared +the better summer-house!--The very thought of it set him perspiring. + +At the head of the garden, to his annoyance, he found Mr Philp leaning +over the gate. + +"Ah, Good morning!" said Mr Philp. "You was expectin' me, o' course." + +"Good morning," returned Captain Cai. "Expectin' you? No, I wasn't. +Why?" + +"About that hat. I've brought you the three-an'-six." He held out the +coins in his palm. + +"You can't have it just now. I'm in a hurry." + +"So I see," said Mr Philp deliberately, not budging from the gate. +"It don't improve a hat as a rule." + +"What d'ye mean?" + +"Perspiration works through the linin'. I've seen hats ruined that +way." + +"Very well, then: we'll call the bargain off. The fact is, I'd forgot +about it; and you can't very well have the hat now. 'Tis my only one, +an'--well the fact is, I'm due to pay a call." + +"Where?" + +"I don't see as 'tis any business o' yours," answered Captain Cai with +vexation; "but, if you want to know, I've to call on my landlady, +Mrs Bosenna." + +"Is that where you're hurryin' just now?" + +"Well, no: not at this moment," Captain Cai had to confess. + +"Where, then?" + +"Oh, look here--" + +"You needn't tell, if you don't want to. But _I'm_ goin' to a funeral +at eleven o'clock," said Mr Philp. "Eleven A.M.," he added pointedly. +"Not that I hold with mornin' funerals in a general way: but the corpse +is old Mrs Wedlake, and I wasn't consulted." + +"Relative?" asked Captain Cai. + +"No relation at all; though I don't see as it matters." Mr Philp was +cheerful but obdurate. "A bargain's a bargain, as I take it." + +"That fact is--" + +"_And_ a man's word ought to be good as his bond. Leastways that's how +I look at it." + +"Here, take the darned thing!" exclaimed Captain Cai. His action, +however, was less impulsive than his speech: he removed the hat +carefully, lowering his head and clutching the brim between both hands. +A small parcel lay inside. + +"What's that?" asked Mr Philp. + +"It's--it's a cuff," Captain Cai admitted. + +"Belongs to the Widow Bosenna, I shouldn't wonder?" Mr Philp hazarded +with massive gravity. "It's the sort o' thing a woman wears now-a-days +when she've lost her husband. I follows the fashions in my distant +way." He paused and corrected himself carefully--"_Them sort._" + +"I thought--it occurred to me--as it might be the handiest way of +returnin' the thing." + +"It seems early days to be carryin' that sort of article around in the +crown o' your hat. Dangerous, too, if you use hair-oil. But you don't. +I took notice that you said 'no' yesterday when Toy offered to rub +something into your hair. Now that's always a temptation with me, +there bein' no extra charge. . . . Did she give it to you?" + +"Who? . . . Mrs Bosenna? No, she left it behind here." + +"When?" + +"Yesterday evening." + +"What was she doin' here, yesterday evenin', to want to take off her +cuffs?" + +"If you must know, she was planting roses." + +"What? In April? . . . You mustn't think I'm curious." + +"Not at all," Captain Cai agreed grimly. + +"Nice little place you've pitched on here, I must say." Mr Philp +changed his tone to one of extreme affability. "There's not a prettier +little nest in all Troy than these two cottages. And which of the pair +might be _your_ choice?" + +"It's not quite decided." + +"Well, you can't do wrong with either. But"--Mr Philp glanced back +across the roadway and lowered his voice--"I'd like to warn you o' one +thing. I don't know no unhandier houses for gettin' out a corpse. +There's a turn at the foot o' the stairs; most awk'ard." + +"I reckon," said Captain Cai cheerfully, "'Bias an' me'll leave that to +them as it concerns. But, man! what a turn you've a-got for funerals!" + +"They be the breath o' life to me," Mr Philp confessed, and paused for a +moment's thought. "Tell 'ee what we'll do: you shall come with me down +to Fore Street an' buy yourself a new hat at Shake Benny's: 'tis on your +way to Rilla Farm. There in the shop you can hand me over the one +you're wearin', and Shake can send mine home in a bandbox." He twinkled +cunningly. "I shall be wantin' a bandbox, an' that gets me one +cost-free." + +The man was inexorable. Captain Cai gave up resistance, and the pair +descended the hill together towards Mr Benny's shop. + + +Young Mr Benny, "S. Benny, Gents' Outfitter," had suffered the +misfortune to be christened Shakespeare without inheriting any of the +literary aspirations to which that name bore witness. It was, in any +event, a difficult name to live up to, and so incongruous with this +youth in particular that, as he grew up, his acquaintances abbreviated +it by consent to Shake; and, again, when, after serving an +apprenticeship with a pushing firm in Exeter, he returned to open a +haberdashery shop in his native town, it had been reduced, for business +purposes, to a bare initial. + +But it is hard to escape heredity. Albeit to young Mr Benny pure +literature made no appeal, and had even been summarised by him as +"footle," in the business of advertising he developed a curious literary +twist. He could not exhibit a new line of goods without inventing an +arresting set of labels for it; and upon these labels (executed with his +own hands in water-colour upon cardboard) he let play a fancy almost +Asiatic. Not content with mere description, such as "_Neck-wear in +Up-to-date Helios_" or "_Braces, Indispensable_," he assailed the coy +purchaser with appeals frankly personal, such as "_You passed us +Yesterday, but We Hit you this time_," or (of pyjamas) "_What! You +don't Tell us You Go to Bed like your Grandfather_," or (of a collar) +"_If you Admire Lord Rosebery, Now is Your Time_." + +Captain Cai wanted a hat. "I be just returned from foreign," he +explained; "and this here head-gear o' mine--" + +Young Mr Benny smiled with a smile that deprecated his being drawn into +criticism. "We keep ahead of the Germans yet, sir,--in some respects. +Is it Captain Hocken I have the pleasure of addressin'?" + +"Now, how did he know that?" Captain Cai murmured. + +"Why, by your hat," answered Mr Philp with readiness. + +"You'll be wanting something more nautical, Captain? Something yachty, +if I may suggest. . . . I've a neat thing here in yachting caps." +Mr Benny selected and displayed one, turning it briskly in his hands. +"The _Commodore_. There's a something about that cap, sir,--a what +shall I say?--a distinction. Or, if you prefer a straight up-and-down +peak, what about the _Squadron_ here? A little fuller in the crown, +you'll observe; but that"--with a flattering glance--"would suit you. +You'd carry it off." + +"Better have it full in the crown," suggested Mr Philp; "by reason it's +handier to carry things." + +"None of your seafarin' gear, I'll thank you," said Captain Cai hastily. +"I've hauled ashore." + +"And mean to settle among us, I hope, sir? . . . Well, then, with the +summer already upon us--so to speak--what do we say to a real Panama +straw? The _Boulter's Lock_ here, f'r instance,--extra brim--at five +and sixpence? How these foreigners do it for the money is a mystery to +me." + +"I see they puts 'Smith Brothers, Birmingham,' in the lining," said +Captain Cai. + +"Importers' mark, sir,--to insure genuineness. . . . Let me see, what +size were you saying? H'm, six-seven-eighths, as I should judge." +Young Mr Benny pulled out a drawer with briskness, ran his hand through +a number of genuine Panamas of identical pattern, selected one, and +poised it on the tips of his fingers, giving it the while a seductive +twist. "If you will stand _so_, Captain, while I tilt the glass a +trifle?" + +Captain Cai gazed hardily at his reflection in the mirror. "It don't +seem altogether too happy wi' the rest of the togs," he hazarded, and +consulted Mr Philp. "What do _you_ think?" + +"I ain't makin' no bid for your tail-coat, if that's what you mean," +answered Mr Philp with sudden moroseness, pulling out his watch. +"I got one." + +"Our leading townsmen, sir," said young Mr Benny, "favour an alpaca +lounge coat with this particular line. We stock them in all sizes. +Alpacas are seldom made to measure,--'free-and-easy' being their motto, +if I may so express it." + +"It's mine, anyway." + +"And useful for gardening, too. In an alpaca you can--" Young Mr Benny, +without finishing the sentence, indued one and went through brisk +motions indicative of digging, hoeing, taking cuttings and transplanting +them. + +The end of it was that Captain Cai purchased an alpaca coat as well as a +Panama hat, and having bidden "so long" to Mr Philp, and pocketed his +three-and-sixpence, steered up the street in the direction of Rilla +Farm, nervously stealing glimpses of himself in the shop windows as he +went. As he hove in sight of the Custom House, however, this +bashfulness gave way of a sudden to bewilderment. For there, at the +foot of the steps leading up to its old-fashioned doorway lounged his +mate, Mr Tregaskis, sucking a pipe. + +"Hullo! What are you doin' here?" asked Captain Cai. + +"What the devil's that to you?" retorted Mr Tregaskis. But a moment +later he gasped and all but dropped the pipe from his mouth. +"Good Lord!" + +"Took me for a stranger, hey?" + +The mate stared, slowly passing a hand across his chin as though to make +sure of his own beard. "What indooced 'ee?" + +"When you're in Rome," said Captain Cai, with a somewhat forced +nonchalance, "you do as the Romans do." + +"Do they?" asked Mr Tregaskis vaguely. "Besides, we ain't," he objected +after a moment. + +"Crew all right?" + +"Upstairs,"--this with a jerk of the thumb. + +"Hey? . . . But why? We don't pay off till Saturday, as you ought to +know, for I told 'ee plain enough, an' also that the men could have any +money advanced, in reason." + +"Come along and see," said the mate mysteriously. "I've been waitin' +here on the look-out for 'ee." He led the way up the steps, along a +twisting corridor and into the Collector's office, where, sure enough, +the crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ were gathered. + +"Here's the Cap'n, boys!" he announced. "An' don't call me a liar, but +take your time." + +The men--they were standing uneasily, with doffed hats, around a table +in the centre of the room--gazed and drew a long breath. They continued +to breathe hard while the Collector bustled forward from his desk and +congratulated Captain Cai on a prosperous passage. + +"There's one thing about it," said Ben Price the bald-headed, at length +breaking through the mortuary silence that reigned around the table; +"it _do_ make partin' easier." + +"But what's here?" demanded Captain Cai, as his gaze fell upon a curious +object that occupied the centre of the table. It was oblong: it was +covered with a large red handkerchief: and, with the men grouped +respectfully around, it suggested a miniature coffin draped and ready +for committal to the deep. + +"Well, sir," answered Nat Berry, who was generally reckoned the wag of +the ship, "it might pass, by its look, for a concealment o' birth. +But it ain't. It's a testimonial." + +"A what?" + +But here the mate--who had been standing for some moments on one leg-- +suddenly cleared his throat. + +"Cap'n Hocken," said he in a strained unnatural voice, "we the +undersigned, bein' mate and crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ barquentine--" + +"Be this an affidavit?" + +"No it isn': 'tis a Musical Box. . . . As I was sayin', We the +undersigned, bein' mate an' crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ barquentine, which +we hear that you're givin' up command of the same, Do hereby beg leave +to express our mingled feelin's at the same in the shape of this here +accompanyin' Musical Box. And our united hope as you may have live long +to enjoy the noise it kicks up, which"--here Mr Tregaskis dropped to a +confidential tone--"it plays 'Home, Sweet Home,' with other fashionable +tunes, an' can be turned off at any time by means of a back-handed +switch marked 'Stop' in plain letters. IT IS therefore--" here the +speaker resumed his oratorical manner--"our united wish, sir, as you +will accept the forthcoming Musical Box from the above-mentioned +undersigned as a mark of respect in all weathers, and that you may live +to marry an' pass it down to your offspring--" + +"Hear, hear!" interjected Mr Nat Berry, and was told to shut his head. + +"--to your offspring, or, in other words, progenitors," perorated +Mr Tregaskis. "And if you don't like it, the man at the shop'll change +it for something of equal value." Here with a sweep of the hand he +withdrew the handkerchief and disclosed the gift. "I forget the chap's +name for the moment, but he's a watchmaker, and lives off the Town Quay +as you turn up west-an'-by-north to the Post Office. The round mark on +the lid--as p'r'aps I ought to mention--was caused by a Challenge Cup of +some sort standin' upon it all last summer in the eye of the sun, which +don't affect the music, an' might be covered over with a brass plate in +case of emergency; but time didn't permit." Thus Mr Tregaskis +concluded, and stood wiping his brow. + +Captain Cai stared at the gift and around at the men's faces mistily. +"Friends"--he managed to say. "Friends," he began again after a painful +pause, and then, "It's all very well, William Tregaskis, but you might +ha' given a man warnin'--after all these years!" + +"It don't want no acknowledgment: but take your time," said the mate +handsomely, conscious, for his part, of having performed with credit. + +At this suggestion Captain Cai with a vague gesture pulled out his +watch, and amid the whirl of his brain was aware of the hour--10.45. + +"I've--I've an appointment, friends, as it happens," he stammered. +"And I thank you kindly, but--" On a sudden happy inspiration he fixed +an eye upon the mate. "All sails unbent aboard?" he asked sternly. + +"There's the mizzen, sir--" + +"I thought so. We'll have discipline, lads, to the end--if you please. +We'll meet here on Saturday: and when you've done your unbendin' maybe +I'll start doin' mine." + +He took up the musical box, tucked it under his arm, and marched out. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +RILLA FARM. + +The way was long, the sun was hot, the minstrel (as surely he may be +called who carries a musical box) was more than once in two minds about +turning back. He perspired under his absurdly superfluous burden. + +To be sure he might--for Troy is always neighbourly--have knocked in at +some cottage on his way through the tail-end of the town and deposited +the box, promising to return for it. But he was flurried, pressed for +time, disgracefully behind time, in fact; and, moreover, thanks to his +attire and changed appearance, no friendly face had smiled recognition +though he had recognised some half a dozen. There was no time to stop, +renew old acquaintance, ask a small favour with explanations. . . . +All this was natural enough: yet he felt an increasing sense of human +selfishness, human ingratitude--he, toiling along with this token of +human gratitude under his arm! + +At the extreme end of the town his way led him through the entrance of a +wooded valley, or coombe, down which a highroad, a rushing stream, and a +railway line descend into Troy Harbour, more or less in parallels, from +the outside world. A creek runs some little way up the vale. In old +days--in Captain Cai's young days--it ran up for half a mile or more to +an embanked mill-pool and a mill-wheel lazily turning: and Rilla Farm +had in those days been Rilla Mill, with a farmstead attached as the +miller's _parergon_. + +But the railway had swept away mill-pool and wheel: and Rilla was now +Rilla Farm. The railway, too, cutting sheer through the slope over +which the farmstead stood, had transformed shelving turf to rocky cliff +and farmstead to eyrie. You approached Rilla now by a footbridge +crossing the line, and thereafter by a winding pathway climbing the +cliff, with here and there a few steps hewn in the living rock. Nature +in some twenty odd years had draped the cliff with fern--the _Polypodium +vulgare_--and Mrs Bosenna in her early married days had planted the +crevices with arabis, alyssum, and aubrietia, which had taken root and +spread, and now, overflowing their ledges, ran down in cascades of +bloom--white, yellow, and purple. The ascent, in short, was very pretty +and romantic, and you might easily imagine it the approach to some +foreign hill-castle or monastery: for the farmhouse on the summit hid +itself behind out-buildings the walls of which crowned the escarpment +and presented a blank face, fortress-like, overlooking the vale. +The path (as you have gathered) was for pedestrians only. Mrs Bosenna's +farm-carts and milk-carts--her dairy trade was considerable--had to +fetch a circuit by the road-bridge, half a mile inland. + +The air in the valley was heavy, even on this April day. Captain Cai +reached the footpath-gate in a bath of perspiration, despite his alpaca +coat and notwithstanding that the last half mile of his way had lain +under the light shade of budding trees. He gazed up at the ascent, and +bethought him that the musical box was an intolerable burden for such a +climb. It would involve him in explanations, too, being so unusual an +accessory to a morning call. He searched about, therefore, for a +hiding-place in which to bestow it, and found one at length in a clump +of alder intermixed with brambles, that overhung the stream a few paces +beyond the gate, almost within the shadow of the footbridge. + +Having made sure that the bed on which it rested was firm and moderately +dry, he covered the box with a strewing of last year's leaves, cunningly +trailed a bramble or two over it, and pursued his way more lightsomely, +albeit still under some oppression: for the house stood formidably high, +and he feared all converse with women. For lack of practice he had no +presence of mind in their company, Moreover, his recent fiasco in +speech-making had dashed his spirits. + +He reached the last turn of the path. It brought him in sight of a +garden-gate some ten yards ahead, on his left hand. The gate was white, +and some one inside was even at this moment engaged in repainting it; +for as he halted to draw breath he caught sight of a paint-brush--or +rather the point of one--briskly waggling between the rails. + +The gate opened and Mrs Bosenna peeped out. "Ah, I _thought_ I heard +footsteps!" said she. She wore a widow's cap--a very small and natty +one; and a large white apron covered the front of her widow's gown from +bosom to ankles. + +"I--I'm sorry to call so late, ma'am." + +"Late? Why, it can't be past noon, scarcely. . . . We don't have dinner +till one o'clock. You'll excuse my not shaking hands, but I never +_could_ paint without messing my fingers." + +"But I hadn't an idea, ma'am--" + +"Eh?" + +"Nothing was farther from my thoughts than--than--" + +"Staying to dinner? Oh, but it's understood! There's roast +sucking-pig," said Mrs Bosenna tranquilly, as if this disposed of all +argument. She added, "I didn't recognise you for the moment. +You're wearing a different hat." + +"Actin' under advice, ma'am." + +"I don't know that it's an improvement." Her eyes rested on him in cool +scrutiny, and he flinched under it. "There's always a--a sort of +distinction about a top hat. Of course, it was very thoughtful of you +to change it for something more free-and-easy. But different styles +suit different persons, and--as I'm always telling Dinah--the secret of +dressing is to find out the style that suits you, and stick to it." + +"Bein' free-an'-easy, ma'am, was the last thing in my mind," stammered +Captain Cai. + +"There, didn't I guess? . . . Well, you shall wear your top hat next +time, and I'll take back my first impressions if I find 'em wrong." + +"But, ma'am, the--the fact is--" + +"Of course it was in the dusk," continued Mrs Bosenna; "but I certainly +thought it suited you. One meets with so little of the real +old-fashioned politeness among men in these days! Now "--she let her +voice trail off reflectively as her eyes wandered past Captain Cai and +rested on the tree-tops in the valley--"if I was asked to name my +_bo ideal_ of an English gentleman--and the foreigners can't come near +it, you needn't tell me--'twould be Sir Brampton Goldsworthy, Bart., of +Halberton Court, Devon." + +"Ma'am?" + +"That's close to Holsworthy, where I was brought up. 'Goldsworthy of +Holsworthy' he liked to be known as, dropping the 'Sir': and _he_ always +wore a top hat, rather flat in the brim. But he'd off with it to +anything in woman's shape. . . . And that's what women value. +Respect. . . . It isn't a man's _age_--" She broke off and half closed +her eyes in reverie. "And so particular, too, about his body-linen! +Always a high stock collar . . . and his cuffs!" + +"Talkin' about cuffs, now--" Captain Cai dived a hand into a +hip-pocket and drew forth a circlet of white lawn, much flattened. +"I found this in the garden last night--by the rose-bushes." + +"Thank you--yes, it is mine, of course. I missed it on the way home." +Mrs Bosenna reached out her hand for it. "You must have set me down for +a very careless person? But with all my responsibilities just now--" +She concluded the sentence with a sigh, and held open the gate, warning +him to beware of the wet paint. "You see, there is so much to be looked +after on a farm. One can never trust to servants--or at any rate not to +the men kind. Dinah is different; but even with Dinah--" Mrs Bosenna +let fall another, slightly fainter, sigh. + +"That reminds me," said Captain Cai hardily entering, and for all his +lack of observation falling at once under the spell of the little front +garden--so scrupulously tidy it was, so trim and kempt, with a pathway +of white pebbles leading up between clumps of daffodils and tulips to a +neatly thatched porch: so homely too, with but a low fence of euonymus +shutting off all that could offend in the court before the cow-byres; so +fragrant already with scent of the just sprouting lemon verbena; so +obviously the abode of cleanly health, with every window along the +white-washed house front open to the April air. "That reminds me, I +never mentioned the--the deceased--your late husband, I mean, ma'am--nor +how sorry I was to hear of it." + +"Did you know him?" asked Mrs Bosenna, scarcely glancing up as she +pinched the fragrance out of an infant bud of the lemon verbena. + +"Very slightly, ma'am. Indeed, I don't remember meetin' him but once, +and that was at Summercourt Fair, of all places; me bein' home just then +from a trip, an' takin' a day off, as you might say, just to see how +things was gettin' on ashore. As fate would have it I happened into a +boxin' booth, which was twopence, and there, as I was watchin' a bout, +some one says at my elbow, ''Tis a noble art, deny it who can!' +An' that was your late husband. We'd never met afore to my knowledge, +an' we never met again; but his words have come back to me more'n once, +an' the free manly way he spoke 'em." + +"I feel sure," said Mrs Bosenna, "you and he would have found many +things in common, had he been spared. . . Now, I dare say, you'd like to +look around the place a bit before dinner. Where shall we begin? +With the live stock?" + +"As you please, ma'am." + +"Well, as we're to eat sucking-pig, we'll go and have a look at the +litter he was one of; and then we'll take the cows; and then you'll have +to excuse me for a few minutes while I attend to the apple-sauce, about +which I'm very particular." + +They visited the sow and her farrows--a family group which Captain Cai +pronounced to be "very comfortable-lookin'." + +"But how stupid of me!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna. "To forget that you +sailors are tired to death with pork!" + +"Not with this variety, ma'am," Captain Cai assured her. + +They passed on to the cow-houses, which were empty just then, but +nevertheless worth visiting, being brick-floored, well-ventilated, and +roomy, with straw generously spread in the stalls, fresh and ready for +the cattle's return. There were two houses, one for Jerseys (as Mrs +Bosenna explained), the other for Devons; and she drew his attention to +their drainage system. "If I had my way, every cow in the land should +be as cleanly lodged as a cottager. None of your infected milk for me!" + +From the cow-houses she conducted him through the mowhay, where the +number and amplitude of the ricks fairly took his breath away. +"Oh, we call Rilla quite a small farm!" said Mrs Bosenna carelessly. +"But I could never endure to be short of straw. Clean bedding is a +craze with me." She halted and invited him to admire some details in +the thatching--the work of an old man past seventy, she told him, and +sighed. "Thatching's a lost art, almost. Too much education nowadays, +and everybody in a hurry--that's what's the matter. . . . In a few years +we shall all be thatching with corrugated iron." + +"An' by that time every one will be in steam." + +"Eh?" + +"Shipping, ma'am." + +"Ah, yes--to be sure. And everybody making butter with a County Council +separator. 'All very scientific,' I tell them, 'so long as you don't +ask me to eat it!' Why, look at this!" Captain Cai looked. She was +holding out her hand palm uppermost, and a very pretty, plump hand it +was to be sure. + +"I should be sorry to say how many hundredweights of butter I've made +wi' that very hand--or how many hundreds of persons have eaten it." + +Captain Cai dived his own hands into the hip-pockets of his new coat, +aimlessly searching for pipe and tobacco-pouch; not that he would have +ventured to smoke in her presence!--but it gave his hands something to +do. + +"'Glad,' I think you must mean, ma'am," said he slowly. + +She laughed. "If you're going to make pretty speeches, it's time for me +to run indoors," and she left him with a warning that dinner would be +ready in ten minutes, or at one o'clock to the tick. + +This was by the gate of a broad-acred field ("Parc Veor" she had called +it) in which her Jerseys browsed. Captain Cai counted them--they were +five--while still half-consciously searching for pipe and pouch, which, +in fact, he had left behind in the shop, in the pockets of his old coat. +By-and-by he realised this, and with a curious sense of helplessness--of +having lost his bearings. . . . + +Ten minutes later Dinah, coming across the mowhay to invite Captain Cai +into the house, found him leaning against the gate, sunk in a brown +study, contemplating the kine. + + +The smell of roasted sucking-pig dissipated this transient cloud upon +his spirits. Mrs Bosenna (who had discarded her apron, and looked +mighty genteel with a gold locket dependent from her throat) avowed, +appealing to his sympathy, that it mightn't be sentimental, but she, for +her part, adored the savour of crackling. + +"And as for Robert--my late husband--he doted on it." + +Captain Cai came within an ace of saying fatuously it was a pity the +late Mr Bosenna couldn't be present to partake of this; but checked +himself. + +"To think that you should have met him! Well, it's a small world." + +"There's a lot of folks attend Summercourt Fair--or used to," said +Captain Cai, and added that the world was not so noticeably small, if +you tried sailing up and down it a bit. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna, dropping knife and fork and clasping her +hands. "Yes, to be sure, the vastness of it--the great distances! . . . +And so you met my late husband in a boxing tent? Sport of all kinds +appealed to him. But isn't boxing a-er--more or less degrading +exhibition?" + +"Nothing of the sort, ma'am. I never went in for it myself--worse luck; +never had the time. But my friend 'Bias, now! He's past his prime, o' +course; but if only you'd seen him strip--in the old time--" + +"Er--you're surely not referring to your friend Captain Hunken?" + +"But I am, ma'am. . . . He had a way o' stepping back an' usin' his +reach . . . a trifle slow with the left, always . . . that was his +failin'. But the length of his arms would delight you--and he had a +hug, too, of his own--if you happened to take an interest in such +things." + +"But I don't," protested Mrs Bosenna. "And you frighten me! If I'd +guessed that my other tenant was a prize-fighter--" + +"Prize-fighter, ma'am? What, 'Bias? . . . He's the gentlest you ever +knew, and the easiest-goin': and for ladies' company--well, I don't +know," confessed Captain Cai, "as he ever found himself in such, +least-ways not to my knowledge. But I'll be bound he wouldn't be able +to open his mouth." + +"--Unless in defence of a friend," suggested Mrs Bosenna, laughing. +"You must bring him to call on me." + +Captain Cai shook his head. + +"Oh"--she nodded confidently--"I'll make him talk, never fear! +If he's half so true a friend to you as you are to him--" + +"He's a truer." + +"Then, as a last resource, I have only to run _you_ down. So it's +easy." + + +The sucking-pig was followed by a delectable junket with Cornish cream; +and the junket--when Dinah had removed the cloth--by a plate of +home-made biscuits, flanked by decanters of port and sherry. + +"Widow's port is the best, they say." Mrs Bosenna invited him to fill +his glass without waiting for ceremony. "You smoke?" she asked. + +He confessed that he was without pipe or tobacco. Dinah was summoned +again, left the room after a whispered consultation, and returned with a +small sheaf of clean churchwarden pipes and a cake of tobacco, dark in +hue, somewhat dry but (as a quick inspection assured Captain Cai) quite +smokeable. + +"Now you're to make yourself at ease," said Mrs Bosenna, rising and +moving to the door. Captain Cai, remembering his manners, rose and held +it open for her. "The wine is at your elbow and (oh, believe me, I +understand men!) when you've finished your smoke you will find me in the +rose-garden. That's my _real_ garden, though nothing to boast of at +this time of the year. But April's the month for pruning tea-roses, and +this weather in April is not to be missed. I want to hear more of your +friend; and when you are ready--you are not to hurry--Dinah will show +you the way." + +Captain Cai, left alone, carved a pipeful of tobacco with his +pocket-knife; chose a clay; filled, lit it, and smoked. Two glasses of +wine had sufficed him, for he was an abstemious man: but, for all his +hard life, he could enjoy comfort. He found it here; in the good food, +the generous liquor, the twinkle on the glass and decanter, the +ill-executed but solid portraits on the walls, the hearthrug soft +beneath his sole, the April combination of sunshine slanting through the +window and a brisk but not oppressive coal fire on the hearth. + +He smoked. The tobacco (smuggled and purchased at low cost by the late +Mr Bosenna) had been excellent in its time, and was palatable yet. + +It stuck in Captain Cai's conscience, however, and pricked it while he +smoked, that he had given Mrs Bosenna a wrong impression of his friend. + +`Bias a mere prize-fighter! `Bias of all people! But that is what +comes of laying stress on one particular accomplishment of an Admirable +Crichton. + +He ruminated on this: finished his pipe: and having knocked out the +ashes thoughtfully on the bars of the grate, sought the back garden +without the help of Dinah. + +The rose-garden to the uninstructed eye was--now in April--but a +wilderness of scrubby stunted thorns. In the midst of it he found Mrs +Bosenna, gloved, armed with a pair of secateurs, and engaged in cutting +the thorns back to a few ugly inches. + +She smiled as he approached. "You don't understand roses?" she asked. +"If you don't, you'll be surprised at my hard pruning. If there's real +strength in the root, you can trust for June, no matter what a stick you +leave. The secret's under the ground; or, as you may say, under the +surface, as it is with folks." + +"That helps me, ma'am," said Captain Cai, "to tell you it's like that +with my friend 'Bias--" + +A whistle sounded up the valley. "The three-thirty coming!" said Mrs +Bosenna. "It's at the signal-box outside the tunnel." + +"The three-thirty?" Captain Cai gasped and pulled out his watch. +"But that's 'Bias's train--and I was to meet him!" + +"You _might_ just do it," hazarded Mrs Bosenna. "We count it half a +mile to the station, and by the time they have the luggage out--" + +"I _must_ do it, ma'am! To think that--" Captain Cai held out a hand. +"I'd no notion--the time has flown so!" + +"Dinah! Dinah!" called Mrs Bosenna, and as Dinah appeared at the back +door with a promptitude almost suspicious,--"Run and fetch Captain +Hocken's hat, girl! He has to catch a train." + +Dinah vanished, and in the twinkling of an eye came running with the +hat; with a clothes-brush, too. "Confound her!" Captain Cai swore +inwardly as she insisted on brushing his coat, paying special attention +to a dry spot of mud on the right hip-pocket. Feminine attentions may +be overdone, and Mrs Bosenna showed more tactfulness than her maid. + +"Have finished, you silly woman! Cannot you see that Captain Hocken is +dying to leave us? . . . But you are to bring your friend, sir, at the +first opportunity!" + +She repeated this, calling it after him as he raced down the path. +At the footbridge he remembered the musical box in the bushes. But it +was too late. Mrs Bosenna had followed him to the head of the slope, +and stood watching, waving her handkerchief. + +As he glanced back and up at her over his shoulder, his ear caught the +rumble of a train, not far up the valley. He must run! . . . + +He ran, sticking his elbow to his sides. But soon the rumble of the +train grew to a roar. It was upon him. . . . It overtook him some three +hundred yards from the station, and the carriage windows, as he +staggered down the high road, went past him in a blur. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +BIAS ARRIVES. + +Captain Tobias Hunken sat patiently and ponderously upon a wooden +sea-chest, alone on the platform, but stacked about by such a miscellany +of luggage as gave him no slight resemblance to Crusoe on his raft. +Besides parcels, boxes, carpet-bags, canvas-bags, tarpaulin-bags, it +included a pile of furniture swathed in straw, a parrot-cage covered +with baize, and a stone jar calculated to hold nine gallons of liquor. + +He was a dark-bearded man, heavy shouldered, of great bulk, and by +temperament apparently phlegmatic; for when Captain Cai arrived, +panting, red in the face, stammering contrition, he betrayed neither +emotion nor surprise. + +"'Twas all my thoughtlessness!" cried Captain Cai. + +"What's the matter?" asked Captain Tobias. "No hurry, is there? +We've retired." + +"If I'd known I was so late!" + +"Five minutes." Captain Tobias gazed across at the station clock, then +at his friend's face, as if comparing the two. "You've altered your +appearance recently. Which some might say 'twas for the better." + +"Glad you think so," said Captain Cai, modestly pleased. + +"Others, again, mightn't. But, there!" added Captain Tobias with sudden +intensity. "Who cares what folks say? If you chose to go about like a +Red Indian, 'twouldn' be no affair o' _theirs_, I should hope?" + +"Why, o' course not," Captain Cai agreed, albeit a trifle dashed. +"As you say, we've retired, an' can do as we like." + +"Ah!" Captain Tobias eyed him and drew a long breath. "Got such a thing +as a match about ye?" he asked, pulling forth a short clay pipe. + +"No--yes!" Captain Cai, clapping a hand to either hip, was about to +admit that he had come without pipe, tobacco, or matches, when he felt +something hard and angular within the left pocket, and (to his +confusion) produced--a silver matchbox. "Good Lord!" he exclaimed +stupidly. + +"That's a pretty trifle," said Captain Tobias, possessing himself of the +box and extracting a match from it. "Where did ye pick it up, now!" + +"From a--a lady--a Mrs Bosenna." Captain Cai recovered the box, pocketed +it, and desperately changed the subject. "What's become of all the +porters hereabouts?" he demanded. "Leavin' us alone an' all this +luggage, like a wreck ashore!" + +"I sent 'em away," Captain Tobias explained with composure, "knowin' as +you'd turn up sooner or later. Who's Mrs Bosenna?" + +"She's our landlady; a widow-woman. She lives up the valley yonder." +Captain Cai jerked a thumb in that direction, and with renewed anxiety +looked about for a porter. "Hadn't we better whistle one across?" + +"Sells matches, does she?" + +"No,"--he knew his friend's persistence, and faced about to make a clean +breast. "I was callin' there to-day. There's the leases to be fixed +up, you see--" He paused. + +Captain Tobias assented with a slow nod. "Premises all satisfactory?" + +"_And_ shipshape. That's one load off my mind, anyway," sighed Captain +Cai. "You're bound to like 'em--that is, if you like Troy at all. +There's hot and cold water laid on, so's you can have a bath at a +moment's notice." + +"I don't _see_ myself, exactly," said Captain Tobias. "But never mind." + +"Well, as I was sayin', I called there to-day--to break the ice, so to +speak--" + +"You didn't mention ice; or, if you did, I missed hearin' it." + +"'Tis a way of speakin'. Well, the widow pressed me to stay to dinner, +and there was a suckin' pig; and afterwards--" + +"Hold hard." Captain Tobias removed the pipe from his mouth and stared +earnestly at his friend. "Say that agen," he commanded. + +"There was roast suckin' pig, I tell you. It melted in y'r mouth. +Well, after dinner she left me alone with pipes an' tobacco; an' 'twas +then, I suppose, that in my forgetful way I must have slipped the box +into my pocket." + +"'Twasn' very nice treatment, was it?--after the length she'd gone to put +herself out." + +"But 'twas absence o' mind, you understand." + +"I seem to remember," mused Captain Tobias, "there was a Lord +Somebody-or-other suffered from the same complaint. I read about it in +the papers, an' only wish I'd cut it out. Any little valu'bles lyin' +about he'd slip into his pocket. But I never heard of your bein' +afflicted in that way." + +"Of course I'm not!" Captain Cai protested warmly. + +"Then I don't see what excuse you'll put up. . . . But wait till we get +all this cargo stowed. Ahoy, there!" Captain Tobias called up the +porters, and after consultation it was decided to convert the +goods-shed into a cloak-room for housing the bulk of his luggage, but to +send on his sea-chest and the birdcage by wheelbarrow to his lodgings. + +"What's the address?" he asked, turning to Captain Cai. + +"Ship Inn." + +"What?" Captain Tobias paused in the act of picking up the nine-gallon +jar. "Drinks on the premises?" + +"Lashin's." + +"What a world o' fuss that arrangement do save! Here!--" to the porter +who stood checking the articles deposited--"this goes into hold wi' the +rest. Contents, rum, an' don't you forget it, my son; leastways, pr'aps +I'd better say, don't you remember it." + +"I'm a total abstainer, sir," said the porter proudly. + +"You don't tell me? . . . One meets with such cases, about. . . . +Well,"--Captain Tobias turned to Captain Cai again, as one averting his +face from a sorrow to which no help can be proffered--"what's the +distance?" + +"To the Ship? About half a mile--a nice easy walk, an' the barrow can +follow us." + +They were no sooner outside the station premises, however, than Captain +Tobias called halt to the driver of the wheelbarrow, paid him, and +instructed him to proceed ahead. + +"And you may tell the landlord," he added, "to expect us when he sees +us." + +He watched the man out of sight before explaining this manoeuvre. +"'Twas clever of you to mistake me, in front of those fellows; but I +_meant_, what distance to this here widow's?" + +"Eh? You don't mean to say--after your journey, too--" + +"We'll get it over," said Captain Tobias firmly. + +Captain Cai could not but approve. Here was prompt occasion not only to +repair and apologise for his small blunder, but to make Mrs Bosenna +acquainted with his paragon. She would soon correct that unfortunate +image of him as a coarse prize-fighting fellow. + +To tell the truth, while reproaching himself for having evoked that +image by his clumsy praise, he had doubted it might be difficult to +efface: knowing his friend's shyness of womankind. He had doubted that +'Bias, who (to use his own words) "shunned the fair sex in all its +branches," might decline even to make the lady's acquaintance. +Lo! here was that admirable man setting his face and--sternly, for +friendship's sake--marching upon an introduction. What a friend! + +They took their way up the valley, walking side by side. For a long +while both kept silence. + +"Pretty country!" by-and-by observed Captain Tobias. He paused as if to +take stock of it, but his gaze was meditative rather than observant. +"Suckin' pigs, too, . . ." he added after a while, and resumed his way. + +"What about 'em?" + +"Why, to drop in on a lone woman unexpected, an' find her sittin' down +to roast suckin' pig . . . it's--it's like Solomon an' the lilies." + +Captain Cai flushed half-guiltily. "I didn't say I called quite +unexpectedly, did I?" + +"To break the ice, was your words." + +"You see, I'd happened to meet Mrs Bosenna the evenin' before, +an'--hullo!" + +They had come to the bend of the road beneath Rilla Farm, and either his +eyesight had played him a trick or Captain Cai had caught a glimpse-- +just a glimpse and no more--of a print gown some fifty yards ahead, +where the hedge made an angle about a clump of trees. The small +entrance gate and the footbridge lay just beyond this angle. + +"Hullo!" exclaimed Captain Cai. + +"What's up?" + +"Nothin'"--for the light apparition had vanished. "Besides, she'd be +wearin' black, o' course." + +"I wish you'd talk more coherent," said Captain Tobias, stopping short +again and eyeing him. "I put it to you, now. Here I be, tumbled out +'pon a terminus platform in a country I've never set eyes on. As if +that wasn' enough, straightaway things start to happen so that I want to +hold my head. And as if _that_ wasn' enough, you work loose on the +jawin' tacks till steerage way there's none. I put it to you." + +"I'm sorry, 'Bias," Cai assured him contritely as they moved on. +"Maybe I'm upset by the pleasure o' seein' ye here. Many a time I've +picter'd it, an'--I don't know if you've noticed, but these little +things never _do_ fall out just like a man expects." + +"I've noticed it to-day, right enough," said Tobias with some emphasis. +But he was mollified, and indeed seemed on the point of adding a word +when of a sudden he came to yet another halt and eyed his friend more +reproachfully than ever--no, not reproachfully save by implication: with +bewilderment rather, and helpless surmise. + +"_What?_" gasped Captain Tobias. "_Which?_"--and, with that, speech +failed him. + +The pair had come to the footbridge and were in the act of crossing it, +when they became aware that the stream beneath them differed from all +streams in their experience. It was not rippling like other streams; it +was not murmuring; it was tinkling out a gay little operatic tune! + +To be more precise, it was rendering the waltz-tune in "Faust," an opera +by the late M. Gounod. Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken knew nothing +of "Faust" or of its composer. But they could recognise a tune. + +"_Which?_" repeated Tobias gasping, holding by the handrail of the +bridge. "You or me? Or both, perhaps?" + +"Two glasses o' port wine only, 'Bias . . . and you _saw_ me at the +station. I'd run all the way too. . . . Besides, _you_ hear it." +Relief, of a sudden, broke over Captain Cai's face. "It's the box!" he +cried. + +With that he was aware of the sound of a merry laugh behind him--a +feminine laugh, too, not less musical than the melody still tinkling at +his feet. He turned about and confronted Mrs Bosenna as she stepped +forth from her hiding in the bushes, her maid Dinah in attendance close +behind her. + +"Good afternoon again, Captain Hocken! And is this Captain Hunken? + . . . It was polite of you--polite indeed--to bring him so soon." + +She held out a hand to Tobias, who, to take it, was forced to relinquish +for a moment his clutch on the rail. + +"Servant, ma'am," said he in a gruff unnatural voice, and fell back on +his support. + +She laughed again merrily. "And you'll forgive me for making you +welcome with musical honours? That was a sudden notion of Dinah's. +She spied you coming up the road, and--Dinah, can you manage to stop +that silly tune?" + +"I'll try, mistress." Dinah stooped, groped amid the grasses, and +produced the musical box from its lair. + +"You can," stammered Captain Cai, as if repeating a formula, "turn it +off--at any time--by means of a back-handed switch." + +"It's yours, then!" Mrs Bosenna clapped her hands together as she turned +on him. + +"It's mine," confessed Captain Cai. "The question might occur to you, +ma'am--" + +"It has. Oh, it _has!_" She rippled with laughter. "You should have +seen Dinah's face when she came upon it!" + +"Caius," said Captain Hunken, interrupting her mirth as with a stroke +tolled on a bell, "would ye mind pinching me?" + +"Not at all, 'Bias--if you'll tell me where." + +"Anywheres. Only rememberin' we're in the presence o' ladies." + +"It's _perfectly_ simple," said Captain Cai, "if you'll only let me +explain! You see, the thing's what you might call a testimonial. +I picked it up, comin' through the town to-day." + +"A testimonial? How interesting!" murmured Mrs Bosenna. + +"From my late crew, ma'am. As I was sayin', on my way through the town +to call on you, ma'am, I was taken on the hop, so to speak, an' made the +recipient--" + +"What for?" demanded 'Bias. He was breathing hard. + +"It don't become me," said Captain Cai, and, speaking under stress of +desperation, he found himself of a sudden wondering at his own fluency. +"It don't become me to repeat all the--sentiments which, er, emanated." + +"Give me some," growled Captain Tobias, and was heard to add, under +stertorous breath--"Testimonial? I'd like to ha' seen _my_ lot try it +on _me!_" + +"They said," confessed Captain Cai, "as how it was their united wish--" +Here he recalled Mr Tregaskis' allusion to possible offspring, and +blushed painfully. + +"Well?" + +"That was the words: as how it was their united wish--adding 'in all +weathers.'" + +"And, the next news, it's playin' tunes in a ditch," pursued Captain +Tobias. + +"I think I can explain," put in Mrs Bosenna sweetly, hastening to close +up the little breach which, for some reason or other, had suddenly +opened between these two good friends. "Captain Hocken, being cumbered +with the box on his way to pay me a visit, hid it in the bushes here for +a time, meaning to recover it on his way back to the station." + +"That's so, ma'am," Captain Cai corroborated her. + +"But having misjudged the time, and in his hurry to meet you--good +friend that he is--Oh, Captain Hunken, if you could have heard the way +he spoke of you! What he led me to expect--not," she added prettily, +"that I admit to being disappointed." + +"Go on, ma'am," said Captain Tobias sturdily. But in truth it had come +to his turn to look ashamed. + +"Well, you see, in his haste he forgot it. And now he brings you back +to fetch it--am I not right?" + +"Not exactly, ma'am," confessed Captain Cai. "The truth is--" + +"Well, you shall hear how meantime we happened on it. . . . We are very +particular about our cream, here at Rilla: and with this warm weather +coming on, Dinah has been telling me it's time we stood the pans out in +running water. Haven't you, Dinah?" + +Dinah smoothed her print gown. It was not for her to admit here that +early in the day from an upper window she had been watching for Captain +Hocken's approach, had witnessed it, had witnessed also the act of +concealment, and had faithfully reported it to her mistress. + +"So," continued Mrs Bosenna hardily, "reckoning that the bed of the +stream may have been choked by what the winter rains carry down, and +this being our favourite place for the pans, under the cool of the +bridge, down happens Dinah--" + +"Excuse me, ma'am; but ain't it rather near the high road?" + +"It _is_, Captain Hunken: and I have often thought of it at nights. +But the folks are honest in these parts--extraordinarily honest." + +She broke off, perceiving that Captain Tobias was looking with sudden +earnestness at Captain Cai, and that Captain Cai was somewhat awkwardly +evading the look. + +"Be a man, Caius!" Tobias exhorted his friend. + +"It's--it's this way, ma'am," said Captain Cai sheepishly, after a long +pause, diving in his pocket. "We wasn't exactly bound to fetch the--the +musical box--which, Lord forgive me! I'd forgot for the moment--but to +return _this_. How it came to find its way to my pocket I don't know." + + +"And I don't know, either," mused Mrs Bosenna, as Dinah helped her to +undress that night. (This undressing was, in fact, but a well-worn +excuse for mistress and maid to chat and--due difference of position +observed--exchange confidences before bedtime). "Captain Hocken is +simple-minded, as any one can tell; but not absent-minded by nature. +At least, I hope not. I hate absent-minded men." + +She glanced at her glass, and turned about sharply. + +"Dinah, you designing woman! I believe you slipped that box into his +pocket? Yes, when you pretended that his coat wanted brushing,--I saw +you!" + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +'BIAS APPROVES. + +As they departed and went their way down the coombe, a constrained +silence fell between the two friends. Nor did either break it until +they came again in sight of the railway station. + +"I don't altogether like the air in this valley," announced 'Bias. + +"It _is_ a trifle close, now you mention it," Cai agreed. + +"Nor I don't altogether cotton to the valley, neither. Pretty enough, +you may say; but it gives you a _feelin'_--like as if you didn't know +what was goin' to happen next." + +"Places do have that effect with some," Cai assented again, but more +dejectedly. Horrid apprehension--if 'Bias should extend his dislike to +Troy itself! + +"I'm feeling better already," 'Bias continued, answering and allaying +this unspoken fear. "Is that the gasworks yonder?" + +"Yes. The _real_ scenery's at the other end o' the town." + +"The smell's healthy, they tell me." 'Bias halted in the roadway, and +casting back his head took a long stare up at the gasometer. "You +mustn' hurry me," he said, "I've got to enjoy _everything_." + +"No hurry at all," said Cai, from whose heart the words lifted a burden +at least as heavy as the musical box under his arm. "Hullo! here's Bill +Tregaskis with his missus! . . . Evenin', William--good evenin', ma'am!" +Captain Cai pulled off his hat. "I hope you find your husband none the +worse for the voyage?--though, to be sure, 'tisn' fair on him nor on any +seamen, the way some folks reproaches us when we get back home." + +Mrs Tregaskis dropped a curtsey. "But be sure, sir--what reproaches?" + +"Your looks, ma'am--your looks, if I may say so! . . . William married +you soon as he could, I'll wager; but, to be fair, that should ha' been +ten years afore _you_ married _him_." + +"La, sir!" answered Mrs Tregaskis blushing. "I wonder you never +married, yourself--you talk such nonsense! But you're in spirits +to-day, as any one can see." She glanced at the broad back of Captain +Tobias, who stood a few paces away, with legs planted wide and gaze +still wrapped in contemplation of the gasometer. "Makin' so bold, sir, +is that your friend we've heard tell so much about?" + +"It is, ma'am," Captain Cai turned about to call up 'Bias to be +introduced, when Mr Tregaskis gently checked him, laying a hand on the +musical box. + +"I didn' think it worth mentionin' at the time, sir; but these +instruments aren't intended for carryin' about." + +"No, no," Captain Cai agreed hastily. "Here, 'Bias! Look around an' see +who's the first to welcome ye! Tregaskis, of all men! And this here's +his missus." + +"How d'e do, Mr Tregaskis," said Captain Tobias, shaking hands. He knew +the mate of the _Hannah Hoo_, and respected him for a capable seaman. +"I hope I see you well, ma'am?" + +"Nicely, sir, thank you!" Mrs Tregaskis curtseyed and beamed. + +But Captain Tobias, though with her, too, he shook hands politely +enough, was plainly preoccupied. "'Tis a wonderful invention," said he. +"You just let the gas run in, an' then it is ready for use at any time. +I hadn't a notion you was so up-to-date here." + +Mr Tregaskis looked puzzled. "It don't work by _gas_. You wind it up +with a cog arrangement, which acts on a spring coil, I'm told--just like +the inside of a watch. But we can see by liftin' up the lid." + +"Eh?" Captain Tobias glanced back over his shoulder. + +"But as I was tellin' the boss, 'twas never _intended_ for a country +walk. You sets it down at home and calls for a tune--as it might be +drinks," continued Mr Tregaskis lucidly. + +Captain Cai touched his friend's elbow. "You're talkin' o' different +things, you two," he explained in a nervous haste, anxious to get off +delicate ground. "Tregaskis was alludin' to--er--this here; which" he +concluded, "nobody could have been more taken aback than I was this +mornin' . . . when it happened." + +"You don't say that's the musical box!" cried Mrs Tregaskis. +"Now, don't you agree, sir"--she appealed to Captain Tobias--"with what +I said to William at dinner-time, when he told me about the presentation +and the speeches? [Here Captain Cai shot a look at his mate, who +flushed but kept his eyes averted, pretending carelessness.] I said +that for a lot of ignorant seamen 'twas quite a happy thought, an' +nobody could say as Captain Hocken didn' deserve it; but, the thing +bein' bought in such a hurry--an' knowin' William as I do--ten to one +he'd been taken in an' the thing wouldn't work when it came to be +tried." + +"I told you," put in her spouse, "as the salesman had shown us how to +work it, an' it played the most life-like tunes, 'Home Sweet Home' +inclooded." + +"The salesman!" said Mrs Tregaskis scornfully. "A long way you'll go in +the world if you trust a salesman! Why, there was a young man once in +Harris's Drapery showed me a bonnet--with humming-birds--perfectly +outrageous; I wouldn' ha' been seen in it; and inside o' five minutes he +had me there with the tears in my eyes to think I couldn' afford it." + +"It works all right indeed, ma'am," Captain Cai assured her. + +"Ah, maybe you're cleverer with machinery than William? I don't know +how you find him at sea, but _I_ can't trust him to wind the clock." + +"I didn' set it goin' myself, ma'am; not personally." + +"Well," sighed Mrs Tregaskis, "I wish William had consulted me, anyway, +before buying the thing in such a hurry. It's shop-soiled, he has to +admit; which I only hope you'll overlook." + +"I've told you, my dear," put in Mr Tregaskis patiently, "that the mark +was done by a Challenge Cup. The fellow was quite honest about it." + +"A more thoughtful man," the lady insisted, "would have consulted his +wife--would have brought the thing home, maybe, for a trial, to have her +opinion on it. The others wouldn't have raised any objection, I'm sure. +And," she concluded with another sigh, "he knows that I fairly dote on +music!" + +"If that's so, ma'am," began Captain Cai, and hesitated, overtaken by +sudden caution, "I might let you have the loan of it, some time." + + +"You got out o' that very well," said Tobias, as they moved on. "I like +this place--" He paused, to scan a bill hoarding. "I likes it the more +the further I gets. But the women hereabouts seem more than usual +forward. Which an unprejoodiced man might call it a drawback." + +"I'm sorry, 'Bias, she would keep talkin' about the darned box. . . . +I couldn' prevent the lads, d'ye see--not knowin' they'd any such thing +in their minds." + +"She as good as invited herself to call an' listen to it," Tobias +pursued stolidly. "You headed her off very well. 'Tis possible, o' +course, we may get tired o' the tunes in time; an' then she may be +welcome to it for a spell. We'll see. Plenty o' time for that when +we've done listenin' to it together." + +Captain Cai halted and gazed at his friend with an emotion too deep for +words. But Tobias did not see: he was staring up at a wire which +crossed the street overhead. + +"Telephone! What next? . . . You never told me, neither--or not to my +recollection--as you went in for speech-makin'." + +"But I don't. I--er--the fact is, I had thoughts of takin' a lesson or +two. Private lessons, you understand." + +"You don't need to, so far as I can see. What was it I heard you +tellin' that widow-woman?--'You was made the recipient--of sentiments-- +which emanated'--that's the way to talk to 'em in public life. +I can reckernise the lingo, though I couldn' manage it for worlds, an' +don't know as I want to try." + +"Troy is my native town, you see," explained Cai, drinking +encouragement. + +"An' a rattlin' fine one, too!" Tobias halted in front of a wall +letter-box. "Look at that, now! 'Hours of Collection' so-an'-so. +It _do_ make a difference--fancy a thing o' that sort at sea! . . . +D'ye know, although you never expressed yourself that way, I'd always a +thought at the back o' my head that you'd end by takin' up with public +life in one form or another." + +"It _has_ been hinted to me," confessed Cai, colouring. "As one might +say, it has been--er--" + +"Emanated," his friend suggested. + +"It has been emanated, then--that there was a thing or two wanted +puttin' to rights." + +"We'll make notes as we go along." + +"But I don't want you to start by lookin' out our little weaknesses!" +cried Cai, suddenly fearful for his beloved town. + +Nevertheless he was in the seventh heaven, divining that his friend (so +chary of speech as a rule) had been trying to make amends, to sweep away +the little cloud that for a moment--no more--had crossed their perfect +understanding. 'Bias was here, determined to like Troy: and 'Bias was +succeeding. What else mattered? + +"Tidy little trade here," commented 'Bias, as they reached the Passage +Slip and conned the business reach of the river, the vessels alongside +the jetties, the cranes at work, the shipping moored off at the buoys-- +vessels of all nations, but mostly Danes and Russians, awaiting their +turn. + +"Twenty thousand tons a-month, my boy! See that two-funnelled craft +'longside the second jetty? Six thousand--not a fraction under. +We're things o' the past, you an' me, an' 'twas high time we hauled out +o' the competition." + +"China clay?" + +"All of it." + +"I don't know much about china clay," said 'Bias reflectively. +"But I never met twenty thousand tons of anything where it wasn' time +for somebody to protect the public." + +"There's a Harbour Commission here, o' course--bye-laws an' all that +sort o' thing." + +"Ay; there's one openin' for ye. We'll find others." + +They resumed their way. The street--Troy has but one street, but makes +up for this by calling various lengths of it by various names--was in +places so narrow that to avoid passing vehicles they were forced to take +refuge in handy doorways. In three out of four the door stood open, and +Captain Cai, popping his head in at kitchen or small parlour, would beg +pardon for intruding, pass the time of day with the mistress of the +house, inquire for her husband's health--"Do I remember him, I wonder?" +--and how many children there were, and what might be their ages? +He always wound up by introducing his friend. Nobody resented these +salutations, these questions. Indeed how was it possible to be morose +with Captain Cai?--he bubbled such transparent gaiety, kindliness, +innocence. + +"'Tis our way in Troy, you see," he told 'Bias as they dived into a +cobbler's shop to escape the omnibus. "You have to be neighbourly if +you don't want to be run over. . . . In London, now, you'd waste a lot +o' time explainin' that you didn' want your boots mended." + +"It's like what I've heard about canvassin' for Parlyment," said 'Bias. +"And that's another suggestion fur ye." + +Of the most important shops in the length of thoroughfare known as Fore +Street and in Church Square (which is the same street with a corkscrew +twist in it) 'Bias showed much appreciation. He was especially allured +by the rainbow-tinted goods in Mr Shake Benny's window, and by the cards +recommending them for sale. _If you admire Lord Rosebery, Now is Your +Time_--He studied this for some moments. + +"Time for what?" he asked, rubbing his ear softly. + +"Drinks," suggested Cai, and laughed in pure pleasure of heart. +"Come along, man--or you'll be makin' me Prime Minister before we get to +the Ship. . . Yes, yon's the church--Established. You can tell by the +four spikes an' the weathercock; like-wise by the tombstones. But they +bury folks up the hill nowadays." He paused--"That reminds me"--he +paused again. + +"What of?" + +"Oh--er--nothing; nothing particular. . . . Well, if you must know, I +was thinkin' about that old hat o' mine." + +"You don't tell me you've buried it?" + +"No." + +"It _is_ time for drinks," said 'Bias with decision. They called at the +Ship Inn, where they ascertained that Captain Hunken's chest and +parrot-cage had been duly delivered. + +"Very decent beer," pronounced 'Bias as they shared a quart. + +"When a man has a job to tackle--" began Cai, and glanced at his friend. +"You're sure we hadn' better wait till you've had a meal?--till +to-morrow mornin' if you like." + +'Bias drained his tankard and arose--a giant visibly refreshed. +"I'm a-goin' to see the house, instanter." + +"Things," said Cai, "strike different parties from different points o' +view. That's notorious. One man's born an' bred in a place, and +another isn't. . . . Now if the latter--as we'll call him for argyment's +sake--" + +But 'Bias, cutting short this parley, had gained the door and was +marching forth. + + +To be sure (and Captain Cai might with better command on his nerves have +hailed the omen) Nature could hardly have dressed shore and harbour of +Troy in weather more auspicious. The smoke of chimneys arose straight +on the "cessile air," making a soft dun-coloured haze through which the +light of the declining day was filtered in streams of yellow--pale +lemon-yellow, golden-yellow, orange, orange-tawny. On the far shore of +the harbour, windows blazed as if cottage after cottage held the core of +a furnace intense and steady. The green hillside above them lay bathed +in this aureate flush, which permeated too the whole of the southern +sky, up to its faint blue zenith. + +"Pretty weather," grunted 'Bias, "I see the glass is steady too; +leastways if you can trust the one they keep in the Inn parlour." + +Cai did not respond: the crucial moment was drawing too near. + +"Pretty li'l view, too. . . . A man with a box o' paints, now, might be +tempted to have a slap at it." + +Well-meant but artless simulation! Captain Hunken had once in his life +purchased a picture; it represented Vesuvius by night, in eruption, and +he had yielded to the importunity of the Neapolitan artist--or, rather, +had excused himself for yielding--on the ground that after all you +couldn't mistake the dam thing for anything else. + +They came abreast of Harbour Terrace. They were passing by the green +front door of Number Two. Still Captain Cai made no sign. + +"There's a house, f'r instance--supposin' a man could afford the +rental--" 'Bias halted and regarded it. "Hullo, 'tis unoccupied!" +He turned about slowly. "You don't--mean--to tell me--as that's _of_ +it?" + +"That's _of_ it," Cai admitted tremulously. After a long pause, +'"Bias," he stammered, "break it gently." + +"I'm tryin' to," said 'Bias, breathing and backing to the railings for a +better view. He removed his hat and wiped the top of his head several +times around. Then of a sudden-- + +"Hooray!" he exploded. + +"'Bias!" Cai stared, as well he might, for his friend's face was +totally impassive. + +"Hoo--" began 'Bias again. "Who the devil's this?" he demanded, as the +door opened and Tabb's child appeared in the entry. + +"I been expectin' you this hour an' more," announced Tabb's child. +"Stoppin' for drinks on the road, I reckon?" + +"We did take a drink, now you mention it," stammered Captain Cai, caught +aback: "though, as it happens that don't account for our bein' late. +But what brings _you_, here, missy?" + +She laid a finger on her lip. "Sh! I've got 'em." + +"Got what?" + +"Servants for 'ee. They're inside." She pointed back in to the passage +mysteriously. + +"Who's this child?" demanded Captain 'Bias. + +"She's--er--a young friend o' mine--" began Captain Cai. But Fancy +interrupted him, dropping a slight curtsey, and addressing his friend +straight. + +"My name's Fancy Tabb, sir. Which I hope you'll like Troy, and Cap'n +Hocken ast me to make myself useful an' find you a pair of servants-- +woman an' boy." + +"Oh, but hold hard!" protested Captain Cai. "We haven't started +furnishin' yet." + +She nodded. "That's all right. No hurry with either of 'em--not for +some weeks, or so long as it suits you. But you'll be safer to bespeak +'em: an' Mrs Bowldler is the chance of a lifetime." + +She led the way through to the unfurnished and somewhat dingy kitchen. +It had a low window-seat, from the extreme ends of which, as the two +skippers entered, two figures--a middle-aged woman and a gawky lad-- +arose and saluted them; the one with a highly genteel curtsey, the other +with an awkward half-pull at his forelock, and much scraping with his +feet. + +"This is Mrs Bowldler," Fancy nodded towards the middle-aged woman. + +"Your servant, sirs," Mrs Bowldler curtseyed again and coughed. "With a +W if you don't object." + +"She's quite a good plain cook; and well connected, though reduced in +circumstances. Mr Rogers, sir, is often glad to employ her at a pinch." + +"At a what?" asked Captain Tobias, breathing hard. + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler with a trembling cough, "the bare thought of +taking service again with two strange gentlemen in my state of health is +a nordeal, and as such I put it to you." Here she smoothed the front of +her gown and turned upon Tobias with unexpected spirit. "You can say to +me what you like, sir, and you can do to me what you like, but if you'd +been laying awake all night with geese walking over your grave, I'd put +myself in your place and say, 'Well, if he don't spit blood 'tis a +mercy!'" + +"Plain cookin', did you say?" asked Captain Tobias, turning stonily upon +the girl. + +"And knick-knacks. You mustn't mind her talk, sir; she was brought up +to better things and 'tis only her tricks. . . . Now the boy here--his +name's Pam, which is short for Palmerston: and I can't conscientiously +say more for him, except that he's willin' and tells me he can carry +coals." + +She might not be able to say more for him, and yet her voice had a +wistfulness it had lacked while she commended Mrs Bowldler. +Certainly the lad's looks did not take the casual glance. +He was coltish and angular, with timid, hare-like eyes. He wore +curduroy trousers (very short in the leg), a coat which had patently +been made for a grown man, and in place of waistcoat a crimson guernsey +which as patently was a piece of feminine apparel. The sleeves of his +coat were folded back above his wrists, and in his hand he dangled, by a +string of elastic, a girl's sailor hat. + +"Healthy?" asked Captain Tobias. + +As if at a military command, the boy put out his tongue. + +"La!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler, "look at that for manners!" + +"Where does he come from?" + +The boy glanced at Fancy in a helpless way. Fancy was prompt. "'Twould +save time--wouldn't it?--now that you've seen Mrs Bowldler, if she went +round an' had a look at the house?" + +"Which I trust," said Mrs Bowldler, "it would not be required of me to +sleep in a nattic. It's not that I'm peculiar, but as I said to my +sister Martha at breakfast only this morning, 'Attics I was never +accustomed to, and if 'tis to be attics at my age, with the roof on your +head all the time and not a wink in consequence, Martha,' I said, 'you +wouldn't ask it of me, no, not to oblige all the retired gentlemen in +Christendom.'" + +"You'd better trot along upstairs, then, an' make sure," said Fancy. +As soon as the woman was gone she jerked a nod towards the door. +"Now we can talk. I didn't want _her_ to know, but Pam comes from the +work'ouse. His father was mate of a vessel and drowned at sea, and his +mother couldn't manage alone." + +"What vessel?" asked Captain Cai. Both skippers were regarding the boy +with interest. + +"The _Tartar Girl_--one of Mr Rogers's--with coal from South Shields, +but a Troy crew. It happened five years ago; an' last night when you +said you wanted a boy it came into my head that one of the Burts would +be just about the age. [Pam's other name is Burt, but I didn't tell it +just now, not wanting Mrs Bowldler to guess who he was.] So this +morning I got Mr Rogers to let me telephone to Tregarrick Work'ouse--an' +here he is." + +"Do they dress 'em like that in there?" asked + +Captain Cai. + +"Better fit they did!" said the girl angrily. "They sent him over in a +clean corduroy suit with 'Work-'ouse' written all over it: and a nice +job I had to rig him up so's Mrs Bowldler shouldn' guess." + +At this moment a piercing scream interrupted Fancy's explanation. +It came from one of the front rooms, and was followed by another shorter +scream--the voice unmistakably Mrs Bowldler's. + +Running to the lady's rescue, they found her in the empty parlour-- +alone, clutching at the mantelshelf with both hands, and preparing to +emit another cry for succour. + +"What in the world's happened?" demanded Fancy the first to arrive. + +"There was a man!" Mrs Bowldler ran her eyes over her protectors and +turned them, with a slow shudder, towards the window. "I seen him +distinctly. It sent my blood all of a cream." + +"A man? What was he doing?" they asked. + +"He was a-looking in boldly through the window . . ." Mrs Bowldler +covered her face with her hands. + +"Well?" Fancy prompted her impatiently, while Captain Cai stepped out to +the front door in quest of the apparition. + +"He had on a great black hat. I thought 'twas Death itself come after +me!" + +While Mrs Bowldler paused to take breath and record her further +emotions, Captain Cai, reaching the front door, threw it open, looked +out into the roadway, and recoiled with a start. Close on his right a +man in black stood peering, as Mrs Bowldler had described, but now into +the drawing-room window; shielding, for a better view, the brim of a +tall hat which Captain Cai recognised with an exclamation-- + +"Mr Philp!" + +Mr Philp withdrew his gaze, turned about and nodded without +embarrassment. + +"Good evenin', Cap'n. Friend arrived?" + +"Funny way to behave, isn't it?" asked Captain Cai with sternness. +"Pokin' an' pryin' in at somebody else's windows--what makes ye do it?" + +"I was curious to know what might be goin' on inside." + +There was a finality about this which held Captain Cai gravelled for a +moment. It hardly seemed to admit of a reply. At length he said-- + +"Well, you've frightened a woman into hysterics by it, if that's any +consolation." + +"There, now! Mrs Bosenna?" + +"No, it was not Mrs Bosenna. . . . By the way, that reminds me. +I've changed my mind over that hat." + +"Hey?" + +"I find I've a use for it, after all." + +But at this moment 'Bias appeared in the doorway behind him. + +"Seen anything?" demanded 'Bias. + +"Interduce me," said Mr Philp with majestic calm. + +Captain Cai, caught in this act of secret traffic, blushed in his +confusion, but obeyed. + +"'Bias," said he, "this is the gentleman that caused the mischief +inside. His name's Philp, and he'd like to make your acquaintance." + + + + +BOOK II. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +FIRST SUSPICIONS. + +It was August, and the weather for weeks had been superb. It was also +the week of Troy's annual regatta, and a whole fleet of yachts lay +anchored in the little harbour, getting ready their riding lights. +Two or three belated ones--like large white moths in the grey offing-- +had yet to make the rendezvous, and were creeping towards it with all +canvas piled: for the wind--light and variable all day--had now at +sunset dropped almost to a flat calm. + +"A few pounds to be picked up out yonder," commented Captain Cai, "if +the tugs had any enterprise." + +Captain 'Bias reached out a hand for the telescope. "That yawl--the big +fellow--'d do better to take in her jib-tops'le. The faster it's +pullin' her through the water the more it's pullin' her to leeward. +She'd set two p'ints nigher with it down." + +"The fella can't make up his mind about it, either: keeps it shakin' +half the time." + +The two friends sat in 'Bias's summerhouse, the scent of their tobacco +mingling, while they discoursed, with the fragrance of late roses, +nicotianas, lemon verbenas. "Discoursed," did I say? Well, let the +word pass: for their talk was discursive enough. But when at intervals +one or the other opened his mouth, his utterance, though it took the +form of a comment upon men and affairs, was in truth but the breathing +of a deep inward content. On the table between them Captain Cai's +musical box tinkled the waltz from "Faust." + +They had become house-occupiers early in May, and at first with a few +bare sticks of furniture a-piece. But by dint of steady attendance at +the midsummer auctions they had since done wonders. Captain Cai had +acquired, among other things, a refrigerator, a linen-press, and a set +of 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica' (edition of 1881); Captain 'Bias a +poultry run (in sections) and a framed engraving of "The Waterloo +Banquet,"--of which, strange to say, he found himself possessor directly +through his indifference to art; for, oppressed by the heat of the +saleroom, he had yielded to brief slumber (on his legs) while the +pictures were being disposed of, and awaking at the sound of his own +name was aware that he had secured this bargain by an untimely and +unpremeditated nod. + +Such small accidents, however, are a part of the fun of +house-furnishing. On the whole our two friends had bought judiciously, +and now looking around them, could say that their experiment had +hitherto prospered; that, so far, the world was kind. + +Especially were they fortunate (thanks to Fancy Tabb) precisely where +bachelor householders are apt to miss good fortune--in the matter of +domestic service. The boy Palmerston, to be sure, suffered from a +trick--acquired (Fancy assured them) under workhouse treatment and +eradicable by time and gentle handling--of bursting into tears upon +small provocation or none. But Mrs Bowldler was a treasure. Of this +there could be no manner of doubt; and in nothing so patently as in +relation with the boy Palmerston did the gold in Mrs Bowldler's nature-- +the refined gold--reveal itself. + +It was suspected that she had once been a kitchen-maid in the West End +of London: but a discreet veil hung over this past, and she never lifted +it save by whatever of confession might be read into the words, +"When we were in residence in Eaton Square,"--with which she preluded +all reminiscences (and they were frequent) of the great metropolis. +Her true test as a good woman she passed when--although she must have +known the truth, being a confirmed innocent gossip--she chose to extend +the same veil, or a corner of it, over the antecedents of Palmerston. +She said-- + +"The past is often enveloped. In the best families it is notoriously +so. We know what we are, an' may speckilate on what we was; but what +we're to be, who can possibly tell? It might give us the creeps." + +She said again: "Every man carries a button in his knapsack, by which he +may rise sooner or later to higher things. It was said by a Frenchman, +and a politer nation you would not find." + +Again: "Blood will tell, always supposin' you 'ave it, and will excuse +the expression." + +Thus did Mrs Bowldler "turn her necessity to glorious gain," colouring +and enlarging her sphere of service under the prismatic lens of romance. +In her conversation either cottage became a "residence," and its small +garden "the grounds," thus:-- + +"Palmerston, inform Captain Hunken that dinner is served. You will find +him in the grounds." + +Or, "Where's that boy?" Captain Cai might ask. + +"Palmerston, sir? He is at present in the adjacent, cleaning the knives +and forks." + +She had indeed set this high standard of expression in the very act of +taking service; when, being asked what wages she demanded, she answered, +"If acceptable to you, sir, I would intimate eighteen guineas--and my +viands." + +"That's two shilling short o' nineteen pound," said Captain Hunken. + +"I thank you, sir"--Mrs Bowldler made obeisance--"but I have an +attachment to guineas." + +She identified herself with her employers by speaking of them in the +first person plural: "No, we do not dress for dinner. Our rule is to +dine in the middle of the day, as more agreeable to health." [A sigh.] +"Sometimes I wish we could persuade ourselves that vegetables look +better on the side-table." + +Such was Mrs Bowldler: and her housekeeping, no less vigilant than +romantic, protected our two friends from a thousand small domestic +cares. + + +"Committee-meeting, to-night?" asked 'Bias. + +"Eight o'clock: to settle up details--mark-boats, handicap, and the +like. . . . It's a wonder to me," said Cai reflectively, "how this +regatta has run on, year after year. With Bussa for secretary, if you +can understand such madness." + +"They'll be runnin' you for the next Parish Council, sure as fate." + +Cai ignored this. "There's the fireworks, too. Nobody chosen yet to +superintend 'em, an' who's to do it I don't know, unless I take over +that little job in addition." + +"I thought the firm always sent a couple o' hands to fix an let 'em +off." + +"So it does. They arrived a couple of hours ago--both drunk as Chloe." + +"Plenty o' time to sleep it off between this an' then," opined 'Bias +comfortably. + +"But they're still _on_ the drink. Likely as not we shall find 'em +to-morrow in Highway lock-up, which is four miles from here. . . . +It happened once before," said Cai with a face of gloom, "and Bussa did +the whole display by himself." + +"Good Lord! How did it go off?" + +"He can't remember, except that it _did_ go off. _He_ was drunk, too-- +drunk o' purpose: for, as he says very reas'nably, 'twas the only way he +could find the courage. The fellow isn' without public spirit, if he'd +only apply it the right way. Toy tells me that he, for his part, saw it +from his bedroom window--the Town Quay wasn't safe, wi' the +rocket-sticks fairly rainin'--an' the show wasn' a bad show, _if you +looked at it horizontal_; but the gentry on the yachts derived next to +no enjoyment from it, bein' occupied in gettin' up their anchors." + +Before 'Bias could comment on this, a footstep--light, yet audible +between the tinkling notes of the musical box--drew the gaze of the pair +to a small window on the right, outside of which lay the gravelled +approach to their bower. + +"May I come in?" asked a voice--a woman's--with a pretty hesitation in +its note: and Mrs Bosenna stood in the doorway. + +"_Please_ keep your seats," she entreated as both arose awkwardly. +She added with a mirthful little laugh, "I heard the musical box playing +away, and so I took French leave. Now, don't tell me that I'm an +intruder! It is only for a few minutes; and--strictly speaking, you +know--the lease says I may enter at any reasonable time. Is this a +reasonable time?" + +They assured her, but still awkwardly, that she was welcome at any time. +Captain Cai found her a chair. + +"So this," she said, looking around, "is where you sit together and talk +disparagingly of our sex. At least, that's what Dinah assures me, +though I don't see how she can possibly know." + +"Ma'am!" said Cai, "we were talkin', this very moment, o' fireworks: +nothing more an' nothing less." + +"Well, and you couldn't have been talking of anything more to the +point," said Mrs Bosenna; "for, as it happens, it's fireworks that +brought me here." + +'Bias looked vaguely skyward, while "You don't tell me, ma'am, those +fellows are making trouble down in the town?" cried Cai. + +"Eh? I don't understand. . . . Oh, no," she laughed when he explained +his alarm, "I am afraid my errand is much more selfish. You see, I +positively dote on fireworks." + +She paused. + +"Well," said 'Bias, "that's womanlike." + +"Hallo!" said Cai. "How do you know what's womanlike?" + +"I am afraid it is womanlike," confessed Mrs Bosenna hastily. +"And from Rilla Farm you get no view at all on Regatta night. So I was +wondering--if you won't think it dreadfully forward of me--" + +"You're welcome to watch 'em from here, ma'am, if that's what you mean," +said 'Bias. + +"Or from my garden, ma'am, if you prefer it," said Cai. + +"Why should she?" asked 'Bias. + +"Well, 'tis a yard or two nearer, for one thing." + +"Anything else?" + +"Yes: the other summer-house fronts a bit more up the harbour; t'wards +the fireworks, that's to say." + +"You ought to know: _you_ chose it. . . . But anyway I asked her first." + +"Thank you--thank you both!" interposed Mrs Bosenna, leaving the +question open. "And may I bring Dinah too? She's almost as silly about +fireworks as I am, poor woman! and life on a farm _can_ be dull." +She sighed, and added, "Besides, 'twould be more proper. We mustn't set +people talking--eh, Captain Hocken?" She appealed to him with a laugh. + +"Cai won't be here," announced 'Bias heavily. + +"Who said so?" demanded Cai. + +"'Said so yourself, not twenty minutes ago. . . . 'Said you didn' know +how the fireworks was ever goin' off without you, or words to that +effect. I didn' make no comment at the time. All I say now is, if Mrs +Bosenna comes here to see fireworks, she'll expect 'em to go off: an' I +leave it at that." + +"They'll go off, all right," said Cai cheerfully, putting a curb on his +temper. [But what ailed 'Bias to-night?] "I'll get a small +Sub-committee appointed this very evening. But about takin' a hand +myself, I've changed my mind." + +"Indeed, Captain Hocken, I hope you'll not desert the party," said Mrs +Bosenna prettily, and laughed again. "Do you know that, having made so +bold I've a mind to make bolder yet, and pretend I am entertaining _you_ +to-morrow. It's the only chance you give me, you two." + +She said this with her eyes on 'Bias, who started as if stung and +glanced first at her, then at Cai. But Cai observed nothing, being +occupied at the moment in winding up the musical box, which had run +down. + +Mrs Bosenna smiled a demure smile. She had discovered what she had come +to learn; and having discovered it, she presently took her leave, with a +promise to be punctual on the morrow. + + +When she was gone the pair sat for some time in silence. _Tink, +tink-tink-a-tink, tink_, went the musical box on the table. . . . +At length Cai stood up. + +"Time to be gettin' along to Committee," he said, and stepped to the +doorway; but there he turned and faced about. "'Bias--" + +"Eh?" + +"You don't really think as I chose th' other summer-house because it had +a better view?" + +"_Has_ it a better view?" asked 'Bias. + +"For fireworks, it seems," said Cai sadly. "But I reckoned--though I +hate to talk about it--as this one looked straighter out to sea an' by +consequence 'd please ye better. That's why. . . . You're welcome to +change gardens to-morrow." + +"Mrs Bosenna's comin' to-morrow," grunted 'Bias, and then, after a +second's pause, swore under his breath, yet audibly. + +"What's the matter with ye, 'Bias?" + +"I don't know. . . . Maybe 'tis that box o' tunes gets on my temper. +No, don't take it away. I didn' mean it like that, an' the music used +to be pretty enough, first-along." + +"We'll give it a spell," said Cai, stooping and switching off the tune. +"I'm not musical myself; I'd as lief hear thunder, most days. But the +thing was well meant." + +"Ay, an' no doubt we'll pick up a taste for it again--indoors of an +evenin', when the winter comes 'round." + +"Tell ye what," suggested Cai. "To-morrow, I'll take it off to John +Peter and ask him to put a brass plate on the lid, with an inscription. +He's clever at such things, an' terrible dilatory. . . . An' to-night +Mrs Bowldler can have it in the kitchen. She dotes on it--'_I dreamt +that I dwelt_' in particular." + + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler to Palmerston later on, as they sat drinking +in that ditty, one on either side of the kitchen table, "it can't sing, +but the words is that I dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls with Princes and +Peers by my si-i-ide--just like that. Princes!" She leaned back in the +cheap chair and closed her eyes. "It goes through me to this day. +I used to sing it frequent in my 'teens, along with another popular +favourite which was quite at the other end of the social scale, but +artless--'My Mother said that I never should Play with the gypsies in +the wood. If I did, She would say, Tum tiddle, tum tiddle, tum-ti-tay' +--my memory is not what it was." Mrs Bowldler wiped her eyes. + +"And did you?" asked Palmerston. "Tell me what happened." + +Next morning, while the Church bells were ringing in Regatta Day, +Captain Cai tucked the musical box under his arm and called, on his way +to the Committee Ship, upon Mr John Peter Nanjulian (commonly "John +Peter" for short). + +John Peter, an elderly man, dwelt with a yet more elderly sister, in an +old roomy house set eminently on the cliff-side above the roofs of the +Lower Town, approachable only by a pathway broken by flights of steps, +and known by the singular name of On the Wall. + +The house had been a family mansion, and still preserved traces of +ancient dignity, albeit jostled by cottages which had climbed the slope +and encroached nearer and nearer as the Nanjulians under stress of +poverty had parted with parcel after parcel of their terraced garden. +Of the last generation--five sons and three daughters, not one of whom +had married--John Peter and his sister "Miss Susan" were now the only +survivors, and lived, each on a small annuity, under the old roof, +meeting only at dinner on Sundays, and for the rest of the week dwelling +apart in their separate halves of the roomy building, up and down the +wide staircase of which they had once raced as children at hide-and-seek +with six playmates. + +John Peter was eccentric, as all these later Nanjulians had been: a +lean, stooping man, with a touch of breeding in his face, a weak mouth, +and a chin dotted with tufts of gray hair which looked as if they had +been affixed with gum and absent-mindedly. He was reputed to be a great +reader, and could quote the poetical works of Pope by the yard. He had +some skill with the pencil and the water-colour brush. He understood +and could teach the theory of navigation; dabbled in chess problems; and +had once constructed an astronomical timepiece. His not-too-clean hands +were habitually stained with acids: for he practised etching, too, +although his plates invariably went wrong. He had considerable skill in +engraving upon brass and copper, and was not above eking out his income +by inscribing coffin-plates. But the undertaker was shy of employing +him because he could never be hurried. + + +John Peter received Captain Cai in his workshop--a room ample enough for +a studio and lit by a large window that faced north, but darkened by +cobwebs, dirty, and incredibly littered with odds and ends of futile +apparatus. He put a watchmaker's glass to his eye and peered long into +the bowels of the musical box. + +"The works are clogged with dust," he announced. "Fairly caked with oil +and dirt. No wonder it won't go." + +"But it _does_ go," objected Captain Cai. + +"You don't tell me! . . . Well, you'd best let me take out the works, +any way, and give them a bath of paraffin." + +"Is it so serious as all that? . . . What I came about now, was to ask +you to make a brass plate for the lid--with an inscription." +Captain Cai pulled out a scrap of paper. "Something like this, +'Presented to Caius Hocken, Master of the _Hannah Hoo_, on the Occasion +of his Retirement. By his affectionate undersigned': then the names, +with maybe a motto or a verse o' poetry if space permits." + +"What sort of poetry?" + +"Eh? . . . 'Tell ye the truth, I didn' know till this moment that there +_were_ different sorts. Well, we'll have the best." + +"Why not go to Benny, and get him to fix you up something appropriate?" +suggested John Peter. "Old Benny, I mean, that writes the letters for +seamen. He's a dab at verses. People go to him regular for the +In-Memoriams they put in the newspaper." + +"That's an idea, too," said Captain Cai. "I'll consult him to-morrow. +But that won't hinder your getting ahead wi' the plate?" he added; for +John Peter's ways were notorious. + +"How would you like it?" John Peter looked purblindly about him, rubbing +his spectacles with a thread-bare coat-tail. + +"Well, I don't mind," said Cai with promptitude--"Though 'tis rather +early in the morning." + +"Old English?" + +"Perhaps I don't know it by that name." + +"Or there's Plain." + +"Not for me, thank ye." + +"--Or again, there's Italic; to my mind the best of all. It lends +itself to little twiddles and flourishes, according to your taste." +Old John Peter led him to the wall and pointed with a dirty finger; and +Cai gasped, finding his attention directed to a line of engraved +coffin-plates. + +"That's Italic," said John Peter, selecting an inscription and tracing +over the flourishes with his thumb-nail. "'_William Penwarne, b. +1837--_' that's the year the Queen came to the throne. It's easier to +read, you see, than old English, and far easier than what we call +Gothic, or Ecclesiastical--which is another variety--though, of course, +not so easy as Plain. Here you have Plain--" He indicated an +inscription--'_Samuel Bosenna, of Rilla, b. 1830, d. 1895_." + +"Would that be th' old fellow up the valley, as was?--Mrs Bosenna's +husband?" asked Cai, somewhat awed. + +"That's the man." + +"But what's it doing here?" + +"'Tis my unfortunate propensity," confessed John Peter with simple +frankness. "You see, by the nature of things these plates must be +engraved in a hurry--I _quite_ see it from the undertaker's point of +view. But, on the other hand, if you're an artist, it isn't always you +feel in the mood; you wait for what they call inspiration, and then the +undertaker gets annoyed and throws the thing back on your hands." +With a pathetic, patient smile John Peter rubbed his spectacles again, +and again adjusted them. "Perhaps you'd like Plain, after all?" he +suggested. "It usually doesn't take me so long." + +"No," decided Cai somewhat hurriedly; "it might remind--I mean, there +isn't the same kind of hurry with a musical box." + +"It would be much the better for a bath of paraffin," muttered John +Peter, prying into the works. But Cai continued to stare at the plate +on the wall, and was staring at it when a voice at the door called +"Good mornin'!" and Mr Philp entered. + +"Ho!" said Mr Philp, "I didn' know as you two were acquainted. +And what might _you_ be doin' here, cap'n?" + +"A triflin' matter of business, that's all," answered Cai, who chafed +under Mr Philp's inquisitiveness; but chafed, like everybody else, in +vain. + +"Orderin' your breastplate? . . . It's well to be in good time when +you're dealin' with John Peter," said Mr Philp with dreadful jocularity. +"As I came along the head o' the town," he explained, "I heard that +Snell's wife had passed away in the night. A happy release. I dropped +in to see if they'd given you the job." + +John Peter shook his head. + +"And I don't suppose you'll get it, neither," said Mr Philp; "but I +wanted to make sure. Push,--that's what you want. That's the only +thing nowadays. Push. . . . You're lookin' at John Peter's misfits, I +see," he went on, turning to Cai. "Now, _there's_ a man whose place, as +you might say, won't go unfilled much longer--hey?" Mr Philp pointed +his walking-stick at the name of the late owner of Rilla, and achieved a +sort of watery wink. + +"I daresay you mean something by that, Mr Philp," said Cai, staring at +him, half angry and completely puzzled. "But be dashed if I know what +you _do_ mean." + +"There now! And I reck'ned as you an' Cap'n Hunken had ne'er a secret +you didn't share!" + +'"Bias?" asked Cai slowly. "Who was talkin' of 'Bias?" + +"It takes 'em that way sometimes," said Mr Philp, wiping a rheumy eye. +"An' the longer they puts it off the more you can't never tell which way +it will take 'em. O' course, if Cap'n Hunken didn't tell you he'd been +visitin' Rilla lately, he must have had his reasons, an' I'm sorry I +spoke." + +Cai was breathing hard. "Bias? . . . When?" + +"The last time I spied him was two days ago . . . in the late afternoon. +Now you come to mention it, I'd a notion at the time he wasn't anxious +to be seen. For he came over the fields at the back--across the +ten-acre field that Mrs Bosenna carried last week--and a very tidy crop, +I'm told, though but moderate long in the stalk. . . . Well, there he +was comin' across the stubble--at a fine pace, too, with his coat 'pon +his arm--when as I guess he spied me down in the road below and stopped +short, danderin' about an' pretendin' to poke up weeds with his stick. +'Some new-fashioned farmin',' thought I; 'weedin' stubble, and in August +month too! I wonder who taught the Widow that trick'--for I won't be +sure I reckernised your friend, not slap-off. But Cap'n Hunken it was: +for to make certain I called and had a drink o' cider with Farmer +Middlecoat, t'other side of the hill, an' _he'd_ seen your friend +frequent these last few weeks. . . . There now, you don't seem pleased +about it!--an' yet 'twould be a very good match for him, if it came +off." + +Cai's head was whirling. He steadied himself to say, "You seem to take +a lot of interest, Mr Philp, in other people's affairs." + +"Heaps," said Mr Philp. "I couldn' live without it." + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +REGATTA NIGHT. + +It must be admitted, though with sorrow, that on the Committee Ship that +day Captain Cai did not shine. He bungled two "flying starts" by +nervously playing with his stop-watch and throwing it out of gear; he +fired off winning guns for several hopelessly belated competitors; he +made at least three mistakes in distributing the prize-money (and nobody +who has not committed the indiscretion of paying out a first prize to a +crew which has actually come in third can conceive the difficulty of +enforcing its surrender); finally, he provoked something like a free +fight on deck by inadvertently crediting two boats each with the other's +time on a close handicap. It was the more vexatious, because he had in +committee meetings taken so many duties upon himself, virtually +cashiering many old hands, whose enforced idleness left them upon the +ship with a run of the drinks, and whose resentment (as the day wore on) +made itself felt in galling comments while, with no offer to help, they +stood by and watched each painful development. The worst moment arrived +when Captain Cai, who had replaced the old treasurer by a new and +pushing man, and had, further, carried a resolution that prizes for all +the major events should be paid by cheque, discovered his _protege_ to +be too tipsy to sign his name. This truly terrible emergency Captain +Cai met by boldly subscribing his own name to the cheques. They would +be drawn, of course, upon his private account, and he trusted the +Committee to recoup him, while reading in the eyes of one or two that +they had grasped this opportunity of revenge. But Regatta Day happens +on a Wednesday, when the banks in Troy close early; and these cheques +were accepted with an unflattering show of suspicion. + +The longest day, however, has its end. All these vexations served at +least to distract our friend's mind from the morning's discovery; and +when at length, the last gun fired, he dropped into a boat to be pulled +for shore, he was too far exhausted physically--having found scarcely a +moment for bite or sup--to load his mind any more than did Walton's +milk-maid "with any fears of many things that will never be." + +He reached home, washed off the cares of the day and the reek of black +gunpowder together in a warm bath, dressed himself with more than +ordinary spruceness, and was descending the stair on his way to Bias's +garden, when at the foot of them he was amazed to find Mrs Bowldler, +seated and rocking herself to and fro with her apron cast over her head. +Nay, in the dusk of the staircase he but just missed turning a +somersault over her. + +"Hullo! Why, what's the matter, missus?" + +"Oh--oh!" sobbed Mrs Bowldler. "Bitter is the bread of poverty, deny it +who can! And me, that have gone about Troy streets in my time with one +pound fifteen's worth of feathers on my hat! Ostrich. And now to be +laying a table for the likes of _her_, that before our reverses I +wouldn't have seen in the street when I passed her!" + +Captain Cai, already severely shaken by the events of the day, put a +hand to his head. + +"For goodness' sake, woman, talk sense to me! _Who_ is it you're +meanin'?--Mrs Bosenna? And what's this talk about layin' table?" + +"Mrs Bosenna?" echoed Mrs Bowldler, who had by this time arisen from the +stair. She drew her skirts close with a gesture of dignity. "It is not +for me to drag Mrs Bosenna into our conversation, sir--far from it,--and +I hope I know my place better. For aught I know, Captain Hocken--if, +as a _menial_, I may use the term--" + +"Not at all," said Captain Cai vaguely, as she paused with elaborate +humility. + +"For aught that I know, sir, Mrs Bosenna may be a Duchess fresh dropped +from heaven. I _have_ heard it mentioned in a casual way that she came +from Holsworthy in Devon, and (unless my memory deceives me, sir) +nothing relative to Duchesses was dropped--or not at the time, at least. +But I pass no remarks on Mrs Bosenna. If she chose to marry an old man +with her eyes open, it's not for me to cast it up, beyond saying that +some folks know on which side their bread's buttered. _I_ never dragged +in Mrs Bosenna. You will do me that justice, I hope?" + +"Then who the dickens is it you're talkin' about?" + +"Which to mention any names, sir, it is not my desire; and the best of +us can't help how we was born nor in what position. But farm service is +farm service, call it what you please; and if a party as shall be +nameless starts sitting down with her betters, perhaps you will tell me +when and where we are going to end? That, sir, is the very question I +put to Captain Hunken; and with all respect, sir, 'dammit' doesn't meet +the case." + +"Perhaps not," agreed Captain Cai, but not with entire conviction. + +"It was all the answer Captain Hunken gave me, sir. 'Dammit,' he says, +'Mrs Bowldler, go and lay supper as I tell you, and we'll talk later.'" + +"Supper? Where?" + +"In the summer-house, sir: which it's not for me to talk about taking +freaks into your head, and the spiders about, or the size o' them at +this time o' the year. Captain Hunken and the lady and the other party +are at present in your portion of the grounds, hoping that you'll join +them in time for the fireworks; which it all depends if you like mixed +company. And afterwards the guests"--Mrs Bowldler threw withering scorn +into the word--"the guests is to adjourn to Captain Hunken's +summer-house or what not, there to partake of supper. And if I'm asked +to wait, sir," she concluded, "I must beg to give notice on the grounds +that I'm only flesh and blood." + +"O--oh!" said Captain Cai reflectively. It occurred to him that 'Bias +had hit on a compromise with some tact. For the moment he was not +thinking of Mrs Bowldler, and did not grasp the full meaning of her +ultimatum. + +She repeated it. + +"Tut--tut," said he. "Who wants you to wait table against your will? +The boy'll do well enough." + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler, "I have took the opportunity of sounding +Palmerston, and he offers no objection." + +"Very well, then." + +Mrs Bowldler was visibly relieved. She heaved a sigh and fired a +parting shot. + +"I can only trust," she said, "if Palmerston waits as he'll catch up +with no low tricks. Boys are so receptive!" + + +Cai descended to his garden, and at the foot of it found a trio of dark +figures by the low fence of the edge of the cliff--'Bias and Mrs Bosenna +in talk together, Dinah standing a little apart. "But that," thought +he, "is only her place, as I've just been hearing." He had a just mind +and was slow to suspect. Even now he could not assimilate the poison of +Mr Philp's story. Everybody knew Mr Philp and his propensities. +As Mr Toy the barber was wont to say, "Philp don't mean any harm: he +just makes mischief like a bee makes honey." + +So Cai said, "Cheer-o, 'Bias!"--his usual greeting--hoped he saw Mrs +Bosenna well, and fell in on the other side of her by the breast-rail. +The sky by this time was almost pitch dark, with a star or two shining +between somewhat heavy masses of clouds. He begged Mrs Bosenna to be +sure that she was comfortably anchored, as he put it. The rail was +stout and secure; she might lean her weight against it without fear. +He went on to apologise for his late arrival. The Committee Ship had +been at sixes and sevens all day. + +"Nobody could have guessed it, from the shore," said Mrs Bosenna +graciously, and appealed to 'Bias. "Coming through the town I heard it +on all hands." + +"Not so bad," agreed 'Bias, and this, from him, was real praise. + +"'Not a hitch from first to last--the most successful Regatta we've had +for years.' Those were the very expressions that reached me." + +"We'll do better next time," Cai assured her, swallowing down the +flattery. "Believe it or not, I had trouble enough to keep things +straight; and being one to fret when they're not ship-shape--" + +"_I_ know!" murmured Mrs Bosenna sympathetically. "You could not bear +to come away until you'd seen everything through. Well, as it happens, +there are people in Troy who recognise this; and it does me good to hear +you talk about 'next time.' Though, to be sure, one can't count next +time on such perfect weather." + +"There'll be rain in half an hour or less," grunted 'Bias. + +"Oh, not before the fireworks, surely?" she exclaimed in pretty dismay. +"Do say, now, Captain Hocken!" + +She turned to Cai, and then-- + +"Oh--oh!" she cried as, far away up the harbour, the signal rocket shot +hissing aloft and exploded with a tremendous detonation. The roar of it +filled their ears; but Cai scarcely heeded the roar. It reverberated +from shore to shore, and the winding creeks took it up, to re-echo it; +but Cai did not hear the echoes. + +For (it was no fancy!) a small hand had clutched at his arm out of the +darkness and was clinging to it, trembling, for protection. . . . Yes, +it trembled there yet! . . . He put a hand over it, to reassure it and +at the same time to detain it. + +He could not see her face. The rocket was of the kind known as +"fog detonator," and scattered no light with its explosion. He greatly +desired to know whether her gaze was turned towards him or up at the +dark sky, and this he could not tell. But the hand lay under cover of +his arm, and, as moments went by was not withdrawn. . . . + +Half a minute passed thus, and then (oh, drat the fireworks after all!) +a salvo of rockets climbed the sky--luminous ones, this time. As they +shot up with a _wroo--oo--sh!_ the hand was snatched away, gently, +swiftly. . . . + +They burst in balls of fire--blue, green, yellow, crimson. They lit up +the garden so vividly that each separate leaf on the laurustinus bushes +cast its own sharp shadow. "O--oh!" breathed Mrs Bosenna, but now on a +very different note, and as though her whole spirit drank deep, +quenching a celestial desire. Cai, stealing a look, saw her profile +irradiated, her gaze uplifted to the zenith. + +The fiery shower died out, was extinct. Across the party hedge the boy +Palmerston was heard inquiring if that was the way the angels behaved in +heaven. + +"Moderately so," responded the polite, high-pitched voice of Mrs +Bowldler (who never could resist fireworks). "Moderately so, but +without the accompanyin' igsplosion. That is, so far as we are +permitted to guess. . . . And highly creditable to _them_," it wound up, +with sudden asperity, "considering the things they sometimes have to +look down on!" + +"I'd _love_," aspired the romantic boy, "to go up--an' up--an' up, just +like that, an' then bust--bust in red and yellow blazes." + +"You will, one o' these days; that is, if you behave yourself. We have +that assurance within us." + +"I wouldn' mind the dyin' out," ingeminated Palmerston, "so's I could +have one jolly good bust." + +"In the land of marrow an' fatness we shall be doing of it permanent," +Mrs Bowldler assured him for his comfort. "That's to say if we ever get +there. But you just wait till they let off the set pieces. There's one +of Queen Victoria, you can see the very eyelids. Sixty years Queen of +England, come next June: with _God Bless Her_ underneath in squibs like +Belshazzar's Feast. And He _will_, too, from what I know of 'im." + + +As it turned out, at the distance from which our company viewed them, +these set pieces laid some tax on the imagination. They were duly +applauded to be sure; and when Mrs Bosenna exclaimed "How lovely!" and +'Bias allowed "Not so bad," their tribute scarcely differed, albeit paid +in different coin. The rockets, however, won the highest commendation, +and a blaze of coloured fires on the surrounding hills ran the rockets a +close second. + +Towards the close of the display a few drops of rain began to fall from +the overcharged clouds: large premonitory drops, protesting against this +disturbance of the upper air. + +"That's the fine-alley!" announced 'Bias, as another detonator banged +aloft, while a volcano of "fiery serpents" hissed and screamed behind +it. "Let's run for shelter!" + +He offered his arm. Cai did the same. But Mrs Bosenna--she had not +clung to any one this time--very nimbly slipped between them and took +Dinah for protector. She was in the gayest of moods, as they all +scrambled up the wet steps to the roadway, and so down other flights of +wet steps under the pattering rain to the shelter of 'Bias's +summer-house. + +"Just in time!" she panted, shaking the drops from her cloak. "And I +can't remember whenever I've enjoyed myself so much. But--" as she +looked about her and over the table--"what a feast!" + +It was a noble feast. If Cai had been busy all day, no less had 'Bias +been busy. There were lobsters; there were chickens, with a boiled ham; +there was a cold sirloin of beef, for grosser tastes; there were +jellies, tartlets, a trifle, a cherry pie. There was beer in a +nine-gallon jar, and cider in another. There were bottles of fizzy +lemonade, with a dash of which Mrs Bosenna insisted on diluting her +cider. Her mirth was infectious as they feasted, while the rain, now +descending in a torrent, drummed on the summer-house roof. + +"How on earth we're ever to get home, Dinah, I'm sure I don't know! +And what's more, I don't seem to care, just yet." + +Captain Cai and Captain 'Bias protested in unison that, when the time +came, they would escort her home against all perils. + +"You can trust me, ma'am, I hope?" blurted 'Bias. + +"I can trust both of you, I hope." Mrs Bosenna glanced towards Cai, or +so Cai thought. + + +"The jokes they keep makin'!" Palmerston reported to Mrs Bowldler. +(With the utmost cheerfulness he continued running to and fro between +summer-house and residence under the downpour.) "When Mrs Bosenna said +that about a merrythought I almost split myself." + +"There's a medium in all things," Mrs Bowldler advised him. +"Stand-offish should be your expression when waiting at table; like as +if you'd heard it all before several times, no matter how funny they +talk. As for splitting, I shiver at the bare thought." + +"Well, I didn't do it, really. I just got my hand over my mouth in +time." + +"And what did that other woman happen to be doing?" asked Mrs Bowldler. + +"I partic'l'ly noticed," said Palmerston. "She was sittin' quiet and +toyin' with her 'am." + + +The rain continuing, 'Bias at the close of supper sensationally produced +two packs of cards and proposed that, as soon as Palmerston had removed +the cloth, they should play what he called "a rubber to whist." He and +Mrs Bosenna cut together; Cai with Dinah. Now the two captains could, +as a rule, play a good hand at whist. On this occasion they played so +abominably as to surprise themselves and each other. Dinah did not +profess to be an expert, and Cai's blunders were mostly lost on her. +But 'Bias disgraced himself before his partner, who neither reproached +him nor once missed a trick. + +"I can't tell what's come over me to-night," he confessed at the end of +the second rubber. + +"Regatta-day!" laughed Mrs Bosenna, and pushed the cards away. +The wedding-ring on her third finger glanced under the light of the +hanging lamp. "Dinah shall tell our fortunes," she suggested. + +Dinah took the pack and proceeded very gravely to tell their fortunes. +She began with Captain Hunken, and found that, a dark lady happening in +the "second house," he would certainly marry one of that hue, with +plenty of money, and live happy ever after. + +She next attempted Captain Hocken's. "Well, that's funny, now!" she +exclaimed, after dealing out the cards face uppermost. + +"What's funny?" asked Cai. + +"Why," said Dinah, after a long scrutiny, during which she pursed and +unpursed her lips half a dozen times at least, "the cards are different, +o' course, but they say the same thing--dark lady and all--and I can't +make it other." + +"No need," said Cai cheerfully, drawing at his pipe (for Mrs Bosenna had +given the pair permission to smoke). "So long as you let 'Bias and me +run on the same lines, I'm satisfied. Eh, 'Bias?" + +"But 'tis the _same_ lady!" + +"Oh! That would alter matters, nat'ch'rally." + +Dinah swept the cards together again and shuffled them. "Shall I tell +_your_ fortune, mistress?" she asked mischievously. + +"No," said Mrs Bosenna, rising. "The rain has stopped, and it's time we +were getting home, between the showers." + +Again Captain Cai and Captain 'Bias offered gallantly to accompany her +to the gate of Rilla Farm; but she would have none of their escort. + +"No one is going to insult me on the road," she assured them. +"And besides, if they did, Dinah would do the screaming. That's why I +brought her." + + +She had enjoyed her evening amazingly. She took her departure with a +few happily chosen words which left no doubt of it. + +After divesting himself of his coat that night, Captain Cai laid a hand +on his upper arm and felt it timidly. Unless he mistook, the flesh +beneath the shirt-sleeve yet kept some faint vibration of Mrs Bosenna's +hand, resting upon it, thrilling it. + +"The point is," said Cai to himself, "it can't be 'Bias, anyway. I felt +pretty sure at the time that Philp was lyin'. But what a brazen fellow +it is!" + + +Strangely enough, in his bedroom on the other side of the party wall +Captain 'Bias stood at that moment deep in meditation. He, too, was +rubbing his arm, just below the biceps. + +Yet the explanation is simple. You have only to bethink you that Mrs +Bosenna, like any other woman, _had two hands_. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +MRS BOSENNA PLAYS A PARLOUR GAME. + +"We have runned out simultaneous," announced Mrs Bowldler next morning, +as the two friends sat at breakfast in Captain Cai's parlour, each +immersed (or pretending to be immersed) in his own newspaper. They had +slept but indifferently, and on meeting at table had avoided, as if by +tacit consent, allusions to last night's entertainment. Each of the +newspapers contained a full-column report of the Regatta, with its +festivities, which gave excuse for silence. With a thrill of innocent +pleasure Cai saw his own name in print. He harked back to it several +times in the course of his perusal, and confessed to himself that it +looked very well. + +But Mrs Bowldler, too, had slept indifferently, if her eyes--which were +red and tear-swollen--might be taken as evidence. Her air, as she +brought in the dishes, spoke of sorrow rather than of anger. +Finding that it attracted no attention, she sighed many times aloud, and +at each separate entrance let fall some gloomy domestic news, dropping +it as who should say, "I tell you, not expecting to be believed or even +heeded, still less applauded for any vigilant care of your interests, +but rather that I may not hereafter reproach myself." + +"We have runned out simultaneous," she repeated as Captain Cai glanced +up from the newspaper. "Which I refer to coals. Palmerston tells me +there's not above two-and-a-half scuttlefuls in either cellar, search +them how you will." (The search at any rate could not be extensive, +since the cellars measured 8 feet by 4 feet apiece.) + +"Which," resumed Mrs Bowldler, after a pause and a sigh, "it may be +un-Christian to say so of a man that goes about in a bath-chair with one +foot in the grave, but in my belief Mr Rogers sends us short weight." + +"I'll order some more this very morning, eh, 'Bias?" + +'Bias grunted approval. + +"And while we're about it, we may as well order in a quantity,--as much +as the sheds will hold. We've pretty well reached the end o' summer, +an' prices will be risin' before long. . . . If I were you, Mrs +Bowldler," added Cai with a severity beyond his wont, "I shouldn't call +people dishonest on mere suspicion." + +"If you were me, sir--makin' so bold,--you'd ha' seen more of the world +with its Rogerses and Dodgerses. There now!" Mrs Bowldler set down a +dish of fried potatoes and stood resigned. "Dismiss me you may, Captain +Hocken, and this instant. I ask no less. It was bound to come. As my +sister warned me, 'You was always high in the instep, from a child, +and,' says she, 'high insteps are out of place in the Reduced.'" + +"God bless the woman!" Cai laid down the paper and stared. "Who ever +talked of dismissin' you?" + +"I have rode in my time in a side-saddle: and that, sir, is not easily +forgotten. But if you will overlook it, gentlemen," said Mrs Bowldler +tearfully, "I might go on to mention that Palmerston have had a +misfortune with a tumbler last night." + +Cai continued to stare. "I _saw_ a couple performin' in the street +yesterday. How did the boy get mixed up in it?" + +"He broke it clearin' up the _debree_ in the summer-house after the +visitors had gone," Mrs Bowldler explained. "Which being a new +departure, I hope you will allow me to pass it by in his case with a +caution." + + +In the course of the forenoon Cai paid a call at Mr Rogers's +harbour-side store, where he found Mr Rogers himself superintending, +from his invalid-chair, the weighing out of coal. Fancy Tabb was in +attendance. + +"Hullo!" Mr Rogers greeted him. "Well, the show went very well +yesterday, and I see your name in the papers this morning." + +Cai confessed that he, too, had seen it. + +"And it won't be the last time either, not by a long way. I was wantin' +a word with you. Cap'n Hunken,--eh, but that's the sort of friend to +have--a man in a thousand--Cap'n Hunken was tellin' me, a few days back, +as he'd a mind to see ye in public life." + +"Thank'ee," said Cai. "'Bias has been nursin' that notion about me, I +know. But I hope I can make up my own mind." + +"He said 'twould be a distraction for ye." + +"Very likely." Cai was nettled without knowing why. "But supposin' I +don't need bein' distracted, not at this present?" + +"Not at this present," Mr Rogers agreed. "Your friend allowed that; but +he said as, all human life bein' uncertain, he was worried in mind what +was goin' to become o' you in the years to come." + +"Meanin' after his death?" asked Cai, with a touch of asperity. + +"He didn' specify. It might ha' been death he had in mind, or it might +ha' been anything you like. What he said was, 'I'd like to see old Cai +fixed up wi' summat to while away his latter years.' That's how he said +it, in those exact words, an' nothing could have been more kindly put." + +"We're the same age, to a hair. I don't see why 'Bias should be in all +this hurry, unless between ourselves . . . But you wanted a word with +me." + +"Yes, on that very question. I'm on the School Board, as it happens, +and I'm thinkin'--between you an' me--to send in my resignation, which +will create a vacancy." + +"Oh?" said Cai, alert; "I didn' know you took an interest in education." + +"I don't," Mr Rogers responded frankly. "I hate the damned thing. +If it rested with me, I'd have no such freaks in the land. But there's +always the rates to be kept down. And likewise there's the coal +contract to be considered. Added to which," he wound up, "it gives you +a pull in several little ways." + +"I see," said Cai after a pause. "But, if that's so, why resign?" + +"Because I'm broken in health, an' can't attend the meetings. I'd have +resigned six months ago if it hadn't been for Philp." + +"Did Mr Philp persuade you to hold on?" + +"You bet he didn't!" Mr Rogers grinned. "Philp wants the vacancy, +and--well, I don't like Philp. I don't know how he strikes you?" + +"To tell the truth," confessed Cai, "I can't say that I like him. +He's too--inquisitive, shall we put it?--though I daresay he means it +for the best." + +"He's suspicious," said Mr Rogers. "You'd scarcely believe it now, but +he came down to this very store, one day, and hinted that I gave short +weight in coal. 'That's all right,' said I; 'are you come to lay an +information?' 'No,' says he; 'I know the cost o' the law, an' I'm here +as a friend, to give a fresh order. But,' says he, 'as between friends +I'm goin' to see it weighed out.' 'Right again!' says I--'how much?' +'Twelve sacks will meet my requirements for the present,' says he; 'but +I'd like 'em full this time, if you don't mind.' I'm givin' you the +exact words as they occurred. 'Very well,' says I, 'you shall see 'em +weighed an' put into the cart for ye, here an' now.' So I ordered Bill +round wi' the cart; an' George, here, I told to pick out twelve o' the +best sacks, lay 'em in a row 'long-side o' me, an' start weighin' very +careful. When the scales turned the hundred-weight, I said, 'Now put in +two great lumps for overplush and sack it up.' So he did, an' Bill took +the bag out to the cart. 'Now for the next,' says I. Philp's a greedy +fellow: he stuck there lookin' so hard at the weighin'-scoop, wonderin' +how much overplush he'd get this go, he didn' see me twitch the tailmost +sack out o' the line wi' th' end o' my crutch, nor Bill pick it up +casual as he came along an' toss it away into the corner. When George +had weighed out the eleven, I says to Philp, 'Well, now, I hope you're +satisfied this time?' says I. He turns about, sees that all the sacks +have gone, an' says he, 'That's the end, is it?' 'You're a treat, an' +no mistake,' says I jokin'. 'We don't sell by the baker's dozen at this +store:' for I could see he hadn' counted. 'Well,' says he, 'I must say +there's no cause o' complaint this time,' and off drives Bill wi' the +load. 'No cause o' complaint'!" Mr Rogers chuckled till the tears +gathered in his eyes. He controlled his mirth and resumed, "I believe, +though, the poor fool suspected something; for he was back at home +before Bill had time to deliver more'n four sacks. But Bill, you see, +always carries an empty sack or two to sit upon; so there was no +countin' to be done at that end, d'ye see?" + +"I see," said Cai gravely. It crossed his mind that he had been +over-hasty in rebuking Mrs Bowldler. + +"I wonder," put in the child Fancy, "how you can sit there an' tell such +a story! That's just the sort o' thing people get put in hell for, as +I've warned you again and again. It fairly gives me the creeps to hear +you boastin' about it." + +"Nothin' o' the sort," said her master cheerfully. He could not resent +her free speaking, for she was necessary to him. Besides, it amused +him. "You leave old Satan and Johnny Rogers to settle scores between +themselves. If he takes me as he finds me I'll do the same by him--_an' +he knows I'll count the sacks_. Cap'n Cai here'll tell you I'd never +have put such a trick on Philp if he hadn' shown himself so suspicious. +I hate a suspicious man. . . . An' that's one reason, Cap'n, why I want +you to decide on takin' my place on the School Board. You see, I can +choose my own time for resignin'; the Board itself fills up any vacancy +that occurs between Elections: an' I can work the Board for you before +Philp or any one else gets wind of it. That is, if I have your +consent?" + +"It's uncommonly good of you," said Cai. "I'll think it over, an' take +advice, maybe." + +"You know what advice your friend'll give you, anyway. For, I don't +mind tellin' you, when he talked about your enterin' public life I +dropped a hint to him." + +"'Bias Hunken isn' the only friend I have in the world," answered Cai, +with a sudden flush. + +"I hope not," said Mr Rogers. "There's me, f'r instance: an' you've +heard my opinion. That ought to be good enough for him--eh, child?" +he turned to Fancy, who had been watching Cai's face with interest. + +"If the Captain wants feminine advice," said Fancy, in a mocking +grown-up tone, "we all love public men. It's our well-known weakness." + +Cai wished them good-day, and took his leave in some confusion. + + +That mischievous child had divined his intent, almost as soon as he +himself had divined it. Nay, now--or, to be accurate, three minutes +later--it is odds that she knew it more surely than he: for he walked +towards the Railway Station--that is, in the direction of Rilla Farm-- +telling himself at first that a stroll was, anyhow, a good recipe for +clearing the brain; that Rogers's offer called on him to make, at short +notice, an important decision. + +He paused twice or thrice on his way, to commune with himself: the first +time by the Passage Slip, where 'Bias and he had halted to view the +traffic by the jetties. He conned it now again, but with unreceptive +eyes. . . . "Rogers talks to me about takin' advice," soliloquised Cai. +"It seems to me this is just one of those steps on which a man must make +up his own mind. . . ." + +He paused again beneath the shadow of the gasometer, possibly through +association of ideas, because it suggested thoughts of 'Bias who had so +much admired it--"'Bias means well, o' course. But I don't go about, +for my part, schemin' how 'Bias is to amuse his latter days. Besides, +'Bias may be mistaken in more ways than one." + +He had passed the Railway Station without being aware of it, and arrived +in sight of Rilla gate, when he halted the third time. "A man must +decide for himself, o' course, when it comes to the point. Still, in +certain cases there's others to be considered. . . . If I knew how far +she meant it! . . . She must ha' meant something." Yes, he felt the +clutch on his biceps again and the small hand trembling under his large +enfolding one. "She _must_ ha' meant something. Not, to be sure, that +it would seriously influence his decisions! But it seemed hardly fair +not to consult her. . . . He would get her opinion, for what it was +worth, not betraying himself. In advising him she might go--well, +either a little further or a little backward. . . . Yet, once again, she +_must_ have meant something; and it wasn't fair, if she meant anything +at all, to let old 'Bias go on dwelling in a fool's Paradise. Yes, +certainly--for 'Bias's sake--there ought to be some clear understanding, +and the sooner the better. . . ." + +By the time Cai pressed the hasp of the gate, he had arrived at viewing +himself as a man launched by his own strong will on a necessary errand, +and carrying it through against inclination, for the sake of a friend. + +"I hope it won't be a blow to him, whichever way it turns out," was the +thought in Cai's mind as he knocked on the front door. + +Dinah answered his knock: and, as she opened, Dinah could not repress a +small start, which she hid, almost on the instant, under a demure smile +of welcome. + +"Captain Hocken? . . . Oh, yes! the mistress was within at this moment +and entertaining a visitor. . . . Oh, indeed, no! there was no reason at +all"--she turned, quick about, and he found himself following her and +found himself, before he could protest, at the parlour door, which she +flung open, announcing-- + +"Captain Hocken to see you, ma'am!" + + +Mrs Bosenna, seated at the head of her polished mahogany table and +engaged upon a game of "spillikins"--which is a solitary trial of +skill, and consists in lifting, one by one, with a delicate ivory hook a +mass of small ivory pieces tangled as intricately as the bones in a +kingfisher's nest--showed no more than a pretty surprise at the +intrusion. She had, in fact, seen Captain Hocken pass the window some +moments before; and it had not caused her to joggle the tiny ivory hook +for a moment or to miss a moment's precision. What native quickness did +for her, native stolidity did almost as well for Captain Hunken, who sat +in an arm-chair by the fireplace smoking and watching her--and had been +sitting and watching her for a good half an hour admiringly, without +converse. "Spillikins" is a game during which, though it enjoins +silence on the looker-on, a real expert can playfully challenge a remark +or tolerate one, now and again. Also, you can make astonishing play +with it if you happen to possess a pretty wrist and hand. + +I throw in this explanation of "spillikins" to fill up a somewhat long +and painful pause during which Cai and 'Bias without speech slowly +questioned one another. Neither heeded the pretty tactful clatter with +which Mrs Bosenna, after sweeping her ivory toys in a heap and starting +up with a little cry of pleasure, held out her hand to the intruder. +Cai took it as one in a dream. His eyes were fixed on 'Bias, as 'Bias, +who had withdrawn the pipe from his mouth and replaced it, withdrew it +again, and asked-- + +"Well, an' what brings _you_ here?" + +For a moment Cai seemed to be chewing down a cud in his throat. +He ought to have been quicker, he felt. It is always a mistake to let +your adversary (Good Lord! had it come to this?) set up an +interrogatory. + +"I might ask you the same question," he responded. + +"But you didn'," said 'Bias solidly, crossing his legs and reaching for +a box of matches from the shelf to relight his pipe. "Well?" + +"Well, if you must know, I've called to consult Mrs Bosenna on a private +matter of business." + +This was a neat enough hint; yet strange to say it missed fire. +'Bias sucked at his pipe without budging, and answered-- + +"Same here." + +"Please be seated, Captain Hocken," said Mrs Bosenna, covering inward +merriment with the demurest of smiles. "You shall tell me your business +later on--that's to say, if there's no pressing hurry about it?" + +"There's no _pressin_ hurry," admitted Cai. "It's important, though, in +a way--important to _me_; and any ways more important than smokin' a +pipe an' watchin' you play parlour games." + +"That," said 'Bias sententiously, withdrawing his pipe from his lips, +"isn' business, but pleasure." + +"You may not believe it, Captain Hocken," protested Mrs Bosenna, +"but 'spillikins' helps me to fix my thoughts. And you ought to feel +flattered, really you ought--" + +She laughed now, and archly--"Because, as a fact, I was fixing them on +you at the very moment Dinah showed you in!" She threw him a look which +might mean little or much. Cai took it to mean much. + +"Ma'am,--" he began, but she had turned and was appealing to 'Bias. + +"Captain Hunken and I were at that moment agreeing that a man of your +abilities--a native of Troy, too--and, so to speak, at the height of his +powers--ought not to be rusting or allowed to rust in a little place +where so much wants to be done. For my part,"--her eyes still +interrogated 'Bias,--"I could never live with a man, and look up to him, +unless he put his heart into some work, be it farming, or public +affairs, or what else you like. I put that as an illustration, of +course: just to show you how it appeals to us women; and we _do_ make up +half the world, however much you bachelor gentlemen may pretend to +despise us." + +"That settles poor old 'Bias, anyhow," thought Cai, and at the same +moment was conscious of a returning gush of affection for his old +friend, and of some self-reproach mingling in the warm flow. + +"Why, as for that, ma'am," said he, "though you put it a deal too +kindly--'twas about something o' that natur' I came to consult you." + +"School Board?" suggested 'Bias. + +"That's right. I knew Rogers had dropped a hint to you about it: but o' +course, seein' you here, I never guessed--" + +Mrs Bosenna clapped her hands together. "And on that hint away comes +Captain Hunken to ask my advice: knowing that I should be interested +too. Ah, if only we women understood friendship as men do! . . . +But you come and consult us, you see. . . . And now you must both stop +for dinner and talk it over." + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +_AMANTIUM IRAE_. + +"What I feel about it," said Cai modestly at dinner, "is that I mightn't +be equal to the position, not havin' studied education." + +"Education!" echoed Mrs Bosenna in a high tone of contempt and with a +half vicious dig of her carving-fork into the breast of a goose that +Dinah had browned to a turn. (Both Cai and 'Bias had offered to carve +for her, but she had declined their services, being anxious to provoke +no further jealousy. Also be it said that the operation lends itself, +even better than does the game of spillikins, to a pretty display of +hands and wrists). "Education! You know enough, I hope, to tell the +Board to get rid of their latest craze. You'll hardly believe it," she +went on, turning to 'Bias, "but I happened to pass the Girls' School the +other day, and if there wasn't a piano going!--yes, actually a piano! +When you come to think that the parents of some of those children don't +earn sixteen shillings a-week!" + +"Mons'rous," 'Bias agreed. + +"But I don't understand, ma'am," said Cai, "that the children themselves +play the piano. I made inquiries about that, it being a new thing since +my day: and I'm told it's for the teachers to use in singin' lessson, +an' to help the children to keep time at drill an' what-not." + +"The teachers? And who are the teachers, I'd like to know?--Nasty +stuck-up things, if they want the children to keep time, what's to +prevent their calling out 'One, two--right, left' like ordinary people? +But--oh, dear me, no! We're quite above _that!_ So it's tinkle-tum, +tinkle-tum, and all out of the rates." + +"But 'one, two--right, left' wouldn' carry ye far in a singin' lesson," +urged Cai. + +"And who _wants_ all this singin'? There's William Skin, my waggoner, +for instance--five children, and a three-roomed cottage--all the +children attending school, and regular, too. Pleasant life it would be +for William, with all five coming home with 'The Sea, the Open Sea' in +their mouths and all about the house when he gets home from work! +Leastways it would be, if he wasn't providentially deaf." + +"Is the woman deaf, too?" asked 'Bias. + +"No. She believes in Education," said Mrs Bosenna. "She's _bound_ to +believe in anything that takes the children off her hands five days in +the week." + +Cai puckered his brow. "But," said he, harking back, "I made inquiries, +too, who paid for the piano, and was told the teachers had collected the +money by goin' round with a subscription-list an gettin' up little +entertainments. So it doesn't come out of the rates." + +"You appear to have had your eye on this openin' for some time," +retorted Mrs Bosenna, with a faint flush of annoyance. She very much +disliked being proved in the wrong. "And it's not very polite of you to +contradict me!" + +Cai was crestfallen at once. "I didn' mean it in that light, ma'am," he +stammered; "and I only made inquiries, d'ye see? Bein' ignorant of so +many things ashore. You'd be astonished how ignorant 'Bias an' me found +ourselves, first-goin' off." + +"Speak for yourself," put in 'Bias. + +"You should have come to me," said Mrs Bosenna. "I could have told you +all about Education, especially the sort that ought to be given to +labourers' children; and it's astonishin' to me the way some people will +talk on matters they know nothing about. My late husband made a study +of the question, having been fined five shillin' and costs, the year +before he married me, just for withdrawing a dozen children from school +to pick his apples for him. As luck would have it, one of them fell off +a tree and broke his leg, and that gave the Board an excuse to take the +matter up. My husband argued it out with the Bench. 'The children like +it,' he said, 'for it keeps 'em out of doors, and provides 'em with +healthy exercise. If Education sets a boy against climbing for apples, +why then,' says he, speaking up boldly, 'with your Worships' leave, +Education must be something clean against Nature, as I always thought it +was. And the parents like it, for the coppers it brings in. And the +farmer gets his apples saved. If that's so,' says he, 'here's a +transaction that benefits everybody concerned, instead of which the +Board goes out of its way to harass me for it.' The chairman, Sir +Felix, owned he was right, too. 'Bosenna,' says he, 'I can't answer you +if I would. Nothing grieves me more, sitting here, than having to +administer the law as I find it. But, as things are, I can't let you +off with less.'" + + +This anecdote, and the close arguments used by Mr Bosenna, plunged Cai +in thought; and for the remainder of the meal he sat abstracted, joining +by fits and starts in the conversation, now and then raising his eyes to +a portrait of the deceased farmer, an enlarged and highly-tinted +photograph, which gazed down on him from the opposite wall. The gaze +was obstinate, brow-beating, as though it challenged Cai to find a flaw +in the defence: and Cai, although dimly aware of a fallacy somewhere, +could not meet the challenge. He lowered his eyes again to his plate. +He found himself wondering if, in any future circumstances, Mrs Bosenna +would consent to hang the portrait in another apartment. . . . + +Into so deep an abstraction it cast him, indeed, that when Mrs Bosenna +arose to leave them to their wine and tobacco, he scrambled to his feet +a good three seconds too late. . . . 'Bias (usually lethargic in his +movements) was already at the door, holding it open for her. + +What was worse--'Bias having closed the door upon her, returned to his +seat with a slight but insufferable air of patronage, and--passed the +decanter of wine to him! + +"You'll find it pretty good," said 'Bias, dropping into his chair and +heavily crossing his legs. + +Cai swallowed down a sudden tide of rage. "After you!" said he with +affected carelessness. "I've tasted it afore." + +"Well--if you _won't_--" 'Bias stretched out a slow arm, filled his +glass, and set down the decanter beside his own dessert plate. +"You'll find those apples pretty good," he went on, sipping the wine, +"though not up to the Cox's Orange Pippins or the Blenheim Oranges that +come along later." He smacked his lips. "You'd better try this port +wine. Maybe 'tis a different quality to what you tasted when here by +yourself." + +"Thank 'ee," answered Cai. "I said 'after you.'" + +"Oh?" 'Bias pushed the decanter. "You weren't very tactful just now, +were you?" he asked after a pause. "_Is_ it the same wine?" + +"O' course it is. . . . _When_ wasn't I tactful?" + +"Why, when you upped an' contradicted her like that." 'Bias started to +fill his pipe. "Women are--what's the word?--sensitive; 'specially at +their own table." + +"I _didn'_ contradict her," maintained Cai. "Leastways--" + +"There's no reason to lose your temper about it, is there? . . . +You gave me that impression, an' if you didn' give her the same, I'm +mistaken." + +"I'm not losin' my temper." + +"No? . . . Well, whatever you did, 'tis done, an' no use to fret. +Only I want you and Mrs Bosenna to be friends--she bein' our landlady, +so to speak." + +"Thank 'ee," said Cai again, holding a match to his pipe with an +agitated hand. "If you remember, I ought to know it, havin' had all the +early dealin's with her." + +"She's very well disposed to you, too," said 'Bias. "Nothing could have +been kinder than the way she spoke when I mentioned this School-Board +business: nothing. We'd be glad, both of us, to see you fixed up in +that job." + +"I wonder you didn't think of takin' it on yourself." + +"I did," confessed 'Bias imperturbably. + +"_You?_ . . . Well, what next?" + +"I thought of it. . . . Only for a moment, though. First place, I didn' +want to stand in your way; an' next, as you was sayin' just now, 'tis a +ticklish matter when a man starts 'pon a business he knows nothing +about. But you'll soon pick it up, bein' able to give your whole time +to it." + +"That might apply to you." + +To this 'Bias made no reply. He smoked on, pressing down the tobacco in +the bowl of his pipe. The two friends sat in a constrained silence, now +and again pushing the wine politely. + +"When you are ready?" suggested 'Bias at length--as Cai helped himself +to a final half-glassful, measuring it out with exactitude and leaving +as much or may be a trifle more at the bottom of the decanter. "Ladies +don't like to be kept waitin' too long." + +Cai swallowed the wine and stood up, swallowing down also an inward +mirth to which his anger had given way. During the last minute or two +he had been recalling many things,--his first meeting with Mrs Bosenna; +his first call at Rilla; her remarks on that occasion, upon the grace of +a cultivated manner in men; some subsequent glances, intimate almost; +above all, the clutch upon his protective arm. . . . He felt sorry for +'Bias. Under the rosy influence of Mrs Bosenna's wine he felt genuinely +sorry for 'Bias, while enjoying the humorous aspect of 'Bias's delusion. +'Bias--for whose lack of polish he had from the first made Excuse--'Bias +laying down the law on what ladies liked and disliked! + +They arose heavily and strolled forth to view the livestock. It was +wonderful with what ease these two retired seamen, without instruction, +dropped into the farm-master's routine. So (if in other words) Dinah +remarked, glancing out of the mullioned window of the kitchen as she +fetched a fresh faggot for the hearth on which her mistress had already +begun to set out the heavy-cake and potato-cake in preparation for +tea-time. + +"--the _afternoon_ habits, I mean," explained Dinah. "Just glimpsy out +o' window, mistress, an' see the pair o' men down there--along studyin' +the pigs. Wouldn' know a pig's starn from his stem, I b'lieve, if th' +Almighty hadn' clapped on a twiddling tail, same as they put in books to +show where a question ends. When they come to that, they're safe. . . . +But from their backs, mistress--do 'ee but take a look now, do--you +wouldn' guess they weren't just as knowledgeable as th' old master +himself, as used to judge pigs for the Royal Cornwall--the poor old +angel! I can see him now, after the best part of a bottle o' sherry, +strollin' out to the styes." + +"Don't, Dinah!" entreated Mrs Bosenna, stealing a glance nevertheless: +which Dinah demurely noted. "It's--it's all so _recent!_" + +"Ay," agreed Dinah, and mused, standing boldly before the window, +knuckles on hips. "You couldn' say now, takin' 'em separate, what it is +that puts me more in mind of th' old master." + +"Go about your work, you foolish woman." + +"I suppose," said Dinah, withdrawing her gaze reluctantly and obeying, +"there's always a _something_ about a man!" + +Mrs Bosenna stood by the kitchen-table, patting up another barm-cake. +She had a hand even lighter than Dinah's with flour and pastry. . . . +The two captains had moved on to the gate of Home Parc, and she could +still espy them past the edge of the window. She saw Captain Hunken +draw his hand horizontally with a slow explanatory gesture and then drop +it abruptly at a right angle. + + +'Bias was, in fact, at that moment expounding to Cai, point by point and +in a condescending way, the right outline of a prize Devon shorthorn. +Mrs Bosenna (who had taught him the little he knew) guessed as she +watched the exposition, pursing her lips. + + +"A trifle o' bluffness in the entry don't matter, if you understand me," +said 'Bias, retrieving his lesson. "Aft o' that, no sheer at all; a +straight line till you come to the rump,--or, as we'll say, for +argyment's sake, the counter--an' then a plumb drop, plumb as a +quay-punt." + +"Where did you pick up all this?" asked Cai. + +"I don't make any secret about it," 'Bias owned. "Mrs Bosenna taught +me. Though, when you come to think it out, 'tis as straightforward as +sizing up a vessel. You begin by askin' yourself what the objec' in +question--call it a cow, or call it a brigantine--was designed for. +Now what's a cow _designed_ for?" + +"Milk, I suppose," hazarded Cai. + +"Very well, then, I take you at that: the squarer the cow the more she +holds. It stands to reason." + +"I don't know." Cai made some show of obstinacy, but, it is feared, +rather to test his friend than to arrive at the truth. "A round cow,-- +supposing there was such a thing--" + +"But there isn't. It's out of the question." + +"I speak under correction," said Cai thoughtfully; "but looking at what +cows I've seen,--end on. And anyway, you can't call a cow's udder +square; not in any sense o' the word." + +"What beats me, I'll confess," said 'Bias, shifting the argument, "is +how these butchers and farmers at market can cast their eye over a +bullock an' judge his weight to a pound or two. 'Tis a trick, I +suppose; but I'd like to know how it's worked." + +"Why?" + +"If 'twas a vessel, now, an' tons burden in place o' pounds' weight, you +an' me might guess pretty right. But when it comes to a bullock!" + +"I don't see," objected Cai, "how it consarns either of us." + +"You don't?" asked 'Bias with a look which, for him, was quick and keen. + +"To be sure I don't," answered Cai. "If it happened as I wanted to buy +a bullock to eat, all at one time--and if so be as I found myself at +market in search o' one,--I should be anxious about the weight. +That goes without sayin'. An' the odds are I should ask the +honestest-lookin' fellow handy to give a guess for me. But with you an' +me 'tis a question o' two pounds o' rump steak. I know by the look if +'tis tender, and I can tell by a look at the scales if 'tis fair weight. +I don't ask to be shown the whole ox." + +"I daresay you're right," said 'Bias, apparently much 'relieved. +"It'll save a lot of trouble, anyhow, if you're goin' in for public +life. A man in public life can't afford time for details such as +weighin' bullocks. But, for my part, I'm beginnin' to take an interest +in agriculture." + +"And why not?" agreed Cai. "There's no prettier occupation than +farmin', so long as a man contents himself with lookin' on an' don't +start practising it. Actual farmin' needs capital, o' course." + +To this 'Bias made no response, but continued to stare thoughtfully at +Mrs Bosenna's kine. + +"After all," pursued Cai cheerfully, "these little interests are the +salt of a leisurable man's life. I dare say, f'r instance, as Philp +gets quite an amount o' fun out o' funerals, though to me it seems a +queer taste. Every man to his hobby; and yours, now, I can understand. +When you've finished potterin' around the garden, weedin' an' plantin', +--an', by the way, the season for plantin' isn't far off. It's about +time we looked up those autumn catalogues we talked so much about back +in the spring." + +"True," said 'Bias. "It has slipped my mind of late. An' you not +mentionin' either--" + +"Somehow it had slipped mine too. . . . All that Regatta business, I +suppose. . . . And now, if I am to take up with this School Board +there'll be more calls on my time. But there! If I turn over both the +gardens to you, I reckon you won't object. 'Twill be so much the more +occupation,--not o' course," added Cai, "that I want to shirk doin' my +share. But, as I was sayin', when you've done your day's job at the +garden, an' taken your stroll down to the quay to pick up the evenin' +gossip, what healthier wind-up can there be than to stretch your legs on +a walk to one of the two-three farms in the parish, an' note how the +crops are comin' on, an' the beef an' mutton, so to speak, an' how the +cows are in milk; an' maybe drop in for tea an' a chat?--here at Rilla, +f'r instance, where you'll always be sure of a welcome." + +"You're sure o' that?" asked 'Bias. The words came slowly, heavily +charged with meaning. + +"Why, o' course you will! . . . 'Twas your own suggestion, mind you. +'Takin' an' interest in agriculture' was your words. I don't promise, +o' course, that you'll make much of it, first along. Learnin's half the +fun--" + +But here Mrs Bosenna's voice called to them, and they turned together +almost guiltily to see her climbing the slope above the mow-hay, with +springy gait and cheeks charmingly flushed by recent caresses of the +kitchen-fire. + +"If you care for it," she greeted them, "there's just time for a stroll +to Higher Parc and back while Dinah lays tea. A breath of fresh air +will do me all the good in the world"--little she looked to be in need +of it--"and I don't suppose either of you knows what a glorious view +you'll get up there? All the harbour and shipping at your feet, and +miles of open Channel beyond! My poor dear Robert used to say there +wasn't its equal in Cornwall." + +Cai could assure her in all innocence that he had never heard tell of +Higher Parc and its famous view; nor did it occur to him to turn and +interrogate his friend, who was flushing guiltily. + +If Mrs Bosenna saw the flush, she ignored it. She led the way to a +stile; clambered over it, declining their help, agile as a maid of +seventeen; and struck a footpath slanting up and across a turnip-field +at the back of the farmstead. The climb, though not steep, was +continuous, and the chimneys of Rilla lay some twenty or thirty feet +below them, when they reached a second stile and, overing it, stood on +the edge of a mighty field, the extent of which could not be guessed, +for it domed itself against the sky, cutting off all view of hedge or +limit beyond. + +"This is Higher Parc," announced Mrs Bosenna. "Ten acres." + +"Oh?" exclaimed Cai with a sudden flash of memory. "And stubble!" + +He glanced at 'Bias. But 'Bias, who, if he heard the innuendo, read +nothing in it, was gazing up the slope as though he had never set eyes +on Higher Parc before in all his life. + +They made their way up across the stubble, Mrs Bosenna picking her steps +daintily among the sharp stalks that shone like a carpet stiff with gold +against the level sunset. The shadows of the three walked ahead of +them, stretching longer and longer, vanishing at length over the ridge. + . . . And the view from the ridge was magnificent, as Mrs Bosenna had +promised. The slope at their feet hid the jetties--or all save the tops +of the loading-cranes: but out in midstream lay the sailing vessels and +steamships moored to the great buoys, in two separate tiers, awaiting +their cargoes. Of the sailing vessels there were Russians, with no +yards to their masts, British coasters of varying rig, Norwegians, and +one solitary Dutch galliot. But the majority flew the Danish flag--your +Dane is fond of flying his flag, and small blame to him!--and these +exhibited round bluff bows and square-cut counters with white or +varnished top-strakes and stern-davits of timber. To the right and +seaward, the eye travelled past yet another tier, where a stumpy Swedish +tramp lay cheek-by-jowl with two stately Italian barques--now +Italian-owned, but originally built in Glasgow for traffic around the +Horn--and so followed the curve of the harbour out to the Channel, where +sea and sky met in a yellow flood of potable gold. To the left the +river-gorge wound inland, hiding its waters, around overlapping bluffs +studded with farmsteads and (as the eye threaded its way into details) +peopled here and there with small colonies of farm-folk working hard, +like so many groups of ants,--some cutting, others saving, the yellow +corn, all busy forestalling night, when no man can work. + + Uplands, where the harvesters + Pause in the swathe, shading their eyes, to watch + Or barge or schooner stealing up from sea: + Themselves in twilight, she a twilit ghost + Parting the twilit woods. + +. . . While Cai and 'Bias stood at gaze, drinking it all in, Mrs +Bosenna--whose senses were always quick--turned, looked behind her, and +uttered a little scream. + +"Steers! . . . That Middlecoat's steers--they've broken fence again! +Oh--oh! and whatever shall I do?" + +Cai and 'Bias, wheeling about simultaneously, were aware of a small +troop of horned cattle advancing towards them leisurably, breasting the +golden rays on the stubble-field, and spreading as they advanced. + +"Do, ma'am?" echoed 'Bias, taking in the situation at a glance. +"Why, turn 'em back, to be sure!" He started off to meet the herd. + +"--While you run for the stile," added Cai, preparing to follow as +bravely. But Mrs Bosenna caught his arm. + +"I'm--I'm so silly," she confessed in a tremulous whisper, +"about horned beasts--when they don't belong to me." + +"Dangerous, are they?" asked Cai. He lingered, although 'Bias had +advanced some twenty paces to meet the herd, three or four of which had +already come to a halt, astonished at being thus interrupted in an +innocent ramble. "We'll head 'em off while you run." + +"No, no!" pleaded Mrs Bosenna; and Cai hung irresolute, for the pressure +on his arm was delicious. It crossed his mind for a moment that a lady +so timid with cattle had no business to be dwelling alone at Rilla Farm. + +"It's different--with my own cows," gasped Mrs Bosenna, as if +interpreting and answering this thought in one breath. "I'm used to +them--but Mr Middlecoat will insist on keeping these wild beasts!-- +though he knows I'm a lone woman and they're not to be held by any +fences--" + +"I'd like to give that Middlecoat a piece of my mind," growled Cai, and +swore. His arm by this time was about Mrs Bosenna's waist, and she was +yielding to it. But he saw 'Bias still steadily confronting the herd-- +saw him lift an arm, a hand grasping a hat, and wave it violently--saw +thereupon the steers swing about and head back for the gate, heads down, +sterns heaving and plunging. Cai swore again and reluctantly loosened +his embrace. + +"Run, _dear!_" The word drummed in his ears as he pelted to 'Bias's +rescue. 'Bias, as a matter of fact, needed neither rescue nor support. +The steers after spreading and scattering before his first onset, were +converging again in a rush back upon the open gateway. They charged +through it in a panic, jostling, crushing through the narrow way: and +'Bias, still frantically waving his hat, had charged through it after +them before Cai, assured now that his friend had the mastery, halted and +drew breath, holding a hand to his side. + +'Bias had disappeared. Cai heard his voice, at some little distance, +still chivvying the steers down the lane beyond the gate. . . . +Then, as it seemed, another voice challenged 'Bias's, and the two were +meeting in angry altercation. + +"Mr Middlecoat!" gasped a voice close behind him. Cai swung about, and +to his amazement confronted Mrs Bosenna. Instead of retreating she had +followed up the pursuit. + +"But I told you--" he began, in a tone of indignant command. + +"You don't know Mr Middlecoat's temper. I'm afraid--if they meet--" +She hurried by him, towards the gate. + +Cai took fresh breath and dashed after her. They passed the gateway +neck and neck. At a turning some fifty yards down the lane--Cai leading +now by a stride or two--they pulled up, panting. + +'Bias, his back blocking the way, stood there confronting a young +farmer: and the young farmer's face was red with a bull-fury. + +"You damned trespasser!" + +"Trespasser?" echoed 'Bias, squaring up. "What about your damned +trespassing cattle?" + +Mrs Bosenna stepped past Cai and flung herself between the combatants. +Strange to say she ignored 'Bias, and faced the enemy, to plead with +him. + +"Mr Middlecoat, how can you be so foolish? He's as good as a +prize-fighter!" + +The young farmer stared and lowered his guard slowly. + +"Your servant, ma'am! . . . A prize-fighter? Why couldn't he have told +me so, at first?" + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +FAIR CHALLENGE. + +Again the two friends traversed back the valley road in silence: but +this time they made no attempt to deceive themselves or to deceive one +another by charging their constraint upon the atmosphere or the scenery. +Each was aware that their friendship had a crisis to be overcome; each +sincerely pitied the other, with some twinge of compunction for his own +good fortune; each longed to make a clean breast--"a straight quarrel is +soonest mended," says the proverb,--and each, as they kept step on the +macadam, came separately to the same decision, that the occasion must be +taken that very evening, when pipes were lit after supper. The reader +will note that even yet, on the very verge of the crisis, Cai and 'Bias +owned: + + "Two souls with but a single thought, + Two hearts that beat as one." + +Now, in accordance with routine, supper should have been served that +evening at 'Bias's table. But Cai--on his way upstairs to titivate-- +perceived that the lamp was lit and the cloth spread in his own parlour; +and, as he noted this with a vague surprise, encountered Mrs Bowldler. + +"Which, if it is agreeable, we are at home to Captain Hunken this +evening," Mrs Bowldler began, in a panting hurry, and continued with a +catch of the breath, "Which if you see it in a different light, I must +request of you, sir, to allow Palmerston to carry down my box, and you +may search it if you wish." + +"Oh! Conf--" began Cai in his turn, and checked himself. "I beg your +pardon, ma'am; but it really does seem as if I never reach home nowadays +without you meet me at the foot of the stairs, givin' notice. +What's wrong this time?" + +"If you drive me to it, sir," said Mrs Bowldler in an aggrieved tone, +"it's Captain Hunken's parrot." + +"Captain Hunken's parrot?" echoed Cai, genuinely surprised; for, in his +experience, this bird was remarkable, if at all, for an obese lethargy. +It could talk, to be sure. Now and again it would ejaculate +"Scratch Polly," or "Polly wants a kiss," in a perfunctory way; but on +the whole he had never known a more comfortable or a less loquacious +bird. + +"He--he made a communication to me this afternoon," said Mrs Bowldler +delicately; "or, as you might prefer to put it, he passed a remark." + +"What was it?" + +Mrs Bowldler cast a glance behind her at the gas jet. "I really +couldn't, sir! Not even if you were to put out the light; and as a +gentleman you won't press it." + +"Certainly not," Cai assured her. He mused. "It's odd now; but I've +always regarded that parrot as rather a dull bird: though of course I've +never hinted that to 'Bias--to Captain Hunken." + +"He wasn't dull this afternoon," asseverated Mrs Bowldler. "Oh, not by +any manner of means!" + +"Has he ever--er--annoyed you in this way before?" + +"Never, sir." + +"Has the boy ever heard him use--er--this kind o' language?" + +"Which if you understand me, sir," explained Mrs Bowldler still more +delicately, "the remark in question would not apply to a male party: not +by any stretch. You may answer me, sir, that--the feathered tribes not +being Christians--they don't calculate who's listening, but behave as +the spirit moves them, like Quakers. To which I answer _you_, sir, that +makes it all the worse. As it transpired, Palmerston was at the moment +brushing down these very stairs, here, in the adjoining: which some +might call it luck and others again Providence. But put it we'd +happened to be cleaning out the room together, I must have sunk through +the floor, and what would have happened to the boy's morals I leave you +to guess." + +Cai had to allow the cogency of this. + +"As a matter of fact, sir," Mrs Bowldler continued, "I sounded +Palmerston later. He declares to me he has never heard the creature use +any bad language; and I believe him, for he went on to say that if he +_had_, he'd have mentioned it to me. But you see my position, sir? +It might even have happened with you two single gentlemen in the room. +. . . Stay another twenty-four hours in the house I will not, with the +chance of it staring me in the face." + +Cai rubbed his chin. "I see," said he after a moment. "Well, it's +awkward, but I'll speak to Captain Hunken." + +He did so, almost as soon as he and 'Bias had gloomily finished their +supper--a repast which largely consisted of odds-and-ends (the _debree_, +in Mrs Bowldler's language) of yester-night's banquet. Each, as he ate, +unconsciously compared it--such is our frail humanity--less with the +good cheer of which it should have been a reminder than with the fresh +abundance of Mrs Bosenna's larder. A bachelor table and bachelor habits +are all very well--until you have tasted the other thing. + +To talk of the parrot, for which 'Bias had an inexplicable affection, +might be awkward, as Cai had promised. But it was less ticklish anyhow +than to broach the subject uppermost in the minds of both; and Cai +opened on it with a sense of respite, if not of relief. + +"By the way," said he, lighting his pipe and crossing his legs, "I had a +chat with Mrs Bowldler before supper. She came to me complainin' +about"--(puff)--"about your parrot. It seems she has taken a dislike to +the bird." + +"Finds his talk monotonous?" suggested 'Bias after a pause, during which +he, too, puffed. Strange to say, he showed no vexation. His tone was +complacent even. + +"I wouldn' say that azackly. . . ." + +"I'll admit 'tis monotonous," 'Bias went on, between puffs. "Call it +nothing at all if you like: I don't take no truck in birds'-talk, for my +part--don't mind how same it is. If that's the woman's complaint, she +was free to teach it new words any time." + +"But it isn't." + +"Then I don't see what grievance she can have," said 'Bias with entire +composure. "The bird's shapely and well-grown beyond the usual. . . . +Perhaps her objection is to parrots in general--eh?" 'Bias withdrew the +pipe-stem from his lips and stared hardily along it. "There's no need +to trouble, anyway," he added, "for, as it happens, I'm givin' the bird +away." + +"Eh?" The interrogation sounded like a faint echo. + +"To-morrow. To Mrs Bosenna. Why shouldn't I?" + +Cai felt his body stiffen as he sat. For the moment he made no answer: +then-- + +"Well, 'tis your affair--in a sense," he said; "but I shouldn't, if I +was you." + +"I promised it to her this very day. She was confidin' to me that she +finds it lonely up at Rilla, and I don't wonder." + +"She've confided the same thing to me several times, off and on," said +Cai. + +"Ah?" . . . 'Bias was unmoved. "Then maybe it'll help ye to guess how +the land lies." + +"It do, more or less," Cai agreed: and then, as a bright thought struck +him. "Why shouldn't we lend her the musical box? It's--it's more +reliable, any way." + +"'Twouldn't be much account as a pet, would it?" retorted 'Bias. +"Now look here, Cai!" he swung about in his chair, and for the first +time since the conversation started the pair looked one another straight +in the eyes. "You an' me'd best come to an understandin' and get it +over. I don't mind tellin' you, as man to man, that I've been thinkin' +things out; and the upshot is--I don't say 'tis certain, but 'tis +probable--that in the near futur' I shall be spendin' a heap o' my time +at Rilla." + +"You'll be welcome. I can almost answer for it," Cai assured him +heartily. + +"You've noticed it, eh? . . . Well, that saves a lot o' trouble." +With a grunt of relief 'Bias turned his gaze again upon the empty grate +and sat smoking for a while. "I'd a sort o' fear it might come on ye +sudden . . . eh? What's the matter?" He turned about again, for Cai +had emitted an audible groan. + +"I'm sorry for ye, 'Bias--you can't think--" + +"Oh, you can stow that bachelor chaff," interrupted 'Bias with entire +cheerfulness. "I used to feel that way myself, or pretend to. +It's different when a man _knows_." + +"I can't let ye go on like this!" Cai groaned again. "Stop it, 'Bias-- +do!" + +"Stop it?" 'Bias stared. He was plainly amazed. + +"I mean, stop talkin' about it! I do, indeed." + +Still 'Bias stared. Of a sudden a partial light broke in upon him. +"Good Lord!" he muttered. He arose, knocked the ashes from his pipe, +laid it carefully on the chimney-shelf, slid his hands under his +coat-tails, and very solemnly faced about. + +"I'd an inklin' o' this, once or twice, and I don't mind confessin' it," +said he, looking down with a compassionate air which Cai found +insupportable. "Tho' 'twas no more than an inklin', and I put it aside, +seein' as how no man with eyes could mistake the one she favoured." + +"Meanin' me, o' course," interjected Cai, jabbing the tobacco down in +his pipe. + +"_You?_" 'Bias opened his eyes wide: then he smiled an indulgent smile. +"Ho--you must excuse me--but if that isn' too rich!" + +"You needn't start grinnin' like that, or you may end by grinnin' on the +wrong side of your face." Cai, instead of pitying his friend's +infatuation, was fast losing his temper. "What'd you say if I told you +I had proofs?" + +"I'd say you was a plumb liar," answered 'Bias with equal promptness, +candour, and aplomb. "Proofs? _What_ proofs?" + +Cai hesitated a moment. . . . After all, what proof had he to cite? +A gentle pressure of the arm, for example, is not producible evidence. +"Never you mind," said he sullenly. "You'll have proof enough when the +time comes." + +'Bias received this with a dry smile. "I thought as much. You haven't +any, my sonny--not so much as would cover a threepenny-bit." + +"You have, I suppose?" sneered Cai. + +"Heaps." + +"Very well; let's have a sample. . . . You won't find it on the +mantelpiece," for 'Bias had turned about and was picking up his pipe +again with great deliberation. + +"I've no wish to hurt your feelin's undooly," said he, eyeing the bowl +for a moment and tapping out the ashes into his palm. + +"Don't mind _me!_" + +"But I _do_ mind ye. . . . See here now, Cai," he resumed after a short +pause, "we've known one another--let me see--how long?" + +"Seventeen years, come the twenty-first of November next," quickly +responded Cai, fumbling at the tobacco-jar. "In Rotterdam, if you'll +remember--our vessels lyin' alongside. 'Hullo!' says you." + +"Far as I remember, you asked me aboard." + +"Yes. 'Hullo!' says you; 'that's a pretty-lookin' craft o' your'n.' +'She'll work in' an' out o' most places,' says I. 'Speedy too, I +reckon,' says you, 'for a hard-wood ship; though a bit fine forra'd. +A wet boat, I doubt?' 'Not a bit,' says I; 'that's a mistake strangers +are apt to make about the _Hannah Hoo_. Like to step aboard an' cast a +look over her fittin's? I can show ye something in the way of teak +panels,' says I: and you came. That's how it began," wound up Cai, +staring hard at the tobacco-jar, for--to tell the truth--a faint mist +obscured his vision. + +'Bias, too, was staring hard, down upon the hearth-rug between his feet. + +"Ay; an' from that day to this never a question atween us we couldn' +settle by the toss of a coin." He continued to stare down gloomily. +"Tossin' won't help us, not in this case," he added. + +"It wouldn't be respectful." + +"It wouldn't be fair, neither. . . . You may talk as you please, Cai, +but the widow favours me." + +"I asked ye for proofs just now, if you remember." + +"So you did. And if you remember I asked you for the same, not two +minutes afore. We can't give 'em, neither of us: and, if we could, +why--as you said a moment since--'twouldn't be respectful. Let's play +fair then, damn it!" + +"Certainly," agreed Cai, striking a match and holding it to his pipe. +(But his hand shook.) "That's if you'll suggest how." + +'Bias mused for a space. "Very well," said he at length; "then I'll +suggest that we both sit down and write her a letter; post the letters +together, and let the best man win." + +"Couldn't be fairer," agreed Cai, after a moment's reflection. + +"When I said the best man," 'Bias corrected himself, "I meant no more +than to say the man she fancies. No reflection intended on you." + +"Nor on yourself, maybe?" hinted Cai, with a last faint touch of +exasperation. It faded, and--on an impulse of generosity following on a +bright inspiration which had on the instant occurred to him-- +he suggested, "If you like, we'll show one another the letters before we +post 'em?" + +"That's as you choose," answered 'Bias. "Or afterwards, if you like-- +I shall keep a rough copy." + +Now this was said with suspicious alacrity: for Cai was admittedly the +better scholar and, as a rule, revised 'Bias's infrequent business +letters and corrected their faults of spelling. But--dazzled as he was +by his own sudden and brilliant idea--no suspicion occurred to him. + +"It's a bargain, then?" + +"It's a bargain." + +They did not shake hands upon it. Their friendship had always been +sincere enough to dispense with all formalities of friendship; they +would not have shaken hands on meeting (say) after a twenty years' +separation. They looked one another in the eyes, just for an instant, +and they both nodded. + +"Cribbage to-night?" asked 'Bias. + +"If 'tisn't too late," answered Cai. + +He pulled out his watch, whilst 'Bias turned about to the mantel-shelf +and the clock his bulk had been hiding. + +"Nine-thirty," announced Cai. + +"Almost to a tick," agreed 'Bias. "'Stonishing what good time we've +kept ever since we set this clock." + +"'Stonishing," Cai assented. + + +They played two games of cribbage and retired to bed. As he undressed +Cai remembered his omission to warn 'Bias explicitly of what--according +to Mrs Bowldler--the parrot was capable. The warning had been once or +twice on the tip of his tongue during the early part of the +conversation: but always (as he remembered) he had been interrupted. + +"I'll warn him after breakfast to-morrow," said Cai to himself +magnanimously, as he arose from his prayers. "Poor old 'Bias--what a +good fellow it is, after all!" + + +He slept soundly, and was awakened next morning by Palmerston with the +information, "Breakfast in the adjoining to-day, sir!"--this and +"We are at home for breakfast" being the alternative formulae invented +by Mrs Bowldler. + +"And Captain Hunken requests of you not to wait," added Palmerston, +again repeating what Mrs Bowldler had imparted. + +"Is he lying late to-day?" asked Cai. + +"He have a-gone out for an early ramble," answered Palmerston stolidly. + +"Ah! to clear his brain--poor old 'Bias!" said Cai to himself, and +thought no more about it. Nor did it occur to his mind that, overnight, +Mrs Bowldler had point-blank refused to lay another meal in the room +inhabited by the parrot, until, descending to 'Bias's parlour and +becoming aware, as he lifted the teapot, that the room was brighter and +sunnier than usual, he cast a glance toward the window. The parrot-cage +no longer darkened it. Parrot and cage, in fact, were gone. + +He turned sternly upon Mrs Bowldler. But Mrs Bowldler, setting down a +dish of poached eggs, had noted his glance and anticipated his question. + +"Which," said she, "I am obliged to you, sir, and prompter Captain +Hunken could not have behaved. A nod, as they say, is as good as a wink +to a blind horse; but Captain Hunken, being neither blind nor a horse, +and anything so vulgar as winking out of the question, it may not +altogether apply, though the result is the same." + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +THE LETTERS. + +Having breakfasted, read his newspaper, and smoked his pipe (and still +no sign of the missing 'Bias), Cai brushed his hat and set forth to pay +a call on Mr Peter Benny. + +This Mr Peter Benny--father of Mr Shake Benny, whose acquaintance we +have already made--was a white-haired little man who had known many +cares in life, but had preserved through them all a passionate devotion +to literature and an entirely simple heart: and these two had made life +romantic for him, albeit his cares had been the very ordinary ones of a +poor clerk with a long family of boys and girls, all of whom--his wife +aiding--he had brought up to fear the Lord and seen fairly started in +life. Towards the close of the struggle Fortune had chosen to smile, +rewarding him with the stewardship of Damelioc, an estate lying beside +the river some miles above Troy. This was a fine exchange against a +beggarly clerkship, even for a man so honest as Peter Benny. But he did +not hold it long. On the death of his wife, which happened in the fifth +year of their prosperity, he had chosen to retire on a small pension, to +inhabit again (but alone) the waterside cottage which in old days the +children had filled to overflowing, and to potter at literary +composition in the wooden outhouse where he had been used, after office +hours, to eke out his 52 pounds salary by composing letters for seamen. + +He retained his methodical habits, and Cai found him already at work in +the outhouse, and thoroughly enjoying a task which might have daunted +one of less boyish confidence. He was, in fact, recasting the 'Fasti' +of Ovid into English verse, using for that purpose a spirited, if +literal, prose translation (published by Mr Bohn) in default of the +original, from which his ignorance of the Latin language precluded him. +For a taste:-- + + "What sea, what land, knows not Arion's fame! + The rivers by his song were turned as stiff as glass: + The hungry wolf stood still, the lamb did much the same-- + Pursuing and pursued, producing an _impasse_--" + +But while delighting in this labour, Mr Benny was at any time ready, nay +eager, for a chat. At Cai's entrance he pushed up his spectacles and +beamed. + +"Ah, good morning, Captain Hocken!--Good morning! I take this as really +friendly. . . . You find me wooing the Muses as usual; up and early. +Some authors, sir,--not that I dare claim that title,--have found their +best inspirations by the midnight oil, even in the small hours. +Edgar Allan Poe--an irregular genius--you are acquainted with his +'Raven,' sir?--" + +"His what?" + +"His 'Raven'; a poem about a bird that perched itself upon a bust and +kept saying 'Nevermore,' like a parrot." + +Cai winced. "On a bust, did you say? Whose bust?" + +"A bust of Pallas, sir, in the alleged possession of Mr Poe himself: +Pallas being otherwise Minerva, the goddess of Wisdom, usually +represented with an Owl." + +"I don't know much about birds," confessed Cai, reduced to helplessness +by this erudition. "And I don't know anything about poetry, more's the +pity--having been caught young and apprenticed to the sea." + +"And nothing to be ashamed of in that, Captain Hocken!" + + 'The sea, the sea, the open sea-- + The blue, the fresh, the ever free.' + +"I daresay you've often felt like that about it, as did the late Barry +Cornwall, otherwise Bryan Waller Procter, whose daughter, the gifted +Adelaide Anne Procter, prior to her premature decease, composed +'The Lost Chord,' everywhere so popular as a cornet solo. It is one of +the curiosities of literature," went on Mr Benny confidentially, "that +the author of that breezy (not to say briny) outburst could not even +cross from Dover to Calais without being prostrated by _mal de mer_; +insomuch that his good lady (who happened, by the way, to survive him +for a number of years, and, in fact, died quite recently), being of a +satirical humour, and herself immune from that distressing complaint, +used--as I once read in a magazine article--to walk up and down the deck +before him on these occasions, mischievously quoting his own verses,--" + + 'I'm on the sea, I'm on the sea! + I am where I would ever be: + I love (O, _how_ I love!) to ride + On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,' + +"_et coetera_. You'll excuse my rattling on in this fashion. So few +people in Troy take an interest in literature: and it has so many +by-ways!" + +"I'm afraid," confessed Cai, more and more bewildered, "that my +education was pretty badly neglected, 'specially in literature, though +for some reason or another I'm not bad at spellin'. But, puttin' +spellin' aside, that's just why I've come to you. I want you to help me +with a letter, if you will." + +"Why, of course I will," instantly responded Mr Benny, pushing his +translations of the 'Fasti' aside and producing from a drawer some +sheets of fresh paper. + +"As a matter of business, you understand?" + +"If you insist; though it will be a pleasure, Captain Hocken, I assure +you." + +"It's--it's a bit difficult," stammered Cai gratefully. "In fact, it's +not an ordinary sort of letter at all." + +Mr Benny, patting his paper into a neat pad, smiled professionally. +The letter might not be an ordinary sort of letter; but he had in old +days listened some hundreds of times to this exordium. + +"It's--well, it's a proposal of marriage," said Cai desperately; and in +despite of himself he started as he uttered the word. + +Mr Benny, having patted up the pad to his satisfaction, answered with a +nod only, and dipped his pen in the inkpot. + +"I don't think you heard me," ventured Cai. "It's a proposal of +marriage." + +"Fire away!" said Mr Benny. "Just dictate, of give me the main +bearings, and I'll fix it up." + +"But look here--it's a proposal of marriage, I tell you!" + +"I've written scores and scores. . . . For yourself, is it?" + +This simple and indeed apparently necessary question hit Cai between +wind and water. + +"I want it written in the first person, of course--if that's what you +mean?" + +Again Mr Benny nodded, "I see," said he. "You're here on behalf of a +friend, who is too bashful to come on his own account." + +"You may put it at that," agreed Cai, greatly relieved. "I told you the +case was a bit out o' the common!" + +Mr Benny's smile was still strictly professional. "It's not outside of +my experience, sir; so far, at any rate. May I take your friend to be +of your own age, more or less?" + +Cai nodded. "You're pretty quick at guessin', I must say." + +"A trifle rusty, I fear, for want of practice. . . . But it will come +back. . . Now for the lady. Spinster or widow?" + +"Does that matter?" + +"It helps, in a letter." + +"We'll put it, then, as she's a widow." + +"Age? . . . There, there! I'm not asking you to be definite, of course: +but to give me a little general guidance. For instance, would she be +about your friend's age? Or younger, shall we say?" + +"Younger." + +"Considerably?" + +"I don't see as you need lay stress on that." + +"You may be sure I shall not," said Mr Benny, jotting down "Younger, +considerably" on his writing pad. "Moreover we can tone down or remove +anything that strikes you as unhappily worded in our first draft. +Trade, profession, or occupation, if any?" Seeing that Cai hesitated, +"The more candid your friend is, between these four walls," added Mr +Benny, extracting a hair from his pen, "the more persuasive we are +likely to be." + +"You may set down that she keeps a farm." + +"Independent means?" + +"Well, yes, as it happens. Not that--" + +"To be sure--to be sure! When the affections are engaged, that doesn't +weigh. Not, at any rate, with your friend. Still it may influence what +I will call, Captain Hocken, the style of the approach. Style, sir, has +been defined by my brother, Mr Joshua Benny--You may have heard of him, +by the way, as being prominently connected with the London press. . . . +No? A man of remarkable talent, though _I_ say it. They tell me that +for lightness of touch in a Descriptive Middle, it would be hard to find +his match in Fleet Street. . . . As I was saying, sir, my brother Joshua +has defined style as the art of speaking or writing with propriety, +whatever the subject. By propriety, sir, he means what is ordinarily +termed appropriateness. Impropriety, in the sense of indelicacy, is out +of the question in--a--a communication of this kind. Strict +appropriateness, on the other hand, is not always easy to capture. +May I take it that your friend has--er--enjoyed a seafaring past?" + +Cai gazed blankly at him for a short while, and broke into a simple +hearty laugh. + +"Why, of course," said he, "you're thinking of my friend 'Bias Hunken! +I almost took ye for a conjuror, first-along--upon my word I did! +But once I get the drift o' your cunning, 'tis easy as easy." +He gazed at Mr Benny and winked knowingly. + +"You may tell me, if you please," replied Mr Benny, himself somewhat +mystified, but playing for safety. "You may tell me, of course, that +'tis not Captain Hunken but another man altogether: as different from +Captain Hunken as you might be, for instance." + +Cai started. He was not good at duplicity, but managed to parry the +suggestion. "We'll suppose it _is_ my friend, 'Bias," said he; "though +'Bias would be amused if he heard it." + +"Very well--very well indeed!" Mr Benny laid down his pen, rubbed his +hands softly, and picked up the pen again. "Now we can get to work. +. . . '_Honoured Madam_'--Shall we begin with 'Honoured Madam'? +Or would you prefer something a trifle more--er--impassioned? +Perhaps we had better open--er--warily--if I may advise, and (so to +speak) warm to our subject. . . . There is an art, Captain Hocken, even +in composing and inditing a proposal of marriage. . . . 'Honoured +Madam--You will doubtless be surprised by the purport of this letter--' +Will she be surprised, by the way?" + +"Cert'nly," Cai answered. "We agreed this is from 'Bias, remember." + +"Yes, yes. . . . She will like it to be supposed that she's surprised, +any way. All ladies do. '_--as by the communication I find myself +impelled to make to you._' I word it thus to suggest that you--that +Captain Hunken, rather--cannot help himself: that the lady has made, in +the most literal sense, a conquest. A feeling of triumph, sir, is in +the female breast, whether of maiden or widow, inseparably connected +with the receipt of such a communication. Without asking Captain +Hunken's leave--eh?--we will flatter that feeling a little--and portray +him as the victim of this particular lady's bow and spear. A figurative +expression." + +"Oh!" said Cai, who had begun to stare. "Well, go on." + +"'_Surprised, I say; yet not (I hope) affronted; in any event not +unwilling to pardon, recognising that these words flow from the dictates +of an emotion which, while in itself honourable, is in another sense +notoriously no respecter of persons. Love, Honoured Madam, has its +votaries as well as its victims. I have never accounted myself, nor +have I been accounted, in the former category_--'" + +"What's a category?" asked Cai. + +Mr Benny scratched out the word. "We will substitute 'case,'" said +he, "and save Captain Hunken the trouble of an explanation. '_I am no +longer--you will have detected it, so why should I pretend?--in the +first flush of youth: no passionate boy_'--We are talking of Captain +Hunken, remember." + +Cai nodded. "It's true as gospel, Mr Benny. But you have a wonderful +way o' putting things." + + +In this way--Mr Benny scribbling, erasing, purring over a phrase and +anon declaiming it--Cai venturing a question here and there, but always +apologetically, with a sense of being carried off his feet and swept +into deep waters--in half an hour the letter was composed. It was not +at all the letter Cai had expected. It threw up his suit into a high +romantic light in which he scarcely recognised it or himself. But he +felt it to be extremely effective. His conscience pricked him a little, +as in imagination he saw 'Bias with head aslant and elbows sprawling, +inking himself to the wrists in literary effort. Poor 'Bias! +But "all's fair in love and war." + +To his mild astonishment Mr Benny declined a fee. "If, sir, you will be +good enough to accept it, as between friends?" the little man suggested +timidly. "You have helped me to pass a very pleasant morning: and it +will be--shall I say?--something of a bond between us if, in the event, +our joint composition should prove to have been instrumental in +forwarding--er--Captain Hunken's suit." + +Cai hesitated. At that moment he would have preferred conferring a +benefit to receiving one. His conscience wanted a small salve. +Yet to refuse would hurt Mr Benny's feelings. + +"I'll tell you what!" he suggested: "We'll throw it in with another +favour I meant to ask of you, and for which you shall name your terms. +It has been suggested--by several, so there's no need to mention names-- +that I ought to go in for public life, in a small way, of course." + +"Indeed, Captain Hocken?" Mr Benny smiled to himself; he began to +understand, or thought that he did. "A very laudable ambition, too!" + +"The mischief is," confessed Cai, "that I have had no practice in +speakin'. I couldn't, as they say, make a public speech for nuts." + +"It is an art, Captain Hocken," said Mr Benny reassuringly, "and can be +acquired. An ambition to acquire it sir,--though in your mind you +viewed it but as a means to an end,--would in my humble view be an +ambition even more laudable than that of shining on the administrative +side of public life. For it is not only an art, sir, and a great one. +It is well-nigh a lost art. Where, nowadays, are your Burkes, your +Foxes, your Sheridans--not to mention your Demostheneses?" + +"You'll understand," hesitated Cai, "that nothing beyond the School +Board is in question at present. I mention this strictly between +ourselves." + +Mr Benny swung about upon his stool. "Listen to this, Captain Hocken-- +'Observe, sir, that, besides the desire which all men have naturally of +supporting the honour of their own government, that sense of dignity and +that security to property which ever attends freedom, has'--or, as I +should prefer to say, _have_--'a tendency to increase the stock of the +free community. Much may be taken where most is accumulated. And what +is the soil or climate where experience has not uniformly proved that +the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting from the weight of +heaped-up luxuriance, has ever run with a more copious stream of +revenue, than could be squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed +indigence by the straining of all the machinery in the world?' +That is Burke, sir--Burke: who, by the fribbles of his own day, was +lightly termed the dinner-bell of the House of Commons, yet compelled +the attention of all serious political thinkers--" + + 'Th' applause of listening Senates to command.' + +"I divine your ambition. Captain Hocken, and I honour it," + +"So long as you don't mistake me," urged Cai nervously. "It don't go +beyond a seat on the School Board at present. . . . But there was a hint +dropped that you used, back-along, to give lessons in--I forget the +word." + +"Elocution," Mr Benny supplied it. "A guinea the course of six lessons +was my old charge. Shall we say to-morrow, at eleven sharp?" + +"So be it," Cai agreed. "The sooner the better--I've to catch up the +lee-way of three-quarters of a lifetime." + +When Cai had folded the draft of his letter, bestowed it in his +breast-pocket, and taken his departure, Mr Benny drew out his watch. +It yet wanted a full hour of dinner-time. He rearranged the papers on +his desk and resumed work upon the 'Fasti':-- + + "The hound beside the hare held consort in the shade, + The hind, the lioness, upon the self-same rock, + The too loquacious crow--" + +Here some one knocked at the door. + +"Come in!" called Mr Benny. + +The door opened. The visitor was Captain Hunken. + +"Good mornin'." + +"Ah! Good morning, sir!" + +"Busy?" + +"Dallying, sir,--dallying with the Muses. That is all my business +nowadays." + +"I looked in," said 'Bias, laying down his hat, "to ask if you would do +me a small favour." + +"You may be sure of it, Captain Hunken: that is, if it should lie in my +power." + +'Bias nodded, somewhat mysteriously. "You bet it does: though, as one +might say, it don't lie azackly inside the common. I want a letter +written." + +"Yes?" + +"It ain't, as you might put it, an ordinary letter either. It's,--well, +in fact, it's a proposal of marriage!" + +Mr Benny rubbed the back of his head gently. "I have written quite a +number in my time, Captain Hunken. . . . Is it--if I may put it +delicately--in the first person, sir?" + +"She's the first person--" began 'Bias, and came to a halt. "Does that +matter," he asked, "so long as I describe the parties pretty accurate?" + +"Not a bit," Mr Benny assured him. "A friend, shall we say?" + +"That's right," 'Bias nodded solemnly. + +"And the lady?--spinster or widow?" + +"Widow." + +"Oh!" + +"Eh?" + +"Nothing. . . . I was considering. One has to collect a few data, you +understand,--in strict confidence, of course. . . . Trade, profession, +or occupation?" + +"Whose?" + +"Well, your friend's, to start with." + +"Is that necessary?" + +"It will help us to be persuasive." Seeing that 'Bias still hesitated, +Mr Benny went on. "May I take it, for instance, that one may credit +him, as a friend of yours, with a seafaring past?" + +"I do believe," responded 'Bias with a slow smile after regarding Mr +Benny for some seconds, "as you're thinkin' of Cai Hocken?" + +Mr Benny laughed. "And yet it would not be so tremendous a guess,-- +hey?--seeing what friends you two are." + +"It won't do no harm," allowed 'Bias after pondering a while, "if you +took it to be Cai Hocken; though, mind you, I don't say as you're +right." + +"That's understood. . . . Now for the lady's occupation?" + +"Well . . . you might make it farmin'--for the sake of argument." + +"Now I wonder," thought Mr Benny to himself, "_which_ of these two is +lying." Aloud he began, setting pen to paper and repeating as he wrote, +"'_Honoured Madam,_'--you don't think that too cold?" + +"Why, are you able to start already?" exclaimed 'Bias in unfeigned +amazement. + +"I like to catch an inspiration as it springs to my brain," Mr Benny +assured him. "We'll correct as we go on." + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +PALMERSTON'S GENIUS. + +"You're welcome as blossom, my dear," said Mrs Bowldler to Fancy Tabb, +who had dropped in, as she put it, for a look around. The child was +allowed a couple of hours off duty in the afternoon to take a walk and +blow away the cobwebs of the Chandler's gloomy house: her poor +shop-drudge of a father having found courage to wring this concession +from Mr Rogers for her health's sake. "You're welcome as blossom, but +you must work for your welcome. Come and help me to cut +bread-and-butter. . . . Palmerston! You bring the kettle and pour a +little water into the teapots, just to get 'em heated." + +"Company, is it?" asked Fancy, laying aside her cloak. + +"Company?" Mrs Bowldler sniffed. "We've had enough of company to last +us this side of the grave. Ho, I trust the name of company will not be +breathed in _my_ hearing for some time to come!" + +"What is it, then?" + +"Freaks, I hope; maggots, as my poor dear tender mother used to say; and +all casting double work on the establishment. We must dine separate, +all of a sudden; and now we must have our tea served separate; and from +dinner to tea-time sitting in writing, the pair of us, till I wonder it +haven't brought on a rush of blood to our poor heads." + +"Writing?" echoed Fancy. She desisted from spreading the butter and +eyed Mrs Bowldler doubtfully, pursing up her lips. "I don't like the +look of that. What are they writing, do you suppose?" + +"It don't become me to guess," answered Mrs Bowldler. "Belike they're +making their wills and leaving one another the whole of their property." + +"I hope not. They'd make a dreadful mess of it without a lawyer to +help." + +"They're making a dreadful mess on the tablecloth--or, as I _should_ +say, on the tablecloths, respectively, as the case may be. Blots. +There's one or two you couldn't cover with a threepenny bit. +Captain Hunken especially; and it cost four-and-ninepence only last +July, which makes the heart bleed." + +"They haven't quarrelled, have they?" asked Fancy. + +"Quarrelled? No, of course they haven't quarrelled. What put such a +thing into your head, child?" + +"I don't know. . . . But I don't like this writin'; it's unnatural. +And they're livin' apart, you say?" + +"They didn't even breakfast together. But that was an accident, Captain +Hunken having walked out early and taken the parrot." + +"Funny thing to take for a walk." + +"Which," explained Mrs Bowldler with a glance at Palmerston, "I had to +lodge a complaint with Captain Hocken yesterday relative to its +conversation, and he must have spoken about it; for Captain Hunken went +out at eight o'clock taking the bird with him, cage and all, and when he +came back they were _minus_." + +Fancy pondered. "What did the parrot say?" she asked. + +"You mustn't ask, my dear. I couldn't tell it to anything less than a +married woman." + +"That's a pity; because I wanted to know, quick. I suppose, now, you +haven't a notion what he did with the bird?" + +"Not a notion." + +"I thought not. Well, I have. He's been an' gone an' given it away to +Mrs Bosenna, up at Rilla." + +Mrs Bowldler turned pale and gripped the edge of the table. + +"I'll bet you any money," Fancy nodded slowly. + +"Ho! catch me ere I faint!" panted Mrs Bowldler. + +"Why, what's the matter? She's a married woman, or has been." + +"If only you'd heard--" + +"Yes, it's a pity," agreed Fancy, and turned about. "Pam!" + +"Yes, Miss," answered Palmerston. + +"Call me 'Fancy.'" + +"Yes, Miss Fancy." + +She stamped her small foot. "There's no 'Miss' about it. How stupid +you are--when you see I'm in a hurry, too! Call me 'Fancy.'" + +"Y-yes--Fancy," stammered Palmerston, blushing furiously, shutting his +eyes and dropping his voice to a whisper. + +"That's better. . . . What does it feel like? Pleasant?" + +"V-very pleasant, miss--Fancy, I mean. It--it'll come in time," +pleaded Palmerston, still red to the eyes. + +"That's right, again. Because I want you to marry me, Pammy dear." + +"Well! the owdacious!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler in a kind of hysterical +titter, snatching at her bodice somewhere over the region of her heart. +Fancy paid no heed to her. + +"Only we must make a runaway match of it," she went on, "for there's no +time to lose, it seems." + +For answer Palmerston burst into a flood of tears. + +"There now!" Mrs Bowldler of a sudden became serious. "You might have +known he's too soft to be teased. . . . Oh, be quiet, do, Palmerston! +Think of your namesake!" + +A bell jangled overhead. + +"Captain Hocken's bell!--and the child's face all blubbered, which he +hates to see, while as for Captain Hunken--there! it that isn't his bell +going too in the adjoining! Palmerston, pull yourself together and be a +man." + +"I c-can't, missus," sobbed Palmerston. "He--he said yesterday as he'd +g-give me the sack the next time he saw my eyes red." + +"Well, I must take 'em their tea myself, I suppose," said Mrs Bowldler, +who had a kind heart. "No, Palmerston, your eyes are not fit. But you +see how I'm situated?" she appealed to Fancy. + +"Do you usually let them ring for tea?" Fancy asked. + +"No, child. There must be something wrong with them both, or else with +my clock," answered Mrs Bowldler with a glance up at the timepiece. +"But twenty-five past four, I take you to witness! and I keep it five +minutes fast on principle." + +"There _is_ something wrong," Fancy assured her. "If you'll take my +advice, you'll go in and look injured." + +"I couldn't keep 'em waiting, though injured I will look," promised +Mrs Bowldler, catching up one of the two tea-trays. "Palmerston had +better withdraw into the grounds and control himself. I will igsplain +that I have sent him on an errand connected with the establishment." + +She bustled forth. Fancy closed the door after her; then turned and +addressed Palmerston. + +"Dry your eyes, you silly boy," she commanded. Palmerston obeyed and +stood blinking at her--alternately at her and at his handkerchief which +he held tightly crumpled into a pad; whereupon she demanded, somewhat +cruelly: + +"Now, what have you to say for yourself?" He was endeavouring to answer +when Mrs Bowldler came running in and caught up the other tea-tray. + +"Which it appears," she panted, "he is in a hurry to catch the post; and +I hope the Lord will forgive me for saying that Palmerston had just this +instant returned and would go with it. But he has it done up in an +envelope, and says boys are not to be trusted. When I was a girl in my +teens," pursued Mrs Bowldler, luckily discovering that the second teapot +had no water in it, and hastening to the kettle, "we learnt out of a +Child's Compendium about a so-called ancient god of the name of Mercury, +whence the stuff they put into barometers to go up for fine weather. +He had wings on his boots, or was supposed to: which it would be a +convenience in these days, with Palmerston's unfortunate habits. +For goodness' sake, child," she addressed Fancy, "take him out +somewhere, that I mayn't perjure myself twice in one day!" + +She vanished. + +"_Now_, what have you to say for yourself?" Fancy turned again upon +Palmerston and repeated her question. + +"That's what's the matter with me, Miss--Fancy, I mean," confessed he, +after a painful struggle with his emotions. "I never had nothing to say +for myself, not in this world: and--and--" he plucked up courage-- +"you got no business to play with me the way you did just now!" he +blurted. + +"Who said I was a-playin' with you?" Fancy demanded; but Palmerston did +not heed. + +"And right a-top of your sayin' as writin' was unnatural!" he continued. + +She stared at him. "What has that to do with it? . . . Besides, +whatever you're drivin' at, I didn' mean as all writin' was unnatural. +I got to do enough of it for Mr Rogers, the Lord knows! But for them +two, as have spent the best part of their lives navigatin' ships, it do +seem--well, we'll call it unmanly somehow." + +"That makes it all the worse," growled Palmerston, sticking both hands +in his pockets and forcing himself to meet her stare, against which he +nodded sullenly. "A man has to lift himself _somehow_--when he wants +something, very bad." + +"What is it you want?" asked Fancy. + +"You know what it is, right enough." He glowered at her hardily, being +desperate now and beyond shame. + +"Do 'I?" But she blenched, meeting his eyes as be continued to nod. + +"Yes, you do," persisted he. "I wants to marry ye, one of these days; +and you can't round on me, either, for outin' with it; for 'twas your +own suggestion." + +"Oh, you silly boy!" Fancy reproved him, while conscious of a highly +delicious thrill and an equally delicious fear. ("O, youth, youth! and +the wonder of first love!") She cast about for escape, and forced a +laugh. "Do you know, you're the very first as has ever proposed to me." + +"I was thinkin' as much," said the unflattering Palmerston. "Come to +that, you was the first as ever offered marriage to me." + +"But I didn't! I mean," urged Fancy, "it was only in joke." + +"Joke or not," said Palmerston, "you can't deny it." Suddenly +weakening, he let slip his advantage. "But I wouldn' wish to marry one +that despised me," he declared. "I had enough o' bein' despised--in the +Workhouse." + +"I never said I despised you, Pammy," Fancy protested. + +"Yes, you did; or in so many words--'Unmanly,' you said." + +"But that was about writing." She opened her eyes wide. "You don't +mean to tell me _that's_ the trouble? . . . What have you been writing?" + +"A book," owned Palmerston with gloom. "A man must try to raise himself +somehow." + +"Of course he must. What sort of book?" + +"It's--it's only a story." + +"Why," she reassured him, "I heard of a man the other day who wrote a +story and made A Thousand Pounds. It was quite unexpected, and +surprised even his friends." + +"It must be the same man Mrs Bowldler told me about. His name was +Walter Scott, and he called it 'Waverley' without signing his name to +it, because he was a Sheriff; and there was another man that wrote a +book called 'Picnic' by Boss, and made pounds. So I've called mine +'Pickerley,' by way of drawing attention,--but, of course, if you think +there's no chance, I suppose there isn't," wound up Palmerston, with a +sudden access of despondency. + +"Oh, Palmerston," exclaimed Fancy, clasping her hands, "if it should +only turn out that you're a genius!" + +"It _would_ be a bit of all right," he agreed, his cheerfulness +reviving. + +"I have heard somewhere," she mused, "or perhaps I read it on the +newspaper, that men of genius make the very worst husbands, and a woman +must be out of her senses to marry one." + +Again Palmerston's face fell. "I mayn't be one after all," he +protested, but not very hopefully. + +"Oh yes, I am sure you are! And, what's more, if you make a hit, as +they say, I don't know but I might overlook it and take the risk. +You see, I'm accustomed to living with Mr Rogers, who is bound to go to +hell and that might turn out to be a sort of practice." + +The boy stood silent, rubbing his head. He wanted time to think this +out. Such an altered face do our ambitions present to most of us as +they draw closer, nearer to our grasp! + +Suddenly Fancy clapped her hands. "Why, of course!" she cried. +"I always had an idea, somewhere inside o' me, that I'd be a lady one of +these days--very important and covered all over with di'monds, so that +all the other women would envy me. You know that feelin'?" + +"No-o," confessed Palmerston. + +"You would if you were a woman. But, contrariwise, what I like almost +better is keepin' shop--postin' up ledgers, makin' out bills, _to +account rendered, second application, which doubtless has escaped your +notice_, and all that sort of thing. I saw a shop in Plymouth once with +young women by the dozen sittin' at desks, and when they pulled a string +little balls came rollin' towards them over on their heads like the +stars in heaven, all full of cash; and they'd open one o' these balls +and hand you out your change just as calm and scornful as if they were +angels and you the dirt beneath their feet. You can't think how I +longed to be one o' them and behave like that. But the two things +didn't seem to go together." + +"What two things?" + +"Why, sittin' at a desk like that and sittin' on a sofa and sayin' +'How d'e do, my dear? It's _so_ good of you to call in this dreadful +weather, especially as you have to hire. . . .' But now," said Fancy, +clasping her hands, "I see my way: that is, if you're really a genius. +You shall write your books and I'll sell them. '_Mr and Mrs Palmerston +Burt, Author and_--what's the word?--pub--publicans--no, publisher; +_Author and Publisher_.' It's quite the highest class of business: and +if any one tried to patronise me I could always explain that I just did +it to help, you bein' a child in matters of business. Geniuses are +mostly like that." + +"Are they?" + +"Yes, that's another of their drawbacks. And," continued Fancy, +"you'd be a celebrity of course, which means that we should be in the +magazines, with pictures--_A Corner of the Library_, and _The +Rose-garden, looking West, and Mrs Palmerston Burt is not above playing +with the Baby_, and you with your favourite dog--for we'd have both, by +that time. Oh, Pammy, where is the book?" + +"Upstairs, mostly, but I got a couple o' chapters upon me--" Palmerston +tapped his breast-pocket--"If you really mean as you'd like--" +He hesitated, his colour changing from red to white. Here, on the point +of proving it, the poor boy feared his fate too much. + +But Fancy insisted. They escaped together to Captain Hunken's garden; +and there, in the summer-house--by this time almost in twilight--he +showed her the precious manuscript. It was written (like many another +first effort of genius) on very various scraps of paper, the most of +which had previously enwrapped groceries. + +"And to think," breathed Fancy, recognising some of Mr Rogers's trade +wrappers, "that maybe I've seen dad doin' up those very parcels, and +never guessed--well, go on! Read it to me." + +"I--I don't read at all well," faltered Palmerston. + +She tapped her foot. "I don't care how bad you read so long as you +don't keep me waitin' a moment longer." + +"This is Chapter Nine. . . . If you like, of course, I could start by +tellin' you what the other chapters are about--" + +"_Please_ don't talk any more, but read!" + +"Oh, very well. The chapter is called '_Ernest makes Another Attempt._' +Ernest is what Mrs Bowldler calls the hero, which means that the book is +all about him. It begins--" + + 'It was late in the evening following upon the + events related in the previous chapter' + +--I got that out of a paper Mrs Bowldler carries about in her pocket. +It is called 'Bow Bells,' and you can depend on it, for it's all about +the highest people-- + + 'when Ernest rang at the bell of Number 20 + Grovener Square.' + +--I got that address, too, out of Mrs Bowldler. She said you couldn' go +higher than that. 'Not humanly speakin'' was her words, though I don't +quite know what she meant." + +"But," objected Fancy, "you might want to start higher, in another book. +We can't expect to live all our lives on this one: and there oughtn't to +be any come-down." + +Palmerston smiled and waved his manuscript with an air of mastery. +He had thought of this. + +"There's Royalty!" + +"O-oh!" Fancy caught her breath. She felt sure now of his genius. + +"We must feel our way," said Palmerston; "I believe in flyin' as high as +you like so long as you're on safe ground. Of course," he went on, +"there _is_ a danger. I don't know who _really_ lives in Grovener +Square at Number 20; but they're almost sure not to be called Delauncy, +and so there's no real hurt to their feelin's." + +"Mrs Bowldler might know." + +"You don't understand," explained Palmerston, who seemed, since breaking +the ice of his confession, to have grown some inches taller, and +altogether more masterful. "She don't know why I put all these +questions to her. She sets it down to curiosity: when, all the time, +I'm _pumpin'_ her." + +"Oh!" Fancy collapsed. + +Palmerston resumed:-- + + "'The second footman ushered him to the boudoir, + where already he had lit several lamps, casting a + subdued shade of rose colour. The Lady Herm + Intrude reclined on a console in an attitude which + a moment since had been one of despair, but was + now languid to the point of carelessness.'" + +"What's a console?" inquired Fancy. + +"They have one in all the best drawing-rooms," answered Palmerston. +"Mrs Bowldler--" + +"Oh, go on!" She was beginning to feel jealous, or almost jealous. + + "'She was attired in a gown of old Mechlin, with + a deep fall and an indication of orange blossoms, + and carried a shower bouquet of cluster roses, the-- + +"No, I've scratched that out. It said 'the gift of the bridegroom,' and +I got it from a fashionable wedding; but it won't do in this place." + + 'Amid these luxurious surroundings Ernest felt + his brain in a whirl. He cast himself on his knees + before the recumbent figure on the console which + gave no sign of life unless a long-drawn and + half-stifled sob, which seemed to strangle its owner, + might be so interpreted. + "Lady Herm Intrude," he cried in broken accents, "for + the second time, I love you."'" + +"It's lovely, Palmerston! Lovely!" gasped Fancy. "Why was he loving her +for the second time?" + +"He was _telling_ her for the second time. He had loved her from the +first--it's all in the early chapters. . . . This is the second time he +told her: and he has to do it twice more before the end of the book." + + 'As he waited, scarcely daring to breathe, for + some answer, he could almost smell the perfume + of the orchids which floated from a neighbouring + vase and filled the apartment with its high-class + articles of furniture, the product of many lands.' + +"Oh, Palmerston! And you that never had an 'ome of your own, since you +was nine--not even a Scattered one! However did you manage to think of +it all?" + +She caught the manuscript from him and peered at it, straining her eyes +in the dark. + +"If you could fetch a lamp now?" she suggested. + +But the boy stepped close and stood beside her, dominant. + +"_You_ know how I came to do it," he said. "Yes--I'm glad you like it. +I'll fetch a lamp. But--" + +As she pored over the manuscript, he bent and suddenly planted a great +awkward kiss on the side of her cheek. + +Thereupon he fled in quest of the lamp. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +IS IN TWO PARTS. + +PART I. + +Cai and 'Bias supped together that night, greatly to Mrs Bowldler's +relief. But they exchanged a very few words during the meal, being poor +hands at dissimulation. + +The meal, for the third time running, was laid in Cai's parlour, Mrs +Bowldler having delicately elected to ignore the upset caused by the +parrot and to treat yesterday as a _dies non_. 'Bias, if he noted this, +made no comment. + +The cloth having been removed, they drew their chairs as usual to front +the fireplace. Cai arose, found a clean church-warden pipe on the +mantelshelf, passed it to 'Bias, and selected one for himself. + +"I sent off that letter to-day," he said carelessly. + +"Right," said 'Bias; "I sent mine, too." + +"Four-thirty post, mine went by." + +"So did mine." + +"She'll get 'em together, then, first delivery to-morrow." + +"Ay." + +"That puts us all square. She'll be amused, I shouldn't wonder." + +"I didn' try to be amusin' in mine," said 'Bias after a pause, puffing +stolidly. + +"No more did I." Cai filled and lit his pipe in silence. His conscience +troubled him a little. "Well," said he, dropping into his arm-chair, +"the matter's settled one way or another, so far as we're consarned. +The letters are in the post, and there's no gettin' them out unless by +Act o' Parliament. I don't mind tellin' you just what I said, if you +think 'twould be fairer-like." + +"I'm agreeable." + +"You won't take it amiss that I pitched it pretty strong?" + +"Not at all," answered 'Bias. "Come to that, I pitched it pretty strong +myself." + +Cai smiled tolerantly, and felt for the rough draft in his pocket. +He fished it forth, unfolded the paper, and spread it on his knee under +the lamp-light. Then, having adjusted his glasses, he picked up his +pipe again. + +"I just started off," said he, "by hintin' that she might be a bit +surprised at hearin' from me." + +"That's true enough," agreed 'Bias. "She'll be more'n surprised, if I'm +not mistaken." + +"I don't see why." + +"Don't you? . . . Well, no offence. It's a very good way to begin. +In fact," said 'Bias in a slightly patronising tone, "it's pretty much +how I began myself. Only I went on quick to hope she wasn't--how d'ye +call it?" + +"I don't know what word _you_ used. _I_ should have said affronted,' if I +take your meanin'." + +'Bias gave a start. "As it happens I--er--hit on that very word. +I remember, because it looked funny to me, spelt with two f's. +But I went on to say that I meant honourable, and that she mustn't blame +me, because this kind o' thing happened without respect o' persons." + +Cai sat up, stiff and wondering. He took off his glasses and wiped +them. "You said--_that?_" he asked slowly. + +"I said a damned sight more than that," chuckled 'Bias. "I said that +love had its victims as well as its something else beginning with a v, +which I forget the exact expression at this moment, and that I'd never +looked on myself as bein' in the former cat--no, case. You can't think +how I pitched it," said 'Bias, folding his hands comfortably over his +stomach. "The words seemed just to flow from the pen." + +"Oh, can't I?" Cai, sitting up with rigid backbone, continued to gaze +at him. "Oh, they _did_--did they? And maybe you didn' go on to +explain you weren't precisely in the first flush o' youth--not what you +might call a _passionate boy_--" + +It was 'Bias's turn to sit erect. He sat erect, breathing hard. +"There--there's nothing unusual about the expression, is there?" he +stammered. "Though how you come to guess on it--" + +"You've been stealin' my letter, somehow!" flamed Cai. + +But 'Bias did not seem to hear. He continued to breathe hard, to stare +into vacancy. "Did you pay a visit to Peter Benny this mornin'?" he +asked at length, very slowly. + +"Well, yes--if you must know," Cai answered sullenly, his wrath checked +by confusion, much as the onset of a tall wave is smothered as it meets +a backwash. + +"That's right," 'Bias nodded. "Somehow or 'nother Benny's sold us a +dog: and, what's more, he sold us the same dog. . . . I don't think," +went on 'Bias after a pause, "that it showed very good feelin' on your +part, your goin' to Benny." + +"Why not?" demanded Cai, whose thoughts were beginning to work. +"Far as I can see you did the very same thing; so anyway you can't +complain." + +"Yes, I can. You know very well I never set up to be a scholar, same as +you. By rights you're the scratch boat on this handicap, yet you tried +to steal allowance. I thought you'd a-been a better sportsman." + +"My goin' to Benny," urged Cai sophistically, "was a case of one +eddicated man consultin' another, as is frequently done." + +"Oh, is it? Well, you done it pretty thoroughly, I must say." + +"Whereas _your_ goin' was a clean case o' tryin' to pass off goods that +weren't your own, or anything like it. . . . Come, I'll put it to you +another way. Supposin' your letter had worked the trick, and she'd said +'yes' on the strength of it--I'm puttin' this for argyment's sake, you +understand?" + +"Go on." + +"And supposin' one day, after you was married, she'd come to you and +said, ''Bias, I want a letter written. I thought o' writin' it myself, +but you're such a famous hand at a letter.' A nice hole you'd a-been +in!" + +"No, I shouldn'. I'd say, 'You rate me too high, my dear. Still,' I'd +say, 'if you insist upon it, you just scribble down the main points on a +sheet o' paper, and I'll take a walk and think it over.' Then I'd carry +it off to Benny." 'Bias, who so far had held the better of the argument +by keeping his temper, clinched his triumph with a nod and refilled his +pipe. + +"Benny's an old man, and might die at any moment," objected Cai. + +"Now you're gettin' too far-fetched altogether. . . . Besides, +'twouldn't be any affair o' yours--would it?--after I'm married to her." + +"Well, you won't be--now: and no more shall I," said Cai bitterly. +"Benny's seen to that!" + +"'Tis a mess, sure enough," agreed 'Bias, lighting his pipe and puffing. + +"She'll be affronted--oh, cuss the word! Just fancy it, to-morrow +morning, when she opens her post! A nice pair of jokers she'll think +us!" Cai paced the room. "Couldn't we go up to-night and explain?" + +"Five minutes to ten," said 'Bias with a glance at the clock. "Ask her +to get out o' bed and come down to hear we've made fools of ourselves? +I don't see myself. You can do what you like, o' course." + +"I shan't sleep a wink," declared Cai, still pacing. "How on earth +Benny--" He halted of a sudden. "You don't suppose Benny himself--" + +"Ch't! a man of his age. . . . No, I'll tell you how it happened, as I +allow: and, if so, Benny's not altogether to blame. First you goes to +him, and wants a letter written. You give him no names, but he learns +enough to guess how the wind sits . . . am I right, so far?" + +Cai nodded. + +"So he writes the letter and off you goes with it. Later on, in _I_ +drops with pretty much the same request. I remember, now, the old +fellow behaved rather funny: asked me something about bein' the 'first +person,' and then wanted to know if I didn' wish the letter written for +a friend. I wasn't what you might call at my ease with the job, and +so--as the time was gettin' on for dinner, too--I let it go at that." + +"You did? . . . But so did I!" + +"Hey?" + +"I let Benny think he was writin' it for a friend o' mine. Far as I +remember, he suggested it. . . . Yes, he certainly did," said Cai with +an effort of memory. + +"It don't matter," said 'Bias after a few seconds' reflection. "He took +it for granted that one of us was tellin' lies: and likely enough he's +chucklin' now at the thought of our faces when the thing came to be +cleared up. Come to consider, there was no vice about the trick, +'specially as he wouldn' take any money from me." + +"Nor from me," Cai dropped into his chair and reached for the +tobacco-jar. "Well," he sighed, "the man's done for both of us, that's +all!" + +"Not a bit," said 'Bias sturdily. "We'll walk up early to-morrow, and +explain. Ten to one it'll put her in the best o' tempers, havin' such a +laugh against us both." + + + +PART II. + +"He can't have known!" said Mrs Bosenna early next morning, sitting in a +high-backed chair beside the kitchen-table. Her face was slightly +flushed, and the toe of her right shoe kept an impatient tap-tap on the +flagged floor. "He can't possibly have known." + +"We'll hope not," said Dinah. "It's thoughtless, though--put it at the +best: and any way it don't speak too well for his past." + +"He may have _bought_ it, you know," urged Mrs Bosenna; "late in life." + +"Well, he's no chicken," allowed Dinah; "since you put it like that." + +"I wasn't referring to Captain Hunken, you silly woman. I meant _it_." + +"Eh?" said Dinah. "Oh!--_him?_" + +"'Him' if you like," Mrs Bosenna mused. "It can't possibly be a female, +can it?" + +"I should trust not, for the sake of a body's sex . . . to say things +like that. Besides, I've surely been told somewhere--in the 'Child's +Guide to Knowledge,' it may have been--that the females don't talk at +all." + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Pretty sure. It was _something_ unnatural anyhow; or I shouldn' have +remembered it." + +"Well, and if so," said Mrs Bosenna, "one can see what Providence was +driving at, which is always a comfort. . . . I was wondering now if you +mind going and carrying him out to the garden somewhere. He couldn't +take harm in this weather,--under the box-hedge, for instance." + +Dinah shook her head. "I couldn', mistress; no really!" + +"The chances are," said Mrs Bosenna persuasively, "he wouldn't say +anything,--anything like that again, not in a blue moon." + +"He said it to me first, and he said it to me again not ten minutes +later. But, o' course, if you're so confident, there's nothing hinders +your goin' and takin' him where you like. If you ask my opinion, +though, he don't wait for no blue moons. He turns 'em blue as they +come." + +Mrs Bosenna tapped her foot yet more pettishly. "It's perfectly +ridiculous," she declared, "to be kept out of one's own parlour by a +bird! Go and call in William Skin, and tell him to take away the nasty +thing." + +"And him with a family?" + +"He's hard of hearin'," said Mrs Bosenna. + +"It's a hardness you can t depend on. I've knowed William hear fast +enough,--when he wasn't wanted. He'll be wantin' to know, too, why we +can't put the bird out for ourselves: his deafness makes him suspicious. +. . . And what's more," wound up Dinah, "it won't help us, one way or +'nother, whether he hears or not. We shall go about _thinkin_ he's heard; +and I tell ye, mistress, I shan't be able to face that man again without +a blush, not in my born life." + +"It's perfectly ridiculous, I tell you!" repeated Mrs Bosenna, starting +to her feet. "Am I to be forced to breakfast in the kitchen because of +a bird?" + +"Then, if so be as you're so proud as all that, why not go back to bed +again, and I'll bring breakfast up to your room." + +"Nonsense. Where d'ye keep the beeswax? And run you up to the little +store-cupboard and fetch me down a fingerful of cotton-wool for my ears. +I'll do it myself, since you're such a coward." + +"'Tisn't that I'm a coward, mistress--" + +"You're worse," interrupted her mistress severely. + +"You never ought to know anything about such words, and it's a +revelation to me wherever you managed to pick them up." + +Dinah smoothed her apron. "I can't think neither," she confessed, and +added demurely, "It could never have been from the old master, for I'm +sure he'd never have used such." + +Mrs Bosenna wheeled about, her face aflame. But before she could turn +on Dinah to rend her, the sound of a horn floated up from the valley. +Dinah's whole body stiffened at once. "The post!" she cried, and ran +forth from the kitchen to meet it, without asking leave. Letters at +Rilla Farm were rare exceedingly, for Mrs Bosenna made a point of paying +ready-money (and exacting the last penny of discount) wherever it was +possible; so that bills, even in the shape of invoices, were few. +She had no relatives, or none whom she encouraged as correspondents, +for, as the saying is, "she had married above her." For the same +reason, perhaps, she had long since stopped the flow of sentimental +letters from the girl-friends she had once possessed in Holsworthy, +Devon. If Mrs Bosenna now and again found herself lonely at Rilla Farm +in her widowhood, it is to be feared the majority of her old +acquaintances would have agreed in asserting, with a touch of satisfied +spite, that she had herself to blame,--and welcome! + +"There's _two!_" announced Dinah, bursting back into the kitchen and +waving her capture. "_Two!_--and the Troy postmark on both of 'em!" + +"Put them down on the table, please. And kindly take a look at the +oven. You needn't let the bread burn, even if I _am_ to take breakfast in +the kitchen." + +"But ain't you in a hurry to open them, mistress?" asked Dinah, +pretending to go, still hanging on her heel. + +"Maybe I am; maybe I ain't." Mrs Bosenna picked up the two envelopes +with a carelessness which was slightly overdone. They were sealed, the +pair of them. She broke the seal of the first carefully, drew out the +letter, and read-- + + "HONOURED MADAM,--You will doubtless be surprised--" + +She turned to the last page and read the subscription-- + + "Yours obediently," + + "TOBIAS HUNKEN." + +"Who's it from, mistress?" asked Dinah, making pretence of a difficulty +with the oven door. + +"Nobody that concerns you," snapped Mrs Bosenna, and hastily stowed the +letter in the bosom of her bodice. She picked up the other. Of that, +in turn, she broke the seal-- + + "HONOURED MADAM,--" + +The handwriting was somewhat superior. + + "HONOURED MADAM,--You will doubtless be + surprised by the purport of this letter; as by + the communication I feel myself impelled to make + to you--" + +Mrs Bosenna, mildly surprised, in truth, turned the epistle over. +It was signed-- + + "Your obedient servant, + + "CAIUS HOCKEN." + +She drew the first letter from her bodice. After the perusal of its +first few sentences her cheeks put on a rosy glow. + +But of a sudden she started, turned to the first letter again, and +spread it on her lap. + +"Well, if I ever!" breathed she, after a pause. + +"A proposal! I knew it was!" cried Dinah, swinging about from the oven +door. + +Mrs Bosenna, if she heard, did not seem to hear. She was holding up +both letters in turn, staring from the one to the other incredulously. +Her roseal colour came and went. + +"Them and their parrots! I'll teach 'em!" + +Before Dinah could ask what was the matter, a bell sounded. It was the +front door bell, which rang just within the porch. + +Dinah smoothed her apron and bustled forth. It had always been her +grievance--and her mistress shared it--against the nameless architect of +Rilla farmstead, that he had made its long kitchen window face upon the +strawyard, whereas a sensible man would have designed it to command the +front door in flank, with its approaches. This mistake of his cost +Dinah a circuit by way of the apple-room every time she answered the +porch bell; for as little as any porter of old in a border fortress +would she have dreamed of admitting a visitor without first making +reconnaissance. + +A minute later she ran back and thrust her head in at the kitchen-door. + +"Mistress," she whispered excitedly, "it's _them!_" + +"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna, as the bell jangled again. "They seem in a +hurry, too." She smiled, and the smile, if the curve of her mouth +forbade it to be grim, at any rate expressed decision. She picked up +the two letters and slipped them into her pocket. "You can show them +in." + +"Where, mistress?" + +"Here. And, Dinah, nothing about the post, mind! Now, run!" + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +APPARENTLY DIVIDES INTO THREE. + +"You'll pardon us, ma'am, for calling so early," began Cai. He was too +far embarrassed to be conscious of any surprise at being ushered into +the kitchen. + +"--You do the apologisin', of course," had been 'Bias's words in the +front porch. "Yours was the first letter written: and, besides, you're +a speaker." + +"You are quite welcome, the both of you," Mrs Bosenna assured him as he +came to a halt. Her tone was polite, but a faint note of interrogation +sounded in it. "You have had your breakfast?" + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"Ah, you are early indeed! I was just about to sit down to mine." + +"We don't want to interrupt, ma'am, but--" Here Cai looked helplessly +at 'Bias. + +"Go on," growled 'Bias. + +"We--we don't want to seem rude--" + +"Never mind rude," growled 'Bias again. "Get it over." + +"The fact is, there's been a mistake: a painful mistake. At least," +said Cai, growing more and more nervous under Mrs Bosenna's gaze of calm +inquiry, "it _would_ be painful, if it weren't so absurd." He forced a +laugh. + +"Don't make noises like that," commanded 'Bias. "Get it over." + +"It's about those letters, ma'am." + +"Letters?" Mrs Bosenna opened her dark eyes wide; and turned them +interrogatively upon Dinah. "Letters?" + +"Letters?" repeated Dinah, taking her cue. + +Relief broke like a sun-burst over Cai's face. "But perhaps you don't +read your letters, ma'am, until after breakfast? And, if so, we're in +time." + +"_What_ letters?" asked Mrs Bosenna. + +"They've surely been delivered, ma'am? In fact we met the postman +coming from the house." + +"Dear me--and did he tell you he had been deliverin' letters here?" + +"No--he was on his round, and we took it for granted. Besides, we know +they were posted in time." + +"William Skin takes the letters some days," suggested Dinah, "if he +happens to overtake the post on his way back with the cart. It saves +the man a climb up the hill." + +"I wonder--" mused Mrs Bosenna. + +"Where is he?" Cai's bewildered brain darted at the impossible +stratagem of intercepting Skin and getting the letters from him. + +"Stabling the pony at this moment, I expect. . . . But I don't +understand. What letters are you talkin' about? What _sort_ of +letters?" + +"There--there was one from me and one from 'Bias--" + +"Goodness!" she broke in, smiling pleasantly, "What, another +invitation?" + +"Well--" began Cai. + +"Yes," struck in 'Bias. + +"You might call it an invitation, o' sorts," Cai conceded. + +"'_Course_ you might," said 'Bias positively. + +"You are very mysterious this morning, you two." The widow turned from +one to another, her smile still hiding her amusement. "But let me +guess. It appears you both wished to send me an invitation, and +something has gone amiss with your letters." + +"We both sent the same one," explained Cai, and blushed. "That's the +long and short of it, ma'am." + +"It doesn't seem so very dreadful." Mrs Bosenna's smile was sweetly +reassuring. "You _both_ wrote, when it was only necessary for one to +write?" + +"That's what I kept tellin' him, ma'am," put in 'Bias stoutly. "But he +would put his oar in." + +"Well, well. . . You both wished to give me pleasure, and each wrote +without the other's knowledge--" + +"No, we didn't," interrupted 'Bias again. + +"Anyway," she harked back with a patient little sigh, "you had both +planned your invitation to give me pleasure; and since it was the +same--?" She paused on a note of interrogation. + +"You might call it the same, ma'am--after a fashion," assented Cai. + +She laughed. "Do you know," she said, "I forgot for a moment what +friends you are; and it _did_ cross my mind that maybe there were two +invitations, and they clashed." + +"But they do, ma'am!" groaned Cai. + +"Eh? Yet you said just now. . . . So there _are_ two, after all!" + +"It's--it's this way, ma'am: the letters are the same, but the +invitation as you call it--" Here Cai paused and cast an irritable +glance in the direction of Dinah, who had stepped to the door of the +oven to conceal her mirth. If the woman would but go he might be able +to explain. "But the invitation don't apply similarly, not in both +cases." + +"That's queer, isn't it?" commented Mrs Bosenna. "And, supposin' I +accept, to which of you must I write?" + +"Me," said 'Bias with great promptitude. + +"Not at all." Cai turned in wrath on his friend. + +"I do think you might help, instead of standin' there and--" + +"Can't I accept both?" suggested Mrs Bosenna sweetly. + +"No, you certainly can't, ma'am. . . . And since the letters seemin'ly +haven't reached you yet, we'd both of us take it as a favour if you'd hand +'em back to us without lookin' inside 'em. We--we want to try again, +and send something calkilated to please you better. 'Tis a queer +request, I'll grant you." + +"It is," she agreed, cutting him short. "But what's the matter with the +letters? Did you put any bad language into them by any chance?" + +"Ma'am!" exclaimed Cai. + +"Bad language?" protested 'Bias. "Why, to begin with, ma'am, I never +use it. The language is too good, in a way, an' that's our trouble; +only Cai, here, won't out with it, but keeps beatin' about the bush. +You see, we went to Mr Benny for it." + +"You went to Mr Benny?" she echoed as he hesitated. "For what, pray?" + +"For the letters, ma'am. Unbeknowns to one another we went to +Mr Benny--Mr _Peter_ Benny--he havin' a gift with his pen--" +'Bias hesitated again, faltered, and came to a stop, aware that Mrs +Bosenna's smile had changed to a frown; that she was regarding him with +disapproval in her eyes, and that a red spot had declared itself +suddenly upon either cheek. + +"_You_ don't seem to be makin' _very_ good weather of it either," Cai +taunted him; and with that, glancing at her for confirmation, he too +noticed her changed expression and was dumb. + +"Are you tellin' me,"--she seated herself stiffly, and they stood like +culprits before her. "Are you tellin' me this is a game?" + +"A--a what, ma'am?" + +"A game!" She stamped her foot. "You've been makin' the town's mock o' +me with Peter Benny's help--is that what you two funny seamen have +walked up here to confess?" + +"There was no names given, ma'am," stammered Cai. "I do assure you--" + +"No names given!" Mrs Bosenna in a temper was terribly handsome. +Her indignation so overawed the pair, as to rob them of all presence of +mind for the moment. After all, where lay the harm in asking Mr Benny +to word a simple invitation? Since the letters had not reached her, she +could suspect no worse; and why, then, all this fuss? So they might +have reasoned it out, had not conscience held them cowards--conscience +and a creeping cold shade of mutual distrust. "No names given!" +repeated the lady. "And I'm to believe that, just as I'm to believe, +sir,"--she addressed herself stiffly to 'Bias--"that you never used bad +language in your life!" + +"I didn' say that, ma'am--not exactly," urged the bewildered 'Bias. +"I dunno what's this about bad language. Who's been usin' bad +language? Not me." + +"Not since your prize-fightin' days, perhaps, Captain Hunken." + +"My prize-fightin' days? My pr--Whoever told you, ma'am, as ever I had +any, or behaved so?" + +"You had better ask your friend here." + +"Hey?" + +"Perhaps," said Mrs Bosenna sarcastically, "that goes back beyond your +memory! Your parrot, if I may say so, has a better one." + +"Missus!" expostulated Dinah modestly, while "Oh good Lord!" muttered +Cai with a start. His friend's eye was on him, too, fixed and +suspicious. + +"The parrot?" 'Bias, albeit innocent, took alarm. + +"Why, what has he been doin'?" + +"It isn't anything he _did_, sir," protested Dinah, taking courage to +face about again from the oven door. "It's what he _said_." + +"I meant to warn you--" began Cai; but 'Bias beat him down +thunderously-- + +"What did he say?" he demanded of Dinah. + +"Oh, I couldn't, sir! I really couldn't!" + +"I meant to warn you," interposed Cai again. "There's a--a screw loose +somewhere in that bird. Didn't I tell you only the night before last +that Mrs Bowldler couldn't get along with him?" + +"You did," admitted 'Bias, his tone ominously calm. "But you didn' +specify: not when I told you I was goin' to bring the bird up here to +Rilla." + +"No, I didn': for, in the first place, I couldn', not knowin' what +language the bird used." + +He would have said more, but 'Bias turned roughly from him to demand of +the women-- + +"Well, what _did_ he say? . . . Did he say it in your hearin', ma'am?" + +"Ahem!--er--partially so," owned Mrs Bosenna. + +"It's no use you're askin' what he said," added Dinah; "for no decent +woman could tell it. And, what's more, the mistress is takin' her +breakfast here in the kitchen because she durstn't go nigh the parlour." + +"And I got that bird off a missionary! A decenter speakin' parrot I've +never known, so far as my experience goes--and I've known a good few." + +"Folks have different notions on these matters; different standards, so +to speak," suggested Mrs Bosenna icily. + +"It's my opinion," put in Cai, "that missionary did you in the eye." + +"Oh, that's your opinion, is it? Well, you'd best take care, my joker, +or you'll get something in the eye yourself." + +"We don't want any prize-fightin' here, if you please," commanded Mrs +Bosenna. + +"There again!" foamed 'Bias, with difficulty checking an oath. +"A prize-fighter, am I? Who put that into your head, ma'am? Who's been +scandalisin' me to you?" He turned, half-choking, and shook a +minatory finger at Cai. + +"I--I didn' say I had any objection to fightin'-men, not when they're +quiet," Mrs Bosenna made haste to observe in a pacificatory tone. +In fact she was growing nervous, and felt that she had driven her +revenge far enough. "My late husband was very fond of the--the ring--in +his young days." + +It is easier, however, to arouse passions than to allay them. +'Bias continued to shake a finger at Cai, and Cai (be it said in +justice) faced the accusation gamely. + +"I never scandalised you," he answered. "In fact I done all in my power +to remove the impression." Feeling this to be infelicitous--in a sort of +despair with his tongue, which had taken a twist and could say nothing +aright this morning--he made haste to add in a tone at once easy and +awkward, "It's my belief, 'Bias, as your parrot ain't fit to be left +alone with females." + +"Well, I'm goin' to wring his neck anyway," promised 'Bias; "and, if +some folks aren't careful, maybe I won't stop with _his_." + +Cai, though with rising temper, kept his nonchalance. "With you and me +the creatur' don't feel the temptation, and consikently there's a side +of his character hidden from us. But in female company it comes out. +You may depend that's the explanation." + +"Why, of course it is," chimed in Mrs Bosenna with sudden--suspiciously +sudden--conviction. "How clever of Captain Hocken to think of it!" + +"Yes, he's clever," growled 'Bias, unappeased. "Oh, he's monstrous +clever, ma'am, is Caius Hocken! Such a friend, too! . . . And now, +perhaps, he'll explain how it happened--he bein' so clever and such a +friend--as he didn't find this out two nights ago and warn me?" + +"I did warn ye, 'Bias," Cai's face had gone white under the taunt. +"But I'll admit to you I might have pitched it stronger. . . . If you +remember, on top of discussin' the parrot we fell to discussin' +something--something more important to both of us; and that drove the +bird out o' my head. It never crossed my mind again till bedtime, and +then I meant to warn ye next day at breakfast." + +"You're good at explanations, this mornin'," sneered 'Bias. "Better fit +there was no need, and you'd played fair." + +"'Played fair'!"--Cai flamed up at last--"I don't take that from you, +'Bias Hunken, nor yet from any one! You fell into your own trap--that's +what happened to _you_. . . . 'Played fair'? I suppose you was playin' +fair when you sneaked off unbeknowns and early to Rilla that mornin', +after we'd agreed--" + +"Well?" asked 'Bias, as Cai came to a halt. + +"You know well enough what we agreed," was Cai's tame conclusion. + +"Where's the bird, ma'am?" asked 'Bias dully. Both men felt that all +was over between them now, though neither quite understood how it had +happened. "It--it seems I've offended you, and I ask your pardon. +As for my doin' this o' purpose--well, you must believe it or not. +That's as conscience bids ye. . . . But one warnin' I'll give-- +A bad friend don't us'ally make a good husband." + +He motioned to Dinah to lead the way to the parlour, and so, with a jerk +of the head, took his leave, not without dignity. + +Mrs Bosenna promptly burst into tears. + +Cai, left alone with her and with the despair in his heart, slowly +(scarce knowing what he did) drew forth a red spotted handkerchief and +eyed it. Maybe he had, to begin with, some intention of proffering it. +But he stood still, a figure of woe, now glancing at Mrs Bosenna, anon +staring fixedly at the handkerchief as if in wonder how it came in his +hand. He noted, too, for the first time that the tall clock in the +corner had an exceptionally loud tick. + +"Go away!" commanded Mrs Bosenna after a minute or so, looking up with +tear-stained eyes. It seemed that she had suddenly became aware of his +presence. + +Cai picked up his hat. "I was waitin' your leave, ma'am." + +"Go, please!" + +He went. He was indeed anxious to be gone. Very likely at the white +gate below by the stream, 'Bias was standing in wait to knock his head +off. Cai did not care. Nothing mattered now--nothing but a desire to +follow 'Bias and have another word with him. It might even be. . . . +But no: 'Bias was lost to him, lost irrevocably. Yet he craved to +follow, catch up with him, plead for one more word. + +He went quickly down the path to the gate, but of 'Bias there was no +sign. + +Poor Cai! He took a step or two down the road, and halted. Since 'Bias +was not in sight there would be little chance of overtaking him on this +side of the town; and in the street no explanation would be possible. + +Cai turned heavily, set his face inland, and started to walk at a great +pace. As though walking could exorcise what he carried in his heart! + +Meanwhile 'Bias went striding down the valley with equal vigour and even +more determination. His right hand gripped the parrot-cage, swinging it +as he strode, and at intervals bumping it violently upon the calf of his +right leg, much to his discomfort, very much more to that of the bird-- +which nevertheless, though bewildered by the rapid nauseating motion, +and at times flung asprawl, obstinately forbore to reproduce the form of +words so offensive in turn to Mrs Bowldler and the ladies at Rilla. + +Once or twice, as his hand tired, and the rim of the cage impinged +painfully on his upper ankle-bone, 'Bias halted and swore-- + +"All right, my beauty! You just wait till we get home!" + +He had never wrung a bird's neck, and had no notion how to start on so +fell a deed. He was, moreover, a humane man. Yet resolutely and +without compunction he promised the parrot its fate. + +A little beyond the entrance of the town, by the gateway of Mr Rogers's +coal store, he came on a group--a trio--he could not well pass without +salutation. They were Mr Rogers (in his bath-chair and wicked as +ever) and Mr Philp, with Fancy Tabb in attendance as usual. + +"Well, I hope you're satisfied this time?" Mr Rogers was saying. + +"I suppose I must be," Mr Philp was grumbling in answer. "But all I can +say is, coals burn faster than they used." + +"It's the way with best Newcastle." Mr Rogers, who had never sold a ton +of Newcastle coal in his life (let alone the best), gave his cheerful +assurance without winking an eye. + +"So you've told me more'n once," retorted Mr Philp. "I never made a +study o' trade rowts, as they're called; but more'n once, too, it's been +in my mind to ask ye how Newcastle folk come to ship their coal to Troy +by way o' Runcorn." + +Mr Rogers blinked knowledgeably. "It shortens the distance," he +replied, "by a lot. But you was sayin' as coals burned faster. Well, +they do, and what's the reason?" + +"Ah!" said Mr Philp. "That's what I'd like to know." + +"Well, I'll give 'ee the information, and nothin' to pay. Coals burn +faster as a man burns slower. You're gettin' on in life; an' next time +you draw your knees higher the grate you can tell yourself _that_, +William Philp. . . . Hullo! there's Cap'n Hunken! . . . Mornin', Cap'n. +That's a fine bird you're carryin'." + +"A parrot, by the looks of it," put in Mr Philp. + +"Sherlock 'Omes!" Mr Rogers congratulated him curtly. + +"'Mornin', Mr Rogers--mornin', Mr Philp!" 'Bias halted and held out the +cage at half-arm's length. "Yes, 'tis a fine bird I'm told." He eyed +the parrot vindictively. + +"Talks?" + +"Damn! That's just it." + +"What can it say?" + +"Dunno. Wish I did. Will ye take the bird for a gift, or would ye +rather have sixpence to wring its neck?" + +"Both," suggested Mr Philp with promptitude. + +"What yer wrigglin' for like that, at the back o' my chair, you Tabb's +child?" asked Mr Rogers, whose paralysis prevented his turning his head. + +"Offer for 'n, master!" whispered Fancy. Mr Rogers, if he heard, made +no sign. "D'ye mean it?" he inquired of 'Bias. "I'm rather partial to +parrots, as it happens: and it's a fine bird. What's the matter with +it?" + +"I don't know," 'Bias confessed again. "I wish somebody'd find out: but +they tell me it can't be trusted with ladies." + +"Is that why you're takin' it for a walk? . . . Well, I'll risk five +bob, if it's goin' cheap." + +Mr Philp's face fell. "I'd ha' gone half-a-crown, myself," he murmured +resignedly; "but I can't bid up against a rich man like Mr Rogers. . . . +You don't know what the creetur says?" + +"No more'n Adam--only that it's too shockin' for human ears. +If Mr Rogers cares to take the bird for five shillin', he's welcome, and +good riddance. Only he won't never find out what's wrong with him." + +"Honest?" asked Mr Rogers. + +"Honest. I've lived alongside this bird seven years; he was bought off +a missionary; and _I_ don't know." + +"Ah, well!" sighed Mr Philp. "Money can't buy everything. But I don't +mind bettin' I'd ha' found out." + +"Would ye now?" queried Mr Rogers with a wicked chuckle. "I'll put up a +match, then. The bird's mine for five shillin': but Philp shall have +him for a month, and I'll bet Philp half-a-crown he don't discover what +you've missed. Done, is it?" + +"Done.'" echoed Mr Philp, appealing to 'Bias and reaching out a hand for +the cage. + +"Done!" echoed 'Bias. "Five shillin' suits me at any time, and I'm glad +to be rid o' the brute." + +"There's one stippylation," put in Mr Rogers. "Philp must tell me +honest what he discovers. . . . You, Tabb's child, you're jogglin' my +chair again!" + +So 'Bias, the five shillings handed over, went his way; relieved of one +burden, but not of the main one. + + +"Well, if I ever!" echoed Dinah, returning to the kitchen at Rilla. +"If that wasn't a masterpiece, and no mistake!" + +"Is the bird gone?" asked her mistress. "Then you might fry me a couple +of sausages and lay breakfast in the parlour." + +Dinah sighed. "'Tis lovely," she said, "to be able to play the fool +with men . . . 'tis lovely, and 'tis what women were made for. But 'tis +wasteful o' chances all the same. There goes two that'll never come +back." + +"You leave that to me," said Mrs Bosenna, who had dried her eyes. +"Joke or no, you'll admit I paid them out for it. Now don't you fall +into sentiments, but attend to prickin' the sausages. You know I hate a +burst sausage." + + + + +BOOK III. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +THE PLOUGHING. + +It is possible--though not, perhaps, likely--that had Cai obeyed his +first impulse and pursued 'Bias down the valley, to overtake him, the +two friends might after a few hot words have found reconciliation, or at +least have patched up an honourable truce. As it was, 'Bias carried +home a bitter sense of betrayal, supposing that he had left Cai master +of the field. He informed Mrs Bowldler that he would dine and sup +alone. + +"Which the joint to-day is a goose," protested that lady; "and one more +difficult to halve at short notice I don't know, for my part." + +"You must do the best you can." He vouchsafed no other reply. + +Mrs Bowldler considered this problem all the rest of the morning. +"Palmerston," she asked, as she opened the oven door to baste the bird, +"supposin' you were asked to halve a roast goose, how would you begin?" + +"I'd say I wouldn't," answered Palmerston on brief reflection. + +"But supposin' you _had_ to?" + +Palmerston reflected for many seconds. "I'd start by gettin' my knee on +it," he decided. + +Mrs Bowldler, albeit much vexed in mind, deferred solving the problem, +and was rewarded with good luck as procrastinators too often are in this +world. + +Dinner-time arrived, but Captain Hocken did not. She served the goose +whole and carried it in to Captain Hunken. + +"Eh?" said 'Bias, as she removed the cover. "What about--about Cap'n +Hocken?" + +"He have not arrove." + +'Bias ground his teeth. "Havin' dinner with _her!_" he told himself, +and fell to work savagely to carve his solitary portion. + +Having satisfied his appetite, he lit a pipe and smoked. But tobacco +brought no solace, no charitable thoughts. While, as a matter of fact, +Cai tramped the highroads, mile after mile, striving to deaden the pain +at his heart, 'Bias sat puffing and let his wrath harden down into a +fixed mould of resentment. + +Dusk was falling when Cai returned. Mrs Bowldler, aware that something +was amiss, heard his footsteps in the passage and presented herself. + +"Which, having been detained, we might make an 'igh tea of it," she +suggested, "and venture on the wing of a goose. Stuffing at this hour I +would 'ardly 'int at, being onion and apt to recur." But Captain Hocken +desired no more than tea and toast. + +Mrs Bowldler was intelligently sympathetic, because Fancy had called +early in the afternoon and brought some enlightenment. + +"There's a row," said Fancy, and told about the sale of the parrot. +"That Mrs Bosenna's at the bottom of it, as I've said all along," she +concluded. + +"Do you reelly think the bird has been talking?" + +"I don't think: I know." + +Mrs Bowldler pondered a moment. "Ho! well--she's a widow." + +"I reckon," said Fancy, "if these two sillies are goin' to fall out over +her and live apart, you'll be wantin' extra help. Two meals for every +one--I hope they counted _that_ before they started to quarrel." + +"I'll not have another woman in the house," declared Mrs Bowldler, and +repeated it for emphasis after the style of the great Hebrew writers. +"Another woman in the house have I will not! What do _you_ say, +Palmerston?" + +Palmerston, who had been on the edge of tears for some time, broke down +and fairly blubbered. + +"There's a boy!" exclaimed the elder woman. "Mention a little hard work +and he begins to cry." + +"I don't believe he's cryin' for that at all," spoke up Fancy. +"Are you, Pammy dear?" + +"Nun-nun-No-o!" sobbed Palmerston. + +"He can't abide quarrellin'--that's what's the matter. . . . Ah, well!" +sighed Fancy, and fell back on her favourite formula of resignation. +"It'll be all the same a hundred years hence; when we mee-eet," she +chanted, "when we mee-eet, when we mee-eet on that Beyewtiful Shore! +_And_ in the meantime we three have got to sit tight an' watch for an +openin' to teach 'em that their little hands were never made. +No talkin' outside, mind!" + +"As if I should!" protested Mrs Bowldler, and added thoughtfully, +"I often wonder what happens to widows." + +"They marry again, mostly." + +"I mean up there--on the Beautiful Shore, so to speak. They don't marry +again, because the Bible says so: but how some _contrytomps_ is to be +avoided I don't see." + + +Chiefly through the loyalty of these three, some weeks elapsed before +the breach of friendship between Captain Caius Hocken and Captain Tobias +Hunken became a matter of common talk. Mr Rogers must have had an +inkling; for the pair consulted him on all their business affairs and +investments, and in two or three ships their money had meant a joint +influence on the shareholders' policy. Now, as they came to him +separately, and with suggestions that bore no sign of concerted thought, +so astute an adviser could hardly miss a guess that something was wrong. +Nor did it greatly mend matters that each, on learning the other's wish +upon this or that point where it conflicted with his own, at once made +haste to yield. "If that's how 'Bias looks at it," Cai would say, +"why o' course we'll make it so. I must have misunderstood him:" and +'Bias on his part would as promptly take back a proposal--"Cai thinks +otherwise, eh? Oh, well that settles it! We haven't, as you might say, +threshed it out together, but I leave details to him." "If you call +this a detail--" "Yes, yes: leave it to Cai." Mr Rogers blinked, but +asked no questions and kept his own counsel. + +Mr Philp was more dangerous. (Who in Troy could keep Mr Philp for long +off the scent of a secret?) But, as luck would have it, Cai in pure +innocence routed Mr Philp at the first encounter. + +It happened in this way. Towards the end of the first week of +estrangement Cai, who bore up pretty well in the day time with the help +of Mr Rogers, Barber Toy, and other gossips, began to find his evenings +intolerably slow. He reasoned that autumn was drawing in, that the +hours of darkness were lengthening, and that anyway, albeit the weather +had not turned chilly as yet, a fire would be companionable. He ordered +a fire therefore (more work for Mrs Bowldler). But somehow, after a +brief defeat, his _ennui_ returned. Then of a sudden, one night at +bed-time, he bethought him of the musical box, and that John Peter +Nanjulian needed hurrying-up. + +Accordingly the next morning, as the church clock struck ten, found him +climbing the narrow ascent to On the Wall: where, at the garden gate, he +encountered Mr Philp in the act of leaving the house with a bulging +carpet-bag. + +"Eh? Good mornin', Mr Philp." + +"Good mornin' to you, Cap'n Hocken." Mr Philp was hurrying by, but his +besetting temptation held him to a halt. "How's Cap'n Hunken in these +days?" he inquired. + +"Nicely, thank you," answered Cai, using the formula of Troy. + +"I ha'n't see you two together o' late." + +"No?" Cai, casting about to change the subject, let fall a casual remark +on the weather, and asked, "What's that you're carryin', if one may make +so bold?" + +"It's--it's a little commission for John Peter," stammered Mr Philp. +"Nothin' to mention." + +He beat a hasty retreat down the hill. + + +"'Tis curious now," said Cai to John Peter ten minutes later, "how your +inquisitive man hates a question, just as your joker can't never face a +joke that goes against him. I met Philp, just outside, with a carpet +bag: and I no sooner asked what he was carryin' than he bolted like a +hare." + +"There's no secret about it, either," said John Peter. "He tells me +that, for occupation, he has opened an agency for the Plymouth Dye and +Cleanin' Works." + +"And you've given him some clothes to be cleaned? Well, I don't see why +he need be ashamed o' that." + +"Well, I haven't, to tell you the truth. For my part, I like my clothes +the better the more I'm used to 'em. But my sister's laid up with +bronchitis." + +"Miss Susan? . . . Nothin' serious, I hope?" + +"She always gets it, in the fall o' the year. No, nothing serious. +But the doctor says she must keep her bed for a week--and now she's +_got_ to. . . . There'll be a rumpus when she finds out," said John +Peter resignedly: "for she don't like clean clothes any better than I +do. But one likes to oblige a neighbour; and if he'd taken my trowsers +'twould ha' meant the whole household bein' in bed, which," concluded +John Peter with entire simplicity, "would not only be awkward in itself, +but dangerous when only two are left of an old family." + +Cai agreed, if he did not understand. He reclaimed his musical box-- +needless to say, John Peter had not yet engraved the plate--and carried +it home, promising to restore it when that adornment was ready. For the +next night or two it soothed him somewhat while he smoked and meditated +on public duties soon to engage his leisure. For he had been co-opted a +member of the School Board in room of Mr Rogers, resigned: and in Barber +Toy's shop it was understood that he would be a candidate not only for +the Parish Council to be elected before Christmas, but for a Harbour +Commissionership to fall vacant in the summer of next year. + +The notification of his appointment on the School Board reached him by +post on the last Tuesday in September. Now, as it happened, the +Technical Instruction Committee of the County Council had arranged to +hold at Troy, some four days later, an Agricultural Demonstration, with +competitions in ploughing, hedging, dry-walling, turfing, the splitting +and binding of spars, &c. + +Behold, now, on the morning of the Demonstration, Captain Caius Hocken, +School Manager and therefore _ex officio_ a steward, taking the field in +his Sunday best with a scarlet badge in his buttonhole, "quite," +declared Mrs Bowldler, "like a gentleman of the French Embassy as used +frequent to take luncheon with us in the Square." + +The morning was bright and clear: the sky a pale blue and almost +cloudless, the season-- + + Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth + Of trembling winter, + +--and Cai walked with a lightness of spirit to which since the quarrel +he had been a stranger. The Demonstration was to be held at the Four +Turnings, where the two roads that lead out of Troy and form a triangle +with the sea for base, converge to an apex and branch off again into two +County highways. The field lay scarcely a stone's throw from this +apex--that is to say from the spot where the late Farmer Bosenna had +ended his mortal career. It belonged in fact to Mrs Bosenna, and had +been hired from her by the Technical Instruction Committee for a small +sum; but Cai did not happen to know this, for the arrangement had been +made some weeks ago, before his elevation to the School Board. + +It was with a shock of surprise, therefore, that on passing the gate he +found Mrs Bosenna close within, engaged in talk with two rosy-faced +farmers; and, moreover, it brought a rush of blood to his face, for he +had neither seen her nor heard from her since the fatal morning. +There was, however, no way of retreat, and he stepped wide to avoid the +group, lifting his hat awkwardly as he passed, not daring to meet the +lady's eyes. + +"Captain Hocken!" she called cheerfully. + +"Ma'am?" Cai halted in confusion. + +"Come here for a moment--that is, if it doesn't interrupt your duties-- +and be introduced to our two ploughing judges. Mr Widger of Callington, +Mr Sam Nicholls of St Neot--Captain Hocken." Cai's cheeks in rosiness +emulated those of the two men with whom he shook hands. "Captain +Hocken," she explained to them, "takes a great interest in education." + +For a moment it struck Cai that the pair, on hearing this, eyed him +suspiciously; but his brain was in a whirl, and he might easily have +been mistaken. + +"Not at all," he stammered; "that is, I mean--I am new to this business, +you see." + +"You are a practical man, I hope, sir?' asked Mr Nicholls. + +"I--I've spent the most part of my life at sea, if you'd count that +bein' practical," said Cai modestly. + +"To be sure I do," Mr Nicholls assented. "It's as practical as farmin', +almost." + +"In a manner o' speakin' it is," agreed Mr Widger grudgingly. +"Men haven't all the same gifts. Now you'll hardly believe what +happened to me the only time I ever took a sea trip." + +"No?" politely queried Cai. + +"I was sick," said Mr Widger, in a tone of vast reminiscent surprise. + +"It _does_ happen sometimes." + +"Yes," repeated Mr Widger, "sick I was. It took place in Plymouth +Sound: and you don't catch me tryin' the sea again." + +"Now what," inquired Mr Nicholls, "might be your opinion about Labour +Exemption Certificates, Captain Hocken?" + +Cai was gravelled. His alleged interest in education had not as yet +extended to a study of the subject. + +Mrs Bosenna came to the rescue. Talk about education (she protested) +was the last thing she could abide. Before the ploughing began she +wanted to show Captain Hocken some work the hedgers had been doing at +the lower end of the field. + +At that moment, too, the local secretary came running with word that the +first teams were already harnessed, and awaited the judges' preliminary +inspection. Mr Widger and Mr Nicholls made their excuses, therefore, +and hurried off to their duties. + +"I have a bone to pick with you," said Mrs Bosenna, as she and Cai took +their way leisurably across the field. + +Cai groaned at thought of those unhappy letters. + +But Mrs Bosenna made no allusion to the letters. + +"You have not been near Rilla for weeks," she went on, reproachfully. + +Cai glanced at her. "I thought--I was afraid you were offended," he +said, his heart quickening its beat. + +"Well, and so I was. To begin brawling as you did in a lady's +presence--and two such friends as I'd always supposed you to be! +It was shocking. Now, wasn't it?" + +"It has made me miserable enough," pleaded Cai. + +"And so it ought. . . . I don't know that I should be forgiving you +now," added Mrs Bosenna demurely, "if it didn't happen that I wanted +advice." + +"_My_ advice?" asked Cai incredulous. + +"It's a business matter. Women, you know, are so helpless where +business is concerned." (Oh, Mrs Bosenna!) + +"If I can be of any help--" murmured Cai, somewhat astonished but +prodigiously flattered. + +"Hush!" she interrupted, lifting a quick eye towards the knap of the +hill they had descended. "Isn't that Captain Hunken, up above? . . . +Yes, to be sure it is, and he's turned to walk away just as I was going +to call him!" She glanced at Cai, and there was mischief in the glance. +"I expect the ploughing has begun, and I won't detain either of you. + . . . The business? We won't discuss it now. I have to wait here for +Dinah, who is coming for company as soon as she's finished her +housework. . . . To-morrow, then, if you have nothing better to do. +Good-bye!" + +He left her and climbed the hill again. He seemed to tread on air; and +no doubt, when he reached the plateau where the ploughmen were driving +their teams to and fro before the judges, with corrugated brows, +compressed lips, eyes anxiously bent on the imaginary line of the furrow +to be drawn, this elation gave his bearing a confidence which to the +malignant or uncharitable might have presented itself as bumptiousness. +He mingled with the small group of _cognoscenti_, listened to their +criticisms, and by-and-by, cocking his head knowledgeably on one side, +hazarded the remark that "the fellow coming on with the roan and grey +seemed to be missing depth in his effort to keep straight." + +It was an innocent observation, uttered, may be, a thought too +dogmatically, but truly with no deeper intent than to elicit fresh +criticism from an expert who stood close beside his elbow. But a voice +behind him said, and carried its sneer-- + +"Maybe he ain't the only one hereabouts as misses depth." + +Cai, with a grey face, swung about. He had recognised the voice. +Some demon in him prompted the retort-- + +"Eh, 'Bias? Is that you?--and still takin' an interest in agriculture?" + +The shaft went home. 'Bias's voice shook as he replied-- + +"I mayn't know much about education, at two minutes' notice; and I +mayn't pretend to know much about ploughin' and wear a button in my coat +to excuse it. But I reckon that for a pound a side I could plough you +silly, Cai Hocken." + +It was uttered in full hearing of some ten or twelve spectators, mostly +townsmen of Troy; and these, turning their heads, for a moment not +believing their ears, stared speechlessly at the two men whose +friendship had in six months passed into a local byword. Cap'n Hocken +and Gap'n Hunken--what, _quarrelling?_ No, no--nonsense: it must be +their fun! + +But the faces of the pair told a different tale. + +It was a stranger--a young farmer from two parishes away--who let off +the first guffaw. + +"A bet, naybours!--did 'ee hear _that?_ Take him up, little man--he won't +eat 'ee." + +"I'll go ten shillin' myself, rather than miss it," announced another +voice. "Ten shillin' on the bantam!" + +"Get out with 'ee both," spoke up a citizen of Troy. "You don't know +the men. 'Tisn't serious now--is it, Cap'n Hocken?--well as you're +actin'--" + +"Why not?" Cai stood, breathing hard, eyeing his adversary. "If _he_ +means it?" + +"That's right! Cover his money?" cried an encouraging voice behind him. + +The young farmer slapped his thigh, and ran off to the next group. +"Hi, you fellows! A match!" + +He shouted it. They turned about. "What is it, Bill Crago?"--for they +read in his excited gestures that he had real news. + +"The fun o' the fair, boys! Two ships'-cap'ns offering to plough for a +pound a side--if you ever!" + +"Drunk!" suggested somebody. + +"What's the odds if they be? 'Twill be all the better fun," answered Mr +Crago. "No--far's one can tell they're dead sober. Come along and +listen--" He hurried back and they after him. + +"If he chooses to back out?" Cai was taunting Bias as the crowd pressed +around. So true is it that:-- + + "To be wroth with one we love + Doth work like madness in the brain." + +"Who wants to back out?" answered 'Bias sullenly. + +"If a man insults me, I hold him to his word: either that or he takes it +back." + +"Quite right, Cap'n';" prompted a voice. "And he can't tell us he +didn't say it, for I heard him!" + +"I ain't takin' nothin' back." 'Bias faced about doggedly. + +By this time, as their wits cleared a little, each was aware of his +folly, and each would gladly have retreated from this public exhibition +of it. But as the crowd increased, neither would be the first to yield +and invite its certain jeers. Moreover, each was furiously incensed: +anything seemed better than to be shamed by _him_, to give _him_ a cheap +triumph. + +News of the altercation had spread. Soon two-thirds of the spectators +were trooping to join the throng in the upper field, pressing in on the +antagonists, jostling in their eagerness to catch a word of the dispute. +The competitors in Class D were left to plough lonely furrows and finish +them unapplauded. Young Mr Crago had run off meantime to secure the +services of the two judges. + + +Now Mrs Bosenna, after waiting some ten minutes by the lower gate for +Dinah (whose capital fault was unpunctuality), had lost patience and +walked back towards Rilla to meet and reproach her. She had almost +reached the small gate when she spied Dinah hurrying down the steep path +to the highroad, and halted. Dinah, coming up, excused herself between +catches of breath. She had been detained by the plucking of a fowl, and +a feather--or, as you might call it a fluff--had found its way into her +throat. "Which," said she, "the way I heaved, mistress, is beyond +belief." + +Mrs Bosenna having admonished her to be more careful in future, turned +to retrace her steps to the field. + +They reached it and climbed the slope crosswise. They had scarcely +gained the edge of the upper plateau when Mrs Bosenna stopped short and +gave a gasp. For at that moment there broke on their view, against the +near sky-line, the figure of a man awkwardly turning a plough, behind a +team of horses. + +"Save us, mistress!" cried keen-eyed Dinah. "If it isn't--" + +"It can't be!" cried Mrs Bosenna, as if in the same breath. + +"It's Cap'n Hunken," said Dinah positively. + +"But why? Dinah--why?" + +"It's Cap'n Hunken," repeated Dinah. "The Lord knows why. If he's +doin' it for fun, I never saw worse entry to a furrow in my life." + +"Nor I. But what can it mean?" Mrs Bosenna, panting, paused at the +sound of derisive cheers, not very distant. + +The two women ran forward a pace or two, until their gaze commanded the +whole stretch of the upper slope. 'Bias, stolidly impelling his team-- +a roan and a rusty-black--had, in the difficult process of steering the +turn, been too closely occupied to let his gaze travel aside. He was +off again: his stalwart back, stripped to braces and shirt, bent as he +trudged in wake of the horses, clinging to the plough-tail, helplessly +striving to guide them by the wavy parallel his last furrow had set. + +Down the field, nearer and nearer, approached Cai, steering a team as +helplessly. Ribald cheers followed him. + +Mrs Bosenna, though quite at a loss to explain it, grasped the situation +in less than a moment. She followed up 'Bias, keeping wide and +running--yet not seeming to hasten--over the unbroken ground to the +left. + +"Captain Hunken!" + +'Bias, throwing all his weight back on the plough-tail, brought his team +to a halt and looked around. He was bewildered, yet he recognised the +voice. + +While he paused thus, Cai steadily advanced to meet and pass him. +He was plainly at the mercy of his team--a grey and a brown, both of +conspicuous height--and they were drawing the furrow at their own sweet +will. But he, too, clung to the plough-tail, and his lips were +compressed, his eyes rigid, as he drew nearer, to meet and pass his +adversary. He, likewise, had cast coat and waistcoat aside: his hat he +had entrusted to an unknown backer. He saw nothing, as he came, but the +line of the furrow he prayed to achieve. + +"Captain Hocken!" She stepped forward hardily, holding up a hand, and +Cai's team, too, came to a halt as if ashamed. "What--_what_ is the +meaning of this foolishness?" + +"I've had enough, it _he_ has," said Cai sheepishly, glancing past her +and at 'Bias. + +"I ain't doin' this for fun, ma'am," owned 'Bias. "Fact is, I'd 'most +as lief steer a monkey by the tail." + +"Then drop it this instant, the pair of you!" + +'Bias scratched his head. + +"As for that, ma'am, I don't see how we can oblige. There's money on +it--bets." + +"There won't be money's worth left in my field, at the rate you're +spoilin' it." She turned upon the two judges, who were advancing +timidly to placate her, while the crowd hung back. "And now, Mr +Nicholls--now, Mr Widger--I'd like to hear what _you_ have to say to +this!" + +"'Tis a pretty old cauch, sure 'nough," allowed Mr Sam Nicholls, pushing +up the brim of his hat on one side and scratching his head while his eye +travelled along the furrows. "Cruel!" + +"And you permitted it! You, that might be supposed to have _some_ +knowledge o' farmin'!" + +"Why, to be sure, ma'am," interposed Mr Widger, "we never reckoned as +'twould be so bad as all this. . . . Young Bill Crago came to us with +word as how these--these two gentlemen--had made a match, and he asked +us to do the judgin' same as for the classes 'pon the bills--" + +"And so you started them? And then, I suppose, you couldn't stop for +laughin'?" + +"Something like that, ma'am, _as_ you say," Mr Widger confessed. + +"And what sort o' speech will you make, down to County Council, when I +send in my bill for damages?--you that complained to me, only this +mornin', how the rates were goin' up by leaps and bounds! . . . As for +these gentlemen," said Mrs Bosenna, turning on Cai and 'Bias with just a +twinkle of mischief in her eyes, "I shall be at home to-morrow morning +if they choose to call and make me an offer--unless, o' course, they +prefer to do so by letter." + +At this, Dinah put up her hand suddenly to cover her mouth. But Cai and +'Bias were in no state of mind to catch the double innuendo. + +Having thus reduced the judges to contrition, and having proceeded to +call forward the local secretary and to extort from him a long and +painful apology, Mrs Bosenna wound up with a threat to bundle the whole +Demonstration out of her field if she heard of any further nonsense, +and, taking Dinah's arm, sailed off (so to speak) with all the trophies +of war. + +Cai and 'Bias walked away shamefacedly to seek out their bottleholders +and collect each his hat, coat, and waistcoat. + +"But which of ee's won?" demanded their backers. + +"_Damn_ who's won!" was 'Bias's answer; and he looked too dangerous to +be pressed further. + +A wager is a wager, however; and the judges' decision was clamoured for, +with threats that, until it was given, the Agricultural Demonstration +would not be suffered to proceed. Mr Sam Nicholls consulted hastily +with Mr Widger, and announced the award as follows:-- + +"We consider Captain Hunken's ploughin' to be the very worst ploughin' +we've ever seen. But we award him the prize all the same, because we +don't consider Captain Hocken's ploughin' to be any ploughin' at all." + +_Solvuntur risu tabulae_--They can laugh, too, at Troy! + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +ROSES AND THREE-PER-CENTS. + +Although in her rose-garden--the rose-garden proper--Mrs Bosenna grew +all varieties of "Hybrid Perpetuals" (these ranked first with her, as +best suited to the Cornish soil and climate), with such "Teas" and +"Hybrid Teas" as took her fancy, and while she pruned these plants hard +in spring, to produce exhibition blooms, sentiment or good taste had +forbidden her to disturb the old border favourites that lined the +pathway in front of the house, or covered its walls and even pushed past +the eaves to its chimneys. Some of these had beautified Rilla year by +year for generations: the Provence cabbage-roses, for instance, in the +border, the Crimson Damask and striped Commandant Beaurepaire; the +moss-roses, pink and white, the China rose that bloomed on into January +by the porch. These, with the Marechal Niel by her bedroom window, the +scented white Banksian that smothered the southern wall, and the +climbing Devoniensis that nothing would stop or stay until its flag was +planted on the very roof-ridge, had greeted her, an old man's bride, on +her first home-coming. They had, in the mysterious way of flowers, +soothed some rebellion of young blood and helped to reconcile her to a +lot which, for a shrewd and practical damsel, was, after all, not +unenviable. She had no romance in her, and was quite unaware that the +roses had helped; but she took a sensuous delight in them, and this had +started her upon her hobby. A success or two in local flower-shows had +done the rest. + +Now with a rampant climber such as Rosa Devoniensis it is advisable to +cut out each autumn, and clean remove some of the old wood; and this is +no easy job when early neglect has allowed the plant to riot up and over +the root-thatch. Mrs Bosenna had a particular fondness for this rose, +and for the gipsy flush which separates it from other white roses as an +unmistakable brunette. Yet she was sometimes minded to cut it down and +uproot it, for the perverse thing would persist on flowering at its +summit, and William Skin, sent aloft on ladders--whether in autumn or +spring to prune this riot, or in summer to reap blooms by the armful-- +invariably did damage to the thatch. + +Mrs Bosenna, then, gloved and armed with a pair of secateurs, stood next +morning by the base of the Devoniensis holding debate with herself. + +The issue--that she would decide to spare the offender for yet another +year--was in truth determined; for already William Skin had planted one +ladder against the house-wall and had shuffled off to the barn for +another, to be hoisted on to the slope of the thatch, and there belayed +with a rope around the chimney-stack. But she yet played with the +resolve, taken last year, to be stern and order execution. She was +still toying with it when the garden-gate clicked, and looking up, she +perceived Captain Cai. + +"Ah! . . . Good morning, Captain Hocken!" + +Cai advanced along the pathway and gravely doffed his hat. +"Good morning, ma'am--if I don't intrude?" + +"Not at all. In fact I was expecting you." + +"Er--on which errand, ma'am?" + +"--Which?" echoed Mrs Bosenna, as if she did not understand. + +"Shall we take the more painful business first?" suggested Cai humbly. +"If indeed it has not--er--wiped out the other. The damage done +yesterday to your field, ma'am--" + +"Have you brought Captain Hunken along with you?" asked Mrs Bosenna, +interrupting him. + +"No, ma'am. He will be here in half an hour, sharp." Cai consulted his +watch. + +"You have stolen a march on him then?" she smiled. + +Cai flushed. "No, again, ma'am. Er--in point of fact we tossed up +which should call first." + +"Then," said she calmly, "we'll leave that part of the business until he +arrives; though, since it concerns you both, I can't see why you did not +bring him along with you. Do you know," she added with admirable +simplicity, "it has struck me once or twice of late that you and Captain +Hunken are not the friends you were?" + +Still Cai stared, his face mantling with confusion. This woman was an +enigma to him. Surely she must understand? Surely she must have +received that brace of letters to which she evaded all allusion? +And here was she just as blithely postponing all allusion to yesterday's +offence! + +But no; not quite, it seemed; for she continued-- + +"I cannot think why you two should challenge one another as you did +yesterday, and make sillies of yourselves before a lot of farmers. +It--it humiliates you." + +"We were a pair of fools," conceded Cai. + +"What men cannot see somehow," she went on angrily, "is that it doesn't +end there. That kind of thing humiliates a woman; especially when--when +she happens to be cast on her own resources and it is everything to her +to find a man she can trust." + +Mrs Bosenna threw into these words so much feeling that Cai in a moment +forgot self. His awkwardness fell from him as a garment. + +"You may trust me, ma'am. Truly you may. Tell me only what I can do." + +At this moment William Skin--a crab-apple of a man, whose infirmity of +deafness had long since reduced all the world for him to a vain +tolerable show, in which so much went unexplained that nothing caused +surprise--came stumbling around the corner of the house with a +waggon-rope and a second ladder, which he proceeded to rest alongside +the first one; showing the while no recognition of Cai's presence, even +by a nod. + +"I want you," said Mrs Bosenna, "to invest a hundred pounds for me. +Oh!"--as Cai gave a start and glanced at Skin--"we may talk before him: +he's as deaf as a haddock." + +"A hundred pounds?" queried Cai, still in astonishment. + +"Yes; it's a sum I happen to have lyin' idle. At this moment it's in +the Bank, on deposit, where they give you something like two-and-a-half +only: and in the ordinary way I should put it into Egyptian three per +cents, or perhaps railways. My poor dear Samuel always had a great +opinion of Egypt, for some reason. He used to say how pleasant it was +in church to hear the parson readin' about Moses and the bulrushes, and +the plague of frogs and suchlike, and think he had money invested in +that very place, and how different it was in these days. Almost in his +last breath he was beggin' me to promise to stick to Egyptians, or at +any rate to something at three per cent and gilt-edged: because, you +see, he'd always managed all the business and couldn't believe that +women had any real sense in money affairs. . . . I didn't make any +promise, really; though in a sort of respect to his memory I've kept on +puttin' loose sums into that sort of thing. Three per cent is a silly +rate of interest, when all is said and done: but of course the poor dear +thought he was leavin' me all alone in the world, with no friend to +advise. . . ." + +"I see," said Cai, his heart beginning to beat fast. "And it's +different now?" + +"I--I was hopin' so," said Mrs Bosenna softly. + +Cai glanced at the back of William Skin, who had started to hum--or +rather to croon--a tuneless song while knotting a rope to the second +ladder. No: it was impossible to say what he wished to say in the +presence of William Skin, confound him! Skin's deafness, Skin's +imperturbability, might have limits. . . . + +"You wish me to advise you?" he controlled himself to ask. + +"No, I don't. I wish you--if you'll do me the favour--just to take the +money and invest it without consultin' me. It's--well, it's like the +master in the Bible--the man who gave out the talents. . . . Only don't +wrap it in a napkin!" She laughed. "I don't even want to be told +_what_ you do with the money. I'd rather not be told, in fact. +I want to trust you." + +"Why?" + +She laughed again, this time more shyly. "'Trust is proof,'" she +answered, quoting the rustic adage. "You have given me some right to +make that proof, I think?" + +Ah--to be sure--the letters! She must, of course, have received his +letter, along with 'Bias's, though this was her first allusion to it. + . . . Cai's brain worked in a whirl for some moments. She was offering +him a test; she was yielding upon honest and prudent conditions; she was +as good as inviting him to win her. . . . To do him justice, he had +never--never, at any rate, consciously--based his wooing on her wealth. +For aught he cared, she might continue to administer all she possessed. +The comforts of Rilla Farm may have helped to attract him, but herself +had been from the first the true spell. + +He did not profess any knowledge of finance. A return of four per cent +on his own modest investments contented him, and he left these to Mr +Rogers. + +"Ah!" + +His mind had caught, of a sudden, at a really brilliant idea. + +"I accept," said he firmly, looking Mrs Bosenna hard in the eyes, and +her eyes sank under his gaze. + +"Hi! Heads!" sang out a voice, and simultaneously the ladder which +William Skin had been hauling aloft, came crashing down and struck the +flagged path scarcely two yards away. + +A second later Cai had Mrs Bosenna in his arms. "You are not hurt?" he +gasped. + +She disengaged herself with a half-hysterical laugh. "Hurt? +Am I? . . . No, of course I am not." + +"The damned rope slipped," growled William Skin in explanation, from his +perch on the ladder under the eaves. + +"Slipped?" Cai ran to the rope and examined it. "Of course it slipped, +you lubber!" He stepped back on the pathway and spoke up to Skin as he +would have talked on shipboard to a blundering seaman in the +cross-trees. "Ain't a slip-knot _made_ to slip? And when a man's fool +enough to tie one in place of a hitch--" + +He cast off the rope, bent it around the rung with, as it seemed, one +turn of the hand, and with a jerk had it firm and true. + +"Make way, up there!" he called. + +"You're never going to--to risk yourself," protested Mrs Bosenna. + +"Risk myself? Lord, ma'am, for what age d'ye take me?" Cai caught up +the slack of the rope and hitched it taut over his shoulder. He was +rejuvenated. He made a spring for the ladder, and went up it much as +twenty years ago he would have swarmed up the ratlines. "Make yourself +small," he commanded, as Skin, at imminent risk of falling, drew to one +side before his onset. Cai was past him in a jiffy, over the eaves, +balancing himself with miraculous ease on the slippery thatch. +"Now ease up the ladder!" + +He had anchored himself by pure trick of balance, and was pulling with a +steady hand almost as soon as Skin, collecting his wits, could reach out +to fend the ladder off from crushing the edge of the eaves. Ten seconds +later, by seaman's sleight of foot, he had gained a second anchorage +half-way up the slope, had gathered up all the slack of the rope into a +seaman's coil, and with a circular sweep of the arm had flung it deftly +around the chimney. The end, instead of sliding down to his hand, +hitched itself among the thorns of the rampant Devoniensis. Did this +daunt him? It checked him for an instant only. The next, he had +balanced himself for a fresh leap, gained the roof-ridges, and, seated +astride of it, was hauling up the ladder, hand over fist, close to the +chimney-base. + +The marvel was, the close thatch showed no trace of having been trampled +or disturbed. + +"Darn the feller, he's as ajjile as a cat!" swore William Skin. + +"Pass up the clippers, you below!" Cai commanded, forgetting that the +man was deaf. "If your mistress'll stand back in the path a bit, I'll +pick out the shoots one by one and hold 'em up for her to see, so's she +can tell me which to cut away." + +"You'll scratch your hands to ribbons," Mrs Bosenna warned him. + +"'Tisn't worth while comin' down for a pair of hedgin' gloves. . . . +I say, though--I've a better notion! 'Stead of lettin' this fellow run +riot here around the chimney-stack, why not have him down and peg him +horizontal, more or less, across and along the thatch, where he can be +seen?" + +"Capital!" she agreed. "He'd put out more than twice the number of +blooms too. They do always best when laid lateral." + +"He'll come down bodily with a little coaxin'. The question is how to +peg him when he's down?" + +"Rick-spars," answered Mrs Bosenna promptly. "The small kind. There's +dozens in the waggon-house loft." She signalled to William Skin to come +down, bawled an order in his ear, and despatched him to fetch a score or +so. + +"Hullo!" cried Cai, who, being unemployed for the moment, had leisure to +look around and enjoy the view from the roof-ridge. "If it isn't 'Bias +comin' up the path! . . . Hi! 'Bias!" he hailed boyishly, in the old +friendly tone. + +'Bias, stooping to unlatch the gate, heard the call which descended, as +it were, straight from heaven, and gazed about him stupidly. He was +aware of Mrs Bosenna in the pathway, advancing a step or two to make him +welcome. She halted and laughed, with a glance up towards the roof. +'Bias's eyes slowly followed hers. + +"Lord!" he muttered, "what made ye masthead him up there? . . . Been +misbehavin', has he? 'Tis the way I've served 'prentices afore now." + +"On the contrary, he has been behaving beautifully--" + +"Here, 'Bias!" called down Cai again. "Heft along the tall ladder half +a dozen yards to the s'yth'ard, and stand by to help. I'm bringin' down +this plaguy rose-bush, and I'll take some catchin' if I slip with it." + +"'Who ran and caught him when he fell?' 'His Bias,'" quoted Mrs +Bosenna. "He has been doin' wonders up there, Captain Hunken. But if I +were you--a man of your weight--" + +"I reckon," said 'Bias, stepping forward and seizing the ladder, which +he lifted as though it had been constructed of bamboo, "I han't forgot +all I learnt o' reefin' off the Horn." He planted the ladder and had +mounted it in a jiffy. "Now, then, what's the programme?" he demanded. + +"You see this rose? Well, I got to collect it--I've tried the main +stem, and it'll bend all right,--and then I got to slide down to you. +After that we've to peg it out somewheres above the eaves, as Madam +gives orders. See?" + +"I see. When you're ready, slide away." + +Just then William Skin came hurrying back with an armful of rick-spars: +and within ten minutes the two rivals were hotly at work--yet +cheerfully, intelligently, as though misunderstanding had never been,-- +clipping out dead wood from the rose-bush, layering it, pegging it, +driving in the spars,--while Mrs Bosenna called directions, and William +Skin gazed, with open mouth. + +"This is better than ploughin', ma'am?" challenged Cai in his glee. + +"So much better," agreed the widow, smiling up, "that I've almost a mind +to forgive the pair of you." + +"But I won't ask you to stay for dinner to-day," she said later, when +the tangled mass of the Devoniensis had been separated, shoot from +shoot, and pegged out to the last healthy-looking twig, and the two men +stood, flushed but safe, on the pathway beside her. She stole a +confidential little glance at Cai. "For I understand from Captain +Hocken that you prefer to make your excuses separately. I have already +forgiven _him_: and it's only fair to give Captain Hunken his turn." + +Who less suspicious than Cai? Had he been suspicious at all, what +better reassurance than the sly pressure of her hand as he bade her +good-day? . . . Poor 'Bias! + +Once past the gate, and out of sight, Cai felt a strange desire to skip! + + +"Well, mistress, you are a bold one, I must say!" commented Dinah that +night by the kitchen fire, where Mrs Bosenna enjoyed a chat and, at this +season of the year, a small glass of hot brandy-and-water, with a slice +of lemon in it, before going to bed. + +"I don't see where the boldness comes in," said the widow. She was +studying the fire, and spoke inattentively. + +"Two hundred pounds!" + +"Eh? . . . There's no risk in that. You may say what you like of +Captain Hocken or of Captain Hunken: but they're honest as children. +The money's as safe with them as in the bank." + +"Well, it do seem to me a dashin' and yet a very cold-blooded way of +choosin' a man. Now, if I was taken with one--" + +"Well?" prompted Mrs Bosenna, as Dinah paused. + +"Call me weak, but I couldn't help it. I should throw myself straight +at his head, an' ask him to trample me under his boots!" + +"A nice kind of husband you'd make of him then!" said her mistress +scornfully. + +"I know, I know," agreed Dinah. "I've no power o' resistance at all, +an' I daresay the Almighty has saved me a lifetime o' trouble. +'Twould ha' been desperet pleasant at the time though." She sighed. + +"But to give two men a hundred pound each, an' choose the one that +manages it best--" + +"Worst," corrected Mrs Bosenna. "You ninny!" she went on with sovereign +contempt. "Do you really suppose I'd marry a man that could handle my +money, or was vain enough to suppose he could?" + +"O--oh!" gasped Dinah as she took enlightenment. . . . "But two hundred +pounds is a terrible sum to spend in findin' out which o' two men is the +bigger fool. Why not begin wi' the one you like best, and find out +first if he's foolish enough to suit?" + +"Because," answered Mrs Bosenna, turning meditative eyes again upon the +fire, "I don't happen to know which I like best." + +"Then you can't be in love," declared foolish Dinah. + +"Sensible women ain't; not until afterwards. . . . Now, which would you +advise me to marry?" + +"Captain Hunken." Dinah's answer was prompt. "He's that curt. I like +a man to be curt; he makes it so hard for 'ee to say no. Besides which, +as you might say, that parrot of his did break the ice in a manner of +speakin'." + +"Dinah, I'm ashamed of you." + +"Well, mistress, natur' is natur': and we knows what we can't help +knowin'." + +"That's true," Mrs Bosenna agreed. It was her turn to sigh. + +"Cap'n Hunken's the man," repeated Dinah. She nodded her head on it and +paused. "Though, if you ask my opinion, Cap'n Hocken 'd make the better +husband." + +"It's difficult." + +"Ay. . . . For my part I don't know what you want with a husband at +all." + +"Nor I," said Mrs Bosenna, still gazing into the fire. + +"At the best 'tis a risk." + +Mrs Bosenna sighed again. "If it weren't, where'd be the fun?" + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +A NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH. + +Mr Rogers enjoyed his newspaper. To speak more accurately, he enjoyed +several: and one of Fancy's duties--by no means the least pleasant or +the least onerous--was to read to him daily the main contents of +'The Western Morning News,' 'The Western Daily Mercury,' and +'The Shipping Gazette': and on Thursdays from cover to cover--at a +special afternoon _seance_--'The Troy Herald,' with its weekly bulletin +of more local news. + +"What's the items this week?" asked Mr Rogers, puffing at a freshly lit +pipe and settling himself down to listen. + +Fancy opened the paper at its middle sheet, folded it back and scanned +it. + +"Here we are. 'If you want corsets, go to--' no, that's an +advertisement. 'Troy Christian Endeavour. Under the auspices of the +above-named flourishing society--'" + +"Skip the Christian Endeavour." + +"Very well. The next is 'Wesley Guild. A goodly company met this week +to hear the Rev. J. Bates Handcock on "Gambling: its Cause and Cure." +The reverend gentleman is always a favourite at Troy--'" + +"He's none of mine, anyway. Skip the Wesley Guild." + +"Right-o! 'On Wednesday last, in spite of counter attractions, much +interest was testified by those who assembled in the Institute Hall to +hear Mr Trudgeon, lately returned from the United States, on the Great +Canyon of Colorado, illustrated with lantern slides. The lecturer in a +genial manner, after personally conducting his audience across the Great +Continent--'" + +"Damn," said Mr Rogers. "Get on to the drunks. Ain't there any?" + +"Seems not. How will this do?" + + 'Report says that Monday's Agricultural Demonstration + --a full report of which will be found in + another column--was not without its comic relief, + beloved of dramatists. On dit that--'" + +"On what?" + +"Dit. Misprint, perhaps." + + 'On dit that two highly respected sons of the + brine, recently settled in our midst, and one of + whom has recently been elected to teach our young + ideas how to shoot, were so fired with emulation + by the ploughing in Class C as to challenge one + another then and there to a trial of prowess, much + to the entertainment of our agricultural friends. + The stakes were for a considerable amount, and + the two heroes who had elected to plough something + more solid than the waves, quickly found + themselves the observed of all observers. Rumour, + that lying jade, hints at a lady in the case. + Certain it is that the pair, whose names have of + late been syn--been sy-nonymous--with,'-- + +"--O Lor'! here's a heap of it, master!" + +"Skip the long syllables an' get on." + +"H'm--m--" + + '--acquitted themselves to the astonishment of the + judges, and of everybody else in the field. + Search out the lady, as our Gallic neighbours say.' + +--"Where's Gallic?" + +"Don't know. Ask Shake Benny. He supplies the Troy Notes to the +'Herald.'" + +"Oh, does he?" + +"Yes: he gets his gossip off Philp; and dresses it up. That's how it's +done. Philp has a nose like a ferret's: but he was unfort'nit in his +education. You may trust Philp to get at the facts--leastways you can +trust him for gossip: but he can't dress anything up. . . . Why, what's +the matter with the child?" + +Fancy Tabb never laughed: and this was the queerer because she had a +sense of humour beyond her years. Though by no means a gleeful child +she could express glee naturally enough: but a joke merely affected her +with silent convulsive twitchings, as though the risible faculties +struggled somewhere within her but could not bring the laugh to birth. + +These spasms of mirth, whatever had provoked them, were cut short--and +her explanation too--by a heavy footstep on the stairs. + +"Cap'n Hunken!" she announced, and went to open the door. "Most like he +wants to talk business with you same as Cap'n Hocken did this morning, +and I'd better make myself scarce. That's the silly way they've taken +to behave, 'stead of callin' together." + +"Ay, you're sharp, missy," said her master. "But 'twon't be the same +arrand this time, as it happens: so you're wrong for once." + +Fancy, if she heard, did not answer, for 'Bias by this time had reached +the landing without. She opened to him. "Good afternoon, sir." + +"Afternoon, missy. I saw your father in the shop, and he told me to +walk up. Mr Rogers disengaged?" + +"Ay, Cap'n--walk in, walk in!" said Mr Rogers from his chair. +What is it to-day? Business? or just a pipe and a chat?" + +"Well, it's business," allowed 'Bias with a glance at the girl. +"But I'll light a pipe over it, if you don't mind." + +"And I'll fit and make tea for you both," said Fancy. "It's near about +time." + +She vanished and closed the door behind her. 'Bias found a chair, +seated himself, and filled his pipe very slowly and thoughtfully. +Mr Rogers waited. + +"The business that brings me--" 'Bias paused, struck a match and lit +up--"ain't quite the ordinary business." + +"No?" + +"No." For a few seconds 'Bias appeared to be musing. "In fact you +might call it a--a sort o' flutter. That's the word--ain't it?--when +you take a bit o' money and play venturesome with it, against your usual +habits." + +"Ay?" Mr Rogers looked at him sharply. "When I say venturesome," +continued 'Bias, "you'll understand I don't mean foolhardy. . . . +Nothin' o' the sort. I want to hear o' something tolerably safe, into +which a man might put a small sum he happened to have lyin' about." + +"What sort of investment?" + +"Ay, that's just what I want you to tell me. Ten per cent, we'll say, +an' no more'n a moderate risk. . . . I reckoned as a man like you might +know, maybe, o' half a dozen things o' the sort." + +"What's the amount?" Mr Rogers's eyes, that had opened wide for a +moment, narrowed themselves upon him in a curiosity that hid some +humour. + +"Put it at a hundred pound." + +"Oh!--er--I mean, is that all?" + +"You see," exclaimed 'Bias. "You mustn' run away wi' the notion that I +ain't satisfied as things are. Four and five per cent--and that's what +you get for me--does best in the main. I can live within the income and +sleep o' nights. But once in a way--" + +"Ay," interrupted Mr Rogers, "and more especially when _it's to oblige a +friend_." + +'Bias withdrew the pipe from his mouth and stared. "You're a clever +one, too! . . . Well, and I don't mind you're knowin'. 'Tis a relief, +in a way: for now you know I'm pleased enough with your dealins' on my +own account." + +"Thank 'ee. I'm not askin' no names." + +"As to that, I'd rather not mention the name, either. But I'd be very +glad o' your advice: for 'tis important to me, in a way o' speakin'!" + +Mr Rogers nodded. "If that's so," said he, "you must give me a little +time to think. There's mortgages, o' course: and there's deals to be +done in shipping: and there's money-lendin,--though you'd object to +that, maybe. . . . Anyway, you come to me to-morrow, and I may have +something to propose." + +"Thank 'ee. I take that as friendly." + +"Right." Mr Rogers let drop a trembling half-paralysed hand towards the +newspaper which lay on the floor beside his chair. "Would ye mind--" + +'Bias stepped forward and picked it up for him. + +"Thank 'ee. No: I want you to keep it. . . . I'm goin' to do a thing +that's friendlier yet: though it be a risk. Open the paper at the +middle sheet--right-hand side, an' look out a column headed +'Troy News.' . . . Got it?" + +"Half a moment--Yes,' Troy News'--Here we are!" + +"Now cast your eye down the column till you come 'pon a part about last +Monday's Agricultural Demonstration." + +"The devil!" swore 'Bias. "You don't mean to say--" + +"'Course I do. Everything gets into the papers nowadays. . . . +You'll find it spicy." + +'Bias found the paragraph and started to read, with knitted brows. +Its journalistic style held him puzzled for fully half a minute. +Then he ejaculated "Ha!" and snorted. After another ten seconds he +snorted again and exploded some bad words--some very bad words indeed. + +"Thought I'd warn you to be careful," said Mr Rogers. "You don't take +it amiss, I hope? In a little place like this there's eyes about all +the time--an' tongues." + +"I'd like to find the joker who wrote it?" breathed 'Bias, the paper +trembling between his hands. + +"I can't tell you who _wrote_ it," said the ship-chandler; "but I can +give a pretty close guess who's responsible for it: and that's Philp." + +"Philp?" + +"Mind ye, I say 'tis but a guess." + +"I'll Philp him!" + +"Well, he's no fav'rite o' mine," said Mr Rogers grinning. "He's too +suspicious for me, and I hate a man to be suspicious. . . . But he's the +man I suspect." + +"Where does he live?" + +"Union Place--two flights o' steps below John Peter Nanjulian's-- +left-hand side as you go up. But you can't have it out with him on +suspicion only." + +"Can't I?" said 'Bias grimly. "I'll ask him plain 'yes' or 'no.' +If he says 'yes,' I'll know what to do, and you may lay I'll do it." + +"But if he says 'no'?" + +"Then I'll call him a liar," promised 'Bias without a moment's +indecision. "That'll touch him up, I should hope. . . . _Where_ did you +say he lives?" + +At this moment there came a knock at the door and Fancy entered with the +tea-tray. + +"If you'd really like a talk with him," said Mr Rogers, blinking, +"maybe you'd best let the child here take you to his house. . . . +Eh, missy? Cap'n Hunken tells me as how he'd like to pay a call 'pon Mr +Philp, up in Union Place." + +"Now?" asked Fancy. + +"The sooner the better," answered 'Bias, crushing 'The Troy Herald' +between his hands. + +Fancy's hands, disencumbered of the tea-tray, began to twitch violently. +"Very well, master," was all she said, however; and with that she left +the room to fetch her hat and small cloak. + +"I'd advise you to tackle Philp gently," was Mr Rogers's warning as soon +as the pair were alone. "Not that I've any likin' for the man: but the +point is, you've no evidence. He'll tell you--and, likely enough, with +truth--as he never act'ally wrote what's printed." + +"You leave him to me," answered 'Bias grimly, gulping his tea and +preparing to sally forth. + +"An' you might remember to leave the child outside. If a lady's name is +to be handled in the discussion, you understand. . . . Besides which, +witnesses are apt to be awk'ard. Two's the safe number when there's a +delicate point to be cleared up." + +Fancy reappeared and announced herself ready. 'Bias caught up his hat. +. . . Left to himself, Mr Rogers lay back in his chair and chuckled. +He did not care two straws for Mr Philp, or for what might happen to +him. His mind was off on quite another train of thought. + +"I wonder what the woman's game is? 'A hundred pound lyin' idle'--and +Hocken around with the same tale this forenoon. . . . Ten per cent, and +at a moderate risk. . . . She's shrewd, too, by all accounts. . . . +Damme, if this isn't a queer cross-runnin' world! A woman like that, if +I'd had the luck to meet her a three-four year ago--before _this_ +happened!" . . . He eyed his palsied hand as it reached out, shaking, +for the tea-cup. + + +"When we get to the door," said 'Bias heavily, as he and Fancy turned +out of the street into the narrow entry of Union Place, "you're to step +back and run away home." + +"No fear," she assured him. "I'm doin' you a favour, an' don't you +forget it." + +"But you can't come inside with me." + +"_That's_ all right. Nobody said as I wanted to, in my hearin'. +I can see all I want to see. There's a flight o' steps runnin' up close +outside the window." + +She pointed it out and quite candidly indicated the point at which she +proposed to perch herself. "And there's another window at the back," +she added: "so's you can see all that's happenin' inside." + +"Better fit you ran away home," he repeated. + +"You can't _make_ me," retorted Fancy. "Unless, o' course, you choose +to use force, here in broad daylight. As a friend of mine said, only +the other day," she went on, snatching at a purple patch from +'Pickerley,' "the man as would lift his hand against a woman deserves +whatever can be said of him. Public opinion will condemn him in this +life, and, in the next, worms are his portion. So there!" + +"I dunno what you're talkin' about," said 'Bias, preoccupied with the +thought of coming vengeance. + +"Who's meanin' to lift his hand against a woman?" + +"Well, mind you don't, that's all!" + +She left him standing on the doorstep, and skipped away up the steps. +Having reached a point which commanded a view over the blinds of Mr +Philp's front window, she gave a glance into the room, and at once her +arms and legs started to twitch as though in the opening movement of +some barbaric war-dance. + +'Bias, still inattentive, took no heed of these contortions. After a +moment's pause he rapped sharply on the door with the knob of his +walking-stick, then boldly lifted the latch and strode into the passage. + +On his right the door of the front parlour stood ajar. He thrust it +wide open and entered. And, as he entered, a female figure arose from a +chair on the far side of the room. + +"I--I beg your pardon, ma'am!" stammered 'Bias, falling back a pace. + +"Polly wants a kiss!" screamed a voice. It did not seem to proceed from +the lady. . . . Somehow, too, it was strangely familiar. . . . +'Bias stared wildly about him. + +At the same moment, and just as his eyes fell on the parrot-cage on the +table, the lady--But was it a lady? Heavens! what did it resemble--this +figure in female attire? + +"Drat your bird! He won't say no worse! And this is the third mornin' +I've sat temptin' him!" + +Mr Philp--yes, it was Mr Philp--in black merino frock, Paisley shawl and +ribboned cap on which a few puce-coloured poppies nodded--Mr Philp, with +a handful of knitting, and a ball of worsted trailing at his feet-- +But it is impossible to construct a sentence which would do justice to +Mr Philp as he loomed up and swam into ken through 'Bias's awed surmise; +and the effort shall be abandoned. + +Mr Philp slowly unwound the woollen wrap that had swathed his beard out +of sight. + +"Clever things, birds," said Mr Philp, and his voice seemed to regain +its identity as the folds of the bandage dropped from him. "I wonder +whether shavin' would help! . . . I don't like to be beat." + +'Bias, who had come with that very intent, lifted a hand--but let it +fall again. No, he could not! + +"Good Lord!" he ejaculated, and fled from the house. + +Outside, Fancy--who had seen all--was executing a fandango on the step. + +"Help!" she called, taunting him. "_Who_ talked o' liftin' a hand +against a woman?" + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +THE AUCTION. + +One result of the paragraph in 'The Troy Herald' was to harden the two +friends' estrangement just at the moment when it promised to melt. +Troy with its many amenities has a deplorable appetite for gossip; and +to this appetite the contention of Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken for +Mrs Bosenna's hand gave meat and drink. (There was, of course, no +difficulty in guessing what Mr Shake Benny would have called "the +_inamorata's_ identity.") Malicious folk, after their nature, assumed +the pair to be in quest of her money. The sporting ones laid bets. +Every one discussed the item with that frankness which is so +characteristic of the little town, and so engaging when you arrive at +knowing us, though it not infrequently disconcerts the newcomer. +Barber Toy--having Cai at his mercy next morning, with a razor close to +his throat--heartily wished him success. + +"Not," added Mr Toy, "that I bear any ill-will to Cap'n Hunken. But I +back a shaved chin on principle, for the credit of the trade." + +A sardonic and travelled seaman, waiting his turn in the corner, +hereupon asked how he managed when it came to the Oxford and Cambridge +boat-race. + +"I'll tell you," answered Mr Toy. "I wasn't at Oxford myself--_nor_ at +Cambridge; and for years I'd back one or 'nother, 'cordin' to the +newspapers. But that isn't a satisfactory way. When you're dealin' +with an honest event--_honest_, mind you--as goes on year after year +between two parties both ekally set on winnin', the only way to get real +satisfaction is to pick your fancy an' go on backin' it. That gives ye +a different interest altogether, like with Liberal or Conservative at a +General Election. If you don't win this time, you look forward to next. +. . . Well, one day Mr Philp here came into the shop wearin' a dark blue +tie, and says I, 'You're Oxford.' 'Am I?' says he--'It's the first I've +heard tell of it.' 'You're Oxford,' says I: 'and I'm Cambridge, for +half-a-crown.' Odd enough, Cambridge won that year by eight lengths." + +"I wonder you have the face to tell this story," put in Mr Philp. + +The barber grinned. "Well, I thought as we'd both settled 'pon our +fancy, in a neighbourly way. But be dashed if, soon after the followin' +Christmas, Mr Philp didn't send his tie to the wash, and it came back +any blue you pleased. 'Make it one or t'other--_I_ don't care,' said I: +and he weighed the choice so long, bein' a cautious man, that we missed +to make up any bet at all. If you'll believe me, that year they rowed a +dead heat." + +"Very curious," commented Cai. + +"But that isn' the end," continued the barber. "Next year he'd washed +his necktie again, and that 'twas Cambridge he couldn' dispute. So we +put on another half-crown, and Oxford won by two lengths. . . . 'Twas a +pity I could never induce him to bet again, for his tie went on getting +Cambridger and Cambridger, while Oxford won four years out o' five." + +"If you believe there was any honesty in it!" said Mr Philp. +"'Twas only my suspicious natur' as saved me." + + +The whole town, indeed, was watching the rivals, and with an open +interest very difficult to resent. Nay, since it was impossible to tell +every second man in the street to mind his own business, Cai and 'Bias +accepted the publicity perforce and turned their resentment upon one +another. + +They continued, of course, to live apart, and Mrs Bowldler soon learned +to avoid playing the intermediary, even to the extent of suggesting +(say) some concerted action over the coal supplies. After the first +fortnight no messages passed between them-- + + "They stood aloof, the scars remaining, + Like cliffs that had been rent asunder." + +If they met, in shop or roadway, they nodded, but exchanged no other +greeting. They never met at Rilla Farm. How it was agreed I know not, +though Mrs Bosenna must have contrived it somehow; but they now +prosecuted their wooing openly on alternate days. Sunday she reserved +for what Sunday ought to be--a day of rest. + +"The artfulness!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler on making discovery of this +arrangement. "But the men are no match for us, my dear"--this to +Fancy--"an' the oftener they marry us the cleverer they leave us." + +"Then 'tis a good job Henry the Eighth wasn' a woman," commented Fancy. + +"There was some such case in the Scriptures, if you'll remember; and it +says that last of all the woman died also. If she did, you may be sure +as 'twasn't till she chose." + +"I heard Mr Rogers say t'other day, 'Never marry a widow unless her +first husband was hanged.'" + +"Pray let us change the subjeck," said Mrs Bowldler hastily. + +"Why? . . . What did Mr Bowldler die of? I've often meant to ask," said +Fancy, "and then again I've wondered sometimes if there ever was any +such person." + +"There _was_ such a person." Mrs Bowldler half-closed her eyes in +dreamy reminiscence. "Further than that I would not like to commit +myself." + +"He's dead, then?" + +"He was a fitter in a ladies' tailorin', and naturally gay by +temperament. It led to misunderstandin's. . . . Dead? No, not that I +am aware of. For all I know he's still starrin' it somewhere in the +provinces." + +She protested that for the moment she must drop the subject, which +invariably affected her with palpitations; but promised to return to it +in confidence when she felt stronger. + + +Throughout these days, however, and for many days to come, she +discoursed at large on the diplomacy of widows; warning Palmerston to +shape his course in avoidance of them. And that budding author--who had +already learnt to take his good things where he found them--boldly +transferred her warnings to the pages of 'Pickerley,' which thereby +arrived at resembling 'Pickwick' in one respect if in no other. + +From these generalities she would hark back, at shortest notice, to the +practical present. + +"It behoves us--seein' as how a tempory cloud has descended between +these two establishments--it behoves us, I say, to watch out for its +silver lining in one form or another. Which talking of silver reminds +me of electro, and I'll ask you, Palmerston, if that's the way to leave +a mustard-pot and call yourself an indoor male?" + + +Their estrangement had endured some three months before the rivals came +again into public collision. + +The beginning of it happened through a very excusable misunderstanding. + +Is Christmas Day to be reckoned as an ordinary day of the week, or as a +Sunday, or as a _dies non?_ The reader must decide. + +Christmas Day that year fell on a Friday--one of the three week-days +tacitly allotted to Cai, who may therefore be forgiven that he chose to +reckon it as coming within the ordinary routine. He did so, and at +about three o'clock in the afternoon (which was bright and sunny) he +reached the small gate of Rilla, to be aware of 'Bias striding up the +pathway ahead of him. + +He gave chase in no small choler. + +"Look here," he protested, panting; "haven't you made some mistake? +This is Friday." + +"Christmas Day," answered 'Bias, wheeling about. + +"I can't help that. 'Tis Friday." + +"An' next year 'twill be Saturday," retorted 'Bias with a sour grin; +"it that'll content you, when it comes. None of us can't help it. +Th' almanack says 'tis Christmas Day, and ord'nary days o' the week +don't count. Besides, 'tis quarter-day, and I've brought my rent." + +"I've brought mine, too," replied Cai. "Well, we'll leave it to Mrs +Bosenna to settle." + +They walked up to the house in silence. Dinah, who answered the bell, +appeared to be somewhat upset at sight of the two on the doorstep +together. (Yet we know that Dinah never opened the front door without a +precautionary survey.) She admitted them to the front parlour, and +opining that her mistress was somewhere's about the premises, departed +in search of her. + +'Bias took up a position with his back to the fire and his legs +a-straddle. Cai stuck his hands in his pockets and stared gloomily out +of window. For some three minutes neither spoke, then Cai, of a sudden, +gave a start. + +"There's that Middlecoat!" he exclaimed. + +"Hey?" 'Bias hurried to the window, but the young farmer had already +passed out of sight. + +"Look here," suggested Cai, "it's just an well we turned up, one or +both. That man's a perfect bully, so she tells me." + +"She've told me the same, more than once." + +"Always pickin' some excuse for a quarrel. It ain't right for a woman +to live alongside such a neighbour unprotected." + +"So I've told her." + +"Well, he's in the devil of a rage just now,--to judge by the look of +him, an' the way he was smackin' his leg with an ash-plant as he went +by." + +"Was he now?" 'Bias considered for a moment. "You may depend he took +advantage, not expectin' either of us to turn up to-day. . . . +I shouldn't wonder if the maid properly scared him with news we were +here." + +Sure enough Dinah returned in a moment to report that her mistress was +in her rose-garden; and following her thither, they found Mrs Bosenna, +flushed of face and evidently mastering an extreme discomposure. + +"I,--I hardly expected you," she began. + +"It's Friday," said Cai. + +"It's Christmas Day," said 'Bias. "I reckon he counted on that,--that +Middlecoat, I mean." + +"Eh? . . . Mr Middlecoat--" + +"Saw him takin' his leave, not above three minutes ago." + +"You,--you saw him taking his leave?" + +"Stridin' down the hill, angry as a bull," Cai assured her. + +"He's a dreadful man to have for a neighbour," confessed Mrs Bosenna, +recovering grip on her composure. "The way he threatens and bullies!" + +"I'll Middlecoat him, if he gives me but half a chance!" swore 'Bias. + +"If I'd known either of you was in hail. . . . But I reckoned you'd both +be countin' this for a Sunday." + +"Christmas Day isn't Sunday, not more'n once in seven years," objected +'Bias. + +"It's Friday this year," said Cai, with simple conviction. + +"Fiddlestick!" retorted 'Bias. "You can't make it out to be like an +ordinary Friday--I defy you. There's a--a _feelin'_ about the day." + +"It feels like Friday to me," maintained Cai. + +But here Mrs Bosenna interposed. "'Twon't feel like Christmas to _me_ +then if you two start arguin'. 'Peace and goodwill' was the motto, as I +thought; but I don't see much of either abroad this afternoon." + +The pair started guiltily and avoided each other's eyes. Many a time in +distant ports they had talked together of Christmas in England and of +Christmas fare--the goose, the plum-pudding. They had promised +themselves a rare dinner to celebrate their first Christmas in England, +and it had come to--what? To a dull meal eaten apart, served by a Mrs +Bowldler on the verge of tears, and by a Palmerston frankly ravaged by +woe. It had happened--happened past recall, and as Mrs Bowldler had +more than once observed in the course of the morning, the worst was not +over yet. "For," as she said, "out of two cold geese and two cold +puddings I'll trouble you this next week for your entrays and what-not." + + +"What was Middlecoat's business, ma'am?--makin' so bold," inquired +'Bias. + +"Oh!" she answered quickly, "he's a terrible young man! Wants his own +way in everything, like most farmers, and turns violent when he can't +get it. . . . He came about next week's sale, among other things." + +"What sale, ma'am?" + +"Why, surely you must have seen? The bills have been out for days. +Squire Willyams is gettin' rid of his land this side of the stream, +right down from here to the railway station. Fifty acres you may call +it; the most of it waste or else coppice,--and coppice don't pay for +cuttin'. You've almost to go down on your knees before anybody will +cart it away." + +"I _did_ hear some word of it down in Toy's shop, now I come to think," +said Cai. "But if the land's worthless--" + +"It's worth little enough to any one but me and Mr Middlecoat. You see, +it marches right alongside our two farms, between them and the Railway +Company's strip along the waterside, and--well, Rilla's freehold and +Middlecoat's is freehold, and it's nature, I suppose, to be jealous of +any third party interlopin'. But I don't want the land, and so I've +told him; nor I won't bid against him and run up the price,--though +that's what they're aimin' at by an auction." + +"Then what in thunder does the fellow want?" demanded 'Bias. + +"If you'll climb 'pon the hedge yonder--that's my boundary--you'll see a +little strip of a field, not fifty yards wide, runnin' down this side of +the plantation. It widens a bit, higher up the hill, but 'tis scarcely +more than a couple acres, even so. Barton's Orchard, they call it." + +"But what about it?" asked Cai, craning his neck over to examine the +plot. + +"Why, to be sure I want to take it in for my roses. It lies rather too +near the trees, to be sure; but one could trench along the far side and +fill the trench with concrete, to check their roots from spreadin' this +way; and all the soil is good along this side of the valley." + +"Then why not buy it, ma'am, since 'tis for sale? Though for my part," +added Cai, looking round upon the beds which, just now, were unsightly +enough, with stiff leafless shoots protruding above their winter mulch, +"I can't think what you want with more roses than you have already." + +"One can never have too many roses," declared Mrs Bosenna. "Let be that +there's new ones comin' out every year, faster than you can keep count +with them. Folks'll never persuade me that the old H.P.'s don't do best +for Cornwall; but when you go in for exhibition there's the judges and +their fads to be considered, and the rage nowadays is all for Teas and +high centres. . . . When first I heard as that parcel of ground was +likely to come in the market, I sat down and planned how I'd lay it out +with three long beds for the very best Teas, and fence off the top with +a rose hedge--Wichurianas or Penzance sweet briars--and call it my +Jubilee Garden; next year bein' the Diamond Jubilee, you know. All the +plants could be in before the end of February, and I'll promise myself +that by June, when the Queen's day came round, there shouldn't be a +loyaller-bloomin' garden in the land." + +"Well," allowed Cai, "that's sensibler anyway than puttin' up arches and +mottoes. But what's to prevent ye?" + +"'Tis that nasty disagreeable Mr Middlecoat," answered Mrs Bosenna +pettishly. "He comes and tells me now as that strip has always been the +apple of his eye. . . . It's my belief he wants to grow roses against +me; and what's more, it's my belief he'd swallow up all Rilla if he +could; which is better land than his own, acre for acre. It angers him +to live alongside a woman and be beaten by her at every point o' +farmin'." + +"But you've the longer purse, ma'am, as I understand," suggested 'Bias. +"Talkin' o' which--" He fumbled in his breast-pocket and produced an +envelope. + +"My rent, ma'am." + +"Ay, to be sure: and mine, ma'am," Cai likewise produced his rent. + +"You are the most punctual of tenants!" laughed Mrs Bosenna, taking the +two envelopes. "But after all, they say, short reckonin's make long +friends." + +She divided a glance between them, to be shared as they would. + +"But as I was suggestin' ma'am--why not attend the sale and outbid the +fellow?" + +"So I can, of course: and so I will, perhaps. Still it's not pleasant +to live by a neighbour who thinks he can walk in and hector you, just +because you're a woman." + +"You want protection: that's what you want," observed 'Bias fatuously. + +"In your place," said Cai with more tact, "I should forbid him the +premises." + + +For some reason Mrs Bosenna omitted to invite them to stay and drink +tea: and after a while they took their leave together. At the foot of +the descent, as they gained the highroad, Cai faced about and asked, +"Which way?" + +"I was thinkin' to stretch my legs around Four Turnin's," answered +'Bias, although as a matter of fact the intention had that instant +occurred to him. + +"Well, so long!" Cai nodded and turned towards the town. "Compliments +of the season," he added. + +"Same to you." + +They walked off in opposite directions. + +On his way home through the town Cai took occasion to study the Bill of +Auction on one of the hoardings. It advertised the property in separate +small lots, of which Barton's Orchard figured as No. 9. The bill gave +its measurement as 1 acre, 1 rood, 15 perches. The sale would take +place at the Ship Hotel, Troy, on Monday, January 4,1897, at 2.30 P.M. +Messrs Dewy and Moss, Auctioneers. + + +In the course of the next week he made one or two attempts to sound Mrs +Bosenna and assure himself that she meant to attend the sale and secure +Lot 9; but she spoke of it with an irritating carelessness. Almost it +might have persuaded him--had he been less practised in her wayward +moods--that she had dismissed the affair from her mind. But on Friday +(New Year's Day) as he took leave of her, she recurred to it. +"Dear me," said she meditatively, "I shall not be seeing you for several +days, shall I?" + +"Eh? Why not?" + +"To-morrow's Saturday; then Sunday's our day of rest, as Dinah calls it. +On Monday's the auction--" + +"Ah, to be sure!" Cai had forgotten this consequence of it, and was +dashed in spirits for the moment. "But I shall see you there?" + +"Perhaps," she answered negligently. "Shall you be attendin'? +Really, now!" + +With an accent of reproach he asked how she could imagine that a +business so nearly concerning her could find him other than watchful. +On leaving he repeated his good wishes for the twelvemonth to come, and +with a warmth of intention which she perversely chose to ignore. + +To be sure he meant to attend the sale. Nor was he surprised on +entering the Ship Inn next Monday, some ten minutes ahead of the +advertised time, to find 'Bias in the bar with a glass of hot brandy and +water at his elbow. Cai ordered a rum hot. + +"Where's the auction to be held?" he inquired of Mr Oke, the landlord. + +"Long Room as usual." Mr Oke jerked a thumb towards the stairs; and +Cai, having drained his glass, went up. + +In the Long Room, which is a handsome apartment with waggon roof and +curious Jacobean mouldings dating from the time when The Ship was built +to serve as "town house" for one of Troy's great local families, Cai +found a sparse company waiting for the sale to open, and noted with +momentary dismay that Mrs Bosenna had not yet arrived. But after all, +he reflected, there was no need for extreme punctuality, it would take +the auctioneer some time to reach Lot 9. + +The company included young Mr Middlecoat, of course; and, equally of +course, Mr Philp, who had no interest in the sale beyond that of +curiosity; some three or four farmers from the back-country, who had +apparently come for no purpose but to lend Mr Middlecoat their moral +support, since, as it turned out, not one of them made a serious bid; +Squire Willyams' steward, Mr Baker,--a tall, clean-shaven man with a +watchful non-committal face; one or two frequenters of The Ship's +bar-parlour; and the Quaymaster, by whom (as Barber Toy remarked) any +new way of neglecting his duties was hailed as a godsend. + +Mr Dewy, the auctioneer, sat with his clerk at the end of the table, +arranging his papers and unrolling his map of the property. He was a +fussy little man, and made a great pother because the map as soon as +unrolled started to roll itself up again. He weighted one corner with +the inkpot, and for a second weight reached out a hand for one of three +hyacinth vases which decorated the centre of the table. The bulb +toppled over and, sousing into the inkpot, sent up a _jet d'encre_, +splashes of which distributed themselves over the map, over the clerk, +over Mr Baker's neat pepper-and-salt suit, and over Mr. Dewy's own fancy +waistcoat. Much blotting-paper was called into use, and many apologies +were hastily offered to Mr Baker; in the midst of which commotion 'Bias +strolled into the room, and took a seat near the door. + +Having mopped the worst of the damage on the map and offered his +handkerchief to Mr Baker (who declined it), Mr Dewy picked up a small +ivory hammer, stained his fingers with an unnoticed splash of ink on its +handle, licked them, wiped them carefully with his handkerchief, picked +up the hammer again, and announced that the sale had begun. + +"Lot I.--All that Oak Coppice known as Higher Penpyll. Eighteen acres, +one rood, eleven perches. Aspect south and south-west. . . . +But there, gentlemen, you are all acquainted with the property, I make +no doubt. . . . Any one present not possessed of the sale catalogue? +Yes, I see a gentleman over there without one. Mr Chivers, would you +oblige?" + +The clerk, still attempting to remove some traces of ink from his +person, distributed half a dozen copies of the printed catalogue. +He gave one to Cai. 'Bias, too, held out a hand and received one. + +"Lot I.," resumed Mr Dewy. "All that desirable woodland (oak coppice) +known as Higher Penpyll. Eighteen acres and a trifle over. _Now_, what +shall we say, gentlemen?" + +"Fifty pounds," said Mr Middlecoat promptly. + +The auctioneer glanced at Mr Baker, who frowned. + +"Now, Mr Middlecoat! Now really, sir! . . . This is serious business, +and you offer me less than three pounds an acre! The coppice is good +coppice, too." + +"'Twill hardly pay to clear," answered Mr Middlecoat. "But why can't ye +lump this lot in with the two next? . . . That's my suggestion. +If Mr Baker is agreeable? They all run in one stretch, so to speak; +and, in biddin' for the whole, a man would know where he's _to_." + +Mr Dewy, speaking in whispers behind his palm, held consultation with Mr +Baker. + +"Very well," he announced at length. "Mr Baker, actin' on behalf of +Squire Willyams, consents to the three lots bein' put up together-- +_ong block_, as the French would say. No objection? Very well, then. +Lot 1, Higher Penpyll, eighteen acres, one rood, eleven perches: Lot 2, +Lower Penpyll, forty-two acres, three perches--forty-two almost exact: +Lot 3, Wooda Wood, forty acres, one rood, one perch; all in oak coppice, +two to five years' growth. What offers, gentlemen, for this very +desirable timbered estate?" + +"Three-fifty!" + +"Come, Mr Middlecoat!" protested the auctioneer, after another glance at +Mr Baker. "Indeed, sir, you will not drive me to believe as you're +jokin'?" + +Mr Middlecoat, whose gaze had rested on Mr Baker, faced about, and, +looking down the table, caught the eye of one of his supporters, who +nodded. + +"Three-seven-five!" called out the supporter. + +"Four hundred!" Mr Middlecoat promptly capped +the bid. + +"That's a little better, gentlemen," Mr Dewy encouraged them. + +Apparently, too, it was the best. For some three minutes he exhorted +and rebuked them, but could evoke no further bid. There was a prolonged +pause. The auctioneer glanced again at Mr Baker, who, while seemingly +unaware of the appeal, slightly inclined his head. Mr Middlecoat's eyes +had rested on Mr Baker all the while. + +"One hundred acres, as you may say, at less than four pounds the acre! +Well, if any man had prophesied this to me on the day when I entered +business--" Mr Dewy checked himself, and let fall the hammer. +"Mr Middlecoat, sir, you're a lucky man." He announced, "Lot 4--Two +arable fields, known as Willaparc Veor and Willapark Vear respectively: +the one of six acres, one rood, and six perches; the other of three and +a half acres." + +As the auction proceeded, even the guileless Cai could not help +detecting an air of unreality about it. Mr Middlecoat bid for +everything. Now and again, if Mr Middlecoat miscalculated, a friend +helped and raised the price by a very few pounds for Mr Middlecoat to +try again: which Mr Middlecoat duly did. It became obvious that Mr +Middlecoat had somehow possessed himself of a pretty close guess at what +price Squire Willyams would part with each lot instead of "buying in"; +that Mr Baker knew it; that the auctioneer knew it; that everyone in the +room knew they knew; and that nobody in the room was disposed to prevent +Mr Middlecoat's acquiring whatever was offered. + +Under these conditions the sale proceeded swiftly, pleasantly, and +without a hitch. Cai cast frequent glances back at the door. But the +minutes sped on, and still Mrs Bosenna did not appear. + +"Lot 9--A field known as Barton's Orchard. Two perches only short of +two acres--" + +"Say twenty-five," said Mr Middlecoat carelessly. + +Again Cai glanced back. The farm land had been fetching on an average +some twenty to twenty-five pounds an acre. . . . Why was Mrs Bosenna not +here? + +On an impulse--annoyed, perhaps, by the young farmer's +take-it-for-granted tone--he called out "Thirty!" + +The auctioneer and Mr Baker--who had just signified, by a slight frown, +that he could not accept the young farmer's bid--glanced up incuriously. +Mr Middlecoat, too, turned about, not recognising the voice of his new +"bonnet,"--to use a term not unfamiliar in auctioneering. + +But Cai did catch their glances: for at the same moment he, too, wheeled +about at the sound of a deep voice by the door. + +"Forty!" + +"Eh?" murmured Mr Dewy and Mr Baker, together taken by surprise. +And "Hullo, what the dev--" began Mr Middlecoat, when Cai promptly +chimed "Fifty!" + +For the new bidder was 'Bias, of course: and well, in a flash, Cai +guessed his game. Since Mrs Bosenna chose to tarry, 'Bias was bidding +against him. It was a duel. Should 'Bias win and present her with +these coveted two acres? Never! + +"Sixty!" + +"Here, I say!" Mr Middlecoat was heard to gasp in protest. But he too +began to suspect a game. "Sixty-five!" The duel had become triangular. + +"Seventy!" + +"Eighty!" intoned 'Bias. + +"A hundred!" Cai's jaw was set. + +By this time all heads were turned to the new competitors. Two or three +of the farmers were whispering, asking if by any chance there was +mineral in dispute. One had heard--or so he alleged--that "manganese" +had been discovered somewhere up the valley--before his time--but he +could remember his father telling of it. + +Mr Middlecoat stepped to the window and glanced out in to the square for +a moment. He returned, and nervously bid "Ten more!" + +"Excuse me," the auctioneer corrected him blandly; "the gentleman at the +far end of the room--I didn't catch his name--" + +"Hunken," said 'Bias. + +"_Captain_ Hunken," prompted Mr Philp. + +"Er--excuse me, Mr Middlecoat, but Captain Hunken has just offered a +hundred-and-twenty." + +"And thirty!" chimed Cai. + +"Fifty!" intoned back the voice by the door. + +Mr Middlecoat passed a hand over his brow. "Another ten," he murmured +to the auctioneer. "Is there a boy handy? I--I want to send out a +message?" + +"Certainly, Mr Middlecoat," agreed the accommodating but bewildered +auctioneer, and turned to his clerk. + +"Mr Chivers, would you oblige?" + +The young farmer scribbled a word or two on a piece of paper, which he +folded and gave to Mr Chivers with some hurried instruction; and Mr +Chivers steered his way out with agility. But meanwhile the bidding for +Barton's Orchard had risen to two hundred. + +"Say another ten, to keep it going," proposed Mr Middlecoat, wiping his +brow although the weather was chilly. To gain time, he suggested that +maybe there was some mistake; that the gentlemen, maybe, had not +examined the map of the property and might be bidding for some other lot +under a misapprehension. + +Mr Baker objected to this. The description of the lots on the catalogue +was precise and definite. The two gentlemen obviously knew what they +were about. The field was a small field, but the soil was undeniably of +the best, and in the interests of the vendor-- + +"Two hundred and thirty!" interrupted 'Bias. + +"--and fifty!" bid Cai. + +There was a pause. Mr Dewy looked at Mr Middlecoat, who under his gaze +admitted himself willing to stake two hundred and sixty. "Though 'tis +the price of building land!" + +"Apparently you are willing to give it rather than let the purchase go," +observed Mr Baker drily. "For aught you know both these gentlemen may +be desiring it for a building site. Did I hear one of them say +two-seventy-five? Captain--er--Hunken, if I caught the name?" + +"Two-eighty," persisted Cai. + +"Two-ninety!" + +"Well, make it three hundred, and I've done!" groaned Mr Middlecoat +collapsing. + +"Three--" + +"What's all this?" interrupted a voice, very sweet and cool in the +doorway. + +"Mrs Bosenna?--Your servant, ma'am!" Mr Dewy rose halfway in his seat +and made obeisance. "We are dealing with a lot which may concern you, +ma'am; for it runs "--he consulted his map--"Yes--I thought so--right +alongside your property at Rilla. A trifle over two acres, ma'am, and +Mr Middlecoat has just bid three hundred for it." + +"And"--began Cai: but Mrs Bosenna (taken though she must have been by +surprise) was quick and frowned him to silence. + +"And a deal more than its value, as Captain Hocken was about to say. +Will any fool bid more for such a patch?" + +Cai and 'Bias stared together, interrogating her. But there was no +further bid, and Mr Dewy knocked down the lot at 300 pounds. + + +"Which," said Mrs Bosenna meditatively to Dinah that night, "you may +call two hundred and fifty clean thrown into the sea. And the worst is +that though Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken are a pair of fools and Mr +Middlecoat a bigger fool than either--as it turns out, I'm the biggest +fool of all." + +"How, mistress?" + +"Why, you ninny! They were buying, one against the other, to make me a +present, and I stepped in and saved young Middlecoat's face. Yet," she +mused, "I don't see what else he could have done. . . . Well, thank the +Lord! he'll be humble now, which the others were and he wasn't." + +"He's young, anyway," urged Dinah. + +"That's something," her mistress conceded. "It gives the more time to +rub in his foolishness, and he'll never hear the last of it." + +"Three hundred pounds, too!" ejaculated Dinah. "The very sound of it +frightens me. A terrible sum to throw to waste!" + +"I wouldn't say that altogether. . . . Yes, you may unlace me. +What fools men are!" + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +THE LAST CHALLENGE. + +Next Lady-day, which fell on a Thursday, 'Bias called upon Mrs Bosenna +with his rent and with the pleasing announcement that in a week or so he +proposed to pay her a further sum of seven pounds eight shillings and +fourpence; this being the ascertained half-year's dividend earned by the +hundred pounds she had entrusted to his stewardship. + +She warmly commended him. "Close upon fifteen per cent! I wonder-- +But there! I suppose you won't tell me how it's done, not if I ask ever +so?" + +'Bias looked knowing and reminded her that to ask no questions was a +part of her bargain. As a matter of fact it was also a part of his +bargain with Mr Rogers, and he could not have told had he wished to +tell. + +"I suppose you've heard the latest news?" said he. "They've chosen me +on the Harbour Board--Ship-owners' representative." + +"I didn't even know there had been an election." + +"No more there hasn't. Rogers made the vacancy, and managed it for me; +retired in my favour, as you might say." + +"Seems to me Mr Rogers must be weakenin' in his head." + +"Oh no, he's not!" 'Bias assured her with a chuckle. "But he's pretty +frail in the body. At his time o' life and with his infirmity a man may +be excused, surely?" + +"I reckon," said Mrs Bosenna, "there's few would have wept if Mr Rogers +had superannuated himself years ago. Now if you'd told me he was +_turned_ out--" + +"You're hard on Rogers!" he protested, tasting the joke of it. + +"Well, I don't think he took on these jobs for his health, as they say; +and so it comes hard to believe as he goes out o' them for that reason. +But there! he may be an honester man than I take him for. . . . +Well, and so you're becomin' a public man too! I congratulate you." + +"I wouldn' call myself _that_," said 'Bias modestly. "But one or two +have suggested that a fellow like me, with plenty of time on his hands, +might look after a few small things and the way public money's spent on +'em." He might have claimed that at any rate he knew more of harbour +affairs than Cai could possibly know of education: but he did not. +To their honour, neither he nor Cai--though they ruffled when face to +face before folks--ever spoke an ill word behind the other's back. +"There's the dredgin', for one thing; and, for another, the way they're +allowed to lade down foreign-goin' ships is a scandal." + +"Is it the Harbour's business to stop that?" + +"It ought to be somebody's business." + +"You'll get nicely thanked," she promised, "if you interfere--and as a +ship-owners' representative too!" + +"There's another matter," confessed 'Bias. "They've asked me to put up +for the Parish Council next month. There's a notion that, with this +here Diamond Jubilee comin' on, the town ought to rise to the occasion." + +"And you're the man to give it the lift!" said Mrs Bosenna gaily. +"Is Captain Hocken standin' too?" + +"They say so." + +"Then I'll plump for both of you. Wait, though--I won't promise: or +when the canvass starts you'll both be neglectin' me." + + +The next day Cai called in turn with his rent. "And there's another +little matter," said he after handing it to her. "You remember that +hundred pounds? Well there's a half-year's dividend declared and due on +it, and the cheque's to arrive some time next week. What's the amount, +d'ye guess?" + +"Satisfactory?" + +"Seven pounds eight shillings and fourpence. . . . Eh? I _thought_ it +might astonish you." + +"It's--it's such an odd amount," she murmured. + +"It's close upon fifteen per cent." + +"Yes. You took my breath away for the moment. I wonder at the way you +men--I mean, I wonder how _you_ do it--turnin' money to such good +account? 'Tis a gift I suppose; and you couldn' teach me, even if you +would." + +Cai received the compliment with a somewhat guilty smile. + +"They tell me too," she continued, "that you are standin' for the Parish +Council next month." + +"Who told you?" + +"Oh . . . a little bird!" + +Cai did not guess at 'Bias under this description. "Well, you see, with +this here Diamond Jubilee in the offing, there's a feelin' abroad that +the town ought to sit up, as the sayin' is--" + +"And you're the man to make it sit up!" said Mrs Bosenna gaily. + +"Well now, I want you to help me." + +Mrs Bosenna started, alert at once and on her guard; for the game of +fence she had chosen to play with these two demanded a constant +wariness. + +But it seemed that for the moment Cai had no design to press his suit-- +or no direct design. + +"It's this way," he explained. "You know the stevedores, down at the +jetties, are givin' their usual Whit-Monday regatta--Passage Regatta, as +some call it? Well, they've made me President this year." + +"More honours?" + +"And I've offered a Cup; which seemed the proper thing to do, under the +circumstances. 'A silver cup, value 5 pounds, presented by the +President, Caius Hocken, Esquire': it'll look fine 'pon the bills, and +it's to go with the first prize of two guineas for sailin' boats not +exceedin' fourteen feet over-all. There's what they call a one-design +Class o' these in the harbour: which is good sport and worth +encouragin'. There's no handicap in it either: the first past the line +takes the prize--always the prettiest kind o' race to watch. Now the +favour I ask is that, when the time comes, you'll hand the Cup to the +winner." + +"It--it'll look rather marked, won't it?" hesitated Mrs Bosenna. +She had as small a disinclination as any woman to find herself the +central figure in a show, and Cai (had he known it) was attacking one of +the weakest points in her siege-defences. But to accept this offer--or +(if you prefer it) to grant the favour--meant a move on the board which +might too easily lead to a trap. "Besides," she objected, "you can't do +that sort o' thing without a few words, and I've never made a public +speech in my life." + +"You leave the speechifyin' to me," said Cai reassuringly: but it did +not reassure her at all. ("Good gracious!" she thought. "He's not the +sort to take advantage of it--but if he _did!_ . . . You can never trust +men.") + +Cai, misinterpreting the frown on her brow, went on to assure her +further that he could manage a speech all right; at any rate, he would +be able by Whit-Monday. He had--he would tell her in confidence--been +taking some lessons in elocution of (or, as he put it, "off") Mr Peter +Benny. + +"Did you ever hear tell of a man called Burke?" he asked. + +"'Course I did," answered Mrs Bosenna, albeit the question startled her. +"My old nurse told me about him often. He used to go about snatchin' +bodies." + +Cai considered a moment, and shook his head. "I don't think mine can be +the same, or Benny wouldn't have recommended him so highly. There was +another fellow that learned to be a speaker by practisin' with his mouth +full of pebbles, which struck me as too thoroughgoin' altogether, and +'specially when you're aimin' no higher than a Parish Council. +To be sure," he confessed, "I did make a start with a brace of +peppermint bull's-eyes, and pretty nigh choked myself. But Benny says +that, for English public speakin', there's no such master as this Burke, +and so I've sent for him." + +"Gracious!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna. "Won't he charge a terrible lot?-- +with travellin' expenses too!" + +"His works, I mean. The man's dead, and they're in six volumes." + +"You'll never get through 'em then, between this and Whitsuntide. +If I was you, I'd keep on at the peppermints." + + +Although the six volumes of Edmund Burke duly arrived, and Cai made a +bold attempt upon their opening tractate, "A Vindication of Natural +Society,"--thereby hopelessly bemusing himself, since he accepted its +ironical arguments with entire seriousness--in the end he took a shorter +way and procured Mr Benny to write his speeches for him. + +These he got by heart in the course of long morning rambles; these he +rehearsed with their accomplished author; these he declaimed in the +solitude of his bed-chamber--until, one day, Mrs Bowldler (whom terror +arresting, had held spellbound for some minutes on the landing) knocked +in to know if Palmerston should run for the doctor. + +By dint (or in spite) of them at the election of Parish Councillors Cai +headed the poll with a total of 411 votes. 'Bias, who received 366, +came fourth on the list of elected: but this was no disgrace--a triumph +rather--for one who had omitted to be born in the town. By general +consent the honours stood easy; though, on the strength of his poll, the +new Council began by choosing Cai for its chairman. On him Troy laid +thereby the chief responsibility for the Jubilee festivities now but two +months ahead. + +At this first Council meeting, and at the meetings of many committees +subsequently called to make preparation for the great day, 'Bias said +very little. Those--and they were many--who had looked for "ructions" +between the two rivals, and had taken glee of the prospect, suffered +complete disappointment. + +"You see," he explained to Mr Rogers, "I don't hold by several things +Cai Hocken and the Committee are doin'. But they be doin' 'em in the +Queen's honour, after their lights: and 'tisn't fitly to use the +occasion for quarrellin'. There's only one way o' forcin' a quarrel on +me where Queen Victoria's consarned, and that is by speakin' ill of +her." + +"That's right," agreed Mr Rogers. "You've common ground in the +Widow-woman." + +"The--?" + +"The Widow at Windsor, as they call her." + +"Oh! I thought for a moment--" + +"There's widows and widows," Mr Rogers blinked mischievously. "But look +here--what's this I'm told about your interferin' down at the Harbour +Board, tryin' to get the Commissioners to regylate the ladin' o' +vessels?" + +"Well, and why not?" asked 'Bias. + +"Why not? For one thing you bet it isn' the Commissioners' business." + +"It ought to be somebody's business to stop what's goin' on. +Say 'tis mine, if you like." + +"Look 'ee here, Cap'n Hunken," said Mr Rogers, showing his teeth. +"If that's your game, better fit you was kickin' up a rumpus on the +Parish Council than puttin' a spoke into honest trade. I didn' make +room 'pon the Board for you to behave in that style." + +"I don't care whether you did or you didn'," retorted 'Bias sturdily. +"And 'honest trade' d'ye call it? robbin' the underwriters and puttin' +seamen's lives in danger." + +"Eh? . . . _You_'re a nice man to talk, I must say! Come to me, you do, +and want me to get you anything up to twenty per cent without risk. +How d'ee think that's done in these days, with every one cuttin' +freights? I gave you credit for havin' more sense." + +'Bias stared. "See here," he said slowly, "if I'd known that hundred +pound was to be put into any such wickedness, I'd have seen you further +before trustin' you with it. As 'tis, I'll trouble you--" + +"Hold hard, there!" Mr Rogers interrupted. "You're in a tarnation hurry +every way, 'twould seem. Who told you as I'd put that hundred into any +vessel below Plimsoll mark?" + +"I thought you hinted as much." + +"Then you thought a long sight too fast. If you must know, your money's +in the old _Saltypool_, and old as she is, that steamship might be my +child, the way I watch over her." + +"The _Saltypool!_ Why, she's the most scand'lous case as has gone out +of harbour these three months!" + +"Eh?" + +"I saw her with my own eyes alongside No. 3 jetty, the evenin' before +she sailed. A calm night it was too; and she with her Plimsoll well +under and a whole line o' trucks waitin' to be shot into her. She went +out before daybreak, if you remember, and God knows how low she was by +that time." + +Mr Rogers's jaw dropped. + +"The idiots!" he muttered. "When I told 'em--" He broke off. +"I say, you're not pullin' my leg?" + +"Saw her with my own eyes, I tell you," 'Bias assured him, wondering a +little; for the old sinner's dismay was clearly honest. + +"Then all I say is, you can call Fancy and tell her to fetch me a Bible, +if there's one in the house, an' I'll swear to you I never knew it, an' +I never seen it. What's more, I'll sack the captain, an' I'll sack the +mate. What's more, I'll cable dismissal out to Philadelphy. +What's more--" + +"There, there!" interposed 'Bias. "You didn' know, and enough said! +I don't want any man thrown out of employ. 'Tis the system I'm out to +spoil." + +"Skippers are a trouble-without-end in these days," Mr Rogers muttered +on, staring gloomily at the fire in the grate; "specially to a man +crippled like me. . . . You spend years sarchin' for a fool, an' you no +sooner get the treasure, as you think--one you can trust for a plain +ord'nary fool in all weathers--than he turns out a _dam_ fool!" + +On his way from the ship-chandler's 'Bias ran against Mr Philp, who +paused in the roadway and eyed him, chewing a piece of news and +chuckling. + +"That friend o' yours is a wonnur!" preluded Mr Philp. + +"Meanin' Caius Hocken?" + +"Who else? . . . He's goin' a great pace in these days; but you won't +tell me he has flown out o' _that_ range? Yes, 'tis Cap'n Hocken I +mean; our Mayor, as you may call him; and there's some as looks to see a +silver cradle yet in his mayoralty." + +"What's the latest?" 'Bias could not help putting the question, yet +despised himself for it. + +"He's President of the Stevedores' Regatta this year." + +"Get along with your news--I heard it ten days ago." + +"So you did, for I told you myself. But he's giving a silver cup for +the fourteen-foot race." + +"And I heard that, too." + +"Ay: but what you don't know, maybe, is that he's been up to Rilla Farm +tryin' to persuade Mrs Bosenna to attend on the Committee-ship an' hand +the cup--his _cup_--to the winner." + +"She's never consented?" + +"Now I call that a master-stroke. That's the bold way to win a woman. +'Come along o' me, my dear, an' find yourself the lady patroness, +life-size. . . . Madam, you'll excuse the liberty,--but may I have the +igstreme honour to request you to take my arm in the full view of all +this here assembled rabble?' So arm-in-arm it is, up the deck, and +'Ladies an' Gentlemen'--meanin' 'Attention, pray, all you scum o' the +earth'--'I'll trouble you to observe strick silence while this lady, +with whom you are all familiar--'" + +"Steady on!" + +"Well, 'familiar' is too strong a word, as you say. 'While this lady, +with whom you're all acquainted, presents the gallant winner with a cup, +value Five Pounds, which you may have reckoned as an igstravagance when +you heard I was the donor, 'but will now reckernise as a sprat to catch +a whale--that is, unless you're even bigger fools than I take ye for. +'Twas with the greatest difficulty I indooced Mrs Bosenna--'" + +"She never would!" swore 'Bias. + +"Well, as a matter o' fact, she hasn't. But you'll allow the trick was +clever, and nothin' more left for the woman, if she'd yielded, but to be +carried straight off to the altar. 'Twould have been expected of her, +and no less." + +"What has she done?" + +"Taken a wise an' womanly course, as I hear. 'No,' says she, 'I'll go +to bottomless brimstone before lendin' myself to such a dodge'--or words +to that effect. 'But I'll tell 'ee what I will do,' says she, 'I'll +offer this here silver cup on my own account, an' give it with my own +hands to the winner. And you can stand by,' says she, 'an' look as +pompous as you please.' Either that, or that in so many words. +I'm givin' you the gist of it, as it reached me." + +"Thank 'ee," said 'Bias, perpending and digging up the roadway with the +point of his stick. "'Tis to be her own prize, you say?" + +"Yes, an' presented with her own hands. If I was you--bein' a trifle +late as you are on the handicap--I'd sail in an' collar that prize. +'Twould be a facer for him." + +"No time." + +"Whit-Monday's not till the seventh o' June. Four clear weeks: an' +Boatbuilder Wyatt could knock you up a shell in half that time. He gets +cleverer with every boat of the class; and with a boat built to race +once only he could make pretty well sure." + +Later that afternoon Mr Philp, who never lost an occasion to advertise +himself, paid a call on Mr Wyatt, boatbuilder. + +"I found a new customer for you this afternoon," he announced, winking +mysteriously. "If Cap'n Hunken should call along you'll know what I +mean." + + +On his homeward road the industrious man had a stroke of good luck. +He espied Captain Hocken, and made haste to overtake him. + +"Good evenin', Cap'n Cai!" + +"Ah--Mr Philp? Good evenin' to 'ee." + +"It's like a providence my meetin' you; for as it chances you was the +last man in my mind. I happened down to Wyatt's yard just now, and--if +you'll believe me--there's reason to believe he'll get an order +to-morrow for another 14-footer," + +"Ay? . . . What for?" + +"Why, to enter for the cup you're givin' on Whit-Monday." + +"You're mistaken," said Cai. "'Tis Mrs Bosenna that's givin' the cup, +not I." + +"What? With her own hands?" + +"_To_ be sure. Why not?" + +"Then that accounts for it," said Mr Philp gleefully, rubbing his hands. +"He's a deep one, is your friend Hunken! It did strike me as odd, too-- +his givin' an order to Wyatt in all this hurry: but now I understand." + +"Drat the man! what _is_ it you understand?" + +"Why, as you know, Wyatt can knock him a shell together that'll win the +race under everybody's nose. 'Tis a child's play, if you don't mind +castin' the boat next day an' content yourself with scantlin' like a +packin' case. At least, 'twould be child's play to any one but Wyatt, +who can't help buildin' solid, to save his life. If the man had +consulted me, I'd have recommended Mitchell. Mitchell never had a +length o' seasoned wood in his store: he can't afford the capital. +But to my mind he can--take him as a workman--shape a boat better than +Wyatt ever did yet." + +"And to mine," Cai agreed. + +"The cunning of it, too! He to take the prize from her under your nose +and you standin' by and lookin' foolish. For, let alone the craft, they +say Cap'n Hunken can handle a small boat to beat any man in this +harbour. He cleared a whole prize-list out in Barbadoes, I've heard." + +"What, 'Bias? Don't you be afraid. He can't steer a small boat for +nuts." + +"Dear me! Then I must have been misinformed, indeed." + +"You have been," Cai assured him. "I reckon Mitchell can knock up a +boat to give fits to anything of Wyatt's; and if 'Bias--if Cap'n Hunken +is countin' on Wyatt to help him put the fool on me, it may happen he'll +learn better." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +PASSAGE REGATTA. + +"'Tis good to wear a bit of colour again," said Mrs Bosenna on Regatta +morning, as she stood before her glass pinning to her bodice a huge bow +of red, white, and blue ribbons. "Black never did become me." + +"It becomes ye well enough, mistress, and ye know it," contradicted +Dinah. + +"'Tis monotonous, anyway. I can't see why we poor widow-women should be +condemned to wear it for life." + +"_You_ bain't," Dinah contradicted again, and added slily, "d'ye wish me +to fetch witnesses?" + +Her mistress, tittivating the ribbons, ignored the question. +"I do think we might be allowed to wear colours now and again--say on +Sundays. As it is, I dare say many will be pickin' holes in my +character, even for this little outbreak." + +"There's a notion, now! Why, 'tis Queen Victory's Year--and a pretty +business if one widow mayn't pay her respects to another!" + +"It do always seem strange to me," Mrs Bosenna mused. + +"What?" + +"Why, that the Queen should be a widow, same as any one else." + +"Low fever," said Dinah. "And I've always heard as the Prince Consort +had a delicate constitution." + +"It happened before I was born," said Mrs Bosenna vaguely. "Think o' +that, now! . . . And yet 'twasn't the widowin' I meant so much as the +marryin'. I can't manage to connect it in my mind with folks so +high up in the world as Kings and Queens. 'Tis so intimate." + +"You may bet Providence tempers it to 'em somehow," opined Dinah. +"If they didn' have families, what'd become o' English history?" + + +If any tongues wagged against Mrs Bosenna for wearing the patriotic +colours that day, they were not heard in the holiday crowd at the +Passage Slip when, with nicely calculated unpunctuality, she arrived, at +11.32 (the time appointed having been 11.15), to be conveyed on board +the Committee vessel. (It should be explained here that the aquatic +half of Troy's Passage Regatta is compressed within the forenoon: at +midday Troy dines, and even on holidays observes Greenwich time for +that event. Moreover, the afternoon sports of bicycle racing, +steeplechasing, polo-bending, &c., were preluded in those days--before +an electric-power station worked the haulage on the jetties--by a +procession of huge horses, highly groomed and bedecked with ribbons: and +this procession, starting at 1 P.M., allowed the avid holiday-keeper +small margin for dallying over his meal.) + +Mrs Bosenna reached the slip to find Cai waiting below in a four-oared +boat which he had borrowed from the Clerk of the Course. A large red +ensign drooped from a staff and trailed in the water astern: the crew +wore scarlet stocking-caps: bright cushion disposed in the stern-sheet +added a touch of luxury to this pomp and circumstance. It might not +rival the barge of Cleopatra upon Cydnus; but the shore-crowd, under +whose eyes it had been waiting for close upon twenty minutes, voted it +to be a very creditable turn out; and Cai, watch in hand, was at least +as impatient as Mark Antony. Off the Committee Ship, a cable's length +up the river, the penultimate race (ran-dan pulling-boats) was finishing +amid banging of guns and bursts of music from the "Troy Town Band," +saluting the winner with "See the Conquering Hero Comes," the second +boat with strains consecrated to first and second prize-winners in Troy +harbour since days beyond the span of living memory, even as all races +start to the less classical but none the less immemorial air of "Off She +goes to Wallop the Cat." + +The crowd parted and made passage for Mrs Bosenna to descend the +slip-way: for Troy is always polite. Its politeness, however, seldom +takes the form of reticence; and as she descended she drew a double +broadside of neighbourly good-days and congratulations, with audible +comments from the back rows on her personal appearance. + +"Mornin', Mrs Bosenna--an' a brave breast-knot you're wearin'!" + +"Han'some, id'n-a?" + +"Handsome, sure 'nough!" + +"Fresh coloured as the day she was wed. . . . Good mornin' ma'am! +Good mornin', Mrs Bosenna--an' a proper Queen o' Sheba you be, all +glorious within." + +"What a thing 'tis to have money!" remarked a meditative voice deep in +the throng. + +"Eh, Billy, my son, it cures half the ills o' life," responded another. + +"'Tis a mysterious thing," hazarded a woman--"a dispensation you may +call it, how black suits some complexions while others can't look at +it." + +"An' 'tis your sex's perversity," spoke up a male, "that them it don't +suit be apt to wear it longest"--whereat several laughed, for where +everybody is good-humoured the feeblest witticism will pass. + +Mrs Bosenna heard these comments, but acknowledged them only by a +scarcely perceptible heightening of colour. She went down the slip-way +royally, with Dinah in close attendance: and Cai, catching sight of her +and pocketing his watch, snatched up a boat-hook to draw the boat's +quarter alongside the slip, while with his disengaged hand he lifted the +brim of a new and glossy top-hat. + +"Am I disgracefully late?" Without waiting for his answer, as he handed +her aboard she exclaimed: + +"Oh! and what a crowd of boats! . . . I never felt so nervous in all my +life." + +"There's no need," said Cai--who himself, two minutes before, had been +desperately nervous. He seated himself beside her and took the tiller. +"Push her out, port-oars! Ready?--Give way, all! . . . There's no +need," he assured her, sinking his voice; "I never saw ye look a +properer sight. Maybe 'tis the bunch o' ribbon sets 'ee off--'Tis the +first time ye've worn colour to my recollection." + +"Dead black never suited me." + +"I wouldn' say that. . . . But," added Cai upon a happy thought, +"if that's so, you know where to find excuse to leave off wearin' it." + +"Hush!" she commanded. "How can you talk so with all these hundreds of +eyes upon us?" + +"I don't care." Cai's voice rose recklessly. + +"Oh, hush! or the crew'll hear us?" + +"I don't care, I tell you." + +"But I do--I care very much. . . . You don't pay me compliments when +we're alone," she protested, changing the subject slightly. + +"I mean 'em all the time." + +"Well, since compliments are flyin' to-day, that's a fine new hat you're +wearin'. And I like the badge in your buttonhole: red with gold +letters--it gives ye quite a smart appearance. What's the writin' on +it?" + +"'President.' 'Tis the only red-and-gold badge in the show. +Smart? I tell 'ee I'm feelin' smart." + +It was indeed Cai's day--his hour, rather--of triumph. He had played a +winning stroke, boldly, under the public eye: and a hundred comments of +the sightseers, as he steered through the press of boats to the +Committee Ship, testified to his success. Though he could not hear, he +felt them. + + --"Well!" + + --"Proper cuttin'-out expedition, as you might call it." + + --"And she with a great bunch o' ribbons pinned on her, + that no-one shan't miss the meanin' of it." + + --"Well, I always favoured Cap'n Hocken's chance, for my + part. An', come to think, 'tis more fitty 't should + happen so. When all's said an' done, t'other's a foreigner, + as you might say, from the far side o' the Duchy: an' if old + Bosenna's money is to go anywhere, why then, bein' Troy-earned, + let it go to a Troy man." + + --"But 'tis a facer for Cap'n Hunken, all the same. Poor chap, + look at 'en." + + --"Where? . . . I don't see 'en." + + --"Why, forward there, on the Committee Ship: leanin' up against + the bulwarks an' lookin' as if he'd swallowed a dog." + + --"There, there! . . . And some plucky of the man to stand up to + it, 'stead of walkin' off an' drownin' hisself. I like a man + as can take a knock-down blow standing up. 'Tis a rare + occurrence in these days." + + +Mrs Bosenna, too, whose wealth (pleasant enough for the comforts it +procured, pleasanter, perhaps, for an attendant sense of security, +pleasantest of all, it may be, for a further sense of power and +importance, secretly enjoyed) had, as yet, of public acknowledgment +taken little toll beyond the deference of tradesmen when she went +shopping, felt herself of a sudden caught up to an eminence the very +giddiness of which was ecstasy. It is possible that, had Cai claimed +her there and then, before the crowd, she would have yielded with but a +faint protest. You must not think that she lost her head for a moment. +On the contrary during her triumphal convoy she saw everything with +remarkable distinctness. She knew well enough that some scores of +women, all around, were envying her, yet admiring in spite of their +envy. Without hearing them, she could almost tell what comments were +uttered in boat after boat as she passed. But what mattered their envy, +so long as they admired? Nay, what mattered their envy, so long as they +envied? The tonic north wind, the sunshine, the sparkle of the water, +the gay lines of bunting flickering from stem to stern of the Committee +Ship, the invigorating blare of the Troy Town Band, now throwing its +soul into "Champagne Charlie," the propulsion of the oars that seemed to +snatch her and sweep her forward past wondering faces to high destiny-- +all these were wings, and lifted her spirit with them. She began to +under stand what it must feel like to be a Queen, or (at least) a Prime +Minister's wife. + +"Ea-sy all! In oars! . . . Bow, stand by to check her!" + +Cai called his orders clearly, sharply, in the tone of a master of men. +A score of boats hampered approach to the accommodation ladder; but +those that had occupants were obediently thrust wide to make way, and +easily as in a barge of state Mrs Bosenna was brought alongside. +A dozen hands checked the way of the boat, now abruptly. Other hands +were stretched to help her up the ladder, which she ascended with +smiling and graceful agility. On the deck, at the head of it, stood the +Hon. Secretary, with the silver cup ready, nursed in the crook of his +arm. It was a handsome cup, and it flashed in the sunlight. The Hon. +Secretary doffed his yachting cap. A dozen men close behind him doffed +their caps at the signal. They were the successful competitors of the +dinghy race, mixed up with committee-men: they had come to receive their +prizes. The competing boats, their sails lowered, had been brought +alongside, and lay tethered, trailing off from the ship's quarter, +rubbing shoulders in a huddle. + +Cai, mounting to the deck close behind Dinah, who had followed her +mistress, was met by the Hon. Secretary with the announcement that +everything had been ready these ten minutes. + +Almost before she could catch her breath, Mrs Bosenna found the cup +thrust into her hands; the band in the fore part of the vessel ceased-- +or, to speak more accurately, smothered--"Champagne Charlie"; the group +before her fell back to form a semicircle and urged forward the abashed +first-prize winner, who stood rubbing one ankle against another and +awkwardly touching his forelock, while a silence fell, broken only by +voices from the boats around calling "Order! Or-der for the speech!" + +Mrs Bosenna, recognising the champion in spite of his blushes, collected +her courage, smiled, and said-- + +"Why, 'tis Walter Sobey!" + +"Servant, ma'am!" Mr Sobey touched his forelock again and grinned, as +who should add, "You and me, ma'am, meets in strange places." + +"Well, I never! . . . How things do turn out!" It crossed Mrs Bosenna's +mind that on the last occasion of her addressing a word to Walter Sobey +he had been employed by her to cart manure for her roses: and across +this recollection floated a sense of money wasted--for to what service +could Walter Sobey, inhabitant of a three-roomed cottage, put a +two-handled loving-cup embossed in silver? + +There was no time, however, for hesitation. . . . With the most gracious +of smiles she took the cup in both hands, and presented it to the +champion. + +"'Tis good, anyhow, to feel it goes to a neighbour: and--and if the +worst comes to the worst, Walter, you can always take it back to the +shop and change it for something useful." + +"Thank 'ee, ma'am," said Mr Sobey, taking the cup respectfully. +He backed a pace or two, gazed around, and caught the eye of the Hon. +Secretary. "There's a money prize, too, attached to it--ain't there?" +he was heard to ask. "Leastways, 'twas so said 'pon the bills." +Mr Sobey was proud of his victory; the prouder because he had built the +winning boat with his own hands. (Very luckily for him, at the last +moment Captain Hocken had judged it beneath the dignity of a Regatta +President to compete; and Captain Hunken, missing his rival at the +starting-line, had likewise withdrawn from the contest.) + +"Certainly," agreed the Hon. Secretary. "Two guineas. Hi, there, aft! +Where's Mr Willett?" + +Other voices carried back the call, and presently the Treasurer, Mr +Willett--a pursey little man with enormous side-whiskers,--came hurrying +forward from the after-companion, where he had been engaged in hearing a +protest from an excited disputant--a competitor in the 16-foot class-- +who had in fact come in last, even on his handicap, but with a clear +notion in his own mind, and an array of arguments to convince others, +that he was entitled to the prize. Such misunderstandings were frequent +enough at Passage Regatta, and mainly because .Mr Willett, whom nobody +cared to cashier--he had been Treasurer for so many years,--had as a +rule imbibed so much beer in the course of the forenoon that any one +argument appeared to him as cogent as any other. He seemed, in fact, to +delight in hearing a case from every point of view; and by consequence +it could be securely predicted of any given race in Passage Regatta that +"You had never lost till you'd won." + +Now, on Cai's secret recommendation the Committee had engaged the boy +Palmerston--who was quick at sums--to stand by Mr Willett during the +forenoon and count out the cash for him. The Treasurer (it was argued) +would be suspicious of help from a grown man; whereas he could order a +boy about, and even cuff his head on emergency. So Palmerston, seated +by the after-companion, had spent a great part of the morning in +listening to disputes, and counting out money as soon as the disputes +were settled. Nor was objection taken--as it might have been at more +genteel fixtures--to a part of the prize being produced from +Palmerston's mouth, in which he had a knack of storing petty cash, for +convenience of access--and for safety too, to-day, since he had +discovered a hole in one of his pockets. + +Mr Willett then, rising and cutting short an altercation between two +late competitors in the 16-foot race, came hurrying forward with +Palmerston, ever loyal, in his wake. For the boy, without blaming +anyone, anxious only to fulfil a responsibility that weighed on him, was +aware that Mr Willett--whether considered as a man or as a treasurer-- +had taken in overmuch beer, and might need support in either capacity or +in both. + +But while Mr Willett advanced, in a series of hasty plunges,--as though +the Committee vessel were ploughing the deep with all sail set,--voices +around Mrs Bosenna had already begun to call for a speech; and the cry +was quickly taken up from the many boats overside, now gathered in a +close throng. + +"A speech! a speech!" + +Mrs Bosenna laughed, and turned about prettily. + +"I did not bargain for any speech," she protested. "I--in fact I never +made a speech in my life. If--if Captain Hocken would say a few +words--" + +"Ay, Cap'n," exhorted a voice, "speak up for her, like a man now! +Seems to us she've given you the right." + +There was a general laugh, and it brought a heightened flush to Mrs +Bosenna's cheek. Cai, not noting it, cleared his throat and doffed his +tall hat. "Here, hold this," said he, catching sight of Palmerston, and +cleared his throat again. + +"Friends and naybours," said he, and this opening evoked loud applause. +As it died down, he continued, "Friends and naybours, this here has been +a most successful regatta. _Of_ which, as a fitting conclusion, the +Brave has received his reward at the hands of the Fair." + +"Lord! he means hisself!" interrupted a giggling voice from one of the +boats. + +This interruption called forth a storm of applause. Oars were rattled +on rowlocks and feet began stamping on bottom boards. + +"By the Brave," continued Cai, pitching his voice higher, "I mean, of +course, our respected fellow-citizen, Mr Walter Sobey, whose handling of +his frail craft--" + +("Hear! Hear!") + +"--Whose handling of his frail craft to-day was of a natur' to surprise +and delight all beholders." + +At this point Mr Willett, the Treasurer, who had for some seconds been +staring at the speaker with glazed uncertain eye, interrupted in a voice +thick with liquor-- + +"The question is, Who wants me?" + +"Nobody, you d--d old fool!" snapped the Hon. Secretary. "Can't you see +Cap'n Hocken is makin' a speech?" + +"_I_ see," answered Mr Willett with drunken deliberation, "and, what's +more, I don't think much of it. . . . Gentlemen over there 'pears t' +agree with me," he added: for from the rear of the group a scornful +laugh had endorsed his criticism. + +"Any one can tell what _hasn't_ agreed with you this mornin'," retorted +the Hon. Secretary, still more angrily. "Go home, and--" + +But Cai had lifted a hand. "No quarrelling, please!" he commanded, and +resumed, "As I was sayin', ladies and gentlemen--or as I was about to +say--the handlin' of a small boat demands certain gifts or, er, +qualities; and these gifts and, er, qualities bein' the gifts and h'm +qualities what made England such as we see her to-day,--a sea-farin' +nation an' foremost at that,--it follows that we cannot despise them if +we wish her to occupy the same position in the futur'--which to my mind +is education in a nutshell." + +Again the scornful laugh echoed from the back of the crowd, and this +time Cai knew the voice. It stung him the more sharply, as in a flash +he recollected that the phrase "education in a nutshell" belonged +properly to a later paragraph, and in his flurry he had dragged it in +prematurely. His audience applauded, but Cai swung about in wrath. + +"My remarks," said he, "don't seem to commend themselves to one o' my +hearers. But I'm talkin' now on a subjec' about which I know som'at,-- +not about _ploughin'_." + +The thrust was admirably delivered,--the more adroitly in that, on the +edge of delivering it, he had paused with a self-depreciatory smile. +Its point was taken up on the instant. The audience on deck sent up a +roar of laughter: and the roar spread and travelled away from the ship +in a widening circle as from boat to boat the shrewd hit was reported. +Distant explosions of mirth were still greeting it, when Cai, finding +voice again, and wisely cutting out his prepared peroration, concluded +as follows:-- + +"Any way, friends and naybours, I can wind up with something as'll +commend itself to everybody: and that is by wishin' success to Passage +Regatta, and askin' ye to give three cheers for Mrs Bosenna. +Hip--hip--" + +"Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! hoo-ray!" The cheers were given with a will and +passed down the river in rolling echoes. But before the last echo died +away--while Mrs Bosenna smiled her acknowledgment--as the band formed up +for "God Save the Queen"--as they lifted their instruments and the +bandmaster tapped the music-stand with his baton,--at the top of his +voice 'Bias delivered his counter-stroke. + +"And one more for Peter Benny!" + +There was a momentary hush, and then--for Troy's sense of humour is +impartial, and everyone knew from what source Captain Hocken derived his +public eloquence--the air was rent with shout upon shout of merriment. +Even the band caught the contagion. The drummer drew a long applausive +rattle from his side-drum; the trombone player sawing the air with his +instrument, as with a fret-saw, evoked noises not to be described. + +In the midst of this general mirth--while Cai stood his ground, red to +the ears, and Mrs Bosenna plucked nervously at the tassel of her +sunshade--'Bias came thrusting forward, shouldering his way through the +press. But 'Bias's face reflected none of the mirth he had awakened. + +"I mayn't know much about ploughin', Cai Hocken--" he began. + +"Ah? Good day, Captain Hunken!" interposed Mrs Bosenna. + +"Good-day to you, ma'am." He raised his hat without answering her +smile. Then, with a gesture that dismissed the tactful interruption, +"I mayn't know much about ploughin', though it sticks in my mind that as +between us the judges handed me the stakes, even at _that_. But at +handlin' a boat--one o' these here dingheys if you will, an' if you care +to make good your words--" + +"What _was_ my words?" + +"Oh, I beg pardon." 'Bias corrected himself with a snort of contempt. +"'Peter Benny's words,' maybe I should have said: but 'education in a +nutshell' was the expression." + +"I'll take you up--when and where you please, and for any money," +Cai challenged, white to the lips and shaking with rage. + +"A five-pound note, if you will." + +"As you please. . . . I haven't five pound here, upon me." + +"Nor I, as it happens. But here's a sovereign for earnest." + +"Here's another to cover it, anyway. Who'll hold the stakes? . . . +Will you, ma'am?" Cai appealed to Mrs Bosenna. + +"Certainly not," she answered, tapping the deck angrily with the ferrule +of her sunshade. "And I wonder how you two can behave so foolish, +before folks." + +But for the moment they were past her control. + +"Here . . . Pam! Pam will do, eh?" + +"Well as another." + +"Right. Here Pam, take hold o' this sovereign and keep it careful!" + +"Mine too. . . . That makes the wager, eh?" + +"For five pounds?" + +"Five pounds. Right. + +"Boats?" + +"I don't care. Our own two, or draw lots for any two here, as you +please." + +"But--gentlemen!" interposed the Hon. Secretary. + +"Now, don't you start interferin'"--Bias turned on him sullenly. +"Else you might chance to get what you don't like." + +"Oh, they're mad!" wailed Mrs Bosenna, and Dinah was heard to murmur, +"You've pushed' em too far, mistress: an' don't say as I didn' warn +you!" + +"I--I was only goin' to suggest, gentlemen," urged the Hon. Secretary, +"it bein' already ten minutes past noon, and everybody waitin' for +'God Save the Queen.'" + +"Hullo!" hailed a voice alongside, at the foot of the accommodation +table; and Mr Philp's top hat, Mr Philp's deceptively jovial face, +Mr Philp's body clad in mourning weeds, climbed successively into view. +"There, naybours!" he announced. "I'm in the nick of time, after all, it +seems,--though when I heard the church clock strike twelve it sent my +heart into my mouth." He stood and panted. + +"Ah! good-day, Mr Philp!" Mrs Bosenna turned, hailing his intervention, +and advanced to shake hands. + +"Good-day to you, ma'am. Been enjoy in' yourself, I hope?" said Mr +Philp, somewhat taken aback by the warmth of her greeting. + +"A most successful Regatta . . . don't you agree?" + +"I might, ma'am," answered Mr Philp solemnly. "I don't doubt it, ma'am. +But as a matter of fact I have just come from a funeral." + +"Oh! . . . I--I beg your pardon--I didn't know--" + +"There's no call to apologise, ma'am. . . . The deceased was not a +relative. A farm-servant, ma'am--female--at the far end of the parish: +Tuckworthy's farm, to be precise: and the woman, Sarah Jane Collins by +name. Probably you didn't know her. No more did I except by sight: but +a very respectable woman--a case of Bright's disease. In the midst of +life we are in death, and, much as I enjoy Passage Regatta--" + +"You have missed it then?" + +"The woman had saved money, ma'am. There was a walled grave, by +request." Mr Philp sighed over this remembered consolation. "She could +not help it clashin', poor soul." + +"No, indeed!" + +"And you may or may not have noticed it, ma'am, but when a man sets duty +before pleasure, often as not he gets rewarded. Comin' back along the +town before the streets filled, I picked up a piece o' news, and hurried +along with it. I reckoned it might be of interest if I could reach here +ahead of 'God Save the Queen.'" + +"Gracious! What has happened?" Mrs Bosenna clasped her hands. +Indeed Mr Philp, big with his news and important, had somehow contrived +to overawe everyone on deck. + +"The news is," he announced slowly, "that the _Saltypool_ has gone down, +within fifty miles of Philadelphia. Crew saved in the boats. +Cable reached Mr Rogers at eleven o'clock, and"--he paused impressively, +"there and then Rogers had a second stroke. Point o' death, they say." + +Above the sympathetic murmur of Mr Philp's audience there broke, on the +instant, a gasping cry--followed by a yet more terrible sound, as of one +in the last agony of strangulation. + +All turned, as Palmerston--dashing forward between the music-stands of +the band and scattering them to right and left--flung himself between +Cai and 'Bias at their very feet. + +"Masters--masters! I've a-swallowed the stakes!" + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +FANCY BRINGS NEWS. + +"Which," Mrs Bowldler reported to Fancy, who had left her master's +sick-bed to pay a fleeting visit to Palmerston's, "the treatment was +drastic for a growin' child. First of all Mrs Bosenna, that never had a +child of her own, sent down to the cabin for the mustard that had been +left over from the Sailin' Committee's sangwidges, and mixed up a drink +with it and a little cold water. Which the results was _nil_; that is +to say, pecuniarily speakin'. Then somebody fetched along Mr Clogg the +vet. from Tregarrick, that had come over for the day to judge the +horses, and _he_ said as plain salt-and-water was worth all the mustard +in the world, so they made the poor boy swallow the best part of a pint, +and he brought up eighteenpence." + +"Saints alive! But I thought you told me--" + +"So I did: two solid golden sufferins. And _that_," said Mrs Bowldler, +"was for some time the most astonishin' part of the business. Two solid +golden sufferins: and low!--as the sayin' is--low and behold, eighteen +pence in small silver!" + +"Little enough too, for a miracle!" mused Fancy. + +"It encouraged 'em to go on. Captain Hocken--he's a humane gentleman, +too, and never graspin'--no, never in his life!--but I suppose he'd +begun to get interested,--Captain Hocken ups and suggests as they were +wastin' time, mixin' table-salt and water when there was the wide ocean +itself overside, to be had for the dippin'. So they tried sea-water." + +"My poor Pammy.'" + +"Don't you start a-pityin' me," gasped a voice, faint but defiant, from +the bed. "If I die, I die. But I got the account to balance." + +"I disremember what sum--er--resulted that time," confessed Mrs +Bowldler; "my memory not bein' what it was." + +"Ninepence; an' two threepennies with the soap--total two-and-nine, +which was correct. If I die, I die," moaned Palmerston. + +"'Ero!" murmured Fancy, stepping to the bedside and arranging his +pillow. + +"You take my advice and lie quiet," counselled Mrs Bowldler. +"You're not a-goin' to die this time. But there's been a shock to the +system, you may make up your mind," she went on, turning to Fancy. +"I'd most forgotten about the soap. That was Philp's suggestion, as I +heard. They found a cake of Monkey Brand in the ship's fo'c'sle, and by +the time Doctor Higgs arrived with his stomach-pump--" + +"They'd sent for _him?_ What, for two pounds?" + +"Less two-an'-nine, by this--as they thought. But, of course, there was +the child's health to be considered . . . I ought to mention that before +Dr Higgs came Captain Hunken remembered how he'd treated a seaman once, +that had swallowed carbolic by mistake. He recommended tar: but there +wasn't any tar to be found--which seems strange, aboard a ship." + +"It was lucky, anyhow." + +"There was a plenty of hard pitch about, and one or two reckoned the +marine glue in the deck-seams might be a passable substitute. They were +diggin' some out with their penknives when Doctor Higgs arrived with his +pump." + +"And did he use it?" + +"He did not. He asked what First Aid they had been applyin', an' when +they told him, his language was not to be repeated. 'D'ye think,' said +he, 'as I'd finish the child for--'well, he named the balance, whatever +'twas." + +"One-seventeen-three," said the voice from the bed. + +"That's so. And 'Monkey Brand?' says he. 'Why, you've scoured his +little stummick so, you might put it on the chimbly-piece and see your +face in it! Fit an' wrap what's left of him in a blanket,' says Doctor +Higgs; 'an' take him home an' put him to bed,' says he--which they done +so," concluded Mrs Bowldler, "an' if you'll believe it, when I come to +put him to bed an' fold his trowsers across the chair, out trickles the +two sufferins!" + +"You don't say!" + +"He's been absent-minded of late. It they'd only turned his pockets out +instead of--well, we won't go into details: but the two pounds was there +all the time. 'Twas the petty cash he'd swallowed, in the shock at +hearin' about Mr Rogers. . . . And how's _he_, by the way?" + +"Bad," answered Fancy, "dreadful bad. I don't think he's goin' to die, +not just yet-awhile: but he can't speak, and his mind's troubled." + +"Reason enough why, if all's truth that they tell of him." + +"But it isn't." + +"He brought your own father to beggary." + +"Well, you may put it that way if you choose. It's the way they all put +it that felt for Dad without allowin' their feelin's to take 'em +further. Not that he'd any claim to more'n their pity. He speckilated +with Mr Rogers, and Mr Rogers did him in the eye, that's all. And I'm +very fond of Dad," continued the wise child; "but the longer I live the +more I don't see as one man can bring another to beggary unless the +other man helps. The point is, Mr Rogers didn' leave him there. . . . +We've enough to eat." + +"Ho! If _that_ contents you--" Mrs Bowldler shrugged her shoulders. + +"Who said it did? We don't ezackly make Gawds of our bellies, Dad and +I; but there's a difference between that and goin' empty. Ask Pammy!" +she added, with a twitch and a grin. + +"I've heard you say, anyway, that you was afraid Mr Rogers'd go to the +naughty place. A dozen times I've heard you say it." + +"Rats!--you never did. What you heard me say was that he'd go to hell, +and I was sure of it. . . . And you may call it weak, but I can't bear +it," the child broke out with a cry of distress, intertwisting her +fingers and wringing them. "It's dreadful--dreadful!--to sit by and +watch him lyin' there, with his mind workin' and no power to speak. +All the time he's wantin' to say something to me, and--and--Where's +Cap'n Hocken?" + +"In his parlour. I heard his step in the passage, ten minutes ago, an' +the door close." + +"I'm goin' down to him, if you'll excuse me," said Fancy, rising from +the bedroom chair into which she had dropped in her sudden access of +grief. + +"Why?" + +"I dunno. . . . He's a good man, for one thing. You haven't noticed any +difference in him?" + +"Since when?" The question obviously took Mrs Bowldler by surprise. + +"Since he heard--yesterday--" + +"Me bein' single-handed, with Palmerston on his back, so to speak, I +hev' not taken particular observation," said Mrs Bowldler. "Last night, +as I removed the cloth after supper, he passed the remark that it had +been a very tirin' day, that this was sad news about Mr Rogers, but we'd +hope for the best, and when I mentioned scrambled eggs for breakfast, he +left it to me. Captain Hunken on the other hand chose haddock: he did +mention--come to think of it and when I happened to say that a second +stroke was mostly fatal--he did go so far as to say that all flesh was +grass and that Palmerston would require feedin' up after what he'd gone +through." + +"He--Cap'n Hunken--didn' seem worried in mind, either?" + +"Nothing to notice. Of course," added Mrs Bowldler, "you understand +that our appetites are not what they were: that there has been a distink +droppin' off since--you know what. They both eats, in a fashion, but +where's the pleasure in pleasin' 'em? Heart-renderin', I call it, when +a devilled kidney might be a plain boiled cabbage for all the heed +taken, and you knowin' all the while that a woman's at the bottom of +it." + +Fancy moved to the door. "Well," said she, "I'm sorry for the cause of +it: but duty's duty, and I reckon I've news to make 'em sit up." + +She went downstairs resolutely and knocked at Cai's parlour door. + +"Come in! . . . Eh, so it's you, missy? No worse news of the invalid, I +hope?" + +"He isn' goin' to die to-day, nor yet to-morrow, if that's what you +mean. May I take a chair?" + +"Why, to be sure." + +"Thank you." Fancy seated herself. "If you please, Cap'n Hocken, I got +a very funny question to ask." + +"Well?" + +"You mustn't think I'm inquisitive--" + +"Go on." + +"If you please, Cap'n Hocken, are you very fond indeed of Mrs Bosenna?" + +Cai turned about to the hearth and stooped for the tongs, as if to place +a lump of coal on the fire. Then he seemed to realise that, the season +being early summer, there was no fire and the tongs and coal-scuttle had +been removed. He straightened himself up slowly and faced about again, +very red and confused (but the flush may have come from his stooping). + +"So we're not inquisitive, aren't we? Well, missy, appearances are +deceptive sometimes--that's all I say." + +"But I'm not askin' out o' curiosity--really an' truly. And please +don't turn me out an' warn me to mind my own business; for it _is_ my +business, in a way. . . . I'll explain it all, later on, if only you'll +tell." + +"I admire Mrs Bosenna very much indeed," said Cai slowly. "There now,-- +will that satisfy you?" + +Fancy shook her head. "Not quite," she confessed, "I want to know, Are +you so fond of her that you wouldn' give her up, not on any account?" + +Cai flushed again. "Well, missy, since you put it that way, we'll make +it so." + +Still the answer did not appear to satisfy the child. She fidgetted in +her chair a little, but without offering to go. + +"Not for no one in the wide world?" she asked at length. + +"Why, see here,"--Cai met her gaze shyly--"isn't that the right way to +feel when you want to make a woman your wife?" + +"Ye-es--I suppose so," admitted Fancy with a sigh. "But it makes things +so awkward--" She paused and knit her brows, as one considering a hard +problem. + +"What's awkward?" + +Her response to this, delayed for a few seconds, was evasive when it +came. + +"I used to think you an' Cap'n Hunken was such friends there was nothin' +in the world you wouldn' do for him." + +"Ah!" Cai glanced at her with sharp suspicion. "So that's the latest +game, is it? He's been gettin' at you--a mere child like you!--and +sends you off here to work on my feelin's! . . . I thought better of +'Bias: upon my soul, I did." + +"An' you'd better go on thinkin' better," retorted Fancy with spirit. +"Cap'n Hunken sent me? What next? . . . Why, he never spoke a word to +me!" + +"Then I don't see--" + +"Why I'm here? No, you don't; but you needn't take up with guesses o' +_that_ sort." + +"I'm sorry if I mistook ye, missy." + +"You ought to be. Mistook me?--O' course you did. And as for Cap'n +Hunken's sendin' me, he don't even know yet that he's lost his money: +and if he did he'd be too proud, as you ought to know." + +"Lost his money?" echoed Cai. "What money?" + +"Well, to start with, you don't suppose Mr Rogers got his stroke for +nothin'? 'Twas the news about the _Saltypool_ that bowled him out: an' +between you an' me, in a few days there's goin' to be a dreadful mess. +He always was a speckilator. The more money he made--and he made a lot, +back-along--the more he'd risk it: and the last year or two his luck has +been cruel. In the end, as he had to tell me--for I did all his +writin', except when he employed Peter Benny,--he rode to one anchor, +and that was the _Saltypool_. He ran her uninsured." + +"Uninsured?" Cai gave a low whistle. "But all the same," said he, +"an' sorry as I am for Rogers, I don't see how that affects--" + +"I'm a-breakin' it gently," said Fancy, not without a small air of +importance. "Cap'n Hunken had a small sum in the _Saltypool_--a hundred +pounds only." + +"I wonder he had a penny. 'Tisn't like 'Bias to put anything into an +uninsured ship." + +"Mr Rogers did it without consultin' him. Cap'n Hunken didn' know, and +_I_ didn' know, for the money didn' pass by cheque. Some time back in +last autumn--I've forgot the date, but the books'll tell it--the old man +handed me two hundred pound in notes, not tellin' me where they came +from, with orders to pay it into his account: which I took it straight +across to the bank--" + +"Belay there a moment," interrupted Cai. "A moment since you mentioned +_one_ hundred." + +"So I did, because we're talkin' of Cap'n Hunken. Two hundred there +were, and all in bank notes: but only one hundred belonged to _him_--and +I only found _that_ out the other day, when he heard that Mr Rogers had +put it into the _Saltypool_, and there was a row. As for the other-- +Lawks, you don't tell me 'twas yours!" exclaimed Fancy, catching at the +sudden surmise written on Cai's face. + +"Why not? . . . If he treated 'Bias that way? Sure enough," said Cai. +"I took him a hundred pounds to invest for me, about that time." + +"Did he pay you a dividend this last half-year?" + +"To be sure--seven pound, eight-an'-four." + +"That was on the _Saltypool_," Fancy nodded. "And oh! Cap'n Hocken, I +am so sorry! but that hundred pound o' yours is at the bottom of the +sea." + +"Well, my dear," said Cai after a pause, pulling a wry face, "to do your +master justice, he warned me 'twas a risk. There's naught to do but pay +up un' look pleasant, I reckon. 'Twon't break me." + +"Cut the loss, you mean. The shares was paid up in full, and there +can't be no call." + +"You're knowledgeable, missy: and yet you're wrong this time, as it +happens. For (I may tell you privately) the money didn' belong to me, +but to Mrs Bosenna, who asked me to invest it for her." + +"Oh!--and Cap'n Hunken's hundred too?" + +Cai reached a hand to the mantelpiece for the tobacco-jar, filled a pipe +very deliberately, lit it, and drawing a chair up to the table, seated +himself in face of her. + +"I shouldn't wonder," said he, resting both arms on the table and eyeing +her across a cloud of tobacco-smoke. "Though I don't understand what +she--I mean, I don't understand what the game was." + +"Me either," agreed the child, musing. "No hurry, though: I'll be a +widow some day, please God--which is mor'n _you_ can hope. But now we +get to the point: an' the point is, you can pay the woman up. +Cap'n Hunken can't." + +"Why not?" + +"He don't know it yet, but he can't." + +"So you said: an' Why not? I ask. Within a thousand pound 'Bias owns as +much as I do." + +The child stood up, pulled her chair across to the table, and reseating +herself, gazed steadily across at him through the tobacco-smoke. + +"Where d'ye keep your bonds an' such like?" she asked. + +"In my strong box, for the most part: two or three in the skivet of my +sea-chest." + +"You got 'em all?" + +"All. That's to say all except the paper for this hundred pounds, which +'twas agreed Rogers should keep." + +"You're a lucky man. . . . Where did Cap'n Hunken keep his?" + +"Darn'd if I know. Somewheres about. He was always a bit careless over +his securities--and so I've told him a dozen times," + +"When did you tell him last?" + +This was a facer, and it made Cai blink. "We haven't discussed these +things much--not of late," he answered lamely. + +"I reckoned not. He don't keep 'em in his strong-box?" + +"He hasn't one." + +"In his chest?" + +"Maybe." + +"But he don't. He's left 'em with Mr Rogers from the first, or I'm +mistaken. I used to see the two bundles, his and yours, lyin' side by +side on the upper shelf o' the safe when the old man sent me to unlock +it an' fetch something he wanted--which wasn't often. Then, about six +months back, I noticed as one was gone. I mentioned it to him, and he +said as 'twas all his scrip--that was his word--made up in a parcel an' +docketed by you, and that some time afterwards you'd taken it away." + +"Quite correct, missy. And t'other one is 'Bias's, as I know. I had +'em in my hands together when I opened the safe as Mr Rogers told me to +do, givin' me the key. I took out the two, not knowing t'other from +which, made sure, docketed mine careful--to take away--and put 'Bias's +back in the safe afore lockin' it. That would be back sometime in +October last." + +Fancy nodded. "That's what he told me: and up to this mornin' I +reckoned Cap'n Hunken's bonds was still there, though it must be a month +since I opened the safe. This mornin' I had a talk with Dad--he doesn't +know the half about the master's affairs, nor how they've been these two +years, and I didn' let on: but I allowed as we ought to look into things +and call in Peter Benny--knowin' that Peter Benny was made execlator, if +anything happened. So we agreed, and called him in: and I told Peter +Benny enough to let him see that things were serious. In the end I +fetched the keys, and he unlocked the safe. There was a good few papers +in it, which he overhauled. But there wasn' no parcel 'pon the top +shelf where I'd seen it last." + +"Then you may depend he'd given it to 'Bias unbeknown to you, same as he +handed mine over to me. Wasn' that Benny's opinion?" + +"Oh, you make me tired!" exclaimed the wise child frankly. "As if I'd +no more sense than to go there an' then an' frighten him--an' him with +all those papers to look over!" + +"Then if you're so shy about worriting Benny--and I don't blame you--why +be in such a hurry to worrit yourself? 'Bias has the papers--that you +may lay to." + +Fancy tapped her small foot on the floor, which it just reached. +"As if I should be wastin' time, botherin' you! On my way here I ran +against Cap'n Hunken, and of course he wanted to hear the latest of +master--said he was on his way to inquire. So I told him that matters +was bad enough but while there was life there was hope--the sort o' +thing you _have_ to say: and I went on that the business would be all in +a mess for some time to come, and I hoped he'd got all his papers at +home, which would save trouble. 'Papers?' said he. 'Not I!'--and I +wonder I didn' drop: you might have knocked me down with a feather. +'Papers?' said he. 'I haven't seen 'em for months. _I_ don't trouble +about papers! But you'll find 'em in the safe all right, though I +haven't seen 'em for months.' Those were the very words he used: and +nothin' would interest him but to hear how the invalid was doin'. +He went off, cheerful as a chaffinch. It's plain to me," Fancy wound +up, "that he hasn't the papers. He trusted you, to start with, and he's +gone on trustin' you and the master. Didn' you intejuce him?" + +"Sure enough I did," Cai allowed. "But--confound it, you know!--'Bias +Hunken isn't a child." + +"Oh! if that contents you--" But well she knew it did not. + +"Mr Rogers never would--" + +"I've told you," said Fancy, "more'n ever I ought to have told. +There's no knowin', they say, what a man'll do when he's in Queer +Street: _and_ the papers have gone: _and_ Cap'n Hunken thinks they're in +the safe, where they ain't: _and_ I come to you first, as used to be his +friend." + +"Good Lord '" Cai stood erect. "If--if--" + +"That's so," assented Fancy, seated and nodding. "If--" + +"But it can't be!" + +"But if it _is?_" She slipped from her chair and stood, still facing +him. + +He stared at her blankly. "Poor old 'Bias!" he murmured. "But it can't +be." + +"Right O! if you _will_ have it so. But, you see, I didn' put the +question out o' curiosity altogether." + +"The question? What question?" + +"Why, about Mrs Bosenna." + +"What has Mrs Bosenna to do with--Oh, ay, to be sure! You're meanin' +that hundred pounds." His wits were not very clear for the moment. + +"No, I'm not," said Fancy, moving to the door. In the act of opening it +she paused. "'Twas through you, I reckon, he first trusted master with +his money." + +"I--I never suggested it," stammered Cai. + +"I'm not sayin' you did," the girl answered back coldly. "But he went +to master for your sake, because you was his friend and he had such a +belief in you. Just you think that out." + +With a nod of the head she was gone. + +Before leaving the house she visited the kitchen, to bid good-night to +Mrs Bowldler. But Mrs Bowldler was not in the kitchen. + +She mounted the stairs and tapped at the door of Palmerston's attic +chamber. + +"Hullo!" said she looking in, "what's become of Geraldine?" +(Mrs Bowldler's Christian name was Sarah, but the two children vied in +inventing others more suitable to her gentility). + +"If by Geraldine you mean Herm-Intrude," said Palmerston, sitting up in +bed and grinning, "she's out in the grounds, picking--" + +"Culling," corrected Fancy. "Her own word." + +"Well then--culling lamb mint." + +"I should ha' thought sage-an'-onions was the stuffin' relied on by this +establishment." + +"Seasonin'," corrected Palmerston. "But what have _you_ been doin' all +this time?" + +"My dear, don't ask!" Fancy seated herself at the foot of the bed. +"If you _must_ know, I've been playin' Meddlesome Matty life-size. . . . +These grown-ups are all so _helpless_--the men especially! . . . +Feelin' better?" + +"Heaps. 'Tis foolishness, keepin' me in bed like this, and I wish +you'd tell her so. _I'm_ all right--'xcept in my mind." + +"What's wrong with your mind?" + +"'Shamed o' myself: that's all--but it's bad enough." + +"There's no call to be ashamed. You did it in absence o' mind, and all +the best authors have suffered from that. It's well known." + +"To go through what I did," said Palmerston bitterly, "just to bring up +two-an'-nine! 'Tis such a waste of material!" + +"That's one way of puttin' it, to be sure." + +"I mean, for a book--for' Pickerley.' I s'pose there's not one man in a +thousand--not one liter'y man, anyhow--has suffered anything like it. +And I can't put it into the book!" + +"No," agreed Fancy meditatively. "I don't suppose you could: not in +'Pickerley' anyhow. You couldn' make your 'ero swallow anything under a +di'mund tiyara, and that's not easy." + +"I'll have to write the next one about low life," said Palmerston. +"If only I knew a bit more about it! Mrs Bowldler says it can be +rendered quite amusin', and I wouldn' mind makin' myself the 'ero." + +"Wouldn't you? Well, _I_ should, and don't you let me catch you at it! +The man as I marry'll have to keep his head up and show a proper respect +for his-self." + +Poor Palmerston stared. The best women in the world will never +understand an artist. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +CAI RENOUNCES. + +If this thing had happened--? + +After Fancy left him Cai dropped into his armchair, and sat for a long +while staring at the paper ornament with which Mrs Bowldler had +decorated his summer hearth. It consisted of a cascade of paper +shavings with a frontage of paper roses and tinsel foliage, and was +remarkable not only for its own sake but because Mrs Bowldler had chosen +to display the roses upside down. But though Cai stared at it hard, he +observed it not. + +For some minutes his mind refused to work beyond the catastrophe. +"If _it_ had happened--if 'Bias had indeed lost all his money. . . ." + +He arose, lit a pipe, and dropped back into his chair. + +It may be that the tobacco clarified his brain. . . . Of a sudden the +child's words recurred and wrote themselves upon it, and stood out, as +if traced in fire--"_He went to master for your sake, because you was +his friend and he had such a belief in you._" + +Ay, that was true, and in a flash it lit up a new pathway, down which he +followed the thought in the child's mind only to lose it and stand +aghast at his own reflections. + +''Bias went to Rogers through his belief in me.' + +--'I did not encourage him. On the other hand, I said nothing to hinder +him.' + +--'Yet, afterwards and in practice, I did encourage him, going to Rogers +with him and discussing our investments together.' + +--'In a dozen investments we acted as partners.' + +--'He was my friend, and in those days entirely open with me. He let me +read all his character. I knew him to be strict in paying his debts, +uneasy if he owed a sixpence, yet careless in details of business, and +trustful as a child.' + +--'Then this quarrel sprang up between us, and I let him go his way. +I had no right to do that, having led him so far. In a sense, he has +gone on trusting me; that is, he has gone on trusting Rogers for my +sake. To be quit of responsibility, I should have given him fair +warning. + +--'I ought to have gone to him and said, "Look here; Rogers is a friend +of mine, and known to me from childhood. There's honesty in him, but +'tis like streaks in bacon; and for some reason or another he chooses +that all his dealin's with me shall keep to the honest streak. If you +ask me how I know this, 'twouldn't be easy to answer: I _do_ know it, +and I trust him as I'd trust myself, a'most. But Rogers isn't a man for +everyone's money, and there's many as don't scruple to call him a knave. +He hasn't known you from a child, and you haven't known him. You'll be +safe in putting it that what he's done honest for you he's done as my +friend--"' + +Here Cai was seized by a new apprehension. + +--'Ay, and--the devil take it!--I've let Rogers see, lately, that 'Bias +and I had dissolved partnership and burnt the papers! 'Twouldn't take +more than that to persuade Rogers he was quit of the old obligation +towards 'Bias--himself in difficulties too, and 'Bias's money under his +hand.' + +--'Good Lord! . . . Suppose the fellow even allowed to himself that he +was _helping_ me! If Mrs Bosenna--?' + +At this point Cai came to a full stop, appalled. Be it repeated that +neither he nor 'Bias had wooed Mrs Bosenna for her wealth; nor until now +had her wealth presented itself to either save in comfortable +after-thought. + +Cai sat very still for a while. Then drawing quickly at his pipe, he +found that it was smoked out. He arose to tap the bowl upon the bars of +the grate. But they were masked and muffled by Mrs Bowldler's screen of +shavings, and he wandered to the open window to knock out the ashes upon +the slate ledge. Returning to the fireplace, he reached out a hand for +the tobacco-jar, but arrested it, and laying his pipe down on the table, +did something clean contrary to habit. + +He went to the cupboard, fetched out decanter, water-jug, and glass, and +mixed himself a stiff brandy-and-water. + +"Hullo!" said a voice outside the window. "I didn' know as you indulged +between meals." + +It was Mr Philp, staring in. + +"I heard you tappin' on the window-ledge, and I thought maybe you had +caught sight o' me," suggested Mr Philp. + +"But I hadn't," said Cai, somewhat confused. + +"I said to myself, 'He's beckonin' me in for a chat': and no wonder if +'tis true what they're tellin' down in the town." + +"Well, I wasn't," said Cai, gulping his brandy-and-water hardily. +"But what are they tellin'?" + +"There's some," mused Mr Philp, "as don't approve of solitary drinkin'. +Narrow-minded bodies _I_ call 'em. When a man is in luck's way, who's +to blame his fillin' a glass to it--though some o' course prefers to +call in their naybours; an' _that's_ a good old custom too." + +Cai ignored the hint. "What are they tellin' down in the town?" + +"All sorts o' things, from mirth to mournin'. They say, for instance, +as you and the Widow have fixed it all up to be married this side o' +Jubilee." + +"That's a lie, anyway." + +"And others will have it as the engagement's broken off by reason of +your losin' all your money in Johnny Rogers's smash?" + +"And that," said Cai, "is just as true as the other. But who says that +Rogers has gone smash?" + +"Everyone. I tackled Tabb upon the subject this mornin', and he couldn' +deny it. The man's clean scat. He's been speckilatin' for years: +I always looked for this to be the end, and when they told me the +_Saltypool_ wasn't insured, why, I drew my conclusions. As I was sayin' +to Cap'n Hunken just now--" + +"Eh? . . . Where is he?" + +"Who?" + +"'Bias Hunken. You said as you been speakin' with him--" + +"Ay, to be sure, over his garden wall. I looked over and saw him +weedin' among the rose-bushes, an' pulled up to give him the time o' +day." + +"You didn' tell him about the _Saltypool?_" + +"As it happens, that's just what I did. He'd heard she was lost, but +he'd no notion Rogers hadn't taken out an insurance on her, and he +seemed quite fetched aback over it." + +"The devil!" + +"I'm sorry you feel like that about him. As I was tellin' him, when I +heard your tap here at the window--" + +"But I don't--and I wasn' tappin' for you, either." + +"Appears not," said Mr Philp, with a glance at the empty glass in Cai's +hand. + +"Where is he? Still in the garden, d'ye say?" + +"Ay: somewheres down by the summer-house. Says _I_, when I heard you +tappin', 'That's Cap'n Hocken,' says I, 'signallin' me to come an wish +him joy, an' maybe to join him in a drink over his luck. And why not?' +says I. 'Stranger things have happened.'" + +"You'll excuse me. . . . If he's in his garden, I want a chat with him." +Cai hurried out to the front door. + +"Maybe you'd like me to go with you," suggested Mr Philp, ready for him. + +"Maybe I'd like nothin' of the sort," snapped Cai. "Why should I?" + +"Well, if you ask _me_, he didn' seem in the best o' tempers, and it +might come handy to take along a witness." + +"No, thank'ee," said Cai with some asperity. "You just run along and +annoy somebody else." + +He descended the garden, to find 'Bias at the door of his summer-house, +seated, and puffing great clouds of tobacco-smoke. + +"Good evenin'!" + +"Good evenin'," responded 'Bias in a tone none too hospitable. + +"You don't mind my havin' a word with you?" + +"Not if you'll make it short." + +"I've just come from Philp. He's been tellin' you about the +_Saltypool_, it seems." + +"Well?" + +"She was uninsured." + +"And on top o' that, the fools overloaded her." + +"And 'tis a serious thing for Rogers." + +"Ruination, Philp tells me--that's if you choose to believe Philp." + +"I've better information than Philp's, I'm sorry to say." + +"Whose?" + +"Fancy Tabb's." + +"She didn' tell me so when I saw her to-day."--(And good reason for why, +thought Cai.)--"Still, if she told you, you may lay there's some truth +in it. That child don't speak at random. I don't see, though, as it +makes much difference, up _or_ down?" + +"No difference?" + +"I didn' say 'no difference.' I said 'not much.' Ruination's not much +to a man already down with a stroke." + +"Oh, . . . _him?_" said Cai. "To tell the truth, I wasn't thinkin' +about Rogers, not at this moment." + +"No?" queried 'Bias sourly. "Then maybe I'm doin' you an injustice. +I thought you might be pushin' your way in here to suggest our doin' +something for the poor chap." Before Cai had well recovered from this, +'Bias went on, "And if so, I'd have answered you that I didn' intend to +be any such fool." + +"I--I'm afraid," owned Cai, "my thought wasn' anything like so +unselfish. It concerned you and me, rather." + +"Thinkin' of me, was you?" 'Bias stuffed down the tobacco in his pipe +with his forefinger. "I reckon that's no game, Caius Hocken, to be +takin' up again after all these months; and I warn you to drop it, for +'tis dangerous." + +Whatever his faults, Cai did not lack courage. "I don't care a cuss for +threats, as you might know by this time. What I owe I pay,--and there's +my trouble. I introduced you to Rogers, didn't I?" + +"That's true," agreed 'Bias slowly. "What of it?" + +"Why, that I'm in a way responsible that you took your affairs to him." + +"Not a bit." + +"But it follows. Surely you must see--" + +"No, I don't. I ain't a child, and I'll trouble you not to hang about +here suggestin' it. I didn' trust Rogers till I saw for myself he was a +good man o' business and the very sort I wanted. He sarved me, well +enough; and, well or ill, I don't complain to you." + +"See here, 'Bias," said Cai desperately. "You may take this tone with +me if you choose. But you don't choke me off by it, and you'll have to +drop it sooner or later. I was your friend, back along--let's start +with that." + +"And a nice friend you proved!" + +"Let's start with _that_, then," pursued Cai eagerly--so eagerly that +'Bias stared willy-nilly, lifting his eye-brows. "Put it, if you +please, that I was your friend and misled you to trust in Rogers, that +you lost money by it--" + +"Who said so?" + +"I say so. Put it at the lowest--that you sunk a hundred pound' in the +_Saltypool_--" + +"Eh?" + +"In the _Saltypool_--" Cai met his stare and nodded. "And not your own +money, neither. Mrs Bosenna--" + +'Bias started and laid down his pipe. "Drop that!" he interjected with +a growl. + +"Nay, you don't frighten _me_," answered Cai valiantly. "We're goin' to +talk a lot of Mrs Bosenna, afore we've done. Present point is, she gave +you a hundred pound, to invest for her. She gave me the like." + +"What!" 'Bias clutched both arms of his chair in the act of rising. +But Cai held up a hand. + +"Steady! She gave me the like. . . . You handed the money over to +Rogers, and close on fifteen per cent he was makin' on it--in the +_Saltypool_." + +"Who--who told you?" + +"Wait! I did the like. . . . Seven pounds eight-and-four was my +dividend, whatever yours may have been--eh? You may call it a--a +coincidence, 'Bias Hunken: but some would say as our minds worked on the +same lines even when--even when--" Cai seemed to swallow something in +his throat. "Anyhow, the money's gone, and we'll have to make it good." + +"Well, I should hope so!" + +"I'll see to _that_, 'Bias--whatever happens." + +"So will I, o' course." 'Bias turned to refill his pipe. + +Cai was watching him narrowly. "Happen that mightn't be none too easy," +he suggested. + +"Why so?" + +"Heark'n to me now: I got something more serious to tell. The Lord send +we may be mistaken, but--supposin' as Rogers has played the rogue?" + +'Bias, not at all discomposed, went on filling his pipe. "I see what +you're drivin' at," said he. "'Tis the same tale Philp was chantin' just +now, over the wall; how that Rogers had lost his own money and ours as +well, and 'twas in everybody's mouth. Which I say to you what I said to +him: ''Tis the old story,' I says, 'let a man be down on his back, and +every cur'll fly at him.'" + +"But suppose 'twas true? . . . Did Rogers ever show the bonds and papers +for your money?" + +"'Course he did. Showed me every one as they came in, and seemed to +make a point of it. 'Made me count 'em over, some time back. +'Wouldn' let me off 'till I'd checked 'em, tied 'em up in a parcel, +docketed 'em, sealed 'em, and the Lord knows what beside. Very dry +work. I claimed a glass o' grog after it." + +"And then you took 'em away?" asked Cai with a sudden hope. + +"Not I. For one thing, they're vallyble, and I don't keep a safe. +I put 'em back in the old man's--top shelf--alongside o' yours." + +Cai groaned. "They're missin' then!" + +"Who told you?" + +"The child--Fancy Tabb." + +'Bias looked serious. "Why didn' she come to me, I wonder?" + +"I reckon--knowing what friends we'd been--she left it to me to break +the news." + +"I won't believe it," declared 'Bias slowly. But he sat staring +straight at the horizon, and after each puff at the pipe Cai could hear +him breathing hard. + +"The child's not given to lyin'. And yet I don't see--Rogers bein' +helpless to open the safe on his own account. At the worst 'tis a bad +job for ye, 'Bias." + +"Eh? . . . 'Means sellin' up an' startin' afresh: that's all--always +supposin' there's jobs to be found, at our age. I don't know as there +wouldn't be consolations. This here life ashore isn't all I fancied +it." + +Now Cai had in mind a great renunciation: but unfortunately he could not +for the moment discover any way to broach it. He played to gain time, +therefore, awaiting opportunity. + +"As for getting a job," he suggested, "there's no need to be downcast; +no need at all. If the worst came to the worst, there's the _Hannah +Hoo_, f'r instance, and a providence she never found a buyer." + +"Ay, to be sure--I'd forgot the bark'nteen." + +"Come!" said Cai with a quick smile, playing up towards his grand +_coup_. "What would you say to shippin' aboard the _Hannah Hoo?_" + +"What?--as mate under _you_? . . . I'd say," answered 'Bias slowly, +"as I'd see you damned first." + +"But"--Cai stared at him in bewilderment--"who was proposin' any such +thing? As skipper I thought o' you--what elst? Leastways--" + +"And you?" + +"Me? . . . But why? There's no call for _me_ goin' to sea again." + +"Ah, to be sure," said 'Bias bitterly, "I was forgettin'. You'll stay +ashore and make up your losses by marryin'!" + +"But I haven't _had_ any losses!" stammered Cai. "Not beyond the +hundred pound in the _Saltypool_. . . . Didn't I make that plain?" + +"No, you didn't." 'Bias laid down his pipe. "Are you standin' there +and tellin' me that _your_ papers are all right and safe?" + +"To be sure they are. Rogers handed 'em over to me, and I took 'em home +and locked 'em in my strong-box--it may be four months ago." + +"Ay, that would be about the time. . . . Well, I congratulate you," said +'Bias, with deepening bitterness of accent. "The luck's yours, every +way, and that there's no denyin'." + +"Wait a bit, though. You haven't heard me finish." + +"Well?" + +"Since this news came I've been thinkin' pretty hard over one or two +things . . . over our difference, f'r instance, an' the cause of it. +To be plain, I want a word with you about--well, about Mrs Bosenna." + +"Stow that," growled 'Bias. "If you've come here to crow--" + +"The Lord knows I've not come here to crow. . . . I've come to tell you, +as man to man, that I don't hold 'twas a pretty trick she played us over +them two hundreds. You may see it different, and I hope you do. +I don't bear her no grudge, you understand? . . . But if you've still a +mind to her, and she've a mind to you, I stand out from this moment, and +wish 'ee luck!" + +'Bias stood up, stiff with wrath. + +"And the Lord knows, Cai Hocken, how at this moment I keep my hands off +you! . . . Wasn't it bad enough before, but you must stand patronisin' +there, offerin' me what you don't want? First I'm to ship in your +sarvice, eh? When that won't do, I'm to marry the woman you've no use +for? And there was a time I called 'ee friend! Hell! if you must +poison this garden, poison it by yourself! Let me get out o' this. +Stand aside, please, ere I say worse to 'ee!" + +He strode by, and up the garden path in the gathering twilight. + +Poor 'Bias! + + +Poor Cai, too! His renunciation had cost him no small struggle, and he +had meant it nobly; but for certain he had bungled it woefully. + +His heart was sore for his friend: the sorer because there was now no +way left to help. The one door to help--reconcilement--was closed and +bolted! closed through his own clumsiness. + +It had cost him much, a while ago--an hour or two ago, no more--to +resign his pretensions to Mrs Bosenna's hand. The queer thing was how +little--the resolutions once taken--Mrs Bosenna counted. It was 'Bias +he had lost. + +As he sat and smoked, that night, in face of Mrs Bowldler's fire-screen, +staring at its absurd decorations, it was after 'Bias that his thoughts +harked--always back, and after 'Bias--retracing old friendship +faithfully as a hound seeking back to his master. + +'Bias would never think well of him again. As a friend, 'Bias was lost, +had gone out of his life. . . . So be it! Yet there remained a 'Bias in +need of help, though stubborn to reject it: a 'Bias to be saved somehow, +in spite of himself, an unforgiving 'Bias, yet still to be rescued. +Cai smoked six pipes that night, pondering the problem. He was aroused +by the sound of the clock in the hall striking eleven. Before retiring +to bed he had a mind to run through his parcel of bonds and securities +on the chance--since he and 'Bias had made many small investments by +consent and in common--of finding some hint of possible salvage. + +His strong-box stood in a recess by the chimnney-breast. A stuffed +gannet in a glass case surmounted it--a present from 'Bias, who had shot +the bird. The bird's life-like eye (of yellow glass) seemed to watch +him as he thrust the key into the lock. + +He took out the parcel, laid it on the table under the lamp, and--with +scarcely a glance at the docket as he untied the tape--spread out the +papers with his palm much as a card-player spreads wide a pack of cards +before cutting. . . . He picked up a bond, opened it, ran his eye over +the superscription and tossed it aside. + +So he did with a second--a third--a fourth. + +On a sudden, as he took up the fifth and, before opening it, glanced at +the writing on the outside, his gaze stiffened. He sat upright. + +After a moment or two he unfolded the paper. His eyes sought and found +two words--the name "Tobias Hunken." + +He turned the papers over again. Still the name not his--"Tobias +Hunken!" + +He pushed the paper from him, and timorously, as a man possessed by +superstitious awe, put out his fingers and drew forward under the +lamplight the four documents already cast aside. + +The name on each was the same. The bonds belonged to 'Bias. +By mistake, those months ago, he had carried them off and locked them up +for his own. + +Should he arouse 'Bias to-night and tell him of the good news? +He gathered up the bonds in his hand, went to the front door, unbarred +it, and stepped out into the roadway. Not a light showed anywhere in +the next house. + +Cai stepped back, barred the door, and sought his chamber, after putting +out the lamp. He slept as soundly as a child. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +'BIAS RENOUNCES. + +"Is Cap'n Hunken upstairs?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered Mr Tabb from behind his pile of biscuit tins and +soapboxes. The pile had grown--or so it seemed to Cai--and blocked out +more of the daylight than ever. "Won't you step up? You'll be kindly +welcome." + +"I was told I should find him here." Cai, on requesting Mrs Bowldler +that morning to inform him how soon Captain Hunken would be finishing +breakfast, had been met with the information that Captain Hunken had +breakfasted an hour before, and gone out. ("Which," said Mrs Bowldler, +"it becomes not one in my position to carry tales between one +establishment and another: but he bent his steps in the direction of the +town. I beg, sir, however, that you will consider this to be strickly +between you and me and the gatepost, as the saying is.") Cai at once +surmised the reason of this early sallying forth, and, following in +chase, ran against the Quaymaster, from whom he learnt that 'Bias had +entered the ship-chandler's shop half an hour ago. "He has not since +emerged," added the Quaymaster Bussa darkly, as doubtful that in the +interim Captain Hunken might have suffered forcible conversion into one +of the obscurer "lines" of ship-chandlery, wherein so much purports to +be what it is not. + +--"I was told I should find him here," said Cai. "But would ye mind +fetchin' him down to me? The fact is, I want him on a matter of private +business." + +Mr Tabb considered for a moment. "If I may advise, sir," he suggested +meekly, "you'll find it as private up there as anywhere. The master's +past hearin' what you say--or, if he hears, he's past takin' notice: +whereas down here, you're liable to be interrupted by customers--let +alone that I mustn't leave the shop. And," concluded Mr Tabb, "I would +hardly recommend the Quay. Mr Philp's just arrived there." + + +On recovering from his previous stroke, Mr Rogers had given orders that, +if another befell him, his bed was to be fetched downstairs and laid in +the great bow-window of the parlour. There Cai found him with Fancy in +attendance, and 'Bias seated on a chair by the bedside. + +"Good-mornin'," Cai nodded, hushing his voice, and advanced towards the +bed almost on tiptoe. "He won't reckernise me, I suppose?" + +The invalid reclined in a posture between lying and sitting, his back +propped with pillows, his eyes turned with an expressionless stare +towards the harbour. Save for its rigidity and a slight drawing down of +the muscles on the left side of the mouth, there was nothing to shock or +terrify in the aspect of the face, which kept, moreover, its customary +high colour. + +"He can't show it, if that's what you mean," answered Fancy. "But he +knows us, somewhere at the back of his eyes--of that I'm sure. I got to +be very clever watchin' his eyes, the last stroke he had, and there was +quite a different look in 'em when he was pleased, or when he was +troubled or wanted something. If you go over quiet and stand by the +window, right where he must see you if he sees at all, maybe you'll +notice what I mean." + +But Cai, though he obeyed, and stood for a moment in the direct line of +their vision, could detect no change in the unwinking eyes. + +"Cap'n Hunken will even have it that he hears what's said, or scraps of +it. But that I don't believe. . . . I believe 'tis but a buzzin' in his +ears, with no sense to it, an' 'twould be jus' the same if we was the +band of the R'yal Lifeguards." + +"Well, whether he hears or not, I've a piece o' news for 'Bias Hunken, +here. . . . P'raps he'd like to step outside an' discuss it?" suggested +Cai awkwardly, remembering how he and 'Bias had parted overnight. + +"I don't want to hear anything you can say," growled 'Bias. + +"Oh, yes, you do! . . . I reckoned as you'd be down here, first thing +after breakfast, sarchin' for them papers we talked about." + +"Did you, now?" + +"And I tried to catch you afore you started; but you'd breakfasted +early. . . . Well, the long and short is, they're not lost after all!" +Cai produced the bundle triumphantly. + +"Eh! Where did you find 'em?" asked Fancy, while 'Bias took the parcel +without a word of thanks, glanced at it carelessly, and set it down on +the little round table beside the bed. + +"In my strong-box. . . . There was two parcels, pretty much alike, on +the top shelf of the safe yonder, and I must have taken 'Bias's by +mistake. I'm glad, anyway," he went on, turning with moist eyes upon +'Bias, who appeared to have lost interest in the conversation. +"I'm glad, anyway, t'have eased your mind so soon, let alone to have cut +short your sarchin' which must ha' been painful enough--in a house o' +sickness." + +"Who was sarchin'?" asked 'Bias curtly. "Not me." + +"And that's true enough," corroborated Fancy. "Why, Cap'n Hunken has +never mentioned the papers! I guessed as you hadn' told him they was +missin'." + +"Eh? . . . I thought--I made sure, by his startin' down here so early--" + +"Not a word of any papers did he mention," said Fancy. "He just come +early to sit an' keep master company, havin' a notion that his poor old +mind takes comfort from it somehow. Seven hours he sat here yesterday, +an' never so much as a pipe of tobacco the whole time. Doctor said as a +bit o' tobacco-smoke wouldn' do any harm in the room: but Cap'n Hunken +allows as he'll be on the safe side." + +Cai started. . . . For aught 'Bias knew then--as indeed 'Bias had reason +to suspect--this husk of a man, helpless on the bed, had robbed him of +his all, ruined him, left him no prospect but to begin life over again +when late middle-age had sapped his vigour, attenuated the springs of +action, left sad experience in the room of hope. And 'Bias's thought, +ignoring it all, had been to sit beside this man's calamity, on the +merest chance of piercing it with one ray of comfort! + +Whereupon, as goodness takes inspiration from goodness, in Cai's heart, +too, a miracle happened, He forgot himself, forgot his loss which was +'Bias's gain: forgot that, keeping his surly attitude, 'Bias had uttered +neither a "thank you" nor a word of pity. Old affection, old +admiration, old faith, and regard came pouring back in a warm tide, +thrilling, suffusing his consciousness, drowning all but one thought-- +one proud thought that stood like a sea-mark above the flood, justifying +all--"Even such a man I made my friend!" + +For a long time Cai stared. Then, as 'Bias made no sign of lifting his +sullen gaze from the strip of carpet by the bed, he turned half-about +towards the door. + +"'Bias Hunken," said he gently, "you're a good man, an' deserved this +luck better'n me. . . . If you can't put away hard thoughts just yet, +maybe you'll remember, some day, that I wished 'ee long life to enjoy +it." + +His hand was on the door. "Here, though--hold hard!" put in Fancy, who +had picked up the bundle of papers. "I don't think Cap'n Hunken +understands; nor I don't clearly understand myself. Was it _both_ +packets you carried home, sir? or only this one?" + +"I thought as I'd made it clear enough," answered Cai. His eyes were +still on his friend, and there was weariness as well as pain in his +voice. "There's only one packet--'Bias's--what you have in your hand. +I must have carried it home by mistake." + +"Then your's is missin'?" + +"That's so," said the broken man quietly. + +The child turned and walked to the window. On her way she halted a +moment and peered earnestly into the invalid's eyes, as if the riddle +might possibly be read there. But they were vacant and answered her +nothing. Then for some twenty seconds, almost pressing her forehead to +the window-pane, she stood and gazed out upon the glancing waters of the +harbour. + +"There's only one thing to be done--" She wheeled about sharply. +"Why, wherever _is_ the man? . . . You don't mean to tell me," she +demanded of 'Bias indignantly, "that you sat there an' let him go!" + +"I couldn' help his goin', could I?" muttered 'Bias, but his eyes were +uneasy under the wrath in hers. + +"You couldn' help it?" she echoed in scorn, and pointed to the figure on +the bed. "Here you come playin' the Early Christian over a man that, +for aught you knew, had robbed you to a stair: and when 'tis your tried +friend fetchin' back riches to you--fairly bringin' you back to life at +the cost o' bein' a beggar hisself--you let him go without so much as a +thank'ee!" + +"Cai Hocken don't want my thanks." + +"Didn't even want politeness, I suppose--after runnin' here hot foot +with the news that made you rich an' him a poor man! Oh, you're past +all patience! . . . Who should know what he wanted an' didn't get-- +I, that had my eyes on his face, or you, that sat like a stuck pig, +glowerin' at the carpet?" + +"Gently, missy! . . . There--there didn' seem anything to say." + +"There was one thing to say," answered the girl sternly, "and there's +one thing to be done." + +"What's that?" + +"It mayn't be an easy thing, altogether. But you'll be glad of it +afterwards, and you may as well make up your mind to it." + +"Out with it!" + +"Mrs Bosenna--Why, what's the matter?"--for 'Bias had interrupted with a +short laugh. + +"I'd forgot Mrs Bosenna for the moment." + +"Right. Then go on forgettin' her, an' give her up. When you come to +think it over," urged Fancy with the air of a nurse who administers +medicine to a child, "you'll find 'tis the only fit an' proper thing to +do." + +Again 'Bias laughed, and this time his laugh was even shorter and +grimmer than before. + +"Well and good--but wait one moment, missy! D'ye know what Cai Hocken +said to me, last night in the garden, when he reckoned as I'd lost my +money? No, you don't. 'Look here,' he said, 'if you've still a mind to +that woman and she've a mind to you, I'll stand aside.' That's what he +said: and d'ye know what I answered? I told him to go to hell." + +"I see." Fancy stood musing. + +"Makes it a bit awkward, eh?--Cai bein' a man of spirit, with all his +faults." + +"Well," she decided, "unless we can find his money for him, he'll have +to marry her, whether or no. 'Faults,' indeed? I believe," went on the +wise child, "you two be more to one another than that woman ever was to +either, or ever will be." + +"We won't discuss that," said 'Bias, "now that Cai's got to marry her." + + +Cai retired to bed early that night, wearied in all his limbs with much +and aimless walking. If, as he trudged highroad or lane in the early +summer heat, any thought of Mrs Bosenna arose for a moment and conquered +the anodyne of bodily exercise, it was not a thought of grudging her to +'Bias. By the turn of Fortune's wheel 'Bias would win her now. +To _him_, at all events, she was lost. Cai had never courted her for +her money: but he had courted without distrust, on the strength of his +own security in a competence. At the back of his mind there may have +lurked a suspicion that Mrs Bosenna, as a business woman, was not in the +least likely to bestow her hand on a penniless sailor: but there was no +reason why he should allow this suspicion to obtrude itself, since +self-respect would have forbidden him, being penniless, to pursue the +courtship. + +No; if he thought of Mrs Bosenna at all, it was in a sort of dull rage +against her sex: not specially against her, who happened to be her sex's +delegate to work this particular piece of mischief, but generally +against womankind, that with a word or two, a look or two, it could rob +a man of a friend--and of such a friend as 'Bias! + +'Bias was undemonstrative, Cai had always prided himself on recognising +a worth in him which did not leap to the eyes of other men--which hid +itself rather, and shunned the light. It had added to his sense of +possession that he constantly detected what others overlooked. In this +matter of his behaviour to Rogers, 'Bias had eclipsed all previous +records. It was (view it how you would) magnificent in 'Bias--a high +Christian action--to tend, as he had tended, upon a man who presumably +had robbed him of his all. + +And at the same moment 'Bias could behave so callously to a once-dear +friend--to a friend bringing glad tidings--to a friend, moreover, +rejoicing to bring them, though they meant his own undoing! It was +almost inconceivable. It was quite unintelligible unless you supposed +the man's nature to be perverted, and by this woman. + +Cai's heart was bruised. It ached with a dull insistent pain that must +be deadened at all costs, even though his own wrecked prospects called +out to be faced promptly, resolutely, and with a practical mind. +He would face them to-morrow. To-day he would tire himself out: +to-night he would sleep. + +And he slept, almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. His sleep +was dreamless too. + + +"_Dame, get out and bake your pies--bake your pies--bake your pies--_" + +"_Whoo-oo-sh!_" + +He sat up in bed with a jerk. . . . What on earth was it? A squall of +hail on the window? Or a rocket?--a ship in distress, perhaps, outside +the harbour? . . . + +"_Dame, get out and bake your pies--_" piped a high childish voice. +Some one was unbarring a door below. A voice--'Bias's voice--spoke out +gruffly, demanding what was the matter? + +Was the house on fire? . . . No: outside the half-open window lay spread +the moonlight, pale and tranquil. The night wind entering, scarcely +stirred the thin dimity curtains. This was no weather for sudden +hail-storms or for shipwreck. Cai flung back the bedclothes, jumped +out--and uttered a sharp cry of pain. His naked foot had trodden on a +gritty pebble, small but sharp. + +Someone had flung a handful of gravel at the window. + +He picked his way cautiously across the floor, and looked out. . . . +In the moonlit roadway, right beneath, a girl--Fancy Tabb--was dancing a +fandango, the while in her lifted hand she waved a white parcel. + +"Ah, there you be!" she hailed, catching sight of him. "I've found +'em!" + +"Found what?" + +"Your papers! . . . I couldn' sleep till I told you: and I had to fetch +Mr Benny along--here he is!" + +"Good evening, Captain," spoke up Mr Peter Benny, stepping out into the +roadway from the doorway where he had been explaining to 'Bias. +"It's all right, sir. Your papers are found." + +"Good evening, Benny! Tis kind of you, surely,"--Cai's voice trembled a +little. "What's the hour?" he asked. + +"Scarce midnight yet. I reckoned maybe you might be sittin' up, +frettin' over this--'Twas the child here, though, that found it out and +insisted on bringing me." + +"After we'd locked up," broke in Fancy, "and just as I was packin' Dad +off to bed, it came into my head to ask him--'I suppose you don't know,' +said I, 'of anyone's havin' been to master's safe without my bein' +told?' He thought a bit, and 'No,' says he; 'nobody 'cept myself, an' +that but once. '_You?_' says I, 'and whoever sent _you_ there?' +'Why, the master hisself,' says Dad.--Who else?' 'But what for?' I +asks, feelin' as you might have knocked me down with a feather. +'I meant to ha' told you,' says Dad, 'but it slipped my mind. 'Twas one +afternoon, when you was out on your walk. I heard Master's stick tap on +the plankin' overhead so I went up, thinkin' as he might be wantin' his +tea in a hurry. He told me to open the safe an' take out a packet o' +papers from the top shelf; which I did.' 'What papers?' said I +'How should I know?' says Dad: 'I don't meddle with his business--I've +seen too much of it in _my_ life. I didn' even glance at 'em, but +locked the safe again, an' put 'em where he told me--which was in the +japanned box by his chair!' 'Why,' says I,' that's his Insurance Box as +he called it--the same as I handed to Mr Benny only yesterday, to take +away and sort through!' . . . After that, as you may guess, I was like a +mad person till we'd taken down the bolts again and I'd run to Mr +Benny's." + +"Ay," chimed in Mr Benny, "I was upstairs and half-undressed: but she +had me dressed again an' down as if 'twas a matter of life and death. + . . . And when we got out the box, there the papers were, sure enough. +After that--for I saw their value to you--no one with a human heart +could help running along with her, to bear the news. . . . So here we +are." + +"'Bias!" called Cai softly. "Didn' I hear 'Bias's voice below there, a +while since?" + +"Ay, here I be."--It was 'Bias's turn to step out from the shadow of his +doorway into the broad moonlight. "And glad enough to hear this news." + +"Would ye do me a favour? . . . Dressed, are you?" + +"Ay--been sittin' up latish to-night." + +"Well, I'm not azackly in a condition to step down--not for a minute or +two; and I doubt Mrs Bowldler, if I called her, wouldn' be in no +condition either. . . . 'Twould be friendly of you to ask Mr Benny in +and offer him a drink; and as for missy--" + +"No thank 'ee, Cap'n," interposed Mr Benny. "Bringin' you this peace o' +mind has been cordial enough for me--and for the child too, I reckon, +Good-night, gentlemen!" + +"Cap'n Hunken," said Fancy, "will you take the papers up to him? +Then we'll go." + +"May I bring the papers to 'ee?" asked 'Bias, lifting his face to the +window. + +"Ay, do--if they won't come in. . . . I'll step down and unbar the +door." + +He lit a candle and hurried downstairs, his heart in his mouth. +By the time he had unbarred and opened, Mr Benny and Fancy had taken +their departure; but their "good-nights" rang back to him, up the +moonlit road, and his friend stood on the threshold. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +MRS BOSENNA GIVES THE ROSE. + +"It's a delicate thing to say to a woman," suggested Cai; "'specially +when she happens to be your land-lady." + +"You do the talkin', of course," said 'Bias hurriedly. + +"Must I? Why?" + +"Well, to begin with, you knew her first." + +"I don't see as that signifies." + +"No? Well, you used to make quite a point of it, as I remember. +But anyway you're a speaker, and it'll need some gift, as you say." + +They had reached the small gate at the foot of the path. The day was +hot, the highroad dusty. Cai halted and removed his hat; drew out a +handkerchief and wiped his brow; wiped the lining of the hat; +wiped his neck inside the collar. + +"There's another way of lookin' at it," he ventured. "Some might say as +'twas more tactful to let your feelin's cool off by degrees." + +"That's no way for me," said 'Bias positively. "Short and sharp's our +motto." + +"'Tis the best, no doubt," Cai agreed. "But there's the trouble of +puttin' it into words. . . . I wish, now, I'd thought of consultin' +Peter Benny. There'd be no harm, after all, in steppin' back and askin' +his advice." + +"No, you don't," said 'Bias shortly. "In my belief, if we hadn't made +so free wi' consultin' Peter Benny in the past, we shouldn't be where we +be at this moment." + +If Cai's thought might be read in his face, he would not have greatly +minded _that_, just now. + +"In the matter of these letters for instance--" + +"I wonder if she ever got 'em?" + +"You bet she did. She's been playin' us off, one against t'other, ever +since." + +"We let our feelin's carry us away." + +"We let Peter Benny's feelin's carry us away," 'Bias corrected him. +"That's the worst of these writin' chaps. Before you know where you are +they'll harrow you up with feelin's you wasn't aware you entertained. +Now I don't mind confessin' that, afore Benny had started to make out a +fair copy I found myself over head an' ears in love with the woman." + +"Me too," agreed Cai, musing. + +"You're _sure_ you're not any longer?" + +"Eh? . . . Of course I am sure. I was only thinkin' how queer it was he +should have pumped it out of us, so to say, with the same letters-- +almost to a syllable." + +"There's two ways o' lookin' at that," said 'Bias thoughtfully. +"You may put it that marryin's as common as dirt. Nine out o' ten +indulges in it; and, that bein' so, the same form o' words'll do for +everybody, more or less, in proposin' it; just as (when you come to +think) the same Marriage Service does for all when they come to the +scratch. If all men meant different to all women, there wouldn't be +enough dictionary to go round." + +Cai shook his head. "I'm the better of it now," he confessed; "but I +got to own that, at the moment, though Benny did well enough, there +didn't seem enough dictionary to go round." + +"I felt something of a rarity myself at the time," owned 'Bias. +"But there's another explanation I like better, though you'll think it +far-fetched. . . . You and me--until this happened, there was never a +cross word atween us, _nor_ a cross thought?" + +"That's so, 'Bias." + +"Well, and that bein' so, if Benny hit the note for one, how could it +help bein' the note for both? . . . I've had pretty rash thoughts about +Benny: but--put it in that way--who's to blame the man? Or the woman, +for that matter?" + +"I like that explanation better," said Cai. + +"--Or the woman? She can't help bein' a two-headed nightingale." + +"To be sure she can't. . . . We might leave it at that and say no more +about it. She'd be sure to understand in time." + +"The agreement was, last night," insisted 'Bias with great firmness, +"to put it to her straight and get it over." + +They resumed their walk and mounted the pathway over which--from the +first angle of the outbuildings to the garden-gate--Banksian roses hung +from the wall in heavy honey-coloured clusters of bloom. These were +scentless and already past their prime; but by the gate at the +south-east end of the house the white Banksian, throwing far wider +shoots, saluted them with a scent as of violets belated. And within the +gate the old roses were coming on with a rush--Provence and climbing +China; Moschata alba, pouring over an arch in a cascade of bloom that +hid all its green as with shell-pink foam; crimson and striped Damask +along the border; with Paul Neyron eclipsing all in size, moss-roses +bursting their gummy shells, Gloire de Dijon climbing and asserting +itself above the falsely named "pink Gloire"; Reine Marie Henriette-- +which, grown by everybody, is perhaps the worst rose in the world. +Gloire de Dijon rampant smothered the pretender and covered the most of +its mildewing buds from sight; to be conquered in its turn by the sheer +beauty of Marechal Niel, whose every yellow star, bold on its stalk as +greenhouses can grow it, shamed all feebler yellows. Devoniensis flung +its sprays down from the thatch. La France and Ulrich Brunner +competed--silver rose against cherry rose--on either side of the porch. +Yet the fragrance of all these roses had to yield to that of the Cottage +flowers, mignonette, Sweet-William, lemon verbena, Brompton stocks-- +annuals, biennials, perennials, intermixed--that lined the border, with +blue delphiniums and white Madonna lilies breaking into flower above +them. + +Dinah, answering their ring at the bell after the usual delay for +reconnaissance, opined that her mistress would probably be found in the +new rose-garden. She said it, as they both observed, with a demure, +half-mischievous smile. + +"Amused to see us in company again, I reckon," said Cai to 'Bias as they +went up through the old rose-garden, where the June-flowering H.P.'s ran +riot in masses of colour from palest pink to deepest crimson. + +"Ay," assented 'Bias, "we'll have to get used to folks smilin', these +next few days. . . . Between ourselves, I never fancied that woman, +though I couldn' give you any particular reason for it." + +"Sly," suggested Cai. + +"'Tis more than that. Slyness, you may say, belongs to the whole sex, +and I've known men say as they found it agreeable, in moderation." + +"I never noticed that in her mistress, to do her justice." + +'Bias halted. "Look here. . . . You're _sure_ you ain't weakenin'?" + +"Sure." + +"Because, as I told 'ee last night--and I'll say it again, here, at the +last moment--she's yours, and welcome, if so be--" + +"--'If so be as I didn' speak my true mind last night, when I said the +same to you '--is that what you mean? Here, let's on and get it over!" +said Cai, mopping his brow anew. + +"'Tis a delicate business to broach, as you mentioned just now," said +'Bias dallying. "We'll have to be very careful how we put it." + +"Very. As I told 'ee before, if you like to take it over--" + +"Not at all. You're spokesman--only we don't want to put it so's she +can round on us with 'nobody axed you.' And you gave me a turn, just +then, by sayin' as you never noticed she was sly; because as I reckon, +that's the very point we've come to make." + +"As how?" + +'Bias stared at him in some perturbation. "Why, didn't she put that +trick on us over the investment? And ain't we here to give her back her +money? And wasn't it agreed as we'd open on her reproachful-like? an' +then, one thing leadin' to another--" + +"Ay, to be sure--I got all that in my mind really." Cai wiped the back +of his neck and pocketed his handkerchief with an air of decision--or of +desperation. "What you don't seem to know--though with any experience +o' speakin' you'd understand well enough--is that close upon the last +moment all your thoughts fly, and specially if folks _will_ keep +chatterin': but when you stand up and open your mouth--provided as +nobody interrupts you . . ." + +"I declare! If it isn't Captain Hocken--_and_ Captain Hunken with him!" + +At the creaking of the small gate, as Cai opened it, Mrs Bosenna had +looked up and espied them. She dropped the bundle of raffia, with the +help of which she had been staking such of her young shoots as were +overlong or weighted down by their heavy blooms, and came forward with a +smile of welcome. + +"Come in--come in, the both of you! What lovely weather! You'll excuse +my not taking off my gloves? We are busy, you see, and some of my new +beauties have the most dreadful thorns! . . . By the way"--she glanced +over her shoulder, following Cai's incredulous stare. "I believe you +know Mr Middlecoat? Yes, yes, of course--I remember!" She laughed and +beckoned forward the young farmer, who dropped his occupation among the +rosebuds and shuffled forward obediently enough, yet wearing an +expression none too gracious. + +"'Afternoon, gentlemen," mumbled Farmer Middlecoat, and his sulky tone +seemed to show that he had not forgotten previous encounters. +"Won't offer to shake hands. 'Cos why?" He showed the backs of his +own, which were lacerated and bleeding. "Caterpillars," added Mr +Middlecoat in explanation. + +"There now!" cried Mrs Bosenna in accents of genuine dismay. "I'd no +idea you were tearin' yourself like that--and so easy to ask Dinah to +fetch out a pair o' gloves!" + +"Do you mean to say, sir," asked Cai in his simplicity, "that +caterpillars bite?" + +"No, I don't," answered Mr Middlecoat. "But you can't get at 'em and +avoid these pesky thorns." + +Said Mrs Bosenna gaily,--"Mr Middlecoat called on me half an hour ago +wi' the purpose to make himself disagreeable as usual--though I forget +what his excuse was, this time--and I set him to hunt caterpillars." + +"Dang it, look at my hands!" growled the young farmer, holding them out. + +"And last month, wi' that spell of east wind, 'twas the green-fly. +But I reckon we've mastered the pests by this time. Didn't find many +caterpillars, eh?" + +"No, I didn'," answered Mr Middlecoat, still sulkily. "But them as I +did you bet I scrunched." + +"Well, they deserved it, for the last few be the dangerousest. +They give over the leaves to eat the buds. But 'tis labour well spent +on 'em, and we'll have baskets on baskets now, by Jubilee Day." + +"'Tis the Queen's flower--the royal flower--sure enough," said Cai, +looking about him in admiration. He had not visited the new garden for +some weeks, and on the last visit it had been but an unpromising patch +stuck about with stiff, thorny twigs, all leafless, the most of them +projecting but a few inches above the soil. The plants were short yet, +and the garden itself far from beautiful; but the twigs had thrown up +shoots, and on the shoots had opened, or were opening, roses that drew +even his inexperienced eye to admire them. + +"I'm afraid there's no doubt of it," said Mrs Bosenna. "I love the old +H.P.'s: but you must grow the Teas and Hybrid Teas nowadays, if you want +to exhibit. Yet I love the old H.P.'s, and I've planted a few, to hold +their own and just show as they won't be shamed. See this one now-- +there's a proper Jubilee rose, and named _Her Majesty!_ Brought out, +they tell me, in 'eighty-five: but the Yankees bought up all the stock, +and it didn't get back into this country until 'eighty-seven, the last +Jubilee year. See the thorns on her, _and_ the stiff pride o' stem, +_and_ the pride o' colour--fit for any queen! She's not the best, +though. . . . She'll do for last Jubilee--not for this. Wait till +you've seen the best of all!" + +She led them to a plant--stunted by the secateurs, yet vigorous--which +showed, with three or four buds as yet closed and green, one solitary +bloom, pure white and of incomparable shape. + +"There!" said she proudly. "That's a tea, and the finest yet grown, to +_my_ mind. That's the rose for this Diamond Jubilee, and white as a +diamond. A proper royal Widow's rose!" + +"Is that its name?" asked Cai. + +Mrs Bosenna laughed and plucked the bloom. + +"On the contrary," said she with a mischievous twitch of the mouth, +"'tis called _The Bride!_ There's only one bloom, you see, and I can't +offer to part it. Now which of you two 'd like it for a buttonhole?" + +She held out the rose, challenging them. + +"I--I--" stammered Cai, backing against 'Bias's knuckles which dug him +in the back--"I grant ye, ma'am, 'tis a fine rose--a lovely rose--but +for my part, a trace o' colour--" + +"Bright red," prompted 'Bias. + +"Bright red--for both of us--" + +"And now I've plucked it," sighed Mrs Bosenna. + +"Well, if you won't, perhaps Mr Middlecoat will, rather than waste it." + +Mr Middlecoat stepped forward and allowed the enormous bloom to be +inserted in his buttonhole, where its pure white threw up a fine +contrast to his crimsoning face. + +"You won't think me forward, I hope?" said Mrs Bosenna, turning about. +"The fact is--though I don't want it generally known yet--that yesterday +Mr Middlecoat, in his disagreeable way, made me promise to marry him?" + +Before the pair could recover, she had moved to another bush. + +"Red roses, you prefer? Red is rare amongst the Teas--there's but one, +as yet, that can be called red--if this suits you? And, by luck, there +are two perfect buttonholes." + +She plucked the buds and held them out. + +"It's name," said she, "is _Liberty._" + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +JUBILEE. + +For the best part of a week before the great Day of Jubilee Cai and +'Bias toiled together and toiled with a will, erecting the framework of +a triumphal arch to span the roadway. Within-doors, in the intervals of +household duty, Mrs Bowldler measured, drew, and cut out a number of +capital letters in white linen, to be formed into a motto and sewn upon +red Turkey twill, while Palmerston industriously constructed and wired +gross upon gross of paper roses--an art in which he had been instructed +by Fancy, who had read all about it in a weekly newspaper, 'The Cosy +Hearth.' The two friends talked little to one another during those busy +June days. Strollers-by--and it had become an evening recreation in +Troy to stroll from one end of the town to the other and mark how things +were getting along for the 22nd--found Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken +ever at work but little disposed to chat; and as everyone knew of the +old quarrel, so everyone noted the reconciliation and marvelled how it +had come to pass. Even Mr Philp was baffled. Mr Philp, passing and +repassing many times a day, never missed to halt and attempt +conversation; with small result, however. + +"It's a wonder to me," he grumbled at last, "how men of your age can +risk scramblin' about on ladders with your mouths constantly full o' +nails." + + +In the evenings they supped together. Mrs Bowldler had made free to +suggest this. + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler in magnificent anacoluthon, "if we see it as +we ought, this bein' no ordinary occasion, but in a manner of speakin' +one of Potentates and Powers and of our feelin's in connection +therewith; by which I allude to our beloved Queen, whom Gawd preserve!-- +Gawd bless her! I say, and He _will_, too, from what I know of 'im--and +therefore deservin' of our yunited efforts; and, that bein' the case, it +would distinkly 'elp, from the point of view of the establishment +(meanin' Palmerston and me) if we (meanin' you, sir, and Captain Hunken) +could make it convenient to have our meals in common. . . . The early +Christians were not above it," she added. "Not they! Ho, not,--if I +may use the expression--by a long chalk!" + +She contrived it so delicately that afterwards neither Cai nor 'Bias +could remember precisely at what date--whether on the Wednesday or on +the Thursday--they slipped back into the old comfortable groove. + +The arch occupied their thoughts. After supper, as they sat and smoked, +their talk ran on it: on details of its construction; on the chances +(exiguous indeed!) of its being eclipsed by rivals in the town, some in +course of construction, a few as yet existent only in the promises of +rumour. + +Cai would say, "I hear the Dunstans are makin' great preparations in +their back-yard. They mean to bring their show out at the last moment, +and step it in barrels." + +"I don't believe in barrels," 'Bias would respond. "Come a breeze o' +wind, where are you? Come a strong breeze, and over you go, endangerin' +life. It ought to be forbidden." + +"No chance of a breeze, though." Cai had been studying the glass closely +all the week. + +"Fog, more like. 'Tis the time o' the year for fogs." + +Other matters they discussed more desultorily; meetings of the +Procession Committee, of the Luncheon Committee (all the parish was to +feast together), of the Tree-planting Committee, of the Tea Committee; +the cost of the mugs and the medals for the children, the latest returns +handed in by Mr Benny, who had undertaken the task of calling on every +householder, poor or rich, and collecting donations. But to the arch +their talk recurred. + +--And rightly: for in the arch they were building better than they knew. +In it, though unaware (being simple men), they were rebuilding +friendship. + +By Saturday evening the scaffolding was complete, firmly planted, firmly +nailed, firmly clasped together by rope--in sailors' hitches such as do +not slip. They viewed it, approved it, and soberly, having gathered up +tools, went in to supper. On Sunday they attended morning service in +church, and oh! the glow in their hearts when, in place of the usual +voluntary, the organ rolled out the first bars of "God Save the Queen" +and all the worshippers sprang to their feet together! + +On Monday the town awoke to the rumbling of waggons. They came in from +the plantations where since the early June daybreak Squire Willyams's +foresters and gardeners had been cutting young larches, firs, laurels, +aucubas. The waggons halted at every door and each householder took as +much as he required. So, all that day, Cai and 'Bias packed their arch +with evergreens; until at five o'clock Mr Philp, happening along, could +find no chink anywhere in its solid verdure. He called his +congratulations up to them as, high on ladders, they affixed flags to +the corner poles and looped the whole with festoons of roses. + +And now for the motto to crown the work! Fancy Tabb coming up the +roadway and pausing while she conned the structure, shading her eyes +against the sun-rays that slanted over it, beheld Mrs Bowldler and +Palmerston issue from the doorway in solemn procession, bearing between +them a length of Turkey twill. Mrs Bowldler passed one end up to +Captain Hocken, high on his ladder: Captain Hunken reached down and took +the other end from Palmerston. Between them, as they lifted the broad +fillet above the archway, its folds fell apart, and she read:-- + + MANY DAUGHTERS HAVE DONE VIRTUOUSLY + BUT THOU EXCELLEST THEM ALL. + +"My! I'd like to be a Queen!" + +"If I had my way, you WOULD," whispered Palmerston, who, edging close to +her, had overheard. + +"Eh? Is that Fancy Tabb?" interrupted Cai. He had happened to glance +over his shoulder and spied her from the ladder. "Well, and what d'ee +think of it?" he asked, as one sure of the answer. + +"I was sayin' as I'd like to be a Queen," said Fancy. "Queen of +England, I mean: none of your second-bests." + +"Well, my dear," Cai assured her, bustling down the ladder and staring +up at the motto to make sure that it hung straight, "_that_ you won't +never be: but you're among the many as have done virtuously, and God +bless 'ee for it! Which is pretty good for your age." + +"_You_'re not," retorted the uncompromising child. + +"Eh?" + +"'Tis three days now since you've been near the old man, either one of +'ee. How would _you_ like that, if you was goin' to hell?" + +"Hush 'ee now! . . . 'Bias and me had clean forgot--there's so much to +do in all these rejoicin's! Run back and tell 'n we'll be down in +half-an-hour, soon as we've tidied up here." + + +On their way down to visit the sick man, Cai and 'Bias had to pause +half-a-score of times at least to admire an arch or a decorated +house-front. For by this time even the laggards were out and working +for the credit of Troy. + +But no decorations could compare with their own. + +"That's a handsome bunch, missus," called Cai to a very old woman, who, +perched on a borrowed step-ladder, was nailing a sheaf of pink valerian +(local name, "Pride of Troy") over her door-lintel. "Let me give 'ee a +hand wi' that hammer," he offered; for her hand shook pitiably. + +"Ne'er a hand shall help me--thank 'ee all the same," the old lady +answered. "There, Cap'n! . . . there's for Queen Victoria! an' it's +done, if I die to-morrow." She tottered down to firm earth and gazed up +at the doorway, her head nodding. + +"She've _got_ to be in London to-morrow, of course. . . . But what a +pity she can't take a walk through Troy too! Main glad she'd be. . . . +Oh, I know! She an' me was born the same year." + + +Of the doings of next day--the great day; of the feasting, the cheering, +the salvo-firing, the marching, the counter-marching, the speechifying, +the tea-drinking, the dancing, the illuminations, the bonfires; the tale +may not be told here. Were they not chronicled, by this hand, in a book +apart? And does not the chronicle repose in the Troy Parish Chest? +And may not a photograph of the famous arch constructed by Captains +Hocken and Hunken be discovered therein some day by the curious? + + +To be sure, Queen Victoria herself did not pass beneath that arch. +But there passed beneath that arch many daughters who since have grown +into women and done virtuously, I hope. If not, I am certain there was +no lack of encouragement that day in the honest, smiling faces of +Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken as they stood with proprietary mien, +one on either side of the roadway, and each with an enormous red rose +aglow in his button-hole. + + +_Pulvis et umbra sumus_--"The tumult and the shouting dies."--A little +before ten o'clock that night Mr Middlecoat and Mrs Bosenna walked up +through the dark to Higher Parc to see the bonfires. The summit +commanded a view of the coast from Dodman to Rame, and inland to the +high moors which form the backbone of the county. Mrs Bosenna counted +eighteen fires: her lover could descry sixteen only. + +"But what does it matter?" said he. They had started the climb +arm-in-arm: but by this time his arm was about her waist. + +"My eyes are sharper than yours, then," she challenged. + +"Very likely," he allowed. "Sure, they must be: for come to think I +reckoned 'em both in my list." + +She laughed cosily. + +"Shall we go over the ridge?" he suggested. "We may pick up one or two +inland from my place." + +"No," she answered, and mused for a while. "It's strange to think our +two farms are goin' to be one henceforth. . . . The ridge has always +seemed to me such a barrier. But I'll not cross it to-night. +Good-bye!" + +"Nay, but you don't go back alone. I'll see you to the door." + +"Why? I'm not afraid of ghosts." + +But he insisted: and so, arm linked in arm, they descended to Rilla, +where the roses breathed their scent on the night air. + + +Cai and 'Bias--the long day over--sat in Cai's summer-house, overlooking +the placid harbour. Loyal candles yet burned in every window on the far +shore and scintillated their little time on the ripple of the tide. +Above shone and wheeled in their courses the steady stars, to whom our +royalties are less than a pinch of dust in the meanest unseen planet +that spins within their range. + +The door of the summer-house stood wide to the night. Yet so breathless +was the air that the candles within (set by Mrs Bowldler on the table +beside the glasses and decanters) carried a flame as unwavering as any +star of the firmament. So the two friends sat and smoked, and between +their puffed tobacco-smoke penetrated the dewy scents of the garden. +Both were out-tired with the day's labours; for both were growing old. + +"'Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all,'" +murmured Cai. "'Twas a noble text we chose." + +"Ay," responded 'Bias, drawing the pipe from his lips. "She've kept a +widow just thirty-six years. An unusual time, I should say." + +"Very," agreed Cai. + +They gazed out into the quiet night, as though it held all their future +and they found it good. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14533 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f1c2e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14533 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14533) diff --git a/old/14533.txt b/old/14533.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcc6663 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14533.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12286 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hocken and Hunken, by A. T. Quiller-Couch + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Hocken and Hunken + +Author: A. T. Quiller-Couch + +Release Date: December 30, 2004 [eBook #14533] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOCKEN AND HUNKEN*** + + +E-text prepared by Lionel Sear + + + +HOCKEN AND HUNKEN + +A Tale of Troy + +by + +Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch ('Q') + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +BOOK I + +CHAPTER + +I. CAPTAIN CAI HAULS ASHORE. + +II. THE BARBER'S CHAIR. + +III. TABB'S CHILD. + +IV. VOICES IN THE TWILIGHT. + +V. A TESTIMONIAL. + +VI. RILLA FARM. + +VII. 'BIAS ARRIVES. + +VIII. 'BIAS APPROVES. + + +BOOK II + +IX. FIRST SUSPICIONS. + +X. REGATTA NIGHT. + +XI. MRS BOSENNA PLAYS A PARLOUR GAME. + +XII. _AMANTIUM IRAE_. + +XIII. FAIR CHALLENGE. + +XIV. THE LETTERS. + +XV. PALMERSTON'S GENIUS. + +XVI. IS IN TWO PARTS. + +XVII. APPARENTLY DIVIDES INTO THREE. + + +BOOK III + +XVIII. THE PLOUGHING. + +XIX. ROSES AND THREE-PER-CENTS. + +XX. A NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH. + +XXI. THE AUCTION. + +XXII. THE LAST CHALLENGE. + +XXIII. PASSAGE REGATTA. + +XXIV. FANCY BRINGS NEWS. + +XXV. CAI RENOUNCES. + +XXVI. 'BIAS RENOUNCES. + +XXVII. MRS BOSENNA GIVES THE ROSE. + +XXVIII. JUBILEE. + + + + + +BOOK I. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +CAPTAIN CAI HAULS ASHORE. + +"Well, _that's_ over!" + +Captain Caius Hocken, from the stern-sheets of the boat bearing him +shoreward, slewed himself half-about for a look back at his vessel, the +_Hannah Hoo_ barquentine. This was a ticklish operation, because he +wore a tall silk hat and had allowed his hair to grow during the passage +home--St. Michael's to Liverpool with a cargo of oranges, and from +Liverpool around to Troy in charge of a tug. + +"I'm wonderin' what 'twill feel like when it comes to my turn," mused +his mate Mr Tregaskis, likewise pensively contemplating the _Hannah +Hoo_. "Not to be sure, sir, as I'd compare the two cases; me bein' a +married man, and you--as they say--with the ship for wife all these +years, and children too." + +"I never liked the life, notwithstandin'," confessed the Captain. +"And I'll be fifty come Michaelmas. Isn' that enough?" + +"Nobody likes it, sir; not at our age. But all the same I reckon there +be compensations." Mr Tregaskis, shading his eyes (for the day was +sunny), let his gaze travel up the spars and rigging of the +Barquentine--up to the truck of her maintopmast, where a gull had +perched itself and stood with tail pointing like a vane. "If the truth +were known, maybe your landsman on an average don't do as he chooses any +more than we mariners." + +"Tut, man!" The Captain, who held the tiller, had ceased to look aft. +His eyes were on the quay and the small town climbing the hillside above +it in tier upon tier of huddled grey houses. "Why, damme! +Your landsman chooses to live ashore, to begin with. What's more, he +can walk where he has a mind to, no matter where the wind sits." + +Mr Tregaskis shook his head. Having no hat, he was able to do this, and +it gave him some dialectical advantage over his skipper. + +"In practice, sir, you'd find it depend on who's left to mind the shop." + +"Home's home, all the same," said Captain Cai positively, thrusting over +the tiller to round in for the landing-stairs. "I was born and reared +in Troy, d'ye see? and as the sayin' goes--Steady on!" + +A small schooner, the _Pure Gem_ of Padstow, had warped out from the +quay overnight after discharging her ballast with the usual disregard of +the Harbour Commissioners' bye-laws; and a number of ponderable stones, +now barely covered by the tide, encumbered the foot of the landing. +On one of these the boat caught her heel, with a jerk that flung the two +oarsmen sprawling and toppled Captain Hocken's tall hat over his nose. +Mr Tregaskis thrust out a hand to catch it, but in too great a haste. +The impact of his finger-tips on the edge of the crown sent the hat +spinning forward over the thwart whereon sprawled Ben Price, the stroke +oar, and into the lap of Nathaniel Berry, bowman. + +Nathaniel Berry, recovering his balance, rescued the headgear from the +grip of his knees, gave it a polite brush the wrong way of the nap, and +passed it aft to Ben Price. Ben--a bald-headed but able seaman--eyed it +a moment, rubbed it the right way dubiously with his elbow, and handed +it on to the mate; who in turn smoothed it with the palm of his hand, +which--being an alert obliging man--he had dexterously wetted overside +before the Captain could stop him. + +"That's no method to improve a hat," said Captain Hocken shortly, +snatching it and wiping it with his handkerchief. He peered into it and +pushed out a dent with his thumb. "The way this harbour's allowed to +shoal is nothing short of a national disgrace!" + +He improved on this condemnation as, having pushed clear and brought his +boat safely alongside, he climbed the steps and met the Quaymaster, who +advanced to greet him with an ingratiating smile. + +"--A scandal to the civilised world! _There's_ a way to stack ballast, +now! Look at it, sproiled about the quay-edge like a skittle-alley in a +cyclone! But that has been your fashion, Peter Bussa, ever since I +knowed 'ee, and 'Nigh enough' your motto." + +"You've no idea, Cap'n Cai, the hard I work to keep this blessed quay +tidy." + +"Work? Ay--like a pig's tail, I believe: goin' all day, and still in a +twist come night." + +"Chide away--chide away, now! But you're welcome home for all that, +Cap'n Cai,--welcome as a man's heart to his body." + +Captain Cai relaxed his frown. After all, 'twas good to return and find +the little town running on just as he left it, even down to Quaymaster +Bussa and his dandering ways. Yes, there stood the ancient crane with +its broken-cogged winch--his own initials, carved with his first +clasp-knife, would be somewhere on the beam; and the heap of sand beside +it differed nothing from the heap on which he and his fellows had pelted +one another forty years ago. Certainly the two bollards--the one +broken, the other leaning aslant--were the same over which he and they +had played leap-frog. Yes, and yonder, in the arcade supporting the +front of the "King of Prussia," was Long Mitchell leaning against his +usual pillar; and there, on the bench before the Working Men's +Institute, sat the trio of septuagenarians--Un' Barnicoat, Roper Vine, +Old Cap'n Tom--and sunned themselves; inseparables, who seldom exchanged +a remark, and never but in terms and tones of inveterate contempt. +Facing them in his doorway lounged the town barber, under his striped +pole and sign-board--"_Simeon Toy, Hairdresser_," with the s's still +twiddling the wrong way; and beyond, outside the corner-shop, Mr Rogers, +ship-broker and ship-chandler--half paralytic but cunning yet,--sat +hunched in his invalid chair, blinking; for all the world like a wicked +old spider on the watch for flies. + +"Ahoy, there!" Captain Cai hailed, and made across at once for the +invalid chair: for Mr Rogers was his man of business. "Lost no time in +reportin' myself, you see." + +Mr Rogers managed to lift his hand a little way to meet Captain Cai's +grasp. "Eh? Eh? I've been moored here since breakfast on the look-out +for 'ee." He spoke indistinctly by reason of his paralysis. +"They brought word early that the _Hannah Hoo_ was in, and I gave orders +straight away for a biled leg o' mutton--_with_ capers--_an'_ spring +cabbage. Twelve-thirty we sit down to it, it that suits?" + +"Thank 'ee, I should just say it _did_ suit! . . . You got my last +letter, posted from the Azores?" + +"To be sure I did. I've taken the two houses for 'ee, what's more, an' +the leases be drawn ready to sign. . . . But where's your friend? +He'll be welcome too--that is, if you don't hold three too many for a +leg o' mutton?" + +"'Bias Hunken? . . . You didn't reckon I was bringing him along with me, +did you?" + +"I reckoned nothin' at all, not knowin' the man." + +"Well, he's at West Indy Docks, London,--or was, a week ago. I saw it +on 'The Shipping Gazette' two days before we left the Mersey: the _I'll +Away_, from New Orleans; barquentine, and for shape in tonnage might be +own sister to the _Hannah Hoo_; but soft wood and Salcombe built. +I was half fearing 'Bias might get down to Troy ahead of me." + +"He hasn't reported himself to _me_, anyway. . . . But we'll talk about +him and other things later on." + +Mr Rogers dismissed the subject as the Quaymaster came sidling up to +join them. Mild gossip was a passion with the Quaymaster, and +eavesdropping his infirmity. + +"Well, Cap'n Cai, and so you've hauled ashore--and for good, if I hear +true?" + +"For good it is, please God," answered Captain Cai, lifting his hat at +the word. He was a simple man and a pious. + +"And a householder you've become already, by all accounts. I don't set +much store by Town Quay talk as a rule--" + +"That's right," interrupted Mr Rogers. "There's no man ought to know +its worth better than you, that sets most of it goin'." + +"They _do_ say as you've started by leasin' the two cottages in Harbour +Terrace." + +"Do they?" Captain Cai glanced at the ship-chandler for confirmation. +"Well, then, I hope it is true." + +"'Tis nothing of the sort," snapped Mr Rogers. Seeing how Captain Cai's +face fell, he added, "I may be wrong, o' course, but I reckon there was +_two_ tenants, and they wanted a cottage apiece." + +"Ah, to be sure!" agreed the honest captain, visibly relieved. + +But the Quaymaster persisted. "Yes, yes; there was talk of a friend o' +yours, an' that you two were for settin' up house alongside one another. +Hunken was the name, if I remember?" + +Again Captain Cai glanced at the ship-chandler. He was plainly puzzled, +as the ship-chandler was plainly nettled. But he answered simply-- + +"That's it--'Bias Hunken." + +"Have I met the man, by any chance?" + +"No," said Captain Cai firmly, "you haven't, or you wouldn't ask the +question. He's the best man ever wore shoe-leather, and you can trust +him to the end o' the earth." + +"I can't say as I know a Hunken answerin' that description," Mr Bussa +confessed dubiously. + +"You've heard the description, anyway," suggested Mr Rogers, losing +patience. "And now, Peter Bussa, what d'ye say to running off and +annoying somebody else?" + +The Quaymaster fawned, and was backing away. But at this point up came +Barber Toy, who for some minutes had been fretting to attract Captain +Cai's notice, and could wait no longer. + +"Hulloa, there! Is it Cap'n Cai?--an' still carryin' his gaff-tops'l, +I see" (this in pleasant allusion to the tall hat). "Well, home you be, +it seems, an' welcome as flowers in May!" + +"Thank 'ee, Toy." Captain Cai shook hands. + +"We was talkin' business," said the ship-chandler pointedly. + +"Then you might ha' waited for a better occasion," Mr Toy retorted. +"Twasn' mannerly of ye, to say the least." + +"Better be unmannerly than troublesome, I've heard." + +"Better be both than unfeelin'. What! Leave Cap'n Cai, here, pass my +door, an' never a home-comin' word?" + +"I was meanin' to pay you a visit straight away; indeed I was," said +Captain Cai contritely. "Troy streets be narrow and full o' friends; +and when a man's accustomed to sea-room--" He broke off and drew a long +breath. "But O, friends, if you knew the good it is!" + +"Ay, Cap'n: East or West, home is best." + +"And too far East is West, as every sailor man knows. . . . There, now, +take me along and think' that out while you're giving me a clip; for the +longer you stand scratching your head the longer my hair's growing." +He turned to Mr Rogers. "So long, soce! I'll be punctual at +twelve-thirty--what's left of me." + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +THE BARBER'S CHAIR. + +"This _is_ home!" Captain Cai settled himself down in the barber's chair +with a sigh of luxurious content. "I've heard married men call it +better," said Mr Toy, fetching forth a clean wrapper. + +"Very likely." The Captain sighed again contentedly. "I take no truck +in marriage, for my part. A friend's company enough for me." + +"What's his name, Cap'n? The whole town's dyin' to know." + +"He's called Hunken--Tobias Hunken." + +The barber paused, snapping his scissors and nodding. "Bussa was right +then, or Bussa and Philp between 'em." + +"Hey?" + +"'Tis wonderful how news gets abroad in Troy. . . . 'Hunken,' now? +And where might he be one of? I don't seem to fit the name in my mem'ry +at all." + +"You wouldn't. He comes from t'other side of the Duchy--a Padstow-born +man, and he've never set eyes on Troy in his life." + +"Yet he takes a house an' settles here? That's queer, as you might +say." + +"I see nothing queer about it. He's my friend--that's why. And what's +more, the Lord never put bowels into a better man." + +"He'll be a pleasure to shave, then," opined Mr Toy. + +"No, he won't; he wears his hair all over his face. Talkin' of that +reminds me--when you've done croppin' me I want a clean shave." + +"Chin-beard an' all, Cap'n?" + +"Take it off--take it off! 'Twas recommended to me against sore throat; +but I never liked the thing nor the look of it." + +"Then there's one point, it seems, on which you an' your friend don't +agree, sir?" + +The barber meant this facetiously, but Captain Cai considered it in all +seriousness. + +"You're mistaken," he answered. "Between friends there's a +give-an'-take, and until you understand that you don't understand +friendship. 'Bias Hunken likes me to do as I choose, and I like 'Bias +to do as _he_ chooses: by consekence o' which the more we goes our own +ways the more we goes one another's. That clear, I hope." + +"Moderately," the barber assented. + +"I'll put it t'other way--about an' make it still clearer. Most married +folks, as I notice, start t'other way about. For argyment's sake we'll +call 'em Jack an' Joan. Jack starts by thinkin' Joan pretty near +perfection; but he wants her quite perfect and all to his mind--_his_ +mind, d'ye see? Now if you follow that up, as you followed it between +'Bias and me--" + +"I don't want my missus to wear a beard, if that's what you mean." + +"'Twasn't a good illustration, I admit. But the p'int is, I like 'Bias +because he's 'Bias, an' 'Bias likes me because I'm Cai Hocken. +That bein' so, don't it follow we're goin' to be better friends than +ever, now we've hauled ashore to do as likes us?" + +The barber shook his head. "You're determined to have off your +chin-beard?" + +"_To_ be sure. I'm ashore now, aren't I?--and free to wear what face I +choose." + +"You won't find it so, Cap'n." + +"T'ch't! You landsmen be so fed with liberty you don't know your +privileges. If you don't like your habits, what hinders you from +changin' 'em? But _do_ you? Here I come back: here's th' old Town Quay +same as ever it was; and here likewise you all be, runnin' on as I left +'ee, like a clockwork--a bit slower with age maybe--that's all. +Whereby I conclude your ways content ye." + +"You're wrong, Cap'n Cai--you're wrong. We bide by our habits--an', +more by token, here comes Mr Philp. 'Morning, Mr Philp." The barber, +without turning, nodded towards the newcomer as he entered--a short man, +aged about sixty, with a square-cut grey beard, sanguine complexion, and +blue eyes that twinkled with a deceptive appearance of humour. +"Here's Cap'n Cai Hocken, home from sea." + +"Eh? I am very glad to see you, Cap'n Hocken," said Mr Philp politely. +"There's a post-card waitin' for you, up at the Office." + +Captain Cai sat bolt upright of a sudden, narrowly missing a wound from +the scissors. "That will be from 'Bias! To think I hadn' sense enough +to go straight to the Post Office and inquire!" + +"'Tis from your friend, sure enough," announced Mr Philp. "He paid off +his crew last Toosday, an' took his discharge an' the train down to +Plymouth. He've bought a wardrobe there--real wornut--an' 'tis comin' +round by sea. There's a plate-chest, too, he thinks you may fancy-- +price thirty-five shillin secondhand: an' he hopes to reach Troy the day +after next, which by the post-mark is to-morra." + +"Mr Philp," explained the barber, "calls in at the Office every mornin' +to read all the post-cards. 'Tis one of his habits." + +"Recent bereavement?" asked Mr Philp, before Captain Cai could well +digest this. + +"Eh?" + +"Recent bereavement?" Mr Philp was examining the tall hat, which he had +picked up to make room for his own person on the customers' bench. + +"That's another of his aptitoods," the barber interpolated. +"He attends all the funerals in the parish." + +"In the midst o' life we are in death," observed Mr Philp. "That's a +cert, Cap'n Hocken, an' your hat put me in mind of it." + +"Oh, 'tis my hat you're meanin'? What's wrong with it?" + +"Did I say there was anything wrong? No, I didn't--God forbid! An' no +doubt," concluded Mr Philp cheerfully, "the fashions'll work round to it +again." + +"I'll change it for another." + +"You won't find that too easy, will you?" The barber paused in his +snipping, and turned about for a thoughtful look at the hat. + +"I mean I'll buy another, of a different shape. First the beard, then +the headgear--as I was tellin' Toy, a man ashore can reggilate his ways +as he chooses, an here's to prove it." + +"They _do_ say a clean shave is worth two virtuous resolutions," +answered the barber, shaking his head Again. "And you're makin' a brave +start, I don't deny. But wait till you pick up with a few real habits." + +"What sort o' habits?" + +"The sort that come to man first-along in the shape o' duties--like +church-goin'. Look here, Cap'n, I'll lay a wager with 'ee. . . . +Soon as you begin to walk about this town a bit, you'll notice a +terrible lot o' things that want improvin'--" + +"I don't need to walk off the Town Quay for _that_." + +"Ah, an' I daresay it came into your head that if you had the orderin' +of Bussa you wouldn' be long about it? The town'll think it, anyway. +We're a small popilation in Troy, all tied up in neighbourly feelin's +an' hangin' together till--as the sayin' is--you can't touch a cobweb +without hurtin' a rafter. What the town's cryin' out for is a new +broom--a man with ideas, eh, Mr Philp?--above all, a man who's +independent. So first of all they'll flatter ye up into standin' for +the Parish Council, and put ye head o' the poll--" + +"Tut, man!" interrupted Captain Cai, flushing a little. "What do I know +about such things? Not o' course that I shan't take an interest--as a +ratepayer--" + +"_To_ be sure. I heard a man say, only last Saturday, sittin' in that +very chair, as there was never a ship's captain hauled ashore but in +three weeks he'd be ready to teach the Chancellor of th' Exchequer his +business an' inclined to wonder how soon he'd be offered the job." + +"A ship's captain needn't be altogether a born fool." + +"No: an' next you'll be bent on larnin' to speak in public; and takin' +occasions to practise, secondin' votes o' thanks an' such like. +After that you'll be marryin' a wife--" + +"I don't want to marry a wife, I tell 'ee!" + +"Who said you did? Well, then, you'll get married--they dotes on a +public man as a rule; and for tanglin' a man up in habits there's no +snare like wedlock, not in the whole world. I've known scores o' men +get married o' purpose to break clear o' their habits an' take a fresh +start; but ne'er a man that didn't tie himself up thereby in twenty new +habits for e'er a one he'd let drop." + +"Go on with your folly, if it amuses you." + +"Then, again, you've taken a house." + +"So Rogers tells me. I don't even know the rent, at this moment." + +"Twenty-five pound p'r annum," put in Mr Philp. Captain Cai--released +just then from his wrapper--turned and stared at him. + +"I had it from the Postmistress," Mr Philp's tone was matter-of-fact, +his gaze unabashed. "Bein' paralytic, Rogers did your business with the +widow by letter; he keeps a type-writin' machine an' pays Tabb's girl +three shillin' a-week to work it. The paper's thin, as I've had a mind +to warn 'er more than once." + +"'Twould be a Christian act," suggested Mr Toy. "If there's truth in +half what folks say, some of old Johnny Rogers' correspondence 'd make +pretty readin' for the devil." + +"But look here," interposed Captain Cai, "what's this about doin' +business with a widow? _Whose_ widow?" + +"Why, your landlady, to be sure--the Widow Bosenna, up to Rilla Farm." + +"No--stop a minute--take that blessed latherin'-brush out o' my mouth! +You don't tell me old Bosenna's dead, up there?" + +"It didn' altogether surprise most of us when it happened," said the +barber philosophically. "A man risin' sixty-five, with _his_ habits! + . . . But it all came about by the County Council's widenin' the road +up at Four Turnin's. . . . You see, o' late years th' old man 'd ride +home on Saturdays so full he _had_ to drop off somewhere 'pon the road; +an' his mare gettin' to find this out, as dumb animals do, had picked up +a comfortable way of canterin' hard by Four Turnin's and stoppin' short, +slap in the middle of her stride, close by th' hedge, so 's her master +'d roll over it into the plantation there, where the ditch is full of +oak-leaves. There he'd lie, peaceful as a suckin' child; and there, +every Sabbath mornin' in the small hours, one o' the farm hands 'd be +sent to gather 'em in wi' the new-laid eggs. So it went on till one day +the County Council, busy as usual, takes a notion to widen th' road just +there; an' not only pulls down th' hedge, but piles up a great heap o' +stones, ready to build a new one. Whereby either the mare hadn' noticed +the improvement or it escaped her memory. Anyway--the night bein' +dark--she shoots old Bosenna neck-an'-crop 'pon the stones. It caused a +lot o' feelin' at the time, an' the coroner's jury spoke their minds +pretty free about it. They brought it in that he'd met his death by the +visitation o' God brought about by a mistake o' the mare's an' helped on +by the over-zealous behaviour of the County Surveyor. Leastways that's +how they put it at first; but on the Coroner's advice they struck out +the County Surveyor an' altered him to a certain party or parties +unknown." + +"I mind Mrs Bosenna well," said Captain Cai, rising as the barber +unwrapped him; "a smallish well-featured body, with eyes like bullace +plums." + +"Ay, an' young enough to ha' been old Bosenna's daughter--a penniless +maid from Holsworthy in Devon, as I've heard; an' now she's left there, +up to Rilla, happy as a mouse in cheese. Come to think, Cap'n Cai, you +might do worse than cock your hat in that quarter." + +But Captain Cai did not hear for the moment. He was peering into the +looking-glass and thinking less of Mrs Bosenna than of his +shaven-altered appearance. + +"'Twould be a nice change for her, too," pursued Mr Toy in a rallying +tone; "an adaptable man like you, Cap'n." + +"Eh? What's that you were sayin' about my hat?" asked Captain Cai; and +just then, letting his gaze wander to the depths of the glass, he was +aware of Mr Philp shamelessly trying on that same hat before another +mirror at the back of the shop. + +"Hullo, there!" + +Mr Philp faced about solidly, composedly. + +"I was thinkin'," said he, "as I'd bid you three-an'-six for this, if +you've done with it. I've long been wantin' something o' the sort, for +interments." + +"Done with you!" said Captain Cai, reaching for it and clapping it on +his head. "Only you must send round for it to-morrow, when I've found +myself something more up-to-date." Again he contemplated his shaven +image in the mirror. "Lord! A man do look younger without a +chin-beard!" + +"Ay, Cap'n." Barber Toy, knuckles on hips, regarded and approved his +handiwork. "The world's afore 'ee. Go in and win!" + + +As he stepped out upon the Quay, Captain Cai lifted his gaze towards the +tower of the Parish Church, visible above an alley-way that led between +a gable-end of the Town Hall and the bulging plank of the "King of +Prussia." Aloft there the clock began to chime out the eight notes it +had chimed, at noon and at midnight, through his boyhood, and had been +chiming faithfully ever since. + +Yes, it was good to be home! Captain Cai would have been astonished to +learn that his thirty-five years at sea had left any corner for +sentiment. Yet a sudden mist gathered between him and the face of the +old clock. Nor had it cleared when, almost punctually on the last +stroke, a throng of children came pouring from school through the narrow +alley-ways. They ran by him with no more than a glance, not +interrupting their shouts. In a moment the Quay was theirs; they were +at leap-frog over the bollards; they were storming the sand-heap, +pelting a king of the castle, who pelted back with handfuls. +Captain Cai felt an absurd sense of being left out in the cold. Not a +child had recognised him. + +All very well . . . but to think that these thirty-odd years had made +not a scrap of difference--that the Quay lay as it had lain, neglected, +untidy as ever! Thirty-odd years ago it had been bad enough. But what +conscience was there in standing still and making no effort to move with +the times? As Barber Toy said, it was scandalous. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +TABB'S CHILD. + +"Three hundred pounds a-year . . ." mused Captain Cai between two puffs +of tobacco smoke. He repeated the words, rolling them in his mouth, as +though they tasted well. "You're pretty sure 'twill come to that?" + +"Sure," answered Mr Rogers. The pair had dined, and were now promoting +digestion with pipes and grog in Mr Rogers' bow-window overlooking the +harbour. "You might put your money to an annuity, o' course, an' live +like a lord: but I'm reckonin' it in safe ord'nary investments, +averagin' (let's say) four per cent. An' that's leavin' out your +thirty-odd shares in the _Hannah Hoo_, when she's for sale. +Ship-auctions be chancey things in these days, an' private purchasers +hard to find." + +"I never knew 'em when they weren't," said Captain Cai. + +"When d'ye pay off, by the way?" + +"Not till Saturday. There's no hurry. When a man drops hook on his +last cruise I allow 'tis his duty to tidy up an' leave all ship-shape; +in justice to hisself, you understand. There's Tregaskis an' the crew, +too,--old shipmates every one--" + +The chandler nodded. + +"Ay, you're to be envied, Cap'n. There's others--masters of oil-tanks, +f'r instance--as makes their pile faster; some of em' in ways that +needn't be mentioned atween you an' me. But slow an' honest has been +your motto; an' here you be--What's your age? Fifty? Say fifty at the +outside.--Here you be at fifty with a tidy little income and a clean +conscience to sit with in your pew o' Sundays; nothing to do o' +week-days but look after a few steady-goin' investments an' draw your +little dividends." + +"That'd be more business than I've a mind for, Rogers," answered Captain +Cai; "at any rate, while you live. I've a-left my affairs to you these +twelve year, an' mean to continue, please God--you knowin' my ways." + +The chandler blinked. "That's very han'some o' ye, Cap'n," he said +after a long pause. "But--" + +"There's no 'but' about it," interrupted Captain Cai shortly, looking +away and resting his gaze on the _Hannah Hoo_ out in the harbour, where +she lay on the edge of the deep-water channel among a small crowd of +wind-bounders. Her crew had already made some progress in unbending +sails, and her stripped spars shone as gold against the westering +sunlight. "No 'but' about it, Rogers--unless o' course you're +unwillin'." + +"What's willin' or unwillin' to a man broken in health as I be? +That's the p'int, Cap'n--here, set opposite to 'ee, staring 'ee in the +face--a hulk, shall we say?--rudder gone, ridin' to a thread o' life--" +"You'll ride to it a many years yet, please God again." + +"I take 'e to witness this is not my askin'." + +Captain Cai stared. "'Tis my askin', Rogers. I put it as a favour." + +"What about your friend? I was thinkin' as maybe _he'd_ take over the +job." + +"'Bias?" Captain Cai shook his head. "He've no gift in money matters; +let be that I don't believe in mixin' friendship in business." + +Mr Rogers pondered this for some while in silence. Then he struck a +hand-bell beside him, and his summons was answered by a small +short-skirted handmaiden who had waited table. + +"Pipe's out, my dear," he announced. "An' while you're about it you may +mix us another glassful apiece." + +"Not for me, thank 'ee," said Captain Cai. + +"An' not for him, neither," said the girl. She was but a child, yet she +spoke positively, and yet again without disrespect in her manner. +"'Tis poison for 'ee," she added, knocking out the ash from her master's +churchwarden pipe and refilling it from the tobacco-jar. "You know what +the doctor said?" + +"Ugh!--a pair o' tyrants, you an' the doctor! Just a thimbleful now--if +the Cap'n here will join me." + +"You heard him? He don't want another glass." + +Her solemn eyes rested on Captain Cai, and he repeated that he would +take no more grog. + +She struck a match and held it to the pipe while the chandler drew a few +puffs. Then she was gone as noiselessly as she had entered. + +"That's a question now," observed Captain Cai after a pause. + +"What's a question?" + +"Servants. I've talked it over with 'Bias, and he allows we should +advertise for a single housekeeper; a staid honest woman to look after +the pair of us--with maybe a trifle of extra help. That gel, for +instance, as waited table--" + +"Tabb's child?" + +"Is that her name?" + +"She was christened Fancy--Fancy Tabb--her parents being a brace o' +fools. Ay, she's a nonesuch, is Tabb's child." + +"With a manageable woman to give her orders--What's amiss with ye, +Rogers?" + +Captain Cai put the question in some alarm, for the heaving of the +ship-chandler's waistcoat and a strangling noise in his throat together +suggested a sudden gastric disturbance. + +But it appeared they were but symptoms of mirth. Mr Rogers lifted his +practicable hand, and with a red bandanna handkerchief wiped the rheum +from his eyes. + +"Ho, dear!--you'll excuse me, Cap'n; but 'with a manageable woman,' you +said? I'd pity her startin' to manage the like of Fancy Tabb." + +"Why, what's wrong wi' the child?" + +"Nothin'--let be I can't keep a grown woman in the house unless she's a +half-wit. I have to get 'em from Tregarrick, out o' the Home for the +Feeble-Minded. But it don't work so badly. They're cheap, you +understand; an' Fancy teaches 'em to cook. If they don't show no +promise after a fortni't's trial, she sends 'em back. I hope," added +the chandler, perceiving Captain Cai to frown, "you're not feelin' no +afterthoughts about that leg o' mutton. Maybe I ought to have warned +'ee that 'twas cooked by a person of weak intellect." + +"Don't mention it," said Captain Cai politely. "What the eye don't see +the heart don't grieve, as they say; an' the jint was boiled to a turn. +. . . I was only wonderin' how you picked up such a maid!" + +The chandler struck again upon the small hand-bell. "I got her from a +bad debt." + +"Seems an odd way--" began Captain Cai, after pondering for a moment, +but broke off, for the hand-maiden stood already on the threshold. + +"Fancy Tabb," commanded the chandler, "step fore, here, into the +light." + +The child obeyed. + +"You see this gentleman?" + +"Yes, master." Her eyes, as she turned them upon Captain Cai, were frank +enough, or frank as eyes could be that guarded a soul behind glooms of +reserve. They were straight, at any rate, and unflinching, and very +serious. + +"You know his business?" + +"I think so, master. . . . Has he come to sign the lease? I'll fetch it +from your desk, if you'll give me the keys." + +"Bide a bit, missy," said Captain Cai. "That'd be buying a pig in a +poke, when I ha'n't even seen the house yet--not," he added, with a +glance at Mr Rogers, "that I make any doubt of its suiting. +But business is business." + +The child turned to her master, as much as to ask, "What, then, is your +need of me?" + +"Cap'n Hocken wants a servant," said Mr Rogers, answering the look. + +She appeared to ponder this. "Before seein' the house?" she asked, +after a moment or two. + +"She had us there, Rogers!" chuckled Captain Cai; but the child was +perfectly serious. + +"You would like me to show you the house? Master has the key." + +"That's an idea, now!" He was still amused. + +"When?" + +"This moment--that's to say, if your master'll spare you?" He glanced +at Mr Rogers, who nodded. + +"Couldn't do better," he agreed. "You've a good two hours afore dusk, +an' she's a proper dictionary on taps an' drainage." + +"Please you to come along, sir." The child waited respectfully while +Captain Cai arose, picked up his hat, and bade his host "So long!" +He followed her downstairs. + +Their way to the street lay through the shop, and by the rearward door +of it she paused to reach down her hat and small jacket. The shop was +long, dark, intricate; its main window overshadowed by the bulk of the +Town Hall, across the narrow alley-way; its end window, which gave on +the Quay, blocked high with cheeses, biscuit-tins, boxes of soap, and +dried Newfoundland cod. Into this gloom the child flung her voice, and +Captain Cai was aware of the upper half of a man's body dimly +silhouetted there against the panes. + +"Daddy, I'm going out." + +"Yes, dear," answered the man's voice dully. "For an hour, very likely. +This gentleman wants to see his new house, and I'm to show it to him." + +"Yes, dear." + +"You'll be careful, won't you now? Mrs M--fus'll be coming round, +certain, for half-a-pound of bacon; And that P--fus girl for candles, if +not for sugar. You've to serve neither, mind, until you see their +money." + +"Yes, dear. What excuse shall I make?" The man's voice was weary but +patient. The tone of it set a chord humming faintly somewhere in +Captain Cai's memory: but his mind worked slowly and (as he would have +put it) wanted sea-room, to come about. + +They had taken but a few steps, however, when in the narrow street, +known as Dolphin Row, he pulled up with all sail shaking. + +"That there party as we passed in the shop--" + +"He's my father," said the child quickly. + +"And you're Tabb's child. . . . You don't tell me that was Lijah Tabb, +as used to be master o' the _Uncle an' Aunt?_" + +"I don't tell you anything," said the child, and added, "he's a +different man altogether." + +"That's curious now." Captain Cai walked on a pace or two and halted +again. "But you're Tabb's child," he insisted. "And, by the trick of +his voice, if that wasn't Lijah--" + +"His name _is_ Elijah." + +"Eh?" queried Captain Cai, rubbing his ear. "But I heard tell," he went +on in a puzzled way, searching his memory, "as Lijah Tabb an' Rogers had +quarrelled desp'rate an' burnt the papers, so to speak." + +"'Twas worse than that." She did not answer his look, but kept her eyes +fixed ahead. + +"Yet here I find the man keepin' shop for Rogers: and as for you--if +you're his daughter--" + +"I'm in service with Mr Rogers," said Fancy, who as if in a moment had +recovered her composure. "If you want to know why, sir, and won't chat +about it, I don't mind tellin' you." + +"You make me curious, little maid: that I'll own." + +"'Tis simple enough, too," said she. "He's had a stroke, an' he's goin +to hell." + +"Eh? . . . I don't see--" + +"He's goin' to hell," she repeated with a nod as over a matter that +admitted no dispute. + +"Well, but dang it all!" protested Captain Cai after a pause, +"we'll allow as he's goin' there, for the sake of argyment. Is that why +you're tendin' on him so careful?" + +"You mustn't think," answered the child, "that I'm doin' it out o' pity +altogether. There's something terrible fascinatin' about a man in that +position." + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +VOICES IN THE TWILIGHT. + +"I don't see anything immodest in it," said Mrs Bosenna looking up. +She was on her knees and had just finished pressing the earth about the +roots of a small rose-bush. "The house is mine, and naturally I am +curious to know something about my tenant." + +Dinah, her middle-aged maid, who had been holding the bush upright and +steady, answered this challenge with a short sniff. "He don't seem over +curious, for his part, about _you_." She, too, glanced upward and +toward the house, the upper storey alone of which, from where they +stood, was visible above the spikes of a green palisade. A roadway +divided the house from the garden, which descended to the harbour-cliff +in a series of tiny terraces. "They've been pokin' around indoors this +hour and more." + +"You don't suppose he caught sight of us?" + +"Maybe not; but Tabb's child did. That girl 've a-got eyes like +niddles. If he don't come down to pay his respects, you may bet 'tis +because he don't want to." Dinah, being vexed, spoke viciously. +Her speech implied that her mistress's conduct had been not only +indelicate but clumsy. + +"You are a horrid woman," Mrs Bosenna accused her; "and I can't think +what put such nasty-minded thoughts into your head." + +"No more can I, unless you suggested 'em," Dinah retorted. + +"You were willing enough to come, when--when--" + +"When you proposed it," Dinah relentlessly concluded the sentence. +"Of course. Why not?" + +"And you were excited enough--you can't deny it"--her mistress insisted, +"when you brought the news this morning, that his ship had arrived. +But now, and only because you happen to be put out--" + +"Who said I was put out?" + +"As if I couldn't tell by your tone! Now, just because you happen to be +put out, I'm indelicate all of a sudden." + +"I never said so," Dinah protested sullenly. + +"_Said_ so?" Mrs Bosenna, rising, faced her with withering scorn. +"I hope you've a better sense of your position than to _say_ such a +thing. Oh, you content yourself with hinting! . . . But who owns this +house and garden, I should like to know?" + +Dinah, though remorseful, showed fight yet. "Then why couldn' ye take +the bull by the horns an' march in by the front door?" + +"Why? Because you agreed with me that to plant a two or three roses for +him would be a nice attention! . . . You can't start planting roses in +the dusk, at the end of an afternoon call; and, as it is, we've only +just finished before twilight." + +Dinah was minded to retort that, as it was, the planting had taken a +long time. But she contented herself with glancing again at the house +and saying evasively that the new tenant appeared to take more interest +in fixtures than in flowers. + +"I own," sighed Mrs Bosenna, "I thought he'd have been eager to take +stock of the garden before it grew dark. Such a beautiful garden, as it +is, in a small way!" + +"When a man has passed his whole life at sea--" + +"True," her mistress agreed. "Yet how it must enlarge the mind! +So different from farming!" + +"It must be ekally dependent on the weather," Dinah opined. "At least. +More so, takin' one thing with another. Oh, decidedly. It stands to +reason." + +"I'm romantic perhaps," confessed Mrs Bosenna; "but I can never think of +any ship's captain as being quite an ordinary man. The dangers he must +go through--and the foreign countries he visits--and up night after +night in all weathers, staring into the darkness in an oilskin suit!" + +"'Tisn' the sort o' man I should ever choose for a husband, if I wanted +one," maintained Dinah. + +"Who was talking of husbands, you silly woman?" + +"I don't see how else the men-folk consarn us, mistress." + +"You're coarse, Dinah." + +"I'm practical, anyway. If they choose to toss up an' down 'pon the sea +they're welcome, for me. But, for my part, when I lay me down at night, +I like to be sure o' gettin' up in the same position next mornin'; and +I'd to feel the same about a husband, supposin' I cared for the man." + +"I often think," mused Mrs Bosenna, "that we're not half grateful enough +to sailors, considering the risks they run and the things they bring us +home: tea and coffee, raisins, currants, with all kinds of spices and +cordial drinks." + +"Oranges an' lemons, say the bells o' St Clemen's. Oranges--" + +"I wasn't thinking of this Captain Hocken in particular," interrupted +the widow hastily. "Take a Christmas pudding, for instance. Flour and +suet, and there's an end if you depend on the farmer; just an ordinary +dumpling. Whereas the sailor brings the figs, the currants, the candied +peel, the chopped almonds, the brandy--all the ingredients that make it +Christmassy." + +"And then the farmer takes an' eats it. Aw, believe me, mistress, +Stay-at-home fares best in this world!" + +"I don't know, Dinah," sighed Mrs Bosenna. "Haven't you ever in your +life wished for a pair o' wings?" + +"To wear in my hat? Why, o' course I have." + +"No, no; I mean, for the wings of a dove, to fly away and be--well, not +at rest exactly--" + +"No, I haven't, mistress. But 'tis the way with you discontented rich +folks. Like Hocken's ducks, all of 'ee--never happy unless you be where +you baint. . . . I wonder if that Hocken was any relation--S-sh! now! +Talk of the devil!" + + +Captain Cai and Fancy had spent a good hour-and-a-half in overhauling +the two cottages. Their accommodation was narrow enough, but Captain +Cai, after half a lifetime on shipboard, found them little short of +palatial. The child could scarcely drag him away from the tiny +bath-rooms with their hot and cold water taps. + +"Lord," said he, gazing down into the newly painted bath in No.1. +"To think of 'Bias in the likes o' this!" + +"You may, if you care to," said Fancy. + +"'Tis a knack of mine," he apologised. "We'll suppose him safely out of +it, an' what happens next? Why, he'll step across to the linen-cupboard +here, wi' the hot pipes behind it, an' there's a clean shirt dried an' +warmed to his skin. He gets into that--the day bein' Sunday, as we'll +suppose--an' finishes his dressin', danderin' forth an' back from one +room to t'other; breakfast gettin' ready downstairs an' no hurry for +it--all his time his own, clean away to sundown. Up above the lower +window-sash here with the Prodigal Son in stained glass, and very +thoughtful of the architect, too--" + +"It isn't stained glass," the child corrected; "it's what they call a +transparency." + +"I hope you're mistaken. . . . I must try it from the outside before I +let 'Bias undress here. As I was sayin', through the upper pane he'll +see his cabbages comin' on at the back; an' in the front, under his +window, there's the bread-cart--" + +"But you said 'twas Sunday." + +"So I did. . . . Well, there's the milk-cart anyway, an' a boy janglin' +the cans. You can't think how pretty these shore-noises be to a +sailor-man. An' down in the town the church bell goin' for early +Communion, but he'll attend mornin' service later on. An', across the +road, there's the garden, full o' flowers, an' smellin'--an' a blessed +sense as he can pick an' choose an' take his time with it all." +Captain Cai had wandered to the front window. He let fall these last +words slowly, in a kind of reverie, as he gazed out on the garden over +which the twilight was fast gathering. + +"With all this time on your hands, I reckon you won't be takin' a look +round the garden?" hazarded Fancy. + +"Certainly. Why not?" + +"Well, 'tis drawin' in dusk. But there! I wouldn' disappoint Mrs +Bosenna, if I was you." + +"Eh?" + +"She's been down in the garden this hour and more, waitin' for you to +take her by surprise." + +"Oh--come now, I say!" + +Fancy nodded her head. "I don't know as I blame her," she said +judicially. "She's curious to know what you look like, that's all; or +else she's curious for you to know what she looks like. Anyway, she's +down there, if you've a mind to be polite." + +Seeing that he hesitated, the child led the way. Captain Cai followed +her in something of a tremor. Across the road they went and through the +garden-gate; and the sound of their footsteps on the flagged pathway +gave Mrs Bosenna warning. By the time they reached the second terrace +she was down on her knees again, packing the soil about the rose-bush, +which Dinah obediently held upright for her. + +"Losh, here's visitors!" exclaimed Dinah. + +Mrs Bosenna turned with the prettiest start of surprise, and sprang to +her feet. If there was a suspicion--a shade--of overacting, the +twilight concealed it. She had a charming figure, very supple and +maidenly: she bought her corsets in London. The kneeling posture and +the swift rise from it were alike noticeably graceful, even in the dusk. + +"Visitors?" she echoed. "And me in this state to receive 'em, earthed +up to the wrists!" She plucked off her gardening-gloves, handed them to +Dinah, and stooped to snatch up one of a pair of white cuffs--badges of +her widowhood--that she had laid aside on the turf before starting to +work. While slipping it over her wrist she found time to glance up at +Captain Cai, who fumbled confusedly with the rim of his tall hat. + +"Excuse me, madam--no wish to intrude. We'll take ourselves off this +minute, eh?" He turned to the child, who, however, did not budge. + +"Please, don't go. You are--?" + +"Caius Hocken, ma'am--of the _Hannah Hoo_--at your service." + +"Dear me, what a very pleasant surprise!" (Oh, Mrs Bosenna!) She held +out a hand. "I am glad to make your acquaintance, Captain Hocken." + +"I hope I see you well, ma'am?" Captain Cai took the hand and dropped it +nervously. + +"Quite well, I thank God. . . . They told me your ship had arrived, sir; +but I could not count--could I?--on your coming to inspect the house so +soon." + +"If I've been over hasty, ma'am--" + +"Not at all," she interrupted. "There now! I put things so clumsily at +times! I meant to excuse _myself_; for, you see, the house has been +yours since Lady-day--that's to say, if you sign the lease,--and +Lady-day's more than a week past. So 'tis _I_ that am the intruder. + . . .But passing the garden yesterday, I'd a notion that half a dozen +dwarf roses would improve it, without your knowledge. You're not +offended, I hope, now that you've caught me? I dote on roses, for my +part." + +"I--I take it very kindly, ma'am." + +"'Tis a funny time o' the year to be plantin' roses, isn't it?" asked +Fancy. + +"Eh?" In the dusk Mrs Bosenna treated her to a disapproving stare. +"Is that Elijah Tabb's child? . . . You've grown such a lot lately, I +hardly recognised you." + +"I noticed that," said the child with composure, "though I didn't guess +the reason. But 'tis a funny time to be plantin' roses, all the same." + +"And pray, child, what do you know about roses?" + +"Nothing," answered Fancy, "'cept that 'tis a funny time to be plantin' +'em." + +"When you grow a little older," said Mrs Bosenna icily, "you'll know +that anything can be done with roses in these days--with proper +precautions. Why"--she turned to Captain Cai--"I've planted out roses +in July month--in pots, of course. You break the pots in the October +following. But there must be precautions." + +"Meanin' manure?" + +"Cow," interposed Dinah tersely, "it's the best. Pig comes next, for +various reasons." + +"We need not go into details," said Mrs Bosenna. "I sent down a +cartload this morning and had it well dug in. Provided you dig it deep +enough, and don't let it touch the young roots--" + +"I thank you kindly, ma'am," said Captain Cai, "and so will my friend +'Bias Hunken when he hears of it." + +"Ah, my other tenant?--or tenant in prospect, I ought to say. He has +not arrived yet, I understand." + +"He's due to-morrow, ma'am, by th' afternoon train." + +"You must bring him over to Rilla Farm, to call on me," said Mrs Bosenna +graciously. + +Captain Cai rubbed his chin. He was taken at unawares; and not finding +the familiar beard under his fingers, grew strangely helpless. "As for +that, ma'am," he stammered, "I ought to warn you that 'Bias isn' easily +caught." + +"God defend me!" answered the widow, who had a free way of speaking at +times. "Who wants to catch him?" + +"You don't take my meanin', ma'am, if you'll excuse me," floundered +Captain Cai in a sweat. "I ought to ha' said that 'Bias, though one in +a thousand, is terrible shy with females--or ladies, as I should say." + +"He'll be all the more welcome for that," said Mrs Bosenna relentlessly. +"You must certainly bring him, Captain Hocken." + +Before he could protest further, she had shaken hands, gathered up +trowel and kneeling-pad, given them into Dinah's keeping, unpinned and +shaken down the skirt of her black gown, and was gone--gone up the +twilit path, her handmaiden following,--gone with a fleeting smile that, +while ignoring Fancy Tabb, left Captain Cai strangely perturbed, so +nicely it struck a balance between understanding and aloofness. + +He rubbed his chin, then his ear, then the back of his neck. + +"Lord!" he groaned suddenly, "where was my manners?" + +"Eh?" + +"I never said a word about her affliction." + +"What might _that_ be, in your opinion?" + +"Her first husband, o' course--or, as I _should_ say, the loss of him. +Shockin' thing to forget. . . . I've almost a mind now to follow her an' +make my excuses." + +"Do," said Fancy; "I'd like to hear you start 'pon 'em." + +"Well, you can if you will. Come over with me to Rilla to-morrow +forenoon. I'll get leave for you." + +"That'd spoil the fun," said Fancy, not one risible muscle twitching; +"but go you'll have to. Mrs Bosenna has left one of her cuffs behind." + +She pointed to a white object on the turf. Captain Cai stooped, picked +it up, and held it gingerly in his hand. + +"She didn' seem a careless sort, neither," he mused. + +"Not altogether," the child agreed with him. + + +"Dinah," said Mrs Bosenna, halting suddenly as they walked homeward in +the dusk, "I've left one of my cuffs behind!" + +"Yes, mistress." + +"'Yes, mistress,'" Mrs Bosenna mimicked her. "If 'twas anything +belonging to you, you'd be upset enough." + +"I'd have more reason," said Dinah stolidly. "Do 'ee want me to run +back an' fetch it?" + +"No--o." Her mistress seemed to hesitate. "'Tisn't worth while; and +ten chances to one somebody will find it." + +"That's what I was thinkin'," agreed Dinah. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +A TESTIMONIAL. + +Captain Cai's sea-chest had been conveyed to the Ship Inn, Trafalgar +Square (so called--as the landlord, Mr Oke, will inform you--after the +famous battle of that name), and there he designed to lodge while his +friend and he furnished their new quarters. + +His bed, a four-poster, was luxurious indeed after his old bunk in the +_Hannah Hoo_, and he betook himself to it early. Yet he did not sleep +well. For some while sleep was forbidden by a confusion of voices in +the bar-parlour downstairs; then, after a brief lull, the same voices +started exchanging good-nights in the square without; and finally, when +the rest had dispersed, two belated townsmen lingered in private +conversation, now walking a few paces to and fro on the cobbles, but +ever returning to anchorage under a street lamp beneath his window. +By-and-by the town lamplighter came along, turned off the gas-jet and +wished the two gossips good-night, adding that the weather was +extraordinary for the time of year; but still they lingered. +Captain Cai, worried by the murmur of their voices, climbed out of bed +to close the window. His hand was outstretched to do so when, through +the open sash, he caught a few articulate words--a fragment of a +sentence. + +Said one--speaking low but earnestly--"If I should survive my wife, _as +I hope to do_--" + +Unwilling to play the eavesdropper, or to startle them by shutting the +window, Captain Cai very delicately withdrew, climbed back into bed, and +drew the edge of the bedclothes over his ear. Soon he was asleep; but, +even as he dropped off, the absurd phrase wove itself into the midnight +chime from the church tower and passed on to weave itself into his +dreams and vex them. "If I should survive my wife--" In his dreams he +was back in Troy, indeed, and yet among foreigners. They spoke in +English, too; but they conversed with one another, not with him, as +though he might overhear but could not be expected to understand. +One dream--merely ludicrous when he awoke and recalled it--gave him real +distress while it lasted. In it he saw half a dozen townsmen--Barber +Toy, Landlord Oke, the Quaymaster, and Mr Philp among them--gathered +around the mound of sand on the Quay, solemnly playing a child's game +with his tall hat. Mr Philp took it from the Quaymaster's head, +transferred it to his own, and, lifting it by the brim, said reverently, +"If I should survive my wife," &c., to pass it on to the barber, who +recited the same formula to the same ritual. In the middle of the +sandheap was a pit, which appeared to be somebody's grave; and somewhere +in the background, on the far side of the pit, stood Mrs Bosenna and +Tabb's girl together, the one watching with a queer smile, while the +other kept repeating, "He's going to hell. He couldn't change his +habits, and it's high time the Quay was improved." + +From this dream Captain Cai awoke in a sweat, and though the rest of the +night yielded none so terrifying, his sleep was fitful and unrefreshing. +The return of day brought with it a sense of oppression, of a load on +his mind, of a task to be performed. + +Ah, yes!--he must pay a call on Mrs Bosenna. She had as good as engaged +him by a promise, and, moreover, there was her cuff to be returned. + . . . Well, the visit must be paid this morning. 'Bias would be +arriving by the afternoon train; and, apart from that, when you've a +daunting job that cannot be escaped, the wise course is to play the man +and get it over. + +Still, he could not well present himself at Rilla Farm before eleven +o'clock--say half-past eleven--or noon even. No, that would be too +late; might suggest a hint of staying to dinner--which God forbid! +He resolved upon eleven. + +He grudged to lose the latter half of the morning; for the gardens--his +and Hunken's--had yet to be explored, and the rainwater cisterns in rear +of the houses, and the back premises generally, and the patches where +the cabbages grew. Also (confound the woman!) he could well have spent +an hour or two about the streets and the Quay, renewing old +acquaintance. The whole town had heard of his return, and there were +scores of folk to remember him and bid him welcome. They would chase +away this feeling of forlornness, of being an alien. . . . Strange that, +wide awake though he was, it should continue to haunt him! + +But Troy, on all save market mornings, is a slug-a-bed town; and even at +nine o'clock, when he issued forth after an impatient breakfast, the +streets wore an unkempt, unready, unsociable air. Housewives were still +beating mats, shopboys washing down windows; ash-buckets stood in the +gutter-ways, by door and ope, awaiting the scavenger. + +"These people want a Daylight Saving Bill," thought Captain Cai, and +somewhat disconsolately wheeled about, setting his face for the Rope +Walk. Here his spirits sensibly revived. There had been rain in the +night, but the wind had flown to the northward, and the sun was already +scattering the clouds with promise of a fine day. Cleansing airs played +between the houses, the line of ash-buckets grew sparser, and the +buckets--for he had encountered the scavenger's cart on the slope of the +hill--were empty now, albeit their owners showed no hurry to fetch them +indoors. + +A row of houses--all erected since his young days--still blocked the +view of the harbour. But just beyond them, where a roadway led down to +the ferry, the exquisite scene broke upon him--the harbour entrance, +with the antique castles pretending to guard it; the vessels (his own +amongst them) in the land-locked anchorage; the open sea beyond, violet +blue to the morning under a steady off-shore breeze; white gulls +flashing aloft, and, in the offing, a pair of gannets hunting above the +waters. + +Captain Cai took no truck (as he would have said) in the beauties of +nature; but here was a scene he understood, and he began to feel at home +again. He halted, rested his elbows on a low wall and watched the +gannets at their evolutions--the poise, the terrific dive, the splash +clearly visible at more than a mile's distance. The wall on which he +leaned overhung a trim garden, gay with scentless flowers such as tulips +and late daffodils, and yet odorous--for early April has a few days +during which the uncurling leaf has all the fragrance of blossom: and +this was such a day, lustrous from a bath of rain. To our uninstructed +seaman the scent seemed to exhale from the tulips; it recalled his +attention from the gannets, and he drew in deep breaths of it, pondering +the parterres of Kaiserskroon and Duchesse de Parme--bold scarlet +splashed with yellow--of golden Chrysoloras, of rosy white Cottage +Maids. Unknowing it, he had a sense of beauty, and he decided that +horticulture, for a leisured man, was well worth a trial. + +"That's the best of living ashore," he told himself. "A man can choose +what hobby he will and, if he don't like it, pick up another." + +He climbed the hill briskly, to view his own garden and take stock of +its possibilities. . . . The roses planted by Mrs Bosenna had scarcely +flagged at all, thanks to the night's rain. Around them and to right +and left along the border under the walls of the two first terraces, +green shoots were pushing up from the soil--sword-like spikes of iris, +red noses of peonies, green fingers of lupins. Into what flowers these +various shootlets would expand Captain Cai knew no more than Adam, first +of gardeners. He would consult some knowledgeable person--no, not Mrs +Bosenna--and label them 'as per instructions': or, stay! 'Bias Hunken +had a weakness for small wagers. Here was material for a long summer +game, more deliberate even than draughts; to buy a botanical book and +with its help back one's fancy, flower or colour. A capital game: no +doubt (thought Captain Cai) quite commonly played among landsmen +possessing gardens. + +At this point he made a discovery he had missed in the dusk overnight. +His eyes fell on a flat-topped felt-covered roof, almost level with his +feet and half-hidden between two bushes (the one a myrtle, the other a +mock-orange; but he knew no such distinctions). There was yet a third +terrace, then; and on this third terrace--yes, by the Lord, a +summer-house fit for a king! Glass-fronted, with sliding sashes; +match-boarded within, fitted with racks and shelves for garden tools; +with ample room for chairs and a table at which two could sup and square +their elbows. Such a view, moreover! It swept the whole harbour. . . . + +Captain Cai's first impulse was to search around for a rack whereon to +stow a telescope: his next, to run to the party-wall and hoist himself +high enough to scan his friend's garden. + +Yes! 'Bias, too, had a summer-house; not precisely similar in shape, +however. Its roof was a lean-to, and its frontage narrower; but of this +Captain Cai could not be sure. He was short of stature, and with toes +digging into the crevices of the wall and hands clutching at its coping +he could take no very accurate survey. He dropped back upon _terra +firma_ and hurried up the flights of steps to the roadway, in haste to +descend from it into 'Bias's garden and resolve his doubts. + +For you must understand that the two cottages comprised by the name of +Harbour Terrace were (according to Mr Rogers) "as like as two peas, even +down to their water-taps," and even by name distinguished only as +Number 1 and Number 2: and that, taking this similarity on trust, +Captain Cai had chosen Number 2, Because--well, simply because it _was_ +Number 2. If inadvertently he, being first in the field, had collared +the better summer-house!--The very thought of it set him perspiring. + +At the head of the garden, to his annoyance, he found Mr Philp leaning +over the gate. + +"Ah, Good morning!" said Mr Philp. "You was expectin' me, o' course." + +"Good morning," returned Captain Cai. "Expectin' you? No, I wasn't. +Why?" + +"About that hat. I've brought you the three-an'-six." He held out the +coins in his palm. + +"You can't have it just now. I'm in a hurry." + +"So I see," said Mr Philp deliberately, not budging from the gate. +"It don't improve a hat as a rule." + +"What d'ye mean?" + +"Perspiration works through the linin'. I've seen hats ruined that +way." + +"Very well, then: we'll call the bargain off. The fact is, I'd forgot +about it; and you can't very well have the hat now. 'Tis my only one, +an'--well the fact is, I'm due to pay a call." + +"Where?" + +"I don't see as 'tis any business o' yours," answered Captain Cai with +vexation; "but, if you want to know, I've to call on my landlady, +Mrs Bosenna." + +"Is that where you're hurryin' just now?" + +"Well, no: not at this moment," Captain Cai had to confess. + +"Where, then?" + +"Oh, look here--" + +"You needn't tell, if you don't want to. But _I'm_ goin' to a funeral +at eleven o'clock," said Mr Philp. "Eleven A.M.," he added pointedly. +"Not that I hold with mornin' funerals in a general way: but the corpse +is old Mrs Wedlake, and I wasn't consulted." + +"Relative?" asked Captain Cai. + +"No relation at all; though I don't see as it matters." Mr Philp was +cheerful but obdurate. "A bargain's a bargain, as I take it." + +"That fact is--" + +"_And_ a man's word ought to be good as his bond. Leastways that's how +I look at it." + +"Here, take the darned thing!" exclaimed Captain Cai. His action, +however, was less impulsive than his speech: he removed the hat +carefully, lowering his head and clutching the brim between both hands. +A small parcel lay inside. + +"What's that?" asked Mr Philp. + +"It's--it's a cuff," Captain Cai admitted. + +"Belongs to the Widow Bosenna, I shouldn't wonder?" Mr Philp hazarded +with massive gravity. "It's the sort o' thing a woman wears now-a-days +when she've lost her husband. I follows the fashions in my distant +way." He paused and corrected himself carefully--"_Them sort._" + +"I thought--it occurred to me--as it might be the handiest way of +returnin' the thing." + +"It seems early days to be carryin' that sort of article around in the +crown o' your hat. Dangerous, too, if you use hair-oil. But you don't. +I took notice that you said 'no' yesterday when Toy offered to rub +something into your hair. Now that's always a temptation with me, +there bein' no extra charge. . . . Did she give it to you?" + +"Who? . . . Mrs Bosenna? No, she left it behind here." + +"When?" + +"Yesterday evening." + +"What was she doin' here, yesterday evenin', to want to take off her +cuffs?" + +"If you must know, she was planting roses." + +"What? In April? . . . You mustn't think I'm curious." + +"Not at all," Captain Cai agreed grimly. + +"Nice little place you've pitched on here, I must say." Mr Philp +changed his tone to one of extreme affability. "There's not a prettier +little nest in all Troy than these two cottages. And which of the pair +might be _your_ choice?" + +"It's not quite decided." + +"Well, you can't do wrong with either. But"--Mr Philp glanced back +across the roadway and lowered his voice--"I'd like to warn you o' one +thing. I don't know no unhandier houses for gettin' out a corpse. +There's a turn at the foot o' the stairs; most awk'ard." + +"I reckon," said Captain Cai cheerfully, "'Bias an' me'll leave that to +them as it concerns. But, man! what a turn you've a-got for funerals!" + +"They be the breath o' life to me," Mr Philp confessed, and paused for a +moment's thought. "Tell 'ee what we'll do: you shall come with me down +to Fore Street an' buy yourself a new hat at Shake Benny's: 'tis on your +way to Rilla Farm. There in the shop you can hand me over the one +you're wearin', and Shake can send mine home in a bandbox." He twinkled +cunningly. "I shall be wantin' a bandbox, an' that gets me one +cost-free." + +The man was inexorable. Captain Cai gave up resistance, and the pair +descended the hill together towards Mr Benny's shop. + + +Young Mr Benny, "S. Benny, Gents' Outfitter," had suffered the +misfortune to be christened Shakespeare without inheriting any of the +literary aspirations to which that name bore witness. It was, in any +event, a difficult name to live up to, and so incongruous with this +youth in particular that, as he grew up, his acquaintances abbreviated +it by consent to Shake; and, again, when, after serving an +apprenticeship with a pushing firm in Exeter, he returned to open a +haberdashery shop in his native town, it had been reduced, for business +purposes, to a bare initial. + +But it is hard to escape heredity. Albeit to young Mr Benny pure +literature made no appeal, and had even been summarised by him as +"footle," in the business of advertising he developed a curious literary +twist. He could not exhibit a new line of goods without inventing an +arresting set of labels for it; and upon these labels (executed with his +own hands in water-colour upon cardboard) he let play a fancy almost +Asiatic. Not content with mere description, such as "_Neck-wear in +Up-to-date Helios_" or "_Braces, Indispensable_," he assailed the coy +purchaser with appeals frankly personal, such as "_You passed us +Yesterday, but We Hit you this time_," or (of pyjamas) "_What! You +don't Tell us You Go to Bed like your Grandfather_," or (of a collar) +"_If you Admire Lord Rosebery, Now is Your Time_." + +Captain Cai wanted a hat. "I be just returned from foreign," he +explained; "and this here head-gear o' mine--" + +Young Mr Benny smiled with a smile that deprecated his being drawn into +criticism. "We keep ahead of the Germans yet, sir,--in some respects. +Is it Captain Hocken I have the pleasure of addressin'?" + +"Now, how did he know that?" Captain Cai murmured. + +"Why, by your hat," answered Mr Philp with readiness. + +"You'll be wanting something more nautical, Captain? Something yachty, +if I may suggest. . . . I've a neat thing here in yachting caps." +Mr Benny selected and displayed one, turning it briskly in his hands. +"The _Commodore_. There's a something about that cap, sir,--a what +shall I say?--a distinction. Or, if you prefer a straight up-and-down +peak, what about the _Squadron_ here? A little fuller in the crown, +you'll observe; but that"--with a flattering glance--"would suit you. +You'd carry it off." + +"Better have it full in the crown," suggested Mr Philp; "by reason it's +handier to carry things." + +"None of your seafarin' gear, I'll thank you," said Captain Cai hastily. +"I've hauled ashore." + +"And mean to settle among us, I hope, sir? . . . Well, then, with the +summer already upon us--so to speak--what do we say to a real Panama +straw? The _Boulter's Lock_ here, f'r instance,--extra brim--at five +and sixpence? How these foreigners do it for the money is a mystery to +me." + +"I see they puts 'Smith Brothers, Birmingham,' in the lining," said +Captain Cai. + +"Importers' mark, sir,--to insure genuineness. . . . Let me see, what +size were you saying? H'm, six-seven-eighths, as I should judge." +Young Mr Benny pulled out a drawer with briskness, ran his hand through +a number of genuine Panamas of identical pattern, selected one, and +poised it on the tips of his fingers, giving it the while a seductive +twist. "If you will stand _so_, Captain, while I tilt the glass a +trifle?" + +Captain Cai gazed hardily at his reflection in the mirror. "It don't +seem altogether too happy wi' the rest of the togs," he hazarded, and +consulted Mr Philp. "What do _you_ think?" + +"I ain't makin' no bid for your tail-coat, if that's what you mean," +answered Mr Philp with sudden moroseness, pulling out his watch. +"I got one." + +"Our leading townsmen, sir," said young Mr Benny, "favour an alpaca +lounge coat with this particular line. We stock them in all sizes. +Alpacas are seldom made to measure,--'free-and-easy' being their motto, +if I may so express it." + +"It's mine, anyway." + +"And useful for gardening, too. In an alpaca you can--" Young Mr Benny, +without finishing the sentence, indued one and went through brisk +motions indicative of digging, hoeing, taking cuttings and transplanting +them. + +The end of it was that Captain Cai purchased an alpaca coat as well as a +Panama hat, and having bidden "so long" to Mr Philp, and pocketed his +three-and-sixpence, steered up the street in the direction of Rilla +Farm, nervously stealing glimpses of himself in the shop windows as he +went. As he hove in sight of the Custom House, however, this +bashfulness gave way of a sudden to bewilderment. For there, at the +foot of the steps leading up to its old-fashioned doorway lounged his +mate, Mr Tregaskis, sucking a pipe. + +"Hullo! What are you doin' here?" asked Captain Cai. + +"What the devil's that to you?" retorted Mr Tregaskis. But a moment +later he gasped and all but dropped the pipe from his mouth. +"Good Lord!" + +"Took me for a stranger, hey?" + +The mate stared, slowly passing a hand across his chin as though to make +sure of his own beard. "What indooced 'ee?" + +"When you're in Rome," said Captain Cai, with a somewhat forced +nonchalance, "you do as the Romans do." + +"Do they?" asked Mr Tregaskis vaguely. "Besides, we ain't," he objected +after a moment. + +"Crew all right?" + +"Upstairs,"--this with a jerk of the thumb. + +"Hey? . . . But why? We don't pay off till Saturday, as you ought to +know, for I told 'ee plain enough, an' also that the men could have any +money advanced, in reason." + +"Come along and see," said the mate mysteriously. "I've been waitin' +here on the look-out for 'ee." He led the way up the steps, along a +twisting corridor and into the Collector's office, where, sure enough, +the crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ were gathered. + +"Here's the Cap'n, boys!" he announced. "An' don't call me a liar, but +take your time." + +The men--they were standing uneasily, with doffed hats, around a table +in the centre of the room--gazed and drew a long breath. They continued +to breathe hard while the Collector bustled forward from his desk and +congratulated Captain Cai on a prosperous passage. + +"There's one thing about it," said Ben Price the bald-headed, at length +breaking through the mortuary silence that reigned around the table; +"it _do_ make partin' easier." + +"But what's here?" demanded Captain Cai, as his gaze fell upon a curious +object that occupied the centre of the table. It was oblong: it was +covered with a large red handkerchief: and, with the men grouped +respectfully around, it suggested a miniature coffin draped and ready +for committal to the deep. + +"Well, sir," answered Nat Berry, who was generally reckoned the wag of +the ship, "it might pass, by its look, for a concealment o' birth. +But it ain't. It's a testimonial." + +"A what?" + +But here the mate--who had been standing for some moments on one leg-- +suddenly cleared his throat. + +"Cap'n Hocken," said he in a strained unnatural voice, "we the +undersigned, bein' mate and crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ barquentine--" + +"Be this an affidavit?" + +"No it isn': 'tis a Musical Box. . . . As I was sayin', We the +undersigned, bein' mate an' crew of the _Hannah Hoo_ barquentine, which +we hear that you're givin' up command of the same, Do hereby beg leave +to express our mingled feelin's at the same in the shape of this here +accompanyin' Musical Box. And our united hope as you may have live long +to enjoy the noise it kicks up, which"--here Mr Tregaskis dropped to a +confidential tone--"it plays 'Home, Sweet Home,' with other fashionable +tunes, an' can be turned off at any time by means of a back-handed +switch marked 'Stop' in plain letters. IT IS therefore--" here the +speaker resumed his oratorical manner--"our united wish, sir, as you +will accept the forthcoming Musical Box from the above-mentioned +undersigned as a mark of respect in all weathers, and that you may live +to marry an' pass it down to your offspring--" + +"Hear, hear!" interjected Mr Nat Berry, and was told to shut his head. + +"--to your offspring, or, in other words, progenitors," perorated +Mr Tregaskis. "And if you don't like it, the man at the shop'll change +it for something of equal value." Here with a sweep of the hand he +withdrew the handkerchief and disclosed the gift. "I forget the chap's +name for the moment, but he's a watchmaker, and lives off the Town Quay +as you turn up west-an'-by-north to the Post Office. The round mark on +the lid--as p'r'aps I ought to mention--was caused by a Challenge Cup of +some sort standin' upon it all last summer in the eye of the sun, which +don't affect the music, an' might be covered over with a brass plate in +case of emergency; but time didn't permit." Thus Mr Tregaskis +concluded, and stood wiping his brow. + +Captain Cai stared at the gift and around at the men's faces mistily. +"Friends"--he managed to say. "Friends," he began again after a painful +pause, and then, "It's all very well, William Tregaskis, but you might +ha' given a man warnin'--after all these years!" + +"It don't want no acknowledgment: but take your time," said the mate +handsomely, conscious, for his part, of having performed with credit. + +At this suggestion Captain Cai with a vague gesture pulled out his +watch, and amid the whirl of his brain was aware of the hour--10.45. + +"I've--I've an appointment, friends, as it happens," he stammered. +"And I thank you kindly, but--" On a sudden happy inspiration he fixed +an eye upon the mate. "All sails unbent aboard?" he asked sternly. + +"There's the mizzen, sir--" + +"I thought so. We'll have discipline, lads, to the end--if you please. +We'll meet here on Saturday: and when you've done your unbendin' maybe +I'll start doin' mine." + +He took up the musical box, tucked it under his arm, and marched out. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +RILLA FARM. + +The way was long, the sun was hot, the minstrel (as surely he may be +called who carries a musical box) was more than once in two minds about +turning back. He perspired under his absurdly superfluous burden. + +To be sure he might--for Troy is always neighbourly--have knocked in at +some cottage on his way through the tail-end of the town and deposited +the box, promising to return for it. But he was flurried, pressed for +time, disgracefully behind time, in fact; and, moreover, thanks to his +attire and changed appearance, no friendly face had smiled recognition +though he had recognised some half a dozen. There was no time to stop, +renew old acquaintance, ask a small favour with explanations. . . . +All this was natural enough: yet he felt an increasing sense of human +selfishness, human ingratitude--he, toiling along with this token of +human gratitude under his arm! + +At the extreme end of the town his way led him through the entrance of a +wooded valley, or coombe, down which a highroad, a rushing stream, and a +railway line descend into Troy Harbour, more or less in parallels, from +the outside world. A creek runs some little way up the vale. In old +days--in Captain Cai's young days--it ran up for half a mile or more to +an embanked mill-pool and a mill-wheel lazily turning: and Rilla Farm +had in those days been Rilla Mill, with a farmstead attached as the +miller's _parergon_. + +But the railway had swept away mill-pool and wheel: and Rilla was now +Rilla Farm. The railway, too, cutting sheer through the slope over +which the farmstead stood, had transformed shelving turf to rocky cliff +and farmstead to eyrie. You approached Rilla now by a footbridge +crossing the line, and thereafter by a winding pathway climbing the +cliff, with here and there a few steps hewn in the living rock. Nature +in some twenty odd years had draped the cliff with fern--the _Polypodium +vulgare_--and Mrs Bosenna in her early married days had planted the +crevices with arabis, alyssum, and aubrietia, which had taken root and +spread, and now, overflowing their ledges, ran down in cascades of +bloom--white, yellow, and purple. The ascent, in short, was very pretty +and romantic, and you might easily imagine it the approach to some +foreign hill-castle or monastery: for the farmhouse on the summit hid +itself behind out-buildings the walls of which crowned the escarpment +and presented a blank face, fortress-like, overlooking the vale. +The path (as you have gathered) was for pedestrians only. Mrs Bosenna's +farm-carts and milk-carts--her dairy trade was considerable--had to +fetch a circuit by the road-bridge, half a mile inland. + +The air in the valley was heavy, even on this April day. Captain Cai +reached the footpath-gate in a bath of perspiration, despite his alpaca +coat and notwithstanding that the last half mile of his way had lain +under the light shade of budding trees. He gazed up at the ascent, and +bethought him that the musical box was an intolerable burden for such a +climb. It would involve him in explanations, too, being so unusual an +accessory to a morning call. He searched about, therefore, for a +hiding-place in which to bestow it, and found one at length in a clump +of alder intermixed with brambles, that overhung the stream a few paces +beyond the gate, almost within the shadow of the footbridge. + +Having made sure that the bed on which it rested was firm and moderately +dry, he covered the box with a strewing of last year's leaves, cunningly +trailed a bramble or two over it, and pursued his way more lightsomely, +albeit still under some oppression: for the house stood formidably high, +and he feared all converse with women. For lack of practice he had no +presence of mind in their company, Moreover, his recent fiasco in +speech-making had dashed his spirits. + +He reached the last turn of the path. It brought him in sight of a +garden-gate some ten yards ahead, on his left hand. The gate was white, +and some one inside was even at this moment engaged in repainting it; +for as he halted to draw breath he caught sight of a paint-brush--or +rather the point of one--briskly waggling between the rails. + +The gate opened and Mrs Bosenna peeped out. "Ah, I _thought_ I heard +footsteps!" said she. She wore a widow's cap--a very small and natty +one; and a large white apron covered the front of her widow's gown from +bosom to ankles. + +"I--I'm sorry to call so late, ma'am." + +"Late? Why, it can't be past noon, scarcely. . . . We don't have dinner +till one o'clock. You'll excuse my not shaking hands, but I never +_could_ paint without messing my fingers." + +"But I hadn't an idea, ma'am--" + +"Eh?" + +"Nothing was farther from my thoughts than--than--" + +"Staying to dinner? Oh, but it's understood! There's roast +sucking-pig," said Mrs Bosenna tranquilly, as if this disposed of all +argument. She added, "I didn't recognise you for the moment. +You're wearing a different hat." + +"Actin' under advice, ma'am." + +"I don't know that it's an improvement." Her eyes rested on him in cool +scrutiny, and he flinched under it. "There's always a--a sort of +distinction about a top hat. Of course, it was very thoughtful of you +to change it for something more free-and-easy. But different styles +suit different persons, and--as I'm always telling Dinah--the secret of +dressing is to find out the style that suits you, and stick to it." + +"Bein' free-an'-easy, ma'am, was the last thing in my mind," stammered +Captain Cai. + +"There, didn't I guess? . . . Well, you shall wear your top hat next +time, and I'll take back my first impressions if I find 'em wrong." + +"But, ma'am, the--the fact is--" + +"Of course it was in the dusk," continued Mrs Bosenna; "but I certainly +thought it suited you. One meets with so little of the real +old-fashioned politeness among men in these days! Now "--she let her +voice trail off reflectively as her eyes wandered past Captain Cai and +rested on the tree-tops in the valley--"if I was asked to name my +_bo ideal_ of an English gentleman--and the foreigners can't come near +it, you needn't tell me--'twould be Sir Brampton Goldsworthy, Bart., of +Halberton Court, Devon." + +"Ma'am?" + +"That's close to Holsworthy, where I was brought up. 'Goldsworthy of +Holsworthy' he liked to be known as, dropping the 'Sir': and _he_ always +wore a top hat, rather flat in the brim. But he'd off with it to +anything in woman's shape. . . . And that's what women value. +Respect. . . . It isn't a man's _age_--" She broke off and half closed +her eyes in reverie. "And so particular, too, about his body-linen! +Always a high stock collar . . . and his cuffs!" + +"Talkin' about cuffs, now--" Captain Cai dived a hand into a +hip-pocket and drew forth a circlet of white lawn, much flattened. +"I found this in the garden last night--by the rose-bushes." + +"Thank you--yes, it is mine, of course. I missed it on the way home." +Mrs Bosenna reached out her hand for it. "You must have set me down for +a very careless person? But with all my responsibilities just now--" +She concluded the sentence with a sigh, and held open the gate, warning +him to beware of the wet paint. "You see, there is so much to be looked +after on a farm. One can never trust to servants--or at any rate not to +the men kind. Dinah is different; but even with Dinah--" Mrs Bosenna +let fall another, slightly fainter, sigh. + +"That reminds me," said Captain Cai hardily entering, and for all his +lack of observation falling at once under the spell of the little front +garden--so scrupulously tidy it was, so trim and kempt, with a pathway +of white pebbles leading up between clumps of daffodils and tulips to a +neatly thatched porch: so homely too, with but a low fence of euonymus +shutting off all that could offend in the court before the cow-byres; so +fragrant already with scent of the just sprouting lemon verbena; so +obviously the abode of cleanly health, with every window along the +white-washed house front open to the April air. "That reminds me, I +never mentioned the--the deceased--your late husband, I mean, ma'am--nor +how sorry I was to hear of it." + +"Did you know him?" asked Mrs Bosenna, scarcely glancing up as she +pinched the fragrance out of an infant bud of the lemon verbena. + +"Very slightly, ma'am. Indeed, I don't remember meetin' him but once, +and that was at Summercourt Fair, of all places; me bein' home just then +from a trip, an' takin' a day off, as you might say, just to see how +things was gettin' on ashore. As fate would have it I happened into a +boxin' booth, which was twopence, and there, as I was watchin' a bout, +some one says at my elbow, ''Tis a noble art, deny it who can!' +An' that was your late husband. We'd never met afore to my knowledge, +an' we never met again; but his words have come back to me more'n once, +an' the free manly way he spoke 'em." + +"I feel sure," said Mrs Bosenna, "you and he would have found many +things in common, had he been spared. . . Now, I dare say, you'd like to +look around the place a bit before dinner. Where shall we begin? +With the live stock?" + +"As you please, ma'am." + +"Well, as we're to eat sucking-pig, we'll go and have a look at the +litter he was one of; and then we'll take the cows; and then you'll have +to excuse me for a few minutes while I attend to the apple-sauce, about +which I'm very particular." + +They visited the sow and her farrows--a family group which Captain Cai +pronounced to be "very comfortable-lookin'." + +"But how stupid of me!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna. "To forget that you +sailors are tired to death with pork!" + +"Not with this variety, ma'am," Captain Cai assured her. + +They passed on to the cow-houses, which were empty just then, but +nevertheless worth visiting, being brick-floored, well-ventilated, and +roomy, with straw generously spread in the stalls, fresh and ready for +the cattle's return. There were two houses, one for Jerseys (as Mrs +Bosenna explained), the other for Devons; and she drew his attention to +their drainage system. "If I had my way, every cow in the land should +be as cleanly lodged as a cottager. None of your infected milk for me!" + +From the cow-houses she conducted him through the mowhay, where the +number and amplitude of the ricks fairly took his breath away. +"Oh, we call Rilla quite a small farm!" said Mrs Bosenna carelessly. +"But I could never endure to be short of straw. Clean bedding is a +craze with me." She halted and invited him to admire some details in +the thatching--the work of an old man past seventy, she told him, and +sighed. "Thatching's a lost art, almost. Too much education nowadays, +and everybody in a hurry--that's what's the matter. . . . In a few years +we shall all be thatching with corrugated iron." + +"An' by that time every one will be in steam." + +"Eh?" + +"Shipping, ma'am." + +"Ah, yes--to be sure. And everybody making butter with a County Council +separator. 'All very scientific,' I tell them, 'so long as you don't +ask me to eat it!' Why, look at this!" Captain Cai looked. She was +holding out her hand palm uppermost, and a very pretty, plump hand it +was to be sure. + +"I should be sorry to say how many hundredweights of butter I've made +wi' that very hand--or how many hundreds of persons have eaten it." + +Captain Cai dived his own hands into the hip-pockets of his new coat, +aimlessly searching for pipe and tobacco-pouch; not that he would have +ventured to smoke in her presence!--but it gave his hands something to +do. + +"'Glad,' I think you must mean, ma'am," said he slowly. + +She laughed. "If you're going to make pretty speeches, it's time for me +to run indoors," and she left him with a warning that dinner would be +ready in ten minutes, or at one o'clock to the tick. + +This was by the gate of a broad-acred field ("Parc Veor" she had called +it) in which her Jerseys browsed. Captain Cai counted them--they were +five--while still half-consciously searching for pipe and pouch, which, +in fact, he had left behind in the shop, in the pockets of his old coat. +By-and-by he realised this, and with a curious sense of helplessness--of +having lost his bearings. . . . + +Ten minutes later Dinah, coming across the mowhay to invite Captain Cai +into the house, found him leaning against the gate, sunk in a brown +study, contemplating the kine. + + +The smell of roasted sucking-pig dissipated this transient cloud upon +his spirits. Mrs Bosenna (who had discarded her apron, and looked +mighty genteel with a gold locket dependent from her throat) avowed, +appealing to his sympathy, that it mightn't be sentimental, but she, for +her part, adored the savour of crackling. + +"And as for Robert--my late husband--he doted on it." + +Captain Cai came within an ace of saying fatuously it was a pity the +late Mr Bosenna couldn't be present to partake of this; but checked +himself. + +"To think that you should have met him! Well, it's a small world." + +"There's a lot of folks attend Summercourt Fair--or used to," said +Captain Cai, and added that the world was not so noticeably small, if +you tried sailing up and down it a bit. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna, dropping knife and fork and clasping her +hands. "Yes, to be sure, the vastness of it--the great distances! . . . +And so you met my late husband in a boxing tent? Sport of all kinds +appealed to him. But isn't boxing a-er--more or less degrading +exhibition?" + +"Nothing of the sort, ma'am. I never went in for it myself--worse luck; +never had the time. But my friend 'Bias, now! He's past his prime, o' +course; but if only you'd seen him strip--in the old time--" + +"Er--you're surely not referring to your friend Captain Hunken?" + +"But I am, ma'am. . . . He had a way o' stepping back an' usin' his +reach . . . a trifle slow with the left, always . . . that was his +failin'. But the length of his arms would delight you--and he had a +hug, too, of his own--if you happened to take an interest in such +things." + +"But I don't," protested Mrs Bosenna. "And you frighten me! If I'd +guessed that my other tenant was a prize-fighter--" + +"Prize-fighter, ma'am? What, 'Bias? . . . He's the gentlest you ever +knew, and the easiest-goin': and for ladies' company--well, I don't +know," confessed Captain Cai, "as he ever found himself in such, +least-ways not to my knowledge. But I'll be bound he wouldn't be able +to open his mouth." + +"--Unless in defence of a friend," suggested Mrs Bosenna, laughing. +"You must bring him to call on me." + +Captain Cai shook his head. + +"Oh"--she nodded confidently--"I'll make him talk, never fear! +If he's half so true a friend to you as you are to him--" + +"He's a truer." + +"Then, as a last resource, I have only to run _you_ down. So it's +easy." + + +The sucking-pig was followed by a delectable junket with Cornish cream; +and the junket--when Dinah had removed the cloth--by a plate of +home-made biscuits, flanked by decanters of port and sherry. + +"Widow's port is the best, they say." Mrs Bosenna invited him to fill +his glass without waiting for ceremony. "You smoke?" she asked. + +He confessed that he was without pipe or tobacco. Dinah was summoned +again, left the room after a whispered consultation, and returned with a +small sheaf of clean churchwarden pipes and a cake of tobacco, dark in +hue, somewhat dry but (as a quick inspection assured Captain Cai) quite +smokeable. + +"Now you're to make yourself at ease," said Mrs Bosenna, rising and +moving to the door. Captain Cai, remembering his manners, rose and held +it open for her. "The wine is at your elbow and (oh, believe me, I +understand men!) when you've finished your smoke you will find me in the +rose-garden. That's my _real_ garden, though nothing to boast of at +this time of the year. But April's the month for pruning tea-roses, and +this weather in April is not to be missed. I want to hear more of your +friend; and when you are ready--you are not to hurry--Dinah will show +you the way." + +Captain Cai, left alone, carved a pipeful of tobacco with his +pocket-knife; chose a clay; filled, lit it, and smoked. Two glasses of +wine had sufficed him, for he was an abstemious man: but, for all his +hard life, he could enjoy comfort. He found it here; in the good food, +the generous liquor, the twinkle on the glass and decanter, the +ill-executed but solid portraits on the walls, the hearthrug soft +beneath his sole, the April combination of sunshine slanting through the +window and a brisk but not oppressive coal fire on the hearth. + +He smoked. The tobacco (smuggled and purchased at low cost by the late +Mr Bosenna) had been excellent in its time, and was palatable yet. + +It stuck in Captain Cai's conscience, however, and pricked it while he +smoked, that he had given Mrs Bosenna a wrong impression of his friend. + +`Bias a mere prize-fighter! `Bias of all people! But that is what +comes of laying stress on one particular accomplishment of an Admirable +Crichton. + +He ruminated on this: finished his pipe: and having knocked out the +ashes thoughtfully on the bars of the grate, sought the back garden +without the help of Dinah. + +The rose-garden to the uninstructed eye was--now in April--but a +wilderness of scrubby stunted thorns. In the midst of it he found Mrs +Bosenna, gloved, armed with a pair of secateurs, and engaged in cutting +the thorns back to a few ugly inches. + +She smiled as he approached. "You don't understand roses?" she asked. +"If you don't, you'll be surprised at my hard pruning. If there's real +strength in the root, you can trust for June, no matter what a stick you +leave. The secret's under the ground; or, as you may say, under the +surface, as it is with folks." + +"That helps me, ma'am," said Captain Cai, "to tell you it's like that +with my friend 'Bias--" + +A whistle sounded up the valley. "The three-thirty coming!" said Mrs +Bosenna. "It's at the signal-box outside the tunnel." + +"The three-thirty?" Captain Cai gasped and pulled out his watch. +"But that's 'Bias's train--and I was to meet him!" + +"You _might_ just do it," hazarded Mrs Bosenna. "We count it half a +mile to the station, and by the time they have the luggage out--" + +"I _must_ do it, ma'am! To think that--" Captain Cai held out a hand. +"I'd no notion--the time has flown so!" + +"Dinah! Dinah!" called Mrs Bosenna, and as Dinah appeared at the back +door with a promptitude almost suspicious,--"Run and fetch Captain +Hocken's hat, girl! He has to catch a train." + +Dinah vanished, and in the twinkling of an eye came running with the +hat; with a clothes-brush, too. "Confound her!" Captain Cai swore +inwardly as she insisted on brushing his coat, paying special attention +to a dry spot of mud on the right hip-pocket. Feminine attentions may +be overdone, and Mrs Bosenna showed more tactfulness than her maid. + +"Have finished, you silly woman! Cannot you see that Captain Hocken is +dying to leave us? . . . But you are to bring your friend, sir, at the +first opportunity!" + +She repeated this, calling it after him as he raced down the path. +At the footbridge he remembered the musical box in the bushes. But it +was too late. Mrs Bosenna had followed him to the head of the slope, +and stood watching, waving her handkerchief. + +As he glanced back and up at her over his shoulder, his ear caught the +rumble of a train, not far up the valley. He must run! . . . + +He ran, sticking his elbow to his sides. But soon the rumble of the +train grew to a roar. It was upon him. . . . It overtook him some three +hundred yards from the station, and the carriage windows, as he +staggered down the high road, went past him in a blur. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +BIAS ARRIVES. + +Captain Tobias Hunken sat patiently and ponderously upon a wooden +sea-chest, alone on the platform, but stacked about by such a miscellany +of luggage as gave him no slight resemblance to Crusoe on his raft. +Besides parcels, boxes, carpet-bags, canvas-bags, tarpaulin-bags, it +included a pile of furniture swathed in straw, a parrot-cage covered +with baize, and a stone jar calculated to hold nine gallons of liquor. + +He was a dark-bearded man, heavy shouldered, of great bulk, and by +temperament apparently phlegmatic; for when Captain Cai arrived, +panting, red in the face, stammering contrition, he betrayed neither +emotion nor surprise. + +"'Twas all my thoughtlessness!" cried Captain Cai. + +"What's the matter?" asked Captain Tobias. "No hurry, is there? +We've retired." + +"If I'd known I was so late!" + +"Five minutes." Captain Tobias gazed across at the station clock, then +at his friend's face, as if comparing the two. "You've altered your +appearance recently. Which some might say 'twas for the better." + +"Glad you think so," said Captain Cai, modestly pleased. + +"Others, again, mightn't. But, there!" added Captain Tobias with sudden +intensity. "Who cares what folks say? If you chose to go about like a +Red Indian, 'twouldn' be no affair o' _theirs_, I should hope?" + +"Why, o' course not," Captain Cai agreed, albeit a trifle dashed. +"As you say, we've retired, an' can do as we like." + +"Ah!" Captain Tobias eyed him and drew a long breath. "Got such a thing +as a match about ye?" he asked, pulling forth a short clay pipe. + +"No--yes!" Captain Cai, clapping a hand to either hip, was about to +admit that he had come without pipe, tobacco, or matches, when he felt +something hard and angular within the left pocket, and (to his +confusion) produced--a silver matchbox. "Good Lord!" he exclaimed +stupidly. + +"That's a pretty trifle," said Captain Tobias, possessing himself of the +box and extracting a match from it. "Where did ye pick it up, now!" + +"From a--a lady--a Mrs Bosenna." Captain Cai recovered the box, pocketed +it, and desperately changed the subject. "What's become of all the +porters hereabouts?" he demanded. "Leavin' us alone an' all this +luggage, like a wreck ashore!" + +"I sent 'em away," Captain Tobias explained with composure, "knowin' as +you'd turn up sooner or later. Who's Mrs Bosenna?" + +"She's our landlady; a widow-woman. She lives up the valley yonder." +Captain Cai jerked a thumb in that direction, and with renewed anxiety +looked about for a porter. "Hadn't we better whistle one across?" + +"Sells matches, does she?" + +"No,"--he knew his friend's persistence, and faced about to make a clean +breast. "I was callin' there to-day. There's the leases to be fixed +up, you see--" He paused. + +Captain Tobias assented with a slow nod. "Premises all satisfactory?" + +"_And_ shipshape. That's one load off my mind, anyway," sighed Captain +Cai. "You're bound to like 'em--that is, if you like Troy at all. +There's hot and cold water laid on, so's you can have a bath at a +moment's notice." + +"I don't _see_ myself, exactly," said Captain Tobias. "But never mind." + +"Well, as I was sayin', I called there to-day--to break the ice, so to +speak--" + +"You didn't mention ice; or, if you did, I missed hearin' it." + +"'Tis a way of speakin'. Well, the widow pressed me to stay to dinner, +and there was a suckin' pig; and afterwards--" + +"Hold hard." Captain Tobias removed the pipe from his mouth and stared +earnestly at his friend. "Say that agen," he commanded. + +"There was roast suckin' pig, I tell you. It melted in y'r mouth. +Well, after dinner she left me alone with pipes an' tobacco; an' 'twas +then, I suppose, that in my forgetful way I must have slipped the box +into my pocket." + +"'Twasn' very nice treatment, was it?--after the length she'd gone to put +herself out." + +"But 'twas absence o' mind, you understand." + +"I seem to remember," mused Captain Tobias, "there was a Lord +Somebody-or-other suffered from the same complaint. I read about it in +the papers, an' only wish I'd cut it out. Any little valu'bles lyin' +about he'd slip into his pocket. But I never heard of your bein' +afflicted in that way." + +"Of course I'm not!" Captain Cai protested warmly. + +"Then I don't see what excuse you'll put up. . . . But wait till we get +all this cargo stowed. Ahoy, there!" Captain Tobias called up the +porters, and after consultation it was decided to convert the +goods-shed into a cloak-room for housing the bulk of his luggage, but to +send on his sea-chest and the birdcage by wheelbarrow to his lodgings. + +"What's the address?" he asked, turning to Captain Cai. + +"Ship Inn." + +"What?" Captain Tobias paused in the act of picking up the nine-gallon +jar. "Drinks on the premises?" + +"Lashin's." + +"What a world o' fuss that arrangement do save! Here!--" to the porter +who stood checking the articles deposited--"this goes into hold wi' the +rest. Contents, rum, an' don't you forget it, my son; leastways, pr'aps +I'd better say, don't you remember it." + +"I'm a total abstainer, sir," said the porter proudly. + +"You don't tell me? . . . One meets with such cases, about. . . . +Well,"--Captain Tobias turned to Captain Cai again, as one averting his +face from a sorrow to which no help can be proffered--"what's the +distance?" + +"To the Ship? About half a mile--a nice easy walk, an' the barrow can +follow us." + +They were no sooner outside the station premises, however, than Captain +Tobias called halt to the driver of the wheelbarrow, paid him, and +instructed him to proceed ahead. + +"And you may tell the landlord," he added, "to expect us when he sees +us." + +He watched the man out of sight before explaining this manoeuvre. +"'Twas clever of you to mistake me, in front of those fellows; but I +_meant_, what distance to this here widow's?" + +"Eh? You don't mean to say--after your journey, too--" + +"We'll get it over," said Captain Tobias firmly. + +Captain Cai could not but approve. Here was prompt occasion not only to +repair and apologise for his small blunder, but to make Mrs Bosenna +acquainted with his paragon. She would soon correct that unfortunate +image of him as a coarse prize-fighting fellow. + +To tell the truth, while reproaching himself for having evoked that +image by his clumsy praise, he had doubted it might be difficult to +efface: knowing his friend's shyness of womankind. He had doubted that +'Bias, who (to use his own words) "shunned the fair sex in all its +branches," might decline even to make the lady's acquaintance. +Lo! here was that admirable man setting his face and--sternly, for +friendship's sake--marching upon an introduction. What a friend! + +They took their way up the valley, walking side by side. For a long +while both kept silence. + +"Pretty country!" by-and-by observed Captain Tobias. He paused as if to +take stock of it, but his gaze was meditative rather than observant. +"Suckin' pigs, too, . . ." he added after a while, and resumed his way. + +"What about 'em?" + +"Why, to drop in on a lone woman unexpected, an' find her sittin' down +to roast suckin' pig . . . it's--it's like Solomon an' the lilies." + +Captain Cai flushed half-guiltily. "I didn't say I called quite +unexpectedly, did I?" + +"To break the ice, was your words." + +"You see, I'd happened to meet Mrs Bosenna the evenin' before, +an'--hullo!" + +They had come to the bend of the road beneath Rilla Farm, and either his +eyesight had played him a trick or Captain Cai had caught a glimpse-- +just a glimpse and no more--of a print gown some fifty yards ahead, +where the hedge made an angle about a clump of trees. The small +entrance gate and the footbridge lay just beyond this angle. + +"Hullo!" exclaimed Captain Cai. + +"What's up?" + +"Nothin'"--for the light apparition had vanished. "Besides, she'd be +wearin' black, o' course." + +"I wish you'd talk more coherent," said Captain Tobias, stopping short +again and eyeing him. "I put it to you, now. Here I be, tumbled out +'pon a terminus platform in a country I've never set eyes on. As if +that wasn' enough, straightaway things start to happen so that I want to +hold my head. And as if _that_ wasn' enough, you work loose on the +jawin' tacks till steerage way there's none. I put it to you." + +"I'm sorry, 'Bias," Cai assured him contritely as they moved on. +"Maybe I'm upset by the pleasure o' seein' ye here. Many a time I've +picter'd it, an'--I don't know if you've noticed, but these little +things never _do_ fall out just like a man expects." + +"I've noticed it to-day, right enough," said Tobias with some emphasis. +But he was mollified, and indeed seemed on the point of adding a word +when of a sudden he came to yet another halt and eyed his friend more +reproachfully than ever--no, not reproachfully save by implication: with +bewilderment rather, and helpless surmise. + +"_What?_" gasped Captain Tobias. "_Which?_"--and, with that, speech +failed him. + +The pair had come to the footbridge and were in the act of crossing it, +when they became aware that the stream beneath them differed from all +streams in their experience. It was not rippling like other streams; it +was not murmuring; it was tinkling out a gay little operatic tune! + +To be more precise, it was rendering the waltz-tune in "Faust," an opera +by the late M. Gounod. Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken knew nothing +of "Faust" or of its composer. But they could recognise a tune. + +"_Which?_" repeated Tobias gasping, holding by the handrail of the +bridge. "You or me? Or both, perhaps?" + +"Two glasses o' port wine only, 'Bias . . . and you _saw_ me at the +station. I'd run all the way too. . . . Besides, _you_ hear it." +Relief, of a sudden, broke over Captain Cai's face. "It's the box!" he +cried. + +With that he was aware of the sound of a merry laugh behind him--a +feminine laugh, too, not less musical than the melody still tinkling at +his feet. He turned about and confronted Mrs Bosenna as she stepped +forth from her hiding in the bushes, her maid Dinah in attendance close +behind her. + +"Good afternoon again, Captain Hocken! And is this Captain Hunken? + . . . It was polite of you--polite indeed--to bring him so soon." + +She held out a hand to Tobias, who, to take it, was forced to relinquish +for a moment his clutch on the rail. + +"Servant, ma'am," said he in a gruff unnatural voice, and fell back on +his support. + +She laughed again merrily. "And you'll forgive me for making you +welcome with musical honours? That was a sudden notion of Dinah's. +She spied you coming up the road, and--Dinah, can you manage to stop +that silly tune?" + +"I'll try, mistress." Dinah stooped, groped amid the grasses, and +produced the musical box from its lair. + +"You can," stammered Captain Cai, as if repeating a formula, "turn it +off--at any time--by means of a back-handed switch." + +"It's yours, then!" Mrs Bosenna clapped her hands together as she turned +on him. + +"It's mine," confessed Captain Cai. "The question might occur to you, +ma'am--" + +"It has. Oh, it _has!_" She rippled with laughter. "You should have +seen Dinah's face when she came upon it!" + +"Caius," said Captain Hunken, interrupting her mirth as with a stroke +tolled on a bell, "would ye mind pinching me?" + +"Not at all, 'Bias--if you'll tell me where." + +"Anywheres. Only rememberin' we're in the presence o' ladies." + +"It's _perfectly_ simple," said Captain Cai, "if you'll only let me +explain! You see, the thing's what you might call a testimonial. +I picked it up, comin' through the town to-day." + +"A testimonial? How interesting!" murmured Mrs Bosenna. + +"From my late crew, ma'am. As I was sayin', on my way through the town +to call on you, ma'am, I was taken on the hop, so to speak, an' made the +recipient--" + +"What for?" demanded 'Bias. He was breathing hard. + +"It don't become me," said Captain Cai, and, speaking under stress of +desperation, he found himself of a sudden wondering at his own fluency. +"It don't become me to repeat all the--sentiments which, er, emanated." + +"Give me some," growled Captain Tobias, and was heard to add, under +stertorous breath--"Testimonial? I'd like to ha' seen _my_ lot try it +on _me!_" + +"They said," confessed Captain Cai, "as how it was their united wish--" +Here he recalled Mr Tregaskis' allusion to possible offspring, and +blushed painfully. + +"Well?" + +"That was the words: as how it was their united wish--adding 'in all +weathers.'" + +"And, the next news, it's playin' tunes in a ditch," pursued Captain +Tobias. + +"I think I can explain," put in Mrs Bosenna sweetly, hastening to close +up the little breach which, for some reason or other, had suddenly +opened between these two good friends. "Captain Hocken, being cumbered +with the box on his way to pay me a visit, hid it in the bushes here for +a time, meaning to recover it on his way back to the station." + +"That's so, ma'am," Captain Cai corroborated her. + +"But having misjudged the time, and in his hurry to meet you--good +friend that he is--Oh, Captain Hunken, if you could have heard the way +he spoke of you! What he led me to expect--not," she added prettily, +"that I admit to being disappointed." + +"Go on, ma'am," said Captain Tobias sturdily. But in truth it had come +to his turn to look ashamed. + +"Well, you see, in his haste he forgot it. And now he brings you back +to fetch it--am I not right?" + +"Not exactly, ma'am," confessed Captain Cai. "The truth is--" + +"Well, you shall hear how meantime we happened on it. . . . We are very +particular about our cream, here at Rilla: and with this warm weather +coming on, Dinah has been telling me it's time we stood the pans out in +running water. Haven't you, Dinah?" + +Dinah smoothed her print gown. It was not for her to admit here that +early in the day from an upper window she had been watching for Captain +Hocken's approach, had witnessed it, had witnessed also the act of +concealment, and had faithfully reported it to her mistress. + +"So," continued Mrs Bosenna hardily, "reckoning that the bed of the +stream may have been choked by what the winter rains carry down, and +this being our favourite place for the pans, under the cool of the +bridge, down happens Dinah--" + +"Excuse me, ma'am; but ain't it rather near the high road?" + +"It _is_, Captain Hunken: and I have often thought of it at nights. +But the folks are honest in these parts--extraordinarily honest." + +She broke off, perceiving that Captain Tobias was looking with sudden +earnestness at Captain Cai, and that Captain Cai was somewhat awkwardly +evading the look. + +"Be a man, Caius!" Tobias exhorted his friend. + +"It's--it's this way, ma'am," said Captain Cai sheepishly, after a long +pause, diving in his pocket. "We wasn't exactly bound to fetch the--the +musical box--which, Lord forgive me! I'd forgot for the moment--but to +return _this_. How it came to find its way to my pocket I don't know." + + +"And I don't know, either," mused Mrs Bosenna, as Dinah helped her to +undress that night. (This undressing was, in fact, but a well-worn +excuse for mistress and maid to chat and--due difference of position +observed--exchange confidences before bedtime). "Captain Hocken is +simple-minded, as any one can tell; but not absent-minded by nature. +At least, I hope not. I hate absent-minded men." + +She glanced at her glass, and turned about sharply. + +"Dinah, you designing woman! I believe you slipped that box into his +pocket? Yes, when you pretended that his coat wanted brushing,--I saw +you!" + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +'BIAS APPROVES. + +As they departed and went their way down the coombe, a constrained +silence fell between the two friends. Nor did either break it until +they came again in sight of the railway station. + +"I don't altogether like the air in this valley," announced 'Bias. + +"It _is_ a trifle close, now you mention it," Cai agreed. + +"Nor I don't altogether cotton to the valley, neither. Pretty enough, +you may say; but it gives you a _feelin'_--like as if you didn't know +what was goin' to happen next." + +"Places do have that effect with some," Cai assented again, but more +dejectedly. Horrid apprehension--if 'Bias should extend his dislike to +Troy itself! + +"I'm feeling better already," 'Bias continued, answering and allaying +this unspoken fear. "Is that the gasworks yonder?" + +"Yes. The _real_ scenery's at the other end o' the town." + +"The smell's healthy, they tell me." 'Bias halted in the roadway, and +casting back his head took a long stare up at the gasometer. "You +mustn' hurry me," he said, "I've got to enjoy _everything_." + +"No hurry at all," said Cai, from whose heart the words lifted a burden +at least as heavy as the musical box under his arm. "Hullo! here's Bill +Tregaskis with his missus! . . . Evenin', William--good evenin', ma'am!" +Captain Cai pulled off his hat. "I hope you find your husband none the +worse for the voyage?--though, to be sure, 'tisn' fair on him nor on any +seamen, the way some folks reproaches us when we get back home." + +Mrs Tregaskis dropped a curtsey. "But be sure, sir--what reproaches?" + +"Your looks, ma'am--your looks, if I may say so! . . . William married +you soon as he could, I'll wager; but, to be fair, that should ha' been +ten years afore _you_ married _him_." + +"La, sir!" answered Mrs Tregaskis blushing. "I wonder you never +married, yourself--you talk such nonsense! But you're in spirits +to-day, as any one can see." She glanced at the broad back of Captain +Tobias, who stood a few paces away, with legs planted wide and gaze +still wrapped in contemplation of the gasometer. "Makin' so bold, sir, +is that your friend we've heard tell so much about?" + +"It is, ma'am," Captain Cai turned about to call up 'Bias to be +introduced, when Mr Tregaskis gently checked him, laying a hand on the +musical box. + +"I didn' think it worth mentionin' at the time, sir; but these +instruments aren't intended for carryin' about." + +"No, no," Captain Cai agreed hastily. "Here, 'Bias! Look around an' see +who's the first to welcome ye! Tregaskis, of all men! And this here's +his missus." + +"How d'e do, Mr Tregaskis," said Captain Tobias, shaking hands. He knew +the mate of the _Hannah Hoo_, and respected him for a capable seaman. +"I hope I see you well, ma'am?" + +"Nicely, sir, thank you!" Mrs Tregaskis curtseyed and beamed. + +But Captain Tobias, though with her, too, he shook hands politely +enough, was plainly preoccupied. "'Tis a wonderful invention," said he. +"You just let the gas run in, an' then it is ready for use at any time. +I hadn't a notion you was so up-to-date here." + +Mr Tregaskis looked puzzled. "It don't work by _gas_. You wind it up +with a cog arrangement, which acts on a spring coil, I'm told--just like +the inside of a watch. But we can see by liftin' up the lid." + +"Eh?" Captain Tobias glanced back over his shoulder. + +"But as I was tellin' the boss, 'twas never _intended_ for a country +walk. You sets it down at home and calls for a tune--as it might be +drinks," continued Mr Tregaskis lucidly. + +Captain Cai touched his friend's elbow. "You're talkin' o' different +things, you two," he explained in a nervous haste, anxious to get off +delicate ground. "Tregaskis was alludin' to--er--this here; which" he +concluded, "nobody could have been more taken aback than I was this +mornin' . . . when it happened." + +"You don't say that's the musical box!" cried Mrs Tregaskis. +"Now, don't you agree, sir"--she appealed to Captain Tobias--"with what +I said to William at dinner-time, when he told me about the presentation +and the speeches? [Here Captain Cai shot a look at his mate, who +flushed but kept his eyes averted, pretending carelessness.] I said +that for a lot of ignorant seamen 'twas quite a happy thought, an' +nobody could say as Captain Hocken didn' deserve it; but, the thing +bein' bought in such a hurry--an' knowin' William as I do--ten to one +he'd been taken in an' the thing wouldn't work when it came to be +tried." + +"I told you," put in her spouse, "as the salesman had shown us how to +work it, an' it played the most life-like tunes, 'Home Sweet Home' +inclooded." + +"The salesman!" said Mrs Tregaskis scornfully. "A long way you'll go in +the world if you trust a salesman! Why, there was a young man once in +Harris's Drapery showed me a bonnet--with humming-birds--perfectly +outrageous; I wouldn' ha' been seen in it; and inside o' five minutes he +had me there with the tears in my eyes to think I couldn' afford it." + +"It works all right indeed, ma'am," Captain Cai assured her. + +"Ah, maybe you're cleverer with machinery than William? I don't know +how you find him at sea, but _I_ can't trust him to wind the clock." + +"I didn' set it goin' myself, ma'am; not personally." + +"Well," sighed Mrs Tregaskis, "I wish William had consulted me, anyway, +before buying the thing in such a hurry. It's shop-soiled, he has to +admit; which I only hope you'll overlook." + +"I've told you, my dear," put in Mr Tregaskis patiently, "that the mark +was done by a Challenge Cup. The fellow was quite honest about it." + +"A more thoughtful man," the lady insisted, "would have consulted his +wife--would have brought the thing home, maybe, for a trial, to have her +opinion on it. The others wouldn't have raised any objection, I'm sure. +And," she concluded with another sigh, "he knows that I fairly dote on +music!" + +"If that's so, ma'am," began Captain Cai, and hesitated, overtaken by +sudden caution, "I might let you have the loan of it, some time." + + +"You got out o' that very well," said Tobias, as they moved on. "I like +this place--" He paused, to scan a bill hoarding. "I likes it the more +the further I gets. But the women hereabouts seem more than usual +forward. Which an unprejoodiced man might call it a drawback." + +"I'm sorry, 'Bias, she would keep talkin' about the darned box. . . . +I couldn' prevent the lads, d'ye see--not knowin' they'd any such thing +in their minds." + +"She as good as invited herself to call an' listen to it," Tobias +pursued stolidly. "You headed her off very well. 'Tis possible, o' +course, we may get tired o' the tunes in time; an' then she may be +welcome to it for a spell. We'll see. Plenty o' time for that when +we've done listenin' to it together." + +Captain Cai halted and gazed at his friend with an emotion too deep for +words. But Tobias did not see: he was staring up at a wire which +crossed the street overhead. + +"Telephone! What next? . . . You never told me, neither--or not to my +recollection--as you went in for speech-makin'." + +"But I don't. I--er--the fact is, I had thoughts of takin' a lesson or +two. Private lessons, you understand." + +"You don't need to, so far as I can see. What was it I heard you +tellin' that widow-woman?--'You was made the recipient--of sentiments-- +which emanated'--that's the way to talk to 'em in public life. +I can reckernise the lingo, though I couldn' manage it for worlds, an' +don't know as I want to try." + +"Troy is my native town, you see," explained Cai, drinking +encouragement. + +"An' a rattlin' fine one, too!" Tobias halted in front of a wall +letter-box. "Look at that, now! 'Hours of Collection' so-an'-so. +It _do_ make a difference--fancy a thing o' that sort at sea! . . . +D'ye know, although you never expressed yourself that way, I'd always a +thought at the back o' my head that you'd end by takin' up with public +life in one form or another." + +"It _has_ been hinted to me," confessed Cai, colouring. "As one might +say, it has been--er--" + +"Emanated," his friend suggested. + +"It has been emanated, then--that there was a thing or two wanted +puttin' to rights." + +"We'll make notes as we go along." + +"But I don't want you to start by lookin' out our little weaknesses!" +cried Cai, suddenly fearful for his beloved town. + +Nevertheless he was in the seventh heaven, divining that his friend (so +chary of speech as a rule) had been trying to make amends, to sweep away +the little cloud that for a moment--no more--had crossed their perfect +understanding. 'Bias was here, determined to like Troy: and 'Bias was +succeeding. What else mattered? + +"Tidy little trade here," commented 'Bias, as they reached the Passage +Slip and conned the business reach of the river, the vessels alongside +the jetties, the cranes at work, the shipping moored off at the buoys-- +vessels of all nations, but mostly Danes and Russians, awaiting their +turn. + +"Twenty thousand tons a-month, my boy! See that two-funnelled craft +'longside the second jetty? Six thousand--not a fraction under. +We're things o' the past, you an' me, an' 'twas high time we hauled out +o' the competition." + +"China clay?" + +"All of it." + +"I don't know much about china clay," said 'Bias reflectively. +"But I never met twenty thousand tons of anything where it wasn' time +for somebody to protect the public." + +"There's a Harbour Commission here, o' course--bye-laws an' all that +sort o' thing." + +"Ay; there's one openin' for ye. We'll find others." + +They resumed their way. The street--Troy has but one street, but makes +up for this by calling various lengths of it by various names--was in +places so narrow that to avoid passing vehicles they were forced to take +refuge in handy doorways. In three out of four the door stood open, and +Captain Cai, popping his head in at kitchen or small parlour, would beg +pardon for intruding, pass the time of day with the mistress of the +house, inquire for her husband's health--"Do I remember him, I wonder?" +--and how many children there were, and what might be their ages? +He always wound up by introducing his friend. Nobody resented these +salutations, these questions. Indeed how was it possible to be morose +with Captain Cai?--he bubbled such transparent gaiety, kindliness, +innocence. + +"'Tis our way in Troy, you see," he told 'Bias as they dived into a +cobbler's shop to escape the omnibus. "You have to be neighbourly if +you don't want to be run over. . . . In London, now, you'd waste a lot +o' time explainin' that you didn' want your boots mended." + +"It's like what I've heard about canvassin' for Parlyment," said 'Bias. +"And that's another suggestion fur ye." + +Of the most important shops in the length of thoroughfare known as Fore +Street and in Church Square (which is the same street with a corkscrew +twist in it) 'Bias showed much appreciation. He was especially allured +by the rainbow-tinted goods in Mr Shake Benny's window, and by the cards +recommending them for sale. _If you admire Lord Rosebery, Now is Your +Time_--He studied this for some moments. + +"Time for what?" he asked, rubbing his ear softly. + +"Drinks," suggested Cai, and laughed in pure pleasure of heart. +"Come along, man--or you'll be makin' me Prime Minister before we get to +the Ship. . . Yes, yon's the church--Established. You can tell by the +four spikes an' the weathercock; like-wise by the tombstones. But they +bury folks up the hill nowadays." He paused--"That reminds me"--he +paused again. + +"What of?" + +"Oh--er--nothing; nothing particular. . . . Well, if you must know, I +was thinkin' about that old hat o' mine." + +"You don't tell me you've buried it?" + +"No." + +"It _is_ time for drinks," said 'Bias with decision. They called at the +Ship Inn, where they ascertained that Captain Hunken's chest and +parrot-cage had been duly delivered. + +"Very decent beer," pronounced 'Bias as they shared a quart. + +"When a man has a job to tackle--" began Cai, and glanced at his friend. +"You're sure we hadn' better wait till you've had a meal?--till +to-morrow mornin' if you like." + +'Bias drained his tankard and arose--a giant visibly refreshed. +"I'm a-goin' to see the house, instanter." + +"Things," said Cai, "strike different parties from different points o' +view. That's notorious. One man's born an' bred in a place, and +another isn't. . . . Now if the latter--as we'll call him for argyment's +sake--" + +But 'Bias, cutting short this parley, had gained the door and was +marching forth. + + +To be sure (and Captain Cai might with better command on his nerves have +hailed the omen) Nature could hardly have dressed shore and harbour of +Troy in weather more auspicious. The smoke of chimneys arose straight +on the "cessile air," making a soft dun-coloured haze through which the +light of the declining day was filtered in streams of yellow--pale +lemon-yellow, golden-yellow, orange, orange-tawny. On the far shore of +the harbour, windows blazed as if cottage after cottage held the core of +a furnace intense and steady. The green hillside above them lay bathed +in this aureate flush, which permeated too the whole of the southern +sky, up to its faint blue zenith. + +"Pretty weather," grunted 'Bias, "I see the glass is steady too; +leastways if you can trust the one they keep in the Inn parlour." + +Cai did not respond: the crucial moment was drawing too near. + +"Pretty li'l view, too. . . . A man with a box o' paints, now, might be +tempted to have a slap at it." + +Well-meant but artless simulation! Captain Hunken had once in his life +purchased a picture; it represented Vesuvius by night, in eruption, and +he had yielded to the importunity of the Neapolitan artist--or, rather, +had excused himself for yielding--on the ground that after all you +couldn't mistake the dam thing for anything else. + +They came abreast of Harbour Terrace. They were passing by the green +front door of Number Two. Still Captain Cai made no sign. + +"There's a house, f'r instance--supposin' a man could afford the +rental--" 'Bias halted and regarded it. "Hullo, 'tis unoccupied!" +He turned about slowly. "You don't--mean--to tell me--as that's _of_ +it?" + +"That's _of_ it," Cai admitted tremulously. After a long pause, +'"Bias," he stammered, "break it gently." + +"I'm tryin' to," said 'Bias, breathing and backing to the railings for a +better view. He removed his hat and wiped the top of his head several +times around. Then of a sudden-- + +"Hooray!" he exploded. + +"'Bias!" Cai stared, as well he might, for his friend's face was +totally impassive. + +"Hoo--" began 'Bias again. "Who the devil's this?" he demanded, as the +door opened and Tabb's child appeared in the entry. + +"I been expectin' you this hour an' more," announced Tabb's child. +"Stoppin' for drinks on the road, I reckon?" + +"We did take a drink, now you mention it," stammered Captain Cai, caught +aback: "though, as it happens that don't account for our bein' late. +But what brings _you_, here, missy?" + +She laid a finger on her lip. "Sh! I've got 'em." + +"Got what?" + +"Servants for 'ee. They're inside." She pointed back in to the passage +mysteriously. + +"Who's this child?" demanded Captain 'Bias. + +"She's--er--a young friend o' mine--" began Captain Cai. But Fancy +interrupted him, dropping a slight curtsey, and addressing his friend +straight. + +"My name's Fancy Tabb, sir. Which I hope you'll like Troy, and Cap'n +Hocken ast me to make myself useful an' find you a pair of servants-- +woman an' boy." + +"Oh, but hold hard!" protested Captain Cai. "We haven't started +furnishin' yet." + +She nodded. "That's all right. No hurry with either of 'em--not for +some weeks, or so long as it suits you. But you'll be safer to bespeak +'em: an' Mrs Bowldler is the chance of a lifetime." + +She led the way through to the unfurnished and somewhat dingy kitchen. +It had a low window-seat, from the extreme ends of which, as the two +skippers entered, two figures--a middle-aged woman and a gawky lad-- +arose and saluted them; the one with a highly genteel curtsey, the other +with an awkward half-pull at his forelock, and much scraping with his +feet. + +"This is Mrs Bowldler," Fancy nodded towards the middle-aged woman. + +"Your servant, sirs," Mrs Bowldler curtseyed again and coughed. "With a +W if you don't object." + +"She's quite a good plain cook; and well connected, though reduced in +circumstances. Mr Rogers, sir, is often glad to employ her at a pinch." + +"At a what?" asked Captain Tobias, breathing hard. + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler with a trembling cough, "the bare thought of +taking service again with two strange gentlemen in my state of health is +a nordeal, and as such I put it to you." Here she smoothed the front of +her gown and turned upon Tobias with unexpected spirit. "You can say to +me what you like, sir, and you can do to me what you like, but if you'd +been laying awake all night with geese walking over your grave, I'd put +myself in your place and say, 'Well, if he don't spit blood 'tis a +mercy!'" + +"Plain cookin', did you say?" asked Captain Tobias, turning stonily upon +the girl. + +"And knick-knacks. You mustn't mind her talk, sir; she was brought up +to better things and 'tis only her tricks. . . . Now the boy here--his +name's Pam, which is short for Palmerston: and I can't conscientiously +say more for him, except that he's willin' and tells me he can carry +coals." + +She might not be able to say more for him, and yet her voice had a +wistfulness it had lacked while she commended Mrs Bowldler. +Certainly the lad's looks did not take the casual glance. +He was coltish and angular, with timid, hare-like eyes. He wore +curduroy trousers (very short in the leg), a coat which had patently +been made for a grown man, and in place of waistcoat a crimson guernsey +which as patently was a piece of feminine apparel. The sleeves of his +coat were folded back above his wrists, and in his hand he dangled, by a +string of elastic, a girl's sailor hat. + +"Healthy?" asked Captain Tobias. + +As if at a military command, the boy put out his tongue. + +"La!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler, "look at that for manners!" + +"Where does he come from?" + +The boy glanced at Fancy in a helpless way. Fancy was prompt. "'Twould +save time--wouldn't it?--now that you've seen Mrs Bowldler, if she went +round an' had a look at the house?" + +"Which I trust," said Mrs Bowldler, "it would not be required of me to +sleep in a nattic. It's not that I'm peculiar, but as I said to my +sister Martha at breakfast only this morning, 'Attics I was never +accustomed to, and if 'tis to be attics at my age, with the roof on your +head all the time and not a wink in consequence, Martha,' I said, 'you +wouldn't ask it of me, no, not to oblige all the retired gentlemen in +Christendom.'" + +"You'd better trot along upstairs, then, an' make sure," said Fancy. +As soon as the woman was gone she jerked a nod towards the door. +"Now we can talk. I didn't want _her_ to know, but Pam comes from the +work'ouse. His father was mate of a vessel and drowned at sea, and his +mother couldn't manage alone." + +"What vessel?" asked Captain Cai. Both skippers were regarding the boy +with interest. + +"The _Tartar Girl_--one of Mr Rogers's--with coal from South Shields, +but a Troy crew. It happened five years ago; an' last night when you +said you wanted a boy it came into my head that one of the Burts would +be just about the age. [Pam's other name is Burt, but I didn't tell it +just now, not wanting Mrs Bowldler to guess who he was.] So this +morning I got Mr Rogers to let me telephone to Tregarrick Work'ouse--an' +here he is." + +"Do they dress 'em like that in there?" asked + +Captain Cai. + +"Better fit they did!" said the girl angrily. "They sent him over in a +clean corduroy suit with 'Work-'ouse' written all over it: and a nice +job I had to rig him up so's Mrs Bowldler shouldn' guess." + +At this moment a piercing scream interrupted Fancy's explanation. +It came from one of the front rooms, and was followed by another shorter +scream--the voice unmistakably Mrs Bowldler's. + +Running to the lady's rescue, they found her in the empty parlour-- +alone, clutching at the mantelshelf with both hands, and preparing to +emit another cry for succour. + +"What in the world's happened?" demanded Fancy the first to arrive. + +"There was a man!" Mrs Bowldler ran her eyes over her protectors and +turned them, with a slow shudder, towards the window. "I seen him +distinctly. It sent my blood all of a cream." + +"A man? What was he doing?" they asked. + +"He was a-looking in boldly through the window . . ." Mrs Bowldler +covered her face with her hands. + +"Well?" Fancy prompted her impatiently, while Captain Cai stepped out to +the front door in quest of the apparition. + +"He had on a great black hat. I thought 'twas Death itself come after +me!" + +While Mrs Bowldler paused to take breath and record her further +emotions, Captain Cai, reaching the front door, threw it open, looked +out into the roadway, and recoiled with a start. Close on his right a +man in black stood peering, as Mrs Bowldler had described, but now into +the drawing-room window; shielding, for a better view, the brim of a +tall hat which Captain Cai recognised with an exclamation-- + +"Mr Philp!" + +Mr Philp withdrew his gaze, turned about and nodded without +embarrassment. + +"Good evenin', Cap'n. Friend arrived?" + +"Funny way to behave, isn't it?" asked Captain Cai with sternness. +"Pokin' an' pryin' in at somebody else's windows--what makes ye do it?" + +"I was curious to know what might be goin' on inside." + +There was a finality about this which held Captain Cai gravelled for a +moment. It hardly seemed to admit of a reply. At length he said-- + +"Well, you've frightened a woman into hysterics by it, if that's any +consolation." + +"There, now! Mrs Bosenna?" + +"No, it was not Mrs Bosenna. . . . By the way, that reminds me. +I've changed my mind over that hat." + +"Hey?" + +"I find I've a use for it, after all." + +But at this moment 'Bias appeared in the doorway behind him. + +"Seen anything?" demanded 'Bias. + +"Interduce me," said Mr Philp with majestic calm. + +Captain Cai, caught in this act of secret traffic, blushed in his +confusion, but obeyed. + +"'Bias," said he, "this is the gentleman that caused the mischief +inside. His name's Philp, and he'd like to make your acquaintance." + + + + +BOOK II. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +FIRST SUSPICIONS. + +It was August, and the weather for weeks had been superb. It was also +the week of Troy's annual regatta, and a whole fleet of yachts lay +anchored in the little harbour, getting ready their riding lights. +Two or three belated ones--like large white moths in the grey offing-- +had yet to make the rendezvous, and were creeping towards it with all +canvas piled: for the wind--light and variable all day--had now at +sunset dropped almost to a flat calm. + +"A few pounds to be picked up out yonder," commented Captain Cai, "if +the tugs had any enterprise." + +Captain 'Bias reached out a hand for the telescope. "That yawl--the big +fellow--'d do better to take in her jib-tops'le. The faster it's +pullin' her through the water the more it's pullin' her to leeward. +She'd set two p'ints nigher with it down." + +"The fella can't make up his mind about it, either: keeps it shakin' +half the time." + +The two friends sat in 'Bias's summerhouse, the scent of their tobacco +mingling, while they discoursed, with the fragrance of late roses, +nicotianas, lemon verbenas. "Discoursed," did I say? Well, let the +word pass: for their talk was discursive enough. But when at intervals +one or the other opened his mouth, his utterance, though it took the +form of a comment upon men and affairs, was in truth but the breathing +of a deep inward content. On the table between them Captain Cai's +musical box tinkled the waltz from "Faust." + +They had become house-occupiers early in May, and at first with a few +bare sticks of furniture a-piece. But by dint of steady attendance at +the midsummer auctions they had since done wonders. Captain Cai had +acquired, among other things, a refrigerator, a linen-press, and a set +of 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica' (edition of 1881); Captain 'Bias a +poultry run (in sections) and a framed engraving of "The Waterloo +Banquet,"--of which, strange to say, he found himself possessor directly +through his indifference to art; for, oppressed by the heat of the +saleroom, he had yielded to brief slumber (on his legs) while the +pictures were being disposed of, and awaking at the sound of his own +name was aware that he had secured this bargain by an untimely and +unpremeditated nod. + +Such small accidents, however, are a part of the fun of +house-furnishing. On the whole our two friends had bought judiciously, +and now looking around them, could say that their experiment had +hitherto prospered; that, so far, the world was kind. + +Especially were they fortunate (thanks to Fancy Tabb) precisely where +bachelor householders are apt to miss good fortune--in the matter of +domestic service. The boy Palmerston, to be sure, suffered from a +trick--acquired (Fancy assured them) under workhouse treatment and +eradicable by time and gentle handling--of bursting into tears upon +small provocation or none. But Mrs Bowldler was a treasure. Of this +there could be no manner of doubt; and in nothing so patently as in +relation with the boy Palmerston did the gold in Mrs Bowldler's nature-- +the refined gold--reveal itself. + +It was suspected that she had once been a kitchen-maid in the West End +of London: but a discreet veil hung over this past, and she never lifted +it save by whatever of confession might be read into the words, +"When we were in residence in Eaton Square,"--with which she preluded +all reminiscences (and they were frequent) of the great metropolis. +Her true test as a good woman she passed when--although she must have +known the truth, being a confirmed innocent gossip--she chose to extend +the same veil, or a corner of it, over the antecedents of Palmerston. +She said-- + +"The past is often enveloped. In the best families it is notoriously +so. We know what we are, an' may speckilate on what we was; but what +we're to be, who can possibly tell? It might give us the creeps." + +She said again: "Every man carries a button in his knapsack, by which he +may rise sooner or later to higher things. It was said by a Frenchman, +and a politer nation you would not find." + +Again: "Blood will tell, always supposin' you 'ave it, and will excuse +the expression." + +Thus did Mrs Bowldler "turn her necessity to glorious gain," colouring +and enlarging her sphere of service under the prismatic lens of romance. +In her conversation either cottage became a "residence," and its small +garden "the grounds," thus:-- + +"Palmerston, inform Captain Hunken that dinner is served. You will find +him in the grounds." + +Or, "Where's that boy?" Captain Cai might ask. + +"Palmerston, sir? He is at present in the adjacent, cleaning the knives +and forks." + +She had indeed set this high standard of expression in the very act of +taking service; when, being asked what wages she demanded, she answered, +"If acceptable to you, sir, I would intimate eighteen guineas--and my +viands." + +"That's two shilling short o' nineteen pound," said Captain Hunken. + +"I thank you, sir"--Mrs Bowldler made obeisance--"but I have an +attachment to guineas." + +She identified herself with her employers by speaking of them in the +first person plural: "No, we do not dress for dinner. Our rule is to +dine in the middle of the day, as more agreeable to health." [A sigh.] +"Sometimes I wish we could persuade ourselves that vegetables look +better on the side-table." + +Such was Mrs Bowldler: and her housekeeping, no less vigilant than +romantic, protected our two friends from a thousand small domestic +cares. + + +"Committee-meeting, to-night?" asked 'Bias. + +"Eight o'clock: to settle up details--mark-boats, handicap, and the +like. . . . It's a wonder to me," said Cai reflectively, "how this +regatta has run on, year after year. With Bussa for secretary, if you +can understand such madness." + +"They'll be runnin' you for the next Parish Council, sure as fate." + +Cai ignored this. "There's the fireworks, too. Nobody chosen yet to +superintend 'em, an' who's to do it I don't know, unless I take over +that little job in addition." + +"I thought the firm always sent a couple o' hands to fix an let 'em +off." + +"So it does. They arrived a couple of hours ago--both drunk as Chloe." + +"Plenty o' time to sleep it off between this an' then," opined 'Bias +comfortably. + +"But they're still _on_ the drink. Likely as not we shall find 'em +to-morrow in Highway lock-up, which is four miles from here. . . . +It happened once before," said Cai with a face of gloom, "and Bussa did +the whole display by himself." + +"Good Lord! How did it go off?" + +"He can't remember, except that it _did_ go off. _He_ was drunk, too-- +drunk o' purpose: for, as he says very reas'nably, 'twas the only way he +could find the courage. The fellow isn' without public spirit, if he'd +only apply it the right way. Toy tells me that he, for his part, saw it +from his bedroom window--the Town Quay wasn't safe, wi' the +rocket-sticks fairly rainin'--an' the show wasn' a bad show, _if you +looked at it horizontal_; but the gentry on the yachts derived next to +no enjoyment from it, bein' occupied in gettin' up their anchors." + +Before 'Bias could comment on this, a footstep--light, yet audible +between the tinkling notes of the musical box--drew the gaze of the pair +to a small window on the right, outside of which lay the gravelled +approach to their bower. + +"May I come in?" asked a voice--a woman's--with a pretty hesitation in +its note: and Mrs Bosenna stood in the doorway. + +"_Please_ keep your seats," she entreated as both arose awkwardly. +She added with a mirthful little laugh, "I heard the musical box playing +away, and so I took French leave. Now, don't tell me that I'm an +intruder! It is only for a few minutes; and--strictly speaking, you +know--the lease says I may enter at any reasonable time. Is this a +reasonable time?" + +They assured her, but still awkwardly, that she was welcome at any time. +Captain Cai found her a chair. + +"So this," she said, looking around, "is where you sit together and talk +disparagingly of our sex. At least, that's what Dinah assures me, +though I don't see how she can possibly know." + +"Ma'am!" said Cai, "we were talkin', this very moment, o' fireworks: +nothing more an' nothing less." + +"Well, and you couldn't have been talking of anything more to the +point," said Mrs Bosenna; "for, as it happens, it's fireworks that +brought me here." + +'Bias looked vaguely skyward, while "You don't tell me, ma'am, those +fellows are making trouble down in the town?" cried Cai. + +"Eh? I don't understand. . . . Oh, no," she laughed when he explained +his alarm, "I am afraid my errand is much more selfish. You see, I +positively dote on fireworks." + +She paused. + +"Well," said 'Bias, "that's womanlike." + +"Hallo!" said Cai. "How do you know what's womanlike?" + +"I am afraid it is womanlike," confessed Mrs Bosenna hastily. +"And from Rilla Farm you get no view at all on Regatta night. So I was +wondering--if you won't think it dreadfully forward of me--" + +"You're welcome to watch 'em from here, ma'am, if that's what you mean," +said 'Bias. + +"Or from my garden, ma'am, if you prefer it," said Cai. + +"Why should she?" asked 'Bias. + +"Well, 'tis a yard or two nearer, for one thing." + +"Anything else?" + +"Yes: the other summer-house fronts a bit more up the harbour; t'wards +the fireworks, that's to say." + +"You ought to know: _you_ chose it. . . . But anyway I asked her first." + +"Thank you--thank you both!" interposed Mrs Bosenna, leaving the +question open. "And may I bring Dinah too? She's almost as silly about +fireworks as I am, poor woman! and life on a farm _can_ be dull." +She sighed, and added, "Besides, 'twould be more proper. We mustn't set +people talking--eh, Captain Hocken?" She appealed to him with a laugh. + +"Cai won't be here," announced 'Bias heavily. + +"Who said so?" demanded Cai. + +"'Said so yourself, not twenty minutes ago. . . . 'Said you didn' know +how the fireworks was ever goin' off without you, or words to that +effect. I didn' make no comment at the time. All I say now is, if Mrs +Bosenna comes here to see fireworks, she'll expect 'em to go off: an' I +leave it at that." + +"They'll go off, all right," said Cai cheerfully, putting a curb on his +temper. [But what ailed 'Bias to-night?] "I'll get a small +Sub-committee appointed this very evening. But about takin' a hand +myself, I've changed my mind." + +"Indeed, Captain Hocken, I hope you'll not desert the party," said Mrs +Bosenna prettily, and laughed again. "Do you know that, having made so +bold I've a mind to make bolder yet, and pretend I am entertaining _you_ +to-morrow. It's the only chance you give me, you two." + +She said this with her eyes on 'Bias, who started as if stung and +glanced first at her, then at Cai. But Cai observed nothing, being +occupied at the moment in winding up the musical box, which had run +down. + +Mrs Bosenna smiled a demure smile. She had discovered what she had come +to learn; and having discovered it, she presently took her leave, with a +promise to be punctual on the morrow. + + +When she was gone the pair sat for some time in silence. _Tink, +tink-tink-a-tink, tink_, went the musical box on the table. . . . +At length Cai stood up. + +"Time to be gettin' along to Committee," he said, and stepped to the +doorway; but there he turned and faced about. "'Bias--" + +"Eh?" + +"You don't really think as I chose th' other summer-house because it had +a better view?" + +"_Has_ it a better view?" asked 'Bias. + +"For fireworks, it seems," said Cai sadly. "But I reckoned--though I +hate to talk about it--as this one looked straighter out to sea an' by +consequence 'd please ye better. That's why. . . . You're welcome to +change gardens to-morrow." + +"Mrs Bosenna's comin' to-morrow," grunted 'Bias, and then, after a +second's pause, swore under his breath, yet audibly. + +"What's the matter with ye, 'Bias?" + +"I don't know. . . . Maybe 'tis that box o' tunes gets on my temper. +No, don't take it away. I didn' mean it like that, an' the music used +to be pretty enough, first-along." + +"We'll give it a spell," said Cai, stooping and switching off the tune. +"I'm not musical myself; I'd as lief hear thunder, most days. But the +thing was well meant." + +"Ay, an' no doubt we'll pick up a taste for it again--indoors of an +evenin', when the winter comes 'round." + +"Tell ye what," suggested Cai. "To-morrow, I'll take it off to John +Peter and ask him to put a brass plate on the lid, with an inscription. +He's clever at such things, an' terrible dilatory. . . . An' to-night +Mrs Bowldler can have it in the kitchen. She dotes on it--'_I dreamt +that I dwelt_' in particular." + + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler to Palmerston later on, as they sat drinking +in that ditty, one on either side of the kitchen table, "it can't sing, +but the words is that I dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls with Princes and +Peers by my si-i-ide--just like that. Princes!" She leaned back in the +cheap chair and closed her eyes. "It goes through me to this day. +I used to sing it frequent in my 'teens, along with another popular +favourite which was quite at the other end of the social scale, but +artless--'My Mother said that I never should Play with the gypsies in +the wood. If I did, She would say, Tum tiddle, tum tiddle, tum-ti-tay' +--my memory is not what it was." Mrs Bowldler wiped her eyes. + +"And did you?" asked Palmerston. "Tell me what happened." + +Next morning, while the Church bells were ringing in Regatta Day, +Captain Cai tucked the musical box under his arm and called, on his way +to the Committee Ship, upon Mr John Peter Nanjulian (commonly "John +Peter" for short). + +John Peter, an elderly man, dwelt with a yet more elderly sister, in an +old roomy house set eminently on the cliff-side above the roofs of the +Lower Town, approachable only by a pathway broken by flights of steps, +and known by the singular name of On the Wall. + +The house had been a family mansion, and still preserved traces of +ancient dignity, albeit jostled by cottages which had climbed the slope +and encroached nearer and nearer as the Nanjulians under stress of +poverty had parted with parcel after parcel of their terraced garden. +Of the last generation--five sons and three daughters, not one of whom +had married--John Peter and his sister "Miss Susan" were now the only +survivors, and lived, each on a small annuity, under the old roof, +meeting only at dinner on Sundays, and for the rest of the week dwelling +apart in their separate halves of the roomy building, up and down the +wide staircase of which they had once raced as children at hide-and-seek +with six playmates. + +John Peter was eccentric, as all these later Nanjulians had been: a +lean, stooping man, with a touch of breeding in his face, a weak mouth, +and a chin dotted with tufts of gray hair which looked as if they had +been affixed with gum and absent-mindedly. He was reputed to be a great +reader, and could quote the poetical works of Pope by the yard. He had +some skill with the pencil and the water-colour brush. He understood +and could teach the theory of navigation; dabbled in chess problems; and +had once constructed an astronomical timepiece. His not-too-clean hands +were habitually stained with acids: for he practised etching, too, +although his plates invariably went wrong. He had considerable skill in +engraving upon brass and copper, and was not above eking out his income +by inscribing coffin-plates. But the undertaker was shy of employing +him because he could never be hurried. + + +John Peter received Captain Cai in his workshop--a room ample enough for +a studio and lit by a large window that faced north, but darkened by +cobwebs, dirty, and incredibly littered with odds and ends of futile +apparatus. He put a watchmaker's glass to his eye and peered long into +the bowels of the musical box. + +"The works are clogged with dust," he announced. "Fairly caked with oil +and dirt. No wonder it won't go." + +"But it _does_ go," objected Captain Cai. + +"You don't tell me! . . . Well, you'd best let me take out the works, +any way, and give them a bath of paraffin." + +"Is it so serious as all that? . . . What I came about now, was to ask +you to make a brass plate for the lid--with an inscription." +Captain Cai pulled out a scrap of paper. "Something like this, +'Presented to Caius Hocken, Master of the _Hannah Hoo_, on the Occasion +of his Retirement. By his affectionate undersigned': then the names, +with maybe a motto or a verse o' poetry if space permits." + +"What sort of poetry?" + +"Eh? . . . 'Tell ye the truth, I didn' know till this moment that there +_were_ different sorts. Well, we'll have the best." + +"Why not go to Benny, and get him to fix you up something appropriate?" +suggested John Peter. "Old Benny, I mean, that writes the letters for +seamen. He's a dab at verses. People go to him regular for the +In-Memoriams they put in the newspaper." + +"That's an idea, too," said Captain Cai. "I'll consult him to-morrow. +But that won't hinder your getting ahead wi' the plate?" he added; for +John Peter's ways were notorious. + +"How would you like it?" John Peter looked purblindly about him, rubbing +his spectacles with a thread-bare coat-tail. + +"Well, I don't mind," said Cai with promptitude--"Though 'tis rather +early in the morning." + +"Old English?" + +"Perhaps I don't know it by that name." + +"Or there's Plain." + +"Not for me, thank ye." + +"--Or again, there's Italic; to my mind the best of all. It lends +itself to little twiddles and flourishes, according to your taste." +Old John Peter led him to the wall and pointed with a dirty finger; and +Cai gasped, finding his attention directed to a line of engraved +coffin-plates. + +"That's Italic," said John Peter, selecting an inscription and tracing +over the flourishes with his thumb-nail. "'_William Penwarne, b. +1837--_' that's the year the Queen came to the throne. It's easier to +read, you see, than old English, and far easier than what we call +Gothic, or Ecclesiastical--which is another variety--though, of course, +not so easy as Plain. Here you have Plain--" He indicated an +inscription--'_Samuel Bosenna, of Rilla, b. 1830, d. 1895_." + +"Would that be th' old fellow up the valley, as was?--Mrs Bosenna's +husband?" asked Cai, somewhat awed. + +"That's the man." + +"But what's it doing here?" + +"'Tis my unfortunate propensity," confessed John Peter with simple +frankness. "You see, by the nature of things these plates must be +engraved in a hurry--I _quite_ see it from the undertaker's point of +view. But, on the other hand, if you're an artist, it isn't always you +feel in the mood; you wait for what they call inspiration, and then the +undertaker gets annoyed and throws the thing back on your hands." +With a pathetic, patient smile John Peter rubbed his spectacles again, +and again adjusted them. "Perhaps you'd like Plain, after all?" he +suggested. "It usually doesn't take me so long." + +"No," decided Cai somewhat hurriedly; "it might remind--I mean, there +isn't the same kind of hurry with a musical box." + +"It would be much the better for a bath of paraffin," muttered John +Peter, prying into the works. But Cai continued to stare at the plate +on the wall, and was staring at it when a voice at the door called +"Good mornin'!" and Mr Philp entered. + +"Ho!" said Mr Philp, "I didn' know as you two were acquainted. +And what might _you_ be doin' here, cap'n?" + +"A triflin' matter of business, that's all," answered Cai, who chafed +under Mr Philp's inquisitiveness; but chafed, like everybody else, in +vain. + +"Orderin' your breastplate? . . . It's well to be in good time when +you're dealin' with John Peter," said Mr Philp with dreadful jocularity. +"As I came along the head o' the town," he explained, "I heard that +Snell's wife had passed away in the night. A happy release. I dropped +in to see if they'd given you the job." + +John Peter shook his head. + +"And I don't suppose you'll get it, neither," said Mr Philp; "but I +wanted to make sure. Push,--that's what you want. That's the only +thing nowadays. Push. . . . You're lookin' at John Peter's misfits, I +see," he went on, turning to Cai. "Now, _there's_ a man whose place, as +you might say, won't go unfilled much longer--hey?" Mr Philp pointed +his walking-stick at the name of the late owner of Rilla, and achieved a +sort of watery wink. + +"I daresay you mean something by that, Mr Philp," said Cai, staring at +him, half angry and completely puzzled. "But be dashed if I know what +you _do_ mean." + +"There now! And I reck'ned as you an' Cap'n Hunken had ne'er a secret +you didn't share!" + +'"Bias?" asked Cai slowly. "Who was talkin' of 'Bias?" + +"It takes 'em that way sometimes," said Mr Philp, wiping a rheumy eye. +"An' the longer they puts it off the more you can't never tell which way +it will take 'em. O' course, if Cap'n Hunken didn't tell you he'd been +visitin' Rilla lately, he must have had his reasons, an' I'm sorry I +spoke." + +Cai was breathing hard. "Bias? . . . When?" + +"The last time I spied him was two days ago . . . in the late afternoon. +Now you come to mention it, I'd a notion at the time he wasn't anxious +to be seen. For he came over the fields at the back--across the +ten-acre field that Mrs Bosenna carried last week--and a very tidy crop, +I'm told, though but moderate long in the stalk. . . . Well, there he +was comin' across the stubble--at a fine pace, too, with his coat 'pon +his arm--when as I guess he spied me down in the road below and stopped +short, danderin' about an' pretendin' to poke up weeds with his stick. +'Some new-fashioned farmin',' thought I; 'weedin' stubble, and in August +month too! I wonder who taught the Widow that trick'--for I won't be +sure I reckernised your friend, not slap-off. But Cap'n Hunken it was: +for to make certain I called and had a drink o' cider with Farmer +Middlecoat, t'other side of the hill, an' _he'd_ seen your friend +frequent these last few weeks. . . . There now, you don't seem pleased +about it!--an' yet 'twould be a very good match for him, if it came +off." + +Cai's head was whirling. He steadied himself to say, "You seem to take +a lot of interest, Mr Philp, in other people's affairs." + +"Heaps," said Mr Philp. "I couldn' live without it." + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +REGATTA NIGHT. + +It must be admitted, though with sorrow, that on the Committee Ship that +day Captain Cai did not shine. He bungled two "flying starts" by +nervously playing with his stop-watch and throwing it out of gear; he +fired off winning guns for several hopelessly belated competitors; he +made at least three mistakes in distributing the prize-money (and nobody +who has not committed the indiscretion of paying out a first prize to a +crew which has actually come in third can conceive the difficulty of +enforcing its surrender); finally, he provoked something like a free +fight on deck by inadvertently crediting two boats each with the other's +time on a close handicap. It was the more vexatious, because he had in +committee meetings taken so many duties upon himself, virtually +cashiering many old hands, whose enforced idleness left them upon the +ship with a run of the drinks, and whose resentment (as the day wore on) +made itself felt in galling comments while, with no offer to help, they +stood by and watched each painful development. The worst moment arrived +when Captain Cai, who had replaced the old treasurer by a new and +pushing man, and had, further, carried a resolution that prizes for all +the major events should be paid by cheque, discovered his _protege_ to +be too tipsy to sign his name. This truly terrible emergency Captain +Cai met by boldly subscribing his own name to the cheques. They would +be drawn, of course, upon his private account, and he trusted the +Committee to recoup him, while reading in the eyes of one or two that +they had grasped this opportunity of revenge. But Regatta Day happens +on a Wednesday, when the banks in Troy close early; and these cheques +were accepted with an unflattering show of suspicion. + +The longest day, however, has its end. All these vexations served at +least to distract our friend's mind from the morning's discovery; and +when at length, the last gun fired, he dropped into a boat to be pulled +for shore, he was too far exhausted physically--having found scarcely a +moment for bite or sup--to load his mind any more than did Walton's +milk-maid "with any fears of many things that will never be." + +He reached home, washed off the cares of the day and the reek of black +gunpowder together in a warm bath, dressed himself with more than +ordinary spruceness, and was descending the stair on his way to Bias's +garden, when at the foot of them he was amazed to find Mrs Bowldler, +seated and rocking herself to and fro with her apron cast over her head. +Nay, in the dusk of the staircase he but just missed turning a +somersault over her. + +"Hullo! Why, what's the matter, missus?" + +"Oh--oh!" sobbed Mrs Bowldler. "Bitter is the bread of poverty, deny it +who can! And me, that have gone about Troy streets in my time with one +pound fifteen's worth of feathers on my hat! Ostrich. And now to be +laying a table for the likes of _her_, that before our reverses I +wouldn't have seen in the street when I passed her!" + +Captain Cai, already severely shaken by the events of the day, put a +hand to his head. + +"For goodness' sake, woman, talk sense to me! _Who_ is it you're +meanin'?--Mrs Bosenna? And what's this talk about layin' table?" + +"Mrs Bosenna?" echoed Mrs Bowldler, who had by this time arisen from the +stair. She drew her skirts close with a gesture of dignity. "It is not +for me to drag Mrs Bosenna into our conversation, sir--far from it,--and +I hope I know my place better. For aught I know, Captain Hocken--if, +as a _menial_, I may use the term--" + +"Not at all," said Captain Cai vaguely, as she paused with elaborate +humility. + +"For aught that I know, sir, Mrs Bosenna may be a Duchess fresh dropped +from heaven. I _have_ heard it mentioned in a casual way that she came +from Holsworthy in Devon, and (unless my memory deceives me, sir) +nothing relative to Duchesses was dropped--or not at the time, at least. +But I pass no remarks on Mrs Bosenna. If she chose to marry an old man +with her eyes open, it's not for me to cast it up, beyond saying that +some folks know on which side their bread's buttered. _I_ never dragged +in Mrs Bosenna. You will do me that justice, I hope?" + +"Then who the dickens is it you're talkin' about?" + +"Which to mention any names, sir, it is not my desire; and the best of +us can't help how we was born nor in what position. But farm service is +farm service, call it what you please; and if a party as shall be +nameless starts sitting down with her betters, perhaps you will tell me +when and where we are going to end? That, sir, is the very question I +put to Captain Hunken; and with all respect, sir, 'dammit' doesn't meet +the case." + +"Perhaps not," agreed Captain Cai, but not with entire conviction. + +"It was all the answer Captain Hunken gave me, sir. 'Dammit,' he says, +'Mrs Bowldler, go and lay supper as I tell you, and we'll talk later.'" + +"Supper? Where?" + +"In the summer-house, sir: which it's not for me to talk about taking +freaks into your head, and the spiders about, or the size o' them at +this time o' the year. Captain Hunken and the lady and the other party +are at present in your portion of the grounds, hoping that you'll join +them in time for the fireworks; which it all depends if you like mixed +company. And afterwards the guests"--Mrs Bowldler threw withering scorn +into the word--"the guests is to adjourn to Captain Hunken's +summer-house or what not, there to partake of supper. And if I'm asked +to wait, sir," she concluded, "I must beg to give notice on the grounds +that I'm only flesh and blood." + +"O--oh!" said Captain Cai reflectively. It occurred to him that 'Bias +had hit on a compromise with some tact. For the moment he was not +thinking of Mrs Bowldler, and did not grasp the full meaning of her +ultimatum. + +She repeated it. + +"Tut--tut," said he. "Who wants you to wait table against your will? +The boy'll do well enough." + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler, "I have took the opportunity of sounding +Palmerston, and he offers no objection." + +"Very well, then." + +Mrs Bowldler was visibly relieved. She heaved a sigh and fired a +parting shot. + +"I can only trust," she said, "if Palmerston waits as he'll catch up +with no low tricks. Boys are so receptive!" + + +Cai descended to his garden, and at the foot of it found a trio of dark +figures by the low fence of the edge of the cliff--'Bias and Mrs Bosenna +in talk together, Dinah standing a little apart. "But that," thought +he, "is only her place, as I've just been hearing." He had a just mind +and was slow to suspect. Even now he could not assimilate the poison of +Mr Philp's story. Everybody knew Mr Philp and his propensities. +As Mr Toy the barber was wont to say, "Philp don't mean any harm: he +just makes mischief like a bee makes honey." + +So Cai said, "Cheer-o, 'Bias!"--his usual greeting--hoped he saw Mrs +Bosenna well, and fell in on the other side of her by the breast-rail. +The sky by this time was almost pitch dark, with a star or two shining +between somewhat heavy masses of clouds. He begged Mrs Bosenna to be +sure that she was comfortably anchored, as he put it. The rail was +stout and secure; she might lean her weight against it without fear. +He went on to apologise for his late arrival. The Committee Ship had +been at sixes and sevens all day. + +"Nobody could have guessed it, from the shore," said Mrs Bosenna +graciously, and appealed to 'Bias. "Coming through the town I heard it +on all hands." + +"Not so bad," agreed 'Bias, and this, from him, was real praise. + +"'Not a hitch from first to last--the most successful Regatta we've had +for years.' Those were the very expressions that reached me." + +"We'll do better next time," Cai assured her, swallowing down the +flattery. "Believe it or not, I had trouble enough to keep things +straight; and being one to fret when they're not ship-shape--" + +"_I_ know!" murmured Mrs Bosenna sympathetically. "You could not bear +to come away until you'd seen everything through. Well, as it happens, +there are people in Troy who recognise this; and it does me good to hear +you talk about 'next time.' Though, to be sure, one can't count next +time on such perfect weather." + +"There'll be rain in half an hour or less," grunted 'Bias. + +"Oh, not before the fireworks, surely?" she exclaimed in pretty dismay. +"Do say, now, Captain Hocken!" + +She turned to Cai, and then-- + +"Oh--oh!" she cried as, far away up the harbour, the signal rocket shot +hissing aloft and exploded with a tremendous detonation. The roar of it +filled their ears; but Cai scarcely heeded the roar. It reverberated +from shore to shore, and the winding creeks took it up, to re-echo it; +but Cai did not hear the echoes. + +For (it was no fancy!) a small hand had clutched at his arm out of the +darkness and was clinging to it, trembling, for protection. . . . Yes, +it trembled there yet! . . . He put a hand over it, to reassure it and +at the same time to detain it. + +He could not see her face. The rocket was of the kind known as +"fog detonator," and scattered no light with its explosion. He greatly +desired to know whether her gaze was turned towards him or up at the +dark sky, and this he could not tell. But the hand lay under cover of +his arm, and, as moments went by was not withdrawn. . . . + +Half a minute passed thus, and then (oh, drat the fireworks after all!) +a salvo of rockets climbed the sky--luminous ones, this time. As they +shot up with a _wroo--oo--sh!_ the hand was snatched away, gently, +swiftly. . . . + +They burst in balls of fire--blue, green, yellow, crimson. They lit up +the garden so vividly that each separate leaf on the laurustinus bushes +cast its own sharp shadow. "O--oh!" breathed Mrs Bosenna, but now on a +very different note, and as though her whole spirit drank deep, +quenching a celestial desire. Cai, stealing a look, saw her profile +irradiated, her gaze uplifted to the zenith. + +The fiery shower died out, was extinct. Across the party hedge the boy +Palmerston was heard inquiring if that was the way the angels behaved in +heaven. + +"Moderately so," responded the polite, high-pitched voice of Mrs +Bowldler (who never could resist fireworks). "Moderately so, but +without the accompanyin' igsplosion. That is, so far as we are +permitted to guess. . . . And highly creditable to _them_," it wound up, +with sudden asperity, "considering the things they sometimes have to +look down on!" + +"I'd _love_," aspired the romantic boy, "to go up--an' up--an' up, just +like that, an' then bust--bust in red and yellow blazes." + +"You will, one o' these days; that is, if you behave yourself. We have +that assurance within us." + +"I wouldn' mind the dyin' out," ingeminated Palmerston, "so's I could +have one jolly good bust." + +"In the land of marrow an' fatness we shall be doing of it permanent," +Mrs Bowldler assured him for his comfort. "That's to say if we ever get +there. But you just wait till they let off the set pieces. There's one +of Queen Victoria, you can see the very eyelids. Sixty years Queen of +England, come next June: with _God Bless Her_ underneath in squibs like +Belshazzar's Feast. And He _will_, too, from what I know of 'im." + + +As it turned out, at the distance from which our company viewed them, +these set pieces laid some tax on the imagination. They were duly +applauded to be sure; and when Mrs Bosenna exclaimed "How lovely!" and +'Bias allowed "Not so bad," their tribute scarcely differed, albeit paid +in different coin. The rockets, however, won the highest commendation, +and a blaze of coloured fires on the surrounding hills ran the rockets a +close second. + +Towards the close of the display a few drops of rain began to fall from +the overcharged clouds: large premonitory drops, protesting against this +disturbance of the upper air. + +"That's the fine-alley!" announced 'Bias, as another detonator banged +aloft, while a volcano of "fiery serpents" hissed and screamed behind +it. "Let's run for shelter!" + +He offered his arm. Cai did the same. But Mrs Bosenna--she had not +clung to any one this time--very nimbly slipped between them and took +Dinah for protector. She was in the gayest of moods, as they all +scrambled up the wet steps to the roadway, and so down other flights of +wet steps under the pattering rain to the shelter of 'Bias's +summer-house. + +"Just in time!" she panted, shaking the drops from her cloak. "And I +can't remember whenever I've enjoyed myself so much. But--" as she +looked about her and over the table--"what a feast!" + +It was a noble feast. If Cai had been busy all day, no less had 'Bias +been busy. There were lobsters; there were chickens, with a boiled ham; +there was a cold sirloin of beef, for grosser tastes; there were +jellies, tartlets, a trifle, a cherry pie. There was beer in a +nine-gallon jar, and cider in another. There were bottles of fizzy +lemonade, with a dash of which Mrs Bosenna insisted on diluting her +cider. Her mirth was infectious as they feasted, while the rain, now +descending in a torrent, drummed on the summer-house roof. + +"How on earth we're ever to get home, Dinah, I'm sure I don't know! +And what's more, I don't seem to care, just yet." + +Captain Cai and Captain 'Bias protested in unison that, when the time +came, they would escort her home against all perils. + +"You can trust me, ma'am, I hope?" blurted 'Bias. + +"I can trust both of you, I hope." Mrs Bosenna glanced towards Cai, or +so Cai thought. + + +"The jokes they keep makin'!" Palmerston reported to Mrs Bowldler. +(With the utmost cheerfulness he continued running to and fro between +summer-house and residence under the downpour.) "When Mrs Bosenna said +that about a merrythought I almost split myself." + +"There's a medium in all things," Mrs Bowldler advised him. +"Stand-offish should be your expression when waiting at table; like as +if you'd heard it all before several times, no matter how funny they +talk. As for splitting, I shiver at the bare thought." + +"Well, I didn't do it, really. I just got my hand over my mouth in +time." + +"And what did that other woman happen to be doing?" asked Mrs Bowldler. + +"I partic'l'ly noticed," said Palmerston. "She was sittin' quiet and +toyin' with her 'am." + + +The rain continuing, 'Bias at the close of supper sensationally produced +two packs of cards and proposed that, as soon as Palmerston had removed +the cloth, they should play what he called "a rubber to whist." He and +Mrs Bosenna cut together; Cai with Dinah. Now the two captains could, +as a rule, play a good hand at whist. On this occasion they played so +abominably as to surprise themselves and each other. Dinah did not +profess to be an expert, and Cai's blunders were mostly lost on her. +But 'Bias disgraced himself before his partner, who neither reproached +him nor once missed a trick. + +"I can't tell what's come over me to-night," he confessed at the end of +the second rubber. + +"Regatta-day!" laughed Mrs Bosenna, and pushed the cards away. +The wedding-ring on her third finger glanced under the light of the +hanging lamp. "Dinah shall tell our fortunes," she suggested. + +Dinah took the pack and proceeded very gravely to tell their fortunes. +She began with Captain Hunken, and found that, a dark lady happening in +the "second house," he would certainly marry one of that hue, with +plenty of money, and live happy ever after. + +She next attempted Captain Hocken's. "Well, that's funny, now!" she +exclaimed, after dealing out the cards face uppermost. + +"What's funny?" asked Cai. + +"Why," said Dinah, after a long scrutiny, during which she pursed and +unpursed her lips half a dozen times at least, "the cards are different, +o' course, but they say the same thing--dark lady and all--and I can't +make it other." + +"No need," said Cai cheerfully, drawing at his pipe (for Mrs Bosenna had +given the pair permission to smoke). "So long as you let 'Bias and me +run on the same lines, I'm satisfied. Eh, 'Bias?" + +"But 'tis the _same_ lady!" + +"Oh! That would alter matters, nat'ch'rally." + +Dinah swept the cards together again and shuffled them. "Shall I tell +_your_ fortune, mistress?" she asked mischievously. + +"No," said Mrs Bosenna, rising. "The rain has stopped, and it's time we +were getting home, between the showers." + +Again Captain Cai and Captain 'Bias offered gallantly to accompany her +to the gate of Rilla Farm; but she would have none of their escort. + +"No one is going to insult me on the road," she assured them. +"And besides, if they did, Dinah would do the screaming. That's why I +brought her." + + +She had enjoyed her evening amazingly. She took her departure with a +few happily chosen words which left no doubt of it. + +After divesting himself of his coat that night, Captain Cai laid a hand +on his upper arm and felt it timidly. Unless he mistook, the flesh +beneath the shirt-sleeve yet kept some faint vibration of Mrs Bosenna's +hand, resting upon it, thrilling it. + +"The point is," said Cai to himself, "it can't be 'Bias, anyway. I felt +pretty sure at the time that Philp was lyin'. But what a brazen fellow +it is!" + + +Strangely enough, in his bedroom on the other side of the party wall +Captain 'Bias stood at that moment deep in meditation. He, too, was +rubbing his arm, just below the biceps. + +Yet the explanation is simple. You have only to bethink you that Mrs +Bosenna, like any other woman, _had two hands_. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +MRS BOSENNA PLAYS A PARLOUR GAME. + +"We have runned out simultaneous," announced Mrs Bowldler next morning, +as the two friends sat at breakfast in Captain Cai's parlour, each +immersed (or pretending to be immersed) in his own newspaper. They had +slept but indifferently, and on meeting at table had avoided, as if by +tacit consent, allusions to last night's entertainment. Each of the +newspapers contained a full-column report of the Regatta, with its +festivities, which gave excuse for silence. With a thrill of innocent +pleasure Cai saw his own name in print. He harked back to it several +times in the course of his perusal, and confessed to himself that it +looked very well. + +But Mrs Bowldler, too, had slept indifferently, if her eyes--which were +red and tear-swollen--might be taken as evidence. Her air, as she +brought in the dishes, spoke of sorrow rather than of anger. +Finding that it attracted no attention, she sighed many times aloud, and +at each separate entrance let fall some gloomy domestic news, dropping +it as who should say, "I tell you, not expecting to be believed or even +heeded, still less applauded for any vigilant care of your interests, +but rather that I may not hereafter reproach myself." + +"We have runned out simultaneous," she repeated as Captain Cai glanced +up from the newspaper. "Which I refer to coals. Palmerston tells me +there's not above two-and-a-half scuttlefuls in either cellar, search +them how you will." (The search at any rate could not be extensive, +since the cellars measured 8 feet by 4 feet apiece.) + +"Which," resumed Mrs Bowldler, after a pause and a sigh, "it may be +un-Christian to say so of a man that goes about in a bath-chair with one +foot in the grave, but in my belief Mr Rogers sends us short weight." + +"I'll order some more this very morning, eh, 'Bias?" + +'Bias grunted approval. + +"And while we're about it, we may as well order in a quantity,--as much +as the sheds will hold. We've pretty well reached the end o' summer, +an' prices will be risin' before long. . . . If I were you, Mrs +Bowldler," added Cai with a severity beyond his wont, "I shouldn't call +people dishonest on mere suspicion." + +"If you were me, sir--makin' so bold,--you'd ha' seen more of the world +with its Rogerses and Dodgerses. There now!" Mrs Bowldler set down a +dish of fried potatoes and stood resigned. "Dismiss me you may, Captain +Hocken, and this instant. I ask no less. It was bound to come. As my +sister warned me, 'You was always high in the instep, from a child, +and,' says she, 'high insteps are out of place in the Reduced.'" + +"God bless the woman!" Cai laid down the paper and stared. "Who ever +talked of dismissin' you?" + +"I have rode in my time in a side-saddle: and that, sir, is not easily +forgotten. But if you will overlook it, gentlemen," said Mrs Bowldler +tearfully, "I might go on to mention that Palmerston have had a +misfortune with a tumbler last night." + +Cai continued to stare. "I _saw_ a couple performin' in the street +yesterday. How did the boy get mixed up in it?" + +"He broke it clearin' up the _debree_ in the summer-house after the +visitors had gone," Mrs Bowldler explained. "Which being a new +departure, I hope you will allow me to pass it by in his case with a +caution." + + +In the course of the forenoon Cai paid a call at Mr Rogers's +harbour-side store, where he found Mr Rogers himself superintending, +from his invalid-chair, the weighing out of coal. Fancy Tabb was in +attendance. + +"Hullo!" Mr Rogers greeted him. "Well, the show went very well +yesterday, and I see your name in the papers this morning." + +Cai confessed that he, too, had seen it. + +"And it won't be the last time either, not by a long way. I was wantin' +a word with you. Cap'n Hunken,--eh, but that's the sort of friend to +have--a man in a thousand--Cap'n Hunken was tellin' me, a few days back, +as he'd a mind to see ye in public life." + +"Thank'ee," said Cai. "'Bias has been nursin' that notion about me, I +know. But I hope I can make up my own mind." + +"He said 'twould be a distraction for ye." + +"Very likely." Cai was nettled without knowing why. "But supposin' I +don't need bein' distracted, not at this present?" + +"Not at this present," Mr Rogers agreed. "Your friend allowed that; but +he said as, all human life bein' uncertain, he was worried in mind what +was goin' to become o' you in the years to come." + +"Meanin' after his death?" asked Cai, with a touch of asperity. + +"He didn' specify. It might ha' been death he had in mind, or it might +ha' been anything you like. What he said was, 'I'd like to see old Cai +fixed up wi' summat to while away his latter years.' That's how he said +it, in those exact words, an' nothing could have been more kindly put." + +"We're the same age, to a hair. I don't see why 'Bias should be in all +this hurry, unless between ourselves . . . But you wanted a word with +me." + +"Yes, on that very question. I'm on the School Board, as it happens, +and I'm thinkin'--between you an' me--to send in my resignation, which +will create a vacancy." + +"Oh?" said Cai, alert; "I didn' know you took an interest in education." + +"I don't," Mr Rogers responded frankly. "I hate the damned thing. +If it rested with me, I'd have no such freaks in the land. But there's +always the rates to be kept down. And likewise there's the coal +contract to be considered. Added to which," he wound up, "it gives you +a pull in several little ways." + +"I see," said Cai after a pause. "But, if that's so, why resign?" + +"Because I'm broken in health, an' can't attend the meetings. I'd have +resigned six months ago if it hadn't been for Philp." + +"Did Mr Philp persuade you to hold on?" + +"You bet he didn't!" Mr Rogers grinned. "Philp wants the vacancy, +and--well, I don't like Philp. I don't know how he strikes you?" + +"To tell the truth," confessed Cai, "I can't say that I like him. +He's too--inquisitive, shall we put it?--though I daresay he means it +for the best." + +"He's suspicious," said Mr Rogers. "You'd scarcely believe it now, but +he came down to this very store, one day, and hinted that I gave short +weight in coal. 'That's all right,' said I; 'are you come to lay an +information?' 'No,' says he; 'I know the cost o' the law, an' I'm here +as a friend, to give a fresh order. But,' says he, 'as between friends +I'm goin' to see it weighed out.' 'Right again!' says I--'how much?' +'Twelve sacks will meet my requirements for the present,' says he; 'but +I'd like 'em full this time, if you don't mind.' I'm givin' you the +exact words as they occurred. 'Very well,' says I, 'you shall see 'em +weighed an' put into the cart for ye, here an' now.' So I ordered Bill +round wi' the cart; an' George, here, I told to pick out twelve o' the +best sacks, lay 'em in a row 'long-side o' me, an' start weighin' very +careful. When the scales turned the hundred-weight, I said, 'Now put in +two great lumps for overplush and sack it up.' So he did, an' Bill took +the bag out to the cart. 'Now for the next,' says I. Philp's a greedy +fellow: he stuck there lookin' so hard at the weighin'-scoop, wonderin' +how much overplush he'd get this go, he didn' see me twitch the tailmost +sack out o' the line wi' th' end o' my crutch, nor Bill pick it up +casual as he came along an' toss it away into the corner. When George +had weighed out the eleven, I says to Philp, 'Well, now, I hope you're +satisfied this time?' says I. He turns about, sees that all the sacks +have gone, an' says he, 'That's the end, is it?' 'You're a treat, an' +no mistake,' says I jokin'. 'We don't sell by the baker's dozen at this +store:' for I could see he hadn' counted. 'Well,' says he, 'I must say +there's no cause o' complaint this time,' and off drives Bill wi' the +load. 'No cause o' complaint'!" Mr Rogers chuckled till the tears +gathered in his eyes. He controlled his mirth and resumed, "I believe, +though, the poor fool suspected something; for he was back at home +before Bill had time to deliver more'n four sacks. But Bill, you see, +always carries an empty sack or two to sit upon; so there was no +countin' to be done at that end, d'ye see?" + +"I see," said Cai gravely. It crossed his mind that he had been +over-hasty in rebuking Mrs Bowldler. + +"I wonder," put in the child Fancy, "how you can sit there an' tell such +a story! That's just the sort o' thing people get put in hell for, as +I've warned you again and again. It fairly gives me the creeps to hear +you boastin' about it." + +"Nothin' o' the sort," said her master cheerfully. He could not resent +her free speaking, for she was necessary to him. Besides, it amused +him. "You leave old Satan and Johnny Rogers to settle scores between +themselves. If he takes me as he finds me I'll do the same by him--_an' +he knows I'll count the sacks_. Cap'n Cai here'll tell you I'd never +have put such a trick on Philp if he hadn' shown himself so suspicious. +I hate a suspicious man. . . . An' that's one reason, Cap'n, why I want +you to decide on takin' my place on the School Board. You see, I can +choose my own time for resignin'; the Board itself fills up any vacancy +that occurs between Elections: an' I can work the Board for you before +Philp or any one else gets wind of it. That is, if I have your +consent?" + +"It's uncommonly good of you," said Cai. "I'll think it over, an' take +advice, maybe." + +"You know what advice your friend'll give you, anyway. For, I don't +mind tellin' you, when he talked about your enterin' public life I +dropped a hint to him." + +"'Bias Hunken isn' the only friend I have in the world," answered Cai, +with a sudden flush. + +"I hope not," said Mr Rogers. "There's me, f'r instance: an' you've +heard my opinion. That ought to be good enough for him--eh, child?" +he turned to Fancy, who had been watching Cai's face with interest. + +"If the Captain wants feminine advice," said Fancy, in a mocking +grown-up tone, "we all love public men. It's our well-known weakness." + +Cai wished them good-day, and took his leave in some confusion. + + +That mischievous child had divined his intent, almost as soon as he +himself had divined it. Nay, now--or, to be accurate, three minutes +later--it is odds that she knew it more surely than he: for he walked +towards the Railway Station--that is, in the direction of Rilla Farm-- +telling himself at first that a stroll was, anyhow, a good recipe for +clearing the brain; that Rogers's offer called on him to make, at short +notice, an important decision. + +He paused twice or thrice on his way, to commune with himself: the first +time by the Passage Slip, where 'Bias and he had halted to view the +traffic by the jetties. He conned it now again, but with unreceptive +eyes. . . . "Rogers talks to me about takin' advice," soliloquised Cai. +"It seems to me this is just one of those steps on which a man must make +up his own mind. . . ." + +He paused again beneath the shadow of the gasometer, possibly through +association of ideas, because it suggested thoughts of 'Bias who had so +much admired it--"'Bias means well, o' course. But I don't go about, +for my part, schemin' how 'Bias is to amuse his latter days. Besides, +'Bias may be mistaken in more ways than one." + +He had passed the Railway Station without being aware of it, and arrived +in sight of Rilla gate, when he halted the third time. "A man must +decide for himself, o' course, when it comes to the point. Still, in +certain cases there's others to be considered. . . . If I knew how far +she meant it! . . . She must ha' meant something." Yes, he felt the +clutch on his biceps again and the small hand trembling under his large +enfolding one. "She _must_ ha' meant something. Not, to be sure, that +it would seriously influence his decisions! But it seemed hardly fair +not to consult her. . . . He would get her opinion, for what it was +worth, not betraying himself. In advising him she might go--well, +either a little further or a little backward. . . . Yet, once again, she +_must_ have meant something; and it wasn't fair, if she meant anything +at all, to let old 'Bias go on dwelling in a fool's Paradise. Yes, +certainly--for 'Bias's sake--there ought to be some clear understanding, +and the sooner the better. . . ." + +By the time Cai pressed the hasp of the gate, he had arrived at viewing +himself as a man launched by his own strong will on a necessary errand, +and carrying it through against inclination, for the sake of a friend. + +"I hope it won't be a blow to him, whichever way it turns out," was the +thought in Cai's mind as he knocked on the front door. + +Dinah answered his knock: and, as she opened, Dinah could not repress a +small start, which she hid, almost on the instant, under a demure smile +of welcome. + +"Captain Hocken? . . . Oh, yes! the mistress was within at this moment +and entertaining a visitor. . . . Oh, indeed, no! there was no reason at +all"--she turned, quick about, and he found himself following her and +found himself, before he could protest, at the parlour door, which she +flung open, announcing-- + +"Captain Hocken to see you, ma'am!" + + +Mrs Bosenna, seated at the head of her polished mahogany table and +engaged upon a game of "spillikins"--which is a solitary trial of +skill, and consists in lifting, one by one, with a delicate ivory hook a +mass of small ivory pieces tangled as intricately as the bones in a +kingfisher's nest--showed no more than a pretty surprise at the +intrusion. She had, in fact, seen Captain Hocken pass the window some +moments before; and it had not caused her to joggle the tiny ivory hook +for a moment or to miss a moment's precision. What native quickness did +for her, native stolidity did almost as well for Captain Hunken, who sat +in an arm-chair by the fireplace smoking and watching her--and had been +sitting and watching her for a good half an hour admiringly, without +converse. "Spillikins" is a game during which, though it enjoins +silence on the looker-on, a real expert can playfully challenge a remark +or tolerate one, now and again. Also, you can make astonishing play +with it if you happen to possess a pretty wrist and hand. + +I throw in this explanation of "spillikins" to fill up a somewhat long +and painful pause during which Cai and 'Bias without speech slowly +questioned one another. Neither heeded the pretty tactful clatter with +which Mrs Bosenna, after sweeping her ivory toys in a heap and starting +up with a little cry of pleasure, held out her hand to the intruder. +Cai took it as one in a dream. His eyes were fixed on 'Bias, as 'Bias, +who had withdrawn the pipe from his mouth and replaced it, withdrew it +again, and asked-- + +"Well, an' what brings _you_ here?" + +For a moment Cai seemed to be chewing down a cud in his throat. +He ought to have been quicker, he felt. It is always a mistake to let +your adversary (Good Lord! had it come to this?) set up an +interrogatory. + +"I might ask you the same question," he responded. + +"But you didn'," said 'Bias solidly, crossing his legs and reaching for +a box of matches from the shelf to relight his pipe. "Well?" + +"Well, if you must know, I've called to consult Mrs Bosenna on a private +matter of business." + +This was a neat enough hint; yet strange to say it missed fire. +'Bias sucked at his pipe without budging, and answered-- + +"Same here." + +"Please be seated, Captain Hocken," said Mrs Bosenna, covering inward +merriment with the demurest of smiles. "You shall tell me your business +later on--that's to say, if there's no pressing hurry about it?" + +"There's no _pressin_ hurry," admitted Cai. "It's important, though, in +a way--important to _me_; and any ways more important than smokin' a +pipe an' watchin' you play parlour games." + +"That," said 'Bias sententiously, withdrawing his pipe from his lips, +"isn' business, but pleasure." + +"You may not believe it, Captain Hocken," protested Mrs Bosenna, +"but 'spillikins' helps me to fix my thoughts. And you ought to feel +flattered, really you ought--" + +She laughed now, and archly--"Because, as a fact, I was fixing them on +you at the very moment Dinah showed you in!" She threw him a look which +might mean little or much. Cai took it to mean much. + +"Ma'am,--" he began, but she had turned and was appealing to 'Bias. + +"Captain Hunken and I were at that moment agreeing that a man of your +abilities--a native of Troy, too--and, so to speak, at the height of his +powers--ought not to be rusting or allowed to rust in a little place +where so much wants to be done. For my part,"--her eyes still +interrogated 'Bias,--"I could never live with a man, and look up to him, +unless he put his heart into some work, be it farming, or public +affairs, or what else you like. I put that as an illustration, of +course: just to show you how it appeals to us women; and we _do_ make up +half the world, however much you bachelor gentlemen may pretend to +despise us." + +"That settles poor old 'Bias, anyhow," thought Cai, and at the same +moment was conscious of a returning gush of affection for his old +friend, and of some self-reproach mingling in the warm flow. + +"Why, as for that, ma'am," said he, "though you put it a deal too +kindly--'twas about something o' that natur' I came to consult you." + +"School Board?" suggested 'Bias. + +"That's right. I knew Rogers had dropped a hint to you about it: but o' +course, seein' you here, I never guessed--" + +Mrs Bosenna clapped her hands together. "And on that hint away comes +Captain Hunken to ask my advice: knowing that I should be interested +too. Ah, if only we women understood friendship as men do! . . . +But you come and consult us, you see. . . . And now you must both stop +for dinner and talk it over." + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +_AMANTIUM IRAE_. + +"What I feel about it," said Cai modestly at dinner, "is that I mightn't +be equal to the position, not havin' studied education." + +"Education!" echoed Mrs Bosenna in a high tone of contempt and with a +half vicious dig of her carving-fork into the breast of a goose that +Dinah had browned to a turn. (Both Cai and 'Bias had offered to carve +for her, but she had declined their services, being anxious to provoke +no further jealousy. Also be it said that the operation lends itself, +even better than does the game of spillikins, to a pretty display of +hands and wrists). "Education! You know enough, I hope, to tell the +Board to get rid of their latest craze. You'll hardly believe it," she +went on, turning to 'Bias, "but I happened to pass the Girls' School the +other day, and if there wasn't a piano going!--yes, actually a piano! +When you come to think that the parents of some of those children don't +earn sixteen shillings a-week!" + +"Mons'rous," 'Bias agreed. + +"But I don't understand, ma'am," said Cai, "that the children themselves +play the piano. I made inquiries about that, it being a new thing since +my day: and I'm told it's for the teachers to use in singin' lessson, +an' to help the children to keep time at drill an' what-not." + +"The teachers? And who are the teachers, I'd like to know?--Nasty +stuck-up things, if they want the children to keep time, what's to +prevent their calling out 'One, two--right, left' like ordinary people? +But--oh, dear me, no! We're quite above _that!_ So it's tinkle-tum, +tinkle-tum, and all out of the rates." + +"But 'one, two--right, left' wouldn' carry ye far in a singin' lesson," +urged Cai. + +"And who _wants_ all this singin'? There's William Skin, my waggoner, +for instance--five children, and a three-roomed cottage--all the +children attending school, and regular, too. Pleasant life it would be +for William, with all five coming home with 'The Sea, the Open Sea' in +their mouths and all about the house when he gets home from work! +Leastways it would be, if he wasn't providentially deaf." + +"Is the woman deaf, too?" asked 'Bias. + +"No. She believes in Education," said Mrs Bosenna. "She's _bound_ to +believe in anything that takes the children off her hands five days in +the week." + +Cai puckered his brow. "But," said he, harking back, "I made inquiries, +too, who paid for the piano, and was told the teachers had collected the +money by goin' round with a subscription-list an gettin' up little +entertainments. So it doesn't come out of the rates." + +"You appear to have had your eye on this openin' for some time," +retorted Mrs Bosenna, with a faint flush of annoyance. She very much +disliked being proved in the wrong. "And it's not very polite of you to +contradict me!" + +Cai was crestfallen at once. "I didn' mean it in that light, ma'am," he +stammered; "and I only made inquiries, d'ye see? Bein' ignorant of so +many things ashore. You'd be astonished how ignorant 'Bias an' me found +ourselves, first-goin' off." + +"Speak for yourself," put in 'Bias. + +"You should have come to me," said Mrs Bosenna. "I could have told you +all about Education, especially the sort that ought to be given to +labourers' children; and it's astonishin' to me the way some people will +talk on matters they know nothing about. My late husband made a study +of the question, having been fined five shillin' and costs, the year +before he married me, just for withdrawing a dozen children from school +to pick his apples for him. As luck would have it, one of them fell off +a tree and broke his leg, and that gave the Board an excuse to take the +matter up. My husband argued it out with the Bench. 'The children like +it,' he said, 'for it keeps 'em out of doors, and provides 'em with +healthy exercise. If Education sets a boy against climbing for apples, +why then,' says he, speaking up boldly, 'with your Worships' leave, +Education must be something clean against Nature, as I always thought it +was. And the parents like it, for the coppers it brings in. And the +farmer gets his apples saved. If that's so,' says he, 'here's a +transaction that benefits everybody concerned, instead of which the +Board goes out of its way to harass me for it.' The chairman, Sir +Felix, owned he was right, too. 'Bosenna,' says he, 'I can't answer you +if I would. Nothing grieves me more, sitting here, than having to +administer the law as I find it. But, as things are, I can't let you +off with less.'" + + +This anecdote, and the close arguments used by Mr Bosenna, plunged Cai +in thought; and for the remainder of the meal he sat abstracted, joining +by fits and starts in the conversation, now and then raising his eyes to +a portrait of the deceased farmer, an enlarged and highly-tinted +photograph, which gazed down on him from the opposite wall. The gaze +was obstinate, brow-beating, as though it challenged Cai to find a flaw +in the defence: and Cai, although dimly aware of a fallacy somewhere, +could not meet the challenge. He lowered his eyes again to his plate. +He found himself wondering if, in any future circumstances, Mrs Bosenna +would consent to hang the portrait in another apartment. . . . + +Into so deep an abstraction it cast him, indeed, that when Mrs Bosenna +arose to leave them to their wine and tobacco, he scrambled to his feet +a good three seconds too late. . . . 'Bias (usually lethargic in his +movements) was already at the door, holding it open for her. + +What was worse--'Bias having closed the door upon her, returned to his +seat with a slight but insufferable air of patronage, and--passed the +decanter of wine to him! + +"You'll find it pretty good," said 'Bias, dropping into his chair and +heavily crossing his legs. + +Cai swallowed down a sudden tide of rage. "After you!" said he with +affected carelessness. "I've tasted it afore." + +"Well--if you _won't_--" 'Bias stretched out a slow arm, filled his +glass, and set down the decanter beside his own dessert plate. +"You'll find those apples pretty good," he went on, sipping the wine, +"though not up to the Cox's Orange Pippins or the Blenheim Oranges that +come along later." He smacked his lips. "You'd better try this port +wine. Maybe 'tis a different quality to what you tasted when here by +yourself." + +"Thank 'ee," answered Cai. "I said 'after you.'" + +"Oh?" 'Bias pushed the decanter. "You weren't very tactful just now, +were you?" he asked after a pause. "_Is_ it the same wine?" + +"O' course it is. . . . _When_ wasn't I tactful?" + +"Why, when you upped an' contradicted her like that." 'Bias started to +fill his pipe. "Women are--what's the word?--sensitive; 'specially at +their own table." + +"I _didn'_ contradict her," maintained Cai. "Leastways--" + +"There's no reason to lose your temper about it, is there? . . . +You gave me that impression, an' if you didn' give her the same, I'm +mistaken." + +"I'm not losin' my temper." + +"No? . . . Well, whatever you did, 'tis done, an' no use to fret. +Only I want you and Mrs Bosenna to be friends--she bein' our landlady, +so to speak." + +"Thank 'ee," said Cai again, holding a match to his pipe with an +agitated hand. "If you remember, I ought to know it, havin' had all the +early dealin's with her." + +"She's very well disposed to you, too," said 'Bias. "Nothing could have +been kinder than the way she spoke when I mentioned this School-Board +business: nothing. We'd be glad, both of us, to see you fixed up in +that job." + +"I wonder you didn't think of takin' it on yourself." + +"I did," confessed 'Bias imperturbably. + +"_You?_ . . . Well, what next?" + +"I thought of it. . . . Only for a moment, though. First place, I didn' +want to stand in your way; an' next, as you was sayin' just now, 'tis a +ticklish matter when a man starts 'pon a business he knows nothing +about. But you'll soon pick it up, bein' able to give your whole time +to it." + +"That might apply to you." + +To this 'Bias made no reply. He smoked on, pressing down the tobacco in +the bowl of his pipe. The two friends sat in a constrained silence, now +and again pushing the wine politely. + +"When you are ready?" suggested 'Bias at length--as Cai helped himself +to a final half-glassful, measuring it out with exactitude and leaving +as much or may be a trifle more at the bottom of the decanter. "Ladies +don't like to be kept waitin' too long." + +Cai swallowed the wine and stood up, swallowing down also an inward +mirth to which his anger had given way. During the last minute or two +he had been recalling many things,--his first meeting with Mrs Bosenna; +his first call at Rilla; her remarks on that occasion, upon the grace of +a cultivated manner in men; some subsequent glances, intimate almost; +above all, the clutch upon his protective arm. . . . He felt sorry for +'Bias. Under the rosy influence of Mrs Bosenna's wine he felt genuinely +sorry for 'Bias, while enjoying the humorous aspect of 'Bias's delusion. +'Bias--for whose lack of polish he had from the first made Excuse--'Bias +laying down the law on what ladies liked and disliked! + +They arose heavily and strolled forth to view the livestock. It was +wonderful with what ease these two retired seamen, without instruction, +dropped into the farm-master's routine. So (if in other words) Dinah +remarked, glancing out of the mullioned window of the kitchen as she +fetched a fresh faggot for the hearth on which her mistress had already +begun to set out the heavy-cake and potato-cake in preparation for +tea-time. + +"--the _afternoon_ habits, I mean," explained Dinah. "Just glimpsy out +o' window, mistress, an' see the pair o' men down there--along studyin' +the pigs. Wouldn' know a pig's starn from his stem, I b'lieve, if th' +Almighty hadn' clapped on a twiddling tail, same as they put in books to +show where a question ends. When they come to that, they're safe. . . . +But from their backs, mistress--do 'ee but take a look now, do--you +wouldn' guess they weren't just as knowledgeable as th' old master +himself, as used to judge pigs for the Royal Cornwall--the poor old +angel! I can see him now, after the best part of a bottle o' sherry, +strollin' out to the styes." + +"Don't, Dinah!" entreated Mrs Bosenna, stealing a glance nevertheless: +which Dinah demurely noted. "It's--it's all so _recent!_" + +"Ay," agreed Dinah, and mused, standing boldly before the window, +knuckles on hips. "You couldn' say now, takin' 'em separate, what it is +that puts me more in mind of th' old master." + +"Go about your work, you foolish woman." + +"I suppose," said Dinah, withdrawing her gaze reluctantly and obeying, +"there's always a _something_ about a man!" + +Mrs Bosenna stood by the kitchen-table, patting up another barm-cake. +She had a hand even lighter than Dinah's with flour and pastry. . . . +The two captains had moved on to the gate of Home Parc, and she could +still espy them past the edge of the window. She saw Captain Hunken +draw his hand horizontally with a slow explanatory gesture and then drop +it abruptly at a right angle. + + +'Bias was, in fact, at that moment expounding to Cai, point by point and +in a condescending way, the right outline of a prize Devon shorthorn. +Mrs Bosenna (who had taught him the little he knew) guessed as she +watched the exposition, pursing her lips. + + +"A trifle o' bluffness in the entry don't matter, if you understand me," +said 'Bias, retrieving his lesson. "Aft o' that, no sheer at all; a +straight line till you come to the rump,--or, as we'll say, for +argyment's sake, the counter--an' then a plumb drop, plumb as a +quay-punt." + +"Where did you pick up all this?" asked Cai. + +"I don't make any secret about it," 'Bias owned. "Mrs Bosenna taught +me. Though, when you come to think it out, 'tis as straightforward as +sizing up a vessel. You begin by askin' yourself what the objec' in +question--call it a cow, or call it a brigantine--was designed for. +Now what's a cow _designed_ for?" + +"Milk, I suppose," hazarded Cai. + +"Very well, then, I take you at that: the squarer the cow the more she +holds. It stands to reason." + +"I don't know." Cai made some show of obstinacy, but, it is feared, +rather to test his friend than to arrive at the truth. "A round cow,-- +supposing there was such a thing--" + +"But there isn't. It's out of the question." + +"I speak under correction," said Cai thoughtfully; "but looking at what +cows I've seen,--end on. And anyway, you can't call a cow's udder +square; not in any sense o' the word." + +"What beats me, I'll confess," said 'Bias, shifting the argument, "is +how these butchers and farmers at market can cast their eye over a +bullock an' judge his weight to a pound or two. 'Tis a trick, I +suppose; but I'd like to know how it's worked." + +"Why?" + +"If 'twas a vessel, now, an' tons burden in place o' pounds' weight, you +an' me might guess pretty right. But when it comes to a bullock!" + +"I don't see," objected Cai, "how it consarns either of us." + +"You don't?" asked 'Bias with a look which, for him, was quick and keen. + +"To be sure I don't," answered Cai. "If it happened as I wanted to buy +a bullock to eat, all at one time--and if so be as I found myself at +market in search o' one,--I should be anxious about the weight. +That goes without sayin'. An' the odds are I should ask the +honestest-lookin' fellow handy to give a guess for me. But with you an' +me 'tis a question o' two pounds o' rump steak. I know by the look if +'tis tender, and I can tell by a look at the scales if 'tis fair weight. +I don't ask to be shown the whole ox." + +"I daresay you're right," said 'Bias, apparently much 'relieved. +"It'll save a lot of trouble, anyhow, if you're goin' in for public +life. A man in public life can't afford time for details such as +weighin' bullocks. But, for my part, I'm beginnin' to take an interest +in agriculture." + +"And why not?" agreed Cai. "There's no prettier occupation than +farmin', so long as a man contents himself with lookin' on an' don't +start practising it. Actual farmin' needs capital, o' course." + +To this 'Bias made no response, but continued to stare thoughtfully at +Mrs Bosenna's kine. + +"After all," pursued Cai cheerfully, "these little interests are the +salt of a leisurable man's life. I dare say, f'r instance, as Philp +gets quite an amount o' fun out o' funerals, though to me it seems a +queer taste. Every man to his hobby; and yours, now, I can understand. +When you've finished potterin' around the garden, weedin' an' plantin', +--an', by the way, the season for plantin' isn't far off. It's about +time we looked up those autumn catalogues we talked so much about back +in the spring." + +"True," said 'Bias. "It has slipped my mind of late. An' you not +mentionin' either--" + +"Somehow it had slipped mine too. . . . All that Regatta business, I +suppose. . . . And now, if I am to take up with this School Board +there'll be more calls on my time. But there! If I turn over both the +gardens to you, I reckon you won't object. 'Twill be so much the more +occupation,--not o' course," added Cai, "that I want to shirk doin' my +share. But, as I was sayin', when you've done your day's job at the +garden, an' taken your stroll down to the quay to pick up the evenin' +gossip, what healthier wind-up can there be than to stretch your legs on +a walk to one of the two-three farms in the parish, an' note how the +crops are comin' on, an' the beef an' mutton, so to speak, an' how the +cows are in milk; an' maybe drop in for tea an' a chat?--here at Rilla, +f'r instance, where you'll always be sure of a welcome." + +"You're sure o' that?" asked 'Bias. The words came slowly, heavily +charged with meaning. + +"Why, o' course you will! . . . 'Twas your own suggestion, mind you. +'Takin' an' interest in agriculture' was your words. I don't promise, +o' course, that you'll make much of it, first along. Learnin's half the +fun--" + +But here Mrs Bosenna's voice called to them, and they turned together +almost guiltily to see her climbing the slope above the mow-hay, with +springy gait and cheeks charmingly flushed by recent caresses of the +kitchen-fire. + +"If you care for it," she greeted them, "there's just time for a stroll +to Higher Parc and back while Dinah lays tea. A breath of fresh air +will do me all the good in the world"--little she looked to be in need +of it--"and I don't suppose either of you knows what a glorious view +you'll get up there? All the harbour and shipping at your feet, and +miles of open Channel beyond! My poor dear Robert used to say there +wasn't its equal in Cornwall." + +Cai could assure her in all innocence that he had never heard tell of +Higher Parc and its famous view; nor did it occur to him to turn and +interrogate his friend, who was flushing guiltily. + +If Mrs Bosenna saw the flush, she ignored it. She led the way to a +stile; clambered over it, declining their help, agile as a maid of +seventeen; and struck a footpath slanting up and across a turnip-field +at the back of the farmstead. The climb, though not steep, was +continuous, and the chimneys of Rilla lay some twenty or thirty feet +below them, when they reached a second stile and, overing it, stood on +the edge of a mighty field, the extent of which could not be guessed, +for it domed itself against the sky, cutting off all view of hedge or +limit beyond. + +"This is Higher Parc," announced Mrs Bosenna. "Ten acres." + +"Oh?" exclaimed Cai with a sudden flash of memory. "And stubble!" + +He glanced at 'Bias. But 'Bias, who, if he heard the innuendo, read +nothing in it, was gazing up the slope as though he had never set eyes +on Higher Parc before in all his life. + +They made their way up across the stubble, Mrs Bosenna picking her steps +daintily among the sharp stalks that shone like a carpet stiff with gold +against the level sunset. The shadows of the three walked ahead of +them, stretching longer and longer, vanishing at length over the ridge. + . . . And the view from the ridge was magnificent, as Mrs Bosenna had +promised. The slope at their feet hid the jetties--or all save the tops +of the loading-cranes: but out in midstream lay the sailing vessels and +steamships moored to the great buoys, in two separate tiers, awaiting +their cargoes. Of the sailing vessels there were Russians, with no +yards to their masts, British coasters of varying rig, Norwegians, and +one solitary Dutch galliot. But the majority flew the Danish flag--your +Dane is fond of flying his flag, and small blame to him!--and these +exhibited round bluff bows and square-cut counters with white or +varnished top-strakes and stern-davits of timber. To the right and +seaward, the eye travelled past yet another tier, where a stumpy Swedish +tramp lay cheek-by-jowl with two stately Italian barques--now +Italian-owned, but originally built in Glasgow for traffic around the +Horn--and so followed the curve of the harbour out to the Channel, where +sea and sky met in a yellow flood of potable gold. To the left the +river-gorge wound inland, hiding its waters, around overlapping bluffs +studded with farmsteads and (as the eye threaded its way into details) +peopled here and there with small colonies of farm-folk working hard, +like so many groups of ants,--some cutting, others saving, the yellow +corn, all busy forestalling night, when no man can work. + + Uplands, where the harvesters + Pause in the swathe, shading their eyes, to watch + Or barge or schooner stealing up from sea: + Themselves in twilight, she a twilit ghost + Parting the twilit woods. + +. . . While Cai and 'Bias stood at gaze, drinking it all in, Mrs +Bosenna--whose senses were always quick--turned, looked behind her, and +uttered a little scream. + +"Steers! . . . That Middlecoat's steers--they've broken fence again! +Oh--oh! and whatever shall I do?" + +Cai and 'Bias, wheeling about simultaneously, were aware of a small +troop of horned cattle advancing towards them leisurably, breasting the +golden rays on the stubble-field, and spreading as they advanced. + +"Do, ma'am?" echoed 'Bias, taking in the situation at a glance. +"Why, turn 'em back, to be sure!" He started off to meet the herd. + +"--While you run for the stile," added Cai, preparing to follow as +bravely. But Mrs Bosenna caught his arm. + +"I'm--I'm so silly," she confessed in a tremulous whisper, +"about horned beasts--when they don't belong to me." + +"Dangerous, are they?" asked Cai. He lingered, although 'Bias had +advanced some twenty paces to meet the herd, three or four of which had +already come to a halt, astonished at being thus interrupted in an +innocent ramble. "We'll head 'em off while you run." + +"No, no!" pleaded Mrs Bosenna; and Cai hung irresolute, for the pressure +on his arm was delicious. It crossed his mind for a moment that a lady +so timid with cattle had no business to be dwelling alone at Rilla Farm. + +"It's different--with my own cows," gasped Mrs Bosenna, as if +interpreting and answering this thought in one breath. "I'm used to +them--but Mr Middlecoat will insist on keeping these wild beasts!-- +though he knows I'm a lone woman and they're not to be held by any +fences--" + +"I'd like to give that Middlecoat a piece of my mind," growled Cai, and +swore. His arm by this time was about Mrs Bosenna's waist, and she was +yielding to it. But he saw 'Bias still steadily confronting the herd-- +saw him lift an arm, a hand grasping a hat, and wave it violently--saw +thereupon the steers swing about and head back for the gate, heads down, +sterns heaving and plunging. Cai swore again and reluctantly loosened +his embrace. + +"Run, _dear!_" The word drummed in his ears as he pelted to 'Bias's +rescue. 'Bias, as a matter of fact, needed neither rescue nor support. +The steers after spreading and scattering before his first onset, were +converging again in a rush back upon the open gateway. They charged +through it in a panic, jostling, crushing through the narrow way: and +'Bias, still frantically waving his hat, had charged through it after +them before Cai, assured now that his friend had the mastery, halted and +drew breath, holding a hand to his side. + +'Bias had disappeared. Cai heard his voice, at some little distance, +still chivvying the steers down the lane beyond the gate. . . . +Then, as it seemed, another voice challenged 'Bias's, and the two were +meeting in angry altercation. + +"Mr Middlecoat!" gasped a voice close behind him. Cai swung about, and +to his amazement confronted Mrs Bosenna. Instead of retreating she had +followed up the pursuit. + +"But I told you--" he began, in a tone of indignant command. + +"You don't know Mr Middlecoat's temper. I'm afraid--if they meet--" +She hurried by him, towards the gate. + +Cai took fresh breath and dashed after her. They passed the gateway +neck and neck. At a turning some fifty yards down the lane--Cai leading +now by a stride or two--they pulled up, panting. + +'Bias, his back blocking the way, stood there confronting a young +farmer: and the young farmer's face was red with a bull-fury. + +"You damned trespasser!" + +"Trespasser?" echoed 'Bias, squaring up. "What about your damned +trespassing cattle?" + +Mrs Bosenna stepped past Cai and flung herself between the combatants. +Strange to say she ignored 'Bias, and faced the enemy, to plead with +him. + +"Mr Middlecoat, how can you be so foolish? He's as good as a +prize-fighter!" + +The young farmer stared and lowered his guard slowly. + +"Your servant, ma'am! . . . A prize-fighter? Why couldn't he have told +me so, at first?" + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +FAIR CHALLENGE. + +Again the two friends traversed back the valley road in silence: but +this time they made no attempt to deceive themselves or to deceive one +another by charging their constraint upon the atmosphere or the scenery. +Each was aware that their friendship had a crisis to be overcome; each +sincerely pitied the other, with some twinge of compunction for his own +good fortune; each longed to make a clean breast--"a straight quarrel is +soonest mended," says the proverb,--and each, as they kept step on the +macadam, came separately to the same decision, that the occasion must be +taken that very evening, when pipes were lit after supper. The reader +will note that even yet, on the very verge of the crisis, Cai and 'Bias +owned: + + "Two souls with but a single thought, + Two hearts that beat as one." + +Now, in accordance with routine, supper should have been served that +evening at 'Bias's table. But Cai--on his way upstairs to titivate-- +perceived that the lamp was lit and the cloth spread in his own parlour; +and, as he noted this with a vague surprise, encountered Mrs Bowldler. + +"Which, if it is agreeable, we are at home to Captain Hunken this +evening," Mrs Bowldler began, in a panting hurry, and continued with a +catch of the breath, "Which if you see it in a different light, I must +request of you, sir, to allow Palmerston to carry down my box, and you +may search it if you wish." + +"Oh! Conf--" began Cai in his turn, and checked himself. "I beg your +pardon, ma'am; but it really does seem as if I never reach home nowadays +without you meet me at the foot of the stairs, givin' notice. +What's wrong this time?" + +"If you drive me to it, sir," said Mrs Bowldler in an aggrieved tone, +"it's Captain Hunken's parrot." + +"Captain Hunken's parrot?" echoed Cai, genuinely surprised; for, in his +experience, this bird was remarkable, if at all, for an obese lethargy. +It could talk, to be sure. Now and again it would ejaculate +"Scratch Polly," or "Polly wants a kiss," in a perfunctory way; but on +the whole he had never known a more comfortable or a less loquacious +bird. + +"He--he made a communication to me this afternoon," said Mrs Bowldler +delicately; "or, as you might prefer to put it, he passed a remark." + +"What was it?" + +Mrs Bowldler cast a glance behind her at the gas jet. "I really +couldn't, sir! Not even if you were to put out the light; and as a +gentleman you won't press it." + +"Certainly not," Cai assured her. He mused. "It's odd now; but I've +always regarded that parrot as rather a dull bird: though of course I've +never hinted that to 'Bias--to Captain Hunken." + +"He wasn't dull this afternoon," asseverated Mrs Bowldler. "Oh, not by +any manner of means!" + +"Has he ever--er--annoyed you in this way before?" + +"Never, sir." + +"Has the boy ever heard him use--er--this kind o' language?" + +"Which if you understand me, sir," explained Mrs Bowldler still more +delicately, "the remark in question would not apply to a male party: not +by any stretch. You may answer me, sir, that--the feathered tribes not +being Christians--they don't calculate who's listening, but behave as +the spirit moves them, like Quakers. To which I answer _you_, sir, that +makes it all the worse. As it transpired, Palmerston was at the moment +brushing down these very stairs, here, in the adjoining: which some +might call it luck and others again Providence. But put it we'd +happened to be cleaning out the room together, I must have sunk through +the floor, and what would have happened to the boy's morals I leave you +to guess." + +Cai had to allow the cogency of this. + +"As a matter of fact, sir," Mrs Bowldler continued, "I sounded +Palmerston later. He declares to me he has never heard the creature use +any bad language; and I believe him, for he went on to say that if he +_had_, he'd have mentioned it to me. But you see my position, sir? +It might even have happened with you two single gentlemen in the room. +. . . Stay another twenty-four hours in the house I will not, with the +chance of it staring me in the face." + +Cai rubbed his chin. "I see," said he after a moment. "Well, it's +awkward, but I'll speak to Captain Hunken." + +He did so, almost as soon as he and 'Bias had gloomily finished their +supper--a repast which largely consisted of odds-and-ends (the _debree_, +in Mrs Bowldler's language) of yester-night's banquet. Each, as he ate, +unconsciously compared it--such is our frail humanity--less with the +good cheer of which it should have been a reminder than with the fresh +abundance of Mrs Bosenna's larder. A bachelor table and bachelor habits +are all very well--until you have tasted the other thing. + +To talk of the parrot, for which 'Bias had an inexplicable affection, +might be awkward, as Cai had promised. But it was less ticklish anyhow +than to broach the subject uppermost in the minds of both; and Cai +opened on it with a sense of respite, if not of relief. + +"By the way," said he, lighting his pipe and crossing his legs, "I had a +chat with Mrs Bowldler before supper. She came to me complainin' +about"--(puff)--"about your parrot. It seems she has taken a dislike to +the bird." + +"Finds his talk monotonous?" suggested 'Bias after a pause, during which +he, too, puffed. Strange to say, he showed no vexation. His tone was +complacent even. + +"I wouldn' say that azackly. . . ." + +"I'll admit 'tis monotonous," 'Bias went on, between puffs. "Call it +nothing at all if you like: I don't take no truck in birds'-talk, for my +part--don't mind how same it is. If that's the woman's complaint, she +was free to teach it new words any time." + +"But it isn't." + +"Then I don't see what grievance she can have," said 'Bias with entire +composure. "The bird's shapely and well-grown beyond the usual. . . . +Perhaps her objection is to parrots in general--eh?" 'Bias withdrew the +pipe-stem from his lips and stared hardily along it. "There's no need +to trouble, anyway," he added, "for, as it happens, I'm givin' the bird +away." + +"Eh?" The interrogation sounded like a faint echo. + +"To-morrow. To Mrs Bosenna. Why shouldn't I?" + +Cai felt his body stiffen as he sat. For the moment he made no answer: +then-- + +"Well, 'tis your affair--in a sense," he said; "but I shouldn't, if I +was you." + +"I promised it to her this very day. She was confidin' to me that she +finds it lonely up at Rilla, and I don't wonder." + +"She've confided the same thing to me several times, off and on," said +Cai. + +"Ah?" . . . 'Bias was unmoved. "Then maybe it'll help ye to guess how +the land lies." + +"It do, more or less," Cai agreed: and then, as a bright thought struck +him. "Why shouldn't we lend her the musical box? It's--it's more +reliable, any way." + +"'Twouldn't be much account as a pet, would it?" retorted 'Bias. +"Now look here, Cai!" he swung about in his chair, and for the first +time since the conversation started the pair looked one another straight +in the eyes. "You an' me'd best come to an understandin' and get it +over. I don't mind tellin' you, as man to man, that I've been thinkin' +things out; and the upshot is--I don't say 'tis certain, but 'tis +probable--that in the near futur' I shall be spendin' a heap o' my time +at Rilla." + +"You'll be welcome. I can almost answer for it," Cai assured him +heartily. + +"You've noticed it, eh? . . . Well, that saves a lot o' trouble." +With a grunt of relief 'Bias turned his gaze again upon the empty grate +and sat smoking for a while. "I'd a sort o' fear it might come on ye +sudden . . . eh? What's the matter?" He turned about again, for Cai +had emitted an audible groan. + +"I'm sorry for ye, 'Bias--you can't think--" + +"Oh, you can stow that bachelor chaff," interrupted 'Bias with entire +cheerfulness. "I used to feel that way myself, or pretend to. +It's different when a man _knows_." + +"I can't let ye go on like this!" Cai groaned again. "Stop it, 'Bias-- +do!" + +"Stop it?" 'Bias stared. He was plainly amazed. + +"I mean, stop talkin' about it! I do, indeed." + +Still 'Bias stared. Of a sudden a partial light broke in upon him. +"Good Lord!" he muttered. He arose, knocked the ashes from his pipe, +laid it carefully on the chimney-shelf, slid his hands under his +coat-tails, and very solemnly faced about. + +"I'd an inklin' o' this, once or twice, and I don't mind confessin' it," +said he, looking down with a compassionate air which Cai found +insupportable. "Tho' 'twas no more than an inklin', and I put it aside, +seein' as how no man with eyes could mistake the one she favoured." + +"Meanin' me, o' course," interjected Cai, jabbing the tobacco down in +his pipe. + +"_You?_" 'Bias opened his eyes wide: then he smiled an indulgent smile. +"Ho--you must excuse me--but if that isn' too rich!" + +"You needn't start grinnin' like that, or you may end by grinnin' on the +wrong side of your face." Cai, instead of pitying his friend's +infatuation, was fast losing his temper. "What'd you say if I told you +I had proofs?" + +"I'd say you was a plumb liar," answered 'Bias with equal promptness, +candour, and aplomb. "Proofs? _What_ proofs?" + +Cai hesitated a moment. . . . After all, what proof had he to cite? +A gentle pressure of the arm, for example, is not producible evidence. +"Never you mind," said he sullenly. "You'll have proof enough when the +time comes." + +'Bias received this with a dry smile. "I thought as much. You haven't +any, my sonny--not so much as would cover a threepenny-bit." + +"You have, I suppose?" sneered Cai. + +"Heaps." + +"Very well; let's have a sample. . . . You won't find it on the +mantelpiece," for 'Bias had turned about and was picking up his pipe +again with great deliberation. + +"I've no wish to hurt your feelin's undooly," said he, eyeing the bowl +for a moment and tapping out the ashes into his palm. + +"Don't mind _me!_" + +"But I _do_ mind ye. . . . See here now, Cai," he resumed after a short +pause, "we've known one another--let me see--how long?" + +"Seventeen years, come the twenty-first of November next," quickly +responded Cai, fumbling at the tobacco-jar. "In Rotterdam, if you'll +remember--our vessels lyin' alongside. 'Hullo!' says you." + +"Far as I remember, you asked me aboard." + +"Yes. 'Hullo!' says you; 'that's a pretty-lookin' craft o' your'n.' +'She'll work in' an' out o' most places,' says I. 'Speedy too, I +reckon,' says you, 'for a hard-wood ship; though a bit fine forra'd. +A wet boat, I doubt?' 'Not a bit,' says I; 'that's a mistake strangers +are apt to make about the _Hannah Hoo_. Like to step aboard an' cast a +look over her fittin's? I can show ye something in the way of teak +panels,' says I: and you came. That's how it began," wound up Cai, +staring hard at the tobacco-jar, for--to tell the truth--a faint mist +obscured his vision. + +'Bias, too, was staring hard, down upon the hearth-rug between his feet. + +"Ay; an' from that day to this never a question atween us we couldn' +settle by the toss of a coin." He continued to stare down gloomily. +"Tossin' won't help us, not in this case," he added. + +"It wouldn't be respectful." + +"It wouldn't be fair, neither. . . . You may talk as you please, Cai, +but the widow favours me." + +"I asked ye for proofs just now, if you remember." + +"So you did. And if you remember I asked you for the same, not two +minutes afore. We can't give 'em, neither of us: and, if we could, +why--as you said a moment since--'twouldn't be respectful. Let's play +fair then, damn it!" + +"Certainly," agreed Cai, striking a match and holding it to his pipe. +(But his hand shook.) "That's if you'll suggest how." + +'Bias mused for a space. "Very well," said he at length; "then I'll +suggest that we both sit down and write her a letter; post the letters +together, and let the best man win." + +"Couldn't be fairer," agreed Cai, after a moment's reflection. + +"When I said the best man," 'Bias corrected himself, "I meant no more +than to say the man she fancies. No reflection intended on you." + +"Nor on yourself, maybe?" hinted Cai, with a last faint touch of +exasperation. It faded, and--on an impulse of generosity following on a +bright inspiration which had on the instant occurred to him-- +he suggested, "If you like, we'll show one another the letters before we +post 'em?" + +"That's as you choose," answered 'Bias. "Or afterwards, if you like-- +I shall keep a rough copy." + +Now this was said with suspicious alacrity: for Cai was admittedly the +better scholar and, as a rule, revised 'Bias's infrequent business +letters and corrected their faults of spelling. But--dazzled as he was +by his own sudden and brilliant idea--no suspicion occurred to him. + +"It's a bargain, then?" + +"It's a bargain." + +They did not shake hands upon it. Their friendship had always been +sincere enough to dispense with all formalities of friendship; they +would not have shaken hands on meeting (say) after a twenty years' +separation. They looked one another in the eyes, just for an instant, +and they both nodded. + +"Cribbage to-night?" asked 'Bias. + +"If 'tisn't too late," answered Cai. + +He pulled out his watch, whilst 'Bias turned about to the mantel-shelf +and the clock his bulk had been hiding. + +"Nine-thirty," announced Cai. + +"Almost to a tick," agreed 'Bias. "'Stonishing what good time we've +kept ever since we set this clock." + +"'Stonishing," Cai assented. + + +They played two games of cribbage and retired to bed. As he undressed +Cai remembered his omission to warn 'Bias explicitly of what--according +to Mrs Bowldler--the parrot was capable. The warning had been once or +twice on the tip of his tongue during the early part of the +conversation: but always (as he remembered) he had been interrupted. + +"I'll warn him after breakfast to-morrow," said Cai to himself +magnanimously, as he arose from his prayers. "Poor old 'Bias--what a +good fellow it is, after all!" + + +He slept soundly, and was awakened next morning by Palmerston with the +information, "Breakfast in the adjoining to-day, sir!"--this and +"We are at home for breakfast" being the alternative formulae invented +by Mrs Bowldler. + +"And Captain Hunken requests of you not to wait," added Palmerston, +again repeating what Mrs Bowldler had imparted. + +"Is he lying late to-day?" asked Cai. + +"He have a-gone out for an early ramble," answered Palmerston stolidly. + +"Ah! to clear his brain--poor old 'Bias!" said Cai to himself, and +thought no more about it. Nor did it occur to his mind that, overnight, +Mrs Bowldler had point-blank refused to lay another meal in the room +inhabited by the parrot, until, descending to 'Bias's parlour and +becoming aware, as he lifted the teapot, that the room was brighter and +sunnier than usual, he cast a glance toward the window. The parrot-cage +no longer darkened it. Parrot and cage, in fact, were gone. + +He turned sternly upon Mrs Bowldler. But Mrs Bowldler, setting down a +dish of poached eggs, had noted his glance and anticipated his question. + +"Which," said she, "I am obliged to you, sir, and prompter Captain +Hunken could not have behaved. A nod, as they say, is as good as a wink +to a blind horse; but Captain Hunken, being neither blind nor a horse, +and anything so vulgar as winking out of the question, it may not +altogether apply, though the result is the same." + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +THE LETTERS. + +Having breakfasted, read his newspaper, and smoked his pipe (and still +no sign of the missing 'Bias), Cai brushed his hat and set forth to pay +a call on Mr Peter Benny. + +This Mr Peter Benny--father of Mr Shake Benny, whose acquaintance we +have already made--was a white-haired little man who had known many +cares in life, but had preserved through them all a passionate devotion +to literature and an entirely simple heart: and these two had made life +romantic for him, albeit his cares had been the very ordinary ones of a +poor clerk with a long family of boys and girls, all of whom--his wife +aiding--he had brought up to fear the Lord and seen fairly started in +life. Towards the close of the struggle Fortune had chosen to smile, +rewarding him with the stewardship of Damelioc, an estate lying beside +the river some miles above Troy. This was a fine exchange against a +beggarly clerkship, even for a man so honest as Peter Benny. But he did +not hold it long. On the death of his wife, which happened in the fifth +year of their prosperity, he had chosen to retire on a small pension, to +inhabit again (but alone) the waterside cottage which in old days the +children had filled to overflowing, and to potter at literary +composition in the wooden outhouse where he had been used, after office +hours, to eke out his 52 pounds salary by composing letters for seamen. + +He retained his methodical habits, and Cai found him already at work in +the outhouse, and thoroughly enjoying a task which might have daunted +one of less boyish confidence. He was, in fact, recasting the 'Fasti' +of Ovid into English verse, using for that purpose a spirited, if +literal, prose translation (published by Mr Bohn) in default of the +original, from which his ignorance of the Latin language precluded him. +For a taste:-- + + "What sea, what land, knows not Arion's fame! + The rivers by his song were turned as stiff as glass: + The hungry wolf stood still, the lamb did much the same-- + Pursuing and pursued, producing an _impasse_--" + +But while delighting in this labour, Mr Benny was at any time ready, nay +eager, for a chat. At Cai's entrance he pushed up his spectacles and +beamed. + +"Ah, good morning, Captain Hocken!--Good morning! I take this as really +friendly. . . . You find me wooing the Muses as usual; up and early. +Some authors, sir,--not that I dare claim that title,--have found their +best inspirations by the midnight oil, even in the small hours. +Edgar Allan Poe--an irregular genius--you are acquainted with his +'Raven,' sir?--" + +"His what?" + +"His 'Raven'; a poem about a bird that perched itself upon a bust and +kept saying 'Nevermore,' like a parrot." + +Cai winced. "On a bust, did you say? Whose bust?" + +"A bust of Pallas, sir, in the alleged possession of Mr Poe himself: +Pallas being otherwise Minerva, the goddess of Wisdom, usually +represented with an Owl." + +"I don't know much about birds," confessed Cai, reduced to helplessness +by this erudition. "And I don't know anything about poetry, more's the +pity--having been caught young and apprenticed to the sea." + +"And nothing to be ashamed of in that, Captain Hocken!" + + 'The sea, the sea, the open sea-- + The blue, the fresh, the ever free.' + +"I daresay you've often felt like that about it, as did the late Barry +Cornwall, otherwise Bryan Waller Procter, whose daughter, the gifted +Adelaide Anne Procter, prior to her premature decease, composed +'The Lost Chord,' everywhere so popular as a cornet solo. It is one of +the curiosities of literature," went on Mr Benny confidentially, "that +the author of that breezy (not to say briny) outburst could not even +cross from Dover to Calais without being prostrated by _mal de mer_; +insomuch that his good lady (who happened, by the way, to survive him +for a number of years, and, in fact, died quite recently), being of a +satirical humour, and herself immune from that distressing complaint, +used--as I once read in a magazine article--to walk up and down the deck +before him on these occasions, mischievously quoting his own verses,--" + + 'I'm on the sea, I'm on the sea! + I am where I would ever be: + I love (O, _how_ I love!) to ride + On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,' + +"_et coetera_. You'll excuse my rattling on in this fashion. So few +people in Troy take an interest in literature: and it has so many +by-ways!" + +"I'm afraid," confessed Cai, more and more bewildered, "that my +education was pretty badly neglected, 'specially in literature, though +for some reason or another I'm not bad at spellin'. But, puttin' +spellin' aside, that's just why I've come to you. I want you to help me +with a letter, if you will." + +"Why, of course I will," instantly responded Mr Benny, pushing his +translations of the 'Fasti' aside and producing from a drawer some +sheets of fresh paper. + +"As a matter of business, you understand?" + +"If you insist; though it will be a pleasure, Captain Hocken, I assure +you." + +"It's--it's a bit difficult," stammered Cai gratefully. "In fact, it's +not an ordinary sort of letter at all." + +Mr Benny, patting his paper into a neat pad, smiled professionally. +The letter might not be an ordinary sort of letter; but he had in old +days listened some hundreds of times to this exordium. + +"It's--well, it's a proposal of marriage," said Cai desperately; and in +despite of himself he started as he uttered the word. + +Mr Benny, having patted up the pad to his satisfaction, answered with a +nod only, and dipped his pen in the inkpot. + +"I don't think you heard me," ventured Cai. "It's a proposal of +marriage." + +"Fire away!" said Mr Benny. "Just dictate, of give me the main +bearings, and I'll fix it up." + +"But look here--it's a proposal of marriage, I tell you!" + +"I've written scores and scores. . . . For yourself, is it?" + +This simple and indeed apparently necessary question hit Cai between +wind and water. + +"I want it written in the first person, of course--if that's what you +mean?" + +Again Mr Benny nodded, "I see," said he. "You're here on behalf of a +friend, who is too bashful to come on his own account." + +"You may put it at that," agreed Cai, greatly relieved. "I told you the +case was a bit out o' the common!" + +Mr Benny's smile was still strictly professional. "It's not outside of +my experience, sir; so far, at any rate. May I take your friend to be +of your own age, more or less?" + +Cai nodded. "You're pretty quick at guessin', I must say." + +"A trifle rusty, I fear, for want of practice. . . . But it will come +back. . . Now for the lady. Spinster or widow?" + +"Does that matter?" + +"It helps, in a letter." + +"We'll put it, then, as she's a widow." + +"Age? . . . There, there! I'm not asking you to be definite, of course: +but to give me a little general guidance. For instance, would she be +about your friend's age? Or younger, shall we say?" + +"Younger." + +"Considerably?" + +"I don't see as you need lay stress on that." + +"You may be sure I shall not," said Mr Benny, jotting down "Younger, +considerably" on his writing pad. "Moreover we can tone down or remove +anything that strikes you as unhappily worded in our first draft. +Trade, profession, or occupation, if any?" Seeing that Cai hesitated, +"The more candid your friend is, between these four walls," added Mr +Benny, extracting a hair from his pen, "the more persuasive we are +likely to be." + +"You may set down that she keeps a farm." + +"Independent means?" + +"Well, yes, as it happens. Not that--" + +"To be sure--to be sure! When the affections are engaged, that doesn't +weigh. Not, at any rate, with your friend. Still it may influence what +I will call, Captain Hocken, the style of the approach. Style, sir, has +been defined by my brother, Mr Joshua Benny--You may have heard of him, +by the way, as being prominently connected with the London press. . . . +No? A man of remarkable talent, though _I_ say it. They tell me that +for lightness of touch in a Descriptive Middle, it would be hard to find +his match in Fleet Street. . . . As I was saying, sir, my brother Joshua +has defined style as the art of speaking or writing with propriety, +whatever the subject. By propriety, sir, he means what is ordinarily +termed appropriateness. Impropriety, in the sense of indelicacy, is out +of the question in--a--a communication of this kind. Strict +appropriateness, on the other hand, is not always easy to capture. +May I take it that your friend has--er--enjoyed a seafaring past?" + +Cai gazed blankly at him for a short while, and broke into a simple +hearty laugh. + +"Why, of course," said he, "you're thinking of my friend 'Bias Hunken! +I almost took ye for a conjuror, first-along--upon my word I did! +But once I get the drift o' your cunning, 'tis easy as easy." +He gazed at Mr Benny and winked knowingly. + +"You may tell me, if you please," replied Mr Benny, himself somewhat +mystified, but playing for safety. "You may tell me, of course, that +'tis not Captain Hunken but another man altogether: as different from +Captain Hunken as you might be, for instance." + +Cai started. He was not good at duplicity, but managed to parry the +suggestion. "We'll suppose it _is_ my friend, 'Bias," said he; "though +'Bias would be amused if he heard it." + +"Very well--very well indeed!" Mr Benny laid down his pen, rubbed his +hands softly, and picked up the pen again. "Now we can get to work. +. . . '_Honoured Madam_'--Shall we begin with 'Honoured Madam'? +Or would you prefer something a trifle more--er--impassioned? +Perhaps we had better open--er--warily--if I may advise, and (so to +speak) warm to our subject. . . . There is an art, Captain Hocken, even +in composing and inditing a proposal of marriage. . . . 'Honoured +Madam--You will doubtless be surprised by the purport of this letter--' +Will she be surprised, by the way?" + +"Cert'nly," Cai answered. "We agreed this is from 'Bias, remember." + +"Yes, yes. . . . She will like it to be supposed that she's surprised, +any way. All ladies do. '_--as by the communication I find myself +impelled to make to you._' I word it thus to suggest that you--that +Captain Hunken, rather--cannot help himself: that the lady has made, in +the most literal sense, a conquest. A feeling of triumph, sir, is in +the female breast, whether of maiden or widow, inseparably connected +with the receipt of such a communication. Without asking Captain +Hunken's leave--eh?--we will flatter that feeling a little--and portray +him as the victim of this particular lady's bow and spear. A figurative +expression." + +"Oh!" said Cai, who had begun to stare. "Well, go on." + +"'_Surprised, I say; yet not (I hope) affronted; in any event not +unwilling to pardon, recognising that these words flow from the dictates +of an emotion which, while in itself honourable, is in another sense +notoriously no respecter of persons. Love, Honoured Madam, has its +votaries as well as its victims. I have never accounted myself, nor +have I been accounted, in the former category_--'" + +"What's a category?" asked Cai. + +Mr Benny scratched out the word. "We will substitute 'case,'" said +he, "and save Captain Hunken the trouble of an explanation. '_I am no +longer--you will have detected it, so why should I pretend?--in the +first flush of youth: no passionate boy_'--We are talking of Captain +Hunken, remember." + +Cai nodded. "It's true as gospel, Mr Benny. But you have a wonderful +way o' putting things." + + +In this way--Mr Benny scribbling, erasing, purring over a phrase and +anon declaiming it--Cai venturing a question here and there, but always +apologetically, with a sense of being carried off his feet and swept +into deep waters--in half an hour the letter was composed. It was not +at all the letter Cai had expected. It threw up his suit into a high +romantic light in which he scarcely recognised it or himself. But he +felt it to be extremely effective. His conscience pricked him a little, +as in imagination he saw 'Bias with head aslant and elbows sprawling, +inking himself to the wrists in literary effort. Poor 'Bias! +But "all's fair in love and war." + +To his mild astonishment Mr Benny declined a fee. "If, sir, you will be +good enough to accept it, as between friends?" the little man suggested +timidly. "You have helped me to pass a very pleasant morning: and it +will be--shall I say?--something of a bond between us if, in the event, +our joint composition should prove to have been instrumental in +forwarding--er--Captain Hunken's suit." + +Cai hesitated. At that moment he would have preferred conferring a +benefit to receiving one. His conscience wanted a small salve. +Yet to refuse would hurt Mr Benny's feelings. + +"I'll tell you what!" he suggested: "We'll throw it in with another +favour I meant to ask of you, and for which you shall name your terms. +It has been suggested--by several, so there's no need to mention names-- +that I ought to go in for public life, in a small way, of course." + +"Indeed, Captain Hocken?" Mr Benny smiled to himself; he began to +understand, or thought that he did. "A very laudable ambition, too!" + +"The mischief is," confessed Cai, "that I have had no practice in +speakin'. I couldn't, as they say, make a public speech for nuts." + +"It is an art, Captain Hocken," said Mr Benny reassuringly, "and can be +acquired. An ambition to acquire it sir,--though in your mind you +viewed it but as a means to an end,--would in my humble view be an +ambition even more laudable than that of shining on the administrative +side of public life. For it is not only an art, sir, and a great one. +It is well-nigh a lost art. Where, nowadays, are your Burkes, your +Foxes, your Sheridans--not to mention your Demostheneses?" + +"You'll understand," hesitated Cai, "that nothing beyond the School +Board is in question at present. I mention this strictly between +ourselves." + +Mr Benny swung about upon his stool. "Listen to this, Captain Hocken-- +'Observe, sir, that, besides the desire which all men have naturally of +supporting the honour of their own government, that sense of dignity and +that security to property which ever attends freedom, has'--or, as I +should prefer to say, _have_--'a tendency to increase the stock of the +free community. Much may be taken where most is accumulated. And what +is the soil or climate where experience has not uniformly proved that +the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting from the weight of +heaped-up luxuriance, has ever run with a more copious stream of +revenue, than could be squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed +indigence by the straining of all the machinery in the world?' +That is Burke, sir--Burke: who, by the fribbles of his own day, was +lightly termed the dinner-bell of the House of Commons, yet compelled +the attention of all serious political thinkers--" + + 'Th' applause of listening Senates to command.' + +"I divine your ambition. Captain Hocken, and I honour it," + +"So long as you don't mistake me," urged Cai nervously. "It don't go +beyond a seat on the School Board at present. . . . But there was a hint +dropped that you used, back-along, to give lessons in--I forget the +word." + +"Elocution," Mr Benny supplied it. "A guinea the course of six lessons +was my old charge. Shall we say to-morrow, at eleven sharp?" + +"So be it," Cai agreed. "The sooner the better--I've to catch up the +lee-way of three-quarters of a lifetime." + +When Cai had folded the draft of his letter, bestowed it in his +breast-pocket, and taken his departure, Mr Benny drew out his watch. +It yet wanted a full hour of dinner-time. He rearranged the papers on +his desk and resumed work upon the 'Fasti':-- + + "The hound beside the hare held consort in the shade, + The hind, the lioness, upon the self-same rock, + The too loquacious crow--" + +Here some one knocked at the door. + +"Come in!" called Mr Benny. + +The door opened. The visitor was Captain Hunken. + +"Good mornin'." + +"Ah! Good morning, sir!" + +"Busy?" + +"Dallying, sir,--dallying with the Muses. That is all my business +nowadays." + +"I looked in," said 'Bias, laying down his hat, "to ask if you would do +me a small favour." + +"You may be sure of it, Captain Hunken: that is, if it should lie in my +power." + +'Bias nodded, somewhat mysteriously. "You bet it does: though, as one +might say, it don't lie azackly inside the common. I want a letter +written." + +"Yes?" + +"It ain't, as you might put it, an ordinary letter either. It's,--well, +in fact, it's a proposal of marriage!" + +Mr Benny rubbed the back of his head gently. "I have written quite a +number in my time, Captain Hunken. . . . Is it--if I may put it +delicately--in the first person, sir?" + +"She's the first person--" began 'Bias, and came to a halt. "Does that +matter," he asked, "so long as I describe the parties pretty accurate?" + +"Not a bit," Mr Benny assured him. "A friend, shall we say?" + +"That's right," 'Bias nodded solemnly. + +"And the lady?--spinster or widow?" + +"Widow." + +"Oh!" + +"Eh?" + +"Nothing. . . . I was considering. One has to collect a few data, you +understand,--in strict confidence, of course. . . . Trade, profession, +or occupation?" + +"Whose?" + +"Well, your friend's, to start with." + +"Is that necessary?" + +"It will help us to be persuasive." Seeing that 'Bias still hesitated, +Mr Benny went on. "May I take it, for instance, that one may credit +him, as a friend of yours, with a seafaring past?" + +"I do believe," responded 'Bias with a slow smile after regarding Mr +Benny for some seconds, "as you're thinkin' of Cai Hocken?" + +Mr Benny laughed. "And yet it would not be so tremendous a guess,-- +hey?--seeing what friends you two are." + +"It won't do no harm," allowed 'Bias after pondering a while, "if you +took it to be Cai Hocken; though, mind you, I don't say as you're +right." + +"That's understood. . . . Now for the lady's occupation?" + +"Well . . . you might make it farmin'--for the sake of argument." + +"Now I wonder," thought Mr Benny to himself, "_which_ of these two is +lying." Aloud he began, setting pen to paper and repeating as he wrote, +"'_Honoured Madam,_'--you don't think that too cold?" + +"Why, are you able to start already?" exclaimed 'Bias in unfeigned +amazement. + +"I like to catch an inspiration as it springs to my brain," Mr Benny +assured him. "We'll correct as we go on." + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +PALMERSTON'S GENIUS. + +"You're welcome as blossom, my dear," said Mrs Bowldler to Fancy Tabb, +who had dropped in, as she put it, for a look around. The child was +allowed a couple of hours off duty in the afternoon to take a walk and +blow away the cobwebs of the Chandler's gloomy house: her poor +shop-drudge of a father having found courage to wring this concession +from Mr Rogers for her health's sake. "You're welcome as blossom, but +you must work for your welcome. Come and help me to cut +bread-and-butter. . . . Palmerston! You bring the kettle and pour a +little water into the teapots, just to get 'em heated." + +"Company, is it?" asked Fancy, laying aside her cloak. + +"Company?" Mrs Bowldler sniffed. "We've had enough of company to last +us this side of the grave. Ho, I trust the name of company will not be +breathed in _my_ hearing for some time to come!" + +"What is it, then?" + +"Freaks, I hope; maggots, as my poor dear tender mother used to say; and +all casting double work on the establishment. We must dine separate, +all of a sudden; and now we must have our tea served separate; and from +dinner to tea-time sitting in writing, the pair of us, till I wonder it +haven't brought on a rush of blood to our poor heads." + +"Writing?" echoed Fancy. She desisted from spreading the butter and +eyed Mrs Bowldler doubtfully, pursing up her lips. "I don't like the +look of that. What are they writing, do you suppose?" + +"It don't become me to guess," answered Mrs Bowldler. "Belike they're +making their wills and leaving one another the whole of their property." + +"I hope not. They'd make a dreadful mess of it without a lawyer to +help." + +"They're making a dreadful mess on the tablecloth--or, as I _should_ +say, on the tablecloths, respectively, as the case may be. Blots. +There's one or two you couldn't cover with a threepenny bit. +Captain Hunken especially; and it cost four-and-ninepence only last +July, which makes the heart bleed." + +"They haven't quarrelled, have they?" asked Fancy. + +"Quarrelled? No, of course they haven't quarrelled. What put such a +thing into your head, child?" + +"I don't know. . . . But I don't like this writin'; it's unnatural. +And they're livin' apart, you say?" + +"They didn't even breakfast together. But that was an accident, Captain +Hunken having walked out early and taken the parrot." + +"Funny thing to take for a walk." + +"Which," explained Mrs Bowldler with a glance at Palmerston, "I had to +lodge a complaint with Captain Hocken yesterday relative to its +conversation, and he must have spoken about it; for Captain Hunken went +out at eight o'clock taking the bird with him, cage and all, and when he +came back they were _minus_." + +Fancy pondered. "What did the parrot say?" she asked. + +"You mustn't ask, my dear. I couldn't tell it to anything less than a +married woman." + +"That's a pity; because I wanted to know, quick. I suppose, now, you +haven't a notion what he did with the bird?" + +"Not a notion." + +"I thought not. Well, I have. He's been an' gone an' given it away to +Mrs Bosenna, up at Rilla." + +Mrs Bowldler turned pale and gripped the edge of the table. + +"I'll bet you any money," Fancy nodded slowly. + +"Ho! catch me ere I faint!" panted Mrs Bowldler. + +"Why, what's the matter? She's a married woman, or has been." + +"If only you'd heard--" + +"Yes, it's a pity," agreed Fancy, and turned about. "Pam!" + +"Yes, Miss," answered Palmerston. + +"Call me 'Fancy.'" + +"Yes, Miss Fancy." + +She stamped her small foot. "There's no 'Miss' about it. How stupid +you are--when you see I'm in a hurry, too! Call me 'Fancy.'" + +"Y-yes--Fancy," stammered Palmerston, blushing furiously, shutting his +eyes and dropping his voice to a whisper. + +"That's better. . . . What does it feel like? Pleasant?" + +"V-very pleasant, miss--Fancy, I mean. It--it'll come in time," +pleaded Palmerston, still red to the eyes. + +"That's right, again. Because I want you to marry me, Pammy dear." + +"Well! the owdacious!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler in a kind of hysterical +titter, snatching at her bodice somewhere over the region of her heart. +Fancy paid no heed to her. + +"Only we must make a runaway match of it," she went on, "for there's no +time to lose, it seems." + +For answer Palmerston burst into a flood of tears. + +"There now!" Mrs Bowldler of a sudden became serious. "You might have +known he's too soft to be teased. . . . Oh, be quiet, do, Palmerston! +Think of your namesake!" + +A bell jangled overhead. + +"Captain Hocken's bell!--and the child's face all blubbered, which he +hates to see, while as for Captain Hunken--there! it that isn't his bell +going too in the adjoining! Palmerston, pull yourself together and be a +man." + +"I c-can't, missus," sobbed Palmerston. "He--he said yesterday as he'd +g-give me the sack the next time he saw my eyes red." + +"Well, I must take 'em their tea myself, I suppose," said Mrs Bowldler, +who had a kind heart. "No, Palmerston, your eyes are not fit. But you +see how I'm situated?" she appealed to Fancy. + +"Do you usually let them ring for tea?" Fancy asked. + +"No, child. There must be something wrong with them both, or else with +my clock," answered Mrs Bowldler with a glance up at the timepiece. +"But twenty-five past four, I take you to witness! and I keep it five +minutes fast on principle." + +"There _is_ something wrong," Fancy assured her. "If you'll take my +advice, you'll go in and look injured." + +"I couldn't keep 'em waiting, though injured I will look," promised +Mrs Bowldler, catching up one of the two tea-trays. "Palmerston had +better withdraw into the grounds and control himself. I will igsplain +that I have sent him on an errand connected with the establishment." + +She bustled forth. Fancy closed the door after her; then turned and +addressed Palmerston. + +"Dry your eyes, you silly boy," she commanded. Palmerston obeyed and +stood blinking at her--alternately at her and at his handkerchief which +he held tightly crumpled into a pad; whereupon she demanded, somewhat +cruelly: + +"Now, what have you to say for yourself?" He was endeavouring to answer +when Mrs Bowldler came running in and caught up the other tea-tray. + +"Which it appears," she panted, "he is in a hurry to catch the post; and +I hope the Lord will forgive me for saying that Palmerston had just this +instant returned and would go with it. But he has it done up in an +envelope, and says boys are not to be trusted. When I was a girl in my +teens," pursued Mrs Bowldler, luckily discovering that the second teapot +had no water in it, and hastening to the kettle, "we learnt out of a +Child's Compendium about a so-called ancient god of the name of Mercury, +whence the stuff they put into barometers to go up for fine weather. +He had wings on his boots, or was supposed to: which it would be a +convenience in these days, with Palmerston's unfortunate habits. +For goodness' sake, child," she addressed Fancy, "take him out +somewhere, that I mayn't perjure myself twice in one day!" + +She vanished. + +"_Now_, what have you to say for yourself?" Fancy turned again upon +Palmerston and repeated her question. + +"That's what's the matter with me, Miss--Fancy, I mean," confessed he, +after a painful struggle with his emotions. "I never had nothing to say +for myself, not in this world: and--and--" he plucked up courage-- +"you got no business to play with me the way you did just now!" he +blurted. + +"Who said I was a-playin' with you?" Fancy demanded; but Palmerston did +not heed. + +"And right a-top of your sayin' as writin' was unnatural!" he continued. + +She stared at him. "What has that to do with it? . . . Besides, +whatever you're drivin' at, I didn' mean as all writin' was unnatural. +I got to do enough of it for Mr Rogers, the Lord knows! But for them +two, as have spent the best part of their lives navigatin' ships, it do +seem--well, we'll call it unmanly somehow." + +"That makes it all the worse," growled Palmerston, sticking both hands +in his pockets and forcing himself to meet her stare, against which he +nodded sullenly. "A man has to lift himself _somehow_--when he wants +something, very bad." + +"What is it you want?" asked Fancy. + +"You know what it is, right enough." He glowered at her hardily, being +desperate now and beyond shame. + +"Do 'I?" But she blenched, meeting his eyes as be continued to nod. + +"Yes, you do," persisted he. "I wants to marry ye, one of these days; +and you can't round on me, either, for outin' with it; for 'twas your +own suggestion." + +"Oh, you silly boy!" Fancy reproved him, while conscious of a highly +delicious thrill and an equally delicious fear. ("O, youth, youth! and +the wonder of first love!") She cast about for escape, and forced a +laugh. "Do you know, you're the very first as has ever proposed to me." + +"I was thinkin' as much," said the unflattering Palmerston. "Come to +that, you was the first as ever offered marriage to me." + +"But I didn't! I mean," urged Fancy, "it was only in joke." + +"Joke or not," said Palmerston, "you can't deny it." Suddenly +weakening, he let slip his advantage. "But I wouldn' wish to marry one +that despised me," he declared. "I had enough o' bein' despised--in the +Workhouse." + +"I never said I despised you, Pammy," Fancy protested. + +"Yes, you did; or in so many words--'Unmanly,' you said." + +"But that was about writing." She opened her eyes wide. "You don't +mean to tell me _that's_ the trouble? . . . What have you been writing?" + +"A book," owned Palmerston with gloom. "A man must try to raise himself +somehow." + +"Of course he must. What sort of book?" + +"It's--it's only a story." + +"Why," she reassured him, "I heard of a man the other day who wrote a +story and made A Thousand Pounds. It was quite unexpected, and +surprised even his friends." + +"It must be the same man Mrs Bowldler told me about. His name was +Walter Scott, and he called it 'Waverley' without signing his name to +it, because he was a Sheriff; and there was another man that wrote a +book called 'Picnic' by Boss, and made pounds. So I've called mine +'Pickerley,' by way of drawing attention,--but, of course, if you think +there's no chance, I suppose there isn't," wound up Palmerston, with a +sudden access of despondency. + +"Oh, Palmerston," exclaimed Fancy, clasping her hands, "if it should +only turn out that you're a genius!" + +"It _would_ be a bit of all right," he agreed, his cheerfulness +reviving. + +"I have heard somewhere," she mused, "or perhaps I read it on the +newspaper, that men of genius make the very worst husbands, and a woman +must be out of her senses to marry one." + +Again Palmerston's face fell. "I mayn't be one after all," he +protested, but not very hopefully. + +"Oh yes, I am sure you are! And, what's more, if you make a hit, as +they say, I don't know but I might overlook it and take the risk. +You see, I'm accustomed to living with Mr Rogers, who is bound to go to +hell and that might turn out to be a sort of practice." + +The boy stood silent, rubbing his head. He wanted time to think this +out. Such an altered face do our ambitions present to most of us as +they draw closer, nearer to our grasp! + +Suddenly Fancy clapped her hands. "Why, of course!" she cried. +"I always had an idea, somewhere inside o' me, that I'd be a lady one of +these days--very important and covered all over with di'monds, so that +all the other women would envy me. You know that feelin'?" + +"No-o," confessed Palmerston. + +"You would if you were a woman. But, contrariwise, what I like almost +better is keepin' shop--postin' up ledgers, makin' out bills, _to +account rendered, second application, which doubtless has escaped your +notice_, and all that sort of thing. I saw a shop in Plymouth once with +young women by the dozen sittin' at desks, and when they pulled a string +little balls came rollin' towards them over on their heads like the +stars in heaven, all full of cash; and they'd open one o' these balls +and hand you out your change just as calm and scornful as if they were +angels and you the dirt beneath their feet. You can't think how I +longed to be one o' them and behave like that. But the two things +didn't seem to go together." + +"What two things?" + +"Why, sittin' at a desk like that and sittin' on a sofa and sayin' +'How d'e do, my dear? It's _so_ good of you to call in this dreadful +weather, especially as you have to hire. . . .' But now," said Fancy, +clasping her hands, "I see my way: that is, if you're really a genius. +You shall write your books and I'll sell them. '_Mr and Mrs Palmerston +Burt, Author and_--what's the word?--pub--publicans--no, publisher; +_Author and Publisher_.' It's quite the highest class of business: and +if any one tried to patronise me I could always explain that I just did +it to help, you bein' a child in matters of business. Geniuses are +mostly like that." + +"Are they?" + +"Yes, that's another of their drawbacks. And," continued Fancy, +"you'd be a celebrity of course, which means that we should be in the +magazines, with pictures--_A Corner of the Library_, and _The +Rose-garden, looking West, and Mrs Palmerston Burt is not above playing +with the Baby_, and you with your favourite dog--for we'd have both, by +that time. Oh, Pammy, where is the book?" + +"Upstairs, mostly, but I got a couple o' chapters upon me--" Palmerston +tapped his breast-pocket--"If you really mean as you'd like--" +He hesitated, his colour changing from red to white. Here, on the point +of proving it, the poor boy feared his fate too much. + +But Fancy insisted. They escaped together to Captain Hunken's garden; +and there, in the summer-house--by this time almost in twilight--he +showed her the precious manuscript. It was written (like many another +first effort of genius) on very various scraps of paper, the most of +which had previously enwrapped groceries. + +"And to think," breathed Fancy, recognising some of Mr Rogers's trade +wrappers, "that maybe I've seen dad doin' up those very parcels, and +never guessed--well, go on! Read it to me." + +"I--I don't read at all well," faltered Palmerston. + +She tapped her foot. "I don't care how bad you read so long as you +don't keep me waitin' a moment longer." + +"This is Chapter Nine. . . . If you like, of course, I could start by +tellin' you what the other chapters are about--" + +"_Please_ don't talk any more, but read!" + +"Oh, very well. The chapter is called '_Ernest makes Another Attempt._' +Ernest is what Mrs Bowldler calls the hero, which means that the book is +all about him. It begins--" + + 'It was late in the evening following upon the + events related in the previous chapter' + +--I got that out of a paper Mrs Bowldler carries about in her pocket. +It is called 'Bow Bells,' and you can depend on it, for it's all about +the highest people-- + + 'when Ernest rang at the bell of Number 20 + Grovener Square.' + +--I got that address, too, out of Mrs Bowldler. She said you couldn' go +higher than that. 'Not humanly speakin'' was her words, though I don't +quite know what she meant." + +"But," objected Fancy, "you might want to start higher, in another book. +We can't expect to live all our lives on this one: and there oughtn't to +be any come-down." + +Palmerston smiled and waved his manuscript with an air of mastery. +He had thought of this. + +"There's Royalty!" + +"O-oh!" Fancy caught her breath. She felt sure now of his genius. + +"We must feel our way," said Palmerston; "I believe in flyin' as high as +you like so long as you're on safe ground. Of course," he went on, +"there _is_ a danger. I don't know who _really_ lives in Grovener +Square at Number 20; but they're almost sure not to be called Delauncy, +and so there's no real hurt to their feelin's." + +"Mrs Bowldler might know." + +"You don't understand," explained Palmerston, who seemed, since breaking +the ice of his confession, to have grown some inches taller, and +altogether more masterful. "She don't know why I put all these +questions to her. She sets it down to curiosity: when, all the time, +I'm _pumpin'_ her." + +"Oh!" Fancy collapsed. + +Palmerston resumed:-- + + "'The second footman ushered him to the boudoir, + where already he had lit several lamps, casting a + subdued shade of rose colour. The Lady Herm + Intrude reclined on a console in an attitude which + a moment since had been one of despair, but was + now languid to the point of carelessness.'" + +"What's a console?" inquired Fancy. + +"They have one in all the best drawing-rooms," answered Palmerston. +"Mrs Bowldler--" + +"Oh, go on!" She was beginning to feel jealous, or almost jealous. + + "'She was attired in a gown of old Mechlin, with + a deep fall and an indication of orange blossoms, + and carried a shower bouquet of cluster roses, the-- + +"No, I've scratched that out. It said 'the gift of the bridegroom,' and +I got it from a fashionable wedding; but it won't do in this place." + + 'Amid these luxurious surroundings Ernest felt + his brain in a whirl. He cast himself on his knees + before the recumbent figure on the console which + gave no sign of life unless a long-drawn and + half-stifled sob, which seemed to strangle its owner, + might be so interpreted. + "Lady Herm Intrude," he cried in broken accents, "for + the second time, I love you."'" + +"It's lovely, Palmerston! Lovely!" gasped Fancy. "Why was he loving her +for the second time?" + +"He was _telling_ her for the second time. He had loved her from the +first--it's all in the early chapters. . . . This is the second time he +told her: and he has to do it twice more before the end of the book." + + 'As he waited, scarcely daring to breathe, for + some answer, he could almost smell the perfume + of the orchids which floated from a neighbouring + vase and filled the apartment with its high-class + articles of furniture, the product of many lands.' + +"Oh, Palmerston! And you that never had an 'ome of your own, since you +was nine--not even a Scattered one! However did you manage to think of +it all?" + +She caught the manuscript from him and peered at it, straining her eyes +in the dark. + +"If you could fetch a lamp now?" she suggested. + +But the boy stepped close and stood beside her, dominant. + +"_You_ know how I came to do it," he said. "Yes--I'm glad you like it. +I'll fetch a lamp. But--" + +As she pored over the manuscript, he bent and suddenly planted a great +awkward kiss on the side of her cheek. + +Thereupon he fled in quest of the lamp. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +IS IN TWO PARTS. + +PART I. + +Cai and 'Bias supped together that night, greatly to Mrs Bowldler's +relief. But they exchanged a very few words during the meal, being poor +hands at dissimulation. + +The meal, for the third time running, was laid in Cai's parlour, Mrs +Bowldler having delicately elected to ignore the upset caused by the +parrot and to treat yesterday as a _dies non_. 'Bias, if he noted this, +made no comment. + +The cloth having been removed, they drew their chairs as usual to front +the fireplace. Cai arose, found a clean church-warden pipe on the +mantelshelf, passed it to 'Bias, and selected one for himself. + +"I sent off that letter to-day," he said carelessly. + +"Right," said 'Bias; "I sent mine, too." + +"Four-thirty post, mine went by." + +"So did mine." + +"She'll get 'em together, then, first delivery to-morrow." + +"Ay." + +"That puts us all square. She'll be amused, I shouldn't wonder." + +"I didn' try to be amusin' in mine," said 'Bias after a pause, puffing +stolidly. + +"No more did I." Cai filled and lit his pipe in silence. His conscience +troubled him a little. "Well," said he, dropping into his arm-chair, +"the matter's settled one way or another, so far as we're consarned. +The letters are in the post, and there's no gettin' them out unless by +Act o' Parliament. I don't mind tellin' you just what I said, if you +think 'twould be fairer-like." + +"I'm agreeable." + +"You won't take it amiss that I pitched it pretty strong?" + +"Not at all," answered 'Bias. "Come to that, I pitched it pretty strong +myself." + +Cai smiled tolerantly, and felt for the rough draft in his pocket. +He fished it forth, unfolded the paper, and spread it on his knee under +the lamp-light. Then, having adjusted his glasses, he picked up his +pipe again. + +"I just started off," said he, "by hintin' that she might be a bit +surprised at hearin' from me." + +"That's true enough," agreed 'Bias. "She'll be more'n surprised, if I'm +not mistaken." + +"I don't see why." + +"Don't you? . . . Well, no offence. It's a very good way to begin. +In fact," said 'Bias in a slightly patronising tone, "it's pretty much +how I began myself. Only I went on quick to hope she wasn't--how d'ye +call it?" + +"I don't know what word _you_ used. _I_ should have said affronted,' if I +take your meanin'." + +'Bias gave a start. "As it happens I--er--hit on that very word. +I remember, because it looked funny to me, spelt with two f's. +But I went on to say that I meant honourable, and that she mustn't blame +me, because this kind o' thing happened without respect o' persons." + +Cai sat up, stiff and wondering. He took off his glasses and wiped +them. "You said--_that?_" he asked slowly. + +"I said a damned sight more than that," chuckled 'Bias. "I said that +love had its victims as well as its something else beginning with a v, +which I forget the exact expression at this moment, and that I'd never +looked on myself as bein' in the former cat--no, case. You can't think +how I pitched it," said 'Bias, folding his hands comfortably over his +stomach. "The words seemed just to flow from the pen." + +"Oh, can't I?" Cai, sitting up with rigid backbone, continued to gaze +at him. "Oh, they _did_--did they? And maybe you didn' go on to +explain you weren't precisely in the first flush o' youth--not what you +might call a _passionate boy_--" + +It was 'Bias's turn to sit erect. He sat erect, breathing hard. +"There--there's nothing unusual about the expression, is there?" he +stammered. "Though how you come to guess on it--" + +"You've been stealin' my letter, somehow!" flamed Cai. + +But 'Bias did not seem to hear. He continued to breathe hard, to stare +into vacancy. "Did you pay a visit to Peter Benny this mornin'?" he +asked at length, very slowly. + +"Well, yes--if you must know," Cai answered sullenly, his wrath checked +by confusion, much as the onset of a tall wave is smothered as it meets +a backwash. + +"That's right," 'Bias nodded. "Somehow or 'nother Benny's sold us a +dog: and, what's more, he sold us the same dog. . . . I don't think," +went on 'Bias after a pause, "that it showed very good feelin' on your +part, your goin' to Benny." + +"Why not?" demanded Cai, whose thoughts were beginning to work. +"Far as I can see you did the very same thing; so anyway you can't +complain." + +"Yes, I can. You know very well I never set up to be a scholar, same as +you. By rights you're the scratch boat on this handicap, yet you tried +to steal allowance. I thought you'd a-been a better sportsman." + +"My goin' to Benny," urged Cai sophistically, "was a case of one +eddicated man consultin' another, as is frequently done." + +"Oh, is it? Well, you done it pretty thoroughly, I must say." + +"Whereas _your_ goin' was a clean case o' tryin' to pass off goods that +weren't your own, or anything like it. . . . Come, I'll put it to you +another way. Supposin' your letter had worked the trick, and she'd said +'yes' on the strength of it--I'm puttin' this for argyment's sake, you +understand?" + +"Go on." + +"And supposin' one day, after you was married, she'd come to you and +said, ''Bias, I want a letter written. I thought o' writin' it myself, +but you're such a famous hand at a letter.' A nice hole you'd a-been +in!" + +"No, I shouldn'. I'd say, 'You rate me too high, my dear. Still,' I'd +say, 'if you insist upon it, you just scribble down the main points on a +sheet o' paper, and I'll take a walk and think it over.' Then I'd carry +it off to Benny." 'Bias, who so far had held the better of the argument +by keeping his temper, clinched his triumph with a nod and refilled his +pipe. + +"Benny's an old man, and might die at any moment," objected Cai. + +"Now you're gettin' too far-fetched altogether. . . . Besides, +'twouldn't be any affair o' yours--would it?--after I'm married to her." + +"Well, you won't be--now: and no more shall I," said Cai bitterly. +"Benny's seen to that!" + +"'Tis a mess, sure enough," agreed 'Bias, lighting his pipe and puffing. + +"She'll be affronted--oh, cuss the word! Just fancy it, to-morrow +morning, when she opens her post! A nice pair of jokers she'll think +us!" Cai paced the room. "Couldn't we go up to-night and explain?" + +"Five minutes to ten," said 'Bias with a glance at the clock. "Ask her +to get out o' bed and come down to hear we've made fools of ourselves? +I don't see myself. You can do what you like, o' course." + +"I shan't sleep a wink," declared Cai, still pacing. "How on earth +Benny--" He halted of a sudden. "You don't suppose Benny himself--" + +"Ch't! a man of his age. . . . No, I'll tell you how it happened, as I +allow: and, if so, Benny's not altogether to blame. First you goes to +him, and wants a letter written. You give him no names, but he learns +enough to guess how the wind sits . . . am I right, so far?" + +Cai nodded. + +"So he writes the letter and off you goes with it. Later on, in _I_ +drops with pretty much the same request. I remember, now, the old +fellow behaved rather funny: asked me something about bein' the 'first +person,' and then wanted to know if I didn' wish the letter written for +a friend. I wasn't what you might call at my ease with the job, and +so--as the time was gettin' on for dinner, too--I let it go at that." + +"You did? . . . But so did I!" + +"Hey?" + +"I let Benny think he was writin' it for a friend o' mine. Far as I +remember, he suggested it. . . . Yes, he certainly did," said Cai with +an effort of memory. + +"It don't matter," said 'Bias after a few seconds' reflection. "He took +it for granted that one of us was tellin' lies: and likely enough he's +chucklin' now at the thought of our faces when the thing came to be +cleared up. Come to consider, there was no vice about the trick, +'specially as he wouldn' take any money from me." + +"Nor from me," Cai dropped into his chair and reached for the +tobacco-jar. "Well," he sighed, "the man's done for both of us, that's +all!" + +"Not a bit," said 'Bias sturdily. "We'll walk up early to-morrow, and +explain. Ten to one it'll put her in the best o' tempers, havin' such a +laugh against us both." + + + +PART II. + +"He can't have known!" said Mrs Bosenna early next morning, sitting in a +high-backed chair beside the kitchen-table. Her face was slightly +flushed, and the toe of her right shoe kept an impatient tap-tap on the +flagged floor. "He can't possibly have known." + +"We'll hope not," said Dinah. "It's thoughtless, though--put it at the +best: and any way it don't speak too well for his past." + +"He may have _bought_ it, you know," urged Mrs Bosenna; "late in life." + +"Well, he's no chicken," allowed Dinah; "since you put it like that." + +"I wasn't referring to Captain Hunken, you silly woman. I meant _it_." + +"Eh?" said Dinah. "Oh!--_him?_" + +"'Him' if you like," Mrs Bosenna mused. "It can't possibly be a female, +can it?" + +"I should trust not, for the sake of a body's sex . . . to say things +like that. Besides, I've surely been told somewhere--in the 'Child's +Guide to Knowledge,' it may have been--that the females don't talk at +all." + +"Are you sure of that?" + +"Pretty sure. It was _something_ unnatural anyhow; or I shouldn' have +remembered it." + +"Well, and if so," said Mrs Bosenna, "one can see what Providence was +driving at, which is always a comfort. . . . I was wondering now if you +mind going and carrying him out to the garden somewhere. He couldn't +take harm in this weather,--under the box-hedge, for instance." + +Dinah shook her head. "I couldn', mistress; no really!" + +"The chances are," said Mrs Bosenna persuasively, "he wouldn't say +anything,--anything like that again, not in a blue moon." + +"He said it to me first, and he said it to me again not ten minutes +later. But, o' course, if you're so confident, there's nothing hinders +your goin' and takin' him where you like. If you ask my opinion, +though, he don't wait for no blue moons. He turns 'em blue as they +come." + +Mrs Bosenna tapped her foot yet more pettishly. "It's perfectly +ridiculous," she declared, "to be kept out of one's own parlour by a +bird! Go and call in William Skin, and tell him to take away the nasty +thing." + +"And him with a family?" + +"He's hard of hearin'," said Mrs Bosenna. + +"It's a hardness you can t depend on. I've knowed William hear fast +enough,--when he wasn't wanted. He'll be wantin' to know, too, why we +can't put the bird out for ourselves: his deafness makes him suspicious. +. . . And what's more," wound up Dinah, "it won't help us, one way or +'nother, whether he hears or not. We shall go about _thinkin_ he's heard; +and I tell ye, mistress, I shan't be able to face that man again without +a blush, not in my born life." + +"It's perfectly ridiculous, I tell you!" repeated Mrs Bosenna, starting +to her feet. "Am I to be forced to breakfast in the kitchen because of +a bird?" + +"Then, if so be as you're so proud as all that, why not go back to bed +again, and I'll bring breakfast up to your room." + +"Nonsense. Where d'ye keep the beeswax? And run you up to the little +store-cupboard and fetch me down a fingerful of cotton-wool for my ears. +I'll do it myself, since you're such a coward." + +"'Tisn't that I'm a coward, mistress--" + +"You're worse," interrupted her mistress severely. + +"You never ought to know anything about such words, and it's a +revelation to me wherever you managed to pick them up." + +Dinah smoothed her apron. "I can't think neither," she confessed, and +added demurely, "It could never have been from the old master, for I'm +sure he'd never have used such." + +Mrs Bosenna wheeled about, her face aflame. But before she could turn +on Dinah to rend her, the sound of a horn floated up from the valley. +Dinah's whole body stiffened at once. "The post!" she cried, and ran +forth from the kitchen to meet it, without asking leave. Letters at +Rilla Farm were rare exceedingly, for Mrs Bosenna made a point of paying +ready-money (and exacting the last penny of discount) wherever it was +possible; so that bills, even in the shape of invoices, were few. +She had no relatives, or none whom she encouraged as correspondents, +for, as the saying is, "she had married above her." For the same +reason, perhaps, she had long since stopped the flow of sentimental +letters from the girl-friends she had once possessed in Holsworthy, +Devon. If Mrs Bosenna now and again found herself lonely at Rilla Farm +in her widowhood, it is to be feared the majority of her old +acquaintances would have agreed in asserting, with a touch of satisfied +spite, that she had herself to blame,--and welcome! + +"There's _two!_" announced Dinah, bursting back into the kitchen and +waving her capture. "_Two!_--and the Troy postmark on both of 'em!" + +"Put them down on the table, please. And kindly take a look at the +oven. You needn't let the bread burn, even if I _am_ to take breakfast in +the kitchen." + +"But ain't you in a hurry to open them, mistress?" asked Dinah, +pretending to go, still hanging on her heel. + +"Maybe I am; maybe I ain't." Mrs Bosenna picked up the two envelopes +with a carelessness which was slightly overdone. They were sealed, the +pair of them. She broke the seal of the first carefully, drew out the +letter, and read-- + + "HONOURED MADAM,--You will doubtless be surprised--" + +She turned to the last page and read the subscription-- + + "Yours obediently," + + "TOBIAS HUNKEN." + +"Who's it from, mistress?" asked Dinah, making pretence of a difficulty +with the oven door. + +"Nobody that concerns you," snapped Mrs Bosenna, and hastily stowed the +letter in the bosom of her bodice. She picked up the other. Of that, +in turn, she broke the seal-- + + "HONOURED MADAM,--" + +The handwriting was somewhat superior. + + "HONOURED MADAM,--You will doubtless be + surprised by the purport of this letter; as by + the communication I feel myself impelled to make + to you--" + +Mrs Bosenna, mildly surprised, in truth, turned the epistle over. +It was signed-- + + "Your obedient servant, + + "CAIUS HOCKEN." + +She drew the first letter from her bodice. After the perusal of its +first few sentences her cheeks put on a rosy glow. + +But of a sudden she started, turned to the first letter again, and +spread it on her lap. + +"Well, if I ever!" breathed she, after a pause. + +"A proposal! I knew it was!" cried Dinah, swinging about from the oven +door. + +Mrs Bosenna, if she heard, did not seem to hear. She was holding up +both letters in turn, staring from the one to the other incredulously. +Her roseal colour came and went. + +"Them and their parrots! I'll teach 'em!" + +Before Dinah could ask what was the matter, a bell sounded. It was the +front door bell, which rang just within the porch. + +Dinah smoothed her apron and bustled forth. It had always been her +grievance--and her mistress shared it--against the nameless architect of +Rilla farmstead, that he had made its long kitchen window face upon the +strawyard, whereas a sensible man would have designed it to command the +front door in flank, with its approaches. This mistake of his cost +Dinah a circuit by way of the apple-room every time she answered the +porch bell; for as little as any porter of old in a border fortress +would she have dreamed of admitting a visitor without first making +reconnaissance. + +A minute later she ran back and thrust her head in at the kitchen-door. + +"Mistress," she whispered excitedly, "it's _them!_" + +"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna, as the bell jangled again. "They seem in a +hurry, too." She smiled, and the smile, if the curve of her mouth +forbade it to be grim, at any rate expressed decision. She picked up +the two letters and slipped them into her pocket. "You can show them +in." + +"Where, mistress?" + +"Here. And, Dinah, nothing about the post, mind! Now, run!" + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +APPARENTLY DIVIDES INTO THREE. + +"You'll pardon us, ma'am, for calling so early," began Cai. He was too +far embarrassed to be conscious of any surprise at being ushered into +the kitchen. + +"--You do the apologisin', of course," had been 'Bias's words in the +front porch. "Yours was the first letter written: and, besides, you're +a speaker." + +"You are quite welcome, the both of you," Mrs Bosenna assured him as he +came to a halt. Her tone was polite, but a faint note of interrogation +sounded in it. "You have had your breakfast?" + +"Yes, ma'am." + +"Ah, you are early indeed! I was just about to sit down to mine." + +"We don't want to interrupt, ma'am, but--" Here Cai looked helplessly +at 'Bias. + +"Go on," growled 'Bias. + +"We--we don't want to seem rude--" + +"Never mind rude," growled 'Bias again. "Get it over." + +"The fact is, there's been a mistake: a painful mistake. At least," +said Cai, growing more and more nervous under Mrs Bosenna's gaze of calm +inquiry, "it _would_ be painful, if it weren't so absurd." He forced a +laugh. + +"Don't make noises like that," commanded 'Bias. "Get it over." + +"It's about those letters, ma'am." + +"Letters?" Mrs Bosenna opened her dark eyes wide; and turned them +interrogatively upon Dinah. "Letters?" + +"Letters?" repeated Dinah, taking her cue. + +Relief broke like a sun-burst over Cai's face. "But perhaps you don't +read your letters, ma'am, until after breakfast? And, if so, we're in +time." + +"_What_ letters?" asked Mrs Bosenna. + +"They've surely been delivered, ma'am? In fact we met the postman +coming from the house." + +"Dear me--and did he tell you he had been deliverin' letters here?" + +"No--he was on his round, and we took it for granted. Besides, we know +they were posted in time." + +"William Skin takes the letters some days," suggested Dinah, "if he +happens to overtake the post on his way back with the cart. It saves +the man a climb up the hill." + +"I wonder--" mused Mrs Bosenna. + +"Where is he?" Cai's bewildered brain darted at the impossible +stratagem of intercepting Skin and getting the letters from him. + +"Stabling the pony at this moment, I expect. . . . But I don't +understand. What letters are you talkin' about? What _sort_ of +letters?" + +"There--there was one from me and one from 'Bias--" + +"Goodness!" she broke in, smiling pleasantly, "What, another +invitation?" + +"Well--" began Cai. + +"Yes," struck in 'Bias. + +"You might call it an invitation, o' sorts," Cai conceded. + +"'_Course_ you might," said 'Bias positively. + +"You are very mysterious this morning, you two." The widow turned from +one to another, her smile still hiding her amusement. "But let me +guess. It appears you both wished to send me an invitation, and +something has gone amiss with your letters." + +"We both sent the same one," explained Cai, and blushed. "That's the +long and short of it, ma'am." + +"It doesn't seem so very dreadful." Mrs Bosenna's smile was sweetly +reassuring. "You _both_ wrote, when it was only necessary for one to +write?" + +"That's what I kept tellin' him, ma'am," put in 'Bias stoutly. "But he +would put his oar in." + +"Well, well. . . You both wished to give me pleasure, and each wrote +without the other's knowledge--" + +"No, we didn't," interrupted 'Bias again. + +"Anyway," she harked back with a patient little sigh, "you had both +planned your invitation to give me pleasure; and since it was the +same--?" She paused on a note of interrogation. + +"You might call it the same, ma'am--after a fashion," assented Cai. + +She laughed. "Do you know," she said, "I forgot for a moment what +friends you are; and it _did_ cross my mind that maybe there were two +invitations, and they clashed." + +"But they do, ma'am!" groaned Cai. + +"Eh? Yet you said just now. . . . So there _are_ two, after all!" + +"It's--it's this way, ma'am: the letters are the same, but the +invitation as you call it--" Here Cai paused and cast an irritable +glance in the direction of Dinah, who had stepped to the door of the +oven to conceal her mirth. If the woman would but go he might be able +to explain. "But the invitation don't apply similarly, not in both +cases." + +"That's queer, isn't it?" commented Mrs Bosenna. "And, supposin' I +accept, to which of you must I write?" + +"Me," said 'Bias with great promptitude. + +"Not at all." Cai turned in wrath on his friend. + +"I do think you might help, instead of standin' there and--" + +"Can't I accept both?" suggested Mrs Bosenna sweetly. + +"No, you certainly can't, ma'am. . . . And since the letters seemin'ly +haven't reached you yet, we'd both of us take it as a favour if you'd hand +'em back to us without lookin' inside 'em. We--we want to try again, +and send something calkilated to please you better. 'Tis a queer +request, I'll grant you." + +"It is," she agreed, cutting him short. "But what's the matter with the +letters? Did you put any bad language into them by any chance?" + +"Ma'am!" exclaimed Cai. + +"Bad language?" protested 'Bias. "Why, to begin with, ma'am, I never +use it. The language is too good, in a way, an' that's our trouble; +only Cai, here, won't out with it, but keeps beatin' about the bush. +You see, we went to Mr Benny for it." + +"You went to Mr Benny?" she echoed as he hesitated. "For what, pray?" + +"For the letters, ma'am. Unbeknowns to one another we went to +Mr Benny--Mr _Peter_ Benny--he havin' a gift with his pen--" +'Bias hesitated again, faltered, and came to a stop, aware that Mrs +Bosenna's smile had changed to a frown; that she was regarding him with +disapproval in her eyes, and that a red spot had declared itself +suddenly upon either cheek. + +"_You_ don't seem to be makin' _very_ good weather of it either," Cai +taunted him; and with that, glancing at her for confirmation, he too +noticed her changed expression and was dumb. + +"Are you tellin' me,"--she seated herself stiffly, and they stood like +culprits before her. "Are you tellin' me this is a game?" + +"A--a what, ma'am?" + +"A game!" She stamped her foot. "You've been makin' the town's mock o' +me with Peter Benny's help--is that what you two funny seamen have +walked up here to confess?" + +"There was no names given, ma'am," stammered Cai. "I do assure you--" + +"No names given!" Mrs Bosenna in a temper was terribly handsome. +Her indignation so overawed the pair, as to rob them of all presence of +mind for the moment. After all, where lay the harm in asking Mr Benny +to word a simple invitation? Since the letters had not reached her, she +could suspect no worse; and why, then, all this fuss? So they might +have reasoned it out, had not conscience held them cowards--conscience +and a creeping cold shade of mutual distrust. "No names given!" +repeated the lady. "And I'm to believe that, just as I'm to believe, +sir,"--she addressed herself stiffly to 'Bias--"that you never used bad +language in your life!" + +"I didn' say that, ma'am--not exactly," urged the bewildered 'Bias. +"I dunno what's this about bad language. Who's been usin' bad +language? Not me." + +"Not since your prize-fightin' days, perhaps, Captain Hunken." + +"My prize-fightin' days? My pr--Whoever told you, ma'am, as ever I had +any, or behaved so?" + +"You had better ask your friend here." + +"Hey?" + +"Perhaps," said Mrs Bosenna sarcastically, "that goes back beyond your +memory! Your parrot, if I may say so, has a better one." + +"Missus!" expostulated Dinah modestly, while "Oh good Lord!" muttered +Cai with a start. His friend's eye was on him, too, fixed and +suspicious. + +"The parrot?" 'Bias, albeit innocent, took alarm. + +"Why, what has he been doin'?" + +"It isn't anything he _did_, sir," protested Dinah, taking courage to +face about again from the oven door. "It's what he _said_." + +"I meant to warn you--" began Cai; but 'Bias beat him down +thunderously-- + +"What did he say?" he demanded of Dinah. + +"Oh, I couldn't, sir! I really couldn't!" + +"I meant to warn you," interposed Cai again. "There's a--a screw loose +somewhere in that bird. Didn't I tell you only the night before last +that Mrs Bowldler couldn't get along with him?" + +"You did," admitted 'Bias, his tone ominously calm. "But you didn' +specify: not when I told you I was goin' to bring the bird up here to +Rilla." + +"No, I didn': for, in the first place, I couldn', not knowin' what +language the bird used." + +He would have said more, but 'Bias turned roughly from him to demand of +the women-- + +"Well, what _did_ he say? . . . Did he say it in your hearin', ma'am?" + +"Ahem!--er--partially so," owned Mrs Bosenna. + +"It's no use you're askin' what he said," added Dinah; "for no decent +woman could tell it. And, what's more, the mistress is takin' her +breakfast here in the kitchen because she durstn't go nigh the parlour." + +"And I got that bird off a missionary! A decenter speakin' parrot I've +never known, so far as my experience goes--and I've known a good few." + +"Folks have different notions on these matters; different standards, so +to speak," suggested Mrs Bosenna icily. + +"It's my opinion," put in Cai, "that missionary did you in the eye." + +"Oh, that's your opinion, is it? Well, you'd best take care, my joker, +or you'll get something in the eye yourself." + +"We don't want any prize-fightin' here, if you please," commanded Mrs +Bosenna. + +"There again!" foamed 'Bias, with difficulty checking an oath. +"A prize-fighter, am I? Who put that into your head, ma'am? Who's been +scandalisin' me to you?" He turned, half-choking, and shook a +minatory finger at Cai. + +"I--I didn' say I had any objection to fightin'-men, not when they're +quiet," Mrs Bosenna made haste to observe in a pacificatory tone. +In fact she was growing nervous, and felt that she had driven her +revenge far enough. "My late husband was very fond of the--the ring--in +his young days." + +It is easier, however, to arouse passions than to allay them. +'Bias continued to shake a finger at Cai, and Cai (be it said in +justice) faced the accusation gamely. + +"I never scandalised you," he answered. "In fact I done all in my power +to remove the impression." Feeling this to be infelicitous--in a sort of +despair with his tongue, which had taken a twist and could say nothing +aright this morning--he made haste to add in a tone at once easy and +awkward, "It's my belief, 'Bias, as your parrot ain't fit to be left +alone with females." + +"Well, I'm goin' to wring his neck anyway," promised 'Bias; "and, if +some folks aren't careful, maybe I won't stop with _his_." + +Cai, though with rising temper, kept his nonchalance. "With you and me +the creatur' don't feel the temptation, and consikently there's a side +of his character hidden from us. But in female company it comes out. +You may depend that's the explanation." + +"Why, of course it is," chimed in Mrs Bosenna with sudden--suspiciously +sudden--conviction. "How clever of Captain Hocken to think of it!" + +"Yes, he's clever," growled 'Bias, unappeased. "Oh, he's monstrous +clever, ma'am, is Caius Hocken! Such a friend, too! . . . And now, +perhaps, he'll explain how it happened--he bein' so clever and such a +friend--as he didn't find this out two nights ago and warn me?" + +"I did warn ye, 'Bias," Cai's face had gone white under the taunt. +"But I'll admit to you I might have pitched it stronger. . . . If you +remember, on top of discussin' the parrot we fell to discussin' +something--something more important to both of us; and that drove the +bird out o' my head. It never crossed my mind again till bedtime, and +then I meant to warn ye next day at breakfast." + +"You're good at explanations, this mornin'," sneered 'Bias. "Better fit +there was no need, and you'd played fair." + +"'Played fair'!"--Cai flamed up at last--"I don't take that from you, +'Bias Hunken, nor yet from any one! You fell into your own trap--that's +what happened to _you_. . . . 'Played fair'? I suppose you was playin' +fair when you sneaked off unbeknowns and early to Rilla that mornin', +after we'd agreed--" + +"Well?" asked 'Bias, as Cai came to a halt. + +"You know well enough what we agreed," was Cai's tame conclusion. + +"Where's the bird, ma'am?" asked 'Bias dully. Both men felt that all +was over between them now, though neither quite understood how it had +happened. "It--it seems I've offended you, and I ask your pardon. +As for my doin' this o' purpose--well, you must believe it or not. +That's as conscience bids ye. . . . But one warnin' I'll give-- +A bad friend don't us'ally make a good husband." + +He motioned to Dinah to lead the way to the parlour, and so, with a jerk +of the head, took his leave, not without dignity. + +Mrs Bosenna promptly burst into tears. + +Cai, left alone with her and with the despair in his heart, slowly +(scarce knowing what he did) drew forth a red spotted handkerchief and +eyed it. Maybe he had, to begin with, some intention of proffering it. +But he stood still, a figure of woe, now glancing at Mrs Bosenna, anon +staring fixedly at the handkerchief as if in wonder how it came in his +hand. He noted, too, for the first time that the tall clock in the +corner had an exceptionally loud tick. + +"Go away!" commanded Mrs Bosenna after a minute or so, looking up with +tear-stained eyes. It seemed that she had suddenly became aware of his +presence. + +Cai picked up his hat. "I was waitin' your leave, ma'am." + +"Go, please!" + +He went. He was indeed anxious to be gone. Very likely at the white +gate below by the stream, 'Bias was standing in wait to knock his head +off. Cai did not care. Nothing mattered now--nothing but a desire to +follow 'Bias and have another word with him. It might even be. . . . +But no: 'Bias was lost to him, lost irrevocably. Yet he craved to +follow, catch up with him, plead for one more word. + +He went quickly down the path to the gate, but of 'Bias there was no +sign. + +Poor Cai! He took a step or two down the road, and halted. Since 'Bias +was not in sight there would be little chance of overtaking him on this +side of the town; and in the street no explanation would be possible. + +Cai turned heavily, set his face inland, and started to walk at a great +pace. As though walking could exorcise what he carried in his heart! + +Meanwhile 'Bias went striding down the valley with equal vigour and even +more determination. His right hand gripped the parrot-cage, swinging it +as he strode, and at intervals bumping it violently upon the calf of his +right leg, much to his discomfort, very much more to that of the bird-- +which nevertheless, though bewildered by the rapid nauseating motion, +and at times flung asprawl, obstinately forbore to reproduce the form of +words so offensive in turn to Mrs Bowldler and the ladies at Rilla. + +Once or twice, as his hand tired, and the rim of the cage impinged +painfully on his upper ankle-bone, 'Bias halted and swore-- + +"All right, my beauty! You just wait till we get home!" + +He had never wrung a bird's neck, and had no notion how to start on so +fell a deed. He was, moreover, a humane man. Yet resolutely and +without compunction he promised the parrot its fate. + +A little beyond the entrance of the town, by the gateway of Mr Rogers's +coal store, he came on a group--a trio--he could not well pass without +salutation. They were Mr Rogers (in his bath-chair and wicked as +ever) and Mr Philp, with Fancy Tabb in attendance as usual. + +"Well, I hope you're satisfied this time?" Mr Rogers was saying. + +"I suppose I must be," Mr Philp was grumbling in answer. "But all I can +say is, coals burn faster than they used." + +"It's the way with best Newcastle." Mr Rogers, who had never sold a ton +of Newcastle coal in his life (let alone the best), gave his cheerful +assurance without winking an eye. + +"So you've told me more'n once," retorted Mr Philp. "I never made a +study o' trade rowts, as they're called; but more'n once, too, it's been +in my mind to ask ye how Newcastle folk come to ship their coal to Troy +by way o' Runcorn." + +Mr Rogers blinked knowledgeably. "It shortens the distance," he +replied, "by a lot. But you was sayin' as coals burned faster. Well, +they do, and what's the reason?" + +"Ah!" said Mr Philp. "That's what I'd like to know." + +"Well, I'll give 'ee the information, and nothin' to pay. Coals burn +faster as a man burns slower. You're gettin' on in life; an' next time +you draw your knees higher the grate you can tell yourself _that_, +William Philp. . . . Hullo! there's Cap'n Hunken! . . . Mornin', Cap'n. +That's a fine bird you're carryin'." + +"A parrot, by the looks of it," put in Mr Philp. + +"Sherlock 'Omes!" Mr Rogers congratulated him curtly. + +"'Mornin', Mr Rogers--mornin', Mr Philp!" 'Bias halted and held out the +cage at half-arm's length. "Yes, 'tis a fine bird I'm told." He eyed +the parrot vindictively. + +"Talks?" + +"Damn! That's just it." + +"What can it say?" + +"Dunno. Wish I did. Will ye take the bird for a gift, or would ye +rather have sixpence to wring its neck?" + +"Both," suggested Mr Philp with promptitude. + +"What yer wrigglin' for like that, at the back o' my chair, you Tabb's +child?" asked Mr Rogers, whose paralysis prevented his turning his head. + +"Offer for 'n, master!" whispered Fancy. Mr Rogers, if he heard, made +no sign. "D'ye mean it?" he inquired of 'Bias. "I'm rather partial to +parrots, as it happens: and it's a fine bird. What's the matter with +it?" + +"I don't know," 'Bias confessed again. "I wish somebody'd find out: but +they tell me it can't be trusted with ladies." + +"Is that why you're takin' it for a walk? . . . Well, I'll risk five +bob, if it's goin' cheap." + +Mr Philp's face fell. "I'd ha' gone half-a-crown, myself," he murmured +resignedly; "but I can't bid up against a rich man like Mr Rogers. . . . +You don't know what the creetur says?" + +"No more'n Adam--only that it's too shockin' for human ears. +If Mr Rogers cares to take the bird for five shillin', he's welcome, and +good riddance. Only he won't never find out what's wrong with him." + +"Honest?" asked Mr Rogers. + +"Honest. I've lived alongside this bird seven years; he was bought off +a missionary; and _I_ don't know." + +"Ah, well!" sighed Mr Philp. "Money can't buy everything. But I don't +mind bettin' I'd ha' found out." + +"Would ye now?" queried Mr Rogers with a wicked chuckle. "I'll put up a +match, then. The bird's mine for five shillin': but Philp shall have +him for a month, and I'll bet Philp half-a-crown he don't discover what +you've missed. Done, is it?" + +"Done.'" echoed Mr Philp, appealing to 'Bias and reaching out a hand for +the cage. + +"Done!" echoed 'Bias. "Five shillin' suits me at any time, and I'm glad +to be rid o' the brute." + +"There's one stippylation," put in Mr Rogers. "Philp must tell me +honest what he discovers. . . . You, Tabb's child, you're jogglin' my +chair again!" + +So 'Bias, the five shillings handed over, went his way; relieved of one +burden, but not of the main one. + + +"Well, if I ever!" echoed Dinah, returning to the kitchen at Rilla. +"If that wasn't a masterpiece, and no mistake!" + +"Is the bird gone?" asked her mistress. "Then you might fry me a couple +of sausages and lay breakfast in the parlour." + +Dinah sighed. "'Tis lovely," she said, "to be able to play the fool +with men . . . 'tis lovely, and 'tis what women were made for. But 'tis +wasteful o' chances all the same. There goes two that'll never come +back." + +"You leave that to me," said Mrs Bosenna, who had dried her eyes. +"Joke or no, you'll admit I paid them out for it. Now don't you fall +into sentiments, but attend to prickin' the sausages. You know I hate a +burst sausage." + + + + +BOOK III. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +THE PLOUGHING. + +It is possible--though not, perhaps, likely--that had Cai obeyed his +first impulse and pursued 'Bias down the valley, to overtake him, the +two friends might after a few hot words have found reconciliation, or at +least have patched up an honourable truce. As it was, 'Bias carried +home a bitter sense of betrayal, supposing that he had left Cai master +of the field. He informed Mrs Bowldler that he would dine and sup +alone. + +"Which the joint to-day is a goose," protested that lady; "and one more +difficult to halve at short notice I don't know, for my part." + +"You must do the best you can." He vouchsafed no other reply. + +Mrs Bowldler considered this problem all the rest of the morning. +"Palmerston," she asked, as she opened the oven door to baste the bird, +"supposin' you were asked to halve a roast goose, how would you begin?" + +"I'd say I wouldn't," answered Palmerston on brief reflection. + +"But supposin' you _had_ to?" + +Palmerston reflected for many seconds. "I'd start by gettin' my knee on +it," he decided. + +Mrs Bowldler, albeit much vexed in mind, deferred solving the problem, +and was rewarded with good luck as procrastinators too often are in this +world. + +Dinner-time arrived, but Captain Hocken did not. She served the goose +whole and carried it in to Captain Hunken. + +"Eh?" said 'Bias, as she removed the cover. "What about--about Cap'n +Hocken?" + +"He have not arrove." + +'Bias ground his teeth. "Havin' dinner with _her!_" he told himself, +and fell to work savagely to carve his solitary portion. + +Having satisfied his appetite, he lit a pipe and smoked. But tobacco +brought no solace, no charitable thoughts. While, as a matter of fact, +Cai tramped the highroads, mile after mile, striving to deaden the pain +at his heart, 'Bias sat puffing and let his wrath harden down into a +fixed mould of resentment. + +Dusk was falling when Cai returned. Mrs Bowldler, aware that something +was amiss, heard his footsteps in the passage and presented herself. + +"Which, having been detained, we might make an 'igh tea of it," she +suggested, "and venture on the wing of a goose. Stuffing at this hour I +would 'ardly 'int at, being onion and apt to recur." But Captain Hocken +desired no more than tea and toast. + +Mrs Bowldler was intelligently sympathetic, because Fancy had called +early in the afternoon and brought some enlightenment. + +"There's a row," said Fancy, and told about the sale of the parrot. +"That Mrs Bosenna's at the bottom of it, as I've said all along," she +concluded. + +"Do you reelly think the bird has been talking?" + +"I don't think: I know." + +Mrs Bowldler pondered a moment. "Ho! well--she's a widow." + +"I reckon," said Fancy, "if these two sillies are goin' to fall out over +her and live apart, you'll be wantin' extra help. Two meals for every +one--I hope they counted _that_ before they started to quarrel." + +"I'll not have another woman in the house," declared Mrs Bowldler, and +repeated it for emphasis after the style of the great Hebrew writers. +"Another woman in the house have I will not! What do _you_ say, +Palmerston?" + +Palmerston, who had been on the edge of tears for some time, broke down +and fairly blubbered. + +"There's a boy!" exclaimed the elder woman. "Mention a little hard work +and he begins to cry." + +"I don't believe he's cryin' for that at all," spoke up Fancy. +"Are you, Pammy dear?" + +"Nun-nun-No-o!" sobbed Palmerston. + +"He can't abide quarrellin'--that's what's the matter. . . . Ah, well!" +sighed Fancy, and fell back on her favourite formula of resignation. +"It'll be all the same a hundred years hence; when we mee-eet," she +chanted, "when we mee-eet, when we mee-eet on that Beyewtiful Shore! +_And_ in the meantime we three have got to sit tight an' watch for an +openin' to teach 'em that their little hands were never made. +No talkin' outside, mind!" + +"As if I should!" protested Mrs Bowldler, and added thoughtfully, +"I often wonder what happens to widows." + +"They marry again, mostly." + +"I mean up there--on the Beautiful Shore, so to speak. They don't marry +again, because the Bible says so: but how some _contrytomps_ is to be +avoided I don't see." + + +Chiefly through the loyalty of these three, some weeks elapsed before +the breach of friendship between Captain Caius Hocken and Captain Tobias +Hunken became a matter of common talk. Mr Rogers must have had an +inkling; for the pair consulted him on all their business affairs and +investments, and in two or three ships their money had meant a joint +influence on the shareholders' policy. Now, as they came to him +separately, and with suggestions that bore no sign of concerted thought, +so astute an adviser could hardly miss a guess that something was wrong. +Nor did it greatly mend matters that each, on learning the other's wish +upon this or that point where it conflicted with his own, at once made +haste to yield. "If that's how 'Bias looks at it," Cai would say, +"why o' course we'll make it so. I must have misunderstood him:" and +'Bias on his part would as promptly take back a proposal--"Cai thinks +otherwise, eh? Oh, well that settles it! We haven't, as you might say, +threshed it out together, but I leave details to him." "If you call +this a detail--" "Yes, yes: leave it to Cai." Mr Rogers blinked, but +asked no questions and kept his own counsel. + +Mr Philp was more dangerous. (Who in Troy could keep Mr Philp for long +off the scent of a secret?) But, as luck would have it, Cai in pure +innocence routed Mr Philp at the first encounter. + +It happened in this way. Towards the end of the first week of +estrangement Cai, who bore up pretty well in the day time with the help +of Mr Rogers, Barber Toy, and other gossips, began to find his evenings +intolerably slow. He reasoned that autumn was drawing in, that the +hours of darkness were lengthening, and that anyway, albeit the weather +had not turned chilly as yet, a fire would be companionable. He ordered +a fire therefore (more work for Mrs Bowldler). But somehow, after a +brief defeat, his _ennui_ returned. Then of a sudden, one night at +bed-time, he bethought him of the musical box, and that John Peter +Nanjulian needed hurrying-up. + +Accordingly the next morning, as the church clock struck ten, found him +climbing the narrow ascent to On the Wall: where, at the garden gate, he +encountered Mr Philp in the act of leaving the house with a bulging +carpet-bag. + +"Eh? Good mornin', Mr Philp." + +"Good mornin' to you, Cap'n Hocken." Mr Philp was hurrying by, but his +besetting temptation held him to a halt. "How's Cap'n Hunken in these +days?" he inquired. + +"Nicely, thank you," answered Cai, using the formula of Troy. + +"I ha'n't see you two together o' late." + +"No?" Cai, casting about to change the subject, let fall a casual remark +on the weather, and asked, "What's that you're carryin', if one may make +so bold?" + +"It's--it's a little commission for John Peter," stammered Mr Philp. +"Nothin' to mention." + +He beat a hasty retreat down the hill. + + +"'Tis curious now," said Cai to John Peter ten minutes later, "how your +inquisitive man hates a question, just as your joker can't never face a +joke that goes against him. I met Philp, just outside, with a carpet +bag: and I no sooner asked what he was carryin' than he bolted like a +hare." + +"There's no secret about it, either," said John Peter. "He tells me +that, for occupation, he has opened an agency for the Plymouth Dye and +Cleanin' Works." + +"And you've given him some clothes to be cleaned? Well, I don't see why +he need be ashamed o' that." + +"Well, I haven't, to tell you the truth. For my part, I like my clothes +the better the more I'm used to 'em. But my sister's laid up with +bronchitis." + +"Miss Susan? . . . Nothin' serious, I hope?" + +"She always gets it, in the fall o' the year. No, nothing serious. +But the doctor says she must keep her bed for a week--and now she's +_got_ to. . . . There'll be a rumpus when she finds out," said John +Peter resignedly: "for she don't like clean clothes any better than I +do. But one likes to oblige a neighbour; and if he'd taken my trowsers +'twould ha' meant the whole household bein' in bed, which," concluded +John Peter with entire simplicity, "would not only be awkward in itself, +but dangerous when only two are left of an old family." + +Cai agreed, if he did not understand. He reclaimed his musical box-- +needless to say, John Peter had not yet engraved the plate--and carried +it home, promising to restore it when that adornment was ready. For the +next night or two it soothed him somewhat while he smoked and meditated +on public duties soon to engage his leisure. For he had been co-opted a +member of the School Board in room of Mr Rogers, resigned: and in Barber +Toy's shop it was understood that he would be a candidate not only for +the Parish Council to be elected before Christmas, but for a Harbour +Commissionership to fall vacant in the summer of next year. + +The notification of his appointment on the School Board reached him by +post on the last Tuesday in September. Now, as it happened, the +Technical Instruction Committee of the County Council had arranged to +hold at Troy, some four days later, an Agricultural Demonstration, with +competitions in ploughing, hedging, dry-walling, turfing, the splitting +and binding of spars, &c. + +Behold, now, on the morning of the Demonstration, Captain Caius Hocken, +School Manager and therefore _ex officio_ a steward, taking the field in +his Sunday best with a scarlet badge in his buttonhole, "quite," +declared Mrs Bowldler, "like a gentleman of the French Embassy as used +frequent to take luncheon with us in the Square." + +The morning was bright and clear: the sky a pale blue and almost +cloudless, the season-- + + Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth + Of trembling winter, + +--and Cai walked with a lightness of spirit to which since the quarrel +he had been a stranger. The Demonstration was to be held at the Four +Turnings, where the two roads that lead out of Troy and form a triangle +with the sea for base, converge to an apex and branch off again into two +County highways. The field lay scarcely a stone's throw from this +apex--that is to say from the spot where the late Farmer Bosenna had +ended his mortal career. It belonged in fact to Mrs Bosenna, and had +been hired from her by the Technical Instruction Committee for a small +sum; but Cai did not happen to know this, for the arrangement had been +made some weeks ago, before his elevation to the School Board. + +It was with a shock of surprise, therefore, that on passing the gate he +found Mrs Bosenna close within, engaged in talk with two rosy-faced +farmers; and, moreover, it brought a rush of blood to his face, for he +had neither seen her nor heard from her since the fatal morning. +There was, however, no way of retreat, and he stepped wide to avoid the +group, lifting his hat awkwardly as he passed, not daring to meet the +lady's eyes. + +"Captain Hocken!" she called cheerfully. + +"Ma'am?" Cai halted in confusion. + +"Come here for a moment--that is, if it doesn't interrupt your duties-- +and be introduced to our two ploughing judges. Mr Widger of Callington, +Mr Sam Nicholls of St Neot--Captain Hocken." Cai's cheeks in rosiness +emulated those of the two men with whom he shook hands. "Captain +Hocken," she explained to them, "takes a great interest in education." + +For a moment it struck Cai that the pair, on hearing this, eyed him +suspiciously; but his brain was in a whirl, and he might easily have +been mistaken. + +"Not at all," he stammered; "that is, I mean--I am new to this business, +you see." + +"You are a practical man, I hope, sir?' asked Mr Nicholls. + +"I--I've spent the most part of my life at sea, if you'd count that +bein' practical," said Cai modestly. + +"To be sure I do," Mr Nicholls assented. "It's as practical as farmin', +almost." + +"In a manner o' speakin' it is," agreed Mr Widger grudgingly. +"Men haven't all the same gifts. Now you'll hardly believe what +happened to me the only time I ever took a sea trip." + +"No?" politely queried Cai. + +"I was sick," said Mr Widger, in a tone of vast reminiscent surprise. + +"It _does_ happen sometimes." + +"Yes," repeated Mr Widger, "sick I was. It took place in Plymouth +Sound: and you don't catch me tryin' the sea again." + +"Now what," inquired Mr Nicholls, "might be your opinion about Labour +Exemption Certificates, Captain Hocken?" + +Cai was gravelled. His alleged interest in education had not as yet +extended to a study of the subject. + +Mrs Bosenna came to the rescue. Talk about education (she protested) +was the last thing she could abide. Before the ploughing began she +wanted to show Captain Hocken some work the hedgers had been doing at +the lower end of the field. + +At that moment, too, the local secretary came running with word that the +first teams were already harnessed, and awaited the judges' preliminary +inspection. Mr Widger and Mr Nicholls made their excuses, therefore, +and hurried off to their duties. + +"I have a bone to pick with you," said Mrs Bosenna, as she and Cai took +their way leisurably across the field. + +Cai groaned at thought of those unhappy letters. + +But Mrs Bosenna made no allusion to the letters. + +"You have not been near Rilla for weeks," she went on, reproachfully. + +Cai glanced at her. "I thought--I was afraid you were offended," he +said, his heart quickening its beat. + +"Well, and so I was. To begin brawling as you did in a lady's +presence--and two such friends as I'd always supposed you to be! +It was shocking. Now, wasn't it?" + +"It has made me miserable enough," pleaded Cai. + +"And so it ought. . . . I don't know that I should be forgiving you +now," added Mrs Bosenna demurely, "if it didn't happen that I wanted +advice." + +"_My_ advice?" asked Cai incredulous. + +"It's a business matter. Women, you know, are so helpless where +business is concerned." (Oh, Mrs Bosenna!) + +"If I can be of any help--" murmured Cai, somewhat astonished but +prodigiously flattered. + +"Hush!" she interrupted, lifting a quick eye towards the knap of the +hill they had descended. "Isn't that Captain Hunken, up above? . . . +Yes, to be sure it is, and he's turned to walk away just as I was going +to call him!" She glanced at Cai, and there was mischief in the glance. +"I expect the ploughing has begun, and I won't detain either of you. + . . . The business? We won't discuss it now. I have to wait here for +Dinah, who is coming for company as soon as she's finished her +housework. . . . To-morrow, then, if you have nothing better to do. +Good-bye!" + +He left her and climbed the hill again. He seemed to tread on air; and +no doubt, when he reached the plateau where the ploughmen were driving +their teams to and fro before the judges, with corrugated brows, +compressed lips, eyes anxiously bent on the imaginary line of the furrow +to be drawn, this elation gave his bearing a confidence which to the +malignant or uncharitable might have presented itself as bumptiousness. +He mingled with the small group of _cognoscenti_, listened to their +criticisms, and by-and-by, cocking his head knowledgeably on one side, +hazarded the remark that "the fellow coming on with the roan and grey +seemed to be missing depth in his effort to keep straight." + +It was an innocent observation, uttered, may be, a thought too +dogmatically, but truly with no deeper intent than to elicit fresh +criticism from an expert who stood close beside his elbow. But a voice +behind him said, and carried its sneer-- + +"Maybe he ain't the only one hereabouts as misses depth." + +Cai, with a grey face, swung about. He had recognised the voice. +Some demon in him prompted the retort-- + +"Eh, 'Bias? Is that you?--and still takin' an interest in agriculture?" + +The shaft went home. 'Bias's voice shook as he replied-- + +"I mayn't know much about education, at two minutes' notice; and I +mayn't pretend to know much about ploughin' and wear a button in my coat +to excuse it. But I reckon that for a pound a side I could plough you +silly, Cai Hocken." + +It was uttered in full hearing of some ten or twelve spectators, mostly +townsmen of Troy; and these, turning their heads, for a moment not +believing their ears, stared speechlessly at the two men whose +friendship had in six months passed into a local byword. Cap'n Hocken +and Gap'n Hunken--what, _quarrelling?_ No, no--nonsense: it must be +their fun! + +But the faces of the pair told a different tale. + +It was a stranger--a young farmer from two parishes away--who let off +the first guffaw. + +"A bet, naybours!--did 'ee hear _that?_ Take him up, little man--he won't +eat 'ee." + +"I'll go ten shillin' myself, rather than miss it," announced another +voice. "Ten shillin' on the bantam!" + +"Get out with 'ee both," spoke up a citizen of Troy. "You don't know +the men. 'Tisn't serious now--is it, Cap'n Hocken?--well as you're +actin'--" + +"Why not?" Cai stood, breathing hard, eyeing his adversary. "If _he_ +means it?" + +"That's right! Cover his money?" cried an encouraging voice behind him. + +The young farmer slapped his thigh, and ran off to the next group. +"Hi, you fellows! A match!" + +He shouted it. They turned about. "What is it, Bill Crago?"--for they +read in his excited gestures that he had real news. + +"The fun o' the fair, boys! Two ships'-cap'ns offering to plough for a +pound a side--if you ever!" + +"Drunk!" suggested somebody. + +"What's the odds if they be? 'Twill be all the better fun," answered Mr +Crago. "No--far's one can tell they're dead sober. Come along and +listen--" He hurried back and they after him. + +"If he chooses to back out?" Cai was taunting Bias as the crowd pressed +around. So true is it that:-- + + "To be wroth with one we love + Doth work like madness in the brain." + +"Who wants to back out?" answered 'Bias sullenly. + +"If a man insults me, I hold him to his word: either that or he takes it +back." + +"Quite right, Cap'n';" prompted a voice. "And he can't tell us he +didn't say it, for I heard him!" + +"I ain't takin' nothin' back." 'Bias faced about doggedly. + +By this time, as their wits cleared a little, each was aware of his +folly, and each would gladly have retreated from this public exhibition +of it. But as the crowd increased, neither would be the first to yield +and invite its certain jeers. Moreover, each was furiously incensed: +anything seemed better than to be shamed by _him_, to give _him_ a cheap +triumph. + +News of the altercation had spread. Soon two-thirds of the spectators +were trooping to join the throng in the upper field, pressing in on the +antagonists, jostling in their eagerness to catch a word of the dispute. +The competitors in Class D were left to plough lonely furrows and finish +them unapplauded. Young Mr Crago had run off meantime to secure the +services of the two judges. + + +Now Mrs Bosenna, after waiting some ten minutes by the lower gate for +Dinah (whose capital fault was unpunctuality), had lost patience and +walked back towards Rilla to meet and reproach her. She had almost +reached the small gate when she spied Dinah hurrying down the steep path +to the highroad, and halted. Dinah, coming up, excused herself between +catches of breath. She had been detained by the plucking of a fowl, and +a feather--or, as you might call it a fluff--had found its way into her +throat. "Which," said she, "the way I heaved, mistress, is beyond +belief." + +Mrs Bosenna having admonished her to be more careful in future, turned +to retrace her steps to the field. + +They reached it and climbed the slope crosswise. They had scarcely +gained the edge of the upper plateau when Mrs Bosenna stopped short and +gave a gasp. For at that moment there broke on their view, against the +near sky-line, the figure of a man awkwardly turning a plough, behind a +team of horses. + +"Save us, mistress!" cried keen-eyed Dinah. "If it isn't--" + +"It can't be!" cried Mrs Bosenna, as if in the same breath. + +"It's Cap'n Hunken," said Dinah positively. + +"But why? Dinah--why?" + +"It's Cap'n Hunken," repeated Dinah. "The Lord knows why. If he's +doin' it for fun, I never saw worse entry to a furrow in my life." + +"Nor I. But what can it mean?" Mrs Bosenna, panting, paused at the +sound of derisive cheers, not very distant. + +The two women ran forward a pace or two, until their gaze commanded the +whole stretch of the upper slope. 'Bias, stolidly impelling his team-- +a roan and a rusty-black--had, in the difficult process of steering the +turn, been too closely occupied to let his gaze travel aside. He was +off again: his stalwart back, stripped to braces and shirt, bent as he +trudged in wake of the horses, clinging to the plough-tail, helplessly +striving to guide them by the wavy parallel his last furrow had set. + +Down the field, nearer and nearer, approached Cai, steering a team as +helplessly. Ribald cheers followed him. + +Mrs Bosenna, though quite at a loss to explain it, grasped the situation +in less than a moment. She followed up 'Bias, keeping wide and +running--yet not seeming to hasten--over the unbroken ground to the +left. + +"Captain Hunken!" + +'Bias, throwing all his weight back on the plough-tail, brought his team +to a halt and looked around. He was bewildered, yet he recognised the +voice. + +While he paused thus, Cai steadily advanced to meet and pass him. +He was plainly at the mercy of his team--a grey and a brown, both of +conspicuous height--and they were drawing the furrow at their own sweet +will. But he, too, clung to the plough-tail, and his lips were +compressed, his eyes rigid, as he drew nearer, to meet and pass his +adversary. He, likewise, had cast coat and waistcoat aside: his hat he +had entrusted to an unknown backer. He saw nothing, as he came, but the +line of the furrow he prayed to achieve. + +"Captain Hocken!" She stepped forward hardily, holding up a hand, and +Cai's team, too, came to a halt as if ashamed. "What--_what_ is the +meaning of this foolishness?" + +"I've had enough, it _he_ has," said Cai sheepishly, glancing past her +and at 'Bias. + +"I ain't doin' this for fun, ma'am," owned 'Bias. "Fact is, I'd 'most +as lief steer a monkey by the tail." + +"Then drop it this instant, the pair of you!" + +'Bias scratched his head. + +"As for that, ma'am, I don't see how we can oblige. There's money on +it--bets." + +"There won't be money's worth left in my field, at the rate you're +spoilin' it." She turned upon the two judges, who were advancing +timidly to placate her, while the crowd hung back. "And now, Mr +Nicholls--now, Mr Widger--I'd like to hear what _you_ have to say to +this!" + +"'Tis a pretty old cauch, sure 'nough," allowed Mr Sam Nicholls, pushing +up the brim of his hat on one side and scratching his head while his eye +travelled along the furrows. "Cruel!" + +"And you permitted it! You, that might be supposed to have _some_ +knowledge o' farmin'!" + +"Why, to be sure, ma'am," interposed Mr Widger, "we never reckoned as +'twould be so bad as all this. . . . Young Bill Crago came to us with +word as how these--these two gentlemen--had made a match, and he asked +us to do the judgin' same as for the classes 'pon the bills--" + +"And so you started them? And then, I suppose, you couldn't stop for +laughin'?" + +"Something like that, ma'am, _as_ you say," Mr Widger confessed. + +"And what sort o' speech will you make, down to County Council, when I +send in my bill for damages?--you that complained to me, only this +mornin', how the rates were goin' up by leaps and bounds! . . . As for +these gentlemen," said Mrs Bosenna, turning on Cai and 'Bias with just a +twinkle of mischief in her eyes, "I shall be at home to-morrow morning +if they choose to call and make me an offer--unless, o' course, they +prefer to do so by letter." + +At this, Dinah put up her hand suddenly to cover her mouth. But Cai and +'Bias were in no state of mind to catch the double innuendo. + +Having thus reduced the judges to contrition, and having proceeded to +call forward the local secretary and to extort from him a long and +painful apology, Mrs Bosenna wound up with a threat to bundle the whole +Demonstration out of her field if she heard of any further nonsense, +and, taking Dinah's arm, sailed off (so to speak) with all the trophies +of war. + +Cai and 'Bias walked away shamefacedly to seek out their bottleholders +and collect each his hat, coat, and waistcoat. + +"But which of ee's won?" demanded their backers. + +"_Damn_ who's won!" was 'Bias's answer; and he looked too dangerous to +be pressed further. + +A wager is a wager, however; and the judges' decision was clamoured for, +with threats that, until it was given, the Agricultural Demonstration +would not be suffered to proceed. Mr Sam Nicholls consulted hastily +with Mr Widger, and announced the award as follows:-- + +"We consider Captain Hunken's ploughin' to be the very worst ploughin' +we've ever seen. But we award him the prize all the same, because we +don't consider Captain Hocken's ploughin' to be any ploughin' at all." + +_Solvuntur risu tabulae_--They can laugh, too, at Troy! + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +ROSES AND THREE-PER-CENTS. + +Although in her rose-garden--the rose-garden proper--Mrs Bosenna grew +all varieties of "Hybrid Perpetuals" (these ranked first with her, as +best suited to the Cornish soil and climate), with such "Teas" and +"Hybrid Teas" as took her fancy, and while she pruned these plants hard +in spring, to produce exhibition blooms, sentiment or good taste had +forbidden her to disturb the old border favourites that lined the +pathway in front of the house, or covered its walls and even pushed past +the eaves to its chimneys. Some of these had beautified Rilla year by +year for generations: the Provence cabbage-roses, for instance, in the +border, the Crimson Damask and striped Commandant Beaurepaire; the +moss-roses, pink and white, the China rose that bloomed on into January +by the porch. These, with the Marechal Niel by her bedroom window, the +scented white Banksian that smothered the southern wall, and the +climbing Devoniensis that nothing would stop or stay until its flag was +planted on the very roof-ridge, had greeted her, an old man's bride, on +her first home-coming. They had, in the mysterious way of flowers, +soothed some rebellion of young blood and helped to reconcile her to a +lot which, for a shrewd and practical damsel, was, after all, not +unenviable. She had no romance in her, and was quite unaware that the +roses had helped; but she took a sensuous delight in them, and this had +started her upon her hobby. A success or two in local flower-shows had +done the rest. + +Now with a rampant climber such as Rosa Devoniensis it is advisable to +cut out each autumn, and clean remove some of the old wood; and this is +no easy job when early neglect has allowed the plant to riot up and over +the root-thatch. Mrs Bosenna had a particular fondness for this rose, +and for the gipsy flush which separates it from other white roses as an +unmistakable brunette. Yet she was sometimes minded to cut it down and +uproot it, for the perverse thing would persist on flowering at its +summit, and William Skin, sent aloft on ladders--whether in autumn or +spring to prune this riot, or in summer to reap blooms by the armful-- +invariably did damage to the thatch. + +Mrs Bosenna, then, gloved and armed with a pair of secateurs, stood next +morning by the base of the Devoniensis holding debate with herself. + +The issue--that she would decide to spare the offender for yet another +year--was in truth determined; for already William Skin had planted one +ladder against the house-wall and had shuffled off to the barn for +another, to be hoisted on to the slope of the thatch, and there belayed +with a rope around the chimney-stack. But she yet played with the +resolve, taken last year, to be stern and order execution. She was +still toying with it when the garden-gate clicked, and looking up, she +perceived Captain Cai. + +"Ah! . . . Good morning, Captain Hocken!" + +Cai advanced along the pathway and gravely doffed his hat. +"Good morning, ma'am--if I don't intrude?" + +"Not at all. In fact I was expecting you." + +"Er--on which errand, ma'am?" + +"--Which?" echoed Mrs Bosenna, as if she did not understand. + +"Shall we take the more painful business first?" suggested Cai humbly. +"If indeed it has not--er--wiped out the other. The damage done +yesterday to your field, ma'am--" + +"Have you brought Captain Hunken along with you?" asked Mrs Bosenna, +interrupting him. + +"No, ma'am. He will be here in half an hour, sharp." Cai consulted his +watch. + +"You have stolen a march on him then?" she smiled. + +Cai flushed. "No, again, ma'am. Er--in point of fact we tossed up +which should call first." + +"Then," said she calmly, "we'll leave that part of the business until he +arrives; though, since it concerns you both, I can't see why you did not +bring him along with you. Do you know," she added with admirable +simplicity, "it has struck me once or twice of late that you and Captain +Hunken are not the friends you were?" + +Still Cai stared, his face mantling with confusion. This woman was an +enigma to him. Surely she must understand? Surely she must have +received that brace of letters to which she evaded all allusion? +And here was she just as blithely postponing all allusion to yesterday's +offence! + +But no; not quite, it seemed; for she continued-- + +"I cannot think why you two should challenge one another as you did +yesterday, and make sillies of yourselves before a lot of farmers. +It--it humiliates you." + +"We were a pair of fools," conceded Cai. + +"What men cannot see somehow," she went on angrily, "is that it doesn't +end there. That kind of thing humiliates a woman; especially when--when +she happens to be cast on her own resources and it is everything to her +to find a man she can trust." + +Mrs Bosenna threw into these words so much feeling that Cai in a moment +forgot self. His awkwardness fell from him as a garment. + +"You may trust me, ma'am. Truly you may. Tell me only what I can do." + +At this moment William Skin--a crab-apple of a man, whose infirmity of +deafness had long since reduced all the world for him to a vain +tolerable show, in which so much went unexplained that nothing caused +surprise--came stumbling around the corner of the house with a +waggon-rope and a second ladder, which he proceeded to rest alongside +the first one; showing the while no recognition of Cai's presence, even +by a nod. + +"I want you," said Mrs Bosenna, "to invest a hundred pounds for me. +Oh!"--as Cai gave a start and glanced at Skin--"we may talk before him: +he's as deaf as a haddock." + +"A hundred pounds?" queried Cai, still in astonishment. + +"Yes; it's a sum I happen to have lyin' idle. At this moment it's in +the Bank, on deposit, where they give you something like two-and-a-half +only: and in the ordinary way I should put it into Egyptian three per +cents, or perhaps railways. My poor dear Samuel always had a great +opinion of Egypt, for some reason. He used to say how pleasant it was +in church to hear the parson readin' about Moses and the bulrushes, and +the plague of frogs and suchlike, and think he had money invested in +that very place, and how different it was in these days. Almost in his +last breath he was beggin' me to promise to stick to Egyptians, or at +any rate to something at three per cent and gilt-edged: because, you +see, he'd always managed all the business and couldn't believe that +women had any real sense in money affairs. . . . I didn't make any +promise, really; though in a sort of respect to his memory I've kept on +puttin' loose sums into that sort of thing. Three per cent is a silly +rate of interest, when all is said and done: but of course the poor dear +thought he was leavin' me all alone in the world, with no friend to +advise. . . ." + +"I see," said Cai, his heart beginning to beat fast. "And it's +different now?" + +"I--I was hopin' so," said Mrs Bosenna softly. + +Cai glanced at the back of William Skin, who had started to hum--or +rather to croon--a tuneless song while knotting a rope to the second +ladder. No: it was impossible to say what he wished to say in the +presence of William Skin, confound him! Skin's deafness, Skin's +imperturbability, might have limits. . . . + +"You wish me to advise you?" he controlled himself to ask. + +"No, I don't. I wish you--if you'll do me the favour--just to take the +money and invest it without consultin' me. It's--well, it's like the +master in the Bible--the man who gave out the talents. . . . Only don't +wrap it in a napkin!" She laughed. "I don't even want to be told +_what_ you do with the money. I'd rather not be told, in fact. +I want to trust you." + +"Why?" + +She laughed again, this time more shyly. "'Trust is proof,'" she +answered, quoting the rustic adage. "You have given me some right to +make that proof, I think?" + +Ah--to be sure--the letters! She must, of course, have received his +letter, along with 'Bias's, though this was her first allusion to it. + . . . Cai's brain worked in a whirl for some moments. She was offering +him a test; she was yielding upon honest and prudent conditions; she was +as good as inviting him to win her. . . . To do him justice, he had +never--never, at any rate, consciously--based his wooing on her wealth. +For aught he cared, she might continue to administer all she possessed. +The comforts of Rilla Farm may have helped to attract him, but herself +had been from the first the true spell. + +He did not profess any knowledge of finance. A return of four per cent +on his own modest investments contented him, and he left these to Mr +Rogers. + +"Ah!" + +His mind had caught, of a sudden, at a really brilliant idea. + +"I accept," said he firmly, looking Mrs Bosenna hard in the eyes, and +her eyes sank under his gaze. + +"Hi! Heads!" sang out a voice, and simultaneously the ladder which +William Skin had been hauling aloft, came crashing down and struck the +flagged path scarcely two yards away. + +A second later Cai had Mrs Bosenna in his arms. "You are not hurt?" he +gasped. + +She disengaged herself with a half-hysterical laugh. "Hurt? +Am I? . . . No, of course I am not." + +"The damned rope slipped," growled William Skin in explanation, from his +perch on the ladder under the eaves. + +"Slipped?" Cai ran to the rope and examined it. "Of course it slipped, +you lubber!" He stepped back on the pathway and spoke up to Skin as he +would have talked on shipboard to a blundering seaman in the +cross-trees. "Ain't a slip-knot _made_ to slip? And when a man's fool +enough to tie one in place of a hitch--" + +He cast off the rope, bent it around the rung with, as it seemed, one +turn of the hand, and with a jerk had it firm and true. + +"Make way, up there!" he called. + +"You're never going to--to risk yourself," protested Mrs Bosenna. + +"Risk myself? Lord, ma'am, for what age d'ye take me?" Cai caught up +the slack of the rope and hitched it taut over his shoulder. He was +rejuvenated. He made a spring for the ladder, and went up it much as +twenty years ago he would have swarmed up the ratlines. "Make yourself +small," he commanded, as Skin, at imminent risk of falling, drew to one +side before his onset. Cai was past him in a jiffy, over the eaves, +balancing himself with miraculous ease on the slippery thatch. +"Now ease up the ladder!" + +He had anchored himself by pure trick of balance, and was pulling with a +steady hand almost as soon as Skin, collecting his wits, could reach out +to fend the ladder off from crushing the edge of the eaves. Ten seconds +later, by seaman's sleight of foot, he had gained a second anchorage +half-way up the slope, had gathered up all the slack of the rope into a +seaman's coil, and with a circular sweep of the arm had flung it deftly +around the chimney. The end, instead of sliding down to his hand, +hitched itself among the thorns of the rampant Devoniensis. Did this +daunt him? It checked him for an instant only. The next, he had +balanced himself for a fresh leap, gained the roof-ridges, and, seated +astride of it, was hauling up the ladder, hand over fist, close to the +chimney-base. + +The marvel was, the close thatch showed no trace of having been trampled +or disturbed. + +"Darn the feller, he's as ajjile as a cat!" swore William Skin. + +"Pass up the clippers, you below!" Cai commanded, forgetting that the +man was deaf. "If your mistress'll stand back in the path a bit, I'll +pick out the shoots one by one and hold 'em up for her to see, so's she +can tell me which to cut away." + +"You'll scratch your hands to ribbons," Mrs Bosenna warned him. + +"'Tisn't worth while comin' down for a pair of hedgin' gloves. . . . +I say, though--I've a better notion! 'Stead of lettin' this fellow run +riot here around the chimney-stack, why not have him down and peg him +horizontal, more or less, across and along the thatch, where he can be +seen?" + +"Capital!" she agreed. "He'd put out more than twice the number of +blooms too. They do always best when laid lateral." + +"He'll come down bodily with a little coaxin'. The question is how to +peg him when he's down?" + +"Rick-spars," answered Mrs Bosenna promptly. "The small kind. There's +dozens in the waggon-house loft." She signalled to William Skin to come +down, bawled an order in his ear, and despatched him to fetch a score or +so. + +"Hullo!" cried Cai, who, being unemployed for the moment, had leisure to +look around and enjoy the view from the roof-ridge. "If it isn't 'Bias +comin' up the path! . . . Hi! 'Bias!" he hailed boyishly, in the old +friendly tone. + +'Bias, stooping to unlatch the gate, heard the call which descended, as +it were, straight from heaven, and gazed about him stupidly. He was +aware of Mrs Bosenna in the pathway, advancing a step or two to make him +welcome. She halted and laughed, with a glance up towards the roof. +'Bias's eyes slowly followed hers. + +"Lord!" he muttered, "what made ye masthead him up there? . . . Been +misbehavin', has he? 'Tis the way I've served 'prentices afore now." + +"On the contrary, he has been behaving beautifully--" + +"Here, 'Bias!" called down Cai again. "Heft along the tall ladder half +a dozen yards to the s'yth'ard, and stand by to help. I'm bringin' down +this plaguy rose-bush, and I'll take some catchin' if I slip with it." + +"'Who ran and caught him when he fell?' 'His Bias,'" quoted Mrs +Bosenna. "He has been doin' wonders up there, Captain Hunken. But if I +were you--a man of your weight--" + +"I reckon," said 'Bias, stepping forward and seizing the ladder, which +he lifted as though it had been constructed of bamboo, "I han't forgot +all I learnt o' reefin' off the Horn." He planted the ladder and had +mounted it in a jiffy. "Now, then, what's the programme?" he demanded. + +"You see this rose? Well, I got to collect it--I've tried the main +stem, and it'll bend all right,--and then I got to slide down to you. +After that we've to peg it out somewheres above the eaves, as Madam +gives orders. See?" + +"I see. When you're ready, slide away." + +Just then William Skin came hurrying back with an armful of rick-spars: +and within ten minutes the two rivals were hotly at work--yet +cheerfully, intelligently, as though misunderstanding had never been,-- +clipping out dead wood from the rose-bush, layering it, pegging it, +driving in the spars,--while Mrs Bosenna called directions, and William +Skin gazed, with open mouth. + +"This is better than ploughin', ma'am?" challenged Cai in his glee. + +"So much better," agreed the widow, smiling up, "that I've almost a mind +to forgive the pair of you." + +"But I won't ask you to stay for dinner to-day," she said later, when +the tangled mass of the Devoniensis had been separated, shoot from +shoot, and pegged out to the last healthy-looking twig, and the two men +stood, flushed but safe, on the pathway beside her. She stole a +confidential little glance at Cai. "For I understand from Captain +Hocken that you prefer to make your excuses separately. I have already +forgiven _him_: and it's only fair to give Captain Hunken his turn." + +Who less suspicious than Cai? Had he been suspicious at all, what +better reassurance than the sly pressure of her hand as he bade her +good-day? . . . Poor 'Bias! + +Once past the gate, and out of sight, Cai felt a strange desire to skip! + + +"Well, mistress, you are a bold one, I must say!" commented Dinah that +night by the kitchen fire, where Mrs Bosenna enjoyed a chat and, at this +season of the year, a small glass of hot brandy-and-water, with a slice +of lemon in it, before going to bed. + +"I don't see where the boldness comes in," said the widow. She was +studying the fire, and spoke inattentively. + +"Two hundred pounds!" + +"Eh? . . . There's no risk in that. You may say what you like of +Captain Hocken or of Captain Hunken: but they're honest as children. +The money's as safe with them as in the bank." + +"Well, it do seem to me a dashin' and yet a very cold-blooded way of +choosin' a man. Now, if I was taken with one--" + +"Well?" prompted Mrs Bosenna, as Dinah paused. + +"Call me weak, but I couldn't help it. I should throw myself straight +at his head, an' ask him to trample me under his boots!" + +"A nice kind of husband you'd make of him then!" said her mistress +scornfully. + +"I know, I know," agreed Dinah. "I've no power o' resistance at all, +an' I daresay the Almighty has saved me a lifetime o' trouble. +'Twould ha' been desperet pleasant at the time though." She sighed. + +"But to give two men a hundred pound each, an' choose the one that +manages it best--" + +"Worst," corrected Mrs Bosenna. "You ninny!" she went on with sovereign +contempt. "Do you really suppose I'd marry a man that could handle my +money, or was vain enough to suppose he could?" + +"O--oh!" gasped Dinah as she took enlightenment. . . . "But two hundred +pounds is a terrible sum to spend in findin' out which o' two men is the +bigger fool. Why not begin wi' the one you like best, and find out +first if he's foolish enough to suit?" + +"Because," answered Mrs Bosenna, turning meditative eyes again upon the +fire, "I don't happen to know which I like best." + +"Then you can't be in love," declared foolish Dinah. + +"Sensible women ain't; not until afterwards. . . . Now, which would you +advise me to marry?" + +"Captain Hunken." Dinah's answer was prompt. "He's that curt. I like +a man to be curt; he makes it so hard for 'ee to say no. Besides which, +as you might say, that parrot of his did break the ice in a manner of +speakin'." + +"Dinah, I'm ashamed of you." + +"Well, mistress, natur' is natur': and we knows what we can't help +knowin'." + +"That's true," Mrs Bosenna agreed. It was her turn to sigh. + +"Cap'n Hunken's the man," repeated Dinah. She nodded her head on it and +paused. "Though, if you ask my opinion, Cap'n Hocken 'd make the better +husband." + +"It's difficult." + +"Ay. . . . For my part I don't know what you want with a husband at +all." + +"Nor I," said Mrs Bosenna, still gazing into the fire. + +"At the best 'tis a risk." + +Mrs Bosenna sighed again. "If it weren't, where'd be the fun?" + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +A NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH. + +Mr Rogers enjoyed his newspaper. To speak more accurately, he enjoyed +several: and one of Fancy's duties--by no means the least pleasant or +the least onerous--was to read to him daily the main contents of +'The Western Morning News,' 'The Western Daily Mercury,' and +'The Shipping Gazette': and on Thursdays from cover to cover--at a +special afternoon _seance_--'The Troy Herald,' with its weekly bulletin +of more local news. + +"What's the items this week?" asked Mr Rogers, puffing at a freshly lit +pipe and settling himself down to listen. + +Fancy opened the paper at its middle sheet, folded it back and scanned +it. + +"Here we are. 'If you want corsets, go to--' no, that's an +advertisement. 'Troy Christian Endeavour. Under the auspices of the +above-named flourishing society--'" + +"Skip the Christian Endeavour." + +"Very well. The next is 'Wesley Guild. A goodly company met this week +to hear the Rev. J. Bates Handcock on "Gambling: its Cause and Cure." +The reverend gentleman is always a favourite at Troy--'" + +"He's none of mine, anyway. Skip the Wesley Guild." + +"Right-o! 'On Wednesday last, in spite of counter attractions, much +interest was testified by those who assembled in the Institute Hall to +hear Mr Trudgeon, lately returned from the United States, on the Great +Canyon of Colorado, illustrated with lantern slides. The lecturer in a +genial manner, after personally conducting his audience across the Great +Continent--'" + +"Damn," said Mr Rogers. "Get on to the drunks. Ain't there any?" + +"Seems not. How will this do?" + + 'Report says that Monday's Agricultural Demonstration + --a full report of which will be found in + another column--was not without its comic relief, + beloved of dramatists. On dit that--'" + +"On what?" + +"Dit. Misprint, perhaps." + + 'On dit that two highly respected sons of the + brine, recently settled in our midst, and one of + whom has recently been elected to teach our young + ideas how to shoot, were so fired with emulation + by the ploughing in Class C as to challenge one + another then and there to a trial of prowess, much + to the entertainment of our agricultural friends. + The stakes were for a considerable amount, and + the two heroes who had elected to plough something + more solid than the waves, quickly found + themselves the observed of all observers. Rumour, + that lying jade, hints at a lady in the case. + Certain it is that the pair, whose names have of + late been syn--been sy-nonymous--with,'-- + +"--O Lor'! here's a heap of it, master!" + +"Skip the long syllables an' get on." + +"H'm--m--" + + '--acquitted themselves to the astonishment of the + judges, and of everybody else in the field. + Search out the lady, as our Gallic neighbours say.' + +--"Where's Gallic?" + +"Don't know. Ask Shake Benny. He supplies the Troy Notes to the +'Herald.'" + +"Oh, does he?" + +"Yes: he gets his gossip off Philp; and dresses it up. That's how it's +done. Philp has a nose like a ferret's: but he was unfort'nit in his +education. You may trust Philp to get at the facts--leastways you can +trust him for gossip: but he can't dress anything up. . . . Why, what's +the matter with the child?" + +Fancy Tabb never laughed: and this was the queerer because she had a +sense of humour beyond her years. Though by no means a gleeful child +she could express glee naturally enough: but a joke merely affected her +with silent convulsive twitchings, as though the risible faculties +struggled somewhere within her but could not bring the laugh to birth. + +These spasms of mirth, whatever had provoked them, were cut short--and +her explanation too--by a heavy footstep on the stairs. + +"Cap'n Hunken!" she announced, and went to open the door. "Most like he +wants to talk business with you same as Cap'n Hocken did this morning, +and I'd better make myself scarce. That's the silly way they've taken +to behave, 'stead of callin' together." + +"Ay, you're sharp, missy," said her master. "But 'twon't be the same +arrand this time, as it happens: so you're wrong for once." + +Fancy, if she heard, did not answer, for 'Bias by this time had reached +the landing without. She opened to him. "Good afternoon, sir." + +"Afternoon, missy. I saw your father in the shop, and he told me to +walk up. Mr Rogers disengaged?" + +"Ay, Cap'n--walk in, walk in!" said Mr Rogers from his chair. +What is it to-day? Business? or just a pipe and a chat?" + +"Well, it's business," allowed 'Bias with a glance at the girl. +"But I'll light a pipe over it, if you don't mind." + +"And I'll fit and make tea for you both," said Fancy. "It's near about +time." + +She vanished and closed the door behind her. 'Bias found a chair, +seated himself, and filled his pipe very slowly and thoughtfully. +Mr Rogers waited. + +"The business that brings me--" 'Bias paused, struck a match and lit +up--"ain't quite the ordinary business." + +"No?" + +"No." For a few seconds 'Bias appeared to be musing. "In fact you +might call it a--a sort o' flutter. That's the word--ain't it?--when +you take a bit o' money and play venturesome with it, against your usual +habits." + +"Ay?" Mr Rogers looked at him sharply. "When I say venturesome," +continued 'Bias, "you'll understand I don't mean foolhardy. . . . +Nothin' o' the sort. I want to hear o' something tolerably safe, into +which a man might put a small sum he happened to have lyin' about." + +"What sort of investment?" + +"Ay, that's just what I want you to tell me. Ten per cent, we'll say, +an' no more'n a moderate risk. . . . I reckoned as a man like you might +know, maybe, o' half a dozen things o' the sort." + +"What's the amount?" Mr Rogers's eyes, that had opened wide for a +moment, narrowed themselves upon him in a curiosity that hid some +humour. + +"Put it at a hundred pound." + +"Oh!--er--I mean, is that all?" + +"You see," exclaimed 'Bias. "You mustn' run away wi' the notion that I +ain't satisfied as things are. Four and five per cent--and that's what +you get for me--does best in the main. I can live within the income and +sleep o' nights. But once in a way--" + +"Ay," interrupted Mr Rogers, "and more especially when _it's to oblige a +friend_." + +'Bias withdrew the pipe from his mouth and stared. "You're a clever +one, too! . . . Well, and I don't mind you're knowin'. 'Tis a relief, +in a way: for now you know I'm pleased enough with your dealins' on my +own account." + +"Thank 'ee. I'm not askin' no names." + +"As to that, I'd rather not mention the name, either. But I'd be very +glad o' your advice: for 'tis important to me, in a way o' speakin'!" + +Mr Rogers nodded. "If that's so," said he, "you must give me a little +time to think. There's mortgages, o' course: and there's deals to be +done in shipping: and there's money-lendin,--though you'd object to +that, maybe. . . . Anyway, you come to me to-morrow, and I may have +something to propose." + +"Thank 'ee. I take that as friendly." + +"Right." Mr Rogers let drop a trembling half-paralysed hand towards the +newspaper which lay on the floor beside his chair. "Would ye mind--" + +'Bias stepped forward and picked it up for him. + +"Thank 'ee. No: I want you to keep it. . . . I'm goin' to do a thing +that's friendlier yet: though it be a risk. Open the paper at the +middle sheet--right-hand side, an' look out a column headed +'Troy News.' . . . Got it?" + +"Half a moment--Yes,' Troy News'--Here we are!" + +"Now cast your eye down the column till you come 'pon a part about last +Monday's Agricultural Demonstration." + +"The devil!" swore 'Bias. "You don't mean to say--" + +"'Course I do. Everything gets into the papers nowadays. . . . +You'll find it spicy." + +'Bias found the paragraph and started to read, with knitted brows. +Its journalistic style held him puzzled for fully half a minute. +Then he ejaculated "Ha!" and snorted. After another ten seconds he +snorted again and exploded some bad words--some very bad words indeed. + +"Thought I'd warn you to be careful," said Mr Rogers. "You don't take +it amiss, I hope? In a little place like this there's eyes about all +the time--an' tongues." + +"I'd like to find the joker who wrote it?" breathed 'Bias, the paper +trembling between his hands. + +"I can't tell you who _wrote_ it," said the ship-chandler; "but I can +give a pretty close guess who's responsible for it: and that's Philp." + +"Philp?" + +"Mind ye, I say 'tis but a guess." + +"I'll Philp him!" + +"Well, he's no fav'rite o' mine," said Mr Rogers grinning. "He's too +suspicious for me, and I hate a man to be suspicious. . . . But he's the +man I suspect." + +"Where does he live?" + +"Union Place--two flights o' steps below John Peter Nanjulian's-- +left-hand side as you go up. But you can't have it out with him on +suspicion only." + +"Can't I?" said 'Bias grimly. "I'll ask him plain 'yes' or 'no.' +If he says 'yes,' I'll know what to do, and you may lay I'll do it." + +"But if he says 'no'?" + +"Then I'll call him a liar," promised 'Bias without a moment's +indecision. "That'll touch him up, I should hope. . . . _Where_ did you +say he lives?" + +At this moment there came a knock at the door and Fancy entered with the +tea-tray. + +"If you'd really like a talk with him," said Mr Rogers, blinking, +"maybe you'd best let the child here take you to his house. . . . +Eh, missy? Cap'n Hunken tells me as how he'd like to pay a call 'pon Mr +Philp, up in Union Place." + +"Now?" asked Fancy. + +"The sooner the better," answered 'Bias, crushing 'The Troy Herald' +between his hands. + +Fancy's hands, disencumbered of the tea-tray, began to twitch violently. +"Very well, master," was all she said, however; and with that she left +the room to fetch her hat and small cloak. + +"I'd advise you to tackle Philp gently," was Mr Rogers's warning as soon +as the pair were alone. "Not that I've any likin' for the man: but the +point is, you've no evidence. He'll tell you--and, likely enough, with +truth--as he never act'ally wrote what's printed." + +"You leave him to me," answered 'Bias grimly, gulping his tea and +preparing to sally forth. + +"An' you might remember to leave the child outside. If a lady's name is +to be handled in the discussion, you understand. . . . Besides which, +witnesses are apt to be awk'ard. Two's the safe number when there's a +delicate point to be cleared up." + +Fancy reappeared and announced herself ready. 'Bias caught up his hat. +. . . Left to himself, Mr Rogers lay back in his chair and chuckled. +He did not care two straws for Mr Philp, or for what might happen to +him. His mind was off on quite another train of thought. + +"I wonder what the woman's game is? 'A hundred pound lyin' idle'--and +Hocken around with the same tale this forenoon. . . . Ten per cent, and +at a moderate risk. . . . She's shrewd, too, by all accounts. . . . +Damme, if this isn't a queer cross-runnin' world! A woman like that, if +I'd had the luck to meet her a three-four year ago--before _this_ +happened!" . . . He eyed his palsied hand as it reached out, shaking, +for the tea-cup. + + +"When we get to the door," said 'Bias heavily, as he and Fancy turned +out of the street into the narrow entry of Union Place, "you're to step +back and run away home." + +"No fear," she assured him. "I'm doin' you a favour, an' don't you +forget it." + +"But you can't come inside with me." + +"_That's_ all right. Nobody said as I wanted to, in my hearin'. +I can see all I want to see. There's a flight o' steps runnin' up close +outside the window." + +She pointed it out and quite candidly indicated the point at which she +proposed to perch herself. "And there's another window at the back," +she added: "so's you can see all that's happenin' inside." + +"Better fit you ran away home," he repeated. + +"You can't _make_ me," retorted Fancy. "Unless, o' course, you choose +to use force, here in broad daylight. As a friend of mine said, only +the other day," she went on, snatching at a purple patch from +'Pickerley,' "the man as would lift his hand against a woman deserves +whatever can be said of him. Public opinion will condemn him in this +life, and, in the next, worms are his portion. So there!" + +"I dunno what you're talkin' about," said 'Bias, preoccupied with the +thought of coming vengeance. + +"Who's meanin' to lift his hand against a woman?" + +"Well, mind you don't, that's all!" + +She left him standing on the doorstep, and skipped away up the steps. +Having reached a point which commanded a view over the blinds of Mr +Philp's front window, she gave a glance into the room, and at once her +arms and legs started to twitch as though in the opening movement of +some barbaric war-dance. + +'Bias, still inattentive, took no heed of these contortions. After a +moment's pause he rapped sharply on the door with the knob of his +walking-stick, then boldly lifted the latch and strode into the passage. + +On his right the door of the front parlour stood ajar. He thrust it +wide open and entered. And, as he entered, a female figure arose from a +chair on the far side of the room. + +"I--I beg your pardon, ma'am!" stammered 'Bias, falling back a pace. + +"Polly wants a kiss!" screamed a voice. It did not seem to proceed from +the lady. . . . Somehow, too, it was strangely familiar. . . . +'Bias stared wildly about him. + +At the same moment, and just as his eyes fell on the parrot-cage on the +table, the lady--But was it a lady? Heavens! what did it resemble--this +figure in female attire? + +"Drat your bird! He won't say no worse! And this is the third mornin' +I've sat temptin' him!" + +Mr Philp--yes, it was Mr Philp--in black merino frock, Paisley shawl and +ribboned cap on which a few puce-coloured poppies nodded--Mr Philp, with +a handful of knitting, and a ball of worsted trailing at his feet-- +But it is impossible to construct a sentence which would do justice to +Mr Philp as he loomed up and swam into ken through 'Bias's awed surmise; +and the effort shall be abandoned. + +Mr Philp slowly unwound the woollen wrap that had swathed his beard out +of sight. + +"Clever things, birds," said Mr Philp, and his voice seemed to regain +its identity as the folds of the bandage dropped from him. "I wonder +whether shavin' would help! . . . I don't like to be beat." + +'Bias, who had come with that very intent, lifted a hand--but let it +fall again. No, he could not! + +"Good Lord!" he ejaculated, and fled from the house. + +Outside, Fancy--who had seen all--was executing a fandango on the step. + +"Help!" she called, taunting him. "_Who_ talked o' liftin' a hand +against a woman?" + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +THE AUCTION. + +One result of the paragraph in 'The Troy Herald' was to harden the two +friends' estrangement just at the moment when it promised to melt. +Troy with its many amenities has a deplorable appetite for gossip; and +to this appetite the contention of Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken for +Mrs Bosenna's hand gave meat and drink. (There was, of course, no +difficulty in guessing what Mr Shake Benny would have called "the +_inamorata's_ identity.") Malicious folk, after their nature, assumed +the pair to be in quest of her money. The sporting ones laid bets. +Every one discussed the item with that frankness which is so +characteristic of the little town, and so engaging when you arrive at +knowing us, though it not infrequently disconcerts the newcomer. +Barber Toy--having Cai at his mercy next morning, with a razor close to +his throat--heartily wished him success. + +"Not," added Mr Toy, "that I bear any ill-will to Cap'n Hunken. But I +back a shaved chin on principle, for the credit of the trade." + +A sardonic and travelled seaman, waiting his turn in the corner, +hereupon asked how he managed when it came to the Oxford and Cambridge +boat-race. + +"I'll tell you," answered Mr Toy. "I wasn't at Oxford myself--_nor_ at +Cambridge; and for years I'd back one or 'nother, 'cordin' to the +newspapers. But that isn't a satisfactory way. When you're dealin' +with an honest event--_honest_, mind you--as goes on year after year +between two parties both ekally set on winnin', the only way to get real +satisfaction is to pick your fancy an' go on backin' it. That gives ye +a different interest altogether, like with Liberal or Conservative at a +General Election. If you don't win this time, you look forward to next. +. . . Well, one day Mr Philp here came into the shop wearin' a dark blue +tie, and says I, 'You're Oxford.' 'Am I?' says he--'It's the first I've +heard tell of it.' 'You're Oxford,' says I: 'and I'm Cambridge, for +half-a-crown.' Odd enough, Cambridge won that year by eight lengths." + +"I wonder you have the face to tell this story," put in Mr Philp. + +The barber grinned. "Well, I thought as we'd both settled 'pon our +fancy, in a neighbourly way. But be dashed if, soon after the followin' +Christmas, Mr Philp didn't send his tie to the wash, and it came back +any blue you pleased. 'Make it one or t'other--_I_ don't care,' said I: +and he weighed the choice so long, bein' a cautious man, that we missed +to make up any bet at all. If you'll believe me, that year they rowed a +dead heat." + +"Very curious," commented Cai. + +"But that isn' the end," continued the barber. "Next year he'd washed +his necktie again, and that 'twas Cambridge he couldn' dispute. So we +put on another half-crown, and Oxford won by two lengths. . . . 'Twas a +pity I could never induce him to bet again, for his tie went on getting +Cambridger and Cambridger, while Oxford won four years out o' five." + +"If you believe there was any honesty in it!" said Mr Philp. +"'Twas only my suspicious natur' as saved me." + + +The whole town, indeed, was watching the rivals, and with an open +interest very difficult to resent. Nay, since it was impossible to tell +every second man in the street to mind his own business, Cai and 'Bias +accepted the publicity perforce and turned their resentment upon one +another. + +They continued, of course, to live apart, and Mrs Bowldler soon learned +to avoid playing the intermediary, even to the extent of suggesting +(say) some concerted action over the coal supplies. After the first +fortnight no messages passed between them-- + + "They stood aloof, the scars remaining, + Like cliffs that had been rent asunder." + +If they met, in shop or roadway, they nodded, but exchanged no other +greeting. They never met at Rilla Farm. How it was agreed I know not, +though Mrs Bosenna must have contrived it somehow; but they now +prosecuted their wooing openly on alternate days. Sunday she reserved +for what Sunday ought to be--a day of rest. + +"The artfulness!" exclaimed Mrs Bowldler on making discovery of this +arrangement. "But the men are no match for us, my dear"--this to +Fancy--"an' the oftener they marry us the cleverer they leave us." + +"Then 'tis a good job Henry the Eighth wasn' a woman," commented Fancy. + +"There was some such case in the Scriptures, if you'll remember; and it +says that last of all the woman died also. If she did, you may be sure +as 'twasn't till she chose." + +"I heard Mr Rogers say t'other day, 'Never marry a widow unless her +first husband was hanged.'" + +"Pray let us change the subjeck," said Mrs Bowldler hastily. + +"Why? . . . What did Mr Bowldler die of? I've often meant to ask," said +Fancy, "and then again I've wondered sometimes if there ever was any +such person." + +"There _was_ such a person." Mrs Bowldler half-closed her eyes in +dreamy reminiscence. "Further than that I would not like to commit +myself." + +"He's dead, then?" + +"He was a fitter in a ladies' tailorin', and naturally gay by +temperament. It led to misunderstandin's. . . . Dead? No, not that I +am aware of. For all I know he's still starrin' it somewhere in the +provinces." + +She protested that for the moment she must drop the subject, which +invariably affected her with palpitations; but promised to return to it +in confidence when she felt stronger. + + +Throughout these days, however, and for many days to come, she +discoursed at large on the diplomacy of widows; warning Palmerston to +shape his course in avoidance of them. And that budding author--who had +already learnt to take his good things where he found them--boldly +transferred her warnings to the pages of 'Pickerley,' which thereby +arrived at resembling 'Pickwick' in one respect if in no other. + +From these generalities she would hark back, at shortest notice, to the +practical present. + +"It behoves us--seein' as how a tempory cloud has descended between +these two establishments--it behoves us, I say, to watch out for its +silver lining in one form or another. Which talking of silver reminds +me of electro, and I'll ask you, Palmerston, if that's the way to leave +a mustard-pot and call yourself an indoor male?" + + +Their estrangement had endured some three months before the rivals came +again into public collision. + +The beginning of it happened through a very excusable misunderstanding. + +Is Christmas Day to be reckoned as an ordinary day of the week, or as a +Sunday, or as a _dies non?_ The reader must decide. + +Christmas Day that year fell on a Friday--one of the three week-days +tacitly allotted to Cai, who may therefore be forgiven that he chose to +reckon it as coming within the ordinary routine. He did so, and at +about three o'clock in the afternoon (which was bright and sunny) he +reached the small gate of Rilla, to be aware of 'Bias striding up the +pathway ahead of him. + +He gave chase in no small choler. + +"Look here," he protested, panting; "haven't you made some mistake? +This is Friday." + +"Christmas Day," answered 'Bias, wheeling about. + +"I can't help that. 'Tis Friday." + +"An' next year 'twill be Saturday," retorted 'Bias with a sour grin; +"it that'll content you, when it comes. None of us can't help it. +Th' almanack says 'tis Christmas Day, and ord'nary days o' the week +don't count. Besides, 'tis quarter-day, and I've brought my rent." + +"I've brought mine, too," replied Cai. "Well, we'll leave it to Mrs +Bosenna to settle." + +They walked up to the house in silence. Dinah, who answered the bell, +appeared to be somewhat upset at sight of the two on the doorstep +together. (Yet we know that Dinah never opened the front door without a +precautionary survey.) She admitted them to the front parlour, and +opining that her mistress was somewhere's about the premises, departed +in search of her. + +'Bias took up a position with his back to the fire and his legs +a-straddle. Cai stuck his hands in his pockets and stared gloomily out +of window. For some three minutes neither spoke, then Cai, of a sudden, +gave a start. + +"There's that Middlecoat!" he exclaimed. + +"Hey?" 'Bias hurried to the window, but the young farmer had already +passed out of sight. + +"Look here," suggested Cai, "it's just an well we turned up, one or +both. That man's a perfect bully, so she tells me." + +"She've told me the same, more than once." + +"Always pickin' some excuse for a quarrel. It ain't right for a woman +to live alongside such a neighbour unprotected." + +"So I've told her." + +"Well, he's in the devil of a rage just now,--to judge by the look of +him, an' the way he was smackin' his leg with an ash-plant as he went +by." + +"Was he now?" 'Bias considered for a moment. "You may depend he took +advantage, not expectin' either of us to turn up to-day. . . . +I shouldn't wonder if the maid properly scared him with news we were +here." + +Sure enough Dinah returned in a moment to report that her mistress was +in her rose-garden; and following her thither, they found Mrs Bosenna, +flushed of face and evidently mastering an extreme discomposure. + +"I,--I hardly expected you," she began. + +"It's Friday," said Cai. + +"It's Christmas Day," said 'Bias. "I reckon he counted on that,--that +Middlecoat, I mean." + +"Eh? . . . Mr Middlecoat--" + +"Saw him takin' his leave, not above three minutes ago." + +"You,--you saw him taking his leave?" + +"Stridin' down the hill, angry as a bull," Cai assured her. + +"He's a dreadful man to have for a neighbour," confessed Mrs Bosenna, +recovering grip on her composure. "The way he threatens and bullies!" + +"I'll Middlecoat him, if he gives me but half a chance!" swore 'Bias. + +"If I'd known either of you was in hail. . . . But I reckoned you'd both +be countin' this for a Sunday." + +"Christmas Day isn't Sunday, not more'n once in seven years," objected +'Bias. + +"It's Friday this year," said Cai, with simple conviction. + +"Fiddlestick!" retorted 'Bias. "You can't make it out to be like an +ordinary Friday--I defy you. There's a--a _feelin'_ about the day." + +"It feels like Friday to me," maintained Cai. + +But here Mrs Bosenna interposed. "'Twon't feel like Christmas to _me_ +then if you two start arguin'. 'Peace and goodwill' was the motto, as I +thought; but I don't see much of either abroad this afternoon." + +The pair started guiltily and avoided each other's eyes. Many a time in +distant ports they had talked together of Christmas in England and of +Christmas fare--the goose, the plum-pudding. They had promised +themselves a rare dinner to celebrate their first Christmas in England, +and it had come to--what? To a dull meal eaten apart, served by a Mrs +Bowldler on the verge of tears, and by a Palmerston frankly ravaged by +woe. It had happened--happened past recall, and as Mrs Bowldler had +more than once observed in the course of the morning, the worst was not +over yet. "For," as she said, "out of two cold geese and two cold +puddings I'll trouble you this next week for your entrays and what-not." + + +"What was Middlecoat's business, ma'am?--makin' so bold," inquired +'Bias. + +"Oh!" she answered quickly, "he's a terrible young man! Wants his own +way in everything, like most farmers, and turns violent when he can't +get it. . . . He came about next week's sale, among other things." + +"What sale, ma'am?" + +"Why, surely you must have seen? The bills have been out for days. +Squire Willyams is gettin' rid of his land this side of the stream, +right down from here to the railway station. Fifty acres you may call +it; the most of it waste or else coppice,--and coppice don't pay for +cuttin'. You've almost to go down on your knees before anybody will +cart it away." + +"I _did_ hear some word of it down in Toy's shop, now I come to think," +said Cai. "But if the land's worthless--" + +"It's worth little enough to any one but me and Mr Middlecoat. You see, +it marches right alongside our two farms, between them and the Railway +Company's strip along the waterside, and--well, Rilla's freehold and +Middlecoat's is freehold, and it's nature, I suppose, to be jealous of +any third party interlopin'. But I don't want the land, and so I've +told him; nor I won't bid against him and run up the price,--though +that's what they're aimin' at by an auction." + +"Then what in thunder does the fellow want?" demanded 'Bias. + +"If you'll climb 'pon the hedge yonder--that's my boundary--you'll see a +little strip of a field, not fifty yards wide, runnin' down this side of +the plantation. It widens a bit, higher up the hill, but 'tis scarcely +more than a couple acres, even so. Barton's Orchard, they call it." + +"But what about it?" asked Cai, craning his neck over to examine the +plot. + +"Why, to be sure I want to take it in for my roses. It lies rather too +near the trees, to be sure; but one could trench along the far side and +fill the trench with concrete, to check their roots from spreadin' this +way; and all the soil is good along this side of the valley." + +"Then why not buy it, ma'am, since 'tis for sale? Though for my part," +added Cai, looking round upon the beds which, just now, were unsightly +enough, with stiff leafless shoots protruding above their winter mulch, +"I can't think what you want with more roses than you have already." + +"One can never have too many roses," declared Mrs Bosenna. "Let be that +there's new ones comin' out every year, faster than you can keep count +with them. Folks'll never persuade me that the old H.P.'s don't do best +for Cornwall; but when you go in for exhibition there's the judges and +their fads to be considered, and the rage nowadays is all for Teas and +high centres. . . . When first I heard as that parcel of ground was +likely to come in the market, I sat down and planned how I'd lay it out +with three long beds for the very best Teas, and fence off the top with +a rose hedge--Wichurianas or Penzance sweet briars--and call it my +Jubilee Garden; next year bein' the Diamond Jubilee, you know. All the +plants could be in before the end of February, and I'll promise myself +that by June, when the Queen's day came round, there shouldn't be a +loyaller-bloomin' garden in the land." + +"Well," allowed Cai, "that's sensibler anyway than puttin' up arches and +mottoes. But what's to prevent ye?" + +"'Tis that nasty disagreeable Mr Middlecoat," answered Mrs Bosenna +pettishly. "He comes and tells me now as that strip has always been the +apple of his eye. . . . It's my belief he wants to grow roses against +me; and what's more, it's my belief he'd swallow up all Rilla if he +could; which is better land than his own, acre for acre. It angers him +to live alongside a woman and be beaten by her at every point o' +farmin'." + +"But you've the longer purse, ma'am, as I understand," suggested 'Bias. +"Talkin' o' which--" He fumbled in his breast-pocket and produced an +envelope. + +"My rent, ma'am." + +"Ay, to be sure: and mine, ma'am," Cai likewise produced his rent. + +"You are the most punctual of tenants!" laughed Mrs Bosenna, taking the +two envelopes. "But after all, they say, short reckonin's make long +friends." + +She divided a glance between them, to be shared as they would. + +"But as I was suggestin' ma'am--why not attend the sale and outbid the +fellow?" + +"So I can, of course: and so I will, perhaps. Still it's not pleasant +to live by a neighbour who thinks he can walk in and hector you, just +because you're a woman." + +"You want protection: that's what you want," observed 'Bias fatuously. + +"In your place," said Cai with more tact, "I should forbid him the +premises." + + +For some reason Mrs Bosenna omitted to invite them to stay and drink +tea: and after a while they took their leave together. At the foot of +the descent, as they gained the highroad, Cai faced about and asked, +"Which way?" + +"I was thinkin' to stretch my legs around Four Turnin's," answered +'Bias, although as a matter of fact the intention had that instant +occurred to him. + +"Well, so long!" Cai nodded and turned towards the town. "Compliments +of the season," he added. + +"Same to you." + +They walked off in opposite directions. + +On his way home through the town Cai took occasion to study the Bill of +Auction on one of the hoardings. It advertised the property in separate +small lots, of which Barton's Orchard figured as No. 9. The bill gave +its measurement as 1 acre, 1 rood, 15 perches. The sale would take +place at the Ship Hotel, Troy, on Monday, January 4,1897, at 2.30 P.M. +Messrs Dewy and Moss, Auctioneers. + + +In the course of the next week he made one or two attempts to sound Mrs +Bosenna and assure himself that she meant to attend the sale and secure +Lot 9; but she spoke of it with an irritating carelessness. Almost it +might have persuaded him--had he been less practised in her wayward +moods--that she had dismissed the affair from her mind. But on Friday +(New Year's Day) as he took leave of her, she recurred to it. +"Dear me," said she meditatively, "I shall not be seeing you for several +days, shall I?" + +"Eh? Why not?" + +"To-morrow's Saturday; then Sunday's our day of rest, as Dinah calls it. +On Monday's the auction--" + +"Ah, to be sure!" Cai had forgotten this consequence of it, and was +dashed in spirits for the moment. "But I shall see you there?" + +"Perhaps," she answered negligently. "Shall you be attendin'? +Really, now!" + +With an accent of reproach he asked how she could imagine that a +business so nearly concerning her could find him other than watchful. +On leaving he repeated his good wishes for the twelvemonth to come, and +with a warmth of intention which she perversely chose to ignore. + +To be sure he meant to attend the sale. Nor was he surprised on +entering the Ship Inn next Monday, some ten minutes ahead of the +advertised time, to find 'Bias in the bar with a glass of hot brandy and +water at his elbow. Cai ordered a rum hot. + +"Where's the auction to be held?" he inquired of Mr Oke, the landlord. + +"Long Room as usual." Mr Oke jerked a thumb towards the stairs; and +Cai, having drained his glass, went up. + +In the Long Room, which is a handsome apartment with waggon roof and +curious Jacobean mouldings dating from the time when The Ship was built +to serve as "town house" for one of Troy's great local families, Cai +found a sparse company waiting for the sale to open, and noted with +momentary dismay that Mrs Bosenna had not yet arrived. But after all, +he reflected, there was no need for extreme punctuality, it would take +the auctioneer some time to reach Lot 9. + +The company included young Mr Middlecoat, of course; and, equally of +course, Mr Philp, who had no interest in the sale beyond that of +curiosity; some three or four farmers from the back-country, who had +apparently come for no purpose but to lend Mr Middlecoat their moral +support, since, as it turned out, not one of them made a serious bid; +Squire Willyams' steward, Mr Baker,--a tall, clean-shaven man with a +watchful non-committal face; one or two frequenters of The Ship's +bar-parlour; and the Quaymaster, by whom (as Barber Toy remarked) any +new way of neglecting his duties was hailed as a godsend. + +Mr Dewy, the auctioneer, sat with his clerk at the end of the table, +arranging his papers and unrolling his map of the property. He was a +fussy little man, and made a great pother because the map as soon as +unrolled started to roll itself up again. He weighted one corner with +the inkpot, and for a second weight reached out a hand for one of three +hyacinth vases which decorated the centre of the table. The bulb +toppled over and, sousing into the inkpot, sent up a _jet d'encre_, +splashes of which distributed themselves over the map, over the clerk, +over Mr Baker's neat pepper-and-salt suit, and over Mr. Dewy's own fancy +waistcoat. Much blotting-paper was called into use, and many apologies +were hastily offered to Mr Baker; in the midst of which commotion 'Bias +strolled into the room, and took a seat near the door. + +Having mopped the worst of the damage on the map and offered his +handkerchief to Mr Baker (who declined it), Mr Dewy picked up a small +ivory hammer, stained his fingers with an unnoticed splash of ink on its +handle, licked them, wiped them carefully with his handkerchief, picked +up the hammer again, and announced that the sale had begun. + +"Lot I.--All that Oak Coppice known as Higher Penpyll. Eighteen acres, +one rood, eleven perches. Aspect south and south-west. . . . +But there, gentlemen, you are all acquainted with the property, I make +no doubt. . . . Any one present not possessed of the sale catalogue? +Yes, I see a gentleman over there without one. Mr Chivers, would you +oblige?" + +The clerk, still attempting to remove some traces of ink from his +person, distributed half a dozen copies of the printed catalogue. +He gave one to Cai. 'Bias, too, held out a hand and received one. + +"Lot I.," resumed Mr Dewy. "All that desirable woodland (oak coppice) +known as Higher Penpyll. Eighteen acres and a trifle over. _Now_, what +shall we say, gentlemen?" + +"Fifty pounds," said Mr Middlecoat promptly. + +The auctioneer glanced at Mr Baker, who frowned. + +"Now, Mr Middlecoat! Now really, sir! . . . This is serious business, +and you offer me less than three pounds an acre! The coppice is good +coppice, too." + +"'Twill hardly pay to clear," answered Mr Middlecoat. "But why can't ye +lump this lot in with the two next? . . . That's my suggestion. +If Mr Baker is agreeable? They all run in one stretch, so to speak; +and, in biddin' for the whole, a man would know where he's _to_." + +Mr Dewy, speaking in whispers behind his palm, held consultation with Mr +Baker. + +"Very well," he announced at length. "Mr Baker, actin' on behalf of +Squire Willyams, consents to the three lots bein' put up together-- +_ong block_, as the French would say. No objection? Very well, then. +Lot 1, Higher Penpyll, eighteen acres, one rood, eleven perches: Lot 2, +Lower Penpyll, forty-two acres, three perches--forty-two almost exact: +Lot 3, Wooda Wood, forty acres, one rood, one perch; all in oak coppice, +two to five years' growth. What offers, gentlemen, for this very +desirable timbered estate?" + +"Three-fifty!" + +"Come, Mr Middlecoat!" protested the auctioneer, after another glance at +Mr Baker. "Indeed, sir, you will not drive me to believe as you're +jokin'?" + +Mr Middlecoat, whose gaze had rested on Mr Baker, faced about, and, +looking down the table, caught the eye of one of his supporters, who +nodded. + +"Three-seven-five!" called out the supporter. + +"Four hundred!" Mr Middlecoat promptly capped +the bid. + +"That's a little better, gentlemen," Mr Dewy encouraged them. + +Apparently, too, it was the best. For some three minutes he exhorted +and rebuked them, but could evoke no further bid. There was a prolonged +pause. The auctioneer glanced again at Mr Baker, who, while seemingly +unaware of the appeal, slightly inclined his head. Mr Middlecoat's eyes +had rested on Mr Baker all the while. + +"One hundred acres, as you may say, at less than four pounds the acre! +Well, if any man had prophesied this to me on the day when I entered +business--" Mr Dewy checked himself, and let fall the hammer. +"Mr Middlecoat, sir, you're a lucky man." He announced, "Lot 4--Two +arable fields, known as Willaparc Veor and Willapark Vear respectively: +the one of six acres, one rood, and six perches; the other of three and +a half acres." + +As the auction proceeded, even the guileless Cai could not help +detecting an air of unreality about it. Mr Middlecoat bid for +everything. Now and again, if Mr Middlecoat miscalculated, a friend +helped and raised the price by a very few pounds for Mr Middlecoat to +try again: which Mr Middlecoat duly did. It became obvious that Mr +Middlecoat had somehow possessed himself of a pretty close guess at what +price Squire Willyams would part with each lot instead of "buying in"; +that Mr Baker knew it; that the auctioneer knew it; that everyone in the +room knew they knew; and that nobody in the room was disposed to prevent +Mr Middlecoat's acquiring whatever was offered. + +Under these conditions the sale proceeded swiftly, pleasantly, and +without a hitch. Cai cast frequent glances back at the door. But the +minutes sped on, and still Mrs Bosenna did not appear. + +"Lot 9--A field known as Barton's Orchard. Two perches only short of +two acres--" + +"Say twenty-five," said Mr Middlecoat carelessly. + +Again Cai glanced back. The farm land had been fetching on an average +some twenty to twenty-five pounds an acre. . . . Why was Mrs Bosenna not +here? + +On an impulse--annoyed, perhaps, by the young farmer's +take-it-for-granted tone--he called out "Thirty!" + +The auctioneer and Mr Baker--who had just signified, by a slight frown, +that he could not accept the young farmer's bid--glanced up incuriously. +Mr Middlecoat, too, turned about, not recognising the voice of his new +"bonnet,"--to use a term not unfamiliar in auctioneering. + +But Cai did catch their glances: for at the same moment he, too, wheeled +about at the sound of a deep voice by the door. + +"Forty!" + +"Eh?" murmured Mr Dewy and Mr Baker, together taken by surprise. +And "Hullo, what the dev--" began Mr Middlecoat, when Cai promptly +chimed "Fifty!" + +For the new bidder was 'Bias, of course: and well, in a flash, Cai +guessed his game. Since Mrs Bosenna chose to tarry, 'Bias was bidding +against him. It was a duel. Should 'Bias win and present her with +these coveted two acres? Never! + +"Sixty!" + +"Here, I say!" Mr Middlecoat was heard to gasp in protest. But he too +began to suspect a game. "Sixty-five!" The duel had become triangular. + +"Seventy!" + +"Eighty!" intoned 'Bias. + +"A hundred!" Cai's jaw was set. + +By this time all heads were turned to the new competitors. Two or three +of the farmers were whispering, asking if by any chance there was +mineral in dispute. One had heard--or so he alleged--that "manganese" +had been discovered somewhere up the valley--before his time--but he +could remember his father telling of it. + +Mr Middlecoat stepped to the window and glanced out in to the square for +a moment. He returned, and nervously bid "Ten more!" + +"Excuse me," the auctioneer corrected him blandly; "the gentleman at the +far end of the room--I didn't catch his name--" + +"Hunken," said 'Bias. + +"_Captain_ Hunken," prompted Mr Philp. + +"Er--excuse me, Mr Middlecoat, but Captain Hunken has just offered a +hundred-and-twenty." + +"And thirty!" chimed Cai. + +"Fifty!" intoned back the voice by the door. + +Mr Middlecoat passed a hand over his brow. "Another ten," he murmured +to the auctioneer. "Is there a boy handy? I--I want to send out a +message?" + +"Certainly, Mr Middlecoat," agreed the accommodating but bewildered +auctioneer, and turned to his clerk. + +"Mr Chivers, would you oblige?" + +The young farmer scribbled a word or two on a piece of paper, which he +folded and gave to Mr Chivers with some hurried instruction; and Mr +Chivers steered his way out with agility. But meanwhile the bidding for +Barton's Orchard had risen to two hundred. + +"Say another ten, to keep it going," proposed Mr Middlecoat, wiping his +brow although the weather was chilly. To gain time, he suggested that +maybe there was some mistake; that the gentlemen, maybe, had not +examined the map of the property and might be bidding for some other lot +under a misapprehension. + +Mr Baker objected to this. The description of the lots on the catalogue +was precise and definite. The two gentlemen obviously knew what they +were about. The field was a small field, but the soil was undeniably of +the best, and in the interests of the vendor-- + +"Two hundred and thirty!" interrupted 'Bias. + +"--and fifty!" bid Cai. + +There was a pause. Mr Dewy looked at Mr Middlecoat, who under his gaze +admitted himself willing to stake two hundred and sixty. "Though 'tis +the price of building land!" + +"Apparently you are willing to give it rather than let the purchase go," +observed Mr Baker drily. "For aught you know both these gentlemen may +be desiring it for a building site. Did I hear one of them say +two-seventy-five? Captain--er--Hunken, if I caught the name?" + +"Two-eighty," persisted Cai. + +"Two-ninety!" + +"Well, make it three hundred, and I've done!" groaned Mr Middlecoat +collapsing. + +"Three--" + +"What's all this?" interrupted a voice, very sweet and cool in the +doorway. + +"Mrs Bosenna?--Your servant, ma'am!" Mr Dewy rose halfway in his seat +and made obeisance. "We are dealing with a lot which may concern you, +ma'am; for it runs "--he consulted his map--"Yes--I thought so--right +alongside your property at Rilla. A trifle over two acres, ma'am, and +Mr Middlecoat has just bid three hundred for it." + +"And"--began Cai: but Mrs Bosenna (taken though she must have been by +surprise) was quick and frowned him to silence. + +"And a deal more than its value, as Captain Hocken was about to say. +Will any fool bid more for such a patch?" + +Cai and 'Bias stared together, interrogating her. But there was no +further bid, and Mr Dewy knocked down the lot at 300 pounds. + + +"Which," said Mrs Bosenna meditatively to Dinah that night, "you may +call two hundred and fifty clean thrown into the sea. And the worst is +that though Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken are a pair of fools and Mr +Middlecoat a bigger fool than either--as it turns out, I'm the biggest +fool of all." + +"How, mistress?" + +"Why, you ninny! They were buying, one against the other, to make me a +present, and I stepped in and saved young Middlecoat's face. Yet," she +mused, "I don't see what else he could have done. . . . Well, thank the +Lord! he'll be humble now, which the others were and he wasn't." + +"He's young, anyway," urged Dinah. + +"That's something," her mistress conceded. "It gives the more time to +rub in his foolishness, and he'll never hear the last of it." + +"Three hundred pounds, too!" ejaculated Dinah. "The very sound of it +frightens me. A terrible sum to throw to waste!" + +"I wouldn't say that altogether. . . . Yes, you may unlace me. +What fools men are!" + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +THE LAST CHALLENGE. + +Next Lady-day, which fell on a Thursday, 'Bias called upon Mrs Bosenna +with his rent and with the pleasing announcement that in a week or so he +proposed to pay her a further sum of seven pounds eight shillings and +fourpence; this being the ascertained half-year's dividend earned by the +hundred pounds she had entrusted to his stewardship. + +She warmly commended him. "Close upon fifteen per cent! I wonder-- +But there! I suppose you won't tell me how it's done, not if I ask ever +so?" + +'Bias looked knowing and reminded her that to ask no questions was a +part of her bargain. As a matter of fact it was also a part of his +bargain with Mr Rogers, and he could not have told had he wished to +tell. + +"I suppose you've heard the latest news?" said he. "They've chosen me +on the Harbour Board--Ship-owners' representative." + +"I didn't even know there had been an election." + +"No more there hasn't. Rogers made the vacancy, and managed it for me; +retired in my favour, as you might say." + +"Seems to me Mr Rogers must be weakenin' in his head." + +"Oh no, he's not!" 'Bias assured her with a chuckle. "But he's pretty +frail in the body. At his time o' life and with his infirmity a man may +be excused, surely?" + +"I reckon," said Mrs Bosenna, "there's few would have wept if Mr Rogers +had superannuated himself years ago. Now if you'd told me he was +_turned_ out--" + +"You're hard on Rogers!" he protested, tasting the joke of it. + +"Well, I don't think he took on these jobs for his health, as they say; +and so it comes hard to believe as he goes out o' them for that reason. +But there! he may be an honester man than I take him for. . . . +Well, and so you're becomin' a public man too! I congratulate you." + +"I wouldn' call myself _that_," said 'Bias modestly. "But one or two +have suggested that a fellow like me, with plenty of time on his hands, +might look after a few small things and the way public money's spent on +'em." He might have claimed that at any rate he knew more of harbour +affairs than Cai could possibly know of education: but he did not. +To their honour, neither he nor Cai--though they ruffled when face to +face before folks--ever spoke an ill word behind the other's back. +"There's the dredgin', for one thing; and, for another, the way they're +allowed to lade down foreign-goin' ships is a scandal." + +"Is it the Harbour's business to stop that?" + +"It ought to be somebody's business." + +"You'll get nicely thanked," she promised, "if you interfere--and as a +ship-owners' representative too!" + +"There's another matter," confessed 'Bias. "They've asked me to put up +for the Parish Council next month. There's a notion that, with this +here Diamond Jubilee comin' on, the town ought to rise to the occasion." + +"And you're the man to give it the lift!" said Mrs Bosenna gaily. +"Is Captain Hocken standin' too?" + +"They say so." + +"Then I'll plump for both of you. Wait, though--I won't promise: or +when the canvass starts you'll both be neglectin' me." + + +The next day Cai called in turn with his rent. "And there's another +little matter," said he after handing it to her. "You remember that +hundred pounds? Well there's a half-year's dividend declared and due on +it, and the cheque's to arrive some time next week. What's the amount, +d'ye guess?" + +"Satisfactory?" + +"Seven pounds eight shillings and fourpence. . . . Eh? I _thought_ it +might astonish you." + +"It's--it's such an odd amount," she murmured. + +"It's close upon fifteen per cent." + +"Yes. You took my breath away for the moment. I wonder at the way you +men--I mean, I wonder how _you_ do it--turnin' money to such good +account? 'Tis a gift I suppose; and you couldn' teach me, even if you +would." + +Cai received the compliment with a somewhat guilty smile. + +"They tell me too," she continued, "that you are standin' for the Parish +Council next month." + +"Who told you?" + +"Oh . . . a little bird!" + +Cai did not guess at 'Bias under this description. "Well, you see, with +this here Diamond Jubilee in the offing, there's a feelin' abroad that +the town ought to sit up, as the sayin' is--" + +"And you're the man to make it sit up!" said Mrs Bosenna gaily. + +"Well now, I want you to help me." + +Mrs Bosenna started, alert at once and on her guard; for the game of +fence she had chosen to play with these two demanded a constant +wariness. + +But it seemed that for the moment Cai had no design to press his suit-- +or no direct design. + +"It's this way," he explained. "You know the stevedores, down at the +jetties, are givin' their usual Whit-Monday regatta--Passage Regatta, as +some call it? Well, they've made me President this year." + +"More honours?" + +"And I've offered a Cup; which seemed the proper thing to do, under the +circumstances. 'A silver cup, value 5 pounds, presented by the +President, Caius Hocken, Esquire': it'll look fine 'pon the bills, and +it's to go with the first prize of two guineas for sailin' boats not +exceedin' fourteen feet over-all. There's what they call a one-design +Class o' these in the harbour: which is good sport and worth +encouragin'. There's no handicap in it either: the first past the line +takes the prize--always the prettiest kind o' race to watch. Now the +favour I ask is that, when the time comes, you'll hand the Cup to the +winner." + +"It--it'll look rather marked, won't it?" hesitated Mrs Bosenna. +She had as small a disinclination as any woman to find herself the +central figure in a show, and Cai (had he known it) was attacking one of +the weakest points in her siege-defences. But to accept this offer--or +(if you prefer it) to grant the favour--meant a move on the board which +might too easily lead to a trap. "Besides," she objected, "you can't do +that sort o' thing without a few words, and I've never made a public +speech in my life." + +"You leave the speechifyin' to me," said Cai reassuringly: but it did +not reassure her at all. ("Good gracious!" she thought. "He's not the +sort to take advantage of it--but if he _did!_ . . . You can never trust +men.") + +Cai, misinterpreting the frown on her brow, went on to assure her +further that he could manage a speech all right; at any rate, he would +be able by Whit-Monday. He had--he would tell her in confidence--been +taking some lessons in elocution of (or, as he put it, "off") Mr Peter +Benny. + +"Did you ever hear tell of a man called Burke?" he asked. + +"'Course I did," answered Mrs Bosenna, albeit the question startled her. +"My old nurse told me about him often. He used to go about snatchin' +bodies." + +Cai considered a moment, and shook his head. "I don't think mine can be +the same, or Benny wouldn't have recommended him so highly. There was +another fellow that learned to be a speaker by practisin' with his mouth +full of pebbles, which struck me as too thoroughgoin' altogether, and +'specially when you're aimin' no higher than a Parish Council. +To be sure," he confessed, "I did make a start with a brace of +peppermint bull's-eyes, and pretty nigh choked myself. But Benny says +that, for English public speakin', there's no such master as this Burke, +and so I've sent for him." + +"Gracious!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna. "Won't he charge a terrible lot?-- +with travellin' expenses too!" + +"His works, I mean. The man's dead, and they're in six volumes." + +"You'll never get through 'em then, between this and Whitsuntide. +If I was you, I'd keep on at the peppermints." + + +Although the six volumes of Edmund Burke duly arrived, and Cai made a +bold attempt upon their opening tractate, "A Vindication of Natural +Society,"--thereby hopelessly bemusing himself, since he accepted its +ironical arguments with entire seriousness--in the end he took a shorter +way and procured Mr Benny to write his speeches for him. + +These he got by heart in the course of long morning rambles; these he +rehearsed with their accomplished author; these he declaimed in the +solitude of his bed-chamber--until, one day, Mrs Bowldler (whom terror +arresting, had held spellbound for some minutes on the landing) knocked +in to know if Palmerston should run for the doctor. + +By dint (or in spite) of them at the election of Parish Councillors Cai +headed the poll with a total of 411 votes. 'Bias, who received 366, +came fourth on the list of elected: but this was no disgrace--a triumph +rather--for one who had omitted to be born in the town. By general +consent the honours stood easy; though, on the strength of his poll, the +new Council began by choosing Cai for its chairman. On him Troy laid +thereby the chief responsibility for the Jubilee festivities now but two +months ahead. + +At this first Council meeting, and at the meetings of many committees +subsequently called to make preparation for the great day, 'Bias said +very little. Those--and they were many--who had looked for "ructions" +between the two rivals, and had taken glee of the prospect, suffered +complete disappointment. + +"You see," he explained to Mr Rogers, "I don't hold by several things +Cai Hocken and the Committee are doin'. But they be doin' 'em in the +Queen's honour, after their lights: and 'tisn't fitly to use the +occasion for quarrellin'. There's only one way o' forcin' a quarrel on +me where Queen Victoria's consarned, and that is by speakin' ill of +her." + +"That's right," agreed Mr Rogers. "You've common ground in the +Widow-woman." + +"The--?" + +"The Widow at Windsor, as they call her." + +"Oh! I thought for a moment--" + +"There's widows and widows," Mr Rogers blinked mischievously. "But look +here--what's this I'm told about your interferin' down at the Harbour +Board, tryin' to get the Commissioners to regylate the ladin' o' +vessels?" + +"Well, and why not?" asked 'Bias. + +"Why not? For one thing you bet it isn' the Commissioners' business." + +"It ought to be somebody's business to stop what's goin' on. +Say 'tis mine, if you like." + +"Look 'ee here, Cap'n Hunken," said Mr Rogers, showing his teeth. +"If that's your game, better fit you was kickin' up a rumpus on the +Parish Council than puttin' a spoke into honest trade. I didn' make +room 'pon the Board for you to behave in that style." + +"I don't care whether you did or you didn'," retorted 'Bias sturdily. +"And 'honest trade' d'ye call it? robbin' the underwriters and puttin' +seamen's lives in danger." + +"Eh? . . . _You_'re a nice man to talk, I must say! Come to me, you do, +and want me to get you anything up to twenty per cent without risk. +How d'ee think that's done in these days, with every one cuttin' +freights? I gave you credit for havin' more sense." + +'Bias stared. "See here," he said slowly, "if I'd known that hundred +pound was to be put into any such wickedness, I'd have seen you further +before trustin' you with it. As 'tis, I'll trouble you--" + +"Hold hard, there!" Mr Rogers interrupted. "You're in a tarnation hurry +every way, 'twould seem. Who told you as I'd put that hundred into any +vessel below Plimsoll mark?" + +"I thought you hinted as much." + +"Then you thought a long sight too fast. If you must know, your money's +in the old _Saltypool_, and old as she is, that steamship might be my +child, the way I watch over her." + +"The _Saltypool!_ Why, she's the most scand'lous case as has gone out +of harbour these three months!" + +"Eh?" + +"I saw her with my own eyes alongside No. 3 jetty, the evenin' before +she sailed. A calm night it was too; and she with her Plimsoll well +under and a whole line o' trucks waitin' to be shot into her. She went +out before daybreak, if you remember, and God knows how low she was by +that time." + +Mr Rogers's jaw dropped. + +"The idiots!" he muttered. "When I told 'em--" He broke off. +"I say, you're not pullin' my leg?" + +"Saw her with my own eyes, I tell you," 'Bias assured him, wondering a +little; for the old sinner's dismay was clearly honest. + +"Then all I say is, you can call Fancy and tell her to fetch me a Bible, +if there's one in the house, an' I'll swear to you I never knew it, an' +I never seen it. What's more, I'll sack the captain, an' I'll sack the +mate. What's more, I'll cable dismissal out to Philadelphy. +What's more--" + +"There, there!" interposed 'Bias. "You didn' know, and enough said! +I don't want any man thrown out of employ. 'Tis the system I'm out to +spoil." + +"Skippers are a trouble-without-end in these days," Mr Rogers muttered +on, staring gloomily at the fire in the grate; "specially to a man +crippled like me. . . . You spend years sarchin' for a fool, an' you no +sooner get the treasure, as you think--one you can trust for a plain +ord'nary fool in all weathers--than he turns out a _dam_ fool!" + +On his way from the ship-chandler's 'Bias ran against Mr Philp, who +paused in the roadway and eyed him, chewing a piece of news and +chuckling. + +"That friend o' yours is a wonnur!" preluded Mr Philp. + +"Meanin' Caius Hocken?" + +"Who else? . . . He's goin' a great pace in these days; but you won't +tell me he has flown out o' _that_ range? Yes, 'tis Cap'n Hocken I +mean; our Mayor, as you may call him; and there's some as looks to see a +silver cradle yet in his mayoralty." + +"What's the latest?" 'Bias could not help putting the question, yet +despised himself for it. + +"He's President of the Stevedores' Regatta this year." + +"Get along with your news--I heard it ten days ago." + +"So you did, for I told you myself. But he's giving a silver cup for +the fourteen-foot race." + +"And I heard that, too." + +"Ay: but what you don't know, maybe, is that he's been up to Rilla Farm +tryin' to persuade Mrs Bosenna to attend on the Committee-ship an' hand +the cup--his _cup_--to the winner." + +"She's never consented?" + +"Now I call that a master-stroke. That's the bold way to win a woman. +'Come along o' me, my dear, an' find yourself the lady patroness, +life-size. . . . Madam, you'll excuse the liberty,--but may I have the +igstreme honour to request you to take my arm in the full view of all +this here assembled rabble?' So arm-in-arm it is, up the deck, and +'Ladies an' Gentlemen'--meanin' 'Attention, pray, all you scum o' the +earth'--'I'll trouble you to observe strick silence while this lady, +with whom you are all familiar--'" + +"Steady on!" + +"Well, 'familiar' is too strong a word, as you say. 'While this lady, +with whom you're all acquainted, presents the gallant winner with a cup, +value Five Pounds, which you may have reckoned as an igstravagance when +you heard I was the donor, 'but will now reckernise as a sprat to catch +a whale--that is, unless you're even bigger fools than I take ye for. +'Twas with the greatest difficulty I indooced Mrs Bosenna--'" + +"She never would!" swore 'Bias. + +"Well, as a matter o' fact, she hasn't. But you'll allow the trick was +clever, and nothin' more left for the woman, if she'd yielded, but to be +carried straight off to the altar. 'Twould have been expected of her, +and no less." + +"What has she done?" + +"Taken a wise an' womanly course, as I hear. 'No,' says she, 'I'll go +to bottomless brimstone before lendin' myself to such a dodge'--or words +to that effect. 'But I'll tell 'ee what I will do,' says she, 'I'll +offer this here silver cup on my own account, an' give it with my own +hands to the winner. And you can stand by,' says she, 'an' look as +pompous as you please.' Either that, or that in so many words. +I'm givin' you the gist of it, as it reached me." + +"Thank 'ee," said 'Bias, perpending and digging up the roadway with the +point of his stick. "'Tis to be her own prize, you say?" + +"Yes, an' presented with her own hands. If I was you--bein' a trifle +late as you are on the handicap--I'd sail in an' collar that prize. +'Twould be a facer for him." + +"No time." + +"Whit-Monday's not till the seventh o' June. Four clear weeks: an' +Boatbuilder Wyatt could knock you up a shell in half that time. He gets +cleverer with every boat of the class; and with a boat built to race +once only he could make pretty well sure." + +Later that afternoon Mr Philp, who never lost an occasion to advertise +himself, paid a call on Mr Wyatt, boatbuilder. + +"I found a new customer for you this afternoon," he announced, winking +mysteriously. "If Cap'n Hunken should call along you'll know what I +mean." + + +On his homeward road the industrious man had a stroke of good luck. +He espied Captain Hocken, and made haste to overtake him. + +"Good evenin', Cap'n Cai!" + +"Ah--Mr Philp? Good evenin' to 'ee." + +"It's like a providence my meetin' you; for as it chances you was the +last man in my mind. I happened down to Wyatt's yard just now, and--if +you'll believe me--there's reason to believe he'll get an order +to-morrow for another 14-footer," + +"Ay? . . . What for?" + +"Why, to enter for the cup you're givin' on Whit-Monday." + +"You're mistaken," said Cai. "'Tis Mrs Bosenna that's givin' the cup, +not I." + +"What? With her own hands?" + +"_To_ be sure. Why not?" + +"Then that accounts for it," said Mr Philp gleefully, rubbing his hands. +"He's a deep one, is your friend Hunken! It did strike me as odd, too-- +his givin' an order to Wyatt in all this hurry: but now I understand." + +"Drat the man! what _is_ it you understand?" + +"Why, as you know, Wyatt can knock him a shell together that'll win the +race under everybody's nose. 'Tis a child's play, if you don't mind +castin' the boat next day an' content yourself with scantlin' like a +packin' case. At least, 'twould be child's play to any one but Wyatt, +who can't help buildin' solid, to save his life. If the man had +consulted me, I'd have recommended Mitchell. Mitchell never had a +length o' seasoned wood in his store: he can't afford the capital. +But to my mind he can--take him as a workman--shape a boat better than +Wyatt ever did yet." + +"And to mine," Cai agreed. + +"The cunning of it, too! He to take the prize from her under your nose +and you standin' by and lookin' foolish. For, let alone the craft, they +say Cap'n Hunken can handle a small boat to beat any man in this +harbour. He cleared a whole prize-list out in Barbadoes, I've heard." + +"What, 'Bias? Don't you be afraid. He can't steer a small boat for +nuts." + +"Dear me! Then I must have been misinformed, indeed." + +"You have been," Cai assured him. "I reckon Mitchell can knock up a +boat to give fits to anything of Wyatt's; and if 'Bias--if Cap'n Hunken +is countin' on Wyatt to help him put the fool on me, it may happen he'll +learn better." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +PASSAGE REGATTA. + +"'Tis good to wear a bit of colour again," said Mrs Bosenna on Regatta +morning, as she stood before her glass pinning to her bodice a huge bow +of red, white, and blue ribbons. "Black never did become me." + +"It becomes ye well enough, mistress, and ye know it," contradicted +Dinah. + +"'Tis monotonous, anyway. I can't see why we poor widow-women should be +condemned to wear it for life." + +"_You_ bain't," Dinah contradicted again, and added slily, "d'ye wish me +to fetch witnesses?" + +Her mistress, tittivating the ribbons, ignored the question. +"I do think we might be allowed to wear colours now and again--say on +Sundays. As it is, I dare say many will be pickin' holes in my +character, even for this little outbreak." + +"There's a notion, now! Why, 'tis Queen Victory's Year--and a pretty +business if one widow mayn't pay her respects to another!" + +"It do always seem strange to me," Mrs Bosenna mused. + +"What?" + +"Why, that the Queen should be a widow, same as any one else." + +"Low fever," said Dinah. "And I've always heard as the Prince Consort +had a delicate constitution." + +"It happened before I was born," said Mrs Bosenna vaguely. "Think o' +that, now! . . . And yet 'twasn't the widowin' I meant so much as the +marryin'. I can't manage to connect it in my mind with folks so +high up in the world as Kings and Queens. 'Tis so intimate." + +"You may bet Providence tempers it to 'em somehow," opined Dinah. +"If they didn' have families, what'd become o' English history?" + + +If any tongues wagged against Mrs Bosenna for wearing the patriotic +colours that day, they were not heard in the holiday crowd at the +Passage Slip when, with nicely calculated unpunctuality, she arrived, at +11.32 (the time appointed having been 11.15), to be conveyed on board +the Committee vessel. (It should be explained here that the aquatic +half of Troy's Passage Regatta is compressed within the forenoon: at +midday Troy dines, and even on holidays observes Greenwich time for +that event. Moreover, the afternoon sports of bicycle racing, +steeplechasing, polo-bending, &c., were preluded in those days--before +an electric-power station worked the haulage on the jetties--by a +procession of huge horses, highly groomed and bedecked with ribbons: and +this procession, starting at 1 P.M., allowed the avid holiday-keeper +small margin for dallying over his meal.) + +Mrs Bosenna reached the slip to find Cai waiting below in a four-oared +boat which he had borrowed from the Clerk of the Course. A large red +ensign drooped from a staff and trailed in the water astern: the crew +wore scarlet stocking-caps: bright cushion disposed in the stern-sheet +added a touch of luxury to this pomp and circumstance. It might not +rival the barge of Cleopatra upon Cydnus; but the shore-crowd, under +whose eyes it had been waiting for close upon twenty minutes, voted it +to be a very creditable turn out; and Cai, watch in hand, was at least +as impatient as Mark Antony. Off the Committee Ship, a cable's length +up the river, the penultimate race (ran-dan pulling-boats) was finishing +amid banging of guns and bursts of music from the "Troy Town Band," +saluting the winner with "See the Conquering Hero Comes," the second +boat with strains consecrated to first and second prize-winners in Troy +harbour since days beyond the span of living memory, even as all races +start to the less classical but none the less immemorial air of "Off She +goes to Wallop the Cat." + +The crowd parted and made passage for Mrs Bosenna to descend the +slip-way: for Troy is always polite. Its politeness, however, seldom +takes the form of reticence; and as she descended she drew a double +broadside of neighbourly good-days and congratulations, with audible +comments from the back rows on her personal appearance. + +"Mornin', Mrs Bosenna--an' a brave breast-knot you're wearin'!" + +"Han'some, id'n-a?" + +"Handsome, sure 'nough!" + +"Fresh coloured as the day she was wed. . . . Good mornin' ma'am! +Good mornin', Mrs Bosenna--an' a proper Queen o' Sheba you be, all +glorious within." + +"What a thing 'tis to have money!" remarked a meditative voice deep in +the throng. + +"Eh, Billy, my son, it cures half the ills o' life," responded another. + +"'Tis a mysterious thing," hazarded a woman--"a dispensation you may +call it, how black suits some complexions while others can't look at +it." + +"An' 'tis your sex's perversity," spoke up a male, "that them it don't +suit be apt to wear it longest"--whereat several laughed, for where +everybody is good-humoured the feeblest witticism will pass. + +Mrs Bosenna heard these comments, but acknowledged them only by a +scarcely perceptible heightening of colour. She went down the slip-way +royally, with Dinah in close attendance: and Cai, catching sight of her +and pocketing his watch, snatched up a boat-hook to draw the boat's +quarter alongside the slip, while with his disengaged hand he lifted the +brim of a new and glossy top-hat. + +"Am I disgracefully late?" Without waiting for his answer, as he handed +her aboard she exclaimed: + +"Oh! and what a crowd of boats! . . . I never felt so nervous in all my +life." + +"There's no need," said Cai--who himself, two minutes before, had been +desperately nervous. He seated himself beside her and took the tiller. +"Push her out, port-oars! Ready?--Give way, all! . . . There's no +need," he assured her, sinking his voice; "I never saw ye look a +properer sight. Maybe 'tis the bunch o' ribbon sets 'ee off--'Tis the +first time ye've worn colour to my recollection." + +"Dead black never suited me." + +"I wouldn' say that. . . . But," added Cai upon a happy thought, +"if that's so, you know where to find excuse to leave off wearin' it." + +"Hush!" she commanded. "How can you talk so with all these hundreds of +eyes upon us?" + +"I don't care." Cai's voice rose recklessly. + +"Oh, hush! or the crew'll hear us?" + +"I don't care, I tell you." + +"But I do--I care very much. . . . You don't pay me compliments when +we're alone," she protested, changing the subject slightly. + +"I mean 'em all the time." + +"Well, since compliments are flyin' to-day, that's a fine new hat you're +wearin'. And I like the badge in your buttonhole: red with gold +letters--it gives ye quite a smart appearance. What's the writin' on +it?" + +"'President.' 'Tis the only red-and-gold badge in the show. +Smart? I tell 'ee I'm feelin' smart." + +It was indeed Cai's day--his hour, rather--of triumph. He had played a +winning stroke, boldly, under the public eye: and a hundred comments of +the sightseers, as he steered through the press of boats to the +Committee Ship, testified to his success. Though he could not hear, he +felt them. + + --"Well!" + + --"Proper cuttin'-out expedition, as you might call it." + + --"And she with a great bunch o' ribbons pinned on her, + that no-one shan't miss the meanin' of it." + + --"Well, I always favoured Cap'n Hocken's chance, for my + part. An', come to think, 'tis more fitty 't should + happen so. When all's said an' done, t'other's a foreigner, + as you might say, from the far side o' the Duchy: an' if old + Bosenna's money is to go anywhere, why then, bein' Troy-earned, + let it go to a Troy man." + + --"But 'tis a facer for Cap'n Hunken, all the same. Poor chap, + look at 'en." + + --"Where? . . . I don't see 'en." + + --"Why, forward there, on the Committee Ship: leanin' up against + the bulwarks an' lookin' as if he'd swallowed a dog." + + --"There, there! . . . And some plucky of the man to stand up to + it, 'stead of walkin' off an' drownin' hisself. I like a man + as can take a knock-down blow standing up. 'Tis a rare + occurrence in these days." + + +Mrs Bosenna, too, whose wealth (pleasant enough for the comforts it +procured, pleasanter, perhaps, for an attendant sense of security, +pleasantest of all, it may be, for a further sense of power and +importance, secretly enjoyed) had, as yet, of public acknowledgment +taken little toll beyond the deference of tradesmen when she went +shopping, felt herself of a sudden caught up to an eminence the very +giddiness of which was ecstasy. It is possible that, had Cai claimed +her there and then, before the crowd, she would have yielded with but a +faint protest. You must not think that she lost her head for a moment. +On the contrary during her triumphal convoy she saw everything with +remarkable distinctness. She knew well enough that some scores of +women, all around, were envying her, yet admiring in spite of their +envy. Without hearing them, she could almost tell what comments were +uttered in boat after boat as she passed. But what mattered their envy, +so long as they admired? Nay, what mattered their envy, so long as they +envied? The tonic north wind, the sunshine, the sparkle of the water, +the gay lines of bunting flickering from stem to stern of the Committee +Ship, the invigorating blare of the Troy Town Band, now throwing its +soul into "Champagne Charlie," the propulsion of the oars that seemed to +snatch her and sweep her forward past wondering faces to high destiny-- +all these were wings, and lifted her spirit with them. She began to +under stand what it must feel like to be a Queen, or (at least) a Prime +Minister's wife. + +"Ea-sy all! In oars! . . . Bow, stand by to check her!" + +Cai called his orders clearly, sharply, in the tone of a master of men. +A score of boats hampered approach to the accommodation ladder; but +those that had occupants were obediently thrust wide to make way, and +easily as in a barge of state Mrs Bosenna was brought alongside. +A dozen hands checked the way of the boat, now abruptly. Other hands +were stretched to help her up the ladder, which she ascended with +smiling and graceful agility. On the deck, at the head of it, stood the +Hon. Secretary, with the silver cup ready, nursed in the crook of his +arm. It was a handsome cup, and it flashed in the sunlight. The Hon. +Secretary doffed his yachting cap. A dozen men close behind him doffed +their caps at the signal. They were the successful competitors of the +dinghy race, mixed up with committee-men: they had come to receive their +prizes. The competing boats, their sails lowered, had been brought +alongside, and lay tethered, trailing off from the ship's quarter, +rubbing shoulders in a huddle. + +Cai, mounting to the deck close behind Dinah, who had followed her +mistress, was met by the Hon. Secretary with the announcement that +everything had been ready these ten minutes. + +Almost before she could catch her breath, Mrs Bosenna found the cup +thrust into her hands; the band in the fore part of the vessel ceased-- +or, to speak more accurately, smothered--"Champagne Charlie"; the group +before her fell back to form a semicircle and urged forward the abashed +first-prize winner, who stood rubbing one ankle against another and +awkwardly touching his forelock, while a silence fell, broken only by +voices from the boats around calling "Order! Or-der for the speech!" + +Mrs Bosenna, recognising the champion in spite of his blushes, collected +her courage, smiled, and said-- + +"Why, 'tis Walter Sobey!" + +"Servant, ma'am!" Mr Sobey touched his forelock again and grinned, as +who should add, "You and me, ma'am, meets in strange places." + +"Well, I never! . . . How things do turn out!" It crossed Mrs Bosenna's +mind that on the last occasion of her addressing a word to Walter Sobey +he had been employed by her to cart manure for her roses: and across +this recollection floated a sense of money wasted--for to what service +could Walter Sobey, inhabitant of a three-roomed cottage, put a +two-handled loving-cup embossed in silver? + +There was no time, however, for hesitation. . . . With the most gracious +of smiles she took the cup in both hands, and presented it to the +champion. + +"'Tis good, anyhow, to feel it goes to a neighbour: and--and if the +worst comes to the worst, Walter, you can always take it back to the +shop and change it for something useful." + +"Thank 'ee, ma'am," said Mr Sobey, taking the cup respectfully. +He backed a pace or two, gazed around, and caught the eye of the Hon. +Secretary. "There's a money prize, too, attached to it--ain't there?" +he was heard to ask. "Leastways, 'twas so said 'pon the bills." +Mr Sobey was proud of his victory; the prouder because he had built the +winning boat with his own hands. (Very luckily for him, at the last +moment Captain Hocken had judged it beneath the dignity of a Regatta +President to compete; and Captain Hunken, missing his rival at the +starting-line, had likewise withdrawn from the contest.) + +"Certainly," agreed the Hon. Secretary. "Two guineas. Hi, there, aft! +Where's Mr Willett?" + +Other voices carried back the call, and presently the Treasurer, Mr +Willett--a pursey little man with enormous side-whiskers,--came hurrying +forward from the after-companion, where he had been engaged in hearing a +protest from an excited disputant--a competitor in the 16-foot class-- +who had in fact come in last, even on his handicap, but with a clear +notion in his own mind, and an array of arguments to convince others, +that he was entitled to the prize. Such misunderstandings were frequent +enough at Passage Regatta, and mainly because .Mr Willett, whom nobody +cared to cashier--he had been Treasurer for so many years,--had as a +rule imbibed so much beer in the course of the forenoon that any one +argument appeared to him as cogent as any other. He seemed, in fact, to +delight in hearing a case from every point of view; and by consequence +it could be securely predicted of any given race in Passage Regatta that +"You had never lost till you'd won." + +Now, on Cai's secret recommendation the Committee had engaged the boy +Palmerston--who was quick at sums--to stand by Mr Willett during the +forenoon and count out the cash for him. The Treasurer (it was argued) +would be suspicious of help from a grown man; whereas he could order a +boy about, and even cuff his head on emergency. So Palmerston, seated +by the after-companion, had spent a great part of the morning in +listening to disputes, and counting out money as soon as the disputes +were settled. Nor was objection taken--as it might have been at more +genteel fixtures--to a part of the prize being produced from +Palmerston's mouth, in which he had a knack of storing petty cash, for +convenience of access--and for safety too, to-day, since he had +discovered a hole in one of his pockets. + +Mr Willett then, rising and cutting short an altercation between two +late competitors in the 16-foot race, came hurrying forward with +Palmerston, ever loyal, in his wake. For the boy, without blaming +anyone, anxious only to fulfil a responsibility that weighed on him, was +aware that Mr Willett--whether considered as a man or as a treasurer-- +had taken in overmuch beer, and might need support in either capacity or +in both. + +But while Mr Willett advanced, in a series of hasty plunges,--as though +the Committee vessel were ploughing the deep with all sail set,--voices +around Mrs Bosenna had already begun to call for a speech; and the cry +was quickly taken up from the many boats overside, now gathered in a +close throng. + +"A speech! a speech!" + +Mrs Bosenna laughed, and turned about prettily. + +"I did not bargain for any speech," she protested. "I--in fact I never +made a speech in my life. If--if Captain Hocken would say a few +words--" + +"Ay, Cap'n," exhorted a voice, "speak up for her, like a man now! +Seems to us she've given you the right." + +There was a general laugh, and it brought a heightened flush to Mrs +Bosenna's cheek. Cai, not noting it, cleared his throat and doffed his +tall hat. "Here, hold this," said he, catching sight of Palmerston, and +cleared his throat again. + +"Friends and naybours," said he, and this opening evoked loud applause. +As it died down, he continued, "Friends and naybours, this here has been +a most successful regatta. _Of_ which, as a fitting conclusion, the +Brave has received his reward at the hands of the Fair." + +"Lord! he means hisself!" interrupted a giggling voice from one of the +boats. + +This interruption called forth a storm of applause. Oars were rattled +on rowlocks and feet began stamping on bottom boards. + +"By the Brave," continued Cai, pitching his voice higher, "I mean, of +course, our respected fellow-citizen, Mr Walter Sobey, whose handling of +his frail craft--" + +("Hear! Hear!") + +"--Whose handling of his frail craft to-day was of a natur' to surprise +and delight all beholders." + +At this point Mr Willett, the Treasurer, who had for some seconds been +staring at the speaker with glazed uncertain eye, interrupted in a voice +thick with liquor-- + +"The question is, Who wants me?" + +"Nobody, you d--d old fool!" snapped the Hon. Secretary. "Can't you see +Cap'n Hocken is makin' a speech?" + +"_I_ see," answered Mr Willett with drunken deliberation, "and, what's +more, I don't think much of it. . . . Gentlemen over there 'pears t' +agree with me," he added: for from the rear of the group a scornful +laugh had endorsed his criticism. + +"Any one can tell what _hasn't_ agreed with you this mornin'," retorted +the Hon. Secretary, still more angrily. "Go home, and--" + +But Cai had lifted a hand. "No quarrelling, please!" he commanded, and +resumed, "As I was sayin', ladies and gentlemen--or as I was about to +say--the handlin' of a small boat demands certain gifts or, er, +qualities; and these gifts and, er, qualities bein' the gifts and h'm +qualities what made England such as we see her to-day,--a sea-farin' +nation an' foremost at that,--it follows that we cannot despise them if +we wish her to occupy the same position in the futur'--which to my mind +is education in a nutshell." + +Again the scornful laugh echoed from the back of the crowd, and this +time Cai knew the voice. It stung him the more sharply, as in a flash +he recollected that the phrase "education in a nutshell" belonged +properly to a later paragraph, and in his flurry he had dragged it in +prematurely. His audience applauded, but Cai swung about in wrath. + +"My remarks," said he, "don't seem to commend themselves to one o' my +hearers. But I'm talkin' now on a subjec' about which I know som'at,-- +not about _ploughin'_." + +The thrust was admirably delivered,--the more adroitly in that, on the +edge of delivering it, he had paused with a self-depreciatory smile. +Its point was taken up on the instant. The audience on deck sent up a +roar of laughter: and the roar spread and travelled away from the ship +in a widening circle as from boat to boat the shrewd hit was reported. +Distant explosions of mirth were still greeting it, when Cai, finding +voice again, and wisely cutting out his prepared peroration, concluded +as follows:-- + +"Any way, friends and naybours, I can wind up with something as'll +commend itself to everybody: and that is by wishin' success to Passage +Regatta, and askin' ye to give three cheers for Mrs Bosenna. +Hip--hip--" + +"Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! hoo-ray!" The cheers were given with a will and +passed down the river in rolling echoes. But before the last echo died +away--while Mrs Bosenna smiled her acknowledgment--as the band formed up +for "God Save the Queen"--as they lifted their instruments and the +bandmaster tapped the music-stand with his baton,--at the top of his +voice 'Bias delivered his counter-stroke. + +"And one more for Peter Benny!" + +There was a momentary hush, and then--for Troy's sense of humour is +impartial, and everyone knew from what source Captain Hocken derived his +public eloquence--the air was rent with shout upon shout of merriment. +Even the band caught the contagion. The drummer drew a long applausive +rattle from his side-drum; the trombone player sawing the air with his +instrument, as with a fret-saw, evoked noises not to be described. + +In the midst of this general mirth--while Cai stood his ground, red to +the ears, and Mrs Bosenna plucked nervously at the tassel of her +sunshade--'Bias came thrusting forward, shouldering his way through the +press. But 'Bias's face reflected none of the mirth he had awakened. + +"I mayn't know much about ploughin', Cai Hocken--" he began. + +"Ah? Good day, Captain Hunken!" interposed Mrs Bosenna. + +"Good-day to you, ma'am." He raised his hat without answering her +smile. Then, with a gesture that dismissed the tactful interruption, +"I mayn't know much about ploughin', though it sticks in my mind that as +between us the judges handed me the stakes, even at _that_. But at +handlin' a boat--one o' these here dingheys if you will, an' if you care +to make good your words--" + +"What _was_ my words?" + +"Oh, I beg pardon." 'Bias corrected himself with a snort of contempt. +"'Peter Benny's words,' maybe I should have said: but 'education in a +nutshell' was the expression." + +"I'll take you up--when and where you please, and for any money," +Cai challenged, white to the lips and shaking with rage. + +"A five-pound note, if you will." + +"As you please. . . . I haven't five pound here, upon me." + +"Nor I, as it happens. But here's a sovereign for earnest." + +"Here's another to cover it, anyway. Who'll hold the stakes? . . . +Will you, ma'am?" Cai appealed to Mrs Bosenna. + +"Certainly not," she answered, tapping the deck angrily with the ferrule +of her sunshade. "And I wonder how you two can behave so foolish, +before folks." + +But for the moment they were past her control. + +"Here . . . Pam! Pam will do, eh?" + +"Well as another." + +"Right. Here Pam, take hold o' this sovereign and keep it careful!" + +"Mine too. . . . That makes the wager, eh?" + +"For five pounds?" + +"Five pounds. Right. + +"Boats?" + +"I don't care. Our own two, or draw lots for any two here, as you +please." + +"But--gentlemen!" interposed the Hon. Secretary. + +"Now, don't you start interferin'"--Bias turned on him sullenly. +"Else you might chance to get what you don't like." + +"Oh, they're mad!" wailed Mrs Bosenna, and Dinah was heard to murmur, +"You've pushed' em too far, mistress: an' don't say as I didn' warn +you!" + +"I--I was only goin' to suggest, gentlemen," urged the Hon. Secretary, +"it bein' already ten minutes past noon, and everybody waitin' for +'God Save the Queen.'" + +"Hullo!" hailed a voice alongside, at the foot of the accommodation +table; and Mr Philp's top hat, Mr Philp's deceptively jovial face, +Mr Philp's body clad in mourning weeds, climbed successively into view. +"There, naybours!" he announced. "I'm in the nick of time, after all, it +seems,--though when I heard the church clock strike twelve it sent my +heart into my mouth." He stood and panted. + +"Ah! good-day, Mr Philp!" Mrs Bosenna turned, hailing his intervention, +and advanced to shake hands. + +"Good-day to you, ma'am. Been enjoy in' yourself, I hope?" said Mr +Philp, somewhat taken aback by the warmth of her greeting. + +"A most successful Regatta . . . don't you agree?" + +"I might, ma'am," answered Mr Philp solemnly. "I don't doubt it, ma'am. +But as a matter of fact I have just come from a funeral." + +"Oh! . . . I--I beg your pardon--I didn't know--" + +"There's no call to apologise, ma'am. . . . The deceased was not a +relative. A farm-servant, ma'am--female--at the far end of the parish: +Tuckworthy's farm, to be precise: and the woman, Sarah Jane Collins by +name. Probably you didn't know her. No more did I except by sight: but +a very respectable woman--a case of Bright's disease. In the midst of +life we are in death, and, much as I enjoy Passage Regatta--" + +"You have missed it then?" + +"The woman had saved money, ma'am. There was a walled grave, by +request." Mr Philp sighed over this remembered consolation. "She could +not help it clashin', poor soul." + +"No, indeed!" + +"And you may or may not have noticed it, ma'am, but when a man sets duty +before pleasure, often as not he gets rewarded. Comin' back along the +town before the streets filled, I picked up a piece o' news, and hurried +along with it. I reckoned it might be of interest if I could reach here +ahead of 'God Save the Queen.'" + +"Gracious! What has happened?" Mrs Bosenna clasped her hands. +Indeed Mr Philp, big with his news and important, had somehow contrived +to overawe everyone on deck. + +"The news is," he announced slowly, "that the _Saltypool_ has gone down, +within fifty miles of Philadelphia. Crew saved in the boats. +Cable reached Mr Rogers at eleven o'clock, and"--he paused impressively, +"there and then Rogers had a second stroke. Point o' death, they say." + +Above the sympathetic murmur of Mr Philp's audience there broke, on the +instant, a gasping cry--followed by a yet more terrible sound, as of one +in the last agony of strangulation. + +All turned, as Palmerston--dashing forward between the music-stands of +the band and scattering them to right and left--flung himself between +Cai and 'Bias at their very feet. + +"Masters--masters! I've a-swallowed the stakes!" + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +FANCY BRINGS NEWS. + +"Which," Mrs Bowldler reported to Fancy, who had left her master's +sick-bed to pay a fleeting visit to Palmerston's, "the treatment was +drastic for a growin' child. First of all Mrs Bosenna, that never had a +child of her own, sent down to the cabin for the mustard that had been +left over from the Sailin' Committee's sangwidges, and mixed up a drink +with it and a little cold water. Which the results was _nil_; that is +to say, pecuniarily speakin'. Then somebody fetched along Mr Clogg the +vet. from Tregarrick, that had come over for the day to judge the +horses, and _he_ said as plain salt-and-water was worth all the mustard +in the world, so they made the poor boy swallow the best part of a pint, +and he brought up eighteenpence." + +"Saints alive! But I thought you told me--" + +"So I did: two solid golden sufferins. And _that_," said Mrs Bowldler, +"was for some time the most astonishin' part of the business. Two solid +golden sufferins: and low!--as the sayin' is--low and behold, eighteen +pence in small silver!" + +"Little enough too, for a miracle!" mused Fancy. + +"It encouraged 'em to go on. Captain Hocken--he's a humane gentleman, +too, and never graspin'--no, never in his life!--but I suppose he'd +begun to get interested,--Captain Hocken ups and suggests as they were +wastin' time, mixin' table-salt and water when there was the wide ocean +itself overside, to be had for the dippin'. So they tried sea-water." + +"My poor Pammy.'" + +"Don't you start a-pityin' me," gasped a voice, faint but defiant, from +the bed. "If I die, I die. But I got the account to balance." + +"I disremember what sum--er--resulted that time," confessed Mrs +Bowldler; "my memory not bein' what it was." + +"Ninepence; an' two threepennies with the soap--total two-and-nine, +which was correct. If I die, I die," moaned Palmerston. + +"'Ero!" murmured Fancy, stepping to the bedside and arranging his +pillow. + +"You take my advice and lie quiet," counselled Mrs Bowldler. +"You're not a-goin' to die this time. But there's been a shock to the +system, you may make up your mind," she went on, turning to Fancy. +"I'd most forgotten about the soap. That was Philp's suggestion, as I +heard. They found a cake of Monkey Brand in the ship's fo'c'sle, and by +the time Doctor Higgs arrived with his stomach-pump--" + +"They'd sent for _him?_ What, for two pounds?" + +"Less two-an'-nine, by this--as they thought. But, of course, there was +the child's health to be considered . . . I ought to mention that before +Dr Higgs came Captain Hunken remembered how he'd treated a seaman once, +that had swallowed carbolic by mistake. He recommended tar: but there +wasn't any tar to be found--which seems strange, aboard a ship." + +"It was lucky, anyhow." + +"There was a plenty of hard pitch about, and one or two reckoned the +marine glue in the deck-seams might be a passable substitute. They were +diggin' some out with their penknives when Doctor Higgs arrived with his +pump." + +"And did he use it?" + +"He did not. He asked what First Aid they had been applyin', an' when +they told him, his language was not to be repeated. 'D'ye think,' said +he, 'as I'd finish the child for--'well, he named the balance, whatever +'twas." + +"One-seventeen-three," said the voice from the bed. + +"That's so. And 'Monkey Brand?' says he. 'Why, you've scoured his +little stummick so, you might put it on the chimbly-piece and see your +face in it! Fit an' wrap what's left of him in a blanket,' says Doctor +Higgs; 'an' take him home an' put him to bed,' says he--which they done +so," concluded Mrs Bowldler, "an' if you'll believe it, when I come to +put him to bed an' fold his trowsers across the chair, out trickles the +two sufferins!" + +"You don't say!" + +"He's been absent-minded of late. It they'd only turned his pockets out +instead of--well, we won't go into details: but the two pounds was there +all the time. 'Twas the petty cash he'd swallowed, in the shock at +hearin' about Mr Rogers. . . . And how's _he_, by the way?" + +"Bad," answered Fancy, "dreadful bad. I don't think he's goin' to die, +not just yet-awhile: but he can't speak, and his mind's troubled." + +"Reason enough why, if all's truth that they tell of him." + +"But it isn't." + +"He brought your own father to beggary." + +"Well, you may put it that way if you choose. It's the way they all put +it that felt for Dad without allowin' their feelin's to take 'em +further. Not that he'd any claim to more'n their pity. He speckilated +with Mr Rogers, and Mr Rogers did him in the eye, that's all. And I'm +very fond of Dad," continued the wise child; "but the longer I live the +more I don't see as one man can bring another to beggary unless the +other man helps. The point is, Mr Rogers didn' leave him there. . . . +We've enough to eat." + +"Ho! If _that_ contents you--" Mrs Bowldler shrugged her shoulders. + +"Who said it did? We don't ezackly make Gawds of our bellies, Dad and +I; but there's a difference between that and goin' empty. Ask Pammy!" +she added, with a twitch and a grin. + +"I've heard you say, anyway, that you was afraid Mr Rogers'd go to the +naughty place. A dozen times I've heard you say it." + +"Rats!--you never did. What you heard me say was that he'd go to hell, +and I was sure of it. . . . And you may call it weak, but I can't bear +it," the child broke out with a cry of distress, intertwisting her +fingers and wringing them. "It's dreadful--dreadful!--to sit by and +watch him lyin' there, with his mind workin' and no power to speak. +All the time he's wantin' to say something to me, and--and--Where's +Cap'n Hocken?" + +"In his parlour. I heard his step in the passage, ten minutes ago, an' +the door close." + +"I'm goin' down to him, if you'll excuse me," said Fancy, rising from +the bedroom chair into which she had dropped in her sudden access of +grief. + +"Why?" + +"I dunno. . . . He's a good man, for one thing. You haven't noticed any +difference in him?" + +"Since when?" The question obviously took Mrs Bowldler by surprise. + +"Since he heard--yesterday--" + +"Me bein' single-handed, with Palmerston on his back, so to speak, I +hev' not taken particular observation," said Mrs Bowldler. "Last night, +as I removed the cloth after supper, he passed the remark that it had +been a very tirin' day, that this was sad news about Mr Rogers, but we'd +hope for the best, and when I mentioned scrambled eggs for breakfast, he +left it to me. Captain Hunken on the other hand chose haddock: he did +mention--come to think of it and when I happened to say that a second +stroke was mostly fatal--he did go so far as to say that all flesh was +grass and that Palmerston would require feedin' up after what he'd gone +through." + +"He--Cap'n Hunken--didn' seem worried in mind, either?" + +"Nothing to notice. Of course," added Mrs Bowldler, "you understand +that our appetites are not what they were: that there has been a distink +droppin' off since--you know what. They both eats, in a fashion, but +where's the pleasure in pleasin' 'em? Heart-renderin', I call it, when +a devilled kidney might be a plain boiled cabbage for all the heed +taken, and you knowin' all the while that a woman's at the bottom of +it." + +Fancy moved to the door. "Well," said she, "I'm sorry for the cause of +it: but duty's duty, and I reckon I've news to make 'em sit up." + +She went downstairs resolutely and knocked at Cai's parlour door. + +"Come in! . . . Eh, so it's you, missy? No worse news of the invalid, I +hope?" + +"He isn' goin' to die to-day, nor yet to-morrow, if that's what you +mean. May I take a chair?" + +"Why, to be sure." + +"Thank you." Fancy seated herself. "If you please, Cap'n Hocken, I got +a very funny question to ask." + +"Well?" + +"You mustn't think I'm inquisitive--" + +"Go on." + +"If you please, Cap'n Hocken, are you very fond indeed of Mrs Bosenna?" + +Cai turned about to the hearth and stooped for the tongs, as if to place +a lump of coal on the fire. Then he seemed to realise that, the season +being early summer, there was no fire and the tongs and coal-scuttle had +been removed. He straightened himself up slowly and faced about again, +very red and confused (but the flush may have come from his stooping). + +"So we're not inquisitive, aren't we? Well, missy, appearances are +deceptive sometimes--that's all I say." + +"But I'm not askin' out o' curiosity--really an' truly. And please +don't turn me out an' warn me to mind my own business; for it _is_ my +business, in a way. . . . I'll explain it all, later on, if only you'll +tell." + +"I admire Mrs Bosenna very much indeed," said Cai slowly. "There now,-- +will that satisfy you?" + +Fancy shook her head. "Not quite," she confessed, "I want to know, Are +you so fond of her that you wouldn' give her up, not on any account?" + +Cai flushed again. "Well, missy, since you put it that way, we'll make +it so." + +Still the answer did not appear to satisfy the child. She fidgetted in +her chair a little, but without offering to go. + +"Not for no one in the wide world?" she asked at length. + +"Why, see here,"--Cai met her gaze shyly--"isn't that the right way to +feel when you want to make a woman your wife?" + +"Ye-es--I suppose so," admitted Fancy with a sigh. "But it makes things +so awkward--" She paused and knit her brows, as one considering a hard +problem. + +"What's awkward?" + +Her response to this, delayed for a few seconds, was evasive when it +came. + +"I used to think you an' Cap'n Hunken was such friends there was nothin' +in the world you wouldn' do for him." + +"Ah!" Cai glanced at her with sharp suspicion. "So that's the latest +game, is it? He's been gettin' at you--a mere child like you!--and +sends you off here to work on my feelin's! . . . I thought better of +'Bias: upon my soul, I did." + +"An' you'd better go on thinkin' better," retorted Fancy with spirit. +"Cap'n Hunken sent me? What next? . . . Why, he never spoke a word to +me!" + +"Then I don't see--" + +"Why I'm here? No, you don't; but you needn't take up with guesses o' +_that_ sort." + +"I'm sorry if I mistook ye, missy." + +"You ought to be. Mistook me?--O' course you did. And as for Cap'n +Hunken's sendin' me, he don't even know yet that he's lost his money: +and if he did he'd be too proud, as you ought to know." + +"Lost his money?" echoed Cai. "What money?" + +"Well, to start with, you don't suppose Mr Rogers got his stroke for +nothin'? 'Twas the news about the _Saltypool_ that bowled him out: an' +between you an' me, in a few days there's goin' to be a dreadful mess. +He always was a speckilator. The more money he made--and he made a lot, +back-along--the more he'd risk it: and the last year or two his luck has +been cruel. In the end, as he had to tell me--for I did all his +writin', except when he employed Peter Benny,--he rode to one anchor, +and that was the _Saltypool_. He ran her uninsured." + +"Uninsured?" Cai gave a low whistle. "But all the same," said he, +"an' sorry as I am for Rogers, I don't see how that affects--" + +"I'm a-breakin' it gently," said Fancy, not without a small air of +importance. "Cap'n Hunken had a small sum in the _Saltypool_--a hundred +pounds only." + +"I wonder he had a penny. 'Tisn't like 'Bias to put anything into an +uninsured ship." + +"Mr Rogers did it without consultin' him. Cap'n Hunken didn' know, and +_I_ didn' know, for the money didn' pass by cheque. Some time back in +last autumn--I've forgot the date, but the books'll tell it--the old man +handed me two hundred pound in notes, not tellin' me where they came +from, with orders to pay it into his account: which I took it straight +across to the bank--" + +"Belay there a moment," interrupted Cai. "A moment since you mentioned +_one_ hundred." + +"So I did, because we're talkin' of Cap'n Hunken. Two hundred there +were, and all in bank notes: but only one hundred belonged to _him_--and +I only found _that_ out the other day, when he heard that Mr Rogers had +put it into the _Saltypool_, and there was a row. As for the other-- +Lawks, you don't tell me 'twas yours!" exclaimed Fancy, catching at the +sudden surmise written on Cai's face. + +"Why not? . . . If he treated 'Bias that way? Sure enough," said Cai. +"I took him a hundred pounds to invest for me, about that time." + +"Did he pay you a dividend this last half-year?" + +"To be sure--seven pound, eight-an'-four." + +"That was on the _Saltypool_," Fancy nodded. "And oh! Cap'n Hocken, I +am so sorry! but that hundred pound o' yours is at the bottom of the +sea." + +"Well, my dear," said Cai after a pause, pulling a wry face, "to do your +master justice, he warned me 'twas a risk. There's naught to do but pay +up un' look pleasant, I reckon. 'Twon't break me." + +"Cut the loss, you mean. The shares was paid up in full, and there +can't be no call." + +"You're knowledgeable, missy: and yet you're wrong this time, as it +happens. For (I may tell you privately) the money didn' belong to me, +but to Mrs Bosenna, who asked me to invest it for her." + +"Oh!--and Cap'n Hunken's hundred too?" + +Cai reached a hand to the mantelpiece for the tobacco-jar, filled a pipe +very deliberately, lit it, and drawing a chair up to the table, seated +himself in face of her. + +"I shouldn't wonder," said he, resting both arms on the table and eyeing +her across a cloud of tobacco-smoke. "Though I don't understand what +she--I mean, I don't understand what the game was." + +"Me either," agreed the child, musing. "No hurry, though: I'll be a +widow some day, please God--which is mor'n _you_ can hope. But now we +get to the point: an' the point is, you can pay the woman up. +Cap'n Hunken can't." + +"Why not?" + +"He don't know it yet, but he can't." + +"So you said: an' Why not? I ask. Within a thousand pound 'Bias owns as +much as I do." + +The child stood up, pulled her chair across to the table, and reseating +herself, gazed steadily across at him through the tobacco-smoke. + +"Where d'ye keep your bonds an' such like?" she asked. + +"In my strong box, for the most part: two or three in the skivet of my +sea-chest." + +"You got 'em all?" + +"All. That's to say all except the paper for this hundred pounds, which +'twas agreed Rogers should keep." + +"You're a lucky man. . . . Where did Cap'n Hunken keep his?" + +"Darn'd if I know. Somewheres about. He was always a bit careless over +his securities--and so I've told him a dozen times," + +"When did you tell him last?" + +This was a facer, and it made Cai blink. "We haven't discussed these +things much--not of late," he answered lamely. + +"I reckoned not. He don't keep 'em in his strong-box?" + +"He hasn't one." + +"In his chest?" + +"Maybe." + +"But he don't. He's left 'em with Mr Rogers from the first, or I'm +mistaken. I used to see the two bundles, his and yours, lyin' side by +side on the upper shelf o' the safe when the old man sent me to unlock +it an' fetch something he wanted--which wasn't often. Then, about six +months back, I noticed as one was gone. I mentioned it to him, and he +said as 'twas all his scrip--that was his word--made up in a parcel an' +docketed by you, and that some time afterwards you'd taken it away." + +"Quite correct, missy. And t'other one is 'Bias's, as I know. I had +'em in my hands together when I opened the safe as Mr Rogers told me to +do, givin' me the key. I took out the two, not knowing t'other from +which, made sure, docketed mine careful--to take away--and put 'Bias's +back in the safe afore lockin' it. That would be back sometime in +October last." + +Fancy nodded. "That's what he told me: and up to this mornin' I +reckoned Cap'n Hunken's bonds was still there, though it must be a month +since I opened the safe. This mornin' I had a talk with Dad--he doesn't +know the half about the master's affairs, nor how they've been these two +years, and I didn' let on: but I allowed as we ought to look into things +and call in Peter Benny--knowin' that Peter Benny was made execlator, if +anything happened. So we agreed, and called him in: and I told Peter +Benny enough to let him see that things were serious. In the end I +fetched the keys, and he unlocked the safe. There was a good few papers +in it, which he overhauled. But there wasn' no parcel 'pon the top +shelf where I'd seen it last." + +"Then you may depend he'd given it to 'Bias unbeknown to you, same as he +handed mine over to me. Wasn' that Benny's opinion?" + +"Oh, you make me tired!" exclaimed the wise child frankly. "As if I'd +no more sense than to go there an' then an' frighten him--an' him with +all those papers to look over!" + +"Then if you're so shy about worriting Benny--and I don't blame you--why +be in such a hurry to worrit yourself? 'Bias has the papers--that you +may lay to." + +Fancy tapped her small foot on the floor, which it just reached. +"As if I should be wastin' time, botherin' you! On my way here I ran +against Cap'n Hunken, and of course he wanted to hear the latest of +master--said he was on his way to inquire. So I told him that matters +was bad enough but while there was life there was hope--the sort o' +thing you _have_ to say: and I went on that the business would be all in +a mess for some time to come, and I hoped he'd got all his papers at +home, which would save trouble. 'Papers?' said he. 'Not I!'--and I +wonder I didn' drop: you might have knocked me down with a feather. +'Papers?' said he. 'I haven't seen 'em for months. _I_ don't trouble +about papers! But you'll find 'em in the safe all right, though I +haven't seen 'em for months.' Those were the very words he used: and +nothin' would interest him but to hear how the invalid was doin'. +He went off, cheerful as a chaffinch. It's plain to me," Fancy wound +up, "that he hasn't the papers. He trusted you, to start with, and he's +gone on trustin' you and the master. Didn' you intejuce him?" + +"Sure enough I did," Cai allowed. "But--confound it, you know!--'Bias +Hunken isn't a child." + +"Oh! if that contents you--" But well she knew it did not. + +"Mr Rogers never would--" + +"I've told you," said Fancy, "more'n ever I ought to have told. +There's no knowin', they say, what a man'll do when he's in Queer +Street: _and_ the papers have gone: _and_ Cap'n Hunken thinks they're in +the safe, where they ain't: _and_ I come to you first, as used to be his +friend." + +"Good Lord '" Cai stood erect. "If--if--" + +"That's so," assented Fancy, seated and nodding. "If--" + +"But it can't be!" + +"But if it _is?_" She slipped from her chair and stood, still facing +him. + +He stared at her blankly. "Poor old 'Bias!" he murmured. "But it can't +be." + +"Right O! if you _will_ have it so. But, you see, I didn' put the +question out o' curiosity altogether." + +"The question? What question?" + +"Why, about Mrs Bosenna." + +"What has Mrs Bosenna to do with--Oh, ay, to be sure! You're meanin' +that hundred pounds." His wits were not very clear for the moment. + +"No, I'm not," said Fancy, moving to the door. In the act of opening it +she paused. "'Twas through you, I reckon, he first trusted master with +his money." + +"I--I never suggested it," stammered Cai. + +"I'm not sayin' you did," the girl answered back coldly. "But he went +to master for your sake, because you was his friend and he had such a +belief in you. Just you think that out." + +With a nod of the head she was gone. + +Before leaving the house she visited the kitchen, to bid good-night to +Mrs Bowldler. But Mrs Bowldler was not in the kitchen. + +She mounted the stairs and tapped at the door of Palmerston's attic +chamber. + +"Hullo!" said she looking in, "what's become of Geraldine?" +(Mrs Bowldler's Christian name was Sarah, but the two children vied in +inventing others more suitable to her gentility). + +"If by Geraldine you mean Herm-Intrude," said Palmerston, sitting up in +bed and grinning, "she's out in the grounds, picking--" + +"Culling," corrected Fancy. "Her own word." + +"Well then--culling lamb mint." + +"I should ha' thought sage-an'-onions was the stuffin' relied on by this +establishment." + +"Seasonin'," corrected Palmerston. "But what have _you_ been doin' all +this time?" + +"My dear, don't ask!" Fancy seated herself at the foot of the bed. +"If you _must_ know, I've been playin' Meddlesome Matty life-size. . . . +These grown-ups are all so _helpless_--the men especially! . . . +Feelin' better?" + +"Heaps. 'Tis foolishness, keepin' me in bed like this, and I wish +you'd tell her so. _I'm_ all right--'xcept in my mind." + +"What's wrong with your mind?" + +"'Shamed o' myself: that's all--but it's bad enough." + +"There's no call to be ashamed. You did it in absence o' mind, and all +the best authors have suffered from that. It's well known." + +"To go through what I did," said Palmerston bitterly, "just to bring up +two-an'-nine! 'Tis such a waste of material!" + +"That's one way of puttin' it, to be sure." + +"I mean, for a book--for' Pickerley.' I s'pose there's not one man in a +thousand--not one liter'y man, anyhow--has suffered anything like it. +And I can't put it into the book!" + +"No," agreed Fancy meditatively. "I don't suppose you could: not in +'Pickerley' anyhow. You couldn' make your 'ero swallow anything under a +di'mund tiyara, and that's not easy." + +"I'll have to write the next one about low life," said Palmerston. +"If only I knew a bit more about it! Mrs Bowldler says it can be +rendered quite amusin', and I wouldn' mind makin' myself the 'ero." + +"Wouldn't you? Well, _I_ should, and don't you let me catch you at it! +The man as I marry'll have to keep his head up and show a proper respect +for his-self." + +Poor Palmerston stared. The best women in the world will never +understand an artist. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +CAI RENOUNCES. + +If this thing had happened--? + +After Fancy left him Cai dropped into his armchair, and sat for a long +while staring at the paper ornament with which Mrs Bowldler had +decorated his summer hearth. It consisted of a cascade of paper +shavings with a frontage of paper roses and tinsel foliage, and was +remarkable not only for its own sake but because Mrs Bowldler had chosen +to display the roses upside down. But though Cai stared at it hard, he +observed it not. + +For some minutes his mind refused to work beyond the catastrophe. +"If _it_ had happened--if 'Bias had indeed lost all his money. . . ." + +He arose, lit a pipe, and dropped back into his chair. + +It may be that the tobacco clarified his brain. . . . Of a sudden the +child's words recurred and wrote themselves upon it, and stood out, as +if traced in fire--"_He went to master for your sake, because you was +his friend and he had such a belief in you._" + +Ay, that was true, and in a flash it lit up a new pathway, down which he +followed the thought in the child's mind only to lose it and stand +aghast at his own reflections. + +''Bias went to Rogers through his belief in me.' + +--'I did not encourage him. On the other hand, I said nothing to hinder +him.' + +--'Yet, afterwards and in practice, I did encourage him, going to Rogers +with him and discussing our investments together.' + +--'In a dozen investments we acted as partners.' + +--'He was my friend, and in those days entirely open with me. He let me +read all his character. I knew him to be strict in paying his debts, +uneasy if he owed a sixpence, yet careless in details of business, and +trustful as a child.' + +--'Then this quarrel sprang up between us, and I let him go his way. +I had no right to do that, having led him so far. In a sense, he has +gone on trusting me; that is, he has gone on trusting Rogers for my +sake. To be quit of responsibility, I should have given him fair +warning. + +--'I ought to have gone to him and said, "Look here; Rogers is a friend +of mine, and known to me from childhood. There's honesty in him, but +'tis like streaks in bacon; and for some reason or another he chooses +that all his dealin's with me shall keep to the honest streak. If you +ask me how I know this, 'twouldn't be easy to answer: I _do_ know it, +and I trust him as I'd trust myself, a'most. But Rogers isn't a man for +everyone's money, and there's many as don't scruple to call him a knave. +He hasn't known you from a child, and you haven't known him. You'll be +safe in putting it that what he's done honest for you he's done as my +friend--"' + +Here Cai was seized by a new apprehension. + +--'Ay, and--the devil take it!--I've let Rogers see, lately, that 'Bias +and I had dissolved partnership and burnt the papers! 'Twouldn't take +more than that to persuade Rogers he was quit of the old obligation +towards 'Bias--himself in difficulties too, and 'Bias's money under his +hand.' + +--'Good Lord! . . . Suppose the fellow even allowed to himself that he +was _helping_ me! If Mrs Bosenna--?' + +At this point Cai came to a full stop, appalled. Be it repeated that +neither he nor 'Bias had wooed Mrs Bosenna for her wealth; nor until now +had her wealth presented itself to either save in comfortable +after-thought. + +Cai sat very still for a while. Then drawing quickly at his pipe, he +found that it was smoked out. He arose to tap the bowl upon the bars of +the grate. But they were masked and muffled by Mrs Bowldler's screen of +shavings, and he wandered to the open window to knock out the ashes upon +the slate ledge. Returning to the fireplace, he reached out a hand for +the tobacco-jar, but arrested it, and laying his pipe down on the table, +did something clean contrary to habit. + +He went to the cupboard, fetched out decanter, water-jug, and glass, and +mixed himself a stiff brandy-and-water. + +"Hullo!" said a voice outside the window. "I didn' know as you indulged +between meals." + +It was Mr Philp, staring in. + +"I heard you tappin' on the window-ledge, and I thought maybe you had +caught sight o' me," suggested Mr Philp. + +"But I hadn't," said Cai, somewhat confused. + +"I said to myself, 'He's beckonin' me in for a chat': and no wonder if +'tis true what they're tellin' down in the town." + +"Well, I wasn't," said Cai, gulping his brandy-and-water hardily. +"But what are they tellin'?" + +"There's some," mused Mr Philp, "as don't approve of solitary drinkin'. +Narrow-minded bodies _I_ call 'em. When a man is in luck's way, who's +to blame his fillin' a glass to it--though some o' course prefers to +call in their naybours; an' _that's_ a good old custom too." + +Cai ignored the hint. "What are they tellin' down in the town?" + +"All sorts o' things, from mirth to mournin'. They say, for instance, +as you and the Widow have fixed it all up to be married this side o' +Jubilee." + +"That's a lie, anyway." + +"And others will have it as the engagement's broken off by reason of +your losin' all your money in Johnny Rogers's smash?" + +"And that," said Cai, "is just as true as the other. But who says that +Rogers has gone smash?" + +"Everyone. I tackled Tabb upon the subject this mornin', and he couldn' +deny it. The man's clean scat. He's been speckilatin' for years: +I always looked for this to be the end, and when they told me the +_Saltypool_ wasn't insured, why, I drew my conclusions. As I was sayin' +to Cap'n Hunken just now--" + +"Eh? . . . Where is he?" + +"Who?" + +"'Bias Hunken. You said as you been speakin' with him--" + +"Ay, to be sure, over his garden wall. I looked over and saw him +weedin' among the rose-bushes, an' pulled up to give him the time o' +day." + +"You didn' tell him about the _Saltypool?_" + +"As it happens, that's just what I did. He'd heard she was lost, but +he'd no notion Rogers hadn't taken out an insurance on her, and he +seemed quite fetched aback over it." + +"The devil!" + +"I'm sorry you feel like that about him. As I was tellin' him, when I +heard your tap here at the window--" + +"But I don't--and I wasn' tappin' for you, either." + +"Appears not," said Mr Philp, with a glance at the empty glass in Cai's +hand. + +"Where is he? Still in the garden, d'ye say?" + +"Ay: somewheres down by the summer-house. Says _I_, when I heard you +tappin', 'That's Cap'n Hocken,' says I, 'signallin' me to come an wish +him joy, an' maybe to join him in a drink over his luck. And why not?' +says I. 'Stranger things have happened.'" + +"You'll excuse me. . . . If he's in his garden, I want a chat with him." +Cai hurried out to the front door. + +"Maybe you'd like me to go with you," suggested Mr Philp, ready for him. + +"Maybe I'd like nothin' of the sort," snapped Cai. "Why should I?" + +"Well, if you ask _me_, he didn' seem in the best o' tempers, and it +might come handy to take along a witness." + +"No, thank'ee," said Cai with some asperity. "You just run along and +annoy somebody else." + +He descended the garden, to find 'Bias at the door of his summer-house, +seated, and puffing great clouds of tobacco-smoke. + +"Good evenin'!" + +"Good evenin'," responded 'Bias in a tone none too hospitable. + +"You don't mind my havin' a word with you?" + +"Not if you'll make it short." + +"I've just come from Philp. He's been tellin' you about the +_Saltypool_, it seems." + +"Well?" + +"She was uninsured." + +"And on top o' that, the fools overloaded her." + +"And 'tis a serious thing for Rogers." + +"Ruination, Philp tells me--that's if you choose to believe Philp." + +"I've better information than Philp's, I'm sorry to say." + +"Whose?" + +"Fancy Tabb's." + +"She didn' tell me so when I saw her to-day."--(And good reason for why, +thought Cai.)--"Still, if she told you, you may lay there's some truth +in it. That child don't speak at random. I don't see, though, as it +makes much difference, up _or_ down?" + +"No difference?" + +"I didn' say 'no difference.' I said 'not much.' Ruination's not much +to a man already down with a stroke." + +"Oh, . . . _him?_" said Cai. "To tell the truth, I wasn't thinkin' +about Rogers, not at this moment." + +"No?" queried 'Bias sourly. "Then maybe I'm doin' you an injustice. +I thought you might be pushin' your way in here to suggest our doin' +something for the poor chap." Before Cai had well recovered from this, +'Bias went on, "And if so, I'd have answered you that I didn' intend to +be any such fool." + +"I--I'm afraid," owned Cai, "my thought wasn' anything like so +unselfish. It concerned you and me, rather." + +"Thinkin' of me, was you?" 'Bias stuffed down the tobacco in his pipe +with his forefinger. "I reckon that's no game, Caius Hocken, to be +takin' up again after all these months; and I warn you to drop it, for +'tis dangerous." + +Whatever his faults, Cai did not lack courage. "I don't care a cuss for +threats, as you might know by this time. What I owe I pay,--and there's +my trouble. I introduced you to Rogers, didn't I?" + +"That's true," agreed 'Bias slowly. "What of it?" + +"Why, that I'm in a way responsible that you took your affairs to him." + +"Not a bit." + +"But it follows. Surely you must see--" + +"No, I don't. I ain't a child, and I'll trouble you not to hang about +here suggestin' it. I didn' trust Rogers till I saw for myself he was a +good man o' business and the very sort I wanted. He sarved me, well +enough; and, well or ill, I don't complain to you." + +"See here, 'Bias," said Cai desperately. "You may take this tone with +me if you choose. But you don't choke me off by it, and you'll have to +drop it sooner or later. I was your friend, back along--let's start +with that." + +"And a nice friend you proved!" + +"Let's start with _that_, then," pursued Cai eagerly--so eagerly that +'Bias stared willy-nilly, lifting his eye-brows. "Put it, if you +please, that I was your friend and misled you to trust in Rogers, that +you lost money by it--" + +"Who said so?" + +"I say so. Put it at the lowest--that you sunk a hundred pound' in the +_Saltypool_--" + +"Eh?" + +"In the _Saltypool_--" Cai met his stare and nodded. "And not your own +money, neither. Mrs Bosenna--" + +'Bias started and laid down his pipe. "Drop that!" he interjected with +a growl. + +"Nay, you don't frighten _me_," answered Cai valiantly. "We're goin' to +talk a lot of Mrs Bosenna, afore we've done. Present point is, she gave +you a hundred pound, to invest for her. She gave me the like." + +"What!" 'Bias clutched both arms of his chair in the act of rising. +But Cai held up a hand. + +"Steady! She gave me the like. . . . You handed the money over to +Rogers, and close on fifteen per cent he was makin' on it--in the +_Saltypool_." + +"Who--who told you?" + +"Wait! I did the like. . . . Seven pounds eight-and-four was my +dividend, whatever yours may have been--eh? You may call it a--a +coincidence, 'Bias Hunken: but some would say as our minds worked on the +same lines even when--even when--" Cai seemed to swallow something in +his throat. "Anyhow, the money's gone, and we'll have to make it good." + +"Well, I should hope so!" + +"I'll see to _that_, 'Bias--whatever happens." + +"So will I, o' course." 'Bias turned to refill his pipe. + +Cai was watching him narrowly. "Happen that mightn't be none too easy," +he suggested. + +"Why so?" + +"Heark'n to me now: I got something more serious to tell. The Lord send +we may be mistaken, but--supposin' as Rogers has played the rogue?" + +'Bias, not at all discomposed, went on filling his pipe. "I see what +you're drivin' at," said he. "'Tis the same tale Philp was chantin' just +now, over the wall; how that Rogers had lost his own money and ours as +well, and 'twas in everybody's mouth. Which I say to you what I said to +him: ''Tis the old story,' I says, 'let a man be down on his back, and +every cur'll fly at him.'" + +"But suppose 'twas true? . . . Did Rogers ever show the bonds and papers +for your money?" + +"'Course he did. Showed me every one as they came in, and seemed to +make a point of it. 'Made me count 'em over, some time back. +'Wouldn' let me off 'till I'd checked 'em, tied 'em up in a parcel, +docketed 'em, sealed 'em, and the Lord knows what beside. Very dry +work. I claimed a glass o' grog after it." + +"And then you took 'em away?" asked Cai with a sudden hope. + +"Not I. For one thing, they're vallyble, and I don't keep a safe. +I put 'em back in the old man's--top shelf--alongside o' yours." + +Cai groaned. "They're missin' then!" + +"Who told you?" + +"The child--Fancy Tabb." + +'Bias looked serious. "Why didn' she come to me, I wonder?" + +"I reckon--knowing what friends we'd been--she left it to me to break +the news." + +"I won't believe it," declared 'Bias slowly. But he sat staring +straight at the horizon, and after each puff at the pipe Cai could hear +him breathing hard. + +"The child's not given to lyin'. And yet I don't see--Rogers bein' +helpless to open the safe on his own account. At the worst 'tis a bad +job for ye, 'Bias." + +"Eh? . . . 'Means sellin' up an' startin' afresh: that's all--always +supposin' there's jobs to be found, at our age. I don't know as there +wouldn't be consolations. This here life ashore isn't all I fancied +it." + +Now Cai had in mind a great renunciation: but unfortunately he could not +for the moment discover any way to broach it. He played to gain time, +therefore, awaiting opportunity. + +"As for getting a job," he suggested, "there's no need to be downcast; +no need at all. If the worst came to the worst, there's the _Hannah +Hoo_, f'r instance, and a providence she never found a buyer." + +"Ay, to be sure--I'd forgot the bark'nteen." + +"Come!" said Cai with a quick smile, playing up towards his grand +_coup_. "What would you say to shippin' aboard the _Hannah Hoo?_" + +"What?--as mate under _you_? . . . I'd say," answered 'Bias slowly, +"as I'd see you damned first." + +"But"--Cai stared at him in bewilderment--"who was proposin' any such +thing? As skipper I thought o' you--what elst? Leastways--" + +"And you?" + +"Me? . . . But why? There's no call for _me_ goin' to sea again." + +"Ah, to be sure," said 'Bias bitterly, "I was forgettin'. You'll stay +ashore and make up your losses by marryin'!" + +"But I haven't _had_ any losses!" stammered Cai. "Not beyond the +hundred pound in the _Saltypool_. . . . Didn't I make that plain?" + +"No, you didn't." 'Bias laid down his pipe. "Are you standin' there +and tellin' me that _your_ papers are all right and safe?" + +"To be sure they are. Rogers handed 'em over to me, and I took 'em home +and locked 'em in my strong-box--it may be four months ago." + +"Ay, that would be about the time. . . . Well, I congratulate you," said +'Bias, with deepening bitterness of accent. "The luck's yours, every +way, and that there's no denyin'." + +"Wait a bit, though. You haven't heard me finish." + +"Well?" + +"Since this news came I've been thinkin' pretty hard over one or two +things . . . over our difference, f'r instance, an' the cause of it. +To be plain, I want a word with you about--well, about Mrs Bosenna." + +"Stow that," growled 'Bias. "If you've come here to crow--" + +"The Lord knows I've not come here to crow. . . . I've come to tell you, +as man to man, that I don't hold 'twas a pretty trick she played us over +them two hundreds. You may see it different, and I hope you do. +I don't bear her no grudge, you understand? . . . But if you've still a +mind to her, and she've a mind to you, I stand out from this moment, and +wish 'ee luck!" + +'Bias stood up, stiff with wrath. + +"And the Lord knows, Cai Hocken, how at this moment I keep my hands off +you! . . . Wasn't it bad enough before, but you must stand patronisin' +there, offerin' me what you don't want? First I'm to ship in your +sarvice, eh? When that won't do, I'm to marry the woman you've no use +for? And there was a time I called 'ee friend! Hell! if you must +poison this garden, poison it by yourself! Let me get out o' this. +Stand aside, please, ere I say worse to 'ee!" + +He strode by, and up the garden path in the gathering twilight. + +Poor 'Bias! + + +Poor Cai, too! His renunciation had cost him no small struggle, and he +had meant it nobly; but for certain he had bungled it woefully. + +His heart was sore for his friend: the sorer because there was now no +way left to help. The one door to help--reconcilement--was closed and +bolted! closed through his own clumsiness. + +It had cost him much, a while ago--an hour or two ago, no more--to +resign his pretensions to Mrs Bosenna's hand. The queer thing was how +little--the resolutions once taken--Mrs Bosenna counted. It was 'Bias +he had lost. + +As he sat and smoked, that night, in face of Mrs Bowldler's fire-screen, +staring at its absurd decorations, it was after 'Bias that his thoughts +harked--always back, and after 'Bias--retracing old friendship +faithfully as a hound seeking back to his master. + +'Bias would never think well of him again. As a friend, 'Bias was lost, +had gone out of his life. . . . So be it! Yet there remained a 'Bias in +need of help, though stubborn to reject it: a 'Bias to be saved somehow, +in spite of himself, an unforgiving 'Bias, yet still to be rescued. +Cai smoked six pipes that night, pondering the problem. He was aroused +by the sound of the clock in the hall striking eleven. Before retiring +to bed he had a mind to run through his parcel of bonds and securities +on the chance--since he and 'Bias had made many small investments by +consent and in common--of finding some hint of possible salvage. + +His strong-box stood in a recess by the chimnney-breast. A stuffed +gannet in a glass case surmounted it--a present from 'Bias, who had shot +the bird. The bird's life-like eye (of yellow glass) seemed to watch +him as he thrust the key into the lock. + +He took out the parcel, laid it on the table under the lamp, and--with +scarcely a glance at the docket as he untied the tape--spread out the +papers with his palm much as a card-player spreads wide a pack of cards +before cutting. . . . He picked up a bond, opened it, ran his eye over +the superscription and tossed it aside. + +So he did with a second--a third--a fourth. + +On a sudden, as he took up the fifth and, before opening it, glanced at +the writing on the outside, his gaze stiffened. He sat upright. + +After a moment or two he unfolded the paper. His eyes sought and found +two words--the name "Tobias Hunken." + +He turned the papers over again. Still the name not his--"Tobias +Hunken!" + +He pushed the paper from him, and timorously, as a man possessed by +superstitious awe, put out his fingers and drew forward under the +lamplight the four documents already cast aside. + +The name on each was the same. The bonds belonged to 'Bias. +By mistake, those months ago, he had carried them off and locked them up +for his own. + +Should he arouse 'Bias to-night and tell him of the good news? +He gathered up the bonds in his hand, went to the front door, unbarred +it, and stepped out into the roadway. Not a light showed anywhere in +the next house. + +Cai stepped back, barred the door, and sought his chamber, after putting +out the lamp. He slept as soundly as a child. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +'BIAS RENOUNCES. + +"Is Cap'n Hunken upstairs?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered Mr Tabb from behind his pile of biscuit tins and +soapboxes. The pile had grown--or so it seemed to Cai--and blocked out +more of the daylight than ever. "Won't you step up? You'll be kindly +welcome." + +"I was told I should find him here." Cai, on requesting Mrs Bowldler +that morning to inform him how soon Captain Hunken would be finishing +breakfast, had been met with the information that Captain Hunken had +breakfasted an hour before, and gone out. ("Which," said Mrs Bowldler, +"it becomes not one in my position to carry tales between one +establishment and another: but he bent his steps in the direction of the +town. I beg, sir, however, that you will consider this to be strickly +between you and me and the gatepost, as the saying is.") Cai at once +surmised the reason of this early sallying forth, and, following in +chase, ran against the Quaymaster, from whom he learnt that 'Bias had +entered the ship-chandler's shop half an hour ago. "He has not since +emerged," added the Quaymaster Bussa darkly, as doubtful that in the +interim Captain Hunken might have suffered forcible conversion into one +of the obscurer "lines" of ship-chandlery, wherein so much purports to +be what it is not. + +--"I was told I should find him here," said Cai. "But would ye mind +fetchin' him down to me? The fact is, I want him on a matter of private +business." + +Mr Tabb considered for a moment. "If I may advise, sir," he suggested +meekly, "you'll find it as private up there as anywhere. The master's +past hearin' what you say--or, if he hears, he's past takin' notice: +whereas down here, you're liable to be interrupted by customers--let +alone that I mustn't leave the shop. And," concluded Mr Tabb, "I would +hardly recommend the Quay. Mr Philp's just arrived there." + + +On recovering from his previous stroke, Mr Rogers had given orders that, +if another befell him, his bed was to be fetched downstairs and laid in +the great bow-window of the parlour. There Cai found him with Fancy in +attendance, and 'Bias seated on a chair by the bedside. + +"Good-mornin'," Cai nodded, hushing his voice, and advanced towards the +bed almost on tiptoe. "He won't reckernise me, I suppose?" + +The invalid reclined in a posture between lying and sitting, his back +propped with pillows, his eyes turned with an expressionless stare +towards the harbour. Save for its rigidity and a slight drawing down of +the muscles on the left side of the mouth, there was nothing to shock or +terrify in the aspect of the face, which kept, moreover, its customary +high colour. + +"He can't show it, if that's what you mean," answered Fancy. "But he +knows us, somewhere at the back of his eyes--of that I'm sure. I got to +be very clever watchin' his eyes, the last stroke he had, and there was +quite a different look in 'em when he was pleased, or when he was +troubled or wanted something. If you go over quiet and stand by the +window, right where he must see you if he sees at all, maybe you'll +notice what I mean." + +But Cai, though he obeyed, and stood for a moment in the direct line of +their vision, could detect no change in the unwinking eyes. + +"Cap'n Hunken will even have it that he hears what's said, or scraps of +it. But that I don't believe. . . . I believe 'tis but a buzzin' in his +ears, with no sense to it, an' 'twould be jus' the same if we was the +band of the R'yal Lifeguards." + +"Well, whether he hears or not, I've a piece o' news for 'Bias Hunken, +here. . . . P'raps he'd like to step outside an' discuss it?" suggested +Cai awkwardly, remembering how he and 'Bias had parted overnight. + +"I don't want to hear anything you can say," growled 'Bias. + +"Oh, yes, you do! . . . I reckoned as you'd be down here, first thing +after breakfast, sarchin' for them papers we talked about." + +"Did you, now?" + +"And I tried to catch you afore you started; but you'd breakfasted +early. . . . Well, the long and short is, they're not lost after all!" +Cai produced the bundle triumphantly. + +"Eh! Where did you find 'em?" asked Fancy, while 'Bias took the parcel +without a word of thanks, glanced at it carelessly, and set it down on +the little round table beside the bed. + +"In my strong-box. . . . There was two parcels, pretty much alike, on +the top shelf of the safe yonder, and I must have taken 'Bias's by +mistake. I'm glad, anyway," he went on, turning with moist eyes upon +'Bias, who appeared to have lost interest in the conversation. +"I'm glad, anyway, t'have eased your mind so soon, let alone to have cut +short your sarchin' which must ha' been painful enough--in a house o' +sickness." + +"Who was sarchin'?" asked 'Bias curtly. "Not me." + +"And that's true enough," corroborated Fancy. "Why, Cap'n Hunken has +never mentioned the papers! I guessed as you hadn' told him they was +missin'." + +"Eh? . . . I thought--I made sure, by his startin' down here so early--" + +"Not a word of any papers did he mention," said Fancy. "He just come +early to sit an' keep master company, havin' a notion that his poor old +mind takes comfort from it somehow. Seven hours he sat here yesterday, +an' never so much as a pipe of tobacco the whole time. Doctor said as a +bit o' tobacco-smoke wouldn' do any harm in the room: but Cap'n Hunken +allows as he'll be on the safe side." + +Cai started. . . . For aught 'Bias knew then--as indeed 'Bias had reason +to suspect--this husk of a man, helpless on the bed, had robbed him of +his all, ruined him, left him no prospect but to begin life over again +when late middle-age had sapped his vigour, attenuated the springs of +action, left sad experience in the room of hope. And 'Bias's thought, +ignoring it all, had been to sit beside this man's calamity, on the +merest chance of piercing it with one ray of comfort! + +Whereupon, as goodness takes inspiration from goodness, in Cai's heart, +too, a miracle happened, He forgot himself, forgot his loss which was +'Bias's gain: forgot that, keeping his surly attitude, 'Bias had uttered +neither a "thank you" nor a word of pity. Old affection, old +admiration, old faith, and regard came pouring back in a warm tide, +thrilling, suffusing his consciousness, drowning all but one thought-- +one proud thought that stood like a sea-mark above the flood, justifying +all--"Even such a man I made my friend!" + +For a long time Cai stared. Then, as 'Bias made no sign of lifting his +sullen gaze from the strip of carpet by the bed, he turned half-about +towards the door. + +"'Bias Hunken," said he gently, "you're a good man, an' deserved this +luck better'n me. . . . If you can't put away hard thoughts just yet, +maybe you'll remember, some day, that I wished 'ee long life to enjoy +it." + +His hand was on the door. "Here, though--hold hard!" put in Fancy, who +had picked up the bundle of papers. "I don't think Cap'n Hunken +understands; nor I don't clearly understand myself. Was it _both_ +packets you carried home, sir? or only this one?" + +"I thought as I'd made it clear enough," answered Cai. His eyes were +still on his friend, and there was weariness as well as pain in his +voice. "There's only one packet--'Bias's--what you have in your hand. +I must have carried it home by mistake." + +"Then your's is missin'?" + +"That's so," said the broken man quietly. + +The child turned and walked to the window. On her way she halted a +moment and peered earnestly into the invalid's eyes, as if the riddle +might possibly be read there. But they were vacant and answered her +nothing. Then for some twenty seconds, almost pressing her forehead to +the window-pane, she stood and gazed out upon the glancing waters of the +harbour. + +"There's only one thing to be done--" She wheeled about sharply. +"Why, wherever _is_ the man? . . . You don't mean to tell me," she +demanded of 'Bias indignantly, "that you sat there an' let him go!" + +"I couldn' help his goin', could I?" muttered 'Bias, but his eyes were +uneasy under the wrath in hers. + +"You couldn' help it?" she echoed in scorn, and pointed to the figure on +the bed. "Here you come playin' the Early Christian over a man that, +for aught you knew, had robbed you to a stair: and when 'tis your tried +friend fetchin' back riches to you--fairly bringin' you back to life at +the cost o' bein' a beggar hisself--you let him go without so much as a +thank'ee!" + +"Cai Hocken don't want my thanks." + +"Didn't even want politeness, I suppose--after runnin' here hot foot +with the news that made you rich an' him a poor man! Oh, you're past +all patience! . . . Who should know what he wanted an' didn't get-- +I, that had my eyes on his face, or you, that sat like a stuck pig, +glowerin' at the carpet?" + +"Gently, missy! . . . There--there didn' seem anything to say." + +"There was one thing to say," answered the girl sternly, "and there's +one thing to be done." + +"What's that?" + +"It mayn't be an easy thing, altogether. But you'll be glad of it +afterwards, and you may as well make up your mind to it." + +"Out with it!" + +"Mrs Bosenna--Why, what's the matter?"--for 'Bias had interrupted with a +short laugh. + +"I'd forgot Mrs Bosenna for the moment." + +"Right. Then go on forgettin' her, an' give her up. When you come to +think it over," urged Fancy with the air of a nurse who administers +medicine to a child, "you'll find 'tis the only fit an' proper thing to +do." + +Again 'Bias laughed, and this time his laugh was even shorter and +grimmer than before. + +"Well and good--but wait one moment, missy! D'ye know what Cai Hocken +said to me, last night in the garden, when he reckoned as I'd lost my +money? No, you don't. 'Look here,' he said, 'if you've still a mind to +that woman and she've a mind to you, I'll stand aside.' That's what he +said: and d'ye know what I answered? I told him to go to hell." + +"I see." Fancy stood musing. + +"Makes it a bit awkward, eh?--Cai bein' a man of spirit, with all his +faults." + +"Well," she decided, "unless we can find his money for him, he'll have +to marry her, whether or no. 'Faults,' indeed? I believe," went on the +wise child, "you two be more to one another than that woman ever was to +either, or ever will be." + +"We won't discuss that," said 'Bias, "now that Cai's got to marry her." + + +Cai retired to bed early that night, wearied in all his limbs with much +and aimless walking. If, as he trudged highroad or lane in the early +summer heat, any thought of Mrs Bosenna arose for a moment and conquered +the anodyne of bodily exercise, it was not a thought of grudging her to +'Bias. By the turn of Fortune's wheel 'Bias would win her now. +To _him_, at all events, she was lost. Cai had never courted her for +her money: but he had courted without distrust, on the strength of his +own security in a competence. At the back of his mind there may have +lurked a suspicion that Mrs Bosenna, as a business woman, was not in the +least likely to bestow her hand on a penniless sailor: but there was no +reason why he should allow this suspicion to obtrude itself, since +self-respect would have forbidden him, being penniless, to pursue the +courtship. + +No; if he thought of Mrs Bosenna at all, it was in a sort of dull rage +against her sex: not specially against her, who happened to be her sex's +delegate to work this particular piece of mischief, but generally +against womankind, that with a word or two, a look or two, it could rob +a man of a friend--and of such a friend as 'Bias! + +'Bias was undemonstrative, Cai had always prided himself on recognising +a worth in him which did not leap to the eyes of other men--which hid +itself rather, and shunned the light. It had added to his sense of +possession that he constantly detected what others overlooked. In this +matter of his behaviour to Rogers, 'Bias had eclipsed all previous +records. It was (view it how you would) magnificent in 'Bias--a high +Christian action--to tend, as he had tended, upon a man who presumably +had robbed him of his all. + +And at the same moment 'Bias could behave so callously to a once-dear +friend--to a friend bringing glad tidings--to a friend, moreover, +rejoicing to bring them, though they meant his own undoing! It was +almost inconceivable. It was quite unintelligible unless you supposed +the man's nature to be perverted, and by this woman. + +Cai's heart was bruised. It ached with a dull insistent pain that must +be deadened at all costs, even though his own wrecked prospects called +out to be faced promptly, resolutely, and with a practical mind. +He would face them to-morrow. To-day he would tire himself out: +to-night he would sleep. + +And he slept, almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. His sleep +was dreamless too. + + +"_Dame, get out and bake your pies--bake your pies--bake your pies--_" + +"_Whoo-oo-sh!_" + +He sat up in bed with a jerk. . . . What on earth was it? A squall of +hail on the window? Or a rocket?--a ship in distress, perhaps, outside +the harbour? . . . + +"_Dame, get out and bake your pies--_" piped a high childish voice. +Some one was unbarring a door below. A voice--'Bias's voice--spoke out +gruffly, demanding what was the matter? + +Was the house on fire? . . . No: outside the half-open window lay spread +the moonlight, pale and tranquil. The night wind entering, scarcely +stirred the thin dimity curtains. This was no weather for sudden +hail-storms or for shipwreck. Cai flung back the bedclothes, jumped +out--and uttered a sharp cry of pain. His naked foot had trodden on a +gritty pebble, small but sharp. + +Someone had flung a handful of gravel at the window. + +He picked his way cautiously across the floor, and looked out. . . . +In the moonlit roadway, right beneath, a girl--Fancy Tabb--was dancing a +fandango, the while in her lifted hand she waved a white parcel. + +"Ah, there you be!" she hailed, catching sight of him. "I've found +'em!" + +"Found what?" + +"Your papers! . . . I couldn' sleep till I told you: and I had to fetch +Mr Benny along--here he is!" + +"Good evening, Captain," spoke up Mr Peter Benny, stepping out into the +roadway from the doorway where he had been explaining to 'Bias. +"It's all right, sir. Your papers are found." + +"Good evening, Benny! Tis kind of you, surely,"--Cai's voice trembled a +little. "What's the hour?" he asked. + +"Scarce midnight yet. I reckoned maybe you might be sittin' up, +frettin' over this--'Twas the child here, though, that found it out and +insisted on bringing me." + +"After we'd locked up," broke in Fancy, "and just as I was packin' Dad +off to bed, it came into my head to ask him--'I suppose you don't know,' +said I, 'of anyone's havin' been to master's safe without my bein' +told?' He thought a bit, and 'No,' says he; 'nobody 'cept myself, an' +that but once. '_You?_' says I, 'and whoever sent _you_ there?' +'Why, the master hisself,' says Dad.--Who else?' 'But what for?' I +asks, feelin' as you might have knocked me down with a feather. +'I meant to ha' told you,' says Dad, 'but it slipped my mind. 'Twas one +afternoon, when you was out on your walk. I heard Master's stick tap on +the plankin' overhead so I went up, thinkin' as he might be wantin' his +tea in a hurry. He told me to open the safe an' take out a packet o' +papers from the top shelf; which I did.' 'What papers?' said I +'How should I know?' says Dad: 'I don't meddle with his business--I've +seen too much of it in _my_ life. I didn' even glance at 'em, but +locked the safe again, an' put 'em where he told me--which was in the +japanned box by his chair!' 'Why,' says I,' that's his Insurance Box as +he called it--the same as I handed to Mr Benny only yesterday, to take +away and sort through!' . . . After that, as you may guess, I was like a +mad person till we'd taken down the bolts again and I'd run to Mr +Benny's." + +"Ay," chimed in Mr Benny, "I was upstairs and half-undressed: but she +had me dressed again an' down as if 'twas a matter of life and death. + . . . And when we got out the box, there the papers were, sure enough. +After that--for I saw their value to you--no one with a human heart +could help running along with her, to bear the news. . . . So here we +are." + +"'Bias!" called Cai softly. "Didn' I hear 'Bias's voice below there, a +while since?" + +"Ay, here I be."--It was 'Bias's turn to step out from the shadow of his +doorway into the broad moonlight. "And glad enough to hear this news." + +"Would ye do me a favour? . . . Dressed, are you?" + +"Ay--been sittin' up latish to-night." + +"Well, I'm not azackly in a condition to step down--not for a minute or +two; and I doubt Mrs Bowldler, if I called her, wouldn' be in no +condition either. . . . 'Twould be friendly of you to ask Mr Benny in +and offer him a drink; and as for missy--" + +"No thank 'ee, Cap'n," interposed Mr Benny. "Bringin' you this peace o' +mind has been cordial enough for me--and for the child too, I reckon, +Good-night, gentlemen!" + +"Cap'n Hunken," said Fancy, "will you take the papers up to him? +Then we'll go." + +"May I bring the papers to 'ee?" asked 'Bias, lifting his face to the +window. + +"Ay, do--if they won't come in. . . . I'll step down and unbar the +door." + +He lit a candle and hurried downstairs, his heart in his mouth. +By the time he had unbarred and opened, Mr Benny and Fancy had taken +their departure; but their "good-nights" rang back to him, up the +moonlit road, and his friend stood on the threshold. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +MRS BOSENNA GIVES THE ROSE. + +"It's a delicate thing to say to a woman," suggested Cai; "'specially +when she happens to be your land-lady." + +"You do the talkin', of course," said 'Bias hurriedly. + +"Must I? Why?" + +"Well, to begin with, you knew her first." + +"I don't see as that signifies." + +"No? Well, you used to make quite a point of it, as I remember. +But anyway you're a speaker, and it'll need some gift, as you say." + +They had reached the small gate at the foot of the path. The day was +hot, the highroad dusty. Cai halted and removed his hat; drew out a +handkerchief and wiped his brow; wiped the lining of the hat; +wiped his neck inside the collar. + +"There's another way of lookin' at it," he ventured. "Some might say as +'twas more tactful to let your feelin's cool off by degrees." + +"That's no way for me," said 'Bias positively. "Short and sharp's our +motto." + +"'Tis the best, no doubt," Cai agreed. "But there's the trouble of +puttin' it into words. . . . I wish, now, I'd thought of consultin' +Peter Benny. There'd be no harm, after all, in steppin' back and askin' +his advice." + +"No, you don't," said 'Bias shortly. "In my belief, if we hadn't made +so free wi' consultin' Peter Benny in the past, we shouldn't be where we +be at this moment." + +If Cai's thought might be read in his face, he would not have greatly +minded _that_, just now. + +"In the matter of these letters for instance--" + +"I wonder if she ever got 'em?" + +"You bet she did. She's been playin' us off, one against t'other, ever +since." + +"We let our feelin's carry us away." + +"We let Peter Benny's feelin's carry us away," 'Bias corrected him. +"That's the worst of these writin' chaps. Before you know where you are +they'll harrow you up with feelin's you wasn't aware you entertained. +Now I don't mind confessin' that, afore Benny had started to make out a +fair copy I found myself over head an' ears in love with the woman." + +"Me too," agreed Cai, musing. + +"You're _sure_ you're not any longer?" + +"Eh? . . . Of course I am sure. I was only thinkin' how queer it was he +should have pumped it out of us, so to say, with the same letters-- +almost to a syllable." + +"There's two ways o' lookin' at that," said 'Bias thoughtfully. +"You may put it that marryin's as common as dirt. Nine out o' ten +indulges in it; and, that bein' so, the same form o' words'll do for +everybody, more or less, in proposin' it; just as (when you come to +think) the same Marriage Service does for all when they come to the +scratch. If all men meant different to all women, there wouldn't be +enough dictionary to go round." + +Cai shook his head. "I'm the better of it now," he confessed; "but I +got to own that, at the moment, though Benny did well enough, there +didn't seem enough dictionary to go round." + +"I felt something of a rarity myself at the time," owned 'Bias. +"But there's another explanation I like better, though you'll think it +far-fetched. . . . You and me--until this happened, there was never a +cross word atween us, _nor_ a cross thought?" + +"That's so, 'Bias." + +"Well, and that bein' so, if Benny hit the note for one, how could it +help bein' the note for both? . . . I've had pretty rash thoughts about +Benny: but--put it in that way--who's to blame the man? Or the woman, +for that matter?" + +"I like that explanation better," said Cai. + +"--Or the woman? She can't help bein' a two-headed nightingale." + +"To be sure she can't. . . . We might leave it at that and say no more +about it. She'd be sure to understand in time." + +"The agreement was, last night," insisted 'Bias with great firmness, +"to put it to her straight and get it over." + +They resumed their walk and mounted the pathway over which--from the +first angle of the outbuildings to the garden-gate--Banksian roses hung +from the wall in heavy honey-coloured clusters of bloom. These were +scentless and already past their prime; but by the gate at the +south-east end of the house the white Banksian, throwing far wider +shoots, saluted them with a scent as of violets belated. And within the +gate the old roses were coming on with a rush--Provence and climbing +China; Moschata alba, pouring over an arch in a cascade of bloom that +hid all its green as with shell-pink foam; crimson and striped Damask +along the border; with Paul Neyron eclipsing all in size, moss-roses +bursting their gummy shells, Gloire de Dijon climbing and asserting +itself above the falsely named "pink Gloire"; Reine Marie Henriette-- +which, grown by everybody, is perhaps the worst rose in the world. +Gloire de Dijon rampant smothered the pretender and covered the most of +its mildewing buds from sight; to be conquered in its turn by the sheer +beauty of Marechal Niel, whose every yellow star, bold on its stalk as +greenhouses can grow it, shamed all feebler yellows. Devoniensis flung +its sprays down from the thatch. La France and Ulrich Brunner +competed--silver rose against cherry rose--on either side of the porch. +Yet the fragrance of all these roses had to yield to that of the Cottage +flowers, mignonette, Sweet-William, lemon verbena, Brompton stocks-- +annuals, biennials, perennials, intermixed--that lined the border, with +blue delphiniums and white Madonna lilies breaking into flower above +them. + +Dinah, answering their ring at the bell after the usual delay for +reconnaissance, opined that her mistress would probably be found in the +new rose-garden. She said it, as they both observed, with a demure, +half-mischievous smile. + +"Amused to see us in company again, I reckon," said Cai to 'Bias as they +went up through the old rose-garden, where the June-flowering H.P.'s ran +riot in masses of colour from palest pink to deepest crimson. + +"Ay," assented 'Bias, "we'll have to get used to folks smilin', these +next few days. . . . Between ourselves, I never fancied that woman, +though I couldn' give you any particular reason for it." + +"Sly," suggested Cai. + +"'Tis more than that. Slyness, you may say, belongs to the whole sex, +and I've known men say as they found it agreeable, in moderation." + +"I never noticed that in her mistress, to do her justice." + +'Bias halted. "Look here. . . . You're _sure_ you ain't weakenin'?" + +"Sure." + +"Because, as I told 'ee last night--and I'll say it again, here, at the +last moment--she's yours, and welcome, if so be--" + +"--'If so be as I didn' speak my true mind last night, when I said the +same to you '--is that what you mean? Here, let's on and get it over!" +said Cai, mopping his brow anew. + +"'Tis a delicate business to broach, as you mentioned just now," said +'Bias dallying. "We'll have to be very careful how we put it." + +"Very. As I told 'ee before, if you like to take it over--" + +"Not at all. You're spokesman--only we don't want to put it so's she +can round on us with 'nobody axed you.' And you gave me a turn, just +then, by sayin' as you never noticed she was sly; because as I reckon, +that's the very point we've come to make." + +"As how?" + +'Bias stared at him in some perturbation. "Why, didn't she put that +trick on us over the investment? And ain't we here to give her back her +money? And wasn't it agreed as we'd open on her reproachful-like? an' +then, one thing leadin' to another--" + +"Ay, to be sure--I got all that in my mind really." Cai wiped the back +of his neck and pocketed his handkerchief with an air of decision--or of +desperation. "What you don't seem to know--though with any experience +o' speakin' you'd understand well enough--is that close upon the last +moment all your thoughts fly, and specially if folks _will_ keep +chatterin': but when you stand up and open your mouth--provided as +nobody interrupts you . . ." + +"I declare! If it isn't Captain Hocken--_and_ Captain Hunken with him!" + +At the creaking of the small gate, as Cai opened it, Mrs Bosenna had +looked up and espied them. She dropped the bundle of raffia, with the +help of which she had been staking such of her young shoots as were +overlong or weighted down by their heavy blooms, and came forward with a +smile of welcome. + +"Come in--come in, the both of you! What lovely weather! You'll excuse +my not taking off my gloves? We are busy, you see, and some of my new +beauties have the most dreadful thorns! . . . By the way"--she glanced +over her shoulder, following Cai's incredulous stare. "I believe you +know Mr Middlecoat? Yes, yes, of course--I remember!" She laughed and +beckoned forward the young farmer, who dropped his occupation among the +rosebuds and shuffled forward obediently enough, yet wearing an +expression none too gracious. + +"'Afternoon, gentlemen," mumbled Farmer Middlecoat, and his sulky tone +seemed to show that he had not forgotten previous encounters. +"Won't offer to shake hands. 'Cos why?" He showed the backs of his +own, which were lacerated and bleeding. "Caterpillars," added Mr +Middlecoat in explanation. + +"There now!" cried Mrs Bosenna in accents of genuine dismay. "I'd no +idea you were tearin' yourself like that--and so easy to ask Dinah to +fetch out a pair o' gloves!" + +"Do you mean to say, sir," asked Cai in his simplicity, "that +caterpillars bite?" + +"No, I don't," answered Mr Middlecoat. "But you can't get at 'em and +avoid these pesky thorns." + +Said Mrs Bosenna gaily,--"Mr Middlecoat called on me half an hour ago +wi' the purpose to make himself disagreeable as usual--though I forget +what his excuse was, this time--and I set him to hunt caterpillars." + +"Dang it, look at my hands!" growled the young farmer, holding them out. + +"And last month, wi' that spell of east wind, 'twas the green-fly. +But I reckon we've mastered the pests by this time. Didn't find many +caterpillars, eh?" + +"No, I didn'," answered Mr Middlecoat, still sulkily. "But them as I +did you bet I scrunched." + +"Well, they deserved it, for the last few be the dangerousest. +They give over the leaves to eat the buds. But 'tis labour well spent +on 'em, and we'll have baskets on baskets now, by Jubilee Day." + +"'Tis the Queen's flower--the royal flower--sure enough," said Cai, +looking about him in admiration. He had not visited the new garden for +some weeks, and on the last visit it had been but an unpromising patch +stuck about with stiff, thorny twigs, all leafless, the most of them +projecting but a few inches above the soil. The plants were short yet, +and the garden itself far from beautiful; but the twigs had thrown up +shoots, and on the shoots had opened, or were opening, roses that drew +even his inexperienced eye to admire them. + +"I'm afraid there's no doubt of it," said Mrs Bosenna. "I love the old +H.P.'s: but you must grow the Teas and Hybrid Teas nowadays, if you want +to exhibit. Yet I love the old H.P.'s, and I've planted a few, to hold +their own and just show as they won't be shamed. See this one now-- +there's a proper Jubilee rose, and named _Her Majesty!_ Brought out, +they tell me, in 'eighty-five: but the Yankees bought up all the stock, +and it didn't get back into this country until 'eighty-seven, the last +Jubilee year. See the thorns on her, _and_ the stiff pride o' stem, +_and_ the pride o' colour--fit for any queen! She's not the best, +though. . . . She'll do for last Jubilee--not for this. Wait till +you've seen the best of all!" + +She led them to a plant--stunted by the secateurs, yet vigorous--which +showed, with three or four buds as yet closed and green, one solitary +bloom, pure white and of incomparable shape. + +"There!" said she proudly. "That's a tea, and the finest yet grown, to +_my_ mind. That's the rose for this Diamond Jubilee, and white as a +diamond. A proper royal Widow's rose!" + +"Is that its name?" asked Cai. + +Mrs Bosenna laughed and plucked the bloom. + +"On the contrary," said she with a mischievous twitch of the mouth, +"'tis called _The Bride!_ There's only one bloom, you see, and I can't +offer to part it. Now which of you two 'd like it for a buttonhole?" + +She held out the rose, challenging them. + +"I--I--" stammered Cai, backing against 'Bias's knuckles which dug him +in the back--"I grant ye, ma'am, 'tis a fine rose--a lovely rose--but +for my part, a trace o' colour--" + +"Bright red," prompted 'Bias. + +"Bright red--for both of us--" + +"And now I've plucked it," sighed Mrs Bosenna. + +"Well, if you won't, perhaps Mr Middlecoat will, rather than waste it." + +Mr Middlecoat stepped forward and allowed the enormous bloom to be +inserted in his buttonhole, where its pure white threw up a fine +contrast to his crimsoning face. + +"You won't think me forward, I hope?" said Mrs Bosenna, turning about. +"The fact is--though I don't want it generally known yet--that yesterday +Mr Middlecoat, in his disagreeable way, made me promise to marry him?" + +Before the pair could recover, she had moved to another bush. + +"Red roses, you prefer? Red is rare amongst the Teas--there's but one, +as yet, that can be called red--if this suits you? And, by luck, there +are two perfect buttonholes." + +She plucked the buds and held them out. + +"It's name," said she, "is _Liberty._" + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +JUBILEE. + +For the best part of a week before the great Day of Jubilee Cai and +'Bias toiled together and toiled with a will, erecting the framework of +a triumphal arch to span the roadway. Within-doors, in the intervals of +household duty, Mrs Bowldler measured, drew, and cut out a number of +capital letters in white linen, to be formed into a motto and sewn upon +red Turkey twill, while Palmerston industriously constructed and wired +gross upon gross of paper roses--an art in which he had been instructed +by Fancy, who had read all about it in a weekly newspaper, 'The Cosy +Hearth.' The two friends talked little to one another during those busy +June days. Strollers-by--and it had become an evening recreation in +Troy to stroll from one end of the town to the other and mark how things +were getting along for the 22nd--found Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken +ever at work but little disposed to chat; and as everyone knew of the +old quarrel, so everyone noted the reconciliation and marvelled how it +had come to pass. Even Mr Philp was baffled. Mr Philp, passing and +repassing many times a day, never missed to halt and attempt +conversation; with small result, however. + +"It's a wonder to me," he grumbled at last, "how men of your age can +risk scramblin' about on ladders with your mouths constantly full o' +nails." + + +In the evenings they supped together. Mrs Bowldler had made free to +suggest this. + +"Which," said Mrs Bowldler in magnificent anacoluthon, "if we see it as +we ought, this bein' no ordinary occasion, but in a manner of speakin' +one of Potentates and Powers and of our feelin's in connection +therewith; by which I allude to our beloved Queen, whom Gawd preserve!-- +Gawd bless her! I say, and He _will_, too, from what I know of 'im--and +therefore deservin' of our yunited efforts; and, that bein' the case, it +would distinkly 'elp, from the point of view of the establishment +(meanin' Palmerston and me) if we (meanin' you, sir, and Captain Hunken) +could make it convenient to have our meals in common. . . . The early +Christians were not above it," she added. "Not they! Ho, not,--if I +may use the expression--by a long chalk!" + +She contrived it so delicately that afterwards neither Cai nor 'Bias +could remember precisely at what date--whether on the Wednesday or on +the Thursday--they slipped back into the old comfortable groove. + +The arch occupied their thoughts. After supper, as they sat and smoked, +their talk ran on it: on details of its construction; on the chances +(exiguous indeed!) of its being eclipsed by rivals in the town, some in +course of construction, a few as yet existent only in the promises of +rumour. + +Cai would say, "I hear the Dunstans are makin' great preparations in +their back-yard. They mean to bring their show out at the last moment, +and step it in barrels." + +"I don't believe in barrels," 'Bias would respond. "Come a breeze o' +wind, where are you? Come a strong breeze, and over you go, endangerin' +life. It ought to be forbidden." + +"No chance of a breeze, though." Cai had been studying the glass closely +all the week. + +"Fog, more like. 'Tis the time o' the year for fogs." + +Other matters they discussed more desultorily; meetings of the +Procession Committee, of the Luncheon Committee (all the parish was to +feast together), of the Tree-planting Committee, of the Tea Committee; +the cost of the mugs and the medals for the children, the latest returns +handed in by Mr Benny, who had undertaken the task of calling on every +householder, poor or rich, and collecting donations. But to the arch +their talk recurred. + +--And rightly: for in the arch they were building better than they knew. +In it, though unaware (being simple men), they were rebuilding +friendship. + +By Saturday evening the scaffolding was complete, firmly planted, firmly +nailed, firmly clasped together by rope--in sailors' hitches such as do +not slip. They viewed it, approved it, and soberly, having gathered up +tools, went in to supper. On Sunday they attended morning service in +church, and oh! the glow in their hearts when, in place of the usual +voluntary, the organ rolled out the first bars of "God Save the Queen" +and all the worshippers sprang to their feet together! + +On Monday the town awoke to the rumbling of waggons. They came in from +the plantations where since the early June daybreak Squire Willyams's +foresters and gardeners had been cutting young larches, firs, laurels, +aucubas. The waggons halted at every door and each householder took as +much as he required. So, all that day, Cai and 'Bias packed their arch +with evergreens; until at five o'clock Mr Philp, happening along, could +find no chink anywhere in its solid verdure. He called his +congratulations up to them as, high on ladders, they affixed flags to +the corner poles and looped the whole with festoons of roses. + +And now for the motto to crown the work! Fancy Tabb coming up the +roadway and pausing while she conned the structure, shading her eyes +against the sun-rays that slanted over it, beheld Mrs Bowldler and +Palmerston issue from the doorway in solemn procession, bearing between +them a length of Turkey twill. Mrs Bowldler passed one end up to +Captain Hocken, high on his ladder: Captain Hunken reached down and took +the other end from Palmerston. Between them, as they lifted the broad +fillet above the archway, its folds fell apart, and she read:-- + + MANY DAUGHTERS HAVE DONE VIRTUOUSLY + BUT THOU EXCELLEST THEM ALL. + +"My! I'd like to be a Queen!" + +"If I had my way, you WOULD," whispered Palmerston, who, edging close to +her, had overheard. + +"Eh? Is that Fancy Tabb?" interrupted Cai. He had happened to glance +over his shoulder and spied her from the ladder. "Well, and what d'ee +think of it?" he asked, as one sure of the answer. + +"I was sayin' as I'd like to be a Queen," said Fancy. "Queen of +England, I mean: none of your second-bests." + +"Well, my dear," Cai assured her, bustling down the ladder and staring +up at the motto to make sure that it hung straight, "_that_ you won't +never be: but you're among the many as have done virtuously, and God +bless 'ee for it! Which is pretty good for your age." + +"_You_'re not," retorted the uncompromising child. + +"Eh?" + +"'Tis three days now since you've been near the old man, either one of +'ee. How would _you_ like that, if you was goin' to hell?" + +"Hush 'ee now! . . . 'Bias and me had clean forgot--there's so much to +do in all these rejoicin's! Run back and tell 'n we'll be down in +half-an-hour, soon as we've tidied up here." + + +On their way down to visit the sick man, Cai and 'Bias had to pause +half-a-score of times at least to admire an arch or a decorated +house-front. For by this time even the laggards were out and working +for the credit of Troy. + +But no decorations could compare with their own. + +"That's a handsome bunch, missus," called Cai to a very old woman, who, +perched on a borrowed step-ladder, was nailing a sheaf of pink valerian +(local name, "Pride of Troy") over her door-lintel. "Let me give 'ee a +hand wi' that hammer," he offered; for her hand shook pitiably. + +"Ne'er a hand shall help me--thank 'ee all the same," the old lady +answered. "There, Cap'n! . . . there's for Queen Victoria! an' it's +done, if I die to-morrow." She tottered down to firm earth and gazed up +at the doorway, her head nodding. + +"She've _got_ to be in London to-morrow, of course. . . . But what a +pity she can't take a walk through Troy too! Main glad she'd be. . . . +Oh, I know! She an' me was born the same year." + + +Of the doings of next day--the great day; of the feasting, the cheering, +the salvo-firing, the marching, the counter-marching, the speechifying, +the tea-drinking, the dancing, the illuminations, the bonfires; the tale +may not be told here. Were they not chronicled, by this hand, in a book +apart? And does not the chronicle repose in the Troy Parish Chest? +And may not a photograph of the famous arch constructed by Captains +Hocken and Hunken be discovered therein some day by the curious? + + +To be sure, Queen Victoria herself did not pass beneath that arch. +But there passed beneath that arch many daughters who since have grown +into women and done virtuously, I hope. If not, I am certain there was +no lack of encouragement that day in the honest, smiling faces of +Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken as they stood with proprietary mien, +one on either side of the roadway, and each with an enormous red rose +aglow in his button-hole. + + +_Pulvis et umbra sumus_--"The tumult and the shouting dies."--A little +before ten o'clock that night Mr Middlecoat and Mrs Bosenna walked up +through the dark to Higher Parc to see the bonfires. The summit +commanded a view of the coast from Dodman to Rame, and inland to the +high moors which form the backbone of the county. Mrs Bosenna counted +eighteen fires: her lover could descry sixteen only. + +"But what does it matter?" said he. They had started the climb +arm-in-arm: but by this time his arm was about her waist. + +"My eyes are sharper than yours, then," she challenged. + +"Very likely," he allowed. "Sure, they must be: for come to think I +reckoned 'em both in my list." + +She laughed cosily. + +"Shall we go over the ridge?" he suggested. "We may pick up one or two +inland from my place." + +"No," she answered, and mused for a while. "It's strange to think our +two farms are goin' to be one henceforth. . . . The ridge has always +seemed to me such a barrier. But I'll not cross it to-night. +Good-bye!" + +"Nay, but you don't go back alone. I'll see you to the door." + +"Why? I'm not afraid of ghosts." + +But he insisted: and so, arm linked in arm, they descended to Rilla, +where the roses breathed their scent on the night air. + + +Cai and 'Bias--the long day over--sat in Cai's summer-house, overlooking +the placid harbour. Loyal candles yet burned in every window on the far +shore and scintillated their little time on the ripple of the tide. +Above shone and wheeled in their courses the steady stars, to whom our +royalties are less than a pinch of dust in the meanest unseen planet +that spins within their range. + +The door of the summer-house stood wide to the night. Yet so breathless +was the air that the candles within (set by Mrs Bowldler on the table +beside the glasses and decanters) carried a flame as unwavering as any +star of the firmament. So the two friends sat and smoked, and between +their puffed tobacco-smoke penetrated the dewy scents of the garden. +Both were out-tired with the day's labours; for both were growing old. + +"'Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all,'" +murmured Cai. "'Twas a noble text we chose." + +"Ay," responded 'Bias, drawing the pipe from his lips. "She've kept a +widow just thirty-six years. An unusual time, I should say." + +"Very," agreed Cai. + +They gazed out into the quiet night, as though it held all their future +and they found it good. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOCKEN AND HUNKEN*** + + +******* This file should be named 14533.txt or 14533.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/5/3/14533 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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