The White Peacock

ve in their bosoms so late into the evening died in the night, a

bered it later in the evening, when I wished to recall something to interest my mother. She looked at the handwriting, and began hastily and nervously to tear open the envelope; she held it away from her in the light of the lamp, an

it mother

put my hand on her shoulder, feeling very uncomfortable. She took no notice o

other?-tell me wh

she got up, and began to walk about the room; then sh

The handwriting was very broken. The address gave a vil

ear L

ne. I can hardly last a day or

words with the lad. He never knew, and he felt nothing. I think the girl might have done.

have had the worst of it Lettice, and I'm gla

for ever-y

BEARD

o recall him, but I knew that my image of a tall, handsome, dark man with pale gre

mean dishonesties and deceits, and her soul revolted from him, and because the illusion of him had broken into a thousand vulgar fragments, she turned away with the scorn of a woman who finds her romance has been a trumpery tale. When he left her fo

down, pleating up the hem of her bla

a right to the children, and

have com

him, and he wanted them. I ought to be by him

ou, when you kne

im away. I know I have kept him away. I have felt it, and he has. Poor Frank

only the shock tha

feeling of him in me. I knew, yes, I did know he wanted me, and you, I felt it. I have had

to him now, sha

ed, noticing me really for the f

ll go w

s her party to Chatsworth-don'

" sa

ose; Leslie did not come in. In the morning they were going with a motor party

n walking the long two miles to the village. We went slowly along the road, lingering over the little red flowers in the high hedge-bottom up the hillside. We were reluctant to come to

her peep show. A swarthy man stood with his thin legs astride on the platform of the roundabouts, and sloping backwards, his mouth distended with a row of fingers, he whistled astonishingly to the coarse row of the organ, and his whistling sounded clear, like the flight of a wild goose high over the chimney tops, as he was carried round and round. A little fat man with an ugly swelling on his chest stood screaming from a filthy booth to a crowd of urchins, bidding them challenge a big, stolid young man who stood with folded arms, his fists pushing out his biceps. On being asked if he would undertake any of the

he wakes, when the cracked bell of the ch

ang on a lower bell-"One-two-three." A passing bell fo

his chest had gone inside the rag to spar with the solid fellow. The cocoanut man had gone to the "Three Tunns" in fury

and he had been foiled-eight, nine, ten-no wonder that whistling man had such a big Adam's apple-I wondered if it hurt his neck when he talked, being so pointed-nineteen, twenty-the girl was licking more ice-cream, with precious, tiny licks-twenty-five, twenty-

id my mother. "C

n was a tousled mass of faded pink chrysanthemums, and weak-eyed Michaelmas daisies, and spectre stalks of holly-hock. It belonged to a low, dark house, w

ge?" asked my moth

May's," rep

live alone

dead-an she's letten th' candles

the house a

an, looking up with very blue eyes, nodding her old head

y mother, "we

leaned forward, and, putting her withered old hand on my mother's arm, her hand with its dark blue vein

ings-I am his nearest relativ

'im no more, an' many a one I've laid out. Eh, but his sufferin's, Missis-poor feller-eh, Miss

he kept his paper

ht him candles out o' my own pocket. He wor a rum feller, he wor!" and

" asked the old woman wi

a vigorous nod. She perceived

the kitchen, a long, low ro

dy in the same low tone, as if

is sister

r shook

s wife!" persist

ok our

sed, and looked at us app

r as she went. When she returned, she set down a bottle and two glasses with a thump on th

now, poor thing," she said, pushing the bottle to my mother and

drank it good. Ay-an' 'e 'adn't a drop the last three days, poor man, p

led up a little step, and went plunging against a rickety table on which was a candle in a tall brass can

ipped down on to the floor. By the glimmering light of the two tapers we could see the outlined form under the counterpane. She turned back the hem and began to make painful wailing sounds. My heart was beating heavily, and I felt choked. I did not want to look-but I must. It was the man I had seen in the woods-with the puffiness gone from

tears in my mother's face, only a great pleading. "

her still, and stayed her little wailings. The woman wiped from her cheeks the

l his things?

old lady, lif

here?" repeated moth

y bedstead naked of hangings, a desk, and an oak chest, and two or three mahoga

desk?" said my mother lo

ked at us, perplexed and doubtful, fearing

uted. "Where

ble as she shook her head. I

eated pointing to my coat. She underst

in the kitchen, and a voice saying: "Is the old lady going to drink with the Devil? Hullo, Mrs. May, come and drink with me!"

heavy tread came towards us. Like me, he stumbled at

r-for he kept his hat on his head, and did not hesitate to

e said, observing my m

?" he asked, ta

ther

relative of his-of poor old Carlin's?

st," said

it stranded. Comes of b

prised to hear from

. He's had a bad time lately. You have to pay some time or other. We

uring which the doctor sighed, a

the blind up," he said, letting daylight in

it's not so bad. Poor devil-he was very down at the last; but we have to pay at one end or the other. What on earth is the old g

ey of his desk,"

were, and to give them you when you came. He seemed to think

e old lady coming downstairs. The d

he braces of the trousers she was trailing, and came crashing into his arms. He set her

ye, I'm thankful ye've come.

kitchen, he mixed her a glass of whisky, and brought one for him

et. She looked round pitifully at us and at the daylight struggling among the candle light, making a ghostly g

k and the drawers, sorting out all the papers. The

Frenchy." The doctor sipped and reflected, and sipped again, "Ay-he'd run the rig in his day-used to dream dreadfully. Good thing the old woman was so deaf

y couldn't get to the bottom of him; they always hate a thing they can't fathom. He was close,

Mrs. May?" he bawled suddenly, start

ass. Meanwhile we examined the papers. There were very few letters-one or two addres

as she considered valuable; the others, letters and missives which she glanced at cursorily

colour his tobacco smoke

it'll stink and smoke itself out. Or you can keep it trim on the kitchen table, dirty your fingers occasionally trimming it u

can do, Mada

thank

n his day, though, ma'am. Ay-must ha' had some rich times. No lasting satisfaction in it though-always wanting, craving. There's nothing like marrying-you've got your dish before you then, and you've got to eat it." He lapsed again

about th

y mother's look, and he jumped up,

ed in these dam holes a fellow gets such a boor. Do

mother hesitated in her walk; on the threshold of th

It was a lie,-that wooden bedstead, that deaf woman, they were fading phrases of the untruth. That yellow blaze of little sunflowers was true, and the shadow from the sun-dial on th

sey cow that pushed its dark nose through the fence from the field beyond. She was a little, dark woman with vivid colouring; she rubbed the nos

e gave us tea, and scones, and apply jelly, and all the time we listened with delight to her voice, which was

Then he became a trifle uneasy. I think she was afraid he had been drinking; I think she was shaken with horror when she found him tipsy, and bewildered and terrified when she saw him drunk. They had no child

the room where dainty little water-colours, and beautiful bits of embroidery, and empty flower vases, and two dirty novels from the to

y on it; the graveyard fees were paid, and the doctor sealed the engagement with a

he doctor's merriment. He rattled away, and she nervously twisted her wed

Highland speech. When she shook hands at parting I noticed the hardness

rode part way in the bus; then we walked. It is a very lon

ing for us. She hurried to us all solicit

her cup," she said, and

; she was distressed on my mother's behalf; she noticed the blackness that lay under her

been home,

ck again?" a

ss. She put the green poplin on.

d you te

bit. She said she was glad. Sh

lly at my mother. At

Rebecca. I h

that-no more need

all alone, Rebe

lived," said Becky

I've had the children-we w

ebecca lef

e. There was a sum of four thousand pounds or so. It w

-if it's ours

minutes, then she said, "Yo

hadn't, mother. Y

you tell?" sa

ied. "And I am

ho is near you rising in your thr

--" s

ay no more. Sometime you mus

r, a week or

he asked, her

ecky, and

ody

N

t of the way if he was such a nu

sta

ran t