will draw him out of them for more than a few hours. Nothing would ever draw him away but one thing. One thing? No, not it, though. He’s not the sort of man. He’s good-looking enough, and he has a voice that, if bent to woo, would play mischief with a woman’s heart. He’ll never take that complaint, though, I’ll vow. It would be all on the lady’s side. And yet, I don’t know: man is mortal after all. I am for one. Very mortal indeed, and if I go often to The Firs, I shall be mixing Lucy Alleyne up with my prescriptions, and that won’t do at all.”
Volume One – Chapter Seven.
Planets in Opposition
Judith Hayle was busy “tidying up” the keeper’s cottage, which looked brighter since her return home, for there were flowers in glasses set here and there, and she was mentally wishing that father would clean the captain’s double gun out in the wash-house instead of bringing a pail of water into the living-room, to plant between his knees as he worked the rod up and down the barrels.
The girl looked serious, for her sudden return had made her father stern, and she expected to be called upon for more explanation, and a cross-examination, which did not begin.
“Who’s this?” said the keeper, with a quick look through the little lattice. “The missus. Here, Judy, she hasn’t come here for nothing. Go upstairs and let me see her first.”
The girl looked startled and hurriedly obeyed, while her father hastily wiped his hands and opened the door.
Mrs Rolph was close up, and he went out into the porch to meet her, drawing aside quietly and gravely to let her pass.
“Will you walk in, ma’am?”
“Yes, Hayle, thank you,” said Mrs Rolph, speaking in a distant, dignified way, as of a mistress about to rebuke an erring servant.
She passed him, looking quickly round the room in search of Judith, and then, turning her eyes inquiringly upon the keeper, who drew a chair forward, and then stood back respectfully as Mrs Rolph sat down.
“Do you know why I have come here, Hayle?” she said, striving to speak as one who feels herself aggrieved.
“Yes, ma’am. ’Bout sending Judith home.”
“Your child has spoken to you?”
“No, ma’am.”
Mrs Rolph coughed faintly, to gain time. The task did not seem so easy in presence of this sturdy, independent-looking Englishman, and she regretted the tone she had taken, and her next remark as soon as it was spoken.
“Well, Hayle,” she continued, “what have you to say to this?”
“Nay, ma’am,” said the keeper coldly; “it’s what have you to say?”
Mrs Rolph wanted to speak quietly, and make a kind of appeal to the keeper, but the words would not come as she wished, and she turned upon him, in her disappointment and anger, with the first that rose to her lips.
“To say? That all this is disgraceful. I am bitterly hurt and grieved to find that you, an old servant of my husband, the man whom he rescued from disgrace, should, in return for the kindness of years and years, give me cause to speak as I am compelled to do now.”
“Indeed, ma’am!”
“Yes. Out of kindness to your poor dead wife, I took Judith, and clothed and educated her, treated her quite as if she had been of my own family, made her the companion of my niece; in short, spared nothing; and my reward is this: that she has set snares for my son, and caused an amount of unhappiness in my house that it may take years to get over, and which may never be forgotten. Now, then, what excuse have you to offer? What has your child to say?”
The keeper looked at her and smiled.
“Nay, ma’am,” he said quietly, “you don’t mean all this, and you would not speak so if you were not put out. You know that I’ve got a case against you. I trusted my poor lass in your hands.”
“Trusted, man?”
“Yes, ma’am, that’s the word – trusted her. You promised to be like a mother to her.”
“And I have been till she proved ungrateful.”
“Nay, she has not been ungrateful, ma’am, and you know it. It’s for me to ask you what you were doing to let your son put such ideas in my poor child’s head.”
“Hayle!”
“Yes, ma’am, I must speak my mind.”
“It is madness. You know it is madness.”
“Yes, ma’am, if you call it so; but that’s how we stand, and my poor girl is not to blame. It is you.”
“How dare you!”
“Because I am her father, ma’am, and my child is as much to me as your son is to you.”
“This is insolence, sir. Have the goodness to remember who I am.”
“I never forget it, ma’am. You are my missus, the old master’s wife. But this is not a matter of mistress and servant, but of a mother and a father disputing about their children.”
Mrs Rolph drew herself up, and her eyes flashed, but the fire was drowned out directly by the tears of trouble and vexation, and the woman prevailed over the mistress directly after, as she said, in quite an altered tone, —
“Hayle, my good man, what is to be done?”
“Hah!” ejaculated the keeper; “now, ma’am, you are talking like a sensible woman, and we may be able to do business.”
“Yes, yes, Hayle, I was angry. I could not help it. All this comes nigh to breaking my heart. It is, of course, quite impossible. What do you propose to do?”
“Forget it, ma’am, if I can.”
“And Judith?”
“Hah! That’s another thing, ma’am.”
“But she surely is not so vain as to – to – ”
“My Judith is a woman, ma’am. Is that vanity?”
“Yes, of course. No, no, Hayle. But, once more: it is impossible.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ah, that’s very good and sensible of you. Now, look here. I have thought it all over as I came, and I am sorry to say what I have decided upon seems to be the best plan. It will grieve me terribly, but there’s no help for it. You and Judith must go away. You will agree to this, Hayle?”
“You mean, ma’am, that we old people are to settle the matter as to what is best for the young folks?”
“Yes, yes, that is right.”
“And what will the young folks say?”
Mrs Rolph hesitated for a moment or two.
“We cannot stop to consult them, my good man, when we are working for their good. Now, look here, Hayle; of course it will put you to
