of the whole village, and Martin knew well it was owing to mere chance that a crowd of children was not following her already.
The lady was tall and of stately carriage. She was dressed quietly, but in excellent taste. Her very full face looked remarkably pink, and her large blue eyes stared out of puffy sockets. Beyond these unfavorable details, she was a handsome woman, and the boy thought vaguely that she must have motored over from the castle midway between Elmsdale and the nearest market town of Nottonby.
Yet it was on the child that his wondering gaze dwelt longest. She looked about ten years old. Her elfin face was enshrined in jet-black hair, and two big bright eyes glanced inquiringly at him from the depths of a wide-brimmed, flowered-covered hat. A broad blue sash girdled her white linen dress; the starched skirts stood out like the frills of a ballet dancer.
Her shapely legs were bare from above the knees, and her tiny feet were encased in sandals. At Trouville she would be pronounced “sweet” by enthusiastic admirers of French fashion, but in a north-country village she was absurdly out of place. Nevertheless, being a remarkably self-possessed little maiden, she returned with interest Martin’s covert scrutiny.
He would have passed on, but the lady lifted a pair of mounted eyeglasses and spoke to him.
“Boy,” she said in a flute-like voice, “can you tell me which is the White House?”
Martin’s cap flew off.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, pointing. “That is it. I live there.”
“Oh, indeed. And what is your name?”
“Martin Court Bolland, ma’am.”
“What an odd name. Why were you christened Martin Court?”
“I really don’t know, ma’am. I didn’t bother about it at the time, and since then have never troubled to inquire.”
Now, to be candid, Martin did not throw off this retort spontaneously. It was a little effusion built up through the years, the product of frequent necessity to answer the question. But the lady took it as a coruscation of rustic wit, and laughed. She turned to the nurse:
“Il m’a rendu la monnaie de ma pièce, Françoise.”
“J’en suis bien sûr, madame, mais qu’est-ce qu’il a dit?” said the nurse.
The other translated rapidly, and the nurse grinned.
“Ah, il est naïf, le petit,” she commented. “Et très gentil.”
“Oh, maman,” chimed in the child, “je serais heureuse si vous vouliez me permettre de jouer avec ce joli garçon.”
“Attendez, ma belle. Pas si vite. … Now, Martin Court, take me to your mother.”
Not knowing exactly what to do with his cap, the boy had kept it in his hand. The foregoing conversation was, of course, so much Greek in his ears. He realized that they were talking about him, and was fully alive to the girl’s demure admiration. The English words came with the more surprise, seeing that they followed so quickly on some remark in an unknown tongue.
He led the way at once, hoping that his mother had regained her normal condition of busy cheerfulness.
Silence reigned in the front kitchen when he pressed the latch. The room was empty, but the clank of pattens in the yard revealed that the farmer’s thrifty wife was sparing her skirts from the dirt while she crossed to the pig tub with a pailful of garbage.
“Will you take a seat, ma’am?” said Martin politely. “I’ll tell mother you are here.”
With a slight awkwardness he pulled three oaken chairs from the serried rank they occupied along the wall beneath the high-silled windows. Feeling all eyes fixed on him quizzically, he blushed.
“Ah, v’là le p’tit. Il rougit!” laughed the nurse.
“Don’t tease him, nurse!” cried the child in English. “He is a nice boy. I like him.”
Clearly this was for Martin’s benefit. Already the young lady was a coquette.
Mrs. Bolland, hearing there were “ladies” to visit her, entered with trepidation. She expected to meet the vicar’s aunt and one of that lady’s friends. In a moment of weakness she had consented to take charge of the refreshment stall at a forthcoming bazaar in aid of certain church funds. But Bolland was told that the incumbent was adopting ritualistic practices, so he sternly forbade his better half to render any assistance whatsoever. The Established Church was bad enough; it was a positive scandal to introduce into the service aught that savored of Rome.
Poor Mrs. Bolland therefore racked her brain for a reasonable excuse as she crossed the yard, and it is not to be wondered at if she was struck almost dumb with surprise at sight of the strangers.
“Are you Mrs. Bolland?” asked the lady, without rising, and surveying her through the eyeglasses with head tilted back.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ah. Exactly. I—er—am staying at The Elms for some few weeks, and the people there recommended you as supplying excellent dairy produce. I am—er—exceedingly particular about butter and milk, as my little girl is so delicate. Have you any objection to allowing me to inspect your dairy? I may add that I will pay you well for all that I order.”
The lady’s accent, no less than the even flow of her words, joined to unpreparedness for such fashionable visitors, temporarily bereft Mrs. Bolland of a quick, if limited, understanding.
“Did ye say ye wanted soom bootermilk?” she cried vacantly.
“No, mother,” interrupted Martin anxiously. For the first time in his life he was aware of a hot and uncomfortable feeling that his mother was manifestly inferior to certain other people in the world. “The lady wishes to see the dairy.”
“Why?”
“She wants to buy things from you, and—er—I suppose she would like to see what sort of place we keep them in.”
No manner of explanation could have restored Mrs. Bolland’s normal senses so speedily as the slightest hint that uncleanliness could harbor its microbes in her house.
“My goodness, ma’am,” she cried, “wheä’s bin tellin’ you that my pleäce hez owt wrong wi’t?”
Now it was the stranger’s turn to appeal to Martin, and the boy showed his mettle by telling his mother, in exact detail, the request made by the lady and her reference to the fragile-looking child.
Mrs. Bolland’s wrath subsided, and her lips widened in a smile.
“Oah, if that’s all,” she said, “coom on, ma’am, an’ welcome. Ye canna be too careful about sike things, an’ yer little lass do look pukey, te be sure.”
The lady, gathering her skirts for the perilous passage of the yard, followed the farmer’s wife.
Martin and the girl sat and stared at each other. She it was who began the conversation.
