by Henry Green
'Why,' Jane disclosed in a hushed voice, 'it's the tradesmen. You know she won't 'ave one of us pass the time of day with 'em even. Well you'd never guess what's behind it. I tell you they drop a case of the stuff with the meat and another with the groceries. And the price all included in the monthly books, isn't that so Mary?'
'That's right,' this girl replied.
'The artful old cow,' Raunce exclaimed.
'Charley,' Edith said firm.
'Pardon I'm sure,' he answered gravely, 'but did you ever hear anything to touch this? Fiddlin' 'er monthly books. No. You know that's serious this is.' He was solemn.
'You're tellin' me,' Kate muttered.
'What?' he asked at once and sharp. 'Bless me my gel but you seem to grow more and more sarky every day which passes. What's come over you?'
'Nothin' Mr Raunce.'
'You let her be, Charley,' Edith reproved him. 'She was only agreein'.'
'No offence intended I'm sure,' he assured her. 'But is that what Mrs Welch is up to? Would you believe it?' he enquired of all and sundry in an astounded tone of voice.
'The wickedness there is in this world,' Mary said.
'The wickedness?' he asked gentle but with a sharp look.
'Because that's thievin' that is,' Jane concluded like a little girl put through her catechism.
'You've said it,' Raunce agreed and relaxed. It had plainly been the right answer. 'That's the very word.' Then he quoted Miss Burch with solemnity. 'And the wicked shall flourish even as a green bay tree,' he intoned. Everyone bar Albert seemed to approve.
A few days afterwards Edith entered Charley's room as she was coming on her way from tea in the servants' hall.
'Come on out and feed the peacockth,' she proposed, for Paddy had at last consented to free these birds again. She waved a bag she had filled with scraps.
'Steady,' he replied. 'That's no light matter.'
'Why what's up Charley?'
'Nothing,' he answered.
'I know there is,' she said.
'I'm not right,' he went on. 'I vomited this morning another time.'
'Oh dear that's bad,' she said lightly.
'I shouldn't wonder if you made fun of this as you've done before but I love you so much my stomach's all upset an' there you are.'
'So it should be,' she countered as though determined not to worry.
'Yes but what's to be the end?' he asked low. 'I can't go on the way I am. I'm in bad shape. Honest, dear.'
'You wait till we're married love. I'll take care you're never sick then.'
'Oh the worry of it all,' he broke out.
'Now just you come along with me,' she said. 'Getting out in the air for a while will do you more good than any other thing.'
'I've no time.'
'No time Charley? How's that?'
'I must lay the dinner dear. Now my Albert's left, everything falls back on me you know.'
'But surely you've never forgotten how they're over to Clancarty for dinner with the Captain. Why you've a free evenin'.'
'There I go again,' he said bewildered. 'It had clean slipped my memory. Well perhaps I will at that.'
'That's right Charley,' she coaxed as she took his arm. She laid her body up against his shoulder. We'll sit us down by the old dovecote so you can rest. It will do you ever such a lot of good you'll see.'
When they were established there after she had conducted him as though he was an old man and he had sat himself down heavily he remarked,
'It come as a big shock to me my Albert leavin' the way he did.'
'But you knew he'd given in his notice love,' she objected.
'Of course I knew,' he replied querulous, 'but I never thought he meant to go, any more than Mrs Tennant took it that he did. As she told me.'
'I can't say I considered it was other than talk,' she agreed.
'To walk in just like that an' say look my month's up I must be off the way he did. I never guessed that bloodless abortion 'ad the guts,' he said with a return to his old manner.
'You never could abide him could you?' she remarked.
'That dam kid's attitude was what got my goat,' Mr Raunce explained. 'The high falutin' love he laid claim to, the suffering looks he darted, 'is faintin' snotty ways.'
Edith gave a single deep laugh.
'Yes go on and laugh,' Raunce said.
'No you made yourself awkward with that lad.'
'That's as may be,' he answered and seemed despondent. 'Yet there's only the one method to learn them kids a trade. It's no earthly good kissin' 'em as you did.'
'Me?' she cried. 'I never.'
'You did that and in front of the investigator johnny into the bargain.'
'Oh well,' she said.
'Have it your own way,' he replied. He relapsed into silence.
'What is it dear?' she asked.
'I'm worried,' he answered.
'What's worrying you then?'
'Nothing.'
'It's not about the old ring any more is it?' she enquired.
'Well Albert's goin' did set 'er mind on it once again. Seems that she'd told him she couldn't accept his notice while he was under suspicion, or so she made out to me. I thought we'd better make an end to that talk. "Look Madam," I said to her, "you can't deny you have the ring back so where's the evidence," I said. She says to me, "But it's what I suspect Raunce, that's where the shoe pinches," or some such phrase. "I can't guarantee it won't happen a second time Madam," I told her, "an' if anything should, then you report it to me Madam an' I'll see you don't have any more trouble. There's things I didn't know then that I know now," I says. "I see Raunce," she said. "Then you don't wish for me to do another thing and I can sleep quiet into the bargain?" "You silly old cow you can do just that," I said to her only I didn't.'
'Charley that's not very nice,' Edith objected.
'But we've 'ad about enough surely? There's more going on in the world these days than a little crazy bastard of a cook's nephew having the laugh on us. Secreted it right here too didn't he? I shouldn't mind if I never set eyes on these blasted white pigeons again,' he ended.
'Why,' she said, 'your pain you've got's upset you.'
'You're dead right it has,' he replied.
'You don't benefit by your night's rest,' she went on.
He appeared to warm to this description of his symptoms. 'That's exactly it,' he agreed. 'I sometimes just seem to do nothin' but turn over.'
'And d'you always think of me?' she asked taking tighter hold of the arm she had hung on to.
'You bet I do,' he answered. 'More'n you ever realize.'
'That's right,' she said, 'then you won't come by much harm.'
'I do love you Edie.'
'Do you?'
'D'you know I sometimes wonder if the air in these parts hadn't a lot to do with my stomach,' he began again. 'I couldn't say if it's too weak or too strong but there's something about these sea breezes might be harmful to a delicate constitution. What d'you say?' He was dead serious.
'No that's good for you.'
'Then what d'you reckon can be the matter with me Edie?'
It was plain she was not worried. 'D'you think Mrs Welch is slipping a pinch of something in your food?' she asked maliciously, hardly paying attention.
'I wouldn't put that past her,' he replied. 'But she's too set on keepin' young Albert over on this side of the water to start a game like it. Why if I had proof I'd choke the life out of 'er by pokin' a peacock down that great gullet she has.' Edith laughed. 'I would straight,' he assured her in a strong voice. 'And that's a death would be too good for the woman, the diabolical mason.'
'Women can't be masons. They aren't accepted.'
'Can't they,' he retorted. 'That's all you know then.'
'It takes all sorts to make a world,' she remarked.
'You're telling me,' he said. Holding one of her hands in his he shut his eyes and appeared to want to rest. 'I'd tear the 'eart right out of 'er,' he added in a weak voice.
'You what?'
'Where we're goin' to live when we're married,' she explained.
'So you did did you?' he said stirring in his seat.
'Why whatever's the matter now?' she asked. 'You wished me to surely?'
'I shouldn't wonder if my ideas hadn't changed,' he said cautious. 'About where we plan to find a home together,' he added.
'What's come over you Charley?' she enquired. She began at last to show signs of alarm.
'What experience I've had, and I've 'ad some mind, has gone to show that it's no manner of use hanging on in a place where you're not valued,' he said.
'But there are the little extras,' she cried. 'That two or three quid a week you speak about.'
'Oh well,' he answered, 'it's no more'n can be picked up in any butler's job if you know the ropes. No, what's goin' on over in Britain is what bothers me. The way things are shapin' it wouldn't come as a surprise if places such as this weren't doomed to a natural death so to say.'
'Go on with you,' she replied. 'Why if Mrs Tennant loses all her dough there'll always be those that took it. Don't you tell me there isn't good pickings to be had in service long after our children have said thank you madam for the first bawlin' out over nothing at all that they'll receive.' She was beginning to speak like him.
'That's as may be girl,' he countered, 'but from all accounts there's some lovely money going in munitions.'
'Yes and then once this old war's over it's out on your ear with no work.'
'Yet you've just argued that there'll be jobs in service we can go back to,' he complained.
'Stay in what you know, that's what I always maintain,' Edith announced although she had never before expressed an opinion one way or the other.
'Well you may be right but it's this country gets me down.'
'You're fed up, Charley, on account of your stomach.'
'It's too bloody neutral this country is.'
'Too neutral?' she echoed.
'Well there's danger in being a neutral in this war,' he said, 'you've only to read the newspapers to appreciate that.'
'I thought you'd given up listenin' to such talk,' she complained.
'And then my lad going over to give 'imself up, to enlist.'
'What's that to do with you an' me?' she grumbled,
'I'm unsettled. There you are. This has unsettled me Edie.'
'Charley what's the matter? You tell. Nothing serious is it dear?'
'I received a letter this morning.'
'You've had bad news?'
'Not exactly,' he admitted.
'Then who was it from?' she asked.
'My mum wrote me.'
'Your old mother? Well what did she say?'
'She's not comin' over mate, that's what."
'Not coming over?' she repeated in quite a loud voice. 'Why then we can have the little house all to ourselves dearest.'
'If we want to live there in the end,' he said.
'Whatever are you saying?' she cried really disturbed at last.
'I wrote to 'er see,' Raunce explained with some embarrassment, 'and what I said was I'd like to have her out of that awful air raid business. I know he's never been over Peterboro' yet but the way he's going it might be any minute now. I said she could do worse than come here and told 'er what you and I had thought of. It would be a weight off my mind I said and how you would look after 'er better than my sister Bell ever did.'
'Well what did she say?'
'I got the letter here,' he said. 'She writes she reckons that would be cowardly or something.'
'Can I see it?' she requested serious.
'No I won't show it to you,' he answered.
'Then there's matters disobligin' about me in it,' she cried.
'To tell you the truth there's no mention of you at all.'
'Well whoever's heard,' she exclaimed.
'I can't understand that part,' he went on. 'I said as clear as clear we were thinkin' of getting married but it's just as if she'd never bothered to read to the bottom.'
'Well I never,' Edith said cautious.
'It's that bit about being afraid that gets me,' he muttered.
'Afraid to marry me she means?'
'Not on your life. I told you she never mentioned you Edie. No she reckons we're 'iding ourselves away in this neutral country.'
'Here let me read it.'
'No mate I don't want you to get a wrong impression of the old lady, seeing that we're to be man and wife.'
'Your sister's put her up to it,' she said.
'My sister Bell?' he laughed. 'You wait till you meet.'
'You don't love me,' she wailed.
'Oh honey,' he said with a sigh, 'you'll never know how much I do.' But he made no move towards her. She had gone quite white. She chanced a quick look at him, noted that he seemed exhausted.
'Why dearest,' she exclaimed, 'd'you feel all right?'
'It's our plans,' he said. 'We'd just about got everything settled when this comes along.'
'But we could live here without your mother,' she pleaded. 'Oh you don't realize how I'll look after you,' she went on, 'and by this means I'll have twice the time to do it. Because I was never aiming to give up work at the Castle. Mrs Tennant can't get help. She'll be glad to have me over six days a week only the seventh I must keep for our washin'.'
He leant over to kiss her. She allowed it. Then she interrupted him.
'No Charley,' she said, 'we got to discuss this.'
'She's funny that way,' he remarked as though in a dream.
'What are you getting at?' she asked sharp.
'She's obstinate mother is. Always was. I remember when the old man wanted to chuck his job on the railway because 'e'd been made a good offer I can't exactly remember where now but I know it would've meant more money. Well she wouldn't 'ear of it, wouldn't even let it be mentioned twice. They had a rare argument at the time. I was only a kid but I can hear them now. But she got her way. He stayed where 'e was. And I couldn't say that he lost by so doing.'
'Yet she wishes us to throw this place up.'
'Yes Edie, but it's different this time.'
'I'm that bewildered,' she said.
'Now love,' he said in a voice that was weak with exhaustion, 'you're not to worry.'
'But we'd laid all our plans,' she objected and seemed to be fighting back the tears. Then she gave way. 'Oh our little 'ouse,' she sobbed. She turned to him like a child, and held out her arms. With a quick movement she got onto his knees. She merged into him and copiously wept.
'There sweet'eart there,' he comforted. She was crying noisily. He appeared to grope for words. 'Don't take on love,' he said. He shifted his legs as though the weight was beginning to tell. 'This would occur just when I'm not quite up to the mark,' he exclaimed. She gave no sign of having heard. 'There's other places,' he tried to appease her. 'Well find you a lovely home,' he ended, and fell silent.
'Don't stop,' she sobbed into his ear.
'Why,' he said, 'I love you more than I thought I was capable. I'm surprised at myself, honest I am. If my old mother could see her Charley now she'd never recognize 'im,' he murmured.
She at once got off his knees. She started blowing her nose and cleaning up. He leant forward, gazed awkward into her face. 'I never seen anything like your eyes they're so 'uge not in all my experience,' he announced soft 'Yet for eighteen months I didn't so much as notice them. Can you explain that?' Then, perhaps to distract her attention, he invited her to witness what he saw, the peacocks that had been attracted. For these most greedy of all birds had collected in twos about and behind the lilac trees, on the scrounge for tit-bits.
'Oh those,' she answered. 'It's wicked the way they spy on you.'
'They've been raised in a good school,' he remarked.
'There,' she said giving her face a last dab. She did not look at him. 'I'm sorry I did that. Well then Charley what's next?'
'You mustn't blame this on my old lady ducks,' he replied. 'She gets pig'eaded at times the way all old people do. But that's not to say she hasn't wounded me because she has and where a man feels it most, right in my pride in myself,' he explained. 'She knows I'm barely an age for this war, yet awhiles anyhow, yet she seems to think I'm not in it all I might be, d'you get me?'
Edith stayed silent
'Oh this pain,' he suddenly groaned. 'It will nag a man.'
'I got some bicarbonate indoors will soon see to that,' she said.
'I was wonderin' if you could just nip over and fetch us some,' he suggested green in the face.
'We haven't finished,' she answered grim. 'There's a lot I want to get straight first.'
'What's that love?' he asked.
'What are we goin' to do then?' Edith continued. She spoke calm.
Raunce leant forward. In an effort to pull himself together perhaps, he squinted terribly.
'We got to get out of here,' he said.
'Leave this place?' she asked.
'There's nothing else for it sweetheart,' he replied.
'And go to the Agency in Dublin to find us another Charley?'
'No dear. We've just been in to all that. We'd best clear right out.'
'What and go to America somewhere Charley?'
'Not on your life,' he answered. 'It's back to the old country for you an' me my love.'
'And have me took up as I step from off the ship which brought us across by one of those women police waiting on the dockside to put me in the A.T.S.? 'Ave you gone out of your mind then?'
'Steady on Edie where did you get that from? They don't act in such a fashion, not yet they don't.'
'Out of your very lips and not so long since either. You sat at dinner and frightened my Kate out of her mind almost, so she shouldn't go.'
'Why it was only a tale,' he pleaded.
'How d'you know? You said so Charley.'
'You've got no diplomacy love, that's what's the matter. I didn't want you left with all her work or some dirty Irish judy brought in to help who you'd have to go round after all the time. Sure I pitched 'er a tale. Mind you they'll be forced to it in the end before this war's over, when the casualties start an' they get real short of labour. You mark my words we'll all be in uniform then. But just at present there's nothing of the sort I tell you.'