Hatter's Castle

by Арчибальд Джозеф Кронин

  "He said February," she replied, with an averted face.

  Only five more months and he would be the father of her child! That exquisite night they had spent together by the Leven was to produce a child, a child that would be nameless unless he married her immediately. The pressing necessity for marriage again obtruded itself distastefully upon him. He did not know how long she might remain undiscovered before the condition of her pregnancy became obvious. Although he had at times heard stories bandied amongst his companions of how peasant girls working on the land had remained in this state of pregnancy, undetected until the actual birth occurred, he doubted if Mary had the strength or fortitude to continue the concealment for any length of time. And yet she must do so. He was not in a position to provide a home for her immediately. She must wait. There was, of course, nothing visible yet. He looked at her closely, and as he observed her pendent figure, weighted with an infinitely heavier despondency than his, for the first time he began to think of her rather than himself.

  Now that she had told him she waited helplessly, as if, attending in submission for him to direct her movements, her attitude invoked him dumbly as to what she should do. With a powerful effort he pulled himself together; yet, as he spoke, his words sounded harsh and unconvincing in his ears.

  "This is a bit of a mess we're in, Mary, but we'll straighten it out all right. We must go and talk it over."

  "Have I got to go back home to Levenford?" she asked in a low tone.

  He pondered a minute before replying. "I'm afraid it's best for you to do that. Did you come in by train?"

  "Yes, and if I'm going back, I must leave here at four," He took out his watch, which indicated half-past three. Although they had exchanged only a few sentences they had been standing there, in the street, for half an hour.

  "You can't wait till the next," he agreed. "It's too late."

  An idea struck him. The waiting room at the station was usually empty at this time; they could go there until her train departed. He took her arm and drew it into his. At this, the first sign of tenderness he had manifested towards her since she had told him the dreadful news, she looked at him piteously and her drawn features were transcended by a pale smile.

  “I’ve only got you, Denis," she whispered, as they moved off together. At the station, however, the waiting room was unfortunately full; an old woman, some farm servants and two dye workers from the print works sat staring at each other and at the plain board walls.

  It was impossible to talk there, so Denis took Mary to the far end of the platform, where, as the short walk had given him time to collect himself and the soft feel of her arm reminded him of her charm and beauty, of the delightful attractions of her fresh body, he mustered a smile.

  "It's not so bad, Mary, after all, so long as we stick together."

  "If you left me now, Denis, I should drown myself in the Leven. I'd kill myself somehow."

  As her eyes met his, he could see that she meant absolutely every grim word she uttered, and he pressed her arm again, tenderly. How could he, even for an instant, have considered leaving this lovely, defenceless creature who, but for him, would still have been a virgin and who now, because of him, was soon to be a mother. And how passionately attached to him she was! It thrilled him with a fierce joy to see her complete dependence upon him and her submission to his

  will. His spirit was recovering from the cutting injury which it had received and he began to think coherently, as his normal self.

  "You'll leave everything to me!" he said.

  "Everything," she echoed.

  "Then you must go home, dear, and try to behave as if nothing had happened. I know how difficult it will be but you must give me as long as possible to make our arrangements."

  "When can we be married?" It cost her a powerful effort to utter the words, but in her new-found knowledge she felt dimly that her body would remain unchaste until she knew when he would marry her.

  He reflected.

  "I have a big business trip towards the end of the year it means a lot. Could you wait until after then?" he asked doubtfully. "I could fix up everything by then and we could be married and go straight into a little cottage somewhere not in Darroch or Levenford but perhaps in Garshake."

  His idea of a cottage in Garshake cheered them both and each immediately visioned the quiet, old village that clustered so snugly around an arm of the estuary.

  "I could wait for that," Mary replied wistfully, viewing in her mind's eye one of the small, whitewashed cottages of which the village was composed one smothered in red rambler roses, with a doorway festooned by creeping nasturtiums in which her baby would mysteriously come into her arms. She looked at Denis and

  almost smiled.

  "I'll not fail you, dear," he was saying. "If you will be brave and hold out as long as ever you can."

  The train was now in the station, and the old woman, the farm servants and the two workmen were scrambling to their places. She had time only to take a hurried farewell of him as he helped her into a seat, but, as the train began to move, he ran along beside her until the last moment, holding her hand, and before he was forced to let go, she called to him, courageously:

  "I'm remembering your motto, Denis, dear!" He smiled and waved his cap bravely, encouragingly, in reply, until the train circled the bend and they were torn from each other's sight.

  She was certainly valiant, and now that she knew the worst she was prepared to exercise all her hardihood to achieve her only hope of happiness. Seeing Denis had saved her. He was, and would be, her salvation, and strengthened by the thought that he shared her secret, she now felt fortified to endure anything until he would take her away with him for good. She shuddered at the recollection of her visit to the doctor but firmly she blotted out from her mind the odious experiences of the last two hours. She would be brave for Denis!

  Back again in Levenford she hastened to deliver the letter to Agnes Moir and discovered to her relief that Agnes had gone upstairs for tea. She therefore left the letter for her at the shop with all Mrs. Brodie’s messages of attachment and affection and escaped, mercifully, without questioning.

  As she took the way home she reflected that her mother was sure to discover at a later date her defection in the matter of the parcel, but, involved in a deeper and more serious trouble, she did not care. Let Mamma scold, weep, or bewail, she felt that she had only a few months more until she would be out of a house which she now detested.

  Every sense within her turned towards the suggestion Denis had tentatively advanced and in her imagination she consolidated it into actuality; thrusting the thought of her present condition from her, she concentrated her sanguine hopes eagerly upon the cottage she would share with him in Garshake.

  VIII

  BRODIE sat in his office reading the Levenford Advertiser, with the door slightly open so that he could, at infrequent intervals, raise a vigilant eye towards the shop without interfering with the comfortable perusal of his paper. Perry was ill, confined to bed, as his agitated mother had announced to Brodie that morning, with a severe boil which partially prevented his walking and debarred him entirely from sitting down. Brodie had muttered disagreeably that he required his assistant to stand up, not to sit down, but on being assured

  that the sufferer would certainly be relieved through constant poulticing and be fit for duty in the morning, he had consented with a bad grace to allow him the day off. Now, enthroned on his chair at the top of the steps leading to his sanctum, Brodie devoted an almost exclusive attention to the report of the Cattle Show. He was glad that business was quiet this morning and that he was not constrained to lower himself to the menial work of the shop, which he detested and which was now entirely Perry's obligation. A few moments ago he had been obliged to leave his seat to serve a labouring man who had rolled uncouthly in, and, in his indignation, he had hustled the man out with the first hat he could lay hands on. What did he care, he asked himself, whether or not the thing suited ? He couldn't be bo
thered over these infernal trifles; a thing like that was Perry's job; he wanted to read his paper in peace, like any other gentleman.

  With an outraged air he had come back and began again at the opening lines of the report.

  "The Levenford and District Annual Cattle Show," he read, "took place on Saturday the 21 st inst. and was attended by a large and distinguished gathering." He perused the whole report slowly, carefully, sedulously, until at the finish of the article he came upon the paragraph beginning: "Amongst those present." His eye glimmered anxiously then flared into triumph, as he saw that his name was there! Amongst the distinguished names of the borough and county, towards the end of the list, no doubt, but not absolutely at the end, stood the name of James Brodie. He banged his fist triumphantly upon his desk. By Gad! That would show them! Every one read the Levenford Advertiser which was published once a week, on Friday and every one would see his name flourishing there, near to no less a personage than the Lord Lieutenant of the County. Brodie glowed with vanity. He liked the look of himself in print. The capital "J" of the James had a peculiar, arresting curl and as for his surname nay, his family name spelt in the correct manner, not with a "y" but with the terminal "ie", he was prouder of this than of all his other possessions together. He cocked his head to one side, never removing his eyes from this arresting name of his. Actually he had read through the wordy report, tantalising in its verbosity, simply to find himself living in the public eye through the medium of these two printed words. He gloated over them.

  James Brodie! His lips unconsciously formed the words as he rolled them silently over upon his tongue. "You're a proud man, Brodie," he whispered to himself. "Eh! You're proud; and by God! you have reason to be." His eyes blurred with the intensity of his feeling and the entire list of dazzling personages, with their titles, honours and distinctions, fell out of focus into one solitary name which seemed indelibly to have stamped its image upon his retina. James Brodie!

  Nothing seemed to surpass these simple yet suggestive words.

  A slight deviation of the current of his ideas caused his nostrils to dilate with resentment at the thought of having been called upon to lower himself in his own eyes, by serving a common workman diis very morning. That had been well enough twenty years ago when he was a struggling man forced into business by necessities over which he had no control. But now he had his hired servant to

  do this work for him. He felt the encounter of this morning a slur upon his name and a choleric indignation swelled within him at the unfortunate Perry for having failed him.

  "Ill boil him," he cried, "the pimply little snipe." He had never been meant for business, that he had always known, but, as he had been compelled to adopt it, he had transmuted its substance into something more appropriate to his name and bearing. He had never considered himself a man of commerce but had, from the first, adopted the part of the impoverished gentleman obliged to live by an unfitting and unbecoming occupation. Yet his very personality had, he felt, strangely dignified that occupation into something worthy of him. It had ceased to be paltry and had become unique. From the outset he had never run after people; they had, indeed, been obliged to whistle to his tune and to meet him in all his foibles and vagaries.

  In his early days he had once thrown a man out of his shop for an impolite word; he had startled the town into recognising him; he did not curry favour but stood bluntly as if to say, "Take me as I am or leave me"; and his anomalous policy had been singularly successful. He had achieved a reputation for rude honesty and downright dealing; the more arbitrary of his maxims were repeated like epigrams in the gossip of the town; amongst the gentry he had been recognised in the local term as a "character", and his original individuality had acquired for him their patronage. Yet, the more his personality had unfolded, the more he had disdained the vehicle of its expansion.

  He felt himself now a personage, superior to the claims of trade. A vast satisfaction possessed him that he should have attained eminence, despite the unworthy nature of his profession. His vast pride could not differentiate between the notoriety he had achieved and the more notable distinction which he desired. He was spurred on-ward by his success. He wished to make his name resound. "I'll show them," he muttered arrogantly. "I'll show them what I can do."

  At that moment some one came into the shop. Brodie looked up in irritation, his lordly glance daring the intruder to demand attention from the compeer of the county's nobility; but curiously, he was not asked to descend. A young man leapt lightly over the counter, mounted the steps and came into the office, shutting the door behind him. It was Denis Foyle.

  Three days ago, when Denis had seen the train take Mary away from him, an avalanche of remorse had fallen upon him and had immediately swept over and engulfed him. He considered that he had acted towards Mary with a cold and cowardly selfishness. The sudden blow to his self-esteem had taken him so completely unawares, that he had, for the moment, forgotten how much he really cared for her. But he did love her; indeed, he realised more maturely, and in her absence, that he craved for her. The burden of her condition lent her, in his more complete consideration, a pathetic appeal which he had previously resisted. If his situation was unpleasant, hers was unbearable, and he had offered nothing in alleviation but a few weak and mawkish condolences. He had writhed inwardly to contemplate what she must now think of his abject and unresourceful timidity, and the realisation that he had no certain access to her to tell her all that he now experienced, to express his contrition and adoration with the utmost fervency, filled him with despair.

  For two days he endured these steadily growing feelings, when, suddenly, a definite and extraordinary line of action presented itself to him. He thought it bold, strong and daring. In reality it was the reflex of the battery of self-reproaches upon his taut nerves, and although it was merely rash, presumptuous, and foolish, it represented an outlet for his constrained feelings and he saw in it the opportunity to vindicate himself in his own and in Mary's eyes.

  Essentially, it was this urge to justify himself which now moved him, as he stood before Brodie, saying:

  "I came in like this, Mr. Brodie, because I thought you mightn't agree to see me otherwise. I’m Denis Foyle of Darroch."

  Brodie was astounded at the unexpectedness of this entry and at the audacity it betokened, but he made no sign. Instead he settled himself more deeply in his chair; his head seemed to sink right into the magnitude of his shoulders, like a rock sunk on the summit of a hill. "Son of the pub keeper?" he sneered.

  "Exactly," replied Denis politely.

  "Well, Mister Denis Foyle" he emphasised the mister ironically "what do you want here?" He began to hope to goad Foyle into an assault, so that he might have the pleasure of thrashing him.

  Denis looked straight at Brodie and, disregarding the other's manner, proceeded according to his plan.

  "You may be surprised at my visit, but I felt I must come to you, Mr. Brodie. I have not seen your daughter, Miss Mary Brodie, for over three months. She has consistently avoided me. I wish to tell you frankly that I have an attachment for your daughter and have come to ask your permission to allow me to see her."

  Brodie gazed upwards at the young man with a heavy masklike face which showed nothing of the tide of rising amazed anger he felt at the other's demand. After a moment's lowering stare at Foyle he said, slowly, "I am glad to hear from your own lips I have been obeyed! My daughter has refused to see you because I forbade her to look at ye! Do you hear me? I forbade her, and now that I've seen

  what ye are I still forbid her."

  "Why, Mr. Brodie, may I ask?"

  "Must I explain my actions to you? The fact that I order it is enough for my daughter. I do not explain to her; I command."

  "Mr. Brodie, I should be glad to know your objection to me. I should do my best to meet you in any way you desired." With all his power Foyle tried to propitiate the other. "I'm very anxious to please you! Let me know what to do and I'll do it."

  Brodie le
ered at him:

  "I want ve to take your smooth face out o’ my office and never show it in Levenford again; and the quicker ye do't the better yell please me."

  With a deprecating smile Foyle replied:

  "Then it's only my face you object to, Mr. Brodie." He felt he must win the other around somehow!

  Brodie was beginning to become enraged; the fact that he could not beat down this young sprig's eyes, nor yet provoke him to temper, annoyed him. With an effort he controlled himself and said sneeringly:

  "I'm not in the habit of exchanging confidences with your kind, but as I have a moment to spare, I will tell you what I object to. Mary Brodie is a lady; she has blood in her veins of which a duchess might be proud, and she is my daughter. You are a low-down Irish scum, a nothing out of nothing. Your father sells cheap drink and I've no doubt your forbears ate potato peelings out o' the pot." Denis still met his eyes unflinchingly, although the insults quivered inside him.

  Desperately he forced himself to be calm. "The fact that I am Irish surely does not condemn me," he replied in a level voice. "I don't drink not a drop. In fact, I'm in a totally different line of business, one which I feel will one day bring a great return."

  "I've heard about your business, my pretty tatie-picker. Long trips over the countryside, then back to loaf about for days. I know your kind. If ye think that you can make money by hawkin' tea around Scotland then you're stupid, and if ye think ye can make up for your rotten family by takin' up a trashy job like that, then you're mad."

  "I wish you would let me explain to you, Mr. Brodie."

  Brodie contemplated him savagely.

  "Explain to me! You talk like that to me, you damned commercial traveller. Do you know who you're speakin' to? Look!" he roared, flourishing the paper and thrusting it in front of the other. "See this, if you can read! These are the people I associate with " He inflated his chest and shouted, "I would as soon think of letting my daughter consort with you as I would let her mix with swine."