‘When are you coming up?’ he said, jerking his head in the direction, presumably, of his own home.
‘I’ll come tomorrow afternoon,’ she said brightly. Between Fanny and Mrs Goodall, his mother, there was naturally no love lost.
Again she gave him an awkward little kiss, and said good night.
‘You can’t wonder, you know, child, if he doesn’t seem so very keen,’ said her aunt. ‘It’s your own fault.’
‘Oh, Aunt, I couldn’t stand him when he was keen. I can do with him a lot better as he is.’
The two women sat and talked far into the night. They understood each other. The aunt, too, had married as Fanny was marrying: a man who was no companion to her, a violent man, brother of Fanny’s father. He was dead, Fanny’s father was dead
Poor Aunt Lizzie, she cried woefully over her bright niece, when she had gone to bed.
Fanny paid the promised visit to his people the next afternoon. Mrs Goodall was a large woman with smooth-parted hair, a common, obstinate woman, who had spoiled her four lads and her one vixen of a married daughter. She was one of those old-fashioned powerful natures that couldn’t do with looks or education or any form of showing off. She fairly hated the sound of correct English. She thee’d and tha’d her prospective daughter-in-law, and said:
‘I’m none as ormin’ as I look, seest ta.’
Fanny did not think her prospective mother-in-law looked at all orming, so the speech was unnecessary.
‘I towd him mysen,’ said Mrs Goodall, ‘ ’Er’s held back all this long, let ’er stop as ’er is. ’E’d none ha’ had thee for my tellin’ – tha hears. No, ’e’s a fool, an’ I know it. I says to him, “Tha looks a man, doesn’t ter, at thy age, goin’ an’ openin’ to her when ter hears her scrat’ at th’ gate, after she’s done gallivantin’ round wherever she’d a mind. That looks rare an’ soft.” But it’s no use o’ any talking: he answered that letter o’ thine and made his own bad bargain.’
But in spite of the old woman’s anger, she was also flattered at Fanny’s coming back to Harry. For Mrs Goodall was impressed by Fanny – a woman of her own match. And more than this, everybody knew that Fanny’s Aunt Kate had left her two hundred pounds: this apart from the girl’s savings.
So there was high tea in Princess Street when Harry came home black from work, and a rather acrid odour of cordiality, the vixen Jinny darting in to say vulgar things. Of course Jinny lived in a house whose garden end joined the paternal garden. They were a clan who stuck together, these Goodalls.
It was arranged that Fanny should come to tea again on the Sunday, and the wedding was discussed. It should take place in a fortnight’s time at Morley Chapel. Morley was a hamlet on the edge of the real country, and in its little Congregational Chapel Fanny and Harry had first met.
What a creature of habit he was! He was still in the choir of Morley Chapel – not very regular. He belonged just because he had a tenor voice, and enjoyed singing. Indeed his solos were only spoilt to local fame because when he sang he handled his aitches so hopelessly.
‘And I saw ’eaven hopened
And be’old, a wite ’orse — ’
This was one of Harry’s classics, only surpassed by the fine outburst of his heaving:
‘Hangels – hever bright an’ fair — ’
It was a pity, but it was inalterable. He had a good voice, and he sang with a certain lacerating fire, but his pronunciation made it all funny. And nothing could alter him.
So he was never heard save at cheap concerts and in the little, poorer chapels. The others scoffed.
Now the month was September, and Sunday was Harvest Festival at Morley Chapel, and Harry was singing solos. So that Fanny was to go to afternoon service, and come home to a grand spread of Sunday tea with him. Poor Fanny! One of the most wonderful afternoons had been a Sunday afternoon service, with her cousin Luther at her side, Harvest Festival in Morley Chapel. Harry had sung solos then – ten years ago. She remembered his pale blue tie, and the purple asters and the great vegetable marrows in which he was framed, and her cousin Luther at her side, young, clever, come down from London, where he was getting on well, learning his Latin and his French and German so brilliantly.
However, once again it was Harvest Festival at Morley Chapel, and once again, as ten years before, a soft, exquisite September day, with the last roses pink in the cottage gardens, the last dahlias crimson, the last sunflowers yellow. And again the little old chapel was a bower, with its famous sheaves of corn and corn-plaited pillars, its great bunches of grapes, dangling like tassels from the pulpit corners, its marrows and potatoes and pears and apples and damsons, its purple asters and yellow Japanese sunflowers. Just as before, the red dahlias round the pillars were dropping, weak-headed among the oats. The place was crowded and hot, the plates of tomatoes seemed balanced perilously on the gallery front, the Rev. Enderby was weirder than ever to look at, so long and emaciated and hairless.
The Rev. Enderby, probably forewarned, came and shook hands with her and welcomed her, in his broad northern, melancholy singsong, before he mounted the pulpit. Fanny was handsome in a gauzy dress and a beautiful lace hat. Being a little late, she sat in a chair in the side-aisle wedged in, right in front of the chapel. Harry was in the gallery above, and she could only see him from the eyes upwards. She noticed again how his eyebrows met, blond and not very marked, over his nose. He was attractive too: physically lovable, very. If only – if only her pride had not suffered! She felt he dragged her down.
‘Come, ye thankful people come,
Raise the song of harvest-home.
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin –’
Even the hymn was a falsehood, as the season had been wet, and half the crops were still out, and in a poor way.
Poor Fanny! She sang little, and looked beautiful through that inappropriate hymn. Above her stood Harry – mercifully in a dark suit and dark tie, looking almost handsome. And his lacerating, pure tenor sounded well, when the words were drowned in the general commotion. Brilliant she looked, and brilliant she felt, for she was hot and angrily miserable and inflamed with a sort of fatal despair. Because there was about him a physical attraction which she really hated, but which she could not escape from. He was the first man who had ever kissed her. And his kisses, even while she rebelled from them, had lived in her blood and sent roots down into her soul. After all this time she had come back to them. And her soul groaned, for she felt dragged down, dragged down to earth, as a bird which some dog has got down in the dust. She knew her life would be unhappy. She knew that what she was doing was fatal. Yet it was her doom. She had to come back to him.
He had to sing two solos this afternoon: one before the ‘address’ from the pulpit and one after. Fanny looked at him, and wondered he was not too shy to stand up there in front of all the people. But no, he was not shy. He had even a kind of assurance on his face as he looked down from the choir gallery at her: the assurance of a common man deliberately entrenched in his commonness. Oh, such a rage went through her veins as she saw the air of triumph, laconic, indifferent triumph which sat so obstinately and recklessly on his eyelids as he looked down at her. Ah, she despised him! But there he stood up in that choir gallery like Balaam’s ass in front of her, and she could not get beyond him. A certain winsomeness also about him. A certain physical winsomeness, and as if his flesh were new and lovely to touch. The thorn of desire rankled bitterly in her heart.
He, it goes without saying, sang like a canary this particular afternoon, with a certain defiant passion which pleasantly crisped the blood of the congregation. Fanny felt the crisp flames go through her veins as she listened. Even the curious loud-mouthed vernacular had a certain fascination. But, oh, also, it was so repugnant. He would triumph over her, obstinately he would drag her right back into the common people: a doom, a vulgar doom.
The second performance was an anthem, in which Harry sang the solo parts. It was clumsy, but beautiful, with lovely wor
ds.
‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy,
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him – ’
‘Shall doubtless come, Shall doubtless come –’ softly intoned the altos – ‘Bringing his she-e-eaves with him,’ the trebles flourished brightly, and then again began the half-wistful solo:
‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy – ’
Yes, it was effective and moving.
But at the moment when Harry’s voice sank carelessly down to his close, and the choir, standing behind him, were opening their mouths for the final triumphant outburst, a shouting female voice rose up from the body of the congregation. The organ gave one startled trump, and went silent; the choir stood transfixed.
‘You look well standing there, singing in God’s holy house,’ came the loud, angry female shout. Everybody turned electrified. A stoutish, red-faced woman in a black bonnet was standing up denouncing the soloist. Almost fainting with shock, the congregation realized it. ‘You look well, don’t you, standing there singing solos in God’s holy house, you, Goodall. But I said I’d shame you. You look well, bringing your young woman here with you, don’t you? I’ll let her know who she’s dealing with. A scamp as won’t take the consequences of what he’s done.’ The hard-faced, frenzied woman turned in the direction of Fanny. ‘That’s what Harry Goodall is, if you want to know.’
And she sat down again in her seat. Fanny, startled like all the rest, had turned to look. She had gone white, and then a burning red, under the attack. She knew the woman: a Mrs Nixon, a devil of a woman, who beat her pathetic, drunken, red-nosed second husband, Bob, and her two lanky daughters, grown-up as they were. A notorious character. Fanny turned round again, and sat motionless as eternity in her seat.
There was a minute of perfect silence and suspense. The audience was open-mouthed and dumb; the choir stood like Lot’s wife; and Harry, with his music-sheet, stood there uplifted, looking down with a dumb sort of indifference on Mrs Nixon, his face naïve and faintly mocking. Mrs Nixon sat defiant in her seat, braving them all.
Then a rustle, like a wood when the wind suddenly catches the leaves. And then the tall, weird minister got to his feet, and in his strong, bell-like, beautiful voice – the only beautiful thing about him – he said with infinite mournful pathos:
‘Let us unite in singing the last hymn on the hymn-sheet; the last hymn on the hymn-sheet, number eleven.
‘Fair waved the golden corn,
In Canaan’s pleasant land.’
The organ tuned up promptly. During the hymn the offertory was taken. And after the hymn, the prayer.
Mr Enderby came from Northumberland. Like Harry, he had never been able to conquer his accent, which was very broad. He was a little simple, one of God’s fools, perhaps, an odd bachelor soul, emotional, ugly, but very gentle.
‘And if, O our dear Lord, beloved Jesus, there should fall a shadow of sin upon our harvest, we leave it to thee to judge, for thou art judge. We lift our spirits and our sorrow, Jesus, to thee, and our mouths are dumb. O, Lord, keep us from froward speech, restrain us from foolish words and thoughts, we pray thee, Lord Jesus, who knowest all and judgest all.’
Thus the minister said in his sad, resonant voice, washed his hands before the Lord. Fanny bent forward open-eyed during the prayer. She could see the roundish head of Harry, also bent forward. His face was inscrutable and expressionless. The shock left her bewildered. Anger perhaps was her dominating emotion.
The audience began to rustle to its feet, to ooze slowly and excitedly out of the chapel, looking with wildly-interested eyes at Fanny, at Mrs Nixon, and at Harry. Mrs Nixon, shortish, stood defiant in her pew, facing the aisle, as if announcing that, without rolling her sleeves up, she was ready for anybody. Fanny sat quite still. Luckily the people did not have to pass her. And Harry, with red ears, was making his way sheepishly out of the gallery. The loud noise of the organ covered all the downstairs commotion of exit.
The minister sat silent and inscrutable in his pulpit, rather like a death’s-head, while the congregation filed out. When the last lingerers had unwillingly departed, craning their necks to stare at the still seated Fanny, he rose, stalked in his hooked fashion down the little country chapel and fastened the door. Then he returned and sat down by the silent young woman.
‘This is most unfortunate, most unfortunate!’ he moaned. ‘I am so sorry, I am so sorry, indeed, indeed, ah, indeed!’ he sighed himself to a close.
‘It’s a sudden surprise, that’s one thing,’ said Fanny brightly.
‘Yes – yes – indeed. Yes, a surprise, yes. I don’t know the woman, I don’t know her.’
‘I know her,’ said Fanny. ‘She’s a bad one.’
‘Well! Well!’ said the minister. ‘I don’t know her. I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all. But it is to be regretted, it is very much to be regretted. I am very sorry.’
Fanny was watching the vestry door. The gallery stairs communicated with the vestry, not with the body of the chapel. She knew the choir members had been peeping for information.
At last Harry came – rather sheepishly – with his hat in his hand.
‘Well!’ said Fanny, rising to her feet.
‘We’ve had a bit of an extra,’ said Harry.
‘I should think so,’ said Fanny.
‘A most unfortunate circumstance – a most unfortunate circumstance. Do you understand it, Harry? I don’t understand it at all.’
‘Ah, I understand it. The daughter’s goin’ to have a childt, an’ ’er lays it on to me.’
‘And has she no occasion to?’ asked Fanny, rather censorious.
‘It’s no more mine than it is some other chap’s,’ said Harry, looking aside.
There was a moment of pause.
‘Which girl is it?’ asked Fanny.
‘Annie – the young one – ’
There followed another silence.
‘I don’t think I know them, do I?’ asked the minister.
‘I shouldn’t think so. Their name’s Nixon – mother married old Bob for her second husband. She’s a tanger –’s driven the gel to what she is. They live in Manners Road.’
‘Why, what’s amiss with the girl?’ asked Fanny sharply. ‘She was all right when I knew her.’
‘Ay – she’s all right. But she’s always in an’ out o’ th’ pubs, wi’ th’ fellows,’ said Harry.
‘A nice thing!’ said Fanny.
Harry glanced towards the door. He wanted to get out.
‘Most distressing, indeed!’ The minister slowly shook his head.
‘What about tonight, Mr Enderby?’ asked Harry, in rather a small voice. ‘Shall you want me?’
Mr Enderby looked up painedly, and put his hand to his brow. He studied Harry for some time, vacantly. There was the faintest sort of a resemblance between the two men.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Yes, I think. I think we must take no notice, and cause as little remark as possible.’
Fanny hesitated. Then she said to Harry.
‘But will you come?’
He looked at her.
‘Ay, I s’ll come,’ he said.
Then he turned to Mr Enderby.
‘Well, good afternoon, Mr Enderby,’ he said.
‘Good afternoon, Harry, good afternoon,’ replied the mournful minister. Fanny followed Harry to the door, and for some time they walked in silence through the late afternoon.
‘And it’s yours as much as anybody else’s?’ she said.
‘Ay,’ he answered shortly.
And they went without another word, for the long mile or so, till they came to the corner of the street where Harry lived. Fanny hesitated. Should she go on to her aunt’s? Should she? It would mean leaving all this, for ever. Harry stood silent.
Some obstinacy made her turn with him along the road to his own home. When they entered the house-p
lace, the whole family was there, mother and father and Jinny, with Jinny’s husband and children and Harry’s two brothers.
‘You’ve been having your ears warmed, they tell me,’ said Mrs Goodall grimly.
‘Who telled thee?’ asked Harry shortly.
‘Maggie and Luke’s both been in.’
‘You look well, don’t you!’ said interfering Jinny.
Harry went and hung his hat up, without replying.
‘Come upstairs and take your hat off,’ said Mrs Goodall to Fanny, almost kindly. It would have annoyed her very much if Fanny had dropped her son at this moment.
‘What’s ’er say, then?’ asked the father secretly of Harry, jerking his head in the direction of the stairs whence Fanny had disappeared.
‘Nowt yet,’ said Harry.
‘Serve you right if she chucks you now,’ said Jinny. ‘I’ll bet it’s right about Annie Nixon an’ you.’
‘Tha bets so much,’ said Harry.
‘Yi – but you can’t deny it,’ said Jinny.
‘I can if I’ve a mind.’
His father looked at him inquiringly.
‘It’s no more mine than it is Bill Bower’s, or Ted Slaney’s, or six or seven on ’em,’ said Harry to his father.
And the father nodded silently.
‘That’ll not get you out of it, in court,’ said Jinny.
Upstairs Fanny evaded all the thrusts made by his mother, and did not declare her hand. She tidied her hair, washed her hands, and put the tiniest bit of powder on her face, for coolness, there in front of Mrs Goodall’s indignant gaze. It was like a declaration of independence. But the old woman said nothing.
They came down to Sunday tea, with sardines and tinned salmon and tinned peaches, besides tarts and cakes. The chatter was general. It concerned the Nixon family and the scandal.
‘Oh, she’s a foul-mouthed woman,’ said Jinny of Mrs Nixon. ‘She may well talk about God’s holy house, she had. It’s first time she’s set foot in it. ever since she dropped off from being converted. She’s a devil and she always was one. Can’t you remember how she treated Bob’s children, mother, when we lived down in the Buildings? I can remember when I was a little girl she used to bathe them in the yard, in the cold, so that they shouldn’t splash the house. She’d half kill them if they made a mark on the floor, and the language she’d use! And one Saturday I can remember Garry, that was Bob’s own girl, she ran off when her stepmother was going to bathe her – ran off without a rag of clothes on – can you remember, mother? And she hid in Smedley’s closes – it was the time of mowing-grass – and nobody could find her. She hid out there all night, didn’t she, mother? Nobody could find her. My word, there was a talk. They found her on Sunday morning – ’
The Penguin Book of English Short Stories Page 23