The White Peacock Part 44

He attended to her with little tender solicitations.

"Have we walked too far?" he asked.

"No, it's not that. No-it's the snowdrops, and the man, and the children-and everything. I feel just a bit exhausted."

She kissed Alice, and Emily, and the mother.

"Good-night, Alice," she said. "It's not altogether my fault we're strangers. You know-really-I'm just the same-really. Only you imagine, and then what can I do?"

She said farewell to George, and looked at him through a quiver of suppressed tears.

George was somewhat flushed with triumph over Lettie: She had gone home with tears shaken from her eyes unknown to her lover; at the farm George laughed with Alice.

We escorted Alice home to Eberwich-"Like a blooming little monkey dangling from two boughs," as she put it, when we swung her along on our arms. We laughed and said many preposterous things. George wanted to kiss her at parting, but she tipped him under the chin and said, "Sweet!" as one does to a canary. Then she laughed with her tongue between her teeth, and ran indoors.

"She is a little devil," said he.

We took the long way home by Greymede, and pa.s.sed the dark schools.

"Come on," said he, "let's go in the 'Ram Inn,' and have a look at my cousin Meg."

It was half past ten when he marched me across the road and into the sanded pa.s.sage of the little inn. The place had been an important farm in the days of George's grand-uncle, but since his decease it had declined, under the governance of the widow and a man-of-all-work. The old grand-aunt was propped and supported by a splendid grand-daughter.

The near kin of Meg were all in California, so she, a bonny delightful girl of twenty-four, stayed near her grand-ma.

As we tramped grittily down the pa.s.sage, the red head of Bill poked out of the bar, and he said as he recognised George:

"Good-ev'nin'-go forward-'er's non abed yit."

We went forward, and unlatched the kitchen door. The great-aunt was seated in her little, round-backed armchair, sipping her "night-cap."

"Well, George, my lad!" she cried, in her querulous voice. "Tha' niver says it's thai, does ter? That's com'n for summat, for sure, else what brings thee ter see me?"

"No," he said. "Ah'n com ter see thee, nowt else. Wheer's Meg?"

"Ah!-Ha-Ha-Ah!-Me, did ter say?-come ter see me?-Ha-wheer's Meg!-an' who's this young gentleman?"

I was formally introduced, and shook the clammy corded hand of the old lady.

"Tha' looks delikit," she observed, shaking her cap and its scarlet geraniums sadly: "c.u.m now, sit thee down, an' dunna look so long o' th'

leg."

I sat down on the sofa, on the cus.h.i.+ons covered with blue and red checks. The room was very hot, and I stared about uncomfortably. The old lady sat peering at nothing, in reverie. She was a hard-visaged, bosomless dame, clad in thick black cloth-like armour, and wearing an immense twisted gold brooch in the lace at her neck.

We heard heavy, quick footsteps above.

"Er's commin'," remarked the old lady, rousing from her apathy. The footsteps came downstairs-quickly, then cautiously round the bend. Meg appeared in the doorway. She started with surprise, saying:

"Well, I 'eered sumbody, but I never thought it was you." More colour still flamed into her glossy cheeks, and she smiled in her fresh, frank way. I think I have never seen a woman who had more physical charm; there was a voluptuous fascination in her every outline and movement; one never listened to the words that came from her lips, one watched the ripe motion of those red fruits.

"Get 'em a drop o' whiskey, Meg-you'll 'a'e a drop?"

I declined firmly, but did not escape.

"Nay," declared the old dame. "I s'll ha'e none o' thy no's. Should ter like it 'ot?-Say th' word, an' tha' 'as it."

I did not say the word.

"Then gi'e 'im claret," p.r.o.nounced my hostess, "though it's thin-bellied stuff ter go to ter bed on"-and claret it was.

Meg went out again to see about closing. The grand-aunt sighed, and sighed again, for no perceptible reason but the whiskey.

"It's well you've come ter see me now," she moaned, "for you'll none 'a'e a chance next time you come'n;-No-I'm all gone but my cap--"

She shook that geraniumed erection, and I wondered what sardonic fate left it behind.

"An' I'm forced ter say it, I s'll be thankful to be gone," she added, after a few sighs.

This weariness of the flesh was touching. The cruel truth is, however, that the old lady clung to life like a louse to a pig's back. Dying, she faintly, but emphatically declared herself, "a bit better-a bit better.

I s'll be up to-morrow."

"I should a gone before now," she continued, "but for that blessed wench-I canna abear to think o' leavin 'er-come drink up, my lad, drink up-nay, tha' 'rt n.o.bbut young yet, tha' 'rt none topped up wi' a thimbleful."

I took whiskey in preference to the acrid stuff.

"Ay," resumed the grand-aunt. "I canna go in peace till 'er's settled-an' 'er's that tickle o' choosin'. Th' right sort 'asn't th'

gumption ter ax' er."

She sniffed, and turned scornfully to her gla.s.s. George grinned and looked conscious; as he swallowed a gulp of whiskey it crackled in his throat. The sound annoyed the old lady.

"Tha' might be scar'd at summat," she said. "Tha' niver 'ad six drops o'

s.p.u.n.k in thee."

She turned again with a sniff to her gla.s.s. He frowned with irritation, half filled his gla.s.s with liquor, and drank again.

"I dare bet as tha' niver kissed a wench in thy life-not proper"-and she tossed the last drops of her toddy down her skinny throat.

Here Meg came along the pa.s.sage.

"Come, gran'ma," she said. "I'm sure it's time as you was in bed-come on."

"Sit thee down an' drink a drop wi's-it's not ivry night as we 'a'e c.u.mpny."

"No, let me take you to bed-I'm sure you must be ready."

"Sit thee down 'ere, I say, an' get thee a drop o' port. Come-no argy-bargyin'."

Meg fetched more gla.s.ses and a decanter. I made a place for her between me and George. We all had port wine. Meg, nave and unconscious, waited on us deliciously. Her cheeks gleamed like satin when she laughed, save when the dimples held the shadow. Her suave, tawny neck was bare and bewitching. She turned suddenly to George as he asked her a question, and they found their faces close together. He kissed her, and when she started back, jumped and kissed her neck with warmth.

"La-la-dy-da-la-dy-da-dy-da," cried the old woman in delight, and she clutched her winegla.s.s.