Miss Mary Martha Crawford (19 page)

fifteen.

My wife died within a short time of our marriage and I was left with the responsibility of the girl, because the sisters were orphans. When I failed to support her in the style she expected, she took matters

into her own hands and chose her own career, and one might say

ironically that she has made a success of it, yet she never has enough for her wants. I happened to be there that particular morning to warn her that if she used my name to purchase goods just once more I should put a notice in the papers disclaiming any responsibility. "

He stopped talking but continued to look at her. Her body had slumped, her head hung slack against the back of the chair, her mouth was open, she made an attempt to speak, but swallowed deeply, then closed her

mouth again.

Shaking her head slowly now she murmured, "Oh, I'm ... I'm very sorry, very sorry. Please forgive me. I ... I don't know what to say." As her chin drooped towards her chest he rose to his feet, saying,

"There's nothing you need say, nor need you be sorry. As I see it now you were quite justified in your attitude. And I understand your

feelings. Oh yes, yes' he nodded at her " If I'd been in your place I think I'd have kicked you . or me, out of the door. " He pursed his lips now.

"But ladies are not supposed to do that, are they?" His lightness of tone, his little joke, did not cause her expression to alter, nor did she move from the chair, she only continued to stare at him, while she thought. Dear God' what a fool I have made of myself. He must have

thought me mad. He did think me a little mad, I could see it in his

eyes. And over the past half hour he must have been connecting me with Aunt Sophie. And who can blame him? Oh, I feel so . so. She made an

effort and pulled herself upwards. She wanted to apologize again, she wanted to go on apologizing, but she felt weak, tired, and rather

ill.

His voice came to her saying quietly, "I shall leave you some pills for your aunt. Give her one every twelve hours and she will sleep on and off for the next two or three days. This will give you some respite.

You must get out into the air. Look' he pointed 'the sun is shining

and although it's still very cold a brisk walk will do you good. On my next visit I shall bring a tonic."

Thank you. "

"Well, I must be off."

He did not turn immediately from her but said quietly, "Don't blame yourself, we all make mistakes. I once hated an aunt because she

refused to have me for a holiday in the summer. It wasn't that I

missed seeing her but there was a stream with fish in it that ran by her cottage. I hated her all that summer. She died in the autumn from a disease of the liver and she left me twenty pounds."

He was smiling. He did not look so coarse or ugly now, the smile had softened his blunt features; in a way he looked kindly. Oh, what had she done in jumping to conclusions?

"I'll never forgive myself ... I..."

Now, now, now, forget about it. That's an order, a doctor's order.

"

He turned sharply from her and went down the room, and she followed

him, not only to the hall door but to the top of the steps, from where she watched him go towards the yard before turning to go back into the house, her hands gripped tightly at her waist and her head down. As

Harry approached the barn he heard Fred growling and when he entered he saw the dog standing to the side of the trap. As usual he was

following a pattern and staying by Bessie, but he usually sat whilst doing his guard. The boy Bailey was at the far end of the barn, but

the dog was looking towards him and growling.

"What is it?" When he stooped down and touched Fred's head the animal barked, a high angry bark that he kept for intruders, and he looked

again in the direction of Nick Bailey.

Harry now called down the barn. ^What's the matter? He's not usually like this, have you been teasing him? "

The? " The young fellow advanced some way towards him, a rake in his hand. The?" he said again.

"Why no, doctor. Me, I like dogs. One back home, but different from him; he's a mongrel, huh!" He laughed and disclosed a gap where three teeth were missing in the front of his mouth.

"Mongrel of mongrels I should say, bad tempered an' all?"

Harry stared at the lad before turning abruptly and ordering Fred

up.

Then mounting the trap he drove out of the barn, across the yard and into the drive. But there he stopped and, pulling Fred's hindquarters round to him, he examined his haunches. There was another puncture

with blood coming from it.

He looked in the direction of the barn and his teeth ground one over the other. For two pins he'd go back there and wipe the floor with

that half-wit. But there'd been enough trouble in that house for one morning.

"Well' he nodded down at Fred 'there'll be another time, boy, another time. We can wait." Then patting the dog's head, he took up the reins again and made for home.

i35

As it had promised the river rose. Fields and roads were flooded, and outside the town low-lying cottages had to be abandoned. For eight

days most of the roads were impassable; then, as if spring had

forgotten what time it was supposed to arrive, there were two days of sunshine, so bright that it gave warmth, and it was on the first of

these pleasant days that Harry saw Martha again, although she didn't see him.

He had called in at the bookshop to order a medical book, second-hand if it were possible, and he was browsing in front of a shelf in the

corner of the shop from which led a door into what he surmised was the office when he heard her voice. As he said to himself with a wry

smile, there couldn't be two people who spoke like her when she was on her high horse, and apparently she was mounted at this moment for she was saying in a tone that he recognized only too well, "I accept your resignation, Mr. Ducat. You may terminate your employment one week

from today, and I shall expect you to leave everything in order."

"As you say, MisS Crawford." The voice replying had a deep sneer to it and he recognized it also as belonging to the smarmy fellow who ran the shop, and he cocked his ear attentively as it went on, "And for your information, Miss Crawford, I can tell you that Mr. Cunningham is

offering me three shillings more and with the promise of a further

raise, which will assist me to view the prospect of marriage with some certainty."

In the moments that followed Harry kept his attention on the book in his hand while still awaiting her reply, but it didn't come. The next sound he heard was the rustle of her gown as she passed within a yard of him. However, she didn't see him for she didn't turn her head, and he only just glimpsed her profile edging her bonnet, but her walk spoke plainly for her feelings. Now what was all that about? That man's

tone had been spiteful and familiar at the same time, and he had put strong emphasis on the word marriage. Surely there hadn't been

something between them. Oh no, not her and a nincompoop like him!

Still, you never knew women, especially when they had turned twenty, victims of their emotions all of them.

And he said so across the dining-table half an hour later after

relating the incident to John Pippin, "Women are fools he said, 'and the ones who are not fools are knaves. I can never understand why that word is applied solely to men."

John Pippin stared at the lowered head and he chewed slowly on a piece of tender steak before saying, You haven't a very high opinion of

women, have you? "

"I give them their due."

"Yes, no doubt you do, but it all depends upon what you consider their due. In our line of business it pays to add to their due, put up, the interest on their assets as it were, it never does any harm. For

instance, the person in question, what do you think Martha Mary's due is?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I say. You've come in contact with her a number of times, battled with her by the sound of it. Well, how would you assess

her?"

How would he assess her? His chin went out, he nipped on his lower

lip, then slanting his gaze at the old man, he said, "As a perfect specimen of the tradesman class, lower middle, at least I should

imagine her early upbringing could have placed her in that category.

Even now when she's forced to be jack of all trades she still retains the false outlook that she and her sisters are a cut above ordinary

folk. "

"Well, but apart from that what about the girl herself? She's

intelligent."

i37 "That may be, but what has she done with her intelligence? Likely she Can sew, and play the piano, and no doubt they having a bookshop, she's read a bit; and yet I wouldn't say to any depth, her outlook is too narrow for that."

"You don't like her?"

Harry now gave a short laugh.

"I neither like her nor dislike her. No, that isn't the truth. After our first meeting it would have been nearer the mark to say I loathed the sight of her."

"And so you set out to bring her down."

"What do you mean?" Harry's eyebrows were straining towards his hair-line now in genuine surprise.

"What! me ibring her down? Miss Martha Mary Crawford!"

The old man put his head back and laughed.

"Mentally, mentally, man, you set out to show yourself to be the superior male. Oh, don't deny it." He now lifted his hand and wagged the knife it held towards Harry. 'you hate to be bested by anyone, but to let a woman try it, never! And don't look like that as if I were

accusing you of rape.

Which reminds me, the Bailey girl is about due. There's a household

for you. The two eldest lasses dropped within a year and not a thing done about it. There's an open case of incest if ever I saw one, and fourteen already to his credit in the family. Sometimes I think it's a pity the gibbet's out of fashion. There's only one thing to be said

for him, he won't let them be born in the workhouse. " Doctor Pippin now looked towards the window and ended, " I'm glad the sun's shining, that's one blessing to be grateful for, for I've got to gird my loins and get over to The Hall this afternoon; that young girl isn't well at all, I doubt if she'll weather it this year. "

"How long has she had consumption ?"

"Oh, since she was young. It's in the family, on both sides I should say. But I don't suppose they'll worry too much about her going. It

isn't as if it were young. William; they'd both go mad if anything

happened to him, Sir Rupert's last link with posterity. Oh my! nothing must happen to William." He | gave a chuckle.

"I think he's arranged it with the Almighty. He seems on very good terms with Him; at least, he'd have

you believe so. " He now took a'deep mouthful of wine, swilled it round his decayed teeth, then swallowed before saying abruptly, " To get back to what we were saying earlier, you feel settled? "

Harry paused before answering, "If you mean with the practice, yes."

"Not thinking about flitting back to the big city where the money is?"

"No, our arrangement was for two years, wasn't it?"

"Yes, yes. I know what our arrangement was all right, but you've been here seven months now and ... and I just wondered how you're viewing the set-up since I put more and more work on to you."

"That's as it should be, and that's what I want, more and more work."

"Yes, yes, you would. You're a type. You know that, Fuller? You're a type. I should say you've got a constitution like a horse, and a quick judgment of you would be to say that you have more brawn than brains.

But that wouldn't be right, would it? "

"No, it certainly wouldn't." Harry's voice had now a grim note to it, and the old man laughed again and said, "That wasn't meant as an insult but as a compliment. A good constitution is a doctor's stand-by,

without it he's no good. You must have come from good stock somewhere, strong farming stock I should say. Anyway' he turned his head towards the door 'here's Annie with the pudding. I like pudding. Put it down there, girl. Ah! that's nice." He looked at the steaming plum-duff dripping with syrup.

"That's the style, sticks to your ribs.... You were saying, doctor."

He looked over his glasses as he divided the large suet pudding into two.

"I wasn't saying." Harry took the plate from the old man's hand and they eyed each other for a moment, as if each was reading the other's mind; one amused by what he read there, the other not. Paying

compliments indeed! If that was his way of paying a compliment he

hoped he was never insulted 'by him, yet at the same time he admitted there was truth in his summing up. But one did not always view

oneself

through the eyes of truth. No matter how brusque his manner, no

matter how ordinary his appearance, and it wasn't so ordinary as all that, he had a good sturdy body on him, a fine head of hair. All

right, his face had no claim to good looks, but on the other hand it didn't scare children.

But then in the next moment it could have scared Doctor Pippin had he been a nervous man, for when changing the topic abruptly again, as was his way, he said, "You should marry. It would be nice to have a woman about the house, an intelligent one that is; there's plenty of room

upstairs that could be' made into an apartment and I'd then take you on right away as an assistant with a view... half partnership, or a third, whichever you..."

"Doctor, let us get this clear." Harry was now standing leaning slightly forward across the table and he repeated, "Let us get this one thing clear now and for all time. I have no intention of getting

married again ever. If you want a partner with a wife then you'll have to look elsewhere."

There was a significant pause as they again eyed each other; then Harry turned from the table and walked towards the dining-room door.

But before he reached it Doctor Pippin's voice stopped him as he