Krindlesyke | Page 8

ditch.
You little ken ...
PHOEBE:
I heard your name. I've heard
That name before.
JUDITH:
You heard no good of it,
Whoever spoke.
PHOEBE:
I heard it from the lips
That uttered it just now.
JUDITH:
From Jim's? Well, Jim
Kens what I am. I wonder he lets you talk

With me. Come ...

PHOEBE:
Not until I know the name
Of your baby's father.
JUDITH:
You've no right to ask.
PHOEBE:
Maybe: and yet, you shall not cross that doorsill,
Until I
know.
JUDITH:
Come, woman, don't be foolish.
PHOEBE:
You say I've no right. Pray God, you speak the truth:

But there may be no woman in the world
Who has a better right.
JUDITH:
You'd never heed
A doting dobby's blethering, would you, lass--

An old, blind, crazy creature ...
PHOEBE:
If I've no right,
You'll surely never have the heart to keep
The name
from me? You'll set my mind at ease?
JUDITH:
The heart! If it will set your mind at ease,
I'll speak my
shame ... I'll speak my shame right out ...
I'll speak my shame right
out, before you all.
JIM:
But, lass!
ELIZA (_to PHOEBE_):
Nay: let her go. You're young and hard:
And I was hard, though far
from young: I've long
Been growing old; though little I realized


How old. And when you're old, you don't judge hardly:
You ken
things happen, in spite of us, willy-nilly.
We think we're safe, holding
the reins; and then
In a flash the mare bolts; and the wheels fly off;

And we're lying, stunned, beneath the broken cart.
So, let the lass go
quietly; and keep
Your happiness. When you're old, you'll not let slip

A chance of happiness so easily:
There's not so much of it going, to
pick and choose:
The apple's speckled; but it's best to munch it,

And get what relish out of it you can;
And, one day, you'll be glad to
chew the core:
For all its bitterness, few chuck it from them,
While
they've a sense left that can savour aught.
So, let the lass go. You may
have the right
To question her: but folk who stand on their rights

Get little rest: they're on a quaking moss
Without a foothold; and find
themselves to the neck
In Deadman's Flow, before they've floundered
far.
Rights go for little, in this life: few are worth
The risk of losing
peace and quiet. You'll have
Plenty to worrit, and keep you wakeful,
without
A pillow stuffed with burrs and briars: so, take
An old
wife's counsel, daughter: let well alone;
And don't go gathering
grievances. The lass ...
JIM:
Ay, don't be hard on her. Though mother's old,
She talks
sense, whiles. So let the poor lass go.
JUDITH:
The father of my bairn ...
JIM:
She's lying, Phoebe!
JUDITH:
The father of my bairn is--William Burn--
A stranger to
these parts. Now, let me pass.
(_She tries to slip by, but PHOEBE still does not make way for her._)
JIM:
Ay, Phoebe, let her go. She tells the truth.
I thought ... But I
mistook her. Let her go.
I never reckoned you'd be a reesty nag:
Yet,

you can set your hoofs, and champ your bit
With any mare, I see. I
doubt you'll prove
A rackle ramstam wife, if you've your head.

She's answered what you asked; though, why, unless ...
Well, I don't
blame the wench: she should ken best.
PHOEBE:
Judith, you lie.
JUDITH:
I lie! You mean ...
PHOEBE:
To-day,
I married your bairn's father.
ELIZA:
O God!
JIM:
Come, lass,
I say!
JUDITH:
No woman, no! I spoke the truth.
Haven't I shamed myself enough
already--
That you must call me liar! (_To ELIZA_) Speak out now,

If you're not tongue-tied: tell her all you ken--
How I'm a byword
among honest women,
And yet, no liar. You'd tongue enough just
now
To tell me what I was--a cruel tongue
Cracking about my ears:
and have you none
To answer your son's wife, and save the lad

From scandal?
ELIZA:
I've not known the lass to lie ...
And she's the true heart, Phoebe, true
as death,
Whatever it may seem.

JIM:
That's that: and so ...
(_While they have been talking, EZRA has risen from the settle,
unnoticed; and has hobbled to where PHOEBE and JUDITH confront
one another. He suddenly touches PHOEBE's arm._)
EZRA:
Cackling like guinea-fowl when a hawk's in air!
I must
have snoozed; yet, I caught the gabble. There'll be
A clatter all day
now, with two women's tongues,
Clack-clack against each other, in
the house--
Two pendulums in one clock. Lucky I'm deaf.
But, I
remember. Give me back the bairn.
Nay: this is not the wench. I want
Jim's bride--
The mother of his daughter. Judith, lass,
Where are
you? Come, I want to nurse my grandchild--
Jim's little lass.
ELIZA (_stepping towards EZRA_):
Come, hold your foolish tongue.
You don't know what you're saying.
Come, sit down.
(_Leads him back to the settle._)
JIM:
If he don't stop his yammer, I'll slit his weasen--
I'll wring his
neck for him!
EZRA:
What's wrong? What's wrong?
I'm an old man, now; and must do as
I'm bid like a bairn--
I, who was master, and did all the bidding.

And you, Jim, I'd have