The Lord of the Sea | Page 5

turn while we were sweethearting, hankering after another man--a Jew millionaire he was, she being a governess in his house; but, Richard, I couldn't give her up: I married her three months before you were born; and not a living creature knows, except, perhaps, one--perhaps one: a priest he was, called O'Hara. But that's how it was. Your father was a Jew, and your mother was a Jew, and you are a Jew, and in the under-bottom of the old grey trunk you will find a roll of papers. Are you hearkening? And don't you be ashamed of being a Jew, boy--they are the people who've got the money; and money buys land, Richard. Nor your father did not do so badly by you, either: his name was Spinoza--Sir Solomon Spinoza--"
At that point Margaret, bearing a lamp, entered, followed by Loveday, and at the sight of Richard uttered a cry.
V
REID'S
By noon Hogarth knew the news: his hundred and fifty at Reid's were gone; and he owed for the Michaelmas quarter--twenty-one pounds five, his only chattels of value being the thresher, not yet paid for, half a rick, seed, manure, and "the furniture". If he could realize enough for rent, he would lack capital for wages and cultivation, for Reid's had been his credit-bank.
After dinner he stood long at a window, then twisted away, and walked to Thring, where he captained in a football match, Loveday watching his rage, his twisting waist, and then accompanying him home: but in the dining-room they found the lord-of-the-manor's bailiff; and Loveday, divining something embarrassing, took himself away.
The same evening there were two appraisers in the house, and the bailiff, on their judgment, took possession of the chattels on the holding except some furniture, and some agricultural "fixtures". The sale was arranged for the sixth day.
From the old Hogarth the truth could no longer be hidden...
Two days he continued quiet in the old nook by the hearth,?apparently in a kind of dotage doze; but on the third, he began to poke about, hobbled into the dairy, peered into the churn, touched the skimmer.
"You'll have to wear the cap", Margaret heard him mutter--"or be turned out".
As if taking farewell, he would get up, as at a sudden thought, to go to visit something. He kept murmuring: "I always said, Get a bit of land as your own, but I never did; the days went by and by...."
Margaret, meantime, was busy, binding beds with sheets, making bundles, preparing for the flitting, with a heaving breast; till, on the fifth day, a van stood loaded with their things at the halldoor, and she, with untidy hair, was helping heave the last trunk upon the backboard, when the carman said: "Mrs. Mackenzie says, mum, the things mustn't be took to the cottage, except you pay in advance".
Now Margaret stood at a loss; but in a minute went bustling, deciding to go to Loveday, not without twinges of reluctance: for Loveday, with instinctive delicacy, had lately kept from the farm; and to Margaret, whose point of view was different, the words "false friends" had occurred.
Passing through an alley of the forest, she was met by a man--a park-keeper of Frankl's--a German Jew, who had once handed her a note from Frankl. And he, on seeing her, said: "Here have I a letter for your brother".
"Who from?" she asked.
"That may I not say".
When he handed her an envelope rather stuffed with papers, she went on her flurried way; and soon Loveday was bowing before her in his sitting-room at Priddlestone.
"You will be surprised to see me, Mr. Loveday," said she, panting.
"A little surprised, but most awfully glad, too. Is all well?"
"Oh, far from that, I'm afraid. But I haven't got any time--and, oh my, I don't know how to say it,--but to be frank with you--could you lend Richard two pounds--?"
Loveday coloured to the roots of his hair.
He could not tell her: "Open that envelope in your hand", for that would have meant that it was he who had sent the ￡50 it contained; and he had now only one sixpence in Priddlestone.
"That is", she said--"if it is not an inconvenience to you--"
He could find no words. Some fifteen minutes before, having enclosed the notes, he had descended to the bar to get mine host to find him a messenger, and direct the envelope--for Hogarth knew his?handwriting. Mine host was not there--his wife could not write: but she had pointed out the Jewish park-keeper sipping beer; so Loveday had had the man upstairs, had made him write the address, and had bribed him to deliver the envelope with a mum tongue.
"I'm afraid I've taken a great liberty--" she said, shrinking at his silence.
Then he spoke: "Oh, liberty!--but--really--I'm quite broke myself--!"
"Then, good-afternoon to you", said she: "I am very sorry--but you will