The Obstacle Race | Page 5

like to get to him.
Mr. Fielding from the Court, he were in here the other day and he see
'em together. 'Your baby's got funny taste, Mrs. Rickett,' he says and
laughs. And I says to him, 'There's a many worse than poor young
Robin, sir,' I says. 'And in our own village too.' You see, Mr. Fielding
he's one of them gentlemen as likes to have the managing of other
folks' affairs and he's always been on to Dick to have poor Robin put
away. But Dick won't hear of it, and I don't blame him. For, as I say,
there's no harm in the lad if he's treated proper, and he'd break his heart
if they was to send him away. And he's that devoted to Dick too--well,
there, it fair makes me cry sometimes to see him. He'll sit and wait for
him by the hour together, like a dog he will."
"Was he born like that?" asked Juliet, as her informant paused for
breath.
Mrs. Rickett pursed her lips. "Well, you see, miss, he were a twin, and
he never did thrive from the very earliest. But he wasn't a hunchback,
not like he is now, at first. The poor mother died when they was born,
and p'raps it were a good thing, for she'd have grieved terrible if she
could have seen what he were a-going to grow into. For she was a lady
born and bred, married beneath her, you know. Nor she didn't have any
such life of it either. He were a sea-captain--a funny, Frenchy-looking
fellow with a frightful temper. He never come home for twelve years
after Dick were born. She used to teach at the village school, and make
her living that way. Very sweet in her ways she were. Everyone liked
her. There's them as says Mr. Fielding was in love with her. He didn't

marry, you know, till long after. She used to sing too, and such a pretty
voice she'd got. I used to think she was like an angel when I was a child.
And so she were. Whether she'd have married Mr. Fielding or not I
don't know. There's some as thinks she would. They were very friendly
together. And then, quite sudden-like, when everyone thought he'd been
dead for years, her husband come home again. I'll never forget it if I
lives to be a hundred. I was only a bit of a girl then. It's more'n twenty
years ago, you know, miss. I were just tidying up a bit in the
school-house after school were over, and she were looking at some
copybooks, when suddenly he marched in at the door, and, 'Hullo,
Olive!' he says. She got up, and she was as white as a sheet. She didn't
say one word. And he just come up to her, and took hold of her and
kissed her and kissed her. It was horrid to see him, fair turned me up,"
said Mrs. Rickett graphically. "And I'll never forget her face when he
let her go. She looked as if she'd had her death blow. And so she had,
miss. For she was never the same again. The man was a beast, as
anyone could see, and he hadn't improved in them twelve years. He
were a hard drinker, and he used to torment her to drink with him, used
to knock young Dick about too, something cruel. Dick were only a lad
of twelve, but he says to me once, 'I'll kill that man,' he says. 'I'll kill
him.' Mr. Fielding he went abroad as soon as the husband turned up,
and he didn't know what goings-on there were. There's some as says
she made him go, and I shouldn't wonder but what there was something
in it. For if ever any poor soul suffered martyrdom, it was that woman.
I'll never forget the change in her, never as long as I live. She kept up
for a long time, but she looked awful, and then at last when her time
drew near she broke down and used to cry and cry when anyone spoke
to her. O' course we all knew as she wouldn't get over it. Her spirit was
quite broke, and when the babies came she hadn't a chance. It happened
very quick at the last, and her husband weren't there. He were down at
The Three Tuns, and when they went to fetch him he laughed in their
faces and went on drinking. Oh, it was cruel." Mrs. Rickett wiped away
some indignant tears. "Not as she wanted him--never even mentioned
his name. She only asked for Dick, and he was with her just at the end.
He was only a lad of thirteen, miss, but he was a