Two on a Tower | Page 9

he descended through the underwood on the
side of the slope opposite to that trodden by Lady Constantine, and
crossed the field in a line mathematically straight, and in a manner that
left no traces, by keeping in the same furrow all the way on tiptoe. In a
few minutes he reached a little dell, which occurred quite unexpectedly
on the other side of the field-fence, and descended to a venerable
thatched house, whose enormous roof, broken up by dormers as big as
haycocks, could be seen even in the twilight. Over the white walls,
built of chalk in the lump, outlines of creepers formed dark patterns, as
if drawn in charcoal.
Inside the house his maternal grandmother was sitting by a wood fire.
Before it stood a pipkin, in which something was evidently kept warm.
An eight-legged oak table in the middle of the room was laid for a meal.
This woman of eighty, in a large mob cap, under which she wore a little
cap to keep the other clean, retained faculties but little blunted. She was
gazing into the flames, with her hands upon her knees, quietly
re-enacting in her brain certain of the long chain of episodes, pathetic,
tragical, and humorous, which had constituted the parish history for the
last sixty years. On Swithin's entry she looked up at him in a sideway
direction.
'You should not have waited for me, granny,' he said.
''Tis of no account, my child. I've had a nap while sitting here. Yes, I've
had a nap, and went straight up into my old country again, as usual.
The place was as natural as when I left it,--e'en just threescore years
ago! All the folks and my old aunt were there, as when I was a
child,--yet I suppose if I were really to set out and go there, hardly a
soul would be left alive to say to me, dog how art! But tell Hannah to
stir her stumps and serve supper--though I'd fain do it myself, the poor
old soul is getting so unhandy!'
Hannah revealed herself to be much nimbler and several years younger
than granny, though of this the latter seemed to be oblivious. When the
meal was nearly over Mrs. Martin produced the contents of the
mysterious vessel by the fire, saying that she had caused it to be
brought in from the back kitchen, because Hannah was hardly to be
trusted with such things, she was becoming so childish.

'What is it, then?' said Swithin. 'Oh, one of your special puddings.' At
sight of it, however, he added reproachfully, 'Now, granny!'
Instead of being round, it was in shape an irregular boulder that had
been exposed to the weather for centuries--a little scrap pared off here,
and a little piece broken away there; the general aim being,
nevertheless, to avoid destroying the symmetry of the pudding while
taking as much as possible of its substance.
'The fact is,' added Swithin, 'the pudding is half gone!'
'I've only sliced off the merest paring once or twice, to taste if it was
well done!' pleaded granny Martin, with wounded feelings. 'I said to
Hannah when she took it up, "Put it here to keep it warm, as there's a
better fire than in the back kitchen."'
'Well, I am not going to eat any of it!' said Swithin decisively, as he
rose from the table, pushed away his chair, and went up-stairs; the
'other station of life that was in his blood,' and which had been brought
out by the grammar school, probably stimulating him.
'Ah, the world is an ungrateful place! 'Twas a pity I didn't take my poor
name off this earthly calendar and creep under ground sixty long years
ago, instead of leaving my own county to come here!' mourned old Mrs.
Martin. 'But I told his mother how 'twould be-- marrying so many
notches above her. The child was sure to chaw high, like his father!'
When Swithin had been up-stairs a minute or two however, he altered
his mind, and coming down again ate all the pudding, with the aspect
of a person undertaking a deed of great magnanimity. The relish with
which he did so restored the unison that knew no more serious
interruptions than such as this.
'Mr. Torkingham has been here this afternoon,' said his grandmother;
'and he wants me to let him meet some of the choir here to-night for
practice. They who live at this end of the parish won't go to his house to
try over the tunes, because 'tis so far, they say, and so 'tis, poor men. So
he's going to see what coming to them will do. He asks if you would
like to join.'
'I would if I had not so much to