第3章

She steered her uncle into the dining-room and placed him on a chair beside the fire.In all his movements he attempted restraints and dignity because he knew that he was drunk but hoped that his niece, in spite of her long experience of him, would not perceive it.At the same time he knew that she did perceive it and would perhaps scold him about it.This made him a little indignant because, after all, he had only taken the tiniest drop--one drop at Drymouth, another at Liskane station, and another at "The Hearty Cow" at Clinton St.Mary, just before his start on his cold lonely walk to St.Dreot's.He hoped that he would prevent her criticism by his easy pleasant talk, so on he chattered.

She sat down near him and continuing to sew smiled at him, wondered what there was for dinner and the kind of mood that her father would be in when he found his dear brother here.

Maggie Cardinal, at the time, was nineteen years of age.She was neither handsome nor distinguished, plain indeed, although her mild, good-natured eyes had in their light a quality of vitality and interest that gave her personality; her figure was thick and square--she would be probably stout one day.She moved like a man.Behind the mildness of her eyes there was much character and resolve in her carriage, in the strong neck, the firm breasts, the mouth resolute and determined.She had now the fine expectation of her youth, her health, her optimism, her ignorance of the world.When these things left her she would perhaps be a yet plainer woman.In her dress she was not clever.Her clothes were ugly with the coarse drab grey of their material and the unskilful workmanship that had created them.

And yet there would be some souls who would see in her health, her youth, the kind sympathy of her eyes and mouth, the high nobility of her forehead from which her hair was brushed back, an attraction that might hold them more deeply than an obvious beauty.

Uncle Mathew although he was a silly man was one of these perceptive souls, and had he not been compelled by his circumstances to think continually about himself, would have loved his niece very dearly.

As it was, he thought her a fine girl when he thought of her at all, and wished her more success in life than her "poor old uncle" had had.He looked at her now across the fireplace with satisfaction.

She was something sure and pleasant in a world that swayed and was uncertain.He was drunk enough to feel happy so long as he was not scolded.He dreaded the moment when his brother Charles would appear, and he strove to arrange in his mind the wise and unanswerable word with which he would defend himself, but his thoughts slipped just as the firelight slipped and the floors with the old threadbare carpet.

Then suddenly the hall door opened with a jangle, there were steps in the hall, and Old Timmie Carthewe the sexton appeared in the dining-room.He had a goat's face and a body like a hairpin.

"Rector's not been to service," he said."There's Miss Dunnett and Mrs.Giles and the two Miss Backshaws.I'm feared he's forgotten."Maggie started up.Instantly to her mind came the memory of that fancied sound from her father's room.She listened now, her head raised, and the two men, their eyes bleared but their noses sniffing as though they were dogs, listened also.There were certain sounds, clocks ticking, the bough scraping on the wall, a cart's echo on the frozen road, the maid singing far in the depths of the house.Maggie nodded her head.

"I'll go and see," she said.

She went into the hall and stood again listening.Then she called, "Father! Father!" but there was no answer.She had never in all her life been frightened by anything and she was not frightened now;nevertheless, as she went up the stairs, she looked behind her to see whether any one followed her.

She called again "Father!" then went to his door, pushed it open, and looked in.The room was cold with a faint scent of tallow candle and damp.

In the twilight she saw her father's body lying like a shadow stretched right across the floor, with the grey dirty fingers of one hand clenched.

After that events followed swiftly.Maggie herself had no time nor opportunity for any personal emotion save a dumb kind of wonder that she did not feel more.But she saw all "through a glass darkly."There had been first that moment when the sexton and Uncle Mathew, still like dogs sniffing, had peered with their eyes through her father's door.Then there had been the summoning of Dr.Bubbage from the village, his self-importance, his continual "I warned him.Iwarned him.He can't say I didn't warn him," and then (very dim and far away) "Thank you, Miss Cardinal.I think I will have a glass if you don't mind." There had been cook crying in the kitchen (her red roses intended for Sunday must now be postponed) and the maid sniffing in the hall.There had been Uncle Mathew, muddled and confused, but clinging to his one idea that "the best thing you can do, my dear, is to send for your Aunt Anne." There had been the telegram dispatched to Aunt Anne, and then after that the house had seemed quite filled with people--ladies who had--wished to know whether they could help her in any way and even the village butcher who was there for no reason but stood in the hall rubbing his hands on his thighs and sniffing.All these persons Maggie surveyed through a mist.She was calm and collected and empty of all personality; Maggie Cardinal, the real Maggie Cardinal, was away on a visit somewhere and would not be back for a time or two.