Chapter 1
Small feckless clouds were hurried across the vast untroubled sky—shepherdless futile imponderable—and were torn to fragments on the fangs of the mountains so ending their ephemeral adventures with nothing of their fugitive existence left but a few tears
It was cold in the Callow—a spinney of silver birches and larches that topped a round hill A purple mist hinted of buds in the treetops and a fainter purple haunted the vistas between the silver and brown boles
Only the crudeness of youth was here as yet and not its triumph—only the sharp calyxpoint the pricking tip of the bud like spears and not the paten of the leaf the chalice of the flower
For as yet spring had no flight no song but went like a halffledged bird hopping tentatively through the undergrowth The bright springing mercury that carpeted the open spaces had only just hung out its pale flowers and honeysuckle leaves were still tongues of green fire Between the larch boles and under the thickets of honeysuckle and blackberry came a tawny silent form wearing with the calm dignity of woodland creatures a beauty of eye and limb a brilliance of tint that fewwomen could have worn without selfconsciousness Cleareyed lithe it stood for a moment in the full sunlight—a yearold fox roundheaded and velvetfooted Then it slid into the shadows A shrill whistle came from the interior of the wood and the fox bounded towards it
Where you bin Youm stray and lose yourself certain sure said a girls voice chidingly motherly And if youm alost Im alost so come you whome The suns undering and theres bones for supper
With that she took to her heels the little fox after her racing down the Callow in the cold level light till they came to the Wooduss cottage
Hazel Woodus to whom the fox belonged had always lived at the Callow There her mother a Welsh gipsy had born her in bitter rebellion hating marriage and a settled life and Abel Woodus as a wild cat hates a cage She was a rover born for the artists joy and sorrow and her spirit found no relief for its emotions for it was dumb To the linnet its flight to the thrush its song but she had neither flight nor song Yet the tongueless thrush is a thrush still and has golden music in its heart The caged linnet may sit moping but her soul knows the dip and rise of flight on an everlasting May morning
All the things she felt and could not say all the stored honey the black hatred the wistful homesickness for the unfenced wild—all that other women would have put into their prayers she gave to Hazel The whole force of her wayward heart flowed into the softly beating heart of her baby It was as if she passionately flung the life she did not value into the arms of her child
When Hazel was fourteen she died leaving her treasure—an old dirty partially illegible manuscriptbook of spells and charms and other gipsy lore—to her daughter
Her one request was that she might be buried in the Callow under the yellow larch needles and not in a churchyard Abel Woodus did as she asked and was regarded askance by most of the community for not burying her in Chrissenground But this did not trouble him He had his harp still and while he had that he needed no other friend It had been his absorption in his music that had prevented him understanding his wife and in the early days of their marriage she had been wildly jealous of the tall gilt harp with its faded felt cover that stood in the corner of the livingroom Then her jealousy changed to love of it and her one desire was to be able to draw music from its plaintive strings She could never master even the rudiments of music but she would sit on rainy evenings when Abel was away and run her thin hands over the strings with a despairing passion of grieving love Yet she could not bear to hear Abel play Just as some childless women with all their accumulated stores of love cannot bear to see a mother with her child so Maray Woodus with her sealed genius her incapacity for expression could not bear to hear the easy selfexpression of another For Abel was in his way a master of his art he had dark places in his soul and that is the very core of art and its substance He had the lissom hands and cheerful selfabsorption that bring success
He had met Maray at an Eisteddfod that had been held in days gone by on a hill five miles from the Callow called Gods Little Mountain and crowned by a chapel She had listened swaying and weeping to the surge and lament of his harp and when he won the harpers prize and laid it in her lap she had consented to be married in the chapel at the end of the Eisteddfod week That was nineteen years ago and she was fled like the leaves and the birds of departed summers but Gods Little Mountain still towered as darkly to the eastward the wind still leapt sheer from the chapel to the young larches of the Callow nothing had changed at all only one more young anxious eager creature had come into the towering subluminous scheme of things Hazel had her mothers eyes strange fawncoloured eyes like water and in the large clear irises were tawny flecks In their shy honesty they were akin to the little foxs Her hair too of a richer colour than her fathers was tawny and foxlike and her ways were graceful and covert as a wild creatures
She stood in the lane above the cottage which nestled below with its roof on a level with the hedgeroots and watched the sun dip The red light from the west stained her torn old dress her thin face her eyes till she seemed to be dipped in blood The fox wistfulness in her expression and the consciousness of coming supper in her mind gazed obediently where her mistress gazed and was touched with the same fierce beauty They stood there fronting the crimson pools over the far hills two small sentient things facing destiny with pathetic courage they had in the chill evening on the lonely hill a look as of those predestined to grief almost an air of martyrdom
The small clouds that went westward took each in its turn the prevailing colour and vanished dipped in blood
From the cottage as Hazel went down the path came the faint thrumming of the harp changing as she reached the door to the air of The Ash Grove The cottage was very low onestoried and roofed with red corrugated iron The three small windows had frames coloured with washingblue and frills of crimson cotton within There seemed scarcely room for even Hazels small figure The house was little larger than a good pigsty and only the trail of smoke from its squat chimney showed that humanity dwelt there
Hazel gave Foxy her supper and put her to bed in the old washtub where she slept Then she went into the cottage with an armful of logs from the wood heap She threw them on the open fire
Im acold she said the rains cleared and therell be a ducks frost tonight
Abel looked up absently humming the air he intended to play next
I bin in the Callow and Ive gotten a primmyrose continued Hazel accustomed to his ways and not discouraged And I got a bit of blackthorn white as a lady
Abel was well on in Ap Jenkyn by now
Hazel moved about seeing to supper for she was as hungry as Foxy talking all the time in her rather shrilly sweet voice while she dumped the cracked cups and the loaf and margarine on the bare table The kettle was not boiling so she threw some bacongrease on the fire and a great tongue of flame sprang out and licked at Abels beard He raised a hand to it continuing to play with the other
Hazel laughed
You be fair comicstruck she said
She always spoke in this tone of easy comradeship they got on very well they were so entirely indifferent to each other There was nothing filial about her or parental about him Neither did they ever evince the least affection for each other
He struck up Its a fine hunting day
Oh shut thy row with that drodsome thing said Hazel with sudden passion Lookee I unna bide in if you go on
Ur queried Abel dreamily
Play summat else said Hazel not that I dunna like it
You be a queer girl Azel said Abel coming out of his abstraction But I dunna mind playing Why do the People instead its just as heartening
Canna you stop meddling wi the music and come to supper asked Hazel The harp was always called the music just as Abels mouthorgan was the little music
She reached down the flitch to cut some bacon off and her dress already torn ripped from shoulder to waist
If you dunna take needle to that youll be mothernaked afore a weeks out said Abel indifferently
I mun get a new un said Hazel It unna mend Ill go to town tomorrow
Shall you bide with yer auntie the night over
Ah
I shanna look for your face till I see your shadow then You can bring a tuthree wreathframes Theres old Samson at the Yeath unna last long theyll want a wreath made
Hazel sat and considered her new dress She never had a new one till the old one fell off her back and then she usually got a secondhand one as a shilling or two would buy only material if new but would stretch to a readymade if secondhand
Foxyd like me to get a green velvet said Hazel She always expressed her intense desires which were few in this formula It was her unconscious protest against the lovelessness of her life She put the blackthorn in water and contemplated its whiteness with delight but it had not occurred to her that she might herself with a little trouble be as sweet and fresh as its blossom The spiritualization of sex would be needed before such things would occur to her At present she was sexless as a leaf They sat by the fire till it went out then they went to bed not troubling to say goodnight
In the middle of the night Foxy woke The moon filled her kennelmouth like a door and the light shone in her eyes This frightened her—so large a lantern in an unseen hand held so purposefully before the tiny home of one defenceless little creature She barked sharply Hazel awoke promptly as a mother at her childs cry She ran straight out with her bare feet into the fierce moonlight
What ails you she whispered What ails you little un
The wind stalked through the Callow and the Callow moaned A moan came also from the plain and black shapes moved there as the clouds drove onwards
Maybe theyre out muttered Hazel Maybe the black meets set for tonight and shes scented the jeath pack She looked about nervously I can see summat driving dark oer the pastures yonder theym abroad surely
She hurried Foxy into the cottage and bolted the door
There she said Now you lie good and quiet in the corner and the death pack shanna get you
It was said that the death pack phantom hounds of a bad squire whose gross body had been long since put to sweeter uses than any he put it to in life—changed into the cleareyed daisy and the ardent pimpernel—scoured the country on dark stormy nights Harm was for the house past which it streamed death for those that heard it give tongue
This was the legend and Hazel believed it implicitly When she had found Foxy half dead outside her deserted earth she had been quite sure that it was the death pack that had made away with Foxys mother She connected it also with her own mothers death Hounds symbolized everything she hated everything that was not young wild and happy She identified herself with Foxy and so with all things hunted and snared and destroyed
Night shadow loud winds winter—these were inimical with these came the death pack stealthy and untiring following for ever the trail of the defenceless Sunlight soft airs bright colours kindness—these were beneficent havens to flee into Such was the essence of her creed the only creed she held and it lay darkly in her heart never expressed even to herself But when she ran into the night to comfort the little fox she was living up to her faith as few do when she gathered flowers and lay in the sun she was dwelling in a mystical atmosphere as vivid as that of the saints when she recoiled from cruelty she was trampling evil underfoot perhaps more surely than those great divines who destroyed one another in their zeal for their Maker
Chapter 2
At six the next morning they had breakfast Abel was busy making a hive for the next summers swarm When he made a coffin he always used up the bits thus A large coffin did not leave very much but sometimes there were small ones and then he made splendid hives The white township on the south side of the lilac hedge increased as slowly and unceasingly as the green township around the distant churchyard In summer the garden was loud with bees and the cottage was full of them at swarmingtime Later it was littered with honeysections honey dripped from the table and pieces of broken comb lay on the floor and were contentedly eaten by Foxy
Whenever an order for a coffin came Hazel went to tell the bees who was dead Her father thought this unnecessary It was only for folks that died in the house he said But he had himself told the bees when his wife died He had gone out on that vivid June morning to his hives and had stood watching the lines of bees fetching water their shadows going and coming on the clean white boards Then he had stooped and said with a curious confidential indifference Marays jead He had put his ear to the hive and listened to the deep solemn murmur within but it was the murmur of the future and not of the past the preoccupation with life not with death that filled the pale galleries within Today the eighteen hives lay under their winter covering and the eager creatures within slept Only one or two strayed sometimes to the early arabis desultory and sad driven home again by the frosty air to await the purple times of honey The happiest days of Abels life were those when he sat like a bard before the seething hives and harped to the muffled roar of sound that came from within
All his means of livelihood were joys to him He had the art of perpetual happiness in this that he could earn as much as he needed by doing the work he loved He played at flower shows and country dances revivals and weddings He sold his honey and sometimes his bees He delighted in wreathmaking gardening and carpentering and always in the background was his music—some new air to try on the gilded harp some new chord or turn to master The garden was almost big enough and quite beautiful enough for that of a mansion In the summer white lilies haunted it standing out in the dusk with their demure cajolery looking as Hazel said like ghosses Goldenrod foamed round the cottage deeply embowering it and lavender made a grey mist beside the red quarries of the path Then Hazel sat like a queen in a regalia of flowers eating the piece of bread and honey that made her dinner and covering her face with lily pollen
Now there were no flowers in the garden only the yewtree by the gate that hung her waxen blossom along the undersides of the branches Hazel hated the look of the frozen garden she had an almost unnaturally intense craving for everything rich vivid and vital She was all these things herself as she communed with Foxy before starting She had wound her hair round her head in a large plait and her old black hat made the colour richer
Youm nigh on thirty miles to go there and back unless you get a lift said Abel
A lift I dunna want never no lifts said Hazel scornfully
Youm as good a walker as John of No Mans Parish replied Abel and he walks for ever so they do say
As Hazel set forth in the sharp fresh morning the Callow shone with radiant brown and silver and no presage moved within it of the snow that would hurtle upon it from mountains of cloud all night
When Hazel had chosen her dress—a peacock blue serge—and had put it on there and then in the back of the shop curtained off for this purpose she went to her aunts
Her cousin Albert regarded her with a startled look He was in a margarine shop and spent his days explaining that Margarine was as good as butter But looking at Hazel he felt that here was butter—something that needed no apology and created its own demand The bright blue made her so radiant that her aunt shook her head
You take after your ma Azel she said Her tone was irritated
I be glad
Her aunt sniffed
You ought to be as glad to take after one parent as another if you were jutiful she said
I dunna want to take after anybody but myself Hazel flushed indignantly
Well we are conceited exclaimed her aunt Albert dont give Azel all the liver and bacon I spose your mother can eat as well as schoolgirls
Albert was gazing at Hazel so animatedly so obviously approving of all she said that her aunt was very much ruffled
No wonder you only want to be like yourself he said Jam my word
Hazel youre jam
Albert cried his mother raspingly with a pathetic note of pleading havent I always taught you to say preserve She was not pleading against the inelegant word but against Hazel
When Albert went back to the shop Hazel helped her aunt to wash up All the time she was doing this with unusual care and cleaning the knives—a thing she hated—she was waiting anxiously for the expected invitation to stay the night She longed for it as the righteous long for the damnation of their enemies She never paid a visit except here and to her it was a wild excitement The gasstove the pretty china the rosepatterned wallpaper were all strange and marvellous as a fairytale At home there was no paper no lath and plaster only the bare bricks and the ceiling was of bulging sailcloth hung under the rafters
Now to all these was added the new delight of Alberts admiring gaze—an alert live gaze a thing hitherto unknown to Albert Perhaps if she stayed Albert would take her out for the evening She would see the streets of the town in the magic of lights She would walk out in her new dress with a real young man—a young man who possessed a gilt watchchain The suspense as the wintry afternoon drew in became almost intolerable Still her aunt did not speak The sittingroom looked so cosy when tea was laid the firelight played over the cups her aunt drew the curtains On one side there was joy warmth—all that she could desire on the other a forlorn walk in the dark She had left it until so late that her heart shook at the idea of the many miles she must cover alone if her aunt did not ask her
Her aunt knew what was going on in Hazels mind and smiled grimly at Hazels unusual meekness She took the opportunity of administering a few hometruths
You look like an actress she said
Do I auntie
Yes Its a disgrace the way you look You quite draw mens eyes
Its nice to draw mens eyes inna it auntie
Nice Hazel I should like to box your ears You naughty girl Youll go wrong one of these days
What for will I auntie
Some day youll get spoke to She said the last words in a hollow whisper And after that as you wont say and do what a good girl would youll get picked up
Id like to see anyone pick me up said Hazel indignantly Id kick
Oh how unladylike I didnt mean really picked up I meant allegorically—like in the Bible
Oh only like in the Bible said Hazel disappointedly I thought you meant summat real
Oh Youll bring down my grey hairs wailed Mrs Prowde
An actress was bad but an infidel That I should live to hear it—in my own villa with my own soda cake on the cakedish—and my own son she added dramatically as Albert entered coming in to have his Godfearing heart broken
This embarrassed Albert for it was true though the cause assigned was not
Whats Hazel been up to he queried
The affection beneath his heavy pleasantry strengthened his mother in her resolve that Hazel should not stay the night
Theres a magiclantern lecture on tonight Hazel he said Like to come
Ah I should that
You cant walk home at that time of night said Mrs Prowde In fact you ought to start now
But Hazels staying the night mother surely
Hazel must get back to her father
But mother theres the spareroom
The sparerooms being springcleaned
Albert plunged he was desperate and forgetful of propriety
I can sleep on this sofa he said She can have my room
Hazel cant have your room Its not suitable
Well let her share yours then
Mrs Prowde played her trumpcard Little I thought she said when your dear father went that before three years had passed youd be so forgetful of my comfort and his memory as to suggest such a thing As long as I live my rooms mine When Im gone she concluded knocking down her adversary with her superior weight of years—when Im gone and the sooner the better for you no doubt you can put her in my room and yourself too
When she had said this she was horrified at herself What an improper thing to say Even anger and jealousy did not excuse impropriety though they excused any amount of unkindness
But at this Hazel cried out in her turn
That he never will The fierce egoism of the consciously weak flamed up in her I keep myself to myself she finished
If such things come to pass mother Albert said and his eyes looked suddenly vivid so that Hazel clapped her hands and said Yer lamps are lit Yer lamps are lit and broke into peals of laughter If such a thing comes to pass laboured Albert theyll come decent that is they wont be spoken of
He voiced his own and his mothers creed
At this point the argument ended because Albert had to go back after tea to finish some work As he stamped innumerable swans on the yielding material he never doubted that his mother had also yielded He forgot that life had to be shaped with an axe till the chips fly
As soon as he had gone Mrs Prowde shut the door on Hazel hastily for fear the weather might bring relenting She had other views for Albert In after years when the consequences of her action had become things of the past she always spoke of how she had done her best with Hazel She never dreamed that she by her selfishness that night had herself set Hazels feet in the dark and winding path that she must tread from that night onward to its hidden shadowy ending Mrs Prowde through her many contented years blamed in turn Hazel Abel Albert the devil and only tacitly and as it were in secret from herself God If there is any purgatorial fire of remorse for the hard and selfish natures that crucify love it must burn elsewhere It does not touch them in this world They go as the three children went in their coats their hosen and their hats all complete nor does the smell of fire pass over them
Hazel felt that heaven was closed—locked and barred She could see the golden light stream through its gates She could hear the songs of joy—joy unattained and therefore immortal she could see the bright figures of her dreams go to and fro But heaven was shut
The wind ran up and down the narrow streets like a lost dog whimpering Hazel hurried on for it was already twilight and though she was not afraid of the Callow and the fields at night she was afraid of the high roads For the Callow was home but the roads were the wide world On the fringe of the town she saw lights in the bedroom windows of prosperous houses
My they go to their beds early she thought not having heard of dressing for dinner It made her feel more lonely that people should be going to bed From other houses music floated or the savoury smell of dinner As she passed the last lamppost she began to cry feeling like a lost and helpless little animal Her new dress was forgotten the wreathframes would not fit under her arm and caused a continual minor discomfort and the Callow seemed to be half across the country She heard a trapped rabbit screaming somewhere a thin anguished cry that she could not ignore This delayed her a good deal and in letting it out she got a large bloodstain on her dress She cried again at this The pain of a blister unnoticed in the morning journey now made itself felt she tried walking without her boots but the ground was cold and hard
The icy driving wind leapt across the plain like a horseman with a long sword and stealthily in its track came the melancholy whisper of snow
When this began Hazel was in the open halfway to Wolfbatch She sat down on the step of a stile and sighed with relief at the ease it gave her foot Then far off she heard the sharp miniature sound very neat and staccato of a horse galloping She held her breath to hear if it would turn down a byroad but it came on It came on and grew in volume and in meaning became almost ominous in the frozen silence Hazel rose and stood in the fitful moonlight She felt that the approaching hoofbeats were for her They were the one sound in a dead world and she nearly cried out at the thought of their dying in the distance They must not they should not
Maybe its a farmer and his missus as have drove a good bargain and the girl told to get supper firehot agen they come Maybe theyll give me a lift Maybe theyll say Bide the night over
She knew it was only a foolish dream nevertheless she stood well in the light a slim browbeaten figure the colour of her dress wan in the grey world
A trap came swaying round the corner Hazel cried out beseechingly and the driver pulled the horse up short
I must be blind drunk he soliloquized seeing ghosts
Oh please sir Hazel could say no more for the tears that companionship unfroze
The man peered at her
What in hell are you doing here he asked
Walking homealong She wouldna let me bide the night over And my foots blistered in a balloon and blood on my dress She choked with sobs
Whats your name
Hazel
What else
With an instinct of self-protection she refused to tell her surname
Well mines Reddin he said crossly and why youre so dark about yours I dont know but up you get anyway
The sun came out in Hazels face He helped her up she was so stiff with cold
Your arm she said in a low tremulous voice when he had put the rug round her—your arm pulling me in be like the Sundayschool tale of Jesus Christ and Peter on the wild sea—me being Peter
Reddin looked at her sideways to see if she was in earnest Seeing that she was he changed the subject
Far to go he asked
Ah miles on miles
Like to stop the night over
At last late certainly but no matter at last the invitation had come not from her aunt but from a stranger That made it more exciting
Im much obleeged he said Where at
Dyou know Undern
Ive heard tell on it
Well its two miles from here Like to come
Ah Will your mother be angry
I havent one
Father
No
Who be there then
Only Vessons and me
Whos Vessons
My servant
Be you a gentleman then
Reddin hesitated slightly She said it with such reverence and made it seem so great a thing
Yes he said at last Yes thats what I am—a gentleman He was conscious of bravado
Will there be supper firehot
Yes if Vessons is in a good temper
Where you bin she asked next
Market
Youve had about as much as is good for you she remarked as if thinking aloud
He certainly smelt strongly of whisky
Youve got a cheek said he Lets look at you
He stared into her tired but vivid eyes for a long time and the trap careered from side to side
My word he said Im in luck tonight
What for be you
Meeting a girl like you
Do I draw mens eyes
Eh He was startled Then he guffawed Yes he replied
She said so Hazel murmured And she said Id get spoke to and she said Id get puck up Im main glad of it too Shes a witch
She said youd get picked up did she
Ah
Reddin put his arm round her
Youre so pretty Thats why
Dunna maul me
You might be civil Im doing you a kindness
They went on in that fashion his arm about her each wondering what manner of companion the other was
When they neared Undern there were gates to open and he admired her litheness as she jumped in and out
In his pastures where the deeply rutted track was already white with snow two foals stood sadly by their mothers gazing at the cold world with their peculiarly disconsolate eyes
Eh looks the abron un Abron like me cried Hazel
Reddin suddenly gripped the long coils that were loose on her shoulders twisted them in a rope round his neck and kissed her She was enmeshed and could not avoid his kisses
The cob took this opportunity—one long desired—to rear and Reddin flogged him the rest of the way So they arrived with a clatter and were met at the door by Andrew Vessons—knowing of eye as a blackbird straw in mouth the poison of asps on his tongue
Chapter 3
Undern Hall with its many smallpaned windows faced the north sullenly It was a place of which the influence and magic were not good Even in May when the lilacs frothed into purple paved the lawn with shadows steeped the air with scent when soft leaves lipped each other consolingly when blackbirds sang fell in their effortless way from the green height to the green depth and sang again—still something that haunted the place set the heart fluttering No place is its own, and that which is most stained with old tumults has the strongest fascination
So at Undern whatever had happened there went on still someone who had been there was there still The lawns under the trees were mournful with old pain or with vanished joys more pathetic than pain in their fleeting mimicry of immortality
It was only at midsummer that the windows were coloured by dawn and sunset then they had a sanguinary aspect staring into the delicate skyey dramas like blind bloodshot eyes Secretly under the heavy rhododendron leaves and in the furtive sunlight beneath the yewtrees gnats danced Their faint motions made the garden stiller their smallness made it oppressive their momentary life made it infinitely old Then Undern Pool was full of leaf shadows like multitudinous lolling tongues and the smell of the mud tainted the air—half sickly half sweet The clipped bushes and the twisted chimneys made inky shadows like steeples on the grass and great trees of roses beautiful in desolation dripped with red and white and elbowed the guelder roses and the elders set with white patens Cherries fell in the orchard with the same rich monotony the same fatality as drops of blood They lay under the fungusriven trees till the hens ate them pecking gingerly and enjoyably at their lustrous beauty as the world does at a poets heart In the kitchengarden also the hens took their ease banqueting sparely beneath the straggling black boughs of a redcurrant grove In the sandstone walls of this garden hornets built undisturbed and the thyme and lavender borders had grown into forests and obliterated the path The cattle drowsed in the meadows birds in the heavy trees the golden daylilies drooped like the daughters of pleasure the very principle of life seemed to slumber It was then when the scent of elder blossom decaying fruit mud and hot yew brooded there that the place attained one of its most individual moods—narcotic aphrodisiac
In winter the yews and firs were like waving funeral plumes and mantled headless goddesses then the giant beeches would lash themselves to frenzy and stooping would scourge the ice on Undern Pool and the cracked walls of the house like beings drunken with the passion of cruelty This was the second mood of Undern—brutality Then those within were it seemed already in the grave heavily covered with the prison of frost and snow or shouted into silence by the wind On a January night the house seemed to lie outside time and space slow ominous movement began beyond the blind windows and the inflexible softness of snow blurred on the vast background of night buried summer ever deeper with invincible caressing threats
The front door was half glass so that a wandering candle within could be seen from outside and it looked inexpressibly forlorn like a glowworm seeking escape from a chloroformbox or mankind looking for the way to heaven Only four windows were ever lit and of these two at a time They were Jack Reddins parlour Andrew Vessons kitchen and their respective bedrooms
Reddin of Undern cared as little for the graciousness of life as he did for its pitiful rhapsodies its purplemantled tragedies He had no time for such trivialities Foxhunting horsebreeding and kennel lore were his vocation He rode straight lived hard exercised such creative faculties as he had on his work and found it very good Three times a year he stated in the Undern pew at Wolfbatch that he intended to continue leading a godly righteous and sober life At these times with amber lights from the windows playing over his wellshaped head his rather heavy face looked as the Miss Clombers from Wolfbatch Hall said so chivalrous so uplifted The Miss Clombers purred when they talked like cats with a mouse The younger still hunted painfully compressing an overfed body into a ridinghabit of some forgotten cut and riding with so grim a mouth and such a bloodthirsty expression that she might have had a bloodfeud with all foxes Perhaps when she rode down the anxious redbrown streak she thought she was riding down a cruel fate that had somehow left her life vacant of joy perhaps when the little creature was torn piecemeal she imagined herself tearing so the frail unconquerable powers of love and beauty Anyway she never missed a meet and she and her sister never ceased their long silent battle for Reddin who remained as unconscious of them as if they were his aunts He was of course beneath them very much beneath them—hardly more than a farmer but still—a man
Reddin went on his dubious and discreditable way and the woman Sally Haggard of the cottage in the hollow gained by virtue of a certain harsh beauty what the ladies Clomber would have given all their wealth for
The other inhabitant of Undern Andrew revolved in his own orbit and was entirely unknown to his master He cut the yews—the peacocks and the clipped round trees and the ones like tables—twice a year He was creating a swan He had spent twenty years on it and hoped to complete it in a few more when the twigs that were to be the beak had grown sufficiently It never occurred to him that the place was not his that he might have to leave it He had his spring work and his autumn work in the winter he ordained various small indoor jobs for himself and in the summer in common with the rest of the place he grew somnolent He sat by the hacked and stained kitchentable which he seldom scrubbed and on which he tried his knife sawed bones and chopped meat and slept the afternoons away in the ceaseless drone of flies
When Reddin called him he rarely answered and only deigned to go to him when he felt sure that his order was going to be reasonable
Everything he said was noncommittal every movement was expostulatory Reddin never noticed Vessons suited his needs and he always had such meals as he liked Vessons was a bachelor Monasticism had found in a countryside teeming with sex one silent but rabid disciple If Vessons ever felt the irony of his own presence in a breeding stable he never said so He went about his work with tight disapproving lips as if he thought that Nature owed him a debt of gratitude for his tolerance of her ways Ruminative and critical he went to and fro in the darkly lovely domain with pig buckets or ash buckets or barrows full of manure The lines of his face were always etched in dirt and he always had a bit of rag tied round some cut or blister He was a lonely soul as he once said himself when unusually mellow at the Hunters Arms he was wiout mother wiout father wiout descent He preferred it to the ties of family He liked living with Reddin because they never spoke except of necessity and because he was quite indifferent to Reddins welfare and Reddin to his
But to Undern itself he was not indifferent Ties deep as the tangled roots of the bindweed strong as the great hawsers of the beeches that reached below the mud of Undern Pool held him to it the bondslave of a beauty he could not understand a terror he could not express When he trudged the muddy paths setting taters or earthing up when he scythed the lawn looking with a rose in his hat weirder and more ridiculous than ever and when he shook the apples down with a kind of sour humour as if to say There thats what you trees get by having apples—at all these times he seemed less an individual than a blind force For though his personality was strong that of the place was stronger Half out of the soil minded like the dormouse and the beetle he was by virtue of his unspoken passion the protoplasm of a poet
Chapter 4
Vessons took up the pose of one seeing a new patient
This young ladys lost her way Reddin remarked
She as Gods truth But youll find it forra I make no doubt sir Theres a way he looked ironically at the poultrybasket behind the trap from which peered anxious beaky faces—a way as no fowl knoweth the way of a man with a maid
Fetch the brood mares in from the lower pasture They should have been in this hour
And late loves worse than lads love so they do say concluded
Vessons
Theres nothing of love between us Reddin snapped
I dunna wonder at it Andrew cast an appraising look at his masters flushed face and at Hazels tousled hair and withdrew
Hazel went into the elaborately carved porch She looked round the brown hall where deep shadows lurked Oak chests and carved chairs all more or less dusty stood about looking as if disorderly feasters had just left them In one corner was an inlaid sideboard piano
Hazel did not notice the grey dust and the hearth full of matches and cigarette ends She only saw what seemed to her fabulous splendour A foxhound rose from the motheaten leopardskin by the hearth as they came in Hazel stiffened
I cannadabear the hounddogs she said Nasty snabbing things
Best dogs going
No they kills the poor foxes
Vermin
Hazels face became tense She clenched her hands and advanced a determined chin
Keep yer tongue off our Foxy or I unna stay she said
Whos Foxy
My little small cub as I took and reared
Oh you reared it did you
Ah She didna like having no mam Im her mam now
Reddin had been looking at her as thoughtfully as his rather maudlin state allowed
He had decided that she should stay at Undern and be his mistress
Youll be wanting something better than foxes to be mothering one of these days he remarked to the fire with a half embarrassed half jocose air and a hand on the poker
Eh said Hazel who was wondering how long it would take her to learn to play the music in the corner
Reddin was annoyed When one made these arch speeches at such cost of imagination they should be received properly
He got up and went across to Hazel who had played three consecutive notes and was gleeful He put his hand on hers heavily and a discord was wrung from the softtoned notes that had perhaps known other such discords long ago
Laws what a din said Hazel What for dyou do that Mr Reddin
Reddin found it harder than ever to repeat his remark and dropped it
Whats that brown on your dress he asked instead
That Oh thats from a rabbit as I loosed outn a trap It bled awful
Little sneak to let it out
Sneaks trick to catchen un so tiny and all replied Hazel composedly
Well youd better change your dress its very wet and theres plenty here said he going to a chest and pulling out an armful of oldfashioned gowns If you lived at Undern you could wear them every day
If ifs were beans and bacon theres fewd go clemmed said Hazel That green uns proper like when the leaves come new and little small roses and all
Put it on while I see what Vessons is doing
Hes grumbling in the kitchen seemingly said Hazel
Vessons always grumbled His mood could be judged only by the piano or forte effects
Hazel heard him reply to Reddin
No Supper binna ready Ive only just put im on
He always spoke of all phases of his days work in the masculine gender
Hazel stopped buttoning her dress to hear what Reddin was saying
Have you some hot water for the lady The lady Thats me she thought
No sir I anna Nor yet I anna got no myrrh aloes nor cassher Theres nought in my kitchen but a wold useless cat and an oerdruv man of sixandsixty a pot of victuals not yet simmering and a gentleman as ought to know better than to bring a girl to Undern and ruin her—a poor innocent little creature
Me again said Hazel She pondered on the remark and flushed Maybe Id best go she thought Yet only vague instinct stirred her to this and all her soul was set on staying
Never shall it be said—Andrews voice rose like a preachers—never shall it be said as a young female found no friend in Andrew Vessons never shall it be said—his voice soared over various annoyed exclamations of Reddins—as a female went from this all different from what she came
Shut up Vessons
But Vessons was as he would have phrased it himself in full honeyflow and not to be silenced
Single she be and single shed ought to stay This ere rubbitch of kissing and clipping
But Vessons if there were no children gotten the worldd be empty
Let un be Im abovell get a bit of rest nights from their sins
Eh I like that old chap thought Hazel
The wrangle continued It was the deathless quarrel of the world and the monastery—natural man and the hermit Finally Vessons concluded on a top note
Well if you take this girls good name offn her—
Suddenly something happened in Hazels brain It was the realization of life in relation to self. It marks the end of childhood She no more saw herself throned above life and fate as a child does She saw that she was a part of it all she was mutable and mortal
She had seen life go on had heard of funerals courtings confinements and weddings in their conventional order—or reversed—and she had remained as it were intact She had starved and slaved and woven superstitions loved Foxy and tolerated her father
Girl friends had hinted of a wild revelry that went on somewhere— everywhere—calling like a hidden merrygoround to any who cared to hear But she had not heard They had let fall such sentences as He got the better of me I cried out and he thought someone was coming and he let me go Later she heard And I thought Id neer get through it when baby came
She felt vaguely sorry for these girls but she realized nothing of their life Nor did she associate funerals and illness with herself
As the convolvulus stands in apparent changelessness in a silent roseandwhite eternity so she seemed to herself a stationary being But the convolvulus has budded and bloomed and closed again while you thought her still and she dies—the rayed and rosy cup so full of airy sweetness—she dies in a day
Hazel got up from her chair by the fire and went restlessly with a rustle as of innumerable autumn leaves to the hall door She gazed through the glass and saw the sad featherflights of snow wandering and hesitating and finally coming to earth They held to their individuality as flakes as long as they could it seemed but the end came to all and they were merged in earth and their own multitudes
Hazel opened the door and stood on the threshold so that snowflakes flattened themselves on the yellow roses of her dress Outside there was no world only a waste of grey and white Like leaves on a dead bird the wrappings of white grew deeper over Undern Hazel shivered in the cold wind off the hill and saw Undern Pool curdling and thickening in the frost No sound came across the outspread country There were no roads near Undern except its own cart track there were no railways within miles Nothing moved except the snowflakes fulfilling their relentless destiny of negation She saw them only and heard only the raised voices in the house arguing about herself
I mun go she said strong in her spirit of freedom remote and withdrawn
I mun stay she amended weak in her undefended smallness and very tired She turned back to the fire But the instinct that had awakened as childhood died clamoured within her and would not let her rest
She softly took off the silk dress and put on her own
She picked up the wreathframes with a sigh and opened the door again She would have a long wild walk home but she could creep in through her bedroom window which would not latch and she could make a great fire of dry broom and brew some tea
And Ill let Foxy in and eat a loaf I will for Im clemmed she said
She slipped out through the door that had seen so many human lives come and go Even as she went the door betrayed her for Reddin coming from the kitchen saw her through the upper panes
Chapter 5
I be going homealong she said but he pulled her in and shut the door
Why did you want to go
Im alost in this grand place
Your hairs grander than anything in the place And your eyes are like sherry
Truth on your life
Yes Now youd better change your dress again
He reached down an old silver candlestick very tarnished
You can go upstairs Theres a glass in the first room you come to
Then well have supper
Sitting at the supper in a grand shining gown wi roses on it said Hazel ecstatically her voice rising to a kind of chant with a white cloth on table like schooltreat and the old servant hopping to and agen like thrussels after worms
Thrussel yourself muttered Andrew peering in at the door He retired again remarking to the cat in a sour lugubrious voice as he always did when ruffled Theres no cats i the Bible He began to sing By the waters of Babylon
Upstairs Hazel coiled her hair running her fingers through its bright lengths as she had no comb and turning in her underbodice to make it suit the low dress Outside his rough hair wet with snow stood Reddin watching her from the vantageground of the darkness He saw her stand with head erect and bare white shoulders smiling at herself in the glass He saw her slip into the rich gown and pose delightedly mincing to and fro like a wagtail He noted her lissom figure and shining coils of hair
Shell do he said and did not wonder whether he would do himself Then he gave a smothered exclamation She had opened the window pushing the snowy ivy aside and she leant out her breast under its folds of silk resting on the snow
She looked over his head into the immensity of night
Dunna let un take my good name for the old feller says Id ought to keep it she said And let me get back to Foxy quick in the morning light and no harm come to us for ever and ever
The night received her prayer in silence Whether or not any heard but
Reddin none could say
Reddin tiptoed into the house rather downcast This was a strange creature that he had caught
Vessons was still at the waters of Babylon when Hazel came down
Why canna he get beyond them five words asked Hazel He allus stops and goes back like a dog on a chain She sang it through in her high clear voice There was silence in the kitchen
Reddin stared at Hazel
Who taught you to sing he asked
Father Hes wonderful with the music is father Hazel found that in the presence of strangers her feeling for her father was almost warm Playing the harp nights he makes your flesh creep ah and he makes the place all on a charm like the spinneys in May month And he says Sing says he and I ups and sings and whiles I dont never know what I bin singing
That I can well believe said Vessons
Reddin swung round
What the devil are you doing here he asked
Ive come to say—Vessons tone was dry—as suppers burnt
Burnt
Ah to a cinder
How did you do that you fool
Harkening at the lady teaching me to sing
Reddin was furious He knew why supper was burnt
Get out he said Get out into the stable and stay there Ill get supper myself
Vessons withdrew composedly Since Hazel had offended him he had decided that she must take care of herself
Couldna he bide in the house asked Hazel uneasily
No
They fetched in bread and beer and cold meat Her host was jubilant and during supper quite deferential He had been awed by Hazels request to the night and by her beauty But when his hunger was satisfied his voice grew louder and his eyes sultry
Restraint fell between them Looking at his face Hazel again had an impulse for flight When he said I want to stroke that silk dress and came towards her knocking the candle over as if by accident she edged away saying sharply
Dunna maul me
He paid no attention
Ill do right by you he said I swear I will Ill—yes Ill even marry you tomorrow But tonights mine
It was not a question of marrying or not marrying in Hazels eyes It was a matter of primitive instinct She would be her own
He had pulled the low dress off one shoulder She twitched it out of his hand and slipped from his grasp like a fish from a net He was too surprised to follow at once
Old feller she called running into the yard quick quick A rough grey head appeared
What after the old un
I wunna stay along of him
Vessons looked at her interestedly Apparently she also was a devotee of his religion—celibacy one who dared to go against the explicit decrees of nature.
I think the better of you he said So hes had his trouble for nothing he chuckled You can have my room You shanna say Andrew Vessons inna a man of charitable nature Never shall you Theres a key to it
He led the way to his room through the back door and up the kitchen stairs
Most people would have suffered anything rather than sleep in the room he revealed when he proudly flung the door open He had the recluses love of little possessions and daily comforts
On an upturned box by the bed were his clay pipe matches a treacletin containing whisky and some chickenbones He usually kept a few bones to pick at his ease A goldfinch with a harassed air occupied a wooden cage in the window and the mantelpiece was fitted up with white mice in homemade cages It seemed quite a pleasant room to Hazel
Mind as youre very careful of all my things said Vessons wistfully I hanna slep away from this room for nigh twenty year That birds neer slep without me Hell miss me He unna sing for anybody else He always asserted this and the bird always belied it by singing to Reddin and any chance visitor But Vessons continued to believe it There are some things that it is necessary to believe doubt of them means despair
Vessons was conscious that he was being generous
You can drink a sup of whisky if you like he said Now Im going afore that bird notices or I shall never get away
The bird sat in preoccupied silence He was probably thinking of the woods and seeded dandelions He was of the fellowship to which comfort means little and freedom much So was Hazel
Lock the door Vessons said in a sepulchral whisper from the stairs
Hazel did so and curled up to sleep in the creaking house thoughtless as the white mice defenceless as they as little grateful to Vessons for his protection and in as deep an ignorance of what the world could do to her if it chose
Chapter 6
Early next morning while the finch still dreamed its heavy dream and the mice were still motionless balls Hazel was awakened by a knock at the massive oak door She ran across and opened it a crack peering out from amid her hair like a squirrel from autumn leaves
Vessons stood there with a pint mug of beer which he proffered But
Hazel had a womans craving for tea
If so be the kettles boiling she said apologetically
Tay said Vessons Laws how furiously the women do rage after tay
I spose its me as is to make it
If kettles boiling
Kettle O course kettles boiling this hour past Or how would the caves get their meal
Well you needna shout Youll wake im
Fright was in her eyes strong and inexplicable to herself
I mun go she whispered
Ah You go said Vessons glad that for once duty and inclination went hand in hand
Ill send you he added Where dyer live
She hesitated
You needna be frit to tell me said Vessons Im sixandsixty and youre no more to me—he surveyed her flushing face contemplatively—than the wold useless cat he concluded
Hazel frowned but she wanted a promise from Vessons so she made no retort
You wunna tell im she pleaded
Im Never will I Wild orses shanna drag it from me nor yet blood orses nor unters nor cartorses nor Suffolk punches Vessons waxed eloquent for again righteousness and desire coincided He did not want a woman at Undern
Well said Hazel whispering through the crack I lives at the
Callow
What that lost and forgotten place tother side the Mountain
Ah But it inna lost and forgotten its bettern this Weve got bees
Sove I got bees
And a music
Music Whats a music You canna eat it
And my dad makes coffins
Does e now said Vessons interested at last Then he bethought him of the credit of Undern But you anna got a mulberrytree he said triumphantly Now then I ave
He creaked downstairs
In a few moments Hazel also went down and drank her tea by the red fire in the kitchen watching the frostflowers being softly effaced from the window as if someone rubbed them away with a sponge Snow like sifted sugar was heaped on the sill and the yard and outbuildings and fields the pools and the ricks all had the dim radiance of antimony
Where be the road asked Hazel standing on the doorstep and feeling rather lost Howll I find it
You wunna find it
Oh but I mun
Dyou think Andrew Vessonsll let an ooman trapse in the snow when hes got good horses in stable queried Vessons grandly Ill drive yer
Im much obleeged Im sure said Hazel But wunna he know
Hell sleep till noon if I let im said Andrew
They drove off in silence the snow muffling the plunging hoofs Hazel looked back as the sky crimsoned for dawn The house fronted her with a look of power and patience She felt that it had not yet done with her She wondered how she would feel if Reddin suddenly appeared at his window And a tiny traitorous wish slipped up from somewhere in her heart She watched the windows till a turn hid the house and then she sighed Almost she wished that Reddin had awakened
But she soon forgot everything in delight for the snow shone the long slots of the rabbits and hares the birds tracks in orderly rows the deep footprints of sheep all made her laugh by their vagaries for they ran in loops and in circles and appeared like the crazy steps of a sleepwalker to those who had not the key of their activity Hazels own doings were like that everyones doings are like it if one sees the doings without the motive
Plovers wheeled and cried desolately seeing the soft relentless snow between themselves and their green meadows sad as those that see fate drawing thick veils between themselves and the meadows of their hope and joy
At the foot of the Callow Hazel got out
Never tell him she said looking up
Never in life said Vessons
Hazel hesitated
Never tell him she added unless he asks a deal and canna rest
He may ask till Doomsday said Vessons and he may be restless as the ten thousand ghosses that trapse round Undern when the moons low but Ill neer tell im
Hazel sighed and turned to climb the hill
A missus at Undern said Andrew to the cobs ears as they trotted home No never will I
A magpie rose from a wood near the road jibing at him He looked round almost as if it had been someone laughing at his resolve and repeated Never will I
Wheres Hazel asked Reddin
Neither wild orses nor blood orses nor race orses nor cart orses nor Suffolk punches— began Vessons whose style was cumulative and who when he had made a good phrase was apt to work it to death like any other artist Oh youre drunk Vessons said his master
Shall drag it from me finished Vessons
Reddin knew this was true and felt rather hopeless Still he determined not to give up the search until he had found Hazel
He inquired at the Hunters Arms but Vessons had been there before him and he was met by pleasant stupidity
Vessons was of the people Reddin of the aristocracy so the frequenters of the Hunters Arms sided as one man against Reddin
Youll not get another bite of that apple said Vessons with satisfaction when his master returned with downcast face
I cant stand your manners much longer Vessons said he irritably
Gie me notice then said Vessons falling back on the wellworn formula and scoring his usual triumph
Reddin had the faults of his class but turning an old servant adrift was not one of them Vessons traded on this and invariably said and did exactly what he liked
Chapter 7
When Hazel got in her father had finished his breakfast and was busy at work
Brought the wreathframes he asked without looking up
Ah
Hes jead at last At the turn of the night They came after the coffin but now Ill be able to get them there new section crates I wanted Hes doing more for me wanting a coffin and him stiff and cold than what he did in the heat of life
Many folks be like that said Hazel out of her new wisdom Neither of them reflected that Abel had always been like that towards Hazel that she was becoming more like it to him every year
Abel made no remark at all about Hazels adventures and she preserved a discreet silence
That little vixens took a chicken said Abel after a time thats the second
She only does it when Im away being clemmed said Hazel pleadingly
Well if she does it again Abel announced its the water and a stone round her neck So now you know
You durstnt
Well see if I durst
Hazel fled in tears to the unrepentant and dignified Foxy Some of us find it hard enough to be dignified when we have done right but Foxy could be dignified when she had done wrong and the more wrong the more dignity
She was very bland and there was a look of deep content—digestive content a state bordering on the mystics trance—in her affectionate topaz eyes
It had been a tender and nourishing chicken the hours she had spent in gnawing through her rope had been well repaid
Oh you darlin wicked little thing wailed Hazel You munna do it
Foxy or hell drown you dead What for did you do it Foxy my dear
Foxys eyes became more eloquent and more liquid
You gallus little blessed said Hazel again Eh I wish you and me could live all alone by our lonesome where there was no men and women
Foxy shut her eyes and yawned evidently feeling doubtful if such a halcyon place existed in the world
Hazel sat on her heels and thought It was flight or Foxy She knew that if she did not take Foxy away her renewed naughtiness was as certain as sunset
You was made bad she said sadly but sympathetically Leastways you wasnt made like watchdogs and housecats and cows You was made a fox and you be a fox and its queerlike to me Foxy as folk canna see that They expect you to be what you wanna made to be Youm made to be a fox and when youm busy being a fox they say youm a sinner
Having wrestled with philosophy until Foxy yawned again Hazel went in to try her proposition on Abel But Abel met it as the world in general usually meets a new truth
She took the chick he said Now would a tarrier do that—a welltrained tarrier I says e would not
But it inna fair to make the same law for foxes and terriers
I make what laws suit me said Abel And what goes agen me—gets drownded
But it inna all for you cried Hazel
Eh
The world wunna made in seven days only for Abel Woodus said Hazel daringly
Youve come back very peart from Silverton said Abel reflectively— very peart you ave How many young fellers told you your air was abron this time That fool Albert said so last time and you were neither to hold nor to bind Abron Carrots
But it was not as he thought this climax that silenced Hazel It was the lucky hit about the young fellows and the reminiscence called up by the word abron He continued his advantage mollified by victory
Tell you what it is Azel its time you was married Youre too uppish
I shall neer get married
Words words Youll take the first as comes—if theres ever such a fool
Hazel wished she could tell him that one had asked her and that no labouring man But discretion triumphed
Maybe she said tossing her head I will marry to get away from the Callow
Well well things couldna be dirtier maybe theyll be cleaner when youm gone Looks the floor
Hazel fell into a rage He was always saying things about the floor
She hated the floor
I swear Ill wed the first as comes she cried—the very first
And last put in Abel Whatll you swear by
By Gods Little Mountain
Well said Abel contentedly now youve sworn that oath youre bound to keep it and so now I know that if ever an usband does come forrard you canna play the fool
Hazel was too wrathful for consideration
You look right tidy in that gownd Abel said I spose youll be wearing it to the meeting up at the Mountain
What meeting
Didna I tell you Id promised you for it—to sing Theym after me to take the music and play
Hazel forgot everything in delight
Be we going for certain sure she asked
Ah Next Monday three weeks
We mun practise
They say that ministers a great one for the music One of them sort as is that musical he canna play Therell be a tea
Eh said Hazel itll be grand to be in a gentlemans house agen
Whenve you bin in a gentlemans house
Hazel was taken aback
Yesterday she flashed If Albert inna a gent I dunno who is for hes got a watchchain brassmockingold all across his wescoat
Abel roared Then he fell to in earnest on the coffin whistling like a blackbird Hazel sat down and watched him resting her cheek on her hand The cold snowlight struck on her face wanly
Dunna you ever think making coffins for poor souls to rest in as inna tired as theres a tree growing somewhere for yours she asked
Laws Whats took you Measles What for should I think of me coffin Thats about the only thing as Ill neer be bound to pay for He laughed What ails you
Nought Only last night it came oer me as Ill die as well as others
Well have you only just found that out Laws what a queen of fools you be
Hazel looked at the narrow box and thought of the active angular old man for whom it was now considered an ample house
It seems like the worlds a big springtrap and us in it she said slowly Then she sprang up feverishly Lets practise till were as hoarse as a young rook she cried
So amid the hammering their voices sprang up like two keen flames Then Abel threw away the hammer and began to harp madly till the little shanty throbbed with the sound of the wires and the lament of the voices that rose and fell with artless cunning The cottage was like a tree full of thrushes
After their twelve oclock dinner Abel cut holly for the wreaths and Hazel began to make them For the first time home seemed dull She thought wistfully of the green silk dress and the supper in the old stately room She thought of Vessons and of Reddins eyes as he pulled her back from the door She thought of Undern as a refuge for Foxy
Maybe sometime Ill go and see em she thought
She went to the door and looked out Frost tingled in the air icicles had formed round the waterbutt the strange humming stillness of intense cold was about her It froze her desire for adventure
Ill stay as I be she thought I wunna be hisn
To her Reddin was a terror and a fascination She returned to the prickly wreath sewing on the variegated hollyleaves one by one with clusters of berries at intervals
What goodll it do im she asked he canna see it
Who wants him to see it Abel was amused When his father died he ad his enjoyment—proud as proud was Samson for there were seven wreaths no less
Hazels thoughts returned to the coming festivity Her hair and her peacockblue dress would be admired To be admired was a wonderful new sensation She fetched a cloth and rubbed at the brown mark It would not come out As long as she wore the dress it would be there like the stigma of pain that all creatures bear as long as they wear the garment of the flesh
At last she burst into tears
I want another dress with no blood on it she wailed And so wailing she voiced the deep lament old as the moan of forests and falling water that goes up through the centuries to the aloof and silent sky and remains as ever unassuaged
Hazel hated a burying for then she had to go with Abel to help in carrying the coffin to the house of mourning They set out on the second day after her return The steep road down to the plain—called the Monkeys Ladder—was a river for a thaw had set in But Hazel did not mind that though her boots let in the water as she minded the atmosphere of gloom at old Samsons blind house She would never as Abel always did view the corpse and this was always taken as an insult So she waited in the road half snow and half water and thought with regret of Undern and its great fire of logs and the green rich dress and Reddin with his force and virility loud voice and strong teeth He was so very much alive in a world where old men would keep dying
Abel came out at last very gay for he had been given over and above the usual payment glovemoney and a glass of beer
Usll get a drop at the public he said
So they turned in there Hazel thought the redcurtained firelit room with its crudely coloured jugs and mugs a most wonderful place She sat in a corner of the settle and watched her boots steam growing very sleepy But suddenly there was a great clatter outside the sound of a horse pulled up sharply slipping on the cobbles and a shout for the landlord
Oh my mortal life said Hazel it met be the Black Huntsman himself
No I wont come in said the rider a glass out here
Hazel knew who it was
Can you tell me he went on if theres any young lady about here with auburn hair Father plays the fiddle
Hes got it wrong thought Hazel
Young lady repeated the landlord Hawburn No theres no lady of that colour hereabouts And what ladies there be are weathered and casehardened
The one Im looking fors young—young as a kitten and as troublesome
Hazel clapped her hands to her mouth
Theres no fiddler chap hereabouts then
Abel rose and went to the door
If its music you want I know better music than fiddles and thats harps he said Saw saw The only time as ever I liked a fiddle was when the fellow snabbed at the strings with his ten fingers—despertlike
Oh damn you said Reddin I didnt come to hear about harps
If its funerals or a foresters supper a concert or a wedding Abel went on quite undaunted Im your man
Reddin laughed
It might be the last he said
Wedding or bedding either or both I suppose said the publican who was counted a wit
Reddin gave a great roar of laughter
Both he said
Neither whispered Hazel who had been poised indecisively as if half prepared to go to the door She sat further into the shadow In another moment he was gone
Whoever she be said the publican nodding his large head wisely have her he will for certain sure
All through the night murmurous with little rivulets of snowwater the gurgling of full troughing and the patter of rain on the iron roof of the house and the miniature roofs of the beehives Hazel waking from uneasy slumber heard those words and muttered them
In her frightened dreams she reached out to something that she felt must be beyond the pleasant sound of falling water so small and transitory beyond the drip and patter of human destinies—something vast solitary and silent How should she find that which none has ever named or known Men only stammer of it in such words as Eternity Fate God All the outcries of all creatures living and dying sink in its depth as in an unsounded ocean Whether this listening silence incurious yet hearing all is benignant or malevolent who can say The wistful dreams of men haunt this theme for ever the creeds of men are so many keys that do not fit the lock We ponder it in our hearts and some find peace and some find terror The silence presses upon us ever more heavily until Death comes with his cajoling voice and promises us the key Then we run after him into the stillness and are heard no more
Hazel and her father practised hard through the dark wet evenings She was to sing Harps in Heaven a song her mother had taught her He was to accompany the choir or gleeparty that met together at different places coming from the villages and hillsides of a wide stretch of country
Well said Abel on the morning of their final rehearsal its a miserable bit of a silly song but you mun make the best of it Give it voice girl Dunna go to sing it like a mouse in milk
His musical taste was offended by Hazels way of being more dramatic than musical She would sink her voice in the sad parts almost to a whisper and then rise to a kind of keen
Youm like nought but Owens old sheepdog he said wowing the moon
But Hazels idea of music continued to be that of a bird She was a wild thing and she sang according to instinct and not by rule though her good ear kept her notes true
They set out early for they had a good walk in front of them and the April sun was hot Hazel under the pale green larchtrees in her bright dress with her crown of tawny hair seemed to be an incarnation of the secret woods
Abel strode ahead in his black cutaway coat snuffcoloured trousers and highcrowned felt hat with its ornamental band This receded to the back of his head as he grew hotter The harp was slung from his shoulder the gilding looking tawdry in the open day Twice during the walk once in a round clearing fringed with birches and once in a pineglade he stopped put the harp down and played sitting on a felled tree Hazel quite intoxicated with excitement danced between the slender boles till her hair fell down and the long plait swung against her shoulder
If folks came by maybe theyd think I was a fairy she cried
Dunna kick about so said Abel emerging from his abstraction It inna decent now youre an ooman growd
Im not an ooman growd cried Hazel shrilly I dunna want to be and I wont never be
The pinetops bent in the wind like attentive heads as gods sitting stately above might nod thoughtfully over a human destiny Someone it almost seemed had heard and registered Hazels cry Ill never be an ooman assenting sardonic
They came to the quarry at the mountain the deserted mounds and chasms looked more desolate than ever in the spring world Here and there the leaves of a young tree lipped the greywhite steeps as if wistfully trying to love them as a child tries to caress a forbidding parent
They climbed round the larger heaps and skirted a precipitous place
I canna bear this place said Hazel its so drodsome
Awhile since afore you were born a cow fell down that there place hundreds of feet
Did they save her
Laws no She was all of a jelly
Hazel broke out with sudden passionate crying Oh dunna dunna she sobbed So she did always at any mention of helpless suffering flinging herself down in wild rebellion and abandonment so that epilepsy had been suspected But it was not epilepsy It was pity She in her inexpressive childish way shared with the lovemartyr of Galilee the heartrending capacity for imaginative sympathy In common with Him and others of her kind she was not only acquainted with grief but reviled and rejected In her schooldays boys brought maimed frogs and threw them in her lap to watch from a safe distance her almost crazy grief and rage
Whatevers come oer ye said her father now Youre too nesh thats what you be neshspirited
He could not understand for the art in him was not that warm suffering thing creation but hard brightly polished talent
Hazel stood at the edge of the steep grey cliff her hands folded a curious fatalism in her eyes
Therell be summat badll come to me hereabouts she said—summat bad and awful
The dark shadows lying so still on the dirty white mounds had a stealthy crouching look and the large soft leaves of a planetree flapped helplessly against the shale with the air of important people who whisper Alas
Abel was on ahead Suddenly he turned round excited as a boy
Theyve started he cried Hark at the music They allus begin with the organ
Hazel followed him eager for joy running obedient and hopeful at the heels of life as a young lamb runs with its mother She forgot her dark intuitions she only remembered that she wanted to enjoy herself and that if she was a good girl surely surely God would let her
Chapter 8
The chapel and ministers house at Gods Little Mountain were all in one—a long low building of grey stone surrounded by the graveyard where stones flat erect and askew took the place of a flowergarden Away to the left just over a rise the hill was gashed by the grey steeps of the quarries In front rose another curve covered with thick woods To the right was the batch down which a road—in winter a watercourse—led into the valley Behind the house Gods Little Mountain sloped softly up and away apparently to its possessor
Not the least of the mysteries of the place and it was tense with mystery was the Sunday congregation which appeared to spring up miraculously from the rocks woods and graves
When the present minister Edward Marston came there with his mother he detested it but after a time it insinuated itself into his heart and gave a stronger character to his religion He had always been naturally religious taking on trust what he was taught and he had an instinctive pleasure in clean and healthy things But on winter nights at the mountain when the tingling stars sprang in and out of their black ambush and frost cracked the tombstones in summer when lightning crackled in the woods and ripped along the hillside like a thousand devils the need of a God grew ever more urgent He spoke of this to his mother
No dear I cant say I have more need of our Lord here than in Crigton she said In Crigton there was the bus to be afraid of and bicycles Here I just cover my ears for wind put on an extra flannel petticoat for frost and sit in the coalhouse for thunder Not that Im forgetting God God with us of course coalhouse or elsewhere
But dont you feel something ominous about the place mother I feel as if something awful would happen here dont you
No dear Nor will you when youve had some magnesia Martha Martha was the general who came in by the day from the first cottage in the batch—Martha put on an extra chop for the master You arent in love are you my dear
Gracious no Who should I be in love with mother
Quite right dear There is no one about here with more looks than a brussels sprout Not that I say anything against sprouts Martha just go and see if there are any sprouts left Well have them for dinner Edward looked at the woods across the batch and wondered why the young fresh green of the larches and the elm samaras was so sad and why the cry of a sheep from an upper slope was so forlorn
I hope Edward said Mrs Marston that it wont be serious music I think serious music interferes with the digestion Your poor father and I went to the Creation on our honeymoon and thought little of it then we went to the Crucifixion and though it was very pleasant I couldnt digest the oysters afterwards And then again these clever musicians allow themselves to become so passionate one almost thinks they are inebriated Not flutes and cornets they have to think of their breath but fiddlers can wreak their feelings on the instrument without suffering for it
Edward laughed
I hope the gentleman thats coming today is a nice quiet one she went on as if Abel were a pony And I hope the lady singer is not a contralto Contralto to my mind she went on placidly stirring her porter in preparation for a draught is only another name for roaring which is unseemly She drank her porter gratefully keeping the spoon in place with one finger
If she could have seen father and daughter as they set forth hilarious to superimpose tumult on the peace of Gods Little Mountain she would have been a good deal less placid
It was restful to sit and look at her kind old face soft and round beneath her lace cap steeped in a peace deeper than lethargy She was one of nature's opiates and she administered herself unconsciously to everyone who saw much of her Edwards father having had an overdose had not survived Mrs Marston always spoke of him as my poor husband who fell asleep as if he had dozed in a sermon Sleep was her fetish panacea and art Her strongest condemnation was to call a person a stirring body She sat today while preparations raged in the kitchen placidly knitting She always knitted—socks for Edward and shawls for herself She had made so many shawls and she so felt the cold that she wore them in layers—pink grey white heather mixture and a purple crossover
When Martha and the friend who had come to help quarrelled shrilly she murmured Poor things putting themselves in such a pother When after a crash Martha was heard to say Theres the creamjug now Well break one break three she only shook her head and murmured that servants were not what they used to be When Marthas friends little boy dropped the urn—presented to the late Mr Marston by a grateful congregation and as large as a wateringcan—and Marthas friend shouted Ill warm your buttons and proceeded to do so Mrs Marston remained selfpoised as a sun
At last supper was set out the cloths going in terraces according to the various heights of the tables the teasets—willow and Coalport the feather pattern and the seaweed—looking like a chinashop the urn now rakishly dinted presiding People paid for their supper on these occasions and expected to have as much as they could eat Mrs Marston had rashly told Martha that she could have what was left as a perquisite which resulted later in stormy happenings
From the nook on the hillside where the chapel stood as Abel ran hastily down the slope—the harp jogging on his shoulders and looking like some weird demon that clung round his neck and possessed him—came a roar of sound The brass band from Black Mountain was in possession of the platform The golden windows shone comfortably in the cold spring evening and Hazel ran towards them as she would have run towards the wideflung onyx doors of faery
They arrived breathless and panting in the graveyard where the tombstones seemed to elbow each other outside the shining windows looking into this cave of saffron light and rosy joy as sardonically as if they knew that those within its shelter would soon be without shelterless in the storm of death that those who came in so gaily by twos and threes would go out one by one without a word Hazel peered in
Fine raps theyre having she whispered All the bands there purple with pleasure and sweating with the music like chaps haying
Abel looked in
Eh dear he said theyre settled there for the neet Well neer get a squeak in Theres nought for Black Mountain Bandll stop at when theyre elbow to elbow they eggs each other on cruel so they do Your ears may be dinned and deafened for life and you lost to the beekeeping for hear you must or youm done with bees but the band dunna care There Now theyve got a hencore—thats to say do it agen and every time they get one of them it goes to their yeads and they play louder
Ah but you play better said Hazel comfortingly for Abels voice had trembled and Hazel must comfort grief wherever she found it for grief implied weakness
I know I do he assented but what can I do agen ten strong men
At the mountain as in the world of art and letters it seemed that the artist must elbow and push and that if he did not often stop his honeyed utterances to shout his wares he would not be heard at all
Dunna they look funny said Hazel with a giggle All sleepy and quiet like smoked bees Is that the Minister Him by the old sleepy lady—shes had more smoke than most
Where
There Hes got a black coat on and a kind face sadlike
Maybe if you took an axed him hed marry you—when the moon falls down the chapel chimney and rabbits chase the bobtailed sheepdog
Im not for marrying anybody Lets go in said Hazel
She took off her hat and coat to enter more splendidly On her head resting softly among the coils of ruddy hair she put a wreath of violets which grew everywhere at the Callow a big bunch of them was at her throat like a cameo brooch
When she entered the band faltered and the cornet a fiery young man whom none could tire wavered into silence Edward turning to find out what had caused this most desirable event saw her coming up the room with the radiant fatefulness of a fairy in a dream His heart went out to her not only for her morning air her vivid eyes her coronet of youths rare violets but for the wistfulness that was not only in her face but in her poise and in every movement He felt as he would to a small bright bird that had come greatly daring in at his window on a stormy night She had entered the empty room of his heart and from this night onwards his only thought was how to keep her there
When she went up to sing his eyes dwelt on her She was the most vital thing he had ever seen The tendrils of burnished hair about her forehead and ears curled and shone with life her eyes danced with life her body was taut as a slim arrow ready to fly from lifes bow
Abel sat down in the middle of the platform and began to play quite regardless of Hazel who had to start when she could
Harps in heaven played for you
Played for Christ with his eyes so blue
Played for Peter and for Paul
But never played for me at all
Harps in heaven made all of glass
Greener than the rainy grass
Neer a one but is bespoken
And mine is broken—mine is broken
Harps in heaven play high play low
In the cold rainy wind I go
To find my harp as green as spring—
My splintered harp without a string
She sang with passion The wail of the lost was in her voice She had not the slightest idea what the words meant probably they meant nothing but the sad cadence suited her emotional tone and the ideas of loss and exile expressed her vague mistrust of the world Edward imagined her in her bluegreen dress and violet crown playing on a large glass harp in a company of angels
Poor child he thought Is it mystical longing or a sense of sin that cries out in her voice
It was neither of those things it was nothing that Edward could have understood at that time though later he did It was the grief of rainy forests and the moan of stormy water the muffled complaint of driven leaves the keening—wild and universal—of life for the perishing matter that it inhabits
Hazel expressed things that she knew nothing of as a blackbird does For though she was young and fresh she had her origin in the old dark heart of earth full of innumerable agonies and in that heart she dwelt and ever would singing from its gloom as a bird sings in a yewtree Her being was more full of echoes than the hearts of those that live further from the soil and we are all as full of echoes as a rocky wood—echoes of the past reflex echoes of the future and echoes of the soil these last reverberating through our filmiest dreams like the sound of thunder in a blossoming orchard The echoes are in us of great voices long gone hence the unknown cries of huge beasts on the mountains the sullen aims of creatures in the slime the lovecall of the bittern We know too echoes of things outside our ken—the thought that shapes itself in the bees brain and becomes a waxen box of sweets the tyranny of youth stirring in the womb the crazy terror of small slaughtered beasts the upward push of folded grass and how the leaf feels in all its veins the cold rain the ceremonial that passes yearly in the emerald temples of bud and calyx—we have walked those temples we are the sacrifice on those altars And the future floats on the current of our blood like a secret argosy We hear the ideals of our descendants like songs in the night long before our firstborn is begotten We in whom the pollen and the dust sprouting grain and falling berry the dark past and the dark future cry and call—we ask Who is this Singer that sends his voice through the dark forest and inhabits us with ageless and immortal music and sets the long echoes rolling for evermore
The audience however did not notice that there were echoes in Hazel and would have gaped if you had proclaimed God in her voice They looked at her with critical eyes that were perfectly blind to her real self Mrs Marston thought what a pity it was that she looked so wild Martha thought it a pity that she did not wear a chenille net over her hair to keep it neat and Abel peering up at her through the strings of the harp and looking—with his face framed in wild red hair—like a peculiarly intelligent animal in a cage did not think of her at all
But Edward made up for them because he thought of her all the time Before the end of the concert he had got as far as to be sure she was the only girl he would ever want to marry His ministerial self put in a faint proviso If she is a good girl but it was instantly shouted down by his other self who asserted that as she was so beautiful she must be good
During the last items on the programme—two vociferous glees rendered by a stagefull of people packed so tightly that it was marvellous how they expanded their diaphragms—Edward was in anguish of mind lest the cornet should monopolize Hazel at supper The said cornet had become several shades more purple each time Hazel sang so Edward was prepared for the worst He was determined to make a struggle for it and felt that though his position denied him the privilege of scuffling he might at least use finesse—that has never been denied to any Church
My dear whispered Mrs Marston have you an unwelcome guest
This was her polite way of indicating a flea
No mother
Well dear there must be something preying on your mind you have kept up such a feeling of uneasiness that I have hardly had any nap at all
What do you think of her mother
Who dear
The beautiful girl
A pretty tune the first she sang said Mrs Marston not having heard the others But such wild manners and such hair Like pussy stroked the wrong way And there is something a little peculiar about her for when she sings about heaven it seems somehow improper and that she added drowsily heaven hardly should do
Edward understood what she meant He had been conscious himself of something desperately exciting in the bearing of Hazel Woodus—something that penetrated the underworld which lay like a covered well within him and like a ray of light set all kinds of unsuspected life moving and developing there
As supper went on Edward kept more and more of Hazels attention and the quiet grey eyes met the restless amber ones more often
If I came some day—soon—to your home would you sing to me he asked
I couldna Im promised for the barkstripping
Whats that
Hazel looked at him pityingly
Dunna you know what that is
Im afraid not
Its fetching the bark offn the failed trees ready for lugging
Where are the felled trees
Hunters Spinney
Thats close here
Ah
Edward was deep in thought The cornet whispered to Hazel
Making up next Sundays sermon
But Edward turned round disconcertingly
As its on your way why not come to tea with mother I might be out but you wouldnt mind that
Eh but I should I dunna want to talk to an old lady
Ill stop at home then he replied very much amused and with a look of quiet triumph at the cornet Which day
Wednesday weeks the first
Come Wednesday then
Whatll the old sleepy lady say
My mother he said with dignity will approve of anything I think right
But his heart misgave So far he had only thought right what her conventions approved He had seldom acted on his own initiative She therefore had a phrase Dear Edward is always right It was possible that when he left off his unquestioning concordance with her she would leave off saying Dear Edward is always right So far he had not wanted anything particularly and as it was as difficult to quarrel with Mrs Marston as to strike a match on a damp box there had never been any friction She liked things as she said nice and pleasant To do Providence justice everything always had been Even when her husband died it had been in a crapeclad way nice and pleasant for he died after the testimonial and the urn and not before as a less considerate man would have done He died on a Sunday which was so suitable and at dawn which was so beautiful also in the phrase used for criminals and the dying he went quietly Not that Mrs Marston did not feel it She did as deeply as her nature could But she felt it as a wellpadded boy feels a whacking through layers of convention Now at her age to find out that life was not so pleasant as she thought would be little short of tragedy
Ah Ill come and Im much obleeged said Hazel
Ill meet you at Hunters Spinney and see you home Edward decided
To this also Hazel assented so delightedly that the cornet pushed back his chair and went to another table with a sardonic laugh But his remarks were drowned by a voice which proclaimed
All the years Ive bin to suppers Ive ad tartlets Tonight they wunna go round Ive paid the same as others Tartlets Ill ave
But the plates empty said Martha flushed and determined
Ive had no finger in the emptying of it More must be fetched Other voices joined in and Mrs Marston was heard to murmur Unpleasant
Edward was oblivious to it all
Shall you he asked earnestly like me to come to the Spinney
Ah I shall that said Hazel who already felt an aura of protection about him Itll be so safe—like when I was little and was used to pick daisies round grandad
Edward knew more definitely than before the relation in which he wished to stand towards Hazel It was not that of grandad
Any reply he might have made was drowned by the uproar that broke forth at the cry Shes hidden em Look in the kitchen
Marthas cousin—in his spare time policeman of a distant village—felt that if Martha was detected in fraud it would not look well and therefore put his sinewy person in the kitchen doorway Edward seized the moment when there was a hush of surprise to say grace during which the invincible voice murmured
Ive not received tartlets Im not thankful
Mother Edward said when the last unruly guest had disappeared in the wild April night and Hazels vivid presence and violet fragrance and young laughter had been taken by the darkness Ive asked Hazel Woodus to tea on Wednesday
She is not of your class Edward
What does class matter
Marthas brother calls you sir and Martha looks down on this young person
Dont call her young person mother
Whether it is mistaken kindness dear or a silly flirtation it will only do you harm with the congregation
Young men and women soliloquized Mrs Marston as she hoisted herself upstairs with the candlestick very much aslant in a torpid hand are not what they used to be
Chapter 9
Hunters Spinney a conical hill nearly as high as Gods Little Mountain lay between that range and Undern It was deeply wooded only its top was bare and caught the light redly It was a silent and deserted place cowled in ancient legends Here the Black Huntsman stalled his steed and the deathpack coming to its precincts ceased into the hill Here in November twilights when the dumb birds cowered in the dark pines you might hear from the summit a horn blownvery clearly with tuneful devilry and a scattered sound of deep barking like the noise of sawing timber and then the bloodcurdling tumult of the pack at feeding time
Today as Hazel began her work the radiant woods were full of pale colour so delicate and lucent that Beauty seemed a fugitive presence from some other world trapped and panting to be free The small patens of the beeches shone like green glass and the pale spired chestnuts were candelabras on either side of the steep path In the bright breathless glades of larches the willowwrens sang softly but with boundless vitality On sunny slopes the hyacinths pushed out closepacked buds between their covering leaves soon they would spread their grave blue like a prayercarpet Hazel stooping in her old multicoloured pinafore her bare arms gleaming like the stripped trees seemed to Edward as he came up the shady path to be the spirit of beauty He quite realized that her occupation was not suited to a ministers future wife But she may never be that he thought despairingly
Have you ever thought Hazel he said later sitting down on a log—have you ever thought of the question of marriage
I neer did till Foxy took the chicks Edward looked dazed Its like this Hazel went on Father hes a rum un is father he says hell drown Foxy if she takes another
Who is Foxy
Oh Fancy you not knowing Foxy Hers my little cub Pretty you neer saw anything so pretty
Edward thought he had
But she canna get used to folks ways This was a new point of view to Edward Shem a fox and she cant be no other And Id liefer shed be a fox
Foxes are very mischievous Edward said mildly
Mischievous Hazel flamed on him like a little thunderstorm Mischievous And who made em mischievous Id like to know They didna make theirselves
God made them Edward said simply
What for did He if He didna like em when they were done
We cant know all His reasons He walks in darkness
Well thats no manner of use to me and Foxy said Hazel practically So all as I can see to do is to get married and take Foxy where theres no chicks
So you think of marrying
Ah And I told father Id marry the first as come I swore it by the
Mountain
And who came Edward had a kind of faintness in his heart
Never a one
Nobody at all
Never a one
And if anyone came and asked for you youd take him
Well Im bound to seemingly But it dunna matter Nonell ever come
What for should they
She herself answered her own question fully as she stood aureoled in dusky light His eyes were eloquent but she was too busy to notice them
And should you like to be married he asked gently
He expected a shy affirmative He received a flat negative
My mam didna like it And she said itd be the end of going in the woods and all my gamesome days And she said tears and torment tears and torment was the married lot And she said Keep yourself to yourself You wunna made for marrying any more than me Eat in company but sleep alone—thats what she said Mr Marston
Edward was so startled at this unhesitating frankness that he said nothing But he silently buried several sweet hopes that had been pushing up like folded hyacinths for a week The old madness was upon him but it was a larger more spiritual madness than Reddins as the sky is larger and more ethereal than the clouds that obscure it He was always accustomed to think more of giving than receiving so now he concentrated himself on what he could do for Hazel He felt that her beauty would be an ample return for anything he could do as her husband to make her happy If she would confide in him demands on his time run to him for refuge he felt that he could ask no more of life The strength of the ancient laws of earth was as yet hidden from him He did not know the fierceness of the conflict in which he was engaging for Hazels sake—the worldold conflict between sex and altruism
If he had known he would still not have hesitated
Suddenly Hazel looked round with an affrighted air
Its late to be here she said
Why
Theres harm here if you bide late The jeath packs about here in the twilight so they do say
They looked up into the dark steeps and the future seemed to lower on them
Maybe summat badll come to us in this spinney she whispered
Nothing bad can come to you when you are in Gods keeping
There canna be many folk in His keeping then
Do you say your prayers Hazel he asked rather sadly
Ah I say
Keep me one year keep me seven
Till the gold turns silver on my head
Bring me up to the hill o heaven
And leave me die quiet in my bed
Thats what I allus say
Who taught you
My mam
Ah well it must be a good prayer if she taught it you mustnt it he said
Suddenly Hazel clutched his arm affrightedly
Hark Galloping up yonder Run run Its the Black Huntsman
It was Reddin skirting the wood on his way home from a search for Hazel If he had come into the spinney he would have seen them but he kept straight on
Its bringing harm cried Hazel pulling at Edwards arm see the shivers on me Its somebody galloping oer my grave
Edward resolved to combat these superstitions and replace them by a sane religion He had not yet fathomed the ancient cruel and mighty power of these exhalations of the soil Nor did he see that Hazel was enchained by earth prisoner to it only a little less than the beech and the hyacinth—bondserf of the sod
When Edward and Hazel burst into the parlour like sunshine into an old garden they were met by a powerful smell of burnt merino Mrs Marston had been for some hours as near Paradise as we poor mortals can hope to be Her elasticsided cloth boots rested on the fender and her skirt carefully turned up revealed a grey stuff petticoat with a hint of white flannel beneath The pink shawl was top which meant optimism With Mrs Marston optimism was the direct result of warmth Her spectacles had crept up and round her head and had a rakishly benign appearance On her comfortable lap lay the missionary Word and a large roll of brown knitting which was intended to imitate fur Edward noted hopefully that the pink shawl was top
Heres Hazel come to see you mother
Mrs Marston straightened her spectacles surveyed Hazel and asked if she would like to do her hair This ceremony over they sat down to tea
And how many brothers and sisters have you my dear asked the old lady
Never a one Nobody but our Foxy
Edward too has none Who is Foxy
My little cub
You speak as if the animals were a relation dear
So all animals be my brothers and sisters
I know dear Quite right All animals in conversation should be so
But any single animal in reality is only an animal and cant be
Animals have no souls
Yes they have then If they hanna you hanna
Edward hastened to make peace
We dont know do we mother he said And now suppose we have tea
Mrs Marston looked at Hazel suspiciously over the rim of her glasses
My dear dont have ideas she said
There Hazel Edward smiled What about your ideas in the spinney
Theres queer things doing in Hunters Spinney and what for shouldna you believe it said Hazel Sometimes more than other times and midsummer most of all
What sort of queer things asked Edward in order to be able to watch her as she answered
Hazel shut her eyes and clasped her hands speaking in a soft monotone as if repeating a lesson
In Hunters Spinney on midsummer night theres things moving as move no other time things free as was fast things crying out as have been a long while hurted She suddenly opened her eyes and went on dramatically First comes the Black Huntsman crouching low on his horse and the horse going belly to earth And John Meares o the public he seed the red froth from his nostrils on the brakes one morning when he was ketching pheasants And the jeaths with him great hounddogs real as real only no eyes but sockets with a light behind em Neer a one knows what theys after If I seed em Id die she finished hastily taking a large bite of cake
Myths are interesting said Edward especially nature myths
Whats a myth Mr Marston
An untruth my dear said Mrs Marston
This inna one then I tell you John seed the blood
Tell us more Edward would have drunk in nonsense rhymes from her lips
And theres never a one to gainsay em in all the dark oods Hazel went on except on Midsummer Eve
Midsummer—Mrs Marstons tone was gently wistful—is the only time Im really warm That is if the weathers as it should be But the weathers not what it was
Tell us more Hazel pleaded Edward
What for do you want to hear my soul
Edward flushed at the caressing phrase and Mrs Marston looked as indignant as was possible to her physiognomy until she realized that it was a mere form of speech
Because I love—old tales
Well if so be you go there then—Hazel leant forward earnest and mysterious—after the packs gone youll hear soft feet running and youll see faces look out and hands waving And gangs of folks come galloping under the leaves not seen clear hastening above a bit And others come quick after all with trouble on em And the place is full of whispering and rustling and voices calling a long way off And my mam said the trees get free that night—or else folk of the trees—creeping and struggling out of the boles like a chicken from an egg—getting free like lads out of school and they go after the jeathpack like birds after a cuckoo And last comes the lady of Undern Coppy lagging and lonesome riding in a troop of shadows and sobbing Lost—lost Oh my green garden And they say the brake flowers on the eve of that night and no bird sings and no star falls
What a pack of nonsense murmured Mrs Marston drowsily
That it inna cried Hazel its the bloody truth
Mrs Marstons drowsiness forsook her Hazel became conscious for tension
Mother—Edwards voice shook with suppressed laughter although he was indignant with Hazels father for such a mistaken upbringing—mother would you give Hazel the receipt for this splendid cake
And welcome my dear The old lady was safely launched on her favourite topic And if youd like a seedcake as well you shall have it Have you put down any butter yet
Hazel never put down or preserved or made anything Her most ambitious cooking was a rasher and a saucepan of potatoes
I dunna know what you mean she said awkwardly
Edward was disappointed He had thought her such a paragon Well well cooking was after all a secondary thing Let it go
You mean to say you dont know what putting down butter is my poor child But perhaps you go in for higher branches Lemoncurd now and bottled fruit Im sure you can do those
Hazel felt blank She thought it best to have things clear
I canna do naught she said defiantly
Now mother—Edward came to the rescue again—see how right you are
in saying that a girls education is not what it used to be See how
Hazels has been neglected Think what a lot you could teach her
Suppose you were to begin quite soon
A batter began Mrs Marston with the eagerness of a philosopher expounding her theory is a wellbeaten mixture of eggs and flour Repeat after me my dear
Eh whats the use He dunna know what he eats no more than a pig I shanna cook for im
Whos that dear Mrs Marston inquired
My dad
Mrs Marston held up her hands with the mockfur knitting in them and looked at Edward with round eyes
She says her fathers a—a pig my dear
She doesnt mean it said he loyally do you Hazel
Ah and more
The host and hostess sighed
Then Edward said Yes but you wont always be keeping house for your father you know and found himself so confused that he had to go and fetch a pipe
Afterwards he walked part way home with Hazel and coming back under the driving sky—that seemed to move all in a piece like a sliding window and showed the moon as a slim lady waiting for unlookedfor happenings—he could have wept at the crude sweetness of Hazel She was of so ruthless an honesty towards herself as well as others she had such strange lights and shadows in her eyes her voice her soul she was so full of faults and so brimming with fascination
Oh God if I may have her to keep and defend to glow in my house like a rose Ill ask no more he murmured
The pinetops bowed in as stately a manner as they had when Hazel cried Ill never be a woman They listened like grownups to the prattle of a child And the stars like gods in silver armour sitting afar in halls of black marble seemed to hear and disdain the little gnatlike voice as they heard Vessons defiant Never will I and Mrs Marstons woolly prayers and Reddins hoofbeats All mans desires—predatory fugitive or merely negative—wander away into those dark halls and are heard no more Among the pillars of the night is there One who listens and remembers and judges the foolishness of man not by effects but by motives And does that One in the majesty of everlasting vitality and resistless peace ever see how we run after the painted butterflies of our desires and fall down the dark precipice And if He sees and hears the wavering calamitous life of all creatures and especially of the most beautiful and the most helpless does He ever sigh and weep as we do when we see a dead child or a moths wing impaled on a thorn
Our heavy burden is that we cannot know For all our tears and prayers and weary dreaming we cannot know
Edward lay awake all night and heard the first blackbird begin tentatively his clear song—a song to bring tears by its golden security of joy in a world where nothing is secure
The old madness surged in upon Edward more strongly as the light grew and he tried to read the Gospel of St John his favourite but the words left no trace on his mind Hazel was there and like a scarletberried rowan on the sky she held the gaze by the perfection of the picture she made The bent of Edwards mind and upbringing was set against the rush of his wishes and of circumstance She had said The first that came and he was sure that in her state of dark superstition she would hold by her vow Suppose some other—some farmhand who would never see the real Hazel—should have been thinking over the matter and should go today and should be the first It was just how things happened And then his flower would be gone and the other man would never know it was a flower He worked himself into such a fever that he could not rest but got up and went out into the lively air and saw the sun come lingeringly through aery meadows of pale green and primrose He saw the ice slip from the bright pointed lilac buds and sheep browsing the frosty grass and going to and fro in the unreserved way that animals have in the early hours before the restraint of human society is imposed on them He saw yet noticed nothing until a long scarlet bar of cloud reminded him of Hazel by its vividness and he found a violet by the graveyard gate
Little Hazel he whispered He pondered on the future and tried to imagine such an early walk as this with Hazel by his side and could not for the glory of it Then he reasoned with himself This wild haste was not right perhaps He ought to wait But that vow That foolish childish vow
I could look after her She could blossom here like a violet in a quiet garden
Giving was never too early
And I am asking nothing—not for years She shall live her own life and be mothers daughter and my little sister for as long as she likes My little sister he repeated aloud as if some voice had contradicted him And indeed the whole wide morning seemed to contradict his scheme—the mating birds the sheep suckling their lambs the insistent neighing and bellowing that rose from the fields and farms the very tombstones with their legends of multitudinous families and the voice that cried to man and woman not in words but in the zest of the earth and air Beget bring forth and then depart for I have done with you
A sharp cold shower stung his cheeks and he saw a slim rosebud beating itself helplessly against the wet earth broken and muddy He fetched a stake and tied it up I think he said to himself that I was put into the world to tie up broken roses and one that is not broken yet thank God It is miraculous that she has never come to harm for that great overgrown boy her father takes no care of her Yes I was meant for that I cant preach He smiled ruefully as he remembered how steadfastly the congregation slept through his best sermons I cant say the right things at the right time Im not clever But I can take care of Hazel And that is my lifework he added naively perhaps Id better begin at once and go to see her today
Ah the gold and scarlet morning as he came home after finding that resolve which as a matter of fact, he had taken with him How the roof of the parsonage shone like the New Jerusalem And how the fantail pigeons very rotund denizens of that city cooed as they walked gingerly—tiles being cold to pink feet on a frosty morning—up and down in the early sun
Edward so much wanted to keep the violet he had found that he decided he ought to give it to his mother So he put it on her plate and looked for a suitable passage to read at prayers
The Song of Solomon seemed the only thing really in tune with the morning but he decided rather sadly that something in Corinthians might please his mother better So he read The greatest of these is love and his voice was so husky and so unmanageable that Mrs Marston who did not notice the golden undertones that matched their beauty with the blackbirds song went straight from the chair she knelt at in the prayers to her storeroom and produced lemon and honey which Edward loathed
Youre very throaty my dear and you must take a level spoonful she said
It is only in poetry that all the world understands a lover In real life he is called throaty and given a level spoonful of that nauseous compound known as common sense
Chapter 10
The garden at the Callow was full of old sadcoloured flowers that had lost all names but the country ones Chief among them by reason of its hardihood was a small plant called virgins pride Its ephemeral petals pale and beehaunted fluttered like banners of some lost forgotten cause The garden was hazy with their demure faintly scented flowers and the voices of the bees came up in a soft roar triumphantly as the voices of victors returning with hardwon spoil
Abel had been putting some new sections on the hives and as usual after a long spell of listening to their low changeless music he rushed in for his harp He sat down under the hawthorn by the gate and looked like a patriarch beneath a pale green tint As day declined the music waxed he played with a tenderness a rage of delight that did not often come to him except on spring evenings He almost touched genius Hazel came out leaving the floor half scrubbed and began to dance on the potato flat
Dunna stomp the taters to jeath Azel said he
They binna up she replied continuing to dance
He never wasted words He continued the air with one hand and threw a stone at her with the other He hit her on the cheek
You wold beast she screamed
Gerroff taters He continued to play
She went hand to cheek and frowning off the potato patch But she did not stop dancing Neither of them ever let such things as anger business or cleanliness interfere with their pleasures So Hazel danced on though on a smaller area among the virgins pride
The music wild crude and melancholy floated on the soft air to Edward as he approached The sun slipped lower leaf shadows began to tremble on Hazels pinafore which with its faded blue and its many stains was transmuted in the vivid light and looked like the flowers of virgins pride
The Ash Tree said Abel who always announced his tunes in this way as singers do at a choir supper
The forlorn music met Edward at the gate He stopped startled at the sight of Hazel dancing in the shadowy garden with her hair loose and her abandon tempered by weariness He stood behind the hedge until Abel brought the tune to an early end with the laconic remark Supper and went indoors with his harp
Edward opened the gate and went in
Eh mister what a start you give me said Hazel breathlessly
So this is your home
Ah
Edward found her more disturbing tonight than at the concert the gulf between them was more obvious she had been comparatively tidy before Now her disreputableness contrasted strongly with his correct black coat and general air of civilized wellbeing
Hazel came nearer
He inna bad to live along of she confided with a nod towards the cottage O course hes crossways time and again and a devils temper
You mustnt speak of your father like that Hazel
What for not He be like that
Are all these appletrees yours he asked to change the subject
No theym fathers But I get the windfals and the bruised uns I allus see—she smiled winningly—as theres plenty of them Foxy likes em He found me at it once bruising of em God amighty what a hiding he give me
Edward felt depressed He could not harmonize Hazels personality with his mothers he was shocked at her expressions he was sufficiently fastidious to recoil from dirt the thought of Abel as a fatherinlaw was little short of appalling Yet in spite of all these things he had felt such elation such spring rapture when Hazel danced the world took on such strange new colours when she looked at him that he knew he must love her for ever He felt that as his emotions grew stronger—and they were becoming more and more like a herd of young calves out at grass—his ways of expression must increase in correctness
Hazel— he began
I like the way you say it she interrupted Ah I like it right well Breathin strong like folk coming up the Monkeys Ladder
Whatevers that
Dunna you know Monkeys Ladder Its that road there Somebodys coming up it now on a horse
They both looked down at Reddin climbing slowly and still some way off They did not know who it was nor what destiny was pacing silently towards them with his advancing figure nor why he rode up and down this road and other roads every day but an inexplicable sense of urgency came upon Edward To his own surprise he said suddenly
I came to ask if youd marry me Hazel Woodus
Eh said she dazed with surprise
Will you marry me Hazel I can give you a good home and I will try to be a good husband and—and I love you Hazel dear
Hazel put her head on one side like a willowwren singing She liked to be called dear
Dyou like me as much as I like Foxy
Far more
Youve bin very quick about it
Im afraid I have
Will you buy me a green gown with yellow roses on
If you like He spoke doubtfully wondering what his mother would think of it
And shall we sit down to our dinners at a table with a cloth on like at— She stopped She could not tell him about Undern Like the gentry she finished
Yes dear
And will you tell that sleepy old lady as lives along of you—
Oh poor mother thought Edward
—Not to stare and stare at me over the top of her spectacles like a cow at a cornfield over the fence
Yes—yes said Edward hastily feeling that his mother must wait to be reinstated until he had made sure of Hazel
All right then Ill come
Edward took her hand then he kissed her cheek gently She accepted the kiss placidly There was nothing in it to remind her of Reddins
And youll do always as you like Edward went on and be my little sister Then to make matters clearer he added and you shall have a room papered with buttercups and daisies for your very own
Eh how grand
Youll like that His voice was wistful in its eagerness for a denial
Ah I shall like it right well
Edward made no reply He was never any good at putting in a word for himself He was usually left out of things and stood contentedly in the background while inferior men pushed in front of him
And now he said Ill give you a token till I can get you a ring
He picked a spray of the faint pink and blue flowers
Whats its name he asked
Virgins pride
Edward gave her a quick look Then he realized that she was as innocent as her little fox and as free from artifice That was its name so she told it to him
A very pretty little flower and a very sweet name he said And now wheres your father
Guzzling his supper
Edward frowned Then the humour of the situation struck him and he laughed Abel rose as they came to the door
Well mister he inquired glumly whatn you after Money for them missions to buy clothes for savages as d liefer go bare Or money for them poor clergy Im poorer nor the clergy
I want to marry Hazel
Abel flung back his head and roared Then he jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards Hazel
What—er he queried in ecstasies of mirth Er Look at the floor man Look at the apern shes got on Laws man you surely dunna want our Azel for your missus
Yes Edward was nettled and embarrassed
Well ers only eighteen He looked Hazel over appraisingly as he would have looked at a heifer Still I suppose shes an ooman growed Well you can take her I dunna mind When dyou want her
I shall ask her when she will wish to marry me
Abel laughed again
Lord love us he said You unna take and ax her Tell her thats what Just tell her what to do and shell do it if you give her one for herself now and agen So you mean marrying do yer
Edward was angry Abels outlook and manner of expression rawed his nerves
I leave all the arrangements to her he said stiffly
Then the devil aid you said Abel for I canna
Hazel stood with downcast face submissive but ill at ease She wanted to spring at her father and scream Hod yer row for she hated him for talking so to Edward Somehow it made her flushed and ashamed for Edward to be told to give her one for herself She looked at him under her lashes and wondered if he would There was something not altogether unpleasant in the idea She felt that to be ordered about by young lips and struck by a young mans hand would be as business men say quite in order She appraised Edward and decided that he would not Had she been able to decide in the affirmative she would probably have fallen in love with him there and then
Edward came over to her and took her hand
When will you be my wife Hazel he said
I dunno Not for above a bit
Haw haw laughed Abel Hark at her Throw summat at er man
I should prefer your absence said Edward stung to expression at last
Eh
Go away said Edward rudely He was surprised at himself afterwards
Abel withdrew openmouthed Hazel laughed with delight
But why didna you hit un she asked wistfully
My dear girl What a thing to say
Be it
Yes But now when shall we be married
Not for years and years said Hazel pleased at the dismay on his face and enjoying her new power Then she reflected on the many untried delights of the new life
Leastways not for days an days she amended
Will you gi me peardrops every day
Peardrops My dear Hazel you must think of better things than peardrops
Theres nought better she said without its bullseyes
But dear Edward reasoned gently dont you want to think of helping me and going with me to chapel
Hazel considered
Dyou preach long and solemn she asked
No said Edward rather curtly But if I did you ought to like it
Hazel took his measure again Then she said naughtily
Tell you what Ill do if you preach long and solemn mister Ill put me tongue out
Edward laughed in spite of himself and thought for the twentieth time Poor mother But that did not prevent his being anxious to have Hazel safely at the Mountain It seemed to him that every man in the county must want to marry her
What would you say to May Hazel early May—lilactime
Id like it right well
And suppose we fix it the day after the spring flowershow at
Evenwood and go to it together
Im going with father to sing
Well when youve sung you can have tea with me
Thank you kindly Mr Marston
Edward
Edard
Abel came round the house
You can come and see the bees if youve a mind he said forgivingly In his angers and his joys he was like a child He was in fact what he looked—a barbaric child prematurely aged He was aged and had lines on his face because he enjoyed life so much for joy bites as deep as sickness or grief or any other physical strain Hazel would age soon for she lived in an intenser world than most people as if she saw everything through magnifying glass and coloured glass
Edward went to the bees as he would have gone to the dogs—sadly He disliked the bees even more than he disliked Abel who in his expansive mood was much less attractive than in his natural sulkiness Abel did not know how near he came once or twice to frustrating an end that he thought very desirable A less steadfast man than Edward with a less altruistic object in view would have been frightened away from Hazel by Abels crudeness
What about the bitch he asked Edward when they had seen the bees
Will you take her or shall I drown her
Rage flamed in Hazels face—rage all the more destructive because it was caused by pity Her fathers calm taking for granted that Foxys fate and her own depended on his whim and Edwards the picture of Foxy tied up in a bag to be drowned—Foxy who had all her love—infuriated her
Edward was troubled at the look in her eyes He had not yet had much opportunity for seeing those wild red lights that burn in the eyes of the hunter and are reflected in those of the hunted and make life a lurid nightmare The scene set his teeth on edge
Of course he said and the recklessness of it was quite clear to him when he thought of his mother—of course the little fox shall come
And the oneeyed cat and the blind bird and the old ancient rabbit Ill wager queried Abel Well minister you can set up a menagerie and make money
They could go in bits of holes and corners Hazel put in anxiously and nobodyd ever know they were there And the bird chirrups lovely fine days
Abel shouted with laughter
Tuthree feathers and a beak he said And the rabbitd be comforbler a muff
Edward hastily ended the discussion
Of course they shall all come he said
Somehow Hazel made the sheltering of these poor creatures a matter of religion He found himself connecting them with the great Inasmuch as ye have done it unto these— He had never seen the text in that light before But he was dubious about the possibility of making his mother see it thus
Theyll be much obleeged Hazel said Come and see em
She spoke as one conferring the freedom of a city
Foxy—very clean in her straw smoothly white and brown dignified and golden of eye—looked mistrustfully at Edward and showed her baby white teeth
Shell liven the old lady up said Hazel
Im afraid— began Edward and then—she shows her teeth a good deal
Only along of being frit
She neednt be frightened Ill take care of her and of you and see that no harm comes to you
The statement was received by the night—critical attent—in a silence so deep that it seemed quizzical
On his way home he felt rather dismayed at his task because he saw that in making Hazel happy he must make his mother unhappy
Ah well itll all come right he thought for He is love and He will help me
The sharp staccato sound of a horse cantering came up behind him It was Reddin returning from a wide detour He pulled up short
Is there any fiddler in your parish parson he inquired
Edward considered
There is one man on the far side of the Mountain
Pretty daughter
No He is only twenty
Damn
He was gone
Hazel in the untidy room at the Callow fed her pets and had supper in a dream of coming peace for them all She would not have been peaceful if she had seen the meeting of the two men in the dusk both wanting her with a passion equal in suddenness and force but different in quality She wanted neither Her passion no less intense was for freedom for the woodtrack for green places where soft feet scudded and eager eyes peered out and adventurous lives were lived up in the treetops down in the moss
She was fascinated by Reddin she was drawn to confide in Edward but she wanted neither of them Whether or not in years to come she would find room in her heart for human passion she had no room for it now She had only room for the little creatures she befriended and for her eager quickly growing self For like her mother she had the egoism that is more selfless than most peoples altruism—the divine egoism that is genius
Chapter 11
When Edward got home his mother was asleep in the armchair Her whole person rose and fell like a tropical sea Her shut eyes were like those of a statue behind the lids of which one knows there are no pupils Her eyebrows were slightly raised as if in expostulation at being obliged to breathe Her figure expressed the dignity of old age which may or may not be due to rheumatism
Edward as he looked at her felt as one does who has been reading a fairytale and is called to the family meal All the things he had meant to say that had seemed so eloquent now seemed foolish He awoke her hastily in case his courage should fail before that most adamantine thing—an unsympathetic atmosphere
Ive got some news for you mother
Nothing unpleasant dear
No Pleasant It makes me very happy
The good are always happy replied Mrs Marston securely
Before the bland passivity of this remark it seemed that irony itself must soften
I am engaged mother
What in dear
I am going to bring home a wife
She was deaf and very sleepy
What kind of a knife dear she asked
I am going to marry Hazel Woodus
You cant do that dear She spoke with unruffled calm as if Edward were three years old
I can and shall mother
Ah well it wont be for a long long time she said thinking aloud as she often did and adding with the callousness that sometimes comes with age—arising not from hardness but from the atrophy of the emotions—and of course she may die before then
Die Edwards voice surprised himself and it made his mother jump
The young do die she went on we all have to go Your poor father fell asleep I shall fall asleep
She began to do so But his next words made her wide awake again
Im going to be married in May next month
Her whole weight of passive resistance was set against his purpose
Such unseemly haste she murmured So inordinate—such a hurried marriage
But Edwards motives being what they were he was proof against this
What will the congregation think
Bother the congregation
Thats the second time youve said that Edward Im afraid you are going from bad to worse
No Only going to be married mother
But a years engagement is the least the very least I could countenance she pleaded and a year is so soon gone One eats and sleeps and Lords Day breaks the week and time soon passes
Oh cant you understand mother He tried illustration Suppose you saw a beautiful shawl out on a hedge in the rain shouldnt you want to bring it in
Certainly not It would be most unwise Besides I have seven
Well anyway I cant put it off Even now something may have happened to her
He spoke with the sense of the inimical in life that all lovers feel
But things will have to be bought she said helplessly and things will have to be made
There is plenty of time several weeks yet Wont you he suggested tactfully see after Hazels clothes for her She is too poor to buy them herself Wont you lay out a sum of money for me mother
Yes I think she said beginning to recover her benignity—I think
I could lay out a sum of money
Mrs Marston had what she called not a wink of sleep—that is to say she kept awake for half an hour after getting into bed The idea of a wedding although it was offensive by reason of being different from every day was still quite pleasant It would be an opportunity for using the multitude of things that were stored in every cupboard and never used being thought too good for every day Mrs Marston was one of those that having great possessions go sadly all their days It is strange how generation after generation spends its fleeting years in this fetishworship never daring to make life beautiful by the daily use of things lovely but for ever being busy about them
Mrs Marstons china glowed so and was so stainless and uncracked that it seemed as if the lives of all the beautiful young women in her family must have been sacrificed in its behalf
They had all drunk of the cup of death long ago and their beauty had long ago been broken and defaced but the beautiful old china remained There were still the two dozen cups and saucers the cream jug sugar basin and large plates of the feathercups just as when they were first bought Their rich gilding which completely covered them outside was hardly worn at all nor were the bright birds feathers and raised pink flowers It would be very pleasant Mrs Marston reflected wistfully to use it again There were all the bottled fruits too and lemoncurd and jellies and a wedding would be a very pleasant suitable opportunity for making one of her famous layer cakes and for wearing her purple silk dress Mingled with these ideas was the knowledge that Edward wanted it would be vexed if it had to be put off I have never known him to be so reckless she pondered But still hell settle down once hes married And shell sober down too when the little ones come It will be pleasant when they come A grandmother has all the pleasures of a mother and none of the pains And she will not want to manage anything Edward said so I should not have liked a managing daughterinlaw Edward was wise in his choice For though noisy shell quiet down a little with each of the dear babies and there will be plenty of them I think and hope
It was characteristic of Mrs Marstons class and creed united with the fact that she was Edwards mother that she did not consider Hazel in the matter Hazels point of view personality hopes and fears were nonexistent to her Hazel would be absorbed into the Marston family like a new piece of furniture She would be provided for without being consulted it would be seen to that she did her duty also without being consulted She would become as all the other women in this and the other families of the world had the servant of the china and the electroplate and the furniture and she would be the means by which Edwards children came into the world She would when not incapacitated fetch shawls At all times she would say Yes dear or As you wish Edward With all this before her what did she want with personality and points of view Obviously nothing If she brought all the grandchildren safely into the world with their due complement of legs and arms and noses she would be a satisfactory asset But Mrs Marston forgot in this summing up to find out whether Hazel cared for Edward more than she cared for freedom
Mrs Marston came down to breakfast with an air of resignation
I have decided to make the best of it my dear Edward she said of course I had hoped there would never be anyone But it doesnt signify I will lay out the money and be as good a grandmother as I can And now dear she spoke passively shifting the responsibility on to Edwards shoulders—and now how will you get me to town
Here was a problem The little country station was several miles away far beyond her walking limit and no farmer in the neighbourhood had a horse quiet enough to please her
In my day dear I can remember horses so quiet so wellbred so beautifully trained and above all so fat that an accident was apart from Gods will impossible Now my dear father in the days when he travelled for Jeremys green tea and very good tea it was and a very fine flavour and a picture of a black man on every canister Where was I Oh yes he always used to allow a day for a tenmile round Very pleasant it was but the horses are not—
Here Edward cut in with a suggestion
Why shouldnt you go by the traction trailer You enjoyed it that one time
The traction engine belonging to a stone quarry passed two or three times a week and was never—the country being hilly—so full that it could not accommodate a passenger
It was therefore arranged that Edward should go and see the driver and afterwards see Hazel and arrange for her to go to town also He was to stay at home Mrs Marston would never leave the house as she said without breath in it though she could give no reason for this idea and prided herself on having no superstitions She would not trust Martha by herself so Edward was ruefully obliged to undertake the office of breathing like a living bellows to blow away harm
It was settled that they were to go on the day before the flowershow and Hazel was to stay the night It would be the last night but one before the wedding
Meanwhile the barkstripping continued and fate went on leading Jack Reddins horse in every direction but the right one Edward went to Hunters Spinney every day He began to find a new world among the budding hyacinths on the soft leafy soil breaking up on every side with the push of eager lives coming through and full of those elusive stimulating scents that only spring knows
When the day came for going to Silverton and Hazel arrived fresh and rosy from her early walk he felt very rebellious Still it was ordained that someone must breathe and only his mother could choose the clothes
It took Mrs Marston several hours to get ready and Edward and Martha were kept busy running up and down Not that Mrs Marstons clothes had to be hunted for or mended—far from it But there were so many cupboards to be locked their keys hidden in drawers the keys of which in their turn went into more cupboards When such an inextricable tangle as no burglar could tackle had been woven Mrs Marston always wanted something out of the first cupboard and all had to be done over again But at last she was achieved Edward and Martha stood back and surveyed her with pride and looked to Hazel for admiration of their work but Hazel was too young and too happy to see either the pathos or the humour of old ladies
She danced down the steep path with an armful of wraps at the idea of wearing which she had made faces
The path led steeply in a zigzag down one side of the quarry cliff where Abel had told Hazel of the cow falling and where she had felt drodsome Once more as she came down with a more and more lagging step the same horror came over her
Im frit she cried canna we be quick
But speed was not in Mrs Marston She came clinging to Edwards arm very cautiously like a cat on ice
Martha her stout red arms bare her blue gingham dress and white apron flying in the wind was directed to hold on to Mrs Marstons mantle behind—as one tightens the reins downhill—to keep her on her feet Edward was carrying a kitchen chair for his mother to sit on during the journey
Hazel felt that they were none of them any good they none of them knew what it was like to be frit So she ran away and left the hot secretive omniscient place with its fierce white and its crafty shadows
She reached a tiny field that ran up to the woods and there among the brilliantly varnished buttercups the bees sounded like the tides coming in on the coasts of faery Hazel forgot her dread—an inexplicable sickening dread of the quarry She chased a fat bumblebee all across the golden floor—one eager fluffy shining head after the other They might have been in the allpermeating glory on their hill terrace with the sapphirecircled plain around—they might have been the two youngest citizens of Paradise circled in for ever from bleak honeyless winter bleak honeyless hearts
The slow cortege came down the path Martha being obliged as the descent grew steeper to fling herself back like a person in a tugofwar for Mrs Marston gathered way as she went and uttered little helpless cries
Im going Martha Im losing control Not by the bugles Martha Not by the braid
When they reached the road the traction engine was not in sight so they sat in the bank and waited Mrs Marston regal in the chair and Hazel held a buttercup under Edwards chin to see if he liked butter
Very warm and pleasant murmured Mrs Marston and dropped into a doze
Edward listened to the thrushes they were flinging their voices—as jugglers fling golden balls—against the stark sides of the quarry Up went a rush of bright notes pattered on the gloomy wall and returned again defeated
To Edward as he watched Hazel they seemed like people thanking God for blessings and being heard and blessed again To Hazel they seemed so many other Hazels singing because it was a festal day To Mrs Marston they were noisy birds and very disturbing Martha crotcheted She was making edging hundreds of yards of it for wedding garments This was all the more creditable as it was an act of faith for no young man had as yet seemed at all desirous of Martha
At last the traction engine appeared and Mrs Marston was hoisted into the trailer—a large truck with scarletpainted sides and about half full of stone This had been shovelled away from the front to make room for Mrs Marston and Hazel A flap in the scarlet side was let down and with the help of one of the traction men Edward and Martha got her safely settled She really was a very splendid old lady Her hat a kind of spoonshape was trimmed lavishly with black glass grapes that clashed together softly when she moved There was also a veil with white chenille spots The hat was tied under her chin with black ribbons and her kind old face very pink and plump and charming looked out pleasantly upon the world She wore her best mantle heavily trimmed with jet bugles and her alpaca skirt was looped up uncompromisingly with an oldfashioned skirthook made like a butterfly Hung on one arm was her umbrella and she carried her reticule in both hands for safety So with all her accoutrements on she sat pleasantly aware that she was at once selfrespecting and adventurous
They started in a whirl of goodbyes shrieks of delight from Hazel and advice of Mrs Marston to the driver to put the brake on and keep it on Hazel was perched on the side of the truck near her They rounded a turn with great dignity the trailer with Mrs Marston as its figurehead—wearing an expression of pride fear and resignation—swinging along majestically
Please Mrs Marston can I buy a green silk gown wi yellow roses on
Certainly not my dear It would be most unsuitable So very far from quiet
Whats quiet matter
Quietness is the secret of good manners The quieter you are the more of a lady youll be thought All truly good people are quiet in manners dress and speech just as all the best horses are advertised as quiet to ride and drive but few are really so
Han you got to be ever and ever so quiet to be a lady
Yes
What for have you
Because dear it is the proper thing Now my poor husband was quiet so quiet that you never knew if he was there or not And Edward is quiet too—as quiet as—
Oh dunna dunna wailed Hazel
Is a pin sticking into you dear
No Dunna say Edards quiet
Mrs Marston looked amicably over her spectacles
My dear why not she asked
I dunna like that sort
Could you explain a little dear
I dunna like quiet men—nor quiet horses My mam was quiet when she was dead Everybodys quiet when theyre dead
Very very quiet crooned Mrs Marston Yes we all fall asleep in our turn
I like went on Hazel in her rather crude voice harsh with youth like a young blackbirds—I like things as go quick and men as talk loud and stare hard and drive like the devil
She broke off flushing at Mrs Marstons expression and at the sudden knowledge that she had been describing Reddin
It doesnt signify very much said Mrs Marston severely for her what you like dear But I suppose—she softened—that you do really like Edward since he has chosen you and you are pledged
Hazel shook her shoulders as if she wanted to get rid of a yoke They fell into silence and as Mrs Marston dozed Hazel was able to fulfil her desire that had sprung into being at the moment of seeing Mrs Marstons hat—namely to squash one of those very round and brittle grapes
Her quick little hand gleaming in the sun hovered momentarily above the black hat like a darting dragonfly and the mischief was done—bland respectability smashed and derided
Chapter 12
They went gallantly if slowly on through narrow ways lit on either side by the breathtaking freshness of new hawthorn leaves Primroses wet and tall crisply pink of stalk and huge of leaf eyed them as Madonnas might from niches in the isles of grass and weed
Carts had to back into gates to let them go by and when they came into the main road horses reared and had to be led past Hazel found it all delightful She liked when the driver pulled up outside little wayside inns to peer into the brown gloom where pewter pots and rows of china jugs shone and from which over newly washed floors of red tiles landlords advanced with foaming mugs
Mrs Marston strongly disapproved of these proceedings but did not think it polite to expostulate as she was receiving a favour
In Silverton Mrs Marston lingered a long while before any shop where sacred pictures were displayed The ones she looked at longest were those of that peculiarly seedy and emasculated type which modern religion seems to produce Hazel all in a fidget to go and buy her clothes looked at them and wondered what they had to do with her There was one of an untidy woman sitting in a garden of lilies—evidently forced—talking to an anaemiclooking man with uncut hair and a phosphorescent head Hazel did not know about phosphorus or haloes but she remembered how she had gone into the kitchen one night in the dark and screamed at sight of a sheeps head on the table shining with a strange greenish light This picture reminded her of it She hastily looked at the others She liked the one with sheep in it best only the artist had made them like bolsters and given the shepherd saucer eyes Then she came to one of the Crucifixion a subject on which the artist had lavished all the slumbering instincts of torture that are in so many people
Oh what a drodsome un I dunna like this shop said Hazel tearfully
Whatm they doing to im Oh theym great beasts
Perhaps she had seen in her dim and childish way the everlasting tyranny of the material over the abstract; of bluster over nerves strength over beauty States over individuals churches over souls and foxhunting squires over the creatures they honour with their attention
What is it my dear Mrs Marston looked over her spectacles and her eyes were like half moons peering over full moons
That there picture Theym hurting Him so cruel And Him fast and all
Oh said Mrs Marston wonderingly thats nothing to get vexed about Why dont you know thats Jesus Christ dying for us
Not for me flashed Hazel
My dear
No what for should He There shall none die along of me much less be tormented
Needs be that one man die for the people quoted Mrs Marston easily
Only through blood can sin be washed white
Blood makes things raddled not white and if so be anys got to die
Ill die for myself
The old gabled houses dark and solemn with heavy carved oak the smart plateglass windows of the modern shops the square dogmatic church towers and the pointed insinuating spires—all seemed to listen in surprise to this being who was not content to let another suffer for her For civilization as it now stands is based solely on this one thing—vicarious suffering From the central doctrine of its chief creed to the system of its trade from the vivisectiontable to the consumptive genius dying so that crowds of fat folk may get his soul in a cheap form it is all built up on sacrifice of other creatures
Whatd you say if Edard died for yer queried Hazel crudely
My dear How unseemly In the street
And whatd I do if Foxy died for me
Well well Foxys only an animal
Sore you and me animals said Hazel so loudly that poor Mrs Marston flushed all over her gentle old face
So indecent she murmured My dear she said when she had steered Hazel past the shop you want a nice cup of tea And I do hope she went on softly putting a great deal of cream in Hazels cup as she would have put lubricating oil on a stiff sewingmachine—I do hope my dear youll become more Christian as time goes on
If Foxy died along of me said Hazel stubbornly—for although grateful for the festive meal she could not let her basic rule of life slip—if Foxy died along of me Id die too I couldna do aught else
Things are very different said Mrs Marston flustered flushed and helpless—very different from what they used to be
What for are they Mrs Marston
But that question Mrs Marston was quite unable to answer If she had known the answer—that the change was in herself and that the world was not different but still kept up its ancient war between love and respectability beauty and mass—she would not have liked it and so she would not have believed it
It was seven oclock when they were put down tired and laden with parcels at the quarry halfway up Gods Little Mountain Edward had been there for more than an hour tormented with fears for Hazels safety angry with himself for letting her go All afternoon he had fidgeted worried Martha with suggestions about tea finally gone to the shop several miles away for some of Hazels favourite cake quite forgetting that he ought to be in the house breathing It all resulted in a most beautiful tea as Hazel thought when they had pushed and pulled Mrs Marston home
What with the joy of staying the night and the wonder of her new clothes Hazel was as radiant and talked so fast that Edward could do nothing but watch her
In her short life there had not been many moments of such rose and gold It was the happiest hour of Edwards life also for she looked to him as flowers to warm heaven as winter birds to a fruited tree As he watched her opening parcel after parcel with frank innocence and little birdlike cries of rapture he knew the intolerable sweetness of bestowing delight on the beloved—a sweetness only equalled by the intolerable agony of seeing helpless and incurable pain on the loved face
And whats that one he asked like a mother helping in a childs game He pointed to a parcel which contained chemises and nightdresses
That said Mrs Marston frowning portentously at Hazel who was tearing it open—that is other useful garments
What for canna I show em Edard I want to show all The money was hisn
It was a tribute to Edwards selfcontrol that she was so entirely lacking in shyness towards him
My dear A young man whispered Mrs Marston
Suddenly by some strange necromancy there was conjured in Hazels mind a picture of Reddin—flushed hardeyed with an expression that aroused in her misgiving and even terror So she had seen him just before she fled to Vessons At the remembrance she flushed so deeply that Mrs Marston congratulated herself on the fact that her daughterinlaw had some modesty and right feeling
If she had known who caused the flush who it was that had awakened the love of pretty clothes which Edward was satisfying she would have thought very different thoughts and would have been utterly miserable For her love for Edward was deep enough to make her wish him to have what he wanted and not what she thought he ought to want as long as he did not clash with her religion For Edward to know it though so early in his love for Hazel would have meant a rocking of heaven and earth around him Even she with her childish egotism like a shell about her realized that this was a thing that could not be
But it be all right she thought as she curled up luxuriously in the strangely clean and comfortable bed itll be all right Him abovell see as Mr Reddin neer shows his face here for the old lady said Him above looked after good folks and Edards good But I wish some un ud look after the bad uns she thought looking across the room to the north where Undern lay
My dear wait a moment said Mrs Marston to Edward downstairs as he was lighting her candle I have something to tell you I fear you must brace yourself
Well mother Edward smiled
Hazels not a Christian She spoke in a sepulchral whisper and looked at him afterwards as if to say There now I have surprised you
And how do you make that out mother
Edward found in his heart this fact that it made no difference to his love whether Hazel were a Christian or not this troubled him
No Shes not a Christian my dear said Mrs Marston in a kind of gasp she refuses to be died for
Upstairs Hazel was saying her orisons at the window
If theres anybody there she murmured staring out into the consuming darkness that had absorbed every colour every form except the looming outline of Gods Little Mountain against a watery moonrise—if theres anybody there Id be obleeged if youd give an eye to our Foxy as is lonesome in tub It dunna matter about me being under Edards roof
Hazel had never felt so like a child in its mothers lap Her own mother had not made her feel so She had been a vague abstracted woman with an air of bepuzzlement and lostness She looked so long out of the door—never shut except when Abel insisted on it—that there was no time for Hazel Only occasionally she would catch her by the shoulders and look into her eyes and tell her strange news of faery But now she felt cared for as she looked round the low room with its chairbed and little dressingtable hung with pink glazed calico There was a text over the fireplace
Not a hair of thy head shall perish
It seemed particularly reassuring to Hazel as she brushed her long shining coils before the hanging mirror There was a bowl of double primroses—red mauve and white—on the windowsill and a card with Edwards love
Flowers in a bedroom were something very new To her as to so many poor people a bedroom was a stuffy place to crawl into at night and get out of as quickly as possible in the morning
Eh itll be grand to live here she thought drowsily as she lay down in the cool clean sheets and heard the large clock on the wall of the landing ticking slumbrously in a measured activity that deepened the peace She heard Mrs Marston slide past in her soft slippers with her characteristic walk rather like skating Then Edward came up evidently in stockinged feet for he was only heralded by creakings Hazel never dreamt that he had taken his shoes off for her sake
The moon riding clear of cloud flung the shadow of Edwards primroses on the bed—a large round posy like a Christmaspudding with outstanding leaves and flowers clearly defined all very black on the counterpane
Undern seemed very far off
I like this bettern that old dark place green dress or no green dress she thought and Ill neer go back there It inna true what he said Have her he will for certain sure for Im going to live along of Edard and the old sleepy ladyll learn me to make batter for ever and ever Batters a wellbeaten mixture of eggs and summat
She fell asleep
In his room Edward walked up and down too happy to go to bed
My little one my little one he whispered And he prayed that Hazel might have rosy and immortal happiness guarded by strong angels along a path of flowers all her life long and at last running in through the celestial gates as a child runs home
The spring wind rainy and mournful came groping out of the waste places and cried about the house like a man mourning for his love The cavern of night impenetrable and vast was full of echoes as if some voice terrible and violent had shouted there a long while since and might even before the agelong reverberations had died away be uplifted again if it was the will of the Power invisible but so immanent that it pressed upon the brain that inhabited the obscure stardripping cavern
Chapter 13
Next morning Mrs Marston came in from the kitchen with the toast which she would not trust anyone but herself to make with a face portending great happenings
Mind you see that they are all properly placed Edward they should be all together in one part of the room
Whod that be Hazel inquired
1906 plums 1908 gooseberries 1909 cherries sugarless The sugared ones are older Mrs Marston spoke so personally that Hazel stared
Its mothers exhibits Hazel explained Edward
Yes Theyve been to shows year by year and very well theyve stood it I only hope the constant travelling wont set up fermentation I should like those Morellas to outlive me A receipt I had of Jane Thorn and she died of dropsy poor thing and bottled to the end
Dunna you ever eat em asked Hazel
This was blasphemy To eat 1909 Morellas It was passed over in tense silence allowances being made for a prospective bride Poor thing shes upset
The exhibits packed in a great bed of the vivid starmoss that grew in the secret recesses of the woods were waiting on the front step in their usual box There were some wonderful new jellies that made Hazel long to be Mrs Marston and have control of the storeroom This was a dim place where ivy leaves scraped the cobwebby window and tall green canisters stood on shelves in company with glass jars neatly labelled and barrels of homemade wine where hams hung from the ceiling and herbs in bunches and on trays sent out a pungent sweetness In there the magic was now heightened by the presence—dignified even in deshabille—of a weddingcake which was being slowly but thoroughly iced
People often wondered how Mrs Marston did it No one ever saw her hurried or busy yet the proofs of her industry were here She worked like the coral insect in the dark as it were of instinct unlit by intellect and like the coral insect she raised a monumental structure that hemmed her in
They had to start early driven by Edwards one substantial parishioner who was principal judge chief exhibitor and organizer of the show The exhibits must be there by ten but Edward did not care in the least how many hours he spent there The day was only darkened for him by one thing
When the trap came round and Hazel climbed in joyously Edward forgot the exhibits He would have gone off without them had not Martha come flying down the path shouting
Mr Edard Mr Edard Nineteen six Nineteen nine Jam
What fors Martha cursing asked Hazel
Edward looking round saw his mothers face in the doorway dismayed surprised wounded He jumped out and ran up the path
Oh mother How could I he said miserably
Mrs Marston looked up her mouth that had fallen in a little trembling pitifully and her eyes smarting with the thick painful tears of age
It wasnt you my dear she said you never forget it was—the young woman
Ones god must at all hazards go clear of blame
Edward kissed her but with reserve and when he got into the trap he put an arm protectingly round Hazel
What a fool I am he thought Now everythings spoilt
In the silent storeroom hour by hour Mrs Marston propelled the mixture of sugar and egg through her icing syringe building complex designs of frosty whiteness
Her back ached and it seemed a long way round the cake but she went on until Martha with a note of sympathetic understanding in her voice announced
Yer dinners in mum and a cup of tea along of it
Mrs Marston sighed gratefully
How nice and pleasant she said but not as nice and pleasant as it was—before
Not by a long mile said Martha heartily For Hazel had taken the eye of all the eligibles at the concert and was altogether disturbing
Perhaps Martha said Mrs Marston wistfully when shes been here a long while and were used to her and shes part of the house—perhaps itll be as nice and pleasant as before
When the yeasts in said Martha pessimistically the doughs leavened
As Edward and Hazel drew near the showground they passed people walking and were overtaken by traps
A man passed at full gallop and Hazel was reminded of Reddin Later she said
Howd you like it Edard if somebody was after you like a weasel after a rabbit or a terrier at a foxearth Whatd you do
What morbid things you think of dear
Whatd you do
I dont know
Theres nought to do
Edward remembered his creed
I should pray Hazel
What goodd that do
God answers prayers
That He dunna Or whered the foxhunting gents be and whod have rabbitpie I dunna see as He can answer em
Little girls mustnt bother their pretty heads
If youd found as many creatures in traps as me and loosened em and seed their broken legs and eyes as if theyd seed ghosses and onst a dog caught by the tongue—eh youd bother You would that And feyther killing the pigs Good Fridays
Why Good Fridays of all days
That was the day Ah every Good Friday I was used to fight feyther
My dear child
You would if youd seed the pig that comforble and contented and knowd what itd look like in a minute Id a killed feyther if I could
But why Surely it was worse of you to want to kill your father than of him to want to kill the pig
I dunno But I couldnt abear it I bit him awful one time and he hit me on the head with a rake and I went to sleep
Edwards forehead was damp with sweat
Merciful God he thought that such things should be
And when Ive heard things screaming and crying to be loosed and them in traps and never a one coming to em but me its come oer me to woner whod loose me out if I was in a trap
God would
I dunna think so He neer lets the others out
Edward was silent The radiant day had gone dark and he groped in it
What for dunnot He my soul What for dun He give em mouths sos they can holla and not listen at em I listen when Foxy shouts out
At this moment Edward saw Abel approaching swaggering along with the harp He had never been glad to see him so far now he was almost affectionate
Laws Edard said Abel straining the affection to breakingpoint youm having a randy and no mistake Dancing and all I spose
No I shall go before the dancing
You wont get our Azel to go along of you then Dance her will like a leaf in the fall
Youd rather come home with me on your weddingeve Hazel wouldnt you
Abel seeing Hazels dismayed face laughed loudly Edward hated him as only sensitive temperaments can and was consciencestricken when he realized the fact
Well Hazel he asked gently and created a situation
I dunno said Hazel awkwardly A depressed silence fell between them both were so bitterly disappointed Abel like an ancient mischievous gnome went off calling to Hazel
Clear your throat agen the judgins over
The judges were locked into the barn where the exhibits were They took a long while over the judging presumably because they tasted everything even to the turnips Mrs James was partial to early turnips Edward and Hazel passed a window and looked in
Look at em longing after the old ladys jam said Hazel Its a mercy the covers are well stuck on or theyd be in like wasps Look at Mr Frodley wi the eggs Dear now hes sucking one like a lad at a throstles nest Oh Fatherd ought to be there He neer eats a cooked egg Allus raw Oh Mr James has unscrewed a bottle of fathers honey and dipped Look at im sucking his fingers
Do people buy the remnants asked Edward amused and disgusted
Ah What for not
The judges are now making a hearty meal off some cheeses
I wonder whose cheeses they are Edward mused
They were in fact Vessons He always insisted on making cheeses for some obscure reason possibly it was the pride of the oldfashioned servant in being worth more than his wages Vessons certainly was He made stacks of cheeses and took them to fairs and shows without the slightest encouragement from his master who when Vessons returned red with conflict and said planking down the money with intense pride—Ere it is I ad to labour for threpences though would merely nod uninterestedly But still the Undern cheeses went to shows labelled John Reddin Esquire per A Vessons
At last the judges came out The mere judging did not take long for Mr James usually considered his exhibit the best and said so the others being only smallholders were generally too polite to gainsay him
Edward and Hazel went into the barn where the exhibits were set out with stern simplicity looking brave and beautiful with their earthly glamour There were rolls of golden butter nutbrown eggs snowy bouquets of broccoli daffodils with the sun striking through their aery petals masses of dark wallflower where a stray bee revelled There was Abels honey with a large placard drawn by himself proclaiming in drunken capitals
ABEL WOODUS BEEMAN COFFINS HONEY WREATHS
OPEN TO ENGAGEMENTS TO PLAY THE HARP AT WEDDINGS WAKES AND CLUBDAYS
The golden jars shone the sections in their laceedged boxes whitely sealed were as provocative as the reserve of a fair woman
Edward bought one for Hazel To open on your weddingday he said
But the symbolism so apparent to him was lost on Hazel
Between the judging and the tea hour was a dull time The races had not begun and though an ancient of benign aspect announced continually Ill take two to one no one responded
The people stood about taking their pleasure like an anaesthetic and looking like drugged bees Now and then an old man from a far hillside would meet another old man from a farther one and there would be handshaking lasting perhaps a quarter of an hour
When Abel played they remained stoical and silent however madly or mournfully the harp cried They took good music as their right
Then Hazel sang gazing up at the purple ramparts of the hills that hung above the showground and Edwards eyes were full of tears
A very old man smoothfaced and wondering as a baby came leaning on his stick and stood before Hazel gazing into her mouth with the steadfast curiosity of a dog at a gramophone If she moved he moved absorbed his jaw dropped with interest Hazel did not notice him She was free on the migratory wings of music She did not see Vessons looking across the crowd with dismay nor know that he edged away muttering That gel agen Never will I
Edward was glad when the singing and collection were over and he could take Hazel into the shilling tent where sat the elite and give her tea People remained in a sessile state over tea for a long time while the chief race of the afternoon was begun by the ringing of a dinnerbell The race took so long the riders having to go round the course so many times that people went on complacently with their tea only looking out occasionally to see how things progressed watching the riders go by—one with bright red braces one in a blue cotton coat two middleaged men in their best bowlers and one obviously too well mounted for the rest in correct ridingdress They came round each time in the same order—the correct one red braces blue coat and the bowlers last Evidently the foremost one knew he could easily win and the others had decided that it was to be In the machinelike regularity of their advent their unaltered positions and leisured pace they were like hobbyhorses
How many times have they bin round Hazel asked the waitress who poured tea and made conversation in a sociable manner
Itll be the seventh They might as well give over Theyre only labouring to stay in the same place
I want to see em come in said Hazel They went out but Abel waylaid them and took Edward off to show him a queen bee in a box from Italy Edward loathed bees in or out of boxes but he was too kindhearted to refuse Abel was so unperceptive that he touched pathos
Hazel found a place some distance down the course where she could look along the straight to the winningpost she loved to hear them thunder past She leaned over the rail and watched them come still fatalistic but gallant bent on a dramatic finish stooping and cutting their horses The first man was on her side of the course She stared at him in amazed consternation as he came towards her His strong blue eyes caught by the fixity of her glance or by her bright hair saw her and became triumphant He pulled the horse in sharply and within a few yards of the winningpost wheeled and went back amid the jeers and howls of the crowd who thought he must be drunk
Youve given me a long enough chase he said leaning towards her
Where the devil do you live
Oh dunna stop Hes coming
Who
Mr Marston the minister
What do I care if hes a dozen ministers
But hell be angered
Ill make his nose bleed if hes got such cheek
Oh hes coming Mr Reddin I mun go She turned away Reddin followed
Why should he be angry
Because were going to be wed tomorrow
Reddin whistled
And Foxys coming and all of em And theres a clock as ticktacks ever so sleepy and a sleepy old lady and Edards bought me a box full of clothes
I gave you a box full too he said with a note of pleading You little runaway
Hazel was annoyed because he disturbed her so She wanted to get rid of him and she desired to exercise her power So she looked up and said impishly
Yours were old uns His be new—new as morning
He was too angry to swear
Youve got to come and talk to me while theyre dancing tonight he said
I wunna
You must If you dont Ill tell the parson you stopped the night at
Undern Surely you know that he wouldnt marry you then
He was bluffing He knew Vessons would tell Marston the truth if he spoke But it served his turn
You wouldna she pleaded
He laughed
Aright then she said if you wunna tell un
Will he stay for the dancing
No I mun go along of him
You know better
He turned away sharply as Edward came up He knew him for the minister he had met near the Callow Edward was tying up some daffodils for Hazel and did not see Reddin
Scarlet braces a fatalist no more came trotting up
What went wrong he asked with thinly veiled triumph
Everything snapped Reddin and calling Vessons he went off to the beertent to wait till the dancing began
These are for your room Hazel Edward was saying because the time of the singing of birds is come
He was thinking that God was indeed leading him forth by the waters of comfort
Hazel said nothing She was wondering what excuse she could make for staying
Dont frown little one There are no more worries for you now
Binna there
No You are coming to Gods Little Mountain What harm can come there
Now look up and smile Hazel
She met his grey eyes very tender and thoughtful What she saw however were blue eyes hard and not at all thoughtful
Chapter 14
Prizegiving time came and the younger Miss Clomber who was to present them tried to persuade Reddin to go up on the platform a lorry with chairs on it There already were Mr James and the secretary counting the prizemoney Below stood the winners Vessons conspicuous in his red waistcoat Miss Clomber felt that she looked well She was dressed in tweeds to show that this was not an occasion to her as to the country damsels
No I shall stay here said Reddin answering her stare intended to be inviting with a harder stare of indifference
As the last representative of such an old family—
Oh damn family he said peevishly having lost sight of Hazel
As Miss Clomber still persisted he quenched the argument
Young families are more in my line than old uns
She blushed unbecomingly and hastily got on to the lorry
Reddin went in search of Hazel while Mr James began to read the names
Mr Thomas Mr James Mrs Marston Mr James—
He handed the pile of shillings to Miss Clomber who presented them with the usual fatuous remarks When he had won the prize he received it back from her with a bow taking off his hat As his own name occurred more frequently than usual he began to get rather selfconscious He looked round the ring of faces and translated their stodginess as selfconsciousness dictated
Perhaps it would be as well to carry it off as a jest So his hat came off with a flourish and he said jocosely as he took the next heap Keepingapples Mr James Ill put it in me pocket
This attitude wearing thin he took refuge in that of unimpeachable honesty Fair and square The best man wins This lasted for some time but was not proof against Swedes Mr James Mangolds Mr James Stewing pears Mr James He began to get in a panic His bow was cursory He pocketed the money furtively and read his name in a low apologetic tone But this would never do He must pull himself together He tried bravado
Mr Vessons Mr James
Vessons stood immovable within arms reach of Miss Clomber When he got a prize which he did three times no one else having sent any cheeses he extended his arm like one side of a pair of compasses and vouchsafed neither bow nor smile He disliked Miss Clomber because he knew that she meant to be mistress of Undern Mr James was getting on well with the bravado
What do I care what people think Dear me All the world may see me get my prize
Then he caught Abels satiric eye and went all to pieces He clutched at his first attitude—the businesslike—and so began all over again and managed to get through by not looking in Abels direction being upheld by the knowledge that his pockets were getting very full
When he read out Cherries bottled Mrs Marston and Edward went to receive the prize Reddin shouldered up to Hazel and asked
What times he going
I dunno
Dont forget mind
Oh Mr Reddin I mun go What for wunna you let me be
But Reddin finding Miss Clombers eye on him was gone
Mr James had come to the end of the list He read out Abels name and that of an old bent man with grey elflocks a famous beemaster Mr James looked at Abel as much as to say Youve got your prize you see Its quite fair
Thank yer said Abel to Miss Clomber and then to James with fine irony You dunna keep bees do yer Mr James
The hills loomed in the dusk over the showground They were of a cold and terrific colour neither purple nor black nor grey but partaking of all Kingly mournful threatening they dominated the life below as the race dominates the individual. Hazel gazed up at them She stood in the attitude of one listening for in her ears was a voice that she had never heard before a deep inflexible voice that urged her to do—she knew not what She looked up at the round wooded hill that hid Gods Little Mountain—so high so cold for a poor child to climb She felt that the life there would be too righteous too wellmannered The thought of it suddenly made her homesick for dirt and the Callow
She thought of Undern crouched under its hill like a toad She remembered its echoing rooms and the sound as of dresses rustling that came along the passages while she put on the green gown Undern made her more homesick than the parsonage
Edward had gone She had said she wanted to stay with her father and Edward had thought her a sweet daughter and had acquiesced though sadly
Now she was awaiting Reddin The dancing had not begun though the tent was ready Yellow light flowed from every gap in the canvas and Hazel felt very forlorn out in the dark for light seemed her natural sphere As she stood there looking very small and slight she had a cowering air Always when she stood under a tree or sheltered from the rain she had this look of a refugee furtive and browbeaten When she ran she seemed a fugitive fleeing across the world with no city or refuge to flee into
Miss Clombers approach made her start
A word with you said Miss Clomber in her brisk unsympathetic voice I saw you with Mr Reddin twice I just wanted to say in a sisterly and Christian spirit—she lowered her voice to a hollow whisper—that he is not a good man
Well said Hazel with a sigh of relief in the midst of her shyness and her oppression about the mountain thats summat anyway
Miss Clomber outraged and furious strode away
Hazel was again left to the hills The taciturnity of winter was upon them still and in the sky beyond was the cynical aloofness that comes with frost after sunset
She turned from them to the lighted tent The golden glow was like some bright creature imprisoned Abel had prorogued an interminable argument with the old man with the elflocks and now began thrumming inside the tent
Young men and women converged upon it at the sound of the music as flies flock to the osier blossom They went in as the blessed to Paradise The canvas began to sway and billow in the wind of the dancing Hazel felt that life was going on gaily without her—she shut away in the dark Her feet began to dance
Ill go in she said defiantly What for not
But just as she was lifting the flap she heard Reddins voice at her elbow
Hazel why did you run away
I dunno
Why didnt you tell me your name Here have I been going hellforleather up and down the country
Ah Thats gospel Thats righteous I seed you
Reddin was speechless
Me and father was in the public and you came I thought it was the
Black Huntsman
Thanks Not a pin to choose I suppose
Not all that
Were wasting time Whats all this about the parson
I told ee
But it isnt true You and the parson
He laughed Hazel looked at him with disfavour
Youre like a hounddog when you laugh like to that she said and I dunna like the hounddogs
He stopped laughing
Abels harp beat upon them and the soft thudding of feet on the turf like sheep stamping had grown in volume as the shyest were gradually drawn into the revelry
A rainstorm shaped like a pillar walked slowly along the valley skirting the base of the hills It was like a grey god with folded arms and head aloof in the sky As it drew slowly nearer to the two who stood there like lovers and were not lovers and as it lashed them across the eyes it might have been fate
Hazel cant you see Im in love with you
What for are you There was a wailing note in Hazels voice and the rain ran down her face like tears Theres you and theres Edard Oh what for are you
Reddin looked at her in astonishment A woman not to like a man to be in love with her It was uncanny He stood squareset against the darkening sky his fine massive head slightly bent looking down at her
I never thought he said helplessly—I never thought when I had come to forty years without the need of women of love he corrected himself that I should be like this
He looked at Hazel accusingly then he gazed up at the coming night as a lion might at the sound of thunder
Be you forty Hazels voice was on the top note of wonder Laws what an age
Its not really old he pleaded very humbly for him
She laughed
The parson now I suppose hes young His voice was wistful
Hem the right age
Reddins temper flamed
Ill show you if Im old Ill show you who makes the best lover me or a silly lad
Hands off Mr Reddin
But her words went down the lonely wind that had begun to drag at the lighted tent
There said Reddin pleased with his kisses Now come and dance and youll see if a chap of forty cant tire you Afterwards well settle the parsons hash
He lifted the tentflap and they went in and were taken by the bright slowwhirling life
Hazel was glad to dance with him or anyone so that she might dance Reddin held his head high for he was a lover tonight and he had never been that before in any of his amours
He was angry and enthralled with Hazel and the two emotions together were intoxicating
Hazel was a flower in a gale when she danced a slim poplar tremulous and swaying in the dawn a young beech assenting to the winds will
Abel watched her with pride She was turning out a credit to him after all It was astonishing
Its worth playing for our Azels feet The others just stomps he thought Whos the fellow shes along with Id best keep an eye A bargains a bargain
Youm kept your word said Hazel suddenly to Reddin
Hm
Tired me out
Come outside then and Ill get you a cup of tea
He fetched it and sat down by her on an orangebox
Now look here he said fair and square will you marry me
He was surprised at himself
Andrew Vessons who had tiptoed after them from the tent spread out his hands and gazed at heaven with a look of supreme despair all the more intense because he could not speak He returned desolately to the tent where he stood with a cynical smile leaning a little forward with his arms behind him watching the dancing an apotheosis of sex to him not only silly and pitiful but disgusting Now and then he shook his head went to the door to see if his master was coming and shook it again A friend came up
Why did the gaffer muck up the race he asked
Why asked Vessons with a faroff gaze did Im as made the orld put women in
Outside things were going more to his liking than he knew
Whats the good of keeping on Mr Reddin I told ee I was promised to Edard
But you like me a bit Better than the parson
I dunno
Come off with me now I swear Ill play fair
I swore she cried I swore by the Mountains and that can neer be broke
What did you swear
To marry the first as come Thats Edard If I broke that oath when I was jead my cold soul ud wander and find neer a bit of rest crying about the Mountains and about nights and Edard thinking it was the wind
If you chuck him hell soon get over it if you chuck me I shant
Hes never gone after the drink and women
It was a curious plea for a lover
Miss Clomber said you wunna a good man
Well Im blowed But look here If he loses you hell be off his feed for a bit but if I lose you therell be the devil to pay Has he kissed you
Time and agen
I wont have it
Azel called her father
You wont go
I mun Its father
And I shant see you againtill youre married Oh marry me
Hazel Marry me
His voice shook At the mysterious grief in his face—a grief that was half rage and the more pitiful for that—she began to sob Abel came up
A mourningparty seemingly he said holding his lantern so as to light each face in turn
I want to marry your daughter
Abel roared
Another First er bags a parson and next a squire
Farmer
Itll be the king on his throne next Laws girl youre like beer and treacle
Youve not answered me said Reddin
Shes set
Eh
Set Bespoke Let
Shes a right to change her mind
Nay A bargains a bargain Why theyve bought the clothes mister and the furniture and the cake
If she comes with me youll go home with a cheque for fifty pounds and thats all Ive got said Reddin naively
I tell you sir shes let Abel repeated A bargains a bargain
It occurred to him that the Callow garden might with fifty pounds be filled with beehives from end to end
Mister he said almost in tears you didnt ought to go for to tice me Eh dear eart the wood I could buy and the white paint and a separator and queens from foreign parts He made a gesture of despair and his face worked
You could have a new harp if you wanted one Reddin suggested
Abel gulped
A bargains a bargain he repeated And I promised the parson He turned away
Azel he said over his shoulder you munna go along of this gent Manys the time he added turning round and surveying her moodily as youve gone agen me and done what I gainsayed
With a long imploring look he hitched the harp on his back and trudged away
Hazel followed But Reddin stepped in front of her
Look here Hazel You say you dont like hurting things Youre hurting me
Looking at his haggard face she knew it was true
She wiped her tears away with her sleeve
It inna my fault Im allus hurting things I canna set foot in the garden nor cook a cabbage but I kill a lot of little pretty flies and things And when we take honey theres allus bees hurted Im bound to go agen you or Edard and I canna go agen Edard he sets store by me does Edard You should a seen the primmyroses he put in my room last night I slep at the parsonage along of us being late
Reddin frowned as if in physical pain
And he bought me stockings all thin and a skyblue petticoat
Reddin looked round He would have picked her up then and there and taken her to Undern but the road was full of people
I couldna go agen Edard Hem that kind Foxy likes him too shed neer growl at im
Perhaps Reddin said hoarsely Foxyd like me if I gave her bones
She wouldna Youm got blood on you
She drew away coldly at this remembrance which had been obliterated by
Reddins grief
Youm got the blood of a many little foxes on you she said and her voice cut him like sharp sleet—little foxes as met have died quick and easy wi a gunshot And youve watched em minced alive
Ill give it up if youll chuck the parson
I woner you dunna see em nights watching you out of the black dark with their gold eyes like kingcups and the look in em of things dying hard I woner you dunna hear em screaming
His cause was lost and he knew it but he pleaded on
No If I hadna swore by the Mountain I wouldna come she said
Youve got blood on you
At that moment a neighbour passed and offered Hazel a lift Now that she was marrying a minister she had become a personality Hazel climbed in and drove off and Reddins tragic moment died as great fires die into grey ash
He went home heavily His way lay past the parsonage where Edward and his mother slept peacefully The white calm of unselfish love wrapped Edward for he felt that he could make Hazel happy As he fell asleep that night he thought
She was made for a ministers wife
Reddin leaning heavily on the low wall staring at the drunken tombstones and the quiet moonsilvered house thought
She was made for me
Both men saw her as what they wanted her to be not as she was
Many thoughts darkened Reddins face as he stood there hour after hour in the cold May night The rime whitened his broad shoulders as he leaned on the wall and in the moonlight the sprinkling of white hairs at his temples shone out from the black as if to mock this young passion that had possessed him
Gods Little Mountain lay shrugged in slumber the woods crouched like beaten creatures under the night the small soft leaves hung limply in the frost
Still Reddin stood there chilled through and through brooding upon the house
Not until dawn like a knife gashed the east with blood did he stir
He sighed Too late he said
Then he laughed Beaten by the parson
A demoniac rage surged in him He picked up a piece of rock and lifting it in both arms flung it at the house It smashed the kitchen window But before Edward came to his window Reddin was out of sight in the batch
My dear said Mrs Marston tremulously I always feared disaster from this strange match
How can Hazel have anything to do with it mother
I think dear it is a sign from God On your weddingmorning Broken glass Yes it is a sign from God I wish it need not have been quite so violent But of course He knows best
Chapter 15
At the parsonage everything was ready early Edward restless after his rough awakening had risen at three and finished his own preparations being ready to help Mrs Marston when she came down still a good deal upset Whenever she passed Hazels room or saw Edward take flowers there she said Oh my dear and shook her head sadly For the kind of life that seemed to be mapped out by Edward would she feared not include grandchildren And grandchildren had acquired through long cogitations the glamour of the customary She was also ruffled by Martha who unlike her own pastry was short What with the two women angry and grieved and the fact that his weddingday held only half the splendour that it should have held Edwards spirits might have been expected to be low but they were not He ran up and down joked with Martha soothed his mother and sang until Martha who thought that a ministers deportment at a wedding should be only a little less grandiloquent than at a funeral said
Hem less like a minister than a nest of birds She and Mrs Marston were setting out the feathercups in the best parlour
At that moment Edward stood at the door of Hazels room and realized that he would enter it no more He must not see the sweet disarray of her unpacking nor rest night by night in the charmed circle of her presence Almost he felt in this agony of loss—loss of things never possessed the most bitter loss of all—that if he could have had these things even the ruddyhaired goldeneyed children of his dreams might go He knelt by Hazels bed and laid his dark head on the pillow torn by physical and spiritual passion His hair was clammy and a new line marked his forehead from that day Anyone seeing him would have thought that he was praying he was so still It was Edwards fate to be thought so quiet because the fires within him made no sound burning at a stillwhite heat
He was not praying Prayer had receded to a far distance like a signpost long passed Perhaps he would come round to it again but now he was in the trackless desert It is only those that have suffered moderately that speak of prayer as the sufferers refuge By that you know them Those that have been tortured remember that the worst part of the torture was the breaking of the prayer in their hands piercing and not upholding
Edward knew kneeling there with his eyes shut how Hazels hair would flow sweetly over the pillow how her warm arm would feel about his neck how wildly sweet it would be in some dark hour to allay dreamfears and hush her to sleep Never before had the gracious intimacy of marriage so shone in his eyes And he was going to have just the amount of intimacy that his mother would have perhaps rather less Every night he would stand on the threshold kiss Hazel with a brotherly kiss and turn away His life would be a cold threshold Month by month year by year he would read the sweet frank lovestories of the Bible—stories that would if written by a novelist be banned so true are they year by year he would see nest and young creatures and go into cottages where babies in fluffy shawls gazed at him anciently and caught his fingers in a grip of tyrannous weakness And always there would be Hazel alluring him with an imperishable magic even stronger than beauty startling him from his hardwon calm by the turn of a wrist the curve of a waistribbon a wave of her hair And then the stern hour of crisis rode him down and a great voice cried not with the cunning that he would have expected of a temper but with the majesty of morning on the heights
Take her She is yours
He knew that it was true Who would gainsay him She was his In a few hours she would be his wife in his own house giving him every law of creed and race In fact by not pleasing himself he would be outraging creed and race The latch of her door was his to lift at any time That chamber of roses and gold rainbows and silver cries like the dawnnotes of birds was there for him like the open rose for the bee His mother too would be pleased She had expostulated gelatinously about this marriage which was no marriage He would be that companionable and inspiring thing—the norm He would be one of the worldwide company of men that work marry bring up children maybe see their grandchildren and then in the glory of fulfilment lay their silver heads on the pillow of sleep He had always loved normal things He was not one of those who are set apart by the strange aloofness of genius whose souls burn with a wild light instead of with the comfortable glow of the hearth fire He was an ordinary man loved ordinary things Neither was he effeminate or a celibate by instinct though he had not Reddins fury of masculinity Sex would never have awakened in him but at the touch of spiritual love But the touch had come it had awakened it threatened to master him
Pictures came dimly and yet radiantly before him Hazel as she would stand tonight brushing out her hair this room as it would be when she had put the light out and only starlight illuminated it the flowery scent the sound of her soft breathing and then in a tempestuous rush the emotions he would feel as he laid his hand on the latch—love triumph intoxication
How would she look What would she say She could not forbid him She would perhaps when she awoke to the sweetness of marriage love him as passionately as he loved her
A wild mastery possessed him He would have what he wanted of life What need was there to renounce And then like a minor chord soft and plaintive he heard Hazels voice in bewildered accents murmur
What for do you my soul and Im much obleeged Im sure
What stood between him and his desire was Hazels helplessness her personality like a delicate glass that he would break if he stirred Creed and convention pushed him on For Church and State are for material righteousness the letter of the law Spiritual flowerings high motives clad in apparent lawlessness—these are hardly in their province since they are for those who still need crude rules To the scribes and still more to them that sold doves Christ was a brawler
Rather than break that glass he would not stir What were the race and public opinion to him compared with her spirit His tenets must make an exception for her These things were negligible All that mattered was himself and Hazel his passion Hazels freedom his longing for husbandhood and fatherhood her elvish incapacity for wifehood and motherhood He suddenly detested himself for the rosy pictures he had seen He was utterly abased at the knowledge that he had really meant at one moment to enforce his rights to lift the latch The selfish use of strength always seemed to him a most despicable thing From all points he surveyed his crisis with shame He had made his decision but he knew how easy it would have been to make the opposite one How easy and how sweet He stayed where he was for a long time too tired to get up weary with a conflict that was hardly yet begun Then he heard his mother calling and got up closing the door as one surrenders a dream He still held in one hand the bunch of rosy tulips he had bought for Hazel at the show They hung their heads
Oh my dear boy said Mrs Marston Ive called and better called and no answer Where were you
Edward might have said with truth In hell He only said In a valley of this restless mind
What valley dear Oh no valley only a poem How very peculiar Dear dear she thought I hope all this isnt turning his brain it seemed so like nonsense what he said You look so pale my dear and so distraught she went on I think you want a—
No mother Thank you I want nothing
He was half conscious of the bitter irony of it as he said it
Mrs Marston was looking at his knees
Oh my dear I know now she said I beg your pardon for saying you wanted a powder You were with the Lord You could not have been better occupied on your wedding morning
She was very much touched Edward flushed darkly conscious of how he had been occupied
There cried she now youre as flushed as you were pale Its the fever Ill mix you something that will soon put you all right
I only wish you could he sighed
And what I wanted said she catching at her previous thought in the same blind way as she caught at her skirts on muddy days—what I wanted dear was—its so heavy the cake—
You want me to lift it mother
Yes my dear How well you know And mind not to spoil the icing its so hard not to it being so white and brittle
No I wont spoil the white he said earnestly however hard it is
She did not notice that the earnestness was unnatural intense earnestness in household matters was her normal state
Chapter 16
The stately May morning caparisoned in diamonds full of the solemnity that perfect beauty wears had come out of the purple mist and shamed the hovel where Hazel dressed for her bridal The cottage had sunk almost out of recognition in the foam of spring Ancient lilacs stood about it and nodded purplecoroneted heads across its one chimney Their scent bore down all other scents like a strong personality and there was no choice but to think the thoughts of the lilac Two laburnums forked and huge of trunk fingered the roof with their lower branches and dripped gold on it The upper branches sprang far into the blue
The maytree by the gate knew its perfect moment covered with crystal buds that shone like rain among the bright green leaves From every peartree—fullblossomed dropping petals—and from every shellpink appletree came the roar of the bees
Abel rose very early for he considered it the proper thing to make a wreath for Hazel being an artist in such matters The liliesofthevalleywere almost out he had put some in warm water overnight and now he sat beneath the horsechestnut and worked at the wreath The shadows of the leaves rippled over him like water and often he looked up at the white spires of bloom with a proprietary eye for his bees were working there with a ferocity of industry
He was moody and miserable for he thought of the township of hives that Hazel might have won for him He comforted himself with the thought that there would be something saved on her keep It never occurred to him to be sorry to lose her in fact there was little reason why he should be Each had lived a lonely selfsufficing life they were entirely unsuitable companions for each other
He wove the wet lilies rather limp from the hot water on to a piece of wire taken from one of his wreathframes
So Hazel went to her bridal in a funeral wreath
She awoke very tired from the crisis yesterday but happy She and Foxy and the oneeyed cat her rabbit and the blackbird were going to a country far from troublous things to the peace of Edwards love on the slope of Gods Little Mountain
The difficulties of the new life were forgotten Only its joys were visible today Mrs Marston seemed to smile and smile in an eternal lovingkindness and Marthas heavy face wore an air of goodfellowship The loud winds lulled and bearing each its gift of balm would blow softly round Edwards house Frost she thought would not come to Gods Little Mountain as to the cold Callow
She had not seen Reddins rimy shoulders nor the cold glitter of the tombs
She sang as she dressed with the shrill sweetness of a robin She had never seen such garments she hardly knew how to put some of them on She brushed her hair till it shone like a tigerlily and piled it on her small head in great plaits When her white muslin frock was on she drew a long breath seeing herself in bits in the small glass
I be like a picture she gasped Round her slim sunburnt neck was a small gold chain holding a topaz pendant which matched her eyes
When she came forth like a lily from the mould Abel staggered backwards partly in clownish mirth partly in astonishment He was so impressed that he got breakfast himself and afterwards went and sandpapered his hands until they were sore Hazel enthroned in one of the broken chairs fastened on Foxys weddingcollar made of blue forgetmenot
Foxy immensely dignified sat on her haunches her chin tucked into the forgetmenots immovably bland She was evidently competent for her new role she might have been ecclesiastically connected all her life The oneeyed cat was beside her blueribboned purring her best which was like a broken bagpipe on account of her stormy youth
Ah youd best purr said Hazel Sitting on cushions by the fireside all your life long youll be and Foxy with a brand new tub
Not many brides think so little of themselves so much of small pensioners as Hazel did this morning Breakfast was a sociable meal for Abel made several remarks Now and then he looked at Hazel and said Laws Hazel laughed gleefully When she stood by the gate watching for the neighbours cart that was to take them she looked as full of white budding promise as the maytree above her
She did not think very much about Edward except as a protecting presence Reddins face full of strong mysterious misery the feel of Reddins arm as they danced his hand hot and muscular on hers—these claimed her thoughts She fought them down conscious that they were not suitable in Edwards bride
At last the cart appeared coming up the hill with the peculiar lurching deportment of market carts The pony had a bunch of marigolds on each ear and there was lilac on the whip They packed the animals in—the cat giving ventriloquial mews from her basket the rabbit in its hutch the bird in its wooden cage and Foxy sitting up in front of Hazel The harp completed the load They drove off amid the cheers of the nextdoor children and took their leisurely way through the resinous fragrance of larchwoods
The creamcoloured pony was lame which gave the cart a peculiar roll and she was tormented with hunger for the marigolds which hung down near her nose and caused her to get her head into strange contortions in the effort to reach them The wind sighed in the tall larches and once again as on the day of the concert they bent attentive heads towards Hazel In the glades the widespread hyacinths would soon be paling towards their euthanasia knowing the art of dying as well as that of living fortunate as few sentient creatures are in keeping their dignity in death
When they drove through the quarry where deep shadows lay Hazel shivered suddenly
Somebody walking over your grave said Abel
Oh dunna say that It be unlucky on my weddingday she cried As they climbed the hill she leaned forward as if straining upwards out of some deep horror
When their extraordinary turnout drew up at the gate Abel boisterously flourishing his lilacladen whip and shouting elaborate but incomprehensible witticisms Edward came hastily from the house His eyes rested on Hazel and were so vivid so brimful of tenderness that Abel remained with a joke half expounded
My Hazel Edward said standing by the cart and looking up welcome home and God bless you
You canna say fairer nor that remarked Abel Inna our Azel peart
Dressed up summat cruel inna she
Edward took no notice He was looking at Hazel searching hungrily for a hint of the same overwhelming passion that he felt But he only found childlike joy gratitude affection and a faint shadow for which he could not account and from which he began to hope many things
If in that silent room upstairs he had come to the opposite decision if he had that very day told Hazel what his love meant by the irony of things she would have loved him and spent on him the hidden passion of her nature
But he had chosen the unselfish course
Well he said in a businesslike tone suppose we unpack the little creatures and Hazel first
Mrs Marston appeared
Oh are you going to a show Mr Woodus she asked Abel It would have been so nice and pleasant if you would have played your instrument
Yes mum Thats what Ive acome for I inna going to no show Ive come to the wedding to get my bellyfull
Mrs Marston very much flustered asked what the animals were for
I think mother theyre for you Edward smiled
She surveyed Foxy full of vitality after the drive the bird moping and rough the rabbit with one ear inside out looking far from respectable She heard the ventriloquistic mews
I dont want them dear she said with great decision
Its a bit of a cats ome youre starting mum said Abel
Mrs Marston found no words for her emotions
But while Edward and Abel bestowed the various animals she said to
Martha
Weddings are not what they were Martha
Bride to groom said Martha who always read the local weddings a oneeyed cat a foolish rabbit asd be better in a pie an illcontrived bird and a filthy smelly fox
Mrs Marston relaxed her dignity so far as to laugh softly She decided to give Martha a rise next year
Chapter 17
Hazel sat on a large flat gravestone with Foxy beside her They were like a sculpture in marble on some ancient tomb Coming so soon after her strange moment of terror in the quarry to this place of the dead she was smitten with formless fear The crosses and stones had on that stormbeleaguered hillside an air of horrible bravado as if they knew that although the winds were stronger than they yet they were stronger than humanity as if they knew that the whole world is the tomb of beauty and has been made by man the torturechamber of weakness
She looked down at the lettering on the stone It was a young girls grave
Oh she muttered looking up into the tremendous dome of blue empty and adamantine—oh dunna let me go young What for did she dee so young Dunna let me dunna
And the vast dome received her prayer empty and adamantine
She was suddenly panicstricken she ran away from the tombs calling
Edwards name
And Edward came on the instant His hands were full of cabbage which he had been taking to the rabbit
What is it little one
These here
The graves
Ah Theym so drodsome
Edward pointed to a laburnumtree which had rent a tomb and now waved above it
See he said Out of the grave and gate of death—
Ah But her as went in hanna come out Ony a new tree Ill be bound she wanted to come out
At this moment Edwards friend who was to marry them arrived
Now I shall go and wait for you to come Edward whispered
Waiting in the dim chapel with its whitewashed walls and few leaded windows half covered with ivy his mind was clear of all thoughts but unselfish ones
His mother trailing purple came in and thought how like a sacred picture he looked this for her was superlative praise Marthas brother was there ringing the one bell which gave such a small fugitive sound that it made the white chapel seem like a tinkling bellwether lost on the hills
Mr James was there and several of the congregation and Martha with her best dress hastily donned over her print and a hat of which her brother said it ud draw tears from an egg
Mr James daughter played a voluntary in the midst of which an altercation was heard outside
Herll be lonesome wiout me
They wunna like it Its blasphemy
Then the door opened and Abel very perspiring and conscious of the greatness of the occasion led in Hazel in her wreath of drooping lilies The green light touched her face with unnatural pallor and her eyes haunted by some old evil out of the darkness of life looked towards Edward as to a saviour
She might have been one of those brides from faery who rose wraithlike out of a pool or river and had some mysterious ichor in their veins and slipped from the grasp of mortal lover melting like snow at a touch Edward watching her was seized with an inexplicable fear He wished she had not been so strangely beautiful that the scent of lilies had not brought so heavy a faintness reminding him of deathchambers
It was not till Hazel reached the top of the chapel that the congregation observed Foxy a small red figure trotting willingly in Hazels wake—a loving though incompetent bridesmaid
Mr James arose and walked up the chapel
I will remove the animal he said then he saw that Hazel was leading Foxy This insult was then deliberate A hanimal he said hasnt no business in a place o worship
What for not asked Hazel
Because— Mr James found himself unable to go on Because not he finished blusterously He laid his hand on the cord but Foxy prepared for conflict
Edwards colleague turned away hand to mouth He was obliged to contemplate the ivy outside the window while the altercation lasted
Whoever made you Hazel said made Foxy Where you can come Foxy can come Youm deacon Foxys bridesmaid
Thats heathen talk said Mr James
How very naughty Hazel is thought poor Mrs Marston She felt that she could never hold up her head again The congregation giggled The black grapes and the chenille spots trembled How very unpleasant thought the old lady
Then Edward spoke and his voice had an edge of masterfulness that astonished Mr James
Let be he said Other sheep I have which are not of this fold
Them also will I bring She has the same master James
Silence fell The other minister turned round with a surprised admiring glance at Edward and the service began It was short and simple but it gathered an extraordinary pathos as it progressed
The narcissi on the windowsills eyed Hazel in a white silence and their dewy golden eyes seemed akin to Foxys and her own The fragrance of spring flowers filled the place with wistful sadness There are no scents so tearful so grievous as the scents of valleylilies and narcissi clustered ghostly by the dark garden hedge and white lilac freighted with old dreams and pansies faintly reminiscent of mysterious lost ecstasy
Edward felt these things and was oppressed A great pity for Hazel and her following of forlorn creatures surged over him A kind of dread grew up in him that he might not be able to defend them as he would wish It did seem that helplessness went to the wall Since Hazel had come with her sad philosophy of experience, he had begun to notice facts
He looked up towards the aloof sky as Hazel had done
He is love he said to himself
The blue sky received his certainty as it had received Hazels questioning in regardless silence
Mrs Marston observed Edward narrowly Then she wrote in her hymnbook
Mem Maltine Edward
The service was over Edward smiled at her as he passed and met Mr
James frown with dignified goodhumour
Foxy even more willing to go out than to come in ran on in front and as they entered the house they heard from the cupboard under the stairs the epithalamium of the oneeyed cat
Oh dear heart said Hazel tremulously looking at the cake I neer saw the like
Mother iced it dear
Hazel ran to Mrs Marston and put both her thin arms round her neck kissing her in a storm of gratitude
There there quietly my dear said Mrs Marston Im glad it pleases She smoothed the purple silk smilingly Hazel was forgiven
Id a brought the big saw if Id a thought said Abel jocosely
Only Mr James was taciturn
Foxy was allowed in and perambulated the room to Mrs Marstons supreme discomfort every time Foxy drew near she gave a smothered scream In spite of these various disadvantages it was a merry party and did not break up till dusk
After tea Abel played Mr James being very patronizing saying at the end of each piece Very good till Abel asked rudely Can yer play yourself
Edward came to the rescue by offering Mr James tobacco They drew round the fire for the dusk came coldly only Abel remaining in his corner playing furiously He considered it only honest after such a tea to play his loudest
Hazel happy but restless played with Foxy beside the darkening window low and manypaned and cumbered with bits of furniture dear to Mrs Marston
Edward was showing his friend a cycle map of the country
Mrs Marston was sleepily discussing hens—good layers good sitters good tablefowl—with Mr James Hazel tired of playing with Foxy knelt on the big round ottoman with its central peak of stuffed tapestry and looked idly from the window
Suddenly she cried out Edward was alert in a moment
What is it dear
Hazel had sunk back on the ottoman pale and speechless but she realized that she must pull herself together
I stuck a pin in me she said
Tins in a weddingdress Oh fie said Mrs Marston Tricked at your wedding pricked for aye
Oh dear dearie me cried Hazel bursting into tears and flinging herself at Edwards feet
Wondering he comforted her
Mrs Marston called for the lamp the blinds were drawn and all was saffron peace
Outside in the same attitude as before bowed and motionless stood Reddin He saw Hazel watched her withdraw and knew that she had seen him When the window suddenly shone like daffodils he recoiled as if at a lash and turning went heavily down the batch He turned into the woods and made his way back till he was opposite the house Thence he watched the guests depart and later saw Martha go to her cottage The lights wavered and wandered He saw one go up the stairs
Inside the house Mrs Marston confronted with a bridal which she did not quite know how to regard very tactfully said good night and left them together in the parlour They sat there for a time and Edward tried not to realize how much he was missing He got up at last and lit Hazels candle At her door he said good night hastily Hazel took the arrangements for granted partly because she had slept in this same room two nights ago partly because Edward had never shown her a hint of passion
The higher the nature the more its greatness is taken for granted
Edward turned and went to his room
Reddin under his black roof of pines counted the lights and seeing that there were three turned homewards with a sigh of relief But as he went through the fields he remembered how Hazel had looked last night how she had danced like a leaf how slender and young she was He was a man everlastingly maddened by slightness and weakness As a boy when his father and mother still kept up their position a little he had broken a priceless Venetian glass simply because he could not resist the temptation to close his hand on it His father had flogged him being of the stupid kind who believe that corporal punishment can influence the soul And Reddin had done the same thing next day with a bit of eggshell china
So now as he thought of Hazels lissom waist her large eyes rather scared her slender wrists he cursed until the peewits arose mewing all about him In the thick darkness of the lonely fields he might have been some hero of the dead mouthing a satanic recitative amid a chorus of lost souls
The long search for Hazel begun in a whim had ended in passion If he had never looked for her never felt the nettled sense of being foiled or if he had found her at once he would never have desired her so fiercely Now for the first time in his life impassioned he felt something mysterious and unwelcome to him begin to mingle with his desire Above all life without her meant dullness lack of vitality the swift onset of middleage He saw this with shrinking He walked wearily looking older than he was in the pathos of loss
Life with her meant an indefinitely prolonged youth an ecstasy he had not dreamt of the wellbeing of his whole nature He walked along moodily thinking how he would have started afresh smartened up Undern worked hard given his children—his and Hazels—a good education become more sober
But he had been a fortnight too late A miserable fortnight He who had raved over the countryside had missed her Marston who had simply remained on his mountain had won her
Its damned unfair he said and pathos faded from him in his rage All the vague thoughts dark and turgid of the last two nights took shape slowly
He neither cursed nor brooded any more He thought keenly as he walked His face took a more powerful cast—it had never been a weak face at the worst—and he looked a man that it would not be easy to combat Bitter hatred of Edward possessed him silent fury against fate relentless determination to get Hazel whether she would or not He had a purpose in life now Vessons was surprised at his quick authoritative manner
Make me some sandwiches early tomorrow he said and youll have to go to the auction I shant go myself
Ow can I go now Whos to do the cheeses
Give em to the pigs
Whos to meet the groom from Farnley Never will I go
If youre so damned impudent youll have to leave
Whos to meet the groom Vessons spoke with surly astonished meekness
Groom Groom be hanged Wire to him
Itll take me the best part of two hour to go and telegrapht And it cosses money And dinner at the auction cosses money
Oh cried Reddin with intense irritation take this you fool
He flung his purse at Vessons
Well well thought Vessons I mun yumour im Hes fretched along of her marrying the minister Long live the minister says Andrew
Chapter 18
Next morning Vessons went off in high feather Hazel was so safely disposed of Reddin left at the same time and all the long May day Undern was deserted and lay still and silent as if pondering on its loneliness Reddin did not return until after nightfall
He spent the day in a curious manner for a man of his position under a yewtree riven of trunk gigantic black commanding Edwards house He leant against the trunk that had seen so many generations shadowed so many foxearths groaned in so many tempests
Above his tent sailed those hillwanderers the white clouds of May They were as fiercely pure as apparently imperishable as a great ideal With lingering majesty they marched across the sky first over the parsonage then over Reddin laying upon each in turn a hyacinth shadow
Reddin watched the house indifferently while Martha went to and fro cleaning the chapel after the wedding
Then Mrs Marston came to the front door and shut it
After that for a long time nothing moved but the slow shadows of the gravestones shortening with the climbing sun The laburnum waved softly and flung its lacy shadow on the grave where the grass was long and daisied
A woodpigeon began in its deep and golden voice a low soliloquy recollected as a saints rich as a lovers Reddin stirred disconsolately trampling the thin leaves and delicate flowers of the sorrel
At last the door opened and Edward came out carrying a spade
Hazel followed They went round to the side of the house away from the graveyard and Edward began to dig Hazel sitting on the grass and evidently making suggestions With the quickness of jealousy Reddin knew that Edward was making a garden for Hazel It enraged him
I could have made her a garden and a deal better than that he thought She could have had half an acre of the garden at Undern I could have it made in no time
He uttered an exclamation of contempt The way he fools with that spade Hes never dug in his life
Before long Hazel brought out the birdcage and hung it in the sun And surprisingly almost alarmingly the ancient bird began to sing It was like hearing an old man sing a lovesong The bird sat there rough and purblind and chanted youth with the magic of a master
Hazel and Edward stood still to hear it holding each others hands
Hes neer said a word afore breathed Hazel Eh but he likes the
Mountain
In the little warm garden with Hazel among the thick daisies with the mirth of the once desolate ringing in his ears Edward knew perfect happiness
He stood looking at Hazel his eyes dark with love She seemed to blossom in the quiet day He stooped and kissed her hand
To Reddin in his deep shadow every action was clear for they stood in the sunlight He ground the sorrel into the earth After a time Martha rang the dinnerbell not because she could not both see and hear her master but because it was the usual thing To Reddin the bells rather cracked note was sardonic for it was summoning another man to eat and drink with Hazel He ate his sandwiches not being so much in love that he lost his appetite Then he sat down and read the racing news There was no danger of anyone seeing him for the place was entirely solitary with the double loneliness of hill and woodland There were no children in the batch except Marthas friends little boy and he was timid and never went birdsnesting The only sound except the intermittent song of birds was the faraway noise of a woodmans axe like the deep scattered barking of hungry hounds Nothing else stirred under the complex arches of the trees except the sunlight moving like a ghost
These thick woods remote on their ridges were to the watchful eye rich with a halfrevealed secret to the attentive ear full of urgent voices The solving of all lifes riddles might come to one here at any moment In this hour or in the next from a grey ashbole or a bloodred pinetrunk might come the naked spirit of life with a face fierce or lovely Coiled in the twist of long honeysuckle ropes that fell from the dead yews curled in a last years leaf embattled in a mailed fircone or resting starrily in the green moss it seemed that God slumbered At any moment He might wake to bless or curse
Reddin not having a watchful eye or an attentive ear for such things was not conscious of anything but a sense of loneliness He read the paper indefatigably In an hour or so Edward and Hazel came out again she in her new white hat They went up Gods Little Mountain where it sloped away in pale green illuminated vistas till it reached the dark blue sky They disappeared on the skyline and Reddin impatiently composed himself for more waiting Was he never to get a chance of seeing Hazel alone
That fellow dogs her steps he said
The transfigured slopes of the mountain were it seemed to Edward a suitable place for a thing he wished to tell Hazel
Hazel he said if you ever feel that you would rather have a husband than a brother you have only to say so
Hazel flushed Although it was such a muted passion that sounded in his voice it stirred her Since she had known Reddin her ignorance had come to recognize the sound of it and she had also begun to flush easily
If Edward had understood women better he would have seen that this speech of his was a mistake for even if a woman knows whether she wishes for a husband she will never tell him so
They turned home in a constrained silence Foxy frightened by a covey of partridges created a diversion by pulling her cord from Hazels inattentive hand and setting off for the parsonage
Oh shell be bound to go to the woods cried Hazel beginning to run Do ee see if shes in tub Edard and Ill go under the trees and holla
Reddin was startled when he saw Hazel who had outdistanced Edward making straight for his hidingplace She came running between the boles with an easy grace an independence that drove him frantic A pretty woman should not have that easy grace she should have exchanged it for a matronly bearing by this time and independence should have yielded to subservience—to the male to him With her vivid hair and eyes and her swift slenderness Hazel had a fawnlike air as she traversed the wavering shadows She passed his tree without seeing him and stood listening Then she began to plead with the truant What for did you run away Foxy my dear Where be you Come back along with me dear eart for it draws to night
Reddin stepped from his tree and spoke to her
With a stifled scream she turned to run away but he intercepted her
No Ive waited long enough for this So youre married to the parson after all
Ah
Youll be sorry
What for do you come tormenting of me Mr Reddin
You were meant for me Youre mine
Folk allus says Im theirs Id liefer be mine
As you wouldnt marry me Hazel the least you can do is to come and talk to me sometimes
Oh I canna
You must Any spare time come to this tree I shall generally be here
But why ever And you a squire with a big place and fine ladies after you
Because I choose
Leave me be Mr Reddin I be comforble and Foxy be and theyre all settling so nice The birds sung
The parson too no doubt If you dont come often enough I shall walk past the house and look in If you go on not coming I shall tell the parson you stayed the night with me and hell turn you out
He wouldna You wouldna
Yes I would He would too A parson doesnt want a wife that isnt respectable So as youve got to—he dropped his harshness and became persuasive—you may as well come with a good grace
But it wunna my fault as I stayed the night over It was aunt
Prowdes What for should folk chide me and not auntie
Lord I dont know Because youre pretty
Be I
Hasnt that fellow told you so
No He dunna say much
You could make such a good chap of me if you liked Hazel
How ever
Id give up the drink
And foxhunting
Well I might give up even that—for you Be my friend Hazel
He spoke with an indefinable charm inherited from some courtly ancestor Hazel was fascinated
But youve got blood on you she protested
So have you he retorted unexpectedly You say you kill flies so youre as bad as I am Hazel So be my friend
I mun go
Say youll come tomorrow
Not but for a minute then
Edwards voice came from the house
Ive found her
Hazel ran home But as she left the wood she turned and looked down the shadowy steeps of green at Reddin as he strode homewards She watched him until he passed out of sight then sighing she went home
Chapter 19
Next day Hazel did not go into the woods In the evening sitting in the quiet parlour while Edward read aloud and Mrs Marston knitted she felt afraid as she remembered it Yet she had been still more afraid at the idea of going
She had helped Mrs Marston to cover rhubarb jam in the dim storeroom while Edward visited a sick man at some distance It had been delightful gumming on the clean tops and then writing on them She had dipped freely into the biscuitbox Then Edward had returned and they had gardened again Now they were settled for the evening and she was learning to knit twisting obdurate wool round anarchic needles while Mrs Marston—the pink shawl top—chanted Knit purl Knit purl
Will it come to aught ever queried Hazel Its nought but a tail o string now
It will come to anything you like to make dear said the old lady
Is knitting so like life mother Edward spoke amusedly
But it wunna said Hazel Itll only come a tanglement
Edward suggested that he should help there was great laughter over this interlude while Mrs Marston still chanted Knit purl
Reddin walked lingeringly past the house in the dark heard it and was very angry and miserable
Hazel heard his step on the rough stones and was alarmedly sure that it was he She was terribly afraid he would tell Edward Then a new idea occurred to her Should she tell Edward herself
She sat in the firelight with her head bent and turned this new thought about in her brain as incompetently as she twisted the blue wool round the needles And from the silent shadows as she played with the thread of destiny two presences eyed each other across her bright head—one armed the other bearing roses Neither Mrs Marston with her antiphonal Double knit double purl nor Edward reading in his pleasant voice—he rather fancied his reading and tried not to—saw those impalpable figures each with a possessive hand outstretched to Hazel pending her decision
Why shouldna I say There was no harm she thought Then she remembered that there had been something—a queer feeling—that had sent her out of the glass door into the snow
She had never wanted to tell anyone of the episode
She glanced at Edward through her lashes—a look that always made him think of the pool above the parsonage where lucent brown water shone through rushes He saw the look for he always glanced round as he read having gathered from his book on elocution that this was correct He smiled across at her and went on reading
The book was one of those affected by Mrs Marston and her kind It had no relation whatever to life Its ideals characters ethics and crises made up an unearthly whole which being entirely useless as a tonic or as a balm was so much poison It was impossible to imagine its heroine facing any of the facts of life or engaging in any of those physical acts to which all humanity is bound and which need more than resignation—namely openeyed honesty—to raise them from a humiliation to a glory It was impossible to imagine also how the child which appeared discreetly and punctually on the last page could have come by its existence, since it certainly with such unexceptional parents could not have been begotten
Hazel listened anxiously to hear if the heroine ever drove on a winter night with a man who stared at her out of bold blue eyes and whether she got frightened and took refuge in a bedroom full of white mice But there were no mice nor dark roads nor bold men in all its pages By the time the reading came to an end Hazel had quite made up her mind that she could not possibly tell Edward The blue wool was inextricably tangled and one of the shadowy presences had vanished
Followed what Mrs Marston called a little chat the evening tray containing cake and cocoa was brought from its sidetable the kettle was put on and soon the candles were lit
The presence that remained was with Hazel as she went up to her little room as she undressed and when she lay down to sleep From the mantlepiece in the faint moonlight shone the white background of the text Not a hair of thy head shall perish
But the promising words were obliterated by night
Next morning and some time during every subsequent day Hazel met
Reddin under the dark yewtree
Youre very fond of the woods my dear said Mrs Marston one morning It must be very nice and pleasant there just now
No it inna Mrs Marston Its drodsome
If I could start very early Mrs Marston went on please God Id go with you For you always go while Edward is visiting and its lonely for you
Hazel fled down the batch that morning and back up a shadowed ride to
Reddin
You munna come never no more Mr Reddin she cried The old ladys coming tomorrowday her says
Reddin swore He was getting on so nicely Already Hazel went red and white at his pleasure and though he had not attempted to kiss her he had gained a hold on her imagination
Whenever he saw himself as others would see him if they knew he hastily said Alls fair in love and shut his eyes Also he felt that he was doing evil in order to bring Hazel good
For how a girl can live in that stuffy hole with that old woman and that dieaway fellow Lord only knows he thought Shell be twice the girl she is when she lives with a man that is a man and she can do as she likes with Undern so long as shes not standoff with me No by— Ill have no nonsense after this Here I am sitting under a tree like a dog with a treed cat
So now he was very angry His look was like a lash as he said You made that up to get rid of me
I didna cried Hazel trembling But oh Mr Reddin canna you leave me be Theres Edard reading the many mansions bit to old Solomon Bache as good as gold and youd ought to let me bide along of the old lady and knit
Ill give you something better to do than knit soon
What for will you
Oh you women Are you a little innocent Hazel Or are you a d—d clever woman
I dunno But I canna come no more
Wont you mean Very well
Whatn you mean saying very well so choppy
I mean that if a man chooses to see a woman see her he will Its his place to find ways Its her privilege to hide if she likes or do any d—d thing she likes That only makes it more exciting Now go back to your knitting Fff knitting
The startled pigeons fled up with a steely clatter of wings at his sudden laughter
Oh hushee Theyll hear and come out
I dont care If the dead heard and came out and stood between us I shouldnt care What are you whispering
Hazel had said Whoever she be have her he will for certain sure
She would not repeat it and he turned sharply away in a huff
She also turned away with a sigh of relief but almost immediately looked back and watched his retreating figure until it was lost in the trees
Chapter 20
On Lords Day more than on any other at the mountain Hazel was like a small derelict boat beached on a peaceful shore There was a hypnotic quiet about the place with no sound of Marthas scrubbing no smell of cooking There was always cold meat on Lords Day with pickled cabbage that concomitant of mysterious Sabbath blessedness A subdued excitement prevailed about servicetime and sank again afterwards like a wind in the treetops
Hazel felt very proud of Edward in chapel and a little awed at his bearing and his abstracted air She came near to loving him on the lilacscented Sundays when he read those old fragrant lovestories that he had dreaded His voice was pleasant and deep
And he took unto him his wife and she bare him a son
It may have been that the modulations of Edwards voice spoke as eloquently as words to her or that Reddin had destroyed her childish detachment but she began to bring these old tales into touch with her own life She envied these glamorous women of the ancient world They were so tall so richly clad dwelling under their goldenfruited trees beneath skies for ever blue It was all so simple for them There were no Reddins no old ladies
Their stories went smoothly with unravelled thread not like her knitting She began to long to be one of that darkeyed company clear and changeless as polished ivory moving with a slow and gliding stateliness across the rosecoloured dawn bearing on their heads with effortless grace beautiful pitchers of water for a thirsty world
Edward had shown her just such a picture in his mothers illustrated Bible Instinctively she fell back on the one link between herself and them
Edards took me to wife she thought The sweetest of vague new ideas stirred in her mind like leafbuds within the bark of a spring tree They brought a new expression to her face
Edwards eyes strayed continually to the bar of dusty sunlight where she sat her downbent face as mysterious as all vitality is when seen in a new aspect The demure look she wore in chapel was contradicted by a nascent wildness hovering about her lips
Edward tried to keep his attention on the prayers and wished he was an Episcopalian and had his prayers readymade for him He once mentioned this to his mother who was much shocked She said homemade prayers and homemade bread and homemade jam were the best
As for manufactured jam its a slovens refuge and no more to be said And prayers the same The best printed prayers no better than bought mixed at fourpence the pound and a bit gone from keeping
Edward stumbled on as Mr James said afterwards like my old mare Betsy a step and a stumble a nod and a flop and home in the Lords own time—thats to say the small hours
The chapel was still hot though cool green evening brooded without and the birds had emerged from their daylong coma Woodpigeons spoke in their deep voices from the dark pines across the batch a language older than the oldest script of man Cuckoos shouted in the windriven larches green beyond imagining at the back of the chapel A blackbird meditated aloud in high rhapsody very leisured but very tireless on matters deeper than the Coppice Pool far below deep as the mystery of the chipped freckled eggs in his nest in the thorn In and out of the yellow broomcoverts woodlarks played made their small flights and sang their small songs Bright orange wild bees and black bumblebees floated in through the open windows Mrs Marstons black and white hens and the minorca cockerel pecked about the open door and came in inquiringly upon which Martha who sat near the door for that purpose swept them softly out with the clothesprop which she manipulated in a masterly manner
Mrs Marston eyeing Hazel at all the Amens when as she always said one ought to look up like fowls after a drink thought it was a pity What was a pity she did not divulge to herself She concluded with Well well the childless father no sinners and hastily shut her eyes realizing that another Amen had nearly come Edwards voice had taken a tone of relief which meant the end of a prayer
Mrs Marston glanced up at him and decided to put some aniseed in his tea High thinkings as bad as an embolus she thought But Edward was not thinking He was doing a much more strenuous thing—feeling Hazel wondered at the vividness of his eyes when he rose from his knees
Im glad Im Edards missus and not Mr Reddins she thought
She had not seen Reddin for a week having since their last meeting in the wood been so much afraid of encountering him that she had scarcely left the house
The days were rather dull without her visits to the woods but they were safe
Edward gave out his text
Of those that Thou hast given me have I lost none
All his tenderness for Hazel and her following crept into his sermon He spoke of the power of protection as almost the greatest good in life the finest work He said it was the inevitable reward of self-sacrifice and that if one were ready for selfdenial one could protect the beloved from all harm
There was a crunching of gravel outside and Reddin walked in He sat down just behind Hazel Edward glanced up pleased to have so important an addition to the congregation and continued his sermon Hazel red and white by turns was in such a state of miserable embarrassment that Reddin was almost sorry for her But he did not move his gaze from her profile
At last Mrs Marston ever watchful for physical symptoms whispered
Are you finding it oppressive Would you like to go out
Hazel went out with awkward haste and Mrs Marston followed having mouthed incomprehensible comfort to Edward
He went on stumblingly with the service
Reddin realizing that he had been femininely outwitted smiled Edward wondered who this distinguishedlooking man with the merciless mouth might be He thought the smile was one of amusement at his expense But Reddin was summing him up with a good deal of respect
Here was a man who would need reckoning with
The parsons got a temper he reflected looking at him keenly and by the Lord Im going to rouse it
He smiled again as he always did when breaking horses
He got up suddenly and went out Mrs Marston administering raspberry cordial in the parlour heard him knock and went to the front door
Can I help he asked in his pleasantest manner A doctor or anything
Mrs Marston laughed softly She liked young men and thought Reddin a nice lad for all his forty years She liked his air of breeding as he stood cap in hand awaiting orders Above all she was curious
No thank you she said But come in all the same Its very kind of you And such a hot day But its very pleasant in the parlour And youll have a drink of something cool Now what shall it be
Sherry he said with his eyes on Hazels
I misdoubt if theres any of the Christmaspudding bottle left but Ill go and see she said all in a flutter How tragic a thing for her who prided herself on her housewifery to have no sherry when it was asked for
Her steps died away down the cellar stairs
So you thought youd outwitted me he said Now you know Ive not tamed horses all my life for nothing
Leave me be
You dont want me to
Ah I do
After Ive come all these miles and miles to see you day after day
I dunna care how many miles youve acome said Hazel passionately what for do you do it Go back to the dark house where you come from and leave me be
Reddin dropped his pathos
She was sitting on the horsehair sofa he in an armchair at its head He flung out one arm and pulled her back so that her head struck the mahogany frame of the sofa
None of that he said
He kissed her wildly and in the kisses repaid himself for all his waiting in the past few weeks She was crying from the pain of the bump his kisses hurt her his shoulder was hard against her breast She was shaken by strange tremors She struck him with her clenched hand He laughed
Will you behave yourself Will you do what I tell you he asked
Id be much obleeged she said faintly if youd draw your shoulder off a bit
Something in the request touched him He sat quite silent for a time in Edwards armchair and they looked at one another in a haunted immobility Reddin was sorry for his violence but would not say so
Then they heard Mrs Marstons slide and she entered with a large decanter
This is some of the sparkling gooseberry she said by Susan Waines recipe poor thing Own cousin to my husband she was and a good kind body Never a thing awry in her house and twelve children had Susan I remember as clear as clear how the carpet it was green jute reversible was rucked up at her funeral by the bearers feet And George Waine said Thatll worry Susan and then he remembered and burst out crying poor man And he cried till the party was quite spoilt and our spirits so low Where was I Oh yes Its quite up you see and four years old this next midsummer But Im sure Im quite put out at having no sherry on account of Martha thinking to return the bottle and finishing the dregs And there you asked for sherry
Did I Oh well I like this just as much thanks
He felt uncomfortable at this drinking of wine in Marstons house It seemed unsportsmanlike to hoodwink this old lady He had no qualms about Hazel He was going if Hazel would be sensible to give her a life she would like and things her instincts cried out for Possibly he was right in imagining that her instincts were traitors to her personality For Nature—that sardonic mother—while she cries with the silver cadence of ten thousand nightingales Take what you want my children sees to it in the dark of her sorcerychamber that her children want what she intends
Is it to your liking Mr— I didnt quite catch your name said
Mrs Marston
Reddin maam Jack Reddin of Undern
The name rang in the quiet room with a startling sound like a gunshot in a wood at night when the birds are roosting
At that moment Edward came in not having waited till Mr James had affectionately counted the collection
Is Hazel all right mother he called when he got to the front door
Oh yes my dear It was but the heat And heres a gentleman to see you Mr Reddin of Undern
Edward came forward with his hand out and Reddin took it Their eyes met a curious hush fell on the room Hazel sighed tremulously
Pleased to see you at our little service Mr Reddin Edward said heartily
Reddin smiled and said Thanks
Glad theres anything in our simplicity to attract you Edward went on wondering if his sermons were really not so bad after all
Reddin laughed again shortly Edward put this down to shyness
I hope we shall often have you with us again
Reddins eyes narrowed slightly Yes thanks I shall be with you again
Youll stay and have some supper
Thanks
He had left off feeling unsportsmanlike He had no compunction towards Edward It was man to man and the woman to the winner This was the code avowed by his ancestors openly and by himself and his contemporaries tacitly He began to be as excited as he was in a steeplechase
Edward went and sat down by Hazel asking softly And how is my little girl
She looked up at him quiescent and smiled Reddin eyed them for a moment construing their attitudes in his own way To the unclean mind all frankness of word or action is suspect Then he turned sharply to Mrs Marston
I cant stay after all he said Ive just remembered—something
Thanks very much—he looked reflectively at Hazel—for the sherry
He was gone My dear—Mrs Marston spoke triumphantly—didnt I always say that gooseberry wine of Susan Waines recipe was as good as champagne Now you see Im right For Mr Reddin of Undern—and a nice pleasant young man he is too though a little set about the mouth—and I remember when I was a girl there was a man with just such a mouth came to the May fair with a magic wheel and it was a curious thing that the wheel never stopped opposite one of the prizes except when he turned it himself and there I did so want the green and yellow tab cat—real china—and I spent every penny but the wheel went on
Poor mother
Yes my dear I cried buckets And Ive never trusted that mouth since But of course Mr Reddins not that kind at all and quite above fairs and such things
I dont care for him much Edward said
No more do I said Hazel in a heartfelt tone
Chapter 21
Hazel was up early next morning She could not sleep and thought she would go down into the valley and look for spring mushrooms
She crept out of the house still as death except for Mrs Marstons soft yet allpervading snores Out in the graveyard where as yet no bird sang it was as if the dead had arisen in the stark hours between twelve and two and were waiting unobtrusively majestically each by his own bed to go down and break their long fast with the bee and the grasssnake in refectories too minute and too immortal to be known by the living The tombstones seemed taller seemed to have a presence behind them the lush grass lying grey and heavy with dew seemed to have been swept by silent passing crowds A dank smell came up and the place had at once the unkempt look worn by the scene of some past revelry and the expectant air of a stage prepared for a coming drama
Foxy barked sharply urgently alive in the stronghold of the dead and Hazel went to explain why she could not come They held a long conversation Hazel whispering Foxy eloquent of eye Foxy had a marked personality Dignity never failed her and she could be hilarious loving or clamorous for food without losing a jot of it She was possessed of herself the wild was her kingdom If she was in a kennel—so her expression led you to understand—she was there incognito and of her own choice Hazel sitting at Edwards table had the same look
When the conversation was over and Foxy had obediently curled herself to sleep with one swift motion like a line of poetry Hazel went down the hill She felt courageous going to the valley was braving civilization She had Mrs Marstons skirtfastener—the golden butterfly complicated by various hooks—to keep her petticoats up later on She also had the little bag in which Edward was accustomed to take the Lords Supper to a distant chapel To her mushrooms were as clean as the Lords Supper no less mysterious equally incidental to human needs In her eyes nothing could be more magical and holy than silken pinklined mushrooms placed for her in the meadows overnight by the fairies or by someone greater and more powerful called God
As she went down the mountain it seemed that the whole country was snowed over Mist—soft woolly and intensely white—lay across the far plain in drifts filled the valley and stood about the distant hills almost to their summits The tops of Hunters Spinney Gods Little Mountain and the hill behind Undern stood out darkly green The long rosebriars set with pale coral buds looked elvish against the wintry scene
As Hazel descended the mist rose like a wall about her shutting her off from Undern and the Mountain She felt like a child out of school free of everyone her own for the pearly hours of morning When she came to the meadows she gathered up her skirts well above her knees took off her shoes and stockings and pinned her sleeves to the shoulders She ran like a tightly swathed nymph small and slender with her slim legs and arms shining in the fresh cold dew She looked for nests and called Thuckoo to the cuckoos and found a young one savagely egotistic not ready for flight physically but ready for untold things psychically
Youm proudstomached you be said Hazel Youd ought to be me with an old sleepy lady drawing her mouth down whatever you do and a young fellow— She stopped She could not even tell a bird about Reddin She danced among the shut daisies wild as a fairy and when the sun rose her shadow mocked her with delicate foolery In her hand and in that of the shadow bobbed the little black Lords Supper bag
She went on regardless of direction At last she found an old pasture where heavy farmhorses looked round at her over their polished flanks and a sadeyed foal rose to greet her There she found button mushrooms to her hearts content Ancient hedges hung above the field and spoke to her in fragrant voices The glory of the may was just giving place to the shelltint of wildroses She reached up for some and her hair fell down she wisely put the remaining pins in the bag for the return journey She was intensely happy as a fish is when it plunges back into the water For these things and not the Godfearing comfort of the Mountain nor the tarnished grandeur of Undern were her life She had so deep a kinship with the trees so intuitive a sympathy with leaf and flower that it seemed as if the blood in her veins was not slowmoving human blood but volatile sap She was of a race that will come in the far future when we shall have outgrown our egoism—the brainless egoism of a little boy pulling off flies wings We shall attain philosophic detachment and emotional sympathy We have even now far outgrown the age when a great genius like Shakespeare could be so clumsy in the interpretation of other than human life We have left behind us the bloodshot centuries when killing was the only sport and we have come to the slightly more reputable times when lovers of killing are conscious that a distinct effort is necessary in order to keep up the good old English sports Better things are in store for us Even now although the most expensively bound and the most plentiful books in the stationers shops are those about killing and its thousand ramifications nobody reads them They are bought at Christmas for necessitous relations and little boys
Hazel in the fields and woods enjoyed it all so much that she walked in a mystical exaltation
Reddin in the fields and woods enjoyed himself only For he took his own atmosphere with him wherever he went and before his footsteps weakness fled and beauty folded
The sky blossomed in parterres of roses frailer and brighter than the rose of the briar and melted beneath them into lagoons greener and paler than the veins of a young beechleaf The fairy hedges were so high so flushed with beauty the green airy waters ran so far back into mystery that it seemed as if at any moment God might walk there as in a garden delicate as a moth Down by the stream Hazel found tall waterplantains triune of cup standing above the ooze like candelabras and small roughleaved forgetmenots eyeing their liquid reflections with complaisance She watched the birds bathe—bullfinches smoothcoated and wellfound slim willowwrens thrushes erminebreasted lusty blackbirds with beaks of crude yellow They made neat little tracks over the soft mud drank bathed preened and made other neat little tracks Then they took off as Hazel put it from the top of the bank and flew low across the painted meadow or high into the enamelled tree and piped and fluted till the air was full of silver
Hazel stood as Eve might have stood hands clasped eyes full of ecstasy utterly selfforgetful enchanted with these living toys
Eh yons a proper bird she exclaimed as a big silken cuckoo alighted on the mud with a gobble drank with dignity and took its vacillating flight to a far ashtree Foxy ought to see that she added
Silvercrested peewits circled and cried with their melancholy cadences and a tawny pheasant led out her young Now that the dew was gone and cobwebs no longer canopied the field with silver it was blue with germander speedwell—each flower painted with deepening colour eyed with startling white and carrying on slender stamens the round white pollenballs—worlds of silent lovely activity Every flowerspike had its family of buds blue jewels splashed with white each closefolded on her mystery To see the whole field not only bright with them but brimming over was like watching ten thousand saints rapt in ecstasy ten thousand children dancing Hazel knew nothing of saints She had no words for the wonder in which she walked But she felt it she enjoyed it with a passion no words could express
Mrs Marston had said several times Im almost afraid Hazel is a great one for wasting her time But what is waste of time Eating and sleeping hearing grave sedulous men read out of grave sedulous book what we have heard a hundred times besieging God whom we end by imagining as a great ear for material benefits amassing property—these the world says are not waste of time But to drink at the stoup of beauty to lift the leafy coverlet of earth and seek the cradled God since here if anywhere He dwells this in the worlds eye is waste of time Oh filthy heavyhanded bleareyed world when will you wash and be clean
Hazel came to a place where the white water crossed the road in a glittering shallow ford Here she stayed leaning on the wooden bridge hearing small pebbles grinding on one another; seeing jewelflashes of ruby sapphire and emerald struck from them by the low sunlight smelling the scent that is better than all except the scent of air on a barren mountain or of snow—the scent of running water She watched the grey wagtails neat and trim in person but wild in bearing racing across the wet gravel like intoxicated Sundayschool teachers Then in a huge silverwillow that brooded dovelike over the ford a blackcap began to sing The trills and gushes of perfect melody the golden repetitions the heartlifting ascents and wistful falls drooping softly as a flower seemed wonderful to her as an angels song She and the bird sheltered under the greysilver feathers of the trees lived their great moments of creation and receptivity until suddenly there was a sharp noise of hoofs the song snapped the willow was untenanted and Reddins horse splashed through the ford
Oh cried Hazel what for did you break the song A sacred bird it was And now its fled
He had been riding round the remnant of his estate a bit of hill sheepwalk that faced the Mountain and overlooked the valley He had seen Hazel wander down the road whitelimbed and veiled in tawny hair He thought there must be something wrong with his sight Bare legs Bare arms Hair all loose and no hat As a squirefarmer he was very much shocked As a man he spurred downhill at the risk of a bad fall
Hazel unlike the women of civilization who are pursued by lookingglasses was apt to forget herself and her appearance She had done so now But something in Reddins face recalled her She hastily took the butterfly out of her skirt and put on her shoes and stockings
What song asked Reddin
A bird in the tree What for did you fritten it
Reddin was indignant Seeing Hazel wandering thus so near his own domain he thought she had come in the hope of seeing him He also thought that the strangeness of her dress was an effort to attract him
To the pure all things are pure
But you surely wanted to see me Wasnt that why you came he asked
No it wasna I came to pick the little musherooms as come wi the warm rain for theres none like spring musherooms And I came to see the flowers and hearken at the birds and look the nesses
You could have lots of flowers and birds at Undern
Theres plenty at the Mountain
Then why did you come here
To be by my lonesome
Snub for me he smiled He liked opposition But look here Hazel he reasoned If youd come to Undern Id make you enjoy life
But I dunna want to I be Edards missus
Be missus At the phrase his weathercoarsened face grew redder It intoxicated him
He slipped off his horse and kissed her
I dunna want to be anybodys missus she cried vexedly Not yourn nor Edards neither But I Edards and so I mun stay She turned away
Good morning to you she said in her oldfashioned little way She trudged up the road Reddin watched her a forlorn slight figure armed with the black bag weary with the sense of reaction Reddin was angry and depressed The master of Undern had been for the second time refused
Hm he said considering her departing figure it wont be asking next time my lady And it wont be for you to refuse
He turned home accompanied by that most depressing companion—the sense of his own meanness He was unable to help knowing that the exercise of force against weakness is the most curlike thing on earth
Chapter 22
Hazel was picking wimberryflowers from their stalks She sucked out the drop of honey from each flower like a bee The blossoms were like small rosecoloured tulips upside down very magical and clear of colour The sky also was like a pink tulip veined and streaked with purple and saffron In its depth like the honey in the flowers it held the low golden sun Evening stood tiptoe upon the windy hilltop
Hazel had eaten quite a quantity of honey and had made an appreciable difference in the wimberry yield of half an acre for she sipped hastily like a honeyfly She was one of those who are full of impatience and haste through the sunny hours of day clamorous for joy since the night cometh Some prescience was with her She snatched what her eyes desired and wept with disappointment For it is the calm natures wrapt in timeless quiet taking what comes and asking nothing that really enjoy Hazel ate the fairy tulips as a pixie might sharptoothed often consuming them whole So she partook of her sacrament in both kinds and she partook of it alone taking her wafers and her honeyed wine from hands she never saw in a presence she could not gauge She did not even wonder whether it meant ill or well by her She was barely conscious of it When she found an unusually large globe of honey in a flower she sang Her song was as inconsequent as those of the woodlarks who with their hurried ripple of notes and their vacillating flights were as eager and as soon discouraged as she was herself Her voice rang out over the listening pastures and the sheep looked up in a contemplative ancient way like old ladies at a concert with their knitting Hazel had fastened two foxgloves round her head in a wreath and as she went their deep and darkly spotted bells shook above her and she walked like a jester in a grieving world crowned with madness
Suddenly a shout rang across the hill and silenced her and the woodlarks She saw against the fullblown flower of the west—black on scarlet—Reddin on his tall black horse galloping towards her Clouds were coming up for night They raced with him From one great round rift the light poured on Hazel as it does from a burningglass held over a leaf It burned steadily on her and then was moved as if by an invisible hand Reddin came on and the thunder of his horses hoofs was in her ears Hurtling thus over the pastures breaking the yearlong hush he was the embodiment of the destructive principle, of cruelty of the greater part of human society—voracious and carnivorous—with its curious callousness towards the nerves of the rest of the world
I amost thought it was the deathpack said Hazel speaking first as the more nervous always does
She stood uncomfortably looking up at him as a rabbit looks surprised halfway out of its burrow
Where be going she asked at last
Looking for you
Hazel could not enjoy the flattery of this she was so perturbed by his nearness
Wheres your lord and master
Edard inna my master None is A hot indignant flush surged over her
Yes said he I am
That youre not and never will be
Reddin said nothing He sat looking down at her In the large landscape his figure was carved on the sky slenderly minute yet it was instinct with forces enough to uproot a thousand trees and become by virtue of these the centre of the picture He looked at his best on horseback where his hardness and roughness appeared as necessary qualities and his too great share of virility was used up in courage and willpower
Hazel gazed defiantly back but at last her eyelids flickered and she turned away
I am Reddin repeated softly
He was as sure of her as he was of the rabbits and hares he caught in springtraps when hunger drove them counter to instinct A power was on Hazel now driving her against the one instinct of her life hitherto—the wild creatures instinct for flight and selfpreservation She said nothing
Reddin was filled with a tumultuous triumph that Sally Haggard had never roused
I am he said again and laughed as if he enjoyed the repetition
Come here
Hazel came slowly looked up and burst into tears
Hello Tears already he said concerned Keep em till theres something to cry for
He dismounted and slipped the rein over his arm
Whats up Hazel Woodus He put one arm round her
The sheep looked more ancient than ever less like old ladies at a concert than old ladies looking over their prayerbooks at a blasphemer
My name inna Woodus Youd ought to call me Mrs Marston
For answer he kissed her so that she cried out
Thats to show if Ill call you Mrs Marston
Id liefer be
What
Edards missus than yourn
He ground a foxglove underfoot
And theres Foxy in a grand new kennel and me in a seat in chapel and a bush o laylac give me for myself and a garden and a root o virgins pride
I shall have that said Reddin and stopped having blundered into symbolism and not knowing where he was Hazel was silent also playing with a foxglove flower
What are you up to he asked
She was glad of something to talk about
Look When you get un agen the light you can see two little green things standing inside like people in a tent They think theyre safe shut in She bent down and called I see yer I see yer laughing
Reddin was bent on getting back to more satisfactory topics
Theyre just two like us he said
Ah Were like under a tent she answered looking at the arching sky
Only theres nobody looking at us
How do you know she whispered looking up gravely Im thinking there be somebody somewhere out tother side of that there blue and looking through like us through this here flower And if so be he likes he can tear it right open and get at us
Reddin looked round almost apprehensively Then as the best way of putting a stop to superstition he caught her to him and kissed her again
Thats what tents are for and what youre for he said But he felt a chill in the place and Hazel had frightened herself so much that she could not be lured from her aloofness
I mun go homealong she said the suns undering
Will you come to Hunters Spinney on Sunday
Why ever
Because I say so
But why so far whatever she asked amazedly
Because I want you to
But I mun go to chapel along of Edard and sing ymns proper wi the folks—and me singing higher nor any of them can go for all Im new to it—and the old lady—her face grew mischievous—the old lady in a shiny silk gownd as creaks and creaks when she stirs about
Reddin lost patience
Youre to start as soon as theyre in church dyou see
Maybe I unna come
Youve got to Look here Hazel you like having a lover dont you
I dunno
Hazel Ill bring you a present
I dunna want it What is it she said in a breath
Something nice Then you promise to come
There was a long silence
Her eyes seemed to her to be caught by his She could not look away And his eyes said strange terrific things to her things for which she had no words wakening vitality flattering commanding stirring a new curiosity robbing her of breath
They stood thus for a long time as much alone under the flaming sky as a man and woman of the stone age
When at least he released her eyes he swung silently into the saddle and was gone
When he got home Vessons came shambling to the door
Supper and a tot of whisky ordered his master
Vessons took no notice but eyed the horse
You dunna mind how much work you give me at the days end do you he inquired conversationally
Get on with your jobs
Now what wenchll cry for this nights work mused Vessons
Chapter 23
Hazel ran home through the dew swift as a hare to her form Mrs Marston communing with a small wood fire and a large Bible looked over her spectacles as Hazel came in and said
Draw your stockinged foot along the boards my dear Yes I thought so damp
Hazel changed her stockings by the fire and felt very cared for and very grand A fire to change in the parlour And several pairs of new stockings She had never had more than one pair before and those with ladders in them These here be proper stockings she said complacently—these with holes in em as Edward bought me Holes as ought to be there I mane They show my legs mothernaked and they look right nice
Dont say that word dear
What un
Mrs Marston was silent for a moment The sixth from the end she said its not nice for a ministers wife
What mun I say
Mrs Marston was in a difficulty Well she said at last Edward should not have given you any cause to say anything
Hazel blazed into loyalty
Im sure Im very much obleeged to Edard she said and I like em better for showing my legs Oh here be Edard Edard these be proper stockings inna they
Edward glanced at them and said indifferently that they were As he did so a line that had lately appeared on his forehead became very apparent
In her room upstairs papered with buttercups and daisies by Edward himself and scented by a bunch of roses he had given her Hazel thought about Hunters Spinney Edward would not like her to go and Edward had been kind—kinder than anyone had ever been He had extended his kindness to Foxy also Im sure Foxys much obleeged she thought No she could never tell Edward about Hunters Spinney If he questioned her she knew that she would lie He would certainly not be pleased He might be very angry Mrs Marston would not like it at all she would talk about a ministers wife Reddin had said she must go but she must not She smelt the roses
No she said I must neer go to the Hunters Spinney—not till doom breaks She said her prayers under the shelter of that resolve with a supplementary one written out very neatly in gold ink by Edward who wrote as his mother said a parchment script
But when she lay down she could not keep her mind clear of Reddin during each meeting with him she had been more perturbed His personality dragged at hers Already he was stronger than her fugitive impulses her wilding reserve He was like a hand tearing open a triplet of sorrel leaves folded for rain so strong in their impulse for selfprotection that they could only be conquered by destruction She was afraid of him yet days without him were saltless food There was a ruthlessness about him—the male instinct unaccompanied by humility the patrician instinct unaccompanied by sympathy the sportsmans instinct unaccompanied by pity Whatever he began he would finish What had he now begun
Innocence and instinct ignorance and curiosity struggled in her mind The attitude of civilization and the Churches towards sex is not one to help a girl in such an hour For while approving of and even insisting on children they treat with a secrecy that implies disapproval the necessary physical factors that result in children Tacitly though not openly they consider sex disgraceful Though Hazel had come in contact with the facts of life less than most cottage girls she was not completely ignorant But the least ignorant woman knows nothing at all about sex until she has experienced it So Hazel was dependent on intuition Intuition told her that if the peaceful life at the parsonage was to continue she must keep away from Hunters Spinney But she could not keep away It was as if someone had spun invisible threads between her and Reddin and was slowly tightening them
Long after Edward had locked the house up and shut his door after the ticking of the clock had ceased to be incidental and become portentous Hazel lay and tried to think But she only heard two voices in endless contradiction I munna go I mun go At last she got up and fetched the book of charms written in a childish illiterate hand and nearly black with use
Ill try a midsummer un for its Midsummer Eve come Saturday she thought
She searched the book and found a page headed The Flowering of the
Brake That one she decided to work on Saturday
And tomorrow the Harpers and Friday the Holy Sign she said And if they say go Ill go and if they say stay Ill stay
She fell asleep feeling that she had shifted the responsibility
Her mother had said that before any undertaking you should work the Harper charm The book directed that on a lonely hill you must listen with your eyes shut for the fairy playing If the undertaking was good you would hear coming from very far away a sound of harping Silver folk with golden harps so the book said keep on a purple hill somewhere beyond seeing and there they play the moon up and the moon down And at sunup they cry for those that have not heard them If you hear them ever so faintly you can go on to the end of your undertaking and therell be no tears in it But you must never tire of waiting nor tell anyone what you have heard
The next night Hazel stole out in the heavy dew to a hummock of the mountain and sat down there to wait for moonrise But when the moon came—the thinnest of silver halfhoops very faint in the reflected rose from the west—there was no sound except the song of the woodlarks They persevered although the sun was gone Soon they too were hushed and Hazel was folded in silence
She waited a long while The chapel and the ministers house sank into the deepening night as into water The longer the omen tarried the more she wanted it to come Then fatalism reasserted itself, and she relapsed into her usual state of mind
I dunna care she said It inna no use to tarry They unna play Ill bide along of Edard at chapel on Sunday and sing higher than last time She turned home
At that moment a note of music strayed it seemed out of space, wandered across the hilltop Then a few more thin and silvery ran down the silence like a spray of water The air was lost in distance but the notes were undoubtedly those of a harp
Its them whispered Hazel Im bound to go Then she remembered her mothers injunctions and took to her heels At home in her quiet room she thought of the strange shining folk playing on their purple mountain
She never knew that the harper was her father returning by devious roads from one of the many festivals at which he played in summertime and having frequent rests by the way owing to the good ale he had drunk Her bright galaxy of faery was only a drunken man Her fate had been settled by a passing whim of his but so had been her coming into the world
When she went in Edward was sitting up for her anxious but trying to reason himself into calm as Hazel was given to roaming
Where have you been he asked rather sternly for he had suffered many things from anxiety and from his mother
Only up toerts the pool Edard
Dont go there again
Canna I go walking on the green hill by my lonesome
No You can go in the woods Theyre safe enough
Foxys a bad dog came Mrs Marstons voice from upstairs She bit the rope and took the mutton
Eh Im main sorry cried Hazel But she inna a bad dog Mrs
Marston shes a good fox
According to natural history she may be but in my sight shes a bad dog She shut her door with an air of finality
The old lady cannad abear Foxy said Hazel Nobody likes Foxy
She was stubbornly determined that the world bore her a grudge because she loved Foxy Perhaps she had discovered that the world has a sharp sword for the vulnerable and that love is easily wounded
Dont call mother the old lady dear
Well she is And she says animals has got no souls Shem only got a little small un herself
Hazel
Well its Gods truth
Why
If shed got a nice tidy bit herself shed know Foxyd got one too Now Ive got a shimmy with lace on I know lots of other girls sure to have em Afore I couldna have believed it
Edward could find no reply to this
Are you happy here Hazel he asked
Ah I be
You dont miss—
Father Not likely She looked up with her clear golden eyes Youm mother and father both
Only that dear
Brother
Youve forgotten one Hazel—husband His eyes were wistful And lover perhaps some day he added Good night dear
She lifted a childish mouth grateful and ready to be affectionate Too ready he thought He looked so eagerly for shyness—a flicker of the eyelids a mounting flush He was no fool nor was he in the least ascetic In his dreamy life before Hazel came he had thought of a sane and manly and normal future when he thought of it at all Now he found that the reality was not like his dreams The saneness and manliness were still needed but the joy had gone or at least was veiled
It will come all right he told himself and waited His face took an expression of suspense He was like one that watches rapt for the sunrise Only the sun stayed beneath the horizon He called Hazel in his mind by the country name for woodsorrel—the Sleeping Beauty He left her to sleep as long as she would He kept a hand on himself and never tried to waken her by easier ways than through the spirit—through the senses, or vanity or by taking advantages of his superior intellect
He would win her fairly or not at all So though to glance into her empty white room set him trembling though the touch of her hand set his pulses going he never schemed to touch her never made pretexts to go into her room A stormed citadel was in his eyes a thing spoilt in the capturing So he waited for the gates to open The irony was that if he had listened to sex—who spoke to him with her deep beguiling voice like a purplerobed Sibyl—if he had for once parted company with his exacting spiritual self Hazel would have loved him We cannot love that in which is nothing of ourselves and there was no white fire of spiritual exaltation in Hazel The nearest she approached to that was in her adoration of sensuous beauty a green flame of passionless devotion to loveliness as seen in inanimate things But that there should be anything between a man and a woman except an obvious affection a fraternal sort of thing or an uncomfortable excitement such as she felt with Reddin was quite beyond her ideas She did not know that there could be a fervour of mind for mind a clasp more frantic than that of the arms a continuous psychic state more passionate than the great moments of physical passion If Edward had told her she could not at this time have understood it She would have gazed up at him trustingly out of her autumntinted eyes she would have embodied all the spiritual glories of which he dreamed and she would have understood nothing Once he tried to share with her a passage in Drummonds Natural Law in the Spiritual World He was reading it with young delight a good many years behind the times for books had usually grown very out of date before they percolated through the country libraries to him He had read it in his pleasant halfeducated voice dramatically and tenderly his cheeks had flushed he had challenged her criticism with keen attentive eyes She had said I wonder if thats our Foxy barking or a strange un
Hazel looked long from her window that night
Oh I canna go I canna go Edard setting store by me and all she said Maybe the other signs wunna come
On Friday she waited until after the others had gone to bed and then slipped out She went into the silent woods as the moths went purposeless yet working out destiny It was a very warm wet evening and glowworms shone incandescently in the long grass each with her round wonderful greenish lamp at its brightest They beckoned on to faery though they glowed in perfect stillness They spoke of marvellous things though they lit the night in silence It was a very grave a very remote personality surely that lit those lamps A more intent eye a more careful hand were needed one thinks to make these than to make the planets and a mind more vast big enough to include minuteness But Hazel felt no awe of them she was too bounded and earthly a creature to be afraid of mystery It is the spirit that maketh afraid She was sure that they were not the Holy Sign for she had seen them often The Holy Sign was quite different
If I be to go to Hunters Spinney she said looking up through the black branches and twigs that were like great fowlingnets spread over her—if I be to go show me the Holy Sign
She wandered down the narrow paths It was very dark and warm and damp Once the moon came out and she saw a long pool startle the woods with its brightness like lightning on steel The yellow irises that stood about its marges held a pale radiance and were like butterflies enchanted into immobility Huge toadstools vividly tawny as leopards clumps of ladyfern not yet their full height and thick with curled fronds stood proudly on their mossy lawns
But none of these was the Sign
If it dunna come soon Ill go homealong she said
And then round the next bend she saw it At first she thought it was an angel just beginning to appear The phantom was of a mans height and it shone as the glowworms did only its light would have been enough to read by It had a strange effect standing there bathed in its own light in the black unbroken silence It had a look of life—subdued but passionate—as a spirit might have when it has just reintegrated its body out of the air Hazel was terrified As a rule she was never afraid in the woods and fields but only in the haunts of men But from this after one paralysed moment she fled in panic So she never knew that her second sign was only a rotten tree shining with the phosphorescence of corruption
Next morning she asked Edward
Could folks see angels now
Yes if it was Gods will
If one came would it be a sign
I suppose so dear
Whatd you do Edard if you were bound to find out summat
Edward was thinking out heads of a discourse on the power of prayer
I should pray dear he said absently
Whod answer
God
Would you hear Im
No dear of course not
He wanted quiet to finish his sermon but he tried to be patient
You would know by intuition he said little signs
The Holy Sign murmured Hazel I saw it yesternight—a burning angel Im afraid you are too superstitious Edward said and returned to his remarks on ejaculatory prayer
Some people would have found it hard to decide which was the more superstitious the more pathetic
Chapter 24
In the early morning of Midsummer Eve Hazel wandered up the hillslopes There the sheep golden and gospellike in the early light fed on wet lawns pale and unsubstantial as gauze She did not as the more selfconscious creatures of civilization would have done envy their peace in so many words But she did say wistfully to a particularly ample and contented one Youm pretty comfortable binna you When she went in to breakfast she thought the same of Mrs Marston
Afterwards they picked black currants Mrs Marston seated on a campstool and wearing her large mushroom hat which always tilted slightly and made her look rakish Whenever a blackbird dashed out of the grove of halfripe red currants scolding with demoniac vitality she would look up and say Naughty bird She picked with deliberation and placed the currants in the basket with an air of benediction The day was hot and splendid a day to make the leaves limp and crack the flowerbeds But it was cool in the shadow of the mountainash that grew near the currants and a breeze laden with wild thyme and moss fragrance played about the garden like an invisible child
At eleven Martha appeared with cake and milk and Edward returned from old Solomons bedside Then they went on picking while Edward read them snatches of Natural Law Hazel was soothed by the reading to the sense of which she paid no heed It mingled with the drone of the hot bees falling in and out of the big red peonies the faroff sound of grasscutting the grave measured soliloquy of a blackbird hidden in the flameflowered chestnut Hazel felt that she would like to go on picking currants for ever growing more and more like Mrs Marston every day and at least becoming possibly through sheer benignity a grandmother There seemed no place in her life for Reddin no time for Hunters Spinney She thought I wunna go Ill stay along of Edard and no harmll come to me But a peremptory voice said that she must go and once more her soul became the passive battleground of strange emotions of which she had never even dreamed While they fought there like creatures in the dark Hazel sitting in the aromatic shadow of the currants fell fast asleep and as Mrs Marston could never bring herself to wake anyone she slept until Martha rang the dinnerbell So the peaceful golden day wore on to green evening It was a day that Hazel always remembered
When the shadows grew long and dew fell and the daisies on the graves filled the house with their faint innocent fragrance and closed their pinklined petals for the night Hazel felt very miserable This very night she was going to work the last charm—the charm of the bracken flower—and whoso she dreamed of with that flower beneath her pillow must be her lover She felt traitorous to Edward in doing this She and Edward were handfasted How then could she have any lover but Edward Why should she work the charm She puzzled over this during prayers but no answer came to her questioning Life is a taciturn mother and teaches not so much by instruction as by blows Edward was reading the twentythird Psalm which always affected his mother to tears and in reading which his voice was very tender … And lead thee forth beside the waters of comfort
The room was full of a deep exaltation a passion of trustfulness
I went along by the water Hazel thought and watched the piefinches and the canbottlins flying about And I thought it was the waters of comfort Only Mr Reddin came and frit the birds and made the water muddy She did not feel as sure as the others did of the waters of comfort
So beautiful dear murmured Mrs Marston so like your poor dear father
Edwards good night to Hazel was more curt than usual She was looking so mysteriously lovely Her stress of mind had given a touch of spirituality to her face and there is nothing that stirs passion as spirituality does She had on a print frock of a neat design reminiscent of oldfashioned china and she had pinned a posy of daisies on her shoulder
For one second as she held up her cheek to be kissed standing on the threshold of her moonlit room Edward hesitated Then he abruptly turned and shut his door
His hour had struck His hour had passed
Hazel stood in the window reading the charm
On Midsummer Eve when it wants a little of midnight spread your smock where the bracken grows For this is the night of the flowering of the brake that beareth a blue flower on the stroke of midnight But it is withered afore morning Come you again about the time of the first birdcall If aught is in the smock take it it is the dust of the flower Sleep above it and he you dream of is your lover This is a sure charm and cannot be broke
She took a clean chemise from the drawer and when the landing clock struck the halfhour she slipped out on to the hillside and laid it under a clump of bracken As she stooped to set it smooth and straight the moon swam out of cloud and flung her shadow black and gigantic up the hillside Frightened she ran home raked the fire together and made herself a cup of tea to keep her awake
Sipping it in the dim parlour where familiar things looked eerie she thought of Reddin and his strange doings since her wedding
Eh but it ud anger Edard sore if he came to know she thought
What for does Mr Reddin come when he can see I dunna want him
A slow flush crept over neck and temples as she half guessed the answer
She waited in the dovegrey hour that precedes dawn—an hour pregnant with the future It is full of hope for what great deed may not be done what ethereal idea caged in music or poetry or colour what rare emotion struck out of pain in the coming day It is full of grief for how many beautiful things will be trampled great dreams torn sensitive spirits crucified in the time between dusk and dusk For the deathpack hunts at all hours light and dark it is no pale phantom of dreams It is made not of spirit hounds with fiery eyes—a ghastly Melody a grisly Music— but of our fellows all that have strength without pity Sometimes our kith and kin our nearest intimates are in the first flight give a viewhallo as we slip hopefully under a covert are in at the death It is not the killing that gives horror to the deathpack so much as the lack of the impulse not to kill One flicker of merciful intention amid relentless action would redeem it For the world is founded and built up on death and the reality of death is neither to be questioned nor feared Death is a dark dream but it is not a nightmare It is mankinds lack of pity mankinds fatal propensity for torture that is the nightmare When a man or woman confronted by helpless terror is without the impulse to save the world becomes hell It was this dimly but passionately felt that made Hazel shrink from Reddin For unless Reddin was without this impulse to save and had the mind of a fiend without pity how could he in the mere pursuit of pleasure inflict wholly unnecessary torture as in foxhunting
She watched Venus shrink from a silver pool to a silver point She was full of trouble and unrest Would she dream of Reddin Would she go to sleep at all Mrs Marstons armchair loomed in the gathering light and she felt guilty again
The east quickened as if someone had turned up a light there She opened the window and in rushed the inexpressible sweetness of dawn The bush of syringa by the kitchen window swept in its whole fragrance heady and sensuous She took long breaths of it and thought of Reddins green dress of the queer look in his eyes when he stared long at her A curious passivity quite foreign to her came over her now at the thought of Reddin What would he look like what would he say would he hold her roughly if she went to Hunters Spinney An unwilling elation possessed her as she thought of it It did not occur to her to wonder why Edward did not kiss her as Reddin did She took him as much for granted as a child takes its parents
Suddenly the first bird called silverly startling the dusk It was a woodlark and its song seemed even more vacillating than usual in the vast hush At the first note all Hazels thoughts of Reddin fled It seemed that clarity freshness and music were bound up in her mind with Edward She thought only of him as she ran up the hill over the minute starry carpet of mountain bedstraw
Maybe therell be no flower and then the charms broke she thought hopefully If the charms broke I canna dream and I shanna go
But when she came to the white garment lying wet and pale in the halflight she drew a sharp breath There in the centre lay one minute blue petal Its very smallness proved to her its magic It was a faery flower She took it up reverently and went home solemn as a child in church When with blue petal under her pillow she lay down she fell asleep in a moment She dreamt of Reddin for he had more control over her thoughts than Edward who appealed to her emotions while Reddin stirred her instincts Waking at Marthas knock she said to herself with mingled heartsickness and elation
The signs say go I mun go Foxy wants me to go She would not have believed that her third sign was no faery flower but only a petal of blue milkwort—little sister of the bracken—loosened by her own nervous hands the night before
Chapter 25
On Sunday evening as usual the little bell began to sound plaintively in the soft air which was like a pale wildrose Mrs Marston had betaken herself out of her own door into that of the chapel with a good many sighs at the disturbance of her nap and with injunctions to Martha to put a bit of fire in the parlour Edward had gone with his sermon to the back of the house where the tombstones were fewer and it was easier to walk while he read Hazel ran up to her room and put on her white dress which was considered by Mrs Marston too flighty for chapel She leant out of her window and looked away up the purple hill Then she gathered a bunch of the tearoses that encircled it They were deep cream flushed with rose She pinned them into her breast and they matched her flushed face She was becoming almost dainty in her ways this enormously increased her attraction for both men She put on her broad white weddinghat and slipped downstairs and out by the kitchen door while Martha was in the parlour She shut the door behind her like a vanished life She felt she did not know why a sense of excitement of some great happening something impending in her appointment with Reddin
She met no one as she ran down the batch for the chapelgoers were all inside The hedges were full of white archangel and purple vetch When she came to the beginning of Hunters Spinney she felt frightened the woods were so farreaching so deep with shadow the trees made so sad a rumour and swayed with such forlorn abandon In the dusky places the hyacinths broken but not yet faded made a purple carpet solemn as a pall Woodruff shone whitely by the path and besieged her with scent Early wildroses stood here and there weighed down with their own beauty set with rare carmine and tints of shells and snow too frail to face the thunderstorm that even now advanced with unhurrying pomp far away beyond the horizon She hurried along leaving the beaten track creeping under the broad skirts of the beeches and over the white prostrate larchboles where the resin ran slowly like the dark blood of creatures beautiful defeated dying She began to climb holding to the grey shining boles of mountain ashtrees The bracken waisthigh at first was like small hoops at the top of the wood where the tiny golden tormentil made a carpet and the yellow pimpernel was closing her eager eyes
Hazel came out on the bare hilltop where gnarled maytrees dropping spent blossom were pinktinted as if the colours of the sunsets they had known had run into their whiteness Hazel sat down on the hilltop and saw the sleek farmhorses far below feeding with their shadows swifts flying with their shadows and hills eyeing theirs stilly So with all life the shadow lingers—incurious mute yet in the end victorious whelming all As Hazel sat there her own shadow lay darkly behind her growing larger than herself as the sun slipped lower
Bleatings and lowings the evening caw of the rooks ascended to her a horse neighed aggressively male From some distance came the loud crude voice of a man singing He sang not in worship not for the sake of memory or melody or love but for the same reason that people sing so loudly in church—in the urgent need of expending superabundant vitality His voice rolled out under the purple sky as if he were the first man but half emerged from brutishness pursuing his mate in a world all fief to him a world that revealed her as she fled through the door of morning and the door of evening rolling its vaporous curtains back as she went through It was Reddin come forth from his dark house as his foraging ancestors had done to take his will of the weaponless and ride down the will of others He did not confess even to himself why he had come His thoughts on sex were so prurient that in common with many people he considered any frankness about it most indecent Sex was to him a thing that made the ears red It is hard for them that have breedingstables to enter the kingdom of heaven Too often the grave the majestic significance of the meeting of the sexes—holding as it does the fate of the golden pageantry of life sacrificially spending as it does the present for the future—is nothing to them They see it only as a fillip to appetite So Sally Haggard usually spent most of the money earned by Reddins stallion The Pride of Undern
He put the horse to a gallop as he came up Hunters Spinney to quench the voice that spoke within him saying things he would not hear that spoke of love and the tenderness and humility of love and of how these did not detract from the splendour of manhood the fine rage of passion but rather glorified them Something in his feeling for Hazel answered that voice and it worried him By heredity and upbringing he had been taught to dislike and mistrust everything that savoured of emotion or ideas to consider unmanly all that was of the spirit Therefore he sang more loudly as he saw on the hilltop the flutter of Hazels white dress to quench the voice that steadfastly spoke of mutual love as the one reason the one consecration of passion in man and woman The hoofbeats thudded like a full pulse
Hazel got up Suddenly she was afraid of the place more afraid than she had ever been of the deathpack which this evening she had forgotten
But before she could move away Reddin shouted to her and came up the bridlepath Hazel hesitated swayed like the needle of a compass and finally stood still
Whatn you wanting me for Mr Reddin
Dont you know
If I knew I shouldna ask
What do men generally want women for
Im not a woman I dunna want to be But what be it anyway
He felt in his pocket and drew out a small parcel
There Dont say the givings all on your side he remarked
She opened the parcel It contained two heavy oldfashioned gold bracelets Each was set with a large ruby that stared unwinkingly from its setting of pale gold
Eh theym like drops of blood said Hazel Like when fayther starts akilling the pig Hes a hard un is fayther hard as brytes Im much obleeged to you Mr Reddin but I dunna want em I cannad abear the sight of blood
Little fool said Reddin Theyre worth pounds
He caught her wrists and fastened one bracelet on each She struggled but could not get free or undo the clasps
She began to cry loudly and easily as she always did All her emotions were sudden transparent and violent She also since her upbringing had not been refined began to swear
Damn your clumsy fists and your bloody bracelets she screamed Take em off too I unna stay if you dunna
Reddin laughed and in his eyes a glow began nothing could have so suited his mood
Youve got to wear em he said to show youre mine
I binna
Yes
I wont never be
Yes you will now
She raved at him like a little wildcat pulling at the bracelets like a kitten at its neck ribbon
He laughed again stilly
He knew there was not a soul near for the people from the farm at the foot of the spinney had all gone to church
Look here Hazel he said not unkindly youve got to give in see
I see nought
Youve got to come and live with me at Undern You can wear those fine dresses
Im acold said Hazel the suns undering Id best go homealong
Come on then Up you get Well be there in no time You shall have some supper and—
Whatn I want trapsing to Undern when I live at the Mountain
Youll be asking to come soon he said with the crude wisdom of his kind You like me better than that soft parson even now
She shook her head
Im a man anyway
She looked him over and owned he was But she did not want him she wanted freedom and time to find out how much she liked Edward
Well good neet to you she said Im off
She ran downhill into the wood
Reddin hitched the reins to a tree and followed He caught her and flung her into the bracken and suddenly it seemed to her that the whole world the woods herself were all Reddin He was her sky her cloak The tense silence of the place was heavy on her
Away at Gods Little Mountain Edward preached his sermon on the power of prayer—how he could plant a hedge of prayer round the beloved to keep them from all harm
The clock at Alderslea down the valley struck eight in muffled tones They were burnt into Hazels brain The plovers wheeled and cried sadly like the spirits of creatures too greatly outnumbered
Edward was a dream Gods Little Mountain was an old tale—something forgotten mistbegirt
Twilight thickened and birds began to shrill in the dew Voices came up from the farm They were back from church Hazel felt crushed bruised robbed
Now up you get Hazel said Reddin who wanted his supper badly and no longer wanted Hazel Up you get and tidy yourself and then home He felt rather sorry for her
She made no comment no demur Instinctively she felt that she belonged to Reddin now though spiritually she was still Edwards She looked at Reddin passive doubtful the past evening had become unreal to her
So they regarded one another mistrustfully like two creatures taken in a snare They both felt as if they had been trapped by something vast and intangible Reddin was dazed For the first time in his life he had felt passion instead of mere lust The same ideas that had striven within him on his way here uplifted their voices again
Staring dully at Hazel he felt a smarting at the back of his eyes and a choking in his throat
What ails you catching your breath she asked
He could not speak
Youve got tears in your eyne
Reddin put his hand up
Tell us what ails you
He shook his head
What for not my—what for not
She never called Reddin my soul
But he could not or would not speak
Hazels eyes were red also with tears of pain Now she wept again in sympathy with a grief she could not understand
So they sat beneath the black slowwaving branches under the threat of the oncoming night weeping like children They cowered it seemed beneath a hand raised to strike All that they did was wrong all that they did was inevitable Two larches bent by the gales kept up a groaning as bole wore on bole wounding each other every time they swayed In the indifferent hauteur of the dark steeps the secret arcades the avenues leading nowhere crouched these two incarnations of the troubled earth sentient for a moment capable of sadness cruelty terror and revolt and then lapsed again into the earth
Forebodings of that lapse—forebodings that follow the hour of climax as rooks follow the plough—haunted them now though they found no words for what they felt but only knew a sense of the pressure of night It appeared to stoop nearer blind impassive but intensely aware of them under their dark canopy of leaves Some Being it seemed was listening there and not only listening but imposing in an effortless but inevitable way its veiled purpose Hazel and Reddin—he no less than she—appeared to be deprived of identity like hypnotic mediums His hardness and strength took on a pitiful doltlike air before this prescient power
When he at last stopped choking and licking the tears away surreptitiously as they rolled down his cheeks he was very angry—with himself for crying with Hazel for witnessing his disgrace That she should cry was nothing he thought Women always cried at these times Nor did he distinguish between her tears of pain and of sympathy
You neednt stare he snapped If Ive got a cold theres no reason to gape
What for be you—
Shut up Im not
They climbed the crackling wood ghastly with a sound as of feet passing tiptoe into silence—the multitudinous soft noises of a wood cones falling twigs snapping the wind in old driven leaves the subdued rustle of the trees They passed the place where she had talked with Edward at the barkstripping The prostrate larches shone as whitely as her shoulder did through her torn gown She remembered Edwards look and wept again
What is it now he asked
I was i this place afore the bluebells died along with—Edard
Why dyou say the mans name like that Its no better than other names
She had no reply for that and they came in silence to the tormented maytree where the horse was tied his black mane and smooth back strown with faded faintly coloured blossom
Reddin lifted her on and swung into the saddle
She leant against him silent and passive as with one arm round her he guided the horse down the difficult path
A star shone through the trees but it was not a friendly star It was more like a stare than a tear
When the rest of them sprang out like an army at the reveille they were aloof and cold and they rode above in an ironic disdain too terrible to be resented
Reddin put the horse to a gallop He wanted fierce motion to still the compunction that Hazels quiet crying brought
A sense of immanent grief was on her grey loneliness and fear of the future He tried to comfort her
Dunna say ought she sobbed You canna run the words oer your tongue comfortable like Edard can
What do you want me to say
I dunno I want our Foxy
Ill fetch her in the morning
No you munna Shem safe at Edards Let her bide I want to be at
Edards too
Who comes wailing in the black o night said the voice of Vessons as they neared the hall door I thought it was the lady as no gold comforts—her as hollas Lost Alost in the Undern Coppy
Chapter 26
Undern was in its June mood Pinks frothed over the edges of the borders and white bushroses flung their arms high over the porch All was heavily fragrant close muffling the senses. The trees brooded the house brooded the hill hung above deeply recollected the bats went with a lagging flight It was like one of those spellbound places built for an hour or an aeon or a moment on the borders of elfdom full of charms and old wizardry ready to fall inwards at a word but invincible to all but that word The hot scent of the trees and the garden mingled with the smell of manure pigsties cooking pigwash and Vessons Tom Moody tobacco It made Hazel feel faint—a strange sensation to her
Vessons stood surveying them as he had done on the bleak night of
Hazels first coming
Where he said at last the countless fine lines that covered his upper lip from nostril to mouth deepening—wheres the reverent Receiving no reply but a scowl from his master he led the horse away
Reddin with a kind of gauche gentleness said Ill show you the house
They went through the echoing rooms and looked out of the low spiderhung casements where young ivyleaves soft and vivid had edged their way through the cracks They stood under ceilings dark with the smoke of fires and lamps that had been lit unnumbered years ago for some old pathetic revelry In cupboards left ajar by a hurried hand that had long been still hung gowns with flowerstains or winestains on their faded folds The doors creaked and sighed after them the floors groaned and all about the house though the summer air was so light and low there was a moaning of wind It was as if all the storms that had blown round it the terror that had been felt in it the tears that had fallen in it had crept like forgotten spirits into its innermost recesses and now made complaint there for ever A lonely listener on a stormy night might hear strange voices uplifted—the sobbing of children songs of feasters cries of labouring women young mens voices shouting in triumph the long intonations of prayer the deathrattle
And as Reddin and Hazel—surely the most strangely met of all couples that had owned and been owned by this house—went through the darkening rooms they were not it seemed alone A sense of witnesses perturbed Hazel a discomfort as from surveillance A soft rumour as of a mute but moving multitude crept along the passages in their wake
Be there ghosses she whispered Id liefer sleep under the blue rooftree I feel like corn under a millstone in this dark place
Its said to be haunted but I dont believe it He glanced over his shoulder
Who by
People that failed Weaklings Men that lost their money or their women and wives and daughters of the family that died young
What for did they fail
Silly ideas Not knowing what they wanted
Dear now Foxy and me we dunna allus know what we want
You want me
Maybe
If you dont you must learn to And if you dont know what you want youll come to smash
But when I do know folk take it off me
A long mournful cry came down the passages
Hazel screamed
Be that the lady as no gold comforts she whispered
No you silly girl Its a barn owl But shes said to cry in the coppy on Midsummer night
Things crying out as have been a long while hurted murmured Hazel
Tonights Midsummer Was she little like me
I dont know
Did summat strong catch a holt of her
A man did He laughed
Did she go young
Yes she died at nineteen
And soll it be with me she cried suddenly Soll it be with me
Dark and strong in the full of life
She flung herself on a faded blue settee and wept
The impression of companionship—of whisperers breaking out hands stretched forth the steady magnetism of countless unseen eyes—was so strong that Hazel could not bear it and even Reddin was glad to follow her back to the inhabited part of the house
This is the bedroom Reddin said opening the door of a big room papered in faded grey and full of the smell of bygone days The great fourposter draped with a chintz of roses on a black ground awed her Reddin opened a chest and took out the green dress He watched her with an air of proud proprietorship as she put it on She went down the shallow stairs like a leaf loosened from the tree
Vessons a beerbottle in either hand was so aghast at the pale apparition that he nearly dropped them
I thought it was a ghost he said—a comfortless ghost
So I be comfortless Hazel said to Reddin when Vessons had retired
Her voice had a sound of tears in it like a dark tide broken on rocks
And when I was comfortless at the Mountain Edard was used to read
Comfort ye my people as nice as nice
Are you fonder of Marston than of me
I dunno
She sat down sadly in the home that was not home She remembered the halffinished collar she was knitting for Foxy Also a custom had grown up that she sang hymns in the evenings to Edwards accompaniment She missed these things She missed the irritations of that peaceful life—Mrs Marstons way of clearing her throat softly and pertinaciously Marthas habit of tidying all her little treasures into the kitchen grate Edwards absurd determination that she should have clean nails the everrenewed argument Foxys a bad dog She inna Shes a good fox In my sight shes a bad dog
Now she had floated free of all this She was out of haven on the high seas She felt very lonely—as the dead might feel free of the shackles of life It was certainly pleasant to wear the green dress But she missed her little duties—clearing away the supper Martha being gone fetching the candles Mrs Marston always shook her head at the third not from economy but from vicarious philoprogenitiveness
Edwards reading of the Book last thing had made her restless she had thought it a bother Now it seemed a privilege To most girls Gods Little Mountain would have been purgatory To her it was wonderful It was the first time she had shared in the peculiar beauty of home the daily sacrament of love Edward never forgot to kiss them both when he came in brought them flowers was always carpentering at surprises for them These last never turned out very well his technical skill not keeping pace with his enthusiasm but Hazel was not critical
She in common with the other little creatures sat down in his shadow as in a city of refuge Mrs Marston shared this feeling She always fell asleep at once when Edward was at home in the evening ceasing to invent alarms about black men creeping through the kitchen window Foxy getting into the larder and a great tempest from the Lord blowing them all to perdition because Lords Day was not kept as it used to be
Into the parlour at his own good time Vessons brought the supper and dumped it on the large round table veneered like mahogany heavily Victorian and ornamented with brass feet There were bread and cheese bacon and a good deal of beer
Hazel saw nothing amiss with it for though she had begun to grow accustomed to respectable middleclass meals life at the Callow still seemed the homelier Reddin looked up from cutting bacon to say with unwonted thoughtfulness Like some tea and toast He felt that toast was a triumph of imagination He was rather dubious about asking Vessons to do it so instead he repeated Youll have some tea and toast
Vessons went into the kitchen and shut the door They waited for some time and Hazel who whatever her fate her faults and sorrows was always as hungry as Foxy looked longingly at Reddins cheese and beer Physical exhaustion brought tears of appetite to her eyes At last Reddin went to the kitchen door
Wheres that tea he asked
Tay
Yes you fool
I know nothing about no tay
I said you were to make some
Not to me
And toast
Ive douted the fire
He had just done so
Look here my man theres a missus at Undern now You please her or go She tells me what she wants I tell you You do it
Ill ave no woman over me said Vessons sullenly Never will I Never a missus did I take not for all the pleasures of bed and board—no neer a one I ever took Maiden I am to my dying day
The coupling of the ideas of Vessons and maidenhood was so funny that
Reddin burst out laughing and forgot his anger
Now make that tea Vessons
She unna be here long asked Vessons craftily
Yes for good
Hazel heard him
For good Did she want to be in this whispering house for good Who did she want to be with for good Not Reddin Edward But he had not the passion of the greenwood in him the lust of the earth He was not of the tremulously ecstatic company of wild hunted creatures If Reddin was definitely antagonistic a hunter Edward was neutral a lookeron They were not her comrades They did not live her life She had to live theirs She wished she had never seen Reddin never gone to Hunters Spinney Edwards house was at least peaceful
And what she heard Vessons say will yer lordships Sally Virtue say
She did not hear Reddins reply it was fierce and low She wondered who Sally Virtue was but she was too tired to think much about it Afterwards Reddin had some whisky and Vessons drank his health Then Reddin picked out Its a Fine Hunting Day on the old piano and sang it in a rough tenor Vessons joined in from the kitchen in a voice quite free from any music and the roaring chorus echoed through the house
Eh stop I canna abide it cried Hazel but they did not hear
Vessons came and stood in the doorway with the teapot in one hand and the expression of acute agony he always wore when singing
All trouble and care
Will be left far behind us at home
Not for the little foxes cried Hazel and she plucked the music from the piano and ran past Vessons knocking the teapot out of his hand She stuffed the music into the kitchen grate
Vessons was petrified
Well he said youve got the ways of wildcats and spinsters the world over This was an unwilling compliment And Ill say this for you whatever else I canna say youve got sperit enough for the eleven thousand virgins
Reddin felt that the scene was hardly festive enough He wondered that he himself did not feel more jubilant reaction had set in He wished that all should be gay as for a bridal for he felt that this was a bridal in all but the name
But the old house like a being lethargic after long revelry clad in torn and stained garments seemed unready for mirth Andrew was highly antagonistic The hound had bristled growling at the intruder and Hazel—
He looked at Hazel under halfclosed lids Did she know what had happened He thought not Perhaps intuition whispered to her Certainly she avoided his eyes She sat drinking the tea which Reddin with much exertion of authority at last caused to appear She was wan and her face looked very thin Panic lingered about her eyes at the corner of her lips
He realized that she was afraid of him—his look his touch Immediately he wanted to exercise his power He went across and took her chin in his hand laying the other on her shoulder
Her eyelids trembled
Whatn you after mauling me she said
Then a passion of tears shook her
Oh I want Edard and the old lady I want to go back to the Mountain
I do Edardll be looking me up and down the country
Good Lord so he will said Reddin and rousing the whole place You must write a letter Hazel to say youre safe and happy and hes not to worry
But I amna
Reddin frowned at the spontaneity of this But he made her write the note
Saddle the mare Vessons and take this to the Mountain
You dunna mind how much— began Vessons But Reddin cut him short
Get on he said and Vessons knew by the tone that he had better
Push it under the parsons door knock and make yourself scarce
Vessons Reddin ordered
You can go up to bed if you like Hazel
Left alone he walked up and down the room puzzled and uneasy
According to his idea he had done Hazel the greatest honour a man can pay to a woman He could not see in what he had failed He was irritated with his conscience for being troublesome He had as he put it merely satisfied a need of his nature—a need simple and urgent as eating and drinking He did not understand that in failing to find out whether it was also a need of Hazels nature—and in nothing else at all—lay his unpardonable crime
That he had offended against the views of his Church did not worry him For like many churchmen he had the happy gift of keeping profession and practice dogma and deeds in airtight compartments How many of the most fervent churchmen are not or have not been at some period of their lives exactly like Reddin
Of course Ive been a bit of a beast in the past he thought But thats done with Besides she doesnt know
He reflected again
I suppose I was a bit rough but she ought to have forgotten that by now I do wish she wouldnt keep on so about the parson
He ran upstairs
Sorry I was rough Hazel he said shamefacedly
Hazel stood at the open window in a nightdress that she had found in one of the chests—a frail yellowish thing with many frills of cobwebby lace made and worn by some dead woman on a forgotten bridal It was symbolic of Hazels whole life that she came in this way both to Undern and the Mountain—as bare of womans regalia as a winter leaf is of substance.
Hazel was speaking when he entered He stood still astonished and suspicious
Who are you talking to he asked
She turned Him above she said I was saying the prayer Edard learnt me I said it three times it being Midsummer and ghosses going toandagen and the deathpack about Hell be bound to hearken to Edards prayer
She looked small and pitiful standing in the flickering candlelight She turned again to the window and Reddin went downstairs quite overwhelmed and abashed
The house seemed eerier than ever full of subdued complaints and whisperings The faces of the roses round the window were woebegone in the lamplight The rustle of the leaves had an expostulatory sound The wan poplars down the meadow looked accusing It was almost as if the freemasonry of the green world was up in arms for Hazel She had its blood in her veins and shared with it the silent worship of freedom and beauty and had now been plunged so deeply into human life that she was lost to it It was as if every incarnation of perfection that she had seen in leaf and flower and she had seen much though remaining without expression of it every moment of deep comradeship with earthy dewy things every illumined memory of colours and lights that her vivid mind had gathered and cherished in its rage of love and rapture had come now pacing disdainfully through this old haunt of crude humanity passing up the stairs standing about the great fourposter where so many Reddins had died and been born gazing upon this face that had known dreams however childish of their eternal magic grieving as the tree for the leaf that has fallen They grieved but they did not forgive For the spirits of beauty and magic are as the bondsman of colour knows and the bondsman of poetry inimical to the ordinary life and destiny of man They break up homes They lead a thousand wanderers into the unknown They brook no half service
It is only the rarest exception when a man loves a woman and yet excels in his art and a woman must have an amazing genius if she is still a poet after childbirth
But though sometimes these proud spirits will tolerate will even be sworn companions of human love it is only when it is a passion pure and burning that they know it for a sister spirit In the sexual meeting of Hazel and Reddin there was nothing of this Though it brought out the best in Reddin the best was so very poor And Hazel was merely passive
So they stood and wept above her and they foreswore her company for ever She might regard the primrose eye to eye but she would receive no dewy look of comprehension
No lift of the heart would come with the lifting leaves no pang of mysterious pain with birdsong starset dewfall Even her love of Foxy would become a groping thing and not any longer would she know when her blind bird made its tentative music all it meant and all it dreamed This very night she had forgotten to lean out and listen as of old to the soft voices of the trees She had said her prayer and then she had been so tired and pains had shot through her and her back had ached and she had cried herself to sleep
What for did I go to the Hunters Spinney she asked herself But the answer was too deep for her the traitorous impulse of her whole being too mysterious She could not answer her question
Reddin pacing the room downstairs drinking whisky and fuming at his own compunction at last grew tired of his silent house
Damn it Why shouldnt I go up he said
He opened Hazels door
Look here he said the house is mine and so are you Im coming to bed He was met by that most intimidating reply to all bluster—silence
She was asleep and all night long while he snored she tossed in her sleep and moaned
Chapter 27
Early next morning Vessons was calling the cows in for milking He leant over the lichengreen gate contemplatively
All the colours were so bright that they were grotesque and startling Above the violently green fields the sky shone like blue glass and across the east were two long vermilion clouds Behind the black hill the sun had shouldered up molten and the shadow of Vessons standing monkeylike on the lowest bar of the gate lay on the stretch of wet clover behind him—a purple elfin creature gifted with a prehensile dignity The cows did not appear after his first call He lifted his head and called again in a high plaintive tone as one reasons with a fretful child Come oon come oon Then he sank into the landscape again After an interval a polished red and white cow appeared at a distance of five fields coming serenely on at her own pace A white one and a roan followed her at long distances They advanced through the shadows each going through the exact middle of the many gateways always kept open like doors in a suite of rooms at a reception Vessons waited patiently—more as a slave than a ruler—only uttering his plaintive Come oon once when the last cow dallied overlong with a tuft of lush grass in the hedge This was the daily ritual Every morning he appeared neutraltinted from the house and cried upon an apparently empty landscape every morning they meandered through the seven gates from the secret leafy purlieus where they spent the night
Mysterious of eye leisured vividly red and white they followed the old man as queens might follow an usher
Hazel was coming down the path from the house With morning her abundant vitality had returned The outer world was new and bright and she wanted shyly to be up and dressed before Reddin awoke
She was full of merriment at the subservience of Vessons to the cows
Dyou say mum to em she inquired
Vessons looked her up and down He was very angry not only at her criticism but at the difficulty of retort since he supposed she was now missus His friendliness for her had entirely gone not as would have seemed natural since her last nights instalment at Undern but since her marriage with Edward He felt that she had gone back on him He had taken her as a comrade and now she had gone over to the enemy He was also injured at having been kept up so late last night
He chumbled his straw for some time until the last cow had disappeared Then he said Youm up early for a married ooman or whatever you be missus
Hazel laughed She had lived so completely outside the influence of the canons of society that the taunt had no sting
Ha youre jealous she said
Then with a mercilessly accurate imitation of his voice and face she added
A missus at Undern Never will I
He quailed under her mocking amber eyes her impish laughter Then looking from side to side with suppressed fury he said Them birds is after the cherries Ill get a gun Ill shoot em dead
If you shoot a blackbird the milkll turn bloody said Hazel but
Vessons paid no heed
All morning at any spare moment and after dinner which he brought in in complete silence and which was exceedingly unpalatable he lurked behind trees and crept along hedges shooting birds Even Reddin felt awed and could not gather courage to expostulate with him In and out of the stealthy afternoon shadows black and solemn went the shambling old figure with his relentless face and outraged heart He shot thrushes as they fluted after a meal of wild raspberries he shot tiny silky willowwrens robins and swallows—their sacredness did not awe him—a pigeon on its nest blackbirds a dipper a goldfinch and a great many sparrows The garden and fields were struck into silence because of him only a flutter of terrified wings showed his whereabouts He piled his trophies—all the delicate ruffled plumage of summers prime—on the kitchen table draggled and bloody
Hazel and Reddin crept from window to window silent watching his movements Undern grew ghostlier than ever seeming as the shots rang out startlingly loud in the quiet like a moribund creature electrified by blows
Hed liefer it was me than the birds said Hazel Wheresoever I go folk kill things What for do they
Things must be killed
It seems like the earths all bloody said Hazel And its allus the little small uns There Hes got a jennywren Oh dearie me its like Ive killed em its all along of me coming to Undern
Hush said Reddin sharply What Im afraid of is that hell shoot himself hes so damned queer
The last cow had sauntered to the gate before Vessons opened it and milked them that night Afterwards he went in with the pails set them on the parlour floor and said with fury to Hazel Bloody is it
She owned faintly that it was not
And now said Vessons turning on Reddin its notice Notice has been give—one month—by Andrew Vessons to John Reddin Esquire of Undern
With tragic dignity he turned to go
He saw neither Hazel nor Reddin but only the swan the yewtree swan his creation now doomed to be for ever unfinished The generations to come would look upon a beakless swan and would think he had meant it so Tears came into his eyes—smarting difficult tears The room was full of brooding misery Reddin felt awkward and astounded
Why Vessons he said in rather a sheepish tone
Vessons did not turn He fumbled with the doorhandle Reddin got up and went across to him
Why Vessons he said again with a hand on his shoulder You and I cant part you know
We mun
But why man Whats up with you Andrew
The rare Christian name softened Vessons He deigned to explain She is he said with a sidelong nod at Hazel She mocked me
Did you Hazel
Now then missus Vessons glared at her
I only said—
Her said Never will I shouted Vessons Ah thats what her said—Never will I Thats what I say he added with the pride of a phrasemaker
Reddin could make nothing of them one so red and angry the other in tears
Ill do no oomans will said Vessons
Look here Vessons Be reasonable Listen to me Im your master arent I
Ah Till a month
Well you take orders from me thats all that matters Im master here
The tones of his ancestry were in his voice—an ancestry that ruled over and profited by men and women as good as themselves or better
So well say no more about it he finished with the frank and winning smile that was one of his few charms
Vessons stared at him for some time and as he stared an idea occurred to him It was he felt a good idea It would enable him to keep his swan and his selfrespect and to get rid of Hazel As he pondered it his face slowly creased into smiles He touched his forelock—a thing only done on paydays—and withdrew murmuring Notice is took back
They saw him go past the window with the steps and the shears evidently to attend to the swan
Reddin thought how easy it was to manage these underlings—a little authority a little tact He turned to Hazel crying in the high armchair of black oak with its faded rosecoloured cushions She was crying not only because Vessons had come off victorious but because her position was now defined and was not what she would have liked but also because Reddins manner to her jarred after last night
Last night in the comfortless darkness of Hunters Spinney he had seemed for a little while to be a fellowfugitive of hers one of the defenceless fleeing from the vague unknown power that she feared Then she had pitied him—selfforgetfully fiercely—gathered his head to her breast as she so often gathered Foxys But now he seemed to have forgotten—seemed once more to be of the swift and strong ones that rode down small creatures
She sobbed afresh
Look here Hazel said he in a tone that he intended to be kind but firm—look here Im not angry with you only you must leave Vessons alone you know
You want that old fellow more than you want me
Dont be silly He has his uses you have yours
He spoke with a quite unconscious brutality he voiced the theory of his class and his political party which tacitly or openly asserted that woman servants and animals were in the world for their benefit
Im not grass to be trod on said Hazel and if you canna be civilspoken Ill go
You cant he replied not now
She knew it was true and the knowledge that her own physical nature had proved traitorous to her freedom enraged her the more
You cant go he went on coming towards her chair to caress her
Shall I tell you why
Hazel sat up and looked at him her eyes gloomy her forehead red with crying He thought she was awaiting for his answer but Hazel seldom did or said what he expected She let him kneel by her chair on one knee then frowning asked Who cried in Hunters Spinney He jumped up as if he had knelt on a pin He had been trying to forget the incident and hoped that she had He was bitterly ashamed of that really fine moment of his life
Dont Hazel he said
He felt quite frightened when he remembered how he had behaved A strange doubt of himself born that night stirred again Was he all he had thought Was the world what he had thought Misgivings seized him Perhaps he ought not to have brought Hazel here or to the Spinney An older code than those of Church and State began to flame before him condemning him
Suddenly he wanted reassurance You did want to come didnt you I didnt take advantage of you very much did I he asked You want to stay
No I didna want to come till you made me You got the better of me
But maybe you couldna help it Maybe you were druv to it
Who by he asked with an attempt at flippancy
Hazels eyes were dark and haunted
Summat strong and drodsome as drives us all she said
She had a vision of all the world racing madly round and round like the exhausted and terrified horse Reddin had that morning lunged But what power it was that stood in the centre breaking without an effort the spirit of the mad fleeing tethered creature she could not tell
Reddin sat brooding until Hazel recovering first in her mercurial way said
Now Ive come I mun bide Dyou think the old fellowd let me cook summat for supper Its been pigfood for us today
But when they went to investigate they found Vessons preparing a tremendous meal hot and savoury as a victorious and penitent old man could make it He showed in his manner that bygones were to be bygones and night came down in peace on Undern But it was a curious torrid peace like the hush before thunder
Chapter 28
It was the Friday after Hazels coming and Reddin was away much against his will at a horse fair He was quite surprised at the hurt it gave him to be away from Hazel So far he had never been in the smallest sense any womans lover He had taken what he wanted of them in a kind of animal semiconsciousness that amounted to a stark innocence Virility he felt was not of his seeking There it was and it must be satisfied Now he was annoyed to find that he felt guilty when he remembered these women and that he wanted Hazel not as with them occasionally but all the time He had been accustomed to say at farmers dinners after indulging pretty freely
Oh damn it what dyou want with women between sunup and sundown His coarseness had been received with laughter and reproof Now he felt that the reproof was juster than the laughter It was curious too how dull things became when Hazel was not there Hazel had something fresh to say about everything and their quarrels were the most invigorating moments he had known Hazel was primitive enough to be feminine original enough to be boyish and mysterious enough to be exciting As Vessons remarked to the drake Oh maister you neer saw the like Its Azel Azel Azel the day long and a good man spoilt as was only part spoilt afore
Vessons and Hazel were spending the afternoon quarrelling about the bees When Reddin was away Hazel put off her new dignity and was Vessons equal because it was so dull to be anything else Vessons tolerated her presence for the sake of the subacid remarks it enabled him to make but chiefly because of the sardonic pleasure it gave him to remember how soon his resolve would be put into action
They were in the walled garden and the bees were coming and going so fast that they made when Hazel half closed her eyes long black threads swaying between the hive doors and the distant fields and the hilltop They hung in cones on the low front walls and lumped on the hiveshelves in that apparently purposeless unrest that precedes creation But whether they intended any of them to create a new city that day none might know Vessons said not Hazel always for adventure said they would and said also that she could hear the queen in one hive zeepzeeping—that strange music which like the maddeningly soft skirl of bagpipes or the fiddling of Ned Pugh has power to lure living creatures away from comfort and full hives into the unknown—so darkly sweet
I canna hear it said Vessons obstinately
Go on Youre deaf Mr Vessons
Deaf am I Maybe I hear as much as I want to and more Ah that I do
Well then why canna you hear em Listen at em now Dyou know the noise I mean
Do I know the noise Vessons voice grew almost tearful with rage Do I know Me As can make a thousand bees go through the neck of a pint bottle each after other like cows to the milking Me Maybe youd like to learn me beekeeping he continued with salty humility Maybe you would Never will I
He began to tear off the tops of the hives
Oh Mr Vessons dunna be so cross Hazel was afraid there would be another scene like Mondays You take em off very neat she added with a pathetic attempt to be tactful—as neat as my dad
Id have you know said Vessons as I take em off neater—ah a deal neater Bees and cows and yewtree swans he went on reflectively I can manage better than any married man For what he puts into matrimony I put into my work Now I ask you—he fixed his eyes on her with the expression of a fanatic—I ask you was there ever a beekeeper or a general or a seacaptain as was anything to boast of being married Never Marriage kills the mind! Whys bees clever Whys the skip allus full of honey at summers end Because theyre all old maids
The queen inna They all come from her
Vessons glared for a moment then realizing defeat turned on his heel and went to feed the calves He had an ingenious way of getting the calves in He had no dog it was one of his dreams to have one But he managed very well First he opened the calfskit door then he loosed the pigs then he fetched a bucket and went to the field where the calves were followed by a turbulent squealing ferocious crowd of pigs He walked round the calves and the calves fled homewards far more afraid of the pigs than of a dog This piece of farm economy pleased Vessons and peace being restored they laid tea amicably
When Reddin came home to a pleasant scent of toast and the sight of Hazels shining braids of hair new brushed and piled high on her head he felt very well pleased with himself He stretched in the red armchair and flung an arm round her His hard blue eyes his hard mouth smiled he felt that he could make a success of marriage though the parson as he called Edward could not Women he reflected were quite easy to manage Just show them whos master straight off and alls well Here was Hazel radiant soft submissive all the rough prickly husk gone since Sunday Why had he behaved so strangely in the Spinney
Well well he must forget about that
The hot tea ran very comfortably down his throat the toast was pleasantly resistant to his strong teeth He felt satisfied with life Later on no doubt Hazel would have a child That too would be a good thing Two possessions are better than one and he could well afford children It never occurred to him to wonder whether Hazel would like it or to be sorry for the pain in store for her He felt very unselfish as he thought When she cant go about Ill sit with her now and again It really was a good deal for him to say He had never taken the slightest notice of Sally Haggard at such times
Got something for you he said pulling at his pocket
Oh Its an urchin cried Hazel delightedly
Reddin began bruising and pulling at its spines with his gloved hands
Dunna cried Hazel
Reddin pulled and wrenched until at last the hedgehog screamed—a thin piercing wail most ghastly and pitiful and old ancient as the cry of the deathshead moth that faint ghostly shriek as of a tortured witch Centuries of pain were in it the agelong terror of weakness bound and helpless beneath the knife and that something vindictive and terrifying that looks up at the hunter from the eyes of trapped animals and sends the cuckoo fleeing in panic before the onset of little birds Hazel knew the sound well It was the watchword of the little children of despair the password of the freemasonry to which she belonged
Before the cry had ceased to horrify the quiet room she had flung herself at Reddin a pattern of womanly obedience no longer but a desperate creature fighting in that most intoxicating of all crusades the succouring of weakness
On Reddins head a moment ago so smooth on his face a moment ago so bland rained the blows of Hazels hard little fists Her blows were by no means so negligible as most womens for her hands were muscular and strong from digging and climbing and in her heart was the root of pity which nerves the most trembling hands to do mighty deeds
What the devil spluttered Reddin Here stop it you little vixen
He caught one of her hands but the other was too quick for him
Give over tormenting of it then
The hedgehog rolled on the floor and the foxhound came and sniffed it
Reddin had her other hand now
What dyou mean by it he asked very angry and tingling about the ears
Leave it be Its done you no harm Lookee The hounddog she cried
Drive him off
Im going to have some fun seeing the dog kill it
Hazel went quite white
You shanna Not till Im jead she said Its come to me to be took care of and took care of it shall be She reached a foot out and kicked the hound
Reddins mood changed He burst out laughing
Youre a sight more amusing than hedgehogs he said the beast can go free for all I care
He pulled her on to his knee and kissed her
Send the hounddog out then
When the hound had gone resentfully the hedgehog—a sphinxlike protestant ball—enjoyed the peace and Hazel became again as Reddin thought quite the right sort of girl to live with
During the uproar they had not heard wheels in the drive so they were startled by Vessons intrigue insertion of himself into a small opening of the door his firm shutting of it as if in face of a beleaguering host and his stentorian whisper
Eres Clombers now as if to say When you let a woman in you never know whatll become of it
Tell em Im ill—dead said his master Tell em Im in the bath—anything only send them away
They heard Vessons recitative
The masters very sorry mum but hes got the colic too bad to see you Its heave curse heave curse till I pray for a good vomit
The Clombers urgent upon his track shouldered past and strode in
What the devil do they want muttered Reddin He rose sulkily
I hear said the eldest Miss Clomber who had read Bordello and was very clever that young Lochinvar has taken to himself a bride
This was quite up to her usual standard for not only had it the true literary flavour but it was ironic for she knew who Hazel was
Er queried Reddin shaking hands in his rather racecourse manner
Introduce me Mr Reddin simpered Amelia Clomber It was painful when she simpered her mouth was made for sterner uses
They surveyed Hazel who shrank from their gaze Something in their eyes made her feel as if they were her judges and as if they knew all about Hunters Spinney
They looked at her with detestation They thought it was detestation for a sinner Really it was for the woman who had in a few weeks after meeting him found favour in Reddins eyes and attained that defeat which to women even so desiccated as the Clombers is the one desired victory
They had come as they told each other before and after their visit to snatch a brand from the burning What was in the heart of each—the frantic desire to be mistress of Undern—they did not mention
Miss Clomber had taken exception to Amelias tight dress For Amelia had a figure and Miss Clomber had not She always flushed at the text We have a little sister and she hath no breasts
Amelia was aware of her advantage as she engaged Reddin in conversation He fell in with the arrangement for he detested her sister who always prefaced every remark with Have you read—
As he never read anything he thought she was making fun of him
And what asked Miss Clomber of Hazel lowering her lids like blinds was your maiden name
Woodus
Where were you married
The Mountain
Shawly theres no charch there
Ah Edards church
Edward
Ah Hes minister
You mean the chapel So thats your persuasion Now Mr Reddin is such a stanch Charchman
Reddin looked exceedingly discomfited
And when did this happy event take place
A cat with a mouse was nothing to Miss Clomber with a sinner
At this point Reddin saw as he put it what she was driving at He was very sleepy having been out all day and eaten a large tea and he never combated a physical desire So he cut across a remark of Amelias to the effect that marriage with the right woman so added to a mans comfort and said
Im not married if thats what you mean
Then who— said Miss Clomber feeling that she had him now
My keep he said baldly He thought they would go at that But they sat tight They had as Miss Clomber said afterwards a soul to save They both realized how pleasant might be the earthly lot of one engaged in this heavenly occupation
Hah You call a spade a spade Mr Reddin said Miss Clomber with a frosty glance at Hazel you are not as our dear Browning has it mealy mouthed
In the breast of a true woman said Amelia authoritatively as a fishmonger might speak of fish is no room for blame
True woman be damned
Miss Clomber saw that for today the cause was lost
At this point Miss Amelia uttered a piercing yell The hedgehog encouraged by being left to itself, and by the slight dusk that had begun to gather in the northerly rooms of Undern—where night came early—had begun to creep about Surreptitiously guided by Hazels foot it had crept under Amelias skirt and laid its cold inquiring head on her ankle thinly clad for conquest
Hazel went off into peals of laughter and Miss Amelia hated her more than before
Vessons in the kitchen shook his head
I never heerd the like of the noise theres been since that gel come
Never did I he said
Leave him said Miss Clomber to Hazel on the doorstep She was going to add for my sake but substituted his You are causing him to sin she added
Be I Hazel felt that she was always causing something wrong Then she sighed I canna leave im
Why not
He wunna let me
With that phrase all unconsciously she took a most ample revenge on the Clombers for it rang in their ears all night and they knew it was true
Chapter 29
On Sunday Vessons put his resolve—to go to the Mountain and reveal Hazels whereabouts—into practice If he had waited gossip would have done it for him He set out in the afternoon having cleaned himself and put on his pepperandsalt suit buff leggings red waistcoat and the jockeylike cap he affected He arrived at the back door just as Martha was taking in supper
Well said Martha who wanted to have her meal and go home
Well said Vessons
When I say well I mean what dyou want
Allus say what you mean
Who dyou want Me
The master
The masters out
Ill wait then
He sat down by the fire and looked so fixedly at Martha as she poured out her tea that she offered him some in selfdefence He drew up his chair Now that he was receiving hospitality he felt that he must be agreeable and complimentary
Single I suppose he asked
Ah said Martha coyly Im single but Ive no objection to matrimony
Oh Vessons spoke sourly Im sorry for you then
Maybe youre a married man yourself
Never
Better late than never
If Ive kep out of it in the heat of youth is it likely Ill go into it in the chilly times Maiden I am to my dying day
But if you was to meet a nice tidy woman as had a bit saved To
Martha a bridegroom of sixtyfive seemed better than nothing
If I met a score nice tidy women if I met a gross nice tidy women it ud be no different
Not if she could make strong ale
I can make ale myself No woman shall come into my kitchen for uncounted gold
Martha sighed as she changed the subject
What do you want the master for
Never tell your tidings said Vessons till you meet the king
Martha
Mrs Marston stood at the kitchen door in the most splendid of her caps—a pagoda of white lace—and her voice was as she afterwards said quite sharp its mellifluousness being very slightly reduced
Vessons rose touching his hair
What is it my good man
A bit of news mum
For my son
Ah
You may go Martha said Mrs Marston and Martha went without alacrity
Now Mrs Marston spoke encouragingly
Its for the master
He cannot see you
The two old faces regarded each other with silent obstinacy and Vessons recognized that for all Mrs Marstons soft outlines she was as obstinate as he was He cleared his throat several times
Mrs Marston produced a lozenge which he ate reluctantly chumbling it with nervous haste He was so afraid that she would give him another that he told her his news
Thank you she said keeping her dignity in a marvellous manner Mrs Edward Marston of course wrote to the minister but she forgot to give her address
Accidents will appen Vessons remarked as he went out
It was some time before Edward came in He had spent most of his time since last Sunday tramping the hillsides It was not till he had finished his very cursory meal that his mother said calmly looking over her spectacles
I know where Hazel is
You know mother Why didnt you tell me
I am telling you dear Theres nothing to be in a taking about
Youve had no supper yet A little preserve
Edward in a sudden passion that startled her threw the jamdish across the room It made a red splash on the wall Mrs Marston stopped chumbling her toast and remained with the rotary motions of her mouth in abeyance Then she said slowly
Your poor father always said dear that youd break out some day And you have The best dish Of course the jam I say little about jam is but jam after all but the cutglass dish—
Cant you go on with the tale mother
Yes my dear yes But you fluster me like the Silverton Cheapjack does I never can buy the dish he holds up for I get in such a fluster for fear hell break it and then he does And now you have
Edward pushed back his chair in desperation
For pitys sake he said
Im telling you I never thought Hazel was steadfast you know
Where is she Why will you torment me
An old man came A very untrustworthy old man I fear A defiant manner and that is never pleasant There he was in the kitchen with Martha Age is no barrier to wrong and Martha was very flushed There was a deal of laughter too
Mother If you keep on like this I shall go mad
Why Edward you are all in a fever There there Its more peaceful without her and I wish Mr Reddin well of her
Reddin What Reddin
Mr Reddin of Undern Who else
Damn the fellow
Edward What words you take on your lips And just think she went on sorrowfully that he seemed such a nice man He liked the gooseberry wine so much and gave me a maam which is more than Martha does half her time Where are you going
To Undern
What for
Hazel
Mrs Marston sat bolt upright
But of course shell never darken the door again
I shall bring her back tonight of course
But my dear You must divorce her however unpleasant on account of the papers Remember she has been there a week
What of that
But a week dear
Mother I did not think to hear the talk of the filthy world from you
Mrs Marston quailed a little There is nothing in the world so pure so wonderful so strong as a young mans love can be—nothing so spiritual nothing so brave
Mrs Marston in her own words shed tears
Dont cry mother but help me Edward said Be ready for her love her She is as pure as a dewdrop I know it And I want her more than life
But if she doesnt want you Edward what more is to do
To seek and to save snapped Edward and he banged the door and went hatless down the path between the heavybrowed tombstones But he came back to suggest that there should be some tea ready
As he went down the batch owls were shrieking in the woods and the sky was pied with grey and crimson like bloodstained marble The cries of the owls were hard as marble also and of a polished ferocity They would have their prey
He walked fast through the lonely fields where Hazel had passed on her mushrooming morning The roses that had then been in the bud were falling
At Alderslea people stared at him as he went by flushed and hatless
From Alderslea to Wolf batch was some miles from there to Undern the way lay over Bitterly Hill where he missed the path So it was quite dark when he came past Undern Pool lying black and ghastly in its ring of skeleton trees The foxhound set up a loud baying within Only one window was lit
Edward hammered on the knocker and the sound echoed in the hollow house
There was a noise within of a door opening and Hazels voice cried I wouldna go Its a tramp likely
Then Reddin laughed and Edward clenched his hands in rage at the easy selfconfidence of him The bolt was drawn back and Reddin stood in the doorway outlined by pale light
Who is it he asked in rather a jovial tone He felt at peace with the world now Hazel was here
Beast Edward said tersely
Just come in a minute my lad and lets have a look at you People dont call me names twice
Hazel had heard Edwards voice
She ran to the door and the applegreen gown rustled about her
Edard Edard Dunna go for to miscall him Hell hurt ee Hes strongern you Do ee go back Edard
Never till you come too
I like that said Reddin Cant you see shes got my gown on her back Shes mine She was never yours
He looked meaningly and triumphantly at Edward
Oh dunna Jack What for do you go to shame me said Hazel twisting her hands
Edward took no notice of her
I dont know what evil means you used or how you brought the poor child here he said controlling himself with an effort But you have tried to rob me and you have insulted her—
Oh dont come here talking like an injured husband Reddin said you know you arent her husband
Keep your foul mouth shut before innocence To try and rob a poor child of her freedom of her soul—
Hazel wondered at him His eyes darkened so upon Reddin his face was so powerful irradiated with love and anger
So young he went on—so young and as wild as a little bird How could anyone help letting her take her own way She wanted to go free in the woods I let her and there you were like a sneaking wolf
He threw a look at Hazel so full of wistful tenderness that she flung the green skirt over her head and sobbed
Stow it cant you said Reddin If you want a fight say so but dont preach all night
His tone was injured He felt that he had been particularly considerate to Edward in sending him the letter Also he was convinced that he had only taken what Edward did not want That Edward could love Hazel was beyond his comprehension If a man loved a woman he possessed her took his pleasure of her Love that was abnegation was to his idea impossible So that now when Edward spoke of his love Reddin simply thought he was posing
Why didnt you let her be
Women dont want to be let be said Reddin with a very unpleasant laugh
Oh stop talking about me as if I wunna here cried Hazel
If she loved you Id say nothing Edward went on staring at Reddin fixedly The fact that Im her husband would not have counted with me if youd loved her and she you
A fine pastor
But you dont You only wanted—Oh you make me sick
Indeed Well Im man enough to take what I want youre not
You trapped her you would have betrayed her But thank God a young girls innocence is a wonderful and powerful thing
Reddin was astounded Could Marston really be such a fool as to believe in Hazel still
The innocent young girl— he began but Hazel struck him on the mouth
All right spitfire he said mums the word He was surprisingly goodhumoured
Well Hazel—Edward spoke in a matterof-fact tone—shall we go home now
Dunnat ask me Edard I mun bide
Why
Hazel was silent She could not explain the strange instinct stronger than her wildness that Reddin had awakened in her and that chained her here with invisible chains
Come home little Hazel he pleaded
I canna she whispered
Why You can if you want to Dont you want to
Ah I do that
She was torn between her longing to go and her powerlessness to leave
Reddin
The light went out of Edwards face
Do you love this man he asked
No
Does it make you better to live with him
No It was living with you as did that
Reddin was so enraged that he struck her and her expression of submission as she cowered under the blow was worse to Edward than the blow itself He forgot his views about violence and struck Reddin back
Come outside said Reddin in a tone of relief The situation had now taken a comprehensible turn for him
If its fighting youre after Im with you thats settling it like gentlemen What are you grinning at He spoke huffily
Dunna snab at each other What for do you said Hazel
Because youre husbands jealous
Edward was exasperated by the realization that his action in coming did look like that of the commonplace husband But after all what did it matter Nothing mattered but Hazel He looked across at her crouched in the armchair sobbing He went to her and patted her shoulder
No ones angry with you dear he said Afterwards when were home you shall explain it all to me
If you win put in Reddin
Edward stooped and kissed Hazels hand The momentary doubt of her—cruel as hell—had gone She was his lady and he was going to fight for her Hazel looked up at him and in that instant she almost loved him
They went out It was a black moonless night They stood near the lit window
Draw the blind up shouted Reddin
Hazel drew it up They faced each other in the square of light They were both quite collected It seemed difficult to begin The humour of this struck Reddin and he laughed
Edward looked at him disgustedly Reddin began to feel a fool
We must begin he said
Seeing that Edward was waiting for him to strike the first blow and not being angry enough to do so Reddin said coarsely
No good fighting parson Shes mine—from head to foot
He received as good a blow as Edward was capable of They fought with harddrawn breath for they were neither of them in training To Edward it seemed ridiculous to be fighting to Reddin it seemed ridiculous to be fighting such an opponent
They moved out of the light and back again in the tense silence of the night A rat splashed in the pool and silence fell again
Edward could not do much more than defend himself and Reddins eyes shone triumphantly Within Hazel leaned against the glass faintly It was as if evil and good angels and devils fought for her And whichever won she was equally forlorn She did not want heaven she wanted earth and the green ways of earth
Oh hell kill Edard she moaned
Edward staggered under a blow and she hid her eyes Suddenly she thought of Vessons Where was he She ran to the kitchen calling him He was not there She went to the stables He was nowhere to be found Drawn by an irresistible curiosity she rushed back to the front of the house Under the yewtree she ran into Vessons
Sh he whispered Say nought Ill tell you whats a mortal good thing for a dogfight—pepper He held up the kitchen pepperpot In the other hand he had the poker
Now Ill part em missus you see
Quick then
But as she spoke Reddin got in a blow on Edwards jaw and he fell
Hazel rushed forward
You murderer—she screamed and she bit Reddins hand as he stretched it out to catch her and bent over Edward The victor in the fight was fated to be the loser with Hazel for she had a neverbroken compact with all creatures defeated
She ran to the pool for water
Catch a holt on him she cried to Vessons hes a murderer
Reddin stood by confused and mystified at Hazels unlookedfor behaviour Vessons bent over Edward He struck a match and held it to the end of his nose chuckling as Edward winced
Ill tell you summat as is mortal tough he remarked A minister of the Lord Will the genleman stay supper he inquired of Reddin
No said Hazel Mr Reddinll take supper alone for allus to his dying day Put the horse in please Mr Vessons
Right you are missus
Reddin was so taken aback by the turn of events and his head ached so much that he had nothing to say He watched Vessons bring the horse round blinked at Hazel as she tore off the silk dress and borrowed Edwards coat instead and glowered dumbly at Edward as he was helped into the trap Hazel sat between the two men
Pluck up said Vessons to the cob unemotionally and the trap jogged through the gate and out on to the open hill
And if it cosses me my place Ill tell ye one thing Vessons said to himself Theres as good to be had and better
Well Im damned said Reddin as they disappeared in the darkness He went in and finished the whisky in a state of mystification that ended in sleep
Chapter 30
As the horse trotted along the hard road rabbits scuttled across in the momentary lamplight Hazel tied her handkerchief round Edwards head
All the windows were dark in Alderslea except one faint dormer where an old woman was dying They began to climb the lane that led up to the Mountain Cattle looked over hedges breathing hard with curiosity In an upland field a flock of horned sheep were racing to and fro through a gap in the hedge coughing and stamping at intervals and looking as the moon rose like fantastic devils working sorcery with their own shadows
The lamps dimmed in the moonlight and the world seemed to widen infinitely like life at the coming of love The country lay below like a vast white mere and the hill sloped vaguely to a silver sky Vessons walked up the batch to ease the cob and Edward looked down at Hazel and murmured
My little child
Dunna talk said Hazel quickly its bad for ee She was afraid to break the magical silence afraid that the new peace that came with Marstons presence would vanish like the moon in driving cloud and that she would feel the dragging chain that pulled her back to Reddin
Edward was silent puzzling over the question Why had not Hazel asked for his help Reddin must have seen her at least several times must have persecuted her He grew very uneasy He must ask Hazel
They drew up before the whitesentried graveyard Vessons went up the path and knocked at the silent house Then he threw handfuls of white spar off a grave at the windows The Minorca cockerel crew reedily
Thats unlucky said Hazel
Mrs Marston put her head out very sleepy and asked who it was
The conquering ero said Vessons as Edward and Hazel came up the path deeply shadowed He got into the trap and drove off
Well Undernll be summat like itself again now he thought
It was a deal more peaceable without her naughty girl thought Mrs
Marston as she sadly and lethargically put on her clothes
Well Edward she exclaimed when she came down in her crimson shawl with the ball fringe heres a todo A minister of grace with a pockethandkerchief round his head coming to his house in the dead of night with a wild old man Whats happened Oh my dear is it your arteries We wondered where you were Hazel Marston
Im very shivery mother Edward said
Something hot and sweet She bustled off They were alone for the first time
Hazel why didnt you tell me about this man It was not kind or right of you
There was nought to tell She fidgeted
But he must have seen you several times
I was near telling you but I thought youd be angered
Angry With you Oh to think of you in such danger
What danger
Of things that thank God you never dream of He forged that letter
I suppose Or did he frighten you into writing it
Ah
But why did you ever go
He pulled me up on the horse and took me
The mans a savage
Hazel checked a hasty denial that was on her lips
What a pity you happened to meet him Edward said
Ah
But why didnt you want to come at once when I came to fetch you Were you so afraid of him as that
Ah
Well its over now He wont show his face here again weve done with him
Hazel sighed But whether it was her spiritual self sighing with relief at being with Edward or her physical self longing for Reddin she could not have said
Only you could come through such an experience unchanged my sweet
Edward said
I mun go to Foxy she cried desperately Foxy wants me
Foxy wants a good beating said Mrs Marston benignly looking mercifully over her spectacles Her wrath was generally like the one drop of acid in a dell of honey smothered in lovingkindness and embonpoint
When Hazel had gone she said
You will send her away from here of course
Edward went out into the graveyard without a word He sat on one of the coffinshaped stones
God send me some quiet he said
Mrs Marston came and draped her shawl round him He got up despairing of peace and said he would go to bed
Theres a good boy So will I Youll be as bright as ever in the morning Then she whispered You wont keep her here
Keep her Who Hazel Of course Hazel will stay here
Its hardly right
Pleasant you mean mother You never liked her You want to be rid of her But how you can so misjudge a beautiful soul I cannot think I tell you shes as pure as a daisy Why she could not even bear in her maidenly reserve the idea of marriage It is sheer blasphemy to say such things
Blasphemy my dear is not a thing you can do against people It is disagreeing with the Lord that is blasphemy
I must ask you anyway never to mention Hazels name to me until you can think of her differently
When after saying good night to Hazel and Foxy Edward had gone to bed Mrs Marston shook her head
Edward she said is not what he was She waited till Hazel came in
Youre no wife for my son she said youve sinned with another man
I hanna done nought nor said nought its all other folks doing and saying so I dunna see as Ive sinned And I never could abear ee Hazel cried Id as lief you was dead as quick
She rushed up to her room and flung herself on her bed sobbing She felt dazed like a child taken into a big toyshop and told to choose quickly Life had been too hasty with her There were things she knew that she would have liked but she had so far not had time to find out what they were
She wished she could tell Edward all about it But how could she explain that strange inner power that had driven her to Hunters Spinney How could she make him understand that she did not want to go and was yet obliged to go She could not tell him that Although she was furious with Reddin on his behalf although she hated Reddin for the coarseness and cruelty in him yet parting with him had hurt her
How could this be She did not know She only knew that as she lay in her little bed she wanted Reddin his bodily presence his kisses or his blows He had betrayed her utterly bringing to his aid forces he could not gauge or understand His crime was that he had made of a woman who could not be his spiritual bride since her spirit was unawakened and his was to seek his bodys bride All the divine paradoxes of sex—the mastery of the lover and his deep humility his idealization of his bride and her absolute surrender—these he had dragged in the mud So instead of the mysterious transcendant illumination that passion brings to a woman she had only confusion darkness and a sense of something dragging at the roots of her being in the darkness
Her eyes needed his eyes to stare them down The bruises on her arms ached for his hard hands Her very tears desired his roughness to set them flowing
Oh Jack Reddin Jack Reddin Youve put a spell on me she moaned
I want to be along of Edard and youve bound me to be along of you
I dunna like you but I canna think of ought else
She fought a hard battle that night The compulsion to get up and go straight to Undern was so strong that it could only be compared to the pull of matter on matter She tried to call up Edwards voice—quiet tender almost religious in its tone to her But she could only hear Reddins voice forceful and dictatorial saying Im master here And every nerve assented in defiance of her wistful spirit that he was master
That when morning came she was still at the Mountain showed an extraordinary power of resistance and was simply owing to the fact that Reddin had in what he called giving the parson a good hiding opened her eyes very completely to his innate callousness and to his temperamental and traditional hostility to her creed of love and pity Soon in the mysterious woods the owls turned home—mysterious as the woods—strong creatures driven on to the perpetual destruction of the defenceless destroyed in their turn and blown down the wind—a few torn feathers
Chapter 31
Edward did not notice the strained relationship between Mrs Marston and Hazel He supposed that his mothers suspicions had faded before Hazels frank presence
Outwardly there was little change in the bearings of the two women it was only in feminine pinpricks and things implied that Mrs Marston showed her anger and Hazel her dislike and it was when he was out that Martha spoke so repeatedly and emphatically of being respectable His coming into the house brought an armoured peace but no sooner was he outside the door than the guns were unmasked again
Hazel wished more and more that she had stayed at Undern
She found a mans roughness preferable to womens velvet slaps his most masterful demands less wearing than their silent criticism At Undern she could not call her physical self her own Here her heart and mind were attacked She could not explain to Mrs Marston that something had made her go Mrs Marston would simply have said Fiddlesticks She could not explain that Reddins touch drugged her If Mrs Marston had ever been made to feel that madness of passivity— which seemed impossible so that Edwards existence was a paradox—she had long since forgotten it Besides Hazel had no words in which to express these things she was not even clear about them herself
She never tried to explain anything to Edward She dreaded his anger and she felt that only by complete silence could she keep the look of loving reverence in his eyes She understood how very differently Reddin looked at her It did not matter with him but Edward—it was everything to her in Edward
Only once there had been a keen look of criticism in Edwards eyes and her heart had fluttered Edward said
Why when you were dragged to Undern against your will did you wear the mans gown It wasnt dignified And why did you cry out on him not to shame you He could not shame you You had done nothing wrong
He said such awful things Edard and the dress—the dress was so pretty
You poor child you dear little one So it was a pretty colour was it
Ah
You shall have one like it
He went off whistling
It was when she had been back nearly six weeks and the August days were scorching the Mountain that the strain became unbearable She was not feeling well
Reddin had made no sign This had at first calmed her then piqued her now it hurt her Mysteriously she felt that she must be with him
Hem that proud hed neer ask me to go back And if I went thered
be no peace Oh Jack Reddin Jack Reddin Youve put a spell on me
There inna much peace days nor much rest nights in your dark house
And yet—
Yet whenever she went for a walk she felt her feet taking her towards
Undern
Then quite suddenly one morning Reddin rode past the house Mrs
Marston saw him
Edward must know of this she said very much flustered You ought to go away somewhere Hazel
Away Why ever
Out of temptation Why not to your aunts
Aunt Prowde wouldna have me And Edard wouldna like me to go
Edward I am sure thinks as I do
Gospel
Do not be irreverent
I dunna think you know what Edard thinks as well as me
Dont say dunna Hazel Of course I know what Edward thinks a great deal better than you Ive known him all his life
Afterwards when Mrs Marston was not in the room Martha said in her contemptuous tones
I spose you know Mrs Edard how hes going on
Who
Why that Mr Reddin
Whats he done
Oh I know But I wouldnt soil me mouth only Im thinking youd ought to know
She looked triumphant
Hes after that there Sally something as lives nearby They do say as all her brats be his
Mr Reddins Is he—like—married to her Martha
About as much as he was to you I reckon
And does she—live there now
I dunno
Is she pretty
It inna allus the prettiest as get lovers
But is she prettier than me
Ive heard shes bigger and finer
But she hanna got abron hair
How should I know
This was desolate news to Hazel for Reddin now that she was going to bear his child had become necessary to her She was unconscious of the reason of this need—not a spiritual one but purely physiological She did not hate him for this news Such hatred is abnormal Nor did she love him That would have been still more abnormal But she must be in his house she must sew for him share his daily doings sleep in the big fourposter and not in the small virginal bed at the Mountain It would be grievous to leave Edward He was the shelter between her flickering spirit and the storms of life She had hesitated putting off the inevitable feeling that Undern was always there like an empty room for her reentry so she had not hurried Now the room was occupied her place taken Immediately she felt that she must go Feverishly she decided to go this very night and peer in no one but herself had ever drawn the blinds at Undern of late years and see for herself Mrs Marston and Martha both seemed to be pushing her over the brink
When after tea she crept from the house she was crying—crying at leaving Edward the master and the comrade of her unknown self. It was as if she gave up immortality Yet she was relieved to be going—that is if she could stay at Undern Both her tears and her relief were natural The pity was that body and soul had been put in opposition by belonging to different men
She left a little blotted note for Edward
Dunna think too bad of me Edard I be bound to go to Undern and live I ud liefer bide along of you
She went through the shadowsweet meadows where birds hopped out across green stretches in the cool the high corn that had once been her comrade the honeysuckle hedges that used to bring so childish a glee They wore an air of things estranged and critical All was so sad like a dear friend with an altered countenance She was an exile even in the seeing and hearing It was strange to her as a town under the tides There it was clear and belfried as of old but fathoms deep and the bells had so faint a chime that Reddins voice drowned them She was turned out of the Eden of the past that she had known in wood and meadow She was denied the Eden of the future that she might have had in Edwards love She had the present—Reddin—unless the other woman had robbed her of him also
She sat down in the heavy shadows of the trees at the far side of Undern Pool The water looked cold and ghastly even on this golden day She watched the wagtails strut magisterially the moorhens with the worried air of overworked charwomen all the mysterious evening life of a summer pool but she had no smile for them today The swallows slid and circled across the water their silence was no longer intimate but alien She looked across at Undern There were roses everywhere but the house had so strong a faculty for imposing its personality that it gave to the red roses and the masses of travellers joy that frothed over it a deep sadness as if they had blown and dropped long since and were but memoried flowers The shadows of swallows came and went on the white western wall and smoke stood up blue and straight from Vessons kitchen fire She watched the cows go down the green lane and the shadows go over the meadows in triumphal state When all was shadow and the sky was as suddenly vacant of swallows as at dawn it had been full of them she went stealthily towards the house
A light appeared in the parlour She came close up and looked in
Reddin was in the easy chair reading the paper a pipe in the corner of his mouth No one else was there
Jack Reddin she said
Hullo He turned So youve come I thought youd have come long ago
That was all he said But she assured herself that he was glad she had come because he shouted to Vessons for tea She was certain he was glad to see her Yet there was something vaguely insolent in his manner He was a man who must never be sure of a woman The moment she committed herself for him and was at a disadvantage he despised her
Come over here he said There I suppose youve forgotten what its like to be kissed eh And to live with a man You can never go away again now
Why
Well you are a simpleton Dyou think hed have you back after this The first time it was my fault he thinks but the second It wont wash He laughed
This times your fault as much as the other You made me come both times Theres Vessons Leave me get up
No Why should I
Vessons entered
This ere game of tetherball he said fair makes me giddy
Jack said Hazel when he had gone Martha said there was a woman here
Marthas a liar
Hanna there bin
No Never anyone but you
Hanna you bin fond of anyone
Only you
She said there was a woman as had a lot of little children as was yours
Damn her
And I thought shes ought to live along of you and to be marriedlike and wear the green dress
No one shall wear that but you nor have my children but you
She was as he had calculated entirely overwhelmed and so startled that she forgot to question him any more
Oh no she said thatll never be
He raised his eyebrows at her extraordinary denseness but he judged it best to say no more
He must get rid of Sally He supposed she would make him pay heavily He was sick of the sight of her and the children They were not nice children He looked at Hazel contemplatively If his conjecture was right he would have to try and legalize things during the next few months He badly wanted a son—born in wedlock He would have to go and beg the parson to divorce her It would be detestable but it would have to be done He would wait and see
Meanwhile Vessons also made plans his obstinate mouth and pearshaped face more dour than ever
Hazel had a letter from Edward in the morning it was very short She could not tell what he thought of her
He only said that if she ever wanted help she was to come to him She cried over it and hid it away She knew how well Edward would have looked as he wrote it She knew he would be grieved She had not the slightest idea that he would be utterly overwhelmed and wrecked She had not the least notion how he felt for her
She was very glad to be away from Mrs Marston and Martha She found this household of two men a great rest after the two women although Vessons did not relax his disapproval If it had not been for her passionate spiritual longing for Edward she would have been happy for the deep law of her being was now fulfilled in thus returning to Reddin He for his part liked to see her about Roses appeared in the rooms it was strange to him who had never had a woman in his house to find his bedroom scented with flowers He liked to watch her doing her hair
He always pretended to be asleep in the morning so that she should get up first—shyly anxious to be dressed before he awoke So morning after morning he would watch her through his eyelashes He never felt that as she obviously wished for privacy he was mean or indelicate
Ive got a right to Shes mine was his idea
It was not till a week after Hazels coming that Reddin pulled himself together and went to interview Sally Haggard Vessons observing the fact repaired to Sallys cottage on his masters return and found her in tears To see this heavybrowed bigboned woman crying so startled him that he contemplated her in silence
Well fool cant you speak she said
I dare say now as he wants you to move on queried Vessons
Ah
Because of this other young ooman hes brought
Ah whats the good o mouthing it I bin faithful to im I hanna gone with others All the chilluns hisn And never come near me he didna when my time come And now its go She broke out crying again
What I come for was to show you a way to make her go If I tell you you mun swear never to come and live at Undern
Struth I will
Well then just you come and see er some time when the masters away And bring the chillun
Thank you kindly
Not till I say the word though I wunna risk it till hes off for the day If he found me out itd be notice Eh missus hes like a lad with his first white mouse And the parson Laws theym two thrussels wi one worm and no mistake
And yet shes only a bit of a thing you tell me
Ah But shem all on wires to and agen like a canbottle
Why canna she bide with the minister
Lord only knows Its for er good and for the maisters and yours not to speak of mine Its werrit werrit all the while missus and the fingers in the teacaddy the day long Its Andrew this and Andrew that and a terrible strong smell of flowers—enough for a burying
Vessons waited eagerly for his opportunity but Reddin was afraid to leave Hazel alone in case she might see Sally so September came and drew out its shining span of days and still Vessons and Sally were waiting
Chapter 32
Morning by morning Hazel watched the fuchsia bushes set with small red flowers purplecupped with crimson stamens sway in beautiful abandon The great black bees pulled at them like a calf at its mother Their weight dragged the slender drooping branches almost to the earth So the rich pageantry of beauty the honeyed silent lives went on and would go on it seemed for ever And then one morning all was over one of Underns hard early frosts took then all—the waxen redpointed buds the waxen purple cups the redveined leaves The bees were away and Hazel seeking them found a few half alive in sheltered crevices and many frozen stiff She put those that were still alive in a little box near the parlour fire Soon a low delighted humming began as they one by one recovered and set off to explore the ceiling Into this contented buzzing came Reddin who had just been again to Sallys and was much put out by her refusal to go away before November
What the h— is all this humming he asked
Its bees Ive fetched em in to see good times a bit afore they die
What a childs trick he said fending off an inquiring bee Why theyll stay here all winter We shall get stung Then he saw the hospital full of bees by the fire
More he said Good Lord He threw the box into the fire
Hazel was silent with horror At last she gasped
I was mothering em
Youre very keen on mothering Wouldnt you like a kid to mother
No Id liefer mother the bees and foxes as none takes thought on I dunna like babies much—all bald and wrinkly Martha said as having em made folk pray to die but as it was worth anything to get one But I dunna think so I think theym ugly I seed one in a pram outside that cottage in the Hollow Reddin jumped and it was uglier than a pig I think youre a cruel beast Jack Reddin to burn my bees and they so comforble knowing I was taking care on em
She would not speak to him for the rest of the day He was so bored in the evening that he went out and demanded a boxful of bees from Vessons
The missus wants em he said sheepishly
Vessons was prepared to be pleasant in small matters He fetched some from the hive
Ere you are he said patronizingly but you munna be always coming to me after em
He was oblivious of the fact that they were Reddins bees
Reddin presented them
There he said gruffly now you can be civil again
But these be hivebees said Hazel and they was comforble to begin with I dunna want that sort I wanted miserable uns
Hang it how could I know asked Reddin irritably
No I suppose you couldna said Hazel youm terrible stupid Jack
Reddin
So life went on at Undern and Hazel adapted herself to it as well as she could It was strange that the longer she lived there the more she thought of Edward She always saw his face lined with grief and very pale not tanned and ruddy with fresh air as she had known it It was as if his mentality reached across the valley to hers and laid its melancholy upon her Sometimes she was very homesick for Foxy but she would not have her at Undern She did not trust the place She never went out anywhere for people stared and when Reddin with some difficulty persuaded her to amble round the fields with him on a pony he picked up cheap for her she always wanted to keep in his own fields
It was not until nearly the end of October that Vessons got his chance Reddin had to go to a very important fair He wanted Hazel to go with him but she said she was tired and guessing the reason he immediately gave in
In spite of Vessons earnest desire to get him off he started late He galloped most of the way determined to get in early He liked coming home to tea and seeing Hazel awaiting him in the firelight
As soon as she had gone Vessons set out for Sallys anxious that she should be quick But Sally would not hurry It was washingday and she also insisted on making all the children very smart unaware that their extreme ugliness was her strength It was not till three oclock that she arrived at the front door baby in arms the four children heavily expectant at her heels and Vessons stagemanaging in the background
Hazel had been looking at two of the only books at UndernThe Horse and The Dog illustrated Vessons had views about books He considered them useful in their place
Theres nought like a book he would say one of these ere big fat novels or a book of sermons to get a nice red gledy fire A book at the front and a bit of slack behind and there you are
There the books were too
So Hazel looked at the Book of the Horse until she knew all the pictures by heart She had fallen asleep over it and she jumped up in panic when Sally spoke
Who be you she asked in a frightened voice as they eyed her
Im Sally Haggard and these be my children She surveyed them proudly Dyou notice that they favour anyone
Hazel looked at them timidly
They favour you she said
Not Mr Reddin
Mr Reddin
Ah Theyd ought to Theym hisn
Hisn
Yes parrot
Be you the ooman as Martha said Jack lived along of
He did live along of me
Why then youd ought to be Mrs Reddin and wear this gownd and live at Undern said Hazel
Eh Sally was astonished
And he said there wunna any other but me
Sally laughed
You believed that lie You little softie
Hazel looked at the children
Be they all hisn she said
Every manjack of em and not so much as a thank you for me
The children were ranged near their mother—on high chairs They gaped at Hazel sullen and critical An irrepressible question broke from Hazel
What for did you have em
Sally stared
What for she repeated Surely to goodness girl youre not as innicentlike as that
I aint ever going to have any Hazel went on with great firmness as she eyed the children
God above muttered Sally Hes fooled her worsen me
Come and look at the baby my dear she said in a voice astonishingly soft She looked at Hazel keenly Dunna you know she asked
What
As youre going to have a baby
Hazel sprang up all denial But Sally having told the children to play spoke for a long time in a low tone and finally convinced a white sick trembling Hazel of the fact Not being sensitive herself she did not realize the ghastly terror caused by her lurid details of the coming event
Hazel looked so ill that Sally tried to administer consolation Maybe itll be a boy and youll be fine and pleased to see un growing a fine tall man like Reddin
Hazel burst into tears so that the children stopped their play to watch and laugh
But I dunna want it to grow up like Jack she said I want it to grow up like Edard and none else
Well You are a queer girl If you like him as you call Edard what for did you take up with Jack
I dunno
Well the best you can do said Sally is to go back to your Edward lithermonsload and all And if he wunna take you—
Eh but he will A wonderful tender smile broke on Hazels face
Hell come to the front door and pull me in and say Come in little
Hazel and get a cup of tea And itll be all the same as it was used
to be
Well he must be a fool But so much the better for you If I was you Id go right back toneet Now whats you say to a cup o tea Im thinking its high time I took a bite and sup in this parlour
They got tea and Vessons hovering in the yard was in despair He could not appear for Hazel must not know his part in the affair Laws If theyve begun on tea its all up with Andrew he remarked to the swan in passing
Dusk came on and still no Sally appeared The two chimneys smoked hospitably and he wanted his tea He was a very miserable old man He repaired to the farthest corner of the domain and began to cut a hedge watching the field track Soon Reddin appeared and Vessons was unable to repress a chuckle
Rather im than me he said
Reddin having fruitlessly shouted for Vessons took the cob round to the yard himself Then he went in As he entered the parlour aware of a comfortable scent of tea and toast he met the solemn gaze of seven pairs of eyes and for a moment he was for all his tough skin really staggered
Then he advanced upon Sally with his stock firmly grasped in his hand
Get out of this he said
The baby set up a yell Sally rose and stood with her arm raised to fend off the blow
Jack said Hazel shem got the best right to be at Undern Leave her stay Shem a right nice ooman
Reddin gasped Why would Hazel always do and say exactly the opposite to what he expected
But youre the last person— he began
Youre thinking shed ought to be jealous of me Jack Reddin said Sally But wem neither of us jealous I tell you straight Shes too good for you Youve lied to me Im used to it Now youm lied to her—the poor innicent little thing
What for did you tell me lies Jack asked Hazel
What with the unfaltering gaze of the two women and the unceasing howls of the baby Reddin was completely routed
Oh damn you all he said and went hotfoot in a towering passion to look for Vessons A man to rage at would be a very great luxury Having at last found Vessons harmlessly hedgebrushing he was rather at a loss
How dare you let Sally in he began
Sally
Yes Why the h— did you come away here and leave the house
The edge wanted doing
His tone was so innocent that Reddin was suspicious
You didnt bring her yourself did you
Now is it me said Vessons reasonable but hurt as generally brings these packs of unruly women to Undern
I believe youre lying Vessons
Vessons opened his mouth to say Notice is giv but seeing that in his masters present mood it might be accepted he closed it again
When Reddin went in Sally was gone and Hazel much as usual ministered to his comfort The only signs of the recent tumult were the constrained silence and the array of cups and plates
Youd better understand once and for all he said at last that Ill never have that woman here
Not if I went
Never Id kill her first
What for did you tell me lies
Because you were so pretty and I wanted you
The flattery fell on deaf ears
Them chilluns terrible ugly said Hazel wearily
Reddin came over to her
But yoursll be pretty he said
Dunna come nigh me cried Hazel fiercely She says Im going to have a little un It was a sneaks trick that and youre a cruel beast Jack Reddin to burn my bees and kill the rabbits and make me have a little un unbeknown
But its what all women expect
Youd ought to have told me She says its mortal pain to have a baby and Im feared—Im feared
Hazel he said humbly I may as well tell you now that I mean to marry you The parson must divorce you Then well be married And Ill turn over a new leaf
Ill neer marry you said Hazel not till Doom breaks I dunna like you I like Edard And if I mun have a baby Id lief it was like Edard and not like you
With that she went out of the room and he noticed that she was wearing the dress she had come in and not the silk
He sat by the fire brooding but at last managed to cheer himself by the thought that she would get over it in time She was naturally upset by Sally just now
And of course the parsonll never take her back nor her father he reflected Yes itll all come right
He was upheld in this by the fact that Hazels manner next day was much as usual only rather quiet
Chapter 33
It was the night of the great storm Undern rattled and groaned its fireless chimneys roared and doors in unused passages banged so often that the house took on an air of being inhabited It seemed as if all the people that had ever lived here had come back ignoring in their mournful dignity of eternal death these momentary wraiths of life Hazel had always been afraid of the place and had sat up until Reddin wanted to go to bed so that she need not traverse the long passages alone But tonight she was afraid of Reddin also—not just a little afraid as she had always been but full of unreasoning terror
All things were confused in her mind like the sounds that were in the wind Reddins face distorted with rage as he advanced on Sally with his arm raised the howling of the baby the sound of her bees burning—going off like applepips A scene came back to her from the week before—it seemed years ago They had gone into the harvestfield after a hot yellow day haunted by the sound of cutting Only a small square of orange wheat was left the rest of the field lay in the pale disorder of destruction The two great horses stood at one corner darkly shining in the level light The men who had been tying sheaves stood about some women and children were coming over the stubble and several dogs lay in the shadow They all seemed to be waiting They were in fact waiting for Reddin who was always present at the dramatic finish of a field Hazel knew what drama was to be enacted knew what the knobbled sticks were for knew who crouched in the tall kindly wheat palpitant unaware that escape was impossible
Plenty o conies sir called one of the men whose face was a good deal more brutal than that of his mongrel dog
Hazel knew that the small square must be packed with rabbits starkeyed and still as death who had with a fated foolishness drawn in from the outer portions of the field all day as the reaper went round
Jack she said I hanna asked for a present ever
No You didnt want the bracelets you silly girl
I want one now
You do do you
Ah If youll give it me Jack Ill do aught you want Whatd you like best in the orld
He considered He was feeling very fit and almost too much alive
Hunters Spinney over again—up to when we got so gloomy
Hazel never wanted to think of that night nor see the Spinney again There had been many times since in the greytinted room that had been nearly as bad But for evoking a shuddering startled horror in her mind nothing came up to that Sunday night
The reaper was moving again Soon the rabbits would begin to bolt
Ill do ought and go anywhere if youll do this as I want Jack
Well
Call em off Leave the last bit till morning Let em creep away in the dark and keep living a bit longer
What nonsense
Call em off Jack You can Youm maister
No
She sobbed I be going then
No Youre to stay Youll have to be cured of this damned silliness and learn to be sensible
While she struggled to wrench herself free two rabbits bolted and hell broke loose One would not have thought that the great calm evening under its stooping sky the peaceful omniscient trees the grave contented colours could have tolerated such hideousness The women and children shrieked with the best and Hazel stood alone—the single representative in a callous world of God Or was the world His representative and she something alien a dissentient voice to be silenced
Such scenes infinitely multiplied bring that question to ones mind
A rabbit had dashed across the field close to them and Reddin relaxing his grip of her had slashed at it with his stick The look of its eye white and staring as it fled past her with insensate speed came back to her now and its convulsive roll over and recovery under the blow and then the next blow—She had fled from the place
She thought again of what Sally had said and a deep smouldering rage was in her at this that he had done to her—this torture to which according to Sally he had quite consciously condemned her
Now that she knew him better his daily acts of callousness tormented her She would go She was not wanted here Sally had said so There had been letters from her aunt from Reddins vicar from the eldest Miss Clomber In them all she was spoken of as the culprit for being at Undern Well she did not want to be at Undern She would go
Well Hazel child whats the matter asked Reddin looking up from doing his quarterly accounts Havent you got a stocking to mend or a hairribbon to make
A many and a many things be the matter
Come here and Ill see if I can put em right
Harkee she said suddenly Its like as if the jeathpack was i full cry down the wind
Anyone would think you were off your head Hazel But come and tell me about the things that are the matter
Its you as makes em the matter
Oh well sulk as long as you like
He returned angrily to his accounts In the kitchen Vessons very spondaic was singing The Three Jolly Huntsmen
In a few minutes Hazel rose and lit a candle She looked as she walked to the door in her limp muslin dress like the spectre of some unhappy creature of the past
Where are you going asked Reddin
I thought to go to bed
Im not ready
Ill go by my lonesome
All right sulk It doesnt hurt me
But it did hurt him He wanted her to be fond of him to cling to him When at last he went up through the screaming house he thought she was asleep She lay still in the big bed and made no sign
Reddin was soon snoring for accounts implied a strenuous intellectual effort He would have left them to Vessons but Vessons always had to notch sticks when he did them and the manual labour ensuing on any accounts running into pounds would have seriously interfered with his other work The cheese fair accounts usually took a long time He could be heard saying in a stupendous voice One and one and one— until the chant ended in Drat it what do em maken
So Reddin did the accounts and slept the sleep of the intellectual worker afterwards
Hazel looked out from the tent of the bed canopy into the dark creaking room and the darker roaring night She grew more afraid of Reddin and Undern as the hours dragged on
Reddins presence tore to pieces the things she loved—delicate leafy things—as if they were tissuepaper and he had walked through it Her pleasures seemed to mean nothing when he was with her and before his loud laughter her wonderful faeryhaunted days shrivelled All she knew was that now she lived at Undern she never went out in the green dawn or came home wreathed in pansy and wild snapdragon
Reddin had imposed a deeper change on her than the change from maid to wife He had robbed her of a thing frailer and rarer than maidenhood—the sacramental love of Nature. It is only the fairest the highest and fullest matings that do not rob the soul of this even when it is an old tried joy He had wronged her as deeply as one human being can wrong another His theft was cruel as that of one who destroys a mans God And the strange part of it was that never as long as he lived would he know that he had done so or even guess that there had been any treasure to rifle He would probably as an old man long past desire repent of the physical part of the affair Yet this was so much the lesser of the two Indeed if he had been able to win her love it would have been not wrongdoing but righteousness That a woman should in the evolution of life cease to be a virgin and become a mother is a thing so natural and so purely physical as hardly to need comment but that the immortal part of her should be robbed that she should cease to be part of an entity in a world where personality is the only rare and precious thing—this is tragic
Reddin could not help his overvirility nor could he help having the insensitive nature that could enjoy the physical side of sex without the spiritual probably he could not help being the kind of man that supplies the most rabid imperialists reactionaries materialists He always spoke of the heathen Chinee lower orders beastly foreigners mad fanatics and silly sentimentalists these last being those who showed any kind of mercy It seemed that he could not help seeing nothing outside his own narrow views
But it did seem a pity that he never tried to alter in the least It did seem a pity that after so many centuries so many matings and births all his emblazoned and crested ancestors should have produced merely—Reddin a person exactly like themselves
Rain rustled on the window and the wind roared in the elms The trees round Undern Pool stooped and swung in the attitude of mowers Hazel knew that the Mountain would be even wilder tonight Yet the Mountain shone in paradisic colours—her little garden her knitting the quiet Sundays the nightly prayers above all Edwards presence in the aura of which no harm could come—for all these things she passionately longed
They were not home as the wild was but they were a haven They were not ecstasy but they were peace
In her revulsion from Reddin and her terror of Undern she forgot everything except the sense of protection that Edward gave her She forgot Mrs Marstons silent crushing criticism and Marthas rude righteousness She forgot that she had sinned against the Mountain so deeply that the old life could never return
She remembered it as on the night of her wedding—the primroses red and white and lilac the soothing smell of the clean sheets that made her feel religious the reassuring tick of the wall clock Mrs Marstons sliding tread Foxy and the rabbit the blackbird and the oneeyed cat
She struck a match softly and crept across the room to the old mahogany tallboy From beneath a drawerful of clothes she took out Edwards letter She read it slowly for she was as Abel said no scholar Edward wanted her that was quite clear Comfort flowed from the halfdozen lines
The ethics of the thing held no place in her mind
She was not made for the comforts or the duties of social life and it was not in hernor would it have been however she had been educated—to consider what effect her actions might have on the race Humanity did not interest her
The evercircling wheels of birth mating death so allabsorbing to most women were nothing to her Freedom green ways childlike pleasures of ferny mossy discoveries the absence of hunger or pain and the presence of Foxy and other salvage of her great pity—these were the great realities She had a deeper fear than most people of death and any kind of violence or pain for herself or her following Her idea of God had always been shadowy but it now took shape as a kind of omnipotent Edward
When she had read the letter she went to the window A tortured dawn crept up the sky Vast black clouds shaped like anvils for some terrific smithywork were ranged round the horizon and later the east glowed like a forge The gale had not abated but was rising in a series of gusts each one a blizzard Hazel was not afraid of it or of the shrieking woods The wind had always been her playmate The wide plain that lay before the Undern windows was shrouded in rain—not falling but driving Willows comely in the evening with the pale gold of autumn had been stripped in a moment like prisoners of a savage conqueror for sacrifice The air was full of leaves whirling boiling as in a cauldron From every field and covert from the lone hilltracts behind the house from garden and orchard came the wail of the vanquished
Even as she watched one of the elms by the pool fell with a grinding crash Reddin stirred in his sleep and muttered restlessly She waited frozen with suspense until he was quiet again
She could hear the hound baying terrified at the noise of the tree She dressed hurriedly crept downstairs and went out by the back way leaving the house with its watchful windows its ancient quiet which was not peace and the grey flapping curtains of the rain closed in behind her
She found a little shelter in the deep lanes but when she came to the woods leading up to the Mountain the wind was reaping them like corn Larches lay like spellicans one on another Some leant against those that were yet standing and in the tops of these last there was a roaring like an incoming tide on rocks Crackings and groanings sudden crashes loud reports like gunfire were all about her as she climbed—a tiny figure in chaos
When she came to the graveyard havoc was there also Several crosses had fallen and were smashed the laburnumtree rich with grey seedvessels lay prone and in its fall it had carried half the tomb away with it so that it yawned darkly but not as a grave from which one has risen from the dead A headstone lay in the path and the text In sure and certain hope of the resurrection was half obliterated
Hazel crept into the porch of the chapel to shelter utterly exhausted She went to sleep and was awakened by the breakfast bell She went to the front door and knocked
Chapter 34
Edward coming downstairs felt such a rush of joy and youth at sight of her that he was obliged to stand still and remember that joy and youth were not for him that his only love had gone of her own will to another man and must be to him now only a poor waif sheltered for pity He was very much altered His face frightened Hazel
Have you come to stay Hazel or only for a visit he asked
Oh dunna look at me the like o that and dunna talk so stern
Edard
I wasnt aware that I was stern
Edwards face was white He looked down at her with an expression she could not gauge For there had come upon him seeing her there again so sweet in her dishevelment so enchanting in her suppliance the same temptation that tormented him on his weddingday Only now he resisted it for a different reason
Hazel his Hazel was no fit mate for him The words flamed in his
brain then fiercely he denied them He would not believe it
Circumstance Hazel his mother even God might shout the lie at him
Still he would not believe
But he must have it out with her He must know
Hazel he said after breakfast I want you to come with me up the
Mountain
Yes Edard she said obediently
She adored his sternness She adored his look of weariness She longed hopefully and passionately for his touch
For now when it was too late she loved him—not with any love of earth that was spoilt for her—but with a grave amorousness kin to that of the Saints the passion that the Magdalen might have felt for Christ The earthly love should have been Edwards too and would have run in the footsteps of the other love like a young creature after its mother But Reddin had intervened
First Edward said you must have some food and a cup of tea
He never wavered in tenderness to her But she noticed that he did not say dear nor did he bringing her in take her hand
Breakfast was an agony to Edward for his mother who had from the first treated Hazel with silent contempt as a sinner now stood on entering with the toast and said
I will not eat with that woman
Mother
If you bring that woman here I will be no mother to you
Mother For my sake
She is a wicked woman went on Mrs Marston in a calm but terrible voice she is an adulteress
Edward sprang up
How dare you he said
Are you going to turn her out Edward
No
Eddie my little lad
Her voice shook
No
My boy that I lay in pain for two days and a night to bring you into the world
Edward covered his face with his hands
You will put me before—her
No mother
You were breastfed Eddie though I was very weak
There was a little silence Edward buried his face in his arms
Right is on my side Edward and what I wish is Gods will You will put duty first
No Love
I am getting old dear I have not many more years She has all a lifetime You will put me first
He lifted his head He looked aged and worn
No And again no he said Stop torturing me mother
Mrs Marston turned without a word to go out Hazel sprang up breaking into a passion of tears
Oh let me go she cried Ill go away and away What for did you fetch me from the Calla None wants me I wunna miserable at the Calla Let me go
She stared at Mrs Marston with terrified eyes
Shes as awful as death she said the old lady As awful as Mr
Reddin when hes loving Im feared Edard Id liefer go
But Edwards arm was round her His hand was on her trembling one
You shall not frighten my little one he said to his mother and she went to the kitchen where frozen with grief she remained all morning in a kind of torpor Martha was afraid she would have a stroke But she dared not speak to Edward for hovering in the passage she had seen his face as he shut the door
He made Hazel eat and drink Then they went out on the hill
Now Hazel he said we must have truth between us Did you go with that man of your own will
She was silent
You must have done or why go a second time Did you His eyes compelled her She shivered
Yes Edard But I didna want to I didna
How can both be true
They be
How did he compel you to go then
Hazel sought for an illustration
Like a jacksnipe fetches his mate out o the grass she said
What did he say
Nought
Then how—
Theres things harder than words words be nought
Go on
It was like as if there was a secret atween us and Id got to find it out Dunna look so fierce Edard
Did you find out
A tide of painful red surged over Hazel she turned away But Edward rendered pitiless by pain forcibly pulled her back and made her look at him
Did you find out he repeated
There inna no more she whispered
Then it is true what he said that you were his from head to foot
Oh Edard let me be I canna bear it
I wish I could have killed him Edward said Then you were his—soul and body
Not soul
You told a good many lies
Oh Edard speak kind
What a fool I was You must have detested me for interrupting the honeymoon Of course you went back What a fool I was And I thought you were pure as an angel
I couldna help it Edard the signs said go and then he threw me in the bracken
Something broke in Edwards mind The control of a lifetime went from him
Why didnt I he cried Why didnt I Good God To think I suffered and renounced for this He laughed And all so simple Just throw you in the bracken
She shuddered at the knifeedge in his voice and also at the new realization that broke on her that Edward had it in him to be like Reddin
What for do you fritten me she whispered
But its not too late Edward went on and his face that had been grey flushed scarlet No its not too late Im not particular Youre not new but youll do
He crushed her to him and kissed her
Im your husband he said and from this day on Ill have my due Youve lied to me been unfaithful to me made me suffer because of your purity—and you had no purity Tonight you sleep in my room youve slept in his
Oh let me go Edard let me go She was lost indeed now For Edward the righteous and the loving was no more Where should she flee She did not know this man who held her in desperate embrace He was more terrible to her than all the rest—more terrible far than Reddin—for Reddin had never been a god to her
I knelt by your bedside and fought my instincts and they were good instincts I had a right to them I gave up more than you can ever guess
Im much obleeged Edard she said tremblingly
Ive disgraced my calling and Ive this morning hurt my mother beyond healing
Id best be going Edard The sunll soon be undering
The day blazed towards noon but she felt the chill of darkness
And now Edward finished that I have no mother no selfrespect and no respect for you I will at least have my pleasure and—my children
The words softened him a little
Hazel he said I will forgive you for murdering my soul when you give me a son I will almost believe in you again next year—Hazel—
He knelt by her with his arms round her She was astonished at the mastery of passion in him She had never thought of him but as passionless
Tonight he said and tenderness crept back into his voice is my bridal There is no saving for me now in denial only in fulfilment I can forgive much Hazel for I love much But I cant renounce any more
Hazel had heard nothing of what he said since the words when you give me a son
They rang in her brain She felt dazed At last she looked up affrightedly
But she said when I have the baby it unna be yours but hisn
What
It—itll be hisn
What
He questioned foolishly like a child He could not understand
Its gone four month since midsummer she said and Sally said I was wi child of—of—
You need not go on Hazel
Edwards face looked pinched The passion had gone and a deathly look replaced it He was robbed utterly and cruelly He could no longer believe in a God or how could such things be Manhood was denied him The last torture was not denied him—namely that he saw the full satire of his position saw that it was his own love that had destroyed them both Out of his complete ruin he arose joyless hopeless but great in a tenderness so vast and selfless that it almost took the place of what he had lost
Hazel was again his inspiration not as an ideal but as a waif In his passion of pity for her he forgot everything He had something to live for again
Poor child he said Come home I will take care of you
But—the old lady
You are first
She caught his hands she flung herself upon his shoulder in a rush of tears If this was his tragic moment it was also hers
Oh Edard Edard she cried its you as Id lief have for my lover Its you as Im for body and soul if Im for a mortal man Its your baby as I want Edard and I wouldna be feared o the pain as Sally told of if it was yours What for didna you tell me in the spring o the year Edard It be winter now and late and cold
There there you dont know what youre saying Come home
Edward did not listen to her she knew And indeed his brain was weary and could take in no more He only knew he must care for Hazel as Christ cared for the lambs of His fold And darkly on his dark mind loomed his new and bitter creed There is no Christ
Chapter 35
Martha met them on the doorstep crying hiccoughing and enraged
Why Martha Edward looked at her in astonishment It is usually the supers and not the principals that raise lamentation in the midst of tragedy—why Martha have you lost someone dear to you
He knew all about that loss
Ive lost nought sir thank God my good names my own and not gone like some folks but Im bound to give notice sir not having fault to find being as good a master as ever stepped But seeing the missus is going—
The missus
Ah The mother as God give you sir the very next time the trailer goes by and the letter wrote and all And when she goes I go For Ive kep myself respectable and Ill serve no light woman nor yet live in a house give over to sin
Edward saw Martha in a new light as he now saw all things
What a filthy mind you have Martha he said in a strange weary voice The minds of all respectable people are obscene You are a bad woman
But Martha setting up a shriek had fled from the house She told her brother that the master was mad bewitched She never entered the house again
Edward found his mother in the kitchen
Mother you are not really going
Yes Edward unless—a flicker of hope lit her eyes—unless you have sent her away
Let me explain mother It is not as it seems in the worlds eyes
She is an adulteress And you—oh Edward I thought you were a good man like your father Not even the common decency to wait till the other mans child is born Why the merest ploughman would do that
If any face could have expressed despair torture and horror Edwards face did now He looked at her for a long while until she said
Dont fix your eyes so Edward What are you looking at
The world So that is what you think of me
What else can I think Why do you say The world so strangely
The world he said again A place of black mud and spawning creatures No soul no God no grace Nothing but lust and foul breath and evil thoughts
I will not hear such talk I will keep my room till I go Mrs Marston rose and went upstairs She would not have his arm And though for the next two days he waited on her with his old tenderness she barely spoke and there was between them an estrangement wider than death She prayed for him night and day but not as one that had much hope
Meanwhile Hazel managed the house She put all her worship of Edward into it all her passion of tenderness And she who had hitherto spoilt all the food she touched now cooked almost with genius She found an apron of Marthas and washed it she read Mrs Marstons receipts till her head ached she walked over Gods Little Mountain each day to buy dainties When she asked Edward for money he gave her the keys of his desk Four times a day appetizing meals went up to Mrs Marston and were brought down again barely touched Hazel ate them for the urgent necessity of coming maternity was on her and she would not waste Edwards money Four times a day Edwards favourite dishes were set in the parlour by a bright hearth Edward as soon as Hazel had returned to the kitchen threw them into the fire
It was Hazel who packed Mrs Marstons boxes while the old lady slept and made up the fire in her room in the middle of the night
Then closing her own door she would fling herself on her bed in passionate weeping as she thought what might have been if when Edward had said Tonight is my bridal she had had a different reply to make
She knew that nothing except what she had said would have made any impression on Edward she knew he would not have listened to her She was glad to know this The momentary fear of him was gone All was right that he said and did The whole love of her being was his now He had filled the place of nature and joy and childish pleasures She was not meant for human love But through her grief she loved better than those that were meant for it
All the sweet instincts of love and wifehood the beauty of passion the pride of surrender the forgetfulness of self that creates self the crying of the spirit from its delicate marble minaret to the flesh in its grassy covert and the wistful ascending answer of flesh to spirit—all these were hers And as she lay and wept and remembered how many a time Edward had stood on her threshold and hastily though gently shut her door upon her she realized what Edward meant to her and what he was Then she would rise and stand at her window fingered and shaken by the autumn winds and look up at the hardeyed stars
If theres anybody there she would say please let the time go quickly till the baby comes and let Edard have his bridal like he said and see his little uns running up and down the batch
And looking round the room at all the signs of his love she would suddenly find unbearable the innocent stare of the buttercups and daisies on the walls and would bury her face flushed red with fluttering possibilities of unearthly rapture Then she would sleep and dream that once more Edward stood upon the threshold and kissed her and turned to his cold room but she—she had made a noble fire in her little grate and the room was full of primroses red and white and lilac and the wallclock chimed instead of striking—an intoxicating fairy chime and there were clear sheets as of old She forgot her shyness she forgot to be afraid of his criticism she caught his hands He turned And at the marvel of his face she woke trembling and happy
Mrs Marston went without any farewell to Hazel Edward carried her box down the quarry and helped her into the trailer He stood and watched it bump away round the corner Mrs Marston sitting as she had done on that bright May morning majestic in her grapetrimmed hat and the mantle with the bugles Her face and her attitude expressed the deep though unformulated conviction that God was not what He was
Then he turned and went home numb without vitality or hope
A new Hazel met him on the threshold no longer timorous deprecating awkward but gravely and sweetly maternal She led him in Tea was laid with the meticulous reverence of a sacrament
Now draw your stockinged foot along the floor Hazel commanded
At this remembrance of his mother and at Hazels careful love he broke down and wept his face in her lap
Now see she whispered Shell come back Edard when the angers overpast
The anger of good people is never overpast Hazel
See Ill write her a letter Edard and Ill say Im a wicked girl and shes to teach me better ways Shell come like Foxy for bones Edard
Comfort stole into Edwards heart
And see my dear Ill send his baby to him and maybe after— She stumbled into silence
What Hazel
Maybe Edard after—a long and long while after— She began to cry covering her face Oh what for canna you see my soul she whispered as I love you true
Edward looked into her eyes and he did see Strangely as an old forgotten tale there came to him the frail hope of the possibility of joy And with it some faith stormtossed and faint but still living in Hazels ultimate beauty and truth He did not know this could be He only knew it was so He did not know how it was that she whom all reviled was pure and shining to him again while the world grovelled in slime But so it was
Harkee Edard she said Im agoing to mother you till she comes back And some day when youve bin so kind as to forgive me maybe I unna be mother to you but—anything you want me to be And maybe therell be a—a—bridal for you yet my soul and your little uns running down the batch
Yes maybe But dont lets talk of such things yet not for many years They are so vile
She was cut to the heart but she only said softly
Not for many years my soul Im mothering of you now
Thats what I want he said and fell asleep while she stroked his tired head
Peace settled again on the chapel and parsonage and a muted happiness Summer weather had returned for a fleeting interval The wild bees were busy again revelling in the late flowers but taking their pleasure sadly for the flowers were pale and rainwashed and the scent and the honey were fled
Eh I wish I could bring em all in afore the frosses and keep em the winter long Hazel said But theyve seen good times It inna so bad for folks to die as have seen good times Afore Im old and like to die I want to see good times Edard—good times along with you
What sort of good times
Oh going out of a May morning you and me—and maybe Foxy on a string—and looking nests and us with cobwebs on our boots and setting primmyroses red and white and laylac in my garden as you made and then me cooking the breakfast and you making the toast and burning it along of reading some hard book and maybe us laughing over a bit o fun And then off to read to somebody ill and me waiting outside pleased as a queen and hearkening to your voice coming quiet through the window And picking laylac evenings and going after musherooms at the turn of the year Them days be coming Edard inna they I dunna mind ought if I know theyre coming
Yes perhaps they are he said smiling a little at her simple hopes and even beginning himself to see the possibility of a future for them
Two days went by in this calm way for no one came near them and while they were alone there was peace They did not go beyond the garden except when Hazel went to the shop Edward did not go with her he felt sensitive about meeting anyone
In the evenings by the parlour fire Edward read aloud to her He did not however read prayers and she wondered in silence at the change She felt a great peace in these evenings with Foxy on the hearthrug at her feet They neither of them looked either backward or forward but lived in the moated present that turreted heaven whose defences so soon fall
On the third morning Reddin came Hazel had gone to the shop and coming back she had lingered a little to watch with a sense of old comradeship the swallows wheeling in hundreds about the quarry cliffs Their breasts were dazzling in the clear hot air They had no thought for her being so filled with a rage of joy dashing up and down the smooth white sides of the quarry multiplied by their blue shadows They would nestle in crevices like bits of thistledown caught in a grasstuft and would there sun themselves and chirrup So many hundreds were there and their shadows so multiplied them that they seemed less like birds than like some dream of a bird heaven—essential birdhood They were so quick with life so warm with their redsplashed breasts and blue flashing bodies they wove such a tireless mazy pattern like bobbins weaving invisible lace that they put winter far off They comforted Hazel inexpressibly Yet tomorrow they would in all likelihood be gone not even a shadow left Hazel wished she could catch them as they swept by their shining breasts brushing the grasses She knew they were sacred birds birds with forkit tails and fire on em If sacredness is in proportion to vitality and joy Hazel and the swallow tribe should be redletter saints
It was while she was away that Reddin knocked at the house door and Edward answered the knock Something in his look made Reddin speak fast He had triumphed at their last encounter through muscle Edward triumphed in this through despair
I felt I ought to come Marston As things are the straight thing is for me to marry her—if youll divorce her
He looked at Edward questioningly but Edward stared beyond him with a strange expression of utter nausea hopeless loss and loathing of all created things Reddin went on
Her place is with me Its my duty to look after her now as its my child shes going to have
He could not resist this jibe of the virile to the nonvirile Besides if he could make Marston angry perhaps he would fight again and fighting was so much better than this uncomfortable silence
I should naturally pay all expenses and maintenance wherever she was
I never mind paying for my pleasures
Edwards eyes smouldered but he said nothing
Of course she cant expect either of us to see to her in her position Edward clenched his hands but I intend to do the decent thing Im never hard on a woman in that state some fellows would be but Ive got a memory hang it and Im grateful for favours received
Why he should be at his very worst for Edwards benefit was not apparent except that complete silence acts on the nerves and nervousness brings out the real man
Well think it over he concluded You seem to be planning a sermon today I shall be round here on Saturday—the meets in the woods Ill call then and you can decide meanwhile I dont mind whether she comes or not—at present Later on if I cant get on without her I can no doubt persuade her to come again But if you say divorce Ill fetch her at once and marry her as soon as youve got your decree Damn you Marston Cant you speak Could I say fairer than that man to man
Edward looked at him and it was such a look that his face and ears reddened
You are not a man Edward said with complete detachment you are nothing but sex organs
He went in and shut the door
Edward said nothing to Hazel of Reddins visit He forgot it himself when she came home it slipped into the weary welter of life as he saw it now—all life that is other than Hazels Brutality lust cruelty—these summed up the world of good people and bad people He rather preferred the bad ones their eyes were less awful and had less of the serpents glitter and more of the monkeys leer
He did not shrink from Reddin as he shrank from his mother
Hazel came running to him through the graves She had a little parcel specially tied up and she wrote on it in the parlour with laborious love It was tobacco She had decided that he ought to smoke because it would soothe him
They sat hand in hand by the fire that evening and she told him of her aunt Prowde and how she first came to know Reddin and how he threatened to tell Edward of her first coming to Undern She was astonished at the way his face lit up
Why didnt you tell me that before dear It alters everything You did not go of your own choice at first then He had you in a snare
Seems as if the worlds nought but a snare Edard
Yes But Im going to spend my life keeping you safe little Hazel I hope it wont make you unhappy to leave the Mountain
Leave the Mountain
Yes I must give up the ministry
Why ever
Because I know now that Jesus Christ was not God but only a brave loving heart hunted to death
Be that why you dunna say prayers now
Yes I cant take money for telling lies
Whatll you do if you inna a minister Edard
Break stones—anything
Hazel clapped her hands
Can I get a little ammer and break too
Some day It will only be poor fare and a poor cottage Hazel
Itll be like heaven
We shall be together little one
What for be your eyes wet Edard
At the sweetness of knowing you didnt go of your own accord
What for did you shiver
At the dark power of our fellowcreatures set against us
I inna feared of em now Edard Maybe itll come right and youll get all as youd lief have
I only want you
And me you
They both had happy dreams that night
Outside the stars were fierce with frost The world hardened In the bitter still air and the greenish moonlight the chapel and parsonage took on an unreal look as if they were built of wavering vanishing material and stood somewhere outside space on a pale crumbling shore
Without the dead slept each alone dreamless Within the lovers slept each alone but dreaming of a day when night should bring them home each to the other
As the moon set the shadows of the gravestones lengthened grotesquely creeping and creeping as if they would dominate the world
In the middle of the night Foxy awoke and barked and whimpered in some dark terror and would not be comforted
Chapter 36
Hazel looked out next morning into a cold hostile world The wind had gone into its winter quarters storming down from the top of the Mountain on to the parsonage and raging into the woods That was why Edward and Hazel never heard the sounds—some of the most horrible of the English countryside—that rose as the morning went on from various parts of the lower woods whiningly greedily ferociously as the hounds cast about for scent Once there was momentary uproar but it sank again and the Master was disappointed They had not found The Master was a big fleshy man with white eyelashes and little pigs eyes that might conceal a soul—or might not Miss Amelia Clomber admired him and had just ridden up to say A good field Everybodys here Then she saw Reddin in the distance and waited for him to come up She was flushed and breathless and quite silent—an extraordinary thing for her He certainly was looking his best with the new zest and youth that Hazel had given him heightening the blue of his eyes and giving an added hauteur of masculinity to his bearing She would as she watched him coming cheerfully have become his mistress at a nod for the sake of those eyes and that hauteur
He was entirely unconscious of it He never was a vain man and women were to him what a watch is to a child—something to be smashed not studied Also his mind was busy about his coming interview with Edward He was ludicrously at a loss what to say or do Blows were the only answer he could think of to such a thing as Edward had said But blows had lost him Hazel before and he wanted her still He was rather surprised at this passion being satisfied Still as he reflected passion was only in abeyance Next May—
If Miss Clomber had seen his eyes then she would probably have proposed to him But he was looking away towards the heights where Edwards house was There was in his mind a hint of better things
Hazel had been sweet in the conquering so many women were not And she was a little wild frail thing He was sorry for her He reflected that if he sold the cob he could pay a firstrate doctor to attend her and two nurses Ill sell the cob he decided I can easily walk more Itll do me good
Good morning Mr Reddin cried Miss Clomber as sweetly as she could
May your shadow never grow less he replied jocosely as he cantered by with a great laugh
If shed only die when she has the child thought Miss Clomber fiercely
Up on the Mountain Edward and Hazel were studying a map to decide in which part of the county they would live Round the fire sat Foxy the oneeyed cat and the rabbit in a basket From a hook hung the bird in its cage making little chirrupings of content On the windowsill a bowl of crocuses had pushed out white points
But upon their love—Edwards dawn of content and Hazels laughter—broke a loud imperious knocking Edward went to the door Outside stood Mr James the old man with the elflocks who shared the honey prizes with Abel two farmers from the other side of the Mountain Marthas brother and the man with the red braces who had won the race when Reddin turned
They coughed
Will you come in asked Edward
They straggled in very much embarrassed
Hazel wished them good morning
This young woman Mr James said might I think absent herself
Would you rather go or stay Hazel
Stay along of you Edard
Hazel had divined that something threatened Edward
They sat down very dour Foxy had retired under the table The shaggy old man surveyed the bird
A nice pet a bird he said Minds me of a throstle I kep
Now now Thomas Business said Mr James
Yes Get to the point said Edward
James began
Weve come minister six Godfearing men and me spokesman being deacon and we ope as good will come of this meeting and that the Lordll bless our endeavour And now I think maybe a little prayer
I think not
As you will minister There are times when folk avoid prayer as the sick avoid medicine
James had a resonant voice and it was always pitched on the intoning note Also he accented almost every other syllable
We bring you the Lords message minister I speak for Im
You are sure
Has not He answered us each and severally with a loud voice in the nightwatches
Ah He as True Yes yes the crowd murmured
And what we are to say James went on is that the adulteress must go You must put her away at once and publicly and if she will make open confession of the sin it will be counted to you for righteousness
Edward came and stood in front of Hazel
Had you James continued in trumpet tones—had you when she played the sinner with Mr Reddin Esquire leading a respectable gentleman into open sin chastened and corrected her—ay given her the bread of affliction and the water of affliction and taken counsel with us—
Ah theres wisdom in counsel said one of the farmers a man with crafty eyes
Then James went on all would a been well But now to spare would be death
Ah everlasting death came the echoes
And now James face seemed to Hazel to wear the same expression as when he pocketed the money—now there is but one cure She must go to a reformatory There shell be disciplined Shell be made to repent
He looked as if he would like to be present
They all leant forward The younger men were sorry for Edward None of them was sorry for Hazel There was a curious likeness as they leant forward between them and the questing hounds below
And then Edward prompted his face set tremors running along the nerves under the skin
Then we would expect you to make a statement in a sermon or in any way you chose that youd cast your sins from you that you would never speak or write to this woman again and that you were at peace with the Lord
And then
Then sir—Mr James rose—we should onst again be proud to take our minister by the and knowing it was but the deceitfulness of youth that got the better of you and the wickedness of an ooman
Feeling that this was hardly enough to tempt Edward the man with the crafty eyes said
And if in the Lords wisdom He sees fit to take her then sir you can choose a wife from among us He was thinking of his daughter He said no more
Edward was speaking His voice was low but not a man ever forgot a word he said
Filthy little beasts he said but without acrimony simply in weariness I should like to shoot you but you rule the world—little potbellied gods There is no other God Your last suggestion he looked at them with a smile of so peculiar a quality and such strange eyes that the old beeman afterwards said It took you in the stomach was worthy of you Its not enough that unselfish love cant save Its not enough his face quivered horribly that love is allowed to torture the loved one but you must come with your foul minds and eyes to view the corpse And you know nothing—nothing
We know the facts said James
Facts What are facts I could flog you naked through the fields
James for your stupidity alone
There was a general smile James being a corpulent man He shrank Then his feelings found relief in spite
If you dont dismiss the female Ill appeal to the Presbytery he said painfully pulling himself together
What for
Notice for you
No need Were going What dyou suppose I should do here Theres no Lords Day and no Lords house for theres no Lord For goodness sake turn the chapel into a cowhouse
They blinked Their minds did not take in his meaning which was like the upper wind that blows coldly from mountain to mountain and does not touch the plain They busied themselves with what they could grasp
If you take that woman with you youll be accurst said James I suppose he went on and his tone was as he afterwards said to his wife with complacency very nasty—I suppose you dunno what theyre all saying and what Ive come to believe in this shocking meeting to be Gods truth
I dont know or care
Theyre saying youve made a tidy bit
What dyou mean
James hesitated Filthy thoughts were all very well but it was awkward to get them into righteous words
Well dear me theyre saying as there was an arrangement betwixt you and im—on the gels account—the old beeman tried to hush him—and as cheques signed John Reddin went to your bank Dear me
Slowly the meaning of this dawned on Edward He sat down and put his hands up before his face He was broken not so much by the insult to himself as by the fixed idea that he had exposed Hazel to all this He traced all her troubles and mistakes back to himself blaming his own love for them While he had been fighting for her happiness he had given her a mortal wound and none had warned him That was why he was sure there was no God
They sat round and looked at their work with some compunction The old beeman cleared his throat several times
O course he said we know it inna true minister Mr James shouldna ha taken it on his lips He looked defiantly at James out of his mild brown eyes
Edward did not hear what he said Hazel was puzzling over James meaning Why had he made Edward like this Love gave her a quickness that she did not naturally possess and at last she understood It was one of the few insults that could touch her because it was levelled at her primitive womanhood Her one instinct was for flight But there was Edward She turned her back on the semicircle of eyes and put a trembling hand on Edwards shoulder He grasped it
Forgive me dear he whispered And go now go into the woods theyre not as cold as these When Ive done with them well go away far away from hell
I dunna mind em said Hazel What for should I my soul
Then she saw how dank and livid Edwards face had become and the anguished rage of the lover against what had hurt her darling flamed up in her
Curse you she said letting her eyes darkrimmed and large with tears dwell on each man in turn Curse you for tormenting my Edard as is the best man in all the country—and youm nought nought at all
The everlasting puzzle why the paltry and the low should have power to torment greatness was brooding over her mind
The best said James avoiding her eyes as they all did A hinfidel
I have become an unbeliever Edward said not because I am unworthy of your God but because He is unworthy of me Hazel wait for me at the edge of the wood
Hazel crept out of the room As she went she heard him say
The beauty of the world isnt for the beautiful people Its for beefwitted squires and bleareyed people like yourselves—brutish callous Your God stinks like carrion James Nunc Dimittis
Hazel passed the tombstone where she had sat on her weddingday She went through the wicket where she and her mother had both passed as brides and down the green slope that led near the quarry to the woods The swallows had gone She came to Reddins black yewtree at the fringe of the wood and sat down there where she could watch the front door In spite of her birdlike quickness of ear she was too much overwhelmed by the scene she had just left to notice an increasing threatening ghastly tumult that came at first fitfully then steadily up through the woods At first it was only a rumour as if some evil thing imprisoned for the safety of the world whined and struggled against love in a close underground cavern But when it came nearer—and it seemed to be emerging from its prison with sinister determination—the wind had no longer any power to disguise its ferocity although it was still in a minor key still vacillating and scattered Nor had it as yet any objective it was only vaguely clamorous for blood not for the very marrow of the soul Yet as Hazel suddenly became aware of it a cold shudder ran down her spine
Hounddogs she said She peered through the trees but nothing was to be seen for the woods were steep With a dart of terror she remembered that she had left Foxy loose in the parlour Would they have let her out
She ran home
Be Foxy here she asked
Edward looked up from the chapel accounts James was trying to browbeat him over them
No I expect she went out with you
Hazel fled to the back of the house but Foxy was not there She whistled but no smooth whitebibbed personality came trotting round the corner Hazel ran back to the hill The sound of the horn came up intermittently with tuneful devilry
She whistled again
Reddin coming up the wood at some distance from the pack caught the whistle and seeing her dress flutter far up the hill realized what had happened
Bother it he said He did not care about Foxy and he thought Hazels affection for her very foolish but he understood very well that if anything happened to Foxy he would be to blame in Hazels eyes Between him and Hazel was a series of precipitous places He would have to go round to reach her He spurred his horse risking a fall from the rabbitholes and the great ropes of honeysuckle that swung from tree to tree
Hazel ran to and fro frantically calling to Foxy
Suddenly the sound that had been querulous interrogative and various changed like an organ when a new stop is pulled out
The pack had found
But the scent it seemed was not very hot Hope revived in Hazel
Itll be the old scent from yesterday she thought Maybe Foxyll come yet
Seeing Reddin going in so devilmaycare a manner a little clergyman a guineapig on Sundays and the last hardriding parson in the neighbourhood on weekdays thought that Reddin must have seen the fox and gave a great viewhallo He rode a tall rawboned animal and looked like a monkey
Hazel did not see either him or Reddin With fainting heart she had become aware that the hounds were no longer on an old scent They were not only intent on one life now but they were close to it And whoever it was that owned the life was playing with it coming straight on in the teeth of the wind instead of doubling with it
With an awful constriction of the heart Hazel knew who it was She knew also that it was her momentary forgetfulness that had brought about this horror Terror seized her at the dogs approach but she would not desert Foxy
Then with the fearful inconsequence of a dream Foxy trotted out of the wood and came to her Trouble was in her eyes She was disturbed She looked to Hazel to remove the unpleasantness much as Mrs Marston used to look at Edward
And as Hazel drythroated whispered Foxy and caught her up the hounds came over the ridge like water Riding after them breaking from the wood on every side came the Hunt Scarlet gashed the impenetrable shadows Coming as they did from the deep gloom fieryfaced and fierycoated with eyes frenzied by excitement and open cavernous mouths they were like devils emerging from hell on a foraging expedition Miss Clomber her hair loose and several of her pincurls torn off by the branches was one of the first determined to be in at the death
The uproar was so terrific that Edward and the six righteous men came out to see what the matter was Religion and society were marshalled with due solemnity on Gods Little Mountain
Hazel saw nothing heard nothing She was running with every nerve at full stretch her whole soul in her feet But she had lost her old fleetness for Reddins child had even now robbed her of some of her vitality Foxy in gathering panic struggled and impeded her She was only halfway to the quarry and the house was twice as far
I canna she gasped on a long terrible breath She felt as if her heart was bursting
One picture burnt itself on her brain in blood and agony One sound was in her ears—the shrieking of the damned What she saw was Foxy her smooth little friend so dignified so secure of kindness held in the hand of the purplefaced huntsman above the pack that raved for her convulsive body She knew how Foxys eyes would look and she nearly fainted at the knowledge She saw the knife descend—saw Foxy who had been lovely and pleasant to her in life cut in two and flung a living creature fine of nerve to the pack and torn to fragments She heard her scream
Yes Foxy would cry to her as she had cried to the Mighty One dwelling in darkness And she What would she do She knew that she could not go on living with that cry in her ears She clutched the warm body closer
Though her thoughts had taken only an instant the hounds were coming near
Outside the chapel James said
Dear me A splendid sight Well wait to verify the apenny columns till theyve killed
They all elbowed in front of Edward But he had seen He snatched up his spade from the porch and knocked James out of the way with the flat of it
Im coming dear he shouted
But she did not hear Neither did she hear Reddin who was still at a distance and was spurring till the blood ran as in the tale of the deathpack yelling Im coming Give her to me Nor the little cleric in his highpitched nasal voice calling Drop it Theyll pull you down while the large gold cross bumped up and down on his stomach The death that Foxy must die unless she could save her drowned all other sights and sounds
She gave one backward glance The awful resistless flood of liver and white and black was very near Behind it rose shouting devils
It was the deathpack
There was no hope She could never reach Edwards house The green turf rose before her like the ascent to Calvary
The members of the hunt the Master and the huntsmen were slow to understand Also they were at a disadvantage the run being such an abnormal one—against the wind and up a steep hill They could not beat off the hounds in time Edward was the only one near enough to help If she had seen him and made for him he might have done something
But she only saw the deathpack and as Reddin shouted again near at hand intending to drag her on to the horse she turned sharply She knew it was the Black Huntsman With a scream so awful that Reddins hands grew nerveless on the rein she doubled for the quarry
A few woodlarks played there but they fled at the oncoming tumult
For one instant the hunt and the righteous men Reddin the destroyer and Edward the saviour saw her sway small and dark before the staring sky Then as the pack with a ferocity of triumph was flinging itself upon her she was gone
She was gone with Foxy into everlasting silence She would suck no more honey from the rosy flowers nor dance like a leaf in the wind Abel would sit these next nights making a small coffin that would leave him plenty of beehive wood
There was silence on Gods Little Mountain for a space
Afterwards a voice awful and piercing deep with unutterable horror—the voice of a soul driven mad by torture—clutched the heart of every man and woman Even the hounds raging on the quarry edge cowered and bristled
It echoed in the freezing arches of the sky and rolled back unanswered to the freezing earth The little cleric who had pulled a PrayerBook from his pocket dropped it
Once again it rang out and at its awful reiteration the righteous men and the hunt ceased to be people of any class or time or creed and became creatures swayed by one primeval passion—fear They crouched and shuddered like beaten dogs as the terrible cry once more roused the shivering echoes
Gone to earth Gone to earth