Part 30 (1/2)

They went first to Mrs. Jellison's, to whom Marcella wished to unfold her workshop scheme.

”Don't let me keep you,” she said to Wharton coldly, as they neared the cottage; ”I know you have to catch your train.”

Wharton consulted his watch. He had to be at a local station some two miles off within an hour.

”Oh! I have time,” he said. ”Do take me in, Miss Boyce. I have made acquaintance with these people so far, as my const.i.tuents--now show them to me as your subjects. Besides, I am an observer. I 'collect' peasants.

They are my study.”

”They are not my subjects, but my friends,” she said with the same stiffness.

They found Mrs. Jellison having her dinner. The lively old woman was sitting close against her bit of fire, on her left a small deal table which held her cold potatoes and cold bacon; on her right a tiny window and window-sill whereon lay her coil of ”plait” and the simple straw-splitting machine she had just been working. When Marcella had taken the only other chair the hovel contained, nothing else remained for Wharton but to flatten himself as closely against the door as he might.

”I'm sorry I can't bid yer take a cheer,” said Mrs. Jellison to him, ”but what yer han't got yer can't give, so I don't trouble my head about nothink.”

Wharton applauded her with easy politeness, and then gave himself, with folded arms, to examining the cottage while Marcella talked. It might be ten feet broad, he thought, by six feet in one part and eight feet in another. The roof was within little more than an inch of his head. The stairway in the corner was falling to pieces; he wondered how the woman got up safely to her bed at night; custom, he supposed, can make even old bones agile.

Meanwhile Marcella was unfolding the project of the straw-plaiting workshop that she and Lady Winterbourne were about to start. Mrs.

Jellison put on her spectacles apparently that she might hear the better, pushed away her dinner in spite of her visitors' civilities, and listened with a bright and beady eye.

”An' yer agoin' to pay me one a sixpence a score, where I now gets ninepence. And I'll not have to tramp it into town no more--you'll send a man round. And who is agoin' to pay me, miss, if you'll excuse me asking?”

”Lady Winterbourne and I,” said Marcella, smiling. ”We're going to employ this village and two others, and make as good business of it as we can. But we're going to begin by giving the workers better wages, and in time we hope to teach them the higher kinds of work.”

”Lor'!” said Mrs. Jellison. ”But I'm not one o' them as kin do with changes.” She took up her plait and looked at it thoughtfully.

”Eighteen-pence a score. It wor that rate when I wor a girl. An' it ha'

been dibble--dibble--iver sense; a penny off here, an' a penny off there, an' a hard job to keep a bite ov anythink in your mouth.”

”Then I may put down your name among our workers, Mrs. Jellison?” said Marcella, rising and smiling down upon her.

”Oh, lor', no; I niver said that,” said Mrs. Jellison, hastily. ”I don't hold wi' s.h.i.+lly-shallyin' wi' yer means o' livin'. I've took my plait to Jimmy Gedge--'im an' 'is son, fust shop on yer right hand when yer git into town--twenty-five year, summer and winter--me an' three other women, as give me a penny a journey for takin' theirs. If I wor to go messin' about wi' Jimmy Gedge, Lor' bless yer, I should 'ear ov it--oh!

I shoulden sleep o' nights for thinkin' o' how Jimmy ud serve me out when I wor least egspectin' ov it. He's a queer un. No, miss, thank yer kindly; but I think I'll bide.”

Marcella, amazed, began to argue a little, to expound the many attractions of the new scheme. Greatly to her annoyance, Wharton came forward to her help, guaranteeing the solvency and permanence of her new partners.h.i.+p in glib and pleasant phrase, wherein her angry fancy suspected at once the note of irony. But Mrs. Jellison held firm, embroidering her negative, indeed, with her usual cheerful chatter, but sticking to it all the same. At last there was no way of saving dignity but to talk of something else and go--above all, to talk of something else before going, lest the would-be benefactor should be thought a petty tyrant.

”Oh, Johnnie?--thank yer, miss--'e's an owdacious young villain as iver I seed--but _clever_--lor', you'd need 'ave eyes in yer back to look after _'im_. An' _coaxin'_! ''Aven't yer brought me no sweeties, Gran'ma?' 'No, my dear,' says I. 'But if you was to _look_, Gran'ma--in both your pockets, Gran'ma--iv you was to let _me_ look?' It's a sharp un Isabella, she don't 'old wi' sweet-stuff, she says, sich a pack o'

nonsense. She'd stuff herself sick when she wor 'is age. Why shouldn't _ee_ be happy, same as her? There ain't much to make a child 'appy in _that_ 'ouse. Westall, ee's that mad about them poachers over Tudley End; ee's like a wild bull at 'ome. I told Isabella ee'd come to knockin' ov her about _some_ day, though ee did speak so oily when ee wor a courtin'. Now she knows as I kin see a thing or two,” said Mrs.

Jellison, significantly. Her manner, Wharton noticed, kept always the same gay philosophy, whatever subject turned up.

”Why, that's an old story--that Tudley End business--” said Marcella, rising. ”I should have thought Westall might have got over it by now.”

”But bless yer, ee says it's goin' on as lively as iver. Ee says ee knows they're set on grabbin' the birds t'other side the estate, over beyond Mellor way--ee's got wind of it--an' ee's watchin' night an' day to see they don't do him no bad turn _this_ month, bekase o' the big shoot they allus has in January. An' lor', ee do speak drefful bad o'

_soom_ folks,” said Mrs. Jellison, with an amused expression. ”You know some on 'em, miss, don't yer?” And the old woman, who had begun toying with her potatoes, slanted her fork over her shoulder so as to point towards the Hurds' cottage, whereof the snow-laden roof could be seen conspicuously through the little lattice beside her, making sly eyes the while at her visitor.

”I don't believe a word of it,” said Marcella, impatiently. ”Hurd has been in good work since October, and has no need to poach. Westall has a down on him. You may tell him I think so, if you like.”

”That I will,” said Mrs. Jellison, cheerfully, opening the door for them. ”There's n.o.body makes 'im 'ear the treuth, n.o.bbut me. I _loves_ naggin' ov 'im, ee's that masterful. But ee don't master _me_!”

”A gay old thing,” said Wharton as they shut the gate behind them. ”How she does enjoy the human spectacle. And obstinate too. But you will find the younger ones more amenable.”