Part 10 (1/2)

”I'd drink it and have done with it, if I were you,” said Mary in her soft voice.

Mary's soft voice was too much for Alice.

”Why c-can't you leave me alone? You--you--beast, Mary,” she sobbed.

And Mr. Cartaret began again, ”Am I to stand here----”

Alice got up, she broke loose from them and left the room.

”You might have known she wasn't going to drink it,” Gwenda said.

But the Vicar never knew when he was beaten.

”She would have drunk it,” he said, ”if Mary hadn't interfered.”

Alice had not got the pneumonia that had killed John Greatorex. Such happiness, she reflected, was not for her. She had desired it too much.

But she was doing very well with her anaemia.

Bloodless and slender and inert, she dragged herself about the village. She could not get away from it because of the steep hills she would have had to climb. A small, unhappy ghost, she haunted the fields in the bottom and the path along the beck that led past Mrs.

Gale's cottage.

The sight of Alice was more than ever annoying to the Vicar. Only you wouldn't have known it. As she grew whiter and weaker he braced himself, and became more hearty and robust. When he caught her lying on the sofa he spoke to her in a robust and hearty tone.

”Don't lie there all day, my girl. Get up and go out. What you want is a good blow on the moor.”

”Yes. If I didn't die before I got there,” Alice would say, while she thought, ”Serve him right, too, if I did.”

And the Vicar would turn from her in disgust. He knew what was the matter with his daughter Alice.

At dinner time he would pull himself together again, for, after all, he was her father. He was robust and hearty over the sirloin and the leg of mutton. He would call for a gla.s.s and press into it the red juice of the meat.

”Don't peak and pine, girl. Drink that. It'll put some blood into you.”

And Alice would refuse to drink it.

Next she refused to drink her milk at eleven. She carried it out to Essy in the scullery.

”I wish you'd drink my milk for me, Essy. It makes me sick,” she said.

”I don't want your milk,” said Essy.

”Please--” she implored her.

But Essy was angry. Her face flamed and she banged down the dishes she was drying. ”I sail not drink it. What should I want your milk for?