Part 13 (1/2)

”If he is Ralph Scammel, he is a bad man! Peg says so, and Peg is always right!” And then again, with renewed anguish: ”Oh, but it can't be true, I know it can't.”

”If you have that much faith in him,” said Mr. Shawyer quickly, ”you must be content to wait till he comes back and ask him yourself. Now, take my advice and go home, and you will find that already your mother has repented of her hasty words.”

Faith shook her head.

”I don't think so,” she said slowly. She knew her mother well in many ways, and she knew the bitter and relentless hatred with which Mrs.

Ledley had always regarded the ”bad man,” as the twins called him.

He had robbed her of all happiness. He had brought her and her children down to poverty. Faith did not think that her mother would ever relent or forgive.

She went home with dragging steps. Before she entered the house she slipped off her wedding ring and put it into a pocket. She felt more free without it, could almost imagine that the whole thing was nothing more, than a bad dream.

She was afraid to face her mother. She went up to her own little room on the top floor and sat down at the window.

There was not much to be seen from it but roofs and telegraph poles and wires, but the sky was blue beyond them all, and against her will Faith thought of the sea, which she had only seen once, years ago, and of Nicholas Forrester, who was even then being carried away from her across its blueness.

Since he said good-bye to her she had many times wished him back again, but now the thought of him made her s.h.i.+ver. She wished never to see him any more.

In her childishness she somehow fancied that she had only to say she regretted her marriage and give back everything he had ever given her to wipe the episode out of her life. She was thankful now that she had not spent a s.h.i.+lling of his money. She took it all from its hiding place and made a little parcel of it, with her wedding ring, and addressed it to the flat where he had taken her for lunch after their marriage.

He would find it when he came back and understand, she thought. She slipped out and posted it at once, for fear she should be tempted to change her mind by the sight of the twins' shabby frocks and the memory of all she could have bought them with the Beggar Man's money.

Then she went into the kitchen to her mother and held out her trembling bare left hand.

”I've sent it back,” she said in a whisper. ”And the money--I never want to see him any more.”

Mrs. Ledley stared at her helplessly, then something in the girl's face, its immature look and innocent eyes, swept the anger and bitterness from her heart.

She took Faith on to her lap as if she had still been a child, and the two kissed and cried together.

Mrs. Ledley did not believe Faith would ever see the Beggar Man again.

She thought she knew only too well the type of man he was. She sobbed out that she was only too thankful to have her daughter safely with her.

”I didn't mean to be hard and cruel,” she said over and over again. ”It would have broken my heart if he had taken you away from me.”

”He wanted me to go and I wouldn't,” Faith said. She tried to believe that she was quite happy cuddled into her mother's arms, but she knew that she was not. There was something old and sad in her heart which would never leave her again she knew. She listened apathetically while Mrs. Ledley spoke of her husband.

”You haven't forgotten him, Faith? You haven't so soon forgotten your father? He was so good to you. He loved you all so much. This man ruined him and caused his death. I know that my little girl could not love such a man.”

”I wanted you to be rich,” Faith whispered brokenly. ”I wanted everything for you and the twins.”

She sat up with sudden energy, pus.h.i.+ng the dark hair from her face. ”I hope I never see him again!” she said fiercely. ”I hope he never comes home any more!...”

CHAPTER VI

Faith went back to the factory the next day and asked to be taken on again. Miss Dell would like to have refused, but she met Peg's fierce eyes across the room and changed her mind, and Faith was reinstated.

There was not much time for talking that morning. There was a rush of work on hand and hardly a moment to spare, but during the dinner hour Peg asked a storm of questions.