Part 22 (1/2)

A level voice with a faint lisp answered him:

”They belong to a man called Tryst; he was turned out of his cottage on Wednesday because his dead wife's sister was staying with him, so we've taken them in. Did you notice the look on the face of the eldest?”

Stanley nodded. In truth, he had noticed something, though what he could not have said.

”At nine years old she has to do the housework and be a mother to the other two, besides going to school. This is all because Lady Malloring has conscientious scruples about marriage with a deceased wife's sister.”

'Certainly'--thought Stanley--'that does sound a bit thick!' And he asked:

”Is the woman here, too?”

”No, she's gone home for the present.”

He felt relief.

”I suppose Malloring's point is,” he said, ”whether or not you're to do what you like with your own property. For instance, if you had let this cottage to some one you thought was harming the neighborhood, wouldn't you terminate his tenancy?”

She answered, still in that level voice:

”Her action is cowardly, narrow, and tyrannical, and no amount of sophistry will make me think differently.”

Stanley felt precisely as if one of his feet had gone through the ice into water so cold that it seemed burning hot! Sophistry! In a plain man like himself! He had always connected the word with Felix. He looked at her, realizing suddenly that the a.s.sociation of his brother's family with the outrage on Malloring's estate was probably even nearer than he had feared.

”Look here, Kirsteen!” he said, uttering the unlikely name with resolution, for, after all, she was his sister-in-law: ”Did this fellow set fire to Malloring's ricks?”

He was aware of a queer flash, a quiver, a something all over her face, which pa.s.sed at once back to its intent gravity.

”We have no reason to suppose so. But tyranny produces revenge, as you know.”

Stanley shrugged his shoulders. ”It's not my business to go into the rights and wrongs of what's been done. But, as a man of the world and a relative, I do ask you to look after your youngsters and see they don't get into a mess. They're an inflammable young couple--young blood, you know!”

Having made this speech, Stanley looked down, with a feeling that it would give her more chance.

”You are very kind,” he heard her saying in that quiet, faintly lisping voice; ”but there are certain principles involved.”

And, suddenly, his curious fear of this woman took shape. Principles! He had unconsciously been waiting for that word, than which none was more like a red rag to him.

”What principles can possibly be involved in going against the law?”

”And where the law is unjust?”

Stanley was startled, but he said: ”Remember that your principles, as you call them, may hurt other people besides yourself; Tod and your children most of all. How is the law unjust, may I ask?”

She had been sitting at the table opposite, but she got up now and went to the hearth. For a woman of forty-two--as he supposed she would be--she was extraordinarily lithe, and her eyes, fixed on him from under those twitching, wavy brows, had a curious glow in their darkness. The few silver threads in the ma.s.s of her over-fine black hair seemed to give it extra vitality. The whole of her had a sort of intensity that made him profoundly uncomfortable. And he thought suddenly: 'Poor old Tod! Fancy having to go to bed with that woman!'

Without raising her voice, she began answering his question.

”These poor people have no means of setting law in motion, no means of choosing where and how they will live, no means of doing anything except just what they are told; the Mallorings have the means to set the law in motion, to choose where and how to live, and to dictate to others. That is why the law is unjust. With every independent pound a year, this equal law of yours--varies!”

”Phew!” said Stanley. ”That's a proposition!”