Part 36 (1/2)

This time he would have told, but could not. He sat down to tea with a choking breast and a heart so big within him that it left no room for food. He strove to eat, but could get no morsel past his lips.

At one moment the news seemed to bubble up within him, and his mouth opened to shout it aloud; the next, his courage failed at his own vaunting thoughts, and he reached a hand down to the table-leg, to 'touch wood,'

as humble men do to avert Nemesis if by chance they have let slip a boastful word. Once he laughed outright, wildly, at nothing whatever.

Nuncey set down the teapot and eyed her parent with a puzzled frown.

That frown had sat too often on her cheerful face during the past three months. In truth, Mr. Benny as a regrater fell disastrously short of success, being p.r.o.ne to sell at monstrous overweights, which ate up the profits. When Nuncey at length forbade him to touch the scales, he gave away apples to every child that chose to edge around the tail of the cart.

”There's something wrong with father to-night,” she said. ”He's like a thing hurried-in-mind. What's up with 'ee, my dear?--is it verses?”

She paused with a sudden dark suspicion. ”I see'd William Badgery walkin'

after you down the street. Don't tell me you've let 'en persuade you into buying that lot of eggs he was preachin' up for fresh? for, if you have, I get no shoes this Christmas--that's all. Fresh? He've been salting them down these three months, against the Christmas prices, and no size in 'em to start with. I wouldn't sell 'em for sixpence the dozen.”

”Shoes?” Good Lord, what a question these boots and shoes had been for all these years! Never a Sat.u.r.day came round (it seemed to him) but one or other of the family wanted soleing or heeling. And henceforth they could all have shoes to their heart's content--and frocks--and new suits-- and meat on the table without stint--

He set down his cup and rose hurriedly. In the act of pus.h.i.+ng back his chair he met his wife's eyes. They were watching him with anxious concern--not with apparent love; but he alone knew what love lay behind that look which once or twice of late he had surprised in them.

His own filled with sudden tears. No, he could not tell her now.

To-night, perhaps, when he and she were alone, he would tell her, as so often he had told his worries and listened to hers. He dashed his frayed cuff across his eyes and fairly bolted from the room.

”It's about Nicky Vro that he's troublin',” said Mrs. Benny.

”Terrible soft-hearted he is; but you ought to know your father better by this time than to upset 'en so.”

An hour later word came to Hester--it was Shake who brought it--that Mr.

Benny would be glad to see her in the office. She obeyed at once, albeit with some trepidation when she came to mount the steps and tap at the door. She had learnt, however, from Nuncey that certain nights were set aside for tattooing. Doubtless this would not be one of them.

Four seamen sat within by the stove and under the light of the swinging lamp, smoking, patiently awaiting their turn. In the fog of tobacco smoke, which almost took Hester's breath away, they rose politely and saluted her. Big, shy boys they seemed to her, with the whites of their eyes extraordinarily clear against their swarthy complexions. Somehow she felt at home with them instantly, and no more afraid than if they had been children in her school.

One of them called Mr. Benny from the tiny inner office, or cupboard, where he conducted his confidential business, and the little man came running out in a flurry with one hand grasping a handkerchief and the other nervously thrust in his dishevelled hair.

”You will forgive me, my dear, for sending? The truth is, I am at my wits' end to-night and cannot concentrate myself. I have heard news to-day--no, nothing to distress me--on the contrary.”--He gazed round helplessly. ”It has upset me, though. I was wondering if you will be very kind and help me?”

”Help you?” echoed Hester. ”Oh, Mr. Benny, you surely don't ask me to write your letters for you!”

”Not if you would find it distasteful, my dear.”

”But I don't know; I a.s.sure you I haven't an idea how to do it!”

”You would find it come easy, for that matter.” Mr. Benny drew a quill pen from behind his right ear, eyed its point dejectedly for a moment, and replaced it. ”But, of course, if you feel like that, we'll say no more about it, and I'm sorry to have troubled you.”

”If it's merely writing down from dictation--”

”You will find it a little more than _that_,” Mr. Benny admitted.

Hester looked around on the faces of the seamen. They said nothing; they even watched her with sympathy, as though, while dumbly backing Mr.

Benny's pet.i.tion, they felt him to be asking too much; yet she divined that they were disappointed.

”I will try,” she said with sudden resolve, and their approving murmur at once rewarded her. ”Only you must be patient, and forgive my mistakes.”

”That's a very good la.s.s,” said one of them aloud, as Mr. Benny shook her by the hand and led her triumphantly to the little inner office.