Nanny talked about the war, about the young men who had gone from Wyck and would not come back, about the marvel of Sutton"s living on through it all, and he so old and feeble. She talked about Colin and Anne.
"Oh, Master Jerrold," she said, "I do think it"s a pity she should be livin" all alone with Mr. Colin like this "ere."
"They"re all right, Nanny. You needn"t worry."
"Well--well, Miss Anne was always one to go her own way and make it seem the right way."
"You may be perfectly sure it is the right way."
"I"m not sayin" as "tisn"t. And I dunnow what Master Colin"d a done without her. But it do make people talk. There"s a deal of strange things said in the place."
"Don"t listen to them."
"Eh dear, I"ll not "ear a word. When anybody says anything to me I tell "em straight they"d oughter be ashamed of themselves, back-bitin" and slanderin"."
"That"s right, Nanny, you give it them in the neck."
"If it"d only end in talk, but there"s been harm done to the innocent.
There"s Mr. and Mrs. Kimber. Kimber, "e"s my "usband"s cousing." Nanny paused.
"What about him?"
"Well, "tis this way. They"re doin" for Miss Anne, livin" in the house with her. Kimber, "e sees to the garden and Mrs. Kimber she cooks and that. And Kimber--that"s my "usband"s cousin--"e was gardener at the vicarage. And now "e"s lost his job along of Master Colin and Miss Anne."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, sir, "tis the vicar. "E says they "adn"t oughter be livin" in the house with Miss Anne, because of the talk there"s been. So "e says Kimber must choose between "em. And Kimber, "e says "e"d have minded what parson said if it had a bin a church matter or such like, but parson or no parson, "e says "e"s his own master an" "e won"t have no interferin" with him and his missus. So he"s lost his job."
"Poor old Kimber. What a beastly shame."
"Eh, "tis a shame to be sure."
"Never mind; I can give him a bigger job at the Manor."
"Oh, Master Jerrold, if you would, it"d be a kindness, I"m sure. And Kimber "e deserves it, the way they"ve stuck to Miss Anne."
"He does indeed. It"s pretty decent of them. I"ll see about that before I go."
"Thank you, sir. Sutton and me thought maybe you"d do something for him, else I shouldn"t have spoken. And if there"s anything I can do for Miss Anne I"ll do it. I"ve always looked on her as one of you. But "tis a pity, all the same."
"You mustn"t say that, Nanny. I tell you it"s all perfectly right."
"Well, I shall never say as "tisn"t. No, nor think it. You can trust me for that, Master Jerrold."
He thought: Poor old Nanny. She lies like a brick.
vii
He said to himself that he would never know the truth about Anne and Colin. If he went to them and asked them he would be no nearer knowing.
They would have to lie to him to save each other. In any case, his mother had made it clear to him that as long as Anne had to look after Colin he couldn"t ask them. If they were innocent their innocence must be left undisturbed. If they were not innocent, well--he had lost the right to know it. Besides, he was sure, as sure as if they had told him.
He knew how it would be. Colin"s wife would come home and she would divorce Colin and he would marry Anne. So far as Jerrold could see, that was his brother"s only chance of happiness and sanity.
As for himself, there was nothing he could do now but clear out and leave them.
And, as he had no desire to go back to his mother and hear about Anne and Colin all over again, he went down to the Durhams" in Yorkshire for the rest of his leave.
He hadn"t been there five days before he and Maisie were engaged; and before the two weeks were up he had married her.
X
ELIOT
i
Eliot stood in the porch of the Manor Farm house. There was n.o.body there to greet him. Behind him on the oak table in the hall the wire he had sent lay unopened.
It was midday in June.
All round the place the air was sweet with the smell of the mown hay, and from the Broad Pasture there came the rattle and throb of the mowing-machines.
Eliot went down the road and through the gate into the hay-field. Colin and Anne were there. Anne at the top of the field drove the mower, mounted up on the sh.e.l.l-shaped iron seat, white against the blue sky.
Colin at the bottom, slender and tall above the big revolving wheel, drove the rake. The tedding machine, driven by a farm hand, went between. Its iron-toothed rack caught the new-mown hay, tossed it and scattered it on the field. Beside the long glistening swaths the cut edge of the hay stood up clean and solid as a wall. Above it the raised plane of the gra.s.s-tops, brushed by the wind, quivered and swayed, whitish green, greenish white, in a long shimmering undulation.
Eliot went on to meet Anne and Colin as they turned and came up the field again.
When they saw him they jumped down and came running.
"Eliot, you never told us."
"I wired at nine this morning."
"There"s n.o.body in the house and we"ve not been in since breakfast at seven," Colin said.
"It"s twelve now. Time you knocked off for lunch, isn"t it?"
"Are you all right, Eliot?" said Anne.
"Rather."
He gave a long look at them, at their sun-burnt faces, at their clean, slender grace, Colin in his cricketing flannels, and Anne in her land-girl"s white-linen coat, knickerbockers, and grey wideawake.
"Colin doesn"t look as if there was much the matter with him. He might have been farming all his life."
"So I have," said Colin; "considering that I haven"t lived till now."