(V)
By the Sunday afternoon Frank was well on his way to York.
It was a heavy, hot day, sunny, but with brooding clouds on the low horizons; and he was dispirited and tired as he came at last into a small, prim village street rather after two o"clock (its name, once more, I suppress).
His possessions by now were greatly reduced. His money had gone, little by little, all through his journey with the Major, and he had kept of other things only one extra flannel shirt, a pair of thick socks and a small saucepan he had bought one day. The half-crown that the Governor had given him was gone, all but fourpence, and he wanted, if possible, to arrive at York, where he was to meet the Major, at least with that sum in his possession. Twopence would pay for a bed and twopence more for supper.
Half-way up the street he stopped suddenly. Opposite him stood a small brick church, retired by a few yards of turf, crossed by a path, from the iron railings that ab.u.t.ted on the pavement: and a notice-board proclaimed that in this, church of the Sacred Heart ma.s.s was said on Sundays at eleven, on holidays of obligation at nine, and on weekdays at eight-thirty A.M. Confessions were heard on Sat.u.r.day evenings and on Thursday evenings before the first Friday, from eight to nine P.M. Catechism was at three P.M. on Sundays; and rosary, sermon and benediction at seven P.M. A fat cat, looking as if it were dead, lay relaxed on the gra.s.s beneath this board.
The door was open and Frank considered an instant. But he thought that could wait for a few minutes as he glanced at the next house. This was obviously the presbytery.
Frank had never begged from a priest before, and he hesitated a little now. Then he went across the street into the shadow on the other side, leaned against the wall and looked. The street was perfectly empty and perfectly quiet, and the hot summer air and sunshine lay on all like a charm. There was another cat, he noticed, on a doorstep a few yards away, and he wondered how any living creature in this heat could possibly lie like that, face coiled round to the feet, and the tail laid neatly across the nose. A dreaming c.o.c.k crooned heart-brokenly somewhere out of sight, and a little hot breeze scooped up a feather of dust in the middle of the road and dropped again.
Even the presbytery looked inviting on a day like this. He had walked a good twenty-five miles to-day, and the suggestion of a dark, cool room was delicious. It was a little pinched-looking house, of brick, like the church, squeezed between the church and a large grocery with a flamboyant inscription over its closed shutters. All the windows were open, hung inside with cheap lace curtains, and protected with dust-screens. He pictured the cold food probably laid out within, and his imagination struck into being a tall gla.s.s jug of something like claret-cup, still half-full. Frank had not dined to-day.
Then he limped boldly across the street, rapped with the cast-iron knocker, and waited.
Nothing at all happened.
Presently the cat from the notice-board appeared round the corner, eyed Frank suspiciously, decided that he was not dangerous, came on, walking delicately, stepped up on to the further end of the brick stair, and began to arch itself about and rub its back against the warm angle of the doorpost. Frank rapped again, interrupting the cat for an instant, and then stooped down to scratch it under the ear. The cat crooned delightedly. Steps sounded inside the house; the cat stopped writhing, and as the door opened, darted in noiselessly with tail erect past the woman who held the door uninvitingly half open.
She had a thin, lined face and quick black eyes.
"What do you want?" she asked sharply, looking up and down Frank"s figure with suspicion. Her eyes dwelt for a moment on the bruise on his cheek-bone.
"I want to see the priest, please," said Frank.
"You can"t see him."
"I am very sorry," said Frank, "but I must see him."
"Coming here begging!" exclaimed the woman bitterly. "I"d be ashamed! Be off with you!"
Frank"s dignity a.s.serted itself a little.
"Don"t speak to me in that tone, please. I am a Catholic, and I wish to see the priest."
The woman snorted; but before she could speak there came the sound of an opening door and a quick step on the linoleum of the little dark pa.s.sage.
"What"s all this?" said a voice, as the woman stepped back.
He was a big, florid young man, with yellow hair, flushed as if with sleep; his eyes were bright and tired-looking, and his collar was plainly unb.u.t.toned at the back. Also, his ca.s.sock was unfastened at the throat and he bore a large red handkerchief in his hand. Obviously this had just been over his face.
Now, I do not blame this priest in the slightest. He had sung a late ma.s.s--which never agreed with him--and in his extreme hunger he had eaten two platefuls of hot beef, with Yorkshire pudding, and drunk a gla.s.s and a half of solid beer. And he had just fallen into a deep sleep before giving Catechism, when the footsteps and voices had awakened him.
Further, every wastrel Catholic that came along this road paid him a call, and he had not yet met with one genuine case of want. When he had first come here he had helped beggars freely and generously, and he lived on a stipend of ninety pounds a year, out of which he paid his housekeeper fifteen.
"What do you want?" he said.
"May I speak to you, father?" said Frank.
"Certainly. Say what you"ve got to say."
"Will you help me with sixpence, father?"
The priest was silent, eyeing Frank closely.
"Are you a Catholic?"
"Yes, father."
"I didn"t see you at ma.s.s this morning."
"I wasn"t here this morning. I was walking on the roads."
"Where did you hear ma.s.s?"
"I didn"t hear it at all, father. I was on the roads."
"What"s your work?"
"I haven"t any."
"Why"s that?"
Frank shrugged his shoulders a little.
"I do it when I can get it," he said.
"You speak like an educated man."
"I am pretty well educated."
The priest laughed shortly.
"What"s that bruise on your cheek?"
"I was in a street fight, yesterday, father."
"Oh, this is ridiculous!" he said. "Where did you come from last?"
Frank paused a moment. He was very hot and very tired.... Then he spoke.
"I was in prison till Friday," he said. "I was given fourteen days on the charge of robbing a child, on the twenty-sixth. I pleaded guilty.
Will you help me, father?"