Husband and wife laughed into each other"s eyes. Then Lucy knelt down to tie the child"s shoe, and David, first kissing the boy, bent forward and laid another kiss on the mother"s hair.
CHAPTER V
"An exciting post," said David to Lucy one morning as she entered the dining-room for breakfast. "Louie proposes to bring her little girl over to see us, and Ancrum will be home to-night!"
"Louie!" repeated Mrs. Grieve, standing still in her amazement.
"What do you mean?"
It was certainly unexpected. David had not heard from Louie for more than six months; his remittances to her, however, were at all times so casually acknowledged that he had taken no particular notice; and he and she had not met for two years and more--since that visit to Paris, in fact, recorded in his journal.
"It is quite true," said David; "it seems to be one of her sudden schemes. I don"t see any particular reason for it. She says she must "put matters before" me, and that Cecile wants a change. I don"t see that a change to Manchester in February is likely to help the poor child much. No, it must mean more money. We must make up our minds to that," said David with a little sad smile, looking at his wife.
"David! I don"t see that you"re called to do it at all!" cried Lucy. "Why, you"ve done much more for her than anybody else would have done! What they do with the money I can"t think--dreadful people!"
She began to pour out the tea with vehemence and an angry lip. She had always in her mind that vision of Louie, as she had seen her for the first and only time in her life, marching up Market Place in the "loud" hat and the black and scarlet dress, stared at and staring. Nor had she ever lost her earliest impression of strong dislike which had come upon her immediately afterwards, when Louie and Reuben had mounted to Dora"s sitting-room, and she, Lucy, had angrily told the quick-fingered, bold-eyed girl who claimed to be David Grieve"s sister not to touch Dora"s work. Nay, every year since had but intensified it, especially since their income had ceased to expand rapidly, and the drain of the Montjoies" allowance had been more plainly felt. She might have begun to feel a little ashamed of herself that she was able to give her husband so little sympathy in his determination to share his gains with his co-workers. She was quite clear that she was right in resenting the wasting of his money on such worthless people as the Montjoies. It was disgusting that they should sponge upon them so--and with hardly a "thank you" all the time. Oh dear, no!--Louie took everything as her right, and had once abused David through four pages because his cheque had been two days late.
David received his wife"s remarks in a meditative silence. He devoted himself a while to Sandy, who was eating porridge at his right hand, and tended with great regularity to bestow on his pinafore what was meant for his mouth. At last he said, pushing the letter over to Lucy:
"You had better read it, Lucy. She talks of coming next week."
Lucy read it with mounting wrath. It was the outcome of a fit of characteristic violence. Louie declared that she could stand her life no longer; that she was coming over to put things before David; and if he couldn"t help her, she and her child would just go out and beg. She understood from an old Manchester acquaintance whom she had met in the Rue de Rivoli about Christmas-time that David was doing very well with his business. She wished him joy of it. If he was prosperous, it was more than she was. n.o.body ever seemed to trouble their heads about her.
"Well, I never!" said Lucy, positively choked. "Why, it"s not much more than a month since you sent her that last cheque. And now I know you"ll be saying you can"t afford yourself a new great-coat.
It"s disgraceful! They"ll suck you dry, those kind of people, if you let them."
She had taken no pains so far to curb her language for the sake of her husband"s feelings. But as she gave vent to the last acid phrase she felt a sudden compunction. For David was looking straight before him into vacancy, with a painful intensity in the eyes, and a curious droop and contraction of the mouth. Why did he so often worry himself about Louie? _He_ had done all he could, anyway.
She got up and went over to him with his tea. He woke up from his absorption and thanked her.
"Is it right?"
"Just right!" he said, tasting it. "All the same, Lucy, it would be really nice of you to be kind to her and poor little Cecile. It won"t be easy for either of us having Louie here."
He began to cut up his bread with sudden haste, then, pausing again, he went on in a low voice. "But if one leaves a task like that undone it makes a sore spot, a fester in the mind."
She went back to the place in silence.
"What day is it to be?" she said presently. Certainly they both looked dejected.
"The 16th, isn"t it? I wonder who the Manchester acquaintance was.
He must have given a rose-coloured account. We aren"t so rich as all that, are we, wife?"
He glanced at her with a charming half-apprehensive smile, which made his face young again. Lucy looked ready to cry.
"I know you"ll get out of buying that coat," she said with energy, as though referring to an already familiar topic of discussion between them.
"No, I won"t," said David cheerfully. "I"ll buy it before Louie comes, if that will please you. Oh, we shall do, dear! I"ve had a real good turn at the shop this last month. Things will look better this quarter"s end, you"ll see."
"Why, I thought you"d been so busy in the printing office," she said, a good deal cheered, however, by his remark.
"So we have. But John"s a brick, and doesn"t care how much he does.
And the number of men who take a personal interest in the house, who do their utmost to forward work, and to prevent waste and scamping, is growing fast. When once we get the apprentices" school into full working order, we shall see."
David gave himself a great stretch; and then, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, stood by the fire enjoying it and his dreams together.
"Has it begun?" said Lucy. Her tone was not particularly cordial; but anyone who knew them well would perhaps have reflected that six months before he would have neither made his remark, nor she have asked her question.
"Yes--what?" he said with a start. "Oh, the school! It has begun tentatively. Six of our best men give in rotation two hours a day to it at the time when work and the machines are slackest. And we have one or two teachers from outside. Twenty-three boys have entered. I have begun to pay them a penny a day for attendance."
His face lit up with merriment as though he antic.i.p.ated her remonstrance.
"David, how foolish! If you coax them like that they won"t care a bit about it."
"Well, the experiment has been tried by a great French firm," he said, "and it did well. It is really a slight addition to wages, and pays the firm in the end. You should see the little fellows hustle up for their money. I pay it them every month."
"And it all comes out of _your_ pocket--that, of course, I needn"t ask," said Lucy. But her sarcasm was not bitter, and she had a motherly eye the while to the way in which Sandy was stuffing himself with his bread and jam.
"Well," he said, laughing and making no attempt to excuse himself, "but I tell you, madam, you will do better this year. I positively must make some money out of the shop for you and myself too. So I have been going at it like twenty horses, and we"ve sent out a splendid catalogue."
"Oh, I say, David!" said Lucy, dismayed, "you"re not going to take the shop-money too to spend on the printing?"
"I won"t take anything that will leave you denuded," he said affectionately; "and whenever I want anything I"ll tell you all about it--if you like."
He looked at her significantly. She did not answer for a minute, then she said:
"Don"t you want me to give those boys a treat some time?"
"Yes, when the weather gets more decent, if it ever does. We must give them a day on the moors--take them to Clough End perhaps. Oh, look here!" he exclaimed with a sudden change of tone, "let us ask Uncle Reuben to come and spend the day to see Louie!"
"Why, he won"t leave _her_," said Lucy.
"Who? Aunt Hannah? Oh yes, he will. It"s wonderful what she can do now. I saw her in November, you remember, when I went to see Margaret. It"s a resurrection. Poor Uncle Reuben!"
"What do you mean?" said Lucy, startled.
"Well," said David slowly, with a half tender, half humorous twist of the lip, "he can"t understand it. He prayed so many years, and it made no difference. Then came a new doctor, and with electricity and rubbing it was all done. Oh yes, Uncle Reuben would like to see Louie. And I want to show him that boy there!"
He nodded at Sandy, who sat staring open-mouthed and open-eyed at his parents, a large piece of bread and jam slipping slowly down his throat.
"David, you"re silly," said Lucy. But she went to stand by him at the fire, and slipped her hand inside his arm. "I suppose she and Cecile had better have the front room," she went on slowly.
"Yes, that would be the most cheerful."
Then they were silent a little, he leaning his head lightly against hers.