"It ain"t for me to spread ill tales after what I"ve told you, eh? But the Colonel"s death was a reg"lar tragedy, "twas, and some there were who said that "is widder wasn"t exactly sorry. "E were a melancholy cove for any young woman to "ave to live with. But there, as my old mother used to say, "any old barn-door can keep out the draught!""
The younger man looked up:--"What sort o" tragedy?" he asked.
"The Colonel pizened "isself, and the question was--did "e do it o"
purpose? Some said yes, and some said no. I was in it by a manner of speaking."
"You was in it?"
The boy left off working, and gazed at the other eagerly:--"D"you mean you saw him do it?"
"I was the first to see "im in his agony--I calls that being in it. And I was called upon to give evidence at the inquest held on the corpse."
The man looked round him furtively as he spoke. The little boy sitting by the back door of the house caused him no concern, but he did not want what he said to be overheard by the two new maid-servants who had arrived at The Trellis House that morning.
"There"s always a lot of talk when folks die sudden," he went on, in a sententious tone. "It was as plain as the nose on your face that the Colonel, poor chap, "ad "ad what they called sh.e.l.l-shock. I"d heard "im a-talking aloud to "isself many a time. "E was a-weary of life "e was. So "tis plain "e just thought "e"d put an end to it, like many a better man afore "im."
And then the youth said something that rather surprised himself, but his mind had been working while the other had been talking.
"Did anyone say different?" was his question and the other answered in a curious tone: "Now you"re askin"! Yes, there was some folk as did say different. They argued that the Colonel never took the pizen knowingly.
"E was very keen over terriers--we bred "em. The best of "em, a grand sire, was the very spit of that little dawg sitting up on that there bench. Colonel bred "em for profit, not pleasure. Mrs. Crofton, she "ated "em, and she lost no time either in getting rid of "em after "e was gone. They got on "er nerves, same as "e"d done. She give the best--prize-winner "e was--to the Crowner as tried the corpse. "E"d known "em both--was a bit sweet on "er "isself."
The youth laughed discordantly. "Ho! Ho! She"s that sort, is she?"
But the other spoke up at once with a touch of sharpness in his voice.
"She"s a good sort to them as be"aves themselves, my lad. She give me a good present. Got me a good, new soft place, too, that"s where I"m going to-morrer. I"m "ere to oblige "er, that"s what I am--just to put you, young man, in the way of things. Look sharp, please "er, mind your manners, and you may end better off than you know!"
The lad looked at the speaker with a gleam of rather hungry curiosity in his lack-l.u.s.tre eyes.
"Mark my words! Your missus won"t be a widder long. Ever "eard of a Major Radmore?"
The speaker did not notice that the little boy sitting on the bench stiffened unconsciously.
"Major Radmore?" repeated the listener. "Folk in Beechfield did know a chap called Radmore. Lives in Australia, he does. He sent home some money for a village club "e did, but nothing "as been done about it yet. Some do say old Tosswill"s sticking to the cash--a gent as what they calls trustee of it all. But then who"d trust anyone with a load o" money? The chap I"m thinking of used to live at Tosswill"s a matter of ten years ago."
"Then "tis the same one!" exclaimed the other eagerly, "and, if so, you"ll not lack good things. Likely as not the Major"s your future master. "E"s got plenty, and a generous soul too. Gave me a present last year when he was a stopping at Fildy Fe Manor. The Major, "e bought one of our dawgs, and I sent it off for "im to Old Place, Beechfield, d.a.m.n me if I don"t remember it now--name of Tosswill too." He stopped short, and then, as if he had thought better of what he was going to say, he observed musingly: "Some says Jack Piper"s a blabber--but they don"t know me! But one thing I"ll tell you. The"re two after the Missus, for all the Colonel"s "ardly cold, so to speak, but I put my money on the dark one."
He had hardly uttered these cryptic words when a pretty young woman opened the door which gave on to the stable-yard from the house: "Dinner-time!" she called out merrily.
Both men dropped the brooms they were holding, and going towards the door disappeared.
As they did so, Timmy heard the words:--"_She"s_ a peach--thinks herself one too--oh! the merry widder!"
The little boy waited a moment. He took a long look round the sunny, and now unnaturally tidy, stable-yard. Then he got up, shut his book, and put it sedately into his pocket. Flick seemed unwilling to move, so Timmy turned and called sharply:--"Flick! come along at once!"
The dog jumped down and ran up to his master. Timmy walked across the big, flat, white stones, kicking a pebble as he went. At last, when he got close to the open gate, he hop-scotched, propelling the pebble far into the road.
He was extremely disturbed and surprised. He went over and over again what he had heard the two men say. The absurd suspicion of his father filled him with angry hurt disgust. Why only yesterday the plan of the village clubhouse had come from the architect! And then that extraordinary disconcerting hint about his G.o.dfather? G.o.dfrey Radmore belonged in Timmy"s imagination, first to himself, secondly to his parents, and then, in a much less close way, to the rest of the Tosswill family. A sensation of strong-dislike to the still unknown new tenant of The Trellis House welled up in his secretive little heart, and instead of going on round the village, he turned back and made his way straight home.
As he walked along the short avenue which led to the front door of Old Place he saw his mother kneeling on her gardening mat. He stepped up on to the gra.s.s hoping to elude her sharp eyes and ears, but she had already seen him.
"Hullo, Timmy!" she called out cheerfully. "What have you been doing with yourself all this time?"
"I"ve been sitting reading in the stable-yard of The Trellis House."
"That seems rather a funny thing to do, when you might have been here helping your Mummy," but she said the words very kindly. Then suddenly the mention of The Trellis House reminded her of G.o.dfrey Radmore. "I"ve got a great piece of news!" she exclaimed. "Guess who"s coming here to spend the week-end with us, Timmy?"
He looked at her gravely and said:--"I think I know, Mum."
She felt taken aback, as she so often was with her strange little son.
"I don"t think you do," she cried briskly.
"I think it"s"--he hesitated a moment--"Major Radmore, my G.o.dfather."
She was very, very surprised. Then her quick Scotch mind fastened on the one unfamiliar word. "Why _Major_ Radmore?" she asked.
Timmy looked a little confused. "I--I don"t know," he muttered unwillingly. "I thought he was a soldier, Mum."
"Of course he _was_ a soldier. But he isn"t a soldier now."
"Isn"t it tea-time?" asked Timmy suddenly.
"Yes, I suppose it is."
As they walked towards the house together Janet was telling herself uneasily that unless Timmy had met Dr. O"Farrell, it was impossible for him to have learnt through any ordinary human agency that G.o.dfrey Radmore was coming to Beechfield. Though a devoted, she was not a blind mother, and she was disagreeably aware that her little son never "gave himself away." She did not wish to start him on a long romancing explanation which would embody--if one were to put it in bald English--a lie. So she said nothing.
They were close to the door of the house when he again took her aback by suddenly saying:--"I don"t think Mrs. Crofton can be a very nice sort of lady, Mum."
(Then he had seen Mrs. Crofton, and _she_ had told him.)
"Why not, Timmy?"
"I have a sort of feeling that she"s horrid."
"Nonsense! If only for your G.o.dfather"s sake, we must all try and like her. Besides, my boy, she"s in great trouble. Her husband only died two or three months ago."
"Some people aren"t sorry when their husbands die," remarked Timmy.
She pretended not to hear. But as they walked through into the hall she heard him say as if to himself: "Some people are glad. Mrs. George Pott"--the woman who kept the local beer-shop--"danced when _her_ husband died."
"I wish, Timmy," said his mother sharply, "that you would not listen to, or repeat low village gossip."
"Not even if it"s true, Mum?"
"No, not even if it"s true."
When Janet had first come to Old Place as a bride, eager to shoulder what some of her friends had told her would be an almost intolerable burden, her husband"s six children had been a sad, subdued, nursery-brought-up group, infinitely pathetic to her warm Scotch heart. At once she had inst.i.tuted, rather to the indignation of the old nurse who was yet to become in due time her devoted henchwoman, a daily dining-room tea, and the custom still persisted.