The White Peacock Part 27

You know-Father often forgets-he doesn't like to have to work in the afternoon, now."

The cattle stirred in their stalls; the chains rattled round the posts; a cow coughed noisily. When George had finished pulping, and it was quiet enough for talk, just as he was spreading the first layers of chop and turnip and meal-in ran Emily, with her hair in silken, twining confusion, her eyes glowing-to bid us go in to tea before the milking was begun. It was the custom to milk before tea on Sunday-but George abandoned it without demur-his father willed it so, and his father was master, not to be questioned on farm matters, however one disagreed.

The last day in October had been dreary enough; the night could not come too early. We had tea by lamplight, merrily, with the father radiating comfort as the lamp shone yellow light. Sunday tea was imperfect without a visitor; with me, they always declared, it was perfect. I loved to hear them say so. I smiled, rejoicing quietly into my teacup when the Father said:

"It seems proper to have Cyril here at Sunday tea, it seems natural."

He was most loath to break the delightful bond of the lamp-lit tea-table; he looked up with a half-appealing glance when George at last pushed back his chair and said he supposed he'd better make a start.

"Ay," said the father in a mild, conciliatory tone, "I'll be out in a minute."

The lamp hung against the barn-wall, softly illuminating the lower part of the building, where bits of hay and white dust lay in the hollows between the bricks, where the curled chips of turnip scattered orange gleams over the earthen floor; the lofty roof, with its swallows' nests under the tiles, was deep in shadow, and the corners were full of darkness, hiding, half hiding, the hay, the chopper, the bins. The light shone along the pa.s.sages before the stalls, glistening on the moist noses of the cattle, and on the whitewash of the walls.

George was very cheerful; but I wanted to tell him my message. When he had finished the feeding, and had at last sat down to milk, I said:

"I told you Leslie Tempest was at our house when I came away."

He sat with the bucket between his knees, his hands at the cow's udder, about to begin to milk. He looked up a question at me.

"They are practically engaged now," I said.

He did not turn his eyes away, but he ceased to look at me. As one who is listening for a far-off noise, he sat with his eyes fixed. Then he bent his head, and leaned it against the side of the cow, as if he would begin to milk. But he did not. The cow looked round and stirred uneasily. He began to draw the milk, and then to milk mechanically. I watched the movement of his hands, listening to the rhythmic clang of the jets of milk on the bucket, as a relief. After a while the movement of his hands became slower, thoughtful-then stopped.

"She has really said yes?"

I nodded.

"And what does your mother say?"

"She is pleased."

He began to milk again. The cow stirred uneasily, s.h.i.+fting her legs. He looked at her angrily, and went on milking. Then, quite upset, she s.h.i.+fted again, and swung her tail in his face.

"Stand still!" he shouted, striking her on the haunch. She seemed to cower like a beaten woman. He swore at her, and continued to milk. She did not yield much that night; she was very restive; he took the stool from beneath him and gave her a good blow; I heard the stool knock on her prominent hip bone. After that she stood still, but her milk soon ceased to flow.

When he stood up, he paused before he went to the next beast, and I thought he was going to talk. But just then the father came along with his bucket. He looked in the shed, and, laughing in his mature, pleasant way, said:

"So you're an onlooker to-day, Cyril-I thought you'd have milked a cow or two for me by now."

"Nay," said I, "Sunday is a day of rest-and milking makes your hands ache."

"You only want a bit more practice," he said, joking in his ripe fas.h.i.+on. "Why George, is that all you've got from Julia?"

"It is."

"H'm-she's soon going dry. Julia, old lady, don't go and turn skinny."

When he had gone, and the shed was still, the air seemed colder. I heard his good-humoured "Stand over, old la.s.s," from the other shed, and the drum-beats of the first jets of milk on the pail.

"He has a comfortable time," said George, looking savage. I laughed. He still waited.

"You really expected Lettie to have _him,_" I said.

"I suppose so," he replied, "then she'd made up her mind to it. It didn't matter-what she wanted-at the bottom."

"You?" said I.

"If it hadn't been that he was a prize-with a ticket-she'd have had--"

"You!" said I.

"She was afraid-look how she turned and kept away--"

"From you?" said I.

"I should like to squeeze her till she screamed."

"You should have gripped her before, and kept her," said I.

"She-she's like a woman, like a cat-running to comforts-she strikes a bargain. Women are all tradesmen."

"Don't generalise, it's no good."

"She's like a prost.i.tute--"

"It's ba.n.a.l! I believe she loves him."

He started, and looked at me queerly. He looked quite childish in his doubt and perplexity.

"She, what--?"

"Loves him-honestly."

"She'd 'a loved me better," he muttered, and turned to his milking. I left him and went to talk to his father. When the latter's four beasts were finished, George's light still shone in the other shed.

I went and found him at the fifth, the last cow. When at length he had finished he put down his pail, and going over to poor Julia, stood scratching her back, and her poll, and her nose, looking into her big, startled eye and murmuring. She was afraid; she jerked her head, giving him a good blow on the cheek with her horn.

"You can't understand them," he said sadly, rubbing his face, and looking at me with his dark, serious eyes.

"I never knew I couldn't understand them. I never thought about it--till. But you know, Cyril, she led me on."

I laughed at his rueful appearance.

CHAPTER VIII

THE RIOT OF CHRISTMAS

For some weeks, during the latter part of November and the beginning of December, I was kept indoors by a cold. At last came a frost which cleared the air and dried the mud. On the second Sat.u.r.day before Christmas the world was transformed; tall, silver and pearl-grey trees rose pale against a dim-blue sky, like trees in some rare, pale Paradise; the whole woodland was as if petrified in marble and silver and snow; the holly-leaves and long leaves of the rhododendron were rimmed and spangled with delicate tracery.