"i've seen that man of yours before," said patsy, turning round and gazing at the woman.
he felt the most extraordinary pity for her. she must have been a pretty girl once, he thought, noticing the small pure outlines of the face. the child was like her, not like the ruffian who had just set off in the direction of conneely's hotel. a pretty boy, with soft, pale silken hair and blue eyes that looked scared. patsy remembered his own childhood with the terrible old grandfather, and his heart was soft with compassion.
"i don't think so, sir," said the woman. she was english by her voice.
"he hasn't been in these parts before."
patsy noticed with the same sharp pity which seemed to hurt him, that she trembled. she was tired and hungry, perhaps; not cold, surely, in this glorious june sunshine.
"sit down," he said, "sit down." he indicated a stone seat by the open door of the house. "you are tired, my poor girl. i've put the kettle on. it'll be boilin' by this time. i'll wet the cup of tay and it'll do you good."
there was no one in the stable-yard to observe the strange sight of the stud-groom giving a meal to the tramping woman and her child. he brought out a little cloth and spread it on the stone seat. then he fetched the cups and saucers, one by one.
"let me help you, sir," said the woman. "i was a servant in a good house before i had the misfortune to marry."
there had been some strange delicacy in patsy's mind which had induced him to have the outdoor tea rather than a less troublesome arrangement within doors. perhaps he had an instinctive knowledge of what the woman's husband might be capable of in the way of thought or speech.
"sit down there, georgie," said the woman to the child, with a kind of passionate tenderness. "he's too little, so he is," she addressed patsy kenny, "for the load o' cans and pots he has to carry. his bones are but soft yet."
"cans and pots?"
"there, beyond the gate. we sell them as we go along. when they're sold we buy more. we had a donkey-cart, but … we had to sell it. we only take now what georgie and me can carry."
"and your husband?"
"he carries nought. he doesn't hold with a man carrying things."
patsy said nothing. what was the matter with him that he felt such a pain of pity and such a rage of anger? he had felt the like before for an ill-treated animal. ill-treated humans had not often entered his experience, since he lived so much to himself.
he went to the gate leading to the back avenue and looked out. hidden by the gate-post were a number of pots and pans and bright glittering new cans. a little away lay another heap. he stooped. there was a contrivance, something like a yoke for the shoulders, to which the cans were attached. he had seen, also in england, gipsy carts covered with such wares. he had not known that human shoulders could be adapted to this burden.
"god help ye," he said, coming back. "'tis too much for you, let alone the child. the polis should see to it."
"he takes the load from the boy before we come to a village," she said, nodding her head the way the man had gone.
it was wonderful to see how quickly and deftly the woman set out the tea-things, made the tea, using much less than patsy's liberal allowance, and cut bread and butter. patsy found a few new-laid eggs and put them on to boil. the child sat in the shade: patsy had found him a chair, made of ropes of straw, to rest on instead of the cold stone. he sat in a relaxed way as though all his muscles were limp, taking no heed of the dog that sniffed about him. dead-tired, patsy thought, and loathed the muscular ruffian who went free while a child and a woman bore the burdens.
it was pretty to see the woman coaxing the child to eat, forgetting herself. patsy looked about the familiar place and saw it strange with an appearance of domesticity. the creature was very gentle, he said to himself, and she was decent. her poor clothes were tidy, and the boy's likewise. their boots caused a queer pang in patsy's heart. they were disgraceful boots, bulging at the sides, broken: he had noticed that the boy shuffled as he walked.
the woman sat holding her tea-cup in her hand, looking around the yard. patsy's house had a little yard to itself off the stable-yard proper. in the middle was a bed in which there was a rose-tree with pinks and pansies growing about its roots, patsy's garden, of which he was very proud.
"it's a nice little spot you have here," she said, with a sigh. the canary, which hung by the door in a cage, sent out a hard bright runlet of song. the dog lay on her side with one brown eye fixed on her master. one of the big cats, which kept the stables free of rats and made company for the horses in winter, came delicately and rubbed himself against patsy's blue hand-knitted stockings. her eyes roved enviously about, taking in the quiet peacefulness of the scene.
"i'll be washin' up for you before i go," she said.
"sure i'm used to doin' for myself," returned patsy.
"you've no wife?" she said; and looked down at the boy where he lay back wearily in the straw chair.
"i'm a bachelor boy," said patsy.
her eye considered her host in a way that caused patsy a curious internal shyness, not altogether unpleasant.
"a pity," said she. "it would be a nice little place for a woman and a child."
then she straightened herself and stood up. she had made a very good meal.
"i saw where the basin was in the scullery," she said. "don't you trouble. it's a woman's work, not a man's. you stay here and talk to georgie."
he carried in the tray when she had piled it with cups and saucers. otherwise he obeyed her. better if that ruffian came back he should find him talking to georgie rather than helping the woman to wash up.
but georgie was very uncommunicative. he seemed too tired to talk. he too had not done so badly with the meal once he had begun. after a while his head fell a little to one side and he slept.
patsy sat where he was. he could hear the noise of water flowing inside the house and the chink of cups and saucers in process of washing up. not for worlds would he have entered the house. he was thinking strange thoughts. for the first time he was touched by a woman, this poor, ill-clad, tramping woman, the wife of an evident scoundrel, touched to the heart for her and her child. the happy, pretty girls who had looked shy invitation at him had not appealed. they had, one by one, put him down as a dry old bachelor and taken their charms elsewhere. patsy had never missed wife or child. he would have said himself that he had enough to think of, with her ladyship and the master and mr. terry, enough to fill his heart.
not that he felt anything beyond an immense compassion for these poor victims of man's cruelty. perhaps with such a person as patsy kenny compassion would serve for love always. "the creatures!" he said to himself, "the creatures! sure it isn't the hard ways of the world they're fit for at all."
the woman emerged from the cottage, moving with a gentle softness. there was nothing of the tramp about her beyond the broken boots, the hat which had obviously been under the weather, the poor clothes. she sat down beside patsy kenny and spoke in a low voice for fear of waking the sleeping child.
"it is a hard road he has to travel for one so young," she said, and he noticed that she looked quickly towards the gate.
"it is," said patsy kenny. "too hard. he had no right to be carryin' all that tinker's stuff. that man of yours, my girl, oughtn't to be let do it."
a little colour came to the woman's cheek.
"we've run away from him over and over," she said. "he's always tracked us down. time and time again i was doin' well and georgie at school, but he always found us: i used to say my prayers to be delivered from him, but i never was: i don't suppose i ever will be now. i can't hide from him. i wouldn't mind for myself, if it wasn't for georgie. he'll kill georgie."
"how long have you been at it?" patsy kenny asked quietly.
"this sort of life? he found us in leicestershire three months ago. i was in a place with one lady. she was kind and let me have georgie. she always said she'd never have known there was a child in the house. georgie went to school and came home of afternoons. it was a quiet, peaceful spot. baker found me again. it wasn't the first time by many he dragged us out on the road. he sold all my clothes as well as takin' my savin's. he said there was money for him over here. i don't see no sign of it. the life will kill georgie. we tramped from dublin: with the last of my money baker bought the tins to keep us goin' on the road. it was bad in the cold, wet weather last month."
"have you no one at all belongin' to you?" patsy asked in a low voice.
"sisters and brothers, all respectable. my parents are dead. when i took baker i turned my back on them all."
patsy's mind was working hard. there must be some help for the woman's case. it could not be law that this ruffian should have the power to drag his wife and child after him, loading them with burdens they were not fit to carry. the creature knew no better than to yield to him. the master was a magistrate and a kindly one. he was always settling disputes of one kind or another. patsy thought of bidding her wait where she was till the master could be found.
he looked up from his thoughts and saw that mr. baker had come back.
his face was very red and shiny. he wore a truculent look.
"'ullo!" he said thickly. "'ere's quite a family party. 'ope you've been enjoyin' of yourselves as i 'ave, subjec' to _re_strictions. a bob don't go fur in liquor now-a-days. you might ha' made it two."
"one seems to have been quite enough for you," said patsy, with a light of battle in eyes no longer dreamy.
"i don't deny as i 'ad a bob myself to spend," said the ruffian. "'ere, you, georgie! you wake up, you lazy young devil! 'tis time we was on the road."
patsy stepped between the man and the child who had come out of his sleep with a cry of fear. he put a open hand on mr. baker's chest and pushed him backward. somewhat contrary to his expectations the man did not resent his action, beyond remarking that no one had the right to interfere between a man and his kid.
"now it comes to that," he said, with a sudden change to jocularity, "if so be as you've a fancy for 'er i'd sell her for five quid an' throw in the kid. it's no catch draggin' 'em round an' me 'avin' to carry the cans 'arf the time because o' your blasted coppers."
the full enormity of the speech seemed to reveal itself only gradually to patsy's mind. he turned red and then pale. the poor woman was quivering as though a lash had struck her.
"you're a bad brute," said patsy quietly. "the woman's too good for you."
"you can 'ave her for nothink if you like. she never was much good to me."
he sat down suddenly in the chair georgie had left empty.
"i want to see your boss," he said: and his tone was bullying.
"i was thinkin' about that myself," said patsy.
"you go along the road an' wait for me," he said with a sudden ferocity which made the woman start. "off with ye now. i'll come up with ye: unless this gentleman 'ud make it a matter of a five-pun' note."
"hold your dirty tongue," said patsy, and landed mr. baker one in the chest.
the man rushed at him with his head down, a shower of foul words coming from his lips. before anything could happen some one intervened,—terry o'gara, dazzlingly clean as he always looked.
"here, you keep quiet, you ruffian!" he said, delivering a very neat blow just under the man's chin. "what is it all about, patsy? hadn't i better send for the police?"
mr. baker had fallen back against the stone bench and subsided on to it, feeling his jaw bone.
"i'll make you pay for this yere conduck to an 'armless man wot was doin' nothink," he growled.
something floated into patsy's mind, vague, terrible. before he could grasp it another person joined the group,—sir shawn o'gara.
"what's the matter?" he asked. "who is this person?"
his face changed. patsy kenny, who was watching him, saw the change.
he had grown livid, his lips blue. was he ill? was he going to fall?
before patsy could do anything he recovered himself and spoke.
"you have business with me?" he said to the tramp.
"yes, sir." mr. baker was suddenly cringingly respectful. "i came 'ere to talk business an' was set upon by this yere man o' yourn somethink crool. i'd sack him if i was you. your 'orses wouldn't be safe with 'im, 'im bein' so 'ot-tempered."
sir shawn still looked very ill. patsy had once seen a person in a bad heart-seizure. was sir shawn's heart affected? small mottled patches of a purple colour had come out on the smooth darkness of his skin. angina. that was what the doctor called it in the case of that other person. had that mysterious, terrible disease laid hold on the master? he had not looked well for many a day. patsy had wondered that the mistress did not see it, was not disturbed by it, seeing how fond a wife she was. his heart sank with fear for the master.
"let me deal with him, father," said terry, looking like a young god in contrast with the unpleasant mr. baker.
"i know this man," sir shawn said, quietly. "he once rendered me a service."
"when i were gamekeeper over to ashbridge 'all," said mr. baker eagerly, "you'd a bin shot but for me. some gents will never learn 'ow 'to 'old their guns. i knocked the barrel up just in the nick. that mr. lascelles, 'e weren't safe."
ashbridge! oh—so the man had been employed at ashbridge hall, lord trentham's place, some thirty miles away on the edge of lough aske. how long ago? patsy kept asking himself the question. he looked after sir shawn and mr. baker as they went away in the direction of the house. sir shawn had an official room with a door opening out on to the grounds, so that the many people who came to consult him on one business or another need not enter through the house.
"that fellow's face would hang him anywhere," said terry o'gara. "i wonder what amount of villainy lies between a gamekeeper's place at ashbridge and the brute he is to-day?"
"god help them that are in his power," patsy kenny said fervently. then he went to the gate and looked out. the pots and pans and cans had disappeared. down the long straight road there was no one in sight. the woman and child had vanished.
oddly enough he was disturbed by the noise mustapha was still making in his box-stall.
"i shouldn't be surprised now if he was to be a foal of spitfire," he said. "i did hear she was bought by a man somewhere about lewy mountain. the little man we bought him from was a mountainy man, if he wasn't a fairy."
