Warleggan (40 page)

`Caroline Penve
nen? But I hardly know her.
I spoke to
her, two or three times, no more. We said .. '. How could
she know? I don't go about confessing my financial situation to every slip of a girl. It's monstrousl How did she
approach you?'

' She came into this office' one morning, said she was looking for an investment and that she considered the best investment she could, make was loaning fourteen hundred pounds to you. She knew all about the bill, about the Warleggans possessing it, about the straits you were in. I felt it my duty
-
forgive me, but I felt it my
duty to warn her what a risk she ran o
f never seeing her money again.
She paid no attention to it. If I would not arrange it for her, she said, she would go
elsewhere.
Having done, what I could to p-put her off, I was of course only too gratified to do what she insisted.'

`I positively can't believe It'

‘
I don't know what she will feel at my
having
told you.'

Ross
rubbed the new-healed scar on his head. As it healed it itched. `Well, I have never been so upset with astonishment. Never! I can guess, I
-
suppose, how she came by the information. But that she should choose to
act on it.
No wonder I could not think who had helped me.
God's life! What a strange creature.
I
can't begin to understand. I must tell my wife. She too will be taken aback.'

'I'd appreciate it if you allowed the information to go no f-further,' said, Pascoe. `It is the first time I have ever broken an undertaking of that nature. I'm sorry that you forced it out of me.'

`I am not,' said Ross.

They bought, several new items of furniture a fine dressing
-
table for Demelza's room,
for which they paid
£5 10s. 0d., another clock to replace the one they had sold two years ago, a new table
-
new secondhand
-
with a splendid polish on it and latest fashion pedestal legs, two Turkey rugs at £4 each, fine calamanco cloth for bedroom curtains, and a rich cream silk paduasoy for the curtains for the parlour. Some cloths Ross bought because Demelza liked the feel of them
-
a piece of crimson velour and another of green satin without an actual purpose in view for them, unless it was the purpose of tempting Demelza into a new attitude of mind. They bought six
new
shape wineglasses, which cost them 28s., and a dozen pewter tankards-cheap enough, these, at 4d. each
-
and new crockery and new cutlery
-
very expensive-and a cane-bottomed rocking chair.

Demelza bought two pairs of Dantzig shoes and
some fine
wool for a coat for Jeremy and a toy horse and a rattle. Ross bought neckcloths for himself sand two for John Gimlett, and Demelza some striped muslin for Jane.

And in their minds the whole time, at the back of all their purc
hases, was the news they had learned
about Caroline Penvenen.

By the time they had finished, the afternoon was well on, and it meant a long ride in the dark. So they went home as slowly as they came in, closer together physically than they had been for many months. In the old days when she was a child she had sometimes ridden on the pommel of his
saddle, but that had been out
of the question today. He found it pleasurable to feel her hand on his belt, and the occasional rub of her shoulder against his back; one could talk easily too, without raising one's voice or having it carried away by the wind.

He had not devised this shopping expedition with any motive other than the most obvious one; but on the
way home he wondered if it had
achieved a double end. Once or twice this, afternoon he had noted a richness in her tone which he had not consciously missed until it came back,
Halfway home Demel
za said `Ross, the more I think
of Caroline the more I feel we have gravely misjudged her.'

`I know it. We're mo
re in her debt than anyone has
a right to be. I don't feel it should be left where it is.'

`No more do I.'

They were silent for a time. Demelza said: 'The more you
think of it, the worse it gets
Caroline Penvenen saved us from the bankruptcy prison. Dwight saved us from another prison. There's
no doubt he still loves her. T
here's no doubt that but for what he did that
night they would now be married
and living in Bath'

`I cannot understand her doing it for us unless it was with Dwight's connivance. He must have told her of our trouble
and have pressed her to, help,
I suppose. But he seemed as surprised as we
were when we told him of
our good fortune-I don't believe him to be that good an actor. I'd like to go and see her to ask her about it'

`I think she is very impulsive, temperamental,' Demelza said slowly. `She would jilt one man, or help; another, because she
had
a sudden feeling that way. She has perhaps a strong, liking for you '

`For me? Burt' we only met two or three tunes.'

`It would be enough. Oh I don't mean to take away from her. But the good things and the bad things
go together in her,
and often I'm sure most for good, as Dwight found.'

They jogged on a little farther. It was a mild evening but damp, and every now and then a fl
urry of rain would beat against
their faces.

Demelza said : `I think you are right, Ross; you should go and see her.'

`She's in London. I have her address from Pascoe and intended to write.'

`I think you should go, not write:'

He tightened his grip of the reins as a badger scuttered across their path, When Da
rkie had settled again, he said
: `I don't see we can do anything to bring Dwight and Caroline together again. She is engaged now to marry someone else
-
and in any case the
very shortcomings which have helped us are precisely the reasons why she would not make a suitable wife for Dwight.

`I'm not saying anything about bringing her and, Dwight together. Dwight ether. Dwight is going to sea, and she cannot jilt yet another man. But I do not think a letter from you would do, Ross. It
isn't enough. I think you should go'n see her in person
-
and tell her what we feel and how we
should like to thank her.
Maybe she doesn't know how much she's helped us, maybe fourteen hundred pounds don't count much to her; but it don't leave us any less in her debt.'

He couldn't question that. `I'll go before Christmas. It will take a fortnight,
but I can leave Henshawe in charge
of the mine. I'll take the first
year's interest with me
and tell her I shall hope to repay the whole by Easter.' Already his mind
was springing ahead to details of the journey. It was over
ten years since he had been to London, and then it had been only to pass through.

`One thing,' `Demelza said. `I think you should do one thing about Dwight and Caroline, even if it is nothing to do with bringing them together. 'I -
think Caroline must have had some better reason for jilting him than just because he didn't turn up that night. She may be impulsive, but that's not the way a woman would be impulsive. Leastwise, she might well go off in an anger, but shy wouldn't stay in an anger after he had come to explain!

'And you think I should ask her?'

`Yes, Ross, I do.'

`All right, I'll tell her that my wife thinks it unfeminine to have acted as she did.'

`Tell her,' said Demelza, '`that we find we have a new debt and should dearly like to pay it any way we can. ' I

As they came to their own land, the lights of Wheal Grace glimmered over the valley. Mines, Ross thought, could wear expressions just like human beings. Or was it that men read their own thoughts into objects of slate and stone? Three months ago such movement as had existed seemed to be the motions of an animal already doomed and feeling the languor of death. Now everything moved with an invigorated air. Five lights burned, where one had burned before. The steady rhythm of the engine was unchanged, but some new purpos
e had crept into it. Fifty new h
an
ds bad been engaged this month,
tw
enty for underground and thirty
for the rapidly extending surface sheds. Some of the work of dressing was still farmed out, for the amount of mineral-bearing ore
brought to the surface was still increasing faster than the
dressing capacity g
rew. Young Ellery and his five
partners were in the richest part of the lode, and Ellery had confessed to Ross that often he couldn't sleep at night for thinking of his work and wanting to get back to it. When men were on tribute, the percentage they rec
eived on what they raised, was
adjusted month by month and was reduced in proportion to the richness o
f the ground they worked,
but Ross and Henshawe had been very generous in their bargai
ns, and many of the miners were
making big profits:
Once Dem
elza might have sighed for the
disfigurements of a hillside and the south end of their pretty valley. The stream, which ran beside the house was yellow with mud, and the bal girls worked almost on the fringes of her garden; But now she would have turned her flowerbeds into ditches to dig out the tin.

When they got home, Gimlett was waiting for them, tireless, f
riendly, anxious to please. He took Darkie and h
is presents, it seemed, with equal gratitude. Presently he disappeared into the rear of the house. Demelza ran upstairs to see for Jeremy. He was asleep; looking more angelic, more frai
l than ever. Despite his vastly
improved health, he clung to that look. He had a round, graceful head, dark hair, a slender
neck, a wide, mobile mouth, a Poldark mouth. There was a look of distinction about him even
so early
-
and an air of restlessness. Only in sleep was his energy dormant.

Hearing a movement, Demelza looked .up and saw tha
t Ross had, followed her. He so
seldom came in here now. He smiled without looking at her, nodded down.

'He has
survived without you.'

’
so it seems.'

`I wonder Jane has had no children of her own. We must get more help in the house now. Do you think Jinny would come back?'

'We could perhaps find someone younger. I only need another young girl'

'Two would be better. You will have to grow used to giving orders instead of doing things yourself.'

She did not reply, and he thought perhaps his words had sounded like criticism. 'Soon, if the prosperity lasts, I want the library rebuilt. It has never been anything but a barn of a room. We need an extra room downstairs; and if that were in
a
proper state, it would transform the house,'

'At least we might
f
ill in the cache!

He smiled. 'I think it should be left as a warning.' Jeremy turned over and breathed uneasily in his sleep. `We should move,' he said, 'or we'll wake him.'

'Oh, all
that is past. He takes no notice of anything now,
’’
Perhaps he's easier for my not being in the room.'

She looked up, half veiling her look with a swift, glance
away; 'I do, not suppose that.'

`Some say children are jealous of their
fathers.. Jeremy has had little to be jealous of,
of late.'

Demelza said : 'I think perhaps that's a subject we should sleep sounder for not discussing.',

There was silence for a few seconds. A shade experimentally,
he put his hand on her shoulder: She did
not move.

'I
intended to have bought him some building bricks,' he
said. 'I knew there was something else.'

'You'll be able to get them in London now.'

'Do you think you might come with me? Why not try?

Jeremy is well enough with Jane.'

'Me?
Oh, no. No, thank you, Ross. Not this time. Though next time gladly. I think you should meet Caroline alone.'

Why?'

'It is a feeling I have'

'You could stay
at the inn while I
went to see
her’
'No. This time I'd rather not' He had moved a little closer to her. `Demelza.' `Yes.'

'There have been a lot of unhappy things between us these
last months. Not said
-
but felt. I
should
be glad to think
they are all forgotten.'

'Of course, Ross. I feel nothing now.'

He put his face agains
t her hair. 'It is not nothing
that I
want you to feel:
’

`I'm sorry.
’

They stayed thus for a moment more. Although unable to
feel any tautness within
her, he
knew it was there. He had
not removed it, he had not defeated it.
He knew he could
take her if he wanted, and her resistance would only be token;
yet th
e token was there, and while it existed,
the, reconciliation
would be ashes:
He kissed her abruptly on the hair, released her, went across
to the north window, and pulled aside, the curtain to look
out. Her eyes followed him.

He said : 'Perhaps you're right; we don't ever regain what
we lightly lose.'

'I' don't think 'twas lightly lost on either side.'

'But lost.'

'Well....'

It was so dark outside he could hardly see the sea.

'And lost to no good purpose,' he said, half speaking to himself.

`That I don't know.'

'Oh, there was a purpose, a good purpose served, if you come
to think of it though perhaps you would not agree. I don't know
, -
I have not wanted to talk of it.'

She stood by the cot watching him.

`Perhaps sometime it will have to be talked of,' he said, 'if we are ever to straighten this out between us. Yet I have a prejudice, a fe
eling that it is a bad thing.’

'What is a bad thing, Ross?'