There had been a sitting of the Keys that day, and when the Speaker
returned home he found his wife on the sofa with a damp handkerchief
over her forehead and a bottle of smelling-salts in her hand. She
told him what had happened.
"Well, well," he said, "so that's what it means. But there's no
knowing what hedge the hare will jump from."
His figure was less burly than before, his head was more bald and his
full beard was whiter, but his eyes flashed with the same
ungovernable fire.
"That girl must be a thoroughly bad one," said Mrs. Gell. "It's not
the first time she has got our Alick into trouble, remember. We must
save our son from the designing young huzzy."
"Tut! It's not the girl I'm troubling about."
"Who else, then?"
"The man! I might have expected as much, though!"
Coming home in the train he had had some talk with Kerruish, his
advocate and agent. Dan Baldromma, who was back with his rent, was
refusing to pay, and saying "Let the Spaker fetch me to Coort, and
I'll tell him the raison."
"Then can't you settle with the man, Archie?"
"Settle with Dan? I'll settle with Alick first, Bella, and if he has
given that scoundrel the whip hand of me I'll break every bone in his
body."
"But it may not be true. It cannot be true. Unless Alick tells me
so himself I'll never believe a word of it."
They were at tea in the dining-room, country fashion, the Speaker at
the head of the table with a plate of fish before him, and his wife
and daughters at either side, when Alick entered.
"Helloa!" he cried, with a forced gaiety. But only his mother
responded to his greeting and made room for him by her side. She saw
that he was paler and thinner, and that his hand trembled when he
took his cup.
The Speaker, who had turned his rough shoulder to his son, tried to
restrain himself from breaking out on him until the meal would be
over and he could take him into his own room, but before long his
impatience overcame him.
"What's this we're hearing about you--that you are carrying on with a
girl?"
"Do you mean Bessie Collister, Sir?" said Alick.
"Certainly I mean Bessie Collister. And I thought you gave me your
word that you would see no more of her."
"But that was the promise of a boy, Sir. Did you expect it to bind
the man also?"
"The man? The man!" said the Speaker, mimicking his son's voice in a
mincing treble. "Do you call yourself a man, bringing disgrace on
your name and family."
"What disgrace, Sir?"
"What disgrace? All the island seems to have heard of it. Is it
necessary to tell you? Living secret, so they say, with a woman who
isn't fit company for your mother and sisters."
"If anybody told you that, Sir," said Alick (his lower lip was
trembling), "he told you a lie--a damned lie, Sir!"
"There!" cried Mrs. Gell, turning to her husband. "What did I say?
It isn't true, you see."
"Of course it isn't true, mother; and the best proof that I'm not
behaving dishonourably to Bessie Collister is that I intend to marry
her."
It was a sickening moment for Mrs. Gell, and the Speaker, for an
instant, was dumbfounded.
"Eh? What? You intend to marry...."
"Yes, Sir; and that's why I'm here to-day--to bring you the news, and
to ask you to restore the allowance you cut down in the spring, you
know."
"That .... that .... that bast--...."
"Archie!" cried Mrs. Gell, indicating their daughters.
"Bessie is a good girl, father," said Alick. "What happened before
she was born wasn't her fault, Sir."
"So you've come to bring us the news and to ask me to double your
allowance?
"If you please, Sir. You couldn't wish your son and his wife...."
"His wife! There you are, Bella! That's what I've been working day
and night thirty years for--to see my son throw half my earnings--all
that I can't will away from him--into the hands of a man like Dan
Baldromma!"
"But Alick will be reasonable," said Mrs. Gell. "He'll give the girl
up."
"He'll have to do that, and quick too, or I'll cut off his allowance
altogether."
"Do you mean it, Sir?" said Alick--he was pushing his chair back.
"Do I mean it? Certainly I mean it. You'll give the girl up or
never another penny of mine shall you see as long as I live!"
"All right," said Alick, rising from the table, "I'll earn my own
living."
The Speaker broke into a peal of scornful laughter. "You earn your
living! That's rich!"
"Give her up?" cried Alick. "I'll break stones on the highway or
porter on the pier before I'll give up her little finger!"
"You fool! You confounded fool! But no fear! She'll give you up
when she finds you've lost your income."
"Will she? I'll trust her for that, Sir."
"Then get away back to her--you'll not be the first by a long way."
Alick, who had been trying to laugh, stopped his laughter suddenly,
and said, "What do you mean by that, Sir?"
"Mean? Do you want me to tell you what I mean?"
"Archie," cried Mrs. Gell, and again she indicated their daughters.
"Get out of this, will you?" cried the Speaker to the girls, who had
been sitting with their noses in their teacups.
The girls fled from the room, but stood outside to listen.
"Father," said Alick, "you must tell me what you mean."
"Mean! Mean! Don't stand there cross-examining your own father.
You know what I mean! If half they say about the young b-- .... is
true she's fit enough for it, anyway."
"If any other man had said that," said Alick, quivering, "I should
have knocked him down, Sir."
"What's that? You threaten me?" cried the Speaker. His voice was
like the scream of a sea-gull, and making a step towards Alick he
lifted his clenched fist to him.
Mrs. Gell intervened, and Alick retreated a pace or two.
"Take care, Sir," he said. "You can't treat me like that now. I'm
not a child any longer."
"Then get away to your woman .... and to hell, if you want to."
"There was no need to tell me twice, Sir. I'm going. And as God is
my witness, I'll never set foot in this house again."
At the next moment the peacocks were screaming outside, and the
Speaker, who had thrown up the window, was shouting through it in a
broken roar,
"Alick! Alick Gell! Come back, you damned scoundrel! Alick!
Alexander...."
They had to carry him upstairs and send for Dr. Clucas. It had been
another of his paralysing brain-storms. It was not to be expected
that he could bear many more of them.