"I'll do the washing, Nora, and you can dry," said Gertie in that
peculiar tone which Nora had learned to recognize as the preface to
something disagreeable.
"All right."
"I've noticed the things aren't half clean when I leave them to you to
do."
"I'm sorry; why didn't you tell me?"
"I suppose yon never did the washing-up in England. Too grand?"
But Nora was not to be ruffled just now. Her resentment against Taylor,
who was sitting watching her as if he read her thoughts--she often
wondered how much of them he _did_ read--made anything Gertie said seem
momentarily unimportant.
"I don't suppose anyone would wash up if they could help it. It's not
very amusing."
"You always want to be amused?"
"No, but I want to be happy."
"Well," said Gertie sharply, "you've got a roof over your head and a
comfortable bed to sleep in, three good meals a day and plenty to do.
That's all anybody wants to make them happy, I guess."
"Oh, Lord!" exclaimed Reggie from his corner.
"Well," said Gertie, turning sharply on him, "if you don't like Canada,
why did you come out?"
"You don't suppose," said Hornby, rising slowly to his feet, "I'd have
let them send me if I'd have known what I was in for, do you? Not much.
Up at five in the morning and working about the place like a navvy till
your back feels as if it 'ud break, and then back again in the
afternoon. And the same thing day after day. What was the good of
sending me to Harrow and Oxford if that's what I've got to do all my
life?"
There was a tragic dignity in his tone which for the moment held even
Gertie silent. It was her husband who answered him, and Gertie's jealous
ear detected a certain wistfulness in his voice.
"You'll get used to it soon enough, Reg. It _is_ a bit hard at first,
I'll admit. But when you get your foot in, you wouldn't change it for
any other life."
"This isn't a country for a man to go to sleep in and wait for something
to turn up," said Gertie aggressively.
"I wouldn't go back to England now, not for nothing," said Trotter,
stung to an unusual burst of eloquence. "England! Eighteen bob a week,
that's what I earned. And no prospects. Out of work five months in the
year."
"What did you do in England!" asked Nora curiously.
"Bricklayer, Miss."
"You needn't call her Miss," said Gertie heatedly. "You call me Gertie,
don't you? Well, _her_ name's Nora."
"What with strikes and bad times," went on Trotter unheeding, "you never
knew where you was. And the foreman always bullying you. I don't know
what all. I 'ad about enough of it, I can tell you. I've never been out
of work since the day I landed. I've 'ad as much to eat as I wanted and
I'm saving money. In this country everybody's as good as everybody
else."
"If not better," said Nora dryly.
"In two years I shall be able to set up for myself. Why, there's old man
Thompson, up at Pratt. _He_ started as a bricklayer, same as I. Come
from Yorkshire, he did. He's got seven thousand dollars in the bank
now."
"Believe me, you fellows who come out now have a much softer thing of it
than I did when I first came. In those days they wouldn't have an
Englishman, they'd have a Galician rather. In Winnipeg, when they
advertised in the paper for labor, you'd see often as not: 'No English
need apply.'"
"Well, it was their own fault," stormed Gertie. "They wouldn't work or
anything. They just soaked."
"It _was_ their own fault, right enough. This was the dumping ground for
all the idlers, drunkards and scallywags in England. They had the
delusion over there that if a man was too big a rotter to do anything at
all at home, he'd only got to be sent out here and he'd make a fortune."
"I guess things ain't as bad as that now," spoke up Taylor. "They send
us a different class. It takes an Englishman two years longer than
anybody else to get the hang of things, but when once he tumbles to it,
he's better than any of them."
"Ah, well!" said Marsh, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, "I guess
nowadays everyone's glad to see the Englishman make good. When I nearly
smashed up three years ago, I had no end of offers of help."
"How _did_ you nearly smash up?" asked Hornby interestedly.
"Oh, I had a run of bad luck. One year the crop was frosted and the next
year I was hailed out. It wants a good deal of capital to stand up
against that."
"That's what happened to me," said Taylor. "I was hailed out and I
hadn't got any capital, so I just had to hire out." He turned suddenly
to Nora. "If it hadn't been for that hail storm you wouldn't have had
the pleasure of makin' my acquaintance."
"How hollow and empty life would have been without that!" she said
ironically.
"I wonder you didn't just quit and start out Calgary way," put in
Gertie.
"Well," said Taylor slowly, "it was this way: I'd put in two years on my
homestead and done a lot of clearing. It seemed kind of silly to lose my
rights after all that. Then, too, when you've been hailed out once, the
chances are it won't happen again, for some years that is, and by that
time I ought to have a bit put by."
"What sort of house have you got?" asked Nora.
"Well, it ain't what you might call a palace, but it's large enough for
two."
"Thinking of marrying, Frank?" asked Marsh.
"Well, I guess it's kind of lonesome on a farm without a woman. But it's
not so easy to find a wife when you're just starting on your own.
Canadian girls think twice before taking a farmer."
"They know something, I guess," said Gertie grimly.
"You took me, Gertie," laughed her husband.
"Not because I wanted to, you can be sure of that. I don't know how you
got round me."
"I wonder."
"I guess it was because you was kind of helpless, and I didn't know what
you'd do without me."
"I guess it was love, and you couldn't help yourself." Gertie stopped
her work long enough to make a little grimacing protest.
"I'm thinking of going to one of them employment agencies when I get to
Winnipeg," said Taylor, moving his chair so that he could watch Nora's
face, "and looking the girls over."
"Like sheep," said Nora scornfully.
"I don't know anything about sheep. I've never had to do with sheep."
"And may I ask, do you think that you know anything about women?"
"I guess I can tell if they're strong and willing. And so long as they
ain't cock-eyed, I don't mind taking the rest on trust."
"And what inducement is there for a girl to have you?"
"That's why he wants to catch 'em young, when they're just landed and
don't know much," laughed Trotter uproariously.
"I've got my quarter-section," went on the imperturbable Frank, quite
undisturbed by the laughter caused by Trotter's sally, "a good hundred
and sixty acres with seventy of it cleared. And I've got a shack that I
built myself. That's something, ain't it?"
"You've got a home to offer and enough to eat and drink. A girl can get
that anywhere. Why, I'm told they're simply begging for service."
"Y-e-e-s. But you see some girls like getting married. There's something
in the word that appeals to them."
"You seem to think that a girl would jump at the chance of marrying
you!" said Nora with rising temper.
"She might do worse."
"I must say I think you flatter yourself."
"Oh, I don't know. I know my job, and there ain't too many as can say
that. I've got brains."
"What makes you think so?"
"Well, I can see you're no fool."
Gertie chuckled with amusement. "He certainly put one over on you then,
Nora."
"Because you've got no use for me, there's no saying but what others may
have."
"I forgot that there's no accounting for tastes."
"I can try, can't I?"
Wishing to escape any further conversation with the object of her
detestation, and seeing her opportunity now that the dishes were washed,
Nora started to empty the dishpan in the sink in the pantry. But Gertie,
who divined her motive and wished the sport to continue, forestalled
her.
"I'll do it," she said. "You finish wiping the dishes."
"It's very wise of you to go to an agency," said Nora in answer to his
last question. "A girl's more likely to marry you when she's only seen
you once than when she's seen you often."
"It seems to make you quite mad, the thought of me marrying!" with a
wink at the others.
"You wouldn't talk about it like that unless you looked down upon women.
Oh, how I pity the poor wretched creature who becomes your wife!"
"Oh, I guess she won't have such a bad time--when I've broken her in to
my ways."
"And are you under the impression that you can do that?"
"Yep."
"You're not expecting that there'll be much love lost between you and
the girl whom you--you honor with your choice?"
"What's love got to do with it?" asked Taylor in affected surprise.
"It's a business undertaking."
"What!" Nora's eyes were dark with indignation and anger.
"None at all. I give her board and lodging and the charm of my society.
And in return, she's got to cook and bake and wash and keep the shack
clean and tidy. And if she can do that, I'll not be particular what she
looks like."
"So long as she's not cock-eyed," Reggie reminded him.
"No, I draw the line at that."
"I beg your pardon," said Nora with bitter irony; "I didn't know it was
a general servant you wanted. You spend a dollar and a half on a
marriage license and then you don't have to pay any wages. It's a good
investment."
For the first time she seemed to have pierced the enemy's armor.
"You've got a sharp tongue in your head for a girl, Nora."
"Please don't call me Nora."
"Don't be so silly, Nora," said her brother with a trace of irritation.
"It's the custom of the country. Why, they all call me Ed."
"I don't care what the custom of the country is. I'm not going to be
called Nora by the hired man!"
"Don't you bother, Ed," said Frank, apparently once more restored to his
normal placidity; "I'll call her Miss Marsh if she likes it better."
But Nora was not to be pacified. He wouldn't have dared take such a
liberty with her had he not been on the eve of going away for good, she
told herself. It was a last shot from a retreating enemy. Well and good.
He should hear, if for the last time, what she thought of him!
"I should like to see you married to someone who'd give you what you
deserved. I'd like to see your pride humbled. You think yourself very
high and mighty, don't you? I'd like to see a woman take you by the
heartstrings and wring them till you screamed with pain."
"Oh, Nora, how violent you are!" said Ed.
"You're overbearing, supercilious and egotistic," went on Nora bitingly.
"I'm not sure as I know what them long words means, but I guess they
ain't exactly complimentary."
"I guess they ain't," she mimicked.
"I'm sorry for that." Taylor straightened himself a little in his
chair. His blue eyes seemed to have caught a little of the light from
Nora's.
"I was thinking of offering you the position before I went to the
employment agency."
"How dare you speak to me like that!"
"Don't fly into a temper, Nora," said Ed. While he didn't blame Frank,
he wished he had not made that last speech. Why didn't he go and get
ready for town? Here was Nora all upset again just as things had calmed
down a bit!
"He's got no right to say impudent things to me!"
"Don't you see he's only having a joke with you?" he said soothingly.
"He shouldn't joke. He's got no sense of humor."
She made a furious gesture, and the cup she was in the act of wiping
flew out of her hand, crashing in a thousand pieces on the floor, just
as Gertie returned.
"Butter fingers!"
"I'm so sorry," said Nora in a colorless tone. She was raging inwardly
at having allowed that beast of a man to put her in such a temper. Why
couldn't she control herself? How undignified to bandy words with a
person she so despised. It was hardly the moment for Gertie to take her
to task for carelessness. But Gertie was not the person to consider
other moods than her own.
"You clumsy thing! You're always doing something wrong."
"Oh, don't worry; I'll pay for it."
"Who wants you to pay for it? Do you think I can't afford to pay for a
miserable cup! You might say you're sorry: that's all I want you to do."
"I said I was sorry."
"No, you didn't."
"I heard her, Gertie," broke in Ed.
"She said she was sorry as if she was doing me a favor," said Gertie,
turning furiously on the would-be peacemaker.
"You don't expect me to go down on my knees to you, do you? The cup's
worth twopence."
"It isn't the value I'm thinking about, it's the carelessness."
"It's only the third thing I've broken since I've been here."
If Nora had been in a calmer mood herself she would not have been so
stupid as to attempt to palliate her offense. Her offer of replacing the
miserable cup only added fuel to the flame of Gertie's resentment.
"You can't do anything!" she stormed. "You're more helpless than a
child of six. You're all the same, all of you."
"You're not going to abuse the whole British nation because I've broken
a cup worth twopence, are you?"
"And the airs you put on. Condescending isn't the word. It's enough to
try the patience of a saint."
"Oh, shut up!" said Marsh. He went over to his wife and laid a hand on
her shoulder. She shook him off impatiently.
"You've never done a stroke of work in your life, and you come here and
think you can teach me everything."
"I don't know about that," said Nora, in a voice which by comparison
with Gertie's seemed low but which was nevertheless perfectly audible to
every person in the room. "I don't know about that, but I think I can
teach you manners."
If she had lashed the other woman across the face with a whip, she
couldn't have cut more deeply. She knew that, and was glad. Gertie's
face turned gray.
"How dare you say that! How dare you! You come here, and I give you a
home. You sleep in my blankets and you eat my food and then you insult
me." She burst into a passion of angry tears.
"Now then, Gertie, don't cry. Don't be so silly," said her husband as he
might have spoken to an angry child.
"Oh, leave me alone," she flashed back at him. "Of course you take her
part. You would! It's nothing to you that I have made a slave of myself
for you for three whole years. As soon as _she_ comes along and plays
the lady----"
She rushed from the room. After a moment, Ed followed after her.
There was an awkward pause. Nora stood leaning against the table
swinging the dishcloth in her hand, a smile of malicious triumph on her
face. Gertie had tried it on once too often. But she had shown her that
one could go too far. She would think twice before she attempted to
bully her again, especially before other people. She stooped down and
began to gather up the broken pieces of earthenware scattered about her
feet. Her movement broke the spell which had held the three men
paralyzed as men always are in the presence of quarreling women.
"I reckon I might be cleaning myself," said Taylor, rising from his
chair. "Time's getting on. You're coming, Ben?"
"Yes, I'm coming. I suppose you'll take the mare?"
"Yep, that's what Ed said this morning."
They went out toward the stables without a word to Nora.
"Well, are you enjoying the land of promise as much as you said that I
should?" Hornby asked with a smile.
"We've both made our beds, I suppose we must lie in them," said Nora,
shaking the broken pieces out of her apron into a basket that stood in
the corner.
"Do you remember that afternoon at Miss Wickham's when I came for the
letter to your brother?"
"I hadn't much intention of coming to Canada then myself."
"Well, I don't mind telling you that I mean to get back to England the
very first opportunity that comes," he said, pacing up and down the
floor. "I'm willing to give away my share of the White Man's Burden with
a package of chewing gum."
"You prefer the Effete East?" smiled Nora, putting a couple of irons on
the stove.
"Ra-ther. Give me the degrading influence of a decadent civilization
every time."
"Your father _will_ be pleased to see you, won't he?"
"I don't think! Of course I was a damned fool ever to leave Winnipeg."
"I understand you didn't until you had to."
"Say," said Hornby, pausing in his walk, "I want to tell you: your
brother behaved like a perfect brick. I sent him your letter and told
him I was up against it--d'you know I hadn't a bob? I was jolly glad to
earn half a dollar digging a pit in a man's garden. Bit thick, you
know!"
"I can see you," laughed Nora.
"Your brother sent me the fare to come on here and told me I could do
the chores. I didn't know what they were. I soon found it was doing all
the jobs it wasn't anybody else's job to do. And they call it God's own
country!"
"I think you're falling into the _ways_ of the country very well,
however!" retorted Nora as she struggled across to the table with the
heavy ironing-board.
"Do you? What makes you think that?"
"You can stand there and smoke your pipe and watch me carry the
ironing-board about."
"I beg your pardon. Did you want me to help you?"
"Never mind. It would remind me of home."
"I suppose I shall have to stick it out at least a year, unless I can
humbug the mater into sending me enough money to get back home with."
"She won't send you a penny--if she's wise."
"Oh, come now! Wouldn't you chuck it if you could?"
"And acknowledge myself beaten," said Nora, with a flash of spirit. "You
don't know," she went on after ironing busily a moment, "what I went
through before I came here. I tried to get another position as lady's
companion. I hung about the agents' offices. I answered advertisements.
Two people offered to take me; one without any salary, the other at ten
shillings a week and my lunch. I, if you please, was to find myself in
board, lodging and clothes on that magnificent sum! That settled _me_. I
wrote Eddie and said I was coming. When I'd paid my fare, I had eight
pounds in the world--after ten years with Miss Wickham. When he met me
at the station at Dyer----"
"Depot; you forget."
"My whole fortune consisted of seven dollars and thirty-five cents; I
think it was thirty-five."
"What about that wood you're splitting, Reg?" said a voice from the
doorway.
Eddie came in fumbling nervously in his pockets. He detested scenes and
had some reason to think that he was having more than his share of them
in the last few days.
"Has anyone seen my tobacco! Oh, here it is," he said, taking his pouch
from his pocket. "Come, Reg, you'd better be getting on with it."
"Oh, Lord, is there no rest for the wicked?" exclaimed Hornby as he
lounged lazily to the door.
"Don't hurry yourself, will you?"
"Brilliant sarcasm is just flying about this house to-day," was his
parting shot as he banged the door behind him.