_Humble Pie_
Those who were in close touch with Jeckie Farnish on the day of her
younger sister's revolt and defection had far from pleasant moments. She
drove her father and shop boys about with harsh and impatient words; she
was curt and dictatorial with Bartle, one of those conscientious and
faithful souls to whom any reasonable employer would have found it
impossible to attribute laxity; for the first time since commencing
business she was short-tempered with some customers, snappish with
others, and openly rude to one or two whose trade was a matter of
complete indifference to her. The truth was that Rushie's clandestine
marriage had upset more than one of Jeckie's best-laid plans. She had no
wish to take in an outsider as principal assistant--outsiders, in her
opinion, were never to be trusted, and it was repugnant to her to think
that a smart young shopman (for saleswomen were not known in those days)
should learn any of the secrets which had already begun to accumulate
about the Farnish establishment. Yet the business had already assumed
such proportions that assistance was necessary, and Jeckie's first
impression was that she would only get it from some young jackanapes who
would want the usual wages (or, as he would call it, salary) of his
degree, and from whom she would be unable to keep those private details
which she had no objection to share with her sister. It was, she
considered, a gross piece of ingratitude that Rushie should have
preferred Binks to her own flesh and blood, and she made up her mind to
say so, plainly and emphatically as soon as the culprit came once more
within reach.
But for several days Jeckie had to cherish her wrath in silence and in
secret. Rushie and her bridegroom took a short and economical honeymoon
at Blackpool; they had been back in Sicaster for forty-eight hours
before Jeckie heard of their return. Within an hour of hearing it,
however, she appeared at Mr. Herbert Bink's lodgings; it was then nearly
noon, and the bridegroom was at his place of employment; the bride,
unfortunately, was discovered in idleness, reading her favourite form of
fiction, a cheap novelette. She paled and reddened alternately at sight
of Jeckie who had cleverly gained admittance without notice, and walked
in upon her like an avenging goddess, and her eyes went straight to the
cheap clock over the mantelpiece. It was twenty minutes to twelve; and
Herbert would not be home until five minutes past; for twenty-five
minutes, then, she would have to put up with Jeckie's tantrums. And
Jeckie left her no doubt as to what they were to be.
"So this is what you've come to already, my fine madam!" began the elder
sister. "Lying there on a sofa, in cheap lodgings, readin' trash in
t'very middle o' the day, when you might ha' been and ought to ha' been
at honest work--you'll come to find work i' t'poorhouse before you've
done! Such idle, good-for-naught ways!"
"You mind what you say, Jecholiah Farnish!" retorted Mrs. Binks. "My
husband'll be home before long, and if he catches you----"
"If I'd a husband," said Jeckie, with a contemptuous snort, "I'd be
cooking his dinner again his comin' home. But such as you----"
"There's no need to cook our dinner," broke in Mrs. Binks. "Until we
start a house of our own, we board and lodge, so----"
"A house o' your own!" exclaimed Jeckie. "When and where are you like to
get a house o' your own--a twopenny-halfpenny draper's assistant and an
idle wench like you, 'at spends her time readin' that soft stuff? You'll
be as poor as church mice all t'days o' your life! He'll never be no
more than a shopman at two or three pounds a week--where does such like
start houses o' their own? Do you know what you've thrown away, you
ungrateful thing?" demanded Jeckie, who was now in full torrent and
meant to go on her way unchecked. "If you'd stopped wi' me, your lawful
sister, and had done your duty, an' behaved yourself, and kept of all
such softness as men and marryin', and shown yourself fit for it, I'd
ha' taken you in partnership! An' by the time we'd come to middle life
we could ha' done what you'll see I shall do--retire wi' a fortune, and
take a fine house at Harrigate or Scarhaven, and keep servants, and have
a carriage and pair, and t'best of everything! You've given up all that
for this--poor, struggling folk you'll be, all your lives, while I grow
up as rich as Creesees, whoever he may ha' been, and happen I shall be a
deal richer. All that for a draper's shop-lad!"
"He isn't a draper's shop-lad!" retorted Mrs. Binks, with some spirit.
"And him and me loves each other, and----"
"You gr'et soft thing!" exclaimed Jeckie, contemptuously. "Love,
indeed!--that's all because you've been wed inside a week! Wait till
you've gotten a pack o' screaming childer about you, and you
draggle-tailed and down at heel, and see how much you'll talk about love
i' them days! You're a fool, Rushie Farnish, and you'll come to rue----"
"My name isn't Farnish!" said Mrs. Binks, "and if Herbert was here, he'd
put you out o' this room, and----"
The bride came to a sudden stop. Mr. Binks, impatient to rejoin the
recently-secured object of his affection, had contrived to get away from
his employer's shop a quarter of an hour earlier than usual, and he had
been listening at the keyhole for the last few minutes, his landlady
having told him that Miss Farnish had gone up to see her sister. And now
he stepped into the room, looking as important and dignified as such a
very ordinary young man could. And, not unnaturally, he fell into the
language of the drapery department in which he served.
"Oh!" he said. "Miss Farnish, I believe? And what can we have the
pleasure of doing for you, ma'am? No previous favours received from
your quarter, I believe, Miss Farnish? No transactions between us
before--eh, ma'am?"
Jeckie favoured her brother-in-law with a withering glance.
"You impudent young counter-jumper!" she answered. "What do you mean by
running away with my sister?--a feller that sells pennorths o' tape and
papers o' pins! Answer me that!"
"Better sell anything, Miss Farnish, than be sold up!" retorted Mr.
Binks with a grin. "I think that was what had just happened to your
family when I first became acquainted with it."
"That's it, Bert!" said Mrs. Binks, glad to give Jeckie something in
return for all the scoldings that she herself had suffered. "She's been
going on at me dreadfully!"
Jeckie pulled herself up to her full height, and slowly looked from
bride to bridegroom.
"I know what you've married on," she said, her voice becoming as calm as
it had previously been furious. "You're young fools, and you'll find it
out. Don't you ever come to me for anything; if you do you'll find
yourselves shown the door! So there; and I've no more to say."
Mr. Binks rubbed his hands.
"That's well, ma'am!" he remarked, almost gaily. "For our bit of
dinner's ready downstairs. And you can go away, ma'am, assured that
Rushie and me ain't afraid of nothing. You see, we prefer love to money,
though we intend to do pretty well in that way, all in good time. No
offence, ma'am, but we ain't going to be bullied by you or anybody.
If," he concluded, as he opened the door for Jeckie with mock
politeness, "if you'd come to our little shop intending to do business
on pleasant and friendly lines we might have established a connection,
but as you ain't, well, all I've got to say, Miss Farnish, is--nothing
doing!"
He felt very proud of himself, this sandy-haired, snub-nosed,
commonplace young man, as he uttered this sarcasm; he knew, somehow,
that he had got the better of this terrible Jecholiah. And suddenly, as
Jeckie was passing through the door, he had an inspiration, and felt it
to be clever, very clever.
"But we ain't above or below playing the coals-of-fire game, Miss
Farnish," he said. "You wouldn't ask me into your house to as much as a
cup of tea, but if you like to stop you're welcome to your share of as
nice a bit of steak and onions as ever you set tooth into! Say the word,
ma'am, and take it friendly."
But Jeckie was marching down the stairs in dead and gloomy silence and
Mr. Binks turned to his bride.
"I did it proper there, old woman!" he said. "Hand o' friendship, and
that sort o' thing--what? Her own fault if she wouldn't take it."
"She's as hard as iron," answered Rushie. "Come down, Bert; the
dinner'll be getting cold."
Jeckie drove away from Sicaster feeling that Mr. Binks had somehow got
the best of her. He had certainly not been frightened of her; he had
poked fun at her. Worst of all, he had actually offered her hospitality,
and had been serious when he offered it. And Rushie, when it came to
it, had not been afraid of her either. She was surprised at that. Rushie
had always been subservient, even if she had occasionally protested. The
fact was that Jeckie had driven into the market town under the
impression that the erring pair, having irretrievably committed
themselves, would beg her forgiveness, and ask her to help them with
money so that Binks could set himself up in business. Now Binks's
attitude, from the time he walked into the sittingroom to the moment in
which he invited her to the steak and onions, was that of cheerful
independence. It was beyond Jeckie, who was no psychologist; all that
she realised was that though bride and bridegroom knew her to be already
a well-to-do tradeswoman they defied her.
She was defied again before night fell, and by her own father. Farnish,
so far, had kept his compact with his elder daughter. He was, in fact,
in better circumstances than he had ever been in his life. He slept in
comfort; he ate and drink his fill at Jeckie's well-provided table; his
allowance of money was sufficient to provide him with a few additional
glasses of ale at the village inn; moreover, it was added to by
occasional tips from the people to whom he carried the Farnish goods. He
was waxing fat; he wore a good suit of clothes on Sundays; something of
the glory which centered in his successful daughter shone around him,
for, after all, he was the parent of the woman who had beaten George
Grice and was becoming a power in the village. All this gave him a
certain feeling of independence, but there had been no evidence of any
Jeshurun-like spirit in him until the evening of the day on which Jeckie
paid her visit to the Binks's. Then certain words from Jeckie aroused
it.
"There's something I've got to say to you," said Jeckie, suddenly, as
she and Farnish sat by the domestic hearth that night after supper. "You
know what our Rushie's gone and done?--made a fool of herself?"
"I have been duly informed o' what she's done, Jecholiah," answered
Farnish. "As to whether she's made a fool of hersen, I can't say. From
what bit I've seen o' t'young feller, he seems a decent, promisin' sort
o' chap, and earns a very nice wage at t'drapery business. An' there
were a man I met t'other day, a Sicaster chap, 'at telled me 'at this
here Binks and our Rushie were very much in love with each other, to all
accounts, so let's hope it'll come out well."
"Fiddle-de-dee!" sneered Jeckie. "A draper's shopman, earnin', happen,
two pound a week! I've been to see 'em to-day and told 'em my mind. I
know what they'll be after--they'll be comin' to me for money before
long. There'll be bairns comin'--poor folks always has 'em where rich
folks won't--and they'll turn to me as t'best off relative they have--I
know!"
"Why, why, mi lass!" said Farnish. "I'm sure ye'd none see yer own
sister want for owt i' circumstances like them theer. Flesh an' blood,
ye know."
"Flesh and blood must agree wi' flesh and blood," retorted Jeckie
stolidly. "Our Rushie's set me at naught--me that's done so much for
her! She's defied me--and I'll have naught no more to do with her. If
she'd been a good gal and behaved herself I'd ha' made a lady on her.
But it's done--and neither her nor that counter-jumper's going to darken
my doors. And I said I'd a word to say to you, and I'll tell you what it
is--I'm not going to have you going there. Don't let me hear tell o' you
going to them Binkses, or you an' me'll quarrel. Now then!"
Farnish, who was smoking his after-supper pipe in the easy chair which
was his special seat, stared at his daughter for a while in silence.
Then he suddenly rose from his place, knocked out the ashes from his
pipe, put his hands in his pockets, and shook his head.
"Nay, nay, mi lass!" he said. "Ye're none going to force that on me,
neither! I made a bargain wi' you when ye set up this business o' yours,
and I've kept it, and you've nowt to complain on, I'm sure, for if ye
had had owt I should ha' heard yer tongue afore now. But I'm not going
to be telled 'at I'm not to go near mi own dowter! I shall go an' see
our Rushie just as often as ever I please, and if it doesn't suit you,
why, then ye can find another man to tak' my place. I'm willin' to go on
as we have been doin', but if we part I can find work elsewheer. Don't
you never say nowt no more to me o' this sort, Jecholiah, or else ye'll
see t'back side o' my coat!"
With that Farnish turned and went off to bed, and Jecholiah stared after
him as if he were some wonderful stranger whom she had never seen
before. For the second time that day she, the rising and successful
tradeswoman, had been defied by poor folk. She ate a considerable amount
of humble pie before she laid her head on her pillow that night, and
next morning she said no more to her father, and matters went on as
usual.
There was another person in Savilestowe who, like Jeckie, was eating
humble pie, in even larger slices, about that time. George Grice, left
alone since Albert's defection, saw his trade decline more and more.
Jeckie, wherever she got it from, had a natural instinct for attracting
custom, and an almost uncanny intuition as to suiting their tastes. By
that time nearly all the big houses in the neighbourhood were on her
books, and the smart cart driven by Bartle had become two. Rushie was
replaced by an experienced assistant, carefully selected by Jeckie out
of many applicants; two apprentices were taken in; Bartle had another
man to help him, and Farnish became foreman of several errand boys. All
this meant that trade was steadily flowing from Grice on one side of the
street to Farnish on the other. Old George used to stand in his window
and watch his former customers pass in and out of the door beneath the
golden teapot. His first anger and resentment changed slowly to a
feeling of mournful acquiescence in fate, and two new lines were added
to those already set deeply on each side of the tight lip. But a new
anger arose one morning, when, chancing to gaze across the street, he
saw the smart dog-cart which Albert and Lucilla had set up at their
villa residence just outside the village arrive at Farnish's, and
Lucilla herself descend, bearing in her hand a sheet of paper and her
purse. George knew what that meant; his daughter-in-law, who up to that
time had traded with him, for very decency's sake, was now going to try
the opposition shop. He turned away full of new resentment and
mortification.
"Nay, nay," he muttered. "That beats all! One's own flesh and blood! But
I might ha' seen how it would be ever since yon young hussy cheeked me
to my face wi' her two thousand pound! And I mun think--I mun think! Am
I done, or am I not done? That's the question!"
Over his gin-and-water--of which he now, in his solitude, took an
increased amount every evening--old George thought hard that night.
Between periods of thought he had periods of consultation with his
account-books, his banker's pass book, his securities (carefully locked
up in a special safe) and with various memoranda relating to the
business and private property. When all was over he went to bed, and lay
awake half the night, still thinking; he continued to think during most
of the next day. And the result of all this thought was that, a night or
two later, when shops had closed, darkness fallen, and most of the
Savilestowe folk abed, George Grice slunk across the street to his
rival's private door.