THE SIMPLE LIFE
Julia was collecting fir-cones. All around her the land lay brown and
still; dead heather, and sometimes dead bracken, a shade paler, and,
more rarely, gorse bushes, nearly brown, too, in their sober winter
dress. It was almost flat, a wonderful illimitable place, very remote,
very silent, unbroken except for occasional pine-trees. These were not
scattered but grew in clumps, miles apart, though looking near in this
place of distances, and also in a belt not more than five or six trees
wide, winding mile after mile like a black band over the plain. Julia
stood on the edge of this belt now, gathering the dropped cones and
putting them into a sack. The afternoon was advanced and already it
was beginning to grow dark among the trees, but she determined not to
go till she had got all she could carry. It was the first time she had
been to collect cones; she had sent her father once and Mr. Gillat
once. They had taken longer and gathered less than she, but it was not
on that account that she had gone herself to-day. Rather it was
because she wanted to go to the dark belt of trees which she saw every
day from her window, and because she wanted to go right out into the
wide open land and see what it looked like and feel what it felt like.
And when she got there she found it, like the Dunes, all she had
expected and more.
At last she had her sack full, and, shouldering it, carried it off on
her back, which, seeing the comfort of the arrangement, must be the
way Nature intended weights to be carried. Clear of the shadow of the
trees it was lighter; the grey sky held the light long; twilight
seemed to creep up from the ground rather than fall from above, as if
darkness were an earth-born thing that gained slowly, and, for a time,
only upon the brighter gift of Heaven. It was quieter, too, out here,
for under the pines, though the weather was still, there was a
breathing moan as if the trees sighed incessantly in their sleep. But
out here in the brown land it was very quiet; the air light and dry
and keen, with the flavour of the not distant sea mingled with the
smell of the pines and the dead ferns--a thing to stir the pulse and
revive the memory of the divine inheritance and the old belief that
man is but a little lower than the angels, related to the infinite and
god-like.
White's Cottage stood where the heath-land ceased and the sand began.
There was much sand; tradition said it had gradually overwhelmed a
village that lay beyond; indeed, that White's Cottage was the last and
most distant house of the lost place. Be that as it may, it certainly
was very solitary, rather far from the village of Halgrave, with no
road leading to it except the track that came from Halgrave and
stopped at the cottage gate--there was nowhere to go beyond.
Dusk had almost deepened to darkness when Julia reached the house; it
gleamed curiously in the half light, for it was built of flints, for
the most part grey, but with a paler one here and there catching the
light. She put her sack of cones in one of the several sheds which
were built on the sides of the cottage, and which, being of the same
flint material, made it look larger than it was. Then she went into
the kitchen.
Johnny Gillat was there before her; he had been busy in the garden all
the afternoon, but, with the help of the field-glasses which he had
not been allowed to sell, he had descried her coming across the open
land. As soon as he was sure of her, and while she was still a good
way off, he hurried away his tools into the house to get ready. He
wanted it all to look to her as it had to him on the day when he came
back from cone-getting--the fire blazing, the tea ready, the kitchen
snug and neat; very unlike the dining-room at Marbridge with the one
gas jet burning and "Bouquet" alight. Of course Johnny did not quite
succeed; he never did in matters small or great, but he did his best.
The dinner things, which Captain Polkington was to have washed, were
not done, and still about. They had to be put in the back kitchen, and
Johnny, who had no idea of saving labour, took so long carrying them
away, that he hardly had time to set the tea. He had meant to make
some toast, but there was no time for that; the first piece of bread
had no more than begun to get warm when he heard Julia's step outside.
But the fire was blazing nicely, and that was the chief thing; even
though the putting on of the kettle had been forgotten. When Julia
came in and saw the fire and crooked tablecloth and hastily-arranged
cups, and Johnny's beaming face, she exclaimed, "How cubby it looks!
Why, you have got the tea all ready, and"--sniffing the air--"I
believe you are making toast; that is nice!"
Mr. Gillat beamed; then he caught sight of the kettle standing on the
hearth, and his face fell.
But Julia put it on the fire. "It will give you good time to finish
the toast while it boils," she said; "toast ought not to be hurried,
you know; yours will be just right."
It was not; it was rather smoky when it came to be eaten, the fire not
being very suitable; but that did not matter; Julia declared it
perfect. This was the only form of hypocrisy she practised in the
simple life; possibly, if she thought of the will more than the deed,
it was really not such great hypocrisy. At all events she practised
it; she did not think truth so beautiful that frail daily life must be
the better for its undiluted and uncompromising application to all
poor little tender efforts.
During tea the great subject of conversation was the hen house. The
last occupant of the cottage had kept hens and all the out-buildings
were in good repair; however, a recent gale had loosened part of the
roof of this one, and Captain Polkington had been mending it. There
had not been much to do; the Captain could not do a great deal; his
faculties of work--if he ever had any--had atrophied for want of use.
Still, he thought he had done a good day's work, and, as a
consequence, was important and inclined to be exacting. That is the
reason why he had neglected the dinner things; he felt that a man who
had done all he had was entitled to some rest and consideration. Julia
did not mind in the least; if he was happy and contented, that was all
she wished; she never reckoned his help as one of the assets of the
household. For that matter, she had not reckoned Mr. Gillat's of much
value either, but there she found she was a little mistaken. Johnny
was very slow and very laborious and really ingenious in finding a
wrong way of doing things even when she thought she had left him no
choice, but he was very painstaking and persevering. He would do
anything he was told, and he took the greatest pleasure in doing it.
Whether it was digging in the garden, or feeding the pigs, or
collecting firewood, or setting the table for meals, he was certain to
do everything to the best of his ability, and was perfectly happy if
she would employ him. There can be no doubt that the coming to White's
Cottage began a time of real happiness to Mr. Gillat; possibly the
happiest since his wealthy boyhood when he spent lavishly and
indiscriminately on anybody and everybody. The Captain was less happy;
his satisfaction was of an intermittent order. His discontent did not
take the form of wishing to go back to Marbridge or to join his wife,
only in feeling oppressed and misunderstood, and wishing occasionally
that he had not been born or had been born rich--and of course
remained so all his life. He was dissatisfied that evening when the
contentment begotten of his work had worn off; he wanted to go to the
market town to-morrow. Julia was going to get several necessaries for
the household; he considered that he ought to go too, but she would
not take him.
"You will have a great deal to carry," he protested.
"Yes," Julia agreed; "but I shall manage it."
"It is not fit for you to go about alone," her father urged.
She forebore to smile, though the novelty, not to say tardiness of the
idea amused her; she only said, "It would take you and Johnny too long
to walk into the town; we can't afford to spend too long on the way,
and we can't afford a cart to take us."
The Captain was not convinced; he never was by any one's logic but his
own; perhaps because his own was totally different to all other kinds,
including the painful logic of facts. He sighed deeply. "It is a
strange, a humiliating condition of things," he observed to Mr.
Gillat, "when a father has to ask his daughter's permission to go into
town."
Johnny rubbed the side of his chair thoughtfully, then a bright idea
occurred to him. "Ah, but," he said, "gentlemen always have to ask ladies'
permission before they can accompany them anywhere--especially when it is
the lady of the house."
A wise man might not perhaps have said this last, but Johnny did, and
as it happened, it did not much matter; before the Captain could
answer, Julia rose from the table and began to clear away.
Sundry household jobs had to be done in the evening; some were always
left till then; in these short dark days it was advisable to use the
light for work out of doors. At last, however, all was done, and Julia
began to arrange for to-morrow. The Captain was sulky and sure that he
would have rheumatism and so not be able to go out. His daughter did
not seem to be greatly troubled; she told him of some easy work in the
house he could do, or if he liked and felt able, he would perhaps go
and get more fir-cones; there were plenty, and they saved other fuel.
The Captain replied that he was not in the habit of taking orders from
his children.
Johnny looked unhappy; he did not like these ruffles to the tranquil
life; it always pained him for any one to be dissatisfied, with reason
or without it. When Julia turned to him he was even more ready than
usual to take orders; he would have done anything she told him from
sweeping the copper flue to calling upon the rector, but secretly he
hoped she would give him work in the garden.
The garden was of considerable size, and, by some freak of nature, of
fairly good soil, though the field and most of the surrounding land
was very poor. They had all worked hard in this plot ever since their
coming; there was not much more to be done, or at least not much
planting, which was what Mr. Gillat liked. However, there had been no
sharp frosts yet and Julia, who knew his tastes, thought she could
find something to please him. She called him to the back kitchen and
between them they brought from there a wooden case, the contents of
which she began to sort over to find an occupation suitable to him.
The box was getting rather empty now, but there was still something in
it, bulbs and seeds and printed directions, and a strange mixed smell
of greyish-brown paper and buckwheat husks and the indescribable smell
of Dutch barns.
It had come from Holland, from the Van Heigens; it was Mijnheer's
present to the disgraced companion who had been so summarily
dismissed. When Julia went to the cottage, it occurred to her to write
to Mijnheer and tell him where she was, and how she meant to live a
harmless horticultural life. She had come to think that perhaps she
ought to tell him; she knew how her own words, about the way they were
thrusting a sinner down, would stay with him and his wife. They would
quite likely grow in the slow mind of the old man until he became
uneasy and unhappy about her, and blamed himself for her undoing. At
the time that she spoke she wasted the words to so grow and germinate;
but now, looking back, she could think differently; after all the Van
Heigens had only done what they thought right, and she had done what
she knew to be at least open to doubt. And they had not thrust her
down; it would take considerably more than that to do anything of the
sort; they had allowed her an opportunity which she had used to
achieve a great success. And now that it was achieved and she had left
it all behind and was settled to the simple life--her vague
ambition--her heart went out to the simple folk who had first shown
her that it might be good; who had been kind to her when there was
nothing to gain, who had made her ashamed.
So she wrote to Mijnheer and told him that she had fared well, and
found another situation in Holland after leaving his service. Also
that she had now left it and, having inherited a little property, had
come to live in a country cottage with her father. She further said
that she meant to imitate the Dutch and do her own house-work and also
grow things, vegetables especially, in her garden.
And Mijnheer, when he got the letter, was delighted; so, too, was
Mevrouw; Joost said nothing. They read the letter two or three times,
showed it to the Snieders (including Denah) and to the Dutch girl who
now filled Julia's situation--more or less. They talked over it a
great deal and over Julia too; they remembered every detail about her,
her good points and her great fall. They were as delighted as they
could be to hear that she was well and happy and apparently, good.
Mijnheer especially was pleased to hear that she was with her
father--he did not know that gentleman--he was sure she would be well
looked after with him, and that, so he said, was what she wanted. So,
contrary to their theory, but not out of accord with their practice,
they forgave the sin for the sake of the sinner, and Mijnheer ordered
to be packed, seeds and bulbs and plants for Julia's garden. He
selected them himself, flowers as well as vegetables, sorts which he
thought most suitable; and he ordered Joost to stick to the bags
strips cut out of catalogues where, in stiff Dutch-English, directions
are given as to how to grow everything that can be grown. And if Joost
put in some sorts not included in his father's list, and failed to
tell the good man about it, it was no doubt all owing to his having at
one time associated with the dishonest Julia.
The packing and dispatching of the box gave great pleasure to the Van
Heigens; but the receiving and unpacking gave even greater pleasure
when at last it reached Miss Snooks at White's Cottage. Julia had not
told Mijnheer why she was Miss Snooks now and he, after grave
consideration, decided that it must be because of the legacy, and in
fulfilment of some obscure English law of property. Having so decided,
he addressed the case in good faith, and advised her of its departure.
Julia and Mr. Gillat planted the things that came in the box; Julia
planted most, but Mr. Gillat enjoyed it even when he was only looking
on. There was one bulb she set when he was not there to look on, but
it did not come with the others. She chose a spot that best fulfilled
the conditions described in the directions for growing daffodils and
there, late one afternoon, she planted the bulb that she had brought
with her from the Van Heigens. Afterwards she marked the place round
and told Johnny and her father there was a choice flower there which
was not to be touched.
Julia went to the market town as she had arranged. Mr. Gillat worked
in the garden; Captain Polkington watched him for a little and then
went out, after spending, as he always did, some time getting ready.
He took a basket with him; he thought of collecting fir-cones and he
objected to the sack, though it held a vast deal more; he felt
carrying it to be derogatory to a soldier and a gentleman. It is true
he did not get fir-cones that day, but he really meant to when he
started.
Julia, in the meantime, did her shopping, and, having loaded herself
with as much as she could carry--more than most people could except
those Continental maids and mistresses who do their own marketing, she
started for home. It was a long walk--a long way to Halgrave and a
good bit beyond that to the cottage. She did not expect to reach the
village till dusk, but she thought very probably she would find her
father or Mr. Gillat there; she had suggested that one or both of them
should come to meet her and help carry the parcels the rest of the
way.
Johnny fell in with the suggestion; she saw him through the twilight
before she reached the village. Her father, she concluded, was still
sulky at her refusal to have his company earlier and so would not come
now.
"I suppose father would not come?" she said, as she and Mr. Gillat
walked on after a readjustment of the burden.
"Oh, no," Johnny answered; "it was not that; I'm sure he would have
come if he had been in when I started, but he was not back then."
"Not back?" Julia repeated. "Why, where has he gone?"
"Well," Johnny replied slowly, "he said he was going to get fir-cones,
but I'm not sure, I didn't see him go across the heath. Still, I dare
say he went--he took a basket, so I think he must have gone."
Julia apparently did not find this very conclusive evidence. "There is
not anywhere much about here where he can go," she said; much less as
if she were stating a fact than as if she were reviewing likely and
unlikely places. "There is only the one road, and that goes to
Halgrave, and there is nowhere for him there."
"No, oh, no," Johnny said; "there really is nowhere there."
"There is the 'Dog and Pheasant,'" Julia went on meditatively, "but he
would not get anything he cared about there."
"No," Mr. Gillat said decidedly; "besides he would not go there, he
would not sit in a small country public house and--er--and--sit
there--and so on--he would not think of going to such a place. It is
one thing when you are out in the country for a day's fishing or
something, to have a glass of ale and a piece of bread and cheese at
an inn, but the other is quite different; he wouldn't do that--oh, no.
To sit in a little bar and--"
"Booze," Julia concluded for him. "Johnny, you are always a wonder to
me; how you have contrived to live so long and yet to keep your belief
in man unspotted from the world beats me."
Johnny looked uncomfortable and a little puzzled. "Well, but your
father--" he began.
"My father is a man," Julia interrupted, "and I would not undertake to
say a man would not do anything--on occasions--or a woman either, for
the matter of that. There is a beast in most men, and an archangel in
lots, and a snob, and a prig, and a dormant hero, and an embryo poet.
There are great possibilities in men; you have to watch and see which
is coming out top and back that, and then half the time you are wrong.
Of course, at father's age, possibilities are getting over; one or two
things have come top and stay there."
Mr. Gillat opened the cottage door and, not answering these
distressing generalities, fell back on his one fact. "Look," he said,
pointing to an empty peg, "he must have gone after fir-cones; you see
the basket has gone; he took it with him; I am sure he would not have
taken it to the 'Dog.'"
"I believe their whisky is very bad," Julia said, and seemed to think
more of that than the argument of the basket. "I'll give him another
hour before I set out to look for him."
She gave him the hour and then, in spite of Mr. Gillat's entreaties to
be allowed to go in her place, set out for Halgrave. But she did not
have to go all the way, for she met her father coming back. And she
early discovered that, if he had not been to the "Dog and Pheasant,"
he had been somewhere else where he could get whisky. They walked home
together, and she made neither comments nor inquiries; she did not
consider that evening a suitable time. The Captain was only a little
muddled and, as has been before said, a very little alcohol was
sufficient to do that; he was quite clear enough to be a good deal
relieved by his daughter's behaviour, and even thought that she
noticed nothing amiss. Indeed, by the morning, he had himself almost
come to think there was nothing to notice.
But alas, for the Captain! He had never learnt to beware of those
deceptive people who bide their time and bring into domestic life the
diplomatic policy of speaking on suitable occasions only. He came
down-stairs that morning very well pleased with himself; he felt that
he had vindicated the rights of man yesterday; this conclusion was
arrived at by a rather circuitous route, but it was gratifying; it was
also gratifying to think that he had been able to enjoy himself
without being found out. But Julia soon set him right on this last
point; she did not reproach him or, as Mrs. Polkington would have
done, point out the disgrace he would bring upon them; she only told
him that it must not occur again. She also explained that, while he
lived in her house, she had a right to dictate in these matters and,
what was more, she was going to do so.
At this the Captain was really hurt; his feeling for dignity was very
sensitive, though given to manifesting itself in unusual ways. "Am I
to be dependent for the rest of my days?" he asked.
Julia did not answer; she thought it highly probable.
"Am I to be dictated to at every turn?" he went on.
Julia did answer. "No," she said; "I don't think there will be any
need for that."
Captain Polkington paid no attention to the answer; he was standing
before the kitchen fire, apostrophising things in general rather than
asking questions.
"Are my goings out and comings in to be limited by my daughter? Am I
to ask her permission before I accept hospitality or make friends?"
"Friends?" said Julia. "Then it was not 'The Dog and Pheasant' you
went to, yesterday? I thought not."
"Then you thought wrong," her father retorted incautiously; "I did go
there."
"To begin with," Julia suggested; "but you came across some one, and
went on--is that it?"
The Captain denied it, but he had not his wife's and daughters' gifts;
his lies were always of the cowardly and uninspired kind that seldom
serve any purpose. Julia did not believe him, and set to work cross
questioning him so that soon she knew what she wanted. It seemed that
her surmise was correct; he had met some one at the "Dog and
Pheasant"; a veterinary surgeon who had come there to doctor a horse.
They had struck up an acquaintance--the Captain had the family gift
for that--and the surgeon had asked him to come to his house on the
other side of Halgrave.
When the information reached this point Julia said suavely, but with
meaning: "Perhaps you had better not go there again."
"I shall certainly go when I choose," Captain Polkington retorted; "I
should like to know what is to prevent me and why I should not?"
Julia remembered his dignity. "Shall we say because it is too far?"
she suggested.
After that she dismissed the subject; she did not see any need to
pursue it further; her father knew her wishes--commands, perhaps, he
called them--all that was left for her to do was to see that he could
not help fulfilling them, and that was not to be done by much talking
any more than by little. So she made no further comments on his doings
and, to change the subject, told him she had bought some whisky in the
town yesterday and he had better open the bottle at dinner time.
The Captain stared for a moment, but quickly recovered from his
astonishment, though not because he recognised that a little whisky at
home was part of a judicious system. He merely thought that his
daughter was going to treat him properly after all, and in spite of
what had been lately said. This idea was a little modified when he
found that, though he drank the whisky, Julia kept the bottle under
lock and key.
It also seemed that she found a way of enforcing her wishes, or at
least preventing frequent transgressions of them, although, of course,
she was prepared for occasional mishaps. There really was nothing at
the "Dog and Pheasant" that the Captain could put up with even if he
had not been always very short of money--absurdly short even of
coppers--and Julia saw that he was short. There remained nothing for
him but the hospitality of acquaintances, and they did not abound in
Halgrave, the only place within reach; also, as he declared, they were
a stingy lot. The next time he called upon his new friend, the
veterinary surgeon, he was at a loss to understand this; it was unlike
his previous experience of the man and most disagreeably surprising;
he could not think why it should happen. But then he had not seen
Julia set out for Halgrave on the afternoon of the same day that she
explained things to him. She had on all her best clothes, even her
best boots, in spite of the bad roads. She looked trim and dainty as
a Frenchwoman, but there was something about her which suggested
business.
There are, no doubt, advantages attached to the simple life. It is
decidedly easier to deal with your drawback when you do not have to
pretend it has no existence. You can enlist help from outside if you
can go boldly to veterinary surgeons and others, and say that whisky
is your father's weakness, and would they please oblige and gratify
you by not offering him any.