'I wouldn't go through it again for a hundred pounds,' said George, when
he recounted his experience to his mother. 'And she wasn't a bit humble,
as you'd expect.'
'Oh! that's Daisy all over. Whatever happens to her, she'll be as bold
as brass.'
'And she didn't choose her language,' he said, with mingled grief and
horror.
* * * * *
They heard nothing more of Daisy for over a year, when George went up to
London for the choir treat. He did not come back till three o'clock in
the morning, but he went at once to his mother's room.
He woke her very carefully, so as not to disturb his father. She started
up, about to speak, but he prevented her with his hand.
'Come outside; I've got something to tell you.'
Mrs Griffith was about to tell him rather crossly to wait till the
morrow, but he interrupted her,--
'I've seen Daisy.'
She quickly got out of bed, and they went together into the parlour.
'I couldn't keep it till the morning,' he said.... 'What d'you think
she's doing now? Well, after we came out of the Empire, I went down
Piccadilly, and--well, I saw Daisy standing there.... It did give me a
turn, I can tell you; I thought some of the chaps would see her. I
simply went cold all over. But they were on ahead and hadn't noticed
her.'
'Thank God for that!' said Mrs Griffith, piously.
'Well, what d'you think I did? I went straight up to her and looked her
full in the face. But d'you think she moved a muscle? She simply looked
at me as if she'd never set eyes on me before. Well, I was taken aback,
I can tell you. I thought she'd faint. Not a bit of it.'
'No, I know Daisy,' said Mrs Griffith; 'you think she's this and that,
because she looks at you with those blue eyes of hers, as if she
couldn't say bo to a goose, but she's got the very devil inside her....
Well, I shall tell her father that, just so as to let him see what she
has come to.'...
* * * * *
The existence of the Griffith household went on calmly. Husband and wife
and son led their life in the dull little fishing town, the seasons
passed insensibly into one another, one year slid gradually into the
next; and the five years that went by seemed like one long, long day.
Mrs Griffith did not alter an atom; she performed her housework, went to
church regularly, and behaved like a Christian woman in that state of
life in which a merciful Providence had been pleased to put her. George
got married, and on Sunday afternoons could be seen wheeling an infant
in a perambulator along the street. He was a good husband and an
excellent father. He never drank too much, he worked well, he was
careful of his earnings, and he also went to church regularly; his
ambition was to become churchwarden after his father. And even in Mr
Griffith there was not so very much change. He was more bowed, his hair
and beard were greyer. His face was set in an expression of passive
misery, and he was extremely silent. But as Mrs Griffith said,--
'Of course, he's getting old. One can't expect to remain young for
ever'--she was a woman who frequently said profound things--'and I've
known all along he wasn't the sort of man to make old bones. He's never
had the go in him that I have. Why, I'd make two of him.'
The Griffiths were not so well-to-do as before. As Blackstable became a
more important health resort, a regular undertaker opened a shop there;
and his window, with two little model coffins and an arrangement of
black Prince of Wales's feathers surrounded by a white wreath, took the
fancy of the natives, so that Mr Griffith almost completely lost the
most remunerative part of his business. Other carpenters sprang into
existence and took away much of the trade.
'I've no patience with him,' said Mrs Griffith, of her husband. 'He lets
these newcomers come along and just take the bread out of his hands.
Oh, if I was a man, I'd make things different, I can tell you! He
doesn't seem to care.'...
* * * * *
At last, one day George came to his mother in a state of tremendous
excitement.
'I say, mother, you know the pantomime they've got at Tercanbury this
week?'
'Yes.'
'Well, the principal boy's Daisy.'
Mrs Griffith sank into a chair, gasping.
'Harry Ferne's been, and he recognised her at once. It's all over the
town.'
Mrs Griffith, for the first time in her life, was completely at a loss
for words.
'To-morrow's the last night,' added her son, after a little while, 'and
all the Blackstable people are going.'
'To think that this should happen to me!' said Mrs Griffith,
distractedly. 'What have I done to deserve it? Why couldn't it happen to
Mrs Garman or Mrs Jay? If the Lord had seen fit to bring it upon
them--well, I shouldn't have wondered.'
'Edith wants us to go,' said George--Edith was his wife.
'You don't mean to say you're going, with all the Blackstable people
there?'
'Well, Edith says we ought to go, just to show them we don't care.'
'Well, I shall come too!' cried Mrs Griffith.