"Oh! You little, little--lamb!"
Baby John had his fingers in his mother's hair.
* * * * *
Greatorex rose. "You'll not get mooch out o' Ally as long as t' kids
are about. Yo'd best coom wi' mae into t' garden and see t' loopins."
She went with him.
He was silent as they threaded the garden path together. She thought,
"I know why I like him."
They came to a standstill at the south wall where the tall blue lupins
rose between them, vivid in the tender air and very still.
Greatorex also was still. His eyes looked away over the blue spires
of the lupins to the naked hillside. They saw neither the hillside nor
anything between.
When he spoke his voice was thick, almost as though he were in love or
intoxicated.
"I knaw what yo mane about those thorn-trees. 'Tisn' no earthly beauty
what yo see in 'em."
"Jim," she said, "shall I always see it?"
"I dawn--knaw. It cooms and it goas, doos sech-like."
"What makes it come?"
"What maakes it coom? Yo knaw better than I can tall yo."
"If I only did know. I'm afraid it's going."
"I can tell yo this for your coomfort. Ef yo soofer enoof mebbe it'll
coom t' yo again. Ef yo're snoog and 'appy sure's death it'll goa."
He paused.
"It 'assn't coom t' mae sence I married Ally."
She was wrong about Jim. He had not forgotten her. He was not saying
these things for himself; he was saying them for her, getting them out
of himself with pain and difficulty. It was odd to think that nobody
but she understood Jim, and that nobody but Jim had ever really
understood her. Steven didn't understand her, any more than Ally
understood her husband. And it made no difference to her, and it made
no difference to Jim.
"I'll tell yo anoother quare thing. 'T' assn't got mooch t' do wi'
good and baad. T' drink 'll nat drive it from yo, an' sin'll nat drive
it from yo. Saw I raakon 't is mooch t' saame thing as t' graace o'
Gawd."
"Did the grace of God go away from you when you married, Jim?"
"Mebbe t' would 'aave ef I'd roon aaffter it. 'Tis a tricky thing is
Gawd's graace."
"But _it's_ gone," she said. "You gave your _soul_ for Ally when you
married her."
He smiled. "I toald 'er I'd give my sawl t' marry 'er," he said.