CHAPTER III: A TURN IN THE DISCUSSION
"I'm afraid Dick's a lost man," said the tranter.
"What?--no!" said Mail, implying by his manner that it was a far
commoner thing for his ears to report what was not said than that
his judgment should be at fault.
"Ay," said the tranter, still gazing at Dick's unconscious advance.
"I don't at all like what I see! There's too many o' them looks out
of the winder without noticing anything; too much shining of boots;
too much peeping round corners; too much looking at the clock;
telling about clever things SHE did till you be sick of it; and then
upon a hint to that effect a horrible silence about her. I've
walked the path once in my life and know the country, neighbours;
and Dick's a lost man!" The tranter turned a quarter round and
smiled a smile of miserable satire at the setting new moon, which
happened to catch his eye.
The others became far too serious at this announcement to allow them
to speak; and they still regarded Dick in the distance.
"'Twas his mother's fault," the tranter continued, "in asking the
young woman to our party last Christmas. When I eyed the blue frock
and light heels o' the maid, I had my thoughts directly. 'God bless
thee, Dicky my sonny,' I said to myself; 'there's a delusion for
thee!'"
"They seemed to be rather distant in manner last Sunday, I thought?"
Mail tentatively observed, as became one who was not a member of the
family.
"Ay, that's a part of the zickness. Distance belongs to it, slyness
belongs to it, queerest things on earth belongs to it! There, 'tmay
as well come early as late s'far as I know. The sooner begun, the
sooner over; for come it will."
"The question I ask is," said Mr. Spinks, connecting into one thread
the two subjects of discourse, as became a man learned in rhetoric,
and beating with his hand in a way which signified that the manner
rather than the matter of his speech was to be observed, "how did
Mr. Maybold know she could play the organ? You know we had it from
her own lips, as far as lips go, that she has never, first or last,
breathed such a thing to him; much less that she ever would play."
In the midst of this puzzle Dick joined the party, and the news
which had caused such a convulsion among the ancient musicians was
unfolded to him. "Well," he said, blushing at the allusion to Miss
Day, "I know by some words of hers that she has a particular wish
not to play, because she is a friend of ours; and how the alteration
comes, I don't know."
"Now, this is my plan," said the tranter, reviving the spirit of the
discussion by the infusion of new ideas, as was his custom--"this is
my plan; if you don't like it, no harm's done. We all know one
another very well, don't we, neighbours?"
That they knew one another very well was received as a statement
which, though familiar, should not be omitted in introductory
speeches.
"Then I say this"--and the tranter in his emphasis slapped down his
hand on Mr. Spinks's shoulder with a momentum of several pounds,
upon which Mr. Spinks tried to look not in the least startled--"I
say that we all move down-along straight as a line to Pa'son
Mayble's when the clock has gone six to-morrow night. There we one
and all stand in the passage, then one or two of us go in and spak
to en, man and man; and say, 'Pa'son Mayble, every tradesman d'like
to have his own way in his workshop, and Mellstock Church is yours.
Instead of turning us out neck and crop, let us stay on till
Christmas, and we'll gie way to the young woman, Mr. Mayble, and
make no more ado about it. And we shall always be quite willing to
touch our hats when we meet ye, Mr. Mayble, just as before.' That
sounds very well? Hey?"
"Proper well, in faith, Reuben Dewy."
"And we won't sit down in his house; 'twould be looking too familiar
when only just reconciled?"
"No need at all to sit down. Just do our duty man and man, turn
round, and march out--he'll think all the more of us for it."
"I hardly think Leaf had better go wi' us?" said Michael, turning to
Leaf and taking his measure from top to bottom by the eye. "He's so
terrible silly that he might ruin the concern."
"He don't want to go much; do ye, Thomas Leaf?" said William.
"Hee-hee! no; I don't want to. Only a teeny bit!"
"I be mortal afeard, Leaf; that you'll never be able to tell how
many cuts d'take to sharpen a spar," said Mail.
"I never had no head, never! that's how it happened to happen, hee-
hee!"
They all assented to this, not with any sense of humiliating Leaf by
disparaging him after an open confession, but because it was an
accepted thing that Leaf didn't in the least mind having no head,
that deficiency of his being an unimpassioned matter of parish
history.
"But I can sing my treble!" continued Thomas Leaf; quite delighted
at being called a fool in such a friendly way; "I can sing my treble
as well as any maid, or married woman either, and better! And if
Jim had lived, I should have had a clever brother! To-morrow is
poor Jim's birthday. He'd ha' been twenty-six if he'd lived till
to-morrow."
"You always seem very sorry for Jim," said old William musingly.
"Ah! I do. Such a stay to mother as he'd always ha' been! She'd
never have had to work in her old age if he had continued strong,
poor Jim!"
"What was his age when 'a died?"
"Four hours and twenty minutes, poor Jim. 'A was born as might be
at night; and 'a didn't last as might be till the morning. No, 'a
didn't last. Mother called en Jim on the day that would ha' been
his christening day if he had lived; and she's always thinking about
en. You see he died so very young."
"Well, 'twas rather youthful," said Michael.
"Now to my mind that woman is very romantical on the matter o'
children?" said the tranter, his eye sweeping his audience.
"Ah, well she mid be," said Leaf. "She had twelve regular one after
another, and they all, except myself; died very young; either before
they was born or just afterwards."
"Pore feller, too. I suppose th'st want to come wi' us?" the
tranter murmured.
"Well, Leaf; you shall come wi' us as yours is such a melancholy
family," said old William rather sadly.
"I never see such a melancholy family as that afore in my life,"
said Reuben. "There's Leaf's mother, poor woman! Every morning I
see her eyes mooning out through the panes of glass like a pot-sick
winder-flower; and as Leaf sings a very high treble, and we don't
know what we should do without en for upper G, we'll let en come as
a trate, poor feller."
"Ay, we'll let en come, 'a b'lieve," said Mr. Penny, looking up, as
the pull happened to be at that moment.
"Now," continued the tranter, dispersing by a new tone of voice
these digressions about Leaf; "as to going to see the pa'son, one of
us might call and ask en his meaning, and 'twould be just as well
done; but it will add a bit of flourish to the cause if the quire
waits on him as a body. Then the great thing to mind is, not for
any of our fellers to be nervous; so before starting we'll one and
all come to my house and have a rasher of bacon; then every man-jack
het a pint of cider into his inside; then we'll warm up an extra
drop wi' some mead and a bit of ginger; every one take a thimbleful-
-just a glimmer of a drop, mind ye, no more, to finish off his inner
man--and march off to Pa'son Mayble. Why, sonnies, a man's not
himself till he is fortified wi' a bit and a drop? We shall be able
to look any gentleman in the face then without shrink or shame."
Mail recovered from a deep meditation and downward glance into the
earth in time to give a cordial approval to this line of action, and
the meeting adjourned.
