Abrams sniffed."If he doesn't drink and leads a healthy life he may.But leopards don't change their spots.He's worrying over something.What is it?""His father's death," said Maggie."He loved his father more than any one and he's got it into his head that he gave him a shock and killed him.""Well, you get it out of his head," said Abrams."He won't be better until you do."Next morning they were at Paddington, Martin very feeble but indifferent to everything.They had a third-class compartment to themselves until they got to Exeter, and all that while Martin never spoke a word.During this time Maggie did a lot of quiet thinking.
She was worried, of course, about many things but especially finances.She knew very little about money.She gathered from Martin that he had not only spent ail that his and had left him, but had gone considerably beyond it, that he was badly in debt and saw no way of paying.This did not seem to worry him but it worried Maggie.
Debts seemed to her awful things, and she could not imagine how any one lived under the burden of them.Supposing Martin were ill for a long time, how would they two live? Her little stock of money would not last very long.She must get work, but she knew more about the world after her years at Skeaton.She knew how ignorant she was, how uneducated and how unsophiscated.She did not doubt her ability to fight her way, but there might be weary months first, and meanwhile what of Martin?
She looked at him, asleep now in a corner of the carriage, his soft hat pulled down over his eyes, his head sunk, his hands heavy and idle on his lap.A fear caught at her heart as she watched him; he looked, indeed, terribly ill, exhausted with struggle, and now, with all the bitterness and despair drowned in sleep, very gentle and helpless.She bent over and folded the rug more closely round his knees.Had he woken then and seen her gaze! Her hand'' routed for an instant on his, then she withdrew back into her own corner.
That coming back into Glebeshire could not but be wonderful to her.
She had been away for so long and it was her home.
The tranquillity and peace of the spring evening clothed her like a garment, the brown valleys, the soft green of the fields, the mild blue of the sky touched her until she could with difficulty keep back her tears.
"Oh, make it right!" she whispered; "make it right! Give him to me again--I do love him so!"It was dusk when they arrived at Clinton St.Mary's.
The little station stood open to all the winds of heaven blowing in from the wide expanses of St.Mary's Moor.Maggie remembered, as though it were yesterday, her arrival at that station with Aunt Anne.Yes, she had grown since then.
A trap was waiting for them.Martin was still very silent, but he liked the air with the tang of the sea in it, and he asked sometimes about the names of places.As they drew nearer and nearer to all the old--remembered scenes, Maggie's heart beat faster and faster--this lane, that field, that cottage.And then, at last, there was the Vicarage perched on the top of the hill, with its chimneys like cats' ears!
She thought of Uncle Mathew.The sight of the tranquil evening the happiness and comfort of the fields enabled her to think of him, for the first time, quietly.She could face deliberately his death.It was as though he had been waiting for her here and had come forward to reassure her.
They drove through the quiet little village, out on to the high road, then down a side lane, the hedges brushing against the sides of the jingle, then through the gates, into the yard, with Borhedden Farm, bright with its lighted windows, waiting for them.
Mrs.Bolitho was standing in the porch and greeted them warmly.
"You'll be just starved," she said."It's wisht work driving in an open jingle all the way from Clinton.Supper's just about ready."They were shown up to the big roomy bedroom, smelling of candles and clover and lavender.Martin stood there looking about, then--"Oh, Martin, isn't it nice!" Maggie cried."I do hope you'll be happy here!"The emotion of returning home, of seeing the old places, sniffing the old scents, reviving the old memories was too much for her.She flung her arms round his neck and kissed him on the lips.For a moment, for a wonderful moment it seemed that he was going to respond.She felt him move towards her.His hands tightened about hers.Then, but very gently, he drew away from her and walked to the window.