Jeremy Poldark (20 page)

You mean you've no regard for my intelligence at
all."

I've a great respect for it sometimes. But you
must realise what. Bodrugan is after. He makes it very plain."

Because it was three-quarters true she resented
it the more.

“I think I ought to be able to judge that for
myself."

"No doubt you think so. But be careful that
his title doesn't dazzle your eyes. It has that effect with some people."

" Especially," she said,. " a
common miner's daughter who doesn't know any better."

He looked at her a moment. "That's for you
to demonstrate"

He turned to go, but she was at the door first.

"You're detestable-saying things like
that!"

“I'm sure I didn't start this argument."

"No, you never do start arguments, do you,
with your cold looks an' your bitter tongue ! You just freeze everyone, up an'
despise everything that isn't
up. to
your standard. It's - it's unfair and
horrible! Perhaps that's what you want me always to feel, Perhaps you're sorry
you ever bothered to marry me ! "

She turned and was out of the door, slamming it
behind her, and he heard her running up the stairs.

... Supper was late that evening.

Mrs. Gimlett said her mistress had a headache
and would not be down, so Ross ate the meal alone. It was. a dish of boiled
rabbits with savoury garnishings, but he imagined that it had not quite the
flavour as when Demelza cooked it. Afterwards there was apple tart; and cream-and hot scones. When he had finished he put some tart and cream in a dish and a
couple of the scones and took it upstairs.

He found her in their room lying on the bed. It
was her favourite retreat in her rare moments of despair. She had her face in
the pillow, and she didn't move when he came in, or when he sat on, the bed.

"Demelza"

She might have been dead for all the response
this produced.

"Demelza. I've brought you some tart."

"I don't want nothing to, eat," she
said in a muffled voice.'

"All the same, a mouthful or two can be put
away somewhere. I want to talk to you."

" Not now, Ross;" she said.

“Yes, now."

“Not now."

He stared at her tangle of hair, at her figure's
tantalising twisted grace.

“You've got a hole in your stocking," he
said.

She wriggled and after a moment sat up. Her face
was streaked and she wiped it with a corner of lace, hating him but not wanting
to be unsightly in his eyes.

“Eat this, my dear."

She shook her head.

He put the dish down. " Look, Demelza, if
there have to be quarrels I like them to have a good substantial basis with a
nice groundwork of grievance on both sides towork on. But I don't see a basis
for this in a fat hairy old man who comes here pestering you for favours. In
your heart I think you know Bodrugan just as well as I do. So perhaps there is
some other irritant at work. Do you know what it is?"

She made a little gesture which did not convey
much.

"You speak of my cold looks and bitter
tongue," he said.

But after living in this house six or seven
years and being married to me for over three, my peculiarities can't be any
surprise to you. I admit them, but they've not grown on me overnight like Billy
Thomson's beard. You've suffered under them and thrived under them for long
enough. So I can't help but feel there is an underlying cause which makes them
no longer bearable. I've noticed a falling off in the hours we spend together
and in the sort of satisfaction they bring. Haven't you?”

She said indistinctly : "It is not of my
seeking."

" Perhaps," he said, " we expect
too much if we expect the early glow to last. We had fifteen or eighteen months
that were as near perfect as any man or woman could wish for; but now at the
beginning of this second stage, we're disappointed that absolute happiness has
gone and each is inclined to blame the other.. So minor irritations magnify
and we come to a quarrel. That's the plain truth, is it not?

"If that's how you see it," she said,
keeping her head away.

"isn't that how you see it? Well, not yet,
but perhaps you will come to see it that way."

“Not only does he not want our child but he no
longer wants me, she thought.

"In the meantime," he went on gently
enough, "let's strive for tolerance in our irritations. I'll do my most to
avoid condescension towards you which is the last thing I feel. And if you find
my company cold as well as dull, try to excuse it, because I've subjects enough
to engage me, and a passing sourness of expression is much more likely to be
concerned with a passing thought than being a sign of dissatisfaction with
you."

After saying that, he leaned forward and kissed
her on the cheek and left her again, having only succeeded in considerably
deepening the misunderstanding between them.

A good deal later that night she came downstairs
and found him at the table in the parlour with all his books around him.' In
the old days she would have sat on the arm of his chase and tried to make out
how he came by the balance; but that would not do now. A half-full brandy
bottle was at his elbow, and she wondered if it had been new to begin the
evening. He glanced up with a brief smile when she came in, but soon was
working again.

She went across and poked the fire, threw on
another couple of billets of wood and sat quiet watching the blue tentative
flames.

She could hear the stream hissing, and an owl
screeched sometimes in the dark. A quiet night. All December so far had been
the same, a time of early dews and wet leaves underfoot and darkness lingering
in the day as if it were the earth's natural element. It was gentle
weather...but gentle with the atmosphere of decay. There seemed nothing new or
young in the-world.

Suddenly she looked up from biting her finger
and saws that Ross was watching her. To cover her thoughts she said.

"Do you still not get paid for being head
purser of the mine, too?"

“It saves money and I draw a greater
profit."

"And so does everyone else. Wheal Rather
used to pay the head purser forty shillings a month. We are so poor now that it
would help."

" But not enough." He began to fill
his long pipe. "These are not all cost books. Some are for my own
accountings. I shall not be able to meet my obligations in three weeks'
time."

" Did you see your moneylender today
then?" She tried to say it casually, though she knew all it meant to them
both.

"Pearce would be flattered by your name.
Yes, I saw, him. He has agreed to extend the loan for another year"

" Then ..."

" Pascoe has also agreed to add interest to
mortgage with his bank, while cautioning me that, now he has partners to consider,
he may not be able to do it for a further year. But he's unlikely to have the
need, for I can't find the four hundred pounds interest for Pearce, nor near
it, without selling out of the mine; and without that we shall not drag on a
very long time."

She felt suddenly ashamed of herself for having
picked this day to quarrel with him.

"How much are you lacking?"

“A little over two hundred pounds." "
Could you not"

" Oh yes, I could perhaps borrow the money -
that much from some friend, but what's the use? I should only get in even
deeper. It would have been better, as Pascoe advised, to sell a year ago to the
Warleggans and have done with them and started free of the worst debt."

" It's not like you to be down in the,
mouth, Ross. But even borrowing from a friend wasn't quite what I meant. We
have some things, a few things, which did ought to bring us in money."

“Such as?"

"Well :..there's my ruby brooch. You said
that was worth a hundred; pounds."

“The brooch is yours."

"You gave it me. I can give it back if I
want to. And there's Caerhays. I can manage well without a horse. I scarcely
ever, go beyond what I can comfortably walk. I always did walk. ' An' the frock
would fetch something - and this clock, and the new carpet in our room.

I couldn't consider it. If I went to prison you
would have to live on those things and what they brought. I'm not just going to
empty them into the bottomless pit"

“Then there's some of the farm stock," said
Demelza, more happy now she had something definite to consider. "All rare
good stock but more than we properly need. It seems simple enough to me. If you
pay off this interest debt you can make more money somehow: But if we sell the
mine shares these other things'll be no manner of use to anyone. They won't
bring us in money to live on. Wheal Leisure does. Besides it wouldn't be like
you to give, in to the Warleggans.”

She had touched the raw spot. He got up,
thrusting back his chair, and stood while he lit his pipe from a piece of
twisted paper.

" You always did argue like a lawyer."

That pleased her. The light flickered about her
face.

" You'll do that, won't you, Ross?"

“I don't know."'

We could raise two hundred pounds; she said.
"I'm sure we could."

The following day Demelza rode a little
defiantly off to meet the Bodrugans at Werry House. She was in a reckless mood,
and for the moment it didn't seem so much to matter that she knew nothing
whatever about horses. When she saw the sick mare she had a rush of misgivings,
but it was plain that Sir Hugh expected her to prescribe some vile smelling
nostrum and that he put down as false modesty her expressed wish not to
interfere. She'd cured Sir John's Minta and could at least make an attempt to
do the same here. She stared at the mare for some time and then glanced up to
meet a look of curiosity and challenge on Constance Bodrugan's face. Well, if
that was the way they felt If the mare died they could well afford the loss,
and it might ease Sir Hugh's attentions once and for all.'. . If she had to
commit a crime she might as well do it with a flourish.

She ordered all the blisters, clysters,
ointments, salves, pills and, poultices of the professional horse doctors to be
thrown away. That cleared the air quite a bit. Then she told them to go out and
gather nine leaves of heart-fever grass and nine flowers of the scarlet
pimpernel and tie them in a silk bag round the mare's neck. When these were
eventually brought she recited a poem over the animal.

"Herb -Pimpernel, I have thee found

Growing upon Christ Jesu's ground.

The same gift the Lord Jesus bare thee

When His blood He shed to spare thee;

Herb and grass this evil pass

And God bless all who wear thee--Amen"

It was a doggerel she had heard old Meggy Dawes
of Illugan recite: she rather thought Meggy used it as a cure for warts, but
anyhow it couldn't do any hurt.

Then she prescribed the same cordial of
rosemary, juniper and cardamon which she had recommended for the pedigree
Hereford. After that they all went back to the house and she took two glasses
of port and a biscuit and watched a litter of puppies chewing the rug at her
feet. The port just in time helped to kill off the growth of self-criticism.
She refused an invitation to dinner and left before one, her virtue unimpaired,
followed by the blustering good wishes of Sir Hugh and the speculative glances
of Constance Lady Bodrugan. She could guess what Constance would say if the
mare died.

Ross didn't mention the visit over dinner, but
at supper he said

What was the matter with Bodrugan's blood mare?
Influenza, d'you think?"

So he had taken: it for granted that she had gone
in spite of his disapproval. "I don't know at all, Ross: It might well be.
She's awful bad, with a quivery feel to the muscles like Ramoth before he
died."

“What did you do for her?"

Uneasily she told him.

He laughed. " You'll have every
veterinarian in the county up in arms. You're stealing their fire."

"I don't care for that. But she's a rare
lovely animal. I hope she comes round. I expect twould be quite a loss if she
died."

" She must be worth upwards of three
hundred guineas."

Demelza dropped her knife and went pale. "You're
joking, Ross ! "

"I may be wrong, of course. But King David
was her sire. And he-"

"Judas!" Demelza got up. "Why
didn't you tell me before?"

I thought you knew. Anyway, I'm sure you'll have
done her no harm."

Demelza went to the side table. It was mean of
you not to tell me, Ross."

"I thought you knew! Bodrugan is always
boasting of it, and you have had his acquaintance for more than a year. But
perhaps when you meet you don't talk of horses."

She did not take him up on that quip, but moved
the dishes restlessly about. After a minute she came back to the table and sat
down again.

"By the way," he said, "what did
happen in Bodmin? How was it you came to meet Sir Hugh while you were there?
And. why does he seem to think you're under some obligation to him?"

She said: “I don't know how they dared send for
me."

At much the same time that Demelza was, rashly
making her second essay in animal medicine, Dwight Enys, applying all his
conscience and skill to the less valuable human animals of Sawle, was making
discoveries about his own shortcomings.

Doctoring, he found, was not only a constant
fight against other people's ignorance but also against one's own.

It was Parthesia Hoblyn's gums which gave him
the clue to the disease which had been spreading through the village all
autumn. If any excuse could be found for his own incompetence it lay in the
paludal fever, which had so constantly masked the more serious complaint. In
this case, as in most of the others, the girl had taken the fever, had
recovered, had taken it again, and after the second attack all the life had
gone out of her and she had been breathless and exhausted with the least
effort. Discoloration of her arms like bruises had made him suspect, first her
father and then, when he proved blameless, the disease known as purpura. He had
given her an occasional fever powder to clear the blood, and had ordered her to
sit out on mild days and drink cold water - a course that jacka Hoblyn strongly
disapproved of. (Busy about the house, he said that was what she should be; it
would work off the bad humours far better than sitting at the door breathing in
all the moisture and the steams.)

And then Dwight met Ted Carkeek (whose shoulder
wound was long since healed and almost forgotten) and Ted by chance mentioned
that his father had died at sea; and going from him Dwight came straight into
Vercoe, the bearded excise officer from St. Ann's - an ex-naval man - who
stopped to ask him about his wife with an abscess under her tooth and went on
talking about life aboard ship; and straight afterwards Dwight called on the
Hoblyn and saw Parthesia's gums - and everything then was suddenly plain and he
was abusing himself for having been so criminally blind. These listless blotchy
ailing people of Sawle, with their nose bleedings and their sallow skins, were
the victims of an outbreak of scorbutus. Choake, presuming he now came into,
the village at all, had not spotted it; and he had not spotted it, so people
went on suffering and being wrongly treated.

Parthesia, I'm going to change your medicine. I
think you need a change, do you not? I haven't the ingredients here," he
said to Rosina, who was standing by the chair, " but I think a sulphur
medicine might help. In the meantime, have you any source of fresh vegetables
in or around the village?"

"Vegetables? No, sur. We don't belong to
have vegetables - not above a few potatoes - before April or May."

Or fruit-lemons in particular, or lemonades . .
. no, of course you haven't. I have green things sometimes myself. Can you not
get them in Truro?"

"They're too dear for the likes of we..
Those things d'run away with the money in no time."

He looked thoughtfully into Rosina's beautiful eyes.
"Ye-es.. Still I must urge you to afford them. It's vital. They'll do
Thesia far more good than all my draughts or all your, mother's home
doctoring."

Rosina said:" I'll ask Father. Maybe we
could perhaps send in for some when the next mule train go in.”

He went away thinking it over. Counsels of
perfection which the Hoblyns, being people just above the privation level,
might possibly be able to follow. But what of the rest? They could no more get
fresh vegetables or fruit than if they were becalmed in the Pacific Ocean. Yet
what good would his sulphur potions. or diaphuretic salts be to them without
it? At the best palliatives. Probably not that. It was infuriating., Amid all
the doubts and disappointments of medicine there existed for this disease a
certain cure - and the cure was unobtainable.

Nor could he himself afford to feed a village,
or some chosen families, on green stuffs of his own buying.

Trenwith House was still the province of Thomas
Choake; but Dwight, by roundabout and unsought ways, had come to have an
interest below stairs in Mrs. Tabb who, having fallen and badly cut her arm a
few days before, would have no one but Dr. Enys to dress it. She had walked to
his house but had gone queer when she got there, so he had said he would call
next time and save her the seven-mile walk. He found the wound not, suppurating
much, and applied a blister of Spanish, fly to help it. Having left an ointment
for later use, he walked down the stairs escorted by Tabb - and saw Elizabeth
Poldark in the hall,

“Dr. Enys. We don't often see you in our
house."

"No, ma'am." He smiled. "I try
not to poach on a colleague."

She said slowly: "The game is only
preserved on professional visits."

"Thank you. - I'll remember that. I've not
seen your husband since we met in Bodmin."'

"Francis told me of your kindness. We were
all most relieved at the outcome of the trial. Will you take a glass, of
wine?"

They turned towards the winter parlour: "If
refinement of taste is enough, then our married life has been an idyll”,
Francis had said on that long night in Bodmin. Refinement of taste? Was that
all this woman had to offer? Her, young withdrawn loveliness always caught at
Dwight's heart. Oh, he knew he was impressionable, but ...

In the parlour' Aunt Agatha crouched over a
smoky fire. The old lady's hands trembled and fumbled unceasingly about in her
lap, like wrinkled grey moles searching for something they could never find;
but her spirit was as determined as ever, and. the sharp old eyes looked Dwight
over as he was reintroduced. Of course she remembered him at Ross's baby's
christening: party, she said, it being her habit nowadays never to admit she
could forget anything. She could always tell an attorney's face. They
seldom-what? what? Yes, that's what she'd said. And what was doctoring like in
Truro these days? In her young days there'd been a Dr. Seabright with a big
following. Used to prescribe fresh horse dung as a cure for the pleurisy. Lived
over what was now Pearce's Hotel. Very popular, but he caught farcy cutting up
a horse and was dead within the month.

"Aunt Agatha will not hear us; she's very
deaf, Elizabeth said, and turned the conversation to commonplaces of the
countryside. Dwight expanded as he always did in sympathetic female company,
and only now and then did the memories of that night come to disturb him. They
blew across his brain like phantasms of a not quite real experience. The
unwinking candles; Francis's disembodied face, bitter

and drawn; the harsh confidences, originally
sought, but when given half turned away from; through it, all ran Elizabeth,
Elizabeth, the loved but the unloving, the Galatea who never woke.

Perhaps, some shadow, crossed Dwight's face, for
Elizabeth broke off what she had been talking about.

"Dr. Enys, may I ask you a question? ...
From something he said I've come to suspect that my husband-that Francis tried
to commit suicide when he was in Bodmin. Do you know if it is true?"

That was a poser. In embarrassment Dwight
glanced at the old lady, who was still watching him as if she could hear every
word.

" Your husband and I shared a room in
Bodmin, as you know. The atmosphere of the town was very excitable at that time
and Mr. Poldark was susceptible to, the general feeling of recklessness and
hard drinking. We talked a long time together, well into the night, and I think
his having someone to talk to helped him over a difficult period. I don't think
you need worry about it"

Aunt Agatha said : " Shingles, I had,, I
recollect, and he gave me blood from a cat mixed with cow milk to put' on the
sore place mornings and evenings. And treacle water at nights. He was a skirt
little fellow, I mind, but as bright as a bee."

"You haven't answered my question, Dr.
Enys," Elizabeth said.

"That's the only answer I can give.... I've
known nowhere worse than this district for wild rumours, and I should advise
you to ignore them."

There was a glint in Elizabeth's eyes as she
turned. " Perhaps you don't realize, how cut off we are here from the
general social world, Dr. Enys." .

No ...I hadn't realised it."

Our cousins from Nampara don't come, we can no
longer afford to entertain, and Francis is seldom in a mood for polite
visiting. So perhaps it will explain to you why I am put; to this strait in
begging information from a stranger.

Dwight said "I should be sorry if you
looked on me as that. I shall be only too happy if I can be of help or value to
you - and I hope you'll call on me in any way you think fit."

“In those days," said Aunt Agatha, chewing at
her gums,

“no gentleman never went out without his sword.
Didn't dare. I mind seeing a highwayman hanged at Bargus. Pretty looking man,
he was, in a crimson suit o' clothes and a gold laced hat. Went off very well,
too, bold, as brass to the last kick. You wouldn't have dared ride from. Truro
like that, young man, dressed, as if you was going to a. burying."

“I live between Nampara and Mingoose," said
Dwight in a raised voice.

“Yes, I know tis easy enough now. Here to Truro
they say's as safe as your own backlet.' All the spirit's gone out of the
world."