Warleggan (3 page)

if someone turn a key and lock it,' said Rosina, pulling down her skirt.

`Has any other phys
ician seen it?'

He had the feeling that they were exchanging glances behind his back. Rosina said : `Yes, sur - when it first went wrong in '84. But 'twa
s' Mr. Nye, and he's gone dead
since then.'

`What did he say?'

`Didn't say nothing 'bout it,' Mrs. Hoblyn put in hastily. 'Didn't know what 'twas at all.'

The feeling of the house was so obviously .discouraging that, Dwight told the girl to
use a
cold compress, and said he would see her again next week when the pa
in had gone. When he cam
e out, dusk was almost falling and he had his most unpleasant call still to make.

At the bottom of the hill was a flat green triangle of grass and weed above the shingle, and on one side of it were fish sheds with cottages and shacks built over them. You crossed a narrow humped bridge to reach them. Dwight stood for a moment staring out to sea. The wind was rising and the farther cliffs were hardly visible in the gathering dusk. It was still possible to see the grim jaws of the narrow inlet. An
old man fumbled
with a net over one of the boats. Seagulls
fought for a f
ish head behind the inn. A candle glimmered in a window.

Above the rush of the waves Dwight fancied he could hear the whispere
d voices of the villages. "Ere,
heard about John James Ellery, 'ave' ee? Had toothache, that was all
-
went to the surgeon over to Mingoose: surgeon took three teeth away. John James has been in mortal pain
ever
since, and like to
die!' I'd fight shy of 'e,
if I was sick!'

Dwight turned to go, and as he did so a man came quietly from behind the inn -and seemed to want to avoid him. But Dwight stopped and the man stopped. It was Charlie Kempthorne, whom Dwight had cured of miner's consumption, and who was laying suit to Rosina Hoblyn, though he was
a
widower of forty-odd with two children and she only nineteen.

`You're out an' about late, sur, aren't ee? 'Tis no eve to be anywhere but home by the fireside
-
that's for them as is lucky t'ave a fire to sit by.'

'What I was about to say to you.'

Kempthorne grinned and coughed. `There's business best done in the half-light, y'understand. When the Customs
men
don't see ee.'

'If I were a Customs man, I should beat my busiest in the half-light.'

'Ah, but they d'like their firesides, like other sensible folk.' There was a trace of uneasiness in Charlie's expression as he slid past.

Phoebe Ellery opened the door for Dwight and led him upstairs,
You climbed to
John J
ames Ellery's room by a wooden—
ladder from the room below where sacks of potatoes and nets and oars
and cork floats
were stacked. It was impossible to stand upright in. the bedroom, and
this evening the chill
had just been lit to fend off the encroaching night Most of the
glass had gone from the window,
and the wind
beat through, plucking at the sacking and bringing in a spatter of rain. A great black-and-white cat stalked about the room, scarcely ever still for a moment and making ominous purple s
hadows of his own. The sick man had his
face wrapped in an old cloth
and kept muttering: `Lord, 'ave mercy on me, Lord, 'aye mercy on me.'

Phoebe stood in the doorway watching Dwight with r
elentless, reproachful eyes. "E’l
l, be better in a while; she sai
d. `The pain last for an hour,
maybe, and then d'go off for a space, see.'

There was little Dwight could do, but he-, stayed half an, hour and administered laudanum and listened to the noisy waves, and by the time he left the spasm was passing.

It was a wild, night a
nd Dwight spent it restlessly,
lost in a sense of his own failure and in the futilities of his profession,

Chapte
r
Three

Ross and Demelza were among the last to ar
rive at the Trevaunances on the
evening of the twenty-fourth of Ma
y, having been forced to borrow
a horse from Francis, who still had three in his stables; and a company of about, twenty people were already talking and laughing in the big drawing
room as they went upstairs. It took Demelza half an hour to change, and, Ross, who had little to do for himself, read the latest copy of the Sherborne Mercury which had been
obligingly left in the bedroom.

France
was at war with Austria. Only three weeks ago the revolutionary pot had at last boiled over. The paper said M. Robespierre had op
posed the move and had resigned
his post as Public Prosecutor, but the others were mad keen for war and already a great army had invaded Belgium. A clash with the Austrian troops might be expected at any time. What of our own position? It was well for Mr. Pitt to forecast fifteen years' peace, as he had done in March; prophecies
cost nothing; but when they were accompanied by further cuts in our tiny army and skeleton navy, the danger to our safety and survival was plain.

Ross, was so far gone that he did not hear Demelza's first words, and she had t
o, repeat them before he looked
up.

As he rose he was conscious that his wife's charm and
attraction had
not been lessened by three Years of trial and near poverty. At times it got itself hidden under the everyday mask of work and the routine of living, but this made its emergence all the more startling. At such moments lie recognised with instant attention the quality in her that made her attractive to so many men.

As he went to the door to open it for her, he said: 'D'you ever now have any fears about going into society
-
as you did in the old days? I never know
now whether you're
nervous
or
not.'

`For the first ten
minutes
my knees knock,' she said. `But luckily 'tis the part of me best covered.'

He laughed. 'I know what will cure, it'

`What?'

`Port.’

`Yes, quite often, yes. But other things too.' "Such as?'

She lifted her bare shoulders
in a slight movement
of doubt. Knowing other people have a confidence in me.' `Tile other people including me?'

'Chiefly you.'

He bent slowly and kissed her neck in the soft part where neck and. shoulder
Join. 'Might I
prefer you that confidence now?

'Thank you, Ross,'

He kissed her again, and she put up a hand to smooth back his hair by the ear.

`You still
have some feeling, for me?'

Ht looked at her
in
astonishment, star
ing deeply into her eyes. good G
od, you should know that!'

`Yes, Ross, bait there is feeling and feeling. It is the one and not the other that I am asking about

'Would you want to
involve me in a philosophical argumen
t with all your beaux waiting to flirt
with you do
w
nstairs?'

`They are not any beaux. And I do not think it would be
a -
what
you said argument,’
She put her
hand on the door.

He said
: `Demelza.'

‘
Yes!
’

'I
f there are two feelings, then I don't think you can put them in separate compartments ever, because one is a part of the other and inseparable. You should know that I love you. What other reassurance do you ask?'

She smiled obliquely
but with a new warmth. 'Only that I should be told it.'

'So now you'
ve been told it. Does that make
such a
differ
ence?'

`Yes; that makes such a difference!

'I'll, keep a note of it for Wednesdays and Saturdays in future.'

'Sundays is a better day: The thing will sound right on a Sunday,'

So they went down in a cheerful enough mood and found al
l, their neighbours there, the younger
Trenegloses, the Bodrugans, Dr. and Mrs. Choake, and of course the Penvenens.

And George Warleggan.

It was a blunder of the first
magnitude on the Trevaunances' part to have invited
him and Ross to the same party,
but now it had happened,
it had to be gone-through with.
Rumour had magnified the fight between them last year into vast and murderous propo
rtions; and t
heir presence here together tonight added a spice to the meal for those who had no particular concern for the outcome.

But George offered no
provocation and for
a time
avoided all contact with the Poldarks.
Whatever else being thrown over
the stairs did, it gave one a physical respect for one's enemy,
At dinner Ross found himself near the top of the table with Constance
,
Lady Bodrugan;
on his right hand, Elizabeth on
his left, and Caroline Penvenen directly opposite.

He had heard so much of
Caroline that it would have been
strange if she, had tallied with
his expectations. He thought h
er not s
o beautiful as Elizabeth nor so
charming as Demelza, but her clear—
eyed, quick-thoughted vitality
instantly took a man's attention. The emeralds
about her milky-coloured throat
precisely suited her; they changed suddenly like their wearer in different lights, were now cool and unfathomed, now sharp and glinting. He had no difficult
y in understanding Unwin Trevu
a
na
nce's feelings, always supposing him to be susceptible to other influences than
gold. One wondered at their re
lationship, because it seemed strained tonight. Caroline treated him
with bare courtesy, and one
imagined that after marriage things would
be different. A
man did not have that leonine head and jutting bottom lip for nothing.

They were hardly seated when Sir John said: `You have met Miss Penvenen, Ross? Caroline, this is Captain Poldark,' and Ross studied her wide-awake grey-green eyes.

Miss. Penvenen inclined her head in acknowledgment. `We met for the first time
this evening, John; though in
truth I ha
ve seen Captain Poldark before in somewhat different c
ase.

'When was that?' asked Ross.

`Oh, you could not be expected to notice me. It was at your trial at Bodmin when you were charged, you will remember, with plundering two ships. I was one of the audience!

'I remember well enough,' said Ross. `But audience suggests entertainment, and I can't suppose the entertainment was
very goo
d!

'I have known worse. You see, in a play one knows virtue is going to be triumphant; but in
real
life one trembles on the brink of iniquity and fears for the outcome.'

`I think you must have been at the wrong trial, Miss Penvenen. There was precious little virtue in my case
-
and no triumph in my acquittal
-
unless it was a triumph for
the wrongheadedness of the
jury. Your sympathy should have been with the judge.'

Caroline's eyes flashed, `Oh, it was, I assure you. I noticed how sad he looked when he could not punish you at all.'

During the first part of the dinner Ross talked to Elizabeth. Her pleasure was no less
than his and was plain to
Demelza who, near the foot of the table, found herself between Sir Hugh Bodrugan, who always had such a marked and possessive partiality for her company, and Captain McNeil
of the Scots
Greys: McNeil was that officer who
had been in the district once
before, some years ago, stationed here with a company of dragoons to watch over the unrest in the mining districts and to put, down the smuggling.

Whatever anyone else might feel about the disposition of the table, Malcolm McNeil had no complaints. He only wished Sir Hugh wouldn't be so monopolistic. Again and again he tried to gain Mrs. Poldark's attention, and again and again the hairy baronet grabbed it back. His first real opportunity came
when Sir Hugh -had to carve another piece off the joint for Mrs.
Frensham, Sir
John's sister, and McNeil at once asked Demelza if he might presently; do the same for her.

'Thank you, no,' said Demelza. "Tis quite surprising seeing you here, Captain McNeil. I thought you was gone back to Scotland and the clans.'

'
Oh, I
have been back in the meantime,' he assured her, screwing in his great moustache at her admiringly. 'And overseas. And in London and Windsor. But I grew, an affection for this piece of country
-
and some of the people -
and when the occasion came to revisit it and them
`With your dragoons?'

"No dragoons this time.'

'Not one?'

`Only myself, Mrs. Poldark. I'm
sorry to disappoint ye. I was ill with a fever, and afterwards, meeting Sir John in London, was invited to take my sick leave here'

Demelza glanced at him amiably. `You don't look a sick, man, Captain McNeil;'

`Nor am I now, ma'am. Let
me fill
your glass. Is it
canary ye have been drinking?'

`I know only three flavours, and it is none of those three!

'Then canary; it must be. And I have found a great amount of plaisure as well as health in admiring your beautiful coast
’