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But no amount of coaxing from either Daniel or the children could get Moira to recite one of her funny poems. They were kitchen chatter, she said, and had no place in a birthday party.

When at six o'clock Mr Farringdon's carriage arrived to take his daughter and her friend home, Ray Melton also took his departure in his trap, and as Daniel stood in the drive watching the departure of his three friends, as he thought of them now, he told himself that he could not remember enjoying a day so much. He was so glad that Ray had looked him up again, and also that Janie Farringdon had come to his party, because Moira seemed to like her a lot. It was as if Janie were filling the place of Pattie in her life.

And then there had been Frances, his Frances, as he thought of her. She was so beautiful that at times there would pass over him a wave of feeling that bordered on ecstasy; but one which, at the same time, left him empty because it lacked 121 fulfilment.

Maggie Ann's voice came bellowing at him from the door, `Come in out of that! You'll freeze to death ...

you haven't got a coat on.Ònce he was in the hall she closed the door quickly behind him, then tugged at his arm, whispering,

`Himself has just come in. He ... he came in the side way a minute ago and has gone into the study. It looks as if he's got a bottle or two with him again. Strange, isn't it, lad, he hasn't been out to his meetings these last two weeks, have you noticed? He's brooding over something, so look out for squalls.` Then, releasing her hold on his arm and her tone changing, she said aloud, `Wasn't that a pip of a party! Oh, I've never enjoyed myself so much since I came across the water. And isn't that young fella a card, with his imitations? I've never seen anything like it. From a chicken to an elephant, he did, and that monkey business! Why! me stays nearly went with me laughing.`

He laughed now, saying, `He used to do that at school and frighten the maids to death, especially when he roared like a lion on the attic stairs above which they slept.`

Ànd isn't that Janie a nice girl? No swank about her; and them rotten with money. You'd expect the likes of her to pump swank, wouldn't you?`

Òh, Maggie Ann,`--he laughed outright --òne of these days you'll shock even me.`

`Now what have I said that is shocking? 'Tis just another name for wind.`

He was still laughing when he left her to put on his topcoat, cap and muffler so as to make the late round of the farm--it was his turn for the duty.

It was almost two hours later when he returned. Maggie Ann was in the kitchen, the children would be in bed. Moira, she said, was somewhere about. Did he want a cup of tea or anything? No; not till later, he said; after he'd been up to see the children.

On the landing, he could hear their voices calling to each other from their rooms in the guest corridor.

He opened the first door and poked his head round it, saying, `Get to sleep, you two!Ànd Patrick called back to him, `'Twas a lovely party, Daniel. Could we have another one at Christmas like that?` 123

`Maybe,` he said; `maybe. Good-night, Sean.`

`Good-night, Daniel.`

He pulled the door closed; then crossed the corridor and pushed open the door to the girls' room; and in the dim light he could just make out Margaret and Annie sitting up in bed close together, their faces beaming with smiles, and Margaret called, `Did you really like your birthday present, Daniel? We all had a hand in it.`

Ì did indeed, Margaret. It was just the very thing, because I'm going to start to smoke. I'm buying a pipe the next time I go into town.`

`But the pipe rack holds four.`

`Well, then, on my next birthday you can buy me another pipe to go in it, then another and another.`

Ì painted the back of it, Daniel.`

`Did you, Annie? Well, it's a lovely colour. Now go to sleep. God bless.`

`Good-night, Daniel. God bless.`

`God bless, Daniel. Good-night.`

He now went to his own room and there he lit his lamp, pulled the patchwork quilt from the bed and, putting it round him, sat in a deep easy chair to the side of his writing desk and, picking up a book, began to read.

He had got used to sitting like this. The only time he read by the fire in the drawing-room was when he was sure his father had gone out to his meetings, and it was impossible to read in the kitchen with Maggie Ann chattering all the time. He could, he knew, have brought wood and coal upstairs and lit a fire in the grate, but he didn't consider it worth the bother, because in a short while he'd go down and have some supper in the kitchen, then come back upstairs and read in bed ...

And this was the procedure he followed on the evening of his seventeenth birthday. He'd had a good supper in the kitchen, seated at the table with both Moira and Maggie Ann. Then he had said good-night to them and they both had almost simultaneously answered, `Good-night, Daniel and a happy year ahead.`

When, some time later, he'd undressed, got into his nightshirt and jumped between the cold sheets, he told himself again it had been a happy

day, except for the fact that there had been 125 no word exchanged between himself and his father.

But what did it matter? Yet he knew that the situation could not continue as it was: at some time or other they would have to speak.

He was reading Rural Rides by William Cobbett and was amazed that this man who had started out as a farm labourer could have risen to such literary heights. It made him think how little he was doing with his own life, and at this stage he could see no sign of further accomplishment.

When the book almost fell out of his hands he wet the pads of his thumb and first finger and nipped out the flame of the candle.

The next moment he was wide awake, his shoulders off the pillow, his head turned to one side and listening to his father's yelling.

Getting quickly out of bed he groped for and pulled on a dressing-gown he had long since outgrown; then felt his way towards the door and out into the dark corridor.

Still groping, he made for the sound of the bawling voice coming from the room at the end of the corridor, and he became still when his father's voice, reaching top pitch, yelled the words: `What did you say?`

Now Moira's voice came as loud, crying, `You heard what I said. I told you in the beginning, and I say it again now, you can have me at any time of the night or day when you're sober, but I'll not have you on my body when you are filthy drunk. I saw too much of it over there.`

`You'll have me, woman, on your body whenever I think fit. Drunk or sober, d'you hear?`

`Yes, I hear. But you hear me now, Hector Stewart: you're working something off through your drink and I've a good idea what it is: your fancy woman has got tired of you. It must be that, because your twice-weekly meetings have ceased, haven't they? I'm not the thick, laughing Irish fool you've taken me for over the years: you married me because there was the promise of money in the offing. Well, I had my own reasons for marrying you, and one day I'll tell you what they were. In the meantime you're not going to take it out on me because you've lost your whore ...`

When there came to him the sound of a blow as loud as a hard hand slapping a bullock's rump, he jumped forward and thrust open the door, an action

which startled them both. 127

For a moment he stopped and gazed at them: at his father in his nightshirt, and Moira, one hand held to her face, the other now trying to cover her naked breasts with her torn nightgown.

`You hit her, you dirty cowardly scut, you!`

`Get out before I kill you. And I will. I will!` his father screamed. And almost with a leap Moira was in front of Daniel, forcing him back through the door, crying at him now, `Get away! For God's sake! Get away! Don't interfere. It's got nothing to do with you. Get away!`

Her manner and her voice seemed to sweep the hatred and anger from him, and for a moment he felt like a small boy who had crept into his parents' bedroom and witnessed something unusual. She gave him one hard push, then, turning quickly, she thrust her arms out and endeavoured to push her enraged husband back into the room; but so drunk was he that he staggered and fell on to the floor, and this enabled her to slam shut the bedroom door.

As Daniel stood leaning against the wall he became aware of a faint light penetrating the darkness, and he turned his head and looked towards

the end of the corridor. There he could just make out the bulky figure of Maggie Ann, the candle lantern in her hand.

When he made his way towards her she said, `They've been at it?`

`He hit her. She'll be black and blue. It was like a thump; I heard it.`

`He'll pay for it, never fear. I wish to God the devil would take him. But, lad, you shouldn't have interfered. You should never interfere in matters like that.`

`But he was yelling the place down; and the things he said to her!`

`Well, again I say, you shouldn't be listenin'; like that, you hear more than what's good for you. Now get yourself to bed. It's a pity your day had to end like that, because it was champion: the nice lasses there and the lad and the bairns enjoying themselves.` She had turned away and her voice faded as she mounted the attic stairs; but he remained standing where he was in the dark.

You hear more than what's good for you, she had said. Yes, perhaps he had. She ... she, like his mother, was having to put up with the ignominy of knowing that she had to take a back seat; in fact, that she was there just

to be used for breeding. And of the two he was 129 more sorry for Moira, for she'd had to bear him six children, eight with the one that died and the one born dead. The thought made him close his eyes tightly and stare into a blackness darker still.

When he got into bed he stretched out his arms and gripped the brass rails of the bedhead, and he saw a picture of Frances; although it was overlaid by another of Moira and her large bare breasts. It wasn't the first time he had seen her breasts. He had watched her feeding the babies as they had come each year; at least, the first four. But the last two, he recalled, she had seemed to feed when he was out of the room.

And of course he had only seen the operation during a comparatively short period while he was home for the holidays. But tonight he had seen her stripped bare almost to the waist. Then, his father in a nightshirt

... he had looked ridiculous. Did all men look ridiculous in nightshirts? Did he look ridiculous in a nightshirt?

When he married Frances he wouldn't wear such a stupid garment; he wouldn't wear anything. His hands swung down from the rails and he turned on to his side and buried his face in the pillow.

The day before Christmas Eve he went into Fellburn in answer to Pattie's letter. She had asked him to call; she had a little present for him. She also said she was missing him. They had met a few times since she had left home, once in her in-law's house, other times in the town; but this was the first time he had been to her house. And it came as a shock to him.

It was a small house, one of a long terrace. It had a blue-painted front door, two rooms downstairs and two rooms up. The stairs to the upper rooms led out of the living-room. The second room downstairs was a kitchen, with an open black range; and it held a white-topped table, four kitchen chairs and a dresser. There were two other doors, one leading to a scullery, the other into a back yard, where there was a coalhouse and an outdoor dry lavatory, so called.

On opening the door to him her face lit up and she held out both hands, saying, `Welcome to our humble abode. Oh, come in, come in, Dan. It's so good to see you. How are you? John won't be long; it's nearly dinner time.

Come in here.` 131

He squeezed past her in the narrow passage so she could close the door; then she led him into what was their sitting-room. A fire was burning brightly in the grate. There was a chintz-covered couch and two easy chairs, a very ordinary looking sideboard, and a glass cabinet holding what he took to be, at first glance, cups and trophies of some kind.

Òh, I am glad to see you. How are you?`

Òh, all right.`

`Just all right?`

`That's it, just all right. But you look blooming.`

Ì feel blooming, Dan. This`--she spread her hands wide--`must be past a surprise and a kind of shock to you. But I can tell you something: I've never been so happy in my life, and I want it to go on.`

Ì'm so glad for you, Pattie. I ... I thought you might miss the house, and space, if nothing else.`

`You know something, Dan? I grew to hate that house as much as I did him. How is he faring, by the way?`

Ì wouldn't really know, Pattie: we don't speak.`

`No?` Her eyebrows were raised. `How d'you get on ... I mean ... well--?`

Òh, Moira's the go-between.`

`How long has this been going on?`

`Months; in fact, since the night you showed me the diaries. I made up my mind I wasn't going to say anything but he went for me because I had used the trap, and it all boiled out, and I nearly throttled him. I would have, too, I think, if Moira and Maggie Ann hadn't pulled me off him.Àt that moment they heard the back door being opened, and she said, `Here's John now.Ànd when Daniel heard his stiff-necked, as he had always imagined, plain and unattractive sister call,

`We're in here, dear,` the look on her face almost made him envious.

John Watson was a man of middle height. He was fifteen years older than Pattie, but had an almost boyish youthfulness about him, and his handshake was firm. Ìt's good to see you again, Daniel,` he said.

`How are you?`

Àll right, thank you. How are 133 you?`

`Never better, Daniel.` Then bending towards Daniel the while putting his arm about Pattie's waist and pulling her against his side, he added, Às I can't thank her father, I can thank you for having such a splendid sister.`

Daniel noted that Pattie did not exclaim, as many another young woman would have done, Oh, go on with you! She just looked at her husband and smiled; in fact, they smiled at each other. Then John said,