The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection. W. Somerset Maugham
us both. We don't hit it off. But I'm willing to give it another try."
"I have little choice but to agree with you," said Nora bitterly.
"Well, that's hardly the way to begin," retorted Gertie angrily.
There was a certain air of restraint about them ail when they came in to dinner. Eddie looked both worried and anxious. But as he saw that the two women were going about their duties much the same as usual, he argued that the storm had blown over and brightened visibly.
The men had pushed back their chairs and were preparing to light their after-dinner pipes.
"We'll be able to start on the ironing this afternoon," said Gertie, addressing Nora for the first time since breakfast.
"Very well."
"I say," said Trotter, who rarely ventured on a remark while at the table, "it was a rare big wash you done this morning by the look of it on the line."
"When she's been out in this country a bit longer, Nora'll learn not to wear more things than she can help," said Gertie.
As a matter of fact, she had no intention of criticising Nora at the moment. She meant, merely, that she would be more economical with experience. But Nora was in the mood to take fire at once.
"Was there more than my fair share?" she asked sharply.
"You use double the number of stockings than what I do. And everything else is the same."
"I see. Clean but incompetent."
"There's many a true word spoken in jest," said Gertie with angry emphasis.
"Say, Reg," Taylor broke in hastily, "is it true that when you first came out you asked Ed where the bath-room was?"
"That's right," laughed Trotter. "Ed told 'im there was a river a mile and a 'alf from 'ere, an' that was the only bath-room 'e knowed."
"One gets used to that sort of thing, eh, Reg?" said Marsh good-naturedly.
"Ra-ther. If I saw a proper bath-room _now_, it would only make me feel nervous."
"I knew a couple of Englishmen out in British Columbia," broke in Taylor, "who were bathing, and the only other people around were Indians. The first two years they were there, they wouldn't have anything to do with the Indians because they were so dirty. After that the Indians wouldn't have anything to do with them."
He pointed this delectable anecdote by holding his nose.
"What a disgusting story!" said Nora.
"D'you think so? I rather like it."
"_You_ would."
"Now don't start quarreling, you two. And on Frank's last day."
Nora gave her brother a quick glance. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what he meant by Frank's last day, but seeing that Taylor was watching her with an amused smile, she held her tongue. Getting up, she began clearing away the table.
Hornby, ramming the tobacco into his pipe, went over to the corner by the stove, where Gertie was scalding out her large dishpan, and tried to interest her in the number of logs he had split since breakfast, without conspicuous success.
Trotter stood looking out of the window, while Marsh stretched himself lazily in one of the rocking chairs with a sigh of content. Things were beginning to shake down a little better. There had been a time yesterday when he feared that everything was off. He knew Nora's temper of old and he knew his wife's jealous fear of her criticism. It would take some rubbing to wear off the sharp corners. But things were coming out all right, after all. They'd soon be working together like a well-broken team. Gertie had been nasty about the bread. But apparently everything was patched up. And with Frank once gone, and the new chap--a man of the Trotter type, who would never obtrude himself--he foresaw that everything would run on wheels, an idea dear to his peace-loving soul.
Not that he was not sorry to lose Frank. In the first place, he liked him, and then he was a good, steady, hard-working fellow, one of the kind you didn't have to stand over. But, naturally, he wanted to get back to his own place, now that he had saved up a bit. Every man liked being his own master.
Taylor alone had remained at his place at the table. Nora had cleared away everything except the dishes at his place. She never went near him if she could avoid it.
"I guess I'm in your way," he said, rising.
"Not more than usual, thank you."
Taylor gave a little laugh.
"I guess you'll not be sorry to see the last of me."
Nora paused in her work, and leaning on the table with both hands, looked him steadily in the face.
"I can't honestly say that it makes the least difference to me whether you go or stay," she said coldly.
"When does your train go, Frank?" asked Hornby from his corner.
"Half-past three; I'll be starting from here in about an hour."
"Reg can go over with you and drive the rig back again," said Marsh.
"All right. I'll go and dress myself in a bit."
"I guess you'll be glad to get back to your own place," said Gertie warmly.
She had always liked Frank Taylor--a man who worked hard and earned his money. She did not begrudge him a cent of it, nor the pleasure he had in the thought of getting back to his own place. He was the kind of man who should set up for himself.
"Well, I guess I'll not be sorry." He sat looking out of the window with a sort of dreamy air, as if seeing far to the westward his own land.
So that was the reason for his going. He had a place of his own. He was only a hired man for the moment. Eddie had told her that a man frequently had to hire out after a succession of bad seasons. What of it? His keeping it to himself was the crowning impertinence!
CHAPTER VIII
"I'll do the washing, Nora, and you can dry," said Gertie in that peculiar tone which Nora had learned to recognize as the preface to something disagreeable.
"All right."
"I've noticed the things aren't half clean when I leave them to you to do."
"I'm sorry; why didn't you tell me?"
"I suppose yon never did the washing-up in England. Too grand?"
But Nora was not to be ruffled just now. Her resentment against Taylor, who was sitting watching her as if he read her thoughts--she often wondered how much of them he _did_ read--made anything Gertie said seem momentarily unimportant.
"I don't suppose anyone would wash up if they could help it. It's not very amusing."
"You always want to be amused?"
"No, but I want to be happy."
"Well," said Gertie sharply, "you've got a roof over your head and a comfortable bed to sleep in, three good meals a day and plenty to do. That's all anybody wants to make them happy, I guess."
"Oh, Lord!" exclaimed Reggie from his corner.
"Well," said Gertie, turning sharply on him, "if you don't like Canada, why did you come out?"
"You don't suppose," said Hornby, rising slowly to his feet, "I'd have let them send me if I'd have known what I was in for, do you? Not much. Up at five in the morning and working about the place like a navvy till your back feels as if it 'ud break, and then back again in the afternoon. And the same thing day after day. What was the good of sending me to Harrow