The things which belong—

by Constance Holme

And other things, too,—the sort which nobody told, and which couldn’t by any chance have got into their letters. Just when Maggie’s husband was a bit tiresome with Maggie, and where Joe’s missis failed in being just what he had hoped she would be.... Those queer sisters-in-law of Ellen’s; and Luke’s father-in-law, who was the sort you could quite well do without.... The trouble about the bit of money which Joe had lent Maggie’s husband.... The trouble about the bit of money which Ellen had lent Joe....

It surprised her to remember how much at home she had felt, how completely in tune with conditions which she had never experienced in the flesh. Why, she had even felt at home in the house which she had seen as already built for herself and Kirkby, although in point of fact it was not yet in existence! Just by closing her eyes she could see herself in, it again, could feel, as she had felt in the night, her pleasure in her environment. It was a small house, of course, with no more than four rooms in it, at the most, but it was a smallness which made for comfort and not constriction. She had felt so happy in it, so snug, that she laughed contentedly at the very remembrance. It was a queer thing, when you came to think of it, and rather uncanny, that you could feel at home in a house which hadn’t even been built!

There were more than four rooms in the cottage in which she had lived so long, but she had always felt pressed in upon by it, and as if she could hardly breathe. It was a good place, of course, and a big one, as cottages went,—almost too big, indeed, when it came to single-handed work. But she had never yet felt at home in it, or known the intimate joy of the home-lover and the home-maker. She had done her duty by it, that was all. She had lived and worked in it merely as a caretaker might have lived and worked, and on the few occasions when she had gone away from it she had felt as if it had ceased to exist....

There was only one thing which had troubled her in the dream, and she had not said anything to Kirkby about it. Indeed, she had almost forgotten it when she awoke, safe in her hopes as she was, as if ringed by shields; but now it set her mind wondering and her brow wrinkling.... She had been troubled and puzzled because of the questions which They had asked her.

Maggie, for instance, had wanted to know all about the people at home,—who lived in this place and that, and a lot of other things which she had been put to it to answer.

“Who’s got Beck Edge, nowadays, Mother, and Field Howe? Beck Edge belonged to the father, didn’t it, and t’other to the son? I remember hearing they wanted to change about, but I don’t know if they ever did.”

Her mother, however, had been quite unable to clear up the mystery,—if mystery there was,—about Beck Edge and Field Howe. She had never been interested in the matter, and she cared nothing about it now. But Maggie was so interested that she couldn’t stop talking about it. Her colour rose and her eyes shone. Digging up vague details from a quite improbable past, she proceeded to shape them into an unreliable present. You might almost have thought that she had a personal bias in the affair; whereas the truth was that she had never been nearer either of the houses than a crow’s flight on a fine day.

Luke’s questions had been chiefly about the staff,—who was working for his father, these days, and what had happened to the rest. “I always thought Nicholson wouldn’t last so long,” he had said. “He was a bad egg,—sure! Tommy Rigg’ll be getting an old man now, and likely past his work. What? D’you mean to say he’s been gone five year back and more? Gosh! How time does scoot!”

He had said another thing after that which had annoyed her sorely in the dream, and which even in remembrance made her fume a little.

“Len Machell’s still hanging on, isn’t he?” he had asked. “Father thought a lot of Len. I never let on to you about it, Mother, but he once applied to me for a job. When we were on our feet, it was, and he knew we’d something to offer; but of course I told him that I shouldn’t think of sniping him like that from the old dad.”