“Afeard of Patsy the smith. Sure it’s a madman he is when his temper’s riz.”
“Let you come along with me,” said Kinsella, “and I’ll wake him up if it takes the brand of a hot iron to do it. He can be as mad as he likes after, but he’ll put an iron on that rudder before ever he gets leave to kill you or any other man.”
CHAPTER XV
Priscilla wheeled the bath-chair up the hill from the town, chatting cheerfully as she went.
“It’ll be rather exciting,” she said, “to see these Torrington people. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a regular, full-blown Marquis before. Lord Thormanby is a peer of course, but he doesn’t soar to those giddy heights. I suppose he’ll sit on us frightfully if we dare to speak. Not that I mean to try. The thing for me to do is to be ‘a simple child which lightly draws its breath, and feels its life in every limb.’ That’s a quotation, Cousin Frank. Wordsworth, I think. Sylvia Courtney says it’s quite too sweet for words. I haven’t read the rest of it, so of course, can’t say, but I think that bit’s rather rot, though I daresay Lord Torrington will like it all right when I do it for him.”
Frank felt a certain doubt about the policy. Lord Torrington was indeed pretty sure to prefer a simple child to Priscilla in her ordinary mood; but there was a serious risk of her over-doing the part. He warned Priscilla to be exceedingly careful. She brushed his advice aside with an abrupt change of subject.
“I expect,” she said, “that Mrs. Geraghty will be up at the house again. Aunt Juliet wouldn’t trust anybody else to hook up Lady Torrington’s back. I can do my own, of course; but nobody can who is either fat or dignified. I’m pretty lean, but even I have to wriggle a lot.”
Mrs. Geraghty was up at the house. This became plain to Priscilla when she reached the gate-lodge. Mr. Geraghty, who was a gardener by profession, was sitting on his own doorstep with the baby in his arms. The baby, resenting the absence of his mother, was howling. Priscilla stopped.
“If you like,” she said, “I’ll wheel the baby up to the house and give him to Mrs. Geraghty. Aunt Juliet won’t like it if I do. In fact she’ll dance about with insatiable fury. But it may be the right thing to do all the same. We ought always to do what’s right, Mr. Geraghty, even if other people behave like wild boars; that is to say if we are quite sure that it is right; I think it’s nearly sure to be right to give a baby to its mother; though there may be times when it’s not. Solomon did, and that’s a pretty good example; though I don’t suppose that even Solomon always knew for certain when he was doing the rightest thing there was. Anyhow, I’ll risk it if you like, Mr. Geraghty. You won’t mind having the baby on your knee for a bit, will you, Cousin Frank?”