“But you are. You are fighting as hard as any man I know.”
“Thanks.” His voice softened. “What do you want to know?”
She picked her phrases carefully, and they had been prepared, pat to just such an opportunity.
“I want to know why things have drifted into the present pass. I want to know who is really responsible? And most of all I want to know if anything can be done.”
The sincerity in her voice, the trouble in her eyes, moved him poignantly. And this was the first appeal of weakness to strength always so irresistible and captivating. He answered her as sincerely, plunging headlong into the subject, speaking, however, with that tincture of exasperation which marred somewhat his efforts on public platforms. Knowledge is at heart intolerant of ignorance, but your silver-tongued orator would lose half his power if he betrayed this.
“I’ll do my best, Cicely. But I propose to leave your mother out of it. I can’t criticise her to you. And really she is the victim of circumstances almost beyond her control.”
“Almost?”
“I said almost. Something utterly unforeseen might change her point of view. She believes firmly that she is acting for the best. For the moment let us leave it at that. Unhappily, she has a bad bailiff. And your Inspector of Nuisances is in the hands of your Board of Guardians, small farmers who are terrified of improvements because it would mean a rise in rates. And then there’s Snitterfield——!”
“Dr. Snitterfield?”
“Your Health Officer, also in the hands of your Guardians, and elected by them. Snitterfield, the Inspector, and Gridley pursue a policy of masterly inactivity. Grimshaw found himself up against those three, up against vested interests, up against absurd medical etiquette. I rather hoped that he would call upon the Chief Medical Officer of the County, a good man, but that would have meant an appalling rumpus. Grimshaw would have had to prove his case up to the hilt; no easy matter. Probably he would have hostilised your mother. Old Pawley, perhaps, restrained him. I don’t know. I’m not surprised that Grimshaw bolted.”