“You’re too damned scornful,” said Calthorpe flushing. “All right then; fight it out with yourself. Snarl at your mates, and scare the women. Make yourself lonelier than you already are, you poor lonely devil.”
Silas laughed at that, and some of the hostility went out of his face.
“Thanks, Mr. Calthorpe. I’ll be at work to-morrow. Going now?”
“Mr. Medhurst and I are both going—unless you want us to stay?”
“No, I don’t want you to stay.”
“No ill-feeling, Silas?”
“None, if you mean because you mislaid a bit of your temper.”
III
Nan opened the door for Mr. Medhurst and Calthorpe, who passed out together and were immediately lost to sight in the fog. In the winter months, fog hung almost continuously over that low, fenny country; white fog; billowy, soaking mist. Little wraiths of it swirled into the kitchen as she opened the door, so she shut it again quickly,—she did everything quickly and neatly. For one moment of panic she wished she could have gone with Calthorpe, who was kindly, commonplace, and easy, instead of remaining alone with those two violent and difficult men, and the dead body of her sister-in-law upstairs. She was weary of the strain that never seemed to be relaxed in their cottage.
“Next time that canting parson comes here, I’ll lay hands upon him,” said Silas.