i 75f9a7096d34cea0 by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

will, so I understand. Isn't that so, Miss Moira?`
    Às usual you talk too much. But yes, that is the gist of how things are.`
    `She looked very old, the aunt,` said Pattie.
    Moira smiled widely now, saying, `Yes, Pattie, she is very old, but I would hope that she still has a number of years spared to her yet, for she is a very kind and warm person.`
    Ìf she is so wealthy, why didn't she buy you a wedding present?`
    `Well`--Moira chuckled now--`she didn't buy me a wedding present but she gave me one; knowing what would help most, she gave me fifty pounds.`
    Pattie's eyebrows moved up slightly as
    she said, `That is a lot of money.`
    `Well, it isn't exactly hen corn.`
    `How much do you think you'll get when she dies?Às Moira and Maggie Ann fell together laughing, Daniel exclaimed loudly, `Pattie! you shouldn't. Really!`
    Òh--` Moira was now wiping the tears of laughter away from her cheeks with her fingers as she said,
    `You're going to be the practical one, I can see. My dear, I couldn't give you an answer to that. I'll just have to wait and see; but as I said, I hope it isn't for a long while ...Àlthough Daniel did not remember how that evening finished, he only knew that the conversation in the kitchen was what remained with him as a memory of that Christmas, even more so than the party that was held on Christmas night, when Moira made everyone laugh. And he realised that all the Farringdons and some of the Talbots liked her. And also it was the first time he became aware of the plainness of Janie Farringdon and the beauty of Frances Talbot.

PART TWO 63
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    It seemed to Daniel that each year he came home for the Easter holidays it was to be greeted by a Moira whose belly had become prominent during the intervening months; and then at some time during the summer holidays to be horrified by her cries as she was giving birth to yet another child. He never could get used to those cries. Strangely, however, they didn't seem to affect his father, who was usually busy about the farm or, more often, away on business in Fellburn or Newcastle. Then, in 1887, matters occurred that could have predicted the pattern of his life ahead.
    It was in this year that Pattie left home to be married; it was in this year too that for the first time his father struck him and he struck him back; and that Moira's seventh baby was born dead. It was also during these twelve months that Pattie, now at the age of twenty, and a more fearless young woman than ever, made a discovery that gave evidence as to why their mother had been such a cool and apparently unemotional lady. It was during this year also he discovered that he would never get to a university, and also that he loved Frances Talbot and was determined to marry her some day ...
    With further help from Miss Brooker, two years previously Pattie had been awarded a full teaching post, and during this period she had met a young man named John Watson, a teacher in Fellburn, and a very enlightened one, for he had found a way into her heart by being a defender of women's rights, which for the time was a very brave attitude to take. It was on this blustery day in early April that Pattie came through the front door to see Moira's six-year-old son Patrick sliding down the banister while his four-year-old sister Margaret stood screaming with glee at the foot of the stairs. But when the boy, dropping from the pillar, fell on top of her, her glee turned to tears until a quiet voice to the side of them said, `Here's Auntie Pattie.`
    Pattie approached the five-year-old Sean, who appeared to be the odd one out in Moira's brood, for he was as fair as the others were dark, and he was quiet while the rest of them were rowdy. His quietness was put down to his 65 being the survivor of twins, the other having died at birth, and as Maggie Ann was wont to say, `He had been left with two brains in his head, which has made him fey. And if he had been across the water it would have been he who danced at night in the