The Angry Tide by Winston Graham Read Free Book Online

breadth. But it is not so. Nor is the quality so good as it was. But with care there is still a year or more's yield, even if there is no "on lode" development. But the north lode - virtually a floor - is yet barely in full development. Or seems so. After being so deceived in one perhaps one should qualify one's assessment of the other. But there is - must be - ample for a number of years, and that is surely all any mine venturer can hope for.’
    'Perhaps it was wrong to bring you back, then.'
    ‘I didn't return solely for that reason. Nor even principally. I was -fatigued of London. You've no idea, Demelza , unless you have experienced it, the constant noise, the bustle, the smells, the chatter, the clamour, the lack of air. Even one day, even half a day such as I have now had, makes mc feel a new man, made over again.'
    ‘I’ mglad.'
    It being new moon, the tide was now far out, so far that the firm sand stretched for great distances, intangibly bordered by a smear of surf. Betsy Maria and the two children were token figures, not identifiable.
    Demelza said: 'It is a long time since you have talked to me as you have done last night and this morning. Perhaps it is all the speeches you have been making in Parliament.'
    'Speeches. Huh.'
    'But tell me about it. What is it all like? Your lodgings have been comfortable? You didn't write so just to deceive me?'
    'No, they were good rooms. Mrs Parkins is a tailor's widow. George Street is off the Strand, near the Adelphi Buildings, and quiet after the noise of the main streets. Eighteen shillings a week I paid - did I tell you? - carpeted and furnished. Mainly I ate at the coffee houses and such. But Mrs Parkins made me a meal when I asked. It's a way from Westminster, but there were always ferries at the foot of the steps to take me there.'
    'And where you meet - in Parliament?'
    'A hybrid, born of a chapel for a father and a bear-pit for a mother. You go to the chamber, you approach it, th rough Westminster Hall, which is a fine lofty building, but the chamber itself is much like Sawle Church, except that the benches face each other instead of the pulpit and are banked so that each may see over the one below. At times it is insufferably crowded, at others near empty. The business usually starts at three and can go on till midnight. But the business itself is most of the time so parochial that one wonders it could not have been settled locally. A bill is introduced, say, for creating a ne w road through the village of De ptford. The next is for dividing the parish of St James in the city of Bristol and building a church. The next is for draining low ground in some parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire. What, I fre quendy asked myself, was I doing in such a place and what could I contribute half so well as minding my own affairs in the parish of Sawle?'
    Demelza looked sidelong at her husband. 'But there are important things too, surely?'
    'There are important debates, yet. Pitt has introduced a tax on incomes to counter what he calls shameful evasions and scandalous frauds. It is to be 2/- in the pound on incomes of over £200, and he hopes to raise £10 million towards the war. But he spoke at inordinate length.'
    'Did you vote for it?'
    'No, I think it is too great an invasion of privacy.' 'And the slave debate?' 'What of it?'
    'Mr Wilbcrforce introduced one, didn't he, in April?' 'His motion was narrowly defeated. By eighty-seven votes to eighty-three.' 'And you spoke in it?'
    Ross turned and stared. 'Who told you that?'
    'I think,' Demelza said, shading her eyes, 'that wc should go and meet the children. Otherwise they will be late for dinner.'
    Ross said: ‘ I hardly spake in it. It was an intervention that lasted barely five minutes and was unpopular with both sides of opinion.'
    'It didn't read so.'
    'It was not in the Mercury.'
    'No, But in another paper.'
    'What other paper?'
    'I did not see the name. Unwin Tre vaunance cut the piece out and sent it to Sir John and