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She'll want every shilling she can lay her hands on for the baby." "She should have thought of that before." The Vicar was answering himself. He did not acknowledge his daughter's right to discuss Essy. "She'll think of it presently," said Gwenda in her unblushing calm.
Between the sobs Essy looked up with her shining eyes. She whispered. "Will yo kape mae, Moother?" "I sail 'ave t' kape yo. There's nawbody 'll keer mooch fer thot job but yore moother." But Essy still wept. Once started on the way of weeping, she couldn't stop. Then, all of a sudden, Mrs. Gale's face became distorted. She got up and put her hand heavily on her daughter's shoulder.
You will take your notice and your wages from to-day, and you will go on Saturday." "Yes, sir." In her going Essy turned. "Will yo' taake me back, sir, when it's all over?" "No. No. I shouldn't think of taking you back." The Vicar hid his hands in his pockets and leaned forward, thrusting his face toward Essy as he spoke.
Gale. You ought to go down on your knees and thank the poor girl after what you did to her." "It was Essy. I know. She's mad to marry him herself, so she goes lying about me." "Nobody's lying about her," said the Vicar, "but herself. And she's condemning herself with every word she says. You'd better have left Essy out of it, my girl."
Greatorex was dead before he got to Upthorne he would come very soon, perhaps before prayer-time. And he would be shown into the drawing-room. Would he? Would Essy have the sense? No. Not unless the lamp was lit there. Essy wouldn't show him into a dark room. And Essy was stupid. She might have no sense. She might take him straight into the study and Papa would keep him there. Trust Papa.
Mary said nothing, and from her silence you could not tell what she was thinking. The long day dragged on to prayer time. The burden of Essy hung heavy over the whole house. That night, at a quarter to ten, fifteen minutes before prayer time, Gwenda came to her father in his study. "Papa," she said, "is it true that you've sacked Essy at three days' notice?"
The Vicar was holding out his hand for his glass of water, and Essy pushed the plate toward him, so blindly and at such a perilous slant that the glass slid and toppled over and broke itself against the Vicar's chair. Essy gave a little frightened cry. "Clever girl. She did that on purpose," said the Vicar to himself.
Three months ago Essy had been a servant at the Farm where her mother worked once a fortnight. She had come in so quietly that none of them had noticed her. She brought a tray with a fresh glass of water for the Vicar and a glass of milk for Alice. She put it down quietly and slipped out of the room without her customary "Anything more, Miss?" and "Good-night." "What's the matter with Essy?"
And on the road to Upthorne, under the arches by the sinister towers, Alice Cartaret, crouching on her stone, sobbed and shivered. Not long after seven Essy's child was born. Just before ten the three sisters sat waiting, as they had always waited, bored and motionless, for the imminent catastrophe of Prayers. "I wonder how Essy's getting on," said Gwenda. "Poor little Essy!" Mary said.
She was always having him. "I shall have to go myself tomorrow," he said. "I would if I were you," said Gwenda. "I wonder what Jim Greatorex will do if his father dies." It was Mary who wondered. "He'll get married, like a shot," said Alice. "Who to?" said Gwenda. "He can't marry all the girls " She stopped herself. Essy Gale was in the room.
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