sometimes forgetful, and was not so neat and tidy as Mrs. Bolitho would
have wished. She always spoke as though Martin's recovery were quite
certain, and Dr. Stephens told Mrs. Bolitho that he did not dare to
speak the truth to her. "The chances against his recovery," Stephens
said, "are about one in a hundred. He's been racketing about too long.
Too much drink. But he's got something on his mind. That's really
what's the matter with him."

Mrs. Bolitho was as naturally inquisitive as are most of her sex, and
this knowledge that Martin was a doomed creature with a guilty
conscience vastly excited her curiosity. What had the man done? What
had been his relations with Maggie? Above all, did he really care for
Maggie, or no? That was finally the question that was most eagerly
discussed in the depths of the Bolitho bedchamber. James Bolitho
maintained that he didn't care "that" for her; you could see plain
enough, he asserted, when a man cared for a maid--there were signs,
sure and certain, just as there were with cows and horses.

"You may know about cows and horses," said Mrs. Bolitho; "you're wrong
about humans." The way that she put it was that Martin cared for Maggie
but "couldn't get it out." "He doesn't want her to know it," she said.

"Why shouldn't he?" asked James.

"Now you're asking," said Mrs. Bolitho.

"Nice kind of courtin' that be," said James; "good thing you was a bit
different, missus. Lovin' a lass and not speaking--shouldn't like!"

Mrs. Bolitho's heart grew very tender towards Maggie. Married or not,
the child was in a "fiery passion of love." Nor was it a selfish
passion, neither--wanted very little for herself, but only for him to
get well. There was true romance here. Maggie, however, gave away no
secrets. She had many talks with Mr. Bolitho: about the village, about
the new parson, about Mrs. Bolitho's son, Jacob, now in London
engineering, and the apple of her eye,--about many things but never
about herself, the past history nor her feeling for Martin.

The girl never "let on" that she was suffering, and yet "suffering she
must be." You could see that she was just holding herself "tight" like
a wire. The strange intensity of her determination was beautiful but
also dangerous. "If anything was to happen--" said Mrs. Bolitho. She
saw Martin, too, many times, looking at Maggie in the strangest way, as
though he were travelling towards some decision. He certainly was a
good young man in his b