Mr. Goode was coming, and was surprised
to see that he was standing at the gate of the field with two other men
and a boy. And though they were all looking towards her, they made no
movement to come to her help. Perhaps they did not see what was
happening to her. It did not matter. She would be there in a few
moments. One of the boys had found a tin can and was beating on it, and
the sounds made her head feel bad. She staggered on, looking on the
ground because of the sun's strong glare.

When she found that her feet had reached the patch of rutted ground that
was around the gate, she sobbed with thankfulness. She threw out her
hands to the multitude of people who had suddenly gathered there, and
cried out imploringly, for if someone would only take her to a place
where she could lie down she would be all right and she would keep her
child. But none of them came to her, and her deafened ears caught a
sound of roaring. She could not see who they were and what they were
doing, for all things looked as if she saw them through flowing water.
But she knew the tall figure by the gatepost must be Mr. Goode, so she
stumbled to him and raised her head and tried to find his kind face.
But, like the boys, he wore a mask. Veins that she had never noticed
before stood out red on his forehead and his beard twitched, and the
funny lines that darted about his eyes, which had become small and
winking, made his face a palimpsest in which an affected disgust
overlaid some deep enjoyment. He did not seem to be looking at her;
indeed, he averted his eyes from her, but thoughts about her made him
laugh and send out a jeering cry--wordless like the call of the boys.
She realised that he and these people whom she could not see, but who
must be people who had known her all her life, had come out not to save
but to see her ill-treated and to rejoice. She stood stock-still and
groaned. Her head felt wet, and she put up her hand and found that a
stone had drawn blood behind her ear. The boys pressed close about her
and beat the tin can in her ears, and one stretched out a stick and
touched her, which made Mr. Goode and the unseen enemies laugh. But at
that she shrieked. She shrieked with such terrible anger at those who
insulted the mother of her child, that all their jaws fell and they
shrank back and let her pass.

But when she had gone a few paces up the road someone shouted something
after her, and there was a noise of laughter and then of t