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KIT'S WOMAN 
 
By the Same Author 
 
 MY CORNISH 
 NEIGHBOURS 
 
 Crown 8vo. 33. 6d. 
 
 "This charming and characteristic volume of 
 stories not only enhances Mrs Ellis's already estab- 
 lished reputation as a finished artist in the most 
 difficult department of fiction, but it confirms her 
 right to regard Cornwall as peculiarly her own 
 province." Glasgow Herald. 
 
 " This is the real thing. We do not know 
 whether it will be possible to pick and choose in 
 this little "book." Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " Mrs Havelock Ellis has reproduced most faith- 
 fully in her delightful sketches the queer dialect, 
 the mingled simplicity and cunning, the attractive 
 and repulsive characteristics of a curious and pictur- 
 esque people." Saturday Review. 
 
 " ( My Cornish Neighbours ' is the sort of book 
 to buy as a present for someone else, and then keep 
 for oneself." Outlook. 
 
 LONDON: ALSTON RIVERS, LTD. 
 
KIT'S WOMAN 
 
 Cornish Idyll 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS HAVELOCK ELLIS 
 
 &gtsU ?) 1 4^1*1. " ^ 
 
 t 
 
 LONDON 
 ALSTON RIVERS, LTD. 
 
 1907 
 
Under the title of " Seaweed " 
 this story was originally published 
 in a limited edition in 1898. 
 It has here been considerably 
 revised and in parts rewritten. 
 
ALL MY LOYAL FRIENDS 
 
 997283 
 
KIT'S WOMAN 
 
 txf Cornish Idyll 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " LORDY ! Lordy ! this be a weary world 
 for the old and feeble. I sometimes 
 wonder what us s'ould do without a bit 
 o' scented snuff or a drop o' good tea 
 wi' a shake o' green in it eh, Kit boy ? " 
 A patient-looking man, who sat near the 
 fire with his head lowered, raised his eyes, 
 and grunted out, " Humph ! " 
 The woman was his mother, who having 
 arrived safely at her eightieth year, still 
 kept the desire for youth so vigorous that, 
 when she had a sick stomach or a touch 
 of "the new complaint they call the 
 flenzy," she felt that God was giving her 
 a test for her patience which really ought 
 not to come except to those whom the 
 i i 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Lord loveth well enough to take to Him- 
 self. She sat month after month, croon- 
 ing over the past or wailing at the future, 
 sometimes doing a bit of knitting, but 
 chiefly patting her wrinkled hands one 
 over the other, as if she had a rhythmic 
 cadence in her mind, as she sighed 
 "Lordy, Lordy," which name would 
 certainly sound irreverent on the lips of 
 any but the Elect, since it implied not 
 only endearment, but familiarity. 
 " It's a whishe world, my son a whishe 
 world and it's most more nor I can bear 
 when I do feel I'm a burden on you and 
 Janet." 
 
 She looked across at her son, and her old 
 eyes brightened as she made one more 
 attempt to draw the man out. She waited 
 for a loving remonstrance, but Kit only 
 coughed. 
 
 " It's well to be some folkses, that it be," 
 she continued. " It's lonesome fur you 
 when you be left so long, wi'out your 
 woman to do chars fur 'ee. She've been 
 gone sin' yesterday and even to me it do 
 seem a month. I miss her bits o' tasties. 
 You and me betwixt us can scarce fit up 
 a cup o' tea, fur you be befoolt in your 
 2 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 legs and I be in the same strait in my 
 back and arms. Lordy, Lordy, it is a 
 whishe business, and I hope the good Jesus 
 will soon rid me of it all that I do," 
 she added with a whimper, "fur I be 
 nothin' but a burden now." 
 Her son looked up with a faint smile on 
 his face. 
 
 "Yes, yes, it is a bit dull at times, sure 
 'nough," he said, raising his voice in the 
 musical interrogative peculiar to Cornwall, 
 "but it ain't so whishe for you as me, 
 mother. I do belong to do somethin' 
 more nor sit over the fire like a ash cat 
 and wait fur a neighbour to drop in, so 
 that in talkin' wid 'en I can furget what 
 sort I be now. It plagues me like a fever 
 when I reckon it all up and know I shain't 
 never be no good for nothin' ag'in. But 
 what's the use o' jawin' over it ? I mun 
 bear it and tak' the best I can and stop 
 snarlin'." 
 
 He stretched out his hand for a thick 
 length of iron which lay near, and raked 
 some stray pieces of furze and faggots 
 together on to the smouldering fire, 
 causing a blaze of light to spring up in 
 the open chimney corner, illuminating both 
 
 3 
 
I 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 faces with sham laughter, as if the man 
 and woman alike were grim jokes over 
 which the flames might gibe. The man 
 was partially paralysed. A mining acci- 
 dent had prostrated him with a disease the 
 doctors called by a learned name, which 
 Kit declared he could never quite roll 
 round his tongue. Two years after his 
 marriage this disaster had come upon him. 
 The disease, while leaving him the use of 
 his hands and arms, had paralysed both 
 his legs, causing a total change in his 
 way of life. The once muscular miner 
 and hardy man of all trades was reduced 
 to making and mending nets as his only 
 means of earning a living. 
 Before his accident he was a good work- 
 man, much counted upon in times of 
 difficulty or strife as a temperate and 
 dependable sort of man who carried more 
 wisdom in his little finger than most 
 people could boast of having in their 
 whole body. He had acquired the posi- 
 tion of mentor in the small fishing village 
 of Carnwyn because of his short way of 
 getting to the centre of a difficulty without 
 the usual preamble which to the rough 
 sailors and their wives seemed indispens- 
 4 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 able before they could come near the 
 point at issue. 
 
 It had been whispered more than once in 
 the gossip of the village corners that Kit 
 Trenoweth, or Clibby Kit, had not been in 
 foreign parts for nothing. In fact there 
 was no saying that he had not got a tip or 
 two from royalty in the course of his 
 travels, for some of his ideas were quite 
 " flash " enough for that to seem possible. 
 Many a man and woman in the village 
 had come in after Kit's accident had dis- 
 abled him, to ask for advice on some 
 domestic matter, "just to make Clibby 
 Kit feel hisself a man again." He always 
 gave advice readily and cracked a joke as 
 well as any of them, even against himself, 
 so that he puzzled his old mates sorely ; 
 they could not tell whether the man was 
 crushed or not, for he gave them no 
 chance to pity him or to scorn him. His 
 mother was the real trial to his good 
 humour. He had promised many years 
 ago that she should never leave his home, 
 and that he would always provide for her, 
 but now, kindness having come home to 
 roost with a magpie tendency to be always 
 droning out " Lordy, Lordy ! " " Deary 
 
 5 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 me ! " he often wished, without realising 
 any infamy in the thought, that her 
 " Lordy " would take her to heaven, where, 
 he firmly believed, she would enjoy the 
 perpetual youth for which she so continu- 
 ously and so wailingly craved. He loved 
 her in a long-suffering way with a love 
 born of habit but not of union or under- 
 standing. She was his mother, he was 
 her only idol, and in that fact lay many of 
 his worst griefs. She had thwarted him 
 in his largest longings because she loved 
 him selfishly, and wanted him exclusively, 
 and he, in his rough way, had realised how 
 she had strained the bond between them 
 so tightly that nothing but habit held him 
 to her. He was a rough sea-coast dreamer, 
 and her snuff-taking and continual whining 
 interrupted his fancies and his memories. 
 The firelight rested him and made him 
 more a lover of his woman and the sea than 
 ever. His mother, always sitting opposite 
 to him by the fireside, jerked his fancies 
 continually to the sordid contemplation of 
 a cripple's life and a cripple's chances of 
 being neglected and then forgotten. 
 " Kit ! " old Mother Trenoweth spoke 
 sharply, and even shrilly this time. 
 6 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 He raised his head once more and fixed 
 his eyes on the wrinkled face before him. 
 The thin, old hand with its dark blue veins 
 attracted her son's eyes as she fumbled in 
 her pocket for her snuff-box. It was one 
 she prized, for Kit had picked it up some 
 years ago when a wreck had wakened 
 Carnwyn into hard work and new experi- 
 ences ; for many a home could date its 
 miscarriages and its seizures from the day 
 when three vessels founded on Scryfa 
 beach, and only six men of all the crews 
 were saved. Kit Trenoweth remembered 
 the day well, and as he looked at his 
 mother he thought of it. That snuff-box 
 had a tale behind it for Clibby Kit, and he 
 just remembered he had never told his 
 wife how he came by it. 
 "Kit do 'ee hear me?" 
 " Yes, mother. What do 'ee want ? " 
 The old woman took a big pinch of snuff 
 and spoke slowly and a trifle cautiously, 
 as if she were not sure how the remark 
 would be received. Her head on one 
 side and her half-closed eyes betrayed her 
 agitation. 
 
 " Do 'ee believe that Janet's seaweed 
 messes do 'ee much good, Kit ? There 
 
 7 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 be folkses," she went on rapidly, deter- 
 mined to finish her sentence before he 
 could stop her, "who do say as your 
 woman likes a jaunt now and then, and is 
 over fond of fetching they weeds from up 
 'long instead of biding always wi' we and 
 doin' our coddles and chars as she ought 
 to do." 
 
 " Folks be danged ! " said Kit sullenly. 
 " Husht, boy, husht ! " she said, looking 
 round as if the devil, for whom she had as- 
 yet found no endearing name, might be 
 within hearing ; " I canna let 'ee use 
 swear words like that, a Christian don't 
 belong to use such oaths. You never did 
 it afore " she was going to add, " you 
 married," but she changed it as she looked 
 at his face "afore you was maimed. It 
 is a great affliction, Kit, my son, but the 
 Lord do knaw best, and perhaps He've set 
 'ee on your chair there so that 'ee could 
 be of more spiritual use to that flash 
 woman o' yours than ever 'ee was able to 
 be when 'ee did belong to go out from 
 mornin' to night and was in full work and 
 pay." 
 
 She nodded her head and patted one hand 
 
 over the other in a way which meant to 
 
 8 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 convey to her son that she could say more 
 if she dared. 
 
 " Out wi' it ; what do 'ee mean, mother ? 
 Let's hear. What have 'ee 'gainst my 
 woman ? " 
 
 "Nothin', lad, why nothin' at all. It is 
 na me as do talk o' she. No, I allus 
 pleads fur she, knowing what a power o' 
 life young things do belong to have. I've 
 heard many an ill word o' Janet, but I'm 
 slow to mind it all, but you do knaw I've 
 never thought she was the wife you would 
 have took to, no, that I didn't, fur like 
 it or not, Kit, they be right when they do 
 say that she's a lass as is bound to make a 
 man's heart heavy one way or 'nother." 
 " Mother, husht ! " 
 
 " There, there ! it's allus the way. Wives 
 first and mothers ain't nowhere. I s'all 
 be shoved out o' the door one day and 
 told not to put my finger in your flour 
 sack again, like Molly Oliver was done to 
 by her son ; things is coming that way, 
 I b'lieve." 
 
 Kit took out his pipe, slowly filled it, 
 lighted up, and sent a great cloud of 
 smoke between his face and his mother's, 
 saying sullenly : 
 
 9 
 
! 
 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " You b'lieve all the lies you can fall on, 
 
 I reckon. Do nobody tell 'ee truth by 
 
 chance ? " 
 
 He laughed stupidly, as if he'd like to 
 
 sleep if she would let him. 
 
 " Iss ! Iss ! and it is the truth that fears 
 
 me fur 'ee. You don't b'lieve as a big, 
 
 bouncin' woman like Janet is going to 
 
 bide true to a " 
 
 " Mother, husht ! If I had the use o' my 
 legs again I'd thrash every bloomin' jackass 
 as dares to take the name o' my woman 
 on his dirty mouth. Iss ! I'll use words 
 strong 'nough to choke the passons and 
 liards as come here 'cause they 'aven't 
 enough to do wi'out taking up women's 
 gossip. They fill your head wi' rubbish 
 enough to deafen a Chinaman. I'm wild 
 wi' it all naw ! " and he spat angrily into 
 the fire. " I've listened and said nothin' 
 for months, but now hear a bit o' my 
 mind on this job just for once't. My 
 woman's a darned sight handsomer, 
 straighter, and" he laughed "decenter 
 than any o' the maids up 'long or down 
 'long, a darned sight better by yards, 
 mind that ! and that's just why she's got 
 the women folkses agin she. Do 'ee think 
 10 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 I don't knaw?" He sneered and laughed 
 roughly. " I ain't watched and walked 
 wi' maids for nuthin', mind 'ee. I've been 
 a hot un i' my time 'ee do knaw that 
 and Janet warn't the first woman as I've 
 kissed, but I guess she's the last." 
 He sat up and smoked hard, and his 
 mother muttered beneath her breath : 
 " I s'ouldn't like to say as you was the 
 last man as Janet had made free wi' any 
 way ; seems to me as females nowadays 
 'as too much tether given to 'em, and by 
 they as s'ould 'ave the whip-hand o' 'en 
 too. I'm not one o' they sort, as believes 
 a female can cap'en hersel'; it ain't the 
 law o' God as her s'ould, and a sensible 
 man soon finds that out for hissel'. A 
 woman must be captained same as a ship, 
 or her '11 run on to rocks sure 'nough. 
 That's been your blunder, my son. You 
 began wrong wi' Janet, and let a high- 
 spirited, lusty woman get 'ee fast under 
 her thumb. The coortin' s'ould be sweet 
 enough, but a man s'ould feel the whip 
 handle and flick the cord betimes, just to 
 show the female as her lord can do summat 
 more nor worship a woman." 
 She clasped her hands in a resigned way 
 ii 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 and looked steadfastly at Kit, who was 
 smiling to himself. She was not sure 
 that he had heard her, for he said slowly, 
 and a little absently : 
 
 " I'd weary work gettin' o' Janet. Lanca- 
 shire women must be mixed up wi' different 
 stuff, I reckon. It was as stiff a job as 
 ever I tackled, and made me sweat often 
 enough, I can tell 'ee. Howsomever, that 
 time I was clipped tight, for I've never 
 been able to make free wi' maids sin'." 
 He snorted and smoked harder still. " I 
 b'lieve sometimes it's that that do rile 'em 
 that, and Janet's face, which makes 'em 
 all feel as if they'd had the pock. That's 
 why they be all dead agin she. It's 'cause 
 they be crazy jealous o' she. If she was 
 a hedge maid, like lots I know here by, 
 who go like cats creepin' after dusk for 
 toms, and ready to tak' men or lads, 
 whichever comes handiest, why, they'd 
 leave she be. But no, 'cause her'd put 
 her fist right in the eye of any man as 
 tried to kiss she and 'ud do a kind act for 
 any maid as wanted it, they come here wi' 
 their cursed whisperin' and sniggerin', and 
 1 tell 'ee for truth, mother, they ain't fit 
 to wash her clothes." 
 
 12 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Well ! well ! young uns will talk, Kit, 
 and I canna put wool i' my ears." 
 " No ! I knaw that, but 'ee needn't wash 
 out your earholes fur to listen better, and 
 you be soft 'nough to harken and believe 
 
 'em 
 
 " No, lad, it ain't exactly as I b'lieve 'em, 
 but she do open the road for talk about she. 
 
 I don't bear no grudge agin she, but " 
 
 " Iss you do, the lot of 'ee. I knaw all 
 you would like to spit out about she. 
 You J ave got a grudge agin she. Say 
 what you've a mind to. Do 'ee think 
 'cause I holds my tongue I don't knaw 
 how you all hate she ? Bah ! " he spat 
 angrily on the floor and knocked the ashes 
 from his pipe and then rubbed the bowl 
 of it quickly against his sleeve, as if he'd 
 brighten other things than pipe bowls if 
 he could do as he liked. 
 "Thee art a bit teasy, Kit. Thee dost 
 want Janet to come and lift 'ee on the 
 sofa for a while. Thee 'ave sat there too 
 long and art a bit cramped. Lordy ! 
 Lordy ! I wish her'd come home and fit 
 us up a snack o' supper, for I fancy a bit 
 o' tasty, and I reckon that's why we're 
 frettin' a bit one 'gainst the other." 
 
 '3 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Kit kept up the rubbing of his pipe and 
 said stolidly and slowly, as if he had not 
 heard his mother speak, " It's six year 
 come Christmas Eve sin' I took she to 
 wife, and you and old Mother Treglown 
 have butted your two heads together ever 
 sin' to try and ferret out if she be splay- 
 footed, or has a devil's imp inside o' she. 
 Iss ! you knaw I be speaking truth and 
 you may c Husht ! ' as long as you like. 
 I'm going to give 'ee fur once't a bit o' 
 my mind, and you've got to listen, for 
 I'm dead sick o' all this talk over my 
 woman. I've borne things till I'm real 
 teasy at last. You hate she " he put the 
 pipe in his pocket and clasped his hands 
 behind his big neck " 'cause she's had a 
 bit more learnin' than we belong to give 
 our maids. I knaw she do use her brains 
 freely, instead o' lettin' 'em addle for want 
 o' big catches to try 'em on. She can't 
 help that. It's her nature as much as it 
 is for one dog to smell another. Our 
 folkses takes an hour to tell a tale and 
 then tells everythin' but the tale i' the 
 end, and Janet tells 'ee like the click of 
 a door all 'ee wants to knaw to once't. 
 Same wi' fittin' a man's meat while one 
 14 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 o' our maids'll be fittin' up a bit o' pasty, 
 Janet'll have a spread o* tasties fit for 
 Bolitho himself to sit to, and it won't cost 
 as much as a bit o' heavy cake when all's 
 said and done." 
 
 " Iss," nodded the old dame, and she 
 dragged herself across the room to a side 
 cupboard to get the teapot. 
 " Iss I it be true 'nough. Her can fit up 
 meat better nor anyone I do knaw, sure 
 'nough, and " as she put the bread and 
 butter on a little round table near the 
 crippled man " she do eat it hearty too. 
 I marvels sometimes how a female can eat 
 like a g'eat man as she do belong to do. 
 It do take money, I tell 'ee, to keep she in 
 plain victuals, not to speak o' coddles 
 which we do all like betimes." 
 The man laughed happily. 
 " That's it, mother. Hand me a drop o' 
 tea and some bread. It gi'es me a hungry 
 feeling like to think o' she and her eatin'. 
 When I first fell in wi' she I thought, 
 that's the maid for me. Her can eat and 
 sleep and work, and I'll lay my head on it 
 her can love on the same plan. Here 
 goes, said I, and I went fur courtin' that 
 woman on the same plan I'd go in for 
 
 15 
 
r 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 saving a ship, neck or nothin'. I'll have 
 my man in that job it was a woman or 
 go under for it. I knawed she as soon as 
 I clapped eyes on she wi' her sturdy legs 
 and g'eat long hands and her rosy mouth 
 
 as could settle a row in a " He snapped 
 
 his fingers to indicate the time it would 
 need for Janet to square things. " I don't 
 wonder they hate she here. I knaw the 
 sort o' maid you'd got cut out and dressed 
 for me ; she do hunt hereabouts still. 
 Iss ! you knaw she do, like a bitch mad wi' 
 moonshine. No ! I didna want to marry 
 a maid as 'ud sit at my feet and blink at 
 me all day and purr at me all night like a 
 chintzy cat. It shows what you all know 
 'bout me, if 'ee do think as they sort o' 
 women takes my fancy. Some more tea, 
 mother." 
 
 Dame Trenoweth poured out the second 
 cup of tea, and, as she gave it to him, she 
 rubbed her trembling old hand through 
 his thick hair and gently kissed him. Her 
 Kit was her idol, and if she could only get 
 him to talk she did not mind a bit of 
 abuse. 
 
 " Eh, Kit ! But you're over hard on the 
 
 maids. It be true I would have liked 'ee 
 
 16 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 to wed a maiden like Wilmot Tregarth, 
 and it's true as 'ee say as she's allus been 
 over fond of 'ee, but if 'ee don't take to 
 such as she well, well, thy old mother 
 won't make thy bed harder for 'ee to lie 
 on. Mothers cain't count on choosing 
 their sons' wives." 
 
 Kit handed her his cup and took out his 
 pipe again and sucked it before filling it. 
 " They sort o' women makes me sick," he 
 muttered ; " I could take my foot to 'em. 
 The very scent of their skirts spells fool- 
 ishness to me. They seems as addle-pated 
 as gulls, and they simper and chatter 'nough 
 
 to gie 'ee a sick stomach. But Janet " 
 
 and as he said the word you could not tell 
 whether the blaze from his match as he 
 lighted his pipe or the vision his brain 
 conjured up gave the fire and strength to 
 his deep grey eyes "Janet, why her's 
 never teased me once't nor tired me 
 neither, sin' we was married. Her's like a 
 squirrel ; now ain't she, mother ?" 
 The old woman nodded. 
 "Like a bit eel, too eh ?" he asked with 
 a merry twinkle in his eye as he blew a 
 smoke wreath from his uplifted mouth. 
 " Iss, iss, so she be." 
 
 17 2 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 "And like a skylark on the Towans at 
 
 daybreak, eh, mother ? " 
 
 " I don't belong to see they now, lad," she 
 
 answered cautiously, for she had a dim 
 
 idea he was taking her into a maze where 
 
 she would find herself entrapped in the 
 
 praises of Janet. 
 
 " Well, her's like a rough colt, too and a 
 
 bit of a tiger thrown in." He laughed 
 
 loudly. " That last 'ee'll grant to she ? " 
 
 " Iss ! a bit like that, but not quite so bad 
 
 as 'ee've painted she." 
 
 The old dame grunted, rather bewildered 
 
 at having her own weapons used in her 
 
 son's hands. 
 
 " No, not quite so bad." 
 
 He chuckled. 
 
 " And down below all they things, mother, 
 
 there's somethin' else she be like, and no 
 
 feller, unless he's been at a school, could 
 
 fet at it, and perhaps not then. I can't 
 nd no way o' tellin' of it, for it's like the 
 lighthouse lamp in a gale. I can steer by 
 'en, but I'm blest if I can whistle 'en into 
 the boat wi' me. There, you look mad 
 again 'cause I've got off the tiger tack. 
 Oh, mother ! I wish 'ee'd try and love 
 she, for 'ee do make she whisht many and 
 18 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 many a time, though her says no word of 
 it." 
 
 "Well, well, Kit. I'll try to please 'ee, 
 for, as I said afore, I've nothin' agin the 
 woman, and after all she do belong to thee 
 and I s'ud behave better, but " with a 
 sly glance at the man, who was now 
 beginning to mend an old brown fishing 
 net with a tatting spool " I do miss the 
 lill baaby, Kit, and 1 do want to dandle a 
 brat o' yours on my knees afore the Lord 
 do take me." 
 
 She pulled out of her pocket an old red 
 silk handkerchief and wiped her eyes. 
 This was her trump card, and she had 
 saved it all these months to play against 
 Janet. She smoothed out her apron and 
 made a grandmother's knee, while she 
 rocked to and fro as if hushing a child to 
 sleep, but only " Lordy ! Lordy ! " was 
 heard by Kit, who never guessed that it 
 was a lullaby. He threw down the net on 
 the floor and the tatting spool with it. 
 " Now we're at it," he said, and belched 
 out volumes of smoke from his pipe. 
 " She be chieldless ! That's your grudge 
 agin she, be it ? I've stopped your tongue 
 afore now when you was going to run on 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 that tack and now by God ! I'll stop 'ee 
 altogether." 
 
 He knocked some more loose furze into 
 the smouldering heap with one hand, 
 tightly clutching the iron which he held 
 with the other, and as the flames danced 
 round the wood he went on : 
 " That woman's biggest wish i' this world 
 is to have a chiel, mind that ! Her biggest 
 wish, I tell 'ee. Her's made in bone and 
 belly and breast for that job better nor all 
 our maids i' Cornwall." 
 His eyes kindled, and the smoking ceased 
 as he twisted himself further round in his 
 chair to face his mother. 
 " I'd never guessed afore I knew she what 
 a woman was. They maids 1 walked wi' 
 teached me no more o' women o' Janet's 
 mak' nor grey birds or bantams. I never 
 shot a guess afore I courted Janet what a 
 parcel o' feelin's could fit into a cream and 
 white skin that looks as if her own finger 
 nails 'ud scar it. It's just they things I 
 think on as I sit here when I can't move 
 about as I belong women and maids and 
 mothers and childer and I'm blest if every 
 one o' they don't all fit into the face of 
 my woman." 
 
 20 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Seeing the bewildered look in his mother's 
 face, he said, in a more gentle voice : 
 "But that's not here nor yet there. 
 Mother, do 'ee try to follow me a bit and 
 you're bound to come round to my way o' 
 thinking. I'd cut my hand off iss, I'd 
 scoop out one of my eyes as the Bible 
 tells we to do rather than I'd think hard 
 or evil o' Janet. There is no evil in she." 
 He knocked the ashes out of his pipe 
 against the arm of his chair as he said it, 
 and blew vigorously down the stem. 
 " Her's a big brave woman as clings hard 
 to a man " his voice was lowered, and 
 he looked hardly at the old woman 
 " who never can have no chiel ! There, 
 mother ! " with a short, sharp breath 
 " put that in your snuff to scent it wi', 
 and strike out the sum agin Janet. 
 You've got to put that fault to me and 
 not to she. When the neighbours come 
 in next and set up their cacklin' over 
 maids and widders and chiels and passons, 
 tell 'em from me that Clibby Kit can't get 
 no chiel, and that Janet, his woman, do 
 cleave to he in spite of it, 'cause she loves 
 he, mark that ! and has vowed to love he 
 till he dies and tell 'em too, if they can 
 
 21 
 
r 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 spell it out, that ever sin' her knawed 
 her could have no chiel, her's never 
 mouthed over it neither to me, nor to 
 any other body. Folks don't mag except 
 o' pin pricks. I'm not blind, and I watch 
 she, as you do knaw well 'nough, like a 
 big fool, day in and day out. I watch 
 that woman o' ours wi' chielder, and it's 
 'nough to send 'ee mazed to see the look 
 on her face. Virgin Marys indeed ! 
 they faces ain't none o' 'em ripe enough 
 to look like my woman." He laughed 
 softly. "The chielder know she, know 
 she for a full, ripe woman as wants 
 somethin' that she do belong to have and 
 can't have noways as I can see. Watch 
 her wi' beasts. It's just the same. It 
 makes a feller feel a skunkin' hound to 
 set fish hooks for starlings or hunt a wild 
 thing happy i' the sun. Oh, mother ! do 
 'ee hear me ? I'm sore pressed to plead 
 for she like this. I don't belong to be a 
 whining ninny like I be this day, but 
 you've set me on past my own tongue 
 and I don't knaw myself at all. No, not 
 at all sure 'nough." 
 
 His face, aglow with the energy with which 
 
 he had spoken, grew softer. The lover 
 
 22 
 
KITS WOMAN: A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 had transfigured the rough miner and 
 educated him beyond the colleges and 
 books he craved to know in order that he 
 might be able to understand Janet. Old 
 Mother. Trenoweth cowered under his 
 strange look, for Kit, her strong, quiet, 
 and tender son, never talked to her in this 
 feverish way, and she feared he was getting 
 " not exactly " through sitting still all day. 
 " Kit, my son, don't 'ee tak' on 'bout what 
 I said. I meant no hurt to she. I'm a 
 lone widdy," with a whimper, " and I did 
 want to dandle a lill grandchiel on my 
 knees afore I died, but, if it is the Lord's 
 will that 'ee cannot be a goodman to she 
 as is your lawful wife, well, it is not for 
 me to say one way nor another, and I 
 didna mean to tease 'ee, sure 'nough. 
 When a woman be barren, 'ee knows 
 'eeself that folks will talk and say that, if 
 one chap winna do, she do often hanker 
 after another, specially if her master bides 
 always in the house place and she do go 
 up 'long at times as Janet do. I don't 
 say but what seaweed can do 'ee good, but 
 it be far for she to go fur it, and she so 
 well set and lively in her talk, and not of 
 this country neither." 
 
 23 
 
r 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 This last sentence was delivered with a 
 little of the old venom, for here was 
 another sore which could not heal, that 
 her son had not chosen a wife from his 
 own village and people. The man 
 laughed. 
 
 " It's no use gettin' teasy wi' thee, mother. 
 I thank the Lord I've taken a maid from 
 another place ; I've told 'ee over and over 
 again, I'm none taken wi' these lurgy 
 women hereabouts, giddy heads, wi' no 
 sense nor no fling in 'em. I'm goin' to 
 have forty winks now, and so let's leave 
 Janet to hersel' ! Her'll be back betimes 
 and her'll find me as mum as a gurnard if 
 I don't take care. Don't 'ee mind the 
 sharp things I've said to 'ee. I'm not 
 exactly to-day. There's a gale o' wind 
 brewing, I b'lieve, and that allus stirs my 
 bile a bit, since I've had to be indoors." 
 With this apology he leaned back in his 
 chair and closed his eyes, a bit of " play- 
 acting " he indulged in when he wanted to 
 escape his mother's chatter. She slowly 
 pulled herself together and began to collect 
 and wash up the tea-things, pondering in 
 her old-fashioned way on the perversity of 
 young blood. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 KIT TRENOWETH, after his complaint to 
 his mother that he was in need of sleep, 
 let his head drop on his breast and gradu- 
 ally sank into a quiet doze, but in between 
 the waking and sleeping he thought about 
 Janet and wondered in a dim way what 
 kind of power had got possession of him 
 to have altered his life so oddly. When 
 Janet came near him it was as if all gentle 
 and strong influences had come with her. 
 It always bewildered him that he never 
 tired of her, never ceased feeling towards 
 her as if he had but newly loved her. 
 One of his mates had once told him that 
 it was against nature for him and his 
 sort to live always with the same woman, 
 and he added that with his wife he had to 
 pretend every now and then that she was 
 not married to him, and for this purpose 
 
 2 5 
 
r 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 he took off her wedding ring and acted 
 like a lover to her in order to stimulate 
 his old passion for her. Clibby Kit never 
 felt the need to lash up his old romance 
 for Janet, it never ceased spurring him, 
 and he dwelt in the heaven and hell of 
 an absorption which at times seemed to 
 threaten his reason. At first he thought 
 Janet had bewitched him when he found 
 that a subtler passion followed on the mere 
 physical spell of the early days, for he had 
 seen so many of his mates bewitched and 
 befooled by the fortnight, or by the year, 
 and get over it, as they did a fever. They 
 always settled down to a good-humoured 
 married life, neither drunk nor starved 
 as far as love was concerned, and they 
 laughed knowingly at the first love frenzy 
 in others, which they reckoned to be the 
 way of young boys, colts, and soldiers. 
 But Janet had curiously become as his 
 actual daily bread to Trenoweth, until at 
 times he felt he was enslaved by his 
 absorption and no longer his own master. 
 He was restless away from her, at rest 
 with her, and in both cases he was often 
 puzzled at the spell over him, which he 
 could not analyse or withstand. His 
 26 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 depression when she was not with him for 
 an interval, on seeing her again was often 
 followed by a mood of exultation, which 
 in his homely way he compared to " the 
 feelin' a man has when heVe saved a poor 
 devil from the sea and he finds hisself 
 warm and happy between white sheets 
 again." Every morning when he wakened 
 he thanked God she lay by his side. To 
 feel her breathing near him soothed him 
 to a quiet happiness which rarely grew 
 less. She had educated him as love 
 alone can educate. He knew little or 
 nothing of books, nor did she, but the 
 very scent of womanhood, which seemed 
 to lull his baser passions as she moved 
 near him, set him thinking about matters 
 which had never before entered his head. 
 He knew nothing about modern problems 
 how could he ? His first problem had 
 been how to fill his own stomach. His 
 second, how to feed his mother, and before 
 he had solved these two the third problem, 
 which of course he never recognised as 
 one at all, appeared to him when he was 
 working in the mines near Barrow, in the 
 shape of this woman, Janet Nelson, with 
 whom he fell in love, and whom he wooed 
 27 
 
r 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 with a strength and tenacity of purpose 
 which bewildered her. Being a strong, 
 capable Lancashire lass, she had several 
 lovers, as " wenches " always had who had 
 any " grit " in them, but Kit Trenoweth's 
 southern ways, which, like the modulations 
 at the end of his sentences, charmed her 
 native artistic sense with a feeling of grace 
 and refinement, at last won her. She was 
 swept away by his sincere passion for her, 
 and the twitting of her companions, who 
 called her " chap " a " toff," only increased 
 the attraction towards the sober, tender, 
 and yet passionate lover who came to her 
 with none of the vulgar swagger or selfish 
 bombast of the men around her, who 
 worshipped money and money - getting 
 more than women. Six years ago he had 
 fought for her and won her. Two years 
 after their marriage, he came back to his 
 old Cornish home and accepted a vacant 
 place in one of the few mines still offering 
 regular work in Cornwall. 
 Almost immediately upon his return to his 
 old associations and work, when in full 
 health and pay, an accident paralysed him, 
 and he felt himself at times almost like a 
 dead man. Janet had to mother him now, 
 28 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 sometimes almost to nurse him like a child 
 and carry him from chair to sofa in her 
 strong arms. The tender and protecting 
 influence came now from the woman to 
 the man, for her old powerful sweetheart 
 was no longer able to guard her ; he had 
 to endure a cripple's life with its physical 
 drawbacks. The virile lover was laid 
 aside, and Nature, as if in revenge for her 
 thwarted plan, had pressed the subtler 
 spiritual laws of love-life into the fore- 
 ' ground, and made the mental war against 
 the physical, until the poor human, with 
 his pipe, his net-making and his mother, 
 presented a sorry spectacle to those who 
 had known him as a strong, capable 
 worker and organiser. 
 It was this subtle transformation in the man 
 and the lover which made him at times 
 unable to tell if he had more pleasure or 
 pain in this love of his. It tormented him 
 on the days when he watched Janet's 
 strong young face brighten as some wel- 
 come outsider poured out news or told of 
 some village frolic ; he felt then that he 
 was old, grey, and stupid, and she well, 
 she seemed to him like a seagull and a 
 mermaid in one, meant to fly, dash, strike 
 29 
 
1 
 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 out and fulfil herself in ways he could not 
 understand. He smoked the matter in 
 his pipe, he said to himself sometimes, but 
 the tobacco gave out before he could 
 arrive at any definite consolation or con- 
 clusion. Then, as he pondered over it 
 once more, she would come and nestle 
 close to him and caress him in her strong 
 womanly way, lay her long firm hands on 
 his shoulders, and tell him what a good 
 fellow he was, and then he felt happy, 
 very happy, until the devil put it into his 
 head to argue with himself that if she had 
 told him he was a bad lot, but that she 
 loved him the bad lot better than any- 
 thing else in the world, he would have 
 been really happy and for a long time. 
 Once as they sat together after the old 
 dame had gone to bed she had looked at 
 him in a strange way, and her face seemed 
 tired and a little pale, too, and he had put 
 his arm out, and rubbed the back of his 
 hairy hand on her smooth long fingers, 
 and lingered over the one where the ring 
 told him he was safe. She turned round 
 suddenly and threw her strong arm round 
 his neck and held him so tightly that the 
 pressure hurt him, and she said thickly : 
 
 30 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLJ. 
 
 " I wonder what I'd do without thee, 
 mon " ; and he could not answer her, for 
 it was as if his very blood had danced in 
 his flesh. She rarely said words like that ; 
 her northern training expressed itself more 
 in tender action than words, and she could 
 rarely speak when she felt deeply. 
 Kit hungered often for a rough Lancashire 
 love speech, but it seldom came. He had 
 
 frown very restless these last two years ; 
 e wondered if books or clever people 
 could help him over one or two puzzles 
 which bewildered him. He was growing 
 afraid of the silence Janet always kept 
 about having no child ; he felt nervous 
 about it as he might of a ghost. Her 
 reserve, and her joyless laughter over 
 trivialities, which he had noticed at times, 
 worried him, and he dared not question 
 her for fear of putting his own dread into 
 her mind in case his suspicions were only 
 the result of his doting passion. The real 
 trouble lay in the knowledge, that grew 
 upon him in some undefined way, that the 
 woman was more than his match, that she 
 was hiding her real self away from him. 
 The girls with whom he had flirted, the 
 women familiarity had led him to under- 
 
 31 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 stand his mother, for instance were not 
 like Janet. They had no inflexions, no 
 modulations worth speaking of ; they were 
 within the octave, as it were, and an 
 occasional tuning up at Christmas, at Feast 
 times, or when a revival took place, was 
 all they needed to keep them both healthy 
 and virtuous. Love had sharpened Treno- 
 weth's wits, and he was puzzled about 
 Janet's nature, until he had once or twice 
 come nearly to the point of having a talk 
 with the " passon," of whom he stood in 
 awe as more or less belonging to the 
 " gentry," to whom a poor man could not 
 easily pour out his human difficulties. He 
 felt it would be a good deal easier to beg 
 for parish relief than to ask advice on a 
 subject he had pondered over until it had 
 become a part of Janet in his thoughts, 
 and would not bear talking over, any more 
 than the big brown mole under her breast. 
 He smoked and made his nets and cursed 
 himself for a doubting fool when he felt 
 an icy shiver run over him as he said to 
 himself : " Her's above the likes o' we 
 her'll find it out one day, and then well, 
 what then ? " These reflections generally 
 ended in his declaring with astounding 
 32 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 emphasis that Janet belonged to him and 
 to him alone, and he was but a poor- 
 hearted fellow to addle his brains with 
 silly fears. 
 
 One day, after an hour spent in thinking 
 over these things, he had suddenly called 
 out gruffly : " Come here, wench, and kiss 
 your lawful man ; we're spliced for good, 
 mind, as you women say up long ; you 
 can't get out o' it, Janet, my lass." Janet 
 had pondered over this speech and 
 wondered if Kit would ever become like 
 Nathan Treweeke, who ordered his woman 
 about as if she had neither soul nor body 
 of her own, and at last gave her two black 
 eyes in the endeavour to prove that man 
 is made on purpose to master a woman 
 and after that to praise God and glorify 
 Him for ever. 
 
 Kit Trenoweth had never spoken so 
 strongly or at such length in his life as 
 he had to his mother that afternoon, and 
 the mental effort had exhausted him. He 
 dozed as he thought over Janet and longed 
 for her return. His brain and spine 
 seemed alive and as if tiny hot insects 
 were crawling over him, and picking with 
 teeth like needle-points the very marrow 
 33 3 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 out of his bones. His manhood and his 
 self-control seemed to be fast ebbing away, 
 and he felt that if he did not see Janet 
 he should soon be "mazed." His wife 
 had been gone a day and a night, but it 
 seemed weeks to Kit. She left home so 
 rarely that he thought when she had gone 
 that he had some idea of what it would 
 be like if she died, or he died, for he 
 could never imagine that even in heaven 
 he could be anything but lost and " leery " 
 without Janet. 
 
 Kit scarcely realised how his whole 
 religion had been unconsciously modified 
 and in some respects utterly changed 
 through his love for this woman Janet. 
 The world, which he once affected to look 
 upon as a mere temporary dwelling place, 
 had become his heaven simply because 
 Janet moved in it. The Golden Jerusalem, 
 the judgment seat, and the harp and 
 crown which had always formed, as a good 
 Wesleyan, a background to his image of 
 God and Christ, had imaged themselves 
 very faintly in these latter years, and he 
 had once, in a state of half waking and 
 sleeping, caught himself imagining heaven 
 with a woman on the Throne, crooning 
 34 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 to little children who were playing at her 
 feet. It was getting indeed time that 
 Clibby Kit should consult his "leader," 
 for Love and Religion were becoming 
 hopelessly entangled in his simple brain. 
 Janet being a churchwoman had got into 
 touch with the parish treats, and this had 
 added to the feeling against her in her 
 mother-in-law and the gossips of the 
 village, who looked upon their chapels as 
 the meeting place where the worship of 
 God was the least conspicuous part of the 
 ritual. The newest styles in dress and 
 manners and the silent flirtations made 
 the Sabbath a day of rejoicing more than 
 prayer, and Kit made up his mind that if 
 he went to a " passon " about his difficulties 
 it should not be one of his own sect, but 
 of the English Church. 
 
 35 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 "Wno be there ? Come in, if you please," 
 called Mother Trenoweth, as a knock was 
 heard at the door. " Oh ! be it you, 
 Loveday? Well, my dear, I'm real glad 
 to see 'ee. Sit 'ee down. It be so mortal 
 dull at times here that I'm right glad to 
 have a neighbour drop in. Sit 'ee down 
 tak' a chair i' front o' the fire." Then, 
 as she caught sight of her neighbour's face, 
 she said quickly, " Why, what's wrong wi' 
 
 'ee, woman ? 
 
 " What's wrong ? My gosh ! What's 
 right, you might be askin' ! Be Janet in ?" 
 Loveday Penberthy peered round the room 
 as she asked the question, and seeing 
 Trenoweth apparently asleep, she smiled 
 and jerked her thumb in an interrogative 
 way over her shoulder towards the door 
 by which she had just entered, at which 
 36 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 gesture Mother Trenoweth shook her 
 head, and sighed wearily : " Lordy ! my 
 dear, her bean't back yet." 
 " My blessed life ! " ejaculated Loveday, 
 the gossip and ne'er-do-weel of the village ; 
 " I be near faintin', that I be ; I can 'ardly 
 stan' upright at all" to prove which she 
 leaned her stout person against the end 
 of the window seat, folded her large bare 
 arms, rested them on her capacious 
 stomach, and let all her weight fall on one 
 leg in her endeavour to ease both mind 
 and body. 
 
 " Whatever be the matter, Loveday ? Is 
 Jan not so well agin ? " 
 " Oh ! Jan ! he be right enough, and if 
 he warn't I don't knaw as I s'ud fret over 
 much 'bout he. Lazy lump ! He don't 
 earn tuppence a week all told, and I've to 
 go down 'long o' Mazes to wash and char 
 and do coddles for he to guzzle hissel' out 
 wi' baccy and meat. I'll have 'ee knaw, 
 Mrs. Trenoweth, that I'm fairly done fur." 
 " Mazes," said the old woman, " Mazes ? 
 who be they then ? But sit 'ee down, 
 Loveday, sit 'ee down, woman, and tell 
 me all 'bout it." 
 
 "I'm feared I s'll be upsettin' o' Kit there." 
 37 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " No, you wain't ; sit 'ee down and don't 
 'ee mind me ; mag on a bit it'll do the 
 old un good. What's wrang wi' 'ee, 
 now ? " asked Kit quietly from the corner, 
 for Loveday's loud voice had brought him 
 back to ordinary matters. 
 " Why ! I'm fair befoolt wi' they up-'long 
 folkses, they as have took Maister Lander's 
 house up by the south cove. I cain't tell 
 what be comin' to pass they strangers do 
 seem to tormint the life and soul out o' we 
 dacent folkses wi' their flash notions and 
 lurgy ways and " with a sneer " as mean, 
 my dear, as mean as misards, every one o' 
 they sort." 
 
 "They've sent for 'ee then to do their 
 chars for 'en ? " asked the old woman. 
 " My Lord ! I s'ud jist think they 'ad." 
 Loveday threw up her head and sniffed 
 the air with impatient scorn. She had 
 taken off her flat black hat and thrown it 
 on the floor, when she caught sight of the 
 door which was being slowly opened from 
 outside. 
 
 " Here comes Nan Curtis ; her'll tell 'ee 
 'bout Mazes, fur her had one o' they 
 lodging wi' she once't." 
 Nan Curtis opened the door and peeped 
 
 38 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 into the room in the familiar way neigh- 
 bours have with one another. She stepped 
 into the house place, and sat on a bench 
 opposite Kit, with a friendly though rough 
 greeting to him. 
 " How be 'ee, old man ? " 
 " 'Bout same, Nan thank 'ee." 
 Nan wore a white sun bonnet, which 
 partially shaded her rough, bony face ; the 
 skin was yellow and coarse, and but for an 
 expression of intense animation she would 
 have been positively repellant in her 
 ugliness. She continually exposed large 
 yellow tusks, for she seemed to yapp like 
 a dog as she talked ; the same sound did 
 duty for a laugh or a grunt of disapproval. 
 She sat square and taut, braced up for a 
 scold or a kind of rattlesnake gossip at 
 any hour. She was always clean and even 
 prim in her dress, and her shrewish 
 tendencies and quick retorts made her 
 respected and at the same time feared by 
 her slow and easy-living neighbours. She 
 and Loveday were great cronies, for they 
 met on a common ground : both kept their 
 native vindictiveness on the surface and 
 both were willing at any hour to do a real 
 service for a neighbour. Many a racy 
 39 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 story, by which the general world is the 
 loser, did these two women tell one 
 another over two-pennyworth of the best 
 gin. If ridicule and denunciation could 
 have re-constructed a community, Loveday 
 and Nan would have managed the whole 
 task over one noggin of the best Plymouth. 
 Nan sat opposite Kit, and smoothed out 
 her clean apron over her dark green dress 
 with her small energetic hands. Her 
 upright, defiant attitude and her straight 
 bust, which did not seem to offer either 
 tenderness or forgiveness to the fallen or 
 strayed, suggested a grim, stern humour, 
 and a stolid common sense which contrasted 
 strongly with Loveday's lazy slouch, ill- 
 kempt hair and voluminous bosom, which 
 scandal declared had more than once bidden 
 welcome to vagrant lovers. Nan turned 
 to Loveday, and preened herself for a tale 
 of woe and frolic in one. 
 " What's that yer was sayin', Loveday ? 
 Be you on the Mazes' tack ? Lord ! 
 'ee've been to char for they ain't 'ee ? " 
 A toss of the head was all the answer 
 Loveday gave, but she looked fixedly at 
 her friend for a moment, and then winked, 
 at which the other yapped. 
 40 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 "They be parties sure 'nough. How 
 did they sarve 'ee, then ? " 
 " Sarve me ! Why, woman they sarved 
 me so spicey that I can't sit down, I'm 
 that sore." She rubbed affectionately the 
 afflicted portion of her body and coughed 
 as she saw Kit smiling to himself in the 
 corner. " My dear life ! I cain't even 
 move my arm to my head, I'm that stiff; 
 I cain't think what up-'long folkses think 
 we's made of. Naw ! " settling down 
 into a heap in order to tell her tale with 
 more ease. " Just listen ! I goes to they 
 Mazes fust thing i' the mornin', and then 
 it's fust one thing and then it's another, 
 clack and clatter from daybreak to mid- 
 night. My dear" with a loud laugh 
 and addressing Nan " they do belong to 
 have their knives claned wi' some stuff or 
 'nother every day, every blessed mornin', 
 I tell 'ee, and I've got to shine their 
 bloomin' shoes, not once't a week, mind 
 'ee, but every day." 
 
 " Lordy, Lordy ! " sang the old dame, 
 " would 'ee believe it, then ? One 'ud 
 almost think they made a particular habit 
 o' fmdin' mud to dirty 'em. It ain't 
 exactly seemly, seems to me, to dirt all 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 over your shoes every day ; I s'udn't a 
 thought gentry would act so like working 
 folkses." 
 
 " Gentry ! they sort gentry ! my blessed ! 
 They ain't no gentry ! They do save up 
 every crumble, and 'cause they can hitch 
 up a veil to their hats o' Sundays they 
 looks down on we folkses as 'as to work 
 for they. Darned upstairts ! that's what 
 they be." She beat her foot impatiently 
 on the brick floor and looked envious. 
 "You be right there, Loveday. They 
 sort mak's their money up along and 
 comes down along to save it on we. Ah ! 
 ah ! ah ! Well, what else had 'ee to do ? " 
 "Why, it's all fetchin' and carryin' and 
 bowin' and scrapin', and they expects a 
 bloomin' lot o' mag wi' it, too. They's 
 for ever ' beggin' pardin' and wants me to 
 do the same most all day and for nothin' 
 too. I cain't mak' it out. If they do 
 hutch up too close to one 'nother they 
 smirks thisards " imitating an inclination 
 of the head and a slow drawl " c beggin' o' 
 your pardin ! ' Lawks ! look at the old 
 un ; her's doin' it too," for the old 
 woman was so keenly following Loveday's 
 tale that she had unconsciously smirked 
 42 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 and made a movement with her lips. 
 " It's all 'nough to turn your stomach, 
 and I said right out once't that I'd beg no 
 pardins to no one for doin' no wrang to 'em ! 
 I knaws gentry, Clibby Kit," with a direct 
 look at the cripple, " I knaw they well 
 'nough when I see they and if I do any 
 person a hurt I'm not so over-proud but 
 what I'll say I'm sorry for it, that is, if I 
 be sorry, you knaw " with an apologetic 
 smile at Nan "but they must be fittey 
 like if I'm to bend my pride to they, and 
 not upstairts as cain't fairly pay for a drop 
 o' milk when they've drunk it." 
 A loud laugh came from Nan at this point, 
 for she knew the farm where the milk 
 was bought, and she could back Loveday's 
 assertion with another tale about unpaid 
 debts. 
 
 " Iss ! Iss ! but what's the good o' keep 
 beggin' pardin, Loveday ; what's it fur at 
 all ? " asked the old woman. 
 " Summat to do, I s'ud reckon. I told 
 Mrs Maze pretty quick that I warn't 
 
 foin' to beg pardins to no one, and that 
 er bluid and mine, I guessed, was maistly 
 of the same colour both on us seemingly 
 has red bluid in we and not black, least- 
 
 43 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 ways I ain't noane inside o' me and then I 
 up and told she if anyone was to beg pardins, 
 it was she and not me. Iss ! I did," em- 
 phatically, for there was an incredulous 
 smile creeping over Nan's face. " I just up 
 and said they very words to she, and why ? " 
 Loveday drew her chair closer to the fire 
 and crossed her legs. 
 
 "Would you believe it of the mean 
 woman ? They had a roast sent into the 
 dinin' room for theirsels, and what do 'ee 
 think was put abroad on the table fur me ?" 
 pointing with a fat finger to her capacious 
 chest. 
 
 " Nay ! I canna guess," said the old 
 woman, whose eyes gleamed at this rare 
 chance of village gossip. " What were it 
 then ? " 
 
 " Heavy cake, I s'ud say," snarled Nan, 
 whose experiences in the gluttony of 
 lodgers and " up-'long " people was sad. 
 " No, woman ; it weren't even that. It were 
 a rusty herrin' and a bit o' stale bread." 
 " Lordy, Lordy ! did anybody ever hear 
 the likes o' that, but I've allus heard that 
 the strangers and artises be very sparey," 
 said Mother Trenoweth. 
 " Divil tak' the bastely misards," grunted 
 44 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Nan. "What did 'ee do? Did 'ee eat 
 'en at all ? " 
 
 " Eat 'en ? " with a fine scorn. " I just 
 took 'en right under her nose when her'd 
 corned out o' the dinin' room stuffed full 
 o' flesh meat, and I said to she : c Here, 
 missis ! yer cat must be a stranger, too, 
 I reckon ! her don't tak' to rusty herrin's 
 neither do she ? Her's waitin' seemly 
 fur the roast, I'm thinkin'.' " 
 Loveday clasped her hands round her 
 crossed knee and chuckled. 
 " Drat 'ee ! Did 'ee say that fur sure ? " 
 cried Nan. 
 
 " Iss ! sure 'nough that I did, to try fur to 
 shame she. And that's not all, my girl," 
 and Loveday clapped her hands and 
 changed the position of her legs. She 
 screwed up her eyes as if in pain as she 
 did this ; winked and nodded to the two 
 women and looked across at Kit. " I can 
 scarce move easy yet : it's the butter- 
 makin' and the scrubbin' all to once't. 
 Think of a shillin' a day for to char and 
 rub and scrub and mak' butter as well. 
 You knaw I can wash well 'nough ; I've 
 done it anyways for the last fifteen year 
 and more eh, Nan ? " 
 
 45 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " That 'ee can, my dear," answered Nan, 
 " and git the dirt out o' the clathes wi'out 
 any muck put i' the watter to rend 'em 
 abroad as soon as they're on a body's 
 back agin. Didna your washin' suit 'en 
 neither ? " 
 
 Loveday put her hands to her sides and 
 laughed loudly. 
 
 " Oh ! my Lord ! I'll leave 'ee knaw a 
 thing or two. If Kit there don't like 
 what I'm goin' to say, I cain't help 'en, 
 but somehow now I allus look on 'ee more 
 like a woman than a man, wi' allus bein' 
 in and listenin' to our mag eh ? " She 
 looked kindly at Kit. 
 " Iss ! I suppose you do. I'm not harkin' 
 much, Loveday, and if you don't talk too 
 loud I cain't hear 'ee, if it's summat as 
 belongs to women folkses." 
 He glanced at Loveday with a look which 
 combined repulsion and familiarity. 
 " Well ! my dear," addressing Nan, " after 
 I'd got through all they chars and the 
 butter and washed and dried and mangled 
 all they clothes (it took me three days' 
 slavin' like a nigger, till I'm a mass o' 
 sores, I tell 'ee), what do 'ee think that 
 pert Miss Maze had to say to it all ? My 
 46 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 blessed life ! Her coomed into me like 
 this if you please." 
 
 Loveday got up and mimicked fine lady- 
 dom so well that all three shouted with 
 laughter, and Kit chuckled as he called for 
 more tobacco. 
 
 "* Pen ! ' (the cheek o' she cuttin' my 
 name i' two like that) c Pen ! ' says she," 
 and the rough loud voice sank to a 
 mincing treble, " c you have not starched 
 the legs o' my drawseses, and Ma and me 
 allus likes our laces starched. 1 Naw ! 
 what do 'ee think o' that fur lustful 
 pride ? " 
 
 " My dear life ! " from Nan. " 'Ee cain't 
 mean that, sure 'nough ! " She rocked 
 backwards and forwards and showed her 
 large yellow tusks with delight and amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 " Did 'ee ever ! Oh ! my patience on us ! 
 starch i' their drawseses ! Well ! well ! 
 they be up-'long notions ! " 
 "And that ain't all," amicably continued 
 Loveday, " but it's the same wi' the lace 
 on their night shifts too, and all sorts o' 
 different clathes as they do wear ; it ain't 
 only i' the legs o' their drawseses, I can 
 tell 'ee," with a mysterious wink at Nan. 
 47 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Lordy, Lordy ! I wonder they can 
 sleep i' comfort," said the old woman, 
 moving her neck from side to side as if 
 she could feel the stiff laces like a halter 
 round her throat. 
 
 "What did 'ee say to she when her'd 
 asked 'ee to do such an unbeknown thing 
 as that, Loveday ? " queried Nan. Love- 
 day had seated herself again and was 
 gazing with the air of a conquering 
 heroine into the fire. 
 " I said to she, c Starch i' drawseses, Miss 
 Maze ? ' Eduth, her maiden name be, 
 and after that I'd a real mind to call she 
 that to her face. c Iss ! ' says I to she 
 c iss ! I'll put starch i' your drawseses, and 
 all over 'em too ! ' 
 
 " Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! Darn 'ee ! " from Nan. 
 " That's one o' the best you've ever given 
 they sort, Loveday. They cain't get to 
 the windward o' you. What did the fule 
 say to 'ee then ? " 
 
 "Well," answered Loveday, modestly, 
 " I'm not altogether sure her heard that 
 last, else her didn't quite pick out what 
 the meanin' o' it were, but her went to 
 the cupboard and gave me the starch, and," 
 with a broad grin, " her's got starch 'nough 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 in her drawseses now as'll let she knaw 
 what my body do feel like after doin' 
 chars 'nough fur a month fur one day's 
 pay." 
 
 " Up-'long folkses ain't all so near as 
 Mazes be, Loveday, yer must mind that. 
 Do 'ee recollect that poor devil Macnab 
 as lodged wi' me last winter ? I tended 
 he like my own chiel. He'd no sich ways 
 'long o' he, I can tell 'ee. He was as free 
 to help 'ee as to laugh at 'ee, but sickly, 
 sure enough." 
 
 Nan took the corner of her white apron 
 and blew her nose vigorously. 
 " I did take to that feller, and I'm whisht 
 many a time when I do think o' 'en, poor 
 fule." 
 
 "What's become o' he sin' he went to 
 foreign pairts ? " asked Loveday. 
 " My gosh ! ain't I never told 'ee ? Well ! 
 well ! I b'lieve I took it pretty hard and 
 said nothin' of it for long 'nough. My 
 blessed life ! he be turned into a pepper- 
 dredge, so I've 'card ! " She beat the 
 ground quickly and fiercely with her foot 
 as she continued in an injured tone : 
 " That's a poor 'nough end for a fellow to 
 come to after all the slavin' I did for 'en. 
 49 4 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 I've rubbed that man's back, which was 
 nothin' to begin wi' but a loose sack full 
 o' nails, I 'ave rubbed 'en till it were 
 blistered many a time, and made 'en coddles 
 enough to frighten 'ee to tempt his appetite. 
 Old Nancy Nanquitho's stuff did nothin' 
 at all for he. I don't want to say nothin' 
 for to dishearten Kit there, but it seems 
 to me that that seaweed oil is nothin' but 
 a snare to trap a fule's money." 
 " P'raps the oil bean't much worth for a 
 decline, Nan," answered Kit. " It be good, 
 I b'lieve, for seizures and rheumatics, 
 leastways that's what her's told Janet that 
 it's maistly fur." 
 
 Loveday winked at Nan and said surlily : 
 " Some folkses is o'er fond o' jawing to 
 your woman, Kit, and they do feed her 
 mind wi' untruths, I'm fearin'. I don't 
 b'lieve mysel' in folkses livin' i' huts when 
 there's housen near by to be had for 
 almost nothin'. If I was thee, Kit, I'd 
 stop Janet from going too much wi' the 
 likes o' Nancy Nanquitho. There be 
 folkses near by as 'ud place her character 
 i' the bottom of a beer mug and then 
 declare you couldn't find 'en, drunk nor 
 sober." 
 
 5 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 The old woman clasped her hands and 
 
 turned her thumbs one over the other as 
 
 she watched her son's face, but she said 
 
 no word for or against the old witch 
 
 doctor. 
 
 Kit laughed. 
 
 " Perhaps the woman 'ave melted her 
 
 character into the seaweed stuff and it'll 
 
 come out by and by in we. My legs is 
 
 better for it, that I'll swear. There be a 
 
 damned sight more witches livin' i' housen 
 
 than i' huts, let me tell 'ee." 
 
 Nan and Loveday laughed at this sharp 
 
 hit at the village women, but the old 
 
 dame feared that they were getting on 
 
 dangerous ground. 
 
 " 'Ee was joking, Nan, surely, wan't 'ee, 
 
 when 'ee said as Maister Macnab was 
 
 made into a pepper-dredge ? " 
 
 " No ! I warn't jokin' at all ! not a bit 
 
 of it. Some feller wrote to one o' they 
 
 artises as is staying wi' Jane Hocking, 
 
 and by all accounts he'd seen it done and 
 
 wrote to tell she all about it." 
 
 " My blessed ! " grunted Loveday, " it do 
 
 sound like some devil's trick or 'nother ; 
 
 I su'd 'ave thought the police 'ud have 
 
 stopped sich goin's on." 
 
r 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Don't 'ee see, Loveday, my dear, they 
 burnt 'en first ; took 'en, poor feller, and 
 put 'en inside of a big oven, so they do 
 say, and fairly roasted the poor devil until 
 well my dear life ! it's awful to think 
 on it, until he was nothin' but dust and 
 ashes like that there ! " pointing to the 
 white ash from the burnt-out wood which 
 lay in a heap on the red tiles of the hearth- 
 place. 
 
 " Lordy, Lordy ! it do fair make a body's 
 flesh go crawly ; it's worse than murder, 
 seems to me," wailed Mother Trenoweth. 
 " Iss ! so it be. I lies awake at nights 
 sometimes and thinks o' he afore he went 
 away, and I'm forced to get up and tak' a 
 drop o' hot ginger to soothe my stomach. 
 The thought o' that dear man bein' rent 
 limb from limb wi' no soul by to save 'en 
 makes all the wind i' my stomach fly to 
 my head. They say as after he was burnt 
 to nothin', as you might say, they took 
 what was left or 'en and poured 'en into a 
 pepper-dredge. I could hardly credit it, 
 but they as told me says as this sort o' 
 buryin' is coming over to we from foreign 
 pairts, but I don't 'ardly b'lieve it." 
 " Well ! I hope to the Lord it won't be 
 52 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 made into law afore I'm safely under the 
 ground. I s'ud feel as shamed as a maid 
 to 'ave strange men a-fingerin' my corpse, 
 I can tell 'ee. I hope I may be orderly 
 and becomin'ly buried when my time is 
 over," and Loveday's big eyes looked 
 grave and nervous at the prospect of 
 anything but a churchyard grave. 
 " I do fervently hope that I may have a 
 proper hearse and bearers," said the old 
 woman solemnly. " Lordy ! Lordy ! it 
 do give 'ee grave thoughts upon the 
 resurrection, neighbour, when 'ee do think 
 of a poor body bein' ground down like 
 snuff as that poor man was done by. It 
 do fairly make my skin crawl to think o' 
 sich a thing ! Lordy ! Lordy ! have 
 mercy upon we ! " and her old head went 
 from side to side as she thought of her 
 stocking stored away between the mattress 
 and the tie in the upstairs room. This 
 stocking was nearly full of silver coins 
 saved from " oddments," as she called the 
 gifts given to her by the district visitors, 
 and also the pence she occasionally earned 
 for sitting to stray artists. Next to the 
 ambition to have a grandchild came her 
 wish to have a decent burial. She 
 
 53 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 brightened many a weary day with the 
 thought of how, thanks to her foresight 
 about money matters, she would be 
 carried in state to her last resting-place, 
 amid the hushed wonder of her neighbours, 
 in a hearse with big, black, nodding plumes. 
 Kit Trenoweth became half unconscious 
 of the gossip of the women ; his eyes 
 rested on the well-known line of coast 
 which he could plainly see through the 
 window from his seat in the chimney 
 corner. Since his illness the colour and 
 life of the fishing village had been his 
 chief amusement ; he could watch the 
 herring and mackerel boats come in, and 
 as he heard the clang of the bell of the 
 seller he knew exactly what chaffing and 
 bartering was going on, and guessed by 
 the gestures of the men the state of the 
 market on the various days when big 
 catches were brought in. Just now he 
 vaguely heard Nan describing how she 
 had put green oil on her lodger's throat, 
 how three doctors' "prints" had been 
 administered to him at once and all had 
 failed to save him, and the voices seemed 
 far away, like echoes from a distant hill. 
 He was gazing intently at a young sailor 
 
 54 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 on the beach who was throwing up a big 
 ball, while grouped round him were the 
 lasses and lads of the fishing village alter- 
 nately jeering and cheering him. His 
 lithe body and quick movements riveted 
 the crippled man, whose muscles tightened 
 with each successful catch of the ball. 
 The sun was setting behind a large black 
 rock ; the water rippled and shimmered in 
 a blue listlessness as sky and sea mingled 
 into one colour. The rough slouching 
 figures of the idling fishermen, who leaned 
 against the posts and sea-wall smoking and 
 chaffing, became transfigured in the golden 
 tints of the sunset, while they woke into 
 a romantic beauty and freshness the loose- 
 throated bronzed and stalwart youngsters 
 who had come out to do a bit of courting 
 and idling before the night set in. Kit 
 watched the colours redden and deepen, 
 and was soothed at the scene before him. 
 The wavelets crept almost noiselessly on 
 the beach and seemed to lilt a love-song 
 to him. The village gossip near him grew 
 faint, and he felt that the world after all 
 was a fresh flower-filled valley where a 
 man could rest himself and love his fill. 
 The swish-swash of the sea, and the laugh- 
 
 55 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 ing voices of the men and maids, gradually 
 drove away his irritable mood, and he 
 smiled happily as his eyes rested on the 
 setting sun, and noted how the light 
 sparkled on the oars of a few fisher boats 
 idling in the bay. The brown sails of 
 one or two mackerel skiffs gave a sombre 
 touch to the blue fairyland before him. 
 Suddenly his fingers clutched the stem of 
 his pipe ; round by the harbour he had 
 tracked the slow, swinging walk of a 
 woman, and he leaned back in his chair 
 and hummed softly. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 " HERE ! My blessed life ! Kit ! waken 
 up, man ! I've just spied thy woman 
 along the quay," said Loveday, sharply. 
 Then, in an aside to Mother Trenoweth, 
 " And time 'nough, too, I s'ould say ; 
 seems to me as we don't knaw all as goes 
 on over they weeds. I b'lieve it's maistly 
 a passil o' cunning, and that physic ain't 
 noane in it at all, naw ! " with a twist of 
 the lips and a rough laugh. " I've heered 
 a sight o' things I s'udn't care to speak on 
 o' Janet's ways wi' strangers, I can tell 
 'ee." 
 
 " Darn 'ee ! " interrupted Nan. " L'ave 
 the woman be ; divil tak' 'ee, Loveday ! if 
 her's wrang, well, her's wrang and her 
 fault'll track she sure 'nough. It fair 
 turns my blood to cabbage water to always 
 hear the unfavourablest side to a woman's 
 
 57 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 name. L'ave she be, I say, and don't 
 make strife i' another body's house," with 
 a side look at Kit, who was quite uncon- 
 scious of what they were saying. Mother 
 Trenoweth shook her head wearily. 
 " Lordy ! Lordy ! I allus feel mysel' as if 
 a power o' trouble was a-comin' on this 
 house. I do say many and many a time 
 that it be poor luck for a man to tak' a 
 wife from up-'long strangers who don't 
 belong to worship nor yet to live as we 
 do hereabouts." Then in a lower tone 
 she said to Loveday, after glancing at the 
 unconscious face of her son : 
 " Hark 'ee, woman ! I do wonder what 
 'ee have heerd 'bout Janet ; do 'ee come 
 in one day fur a cup o' tea, and while I be 
 fittin' o' it up 'ee can tell me all about it, 
 fur I do hate Kit's wife to be spoken evil 
 o' and no one by to defend she." Her 
 cunning old eyes glanced sideways at 
 Loveday, who laughed outright. 
 " I do b'lieve mysel' as her is nothin' short 
 of a whore, and there's more nor one as 
 'ull bear that out, sure 'nough. Well, my 
 blessed ! how long have 'ee been standing 
 there, Mrs Trenoweth ? " as her eyes 
 rested on the open door where Janet stood. 
 
 58 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 All three women started guiltily and smiled 
 in a constrained way as they looked round 
 quickly at Kit, who was wide awake now. 
 " I've just come," said Janet. 
 She moved into the middle of the kitchen, 
 and as she stood between the door and the 
 window the last rays of the setting sun lit 
 up her strong face and tall figure and 
 seemed to throw the other women into 
 shadow. Her loose simple gown of blue 
 linen, such as is worn by fisher folk, was 
 caught at the waist by a twisted band of 
 dark red sateen, which threw into relief her 
 well-developed breasts and sloping hips. 
 The muscles of her arms could be clearly 
 traced below the short bodice sleeves, which 
 were somewhat shrunken with constant 
 washings. She turned her large dark blue 
 eyes upon the little group before her and 
 smiled easily and pleasantly at the three 
 women. 
 
 She was evidently quite unconscious that 
 their talk had been about her, and asked 
 kindly in her deep voice : 
 " And how are you, mother ? And Kit ? " 
 and her eyes met her husband's gaze and 
 then fell as he smiled at her. 
 The two women got up immediately and 
 59 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 said good-bye amid the head-shaking of 
 the old woman. When the door was shut 
 behind Nan and Loveday, whose chatter 
 could be heard above the clatter of their 
 shoes down the village street, Mother 
 Trenoweth hobbled off to her bedroom 
 muttering : 
 
 " Lordy ! Lordy ! " adding in an awe- 
 struck whisper, "The devil's in it, I 
 b'lieve. Janet a oh ! oh ! Loveday 
 cain't mean that, sure 'nough, but I'll find 
 out, yes, I'll find out, and if the beauty 
 should turn out to be only a giddy head 
 a'ter all, it's no more nor can be expected 
 from up-'long folkses." 
 She banged the door of her room and sat 
 down in her chair by her bed, put on her 
 glasses and, sighing deeply, drew her old 
 Bible towards her, and read her usual 
 evening chapter. After this was finished, 
 a feeling of inward peace and satisfaction 
 stole over her, irradiating her old sallow 
 face, for she realised now that the Al- 
 mighty had indeed laid a mission upon 
 her shoulders, the mission of sifting to the 
 dregs the unknown nature and ways of 
 her daughter-in-law, Janet. She rocked 
 herself to and fro and felt the exaltation of 
 60 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 a religious fervour stealing over her ; it 
 gradually aroused hunger in her, and she 
 hoped that husband and wife would soon 
 call her to eat some of Janet's " coddles." 
 Husband and wife, however, were evi- 
 dently in no hurry to summon her, and 
 she had plenty of time to digest, not only 
 the scriptures, but the village gossip of the 
 afternoon. 
 
 When Janet was left alone with Kit she 
 had gone quickly over to him and taken 
 him up in her arms as if he had been a 
 child and laid him on his couch. She 
 leaned over him and put her soft warm 
 hands on each side of his head as she 
 kissed his eyes. 
 
 "Poor old man ! " she murmured. "How 
 tired you must be ! Here ! let me shake 
 your pillows, so ! " 
 
 He grasped her hands tightly in his and 
 then passionately kissed them, laying them 
 one over the other. She moved away a 
 little nervously as she glanced at his 
 feverish eyes, as if she dreaded his next 
 movement. Then, almost impulsively, 
 she turned back to him again a moment 
 afterwards and said : 
 " I've brought your oil, Kit." 
 61 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 He looked at her, glad of the chance to 
 do so. 
 
 " How long will it last this time ? " 
 "A week ; and then," stammering, " I'm 
 to go for a larger bottle which will last a 
 month or so." 
 
 She turned her back to him and raked the 
 fire. 
 
 " Had a good time ? " 
 "Yes: and you?" 
 
 " I've had those cackling women at my 
 elbows, I b'lieve, all the day long," with 
 an impatient shrug. " For heaven's sake, 
 keep they lot out now. It's time I was 
 dead and buried, I'm thinkin', to be left 
 alone wi' a passil o' petticoats who mag 
 their tongues out and my ears off; don't 
 'ee think so ? " 
 
 He looked eagerly at her and saw her 
 large brown hands clenched as she looked 
 at him. 
 
 " Dunnot say that," she muttered, in her 
 low voice, and a quick red glow seemed 
 to shiver for a moment over her face. 
 He noticed it. 
 
 " You're warm wi' liftin' me, lass. We'd 
 better get Sandy Dick to come in at 
 night-fall to save 'ee ; don't 'ee think ? " 
 62 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " No ; you munna do that. I like to lift 
 you you know that, mon." 
 He smiled. 
 
 " I'd give near all the rest of the life left 
 to me if 1 could lift thee now, lass ; yes, 
 now, this minute, clean and straight i' my 
 arms. I'd run wi' thee round the room, 
 catch thee close and fast and hard to my 
 heart and smother thee close and warm wi' 
 all the love in me for thee. I wouldn't 
 let 'ee stir no more nor a starling in a trap. 
 I'd mak' thy cheeks burn wi' another sort 
 o' colour. By God ! Janet ! I'm near 
 choked wi' it all ! It's worse nor hunger 
 or thirst, woman, that it be, this love I 
 have for 'ee." 
 
 She stood before him, trembling, her long, 
 brown hands hanging by her sides. Her 
 eyes were lowered, and once or twice she 
 seemed to be going to speak, but the words 
 never came. At last she moved her hands, 
 clasping them in front of her, and Kit's 
 eyes followed the action. He had often 
 wondered why her hands had such power 
 over him ; they often thrilled his pulses 
 more than her face or her tall lithe body. 
 He looked at them now, and a great love- 
 storm seemed to shake him. 
 
 63 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN: A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Come." 
 
 He held out his arms. 
 
 She stood still and said brokenly : 
 
 " I want to talk quietly to you, Kit, mon ! 
 
 Summat strange has happened me an it's 
 
 to thee I want to tell it.'' 
 
 He seemed not to hear ; his eyes were 
 
 fixed on her strong, keen face ; he looked 
 
 like a thirsty man who has found a well 
 
 of water after hours of wandering ; he 
 
 laughed at last, a low, happy, cooing laugh. 
 
 " Thou't a beauty, Janet ; it gives me a 
 
 summer's day feelin' to look at 'ee, sure 
 
 'nough. God Almighty chucked away the 
 
 mould, lass, after He'd made thee. I 
 
 reckon He'd grudge throwin' thy sort out 
 
 by the gross." 
 
 He folded his arms across his breast 
 and eyed her hungrily. 
 " From head to heel there ain't a flaw in 
 'ee, not one." 
 
 She blushed hotly, and he laughed again. 
 " That's it. That's like the old days when 
 I were so hot, and you were so scared ; 
 do 'ee mind they days ? Hang it all ! 
 You're the only maid as 'ave ever mazed 
 me ; do 'ee mind how I used to get so 
 crazed over your white flesh that 'ee 
 64 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 thought I was not exactly more nor once't ! 
 Come ! " 
 
 She came and sat on a low stool near him. 
 " Do 'ee mind how one night I was so 
 crazed wi' joy and love that I knelt down 
 and prayed like a passon ? Do 'ee mind 
 how the words came pourin' out thinkin' 
 of Him as had made women and made 'em 
 so different to we, do 'ee mind ? and how 
 at last 'ee pulled me by the sleeve and 
 tried to cool me down, for 'ee said I were 
 blasphemin' ! " He laughed gaily now. 
 " Well ! sweetheart ! I've felt different 
 over women folkses ever sin' then ; there's 
 a darned lot o' miracle work, strikes me, 
 goin' on i' women as perhaps God Hissel' 
 scarcely reckoned on when He started 'em." 
 He was mechanically twisting and untwist- 
 ing the button of her dress bodice. She 
 took his hand once as if to hold it in hers, 
 but he clasped her hands together and 
 went on playing with her gown. 
 " I must seem a poor whishe creature to 
 'ee now, Janet," he went on ; " it do fret 
 me near to maziness, in these June days 
 when the sun's so warm and the birds sing. 
 I'm no good to 'ee. Damn it all ! 
 Nothin' but a bit o' man wreck. Best do 
 
 65 5 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 wi' me what government made we do wi' 
 the big stranded vessels on th' shore ; 
 blow 'em up wi' dynamite to mak' room 
 for other things." 
 
 " Thou has been too long alone, lad," she 
 muttered, and her eyes wandered to his 
 shrunken, crippled legs. " I'll soon set 
 thee right again. Thou knows," with a 
 quick jerk of her head, " that I shall never 
 do aught but love thee." 
 She blushed and moved quickly towards 
 the hearth and put a saucepan of water on 
 the fire for making him a "coddle" before 
 he went to bed. As she knelt on the 
 hearthstone with one knee bent under her, 
 Kit's eyes rested on her bare neck and 
 bent head. A soft dark down was trace- 
 able below the mark where her hair 
 stopped growing, and added to the curves 
 of her throat and neck. Just now the 
 droop of her head seemed to madden Kit. 
 Her absence and his nervous irritability 
 after the scene with his mother had told 
 upon him. He rose up on his couch, his 
 eyes sparkling and his hands twitching. 
 " Come here, wench." 
 She turned quickly and walked over to 
 him with an inquiring look on her face. 
 66 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Come here ! " he repeated, and he 
 glanced towards the door through which 
 his mother had gone. 
 " Lock that ! let's have five minutes free 
 from spies." 
 
 She slowly did his bidding and came back 
 with a puzzled look on her face, and then 
 knelt down by him and stroked his hand, 
 which was twitching nervously. 
 Come, Janet ! " 
 
 His voice grew hoarse and passionate. 
 " Janet ! " he cried as he pulled her face 
 down to him, fiercely gathered her head on 
 his breast, and buried his hand beneath the 
 hair above her neck. He stroked her 
 cheek and ear and then pressed his hand 
 once more on the warm neck, as if he 
 would never let her go. He breathed 
 heavily : 
 
 "I'm a blasted fool, my girl, but I'm 
 mazed wi' love of 'ee. Quick ! put thy 
 arms tight round me, tight, and tell me," 
 and he flung back her head and looked 
 into her eyes "tell me, woman, that i' 
 spite of old women's mag and my smashed 
 limbs you do love me," with his teeth set, 
 " love me as a woman loves a man." 
 Janet simply looked into his hungry face, 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 gathered him to her, as a woman would a 
 child, and said in a low, quiet voice : 
 " Thou knows that I love thee. Kit as 
 as " she hesitated " as a limb o' my own 
 body." 
 
 He lay back calmed for a few moments, 
 and then he said wearily : 
 It's a chiel. That's it. Devil tak' it all. 
 Give me my pipe or I s'all do and say 
 more i' a minute nor I can mak' amends 
 for in a year." 
 
 She went over to his chair by the fireside, 
 got his pipe and took it from its shelf very 
 slowly and deliberately. She turned once 
 more towards her husband. Her face had 
 grown grey and hard, and her firm lips 
 quivered slightly. The finely cut nostrils 
 were dilated and the dark blue eyes had 
 grown larger and brighter. As she met 
 the full gaze of Kit's eyes she advanced 
 rapidly towards him and threw the pipe on 
 the couch by his side. 
 " Kit ! " 
 
 His name was uttered with such bitterness 
 that he started and looked full at her once 
 more. 
 
 " Kit ! dunnot let me hear thee speak o' 
 
 that again. Do you mind what I say ? 
 
 68 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Never ! There's some things I'd dare the 
 angels to talk over to me, and that's one." 
 Why ? " he muttered. 
 She stared at him, and a look of repulsion 
 mingled with the pain in her face. 
 " Because," she answered quickly, " be- 
 cause it do never do to think o' some 
 things, that's why. It's best to throw them 
 in the back of your head and forget they're 
 there, and there let 'em wait till the day 
 when reckonings are made up." 
 She turned aside and shrugged her broad 
 shoulders. Kit watched her closely as she 
 went over to the fire and stirred her 
 "coddle." He had lighted his pipe and 
 was smoking hard. He watched her put 
 the things on the table for their evening 
 meal, and he did not attempt to speak to 
 her. At last he saw her lean her hands on 
 the table and, looking at him again with 
 the same worn hard look, she said : 
 " I hate a coward, always did, either among 
 wenches or lads, and when I do think o' 
 that," with a gesture, " I'm a poor, weak 
 woman who's not fit to work nor do for 
 others." 
 
 The man sighed. 
 Janet turned her back on him and took 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 from the fire the boiling pot, washed her 
 hands quickly at the sink, and as she wiped 
 them she again came over to Trenoweth 
 and said to him, in a weary, patient voice : 
 " Dunnot think I feel hardly against thee, 
 lad," she said gently. " Men's made all 
 different to women, I believe ; a woman 
 'ud guess my meaning at once. Men's 
 more like dogs, I reckon. Very knowing 
 and all that, but women's souls more nor 
 their bodies wants to breed." 
 He looked puzzled, and she laughed as 
 she kissed him once more on his eyes. 
 " Never mind, old man ; I've been dumpy 
 to-day, but I'm tired with the journey and 
 seein' " she hesitated " new things. It's 
 better to bide to whoam with thee, and 
 then I doan't get moithered," she said, 
 falling into her native Lancashire tongue. 
 " Here ! let me rub your legs and then 
 you can have your bit o' supper and be 
 comfie again. I be only making things 
 worse for you now, and there's lots I want 
 to tell you after you're rested." 
 She forced herself to be gay, and he gradu- 
 ally fell into her mood and calmed down 
 into playful tenderness, forgetting his 
 doubts and misgivings in the enjoyment of 
 70 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 being ministered to by this wife of his who 
 had given him new life and strength al- 
 ready. His doubts, however, were only 
 lulled for the moment, for his last intelli- 
 gible thought as he fell asleep that night 
 was that women folkses being such "tetchy 
 and unbeknown creatures," it would be 
 just as well, if the chance came, to see 
 what the "passon" had to say about 
 many things which addled his poor brains 
 so continuously that he could get no peace 
 or sleep for the thoughts which came to 
 him. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 As if fate willed it, Parson Trownson 
 called during the following week at Kit 
 Trenoweth's house. Janet occasionally 
 attended his church, and as he had a 
 village children's treat coming on, he 
 dropped in, on his way to a sick 
 parishioner, to ask Mrs Trenoweth to 
 help him with one of the tea-tables. Kit 
 not being a churchman, he had seen little 
 of him at any time, and when he entered 
 the kitchen, as no answer came to his 
 knock, he was surprised to find Kit alone 
 and helpless, as he had never realised 
 from Janet's brief accounts of her hus- 
 band's health that he was a cripple. He 
 advanced towards the fireplace and said in 
 a cheery voice as he removed his hat, in 
 the sprightly tone the healthy so often 
 use to the sick : 
 
 72 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 "Well, my good fellow, and how are 
 you ? " He extended his hand with a 
 smile which combined the patronage of 
 the gentry with the professional sympathy 
 of the cleric. Kit shook it heartily and 
 said curtly : 
 
 "I'm glad to see 'ee, Mr Trownson. 
 I've long been wantin' fur to see 'ee, for 
 I souldn't be frightened but what 'ee 
 could help me out of a bit of a puzzle I'm 
 bothering my head wi' most all my time." 
 "Yes, yes; just so!" said the friendly 
 parson, separating the tails of his long 
 coat as he glanced hastily at the wooden 
 chair near him and seated himself on it. 
 "Certainly, certainly. Are you in any 
 spiritual difficulty, my good fellow ? " 
 He coughed, bit his under lip with a 
 slight smile on his face, and folded his 
 arms in a resigned manner. He was so 
 accustomed to the commonplace travailings 
 of these simple souls, who wanted points 
 of doctrine settled for them, in the same 
 decisive way as their doctor's nostrums 
 were handed over and bolted. He felt he 
 could have closed his eyes and mumbled 
 out the very words this simple miner 
 would say. He was kind-hearted and 
 73 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 felt for fisher-folk as he felt for his dogs 
 or his horses when he was obliged to 
 deprive them of liberty or to punish them. 
 He tilted back his chair and crossed one 
 leg over the other as he looked com- 
 placently at Trenoweth, with the smile 
 growing in his eyes as he waited for him 
 to speak. He almost lost his balance and 
 fell from his seat when, instead of the 
 usual commonplace query regarding heaven 
 or hell, Trenoweth asked him in a stolid, 
 slow way : 
 
 " Have 'ee ever had a wife, sir ? " 
 " What, in heaven's name," he said to him- 
 self, " is the blundering idiot driving at ? 
 Is he mad or bad or only curious ? " His 
 face paled, and a nervous little laugh 
 rippled away the merriment from his eyes 
 and mouth. What had the fellow heard ? 
 What could be his object in cornering 
 him suddenly in this way ? He glanced 
 quickly at him, and then dropped his eyes. 
 " My good fellow, what do you mean ? " 
 he asked sharply and quickly. 
 " Have 'ee ever had a woman, sir ? " 
 repeated Kit stolidly. 
 Parson Trownson was puzzled. He 
 objected to telling lies except under very 
 74 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 special conditions, conditions which came 
 rarely into his uneventful life. He must 
 either tell Trenoweth a lie or run the risk 
 of unearthing his past, from which he had 
 escaped when he came to this quiet fishing 
 village, for the ridicule or pity of these 
 people, whom he looked upon as mere 
 children who could not be trusted with 
 the sorrows of the educated, any more 
 than boys or girls in an infant school. 
 His perplexity increased as Kit's eyes 
 travelled over his well-tailored person and 
 finally rested full on his face. 
 " I s'ud not ask 'ee, sir, for pastime or 
 foolishness, but if 'ee's had no dealings wi' 
 a woman 'ee cain't help me nohow as I 
 can see, for what I'm botherin' over isn't 
 put anywhere i' the Bible, nor yet preached 
 on i' the pulpits leastways not i' my 
 hearing of the Word. Fornication and 
 adultery" the vicar stared blankly at 
 Trenoweth " and suchlike things is dealt 
 wi' here and there i' the Bible, sure 'nough, 
 but there's a sight o' things, seems to me, 
 beggin' o' your pardin, o' course, sir," 
 with an apologetic jerk of his head towards 
 Mr Trownson, "that do fairly maze we 
 unlearned folkses that ain't dealt wi' 
 
 75 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 neither i' the Book or i the churches or 
 chapels. It's a parcil o' trouble try in* to 
 ferret out the Almighty's will i' some 
 things when there's no chart nor pilot to 
 guide 'ee over a difficult line. Don't 'ee 
 think so, sir ? " 
 
 Trenoweth's shrewd eyes sought Parson 
 Trownson's face as if he would read his 
 answer there. The parson coughed slightly 
 and said : 
 
 " It is easy, my dear friend, to guide one's 
 life in the path of duty if we are deter- 
 mined not to place our inclinations in the 
 face of the will of the Almighty." 
 "Yes, sir," answered Kit, slowly, and he 
 put his hands in his trousers' pockets and 
 looked down at his feet as they hung 
 loosely above the ground. " I do knaw 
 that, sure 'nough, but what I'm wantin' 
 to find out is what is the will o' the 
 Almighty. Is it the will o' the Lord 
 that us should go right agin nature and 
 throttle a parcil o' longings that God 
 HisseF or the devil thrawed into we ? 
 It's just that as I'm tryin' to find out, 
 whether some strifin's and pushin's in we 
 as sends us on whether we like it or 
 no, comes from on high or from down 
 76 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 there, sir," pointing with his finger to the 
 kitchen floor. 
 
 In all Parson Trownson's experience he 
 had never before been confronted with so 
 direct a question. He was bewildered 
 and could have given a rapid assent to 
 Trenoweth's next remark, which was also 
 a question. 
 
 "Anyways it's a puzzle whichever way 
 you look at it, seems to me ? " 
 In order to gain time the clergyman deter- 
 mined to question Trenoweth further and 
 see if by any chance he could use stratagem 
 in fighting the Lord's battle. 
 " I don't quite understand you, my good 
 fellow," he answered. "Just put your 
 difficulties before me quite frankly, and 
 my advice is at your service. You see," 
 he added with a smile, " there are many 
 matters a little outside a clergyman's pro- 
 vince, but, of course, I will do anything I 
 can to help you." He crossed one leg 
 over the other, nursed his right knee with 
 both hands clasped round it, showing, as 
 he did so, the large signet ring on the 
 little finger of his small right hand. 
 Mechanically, Kit's eyes fell on the glitter- 
 ing object as he said nervously : 
 
 77 
 
KITS WOMAN: A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Well, sir ; look at my legs ! " 
 
 Trownson glanced quickly at the thin 
 
 crippled limbs of the man before him and 
 
 said kindly and simply : 
 
 " I'm so sorry, my poor fellow ; it must 
 
 be a terrible trial for you." 
 
 " It ain't that, sir ; it's this way," went on 
 
 Kit, in a sharper voice : " I've a fine 
 
 bouncin' woman o' my own ; you do knaw 
 
 she, I b'lieve ; how the devil is the Lord's 
 
 will fur she to be fitted in wi' a maimed 
 
 man as ain't no husband to she at all, 
 
 and " with a growl " never can be no 
 
 more ? " 
 
 He hung his head, resenting in his heart 
 
 that something within him forced him to 
 
 tell a stranger his trouble. 
 
 Trownson at once became interested, and 
 
 the man in him, which was not by any 
 
 means drowned in the mere cleric, felt 
 
 great sympathy for Trenoweth. He began 
 
 to understand his drift, but all he said 
 
 was : 
 
 " It's hard luck, Trenoweth." 
 
 " It's this way, sir," muttered Kit, sharply, 
 
 " her do belong to love me right 'nough, 
 
 but her's whishe cause her ain't got no 
 
 chiel that's the mischief wi' all women as 
 
 78 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 is worth their salt, the longing to breed, 
 and it's just rubbish to say as it can be 
 stopped, 'cause my legs fails me ; it cain't 
 no more nor a half-moon can stop makin' 
 hersel' a full one when her time comes." 
 Trenoweth shuffled restlessly in his chair, 
 and tossed the hair back from his forehead 
 as he went on : 
 
 " You see, sir, I do knaw a thing or two 
 'bout both bitches and women folkses ; 
 they're unlike and yet like i' some things, 
 but my woman ain't quite the general mak' 
 o' maids ; her's a puzzler, I can tell 'ee, and 
 'twixt me and you I b'lieve her's a bit of 
 a riddle to hersel'. I tell 'ee what," and 
 he lowered his voice, "I reckons that i' 
 this spring weather her do feel a want 
 that's natural and right ; do 'ee mind my 
 meanin', sir ? and I'm fair befoolt over 
 it, for in a manner of speakin' I'm no more 
 use to she i' this job nor a eunuch, and 
 that's plain speakin' ! " 
 He breathed heavily and the sweat stood 
 on his forehead. 
 
 "There's no speakin' of these things i' 
 the chapels, do 'ee understand, and it's 
 they things as I do want to hear on more 
 nor 'bout heaven just now." 
 
 79 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 He spat into the fire and cleared his throat. 
 " I do worship that woman o' mine, sir, 
 sin or no sin, there it be ! Yes, worship 
 she, I tell 'ee. The very sweat o' she be 
 a lot sweeter to me than the scent o' the 
 sea or the first flowers o' the year, sure 
 'nough ! I cain't help it no ways ! the 
 very touch of her flesh is a bit of heaven 
 to me ; it's true, sir, if I have to go to 
 hell for the idolatry as we're warned agin. 
 I don't care a bit 'bout what I've to lose 
 over this breedin' job, but I do care 'bout 
 she and what her suffers. Her ain't 
 happy ; a natural fool can see that any day, 
 and what do 'ee think can be done fur to 
 help she, sir ? " 
 
 "Absolutely nothing, my good man, 
 nothing," answered Parson Trownson, 
 emphatically. " To speak quite frankly 
 between you and me," and he glanced 
 round the kitchen to assure himself that 
 they were alone, " I think you've alto- 
 gether exaggerated the situation." He 
 waved his hand in the air as one ac- 
 customed to disperse doubts and lawless- 
 ness at a word. " It is probably because 
 you spend so much time cooped up in 
 the house." He drew his chair closer to 
 80 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Kit and said emphatically in a lowered 
 voice : 
 
 " These matters are very delicate ; in fact 
 they scarcely bear talking over under any 
 circumstance. In your case, my good 
 friend," he looked quickly at Trenoweth, 
 "the matter is exceptionally painful, but 
 as a matter of fact there is absolutely 
 nothing to be done. I can, however, 
 console you thus far by assuring you that 
 women's natures are quite different from 
 ours ; indeed it is a kind of profanity to 
 think it could be otherwise. The chief 
 object of man's chivalrous care of woman 
 lies in the fact that he feels this and in 
 his guardianship of her acknowledges her 
 spiritual superiority to himself. A woman 
 craves to have a child ; quite so, quite so," 
 with a condescending wave of the ringed 
 hand, " it is a wonderful dispensation of 
 Providence that your wife, whom I know 
 to be an admirable woman, should have 
 this wish it is one of the most glorious 
 designs of God, the desire to suckle 
 children, but" he coughed once more 
 and a slight smile made his lips twitch 
 "but, my good man, you don't suppose 
 for one moment that women have passions 
 81 6 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 like ours, that they are radically lawless 
 and savage or even temperately animal, 
 as men are, do you ? " 
 " Yes, by God ! " snorted Kit, triumph- 
 antly, "when a woman's sucklin' a chiel 
 at her breast I b'lieve her do like the 
 feelin' right 'nough, sir. I've seen women 
 fit to bite the baaby wi' joy over that job, 
 like maids bite their sweethearts sometimes 
 when they love 'em most." He snorted 
 and laughed fiercely. " I've never had no 
 dealin's wi' sprites nor yet wi' angels i' 
 my coortin' jobs, I can tell 'ee. There's 
 summat behind the beast in a woman, I 
 reckon, as makes she such a powerful 
 riddle to we men folkses, but if it's the 
 beast as you're scornin' i' men, I'm thinkin' 
 you'd have to use the same birch to get 
 that out o j the women folkses as well as 
 out o' we." 
 
 Trownson positively blushed, and thought 
 to himself that, after all, the common 
 people were moulded in totally different 
 ways from the well-born. He simply put 
 down Kit's statement as the summing up 
 of a village rake, and the man became 
 lowered in his eyes. 
 
 " Has your wife ever expressed any 
 82 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 ahem ! dissatisfaction with her present 
 life ? " he queried with a touch of con- 
 tempt in his well-bred voice. 
 Kit laughed brutally. 
 " What do 'ee tak' me fur, sir ? Do 'ee 
 think as I s'ud be tellin' 'ee these fears o' 
 mine if her mouthed like a ninney to me ? 
 No ! she bean't no blabber, I can tell 'ee, 
 but I do see things ain't right, that's all, 
 and there's summat working 'i me as I'm 
 not learned enough to understand nor yet 
 to deal wi'; that's all, and that's why I've 
 coomed to you, 'cause they tell me that 
 college gents knaws a power o' things as 
 we folkses as works hard don't knaw 
 nothin* about." 
 
 "This is scarcely a matter to do with 
 colleges, Mr Trenoweth," the parson 
 replied ; " it really is a very simple affair 
 if you will only look at it in the right 
 
 light.- 
 
 He lifted his left hand and forced back 
 the thumb with the forefinger of his right, 
 as if to jot off conveniently the several 
 methods by which the world, the flesh, and 
 the devil could be brought into complete 
 subjection. He folded his arms together 
 again after a moment's reflection and 
 
 83 
 
I 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 slightly raised his shoulders as he 
 continued : 
 
 "You imagine your wife is restless, and 
 your mind is a little overstrained with your 
 physical trouble. Talk to her frankly ; that 
 is, as frankly as one can to a woman, and 
 she will doubtless soon prove to you that 
 your fears are groundless. A true woman 
 finds her only happiness in her husband's 
 welfare, and Mrs Trenoweth is surely an 
 exemplary character in this respect." 
 "You don't understand, sir. I must be 
 forthright wi' 'ee, I can see. Janet, my 
 woman, be no giddy spark of a jade, nor 
 yet a bluidless fule, I can tell 'ee. Her 
 seems to have taken some o' the beastly 
 lustful devil out o' me, and put some of 
 her own breed in ; it's her nature more 
 nor my own as is workin' in me now, I 
 reckon ; it's like yeast movin' in me, the 
 wish to see she well and happy again as 
 her do belong to be." He beat the sides 
 of his chair with the bowl of his pipe as if 
 he were impatient. " I'm wonderin', sir, 
 whether her oughtn't to have another man, 
 one as 'ud be a strong sweetheart to she 
 and not a putty man like I be. What do 
 'ee think ? " 
 
 84 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Trownson became very grave, and his lower 
 lip hung loosely. 
 
 " Are you so unhappy as this, Trenoweth ! " 
 he said at last, changing his tone to one 
 of almost equality. "Is that your only 
 remedy ? Do you seriously meditate 
 allowing your wife to proceed to such 
 lengths as that ? No womanly woman 
 could do it no ! no ! no ! " with a shrill 
 tone in his voice and a glitter in his eyes ; 
 "it is only women who have forgotten 
 God and duty who do such things. I 
 thought Mrs Trenoweth understood the 
 eternal sanctity of the marriage bond better 
 than that." 
 Trenoweth laughed. 
 
 " We ain't married, don't 'ee see, sir ? 
 Not no more, in a manner of speaking, 
 than if I was a corpse." 
 " Ahem ! " coughed the bewildered parson 
 "don't you see, my good man, that 
 marriage is a divine ordinance ? It is not 
 a mere animal relationship, a mere dog 
 and bitch partnership." He looked 
 askance at Trenoweth, thinking his analogy 
 a little too strong for the occasion. " It is 
 a communion of souls, a twining together 
 of subtler needs than can be expressed ; a 
 
 85 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 union not only for time but for all eternity. 
 To profane this is to risk eternal punish- 
 ment ; not, of course, in the ordinary 
 hell-fire sense," with a smile, "but the 
 punishment which comes to all those who 
 break great spiritual or moral laws. If 
 your wife violates your union for a mere 
 physical whim, she dishonours not only 
 you, her husband, but all womanhood, by 
 the unchaste desires to which she falls a 
 prey." 
 
 Trenoweth had begun to smoke. 
 " Seems to me, sir, beggin' your pardin of 
 course, as you think a damned lot o' the 
 dog and bitch part o' the business, a'ter 
 all. If my woman lived wi' another man 
 as she could love i' that way, and he her, 
 there's no call as I can see for she to hate 
 me nor yet to thraw me on one side like a 
 worn-out sack. Seems to me as if her 
 could do that her'd have got pretty well 
 rid of all they grand spiritual feelin's as 
 you seems to set such store by. It all 
 sounds so fine, and all that, the way as you 
 puts it, sir, but I cain't help readin' of it 
 all backwards someway. I'll gie 'ee the 
 straight tip. I ain't no husband to she ; 
 that's sure ; the question I want fur you to 
 86 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 answer fur me is, am I to tie she fur the 
 rest of her natural life to my whishe legs 
 same as women folkses is said to tie chiels 
 to their apron strings ? Now speak 
 straight and fair, sir, as man to man ; do 
 'ee think it's in the natural way o' things 
 that her '11 go on lovin' me if I do ? I 
 think of it all till I'm scared lest her '11 long 
 for heaven jist to get free a bit to pick up 
 wi' a different mak' o' chap, and then, what 
 the devil 'ull be the good o' all this holdin' 
 of her in ? " 
 
 He smoked fiercely, and sent grey rings 
 chasing one another into the ceiling. He 
 watched them for a moment and went on 
 without taking his eyes from his pipe. 
 " You may whistle to love, seems to me, 
 and hoot to she too, till you're black i' the 
 face, and done i' the lungs, but her's a 
 wayward minx, her be ; her'll come if her 
 wants, and her'll go if her wants, and 
 neither passons nor yet lawyers, so it 
 seems to me, cain't put no salt on her tail, 
 wi' all their fine talk and braggin'. It's 
 my opinion as there's a lot o' trash talked 
 over these things by they folkses who'se 
 never had their heart-strings tugged." 
 Kit spat impatiently on the floor and 
 
 8? 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN: A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 sighed. He went on slowly, as no answer 
 came from the bewildered cleric. 
 "It's that sort o' lesson a feller learns 
 when he graws to love a woman better nor 
 hissel', and I'm fast comin' to think as 
 books cain't tell 'ee much about it. I've 
 thought over a sight o' things settin' here, 
 sir," and he pointed to the bench near 
 him as he rested his elbow on the arm of 
 his chair. "There's somethin' i' my 
 woman's flesh as not only crazes the man 
 'i me, sir, but gies me a power o' new 
 insight altogether. It's the dog i' me, as 
 you spoke on jist now, would kennel she 
 for my own uses ; I often feel as if I 
 could snatch she and tear she i' bits, in a 
 manner o' speakin', like a wolf rends a 
 man, but there's somethin' new got hold 
 o' me lately ; I guess it's the man and not 
 the dog, sir, and it's made me think o' 
 things more." 
 
 He went on dreamily, as if talking to 
 himself. 
 
 " If her heart and body turns to another 
 chap, let she go to 'en and have it fair and 
 square a'tween us, that's what I do say, 
 but I'm befoolt o'er the job at times, and 
 wonder if I mean rightly what I do say, 
 88 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 and if I s'ouldn't be the fust to whistle 
 she back." 
 
 " My good man," interrupted Trownson, 
 "you're talking simple balderdash, if 
 you'll excuse my directness ; there is no 
 law, human or divine, which could counte- 
 nance such an absurd solution of your 
 difficulty. It is highflown and morbid to 
 an almost insane degree. Do you seriously 
 mean to imply that you have some idea 
 of letting your wife ahem ! live with 
 another man while keeping up a semblance 
 of a relationship with you ? " 
 He pushed the air vigorously with both 
 hands, as if to turn back into the Inferno 
 such mad, bad ideas. He was interested 
 in Trenoweth in spite of his erratic and 
 what he considered dangerous views, but 
 he was rapidly coming to the conclusion 
 that the man was nearing the verge of 
 insanity, and he made up his mind to give 
 a hint to some responsible person to note 
 the case for fear of evil consequences 
 coming to the young wife. 
 Trenoweth spoke with an effort. 
 " If you loved a woman, sir, loved she a 
 good length beyond your own soul, and 
 then you lost she, my meanin' is, lost she 
 89 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 i' the way as she couldn't be your wife, 
 would it make you hate she, sir ? " 
 The parson merely coughed, and smiled 
 faintly. Trenoweth continued in a stolid 
 way : 
 
 " If, I say, straight and square, mind you, 
 to my woman : Look you here, wench ! 
 If you do belong to care anyway for some 
 chap and want 'en, tak' 'en, but let's have 
 it square and high and dry above board 
 and no shammin' it's the shammin' I 
 couldn't abide is that ridiculous ? Well ! 
 that's but my meanin', sir. If," he 
 pointed a long thin finger at Trownson ; 
 " mind you, I say, if my woman s'ud want 
 a husband as well as a mate like me, I 
 don't see, if 'ee looks at it fair and square, 
 why the devil her s'udn't have 'en, and not 
 only that, why s'ud her be asked to leave 
 me out 'cause of it ? Ain't no folkses 
 chums at all when they cain't do the 
 honeymoon business any more ? Ain't 
 none o' they big folkses as can go into 
 court and get unwed never friends no 
 more ? " 
 
 " I should assuredly say not," sternly 
 replied Mr Trownson. 
 " Then, sir, beggin' o' your pardin, there's 
 90 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 summat wrang i' the way the things is 
 fixed up i 7 the marriage laws down here, 
 and I do fervently trust that up-'long," 
 pointing to the ceiling, " there'll be a new 
 line o' conduct over sich things. Yer 
 don't seem to see, sir, as Janet'll allus 
 love me, and her could no more leave me 
 out i' the cold like a pauper wi'out love 
 to warm me than if I'd come right out of 
 her body." 
 
 "I suppose you understand that what you 
 are suggesting is an abomination, not only 
 in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of all 
 good men ? " 
 
 " Abomination," stammered Trenoweth ; 
 " to love your woman better nor yoursel' 
 do you mean that ? " 
 The parson waved his hand. 
 " That is begging the question ; it is not 
 loving a woman better than yourself, but 
 simply opening the door to lustful desires 
 and weak sentimentalities. If such pre- 
 posterous actions were countenanced by 
 law, what on earth do you think would 
 become of the family the foundation of 
 our Nation's happiness and prosperity ? " 
 " We ain't got no family, sir ; that's the 
 touchy bit in it all, don't 'ee see ? " 
 
 9 1 
 
1 
 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " testily answered the cleric, 
 "but laws are made for the many, and 
 these courses of conduct that you suggest 
 will assuredly undermine all family purity 
 and domestic peace. Indeed ! such ideas 
 can only be the outcome of evil thoughts 
 and lascivious desires." 
 " Then, sir," answered Trenoweth sharply, 
 "all I can say is I'm hanged if the 
 wicked uns ain't got a tip or two from up 
 atop that the big wigs knaws naught about. 
 Do 'ee mean to say straight and fair to me, 
 sir, that it's wrang to love a woman so that 
 you could hand her over to a bit o' joy 
 that you ain't in, in a way of speakin', 
 savin' the living from the dead, so to 
 speak, and rejoicin' at the pairin' you've 
 set 'eesel' to see through ? Do 'ee belong 
 to tell me as it's sin in she to go to a 
 second man unless first of all she do hate 
 the first ? That the only way for she to 
 do over this job is to lie inside and out, 
 both to me and to hersel', 'cause her cain't 
 crush feelin's as the Lord HisseF blesses, 
 we're told, if only the passon, beggin' your 
 pardin again, bosses the show ? If 'ee can 
 say as I'm wrong to feel like this o'er the 
 job well, I'm sorry I coomed to 'ee for 
 92 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 help, for, in a manner o' speaking I feel 
 now almost as if love have teached me 
 'bout as much, and likely more, nor the 
 school and the Bible together seems to 
 have teached you." 
 
 Trownson was about to answer Kit in an 
 authoritative manner, as he was nettled at 
 the change of tone in this miner. In the 
 beginning of the interview he had noticed 
 the deferential manner of Kit towards his 
 superior, and he resented as an insult the 
 straight speaking and calm smoking of this 
 lover and husband who dared to teach him 
 as if he were a schoolboy. The argument 
 would probably have ended in a storm of 
 abuse on Kit's side, and of sharp satirical 
 expostulations on Trownson's side, but 
 before the parson could open his mouth to 
 defend himself from Kit's last attack a 
 noise made both the men turn their heads 
 sharply towards the door. Janet had just 
 lifted the latch, and she stood in the en- 
 trance, a little bewildered at seeing a visitor 
 with her husband. She advanced towards 
 Trownson, and half curtsied, a habit caught 
 in her childish days, when at village treats 
 and Sunday school excursions in the North 
 the little ones had stood in great awe of 
 
 93 
 
I 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 the local clergyman. She greeted Trownson 
 simply and stood near her husband. The 
 cleric looked at her sharply, almost savagely, 
 as he would have looked at Eve after con- 
 versing with poor Adam over the apple- 
 stalk in his hand. When Parson Trownson 
 preached on Sundays upon Womanhood, 
 he felt himself kindled by a divine fervour ; 
 the vision which always came to him was 
 of the pure unsullied virgin, the mother of 
 little ones, the comforter and helpmate of 
 man, the refiner of the world, the silent 
 spiritual influence at work by the hearths of 
 any nation calling itself righteous, chasten- 
 ing by her mystic power the baser and 
 grosser side of humanity and freeing it 
 from its animal lusts and stupid gluttonies. 
 His ideal of Woman carried him often 
 beyond himself, and he rose on tip-toe 
 perspiring with the effort of his own 
 eloquence. But this view of woman which 
 Trenoweth had presented to him, a view 
 sordid and gross, this gave him a feeling 
 of physical nausea as he looked at Janet. 
 Woman personified in this man's wife, not 
 only as a breeder, but as a conceiver, not 
 as one who submits meekly and of necessity 
 to the sacred work and pains of mother- 
 94 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 hood, but as one who craves and demands 
 the lawless play of physical enjoyment ! 
 Bah ! His spine began to creep at the 
 vulgarity of Trenoweth's description and 
 the rank materialism which his words had 
 implied. He turned curiously and looked 
 at Janet as she faced her husband to tell 
 him where she had been. He noted her 
 length of limb and her rounded bust, the 
 swing of her hips as she moved Trenoweth 
 higher and put his cushions closer to his 
 back. He began to think he was the 
 victim of some horrible suggestion, for 
 he felt a strange magnetic attraction as he 
 gazed at the woman before him. 
 Janet turned quickly from her husband, 
 and her blue cotton skirt swung in a 
 graceful curve, exposing her well-shaped 
 ankle and foot. The vicar got up, looked 
 hastily at his watch and extended his hand 
 to Trenoweth, saying in a hurried voice : 
 " A little cooling draught at this time of 
 the year would be very useful to you, my 
 
 good fellow ; try it ; magnesia or " 
 
 He stopped abruptly, smiled in a con- 
 strained way as he turned to Janet : 
 "Good-bye, Mrs Trenoweth. Ah! I 
 leave your husband in the best of hands ; 
 
 95 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 he is feverish feverish and over-excited, 
 
 and you will doubtless calm him/' Janet 
 
 raised her dark eyes and looked at 
 
 Tr own son gravely. 
 
 " Thank you kindly, sir," she said simply, 
 
 and held out her hand. The vicar clasped 
 
 it, and when he was in the street he 
 
 mechanically put the hand she had held 
 
 inside his clerical vest, then he hastily 
 
 withdrew it, looked at it in a bewildered 
 
 kind of way, and muttered : 
 
 "The deuce!" 
 
 As he put his latchkey in the door of his 
 
 house he muttered stupidly : 
 
 " Got the text anyway next Sunday 
 
 eh ? yes of course lusts of the flesh." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 IN a big hollow on Bos Kiwen sandhills a 
 man lay dreaming ; the hot July sun, 
 streaming in full noonday force, had sent 
 him to this retreat among the miniature 
 flowers and coarse grasses which grew in 
 the hollows made by the winter gales. 
 He had shaped the sand at his back into 
 an easy seat ; his legs were raised and 
 crossed, one hand was thrown behind his 
 head, and his deep grey eyes were gazing 
 vacantly but restfully out to sea. He 
 was puffing contentedly from a briarwood 
 pipe, and now and then he looked at his 
 watch, seated himself in an easier position 
 and half dozed as the sun here and there 
 caught him unawares in his shaded nook. 
 He was a ship's mate, " off deck " in more 
 ways than one, for he was lounging in a 
 summer's mood, and feeling in his soul at 
 
 97 7 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 the moment that to be pinned to a post 
 was the one evil in the world, to be free 
 and at ease the supreme blessing. Nancy 
 Nanquitho was his nearest relation, and 
 he had several times almost mechanically 
 dropped down upon the bit of ground 
 which held his own blood. He rented a 
 room in the village, when he came at rare 
 intervals, and as she asked him no 
 questions he rarely vouchsafed any in- 
 formation about his life. He came and 
 went, as his mood and circumstances 
 allowed, and Widow Nanquitho gave him 
 on coming a welcome, and on going her 
 blessing that was all. To-day he had 
 slowly sauntered towards the sandhills 
 after a dinner at the village inn, which was 
 calculated to make a man drowse, smoke, 
 and dream that all was surely well on land 
 and sea. His sunburnt face was honest 
 and virile ; one forgot to ask if it were 
 handsome ; its strength and cheerfulness 
 banished the query. Sea-salt and tobacco 
 brought an air of vigour and repose at the 
 same time to those who talked to him. 
 Just now his pipe drew well, he had had 
 his dinner, the sun shone, he could hear 
 the sea rippling in on the sands wooingly 
 
KITS WOMAN: A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 and slowly, as if it were too full of a noon- 
 day content to hurry itself even to kiss the 
 ground. He threw open his coat and let 
 the soft winds play upon him, and he 
 smiled happily, for he was waiting, without 
 any feverish excitement apparently, for a 
 woman. He looked at his watch again. 
 She was late. He closed his eyes and 
 languidly drew at his pipe ; he knew she 
 would come, and a soft light spread over 
 his face as he thought of her. Women 
 were all alike, he mused, all clinging and 
 faithful and sometimes bores with it, too, 
 or he pulled his moustache at one corner 
 with his under lip and bit it meditatively 
 shrewish hell-cats who made a man's home 
 too hot for him to live in. Then he 
 drowsily pulled at his pipe and reviewed 
 his experiences ; he gave slight chuckles 
 as he recalled one or two of his youthful 
 escapades. Women had ceased to torment 
 him, for he had faced his own nature and 
 its needs several years ago, and also had 
 realised, so he imagined, the limitations of 
 women. He had invariably found them 
 easy to capture ; he had, until now, felt 
 little need for a permanent relationship 
 with any of them ; that, he knew well 
 99 
 
I 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 enough, was a perilous venture which 
 might turn a life keel upwards in no time. 
 He had thought at first that the woman 
 for whom he was waiting would never 
 belong to him, but it had come, suddenly 
 but surely ; she was his at last, and he lay 
 back in the repose of security and waited. 
 He was in love, he said to himself, more 
 so he believed than ever before, the sun 
 shone and all was ready ; what more could 
 mortal man desire to make him happy ? 
 Love and the hot day were evidently too 
 much for him. At last he slept, the deep 
 dreamless sleep which comes in the open 
 air when nothing pinches or maims the 
 brain and nerves. His pipe went out and 
 lay in his outstretched hand, which was 
 being rapidly investigated by ants and sand 
 insects. His legs remained raised and 
 crossed, and one hand lay idly behind his 
 head. The mouth, half open, revealed the 
 strong white teeth of a healthy man in his 
 prime. 
 
 The woman for whom he waited stood 
 by him and watched him watched him 
 with contracted mouth and heavy eyes. 
 She had come to the old haunt ; she was 
 ten minutes late and he was asleep. Her 
 IOO 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CQKNIgHj JDYLL: 
 
 eyes wandered over his body ; the big 
 chest rose and fell with his deep, regular 
 breathing. The woman shivered and then 
 sighed. Her large nostrils moved rapidly. 
 His dark blue shirt was open at the throat, 
 and the thick hair on his chest was moist 
 with the summer's heat. The woman 
 stood quite still as she watched the sleeper ; 
 he sighed in his sleep. She moved back- 
 wards and her face paled a little. She 
 took off her large sun hat and threw it on 
 the ground ; the man started and their 
 eyes met. 
 "Janet!" 
 
 He sprang up, threw down his pipe and 
 folded his strong arms around her. She 
 made no movement, and he drew her face 
 up to his with a quick jerk of his hand 
 and kissed her passionately on the eyes 
 and mouth. 
 
 " There ! " he said, and sighed happily ; 
 " there ! that's good ! so ! Now another, 
 my sweetheart ! " and his eyes shone with 
 
 food-humoured passion, 
 he put her ringed hand on his open 
 breast and pushed him back. He laughed 
 and caught her closer to him in his lover's 
 mood, for he knew that she was being 
 TOI 
 
KITS -WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 coy with him, as is the way with women. 
 He glanced at her face and whispered : 
 " My own girl ! so you're here at last ! 
 How I've waited, you loiterer ! Come ! 
 let's be happy now ! " 
 " Dunnot ! " she said in a thick slow way, 
 and she pushed him back again. " Dun- 
 not, I say ! " 
 
 Still believing that it was a mere woman's 
 trick to intensify his ardour, he smiled. 
 " What's the row, Janet ? Has the new 
 moon turned you fickle ? " and he advanced 
 towards her again. 
 
 " Dunnot," repeated Janet. " I've done 
 what you said to me ; I've not told the 
 mon ! " 
 He laughed. 
 
 " Of course not, my sweet ! it would be 
 crazy ! " 
 
 " I meant to," she went on, " when I went 
 whoam that neet, but he was strange and 
 moithered bein' by hissel', and I couldn't 
 get it out." 
 
 Her hand was lowered and she added in 
 her deep sad voice : 
 
 " Somehow it all looked so different when 
 
 I got near him ; not" hesitating and 
 
 looking round at the sandhills and then 
 
 1 02 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 out to sea " not like here i' the sun, and 
 
 I were shamed, too shamed to think of it 
 
 even." 
 
 He glanced at her quickly. 
 
 "What the devil do you mean, Janet ?" he 
 
 asked, testily. 
 
 "You know what happened," she said, 
 
 slowly, as if the words were dragged out 
 
 of her, " here, last week, you know what 
 
 coomed to us. I was mazed, I'm thinking, 
 
 mazed wi' the sun and and " she 
 
 stammered "summat as I can't make 
 
 out now coomed over me. I'm thinking," 
 
 and she looked at him with glassy eyes, 
 
 " I'm thinking, mon, as I'm about hatin' 
 
 you and mysel' too to-day. What be I to 
 
 do? Eh? Tell me?" 
 
 The sentence ended in a sort of wail, and 
 
 she raised her hand to her eyes, as if to 
 
 shut out the sunlight. 
 
 Her lover began to think she was either 
 
 ill or serious. He drew her gently down 
 
 on the sand beside him, and she sank into 
 
 the place he had made for her. He seized 
 
 her hand and pressed it between both of 
 
 his her long strong hand which was 
 
 unlike that of any other woman he had 
 
 known. 
 
 103 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Janet 1" he said tenderly, " be reason- 
 able, dear ! What's up ? You're tired 
 a bit, I see. I know you said some 
 nonsense last week about telling your 
 husband of our love affair, but you couldn't 
 have been serious. I knew that right 
 enough, and made you promise not to 
 tell him till I saw you again, just 
 to make your mind easy. My sweet 
 old darling ! it would be the maddest 
 thing going to do that ! " He whistled. 
 " By heaven ! there'd be ructions then 
 and no mistake. He'll never be a pin 
 the wiser, and it's not as if I really 
 took you away from him, you know 
 and and it might be confoundedly bad 
 for him and upset him just now, don't 
 you think ?" 
 
 " It's the lies," she said simply. 
 " What lies ?" he asked. 
 "Lies! lies! it's all lies," she went on, 
 wearily, " nothin' but lies ! " 
 "Nonsense, Janet," a little impatiently 
 " you're like all women, dear, overstrung 
 and all that. You don't think men tell 
 their wives their little love affairs, do 
 you ? " He laughed and half closed his 
 eyes. " Not they, indeed ! there'd be 
 104 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 pretty scenes if they did, I can tell you. 
 Then why should you tell him ? " 
 " I hate lies," said Janet. 
 He smiled. 
 
 " My dear ! it's too late now ; we may 
 have done wrong, probably have ; we may 
 have done right don't believe we've quite 
 done that but anyway it's done, that's 
 certain " he looked at her meaningly 
 " and the best thing now is for us both 
 to hold our tongues. You particularly if 
 you've any sense or nice feeling for that 
 poor devil of a husband of yours." 
 He picked a sand thistle and rubbed off 
 with his thick forefinger the grey and 
 purple bloom on its leaves, as delicate as 
 the bloom on the grape. It pricked him, 
 and he flicked it with finger and thumb 
 over the ridge of sand at his feet. She 
 watched him wearily, and he went on : 
 "Your husband would simply raise the 
 roof off the house in a jealous man's 
 tantrums, and what good would that do 
 any of us ? You can't help loving me," 
 he smiled at her " I could not for the 
 life of me have helped loving you ; here 
 we were ; in fact, here we are ; the thing's 
 in a nutshell and we've got to make the 
 105 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 best of it. Let's shut up this parson's 
 
 drivel. Don't spoil a lovely day with old 
 
 woman's rot, for I've just hungered to 
 
 get you close and fast in my arms again. 
 
 Come ! " 
 
 The words startled her. She looked 
 
 round in terror, and her hands shook so 
 
 much that she clasped them tightly behind 
 
 her back. 
 
 " No ! " she said huskily " never no 
 
 more never ! " 
 
 " Nonsense," he said, suddenly wakening 
 
 to the fact that he was losing her. " Don't 
 
 you love me, Janet ? " 
 
 She turned her beautiful eyes full on him 
 
 and laughed in a stupid way. 
 
 " I dunnot know ; I've never axed mysel' 
 
 that." 
 
 "What!" he retorted. "Is your body 
 
 nothing to you that you give it for play 
 
 on a summer's day ? " 
 
 He spoke bitterly. She flinched visibly, 
 
 and he saw the anguish creeping all over 
 
 her face, and making it grey. 
 
 " I dunnot know." 
 
 Whew ! " he whistled. " If I 
 
 thought " 
 
 He stopped, for he had caught a strange 
 106 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 expression in her face as she looked at 
 him. He put his hands in his pockets 
 and looked on the ground. 
 "You've duped me, Janet," he went on 
 
 emphatically ; " you've " 
 
 She stopped him and said roughly : 
 "And what do you think I've done to 
 yon mon, then ? " 
 
 He waived aside the question with a 
 lover's impatience. 
 
 " Do you hear, Janet ? You're a flirt ! 
 that's certain, if you mean what you said 
 just now. You've given yourself for an 
 hour like a " he hesitated as he saw her 
 eyes glitter "well, like other women 
 do, and then you leave me" his voice 
 broke " leave me without a decent word 
 to pull up a fellow's faith in women again." 
 He covered his face with his hands and 
 the veins had risen like cords in his thick 
 neck, and she pitied him. 
 " Forgive me," she said simply ; " it's been 
 all wrong, and I'm the worst, as you say." 
 He sprang towards her and put his arm 
 round her as she lay in the sand ; he 
 blinded her with kisses. His breathing 
 became quick and heavy and he muttered 
 between his teeth : 
 
 107 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Damn it all ! But you shan't go ! 
 There ! Do you hear ? You shan't 
 go. I'll have you yet if I kill him for 
 it ; you shan't waste your beauty on 
 that cripple ; I'll strangle him first. You 
 belong to me, Janet yes, yes, now and 
 for always." 
 
 He had her fast and she felt that her 
 power over him was going ; the old 
 delirious spell was creeping over her ; his 
 strength and manhood were lulling her 
 soul to sleep again, and a frenzy shook 
 her. He leaned over her as if he would 
 devour her ; his lips pressed hers closely 
 and feverishly, and she saw the animal 
 rising in him beyond all control as their 
 eyes were riveted together. 
 " Dunnot ! " she screamed. 
 But he burst out with an oath and swore 
 he would have her. Her lips tightened 
 and with a quick movement she freed her 
 hands and with all her strength she pushed 
 him from her, as she said in a voice which 
 made his heart beat madly : 
 " Stand up ! Thou't nobbut a coward." 
 Then slowly and with set teeth the words 
 came hissing to him. " Listen ! I hate 
 thee, I say hate thee ! " 
 108 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 He was sobered and stood up ashamed of 
 himself. 
 
 " Forgive me ! " he said ; " I was mad ; 
 but it was your face, Janet, and and 
 your devilish coldness ! " 
 "Is that how you do love me ? " 
 She sighed wearily. 
 
 "Is that how men folks love ? That sort ? 
 You'd kill him and hurt me and only fill 
 yoursel' a'ter all like a pig wi'out a ring 
 through its nose ? " 
 
 " And what about you ? Where's your 
 love that you told me of last week ? " he 
 said more gently. "YouVe maddened 
 me, that's all, and I'm a blundering idiot 
 to frighten you. But, dearest, where's 
 your love I felt so sure of before ? " 
 She looked out towards the rippling waves 
 as they crept in on the big yellow sands, 
 but she said nothing, only sighed as she 
 shrugged her shoulders. 
 " Speak, Janet," he said quickly ; "out with 
 it. Did you lie last week or are you lying 
 now ? Speak, girl." 
 
 She looked at him in a stupid way as she 
 clasped the loose folds of her bodice with 
 both hands ; he noticed how her dress hung 
 on her, and how aged she had become. 
 109 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 "I'm shamed/' she said. "It were all 
 right last week. What we did seemed no 
 uglier to me then than bathing in yon sea ; 
 but now," she shuddered, " I feel a big 
 stain on me as I cannot flick off noways, 
 and I'm fain to tell the only one as 'ull 
 likely forgive me." 
 
 The man was getting bored. Women, 
 women, women, he thought, all the same 
 the world over ; ready enough to rake up 
 hell-fire, and then fly screaming at the 
 smoke and flame. He had foolishly 
 imagined that Janet had " grit " enough in 
 her to keep passion fresh and strong and 
 free from morbid regrets and useless taunts. 
 It was a great nuisance, for he really cared 
 for her, and now these tantalising women's 
 fooleries were going to interrupt their 
 pleasure. He tried to pacify her. 
 " Look here, Janet, my girl ! Just listen 
 to me for a minute. You're like all good 
 women bless you for it too nesh over 
 these things. I assure you, dear, we've 
 done no real wrong ; it's only your rotten 
 straight-laced land-rules over these things 
 that's worrying you. It is, indeed. Just 
 look at the thing fairly for a second. Kit's 
 no more a husband to you than that log of 
 no 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 wood." He pointed to a piece of old 
 mast, lying on the beach, which had become 
 partially buried in the drifting sand. " He's 
 done for, and you know it. You surely 
 don't want to spoil his last years by telling 
 him what's come between us. Now, that's 
 wrong, if you like, to try and disturb a poor 
 devil of a cripple who's lopped off from 
 women and life altogether before his time." 
 " Dunnot ! " she said. 
 " The fact is, Janet, you know well enough 
 the thing is done and can't be mended 
 now, do what we will." 
 " It's all lies," she said. 
 " Nonsense ! to hold your tongue isn't 
 lying ; we've got to shut our mouths over 
 this, and that's all." 
 
 " You dunnot see," she said wearily. 
 " With your sort love means mostly that 
 that " she stammered "what you 
 and me knows but that ain't all to 
 wenches, I'm thinking. Kit do belong to 
 me like as if I'd weaned him and it's all 
 lies, I tell you," she ended abruptly. 
 He looked at her closely and bit his lip. 
 " What do you think will happen if you 
 do tell him, Janet ? " he asked, with the 
 faintest trace of a sneer on his mouth. 
 Ill 
 
I 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " I dunnot know," she answered. 
 "Well, I'll tell you. If he has a bit of a 
 man left in him, he'll tip some thickset 
 mate of his to come and tan my skin for 
 me ; if he's a mawk, it'll kill him." 
 "Then why," she wailed, "why did us 
 do it?" 
 
 He coughed and pointed to two flies 
 crawling on his hand, but she had not 
 taken her eyes from his face. " Why did 
 us do it ? " she muttered. 
 The why was taken up by a big bee who 
 buzzed the question in his ears and flew 
 off at last with a whizzing sound of insect 
 laughter. 
 
 "You don't love me, Janet," he said 
 despondingly, as he looked into her sad 
 eyes " not a bit, dear ; I've been a stupid 
 fool to believe what you said." 
 She shivered. 
 
 " You came to me," he went on gently, 
 resolved to try a different plan, " rubbed 
 off some of my low ideas about love, and 
 now " he eyed her keenly " you throw 
 me off again to go back to bought women." 
 She stared at him blankly. 
 " What ! " she said suddenly. 
 "You see," he continued, thinking he 
 112 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 was influencing her, " men all take love or 
 lust ; we're made like that and it'll always 
 be so whatever the goody-goody sort say." 
 He laid his big hairy hand across his open 
 throat. " It's here, there, everywhere, you 
 know, all over a man, and will out if he 
 has to go to hell for it." 
 "What will?" she asked. 
 He laughed. 
 
 "Why, it," he said "sex or what you 
 like to call it ; I don't know what women 
 think about these things, but a man can't 
 live unless he has women." He slipped 
 both thumbs in the thick yellow folds of 
 his belt and whistled. " Mind ! it's a 
 damned nuisance and often enough it's 
 more fag than anything else, but it's there, 
 and you women have the whole thing in 
 your hands. You pitch us into lust one 
 day and then stand bolt upright like saints 
 the next and offer us milk and water 
 instead of the first red love wine." 
 She blushed why, she could not quite 
 tell, but her eyes fell and her hands shook 
 a little. 
 
 " Yes," he said harshly ; " men all take it 
 one way or another ; it can be bought 
 like tobacco or rum ; that's one sort ; 
 113 8 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 the other sort, I'm thinking, isn't much 
 better, for I believe you pure women play 
 the same game with different cards behind 
 the screen." 
 
 cc I dunnot know what you mean by that," 
 said Janet, simply. 
 
 " Oh ! nothing ! only you good women 
 are always so afraid and ticklish about 
 little things. You can never go the whole 
 length of love ; you offer us sugar-sticks, 
 and when a man opens his mouth to bite 
 you scream and hide the thing away for 
 fear some other sinner should catch you, 
 then you see " he laughed again 
 " you've made a poor devil's mouth water, 
 and so he must drink somehow, and then 
 he damns himself and some other woman 
 in ^uick sticks." 
 
 She only dimly caught his meaning, but 
 her face grew whiter and the large rings 
 under her beautiful blue eyes darkened. 
 " Then I've done hurt to both of you ! " 
 she said. 
 
 " Well that's about it," he answered, 
 thinking her pity and remorse might make 
 her yield to him. " I wonder if you really 
 love either of us ? " 
 
 She sobbed. Great deep breaths shook 
 114 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 her whole body. It was not the hysterical 
 grief of an over-wrought and somewhat 
 shallow femininity, but the convulsive 
 throes of a woman in extremity. The 
 man watched her and pitied her. Poor 
 souls, he muttered to himself ; it was 
 always like this ! They irritate and attract 
 at the same time. So yielding and soft 
 and lovely in their utter abandonment to 
 sentimentality of passion, and then 
 plunged into despair or weakness when 
 their own actions begin to work out 
 logically. He looked at her tenderly 
 from head to heel and noted her singular 
 grace and strength, and a curious feeling 
 crept over him, a feeling of longing to 
 protect and to always live with this woman 
 who had come so suddenly into his life. 
 He began to think that perhaps there might 
 be a new sort of happiness in always being 
 near a woman who puzzled and charmed 
 him with her fresh goodness which did 
 not smell of either parsons or books. He 
 knelt down on the sand near her and 
 folded his arms about her waist as she 
 stood sobbing. 
 
 " Dunnot," she said gently, as she bent 
 and unloosed his hands. He obeyed her 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 at once and she sat down near him. He 
 began to feel curiously afraid of her, and 
 his voice sounded thick and unnatural as 
 he spoke to her. 
 
 " Janet, Janet, listen to me ! Come ! try 
 and cheer up a bit ! Let's drop this 
 confounded subject ; tell me, just once, 
 that you care for me, and I'll be satisfied 
 and wait for you yes, I will, my dear." 
 His face had grown paler. " I will, in- 
 deed until you feel you can come. I 
 will, upon my soul, Janet, for I love you, 
 as I have never loved anyone before." 
 He spoke the truth, and she believed him 
 and smiled through her tears. 
 " Thank you for that," she said. 
 His eyes were grave and tender as one 
 of her tears fell on his hand as he held 
 both of hers, and his thick under -lip 
 quivered. 
 
 " Hush ! hush ! Janet ; you frighten me. 
 I will not hurt you nor force you ! I 
 will wait ! Wait for years ! but tell me, 
 darling, just once tell me you love me ? " 
 She stammered out between her sobs : 
 " I dunnot know ; I seem to know naught 
 now, naught but that I mun tell that 
 mon ; the thought o' that fairly eats into 
 116 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 me the thought that I've lied to him and 
 him so straight and fair and good to me." 
 She lay back in the sand and her sobs 
 came at longer intervals. 
 " You see," she said, " I knew naught 
 about things, seemly, till last week ; I've 
 been a wife all these years and yet " she 
 stammered and blushed "it seems now 
 as I do understand more what God Hissel' 
 kens over women. I can't put it i' straight 
 words even to mysel', though I've 
 moithered my brains all night over it." 
 The man watched her and longed to touch 
 her ; a sweeping rush of desire simply to 
 kiss her hand took hold of him. For 
 the moment that was all he wanted just 
 to take that long firm hand and hold it 
 between his in an ecstasy of silence, but he 
 never moved ; something held him back, 
 and he looked at her hot face and burning 
 eyes. 
 
 " What else ? " he said stupidly. 
 "We've longings like you," she started, 
 and then sat and faced him "yes, I'll 
 say out for once what's crazing me we're 
 not cold and frightened like you do say ; 
 we're just as fierce, just as warm and" 
 with a gasp "just as mad over the flesh 
 117 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 of what we do love as you, and madder, 
 too, for we can't rend ourselves from what 
 we've kissed noways no, not noways, and 
 you men folkses can." 
 " But you are going to leave me ? " he 
 said, meaningly, as he bent over her. 
 " I dunnot know," she said " I only know 
 as I can never leave him no, not for no 
 one, and not if God Hissel' told me it were 
 right and fit as I should." She clasped 
 her hands together and gazed out to sea. 
 " We comes to love the men as we does 
 for as we grows to love the childer we has 
 pains for. When I'm mendin' Kit's coat, 
 and I comes on a rubbed place like as 
 seems to be a bit of hissel', I feels summat 
 come over me as I believe is the same sort 
 as men folkses feel when they've got a 
 wench all to theirsel's body and soul 
 for the first time. It's not fudge," she 
 said, as she saw a smile in his eyes " I 
 know it isn't, for I've seen it i' other 
 wenches when they're knittin' or puttin' 
 up their men's baggin' i' hayin' time. 
 Women live on bits o' things men needs 
 hunks of everything, but our bits taste as 
 sweet to us as your hunks to you." 
 He scarcely heard what she said ; he was 
 118 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 trying to understand what had come over 
 him ; he looked round on the miles of 
 yellow sands and then out to sea. Not a 
 soul was near. He was strong, she was 
 only a woman they were alone and she 
 was absolutely in his power, and yet he 
 was amazed at the strangeness of the 
 situation he had not even the courage to 
 take her hand and hold it for an instant 
 close to his heart. He gazed at her in a 
 stupid way, like a man in a dream, and 
 asked : 
 
 " Did you speak, Janet ? " 
 " I were only saying that when a woman 
 has done for a man, fettled his house for 
 him and tended him and got used to his 
 voice and his ways, it don't really matter 
 if he gets crippled like Kit ; he's hers 
 she can't get free of that, and she can no 
 more get loose from him than she can from 
 her own guts." 
 
 He gazed at her in bewilderment : 
 "But, Janet," he hesitated, and added 
 nervously, "if you really feel like that, 
 how can you ahem ! love two men ? " 
 She blushed and faced him, and her deep 
 voice vibrated as she answered quickly : 
 " I've taken a whole week to puzzle that 
 119 
 
I 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 out, and I'm no nearer seem' things. I 
 reckon I'll never find out why what were 
 sweet and good to me a week ago is foul 
 and bad to me now. I know naught, I 
 tell thee naught but one thing, I mun 
 tell the mon, and this very neet." 
 "Then it's all up," he said stupidly; 
 "that's checkmate right enough. I've 
 lost you ! " 
 
 " 1 dunnot rightly know ; that's as you 
 reckon things. I can't abide lies, and it 
 is lies for a woman to cheat her mon. If 
 I was a mon I would stand anythin' but 
 that that and wheedling, which is 
 summat like cheatin' and lyin' in one." 
 " Poor devil ! " he said, " it'll finish him." 
 " You dunnot know the likes o' Kit," she 
 answered sharply. " I'm shamed to go 
 and tell him shamed," and her face 
 contracted, " but it 'ud finish me if I went 
 on actin' to him as I'm doin' now. I must 
 bide by his will, and if he shoves me out I 
 canna help it, but I reckon he'll perhaps 
 sum up the thing straighter than I can or 
 you either." 
 
 " It's a confounded business," he muttered. 
 " Nothin' matters like lies," she said. 
 " Not even love," he answered bitterly. 
 120 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 She stood up, and put her hand on his 
 shoulder ; her tight grip sent his blood 
 hotly through his veins ; what would 
 happen next ? He did not care ; a thrill 
 of joy went over him as she touched him, 
 and he did not attempt to move. 
 " Listen ! " he heard her say. " I dunnot 
 know much about what goes on out 
 yonder, in the big cities where you say 
 women sells their bodies for naught but 
 common brass, but I can tell you this : " 
 her eyes sought his and then suddenly 
 dropped and her hand slipped from his 
 shoulder " if I hadn't felt a feelin' to you 
 as seemed to come fresh and sweet from 
 God Hissel', I couldn't have let you come 
 nigh me no, nor him neither " pointing 
 inland. " I want you to mind that for his 
 sake ; it's his wife and not his wanton as 
 you've kissed. Mind that always, and 
 some day " she laughed softly " I'd be 
 rare and glad to see you two grip each 
 other's hands. Yes ; I dunnot see why 
 not, for you meant no wrong to me, and 
 he'll ken that fast enough, I'm thinkin'." 
 The man looked at her and smiled. 
 " And what about you, Janet ; what do 
 you think he'll say of that ? " 
 121 
 
I 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 She crimsoned painfully, and her voice 
 shook as she answered him : 
 " I'll be fair and tell him everythin' how 
 it came like a great wind over me how I 
 forgot even him for it how how" 
 she put out her hands towards him " how 
 somethin' carried me away away some- 
 thin' as I've never even felt for him some- 
 thin' as strong and awful as death itself 
 which cast me down and made me forget the 
 mon as I love best i' all the world. Do 
 you think he'll not believe me ? I reckon 
 he'll perhaps give me the only comfort I 
 can get now, for he do love me and and 
 he'll believe in me i' spite of every- 
 thing." 
 
 " You're a hopeful woman, Janet, and I'm 
 a damned fool to have ever tempted you. 
 No, I shall never see Kit Trenoweth ; 
 women don't know men, my dear, when 
 they can talk like you. You'll learn a 
 little more by and by. Don't you see 
 that if we met, if he didn't shie the poker 
 
 at me, I should have to " He stopped 
 
 abruptly, as he saw he was paining her. 
 " No, no, Janet ; you can never under- 
 stand ; men are wolves when they really 
 love a woman, and wolves don't share 
 
 122 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 their choicest morsels except in fairy 
 tales." 
 
 She turned to go, and he made no attempt 
 to stop her. He had grown suddenly 
 very tired ; his limbs ached as if with 
 fever, and noises came in his ears and 
 head. He tried to speak, but no sound 
 would come ; he willed himself to walk 
 towards Janet and take her in his arms, 
 but he felt the sensation of nightmare ; 
 his legs refused to move, and he saw as in 
 a dream the face and figure of the woman 
 who was leaving him. She touched his 
 hands, and he thought he heard her say 
 quite close to him in her Lancashire brogue 
 "Bless you," but he was not sure. He 
 was sure of nothing except that he must 
 be going mad, for the sea seemed to have 
 suddenly crept into the sky, and he dis- 
 tinctly saw the wavelets over his head and 
 heard the dash of the water above him. 
 This could only be the beginning of some 
 horrible delusion, and he made a tre- 
 mendous effort to shake himself into his 
 usual self-possession. He moved at last 
 and leaned over the brink of the sandhill 
 where they had both lain. He shaded 
 his face with his hands and gazed across 
 123 
 
1 
 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 the yellow sands towards the black rocks 
 in the distance. A groan burst from him 
 as he sprang to his feet, for he had traced 
 her as she rounded the cliff. Only one 
 idea seemed to possess him as he looked 
 at her in the distance the longing that 
 she would turn and wave her hands to 
 him to give him hope to wait for her. 
 She had turned towards him and was 
 looking upwards. The setting sun had 
 wrapped her in colour ; he stretched out 
 his hands towards her and waited for a 
 sign, but she turned and went slowly 
 behind the black ledge of rocks. The 
 man shivered as with cold and cursed the 
 fates, for he suddenly realised that she 
 could not have seen him, since a heavy, 
 dank Cornish mist had spread over the 
 sandhills and covered from the eyes of 
 the woman who stood in the glow of the 
 sunset the figure of the man who watched 
 from the hills. 
 
 124 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 " DARN 'ee then ! " said Nan Curtis, as 
 she opened her door in answer to a loud 
 peal at the bell which made her jump 
 quickly to her feet and leave the cleaning 
 of her slab. " Oh ! my dear ! be it you ? 
 Darn 'ee, woman ! do 'ee want to scatter 
 the house on my ears wi' breaking the 
 bell pull?" 
 
 She looked at Loveday and snorted, smil- 
 ing reproof and welcome at her. " Come 
 in, do," she went on, " and sit 'ee down. 
 Why ! you're all of a tremble, woman ! 
 What be wrang ? " 
 
 Loveday's fat face was bathed in perspira- 
 tion, and her eyes seemed rounder than 
 ever. She pulled Nan into the kitchen, 
 and stood facing her with arms akimbo 
 and legs apart. 
 
 " Woman ! " she gasped. " I've tumbled 
 125 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN: A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 on the secret o' they weeds at last. Guess ? 
 No ! 'cell never reckon it up. Oh ! my 
 blessed life ! it's worse nor awful the sly- 
 ness o' the minx ! " 
 
 She stopped for breath, and Nan, who 
 had seated herself on the horsehair sofa 
 opposite Loveday, folded her arms and 
 opened her mouth wide, showing the yellow 
 tusk which seemed ready to devour gossip 
 and scandal wholesale. 
 " What the devil do 'ee mane, woman ? " 
 she snapped at last. " Don't stan' there 
 gapin' at a body, but out wi' it. Is it 
 somethin' gone wrang wi' Clibby Kit's 
 woman ? " 
 
 Loveday smiled knowingly, and pursed 
 up one eye in a suggestive wink. 
 " Why ! the whole place 'ull knaw the 
 truth afore nightfall. Mincin' jade ! wi' 
 her fine face and up-'long airs ; her's been 
 seen over Bos Kivven way wi' a chap as 
 don't belong hereabouts at all, and " 
 with a gasp "they weeds is what I've 
 reckoned all along, nothin' but pap to 
 stop up Kit's mouth wi', and her's played 
 the fool wi' all o' we, sure 'nough ! " 
 She stopped a moment to pick her teeth 
 with a large brass pin she took from the 
 126 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 bosom of her dress, and then laughed 
 loudly. 
 
 " Oh ! my Lord ! I'm as glad as if anybody 
 'ud given me a mayin' to have found she 
 out. Proud upstairt ! as allus seemed too 
 good and fine to 'ave a man lay a finger 
 on she ! " 
 
 She folded her arms and leaned heavily on 
 one leg as she continued : 
 "But mind you, mate," and she stared 
 fixedly at Nan, " I'm sorry for Kit, for 
 it's a whishe job for he, sure 'nough ! " 
 " It's blasted lies, I'm thinkin'," said Nan, 
 emphatically. " I don't belong to hearken 
 nor yet to credit all as I sees, much less 
 hears ! Anyways, I'm noane goin' to 
 b'lieve that of Janet, or I s'ud think as 
 eyes was given to some folkses for the 
 very purpose of takin' in their own flesh 
 and bluid. Janet be no wanton, I'll be 
 bound, and if her's walked wi' a man 
 well lat me tell 'ee, Loveday, my dear, 
 that noane o' we can throw mud at she 
 fur that, fur I b'lieve, if my winders don't 
 lie, as you've walked wi' three chaps up- 
 'long and down-'long this very week." 
 " Walked ! " grunted Loveday, who was 
 not very pleased that her full-flavoured 
 127 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 piece of news should be disparaged in 
 this way; "as likely as not I've walked 
 wi' chaps, but noane o' 'ee have seed me 
 lyin' wi 1 a man naw ! " 
 She delivered this speech with full force, and 
 waited triumphantly for the effect on Nan. 
 " Darn 'ee ! what be 'ee tryin' to do now, 
 Loveday ? Flingin' a woman's name i' the 
 mud 'cause your own petticoats is noane 
 so clean ! I'm shamed fur 'ee. A bit o' 
 dirty or measly talk over neighbours is 
 right 'nough ; it do mak' the day go by a 
 bit quicker and sends a body to bed wi' a 
 chuckle, and that often 'nough brings 'ee 
 to sleep, if you be a bit waken, but there's 
 a broad difference, let me tell 'ee, a'tween 
 a bit o' pastime and a lump o' malice and 
 envy. Iss ! I do mean what I say," as 
 she saw Loveday drop into a chair with her 
 lower lip pouting in anger. " Iss ! A lot 
 o' talk o'er that woman be nothiri' i' the 
 world but bloomin' spite. I likes she fur 
 hersel', fur there was no talk o' looks 
 when I were made, and I do belong to 
 seek beauty outside my own mirror. I'd 
 b'lieve flash things o' she, but never what 
 you do say, though you swore it on your 
 family Bible." 
 
 128 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Humph ! " sneered Loveday, netded by 
 this new attitude in her friend. " If you 
 be fur upholdin' they sort o' things it's 
 gittin' time as you and me s'ould be seein' 
 less o' one another. I allus was one as 
 stood up fur a married woman cleavin' to 
 her man, even if he's nothin' but a bundle 
 o' chaff, in a manner o' speakin', as Kit be, 
 and it do turn my liver and guts sour to 
 think o' that mincin' jade kissin' strange 
 men and meetin' of 'em agin and agin 
 unbeknown to honest folkses." 
 Nan was alarmed, for she began to fear 
 that Loveday had some reason for her 
 venom. 
 
 " Out wi' it, woman ! Who's seen what, 
 and which devil have been so close to thy 
 earhole as to fill it wi' this foul talk ? " 
 Loveday grinned. 
 
 "Did 'ee see me wi' Snowball Jack up 
 street a while since ? " 
 " No ! " snapped Nan ; " were 'ee walkin' 
 wi' a man then ? " 
 Loveday laughed coarsely. 
 " Yes, woman, I were, sure 'nough, but 1 
 weren't lyin' i' the sand wi' 'en and kissen' 
 of 'en, and that's what Janet were seen 
 doin' of early this arternoon, and him as 
 129 9 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 seen she said as how he'd take his oath 
 afore God and a whole bench o' jurymen 
 as it were noane other but Janet herseF. 
 What do 'ee think o' she now eh ? " with 
 a triumphant smile. 
 
 Nan stood taut and square, and her short 
 skirts seemed to bristle out from her small 
 stiff body, as if in protest against their 
 owner being snared by a trap of any kind. 
 She cleared her throat and spat in the ash 
 pan, and then dug her knuckles in a 
 friendly way into Loveday's arm. 
 " I tell 'ee what I do think," she said ; I 
 think that Snowball Jack, if it's him as has 
 seed all this moonshine, must be a darned 
 fule, for when Janet do go up-'long for 
 they weeds, her's well beyond the reach o' 
 the eyeholes o' men as bides along o' we." 
 Loveday smiled and blew her nose on the 
 corner of her dirty apron : 
 " No ; her's got within hail for once't. 
 Snowball Jack were sent up-'long last night 
 to Bos Kivven Cliff to watch fur the 
 mackerel boats and to help unload, for 
 there's shoals o' fish looked for there- 
 abouts, and he were coastin' till three 
 o'clock and no boats had been sighted, so 
 he coomed home to once't, and I jist met 
 130 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 'en wi' his mouth hot to burstin' wi' what 
 he'd spied up-'long." 
 
 " He's mistook some coortin' pair fur she, 
 I'll be bound. Snowball Jack, seems to 
 me, is the onlikeliest man as s'ould spy 
 o'er they things ; he do knaw how to 
 court, sure enough, wi'out pryin' o'er cliffs 
 to get new lights on that job." 
 Loveday laughed and smirked as she 
 rolled the corner of her apron between her 
 fat fingers. 
 
 " What's done i' wedlock and what's done 
 out, seems to me, is two different things. It 
 cain't be reckoned harm to kiss and cuddle 
 beforehand, jist to get your hand in fur a 
 long job by and by, but when you're fully 
 wed, seems to me, it's worse nor devil's wark 
 to chop and change one man wi' 'nother." 
 " Darn 'ee, woman ! " snorted Nan, who 
 was now putting the finishing touches to 
 her slab ; " go to thy home and do some 
 chars and forget the lies as thee's heard, for 
 I'm certain sure they're lies and that Kit's 
 Janet 'ud do yet to plead for both o' we 
 over kissin' 'bouts even before the Throne 
 at the Judgment time." 
 Loveday stared at Nan in a bewildered 
 sort of way and sighed. 
 
1 
 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Well ! it's the first time as a neighbour 
 'ave told me to go out of her house, and 
 all 'cause o' a woman as weren't never fitey 
 and s'ould never have come among we 
 honest folkses at all. Iss ! I'll holler as 
 loud as I've a mind to ; " as Nan put her 
 fingers in her ears to drown the angry 
 tones which Loveday's high-pitched voice 
 had taken. " I were born hollerin', and 
 when I do want a mate to understand 
 me I hollers louder than be natural to 
 me. I'm fair befoolt over this job, and 
 I sudn't have thought as my own com- 
 panion, as I've knawed for years, 'ud 
 tak' sides wi' a loose female agin me." 
 She sniffled and applied the apron corner 
 to her eye. Nan rubbed away at her 
 stove and said nothing for some time ; 
 then she suddenly turned round, faced 
 Loveday and yapped. Loveday peeped 
 from behind her apron and sniffled louder 
 than ever. Nan went to a cupboard near 
 the stove and brought out a ginger beer 
 bottle containing some colourless fluid. 
 Loveday sobbed piteously from behind 
 the apron, and Nan yapped fiercely as she 
 undid the cork. 
 
 " Here, woman ! I canna abide to see a 
 132 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 female weep ; it do allus gie me the 
 crawls," and she shivered as she spoke. 
 " Dry thy eyes, mate, and have a pennoth. 
 I do keep it handy for buryin's and sudden 
 qualms. I didn't mean any hurt to 'ee, 
 my dear, not at all, sure 'nough, but I'm 
 thinkin' lately when I do sit here knittin' 
 a bit as it's women theirsel's as strips 
 women o' chances every bit as close as 
 men do belong to do. Somethin' as a 
 artis' chap said to me back 'long have 
 made me hutch up closer to females than 
 I belong to do ; noane o' we be so mighty 
 decent as we need be flinging muck at 
 other folk ! " 
 
 " Gosh ! " exclaimed Loveday. " Seems 
 to me 'ee must be gitten' not exactly, Nan, 
 for you've allus been one as 'ud uphold 
 the tie 'tween husbands and wives, and it's 
 not that neither ; it's the bloomin' cheatin' 
 of the jade, wi' her innocent rose-pink face 
 and her grainey way, as allus gies 'ee the 
 notion as her be mixed wi' different stuff 
 to we." She spat on the floor. " I do 
 hate she ; her's never once't spoke a seemly 
 word to me sin' her coomed to the place, 
 and Clibby Kit's house ain't never been 
 half the house fur a gossip sin' he brought 
 133 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 the maid home. I can reckon the day 
 when the old un had it all her own way, 
 and then it were somethin' like." 
 Loveday's eyes were dry now, and she 
 folded her arms and put her head senti- 
 mentally on one side. " Oh ! my blessed 
 life ! what times they was to be sure ! 
 I've had many a tasty bit and many a long 
 mag wi' the old un afore Janet corned 
 and made all so different like." 
 "Drat 'ee!" said Nan shortly, "drink 
 this, and don't be sparey wi' the bottle, 
 woman ; you're welcome, you do knaw, 
 and it'll happen mak' 'ee feel less whishe, 
 I'm thinkin'." 
 
 Loveday's eyes gleamed, and she took the 
 bottle and poured out a small quantity of 
 the fluid without adding any water to it. 
 She smacked her lips and looked fondly at 
 Nan. 
 
 " My handsome ! it's just splendid. I 
 could allus feel chirpy if I'd be sure o' 
 gettin' a drop o' that once't or twice i' the 
 week. It sends your blood dancin' and 
 singin' someway and warms the very 
 cockles o' your 'eart. Just a leetle sup 
 more, my dear." 
 Nan poured out another generous helping, 
 
 134 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 and then raised the bottle to the light, 
 grunted audibly, and put it back in its 
 place in the cupboard. When she turned, 
 Loveday had drunk the second dose and 
 was standing up ready to go. 
 "Thank 'ee, my dear." Her fat hands 
 were spread over her " lower stomach," 
 as she called the most prominent part of 
 her person. " It's a lovely feelin' I've got 
 over me, like nothin' else as I do knaw, 
 except," with a grin, " bein' convarted. 
 My gosh ! that is a lively thing anyway. 
 You do knaw I've gone through wid 'en 
 once't or twice, my dear, and it guv me a 
 feelin' jist like I have now, a sort o' 
 soothin' restful kind o' feelin' as took out 
 all the snarls and crusty thoughts as I had 
 agin everybody. Have 'ee ever been 
 convarted, mate ? " 
 
 Nan showed her large yellow tusks and 
 yapped. 
 
 " Yes, woman, but it ended i' coortship sure 
 'nough, and afore the bloomin' feelin' had 
 passed off I were bein' captained upstairs 
 and down till I were crazy. I s'ud never 
 'ave been wedded, I'm thinkin', if I'd never 
 been convarted, and I've fought shy o' the 
 chapels sin', fur I paid fur that bit o' holiday 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 feelin' for six year, and I'm noane goin' to 
 put my head in the noose no more." 
 " I commend 'ee," said Loveday, slowly, 
 and then looking at Nan in a fixed way, 
 she said suddenly : 
 
 " Woman ! that stuff as you've guv me 
 is doin' me a power o' good. I've been 
 nearly thrawin' mesel' over the clift this 
 last week or two. I'm most mazed wi' 
 thinkin' 'bout things, Nan." She laughed 
 stupidly and sidled up to her friend and 
 jerked her in the ribs. " I've been goin' 
 a bit too fur wi' Snowball Jack, and and 
 " she laughed again " do 'ee reckon 
 there's much good i' takin' green tea fur 
 to git clear agin ? I've drunk pints o' 
 it sin' last month, when I were sure." 
 Nan looked at her. 
 " Thee be a darned fool, woman ! ' 
 Loveday smiled. 
 
 "Yes, I do knaw, but it can't be helped 
 now ; he guv me some stuff or 'nother to 
 drink, my dear, and it were a cold dampin' 
 sort o' day, and I took it to keep the 
 creeps off of me, and " she sniggered, 
 "well, woman, you do know, but I'm 
 fearin' it's goin' to be a pest this time. 
 Whats'allldo?" 
 
 136 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 "Do!" snapped Nan; "go down on 
 your marrow bones and bide your time 
 and don't 'ee slime other women wi' foul 
 names." 
 
 Loveday whimpered. 
 
 " 'Ee said jist now as how you reckoned 
 women s'ould hold by women, and so," 
 with a hysterical sob, " and so I told 'ee, 
 and all 'ee can do for me seemly is to 
 preach at me, and I'm that that weary 
 and down i' the mouth till" her sobs 
 became louder "till I'm not sure what 
 I mayn't do yet 1 " 
 
 Nan went to the cupboard once more and 
 sighed wearily as she again brought for- 
 ward the ginger-beer bottle. She planted 
 it on the table near Loveday, and said 
 sharply : 
 
 " Finish it, woman ! " 
 Loveday meekly obeyed, and wiped her 
 heated face with one corner of her apron 
 and blew her nose hastily with the other 
 corner. 
 
 "You be the only friend as I 'ave, my 
 dear," she sobbed, "and I don't knaw 
 what 'ud become o' me if you died or 
 anythin' ; I don't indeed ! " 
 The gin was beginning to take effect. 
 
 137 
 
1 
 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 Her head lolled on one side, she sank into 
 a big chair, rested her elbows on its arms 
 and looked stupidly at Nan, who was now 
 sitting taut and grave, with her eyes fixed 
 upon Loveday, while her right hand clasped 
 the empty bottle. 
 
 " Don't 'ee stare at me like that, woman," 
 whimpered Loveday. " I'm no worse nor 
 any other up-'long or down-'long, and 
 neither him nor me's been foolin' any 
 other body ! " She raised her head. " I'd 
 scorn to do what some do belong to do, 
 play games wi' married men." 
 " Darn 'ee ! husht ! " interrupted Nan, 
 " there's little pickin' and choosin' i' these 
 jobs. It's like walnuts and red cabbage i' 
 vinegar ; they're a different sort afore they 
 get i' the bottle, but when you comes to 
 taste 'en arterwards they're much o' a 
 muchness." 
 
 She folded her small thin hands together 
 and sighed. Then suddenly she sat down 
 near Loveday and smoothed out her gown 
 carefully over her knees. 
 " I've been thinkin'," she went on slowly, 
 " sin' I've seen more o' folkses and things, 
 that it's best to hold your jaw and watch a 
 bit. No one, seems to me, cain't rightly 
 
 138 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 blame nor yet praise Another body, for it's 
 more nor likely 'ee'll praise the devil and 
 smut the saint, for some of us 'ave flea's 
 eyes fur to ferret out the good and asses' 
 ears for harkin' to the bad. The ways o' 
 men and women is far 'nough beyond the 
 ken o' common folkses, and I sometimes 
 reckon that love's a frenzy as He as 'as 
 made we hardly can count upon at all at 
 times, and " she suddenly remembered 
 Loveday, for she had been talking to 
 herself " and it be no manner o' use fur 
 thee to poison thy blood wi' green tea ; 
 it's likely the will o' God for 'ee to bear 
 the fruits o' thy pleasuring and, anyway, 
 even if it's only a bit o' sport the devil 
 be havin' wi' 'ee, it will happen teach thee 
 not to grab the next bit o' dirty pleasure 
 as comes along to 'ee when thee be too 
 drunk to reckon wi' it." 
 But Loveday was fast asleep, and her 
 snoring made Nan smile. 
 " It's a'most as loud as some folkses 
 singin'," she said, as she went over and 
 looked earnestly at her companion. She 
 sighed, and opened the door softly and 
 went into the " best parlour " to dust it. 
 She rubbed the mahogany framework of a 
 
 139 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 high-backed chair with great vigour, and 
 then stopped a moment to take breath. 
 Her eyes lighted upon a portrait of a stern 
 old man which held the place of honour 
 in the room. It was her dead " captain," 
 and she sighed once more, and as she 
 rubbed the twisted legs of the chair on her 
 bended knees, she muttered beneath her 
 breath : 
 
 " Darn the bloomin' mag ! it do graw like 
 ferns i' the lewth, and nobody, neither 
 devil nor angel, can stop 'en. It be like a 
 gale o' wind ; yer canna tell where it do 
 rise fro' of a suddint like, but it do drown 
 a body wi'out showing o' itsel' or tear up 
 the houseplace like magic. Ugh ! " 
 She glanced out of her big windows 
 towards the shore. Regardless of seasons, 
 the sea on this summer night was in one 
 of its wildest moods. Great white breakers 
 dashed round the black projecting rocks, 
 and the wind hissed and whistled as if it 
 were preparing itself for screaming like a 
 crazy woman. Twilight was rapidly deep- 
 ening into darkness. A draught which 
 came from the loosely fastened sash of the 
 window made Nan shudder ; it seemed to 
 pierce through every nook and crevice of 
 140 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 the room, and intensified the roar and 
 scream of the north-east wind, with its 
 bass and treble groans and yells as of 
 sorrow and pain. To Nan it brought 
 strange memories. It was on such a night 
 as this that the mates had brought in her 
 " captain," drowned by the cold and cruel 
 sea, and then she had realised how habit 
 and tending had bound him to her, and she 
 had grieved for him and half forgotten his 
 tyranny and cruelty. A great gust swept 
 round the house and seemed to shake it, 
 and Nan tried to fasten the window more 
 tightly. As she did this she saw a figure 
 being swept along round the corner near 
 her house. The woman's clothes were 
 driven like sails before her, and she could 
 hardly stand. Nan exclaimed as she 
 watched her frantic attempts to steady 
 herself : 
 
 " Good Lord ! her'll be down ; 'tain't fit 
 fur a dog to be out." 
 
 She suddenly realised who the woman was, 
 and she opened the hall door quickly and 
 peered into the street. 
 " Come ! " she said sharply ; " come, Mrs 
 Trenoweth ; you'll be most killed wi' the 
 wind, woman ! Come in and I'll git 'ee a 
 141 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 cup o' tea, for I s'ould think this gale o' 
 wind has 'bout blowed the brains out of 
 'ee ! " 
 
 Janet laughed softly. 
 
 " I canna get my breath," she said. " I'm 
 done out, I fancy. Yes, thank you, Nan, 
 I'll rest a minute to get my wind a bit." 
 She followed Nan into the hall and leaned 
 against the door as it was closed behind 
 her. The elder woman turned and looked 
 at her guest. Janet's beautiful brown 
 hair was rumpled and tossed and her 
 cheeks were red from the fight with the 
 wind ; her dark blue eyes, which were 
 shaded by purple rings under them, had a 
 wistful light which did not escape Nan's 
 keen look of inquiry. She was gazing into 
 Janet's face to find the trail of the fiend, 
 for Loveday's story had perplexed her 
 because of its unlikelihood. She stared at 
 Janet, and then yapped, very gently for 
 her, for fear of wakening Loveday. Janet 
 laughed too. 
 
 " Oh ! " she said with a gasp ; " I've not 
 come here of my own will, Nan, I've been 
 swept here. I don't believe I could have 
 stood on my feet a minute longer." 
 " Have you walked far ? " asked Nan. 
 142 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Yes," answered Janet sharply, " I have 
 
 a good long way ! " 
 
 " Seaweed ? ' queried Nan. 
 
 " No," said Janet. 
 
 Nan smiled. Then she folded her hands 
 
 together in front of her small waist, and 
 
 said suddenly and with a genial yap : 
 
 " Why the devil, woman, cain't I call 'ee 
 
 Janet ? " 
 
 Janet laughed heartily. 
 
 " Why haven't you before, Nan ? I'd 
 
 like it from you, and and from others 
 
 too," she said slowly. 
 
 " Darn 'ee, woman," said Nan, " I wonder 
 
 I've never thought on it afore, but it's jist 
 
 coomed i' my head like a swear word," 
 
 and she fumbled in her gown for her 
 
 handkerchief and blew her nose loudly. 
 
 Then she laughed again and said suddenly 
 
 and rather nervously : 
 
 " Janet ! I'd be very well pleased to have 
 
 a kiss of 'ee, my dear, if it do please 'ee," 
 
 and the yellow teeth snapped together as 
 
 she looked into Janet's face. " I fancy 
 
 there be but few females hereabouts with 
 
 your forthrightness in 'em, and I commend 
 
 'ee and like 'ee for it. Naw ! " standing 
 
 taut before Janet and putting her hand on 
 
 H3 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 her arm. " There now, I've said what 
 I've wanted to say to 'ee before to- 
 day, but a body do feel a bit soft like 
 when they set to work telling of a woman 
 as they do set store by she." 
 She snorted and sidled up to Janet and 
 gave her a gentle poke in the ribs. The 
 tears had suddenly sprung into Janet's 
 eyes ; sympathy just then seemed to crush 
 her. With one of those uncontrollable 
 impulses which sweep over women some- 
 times as intuitions or as madnesses, she fell 
 on her knees at Nan's feet, clasped the 
 woman's gown with her two long hands 
 and bowed her head over them. Nan 
 snorted like a wild creature and said 
 thickly : 
 
 " Lord a mercy, my dear ! git up to 
 once't. Whatever be 'ee a-kneelin' like 
 that to an old creature like me ? I'll 
 stan' by 'ee, Janet. Iss ! I will. I'll 
 keep to my word till I've passed, naw ! " 
 The wind screamed and whistled round 
 the house until voices could scarcely be 
 heard. As it died away in a moan the 
 temporary lull seemed to rouse Janet. 
 She rose, and Nan, on tip-toe, reached to 
 her new friend's face. She took it between 
 144 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 her hard, thin little hands and dwelt for a 
 moment on its softness with the expres- 
 sion one sees in a beautiful woman's face 
 as she looks in her mirror. Then she 
 kissed the mouth again and again with the 
 sharp quick kiss of one unaccustomed to 
 tender love ways. 
 
 " There ! " she said, " that's fur always, 
 mind. Folk may come and jaw, but they 
 won't draw me over anything that you 
 may tell me. I'll stan' square to 'ee 
 whether I knaw or don't knaw all about 
 'ee." 
 
 Janet smiled wearily, but she said slowly 
 and almost cheerfully : 
 "Thank you for that, Nan. It's a treat 
 to know you mean what you say. I'm 
 
 I'm " 
 
 A sudden noise made the two women 
 
 turn. 
 
 Loveday stood in the doorway of the 
 
 kitchen. Her right thumb was in her 
 
 mouth and her face was vacant with 
 
 drunken wonder. 
 
 " My gosh ! " she muttered. 
 
 145 10 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 OLD Mother Trenoweth was asleep. 
 Finding her son silent and inclined to 
 doze she had slipped from the kitchen 
 into her little bedroom and had lain down 
 with a weary sigh. The tempest without 
 and her own desponding thoughts about 
 Janet and Kit had brought on a mood 
 which even the Big Book was powerless 
 to dispel. She closed her eyes and 
 gradually sank into unconsciousness. She 
 awakened suddenly from a disturbing 
 dream, in which she saw Kit's legs being 
 sawn off with a blunt file, to find Love- 
 day bending over her with her finger on 
 her lips. 
 
 " Husht ! " she said solemnly, as she 
 shook the old woman's arm. " I've crept 
 in unbeknowns to Kit there," pointing to 
 the inner room ; " he be fast asleep and 
 146 
 
KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 looks as snug as a duck." She laughed 
 roughly. " Let 'en sleep, poor fule ; 
 it's the best thing as he can do, seems to 
 
 me." 
 
 She sat on a chair near the bed and leaned 
 over towards the old woman. 
 "Thy Kit 'ave got to knaw a thing or 
 two when he do waken, lat me tell 'ee. 
 Seems to me as his woman 'ud stank the 
 life out o' he and never shed a tear over 
 it" 
 
 Loveday scratched her head slowly and 
 then jerked out as she pointed to the 
 kitchen : 
 
 " Her's been wi' a strange man fur hours 
 to-day, kissin' of 'en and cuddlin' of 'en, 
 and he sleepin' in there like a lil baaby ; 
 a innocent forthright fool he be, who 
 thinks no hurt o' she and 'ud never 
 believe the truth about she if God HisseF 
 told 'en it." 
 
 The old woman sat up and twisted round 
 to face Loveday. Her old thin legs hung 
 loosely over the side of the bed, and her 
 two hands were outstretched on either side 
 of her as she leaned forward and peered 
 into the eyes of her neighbour. She sat 
 speechless with horror. For many months 
 H7 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 she had tried to overtake Janet in some 
 fault ; had watched and waited in the 
 hope that her son's wife, through some 
 frailty of nature or want of purpose, would 
 be found to be made of as common clay 
 as herself and her neighbours, and perhaps 
 what had chafed her more than anything 
 else was the fixed conviction in her mind 
 that her quest would be a useless one. 
 Her private conviction was the same her 
 son had expressed when he declared 
 " there is no flaw in she." The thought 
 that perhaps Loveday's words were true 
 and there was not only flaw but sin in 
 this fair saint, whom her son worshipped, 
 almost paralysed her, and for his sake she 
 now took up the cudgels for Janet. 
 "Thee art drunk," she said stolidly to 
 Loveday, and her old hands tightened on 
 the white counterpane. 
 Loveday laughed. 
 
 "Iss, so I be, sure 'nough, but wi' 
 different stuff to a woman's face. I'm 
 thinkin' as the whole place hereabouts be 
 goin' crazy over Janet. Nan's brains, 
 seems to me, 'ave got soaked wi' she at 
 last, and now you " pointing with her 
 fat finger at Mother Trenoweth "why, 
 148 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 you, as be her natural enemy, in a manner 
 o' speakin', be upholdin' of she. Why, 
 woman, do 'ee not recollect how 'ee 'ave 
 set me on Janet's tracks yoursel', a'most 
 against my own nature, fur to find out 
 measley things of she ? Well ! I've found 
 out enough 'bout she to earn a Queen's 
 pension, and you sit up like a image and 
 make ugly faces at me 'cause I've done 
 the very thing which you was longin' 
 fur me to do. Tain't neighbourly, to 
 say nothin' else 'bout it." 
 She stooped and pulled up a loose stocking, 
 and tied it over her knee with a bit of 
 flannel edging which was frayed and black 
 with age. Her face was red from the 
 exertion when she again faced the old 
 woman. Mrs Trenoweth still sat in the 
 same posture, except that one wrinkled 
 hand fumbled into her pocket for her 
 handkerchief. She carefully wiped the 
 corners of her mouth and again clasped 
 the quilt with the handkerchief still in her 
 hand. Loveday waited for her to speak, 
 but her mouth was set and she uttered no 
 sound. 
 
 " Don't 'ee bear no grudge agin she now, 
 
 Mrs Trenoweth ?" asked Loveday sharply. 
 
 149 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " Iss, iss ! sure 'nough," she muttered ; 
 " but, my dear, if what 'ee do say be true 
 it 'ull 'bout kill Kit, and and " the old 
 hands were now clasped together " Oh ! 
 I'd sooner bear all the mincin' ways of 
 forty false females as was ever born nor 
 hurt he ! Oh ! Lordy ! Lordy ! it's a 
 judgment on we ! it's a judgment, sure 
 'nough. What s'all us do ? What s'all 
 us do?" 
 
 She whimpered and buried her face in her 
 hands. 
 
 " Gosh ! " murmured Loveday ; " here's a 
 job ! The muck's set rollin' now and the 
 old un's scared at the sight of it. Pity 
 but what we'd all of us held our jaws 
 'bout she. It do never do to stir a dung 
 pile if 'ee've got a tender nose fur stinks. 
 Better let it rot and pretend it ain't about 
 at all. But this pile 'ave been stirred, sure 
 'nough, and we've got to stomach it the 
 best way we can." 
 
 The old woman still whimpered, and 
 Loveday's face grew graver and graver. 
 " I wish Nan was coomed," she said under 
 her breath, " for I'm noane fitey to stank 
 down misfortune. Look 'ere," she said 
 suddenly, "I'll shut up Snowball Jack's 
 150 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 mug o'er this job to once't ; naw ! though 
 the news by now, I'm fearin', will be like 
 the floods a bit sin' gone, whether we will 
 or no, right into everybody's door. But 
 cheer up ; I'll do my best fur you and Kit, 
 Mrs Trenoweth, even if I 'ave to turn a 
 willin' Hard over it. A'ter all, I b'lieve 
 it's a good bit the itch i' me to be thought 
 well of as 'ave pushed me on over this job. 
 I've a parcil of proud longings in me, and 
 I'm pretty sure as they 'ave spurred me 
 on to hate Kit's woman. Her could 'ave 
 given me a leg up if her'd 'ad a mind to, 
 but her's allus treated me like dung, and," 
 with a vicious stamp, " I do hate she fur 
 it, fur if you prick her finger and mine, 
 you'll find the same bluid i' both o' we 
 naw ! I've allus understood as you was 
 agin her yoursel', too, Mrs Trenoweth, 
 fur many and many a time you and me 
 'ave set one another on a heat o' hate over 
 she. There were a time when if her'd 
 only spoken fair to me likely as not I'd 
 have gone as crazed over she as Nan be 
 now, and I coomed to knaw that as I 
 walked here, for I were struck by Nan's 
 way as I left. Her be like one under 
 conviction 'bout that woman, and I seed a 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 sight afore I left her house as fairly catched 
 my breath ! " 
 
 The old woman stared appealingly at 
 Loveday and touched her gently on the 
 arm. 
 
 "Loveday, my dear," looking shrinkingly 
 at the door, "tell me," in a whisper, 
 " what have Janet done ? " 
 " What weVe all done once't or twice, I 
 reckon," laughed Loveday, "kissed the 
 wrang man." 
 
 " It's witchcraft, sure enough," sighed the 
 old woman." 
 
 " It's nature," snarled Loveday fiercely. 
 " Lordy ! Lordy ! " and big tears rolled 
 down the old woman's cheeks, " to think 
 that I s'ould 'ave lived to see my handsome 
 befooled ! " 
 
 " Why ! " interrupted Loveday, " 'ee 
 never thought, did 'ee, but what Janet 
 were a flash sort all 'long ? Many and 
 many's the time 'ee have told me so, and 
 now, 'cause it's proved true, 'ee seem 
 most heartbroken over it." 
 " What s'all us do ? What s'all us do ? " 
 whined the old woman. " Kit is bound 
 to knaw afore long, and who'll tell 'en, I 
 wonder ? It 'ull kill 'en, it will, sure 
 152 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 'nough ; dirty lyin' jade her be, and they 
 as 'as spied on she be no better. I 'ope 
 the Lord 'ull punish she wi' many stripes 
 and wi' bitter pains." 
 
 Loveday's face had suddenly grown bright, 
 for an idea had crept into her dull brain. 
 "Look you 'ere, Mrs Trenoweth," she 
 said. " I'll git over this job fur 'ee. Iss, 
 I will. I'll tackle Janet my own sel'," 
 with a laugh, "and tell her straight and 
 square what I do knaw. It'll happen then 
 be my turn to mince a bit, I'm thinkin'," 
 and her fat hands made a slender flail of 
 her apron, with which she flicked her 
 knees. " I'll have a forthright talk wi' 
 she this very night," she added gaily, " if 
 I can only happen on she fur a while 
 wi'out Clibby Kit being by, and I'll mark 
 her bearing o'er this job and then act as it 
 do seem best arterwards. I'm in agree- 
 ment wi' you, Mrs Trenoweth, and I 
 think as Kit s'ould knaw 'bout this to 
 once't, but if her's very repentant," with a 
 giggle, " we might spare him most of it, 
 don't 'ee see ? Howsomeever I'll face the 
 hussey and see if her rose-pink face do 
 flush at all eh?" 
 
 She poked the old woman on the knees 
 153 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 with her knuckles and coughed signi- 
 ficantly. 
 
 " Lordy ! Lordy ! " whined the miserable 
 old mother as she slipped from the bed 
 and stood before Loveday ; " are 'ee 
 certain sure it be true, or is it all a tale 
 made up by malice and laziness ? " 
 " It be true 'nough," answered Loveday. 
 " Snowball Jack see'd it wi' his own eyes, 
 and you'll likely enough have a brat to 
 tend i' this houseplace one day fur to wit- 
 ness to her virtue." 
 
 She laughed coarsely, and then said with a 
 sudden impulse : 
 
 " But I'm gittin' sharp i' the tongue agin, 
 and, arter all, her's no worse nor others 
 hereabouts ; all o' we ain't no great shakes, 
 be us ? " with a quick look at the old 
 dame ; " but that's the queer thing i' this 
 job as her's no better nor we," and a 
 gentle smile crept over her face. " I do 
 feel more kindlier to she now someway 
 than I did afore, and I reckon perhaps 
 when I've had a forthright mag wi' she I'll 
 likely feel more like Nan do feel towards 
 she." Then with bitterness as her face 
 clouded again : " No, I shain't neither, 
 for maids and wives s'ould have different 
 154 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 ways wi' 'en ; I'm certain sure o' that, 
 for what's nothin' but a bit of a prank 
 wi' one is the devil's own wark wi' the 
 other." 
 
 A movement in the kitchen roused both 
 the women. 
 
 "Wait!" said Loveday, "I'll go and 
 move Kit, for it's he as 'ave wakened, 
 and is wantin' of 'ee. It won't do fur 'en 
 to see 'ee wi' that look on thy face ; it's 
 enough to frighten the craws, much less a 
 man like Kit, as do belong to read to once't 
 in a body's eyes what's goin' on i' their 
 insides. I'll say 'ee be comin' by and by, 
 and do 'ee wash thy face and chirp up, 
 woman. Leave it all to me, and I'll do fur 
 'ee as I would fur my own, naw ! " 
 She opened the door and went away, and 
 the old woman fell on her knees by the 
 bed, and, shaking her head from side to 
 side, muttered : 
 
 " Blessed Lord and Saviour ! have pity on 
 we ! Tak' this burden off o' we, for it be 
 noane o' our seekin'. Have mercy, Lord, 
 on a mother's broken heart oh ! be 
 
 gracious " 
 
 She was rudely interrupted by Loveday, 
 who had come back and was shaking the 
 
 '55 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 old woman's arm fiercely as she knelt with 
 her head bowed over her hands. 
 " Mrs Trenoweth ! git up to once't ; Janet's 
 come, and I'm too late to jaw she ; her's 
 kneelin' like a innocent babe alongside Kit, 
 and they be starin' i' one 'nother's eyes 
 like two fools jist beginnin' coortship. My 
 Lord ! that woman beats a play actor for 
 shammin' ! " 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE wind of the previous night, with 
 its ghoulish yells and mocking wails, had 
 suddenly stilled. Nature for a brief hour 
 seemed poised between smiles and tears, 
 and then, as the dawn slowly crept over 
 the shadowy hills and the black cliffs, she 
 decided for shine and shimmer, and soon 
 the little hamlet of Carnwyn was roused 
 to greet one of those luscious days when 
 light and colour transform everything. 
 The sea was calm, and the little skiffs 
 moved on its blue surface as if propelled by 
 some mysterious sea elves whose gliding 
 motions under the water gave it the 
 sapphire tinge by which mortals become 
 soothed as by fairy likings. 
 Janet watched the sunrise from their little 
 window. 
 Kit was asleep in her arms, and a smile 
 
 157 
 
1 
 KITS WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 played round his lips as he dreamed. 
 
 Janet turned to look at him, and she 
 
 smiled too as she drew him closer to her. 
 
 The movement wakened him and their 
 
 eyes met. She cradled him in her arms, 
 
 and he hungrily kissed her breast as she 
 
 folded him to her. 
 
 " Janet," he whispered softly. 
 
 " Well, mon," she answered. 
 
 He held her chin between his finger and 
 
 thumb and looked in her eyes ; then he 
 
 spoke slowly : 
 
 " I pity they chaps as uses ringlocks fur to 
 
 keep their wives from flyin' from 'em. 
 
 Janet, thee's been near to the very heart 
 
 and soul of me this night." He stroked 
 
 her head tenderly as he went on. " It's 
 
 fools and worse nor fools that holds what 
 
 they love past bearin'. Look at that gull 
 
 and don't go for to cry, girl it's all like a 
 
 bit of heaven, sure enough." 
 
 Janet sobbed softly, but did his bidding 
 
 and looked out to sea, where she saw 
 
 the upward sweep of a gull whose white 
 
 wings gleamed in the sunlight. Kit 
 
 laughed happily as he kissed his wife's 
 
 hands. 
 
 " Hear her cry ! " he said suddenly ; 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 " she'm free, woman free to go and free 
 to come." 
 
 He gazed at her with passion in his eyes, 
 but his mouth twitched with tenderness as 
 he went on : 
 
 " I do worship thee, woman, wi' all my soul 
 and all my body, and and " taking her 
 face between his hands, " if thee would 
 like that chap fetched Yes ! " with 
 emphasis " Yes, by God ! he shall come 
 and dwell wi' we, and I'll throttle any bit 
 o' jealous devil left in me right away if 
 it'll make thee happy again. It have 
 come over me like a dream that jealousy 
 be the meanest sin i' the whole world, 
 for it breeds what it's powerless to 
 deal wi'." His face saddened: "To 
 lose thee would be 'most death, I do 
 knaw, but to hold thee against thy will 
 would be hell for us both. It is borne 
 
 in on me and must stand so. If " 
 
 Janet stopped him as she pointed to the 
 sunrise. Her voice was low as she 
 almost whispered : 
 
 " That's like an answer to both our fears : 
 it's summat so calm and grand, and has 
 nowt to do wi' men's little ways at all." 
 " Ay ! " said Kit. " It's a scare we've 
 
 159 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 both had ; the gossips scared me, and the 
 man as thought he loved thee, scared 
 thee. We're together now, lass, wi' no 
 one by to meddle and mag. It's the 
 maggin' that allus rends things abroad 
 and gives a couple no chance, whether 
 it's in wedlock or out. It's we two and 
 we two only as can know and understand 
 one the other, and I feel young and 
 happy again, 'cause it is thee and thee 
 only who can make up what I've been 
 ferritin' out in my blind way for months. 
 We love one the t'other, woman love 
 one another so well we ain't afraid of no 
 one not even of someone who tells 
 thee I'm a wolf over thee. I am a wolf, 
 sure enough, but thee's made me feel 
 to-night a longin' to give that other chap 
 a handshake. He'll never want another 
 mak' o' woman again. Ah ! lass, this 
 night beats our marriage night to fits. 
 We'm married o'er again more like they 
 marry i' heaven, I reckon. Once I 
 thought it a dull job as the passons give 
 it to us, but, by God, I'm not sure we 
 ain't all in a fog down here o'er the 
 marriage show. Our notions are a bit too 
 musty and fusty here for God's place, I'm 
 1 60 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 thinking. I reckon the first lesson over 
 there 'ull be a bit like this one you and 
 me be learnin'." He laughed and held 
 Janet closely to him as he went on in a 
 happy voice : " I'm like a child i' the sun, 
 woman o'erjoyed at the thought that 
 I'd grudge thee nothin' i' the whole world, 
 nothing, mind not even his chiel ! " 
 He cleared his throat, and his chest 
 rose and fell. With a sudden movement 
 Janet turned and looked at him. Her 
 face was bathed in light, for the sun had 
 now risen, and its slanting beams made 
 the dust specks in the room roll and 
 dance, as if to keep time with the glad 
 twitting of the birds outside, who were 
 busy drilling their youngsters for flight. 
 " Mon," she said slowly, and her face 
 was alight with wonderful rest and happi- 
 ness " mon, thee thee and no other 
 art all as I want i' this world. Yes " 
 as he shook his head ; " it's truth ! If for 
 one mad hour I lusted for that man as 
 I've telled thee on, with that hour it 
 passed from me as if it had never been. 
 He told me hissel' as it were just that 
 way as men folkses feel like often 'bout 
 women women, too, as they happen never 
 161 ii 
 
1 
 KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 clap eyes on again ; just feelin's as come 
 and go like those of the beasts i' the field." 
 She shook her head slowly from side to 
 side and took her husband's hand in her 
 large firm one and kissed it tenderly as 
 she hung over it. As she stroked it 
 gently with her other hand, she went on 
 in a low happy voice : 
 " Eh ! But, lad ! if thy fingers were took 
 like thy legs and all thy body turned white 
 like the lepers the Bible tells on, dost 
 thee think now as thou wouldn't be the 
 sweetest and gradliest lad to me i' all the 
 world?" 
 
 She fondled him and crooned over him, as 
 she continued : 
 
 " Fur why ! 'Cause thee've understood 
 as no one else could, as yon man never 
 would i' all the earth, and as I can't even 
 rightly mysel', how it was as I were mazed 
 wi' life and took the rope length as you 
 gave me." 
 
 She laughed softly and closed his hairy 
 hand between her own two brown ones : 
 " You may let the rope go, mon ! Yes, 
 the whole length of it, and 'cause you'll 
 never tighten it nor yet knot it, I've a 
 mind to stop. The queer part is I'm 
 162 
 
KIT'S WOMAN : A CORNISH IDYLL 
 
 noane repentin' as I ought to, for if I'd 
 never gone from thee for that day I should 
 never i' all this world know what I know 
 for sure now : that that " she hesitated 
 a moment and then held him close to her 
 breast " that it is thee, and not him nor 
 yet no other, as I do love as a woman 
 loves a mon." 
 
 PRINTED BY NE1LL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH. 
 
BY FORD MADOX HUEFFER 
 
 THE FIFTH QUEEN 
 
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 success." The Morning Post. 
 
 " 'The Soul of London,' published to-day, is 
 the latest and truest image of London, built up out 
 of a series of brilliant negations that together 
 are more hauntingly near to a composite picture 
 of the city than anything we have ever seen 
 before. . . ."The Daily Mail. 
 
 ' ' Londoners should read this book ; and even 
 more certainly should countrymen and denizens of 
 provincial cities read it." The Standard. 
 
 " There have been many books on London, 
 written by literary men, statisticians, reformers. 
 But no one has achieved or attempted what in this 
 book Mr Hueffer has done with power and fine 
 insight." The Daily News. 
 
 LONDON; ALSTON RIVERS, LTD. 
 
 165 
 
BY FORD MADOX HUEFFER 
 
 THE 
 HEART OF THE COUNTRY 
 
 Imp. i6mo. 55. net. 
 
 " We have had ' Country ' books of the most 
 varied character, from that of Gilbert White to 
 those of Richard Jefferies ; but Mr Hueffer has 
 taken a new and interesting line of his own, and 
 his really beautiful work will assuredly make him 
 many friends." The Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "There may be several opinions on the unity 
 of the book ; there can only be one, and that 
 ENTHUSIASTICALLY ADMIRING, about 
 the parts of which it is composed." The World. 
 
 " There are not many men writing English just 
 now who have the talent or will be at the 
 pains to turn out sentences and paragraphs so 
 pleasing in texture and design as the sentences and 
 paragraphs of Mr Hueffer .... who is an 
 accomplished artist in the handling of words." 
 Sunday Sun. 
 
 LONDON t ALSTON RIVERS, LTD. 
 
 166 
 
1 
 
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