The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach by Jas Treadwell

Author:Jas Treadwell [Treadwell, Jas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529347340
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2021-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

We told you, did we not, that you had heard the last of Mrs Shin? — We ought to have said, The last of her, considered in propria persona. She will be alluded to on occasion, in future pages. But she will not appear herself — because — She is drowned.

Mr Peach receives the tragic news, two days after the events of our last. Mrs Shin was making her way homeward, and in the twilight must have lost her footing, beside the pond, and unfortunately fallen in; whereupon her skirts became heavy, and entangled in the marshy herbage, and pulled her down in the water — Never to rise.

It is rumoured, perhaps with rather less of Christian charity than the occasion demands, that she may have been drunk. She had been at the tavern — But what of that? She was always at the tavern, and for two score years passed nevertheless the pond at the bottom of the old lane, without falling in.

Poor Mrs Shin!

— Sir — says Clary to Mr Peach — she is looking still more ridiculous this morning, for she has put her borrowed cloaths out to dry, they having been wetted in some accident of the previous day, and has requested the use of a tattered smock of Jem’s, which hangs on her more like a sack than a garment — Sir, says she, will you consider again the suggestion I put to you yesterday, and allow me to take on the duties of house-keeping?

Mr Peach looks her up and down, and says — Clary, we must provide you with some suitable dress.

— That will be an expence to you, at a time when every unexpected outlay must be unwelcome. But reflect, sir, how much may be saved, if you are not required to pay for the services of a cook. It will be no hardship to me to assume the duties, which are, after all, not very burdensome.

An unheard-of thing! that a servant should plead for an increase in her work — without any mention, of an addition to her wages!

Mr Peach is a little surprized, that Clary should offer herself in Mrs Shin’s place, so soon after the poor woman’s untimely end. A decent interval, he thinks, might have been appropriate. — And yet — an house-keeper he must have; and he cannot dispute the oeconomy of Clary’s proposal.

He agrees, therefore, with the proviso, that three days in each fortnight, he will betake himself to the tavern, or elsewhere, so that she is not required to labour every waking hour.

— I prefer to be occupied, she says — And I am never tired.

Mr Peach cannot deny it. The house is neat, and clean, and every thing is in good order, yet at the end of the day Clary shews no marks of fatigue.

— And how do you proceed with your literary labours, Clary?

— Sir?

— You have the paper and ink you requested, I think?

— Oh! well enough, sir. Indeed, I wonder whether

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