On the
contrary, she was always cheerful, practical, and full of common
sense, although she was sometimes forgetful, and was not so neat and
tidy as Mrs. Bolitho would have wished. She always spoke as though
Martin's recovery were quite certain, and Dr. Stephens told Mrs.
Bolitho that he did not dare to speak the truth to her. "The chances
against his recovery," Stephens said, "are about one in a hundred.
He's been racketing about too long. Too much drink. But he's got
something on his mind. That's really what's the matter with him."
Mrs. Bolitho was as naturally inquisitive as are most of her sex,
and this knowledge that Martin was a doomed creature with a guilty
conscience vastly excited her curiosity. What had the man done? What
had been his relations with Maggie? Above all, did he really care
for Maggie, or no? That was finally the question that was most
eagerly discussed in the depths of the Bolitho bedchamber. James
Bolitho maintained that he didn't care "that" for her; you could see
plain enough, he asserted, when a man cared for a maid--there were
signs, sure and certain, just as there were with cows and horses.
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