The strange intensity of her determination was
beautiful but also dangerous. "If anything was to happen--" said
Mrs. Bolitho. She saw Martin, too, many times, looking at Maggie in
the strangest way, as though he were travelling towards some
decision. He certainly was a good young man in his behaviour, doing
now exactly what he was told, never angry, never complaining, and
that, Mrs. Bolitho thought, was strange, because you could see in
his eye that he had a will and a temper of his own, did he like to
exercise them. After all, he himself was the merest boy, scarcely
older than Jacob. She could, herself, see that he must have been a
fine enough lad when he had his health--the breadth of his
shoulders, the thick sturdiness of his shape, the strength of his
thighs and arms. Her husband had seen the boy stripped, and had told
her that he must have been a "lovely man." Drink and evil women--ay,
they'd brought him down as they'd brought many another--and she
thought of her Jacob in London with a catch at her heart. She
stopped in her cooking and prayed there and then, upon her kitchen
floor, that he might be kept safe from all harm.
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