"I don't believe as anybody could keep it in their head," the
woman-servant continued, tentatively.
"What?" he asked.
"Why, 'er name."
"How's that?"
"She's fra some foreign parts or other."
"Who told you that?"
"That's all I do know, as she is."
"An' wheer do you reckon she's from, then?"
"I don't know. They do say as she hails fra th' Pole. I don't
know," Tilly hastened to add, knowing he would attack her.
"Fra th' Pole, why do you hail fra th' Pole? Who set
up that menagerie confabulation?"
"That's what they say--I don't know----"
"Who says?"
"Mrs. Bentley says as she's fra th' Pole--else she is a
Pole, or summat."
Tilly was only afraid she was landing herself deeper now.
"Who says she's a Pole?"
"They all say so."
"Then what's brought her to these parts?"
"I couldn't tell you. She's got a little girl with her."
"Got a little girl with her?"
"Of three or four, with a head like a fuzz-ball."
"Black?"
"White--fair as can be, an' all of a fuzz."
"Is there a father, then?"
"Not to my knowledge. I don't know."
"What brought her here?"
"I couldn't say, without th' vicar axed her."
"Is the child her child?"
"I s'd think so--they say so."
"Who told you about her?"
"Why, Lizzie--a-Monday--we seed her goin'
past."
"You'd have to be rattling your tongues if anything went
past."
Brangwen stood musing. That evening he went up to Cossethay
to the "Red Lion", half with the intention of hearing more.
She was the widow of a Polish doctor, he gathered. Her
husband had died, a refugee, in London. She spoke a bit
foreign-like, but you could easily make out what she said. She
had one little girl named Anna. Lensky was the woman's name,
Mrs. Lensky.
Brangwen felt that here was the unreality established at
last. He felt also a curious certainty about her, as if she were
destined to him. It was to him a profound satisfaction that she
was a foreigner.
A swift change had taken place on the earth for him, as if a
new creation were fulfilled, in which he had real existence.
Things had all been stark, unreal, barren, mere nullities
before. Now they were actualities that he could handle.