He did not seem to Maggie an ass.She thought him the kindest person she had ever known, kinder even than Katherine, because with Katherine there was the faintest suspicion of patronage; no, not of patronage--that was unfair...but of an effort to put herself in exactly Maggie's place so that she might understand perfectly what were Maggie's motives.With Paul Trenchard there was no effort, no deliberate slipping out of one world into another one.He was frankly delighted to tell Maggie everything--all about Skeaton-on-Sea and its delights, about the church and its marvellous east window, about the choir and the difficulties with the choir-boys and the necessity for repairing the organ, about the troubles with the churchwardens, especially one Mr.Bellows, who, in his cantankerous and dyspeptic objections to everything that any one proposed, became quite a lively figure to Maggie's imagination, about the St.John's Brotherhood which had been formed to keep the "lads" out of the public-houses and was doing so well, about the Shakespeare Reading Society and a Mrs.Tempest (who also became a live figure in Maggie's brain), "a born tragedian" and wonderful as Lady Macbeth and Katherine of Aragon.Skeaton slowly revealed itself to Maggie as a sunny sparkling place, with glittering sea, shining sand, and dark cool woods, full of kindliness, too, and friendship and good-humour.
Paul and Grace Trenchard seemed to be the centre of this sunshine.
How heartily Paul laughed as he recounted some of the tricks and escapades of his "young scamps." "Dear fellows," he would say, "Ilove them all..." and Grace sat by smiling and nodding her head and beaming upon her beloved brother.
To Maggie, fresh from the dark and confused terrors of the Chapel, it was all marvellous.Here was rest indeed, here, with Martin cherished warmly in her heart, she might occupy herself with duties and interests.Here surely she would be useful to "somebody." She heard a good deal of an old Mr.Toms, "a little queer in his head, poor man," who seemed to figure in the outskirts of Skeaton society as a warning and a reassurance.("No one in Skeaton thinks of him in any way but tenderly.") Maggie wondered whether he might not want looking after...
The thought gradually occurred to her that this kindly genial clergyman might perhaps find her some work in Skeaton.He even himself hinted at something...She might be some one's secretary or housekeeper.
About Grace Trenchard Maggie was not quite so sure.She was kindness itself and liked to hold Maggie's hand and pat it--but there was no doubt at all that she was just a little bit tiresome.Maggie rebuked herself for thinking this, but again and again the thought arose.
Grace was in a state of perpetual wonder, everything amazed her.You would not think to look at her flat broad placidity that she was a creature of excitement, and it might be that her excitement was rather superficial.She would say: "Why! Just fancy, Maggie!...
To-day's Tuesday!" Then you wondered what was coming next and nothing came at all.She had endless stories about her adventures in the streets of London, and these stories were endless because of all the details that must be fitted in, and then the details slipped out of her grasp and winked at her maliciously as they disappeared.The fact was perhaps that she was not very clever, but then Maggie wasn't very clever either, so she had no right to criticise Miss Trenchard, who was really as amiable as she could be.Henry Trenchard said once to Maggie in his usual scornful way:
"Oh, Grace!...She's the stupidest woman in Skeaton, which means the stupidest woman in the world."The Trenchards, Maggie thought, were rather given to scorning every one save themselves.Even Philip, who was not a Trenchard, had caught the habit.Katherine, of course, despised no one and liked every one, but that was rather tiresome too.
In fact at the end of her first week Maggie thought that as soon as possible she would find a room for herself somewhere and start to earn her living.She discovered that she was developing a new sensitiveness.When she was living with the aunts she had not minded very seriously the criticisms made upon her; she had indeed been disappointed when Aunt Anne had not admired her new dress, and she had hated Amy Warlock's rudeness, but that was because Martin had been involved.This new sensitiveness worried her; she hated to care whether people laughed at the way she came into a room or whether she expressed foolish opinions about books and pictures.She had always said just what she thought, but now, before Philip's kindly attention and Mr.Trenchard senior's indulgence (he wrote books and articles in the papers), she hated her ignorance.Paul Trenchard knew frankly nothing about Art."I know what I like," he said, "and that's enough for me." He liked Watts's pictures and In Memoriam and Dickens, and he heard The Messiah once a year in London if he could leave his parish work.He laughed about it all."The souls of men!
The souls of men!" he would say."That is what I'm after, Miss Cardinal.You're not going to catch them with the latest neurotic novel, however well it's written."Oh, he was kind to her! He was kinder and kinder and kinder.She told him everything--except about Martin.She told him all about her life at St.Dreot's and her father and Uncle Mathew, the aunts and the Chapel.
