The Miracle at St. Bruno's

Beggars would no longer be sure of food and wine; he ordered that travelers should not be encouraged to regard us as a kind of hostelry. Not that we had had many such since my father's death; knowing that he had been arraigned and condemned, people were afraid to come near us. But now that there was a new master they might come, so Simon Caseman gave the order that they were not to be encouraged.

My mother had become a little nervous, I noticed. She was very eager to please him.

She agreed with everything he said; and what disgusted me was that she had a kind of adoration for him and this, when I considered her lack of appreciation of my father, angered me.

I was certainly beginning to feel things more strongly which was, I suppose, a sign that I was growing away from my grief.

One day I discovered lettering on the wrought-iron gates of the house. This was CASEMAN'S COURT. Before the house had had no name. It was simply known as Lawyer Farland's House. The resentment when I saw those letters affected me like a physical pain.

He was the master. He wanted us all to know that. He wanted us all to know that we lived on his bounty. My mother must present her household accounts to him-something she had never done to my father. She was an excellent and thrifty housewife but I noticed that she was always nervous on Fridays, the day she must produce her accounts.

Rupert's position had changed. He was no longer treated like a member of the family.

He was a workman, though a superior one. He was not allowed to make his own decisions.

I alone was not subjected to this treatment. If I wished not to join them for meals I did not and I was not called to order for this. I was not expected to do anything in the house. I often found his eyes fixed on me in a strange kind of way. I was suspicious of him, disliking him. I was constantly looking for the fox's mask on his face; it seemed to have become more apparent; his eyes were sharper, more tawny.

I was very wary of him and I hated him and the changes he was making in our house, for these very changes reminded me more and more of the old days and my dear father.

Less than two months after the marriage my mother told me that she was going to have a child. I was horrified, although I suppose it was natural enough. She was thirty-six years of age, young enough to bear a child; but the fact that she should so soon be fruitful seemed to me an insult to my father and I was disgusted. How she had changed. She seemed to me simpering and foolish, pretending to be as a young wife might have been with her first child. Simon Caseman was delighted. He seemed to regard it as a personal triumph. He knew that my father had longed for a family and he had only been able to get one girl who lived; whereas he married but two months, had already given evidence of his virility.

I knew now that I wanted to go away and I decided I would write to Kate and ask if I might stay with her for a while.

Simon cornered me one day in the garden and he said: "Why, Damask, I see so little of you. I might think that you deliberately avoid me.”

"You might well think it," I said.

"Have I offended you in some way?”

"In many ways," I replied.

"I am sorry.”

"You appear to be far from that.”

"Damask, we must accept circumstances, you know, even when they go against us. You know that I have always been fond of you.”

"I know that you offered me marriage.”

"And you are a little hurt that I married another.”

"Not on my own account-only on that other's.”

"She seems well content.”

"She is perhaps easily content.”

"I'll venture to say that she was never more content than now.”

"You venture too far.”

"It does me good to speak to you.”

"I don't reap a like benefit," I retorted.

"I am sorry that I have taken that which should be yours.”

"You lie, sir. You are very happy to have what you always wanted.”

"I did not get all that I wanted.”

"Did you not? It is a fair house; the land is good. And you do not talk like a good husband?”

"I hear that you wish to go to your cousin.”

"Don't tell me that you propose forbidding me to do so.”

"I would not presume to do that.”

"I am glad because it would have been useless.”

"Let us be good friends, Damask," he said. "I want to tell you that you are welcome here as long as you care to stay.”

"It is a very gracious gesture to allow me to remain as a guest in my own house.”

"You know that it is mine.”

"I know you took it.”

"It was bestowed on me.”

"Why on you? Could you tell me that? It is a question on which I have long pondered.”

"You can guess, can you not? Because I was capable of managing it. It had been my home for some years. I was ready to marry the widow of the previous owner which would relieve the family hardship considerably. It seemed a good arrangement.”

"For you, yes." I walked off and left him.

Rupert asked me to walk with him in the nuttery. It used to be a favorite place of mine but since the hut in which my father had hidden Amos Carmen was there, it had become too painful a reminder of all that had happened.