"For the sake of your precious game you would run the risk of harming Morwenna and her baby!"
Gervaise looked at me in bewilderment.
I said: "I know what we'll do. I'll go and see Justin. I'll make him promise not to play for a while. And if he does promise, will you give me your word not to say anything about what happened tonight to anyone ... just for a while?"
"You don't understand, Angelet."
"I do understand too well. This wretched gambling means more to you than anything. Everything can be thrust aside for it. Look at what it has brought us to. There are debts at home and debts here ... and all because you have followed this urge ... always you lose today and will win tomorrow. And now you are going to tell all those gamblers what Justin has done. Justin is Morwenna's husband. She loves him. I will not have her upset. Gervaise, you have to promise me that you will say nothing of what happened tonight to anyone ..."
"I cannot let him play ... knowing this."
"It's against the gamblers' ethics, I know. It is all right to risk money they haven't got ... to plunge deeper and deeper into debt ... to bring misery to their families ... but to break their silly rules is a mortal sin."
Gervaise was fast becoming his old self. His choler had disappeared. He was tender and gentle. "You are so vehement, Angelet," he said soothingly.
"I won't have Morwenna upset. She could so easily be now. She is getting on so well living in comfort at Golden Hall. Lizzie is so good to her and loves to have her and the baby there. Gervaise, she must not know about this."
"I won't let him sit down and play with others, knowing what I do," he said.
"If he promised not to play ..."
"He wouldn't."
"He would. He's got to."
"Where are you going?"
"To see him. No ... don't come with me. I'm going alone."
I ran out to the nearby shack. Justin was sitting at the table, his head in his hands.
"Justin," I said.
He looked up and saw me.
"Angelet ..."
"I want to talk to you."
I went to the table and sat on the other side so that we were facing each other.
"I'm sorry it happened," he said.
"Do you always cheat?" I asked.
He nodded.
"Is it ... your profession?"
"I had to do something," he said. "I'm not much good at anything else."
"Morwenna's father offered you a job working with him."
He looked at me ruefully. "Not much in my line."
"Justin, what are you going to do?"
"What can I do? I'm ruined."
"Gervaise has promised me that he will tell no one for a while."
"What?"
"Provided you don't play."
"He will tell."
"No, he won't. He's promised me not to. It mustn't be known. Morwenna must not know."
He looked frightened.
I went on: "I can't imagine what she would think. It would break her heart. She is so proud of you. And there is the baby. I won't have Morwenna knowing."
"No," he murmured. "She mustn't know."
"Gervaise will do nothing for a while at least if you will promise not to play."
He looked at me piteously.
I said: "You live by it, don't you? Is that what you do in London?"
He did not speak and that told me enough. What had we done, Morwenna and I? It seemed that she had made a greater mistake than I had. Gervaise was weak but at least he was not a cheat.
"It's got to stop, Justin," I said. "You were bound to get caught sooner or later."
He said: "If I could only strike gold I'd never touch another card. Why does it always go to those who have enough already? Look at Ben Lansdon."
"He didn't gamble away what he won, did he? He put it to a useful purpose."
"Yes ... and now he's married to a gold mine."
"Don't be bitter, Justin. It seems to me that there is little to choose between any of you. But I want your promise that you will not play again until it is decided what we shall do. I'll talk to Gervaise again. I want everything to go on as though this hasn't happened. But you will not play cards again. As soon as you do, Gervaise will tell. He believes it is a matter of honor to do so."
"There is nothing I can do but agree."
"It is better not to rush into anything. Both you and Gervaise will feel differently about all this tomorrow. You can't be enemies. After all, you are working together."
"I'll do it. I'll promise."
I stood up.
"You must ... for Morwenna's sake."
He nodded and as I went out, he murmured: "Thank you, Angelet."
There was an uneasy truce between the two men. I wondered how long it could last. They scarcely addressed a word to each other which was not in connection with their work. One would be deep down in the earth digging, the other winding up the pails of earth to bring them to the surface.
I had ceased to be interested in the methods of working; my revulsion to the whole matter was growing daily. The frantic desire for gold I saw in the faces of those men repelled me; the greed and, after the first exultation at someone's find—simply because they thought the same thing could happen to them—the bitter envy. Lust for gold ... envy of others ... I could see why they were two of the most deadly sins.
I longed more than ever to be away from the place, to go home, to the excitement of London, the peace of Cador; they seemed like heavenly bliss to me.
I was growing listless. I supposed that was because of my condition. I thought constantly of the baby. How happy I could be if I were at home and my child could be brought up as I and all my family had been ... in comfortable surroundings. But to have a child here! How could I bring up a child in this squalor?
Everywhere I looked there was disaster. I was anxious about the situation with Justin, although I confess I had little sympathy with him. My thoughts were all for Morwenna who might discover in due course that her husband was a cheat. Poor Morwenna, she was less worldly than I. How would she take it?
I longed for something to happen, something which would take me away from this increasingly unpleasant situation in which I found myself.
My prayers were answered ... but not in the way I had expected.
Afterwards I learned a little about the methods which were used in the mines. When gold had first been discovered here in the early fifties, mining had been comparatively simple. That was when the presence of gold had been found to exist in the valleys ... the deposit formed in dried-up streams. It was near the surface of the earth. That was soon discovered and mined. But now they had to dig deeper down into the earth and that was why deep shafts had to be sunk. After one or two fatal accidents, it was realized that the clay, gravel and sand had to be shored up with wood.
When the earth which might contain gold was brought to the surface it was put into wheelbarrows and taken to water to be what they called puddled and washed by means of the cradle, to separate the soil from the gold.
It was a disheartening process; and again and again the results of their efforts were fruitless. Now and again there was the tiny speck ... nothing much in itself, but a reason for hope.
As the shaft grew deeper and deeper, naturally the danger increased. There were poisons from rotting vegetation. There was one young man in the town who was a permanent invalid. He had worked with his father and had been down below when there had been a slight fall of earth which meant it was some hours before they could dig him out. As a result he had a perpetual cough and it was obvious that he was slowly dying.
So it was very necessary that the timber which propped up the sides of the shaft was strong enough to hold back the earth.
It was early afternoon. I was on my way to the store. I knew Mrs. Bowles would want to know how little Pedrek was faring: she would listen to accounts of his actions, head on one side, lips pursued, sparkling with self-congratulatory pleasure. Her child, the one who might never have been brought into the world but for her skill.