The chatter was general. It concerned
the Nixon family and the scandal.
'Oh, she's a foul-mouthed woman,' said Jinny of Mrs. Nixon. 'She may well
talk about God's holy house, _she_ had. It's first time she's set foot in
it, ever since she dropped off from being converted. She's a devil and
she always was one. Can't you remember how she treated Bob's children,
mother, when we lived down in the Buildings? I can remember when I was a
little girl she used to bathe them in the yard, in the cold, so that
they shouldn't splash the house. She'd half kill them if they made a
mark on the floor, and the language she'd use! And one Saturday I can
remember Garry, that was Bob's own girl, she ran off when her stepmother
was going to bathe her--ran off without a rag of clothes on--can you
remember, mother? And she hid in Smedley's closes--it was the time of
mowing-grass--and nobody could find her. She hid out there all night,
didn't she, mother? Nobody could find her. My word, there was a talk.
They found her on Sunday morning--'
'Fred Coutts threatened to break every bone in the woman's body, if she
touched the children again,' put in the father.
'Anyhow, they frightened her,' said Jinny. 'But she was nearly as bad
with her own two. And anybody can see that she's driven old Bob till he's
gone soft.'
'Ah, soft as mush,' said Jack Goodall. ''E'd never addle a week's wage,
nor yet a day's if th' chaps didn't make it up to him.
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