Violet Jacob > Irresolute Catherine

152 IRRESOLUTE CATHERINE
when Catherine began to speak of leaving
the place. She was still very lame and
the toll-woman was right when she took
Pharaoh to witness that to travel on foot
would be insanity. Besides which, where
was she going to ? The question was
unanswerable; and finally it was settled
between them that the cleaning of the
house, the cooking, and the minding of that
mob of fowls which dwelt at the bottom of
the garden should devolve upon Catherine,
indefinitely, in return for her keep.
In this arrangement of Mrs. Cockshow’s,
convenience and charity, like righteousness
and peace, kissed each other. Her whole
interest was found outside her own walls;
the road was her passion, her world; and
those who went up and down on it her
pictures, her newspapers, and, very often,
her victims. To bandy words with her was
the act of a fool; and so well was this
understood that the ridicule which her
strange appearance evoked when she first