Minor Corruption Read Online Free

suffered
a nervous breakdown of sorts and abruptly retired – alone after
thirty-five years service.”
    “He had your family back in Ireland, did he
not?”
    “Over the years he had become increasingly
estranged from them, and then when he needed them most – ”
    “They were not there for him?”
    “Something like that.”
    “So your father suggested he might as well
come out to the colony, where a ready-made and loving family
awaited him?”
    “My father is as perceptive as he is kind. He
believed that because he and Uncle Seamus were close as children
and he had known him well that my children and their many friends
would be the tonic he needed to restart his life. After a furious
exchange of letters and exhortations, he agreed to emigrate.”
    “And it’s obvious, is it not, that the fellow
loves children. And yours are out here every weekend and a good
deal of the summertime. So what’s the problem?” Marc had a pretty
good idea what the problem was, but he was hoping against hope that
he was mistaken.
    Robert smiled grimly. “I don’t believe for a
second that you did not see the inappropriateness of some of his
behaviour today.”
    “It looked to me as if the girl deliberately
leaned into him,” Marc said carefully.
    “Perhaps. But it was he who invited the maid
to play and he knew full well who he was grappling with. He has
played this parlour game before, and he can see quite well through
that fake blindfold.”
    “And you think his hands lingered a bit too
long where they shouldn’t have?”
    Robert sighed. “He does a ventriloquist act
at parties, using Edie or Betsy as his dummy, sitting on his knee
and flapping their lips whenever he pokes them in the back. I must
admit it’s hilarious, and our guests love it and the girls,
especially Edie, don’t seem to mind. But good Lord, Marc, the man
is sixty years old! And my housemaids are barely sixteen!”
    “Perhaps you need to talk to him. Clear the
air. Set some limits on his behaviour.”
    “You’re right. And my father and I want
nothing more than to do just that. But we’re also fearful of
undoing the gains he has made thus far in restoring his mental and
physical health. He was deeply depressed and melancholic when he
first arrived. But after that display today, we may have no other
choice.”
    “Perhaps you could replace the maids with
more mature servants.”
    “You don’t really mean that, do you?”
    Robert knew his friend too well. Both he and
Marc felt strongly about employing girls whose family life and
grinding poverty made escape their only option. Edie Barr and Betsy
Thurgood were the daughters of nearby mill-hands, who themselves
led a hardscrabble existence. Robert would no more think of sending
his young servants home penniless any more than Marc would have
returned Charlene Huggan (now Mrs. Hogg) to her abusive father in
Cobourg.
    “No, of course not,” Marc said, sitting down.
To this point the two men had been standing beside the big mahogany
table that dominated the book-lined room. Robert joined him. “But
if it is even remotely possible that your uncle has a prurient
interest in these girls, then you must act to protect them. They
are in a real sense your wards.”
    “That’s what has made the past few weeks so
agonizing for my father and me. We are devout Christians, and we
take the guardianship of those in our care as a solemn
responsibility. So far we have made certain that my uncle’s contact
with the servants is formal and usually within sight of
others.”
    Marc was tempted to mention the conversation
he had just overheard, but felt it was unfair to prejudice either
Betsy or Edie on the basis of a twenty-second bit of dialogue for
which he had no context. Besides, Robert already had his suspicions
about the potential improprieties. Instead, he said, “You hinted
earlier in the hall that there was an indirect political
implication in this business. I don’t see any except the
possibility that a scandal