The Maid of Sker · Chapter
XLIII: A Fine Price for Bardie explained
Davy prepares a grand Sunday dinner for Bardie and Bunny, reflecting on his impending departure and the neglect his home will face.
What happens
Davy prepares a grand Sunday dinner for Bardie and Bunny, reflecting on his impending departure and the neglect his home will face. Hezekiah Perkins visits and reveals a scheme to pass off Bardie as Martha ap Rees, the niece of a wealthy smelter, in order to claim a reward. Davy feigns drunkenness to learn the plot, but is interrupted when Bardie appears, mimicking his song.
Themes in this chapter
Class Mobility and Ambition
Hezekiah's scheme to pass Bardie off as a wealthy heiress highlights the desire for social and financial advancement through deception.
Morality and Hypocrisy
Hezekiah uses religious language and feigned piety to justify a fraudulent plot, contrasting his outward devotion with his immoral intentions.
Family and Orphanhood
The backstory of Rees ap Rees and his orphaned nieces underscores themes of familial estrangement, loss, and the vulnerability of children.
Characters to notice
- Davy Llewellyn
Hosts a Sunday feast for Bardie and Bunny, contemplates leaving his home, and feigns drunkenness to uncover Hezekiah's scheme.
- Bardie
Dines with Davy and Bunny, shows refined manners, and later mimics Davy's singing, revealing she has overheard the plot.
- Bunny
Eats heartily at the Sunday dinner and plays with Bardie afterward, showing Sabbath concern when Bardie mimics Davy.
- Hezekiah Perkins
Visits Davy and outlines a fraudulent plan to pass Bardie off as Martha ap Rees for a reward, using religious pretense.
- Dyo
Mentioned as a confidant in Hezekiah's scheme, to be bribed with a share of the reward for false testimony.
Key passages
“I determined to give them both a magnificent Sunday dinner.”
Davy decided to prepare a lavish Sunday meal for Bardie and Bunny.
Sets the scene for the chapter's domestic focus.
“It would not become me to say any more, when it comes to my mind that the delicate gold of infant cabbage, by side of it, was also of my own planting, in a bit of black mould in a choice niche, ere Bethel Jose had tempted me.”
Davy recalls planting the cabbage himself before being tempted away by Bethel Jose, adding a personal, nostalgic touch to the meal.
Reveals Davy's attachment to his home and garden.
“To go away, and leave my house and garden for whole years perhaps, and feel that it was all behind me, in neglect and loneliness...”
Davy sorrowfully contemplates abandoning his home and garden for years, possibly forever.
Highlights Davy's emotional conflict about leaving.
“He had prepared the whole plot well, and what it came to was just this: Inland there lived a wealthy smelter of the Methodist tribe...”
Hezekiah had devised a scheme involving a rich Methodist smelter named Rees ap Rees.
Introduces the central plot of the chapter.
“All thou hast to say, good Dyo, is what thou saidest at the very time; that the ship was not called Andalusia, but to the best of thy belief was more like Nova Scotia.”
Hezekiah instructs Dyo to falsely claim the ship was named Nova Scotia, not Andalusia.
Details the fraudulent testimony required for the scheme.