第82章 A MERE INTERLUDE(9)

'Is that all that's the matter?'he returned pettishly (this being the first time of his showing such a mood).'Upon my heart and life such trifling is trying to any man's temper,Baptista!Sending me about from here to yond,and then when I come back saying 'ee don't like the place that I have sunk so much money and words to get for 'ee.'Od dang it all,'tis enough to--But I won't say any more at present,mee deer,though it is just too much to expect to turn out of the house now.We shan't get another quiet place at this time of the evening--every other inn in the town is bustling with rackety folk of one sort and t'other,while here 'tis as quiet as the grave--the country,I would say.So bide still,d'ye hear,and to-morrow we shall be out of the town altogether--as early as you like.'

The obstinacy of age had,in short,overmastered its complaisance,and the young woman said no more.The simple course of telling him that in the adjoining room lay a corpse which had lately occupied their own might,it would have seemed,have been an effectual one without further disclosure,but to allude to that subject,however it was disguised,was more than Heddegan's young wife had strength for.

Horror broke her down.In the contingency one thing only presented itself to her paralyzed regard--that here she was doomed to abide,in a hideous contiguity to the dead husband and the living,and her conjecture did,in fact,bear itself out.That night she lay between the two men she had married--Heddegan on the one hand,and on the other through the partition against which the bed stood,Charles Stow.

CHAPTER VI

Kindly time had withdrawn the foregoing event three days from the present of Baptista Heddegan.It was ten o'clock in the morning;she had been ill,not in an ordinary or definite sense,but in a state of cold stupefaction,from which it was difficult to arouse her so much as to say a few sentences.When questioned she had replied that she was pretty well.

Their trip,as such,had been something of a failure.They had gone on as far as Falmouth,but here he had given way to her entreaties to return home.This they could not very well do without repassing through Pen-zephyr,at which place they had now again arrived.

In the train she had seen a weekly local paper,and read there a paragraph detailing the inquest on Charles.It was added that the funeral was to take place at his native town of Redrutin on Friday.

After reading this she had shown no reluctance to enter the fatal neighbourhood of the tragedy,only stipulating that they should take their rest at a different lodging from the first;and now comparatively braced up and calm--indeed a cooler creature altogether than when last in the town,she said to David that she wanted to walk out for a while,as they had plenty of time on their hands.

'To a shop as usual,I suppose,mee deer?'

'Partly for shopping,'she said.'And it will be best for you,dear,to stay in after trotting about so much,and have a good rest while Iam gone.'

He assented;and Baptista sallied forth.As she had stated,her first visit was made to a shop,a draper's.Without the exercise of much choice she purchased a black bonnet and veil,also a black stuff gown;a black mantle she already wore.These articles were made up into a parcel which,in spite of the saleswoman's offers,her customer said she would take with her.Bearing it on her arm she turned to the railway,and at the station got a ticket for Redrutin.

Thus it appeared that,on her recovery from the paralyzed mood of the former day,while she had resolved not to blast utterly the happiness of her present husband by revealing the history of the departed one,she had also determined to indulge a certain odd,inconsequent,feminine sentiment of decency,to the small extent to which it could do no harm to any person.At Redrutin she emerged from the railway carriage in the black attire purchased at the shop,having during the transit made the change in the empty compartment she had chosen.The other clothes were now in the bandbox and parcel.Leaving these at the cloak-room she proceeded onward,and after a wary survey reached the side of a hill whence a view of the burial ground could be obtained.

It was now a little before two o'clock.While Baptista waited a funeral procession ascended the road.Baptista hastened across,and by the time the procession entered the cemetery gates she had unobtrusively joined it.

In addition to the schoolmaster's own relatives (not a few),the paragraph in the newspapers of his death by drowning had drawn together many neighbours,acquaintances,and onlookers.Among them she passed unnoticed,and with a quiet step pursued the winding path to the chapel,and afterwards thence to the grave.When all was over,and the relatives and idlers had withdrawn,she stepped to the edge of the chasm.From beneath her mantle she drew a little bunch of forget-me-nots,and dropped them in upon the coffin.In a few minutes she also turned and went away from the cemetery.By five o'clock she was again in Pen-zephyr.

'You have been a mortal long time!'said her husband,crossly.'Iallowed you an hour at most,mee deer.''It occupied me longer,'said she.

'Well--I reckon it is wasting words to complain.Hang it,ye look so tired and wisht that I can't find heart to say what I would!'

'I am--weary and wisht,David;I am.We can get home to-morrow for certain,I hope?'

'We can.And please God we will!'said Mr.Heddegan heartily,as if he too were weary of his brief honeymoon.'I must be into business again on Monday morning at latest.'

They left by the next morning steamer,and in the afternoon took up their residence in their own house at Giant's Town.