第64章 A FEW CRUSTED CHARACTERS(9)

'The remaining two,'continued the curate (whose voice had grown husky while relating the lovers'sad fate),'were a more thoughtful and far-seeing,though less romantic,couple than the first.They were now mutually bereft of a companion,and found themselves by this accident in a position to fulfil their destiny according to Nature's plan and their own original and calmly-formed intention.James Hardcome took Emily to wife in the course of a year and a half;and the marriage proved in every respect a happy one.I solemnized the service,Hardcome having told me,when he came to give notice of the proposed wedding,the story of his first wife's loss almost word for word as I have told it to you.'

'And are they living in Longpuddle still?'asked the new-comer.

'O no,sir,'interposed the clerk.'James has been dead these dozen years,and his mis'ess about six or seven.They had no children.

William Privett used to be their odd man till he died.'

'Ah--William Privett!He dead too?--dear me!'said the other.'All passed away!'

'Yes,sir.William was much older than I.He'd ha'been over eighty if he had lived till now.'

'There was something very strange about William's death--very strange indeed!'sighed a melancholy man in the back of the van.It was the seedsman's father,who had hitherto kept silence.

'And what might that have been?'asked Mr.Lackland.

THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY

'William,as you may know,was a curious,silent man;you could feel when he came near 'ee;and if he was in the house or anywhere behind your back without your seeing him,there seemed to be something clammy in the air,as if a cellar door was opened close by your elbow.Well,one Sunday,at a time that William was in very good health to all appearance,the bell that was ringing for church went very heavy all of a sudden;the sexton,who told me o't,said he'd not known the bell go so heavy in his hand for years--it was just as if the gudgeons wanted oiling.That was on the Sunday,as I say.

During the week after,it chanced that William's wife was staying up late one night to finish her ironing,she doing the washing for Mr.and Mrs.Hardcome.Her husband had finished his supper and gone to bed as usual some hour or two before.While she ironed she heard him coming down stairs;he stopped to put on his boots at the stair-foot,where he always left them,and then came on into the living-room where she was ironing,passing through it towards the door,this being the only way from the staircase to the outside of the house.

No word was said on either side,William not being a man given to much speaking,and his wife being occupied with her work.He went out and closed the door behind him.As her husband had now and then gone out in this way at night before when unwell,or unable to sleep for want of a pipe,she took no particular notice,and continued at her ironing.This she finished shortly after,and as he had not come in she waited awhile for him,putting away the irons and things,and preparing the table for his breakfast in the morning.Still he did not return,but supposing him not far off,and wanting to get to bed herself,tired as she was,she left the door unbarred and went to the stairs,after writing on the back of the door with chalk:MIND ANDDO THE DOOR (because he was a forgetful man).

'To her great surprise,and I might say alarm,on reaching the foot of the stairs his boots were standing there as they always stood when he had gone to rest;going up to their chamber she found him in bed sleeping as sound as a rock.How he could have got back again without her seeing or hearing him was beyond her comprehension.It could only have been by passing behind her very quietly while she was bumping with the iron.But this notion did not satisfy her:it was surely impossible that she should not have seen him come in through a room so small.She could not unravel the mystery,and felt very queer and uncomfortable about it.However,she would not disturb him to question him then,and went to bed herself.

'He rose and left for his work very early the next morning,before she was awake,and she waited his return to breakfast with much anxiety for an explanation,for thinking over the matter by daylight made it seem only the more startling.When he came in to the meal he said,before she could put her question,"What's the meaning of them words chalked on the door?"'She told him,and asked him about his going out the night before.

William declared that he had never left the bedroom after entering it,having in fact undressed,lain down,and fallen asleep directly,never once waking till the clock struck five,and he rose up to go to his labour.

'Betty Privett was as certain in her own mind that he did go out as she was of her own existence,and was little less certain that he did not return.She felt too disturbed to argue with him,and let the subject drop as though she must have been mistaken.When she was walking down Longpuddle street later in the day she met Jim Weedle's daughter Nancy,and said,"Well,Nancy,you do look sleepy to-day!""Yes,Mrs.Privett,"says Nancy."Now don't tell anybody,but Idon't mind letting you know what the reason o't is.Last night,being Old Midsummer Eve,some of us went to church porch,and didn't get home till near one.""Did ye?"says Mrs.Privett."Old Midsummer yesterday was it?

Faith I didn't think whe'r 'twas Midsummer or Michaelmas;I'd too much work to do.""Yes.And we were frightened enough,I can tell 'ee,by what we saw.""What did ye see?"

'(You may not remember,sir,having gone off to foreign parts so young,that on Midsummer Night it is believed hereabout that the faint shapes of all the folk in the parish who are going to be at death's door within the year can be seen entering the church.Those who get over their illness come out again after a while;those that are doomed to die do not return.)"What did you see?"asked William's wife.

"Well,"says Nancy,backwardly--"we needn't tell what we saw,or who we saw.""You saw my husband,"says Betty Privett,in a quiet way.