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some of their sick whom they somewhat tried to keep imprisoned in the flesh their own being quite for gotten the family sat down to table and a meal of cold was deposited before them angel looked for mrs s black which he had directed to be nicely as they did them at the and of which he wished his father and mother to appreciate the marvellous as highly as he did himself ah you are looking for the black my dear boy observed s mother but i am sure you will not mind doing without them as i am sure your father and i shall not when you know the reason by the consequence i suggested to him that we should take mrs s kind present to the children of the man who can earn nothing just now because of his attacks of delirium and he agreed that it would be a great pleasure to them so we did of course said angel cheerfully looking round for the i found the so extremely continued his mother that it was quite unfit for use as a but as valuable as rum or brandy in an emergency so i have put it in my medicine chest we never drink spirits at this table on principle added his father but what i the s wife said angel the truth of course said his father i rather wanted to say we enjoyed the and the black very much she is a kind jolly sort of body and is sure to ask me directly i return you cannot if we did not mr no though that was a drop of pretty a what said and both oh tis an expression they use down at replied angel blushing he felt that his parents were right in their practice if wrong in their want of sentiment and said no more by xxvi it was not till the evening after family prayers that found opportunity of to his father one or two subjects near his heart he had strung himself up to the while kneeling behind his brothers on the carpet studying the little nails in the heels of their boots when the service was over they went out of the room with their mother and mr and himself were left alone the young man first discussed with the elder his plans for the of his position as a on an extensive scale either in england or in the colonies his father then told him that as he had not been put to the of sending angel up to cambridge he had felt it his duty to set by a sum of money every year towards the purchase or lease of land for him some day that he might not feel himself as far as worldly wealth goes continued his father you will no doubt stand far superior to your brothers in a few years this on old mr s part led angel onward to the other and dearer subject he observed to his father that he was then six and twenty and that when he start in the farming business he would require eyes in the back of his head to see to all matters some one would be necessary to the domestic labours of his establishment whilst he was would it not be well therefore for him to marry his father seemed to think this idea not unreasonable and then angel put the by the consequence what kind of wife do you think be me as a hard working farmer a truly christian woman who will be a help and a comfort to you in your out and your beyond that it matters little such an one can be found indeed my earnest minded friend and neighbour dr chant but ought she not to be able to milk cows good butter make immense know how to sit and and rear chickens to direct a field of in an emergency and estimate the value of sheep and yes a farmer s wife yes certainly it would be desirable mr the elder had plainly never thought of these points before i was going to add he said that for a pure and woman you will not find one more to your true advantage and certainly not more to your mother s mind and my own than your friend mercy whom you used to show a certain interest in it is true that my chant s daughter has lately caught up the fashion of the younger clergy about us for the communion table altar as i was shocked to hear her call it one day with flowers and other stuff on festival occasions but her father who is quite as opposed to such as i says that can be cured it is a mere outbreak which i am sure will not be permanent yes yes mercy is good and devout i know but father don t you think that a young woman equally pure and virtuous as miss chant but one who in place of that lady s accomplishments understands the duties of farm life as well as a farmer himself would suit me infinitely better his father persisted in his conviction that a edge of a farmer s wife s duties came second to a view of humanity and the impulsive angel wishing to honour his father s feelings and to advance the cause of his heart at the same time grew by of the d he said that fate or providence had thrown in his way a woman who possessed every to be the of an and was decidedly of a serious turn of mind he not say whether or not she had attached herself to the low church school of his father but she would probably be open to conviction on that point she was a regular church of simple faith honest hearted intelligent graceful to a degree as a	45
and in personal appearance beautiful is she of a such as you care to marry into a lady in short asked his startled mother who had come softly into the study during the conversation she is not what in common is called a lady said angel for she is a s daughter as i am proud to say but she is sl lady nevertheless in feeling and nature mercy chant is of a very good family what s the advantage of that mother said angel quickly how is family to avail the wife of a man who has to rough it as i have and shall have to do mercy is accomplished and accomplishments have their charm returned his mother looking at him through her silver spectacles as to external accomplishments what will be the use of them in the life i am going to lead while as to her reading i can take that in hand she ll be apt pupil enough as you would say if you knew her she s brim full of poetry poetry if i may use the expression she lives what paper poets only write and she is an christian i am sure perhaps of the very tribe and species you desire to o angel you are mocking mother i beg pardon but as she really does attend church almost every morning and is a good christian girl i am sure you will any by the consequence social for the sake of that quality and feel that i may do worse than choose her angel earnest on that rather in his which never dreaming that it might stand him in good stead he had been prone to slight when observing it practised by her and the other because of its obvious amid essentially in their sad doubts as to whether their son had himself any right whatever to the title he claimed for the unknown woman mr and mrs began to feel it as an advantage not to be overlooked that she at least was sound in her views especially as the of the pair must have arisen by an act of providence for angel never would have made a condition of his choice they said finally that it was better not to act in a but that they would not object to see her angel therefore refrained from declaring more particulars now he felt that single minded and as his parents were there yet existed certain latent prejudices of theirs as middle people which it would require some tact to overcome for though at liberty to do as he chose and though their daughter in law s could make no practical difference to their lives in the probability of her living far away from them he wished for affection s sake not to their sentiment in the most important decision of his life he observed his own in dwelling upon accidents in s life as if they were vital features it was for herself that he loved her soul her heart her substance not for her skill in the her as his scholar and certainly not for her simple formal faith professions her open air existence required no of to make it to him he held that education had as yet but little affected the beats of emotion and impulse on which domestic happiness by op the d depends it was probable that in the lapse of ages improved systems of moral and intellectual training would perhaps considerably the and even the instincts of human nature but up to the present day culture as far as he could see might be said to have affected only the mental of those lives which had been brought its influence this belief was confirmed by his experience of women which having been extended from the cultivated into the rural community had taught him how much less was the difference between the good and wise woman of one social and the good and wise woman of another social than between the good and bad the wise and the foolish of the same or class j it was the morning of his departure his brothers had already left the to proceed on a walking tour in the north whence one was to return to his college and the other to his angel might have accompanied them but preferred to his sweetheart at he would have been an awkward member of the party for though the most the most ideal even the best of the three there was in the standing that his would not fit the round hole that had be n prepared for him to neither nor had he ventured to mention his mother made him and his father accompanied him on his own mare a little way along the road having fairly well advanced his own affairs angel listened in a willing silence as they on together through the shady lanes to his father s of his parish difficulties and the coldness of brother whom he loved because of his strict of the new testament by the light of what they deemed a doctrine by the consequence said mr with genial scorn and he proceeded to experiences which would show the absurdity of that idea he told of wondrous of evil of which he had been the instrument not only amongst the poor but amongst the rich and well to lo and he also candidly admitted many failures as an instance of the latter he mentioned the case of a yoimg squire named d living some forty off in the neighbourhood of not one of the ancient d of and other places asked his son that curiously historic out family with its ghostly l end of the coach and four no the original d decayed and disappeared sixty or eighty years ago at least i believe so this seems to be a new f which has taken the name	45
for the credit of the former line i hope they are fm sure but it is odd to hear you express interest in old families i thought you set less store by them even than i you me father you often do said angel with a little impatience i am as to the virtue of their being old some of the wise even among themselves exclaim against their own succession as hamlet puts it but and even i am tenderly attached to them this distinction though by no means a subtle one was yet too subtle for mr the elder and he went on with the story he had been about to relate which was that after the death of the senior so called d the young man developed the most passions though he had a blind mother whose condition ould have made him know better a knowledge of his career having come to the ears of mr when he was in that part of the country preaching missionary sermons he boldly took occasion by op the d to speak to the on his spiritual state though he was a stranger occupying another s pulpit he had felt this to be his duty and took for his text the words from st thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee the young man much resented this of attack and in the war of words which followed when they met he did not scruple publicly to insult mr without respect for his grey hairs angel flushed with distress dear father he said sadly i wish you would not expose self to such pain from pain said his father his rugged face shining in the of self the only pain to me was pain on his poor foolish man do you suppose his words could give me any pain or even his blows being re we bless being persecuted we suffer it being we entreat we are made as the of the world and as the of all things unto this day those ancient and noble words to the are strictly true at this present hour not blows father he did not proceed to blows no he did not though i have borne blows from men in a mad state of no a dozen times my boy what then i have saved them from the guilt of their own flesh and blood thereby and they have lived to thank me and praise god may this young man do the same said angel fervently but i fear otherwise from what you say we ll hope nevertheless said mr and i continue to pray for him though on this side of the grave we shall probably never meet again but after all one of those poor words of mine may spring up in his heart as a good seed some day ai by the consequence now as always s father was sanguine as a child and though the could not accept his parent s narrow he hia practice and recognized the hero under the perhaps he his father s practice even more now than ever seeing that in the question of making his wife his father had not once thought of inquiring whether she were well provided or the same was what had angel s getting a living as a farmer and would probably keep his brothers in the position of poor for the term of their yet angel admired it none the less indeed despite his own angel often felt that he was nearer to his father on the human side than was either of his brethren by an up hill and down ride of twenty odd miles through a mid day atmosphere brought him in the afternoon to a a mile or two west of whence he again looked into that green of and the valley of the or immediately he began to descend from the to the fat soil below the atmosphere grew heavier the languid perfume of the summer fruits the mists the hay the flowers formed therein a vast pool of which at this hour seemed to make the animals the very bees and drowsy was now so familiar with the spot that he knew the individual cows by their names when a long distance off he saw them dotted about the it was with a sense of luxury that he recognized his power of life here from its inner side in a way that had been quite foreign to him in his and much as he loved his parents he could not help being aware that to come here as now after an experience of home life affected him like throwing off and even the one customary on the of english rural societies being absent in this place having no resident landlord not a human being was out of doors at the the were en the usual afternoon nap of an hour or so which the exceedingly early kept in time rendered a necessity at the door the wood and by infinite hung like hats on a stand upon the and limb of an oak fixed there for that purpose all of them ready and dry for the by the consequence evening angel entered and went through the silent passages of the house to the back quarters where he listened for a moment sustained came from the cart house where some of the men were lying down the and of pigs arose from the still further distance the and plants slept too their broad limp hanging in the sim like half closed he and fed his horse and as he re entered the house the clock struck three three was the afternoon and with the stroke heard the creaking of the floor boards above and then the touch of a descending foot on the stairs it was s who in another moment came down before his eyes she had not heard him enter and hardly	45
realized his presence there she was yawning and he saw the red interior of her mouth as if it had been a snake s she had stretched one arm so high above her up cable of hair that he could see its satin delicacy above the her face was flushed with sleep and her eyelids heavy over their pupils the brim fulness of her breathed from her it was a moment when a woman s soul is more than at any other time when the most spiritual beauty itself flesh and sex takes the outside place in the then those eyes flashed brightly through their before the remainder of her face was well awake with an oddly look of gladness and surprise she exclaimed o mr how you frightened me i v there had not at first been time for her to think of the changed relations which his declaration had introduced but the full sense of the matter rose up in her face when she s tender look as he stepped forward to tiie bottom stair dear darling he whispered putting his ai by op the d arm round her and his face to her flushed cheek don t for heaven s sake me any more i have hastened back so soon because of you s heart beat against his by way of reply and there they stood upon the red brick floor of the entry the sun in by the window upon his back as he held her tightly to his breast upon her face upon the blue veins of her temple upon her arm and her neck and into the depths of her hair having been l down in her she was warm as a cat at first she would not look straight up at him but her eyes soon lifted and his the of the ever varying pupils with their of blue and black and gray and violet while she regarded him as eve at her second waking might have regarded adam i ve got to go a she pleaded and i have on y old to help me to day mrs is gone to market with mr and is not well and the others are gone out somewhere and won t be home till as they retreated to the milk house appeared on the stairs i have come back said mr upwards so i can help with the and as you are very tired i am sure you ne n t come down till time possibly the milk was not very thoroughly that afternoon was in a dream wherein familiar objects appeared as having light and shade and position but no particular outline every time she held the under the pump to cool it for the work her hand trembled the of his affection being so palpable that e seemed to under it like a plant in too burning a sun he pressed her again to his side when she had done running her forefinger the leads to cut off the cream edge he cleaned it in nature s by the consequence way for the manners of came convenient now i may as well say it now as later dearest he resumed gently i wish to ask you of a very practical nature which i have been of ever since that day last week in the i all soon want to marry and being a farmer you see i shall require for my wife a woman who knows all about the management of farms will you be that woman he put it in that way that she might not think he had to an impulse of which his head would she quite she had bowed to the inevitable of the necessity of loving him but she had not calculated upon this sudden which indeed had put before her without quite meaning himself to do it so soon with pain that was like the bitterness of dissolution she murmured the words of her indispensable and sworn answer as an honourable woman o mr i be your wife i cannot ber the sound of her own decision seemed to break s very heart and she bowed her face in her grief but he said amazed at her reply and holding her still more close do you say no surely you love me o yes yes and i would rather be than anybody s in the world the sweet and honest voice of the distressed girl but i cannot marry you he said holding her at arm s length you are engaged to marry some one else no no then why do you refuse me i don t want to marry i have not thought of doing it i cannot i only want to love you by op the d but why driven to she stammered your father is a parson and your mother wouldn t like you to marry such as me she will want you to marry a lady nonsense i have spoken to them both that was partly why i went home i feel i cannot never never she echoed is it too sudden to be asked thus my pretty yes i did not expect it if you will let it pass please i will give you time he said it was very abrupt to come home and speak to you all at once i ll not allude to it again for a while she again took up the shining held it beneath the pump and b an anew but she could not as at other times hit the exact under surface of the cream with the dexterity required try as she might sometimes she was cutting down into the milk sometimes in the air she could hardly see her eyes having filled with two tears drawn forth by a grief which to this her best friend and dear advocate she could never explain i can t	45
i can t she said turning away from him not to and hinder her longer the considerate b an talking in a more general way you quite my parents they are the most simple people alive and quite they are two of the few remaining school are you an i don t know you go to church very regularly and our parson here is not very high they tell me s ideas on the views of the parish clergyman whom she heard every week seemed to be rather more vague than s who had never heard him at all i wish i could fix my mind on what i hear there by the consequence more firmly than i do she remarked as a safe it is often a great sorrow to me e spoke so that angel was sure in his heart that his father could not object to her on religious even though she did not know whether her principles were high low or broad he himself knew that in reality the confused which she held apparently in childhood were if as to and as to essence confused or otherwise to disturb them was his last desire leave thou thy sister when she her early heaven her happy views nor thou with shadow d a life that leads melodious days he had occasionally thought the less honest than musical but he gladly to it now he spoke further of the incidents of his visit of his father s mode of life of his zeal for his principles she grew and the disappeared from her as she finished one lead after another he f her and drew the for letting down the milk i fancied you looked a little downcast when you came in she ventured to observe anxious to keep away from the subject of herself yes well my father has been talking a good deal to me of his troubles and difficulties and the subject always to me he is so zealous that he gets many and from people of a different way of thinking from himself and i don t like to hear of such to a man of his age the more particularly as i don t think earnestness does any good when carried so far he has been telling me of a very scene in which he took part quite recently he went as the of some missionary society to preach in the neighbourhood of by op the d a place forty miles from here and made it his business to with a young he met with somewhere about there son of some up that way and who has a mother afflicted with blindness my father addressed himself to the gentleman point blank and there was quite a disturbance it was very foolish of my father i must say to intrude his conversation upon a stranger when the were so obvious that it would be useless but whatever he thinks to be his duty that he ll do in season or out of season and of course he makes many enemies not only among the absolutely vicious but among the easy going who hate being he says he glories in what happened and that good may be done indirectly but i wish he would not so wear himself out now he is getting old and would leave such pigs to their s look had grown hard and worn and her ripe mouth but she no longer showed any s revived thoughts of his father prevented his noticing her particularly and so they went on down the white row of tiu they had finished and drained them off when the other maids returned and took their and came to out the leads for the new milk as withdrew to go to the cows he said to her softly and my question o no she with grave as one who had heard anew the turmoil of her own past in the allusion to d it be she went out towards the joining the other with a as if trying to make the open air drive away her sad all the girls drew onward to the spot where the cows were in the further the advancing with the bold grace of wild animals the reckless motion of women accustomed to space in by the consequence which they abandoned themselves to the air as a to the wave it seemed natural enough to him now that was again in sight to choose a mate from nature and not from the of art by her refusal though unexpected did not permanently his experience of women was great enough for him to be aware that the negative often meant nothing more than the preface to the and it was little enough for him not to know that in the manner of the present negative there lay a great exception to the of that she had already permitted him to make love to her he read as an additional assurance not fully that in the fields and pastures to sigh is by no means deemed waste love making b g here more often accepted and for its own sweet sake than in the anxious homes of the ambitious where a girl s craving for an establishment her healthy thought of a passion as an end why did you say no in such a positive way he asked her in the course of a few days she started don t ask me i told you why partly i am not good enough not worthy enough how not fine lady enough yes something like that murmured she your friends would scorn me indeed you mistake them my father and mother as for my brothers i don t care he clasped his fingers behind her back to keep her from dipping away now you did not mean it sweet i am sure	45
you did not you have made me so restless that i cannot read or play or do anything i am in no hurry but i want to know to hear from your by the consequence own warm lips that you will some day be mine any time you may choose but some day she could only shake her head and look away from him regarded her attentively the characters of her face as if they had been the denial seemed real then i ought not to hold you in this way ought i i have no right to you no right to seek out where you are or to walk with you honestly do you love any other man how can you ask she said with continued i almost know that you do not but then why do you me l don t you i like you to tell me you love me and you may always tell me so as you go about with me and never offend me but you will not accept me as a husband ah that s different it is for your good indeed my dearest o believe me it is only for your sake i don t like to give my the great happiness o promising to be yours in that way because because i am sure i ought not to do it but you make me happy ah you think so but you don t know at such times as this the grounds of her refusal to be her modest sense of in matters social and polite he would say that she was wonderfully well informed and which was certainly true quickness and her admiration for him having led her to pick up his his accent and fragments of his knowledge to a surprising extent after these tender and her victory she would go away by herself under the remotest cow if at time or into the or into her room if at a leisure interval and mourn silently not a minute after an apparently negative by op the d hie struggle was so fearful her own heart was so strongly on the side of his two ardent hearts against one poor little conscience that she tried to her resolution by every means in her power she had come to with a made up mind on no account could she agree to a step whidi might afterwards cause bitter to her husband for his blindness in wedding her and she held that what her conscience had decided for her when her mind was ought not to be now why don t somebody tell him all about me she said it was only forty miles oflf why hasn t it reached here somebody must know yet nobody seemed to know nobody told him for two or three days no more was said she guessed from the sad of her chamber companions that they regarded her not only as the favourite but as the chosen but they could see for themselves that she did not put herself in his way had never before known a time in which the thread of her life was so distinctly twisted of two positive pleasure and positive pain at the next cheese making the pair were again left alone together the himself had been a hand but mr as well as his wife seemed to have acquired a suspicion of interest between these two though they walked so that suspicion was but of the faintest anyhow the left them to themselves they were breaking up the masses of before putting them into the the operation resembled the act of bread on a large scale and amid the whiteness of the s hands showed themselves of the of the rose angel who was filling the with his y ceased and laid his hands flat upon hers her sleeves were rolled far above the elbow and bending lower he kissed the inside vein of her soft arm by the consequence although the early september weather was her arm from her in the was as cold and damp to his mouth as a new gathered and tasted of the but she was such a of that her pulse was by the touch her blood driven to her finger ends and the cool arms flushed hot then as though her heart had said is longer necessary truth is truth between man and woman as between man and man she lifted her eyes and they beamed into his as her lip rose in a tender half smile do you know why i did that he said because you love me very much yes and as a preliminary to a new entreaty not again she looked a sudden fear that her resistance might break down imder her own desire o he went on i cannot think why you are so why do you disappoint me so you seem almost like a upon my life you do a of the first water they blow hot and blow cold just as you do and it is the very last sort of thing to expect to find in a retreat like and yet dearest he quickly added observing how the remark had cut her i know you to be the most honest creature that ever lived so how can i suppose you a why don t you like the idea of being my wife if you love me as you seem to do i have never said i don t like the idea and i never could say it because it isn t true the stress now getting beyond ance her lip quivered and she was obliged to go away was so pained and perplexed that he ran after and caught her in the passage tell me tell me he said passionately clasping her in forgetfulness of his hands do	45
tell me that you won t belong to anybody but me i will i will tell you she exclaimed and i by ic of the d will give you a complete answer if you will let me now i will tell you my experience all about all your experiences dear yes certainly any number he expressed assent in loving satire looking into her face my has no doubt almost as many experiences as that wild out there on the garden hedge that opened itself this morning for the first time tell me anything but don t use that wretched expression any more about not being worthy of me i will not and i ll give you my reasons to morrow next week say on yes on at last she got away and did not stop in her retreat till she was in the thicket of at the lower side of the where she could be unseen here herself down upon the rustling of spear grass as upon a bed and remained crouching in misery broken by momentary shoots of joy which her fears about the ending could not altogether suppress in reality she was drifting into acquiescence every see saw of her breath every wave of her blood every pulse singing in her ears was a voice that joined with nature in revolt against her reckless acceptance of him to close with him at the altar revealing nothing and discovery to snatch ripe pleasure before the iron teeth of pain could have time to shut upon her that was what love and in almost a terror of ecstasy divined that despite her many months of lonely self schemes to lead a future of austere love s counsel would prevail the afternoon advanced and still she remained among the she heard the rattle of taking down the n the stands the by the consequence which accompanied the getting together the cows but she did not go to the they would see her agitation and the the cause to be love alone would good her and that not be borne her lover must have guessed her state and invented some excuse for her non appearance for no inquiries were made or calls given at half past six the sun settled down upon the with the aspect of a great in the heavens and presently a monstrous like moon arose on the other hand the tortured out of their natural shape by incessant became monsters as they stood up against it she went in and upstairs without a light it was now wednesday thursday came and angel looked at her from a distance but in no way upon her the and the rest seemed to guess that something was for they did not force any remarks upon her in the friday passed saturday to morrow was the day i shall give way i shall say yes i shall let myself marry him i cannot help it she panted with her hot face to the pillow that on hearing one of the other girls sigh his name in her sleep i can t bear to let anybody have him but me yet it is a wrong to him and may kill him when he knows o my o by now who mid ye think i ve heard news o this morning said as he sat down to breakfast next day with a gaze upon the men and maids now just who mid ye think one guessed and another guessed mrs did not guess because she knew well said the tis that slack twisted s bird of a jack he s lately got married to a widow woman not jack a to think o that said a the name entered quickly into s consciousness for it was the name of the lover who had wronged his sweetheart and had afterwards been so roughly used by the young woman s mother in the butter and has he married the matron s daughter as he promised asked angel as he turned over the newspaper he was reading at the little table to which he was always banished by mrs in her sense of his not he sir never meant to replied the as i say tis a widow woman and she had money it seems fifty a year or so and that was all he was after they were married in a great hurry and then she told him that by she had lost her fifty a year just fancy the state o my gentleman s mind at that news never such a cat and dog life as they ve been leading ever since serves him well but the poor woman gets the worst o t by the consequence well the silly body should have en sooner that the ghost of her first man would trouble him said mrs ay ay responded the still you can see exactly how twas she wanted a home and didn t like to run the risk of losing him don t think that was something like it maidens he glanced towards the row of girls she ought to ha told him just before they went to church when he could hardly have backed out exclaimed yes she ought agreed she must have seen what he was after and should ha refused him cried and what do you say my dear asked the of i think she ought to have told him the true state of things or else refused him i don t know replied the bread and butter choking her be if i d have done either o t said a married from one of the cottages all s fair in love and war i d ha married en just as she did and if he d said two words to me about not telling him beforehand anything about my first chap that i hadn t chose to tell i	45
d ha knocked him down wi the rolling pin a little like he any woman could do it the laughter which followed this sally was only by a sorry smile for form s sake from was comedy to them was tragedy to her and she could hardly bear their mirth she soon rose from table and with an impression that would follow her went along a little path now stepping to one side of the channels and now to the other till she stood by the main stream of the men had been cutting the water weeds higher up the river and masses of them were floating past her islands of green crow foot whereon she might almost have ridden long locks of which i by op the weed had lodged against the piles driven to keep the cows from crossing yes there was the pain of it this question of a woman telling her story the heaviest of crosses to herself seemed but amusement to others it was as if people should laugh at came from behind her and sprang across tiie beside her feet my wife no no i cannot for your sake o mr for your sake i say no still i say no she repeated not expecting this he had put his arm lightly round her waist the moment after speaking beneath her hanging tail of hair the younger with their hair loose on mornings before it up extra high for a style they could not adopt when with their heads against the cows if she had said yes instead of no he would have kissed her it had evidently been his intention but her determined negative his heart their condition of put her as the woman to such disadvantage by its enforced intercourse that he felt it unfair to her to exercise any pressure of which he might have honestly employed had she been better able to avoid him he released her imprisoned waist and withheld the kiss it all turned on that release what had given her strength to refuse him this time was solely the tale of the widow told by the and that would have been overcome in another moment but angel said no more his face was perplexed he went away day after day they met somewhat less constantly than before and thus two or three weeks went by the end of september drew near and she could see in his eye that he might ask her again by thb consequence his plan of was different now as though he had made up his mind that her were after all only and youth startled by the novelty of the proposal the of her manner when the subject was discussion the idea so he played a more game and while never going beyond words or attempting the renewal of caresses he did his utmost in this way persistently her in like that of the milk at the cow s side at at butter at cheese among poultry among pigs as no was ever before by such a man knew that she must break down neither a religious sense of a certain moral in the previous union nor a conscientious wish for could hold out against it much longer she loved him so passionately and he was so in her eyes and being though instinctively refined her nature cried for his guidance and though kept repeating to herself i can never be his wife the words were vain a proof of her weakness lay in the very utterance of what calm strength would not have taken the trouble to every sound of his voice beginning on the old subject her with a bliss and she the she feared his manner was what man s is not so much that of one who would love and cherish and defend her under any conditions changes charges or revelations that her gloom lessened as she in it the season meanwhile was onward to the and though it was still fine the days were much shorter the had again worked by morning candle light for a long time and a fresh i of s pleading occurred one morning between three and four she had run up in her to his door to call by op the d him as then had gone back to dress and call the others and in ten minutes was walking to the head of the stairs with the candle in her hand at the same moment he came down his steps from above in his shirt sleeves and put his arm across the now miss before you go down he said it is a fortnight since i spoke and this won t do any longer you must tell me what you mean or i shall have to leave this house my door was just now and i saw you for your own safety i must go you don t know well is it to be yes at last i am only just up mr and it is too to take me to task e you need not call me tis cruel and wait till by by please wait till by and by i will really think seriously about it between now and then let me go downstairs she looked a little like what he said she was as holding the candle she tried to smile away the seriousness of her words call me angel then and not mr angel angel dearest why not mean that i agree wouldn t it it would only mean that you love me even if you cannot marry me and you were so good as to own that long ago very well angel dearest if i must she murmured looking at her candle coming upon her mouth notwithstanding her suspense had resolved never to kiss her until he had obtained her promise but	45
somehow as stood there in her prettily tucked up gown her hair carelessly heaped upon her head till there should be leisure to arrange it when and were done he broke his resolve and brought his lips to her cheek for one moment she passed downstairs very by the consequence quickly never looking back at him or saying another word the other maids were already down and the subject was not pursued except they all looked wistfully and suspiciously at the pair in the sad yellow rays which tiie morning candles in contrast with the first cold of the dawn without when was done which as the milk diminished with the approach of autumn was a process day by day and the rest went out the lovers followed them our tremulous lives are so different from theirs are they not he observed to her as he regarded the three figures before him through the of opening day not so very different i think she said why do you think that there are very few women s lives that are not tremulous replied pausing over the new word as if it impressed her there s more in those three than you think what is in them almost either of em she began would make perhaps would make a wife than i and perhaps they love you as well as i almost o there were signs that it was an exquisite relief to her to hear the impatient exclamation though she had resolved so to let generosity make one bid against herself that was now done and she had not the power to attempt self a second time then they were joined by a from one of the cottages and no more was said on that which concerned them so deeply but knew that this day would decide it in the afternoon several of the s household and went down to the as usual a long way from the where many of the cows were without being driven home the supply by op the d was getting less as the animals advanced in calf and the of the green season had been dismissed the work each was poured into tall that stood in a large which had been brought upon the scene and when they were the cows away who was there with the rest his gleaming white against a leaden evening suddenly looked at his heavy watch why tis later than i thought he said we shan t be soon enough with this milk at the station if we don t mind there s no time to day to take it home and mix it with the bulk afore sending off it must go to station straight from here who ll drive it across mr volunteered to do so though it was none of his business asking to accompany him the evening though had been warm and for the season and had come out with her hood only naked armed and certainly not dressed for a drive she replied by glancing over her scant but gently tu ed her she assented by her and stool to the to take home and mounted the spring beside by xxx in the daylight they went along the level through the which away into gray miles and were in the extreme edge of distance by the and abrupt slopes of heath on its summit stood and stretches of fir trees whose tips appeared like towers crowning black castles of enchantment they were so absorbed in the sense of being dose to each other that they did not begin talking for a long while the silence being broken only by the of the milk in the tall behind them the lane they followed was so solitary that the had remained on the boughs till they slipped from their shells and the hung in heavy every now and then would fling the lash of his whip round one of these if off and give it to his companion the dull sky soon b an to tell its meaning by sending down herald drops of rain and the air of day changed into a fitful breeze which played about their faces the very on the rivers and pools vanished from broad of light they changed to sheets of lead with a surface like a but that spectacle did not affect her her countenance a natural slightly by the season had deepened its tinge with the beating of the rain drops and her hair which the pressure of the cows had as usual caused to tumble down from its and stray beyond the of her bonnet by of the d was made by the till it hardly was better than i ought not to have come i suppose she murmured looking at the sky i am sorry for the rain said he but how glad i am to have you here remote disappeared by degrees behind the liquid the evening grew darker and the roads being crossed by gates it was not safe to drive faster tha n at a walking pace the air was rather chill i am so afraid you will get cold with nothing upon arms and shoulders he said creep close to me and perhaps the won t hurt you much i should be still if i did not think that the rain might be helping me she crept closer and he wrapped round them both a large piece of sail cloth which was sometimes used to keep the sun off the milk held it from slipping off him as well as herself s hands being occupied now we are all right again ah no we are not it runs down into my neck a little and it must still more into yours that s better your arms are like wet marble wipe them in the doth now if you stay quiet you will not get another drop	45
well dear about that question of mine that long standing question the only reply that he could hear for a little while was the of the horse s hoofs on the road and the duck of the milk in the behind them you remember what you said i do she replied before we get home mind i u he said no more then as they drove on the fragment of an old house of date rose against the sky and was in due course passed and behind by the consequence that he observed to entertain her is an interesting old place one of the several seats which belonged to an ancient family formerly of great influence in this the d i never pass one of their without thinking of them there is something very sad in the of a family of renown even if it was fierce renown yes said they crept along towards a point in the expanse of shade just at hand at whidi a feeble light was beginning to assert its presence a spot where by day a white streak of steam at intervals upon the dark green background moments of contact between their secluded world and modem life modem life stretched out its steam to this point three or times a day touched the native and quickly withdrew its again as if what it touched had been they reached the feeble light which came from the smoky lamp of a little railway station a poor enough star yet in one sense of more importance to and mankind than the celestial ones to which it stood in such humiliating contrast the of new milk were in the rain getting a little shelter from a neighbouring tree there was the hissing of a train which drew up almost silently upon the wet rails and the milk was rapidly swung can by can into the the light of the engine flashed for a second upon field s figure motionless under the great no object could have looked more foreign to the gleaming and wheels than this girl with the bare arms the rainy face and hair suspended attitude of a friendly at pause the print gown of no date or fashion and the cotton bonnet drooping on her brow she mounted again beside her lover with a mute by of the d obedience characteristic of impassioned natures at l times and when they had wrapped themselves up over head and ears in the doth again they plunged back into the now thick night was so that the few minutes of contact with the whirl of material progress lingered in her thought will drink it at their tomorrow won t they she asked strange people that we have never seen yes i suppose they will though not as we send it when its strength has been lowered so that it may not get up into their heads noble men and noble women and ladies and and babies who have never seen a cow well yes perhaps particularly who don t know anything of us and where it comes from or think how we two drove miles across the to night in the rain that it might reach em in time we did not drive entirely on of these precious we drove a little on our own on account of that anxious matter which you will i am e set at rest dear now permit me to put it in this way you belong to me already you know heart i mean does it not you know as well as i o yes yes then if heart does why not your hand my only reason was on account of you on of a question i have something to tell you but suppose it to be entirely for my happiness and my worldly convenience also o yes if it is for your happiness and worldly convenience but my life before i came here i want well it is for my convenience as well as my happiness if i have a very large farm either or you will be invaluable as a wife to me by the consequence better than a woman out of the largest mansion in the country so please please dear your mind of the feeling that you will stand in my way but my history i want you to know it you must let me tell you you will not like me so well tell it if you wish to dearest this precious history then yes i was bom at so and so i was bom at she said catching at his words as a help lightly as they were spoken and i grew up there and i was in the sixth standard when i left school and they said i had great and should make a good teacher so it was settled that i should be one but there was trouble in my family father was not very industrious and he drank a uttle yes yes poor child nothing new he pressed her more closely to his side and then there is something very about it about me i i was s breath yes dearest never mind i i am not a but a d a of the same family as those that owned the old house we passed and we are all gone to nothing a d indeed and is that all the trouble dear yes she answered faintly well why should i love you less after knowing this i was told by the that you hated old families he laughed well it is true in one sense i do hate the aristocratic principle of blood before everything and do think that as the only we ought to respect are those spiritual ones of the wise and virtuous without regard to but by of the d i	45
be married soon but with respect to your question j say between ourselves quite but very strong that on no account do say a word of your trouble to him j did not tell to your father he so proud on account of his respectability which your intended is the same many a woman some of the in the land have had a trouble in their time and why should you trumpet yours when others don t trumpet theirs no girl would be such a pool specially as it is so long ago not your at all j shall answer the same if you ask me fifty times besides you must bear in mind that knowing it to be your childish nature to teu all that s heart so simple j made you promise me never to let it out by word or deed having your welfare in my mind and you most solemnly did promise it from this door j have not named either that question or coming marriage to pa ther as he would it everywhere poor simple man dear keep up your spirits and we mean to send you a head of for your wedding knowing there is not much in your parts and thin sour stuff what there is so no more at present and with land love to your young man your mother j o mother mother ed she was how light was the touch of events the most oppressive upon mrs s elastic spirit her mother did not see life as saw it that haunting episode of days was to her mother but a passing accident but perhaps her mother was right as to the course to be followed a s by op the d whatever she might be in her reasons silence seemed on the face of it best for her adored one s happiness silence it should be thus by a command from the only person in the world who had any shadow of right to control her action grew calmer the responsibility was shifted and her heart was lighter than it had been for weeks the days of declining which followed her assent beginning with the month of october formed a season through which she lived in spiritual more nearly approaching ecstasy than any other period of her life there was hardly a touch of earth in her love for to her sublime he was all that goodness could be knew all that a guide philosopher and friend should know she thought every line in the of his person the perfection of masculine beauty his soul the soul of a saint intellect that of a j the wisdom of her love for him as love sustained her dignity she seemed to be wearing a crown the compassion of his love for her as she saw it made her lift up her heart to him in devotion he would sometimes catch her large eyes that had no bottom to them looking at him from their depths as if she saw something immortal before her she dismissed the past trod upon it and put it out as one on a coal that is and dangerous she had not known that men could be so disinterested in their love for women as he angel was far from all that she thought him in this respect far indeed but he was in truth more spiritual than animal he had well in hand and was singularly free from though not cold he was rather bright than hot less than could love desperately but with a love more especially inclined to the imaginative and ethereal it was a fastidious emotion which could guard the loved by the consequence one against his very self this amazed and whose experiences had been so till now and in her reaction from indignation against the male sex she to excess of honour for they sought each other s company in her honest faith she did not disguise her desire to be with him the of her instincts on this matter if clearly stated would have been that the quality in her sex which men in general might be distasteful to so perfect a man after an of love since it must in its very carry with it a suspicion of art the country custom of out of doors during was the only custom she knew and to her it had no strangeness though it seemed oddly to till he saw how normal a thing e in common with all the other folk regarded it thus during this october month of wonderful they along the by creeping paths which followed the of across by little wooden bridges to the side and back again they were never out of the sound of some whose accompanied their own murmuring while the beams of the sun almost as as the itself formed a of radiance over the landscape they saw tiny blue in the shadows of trees and hedges all the time that there was bright sunshine elsewhere the was so near the ground and the so flat that the shadows of and would stretch a quarter of a mile ahead of them like two long fingers pointing afar to where the green reaches against the sloping sides of the men were at work here and there for it was the season for taking up the meadows or digging the little clear for the winter and mending their banks where trodden down by the by op the d cows the of black as jet brought there by the river when it was as wide as the whole valley were an essence of of the past refined and to extraordinary richness out of which came all the of the and of the cattle there kept his arm round her waist in sight of these with the air of a man who was accustomed to public though actually as	45
shy as she who with lips parted and eyes on the wore the look of a wary animal the while you are not ashamed of me as yours before them she said gladly o nor but if it should reach the ears of your friends at that you are walking about like this with me a the most ever seen they might feel it a hurt to their dignity my dear girl a d hurt the dignity of a it is a grand card to play that of your belonging to such a family and i am it for a grand effect when we are married and have the proofs of your descent from parson apart from that my future is to be totally foreign to my family it will not affect even the surface of their lives we shall leave this part of england perhaps england itself and what does it matter how people regard us here you will like going will you not she could answer no more than a bare so great was the emotion aroused in her at the thought of going through the world with him as his own familiar friend her feelings almost filled her ears like a of waves and up to her eyes she put her hand in his and thus they went on to a place where the reflected sun glared up from the river under a bridge with a glow that by the consequence dazzled their eyes though the sun itself was hidden by the bridge they stood still whereupon little and heads up from the smooth surface of the water but finding that the disturbing had paused and not passed by they appeared again upon this river brink they lingered till the fog began to close round them which was very early in the evening at this time of the year settling on the lashes of her eyes where it rested like and on his brows and hair they walked later on sundays when it was quite dark some of the people who were also doors on the first sunday evening after their engagement heard her impulsive speeches to fragments though they were too far off to hear the words noted the catch in her remarks broken into by the of her heart as she walked leaning on his arm her contented pauses he occasional little laugh upon which her sold seemed to ride the laugh of a woman in company with the man she loves and has won from all other women anything else in nature they marked the of her tread like the of a bird which has not quite alighted her affection for him was now the breath and life of s being it enveloped her as a her into forgetfulness of her past sorrows keeping back the gloomy that would persist in their attempts to touch her doubt fear care shame she knew that they were waiting like wolves just outside the light but she had long of power to keep them in hungry there a spiritual forgetfulness co existed with an intellectual remembrance she walked in brightness but she knew that in the background those shapes of darkness were always spread they might be receding or they might be approaching one or the other a little every day j by of the d one evening and were obliged to indoors keeping house all the other occupants of the being away as they talked she looked thoughtfully up at him and met his two eyes i am not worthy of you no i am not she burst out up from her low stool as though appalled at his homage and the fulness of her own joy the whole basis of her excitement to be that which was only the smaller part of it said i won t have you speak like it dear distinction does not consist in the use of a contemptible set of but in being numbered among those who are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report as you are my she struggled with the sob in her throat how often had that string of made her heart ache in church of late years and how strange that he should have them now why didn t you stay and love me when i was sixteen living with my little sisters and brothers and you danced on the green o why didn t you why didn t she said clasping her hands angel began to comfort and her thinking to himself truly enough what a creature of moods she was and how careful he would have to be of her when she depended for her happiness entirely on him ah why didn t i stay he said that is just what i feel if i had only known but you must not be so bitter in your regret why should you be with the woman s instinct to hide she hastily i ould have had four years more of your heart than i can ever have now then i should not have wasted my time as i have done i should have had so longer happiness it was no mature woman with a long dark vista of by the consequence behind her who was tormented but a girl of simple life not yet one and twenty who had been caught during her days of like a bird in a to calm herself the more completely she rose from her little stool and left the room the stool with her skirts as she went he sat on by the cheerful thrown from a of green ash sticks laid across the dogs the sticks snapped pleasantly and out of sap from their ends when she came back she was herself again do you not think you are just a bit capricious	45
fitful he said good as he spread a cushion for her on the stool and seated himself in the settle beside her i wanted to ask you something and just then you ran away yes perhaps i am capricious she murmured she suddenly approached him and put a hand upon each of his arms no angel i am not really so by nature i mean the more particularly to assure him that she was not she herself dose to him in the settle and allowed her head to find a against s shoulder what did you want to ask me i am sure i will answer it she continued humbly well you love me and have agreed to marry me and hence there follows a when shall the day be i like living like this but i must think of starting in business on my own hook with the new year or a little later and before i get involved in the details of my new position i should like to have secured my partner but she timidly answered to talk quite practically wouldn t it be best not to marry till after all that though i can t bear the thought o your going away and leaving me here by of the d of course you cannot and it is not best in this case i want you to help me in many ways in making my start when shall it be why not a fortnight from now no she said becoming grave i have so many things to think of first but he drew her gently nearer to him the reality of marriage was startling when it loomed so near before discussion of the question had proceeded there walked round the comer of the settle into the full of the apartment mr mrs and two of the i sprang like an elastic ball from his side to her feet while her face flushed and her eyes shone in the i knew how it would be if i sat so dose to him she cried with vexation i said to myself they are sure to come and catch us but i wasn t really sitting on his knee though it might ha seemed as if i was almost well if so be you hadn t told us i am sure we t ha noticed that ye had been sitting anywhere at all in this light replied the he continued to his wife with the stolid mien of a man who understood nothing of the emotions relating to matrimony now that shows that folks should never fancy other folks be supposing things when they t no i should never ha thought a word of where she was a sitting to if she hadn t told me not i we going to be married soon said with ah and be ye well i am truly glad to hear it sir i ve thought you mid do such a thing for some time she s too good for a i said so the very first day i her and a prize for any man and what s more a wonderful woman for a gentleman by y the consequence farmer s wife he won t be at the mercy of his wi her at his side somehow disappeared she had been even more struck with the look of the girls who followed than abashed by s blunt praise after supper when die reached her bedroom they were all present a light was burning and each was sitting up in her bed awaiting the whole like a row of ghosts but she saw in a few moments that there was no malice in their mood they could scarcely feel as a loss what they had never expected to have their condition was he s going to marry her murmured never eyes off how her face do show it you be going to marry him asked yes said when some day they thought that this was only yes going to marry him a gentleman repeated and by a sort of fascination the three girls one after another crept out of their beds and came and stood round put her hands upon s shoulders as if to her friend s after such a miracle and the other two laid their arms her waist all looking into her face how it do seem almost more than i can think of said kissed yes she ed as she withdrew her lips was that because of love for her or because other lips have touched there by now continued to i wasn t thinking o that said simply i was on y feeling all the strangeness o t that she is to s by op the d be his wife and nobody else i don t say nay to it nor either of us because we did not think of it only loved him still nobody else is to marry n in the world no fine lady nobody in and but she who do live like we are you sure you don t dislike me for it said in a low voice they hung about her in their white before replying as if they considered their answer might lie in her look i t know i don t know ed i want to hate ee but i cannot that s how i feel echoed and i can t hate her somehow she me he ought to marry one of you murmured why you are all better than i we better than you said the girls in a low slow whisper no no dear you are she contradicted and suddenly tearing away from their clinging arms she burst into a fit of tears bowing on the chest of drawers and repeating incessantly o yes yes yes having once given way she could not stop	45
more the thought of going home so that seriously dearest he continued since you will probably have to leave at christmas it is in every way desirable and convenient that i should carry you off then as my property besides if you were not the most girl in the world you would know that we could not go on like this for ever i wish we could that it would always be summer and and you always me and always thinking as much of me as you have done through the past summer time i shall o i know you will she cried with a sudden of faith in him angel i will fix the day when i will become yours for thus at last it was arranged between them during that dark walk home amid the of liquid voices on the right and left when they reached the mr and mrs s by the consequence were promptly told with to secrecy for each of the lovers was desirous that the marriage should be kept as private as possible the though he had thought of her soon now made a great concern about losing her what he do about his who make the ornamental butter for the and ladies mrs congratulated on the having at last come to an end and said that she set eyes on she divined that she was to be the chosen one of somebody who was no common man had looked so superior as she walked across the on that afternoon of her arrival that she was of a good family she could have sworn in point of fact mrs did remember thinking that was and good looking as she approached but the superiority might have been a growth of the imagination aided by subsequent knowledge was now carried along upon the wings of the hours without the sense of a will the word had been given the number of the day written down her naturally bright intelligence had begun to admit the convictions common to folk and those who associate more with phenomena than with their fellow creatures and she accordingly drifted into that passive to all her lover suggested characteristic of the frame of mind but she wrote anew to her mother to the wedding day really to again her advice it was a gentleman who had chosen her which perhaps her mother had not sufficiently considered a post explanation which might be accepted with a light heart by a man might not be received with the same feeling by him but this brought no reply from mrs despite angel s plausible representations to s by op the d himself and to of the practical need for their immediate marriage there was in truth an element of in the step as became apparent at a later date he loved her dearly though perhaps rather and than with the impassioned of her feeling for him he had entertained no notion when doomed as he had thought to an life that such charms as he beheld in this creature would be found behind the scenes was a thing to talk of but he had not known how it really struck one until he came here yet he was very far from seeing his future track clearly and it might be a year or two before he would be able to consider himself fairly started in life the secret lay in tinge of imparted to his career and character by the sense that he had been made to miss his true destiny through the prejudices of his family don t you think have better for us to wait till you were settled in your farm she once asked timidly a farm was the idea just then to tell the truth my i don t like you to be left anywhere away from my protection and the reason was a good one so far as it went his influence over her had been so marked that she had caught his manner and habits his speech and phrases his and his and to leave her in be to let her slip back again out of accord with him he wished to have her under his charge for another reason his parents had desired to see her once at least before he carried her off to a distant settlement english or and as no opinion of theirs was to be allowed to change his intention he judged that a couple of months life with him in lodgings whilst seeking for an advantageous opening would be of some social assistance to her at what she might feel to be a ordeal her to mother at the o by the consequence next he wished to see a little of the working of a flour mill having an idea that he might combine the use of one with corn growing the proprietor of a large old water mill at once the mill of an abbey had offered him the inspection of his mode of and a hand in the operations for a few days whenever he should choose to come paid a visit to the place some few miles distant one day at this time to inquire particulars and returned to in the evening she found him determined to spend a short time at the flour mills and what had determined him less the opportunity of an insight into grinding and than the casual fact that lodgings were to be obtained in that very whidi before its had been the mansion of a branch of the d family this was always how settled practical questions by a sentiment which had nothing to do with them they decided to go immediately after the wedding and remain for a fortnight instead of to towns and then we will start off to examine some farms on the other side of london that i have heard of he said and by march	45
or april we will pay a visit to my father and mother questions of such as these arose and passed and the day the incredible day on which she was to become his loomed large in the near future the thirty first of december new year s eve was the date his wife she said to herself could it ever be their two together nothing to divide them every incident shared by them why not and yet why one sunday morning from church and spoke privately to you was not called home this morning what it should ha been the first time of asking to day called local e for of by r of the d she answered looking quietly at you meant to be married new year s eve the other returned a quick affirmative and there must be three times of asking and now there be only two sundays left between felt her cheek was right of course there must be three perhaps he had forgotten if so there must be a week s and that was how could she remind her lover she who had been so backward was suddenly fired with impatience and alarm lest she should lose her dear prize a natural incident relieved her anxiety mentioned the of the to mrs and mrs assumed a matron s privilege of speaking to angel on the point have ye forgot em mr the i mean no i have not forgot em says as soon as he caught alone he assured her don t let them you about the a will be for us and i have decided on a without you so if you go to church on sunday morning you will not hear your own name if you wished to i didn t wish to hear it dearest she said proudly but to know that things were in train was an immense relief to notwithstanding who had feared that somebody would stand up and forbid the on the ground of her history how events were her i don t feel easy she said to herself all this good fortune may be out of me afterwards by a lot of ill that s how heaven mostly does i wish i have had common but went smoothly she wondered whether he would like her to be married in her present best white frock or if she ought to buy a new one the question was set at rest by his dis by the consequence closed by the arrival of some large addressed to her inside them she found a whole stock of clothing from bonnet to shoes including a perfect morning costume such as would well suit the simple wedding they planned he entered the house shortly after the arrival of the and heard her upstairs them a minute later she came down with a flush on her face and tears in her eyes how thoughtful you ve been she murmured her cheek upon his shoulder even to the gloves and handkerchief my own love how good how kind no no just an order to a in london nothing more and to divert her from thinking too highly of him he told her to go upstairs and take her time and see if it all fitted and if not to get the village to make a few alterations she did upstairs and put on the gown alone she stood for a moment before the glass looking at the effect of her silk attire and then there came into her head her mother s ballad of the mystic robe that never would become that wife that had once done amiss which mrs had used to sing to her as a child so and so her foot on the cradle which she rocked to the tune suppose this robe should betray her by changing colour as her robe had betrayed queen never since she had been at the she had not once thought of the lines till now by angel felt that he would like to spend a day with her before the wedding somewhere away from the as a last in her company while they were yet mere lover and mistress a romantic day in circumstances that would never be repeated with that other and greater day beaming close ahead of them during the preceding week therefore he suggested making a few purchases in the nearest town and they started together s life at the had been that of a in respect to the world of his own class for months he had never gone near a town and requiring no vehicle had never kept one the s or if he rode or drove they went in the that day and then for the first time in their lives they as partners in one concern it was christmas eve with its load of and and the town was very full of strangers who had come in from all parts of the country on account of the day paid the penalty of walking about with happiness to on her countenance by being much stared at as she moved amid them on his arm in the evening they returned to the inn at which they had put up and waited in the entry while angel went to see the horse and brought to the door the general sitting room was full of guests who were continually going in and out as the door opened and shut each time for the passage of these the light within the parlour fell full upon s face two men came out and passed by her among the by the consequence rest one of them had stared her up and down in surprise and she fancied he was a man though that village lay so many off that folk were here a comely maid that said the other true comely enough but unless i make a great mistake and he the	45
off that none could con have been present at the ceremony even had any been asked but as a fact nobody was invited from as for angel s family he had written and duly informed them of the time and assured them that he would be glad to see one at least of them there for the day if he would like to come his brothers had not replied at all seeming to be indignant with him while his father and mother had written a rather sad letter his in rushing into marriage but making the best of the matter by saying that though a was the last daughter they could have expected their son had arrived at an age at which he might be supposed to be the best judge this coolness in his relations distressed less than it would have done had he been without the grand card with which he meant to surprise them ere long to produce fresh from the as a d and a lady he had felt to be and hence he had concealed her till such time as with worldly ways by a few months travel and reading with him he could take her on a visit to his parents and impart the knowledge while triumphantly producing her as worthy of such an ancient line it was a pretty lover s dream if no more perhaps s had more value for himself than for anybody in the world besides her perception that angel s bearing towards her still remained in no whit altered by her own communication rendered doubtful if he could have received it she rose from breakfast before he had finished and hastened upstairs it had occurred to her to look once more into the queer gaunt room which had been s den or rather e for so long and climbing the ladder e stood at the open door of the by consequence apartment regarding and pondering she stooped to the threshold of the doorway where she had pushed in the note two or three days earlier in such excitement the carpet reached dose to the sill and under the edge of the carpet she discerned the faint white margin of the envelope containing her letter to him whidi he obviously had never seen owing to her having in her haste thrust it beneath the carpet as well as beneath the door with a of she withdrew the letter there it was sealed up just as it had left her hands the mountain had not yet been removed she could not let him read it now the house being in full bustle of preparation and descending to her own room she destroyed the letter there she was so pale when he saw her again that he felt quite anxious the of the letter she had jumped at as if it prevented a confession but she knew in her that it need not there was still time yet everything was in a stir there was coming and going had to dress the and mrs having been asked to accompany them as witnesses and reflection or deliberate talk was well nigh impossible the only minute could get to be alone with was when they met upon the landing i am so anxious to talk to you i want to confess all my faults and she said with attempted lightness no no we can t have faults talked of you must be deemed perfect to day at least my sweet he cried we shall have plenty of time hereafter i hope to talk over our i will confess mine at the same time but it would be better for me to do it now i think so that you could not say well my one you shall tell me anything say as soon as we are settled in our lodging not now i too will tell you my faults then but do not by op the d let us spoil the day with them they will be excellent matter for a dull time then you don t wish me to dearest i do not really the hurry of dressing and starting left no time for more than this those words of his seemed to her on reflection she was whirled onward through the next couple of critical hours by the tide of her devotion to him which closed up meditation her one desire so long re to make herself his to call him her lord her own then if necessary to die had at last lifted her up from her pathway in dressing she moved about in a mental of many coloured which all sinister by its brightness the church was a long way and they were obliged to drive particularly as it was winter a dose carriage was ordered from a roadside inn a which had been kept there ever since the old days of post chaise it had stout and heavy a great curved bed immense and springs and a pole like a ram the was a venerable boy of sixty a to the result of excessive exposure in youth by strong who had stood at inn doors doing nothing for the whole five and twenty years that had elapsed since he had no longer been required to ride as if expecting the old times to come back again he had a permanent wound on the outside of his right leg originated by the constant of aristocratic carriage poles during the many years that he had been in regular employ at the king s arms inside this and creaking e and behind this decayed conductor the took their seats the bride and bridegroom and mr and mrs would have liked one at least of his brothers to he present as but their by the consequence silence after his gentle hint to that effect by letter had signified that they did not care	45
to use the same bread and butter plate as herself i and to brush from her lips with his own he wondered a little that she did not enter into these with his own zest looking at her silently for a long time she is a dear dear he thought to himself as one deciding on the true construction of a difficult passage do i solemnly enough how utterly and this little womanly thing is the creature of my good or bad faith and fortune i think not i think i could not i were a woman myself what i am in worldly estate she is what i become she must become what i cannot be she cannot be and shall i ever neglect her or hurt her or even forget to consider her god forbid such a crime they sat on over the tea table waiting for their luggage which the had promised to send before it grew dark but evening began to close in and the luggage did not arrive and they had brought nothing more than they stood in with the departure of the sun the calm mood of the winter day out of doors there began noises as of silk rubbed the dead leaves of the preceding autumn were stirred to irritated and whirled about unwillingly and tapped against the shutters it soon began to rain that cock knew the weather was going to change said the woman who had attended upon them had gone home for the night but she had placed candles upon the table and now they lit them each candle flame drew towards the fireplace old houses are so continued angel looking at the flames and at the down the sides i wonder where that luggage is we haven t even a brush and comb i don t know she answered absent minded you are not a bit cheerful this evening by the consequence not at all as you used to be those on the upstairs have unsettled you i am sorry i brought you here i wonder if you really love me after all he knew that she did and the words had no serious intent but she was with emotion and like a animal though she tried not to shed tears she could not help showing one or two i did not mean it said he sorry you are worried at not having things i know i cannot think why old has not come with them why it is seven o clock ah there he is a knock had come to the door and there being nobody else to answer it went out he returned to the room with a small in his hand it is not after all he said how said the packet had been brought by a special messenger who had arrived at from immediately after the departure of the married couple and had followed them hither being imder to deliver it into nobody s hands but theirs brought it to the light it was less than a foot long up in canvas sealed in red wax with his father s seal and directed in his father s hand to mrs angel it is a little wedding present for you said he handing it to her how thoughtful they are looked a little as she took it i think i would rather have you open it dearest said she turning over the parcel i don t like to break those great they look so serious please open it for me he the parcel inside was a case of leather on the top of which lay a note and a key the note was for in the following words my dear son possibly you have forgotten that on the death of your mrs when you were a lad vain kind by op the d woman that she left to me a portion of the contents of her in trust for your wife if you should ever have one as a mark of her affection for you and you should choose this trust i have fulfilled and the diamonds have been up at my banker s ever since though i feel it to be a somewhat act in e circumstances i am as you will see bound to hand over the articles to the woman to whom the use of them for her lifetime will now ri belong and they are therefore promptly sent they become i strictly speaking according to the terms of your s will the precise words of the that to this matter are enclosed i do remember said but i had quite forgotten the case they found it to contain a with and and also some other small ornaments seemed afraid to touch them at first but her eyes sparkled for a moment as much as the stones when spread out the set are they mine she asked they are certainly said he he looked into the fire he remembered how when he was a lad of fifteen his the squire s wife the rich person with whom he had ever come in contact had pinned her faith to his success had a wondrous career for mm there had seem nothing at all out of keeping with such a career in the up of these ornaments for his wife and the wives of her descendants they gleamed somewhat now yet why he asked himself it was but a question of vanity throughout and if that were admitted into one side of the it should be admitted into the other his was a d whom could they become better than her suddenly he said with enthusiasm put them on put them and he turned from the fire to help her but as if by magic she had already them and all but the gown isn t right said it by the consequence ought to be a low one	45
for a set of like that ought it said yes said he he to her how to in the upper edge of her so as to make it roughly to the cut for evening wear and when she had done this and the to the isolated amid the whiteness of her throat as it was designed to do he stepped back to survey her my heavens said how beautiful you are as everybody knows fine feathers make fine birds a peasant girl but very to the casual observer in her simple condition and attire will bloom as an amazing beauty if clothed as a woman of fashion with the that art can render while the beauty of j he midnight crush would often cut but a sorry figure if placed inside the field woman s upon a monotonous of on a dull day he had never till now estimated the artistic excellence of s limbs and features if you were only to appear in a ball room he said but no no dearest i think i love you best in the wing bonnet and cotton frock yes better than in this well as you support these s sense of her striking appearance had given her a of excitement whidi was yet not happiness i ll take them off she said in case should see me they are not fit for me are they they must be sold i suppose let them stay a few minutes longer sell them never it would be a breach of faith influenced by a second thought she readily obeyed she had something to tell and there might be help in these she sat down the jewels upon her and they again indulged in conjectures as to where could possibly be with their baggage the ale they had poured out for his consumption when he came had gone flat with long standing by op the d shortly after this they began supper which was laid on a side table ere they had finished there was a jerk in the fire smoke the rising of which out into the room as if some giant had laid his hand on the chimney top for a moment it had been caused by the opening of the outer door a heavy step was now heard in passage and angel went out i couldn make nobody hear at all by knocking for it was he at last and as t was out i opened the door i ve brought the things sir i am very glad to see them but you are very late well yes sir there was something subdued in s tone which had not been there in the day and lines of concern were upon his forehead in addition to the lines of years he continued we ve all been g ed at the at what might ha been a most affliction since you and your mis ess so to name her now left us this a perhaps you ha nt forgot the cock s afternoon crow dear me what well some says it do mane one thing and some another but what s happened is that poor little tried to drown herself no really why she bade us good bye with the rest yes well sir when you and your mis ess so to name what die lawful is when you two drove away as i say and put on their and went out and as there is not much doing now being new year s eve and folks and from what s inside em nobody took much notice they went on to where they had to drink and then on they v to armed cross and there they seemed parted striking across the water as if for home and by the consequence going on to the next village where there s another public house nothing more was or heard o till the on his way home noticed something by the great pool twas her bonnet and shawl packed up in the water he found her he and another man brought her home thinking a was dead but she fetched round by degrees angel suddenly that was this gloomy tale went to shut the door between the passage and the room to the inner parlour where she was but his wife flinging a shawl round her had come to the outer room and was listening to the man s narrative her eyes resting on the luggage and the drops of rain glistening upon it and more than this there s she s been f dead by the bed a girl who never been known to touch anything before except shilling ale though to be e a was always a good woman as her face showed it seems as if the maids had all gone out o their minds and asked is about house as usual but a do say a can guess how it happened and she seems to be very low in mind about it poor maid as well she mid be and so you see sir as all this happened just when we was packing your few traps and your mis ess s night rail and dressing things into the cart why it yes well will you get the trunks upstairs and a cup of ale and hasten back as soon as you can in case you should be wanted had gone back to the inner parlour and sat down by the fire looking wistfully into it she heard s heavy footsteps up and down the stairs till he had done placing the luggage and heard him express his thanks for the ale her husband took out to him and for the he received s footsteps then died from the door and his cart away angel slid forward the massive oak bar which by op the d secured the door and coming in to where	45
she sat over the hearth pressed her cheeks between his hands from behind he expected her to up gaily and the toilet gear that she had been so anxious about but as e did not rise he sat down with her in the the candles on the supper table being too thin and glimmering to interfere with its g ow i am so sorry you should have heard this sad story about the girls he said still don t let it you was naturally morbid you know without the least cause said while they who have cause to be hide it and pretend they are not this incident had turned the scale for her they were simple and innocent girls on whom the of love had fallen they had deserved better at the hands of fate she had deserved worse yet she was the chosen one it was wicked of her to take all without she would pay to the she would tell there and then this final determination she came to when she looked into the fire he holding her hand a steady glare from the now embers painted the sides and back of the fireplace with its colour and the well polished and the old brass that would not meet the of the mantel shelf was flushed with the high coloured light and the legs of the table nearest the e s face and neck reflected the same warmth which each turned into an or a a of white red and green flashes that their hues with her every do you remember what we said to each other this morning about telling our faults he asked abruptly finding that she still remained immovable we e lightly perhaps and you may well have done so but for me it was no light promise i want to make a confession to you love by the consequence from him so unexpectedly had the effect upon her of a you have to confess something she said and even with gladness and relief you did not expect it ah you thought too highly of me now listen put your head there because i want you to me and not to be indignant with me for not telling you before as perhaps i ought to have done how strange it was he seemed to be her double she did not speak and went on i did not mention it i was afraid of my chance of you darling the great prize of my life my i c j you my brother s fellowship was won at his college mine at well i would not risk it i was going to you a month ago at the time you agreed to be mine but i could not i thought it might frighten you away from me i put it off then i thought i would tell you yesterday to give you a chance at least of escaping me but i did not and i did not this morning when you proposed our ng our faults on the landing the sinner that i was but i must now i see you sitting there so solemnly i wonder if you will forgive me o yes i am sure that i hope so but wait a minute you don t know to b gin at the beginning though i ine my poor father fears that i am one of the lost for my doctrines i am of course a in good morals as much as you i used to wish to be a teacher of men and it was a great disappointment to me when i found i could not the i admired even though i could lay no claim to it and hated as i hope i do now one may think of inspiration one must heartily to these words of paul be thou an example in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity it is the only ass by op the d for us poor human beings says a roman poet who is strange company for st the man of upright life from free stands not in need of spear or bow well a certain place is paved with good intentions and having felt all that so strongly you will see what a terrible remorse it bred in me when in the midst of my fine aims for other people i myself fell he then told her of that time of his life to which allusion has been made when tossed about by doubts and difficulties in london like a cork on the waves he into eight and forty hours with a stranger happily i awoke almost immediately to a sense of my folly he continued i would have no more to say to her and i came home i have never repeated the offence but i felt i should like to treat you with perfect frankness and honour and i could not do so without telling this do you forgive me she pressed his hand tightly for an answer then we will dismiss it at once and for ever too painful as it is for the occasion and talk of something lighter angel i am almost glad now you can forgive me i have not made my confession i have a confession too remember i said so ah to be sure now then for it wicked little one perhaps although you smile it is as serious as yours or more so it can hardly be more serious dearest it o no it cannot she up joyfully at the hope no it cannot be more serious certainly she cried because tis just the same i will tell you now she sat down again their hands were still the ashes under by the consequence the grate were lit by the fire like a waste imagination might have beheld a last	45
day in red glow whidi fell on his face and hand and on hers peering into the loose hair about her brow and firing the delicate skin underneath a large shadow of her i rose upon the wall and ceiling she bent forward at which each diamond on her neck gave a sinister wink like a s and pressing her forehead against his temple she entered on her story of her acquaintance with d and its results murmuring the words without and with her drooping down end op phase by by phase the fifth the woman pays by by phase the woman pays her narrative ended even its re and secondary explanations were done s voice throughout had hardly risen higher than its opening tone there had been no phrase of any kind and she had not wept but the complexion even of external things seemed to suffer as her announcement the fire in the grate looked f as if it did not care in the least about her strait the grinned idly as if it too did not care the light the water bottle was merely engaged in a problem all material objects around their with terrible and yet nothing had changed since the moments when he had been kissing her or rather nothing in the substance of things but the essence of things had changed when she ceased the impressions from their previous seemed to away into the comers of their brains repeating themselves as echoes from a time of foolishness performed the act of stirring the fire the intelligence had not even yet got to the bottom of him after stirring the embers he rose to his feet all the force of her disclosure had imparted itself now his face had withered in the by op the ness of his he on the floor he could not by any contrivance think closely enough that was the meaning of his vague movement when he spoke it was in the most inadequate commonplace voice of the many varied tones she had heard from him yes dearest am i to believe this from your manner i am to take it as true o you cannot be out of your mind you ought to be yet you are not my wife my nothing in you such a supposition as that i am not out of my mind she said and yet he looked at her to resume with senses why didn t you tell me before ah yes you would have told me in a way but i you i remember these and other of his words were nothing but the of the surface while the depths remained he turned away and bent over a chair followed him to the middle of the room where he was and stood there staring at him with eyes that did not weep presently she down upon her knees beside his foot and from this position she crouched in a heap in the name of love forgive me she whispered with a dry mouth i have forgiven you for the same and as he did not answer she said again forgive me as you ate forgiven forgive you angel yes you do but you do not forgive me o forgiveness does not apply to the case you were one person now you are another my how can forgiveness meet such a grotesque as that he paused contemplating this definition then by the woman pays suddenly broke into horrible laughter as unnatural and ghastly as a laugh in hell i n t don t it me quite that she shrieked o have mercy upon me have mercy he did not answer and sickly white she jumped up angel angel what do you mean by that laugh she cried out do you know what this is to me he shook his head i have been hoping longing praying to make you happy i have thought what joy it will be to do it what an unworthy wife i shall be if i do not that s what i have felt angel i know that i thought angel that you loved me me my very self if it is i you do love o how can it be that you look and speak so it me having begun to love you i love you for ever in all changes in all because you are yourself i ask no more how can you o my own husband stop loving me i repeat the woman i have been loving is not you but who another woman in your shape she perceived in his words the of her own apprehensive in former times he looked upon her as a species of a guilty woman in the guise of an innocent one terror was upon her white face as she saw it her cheek was and her mouth had almost the aspect of a round little hole the horrible sense of his view of her so her that she staggered and he stepped forward thinking she was going to fall sit down sit down he sam gently you are ill and it is natural that you should be she did sit down without knowing where she was that strained look still upon her face and her eyes such as to make hi flesh creep by op the d i don t belong to you any more then do i angel she asked helplessly it is not me but another woman like me that he loved he says the image raised caused her to take pity upon herself as one who was ill used her eyes filled as she regarded her position she turned round and burst into a flood of self sympathetic tears was relieved at this change for the effect on her of what had happened was beginning to be a trouble to him only less than the woe of the	45
disclosure itself he waited patiently till the violence of her grief had worn itself out and her rush of weeping had lessened to a catching gasp at intervals angel she said suddenly in her natural tones the insane dry voice of terror having left her now angel am i too wicked for you and me to live together i have not been able to think what we can do i shan t ask you to let me live with you angel because i have no right to i shall not write to mother and sisters to say we be married as i said i would do and i shan t finish the good i cut out and meant to make while we were in lodgings shan t you no i shan t do anything unless you order me to and if you go away from me i shall not follow ee and if you never speak to me any more i shall not ask why unless you tell me i may and if i do order you to do anything i will obey you like your wretched slave even if it is to lie down and die you are very good but it strikes me that there is a want of harmony between your present mood of self sacrifice and your past mood of self preservation these were the first words of to fling elaborate at however was much like flinging them at a dog or cat the charms of their passed by her and she only received them as sounds which meant by the woman pays that anger ruled she remained mute not knowing that he was his affection for her she hardly observed that a tear descended slowly upon his cheek a tear so large that it the of the skin over which it rolled like the object of a meanwhile as to the terrible and total change that her confession had wrought in his life in his returned to him and he tried desperately to advance among the new conditions in which he stood some consequent action was necessary yet what he said as gently as he could speak i cannot stay in this room just now i will walk out a little way he quietly left the room and the two glasses of wine that he had poured out for their supper one for her one for him remained on the table this was what their had come to at tea two or three hours earlier they had in the of affection drunk from one cup the closing of the door behind gently as it had been pulled to roused from her stupor he was gone she could not stay hastily flinging her her she opened the door and followed putting out the candles as if she were never coming back the rain was over and the night was now dear she was soon dose at his for walked slowly and without purpose his form beside her light grey figure looked black sinister and forbidding and e as sarcasm the touch of the of which she had been so proud turned at hearing her footsteps but his recognition of her presence seemed to make no difference in him and he went on over the five yawning arches of the great bridge in front of the house the cow and horse tracks in the road were full of water the rain having been enough to charge them but not enough to wash them away across these a s by of the minute pools the reflected stars flitted in a quick as she passed she would not have known they were shining overhead if she had not seen them there the things of the in objects so mean the place to which they had travelled was in the same valley as but some miles lower down the river and the surroundings being open she kept easily in sight of him away from the house tiie road wound through the and along these she followed without any attempt to come up with him or to attract him but with dumb and vacant fidelity at last however her walk brought her up alongside him and still he said nothing the cruelty of honesty is often great after and it was mighty in now the air had apparently taken away from him all tendency to act on impulse she knew that he saw her without in all her that time was his at her then behold when thy face is made bare he that loved thee hate thy face shall be no more fair at the fall of thy fate for thy life shall fall as a leaf and be shed as the rain and the veil of thine head shall be grief and the be pain he was still intently thinking and her companionship had now insufficient power to break or the strain of thought what a weak her presence must have become to him she not help addressing what have i done what have i done i have not tom of anything that with or my love for you you don t think i planned it do you it is in your own mind what you are angry at angel it is not in me o it is not in me and i am not that woman you think me h m well not my wife but not the same no not the same but do not make me re by the woman pays you i have sworn that i will not and i will do to avoid it but e went on pleading in her distraction and perhaps said things that would have been better left to silence angel i was a child a child when it happened i knew nothing of men you were more against than that i admit th i will you not forgive	45
burden of her life to his e was now without care he turned away to descend then faced round to her door again in the act he caught sight of one of the d whose portrait was immediately over the entrance to s in the the painting was more than unpleasant sinister design in the woman s features a concentrated purpose of revenge on tiie other sex so it seemed to him then the of the portrait was low precisely as s had been when he tucked it in to show the and again he experienced the distressing sensation of a resemblance between them the check was sufficient he resumed his retreat and descended his air remained calm and cold his small compressed mouth his powers of self control his face wearing still that terribly expression which had since her disclosure it was the face of a man who was no longer passion s slave yet who found no advantage in his he was simply regarding the of human experience the of by the woman pays things nothing so pure so sweet so as had seemed possible all the long while that he had adored her up to an ago but the little less and what worlds he argued when he said to himself that her heart was not in the honest freshness of her face but had no advocate to set him right could it be possible he continued that eyes which as they gazed never expressed any from what the tongue was telling were yet ever seeing another world behind her one and he on his couch in the sitting room and extinguished the light ttie night came in and took up its place there and indifferent the night which had already swallowed up his happiness and was now it and was ready to swallow up the happiness of a thousand other people with as little or change of mien by arose in the light of a dawn that was and as associated with crime the fireplace confronted with its extinct embers the spread supper table stood the two full glasses of wine now flat and her seat and own the other articles of furniture with their look of not being able to help it their intolerable what was to be done above there was no but in a few minutes there came a knock at the door he remembered that it would be the neighbouring s wife who was to minister to their wants while they remained here the presence of a third person in the house would be extremely awkward just now and being already dressed he opened the window and informed her that they could manage to shift for themselves that morning she had a milk can in her hand which he told her to leave at the door when the dame had gone away he searched in the back quarters of the house for fuel and speedily lit a fire there was plenty of eggs butter bread and so on in the and soon had breakfast laid his experiences at the having rendered him in domestic preparations the smoke of the kindled wood rose from the chimney without like a headed column local people who were passing by saw it and thought of the couple and envied their happiness angel cast a final glance round and then going to the foot of the stairs called in a conventional voice breakfast is ready he opened the front door and took a few steps in by the woman pays the morning air after a short space he came she was in the sitting room mechanically the breakfast things as she was attired and tiie interval since his calling her had been but two or three minutes she must have been dressed or nearly so before he went to her her hair was twisted up in a large round mass at the back her head and she had put on one of the new a pale blue garment with neck f of white her hands and face appeared to be cold and she had possibly been sitting d in the bedroom a long time without any fire the marked civility of s tone in calling her seemed to have inspired her for the moment with a new glimmer of hope but it soon died when she looked at him the pair were in truth but the ashes of their former fires to the hot sorrow of the previous night had succeeded it seemed as if nothing could either of them to of sensation any more he spoke gently to her and she replied with a like at last she came up to him looking in his sharply defined face as one who had no consciousness that her own formed a visible object also angel she said and paused touching him with her lightly as a breeze as though she could hardly believe to be there in the flesh tiie man who was once her lover her eyes were bright her pale cheek still showed its though tears had left glistening traces and the usually ripe red mouth was almost as pale as her cheek alive as she was still under the stress of her ment d grief the life beat so that a little upon it would cause real illness dull her characteristic eyes and make her mouth thin she looked absolutely pure nature in her fantastic had set such a seal of by op the d upon s countenance that he gazed at her with a air say it is not true no it is not true it is true every word every word he looked at her as if he would willingly have taken a lie from her lips knowing it to be one and have made of it by some sort of a denial however she only repeated it is true is he living angel then asked the baby	45
died but the man he is alive a last despair passed over s face is he in england yes he took a few vague steps my position is this he said abruptly i thought any man would have thought that by giving up all ambition to win a wife with social standing with with knowledge of the world i should secure rustic innocence as sturdy as i should secure pink cheeks but however i am no man to reproach you and i will not felt his position so entirely that the remainder had not been needed therein lay just the distress of it she saw that he had lost all round angel i should not have let it go on to marriage with you if i had not known that all there was a last way out of it for you though i hoped you would never her voice grew a last way i mean to get rid of me you can get rid of me how by me by the woman pays good heavens how can you be so simple how can i divorce you can t you now i have told you i thought my confession would give you grounds for that o you are too too childish crude i suppose i don t know what you are you don t understand the law you don t understand what you cannot indeed i cannot a quick shame mixed with the misery upon his listener s face i thought i thought she whispered o now i see how wicked i seem to you believe me believe me on my soul i never thought but that you could i hoped you not yet i believed a doubt that you could cast me off if you were determined and didn t love me at at all you were mistaken he said then i ought to have done it to have done it last night but i hadn t the that s just like me the courage to do what as she did not answer he took her by the hand what were you thinking of doing he inquired of putting an end to myself when she under this manner of his last night she answered where under your my good how he asked sternly i ll tell you if you won t be angry with me she said shrinking it was with the cord of my box but i could not do the last thing i was afraid that it might cause a scandal to your name the unexpected quality of this confession wrung from her and not volunteered shook him but he still held her and letting his glance fall from her face downwards he said by of the d now listen to this you must not dare to think of such a horrible thing how could you you will promise me as your husband to attempt that no more i am ready to promise i saw how wicked it was wicked the idea was unworthy of you beyond description but angel she pleaded her eyes in calm upon him it was thought of entirely on your account to set you free without the scandal of the divorce that i thought you would have to get i should never have of doing it on mine however to do it with my own hand is too good for me after all it is you my ruined husband who ought to strike the blow i think i should love you more if that were possible if you could bring yourself to do it since there s no other way of escape for ee i feel i am so utterly worthless so very greatly in the way well since you say no i won t i have no wish opposed to yours he knew this to be true enough since the desperation of the night her had dropped to and there was no further to be feared tried to busy herself again over the breakfast table with more or less success and they sat down both on the same side so that their glances did not meet there was at first something awkward in hearing each other eat and drink but this could not be escaped moreover the amount of eating done was small on both sides breakfast over he rose and telling her the hour at which he might be expected to dinner went off to the miller s in a mechanical of the plan of studying that business which had been his only practical reason for coming here when he was gone stood at the window and presently saw his form crossing the great stone bridge by the woman pays which conducted to the mill premises he sank behind it crossed the railway beyond and disappeared then without a sigh she turned her attention to the room and began clearing the table and it in order the soon came her presence was at first a strain upon but afterwards an at past twelve she left her assistant alone in the kitchen and to the sitting room waited for the of angel s form behind the bridge about one he showed himself her face flushed although he was a quarter of a mile off she ran to the kitchen to get the dinner served by the time he should enter he went first to the room where they had washed their hands together the day before and as he entered the sitting room the dish covers rose from the dishes as if by his own motion how punctual he said yes i saw you coming over the bridge said she the meal was passed in commonplace talk of what he had been during the morning at the abbey mill of the methods of and the old fashioned machinery which he feared	45
would not him greatly on modem improved methods some of it seeming to have been in use ever since the days it ground for the in the adjoining buildings now a heap of ruins he the house again in the course of an hour coming home at dusk and occupying himself through the evening with his papers she feared she was in the way and when the old woman was gone retired to the where she made herself busy as well as she for more than an hour s shape appeared at the door you must not work like this he said you are not my servant you are my wife she raised her eyes and brightened somewhat i may think myself that indeed she murmured by op the d in piteous you mean in name well i don t want to be anything more you may think so you are what do you mean i don t know she said hastily with tears in her accents i thought i i am not respectable i mean i told you i thought i was not respectable enough long ago and on that account i didn t want to marry you only only you urged me she broke into sobs and her back to him it would almost have won round any man but angel within the remote depths of his constitution so gentle and affectionate as he was in general there lay hidden a hard logical deposit like a vein of metal in a soft which turned the edge of everything that attempted to it it had blocked his acceptance of the church it blocked his acceptance of moreover his affection itself was less fire than radiance and with regard to the other sex when he ceased to believe he ceased to follow in this with many natures who remain with what they despise he waited till her sobbing ceased i wish half the women in england were as respect able as you he said in an of bitterness against in general it isn t a question of respectability but one of principle he spoke such things as these and more of a kindred sort to her still swayed by the wave which direct souls with such when once their vision finds itself by there was it is true underneath a back current of sympathy through which a woman of the world might have conquered him but did not think of this she took everything as her deserts and hardly opened her mouth the firmness of her devotion to him was indeed almost pitiful as she naturally was nothing that he could say made her not her own was by the woman pays not provoked thought no evil of his treatment of her she might just now have been charity herself returned to a self seeking modem world this evening night and morning were passed precisely as the preceding ones had been passed on one and only one occasion did she the formerly free and independent venture to make any advances it was on the third occasion of his starting after a meal to go out to the flour mill as he was leaving the table he said good bye and she in the same words at the same time her mouth in the way of his he did not avail himself of the invitation saying as he turned hastily aside i all be home shrank into herself as if she had been struck often enough had he tried to reach those lips against her consent often had he said gaily that her mouth and breath tasted of the butter and and milk and honey on which she mainly lived that he drew from them and other follies of that sort but he did not care for them now he observed her sudden shrinking and said gently you know i have to think of a se it was imperative that we should stay together a little while to avoid the scandal to you that would have resulted from immediate parting but you must see it is only for form s sake yes said he went out and on his way to the mill stood still and wished for a moment that he had responded yet more kindly and kissed her once at least thus they lived through this despairing day or two in the same house truly but more widely apart than before they were lovers it was evident to her that he was as he had said living with in his endeavour to of a plan of she was awe stricken to discover such determination under such apparent his was indeed too cruel she no longer by op the d expected forgiveness now more than once she thought of going away from him during his absence at the but she feared that this instead of him might be the means of and humiliating him yet more if it should become known meanwhile was meditating verily his thought had been he was becoming ill with thinking eaten out with thinking withered by thinking out of all his former he walked about saying to himself what s to be done what s to be done and by chance she overheard him it caused her to break the reserve about their future whidi had hitherto prevailed i suppose you are not going to live with me long are you angel she the comers of her mouth betraying how purely mechanical were the means by which she retained that expression of calm upon her face i cannot he said without m and what is worse perhaps you i mean of course cannot five with you in the ordinary sense at present whatever i feel i do not despise you and let me speak plainly or you may not see all my how can we live together while that man lives	45
he being your husband in nature and not i if he were dead it might be different besides that s not all the it lies in another consideration one bearing upon the future of other people than ourselves think of years to come and children being bom to us and this past matter getting known for it must get known there is not an part of the earth but somebody comes from it or goes to it from elsewhere well think of wretches of our flesh and blood growing up under a which they will gradually get to feel the full force of with their years what an awakening for them what a prospect can you honestly say remain after contemplating this don t you think by the woman pays we had better endure the ills we have than fly to others her eyelids with trouble continued drooping as before i cannot say remain she answered i cannot i had not thought so far s feminine hope shall we confess it had been so as to revive in her visions of a intimacy continued long enough to break down coldness even against his judgment though in the usual sense she was not and it have deficiency of womanhood if she had not instinctively known what an ai lies in nothing else would serve her she knew if this failed it was wrong to hope in what was of the nature of she said to herself yet that sort of hope she could not his last representation had now been made and it was as she said a new view she had truly never thought so far as that and his picture of possible offspring who would scorn her was one that brought deadly conviction to an honest heart which was to its centre sheer experience had already taught her that in some circumstances there was one better than to lead a good life and that was to be saved from leading any life whatever like all who have been by suffering she could in the words of m hear a sentence in the you shall be bom particularly if addressed to issue of hers yet such is the of dame nature that till now had been by her love for into forgetting it might in that would inflict upon others what she had as a misfortune to herself she therefore could not withstand his argument but with the self of the an answer arose in s own by op the d mind and he almost feared it it was based on her exceptional nature and she might have used it she might have added besides on an or plain who is to know or care about my or to reproach me or you yet like the majority of women she accepted the momentary as if it were the inevitable and she may have been right the heart of woman not only its own bitterness but its husband s and even if these assumed reproaches were not likely to be addressed to him or to his by strangers they have reached his ears from his own fastidious brain it was the third day of the some might risk the odd that with more he would have been the nobler man we do not say it yet s love was doubtless ethereal to a fault imaginative to with these natures presence is sometimes less appealing than absence the latter creating an ideal presence that conveniently drops the defects of the real she found that her personality did not plead her cause so forcibly as she had anticipated the phrase was true she was another woman than the one who had excited his desire i have thought over what you say she remarked to him moving her forefinger over the her other hand which bore the ring that them both supporting her forehead it is quite all of it it must be you must go away from me but what can you do i can go home had not thought of that are you sure he inquired quite sure we ought to part and we may as well get it past and done you once said that i was apt to win men against their better judgment and if i am constantly before your eyes i may cause you to change your plans in opposition to your reason and by the woman pays wish and afterwards your repentance and my sorrow will be terrible and you would like to go home he asked i want to leave you and go home then it shall be so though she did not look up at him she started there was a difference between the proposition and the which she had felt only too quickly i feared it would come to this she her countenance meekly fixed i don t complain angel i i think it b t what you said has quite convinced me yes though nobody else should reproach me if we should stay together yet years hence you might get angry with me for any ordinary matter and knowing what you do of my you self might be tempted to say words and they might be overheard perhaps by my own children o what only hurts me now would and kill me then i will go to morrow and i shall not stay here though i didn t like to it i have seen that it was advisable we should part at least for a while till i can better see the shape that things have taken and can write to you stole a glance at her husband he was pale even tremulous but as before she was appalled by the determination revealed in the depths of this gentle being she had married the will to subdue the to the emotion the substance to the conception the flesh to the spirit tendencies habits were	45
as dead leaves upon the wind of his imaginative he may have observed her look for he explained i of people more kindly when i am away from them adding god knows perhaps we shall shake down together some day for weariness thousands have done it that day he began to pack up and she went upstairs and began to pack also both knew that it was by op the d in their two minds that they might part the morning for ever despite the of conjectures thrown over their proceeding because they were of the sort to whom any parting which has an air of is a torture he knew and she knew that though the fascination which each had exercised over the other on her part of accomplishments would probably in the first days of their separation be even more potent than ever time must that the practical arguments against accepting her as a might themselves more strongly in the light of a view moreover when two people are once parted have abandoned a common and a common new bud upward to fill each place accidents hinder intentions and old plans are forgotten by midnight came and passed silently for there was nothing to announce it in the valley of the not long after one o clock there was a slight in the darkened once the mansion of the d who used the upper chamber heard it and awoke it had come from the comer step of the staircase which as usual was loosely nailed she saw the door of her bedroom open and the figure of her husband crossed the stream of moonlight with a curiously careful tread he was in his shirt and trousers only and her first flush of joy died when she perceived that his eyes were fixed in an unnatural stare on when he reached the middle of the room he stood still and murmured in tones of indescribable sadness dead dead dead under the influence of any strongly disturbing force would occasionally walk in his sleep and even perform strange such as he had done on the night of their return from market just before their marriage when he re in his bedroom his combat with the man who had insulted her saw that mental distress had wrought him into that state now her loyal confidence in him lay so deep down in her heart that awake or asleep he inspired her with no sort of personal fear if he had entered with a pistol in his hand he would scarcely have disturbed her trust in his came close and bent over her dead dead dead he murmured by op the d after regarding her for some moments with the same gaze of woe he bent lower enclosed her in his arms and rolled her in the sheet as in a then lifting her from the bed with as much respect as one would show to a dead body he carried her across the room murmuring my poor poor my dearest darling so sweet so good so true the words of withheld so severely in his waking hours were sweet to her forlorn and heart if it had been to save her weary life she would not by moving or struggling have put an end to the position she found herself in thus she lay in absolute stillness scarcely venturing to breathe and wondering what he was going to do with her suffered herself to be borne out upon the landing my wife dead dead he said he paused in his labours for a moment to lean with her against the was he going to throw her down self was near in her and in the knowledge that he had planned to depart on the morrow possibly for always she lay in his arms in this precarious position with a sense rather of luxury than of terror if they could only fall together and both be dashed to pieces how fit how desirable however he did not let her fall but took advantage of the support of the to a kiss upon her lips in the da scorned then he clasped her with a renewed firmness of hold and descended the staircase the of the loose stair did not awaken him and they reached the ground floor safely one of his hands from his grasp of her for a moment he slid back the door bar and pa out slightly his toe against the edge of the door but this he seemed not to mind and having room for extension in the open air he lifted her against his shoulder so that he could carry by the woman pays her with ease the absence of clothes taking much from his burden thus he bore her off the premises in the direction of the river a few yards distant his ultimate intention if he had any she had not yet divined and she found herself on the matter as a third person might have done so had she delivered her whole being up to him that it pleased her to think he was regarding her as his absolute possession to dispose of as he should choose it was under the hovering terror of tomorrow s separation to feel that he r y recognized her now as his wife and did not cast her off even if in that recognition he went so far as to to himself the right of her ah now she knew what he was dreaming of that sunday morning when he had borne her along through the water with the other who had loved him nearly as much as she if that were possible which could hardly admit did not cross the bridge with her but proceeding several paces on the same side towards the adjoining mill at length stood still on the brink of the river its	45
waters in creeping down these miles of frequently divided in curves themselves around uttle islands that had no name returning and re themselves as a broad main stream on opposite the spot to which he had brought her was such a general and the river was and deep across it was a narrow foot bridge but now the flood had washed the away leaving the bare plank only which lying a few inches above the current formed a giddy pathway for even steady heads and had noticed from the window of the house in the young men walking across upon it as a feat in her husband had possibly observed the same performance anyhow he now mounted the plank and sliding one foot forward advanced along it by op the d was he going to drown her probably he was the spot was lonely the river deep and wide enough to make such a purpose easy of accomplishment he might drown her if he would it would be better than parting to morrow to lead severed lives the swift stream and under them tossing and the moon s reflected face spots of travelled past and weeds waved behind the piles if they could both fall together into the current now their arms would be so tightly clasped together that they could not be saved they would go out of the world and there would be no more reproach to her or to him for marrying her his last half hour with her would have been a loving one while if they lived till he awoke his aversion would and this hour would remain to be contemplated only as a transient dream the impulse stirred in her yet she dared not indulge it to make a movement that would have them both into the gulf how she valued her own life had been proved but his she had no right to with it he reached the other side with her in safety here they were within a plantation which formed the abbey grounds and a new hold of her he went a few steps till they reached the ruined choir of the abbey church against the north wall was the empty stone coffin of an in which every with a turn for grim humour was accustomed to stretch himself in this carefully laid having kissed her lips a second time he breathed deeply as if a greatly desired end were attained then lay down on the ground alongside when he immediately fell into the deep dead slumber of exhaustion and remained motionless as a log the of mental excitement which had produced the effort was now over sat up in the coffin the night dry and mild for the season was more than sufficiently cold to make it dangerous for him to remain here long by the woman pays in his half clothed state if he were left to himself he would in all probability stay there till the morning and be chilled to certain death she had heard of such deaths after sleep walking but how could she dare to awaken him and let him know what he had been doing when it would him to discover his folly in respect of her however stepping out of her stone confine shook him slightly but was unable to arouse him without being violent it was indispensable to do something for e was beginning to shiver the sheet being but a poor protection her excitement had in a measure kept her warm during the few minutes adventure but that interval was over it suddenly occurred to her to try persuasion and accordingly she whispered in his ear with as much firmness and decision as she could summon let us walk on darling at the same time taking him by the arm to her relief he her words had apparently thrown him back into his dream which seemed to enter on a new phase wherein he fancied she had risen as a spirit and was leading him to heaven thus she conducted him by the arm to the stone bridge in front of their residence crossing which they stood at the house door s feet were quite bare and the stones hurt her and chilled her to the bone but was in his stockings and appeared to feel no discomfort there was no further difficulty she induced him to lie down on his own sofa bed and covered him up warmly lighting a temporary fire of wood to dry any out of him the noise of these attentions she thought might awaken him and secretly wished that they might but the exhaustion of his mind and body was such that he remained undisturbed as soon as they met the next morning divined that angel knew little or nothing of how far she had been concerned in the night s excursion though as by op the d r himself he may have been aware that he had not lam still in truth he had awakened that morning from a sleep deep as and during those first few moments in which the brain like a shaking himself is trying its strength he had some dim notion of an unusual proceeding but the realities of his situation soon conjecture on the other subject he waited in to discern some mental pointing he knew that if any intention of his concluded over night did not vanish in the of morning it stood on a basis to one of pure reason even if by impulse of feeling that it was so far therefore to be trusted he thus beheld in the pale morning light the resolve to separate from her not as a hot and indignant instinct but of the which had made it and standing in its bones nothing but a skeleton but none the less there no longer hesitated at breakfast and while they were packing the few remaining articles he showed his weariness	45
from the night s so that was on the point of revealing all that had happened but the reflection that it would anger him grieve him him to know that he had instinctively manifested a fondness for her of which his common sense did not approve that his inclination had his dignity when reason slept again her it was too much like laughing at a man when sober for his deeds during it just crossed her mind too that he might have a faint recollection of his tender and was to allude to it from a conviction that she would take advantage of the it gave her of appealing to him anew not to go he had ordered by letter a vehicle from the nearest town and soon after breakfast it arrived she saw in it the beginning of the end the temporary end at by the woman pays for the revelation of his tenderness by the incident of the night raised dreams of a possible future with him the luggage was put on the top and the man drove them off the miller and the old expressing some surprise at their departure which attributed to his discovery that the mill work was not of the modem kind which he wished to investigate a statement that was true so far as it went beyond this there was nothing in the manner of their leaving to suggest a or that they were not going together to visit friends their route lay near the from which they had started with such joy in each other a few days back and as wished to wind up his business with mr could hardly avoid paying mrs a call at the same time unless she would excite suspicion of their unhappy state to make the call as as possible they left the carriage by the leading down from the high road to the house and descended the track on foot side by side the bed had been cut and they could see over the the spot to which had followed her when he pressed her to be his wife to the left the in which she had been fascinated by his harp and far away behind the the which had been the scene of their first embrace the gold of the summer picture was now grey the colours mean the rich soil mud and the river cold over the gate the saw them and came forward throwing into his face the kind of deemed appropriate in and its on the of the newly married then mrs emerged from the house and several others of their old acquaintance though and did not seem to be there bore their sly attacks and friendly which affected her far otherwise than they supposed in the agreement of husband and by op the d wife to keep their a secret they behaved as would have been ordinary and then although she would rather there had been no word spoken on the subject had to hear in detail the story i and the latter had gone home to her father s and had left to look for elsewhere they feared she would come to no good to the sadness of this recital went and bade all her favourite cows good bye touching each of them with her hand and as she and stood side by side at leaving as if united body and soul there would have been something peculiarly sorry in their aspect to one who should have seen it truly two limbs of one life as they outwardly were his arm touching hers her skirts touching him facing one way as against all the facing e other speaking in their as we and yet like the poles perhaps something unusually stiff and embarrassed in their attitude some awkwardness in acting up to their profession of different from the natural sh mess of young couples may have been apparent for when they were gone mrs said to her husband how the brightness of her eyes did seem and how they stood like images and talked as if they were in a dream didn t it strike ee that twas so had always strange in her and she s not now quite like the proud young bride of a well be doing man they re entered the and were driven along the roads towards and lane till they reached the lane inn where dismissed the fly and man they rested here a while and entering the were next driven onward towards her home by a stranger who did not know their relations at a point when had been passed and where t ere were cross roads stopped the conveyance and said to that if she meant to return to her mother s house it was here that he would leave her as they could not talk with by the woman pays freedom in the driver s presence he asked her to accompany him for a few steps on foot along one of the branch roads she assented and directing the man to wait a few minutes they strolled away now let us understand each other he said gently there is no anger between us though there is that which i cannot endure at present i will try to bring myself to endure it i will let you know where i go to as soon as i know myself and if i can bring myself to bear it if it is desirable possible i will come to you but until i come to you it will be better that you should not try to come to me the severity of the decree seemed deadly to she saw his view of her clearly enough he could regard her in no other light than that of one who had practised gross deceit upon him yet could a woman who had done even what she had done deserve all	45
this but she could contest the point with him no she simply repeated after him his own words until you come to me i must not try to come to you just so may i write to you o yes if you are ill or want anything at all i hope that will not be the case so that it may happen that i write first to you i agree to the conditions angel because you know best wh t my punishment ought to be only only don t make it more than i can bear that was all she said on the matter if had been artful had she made a scene fainted wept in that lonely lane the fury of with which he was possessed he would probably not have her but her mood of long suffering made his way easy for him and she herself was his best advocate pride so entered into her submission which perhaps was a by op the d of that reckless acquiescence in chance so apparent in the whole d family and the many effective which she could have stirred by an appeal were left untouched the remainder of their discourse was on practical s only he now handed her a packet contain ing a fairly good sum of money which he had obtained from his for the purpose the the interest in which seemed to be s for her life only if he the of the will he advised her to let him send to a for safety and to this she readily agreed these things arranged he walked with back to the carriage and handed her in the coachman was paid and told where to drive her taking next his own bag and umbrella the sole articles he had brought with him he bade her good bye and they parted there and then the fly moved up a hill and watched it go with an hope that would look out of the window for one moment but that she never thought of doing would not have ventured to do lying in a half d id faint inside thus he beheld her and in the anguish of his heart quoted a line from a poet with peculiar of his own god s not in his heaven all s wrong with the world when had passed over the crest of the hill he turned to go his own way and hardly knew that he loved her still by as she drove on through and the landscape of her youth began to open around her aroused herself from her stupor her first thought was how would she be able to face her parents she reached a gate which stood upon the highway to the village it was thrown open by a stranger not by the old man who had kept it for many years and to whom she had been he had probably left on new year s day the date when such changes were made having received no intelligence lately from her home she the keeper for news oh nothing miss he answered is still folks have died and that too had a daughter married this week to a farmer not from john s own house you know they was married elsewhere the gentleman being of that high standing that john s own folk was not considered well be doing enough to have any part in it the bridegroom seeming not to know how t have been discovered that john is a old and ancient nobleman himself by blood with family in their own to this day but done out of his property in the time o the however sir john as we call n now kept up the wedding day as well as he could and stood treat to everybody in the parish and john s wife sung songs at the pure drop till past eleven o clock hearing this felt so sick at heart that she could not decide to go home publicly in the fly with ber luggage and she asked the by of the d keeper if she might deposit her things at his house for a and on offering no objection she dismissed her carriage and went on to the village alone by a back lane at sight of her father s chimney she asked herself how she could possibly enter the house inside that cottage her relations were calmly supposing her far away on a wedding tour with a comparatively rich man who was to conduct her to prosperity while here she was creeping up to e old door quite by herself with no better place to go to in the world she did not reach the house unobserved just by the garden hedge she was met by a girl who knew her one of the two or three with whom she had been intimate at school after making a few inquiries as to how came there her friend her tragic look interrupted with but where s thy gentleman hastily explained that he had been called away on business and leaving her over the garden hedge and thus made her way to the house as she went up the garden path she heard her mother singing by the back door coming in sight of which she perceived mrs on the in the act of wringing a sheet having performed this without observing e went indoors and her daughter followed her the washing tub stood in the same old place on the same old and her mother having thrown the sheet aside was about to i h arms in anew why my i thought you was married married really and truly this time we sent the yes mother so i am going to be no i am married by the woman pays married then where s thy husband oh he s	45
gone away for a time gone away when was you then the day you said yes tuesday mother and now tis on y saturday and he gone away yes he s gone what s the meaning o that nation seize such as you seem to get say it mother went across to laid her face upon the matron s bosom and burst into i don t know how to tell ee mother you said to me and wrote to me that i was not to tell mm but i did tell him i couldn t help it and he went away o you little fool you little fool burst out mrs and herself in her agitation my good god that ever i should ha to say it but i say it again you little fool was with weeping the of so many days having relaxed at last i it i know i know she gasped through her sobs but o my mother i could not help it he was so good and i felt the wickedness of trying to blind him as to what had happened if it were to be done again i should do the i could not i dared not so sin against him but you enough to marry him first yes yes that s where my do lie but i thought he could get rid o me by law if he were not to overlook it and o if you knew a you could only half know how i loved him how anxious i was to have him and how i was between caring so much for him and my to be fair to him was so shaken that she could get no further and sank a helpless thing into a chair well what s done can t be undone i m sure i don t know why children o my bringing forth by of the d should all be bigger than other people s not to know better than to such a thing as that when he couldn t ha found it out till too late here mrs began shedding tears on her own account as a mother to be pitied what your father will say i don t know she continued for talking about the wedding up at s and the pure drop every day since and about his family getting back to their position through you poor y man and now you ve made this mess of it a lord as if to bring matters to a s father was heard approaching at that moment he did not however enter immediately and mrs said that she would break the bad news to him herself keeping out of sight for the present after her first burst of disappointment began to take the as she had taken s trouble as she would have taken a wet holiday or failure in the crop as a thing which had come upon them of desert or folly a chance external to be borne with not a lesson retreated upstairs and beheld casually that the beds had been shifted and new arrangements made her old bed had been adapted for two younger children there was no place here for her now the room below being j she could hear most of what went on there presently her father entered apparently a live hen he was a foot now having been obliged to sell his second horse and he travelled with h basket on his arm the hen had been carried about this morning as it was often carried to show people that he was in his work though it had lain with its legs tied under the table at s for more than an hour we ve just had up a story began and thereupon related in detail to his wife a discussion which had arisen at the inn about the clergy originated by the fact of his daughter having by the woman pays married into a family they was formerly sir like my own he said though nowadays their true style strictly speaking is clerk only as had wished that no great should be given to the event he had mentioned no particulars he hoped she would remove that soon he proposed that the couple should take s own name d as it was better than her husband s he asked if any letter had come from her that day then mrs informed him that no letter had come but had come herself when at length the was explained to him a sullen mortification not usual with overpowered the influence of the cheering glass yet the quality of the event moved his less than its effect upon the minds of others to think now that this was to be the end o t said sir john and i with a family vault imder that there church of as big as squire s ale cellar and my folk lying there in and as genuine county bones and as any recorded in history and now to be e what they at s and the pure drop will say to me how they ll and e and say this is yer mighty match is it this is yer getting back to the true level of yer forefathers in s time i feel this is too much i shall put an end to myself title and all i can bear it no longer but she can make him keep her if he s married her why yes but she won t think o doing that d ye think he really have married her or is it like the first poor who had heard as far as this could not bear to hear more the perception that her word could be doubted even here in her own parental house set her mind against the	45
spot as nothing else could by i op the d have done how unexpected were the attacks of destiny and if her father doubted her a little would not neighbours an acquaintance doubt her much o she could not live long at home a few days accordingly were all that she allowed herself here at the end of which time she received a short note from informing her that he had gone to the north of england to look at a farm in her craving for the lustre of her true position as his wife and to hide from her parents the vast extent of the division between them she made use of this letter as her reason for again departing leaving them imder the impression that she was setting out to join him still to screen her husband from any of to her she took twenty five of the fifty pounds had given her and handed the sum over to her mother as it the wife of a man like could well afford it saying that it was a slight for the trouble and humiliation she had brought upon them in years past with this assertion of her dignity she bade them farewell and after that there were doings in the household for some time on die strength of s her mother saying and indeed believing that the which had arisen between the young husband and wife had adjusted itself under their strong feeling that they could not live apart from each other by it was three weeks after the marriage that f o md himself descending the hill which led to the well known of his father with his downward course the tower of the church rose into the evening sky in a manner of inquiry as to why he had come and no living person in the town seemed to notice hun still less to expect him he was arriving like a ghost and the sound of his own footsteps was almost an to be got rid of the picture of life had changed for him before this time he had known it but now he thought he knew it as a practical man though perhaps he did not even yet nevertheless humanity stood before him no longer in the pensive sweetness of italian art but in the staring and ghastly attitudes of a museum and with the of a study by van his conduct these first weeks had been beyond description after mechanically attempting to pursue his plans as though nothing unusual had happened in the manner recommended by the great and wise men of all ages he concluded that very few of those great and wise men had ever gone so far outside themselves as to test the of their counsel this is the chief thing be not said the pagan that was just s own opinion but he was let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid said the in cordially but his heart was troubled all the same how he would have liked to those two great by i i op the d and earnestly appeal to them as fellow man to fellow men and a them to tell him their method his mood itself into a dogged indifference till at length he fancied he was looking on his own existence with the passive interest of an he was by the conviction that all this desolation had been brought about by the accident of her being a d when he found that came of that exhausted ancient line and was not of the new tribes from below as he had fondly dreamed why had he not abandoned her in fidelity to his principles this was what he had got by and his punishment was deserved then he became weary and anxious and his anxiety increased he wondered if he had treated her he ate without knowing that he ate and drank without as the hours dropped past as the motive of each act in the long series of days presented itself to his view perceived how intimately the notion of having as a dear possession was mixed up with all his schemes and l words and ways in going hither and thither he observed in the outskirts of a small town a red and blue setting forth the great advantages of the empire c as a field for the land was offered there on advantageous terms somewhat attracted him as a new idea could eventually join him there and perhaps in that country of scenes and notions and habits the would not be so which made life with her seem to him here in brief he was strongly inclined to try especially as the season for going thither was just at hand with this view he was returning to to disclose his plan to his parents and to make the best explanation he could make of arriving without by the woman pays short of revealing what had actually separated them as he reached the door the new moon shone upon his face just as the old one had done in the small hours of that morning when he had carried his wife in his arms across the river to the of the but his face was thinner now had given his parents no warning of his visit and his arrival stirred the atmosphere of the as the of the a quiet pool his father and mother were both in the drawing room but neither of his brothers was now at home angel entered and closed the door quietly behind him but where s your wife dear cried his mother how you surprise us e is at her mother s temporarily i have come home rather in a hurry because i ve decided to go to why they are all roman there are they i hadn t thought of that but ven the novelty and of his going	45
to a land could not for long mr and mrs s natural interest in their son s marriage we had your brief note three weeks ago announcing that it had taken place said mrs cl and your sent your s gift to her as you know of course it was best that of us should be present especially as you preferred to marry her from the and not at her home wherever that may be it would have embarrassed you and given us no pleasure your brothers felt that very strongly now it is done we do not complain particularly if she suits you for the business you have chosen to follow instead of the of the gospel yet i wish i could have seen her first angel or have known a little more about her we sent her no present of our own not knowing what would best by op the d give her but you must suppose it only delayed there is no irritation in my mind or your father s against you for this marriage but we have thought it much better to reserve our liking for your wife till we could see her and now you have not brought hen it seems strange what has happened he replied that it had been thought best by them that she should go to her parents home for the present whilst he came there i don t mind telling you dear mother he said that i always meant to keep her away from this house till i should feel she come with credit to you but this idea of is quite a recent one if i do go it will be for me to take her on this my first journey she will remain at her mother s till i come back and i shall not see her before you start he was afraid they would not his original plan had been as he had said to refrain from bringing her there for some little while not to wound their prejudices feelings in any way and for other reasons he had to it he would have to visit home in the course of a year if he went out at once and it would be possible for them to see her before he started a second time with her a hastily prepared supper was brought in and made further of his plans his mother s disappointment at not seeing the bride stiu remained with her s late enthusiasm for had her through her maternal sympathies till she had almost fancied that a good thing could come out of a charming woman out of she watched her son as he ate you describe her i am sure she is very pretty angel of that there can be no question he said with a zest which covered its bitterness by the woman pays and that she is pure and goes without question pure and virtuous of course she is i can see her quite distinctly you said the other day that she was fine in figure built had deep red lips like s l w dark and brows an rope of hair like a ship s cable and large eyes i did mother i quite see her and living in such seclusion she naturally had scarce ever seen any young man from the world without till she saw you scarcely you were her first love of course there are worse wives than these simple robust girls of the farm certainly i could have wished well since my son is to be an it is perhaps but proper that his wife should have been accustomed to an life his father was less inquisitive but when the time came for the chapter from the bible which was always read before evening prayers the observed to mrs i think since angel has come that it will be more appropriate to read the thirty first of than the chapter which we should have had in the usual of our reading yes certainly said mrs the words of king she could chapter and verse as well as her husband my dear son your father has decided to read us the chapter in in praise of a virtuous wife we shall not need to be reminded to apply the words to the absent one may heaven shield her in all her a lump rose in s throat the was taken out from the comer and set in the middle of the fireplace the two old servants came in s by op the d and angel s father began to read at the tenth verse of the chapter who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above she while it is yet night and meat to her household she her with strength and her arms she that her is good her candle not out by night she well to the ways of her household and not the bread of idleness her children arise up and call her blessed her husband also and he her many daughters have done but thou them when prayers were over his mother said i could not help thinking how very that chapter your dear father read applied in some of its particulars to the woman you have chosen the you see was a working woman not an not a fine lady but one who u her hands and her head and her heart for the good of others her children arise up and call her blessed her husband also and he her many daughters have done but she them all well i wish i could have seen her angel since she is pure and she would have been r ed enough for me could bear this no longer his eyes were full of tears which seemed like drops of lead he bade a quick good night to these sincere	45
said simple souls whom he loved so well who knew neither the world the flesh nor the devil in their own hearts only as something vague and external to themselves he went to his own his mother followed him and tapped at his opened it to discover her without with anxious eyes angel she asked s there something that you go away so soon i am quite sure you are not yourself i am not quite mother said he about her now my son i know it is that i by the woman pays know it is about her have you quarrelled in these three weeks we have not exactly quarrelled he said but we have had a difference angel is she a young woman whose history will bear investigation with a mother s instinct mrs had put her finger on the kind of trouble that cause such a as seemed to her son she is he replied and felt that if it had sent him to eternal there and then he would have told that lie then never mind the rest after all there are few purer things in nature than an country maid any of manner which may offend your more educated sense at first will i am sure disappear the influence of your companionship and such terrible sarcasm of blind brought home to the secondary perception thai he had utterly wrecked his career by this marriage which had not been among his early thoughts after e disclosure true on his own account he cared very little about his career but he had wished to make it at least a respectable one on account of his parents and brothers and now as he looked into the candle its flame expressed to him that it was made to shine on sensible people and that it lighting the face of a and a when his agitation had cooled he would be at moments with his poor wife for causing a situation in which he was obliged to practise deception on his parents he almost talked to her in his anger as if she had been in the room and then her voice plaintive in disturbed the darkness the velvet touch of her lips passed over his brow and he could distinguish in the air the warmth of her breath this night the woman of his by op the d was thinking how great and good her husband was but over them both there a deeper shade than the shade which angel perceived namely the shade of his own with all his attempted independence of judgment this advanced and weu meaning man a product of the last five and twenty years was yet the slave to custom and when back into his early no prophet had told him and he was not prophet enough to teu himself that essentially this young wife of his was as deserving of the praise of king as any other woman endowed with the same dislike of evil her moral value having to be reckoned not by achievement but by tendency moreover the figure near at hand suffers on such occasions because it up its without shade while vague figures afar off are honoured in that their distance makes artistic virtues of their in considering what was not he overlooked what she was and forgot that the can be more than the entire by xl at breakfast was the topic and all endeavoured to take a hopeful view of s proposed experiment with that country s soil notwithstanding the reports of some farm who had thither and home within the twelve months after breakfast went into the town to wind up such trifling matters as he was concerned with there and to get from the local bank all the money he possessed on his way back he encountered miss mercy chant by the from whose walls she seemed to be a sort of she was carrying an of for her and was her view of life that events which produced in others wrought smiles upon her an result although in the opinion of angel it was obtained by a curiously sacrifice of humanity to she had learnt that he was about to leave england and observed what an excellent and promising it seemed to be yes it is a likely scheme enough in a commercial sense no doubt he replied but my dear mercy it the of existence perhaps a would be a o angel well why you wicked man a a and a roman and roman sin and sin thou art in a state angel glory in my she said severely by op the d then thrown by sheer misery into one of the moods in a man does despite to his true principles called her dose to him and whispered in her ear the most ideas he could think of his momentary laughter at the horror which appeared on her fair face ceased when it in pain and anxiety for his welfare dear mercy he said you must forgive me i think i am going crazy she thought that he was and thus the interview ended and re entered the with the local banker he deposited the jewels till happier days should arise he also paid into the bank thirty pounds to be sent to in a few months as e might require and wrote to her at her parents home in to inform her of what he had done this amount witli the he had already in her hands about fifty pounds he hoped would be amply sufficient for her wants just at present as in an emergency she had been directed to apply to his father he deemed it best not to put his parents into communication with her by informing them of her address and being of what had really happened to the two neither his father nor his suggested that he should do so	45
during the day he left the for what he had to complete he wished to get done quickly as the last duty before leaving this part of england it was for him to call at the in which he had spent with the first three days of marriage the trifle of rent having to be paid the key given up of the rooms they had occupied and two or three small articles fetched away that they had left behind it was under this roof that the deepest shadow ever thrown upon his life had stretched its gloom over him yet when he had unlocked the door of the sitting room and looked into it the memory which returned first upon him was that of by the woman pays their happy arrival on a afternoon the first fresh sense of sharing a habitation the first meal together the by the fire with joined hands the farmer and his wife were in the fields at the moment of his visit and was in the rooms alone for some time inwardly swollen with a renewal of sentiments that he had not quite reckoned with he went upstairs to her chamber which had never been his bed was smooth as she had made it with her own hands on the morning of leaving the hung under the just as he had placed it having been there three or four weeks it was colour and the leaves and were wrinkled angel took it down and crushed it into the grate standing there he for the first time doubted whether his course in this had been a wise much less a generous one but had he not been cruelly blinded in the multitude of his emotions he knelt down at the bedside wet eyed o if you had only told me sooner i would have forgiven you he mourned hearing a footstep below he rose and went to the top of the stairs at the bottom of the flight he saw a woman standing and on her turning up her face recognized the pale dark eyed mr she said i ve called to see you and mrs and to inquire if ye be well i thought you might be back here again this was a girl whose secret he had guessed but who had not yet guessed his an honest girl who loved him one who would have made as good or nearly as good a practical farmer s wife as i am here alone he said we are not living here now explaining why he had come he asked which way are you going home i have no home at now sir she said why is that by op the d looked down it was so dismal there that i left i am staying out this way she pointed in a contrary direction the direction in whidi he was well are you going there now i can take you if you wish for a lift her olive complexion grew richer in hue thank ee mr she said he soon found the farmer and settled the account for his rent and the few other which had to be considered by reason of the sudden of the lodgings on s return to his horse and jumped up beside him i am going to leave england he said as they drove on going to and do mrs like the notion of such a she asked she is not going at present say for a year or so i am going out to to see what life there is like they sped along eastward for some considerable distance making no observation how are the others he inquired how is she was in a sort of nervous state when i her last and so thin and that a do seem in a decline nobody will ever fall in love wi her any more said and lowered her voice drinks indeed yes the has got rid of her and you i don t drink and i t in a decline i am no great things at singing afore breakfast now how is that do you remember how neatly you used to twas down in s gardens and the tailor s breeches at morning by the woman pays ah yes when you first sir that was not when you had been there a bit why was that falling oflf her black eyes flashed up to his face for one moment by way of answer how weak of you for such as i he said and fell into reverie then suppose i had asked you to marry me if you had i should have said yes and you would have married a woman who loved ee really r down to the ground she whispered o my god did you never guess it till now by and by they reached a branch road to a village i must get down i live out there said abruptly never having spoken since her the horse he was against his fate bitterly disposed towards social for they had him up in a comer out of which there was no legitimate pathway why not be on society by his future loosely instead of kissing the rod of in this manner i am going to alone said he i have separated from my wife for personal not reasons i may never live with her again i may not be able to love you but will you go with me instead of her you truly wish me to go i do i have been badly used enough to wish for relief and you at least love me yes i will go said after a pause you will you know what it means it means that i shall live with you for the time you are over there that s good enough for me remember you are not to trust	45
his allowance mentally she remained in utter a condition whidi the mechanical occupation rather than checked her consciousness was at that other at that other season in the presence of the tender lover who had her there he who the moment she had grasped him to keep for her own had like a shape in a vision the work lasted only till the milk b an to lessen for she had not met with a second regular engagement as at but had done duty as a only however as harvest was now beginning she had simply to remove from the pasture to the to find plenty of further occupation and this continued till harvest was done by op the d of the five and twenty pounds which had remained to her of s allowance after the other half of the fifty as a contribution to her parents for the trouble and expense to which e had put them she had as yet spent but little but there now followed an unfortunate interval of wet weather during whidi e was obliged to fall back upon her sovereigns she could not bear to let them go angel had put them into her hand had obtained them bright and new from his bank for her his touch had consecrated them to of himself they appeared to have had as yet no other history than such as was created by his and her own experiences and to them was uke giving away relics but she had to do it and one by one they left her hands she had been compelled to send her mother her address from time to time but she concealed her when her money had almost gone a letter from her mother reached hen stated that they were in dreadful difficulty the autumn rains bad gone through the of the house which required entire renewal but this could not be done because the previous had never been paid for new and a new ceiling upstairs also were required which with the previous bill would amount to a sum of twenty pounds as her husband was a man of means and had doubtless returned by this time could she not send them the money had thirty pounds coming to her almost immediately from angel s and the case being so deplorable as soon as the was received she sent l e twenty as requested part of the remainder she was obliged to in winter clothing leaving only a sum for the whole season at hand when the last pound had gone a remark of angel s that she required further resources she was to apply to his father remained to be considered by the woman pays but the more thought of the step the more reluctant was she to take it the same delicacy pride false shame whatever it may be called on s account which had led her to hide from her own parents the of the her in to his that she was in want after the fair allowance he had left her they probably despised her already how much more they would despise her in the of a the consequence was that by no effort could the parson s daughter in law bring herself to let him her state her reluctance to with her husband s parents might she thought lessen with the lapse of time but with her own the reverse obtained on her leaving their house after the short visit subsequent to her they were under the impression that she was going to join her husband and from that time to the present she had done disturb their belief that she was awaiting his return in comfort hoping against hope that his journey to would r in a short stay only after which he would come to fetch her or that he would write for her to join him in any case that they would soon present a front to their families and the world this hope she still to let her parents know that she was a deserted wife dependent now that she had relieved their necessities on her own hands for a living after the oi a marriage which was to the of the first attempt would be too indeed the set of returned to her mind where had deposited them she did not know and it mattered little if it were true that she could only use and not sell them even were they absolutely hers it would be passing mean to herself by a legal title to them which was not essentially hers at all meanwhile her husband s days had been by no means free from trial at this moment he was by of the d ill of fever in the day lands near in having been with thunder storms and by other hardships in common with all the english farmers and farm who just at this time were into going thither by the promises of the government and by the assumption that those frames which and on english had resisted all the to whose moods they had been bom could resist equally well all the by which they were surprised on plains to return thus it happened that when the last of s sovereigns had been spent she was with others to take their place while on of the season she found it difficult to get employment not being aware of the of intelligence energy health and in any sphere of life e refrained from seeking an occupation fearing towns large houses people of means and social and of manners other than rural from that direction of black care had come society might be better than she supposed from her slight experience of it but she had no proof of this and her instinct in uie circumstances was to avoid its the small to the west beyond port in which she had served as during the spring	45
and summer required no further aid room would probably have been made for her at if only out of sheer compassion but comfortable as her life had been there e could not go back the anti climax would be too intolerable and her might bring reproach upon her husband she could not have borne their pity and their whispered remarks to one another upon her strange situation though she would almost have faced a knowledge of her by every individual there so long as her story had remained isolated in the mind of each it was the of ideas so by the woman pays about her that made her could not account for this distinction she simply knew that she felt it she was now on her way to an farm in the centre of the county to which she had been mended by a wandering letter which had reached her from had somehow heard that was separated from her husband probably through and the good and now girl in trouble had hastened to to her former friend that she herself had gone to this spot after leaving the and would like to see her there where there was room for other hands if it was really true that she worked again as of old with the of the days all hope of obtaining her husband s b an to leave her and there was something of the of the wild animal in the instinct with which she herself by past at every step her identity giving no thought to accidents or which might make a quick discovery of her whereabouts by others of importance to her own happiness if not to theirs among the difficulties of her lonely position not the least was the attention she excited by her appearance a certain bearing of distinction which she had caught from being to her whilst clothes lasted which had been prepared for her marriage these casual glances of interest caused her no inconvenience but as soon as she was to don the of a field woman rude words were addressed to her more than once but nothing occurred to cause her bodily fear till a particular november afternoon she had preferred the west of the river to the farm for which she was now bound because for one thing it was nearer to the home of her husband s father and to about that region t by op the d with the notion that she t decide to call at the some day gave her pleasure but having once decided to try the higher and she pressed back eastward marching towards the village of chalk where she meant to pass the night the lane was long and and owing to the rapid of the days dusk came upon her before she was aware she had reached the top of a hill down which the lane stretched its length in glimpses when she heard footsteps behind her back and in a few moments she was overtaken by a man he stepped up alongside and said good ni t my pretty maid to which she replied the light still remaining in the sky lit up her face though the landscape was nearly the man turned and stared hard at her why surely it is the young who was at awhile young squire d s friend i was there at that tune though i don t live there now she recognized in him the well to do whom angel had knocked down at the inn for addressing her a of anguish shot through her and she returned him no answer be honest to own it and that what i said in the town was true though your fancy man was so up about it hey my sly one you ought to b my pardon for that blow of his considering still no answer came from there seemed only one escape for her hunted soul she suddenly took to her heels with the speed of the wind and without looking behind her ran along the road till she came to a gate which opened directly into a plantation into this e and did not pause till she was deep enough in its shade to be safe against any possibility of discovery s by the woman pays under foot the leaves were dry and the foliage ct some which grew among the trees was dense enough to keep off draughts she scraped the dead leaves till she had formed them into a large heap making a sort of nest in the middle into this crept such sleep as she got was naturally fitful she fancied she heard e noises but persuaded herself that they were caused by the breeze she thought of her husband in some vague warm on the other side of the globe while she was here in the cold was there another a wretched being as she in the world asked herself and thinking of her wasted life said all is vanity she repeated the words mechanically till she reflected that this was a most inadequate thought for modem days solomon had thought as far as that more than two thousand years ago she herself though not in the van of had got much further if all were only vanity who would mind it all was alas worse than vanity injustice punishment death the wife of put her hand to her brow and felt its curve and the edges of her eye perceptible under the soft skin and thought as she did so that a time come when that bone would be bare i wish it were now she said in the midst of these fancies she heard a new strange sound among the leaves it might be the wind yet there was scarcely any wind sometimes it was a sometimes a flutter sometimes it was a sort of gasp or soon she was certain that	45
the noises came from wild creatures of some kind the more so when in the boughs overhead they were followed by the fall of a heavy body upon the ground had she been here under other and more pleasant conditions she would have become alarmed but outside humanity she had at present no fear day at length broke in the sky when it had by op the d been day aloft for some little while it became day in the wood directly the assuring and light of the world s active hours had grown strong she cr t from under her of leaves and looked around boldly then she perceived what had been going on to disturb her the plantation wherein she had taken shelter ran down at this spot into a peak which ended it outside the hedge being ground under the trees several lay about their rich with blood some were dead some feebly a wing some staring up at the sky some quickly some some stretched all of in agony except the fortunate ones whose had ended the night by the of nature to bear more at once the meaning of this the birds had been driven down into this comer the day before by some shooting party and while those that had dropped dead imder the shot or had died before nightfall had been searched for and carried off many badly birds had escaped and hidden themselves away or risen among the thick boughs where they had maintained their position till they grew weaker with loss of blood in the when they had fallen one by one as she had heard them she had occasionally caught glimpses of these men in looking over hedges or peering through bu es and pointing their guns strangely a light in their eyes she had been told that rough and brutal as they seemed just then they were not like this all the year round but were in fact quite civil persons save certain weeks of autumn and winter when like the inhabitants of the they ran and made it their purpose to destroy life in this case harmless creatures brought into being by solely to gratify at once s by the woman pays so and so towards their weaker fellows in nature s with the impulse of a soul who could feel for kindred as much as for herself s first thought was to put the still living birds out of their torture and to this end with her own hands she broke the of as many as she could find leaving them to lie where she had found them till the should come as they probably would come to look for them a second time poor to suppose myself the most able being on earth in the sight o such misery as yours she exclaimed her tears down as she killed the birds t and not a of bodily pain about me i be not and i be not bleeding and i have two hands to feed and clothe me she was ashamed of herself for her gloom of the night based on nothing more than a sense of under an arbitrary law of society which had no foundation in nature m by it was now broad day and she started again emerging cautiously upon e highway but was no for caution not a soul was at hand and went onward with fortitude her recollection of the birds silent endurance of their night of agony upon her the of sorrows and the tolerable nature of her own if she could once rise high enough to despise opinion but that she could not do so long as it was held by she chalk and at an inn where several young men were complimentary to her good looks somehow she hopeful for was it not possible that her husband also might say these same things to her even yet she was bound to take care of herself on the chance of it and keep off these casual lovers to this end resolved to run no further risks from her appearance as soon as she got out of the village she entered a thicket and took from her basket one of the oldest gowns which she had never put on even at the never since she had worked among the at she also by a thought took a from her bundle and tied it round her face under her bonnet covering her and half her cheeks and temples as if she were suffering from then with her little by the aid of a pocket looking glass she her eyebrows off and thus against admiration she went on her way what a of a maid said the next man who met her to a companion s by the woman pays tears came into her eyes for very pity of herself as she heard him but i don t she said o no i don t care i ll always be ugly now because angel is not here and i have nobody to take care of me my husband that was is gone away and never will love me any more but i love him just the same and hate all other men and like to make em think of me thus walks on a figure which is part of the landscape a field woman pure and simple in winter guise a gray cape a red a stuff skirt covered by a brown rough and leather gloves every thread of that c d attire has become faded and thin under the stroke of the bum of and the stress of winds is no sign of young passion in her now the maiden s is cold fold over fold binding her head inside this exterior over which the eye might have as over a thing scarcely there was the record of a life which hi too well	45
here myself i feel tis a pity for such as you to come o by the woman pays but you used to be as good a as yes but i ve got out o that since i took to drink lord that s the only comfort i ve got now if you engage you ll be set that s what i be doing but you won t like it o anything will you speak for me you will do better by speaking for yourself very well now remember nothing about him if i get the place i don t wish to bring his name down to the dirt who was a girl though of grain than promised anything she asked this is pay night she said and if you were to come with me you would know at once i be real sorry that you are not happy but tis because he s away i know you couldn t be if he were here even if he d ye no money even if he used you like a that s true i could not they walked on together and soon reached the which was almost sublime in its there was not a tree within sight there was not at this season a green nothing but and everywhere in large fields divided by hedges to waited outside the door of the till the group of work folk had received their wages and then introduced her the farmer himself it appeared was not at home but his wife who represented him this evening made no objection to on her agreeing to remain till old lady day female field labour was seldom offered now and its made it profitable for tasks which women could perform as readily as men having signed the agreement there was nothing more for to do at present than to get a lodging and she found one in the house at whose w l she had warmed herself it was a poor by op the d that she had but it would afford a shelter for the winter at any rate that night she wrote to inform her parents of her new address in case a letter should arrive at from her but she did not tell them of the of her situation it might have brought reproach upon him by there was no exaggeration in s definition of ash farm as a starve acre place the single fat thing on the soil was herself and she was an of the three classes of village the village cared for by its lord the village cared for by itself and the village for either by itself or by its lord in other words the village of a resident squire s the village of free or copy and the owner s village with the land this place ash was the third but set to work patience that of moral with physical timidity was now no longer a minor feature in mrs angel and it sustained her the field in which she and her companion were set was a stretch of a odd acres in one patch on the highest ground of the farm rising above stony or l the of veins in the chalk formation composed of of loose white in and shapes the upper half of had been eaten off by the live stock and it was the business of the two women to up the lower or half of the root with a fork called a that it might be eaten also every leaf of the vegetable having already been consumed the whole field was in colour a desolate it was a complexion without features as if a face from chin to brow should be only an expanse of skin the sky wore in another colour the same likeness a white of countenance with the gone so these two upper and by of the d confronted each other all day long the white face looking down on the brown face and the brown face looking up at the white face without standing between them but the two girls crawling over the surface of the former like flies nobody came near them and their movements showed a mechanical r their forms standing in brown tied to the bottom to keep their gowns from blowing about scant skirts revealing boots that reached high up the ankles and yellow gloves with the pensive character the hood lent to their bent heads would have reminded the observer of some early italian conception of the two they worked on hour after hour of the forlorn aspect they bore in the landscape not thinking of the justice or injustice of th lot even in such a position as theirs it was possible to exist in a dream in the afternoon the rain came on again and said that they need not work any more but if they did not work they would not be paid so worked on it was so high a situation field that the rain had no occasion to fall but along upon the yelling wind sticking into them like g ass till they were wet through had not known till now what was really by that there are degrees of and a very little is called being wet through in common talk but to stand ig slowly in a and feel the creep of rain water first on l s and shoulders then on and head then at bade front and sides and yet to work on till the lead i light es and marks that the sun is down demands a distinct of even of yet they did not fed the so as might be supposed they were both yoimg and they were talking of the time when they lived and loved together at that happy green by the woman pays tract of land where had been liberal in her gifts in substance	45
see anything knew that it was impossible to go on with the and by the time she had ed breakfast beside the solitary little lamp arrived to tell her that they were to join the rest of the women at reed drawing in the bam till the weather changed as soon therefore as the uniform of darkness began to turn to a disordered of they blew out the lamp wrapped themselves up in their tied their round their necks and across their and started for the bam the snow had followed the birds from the basin as a white pillar of a and individual could not be seen the blast smelt of seas and white bears carrying the snow so that it licked the land but did not on it they with bodies through the fields keeping as well as they could in the shelter of hedges however acted as rather than the air to with the multitudes that it twisted and spun them suggesting an of things but both the yoimg women were fairly cheerful such weather on a dry is not in itself ha ha the cunning northern birds knew this was coming said depend upon t they keep in front o t all the way from the north star your husband my dear is i make no doubts having weather all this time lord if he could only see his pretty wife now not that this by the woman pays weather hurts your beauty at all in fact it rather does it good you mustn t talk about him to me said severely well but y you care for n do you instead of answering with tears in her eyes faced in the direction in which she imagined south america to lie and putting up her lips blew out a passionate kiss upon the snowy wind well i know you do but my body jt is a rum life for a married there i won t say another word well as for the weather it won t hurt us in the wheat bam but reed drawing is fearful hard work worse than i can stand it because i m stout but you be than i i can t think why should have set ee at it they reached the wheat bam and entered it one end of the long structure was full of com the middle was where the reed drawing was carried on and there had already been placed in the reed press the evening before as many of wheat as would be sufficient for the women to draw from during the day why here s said it was and she came forward she had walked all the way from her mother s home on the previous afternoon and not the distance so great had been arriving however just before the snow began and sleeping at the s e house the farmer had agreed with her mother at market to take her on if she came to day and she had been afraid to disappoint him by delay in addition to and there were two women from a neighbouring village two sisters whom with a start remembered as dark car the queen of and her junior the queen of diamonds those who had tried to fight with her in the midnight quarrel at they showed no recognition of her and possibly had none for they had b under the influence of liquor on that by op the d occasion and were only temporary there as here they did all kinds of men s work by preference including well sinking and without any sense of fatigue not reed drawers were they too and looked round upon the other three with some putting on their gloves all set to work in a row in front of the press an formed of two posts connected by a cross beam which the to be drawn from were laid ears outward the beam being down by pins in the and lowered as the diminished the day hardened in colour the light coming in at the barn doors upwards from the snow instead of downwards from the sky the girls pulled handful after handful from the press but by reason of the presence of the strange women who were and could not at first talk of old times as they wished to do presently they heard the muffled tread of a horse and the farmer rode up to the barn door when he had dismounted he came dose to and remained looking at the side of her face she had not turned at first but his fixed attitude led her to look round when she perceived that her employer was the native of from whom she had taken flight on the because of his allusion to her history he waited till she had carried the drawn bundles to the piles outside when he said so you be the young woman who took my civility in such ill part be drowned if i didn t think you might be as soon as i heard of your being hired weu you thought you had got the better of me the first time at the inn with your fancy man and the second time on the road when you bolted but now i think i ve got the better of you he concluded with a hard laugh between the and the farmer like a bird caught in a net returned no answer continuing to pull the straw she could read character by the woman pays well to know by this time that she had nothing to fear from her employer s gallantry it was rather the tyranny induced by his mortification at s treatment of him upon the whole she preferred that sentiment in man and felt brave enough to endure it you thought i was in love with ee i suppose some women are such fools to take	45
every look as serious earnest but there s nothing like a winter for taking that nonsense out o young heads and you ve signed and agreed till lady day now are you going to beg my pardon i think you ought to beg mine very well as you like but we ll see which is master here be they all the you ve done to day yes sir tis a very poor show just see what they ve done over there pointing to the two women the rest too have done better than you they ve all practised it before and i have not and i thought it made no difference to you as it is task work and we are only paid for what we do oh but it does i want the bam cleared i am going to work all the afternoon instead of leaving at two as the others will do he looked sullenly at her and went away felt that she could not have come to a much worse place but anything was better than gallantry when two o clock arrived the professional reed drawers tossed off the last half pint in their put down their hooks tied their last and went away and would have done likewise but on hearing that meant to stay to make up by longer hours for her lack of skill they not leave her looking out at the snow which still fell exclaimed now we ve got it all to ourselves and so at last the conversation turned to by op the d their old experiences at the and of the incidents of their affection for angel and said mrs angel with a dignity which was extremely touching seeing how very little oi a wife she was i can t join in talk with you now as i used to do about mr you will see that i cannot because although he is gone away from me for the present he is my husband was by nature the and most of all the four girls who had loved he was a very lover no doubt she said but i don t think he is a too fond husband to go away from you so soon he had to go he was obliged to go to see about the land over there pleaded he might have ee over the winter ah that s owing to an accident a misunderstanding and we won t argue it answered with in her words perhaps there s a good deal to be said for him he did not go away like some husbands without telling me and i can always find out where he is after this they continued for some long time in a reverie as they went on seizing the ears of com drawing out the straw gathering it their arms and cutting off the ears with their bill hooks nothing in the bam but the of the straw and the of the hook then suddenly and sank down upon the heap of wheat ears at her feet i knew you wouldn t be able to stand it cried it wants harder flesh than yours for this work just then the farmer entered oh that s how you get on when i am away he said to her but it is my own loss she pleaded not yours i want it finished he said as he crossed the bam and went out at the other door don t ee mind him there s a dear said by the woman pays i ve worked here before now you go and lie down there and and i will make up number i don t like to let you do that i m taller than you too however she was so overcome that she consented to lie down awhile and on a heap ci the refuse after the straight straw had been thrown up at the further side of the bam her had been as largely owing to agitation at the subject of her separation from her husband as to the hard work she lay in a state of without and the rustle of the straw and the cutting of the ears by the others had the weight of bodily touches she could hear from her comer in addition to these noises the of their voices she felt certain that they were continuing the subject already but their voices were so low that she could not catch the words at last grew more and more anxious to know what they were saying and persuading herself that she felt better she got up and resumed work then broke down she had walked more than a dozen miles the previous evening had gone to bed at midnight and had risen again at five o clock alone thanks to her bottle of liquor and her of build stood the strain upon back and arms without suffering urged to leave off agreeing as she felt better to finish the day without her and make equal division of the number of accepted the offer gratefully and disappeared through the great door into the snowy track to her lodging as was the case every afternoon at this time on account of the bottle he ai to feel in a romantic vein i should not have thought it of never she said in a dreamy tone and i loved him so by of the d i didn t mind his having you but this about is too bad in her start at the words narrowly missed cutting off a finger with the bill hook is it about my husband she stammered well yes said don t ee tell her but i am sure i can t help it it was what he wanted to do he wanted her to go off to with him s face faded as white as the scene without and its curves	45
recommended their own daughter in law to em at this moment as a fairly choice sort of lost person for their love thereupon she began to back along the road by which she had come not altogether fuu of hope but full of a conviction that a crisis in her life was approaching no crisis apparently had and there was nothing left for her to do but to continue upon that starve acre farm till she could again summon courage to face the she did indeed take sufficient interest in herself to throw up her veil on this return journey as if to let the world see that she could at least exhibit a face such as mercy chant could not show but it was done with a sorry shake of the head it is it is nothing she said nobody loves it nobody sees it who cares about the looks of a like me her journey back was rather a than a march it had no no purpose only a tendency along the tedious length of lane she began to grow tired and she leaned upon gates and paused by by the woman pays she did not enter any house till at the seventh or eighth mile she descended the steep long hill below which lay the village or of where in the morning she had with such expectations the cottage by the church in whidi she again sat down was almost the first at that end of the village and while the woman fetched her some milk from the looking down the street perceived that the place seemed quite deserted the people are gone to afternoon service i suppose she said no my dear said the old woman tis too soon for that the bells t out yet they be all gone to hear the preaching in yonder barn a there between the services an excellent fiery christian man they say but lord i don t go to hear n what comes in the regular way over the pulpit is hot enough for i soon went onward into the village her footsteps echoing against the houses as though it were a place of the dead the central part her echoes were on by other sounds and seeing the bam not far off the road she guessed these to the of the preacher his voice became so distinct in the still clear air that she could soon catch his sentences though she was on the closed side of the bam the sermon as might be expected was of the type on justification by faith as in the of st paul this fixed idea of the was with animated enthusiasm in a manner entirely for he had plainly no skill as a although had not heard the beginning of the address she what the text had been from its constant o foolish who hath you that ye not obey the truth before whose eyes christ hath been evidently set forth among you was all the more interested a she stood s by op the d listening behind in finding that the preacher s doctrine was a vehement form of the views of angel s father and her interest when the speaker began to detail his own spiritual experiences of how he had come by those views he had he said been the greatest of he had he had associated with the reckless and the but a day of awakening had come and in a human sense it had been brought about mainly by the influence of a certain clergyman whom he had at first insulted but whose parting words had sunk into his heart and had remained there till by the grace of heaven they had worked this change in him and him what they saw him but more startling to than the doctrine had been the voice whidi impossible as it seemed was precisely that of d her face fixed in painful suspense she came round to the front of the and passed before it the low winter sun beamed directly upon the great double entrance on this side one of the doors being open so that rays far in over the floor to the preacher and his audience all from the northern breeze the listeners were entirely villagers among them being the man whom she had seen the red paint pot on a former memorable occasion but her attention was given to the central figure who stood upon some of com facing the people and the door the three o clock sun shone full upon him and the strange conviction that her confronted her which had been gaining in ever since she had heard his distinctly was at last established as a fact indeed end of phase the fifth by phase the sixth the convert by by phase the sixth the convert till this moment she had never seen or heard from d since her from the came at a heavy moment one of all moments calculated to permit its with the least shock but such was memory that though he stood there openly and a converted man who was for his past a fear overcame her her movement so that she neither retreated nor advanced to think of what from that countenance when she saw it last and to behold it now there was the same handsome of mien but now he wore neatly trimmed old fashioned whiskers the moustache having disappeared and his dress was half a which had changed his expression sufficiently to abstract the from his features and to hinder for a second her belief in his identity to s sense there was just at first a ghastly a grim in the march of these solemn words of scripture out of such a mouth this too familiar less than four years earlier had brought to her ears expressions of such purpose that her heart became quite sick at the irony pf the	45
contrast it was less a reform than a by of the d former curves of were now to lines of passion the lip shapes that had meant were now made to express the glow on the cheek that could be translated as was to day into the of pious had become the bold rolling eye that had flashed upon her form in the old time with such mastery now beamed with the rude energy of a that was almost ferocious those black which his face had used to put on when his wishes were now did duty in the who would insist upon turning again to his in the mire the as such seemed to complain they had been diverted from their hereditary to signify impressions for which nature did not intend them strange that their very elevation was a that to raise seemed to yet it be so she would admit the sentiment no longer d was not the first wicked man who had turned away from his wickedness to save his soul alive and why should she deem it unnatural in him it was but the usage of thought which had been in her at hearing good new words in bad old notes the greater the sinner the greater the saint it was not necessary to far into christian history to discover that such impressions as these moved her vaguely and without strict as soon as the pause of her surprise would allow her to stir her impulse was to pass on out of his sight he had obviously not discerned her yet in her position against the sun but the moment that she moved again he recognized her the effect upon her old lover was electric far stronger than the of his presence upon her his fire tumultuous ring of his eloquence seemed to go of him lip struggled and trembled t e by the convert that lay upon it but deliver them it could not aa long as she faced him his es after their first glance upon her face hung in every other direction but hers but came back in a desperate leap every few seconds this lasted however but a short time for s energies returned with the of his and she walked as fast as she was able past the bam and onward as soon as she could reflect it appalled her this change in their relative he who had wrought her was now on the side of the spirit while she remained and as in the legend it had resulted that her image had suddenly appeared upon his altar whereby the fire of the priest had been well nigh extinguished she went on without turning her head her back seemed to be endowed with a to beams even her clothing so alive was she to a fancied gaze which might be resting upon her from the outside of that bam all the way along to this point her heart had been heavy with an sorrow now there was a change in the quality of its trouble that hunger for affection too long withheld was for the time by an almost i sense of an past which still her it her consciousness of error to a practical despair the break of between her earlier and present existence which she had hoped for had not after all taken place would never be complete till she was a herself thus absorbed she the northern part of long ash lane at right angles and presently saw before her the road ascending to the along whose margin the remainder of her journey lay its dry pale surface stretched onward n by a single figure vehicle or mark save some occasional brown horse which dotted its cold here and there e slowly this ascent became conscious of footsteps behind her by of the d and turning she saw approaching that well known form so strangely as the the one personage in all the world she wished not to encounter alone on this side of the grave there was not much time however for thought or and she yielded as calmly as she could to the necessity of letting him overtake her she saw that he was excited less by the speed of his walk than by the feelings within him he said she speed without looking round he repeated it is i d she then looked back at him and he came up i see it is she answered coldly is that all yet i deserve no more of he added with a slight laugh there is something of the ridiculous to your eyes in seeing me like this but i must put up with that i heard you had gone away nobody knew where you wonder why i have followed you i do rather and i would that you had not with all my heart yes you may well say it he returned grimly as they moved onward together she with unwilling tread but don t mistake me i beg this because you may have been led to do so in noticing if you did notice it how your sudden appearance me down there it was but a momentary faltering and considering what you had been to me it was natural enough but will helped me through it though perhaps you think me a for saying it and immediately afterwards i felt that of all persons in the world whom it was my duty and desire to save from the wrath to come sneer if you like the woman whom i had so wronged was that person i have come with that sole purpose in view nothing more there was the smallest vein of in her words of have you saved yourself charity begins ax home they say by the convert have done nothing said he indifferently heaven as i have been telling	45
wicked generation by op the d at length the road touched the spot called hand of all the spots on the and desolate this was the most forlorn it was so far removed from the charm which is sought in landscape by artists and view lovers as to reach a new kind of beauty a negative beauty of tragic tone the place took its name from a stone pillar which stood there a strange rude from a unknown in any local on whidi was roughly carved a hand were given of its history and some authorities stated that a cross had once formed the complete of which the present was but the stump others that the stone as it stood was entire and that it had been fixed there to mark a boundary or place of meeting anyhow whatever the origin of the there was and is something sinister or solemn according to mood in the scene amid which it stands something tending to impress the most by i think i must leave you now he remarked as they drew near to this spot i have to preach at s at six this evening and my way lies across to the right from here and you upset me somewhat too i cannot will not say why i must go away and get strength how is it that you speak so now who has taught you such good english i have things in my troubles she said what troubles have you had she told him of the first one the only one that related to him d was struck mute i knew nothing of this till now he next murmured why didn t you write to me when you felt your trouble coming on she did not reply and he broke the silence by adding well you will see me again by the convert no she answered do not again come near me i will think but before we part here he stepped up to the pillar this was once a holy cross relics are not in my creed but i fear you at moments far more than you need fear me at present and to lessen my fear put your hand upon that stone hand and swear that you will never tempt me by your charms or ways good god how can you ask what is so unnecessary all that is from my thought yes but swear it half frightened gave way to his placed her hand upon the stone and swore i am sorry you are not a he continued that some should have got hold of and unsettled your mind but no more now at home at least i can pray for you and i will and who knows what may not happen i m off good bye he turned to a hunting gate in the hedge and without letting his eyes again rest upon her over and strode out across the down in the direction of s as he walked his pace showed and by and by as if by a former thought he drew from his pocket a small book between the leaves of which was folded a letter worn and soiled as from much d c the letter it was dated several months before this time and was signed by parson the letter began by expressing the writer s joy at d s and thanked him for his kindness in communicating with the parson on the subject it expressed mr s warm assurance of forgiveness for d s former conduct and his interest in the man s plans for the future he mr would much have liked to see d in the to whose he had devoted so many years of his own life and would have him to enter a college to that by of the d end but since his correspondent had possibly not cared to do this on of the delay it would have he was not the man to insist upon its importance every man must work as he could best work and in the method towards which he felt impelled by the spirit d read and this letter and seemed to himself he also read some passages from as he walked till his face assumed a calm and apparently the image of no longer troubled his mind she meanwhile had kept along the edge of the hill by which lay her nearest way home within the distance of a mile she met a solitary shepherd what is the meaning of that old stone i have passed she asked of him was it ever a holy cross cross no not a cross tis a thing of ill omen miss it was put up in times by the relations of a who was tortured there by his hand to a post and afterwards hung the bones lie underneath they say he sold his soul to the devil and that he walks at times c he felt the mortal this unexpectedly information and left the solitary man her it was dusk when she drew near to ash and in the lane at the entrance to the hamlet she approached a girl and her lover without their observing her they were talking no secrets and the dear voice of the young woman in response to the warmer accents of the man spread into the chilly air as the one soothing thing within the du horizon full of a obscurity upon i i a nothing else for a moment the voices cheered the heart of tiu she reasoned that this interview had its origin on one side or the other in the same attraction which had been the to her own when she came close the girl turned serenely and recognized her the young man walking by the convert off in embarrassment the woman was whose interest in s her own proceedings did not explain very dearly	45
its results and who was a girl of tact b an to speak of her own little affair a phase of which had just witnessed he is the chap who used to sometimes come and help at she explained indifferently he actually inquired and found out that i had come here and has followed me he says he s been in love wi me these two years but i ve hardly answered him by several days had passed since her futile journey and was the dry winter wind still blew but a screen of erected in the eye of the blast kept its force away from her on the sheltered side was a machine whose bright blue hue of new paint seemed almost in the otherwise subdued scene opposite its front was a long mound or grave in which the roots had been preserved since early winter was standing at the uncovered end off with a bill hook the and earth from each root and throwing it after the operation into the a man was the handle of the machine and from its came the newly made the fresh smell of whose yellow was accompanied by the sounds of the wind the smart of the blades and the of the hook in hand the wide of blank agricultural apparent where the had been pulled was beginning to be striped in wales of darker brown gradually to along the edge of each of these something crept upon ten legs moving without haste and without rest up and down the whole length of the field it was two horses and a man the plough going between them turning up the cleared for a spring for hours nothing relieved the monotony of things then far beyond the a black speck was seen it had come from tiie comer of a fence where there was a gap and its tendency by the convert was up the incline towards the from the proportions of a mere point it advanced to the shape of a and was soon perceived to be a man in black arriving from the direction of ash the man at the having nothing else to do with his eyes continually observed the comer but who was occupied did not perceive him till her companion directed her attention to his approach it was not her hard it was one in a semi who now represented what had once been the free and easy d not being hot at his preaching there was less enthusiasm about him now and tiie presence of the seemed to him a pale distress was already on face and she her hood further over it d came up and said i want to speak to you you have refused my last request not to come near me said she yes but i have a good reason weu tell it it is more serious than you may think he glanced round to see if he were overheard they were at some distance from the man who turned the and the movement of the machine too sufficiently prevented s words reaching other ears d placed himself so as to screen from the turning his back to the latter it fa this he continued l with capricious in thinking of your soul and mine when we last met i neglected to inquire as to your worldly condition you were well dressed and i did not think of it but i see now that it is hard harder than it used to be when i knew you harder than you deserve perhaps a good deal of it is owing to me she did not answer and he watched her by op the d as with bent head her face completely by the hood she resumed her of the by going on with her work she felt better able to keep him outside her emotions he added with a sigh of discontent was the very worst case i ever was concerned in i had no idea of what had resulted till you told me that i was to foul that life the whole blame was mine the whole business of our time at you too tiie real blood of which i am but the base imitation what a blind young thing you were as to possibilities i say in all earnestness that it is a shame for parents to i i bring up their girls in such dangerous ignorance of i the and that the wicked may set for them j their motive be a good one or the result of simple still did no more than listen throwing down one root and taking up another with regularity the pensive of the mere field woman alone marking her but it is not that i came to say d went on my circumstances are these i have lost my mother since you were at and the place is my own but i intend to sell it and devote myself to missionary work in africa a devil of a poor hand i shall at the trade no doubt however what i want to ask you is will you put it in my power to do my duty to make the only i can make for the trick played you that is will you be my wife and go with me i have already obtained this precious document it was my old mother s dying wish he drew a piece of from his pocket with a slight of embarrassment what is it said she a marriage o no sir no she said quickly starting back you will not why is that by the convert and as he asked the question a disappointment which was not entirely the disappointment of duty crossed d s face it was a that something of his old passion for her had been revived duty and desire ran hand in hand surely he began	45
again in more impetuous tones and then looked round at the who turned the too felt that the could not be ended there informing the man that a gentleman had come to see her with whom she wished to walk a little way she moved off with d across the field when they reached the first section he held out his hand to help her over it but she stepped forward on the of the earth rolls as if she did not see him you will not marry me and make me a self respecting man he repeated as soon as they were over the i cannot but why you know i have no affection for you but you would get to feel that in time perhaps as soon as you really could forgive me never why so positive i love somebody else the words seemed to astonish him you do he cried somebody else but has not a sense of what is morally right and proper any weight with you no no no don t say that anyhow then your love for this other man may be only a passing feeling which you will overcome no yes yes why not i cannot tell you you must in honour well then i have married him by of the d he exclaimed and he stopped dead and gazed at her i did not wish to tell i did not mean to she pleaded it is a secret here or at any rate but dimly known so will you please will you ke from questioning me you must remember that we are now strangers strangers are we strangers for a moment a flash of his old marked his face but he it down is that man our husband he asked mechanically by a sign the who turned the machine that man she said proudly i should think not who then do not ask what i do not wish to tell she begged and flashed her appeal to him from her face and lash eyes d was disturbed but i only ask for your sake he retorted hotly angels of heaven god me for such an expression i came here i swear as i thought for your good don t look at me so i cannot stand your looks there never were such eyes y before christianity or since there i won t lose my head i dare not i own that the sight of you has up my love for you which i believed was extinguished with all such feelings but i thought that our marriage t be a for us both the husband is by the wife and the wife is by the husband i said to but my plan is dashed from me and i must bear the disappointment he reflected with his eyes on the ground married married well tiiat being so he added quite calmly tearing the slowly into and putting them in his pocket that being prevented i should like to do some good to you and by the convert husband whoever he may be there are many questions that i am tempted to ask but i will not do so of course in opposition to your wishes though if i could know your husband i might more easily benefit him and you is he on this farm no she murmured he is far away far away you what sort of husband can he be o do not speak against him it was through you he found out ah is it so that s sad yes but to stay away from you to leave you to work like this he does not leave me to work she cried springing to the defence of the absent one with all her he don t know it it is by my own arrangement then does he write i i cannot tell you there are things which are private to ourselves of course that means that he does not you are a deserted wife my fair in an impulse he suddenly to take her hand the glove was on it and he seized only the rough leather fingers which did not the life or shape of those within you must not you must not she cried fearfully slipping her hand from the glove as from a pocket and leaving it in his grasp o will you go away for the sake of me and my husband go in the name of your own christianity yes yes i will he said abruptly and thrusting the glove back to her turned to leave facing however he said as god is my judge i meant no hi in taking your hand a of hoofs on the soil of the field which they had not noticed in their ceased close behind them and a voice her ear s by op the d what the devil are you doing away from your work at this time o day farmer had the two figures from the distance and had ridden across to learn what was their business in his field don t speak like that to her said d his face with something that was not christianity indeed and what mid pa sons have to do with she who is the fellow asked d turning to she went close up to him go i do beg you she said what and leave you to that t i can see in his face what a he is he won t hurt me he s not in love with me i can leave at lady day well i have no right but to obey i suppose but well good bye her whom she dreaded more than her having reluctantly disappeared the farmer continued his which took with the greatest coolness that sort of attack being independent of sex to have as a master	45
this man of stone who would have her if he had dared was almost a relief after her former experiences e silently walked back towards the summit of the field that was the scene of her so absorbed in the interview which had just taken place that she was hardly aware that the nose of s horse almost touched her shoulders if so be you make an agreement to work for me till lady day i ll see that you carry it out he growled od rot the women now tis one thing and then tis another but i ll put up with it no longer knowing very well that he did not the other women of the farm as he harassed her out of spite for by the convert the he had once received she did for one moment picture what might have been the result if she had been free to accept the offer just made her of being the s wife it would have lifted her completely out of not only to her present oppressive employer but to a whole world who seemed to despise her but no no she said i could not have married him now he is so unpleasant to me that very night she began an appealing letter to concealing from him her and assuring him of her affection any one who had been in a position to read between the lines would have seen that at the back of her great love was some monstrous fear almost a desperation as to some secret which were not disclosed but again she did not finish her e sion he had asked to go with him and perhaps he did not care for her at all she put the letter in her box and wondered if it would ever reach angel s hands after this her daily tasks were gone through heavily enough and brought on the day which was of great import to the day of the fair it was at this fair that new engagements were entered into for the twelve months following the lady day and those of the farming population who thought of changing their places duly attended at the town where the fair was held nearly all the on ash farm intended flight and early in the morning there was a general in the direction of the town which lay at a distance of from ten to a dozen miles over country though also meant to leave at the quarter day she was one of the few who did not go to the fair having a vaguely shaped hope that something would happen to render another engagement it was a peaceful february day of wonderful softness for the time and one would almost have thought by of the d that winter was over she had hardly finished her dinner when d s figure darkened the window of the cottage wherein she was a which she had all to herself to day jumped up but her visitor had knocked at the door and she could hardly in reason run away d s knock his walk up to the door had some indescribable quality of difference from his air when she last saw him they seemed to be acts of which the was ashamed she thought that she would not open the door but as there was no sense in that she arose and having lifted the latch stepped back quickly he came in saw her and flung himself down into a chair before speaking i couldn t help it he b desperately as he wiped his heated face which had also a flush of excitement i felt that i must call at least to ask how you are i you i had not been thinking of you at all till i saw you that sunday now i cannot get rid of your image try how i may it is hard that a good woman do harm to a bad man yet so it is if you would only pray for me toss the suppressed discontent of his manner was almost pitiable and yet did not pity him how can i pray for you she said when i am forbidden to believe that the great power who moves the world would alter his plans on my you really think that yes i have been cured of the presumption of thinking otherwise cured by whom by my husband if i must tell ah your husband your husband how strange it seems i remember you hinted something of the sort the other day what do you really in these matters he asked you seem to have no religion perhaps owing to me but i have though i don t believe in anything supernatural by the convert d looked at her with then do you think that the i take is au wrong a good deal of it h m and yet i ve felt so sure about it he said uneasy i in the spirit of the sermon on the mount and so did my dear husband but i don t believe here she gave her the fact is said d whatever your dear husband you accept and whatever he rejected you reject without the least inquiry or reasoning on your own part that s just you women your mind is to his ah because he knew said she with a of faith in angel that the most perfect man could hardly have deserved much less her husband yes but you should not take negative opinions from another person like a pretty fellow he must be to teach you such he never my judgment he would never argue on the subject with me but i looked at it in th way what he after inquiring into doctrines was much more to be right than what i might believe who hadn t looked into doctrines at au	45
do so after he had left her he moved on in silence as if his energies were by the hitherto po that his position was reason had had nothing to do with his which was perhaps the mere of a careless man in search of a new by the convert sensation and temporarily impressed by his mother s death the drops of logic had let fall into the sea of his enthusiasm served to chill its to he said to himself as he pondered again and again over the phrases that she had handed on to him clever fellow little thought that by telling her those things he might be my way back to her by it is the of the last wheat at ash farm the dawn of the march morning is singularly and there is nothing to show where the eastern horizon lies against the twilight rises the top of the which has stood here through the washing and of the wintry weather when and arrived at the scene of operations only a rustling that others had preceded them to which as the light increased there were presently added the of two men on the summit they were busily the that is off the before beginning to throw down the and while this was in progress and with the other women workers in their brown stood waiting and shivering farmer having insisted upon their being on the spot thus early to get the job over if possible by the end of the day close the of the and as yet barely visible was the red that the women had come to serve a timber framed construction with and wheels the machine which whilst it was going kept up a demand upon the endurance of their muscles and nerves a little way off there was another indistinct this one blade with a sustained hiss that spoke of strength very much in reserve the long chimney running up beside an ash tree and the warmth which from the spot explained without the necessity of much daylight that here was the engine which was by thk convert to act as the of this little world by the engine stood a dark motionless beings a and of in a sort of trance with a heap of coals by his side it was the the of his and colour lent him the appearance of a creature from who had strayed into the of this region of yellow grain and pale soil with which he in common to and to its what he looked he felt he was in the agricultural world but not of it he served fire and smoke these of the fields served v weather frost and sun he travelled with his engine from farm to farm from county to county for as yet the steam machine was in this part of he spoke in a strange northern accent his thoughts being turned upon himself his eye on iron charge hardly perceiving the scenes around him and caring for them not at all holding only strictly necessary intercourse with the natives as if some ancient doom compelled him to wander here against his will in the service of his master tlie long which ran from the driving wheel of his engine to the red under the ride was the sole tie line between and him while they the he stood beside his of force round whose hot blackness the morning air quivered he had nothing to do with preparatory labour his fire was waiting his steam was at high pressure in a few seconds he could make the long move at an invisible beyond its the might be com straw or chaos it was all the same to him if any of the asked him what he called himself he replied shortly an engineer the ride was by full daylight the men then took their places the women mounted and the by op the d work began or as they called him he t had arrived ere this and by his orders was placed on the platform of the machine dose to the man who fed it her business being to every of com handed on to her by who stood next but on the so that the could seize it and spread it over the revolving drum which out every grain in one moment they were soon in full progress after a preparatory or two which the hearts of those who hated machinery the work sped on till breakfast time when the was stopped for half an hour and on starting again after the meal the whole strength of the farm was thrown into the labour of the straw which began to grow beside the of com a hasty was eaten as they stood without leaving their positions and then another couple of hours brought them near to dinner time the inexorable wheels continuing to spin and the penetrating hum of the to thrill to the very all who were near the revolving wire cage the old men on the rising straw talked of the past days when they had been accustomed to with on the bam floor when everything even to was effected by hand which to their thinking though slow produced better ts those too on the corn talked a little but the ones at the machine including could not their duties by the of many words it was the of the work which tried her so severely and began to make her wish that she had never come to ash the women on the com who was one of them in particular could stop to drink ale or cold tea from the now and then or to exchange a few remarks while they wiped their faces or cleared the fragments of straw and from their clothing but for there was no for as by the convert the drum never stopped the man	45
who fed it could not stop and she who had to supply the man with could not stop either changed places with her which she sometimes did for half an hour in spite of s objection that she was too dow handed for a for some probably economical reason it was usually a woman who was chosen for this particular duty and gave as his motive in selecting that she was one of those who best combined strength with in ring and both with staying power and this may have been true the hum of the which prevented speech increased to a whenever the supply of com fell short of the regular quantity as and the man who fed could never turn their heads she did not know that just before the dinner hour a person had come silently into the field by the gate and had been standing a second the scene and in particular he was dressed in a suit of fashionable pattern and he a gay walking cane who is that said to she had at first addressed the inquiry to but the latter could not hear it somebody s fancy man s pose said i ll lay a guinea he s after o no tis a pa son who s been after her lately not a like this well this is the same man the same man as the preacher but he s quite different he left off his black coat and white and cut off his whiskers but he s the same man for all that d ye really think so then i ll teu her said don t she ll see him soon enough good now i don t think it at all right for him to join x by op the d his preaching to a married woman even though her husband mid be abroad and she in a sense a widow oh he can do her no harm said her mind can no more be heaved from that one place where it do bide than a from the hole he s in lord love ee neither paying nor preaching nor the seven can a woman when be better for her that she should be dinner time came and the whirling ceased whereupon left her post her knees trembling so with the shaking of the machine that she could scarcely walk you ought to a o drink into ee as done said you wouldn t look so white then why souls above us your face is as if you d been it occurred to the good that as was so tired her discovery of her visitor s presence might have the bad effect of taking away her appetite and was thinking of to descend by a ladder on the further side of the when the gentleman came forward and looked up uttered a short little oh and a moment after she said quickly i shall eat my dinner here right on the sometimes when they were so far from their cottages they all did this but as there was rather a keen wind going to day and the rest descended and sat under the straw the was indeed d the late despite his changed attire and aspect it was obvious at a glance that the original w had come back that he had restored himself as nearly as a man could do who had grown three or four years older to the old j slap dash guise which had first known her admirer and cousin so called having decided to remain where x by the convert she was sat down among the bundles out of sight of the ground and b an her meal by she heard footsteps on the ladder and immediately after appeared upon the now an and level platform of he strode across them and sat down opposite to her without a word continued to eat her modest dinner a of thick which she had brought with her the other work folk were by this time all gathered under the where the loose straw formed a comfortable retreat i am here again as you see said d why do you trouble me so she cried reproach flashing from her very finger ends trouble you i think i may ask why do you trouble me sure i don t trouble you any when you say you don t but you do you haunt me those very eyes that you turned upon me with such a bitter a moment ago they come to me just as you showed them then in the night and in the day ever since you told me of that child of ours it is just as if my feelings which have been flowing in a strong stream had suddenly found a way open in the direction of you and had all at once through the religious channel is left dry forthwith and it is you who have done it she gazed in silence you have given up your preaching entirely she asked she had gathered from angel sufficient of the incredulity of modem thought to despise flash but as a woman she was somewhat appalled in affected severity d continued entirely i have broken every engagement since that i was to address die at fair the deuce only knows what i am thought of by the brethren ha the brethren no doubt they pray for me for me for they by of the d axe kind people their way but what do i care how could i go on with the thing when i had lost my faith in it it would have been of the kind among them i have stood like and alexander who were delivered over to satan that they m ht learn not to what a grand revenge you have taken i saw you innocent and i deceived you pour years after you find me a then	45
her eyes to him with the hopeless defiance of the s gaze before its its neck whip me crush me you need not mind those people the i shall not cry out once victim always victim that s the law o no no he said i can make full allowance for this yet you most forget one thing that i would have married you if you had not put it out of my power to do so did i not ask you to be my wife hey answer me you did and you cannot be but remember one thing his voice hardened as his temper got the better of him with the recollection of his sincerity in asking her and her present ingratitude and he stepped across to her side and held her by the shoulders so that she shook under his grasp remember my lady i was your master once i will be master again k you are any man s wife you are mine the now began to stir below so much for our quarrel he said letting her go now i shall leave you and shall come again for your answer during the afternoon you don t know me yet but i you she had not spoken again remaining as if d retreated over the and descended the ladder while the workers below rose and stretched their arms and shook down the beer they had drunk then the machine started and amid the renewed rustle of the straw resumed her position by the drum as one in a dream after in endless succession by in the afternoon the farmer made it known that the was to be finished that night since there was a moon by which they could see to and the man with the engine was engaged for another farm on the morrow hence the and humming and rustling proceeded with even less than usual it was not till about three o clock that raised her eyes and gave a glance round she felt but little surprise at seeing that d had come back and was standing under the hedge by the gate he had seen her lift her eyes and waved to her while he blew her a kiss it meant that their quarrel was over looked down again and carefully from gazing in that direction thus the afternoon dragged on the wheat shrank lower and the straw grew higher and the were away at six o dock the wheat was about shoulder high from the ground but the remaining untouched seemed countless still notwithstanding tiie enormous numbers that had hem down by the fed by the man and through whose two young hands the greater part of them had passed and the immense of straw where in the morning there had been nothing appeared as cl the same red from the west sky a shine all that wild march could afford in the way of sunset had burst forth after the cloudy day the tired and faces of the by the convert them with a light as also the flapping garments of the women whidi to them like flames a panting ache ran through the the man who fed was weary and could see that the red of his neck was with dirt and she still stood at her post her flushed and face with the com dust and her white bonnet by it she was the only woman whose place was upon the machine so as to be shaken bodily by its spinning and the of the now separated her from and and prevented their changing duties with her as they had done the incessant quivering in which every fibre of her frame had thrown her into a reverie in which her arms worked on of her consciousness she hardly knew where she was and did not hear tell her from below that her hair was tumbling down by degrees the among them b to grow and eyed whenever lifted her head she beheld always the great straw with the men in shirt sleeves upon it against the grey north sky in front of it the long red like a jacob s ladder on which a per p stream of straw ascended a yellow river running up hill and out on the top of the she knew that d was still on the scene observing her from some point or other though she could not say where there was an excuse for his remaining for the drew near its final a little was always done and men with the sometimes dropped in for that performance sporting characters of all descriptions with and with sticks and stones but there was another hour s work before the of live rats at the base of the would be by op the d reached and as the evening light in the direction of the giant s hill by s dissolved away the white fa moon of the season arose from the horizon that lay towards abbey and on the other side for the last hour or two had uneasy about whom she could not get near enough to speak to the other women having kept up their strength by drinking and having done without it through dread owing to its results at her home in childhood but still kept going if she could not fill her part she would have to leave and this which she would have regarded with and even with relief a month or two had become a terror since d had begun to round her the and had now worked the so low that people on the ground could talk to them to s farmer came up on the machine to her and said that if she desired to join her friend he did not wish her to keep on any longer and would send somebody else to take her place the friend was d she knew	45
met you it was a dead thing altogether i became another woman filled full of new life from you how could i be the early one by the convert why do you not see this dear if you would only be a little conceited and believe in yourself so far as to see that you were strong enough to work this change in me you would be in a mind to come to me your poor wife how silly i was in my happiness when i thought i could trust you always to love met i ought to have known that such as that was not for poor me but i am sick at heart not only for old times but for the present think think how it do hurt my heart not to see you ever ever ah if i could only make your dear heart ache one little minute of each day as mine does every day and all day long it might lead you to show pity to your poor lonely one people still say that i am rather pretty angel handsome is the word they use since i wish to be truthful perhaps i am what they say but i do not value my good looks i only like to have them because they belong to you my dear and that there may be at least one thing about me worth your having so much have i felt this that when i met with annoyance on account of the same i tied up my face in a as long as people would believe in it o angel i tell you all this not from vanity you will certainly know i do not but only that you may come to if you really cannot come to me will you let me come to you i am as i say worried pressed to do what i will not do it cannot be that i shall yield one inch yet i am in terror as to what an accident might lead to and i so on account of my first error i cannot say more about this it makes me too miserable but if i break down by falling into some fearful my last state will be worse than my first o god i cannot think of it let me come at once or at once come to me i would be content ay glad to live with you as your servant if i may not as your wife so that i could only be near you and get glimpses of you and think of you as mine the daylight has nothing to show me since you are not here and i don t like to see the and in the fields because i grieve and grieve to miss you who used to see with me i long for only one thing in heaven or earth or under the earth to meet you my own dear come to me come to me and save me from what me your faithful by the appeal duly found its way to the breakfast table of the quiet to the westward in that valley where the air is so soft and the soil so rich that the effort of growth requires but superficial aid by comparison with the at ash and where to the human world seemed so different though it was much the same it was purely for security that she had been requested by angel to send her through his father whom he kept pretty well informed of his changing addresses in the country he ha gone to for with a heavy heart now said old mr to his when he had read the envelope if angel leaving for a visit home at the end of next month as he told us that he hoped to do i think this may hasten his plans for i believe it to be from his he breathed deeply at the thought of her and the letter was to be promptly sent on to angel dear fellow i hope he will get home safely mrs to my dying day i shall feel that he has been ill used you should have sent him to cambridge in spite of his want of faith and given him the same chance as the other boys had he would have grown out of it under proper influence and perhaps would have taken orders after all church or no church it would have been fairer to him this was the only wail with which mrs ever disturbed her husband s peace in respect of their sons and she did not vent this often for she by the convert was as as she was devout and knew that his mind too was troubled by doubts as to his justice in this matter only too often had she him lying awake at night stifling sighs for with prayers but the did not even now hold that he would have been justified in giving his son an the same advantages that he had given to the two others when it was possible if not probable that those very advantages might have been used to the doctrines whidi he had made it his life s mission and desire to and the mission of his ordained sons likewise to put with one hand a under the feet of the two faithful ones and with the other to the by the same artificial means he deemed to be alike inconsistent with his convictions his position and his es nevertheless he loved his angel and in secret mourned over this treatment of him as might have mourned over the doomed while they went up the hill together his silent self regrets were far than the which his wife rendered audible they blamed themselves for this unlucky marriage if angel had never been destined for a farmer he would never have	45
been thrown with agricultural girls they did not distinctly know what had separated him and his wife nor the date on which the separation had taken place at first they had supposed it must be something of the of a serious aversion but in his later letters he occasion v ally alluded to the intention of coming home to fetch her from which expressions they hoped the division might not owe its origin to anything so hopelessly permanent as that he had told them that she was with her relatives and in their doubts they had decided not to intrude into a situation which they knew no way of the eyes for which s letter was intended by of the d were gazing at this time on a expanse of country from the back of a which was bearing him the interior of the south american continent towards the coast his experiences oi this strange land had been sad the severe illness from which he had suffered shortly after his arrival had never wholly left him and he had by d almost decided to his hope of farming here though as long as the bare possibility existed of his remaining he kept this change of view a secret from his parents the crowds of agricultural ers who had come out to the country in his wake dazzled by representations of easy independence had suffered died and wasted away he would see mothers from english farms along with their in their arms when the child would be stricken with fever and would die the mother would pause to dig a hole in the loose earth with her bare hands would bury the babe therein with the same natural shed one tear and again on angel s original intention had not been to but a northern or eastern farm in his own country he had come to this place in a fit of desperation the movement among the english having by chance with his desire to escape from his past existence this time of absence he had mentally aged a dozen years what arrested him now as of v ue in life was less its beauty than its pathos having long the old systems of he now began to the old of morality he thought they wanted who was the moral man still more who was the moral woman the beauty or of a character lay not only in its achievements but in its aims and impulses its true history lay not among things done but among things willed how then about her in these lights a regret for his hasty by the convert judgment began to him did he reject her or did he not he could no longer say that he would always reject her and not to say that was in spirit to accept her now this growing fondness for her memory in point of time with her residence at ash but it was before she had felt herself at liberty to trouble him with a word about her circumstances or her feelings he was greatly perplexed and in his perplexity as to her motives in intelligence he did not thus her silence of was how much it really said if he had understood that she with literal to orders which he had given and forgotten that despite her she asserted no rights admitted his judgment to be in every respect the true one and bent her head in the before mentioned journey by through the interior of the country another man rode beside him angel s companion was also an englishman bent on the same errand though he came from another part of the island they were both in a state of mental depression and they spoke of home affairs confidence confidence with that curious ten evinced by men more especially when in distant lands to to strangers details of their lives which they would on no mention to friends angel admitted to this man as they rode along the sorrowful facts of his marriage the stranger had in many more lands and among many more than angel to his mind such from the social so immense to were no more than are the of and chain to the whole curve he viewed the matter in quite a different light from angel thought that what had been was of no importance beside what she would be and plainly told that he was wrong in coming away from her by of the d the next day they were in a angel s was struck down with fever and died by the week s end waited a few hours to bury him and then went on his way the remarks of the large minded stranger of whom he knew absolutely nothing beyond a common place name were by his death and influenced more than all the reasoned of the philosophers his own made him ashamed by its contrast his rushed upon him in a flood he had persistently elevated h at the expense of christianity yet in that civilization an surrender was not certain surely then he might have regarded that of the state whidi he had inherited with the creed of as at least open to when the result was due to treachery a remorse struck into him the words of hu tt never quite in his memory came back to him he had asked if she loved him and she had replied in the did she love him more than did no she had replied would lay down her life for him and she herself could do no more he thought of as she had appeared on the day of the wedding how her eyes had lingered upon him how she had hung upon his words as if they were a god s and during the terrible evening over the hearth when her simple soul itself to his how pitiful her face had looked by the rays	45
of the fire in her inability to realize that his love and protection could possibly be withdrawn thus from being her critic he grew to be her advocate things he had uttered to himself about her but no man can be always a c and live and he withdrew them the mistake of expressing had arisen from his allowing himself to be influenced by general principles to the disregard of the particular instance by the convert but the reasoning is somewhat lovers and husbands have gone over the ground before to day had been harsh towards her there is no doubt of it men are too often harsh with women they love or have loved women with men and yet these are tenderness itself when compared with the universal out of which they grow the of the position towards the temperament of the means towards the aims of to day towards yes of hereafter towards to day the historic interest of her family that line of d whom he had despised as a spent force touched his sentiments now why had he not known the difference between the political value and the imaginative value of these things in the latter aspect her d descent was a fact of great dimensions worthless to it was a most useful to the to the on and falls it was a fact that would soon be forgotten that bit of distinction in poor s blood and name and oblivion would fall upon her hereditary link with the marble monuments and at so does time destroy his in recalling her face again and again he thought now that he could see therein a flash of the dignity which must have her grand and the vision sent that through his veins which he had formerly felt and which left behind it a sense of sickness despite her not past what still abode in such a woman as the freshness of her fellows was not the of the grapes of better than the of so spoke love preparing the way for s devoted which was then just being forwarded to him by his father though owing to his distance inland it was to be a long time in reaching him meanwhile the writer s expectation that angel s by op the d would come in response to the entreaty was alternately great and small what lessened it was that the facts of her ufe which had led to the parting had not changed could never change and that if her presence had not them her absence could not nevertheless she addressed her mind to tender question of what she could do to please him best if he ould arrive sighs were expended on the wish that she had taken more notice of the tunes he played on his harp that she had inquired more of him which were his favourite among the country girls sang she indirectly inquired of who had followed from and by chance remembered that amongst the of melody in which they had indulged at the s to induce the cows to let down milk had seemed to like s gardens i have i have hounds and the break o the day and had seemed not to care for the tailor s and such a beauty i did grow excellent as they were to perfect the was now her desire she practised them privately at odd moments especially the break o day arise arise arise and pick your love a ah o the sweetest flowers that in the garden grow the and birds in every bough a building so early in the may time at the break o the day it would have melted the heart of a stone to hear her singing these whenever she worked apart from the rest of the girls in this cold dry time the tears running down her cheeks all the while at the thought that perhaps he would not after all come to hear her and the simple words of the songs in painful mockery of the aching heart of the singer by the convert was so up in this td dream that she seemed not to know how the season was ad that tide days had lengthened that lady day was at hand and would soon be followed by old lady day the end of her term here but before the quarter day had quite come something happened which made think of far different matters she was at her lodging as usual one evening sitting in the downstairs room with the rest of the family when somebody knocked at the door and inquired for through the doorway she saw against the declining light a figure with the height of a woman and the breadth of a a tall thin girlish creature whom she did not recognize in the twilight till the girl said what is it lu asked in startled accents her sister whom a little over a year ago she had left at home as a child had sprung up by a sudden shoot to a form of this of whidi as yet lu seemed herself scarce able to understand the meaning her thin legs visible below her once long frock now short by her growing and her uncomfortable hands and arms revealed her youth and yes i have been about all day said lu with gravity a tr ring to find ee and i m very tired what is the matter at home mother is took very bad and the doctor says she s dying and as father is not very well neither and says tis wrong for a man of such a high family as his to slave and at common work we don t know what to do stood in reverie a long time before she thought of asking lu to come in and sit down when she had done so and lu was having some tea	45
they in a field a couple of yards out of the village she liked doing it after the confinement of the sick chamber where she was not now required by reason by op the d of her mother s improvement violent motion relieved thought the plot of was in a high dry open where there were forty or fifty such pieces and where labour was at its when the hired labour of the day had ended digging began at six o clock and extended into the du or moonlight just now heaps of dead weeds and refuse were burning on many of the plots the dry weather their one fine day and lu worked on here with neighbours till the last rays of the sun smote flat upon the white that divided the plots as soon as twilight succeeded to sunset the of the couch grass and stalk fires began to light up the their outlines appearing and disappearing under the dense smoke as by the wind when a fire glowed banks of smoke blown level along the ground would themselves become to an lustre the from one another and the meaning of the pillar of a cloud which was a wall by day and a light by could be understood as evening some of the men and women gave over for the night but the greater number remained to get their planting done being among them though she sent her sister home it was on one of the couch burning plots she with her fork its four shining against the stones and dry in little s she was completely involved in the smoke of her fire then it leave her figure free by the glare from the heap she was oddly dressed to night and presented a somewhat staring aspect her attire being a gown by many wa with a short black jacket over it the effect of the whole being that of a wedding and funeral guest in one the women further back wore white which with their pale faces were all that could be seen of them in the gloom except by the convert when at moments they caught a flash from the flames westward the boughs of the bare thorn hedge which formed the boundary of the field rose against the pale of the lower sky above hung like a full blown so bright as almost to ow a shade a few small stars were appearing elsewhere in the distance a dog and wh s occasionally rattled along the dry road still the continued to dick for it was not late and though the air was fresh and keen there was a whisper of spring in it that cheered the workers on something in the place the hour the fires the fantastic mysteries of light and shade made others as well as enjoy being there nightfall which in the frost of winter comes as a and in the warmth of as a lover came as a on this march day nobody looked at his or her companions the eyes of all were on the soil as its turned surface was revealed by the fires hence as stirred the and sang her foolish little songs with scarce now a hope that would ever hear them she did not for a long time notice the person who worked nearest to her a man in a long who she found was the same plot as herself and whom she supposed her father had sent to advance the work she became more of him when the direction of his digging brought him sometimes the smoke divided them then it and the two were visible to each other but divided firom all the rest did not speak to her fellow nor did he speak to her nor did she think of him further than to recollect that he had not been there when it was broad daylight and that she did not know him as any one of which was no wonder her having been so long and by of the d of late years by and by he dug so close to her that the fire beams were reflected as distinctly from the steel of his fork as from her own on going up to the fire to throw a pitch of dead weeds upon it she that he did same on the other side the fire up and she beheld the face of d the of his presence the of his appearance in a gathered such as was now worn only by the most old fashioned of the had a ghastly that chilled her as to its bearing d a low long laugh if i were inclined to joke i should say how much this seems like paradise he remarked looking at her with an inclined head what do you say she weakly asked a might say this is just like paradise you are eve and i am the old other one come to tempt you in the disguise of an inferior animal i used to be quite up in that scene of milton s when i was some of it goes the way is ready and not long a row of if thou t my conduct i can thee thither soon lead then said eve and so on my dear dear i am only putting this to you as a thing that you might have supposed or said quite because you think so badly of me i never said you were satan or thought it i don t think of you in that way at all my thoughts of you are quite cold except when you me what did you come digging here entirely because of me entirely to see you nothing more the frock which i saw hanging for e as i came along was an after thought that i t be noticed i come to protest against your working like this but i doing	45
families who had formed the of the village life in the past who were the of the v age traditions had to seek refuge in the large the process by as the tendency of the population towards the large towns really the tendency of water to flow up hill when forced by machinery the cottage accommodation at having been in this manner considerably by every house which remained standing was required by the for his work people ever since the occurrence of the event which had cast such a shadow over s life the family whose descent was not had been looked on as one which would have to go when their lease ended if only in the interests of morality it was indeed quite true that the household had not been examples either of or the father and even the mother had got drunk at times the children seldom had gone to ch and the eldest daughter had made queer by some means the village had to be kept pure so on this the first lady day on which the were the house being was required for a with a large family and widow her daughters and lu the boy and the children had to go elsewhere by op the d on the evening preceding their removal it was getting dark by reason of a rain which the sky as it was the last night they would spend in the village which had be their home and mrs lu and had gone out to bid some friends good bye and was keeping house till they should return she was kneeling in the window bench her face dose to the where an outer pane of was sliding down the inner pane of g ass her eyes rested on the web of a spider probably starved long ago which had been placed in a comer where no flies ever came and in the slight draught through the was reflecting on the position of the household in which she perceived her own evil influence had she not come home her mother and the children mi t probably have been allowed to stay on as weekly tenants but she had been observed almost immediately on her return by some people of scrupulous and great ii they had seen her in the restoring as well as she could with a little a baby s grave by this means they had found that she was living here again her mother was for her had ensued from who had offered to leave at once she had been taken at her word and here was the result i ought never to have come home said to herself bitterly she was so intent upon these thoughts that she hardly at first took note of a man in a white n whom she saw riding down the street possibly it was owing to her face being near to the pane that he saw her so quickly and directed his horse so dose to the cottage front that his hoofs were almost upon the narrow border for plants growing under the wall it was not till he touched the window with his that she observed him the rain had nearly by the ceased and she opened the in obedience to his gesture t you see me asked d i was not she said i heard i though i fancied it was a carriage and horses i was in a sort of dream ah you heard the d coach perhaps you know the legend i suppose no my somebody was going to tell it me once but didn t if you are a genuine d i ought not to tell you either i suppose for me i m a sham one so it doesn t matter it is rather dismal it is that this of a non coach can only be heard by one of d blood and it is held to be of ill omen to the one who hears it it has to do with a murder committed by one of the family centuries ago now you have un it finish it very well one of the family is said to have some beautiful woman who tried to escape from the coach in which he was carrying her os and in the struggle he killed her or she killed him i forget which such is one version of the tale i see that and are packed going away aren t you yes to morrow old lady day i heard you were but could hardly believe it it seems so sudden why is it father s was the last life on the property and when that ed we had no further right to stay though we might perhaps have stayed as weekly tenants if it had not been for me what about you i am not a proper woman d s face flushed what a shame miserable may their dirty souls be burnt to he exclaimed in tones of resentment that s why you are going is it turned out si by op the d we are not turned out exactly but as they said we should have to go soon it was best to go now everybody was moving because there are better chances where are you going to we have taken rooms there mother is so about father s people that she will go there but mother s family are not fit for lodgings and in a uttle hole of a town like that now why not come to my garden house at there are hardly any poultry now since my mother s death but there s the house as you know it and the garden it can be in a day and your mother can live there quite comfortably and i will put the children to a good school i ought to do something for you but we have already taken	45
the rooms at she declared and we can wait there wait what for for tiiat nice husband no doubt now look here i know what are and bearing in mind the grounds of your separation i am quite positive he will never make it up with you now though i have been your enemy i am your friend even if you won t believe it come to this cottage of mine we ll get up a regular colony of fowls and mother can attend to them and the children can go to school breathed more and more quickly and at length she said how do i know that you would do all this your views may change and then we should be my mother would again o no no i would you against such as that in writing if necessary think it over shook her head but d persisted she had seldom seen him so determined he would not take a negative please just tell your mother he said in emphatic s by the convert tones it is her business to judge not yours i shall get the house swept out and to morrow morning and fires ut and it will be dry by the evening so that you can come straight there now mind i shall expect you again shook her head her throat swelling with complicated emotion she could not look up at d i owe you something for the past you know he resumed and you cured me too of that so i am glad i would rather you had kept the so that you had kept the practice whidi went with it i am glad of this opportunity of you a little to morrow i shall expect to hear mother s goods give me your hand on it now dear beautiful with the last sentence he had dropped his voice to a murmur and put his hand in at the half open with stormy eyes she pulled the stay bar quickly and in doing so caught his arm between the and the stone you are very cruel he said out his arm no no i know you didn t do it on purpose well i shall expect you or your mother and the children at least i shall not come i have plenty of money she cried where at my father in law s if i ask for it if you ask for it but you won t i know you you ll never ask for it you ll starve first with these words he rode off just at the comer of the street he met the man with the paint pot who asked him if he had deserted the brethren you go to the devil said d remained where she was a long while till a sudden sense of injustice the region pf her eyes to swell with the rush of hot tears thither by op the d her husband angel himself had like dealt out hard measure to her surely he had she had never before admitted such a thought but he had surely never in her life she could swear it from the bottom of her had she ever intended to do wrong yet these hard judgments had come whatever her sins they were not sins of intention but of and why she have been punished so persistently e passionately seized the first piece of paper that came to hand and the following lines why have you treated me so i do not deserve it i have thought it all over carefully and i can never never you know that i did not intend to you y have you so wronged me you are cruel cruel indeed f will try to forget you it is all injustice i have received at your t she watched till the passed by ran out to him with her and then again took her place inside the window panes it was just as well to write like that as to write tenderly how could he give way to entreaty the facts had not changed there was no new event to alter his opinion it grew darker the shining over the room the two biggest of the younger children had gone out with their mother the four smallest their ages rang ing from three and a half years to eleven all in blade were gathered round the hearth their own uttle subjects at length joined them without lighting a candle this is the last night that we shall sleep here in the house where we were bom she said quickly we ought to think of it t we they all became silent with the of their age they were ready to burst into tears at the picture of she had up though all the day hitherto they had been rejoicing in the idea of a new place changed the subject sing to me she said by the convert what shall we sing anything you know i don t mind there was a momentary pause it was broken first by one little note then a second voice it and a third and a fourth in in with words they had learnt at the here we suffer grief and pain here we meet to part again in heaven we part no more the four sang on with the of persons who had long ago settled the question and there being no mist e about it felt that further thought was not required with features strained hard to the they continued to regard tiie centre of the flickering fire the notes of the youngest over into the pauses of the rest turned from them and went to the window again darkness had now fallen without but she put her face to the pane as though to peer into the gloom it was really to hide	45
her tears if she could believe what the children were singing if she were only sure how different all would now be how confidently she would leave them to providence and their future kingdom but in of that it her to do something to be their providence for to as to not a few millions of others there was ghastly satire in the poet s lines not in utter but trailing of glory do we come to her and her like birth itself was an ordeal of degrading personal whose nothing in the result seemed to justify and at best could only in the shades of the wet road she soon discerned her mother with tall lu and mrs s up to the door and opened it ss j by op the d i see the tracks of a horse outside the window said somebody called no said the children by the fire looked gravely at her and one murmured why the gentleman a horseback he didn t call said he spoke to me in passing who was the gentleman asked her mother your husband no he ll never never come answered in stony who was it oh you needn t ask you ve seen him before and so have i ah what did he say asked curiously i will tell you when we are settled in our lodgings at to morrow every word it was not her husband she had said yet a consciousness that in a physical sense this man alone was her husband seemed to weigh on her more and more by during the small hours of the next morning while it was still dark near the were conscious of a disturbance of their night s rest by noises continuing till daylight noises as certain to in this particular t week of the month as the voice of the in the third week of the same they were the of the general removal the passing of the empty and to fetch the goods of the for it was always by the vehicle of the farmer who required his services that the hired man was conveyed to his destination that this might be accomplished within the day was the explanation of the so soon after midnight the aim of the being to reach the door of the by six o clock when the of x at once began but to and her mother s household no such anxious farmer sent his team they were only women they were not regular they were not particularly required anywhere hence they had to hire a at their own expense and got nothing sent it was a relief to when she looked out of the window that morning to find that though the weather was windy and it did not rain and that the come a wet lady day was a which removing families never forgot damp furniture damp damp accompanied it and left a train of ills her mother lu and were also by op the d awake but the younger children were let sleep on the by the thin light and the was taken in hand it proceeded with some cheerfulness a friendly or two assisting when the large articles of furniture had been packed in position a circular nest was made of the beds and in which and the young children were to sit through the journey after there was a long delay before the horses were brought these having been during the but at length about two o clock the whole was under way the cooking pot swinging from the of the mrs and family at the top the matron having in her lap to prevent injury to its works the head of the which at any exceptional of the struck one or one and a half in ht t tones and the next eldest girl walked alongside till they were out of the village they had called on a few neighbours that morning and the previous evening and some came to see them off all wishing them well though in their secret hearts hardly expecting welfare possible to such a family harmless as the were to all except themselves soon the began to ascend to higher ground and the wind grew with the change of level and soil the day being the sixth of april the met many other with families on the summit of the load which was built on a well nigh principle as peculiar probably to the rural r as the to the bee the of the arrangement was the family which with its shining handles and finger marks and domestic evidences upon it stood in front over the tails of the shaft horses in its erect and natural position like some ark of the that they were bound to carry reverently some of the were lively some mournful by the convert some stopping at the doors of where in due time the also drew up to bait horses and refresh the during th halt s eyes fell upon a three pint blue which was ascending and descending through the air to and from the feminine section of a old sitting on the summit of a load that had also drawn up at a little distance from the same inn she followed one of the s upward and perceived it to be clasped by hands whose owner she well knew went towards the and she cried to the girls for it was they sitting with the moving family at whose house they had lodged j are you house to like everybody else v they were they said it had been too rough a life for them at ash and they had come away almost without notice leaving to them if he chose they told their destination and told them hers over the load and lowered her voice do you know that the gentleman who follows ee you ll	45
guess who i mean came to ask for ee at after you had gone we didn t tell n where you was knowing you wouldn t wish to see him ah but i did see him murmured he me and do he know where you be going i think so husband come back no she bade her acquaintance good bye for the respective had now come out from the inn and the two their journey in opposite directions the vehicle whereon sat and the s family with whom they had thrown in their lot being brightly painted and drawn by three powerful horses with brass ornaments on by of the d their harness while the on which mrs and her family rode was a creaking that scarcely bear the weight of the load one which had known no paint since it was made and drawn by two horses only the contrast well marked the difference between being fetched by a farmer and conveying whither no waited one s coming the distance was too great for a day s journey and it was with the utmost difficulty that the horses performed it though they had started so early it was quite late in the afternoon when they turned the flank of an eminence which formed part of the called while the horses stood to st e and breathe themselves looked around under the hill and just ahead of them was the of their pilgrimage where lay those ancestors of whom her father had spoken and sung to the spot of all spots in the world which be considered the d home since they had resided there for full five years a man could be seen advancing from the outskirts towards them and when he beheld the nature of their load he quickened his steps you be the woman they call mrs i reckon he said to s mother who had descended to walk the remainder of the way she nodded though widow of the late sir john d poor nobleman if i cared for my rights and returning to the domain of his forefathers oh weu i know nothing about that but if you be mrs i am sent to tell ee that the rooms you wanted be let we didn t know you was coming till we got your letter this morning when twas too late but no doubt you can get other lodgings somewhere the man had noticed the face of which had become ash pale at his intelligence her mother by the convert looked hopelessly at what shall we do now she said bitterly here s a welcome to your ancestors lands however let s try further they moved on into the town and tried with au their might remaining with the to take care of the children whilst her mother and lu made inquiries at the last return of to the vehicle an hour later when her search for accommodation had still been fruitless the driver of the said the goods must be as the horses were half dead and he was to part of the way at least that night very well it here said i ll get shelter somewhere the had drawn up under the churchyard wall in a ot from view and the driver nothing loth soon hauled down the poor heap of household goods this done she paid him herself to almost her last shilling thereby and he moved off and left them only too glad to get out of further dealings with such a family it was a dry night and he guessed that they would come to no harm gazed desperately at the pile of furniture the cold sunlight of this spring evening peered upon the and upon the of dried shivering in the breeze upon the brass handles of the upon the cradle they had all been rocked in and upon the dock case all of which gave out the gleam of articles abandoned to the of a exposure for which they were never made round about were hills and slopes now cut up into uttle and the green foundations that showed where the d mansion once had stood also an stretch of heath that had always belonged to the estate hard by the aisle of the called the d looked on by op the d isn t your family your own said s mother as she returned from a of the church and why of course tis and that s where we will camp girls till the place of your ancestors finds us a roof now and and you help me we ll make a nest for these children and then we ll have another look round lent a hand and in a quarter of an hour the old post was from the heap of goods and erected under the south wall of the church the part of the building known as the d aisle beneath which the huge lay over the of the was a window of many lights its date being the century it was called the d window and in the upper part could be discerned like those on s old seal and spoon drew the curtains round the bed so as to make an excellent tent of it and put the smaller children inside if it comes to the worst we can sleep there too for one night she said but let us try further on and get something for th to eat o what s the use of j at marrying gentlemen if it leaves us like this accompanied by lu and the boy she again ascended the little lane which secluded the church from the as soon as they got into the street they beheld a man on horseback gazing up and down ah i m looking for you he said up to them this is indeed a family gathering on the	45
historic spot it was d where is he asked personally had no liking for she signified the direction of the church and went on d that he would see them again in case they be still unsuccessful in their search for shelter of which he had just heard by the convert when they had gone d rode to the inn and shortly after came out on foot in the left with the children inside the remained talking with them awhile till seeing that no more be done to make them comfortable just then she walked about the churchyard now beginning to be by the shades of nightfall the door of the church was and e entered it for the first time in her life within the window which the stood were the of the family covering in their dates several centuries they were altar shaped and plain their being and broken their torn from the the holes remaining like holes in a sand of all the that she had ever received that her people were extinct there was none so forcible as this she drew near to a dark stone on which was inscribed did not read church latin like a cardinal but she knew that this was the door of her and that the tall knights of whom her father had in his cups lay inside she turned to withdraw passing near an altar tomb the oldest of them all cm which was a figure in the dusk she had not noticed it before and hardly have it now but for an odd fancy that the moved as soon as e drew close to it she discovered all in a moment that the figure was a living person and the shock to her sense of not having been alone was so violent that she was quite overcome and sank down nigh to fainting not however till she had recognized d in the form he off the and supported her i saw you come in he said smiling and got up by op the d there not to interrupt your meditations a family gathering is it not with these old fellows us here listen he stamped with his heel heavily on the floor whereupon there arose a hollow echo from below that shook them a bit i ll warrant he continued and you thought i was the mere stone of one of them but no the old order the little finger of the sham d can do more for you than the whole of the real underneath now command me what shall i do go away she ed i will i u look for your mother said he but in passing her he whispered mind this you ll be civil yet when he was gone she bent down upon the entrance to the and said why am i on the wrong side of this door in the meantime and had onward with the of the in the direction of their land of the egypt of some other family who had left it only that morning but the girls did not for a long time think of where they were going their talk was of angel and and s persistent lover whose connection with her previous history they had partly heard and partly guessed ere this t as though she had never known afore said his having won her once makes all the difference in the world be a thousand if he were to her away again mr can never be anything to us and why should we grudge him to her and not try to mend this quarrel if he could on y know what straits she s put to and what s hovering he might come to take care of his own could we let him know they thought of this all the way to their by the convert tion but the bustle of re establishment in their new place took up all their attention then but when they were settled a month later they heard of s approaching return though they had learnt nothing more of upon th agitated anew by their attachment to him yet disposed to her the penny ink bottle they shared and a few lines were between the two girls d look to your l e if you do love her as much as she do love you for she is sore put to by an enemy in the shape of a friend sir there is one near her who ought to be away a woman should not be try d beyond her strength and continual dropping will wear away a ay e a diamond from two well this they addressed to angel at the only place they had ever heard him to be connected with after which they continued in a mood of exaltation at their own generosity which made them sing in hysterical and weep at the same time end of the sixth j by by the seventh by by tee fulfilment it was evening at the two customary candles were burning under their green shades in the s study but he had not been sitting there occasionally he came in stirred the small fire which for the increasing of the spring and went out again sometimes pausing at the front door going on to the drawing room then again to the front door it faced westward and though gloom prevailed inside there was still light enough without to see with distinctness mrs cl e who had been sitting in the drawing room followed him hither plenty of time yet said the he doesn t reach chalk till six even if the train should be punctual and ten miles of country road five of them in lane are not over in a hurry by our old horse but he has done it in an hour with us my dear years ago thus they passed the minutes each well knowing	45
that this was only waste of breath the one being simply to wait at length there was a slight noise in the lane and the old pony chaise appeared indeed outside the saw alight a form which they affected to recognize but would actually have passed by of the d by in the street without had he not got out of their carriage at the particular moment when a particular person was due mrs rushed through the dark passage to the door and her husband came more slowly after her the arrival who was just about to enter saw their anxious faces in the doorway and the gleam of the west in their spectacles because they confronted the last rays of day but they could only see his shape against the light o my boy my boy home again at last cried mrs who cared no more at moment for the of which had caused all this separation than for the dust upon his clothes what woman indeed among the most faithful of the truth believes the promises and threats of the word in the sense in which she believes in her own children or would not throw her to the wind if weighed against their happiness as soon as they reached the room where the candles were lighted she looked at his face o it is not angel not my son the angel who went away she cried in all the irony of sorrow as she turned herself aside his father too was shocked to see him so reduced was that figure from its former by worry and the bad season that had experienced in climate to which he had so hurried in his first aversion to the mockery of events at could see the skeleton behind the man and almost the ghost behind the he matched s dead his sunken eye were of morbid hue and the light in his eyes had the hollows and lines of his aged ancestors had succeeded to their reign in his face twenty years before their time i was ill over there you know he said i an all right now by fulfilment as if however to this assertion his legs seemed to give way and he suddenly sat down to save himself from falling it was only a slight attack of from the tedious day s journey and the excitement of arrival has any letter come for me lately he asked i received the last you sent on by the merest chance and after considerable delay through being inland or i might have come sooner it was from your wife we supposed it was only one other had recently come they had not sent it on to him knowing he would start for home so soon he hastily opened the letter produced and was much disturbed to read in s handwriting the sentiments expressed in her last hurried to him o why have you treated me so angel i i do not deserve it i have thought it all over carefully and i can never never forgive you you know that i did not intend to wrong you why have you so me you are cruel cruel i will try to forget you it is all injustice i have received at your hands i t it is quite true said angel throwing down the letter perhaps she will never be reconciled to me don t angel be so anxious about a mere child of the soil said his mother child of the soil well we all are children of the soil i wish she were so in the sense you mean but let me now explain to you what i have never explained before that her father is a in the male of one of the oldest houses like a good many others who lead obscure lives in our villages and are sons of the soil he soon retired to bed and the next morning feeling exceedingly he remained in his room pondering the amid which he had left were such that though while on the south of the and just in receipt of her loving it by of the d had seemed the easiest thing in the world to rush back into her arms the moment he chose to forgive her now that he had arrived it was not so easy as it had seemed she was pa and her present letter showing that her estimate of him had his delay too justly changed he sadly own made him ask himself if it be wise to her in the presence of her parents supposing that her love had indeed turned to dislike during the last weeks of separation a sudden meeting might lead to bitter words therefore thought it would be best to prepare and her family by sending a line to announcing his return and his hope that she was still living with them there as he had arranged for her to do when he left england he despatched the inquiry that very day and before the week was out there came a short reply from mrs which did not remove his embarrassment for it bore no address though to his surprise it was not written from j write these few lines to say that mv daughter is from me at present and j am not sure when she will return but j will let yoa know as soon as she do j do not feel at liberty to tell you where she is j should say that me and my family have left for some time yours j it was such a relief to to learn that was at least apparently well that her mother s stiff as to her whereabouts did not long distress him they were all angry with him evidently he would wait till mrs could inform him of s which her letter implied to be	45
are fairly well provided for without entering the house turned away there was a station three miles ahead and pa ring off his coachman he walked thither the last train to left shortly after and it bore on its wheels by at eleven o clock that night having secured a bed at one of the hotels and us address to his father immediately on his arrival he walked out into the streets of it was too late to call on or inquire for any one and he reluctantly postponed his purpose till the morning but he not retire to rest just yet this fashionable watering place with its eastern and its western stations its its groves of its and its covered gardens was to angel like a fairy place suddenly created by the stroke of a and allowed to get a little dusty an eastern tract of the enormous waste was close at hand yet on the very verge of that piece of antiquity such a glittering novelty as city had chosen to spring up within the space of a from its outskirts every of the soil was every channel an british not a sod having been turned there since the days of the yet the had grown here suddenly as the prophet s and had drawn hither by the midnight lamps he went up and down the winding ways of this new world in an old one and could discern between the trees and against the stars the lofty roofs chimneys and towers of the numerous fanciful of which the place was composed it was a city of detached a lounging place on the english channel and as seen now by night it seemed even more imposing than it was by fulfilment the sea was near at hand but not it murmured and he thought it was the pines the pines murmured in precisely the same tones and he thought they were the sea where could possibly be a cottage girl his young wife amidst all this wealth and fashion the more he pondered the more was he puzzled were there any cows to milk here there certainly were no fields to till she was most probably engaged to do something in one of these large houses and he along looking at the chamber windows and their lights going out one by one and wondered which of them might be hers conjecture was useless and just after twelve o clock he entered and went to bed before putting out his light he s impassioned letter sleep however he could not so near her yet so far from and he continually lifted the window blind and regarded the backs of the opposite houses and wondered behind which of the she at that moment he might almost as well have sat up all night in the morning he arose at seven and shortly after went out taking the direction of the chief post office at the door he met an intelligent coming out with letters for the morning delivery do you know the address of a mrs asked angel the shook his head then remembering that she would have been likely to continue the use of her maiden name said or a miss this also was strange to the addressed there s visitors coming and going every day as you know sir he said and without the name of the house tis impossible to find em one of his comrades hastening out at that moment the name was repeated to him by of the d i know no name of but there is the name of d at the said the that s it cried pleased to think that she had to the real what place is the a lodging house tis all lodging houses here bless ee received directions how to find the house and hastened thither arriving with the the though an ordinary villa stood in its own grounds and was certainly the last place in which one would have expected to find lodgings so private was its appearance if poor was a servant here as he feared she would go to the back door to that and he was inclined to go thither also however in his doubts he turned to the front and rang the being early the landlady herself opened the door inquired for d or mrs d yes then passed as a married woman and he felt glad even though she had not adopted his name will you kindly tell her that a relative is anxious to see her it is rather early what name shall i give sir angel mr angel no angel it is my christian name she ll understand i ll see if she is awake he was shown into the front room the and looked out through the spring curtains at the little lawn and the and other shrubs upon it obviously her position was by no means so bad as he had feared and it crossed his mind that she must somehow have claimed and sold the jewels to attain it he did not blame her for one i by fulfilment soon his sharpened ear detected footsteps upon the stairs at which his heart so pain fully that he could hardly stand firm dear me what will she think of me so altered as i am he said to himself and the door opened appeared on the threshold not at all as he had expected to see her indeed her great natural beauty was if not heightened rendered more obvious by her attire she was loosely wrapped in a dressing gown of grey white embroidered in half tints and she wore slippers of the same hue her neck rose out of a of down and her well remembered cable of dark brown hair was partially up in a mass at the back of her head and partly hanging on her shoulder the	45
evident result of haste he had held out his arms but they had fallen again to his side for she had not come forward remaining still in the opening of the doorway mere yellow skeleton that he was now he felt the contrast between them and thought his appearance distasteful to her he said can you forgive me for away can t you come to me how do you get to be like this it is too late said she her voice sounding hard through the room her eyes shining i d d not think rightly of you i did not see you as you were he continued to plead i have learnt to since dearest mine too late too late she said waving her hand in the impatience of a person whose cause every instant to seem an hour don t come dose to me angel no you must not keep away but don t you love me my dear wife because i have been so pulled down by illness you are not so i am come on purpose for you my mother and father will welcome you now t yes o yes yes but i say i say it is too late she seemed to fed like a fugitive in a dream who by of the d tries to move away but cannot don t you know all don t you know it yet how do you come h e if you do not know i inquired here and there and i found the way i waited and waited for you she went on her tones suddenly their old pathos but you did not come and i wrote to ou d you did not come he kept on saying you would never come any more and that i was a foolish woman he was very kind to me and to mother and to all of us after father s death he i don t he has me back to him looked at her keenly then gathering her meaning like one plague and his glance sank it fell on her hands which once rosy were now white and more delicate she continued he is upstairs i hate him now because he told me a lie that you would not come again and you have come these clothes are what he s put upon me i didn t care what he did wi me but will you go away angel please and never come any more they stood fixed their baffled hearts looking out of their eyes with a pitiful to see both seemed to something to shelter them from reality ah it is my fault said but he could not get on speech was as as silence but he had a vague consciousness of one thing though it was not dear to him till later that his original had ceased to recognize the body before him as hers allowing it to drift a corpse upon the current in a direction from its living will a few passed and he found that was gone his face grew colder and more as he stood concentrated on the moment and a minute or two after he f himself in the street walking along he did not know whither by mrs the lady who was the at the and owner of all the handsome was not a person of an unusually curious turn of mind she was too deeply poor woman by her long and enforced bond e to that demon profit and loss to retain much curiosity for its own sake and apart from possible pockets nevertheless the visit of angel to her well paying tenants mr and mrs d as she deemed them was sufficiently exceptional in point of time and manner to the feminine which had been stifled down as useless save in its bearings on the letting trade had spoken to her husband from the doorway without entering the dining room and mrs who stood within the partly closed door of her own sitting room at the back of the passage could hear fragments of the conversation if conversation it could be called between those two wretched souls she heard the stairs to the first floor and the departure of and the closing of the front door behind him then the door of the room above was shut and mrs knew that had her apartment as the lady was not fully dressed mrs knew that she would not again for some time she accordingly ascended the stairs softly and stood at the door of the front room a drawing room connected with the room immediately behind it which was a bedroom by folding doors in the common ms this first floor containing mrs s s by op the d best apartments had been taken by the week by the d the back room was now in silence but from the drawing room there came sounds all that she could at first distinguish of them was one syllable continually repeated in a low note of moaning as if it came from a soul bound to some wheel r o o or then a silence then a heavy sigh and again o o or i the landlady looked through the j only a small space of the room inside was visible but that space came a comer of the which was already spread for the meal and also a chair beside over the seat of the chair s face was bowed her posture being a kneeling one in front of it her hands were clasped over her head the skirts of her dressing gown and the of her night gown flowed upon the floor behind her and her ess feet from which the slippers had fallen upon the carpet it was from her lips that came the of unspeakable despair then a man s	45
voice from the adjoining bedroom what s the matter she did not answer but went on in a tone which was a rather than an exclamation and a rather than a mrs could only catch a portion and then my dear dear husband came home to me and i did not know it and you had used your cruel persuasion upon me you did not stop using it no you did not stop my little sisters and brothers and my mother s needs they were the things you moved me by and you said my husband would never come back never and you me and said what a i was to expect him and at last i believed you and gave way and then be came back now he is gone gone a time and i have lost him now for ever and he by fulfilment will not love me the bit ever any more hate me o yes i have lost him now again because of you in with her head on the chair she her face towards the door and mrs could see the pain upon it and that her lips were bleeding from the of her teeth upon them and that the long lashes of her closed eyes stuck in wet to her cheeks she continued and he is dying he looks as if he is dying and my sin will kill him and not kill me o you have torn my life all to pieces made me be what i prayed you in pity not to make me be again my own true husband will never never o god i can t bear this i cannot there were more and words from the man th i a sudden rustle she had sprung to her feet mrs thinking that the speaker was coming to rush out of the door hastily retreated down the stairs she need not have done so however for the door of the sitting room was not opened but mrs felt it to watch on the landing again and entered her own parlour below she could hear nothing through the floor although she intently and thereupon went to the kitchen to finish her interrupted breakfast coming up presently to the front room on the ground floor she took up some sewing waiting for her to ring that she might take away tiie breakfast which she meant to do herself to discover what was the matter if possible overhead as she sat she could now hear the floor boards slightly as if some one were walking about and presently the movement was explained by the rustle of garments against the the opening and the closing of the front door and the form of passing to the gate on her way into the street she was now in the of a well to do lady in which she had arrived with the sole addition that over her hat and black feathers a veil was drawn by op the d mrs had not been able to catch any word of farewell temporary or otherwise between her tenants at the door above they might have quarrelled or mr d might still be asleep for he was not an early she went into the back room which was more especially her own apartment and continued her sewing there the lady did not return nor did the gentleman ring his bell mrs pondered on the delay and on what probable relation the visitor who had called so early bore to the couple upstairs in reflecting she back in her chair as she ud so her eyes glanced casually over the ceiling till they were arrest by a spot in the middle of its white surface which she had never noticed there before it was about the size of a when she first observed it but it speedily grew as large as the palm of her hand and then she could perceive that it was red the white ceiling with this scarlet blot in the midst had the appearance of a gigantic ace of hearts mrs had strange of she got upon the table and touched the spot in the ceiling her fingers it was damp and die fancied that it was a blood stain descending from the table she left the parlour and went upstairs intending to enter the room over head which was the at the back of the drawing room but woman as she had now become she could not bring herself to attempt the handle she listened the dead silence was broken only by a regular beat mrs hastened downstairs opened the front door and ran into the street a man she knew one of the workmen employed at an adjoining villa was passing by and she begged him to come in and go upstairs with her she feared something had happened to one of her the workman assented and followed her to ttie landing a by l she opened the door of the drawing room and stood back for him to pass in entering herself behind him the room was empty the breakfast a substantial of coffee eggs and a cold ham lay spread upon the table untouched as wh i she had taken it up excepting that the carving knife was missing she asked the man to go through the into the adjoining room he opened the doors entered a step or two and came back almost instantly with a rigid face my good god the gentleman in bed is dead i think he has been hurt with a knife a lot of blood has run down upon the floor the alarm was soon given and the house which had lately been so quiet with the tramp of many footsteps a surgeon among the rest the wound was small but the point of the blade	45
had touched the heart of the victim who lay on his back pale fixed dead as if he had scarcely moved after the of the blow in a quarter of an hour the news that a gentleman who was a temporary visitor to the town had been in his bed spread through every street and villa of the watering place by meanwhile had walked along the way by which he had come and his hotel sat down over the breakfast staring at he went on eating and drinking till on a sudden he demanded his having paid which he took his dressing bag in his hand the only luggage he had brought with and went out at the moment of his a was handed to him a few words from his mother stating that they were glad to know his address and informing him that his brother had proposed to and been accepted by mercy chant up the paper and followed the route to the station reaching it he found that there would be no train leaving for an and more he sat down to wait and having waited a quarter of an felt that he could wait there no longer broken in heart and he had nothing to hurry for but he wished to get out of a town which had been the scene of such an experience and turned to walk to the first station and let the train pick him up there the highway that he followed was open and at a little distance dipped into a valley across which it could be seen running from edge to edge he had traversed the greater part of this depression and was climbing the western when pausing for breath he unconsciously back why he did so he could not say but something seemed to him to the act the like surface of the road diminished in his rear as far as he could see and as by fulfilment he gazed a moving spot on the white of its perspective it was a human figure running waited with a dim sense that somebody was to overtake him the form descending the incline was a woman s yet so entirely was his mind blinded to the idea of his wife s following him that even when she came nearer he did not recognize her imder the totally changed attire in which he now beheld her it was not till she was quite dose that he could believe her to be i saw you away from the station just before i got there and i have been following you all this she was so pale so breathless so quivering in every muscle that he did not ask her a single question but seizing her hand and pulling it within his arm he led her along to avoid meeting any possible he left the high road and took a under some fir trees when they were deep among the moaning boughs he stopped and looked at her angel she said as if waiting for this do you what i have been after you for to tell you that i have killed him a pitiful white smile lit her face as she spoke what said he thinking from the strangeness of ho manner that she was in some i have done it i don t know how she continued still i owed it to you and to myself angel i feared long ago when i struck him on the mouth with my glove that i do it some day for the trap he set for me in my simple youth and his wrong to through me he has come between us and ruined u and now he can never do it any more i never him at all angel as i loved you you know it don t you you believe it you didn t come back to me and i was obliged to go back to him why did you go away why did you when i loved you so by op the d i can t think why you did it but i don t blame you only angel will you forgive me my sin against you now i have killed him i thought as i ran along that you would be sure to forgive me now i have done that it came to me as a shining light that i should get you back that way i could not bear the loss of you any longer you don t know how entirely i was to b not loving me say you do now dear dear husband say you do now i have killed him i do love you o i it is all come back he said his arms round her with but how do you mean you have killed him i mean that i have she murmured in a reverie what bodily is he dead yes he heard me crying about you and he bitterly me and called you by a foul name and then i did it my heart could not bear it he had me about you before and then i dressed myself and came away to find you by degrees he was inclined to believe that she had faintly attempted at least what she said she had done and ins horror at her impulse was mixed with amazement at the strength of her affection for himself and at the strangeness of its which had apparently extinguished her moral sense altogether unable to realize the gravity of her conduct she seemed at last content and he looked at her as she lay upon his shoulder weeping with happiness and wondered what obscure strain in the d blood had led to this if it were an there flashed through his mind that the family tradition of the coach and murder might have arisen because the d had been known	45
to do these things as well as his confused and excited ideas could reason he supposed that in the moment of mad grief of which she spoke her mind had lost its balance and plunged her into this abyss it was very terrible if true if a temporary a by fulfilment sad but anyhow here was this deserted wife of his this passionately fond woman clinging to bim without a suspicion that he would be to her but a protector he saw that for him to be otherwise was not in her mind within the region of the possible tenderness was absolutely dominant in at last he kissed her with his white lips and held her hand and said i will not desert you i will protect you by every means in my power dearest love whatever you may have done or not have done they then walked on under the trees turning her head every now and then to look at him worn and as he had become it was plain that she did not discern the least fault in his appearance to her he was as of old all that was perfection personally and mentally he was still her her even his sickly face was beautiful as the morning to her affectionate r ard on this day no less than when she first beheld him for was it not the face of the one man on earth who had loved her purely and who had believed in her as e with an instinct as to possibilities he did not now as he had intended make for the first station beyond the town but still farther imder the which here for miles each clasping the other round the waist they over the dry bed of fir needles thrown into a vague atmosphere at the consciousness of being together at last with no living soul between them that there was a corpse thus they proceeded for several miles till herself looked about her and said are we going anywhere in particular i don t know dearest why i don t know ell we might walk a few miles further and when it if evening find lodgings somewhere or other in a lonely cottage perhaps can you walk well by of the d o yes i could walk for ever and ever with your arm round me upon the whole it seemed a good thing to do thereupon they quickened their pace and following obscure paths more or less northward but there was an in their movements throughout tiie day neither one of them seemed to consider any question of effectual escape disguise or long concealment their every idea was temporary and ending like the plans of two children at mid day they drew near to a f inn and would have entered it with him to get something to eat but he persuaded her to remain among the and bushes of this half half part of the till he should come back her clothes were of recent fashion even the ivory handled that she carried was of a shape in the retired spot to which they had now wandered and the cut of such articles would have attracted attention in the of a tavern he soon returned with food enough for half a dozen people and two bottles of wine enough to last them for a day or more should any emergency arise they sat down upon some dead boughs and shared their meal between one and two o clock they packed up the remainder and went on again i feel strong enough to walk any distance said she i think we may as well steer in a general way towards the interior of the country where we can hide for a time and are less likely to be looked for than anywhere near the coast remarked later on when they have forgotten us we can make for some port she made no reply to this beyond that of grasping him more tightly and straight inland they went though the season was an may the weather was serenely bright and during the afternoon it was by court s court the house in the new forest known as court in which and angel take refuge after the murder of d seems to have been drawn from s court situated in the of in the days of this house was the residence of dame who was taken from it to her execution at the house is said to be still haunted by her spirit by by by by fulfilment quite through the latter miles of their walk had taken them into the depths of the new forest and towards evening turning the comer of a lane they perceived behind a brook and bridge a large on which was painted in white letters this desirable mansion to be let particulars following with directions to apply to some london agents passing through the gate they could see the house an old brick building of regular design and large accommodation i know it said it is court you can see that it is shut up and grass is growing on the drive some of the windows are open said just to air the rooms i suppose all these rooms empty and we without a roof to our heads you are getting tired my he said we ll stop soon and kissing her sad mouth he again led her he was growing weary likewise for they had wandered a dozen or fifteen miles and it became necessary to consider what they should do for rest they looked from afar at isolated cottages and little and were inclined to approach one of the latter when their hearts failed them and they off at length their gait dragged and they stood still could we sleep imder the trees she asked he the season advanced i have been thinking of that empty mansion we passed	45
he said let us go back towards it again they their steps but it was half an hour before they stood without the entrance gate as earlier he then requested her to stay where e was whilst he went to see who was she sat down among the bushes within the gate and crept towards the house his absence lasted some considerable time and when he returned was wildly anxious not for herself but for him by op the d he had f out from a boy that there was only one old woman in charge as and she only came there on fine days from the hamlet near to open and shut the windows she would come to shut at sunset now we can get in through one of the lower windows and rest said he under his escort she went forward to the main front whose windows like excluded the possibility of the door was reached a few steps further and one of the windows beside it was open in and pulled in after hun except the hall the rooms were all in darkness and they ascended ihe staircase up here also the shutters were tightly closed the being done for this day at least by opening the hall window in front and an upper window behind the door of a la e chamber felt his way across it and parted the shutters to the width of two or three inches a shaft of dazzling sunlight glanced into the room revealing heavy old furniture crimson and an enormous four post along the head of which were carved running figures apparently s race rest at last said he setting down his bag and the parcel of they remained in great till the should have come to shut the windows as a precaution putting themselves in total darkness by the shutters as before lest the woman should open the door of their chamber for any casual reason between six and seven o clock she came but did not approach the wing they were in they heard her dose the windows fasten them lock the door and go away then again stole a of light ii uie window and they shared another meal till by they were enveloped in the shades of night which they had no candle to by thb night was strangely solemn and still in the small hours she to him the whole story of how he had walked in his sleep with her in his arms across the stream at the imminent risk of both their lives and laid her down in the stone coffin at the ruined abbey he had never known of that till now why didn t you tell me next day he said it might have prevented much and woe don t think of what s past said she i am not going to think outside of now why should we who knows what to morrow has in store but it apparently had no sorrow the morning was wet and and rightly informed that the only opened the windows on fine days ventured to creep out of their chamber and explore the house leaving asleep there was no food on the premises but there was water and he took advantage of the fog to from the mansion and fetch tea bread and butter from a shop in a little place two miles beyond as also a small tin kettle and spirit lamp that they might get fire without smoke his re entry awoke her and they on what he had brought they were to stir abroad and the day passed and the night following and the next and next till almost without their being aware five days had slipped by in absolute seclusion not a sight or sound of a human being disturbing their such as it was the changes of the weather were by op the d their only events the birds of the new forest their only company by consent they hardly once spoke of any incident of the past subsequent to their wedding day the gloomy intervening time seemed to sink into chaos over which the present and prior times closed as if it never had been whenever he suggested that they should leave their shelter and go forwards towards or london she showed a strange to move why should we put an end to all that s sweet and lovely she what must come will come and looking through the all is trouble outside there inside here content he peeped out also it was quite true within was affection union error forgiven outside was the and and she said pressing her cheek against his i fear that what you think of me now may not last i do not wish to your present feeling for me i would rather not i would rather be dead and buried when the time comes for you to despise me so that it may never be known to me that you despised me i ever despise you i also hope that but what my life has i cannot see why any man should sooner or later be able to help me how mad i was yet formerly i never could bear to hurt a fly or a worm and the sight of a bird in a cage used often to make me cry they remained yet another day in the ni t the dull sky cleared and the result was that the old at the cottage awoke early the brilliant sunrise made her brisk she decided to open the mansion immediately and to air it thoroughly on such a day thus it occurred that having arrived and opened the lower rooms before six o clock she ascended to the and was about to turn the handle of the one wherein they by fulfilment lay at that moment she fancied she could hear the breathing of persons within her slippers and her antiquity	45
had rendered her progress a noiseless one so far and she made for instant retreat then that her hearing might have deceived her she turned anew to the door and softly tried the handle the was out of order but a piece of furniture had been moved forward on the inside which prevented her opening the more than an inch or two a stream of morning light through the fell upon the faces of the pair wrapped in profound slumber s lips being parted like a half opened flower near his cheek tlie was so struck with their appearance and with the novelty of s gown hanging across a chair her silk stockings beside it the pretty and the other habits in which she had arrived because she had none else that her first indignation at the of and gave way to a momentary over this genteel as it seemed she closed the door and withdrew as softly as she had to go and consult with her neighbours on the odd discovery not more than a minute had elapsed after her when woke and then both had a sense that something had disturbed them though they could not say what and the uneasy feeling whidi it grew stronger as soon as he was dressed he narrowly the lawn through the two or three inches of i think we will leave at once said he it is a fine day and i cannot help somebody is about the house at any rate the woman will be sure to come to day she assented and putting the room in order they took up the few articles that belonged to them and departed noiselessly when they had got into the forest she turned to take a last look at the house by op the d ah happy good bye she said my life can only he a question of a few weeks why should we not have stayed there don t say it we shall soon get out of this district altogether we ll continue our course as we ve begun it and keep t north nobody will think of looking for us there we shall be looked for at the ports if we are sought at all when we are in the north we will get to a port and away having thus persuaded her the plan was pursued and they kept a bee line their long repose at the house lent them walking power now and towards mid day they found that they were approaching the of which lay in their way he decided to rest her in a of trees the afternoon and push onward under cover of ess at dusk food as usual and their night b an the boundary between upper and mid being crossed about eight o dock to walk across country without much r ard to roads was not new to and she showed her old in the performance the they were obliged to pass through in order to take advantage of the town bridge for crossing a large river that them it was about midnight when they went along the deserted streets lighted by the few lamps keeping off the pavement that it might not echo their footsteps the graceful pile of cathedral rose on their left hand but it was lost upon them now once out of the town they followed the road which after a few miles across an open plain though the sky was dense with a diffused light from some fragment of a moon had hitherto them a little but the moon had now sunk the seemed to settle almost on their heads and the night grew as dark as a cave however they found their way along keeping as on the turf as by fulfilment possible that their tread might not which it was easy to do there being no hedge or fence of any kind all was open loneliness and black solitude over which a stiff breeze blew they had proceeded thus two or three miles further when on a sudden became conscious of some vast dose in his front rising sheer from the grass they had almost themselves against it what monstrous place is this said angel it said she he listened the wind playing upon the edifice produced a tune like the note of some gigantic one harp no other sound came from it and lifting his hand and advancing a step or two felt the surface of the structure it seemed to be of solid stone without joint or carrying his fingers onward he found that what he had come in contact with was a colossal pillar by stretching out his left hand he could fed a similar one adjoining at an indefinite overhead something made the black sky which had the semblance of a vast the pillars they carefully entered beneath and between the their soft rustle but they seemed to be still out of doors the place was drew her breath fearfully and perplexed said what can it be sideways they encountered another pillar square and as the first beyond it another and another the place was all doors and pillars some connected above by continuous a very temple of the winds he said the next pillar was isolated others composed a others were prostrate their forming a wide enough for a carriage and it was soon obvious that they made up a forest of by op the d upon the grassy expanse of the plain the couple advanced further into this of the ta t till they stood in its midst it is said the heathen temple you mean yes older than the centuries older than the d well what shall we do darling we may find shelter on but really tired by this time herself upon an that lay dose at hand and was sheltered from the wind by a pillar owing to the action of the sun during the preceding	45
day e stone was warm and dry in contrast to the rough and chill grass around which had her skirts and shoes i don t want to go any further angel she said stretching out her hand for his can t we bide here i fear not this spot is visible for miles by day although it does not seem so now one of my mother s people was a shepherd now i think of it and you used to say at that i was a heathen so now i am at home he knelt down beside her outstretched form and put his lips upon hers sleepy are you dear i think y u are lying on an altar i like very much to be here she murmured it is so solemn and lonely after my great happiness with nothing but the sky above my face it seems as if there were no folk in the world but we two and i wish there were not except lu thought she might as well rest here till it should get a little lighter and he his overcoat upon her and sat down by her side angel if anything happens to me will you watch over lu for my sake she asked when they had listened a long time to the wind among the pillars i will by fulfilment she is so good and simple and pure o angel i wish you would marry her if you lose me as you will do shortly o if you would if i lose you i lose all and she is my sister that s nothing dearest people marry sister laws continually about and lu is so gentle and sweet and she is growing so beautiful o i could share you with her when we are spirits if you would train her and teach her angel and bring her up for your own self she has all the best of me without the bad of me and if she were to become yours it would almost seem as if death had not divided us well i have said it i won t mention it again she ceased and he into thought in the far north east sky he could see between tiie pillars a level streak of light the uniform of black was lifting bodily like the lid of a pot letting in at the earth s edge ihe coming day against which the towering and began to be defined did they sacrifice to god here asked she no said he who to i believe to the that lofty stone set away by itself is in the direction of the sun which will presently rise behind it this reminds me dear she said you remember you never would interfere with any belief of mine before we were married but i knew mind all the same and i thought as you thought not from any reasons of my own but because you thought so teu me now angel do you think we shall meet again after we are dead i want to know he kissed her to avoid a reply at such a time o angel i fear that means no said she with a suppressed sob and i wanted so to see you again so much so much what not even you and i angel who love each other so well by op the d like a greater than himself to the critical question at the critical time he did not answer and they were again silent in a minute or two her breathing became more regular her clasp of his hand relaxed and she fell asleep the band of silver along ihe east horizon made even the distant parts of the great plain appear dark and near and the whole enormous landscape bore that impress of reserve and hesitation which is usual just before day the eastward pillars and their stood up against the light and the great flame shaped beyond them and the stone of sacrifice presently the night wind died out and the quivering little pools in the cup like hollows of the stones lay still at the same time something seemed to move on the verge of the dip eastward a mere dot it was the head of a man them from the hollow beyond the sun stone wished they had gone onward but in the circumstances decided to remain quiet the figure came straight towards the circle of pillars in which they were he heard something behind him the brush of feet turning he saw over the prostrate columns another figure then before he was aware another was at hand on the right under a and another on the left the dawn shone full on the front of the man westward and could discern from this that he was tall and walked as if trained they all closed in with evident purpose her story then was true springing to his feet he looked around for a weapon loose stone means of escape anything by this time the nearest man was upon him it is no use r he said there are sixteen of us on the plain arid the whole country is reared let her her sleep he in a whisper of the men as they gathered round when they saw where she lay which they had not done till then they showed no objection and stood watching her as still as the pillars around he went by fulfilment to the stone and bent over her holding one poor little hand her breathing now was and small uke that of a lesser creature than a woman all waited in the growing light their faces and hands as if they were the remainder of their figures dark the stones glistening green grey the plain still a mass of shade soon the light was strong and a ray shone upon her form peering	45
o view from time to time set back far from the road in proud seclusion among groves of oak and now scarlet and gold with the early frost distance was nothing to this people time was of no consequence to them they desired but a level path in life and that they had though the way was longer and the outer world strode by them as they dreamed i was aroused from my reflections by hearing some one ahead of me calling turning the curve in the road i saw just before me a negro standing with a and a watering pot virginia in his hand he had evidently just gotten over the worm fence into the road out of the path which led across the old field and was lost to sight in the dense growth of when i rode up he was looking anxiously back down this path for his dog so engrossed was he that he did not even hear my horse and i in to wait until he should turn around and satisfy my curiosity as to the handsome old place half a mile off from the road the numerous out buildings and the large and stables told that it had once been the seat of wealth and the wild waste of that covered the broad fields gave it an air of desolation that greatly excited my interest entirely of my the negro went on calling until along the path walking very slowly and with great dignity appeared a noble looking old orange and white gray with age and with excessive feeding as soon as he came in sight his master began yes you you deaf as well as i s pose me i reckon t yo come on the sauntered slowly up to the fence and stopped without even a look at the speaker who immediately proceeded to take the rails down talking meanwhile now i got to pull down de gap i s pose yo so yo hardly walk able to over it as i is like white folks think you s white and i s black i got to wait on yo all de time ne ra mine i ain do it the fence having been pulled down sufficiently low to suit his he marched through and with a hardly perceptible movement of his tail walked on down the road putting up the rails carefully the negro turned and saw me he said taking his hat off then as if for having permitted a stranger to witness what was merely a family affair he added he know i don mean by what i he s s an he s so he long no he know i se im who is i asked and whose place is that over there and the one a mile or two back the place with the big gate and the carved stone pillars said the he s my young an places dis one s s an de one back de rock gate s is l s don nobody live now de war some one or bought our place but his name done kind o slipped me i beam on im i think s half i don ax none on em no odds i lives down de road a little piece an i steps down of a and looks de graves well where js i asked hi don you know he went in de army im yo know he warn an sam will you tell me all about it i said instantly and as if by instinct the stepped forward and took my bridle i a little but with a bow that would have honored old sir he the reins and taking my horse from me led him along now tell me about i said hit s so long ago i d a most all about it ef i been him ever he born tis i remembers it like yo know an me we boys i older n he de same he n me i born com time de spring big jim an de six got washed away at de upper ford right down b low de quarters he a de things home an he warn bom tell to de my sister married l s bout eight years well when born de s at home you ever did see de folks v all holiday like in de christmas we didn call im tell born he de so well his face shine pleasure an all de folks mighty glad too cause all loved and did step right when was at em warn han on de place but what ef he wanted would walk up to de back an say he warn to see de an ev bout de young an de maids an de bout de kitchen how de ever see an at dinner time de all on em holiday come de an ax how de an de young an come out on de an smile n a an rate boys an den he stepped back in de house sort o to f an in a minute he come out ag in de baby in he arms all wrapped up in an things an he is boys all de folks den went up on de to look at im hats on de steps an went up an n y down at we all all packed down like a o sight o me he my name cause i use to hole he fur im sometimes but he didn know all de by name so p in virginia many on em an he come up so up i goes like an old ain you s son i well he i m to give you to yo young to be his body servant an he put de baby right in my arms it s de truth i m yo an yo ought to	46
a heard de folks boy ll he won t i kin trust im and den he now sam from dis time you belong to yo young i wan you to on im long he lives you are to be his boy from dis time an now he carry im in de house an he walks me an opens de do s fur me an i im in my arms an lays im down on de bed an from time i was in de house to be s body servant well you see a grow so n y he up right big an he must have some so he im to school to miss down dis side o l s an i use to go long im an he books an we all s an when he to read an spell right good an got bout so o big miss she died an said he have a man to teach im an im so we all went to mr hall de school house de creek an we went ev y day sat d of co se an days din warn go an begged im off hit down took notice o miss anne mr hall he taught well boys an l he his daughter s miss anne i m about she a bit o when she come yo see her ma dead an miss she lived her an house for im an he so busy politics he didn have much time to so he miss anne to mr hall s by a a note when she come day in de school house an all de en looked at her so hard she tu n right red an tried to pull her long curls over her eyes an den put de backs of her little ban s in her two eyes an begin to cry to f he was on de een o de bench nigh de do an he j es reached out an put he arm her an her up to im an he to her an her name an her an n y she took her ban s down an begin to laugh well to a t fancy to each from time miss anne she warn but a baby hardly an he a good big boy bout thirteen years i reckon ever n y on each an yo me an l to like it bout well de en yo r in virginia see l s place j an it looked natural fur two en to marry an it one plantation it did fur de creek to run down de bottom from our place into l s i don rightly think de en thought bout married not den no mo n i thought bout when she a little at l s bout de house fur miss s spectacles but good s from de start he use to miss anne s books fur her ev y day an ef de road muddy or she tired he use to her an hardly a day passed he didn her some n to school apples or y nuts or some n he wouldn let none o de en her i one day one o de boys he finger at miss anne and school he im de school house out o sight an ef he didn im he de scholar mr hall an mr hall he mighty proud o im i don think he use to beat im much he did de he de head in all went on he in he lessons one day in summer fo de school broke up come up a storm right sudden an de creek one yo cross back yonder an he miss anne home on he back he ve y off n did when de muddy but dis day when come to de creek it had done washed all de logs way still mighty high so he put miss anne down an he took a pole an right in hit took im long up to de shoulders den he back an took miss anne up on his head an her right over at she but he her he could swim an wouldn let her hu t an den she let im her cross she in his ban s i warn long day but he n y did thing he so pleased bout it he a pony an rode im to school de day he come so proud an how he to let anne ride im an when he come home he hi where s yo pony said i give im to anne says she liked im an i kin walk yes i s pose you s already done her yo se f an thing i know you ll be her this plantation and all my well about a fortnight or a matter l over an invited all o we all over to dinner an named in de note ned brought an dinner he made his bring s pony a little side saddle on im an a beautiful little a new saddle an bridle on im an he up in virginia an a t speech an presents im de little an den he calls miss anne an she comes out on de in a little frock an puts her on her pony an his an goes to ride while de grown folks is a an an cigars good times de sam ever see in didn t all to do to ten to de an de an what de tell em to do an when sick had things em out de house an de same doctor come to see em ten to de white folks when po ly warn no trouble nor well things a change he went to de bo din school he use to write to me constant use to read me de letters an den i d miss anne to read em ag in	46
to me when i d see her he use to write to her too an she use to write to him too den miss anne she off to school too an in de summer time d come home an yo hardly whether lived at home or over at l s he over constant always or down in de river or sometimes he go over an im an she d go out an set in de yard de trees she up out she some sort o ii bright some n de all up g her an her hat th owed back on her neck an he to her out books an sometimes d read out de same book one an den i use to see em when up like den he run for an l he put up to run g by de but he beat im yo know he do co se he made l mighty mad and each lar like had been all long den l he sort o got in debt an sell some o he an s de way de fuss begun s de from he didn like nobody to sell an l o his he writ an offered to buy his m an all her en cause she married our an don yo think l mo n th ee fur m old bought her de an on m an a whole o he went to de sale an bid for em but l he got some one to bid g knocked out to an den a big an to co t off an on fur some years till at de co t decided m belonged in virginia to l den so mad he for a little strip o down on de line fence he said belonged to im body hit belonged to ef yo go down now i kin show it to yo inside de line fence it done bin ever since long born but a us man an he wouldn let nobody run over im no he wouldn so down to co t about fur i don know how long till beat im all dis time yo know back an for to college an up a ve y fine young man he a ve y likely man miss anne she done up too her up like use to put hers up an t bright de s mane when de sun on it an her eyes t big dark eyes like her pa s on y bigger an not so fierce an none o de young ladies she she an still set a heap o by one but i don think easy each when he used to her home from school on his back he use to love de ve y she walked on in my his face light up whenever she come into ch or anywhere like de sun come th oo a on it suddenly n den lost he eyes d yo ever bout didn yo well one night de big barn fire de stables yo know under de big barn an all de in hit to me like no time all de folks an de neighbors come an a water an a to save de po and got a heap on em out but de wouldn come out an a back an for inside de a an a like time come yo could em so pitiful an n y old said to ham he de driver go in an try to save em don let em bu n to death an ham he went right in an jest he got in de shed it fell in an de sparks shot way up in de air an ham didn come back an de fire begun to out under de over de an all of a sudden tu ned an kissed who nigh him her face white a s an anybody what he do jumped right in de do an de smoke come po in out im well i to tell judgment a de folks set up she down on her knees in de mud an prayed out loud hit like her r heard for in a right out de same do ham in his arms in ou virginia his s all flung water on an put im out an ef you b me yo wouldn a yo see he find ham done fall down in de smoke right by the he him an he to im back in his arms th oo de fire what done de front part o de stable and to keep de flame from down ham s th he his own hat and it all over ham s face an he ham from bein so much bu nt but he bu nt dreadful i his beard an all off an his face an ban s an neck terrible well he laid ham down an then he kind o staggered for ad an im in her arms ham he warn bu nt so bad an he got out in a month or two an a long time he got well too but he always stone blind that he could see none from night he home from college an he n y did faithful like a den he took charge of de plantation an i use to wait on im uke when we boys an sometimes we d slip off an have a fox hunt an he d be like he in times got an miss anne over to our house an de trees out de same book is he n y good to me made no bout he hit me a in his life an let nobody else do it i members one day when he a bit o boy o e done we all en not to slide on de straw an one day me an thought done gone way from home we watched him on he	46
an ride up de road out o sight an we out in de field a an a when up comes we started to run but he done see us an he called us to come back an a he did gi us he took an den he me up he hu t me but in co se i hard i could it cause i him stop he n open he long im but soon he commence me an i begin to he bu st out an right in an stop yo sha n t im he b to me an ef you hit im another i ll set im free i wish yo see he warn mo n eight years an old in he raised up an ma in virginia red an on to it an i b to im he raise de an den he it an broke out in a smile over he face an he de chin an tu n right an went away to f an i im an bout it so mighty long when got to bout de war a back an for ds bout it fur two or th ee years fo it come you know he was a an of co se he after he pa l he a he in favor of de war an and it a bout it all de time an soon l he went about ev an bout ought to an he picked up to talk im de way come to fight de i n y fur an he was cool yo see it happen so he a down at de deep creek tavern an he kind o got de of l all de white folks laughed an an l my i t ought he d a bu st he was so mad well when it come to his time to speak he light into he call im a traitor an a ab an i don know what all he cool till de l light into he pa soon he name i seen sort o up he head d yo ever see a he head up right sudden at night when he see to ds im from de side an he don know what tis l he went right on he said taught a ab dan he son i looked at an to f fo old l better an i got de out when l old o im out o he an piece o he s de i you bout well thing i i hit all happen right long like and thunder when they hit right at you i im say l what you say is false an yo know it to be so you have one of de an men ever made an but yo gray you well l he ra ed an he pitch d he said he wan too an he d show im so ve y well says de broke up den i in de out in de road by de een o de an i see an to mr an man and den he come out an got on de an galloped off soon he got in virginia out o sight he pulled up an we walked along tell we come to de road leads to ds mr s he de big lawyer o de country he tu ned all dis time he a to kind o to f now and den when we got to mr s he got down an went in in de late winter de folks to plough fur corn he stayed bout two hours an when he come out mr come out to de gate im an shake ban s he got up in de saddle den we all rode late den good dark an we rid hard we could tell we come to de school house at l s gate when we got got down an walked right slow de house a little while an de do to see ef it he walked down de road tell he got to de creek he stop a little while an picked up two or three little rocks an em in an n y he got up an we come on home he got down he tu ned to me an de s nose said have em well fed sam i ll want em early in de night at supper he laugh an talk an he set at de table a long time went to bed he went in de an set on de bed by im to im an im bout de an e but he mention l s name when he got up to come out to de office in ig de yard he slept he stooped down an kissed im like he a baby in de bed an he d hardly let go at all i some n up an i called im early light like he me an he dressed an come out n y like he goin to church i had de ready an we went out de back way to ds de river we rode along he said sam you an i boys wa n t we yes i we you have been ve y faithful to me he an i have seen to it that you are well provided fur you want to marry i know an you ll be able to buy her ef you want to den he me he goin to fight a an in case he should shot he had set me free an me to o me an my wife long we lived he said he d like me to stay an o an long lived an he said it wouldn be very long he reckoned de on y time he voice broke when he said an i couldn speak a my th oat choked me so when we come to	46
de river we tu ned right up de bank an bout a mile or a mat ter we stopped a little elder bushes on one side an two big trees on de an de sky all red an de water down to ds the sun like de sky in virginia n y mr he come a box bout so big fore im an he got down an me to all de an go de bushes i tell you bout off to one side an fore i got l an mr an dr call come from t way to ds l s when tied de went up to mr an some mr step off bout fur cross dis road or it be a little an den i seed em th oo de bushes de an talk a little while an den an l walked up de in ban s an he stood his face right to ds de sun i seen it shine on him it come up over de low s an he look like he did sometimes when he come out of church i so i couldn say l could shoot rate an he never missed den i mr say is yo ready and of em ready so an he fire one two an he said one l raised he an shot right at de ball went th oo his hat i seen he hat sort o settle on he head de hit it an he his up in de a r an shot bang an de went bang he to l i you a present to yo ly well had some i didn t rightly what it but it like l he warn t satisfied an wanted to have shot de seconds an n y put de up an an mr shook ban s mr an dr call an come an got on an l he got on his horse an rode away de like he did de day when all de people laughed at im i b l wan to shoot anyway we come on home to breakfast i de box de me on de would you b me he said a bout it to or nobody didn fin out bout it for mo n a month an den how she did cry and kiss an he never say much he please he call me in de room an made me im all bout it an when i got th oo he gi me five dollars an a of breeches but l he did an miss anne she got mad too is us s like a you can n hole on em like in virginia folks an when you m yo can n always hole em what me think so heaps o things dis he done gi miss anne her pa good i gi s sweet an she mad im if he kill im o sen in im back to her whole an b me she wouldn even speak to him don i member we fox bout six weeks or a matter de an we met miss anne long lady an two at her house always some one or co ting her well we meet em right in de road de time had see her de an he raises he hat he an she looks right at im her head up in de like she see im in her born days an when she comes by me she good sam i see like de look come on s face when she im like he gi de a pull im back down in de san on he he ve y lips white i tried to keep up im but no use he me back home n y an he rid on i to myself l don yo meet dis he ain bin de school house he an miss anne use to go to school to mr hall together fur he won no to day he come home night tell way late an ef he d been fox it ha been de red lives down in de he d been de way de up sweat an mire n y did hu t me he walked up to de stable he head down all de way an i se seen im go eighty miles of a winter day an into de stable at night fresh ef he over to l s to supper i seen a beat so i de from de fo lock an bad he he wan bad he didn over thing he did over it de war come on den an elected cap n but he wouldn it he said hadn an he by her den mr cap n i n y did wan to de place i he me im he wan sam an beside he look so po an thin i thought he die of co se she bout it an she met miss anne in de road an cut her like miss anne cut she proud anybody so we in virginia mo strangers dan ef we hadn live in a miles of each an he thinner an thinner an she come out an den he went to an an come back an he a private an he didn know r he could me or not he writ to mr ever an when he went i to go long an wait on him an de cap n too i didn yo know long i could go an i like mr well one night come back from de a say come at once so he to start he uniform all ready gray s an mine ready too an he had s sword de state gi im in de war an he trunks all packed ev in em an my was packed too an jim he em over to de in de an we to start bout light dis bout de	46
he d hardly open he you d a tho t he he used to look so but le im into danger an he use to be like times an like when he a boy when cap n got he leg shot off cap n on de spot cause one o de got de same day an one named mr wan no count an all de company said de man an he de same he didn never mention miss anne s name but i he on her constant one night he by de fire in camp an mr he de lieutenant got to bout ladies an he say all sorts o things bout em an i see kinder mad an de lieutenant mention miss anne s name he been miss anne bout de time fit de her pa an miss anne kicked im he mighty rich cause he warn but a an cause she like i believe she didn speak to im an mr he got in virginia drunk an cause l im not to come no more he got mighty mad an yo bout he an he mention miss anne s name i see tu n he eye on im an keep it on he face and n y mr said he some fun he didn mention her name time but he said all on em a of an her pa wan no man anyway an i don know what he say he said it fur he got far up an hit im a crack an he fall like he been hit a fence rail he to fight a an he de challenge an fight but some on em im wan a present o him to his ly an he got somebody to k up de but he to fight an soon he de company well i got one o de to write a letter for me an i her all bout de fight an how knock mr over fur o l an i her how a fur love o miss anne an she miss anne to read de letter fur her den miss anne she tells her pa an you mind tells me all dis an she say when l hear bout it he set tin on de an he set still a good while an den he to f well he earn he p bein a an den he up an walks up to miss anne an looks at her right hard an miss anne she done tu n away her an out she a rose bush g de an when her pa at her her face got de color o de roses on de bush and n y her pa anne an she tu ned an he do yo want im an she yes an put her head on he shoulder an begin to cry an he well i won between yo no longer write to im an say so we didn know bout dis den we a an a all time an come one day a letter to an i see im start to read it in his tent an he face hit look so an he han s trembled so i couldn out what de matter im an he de letter up an out an way down de camp an stayed bout nigh an hour well i on de for im when he come back an fo ef he face didn shine like a angel s i say to f um m ef de glory o ain done shine on im an what yo he me im an he tell me in virginia he done a letter from miss anne an he eyes look like t big stars an he face like when de sun up over de low an i see im in de in he han at it an not but what it be de time an he done up he mine not to shoot l fur miss anne s sake what writ im de letter he de letter was in his han up an put it in he inside pocket right on de side an den he me he tho t we some warm in de two or th ee days an ef im he d a leave o absence fur a few days an we d go well night de orders come an we all to over to ds an we rid all night till bout light an we halted right on a little creek an we stayed till time an i see set down on de a bush an read letter over an over i watch im an de battle a goin on but we had orders to stay de hill an ev y now an den de bullets would cut de limbs o de trees right over us an one o big shells what goes would fall right us but he didn mine it no mo n den it to closer an thicker and he calls me an i up an he sam we sc goin to win in dis battle an den we ll go home an married an goin home a star on my collar an den he ef i m wounded me home yo hear an i yes well den boots an an we mounted an de orders come to ride de slope an s ny de an when we got we right in it hit de place ever dis got in an said charge em an my king ef ever you see bullets fly did day hit like hail an we down de slope i long de an up de hill right to ds de an de fire so strong a whole o down de our lines sort o broke an stop de l was an i b bout to k all to pieces when rid up an de an me an rid up de hill de	46
i seen im when he went de four good ahead o ev y like he use to be in a fox hunt an de whole right im yo ain hear thunder thing i de roll head over heels an flung me up g de bank like yo a over g de foot o de corn pile an s what me from bein i she say she think providence but i think de bank o co se providence put de bank but how ok virginia come providence saved when i look de by me stone dead a cannon ball gone th oo him an our men done on t side from de top o de hill mo n a de come back his mane an de rein down on one side to his knee says i fo i done kill an i promised to care on him i jumped up an run over de bank an a whole lot o dead men an some not dead one o de guns de still in he han an a bullet right th oo he body lay i tu n im over an call im but no use he done gone home i pick im up in my arms de still in he han s an im back like i did day when he a baby an gin im to me in my arms an he could me an tell me to on im long he lived i d im way off de out de way o de balls an i laid im down a big tree till i could somebody to de for me he a while an i some money so i got some pine plank an made a coffin an s body up in de an put im in de coffin but i didn nail de top on strong cause i wan see im an i got a an set out for home night we reached de all night an all day hit like we so for when we got home she for us done up in her best es an n at de head o de big steps an in his big cheer we up de hill to ds de house i de an de long de over de saddle she come down to de gate to meet us we took de coffin out de an d it right into de big parlor de pictures in it use to dance in times when a an miss anne use to come over an go into her chamber an her things off in we laid de coffin on two o de cheers an said a she looked so an white when i had tell em all bout it i tu ned right an rid over to l s cause i what he d a wanted me to do i didn tell nobody i cause yo know none on em hadn speak to miss anne not de an didn know bout de letter when i rid up in de yard miss anne a in on de me i rid up i tied my to de fence an walked up de in virginia she by de way i walked de an she mighty pale i my cap down on de een o de steps an went up she opened her right still an keep her eyes on my face i couldn speak den i my voice an i say he done got he her face was mighty an she sort o shook but she didn fall she tu ned an said me de all when de come she put on her bonnet an ready she got in she to me yo brought him home an we drove long i when we got home she got out an walked up de big walk up to de by f done fin de letter in s pocket de love in it while i way an she a on de de time cry when she find de letter an she n y did cry over it well miss anne she walks right up de steps up to in on de an falls right down to her on her knees an den flat on her face right on de at dress her two ban s so stood for bout a down at her an den she down on de by her an took her in her arms i couldn see i so f an ev but went in a while in de parlor an de do an i em say miss anne she de coffin in her arms an kissed it an kissed an call im by his name an her an in tell some on em went in an found her done faint on de she s my wife she tell me she miss anne when she she wear mo fur im i don know how is but when we buried im day she de one walked de coffin an she walked next to em well we buried in de de wrapped im an he face like it did down in de low s de new sun on it so peaceful miss anne she went home to stay she stay an long lived warn so mighty long cause he died fall when fur wheat i had married den an she warn long him we buried her by him next summer miss anne she went in de died an fo fell she come home sick de fever yo would a her fur de same miss anne she light a piece o an so white her eyes an her an she on in virginia an weaker she n y did her faithful but she got no de fever an s bein done strain her an she died fo de folks free so we buried miss anne right by in a place us to leave an d y s on em sleep side by side	46
n else besides in my cause when de ladies went upstairs night miss had to wait on de steps for a glass o water an couldn nobody it but george an den when she tell him over de he couldn say it good enough he got to kiss her hand an she ain do but peep upstairs ef anybody an when i come de do she her hand way a ran upstairs as as she could s george look at me sort o an say confound you couldn been very good to you an i say she le me my thirst her hand an he sort o laugh an tell me to keep my but ain de on y time i come on em al an de we come way i in de an sort o hide way miss she down an george he over her got her hand to he face right low an right sweet an she ain say an he on one knee by her an slip he arm her an try to look in her eyes an she so to look at him she got to hide her face on he shoulder an i out we come way next when bout it he didn to de notion at all cause her pa is he warn her own pa cause he had married her ma when she a after miss pa died an he politics warn same as why you kin never stand him he said to george we won t mix any mo n fire and water you ought to have found that out at college fellow darker is his son george he say he know but he on y de step of de young lady an ain got a o her blood in he veins an he didn know it when he meet her an anyhow hit wouldn meek any virginia fence an when de see how george is on it she he side an fix it cause when warn to do a thing hit good as done i don how much he an ain do it you well go long an put on you hat you see him it as a lamb she him like she got bridle on him an he ain know it so she got him straight as a string an when de time come for george to go he mo bout it n george he ain say bout it but now he an mo questions bout he does an he horse an all an he gi him he two sunday an gi me a o boots an a hat cause i him to he an he water say ef he marry a he at least must go like a man an me an george had done settle it us cause we al set we traps on de same well we got em an when i ax out on de wood pile night she say bein as her own me an we got to be in de same estate she reckon she ain to be able to o me an den i her oh she a beauty a gesture and completed the recital of his conquest und s yes we got em he said presently couldn persist us we crowd em into de fence an run em off den come de an ev smooth as silk george an me over constant on y we did over bein when we up road all hit like ev in de at us one george say d you ever see as many p one way in you life when i a house he say i have all de way but when i see miss come out de parlor her sort o over her face an some roses on her an her eyes so soft an sweet an george long her so like she got chain him i say ain oh like holiday all de time an den miss come over to see an of co se she bring her maid her cause she to have her maid you know an de of all bout sunset come up in de big de trunk on de seat behind an she by an george inside by he rose bud cause he had done gone down to bring her up an in virginia he done been in he blue coat an ever dinner an up de road all de time an de he reckon ain an she try to him an she come out an in her stiff black silk an all an when de come in sight ev an when draw up to de do george he help her out an her to an an he start to meek her a bow an she put up her like a little to be kissed an got him an her right in her arms an kiss her twice an de servants all an ev you you see a cause all warn see de young good for george ain be married tell de next fall count o miss bein so young but she good as b to we all now an an as much in love her as george hi warn pull de house down an bull it over for her an ev y han on de place he to try to a look at he young he b to one all on em come de porch an send for george an when he come out brown he al de speaker cause he got so much kin talk pretty as white folks he say warn to de young an pay to her an george lead her out on de porch s at her her face rosy as a wine sap apple an she meek em a beautiful bow an speak to em ev y one george de names an brown he meek her a pretty speech an tell her we mighty proud to own her an one o ax	46
her to gin her white frock when she married an when she say well what am i goin wear sally say lord honey george dress you in pure an she look up at him sparks out her eyes while he look like ain good for her an so when she went way sally got frock an proud on it i tell you oh yes he her tender hi when she go to ride in him de ain no horse block good for her george got to have her step in he hand an when out he got de t over her all de time he so feared de sun kiss her an walk so slow down walks in de shade you got to sight em by a tree to tell ef tall she use to look like she used to it too i tell you cause she quality one de white ones an she d set in big cheers her little on de george al set for her he so feared d de like she on her throne an he d watch her as george an when she went way hit was hit look like daylight in virginia gone her i don know which i miss miss or den george was to de an darker run for de an george vote gin him and beat him an commence de fuss an den man gi me de an an he heart you see after george days warn no ev y sort o worms up one piece o paper d ain know what on in a didn but vote den an took an vote out loud like well george de parties as even balanced as an ax george who to be de he vote for de de old an beat him of co se an ain got sense to know he to vote he politics he he vote for i don ef he is miss pa much less her of co se de ain speak to him is george ax him to but who s pose women folks got to put in too miss she write george a let ter him he set up all night letter an he mighty solemn i tell you an i right myself cause i bout down i s done gi my to an when ain no letters come hit hard to tell which one de me or george den i so long o it i ax aunt it she know all things cause she a years an seed evil an got up her an an she ax me what de an i tell her i ain able to eat nor to sleep an come long me when i sleep like as as ef i see her an she say i done de done me oh me you white folks don b like y all got too much sense cause y all kin read but ain know no better an i cause aunt say my coffin done de up de well i got so bad george ax me bout it an he sort o laugh an sort o an he tell aunt ef she don stop foolishness me he ll sell her an her house down well co se he an he ax me next day how d i like to go an see my sweetheart i got well so i set off next big as my pass in my pocket which i warn to show nobody i to cause george didn t warn nobody to know he le me go an den o in virginia de shut my back but ef george didn pay him de o it i done long so good too when see me she was she come de in de back yard i in s do he de gardener her all done an out mighty fine an a clean ap on fringe on it out she so s to see me all a lie cause some on em done her i an she say hi what dis black an i say who you you faced thing you den we shake hands an i tell her george done set me free i done buy myself s de lie i done lay off to tell her an when i her she bust out an say well i better go long way den she don warn no free to be ny for her sort o set me back an i tell her she fo she i ain got her in my mine i got a at home bout me ve y minute an after i tell her all lies as she ax me ain i an ef didn her to gi me de m i kin e it now wheat bread off de table an an fat bacon tell i couldn put a n i d my hat night i water for her an i tell her u s i all bout ev an she sweet as honey next do she done sort o some an ain so sweet you know how milk sort o an when she see me she gin to me say i to fool her an all de time got wife at home or ready to one for all she know an she ain know george ain as i is an mine she got plenty warn marry her an as to miss she got de whole mr darker he ain got nobody in he way now he all de time an ain west no mo well me so i tell her ef she say bout george i knock her an she got so i meek out i way an her an went up de barn an up thing i know i come across ar man mr darker soon as he see me he begin to me an he ax me what i on land an i tell him an he say well he gi me some n he	46
go an he ain even de bed i thought she he die but i suppose he done he in virginia days to be long in de land an save him but hit an he went off de plantation an he got older an older tell we all thought he die an one day come christmas bout nigh two year after die mr ride up to de do he had done come to george home to christmas him george warn out it but mr won no he say he he boy an he done name him after george he had marry george cousin miss an he george to de but he wouldn go do i did want him to go cause i miss was to marry mr darker an i warn know what done come o bright i used to know down an he say george got to come an for him an gi him a silver cup an a rattle so george he finally promise to come an spend christmas day an mr went way next an den hit in an rain so i feared we couldn go but hit off de day christmas eve an cold well we ain been for so long i as a young an den you know de same place we didn till supper time an a good one too cause seventy miles cold a weather hit a man s like a s y glad to see we all we rid by de back yard to gi de horses an we see an den we went to de house jest as some o de folks run in an tell em we come when george in de hall all clustered him like him faces pleasure an miss she up an him in her arms an him tell me in de kitchen been of miss over to spend christmas too but de river so high s pose couldn cross int me well after supper de had a dance hit down in de wash house an de table set in de carpenter shop by oh hit beautiful miss an miss had ev own hands so down ap up to an had de big silver out de house two on each table an some o s best an s bowl full o egg hit look big as a mill pond in de an had flowers out de on de table an some o de out de house an de room cheers set de room oh oh warn too good for times an de little right an an in de way you an de in virginia in de wood logs look like stock you saw an de fire so big hit look like you kill cause hit cold night dis ain it jack he had come cross de river to lead de an he say he had to put he fiddle he coat an he bow in he breeches leg to keep de strings from an de river would over ef so high but an he had hard to over in he an say he ain come out he boat house no mo night he done tempt providence often day den ev ready an de got an up an lively i tell you as thick in as on de bush cause ev y on de plantation her foot for some young buck an back for to go long a an jack he de for to wake em up i warn cause i done got an to de since de trouble done us up so rank but i tell you my for a on it an i had to come out to keep from em den loo i had a o misery in my back an i lay off to a e o egg out big bowl snow drift on it from miss she al mighty fond o george so s i slip into de carpenter shop an ax her i do for her an she laugh an say yes i kin drink her health an gi me a an den de white folks come in to de tables george in de lead an all fill up glasses an pledge health an all de servants an a merry christmas an den went in de wash house to see de an maybe to a hand cause white folks ain like you know got so much kin dance an fool de devil too an i stay a little while an den went in de kitchen to see how supper on cause i so when i got i ain able to eat at one time to it an de smell o de an de o mutton in de tin by to feed a right man an a whole parcel o an bout for life an faces as shiny as ef done e em an back in a cheer out de way her clean frock up off de i did feel curious i say hi name o d you come from she say oh ef ain free an ev laughed well we come out cause warn see de an we stop a while hind de out de wind while she tell me bout ev an she say s all a lie she tell me day bout mr to in virginia darker an miss an he done gone way now for good cause he so low down an nobody stand him an all he warn marry miss for is to her but say miss could abide him he so she fine out what a lie he told bout george you know mr darker he done meek em think george me to fine out ef he done come home an den he fall on him he when he ain him an sort o out de way too an two to hold him while he beat him all cause he in love miss d you ever ever a lie an say do miss	46
ain b it all hit look so reasonable she done le de an her ma who on what she her to send back he things an ain know no better not tell after de die den fine out bout de me an all an den miss know i ain stay day an she say bout it but it too late den an miss do but cry bout it an she did cause she done lost george an done he life an she bout nobody else george say mr he on but miss she done tell him she ain marry nobody an done come she say cause had to go way round by de rope long o de s river bein so high an ain know tell done out de an in de house we all an say she glad ain cause she feared ef had miss wouldn a come den i tell her all bout george cause i know she to tell miss powerful cold out but i ain mine she done had to her arms up in her ap on an she meek no tall an dis ain bout cold den an den two ladies come out de carpenter shop an went long to de wash house an say miss now an miss an miss an we miss miss to go her she kin come right out an den a shout an we went in em george had done de fiddle an ef he warn hit down he up at de een o de room way from we all cause we at de do nigh miss she hind some on em her eyes on him mighty timid like she from him an ev y in de room on so warn a in room you couldn you on an you couldn a so proud o george for em well danced tell you couldn tell which de an which de back de whole in virginia house look like it an somebody say supper an stop em an a spell for a minute an george de fiddle in he hand he face away an he bout christmas so long ago an he face down on de fiddle an he he bow cross de strings an begin to whisper right hit begin so low ev had to stop an hold to it an george he ain know bout it he done gone back an in de hall it for miss done come down de steps her little blue an fan an in her dim blue dress an her arms an her eyes in he face so earnest he ain speak to no mo i see it by de way he look an de fiddle he it out as fine as a o miss s hit so sweet miss she couldn it she made to de do an while she george to keep him from her he look way an he eyes fall right into well de fiddle down on de an he face white as a limb say a in de head he had an jack say de whole fiddle warn de five dollars me an followed em tell went in de house an den we come back to de shop de s supper on an got we all supper an a o out big bowl an den we all to de wash house an got de big bush o from de an ef you ever see s de time well me an she had done lay off de whole christmas when come george want he horses i went but it me up an i wonder de name o george sen me cold night an as i got to de do george an mr come out an i know george home i seen he face by de light o de lantern an set rigid as a rock mr he him to stay he tell him he he life he s some mistake an be all right an all de answer george meek to swing up in de saddle an he look like he he al mighty fool when he cold horse well we come long way an mr an two come down to de river to see us cross cause dark as pitch an fo i started i got one o de to my horses an i went in de kitchen to warm an an she say miss right now cause she think george cross de river count o her an she m a little herself when i tell her good by but too late den well de river b an hit like a mill dam by an when we got george to me an tell me he reckon i better go back i ax him he an he say home den i you i says i mighty but me an george boys an he plunged right in an i cold as ice an we hadn got in horses for life he to me to de head up de stream an i did try but what s a to water hit pick me up an dash me down like i ain no mo n a an de thing i know i down de stream like a piece of bark an water all over me i den i gone an i for george for help i him answer me not to but to hold on but de an de water all over me like ice an den i washed off de back an got i member up an for help but i know den tain no use ain no help den an i got to pray to an den some n hit me an i went down an de next thing i know i in de bed an i em bout i dead or not an i ain know myself tell i taste de po down my an den tell me bout how when i s george back	46
lay an her eyes i do b she laugh mo em n her she de light o dis plantation when she d come in you house like you d back de an let piece o de sun in on de you could see by her an he used to her i don o in virginia you see one she up at him her back out her big brown eyes an try in to do what he do when went footed she had to go footed too an she d him down to de mill pond th oo an ev her little white an in em but she ain mine so he ain her s de way tell went to college or you as well say tell he went in de army cause he home ev y christmas an holiday all de time he at de an al got somebody or him you keep bees way after fine de bush an young used to be her constant hit look like ef she her hit all on em to pick t up so mr i tell i one on em be son in law but say de herself an em an ain love none on em hard as an so know her cap n ain come when cap n come know it an ef don know it when he come know it p when he go way we rich den quarters on ev y hill an mo n you could tell names used to be thirty in de an mo n you kin count den went in de war you too lady a story of the war i young to know bout say you s so this in ready acquiescence to my reply that every knew of the war well hit like when it start de ladies for it n de um rank at didn know what hit come so sudden one i was right by de po ch an ride up in de yard i see him time he de curve o de avenue i know he seat cause i him to ride hands set him up on de horse time he ever de saddle when he little fat legs couldn to de little well i call an lady an come out as he gallop up in de yard he speak to me an run up de t steps an him right in her arms an him an when she le him go her face look mighty an when went into de house i notice taller n he at christmas an he han em in stately like he pa he done come home to go in de army an he done stop in to he permission cause he feared he ma let him go it an he say mr an heap o de boys done an gone home to raise companies say grieve might ly when tain nobody see her an she got her do locked heap her for him but she ain say a bout he goin she nor lady ambitious bout it in virginia de goes heads up till you know after you ain see but ready an an tents an an an n up de folks winter an when fetch he s o de home an put on he boots an spurs i done black an he seat on nay han on de place but what say to em ef come close enough well so he went off to de war an left hand went him to wait on him an ten to de horses and an lady ain had time to cry tell rid de curve an m tu n an wave he hat to em in on de po ch an den tu n an walk in de house right quick her an lock f in her chamber an lady set down on de steps an cry by f de een o de times an ain had to de ground down in de oh yes he come back said he presently in answer to a question from me but de war had been on for mo n a year he did heaps o soldiers used to come d up de t road an de plantation sometimes an eat up ev on de place but he ain home he to stay to keep de back he l an he all de time lady a story of the war he two or th ee balls th oo he an he cap he write we all bout it two bring de blood but not much he say sort o bark him oh him ev y chance d d plump at him same as when you d plump at de middle man but ain him but one when we ain from him in long time an think he up in de valley ride right up in de yard an face light up to see him tell she look like a young he say he ain got long to stay de army down de big road an he to right back to he bat ry he ride cross to see he ma an lady an all on us he say an he mighty cause he ain had to eat early de day an he want me to feed at de rack an lady she him bout in de house he ma he arm her an in he he a man an he ma don t she think it a fine all de girls say tis an bout ev an she come out an tend to him some n to eat her own hands an he n y did eat hearty an den he come way an he stoop down an kiss he ma an lady an tell em he to be a l one days an she ain able to say but look at him wistful as he went down de steps den she	46
run down after him an virginia him after he on de an kiss him an out she say she ain him but she love him so much he kiss her mighty two or th ee times an den she let him go an he come an on he horse an rid way at a gallop out de back gate he cap on de side he head an went in de house an horse warn go up de stable right den de day we hear de way down de country like thunder right study an and lady set on de po ch an listen to em face mighty solemn all day long an night bout de crow left hand come home on de gray an knock at an say done shoot in de breast an he don t know he dead or not he say he warn dead when he come way but de doctor him an he had sent him after he ma to come to him at once an he had been hard all night long ever sunset an say he bat ry de on de an he post it on de o de woods in a oat like you know an he drive de enemy out an he see him when he lead he bat ry cross de oat he guns all six in a gallop an he and in de lead an shells all him an he de man in de he say an he fall as he jump he horse over an den he lay an fight he guns tell he faint an lady a story of the war say de l say he d been he bat ry day den a been president de states well she had jump out o bed de step o in de yard she hadn even off her es an she stand still like she ain good her face like she done dead lady she tell to tell me to de as soon as i kin an to tell her please to come quick an when day broke i at de gate de done feed my horses an a good bag o clean in de boot she come out lady an an her face n y i ain know tell i see de way she look how it hu t her but i been see dead folks look better n she look den all she say try an me an i say yes m i m to ef ll le me i did her too ef i didn meek horses but dead i see as many in my life as i see an full on em an good as dead de road up em all know bat ry say hit de in de fight an it cut all to pieces an n y a man i ax as he gallop past me rein up he horse an say he in virginia know him well an he shot an left on de he done off he cap when he see an lady in de an he voice mighty low an he say shot bout fo o clock he bat ry an he did splendid he voice sort o passionate an he face so pitiful when he say i know tain no hope to save him an ef i in time s all drive on quick says an i on i done meek up my mine to she an lady to i for night ef u le me an i did too mon i see de soldiers all long de road look at me an some on em to me i go way but i ain pay no to em i push on an n y a little ridge i see de house de man done tell me bout in de oat bout a half a mile ahead an i for it when th ee or fo in de road de ridge a little piece me say halt i ain pay no to em drive on so an halt ag in an when i ain stop den drive on right study a face run up an head an one done p int he gun right at me i say you le go de horse mon ain you got no better sense n to horses horse way le go de horse head don you me lady a story of the war i ef i warn i bout to wrap my whip him when open de do an step out she say she wan go on say she do it den she say she her son in de house an she to him she talk mighty but mighty hke sort o reason her but she walk on by her head up an tell me to her an i did mon an em in de road gun de whole army couldn a keep her den i got to de house an drive up nigh as i could fur de t cross de yard look like folks been a man come to de do an ax is he live yet he say yes still alive an she say where an went right in an lady her an i say he open he eyes as she went in an sort o smile an when she kneel down an kiss him he whisper he ready to go den an he too he went night in he mother s arms an lady an at he side like i em i was do when i start home an he as peaceful as a baby he he ma when he he had try to do he duty an like times when he used to go to sleep in her lap in he own room her arms him sen me fur a lance night an we put him in de coffin in virginia went cross de yard to de house and i put head in and say de down de hill	46
you ought to a seen face lady hands in her lap and she looked at so anxious she me but do her face tu n mighty white t warn mo n a minute she right quiet and her head as straight as lady she says to her hadn you better stay here no says she i will go with you come on says she and walked out de do and locked it her and put de key in her pocket as she got rid into de yard an in a minute it as full of em as a bait go d is o g one an an an an outside de yard an de stables ain ax nobody no odds bout an as to key ain got no use fur bu st a do down quicker n you kin it in de smoke house an de quicker n i been you bout it but ain nor lady in de front do as study as ef fur somebody come to dinner come up de steps an say th oo de house there is no one in there said lady a story of the war what are you on de po ch says one sort o like a thing on he shoulder i always receive my visitors at my front says don t you invite em in says he sort o an by her den i a an we tu n an de hall right full on em had come in de back do right an walk into de house right quick lady long her right straight th oo em all she walk an up to room do she her back g it de side all over de house by dis time an ev want an didn want an what didn up but soon as see at do come right up to her i want to go in says one de same one had spoke so to de on de po ch you do it says well i m goin to says he you are not says at him right study her head up an her eyes i had my axe in my han an i mighty but i know ef he had lay his han on de i was split him wide open he know better n to her do he sort o like he warn her an all de stop an listen in virginia who s in says he no one says well what s in says he the memory of my blessed dead says she speak so solemn hit to kind o stall him an he give back an some n n y do one come up nigh de do an say to where is you son we want him beyond your reach says her voice o an lady bu st out his grave is in de she says her to her eyes i couldn no mo i a grip on my axe an i ain know what a happen but he took off he hat an tu n way an den a nigh de do i thought must be some on em got to one i somebody s voice an and em thieves an hounds an in a minute i de like he on barrel head an i see a s o de like wheel an de men in de hall an as de one jump off de po ch a young man an walked in de do he s o de back in he when he got t in he off he cap an bout half way up to we all he say i madam for out lady a story of the war ages officers ought to be shot for it it is against all orders i don t know it is our first says we are much to you though t i myself says he up a little closer to we all an bow very grand i think i may claim to be a at least of my young southern cousin here a bow to lady at him i m half myself i am captain the son of colonel of de army says he it is impossible says low n him was a do he lived at de he my husband s cousin an my dear friend he come from new york or an he had been co tin same time co t her i know him well he gi me a satin a likely man too but beat him you know he do but you cannot be his son nor a never virginia but i am says he sort o an i have as a boy often hear him speak of you we claim no among virginia s enemies says lady fur de time her eyes an of han an if virginia f up mighty straight she by her ma i tell you had de same de don fly fur de stump but he so likely in de t hall he bow an he cap n i think she d gi n in ef it hadn been fur blue uniform an t s o de by he side de seemed to hut him ous do an he raise he head up mighty like we all folks when she add on to lady an answer he quest bout dinner he had come to possession says she de whole place his an he could give what orders he please on y she an lady would quest to be excused an she took lady han an a t bow start to sweep by him but ain ahead o him de out he meek a low bow f an say he beg he intrude on ladies an he sort o back right stately to de front do an bow done gone he down de steps i i right sorry fur him an i b an lady too cause he n y did favor when he r	46
to try an save him an he d like to a had horse too but he was shot so bad he fear d tain much show fur him as he sort o knocked out he senses when he fall as well as shot an he say he a young an meek a splendid charge i a letter out he pocket to him an tis now he says cap n he says it to lady when he say lady ain say an she tu n an walk in lady a story of the war room right quick an de do easy den n y she come out an ax lady to have de an den she walk up to de doctor an ax him won he go down her to de place he young cap n an bring him to her house an she say he her husband cousin an she obligations to him so went honey down to de battle all de road an n when we all went down to de after de road so full of wounded an when we fine him right at gap he fall right an had ed him over de hill an do all say he to die she had him up an right to her house an when we got home she lead de way an went straight long th oo de hall an she opened de do f an him right in an lay him right down into some say hit cause he s but she know an she say hit cause bout i ain know tis but into put him an he stay good an an lady to him same like he f a spell do i tell you all de well an gone he know he dead or live after de battle an all de sort o let down ag in had to keep her room right constant and all de an fall on lady an an in virginia n y did do part faithful by all on em till one an den went away cause you know we couldn tell when de to come an drive our back an our soldiers didn want to be an moved way an n y warn none but cap n an he still in de an he eyes wide open an ain know de doctor say he wound better but he got fever an he hole out much longer say he d been dead long ago but he so strong an one night he went to sleep an de doctor come over camp an say he wan wake no mo he reckon a chance ef he ain an he ax lady kin she keep him sleep she reckon an she say she ll try an she did mon she sick in an ain nobody to him lady an she set by all night an fan him right easy all night long all night long she fan him an sun up he open he eyes an look at her she gone in de tire to death an she say as she tip in he open he eyes an he look at lady so by him den he he eyes a little while an sleep a little mo den he open em an look ag in an sort o smile like he know her an den he went to sleep good an she de fan an de to her own room to yes she did thing she did an i him say lady a story of the war loi afterwards f he wake up all he could think bout he it to heaven well after eh lady she him to an an y he able to be out on de big po ch up a shawl an things in a big arm an cause she took to her an room right constant lady she got to entertain him oh she n y did him him out o books an by him on de po ch see he done he pay an she to on him den cause she kind o for an he n y satisfied he gray eyes her study ev she tu n like some pictures up in de parlor i members de day he walked he done her and she try to him but he in he mind when he done meek it up and she got to gi in like women folks after done some and he up and walk down de steps and cross de yard to a rose bush nigh de gate red roses on it she by he side sort o anxious when he talk a little while den he one and gi t to her and come back well he hadn back to he cheer come two or th ee th oo de place one on em a l and what ride em our and stop at de gate to de way to de tree ford down on de river i in virginia and lady she went down to de gate to ax em to light and to tell em de way by de pond and when she de sun from her eyes a fan and de rose tp er hand cause she ain got on no hat de say you have a d soldier yes he s a officer on she says and he say off he hat soldiers wouldn envy him he prison v nd den she bows to him sort o like ana her face as de rose de cap n gi what she and when done rid an ain stop she ain gone back to de po ch she come out and gi me a whole o directions bout de border i t all de rose done in her bosom you d think de way lady read to him on de big po ch she done he her ner and virginia enemy she ain do she as rapid to up	46
hill i say horse got heap o sense he know he hot an he ain hu t f don how he is he up to de stable now i say an i got to go up an le him in but o he tu n by de an come de house to i an stop an i well ef don beat lady a story of the war any horse ever in de how he know i when somebody say good i n y disappointed a man in de dark on a t black horse an say he wan me to show him de way th oo de place he ax me ef i warn sleep an i tell him nor i den he ax me a whole o questions bout and an all an say he kin to em an he used to know a long time ago den i ax him to light an tell him we d all be mighty glad to see him but he say he to right on an he keep on how an how been an ef sick an all an so n y i ain tell him no mo all well an den he ax me to show him de way th oo an when i start he ax me he go th oo de yard de he warn go an i tell him yes an le him th oo de back gate an he ride cross de yard on de as he ride by de nigh de gate he lean over an i thought he a off an i tell him not to lady rose bush she set mo by den all de an he say tis a rose bush an he come long to de gate a rose in he hand he ax me which is room and i tell him de one by de po ch an he say he s pose don use much now de so small an i tell him nor lady room right next to dis side ai he stop an look in virginia good den he come long to de gate an when i ax him which way he he say by de tree ford an blessed ef de ain bring up things i done general up to de gate an lady her eyes de rose de cap n done gi her oflf same bush an de l say he envy him he prison i see him plain as ef he me an him de way to de tree ford but den i some n an he lean over an some n heavy in my hand an i ken say a he gone in de dark and when i back to de light i find six t big gold pieces in hand look like t o butter an ef t hadn been for a believe a dream but de money an de horse track an de limb done pull off lady rose bush i hide de money in a de j and i p int to tell lady bout it but she say i ain know who tis s and so i ain den and i folks bout th oo de yard at night and so i ain say but when i lady bout somebody done her rose bush an steal one of her roses i mighty nigh tell her who i b an i would on y i don t you know t do to lady a story of the war well no t while after de war broke de spring bout corn time on y we ain plant much cause de team so weak an together done clean us up an an lady had to gi a deed o on de to buy a new team spring we could up de corn land an we hadn mo n half done fo fall an de folks all free den de army th oo an some on em come by home an ev y blessed s horse an mule on de place one mule george an won have him times an ef lady an didn cry not cause de horses an we done get use to an meek em mad and high spirited but cause done fall an l lee surrendered ef didn cry when fall but say ain meek no l lee whip em but when l lee done surrender gin up wouldn b it but n y grieve bout much as when die she ain she al sickly and in bed like after and lady and use to her after de year or so o de folks went away lady she tell em better go l fine kin do mo for em en she kin now heap on em say ain way but after we so po went o virginia way do lady sell some diamonds to buy em some n to eat while well so ve y long after dis or after fall get a letter de l s cap n he done l den her he want her to le him come down an see her an lady an he been love lady all de time he wounded in de war an al will love her an won she le him help her any way he owe an lady he life em read it de letter might ly an she put it in lady ban s an tu n way a lady say set right still a minute an look mighty solemn den she look at sort o sideways an den she say tell him no an went over an kiss her right an i de letter write to de office well so much time after begin to sue on s debts we her in de co t an she to her bed lar so much trouble an say she hope she won live to see de place sold an lady she got to	46
an hit did she to bout it cause lady to it to her now and at it like she got better on it she mo o ev an her eyes look bright and shiny she ain know not bout how hard lady been had to she say she keep on after her to f some new es a dress an things an she an lady would smile tired like an say she now and don want no mo n she got an her smile meek me sorry like she lady a story of the war so hit went on tell de sale an one day lady she done her ma in her cheer by de she done fix her good pillows an she done gone to school an come out i de mule on de ditch bank an say wan see me i gi de lines an i went in an knock at de do an when ain i went an knock at de do an she tell me to come in an i ax her how she is an she say she ain got long to stay us an she wan ax me some n and she wan me tell her de truth an she say i al been mighty faithful an kind to her an an she hope will me an for it an she wan me now to tell her de truth when she talk way hit n y hu t me an i her i n y would tell her faithful den she went on an ax me how we on an ef we ain been mighty po an ef lady ain done f more n she ever know an i tell her all bout it ev like it de fatal truth cause i done promised her an she n y was grieved i tell you an the tears roll down an off her face on de pillow an n y she say she hope would forgive her an she out her breast little rocks gi her when she married been an she say she gin up all the but she keep to gi lady when she married an now she feared pride an done punish her her i in virginia starve but she ain know hit an ance he forgive an she went on an talk bout an times when she come home a bride an bout an lady tell she mo my heart an de tears rain down my face on de she n y talk beautiful den she gi me de diamonds an shine like a handful of an she tell me to em an on em an gi em to lady some time after she gone an not le nobody else have em an would n me an good o her an stay her and not le her so hard an i tell her we n y would do den her voice gin out an she mighty tired but hit look like she got some n still on her an n y she say i come close she mighty tired an i sort o ben her an she say she wan me after she gone as soon as i kin to get the to m h lady s cousin wounded o de war she dead an ef he kin help her an be her she know he ll do it an i ain to le lady know bout it not t all an to tell him he been mighty good to her an she him her den she so faint i run an call an she come an gi her some an tell me to de mule an go after lady an so i did when she got do done speechless done her in de bed which wan t no trouble she so lady a story of the war light she know lady do an try to speak to her two or th ee times but ain meek out much mo n would bless her and on her an she die right easy an lady ax me to pray an i did she n y die peaceful an she look like she after she dead she n y ready to go well and lady lay her out in her frock an she ly look younger n i ever see her look fell ef she ain look younger n she look de war an de neighbors de few s left an de black folks an we bury her de after in the right side her bom we know she wan be an her she went in de house after to stay at night in the room lady an i sleep on the front po ch to de house cause we n y bout de she ain sleep an she ain eat an she ain cry none an say ain reasonable which taint cause cry sort o but so de time she cry she come in house an fling f on de bed an cry so grievous cause sell de place an kill her ma she ain cry no mo well after we done bury as i we n y bout lady hit look like what de doctor say n y so an she right after her ma in virginia i try to meek her ride de mule to school an tell her i ain got no use for him i got to thin de com but she t she say he so po she don like to gi him no mo n necessary an s de fact he mighty po bout den cause de feed done gi out an de grass ain come good an when mule an he mighty hard to up but he been a good mule in he time an he a good mule so she d go to school of a an me or one d go to meet her of a to her books cause she hardly	46
able to f den an she do right well at school de un all love her when she got home she so den her mind sort o itself an she set down an think an study an look so grieved hit n y did hut me an to see her at de o her head on her han an out out all de so and she look beautiful too say she herself to death well went on for mo n six weeks and de ev y night all by f de moonlight all over her her look so pale she tell me one night i got to do some n an i say what tis an she say i got to de say to de cap n de need a an i say how and she say i got to write a letter den i say i neither read nor write but i can get lady to write it lady a story of ike war an she say nor i cause ain done lar lady ain to know bout it den i say i kin somebody at de to write it an i kin pay em in eggs an she say she ain have no po white folks an bout business i say how i do den an she study a little while an den she say i got to de mule an go fine him i say hi good how i fine him de cap n live way up in new york or or an s further n g an i ll ride de mule to death i besides i ain got to feed him but got to all she say i got tongue in head an i kin fine de way an as to de mule to death i kin down an le him or i kin lead him an i kin him side de road ef nobody le me him in den she study little while an den say she got it now i must go to an sell de mule an de money an on de an fine him i know she it cause she al a powerful han to anything but it n y did hu t me to part mule he a ambitious mule an i tell i ain done corn an she say ain meek no she de com after i gone and de so she feared she ll die an what good corn do den she mo n she in virginia say so i to go to but one light an she wash t day an cook while lady at school well i knock off right early bout two hours be sun cause i wan rest de mule an after him for a while in de yard i put him in he stall an gi him a half o meal cause de night i feed him and soon as i went in de meal he ch his tail an f uke he kick me s de way he al do when he got anything g you cause you a fool or anything cause mule got a heap o sense when you know em well i think he cause i sell him an i at him right ambitious like i cut him in two to fool him ef i kin an meek him b tain de matter an den i a horse long right brisk an i stop an listen an de horse come long de right study an up de stable i say hi who an when i went to de stall do a man on a strange horse two white an a beard on he face an he hat pulled over he eyes to keep de sun out n em an when he see me he ride on up to de stable an ax me is lady at de house an how she is an a whole o questions an he so p in he i ain had time to study ef i ever see him but i don think i is he a mighty straight lady a story of the war fine man do he face right brown like he been an i ain able to fix him no ways den he tell me he o death an he come cross de ocean an he wan see lady lar an i him she at school but it time for her come back an he ax an i show him de an he down an ax me ef i feed he horse an i tell him of co se do knows i ain got to feed him but i ain le him know so i ax him to walk to de house an a seat on de po ch tell lady come an i de horse and him in de stable like i got de corn house full o corn an when i come out i look an he way cross de long de lady well i say hi now he to meet lady an i ain know he name what he want an i study a little while i should go an fin or hurry f an meet lady not b he speak out de way to lady cause he n y quality i see i know hit time i look at him so straight on he horse me of and he voice hit easy when he name lady name and but i ain know but what he somebody wan to buy de place an i know lady ain wan talk bout an ain wan see strangers no way so i lip out cross de th oo a in virginia way to hit de at dis ve y place de gap an i thought lady mighty apt to ef she tired or an i hurry long right swift to de white man kin an all de time i tu in i anybody got voice sound deep an cl ar	46
like an ax questions ef lady well anxious an i it an by time i done got right to de tu n in de out o an as i tu round o bushes i see lady right on de de gap use to be her books by her side on de her hat off at her feet an her head for ard in her ban s an her tumble down an de sun it th oo de bushes an hit all come to me in a minute as clear as ef she on de gap de rose leaves done all on de by her an cap n her han to comfort her an her she le him come back some time to love her an i say fo ef i ain know him soon as i lay eyes on him de done come den i know mule act so an den he come long down de he hat on de back o he head an he eyes on her right an he face look so tender hit look right sweet she think hit me an she ain move nor look up tell he call her name den she jump out her w r an lady a story of the war seat and look up right swift an give a sort o cry an her face light up like she tu n t to de sun an he out he ban s to her an i slip back so he couldn see me an come long home right quick to te i tell her i know him soon as i see him but she tell me i lie cause ef i had i d a come an tell her bout hit an not gone down white folks an she say i ain have no sense bout not folks he couldn fool her an i don b he could a tho i ain low to cause hit don do to too much mighty up by it an den ain al want it well she went in de house an ev an fix all de furniture straight an set de table for two a thing ain been done not sick an den i see her lady rose bush mighty busy an when she me in de room a whole o flowers she done put in a blue dish in de middle o de table an she as bout thing as ef a fifty cents somebody done gi her well den she come out an a as she ef she ain got more an on fire den i been see fur i don know how long it do me good well n y come mighty aged like an i think it all right an went up on de po ch an shake hands a long time an den in virginia you know he tu n an come down de steps an she gone in de house her to her eyes i call right quick an say hi good a mighty what de now an she look den a d she tu n an walk right straight long de to de house an went in th oo de room an into de hall ail she fine de done fling herself down on her face on de sofa like her heart broke an she ax her what de matter an she say an say what he been to you an she say an say you done sen him way an she say yes den she tell her what tell me de day she die an she say she stop sort o but she hold de pillar right tight like she in agony an she say n y please go way an come way an come s an de cap n when he come down de steps he went to lady rose bush an pull a rose off it an put t in a little book in he pocket an den he come down we house an he face mighty pale an an he n y glad to see me an he laugh a little bit at me for him fool me but i tell him he done got so likely an agreeable de reason i ain know him an he ax me to he horse an den come out de house an she ax him he an he he home an he don reckon he ll lady a story of the war ever see us no mo an he say he thought when he come maybe be an he had hoped maybe he d a been able to prove to lady some n he wan prove an get her to le him o her an we all s what he come ten thousand miles fur he say but she got some n in her mine he say she over an now he got to go way an he say he want us to on her an stay her al and he meek it right an he he name in a man an gi me he dress an i come up ev y month an what he and report how we all is an he say he ain got to do now but to try an reward us all fur all our kindness to him an keep us easy but he wa n back he guess cause he got no mo hope now he know lady got on her mine he over an he look down in de the when he say an he voice sort o broke she him th oo right study an he face look mighty sorrowful an he voice done gin out when he say lady got that on her mine he over den she an him he n y ain got much sense ef he come all way he say an way lady de been f her ma die she ain know what she wan an got in her mine an ef	46
n to mr an say kin i get a fresh horse i kin ride home an get de proof an be back in five hours ef i can get a fresh horse i ll buy him and pay well for him too it s forty miles an back says mr i kin do it i ll be back at half past twelve o clock sharp says de l up he watch an on he gloves an tu to de do well he look so sure o what he kin do i feel like i to help him an i say i ain t know lady twenty th ee or twenty one cause i ain got no but i know she born on sunday de wheat time two years after born i in on de horse when he a baby an went in de an got he bat ry in de battle cross de oat down g an de l say he been him den president de states an he s sleep by he ma in de at home now i bury him an hit s l on he tomb stone now de l tu n an look at mr an mr look out de cause he know so cause he in bat ry you needn you ride says he sort o lady a story of the war an de l pick up a pen an write a little while an den he read it an he had done write what i say for an mr meek me kiss de book cause true an he say he spread it in de so for all de to see den we come on home i a horse de l done hire to rest de mule an i tired as he but de l he as fresh as ef he start an he bring me a nigh way he learnt in de war he say when he used to slip th oo de lines an come at night forty miles to look at de house an see de light shine in lady de preacher an he wife when we home but you know lady ain satisfied in her mine she say she do love him but she don know she ought to marry him cause she ain got nobody to her but he says he be her from dis time an he lead her to de do an kiss her an she went to ready an de lady her an her wait on her while i wait on de l an be he body servant an he warm water to an he cut off all he beard he cause lady say de man she knew didn no beard on he face an she n y she an so she le me come in own house well n y we ready an we come out in in virginia de hall an de l went in de parlor be married an de preacher he in an while we fur lady an i slip out an got up in de j ice an out little rocks gin me an blow de dust off em good and good ef didn shine i put em in pocket an put on clean t an come long back to de house hit late now an de sun all cross de yard an th oo de house an de l he so impatient he set still he he bit so he up an walk bout in de hall an he n y look handsome an young like he did day he stand he cap in he hand an lady say she ain claim no kin him an he say he intrude on ladies an back out de front do he head straight up an ride to her de letter an now he in de hall to marry her an all on a sudden fling de do wide open an lady walk out ef i didn think a angel she white as snow her head to way back down on de her an her veil done fall her like white mist an some roses in her han ef it didn look like de sun done come th oo de do her an blaze all over de an de l he look like she him an an she while we way day done fine dress an veil an all down to de lady a story of the war fan an little slippers bout big as two little white ears o pop corn an de dress had sort o all over it say was lace an hit fit lady like put it in de trunk for her well when de l done tell her how beautiful she is an done meek her walk bout de hall her train an she over her shoulder at it an den at de l to see ef he proud o her he gin her he arm an den i walk up her an things out pocket an de l her arm an back an i put em her an on her arms an gin her de an put em on her ears an shine like stars but her face shine n an she mo put arms neck her eyes over an den de l gi her he arm an went in de parlor an an me em an picture an when he a little boy down at em married an when de preacher to part ax who give dis woman to de man he sort o wait an he eye sort o to me like he ax me ef i know an i don know but i think bout an when he ax me an all dead an all de we done been th oo an how de ain got nobody to her part now me an now in virginia when he wait an look at me way an ax me i to speak up i step forward an	46
say an den de sun crawl de an on her like it light all over her an night when de preacher was gone he wife an done off to sleep i in de do pipe an i em on de front steps voices in low like bees an de moon sort o over de yard an i sort o got to an hit like de plantation live once mo an de ain no mo an de times done come back ag in an i horses in de an de place all cleared up ag in an fence all de an i smell de wet blossoms right good an an lady done come back an all me up on knees me an me to go while somehow lady an de l on de steps voice low like water in de dark an he broke off rising from the ground on which we had been seated for some time he mo like n he like he lady a story of the war pa an he ain so but he ain fur him i said he s named go way he said who name man after a a little awe little e ef you don come long boy an rock dis i ll you open screamed the high pitched voice of a woman breaking the stillness of the summer evening she had just come to the door of the little cabin where she was now standing anxiously the space before her while a baby s plaintive wail rose and fell within with monotony the log cabin set in a in the middle of an old field all grown up in was not a very inviting looking place a few about the new hen house a brood of half grown chickens picking in the grass and watching the door and a pig tied to a were the only signs of yet the face of the woman cleared up as she gazed about her and afar off where the gleam of green made a pleasant spot where the corn grew in the river bottom for it was her home and the best of all was she thought it belonged to them a of distant thunder caught her ear and she stepped down and took a well worn garment from the clothes line stretched between two forks and having after a keen glance down the path through the bushes satisfied herself that no one was in sight she returned to the house and the baby s voice rose louder than before the mother as she set out her table raised a like hymn which she partly from habit and partly in self defence she carefully the ragged shirt she had just taken from the line and then after some search finding a needle and cotton she drew a chair to the door and proceeded to mend the garment dis de on shut got she said as if in apology to herself for being so careful the cloud slowly gathered over the pines in the direction of the path the fowls carefully tripped up the path and after a prudent pause at the hole disappeared one by one within the chickens picked in a gradually circuit and finally one or two stole to the cabin door and after a brief came in and fluttered up the ladder to the where they had been born and yet once more the baby s voice prevailed and once more the woman went to the door and looking down the path screamed awe little awe little ma m came the not very distant answer from the bushes why n t you come long boy an rock dis in virginia yes m i came the answer she waited watching until there emerged from the bushes a queer little headed by a small who staggered under the weight of another apparently nearly as large and quite as black as himself while several more of various degrees of struggled along behind ain t you me you boy you better come when i call you til you all to pieces pursued the woman in the of keys her countenance however appearing the head of the stooped and deposited his burden carefully on the ground then with a look of mingled alarm and he slowly approached the door keeping his eye on his mother and picking his opportunity slipped in past her just enough to escape a blow which she aimed at him and which would have him flat had it struck him but which in truth was intended merely to warn and keep him in wholesome fear and was purposely aimed high enough to miss him allowing for the certain the having stifled the with which he was prepared flung himself on to the foot of the rough plank cradle and began to rock it violently and using one leg as a and singing an accompaniment of which the only words that rose above the noise of the were by a by don t you cry go to sleep little baby and sure enough the baby stopped crying and went to sleep watched his as she scraped away the ashes and laid the thick of on the hearth and the hot ashes upon it supper would be ready directly and it was time to her he himself of a message say you must bring he shut he say he to night how he say he is inquired the woman with some interest he ain say say he want he shut he is he down in de then having relieved his mind went to sleep in the cradle down in de quoted the woman to herself as she moved about the room i ain bout is a man he say he used to live on dis plantation an he al bout de house an de fine used to have an bout he to buy him back de ain been no house	46
on dis place not i know bout it de house man live i say aunt tell him de house used to be on de hill oak tree is in de pines bu nt down de year he bom an he had to live in virginia de house an hit break he heart an all he an s de way he come to to we all but man ain know bout house cause hit bu nt down i wonder he did come from she pursued an what he name he couldn been named so ain no name tall ef he ain tain nobody is he ain even know he own name she continued presently say he know him when he come ain know de folks is free say he buy him back in de summer an him home an bout de money he gi him ef he got any money i wonder he live down in evil hole and the woman glanced around with great complacency on the picture walls of her own by no means furnished house money she i aloud as she began to in the ashes he ain got i got to him piece o dis bread now and she went off into a dream of what they would do when the big crop on their land should be all in and the last payment made on the house of what she would wear and how she would dress the children and the appearance she would make at meeting not reflecting that the sum they had paid on the property had never even with all their amounted in any one year to more than a few dollars over the rent charged for the place and that the eight hundred ou dollars yet due on it was more than they could make at the present rate in a lifetime ef had a mule or even somebody to help him she thought but he ain got de n ain big to do but eat he ain got no an he took way an sold down de same time my dead buy him s what i em say an i know he s dead long dis cause i em say virginia earn hit long hit so hot hit em up an i reckon he die he i say die of a heart after he an sell em he face i aunt say an he might ly on he servants on named little an used to wait on him dis a been a place days to what say she went on say he live strong rich as cream an he blue coat an brass buttons an lived in house up de pines is now an bu nt down like he owned de an now look at it man own it all an all de woods off it he don know bout black folks ain been up em who ever he name fo he come an buy de place an move in de house an charge we all eight hundred dollars for dis land cause it got little piece o bottom on it an forty eight in virginia dollars rent besides he wife even gi way an expression of mingled disgust and contempt concluded the reflection she took the ash cake out of the ashes it first on one side then on the other with her hand it with her apron and walked to the door and poured a of water from the over it then she divided it in half one half she set up against the side of the chimney the other she broke up into smaller pieces and distributed among the children dragging the sleeping limp and soaked with sleep from the cradle to receive his share her manner was not rough was perhaps even tender but she used no caresses as a white woman would have done under the circumstances it was only toward the baby at the breast that she exhibited any her nearest approach to it with the others was when she told them as she out the ash cake ain t got else but she have plenty o good meat next year when done pay for he land hi who out she said suddenly run to de do son an see who and the whole tribe rushed to inspect the new comer it was as she suspected her husband and as soon as he entered she saw that something was wrong he dropped into a chair and sat in moody silence the picture of fatigue physical and mental after waiting for some time she asked indifferently what de matter man what he done do now the was sharp with suspicion he say he ain let me have my land he s a half said the woman with sudden anger how he help it ain you got on it she felt that there must be a defence against such an outrage he say he ain wait no longer i to have tell christmas to finish for it an i ain do it an now he done change he tell dis christmas said his wife with the of one accustomed to yes but i tell you he say he done change he the man had evidently given up all hope he was dead beat de s said she affected by his surrender but prepared only to compromise he say he all for de rent and he drive way too he ain but po white it expressed her supreme contempt he say he ll gi me one week mo to pay him all he ax for it continued he forced to a by her intense feeling and the instinct of a man to in virginia defend the absent from a woman s attack and perhaps in the hope that she might suggest some escape he ain po white she repeated how you raise eight hundred dollars at once nobody do he ain got good sense	46
you ain see corn lately is you he asked hit as rank you can see it ef you look at it good s strong land i know when i buy it he knew it was gone now but he had been in the habit of calling it his in the past three years and it did him good to claim the a little longer i wonder is said the woman he was the son of her former owner and now finding her proper support failing her she instinctively turned to him he wouldn let him turn we all out he ain got an ef he is he get it in a week said you it in de co t s he say he have it ef i don out said her husband her last defence was gone ain you she inquired what you got i kill a chicken for you it was her nearest approach to tenderness and he knew it was a mark of special attention for all the chickens and eggs had for the past three years gone to swell the fund which was to buy the home and it was only on special occasions that one was spared for food the news that he was to be turned out of his home had fallen on him like a blow and had stunned him he could make no resistance he could form no plans he went into a rough estimate as he waited le me see i done for it three years dis christmas done gone how much does meek an fo dollars an five dollars an two dollars an a half last christmas from de chickens an all ducks i done sell he wife an de i been for em how much is his wife s what i say his wife endeavored vainly to remember the amount she had been told it was but the for washing changed the sum and destroyed her reliance on the result and as the chicken was now approaching perfection and required her attention she gave up the and applied herself to her duties also abandoned the attempt and waited in a reverie in which he saw corn stand so high and rank over his land that he could scarcely distinguish the b and a stable and bam and a mule or may in virginia be it was a possibility and two cows which his wife would milk and a green wagon driven by his boys while he took it easy and gave orders like a master and a patch and wheat and he saw the yellow grain waving and heard his sons sing the old harvest song of cool water while they swung their and you say he turn out too inquired his wife breaking the spell the chicken was done now and her mind to the subject yes say he tired o on he place an no rent good a mighty pay rent for pile o logs ain t he been he shoes an harness for rent all years kill man to tu n him out house said he ain stay away from a hour he come assented his wife then she added in reply to the rest of the remark den we ll see what he got in to a woman that was at least some compensation s thoughts had taken a new direction he al feared he d come for him while he way he said in mere continuance of his last remark he sen me he to night an he want he shut said his wife as she handed him his supper s face expressed more than interest it was tenderness which softened the rugged lines as he sat looking into the fire perhaps he thought of the old man s loneliness and of his own father torn away and sold so long ago before he could even remember and perhaps very dimly of the beauty of the sublime devotion of this poor old creature to his love and his trust holding steadfast beyond memory beyond reason after the knowledge even of his own identity and of his very name was lost the woman caught the of his sympathy de say he mighty an he down in de she said rose from his seat you i go to see bout him he said simply ain you finish i dis to him well i kin cook you when we come back said his wife with ready acquiescence in a few minutes they were on the way going single file down the path through the along which little and his followers had come an hour before the man in the lead and his wife following and according to the custom of their race carrying the bundles one the surrendered supper and the other the neatly folded and well patched shirt in which in virginia hoped to meet his long expected loved ones as they came in sight of the little hut which had been the old man s abode since his sudden appearance in the neighborhood a few years after the war they observed that the bench beside the door was deserted and that the door stood two circumstances which neither of them remembered ever to have seen before for in all the years in which he had been their neighbor had never admitted any one within his door and had never been known to leave it open in mild weather he occupied a bench outside where he either shoes for his neighbors accepting without question anything they paid him or else sat perfectly quiet with the air of a person waiting for some one he held only the communication with anybody and was believed by some to have intimate relations with the evil one and his tumble down hut which he was particular to keep closely was thought by such as took this view of the matter to be the temple where he practised his	46
rites for this reason and because the little cabin surrounded by dense pines and covered with vines which the popular belief held was the most desolate abode a human being could have selected most of the in that section gave the place a wide berth especially toward nightfall and would probably have suffered but for ou the charity of and his wife who although often wanting the necessaries of life themselves had long divided it with their strange neighbor yet even they had never been admitted inside his door and knew no more of him than the other people about the settlement knew his advent in the neighborhood had been mysterious the first that was known of him was one summer morning when he was found sitting on the bench beside the door of this cabin which had long been and left to decay he was unable to give any account of himself except that he always declared that he had been sold by some one other than his master from that plantation that his wife and boy had been sold to some other person at the same time for twelve hundred dollars he was particular as to the amount and that his master was coming in the summer to buy him back and take him home and would bring him his wife and child when he came everything since that day was a blank to him and as he could not tell the name of his master or wife or even his own name and as no one was left old enough to remember him tlie neighborhood having been entirely deserted after the war he simply passed as a harmless old lunatic laboring under a delusion he was devoted to children and s small brood were his chief delight they were not at all afraid of him and r they got a chance they would slip off and virginia steal down to his house where they might be found any time about his feet listening to his accounts of his expected visit from his master and what he was going to do afterward it was all of a great plantation and fine carriages and horses and a house with his wife and the boy this was all that was known of him except that once a stranger passing through the country and hearing the name said that he heard a similar one once long before the war in one of the where the man at will having been bought of the by the gentleman who owned him for a small price on account of his infirmity is you in asked the woman as they approached the hut hi yes tain hu t you an you say say he in de he replied his mind having evidently been busy on the subject an mighty she corrected him with born of apprehension well i feared he sick i ain been in she persisted ain de been in say folks hu t n man hu t nobody he tame as a i wonder he ain feared to live in house by i stay in a acted at once i ain wonder folks say he sees in place she came up by her husband s side at the suggestion i wonder he don go home he got any home to go to heaven said what was you name said he simply they were at the cabin now and a brief pause of doubt ensued it was perfectly dark inside the door and there was not a sound the bench where they had heretofore held their only communication with their strange neighbor was lying on its side in the weeds which grew up to the very walls of the cabin and a suddenly ran over it and with a little rustle disappeared under the ground sill to the woman it was an il omen she glanced behind her and moved nearer her husband s side she noticed that the cloud above the pines was getting a faint yellow tinge on its lower border while it was very black above them it filled her with dread and she was about to call her husband s notice to it when a voice within arrested their attention it was very low and they both listened in awed silence watching the door meanwhile as if they expected to see something supernatural spring from it wait tain so long now he ll be said the voice s a in virginia say come an buy me back den we home in their endeavor to catch the words they moved nearer and made a slight noise suddenly the low earnest tone changed to one full of eagerness who was called in sharp inquiry tain nobody but me an said pushing the door slightly wider open and stepping in they had an indistinct idea that the poor creature had fancied them his longed for loved ones yet it was a relief to see him bodily who you say you is inquired the old man feebly me an i done bring you shut home said the woman as if her husband s reply hit all clean an i done patch it oh i thought said the voice sadly they knew what he thought their eyes were now accustomed to the darkness and they saw that the only article of furniture which the room contained was the wretched bed or bench on which the old man was stretched the light through the in the roof enabled them to see his face and that it had changed much in the last hours and an instinct told them that he was near the end of his long waiting how is you asked the woman ok ain my name answered the old man promptly it was the first time he had ever the name well how is you what i to call you asked she with feeble i don know	46
he kin tell you who who he know it ain know it but ain he know it got it set down in de book i for em now a hush fell on the little audience they were in full sympathy with him and knowing no way of expressing it kept silence only the breathing of the old man was audible in the room he was evidently the end i mighty tired of he said look out and see ef you see anybody he added suddenly both of them obeyed and then returned and stood silent they could not tell him no presently the woman said don you warn put you shut on what did you say my name was he said she paused at the look of pain on his face shifted uneasily from one foot to the other and into embarrassed silence ll know it ll know me any name he appealed wistfully to them both the woman for answer unfolded the shirt he moved feebly as if in assent in virginia i so tired he whispered done gin out an he come but i thought i little to day there was a faint inquiry in his voice yes he he the languid form became instantly alert the tired face took on a look of eager gi m y shut quick i it wait go over son and me money he ll be they thought his mind wandered and merely followed the direction of his eyes with theirs go over quick don t you me and to humor him went over to the corner indicated up an run you hand in de second it s all in he said to the woman twelve dollars s what went for i night an day forty year to save money for you know all he land an all he an tu n him out in de old i put tin he come you ain know he dis is you help me on shut i in an maybe push de do open so you kin see forty year ago he murmured as the door back and returned to his side forty year ago come an on me did cry he said i right down in de summer to buy you back an bring you home he s too me a lie in he dis make this in tremulous eagerness to the woman who had involuntarily caught the feeling and was now with eager and ineffectual haste trying to button his shirt an exclamation from her husband caused her to turn around as he stepped into the light and held up an old filled with something you apron said the old man to who gathered up the lower comers of her apron and stood nearer the bed po it in this to who mechanically obeyed he pulled off the string and poured into his wife s lap the heap of glittering gold and silver more than their eyes had ever seen before hit s all said the old man as if he were rendering an account been it ever took me way i so busy it i ain had time to eat but i ain now have plenty when i home he sank back exhausted be glad to see me he asked presently in pathetic simplicity you know we up i been so long i feared done me you reckon is he asked the woman no ain you she said comfort i know ain he said reassured a r j o in virginia what he tell me he ain me the reaction had set in and his voice was so feeble now it was scarcely audible he was talking rather to himself than to them and finally he sank into a a painful silence reigned in the little hut in which the only sign was the breathing of the dying man a single shaft of light stole down under the edge of the slowly passing cloud and slipped up to the door suddenly the with a start and gazed around hit mighty dark he whispered faintly you reckon u fo dark the light was dying from his eyes said the woman softly to her husband the effect was you exclaimed the dying man eagerly she repeated the rest was drowned by s joyous exclamation i it he cried suddenly rising upright and with beaming face stretching both arms toward the door come now watch em smile all y all stand back de one you for s little and with a smile on his face he sank back into his son s arms the evening sun dropping on the instant to his the room with light but as acted i i gently him down and drew his arm from around him it was the light of the that was on his face his master had at last come for him and after his long waiting had indeed gone home xi it no it was a ghostly place in broad daylight if the glimmer that stole in through the dense forest that surrounded it when the sun was directly overhead deserved this name at any other time it was why we were afraid even to talk about it and as to venturing within its gloomy borders it was believed among us that to do so was to bring upon the intruder certain death i knew every foot of ground wet and dry within five miles of my father s house except this plantation for i had hunted by day and night every field forest and marsh within that but the swamp and ma that surrounded this place i had never invaded the hunter on the plantation would call off his dogs and go home if they struck a trail that crossed the boundary line of no jack my and evil only those woods and the earnest advice of	46
those whom we children acknowledged to know most about them was don t you never go nigh honey hit s de evil place in dis had not big william and and followed their dogs in there one night and cut down a tree in which they had with their own eyes seen the and lo when it fell de warn no mo n a dog and the next tree they had in not only had no in it but when it was cut down it had fallen on and broken his leg so the very woods were haunted from this time they were abandoned to the jack my and ghosts and another shadow was added to no the place was as much cut off from the rest of the country as if a sea had divided it the river with banks swept around it in a wide on three sides and when the it up it washed its way straight across and out a new bed for itself completely the whole plantation the owners of it if there were any which was doubtful were and in my time it had not been occupied for forty years the declared that it was gin up to the ha an evil and that no living being could live there it had grown up in forest and had wholly to original marsh the road that once ran through the swamp had long since been choked up and the trees were as thick and the as dense now in it s track as in the adjacent ma sh only one path remained that it was believed by the entire portion of the population who on the subject was kept open by the evil spirits in virginia certain it was that no human foot ever trod the narrow line that ran through the as as the noiseless that curved through the where the rats played and the slept yet there it lay plain and well defined month after month and year after year as no itself stood amid its surrounding all undisturbed and even the slaves who occasionally left their homes and took to the and woods impelled by the cruelty of their or by a desire for a vain of freedom never tried this swamp but preferred to be caught and returned home to its awful shades we were brought up to believe in ghosts our fathers and mothers laughed at us and endeavored to reason us out of such a superstition the fathers with much of ridicule and satire the mothers giving sweet religious reasons for their argument but what could they avail against the actual testimony and the blood experiences of a score of witnesses who their personal observations with a degree of thrilling and a that any arguments our childish reason could grasp the old and who were our companions and comrades believed in the existence of evil spirits as truly as in the existence of hell or heaven as to which at that time no question had ever been no raised so far as was known in that world the bible was the standard and all were resolved into an appeal to that authority the single question as to any point being simply is it in the bible had not and and william and foot bob and aunt brown and others seen with their own eyes the evil spirits again and again in the bodily shape of cats dogs white cows and other less palpable forms and was not their experience who lived in remote or wandered night after night through the woods stronger evidence than the cold reasoning of those who hardly ever stirred abroad except in daylight it certainly was more to us for no one could have listened to those without being impressed with the fact that they were what they had actually seen with their bodily eyes the result of it all was so far as we were concerned the triumph of faith over reason and the fixed belief on our part in the actual visible existence of the departed in the sinister form of apparition known as evil every was by them every old house and every peculiarly desolate spot was known to be their but spots and places sank into compared with no the very name was originally it had a long pool of water lying in i in virginia the centre of the tract which marked the spot from which the soil had been dug to raise the elevation on which to set the house more the place by reason of the filling up of and the sinking of had become again simple swamp and or to use the local expression had turned to ma sh and the name applied to the whole plantation the origin of the name the pond had no source but there was a better explanation than that anyhow the very name inspired dread and the place was our terror the house had been built many generations before by a stranger in this section and the owners never made it their permanent home thus no ties either of blood or friendship were formed with their neighbors who were certainly open hearted and enough to overcome anything but the most persistent why this spot was selected for a mansion was always a mystery unless it was that the new comer desired to himself completely instead of following the custom of those who were native and to the manner born who always chose some eminence for their seats he had selected for his a spot in the middle of the wide flat which lay in the of the river the low ground probably owing to the abundance of land in that country had never been taken up and up to the time of his occupation was in a condition of no swamp he had to begin by making aa artificial mound for his mansion even then it was said he	46
dug so deep that he laid the corner stone in water the foundation was of stone which was brought from a distance stories were told of it the declared that under the old house were solid rock chambers which had been built for and had served for purposes which were none the less awful because they were vague and indefinite the huge structure itself was of wood and was alleged to contain many mysterious rooms and passages one of the latter was said to connect with the no itself whose dark waters according to the traditions were some day by some process not wholly consistent with the laws of to the fated pile an evil destiny had seemed to the place from the very beginning one of the negro had been caught and between two of the immense foundation stones the tradition was handed down that he was sacrificed in some awful and connected with the laying of the comer stone the had given way and had several men to the ground most of whom had been hurt this also was alleged to be by hideous design then the plantation in the process of being had proved beyond all experience and the employed in the work of and in virginia claiming the great swamp had and died by the extension of the dangerous fever to the adjoining had left a reputation for from which the whole section suffered for a time but this did not prevent the colored population from year after year the horrors of the of no as a peculiar nor from relating with details the burial by scores in a thicket just beside the pond of the stricken honey the bodies it was said used to float about in the of the swamp and on the haunted pond and at night they might be seen if any one were so hardy as to venture there about in their as if they were boats thus the place from the beginning had an evil name and when year after year the river rose and washed the away or the rats through and let the water in and the strange masters cursed not only the elements but heaven itself the continued of their was not wholly unexpected nor for by certain classes of their neighbors at length the property had fallen to one more gloomy more strange and more sinister than any who had gone before him a man whose personal characteristics and habits were unique in that country he was of gigantic stature and strength and possessed and vices in pro no portion to his size he could fell an ox with a blow of his fist or in a fit of anger could tear down the branch of a tree or bend a bar of iron like a reed he either from caprice or ignorance spoke only a not unlike the french of the but he was a west indian his brutal temper and habits cut him off from even the small measure of intercourse which had existed between his and their neighbors and he lived at no completely isolated all the stories and traditions of the place at once on him and tales were told of his and of his life it was said among other things that he preserved his wonderful strength by drinking human blood a tale which in a certain sense i have never seen reason to question making all his life was a blot upon civilization at length it a brutal temper by passions after a long period of license and came to a climax in a final of ferocity and fury in which he was guilty of an act whose surpassed belief and he was brought to judgment in modem times the very of the crime would probably have proved his security and as he had destroyed his own property while he was a crime of appalling and horror he might have found a defence in that standing refuge of extraordinary insanity i o in virginia this defence indeed was put in and was pressed with much ability by his counsel one of whom was my father who had just then been admitted to the bar but fortunately for the cause of justice neither courts nor were then so sentimental as they have become of late years and the last of no paid under the law the full penalty of his hideous crime it was one of the curious incidents of the trial that his all lamented his death and declared that he was a good master when he was not drunk he was hanged just at the rear of his own house within sight of the spot where his awful crime was committed at his execution which according to the custom of the country was public a horrible coincidence occurred which furnished the text of many a sermon on justice among the the body was near the pond close by the thicket where the were buried but the declared that it preferred one of the stone chambers under the mansion where it made its home and that it might be seen at any time of the day or night about the place they used to dwell with peculiar zest on the most details of this wretch s dreadful crime the whole in the final act of fury when the gigantic monster dragged the and corpse of his victim up the staircase and stood it up before the open window in his hall no in the full view of the terrified slaves after these the continued of the murderer and his victim was as natural to us as it was to the themselves and as night after night we would hurry up to the great house through the darkness we were ever on the watch lest he should appear to our vision from the shades of the filled yard thus it was that of all ghostly places no had	46
the distinction of being invested to us with horror and thus to us no less than because the had given way and the had turned again to swamp and it was that no was abandoned and was now by any foot but that of its ghostly tenants the time of my story was the spring previous continuous rains had kept the river full and had the low grounds and this had been followed by an dense growth in the summer then public feeling was greatly excited at the time of which i write over the discovery in the neighborhood of several of the railway or as they were universally considered in that of the devil they had been run off or had disappeared suddenly but had left behind them some little excitement on the part of the slaves and a great deal on the part of their masters and more than the usual number of ne in virginia had run away all however had been caught or had returned home after a sufficient interval of freedom except one who had escaped permanently and who was supposed to have accompanied his on their flight this man was a well known character he belonged to one of our neighbors and had been bought and brought there from an estate on the lower he was the most brutal o i ever knew he was of a type rarely found among our who judging from their and general characteristics came principally from the coast of africa they are of moderate stature with dull but amiable faces this man however was of immense size and he possessed the features and expression of a in character also he differed essentially from all the other slaves in our country he was alike without their and their and was as fearless as he was brutal he was the only negro i ever knew who was without either superstition or reverence indeed he differed so widely from the rest of the slaves in that section that there existed some feeling against him almost akin to a race feeling at the same time that he exercised considerable influence over them they were dreadfully afraid of him and were always in terror that he would trick them to which awful power he laid well known claim his curses in his strange dialect used to them no beyond measure and they would do anything to him he had been a continual source of trouble and an object of suspicion in the neighborhood from the time of his first appearance and more than one that the declared had wandered into the of no and had cut his an in de ma sh had been suspected of finding its way to this man s cabin his master had often been urged to get rid of him but he was kept i think probably because he was valuable on the plantation he was a fine butcher a good work hand and a first class moreover ours was a population in which every man minded his own business and let his neighbor s alone at the time of the visits of those secret agents to which i have referred this negro was discovered to be the leader in the secret meetings held under their and he would doubtless have been taken up and off at once but when the fled as i have related their convert disappeared also it was a subject of general in the neighborhood that he was gotten rid of and his master instead of being on the loss of his slave was congratulated that he had not cut his throat no idea can be given at this date of the excite ment occasioned in a quiet neighborhood in old times by the discovery of the mere presence of such i virginia characters as it was as if the foundations of the whole social fabric were it was the sudden darkening of a shadow that always hung in the horizon the slaves were in a large majority and had they risen though the final issue could not be doubted the lives of every white on the must have paid the whatever the right and wrong of slavery might have been its existence demanded that no outside interference with it should be so much was certain self preservation required this i was at the time of which i speak a well grown lad and had been for two to a where i had gotten rid of some portion i will not say of all of the superstition of my boyhood the spirit of adventure was beginning to assert itself in me and i had begun to feel a sense of enjoyment in the fears which once mastered me though i must confess i had not entirely shaken off my belief in the existence of ghosts that is i did not believe in them at all in the day time but when night came i was not so certain about it duck hunting was my favorite sport and the on the river were fine ground for them usually but this season the weather had been so singularly warm that the sport had been poor and though i had every canal in the marsh and every bend in the river as far as no w no in i as the stretch of drifted timber and treacherous marsh was called that marked the boundary line of that plantation i had had bad luck beyond that point i had never penetrated partly no doubt because of the training of my earlier years and partly because the marsh on either side of the would have a often as i watched with envious eyes the wild i duck rise up over the dense trees that surrounded the place and cut straight for the deserted in the i had had a longing to the mysterious domain and crawl to the edge of no and get a shot	46
at the fowl that floated on its black surface but something had always me and the long reaches of no were left to the wild fowl and the ghostly i finally however after a spell whose high temperature was rather suited to august than april in desperation at my ill luck i determined to gratify my curiosity and try no so one afternoon without telling any one of my intention i crossed the mysterious boundary and struck through the swamp for the unknown land the marsh was far worse than i had anticipated and no one but a duck hunter as experienced and zealous as myself and as indifferent to mire and all that make a swamp could have penetrated it at all even i could never have i had not followed the one path that e evil spirits i tedious and i in oh virginia into the marsh the of the e and as it was my progress was both tedious dangerous the track was a mysterious one for though i knew it had not been trodden by a human foot in many years yet there a veritable it lay in some places it was almost completely lost and i would fear i should have to turn back but an overhanging branch or a vine swinging from one tree to another would furnish a way to some spot where the narrow trail began again in other spots old logs thrown across the gave me an uncomfortable feeling as i reflected what feet had last crossed on them on both sides of this trail the marsh was either an impenetrable or a mire apparently i shall never forget my sensations as i finally emerged from the woods into the clearing if that desolate waste of cane and swamp growth could be so termed about me stretched the over which a lurid atmosphere and straight ahead the gaunt mansion a rambling pile of sombre white with vacant windows staring at me from the trees about it only one other of trees appeared above the and brush and that i knew by was the i think i should have turned back had not shame me no my progress from this point was even more difficult than it had been hitherto for the trail at the end of the wood terminated abruptly in a of the swamp however i managed to keep on by walking on pushing through of bushes and as best i could it was slow and hot work though it never once struck me that it must be getting late i had become so accustomed to the gloom of the woods that the more open ground appeared quite light to me and i had not paid any attention to the black cloud that had been for some time gathering overhead or to the darkening i suddenly became sensible that it was going to rain however i was so much engrossed in the endeavor to get on that even then i took little note of it the nearer i came to the house the more it arrested my attention and the more weird and it looked and bushes grew up to the very door the window shutters hung from the hinges the broken windows glared like the had fallen away from the wall while the wide door stood slightly giving to the place a singularly ghastly appearance somewhat akin to the color which sometimes on the face of a corpse in my progress through the swamp i had gone around rather to the side of the house toward where i supposed the itself to lie in virginia i was now quite near to it and striking a little less ground as i pushed my way through the bushes and which were higher than my head i became aware that i was very near the thicket that marked the just beyond which i knew the pond itself lay i was somewhat startled for the cloud made it quite dusky and stepping on a long piece of rotten timber lying on the ground i parted the bushes to look down the pond as i did so the rattle of a chain on me and glancing up through the cane before me appeared a heavy upright timber with an arm or cross beam stretching from it from which a long chain almost away i knew by instinct that i stood under the gallows where the murderer of no had his dreadful crime his corpse must have fallen just where i stood i started back appalled just then the black cloud above me was parted by a vivid flame and a peal of thunder seemed to the earth i turned in terror but before i had gone fifty yards the storm was upon me and instinctively i made for the only refuge that was at hand it was a dreadful alternative but i did not hesitate outside i was not even sure that my life was safe and with extraordinary swiftness i had made my way through the broken iron fence that lay in the swamp had traversed the yard all grown up as no it was to the very threshold had ascended the sunken steps crossed the and entered the open door a long dark hall stretched before me extending as well as i could judge in the gloom entirely across the house a number of doors some shut some opened on the hall on one side and a broad dark ascended on the other to the upper story the walls were black with mould at the far end a large bow window with all the glass gone looked out on the waste of swamp unbroken save by the of trees in the and just beside this window was a break where the dark staircase descended to the apartments below the whole place was in a state of advanced decay almost the entire had fallen with the damp and the hall presented a scene	46
of desolation that beggars description i was at last in the haunted house the rain driven by the wind poured in at the broken windows in such a that i was forced in self defence to seek shelter in one of the rooms i tried several but the doors were swollen or fastened i found one however on the side of the house and pushing the door which opened easily i entered inside i found something like an old bed and the great open fireplace had evidently been used at some earlier time for the ashes were still up in the hearth and the i o in virginia ends of the logs of wood were lying in the chimney corners to see still as fresh and natural as though the fire had but just died out these of domestic life that had survived all else of a similar period struck me as ghastly the however though rude was convenient as a seat and i it accordingly myself up against one of the rough posts from my position i commanded through the open door the entire length of the vacant hall and could look straight out of the great bow window at the head of the stairs through which appeared against the dull sky the black mass of the trees and a stretch of one of the or of the swamp around it which gleamed white in the glare of the lightning i had expected that the storm would like most thunder storms in the latitude shortly itself or as we say blow over but i was mistaken and as the time passed its violence instead of increased it grew darker and darker and presently the startling truth dawned on me that the gloom which i had supposed simply the effect of the cloud had been really nightfall i was shut up alone in no for the night i hastened to the door with the intention of the storm and getting away but i was almost blown off my feet a glance without showed me that the with which the swamp was traversed in every no i i direction were now full to the brim and to attempt to find my way home in the darkness would be sheer madness so after a wistful survey i returned to my wretched perch i thought i would try and light a fire but to my consternation i had not a match and i finally abandoned myself to my fate it was a desolate if not despairing feeling that i experienced my mind was filled not only with my own but with the thought of the distress my absence would occasion them at home and for a little while i had a fleeting hope that a party would be sent out to search for me this however was for they would not know where i was the last place in which they would ever think of looking for me was no and even if they knew i was there they could no more get to me in the darkness and storm than i could escape from it i accordingly propped myself up on my bed and gave myself up to my reflections i said my prayers very fervently i thought i would try and get to sleep but sleep was far from my eyes my surroundings were too vivid to my apprehension the awful traditions of the place do i might to banish them would come to mind the original building of the house and its blood stained foundation stones the dead who had died of the that had raged afterward the bodies by scores and buried in the earth of the whose trees loomed up through the in virginia broken window the dreadful story of the dead about the swamp in their and above all the gigantic whose ferocity even murder could not and who had added to murder awful he had dragged the corpse of his victim up those very steps and flung it out of the very window which just beyond me in the glare of the lightning it all passed through my mind as i sat there in the darkness and no effort of my will could keep my thoughts from dwelling on it the terrific thunder a thousand at times engrossed my attention but it always to that scene of horror and if i the of the loose blinds or the terrific fury of the storm would me once as the sounds subsided for a moment or else i having become familiar with them as i was sinking into a sleepy state a door at the other end of the hall and then with violence bringing me bolt upright on the bed clutching my gun i could have sworn that i heard footsteps but the wind was blowing a and after another period of and dreadful recollection nature and i fell asleep i do not know that i can be said to have lost consciousness even then for my mind was still by the horrors of my situation and went on to them and dwelling upon them even in y slumber n i was however certainly asleep for the storm must have died temporarily away about this hour without my knowing it and subsequently heard that it did i must have slept several hours for i was quite from my constrained posture when i became fully aroused i was awakened by a very peculiar sound it was like a distant call or although i had been fast asleep a moment before it startled me into a state highest attention in a second i was wide awake there was not a sound except the and roll of the thunder as the storm once more began to renew itself and in the of the circle that i could see along the hall through my door and indeed out through the yawning window at the end as far as the black of	46
trees in the just at the bend of the canal which i commanded from my seat whenever there was a flash of lightning there was only the swaying of the bushes in the swamp and of the trees in the yet there i sat bolt upright on my bed in the darkness with every nerve strained to its utmost and that cry still sounding in my ears i was to reason myself into the belief that i had dreamed it when a flash of lightning lit up the whole field of my vision as if it had been in the of a sun glass and out on the canal where it curved around the was a boat a something in virginia small black with square ends and with a man in it standing upright and something lying in a lump or mass at the bow i knew i could not be mistaken for the lightning by a process of its own photographs everything on the in detail and i had a vivid impression of everything from the foot of the bed on which i crouched to the gaunt arms of those black trees in the just over that ghostly and his dreadful freight i was wide awake the story of the dead in their was i am unable to state what passed in the next few minutes the storm had burst again with renewed violence and was once more itself on the house the thunder was again rolling overhead the broken blinds were swinging and madly and the dreadful memories of the place were once more me i shifted my position to relieve the it had occasioned still keeping my face toward that fatal window as i did so i heard above or perhaps i should say under the storm a sound more terrible to me the repetition of that weird this time almost under the great window immediately succeeding this was the sound of something under the wall and i was sensible when a door on the ground floor was struck with a heavy it no was pitch dark but i heard the door pushed wide open and as a string of fierce oaths part english and part french floated up the dark muffled as if sworn through teeth i held my breath i recalled the unknown tongue the ghostly murderer employed and i knew that the murderer of no had left his grave and that his ghost was coming up that stair i heard his step as it fell on the first stair heavily yet almost noiselessly it was an dull like the tread of a foot accompanied by the sound of a body dragging step by step he came up the black in the pitch darkness as steadily as if it were and he knew every step accompanied by that sickening sound of dragging there was a final pull up the last step and a dull heavy as with a strange wild laugh he flung his burden on the floor for a moment there was not a sound and then the awful silence and blackness were broken by a crash of thunder that seemed to tear the foundations asunder like a mighty earthquake and the whole house and the great swamp outside were filled with a glare of vivid blinding light directly in front of me clutching in his hand a long keen glittering knife on whose blade a ball of fire seemed to play stood a gigantic figure in the very flame of the lightning and stretched at his feet lay ghastly and bloody a black and trunk in virginia i staggered to the door and fell prostrate over the sill when we could get there nothing was left but the foundation the haunted house when struck had literally burned to the water s edge the changed current had washed its way close to the place and in strange of the traditions no had its own and the spot with all its secrets lay buried under its dark waters a christmas recollection it was christmas eve i remember it just as if it was yesterday the colonel had been pretending not to notice it but when knocked over both the great and in his attempt to pick them up over himself and fell on the floor he at him pulled himself together and began an explanation in which the point was that he had not a in knows how long but the colonel cut him short get out of the room you drunken vagabond he roared was deeply offended he made a low grand bow and with as much dignity as his unsteady condition would admit of marched very from the room and passing out through the dining room where he stopped to abstract only one more drink from the long heavy cut glass on the out to his house in the back this is used because he was called until it became his name in virginia yard where he proceeded to talk religion to charity his wife as he always did when he was particularly drunk he was the vision of the golden and the bowl and seven lamps and two olive trees when he fell asleep the as has been said was the colonel the was the colonel gave him the name because he said if he were to drink water once he would die as closed the door the colonel continued fiercely i will til sell him to morrow morning and if i can t sell him fu give him away with troubled great dark eyes was him vigorously no i tell you sell him misery in his back the mischief he s a drunken trifling nothing and i have sworn to sell him a thousand yes ten thousand times and now i ll have to do it to keep my word this was true the colonel swore this a dozen times a day every time got drunk	46
and as that had occurred very frequently for many years before was born he was not outside of the limit however was the only one this threat ever troubled the colonel knew he could no more have gotten on without than his old watch which looked for all the world like a model of himself could have run without the from tying his shoes and getting his ing water to making his and lighting his candles which was all he had to do was necessary to him i think he used to make the threat just to prove to himself that did not own him if so he failed in his purpose did own him knew it as well as he or better and while charity for private and reasons occasionally held the threat over him when his passed even her endurance she knew it also thus was the only one it deceived or frightened it always deceived her and she never rested until she had obtained s for just one more time so on this occasion before she got down from the colonel s knees she had given him in bargain just one more squeeze and received in return s pardon only till next time everybody in the county knew the colonel and everybody knew and everybody who had been to the colonel s for several years past and that was nearly everybody in the county for the colonel kept open house knew she had been placed in her chair by the colonel s side at the club dinner on her first birthday after her arrival and had been afterward placed on the table and allowed to crawl around among and in the dishes to entertain the gentlemen which she did to the applause of every one and of herself most of all and in virginia from that time she had exercised in her kingdom the functions of both and and whatever ordered was done if tlie old piano in the parlor had been robbed of strings it was all right for had taken them bob had cut them out for her without a word of protest from any one but charity the colonel would have given her his heart strings if had required them she had owned him body and soul from the second he first laid eyes on her when on the instant he entered the room she had stretched out her little hands to him and on his taking her had after a few caresses curled up and with her finger in her mouth gone to sleep in his arms like a little white bob used to wonder in a vague boyish way where the child got her beauty for the colonel weighed two hundred and fifty pounds and was as ugly as a red head and thirty or forty years of term s piled on a somewhat reckless college career could make him but one day when the colonel was away from home charity showed him a of a lady which she got out of the top drawer of the colonel s big secretary with the brass lions on it and it looked exactly like it had the same great big dark eyes and the same soft white look though was for she was a great and used to run wild over the place with bob climbing cherry trees and fishing in the creek and looking as blooming as a rose with her hair all tangled over her pretty head until she grew quite large and the colonel got her a he thought of sending her to a boarding school but the night he the subject he raised such a storm and was in such a tempest of tears that he gave up the matter at once it was well he did so for and charity cried all night and was so overcome that even next morning he could not bring the colonel his water and he had to with cold water for the first time in twenty years he therefore employed a most people said the child ought to have had a and one or two single ladies of forgotten age in the neighborhood delicately hinted that they would gladly teach her but the colonel swore that he would have no women around him and he would be condemned if any should interfere with so he engaged mr and invited bob to come over and go to school to him also which he did for his mother who had up to that time taught him herself was very poor and was unable to send him to school her husband who was the colonel s fourth cousin having died largely indebted and all of his property except a small farm adjoining the colonel s and a few having gone into the general court bob had always been a great favorite with the colonel and ever since he had been a small boy he in virginia had been used to coming over and staying with him he could a chicken as well as which was a great in the s eyes for he had the best game chickens in the county and used to fight them too them against those of one or two of his neighbors who were inclined until grew up and made him stop he could tame a quicker than anybody on the plantation moreover he could shoot more in a day than the colonel and could beat him shooting with a pistol as well though the colonel laid the fault of the former on his being so and that of the latter on his spectacles they used to practice with the colonel s old pistols that hung in their over the of his bed and about which used to tell so many lies for although they were kept loaded and their brass mounted peeping out of their covers used to look ferocious enough to give some apparent ground for term s	46
story of how he and the colonel had shot judge through the heart the colonel always said that behaved very handsomely and that the matter was arranged on the field without a shot even at that time some people said that bob s mother was trying to catch the colonel and that if the colonel did not look out she would yet be the mistress of his big plantation and all agreed that the boy would come in for something handsome at the colonel s death for bob was his cousin and his nearest male relative if was his niece and he would hardly leave her all his property especially as she was so much like her mother with whom as knew the colonel had been desperately in love but who had treated him badly and notwithstanding his big plantation and many had run away with his younger brother and both of them had died in the south of yellow fever leaving of all their children only this little and the colonel had taken and charity and had travelled in his carriage all the way to to get and bring back it was christmas eve when they reached home and the colonel had sent on a day ahead to have the fires made and the house for the baby and when the carriage drove up that night you would have thought a queen was coming sure enough every hand on the plantation was up at the great house waiting for them and every room in the house had a fire in it had told the so many lies that he had had the men cutting wood all day although the regular supply was cut and when charity stepped out of the carriage with the baby all up in her arms making a great show about keeping it wrapped up and walked up the steps as slowly as if it were made of gold you could have heard a pin drop even the colonel fell in ok virginia back and spoke in a whisper the great chamber was given up to the baby the colonel going to the wing room where he always stayed after that he spoke of sitting up all night to watch the child but charity assured him that she was not going to take i her eyes off of her during the night and with a i promise to come in every hour and look after them the colonel went to his room where he slept until nine o clock the next morning but i was telling what people said about bob s mother when the report reached the colonel about the widow s designs he took on his knees and told i her all about it and then both laughed until the tears ran down the colonel s face and dropped on his big and on s little blue frock and he sent the widow next day a fine short to show his contempt of the gossip and now bob was the better shot of the two and they taught to shoot too and to load and i the pistols at which the colonel was as proud as if one of his young had whipped an old but they never could induce her to shoot at anything except a mark she was the tenderest hearted little thing in the world if her taste had been consulted she would have selected a for jt did not make such a noise and she could shoot it without shutting her eyes j besides that she could shoot it in the house which j indeed she did until she had shot the eyes out of nearly a l the gentlemen and bare long ladies on the walls once she came very near shooting term s eye out also but this was an accident though declared it was not and tried to make out that bob had put her up to it s de boy ever made he said to charity fortunately his eye got well and it gave him an excuse for staying half drunk for nearly a week and afterward like a dog that has once been lame in his whenever he saw and did not forget it he up that eye and tried to look miserable was quite a large girl then and was carrying the keys except when she lost them though she could not have been more than twelve years old for it was just after this that the birthday came when the colonel gave her her first real silk dress it was blue silk and came from and it was hard to tell which was the or charity or or the colonel got drunk before the dinner was over drinking de to de young in de sky blue robes what stands de throne you know he explained to charity after the colonel had ordered him from the dining room with promises of prompt sale on the morrow bob was there and it was the last time ever sucked her thumb she had almost gotten out of the habit anyhow and it was in a moment of foi in virginia fulness that she let bob see her do it he was a great and when she was smaller had often worried her about it until she would fly at him and try to bite him with her little white teeth on this occasion however she stood everything until he said that about a girl who wore a blue silk dress her thumb then she his jaws the fire flew from his eyes but hers were even more sparkling he paused for a minute and then caught her in his arms and kissed her violently she never sucked her thumb after that this happened out in front of her s house within which was delivering a powerful on and strange to say charity took bob s side while s and afterward said she ought to have a	46

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