Part 27 (1/2)

X

The heat thickened with the dusk. The wailing clamor of William Vibard's accordion rose from the porch. He had, of late, avoided sitting with Rose and her husband; they irritated him in countless, insignificant ways.

Rose's superiority had risen above the commonplace details of the house; she sat on the porch and regarded Gordon with a strained, rigid smile.

After a pretense at procuring work William Vibard had relapsed into an endless debauch of sound. His manner became increasingly abstracted; he ate, he lived, with the gestures of a man playing an accordion.

The lines on Gordon's thin, dark face had multiplied; his eyes, in the shadow of his bony forehead, burned steady, pale blue; his chin was resolute; but a new doubt, a constant, faint perplexity, blurred the line of his mouth.

From the road above came the familiar sound of hoof-beats, m.u.f.fled in dust, but it stopped opposite his dwelling; and, soon after, the porch creaked under slow, heavy feet, and a thick, black-clad figure knocked and entered.

It was the priest, Merlier.

In the past months Gordon had been conscious of an increasing concord with the silent clerical. He vaguely felt in the other's isolation the wreckage of an old catastrophe, a loneliness not unlike his, Gordon Makimmon's, who had killed his wife and their child.

”The Nickles,” the priest p.r.o.nounced, sudden and harsh, ”are worthless, woman and man. They would be bad if they were better; as it is they are only a drunken charge on charity and the church. They have been stewed in whiskey now for a month. They make nothing amongst their weeds.--Is it possible they got a sum from you?”

”Six weeks back,” Gordon replied briefly; ”two hundred dollars to put a floor on the bare earth and stop a leaking roof.”

”Lies,” Merlier commented. ”When any one in my church is deserving I will tell you myself. I think of an old woman now, but ten dollars would be a fortune.” Silence fell upon them. Then:

”Charity is commanded,” he proceeded, ”but out of the hands of authority it is a difficult and treacherous virtue. The people are without comprehension,” he made a gesture of contempt.

”With age,” the deliberate voice went on, ”the soul grows restless and moves in strange directions, struggling to throw off the burden of flesh.

But I that know tell you,” Merlier paused at the door, ”the charity of material benevolence, of gold, will cure no spiritual sores; for spirit is eternal, but the flesh is only so much dung.” He stopped abruptly, coughed, as though he had carried his utterance beyond propriety. ”The Nickles,” he repeated somberly, ”are worthless; they make trouble in my parish; with money they make more.”

XI

The year, in the immemorial, minute s.h.i.+fting of season, grew brittle and cold; the dusk fell sooner and night lingered late into morning.

William Vibard moved with his accordion from the porch to beside the kitchen stove. He was in the throes of a new piece, McGinty, and Gordon Makimmon was correspondingly surprised when, as he was intent upon some papers, Rose's husband voluntarily relinquished his instrument, and sat in the room with him.

”What's the matter,” Gordon indifferently inquired; ”is she busted?”

William Vibard indignantly repudiated that possibility. A wave of purpose rose to the long, corrugated countenance, but sank, without finding expression in speech. Finally Gordon heard Rose calling her husband. That young man twitched in his chair, but he made no other move, no answer. Her voice rose again, sharp and urgent, and Gordon observed:

”Your wife's a-calling.”

”I heard her, but I'd ruther sit right where I am.”

She appeared in the doorway, flushed and angry.

”William,” she commanded, ”you come straight out here to the kitchen. I got a question for you.”

”I'll stay just where I am for a spell,” he replied, avoiding her gaze.

”You do as I tell you right off.”