Part 22 (1/2)
”If you try it, I'll--” He stopped, husky and shaking.
”You'll kill me, eh? You killed him, and you didn't hang. Oh no, you wouldn't kill me, Jo,” she added quickly, in a changed voice. ”You've had enough of that kind of thing. If I'd been you, I'd rather have hung--ah, sure!” She suddenly came close to him. ”Do you hate me so bad, Jo?” she said anxiously. ”It's eight years--do you hate me so bad as then?”
”You keep your tongue off Rosalie Evanturel,” he said, and turned on his heel.
She caught his arm. ”We're both bad, Jo. Can't we be friends?” she said eagerly, her voice shaking.
He did not reply.
”Don't drive a woman too hard,” she said between her teeth.
”Threats! Pah!” he rejoined. ”What do you think I'm made of?”
”I'll find that out,” she said, and, turning on her heel, ran down the road towards the Manor House. ”What had Rosalie to do with the cross?”
Jo said to himself. ”This is her hood.” He took it out and looked at it.
”It's her hood--but what did she want with the cross?”
He hurried on, and as he neared the post-office he saw the figure of a woman in the road. At first he thought it might be Rosalie, but as he came nearer he saw it was not. The woman was muttering and crying. She wandered to and fro bewilderedly. He came up, caught her by the arm, and looked into her face.
It was old Margot Patry.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE WOMAN WHO DID NOT TELL. ”Oh, M'sieu', I am afraid.”
”Afraid of what, Margot?”
”Of the last moment, M'sieu' le Cure.”
”There will be no last moment to your mind--you will not know it when it comes, Margot.”
The woman trembled. ”I am not sorry to die. But I am afraid; it is so lonely, M'sieu' le Cure.”
”G.o.d is with us, Margot.”
”When we are born we do not know. It is on the shoulders of others. When we die we know, and we have to answer.”
”Is the answering so hard, Margot?”
The woman shook her head feebly and sadly, but did not speak.
”You have been a good mother, Margot.” She made no sign.
”You have been a good neighbour; you have done unto others as you would be done by.”
She scarcely seemed to hear.
”You have been a good servant--doing your duty in season and out of season; honest and just and faithful.”