Part 66 (2/2)
”Punishment for what, father?”
”I wasn't always good to your mother, Jack.”
”If to please me, William, you'll say no more.”
”The boy ought to know; it will be a lesson for him, and it weighs upon my heart.”
”I don't want my boy to hear anything bad about his father, and I forbid him to listen.”
The conversation paused, and soon after William said that his strength was going from him, and that he would like to go back to bed. Esther helped him off with his clothes, and together she and Jack lifted him into bed.
He sat up looking at them with wistful, dying eyes.
”It is hard to part from you,” he said. ”If Chasuble had won we would have all gone to Egypt. I could have lived out there.”
”You must speak of them things no more. We all must obey G.o.d's will.”
Esther dropped on her knees; she drew Jack down beside her, and William asked Jack to read something from the Bible. Jack read where he first opened the book, and when he had finished William said that he liked to listen. Jack's voice sounded to him like heaven.
About eight o'clock William bade his son good-night.
”Good-night, my boy; perhaps we shan't see each other again. This may be my last night.”
”I won't leave you, father.”
”No, my boy, go to your bed. I feel I'd like to be alone with mother.” The voice sank almost to a whisper.
”You'll remember what you promised me about racing.... Be good to your mother--she's the best mother a son ever had.”
”I'll work for mother, father, I'll work for her.”
”You're too young, my son, but when you're older I hope you'll work for her. She worked for you.... Good-bye, my boy.”
The dying man sweated profusely, and Esther wiped his face from time to time. Mrs. Collins came in. She had a large tin candlestick in her hand in which there was a fragment of candle end. He motioned to her to put it aside. She put it on the table out of the way of his eyes.
”You'll help Esther to lay me out.... I don't want any one else. I don't like the other woman.”
”Esther and me will lay you out, make your mind easy; none but we two shall touch you.”
Once more Esther wiped his forehead, and he signed to her how he wished the bed-clothes to be arranged, for he could no longer speak. Mrs. Collins whispered to Esther that she did not think that the end could be far off, and compelled by a morbid sort of curiosity she took a chair and sat down.
Esther wiped away the little drops of sweat as they came upon his forehead; his chest and throat had to be wiped also, for they too were full of sweat. His eyes were fixed on the darkness and he moved his hand restlessly, and Esther always understood what he wanted. She gave him a little brandy-and-water, and when he could not take it from the gla.s.s she gave it to him with a spoon.
The silence grew more solemn, and the clock on the mantelpiece striking ten sharp strokes did not interrupt it; and then, as Esther turned from the bedside for the brandy, Mrs. Collins's candle spluttered and went out; a little thread of smoke evaporated, leaving only a morsel of blackened wick; the flame had disappeared for ever, gone as if it had never been, and Esther saw darkness where there had been a light. Then she heard Mrs.
Collins say--
”I think it is all over, dear.”
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