Part 124 (2/2)
Hester nodded her head.
They moved the bed some feet away from the part.i.tion wall. After a momentary pause, Geoffrey spoke again.
”It must be done to-night,” he said. ”Her friends may interfere; the girl may come back. It must be done to-night.”
Hester bowed her head slowly.
”How long do you want to be left by yourself in the house?”
She held up three of her fingers.
”Does that mean three hours?”
She nodded her head.
”Will it be done in that time?”
She made the affirmative sign once more.
Thus far, she had never lifted her eyes to his. In her manner of listening to him when he spoke, in the slightest movement that she made when necessity required it, the same lifeless submission to him, the same mute horror of him, was expressed. He had, thus far, silently resented this, on his side. On the point of leaving the room the restraint which he had laid on himself gave way. For the first time, he resented it in words.
”Why the devil can't you look at me?” he asked
She let the question pa.s.s, without a sign to show that she had heard him. He angrily repeated it. She wrote on her slate, and held it out to him--still without raising her eyes to his face.
”You know you can speak,” he said. ”You know I have found you out.
What's the use of playing the fool with _me?_”
She persisted in holding the slate before him. He read these words:
”I am dumb to you, and blind to you. Let me be.”
”Let you be!” he repeated. ”It's a little late in the day to be scrupulous, after what you have done. Do you want your Confession back, or not?”
As the reference to the Confession pa.s.sed his lips, she raised her head.
A faint tinge of color showed itself on her livid cheeks; a momentary spasm of pain stirred her deathlike face. The one last interest left in the woman's life was the interest of recovering the ma.n.u.script which had been taken from her. To _that_ appeal the stunned intelligence still faintly answered--and to no other.
”Remember the bargain on your side,” Geoffrey went on, ”and I'll remember the bargain on mine. This is how it stands, you know. I have read your Confession; and I find one thing wanting. You don't tell how it was done. I know you smothered him--but I don't know how. I want to know. You're dumb; and you can't tell me. You must do to the wall here what you did in the other house. You run no risks. There isn't a soul to see you. You have got the place to yourself. When I come back let me find this wall like the other wall--at that small hour of the morning you know, when you were waiting, with the towel in your hand, for the first stroke of the clock. Let me find that; and to-morrow you shall have your Confession back again.”
As the reference to the Confession pa.s.sed his lips for the second time, the sinking energy in the woman leaped up in her once more. She s.n.a.t.c.hed her slate from her side; and, writing on it rapidly, held it, with both hands, close under his eyes. He read these words:
”I won't wait. I must have it to-night.”
”Do you think I keep your Confession about me?” said Geoffrey. ”I haven't even got it in the house.”
She staggered back; and looked up for the first time.
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