Part 81 (1/2)
She departed with a haste that seemed to denote a certain anxiety notwithstanding her words.
She left the door ajar, and the man turned again on his pillow and listened uneasily. He was afraid Lydia had gone too far.
For a s.p.a.ce he heard nothing. Then came the splas.h.i.+ng of water, and again that piteous, gasping cry. He caught the sound of his wife's voice, but what she said he could not hear. Then there were movements, and Dinah spoke in broken supplication that went into hysterical sobbing. Finally he heard his wife come out of the room and close the door behind her.
She came back again with the brandy flask. ”She's had a lesson,” she observed, ”that I rather fancy she'll never forget as long as she lives.”
”Then I hope you're satisfied,” said Bathurst, and turned upon his side.
Yes, Dinah had had a lesson. She had pa.s.sed through a sevenfold furnace that had melted the frozen fountain of her tears till it seemed that their flow would never be stayed again. She wept for hours, wept till she was sick and blind with weeping, and still she wept on. And bitter shame and humiliation watched beside her all through that dreadful night, giving her no rest.
For she had gone through this fiery torture, this cruel chastis.e.m.e.nt of mind and body, all for what? For love of a man who felt nought but kindness for her,--for the dear memory of a golden vision that would never be hers again.
CHAPTER XX
THE COMING OF GREATHEART
It was soon after nine on the following morning that Scott presented himself on horseback at the gate of Dinah's home. It had been his intention to tie up his animal and enter, but he was met in the entrance by Billy coming out on a bicycle, and the boy at once frustrated his intention.
”Good morning, sir! Pleased to see you, but it's no good your coming in.
The pater's still in bed, and the mater's doing the house-work.”
”And Dinah?” said Scott. The question leapt from him almost involuntarily. He had not meant to display any eagerness, and he sought to cover it by his next words which were uttered with his usual careful deliberation. ”It's Dinah I have come to see. I have a message for her from my sister.”
Billy's freckled face crumpled into troubled lines. ”Dinah has cleared out,” he said briefly. ”I'm just off to the station to try and get news of her.”
”What?” Scott said, startled.
The boy looked at him, his green eyes shrewdly confiding. ”There's been the devil of a row,” he said. ”The mater is furious with her. She gave her a fearful licking last night to judge by the sounds. Dinah was squealing like a rat. Of course girls always do squeal when they're hurt, but I fancy the mater must have hit a bit harder than usual. And she's burnt the whole of the trousseau too. Dinah was so mighty proud of all her fine things. She'd feel that, you know, pretty badly.”
”d.a.m.nation!” Scott said, and for the second time he spoke without his own volition. He looked at Billy with that intense hot light in his eyes that had in it the whiteness of molten metal. ”Do you mean that?” he said.
”Do you actually mean that your mother flogged her--flogged Dinah?”
Billy nodded. ”It's just her way,” he explained half-apologetically.
”The mater is like that. She's rough and ready. She's always done it to Dinah, had a sort of down on her for some reason. I guessed she meant business last night when I saw the dog-whip had gone out of the hall. I wished afterwards I'd thought to hide it, for it's rather a beastly implement. But the mater's a difficult woman to baulk. And when she's in that mood, it's almost better to let her have her own way. She's sure to get it sooner or later, and a thing of that sort doesn't improve with keeping.”
So spoke Billy with the philosophy of middle-aged youth, while the man beside him sat with clenched hands and faced the hateful vision of Dinah, the fairy-footed and gay of heart, writhing under that horrible and humiliating punishment.
He spoke at length, and some electricity within him made the animal under him fidget and prance, for he stirred neither hand nor foot. ”And you tell me Dinah has run away?”
”Yes, cleared out,” said Billy tersely. ”It was an idiotic thing to do, for the mater is downright savage this morning, and she'll only give her another hiding for her pains. She stayed away all day once before, years ago when she was a little kid, and, my eye, didn't she catch it when she came back! She never did it again--till now.”
”And you are going to the station to look for her?” Scott's voice was dead level. He calmed the restive horse with a firm hand.
”Yes; just to find out if she's gone by train. I don't believe she has, you know. She's nowhere to go to. I expect she's hiding up in the woods somewhere. I shall scour the country afterwards; for the longer she stays away the worse it'll be for her. I'm sure of that,” said Billy uneasily.
”When the mater lays hands on her again, she'll simply flay her.”