Part 39 (1/2)

”Then he will have to be quick,” Abijah said, ”for if the mistress' bell rings, and I have to go up before he comes, I shall never be able to keep it to myself. She will see it in my face that something has happened. If the bell rings, Miss Lucy, you must go up, and if she asks for me, say that I am particular busy, and will be up in a few minutes.”

The bell, however, did not ring before the doctor's return. After a short consultation between him and Ned, Abijah was called in.

”Mr. Sankey agrees with me, Abijah, that you had better break the news.

Your mistress is more accustomed to you than to any one else, and you understand her ways. Here is the deposition. I shall wait below here till you come down. There is no saying how she will take it. Be sure you break the news gently.”

Abijah went upstairs with a hesitating step, strongly in contrast with her usual quick bustling walk. She had before felt rather aggrieved that the doctor should be the first to break the news; but she now felt the difficulty of the task, and would gladly have been spared the responsibility.

”I have been expecting you for the last quarter of an hour, Abijah,”

Mrs. Mulready said querulously. ”You know how I hate to have the room untidy after I have dressed.

”Why, what's the matter?”. she broke off sharply as she noticed Abijah's face. ”Why, you have been crying!”

”Yes, ma'am, I have been crying,” Abijah said unsteadily, ”but I don't know as ever I shall cry again, for I have heard such good news as will last me the rest of my whole life.”

”What news, Abijah?” Mrs. Mulready asked quickly. ”What are you making a mystery about, and what is that paper in your hand?”

”Well, ma'am, G.o.d has been very good to us all. I knew as he would be sooner or later, though sometimes I began to doubt whether it would be in my time, and it did break my heart to see Maister Ned going about so pale and unnatural like for a lad like him, and to know as there was people as thought that he was a murderer. And now, thank G.o.d, it is all over.”

”All over! what do you mean, Abijah?” Mrs. Mulready exclaimed, rising suddenly from her invalid chair.

”What do you mean by saying that it is all over?” and she seized the old nurse's arm with an eager grasp.

”Don't excite yourself so, mistress. You have been sore tried, but it is over now, and today all the world will know as Maister Ned is proved to be innocent. This here paper is a copy of the confession of the man as did it, and who is, they say, dead by this time. It was taken all right and proper afore a magistrate.”

”Innocent!” Mrs. Mulready gasped in a voice scarcely above a whisper.

”Did you tell me, Abijah, that my boy, my boy Ned, is innocent?”

”I never doubted as he was innocent, ma'am; but now, thank G.o.d, all the world will know it. There, ma'am, sit yourself down. Don't look like that. I know as how you must feel, but for mercy sake don't look like that.”

Mrs. Mulready did not seem to hear her, did not seem to notice, as she pa.s.sively permitted herself to be seated in the chair, while Abijah poured out a gla.s.s of wine. Her face was pale and rigid, her eyes wide open, her expression one of horror rather than relief.

”Innocent! Proved innocent!” she murmured. ”What must he think of me--me, his mother!”

For some time she sat looking straight before her, taking no notice of the efforts of Abijah to call her attention, and unheeding the gla.s.s of wine which she in vain pressed her to drink.

”I must go away,” she said at last, rising suddenly. ”I must go away at once. Has he gone yet?”

”Go away, ma'am! Why, what should you go away for, and where are you going?”

”It does not matter; it makes no difference,” Mrs. Mulready said feverishly, ”so that I get away. Put some of my things together, Abijah.

What are you staring there for? Don't you hear what I say? I must go away directly he has started for the mill.”

And with trembling fingers she began to open her drawers and pull out her clothes.

”But you can't go away like that, mistress. You can't, indeed,” Abijah said, aghast.

”I must go, Abijah. There is nothing else for me to do. Do you think I could see him after treating him as I have done? I should fall dead at his feet for shame.”

”But where are you going, ma'am?” Abijah said, thinking it better not to attempt to argue with her in her present state.