Part 23 (2/2)
”Get out that paper, d.i.c.kson, and we'll get it signed.”
The lawyer produced the will, and Madge and the servant girl were made to witness it. d.i.c.kson, having dried the signatures, took charge of it again; and then Hawker turned round fiercely to Madge.
”That's my new will,” he said; ”my new will, old woman. Oh, you cat!
I've found you out.”
Madge saw a storm was coming, worse than the one which raged and rattled outside, and she braced her nerves to meet it.
”What have you found out, old man?” she said quietly.
”I've found out that you and that young scoundrel have been robbing and cheating me in a way that would bring me to the workhouse in another year. I have found out that he has forged my name for nearly a thousand pounds, and that you've helped him. I find that you yourself have robbed me of hundreds of pounds, and that I have been blinded, and cozened, and hoodwinked by two that I kept from the workhouse, and treated as well as I treated myself. That's what I have found out, gipsy.”
”Well?” was all Madge said, standing before him with her arms folded.
”So I say,” said Hawker; ”it is very well. The mother to the streets, and the boy to the gallows.”
”You wouldn't prosecute him, William; your own son?”
”No, I shan't,” he replied;--”but the Bank will.”
”And couldn't you stop it?”
”I could. But if holding up my little finger would save him, I wouldn't do it.”
”Oh, William,” she cried, throwing herself on her knees; ”don't look like that. I confess everything; visit it on me, but spare that boy.”
”You confess, do you?” he said. ”Get up. Get out of my house; you shan't stay here.”
But she would not go, but, hanging round him, kept saying, ”Spare the boy, William, spare the boy!” over and again, till he struck her in his fury, and pulled her towards the door.
”Get out and herd with the gipsies you belong to,” he said. ”You witch, you can't cry now.”
”But,” she moaned, ”oh, not such a night as this, William; not to-night. I am frightened of the storm. Let me stay to-night. I am frightened of the lightning. Oh, I wouldn't turn out your dog such a night as this.”
”Out, out, you devil!”
”Oh, William, only one--”
”Out, you Jezebel, before I do you a mischief.”
He had got the heavy door open, and she pa.s.sed out, moaning low to herself. Out into the fierce rain and the black darkness; and the old man held open the door for a minute, to see if she were gone.
No. A broad, flickering riband of light ineffable wavered for an instant of time before his eyes, lighting up the country far and wide; but plainly visible between him and the blaze was a tall, dark, bare-headed woman, wildly raising her hands above her head, as if imploring vengeance upon him, and, ere the terrible explosion which followed had ceased to shake the old house to its foundations, he shut the door, and went muttering alone up to his solitary chamber.
The next morning the groom came into the lawyer's room, and informed him that when he went to call his master in the morning, he had found the bed untouched, and Hawker sitting half undressed in his arm-chair, dead and cold.
Chapter XIV
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