Part 24 (1/2)
He closed the Bible and put it down on the floor beside him, and sat with his hands clutching hold of his ankles. He would have to go away from Ballyards. He would not be able to rest contentedly near Belfast where Maggie lived ... with her peeler! He must go away from home, and the further away he went, the better it would be. Then he might forget about her. Perhaps, after all, it was not true that ”_many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it_.” Poets had a terrible habit of exaggerating things, and perhaps he would forget his love for Maggie in some distant place!...
There was a copy of _Romeo and Juliet_ perched on top of a pile of books. ”That was the cause of all my trouble,” he said, pus.h.i.+ng it so that it fell off the pile on to the floor at his feet. He picked it up and opened it, and as he did so, his eyes rested on Mercutio's speech, _If love be rough with you, be rough with love_.
Comfort instantly came into his mind.
”I will,” he said, rising from the floor.
VI
His Uncle William was in the kitchen when he descended the stairs from the attic.
”Mr. McGonigal was here this morning after you went up to Belfast,” he said, as John entered the kitchen. ”Everything's settled up. Your Uncle Matthew left you 180 and his books. It's more nor I imagined he had, though I knew well he hardly spent a copper on himself, beyond the books he bought. He was inclined to be an extravagant man like the rest of us before that bother he got into in Belfast over the head of the oul' Queen, but he changed greatly after. The money'll be useful to you, boy, when you start off in life!”
”I'll come into the shop with you, Uncle William,” John said, glancing towards the scullery where his mother was. ”I want to have a word or two with you!”
”Very good,” Uncle William replied, leading the way into the shop.
They sat down together in the little counting-house while John told his Uncle of his desire to go away from home.
”And where in the earthly world do you want to go to?” Uncle William demanded.
”Anywhere. London, mebbe! I'm near in the mind to go to America. Mebbe, I'll just travel the world!”
”A hundred and eighty pounds'll not carry you far,” Uncle William exclaimed.
”It'll take me a good piece of the way, and if I can't earn enough to take me the rest of it, sure, what good am I?”
Uncle William shrugged his shoulders. ”You must do as you please, I suppose, but I'll miss you sore when you do go. It'll be poor pleasure for me to live on here, with you gone and your Uncle Matthew dead!”
”I'll come back every now and then to see you,” John promised. ”I'm not going to cut myself off from you altogether. You know that rightly. I just want to see a bit of the world. I ... I want to find out things!”
”What things, John?”
”Oh ... everything! Whatever there is to find out!”
”I sometimes think,” said Uncle William, ”you can find out all there is to find out at home, if you have enough gumption in you to find out anything at all. Have you told your ma yet?”
John shook his head.
”It'll want a bit of telling,” Uncle William prophesied.
”I daresay, but she'll have plenty of time to get used to it. I'm not going this minute. I'm going to try and do some writing at home first, 'til I get my hand in. Then when I think I know something about the job, I'll go and see what I can make out of it.”
Uncle William sat in silence for a few moments, tapping noiselessly on the desk with his fingers.
”It's a pity you've no notion of the grocery,” he said. ”This shop'll be yours one of these days!”
”I haven't any fancy for it,” John replied.