Part 49 (1/2)
”Here,” whispered Nancy, ”take the redyng comb and lash your hair out, it's all through-others. And listen--you've got to be quiet. Promise me you'll be quiet. She's wake and low and nervous, so no kissing. D'ye hear me now, no kissing.”
”Aw, kissing makes no noise to spake of, woman,” whispered Pete; and then he was in the room.
Kate saw him come, a towering dark figure between her and the door. He did not speak at first, but slid down to the chair at the foot of the bed, modestly, meekly, reverently, as if he had entered a sanctuary. His hand rested on his knee, and she noticed that the wrist was hairy and tattooed with the three legs of Man.
”Is it you, Pete?” she asked; and then he said in a low tone, almost in a whisper, as if speaking to himself in a hush of awe--
”It's her own voice again! I've heard it in my drames these five years.”
He looked helplessly about him for a moment, fixed his watery eyes on Nancy as if he wanted to burst into sobs but dare not for fear of the noise, then turned on his chair and seemed on the point of taking to flight. But just at that instant his dog, which had followed him into the room, planted its forelegs on the counterpane and looked impudently into Kate's face.
”Down, Dempster, down!” cried Pete; and after that, the ice being broken by the sound of his voice, Pete was his own man once more.
”Is that your dog, Pete?” said Kate.
”Aw, no, Kate, but I'm his man,” said Pete. ”He does what he likes with me, anyway. Caught me out in Kimber-ley and fetched me home.”
”Is he old?”
”Old, d'ye say? He's one of the lost ten tribes of dogs, and behaves as if he'd got to inherit the earth.”
She felt Pete's big black eyes s.h.i.+ning on her.
”My gracious, Kitty, what a woman you're growing, though!” he said.
”Am I so much changed?” she asked.
”Changed, is it?” he cried. ”Gough bless me heart! the nice little thing you were when we used to play fishermen together down at Cornaa Harbour--d'ye remember? The ould kipper-box rolling on a block for a boat at sea--do you mind it? Yourself houlding a bit of a broken broomstick in the rope handle for a mast, and me working the potato-dibber on the ground, first port and then starboard, for rudder and wind and oar and tide. 'Mortal dirty weather this, cap'n?' 'Aw, yes, woman, big sea extraordinary'--d'ye mind it, Kirry!”
Kate tried to laugh a little and to say what a long time ago it was since then. But Pete, being started, laughed uproariously, slapped his knee, and rattled on.
”Up at the mill, too--d'ye remember that now? Yourself with the top of a barrel for a flower basket, holding it 'kimbo at your lil hip and shouting, 'Violets! Swate violets! Fresh violets!'” (He mocked her silvery treble in his l.u.s.ty baritone and roared with laughter.)
”And then me, woman, d'ye mind me?--me, with the pig-stye gate atop of my head for a fish-board, yelling, 'Mackerel! Fine ladies, fresh ladies, and bellies as big as bishops--Mack-er-el!' Aw, Kirry, Kirry! Aw, the dear ould times gone by! Aw, the changes, the changes!... Did I _know_ you then? Are you asking me did I know you when I found you in the glen?
Did I know I was alive, Kitty? Did I know the wind was howling? Did I know my head was going round like a compa.s.s, and my heart thumping a hundred and twenty pound to the square inch? Did I kiss you and kiss you while you were lying there useless, and lift you up and hitch your poor limp arms around my neck, and carry you out of the dirty ould tholthan that was going to be the death of you--the first job I was doing on the island, too, coming back to it.... Lord save us, Kitty, what have I done?”
Kate had dropped back on the pillow, and was sobbing as if her heart would break, and seeing this, Nancy fell on Pete with loud reproaches, took the man by the shoulders and his dog by the neck, and pushed both out of the room.
”Out of it,” cried Nancy. ”Didn't I tell you to be quiet? You great blethering omathaun, you shall come no more.”
Abashed, ashamed, humiliated, and quiet enough now, Pete went slowly down the stairs.
XIII.
Late that night Kate heard Caesar and her mother talking together as they were going to bed. Caesar was saying--
”I got him on the track of a good house, and he went off to Ramsey this morning to put a sight on it.”
”Dear heart alive, father!” Grannie answered, ”Pete isn't home till a week come Sat.u.r.day.”