Part 104 (2/2)
Pete approached it solemnly, held up the candle in front of it, and said in a low voice, ”It's for her. I've been doing it myself, sir, and it's lasted me all winter, dark nights and bad days. I'll be finis.h.i.+ng it to-night, though, G.o.d willing, and to-morrow, maybe, I'll be taking it to Douglas.”
”Is it----” began Philip, but he could not finish.
The stone was a plain slab, rounded at the top, bevelled about the edge, smoothed on the face, and chiselled over the back; but there was no sign or symbol on it, and no lettering or inscription.
”Is there to be no name?” asked Philip at last.
”No,” said Pete.
”No?”
”Tell you the truth, sir, I've been reading what it's saying in the ould Book about the Recording Angel calling the dead out of their graves.”
”Yes?”
”And I've been thinking the way he'll be doing it will be going to the graveyards and seeing the names on the gravestones, and calling them out loud to rise up to judgment; some, as it's saying, to life eternal, and some to everlasting punishment.”
”Well?”
”Well, sir, I've been thinking if he comes to this one and sees no name on it”--Pete's voice sank to a whisper--”maybe he'll pa.s.s it by and let the poor sinner sleep on.”
Stumbling back to the Court-house through the dark lane Philip thought, ”It was a lie _then_, but it's true _now_. It _must_ be true. She must be dead.” There was a sort of relief in this certainty. It was an end, at all events; a pitiful end, a cowardly end, a kind of sneaking out of Fate's fingers; it was not what he had looked for and intended, but he struggled to reconcile himself to it.
Then he remembered the child and thought, ”Why should I disturb it? Why should I disturb Pete? I will watch over it all its life. I will protect it and find a way to provide for it. I will do my duty by it. The child shall never want.”
He was offering the key to the lock of the prisoners' yard when some one pa.s.sed him in the lane, peered into his face, then turned about and spoke.
”Oh, it's you, Deemster Christian?”
”Yes, doctor. Good-night!”
”Have you heard the news from Ballawhaine? The old gentleman had another stroke this morning.”
”No, I had not heard it. Another? Dear me, dear me!”
Back in his room, Philip resumed his wig and gown and returned to the Court-house. The place was now lit up by candlelight and densely crowded. Everybody rose to his feet as the Deemster stepped to the dais.
V.
”Come, Bridget, Saint Bridget, come in at my door, The crock's on the bink and the rush----”
”She's fast,” said Nancy. ”Rocking this one to sleep is like waiting for the kettle to boil. You may try and try, and blow and blow, but never a sound. And no sooner have you forgotten all about her, but she's singing away as steady as a top.”
Nancy put the child into the cradle, tucked her about, twisted the head of the little nest so that the warmth of the fire should enter it, and hung a shawl over the hood to protect the little eyelids from the light.
”Will you keep the house till I'm home from Sulby, Pete?”
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