Part 22 (1/2)
”No.”
”What's the matter?”
”I--feel sick.”
”Then mayn't I come in and look after you?” Helen asked in a voice which impelled Miriam to bark an angry negative.
It was Helen, who liked to help people, to whom this thing should have happened, yet Miriam possessed her experience jealously; it had broken into the monotony of life and to that extent she was grateful.
”And I must be very kind to George,” she decided before she went to sleep.
She dropped her white eyelids the next morning when John gave the news of the old man's death, for she did not want to betray her knowledge.
”Oh!” Helen said, and Rupert remarked lightly and watchfully that Zebedee would now be less often on the moor.
”There's still the funeral,” Helen said oddly.
”And let's hope they'll bury him soon,” John added, and so finished with old Halkett.
Helen was still thoughtful. ”Perhaps we ought to go and be nice to George. There won't be anything we can do, but we might ask him if there is.”
”The less you have to do with George--” John began, and Miriam interrupted him, clicking her tongue.
”Helen, Helen, haven't you heard about George and Lily Brent? A dreadful story. Ask John.”
”If you're not careful,” he said menacingly, ”I'll do what she did to him.”
”No, no, you won't, Johnny; for, in spite of everything, you're a little gentleman.”
”Oh, do be quiet, you two! Rupert's trying to say something.”
”Send a note of condolence to George,” he advised, ”and I'll go to the funeral. It's no good asking John to do it. He wouldn't s.h.i.+ne. Heavens!
it's late, and I haven't cleaned the boots!”
The boys went about their business and left the girls to theirs.
”I don't think a note is enough for George,” Helen said as she rolled up her sleeves. ”A man without a mother or a father, and only a Mrs.
Biggs!”
”H'm,” Miriam commented. ”Except for Mrs. Biggs, I don't know that he's to be pitied. Still, I'm quite willing to be agreeable, unless you mean to go and knock at the farm door?”
”No. Couldn't we catch him somewhere!”
”Yes,” Miriam said too promptly. She made a cautious pause. ”He won't be riding on the moor today, because there'll be undertakers and things. If we went down the road--or shall I go alone?”
”Both of us--to represent the family. And we can say we're sorry--”
”But we're not.”