Part 19 (1/2)
”And what did they tell me that lie for?” she repeated, in a tone half perplexed, half resentful. Then she turned peremptorily to Barron.
”Shut the door!”
Half an hour later Barron emerged into the road, from the cottage. He walked like a man bewildered. All that was evil in him rejoiced; all that was good sorrowed. He felt that G.o.d had arisen, and scattered his enemies; he also felt a genuine horror and awe in the presence of human frailty.
All night long he lay awake, pondering how to deal with the story which had been told him; how to clear up its confusions and implications; to find some firm foothold in the mad medley of the woman's talk--some reasonable scheme of time and place. Much of what she had told him had been frankly incoherent; and to press her had only made confusion worse.
He was tolerably certain that she was suffering from some obscure brain trouble. The effort of talking to him had clearly exhausted her; but he had not been able to refrain from making her talk. At the end of the half hour he had advised her--in some alarm at her ghastly look--to see a doctor. But the suggestion had made her angry, and he had let it drop.
In the morning news was brought to him from Broad's cottage that John Broad's mother, Mrs. Richard Sabin, who had arrived from America only forty-eight hours before, had died suddenly in the night. The bursting of an unsuspected aneurism in the brain was, according to the doctor called in, the cause of death.
BOOK II
HESTER
”Light as the flying seed-b.a.l.l.s is their play The silly maids!”
”Who see in mould the rose unfold, The soul through blood and tears.”
CHAPTER VII
”I cannot get this skirt to hang as Lady Edith's did,” said Sarah Fox-Wilton discontentedly.
”Spend twenty guineas on it, my dear, as Lady Edith did on hers, and it'll be all right,” said a mocking voice.
Sarah frowned. She went on pinning and adjusting a serge skirt in the making, which hung on the dummy before her. ”Oh, we all know what _you_ would like to spend on your dress, Hester!” she said angrily, but indistinctly, as her mouth was full of pins.
”Because really nice frocks are not to be had any other way,” said Hester coolly. ”You pay for them--and you get them. But as for supposing you can copy Lady Edith's frocks for nothing, why, of course you can't, and you don't!”
”If I had ever so much money,” said Sarah severely, ”I shouldn't think it _right_ to spend what Lady Edith does on her dress.”
”Oh, wouldn't you!” said Hester with a laugh and a yawn. ”Just give _me_ the chance--that's all!” Then she turned her head--”Lulu!--you mustn't eat any more toffy!”--and she flung out a mischievous hand and captured a box that was lying on the table, before a girl, who was sitting near it with a book, could abstract from it another square of toffy.
”Give it me!” said Lulu, springing up, and making for her a.s.sailant.
Hester laughingly resisted, and they wrestled for the box a little, till Hester suddenly let it go.
”Take it then--and good luck to you! I wouldn't spoil my teeth and my complexion as you do--not for tons of sweets. Hullo!”--the speaker sprang up--”the rain's over, and it's quite a decent evening. I shall go out for a run and take Roddy.”
”Then I shall have to come too,” said Sarah, getting up from her knees, and pulling down her sleeves. ”I don't want to at all, but mamma says you are not to go out alone.”
Hester flushed. ”Do you think I can't escape you all--if I want to? Of course I can. What geese you are! None of you will ever prevent me from doing what I want to do. It really would save such a lot of time and trouble if you would get that into your heads.”
”Where do you mean to go?” said Sarah stolidly, without taking any notice of her remark. ”Because if you'll go to the village, I can get some binding I want.”