Part 34 (2/2)
'er again to marry 'im, tellin' her that the ten years was up. They say, too, that Maaster Wilfred got Miss Ruth's old steward Inch into some sc.r.a.pes, and can make un do moast what he've got a mind to.
Anyhow they oal got at her, and got her to promise, when she screeches out 'Roger es ere; I see un!' There were a sarvent in the 'all that eerd her and she tould me!”
”Merciful G.o.d,” I thought, my dream again.
”What happened afterwards?” I said, excitedly.
”Why, sur, Miss Ruth she fented away, and lyed like one dead for a long time, and when she came to she looked oal dazed.”
”And then?”
”The next day she went to her own house.”
”What for?”
”To prepare for the weddin'. She believed, so she tould her maid, that Roger must be dead, and so she went home tu fulfil her father's will, and prepare for the weddin'.”
”What, did Wil--, that is, the other brother, persist in her marrying him, though he knew she didn't like him?”
”That he did, sur. You see, he've bin livin' wild, and people do zay that the whole estate es mortgaged up to its eyes, and he ded want to get Miss Ruth so as to kep Trewinion.”
My heart grew hot with anger, but I only urged the man to go on with his story.
”Well, I do'ant knaw much after that 'ow things went on; but I've heerd that she pined and pined, and still Maaster Wilfred kept her to her promise. The banes (banns) was called in church, and the day fixed; but she got thinner and thinner, till 'bout a week ago she--she----”
”She what? Tell me?”
”She died. Goodness gracious, who be you?”
”Ruth dead! Died of a broken heart! Wilfred, your cup is full! You shall die for this!” I cried wildly. My brain was on fire, my heart was breaking. I had come home for this! The message was a mockery, nothing was before me but despair and--revenge.
”Look you!” cried Bill, ”you be--iss, good Lord--you be Maaster Roger!”
”Yes, Roger,” I said, ”come home for this!”
”Oa, Maaster Roger, I wish I 'ad'n tould 'ee. I'd a bite my tongue out fust; but I ded'n knaw, and yet I thought you was somebody I'd seed before. Oa, Maaster Roger, do'ant 'ee give way so. Oa, to think you should 'ev bin dead, and come back livin', and that Bill Tregargus shud hev bin the fust to tell 'ee the bad news. Ef I'd only knaw'd I'd ev altered it; but I ded'n.”
I conquered myself at last. I had been in a hard school during the last ten years, living almost without hope in life, and so I felt it less than if I buoyed myself up with joyful hopes. Still, it was terrible, terrible. If I had come home a month before it might have been different, but I was too late. Ah, I was cursed, cursed with the Trewinion's curse!
”Bill,” I said, after many wild questions on my part, and excited exclamations on his, for he could not realise that I was alive, ”tell me all about it, all about her death, and everything.”
”Well, Maaster Roger,” said Bill, ”what I knaw is through Jane Treloar, who was Miss Ruth's maid, and she came back yesterday by the coach.
She do live here, you do knaw, sur. Well, she tould me and the cook that she only made one request when she got very ill, and that was that Maaster Wilfred shouldn't see her. She got weaker, sur, very fast, and never spoke to anybody, and died without a murmur.”
”When was she buried?”
”Two days agone, sur.”
”Where?”
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