Lost Man's Lane: A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth
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XXVII
THE TEXT WITNESSETH
I have a grim will when I choose to exert it. After Mr. Gryce left thehotel, I took a cup of tea with the landlady and then made a round ofthe stores. I bought dimity, sewing silk, and what not, as I said Iwould, but this did not occupy me long (to the regret probably of thecountry merchants, who expected to make a fool of me and found it a byno means easy task), and was quite ready for William when he finallydrove up.
The ride home was a more or less silent one. I had conceived such ahorror of the man beside me, that talking for talk's sake wasimpossible, while he was in a mood which it would be charity to callnon-communicative. It may be that my own reticence was at the bottom ofthis, but I rather think not. The remark he made in passing DeaconSpear's house showed that something more than spite was working in hisslow but vindictive brain.
"There's a man of your own sort," he cried. "You won't find him doinganything out of the way; oh, no. Pity your visit wasn't paid there.You'd have got a better impression of the lane."
To this I made no reply.
At Mr. Trohm's he spoke again:
"I suppose that you and Trohm had the devil of a say about Lucetta andthe rest of us. I don't know why, but the whole neighborhood seems tofeel they've a right to use our name as they choose. But it isn't goingto be so, long. We have played poor and pinched and starved all I'mgoing to. I'm going to have a new horse, and Lucetta shall have a dress,and that mighty quick too. I'm tired of all this shabbiness, and mean tohave a change."
I wanted to say, "No change yet; change under the present circumstanceswould be the worst thing possible for you all," but I felt that thiswould be treason to Mr. Gryce, and refrained, saying simply, as helooked sideways at me for a word:
"Lucetta needs a new dress. That no one can deny. But you had better letme get it for her, or perhaps that is what you mean."
The grunt which was my only answer might be interpreted in any way. Itook it, however, for assent.
As soon as I was relieved of his presence and found myself again withthe girls, I altered my whole manner and cried out in querulous tones:
"Mrs. Carter and I have had a difference." (This was true. We did have adifference over our cup of tea. I did not think it necessary to say thisdifference was a forced one. Some things we are perfectly justified inkeeping to ourselves.) "She remembers a certain verse in the NewTestament one way and I in another. We had not time to settle it by aconsultation with the sacred word, but I cannot rest till it is settled,so will you bring your Bible to me, my dear, that I may look that verseup?"
We were in the upper hall, where I had taken a seat on the old-fashionedsofa there. Lucetta, who was standing before me, started immediately todo my bidding, without stopping to think, poor child, that it was verystrange I did not go to my own room and consult my own Bible as any goodPresbyterian would be expected to do. As she was turning toward thelarge front room I stopped her with the quiet injunction:
"Get me one with good print, Lucetta. My eyes won't bear muchstraining."
At which she turned and to my great relief hurried down the corridortoward William's room, from which she presently returned, bringing thevery volume I was anxious to consult.
Meanwhile I had laid aside my hat. I felt flurried and unhappy, andshowed it. Lucetta's pitiful face had a strange sweetness in it thismorning, and I felt sure as I took the sacred book from her hand thather thoughts were all with the lover she had sent from her side and notat all with me or with what at the moment occupied me. Yet my thoughtsat this moment involved, without doubt, the very deepest interests ofher life, if not that very lover she was brooding over in her darkenedand resigned mind. As I realized this I heaved an involuntary sigh,which seemed to startle her, for she turned and gave me a quick look asshe was slipping away to join her sister, who was busy at the other endof the hall.
The Bible I held was an old one, of medium size and most excellentprint. I had no difficulty in finding the text and settling the questionwhich had been my ostensible reason for wanting the book, but it took melonger to discover the indentation which I had made in one of its pages;but when I did, you may imagine my awe and the turmoil into which mymind was cast, when I found that it marked those great verses inCorinthians which are so universally read at funerals:
"Behold I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall allbe changed."
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye----"