CHAPTER VI
Kindly time had withdrawn the foregoing event three days from the
present of Baptista Heddegan. It was ten o'clock in the morning; she
had been ill, not in an ordinary or definite sense, but in a state of
cold stupefaction, from which it was difficult to arouse her so much
as to say a few sentences. When questioned she had replied that she
was pretty well.
Their trip, as such, had been something of a failure. They had gone
on as far as Falmouth, but here he had given way to her entreaties to
return home. This they could not very well do without repassing
through Pen-zephyr, at which place they had now again arrived.
In the train she had seen a weekly local paper, and read there a
paragraph detailing the inquest on Charles. It was added that the
funeral was to take place at his native town of Redrutin on Friday.
After reading this she had shown no reluctance to enter the fatal
neighbourhood of the tragedy, only stipulating that they should take
their rest at a different lodging from the first; and now
comparatively braced up and calm--indeed a cooler creature altogether
than when last in the town, she said to David that she wanted to walk
out for a while, as they had plenty of time on their hands.
'To a shop as usual, I suppose, mee deer?'
'Partly for shopping,' she said. 'And it will be best for you, dear,
to stay in after trotting about so much, and have a good rest while I
am gone.'
He assented; and Baptista sallied forth. As she had stated, her
first visit was made to a shop, a draper's. Without the exercise of
much choice she purchased a black bonnet and veil, also a black stuff
gown; a black mantle she already wore. These articles were made up
into a parcel which, in spite of the saleswoman's offers, her
customer said she would take with her. Bearing it on her arm she
turned to the railway, and at the station got a ticket for Redrutin.
Thus it appeared that, on her recovery from the paralyzed mood of the
former day, while she had resolved not to blast utterly the happiness
of her present husband by revealing the history of the departed one,
she had also determined to indulge a certain odd, inconsequent,
feminine sentiment of decency, to the small extent to which it could
do no harm to any person. At Redrutin she emerged from the railway
carriage in the black attire purchased at the shop, having during the
transit made the change in the empty compartment she had chosen. The
other clothes were now in the bandbox and parcel. Leaving these at
the cloak-room she proceeded onward, and after a wary survey reached
the side of a hill whence a view of the burial ground could be
obtained.
It was now a little before two o'clock. While Baptista waited a
funeral procession ascended the road. Baptista hastened across, and
by the time the procession entered the cemetery gates she had
unobtrusively joined it.
In addition to the schoolmaster's own relatives (not a few), the
paragraph in the newspapers of his death by drowning had drawn
together many neighbours, acquaintances, and onlookers. Among them
she passed unnoticed, and with a quiet step pursued the winding path
to the chapel, and afterwards thence to the grave. When all was
over, and the relatives and idlers had withdrawn, she stepped to the
edge of the chasm. From beneath her mantle she drew a little bunch
of forget-me-nots, and dropped them in upon the coffin. In a few
minutes she also turned and went away from the cemetery. By five
o'clock she was again in Pen-zephyr.
'You have been a mortal long time!' said her husband, crossly. 'I
allowed you an hour at most, mee deer.'
'It occupied me longer,' said she.
'Well--I reckon it is wasting words to complain. Hang it, ye look so
tired and wisht that I can't find heart to say what I would!'
'I am--weary and wisht, David; I am. We can get home to-morrow for
certain, I hope?'
'We can. And please God we will!' said Mr. Heddegan heartily, as if
he too were weary of his brief honeymoon. 'I must be into business
again on Monday morning at latest.'
They left by the next morning steamer, and in the afternoon took up
their residence in their own house at Giant's Town.
The hour that she reached the island it was as if a material weight
had been removed from Baptista's shoulders. Her husband attributed
the change to the influence of the local breezes after the hot-house
atmosphere of the mainland. However that might be, settled here, a
few doors from her mother's dwelling, she recovered in no very long
time much of her customary bearing, which was never very
demonstrative. She accepted her position calmly, and faintly smiled
when her neighbours learned to call her Mrs. Heddegan, and said she
seemed likely to become the leader of fashion in Giant's Town.
Her husband was a man who had made considerably more money by trade
than her father had done: and perhaps the greater profusion of
surroundings at her command than she had heretofore been mistress of,
was not without an effect upon her. One week, two weeks, three weeks
passed; and, being pre-eminently a young woman who allowed things to
drift, she did nothing whatever either to disclose or conceal traces
of her first marriage; or to learn if there existed possibilities--
which there undoubtedly did--by which that hasty contract might
become revealed to those about her at any unexpected moment.
While yet within the first month of her marriage, and on an evening
just before sunset, Baptista was standing within her garden adjoining
the house, when she saw passing along the road a personage clad in a
greasy black coat and battered tall hat, which, common enough in the
slums of a city, had an odd appearance in St. Maria's. The tramp, as
he seemed to be, marked her at once--bonnetless and unwrapped as she
was her features were plainly recognizable--and with an air of
friendly surprise came and leant over the wall.
'What! don't you know me?' said he.
She had some dim recollection of his face, but said that she was not
acquainted with him.
'Why, your witness to be sure, ma'am. Don't you mind the man that
was mending the church-window when you and your intended husband
walked up to be made one; and the clerk called me down from the
ladder, and I came and did my part by writing my name and
occupation?'
Baptista glanced quickly around; her husband was out of earshot.
That would have been of less importance but for the fact that the
wedding witnessed by this personage had not been the wedding with Mr.
Heddegan, but the one on the day previous.
'I've had a misfortune since then, that's pulled me under,' continued
her friend. 'But don't let me damp yer wedded joy by naming the
particulars. Yes, I've seen changes since; though 'tis but a short
time ago--let me see, only a month next week, I think; for 'twere the
first or second day in August.'
'Yes--that's when it was,' said another man, a sailor, who had come
up with a pipe in his mouth, and felt it necessary to join in
(Baptista having receded to escape further speech). 'For that was
the first time I set foot in Giant's Town; and her husband took her
to him the same day.'
A dialogue then proceeded between the two men outside the wall, which
Baptista could not help hearing.
'Ay, I signed the book that made her one flesh,' repeated the decayed
glazier. 'Where's her goodman?'
'About the premises somewhere; but you don't see 'em together much,'
replied the sailor in an undertone. 'You see, he's older than she.'
'Older? I should never have thought it from my own observation,'
said the glazier. 'He was a remarkably handsome man.'
'Handsome? Well, there he is--we can see for ourselves.'
David Heddegan had, indeed, just shown himself at the upper end of
the garden; and the glazier, looking in bewilderment from the husband
to the wife, saw the latter turn pale.
Now that decayed glazier was a far-seeing and cunning man--too far-
seeing and cunning to allow himself to thrive by simple and
straightforward means--and he held his peace, till he could read more
plainly the meaning of this riddle, merely adding carelessly, 'Well--
marriage do alter a man, 'tis true. I should never ha' knowed him!'
He then stared oddly at the disconcerted Baptista, and moving on to
where he could again address her, asked her to do him a good turn,
since he once had done the same for her. Understanding that he meant
money, she handed him some, at which he thanked her, and instantly
went away.
