Part 67 (2/2)

Maggie was silent a little while, and then said,--

”Let us go to Bob Jakin's, mother; his wife will have room for us, if they have no other lodger.”

So they went on their way to St. Ogg's, to the old house by the river-side.

Bob himself was at home, with a heaviness at heart which resisted even the new joy and pride of possessing a two-months'-old baby, quite the liveliest of its age that had ever been born to prince or packman. He would perhaps not so thoroughly have understood all the dubiousness of Maggie's appearance with Mr. Stephen Guest on the quay at Mudport if he had not witnessed the effect it produced on Tom when he went to report it; and since then, the circ.u.mstances which in any case gave a disastrous character to her elopement had pa.s.sed beyond the more polite circles of St. Ogg's, and had become matter of common talk, accessible to the grooms and errand-boys. So that when he opened the door and saw Maggie standing before him in her sorrow and weariness, he had no questions to ask except one which he dared only ask himself,--where was Mr. Stephen Guest? Bob, for his part, hoped he might be in the warmest department of an asylum understood to exist in the other world for gentlemen who are likely to be in fallen circ.u.mstances there.

The lodgings were vacant, and both Mrs. Jakin the larger and Mrs.

Jakin the less were commanded to make all things comfortable for ”the old Missis and the young Miss”; alas that she was still ”Miss!” The ingenious Bob was sorely perplexed as to how this result could have come about; how Mr. Stephen Guest could have gone away from her, or could have let her go away from him, when he had the chance of keeping her with him. But he was silent, and would not allow his wife to ask him a question; would not present himself in the room, lest it should appear like intrusion and a wish to pry; having the same chivalry toward dark-eyed Maggie as in the days when he had bought her the memorable present of books.

But after a day or two Mrs. Tulliver was gone to the Mill again for a few hours to see to Tom's household matters. Maggie had wished this; after the first violent outburst of feeling which came as soon as she had no longer any active purpose to fulfil, she was less in need of her mother's presence; she even desired to be alone with her grief.

But she had been solitary only a little while in the old sitting-room that looked on the river, when there came a tap at the door, and turning round her sad face as she said ”Come in,” she saw Bob enter, with the baby in his arms and Mumps at his heels.

”We'll go back, if it disturbs you, Miss,” said Bob.

”No,” said Maggie, in a low voice, wis.h.i.+ng she could smile.

Bob, closing the door behind him, came and stood before her.

”You see, we've got a little un, Miss, and I want'd you to look at it, and take it in your arms, if you'd be so good. For we made free to name it after you, and it 'ud be better for your takin' a bit o'

notice on it.”

Maggie could not speak, but she put out her arms to receive the tiny baby, while Mumps snuffed at it anxiously, to ascertain that this transference was all right. Maggie's heart had swelled at this action and speech of Bob's; she knew well enough that it was a way he had chosen to show his sympathy and respect.

”Sit down, Bob,” she said presently, and he sat down in silence, finding his tongue unmanageable in quite a new fas.h.i.+on, refusing to say what he wanted it to say.

”Bob,” she said, after a few moments, looking down at the baby, and holding it anxiously, as if she feared it might slip from her mind and her fingers, ”I have a favor to ask of you.”

”Don't you speak so, Miss,” said Bob, grasping the skin of Mumps's neck; ”if there's anything I can do for you, I should look upon it as a day's earnings.”

”I want you to go to Dr. Kenn's, and ask to speak to him, and tell him that I am here, and should be very grateful if he would come to me while my mother is away. She will not come back till evening.”

”Eh, Miss, I'd do it in a minute,--it is but a step,--but Dr. Kenn's wife lies dead; she's to be buried to-morrow; died the day I come from Mudport. It's all the more pity she should ha' died just now, if you want him. I hardly like to go a-nigh him yet.”

”Oh no, Bob,” said Maggie, ”we must let it be,--till after a few days, perhaps, when you hear that he is going about again. But perhaps he may be going out of town--to a distance,” she added, with a new sense of despondency at this idea.

”Not he, Miss,” said Bob. ”_He'll_ none go away. He isn't one o' them gentlefolks as go to cry at waterin'-places when their wives die; he's got summat else to do. He looks fine and sharp after the parish, he does. He christened the little un; an' he was _at_ me to know what I did of a Sunday, as I didn't come to church. But I told him I was upo'

the travel three parts o' the Sundays,--an' then I'm so used to bein'

on my legs, I can't sit so long on end,--'an' lors, sir,' says I, 'a packman can do wi' a small 'lowance o' church; it tastes strong,' says I; 'there's no call to lay it on thick.' Eh, Miss, how good the little un is wi' you! It's like as if it knowed you; it partly does, I'll be bound,--like the birds know the mornin'.”

Bob's tongue was now evidently loosed from its unwonted bondage, and might even be in danger of doing more work than was required of it.

But the subjects on which he longed to be informed were so steep and difficult of approach, that his tongue was likely to run on along the level rather than to carry him on that unbeaten road. He felt this, and was silent again for a little while, ruminating much on the possible forms in which he might put a question. At last he said, in a more timid voice than usual,--

”Will you give me leave to ask you only one thing, Miss?”

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