Part 2 (1/2)
”Say, old fellow,” he said slowly, ”I hope there was n't any sort of a quarrel,--you know,--any domestic unpleasantness, before you came on this trip? I wish to blank I 'd left you ashore”
”Quarrel? A demon could n't quarrel with my wife!” exploded Avery
”That waspardon, Avery You see--to be honest, I can't say exactly hoe 're coht happen I thought”--the sportsh and I should n't,” said Avery, lifting a gray face,--”I 'ive my immortal soul if I had n't left her Tell her--I--God! Roo”
”I 've always thought,” said the bachelor, ”that if I had a wife--a wo under his sou'wester ”You fellows don't knohat you 've got,” he added abruptly He scra back Avery followed hirated, and keeled suddenly Water poured over the rail The deck rang with cries Avery got up, and held on to soh his fingers like a saw, and escaped Confusedly he heard the :-- ”We 've struck, sir! She 's stove in!”
”Well,” replied the owner coolly, ”get the boats over, then”
He did not look at his guest Avery looked at the water It seehastly play Oddly, he recalled at thatin one day--it was after she knehat ailed her--and finding Jean with a book face down on her lap He picked it up and read, ”The vision of sudden death” He had laughed at her, and scolded her for filling her s
”You don't quite understand, dear,” she had answered
”Come,” said Romer, whose remarkable self-possession somehow increased rather than diminished Avery's alarm, ”we have n't as much tiets aboard!”
The tender was prancing like asea The lands, and fell
As he went under he cried, in a piercing voice, ”Tell s, he thought how he had seen her fight for her breath, patiently, hours at a ti
It o days after this that a ot off the Shore train at the old station in the city
Marshall Avery seemed to himself to see this man as if he saw another person, and felt a curious interest in his appearance and movements The man was dressed in borrowed clothes that did not fit; his face was haggard and heavily lined; he had no baggage, and showed so several hack too slow A kind of maniacal hurry possessed him
”Drive for your life!” he said He did not lean back in the carriage, but sat up straight, as if he could not spare time to be comfortable When the hack door slammed Avery saw the man no more, but seemed to crouch and crawl so far within his personality that it was impossible to observe the traveler from the outside
Avery had never in his life before been in the throat of death, and been spewed out, like a creature unwelcoale was in his ears yet; the crash of the waves seemed to crush his chest in Occasionally he wiped his face or throat, as if salt water dashed on it still He had made up his mind definitely--he would never tell Jean the details She would not be able to bear theht do her a harht in a blow, and struck, and that the tender brought him ashore She would not understand what this meant Why should she know that he went overboard in the process? Or what a blank of a ti hi the tender had tossed about like a chip in that whirlpool? It was unnecessary to explain hell to her To say, ”We snapped an oar; we had to scull in a hurricane,” would convey little idea to her And she would be so distressed that one of the creas lost The Dream was sunk Romer had remained on the Cape to try to recover the body of his mate He, Marshall Avery, her husband, had been saved alive, and had come back to her What else concerned, or, indeed, what else could interest her? In tenwould interest either of theain Jean! He thrust his face out of the hackand cried:-- ”Drive faster,to a funeral”
The driver laid the whip on and put the horse to a gallop The passenger leaned back on the cushi+ons now for the first time and drew a full breath
”Jean!” he repeated, ”Jean! Jean!”
The tower of the Church of the Happy Saints rose before his straining eyes against the cold Noveh He shi+vered a little as he ca overcalittered between the houses He turned away his face He thought:-- ”I wonder when she got the telegrams?” The first one must have reached her by noon of the second day out This last, sent by night delivery froe where the shi+pwrecked party had landed (he had routed out the operator froht to have found her by breakfast-tiht have had--well, admit that she must have had some black hours Possibly the papers--but he had seen no papers It had been a pity about the telephone He had searched everywhere for the Blue Bell He had found one in a grocery, but the teh He would tell her all about it now in six minutes--in five--poor Jean!
No--stop He would carry her soht so much of such little attentions The driver reined up sharply at the corner florist's; it was Avery's own florist, but the salesht a dozen inferior tea-roses out with an apology
”Sorry, sir, but they are all we have left We 've been sending everything to Mr Avery's”
Avery stared at the ? Some ladies' lunch? Then she wasflowers, as people do, for lack of any better way of expressing a useless sympathy? He felt his hands and feet turn as cold as the seas of Cape Cod
”Drive slower,” he said But the fellow did not hear hier's door it stopped with a lurch Avery got out slowly The house looked much as usual, except that a shade in Jean's bedroom was drawn It was just the hour when she soht The husband trod softly up the long steps He felt for his latch-key, but remembered that he had never seen it since he went overboard He turned to ring the bell
As he did so soust of November wind twisted it around and around his wrist Avery threw the thing off with a cry of horror
He had leaned up heavily against the door, and when Molly opened it suddenly, he well-nigh fell into the house
”Oh, sir!” said Molly She had been crying, and looked worn He stood with his tea-roses in his hand staring at her; he did not speak He heard the baby crying in the nursery, and Pink's little feet trotting about somewhere The house was heavy with flowers,--roses, violets, tuberoses,--a sickening mixture of scents He tried several times to speak, but his dry throat refused
”What's happened?” he ed to de
”The doctor's here He 'll tell you, sir,” said Molly She did not look him in the eye, but went softly and knocked at the library door Avery started to go upstairs
”Oh, Mr Avery,” cried Molly, ”don't you do that; don't you, sir!”
Then Dr Thorne stepped out of the library ”Wait a minute, Avery,” he said, in a quiet, matter-of-fact tone, which at once restored Avery's coo up, will you?”
Marshall Avery obeyed He stepped into the library And Dr Thorne shut the door
The two ed silence The distracted husband stood tre pitiably He passed his left hand over his eyes, then pushed it over his right wrist several ti away an obstruction
”I don't seeht there was--so on the doorbell I 've been shi+pwrecked I 'm not--just myself Why don't you speak to me? Doctor! Doctor!”
”I find it--difficult,” replied the experienced physician, with embarrassment ”The case is--unusual Mrs Avery”-- ”Give me the worst!” cried the tortured man
”That is impossible,” said Esmerald Thorne, in a deep voice He turned away and went to the here he stood looking out into the back yard Kate was hanging out so Avery noticed this circuot up and stood behind the doctor--as people notice the pettiest ite white thing on the line arrested his attention It was the silk Spanish shahich he had given his wife
He put out his hand--groped, as a seeing , found the doctor's arht caht him before he struck the floor
He pushed the brandy away froled up Even at that moment it occurred to hi like aversion
”When did she die?”
”Yesterday”
”What time?”
”At the ebb of the tide It was eleven o'clock in the ”
”Who ith her?”
”The servants”
”Oh, my God, Thorne! nobody else? Were n't you there?”