Joan Haste
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JOAN HASTE
«Meaning, Mr. Rock, that as it is getting late, and it’s a long and windy walk home, we’d better stop talking of stone figures and come to business – that is, if you have a mind for it».
«By all means, Mrs. Gillingwater. But what is the business?» «Well, it’s this: last time we met, when we parted in anger, though through no fault of mine, you said that you wanted
Joan’s address: and now I’ve got it».
«You’ve got it? Then tell it me. Come, be quick!» and he leaned towards her across the polished oak table.
«No, no, Mr. Rock: do you think that I am as green as an alder shoot, that you should ask such a thing of me? I must have the money before you get the address. Do you understand?»
«I understand, Mrs. Gillingwater; but be reasonable. How can you expect me to pay you five-and-twenty pounds for what may be gammon after all?»
«Five-and-twenty pounds, Mr. Rock! No such thing, indeed: it is fifty pounds I want, every farthing of it, or you get nothing out of me».
«Fifty pounds!» answered Samuel; «then I don’t think that we need talk no longer, Mrs. Gillingwater, seeing that I ain’t going to give you fifty pounds, no, not for the address of all the angels in heaven».
«I dare say not, Mr. Rock: they’d be precious little use to you when you’d got them, either now or at any future time, to judge from what I know of you» – and she glanced significantly at the sculptured demons beneath the ceiling – «but you see Joan’s whereabouts is another matter, more especially since she isn’t an angel yet, though she’s been nigh enough to it, poor dear».
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«What do you mean by that, ma’am? Is she ill, then?» «When I’ve got the fifty pounds in my pocket, Mr. Rock,
I’ll be glad enough to tell you all about it, but till then my mouth is sealed. Indeed, it’s a great risk that I run letting you know at all, for if the old man yonder finds it out, I think that he’ll be the ruin of me. And now, will you pay, or won’t you?» «I won’t give you the fifty pounds», he answered, setting his teeth; «I’ll give you thirty, and that’s the last farthing which you’ll screw out of me – and a lot of money too, seeing that
there’s no reason why I should pay you anything at all». «That’s just where you’re wrong, Mr. Rock», she answered:
«not that I’m denying that thirty pounds is a lot of money; but then, you see, I’ve got that to sell that you want to buy, and badly. Also, as I told you, I take risks in selling it».
«What risks?»
«The risks of being turned out of house and home, and being sold up, that’s all. Old Levinger don’t want no one to know Joan’s address; I can’t tell you why, but he don’t, and if he finds out that I have let on, it will be a bad business for me. Now look here: I fancy that there is another person as wouldn’t mind giving a trifle for this address, and if you’re so mean that you won’t cash up, I shall take a walk out yonder to-morrow morning», and she nodded in the direction of Rosham.
Samuel groaned, for he knew that she was alluding to his rival. «I doubt that he knows it already, curse him», he said, striking his hand upon the table. «Thirty-five – there, that’s the last».
«You’re getting along, Mr. Rock, but it won’t do yet», sneered Mrs. Gillingwater. «See here now, I’ve got some-
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thing in my hand that I’ll show you just for friendship’s sake», and producing Mrs. Bird’s letter, she read portions of it aloud, pausing from time to time to watch the effect upon her hearer. It was curious, for as he listened his face reflected the extremes of love, hope, terror and despair.
«O God!» he said, wringing his hands, «to think that she may be dead and gone from me for ever!»
«If she were dead, Mr. Rock, it wouldn’t be much use my giving you her address, would it? since, however fond you may be of her, I reckon that you would scarcely care to follow her there. No, I’ll tell you this much, she is living and getting well again, and I fancy that you’re after a live woman, not a dead one. This was written a month ago and more».
«Thank heaven!» he muttered. «I couldn’t have borne to lose her like that; I think it would have driven me mad. While she’s alive there’s hope, but what hope is there in the grave?» Samuel spoke thus somewhat absently, after the fashion of a man who communes with himself, but all the while Mrs. Gillingwater felt that he was searching her with his eyes. Then of a sudden he leant forward, and swiftly as a striking snake he shot out his long arm across the table, and snatched the letter from her grasp.
«You think yourself mighty clever, Mr. Rock», she said, with a harsh laugh; «but you won’t get the address for nothing in that way. If you take the trouble to look you’ll see that I’ve tore it off. Ah! you’ve met your match for once; it is likely that I was going to trust what’s worth fifty pounds in reach of your fingers, isn’t it?»
He looked at the letter and saw that she spoke truth.
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«I didn’t take it for that», he said, gnawing his hand with shame and vexation; «I took it to see if there was a letter at all, or if you were making up lies». And he threw it back to her.
«No doubt you did, Mr. Rock», she answered, jeering at him. «Well, and now you’re satisfied, I hope; so how about them fifty sovereigns?»
«Forty», he said.
«Fifty. Never a one less».
Samuel sprang up from his seat, and, coming round the table, stood over her.
«Look here», he said in a savage whisper, «you’re pushing this game too far: if you’re a wise woman you’ll take the forty and go, or»
«Or what?»
«Or I’ll twist what I want to know out of that black heart of yours, and not a farthing shall you get for it. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that the door is locked and we are alone in the house. Yes, you might scream till you brought the roof down, but nobody would hear you; and scream you shall if I take hold of you».
Mrs. Gillingwater glanced at his face, and read something so evil in it, and in the lurid eyes, that she grew frightened.
«Very well», she said, as unconcernedly as possible, «I won’t stand out for a tenner between friends: down with the cash, and you shall have it».
«Ah! ma’am, you’re afraid of me now – I can feel it – and I’ve half a mind to beat you down; but I won’t, I’ll stand by my word. Now you write that address upon this piece of paper and I’ll get the coin». And rising he left the room by the door
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near the fireplace, which he took the precaution of locking behind him.
«The murdering viper!» reflected Mrs. Gillingwater; «I pinched his tail a little too much that time, and I sha’n’t be sorry to find myself outside again, though there’s precious little chance of that until he chooses, as he’s locked me in. Well, I must brazen it out now». And somewhere from the regions of her ample bosom she produced the fragment that she had torn off Mrs. Bird’s letter, on which was written the address and a date.
Presently Samuel returned holding a small bag of money in his hand, from which he counted out forty sovereigns.
«There’s the cash, ma’am», he said; «but before you touch it be so good as to hand me that bit of writing: no, you needn’t be afraid, I’ll give you the money as I take the paper».
«I’m not afraid, Mr. Rock; when once I’ve struck a bargain I stick to it like an honest woman, and so, I know, will you. Never you doubt that the address is the right one; you can see that it is torn off the letter I read to you. Joan is there, and through the worst of her illness, so the party she’s lodging with wrote to me; and if you see her I hope you’ll give her my love». As she spoke she pushed the scrap of paper to him with her left hand, while with her right she drew the shining heap of gold towards herself.
«Honest!» he said: «I may be honest in my way, Mrs. Gillingwater; but you are about as honest as other traitors who sell innocent blood for pieces of money».
«What do you mean by that, Mr. Rock?» she replied, looking up from her task of securing the forty sovereigns in her
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pocket-handkerchief. «I’ve sold no innocent blood; I’d scorn to do such a thing! You don’t mean to do any harm to Joan, do you?»
«No, ma’am, I mean her no harm, unless it’s a harm to want to make her my wife; but it would have been all one to you if I meant to murder her and you knew it, so your sin is just as great, and verily the betrayers of innocent blood shall have their reward», and he pointed at her with his long fingers. «I’ve got what I want», he went on, «though I’ve had to pay a lot of money for it; but I tell you that it won’t do you any good; you might as well throw it into the mere and yourself after it, as expect to get any profit out of that forty pounds, the price of innocent blood – the price of innocent blood». Then once more Samuel pointed at her and grinned maliciously, till to her fancy his face looked like that of the stone demon above him.
By now Mrs. Gillingwater was so frightened that for a moment or two she hesitated as to whether it would not be wiser to return the money and free herself from the burden of a dreadful thought. In the end her avarice prevailed, as might have been expected, and without another word she rose and walked towards the front door, which Samuel unlocked and opened for her.
«Good-bye», he said, as she went down the passage. «You’ve done me a good turn, ma’am, and now I’m sure that I’ll marry Joan; but for all that a day shall come when you will wish that your hand had been cut off before you touched those forty sovereigns: you remember my words when you lie a-dying,
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Mrs. Gillingwater, with all your deeds behind you and all the doom before».
Then the woman fled through the storm and the night, more terrified than ever she had been in her life’s day, nor did the gold that she clasped to her heart avail to comfort her. For Rock had spoken truth; it was the price of innocent blood, and she knew it.
CHAPTER XXIX
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF
THE SHADOW
Upon his arrival in town, Mr. Levinger drove to a private hotel in Jermyn Street, where he was in the habit of staying on the rare occasions when he visited London. He dressed and dined; then, having posted a letter to Emma stating that he would call for her and Miss Graves on the following morning in time to catch the eleven o’clock train, and escort them home, he ordered a hansom and told the cabman to take him to 8, Kent Street.
«It’s many a year since I have been in this place», he thought to himself with a sigh, as the cab turned out of the Edgware Road, «and it doesn’t seem much changed. I wonder how she came to go to another house. Well, I shall know the worst, or the best of it, presently». And again he sighed as the horse stopped with a jerk in front of No. 8.
Telling the man to wait, he rang the bell. The door was opened by Mrs. Bird herself, who, seeing an elderly gentleman in a fur coat, dropped a polite curtsey.
«Is this Mrs. Bird’s house, pray?» he asked in his gentle voice.
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«Yes, sir; I am Mrs. Bird».
«Indeed: then perhaps you received a telegram from me this morning – Mr. Levinger?»
«Yes, sir, it came safely, and I ordered some things on the strength of it. Will you be so good as to step in, sir? I have heard poor Joan speak of you, though I never could make out what you were to her from her father down».
«In a certain sense, madam, I am her guardian. Will you allow me to help you with that door? And now, how is she?»
«About as bad as she can be, sir; and if you are her guardian, I only wish that you had looked after her a little before, for I think that being so lonesome has preyed upon her mind, poor dear. And now perhaps you’ll step upstairs into her sit- ting-room, making as little noise as possible. The doctor and the nurse are with her, and you may wish to see them; it’s not a catching fever, so you can come up safely».
He bowed, and followed Mrs. Bird to the little room, where she offered him a chair. Through the thin double doors that separated them from the bedchamber he could hear the sound of whispering, and now and again of a voice, still strong and full, that spoke at random. «Don’t cut my hair», said the voice: «why do you cut my hair? He used to praise it; he’d never know me without my hair».
«That’s her raving, poor love. She’ll go on in this kind of way for hours».
Mr. Levinger turned a shade paler. He was a sensitive man, and these voices of the sick room pained him; moreover, he may have found a meaning in them.
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«Perhaps you will give me a few details, Mrs. Bird», he said, drawing his chair close to the window. «You might tell me first how Joan Haste came to be your lodger».
So Mrs. Bird began, and told him all the story, from the day when she had seen Joan sitting upon her box on the opposite doorstep till the present hour – that is, she told it to him with certain omissions. Mr. Levinger listened attentively.
«I was very wrong», he said, when she had finished, «to allow her to come to London in this fashion. I reproach myself much about it, but the girl was headstrong and – there were reasons. It is most fortunate that she should have found so kind a friend as you seem to have been to her».
«Yes, sir», answered Mrs. Bird severely, «I must say that I think you were wrong. London is not a place to throw a young woman like Joan into to sink or to swim, even though she may have given you some trouble; and if anything happens to her I think that you will always have it on your conscience». And she put her head on one side and looked at him through her spectacles.
Mr. Levinger winced visibly, and did not seem to know what to answer. At that moment the doctor came out of the sick room, leaving the door open; and, looking through it, Mr. Levinger saw a picture that he could never forget. Joan was lying upon an iron bedstead, and on a chair beside it, shimmering in the light, lay the tumbled masses of her shorn hair. Her face was flushed, and her large eyes shone with an unnatural brightness. One hand hung downwards almost to the floor, and with the other she felt feebly at her head, saying in a piteous voice, «Where is my hair? What have you done
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