"Get these poor fellows home as soon as possible. Their clothes are dripping wet, and they"ll catch their death of cold."
True, indeed, there were little pools of water in the hall where the shipwrecked fishermen were standing.
As we turned to go in, whilst the crowd dispersed, Jem Deady took occasion to whisper:--
"Look here, your reverence, "t was all dhrink."
Jem had kept his pledge for six weeks, and by virtue thereof a.s.sumed all the privileges of a reformer.
It was a dread ending of the day"s business, and it came with crushing effect on the soul of Father Letheby. They were bad omens,--the revolt at the factory and the destruction of the boat. We remained for hours talking the thing over, whilst my thoughts ran away to the happy girl who was just then speeding from Kingstown on her bridal tour. I followed her in imagination through smoky England to sunny France. I saw her, leaning on her husband, as he led her from church to church, from gallery to gallery, in the mediaeval cities of the Continent; I saw her cross from the Riviera into Italy, and I realized her enthusiasm as she pa.s.sed, mute and wonder-stricken, from miracle to miracle of art and faith, in that happy home of Catholicism. I could think of her even kneeling at the feet of the Supreme Pontiff whilst she begged a special blessing on her father, and he, rolling with the tide, a dead ma.s.s in ooze and slime, and uncouth monsters swimming around him in curiosity and fear, and his hands clutching the green and purple _algae_ of the deep.
Some one asked:--
"Was the boat insured?"
"No," said Father Letheby. "We were but waiting the result of her trial trip to make that all right."
"Then the committee are responsible for the whole thing?"
"I suppose so," said Father Letheby, gloomily.
"I should rather think not," said Father Duff, who was quietly turning over the leaves of an alb.u.m. "Depend upon it, the Board of Works never allowed her to leave her wharf without having her fully insured, at least for the amount payable by the Board!"
"Do you think so?" said Father Letheby, as the cloud lifted a little at these words.
"I know it," said Father Duff, emphatically.
After a little time, and ever so many expressions of sympathy, the guests departed and left us alone. In a few minutes a knock came to the door, and Lizzie summoned Father Letheby.
"You"re wanting just for a minute, sir."
He went out, leaving the door ajar. I heard Father Duff saying with emphasis:--
"I am deputed to tell you, Letheby, that we are all determined to stand by you in this affair, no matter what it costs. As for myself, I want to a.s.sure you that if you are good enough to trust me, I can see my way to tide you over the crisis."
"Ten thousand thanks, Duff," Father Letheby replied. "I shall show you my friendship for you by demanding your a.s.sistance should I need it."
He came in to tell me.
"Never mind," I said; "I heard it all, G.o.d bless them!"
I then regretted, for the first time in my life, that I had not loved money; I would have given a good deal for the luxury of drawing a big check with these brave young fellows.
I remained till twelve o"clock, debating all possibilities, forecasting, projecting all manner of plans. Now and then a stifled wail came up from the village. We agreed that Bittra should be allowed to proceed on her wedding trip, and that when she returned we would break the dreadful news as gently as possible.
"No chance of seeing the dread accident in the London papers?"
"None! It cannot reach London before to-morrow night. They will then be in Paris."
CHAPTER XXVIII
SUB NUBE
Glorious summer weather, gold on sea and land, but gloom of death and dole on our hearts, and dark forebodings of what the future has in store. I could hardly believe it possible that one night"s agony could work such a change in the appearance; but when, next morning, I saw the face of Father Letheby, white and drawn, as if Sorrow had dragged his rack over it, and the dark circles under his eyes, and the mute despair of his mouth, I remembered all that I had ever read of the blanching of hair in one night, and the dread metamorphoses that follow in the furrows where Anguish has driven his plough. It appeared, then, that between the buoyancy of the day"s success, and the society of friends, and the little excitements of the evening, he had not realized the extent of his losses and responsibilities. But in the loneliness of midnight it all came back; and he read, in flaming letters on the dark background of his future, the one word: _Ruin_! And it was not the financial and monetary bankruptcy that he dreaded, but the shame that follows defeat, and the secret exultation that many would feel at the toppling over of such airy castles and the destruction of such ambitious hopes. He was young, and life had looked fair before him, holding out all kinds of roseate promises; and now, at one blow, the whole is shattered, and shame and disgrace, indelible as the biting of a burning acid, was his for all the long years of life. It was no use to argue: "You have done nothing wrong or dishonorable"; here was defeat and financial ruin, and no amount of whitewashing by reason or argument could cover the dread consequences.
"Come out," I cried, after we had talked and reasoned to no purpose; "sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Let us have a walk; and the sea air will clear the cobwebs off our brains."
We strolled down by the sea, which to-day looked so calm and beautiful, its surface fluted with grooves where the sunlight reposed, and the colored plaits of the waves weaving themselves lazily until they broke into the white lace-work of sandy shoals. Nothing was there to show the pitiless capacity or the deep revenge it takes from time to time on its helpless conquerors. As we pa.s.sed down by the creek, the "Great House"
came into sight, all its blinds drawn and the white windows staring blankly at the sea.
"This poor child has a heavier cross before her than you," I said.
"Yes, but hers shall be healed in time. But who will wipe out dishonor?"
"I cannot see where the dishonor comes in," I replied. "You have neither robbed nor embezzled."
"I am a hopeless insolvent," he said. "I am security, sole security, for those men over at Kilkeel, whom I promised and guaranteed to safeguard.
That I am bound to do on every principle of honor."
"Well, looking at it in its worst aspect," I replied, "insolvency is not dishonorable--"
"It is the very acme of dishonor in a priest," he said.
Then I saw the inutility of reason in such a case.
We dined together that evening; and just as the Angelus bell rang, we heard the hootings and derisive shouts of the villagers after the new hands that had been taken on at the factory. In a few minutes these poor girls came to the door to explain that they could not return to work. It was the last straw. For a moment his anger flamed up in a torrent of rage against these miscreants whom he had saved from poverty. Then it died down in meek submission to what he considered the higher decree.
"Never mind, girls," he said; "tell Kate Ginivan to close the room and bring me the key."
That was all, except that a certain listener treasured up all this ingrat.i.tude in his heart; and the following Sunday at both Ma.s.ses, the walls of Kilronan chapel echoed to a torrent of vituperation, an avalanche of anger, sarcasm, and reproach, that made the faces of the congregation redden with shame and whiten with fear, and made the ladies of the fringes and the cuffs wish to call unto the hills to cover them and the mountains to hide them.
Nothing on earth can convince the villagers that the shipwreck was an accident and not premeditated.
"They saw us coming, and made for us. Sure we had a right to expect it.
They wanted to make us drunk at the fishing-fleet; but the cap"n wouldn"t lave "em."
"You don"t mean to say they dreaded your poor boat?"
"Dreaded? They don"t want Irishmen anywhere. Sure, "t was only last year, whin they wanted to start a steamer between Galway and Newfoundland--the shortest run to America--the captain was bribed on his first trip, and tho" there isn"t nothing but ninety fathoms of blue say-wather betune Arran and Salthill, he wint out of his way to find a rock, three miles out av his coorse, and--he found it. The Liverpool min settled Galway."
"And didn"t the cap"n cry: "Port! d--n you, port!" and they turned her nose right on us."