Rhoda went out on the landing and said softly, "Come up to her, father."
After a little hesitation, he ascended the stairs.
"Why, girl, I only ask you to come down and see your husband," he remarked with an attempt at kindliness of tone. "What"s the harm, then?
Come and see him; that"s all; come and see him."
Dahlia was shrinking out of her father"s sight as he stood in the doorway. "Say," she communicated to Rhoda, "say, I want my letter."
"Come!" William Fleming grew impatient.
"Let her have her letter, father," said Rhoda. "You have no right to withhold it."
"That letter, my girl" (he touched Rhoda"s shoulder as to satisfy her that he was not angry), "that letter"s where it ought to be.
I"ve puzzled out the meaning of it. That letter"s in her husband"s possession."
Dahlia, with her ears stretching for all that might be uttered, heard this. Pa.s.sing round the door, she fronted her father.
"My letter gone to him!" she cried. "Shameful old man! Can you look on me? Father, could you give it? I"m a dead woman."
She smote her bosom, stumbling backward upon Rhoda"s arm.
"You have been a wicked girl," the ordinarily unmoved old man retorted.
"Your husband has come for you, and you go with him. Know that, and let me hear no threats. He"s a modest-minded, quiet young man, and a farmer like myself, and needn"t be better than he is. Come you down to him at once. I"ll tell you: he comes to take you away, and his cart"s at the gate. To the gate you go with him. When next I see you--you visiting me or I visiting you--I shall see a respected creature, and not what you have been and want to be. You have racked the household with fear and shame for years. Now come, and carry out what you"ve begun in the contrary direction. You"ve got my word o" command, dead woman or live woman. Rhoda, take one elbow of your sister. Your aunt"s coming up to pack her box. I say I"m determined, and no one stops me when I say that.
Come out, Dahlia, and let our parting be like between parent and child.
Here"s the dark falling, and your husband"s anxious to be away. He has business, and "ll hardly get you to the station for the last train to town. Hark at him below! He"s naturally astonished, he is, and you"re trying his temper, as you"d try any man"s. He wants to be off. Come, and when next we meet I shall see you a happy wife."
He might as well have spoken to a corpse.
"Speak to her still, father," said Rhoda, as she drew a chair upon which she leaned her sister"s body, and ran down full of the power of hate and loathing to confront Sedgett; but great as was that power within her, it was overmatched by his brutal resolution to take his wife away. No argument, no irony, no appeals, can long withstand the iteration of a dogged phrase. "I"ve come for my wife," Sedgett said to all her instances. His voice was waxing loud and insolent, and, as it sounded, Mrs. Sumfit moaned and flapped her ap.r.o.n.
"Then, how could you have married him?"
They heard the farmer"s roar of this unanswerable thing, aloft.
"Yes--how! how!" cried Rhoda below, utterly forgetting the part she had played in the marriage.
"It"s too late to hate a man when you"ve married him, my girl."
Sedgett went out to the foot of the stairs.
"Mr. Fleming--she"s my wife. I"ll teach her about hating and loving.
I"ll behave well to her, I swear. I"m in the midst of enemies; but I say I do love my wife, and I"ve come for her, and have her I will. Now, in two minutes" time. Mr. Fleming, my cart"s at the gate, and I"ve got business, and she"s my wife."
The farmer called for Mrs. Sumfit to come up and pack Dahlia"s box, and the forlorn woman made her way to the bedroom. All the house was silent.
Rhoda closed her sight, and she thought: "Does G.o.d totally abandon us?"
She let her father hear: "Father, you know that you are killing your child."
"I hear ye, my la.s.s," said he.
"She will die, father."
"I hear ye, I hear ye."
"She will die, father."
He stamped furiously, exclaiming: "Who"s got the law of her better and above a husband? Hear reason, and come and help and fetch down your sister. She goes!"
"Father!" Rhoda cried, looking at her open hands, as if she marvelled to see them helpless.
There was for a time that silence which reigns in a sickchamber when the man of medicine takes the patient"s wrist. And in the silence came a blessed sound--the lifting of a latch. Rhoda saw Robert"s face.
"So," said Robert, as she neared him, "you needn"t tell me what"s happened. Here"s the man, I see. He dodged me cleverly. The hound wants practice; the fox is born with his cunning."
Few words were required to make him understand the position of things in the house. Rhoda spoke out all without hesitation in Sedgett"s hearing.
But the farmer respected Robert enough to come down to him and explain his views of his duty and his daughter"s duty. By the kitchen firelight he and Robert and Sedgett read one another"s countenances.
"He has a proper claim to take his wife, Robert," said the farmer. "He"s righted her before the world, and I thank him; and if he asks for her of me he must have her, and he shall."
"All right, sir," replied Robert, "and I say too, shall, when I"m stiff as log-wood."
"Oh! Robert, Robert!" Rhoda cried in great joy.
"Do you mean that you step "twixt me and my own?" said Mr. Fleming.
"I won"t let you nod at downright murder--that"s all," said Robert.
"She--Dahlia, take the hand of that creature!"
"Why did she marry me?" thundered Sedgett.
"There"s one o" the wonders!" Robert rejoined. "Except that you"re an amazingly clever hypocrite with women; and she was just half dead and had no will of her own; and some one set you to hunt her down. I tell you, Mr. Fleming, you might as well send your daughter to the hangman as put her in this fellow"s hands."
"She"s his wife, man."
"May be," Robert a.s.sented.
"You, Robert Eccles!" said Sedgett hoa.r.s.ely; "I"ve come for my wife--do you hear?"
"You have, I dare say," returned Robert. "You dodged me cleverly, that you did. I"d like to know how it was done. I see you"ve got a cart outside and a boy at the horse"s head. The horse steps well, does he?
I"m about three hours behind him, I reckon:--not too late, though!"
He let fall a great breath of weariness.
Rhoda went to the cupboard and drew forth a rarely touched bottle of spirits, with which she filled a small gla.s.s, and handing the gla.s.s to him, said, "Drink." He smiled kindly and drank it off.
"The man"s in your house, Mr. Fleming," he said.
"And he"s my guest, and my daughter"s husband, remember that," said the farmer.