i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

she heard them, slithering over the ice.

And when they stopped beneath the window she sat up, and, as the knocker banged, she was out of bed and had her coat on in a flash.

It couldn't be him; he always cam fe in the back way. She opened the window and looked down on to a shadowy figure. A white blur was turned up to her, and a voice asked, "This Hannigans'?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Well, I've news for you. You'd better come down."

Sarah called out, as Kate passed her door, "What is it?"

"I don't know, ma. I'll be back in 'a minute," she answered.

She opened the door, to find a policeman standing there. When she returned upstairs and went into Sarah's room, she noticed that her mother looked strangely alert.

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

"What's the matter, hinny?"

"It's him," said Kate; 'he's had an accident . he's in Harton. "

Sarah hitched herself up on her pillows, an effort she had stopped making months ago.

"Bad?" she asked.

"It's his arm and head.... I don't know how bad; the policeman says I have to go down."

"Yes, hinny. Go down. You needn't see him, only find out how bad it is."

They did not look at each other, and Kate hurried out to dress. She felt lightheaded with relief; it would appear that good news attracted good news as bad bad.

From the moment Kate left the house Sarah began to pray. Not mumbled prayers . not the prayers that were for ever being repeated at the back of her mind, a jumble of entreaties and requests, but verbal prayers, said aloud into the room, each word distinctly spoken, rising into the air, filling the room with power. The faculties which had been slowly fading during the months past seemed to regain new life. Each word she uttered vibrated with terrible purpose. She went on and on, speaking words and framing sentences that were new to her.

Nor did she stop until she was exhausted. Then she lay, wide-eyed, waiting. When she heard Kate's step on the stairs her bloated body stiffened against the bed and her eyes fixed themselves on the door.

Kate came in panting; she had been gone only an hour and a half.

Sarah brought herself on to her elbow: "Yes?" she asked.

"He's gone!" said Kate, unable to keep the joy and relief from her voice.

Sarah dropped back on to her pillows, a slow smile spreading over her face.

"Sit down, hinny," she said; 'you're puffed. "

Kate sat on the side of the bed and took her mother's hand.

"How was it?" asked Sarah.

"They don't know, really. He was knocked down by a tram in Eldon Street. His arm was broken and he received a blow on the head which made him unconscious. But it wasn't serious, they said, and they could not understand him dying. When he came round and asked where he was, and they told him Harton, the nurse said he had a kind of fit, and died in it."

"Ah 1' exclaimed Sarah.

"Harton 1 ... That's what he was always feared of, having to end his days in the workhouse ... it's the only thing that ever worried him; he was mortally afraid of the workhouse.... He died of fright, Kate."

She lay silent for some time, her eyes roving gently round the room, a wondrous peace filling her, like that of carrying a child. It would vanish later, she knew, and there would be the throes of dying, but at present it was here and she hugged it to herself. She smiled at Kate:

"Do you think we might have a cup of tea, hinny, it's Christmas Day?"

ALWAYS FLIGHT

John Swinburn and Stella faced each other in the drawing-room.

Swinburn's face was white and drawn, and his thin nostrils moved in and out in little jerks.

"Do you mean to say, Stella, you don't want to get a divorce ... ever?"

His voice was harsh, and deep in his throat.

"Must we have it all over again, John?" Stella made an impatient movement with her shoulders.

"I have told you already I have no desire to be a divorced woman....

Anyway, if I were divorced, I shouldn't marry you."

"You're a fiend, Stella, a heartless fiend I' " Then why do you bother with me? "

"I don't know," he said despairingly.

"John, don't act like a boy. I have told you things can go on just as they are.... We can be together now and again. He'll live his life and I'll live mine."

"I couldn't do it," said Swinburn, turning away and beating a fist in the palm of his hand.

"I know how many different kinds of a swine I am, nobody better, and I have no love for Rodney, I think him a prig, but I couldn't work with him and have you at the same time ... not the way I want you. I couldn't do it. He's coming home smashed up, and, after a year as a prisoner, he's not going to feel very bright ... I tell you, I couldn't play that underhand game ... I could go to him and lay my cards on the table and ask him to divorce you, but not the other way."

"You'll do nothing of the kind," rapped out Stella.

"Should you attempt it I wouldn't even look at you again."

"But what about him?" Swinburn turned on her.

"What

about the Hannigan girl? Have you thought about her? He may want a divorce. "

"He won't get it.... And please don't shout," she added coldly.

"How are you going to stop him living with her then, if he wants to?

Tell me that."

"He won't live with her, I'll see to that," said Stella, her lips folding into a thin line.

"What do you mean to do? What are you up to?" he asked.

"Never mind.... He won't live with her! He will live