[1]Cut: canal.
The next morning, at half-past seven, Anna was standing in the garden-doorway of the Priory. The sun had just risen, the air was cold; roof and pavement were damp; rain had fallen, and more was to fall. A door opened higher up the street, and Willie Price came out, carrying a small bag. He turned to speak to some person within the house, and then stepped forward. As he passed Anna she sprang forth.
'Oh!' she cried, 'I had just come up here to see if the workmen had locked up properly. We have some of our new furniture in the house, you know.' She was as red as the sun over Hillport.
He glanced at her. 'Haveyouheard?' he asked simply.
'About what?' she whispered.
'About my poor old father.'
'Yes. I was hoping—hoping you would never know.'
By a common impulse they went into the garden of the Priory, and he shut the door.
'Never know?' he repeated. 'Oh! they took care to tell me.'
A silence followed.
'Is that your luggage?' she inquired. He lifted up the handbag, and nodded.
'All of it?'
'Yes,' he said. 'I'm only an emigrant.'
'I've got a note here for you,' she said. 'I should have posted it to the steamer; but now you can take it yourself. I want you not to read it till you get to Melbourne.'
'Very well,' he said, and crumpled the proffered envelope into his pocket. He was not thinking of the note at all. Presently he asked: 'Why didn't you tell me about my father? If I had to hear it, I'd sooner have heard it from you.'
'You must try to forget it,' she urged him. 'You are not your father.'
'I wish I had never been born,' he said. 'I wish I'd gone to prison.'
Now was the moment when, if ever, the mother's influence should be exerted.
'Be a man,' she said softly. 'I did the best I could for you. I shall always think of you, in Australia, getting on.'
She put a hand on his shoulder. 'Yes,' she said again, passionately: 'I shall always remember you—always.'
The hand with which he touched her arm shook like an old man's hand. As their eyes met in an intense and painful gaze, to her, at least, it was revealed that they were lovers. What he had learnt in that instant can only be guessed from his next action....
Anna ran out of the garden into the street, and so home, never looking behind to see if he pursued his way to the station.
Some may argue that Anna, knowing she loved another man, ought not to have married Mynors. But she did not reason thus; such a notion never even occurred to her. She had promised to marry Mynors, and she married him. Nothing else was possible. She who had never failed in duty did not fail then. She who had always submitted and bowed the head, submitted and bowed the head then. She had sucked in with her mother's milk the profound truth that a woman's life is always a renunciation, greater or less. Hers by chance was greater. Facing the future calmly and genially, she took oath with herself to be a good wife to the man whom, with all his excellences, she had never loved. Her thoughts often dwelt lovingly on Willie Price, whom she deemed to be pursuing in Australia an honourable and successful career, quickened at the outset by her hundred pounds. This vision of him was her stay. But neither she nor anyone in the Five Towns or elsewhere ever heard of Willie Price again. And well might none hear! The abandoned pitshaft does not deliver up its secret. And so—the Bank of England is the richer by a hundred pounds unclaimed, and the world the poorer by a simple and meek soul stung to revolt only in its last hour.
Jamieson & Munro, Ltd., Printers, Stirling.
Uniform with this Volume
36 De Profundis Oscar Wilde37 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime Oscar Wilde38 Selected Poems Oscar Wilde39 An Ideal Husband Oscar Wilde40 Intentions Oscar Wilde41 Lady Windermere's Fan Oscar Wilde42 Charmides and other Poems Oscar Wilde43 Harvest Home E. V. Lucas44 A Little of Everything E. V. Lucas45 Vallima Letters Robert Louis Stevenson46 Hills and the Sea Hilaire Belloc47 The Blue Bird Maurice Maeterlinck50 Charles Dickens G. K. Chesterton53 Letters from Self-Made Merchant to his Son George Horace Larimer54 The Life of John Ruskin W. G. Collingwood57 Sevastopol and other Stories Leo Tolstoy58 The Lore of the Honey-Bee Tickner Edwardes60 From Midshipman to Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood63 Oscar Wilde Arthur Ransome64 The Vicar of Morwenstow S. Baring-Gould65 Old Country Life S. Baring-Gould76 Home Life in France M. Betham-Edwards77 Selected Prose Oscar Wilde78 The Best of Lamb E. V. Lucas80 Selected Letters Robert Louis Stevenson83 Reason and Belief Sir Oliver Lodge85 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde91 Social Evils and their Remedy Leo Tolstoy93 The Substance of Faith Sir Oliver Lodge94 All Things Considered G. K. Chesterton95 The Mirror of the Sea Joseph Conrad96 A Picked Company Hilaire Belloc116 The Survival of Man Sir Oliver Lodge126 Science from an Easy Chair Sir Ray Lankester141 Variety Lane E. V. Lucas144 A Shilling for my Thoughts G. K. Chesterton146 A Woman of No Importance Oscar Wilde149 A Shepherd's Life W. H. Hudson193 On Nothing Hilaire Belloc300 Jane Austen and her Times G. E. Mitton114 Select Essays Maurice Maeterlinck218 R. L. S. Francis Watt223 Two Generations Leo Tolstoy126 On Everything Hilaire Belloc934 Records and Reminiscences Sir Francis Burnand253 My Childhood and Boyhood Leo Tolstoy254 On Something Hilaire Belloc
A Selection only.
Uniform with this Volume
1 The Mighty Atom Marie Corelli2 Jane Marie Corelli3 Boy Marie Corelli4 Spanish Gold G. A. Birmingham5 The Search Party G. A. Birmingham6 Teresa of Watling Street Arnold Bennett9 The Unofficial Honeymoon Dolf Wyllarde12 The Demon C. N. and A. M. Williamson17 Joseph Frank Danby18 Round the Red Lamp Sir A. Conan Doyle20 Light Freights W. W. Jacobs22 The Long Road John Oxenham71 The Gates of Wrath Arnold Bennett72 Short Cruises W. W. Jacobs81 The Card Arnold Bennett87 Lalage's Lovers G. A. Birmingham93 White Fang Jack London105 The Wallet of Kai Lung Ernest Bramah108 The Adventures of Dr. Whitty G. A. Birmingham113 Lavender and Old Lace Myrtle Reed115 Old Rose and Silver Myrtle Reed122 The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton E. Phillips Oppenheim125 The Regent Arnold Bennett127 Sally Dorothea Conyers129 The Lodger Mrs. Belloc Lowndes135 A Spinner In the Sun Myrtle Reed137 The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu Sax Rohmer139 The Golden Centipede Louise Gerard140 The Love Pirate C. N. and A. M. Williamson143 The Way of these Women E. Phillips Oppenheim143 Sandy Married Dorothea Conyers145 Chance Joseph Conrad148 Flower of the Dusk Myrtle Reed150 The Gentleman Adventurer H. C. Bailey154 The Hyena of Kallu Louise Gerard190 The Happy Hunting Ground Mrs. Alice Perrin191 My Lady of Shadows John Oxenham211 Max Carrados Ernest Bramah212 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad213 The Kloof Bride Ernest Glanville215 Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo E. Phillips Oppenheim216 The Wonder of Love E. M. Albanesi217 A Weaver of Dreams Myrtle Reed219 The Family Elinor Mordaunt220 A Heritage of Peril A. W. Marchmont221 The Kinsman Mrs. Sidgwick222 Emmanuel Burden Hilaire Belloc224 Broken Shackles John Oxenham225 A Knight of Spain Marjorie Bowen227 Byeways Robert Hichens228 Gossamer G. A. Birmingham230 The Salving of a Derelict Maurice Drake231 Cameos Marie Corelli232 The Happy Valley B. M. Croker245 The Shop Girl C. N. and A. M. Williamson250 The Lost Regiment Ernest Glanville261 Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Selection only.