Well, then, listen, she said. We are honest folk, my dear, both you and I. You are under certain obligations; you have a wife and children. And since I love you, I am under the same obligations. They are yours, and therefore they are mine. If it werent for thembut it is no use thinking of that.{314}
There had been times, during those journeys[Pg 42] to and fro, when Gregg found it difficult to save himself from outbursts of laughter. He had to bite his lip hard in the effort to hold in check an imagination that was apt to run to extremes. From one point of view it had certainly been absurd that this awkward being, with his apparently limited range of movement, should have managed in a few seconds to lay out so many healthy, active men. By comparison, his batting performance, singular as it had seemed, faded into insignificance. The breathless swiftness of the action, the unerring aim, the immense force behind each blow, the incredible audacity of the act, almost persuaded Gregg that the thing was too exquisitely comic to be true. But when he forced himself to look at the matter seriously, he felt that there were little grounds for the explanation that the Clockwork man was simply a dangerous lunatic. The flight at a preposterous speed, the flying leap over the hurdle, the subsequent acceleration of his run to a pace altogether beyond human possibility, convinced the young undergraduate, who was level-headed enough, although impressionable, that some other explanation would have to be found for the extraordinary occurrence.DIKES ALONG THE RIVER. DIKES ALONG THE RIVER.I saw Mrs Fyson this afternoon, she said, beginning gently.
ONE:My idea is that shes doing it all for Mr Silverdale. She could have read to your mother before{148} Dr Inglis went to the Cathedral. Silverdale is the somebody shes doing things for."Has he a taste for fiction?" I asked, with a depreciative smirk.
ONE:"Easier to get away, you think?" I asked, with a worse frown than ever, as he stepped into the carry-all and took the lines.They were in the hall now, and the Doctor was holding the street door open.
TWO:The Clockwork man shook his head slowly from side to side. "No children. No lovenothing but going on for ever, spinning in infinite space and knowledge."
TWO:Youve got to carry them out alone. Set yourself to do them, my dear. Dont leave out one. Thats the thing. Make yourself busy: occupy yourself.A Confederate waiting on Miss Harper with basin and towels barely dodged me as I sprang to the far end of the hall and shouted down into the yard for Harry. The little mules, true enough, were just rattling round a half turn at the lower hall's back door, having been in hiding behind the stables. A score or so of cavalry were boisterously hurrying off across the yard with a few captured horses and prisoners, and I had to call the Lieutenant angrily a second time, to make him hear me amid their din and a happy confusion which he was helping to keep up in a fairer group. For here were all the missing feminine members of the household, white and colored, and Harry was clamorous with joy, compassion and applause, while Camille and Ccile, pink with weeping, stepped out across the high doorsill of the smokehouse, leading Ned Ferry's horse and mine.
THREE:THE INLAND SEA NEAR HIOGO. THE INLAND SEA NEAR HIOGO.Hetty rubbed her eyes with the feeling that it had all been a dream. It was not yet very late, only a little after midnight, and the brilliant saloons were still crowded with guests. Down below in the dining-rooms people were supping, there was the dreamy music of a band somewhere. As if nothing in the world had happened Countess Lalage sat smiling brilliantly and chatting with not the least distinguished of her guests, Mr. Gilbert Lawrence, the famous novelist.
