NOT PARADISE.
At the moment that the cart halted, a black dog burst out of the
house door, and flew at Mehetabel as she attempted to descend.
"Ha, Tartar!" laughed Jonas. "The rascal seems to know his reign
is over. Go back, Tartar. I'll thrash you till the favor off my
whip is beat into your hide, if you don't be quiet. Hitherto he
has guarded my house, when I have been from home. Now that will
be your duty, Matabel. Can't keep a wife and a dog. 'Twould be
too extravagant. Tartar! Down! This is your mistress--till I get
rid of you."
The dog withdrew reluctantly, continuing to growl and to show his
fangs at Mehetabel.
In the doorway stood Sally Rocliffe, the sister of Jonas. Though
not so openly resentful of the intrusion as was Tartar, she
viewed the bride with ill-disguised bad humor; indeed, without an
affectation of cordiality.
"I thought you was never coming," was Sarah's salutation. "Goodness
knows, I have enough to do in my own house, and for my own people,
not to be kept dancin' all these hours in attendance, because
others find time for makin' fools of themselves. Now, I hope I
shall not be wanted longer. My man needs his meals as much as
others, and if he don't get 'em reglar, who suffers but I? Dooty
begins at home. You might have had more consideration, and come
earlier, Jonas."
The woman accorded to Mehetabel but a surly greeting. The young
bride entered the house. A single tallow dip was burning on the
table, with a long dock to it, unsnuffed. The hearth was cold.
"I didn't light a fire," said Mrs. Rocliffe; "you see it wouldn't
do. Now you have come as mistress, it's your place to light the
fire on the hearth. I've heard tell it's unlucky for any other
body to do it. Not as I knows." She shrugged her shoulders. It
seemed that this was a mere excuse put forward to disguise her
indolence, or to veil her malevolence.
Mehetabel looked around her.
There were no plates. There was nothing to eat prepared on the
kitchen table. No cloth; nothing whatever there, save the guttering
candle.
"I didn't lay out nuthin'," said Mrs. Rocliffe; "you see, how was
I to say you'd want vittles? I suppose you have had as much as is
good for you away where you come from--at the Ship. If you are
hungry--there's cold rabbit pie in the larder, if it ain't gone
bad. This weather has been bad for keepin' meat. There's bread in
the larder, if you don't mind the rats and mice havin' been at it.
That's not my fault. Jonas, he had some for his break'us, and
never covered up the pan, so the varmin have got to it. There's
ale, too, in a barrel, I know, but Jonas keeps the key to that
lest I should take a sup. He begrudges me that, and expects me
to work for him like a galley-slave."
Then the woman was silent, looking moodily down. The floor was
strewn with flakes of whitewash as though snow had fallen over it.
"You see," said Mrs. Rocliffe, "Jonas would go to the expense of
whitenin' the ceilin', just because you was comin.' It had done
plenty well for father and mother, and I don't mind any time it
were whitened afore, and I be some years the elder of Jonas. The
ceiling was that greasy wi' smoke, that the whitewashin' as it
dried 'as pealed off, and came down just about. You look up--the
ceilin' is ten times worse than afore. It looks as if it were
measly. I wouldn't sweep up the flakes as fell off just to let
Jonas see what comes of his foolishness. I told him it would be so,
but he wouldn't believe me, and now let him see for himself--there
it is."
With a sort of malignant delight the woman observed Mehetabel, and
saw how troubled and unhappy she was.
Again a stillness ensued. Mehetabel could hear her heart beat. She
could hear no other sound. She looked through the room towards
the clock. It was silent.
"Ah, now there," said Sarah Rocliffe. "There be that, to be sure.
Runned down is the weight. It wasn't proper for me now to wind up
the clock. As you be the new mistress in the house, it is your
place and dooty. I suppose you know that."
Then from without Mehetabel heard the grunts of the sow in the
stye that adjoined the house, and imparted an undesirable flavor
to the atmosphere in it.
"That's the sow in the pen," said Mrs. Rocliffe; "she's wantin'
her meat. She hain't been galliwantin', and marryin', and bein'
given in marriage. I'm not the mistress, and I've not the dooty to
provide randans and crammins for other folks' hogs. She'll be goin'
back in her flesh unless fed pretty smart. You'd best do that at
once, but not in your weddin' dress. You must get acquainted
together, and the sooner the better. She's regular rampagous wi'
hunger."
"Would you help me in with my box, Mrs. Rocliffe?" asked Mehetabel.
"Jonas set it down by the door, and if I can get that upstairs I'll
change my dress at once, and make the fire, clean the floor, wind
up the clock, and feed the hog."
"I've such a terrible crick in my back, I dussn't do it," answered
Sarah Rocliffe. "Why, how much does that there box weigh? I wonder
Jonas had the face to put it in the cart, and expect Clutch to draw
it. Clutch didn't like it now, did he?"
"But how can I get my box in and carried up? Jonas is with the
horse, I suppose?"
"Oh, yes, he is minding the horse. Clutch must be made comfortable,
and given his hay. I'll be bound you and Jonas have been eatin'
and drinkin' all day, and never given Clutch a mouthful, nor washed
his teeth with a pail o' water."
"I'm sure Joe Filmer looked to the horse at the Ship. He is very
attentive to beasts."
"On ordinary days, and when nuthin' is goin' on, I dare say--not
when there's weddin's and ducks and green peas goin' for any who
axes for 'em."
The report that ducks and green peas were to form an element of
the entertainment had been told everywhere before the day of the
marriage, and it was bitterness to Mrs. Rocliffe to think that
"on principle," as she put it, she had been debarred from eating
her share.
"Ducks and green peas!" repeated she. "I s'pose you don't reckon on
eating that every day here, no, nor on Sundays, no, not even at
Christmas. 'Taint such as we in the Punch-Bowl as can stuff
ourselves on ducks and green peas. Green peas and ducks we may
grow--but we sells 'em to the quality."
After some consideration Mrs. Rocliffe relented sufficiently to
say, "I don't know but what Samuel may be idlin'; he mostly is.
I'll go and send my son Samuel to help you with the box."
Then with a surly "Good-night" the woman withdrew.
After a couple of minutes, she returned: "I've come back," she
said, "to tell you that if old Clutch is off his meat--and I
shouldn't wonder if he was--wi' neglect and wi' drawing such a
weight--then you'd best set to work and make him gruel. Jonas
can't afford to lose old Clutch, just becos he's got a wife." Then
she departed again.
Jonas was indeed in the stable attending to the horse. He had,
moreover, to run the cart under shelter. Mehetabel put out a
trembling hand to snuff the candle. Her hand was so unsteady that
she extinguished the light. Where to find the tinder box she knew
not. She felt for a bench, and in the darkness when she had reached
it, sank on it, and burst into tears.
Such was the welcome to her new home.
For some time she sat with as little light in her heart as there
was without.
She felt some relief in giving way to her surcharged heart. She
sobbed and knitted her fingers together, unknitted them, and wove
them together again in convulsions of distress--of despair.
What expectation of happiness had she here? She was accustomed at
the Ship to have everything about her neat and in good order. The
mere look round that she had given to the room, the principal room
of the house she had entered, showed how ramshackle it was. To
some minds it is essential that there should be propriety, as
essential as that the food they consume should be wholesome, the
water they drink should be pure. They can no more accommodate
themselves to disorder than they can to running on hands and feet
like apes.
It was quite true that this house would be given up to Mehetabel
to do with it what she liked. But would her husband care to have
it other than it was? Would he not resent her attempts to alter
everything?
And for what purpose would she strive and toil if he disapproved of
her changes?
She had no confidence that in temper, in character, in mind, he and
she would agree, or agree to differ. She knew that he was grasping
after money, that he commended no man, but had a disparaging word
for every one, and envy of all who were prosperous. She had seen
in him no sign of generosity of feeling, no spark of honor. No
positive evil was said of him; if he were inclined to drink he was
not a drunkard; if he stirred up strife in himself he was not
quarrelsome. He over-reached in a bargain, but never did anything
actually dishonest. He was not credited with any lightness in his
moral conduct towards any village maid. That he was frugal, keen
witted, was about all the good that was said, and that could be
said of him. If he had won no one's love hitherto, was it likely
that there was anything lovable in him? Would he secure the
affections of his wife?
Thoughts rose and fell, tossed and broke in Mehetabel's brain; her
tears fell freely, and as she was alone in the house she was able
to sob without restraint.
Jonas had chained up Tartar, and the dog was howling. The pig
grunted impatiently. A rat raced across the floor. Cockroaches came
out in the darkness and stirred, making a strange rustling like
the pattering of fine rain.
Mehetabel could hear the voice of her husband in the yard. He was
thrusting the cart under a roof. He would be in the house shortly,
and she did not wish that he should find her in tears, that he
should learn how weak, how hopeless she was.
She put her hand into her pocket for a kerchief, and drew forth
one, with which she staunched the flow from her eyes, and dried
her cheeks. She put her knuckle to her lips to stay their quivering.
Then, when she had recovered some composure, she drew a long sigh
and replaced the sodden kerchief in her pocket.
At that moment she started, sprang to her feet, searched her pocket
in the darkness with tremulous alarm, with sickness at her heart.
Then, not finding what she wanted, she stooped and groped along
the floor, and found nothing save the flakes of fallen whitewash.
She stood up panting, and put her hand to her heart. Then Jonas
entered with a lantern, and saw her as she thus stood, one hand
to her brow, thrusting back the hair, the other to her heart; he
was surprised, raised his lantern to throw the light on her face,
and said:--"Wot's up?"
"I have been robbed! My fifteen pounds have been taken from me."
"Well I--"
"Jonas!" she said, "I know it was you. It was you who robbed me,
where those men robbed my father. Just as I got into the cart you
robbed me."
He lowered the lantern.
"Look here, Matabel, mind wot I said. In matrimony it's all give
and take, and if there ain't give on one side, then there's take,
take on the t'other. I ain't going to have this no Paradise if I
can help it."