DREAMS.
Iver remained the night in the little farm-house. He thought
nothing as he lay in bed of the additional shillings he had lost
to Jonas, but of the inestimable loss he had sustained in Mehetabel.
The old childish liking he had entertained for her revived. It did
more than revive, it acquired strength and heat. As a boy he had
felt some pride and self-consequence because of the child whom he
had introduced into the Christian Church, and to whom he had given
a name. Now he was elated to think that she was the most beautiful
woman he had seen, and angry with the consciousness that she was
snatched from him.
Why had he not returned to Thursley a day, half a day, earlier?
Why had Fate played such a cruel game with him? What a man this
Jonas Kink was who had won the prize. Was he worthy of it? Did he
value Mehetabel as he should? A fellow who could not perceive
beauty in a landscape and see the art in his drawings was not
one to know that his wife was lovely, or if he knew it did so in
a stupid, unappreciative manner. Did he treat Mehetabel kindly;
with ordinary civility? Iver remembered the rebukes, the slights
put on her in his own presence.
Iver's bedroom was neat, everything in it clean. The bed was one of
those great tented four-posters which were at the time much
affected in Surrey, composed of covering and curtains of striped--or
pranked--cotton, blue and white. Mehetabel, in the short while she
had been in the Punch-Bowl, had put the spare room in order. She
had found it used as a place for lumber, every article of furniture
deep in dust, and every curtain rent. The corners of the room had
been given over for twenty years as the happy hunting-ground of
spiders. Although Bideabout had taken some pains to put his house
in order before his marriage, repairs had been executed only on
what was necessary, and in a parsimonious spirit. The spare room had
been passed over, as not likely to be needed. To that as to every
other portion of the house, Mehetabel had turned her attention,
and it was now in as good condition to receive a guest as the
bedrooms in the Ship Inn.
Presently Iver went to sleep, lulled by the patter of the rain on
the roof, on the leaves, and the sobbing of the moist wind through
the ill-adjusted casement.
As he slept he had a dream.
He thought that he heard Thursley Church bells ringing. He believed
he had been to church to be married. He was in his holiday attire,
and was holding his bride by the hand. He turned about to see who
was his partner, and recognized Mehetabel. She was in white, but
whiter than her dress and veil was her bloodless face, and her
dark brows and hair marked it as with mourning.
There was this strange element in his dream, that he could not
leave the churchyard.
He endeavored to follow the path to the gate, outside which the
villagers were awaiting them with flowers and ready to cheer; but
he was unable to reach it. The path winded in and out among the
gravestones, and round and round the church, till at length it
reached the tomb of the murdered sailor.
All the while the ringers were endeavoring to give the young bridal
pair a merry peal, and failed. The ropes slid from their hands,
and only the sexton succeeded in securing one, and with that he
tolled. Distinctly Iver saw the familiar carving of the three
murderers robbing and killing their victim. He had often laughed
over the bad drawing of the figures--he laughed now, in sleep.
Then he thought that he heard Mehetabel reproach him for having
returned, to be her woe. And that between each sentence she sobbed.
Thereupon he again looked at her.
She was beautiful, more beautiful than ever--a beauty sublimated,
rendered almost transparent. As he looked she became paler, and
the hand he held grew colder. Now ensued a strange phenomenon.
She was sinking. Her feet disappeared in the spongy turf that
oozed with water after the long rain. Her large dark eyes were
fixed on him entreatingly, reproachfully.
Then she was enveloped to her knees, and as she went down, the
stain of the wet grass and the soil of the graveyard clay rose an
inch up her pure white garment.
She held his hand tenaciously, as the only thing to which she
could cling to save her from being wholly engulfed.
Then she was swallowed up to her waist, and he became aware that
if he continued to clasp her hand, she would drag him under the
earth. In his dream he reasoned with her. He pointed out to her
that it was impossible for him to be of any service to her, and
that he was jeopardizing his own self, unless he disengaged himself
from her.
He endeavored to release his hand. She clung the more obstinately,
her fingers were deadly cold and numbed him, yet he was resolute
in self-defence, and finally freed his hand. Then she sank more
rapidly, with despair in the upturned face. He tried to escape
her eyes, he could not. It was a satisfaction to him when the rank
grass closed over them and got between the lips that were opened
in appeal for help. Then ensued a gulp. The earth had swallowed
her up, and in dream, he was running for his pallet and canvas to
make a study of the spot where she had sunk, in a peculiarly
favorable light. He woke, shivering, and saw that the gray morning
was looking in at his window between the white curtains.
His hand, that had felt so chill, was out of the bed, and the
coverlet had slid off him, and was heaped on the floor.
The wind had shifted, and now pressed the clouds together, rolled
them up and swept them into the lumber-house of clouds below the
horizon. He dressed leisurely, shook himself, to shake off the
impression produced by his dream, and laughed at himself for
having been disturbed by it.
When he came downstairs he found that both Mehetabel and Jonas
were already on their feet, and that the former was preparing
breakfast. Her eyes were red, as if she had been crying.
"How did you sleep?" she asked, with faint smile--"and what were
your dreams?"
"They say that the first dream in new quarters comes true," threw
in the Broom-Squire; "but this is the idle chatter of old wives.
I make no count of it."
Mehetabel observed that Iver started and seemed disconcerted at
this question relative to his dream. He evaded an answer, and she
saw that the topic was unpleasant, and to reply inconvenient. She
said no more; and Jonas had other matters to think about more
substantial than dreams. Yet Mehetabel could not fail to perceive
that their guest was out of tune. Was he annoyed at having lost
money, or was he in reality troubled by something that had occurred
during the night? An hour later Iver prepared to leave.
"Come with me a little way," he pleaded with the hostess, "see me
safe off the premises."
She did as was desired, though not without inner reluctance. And
yet, at the same time she felt that with his departure a something
would be gone that could not be replaced, a light out of her sky,
a strain of music out of her soul.
The white fog lay like curd at the bottom of the Punch-Bowl. Here
and there a tree-top stood above the vapor, but only as a bosky
islet in the surface of mist, dense and chill. The smoke from the
chimneys of the squatter houses rose like steaming springs, but
the brick chimneys were submerged. So dense was the fog that it
muffled all sound, impeded the breath, struck cold to the marrow.
It smelt, for the savors of hog-pen and cow-stall were caught and
not allowed to dissipate.
A step, and those ascending the side of the great basin were out
of the mist, and in sunshine, but it still held their feet to the
knees; another step and they were clear, and then their shadows
were cast, gigantic, upon the white surface below, and about each
head was a halo of light and rainbow tints.
Every bush was twinkling as hung with diamonds of the purest
water. Larks were trilling, pouring forth in song the ecstasy
that swelled their hearts. The sky was blue as a nemophyla, and
cloudless.
As soon as Iver and Mehetabel had issued from the fog and were
upon the heath, and in the sunshine, she stayed her feet.
"I will go no further," she said.
"Look," said he, "how the fog lies below at the bottom of the
Punch-Bowl, as though it were snow. Above, on the downs all is
sunshine."
"Yes, you go up into the light and warmth," answered she. "I must
back and down into the cold vapors, cold as death."
He thought of his dream. There was despondency in her tone.
"The sun will pierce and scatter the vapors and shine over and
warm you below."
She shook her head.
"Iver," she said, "you may tell me now we are alone. What was
your dream?"
Again he appeared disconcerted.
"Of what, of whom did you dream?"
"Of whom else could I dream but you--when under your roof," said
he with a laugh.
"Oh, Iver! and what did you dream about me?"
"Arrant nonsense. Dreams go by contraries."
"Then what about me?"
"I dreamt of your marriage."
"Then that means death."
He caught her to him, and kissed her lips.
"We are brother and sister," he said, in self-exculpation. "Where
is the harm?"
She disengaged herself hastily.
She heard a cough and looked round, to see the mocking face of
Sarah Rocliffe, who had followed and had just emerged from the
curdling fog below.