THE MEETING OF THE WAYS.
Jim could not forget Harry all day. The hours seemed to drag, and
again and again he caught himself wondering if the time seemed as long
to the little prisoner, shut within his four walls, with no one to
speak to. He determined to go home immediately after his work and take
the child for a tram-ride. Even his dinner beer tasted bitter to him
to-day, and when he left his work and turned his steps homewards he
still had fourpence of his precious sixpence left, wherewith to pay
the tram fare.
He was annoyed to find that Jane had not returned, and that there was
no supper ready; but he ate what he could find and made a cup of tea.
"I'm going to take you on a tram, Harry," he said, laying his hand
affectionately on the boy's shoulder. "Why, child!" he added in
astonishment, "your coat's wet! What have you been doing?"
Harry's face clouded. He had forgotten the broken jug for a few
minutes in the joy of his uncle's return.
"I broke aunt's jug," he said faintly, "and I all got wetted."
Jim got up and went to inspect the extent of the damage, and he
whistled when he saw it.
"Aunt will whip me," said Harry mournfully.
"She'd better not!" said Jim fiercely; "it's _my_ jug. I'll get
another on Saturday. Come, let's get ready and be gone before she
comes in."
He rubbed his hand over Harry again consideringly. His knickers had
dried upon him, but his coat was still very damp.
"You ought to put something else on," said Jim. "What have you got?"
"There's my frock," cried Harry eagerly, "my little frock, what mother
made. It's in that box."
Jim pulled out the box and helped Harry strip off the wet coat. The
child gave a little shiver, but Jim scarcely noticed it then. He was
in a hurry to be off, and in a minute Harry was arrayed in the frock
over the knickers, and the two went downstairs hand in hand, just as
they had come at Easter-time.
It was a pleasant evening, but the wind was fresh, and all there
was of it met them on the top of the tram; but no thought of danger
crossed Jim's mind. Harry was very happy and quite ready to chatter
after his long day of enforced silence, and though by and by he became
very quiet, Jim thought he was tired and took him on his knee, where
he fell asleep.
But all night long he tossed and moaned, and when the morning came,
instead of being awake with the birds, he lay heavily asleep, with
flushed cheeks and quick drawn breath.
Jim stood looking down on him with a frown. Then he made himself some
coffee for dinner and went over for another look at the child.
"Jane," he said sharply, "I believe that child has got a cold. Don't
you let him go out of the room to-day, and you stop in and mind him.
D'you hear me?" he repeated, as Jane made no reply. "You're to stop in
and mind the child. No going out to work or to gossip."
"I've arranged to go to Old Keston," said Jane shortly. "He's all
right, and he can go to the Nursery."
"He's not to leave the room; and work or no work, you're going to stop
and see to him. Look here, Jane!" Jim went on sternly, "I'm master
here, though you seemed to forget it when you brought your sister's
child, without asking me if it was welcome. You've had a good bit of
your own way, but this time it's going to be _my_ way."
Jane had grown a little pale.
"Oh, all right," she said crossly. "What a fuss!"
She had settled everything in her own mind for taking Maud back that
very evening, but after all, one day was as good as another, and if
Jim should once begin on the subject of Maud, who could tell what he
might ferret out? He might even insist on himself taking Maud back to
her supposed mother and baby sister, and then what would happen? And
it would be of no use to keep back her sister's address from him, for
there was always Tom.
She made Harry get up, and he played listlessly with Maud, or fell
asleep on the floor in the midst of the toys; and by evening time even
Jane's careless eyes could see that the child was really ill.
Jim saw it too, and he went straight out again and left word at the
nearest doctor's house, for the doctor to come at once. But the doctor
was a busy man, and it was very late when at last he came and stood
looking down on Harry's flushed little face. He asked a good many
questions, and then made his examination.
Jim watched him keenly, and somehow his heart sank down and down and
down.
"Is he very bad?" he asked at last, huskily.
The doctor turned away from the little bed and looked at the fine,
tall young fellow before him.
"I understand he isn't your child?"
Jim shook his head. "He's my dead sister's child, and his father's
dead too. He belongs to me now, and I'd do anything for him. He's not
very bad, is he, doctor?"
"He's going to join them," said the doctor abruptly. "There's not the
slightest hope--at least, I think not--but I'll do my best. He's got
cold in every bit of him."
Jim groaned. Oh! to have that last fateful Monday back again--to live
over again these last weeks of self-indulgence. And now it was too
late--too late!
But the doctor was pouring out medicines and directions, and this was
no time for vain regrets.
"You'll sit up with him," he said, and he looked directly at Jim;
"and," he glanced at Jane this time, "I'll send the nurse. She'll set
you going and look in the first thing in the morning."
But there was no need. When, having seen the gravity of the case, the
nurse knocked gently at Jim's door, before six o'clock in the morning,
the little life had fled, and Jim was kneeling broken-hearted by the
little bed, Harry's sweet face still pillowed on his shoulder. A soft
smile lingered on the little lips and he seemed asleep, but Jim and
the nurse knew better.
He was dead.
As Tom had said, Jesus had got the beautiful home ready, and He had
sent for Harry.
* * * * *
It was on this same morning that, by the first post, Denys received a
letter from Mixham.
She tore it open eagerly, for any letter nowadays might bring news of
Maud, but she laid it down again listlessly.
"Oh dear!" she said, "that is from old Mrs. Richardson. Her daughter
has got married and gone away, and she is so lonely, and she sits
alone and cries all day, and she says that I have always cheered her
up in all her sorrows and she wants me to go over to-day; and it is so
bad for her eyes to cry because of her dressmaking, and when she has
seen me she won't cry any more; but--oh dear! oh dear!" and Denys
herself burst out crying, for her nerves had been very much shaken, "I
can't go and comfort anybody. It would be no use my going for that!"
Yet after breakfast she sought out Mrs. Brougham.
"Mother," she said, "I think I'll go to Mrs. Richardson this
afternoon. I'm afraid I'm getting selfish in my sorrow, and I'll go,
too, and see little Harry Lyon, as I'm over there. I did go once,
you know, but everybody was out. The neighbour said his aunt went out
washing on Mondays, and Harry was sent to the Nursery. I think perhaps
I ought to go."
"Do you?" said her mother with a sigh. "Well, I won't keep you, dear,
but oh, do take Pattie with you, just for companionship. I shouldn't
feel so anxious while you were gone."
"Oh, but the work," said Denys.
Gertrude looked up from the table where she was correcting exercises.
"I'll see to the work," she said. "I shall be at home all day. It's a
pity for mother to feel anxious, and Pattie deserves a change. She's
been awfully good to us."
Denys acquiesced, though she felt that Pattie's company was very
unnecessary, and so, immediately after an early lunch, Pattie and
Denys found themselves stepping out of the train at Mixham Junction.
"I think we'll go to see Harry first," said Denys. "Mrs. Richardson
will want to give us tea and we must not be late."
Pattie followed obediently. Little Harry was but a name to her, for he
came to brighten Tom's life after she had gone out of it, and she had
never heard of Harry's connection with Jane Adams. She knew the road
into which Denys turned, however, well enough, and when Denys stopped
at the very house where Jane Adams lived, she only thought it was a
queer coincidence, and wondered vaguely what she should do if she met
Jane on the stairs.
Denys knocked at the first door in the entry, and asked if the Adams's
were likely to be in, and which their room was.
She thought the woman looked at her curiously, as she gave her the
number on the third floor.
"They're in," she said, with another of those curious looks; "they're
in, 'cept the little girl and the baby. I took 'em to the Nursery to
be out of the way."
Denys passed on and knocked softly at the door indicated, and Pattie
followed trembling, for this was no coincidence--this was reality.
Jim himself opened the door, and when he saw Denys he drew back with a
gasp.
"Is Harry at home?" she asked. "You said I might come and see him."
Jim tried to answer, but no words would come. He drew back for Denys
to enter, however, and Pattie followed her timidly, and Jim closed the
door softly behind them.
Once more he tried to speak--to explain--but Denys did not notice him.
In the centre of the room, where the afternoon light fell full upon
it, stood a child's crib, and on the white pillow lay the beautiful,
familiar little face that had so won its way into her heart.
"Harry," she said softly, crossing the room quickly and longing to
hear again the tones that were so like Jerry's, "Harry!"
Was he asleep? She bent over the crib, and then turned bewildered to
Jim.
There was no need for words.
She stood a moment spellbound, looking down on the little peaceful
face, with its lingering smile, and then she went round the crib and
knelt down by the lowered side and softly kissed Harry's forehead and
soft golden hair.
She had not seen Jerry's dead face nor kissed him for good-bye, and
she knelt beside Harry and wept for them both.
She had completely forgotten Pattie, but after a while, as she wiped
away her tears and listened to Jim's story of the child's illness,
she became conscious that there was another man in the room, and that
Pattie and he were conversing in low tones by the window. She glanced
round for Harry's aunt, but there was no one else there; only sundry
sounds of stirring about in an adjoining room suggested that she was
not far off, but was not inclined to see company. So with one more
long look, one more kiss on the fair, still face, Denys and Pattie at
last took their leave, and set out for Mrs. Richardson's.
As they left the street, Pattie looked up in Denys's face with
crimsoning cheeks.
"Miss Denys," she said shyly, "that was my Tom that was talking to me.
He was there taking a photo of the little dead boy, for he loved him,
Miss, and--and--him and me, we've made it up, Miss Denys! We've always
loved each other all along."
* * * * *
The visit to Mrs. Richardson was over, and Denys and Pattie were once
more on their homeward way, hurrying along the crowded streets and
threading their way in and out of the bustling crowds, with no thought
in their minds but of an accomplished task and a great anxiety not to
lose their train.
They took little heed of the passers-by, but their eyes were both
attracted at the same moment by a very tall, fine-looking young fellow
who was coming towards them with a big, bouncing baby swung high upon
his shoulder; even at a good distance they made a conspicuous couple
as they came down the street.
"There's Jim Adams," said Denys and Pattie in the same breath.
Jim was walking very slowly, occasionally glancing down at the ground,
but the people about him were too many to reveal at what he looked.
Whether he caught sight of Denys and Pattie, and could not face
speaking to them, or whether he never even saw them, Denys could not
tell, but as they neared him, he stopped suddenly and looked into a
shop window, showing the baby something that made it shout and crow
with delight; but in one instant Denys forgot everything else in the
world, but the strangeness of another sight that met her eyes.
She stood stock still in the centre of the pavement, gazing at a
figure that was coming towards her.
The figure of a little, little girl, walking alone among the crowd,
yet not of it. A little girl with brown, fluffy curls, turning to gold
at the roots, crowned by a big white sailor hat with a black ribbon
round it--a little girl dressed in a short black frock with a kilt and
a sailor jacket; a little girl so like--ah! how many children had she
seen lately so like little Maud! Then the child's blue eyes met hers,
and, with a scream, Denys had sprung forward, and Maud--little lost
Maud--was in her arms.
* * * * *
When Denys began once more to realise anything beyond the pressure of
her arms round their lost treasure, she became conscious that a little
crowd had gathered, and that Pattie was hurriedly explaining what
had happened, and there was pity and sympathy in the listening faces
around, so that Denys thought wonderingly how kind the world was.
"A cab!" she said, and she lifted her head as if she were but just
awakened from a long and horrible dream. Oh! how glad she was to have
Pattie with her!
With Maud still clasped in her arms, she and Pattie got into the
cab, and as it rumbled off to the station, the little crowd that had
gathered, thinned away and scattered, and Jim Adams and his baby went
with it.
Jim had been to the Nursery to fetch the two children. It was upon
little Maud, running beside him, that he had constantly glanced down.
When he stopped to look into the shop window she had not observed it,
but had trotted on among the crowd, and he, turning to see what had
become of her, had seen the meeting between her and Denys. Thinking
simply that the child knew Denys and loved her, as Harry did, he had
drawn near to claim her, and had heard Pattie's hurried explanation,
and hearing it, he had drawn further and further to the edge of the
crowd.
But Maud had been too far from him, for any of the passing crowd to
suspect that she belonged to him. He saw that in a moment, and he
waited calmly in the background till Denys and Pattie and the child
had driven away.
He understood it all, if no one else did.
So that was Jane's vengeance! That was what Jane could do!
The sooner he and Jane and the baby were out of Mixham the better!
What was there to stay for? He hated the whole place. Perhaps he might
begin again somewhere else.
He would try, and he would--yes, he would--ask God to help him this
time. Tom said that was the only way to keep straight, to ask for
God's strength.
And Tom and Pattie had made it up that very day, in Jane's own
kitchen!