'Jenny shan't never know,' says I; and I swore it, too.
Then says Amelia, 'I can't abear to tell you, Tom, for I know it
will break your 'eart. But Jenny, she don't care for you no more;
it's Joe Wheeler as she fancies now, and she's out with him this
very minute, as here we stand.
'I'll wring her neck for her,' says I. Then when I had taken time to
think a bit, 'I can't believe this, Amelia,' says I, 'not even from
you. I must ask Jenny.'
'But that's just what you've swore not to do,' says she. 'She'll
never forgive me if you do, Tom; and what need of asking when for
the trouble of walking the length of the road you can see them
together? But if I tell you where to find them, you swear you won't
speak or make a fuss, because she'd know I'd told you?'
'I swear I won't,' says I.
'Well, then,' says Amelia, 'I don't seem to be acting fair to her;
but, take it the other way, I can't abear to stand by and see you
deceived, Tom. If you go by the churchyard an hour from now, you'll
see them in the porch; but don't you say a word to them, and never
say I told you. Now, be off, Tom,' says she.
It was early summer by this time, and the evenings long. I don't
think any man need envy me what I felt as I walked about the lanes
waiting till it was time to walk up to the church and find out for
certain that I'd been made a fool of.
It was dusk when I opened the churchyard gate and walked up the
path.
There she was, sure enough, in her Sunday muslin with the violet
sprig, and her black silk jacket with the bugles, and her arm was
round Joe Wheeler's neck--confound him!--and his arms were round her
waist, both of them. They didn't see me, and I stood for a minute
and looked at them, and but for what I'd swore to Amelia I believe I
should have taken Wheeler by the throat and shaken the life out of
him then and there. But I had swore, and I turned sharp and walked
away, and I never went up to Teesdale's nor to my father's farm, but
I went straight back to Pound's, the man I was bound to, and I wrote
a letter to Jenny and one to Amelia, and in Amelia's I only said--
'DEAR AMELIA,--Thank you very much; you were quite right.