MR. LEMON WAKES UP.
"I was that impatient that I hardly knew what to do. Minutes was like
dymens, and there Lemon lay like a log. Couldn't I bring him to his
senses somehow or other? I tried. I walked about heavy. I threw down
things. I even turned Lemon over, but it had no more effect on him
than water on a duck's back. He never give so much as a murmur, and I
don't think a earthquake would have roused him. I had to give it up as
a bad job, but I felt that it would be a mockery for me to go to bed,
because in the state I was in it wasn't likely I could git a wink of
sleep. Then I knew, too, that there wouldn't be a minute to lose when
Lemon opened his eyes, and that it was my duty to git everything
ready. So I spread out Lemon's clothes in regular order, not
forgetting his clean Sunday shirt, and I put on my bonnet and cloak,
and set down and waited all through that blessed night, looking at
Lemon. I didn't hear a sound in the room up-stairs, so I supposed that
Devlin was asleep, and I thought how dreadful it was to have a man
like that in the house, a man as spoke of murder as though he enjoyed
it. The only sound that come to my ears two or three times in the
night was the policeman on his beat outside as he passed through the
square, and you may guess, sir, I didn't get any comfort out of that.
I had my fancies, but I shook 'em off, though they made me shake and
shiver. One of 'em was that all of a sudden, jest as the policeman had
passed by, there rung through the square shrieks of 'Murder! murder!'
and millions of people seemed to be battering at the street-door and
crying that they'd tear Lemon and me to pieces. It didn't seem as if
they wanted to hurt Devlin, for there he was, standing and grinning at
us and the people, with that aggravating look on his face that makes
me burn to fly at him, if I only had the courage. Of course it was all
fancy, sir; but how would you like to pass sech a night?
"At nine o'clock this morning, and not a minute before, Lemon woke up.
I had a cup of tea ready for him in the bedroom, and a slice of bread
and butter. He's gone off his breakfast for a long time past, and one
slice of bread and butter is as much as he can git down, if he can do
that. Before I took Devlin as a lodger, Lemon used to eat a big
breakfast, never less than a couple of rashers, and a couple of boiled
eggs on the top of that, and four or five slices of bread and butter
cut thick. It is a bad sign when a man begins to say he's got no
appetite for breakfast. If his stomach ain't going all to pieces, it's
something worse, perhaps.
"'Why, Fanny,' said Lemon, seeing me with my bonnet on, 'have you been
out? What's the time?'
"He spoke quite calm and cheerful; the sleeping draught had done him
good, and had made him forgit.
"'The time's nine o'clock, Lemon,' I answered, 'and I ain't been out.'
"'What's to-day?' he asked.
"'Sunday,' I answered.
"'Sunday!' he exclaimed. 'It's funny. Everything seems mixed. Sunday,
is it? But, I say, Fanny, if you ain't been out, what have you got
your bonnet on for?'
"'I'm waiting for you,' I said. 'Git up, quick, you must come with me
at once.'
"'Come with you at once,' he said, rubbing his eyes, to make sure
whether he was awake or asleep; and then he must have seen something
in my face, for he looked at me strange, and left off rubbing his
eyes, and began to rub his forehead. 'I can't understand it. Has
anything gone wrong?'
"'Lemon,' I said, speaking very solemn, and speaking as I felt, 'you
know too well what has gone wrong, and I only hope you may be
forgiven.'
"I shouldn't have stopped short in the middle if it hadn't been that
we heard Devlin moving about in the room up-stairs. I looked up at the
ceiling, and so did Lemon, and when I saw his face grow white I knew
that mine was growing white as well; and I knew, too, that Lemon was
gitting his memory back.
"'Speak low, speak low,' he whispered. 'Devlin mustn't hear a word we
say. You hope I may be forgiven! For what? What have I done? O, my
head, my head! It feels as if it was going to burst!'
"His face begun to get flushed, and the veins swelled out. I thought
to myself, I must be careful with Lemon; I mustn't be too sudden with
him, or he'll have another fit. I was going to speak soothing, when he
clapped his hand on my mouth and almost stopped my breath.
"'Don't say nothing yet,' he said. 'You must tell me something first
that I want to know. I feel so confused--so confused! What's been the
matter with me? I don't remember going to bed last night.'
"'You fell down in a fit, Lemon,' I said, 'and I had to get the doctor
to you.'
"'Yes, yes,' he said eagerly. 'Go on--go on.'
"'We carried you up-stairs here, the doctor and me, and undressed you
and put you to bed; and when you come out of your fit he give you a
sleeping draught.'
"'It's not that I want to know,' he said. 'What _made_ me go into a
fit? I never had a fit before, as I remember. O Fanny, is it all a
dream?'
"'Lemon,' I answered, 'you must ask your conscience; I can't answer
you. You come home with a evening paper in your pocket, a-moaning and
crying, and you ketches hold of me, and looks round as if a ghost had
follered you into the room, and then you falls down in your fit.'
"'And him?' he said, pointing to the ceiling. 'Him--Devlin? Was he
with me? Did he see me while I was in the fit?'
"'No,' I answered. 'He come home after we'd got you to bed, and said
he wanted to see you; but I wouldn't let him. I whipped up-stairs
here, and turned the key, so as he shouldn't git at you.'
"'You did right, you did right. Was he angry?'
"'If he was, he didn't show it. He kep with me a long time, talking
about the--the----'
"'About the what?' asked Lemon, the perspiration breaking out on him.
"'About the murder! Well may you shiver! It was in the newspaper you
brought home with you, and he read it out loud, and talked about it in
a way as froze my blood.'
"'Blood!' groaned Lemon, 'Blood! O Fanny, Fanny!'
"He is my husband, sir, and he was suffering, and I ain't ashamed to
say that I took him in my arms, and tried to comfort him.
"'One word, Lemon,' I said, 'only one word before we go on. You ain't
guilty, are you?'
"'Guilty?' he answered, but speaking quite soft; we neither of us
raised our voices above a whisper 'My God, no! How could I be? Wasn't
I at home and abed when it was done? O, it's horrible! horrible! and I
don't know what to think.'
"'Thank God, you're innocent!' I said, and I was so grateful in my
heart that my eyes brimmed over. 'And you didn't have nothing to do
with the planning of it? Tell me that.'
"'No, Fanny,' he said. '_Him_ up-stairs there--did _he_ sleep at home
last night?'
"'Unless there's something going on too awful to think of,' I said,
'he did. I ain't been in bed, Lemon, since home you come yesterday and
had your fit. And here in this room I've been setting with you from
the time I put the chain on the street-door last night till now. I've
only left you once--to take in the milk at seven o'clock this morning,
and then the chain was on; it hadn't been touched. No one went out of
this house last night by the street-door.'
"'They couldn't have gone out no other way,' said Lemon.
"'I don't see how they could,' I said, though I had my thoughts.
"'And the night before, Fanny,' said Lemon, and now he looked at me as
if life and death was in my answer, 'the night it was done, did he
sleep at home then?'
"'To the best of my belief he did,' I said. 'You may put me on the
rack and tear me with red hot pinchers, and I can't say nothing but
the truth. He _did_ sleep here the night that awful murder was done in
Victoria Park. Drag me to the witness-box and put me in irons, and I
can't say nothing else. I saw him go to his room after I'd put up the
chain; he called out 'Good night;' and the next morning the chain was
up jest as I left it. You can't put the chain on the street-door from
the outside; it must be done from the in. And now, Lemon, listen to
me.'
"'What do you want?' he groaned. 'O, what do you want? Ain't I bad
enough already that you try to make me worse?'
"'I _must_ say, Lemon, what is on my mind.'
"'Won't it keep, Fanny?' he asked.
"'It won't keep,' I answered. 'You know the man as committed the
murder, and you'll come with me to the police-station, and put the
police on his track.'
"'_Me_ know the wretch!' Lemon cried, his eyes almost starting out of
his head. 'Have you gone mad?'
"'No, Lemon,' I answered, 'I'm in my sober senses. Whatever happens
afterwards, we've got to face the consequences, or we shall wake up in
the middle of the night and see that poor girl standing at our bedside
pointing her finger at us. It's no use trying to disguise it. I _know_
you know the wretch, and deny it you shan't.'
"'O,' he said, speaking very slow, as if he was choosing words, 'you
know I know him!'
"'I do,' I answered.
"'Perhaps,' he said, with something like a click in his throat, 'you
will tell me how that's possible, when it's gospel truth I've never
set eyes on him all my born days.'
"'Lemon,' I said, 'be careful, O, be careful, how you speak of gospel
truth! Remember Ananias! You may beat about the bush as much as you
like, but I'm determined to do what I've made up my mind to, and
nothing shall drive me from it.'
"'Of course,' he said, upon that, and speaking flippant, 'if you've
made up your mind to the egstent you speak of, I'd best shut my mouth.
I'll keep it shut till you tell me how you know what you say you
know.'
"'Lemon,' I said, 'light you speak, but sech you don't feel. You can't
deceive me. When we was first married, you slep the sleep of
innocence, and your breathing was that regular as showed you had
nothing on your mind to take egsception to. But since that Devlin come
into the house, the way you've gone on of a night is simply awful.
Jumping about in bed as you've been doing night after night, and
screaming and talking in your sleep----'
"'Talking in my sleep!' he cried, and I saw that I'd scared him. 'You
shouldn't have let me! Call yourself a wife? You should have stopped
me!'
"'I couldn't help letting you, and I couldn't have stopped you, Lemon,
and I'm not sure whether it would have been right to do it if sech was
in my power.'
"'What have I said, what have I said?' he asked.
"'The night before last as ever was,' I said, 'when that dreadful deed
was done as was printed in the paper you brought home yesterday, you
said, while you was laying asleep on the very bed you're laying on
now, words as chilled my blood, and it's a mercy I'm alive to tell it.
You spoke of Victoria Park; you spoke of a beautiful young girl with
hair the colour of gold; you spoke--O, Lemon, Lemon!--you spoke of her
being stabbed to the heart; you spoke of a bunch of white daisies as
she wore in her belt, and you said there was blood on 'em----'
"I had to stop myself, sir; for Lemon had hid his face in the
bedclothes, and was shaking like a man with Sam Witus's dance in his
marrer. I let him lay till he got over it a bit, and then he uncovered
his face; it was as white as a sheet.
"'Fanny,' he said--and he was hardly able to get his words out--'there's
the Bible on the mantelshelf, there. Bring it to me.'"