FINISHED.
One night, Murdoch, on leaving the house, said to Christian:
"Don't expect me until morning. I may not be back until then. I think I
shall work all night."
She did not ask him why. For several days she had seen that a singular
mood was upon him, that he was restless. Sometimes, when he met her eye
unexpectedly, he started and colored and turned away, as if he was a
little afraid. She stood upon the step and watched him until he
disappeared in the darkness, and then shut the door and went in to his
mother.
A quarter of an hour afterward he entered his work-room, and shut
himself in and brought out the model.
He sat looking at it a moment, and then stretched forth his hand to
touch it. Suddenly he drew it back and let it fall heavily upon the
table. "Good Heavens!" he cried. "Did _he_ ever feel so near as _this_,
and then fail?" The shock was almost unbearable. "Are there to be two of
us?" he said. "Was not one enough?" But he put forth his hand again a
minute later, though his heart beat like a trip-hammer. "It rests with
me to prove it," he said--"with _me_!"
As he worked, the dead silence about him seemed to become more intense.
His own breathing was a distinct sound, light as it was; the accidental
dropping of a tool upon the table was a jar upon him; the tolling of the
church bell at midnight was unbearable. He even took out his watch and
stopped it. But at length he knew neither sound nor stillness; he forgot
both.
It had been a dark night, but the morning rose bright and clear. The
sun, streaming in at the one window, fell upon the model, pushed far
back upon the table, and on Murdoch himself, sitting with his forehead
resting upon his hands. He had been sitting thus some time--he did not
know how long. He had laid his last tool down before the first streak of
pink had struck across the gray sky. He was tired and chill with the
morning air, but he had not thought of going home yet, or even quite
recognized that the night was past. His lantern still burned beside him.
He was roused at last by a sound in the outer room. The gates had not
been unlocked nor the bell rung, but some one had come in. The next
moment Haworth opened the door and stood in the threshold, looking in on
him.
"You've been here all night," he said.
[Illustration: "YOU'VE BEEN HERE ALL NIGHT."]
"Yes," answered Murdoch. He turned a little and pointed to the model,
speaking slowly, as if he were but half awake.
"I think," he said, "that it is complete."
He said it with so little appearance of emotion or exultation that
Haworth was dumbfounded. He laid a hand on his shoulder and shook him a
little.
"Wake up, man!" he said. "You're dazed."
"No," he answered, "not dazed. I've had time to think it over. It has
been finished two or three hours." All at once he burst into a laugh. "I
did not think," he said, "that it would be you I should tell the news to
first."
Haworth sat down near him with a dogged face.
"Nay," he replied, "nor me either."
They sat and stared at each other for a moment in silence. Then Murdoch
drew a long, wearied breath.
"But it is done," he said, "nevertheless."
After that he got up and began to make his preparations to go home while
Haworth sat and watched him.
"I shall want to go away," he said. "When I come back I shall know what
the result is to be."
"Start to-morrow morning," said Haworth. "And keep close. By the time
you come back----"
He stopped and left his chair, and the bell which called the hands to
work began its hurried clanging. At the door he paused.
"When shall you take it away?" he asked.
"To-night," Murdoch answered. "After dark."
At home he only told them one thing--that in the morning he was going to
London and did not know when he should return. He did not go to the
Works during the day, but remained at home trying to rest. But he could
not sleep and the day seemed to lag heavily. In the afternoon he left
the sofa on which he had lain through the morning and went out. He
walked slowly through the town and at last turned down the lane which
led to the Briarley's cottage. He felt as if there would be a sort of
relief to the tenseness of his mood in a brief interview with Janey.
When he went into the house, Mr. Briarley was seated in Mrs. Dixon's
chair unscientifically balancing his latest-born upon his knee. His
aspect was grave and absorbed; he was heated and disheveled with violent
exertion; the knot of his blue cotton neckerchief had twisted itself
under his right ear in a painfully suggestive manner. Under some stress
of circumstances he had been suddenly pressed into service, and his
mode of placating his offspring was at once unprofessional and
productive of frantic excitement.
But the moment he caught sight of Murdoch an alarming change came upon
him. His eyes opened to their fullest extent, his jaw fell and the color
died out of his face. He rose hurriedly, dropped the youngest Briarley
into his chair and darted out of the house, in such trepidation that his
feet slipped under him when he reached the lower step, where he fell
with a loud clatter of wooden clogs, scrambling up again with haste and
difficulty and disappearing at once.
Attracted by the disturbance, Janey darted in from the inner room barely
in time to rescue the deserted young Briarley.
"Wheer's he gone?" she demanded, signifying her father. "I towd her he
wur na fit to be trusted! Wheer's he gone?"
"I don't know," Murdoch answered. "I think he ran away because he saw
me. What is the trouble?"
"Nay, dunnot ax me! We canna mak' him out, neyther mother nor me. He's
been settin' i' th' house fur three days, as if he wur feart to stir
out--settin' by th' fire an' shakin' his yed, an' cryin' ivvery now and
then. An' here's her i' th' back room to wait on. A noice toime this is
fur him to pick to go off in. He mowt ha' waited till she wur done wi'."
As conversation naturally could not flourish under these circumstances,
after a few minutes Murdoch took his leave.
It seemed that he had not yet done with Mr. Briarley. Passing through
the gate, he caught sight of a forlorn figure seated upon the road-side
about twenty yards before him, wearing a fustian jacket and a blue
neck-cloth knotted under the ear. As he approached, Mr. Briarley looked
up, keeping his eyes fixed upon him in a despairing gaze. He did not
remove his glance at all, in fact, until Murdoch was within ten feet of
him, when, for some entirely inexplicable reason, he rose hurriedly and
passed to the other side of the road, and at a distance of some yards
ahead sat down, and stared wildly at him again. This singular course he
pursued until they had reached the end of the lane, where he sat and
watched Murdoch out of sight.
"I thowt," he said, breathing with extreme shortness, "as he ha' done
fur me. It wur a wonder as he did na. If I'd coom nigh him or he'd coom
nigh me, they'd ha' swore it wur me as did it an's gone accordin', if
luck went ag'in 'em."
Then a sudden panic seemed to seize him. He pulled off his cap, and,
holding it in both hands, stared into it as if in desperate protest
against fate. A large tear fell into the crown, and then another and
another. "I canna help it," he said, in a loud and sepulchral whisper.
"Look out! Look out!"
And then, probably feeling that even in this he might be committing
himself fatally, he got up, glanced fearfully about him, and scuttled
away.