III.

Philip had left the island on the morning after the marriage. He had gone abroad, and when they heard from him first he was at Cairo. The voyage out had done him good--the long, steady nights going down the Mediterranean--walking the deck alone--the soft air--the far-off lights--thought he was feeling better--calmer anyway. He hoped they were settled in their new home, and well--and happy. Kate had to read the letter aloud. It was like a throb of Philip's heart made faint, feeble, and hardly to be felt by the great distance. Then she had to reply to it on behalf of Pete.

"Tell him to be quick and come out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage," said Pete. "Say there's no manner of sense of a handsome young man living in a country where there isn't a pretty face to be seen on the sunny side of a blanket. Write that Kirry joins with her love and best respects and she's busy whitewashing, and he'd better have no truck with Pharaoh's daughters."

The next time they heard from Philip he was at Rome. He had suffered from sleeplessness, but was not otherwise unwell. Living in that city was like an existence after death--all the real life was behind you. But it was not unpleasant to walk under the big moon amid the wrecks of the past. He congratulated Mrs. Quilliam on her active occupation--work was the same as suffering--it was strength and power. Kate had to read this letter also. It was like a sob coming over the sea.

"Give him a merry touch to keep up his p.e.c.k.e.r," said Pete. "Tell him the Romans are ter'ble jealous chaps, and, if he gets into a public house for a cup of tay, he's to mind and not take the girls on his knee--the Romans don't like it."

The last time they heard from Philip he was in London. His old pain had given way; he thought he was nearly well again, but he had come through a sharp fire. The Governor had been very good--kept open the Deemstership by some means--also surrounded him with London friends--he was out every night. Nevertheless, an unseen force was drawing him home--they might see him soon, or it might be later he had been six months away, but he felt that it had not been all waste and interruption--he would return with a new sustaining power.

This letter could not be answered, for it bore no address. It came by the night-mail with the same day's steamer from England. Two hours later Mrs. Gorry ran in from an errand to the town saying--

"I believe in my heart I saw Mr. Philip Christian going by on the road."

"When?" said Pete.

"This minute," she answered.

"Chut! woman," said Pete; "the man's in London. Look, here's his letter"--running his forefinger along the headline--'"London, January 21st--that's yesterday. See!"

Mrs. Gorry was perplexed. But the next night she was out at the same hour on the same errand, and came flying into the house with a scared look, making the same announcement.

"See for yourself, then," she cried, "he's going up the lane by the garden."

"Nonsense! it's browning you're ateing with your barley," said Pete; and then to Kate, behind his hand, he whispered, "Whisht! It's sights she's seeing, poor thing--and no wonder, with her husband laving her so lately."

But the third night also Mrs. Gorry returned from a similar errand, at the same hour, with the same statement.

"I'm sure of it," she panted. She was now in terror. An idea of the supernatural had taken hold of her.

"The woman manes it," said Pete, and he began to cross-question her. How was Mr. Christian dressed? She hadn't noticed that night, but the first night he had worn a coat like an old Manx cape. Which way was he going?

She couldn't be certain which way to-night but the night before he had gone up the lane between the chapel and the garden. Had she seen his face at all? The first time she had seen it, and it was very thin and pale.

"Oh, I wouldn't deceave you, sir," said Mrs. Gorry, and she fell to crying.

"Gough bless me, but this is mortal strange, though," said Pete.

"What time was it exactly, Jane?" asked Kate.

"On the minute of ten every night," answered Mrs. Gorry.

"Is there any difference in time, now," said Pete, "between the Isle of Man and London, Kitty?"

"Nothing to speak of," said Kate.

Pete scratched his head. "I must be putting a sight up on Black Tom. A dirty old trouss, G.o.d forgive me, if he is my grandfather, but he knows the Manx yarns about right. If it had been Midsummer day now, and Philip had been in bed somewhere, it might have been his spirit coming home while he was sleeping to where his heart is--they're telling of the like, anyway."

Kate read the mystery after her own manner, and on the following night, at the approach of ten o'clock, she went into the parlour of the hall, whence a window looked out on to the road. The day had been dull and the night was misty. A heavy white hand seemed to have come down on to the face of sea and land. Everything lay still and dead and ghostly. Kate was in the dark room, trembling, but not with fear. Presently a form that was like a shadow pa.s.sed under a lamp that glimmered opposite. She could see only the outlines of a Spanish cape. But she listened for the footsteps, and she knew them. They came on and paused, came up and paused again, and then they went past and deadened off and died in the dense night-air.

Kate's eyes were red and swollen when she came back to supper. She had promised herself enjoyment of Philip's sufferings. There was no enjoyment, but only a cry of yearning from the deep place where love calls to love. She tried afresh to make the thought of Philip sink to the lowest depth of her being. It was hard--it was impossible; Pete was for ever strengthening the recollection of him--of his ways, his look, his voice, his laugh. What he said was only the echo of her own thoughts; but it was pain and torment, nevertheless. She felt like crying, "Let me alone--let me alone!"

People in the town began to talk of Mrs. Gorry's mysterious stories.

"Philip will be forced to come now," thought Kate; and he came. Kate was alone. It was afternoon; dinner was over, the hearth was swept, the fire was heaped up, and the rug was down. He entered the porch quietly, tapped lightly at the door, and stepped into the house. He hoped she was well. She answered mechanically. He asked after Pete. She replied vacantly that he had been gone since morning on some fishing business to Peel. It was a commonplace conversation--brief, cold, almost trivial.

He spoke softly, and stood in the middle of the floor, swinging his soft hat against his leg. She was standing by the fire, with one hand on the mantelpiece and her head half aside, looking sideways towards his feet; but she noticed that his eyes looked larger than before, and that his voice, though so soft, had a deeper tone. At first she did not remember to ask him to sit, and when she thought of it she could not do so. The poor little words would have been a formal recognition of all that had happened so terribly--that she was mistress in that house, and the wife of Pete.

IV.

They were standing so, in a silence hard to break, harder still to keep up, when Pete himself came back, like a rush of wind, and welcomed Philip with both hands.

"Sit, boy, sit," he cried; "not that one--this aisy one. Mine? Well, if it's mine, it's yours. Not had dinner, have you? Neither have I. Any cold mate left, Kitty? No? Fry us a chop, then, darling."

Kate had recovered herself by this time, and she went out on this errand. While she was away, Pete rattled on like a mill-race--asked about the travels, laughed about the girls, and roared about Mrs. Gorry and her ghost of Philip.

"Been buying a Nickey at Peel to-day, Phil," he said; "good little boat--a reg'lar clipper. Aw, I'm going to start on the herrings myself next sayson sir, and what for shouldn't I? Too many of the Manx ones are giving the fishing the goby. There's life in the ould dog yet, though. Would be, anyway, if them rusty Kays would be doing anything for the industry. They're building piers enough for the trippers, but never a breakwater the size of a tooth-brush for the fishermen. That's reminding me, Phil--the boys are at me to get you to pet.i.tion the Tynwald Court for better harbours. They're losing many a pound by not getting out all weathers. But if the child doesn't cry, the mother will be giving it no breast. So we mane to squall till they think in Douglas we've got spavined wind or population of the heart, or something. The men are looking to you, Phil. 'That's the boy for us,' says they. 'He's stood our friend before, and he'll do it again,' they're saying."

Philip promised to draw up the pet.i.tion, and then Mrs. Gorry came in and laid the cloth.

Kate, meanwhile, had been telling herself that she had not done well.

Where was the satisfaction she had promised herself on the night of her wedding-day, when she had seen Philip from the height of a great revenge, if she allowed him to think that she also was suffering? She must be bright, she must be gay, she must seem to be happy and in love with her husband.

She returned to the hall-parlour with a smoking dish, and a face all sunshine.

"I'm afraid they're not very good, dear," she said.

"Chut!" said Pete; "we're not particular. Phil and I have roughed it before to-day."

She laughed merrily, and, under pretext of giving orders, disappeared again. But she had not belied the food she had set on the table. The mutton was badly fed, badly killed, badly cut, and, above all, badly cooked. To eat it was an ordeal. Philip tried hard not to let Pete see how he struggled. Pete fought valiantly to conceal his own efforts. The perspiration began to break out on their foreheads. Pete stopped in the midst of some wild talk to glance up at Philip. Philip tore away with knife and fork and answered vaguely. Then Pete looked searchingly around, rose on tiptoe, went stealthily to the kitchen door, came back, caught up a piece of yellow paper from the sideboard, whipped the chops into it from his own plate and then from Philip's, and crammed them into his jacket pocket.

"No good hurting anybody's feelings," said he; and then Kate reappeared smiling.

"Finished already?" she said with an elevation of pitch.

"Ha! ha!" laughed Pete. "Two hungry men, Kate! You'd rather keep us a week than a fortnight, eh?"

Kate stood over the empty dish with a look of surprise. Pete winked furiously at Philip. Philip's eyes wandered about the tablecloth.

"_She_ isn't knowing much about a hungry man's appet.i.te, is she, Phil?"

"But," said Kate--"but," she stammered--"what's become of the bones?"