The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1938-08-12
CHAPTER Nv

ana aCnlnB gldTe dUOVS tiC SoS'SAAA
horizon, leering at her through the
trees whose foliage had thinned even
during the night and now would
soon be gone. Her eyes opened, but
not to full consciousness; she lay Tor
a while, turning her head sidewise
to avoid the glare, watching small
shadows shift and change on the
rough plastered wall.
Then she turned to look toward
Arthur's bed, and saw the spread
and pillow cover rumpled as though
someone had lain there; and she
remembered that Mary had come in
to her last night, weeping in furi-
GUS and passionate revolt, in hurt,
tormented pride.
And little by little she remen1-
bered all the rest, picking up this
fact and that circumstance, and set
ting them in their proper relation to
one another. I'm glad I'm alone,
can be alone for a while, she
thought; and she decided that if any
one came to wake her she would
pretend to be asleep. Mary had
seemed to blame her father, with a
raging bitterness; had been filled
with anger more than grief, like a
mother robbed of her child, a girl
of her lover.
Thinking of Mary, Mrs. Sentry
thought of Neil Ray. Mary had not
mentioned him last night; yet there
had been something like terror as
an undercurrent to her wrath. Mrs.
Sentry wondered what Neil Ray
would do or say to all this. Re-
membering his anxiety to escape
from the house the other night, she
thought there might be something
of the prig in that young man, a
tendency to deplore-
Deplore? The District Attorney,
she remembered, had deplored
something last night. "Deplored the
necessity" That was it. He had
asked her to promise that the chill
dren would all remain available as
witnesses if needed; and he had
admitted that he could not require
her to testify, but she had said OF
course she would stay near Arthur.
"Near my husband" she had said,
and remembered now that when Ar
thur gave her the new ring, the
emerald, on her birthday three or
four weeks before, he had signed
the enclosed card "Your Husband"
and she had felt sense of strange
ness at the time, because he usually
used his name, just Arthur. And
also the ring had been lavish pres
ent, without precedent in recent
years, so that she had smilingly
accused him of a guilty conscience.
Her birthday in September! Miss
Wines had worked for her husbands
firm during the summer; and that
mysterious absence of which the pa
pers spoke, when the girl was sup
posed to have gone to New Hamp-
shire, was in August; and then
when they all came home from York
Harbor for Mrs. Sentry's birthday,
in September, Mr.. Sentry gave her
that beautiful emerald and signed
himself "Your Husband"
She understood now. He must
have sought to ease his conscience
so, and she thought with more ten
derness than she had felt toward
him for years how unhappy he must
have been since then, playing a
part, suffering through sleepless
nights. Insomnia. I wonder, she
thought, whether I'll have insom-
MIA now. I slept last night, little.
I'm still half asleep. 1t doesn't hurt,
so I must be. Why am so sure
Arthur did it? If I were a young
girl, his bride, should be loyalty,
blindly sure Of his innocence; but
I'm an old woman, old, old. Bar
bara is sure he is innocent. Does
Mary know, I wonder? And Phil? !
wonder whether I shall see Arthur
today. I can't help him. It's the
children who need me now. ] won
der if they're awake. What time is
it? / ought to keep my travelling
clock on the bedside table here, so
that if Mr.. Flood asks me how !
knew it was quarter past eleven,
when Arthur came home that night,
needn't say Arthur told me. I
needn't actually lie. I can say.
"There was clock on the table be-
tween our beds" I needn't say !
looked at it.
She rose at the thought and went
to fetch the clock from her dress
ing-room and set It on the table here
beside her bed, but she did not lie
down again. The household, the
servants, would be excited when
they saw the morning papers. She
must control the situation. She
dressed, and rang, and when Nellie
came, pale and shaking, she asked
crisply, "Are the children down,
Nellie?"
'Philip ISL
Neither of the girls?"
"No."
Will you ask Oscar and Emma to
come up here, please, and you come
with them gs
Five minutes later they filed IN
and faced her. Oscar stood stolid-
Ixy Ma11io wr11no her Wretched