<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0122" id="link2H_4_0122"></SPAN></p>
<h2> XII. </h2>
<p>Phillip fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke, he saw, as in a mirror, a
solution to the tumultuous drama of his life. It was a glorious solution,
a liberating and redeeming end, an end bringing freedom from the bonds
which had beset him. What matter if it was hard; if it was difficult; if
it was bitter as Marah and steep as Calvary? He was ready, he was eager.
Oh, blessed sleep! Oh, wise and soothing sleep I It had rent the dark
cloud of his past and given the flash of light that illumined the path
before him.</p>
<p>He opened his eyes and saw Auntie Nan seated by his side, reading a volume
of sermons. At the change in his breathing the old dove looked round,
dropped the book, and began to flutter about. "Hush, dearest, hush!" she
whispered.</p>
<p>There was a heavy, monotonous sound, like the beating of a distant drum or
the throb of an engine under the earth.</p>
<p>"Auntie!"—"Yes, dearest."</p>
<p>"What day is it?"</p>
<p>"Sunday. Oh, you've had a long, long sleep, Philip. You slept all day
yesterday."</p>
<p>"Is that the church-bell ringing?"</p>
<p>"Yes, dear, and a fine morning, too—so soft and springlike. I'll
open the window."</p>
<p>"Then my hearing must be injured."</p>
<p>"Ah! they muffled the bell—that's it. 'The church is so near,' they
said, 'it might trouble him.'"</p>
<p>A carriage was coming down the road. It rattled on the paved way; then the
rattling ceased, and there was a dull rumble as of a cart sliding on to a
wooden bridge. "That horse has fallen," said Philip, trying to rise.</p>
<p>"It's only the straw on the street," said Auntie Nan. "The people brought
it from all parts. 'We must deaden the traffic by the house,' they said.
Oh, you couldn't think how good they've been. Yesterday was market-day,
but there was no business done. Couldn't have been; they were coming and
going the whole day long. 'And how's the Deemster now?' 'And how's he
now?' It was fit to make you cry. I believe in my heart, Philip, nobody in
Ramsey went to bed the first night at all. Everybody waiting and waiting
to see if there wasn't something to fetch, and the kettle kept boiling in
every kitchen round about. But hush, dearest, hush! Not so much talking
all at once. Hush, now!"</p>
<p>"Where is Pete?" asked Philip, his face to the wall.</p>
<p>"Oiling the hinges of the door, dearest. He was laying carpets on the
stairs all day yesterday. But never the sound of a hammer. The man's
wonderful. He must have hands like iron. His heart's soft enough, though.
But then everybody is so kind—everybody, everybody! The doctor, and
the vicar, and the newspapers—oh, it's beautiful! It's just as Pete
was saying."</p>
<p>"What was Pete saying, Auntie?"</p>
<p>"He was saying the angels must think there's somebody sick in every house
in the island."</p>
<p>A sound of singing came through the open window, above the whisper of
young leaves and the twitter of birds. It was the psalm that was being
sung in church—</p>
<p>"Blessed is the man that considereth the poor and needy;<br/>
The Lord shall deliver him in time of trouble."<br/></p>
<p>"Listen, Philip. That must be a special psalm. I'm sure they're singing it
for you. How sweet of them! But we are talking too much, dear. The doctor
will scold. I must leave you now, Philip. Only for a little, though, while
I go back to Bal lure, and I'll send up Cottier."</p>
<p>"Yes, send up Cottier," said Philip.</p>
<p>"My darling," said the old soul, looking down as she tied her bonnet
strings. "You'll lie quiet now? You're sure you'll lie quiet? Well, good
bye! good-bye!"</p>
<p>As Philip lay alone the soar and swell of the psalm filled the room. Oh,
the irony of it all! The frantic, hideous, awful irony! He was lying
there, he, the guilty one, with the whole island watching at his bedside,
pitying him, sorrowing for him, holding its breath until he should
breathe, and she, his partner, his victim, his innocent victim, was in
jail, in disgrace, in a degradation more deep than death. Still the psalm
soared and swelled. He tried to bury his head in the pillows that he might
not hear.</p>
<p>Jem-y-Lord came in hurriedly and Philip beckoned him close. "Where is
she?" he whispered.</p>
<p>"They removed her to Castle Rushen late last night, your Honour," said
Jemmy softly.</p>
<p>"Write immediately to the Clerk of the Bolls," said Philip. "Say she must
be lodged on the debtors' side and have patients' diet and every comfort.
My Kate! my Kate!" he kept saying, "it shall not be for long, not for
long, my love, not for long!"</p>
<p>The convalescence was slow and Philip was impatient. "I feel better
to-day, doctor," he would say, "don't you think I may get out of bed?"</p>
<p>"<i>Traa dy liooar</i> (time enough), Deemster," the doctor would answer.
"Let us see what a few more days will do."</p>
<p>"I have a great task before me, doctor," he would say again. "I must begin
immediately."</p>
<p>"You have a life's work before you, Deemster, and you must begin soon, but
not just yet."</p>
<p>"I have something particular to do, doctor," he said at last. "I must lose
no time."</p>
<p>"You must lose no time indeed, that's why you must stay where you are a
little longer."</p>
<p>One morning his impatience overcame him, and he got out of bed. But, being
on his feet, his head reeled, his limbs trembled, he clutched at the
bed-post, and had to clamber back. "Oh God, bear me witness, this delay is
not my fault," he murmured.</p>
<p>Throughout the day he longed for the night, that he might close his eyes
in the darkness and think of Kate. He tried to think of her as she used to
be—bright, happy, winsome, full of joy, of love, of passion,
dangling her feet from the apple-tree, or tripping along the tree-trunk in
the glen, teasing him? tempting him. It was impossible. He could only
think of her in, the gloom of the prison. That filled his mind with
terrors. Sometimes in the dark hours his enfeebled body beset his brain
with fantastic hallucinations. Calling for paper and pens, he would make
show of writing a letter, producing no words or intelligible signs, but
only a mass of scrawls and blotches. This he would fold and refold with
great elaboration, and give to Jem y-Lord with an air of gravity and
mystery, saying in a whisper, "For her!" Thus night brought no solace, and
the dawn found him waiting for the day, that he might open his eyes in the
sunlight and think, "She is better where she is; God will comfort her."</p>
<p>A fortnight went by and he saw nothing of Pete. At length he made a call
on his courage and said, "Auntie, why does Pete never come?"</p>
<p>"He does, dearest. Only when you're asleep, though. He stands there in the
doorway in his stockings. I nod to him and he comes in and looks down at
you. Then he goes away without a word."</p>
<p>"What is he doing now?"</p>
<p>"Going to Douglas a good deal seemingly. Indeed, they're saying—but
then people are so fond of talking."</p>
<p>"What are people saying, Auntie?"</p>
<p>"It's about a divorce, dearest!"</p>
<p>Philip groaned and turned away his face.</p>
<p>He opened his eyes one day from a doze, and saw the plain face of Nancy
Joe, framed in a red print handkerchief. The simple creature was talking
with Auntie Nan, holding council, and making common cause with the dainty
old lady as unmarried women and old maids both of them.</p>
<p>"'Why don't you keep your word true?' says I. 'Wasn't you saying you'd
take her back,' says I, 'whatever she'd done and whatever she was, so help
you God?' says I. 'Isn't she shamed enough already, poor thing, without
you going shaming her more? Have you no bowels at all? Are you only
another of the gutted herrings on a stick?' says I. 'Why don't you keep
your word true?' 'Because,' says he, 'I want to be even with the other
one,' says he, and then away he went wandering down by the tide."</p>
<p>"It's unchristian, Nancy," said Auntie Nan, "but it's human; for although
he forgives the woman, he can hardly be expected to forgive the man, and
he can't punish one without punishing both."</p>
<p>"Much good it'll do to punish either, say I. What for should he put up his
fins now the hook's in his gizzard? But that's the way with the men still.
Talking and talking of love and love; but when trouble is coming, no
better than a churn of sour cream on a thundery day. We're best off that
never had no truck with them—I don't know what you think, Miss
Christian, ma'am. They may talk about having no chances—I don't mind
if they do—do you? I had chance enough once, though—I don't
know what you've had, ma'am. I had one sweetheart, anyway—a sort of
a sweetheart, as you might say; but he was sweeter on the money than on
me. Always asking how much I had got saved in the stocking. And when he
heard I had three new dresses done, 'Nancy,' says he, 'we had better be
putting a sight up on the parzon now, before they're all wore out at
you.'"</p>
<p>The Governor, who was still in London, wrote a letter full of tender
solicitude and graceful compliment. The Clerk of the Rolls had arranged
from the first that two telegrams should be sent to him daily, giving
accounts of Philip's condition. At last the Clerk came in person, and
threw Auntie Nan into tremors of nervousness by his noise and
robustious-ness. He roared as he came along the path, roared himself
through the hall, up the stairs, and into the bedroom, roared again as he
set eyes on Philip, protesting that the sick man was worth five hundred
dead men yet, and vowing with an oath (and a tear trickling down his nose)
that he would like to give "time" to the fools who frightened good people
with bad reports. Then he cleared the room for a private consultation.
"Out you go, Cottier. Look slippy, man!"</p>
<p>Auntie Nan fled in terror. When she had summoned resolution to invade
afresh the place of the bear that had possession of her lamb, the Clerk of
the Rolls was rising from the foot of the bed and saying—</p>
<p>"We'll leave it at that then, Christian. These d———
things <i>will</i> happen; but don't you bother your head about it. I'll
make it all serene. Besides, it's nothing—nothing in a lifetime.
I'll have to send you the summons, though. You needn't trouble about that;
just toss it into the fire."</p>
<p>Philip's head was down, his eyes were on the counterpane, and a faint
tinge of colour overspread his wasted face.</p>
<p>"Ah! you're back, Miss Christian? I must be going, though. Good-bye, old
fellow! Take care of yourself—good men are scarce. Good-bye, Miss
Christian! Good-bye, all! Good-bye, Phil! God bless you!"</p>
<p>With that he went roaring down the stairs, but came thunging up again in a
moment, put his head round the doorpost, and said—</p>
<p>"Lord bless my soul, if I wasn't forgetting an important bit of news—very
important news, too! It hasn't got into the papers yet, but I've had the
official wrinkle. What d'ye think?—the Governor has resigned! True
as gospel. Sent in his resignation to the Home Office the night before
last. I saw it coming. He hasn't been at home since Tynwald. Look sharp
and get better now. Good-bye!"</p>
<p>Philip got up for the first time the day following. The weather was soft
and full of whispers of spring; the window was open and Philip sat with
his face in the direction of the sea. Auntie Nan was knitting by his side
and running on with homely gossip. The familiar and genial talk was
floating over the surface of his mind as a sea-bird floats over the
surface of the sea, sometimes reflected in it, sometimes skimming it,
sometimes dipping into it and being lost.</p>
<p>"Poor Pete! The good woman here thinks he's hard. Perhaps he is; but I'm
sure he is much to be pitied. Ross has behaved badly and deserves all that
can come to him. 'He's the same to me as you are, dear—in blood, I
mean—but somehow I can't be sorry.... Ah! you're too tender-hearted,
Philip, indeed you are. You'd find excuses for anybody. The doctor says
overwork, dearest; but <i>I</i> say the shock of seeing that poor creature
in that awful position. And what a shock you gave me, too! To tell you the
truth, Philip, I thought it was a fate. Never heard of it? No? Never heard
that grandfather fainted on the bench? He did, though, and he didn't
recover either. How well I remember it! Word broke over the town like a
clap of thunder, 'The Deemster has fallen in the Court-house.' Father
heard it up at Ballure and ran down bareheaded. Grandfather's carriage was
at the Courthouse door, and they brought him up to Ballawhaine. I remember
I was coming downstairs when I saw the carriage draw up at the gate. The
next minute your father, with his wild eyes and his bare head, was lifting
something out of the inside. Poor Tom! He had never set foot in the house
since grandfather had driven him out of it. And little did grandfather
think in whose arms he was to travel the last stage of his life's
journey."</p>
<p>Philip had fallen asleep. Jem-y-Lord entered with a letter. It was in a
large envelope and had come by the insular post.</p>
<p>"Shall I open it?" thought Auntie Nan. She had been opening and replying
to Philip's letters during the time of his illness, but this one bore an
official seal, and so she hesitated. "Shall I?" she thought, with the
knitting needle to her lip. "I will. I may save him some worry."</p>
<p>She fixed her glasses and drew out the letter. It was a summons from the
Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice—a petition for
divorce. The petitioner's name was Peter Quilliam; the respondent——,
the co respondent——.</p>
<p>As Philip awoke from his doze, with the salt breath of the sea in his
nostrils and the songs of spring in his ears, Auntie Nan was fumbling with
the paper to get it back into the envelope. Her hands trembled, and when
she spoke her voice quivered. Philip saw in a moment what had happened.
She had stumbled into the pit where the secret of his life lay buried.</p>
<p>The doctor came in at that instant. He looked attentively at Auntie Nan,
and said significantly, "You have been nursing too long, Miss Christian,
you must go home for a while."</p>
<p>"I will go home at once," she faltered, in a feeble inward voice.</p>
<p>Philip's head was on his breast. Such was the first step on the Calvary he
intended to ascend. O God, help him! God support him! God bear up his
sinking feet that he might not fall from weakness, or fear, or shame.</p>
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