第58章 CHAPTER XII(2)

So one of the Almighty's most delicate and beautiful creations was sacrificed without fulfilling the law,yet none of its species ever served so glorious a cause,for at last Mrs.Comstock's inner vision had cleared.She went through the cabin mechanically.Every few minutes she glanced toward the back walk to see if Elnora were coming.She knew arrangements had been made with Margaret to go to the city some time that day,so she grew more nervous and uneasy every moment.She was haunted by the fear that the blow might discolour Elnora's cheek;that she would tell Margaret.She went down the back walk,looking intently in all directions,left the garden and followed the swamp path.Her step was noiseless on the soft,black earth,and soon she came close enough to see Elnora.Mrs.Comstock stood looking at the girl in troubled uncertainty.Not knowing what to say,at last she turned and went back to the cabin.

Noon came and she prepared dinner,calling,as she always did,when Elnora was in the garden,but she got no response,and the girl did not come.A little after one o'clock Margaret stopped at the gate.

"Elnora has changed her mind.She is not going,"called Mrs.Comstock.

She felt that she hated Margaret as she hitched her horse and came up the walk instead of driving on.

"You must be mistaken,"said Margaret."I was going on purpose for her.She asked me to take her.

I had no errand.Where is she?"

"I will call her,"said Mrs.Comstock.

She followed the path again,and this time found Elnora sitting on the log.Her face was swollen and discoloured,and her eyes red with crying.She paid no attention to her mother.

"Mag Sinton is here,"said Mrs.Comstock harshly.

"I told her you had changed your mind,but she said you asked her to go with you,and she had nothing to go for herself."Elnora arose,recklessly waded through the deep swamp grasses and so reached the path ahead of her mother.

Mrs.Comstock followed as far as the garden,but she could not enter the cabin.She busied herself among the vegetables,barely looking up when the back-door screen slammed noisily.Margaret Sinton approached colourless,her eyes so angry that Mrs.Comstock shrank back.

"What's the matter with Elnora's face?"demanded Margaret.

Mrs.Comstock made no reply.

"You struck her,did you?"

"I thought you wasn't blind!"

"I have been,for twenty long years now,Kate Comstock,"said Margaret Sinton,"but my eyes are open at last.

What I see is that I've done you no good and Elnora a big wrong.I had an idea that it would kill you to know,but I guess you are tough enough to stand anything.

Kill or cure,you get it now!"

"What are you frothing about?"coolly asked Mrs.Comstock.

"You!"cried Margaret."You!The woman who doesn't pretend to love her only child.Who lets her grow to a woman,as you have let Elnora,and can't be satisfied with every sort of neglect,but must add abuse yet;and all for a fool idea about a man who wasn't worth his salt!"Mrs.Comstock picked up a hoe.

"Go right on!"she said."Empty yourself.It's the last thing you'll ever do!""Then I'll make a tidy job of it,"said Margaret.

"You'll not touch me.You'll stand there and hear the truth at last,and because I dare face you and tell it,you will know in your soul it is truth.When Robert Comstock shaved that quagmire out there so close he went in,he wanted to keep you from knowing where he was coming from.He'd been to see Elvira Carney.

They had plans to go to a dance that night----""Close your lips!"said Mrs.Comstock in a voice of deadly quiet.

"You know I wouldn't dare open them if I wasn't telling you the truth.I can prove what I say.I was coming from Reeds.It was hot in the woods and Istopped at Carney's as I passed for a drink.

Elvira's bedridden old mother heard me,and she was so crazy for some one to talk with,I stepped in a minute.

I saw Robert come down the path.Elvira saw him,too,so she ran out of the house to head him off.It looked funny,and I just deliberately moved where I could see and hear.

He brought her his violin,and told her to get ready and meet him in the woods with it that night,and they would go to a dance.She took it and hid it in the loft to the well-house and promised she'd go.""Are you done?"demanded Mrs.Comstock.

"No.I am going to tell you the whole story.You don't spare Elnora anything.I shan't spare you.I hadn't been here that day,but I can tell you just how he was dressed,which way he went and every word they said,though they thought I was busy with her mother and wouldn't notice them.Put down your hoe,Kate.

I went to Elvira,told her what I knew and made her give me Comstock's violin for Elnora over three years ago.

She's been playing it ever since.I won't see her slighted and abused another day on account of a man who would have broken your heart if he had lived.

Six months more would have showed you what everybody else knew.He was one of those men who couldn't trust himself,and so no woman was safe with him.Now,will you drop grieving over him,and do Elnora justice?"Mrs.Comstock grasped the hoe tighter and turning she went down the walk,and started across the woods to the home of Elvira Carney.With averted head she passed the pool,steadily pursuing her way.Elvira Carney,hanging towels across the back fence,saw her coming and went toward the gate to meet her.Twenty years she had dreaded that visit.Since Margaret Sinton had compelled her to produce the violin she had hidden so long,because she was afraid to destroy it,she had come closer expectation than dread.The wages of sin are the hardest debts on earth to pay,and they are always collected at inconvenient times and unexpected places.

Mrs.Comstock's face and hair were so white,that her dark eyes seemed burned into their setting.Silently she stared at the woman before her a long time.

"I might have saved myself the trouble of coming,"she said at last,"I see you are guilty as sin!""What has Mag Sinton been telling you?"panted the miserable woman,gripping the fence.

"The truth!"answered Mrs.Comstock succinctly.