The most 'spectable mother as
ever--'
'Buried!' I said, 'who buried her?'
'Who buried her? Why the parish, in course.'
Despair then again seemed to send a torrent of ice-water through my
veins. But after a time the passionate desire to see her body leapt
up within my heart.
At this moment Wilderspin, who had evidently followed me with
remarkable expedition, came upstairs and stood by my side.
'I must go and see the grave,' I said to him. 'I must see her face
once more. I must petition the Home Secretary. Nothing can and
nothing shall prevent my seeing her--no, not if I have to dig down to
her with my nails.'
'An' who the dickens are you as takes on so about my darter?' said
the woman, holding the candle to my face.
'Drunken brute!' said I. 'Where is she buried?'
'Well, I'm sure!' said the woman in a mincing, sarcastic voice. 'How
werry unperlite you is all at wonst! how werry rude you speaks to
such a werry 'spectable party as I am! You seem to forgit who I am.
Ain't I the goddess as likes to 'ave 'er little joke, an' likes to
wet both eyes, and as plays sich larks with her flummeringeroes and
drumming-dairies an' ring-tailed monkeys an' men?'
When I saw the creature whip up the quilt from the mattress, and,
holding it over her head like a veil, leer hideously in imitation of
Cyril's caricature, a shudder went again through my frame--a strange
kind of dementia came upon me; my soul again seemed to leave my
body--seemed to be lifted through the air and beyond the stars,
crying, in agony, 'Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath
not done it?' Yet all the while, though my soul seemed fleeing
through infinite space, where a pitiless universe was waltzing madly
round a ball of cruel fire--all the while I was acutely conscious of
looking down upon the dreadful dream-world below, looking down into a
frightful garret where a dialogue between two dream-figures was going
on--a dialogue between Wilderspin and the woman, each word of which
struck upon my ears like a sharp-edged flint, though it seemed
millions of miles away.
Pages:
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545