-
Articles/Ads
Article CHAPTER II. ← Page 2 of 3 Article CHAPTER II. Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chapter Ii.
had sprung up . Peter had more than once declared his purpose of leaving * all that he possessed to the young man , and John had never doubted his word . But , in return for all thia future wealth , it was expected , not only thafc the lad should he his slave , but that the lad , grown into a man , should remain so
as long as Peter might live . As Peter was likely to live for the next twenty years , and as the slavery was hard to bear , John had quarrelled with his kinsman , and had gone away to the diggings . Now , it seemed , the quarrel had been arranged , and John was to come back to Warriwa . That some one was needed
to ride round among the four or five shepherds , —some one beyond Peter himself , —some one to overlook the shearing , some one to attend to the young lambs , some one to see that the
water-holes did not run dry , had become manifest even to Kate herself . It had leaked out from Peter ' s dry mouth that some one must come , and now she was told that John Carmichael would return to his old home .
Though she hated her husband , Kate knew what was due to him . Hating him as she had learned to do , hating him as she acknowledged to herself that she did , still she had endeavoured to do her duty by him . She could not smile upon him , she could not even speak to him with a kind voice ; bufc she could
make his bed , and iron his shirts , and cook his dinner , and see that the things confided to her charge were not destroyed by the old woman or the idiot boy . Perhaps he got from her all he wanted to get . He did not complain that her voice was not loving . He was harsh , odious in his ways with her , sometimes
almost violent ; but it may be doubted whether he would have been less so had she attempted to turn him by any show of false affection . She had learned to feel that if she served him see did for him all that he required , and that duty demanded no more . But now ! would not duty demand more from her now ?
Since she had been brought home to Warriwa , she had given herself up freely to her thoughts , telling herself boldly that she hated her husband , and that she loved that other man . She told herself , also , that there was no breach of duty in this . She would never again see thafc other man . He had crossed her
path and had gone . There was nothing for her left in the world , except her husband Peter and Warriwa . As for her hating the one man , not to do that would be impossible . As for loving the other man , there was nothing in it but a dream . Her thoughts were her own , and therefore she went on loving him .
She had no other food for her thoughts , except the hope that death mig ht come to her ; and some vague idea that thafc last black , fast-running river , over which she had been ferried in the dark , might perhaps be within her reach , should death be too
long in coining of its own accord . With such thoughts running across her brain , there was , she thought , no harm in loving John Carmichael , —till now , when she was told that John was to be brought tliere to live under the same roof with her . Now there must be harm in it ! Now there would be crime
in loving him ' . And yet she knew thafc she could nofc cease to love hira because he should be there , meeting * her eye every day . How comely he was , with that soft brown hair of his , and the broad , open brow , and the smile that would curl round his lips ! How near they had once been to swearing that they would be
each all things to the other ! " Kate ! he had said , " Kate ! " as she had stood close to him , fastening a button to his shirt . Her finger had trembled against his neck , and she knew that he had felt the quiver . The children had come upon them at the moment , and no other word had been said . Then Peter had
come there , —Peter who was to be her husband , —and after that John Carmichael had spoken no word at all to her . Though he had been so near loving her while her finger had touched him in its trembling , all that had passed away when Peter came . But it had not passed away from her heart , nor would she be
able to stifle it when he should be there , sitting daily at the same board with her . Though the man himself was so odious , there was something sacred to her in the name of husband , —
something very sacred to her in the name of wife . " Why should he be coming ? " she said to her husband the day after the announcement had been made to her , when twenty-four hours i ' or thinking had been allowed to her .
" Because it suits , he said , looking up afc her from the columns of a dirty account-book , in which ho was slowly entering figures . What could she say to him that might be of avail ? How
much could sho say to him ? Should she tell him everything , and then let him do as he pleased ? It was in hor mind to do s > , but she could not bring herself to speak the words . He would have thought ! Oh ! what might he not have
thought ! There was no dealing in fan * words with one so suspicious , so unmanlj-, so inhuman . " It won't suit , " she said , sullenly . " "Wh y not ? what have you got to do with it ? " " It won ' t suit ; he and I will be sure to , —suro to , —sure to have words , "
Chapter Ii.
" Then you must have ' em . Ain't he my cousin ? Do you expect me to be riding round among them lying , lazy varmints every day of mjr Hfe , while you sit at home twiddling your thumbs ? " Here she knew that allusion was made both to the sheep and to the shepherds . " If anything happens to me , who
do you think is to have it all after me ? " One day at Hokitika he had told her coarsely that it was a good thing for a young * woman to marry an old man , because she would be sure to get everything * when he was dead . "I suppose that's why you don't like John , " he added , with a sneer .
"I do like him , " she said , with a clear , loud voice ; "I do like him . " Then he leered round at her , shaking his head at her , as though declaring that he was nofc to bo taken in by her devices , and after that he went on with his figures . Before the end of November John arrived . Something at
any rate , she could do for his comfort . "Wherever she got them , there , when he came , were the bod and bedstead for his use . Afc firsfc she asked simply after her brothers . They had been tempted to go off to other diggings in New South Wales , and he had not thought well to follow them . " Sheep is better nor gold , Jack , " said Peter , shaking his head and leering .
She tried te be very silent with him ;—bnfc she succeeded so far that her very silence made him communicative . In her former intercourse she had always talked the most , —a lass of that age having always more to say for herself than a lad . But now he seemed to struggle to find chance opportunities . As a
rule he was always out early in the morning on horseback , aud never home till Peter was tliere also . But opportunities would , of course , be forthcoming . Nor would itbc wise that she should let him feel that she avoided them . It was not onl y necessary
that Peter should not suspect , but that John too should be kept in the dark . Indeed , it might be well that Peter should suspect a little . But if he were to suspect , —that other he , —and then he were to speak out , how should she answer him ?
"Kate , " he said to her one day , "do you ever think of Hokitika ? "
"Think , indeed!—of the place where father and mother lie . " " But of the time when you and I used to fight it out for them ? I used not to think in those days , Kate , that you would ever be over here , —mistress of Warriwa . " " No , indeed , nobody would havo thought it . " "Bufc Kate "
It was clearly necessary that she should put an end to these reminiscences , difficult as it might be to do so . " John , " she said , " I think you'd better make a change . " " What change ? "
She struggled nofc to bltish as she answered him , and she succeeded . " I was a girl in those days , but now I ' m a married woman . You had better not call me Kate any more . " "Why ? what's the harm ?"
" Harm ! no , there s no harm ; but it isn t the proper thing when a young woman's married , unless he be her brother , or her cousin at the furthest ; you don't call me by my name before him . " "Didn't I ?"
" No , you call me nothing at all . What you do before him , you must do behind his back . " "And we were such friends ! " But as she could not stand
this , she left the room , and did not come back from the kitchen till Peter had returned . So a month went on , and still thero was the word Kate sounding in her ears whenever the old man ' s back was turned . Aud it sounded now as it sounded on that one day when her
finger was trembling at his throat . Why not give way to the sound ? Why not ill-treat the man who had so foully ill-treated her ? What did she owe to him but her misery ? What had he done for her but make a slave of her ? And why should she , living there in the wild prairie , beyond the ken of other women ,
allow herself to be trammelled by the laws which the world had laid down for her sex ? To other women the world made some return for true obedience . The love of one man , the strong protecting arm of one true friend , tlie consciousness of having one to buckler her against the world , one on whom she might
hang with trust ! This was what other women have m return for truth;—hut was any of this given to her when he would turn round and leer at her , reminding her by his leer that he had caught her , and made a slave of hor ? And then there was this young man , sweeter to her now than ever , and dearer !
As she thought of all this she came suddenly—m a momentto a resolution , striking her hand violently on the table as she did so . She must tell her husband everything . Sho must do that , or else she mnsfc become a false wife . As she thought of
that possibility of being false , an ecstasy of sweetness for a moment pervaded her senses . To throw herself on his bosom and tell him that sho loved him would be compensation almost sufficient to the misery of the last twelve months . Then , the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chapter Ii.
had sprung up . Peter had more than once declared his purpose of leaving * all that he possessed to the young man , and John had never doubted his word . But , in return for all thia future wealth , it was expected , not only thafc the lad should he his slave , but that the lad , grown into a man , should remain so
as long as Peter might live . As Peter was likely to live for the next twenty years , and as the slavery was hard to bear , John had quarrelled with his kinsman , and had gone away to the diggings . Now , it seemed , the quarrel had been arranged , and John was to come back to Warriwa . That some one was needed
to ride round among the four or five shepherds , —some one beyond Peter himself , —some one to overlook the shearing , some one to attend to the young lambs , some one to see that the
water-holes did not run dry , had become manifest even to Kate herself . It had leaked out from Peter ' s dry mouth that some one must come , and now she was told that John Carmichael would return to his old home .
Though she hated her husband , Kate knew what was due to him . Hating him as she had learned to do , hating him as she acknowledged to herself that she did , still she had endeavoured to do her duty by him . She could not smile upon him , she could not even speak to him with a kind voice ; bufc she could
make his bed , and iron his shirts , and cook his dinner , and see that the things confided to her charge were not destroyed by the old woman or the idiot boy . Perhaps he got from her all he wanted to get . He did not complain that her voice was not loving . He was harsh , odious in his ways with her , sometimes
almost violent ; but it may be doubted whether he would have been less so had she attempted to turn him by any show of false affection . She had learned to feel that if she served him see did for him all that he required , and that duty demanded no more . But now ! would not duty demand more from her now ?
Since she had been brought home to Warriwa , she had given herself up freely to her thoughts , telling herself boldly that she hated her husband , and that she loved that other man . She told herself , also , that there was no breach of duty in this . She would never again see thafc other man . He had crossed her
path and had gone . There was nothing for her left in the world , except her husband Peter and Warriwa . As for her hating the one man , not to do that would be impossible . As for loving the other man , there was nothing in it but a dream . Her thoughts were her own , and therefore she went on loving him .
She had no other food for her thoughts , except the hope that death mig ht come to her ; and some vague idea that thafc last black , fast-running river , over which she had been ferried in the dark , might perhaps be within her reach , should death be too
long in coining of its own accord . With such thoughts running across her brain , there was , she thought , no harm in loving John Carmichael , —till now , when she was told that John was to be brought tliere to live under the same roof with her . Now there must be harm in it ! Now there would be crime
in loving him ' . And yet she knew thafc she could nofc cease to love hira because he should be there , meeting * her eye every day . How comely he was , with that soft brown hair of his , and the broad , open brow , and the smile that would curl round his lips ! How near they had once been to swearing that they would be
each all things to the other ! " Kate ! he had said , " Kate ! " as she had stood close to him , fastening a button to his shirt . Her finger had trembled against his neck , and she knew that he had felt the quiver . The children had come upon them at the moment , and no other word had been said . Then Peter had
come there , —Peter who was to be her husband , —and after that John Carmichael had spoken no word at all to her . Though he had been so near loving her while her finger had touched him in its trembling , all that had passed away when Peter came . But it had not passed away from her heart , nor would she be
able to stifle it when he should be there , sitting daily at the same board with her . Though the man himself was so odious , there was something sacred to her in the name of husband , —
something very sacred to her in the name of wife . " Why should he be coming ? " she said to her husband the day after the announcement had been made to her , when twenty-four hours i ' or thinking had been allowed to her .
" Because it suits , he said , looking up afc her from the columns of a dirty account-book , in which ho was slowly entering figures . What could she say to him that might be of avail ? How
much could sho say to him ? Should she tell him everything , and then let him do as he pleased ? It was in hor mind to do s > , but she could not bring herself to speak the words . He would have thought ! Oh ! what might he not have
thought ! There was no dealing in fan * words with one so suspicious , so unmanlj-, so inhuman . " It won't suit , " she said , sullenly . " "Wh y not ? what have you got to do with it ? " " It won ' t suit ; he and I will be sure to , —suro to , —sure to have words , "
Chapter Ii.
" Then you must have ' em . Ain't he my cousin ? Do you expect me to be riding round among them lying , lazy varmints every day of mjr Hfe , while you sit at home twiddling your thumbs ? " Here she knew that allusion was made both to the sheep and to the shepherds . " If anything happens to me , who
do you think is to have it all after me ? " One day at Hokitika he had told her coarsely that it was a good thing for a young * woman to marry an old man , because she would be sure to get everything * when he was dead . "I suppose that's why you don't like John , " he added , with a sneer .
"I do like him , " she said , with a clear , loud voice ; "I do like him . " Then he leered round at her , shaking his head at her , as though declaring that he was nofc to bo taken in by her devices , and after that he went on with his figures . Before the end of November John arrived . Something at
any rate , she could do for his comfort . "Wherever she got them , there , when he came , were the bod and bedstead for his use . Afc firsfc she asked simply after her brothers . They had been tempted to go off to other diggings in New South Wales , and he had not thought well to follow them . " Sheep is better nor gold , Jack , " said Peter , shaking his head and leering .
She tried te be very silent with him ;—bnfc she succeeded so far that her very silence made him communicative . In her former intercourse she had always talked the most , —a lass of that age having always more to say for herself than a lad . But now he seemed to struggle to find chance opportunities . As a
rule he was always out early in the morning on horseback , aud never home till Peter was tliere also . But opportunities would , of course , be forthcoming . Nor would itbc wise that she should let him feel that she avoided them . It was not onl y necessary
that Peter should not suspect , but that John too should be kept in the dark . Indeed , it might be well that Peter should suspect a little . But if he were to suspect , —that other he , —and then he were to speak out , how should she answer him ?
"Kate , " he said to her one day , "do you ever think of Hokitika ? "
"Think , indeed!—of the place where father and mother lie . " " But of the time when you and I used to fight it out for them ? I used not to think in those days , Kate , that you would ever be over here , —mistress of Warriwa . " " No , indeed , nobody would havo thought it . " "Bufc Kate "
It was clearly necessary that she should put an end to these reminiscences , difficult as it might be to do so . " John , " she said , " I think you'd better make a change . " " What change ? "
She struggled nofc to bltish as she answered him , and she succeeded . " I was a girl in those days , but now I ' m a married woman . You had better not call me Kate any more . " "Why ? what's the harm ?"
" Harm ! no , there s no harm ; but it isn t the proper thing when a young woman's married , unless he be her brother , or her cousin at the furthest ; you don't call me by my name before him . " "Didn't I ?"
" No , you call me nothing at all . What you do before him , you must do behind his back . " "And we were such friends ! " But as she could not stand
this , she left the room , and did not come back from the kitchen till Peter had returned . So a month went on , and still thero was the word Kate sounding in her ears whenever the old man ' s back was turned . Aud it sounded now as it sounded on that one day when her
finger was trembling at his throat . Why not give way to the sound ? Why not ill-treat the man who had so foully ill-treated her ? What did she owe to him but her misery ? What had he done for her but make a slave of her ? And why should she , living there in the wild prairie , beyond the ken of other women ,
allow herself to be trammelled by the laws which the world had laid down for her sex ? To other women the world made some return for true obedience . The love of one man , the strong protecting arm of one true friend , tlie consciousness of having one to buckler her against the world , one on whom she might
hang with trust ! This was what other women have m return for truth;—hut was any of this given to her when he would turn round and leer at her , reminding her by his leer that he had caught her , and made a slave of hor ? And then there was this young man , sweeter to her now than ever , and dearer !
As she thought of all this she came suddenly—m a momentto a resolution , striking her hand violently on the table as she did so . She must tell her husband everything . Sho must do that , or else she mnsfc become a false wife . As she thought of
that possibility of being false , an ecstasy of sweetness for a moment pervaded her senses . To throw herself on his bosom and tell him that sho loved him would be compensation almost sufficient to the misery of the last twelve months . Then , the