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The Adventures of Miss Gregory. Gibbon Perceval
Читать онлайн.Название The Adventures of Miss Gregory
Год выпуска 0
isbn 4064066401634
Автор произведения Gibbon Perceval
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
"The Englishwoman came to me as I came up from the water.
" 'We must find a ford,' she said. 'You go that way and I will go this. It is the only thing. But what will he do if we don't find one?'
" 'Walk on the water, perhaps,' I answered. 'But this time I will not follow him.'
" 'I will,' she replied, looking at me strangely. I do not know what was in her mind. We went our ways to look for the drift, she down stream, I up.
"I did not find one. I went perhaps a mile. I was very weary, and I had small hopes. When I had gone so far, I took my occasion to sit down for a while. I would have rested longer, but I found it too hard to keep awake. So presently I went back. There was the Padre half-way down the bank, and no Mees Gregory. I called out to him.
"'Reverendo,' I called, 'it is deep. You saw me sound it with the bamboo.'
"He looked up at me, smiling a little with a serious face.
" 'I cannot wait,' he said gently. 'There is my errand. To-day I must be in Tete,' and he moved yet further down the bank.
" 'You will be drowned!' I cried. 'As sure as water is wet, you will be drowned and eaten by crocodiles. And I shall be abandoned in this wilderness.'
" 'Come after me, then,' he said, quite seriously.
"I fell on my knees on the parched grass and watched him. Here, again, he did not hesitate. He had the air of a man to whom a charge is given,, who spares thought for nothing else. He went into the hungry water with a calm, grave face, slipping from the bank to its unseen depths with scarce a splash. Ai! How one is palsied at such a time! One can only look, and look, and look. The great stream shut above him like lips that close over a mouthful, and it was tranquil again, and he was gone.
Then, ten yards down stream, his face came up; it emerged for a moment, with the water washing over it, and it was the same—the same, composed, rapt, looking up. His hands made weak movements; he could swim no more than a hen, and he went under again, a bundle of clothes and limbs which the stream bore along unheeding. Again he came up, further away, and too far for my blurred eyes to mark him; and then there was a space, during which I saw nothing, till your Mees Gregory shook me by the shoulder.
" 'There is a drift,' she said, 'a good one. Where is the Padre?'
" 'He is gone,' I said. 'He would not wait.' And I pointed her to the stream.
"She was insistent. Now that the thing was done, I wished to lie down and be still for a day and a night or so; but she would have an account from me. And when I answered her shortly, she struck me a most surprising blow with her open hand. Even the noise I made was surprising. So I told her all, as I am telling you.
" 'You are sure he was drowned?' she persisted. 'He could not swim at all?'
"My assurances could not satisfy her. I told her again and again that he was drowned, finished, ended, dead; but still she stared across the stream and made exclamations to herself. The day advanced, and the sun climbed into the world again.
" 'And yet,' she said, 'there was his errand. I would have followed him; I would have taken the chance.'
" 'You are saved from that, at least,' I told her.
"She looked at me in a strange way, as if astonished that I should be sensible and clear in my head. 1 believe she was in some degree moved and infected by that great air of inspiration which the Padre had shown her. Women are often accessible to such matters, even old women like her, as tough as a sjambok [cowhide]. But when she turned away from me, with a little shrug of impatience, she startled me with a shout.
" 'What is it?' I cried, in quick alarm.
"Her finger pointed, and my eyes went with it. On the further bank of the stream stood the Padre himself. He was waving to us with his arm, and his thin clothes were close about his body with wetness. He called something, but his words did not reach us.
"I made an interjection of amaze. 'And I saw him drown,' I added, for I was certain of it yet.
"Mees Gregory turned on me with a movement like a swoop, so that I stepped back from her. 'Dog!' she said, spitting the curt word at me. 'You have eyes and you see not. You will never see anything but the mud you were made of. Come to the drift!'
"I did not understand it, and 1 have not yet understood. I suppose she had some matter in her. Those people are furnished with thoughts as a mimosa is with thorns, and are not less awkward to go in close company with. She led the way across the river, and we rejoined the Padre after a chase of an hour, for he had not waited for us.
"Well, thanks be, that was the end of the miracles. The rest was walking like dogs through the day, till Tete came up in our path, and I was too far gone in fatigue even to be glad of it. I tell you, there is but a dull remembrance that stays with me of our coming in at the gate there and seeing you girls about the door of the house. I saw the Padre enter, but by that time I was on my back in the shade, and slumber pinned me down like an assassin. It was you that took the Padre in, eh?"
"Yes," replied Anna. "But I was bidden go forth from the room at once, and Mees Gregory was waiting in the hallway without, so I could hear nothing."
"But they knew each other?" persisted Timotheo.
Anna shrugged; her plump, bare shoulders rose and fell in the light from the door.
"Who shall say?" she answered. "Our Doña Fortuna was very weak. Only her face looked out from the bed, with veiled eyes under those thick lashes of hers. All expectancy was gone; it was a face that had been wiped clear like a window-pane. The Padre stood in the middle of the room. He is a very tall man; he looked down at her as if from a great distance.
" 'Jaime,' she said once, feebly; and he answered nothing. 'Padre,' she said then, after a moment.
" 'My daughter,' he answered, and nodded me to go forth. He held the door while I went, with his hand high up on it, so that I passed under his arm. Then it closed behind me.
"Mees Gregory was without. She took me by the arm very agreeably and drew me near to her. 'My child,' she said in a soft voice, 'I should like a wash.' "
"And then Doña Fortuna died," said Timotheo. "She cannot say we did not take trouble over her. Well, to-morrow we go back to our own place—by river this time."
"And that is the end of miracles, happily," suggested Anna.
Timotheo was stiffly uncoiling his legs preparatory to rising.
"Pooh!" he said. "Your Doña Fortuna was neither here nor there. Send him news of a dying Kaffir fifty miles away and he can always manage a miracle or so. Do I not know it, to my cost?"
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