第92章

He mused on her letters to him,in which she had never mentioned a syllable concerning Knight.It is desirable,however,to observe that only in two letters could she possibly have done so.One was written about a week before Knights arrival,when,though she did not mention his promised coming to Stephen,she had hardly a definite reason in her mind for neglecting to do it.In the next she did casually allude to Knight.But Stephen had left Bombay long before that letter arrived.

Stephen looked at the black form of the adjacent house,where it cut a dark polygonal notch out of the sky,and felt that he hated the spot.He did not know many facts of the case,but could not help instinctively associating Elfrides fickleness with the marriage of her father,and their introduction to London society.

He closed the iron gate bounding the shrubbery as noiselessly as he had opened it,and went into the grassy field.Here he could see the old vicarage,the house alone that was associated with the sweet pleasant time of his incipient love for Elfride.Turning sadly from the place that was no longer a nook in which his thoughts might nestle when he was far away,he wandered in the direction of the east village,to reach his fathers house before they retired to rest.

The nearest way to the cottage was by crossing the park.He did not hurry.Happiness frequently has reason for haste,but it is seldom that desolation need scramble or strain.Sometimes he paused under the low-hanging arms of the trees,looking vacantly on the ground.

Stephen was standing thus,scarcely less crippled in thought than he was blank in vision,when a clear sound permeated the quiet air about him,and spread on far beyond.The sound was the stroke of a bell from the tower of East Endelstow Church,which stood in a dell not forty yards from Lord Luxellians mansion,and within the park enclosure.Another stroke greeted his ear,and gave character to both:then came a slow succession of them.

Somebody is dead,he said aloud.

The death-knell of an inhabitant of the eastern parish was being tolled.

An unusual feature in the tolling was that it had not been begun according to the custom in Endelstow and other parishes in the neighbourhood.At every death the sex and age of the deceased were announced by a system of changes.Three times three strokes signified that the departed one was a man;three times two,a woman;twice three,a boy;twice two,a girl.The regular continuity of the tolling suggested that it was the resumption rather than the beginning of a knell--the opening portion of which Stephen had not been near enough to hear.

The momentary anxiety he had felt with regard to his parents passed away.He had left them in perfect health,and had any serious illness seized either,a communication would have reached him ere this.At the same time,since his way homeward lay under the churchyard yews,he resolved to look into the belfry in passing by,and speak a word to Martin Cannister,who would be there.

Stephen reached the brow of the hill,and felt inclined to renounce his idea.His mood was such that talking to any person to whom he could not unburden himself would be wearisome.

However,before he could put any inclination into effect,the young man saw from amid the trees a bright light shining,the rays from which radiated like needles through the sad plumy foliage of the yews.Its direction was from the centre of the churchyard.

Stephen mechanically went forward.Never could there be a greater contrast between two places of like purpose than between this graveyard and that of the further village.Here the grass was carefully tended,and formed virtually a part of the manor-house lawn;flowers and shrubs being planted indiscriminately over both,whilst the few graves visible were mathematically exact in shape and smoothness,appearing in the daytime like chins newly shaven.

There was no wall,the division between Gods Acre and Lord Luxellians being marked only by a few square stones set at equidistant points.Among those persons who have romantic sentiments on the subject of their last dwelling-place,probably the greater number would have chosen such a spot as this in preference to any other:a few would have fancied a constraint in its trim neatness,and would have preferred the wild hill-top of the neighbouring site,with Nature in her most negligent attire.

The light in the churchyard he next discovered to have its source in a point very near the ground,and Stephen imagined it might come from a lantern in the interior of a partly-dug grave.But a nearer approach showed him that its position was immediately under the wall of the aisle,and within the mouth of an archway.He could now hear voices,and the truth of the whole matter began to dawn upon him.Walking on towards the opening,Smith discerned on his left hand a heap of earth,and before him a flight of stone steps which the removed earth had uncovered,leading down under the edifice.It was the entrance to a large family vault,extending under the north aisle.

Stephen had never before seen it open,and descending one or two steps stooped to look under the arch.The vault appeared to be crowded with coffins,with the exception of an open central space,which had been necessarily kept free for ingress and access to the sides,round three of which the coffins were stacked in stone bins or niches.

The place was well lighted with candles stuck in slips of wood that were fastened to the wall.On making the descent of another step the living inhabitants of the vault were recognizable.They were his father the master-mason,an under-mason,Martin Cannister,and two or three young and old labouring-men.Crowbars and workmens hammers were scattered about.The whole company,sitting round on coffins which had been removed from their places,apparently for some alteration or enlargement of the vault,were eating bread and cheese,and drinking ale from a cup with two handles,passed round from each to each.

Who is dead?Stephen inquired,stepping down.