第63章 A FEW CRUSTED CHARACTERS(8)

"Thank you,James,"she said."How cold Olive must be in that thin jacket!"'He said he was thinking so too."Well,they are sure to be quite close at hand by this time,though we can't see 'em.The boats are not all in yet.Some of the rowers are fond of paddling along the shore to finish out their hour of hiring.""Shall we walk by the edge of the water,"said she,"to see if we can discover them?"'He assented,reminding her that they must not lose sight of the seat,lest the belated pair should return and miss them,and be vexed that they had not kept the appointment.

'They walked a sentry beat up and down the sands immediately opposite the seat;and still the others did not come.James Hardcome at last went to the boatman,thinking that after all his wife and cousin might have come in under shadow of the dusk without being perceived,and might have forgotten the appointment at the bench.

"All in?"asked James.

"All but one boat,"said the lessor."I can't think where that couple is keeping to.They might run foul of something or other in the dark."'Again Stephen's wife and Olive's husband waited,with more and more anxiety.But no little yellow boat returned.Was it possible they could have landed further down the Esplanade?

"It may have been done to escape paying,"said the boat-owner."But they didn't look like people who would do that."'James Hardcome knew that he could found no hope on such a reason as that.But now,remembering what had been casually discussed between Steve and himself about their wives from time to time,he admitted for the first time the possibility that their old tenderness had been revived by their face-to-face position more strongly than either had anticipated at starting--the excursion having been so obviously undertaken for the pleasure of the performance only,--and that they had landed at some steps he knew of further down toward the pier,to be longer alone together.

'Still he disliked to harbour the thought,and would not mention its existence to his companion.He merely said to her,"Let us walk further on."'They did so,and lingered between the boat-stage and the pier till Stephen Hardcome's wife was uneasy,and was obliged to accept James's offered arm.Thus the night advanced.Emily was presently so worn out by fatigue that James felt it necessary to conduct her home;there was,too,a remote chance that the truants had landed in the harbour on the other side of the town,or elsewhere,and hastened home in some unexpected way,in the belief that their consorts would not have waited so long.

'However,he left a direction in the town that a lookout should be kept,though this was arranged privately,the bare possibility of an elopement being enough to make him reticent;and,full of misgivings,the two remaining ones hastened to catch the last train out of Budmouth-Regis;and when they got to Casterbridge drove back to Upper Longpuddle.'

'Along this very road as we do now,'remarked the parish clerk.

'To be sure--along this very road,'said the curate.'However,Stephen and Olive were not at their homes;neither had entered the village since leaving it in the morning.Emily and James Hardcome went to their respective dwellings to snatch a hasty night's rest,and at daylight the next morning they drove again to Casterbridge and entered the Budmouth train,the line being just opened.

'Nothing had been heard of the couple there during this brief absence.In the course of a few hours some young men testified to having seen such a man and woman rowing in a frail hired craft,the head of the boat kept straight to sea;they had sat looking in each other's faces as if they were in a dream,with no consciousness of what they were doing,or whither they were steering.It was not till late that day that more tidings reached James's ears.The boat had been found drifting bottom upward a long way from land.In the evening the sea rose somewhat,and a cry spread through the town that two bodies were cast ashore in Lullstead Bay,several miles to the eastward.They were brought to Budmouth,and inspection revealed them to be the missing pair.It was said that they had been found tightly locked in each other's arms,his lips upon hers,their features still wrapt in the same calm and dream-like repose which had been observed in their demeanour as they had glided along.

'Neither James nor Emily questioned the original motives of the unfortunate man and woman in putting to sea.They were both above suspicion as to intention.Whatever their mutual feelings might have led them on to,underhand behaviour was foreign to the nature of either.Conjecture pictured that they might have fallen into tender reverie while gazing each into a pair of eyes that had formerly flashed for him and her alone,and,unwilling to avow what their mutual sentiments were,they had continued thus,oblivious of time and space,till darkness suddenly overtook them far from land.But nothing was truly known.It had been their destiny to die thus.The two halves,intended by Nature to make the perfect whole,had failed in that result during their lives,though "in their death they were not divided."Their bodies were brought home,and buried on one day.

I remember that,on looking round the churchyard while reading the service,I observed nearly all the parish at their funeral.'

'It was so,sir,'said the clerk.