CHAPTER XIV

END OF A SIMPLE SOUL

The next morning, at half-past seven, Anna was standing in the garden-doorway of the Priory. The sun had just risen, the air was cold; roof and pavement were damp; rain had fallen, and more was to fall. A door opened higher up the street, and Willie Price came out, carrying a small bag. He turned to speak to some person within the house, and then stepped forward. As he passed Anna she sprang forth.

'Oh!' she cried, 'I had just come up here to see if the workmen had locked up properly. We have some of our new furniture in the house, you know.' She was as red as the sun over Hillport.

He glanced at her. 'Have _you_ heard?' he asked simply.

'About what?' she whispered.

'About my poor old father.'

'Yes. I was hoping--hoping you would never know.'

By a common impulse they went into the garden of the Priory, and he shut the door.

'Never know?' he repeated. 'Oh! they took care to tell me.'

A silence followed.

'Is that your luggage?' she inquired. He lifted up the handbag, and nodded.

'All of it?'

'Yes,' he said. 'I'm only an emigrant.'

'I've got a note here for you,' she said. 'I should have posted it to the steamer; but now you can take it yourself. I want you not to read it till you get to Melbourne.'

'Very well,' he said, and crumpled the proffered envelope into his pocket. He was not thinking of the note at all. Presently he asked: 'Why didn't you tell me about my father? If I had to hear it, I'd sooner have heard it from you.'

'You must try to forget it,' she urged him. 'You are not your father.'

'I wish I had never been born,' he said. 'I wish I'd gone to prison.'

Now was the moment when, if ever, the mother's influence should be exerted.

'Be a man,' she said softly. 'I did the best I could for you. I shall always think of you, in Australia, getting on.'

She put a hand on his shoulder. 'Yes,' she said again, passionately: 'I shall always remember you--always.'

The hand with which he touched her arm shook like an old man's hand. As their eyes met in an intense and painful gaze, to her, at least, it was revealed that they were lovers. What he had learnt in that instant can only be guessed from his next action....

Anna ran out of the garden into the street, and so home, never looking behind to see if he pursued his way to the station.

Some may argue that Anna, knowing she loved another man, ought not to have married Mynors. But she did not reason thus; such a notion never even occurred to her. She had promised to marry Mynors, and she married him. Nothing else was possible. She who had never failed in duty did not fail then. She who had always submitted and bowed the head, submitted and bowed the head then. She had sucked in with her mother's milk the profound truth that a woman's life is always a renunciation, greater or less. Hers by chance was greater. Facing the future calmly and genially, she took oath with herself to be a good wife to the man whom, with all his excellences, she had never loved. Her thoughts often dwelt lovingly on Willie Price, whom she deemed to be pursuing in Australia an honourable and successful career, quickened at the outset by her hundred pounds. This vision of him was her stay. But neither she nor anyone in the Five Towns or elsewhere ever heard of Willie Price again. And well might none hear! The abandoned pitshaft does not deliver up its secret. And so--the Bank of England is the richer by a hundred pounds unclaimed, and the world the poorer by a simple and meek soul stung to revolt only in its last hour.

_Jamieson & Munro, Ltd., Printers, Stirling._

Uniform with this Volume

36 De Profundis Oscar Wilde 37 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime Oscar Wilde 38 Selected Poems Oscar Wilde 39 An Ideal Husband Oscar Wilde 40 Intentions Oscar Wilde 41 Lady Windermere's Fan Oscar Wilde 42 Charmides and other Poems Oscar Wilde 43 Harvest Home E. V. Lucas 44 A Little of Everything E. V. Lucas 45 Vallima Letters Robert Louis Stevenson 46 Hills and the Sea Hilaire Belloc 47 The Blue Bird Maurice Maeterlinck 50 Charles Dickens G. K. Chesterton 53 Letters from Self-Made Merchant to his Son George Horace Larimer 54 The Life of John Ruskin W. G. Collingwood 57 Sevastopol and other Stories Leo Tolstoy 58 The Lore of the Honey-Bee Tickner Edwardes 60 From Midshipman to Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood 63 Oscar Wilde Arthur Ransome 64 The Vicar of Morwenstow S. Baring-Gould 65 Old Country Life S. Baring-Gould 76 Home Life in France M. Betham-Edwards 77 Selected Prose Oscar Wilde 78 The Best of Lamb E. V. Lucas 80 Selected Letters Robert Louis Stevenson 83 Reason and Belief Sir Oliver Lodge 85 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 91 Social Evils and their Remedy Leo Tolstoy 93 The Substance of Faith Sir Oliver Lodge 94 All Things Considered G. K. Chesterton 95 The Mirror of the Sea Joseph Conrad 96 A Picked Company Hilaire Belloc 116 The Survival of Man Sir Oliver Lodge 126 Science from an Easy Chair Sir Ray Lankester 141 Variety Lane E. V. Lucas 144 A Shilling for my Thoughts G. K. Chesterton 146 A Woman of No Importance Oscar Wilde 149 A Shepherd's Life W. H. Hudson 193 On Nothing Hilaire Belloc 300 Jane Austen and her Times G. E. Mitton 114 Select Essays Maurice Maeterlinck 218 R. L. S. Francis Watt 223 Two Generations Leo Tolstoy 126 On Everything Hilaire Belloc 934 Records and Reminiscences Sir Francis Burnand 253 My Childhood and Boyhood Leo Tolstoy 254 On Something Hilaire Belloc

A Selection only.

Uniform with this Volume

1 The Mighty Atom Marie Corelli 2 Jane Marie Corelli 3 Boy Marie Corelli 4 Spanish Gold G. A. Birmingham 5 The Search Party G. A. Birmingham 6 Teresa of Watling Street Arnold Bennett 9 The Unofficial Honeymoon Dolf Wyllarde 12 The Demon C. N. and A. M. Williamson 17 Joseph Frank Danby 18 Round the Red Lamp Sir A. Conan Doyle 20 Light Freights W. W. Jacobs 22 The Long Road John Oxenham 71 The Gates of Wrath Arnold Bennett 72 Short Cruises W. W. Jacobs 81 The Card Arnold Bennett 87 Lalage's Lovers G. A. Birmingham 93 White Fang Jack London 105 The Wallet of Kai Lung Ernest Bramah 108 The Adventures of Dr. Whitty G. A. Birmingham 113 Lavender and Old Lace Myrtle Reed 115 Old Rose and Silver Myrtle Reed 122 The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton E. Phillips Oppenheim 125 The Regent Arnold Bennett 127 Sally Dorothea Conyers 129 The Lodger Mrs. Belloc Lowndes 135 A Spinner In the Sun Myrtle Reed 137 The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu Sax Rohmer 139 The Golden Centipede Louise Gerard 140 The Love Pirate C. N. and A. M. Williamson 143 The Way of these Women E. Phillips Oppenheim 143 Sandy Married Dorothea Conyers 145 Chance Joseph Conrad 148 Flower of the Dusk Myrtle Reed 150 The Gentleman Adventurer H. C. Bailey 154 The Hyena of Kallu Louise Gerard 190 The Happy Hunting Ground Mrs. Alice Perrin 191 My Lady of Shadows John Oxenham 211 Max Carrados Ernest Bramah 212 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 213 The Kloof Bride Ernest Glanville 215 Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo E. Phillips Oppenheim 216 The Wonder of Love E. M. Albanesi 217 A Weaver of Dreams Myrtle Reed 219 The Family Elinor Mordaunt 220 A Heritage of Peril A. W. Marchmont 221 The Kinsman Mrs. Sidgwick 222 Emmanuel Burden Hilaire Belloc 224 Broken Shackles John Oxenham 225 A Knight of Spain Marjorie Bowen 227 Byeways Robert Hichens 228 Gossamer G. A. Birmingham 230 The Salving of a Derelict Maurice Drake 231 Cameos Marie Corelli 232 The Happy Valley B. M. Croker 245 The Shop Girl C. N. and A. M. Williamson 250 The Lost Regiment Ernest Glanville 261 Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs

A Selection only.

End of Project Gutenberg's Anna of the Five Towns, by Arnold Bennett