"Not if there was need! No woman who is worth anything will hold back when there is need. You would not be a coward then. But I have had so much more experience, that it is better for me to go now. It will be a sad household."
Mildred ran upstairs and was down again almost immediately, in bonnet and cloak. She kissed Jessie's pale and dismayed face, told her to give Miss Perkins some hot tea, and advised Miss Perkins to lie down for an hour. Then she hurried away.
There was a general air of oppression in the place. A sudden death in a small village is felt by everybody; and Groates, if in no especial sense a favourite, was generally respected and to some extent liked. At all events, his wife and eldest son were liked, and that in no common degree. And this ending to the life of one of themselves had come about with frightful suddenness, without the smallest warning. One moment well and healthy, talking lightly about the morrow's weather, the next a poor helpless body lying in the road, no longer a living man.
Anything so terrible had not happened for a long while. When the drowned sailors were washed ashore, and were buried in the old Churchyard, people had been forced to feel a little more vividly than usual the very narrow line which divides this existence from the next. Still, those sailors had been strangers, men unknown to any one in Old Maxham. Groates was known personally to them all. It was the grim hand of death descending into their very midst, and taking away one of themselves.
Was he ready for the great change? People asked this question with bated breath. Happily it is a question which we are not called upon to answer, one for another. No time at the last had been allowed him, if he had not used the time at his disposal before. It was "fearfully sudden," one and another said. But if he were ready for the call, the suddenness would be nothing. To those who live in daily communion with God, a sudden call Home means only sudden rejoicing.
Mildred might have spent a long time talking in the street, had she been so minded. Several tried to stop her, to see how much she had heard, to find out whether she could give information: but Mildred would not be delayed. Those who wished for a brief talk had to keep pace with her rapid footsteps.
Outside Groates' Store she was literally seized upon by Miss Sophy Coxen, and to escape instantly was beyond even Mildred's power.
"Do tell me how that poor dear Miss Perkins is," panted Miss Sophy, in vehement excitement. "She did look bad, and no mistake. And you're going to ask about them over there? O well, I can tell you all you want to know. I've been to the door, and they wouldn't let me in. They won't let anybody in. So it's no manner of use your going. You'll only just give them the trouble of answering the door again. The shop's shut up, and nothing going on. Mr. Bateson and Mr. Gilbert are both there, and I should have thought they'd have wanted a woman to help, but it's no good saying anything. Those Groateses are such queer people, there's no getting hold of them. Then you mean to go just the same! O well, it isn't my fault if you are turned away from the door. That's all I have to say."
Or rather, perhaps, it was all that she had the opportunity of saying, so far as Mildred was concerned.
Mildred attempted no argument, but quietly withdrew from Miss Sophy, went to the door, rang, and was admitted.