CHAPTER XIX. THE SENTENCE
The next morning Roscoe was quiet and calm, but he looked ten years older than when I had first seen him. After breakfast he said to me: “I have to go to the valley to pay Phil Boldrick’s friend the money, and to see Mr. Devlin. I shall be back, perhaps, by lunchtime. Will you go with me, or stay here?”
“I shall try to get some fishing this morning, I fancy,” I said. “And possibly I shall idle a good deal, for my time with you here is shortening, and I want to have a great store of laziness behind me for memory, when I’ve got my nose to the grindstone.”
He turned to the door, and said: “Marmion, I wish you weren’t going. I wish that we might be comrades under the same roof till—” He paused and smiled strangely.
“Till the finish,” I added, “when we should amble grey-headed, sans everything, out of the mad old world? I imagine Miss Belle Treherne would scarcely fancy that.... Still, we can be friends just the same. Our wives won’t object to an occasional bout of loafing together, will they?”
I was determined not to take him too seriously. He said nothing, and in a moment he was gone.
I passed the morning idly enough, yet thinking, too, very much about my friend. I was anxiously hoping that the telegram from Winnipeg would come. About noon it came. It was not known quite in what part of the North-west, Madras (under his new name) was, for the corps of mounted police had been changed about recently. My letter had, however, been forwarded into the wilds.
I saw no immediate way but to go to Mrs. Falchion and make a bold bid for his peace. I had promised Madras never to let her know that he was alive, but I would break the promise if Madras himself did not come. After considerable hesitation I started. It must be remembered that the events of the preceding chapter were only known to me afterwards.
Justine Caron was passing through the hall of the hotel when I arrived. After greetings, she said that Mrs. Falchion might see me, but that they were very busy; they were leaving in the evening for the coast. Here was a pleasant revelation! I was so confused with delight at the information, that I could think of nothing more sensible to say than that the unexpected always happens. By this time we were within Mrs. Falchion’s sitting-room. And to my remark, Justine replied “Yes, it is so. One has to reckon most with the accidents of life. The expected is either pleasant or unpleasant; there is no middle place.”