'Poor child!' he said. 'Come home. I will take care of you.'
'But—the old lady?'
'You are first.'
She caught his hands; she flung herself upon his shoulder in a rush of tears. If this was his tragic moment, it was also hers.
'Oh, Ed'ard, Ed'ard!' she cried, 'it's you as I'd lief have for my lover! It's you as I'm for, body and soul, if I'm for a mortal man! It's your baby as I want, Ed'ard, and I wouldna be feared o' the pain as Sally told of if it was yours. What for didna you tell me in the spring o' the year, Ed'ard? It be winter now, and late and cold.'
'There, there! you don't know what you're saying. Come home!'
Edward did not listen to her, she knew. And, indeed, his brain was weary, and could take in no more. He only knew he must care for Hazel as Christ cared for the lambs of His fold. And darkly on his dark mind loomed his new and bitter creed, 'There is no Christ.'
Chapter 35
Martha met them on the doorstep, crying, hiccoughing, and enraged.
'Why, Martha!' Edward looked at her in astonishment. It is usually the supers, and not the principals, that raise lamentation in the midst of tragedy—'why, Martha, have you lost someone dear to you?'