'Hey! what, my Margery? Has anything happened, for God's sake?'
'She's gone.'
'Where to?'
'That's more than earthly man can tell! I never see such a thing!
'Twas a stroke o' the black art--as if she were sperrited away.When we got to the games I said--mind, you told me to!--I said, "Jim Hayward thinks o' going off to London with that widow woman"--mind you told me to! She showed no wonderment, though a' seemed very low.
Then she said to me, "I don't like standing here in this slummocky crowd.I shall feel more at home among the gentlepeople." And then she went to where the carriages were drawn up, and near her there was a grand coach, a-blazing with lions and unicorns, and hauled by two coal-black horses.I hardly thought much of it then, and by degrees lost sight of her behind it.Presently the other carriages moved off, and I thought still to see her standing there.But no, she had vanished; and then I saw the grand coach rolling away, and glimpsed Margery in it, beside a fine dark gentleman with black mustachios, and a very pale prince-like face.As soon as the horses got into the hard road they rattled on like hell-and-skimmer, and went out of sight in the dust, and--that's all.If you'd come back a little sooner you'd ha' caught her.'
Jim had turned whiter than his pipeclay.'O, this is too bad--too bad!' he cried in anguish, striking his brow.'That paper and that fainting woman kept me so long.Who could have done it? But 'tis my fault.I've stung her too much.I shouldn't have carried it so far.'
'You shouldn't--just what I said,' replied his senior.
'She thinks I've gone off with that cust widow; and to spite me she's gone off with the man! Do you know who that stranger wi' the lions and unicorns is? Why, 'tis that foreigner who calls himself a Baron, and took Mount Lodge for six months last year to make mischief--a villain! O, my Margery--that it should come to this! She's lost, she's ruined!--Which way did they go?'
Jim turned to follow in the direction indicated, when, behold, there stood at his back her father, Dairyman Tucker.
'Now look here, young man,' said Dairyman Tucker.'I've just heard all that wailing--and straightway will ask 'ee to stop it sharp.
'Tis like your brazen impudence to teave and wail when you be another woman's husband; yes, faith, I see'd her a-fainting in yer arms when you wanted to get away from her, and honest folk a-standing round who knew you'd married her, and said so.I heard it, though you didn't see me."He's married!" says they.Some sly register-office business, no doubt; but sly doings will out.As for Margery--who's to be called higher titles in these parts hencefor'ard--I'm her father, and I say it's all right what she's done.Don't I know private news, hey? Haven't I just learnt that secret weddings of high people can happen at expected deathbeds by special licence, as well as low people at registrars' offices? And can't husbands come back and claim their own when they choose? Begone, young man, and leave noblemen's wives alone; and I thank God I shall be rid of a numskull!'
Swift words of explanation rose to Jim's lips, but they paused there and died.At that last moment he could not, as Margery's husband, announce Margery's shame and his own, and transform her father's triumph to wretchedness at a blow.
'I--I--must leave here,' he stammered.Going from the place in an opposite course to that of the fugitives, he doubled when out of sight, and in an incredibly short space had entered the town.Here he made inquiries for the emblazoned carriage, and gained from one or two persons a general idea of its route.They thought it had taken the highway to London.Saddling poor Tony before he had half eaten his corn, Jim galloped along the same road.
