took out the letter, but he held it in his hand still, while he said, in a tone of tender entreaty, “Don’t you bear me ill will, Hetty, because I’m the means o’ bringing you this pain. God knows I’d ha’ borne a good deal worse for the sake o’ sparing it you. And think—there’s nobody but me knows about this, and I’ll take care of you as if I was your brother. You’re the same as ever to me, for I don’t believe you’ve done any wrong knowingly.”
Hetty had laid her hand on the letter, but Adam did not loose it till he had done speaking. She took no notice of what he said—she had not listened; but when he loosed the letter, she put it into her pocket, without opening it, and then began to walk more quickly, as if she wanted to go in.
“You’re in the right not to read it just yet,” said Adam. “Read it when you’re by yourself. But stay out a little bit longer, and let us call the children: you look so white and ill, your aunt may take notice of it.”
Hetty heard the warning. It recalled to her the necessity of rallying her native powers of concealment, which had half given way under the shock of Adam’s words. And she had the letter in her pocket: she was sure there was comfort in that letter in spite of Adam. She ran to find Totty, and soon reappeared with recovered colour, leading Totty, who was making a sour face because she had been obliged to throw away an unripe apple that she had set her small teeth in.
“Hegh, Totty,” said Adam, “come and ride on my shoulder—ever so high—you’ll touch the tops o’ the trees.”
What little child ever refused to be comforted by that glorious sense of being seized strongly and swung upward? I don’t believe Ganymede cried when the eagle carried him away, and perhaps deposited him on Jove’s shoulder at the end. Totty smiled down complacently from her secure height, and pleasant was the sight to the mother’s eyes, as she stood at the house door and saw Adam coming with his small burden.
“Bless your sweet face, my pet,” she said, the mother’s strong love filling her keen eyes with mildness, as Totty leaned forward and put out her arms. She had no eyes for Hetty at that moment, and only said, without looking at her, “You go and draw some ale, Hetty; the gells are both at the cheese.”
After the ale had been drawn and her uncle’s pipe lighted, there was Totty to be taken to bed, and brought down again in her night-gown because she would cry instead of going to sleep. Then there was supper to be got ready, and Hetty must be continually in the way to give help. Adam stayed till he knew Mrs. Poyser expected him to go, engaging her and her husband in talk as constantly as he could, for the sake of leaving Hetty more at ease. He lingered, because he wanted to see her safely through that evening, and he was delighted to find how much self-command she showed. He knew she had not had time to read the letter, but he did not know she was buoyed up by a secret hope that the letter would contradict everything he had said. It was hard work for him to leave her—hard to think that he should not know for days how she was bearing her trouble. But he must go at last, and all he could do was to press her hand gently as he said “Good-bye,” and hope she would take that as a sign that if his love could ever be a refuge for her, it was there the same as ever. How busy his thoughts were, as he walked home, in devising pitying excuses for her folly, in referring all her weakness to the sweet lovingness of her nature, in blaming Arthur, with less and less inclination to admit that his conduct might be extenuated too! His exasperation at Hetty’s suffering—and also at the sense that she was possibly thrust for ever out of his own reach—deafened him to any plea for the miscalled friend who had wrought this misery. Adam was a clear-sighted, fair-minded man—a fine fellow, indeed, morally as well as physically. But if Aristides the Just was ever in love and jealous, he was at that moment not perfectly magnanimous. And I cannot pretend that Adam, in these painful days, felt nothing but righteous indignation and loving pity. He was bitterly jealous, and in proportion as his love made him indulgent in his judgment of Hetty, the bitterness found a vent in his feeling towards Arthur.
“Her head was allays likely to be turned,” he thought, “when a gentleman, with his fine manners, and fine clothes, and his white hands, and that way o’ talking gentlefolks have, came about her, making up to her in a bold way, as a man couldn’t do that was only her equal; and it’s much if she’ll ever like a common man now.” He could not help drawing his own hands out of his pocket and looking at them—at the hard palms and the broken finger-nails. “I’m a roughish fellow, altogether; I don’t know, now I come to think on’t, what there is much for a woman to like about me; and yet I might ha’ got another wife easy enough, if I hadn’t set my heart on her. But it’s little matter what other women think about me, if she can’t love me. She might ha’ loved me, perhaps, as likely as any other man—there’s nobody hereabouts as I’m afraid of, if he hadn’t come between us; but now I shall belike be hateful to her because I’m so different to him. And yet there’s no telling—she may turn round the other way, when she finds he’s made light of her all the while. She may come to feel the vally of a man as ’ud be thankful to be bound to her all his life. But I must put up with it whichever way it is—I’ve only to be thankful it’s been no worse. I am not th’ only man that’s got to do without much happiness i’ this life. There’s many a good bit o’ work done with a bad heart. It’s God’s will, and that’s enough for us: we shouldn’t know better how things ought to be than He does, I reckon, if we was to spend our lives i’ puzzling. But it ’ud ha’ gone near to spoil my work for me, if I’d seen her brought to sorrow and shame, and through the man as I’ve always been proud to think on. Since I’ve been spared that, I’ve no right to grumble. When a man’s got his limbs whole, he can bear a smart cut or two.”
As Adam was getting over a stile at this point in his reflections, he perceived a man walking along the field before him. He knew it was Seth, returning from an evening preaching, and made haste to overtake him.
“I thought thee’dst be at home before me,” he said, as Seth turned round to wait for him, “for I’m later than usual to-night.”
“Well, I’m later too, for I got into talk, after meeting, with John Barnes, who has lately professed himself in a state of perfection, and I’d a question to ask him about his experience. It’s one o’ them subjects that lead you further than y’ expect—they don’t lie along the straight road.”
They walked along together in silence two or three minutes. Adam was not inclined to enter into the subtleties of religious experience, but he was inclined to interchange a word or two of brotherly affection and confidence with Seth. That was a rare impulse in him, much as the brothers loved each other. They hardly ever spoke of personal matters, or uttered more than an allusion to their family troubles. Adam was by nature reserved in all matters of feeling, and Seth felt a certain timidity towards his more practical brother.
“Seth, lad,” Adam said, putting his arm on his brother’s shoulder, “hast heard anything from Dinah Morris since she went away?”
“Yes,” said Seth. “She told me I might write her word after a while, how we went on, and how mother bore up under her trouble. So I wrote to her a fortnight ago, and told her about thee having a new employment, and how Mother was more contented; and last Wednesday, when I called at the post at Treddles’on, I found a letter from her. I think thee’dst perhaps like to read it, but I didna say anything about it because thee’st seemed so full of other things. It’s quite easy t’ read—she writes wonderful for a woman.”
Seth had drawn the letter from his pocket and held it out to Adam, who said, as he took it, “Aye, lad, I’ve got a tough load to carry just now—thee mustna take it ill if I’m a bit silenter and crustier nor usual. Trouble doesna make me care the less for thee. I know we shall stick together to the last.”
“I take nought ill o’ thee, Adam. I know well enough what it means if thee’t a bit short wi’ me now and then.”
“There’s Mother opening the door to look out for us,” said Adam, as they mounted the slope. “She’s been sitting i’ the dark as usual. Well, Gyp, well, art glad to see me?”
Lisbeth went in again quickly and lighted a candle, for she had heard the welcome rustling of footsteps