They turned the opposite way to where Daisy was standing, but not
before she had caught a glimpse of the beautiful face. Where were they
going together? she passionately asked herself. The probability was
that their coming out together was only incidental; for in a very few
minutes Daisy met the girl coming back alone, carrying a paper of
rusks, which she had no doubt been out to buy. All the more necessary
was it, thought Daisy, after this little incident, that she should
continue to look after her husband.
Daisy was becoming quite an adept at the work, and might have taken
service as a lady detective. Of course the chief care to be exercised
was to keep herself out of her husband's view. It was not so difficult
to do this as it would have been with some husbands; for Frank's time
was always so precious, and his movements were in consequence obliged
to be so rapid, that he went flying through the streets like a
lamplighter, never looking to the right or left. More than once,
though, Daisy had been obliged to dart into a doorway; and it was at
those times that she especially felt the humiliation of what she was
doing.
But, the pitcher that goes too often to the well gets broken at last,
we are told. On this bitter January day, when of a surety no one would
venture out who could keep in, Daisy came face to face with her
husband. She had seen him enter Mrs. Bell's house; fortune for once
had so far favoured her. She saw him make for the quiet street upon
first leaving home, skim down it with long strides, and go straight in
at the door. Her heart beat as though it would burst its bounds; her
pulses coursed on with fever-heat. Nothing in the world can be so good
for the doctors as jealousy: it must inevitably tend to bring on heart
disease. "I wonder how long he will stay?" thought Daisy in her raging
anger. "Half-an-hour, perhaps. Of course he does not hurry himself
when he goes _there_."
Sauntering onwards with slow steps, some idea in her head of waiting
to see how long he did stay, and believing herself perfectly safe for
many minutes to come, went Daisy. She longed to cross over the street
and so obtain a sight of the upstairs window. But she did not dare; he
might chance to look out and see her. She knew all about the position
of the Bells' rooms, having, in a careless, off-hand manner,
questioned Sam, who took out Mrs. Bell's medicine. In front of the
closed door, her face turned towards it, was Daisy, when--she found
herself confronted with her husband. He had come quickly forth,
without warning, not having remained two minutes.
"Why, Daisy! Out marketing, my dear?"
The question was put laughingly. Daisy never did any marketing: she
was not much of a housekeeper as yet, and the Lambeth shops did not
tempt her to begin. Eve did all that. Had she been committing a crime,
she could not have felt more taken aback in her surprise, or more
awkward at finding an excuse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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