Sketches in Lavender, Blue and GreenJerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
General
Sketches in Lavender, Blue and Green
Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
Manners and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, English
Had he followed the figure of Mivanway into the valley, he would have
known that out of sight of the Witches' Cauldron it took to running fast
till it reached a welcome door, and fell panting into the arms of another
figure that had hastened out to meet it.
"My dear," said the elder woman, "you are trembling like a leaf. What
has happened?"
"I have seen him," answered Mivanway.
"Seen whom?"
"Charles."
"Charles!" repeated the other, looking at Mivanway as though she thought
her mad.
"His spirit, I mean," explained Mivanway, in an awed voice. "It was
standing in the shadow of the rocks, in the exact spot where we first
met. It looked older and more careworn; but, oh! Margaret, so sad and
reproachful."
"My dear," said her sister, leading her in, "you are overwrought. I wish
we had never come back to this house."
"Oh! I was not frightened," answered Mivanway, "I have been expecting it
every evening. I am so glad it came. Perhaps it will come again, and I
can ask it to forgive me."
So next night Mivanway, though much against her sister's wishes and
advice, persisted in her usual walk, and Charles at the same twilight
hour started from the inn.
Again Mivanway saw him standing in the shadow of the rocks. Charles had
made up his mind that if the thing happened again he would speak, but
when the silent figure of Mivanway, clothed in the fading light, stopped
and gazed at him, his will failed him.
That it was the spirit of Mivanway standing before him he had not the
faintest doubt. One may dismiss other people's ghosts as the phantasies
of a weak brain, but one knows one's own to be realities, and Charles for
the last five years had mingled with a people whose dead dwell about
them. Once, drawing his courage around him, he made to speak, but as he
did so the figure of Mivanway shrank from him, and only a sigh escaped
his lips, and hearing that the figure of Mivanway turned and again passed
down the path into the valley, leaving Charles gazing after it.
But the third night both arrived at the trysting spot with determination
screwed up to the sticking point.
Charles was the first to speak. As the figure of Mivanway came towards
him, with its eyes fixed sadly on him, he moved from the shadow of the
rocks, and stood before it.
"Mivanway!" he said.
"Charles!" replied the figure of Mivanway. Both spoke in an awed whisper
suitable to the circumstances, and each stood gazing sorrowfully upon the
other.
"Are you happy?" asked Mivanway.
The question strikes one as somewhat farcical, but it must be remembered
that Mivanway was the daughter of a Gospeller of the old school, and had
been brought up to beliefs that were not then out of date.
"As happy as I deserve to be," was the sad reply, and the answer--the
inference was not complimentary to Charles's deserts--struck a chill to
Mivanway's heart.
"How could I be happy having lost you?" went on the voice of Charles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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