"Read 'em, then," she answered. "But don't ax me to. I hate graves,
and I hate everything to do with death. With all my might I hate it."
"You shouldn't feel so. 'Tis a part of life, and no more can we have
life without it, than we can have a book without a last page. And no
one of all these men carried anything into the next world but his
record in this. Yet to remember how soon we must give up our clay be
a solemn, useful thought."
She did not answer, and he strolled apart and considered the trite
warnings, pious hopes, and implicit pathos of dates, where figures
often told the saddest tale.
A man came into the churchyard, and, looking round, Daniel, very
greatly to his astonishment, saw Jarratt Weekes talking to his wife.
Scarcely believing his own eyes, he strode over a row of the silent
people and approached.
Neither his wife nor himself had spoken to the castle-keeper since
their marriage; yet at last it seemed that the rejected suitor was
recovering from his disappointment and about to forget and forgive
the past. Weekes shook hands with Brendon, as he had already done
with Sarah Jane; then he addressed them both.
"I'm hoping as you'll let bygones be bygones, Brendon. I was hard
hit, and--well, 'tis no good going over old ground. I did my best to
get you away from Sarah Jane here, and I failed. There's no more to
be said."
"Except that you didn't fight fair," answered Daniel calmly. "You
tried by very underhand ways to do me out of my own, and I'm sorry
for it. All the same, I'm willing enough to forgive you and be
friendly henceforth, Mr. Weekes."
"So am I," declared Sarah Jane. "'Twas a very great kindness in you
to be so fond of me, and I never shall forget it. But there was but
one man in the world for me after I met Daniel here, and so I hope
there won't be no more feeling against us."
"Not on my side there won't," answered Jarratt. "I'm glad to let it
go. Life's too short to harbour any bitterness like that. I hope
you'll be happy all your days, and if ever I can serve you, Brendon,
you've only got to tell me so."
Daniel glowed with satisfaction, took the other's hand again and
shook it.
"This is an extra good Sunday for me," he answered, "and nothing
better could have happened. And I'll say no more, except that I
trust it may come into my power to do you good some day, Mr. Weekes.
Which I will do, God helping."
"So be it," said the other. "I'll hold you friendly in my mind,
henceforward--both of you."
He did not look at Brendon during this conversation, but sometimes
cast a side glance into Sarah Jane's face. Now folk began to enter
the churchyard, and presently the bells rang.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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