The man she hated : $b or, Won by strategy — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The man she hated : $b or, Won by strategy
John Stuart Mill · en
“Arrest him! Arrest that fiend, for he has killed my mother!”
There was a wild hubbub of cries in the room, and George Lorraine saw
lying on the pillow, in all the awful majesty of death, the face that
only yesterday had smiled upon him with a mother’s pride. The change
was so swift and sudden that his limbs shook beneath him, and a cold
sweat started out upon his forehead. Like one dazed, he heard Fair
going on wildly:
“He came to the door and ordered me to open it, and I begged him to
go away, because mamma was sick with her heart, and I feared the
excitement would kill her. But he only cursed me, and when I ran to
look at her she was dead.”
George Lorraine, recovering somewhat from the first shock of his
surprise, answered sullenly:
“Why didn’t you open the door, then, without making such a fuss? You
are my wife, and I had a right to come in,” and, turning to the gaping
group in the room, he added: “We were married last night, and she ran
away from me because she found out I wasn’t as rich as she expected,
and I came this morning to take her home with me--and, by Heaven, I
will, for I mean to tame the little shrew.”
It had suddenly occurred to him that it was a good thing for him that
Mrs. Fielding was dead. It would be easier to cope with her daughter.
But the bereaved daughter was glaring at him with the rage of a tigress
bereaved of her young, and still crying madly:
“Won’t some one bring a policeman and take him to prison? He has killed
my mother.”
A big, stout Irishwoman, who was looking in at the door called out
lustily:
“Arrah, my poor lamb, that will I bring a policeman this minute if
sumbuddy will howld the spalpeen till I gits back,” and she stumped
out into the hall on her coarse brogans, while George Lorraine, with
his senses half stupefied by drink, gave way to a maudlin terror, and,
dashing by the astonished group, made good his escape.
A motherly old woman led the half-crazed orphan from the scene, and
soothed her tenderly, while others cared for the mortal remains of the
dead woman.
Some one had brought in a passing physician, and he had told them that
Mrs. Fielding had died of heart failure.
Fair’s first request, as soon as she could think coherently, was for
her dearest friend, Sadie Allen, to be sent for. She came at once, full
of surprise and grief, and Fair threw herself into those sympathizing
arms with an outburst of passionate grief.
“Oh, Sadie, I am too poor even to bury her!” she sobbed. “We spent the
last penny buying those wretched clothes. Do you think that we could
sell them? Yes, and the furniture, too? I had rather sleep upon the
bare boards than that my mother should be buried in Potter’s field.”
“She shall not be buried there, Fair. Leave everything to me,” answered
her friend consolingly; and she kept her word, although to accomplish
it Fair’s wedding dress and hat, and also the furniture, had to be sold.