The girl tossed her head impatiently as if she knew what was coming, but Rash continued:
A few weeks back I asked you to marry meI, the esteemed schoolmaster, asked you, the daughter of a criminal; you, whose father was a proved murderer, a dirty pirate hanged publicly at Rye for a filthy tavern crime; you who were born in a Raratonga drinking hell, some half-caste native girls brat!
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Ecod! its laughable! I offered to make you respectable and put your banns up in the church, and you refused. Now I know why. You think because that young fool Cobtree is pleased to admire you, that you will catch him in your toils, do you? Youre a clever one, aint you? I dare swear that sooner or later youd succeed in getting hold of himlet the young idiot ruin you, eh? Then make a virtuous song about it to the squire, and a settlement to keep your mouth shut, perhaps. the church, and you refused. Now I know why. You think because that young fool Cobtree is pleased to admire you, that you will catch him in your toils, do you? Youre a clever one, aint you? I dare swear that sooner or later youd succeed in getting hold of himlet the young idiot ruin you, eh? Then make a virtuous song about it to the squire, and a settlement to keep your mouth shut, perhaps.
Beast! cried the girl, and she struck him sideways across the mouth with her clenched hand.
Hello! thought Jerk, crouching in the bushes, heres another one having a go at him; well, the more the merrier, so long as Im the last.
The schoolmaster recoiled, trying to look as if the stinging blow had not hurt, but the blood was flowing from his lip and from the hand of the girl as well.
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So thats it, is it? he sniggered, a real love match, phaps? The squires consent, the wedding bells, and live happily ever after, eh? Ecod! my lady, I think not. Rash is your man, see? and lucky you are to get him; you whose fathers gibbet chains are still swinging in Rye.
And yours are swinging a bit nearer than that! said Jerry Jerk to himself.
You leave my father out of it, went on the girl, for from all Ive heard of him he was a better man than you, and he was fond of me, too; so its lucky for you hes not here to hear you speaking bad of his child.
You know nothing about himhe was a drunken rascal!
Doctor Syn knew him well, and hes told me things. A rough man he was, certain, and none rougher, reckless, too, and brave, a lawbreaker on land as well as sea, pitiless to his enemies, staunch to his friends, but contemptible he never was; and so, Mister Rash, you can afford to respect him, and I say again that I wish he were here to make you.
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Shouldnt care if he was, replied the schoolmaster, for theres always the law to look after a man.
So there is, chuckled Jerk, and that youll find.
Bah! whats the good of haggling and squabbling? said Mr. Rash. Youre mine, or youll have to bear the consequences.
And that is? asked the girl defiantly.
The rope for your friends when I turn Kings evidence.
You wouldnt dare, you coward, for youd be hanged yourself as well.
Kings evidence will cover me all square.
So youre determined to turn it, are you?
I am, unless you change your mind.
The girl didnt reply to that, so Mr. Rash, thinking that he was making an advance, continued:
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Think, Imogenethis Cobtree fellow will be packed off to London in a month or so, and from there on to Oxford; and after a university career of drinking, gambling, and loose living, with precious little learning, hell settle down to the gentlemans life, marry some person of quality, and youeh? what of you, then?
I earn my living now, dont I? replied the girl. Well, whats to prevent me going on the same?
Dont you want to marry? went on the schoolmaster. Dont you want a house of your own? Dont you want to be the envy of all the girls in the village?
Not at the price of my happiness; and, besides, Im not so sure that I do want all those things so desperate. Im afraid the wife of Mister Rash would be too genteel a job for me.
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Oh, Id soon educate you up to that, returned the schoolmaster, looking pleased.
It ud be a nuisance to both of us, wouldnt it?
I shouldnt mindit would be a pleasant business making a respectable woman of you, Imogene. You see, youre not common like these village girls, and thats what attracts me; otherwise, it might have been better for me to have fixed my choice on one of them: one that hasnt a bad mark against her, so to speak. But I dont mind what folk say. I suppose theyll talk a bit and laugh behind my back. Well, let em, say I. I dont care, because I want you.
Then its a pity that Im not the same way of thinking, isnt it?
What do you mean?
That I wouldnt marry youno, not though you got the whole village the rope!
You ungrateful wretch, not after all theyve done for you?
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Youre not the sort of party to talk to others about being ungrateful, are you now?
I wasnt born of jail folk.
No; and you can hope your children, if youre ever cursed with any, will be able to say the same, for I doubt it very greatly, Mister Schoolmaster. And as to your threats, I set no store on them, for from my heart I despise you; I despise you because you would be willing to betray your fellows, but I despise you more because I know you are too great a coward to do it.
We shall see, said the schoolmaster, for whos to stop me?
Parson Syn, answered the girl. Parsons can bear all manner of secrets and not betray them. Thats their business, and Doctor Syns a good man, so Ill tell him everything, and in his wisdom hell find a means of checking your contemptible scheme.
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That shows how little you know about things, Mistress Ignoramous; for its that very same good man, Doctor Syn, who is going to read out your banns on this next Sabbath as ever is, and its Rash who is going to make him, and if you wont come along with me to church, well, Ill threaten other parties in this little place wholl help me make you. Folk are none too anxious to be exposed these days with Kings men in the village, and so youll see The schoolmaster stopped talking suddenly.
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Chapter 17
The Doctor Sings a Song
Now, although Jerry had employed all his auditory faculties for the overhearing of this conversation, he had unconsciously listened to something else: a slight noise that now and again came from the direction of the vicarage, a small, whirring noise, the kind of noise that he had heard in Mippss coffin shop when a tool was working its way through a piece of wood yes, a whirring noise with an occasional squeak to it. He hadnt bothered to ask himself what it was; he had just gone on hearing it, thats all. But now another noise arose in the night that not only claimed his
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immediate attention but made him feel cold all over. It had the same effect upon Mr. Rash, for he stopped talking suddenly and gripped the post of the gate with one hand and with the other pulled Imogene roughly into the denser black of the bushes; and then the noise grew louder and louder. What at first could only be described And as a gibbering moan rose into shriek after shriek of mortal terror: a mans voice, a man scared out of all knowledge; and then over the gate leaped a dark form, agile and quick, that went bounding away through the ghostly churchyard. There was something familiar in that figure to Jerk. He had seen it almost from the same spot the night before. It was the man with the yellow face. The schoolmaster came out from the bushes, followed by Imogene. Quickly they went through the gate and toward the vicarage, and silently Jerk followed, with his heart thumping loud against his ribs; for although the echoes of those drum-cracking shrieks still vibrated in his ears, the gibbering moans still continued.