第31章

The funeral was over.The carriages rolled away through the soft mud,and only the poor remained.They approached to the newly-dug shaft and looked their last at the coffin,now almost hidden beneath the spadefuls of clay.It was their moment.Most of them were women from the dead woman's district,to whom black garments had been served out by Mr.Wilcox's orders.Pure curiosity had brought others.

They thrilled with the excitement of a death,and of a rapid death,and stood in groups or moved between the graves,like drops of ink.The son of one of them,a wood-cutter,was perched high above their heads,pollarding one of the churchyard elms.From where he sat he could see the village of Hilton,strung upon the North Road,with its accreting suburbs;the sunset beyond,scarlet and orange,winking at him beneath brows of grey;the church;the plantations;and behind him an unspoilt country of fields and farms.But he,too,was rolling the event luxuriously in his mouth.He tried to tell his mother down below all that he had felt when he saw the coffin approaching:how he could not leave his work,and yet did not like to go on with it;how he had almost slipped out of the tree,he was so upset;the rooks had cawed,and no wonder--it was as if rooks knew too.His mother claimed the prophetic power herself--she had seen a strange look about Mrs.Wilcox for some time.

London had done the mischief,said others.She had been a kind lady;her grandmother had been kind,too--a plainer person,but very kind.

Ah,the old sort was dying out!Mr.Wilcox,he was a kind gentleman.

They advanced to the topic again and again,dully,but with exaltation.

The funeral of a rich person was to them what the funeral of Alcestis or Ophelia is to the educated.It was Art;though remote from life,it enhanced life's values,and they witnessed it avidly.

The grave-diggers,who had kept up an undercurrent of disapproval--they disliked Charles;it was not a moment to speak of such things,but they did not like Charles Wilcox--the grave-diggers finished their work and piled up the wreaths and crosses above it.The sun set over Hilton:the grey brows of the evening flushed a little,and were cleft with one scarlet frown.Chattering sadly to each other,the mourners passed through the lych-gate and traversed the chestnut avenues that led down to the village.The young wood-cutter stayed a little longer,poised above the silence and swaying rhythmically.At last the bough fell beneath his saw.With a grunt,he descended,his thoughts dwelling no longer on death,but on love,for he was mating.He stopped as he passed the new grave;a sheaf of tawny chrysanthemums had caught his eye."They didn't ought to have coloured flowers at buryings,"he reflected.Trudging on a few steps,he stopped again,looked furtively at the dusk,turned back,wrenched a chrysanthemum from the sheaf,and hid it in his pocket.

After him came silence absolute.The cottage that abutted on the churchyard was empty,and no other house stood near.

Hour after hour the scene of the interment remained without an eye to witness it.Clouds drifted over it from the west;or the church may have been a ship,high-prowed,steering with all its company towards infinity.

Towards morning the air grew colder,the sky clearer,the surface of the earth hard and sparkling above the prostrate dead.The wood-cutter,returning after a night of joy,reflected:"They lilies,they chrysants;it's a pity I didn't take them all."

Up at Howards End they were attempting breakfast.

Charles and Evie sat in the dining-room,with Mrs.Charles.Their father,who could not bear to see a face,breakfasted upstairs.He suffered acutely.Pain came over him in spasms,as if it was physical,and even while he was about to eat,his eyes would fill with tears,and he would lay down the morsel untasted.

He remembered his wife's even goodness during thirty years.Not anything in detail--not courtship or early raptures--but just the unvarying virtue,that seemed to him a woman's noblest quality.

So many women are capricious,breaking into odd flaws of passion or frivolity.

Not so his wife.Year after year,summer and winter,as bride and mother,she had been the same,he had always trusted her.Her tenderness!

Her innocence!The wonderful innocence that was hers by the gift of God.Ruth knew no more of worldly wickedness and wisdom than did the flowers in her garden,or the grass in her field.Her idea of business--"Henry,why do people who have enough money try to get more money?"Her idea of politics--"I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet,there would be no more wars."Her idea of religion--ah,this had been a cloud,but a cloud that passed.She came of Quaker stock,and he and his family,formerly Dissenters,were now members of the Church of England.The rector's sermons had at first repelled her,and she had expressed a desire for "a more inward light,"adding,"not so much for myself as for baby"(Charles).Inward light must have been granted,for he heard no complaints in later years.They brought up their three children without dispute.They had never disputed.

She lay under the earth now.She had gone,and as if to make her going the more bitter,had gone with a touch of mystery that was all unlike her."Why didn't you tell me you knew of it?"he had moaned,and her faint voice had answered:"I didn't want to,Henry--Imight have been wrong--and every one hates illnesses."He had been told of the horror by a strange doctor,whom she had consulted during his absence from town.Was this altogether just?Without fully explaining,she had died.It was a fault on her part,and--tears rushed into his eyes--what a little fault!It was the only time she had deceived him in those thirty years.

He rose to his feet and looked out of the window,for Evie had come in with the letters,and he could meet no one's eye.

Ah yes--she had been a good woman--she had been steady.He chose the word deliberately.To him steadiness included all praise.