"So you're going to be fool enough to pay for her funeral, are you?" were his first words to me.
I was too weary and heart-sick to answer; I only tried to get by him to my own door.
"If you can pay for burying her," he went on, putting himself in front of me, "you can pay her lawful debts.She owes me three weeks' rent.Suppose you raise the money for that next, and hand it over to me? I'm not joking, I can promise you.I mean to have my rent; and, if somebody don't pay it, I'll have her body seized and sent to the workhouse!"Between terror and disgust, I thought I should have dropped to the floor at his feet.But I determined not to let him see how he had horrified me, if I could possibly control myself.So Imustered resolution enough to answer that I did not believe the law gave him any such wicked power over the dead.
"I'll teach you what the law is!" he broke in; "you'll raise money to bury her like a born lady, when she's died in my debt, will you? And you think I'll let my rights be trampled upon like that, do you? See if I do! I'll give you till to-night to think about it.If I don't have the three weeks she owes before to-morrow, dead or alive, she shall go to the workhouse!"This time I managed to push by him, and get to my own room, and lock the door in his face.As soon as I was alone I fell into a breathless, suffocating fit of crying that seemed to be shaking me to pieces.But there was no good and no help in tears; I did my best to calm myself after a little while, and tried to think who I should run to for help and protection.
The doctor was the first friend I thought of; but I knew he was always out seeing his patients of an afternoon.The beadle was the next person who came into my head.He had the look of being a very dignified, unapproachable kind of man when he came about the inquest; but he talked to me a little then, and said I was a good girl, and seemed, I really thought, to pity me.So to him Idetermined to apply in my great danger and distress.
Most fortunately, I found him at home.When I told him of the landlord's infamous threats, and of the misery I was suffering in consequence of them, he rose up with a stamp of his foot, and sent for his gold-laced cocked hat that he wears on Sundays, and his long cane with the ivory top to it.
"I'll give it to him," said the beadle."Come along with me, my dear.I think I told you you were a good girl at the inquest--if I didn't, I tell you so now.I'll give it to him! Come along with me."And he went out, striding on with his cocked hat and his great cane, and I followed him.
"Landlord!" he cries, the moment he gets into the passage, with a thump of his cane on the floor, "landlord!" with a look all round him as if he was King of England calling to a beast, "come out!"The moment the landlord came out and saw who it was, his eye fixed on the cocked hat, and he turned as pale as ashes.
"How dare you frighten this poor girl?" says the beadle."How dare you bully her at this sorrowful time with threatening to do what you know you can't do? How dare you be a cowardly, bullying, braggadocio of an unmanly landlord? Don't talk to me: I won't hear you.I'll pull you up, sir.If you say another word to the young woman, I'll pull you up before the authorities of this metropolitan parish.I've had my eye on you, and the authorities have had their eye on you, and the rector has had his eye on you.
We don't like the look of your small shop round the corner; we don't like the look of some of the customers who deal at it; we don't like disorderly characters; and we don't by any manner of means like you.Go away.Leave the young woman alone.Hold your tongue, or I'll pull you up.If he says another word, or interferes with you again, my dear, come and tell me; and, as sure as he's a bullying, unmanly, braggadocio of a landlord, I'll pull him up."With those words the beadle gave a loud cough to clear his throat, and another thump of his cane on the floor, and so went striding out again before I could open my lips to thank him.The landlord slunk back into his room without a word.I was left alone and unmolested at last, to strengthen myself for the hard trial of my poor love's funeral to-morrow.
March 13th.It is all over.A week ago her head rested on my bosom.It is laid in the churchyard now; the fresh earth lies heavy over her grave.I and my dearest friend, the sister of my love, are parted in this world forever.
I followed her funeral alone through the cruel, hustling streets.
Sally, I thought, might have offered to go with me, but she never so much as came into my room.I did not like to think badly of her for this, and I am glad I restrained myself; for, when we got into the churchyard, among the two or three people who were standing by the open grave I saw Sally, in her ragged gray shawl and her patched black bonnet.She did not seem to notice me till the last words of the service had been read and the clergyman had gone away; then she came up and spoke to me.
"I couldn't follow along with you," she said, looking at her ragged shawl, "for I haven't a decent suit of clothes to walk in.
I wish I could get vent in crying for her like you, but I can't;all the crying's been drudged and starved out of me long ago.
Don't you think about lighting your fire when you get home.I'll do that, and get you a drop of tea to comfort you."She seemed on the point of saying a kind word or two more, when, seeing the beadle coming toward me, she drew back, as if she was afraid of him, and left the churchyard.
"Here's my subscription toward the funeral," said the beadle, giving me back his shilling fee."Don't say anything about it, for it mightn't be approved of in a business point of view, if it came to some people's ears.Has the landlord said anything more to you? no, I thought not.He's too polite a man to give me the trouble of pulling him up.Don't stop crying here, my dear.Take the advice of a man familiar with funerals, and go home."I tried to take his advice, but it seemed like deserting Mary to go away when all the rest forsook her.