第60章 CHAPTER XII(4)

When she was too tired to take another stroke she bathed and put on dry clothing.In securing her dress she noticed her husband's carefully preserved clothing lining one wall.She gathered it in an armload and carried it to the swamp.Piece by piece she pitched into the green maw of the quagmire all those articles she had dusted carefully and fought moths from for years,and stood watching as it slowly sucked them down.She went back to her room and gathered every scrap that had in any way belonged to Robert Comstock,excepting his gun and revolver,and threw it into the swamp.Then for the first time she set her door wide open.

She was too weary now to do more,but an urging unrest drove her.She wanted Elnora.It seemed to her she never could wait until the girl came and delivered her judgment.At last in an effort to get nearer to her,Mrs.Comstock climbed the stairs and stood looking around Elnora's room.It was very unfamiliar.The pictures were strange to her.Commencement had filled it with packages and bundles.The walls were covered with cocoons;moths and dragonflies were pinned everywhere.

Under the bed she could see half a dozen large white boxes.

She pulled out one and lifted the lid.The bottom was covered with a sheet of thin cork,and on long pins sticking in it were large,velvet-winged moths.Each one was labelled,always there were two of a kind,in many cases four,showing under and upper wings of both male and female.

They were of every colour and shape.

Mrs.Comstock caught her breath sharply.When and where had Elnora found them?They were the most exquisite sight the woman ever had seen,so she opened all the boxes to feast on their beautiful contents.As she did so there came more fully a sense of the distance between her and her child.She could not understand how Elnora had gone to school,and performed so much work secretly.

When it was finished,to the last moth,she,the mother who should have been the first confidant and helper,had been the one to bring disappointment.Small wonder Elnora had come to hate her.

Mrs.Comstock carefully closed and replaced the boxes;and again stood looking around the room.This time her eyes rested on some books she did not remember having seen before,so she picked up one and found that it was a moth book.She glanced over the first pages and was soon eagerly reading.When the text reached the classification of species,she laid it down,took up another and read the introductory chapters.By that time her brain was in a confused jumble of ideas about capturing moths with differing baits and bright lights.

She went down stairs thinking deeply.Being unable to sit still and having nothing else to do she glanced at the clock and began preparing supper.The work dragged.

A chicken was snatched up and dressed hurriedly.A spice cake sprang into being.Strawberries that had been intended for preserves went into shortcake.Delicious odours crept from the cabin.She put many extra touches on the table and then commenced watching the road.

Everything was ready,but Elnora did not come.Then began the anxious process of trying to keep cooked food warm and not spoil it.The birds went to bed and dusk came.

Mrs.Comstock gave up the fire and set the supper on the table.Then she went out and sat on the front-door step watching night creep around her.She started eagerly as the gate creaked,but it was only Wesley Sinton coming.

"Katharine,Margaret and Elnora passed where I was working this afternoon,and Margaret got out of the carriage and called me to the fence.She told me what she had done.I've come to say to you that I am sorry.She has heard me threaten to do it a good many times,but Inever would have got it done.I'd give a good deal if Icould undo it,but I can't,so I've come to tell you how sorry I am.""You've got something to be sorry for,"said Mrs.Comstock,"but likely we ain't thinking of the same thing.It hurts me less to know the truth,than to live in ignorance.

If Mag had the sense of a pewee,she'd told me long ago.

That's what hurts me,to think that both of you knew Robert was not worth an hour of honest grief,yet you'd let me mourn him all these years and neglect Elnora while Idid it.If I have anything to forgive you,that is what it is."Wesley removed his hat and sat on a bench.

"Katharine,"he said solemnly,"nobody ever knows how to take you.""Would it be asking too much to take me for having a few grains of plain common sense?"she inquired."You've known all this time that Comstock got what he deserved,when he undertook to sneak in an unused way across a swamp,with which he was none too familiar.Now Ishould have thought that you'd figure that knowing the same thing would be the best method to cure me of pining for him,and slighting my child.""Heaven only knows we have thought of that,and talked of it often,but we were both too big cowards.

We didn't dare tell you."

"So you have gone on year after year,watching me show indifference to Elnora,and yet a little horse-sense would have pointed out to you that she was my salvation.

Why look at it!Not married quite a year.All his vows of love and fidelity made to me before the Almighty forgotten in a few months,and a dance and a Light Woman so alluring he had to lie and sneak for them.What kind of a prospect is that for a life?I know men and women.