Jan Vedder's Wife Part 2

Then she slipped out of the front door, and went with fleet steps into the town. The street, which was so narrow that it was possible to shake hands across it, was dark and empty. The shops were all shut, and the living rooms looked mostly into the closes, or out to the sea.

Only here and there a lighted square of gla.s.s made her shrink into the shadow of the gables. But she made her way without hindrance to a house near the main quay. It was well lighted, and there was the sound and stir of music and singing, of noisy conversation and laughter within it.

Indeed, it was Ragon Torr's inn. The front windows were uncurtained, and she saw, as she hurriedly pa.s.sed them, that the main room was full of company; but she did not pause until within the close at the side of the house, when, standing in the shadow of the outbuilt chimney, she peered cautiously through the few small squares on that side. It was as she suspected. Jan sat in the very center of the company, his handsome face all aglow with smiles, his hands busily tuning the violin he held. Torr and half a dozen sailors bent toward him with admiring looks, and Ragon's wife Barbara, going to and fro in her household duties, stopped to say something to him, at which every body laughed, but Jan's face darkened.

Margaret did not hear her name, but she felt sure the remark had been about herself, and her heart burned with anger. She was turning away, when there was a cry of pleasure, and Suneva Torr entered. Margaret had always disliked Suneva; she felt now that she hated and feared her. Her luring eyes were dancing with pleasure, her yellow hair fell in long, loose waves around her, and she went to Jan's side, put her hand on his shoulder, and said something to him.

Jan looked back, and up to her, and nodded brightly to her request.

Then out sprang the tingling notes from the strings, and clear, and shrill, and musical, Suneva's voice picked them up with a charming distinctness:

"Well, then, since we are welcome to Yool, Up with it, Lightfoot, link it awa', boys; Send for a fiddler, play up the Foula reel, And we'll skip it as light as a maw, boys."

Then she glanced at the men, and her father and mother, and far in the still night rang out the stirring chorus:

"The Shaalds of Foula will pay for it a'!

Up with it, Lightfoot, and link it awa'."

Then the merry riot ceased, and Suneva's voice again took up the song--

"Now for a light and a pot of good beer, Up with it, Lightfoot, and link it awa', boys!

We'll drink a good fis.h.i.+ng against the New Year, And the Shaalds of Foula will pay for it a', boys.

CHORUS:

"The Shaalds of Foula will pay for it a'; Up with it, Lightfoot, and link it awa'."

Margaret could bear it no longer, and, white and stern, she turned away from the window. Then she saw Michael Snorro standing beside her.

Even in the darkness she knew that his eyes were scintillating with anger. He took her by the arm and led her to the end of the close.

Then he said:

"Much of a woman art thou! If I was Jan Vedder, never again would I see thy face! No, never!"

"Jan lied to me! To me, his wife! Did thou think he was at my father's? He is in Ragon Torr's."

"Thou lied to me also; and if Jan is in Ragon Torr's, let me tell thee, that thou sent him there."

"I lied not to thee. I lie to no one."

"Yea, but thou told Elga to lie for thee. A jealous wife knows not what she does. Did thou go to thy father's house?"

"Speak thou no more to me, Michael Snorro." Then she sped up the street, holding her breast tightly with both hands, as if to hold back the sobs that were choking her, until she reached her own room, and locked fast her door. She sobbed for hours with all the pa.s.sionate abandon which is the readiest relief of great sorrows that come in youth. In age we know better; we bow the head and submit.

When she had quite exhausted herself, she began to long for some comforter, some one to whom she could tell her trouble. But Margaret had few acquaintances; none, among the few, of whom she could make a confidant. From her father and mother, above all others, she would keep this humiliation. G.o.d she had never thought of as a friend. He was her Creator, her Redeemer, also, if it were his good pleasure to save her from eternal death. He was the Governor of the Universe; but she knew him not as a Father pitying his children, as a G.o.d tender to a broken heart. Was it possible that a woman's sharp cry of wounded love could touch the Eternal? She never dreamed of such a thing. At length, weary with weeping and with her own restlessness, she sat down before the red peats upon the hearth, for once, in her sorrowful preoccupation, forgetting her knitting.

In the meantime, Snorro had entered Torr's, and asked for Jan. He would take no excuse, and no promises, and his white, stern face, and silent way of sitting apart, with his head in his hands, was soon felt to be a very uncomfortable influence. Jan rose moodily, and went away with him; too cross, until they reached the store, to ask, "Why did thou come and spoil my pleasure, Snorro?"

"Neil Bork sails for Vool at the midnight tide. Thou told me thou must send a letter by him to thy cousin Magnus."

"That is so. Since Peter will do nothing, I must seek help of Magnus.

Well, then, I will write the letter."

When it was finished, Jan said, "Snorro, who told thee I was at Torr's?"

"Thou wert not at home. I went there, first."

"Then thou hast made trouble for me, be sure of that. My wife thought that thou wast ill."

"It is a bad wife a man must lie to. But, oh, Jan! Jan! To think that for any woman thou would tell the lie!"

Then Jan, being in that garrulous mood which often precedes intoxication, would have opened his whole heart to Michael about his domestic troubles; but Michael would not listen to him. "Shut thy mouth tight on that subject," he said angrily. "I will hear neither good nor bad of Margaret Vedder. Now, then, I will walk home with thee, and then I will see Neil Bork, and give him thy letter."

Margaret heard their steps at the gate. Her face grew white and cold as ice, and her heart hardened at the sound of Snorro's voice. She had always despised him; now, for his interference with her, she hated him. She could not tolerate Jan's attachment to a creature so rude and simple. It was almost an insult to herself; and yet so truthfully did she judge his heart, that she was quite certain Michael Snorro would never tell Jan that she had watched him through Ragon Torr's window.

She blushed a moment at the memory of so mean an action, but instantly and angrily defended it to her own heart.

Jan came in, with the foolish, good-natured smile of alcoholic excitement. But when he saw Margaret's white, hard face, he instantly became sulky and silent. "Where hast thou been, Jan?" she asked. "It is near the midnight."

"I have been about my own business. I had some words to send by Neil Bork to my cousin Magnus. Neil sails by the midnight tide."

She laughed scornfully. "Thy cousin Magnus! Pray, what shall he do for thee? This is some new cousin, surely!"

"Well, then, since thy father keeps thy tocher from me, I must borrow of my own kin."

"As for that, my father hath been better to thee than thou deservest.

Why didst thou lie to me concerning Snorro? He has had no fever. No, indeed!"

"A man must ask his wife whether he can speak truth to her, or not.

Thou can not bear it. Very well, then, I must lie to thee."

"Yet, be sure, I will tell the truth to thee, Jan Vedder. Thou hast been at Ragon Torr's, singing with a light woman, and drinking with--"

"With my own kin. I advise thee to say nothing against them. As for Suneva, there is no tongue in Lerwick but thine will speak evil of her--she is a good girl, and she hath a kind heart. And now, then, who told thee I was at Torr's?"

He asked the question repeatedly, and instead of answering it, Margaret began to justify herself. "Have I not been to thee a good wife? Has not thy house been kept well, and thy meals ever good and ready for thee? Has any thing, great or little, gone to waste?"

"Thou hast been too good. It had been better if thou had been less perfect; then I could have spoken to thee of my great wish, and thou would have said, as others say, 'Jan, it would be a joy to see thee at the main-mast, or casting the ling-lines, or running into harbor before the storm, with every sail set, as though thou had stolen s.h.i.+p and lading.' Thou would not want me to chaffer with old women about geese-feathers and bird-eggs. Speak no more. I am heavy with sleep."

And he could sleep! That was such an aggravation of his offense. She turned sometimes and looked at his handsome flushed face, but otherwise she sat hour after hour silent and almost motionless, her hands clasped upon her knee, her heart antic.i.p.ative of wrong, and with a perverse industry considering sorrows that had not as yet even called to her. Alas! alas! the unhappy can never persuade themselves that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

CHAPTER III.

JAN'S OPPORTUNITY.

"Thou broad-billowed sea, Never sundered from thee, May I wander the welkin below; May the plash and the roar Of the waves on the sh.o.r.e Beat the march to my feet as I go; Ever strong, ever free, When the breath of the sea, Like the fan of an angel, I know; Ever rising with power, To the call of the hour, Like the swell of the tides as they flow."

--BLACKIE.