“If I’d supposed you’d ‘a’
made any objection to Jotham Powell’s driving
me over-” she began again, as though his silence
had implied refusal. On the brink of departure
she was always seized with a flux of words. “All
I know is,” she continued, “I can’t
go on the way I am much longer. The pains are
clear away down to my ankles now, or I’d ‘a’
walked in to Starkfield on my own feet, sooner’n
put you out, and asked Michael Eady to let me ride
over on his wagon to the Flats, when he sends to meet
the train that brings his groceries. I’d
‘a’ had two hours to wait in the station,
but I’d sooner ‘a’ done it, even
with this cold, than to have you say-”
“Of course Jotham’ll drive you over,”
Ethan roused himself to answer. He became suddenly
conscious that he was looking at Mattie while Zeena
talked to him, and with an effort he turned his eyes
to his wife. She sat opposite the window, and
the pale light reflected from the banks of snow made
her face look more than usually drawn and bloodless,
sharpened the three parallel creases between ear and
cheek, and drew querulous lines from her thin nose
to the corners of her mouth. Though she was but
seven years her husband’s senior, and he was
only twenty-eight, she was already an old woman.
Ethan tried to say something befitting the occasion,
but there was only one thought in his mind: the
fact that, for the first time since Mattie had come
to live with them, Zeena was to be away for a night.
He wondered if the girl were thinking of it too....
He knew that Zeena must be wondering why he did not
offer to drive her to the Flats and let Jotham Powell
take the lumber to Starkfield, and at first he could
not think of a pretext for not doing so; then he said:
“I’d take you over myself, only I’ve
got to collect the cash for the lumber.”
As soon as the words were spoken he regretted them,
not only because they were untrue-there being no prospect
of his receiving cash payment from Hale-but also because
he knew from experience the imprudence of letting
Zeena think he was in funds on the eve of one of her
therapeutic excursions. At the moment, however,
his one desire was to avoid the long drive with her
behind the ancient sorrel who never went out of a
walk.
Zeena made no reply: she did not seem to hear
what he had said. She had already pushed her
plate aside, and was measuring out a draught from
a large bottle at her elbow.
“It ain’t done me a speck of good, but
I guess I might as well use it up,” she remarked;
adding, as she pushed the empty bottle toward Mattie:
“If you can get the taste out it’ll do
for pickles.”
IV
As soon as his wife had driven off Ethan took his
coat and cap from the peg. Mattie was washing
up the dishes, humming one of the dance tunes of the
night before. He said “So long, Matt,”
and she answered gaily “So long, Ethan”;
and that was all.
