So we all put our pocket-handkerchiefs to our faces,as if our noses were bleeding,and filed out two and two; Joe and I;Biddy and Pumblechook; Mr. and Mrs. Hubble.The remains of my poor sister had been brought round by the kitchen door,and, it being a point of Undertaking ceremony that the six bearers must be stifled and blinded under a horrible black velvet housing with a white border, the whole looked like a blind monster with twelve human legs, shuffling and blundering along, under the guidance of two keepers,—the postboy and his comrade.
The neighbourhood, however,highly approved of these arrangements,and we were much admired as we went through the village;the more youthful and vigorous part of the community making dashes now and then to cut us off, and lying in wait to intercept us at points of vantage. At such times the more exuberant among them called out in an excited manner on our emergence round some corner of expectancy, “_Here_ they come!” “_Here_ they are!” and we were all but cheered.In this progress I was much annoyed by the abject Pumblechook,who, being behind me,persisted all the way as a delicate attention in arranging my streaming hatband, and smoothing my cloak. My thoughts were further distracted by the excessive pride of Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, who were surpassingly conceited and vainglorious in being members of so distinguished a procession.
And now the range of marshes lay clear before us,with the sails of the ships on the river growing out of it;and we went into the churchyard,close to the graves of my unknown parents,Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and Also Georgiana,Wife of the Above. And there,my sister was laid quietly in the earth,while the larks sang high above it,and the light wind strewed it with beautiful shadows of clouds and trees.
Of the conduct of the worldly minded Pumblechook while this was doing,I desire to say no more than it was all addressed to me;and that even when those noble passages were read which remind humanity how it brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out, and how it fleeth like a shadow and never continueth long in one stay, I heard him cough a reservation of the case of a young gentleman who came unexpectedly into large property. When we got back, he had the hardihood to tell me that he wished my sister could have known I had done her so much honour, and to hint that she would have considered it reasonably purchased at the price of her death. After that, he drank all the rest of the sherry, and Mr. Hubble drank the port, and the two talked (which I have since observed to be customary in such cases) as if they were of quite another race from the deceased, and were notoriously immortal. Finally, he went away with Mr. and Mrs. Hubble,—to make an evening of it, I felt sure, and to tell the Jolly Bargemen that he was the founder of my fortunes and my earliest benefactor.
When they were all gone,and when Trabb and his men—but not his Boy;I looked for him—had crammed their mummery into bags,and were gone too, the house felt wholesomer.Soon afterwards, Biddy, Joe, and I,had a cold dinner together;but we dined in the best parlour,not in the old kitchen,and Joe was so exceedingly particular what he did with his knife and fork and the saltcellar and what not, that there was great restraint upon us. But after dinner, when I made him take his pipe, and when I had loitered with him about the forge, and when we sat down together on the great block of stone outside it, we got on better. I noticed that after the funeral Joe changed his clothes so far, as to make a compromise between his Sunday dress and working dress; in which the dear fellow looked natural, and like the Man he was.
He was very much pleased by my asking if I might sleep in my own little room,and I was pleased too;for I felt that I had done rather a great thing in making the request.When the shadows of evening were closing in,I took an opportunity of getting into the garden with Biddy for a little talk.
“Biddy,” said I, “I think you might have written to me about these sad matters. ”
“Do you, Mr. Pip?” said Biddy. “I should have written if I had thought that. ”
“Don’t suppose that I mean to be unkind, Biddy,when I say I consider that you ought to have thought that. ”
“Do you, Mr. Pip?”
She was so quiet, and had such an orderly, good,and pretty way with her,that I did not like the thought of making her cry again.After looking a little at her downcast eyes as she walked beside me,I gave up that point.
“I suppose it will be difficult for you to remain here now, Biddy dear?”
“Oh!I can’t do so, Mr. Pip,” said Biddy,in a tone of regret but still of quiet conviction.“I have been speaking to Mrs. Hubble,and I am going to her to-morrow.I hope we shall be able to take some care of Mr.Gargery, together, until he settles down.”
“How are you going to live, Biddy?If you want any mo—”
“How am I going to live?” repeated Biddy, striking in,with a momentary flush upon her face. “I’ll tell you,Mr. Pip. I am going to try to get the place of mistress in the new school nearly finished here. I can be well recommended by all the neighbours, and I hope I can be industrious and patient, and teach myself while I teach others. You know, Mr. Pip,” pursued Biddy, with a smile, as she raised her eyes to my face, “the new schools are not like the old, but I learnt a good deal from you after that time, and have had time since then to improve.”
“I think you would always improve, Biddy,under any circumstances.”
“Ah!Except in my bad side of human nature,” murmured Biddy.
It was not so much a reproach as an irresistible thinking aloud. Well!I thought I would give up that point too. So,I walked a little further with Biddy,looking silently at her downcast eyes.
“I have not heard the particulars of my sister’s death, Biddy.”
“They are very slight, poor thing.She had been in one of her bad states—though they had got better of late,rather than worse—for four days,when she came out of it in the evening,just at tea-time, and said quite plainly, ‘Joe.’ As she had never said any word for a long while,I ran and fetched in Mr. Gargery from the forge.She made signs to me that she wanted him to sit down close to her,and wanted me to put her arms round his neck.So I put them round his neck,and she laid her head down on his shoulder quite content and satisfied.And so she presently said ‘Joe’ again,and once ‘Pardon,’ and once ‘Pip.’ And so she never lifted her head up any more,and it was just an hour later when we laid it down on her own bed,because we found she was gone.”
Biddy cried; the darkening garden, and the lane,and the stars that were coming out,were blurred in my own sight.
“Nothing was ever discovered, Biddy?”
“Nothing.”
“Do you know what is become of Orlick?”
“I should think from the colour of his clothes that he is working in the quarries.”
“Of course you have seen him then?—Why are you looking at that dark tree in the lane?”
“I saw him there, on the night she died.”
“That was not the last time either, Biddy?”
“No; I have seen him there,since we have been walking here.—It is of no use,” said Biddy, laying her hand upon my arm,as I was for running out,“you know I would not deceive you;he was not there a minute, and he is gone.”
It revived my utmost indignation to find that she was still pursued by this fellow, and I felt inveterate against him. I told her so, and told her that I would spend any money or take any pains to drive him out of that country. By degrees she led me into more temperate talk, and she told me how Joe loved me, and how Joe never complained of anything,—she didn’t say, of me; she had no need; I knew what she meant,—but ever did his duty in his way of life, with a strong hand, a quiet tongue, and a gentle heart.