Richard Dowling

“ Do you know, I think Jerry O'Brien is half in love with this beautiful widow! I'll ask him to come with me, I will; and you, good-natured fool, may sit within and catch the airs and graces of early widowhood, though I don't think they'll ever be of any use to you. You're certain to die an old maid. Alfred can't keep his eyes off her. It's a pity we haven't that nice Mr. Blake here--her old sweetheart. There, Madge, I don't mean a word I say, especially about Jerry O'Brien. I know he's madly in love with me. ”

“ Young Paulton was not yet as strong as he imagined, and the monotonous sound and motion soon fatigued him, and he fell asleep.
Although O'Brien kept his eyes resolutely shut he never felt more wakeful in his life.
What on earth could this woman want with this man of most blemished reputation and desperate fortune? She had seen him lately, and he had told her something of the mysterious appearance near the Puffing Hole; but it was not until after they had started from Euston that she had made up her mind to summon him to Ireland. What could she want him for? ”

“ You may not care about your life, Mr. O'Brien, but I have people looking to me. You're independent, and can do what you like; but neither for you nor any other man will I go nearer than I think safe to the Whale's Mouth. The Red Gap is bad enough at this time of year; but not at this time of year or any other will I have anything to do with that cursed hole in the Black Rock here. Now, sir, am I to put about?"
"I think you're taking leave of your senses, Phelan," said Jerry, testily. "What on earth put it into your head I wanted to go into the Whale's Mouth? ”

“ I am now without money--I do not mean," she said, flushing slightly, "for the present moment, for a month or two--but I am without any money on which I can rely for my support. I shall have to begin life again--or, rather, begin it for the first time. I shall have to work for my living, just as any other widow who is left alone without provision. This is very plain speaking, but the position is simple."
"But, my dear Mrs. Davenport, you must not in this way give yourself up to despair," said Mr. Paulton, as he rose and stood beside her. ”

“ That day, when the two girls left the back room, they went straight to Madge's, where they talked over the arrival of Jerry O'Brien, for whom Edith strongly suspected Madge had a warmer feeling than friendship, and who, she felt morally certain, greatly to her secret delight, was over head and ears in love with Madge. The only human being in whom she had infinite faith was Madge. She did not consider any hero or conqueror of history good enough for her sister. ”

“ No one moved. No sound informed the silence but the hiss of the torch and the profound sighs of distant, impenetrable hollows.
The water illumined near the boat looked trustworthy, denser than water, a ruddy platform with shadowy verge. No undulation moved over its face save a dulling ripple caused by the boat's imperceptible motion. The boat and figures in it seemed the golden boss of a fiery brazen shield hung in a night of chaos.
Alfred Paulton put his hand outward and downward. It touched the gleaming surface of the water. He drew his hand back with a start. ”

“ Under the pressure of his great joy, he had told O'Brien of his love for Mrs. Davenport, and all arrangements had, at his request, been made for their setting off to-morrow. She must go to-morrow. While there is life there is hope. He was hoping against hope; but accidents did happen in many cases, and might happen in this one. No man was bound to despair; in fact, despair was cowardly and unmanly. It was the duty of every man to hope, and he would hope. He would go to Ireland to-morrow; he would put his chance against Blake's. ”

“ During the first few weeks of her married life no stranger ever crossed the threshold of Kilcash House.
Now a tall, gaunt, humble-mannered man, of slow, soft speech and unpretending ways, was often with Mr. Davenport for a long time in the day, sometimes far into the night, The husband never took the wife into his business confidence, and the wife had no curiosity whatever. But from odd words she gathered that this young man, whose name was Michael Fahey, depended on her husband, and was helped and received by him because of some old ties between the families of both. ”

“ The waters of the bay moved inward with a silken ripple that scarcely stirred the yawl as she glided slowly onward. When she reached the open water beyond the bay, and headed first south and then east, she met the long, even Atlantic roller, which glided towards her and under her as silently and gently as a summer's breeze. No sound broke the plenteous silence but the ripple of the water against the sides, the snap of the oars in the rowlocks, and the dull beat of the waves against the foam-footed crags. No ship, no boat, no bird was in view. ”

“ Against what was her husband secure? To say he was secure against Fahey's admiration for her would be the height of gratuitous absurdity. She cared no more for the young man than for any misty figure in a fable. He must be mad; yes, that was it. That supposition made all simple--explained everything.
It was night when her husband returned. She, remembering Fahey's caution, and bearing in mind that walls have ears, went to the gate of the grounds, and there met Davenport. He had heard of Fahey's fate. ”

“ She put those questions in a placid tone, and showed no impatience or scorn.
"No," he said, shaking with conflicting passions, "I do not want your purse. If I wanted money, I could have had as much as any man could care for out of your husband's purse. I have enough for myself. You cured me of the love of money, and put another love in its place. Give me your hand, or fire."
She raised her hand quickly, and flung the revolver from her over the cliff. It fell on the Black Rock beneath. ”

“ I'll go see Jim Phelan, and get him to launch his boat."
"Capital!" cried Alfred, who was in that state of convalescence when the daily addition to physical strength begets a desire to use it and yields indestructible buoyancy. "I should like a good long-sail of all things--or, indeed, a good pull. I'm sure I could manage an oar nearly as well as ever."
"Nonsense!" said Jerry, dogmatically. "I will not be accessory to your murder, or allow you to commit suicide in my presence. I have had enough of inquests for my natural life. It's too cold for sailing, and you're not strong enough for rowing. ”

“ Davenport's visit to the Black Rock that day had not been one of mere curiosity, although nothing of import to her life was likely to result from it. Her career was over, if, indeed, it might be said ever to have begun.
In her younger days she had been abandoned by the only man she had ever loved, and wed to a man whom she never loved, whom she could not even esteem. ”

“ On impulse, Alfred rose in the boat, and took off his hat and bowed.
She returned his salute, and without a moment's pause drew back from the edge on which she had been standing, and disappeared from view.
"Mrs. Davenport!" said Phelan, forgetting his ill-humour in his surprise. "What a place for a lady to be all by herself! I thought Mrs. Davenport was away somewhere in foreign parts."
Alfred sat down. The boatmen had resumed their oars, and the yawl was gliding steadily through the water.
"Is the Rock really dangerous at this time?" asked Alfred anxiously of Phelan. ”

“ We'll walk as far as the Palace, and if you get separated from us, and see me holding my umbrella out from my side on two fingers--this way--just don't come near us, and you shall be my bridesmaid, and Jerry shall give you a present of a bracelet representing a brazen widow sitting on a silver salmon. There's the bell! Madge, love, I'm not a beast, only a brute. There!--I won't be rude again, and I'll try and rather like Mrs. Davenport. She'll be a neighbour of mine, you know, when I'm married to Jerry. ”

“ O'Brien's thoughts had now gone back to their ordinary course. If this light came from anywhere near the Black Rock, might it not have something to do with the Puffing Hole?
The question was fascinating, alluring. It might prove a beacon to discovery.
"Where do you think it is from, Phelan?" he asked, in a whisper.
"Somewhere near the Black Rock. I can't say exactly where."
"What do you believe it is?"
"A corpse-candle. The corpse-candle of the men that the Rock killed."
"Nonsense! You ought to know better. A corpse-candle is not for the dead--it's for the living." ”

“ Advise me. You know more of me than any other living being. Shall I die?"
Still he could not speak. Her question came to his ears as though it were something apart from her personality and his consideration--as though it were a tedious impertinence rising from an indifferent source. Although he knew he was in that room with the widow of Louis Davenport, and that she had just said she believed Fahey was alive, and had killed her husband from jealousy, he could not give the situation substantial form. ”

“ You are still quite young. Many a woman does not begin her life until she is older than you."
"I am thirty-four, and that is not young for one to begin life."
"But, may I ask," said Mr. Paulton, "how it is that the will becomes inoperative? How is it that you cannot avail yourself of your husband's bequests?"
"My reasons for not taking my husband's money must, for the present--I hope for ever--remain with myself. Mr. Blake has told me certain things, and I have found out others myself. ”

“ No sea looks very terrifying in a calm," said Jerry, sharply.
He had not yet quite recovered from the passage of arms with Phelan. The boatman had annoyed him by extravagantly over-estimating the dangers and powers of the chasm, and Paulton now ruffled him by seeming to make nothing of them.
Slowly but surely the torch was carried towards the Whale's Mouth. Slowly at first, but more quickly as it approached the rock, more quickly as it approached the cave. Second by second the rate increased, until, when it reached the Mouth and disappeared, it was hurrying on as fast as a man could walk. ”

“ And then fancy any "young man" of fifty-six putting his arm round Madge, and administering even a stage kiss to his darling! The thing was preposterous, and not to be entertained by any sane mind.
Coffee was sent into the dining-room, and the whole household retired early.
Alfred's reflections that night were the reverse of pleasant. He had that day seen the woman he loved. She had come before his eyes as unsought as the flowery pageant of summer. She had filled his heart with tropical heat, had set fancy dancing in his head, and restored strength and vigour to his invalid body. ”

“ A long story of the detestable villainy of the Fishery Commissioners had to be first and foremost related to Madge. Considering that she did not know what a weir was, and had never seen a salmon except on the table or the marble slab of a fish-shop, and that according to her notion the appearance of a Commissioner was something between a beefeater of the Tower of London and a Brighton boatman, she listened with great patience, and made remarks which caused Jerry to laugh sometimes, and plunge into profound technicalities at others. ”

“ Davenport, if Mr. Blake followed you to Kilcash?"
"I am quite sure," she said, decisively, "that it would be best for me to stay in Dublin for the present."
"If you simply wanted rest, we could wait for you a day or two," said Alfred, out of whose face all look of animation had gone.
"Thank you, I am not in the least tired; and if you will get me a cab, and tell the man to drive me to the 'Tourists', you will greatly oblige me." ”