haggard and weary, joan turned her back upon her old home, and struggled on against the wind towards rilchester and the sea. brave woman that she was, the tragic hour beside her father’s bed had benumbed her courage and deepened the forebodings that crowded upon her heart. she had gone hungry since the morning, and for the last two months she had faced starvation with gabriel in the great city. as she held on against the whirling wind under the gray and hurrying sky, her strength began to ebb from her like wine from some cracked and splendid vase. her feet lagged along the broad high-road as the wind moaned and the rain beat in her face.
coming to the cross-roads where the highway from saltire curled from the woods, she sank down on a granite heap under the shelter of the hedge. in the utter distress of the hour, she still held her old straw hat forgotten in her right hand. great faintness came over her as she sat there half sheltered from the wind. with trembling fingers she unfastened the collar of her dress, and bowed her head down almost to her knees.
it was as joan grieved thus with her golden head adroop under the sullen sky that one of those strange crossings of the threads of fate knitted two destinies into one common coil. from rilchester up the long, listless road came the slim figure of a woman, clad in gray with a knot of violets over her bosom, and her pale face turned wistfully towards the heavens. it was judith strong who walked with the wind, returning from one of those long rambles she and gabriel had enjoyed of old. the days had passed very heavily for judith since her brother’s tragedy. she loved to be alone amid the woods and by the sea, brooding on the strange sadnesses of life, its lost ideals, and its broken dreams.
judith, coming to the cross-roads, saw the bowed figure throned on the heap of stones under the hedge. there was something so forlorn and piteous about the woman seated there that judith stood still, forgetful of her own sad thoughts. she saw the bowed head, the hanging hands, the desolate pose of the whole figure. her woman’s sympathy awoke at once, for those who have grieved are quick to discover grief.
joan, hearing footsteps on the road, looked up and turned her face to the mild, questioning eyes that stared her over. judith had halted by the grass. some hidden flash of sympathy seemed to leap instinctively from heart to heart. where had they met and touched before? what common bitterness had smitten both? there were vague memories in judith’s mind, a prophetic instinct that seemed to tell of all the sadness they had known together.
the two women looked into each other’s eyes with one long, unwavering look that hid some mystery from them both. judith was the first to break the silence. she might have passed on, but that was not a true woman’s way.
“are you ill? let me help you.”
at the sound of that voice, so like gabriel’s in its mellow tone, a wave of color warmed joan’s face, for she half guessed who stood before her. there were the same clear eyes, the same delicate features, pure and mobile, sensitive as light. yet joan’s heart failed her for the moment; her pride was quick in her despite her misery.
“i am tired,” she said, hanging her head a little, “and have walked too far. i shall be better soon.”
to judith there was a pathos in the voice that made her heart open like a budding rose. some deep instinct urged her on, to take rebuffs if they should come.
“have i not seen your face before?”
drawing near, she sat down beside joan on the stones. the move was too sudden to be prevented. yet joan would not look into judith’s eyes, but drew her wet cloak round her and hardened her heart.
“i am only tired,” she said; “please do not trouble over me. i shall be strong again when i have rested.”
judith touched the other’s cloak.
“why, you are drenched!” she said; “have you far to go?”
there were lines as of pain about joan’s mouth; she shivered in the wind and seemed to strive for her breath.
“to rilchester,” she said, “and then—”
“and then?”
“to london, if i can catch a night train.”
there was sudden silence between them, such a silence that their very hearts seemed to beat in rhythm, one with another. judith’s eyes were full of light, a lustre of pity as though she guessed some part of the sorrow the other bore. her heart grew full of dim surmises like a sky half smitten with the dawn.
“to london?” she asked.
joan did not answer her.
“you must not go to-night or you will catch your death chill. have you not got a home near?”
then, like the breaking of gossamer by too heavy a dew, joan’s courage seemed to fail her of a sudden and she broke into piteous weeping. no petulant child’s tears were they, but the grief of one whose cup of suffering was full. judith’s words had shaken her very soul. she covered her wet face with her hands and bowed her head down over her knees.
as for judith, the strong presence of such grief as this stirred to the deeps her woman’s nature. a meaner woman would have fallen to texts, or to juggling glibly with god’s name. judith’s heart beat straight towards the truth, and she did not squander empty words.
putting her arm about joan’s waist, she drew her close to her, even into her bosom, feeling the intake of her breath under the damp clothes and the rain-drenched cloak.
“tell me,” she said, “what troubles you. am i not a woman, also? may i not have some share in this?”
joan took her hands from before her face. in her eyes there burned a new courage, shining through a mist of tears. should she not tell the truth for good or evil, silence this friend, or challenge her full trust?
“tell me,” she said, “are you judith strong?”
“i am judith strong.”
“and i am joan—joan gildersedge.”
the two women sat and looked into each other’s eyes, as though each were striving to read the other’s thoughts. judith’s arm rested on joan’s shoulder. she did not flinch from her or turn away.
perhaps joan felt the earnest searching of judith’s eyes, eyes that watched a brother’s honor. the fear of her condemnation grew great within joan’s heart, the dread that calumny had outpaced her here.
“yes, i am joan gildersedge,” she said, speaking as though her breath were short, with sharp pauses between each sentence; “you know all, yes, don’t speak to me yet. gabriel—gabriel and i went away together; for when they accused us falsely my father turned me from my home. gabriel, who is always noble, surrendered all for my sake, and we lived together through those awful days. they said i ruined him; but no, no, it was not i who ruined gabriel, but those who lied and perjured the whole truth. gabriel was always noble, and he loved me, and i him.”
judith swept out her right hand as though to clasp her, but joan’s hand put her back.
“listen,” she said, still speaking breathlessly, “for i would have you hear the whole. gabriel and i—gabriel and i hid ourselves in london and tried to live as best we could. we had but little money, and no work came. soon we began to starve and starve, and in my anguish for him i came here again to see my father, even that he might take pity on us and give us help. but no; though he is dying, he turned me away with curses. and that is why i sit here in the rain.”
there was a clear light in judith’s eyes, like the light in a mother’s eyes whose pride is perfected in her child. she set both her hands upon joan’s shoulders, held her at arm’s-length, and looked into her face.
“joan gildersedge,” she said.
“judith.”
“well did i know my brother’s heart; now i know also the full reason of his great love. were i a man, should i not love you even as gabriel loves? come, you are my sister, and i am proud of it.”
silently, while the wind whistled over the hedgerows, these two good women looked long into each other’s eyes. the tears were dry upon joan’s cheeks, but on judith’s lashes there were fresh tears. bending herself, she kissed joan gildersedge upon the mouth, held both her hands clasped fast between her own.
“that men have lied,” she said, “i believe full well, since i have seen you, i who am gabriel’s sister. yet is there not joy in such a grief as this, since love has triumphed over wrong and pain?”
joan looked at her, even as one who sees pure water bubbling in a desert place.
“i had not thought that any could believe,” she said, “for the whole world seems built upon distrust.”
judith took the wet cloak from joan’s shoulders. her own gray coat was dry, for she had sheltered from the showers under the trees. she gave it to joan and would not be rebuked therefrom.
“to london,” she said, “you must not go to-night.”
joan blushed, touched by an act that had more honest sympathy than had a hundred words. since she was weary and tired at heart, such tyranny was very sweet.
“but what of gabriel?” she asked.
“gabriel can wait,” judith answered her, with a smile; “you are my charge, and i will play my brother’s keeper. shall i risk your health on such a night! no, i have come by other plans. can you walk with me one short mile?”
some faint color had risen to joan’s cheeks. she stood up like one half dazed, one hand still clasped in judith’s, the other holding her wet skirt.
“where shall i go?” she asked.
“come; leave the where to me.”
not a mile from the cross-roads towards saltire lived an old widow whom judith had mothered in her winter years. the widow’s cottage was set back from the road amid trees and meadows, all alone. to this same cottage judith took joan that windy evening, like some kind fairy radiant in doing good. she would lodge joan there for her sake and for gabriel’s, and tread the dream-path she herself had made.
thus these two, sisters in charity, came that evening to the little cottage and knocked at the door under the tiled porch. judith went in while joan waited in the twilight. she heard the voice of gabriel’s sister conjuring for her comfort in the cottage room. nor did the old woman hesitate to comply, for judith’s asking was law with the honest poor.
widow milton was soon laying wood in the parlor grate and setting a chair for the drying of joan’s wet clothes. judith came out to gabriel’s wife in the twilight, with a wonderful smile on her pale face.
“go in, sister,” she said, “the old lady can be trusted. stay, promise me, till i come again.”
and joan promised, with her arms about judith’s neck.
