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Page 31
Mr. May, learning that most of the house party could not depart
until the following morning, absented himself from dinner; indeed,
he spent his time almost entirely with his boy, and when night
came kept vigil beside him. Something of the strange possession
of his mind already appeared, in curious hints that puzzled Sir
Walter; but it was not until after the post-mortem examination
and inquest that his extraordinary views were elaborated.
Millicent Fayre-Michell and her uncle were the first to depart on
the following day. The girl harbored a grievance.
"Surely Mary might have seen me a moment to say 'Good-bye,'" she
said. "It's a very dreadful thing, but we've been so sympathetic
and understanding about it that I think they ought to feel rather
grateful. They might realize how trying it is for us, too. And
to let me go without even seeing her--she saw Mrs. Travers over
and over again."
"Do not mind. Grief makes people selfish," declared Felix.
"Probably we should not have acted so. I think we should have
hidden our sufferings and faced our duty; but perhaps we are
exceptional. I dare say Mrs. May will write and express regret and
gratitude later. We must allow for her youth and sorrow."
Mr. Fayre-Michell rather prided himself on the charity of this
conclusion.
When Mr. and Mrs. Travers departed, Sir Walter bade them farewell.
The lady wept, and her tears fell on his hand as he held it. She
was hysterical.
"For Heaven's sake don't let Mary be haunted by that dreadful
priest," she said. "There is something terrible about him. He
has no bowels of compassion. I tried to console him for the loss
of his son, and he turned upon me as if I were weak-minded."
"I had to tell him he was being rude and forgetting that he spoke
to a lady," said Ernest Travers. "One makes every allowance for a
father's sufferings; but they should not take the form of abrupt
and harsh speech to a sympathetic fellow-creature--nay, to anyone,
let alone a woman. His sacred calling ought to--"
"A man's profession cannot alter his manners, my dear Ernest; they
come from defects of temperament, no doubt. May must not be judged.
His faith would move mountains."
"So would mine," said Ernest Travers, "and so would yours, Walter.
But it is perfectly possible to be a Christian and a gentleman. To
imply that our faith was weak because we expressed ordinary human
emotions and pitied him unfeignedly for the loss of his only child--"
"Good-bye, good-bye, my dear friends," answered the other. "I
cannot say how I esteem your kindly offices in this affliction.
May we meet again presently. God bless and keep you both."
The post-mortem examination revealed no physical reason why Thomas
May should have ceased to breathe. Neither did the subsequent
investigations of a Government analytical chemist throw any light
upon the sailor's sudden death. No cause existed, and therefore
none could be reported at the inquest held a day later.
The coroner's jury brought in a verdict rarely heard, but none
dissented from it. They held that May had received his death "by
the hand of God."
"All men receive death from the hand of God," said Septimus May,
when the judicial inquiry was ended. "They receive life from the
hand of God also. But, while bowing to that, there is a great
deal more we are called to do when God's hand falls as it has fallen
upon my son. To-night I shall pray beside his dust, and presently,
when he is at peace, I shall be guided. There is a grave duty
beside me, Sir Walter, and none must come between me and that duty."
"There is a duty before all of us, and be sure nobody will shrink
from it. I have done what is right, so far. We have secured a
famous detective--the most famous in England, they tell me. He
is called Peter Hardcastle, and he will, I hope, be able to arrive
here immediately."
The clergyman shook his head.
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