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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Amy Foster + +Author: Joseph Conrad + +Release Date: June 18, 2009 [EBook #495] +Last Updated: September 9, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMY FOSTER *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + AMY FOSTER + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Joseph Conrad + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + Kennedy is a country doctor, and lives in Colebrook, on the shores of + Eastbay. The high ground rising abruptly behind the red roofs of the + little town crowds the quaint High Street against the wall which defends + it from the sea. Beyond the sea-wall there curves for miles in a vast and + regular sweep the barren beach of shingle, with the village of Brenzett + standing out darkly across the water, a spire in a clump of trees; and + still further out the perpendicular column of a lighthouse, looking in the + distance no bigger than a lead pencil, marks the vanishing-point of the + land. The country at the back of Brenzett is low and flat, but the bay is + fairly well sheltered from the seas, and occasionally a big ship, + windbound or through stress of weather, makes use of the anchoring ground + a mile and a half due north from you as you stand at the back door of the + “Ship Inn” in Brenzett. A dilapidated windmill near by lifting its + shattered arms from a mound no loftier than a rubbish heap, and a Martello + tower squatting at the water’s edge half a mile to the south of the + Coastguard cottages, are familiar to the skippers of small craft. These + are the official seamarks for the patch of trustworthy bottom represented + on the Admiralty charts by an irregular oval of dots enclosing several + figures six, with a tiny anchor engraved among them, and the legend “mud + and shells” over all. + </p> + <p> + The brow of the upland overtops the square tower of the Colebrook Church. + The slope is green and looped by a white road. Ascending along this road, + you open a valley broad and shallow, a wide green trough of pastures and + hedges merging inland into a vista of purple tints and flowing lines + closing the view. + </p> + <p> + In this valley down to Brenzett and Colebrook and up to Darnford, the + market town fourteen miles away, lies the practice of my friend Kennedy. + He had begun life as surgeon in the Navy, and afterwards had been the + companion of a famous traveller, in the days when there were continents + with unexplored interiors. His papers on the fauna and flora made him + known to scientific societies. And now he had come to a country practice—from + choice. The penetrating power of his mind, acting like a corrosive fluid, + had destroyed his ambition, I fancy. His intelligence is of a scientific + order, of an investigating habit, and of that unappeasable curiosity which + believes that there is a particle of a general truth in every mystery. + </p> + <p> + A good many years ago now, on my return from abroad, he invited me to stay + with him. I came readily enough, and as he could not neglect his patients + to keep me company, he took me on his rounds—thirty miles or so of + an afternoon, sometimes. I waited for him on the roads; the horse reached + after the leafy twigs, and, sitting in the dogcart, I could hear Kennedy’s + laugh through the half-open door left open of some cottage. He had a big, + hearty laugh that would have fitted a man twice his size, a brisk manner, + a bronzed face, and a pair of grey, profoundly attentive eyes. He had the + talent of making people talk to him freely, and an inexhaustible patience + in listening to their tales. + </p> + <p> + One day, as we trotted out of a large village into a shady bit of road, I + saw on our left hand a low, black cottage, with diamond panes in the + windows, a creeper on the end wall, a roof of shingle, and some roses + climbing on the rickety trellis-work of the tiny porch. Kennedy pulled up + to a walk. A woman, in full sunlight, was throwing a dripping blanket over + a line stretched between two old apple-trees. And as the bobtailed, + long-necked chestnut, trying to get his head, jerked the left hand, + covered by a thick dog-skin glove, the doctor raised his voice over the + hedge: “How’s your child, Amy?” + </p> + <p> + I had the time to see her dull face, red, not with a mantling blush, but + as if her flat cheeks had been vigorously slapped, and to take in the + squat figure, the scanty, dusty brown hair drawn into a tight knot at the + back of the head. She looked quite young. With a distinct catch in her + breath, her voice sounded low and timid. + </p> + <p> + “He’s well, thank you.” + </p> + <p> + We trotted again. “A young patient of yours,” I said; and the doctor, + flicking the chestnut absently, muttered, “Her husband used to be.” + </p> + <p> + “She seems a dull creature,” I remarked listlessly. + </p> + <p> + “Precisely,” said Kennedy. “She is very passive. It’s enough to look at + the red hands hanging at the end of those short arms, at those slow, + prominent brown eyes, to know the inertness of her mind—an inertness + that one would think made it everlastingly safe from all the surprises of + imagination. And yet which of us is safe? At any rate, such as you see + her, she had enough imagination to fall in love. She’s the daughter of one + Isaac Foster, who from a small farmer has sunk into a shepherd; the + beginning of his misfortunes dating from his runaway marriage with the + cook of his widowed father—a well-to-do, apoplectic grazier, who + passionately struck his name off his will, and had been heard to utter + threats against his life. But this old affair, scandalous enough to serve + as a motive for a Greek tragedy, arose from the similarity of their + characters. There are other tragedies, less scandalous and of a subtler + poignancy, arising from irreconcilable differences and from that fear of + the Incomprehensible that hangs over all our heads—over all our + heads....” + </p> + <p> + The tired chestnut dropped into a walk; and the rim of the sun, all red in + a speckless sky, touched familiarly the smooth top of a ploughed rise near + the road as I had seen it times innumerable touch the distant horizon of + the sea. The uniform brownness of the harrowed field glowed with a rosy + tinge, as though the powdered clods had sweated out in minute pearls of + blood the toil of uncounted ploughmen. From the edge of a copse a waggon + with two horses was rolling gently along the ridge. Raised above our heads + upon the sky-line, it loomed up against the red sun, triumphantly big, + enormous, like a chariot of giants drawn by two slow-stepping steeds of + legendary proportions. And the clumsy figure of the man plodding at the + head of the leading horse projected itself on the background of the + Infinite with a heroic uncouthness. The end of his carter’s whip quivered + high up in the blue. Kennedy discoursed. + </p> + <p> + “She’s the eldest of a large family. At the age of fifteen they put her + out to service at the New Barns Farm. I attended Mrs. Smith, the tenant’s + wife, and saw that girl there for the first time. Mrs. Smith, a genteel + person with a sharp nose, made her put on a black dress every afternoon. I + don’t know what induced me to notice her at all. There are faces that call + your attention by a curious want of definiteness in their whole aspect, + as, walking in a mist, you peer attentively at a vague shape which, after + all, may be nothing more curious or strange than a signpost. The only + peculiarity I perceived in her was a slight hesitation in her utterance, a + sort of preliminary stammer which passes away with the first word. When + sharply spoken to, she was apt to lose her head at once; but her heart was + of the kindest. She had never been heard to express a dislike for a single + human being, and she was tender to every living creature. She was devoted + to Mrs. Smith, to Mr. Smith, to their dogs, cats, canaries; and as to Mrs. + Smith’s grey parrot, its peculiarities exercised upon her a positive + fascination. Nevertheless, when that outlandish bird, attacked by the cat, + shrieked for help in human accents, she ran out into the yard stopping her + ears, and did not prevent the crime. For Mrs. Smith this was another + evidence of her stupidity; on the other hand, her want of charm, in view + of Smith’s well-known frivolousness, was a great recommendation. Her + short-sighted eyes would swim with pity for a poor mouse in a trap, and + she had been seen once by some boys on her knees in the wet grass helping + a toad in difficulties. If it’s true, as some German fellow has said, that + without phosphorus there is no thought, it is still more true that there + is no kindness of heart without a certain amount of imagination. She had + some. She had even more than is necessary to understand suffering and to + be moved by pity. She fell in love under circumstances that leave no room + for doubt in the matter; for you need imagination to form a notion of + beauty at all, and still more to discover your ideal in an unfamiliar + shape. + </p> + <p> + “How this aptitude came to her, what it did feed upon, is an inscrutable + mystery. She was born in the village, and had never been further away from + it than Colebrook or perhaps Darnford. She lived for four years with the + Smiths. New Barns is an isolated farmhouse a mile away from the road, and + she was content to look day after day at the same fields, hollows, rises; + at the trees and the hedgerows; at the faces of the four men about the + farm, always the same—day after day, month after month, year after + year. She never showed a desire for conversation, and, as it seemed to me, + she did not know how to smile. Sometimes of a fine Sunday afternoon she + would put on her best dress, a pair of stout boots, a large grey hat + trimmed with a black feather (I’ve seen her in that finery), seize an + absurdly slender parasol, climb over two stiles, tramp over three fields + and along two hundred yards of road—never further. There stood + Foster’s cottage. She would help her mother to give their tea to the + younger children, wash up the crockery, kiss the little ones, and go back + to the farm. That was all. All the rest, all the change, all the + relaxation. She never seemed to wish for anything more. And then she fell + in love. She fell in love silently, obstinately—perhaps helplessly. + It came slowly, but when it came it worked like a powerful spell; it was + love as the Ancients understood it: an irresistible and fateful impulse—a + possession! Yes, it was in her to become haunted and possessed by a face, + by a presence, fatally, as though she had been a pagan worshipper of form + under a joyous sky—and to be awakened at last from that mysterious + forgetfulness of self, from that enchantment, from that transport, by a + fear resembling the unaccountable terror of a brute....” + </p> + <p> + With the sun hanging low on its western limit, the expanse of the + grass-lands framed in the counter-scarps of the rising ground took on a + gorgeous and sombre aspect. A sense of penetrating sadness, like that + inspired by a grave strain of music, disengaged itself from the silence of + the fields. The men we met walked past slow, unsmiling, with downcast + eyes, as if the melancholy of an over-burdened earth had weighted their + feet, bowed their shoulders, borne down their glances. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the doctor to my remark, “one would think the earth is under a + curse, since of all her children these that cling to her the closest are + uncouth in body and as leaden of gait as if their very hearts were loaded + with chains. But here on this same road you might have seen amongst these + heavy men a being lithe, supple, and long-limbed, straight like a pine + with something striving upwards in his appearance as though the heart + within him had been buoyant. Perhaps it was only the force of the + contrast, but when he was passing one of these villagers here, the soles + of his feet did not seem to me to touch the dust of the road. He vaulted + over the stiles, paced these slopes with a long elastic stride that made + him noticeable at a great distance, and had lustrous black eyes. He was so + different from the mankind around that, with his freedom of movement, his + soft—a little startled, glance, his olive complexion and graceful + bearing, his humanity suggested to me the nature of a woodland creature. + He came from there.” + </p> + <p> + The doctor pointed with his whip, and from the summit of the descent seen + over the rolling tops of the trees in a park by the side of the road, + appeared the level sea far below us, like the floor of an immense edifice + inlaid with bands of dark ripple, with still trails of glitter, ending in + a belt of glassy water at the foot of the sky. The light blur of smoke, + from an invisible steamer, faded on the great clearness of the horizon + like the mist of a breath on a mirror; and, inshore, the white sails of a + coaster, with the appearance of disentangling themselves slowly from under + the branches, floated clear of the foliage of the trees. + </p> + <p> + “Shipwrecked in the bay?” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; he was a castaway. A poor emigrant from Central Europe bound to + America and washed ashore here in a storm. And for him, who knew nothing + of the earth, England was an undiscovered country. It was some time before + he learned its name; and for all I know he might have expected to find + wild beasts or wild men here, when, crawling in the dark over the + sea-wall, he rolled down the other side into a dyke, where it was another + miracle he didn’t get drowned. But he struggled instinctively like an + animal under a net, and this blind struggle threw him out into a field. He + must have been, indeed, of a tougher fibre than he looked to withstand + without expiring such buffetings, the violence of his exertions, and so + much fear. Later on, in his broken English that resembled curiously the + speech of a young child, he told me himself that he put his trust in God, + believing he was no longer in this world. And truly—he would add—how + was he to know? He fought his way against the rain and the gale on all + fours, and crawled at last among some sheep huddled close under the lee of + a hedge. They ran off in all directions, bleating in the darkness, and he + welcomed the first familiar sound he heard on these shores. It must have + been two in the morning then. And this is all we know of the manner of his + landing, though he did not arrive unattended by any means. Only his grisly + company did not begin to come ashore till much later in the day....” + </p> + <p> + The doctor gathered the reins, clicked his tongue; we trotted down the + hill. Then turning, almost directly, a sharp corner into the High Street, + we rattled over the stones and were home. + </p> + <p> + Late in the evening Kennedy, breaking a spell of moodiness that had come + over him, returned to the story. Smoking his pipe, he paced the long room + from end to end. A reading-lamp concentrated all its light upon the papers + on his desk; and, sitting by the open window, I saw, after the windless, + scorching day, the frigid splendour of a hazy sea lying motionless under + the moon. Not a whisper, not a splash, not a stir of the shingle, not a + footstep, not a sigh came up from the earth below—never a sign of + life but the scent of climbing jasmine; and Kennedy’s voice, speaking + behind me, passed through the wide casement, to vanish outside in a chill + and sumptuous stillness. + </p> + <p> + “... The relations of shipwrecks in the olden time tell us of much + suffering. Often the castaways were only saved from drowning to die + miserably from starvation on a barren coast; others suffered violent death + or else slavery, passing through years of precarious existence with people + to whom their strangeness was an object of suspicion, dislike or fear. We + read about these things, and they are very pitiful. It is indeed hard upon + a man to find himself a lost stranger, helpless, incomprehensible, and of + a mysterious origin, in some obscure corner of the earth. Yet amongst all + the adventurers shipwrecked in all the wild parts of the world there is + not one, it seems to me, that ever had to suffer a fate so simply tragic + as the man I am speaking of, the most innocent of adventurers cast out by + the sea in the bight of this bay, almost within sight from this very + window. + </p> + <p> + “He did not know the name of his ship. Indeed, in the course of time we + discovered he did not even know that ships had names—‘like Christian + people’; and when, one day, from the top of the Talfourd Hill, he beheld + the sea lying open to his view, his eyes roamed afar, lost in an air of + wild surprise, as though he had never seen such a sight before. And + probably he had not. As far as I could make out, he had been hustled + together with many others on board an emigrant-ship lying at the mouth of + the Elbe, too bewildered to take note of his surroundings, too weary to + see anything, too anxious to care. They were driven below into the + ‘tweendeck and battened down from the very start. It was a low timber + dwelling—he would say—with wooden beams overhead, like the + houses in his country, but you went into it down a ladder. It was very + large, very cold, damp and sombre, with places in the manner of wooden + boxes where people had to sleep, one above another, and it kept on rocking + all ways at once all the time. He crept into one of these boxes and laid + down there in the clothes in which he had left his home many days before, + keeping his bundle and his stick by his side. People groaned, children + cried, water dripped, the lights went out, the walls of the place creaked, + and everything was being shaken so that in one’s little box one dared not + lift one’s head. He had lost touch with his only companion (a young man + from the same valley, he said), and all the time a great noise of wind + went on outside and heavy blows fell—boom! boom! An awful sickness + overcame him, even to the point of making him neglect his prayers. + Besides, one could not tell whether it was morning or evening. It seemed + always to be night in that place. + </p> + <p> + “Before that he had been travelling a long, long time on the iron track. + He looked out of the window, which had a wonderfully clear glass in it, + and the trees, the houses, the fields, and the long roads seemed to fly + round and round about him till his head swam. He gave me to understand + that he had on his passage beheld uncounted multitudes of people—whole + nations—all dressed in such clothes as the rich wear. Once he was + made to get out of the carriage, and slept through a night on a bench in a + house of bricks with his bundle under his head; and once for many hours he + had to sit on a floor of flat stones dozing, with his knees up and with + his bundle between his feet. There was a roof over him, which seemed made + of glass, and was so high that the tallest mountain-pine he had ever seen + would have had room to grow under it. Steam-machines rolled in at one end + and out at the other. People swarmed more than you can see on a feast-day + round the miraculous Holy Image in the yard of the Carmelite Convent down + in the plains where, before he left his home, he drove his mother in a + wooden cart—a pious old woman who wanted to offer prayers and make a + vow for his safety. He could not give me an idea of how large and lofty + and full of noise and smoke and gloom, and clang of iron, the place was, + but some one had told him it was called Berlin. Then they rang a bell, and + another steam-machine came in, and again he was taken on and on through a + land that wearied his eyes by its flatness without a single bit of a hill + to be seen anywhere. One more night he spent shut up in a building like a + good stable with a litter of straw on the floor, guarding his bundle + amongst a lot of men, of whom not one could understand a single word he + said. In the morning they were all led down to the stony shores of an + extremely broad muddy river, flowing not between hills but between houses + that seemed immense. There was a steam-machine that went on the water, and + they all stood upon it packed tight, only now there were with them many + women and children who made much noise. A cold rain fell, the wind blew in + his face; he was wet through, and his teeth chattered. He and the young + man from the same valley took each other by the hand. + </p> + <p> + “They thought they were being taken to America straight away, but suddenly + the steam-machine bumped against the side of a thing like a house on the + water. The walls were smooth and black, and there uprose, growing from the + roof as it were, bare trees in the shape of crosses, extremely high. + That’s how it appeared to him then, for he had never seen a ship before. + This was the ship that was going to swim all the way to America. Voices + shouted, everything swayed; there was a ladder dipping up and down. He + went up on his hands and knees in mortal fear of falling into the water + below, which made a great splashing. He got separated from his companion, + and when he descended into the bottom of that ship his heart seemed to + melt suddenly within him. + </p> + <p> + “It was then also, as he told me, that he lost contact for good and all + with one of those three men who the summer before had been going about + through all the little towns in the foothills of his country. They would + arrive on market days driving in a peasant’s cart, and would set up an + office in an inn or some other Jew’s house. There were three of them, of + whom one with a long beard looked venerable; and they had red cloth + collars round their necks and gold lace on their sleeves like Government + officials. They sat proudly behind a long table; and in the next room, so + that the common people shouldn’t hear, they kept a cunning telegraph + machine, through which they could talk to the Emperor of America. The + fathers hung about the door, but the young men of the mountains would + crowd up to the table asking many questions, for there was work to be got + all the year round at three dollars a day in America, and no military + service to do. + </p> + <p> + “But the American Kaiser would not take everybody. Oh, no! He himself had + a great difficulty in getting accepted, and the venerable man in uniform + had to go out of the room several times to work the telegraph on his + behalf. The American Kaiser engaged him at last at three dollars, he being + young and strong. However, many able young men backed out, afraid of the + great distance; besides, those only who had some money could be taken. + There were some who sold their huts and their land because it cost a lot + of money to get to America; but then, once there, you had three dollars a + day, and if you were clever you could find places where true gold could be + picked up on the ground. His father’s house was getting over full. Two of + his brothers were married and had children. He promised to send money home + from America by post twice a year. His father sold an old cow, a pair of + piebald mountain ponies of his own raising, and a cleared plot of fair + pasture land on the sunny slope of a pine-clad pass to a Jew inn-keeper in + order to pay the people of the ship that took men to America to get rich + in a short time. + </p> + <p> + “He must have been a real adventurer at heart, for how many of the + greatest enterprises in the conquest of the earth had for their beginning + just such a bargaining away of the paternal cow for the mirage or true + gold far away! I have been telling you more or less in my own words what I + learned fragmentarily in the course of two or three years, during which I + seldom missed an opportunity of a friendly chat with him. He told me this + story of his adventure with many flashes of white teeth and lively glances + of black eyes, at first in a sort of anxious baby-talk, then, as he + acquired the language, with great fluency, but always with that singing, + soft, and at the same time vibrating intonation that instilled a strangely + penetrating power into the sound of the most familiar English words, as if + they had been the words of an unearthly language. And he always would come + to an end, with many emphatic shakes of his head, upon that awful + sensation of his heart melting within him directly he set foot on board + that ship. Afterwards there seemed to come for him a period of blank + ignorance, at any rate as to facts. No doubt he must have been abominably + sea-sick and abominably unhappy—this soft and passionate adventurer, + taken thus out of his knowledge, and feeling bitterly as he lay in his + emigrant bunk his utter loneliness; for his was a highly sensitive nature. + The next thing we know of him for certain is that he had been hiding in + Hammond’s pig-pound by the side of the road to Norton six miles, as the + crow flies, from the sea. Of these experiences he was unwilling to speak: + they seemed to have seared into his soul a sombre sort of wonder and + indignation. Through the rumours of the country-side, which lasted for a + good many days after his arrival, we know that the fishermen of West + Colebrook had been disturbed and startled by heavy knocks against the + walls of weatherboard cottages, and by a voice crying piercingly strange + words in the night. Several of them turned out even, but, no doubt, he had + fled in sudden alarm at their rough angry tones hailing each other in the + darkness. A sort of frenzy must have helped him up the steep Norton hill. + It was he, no doubt, who early the following morning had been seen lying + (in a swoon, I should say) on the roadside grass by the Brenzett carrier, + who actually got down to have a nearer look, but drew back, intimidated by + the perfect immobility, and by something queer in the aspect of that + tramp, sleeping so still under the showers. As the day advanced, some + children came dashing into school at Norton in such a fright that the + schoolmistress went out and spoke indignantly to a ‘horrid-looking man’ on + the road. He edged away, hanging his head, for a few steps, and then + suddenly ran off with extraordinary fleetness. The driver of Mr. Bradley’s + milk-cart made no secret of it that he had lashed with his whip at a hairy + sort of gipsy fellow who, jumping up at a turn of the road by the Vents, + made a snatch at the pony’s bridle. And he caught him a good one too, + right over the face, he said, that made him drop down in the mud a jolly + sight quicker than he had jumped up; but it was a good half-a-mile before + he could stop the pony. Maybe that in his desperate endeavours to get + help, and in his need to get in touch with some one, the poor devil had + tried to stop the cart. Also three boys confessed afterwards to throwing + stones at a funny tramp, knocking about all wet and muddy, and, it seemed, + very drunk, in the narrow deep lane by the limekilns. All this was the + talk of three villages for days; but we have Mrs. Finn’s (the wife of + Smith’s waggoner) unimpeachable testimony that she saw him get over the + low wall of Hammond’s pig-pound and lurch straight at her, babbling aloud + in a voice that was enough to make one die of fright. Having the baby with + her in a perambulator, Mrs. Finn called out to him to go away, and as he + persisted in coming nearer, she hit him courageously with her umbrella + over the head and, without once looking back, ran like the wind with the + perambulator as far as the first house in the village. She stopped then, + out of breath, and spoke to old Lewis, hammering there at a heap of + stones; and the old chap, taking off his immense black wire goggles, got + up on his shaky legs to look where she pointed. Together they followed + with their eyes the figure of the man running over a field; they saw him + fall down, pick himself up, and run on again, staggering and waving his + long arms above his head, in the direction of the New Barns Farm. From + that moment he is plainly in the toils of his obscure and touching + destiny. There is no doubt after this of what happened to him. All is + certain now: Mrs. Smith’s intense terror; Amy Foster’s stolid conviction + held against the other’s nervous attack, that the man ‘meant no harm’; + Smith’s exasperation (on his return from Darnford Market) at finding the + dog barking himself into a fit, the back-door locked, his wife in + hysterics; and all for an unfortunate dirty tramp, supposed to be even + then lurking in his stackyard. Was he? He would teach him to frighten + women. + </p> + <p> + “Smith is notoriously hot-tempered, but the sight of some nondescript and + miry creature sitting cross-legged amongst a lot of loose straw, and + swinging itself to and fro like a bear in a cage, made him pause. Then + this tramp stood up silently before him, one mass of mud and filth from + head to foot. Smith, alone amongst his stacks with this apparition, in the + stormy twilight ringing with the infuriated barking of the dog, felt the + dread of an inexplicable strangeness. But when that being, parting with + his black hands the long matted locks that hung before his face, as you + part the two halves of a curtain, looked out at him with glistening, wild, + black-and-white eyes, the weirdness of this silent encounter fairly + staggered him. He had admitted since (for the story has been a legitimate + subject of conversation about here for years) that he made more than one + step backwards. Then a sudden burst of rapid, senseless speech persuaded + him at once that he had to do with an escaped lunatic. In fact, that + impression never wore off completely. Smith has not in his heart given up + his secret conviction of the man’s essential insanity to this very day. + </p> + <p> + “As the creature approached him, jabbering in a most discomposing manner, + Smith (unaware that he was being addressed as ‘gracious lord,’ and adjured + in God’s name to afford food and shelter) kept on speaking firmly but + gently to it, and retreating all the time into the other yard. At last, + watching his chance, by a sudden charge he bundled him headlong into the + wood-lodge, and instantly shot the bolt. Thereupon he wiped his brow, + though the day was cold. He had done his duty to the community by shutting + up a wandering and probably dangerous maniac. Smith isn’t a hard man at + all, but he had room in his brain only for that one idea of lunacy. He was + not imaginative enough to ask himself whether the man might not be + perishing with cold and hunger. Meantime, at first, the maniac made a + great deal of noise in the lodge. Mrs. Smith was screaming upstairs, where + she had locked herself in her bedroom; but Amy Foster sobbed piteously at + the kitchen door, wringing her hands and muttering, ‘Don’t! don’t!’ I + daresay Smith had a rough time of it that evening with one noise and + another, and this insane, disturbing voice crying obstinately through the + door only added to his irritation. He couldn’t possibly have connected + this troublesome lunatic with the sinking of a ship in Eastbay, of which + there had been a rumour in the Darnford marketplace. And I daresay the man + inside had been very near to insanity on that night. Before his excitement + collapsed and he became unconscious he was throwing himself violently + about in the dark, rolling on some dirty sacks, and biting his fists with + rage, cold, hunger, amazement, and despair. + </p> + <p> + “He was a mountaineer of the eastern range of the Carpathians, and the + vessel sunk the night before in Eastbay was the Hamburg emigrant-ship <i>Herzogin + Sophia-Dorothea</i>, of appalling memory. + </p> + <p> + “A few months later we could read in the papers the accounts of the bogus + ‘Emigration Agencies’ among the Sclavonian peasantry in the more remote + provinces of Austria. The object of these scoundrels was to get hold of + the poor ignorant people’s homesteads, and they were in league with the + local usurers. They exported their victims through Hamburg mostly. As to + the ship, I had watched her out of this very window, reaching close-hauled + under short canvas into the bay on a dark, threatening afternoon. She came + to an anchor, correctly by the chart, off the Brenzett Coastguard station. + I remember before the night fell looking out again at the outlines of her + spars and rigging that stood out dark and pointed on a background of + ragged, slaty clouds like another and a slighter spire to the left of the + Brenzett church-tower. In the evening the wind rose. At midnight I could + hear in my bed the terrific gusts and the sounds of a driving deluge. + </p> + <p> + “About that time the Coastguardmen thought they saw the lights of a + steamer over the anchoring-ground. In a moment they vanished; but it is + clear that another vessel of some sort had tried for shelter in the bay on + that awful, blind night, had rammed the German ship amidships (a breach—as + one of the divers told me afterwards—‘that you could sail a Thames + barge through’), and then had gone out either scathless or damaged, who + shall say; but had gone out, unknown, unseen, and fatal, to perish + mysteriously at sea. Of her nothing ever came to light, and yet the hue + and cry that was raised all over the world would have found her out if she + had been in existence anywhere on the face of the waters. + </p> + <p> + “A completeness without a clue, and a stealthy silence as of a neatly + executed crime, characterise this murderous disaster, which, as you may + remember, had its gruesome celebrity. The wind would have prevented the + loudest outcries from reaching the shore; there had been evidently no time + for signals of distress. It was death without any sort of fuss. The + Hamburg ship, filling all at once, capsized as she sank, and at daylight + there was not even the end of a spar to be seen above water. She was + missed, of course, and at first the Coastguardmen surmised that she had + either dragged her anchor or parted her cable some time during the night, + and had been blown out to sea. Then, after the tide turned, the wreck must + have shifted a little and released some of the bodies, because a child—a + little fair-haired child in a red frock—came ashore abreast of the + Martello tower. By the afternoon you could see along three miles of beach + dark figures with bare legs dashing in and out of the tumbling foam, and + rough-looking men, women with hard faces, children, mostly fair-haired, + were being carried, stiff and dripping, on stretchers, on wattles, on + ladders, in a long procession past the door of the ‘Ship Inn,’ to be laid + out in a row under the north wall of the Brenzett Church. + </p> + <p> + “Officially, the body of the little girl in the red frock is the first + thing that came ashore from that ship. But I have patients amongst the + seafaring population of West Colebrook, and, unofficially, I am informed + that very early that morning two brothers, who went down to look after + their cobble hauled up on the beach, found, a good way from Brenzett, an + ordinary ship’s hencoop lying high and dry on the shore, with eleven + drowned ducks inside. Their families ate the birds, and the hencoop was + split into firewood with a hatchet. It is possible that a man (supposing + he happened to be on deck at the time of the accident) might have floated + ashore on that hencoop. He might. I admit it is improbable, but there was + the man—and for days, nay, for weeks—it didn’t enter our heads + that we had amongst us the only living soul that had escaped from that + disaster. The man himself, even when he learned to speak intelligibly, + could tell us very little. He remembered he had felt better (after the + ship had anchored, I suppose), and that the darkness, the wind, and the + rain took his breath away. This looks as if he had been on deck some time + during that night. But we mustn’t forget he had been taken out of his + knowledge, that he had been sea-sick and battened down below for four + days, that he had no general notion of a ship or of the sea, and therefore + could have no definite idea of what was happening to him. The rain, the + wind, the darkness he knew; he understood the bleating of the sheep, and + he remembered the pain of his wretchedness and misery, his heartbroken + astonishment that it was neither seen nor understood, his dismay at + finding all the men angry and all the women fierce. He had approached them + as a beggar, it is true, he said; but in his country, even if they gave + nothing, they spoke gently to beggars. The children in his country were + not taught to throw stones at those who asked for compassion. Smith’s + strategy overcame him completely. The wood-lodge presented the horrible + aspect of a dungeon. What would be done to him next?... No wonder that Amy + Foster appeared to his eyes with the aureole of an angel of light. The + girl had not been able to sleep for thinking of the poor man, and in the + morning, before the Smiths were up, she slipped out across the back yard. + Holding the door of the wood-lodge ajar, she looked in and extended to him + half a loaf of white bread—‘such bread as the rich eat in my + country,’ he used to say. + </p> + <p> + “At this he got up slowly from amongst all sorts of rubbish, stiff, + hungry, trembling, miserable, and doubtful. ‘Can you eat this?’ she asked + in her soft and timid voice. He must have taken her for a ‘gracious lady.’ + He devoured ferociously, and tears were falling on the crust. Suddenly he + dropped the bread, seized her wrist, and imprinted a kiss on her hand. She + was not frightened. Through his forlorn condition she had observed that he + was good-looking. She shut the door and walked back slowly to the kitchen. + Much later on, she told Mrs. Smith, who shuddered at the bare idea of + being touched by that creature. + </p> + <p> + “Through this act of impulsive pity he was brought back again within the + pale of human relations with his new surroundings. He never forgot it—never. + </p> + <p> + “That very same morning old Mr. Swaffer (Smith’s nearest neighbour) came + over to give his advice, and ended by carrying him off. He stood, unsteady + on his legs, meek, and caked over in half-dried mud, while the two men + talked around him in an incomprehensible tongue. Mrs. Smith had refused to + come downstairs till the madman was off the premises; Amy Foster, far from + within the dark kitchen, watched through the open back door; and he obeyed + the signs that were made to him to the best of his ability. But Smith was + full of mistrust. ‘Mind, sir! It may be all his cunning,’ he cried + repeatedly in a tone of warning. When Mr. Swaffer started the mare, the + deplorable being sitting humbly by his side, through weakness, nearly fell + out over the back of the high two-wheeled cart. Swaffer took him straight + home. And it is then that I come upon the scene. + </p> + <p> + “I was called in by the simple process of the old man beckoning to me with + his forefinger over the gate of his house as I happened to be driving + past. I got down, of course. + </p> + <p> + “‘I’ve got something here,’ he mumbled, leading the way to an outhouse at + a little distance from his other farm-buildings. + </p> + <p> + “It was there that I saw him first, in a long low room taken upon the + space of that sort of coach-house. It was bare and whitewashed, with a + small square aperture glazed with one cracked, dusty pane at its further + end. He was lying on his back upon a straw pallet; they had given him a + couple of horse-blankets, and he seemed to have spent the remainder of his + strength in the exertion of cleaning himself. He was almost speechless; + his quick breathing under the blankets pulled up to his chin, his + glittering, restless black eyes reminded me of a wild bird caught in a + snare. While I was examining him, old Swaffer stood silently by the door, + passing the tips of his fingers along his shaven upper lip. I gave some + directions, promised to send a bottle of medicine, and naturally made some + inquiries. + </p> + <p> + “‘Smith caught him in the stackyard at New Barns,’ said the old chap in + his deliberate, unmoved manner, and as if the other had been indeed a sort + of wild animal. ‘That’s how I came by him. Quite a curiosity, isn’t he? + Now tell me, doctor—you’ve been all over the world—don’t you + think that’s a bit of a Hindoo we’ve got hold of here.’ + </p> + <p> + “I was greatly surprised. His long black hair scattered over the straw + bolster contrasted with the olive pallor of his face. It occurred to me he + might be a Basque. It didn’t necessarily follow that he should understand + Spanish; but I tried him with the few words I know, and also with some + French. The whispered sounds I caught by bending my ear to his lips + puzzled me utterly. That afternoon the young ladies from the Rectory (one + of them read Goethe with a dictionary, and the other had struggled with + Dante for years), coming to see Miss Swaffer, tried their German and + Italian on him from the doorway. They retreated, just the least bit scared + by the flood of passionate speech which, turning on his pallet, he let out + at them. They admitted that the sound was pleasant, soft, musical—but, + in conjunction with his looks perhaps, it was startling—so + excitable, so utterly unlike anything one had ever heard. The village boys + climbed up the bank to have a peep through the little square aperture. + Everybody was wondering what Mr. Swaffer would do with him. + </p> + <p> + “He simply kept him. + </p> + <p> + “Swaffer would be called eccentric were he not so much respected. They + will tell you that Mr. Swaffer sits up as late as ten o’clock at night to + read books, and they will tell you also that he can write a cheque for two + hundred pounds without thinking twice about it. He himself would tell you + that the Swaffers had owned land between this and Darnford for these three + hundred years. He must be eighty-five to-day, but he does not look a bit + older than when I first came here. He is a great breeder of sheep, and + deals extensively in cattle. He attends market days for miles around in + every sort of weather, and drives sitting bowed low over the reins, his + lank grey hair curling over the collar of his warm coat, and with a green + plaid rug round his legs. The calmness of advanced age gives a solemnity + to his manner. He is clean-shaved; his lips are thin and sensitive; + something rigid and monarchal in the set of his features lends a certain + elevation to the character of his face. He has been known to drive miles + in the rain to see a new kind of rose in somebody’s garden, or a monstrous + cabbage grown by a cottager. He loves to hear tell of or to be shown + something that he calls ‘outlandish.’ Perhaps it was just that + outlandishness of the man which influenced old Swaffer. Perhaps it was + only an inexplicable caprice. All I know is that at the end of three weeks + I caught sight of Smith’s lunatic digging in Swaffer’s kitchen garden. + They had found out he could use a spade. He dug barefooted. + </p> + <p> + “His black hair flowed over his shoulders. I suppose it was Swaffer who + had given him the striped old cotton shirt; but he wore still the national + brown cloth trousers (in which he had been washed ashore) fitting to the + leg almost like tights; was belted with a broad leathern belt studded with + little brass discs; and had never yet ventured into the village. The land + he looked upon seemed to him kept neatly, like the grounds round a + landowner’s house; the size of the cart-horses struck him with + astonishment; the roads resembled garden walks, and the aspect of the + people, especially on Sundays, spoke of opulence. He wondered what made + them so hardhearted and their children so bold. He got his food at the + back door, carried it in both hands carefully to his outhouse, and, + sitting alone on his pallet, would make the sign of the cross before he + began. Beside the same pallet, kneeling in the early darkness of the short + days, he recited aloud the Lord’s Prayer before he slept. Whenever he saw + old Swaffer he would bow with veneration from the waist, and stand erect + while the old man, with his fingers over his upper lip, surveyed him + silently. He bowed also to Miss Swaffer, who kept house frugally for her + father—a broad-shouldered, big-boned woman of forty-five, with the + pocket of her dress full of keys, and a grey, steady eye. She was Church—as + people said (while her father was one of the trustees of the Baptist + Chapel)—and wore a little steel cross at her waist. She dressed + severely in black, in memory of one of the innumerable Bradleys of the + neighbourhood, to whom she had been engaged some twenty-five years ago—a + young farmer who broke his neck out hunting on the eve of the wedding day. + She had the unmoved countenance of the deaf, spoke very seldom, and her + lips, thin like her father’s, astonished one sometimes by a mysteriously + ironic curl. + </p> + <p> + “These were the people to whom he owed allegiance, and an overwhelming + loneliness seemed to fall from the leaden sky of that winter without + sunshine. All the faces were sad. He could talk to no one, and had no hope + of ever understanding anybody. It was as if these had been the faces of + people from the other world—dead people—he used to tell me + years afterwards. Upon my word, I wonder he did not go mad. He didn’t know + where he was. Somewhere very far from his mountains—somewhere over + the water. Was this America, he wondered? + </p> + <p> + “If it hadn’t been for the steel cross at Miss Swaffer’s belt he would + not, he confessed, have known whether he was in a Christian country at + all. He used to cast stealthy glances at it, and feel comforted. There was + nothing here the same as in his country! The earth and the water were + different; there were no images of the Redeemer by the roadside. The very + grass was different, and the trees. All the trees but the three old Norway + pines on the bit of lawn before Swaffer’s house, and these reminded him of + his country. He had been detected once, after dusk, with his forehead + against the trunk of one of them, sobbing, and talking to himself. They + had been like brothers to him at that time, he affirmed. Everything else + was strange. Conceive you the kind of an existence overshadowed, + oppressed, by the everyday material appearances, as if by the visions of a + nightmare. At night, when he could not sleep, he kept on thinking of the + girl who gave him the first piece of bread he had eaten in this foreign + land. She had been neither fierce nor angry, nor frightened. Her face he + remembered as the only comprehensible face amongst all these faces that + were as closed, as mysterious, and as mute as the faces of the dead who + are possessed of a knowledge beyond the comprehension of the living. I + wonder whether the memory of her compassion prevented him from cutting his + throat. But there! I suppose I am an old sentimentalist, and forget the + instinctive love of life which it takes all the strength of an uncommon + despair to overcome. + </p> + <p> + “He did the work which was given him with an intelligence which surprised + old Swaffer. By-and-by it was discovered that he could help at the + ploughing, could milk the cows, feed the bullocks in the cattle-yard, and + was of some use with the sheep. He began to pick up words, too, very fast; + and suddenly, one fine morning in spring, he rescued from an untimely + death a grand-child of old Swaffer. + </p> + <p> + “Swaffer’s younger daughter is married to Willcox, a solicitor and the + Town Clerk of Colebrook. Regularly twice a year they come to stay with the + old man for a few days. Their only child, a little girl not three years + old at the time, ran out of the house alone in her little white pinafore, + and, toddling across the grass of a terraced garden, pitched herself over + a low wall head first into the horse-pond in the yard below. + </p> + <p> + “Our man was out with the waggoner and the plough in the field nearest to + the house, and as he was leading the team round to begin a fresh furrow, + he saw, through the gap of the gate, what for anybody else would have been + a mere flutter of something white. But he had straight-glancing, quick, + far-reaching eyes, that only seemed to flinch and lose their amazing power + before the immensity of the sea. He was barefooted, and looking as + outlandish as the heart of Swaffer could desire. Leaving the horses on the + turn, to the inexpressible disgust of the waggoner he bounded off, going + over the ploughed ground in long leaps, and suddenly appeared before the + mother, thrust the child into her arms, and strode away. + </p> + <p> + “The pond was not very deep; but still, if he had not had such good eyes, + the child would have perished—miserably suffocated in the foot or so + of sticky mud at the bottom. Old Swaffer walked out slowly into the field, + waited till the plough came over to his side, had a good look at him, and + without saying a word went back to the house. But from that time they laid + out his meals on the kitchen table; and at first, Miss Swaffer, all in + black and with an inscrutable face, would come and stand in the doorway of + the living-room to see him make a big sign of the cross before he fell to. + I believe that from that day, too, Swaffer began to pay him regular wages. + </p> + <p> + “I can’t follow step by step his development. He cut his hair short, was + seen in the village and along the road going to and fro to his work like + any other man. Children ceased to shout after him. He became aware of + social differences, but remained for a long time surprised at the bare + poverty of the churches among so much wealth. He couldn’t understand + either why they were kept shut up on week days. There was nothing to steal + in them. Was it to keep people from praying too often? The rectory took + much notice of him about that time, and I believe the young ladies + attempted to prepare the ground for his conversion. They could not, + however, break him of his habit of crossing himself, but he went so far as + to take off the string with a couple of brass medals the size of a + sixpence, a tiny metal cross, and a square sort of scapulary which he wore + round his neck. He hung them on the wall by the side of his bed, and he + was still to be heard every evening reciting the Lord’s Prayer, in + incomprehensible words and in a slow, fervent tone, as he had heard his + old father do at the head of all the kneeling family, big and little, on + every evening of his life. And though he wore corduroys at work, and a + slop-made pepper-and-salt suit on Sundays, strangers would turn round to + look after him on the road. His foreignness had a peculiar and indelible + stamp. At last people became used to see him. But they never became used + to him. His rapid, skimming walk; his swarthy complexion; his hat cocked + on the left ear; his habit, on warm evenings, of wearing his coat over one + shoulder, like a hussar’s dolman; his manner of leaping over the stiles, + not as a feat of agility, but in the ordinary course of progression—all + these peculiarities were, as one may say, so many causes of scorn and + offence to the inhabitants of the village. <i>They</i> wouldn’t in their + dinner hour lie flat on their backs on the grass to stare at the sky. + Neither did they go about the fields screaming dismal tunes. Many times + have I heard his high-pitched voice from behind the ridge of some sloping + sheep-walk, a voice light and soaring, like a lark’s, but with a + melancholy human note, over our fields that hear only the song of birds. + And I should be startled myself. Ah! He was different: innocent of heart, + and full of good will, which nobody wanted, this castaway, that, like a + man transplanted into another planet, was separated by an immense space + from his past and by an immense ignorance from his future. His quick, + fervent utterance positively shocked everybody. ‘An excitable devil,’ they + called him. One evening, in the tap-room of the Coach and Horses (having + drunk some whisky), he upset them all by singing a love song of his + country. They hooted him down, and he was pained; but Preble, the lame + wheelwright, and Vincent, the fat blacksmith, and the other notables too, + wanted to drink their evening beer in peace. On another occasion he tried + to show them how to dance. The dust rose in clouds from the sanded floor; + he leaped straight up amongst the deal tables, struck his heels together, + squatted on one heel in front of old Preble, shooting out the other leg, + uttered wild and exulting cries, jumped up to whirl on one foot, snapping + his fingers above his head—and a strange carter who was having a + drink in there began to swear, and cleared out with his half-pint in his + hand into the bar. But when suddenly he sprang upon a table and continued + to dance among the glasses, the landlord interfered. He didn’t want any + ‘acrobat tricks in the taproom.’ They laid their hands on him. Having had + a glass or two, Mr. Swaffer’s foreigner tried to expostulate: was ejected + forcibly: got a black eye. + </p> + <p> + “I believe he felt the hostility of his human surroundings. But he was + tough—tough in spirit, too, as well as in body. Only the memory of + the sea frightened him, with that vague terror that is left by a bad + dream. His home was far away; and he did not want now to go to America. I + had often explained to him that there is no place on earth where true gold + can be found lying ready and to be got for the trouble of the picking up. + How then, he asked, could he ever return home with empty hands when there + had been sold a cow, two ponies, and a bit of land to pay for his going? + His eyes would fill with tears, and, averting them from the immense + shimmer of the sea, he would throw himself face down on the grass. But + sometimes, cocking his hat with a little conquering air, he would defy my + wisdom. He had found his bit of true gold. That was Amy Foster’s heart; + which was ‘a golden heart, and soft to people’s misery,’ he would say in + the accents of overwhelming conviction. + </p> + <p> + “He was called Yanko. He had explained that this meant little John; but as + he would also repeat very often that he was a mountaineer (some word + sounding in the dialect of his country like Goorall) he got it for his + surname. And this is the only trace of him that the succeeding ages may + find in the marriage register of the parish. There it stands—Yanko + Goorall—in the rector’s handwriting. The crooked cross made by the + castaway, a cross whose tracing no doubt seemed to him the most solemn + part of the whole ceremony, is all that remains now to perpetuate the + memory of his name. + </p> + <p> + “His courtship had lasted some time—ever since he got his precarious + footing in the community. It began by his buying for Amy Foster a green + satin ribbon in Darnford. This was what you did in his country. You bought + a ribbon at a Jew’s stall on a fair-day. I don’t suppose the girl knew + what to do with it, but he seemed to think that his honourable intentions + could not be mistaken. + </p> + <p> + “It was only when he declared his purpose to get married that I fully + understood how, for a hundred futile and inappreciable reasons, how—shall + I say odious?—he was to all the countryside. Every old woman in the + village was up in arms. Smith, coming upon him near the farm, promised to + break his head for him if he found him about again. But he twisted his + little black moustache with such a bellicose air and rolled such big, + black fierce eyes at Smith that this promise came to nothing. Smith, + however, told the girl that she must be mad to take up with a man who was + surely wrong in his head. All the same, when she heard him in the gloaming + whistle from beyond the orchard a couple of bars of a weird and mournful + tune, she would drop whatever she had in her hand—she would leave + Mrs. Smith in the middle of a sentence—and she would run out to his + call. Mrs. Smith called her a shameless hussy. She answered nothing. She + said nothing at all to anybody, and went on her way as if she had been + deaf. She and I alone all in the land, I fancy, could see his very real + beauty. He was very good-looking, and most graceful in his bearing, with + that something wild as of a woodland creature in his aspect. Her mother + moaned over her dismally whenever the girl came to see her on her day out. + The father was surly, but pretended not to know; and Mrs. Finn once told + her plainly that ‘this man, my dear, will do you some harm some day yet.’ + And so it went on. They could be seen on the roads, she tramping stolidly + in her finery—grey dress, black feather, stout boots, prominent + white cotton gloves that caught your eye a hundred yards away; and he, his + coat slung picturesquely over one shoulder, pacing by her side, gallant of + bearing and casting tender glances upon the girl with the golden heart. I + wonder whether he saw how plain she was. Perhaps among types so different + from what he had ever seen, he had not the power to judge; or perhaps he + was seduced by the divine quality of her pity. + </p> + <p> + “Yanko was in great trouble meantime. In his country you get an old man + for an ambassador in marriage affairs. He did not know how to proceed. + However, one day in the midst of sheep in a field (he was now Swaffer’s + under-shepherd with Foster) he took off his hat to the father and declared + himself humbly. ‘I daresay she’s fool enough to marry you,’ was all Foster + said. ‘And then,’ he used to relate, ‘he puts his hat on his head, looks + black at me as if he wanted to cut my throat, whistles the dog, and off he + goes, leaving me to do the work.’ The Fosters, of course, didn’t like to + lose the wages the girl earned: Amy used to give all her money to her + mother. But there was in Foster a very genuine aversion to that match. He + contended that the fellow was very good with sheep, but was not fit for + any girl to marry. For one thing, he used to go along the hedges muttering + to himself like a dam’ fool; and then, these foreigners behave very + queerly to women sometimes. And perhaps he would want to carry her off + somewhere—or run off himself. It was not safe. He preached it to his + daughter that the fellow might ill-use her in some way. She made no + answer. It was, they said in the village, as if the man had done something + to her. People discussed the matter. It was quite an excitement, and the + two went on ‘walking out’ together in the face of opposition. Then + something unexpected happened. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know whether old Swaffer ever understood how much he was regarded + in the light of a father by his foreign retainer. Anyway the relation was + curiously feudal. So when Yanko asked formally for an interview—‘and + the Miss too’ (he called the severe, deaf Miss Swaffer simply <i>Miss</i>)—it + was to obtain their permission to marry. Swaffer heard him unmoved, + dismissed him by a nod, and then shouted the intelligence into Miss + Swaffer’s best ear. She showed no surprise, and only remarked grimly, in a + veiled blank voice, ‘He certainly won’t get any other girl to marry him.’ + </p> + <p> + “It is Miss Swaffer who has all the credit of the munificence: but in a + very few days it came out that Mr. Swaffer had presented Yanko with a + cottage (the cottage you’ve seen this morning) and something like an acre + of ground—had made it over to him in absolute property. Willcox + expedited the deed, and I remember him telling me he had a great pleasure + in making it ready. It recited: ‘In consideration of saving the life of my + beloved grandchild, Bertha Willcox.’ + </p> + <p> + “Of course, after that no power on earth could prevent them from getting + married. + </p> + <p> + “Her infatuation endured. People saw her going out to meet him in the + evening. She stared with unblinking, fascinated eyes up the road where he + was expected to appear, walking freely, with a swing from the hip, and + humming one of the love-tunes of his country. When the boy was born, he + got elevated at the ‘Coach and Horses,’ essayed again a song and a dance, + and was again ejected. People expressed their commiseration for a woman + married to that Jack-in-the-box. He didn’t care. There was a man now (he + told me boastfully) to whom he could sing and talk in the language of his + country, and show how to dance by-and-by. + </p> + <p> + “But I don’t know. To me he appeared to have grown less springy of step, + heavier in body, less keen of eye. Imagination, no doubt; but it seems to + me now as if the net of fate had been drawn closer round him already. + </p> + <p> + “One day I met him on the footpath over the Talfourd Hill. He told me that + ‘women were funny.’ I had heard already of domestic differences. People + were saying that Amy Foster was beginning to find out what sort of man she + had married. He looked upon the sea with indifferent, unseeing eyes. His + wife had snatched the child out of his arms one day as he sat on the + doorstep crooning to it a song such as the mothers sing to babies in his + mountains. She seemed to think he was doing it some harm. Women are funny. + And she had objected to him praying aloud in the evening. Why? He expected + the boy to repeat the prayer aloud after him by-and-by, as he used to do + after his old father when he was a child—in his own country. And I + discovered he longed for their boy to grow up so that he could have a man + to talk with in that language that to our ears sounded so disturbing, so + passionate, and so bizarre. Why his wife should dislike the idea he + couldn’t tell. But that would pass, he said. And tilting his head + knowingly, he tapped his breastbone to indicate that she had a good heart: + not hard, not fierce, open to compassion, charitable to the poor! + </p> + <p> + “I walked away thoughtfully; I wondered whether his difference, his + strangeness, were not penetrating with repulsion that dull nature they had + begun by irresistibly attracting. I wondered....” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor came to the window and looked out at the frigid splendour of + the sea, immense in the haze, as if enclosing all the earth with all the + hearts lost among the passions of love and fear. + </p> + <p> + “Physiologically, now,” he said, turning away abruptly, “it was possible. + It was possible.” + </p> + <p> + He remained silent. Then went on—“At all events, the next time I saw + him he was ill—lung trouble. He was tough, but I daresay he was not + acclimatised as well as I had supposed. It was a bad winter; and, of + course, these mountaineers do get fits of home sickness; and a state of + depression would make him vulnerable. He was lying half dressed on a couch + downstairs. + </p> + <p> + “A table covered with a dark oilcloth took up all the middle of the little + room. There was a wicker cradle on the floor, a kettle spouting steam on + the hob, and some child’s linen lay drying on the fender. The room was + warm, but the door opens right into the garden, as you noticed perhaps. + </p> + <p> + “He was very feverish, and kept on muttering to himself. She sat on a + chair and looked at him fixedly across the table with her brown, blurred + eyes. ‘Why don’t you have him upstairs?’ I asked. With a start and a + confused stammer she said, ‘Oh! ah! I couldn’t sit with him upstairs, + Sir.’ + </p> + <p> + “I gave her certain directions; and going outside, I said again that he + ought to be in bed upstairs. She wrung her hands. ‘I couldn’t. I couldn’t. + He keeps on saying something—I don’t know what.’ With the memory of + all the talk against the man that had been dinned into her ears, I looked + at her narrowly. I looked into her shortsighted eyes, at her dumb eyes + that once in her life had seen an enticing shape, but seemed, staring at + me, to see nothing at all now. But I saw she was uneasy. + </p> + <p> + “‘What’s the matter with him?’ she asked in a sort of vacant trepidation. + ‘He doesn’t look very ill. I never did see anybody look like this + before....’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Do you think,’ I asked indignantly, ‘he is shamming?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘I can’t help it, sir,’ she said stolidly. And suddenly she clapped her + hands and looked right and left. ‘And there’s the baby. I am so + frightened. He wanted me just now to give him the baby. I can’t understand + what he says to it.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Can’t you ask a neighbour to come in tonight?’ I asked. + </p> + <p> + “‘Please, sir, nobody seems to care to come,’ she muttered, dully resigned + all at once. + </p> + <p> + “I impressed upon her the necessity of the greatest care, and then had to + go. There was a good deal of sickness that winter. ‘Oh, I hope he won’t + talk!’ she exclaimed softly just as I was going away. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know how it is I did not see—but I didn’t. And yet, turning + in my trap, I saw her lingering before the door, very still, and as if + meditating a flight up the miry road. + </p> + <p> + “Towards the night his fever increased. + </p> + <p> + “He tossed, moaned, and now and then muttered a complaint. And she sat + with the table between her and the couch, watching every movement and + every sound, with the terror, the unreasonable terror, of that man she + could not understand creeping over her. She had drawn the wicker cradle + close to her feet. There was nothing in her now but the maternal instinct + and that unaccountable fear. + </p> + <p> + “Suddenly coming to himself, parched, he demanded a drink of water. She + did not move. She had not understood, though he may have thought he was + speaking in English. He waited, looking at her, burning with fever, amazed + at her silence and immobility, and then he shouted impatiently, ‘Water! + Give me water!’ + </p> + <p> + “She jumped to her feet, snatched up the child, and stood still. He spoke + to her, and his passionate remonstrances only increased her fear of that + strange man. I believe he spoke to her for a long time, entreating, + wondering, pleading, ordering, I suppose. She says she bore it as long as + she could. And then a gust of rage came over him. + </p> + <p> + “He sat up and called out terribly one word—some word. Then he got + up as though he hadn’t been ill at all, she says. And as in fevered + dismay, indignation, and wonder he tried to get to her round the table, + she simply opened the door and ran out with the child in her arms. She + heard him call twice after her down the road in a terrible voice—and + fled.... Ah! but you should have seen stirring behind the dull, blurred + glance of these eyes the spectre of the fear which had hunted her on that + night three miles and a half to the door of Foster’s cottage! I did the + next day. + </p> + <p> + “And it was I who found him lying face down and his body in a puddle, just + outside the little wicket-gate. + </p> + <p> + “I had been called out that night to an urgent case in the village, and on + my way home at daybreak passed by the cottage. The door stood open. My man + helped me to carry him in. We laid him on the couch. The lamp smoked, the + fire was out, the chill of the stormy night oozed from the cheerless + yellow paper on the wall. ‘Amy!’ I called aloud, and my voice seemed to + lose itself in the emptiness of this tiny house as if I had cried in a + desert. He opened his eyes. ‘Gone!’ he said distinctly. ‘I had only asked + for water—only for a little water....’ + </p> + <p> + “He was muddy. I covered him up and stood waiting in silence, catching a + painfully gasped word now and then. They were no longer in his own + language. The fever had left him, taking with it the heat of life. And + with his panting breast and lustrous eyes he reminded me again of a wild + creature under the net; of a bird caught in a snare. She had left him. She + had left him—sick—helpless—thirsty. The spear of the + hunter had entered his very soul. ‘Why?’ he cried in the penetrating and + indignant voice of a man calling to a responsible Maker. A gust of wind + and a swish of rain answered. + </p> + <p> + “And as I turned away to shut the door he pronounced the word ‘Merciful!’ + and expired. + </p> + <p> + “Eventually I certified heart-failure as the immediate cause of death. His + heart must have indeed failed him, or else he might have stood this night + of storm and exposure, too. I closed his eyes and drove away. Not very far + from the cottage I met Foster walking sturdily between the dripping hedges + with his collie at his heels. + </p> + <p> + “‘Do you know where your daughter is?’ I asked. + </p> + <p> + “‘Don’t I!’ he cried. ‘I am going to talk to him a bit. Frightening a poor + woman like this.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘He won’t frighten her any more,’ I said. ‘He is dead.’ + </p> + <p> + “He struck with his stick at the mud. + </p> + <p> + “‘And there’s the child.’ + </p> + <p> + “Then, after thinking deeply for a while—“‘I don’t know that it + isn’t for the best.’ + </p> + <p> + “That’s what he said. And she says nothing at all now. Not a word of him. + Never. Is his image as utterly gone from her mind as his lithe and + striding figure, his carolling voice are gone from our fields? He is no + longer before her eyes to excite her imagination into a passion of love or + fear; and his memory seems to have vanished from her dull brain as a + shadow passes away upon a white screen. She lives in the cottage and works + for Miss Swaffer. She is Amy Foster for everybody, and the child is ‘Amy + Foster’s boy.’ She calls him Johnny—which means Little John. + </p> + <p> + “It is impossible to say whether this name recalls anything to her. Does + she ever think of the past? I have seen her hanging over the boy’s cot in + a very passion of maternal tenderness. The little fellow was lying on his + back, a little frightened at me, but very still, with his big black eyes, + with his fluttered air of a bird in a snare. And looking at him I seemed + to see again the other one—the father, cast out mysteriously by the + sea to perish in the supreme disaster of loneliness and despair.” <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Amy Foster, by Joseph Conrad + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMY FOSTER *** + +***** This file should be named 495-h.htm or 495-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/9/495/ + +Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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