Non-Fiction > Uncollected essays > Volumes 33-38, 1876-1878 - Cornhill magazine > Volume 37

WILL 0' THE MILL. 55
At the eud of tLe tliree yeai-s, Maijarie played liim a sail trick by
suddenly maiTying somebody else. Will kept his countenance bravely,
and merely remax-ked that, for as little as he knew of women, he had
acted very prudently in not manying her himself three years Ixjfoi'C.
She plainly knew very little of her own mind ; and in spite of a decep-
tive manner, was as fickle and flighty as the rest of them. He had to
congratulate himself on an escape, he said, and would take a higher
opinion of his own wisdom in consequence. But at heart, he was
reasonably displeased, moped a good deal for a month or two and fell
away in flesh, to the astonishment of his serving lads.
It was perhaps a year after this marriage, that Will was wakened
late one night by the sound of a horse galloping on the road, followed by
precipitate knocking at the inn-door. He opened his window and saw a
farm servant, mounted and holding a led horse by the bi'idle, who told
him to make what haste he covild and go along with him ; for Marjarie
was dying, and had sent urgently to fetch him to her bedside. Will was
no horseman, and made so little speed upon the way, that the poor young
■wife was very near her end before he arrived. But they had some
minutes' talk in private, and he v/as present and wept very bitterly while
she breathed her last.
The day broke as he w^alked homewards. One by one the stars
melted and disappeared ; one by one the hill-tops kindled and grew
bright. The river sang in the hush ; and Will felt an immense content-
ment swallowing up a little sorrow, as the sea covers a grain of sand or
the day extinguishes a star. She had loved him as he had loved her, as
something set apart over life ; and henceforward they might continue to
love each other, without jar or difliculty, without doubt or after-thought,
across the gulf of death. He had been contented in his love when they
were two miles apart ; he might have been contented if all the seas had
flowed between them ; and should he not be contented now, when she
w^as caught up into another woi'ld, immeasurably far indeed, but perfectly
secure and happy ]
Death.
Year after year went away into nothing, with great explosions and out-
cries in the cities on the plain ; red revolt springing up and being
suppressed in blood, battle swaying hither and thither, patient astrono-
mers in observatory towers picking out and christening new stars,
plays being performed in lighted theatres, people being carried into
hospital on stretchers, and all the usual turmoil and agitation of men's
lives in crowded centres. Up in Will's valley only the winds and
seasons made an epoch ; the fish hung in the swdft stream, the birds
circled overhead, the pine-tops rustled underneath the stars, the tall hills
stood over all ; and Will went to and fro, minding his wayside inn,
until the snow began to thicken on h\& head. His heart was young and