look at this underground hole--look
at this bed as she lays on! Is it my fault? By God, I wonder I haven't
killed myself before this! I've been drove mad, I tell you--mad! It's
well if I don't do murder yet; every man as I see go by with a good
coat on his back and a face fat with good feeding, it's all I can do to
keep from catchin' his throat an tearin' the life out of him!'

'Let's talk about the burial,' interposed Sidney. 'Make your mind at
ease. I've got enough to pay for all that, and you must let me lend you
what you want.'

'Lend me money? You as I haven't spoke to for years?'

'The more fault mine. I ought to have come back again long since; you
wouldn't have refused an old friend that never meant an unkindness to
you.'

'No, it was me as was to blame,' said the other, with choking voice.
'She always told me so, and she always said what was right. But I can't
take it of you, Sidney; I can't! Lend it? An' where am I goin' to get
it from to pay you back? It won't be so long before I lie like she does
there. It's getting too much for me.'

The first tears he had shed rose at this generosity of the man he had
so little claim upon. His passionate grief and the spirit of rebellion,
which grew more frenzied as he grew older, were subdued to a sobbing
gratitude for the kindness which visited him in his need. Nerveless,
voiceless, he fell back again upon the chair and let his head lie by
that of the dead woman.

CHAPTER XXII

WATCHING FROM AMBUSH

Mr. Joseph Snowdon, though presenting a calm countenance to the world
and seeming to enjoy comparative prosperity, was in truth much harassed
by the difficulties of his position. Domestic troubles he had
anticipated, but the unforeseen sequel of his marriage resulted in a
martyrdom at the hands of Clem and her mother such as he had never
dreamed of. His faults and weaknesses distinctly those of the civilised
man, he found himself in disastrous alliance with two savages, whose
characters so supplemented each other as to constitute in unison a
formidable engine of tyranny. Clem--suspicious, revengeful, fierce,
watching with cruel eyes every opportunity of taking payment on account
for the ridicule to which she had exposed herself; Mrs.
Peckover--ceaselessly occupied with the basest scheming, keen as an
Indian on any trail she happened to strike, excited by the scent of
money as a jackal by that of carrion; for this pair Joseph was no
match. Not only did they co