Dialstone Lane, Part 5 by W.W. Jacobs

Nearly a year had elapsed since the sailing of the _Fair Emily_, and / Binchester, which had listened doubtfully to the tale of the treasure as / revealed by Mr. William Russell, was still awaiting news of her fate. / Cablegrams to Sydney only elicited the information that she had not been / heard of, and the opinion became general that she had added but one more / to the many mysteries of the sea.

Captain Bowers, familiar with many cases of ships long overdue which had / reached home in safety, still hoped, but it was clear from the way in / which Mrs. Chalk spoke of her husband and the saint-like qualities she / attributed to him that she never expected to see him again. Mr. Stobell / also appeared to his wife through tear-dimmed eyes as a person of great / gentleness and infinite self-sacrifice.

"All the years we were married," she said one afternoon to Mrs. Chalk, / who had been listening with growing impatience to an account of Mr. / Stobell which that gentleman would have been the first to disclaim, "I / never gave him a cross word. Nothing was too good for me; I only had to / ask to have."

Mrs. Chalk couldn't help herself. "Why don't you ask, then? " she / inquired.

Mrs. Stobell started and eyed her indignantly. "So long as I had him I / didn't want anything else," she said, stiffly. "We were all in all to / each other; he couldn't bear me out of his sight. I remember once, when / I had gone to see my poor mother, he sent me three telegrams in / thirty-five minutes telling me to come home."

"Thomas was so unselfish," murmured Mrs. Chalk. "I once stayed with my / mother for six weeks and he never said a word."

An odd expression, transient but unmistakable, flitted across the face of / the listener.

"It nearly broke his heart, though, poor dear," said Mrs. Chalk, glaring / at her. "He said he had never had such a time in his life."

"I don't expect he had," said Mrs. Stobell, screwing up her small / features.

Mrs. Chalk drew herself up in her chair. "What do you mean by that? " / she demanded.

"I meant what he meant," replied Mrs. Stobell, with a little air of / surprise.

Mrs. Chalk bit her lip, and her friend, turning her head, gazed long and / mournfully at a large photograph of Mr. Stobell painted in oils, which / stared stiffly down on them from the wall.

"He never caused me a moment's uneasiness," she said, tenderly. "I could / trust him anywhere."

Mrs. Chalk gazed thoughtfully at the portrait. It was not a good / likeness, but it was more like Mr. Stobell than anybody else in / Binchester, a fact which had been of some use in allaying certain / unworthy suspicions of Mr. Stobell the first time he saw it.

"Yes," said Mrs. Chalk, significantly, "I should think you could."

Mrs. Stobell, about to reply, caught the staring eye of the photograph, / and, shaking her head sorrowfully, took out her handkerchief and wiped / her eyes. Mrs. Chalk softened.

"They both had their faults," she said, gently, "but they were great / friends. I dare say that it was a comfort to them to be together to the / last."

Captain Bowers himself began to lose hope at last, and went about in so / moody a fashion that a shadow seemed to have fallen upon the cottage. By / tacit consent the treasure had long been a forbidden subject, and even / when the news of Selina's promissory note reached Dialstone Lane he had / refused to discuss it. It had nothing to do with him, he said, and he / washed his hands of it -- a conclusion highly satisfactory to Miss Vickers, / who had feared that she would have had to have dropped for a time her / visits to Mr. Tasker.

A slight change in the household occurring at this time helped to divert / the captain's thoughts. Mr. Tasker while chopping wood happened to chop / his knee by mistake, and, as he did everything with great thoroughness, / injured himself so badly that he had to be removed to his home. He was / taken away at ten in the morning, and at a quarter-past eleven Selina / Vickers, in a large apron and her sleeves rolled up over her elbows, was / blacking the kitchen stove and throwing occasional replies to the / objecting captain over her shoulder.

"I promised Joseph," she said, sharply, "and I don't break my promises / for nobody. He was worrying about what you'd do all alone, and I told / him I'd come."