Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. II, 1855.djvu/150

 the procession, each one questioning the bearers, who answered almost reluctantly at last, so often had they told the tale.

"We found him i' th' brook in the field beyond there."

"Th' brook!—why there's not water enough to drown him!"

"He was a determined chap. He lay with his face downwards. He was sick enough o' living, choose what cause he had for it."

Higgins crept up to Margaret's side, and said in a weak piping kind of voice: "It's not John Boucher? He had na spunk enough. Sure! It's not John Boucher! Why, they are a' looking this way! Listen! I've a singing in my head, and I cannot hear."

They put the door down carefully upon and all might see the poor drowned wretch—his glassy eyes, one half-open, staring right upwards to the sky. Owing to the position in which he had been found lying, his face was swollen and discoloured; besides, his skin was stained by the water in the brook, which had been used for dying purposes. The fore part of his head was bald; but the hair grew thin and long behind, and every separate lock was a conduit for water. Through all these disfigurements, Margaret recognised John Boucher. It seemed to her so sacrilegious to be peering into that poor distorted, agonised face, that, by a flash of instinct, she went forwards and softly covered the dead man's countenance with her handkerchief. The eyes that saw her do this followed her, as she turned away from her pious office, and