Agatha Webb by Anna Katharine Green Read Free Book Online Page A

was
lying by the hearth, looking up into her face, which was bending
over me. She was white as the rag I had tied about my baby's
throat, and by the way her breast heaved she was either very much
frightened or very sorry.
    "'I wish you had the help of anyone else,' said she. 'Babies
perish in my arms and wither at my breast. I cannot touch it, much
as I yearn to. But let me see its face; perhaps I can tell you
what is the matter with it.'
    "I showed her the baby's face, and she bent over it, trembling
very much, almost as much indeed as myself.
    "'It is very sick,' she said, 'but if you will use the remedies I
advise, I think you can save it.' And she told me what to do, and
helped me all she could; but she did not lay a finger on the
little darling, though from the way she watched it I saw that her
heart was set on his getting better. And he did; in an hour he was
sleeping peacefully, and the terrible weight was gone from my
heart and from hers. When the storm stopped, and she could leave
the house, she gave me a kiss; but the look she gave him meant
more than kisses. God must have forgotten her goodness to me that
night when He let her die so pitiable a death."
    At the minister's house they were commenting upon the look of
serenity observable in her dead face.
    "I have known her for thirty years," her pastor declared, "and
never before have I seen her wear a look of real peace. It is
wonderful, considering the circumstances. Do you think she was so
weary of her life's long struggle that she hailed any release from
it, even that of violence?"
    A young man, a lawyer, visiting them from New York, was the only
one to answer.
    "I never saw the woman you are talking about," said he, "and know
nothing of the circumstances of her death beyond what you have
told me. But from the very incongruity between her expression and
the violent nature of her death, I argue that there are depths to
this crime which have not yet been sounded."
    "What depths? It is a simple case of murder followed by theft. To
be sure we do not yet know the criminal, but money was his motive;
that is clear enough."
    "Are you ready to wager that that is all there is to it?"
    This was a startling proposition to the minister.
    "You forget my cloth," said he.
    The young man smiled. "That is true. Pardon me. I was only anxious
to show how strong my conviction was against any such easy
explanation of a crime marked by such contradictory features."
    Two children on the Portchester road were exchanging boyish
confidences.
    "Do you know what I think about it?" asked one.
    "Naw! How should I?"
    "Wall, I think old Mrs. Webb got the likes of what she sent. Don't
you know she had six children once, and that she killed every one
of them?"
    "Killed'em—she?"
    "Yes, I heard her tell granny once all about it. She said there
was a blight on her house—I don't know what that is; but I guess
it's something big and heavy—and that it fell on every one of her
children, as fast as they came, and killed 'em."
    "Then I'm glad I ben't her child."
    Very different were the recollections interchanged between two
middle-aged Portchester women.
    "She was drinking tea at my house when her sister Sairey came
running in with the news that the baby she had left at home wasn't
quite right. That was her first child, you know."
    "Yes, yes, for I was with her when that baby came," broke in the
other, "and such joy as she showed when they told her it was alive
and well I never saw. I do not know why she didn't expect it to be
alive, but she didn't, and her happiness was just wonderful to
see."
    "Well, she didn't enjoy it long. The poor little fellow died
young. But I was telling you of the night when she first heard he
was ailing. Philemon had been telling a good story, and we were
all laughing, when Sairey came in. I can see Agatha now. She
always had the most brilliant eyes in the county, but that day
they were superbly dazzling. They changed, though, at the sight of
Sairey's face, and she jumped