Produced by David Widger
By Winston Churchill
It was late November. And as Honora sat at the window of the drawing-roomof the sleeping car, life seemed as fantastic and unreal as the moss-hungSouthern forest into which she stared. She was happy, as a child is happywho is taken on an excursion into the unknown. The monotony of existencewas at last broken, and riven the circumscribing walls. Limitlesspossibilities lay ahead.
The emancipation had not been without its pangs of sorrow, and there weremoments of retrospection—as now. She saw herself on Uncle Tom's arm,walking up the aisle of the old church. How many Sundays of her life hadshe sat watching a shaft of sunlight strike across the stone pillars ofits gothic arches! She saw, in the chancel, tall and grave and pale,Peter Erwin standing beside the man with the flushed face who was to beher husband. She heard again the familiar voice of Dr. Ewing reciting thewords of that wonderful introduction. At other weddings she had beenmoved. Why was her own so unrealizable?
"Honora, wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy state of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honour, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?"
She had promised. And they were walking out of the church, facing thegreat rose window with its blended colours, and the vaults above wereringing now with the volume of an immortal march.
After that an illogical series of events and pictures passed before her.She was in a corner of the carriage, her veil raised, gazing at herhusband, who had kissed her passionately. He was there beside her,looking extremely well in his top hat and frock-coat, with a white flowerin his buttonhole. He was the representative of the future she haddeliberately chosen. And yet, by virtue of the strange ceremony throughwhich they had passed, he seemed to have changed. In her attempt to seizeupon a reality she looked out of the window. They were just passing theHanbury mansion in Wayland Square, and her eyes fell upon the playroomwindows under the wide cornice; and she wondered whether the doll's housewere still in its place, its mute inhabitants waiting to be called by thenames she had given them, and quickened into life once more.
Next she recalled the arrival at the little house that had been her home,summer and winter, for so many years of her life. A red and white awning,stretching up the length of the walk which once had run beside the tallpear trees, gave it an unrecognizable, gala air. Long had it stood there,patient, unpretentious, content that the great things should pass it by!And now, modest still, it had been singled out from amongst itsneighbours and honoured. Was it honoured? It seemed to Honora, sofanciful this day, that its unwonted air of festival was unnatural. Whyshould the hour of departure from such a harbour of peace be celebrated?
She was standing beside her husband in the little parlour, while carriagedoors slammed in the dusk outside; while one by one—a pageant of thepast which she was leaving forever the friends of her childhood came andwent. Laughter and tears and kisses! And then, in no time at all, shefound herself changing for the journey in the "little house under thehill." There, locked u