They crossed a smooth gravel walk into a crowded town of dead people. Tombstones as far as you could see; upright stones, flat slabs, rounded slabs, slabs like coffins, stone boxes with flat tops, broken columns; pointed pillars. Rows of tall black trees. Here and there a single tree sticking up stiffly among the tombstones. Very little trees that were queer and terrifying. People in black moving about the tombstones. A broad road and a grey chapel with pointed gables. Under a black tree a square plot enclosed by iron railings.
Grandmamma and Grandpapa Olivier were buried in one half of the plot under a white marble slab. In the other half, on the bare grass, a white marble curb marked out a place for another grave.
Roddy said, “Who’s buried there?”
Mamma said, “Nobody. Yet. That’s for—”
Mary saw Aunt Lavvy frown again and put her finger to her mouth.
She said, “Who? For who?” An appalling curiosity and fear possessed her. And when Aunt Lavvy took her hand she knew that the empty place was marked out for Mamma and Papa.
Outside the cemetery gates, in the white road, the black funeral horses tossed their heads and neighed, and the black plumes quivered on the hearses. In the wagonette she sat close beside Aunt Lavvy, with Aunt Lavvy’s shawl over her eyes.
She wondered how she knew that you were frightened when Mamma didn’t. Mamma couldn’t, because she was brave. She wasn’t afraid of the funeral.
When Roddy said, “She oughtn’t to have taken us, she ought to have known it would frighten us,” Mark was angry with him. He said, “She thought you’d like it, you little beast. Because of the wagonette.”
Darling Mamma. She had taken them because she thought they would like it. Because of the wagonette. Because she was brave, like Mark.
VI
Dead people really did rise. Supposing all the dead people in the City of London Cemetery rose and came out of their graves and went about the city? Supposing they walked out as far as Ilford? Crowds and crowds of them, in white sheets? Supposing they got into the garden?
“Please, God, keep me from thinking about the Resurrection. Please God, keep me from dreaming about coffins and funerals and ghosts and skeletons and corpses.” She said it last, after the blessings, so that God couldn’t forget. But it was no use.
If you said texts: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.” “Yea, though I walk through the City of London Cemetery.” It was no use.
“The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall arise … Incorruptible.”
That was beautiful. Like a bright light shining. But you couldn’t think about it long enough. And the dreams went on just the same: the dream of the ghost in the passage, the dream of the black coffin coming round the turn of the staircase and squeezing you against the banister; the dream of the corpse that came to your bed. She could see the round back and the curled arms under the white sheet.
The dreams woke her with a sort of burst. Her heart was jumping about and thumping; her face and hair were wet with water that came out of her skin.
The grey light in the passage was like the ghost-light of the dreams.
Gas light was a good light; but when you turned it on Jenny came up and put it out again. She said, “Goodness knows when you’ll get to sleep with that light flaring.”
There was never anybody about at bedtime. Jenny was dishing up the dinner. Harriet was waiting. Catty only ran up for a minute to undo the hooks and brush your hair.
When Mamma sent her to bed she came creeping back into the dining-room. Everybody was eating dinner. She sickened with fright in the steam and smell of dinner. She leaned her head against Mamma and whimpered, and Mamma said in her soft voice, “Big girls don’t cry because it’s bedtime. Only silly baby girls are afraid of ghosts.”
Mamma wasn’t afraid.
When she cried Mark left his dinner and carried her upstairs, past the place where the ghost was, and stayed with her till Catty came.
Chapter VII
I
“Minx! Minx! Minx!”
Mark had come in from the garden with Mamma. He was calling to Mary. Minx was the name he had given her. Minx was a pretty name and she loved it because he had given it her. Whenever she heard him call she left what she was doing and ran to him.
Papa came out of the library with Boag’s Dictionary open in his hand. “ ‘Minx: A pert, wanton girl. A she-puppy.’ Do you hear that, Caroline? He calls his sister a wanton she-puppy.” But Mamma had gone back into the garden.
Mark stood at the foot of the stairs and Mary stood at the turn. She had one hand on the rail of the banister, the other pressed hard against the wall. She leaned forward on tiptoe, measuring her distance. When she looked at the stairs they fell from under her in a grey dizziness, so that Mark looked very far away.
They waited till Papa had gone back into the library—Mark held out his arms.
“Jump, Minky! Jump!”
She let go the rail and drew herself up. A delicious thrill of danger went through her and out at her fingers. She flung herself into space and Mark caught her. His body felt hard and strong as it received her. They did it again and again.
That was the “faith-jump.” You knew that you would be killed if Mark didn’t catch
