ASLEEP A KING
41
he found Mark's car drawn up by the side of a back road at the top
of a hill, and on the front seat Mark's body. His enormous features
wrinkled and went pale, his little blue eyes crawled over the corpse,
and from sheer nervousness a tear oozed out and splashed on Mark's
fingers on the window.
In ten minutes everyone but Mrs. Bradley knew.
"Whyl"
" ... I can't understand it. Horrible!"
"They say she gave him back his rjng last week.... "
" ... always a morbid.... "
The real talk was in whispers:
"They say.
... "
Among the first to hear were Father Williams and Mrs. Alding–
ton. Her car had broken down and the Padre, in his role as general
shepherd, had come to take her marketing: they were at the store
when Jake telephoned. Mrs. Aldington was aghast. "Mark Bradley?
Shot himself?"
Her hand flew to her forehead, she swayed. However
after a few minutes she was able to reel back into shape and help the
Padre take charge. An ambulance was sent for from Millboro, the
doctor and First Selectman called, and so on. It was decided that no
iess than she and Padre themselves should notify Mrs. Bradley, espe–
cially as there was a certain intimacy between the Bradleys and the
Aldingtons, but on the way there she had a relapse. "Why
did
he do
it, Padre?" she whimpered. "Why I just can't believe it was only
yesterday he was looking so happy, just like any normal healthy boy
in love.... " She went in with her nose very red and a handkerchief
wadded in her hand. Father Williams straightened his collar, com–
posed his handsome padded face as for communion, and broke the
news.
Mrs. Bradley was at the ironing-board. She said nothing, Her
lips were pressed hard together and the lines of her face drawn down,
giving her an expression almost of hatred, but her fingers trembled
on the iron. Mter a while the cloth began to burn and sighing a little,
as if at the end of another too-long day, she lifted the iron to its rack.
Only when they were leaving she spoke, her voice insistent, dead:
"Mrs. Aldington, I wonder if you could let me have the money for
this week, now. I'd appreciate it.... " She motioned with vague
resentment toward the laundry-littered room and the bedroom where
Mark's body would lie, where not so many hours before he had been
sleeping. "Of course.... " Mrs. Aldington spoke hurriedly, as if it
were a shady deal, scrambled through her purse and furtively handed
over the bills: "It's all I have with me. ... " Mrs. Bradley tucked
them carefully in her apron pocket and turned away.
It was not until hours later, staring at the white-covered remains,
