Read Online The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore - Free Book Online Page B

steps. She did not take it. It seemed]ust a little bit forward, the way he did it.
    She was thinking of things to say as they went down Camden Street. Then she saw his dragging walk and all words left her. He has a bad leg, why did I never notice it? His walk, dragging his left leg, and that shoe is specially built. OmyGod, he’s a crippled.
    At the corner of the street they came face to face with the reddish Gothic facade of Queen’s University. He looked up at it.
    ‘That Bernie. A college education, well they certainly didn’t teach him much.’
    ‘He is a little queer,’ she said tentatively.
    ‘Queer? He’s no queer, believe me. He’s just a no good mama’s boy, never did a day’s work in his life. Don’t let that poetry stuff fool you. That’s just a gimmick, so’s he can say he’s working. No, he’s got a cinch. Why should he work when May keeps him?’
    He looked sideways at Miss Hearne. ‘You been to college? You seem like an educated woman,’
    ‘No, I’m afraid the Sacred Heart convent in Armagh is as far as I went,’ Miss Hearne said pridefully, because, after all, the Sacred Heart convent was the best in Ireland. The best families sent their girls there. Would he know that, being an American? ‘It’s considered the best convent, though,’ she added.
    ‘I never went to college. Had to get out and hustle for myself. I made out too, did fine.’
    I wonder if he’s rich? Out walking on a Sunday morning with a strange man, what would Aunt D’Arcy have said? Still, he looks quite prosperous and respectable. That limp, you would hardly notice it. After all, I never noticed it before.
     
    All Americans have money, they say. I wonder what he did in the hotel, would it be rude to ask him?
    ‘And did you go into the hotel business right away, when
    you arrived in America?’
    ‘No.’
    They walked in silence for a while. ‘Always had my own car,’ Mr Madden told the wind. ‘Always had my ovn car, even in the depression.’
    She didn’t know quite what to reply to this, but something had to be said. ‘People earn a lot of money in America, don’t they?’
    ‘Some people. But it’s a young man’s country. They got no use for you when they figure you’re over the hill. Y’see, I always had it in mind to come back to ireland when I was older. Maybe marry again and settle down.’
    Miss Hearne felt something turn over in her breast. ‘And did your poor wife pass on long ago?’
    ‘The year we went over. She’s dead goin’ on thirty years. It was the crossing that killed her, the boats were different in those days. Had the baby about a week after we landed. Sheila, my girl.’
    ‘O, so you have a family then.’
    ‘Well, just the one. She’s married now. I was living with her and the husband before I come home. I figured I was in the way, lying up around the house after my accident. This leg, y’see. So I told them I’m goin’ back to Ireland, kids, I said. Back home.’
    He’s lonely, thinking of his old age like that. But how odd that he would discuss his private affairs without really knowing her at all. It was like something in a story, people meeting, struck by a common rapport, a spark of kinship or love.
    Although that was silly and she was being daydreamy again. ‘I’m sure your daughter must miss you, all the same.’ ‘Some chance. Kids nowadays don’t care.’
    They crossed the street as the light flashed green. He took her arm as they stepped off the pavement. She did not reject his aid.
    ‘0, children of the present generation are awfully
     
    thoughtless. Even here in Ireland. Friends of mine, the O’Neills…’
    ‘Same thing here,’ he interrupted. ‘Come back to settle down anti you can’t even get respect from the likes of Bernie.’ ‘So you’re planning to stay here?’
    ‘Maybe. I got a couple of deals cooking. I might go to the West Indies, I hear there’s a lot of possibilities there. Depends. Or I might go into business in Dublin. If I had a