“Yes, my dear; it has been a busy day. I have been successful with my tender for Mr. Eaton’s improvements; iron has advanced; the navigation has stopped; Castle, the blacksmith, has gone to smash; I have to go to a trustees’ meeting under that old Fothergill trust; and Jack in the foundry has given notice to leave.”
“When did you hear all this?”
“All within an hour after breakfast. I have been entirely occupied this afternoon in directing Tom what to do, and I must be off to see that he has carried out my instructions. What a coil it is! and yet I rather like it.”
Catharine reflected that her father did not seem to like it at dinner-time, and went through the familiar operation of putting two and two together. She accompanied him to the front gate, and as he passed out she said—
“You have not given Tom notice?”
“No, my dear, not yet. It would be a little inconvenient at present. Icoulddo without him easily, even now; but perhaps it will be better to wait. Besides, he is a little more teachable after the talking-to I have given him.”
Mr. Furze signed his letters. He did not observe that many others, of which he had not thought, remained to be written, and when Tom brought them the next day he made no remark. The assumption was that he had noticed the day before what remained to be done, saw that it was not urgent, and consented to the delay. The curious thing was that he assumed it to himself. It is a tact—not incredible to those who know that nobody, not the most accomplished master in flattery, can humbug us so completely as we can and do humbug ourselves—that Mr. Furze, ten minutes after the letters were posted, was perfectly convinced that he had foreseen the necessity of each one—that he had personally and thoroughly controlled the whole day’s operations, and that Tom had performed the duties of a merely menial clerk. As he went home he thought over Catharine’s attitude with regard to Tom. She, in reality, had been anxious to protect her father; but such a motive he could not be expected to suggest to himself. A horrid notion came into his head. She might be fond of Tom! Did she not once save his life? Had she not, even when a child, pleaded that something ought to be done for him? Had she not affirmed that he was indispensable? Had she not inquired again about him that very day? Had she not openly expressed her contempt for that most eligible person, Mr. Colston? He determined to watch most strictly, and again he resolved to dismiss his assistant. A trifling increase in his attention to small matters should enable him to do this within a month or two. It would be as well for Mrs. Furze to watch too. After supper Catharine went to bed early, and her father hung out the white flag, to which friendly response was given directly the subject of his communications was apparent. It became a basis of almost instantaneous reconciliation, and Mrs. Furze, mindful of the repulse of the brewer’s son and the ruin of her own scheme thereon built, hated Tom more than ever. It was Tom, then, who had prevented admission into Eastthorpe society.
Mr. Tom Catchpole had never had any schooling. What he had learned he had learned by himself, and the books he had read were but few, and chosen rather by chance. He had never had the advantage of the common introduction to the world of ideas which is given, in a measure, to all boys who are systematically taught by teachers, and consequently, not knowing the relative value of what came before him, his perspective and proportion were incorrect. His mind, too, was essentially plain. He was perfect in his loyalty to duty; he was, as we have seen, very good in business matters, had a clear head, and could give shrewd advice upon any solid, matter-of-fact difficulty, but the spiritual world was non-existent for him. He attended chapel regularly, for he was a Dissenter, but his reasons for going, so far as he had any, were very simple. There was a great God in heaven, against whom he had sinned and was perpetually sinning. To save himself from the consequences of his transgressions certain means were provided and he was bound to use them. On Monday morning chapel and all thoughts connected with it entirely disappeared, but he said his prayers twice a day with great regularity. There are very few, however, of God’s creatures to whom the supernatural does not in some way present itself, and no man lives by bread alone. To Tom, Catharine was miracle, soul, inspiration, religion, enthusiasm, patriotism, immortality, the fact, essentially identical, whatever we like to call it, which is not bread and yet is life. He never dared to say anything to her. He felt that she lived in a world beyond him, and he did not know what kind of a world it was. He knew that she thought about things which were strange to him, and that she was anxious upon subjects which never troubled him. She was often greatly depressed when there was no cause for depression so far as he could see, and he could not comprehend why a person should be ill when there was nothing the matter. If he felt unwell—a rare event with him—he always took two antibilous pills before going to bed, and was all right the next morning. He wished he himself could be ill without a reason, and then perhaps he would be able to understand Catharine better. Her elation and excitement were equally unintelligible. He once saw her sitting in her father’s counting-house with a book. She was not a great reader—nobody in Eastthorpe read books, and there were not many to read—but she was so absorbed in this particular book that she did not lift her eyes from it when he came in, and it was not until her father had spoken twice to her, and had told her that he was expecting somebody, that she moved. She then ran upstairs into a storeroom, and was there for half an hour in the cold. The book was left open when she went away, and Tom looked at it. It was a collection of poems by all kinds of people, and the one over which she had been poring was about a man who had shot an albatross. Tom studied it, but could make nothing of it, and yet this was what had so much interested her! “O God!” he said to himself passionately, “if I could, if I did but know! She cares not a pin for me; this is what she cares for.” Poor Tom! he did not pride himself on the absence of a sense in him, but knew and acknowledged to himself that he was defective. It is quite possible to be aware of a spiritual insensibility which there is no power to overcome—of the existence of a universe in which other favoured souls are able to live, one which they can report, and yet its doors are closed to us, or, if sitting outside we catch a glimpse of what is within, we have no power to utter a single sufficient word to acquaint anybody with what we have seen: Catharine respected Tom greatly, for she understood well enough what her father owed to him, but she could not love him. One penetrating word from Mr. Cardew thrilled every fibre in her, no matter what the subject might be. Tom, in every mood and on every topic, was uninteresting and ordinary. To tell the truth, plain, common probity taken by itself was not attractive to her. Horses, dogs, cows, the fields were more stimulant than perfect integrity, for she was young and did not know how precious it was; but, after all, the reason of reasons why she did not love Tom was that she did not love him.
It was announced one day by small handbills in the shop windows that a sermon was to be preached by Mr. Cardew, of Abchurch, in Eastthorpe, on behalf of the County Infirmary, and Catharine went to hear him. It was in the evening, and she was purposely late. She did no go to her mother’s pew, but sat down close to the door. To her surprise she saw Tom not far off. He was on his way to his chapel when he noticed Catharine alone, walking towards the church, and he had followed her. Mr. Cardew took for his text the parable of the prodigal son. He began by saying that this parable had been taken to be an exhibition of God’s love for man. It seemed rather intended to set forth, not the magnificence of the Divine nature, but of human nature—of that nature which God assumed. The determination on the part of the younger son to arise, to go to his father, and above everything to say to him simply, “Father, I have sinned,” was as great as God is great: it was God—God moving in us; in a sense it was far more truly God—far greater than the force which binds the planets into a system. But the splendour of human nature—do not suppose any heresy here; it is Bible truth, the very gospel—is shown in the father as well as in the son.
“When he was yet a great way off.” We are as good as told then, that day after day the father had been watching. How small were the probabilities that at any particular hour the son would return, and yet every hour the father’s eyes were on that long, dusty road! When at last he saw what he was dying to see, what did he say? Was there a word of rebuke? He stopped his boy’s mouth with kisses and cried for the best robe and the ring and the shoes, and proclaimed a feast—the ring, mark you, a sign of honour!
“Say nothing of pardon; the darkness hath gone:Shall pardon be asked for the night by the sun?No word of the past; of the future no fear:’Tis enough, my beloved, to know thou art here.”
“Say nothing of pardon; the darkness hath gone:Shall pardon be asked for the night by the sun?No word of the past; of the future no fear:’Tis enough, my beloved, to know thou art here.”
“Oh, my friends,” said the preacher, “just consider that it is this upon which Jesus, the Son of God, has put His stamp, not the lecture, not chastisement, not expiation, but an instant unquestioning embrace, no matter what the wrong may have been. If you say this is dangerous doctrine, I say it ishere. What other meaning can you give to it? At the same time I am astonished to find it here, astonished that priestcraft and the enemy of souls should not have erased it. Sacred truth! Is it not moving to think of all the millions of men who for eighteen hundred years have read this parable, philosophers and peasants, in every climate, and now are we reading it to-day! Is it not moving—nay, awful—to think of all the good it has done, of the sweet stream of tenderness, broad and deep, which has flowed down from it through all history? History would all have been different if this parable had never been told.”
Mr. Cardew paused, and after his emotion had a little subsided he concluded by an appeal on behalf of the infirmary. He inserted a saving clause on Christ’s mediatorial work, but it had no particular connection with the former part of his discourse. It was spoken in a different tone, and it satisfied the congregation that they had really heard nothing heterodox.
Tom watched Catharine closely. He noted her eager, rapt attention, and that she did not recover herself till the voluntary was at an end. He went out after her; she met Mr. and Mrs. Cardew at the churchyard gates; he saw the excitement of all three, and he saw Catharine leave her friends at the Rectory, for they were evidently going to stay the night there. Mrs. Cardew went into the house first, but Catharine turned down Fosbrooke Street, a street which did not lead, save by a very roundabout way, to the Terrace. Presently Mr. Cardew came out and walked slowly down Rectory Lane. In those days it was hardly a thoroughfare. It ended at the river bank, and during daylight a boat was generally there, belonging to an old, superannuated boatman, who carried chance passengers over to the mill meadows and saved them a walk if they wanted to go that side of the town. A rough seat had been placed near the boat moorings for the convenience of the ferryman’s customers. At this time in the evening the place was deserted. Tom followed Mr. Cardew, and presently overtook him. Mr. Cardew and he knew one another slightly, for there were few persons for miles round who did not know and then visit Mr. Furze’s shop.
“Good evening, Mr. Cardew.”
“Ah! Mr. Catchpole, is that you? What are you doing here?”
“I have been to hear you preach, sir, and I thought I would have a stroll before I went home.”
“I thought I should like a stroll too.”
The two went on together, and sat down on the seat. The moon had just risen, nearly full, sending its rays obliquely across the water, and lighting up the footpath which went right and left along the river’s edge. Mr. Cardew seemed disinclined to talk, was rather restless, and walked backwards and forwards by the bank. Tom reflected that he might be intruding, but there was something on his mind, and he did not leave. Mr. Cardew sat down again by his side. They both happened to be looking in the same direction eastwards at the same moment.
“If that lady thinks to cross to-night,” said Tom, “she’s mistaken. I’d take her over myself, though it is Sunday, if the boat were not locked.”
“What lady?” asked Mr. Cardew—as if he were frightened, Tom thought.
“The lady coming down there just against the willow.”
Mr. Cardew was short-sighted, and could not see her. He made as if he would go to meet her, but he stopped, returned, and remained standing. The figure approached, but before Tom could discern anything more than that it was a woman, it disappeared behind the hedge up the little bypath that cut off the corner into Rectory Lane.
“She’s gone,” said Tom. “I suppose she was not coming here after all.”
“Which way has she gone?” asked Mr. Cardew, looking straight on the ground and scratching it with his stick.
“Into the town.”
“I must be going, I think, Mr. Catchpole; good-night.”
“I’ll walk with you as far as your door, sir. There’s something I want to say to you.”
Mr. Cardew did not reply, and meditated for a moment.
“It is a lovely evening. We will sit here a little longer. What is it?”
“Mr. Cardew, as I said, I have been to hear you preach, and I thank you with all my heart for your sermon, but I want to ask you something about it. What you said about the Mediator was true enough, but somehow, sir, I feel as if I ought to have liked the first part most, but I couldn’t, and perhaps the reason is that it was poetry. Oh, Mr. Cardew, if you could but tell me how to like poetry!”
“I am afraid neither I nor anybody else can teach you that; but why are you anxious to like it? Why are you dissatisfied with yourself?”
“I do not think I am stupid. When I am in the shop I know that I am more of a match for most persons, and yet, Mr. Cardew, there are some people who seem to me to have something I have not got, and they value it more than anything besides, and they have nothing to say really,really, I mean, to those who have not got it, although they are kind to them.”
“It is not very easy to understand what you mean.”
“Well now to-night, sir, when you talked about God moving in us, and the force which binds the planets together, and all that, I am sure you felt it, and I am sure it is true, and yet I was out of doors, so to speak.”
“Perhaps I may be peculiar, and it is you who are sane and sound.”
“Ah, Mr. Cardew, if you were alone in it, and everybody were like me, that might be true, but it is not so; it is I who am alone.”
“Who cares for it whom you know? You are under a delusion.”
“Oh, no, I am not. Why there—there.” Tom stopped.
“There was what?”
“There was Miss Furze—she took it in.”
“Indeed!” Mr Cardew again looked straight on the ground, and again scratched it with his stick. It was a night of nights, dying twilight long lingering in the north-west, the low golden moon, the slow, placid, shining stream, perfect stillness. Tom was not very susceptible, but even he was overcome and tempted into confidence.
“Mr. Cardew, you are a minister, and I may tell you: I know you will not betray me. I love Miss Furze; I cannot help it. I have never loved any girl before. It is very foolish, for I am only her father’s journeyman; but that might be got over. She would not let that stand in her way, I am sure. But, Mr. Cardew, I am not up to her; she is strange to me. If I try to mention her subjects, what I say is not right, and when I drove her home from Chapel Farm, and admired the view I know she admired, she directly began to speak about business, as if she did not wish to talk about better things; perhaps it is because I never was taught. I had no schooling; cannot you help me, sir? I shall never set eyes on anybody like her. I would die this instant to save her a moment’s pain.”
Mr. Cardew was silent. It was characteristic of him that often when he himself was most personally affected, the situation became an object of reflection. What a strange pathos there was in this recognition of superiority and in the inability to rise to it and appropriate it! Then his thoughts turned to himself again, and the flame shot up clear and strong, as if oil had been poured on the fire. She understood him; she alone.
“I am very sorry for you, Mr. Catchpole, more sorry than I can tell you. I will think over what you have said, and we will have another talk about it. I must be going now.”
Mr. Cardew, however, did not go towards Rectory Lane, but along the side path. Tom mechanically accompanied him, but without speaking. At last Mr. Cardew, finding that Tom did not leave him, retraced his steps and went up the lane. In about two minutes they met Mrs. Cardew.
“I wondered where you were. I was coming down to the ferry to look for you, thinking that most likely you were there. Ah, Mr. Catchpole! is that you? I am glad my husband has had company. Let me go back and look at the water.”
“Certainly.”
Tom stopped and took his leave.
The two went back to the river and sat on the seat.
Mrs. Cardew took her husband’s hand in her own sweet way, kissed it, and held it fast. At last, with a little struggle, she said—
“My dear, you have never preached—to me, at least—as you have preached to-night.”
“You really mean it?”
She kissed his hand again, and leaned her head on his shoulder. That was her reply. He clasped her tenderly, fervently, more than fervently, and yet! while his mouth was on her neck, and his arms were round her body, the face of Catharine presented itself, and it was not altogether his wife whom he caressed.
Meanwhile Tom, pursuing his way homeward, overtook Miss Furze, to his great surprise.
“Tom, where have you been?”
“I have just left Mr. and Mrs. Cardew.”
Catharine, on her way home, hesitating—for it was Catharine whom Tom and Mr. Cardew saw—had met Mrs. Cardew just about to leave the house.
“Why, Catharine! you here?”
“I was tempted by the night.”
“Catharine, did you ever hear my husband preach better than he did to-night?”
“Never!”
“I was so proud of him, and I was so happy, because just what touched him touched me too. Come back with me: I know he has gone to the ferry.”
“No, thank you; it is late.”
“I am sure he will see you home.”
“I am sure he shall not. What! walk up to the Terrace after a day’s hard work!”
So they parted. What had passed between Catharine and Mrs. Cardew when they lingered behind at the Rectory gate, God and they only know, but what we call an accident prevented their meeting. Accident! my friend Reuben told me the other day his marriage was an accident. The more I think about accidents, the less do I believe in them. By chance he had an invitation to go to Shott Woods one afternoon, and there he saw the girl who afterwards became his wife and the mother of children with a certain stamp upon them. They in turn will have other children, all of them moulded after a fashion which would have been different if his wife had been another woman. Nay,thesechildren would not have existed if this particular marriage had not taken place. Thus the whole course of history is altered, because of that little note and a casual encounter. But, putting aside the theory of a God who ordains results absolutely inevitable, although to us it seems as if they might have been different, it may be observed that the attraction which drew Reuben to his dear Camilla was not quite fortuitous. What decided her to go? It was perfect autumn weather; it was just the time of year she most loved; there would be no crowding or confusion, for many people had gone away to the seaside, and so she was delighted at the thought of the picnic. What decided him to go? The very same reasons. They had both been to Shott during the season, and he had talked and laughed there with some delightful creatures before she crossed his path and held him for ever. Why had he waited? Why had she waited? We have discarded Providence as our forefathers believed in it; but nevertheless there is a providence without the big P, if we choose so to spell it, and yet surely deserving it as much as the Providence of theology, a non-theological Providence which watches over us and leads us. It appears as instinct prompting us to do this and not to do that, to decide this way or that way when we have no consciously rational ground for decision, to cleave to this person and shun the other, almost before knowing anything of either: it has been recognised in all ages under various forms as Demon, Fate, or presiding Genius. But still further. Suppose they both went to Shott Woods idly; suppose—which was not the case—they had never heard of one another before, is it not possible that they were brought together by a law as unevadable as gravity? There would be nothing more miraculous in such attraction than there is in that thread which the minutest atom of gas in the Orion nebula extends across billions of miles to the minutest atom of dust on the road under my window. However, be all this as it may, it would be wrong to say that the meeting between Catharine and Mr. Cardew was prevented by accident. She loitered: she went up Fosbrooke Street: if she had gone straight to Mr. Cardew she might have been with him before Tom met him. Tom would not have interrupted them, for he ventured to speak to Mr. Cardew merely because he was alone, and Mrs. Cardew would not have interrupted them, for they would have gone further afield. Tom’s appearance even was not an accident, but a thread carefully woven, one may say, in the web that night.
“I saw you at church to-night, Miss Catharine,” said Tom, as they walked homewards.
“Why did you go? You do not usually go to church.”
“I thought I should like to hear Mr. Cardew, and I am very glad I went.”
“Are you? What did you think of him? Did you like him?”
“Oh, yes; it was all true; but what he said about Christ the Mediator was so clearly put.”
“You did not care for the rest then?”
“I did indeed, Miss Catharine, but it is just the same with our minister; I get along with him so much better when he seems to follow the catechism, but”—he looked up in her face—“I know that is not what you cared for. Oh, Miss Catharine,” he cried suddenly, and quite altering his voice and manner, “I do not know when I shall have another chance; I hardly dare tell you; you won’t spurn me, will you? My father was a poor workman; I was nothing better, and should have been nothing better if it had not been for you; all my schooling almost I have done myself; I know nothing compared with what you know; but, Miss Catharine, I love you to madness: I have loved no woman but you; never looked at one, I may say. Do you remember when you rode home with me from Chapel Farm? I have lived on it ever since. You are far above me: things come and speak to you which I don’t see. If you would teach me I should soon see them too.”
Catharine was silent, and perfectly calm. At last she said—
“My dear Tom.”
Tom shuddered at the tone.
“No, Miss Catharine, don’t say it now; think a little; don’t cast me off in a moment.”
“My dear Tom, I may as well say it now, for what I ought to say is as clear as that moon in the sky. I canneverlove you as a wife ought to love her husband.”
“Oh, Miss Catharine! you despise me, you despise me! Why in God’s name?” Tom rose above himself, and became such another self that Catharine was amazed and half staggered. “Why in God’s name did He make you and me after such a fashion, that you are the one person in the world able to save me, and you cannot! Why did He do this! Why did He put me where I saw you every day and torment me with the hope of you, knowing that you would have nothing to do with me! He maimed my father and made him a beggar: He prevented me from learning what would have made me fit for you, and then He drove me to worship you. Do not say ‘never’!”
They were close to her father’s door at the Terrace. She stopped, looked at him sadly, but decisively, straight in the face, and said—
“Never! never! Never your lover, but your best friend for ever,” and she opened the gate and disappeared.
Mr. and Mrs. Furze were not disturbed because their daughter was late. A neighbour told them that she had gone to the Rectory with Mr. and Mrs. Cardew, and Mrs. Furze was pleased that Eastthorpe should behold her daughter apparently on intimate terms with a clergyman so well known and so respectable. But it was ten o’clock, and they wished to be in bed. Mrs. Furze had gone to the window, and had partly pushed aside the blind, watching till Catharine should appear. Just as the clock struck she saw Catharine approaching with somebody whom she of course took for Mr. Cardew. The pair came nearer, and, to her astonishment, she recognised Tom. Nay more, she saw the couple halt near the gate, and that Tom was speaking very earnestly. Mrs. Furze was so absorbed that she did not recover herself until the interview was at an end, and before she could say a word to her husband, who was asleep in the arm-chair, her daughter was at the door. Mrs. Furze went to open it.
“Why, Catharine, that surely wasn’t Tom!”
“Yes, it was, mother. Why not?”
“To-om!” half shrieked Mrs. Furze.
“Yes, Tom: I suppose father has gone to bed? Good-night, mother,” and Catharine kissed her on the forehead and went upstairs.
Mrs. Furze shut the door and rushed into the room.
“My dear! my dear!” shaking him, “Catharine has come, and Tom brought her, and they stood ever so long talking to one another.”
Mr. Furze roused himself and took a little brandy-and-water.
“Rubbish!”
“Rubbish! it’s all very well for you to say ‘rubbish’ when you’ve been snoring there!”
“Well, where is she? Make her come in; let us hear what she has to say.”
“She’s gone to bed. Now take my advice: don’t speak to her to-night, but wait till to-morrow; you know what she is, and you had better think a bit.”
Mrs. Furze, notwithstanding her excitement, dreaded somewhat attacking Catharine without preparation.
“There’s no mistake about it,” observed Mr. Furze, rousing himself, “that I have had my suspicions of Master Tom, but I never thought it would come to this; nor that Catharine would have anything to say to him. It was she, though, who said I could not do without him.”
“It was she,” added Mrs. Furze, “who always stuck out against our coming up here, and was rude to Mrs. Colston and her son. I do not blame her so much, though, as I do that wretch of a Catchpole. What he wants is plain enough: he’ll marry her and have the business, the son of a blind beggar who used to go on errands! Oh me! to think it has come to this, that my only child should be the wife of a pauper’s son, and we’ve struggled so hard! What will the Colstons say, and all the church folk, and all the town, for the matter of that!”
Here Mrs. Furze threw herself down in a chair and became hysterical. Poor woman! she really cared for Catharine, loved her in a way, and was horrified for her sake at the supposed engagement, but her desire for her daughter’s welfare was bound up with a desire for her own, a strand of one interlaced with a strand of the other, so that they could not be separated. It might be said that the union of the two impulses was even more intimate, that it was like a mixture of two liquids. There was no conflict in her. She was not selfish at one moment, and unselfishly anxious for her child the next; but she was both together at the same instant, the particular course on which she might determine satisfying both instincts.
Mr. Furze unfastened his wife’s gown and stay-laces, and gave her a stimulant. Presently, after directing him with a gasp to open the window, she recovered herself.
“I’ll discharge Mr. Tom at once,” said her husband, “and tell him the reason.”
“Now, don’t be stupid, Furze; pull down that blind, will you? Fancy leaving it up, and the moon staring straight down upon me half undressed! Don’t you admit anything of the kind to Tom. I would not let him believe you could suspect it. Besides, if you were to dismiss him for a such a reason as that, you would make Catharine all the more obstinate, and the whole town would hear of it, and we should perhaps be laughed at, and lots of people would take Tom’s part and say we might go farther and fare worse, and were stuck up, and all that, for we must remember that all the Furzes were of humble origin, and Eastthorpe knows it. No, no, we will get rid of Tom, but it shall not be because of Catharine—something better than that—you leave it to me.”
“Well, how about Catharine?”
“We will have her in to-morrow morning, when we are not so flurried. I always like to talk to her just after breakfast if there is anything wrong; but do not you say a word to Tom.”
Mrs. Furze took another sip of the brandy-and-water and went to bed. Mr. Furze shut the window, mixed a little more brandy-and-water, and, as he drank it, reflected deeply. Most vividly did that morning come back to him when he had once before decided to eject Mr. Catchpole.
“I do not know how it is with other people,” he groaned, “but whenever I have settled on a thing something is sure to turn up against it, and I never know what to be at for the best. My head, too, is not quite what it used to be. Half a dozen worries at once do muddle me. If they would but come, one up and one down, nobody could beat me.” He took another sip of the brandy-and-water. “Want of practice—that’s all. I have been an idiot to let him do so much. He shall go”; and Mr. Furze put out the candles.
Catharine was down before either her father or mother, and stood at the window reading when her father came in. She bade him good morning and kissed him, but he was ill at ease, and pretended to look for something on the side-table. He felt he was not sufficiently supported by the main strength of his forces; he was afraid to speak, and he retreated to his bedroom, sitting down disconsolately on a rush-bottom chair whilst his wife dressed herself.
“She’s there already,” he said.
“Then it is as well you came back.”
“I think you had better begin with her; you are her mother, and we will wait till breakfast is over. Perhaps she will say something to us. How had we better set about it?”
“I shall ask her straight what she means.”
“How shall we go on then?”
“How shall we go on then? What! won’tyouhave a word to put in about her marrying a fellow like that, your own servant with such a father? And how are they to live, pray? Am I to have him up here to tea with us, and is Phœbe to answer the front door when they knock, and is she to wait upon him,himwho always goes down the area steps to the kitchen? I do not believe Phœbe would stop a month, for with all her faults she does like a respectable family. And then, if they go to church, are they to have our pew, and is Mrs. Colston to call on me and say, ‘How is Catharine, and how is yourson-in-law?’ And then—oh dear, oh dear!—is his father to come here too, and is Catharine to bring him, and is he to be at the wedding breakfast? And perhaps Mrs. Colston will inquire after him too. But there, I shall not survivethat! Oh! Catharine, Catharine!”
Mrs. Furze dropped on the chair opposite the looking-glass, for she was arranging her back hair while this monologue was proceeding, although the process was interrupted here and there when her emotions got the better of her. Her hair fell into confusion again, and it seemed as if she would again be upset even at that early hour. Her husband gave her a smelling-bottle, and she slowly recommenced her toilette.
“Would it not,” he said, “be as well to try and soften her a bit, and remind her of her duty to her parents?”
“You might finish up with that, but I don’t believe she’d care; and what are we to do if she owns it all and sticks out? That’s what I want to know.”
Mr. Furze was silent.
“There you sit, Furze; youareprovoking! Pick up that hairpin, will you? You always sit and sit whenever there’s any difficulty. You never go beyond what I have in my own head, and when Idostir you up to think it is sure to be something of no use.”
“I’ll do anything you want,” said the pensive husband as his wife rose and put on her cap. “I’ve told you before I’ll get rid of Tom, and then perhaps it will all come round!”
“At it again! WhatdidI tell you last night?—and yet you go on with your old tune. All come round, indeed! Would it! She’s your daughter, but you don’t know her as I do.”
Here there came a tap at the door. It was Phœbe: Miss Catharine sent her to say it was a quarter-past eight: should she make the coffee?
“Look at that!” said Mrs. Furze: “shall she make the coffee!—after what has happened! That’s the kind of girl she is. It strikes me you had better have nothing to do with her and leave her to me.”
Phœbe tapped again.
“Certainly not,” replied Mrs. Furze. “I’ll begin,” she added to her husband, “by letting her know that at least I am not dead.”
“We’ll, we’d better go. You just tackle her, and I’ll chime in.”
The couple descended, but their plan of campaign was not very clearly elaborated, and even the one or two lines of assault which Mrs. Furze had prepared turned out to be useless. It is all very well to decide what is to be done with a human being if the human being will but comport himself in a fairly average manner, but if he will not the plan is likely to fail.
Mr. Furze was very restless during his meal. He went to the window two or three times, and returned with the remark that it was going to be wet; but the observation was made in a low, mumbling tone. Mrs. Furze was also fidgety, and, in reply to her daughter’s questions, complained of headache, and wondered that Catharine could not see that she had had no sleep. At last the storm broke.
“Catharine!” said Mrs. Furze, “itwasTom, then, who came home with you last night.”
“It was Tom, mother.”
“Tom! What do you mean, child? How—how did he—where did you meet him?”
Mr. Furze retired from the table, where the sun fell full upon him, and sat in the easy chair, where he was more in the shade.
“He overtook me somewhere near the Rectory.”
“Now, Catharine, don’t answer your mother like that,” interposed Mr. Furze; “you know what you heard, or might have heard, last Sunday morning, that prevarication is very much like a lie; why don’t you speak out the truth?”
Catharine was silent for a moment.
“I have answered exactly the question mother asked.”
“Catharine, you know perfectly well what I mean,” said Mrs. Furze; “what is the use of pretending you do not! Tom would never dare to walk with you in a public street, and at night, too, if there were not something more than you like to say. Tom Catchpole! whose father sold laces on the bridge; and to think of all we have done for you, and the money we have spent on you, and the pains we have taken to bring you up respectably! I will not say anything about religion, and all that, for I daresay that is nothing toyou, but you might have had some consideration for your mother, especially in her weak state of health, before you broke her heart, and yet I blame myself, for you always had low tastes—going to Bellamy’s, and consorting with people of that kind rather than with your mother’s friends. Do you suppose Mrs. Colston will come near us again! And it all comes of trying to do one’s best, for there’s Carry Hawkins, only a grocer’s daughter, who never had a sixpence spent on her compared with what you have, and she is engaged to Carver, the doctor at Cambridge. Oh, it’s a serpent’s tooth, it is, and if we had never scraped and screwed for you, and denied ourselves, but left you to yourself, you might have been better; oh dear, oh dear!”
Catharine held her tongue. She saw instantly that if she denied any engagement with Tom she would not be believed, and that in any case Tom would have to depart. Moreover, one of her defects was a certain hardness to persons for whom she had small respect, and she did not understand that just because Mrs. Furze was her mother, she owed her at least deference, and, if possible, a tenderness due to no other person. However weak, foolish, and even criminal parents may be, a child ought to honour them as Moses commanded, for the injunction is, and should be, entirely unconditional.
“Catharine,” said Mr. Furze, “why do you not answer your mother?”
“I cannot; I had better leave.”
She opened the door and went to her room. After she had left further debate arose, and three points were settled: First, that no opposition should be offered to a visit to Chapel Farm, which had been proposed for the next day, as she would be better at the Farm than at the Terrace; secondly, that Tom and she were in love with one another; and thirdly, that not a word should be said to Tom. “Leave that to me,” said Mrs. Furze again. Although she saw nothing distinctly, a vague, misty hope dawned upon her, the possibility of something she could not yet discern, and, notwithstanding the blow she had received, she was decidedly more herself within an hour after breakfast than she had been during the twelve hours preceding.
In Mr. Furze’s establishment was a man who went by the name of Orkid Jim, “Orkid” signifying the general contradictoriness and awkwardness of his temper. He had a brother who was called Orkid Joe, in the employ of a builder in the town, but it was the general opinion that Orkid Jim was much the orkider of the two. He was a person with whom Mr. Furze seldom interfered. He was, it is true, a good workman in the general fitting department, in setting grates, and for jobs of that kind, but he was impertinent and disobedient. Mr. Furze, however, tolerated his insults, and generally allowed him to have his own way. He was not only afraid of Orkid Jim, but he was a victim to that unhappy dread of a quarrel which is the torment and curse of weak minds. It is, no doubt, very horrible to see a man trample upon opinions and feelings as easily and carelessly as he would upon the grass, and go on his way undisturbed, but it is more painful to see faltering, trembling incapacity for self-assertion, especially before subordinates. Mr. Furze could not have suffered more than two or three days’ inconvenience if Orkid Jim had been discharged, but a vague terror haunted him of something which might possibly happen. Partly this distressing weakness is due to the absence of a clear conviction that we are right; it is an intellectual difficulty; but frequently it is simple mushiness of character, the same defect which tempts us, when we know a thing is true, to whittle it down if we meet with opposition, and to refrain from presenting it in all its sharpness. Cowardice of this kind is not only injustice to ourselves, but to our friends. We inflict a grievous wrong by compromise. We are responsible for what we see, and the denial or the qualification should be left to take care of itself. Our duty is, if possible, to give a distinct outline to what we have in our mind. It is easy to say we should not be obstinate, pigheaded, and argue for argument’s sake. That is true, just as much as every half truth is true, but the other half is also true.
Mr. Furze, excepting when he was out of temper, never stood up to Orkid Jim. He needed the stimulus of passion to do what ought to have been done by reason, and when we cannot do what is right save under the pressure of excitement it is generally misdone. Orkid Jim had a great dislike to Tom, which he took no pains to conceal. It was difficult to ascertain the cause, but partly it was jealousy. Tom had got before him. This, however, was not all. It was a case of pure antipathy, such as may often be observed amongst animals. Some dogs are the objects of special hatred by others, and are immediately attacked by them, before any cause of offence can possibly have been given.
Jim had called at the Terrace on the morning after the explosion with Catharine. He came to replace a cracked kitchen boiler, and Mrs. Furze, for some reason or other, felt inclined to go down to the kitchen and have some talk with him. She knew how matters stood between him and Tom.
“Well, Jim, how are you getting on now? I have not seen you lately.”
“No, marm, I ain’t one as comes to the front much now.”
“What do you mean? I suppose you might if you liked. I am sure Mr. Furze values you highly.”
Jim was cautious and cunning; not inclined to commit himself. He consequently replied by an “Ah,” and knocked with great energy at the brickwork from which he was detaching the range.
“Anything been the matter then, Jim?”
“No, marm; nothing’s the matter.”
“You have not quarrelled with Mr. Furze, I hope? You do not seem quite happy.”
“Me quarrel with Mr. Furze, marm!—no, I never quarrel withhim. He’s a gentleman, he is.”
Mrs. Furze was impatient. She wanted to come to the point, and could not wait to manœuvre.
“I am afraid you and Tom do not get on together.”
“Well, Mrs. Furze, if we don’t it ain’t my fault.”
“No, I dare say not; in fact, I am sure it is not. I dare say Tom is a little overbearing. Considering his origin, and the position he now occupies, it is natural he should be.”
“He ain’t one as ought to give himself airs, marm. Why—”
Jim all at once dropped his chisel and his mask of indifference and flashed into ferocity.
“Why, my father was a tradesman, he was, and I was in your husband’s foundry earning a pound a week when Master Tom was in rags. Who taught him I should like to know?”
“Jim, you must not talk like that; although, to tell you the truth, Tom is no favourite of mine. Mr. Furze, however, relies on him.”
“Relies on him, does he? Leastways, I know he does; just as if scores of others couldn’t do jist as well, only they ’aven’t ’ad his chance! Relies on him, as yer call it! But there, if I wur to speak, wot ’ud be the use?”
It is always a consolation to incapable people that their lack of success is due to the absence of chances. From the time of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram—who accused Moses and Aaron of taking too much upon themselves, because every man in the congregation was as holy as his God-selected leaders—it has been a theory, one may even say a religion, with those who have been passed over, that their sole reason for their super-session is an election as arbitrary as that by the Antinomian deity, who, out of pure wilfulness, gives opportunities to some and denies them to others.
“What do you mean, Jim? What is it that you see?”
“You’ll excuse me, missus, if I says no more. I ain’t a-goin’ to meddle with wot don’t concern me, and get myself into trouble for nothing: wot for, I should like to know? Wot good would it do me?”
“But, Jim, if you are aware of anything wrong it is your duty to report it.”
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t; but wot thanks should I get?”
“You would get my thanks and the thanks of Mr. Furze, I am sure. Look here, Jim.” Mrs. Furze rose and shut the kitchen door. Phœbe was upstairs, but she thought it necessary to take every precaution. “I know you may be trusted, and therefore I do not mind speaking to you. Tom’s conduct has not been very satisfactory of late. I need not go into particulars, but I shall really be glad if you will communicate to me anything you may observe which is amiss. You may depend upon it you shall not suffer.”
She put two half-crowns into Jim’s hand. He turned and looked at her with one eye partly shut, and a curious expression on his face—half smile, half suspicion. He then looked at the money for a few seconds and put it deliberately in his pocket, but without any sign of gratitude.
“I’ll bear wot you say in mind,” he replied.
At this instant the kitchen door opened, and Phœbe entered. Mrs. Furze went on with the conversation immediately, but it took a different turn.
“How do you think the old boiler became cracked?” He was taken aback; his muddled brain did not quite comprehend the situation, but at last he managed to stammer out that he did not know, and Mrs. Furze retired.
Jim was very slow in arranging his thoughts, especially after a sudden surprise. A shock, or a quick intellectual movement on the part of anybody in contact with him, paralysed him, and he recovered and extended himself very gradually. Presently, however, his wits returned, and he concluded that the pretext of the shop and business mismanagement was but very partially the cause of Mrs. Furze’s advances. He knew that although Mr. Furze was restive under Tom’s superior capacity, there was no doubt whatever of his honesty and ability. Besides, if it was business, why did the mistress interfere? Why did she thrust herself upon him?—“coming down ’ere a purpose,” thought Mr. Orkid Jim. “No, no, it ain’t business,” and, delighted with his discovery so far, and with the conscious exercise of mental power, he smote the bricks with more vigour than ever.
“Good-bye, Phœbe,” said Catharine, looking in at the door.
“Good-bye, Miss,” said Phœbe, running out; “hope you’ll enjoy yourself: I wish I were going with you.”
“Where is she a-goin’?” asked Jim, when Phœbe returned.
“Chapel Farm.”
“Oh, is she? Wot, goin’ there agin! She’s oftener there than here. Not much love lost ’twixt her and the missus, is there?”
Phœbe was uncommunicative, and went on with her work.
“I say, Phœbe, has Catchpole been up here lately?”
“Why do you want to know? What is it to you?”
“Now, my beauty, wot is it to me? Why, in course it’s nothin’ to me; but you know he’s been here.”
“Well, then, he hasn’t.”
Phœbe, going to bed, had seen Tom and Catharine outside the gate.
“Wy, now, I myself see’d ’im out the night afore last, and I’d swear he come this way afore he went home.”
“He did not come in; he only brought Miss Catharine back from church: she’d gone there alone.”
Jim dropped his chisel. The three events presented themselves together—Tom’s escort of Catharine, the interview with Mrs. Furze, and the departure to Chapel Farm. He was excited, and his excitement took the form of a sudden passion for Phœbe.
“You’re ten times too ’ansom for that chap,” he cried, and turning suddenly, he caught her with one arm round her waist. She strove to release herself with great energy, and in the struggle he caught his foot in his tool basket and fell on the floor, cutting his head severely with a brick. Phœbe was out of the kitchen in an instant.
“You damned cat!” growled he, “I’ll be even with you and your Master Tom! I know all about it now.”
As Jim walked home to his dinner he became pensive. He was under a kind of pledge to his own hatred and to Mrs. Furze to produce something against Tom, and he had nothing. Even he could see that to make up a charge would not be safe. It required more skill than he possessed. The opportunity, however, very soon came. Destiny delights in offering to the wicked chances of damning themselves. It was a few days before the end of the quarter. The builder—in whose service Jim’s brother, Joe, was—sent Joe to pay a small account for ironmongery, which had been due for some weeks. When he entered the shop Tom was behind his desk, and Jim was taking some instructions about a job. Mr. Furze was out. Joe produced his bill, threw it across to Tom, and pulled the money out of his pocket. It was also market day; the town was crowded, and just at that moment Mr. Eaton drove by. Tom looked out of the window on his left hand and saw the horse shy at something in the cattle pens, pitching Mr. Eaton out. Without saying a word he rushed round the counter and out into the street, the two men, who had not seen the accident, thinking he had gone to speak to Mr. Eaton. He was absent some minutes.
“A nice sort of a chap, this,” said Jim; “he’s signed your bill, and he ain’t got the money.”
“S’pose I must wait, then.”
“Look ’ere, Joe: don’t you be a b---y fool! You take your account. If he writes his name afore he’s paid, that’shislook-out.”
Joe hesitated.
“Wot are you a-starin’ at? You’ve got the receipt, ain’t yer? Isn’t that enough? You ain’t a-robbin’ of him, for you never giv him the money, and I tell yer agin as he’s the one as ought to lose if he don’t look sharp arter people. That’s square enough, ain’t it?”
Joe had a remarkably open mind to reasoning of this description, and, without another word, he took up the bill and was off. Jim also thought it better to return to the foundry. Mr. Eaton, happily, was not injured, for he fell on a truss of straw, but the excitement was great; and, when Tom returned, Joe’s visit completely went out of his head, and did not occur to him again, for two or three customers were waiting for him, and, as already observed, it was market day.
Now, it was Mr. Furze’s practice always to make out his accounts himself. It was a pure waste of time, for he would have been much better employed in looking after his men, and any boy could have transcribed his ledger. But no, it was characteristic of the man that he preferred this occupation—that he took the utmost pains to write his best copybook hand, and to rule red-ink lines with mathematical accuracy. Two days after the quarter a bill went to the builder, beginning, “To account delivered.” The builder was astonished, and instantly posted down to the shop, receipt in hand, signed, “For J. Furze, T. C.” Mr. Furze looked at his ledger again, called for the day-book, found no entry, and then sent for Tom. The history of that afternoon flashed across him in an instant.
“That’s your signature, Mr. Catchpole,” said Mr. Furze.
“Yes, sir.”
“But here’s no entry in the day-book, and, what’s more, there weren’t thirty shillings that night in the till.”
“I cannot account for it, unless I signed the receipt before I had the money. It was just when Mr. Eaton’s accident happened, and I ran out of the shop while Joe was waiting. When I came back he had gone.”
“Which is as much as to say,” said the builder, “that Joe’s a thief. You’d better be careful, young man.”
“Well, Mr. Humphries,” said Mr. Furze, loftily, “we will not detain you: there is clearly a mistake somewhere; we will credit you at once with the amount due for the previous quarter, and if you will give me your account I will correct it now.”
Mr. Furze took it, and ruled through the first line, altering the total.
“This is very unpleasant, Mr. Catchpole,” observed Mr. Furze, after the builder had departed. “Was there anybody in the shop besides yourself and Joe?”
“Jim was there.”
Mr. Furze rang a bell, and Jim presently appeared. “Jim, were you in the shop when your brother came to pay Mr. Humphries’ bill about a week ago?”
“I wor.”
“Did he pay it? did you see him hand over the money?”
“I did, and Mr. Catchpole took it and put it in the till. I see’d it go in with my own eyes.”
“Well, what happened then?”
“He locked the till all in a hurry, put the key in his waistcoat pocket; let me see, it wor in his left-hand pocket—no, wot am I a-sayin’?—it wor in his right-hand pocket—I want to be particklar, Mr. Furze—and then he run out of the shop. Joe, he took up his receipt, and he says, says he, ‘He might a given me the odd penny,’ and says I, ‘He ain’t Mr. Furze, he can’t give away none of the guvnor’s money. If it wor the guvnor himself he’d a done it,’ and with that we went out of the shop together.”
“That will do, Jim; you can go.”
“Mr. Catchpole, this assumes a very—I may say—painful aspect.”
“I can only repeat, sir, that I have not had the money. It is inexplicable. I may have been robbed.”
“But there is no entry in the day-book.”
It did not occur to Tom at the moment to plead that if he was dishonest he would have contrived not to be so in such a singularly silly fashion: that he might have taken cash paid for goods bought, and that the possibility of discovery would have been much smaller. He was stunned.
“It is so painful,” continued Mr. Furze, “that I must have time to reflect. I will talk to you again about it to-morrow.”
The truth was that Mr. Furze wished to consult his wife. When he went home his first news was what had happened, but he forgot to mention the corroboration by Jim.
“But,” said Mrs. Furze, “Joe may have been mistaken; perhaps, after all, he did not pay the money.”
“Ah! but Jim was in the shop at the time. I had Jim in, and he swears that he saw Joe give it to Tom, and that Tom put it in the till.”
Mrs. Furze seemed a little uncomfortable, but she soon recovered.
“We ought to have proof beyond all doubt of Tom’s dishonesty. I do not see that this is proof. At any rate, it would not satisfy Catharine. I should wait a month. It is of no use making two faces about this business; we must take one line or the other. I should tell him that, on reconsideration, you cannot bring yourself to suspect him; that you have perfect confidence in him, and that there must be some mistake somewhere, though you cannot at present see how. That will throw him off his guard.”
Mr. Furze acknowledged the superiority of his wife’s intellect and obeyed. Tom came to work on the following morning in a state of great excitement, and with an offer of restitution, but was appeased, and Orkid Jim, appearing in the shop, was astonished and dismayed to find Tom and his master on the same footing as before. He went up to the Terrace, the excuse being that he called to see how the new boiler was going on. Phœbe came to the door, but he wanted to see the mistress.
“What do you want her for? She knows nothing about the boiler. It is all right, I tell you.”
“Never you mind. It wor she as give me the directions, worn’t it, when I was ’ere afore?”
Accordingly the mistress appeared, and Phœbe, remaining in the kitchen, was sent upstairs upon some important business, much cogitating upon the unusual interest Mrs. Furze took in the kitchen range, and the evident desire on her part that her instructions to Jim should be private.
“Well, Jim, the boiler is all right.”
“That’s more nor some things are.”
“Why, what has happened?”
“I s’pose you know. Joe paid Humphries’ bill, and Mr. Catchpole swears he never had the money, but Joe’s got his receipt.”
“You were in the shop and saw it paid?”
“Of course I was. I s’pose you heerd that too?”
“Yes. We do not think, however, that the case is clear, and we shall do nothing this time.”
“I don’t know wot you’d ’ave, Mrs. Furze. If this ere ain’t worth the five shillin’ yer gave me, nothin’ is—that’s all I’ve got to say.”
“But, Jim, you must see we cannot do anything unless the proof is complete. Now, if there should happen to be a second instance, that would be a different thing altogether.”
“It ain’t very comfortable forme.”
“What do you mean? Mr. Furze sent for you, and you told him what you saw with your own eyes.”
“Ah! you’d better mind wot you’re sayin’, Mrs. Furze, and you needn’t put it in that way. Jist you look ’ere: I ain’t very particklar myself, I ain’t, but it may come to takin’ my oath, and, to tell yer the truth, five shillin’ don’t pay me.”
“But we are not going to prosecute.”
“No, not now, but you may, and I shall have to stick to it, and maybe have to be brought up. Besides, it was put straight to me by the guvnor and Mr. Tom was there a-lookin’ at me right in my face. As I say, five shillin’ don’t pay me.”
“Well, we shall not let the matter drop. We shall keep our eyes open: you may be sure of that, Jim. I dare say you have been worried over the business. Here’s another five shillings for you.”
Again Jim refrained from thanking her, but slowly put on his cap and left the house.
Mr. Furze tried several experiments during the next two or three weeks. It was his custom to look after his shop when Tom went to his meals, and on those rare occasions when he had to go out during Tom’s absence, Orkid Jim acted as a substitute. Whenever Mr. Furze found a sovereign in the till he quietly marked it with his knife or a filet but it was invariably handed over to him in the evening. On a certain Wednesday afternoon, Tom being at his dinner, Mr. Furze was summoned to the Bell by a message from Mr. Eaton, and Jim was ordered to come immediately. He usually went round to the front door. He preferred to walk down the lane from the foundry, and when the back rooms were living rooms, passage through them was of course forbidden.
As the summons, however, was urgent, he came the shortest way, and, looking in through the window which let in some borrowed light from the back of the shop to the warehouse behind, he saw Mr. Furze, penknife in hand, at the till. Wondering what he could be doing, Jim watched him for a moment. As soon as Mr. Furze’s back was turned he went to the till, took out a sovereign which was in it, closely examined it, discovered a distinct though faint cross at the back of his Majesty George the Third’s head, pondered a moment, and then put the coin back again. He looked very abstruse, rubbed his chin, and finally smiled after his fashion. Tom’s shop coat and waistcoat were hung up just inside the counting-house. Jim went to them and turned the waistcoat pockets inside out. To put the sovereign in an empty pocket would be dangerous. Tom would discover it as soon as he returned, and would probably inform Mr. Furze at once. A similar test for the future would then be impossible. Jim thought of a better plan, and it was strange that so slow a brain was so quick to conceive it. Along one particular line, however, that brain, otherwise so dull, was even rapid in its movements. It was Mr. Furze’s practice to pay wages at half-past five on Saturday afternoon, and he paid them himself. He generally went to his tea at six on that day, Tom waiting till he returned. On the following Saturday at half-past six Jim came into the shop.
“I met Eaton’s man a minute ago as I wur goin’ ’ome. He wanted to see the guvnor particklar, he said.”
This was partly true, but the “particklar” was not true.
“I told him the guvnor warn’t in, but you was there. He said he was goin’ to the Bell, but he’d call again if he had time. You’d better go and see wot it is.”
Tom took off his black apron and his shop coat and waistcoat, put them up in the usual place, and went out, leaving Jim in charge. Jim instantly went to the till. There were several sovereigns in it, for it had been a busy day. He turned them over, and again recognised the indubitable cross. With a swift promptitude utterly beyond his ordinary self, he again went to Tom’s waistcoat—Tom always put gold in his waistcoat pocket—took out a sovereign of the thirty shillings there, put it in his own pocket, and replaced it by the marked sovereign. Just before the shop closed, the cash was taken to Mr. Furze. He tied it carefully in a bag, carried it home, turned it over, and the sovereign was absent. Meanwhile Orkid Jim had begun to reflect that the chain of evidence was not complete. He knew Tom’s habits perfectly, and one of them was to buy his Sunday’s dinner on Saturday night. He generally went to a small butcher near his own house. Jim followed him, having previously exchanged his own sovereign for twenty shillings in silver. As soon as Tom had left the butcher’s shop Jim walked in. He was well known.
“Mr. Butterfield, you ’aven’t got a sovereign, ’ave you, as you could give me for twenty shillings in silver?”
“Well, that’s a rum ’un, Mr. Jim: generally it’s t’other way: you want the silver for the gold. Besides, we don’t take many sovereigns here—we ain’t like people in the High Street.”
“Mr. Butterfield, it’s jist this: we’ve ’ad overwork at the guvnor’s, and I’m a-goin’ to put a sovereign by safe come next Whitsuntide, when I’m a-goin’ to enjoy myself. I don’t get much enjoyment, Mr. Butterfield, but I mean to ’ave it then.”
“All right, Mr. Jim. I’ve only two sovereigns, and there they are. There’s a bran-new one, and there’s the other.”
“I don’t like bran-new nothin’s, Mr. Butterfield. I ain’t a Radical, I ain’t. Why, I’ve seed in my time an election last a week, and beer a-runnin’ down the gutters. It was the only chance a poor man ’ad. Wot sort of a chance ’as he got now? There’s nothin’ to be ’ad now unless yer sweat for it: that’s Radicalism, that is, and if I ’ad my way I’d upset the b---y Act, and all the lot of ’em. No, thank yer, Mr. Butterfield, I’ll ’ave the old sovereign; where did he come from now, I wonder.”
“Come from? Why, from your shop. Mr. Catchpole has just paid it me. You needn’t go a-turnin’ of it over and a-smellin’ at it, Mr. Jim; it’s as good as you are.”
“Good! I worn’t a-thinking’ about that. I wor jist a-looking at the picter of his blessed Majesty King George the Third, and the way he wore his wig. Kewrus, ain’t it? Now, somebody’s been and scratched ’im jist on the neck. Do yer see that ere cross?”
“You seem awful suspicious, Mr. Jim. Give it me back again. I don’t want you to have it.”
“Lord! suspicious! Ere’s your twenty shillin’s, Mr. Butterfield. I wish I’d a ’undred sovereigns as good as this.” And Mr. Jim departed.
Mr. Furze lost no time in communicating his discovery to his wife.
“Furze,” she said, “you’re a fool: where’s the sovereign? You haven’t got it, but how are you to prove now that he has got it? We are just where we were before. You ought to have taxed him with it at once, and have had him searched.”
Mr. Furze was crestfallen, and made no reply. The next morning at church he was picturing to himself incessantly the dreadful moment when he would have to do something so totally unlike anything he had ever done before.
On the Sunday afternoon Jim appeared at the Terrace, and Phœbe, who was not very well, and was at home, announced that he wished to see Mr. Furze.
“What can the man want? Tell him I will come down.”
“I think,” said Mrs. Furze, “Jim had better come up here.”
Mr. Furze was surprised, but, as Phœbe was waiting, he said nothing, and Jim came up.
“Beg pardon for interruptin’ yer on Sunday arternoon, but I’ve ’eerd as yer ain’t satisfied with Mr. Catchpole, and I thought I’d jist tell yer as soon as I could as yesterday arternoon, while I was mindin’ the shop, and he was out, I ’ad to go to the till, and it jist so ’appened, as I was a-givin’ change, I was a-lookin’ at a George the Third sovereign there, and took particklar notice of it. There was a mark on it. That werry sovereign was changed by Mr. Catchpole at Butterfield’s that night, and ’ere it is. I ’ad to go in there, as I wanted a sovereign for a lot of silver, and he giv it to me.”
“Can Butterfield swear that Catchpole gave it him?” said Mrs. Furze, quite calmly.
“Of course he can, marm; that’s jist wot I asked him.”
“That will do, Jim; you can go,” said Mrs. Furze.
Jim looked at her, loitered, played with his cap, and seemed unwilling to leave.
“I’m comm’ up to-morrow mornin’, marm, just to ’ave one more look at that biler.” He then walked out.
“I suppose I must prosecute now,” said Mr. Furze.
“Prosecute! Nothing of the kind. What is your object? It is to get rid of him, and let Catharine see what he is. Suppose you prosecute and break down, where will you be, I should like to know? If you succeed, you won’t be a bit better off than you are now. Discharge him. Everybody will know why, and will say how kind and forgiving you are, and Catharine cannot say we have been harsh to him.”
Mr. Furze was uneasy. He had a vague feeling that everything was not quite right; but he said nothing, and mutely assented to his wife’s proposals.
“Then I am to give him notice to-morrow?”
“You cannot keep him after what has happened. You must give him a week’s wages and let him go.”
“Who is to take his place?”
“Why do you not try Jim? He is rough, it is true, but he knows the shop. He can write well enough for that work, and all you want is somebody to be there when you are out.”
Mr. Furze shuddered. That was not all he wanted, but he had hardly allowed himself, as we have already seen, to confess his weakness.
“It might be as well, perhaps,” added Mrs. Furze, “to have Tom up to-morrow and talk to him here.”
“That will be much better.”
It was now tea-time, and immediately afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Furze went to church.
Soon after nine on the following morning, and before Mr. Furze had left, Jim appeared with another request “to see the missus.”
“I’ll go downstairs,” she said. “He wants to see me about the boiler.”
There was nobody but Jim in the kitchen.
“Well, Jim?”
“Well, marm.”
“What have you got to say?”
“No, marm, it’s wot ’ave you got to say?”
“It is very shocking about Mr. Catchpole, is it not? But, then, we are not surprised, you know; we have partly suspected something for a long time, as I have told you.”
“’Ave you really? Well, then, it’s a good thing as he’s found out.”
“I am very sorry. He has been with us so long, and we thought him such a faithful servant.”
“You’re sorry, are you? Yes, of course you are. Wot are yer goin’ to do with him?”
“We shall not prosecute.”
“No, marm, you take my advice, don’t yer do that; it wouldn’t do nobody no good.”
“We shall discharge him at once.”
“Yes, that’s all right; but don’t you prosecute ’im on no account, mind that.Mis-sisFurze,” said Jim, deliberately, turning his head, and with his eyes full upon her in a way she did not like, “wot am I a-goin’ to get out of this?”
“Why, you will be repaid, I am sure, by Mr. Furze for all the time and trouble you have taken.”
“Now, marm, I ain’t a-goin’ to say nothin’ as needn’t be said, but I know that Tom’s been makin’ up to Miss Catharine, and yer know that as soon as yer found that out yer come and spoke to me. Mind that, marm; it was yer as come and spoke to me; it wasn’t me as spoke first, was it?” Jim was unusually excited. “And arter yer spoke to me, yer spoke to me agin—agin I say it—arter I told you as I seed Joe pay the money, and then I brought yer that ere sovereign.”