When Captain Bream, as before mentioned, was obliged to hurry off to
London, and forsake the Miss Seawards, as well as his theological
studies, he hastened to that portion of the city where merchants and
brokers, and money-lenders, and men of the law do love to congregate.
Turning down Cheapside the captain sought for one of the many labyrinths
of narrow streets and lanes that blush unseen in that busy part of the
Great Hive.
"Only a penny, sir, _only_ a penny."
The speaker was an ill-conditioned man, and the object offered for sale
was a climbing monkey of easily deranged mechanism.
"Do you suppose," said the captain, who, being full of anxious thought
was for the moment irascible, "do you suppose that I am a baby?"
"Oh! dear no, sir. From appearances I should say you've bin weaned some
little time--only a penny, sir. A nice little gift for the missus, sir,
if you ain't got no child'n."
"Can you direct me," said the captain with a bland look--for his tempers
were short-lived--"to Brockley Court?"
"First to the left, sir, second to the right, straight on an' ask
again--only a penny, sir, climbs like all alive, sir."
Dropping a penny into the man's hand with a hope that it might help the
monkeys to climb, Captain Bream turned into the labyrinth, and soon
after found himself in a dark little room which was surrounded by piles
of japanned tin boxes, and littered with bundles of documents,
betokening the daily haunt of a man-of-law.
The lawyer himself--a bland man with a rugged head, a Roman nose and a
sharp eye--sat on a hard-bottomed chair in front of a square desk. Why
should business men, by the way, subject themselves to voluntary
martyrdom by using polished seats of hard-wood? Is it with a view to
doing penance, for the sins of the class to which they belong?
"Have you found her, Mr Saker?" asked Captain Bream, eagerly, on
entering.
"No, not got quite so far as that yet--pray sit down; but we have reason
to believe that we have got a clue--a slight one, indeed, but then, the
information we have to go upon in our profession is frequently very
slight--very slight indeed."
"True, too true," assented the captain. "I sometimes wonder how, with
so little to work on at times, you ever begin to go about an
investigation."
The lawyer smiled modestly in acknowledgment of the implied compliment.
"We do, indeed, proceed on our investigations occasionally with
exceeding little information to go upon, but then, my dear sir,
investigation may be said to be a branch of our profession, for which we
are in a manner specially trained. Let me see, now."
He took up a paper, and, opening it, began to read with a running
commentary:--
"Fair hair, slightly grey; delicate features, complexion rather pale,
brown eyes, gentle manners."
"That's her--that's her!" from the captain.
"Age apparently a little over thirty. You said, I think, that your
sister was--"
"Yes, yes," interrupted the captain in some excitement, "she was
considerably younger than me, poor girl!"
"Let me, however, caution you, my dear sir, not to be too sanguine,"
said the man-of-law, looking over his spectacles at his client; "you
have no idea how deceptive descriptions are. People are so prone to
receive them according to their desires rather than according to fact."
"Well, but," returned the captain, with some asperity, "you tell me that
this woman has fair hair slightly grey, delicate features, pale
complexion, brown eyes, and gentle manners, all of which are _facts_!"
"True, my dear sir, but they are facts applicable to many women,"
replied the solicitor. "Still, I confess I have some hope that we have
hit upon the right scent at last. If you could only have given us the
name of her husband, our difficulty would have been comparatively
slight. I suppose you have no means of hunting that up now. No distant
relative or--"
"No, none whatever. All my relations are dead. She lived with an old
aunt at the time, who died soon after the poor girl's foolish elopement,
leaving no reference to the matter behind her. It is now fifteen years
since then. I was away on a long voyage at the time. On my return, the
old lady, as I have said, was dead, and her neighbours knew nothing
except that my sister was reported to have run away with a seafaring
man. Some who had seen him about the place said he seemed to be beneath
her in station but none knew his name."
"Is it not strange," asked the solicitor, "that she has never in all
these years made inquiries about you at the mercantile house which
employed you?"
"Well, not so strange as it would seem, for my sister's memory for names
was a bad one. She used constantly to forget the name of the ship I
commanded, and, as far as I can remember, did not trouble herself about
the owners. I have no doubt she must have made many efforts to discover
me--unless she was ashamed of having made a low match. At all events,"
added the captain, with a weary sigh, "I have never ceased to make
inquiries about her, although I have not until now made the attempt
through a lawyer. But where is this person you have heard of to be
found?"
"On board of an emigrant ship," said the solicitor.
"Where bound for?" demanded the captain in peat surprise.
"For Australia, and she sails the day after to-morrow, I am told."
"Her name!" cried the captain, starting up.
"Calm yourself, my dear sir. I have made all needful arrangements for
your going off to-morrow. It is too late to-day. Sit down and let me
explain; and, above all, bear in mind that this may turn out to be a
wrong scent after all. Of course you may surmise that we lawyers obtain
our information from many and various sources. The source whence the
information concerning your matter has come is peculiar, namely, a
lay-missionary who is going to visit the ship to-morrow--having some
friends on board. Happening to meet the man the other day, I mentioned
your matter to him. He is a very sharp-witted man, and one whose
accuracy of observation I should trust implicitly, even if his own
interests were involved. Well, he said that on board of the steam-ship
_Talisman_, now lying off Gravesend, he saw that very day a woman among
the steerage emigrants who answered to my description exactly, and added
that he had heard her spoken of as the wife of a somewhat dissipated
man, who had all the appearance of a seafaring person, named Richards.
Of course I attach no importance to the name, as you say you never knew
it, but his being a sailor-like man, and the fact that he was probably
beneath his wife in station, coupled with the correct description of the
wife, while it does not justify our being too sanguine, raises our
hopes, you see--"
"I see, I see--yes. I beg that you will give me the agent's name and
address," cried the captain, whose hopes, despite the guarded and
cautious statements of the solicitor, had been raised to the highest
point.
"Here is his name, with the part of the river where you are to meet
him," said the calm man of law, handing his client a slip of paper; "but
let me, my dear sir, impress on you the advisability of not allowing
yourself to become too sanguine. Disappointments are invariably more
severe in cases where expectations have been too high; and I fear that
you may be already building too trustfully upon the very slender
foundation supplied by this information."
Admitting the force of this truism, and putting the slip of paper in his
purse, Captain Bream bade his solicitor good-bye, with many
protestations of undying gratitude, and left the room with the highest
possible hopes of success.