A FOOL AND HIS MONEY.
Mr. Pike, the solicitor of the Mile End Road, does not belong to the
story--which is a pity, because he has many enviable qualities--further
than is connected with Harry's interview with him.
He read the documents and heard the story from beginning to end. When he
had quite mastered all the details he began mildly to express
astonishment and pity that any young man could be such a fool. This was
hard, because Harry really thought he had done a mighty clever thing.
"You have been taken in, sir," said Mr. Pike, "in a most barefaced and
impudent manner. Two thousand pounds! Why, the mere rent alone, without
counting interest, is three thousand. Go away, sir; find out this
fraudulent impostor, and tell him that you will have nothing to do with
him short of a full account and complete restitution."
"I cannot do that," said Harry.
"Why not?"
"Because I have passed my word."
"I think, young man, you said you were a cabinet-maker--though you look
something better."
"Yes, I belong to that trade."
"Since when, may I ask, have cabinet-makers been so punctilious as to
their promises?"
"The fact is," said Harry gravely, "we have turned over a new leaf, and
are now all on the side of truth and honor."
"Humph! Then there is nothing to do but to give the man a receipt in
full and a discharge. You are of age; you can do this if you like. Shall
I draw it up for you, and receive the money, and take over the houses?"
This was settled, therefore, and in this way Harry became a rich man,
with houses and money in the funds.
As for Bunker, he made the greatest mistake in his life when he sent
his nephew to Mr. Pike. He should have known, but he was like the
ostrich when he runs his head into the sand, and believes from the
secure retreat that he is invisible to his hunters. For his own version
of the incident was palpably absurd; and, besides, Mr. Pike heard
Harry's account of the matter. Therefore, though Bunker thought to heap
coals of fire upon his enemy's head, he only succeeded in throwing them
under his feet, which made him kick--"for who can go upon hot coals and
his feet not be burned?" The good man is now, therefore, laboring under
a cloud of prejudice which does not seem to lift, though perhaps he will
live it down. Other events have happened since, which have operated to
his prejudice. Everybody knows how he received his nephew; what wicked
things he said everywhere about him; and what rumors he spread about
Miss Kennedy: everybody knows that he had to disgorge houses--actually,
houses--which he had appropriated. This knowledge is common property;
and it is extremely unpleasant for Mr. Bunker when he takes his walks
abroad to be cruelly assailed by questions which hit harder than any
brickbat: they are hurled at him by working-men and by street boys. "Who
stole the 'ouse?" for instance, is a very nasty thing to be said to a
gentleman who is professionally connected with house property. I know
not how this knowledge came to be so generally known. Certainly Harry
did not spread it abroad. People, however, are not fools, and can put
things together; where the evil-doings and backslidings of their friends
are concerned they are surprisingly sharp.
Now when the ownership of the house in Stepney Green became generally
known, there immediately sprang up, as always happens on occasions of
discovery, rooting-out of facts, or exposure of wickedness, quite a
large crop of old inhabitants ready to declare that they knew all along
that the house on Stepney Green was one of those belonging to old Mr.
Coppin. He bought it, they said, of Mr. Messenger, who was born there;
and it was one of three left to Caroline, who died young. Who would
believe that Mr. Bunker could have been so wicked? Where is faith in
brother man since so eminent a professor of honesty has fallen?
Mr. Bunker suffers, but he suffers in silence; he may be seen any day
in the neighborhood of Stepney Green, still engaged in his usual
business; people may talk behind his back, but talk breaks no bones;
they don't dare talk before his face; though he has lost two thousand
pounds, there is still money left--he feels that he is a warm man, and
has money to leave behind him; it will be said of him that he cut up
well. Warmth of all kinds comforts a man; but he confesses with a pang
that he did wrong to send his nephew to that lawyer, who took the
opportunity, when he drew up the discharge and receipt, of giving him an
opinion--unasked and unpaid for--as to his conduct in connection with
the trust. There could be no mistake at all about the meaning and force
of that opinion. And, oddly enough, whenever Mr. Bunker sees the queen's
omnibus--that dark painted vehicle, driven by a policeman--pass along
the road, he thinks of Mr. Pike, and that opinion returns to his memory,
and he feels just exactly as if a bucket of cold water was trickling
down his back by the nape of the neck. Even in warm weather this is
disagreeable. And it shows that the lawyer must have spoken very strong
words indeed, and that although Mr. Bunker, like the simple ones and the
scorners, wished for none of the lawyer's counsel, unlike them he did
not despise their reproof. Yet he is happier, now that the blow has
fallen, than he was while he was awaiting it and dreaming of handcuffs.
We anticipate; but we have, indeed, seen almost the last of Mr. Bunker.
It is sad to part with him. But we have no choice.
In the evening Harry went as usual to the drawing-room. He stayed,
however, after the girls went away. There was nothing unusual in his
doing so. "Girls in my position," said the dressmaker, "are not tied by
the ordinary rules." To-night, however, he had something to say.
"Congratulate me," he cried, as soon as they were alone. "I have turned
out, as the story-books say, to be the heir to vast sums of money."
Angela turned pale. She was reassured, however, on learning the extent
of the heritage.
"Consider my romantic story," said Harry. "Instead of finding myself
the long-lost heir, strawberry-mark and all, to an earldom, I am the son
of a sergeant in the Line. And then, just as I am getting over the blow,
I find myself the owner of three houses and two thousand pounds. What
workman ever had two thousand pounds before? There was an under-gardener
I knew," he went on meditatively, "who once got a hundred; he called it
a round hundred, I remember. He and his wife went on the hospitable
drink for a fortnight; then they went to hospital for a month with
trimmings; and then went back to work--the money all gone--and joined
the Primitive Methodists. Can't we do something superior in the shape of
a burst or a boom, for the girls, with two thousand pounds?"
"Tell me," said Angela, "how you got it."
He narrated the whole story, for her instruction and amusement, with
some dramatic force, impersonating Bunker's wrath, terror, and
entreaties, and final business-like collapse.
"So that," said Angela, "you are now a man of property, and will, I
suppose, give up the work at the brewery."
"Do you think I should?"
"I do not like to see any man idle, and"--she hesitated--"especially
you."
"Thank you," said Harry. "Then I remain. The question of the two
thousand pounds--my cool two thousand--I am the winner of the two
thousand--in reserve. As for this house, however, decided steps must be
taken. Listen, Queen of the Mystery of Dress! You pay Bunker sixty-five
pounds a year or so for the rent of this house; that is a good large
deduction from the profits of the Association. I have been thinking, if
you approve, that I will have this house conveyed to you in trust for
the Association. Then you will be rent-free."
"But that is a very, very generous offer. You really wish to give us
this house altogether for ourselves!"
"If you will accept it."
"You have only these houses, and you give us the best of them. Is it
right and just to strip yourself?"
"How many houses should I have? Now there are two left, and their rent
brings in seventy pounds a year, and I have two thousand pounds which
will bring in another eighty pounds a year. I am rich--much too rich
for a common cabinet-maker."
"Oh!" she said, "what can we do but accept? And how shall we show our
gratitude? But, indeed, we can do nothing."
"I want nothing," said Harry. "I have had so much happiness in this
place that I can want for nothing. It is for me to show my gratitude."
"Thank you," she replied, giving him her hand. He stooped and kissed it,
but humbly, as one who accepts a small favor gratefully and asks for no
more.
They were alone in the drawing-room; the fire was low; only one lamp was
burning; Angela was sitting beside the fire; her face was turned from
him. A mighty wave of love was mounting in the young man's brain; but a
little more, a very little more, and he would have been kneeling at her
feet. She felt the danger; she felt it the more readily because she was
so deeply moved herself. What had she given the girls, out of her
abundance, compared with what he had given out of his slender portion?
Her eyes filled with tears. Then she sprang to her feet and touched his
hand again.
"Do not forget your promise," she said.
"My promise? Oh! how long----"
"Patience," she replied. "Give me a little while--a little
while--only--and----"
"Forgive me," he said, kissing her hand again. "Forgive me."
"Let me go," she went on. "It is eleven o'clock." They put out the lamp
and went out. The night was clear and bright.
"Do not go in just yet," said Harry. "It is pleasant out here, and I
think the stars are brighter than they are at the West End."
"Everything is better here," said Angela, "than at the West End. Here we
have hearts, and can feel for each other. Here we are all alike--workmen
and workwomen together."
"You are a prejudiced person. Let us talk of the Palace of Delight--your
dream."
"Your invention," said Angela.
"Won't my two thousand go some way in starting it? Perhaps, if we could
just start it, the thing would go on of its own accord. Why, see what
you have done with your girls already."
"But I must have a big Palace--a noble building, furnished with
everything that we want. No, my friend, we will take your house because
it is a great and noble gift, but you shall not sacrifice your money.
Yet we will have that Palace, and before long. And when it is ready----"
"Yes, when it is ready."
"Perhaps the opening of the Palace will be, for all of us, the beginning
of a new happiness."
"You speak in a parable."
"No," she said, "I speak in sober earnestness. Now let me go. Remember
what I say; the opening of the Palace may be, if you will--for all of
us----"
"For you and me?"
"For--yes--for you--and for me. Good-night."