The quiet of Sunday was over, and Helstonleigh awoke on the Monday
morning to the bustle of every-day life. Mr. Jenkins awoke, with others,
and got up--not Jenkins the old bedesman, but his son Joseph, who had
the grey mare for his wife. It was Mr. Jenkins’s intention to resume his
occupation that day, with Mr. Hurst’s and Mrs. Jenkins’s permission: the
former he might have defied; the latter he dared not. However, he was on
the safe side, for both had accorded it.
Mrs. Jenkins was making breakfast in the small parlour behind her
hosiery shop, when her husband appeared. He looked all the worse for his
accident. Poor Joe was one whom a little illness told upon. Thin, pale,
and lantern-jawed at the best of times--indeed he was not infrequently
honoured with the nickname of “scare-crow”--he now looked thinner and
paler than ever. His tall, shadowy form seemed bent with the weakness
induced by lying a few days in bed; while his hair had been cut off in
three places at the top of his head, to give way to as many patches of
white plaster.
“A nice figure you’ll cut in the office, to-day, with those ornaments on
your crown!” was Mrs. Jenkins’s salutation.
“I am thinking to fold this broadly upon my head, and tie it under my
chin,” said he, meekly, holding out a square, black silk handkerchief
which he had brought down in his hand.
“That would not hide the patch upon your forehead, stupid!” responded
Mrs. Jenkins. “I believe you must have bumped upon the edge of every
stair in the organ-loft, as you came down, to get so many wounds!” she
continued crossly. “If you ever do such a senseless trick again, you
shan’t stir abroad without me or the maid at your back, to take care of
you; I promise you that!”
“I have combed my hair over the place on my forehead!” civilly replied
Mr. Jenkins. “I don’t think it shows much.”
“And made yourself look like an owl! I thought it was nothing less than
a stuffed owl coming in. Why can’t you wear your hat? That would hide
your crown and your forehead too.”
“I did think of that; and I dare say Mr. Galloway would allow me to do
it, and overlook the disrespect in consideration of the circumstances,”
answered Jenkins. “But then, I thought again, suppose the dean should
chance to come into the office to-day?--or any of the canons? There’s no
telling but they may. I could not keep my hat on in their presence; and
I should not like to take it off, and expose the plasters.”
“You’d frighten them away, if you did,” said Mrs. Jenkins, dashing some
water into the teapot.
“Therefore,” he added, when she had finished speaking, “I think it
will be better to put on this handkerchief. People do wear them, when
suffering from neuralgia, or from toothache.”
“Law! wear it, if you like! what a fuss you make about nothing! If you
chose to go with your head wrapped up in a blanket, nobody would look at
you.”
“Very true,” meekly coughed Mr. Jenkins.
“What are you doing?” irascibly demanded Mrs. Jenkins, perceiving that
of two slices of bacon which she had put upon his plate, one had been
surreptitiously conveyed back to the dish.
“I am not hungry this morning. I cannot eat it.”
“I say you shall eat it. What next? Do you think you are going to starve
yourself?”
“My appetite will come back to me in a morning or two,” he deprecatingly
observed.
“It is back quite enough for that bacon,” was the answer. “Come! I’ll
have it eaten.”
She ruled him in everything as she would a child; and, appetite or no
appetite, Mr. Jenkins had to obey. Then he prepared for his departure.
The black silk square was tied on, so as to cover the damages; the
hat was well drawn over the brows, and Mr. Jenkins started. When Mr.
Galloway entered his office that morning, which he did earlier than
usual, there sat Mr. Jenkins in his usual place, copying a lease.
He looked glad to see his old clerk. It is pleasant to welcome a
familiar face after an absence. “Are you sure you are equal to work,
Jenkins?”
“Quite so, sir, thank you. I had a little fever at first, and Mr. Hurst
was afraid of that; but it has quite subsided. Beyond being a trifle
sore on the head, and stiff at the elbows and one hip, I am quite myself
again.”
“I was sorry to hear of the accident, Jenkins,” Mr. Galloway resumed.
“I was as vexed at it as I could be, sir. When I first came to myself,
I hardly knew what damage was done; and the uncertainty of getting to
business, perhaps for weeks, did worry me much. I don’t deny, too, that
I have been in a little pain. But oh, sir! it was worth happening! it
was indeed; only to experience the kindness and good fellowship that
have been shown me. I am sure half the town has been to see me, or to
ask after me.”
“I hear you have had your share of visitors.”
“The bishop himself came,” said poor Jenkins, tears of gratitude rising
to his eyes in the intensity of his emotion. “He did, indeed, sir. He
came on the Friday, and groped his way up our dark stairs (for very dark
they are when Mr. Harper’s sitting-room door is shut), and sat down by
my bedside, and chatted, just as plainly and familiarly as if he had
been no better than one of my own acquaintances. Mr. Arthur Channing
found him there when he came with your kind message, sir.”
“So I heard,” said Mr. Galloway. “You and the bishop were both in the
same boat. I cannot, for my part, get at the mystery of that locking-up
business.”
“The bishop as good as said so, sir--that we had both been in it. I
was trying to express my acknowledgments to his lordship for his
condescension, apologizing for my plain bedroom, and the dark stairs,
and all that, and saying, as well as I knew how, that the like of me was
not worthy of a visit from him, when he laughed, in his affable way, and
said, ‘We were both caught in the same trap, Jenkins. Had I been the one
to receive personal injury, I make no doubt that you would have come the
next day to inquire after me.’ What a great thing it is, to be blessed
with a benevolent heart, like the Bishop of Helstonleigh’s!”
Arthur Channing came in and interrupted the conversation. He was
settling to his occupation, when Mr. Galloway drew his attention; in an
abrupt and angry manner, as it struck Arthur.
“Channing, you told me, yesterday, that you posted that letter for
Ventnor on Friday.”
“So I did, sir.”
“It has been robbed.”
“Robbed!” returned Arthur, in surprise, scarcely realizing immediately
the meaning of the word.
“You know that it contained money--a twenty-pound note. You saw me put
it in.”
“Yes--I--know--that,” hesitated Arthur.
“What are you stammering at?”
In good truth, Arthur could not have told, except that he hesitated in
surprise. He had cast his thoughts into the past, and was lost in them.
“The fact is, you did _not_ post the letters yourself,” resumed Mr.
Galloway. “You gave them to somebody else to post, in a fit of idleness,
and the result is, that the letter was rifled, and I have lost twenty
pounds.”
“Sir, I assure you, that I did post them myself,” replied Arthur, with
firmness. “I went straight from this door to the post-office. In
coming back, I called on Jenkins”--turning to him--“as you bade me,
and afterwards I returned here. I mentioned to you, then, sir, that the
bishop was with Jenkins.”
Mr. Jenkins glanced up from his desk, a streak of colour illumining his
thin cheek, half hidden by the black handkerchief. “I was just saying,
sir, to Mr. Galloway, that you found his lordship at my bedside,” he
said to Arthur.
“Has the note been taken out of the letter, sir?” demanded Arthur. “Did
the letter reach its destination without it?”
“Yes,” replied Mr. Galloway, in answer to both questions. “I had a
few lines from Mr. Robert Galloway yesterday morning, stating that the
letter had arrived, but no bank-note was enclosed in it. Now, where is
the note?”
“Where can it be?” reiterated Arthur. “The letter must have been opened
on the road. I declare to you, sir, that I put it myself into the
post-office.”
“It is a crying shame for this civilized country, that one cannot send
a bank-note across the kingdom in a letter, but it must get taken out of
it!” exclaimed Mr. Galloway, in his vexation. “The puzzle to me is, how
those letter-carriers happen just to pitch upon the right letters to
open--those letters that contain money!”
He went into his private room as he spoke, banging the door after him,
a sure symptom that his temper was not in a state of serenity, and not
hearing or seeing Roland Yorke, who had entered, and was wishing him
good morning.
“What’s amiss? he seems in a tantrum,” ejaculated Mr. Roland, with
his usual want of ceremony. “Hallo, Jenkins; is it really you? By the
accounts brought here, I thought you were not going to have a head on
your shoulders for six months to come. Glad to see you.”
“Thank you, sir. I am thankful to say I have got pretty well over the
hurt.”
“Roland,” said Arthur, in a half-whisper, bringing his head close to
his friend’s, as they leaned together over the desk, “you remember that
Ventnor letter, sent on Friday, with the money in it--”
“Ventnor letter!” interrupted Roland. “What Ventnor letter?”
“The one for Robert Galloway. Hamish was looking at it. It had a
twenty-pound note in it.”
“For Ventnor, was it? I did not notice what place it was bound for.
That fellow, the cousin Galloway, changes his place of abode like the
Wandering Jew. What of the letter?”
“It has been robbed of the note.”
“No!” uttered Roland.
“It has. The cousin says the letter reached him, but the note did not.
Mr. Galloway seems uncommonly put out. He accused me, at first, of not
taking it myself to the post. As if I should confide letters of value to
any one not worthy of trust!”
“Did you post it yourself?” asked Roland.
“Of course I did. When you were coming in, after playing truant on
Friday afternoon, I was then going. You might have seen the letters in
my hand.”
Roland shook his head. “I was in too great a stew to notice letters, or
anything else. This will cure Galloway of sending bank-notes in letters.
Have the post-office people had news of the loss sent to them? They must
hunt up the thief.”
“Mr. Galloway is sure to do all that’s necessary,” remarked Arthur.
“For my part, if I sent bank-notes across the country in letters, I
should expect them to be taken. I wonder at Galloway. He is cautious in
other things.”
Others had wondered at Mr. Galloway, besides Roland Yorke. A man of
caution, generally, he yet persisted in the practice of enclosing
bank-notes in letters. Persons cognizant of this habit had remonstrated
with him; not his clerks--of course they had not presumed to do so.
Mr. Galloway, who liked his own way, had become somewhat testy upon the
point, and, not a week before the present time, had answered in a sort
of contradictory spirit that his money-letters had always gone safely
hitherto, and he made no doubt they always would go safely. The present
loss, therefore, coming as it were, to check his obstinacy, vexed him
more than it would otherwise have done. He did not care for the loss of
the money half so much as he did for the tacit reproof to himself.
“I wonder if Galloway took the number of the note?” cried Roland.
“Whether or not, though, it would not serve him much: bank-notes lost in
transit never come to light.”
“Don’t they, though!” retorted Arthur. “Look at the many convictions for
post-office robbery!”
“I do not suppose that one case in ten is tracked home,” disputed
Roland. “They are regular thieves, those letter-carriers. But, then, the
fellows are paid so badly.”
“Do not be so sweeping in your assertions, Roland Yorke,” interposed Mr.
Galloway, coming forward from his own room. “How dare you so asperse
the letter-carriers? They are a hard-working, quiet, honest body of
men. Yes, sir; honest--I repeat it. Where one has yielded to temptation,
fingering what was not his own, hundreds rise superior to it, retaining
their integrity. I would advise you not to be so free with your tongue.”
Not to be free with his tongue would have been hard to Roland.
“Lady Augusta was sending a box of camomile pills to some friend in
Ireland, the other day, sir, but it was never heard of again, after
she put it into the post-office, here,” cried he to Mr. Galloway. “The
fellow who appropriated it no doubt thought he had a prize of jewels. I
should like to have seen his mortification when he opened the parcel
and found it contained pills! Lady Augusta said she hoped he had liver
complaint, and then they might be of service to him.”
Mr. Galloway made no response. He had caught up a lease that was lying
on Jenkins’s desk, and stood looking at it with no pleasant expression
of countenance. On went that undaunted Roland:
“The next thing Lady Augusta had occasion to send by post was a gold
cameo pin. It was enclosed in a pasteboard box, and, when packed, looked
just like the parcel of pills. I wrote PILLS on it, in great round
text-hand. That reached its destination safely enough, sir.”
“More safely than you would, if it depended upon your pursuing your
business steadily,” retorted Mr. Galloway to Roland. “Fill in that tithe
paper.”
As Roland, with a suppressed yawn, and in his usual lazy manner, set
himself to work, there came a clatter at the office-door, and a man
entered in the uniform of a telegraphic official, bearing a despatch
in his hand. Mr. Galloway had then turned to his room, and Roland, ever
ready for anything but work, started up and received the packet from the
man.
“Where’s it from?” asked he, in his curiosity.
“Southampton,” replied the messenger.
“A telegram from Southampton, sir,” announced Roland to Mr. Galloway.
The latter took the despatch, and opened it, directing Jenkins to sign
the paper. This done, the messenger departed. The words of the message
were few, but Mr. Galloway’s eye was bending upon them sternly, and his
brow had knitted, as if in perplexity.
“Young gentlemen, you must look to this,” he said, coming forward, and
standing before Roland and Arthur. “I find that the post-office is not
to blame for this loss; it must have occurred in this room, before the
letter went to the post-office.”
They both looked up, both coloured, as if with inward consternation.
Thoughts, we all know, are quick as lightning: what was each thinking
of, that it should give rise to emotion? Arthur was the first to speak.
“Do you allude to the loss of the bank-note, sir?”
“What else should I allude to?” sharply answered Mr. Galloway.
“But the post-office must be cheeky to deny it off-hand!” flashed
Roland. “How is it possible that they can answer for the honesty of
every man whose hands that letter passed through?”
“Pray who told you they had denied it, Mr. Roland Yorke?” demanded his
master.
Roland felt a little checked. “I inferred it, sir.”
“I dare say. Then allow me to tell you that they have not denied it.
And one very cogent reason why they have not, is, that they are not yet
cognizant of the loss. I do not jump at conclusions as you do, Roland
Yorke, and I thought it necessary to make a little private inquiry
before accusing the post-office, lest the post-office might not be in
fault, you know.”
“Quite right, I have no doubt, sir,” replied Roland, in a chafed accent,
for Mr. Galloway was speaking satirically, and Roland never liked to
have ridicule cast upon him. Like old Ketch, it affected his temper.
“By this communication,” touching the telegraphic despatch, “I learn
that the letter was not opened after it left this office,” resumed Mr.
Galloway. “Consequently, the note must have been abstracted from it
while the letter lay here. Who has been guilty of it?”
Neither Arthur nor Roland spoke. It was not a pleasant accusation--if
you can call it an accusation--and their faces deepened to scarlet;
while Mr. Jenkins looked up half terrified, and began to think, what
a mercy it was that he had broken his head, just that last particular
Thursday night, on the marble flags of the cathedral.