_Colin's interview with Squire Lupton, and what it led to--A bait to
catch the Doctor._
On reaching the hotel, according to appointment, Colin found Mr. Lupton
seated in a private room up-stairs, with a table neatly spread for two
beside him, but as yet containing nothing beyond the requisite materials
for handling that dinner, which was brought up at the Squire's summons
very shortly after his arrival. During their repast the young man could
not avoid being continually reminded with what kind familiarity he
was treated by his wealthy entertainer,--a degree of familiarity which
seemed the more unaccountable to him, perhaps, simply because all his
previous ideas of the manners of the higher classes of society had been
derived almost solely from casual observation of that high bearing and
seeming austerity of feeling, which sometimes exists in their common
intercourse with the rustic inhabitants of a country district.
To be sure, he had once rendered the Squire an essential service, by
saving him from severe personal injury, if not possibly from a premature
death; but that service he thought might be equally well rewarded
without all this personal association with, and condescension to, one
who possessed no qualifications save those which nature had given him,
for admission into a kind of society of which, up to this time, he could
not possibly know anything. But Mr. Lupton seemed to take pains even to
render him easy in his new situation,--to make him at home, as it were,
and cause him to feel himself as essentially upon a level in all things
with himself.
Though Colin could not account exactly for all this, it had its due
effect upon him. By the time their meal was over, and at the Squire's
most pressing solicitations he had imbibed various glasses of sherry
during the repast, he found himself as much at liberty, both in limb and
tongue, as though he had been seated in Miss Sowersoffs kitchen, with no
higher company than herself and Palethorpe.
As Mr. Lupton evinced considerable anxiety to know what had brought
him to London, and Colin himself on his part felt no less desirous to
explain every circumstance connected not only with himself, but also
those bearing upon the infamous conduct of Doctor Rowel, touching the
affair of Lawyer Skinwell and James Woodruff, two long after-dinner
hours scarcely sufficed for the detail of a narrative which, in all its
particulars, caused in the mind of Mr. Lupton the utmost astonishment.
The freedom with which Colin expressed his own sentiments respecting the
death of the lawyer, and the hand which he firmly believed Doctor Rowel
had had in that event, somewhat raised the Squire's doubts of the young
man's prudence, though at the same time it went far to convince him
of the propriety, if not the absolute necessity, of placing the Doctor
himself in some place of security, until a more full and searching
investigation could be gone into. That he was open to a serious charge
was evident; and, supported as that charge was by the corresponding
conduct he had pursued with respect to James Woodruff, the Squire could
come to no other conclusion than that it was his clear duty, both as
a man and a magistrate, to have the Doctor apprehended as soon as
possible.
While Colin related in quiet and unassuming language his own scarcely
less than heroic attempt to set Woodruff at liberty, together with the
disasters which had pursued him afterwards in consequence thereof, Mr.
Lu ton's countenance grew now grave, now expressive of admiration, and
anon slightly and apparently involuntarily convulsed with emotions which
he would not express, though he could not conceal. His lips quivered,
and his eyes were occasionally forcibly closed, as though to force back
the generous tears which were welling up from his bosom. In truth, the
_father's_ heart was touched. _He_ felt where another man would not, and
admired as the height of nobleness and magnanimity what other men might
barely have commended merely as a good action, which anybody else would
have done if placed in similar circumstances.
All this time, too, he kept supping his wine and cracking his walnuts,
picking his almonds, and demolishing his dried fruit with a degree of
unconscious industry, that could not but have proved highly interesting
and edifying to any observing spectator.
When Colin had concluded, the Squire looked earnestly in his face during
a few moments; he cast them to the ground again, and said nothing; he
filled his glass, and Colin's too, but with an effort, for his hand
slightly trembled as he did it; again he looked at him, and again his
eyes were earthwards.
“My dear boy!” said he, but the words faltered on his lips,--“my dear
boy! I am proud of you; but your presence makes me ashamed. I bitterly
regret it--deeply and bitterly--and yet I ought not, when it has given
me such a noble mind as this!”
He paused a moment, and then, as though with some sudden determination
to shake off certain unwelcome and misplaced reflections,
observed--“But, come,--drink your wine. I was not thinking much what I
was talking about. Let us to business. I told you some time ago I should
do something for you. What I have heard to-night has not lessened that
determination. In the first place, have you left that vagabond place you
were living in?”
Colin replied, that he had informed Peter Veriquear of his intention to
leave, and was at liberty to take his departure at any hour.
“Then leave to-morrow,” observed Mr. Lupton. “I will find you fitting
apartments elsewhere. Do you like reading?”
“Much more,” replied the young man, “than my opportunities have enabled
me to gratify.”
“I am glad to hear it. You shall have books, and fit yourself for better
things than you seemed to be born to. But never mind that,--never mind
that. And money? I suppose the bottle-merchant has not filled your
pockets to the neck.”
Colin observed in answer, that he had ten pounds in his pocket, though
not through the hands of Peter Veriquear. At the same time he related to
the Squire in what manner he had come by it, and how Miss Wintlebury's
conduct on this occasion had convinced him she was a most worthy and
estimable young woman.
“Have nothing to do with a girl like that,” said Mr. Lupton. “I
have seen similar things before now, and known many a man pay d--d
expensively for a poor and frail commodity. No, my boy; take my advice,
and think nothing more about her. She may be all very well, perhaps; but
many others are better. I like charity; but the world renders it needful
for people to hold their heads on their own level. As I shall make
something of you, you must look higher. There is more in store for you
than you can anticipate. I have no other than--Well, never mind. But
the law knows me, my boy, as the last of my family; for, unluckily,
my marriage has been like no marriage. Did you ever see Mrs. Lupton at
Kiddal?”
“Never, that I am aware of,” answered Colin.
The Squire fell into a fit of musing, during which he beat his foot upon
the ground abstractedly, as though all things present were momentarily
forgotten.
“Well!” he again exclaimed, as if starting afresh to life, “there is
that Doctor. We must catch him somehow. He is a scoundrel after all, I
am afraid; though it seems a pity to hang the poor devil, too. I should
like to lay hold of him without any trouble, and I 'll tell you how
we will do it. I will write down to him in the course of a day or two,
inviting him here on especial business. He will suspect nothing, and
come up of course. You shall have an opportunity of meeting him face to
face. We will hear what he has to say for himself, in contradiction
of your statement; and if I find him guilty, means shall be provided
beforehand, and kept in readiness to seize him.”
This excellent proposition, then, for entrapping the wily Doctor having
been finally decided upon, with the understanding that Colin should
early be apprised of his arrival in town, in order to have an
opportunity of reiterating his statement to that gentleman's face, he
received a hearty shake of the hand from Mr. Lupton, and took his leave.
In accordance with the Squire's wishes, Colin took his leave the very
next day of the Veri-quear family, and repaired to a comfortable suite
of apartments in the neighbourhood of Bedford Square, which Mr. Lupton
had engaged for him. Neither did that gentleman forget to despatch him
to a tailor's, for the purpose of being, like an old vessel, thoroughly
new-rigged.
Some few days afterwards, a note from the Squire informed him that Rowel
had taken the bait, and would be at his hotel at seven in the evening.
Elated with the hope not only of now securing Woodruff's liberation, but
also of getting the Doctor punished as he deserved, Colin set out at an
early hour on his expedition, and arrived at the appointed place some
twenty minutes before the time fixed for Rowel's appearance.