I AM THE RECIPIENT OF TERRIBLE NEWS.
On Saturday morning I rose early, with the strange feelings of a man
whose habits of life had been suddenly and violently wrenched out of
their usual course. I wandered up and down the stairs and into all the
rooms in the house, and to the street-door, where I stood looking
vacantly along the street, perhaps for the situation I had lost, as
though it were something I had dropped by accident and could pick up
again. Two or three neighbours passed and gave me good-morning, and
one paused and asked if I was not well.
"Not well?" I echoed, somewhat irritably; "I am well, quite well. What
makes you think otherwise?"
"O," he answered apologetically, "only seeing you here, that's all.
It's so unusual."
He passed on, looking once or twice behind him. Unusual? Of course it
was unusual. Everything was unusual, everything in the world, which
seemed to be turned topsy-turvy. If the people in the street had
walked on their heads instead of their feet it would not have
surprised me very much. I should have regarded it as quite in keeping
with the fact that I was standing at my own street-door in idleness at
half-past eight o'clock on a Saturday morning; I could not remember
the time when such a thing had occurred to me.
Standing thus in a state of semi-stupefaction, the postman came up and
gave me a letter. This recalled me to myself.
"Now," thought I, as I turned the envelope over in my hand, "whom is
it from, and what does it contain?"
At first I had an unreasonable hope that it was from my employers,
imploring me to come back, but a glance at the address convinced me
that it was a foolish hope. The writing was strange to me, and the
envelope was a common one, and was fastened with sealing-wax bearing
the impression of a thimble. I opened and read the letter, and
although it did not contain the offer of a situation, or hold out the
prospect of one, the contents interested me. I shall have occasion
presently to refer to this letter more particularly, and shall at
present content myself with saying that had it not arrived this story
would never have been written. While my wife and I were at breakfast
we spoke of it, and I said it was my intention to comply with the
request it contained.
Over breakfast, also, we reviewed our position. During my years of
employment I had managed to save very little money, and upon reckoning
up what I had in my purse and what I owed, I arrived at a balance in
my favour of a little less than four pounds, which represented the
whole of my worldly wealth. A poor look-out, and I was reflecting upon
it gloomily, when my good little wife, with a tender deprecatory
smile, laid before me on the table a Post Office savings-book.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Look," she replied.
The book was made out in her name, and the small deposits, extending
over a number of years, made therein showed a credit of more than
twenty pounds.
"Yours?" I said, in wonder. "Really yours?"
"No," said my wife. "Yours."
My heart beat with joy; these twenty pounds were like a reprieve. I
should have time to look about, without being tortured by fears of
immediate want. I drew my wife to my side, and embraced her. Twenty
pounds, with which to commence over again the battle of life! Why it
was a fortune! How the little woman had contrived to save so much out
of her scanty housekeeping money was a mystery to me, but she had done
it by hook or by crook, as the saying is, and she now experienced a
true and sweet delight in handing it over to me.
"Well," said I, rubbing my hands cheerfully, "things might look worse
than they do--a great deal worse. We have a little store to help us
over compulsorily idle days, and, thank God, all the children are
well."
It was much to be grateful for, and we kissed each other in token of
our gratitude, and also as a pledge that we would not lose heart, but
would battle bravely on.
I had just finished my second cup of tea when the street-door was
hastily opened, and my friend Mr. Melladew staggered, or rather fell,
into the room, with a face as white as a ghost. His limbs were
trembling so that he could not stand, and my wife, much alarmed,
started up and helped him into a chair.
On this special morning we had breakfasted late, and as my wife was
assisting Mr. Melladew the clock struck ten.
It sometimes happens that the most ordinary occurrences become of
unusual importance by reason of circumstances with which they have no
connection. Thus it was that the striking of ten o'clock, as I gazed
upon the white face of my visitor, filled me with an apprehension of
impending evil.
"Good God!" I cried. "What has happened?" My thought was that there
had been an accident to the train by which Mr. Melladew expected his
brother-in-law from Southampton, but I was soon undeceived. It was
difficult to extract anything intelligible from Mr. Melladew in his
terrible state of agitation; but eventually I was placed in possession
of the following particulars.
Mr. Melladew had risen early and had left his wife abed, and, as he
supposed, his daughter Lizzie. It was Mrs. Melladew's custom on
Saturday mornings to take half-an-hour extra in the way of sleep, and
Mr. Melladew would prepare his own breakfast on these occasions. He
did so on this morning, and left his house at twenty minutes to eight.
At eight o'clock punctually he was sitting at his desk in the
printing-office, reading proofs. Everything was going on as usual, the
only pleasant difference being the extraordinary lightness of Mr.
Melladew's heart as he thought of his rich brother-in-law from
Australia, perhaps at that very hour stepping into the train for
London, and of his two darling children, Lizzie and Mary. He did not,
however, allow this contemplation to interfere with the faithful and
steady discharge of his duties, and his work proceeded uninterruptedly
until half-past nine, when he sent his young assistant, a reading boy,
into the composing-room with the last proofs he had read, telling him
to bring back any more that were ready. A workman at the galley-press
had just pulled off a column of newly set-up matter, and the lad,
without waiting for it to be delivered to him, took the slip from the
printer's hand, and returned quickly to the reading-room. Mr.
Melladew, receiving the slip from his assistant, was about to commence
arranging the "copy," which the lad had also brought with him, when a
compositor rushed in, and, snatching both slip and "copy" from Mr.
Melladew's desk, hurriedly left the room.
"What's that for?" inquired Mr. Melladew.
"I don't know, sir," replied the lad; "but there's something 'up' in
the composing-room. The men are all standing talking in a regular
fluster."
"What about?"
"Ain't got a notion, sir; but they seem regular upset."
Curious to ascertain what was going on, Mr. Melladew strolled into the
composing-room, and was struck by the sudden silence which ensued upon
his entrance. It was all the more singular because Mr. Melladew, as he
pushed the door open, heard the men speaking in excited voices, and
had half a fancy that he heard his own name uttered in tones of pity.
"Poor Melladew!" Yes, it was not a fancy. The words had been uttered
at the moment of his entrance. The silence of the compositors, their
pitying looks, confirmed it. But why should they speak of him as "poor
Melladew" at a time when life had never been so bright and fair? What
was the meaning of the pitying glances directed towards him? The
composing-room, especially on Saturdays, was a scene of lively bustle
and animation, but now the men were standing idle, stick in hand, at
the corners of their frames, or tip-toeing over their cases, and the
eyes of every man there were fixed upon Mr. Melladew. Had he been in
trouble, had his wife or one of his darling daughters been ill, his
thoughts would have immediately flown to his home, and he would have
seen in the pitying glances of the compositors a sign of some dread
misfortune; but in his happy mood he received no such impression.
"What on earth is the matter with you all?" he said in a light tone.
He saw the compositor who had snatched the slip of new matter from his
desk, and before he could be prevented he took it from the man's hand.
The compositors found their voices.
"No, Mr. Melladew!" they cried. "No; don't, don't!"
"Nonsense!" he said, and keeping possession of the slip, he left the
composing-room for his own.
"Go and get the copy," he said to the lad who had followed him.
When the lad was gone he spread the slip on the desk before him. The
first words he saw formed the title of the column he was about to
read: "Horrible Murder in Victoria Park!" Beneath it were the
sub-headings, "Stabbed to the Heart!" and "A Bunch of Blood-stained
Daisies!" To a newspaper reader such events, shocking though they be,
are unhappily no novelties, and Mr. Melladew looked down the column, I
will not say mechanically, for he was a humane man, but steadily, and
stirred no doubt by pity and indignation. But before he had got
half-way down the pulsations of his heart seemed to stop, and the
words swam before his eyes. His eyes lighted on the name of the girl
who had been murdered.
It was that of his own daughter, Lizzie Melladew!