Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Sunday's suit, and with a brief announcement to his landlady that he was
about to leave Watley for a day or two on a visit to a friend, set off
for the railway station. He had not proceeded far when a difficulty
struck him: the bank-notes were all twenties; and were he to change a
twenty-pound note at the station, where he was well known, great would
be the tattle and wonderment, if nothing worse, that would ensue. So
Caleb tried his credit again, borrowed sufficient for his journey to
London, and there changed one of the notes.
He soon reached Bristol, and blessed was the relief which the sum of
money he brought afforded Mrs. Warner. She expressed much sorrow for the
death of Mr. Lisle, and great gratitude to Caleb. The worthy man
accepted with some reluctance one of the notes, or at least as much as
remained of that which he had changed; and after exchanging promises
with the widow and her relatives to keep the matter secret, departed
homeward. The young woman, Mrs. Warner's daughter, who had brought the
letter to Watley, was, Caleb noticed, the very image of her mother, or
rather of what her mother must have been when young. This remarkable
resemblance it was, no doubt, which had for the moment so confounded and
agitated Mr. Lisle.
Nothing occurred for about a fortnight after Caleb's return to disquiet
him, and he had begun to feel tolerably sure that his discovery of the
notes would remain unsuspected, when, one afternoon, the sudden and
impetuous entrance of Mr. Sowerby into his stall caused him to jump up
from his seat with surprise and alarm. The attorney's face was deathly
white, his eyes glared like a wild beast's, and his whole appearance
exhibited uncontrollable agitation. "A word with you, Mr. Jennings," he
gasped--"a word in private, and at once!" Caleb, in scarcely less
consternation than his visitor, led the way into his inner room, and
closed the door.
"Restore--give back," screamed the attorney, vainly struggling to
dissemble the agitation which convulsed him--"that--that--which you have
purloined from the chest of drawers!"
The hot blood rushed to Caleb's face and temples; the wild vehemence and
suddeness of the demand confounded him; and certain previous dim
suspicions that the law might not only pronounce what he had done
illegal, but possibly felonious, returned upon him with terrible force,
and he quite lost his presence of mind.
"I can't--I can't," he stammered. "It's gone--given away--"
"Gone!" shouted, or more correctly howled, Sowerby, at the same time
flying at Caleb's throat as if he would throttle him. "Gone--given away!
You lie--you want to drive a bargain with
me--dog!--liar!--rascal!--thief!"
This was a species of attack which Jennings was at no loss how to meet.
He shook the attorney roughly off, and hurled him, in the midst of his
vituperation, to the further end of the room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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