That written, and the envelope addressed, Anthony found a greasy piece
of folded paper in an inner pocket, and from it took a stamp. Then the
letter was despatched, bearing the name and address of the coffee-house
as Anthony's abode; and so took its way down to Daisley Cross to startle
the Rev. Temple Purdue, and to show him anew what a hard and sordid
place this London was.
But the letter had one effect, and that incidentally a great one. For
Mr. Purdue, after conning the letter for a long time, and clicking his
tongue over it, and sighing and shaking his head, despatched it in turn
to the only person he knew in London, who would be likely, as being on
the spot, to give what assistance was necessary, and to take an old
acquaintance by the hand. That person Charlie Purdue.
On his own account the rector sent a sovereign to Anthony Ditchburn, who
under his present circumstances felt that he had tapped a gold mine.
Also, the innocent rector mentioned his son's address, and begged that
the eminent scholar would look the young man up. "Charlie will be glad
of a solid friend," he wrote.
But long before Anthony Ditchburn had had time to enter into Charlie's
life in that new and somewhat startling capacity of solid friend,
Charlie himself had read his father's letter, and had, on an impulsive
moment when things were wrong with him, and he had nothing very much to
occupy his attention, started for Chelsea; had found the little house,
and had climbed the stairs to find Moira. Of course, she knew nothing of
him or of his coming; he took her unawares, in that little room wherein
she spent her lonely days and her lonely evenings with the old woman.
It had been a day of misty rain and bitter wind; a day when the mere
commonplace work of mean shopping had seemed more toilsome than usual.
She had come home with damp skirts, and with limbs reluctant to climb
the stairs; had sunk down in the firelight, and had leaned her head back
and had closed her eyes. The lamp was lighted, and she was alone; for it
happened that old Patience was in her bedroom, putting those little
absurd touches to her dress and to her cap, without the addition of
which she would not have faced the evening.
There came a tap at the door; Moira spoke wearily, although she did not
turn her head; this was probably the landlady on some petty matter of
the household. "Come in," she said.
The door was opened, and someone stood there. Moira waited for that
someone to speak; heard a cough, and got up quickly. There, for a
moment, she stood behind the lamp, looking with parted lips at the young
man--fair, well-dressed, and smiling--who stood with a hand outstretched
to her. Then something in the look told her who he was, whispered to her
heart that here suddenly was a friend come out of the brighter world
into her life. She touched his hand, and caught a sob--half of laughter,
half of tears--in her throat, and whispered his name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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