England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories, English
"We supposed him to be a Mr. Gardner," continued the barmaid, "as that
card"--pointing to it--"was found in his pocket-book. But we had no clue
as to who he was or whence he came. His stockings were marked with a 'G'
in red cotton; and there was a little loose money in his pocket and a
bank-note in his pocket-book, just enough to pay the expenses of the
funeral."
"But that likeness," said Dolly. "How did you come by it? Who took it?"
"Ah, ma'am, it was a curious thing, that--but such things do not happen
by chance. An idle young man of the town used to frequent our inn; he
was clever at drawing, and would take off a likeness of any one near
him with a few strokes of a pen or pencil in a minute or two, quite
surreptitious like and for his own amusement. Wonderful likenesses
they were. He was in the bar-parlour, this very room, ma'am, while the
stranger was drinking his brandy-and-water, and he dashed off this
likeness."
"It is _exactly_ like," said poor Dolly. "But his name was Grape, not
Gardner. It must have been the card of some acquaintance."
"When nobody came forward to identify the stranger, the landlord got the
sketch given up to him," continued the young woman. "He put it in this
case with the watch and seal and card, and hung it where you see, hoping
that sometime or other it might be recognized."
"But did you not let it be known abroad that he had died?" sighed Dolly.
"Why, of course we did; and put an advertisement in the Gloucester
papers to ask if any Mr. Gardner was missing from his friends. Perhaps
the name, not being his, served to mislead people. That's how it was,
ma'am."
So that the one disappearance, that of Robert Grape, was now set at
rest.
THE STORY OF DOROTHY GRAPE.
IN AFTER YEARS.
I.
We found her out through Mr. Brandon's nephew, Roger Bevere, a medical
student, who gave his people trouble, and one day got his arm and
head broken. Mr. Brandon and the Squire were staying in London at the
Tavistock Hotel. I, Johnny Ludlow, was also in London, visiting Miss
Deveen. News of the accident was brought to Mr. Brandon; the young man
had been carried into No. 60, Gibraltar Terrace, Islington, and a doctor
named Pitt was attending him.
We went to see him at once. A narrow, quiet street, as I recollected
well, this Gibraltar Terrace, the dwellings it contained facing each
other, thirty in a row. No. 60 proved to be the same house to which
we had gone once before, when inquiring about the illness of Francis
Radcliffe, and Pitt was the same doctor. It was the same landlady also;
I knew her as soon as she opened the door; a slender, faded woman, long
past middle life, with a pink flush on her thin cheeks, and something of
the lady about her.
"What an odd thing, Johnny!" whispered the Squire, recognizing the
landlady as well as the house. "Mapping, I remember her name was."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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