Detective and mystery stories, English; Police -- Fiction; Short stories
In the month of August, 1757, a gentleman living in the neighborhood of
Lincoln's Inn Fields, named Bliss, advertised for a clerk. There were,
as was usual at that time, many applicants; but the successful one was a
young man of twenty-six, named Richard William Vaughan. His manners were
so winning and his demeanor so much that of a gentleman, (he belonged
indeed to a good county family in Staffordshire, and had been a student
at Pembroke Hall, Oxford,) that Mr. Bliss at once engaged him. Nor had
he occasion, during the time the new clerk served him, to repent the
step. Vaughan was so diligent, intelligent, and steady, that not even
when it transpired that he was, commercially speaking, "under a cloud,"
did his master lessen confidence in him. Some inquiry into his
antecedents showed that he had, while at College, been extravagant--that
his friends had removed him thence--set him up in Stafford as a
wholesale linen-draper, with a branch establishment in Aldersgate
Street, London--that he had failed, and that there was some difficulty
about his certificate. But so well did he excuse his early failings and
account for his misfortunes, that his employer did not check the regard
he felt growing towards him. Their intercourse was not merely that of
master and servant. Vaughan was a frequent guest at Bliss's table;
by-and-by a daily visitor to his wife, and--to his ward.
Miss Bliss was a young lady of some attractions, not the smallest of
which was a hansome fortune. Young Vaughan made the most of his
opportunities. He was well-looking, well-informed, dressed well, and
evidently made love well, for he won the young lady's heart. The
guardian was not flinty-hearted, and acted like a sensible man of the
world. "It was not," he said, on a subsequent and painful occasion,
"till I learned from the servants and observed by the girl's behavior,
that she greatly approved Richard Vaughan, that I consented; but on
condition that he should make it appear that he could maintain her. I
had no doubt of his character as a servant, and I knew his family were
respectable. His brother is an eminent attorney." Vaughan boasted that
his mother (his father was dead) was willing to re-instate him in
business with a thousand pounds--five hundred of which was to be settled
upon Miss Bliss for her separate use.
So far all went on prosperously. Providing Richard Vaughan could attain
a position satisfactory to the Blisses, the marriage was to take place
on the Easter Monday following, which, the Calendar tells us, happened
early in April, 1758. With this understanding, he left Mr. Bliss's
service, to push his fortune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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