The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
his 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
homewards. 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 suddenness 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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