The Yellow Flag: A Novel. Volume 1 (of 3) — John Shaqi
The Yellow Flag: A Novel. Volume 1 (of 3)Yates, Edmund
General
The Yellow Flag: A Novel. Volume 1 (of 3)
Yates, Edmund
Fiction
"In Mincing-lane, in the City, ma'am. It's as well known as the Bank
of England, or the West-Injia Docks themselves. May I make so bold as
to inquire what you want with Mr. Calverley, ma'am?" said Mrs. Mogg,
whose curiosity, stimulated by the brandy-and-water, was fast getting
the better of her discretion; "if it's anything in the horn and hide
way," she added, as the notion of something to be made on commission
crossed her mind, "I am sure anything that Mogg could do he would be
most happy."
"No, thank you," said Pauline coldly; "my inquiry had nothing to do
with business."
And shortly after, Mrs. Mogg, seeing that her lodger had relapsed into
thought, and had replaced the silver flask in her hand-bag, took her
departure.
"What that Frenchwoman can want with Mr. Calverley," said she to her
husband, after she had narrated to him the above conversation, "is more
than I can think; his name came up quite promiscuous, and she never
stopped talking about him while I was there. She'd have gone on
gossiping till now, but I had my work to do, and told her so, and came
away."
Mrs. Mogg's curiosity was not responded to by her husband; a man
naturally reticent, and given in the interval between his supper and
his bed to silent pipe-smoking. "They're a rum lot, foreigners," he
said; and after that he spoke no more.
Meanwhile Pauline, left to herself, at once resumed the tiger-like
pacing of her room. "I must not lose sight," she said, "of any clue
which is likely to serve me. Where he is, she will be; and until I
have found them both, and made them feel what it is to attempt to play
the fool with me, I shall not rest satisfied. I must find means to
become acquainted with this Calverley; for sooner or later he must
hear something of Tom Durham, whom he believes to have gone to Ceylon
as his agent, and whose non-arrival there will of course be reported
to him. So long as my husband and the poor puny thing for whom he has
deserted me, can force money from the old man Claxton, they will do
so. But in whatever relations she may stand to him, when he discovers
her flight he will stop the supplies, and I should think Monsieur
Durham will probably turn up with some cleverly-concocted story to
account for his quitting the ship. They will learn that by telegraph
from Gibraltar, I suppose; and he will again seek for legitimate
employment. Meanwhile I have the satisfaction of striking him with his
own whip and stabbing him with his own dagger, by using the money
which he gave me to help me in my endeavours to hunt him down. The
money! It is there safe enough!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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