What Will He Do with It? — Volume 07Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
What Will He Do with It? — Volume 07
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century
"Losely had not mentioned it. When the servant retired, Gunston, thinking
over Losely's quotation respecting his money, resolved to ascertain what
he had in his bureau. He opened it, examined the drawers, and found,
stowed away in different places at different times, a larger sum than he
had supposed--gold and notes to the amount of L1,975, of which nearly
L300 were in sovereigns. He smoothed the notes carefully; and, for want
of other occupation, and with a view of showing Losely that he could
profit by a hint, he entered the numbers of the notes in his pocketbook,
placed them all together in one drawer with the gold, relocked his
bureau, and went shortly afterwards to bed. The next day (Losely having
gone in the morning) the tradesman came to be paid for the vinery.
Gunston went to his bureau, took out his notes, and found L250 were gone.
He could hardly believe his senses. Had he made a mistake in counting?
No. There was his pocket book, the missing notes entered duly therein.
Then he re-re-counted the sovereigns; 142 were gone of them--nearly
L400 in all thus abstracted. He refused at first to admit suspicion of
Losely; but, on interrogating his servants, the valet deposed, that he
was disturbed about two o'clock in the morning by the bark of the house-
dog, which was let loose of a night within the front courtyard of the
house. Not apprehending robbers, but fearing the dog might also disturb
his master, he got out of his window (being on the ground-flour) to
pacify the animal; that he then saw, in the opposite angle of the
building, a light moving along the casement of the passage between
Losely's rooms and Mr. Gunston's study. Surprised at this, at such an
hour, he approached that part of the building and saw the light very
faintly through the chinks in the shutters of the study. The passage
windows had no shutters, being old-fashioned stone mullions. He waited
by the wall a few minutes, when the light again reappeared in the
passage; and he saw a figure in a cloak, which, being in a peculiar
colour, he recognised at once as Losely's, pass rapidly along; but before
the figure had got half through the passage, the light was extinguished,
and the servant could see no more. But so positive was he, from his
recognition of the cloak, that the man was Losely, that he ceased to feel
alarm or surprise, thinking, on reflection, that Losely, sitting up later
than usual to transact business before his departure, might have gone
into his employer's study for any book or paper which he might have left
there. The dog began barking again, and seemed anxious to get out of the
courtyard to which he was confined; but the servant gradually
appeased him--went to bed, and somewhat overslept himself. When he
awoke, he hastened to take the coffee into Losely's room, but Losely was
gone. Here there was another suspicious circumstance. It had been a
question how the bureau had been opened, the key being safe in Gunston's
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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