THE BRINK OF DISCOVERY.
The morning of the interview between Mrs. Milroy and her daughter
at the cottage was a morning of serious reflection for the squire
at the great house.
Even Allan's easy-tempered nature had not been proof against the
disturbing influences exercised on it by the events of the last
three days. Midwinter's abrupt departure had vexed him; and Major
Milroy's reception of his inquiries relating to Miss Gwilt
weighed unpleasantly on his mind. Since his visit to the cottage,
he had felt impatient and ill at ease, for the first time in his
life, with everybody who came near him. Impatient with Pedgift
Junior, who had called on the previous evening to announce his
departure for London, on business, the next day, and to place
his services at the disposal of his client; ill at ease with Miss
Gwilt, at a secret meeting with her in the park that morning;
and ill at ease in his own company, as he now sat moodily smoking
in the solitude of his room. "I can't live this sort of life much
longer," thought Allan. "If nobody will help me to put the
awkward question to Miss Gwilt, I must stumble on some way of
putting it for myself."
What way? The answer to that question was as hard to find as
ever. Allan tried to stimulate his sluggish invention by walking
up and down the room, and was disturbed by the appearance of the
footman at the first turn.
"Now then! what is it?" he asked, impatiently.
"A letter, sir; and the person waits for an answer."
Allan looked at the address. It was in a strange handwriting.
He opened the letter, and a little note inclosed in it dropped
to the ground. The note was directed, still in the strange
handwriting, to "Mrs. Mandeville, 18 Kingsdown Crescent,
Bayswater. Favored by Mr. Armadale." More and more surprised,
Allan turned for information to the signature at the end of
the letter. It was "Anne Milroy."
"Anne Milroy?" he repeated. "It must be the major's wife. What
can she possibly want with me?" By way of discovering what she
wanted, Allan did at last what he might more wisely have done
at first. He sat down to read the letter.
["Private."] "The Cottage, Monday.
"DEAR SIR--The name at the end of these lines will, I fear,
recall to you a very rude return made on my part, some time
since, for an act of neighborly kindness on yours. I can only
say in excuse that I am a great sufferer, and that, if I was
ill-tempered enough, in a moment of irritation under severe pain,
to send back your present of fruit, I have regretted doing so
ever since. Attribute this letter, if you please, to my desire to
make some atonement, and to my wish to be of service to our good
friend and landlord, if I possibly can.
"I have been informed of the question which you addressed to my
husband, the day before yesterday, on the subject of Miss Gwilt.
From all I have heard of you, I am quite sure that your anxiety
to know more of this charming person than you know now is an
anxiety proceeding from the most honorable motives. Believing
this, I feel a woman's interest--incurable invalid as I am--in
assisting you. If you are desirous of becoming acquainted with
Miss Gwilt's family circumstances without directly appealing
to Miss Gwilt herself, it rests with you to make the discovery;
and I will tell you how.
"It so happens that, some few days since, I wrote privately to
Miss Gwilt's reference on this very subject. I had long observed
that my governess was singularly reluctant to speak of her family
and her friends; and, without attributing her silence to other
than perfectly proper motives, I felt it my duty to my daughter
to make some inquiry on the subject. The answer that I have
received is satisfactory as far as it goes. My correspondent
informs me that Miss Gwilt's story is a very sad one, and that
her own conduct throughout has been praiseworthy in the extreme.
The circumstances (of a domestic nature, as I gather) are all
plainly stated in a collection of letters now in the possession
of Miss Gwilt's reference. This lady is perfectly willing to let
me see the letters; but not possessing copies of them, and being
personally responsible for their security, she is reluctant, if
it can be avoided, to trust them to the post; and she begs me
to wait until she or I can find some reliable person who can be
employed to transmit the packet from her hands to mine.
"Under these circumstances, it has struck me that you might
possibly, with your interest in the matter, be not unwilling to
take charge of the papers. If I am wrong in this idea, and if
you are not disposed, after what I have told you, to go to the
trouble and expense of a journey to London, you have only to burn
my letter and inclosure, and to think no more about it. If you
decide on becoming my envoy, I gladly provide you with the
necessary introduction to Mrs. Mandeville. You have only, on
presenting it, to receive the letters in a sealed packet, to send
them here on your return to Thorpe Ambrose, and to wait an early
communication from me acquainting you with the result.
"In conclusion, I have only to add that I see no impropriety in
your taking (if you feel so inclined) the course that I propose
to you. Miss Gwilt's manner of receiving such allusions as I have
made to her family circumstances has rendered it unpleasant for
me (and would render it quite impossible for you) to seek
information in the first instance from herself. I am certainly
justified in applying to her reference; and you are certainly not
to blame for being the medium of safely transmitting a sealed
communication with one lady to another. If I find in that
communication family secrets which cannot honorably be mentioned
to any third person, I shall, of course, be obliged to keep you
waiting until I have first appealed to Miss Gwilt. If I find
nothing recorded but what is to her honor, and what is sure to
raise her still higher in your estimation, I am undeniably doing
her a service by taking you into my confidence. This is how I
look at the matter; but pray don't allow me to influence _you_.
"In any case, I have one condition to make, which I am sure you
will understand to be indispensable. The most innocent actions
are liable, in this wicked world, to the worst possible
interpretation I must, therefore, request that you will consider
this communication as strictly _private_. I write to you in a
confidence which is on no account (until circumstances may, in my
opinion, justify the revelation of it) to extend beyond our two
selves,
"Believe me, dear sir, truly yours,
"ANNE MILROY."
In this tempting form the unscrupulous ingenuity of the major's
wife had set the trap. Without a moment's hesitation, Allan
followed his impulses, as usual, and walked straight into it,
writing his answer and pursuing his own reflections
simultaneously in a highly characteristic state of mental
confusion.
"By Jupiter, this is kind of Mrs. Milroy!" ("My dear madam.")
"Just the thing I wanted, at the time when I needed it most!"
("I don't know how to express my sense of your kindness, except
by saying that I will go to London and fetch the letters with the
greatest pleasure.") "She shall have a basket of fruit regularly
every day, all through the season. " ("I will go at once, dear
madam, and be back to-morrow.") "Ah, nothing like the women for
helping one when one is in love! This is just what my poor mother
would have done in Mrs. Milroy's place." ("On my word of honor as
a gentleman, I will take the utmost care of the letters; and keep
the thing strictly private, as you request.") "I would have given
five hundred pounds to anybody who would have put me up to the
right way to speak to Miss Gwilt; and here is this blessed woman
does it for nothing." ("Believe me, my dear madam, gratefully
yours, Allan Armadale.")
Having sent his reply out to Mrs. Milroy's messenger, Allan
paused in a momentary perplexity. He had an appointment with
Miss Gwilt in the park for the next morning. It was absolutely
necessary to let her know that he would be unable to keep it.
She had forbidden him to write, and he had no chance that day
of seeing her alone. In this difficulty, he determined to let
the necessary intimation reach her through the medium of
a message to the major, announcing his departure for London
on business, and asking if he could be of service to any member
of the family. Having thus removed the only obstacle to his
freedom of action, Allan consulted the time-table, and found,
to his disappointment, that there was a good hour to spare
before it would be necessary to drive to the railway station.
In his existing frame of mind he would infinitely have preferred
starting for London in a violent hurry.
When the time came at last, Allan, on passing the steward's
office, drummed at the door, and called through it to Mr.
Bashwood, "I'm going to town; back to-morrow." There was no
answer from within; and the servant, interposing, informed his
master that Mr. Bashwood, having no business to attend to that
day, had locked up the office, and had left some hours since.
On reaching the station, the first person whom Allan encountered
was Pedgift Junior, going to London on the legal business which
he had mentioned on the previous evening at the great house. The
necessary explanations exchanged, and it was decided that the two
should travel in the same carriage. Allan was glad to have a
companion; and Pedgift, enchanted as usual to make himself useful
to his client, bustled away to get the tickets and see to the
luggage. Sauntering to and fro on the platform, until his
faithful follower returned, Allan came suddenly upon no less a
person than Mr. Bashwood himself, standing back in a corner with
the guard of the train, and putting a letter (accompanied, to all
appearance, by a fee) privately into the man's hand.
"Halloo!" cried Allan, in his hearty way. "Something important
there, Mr. Bashwood, eh?"
If Mr. Bashwood had been caught in the act of committing murder,
he could hardly have shown greater alarm than he now testified at
Allan's sudden discovery of him. Snatching off his dingy old hat,
he bowed bare-headed, in a palsy of nervous trembling from head
to foot. "No, sir--no, sir; only a little letter, a little
letter, a little letter," said the deputy-steward, taking refuge
in reiteration, and bowing himself swiftly backward out of his
employer's sight.
Allan turned carelessly on his heel. "I wish I could take to that
fellow," he thought, "but I can't; he's such a sneak! What the
deuce was there to tremble about? Does he think I want to pry
into his secrets?"
Mr. Bashwood's secret on this occasion concerned Allan more
nearly than Allan supposed. The letter which he had just placed
in charge of the guard was nothing less than a word of warning
addressed to Mrs. Oldershaw, and written by Miss Gwilt.
"If you can hurry your business" (wrote the major's governess)
"do so, and come back to London immediately. Things are going
wrong here, and Miss Milroy is at the bottom of the mischief.
This morning she insisted on taking up her mother's breakfast,
always on other occasions taken up by the nurse. They had a long
confabulation in private; and half an hour later I saw the nurse
slip out with a letter, and take the path that leads to the great
house. The sending of the letter has been followed by young
Armadale's sudden departure for London--in the face of an
appointment which he had with me for tomorrow morning. This looks
serious. The girl is evidently bold enough to make a fight of it
for the position of Mrs. Armadale of Thorpe Ambrose, and she has
found out some way of getting her mother to help her. Don't
suppose I am in the least nervous or discouraged, and don't do
anything till you hear from me again. Only get back to London,
for I may have serious need of your assistance in the course of
the next day or two.
"I send this letter to town (to save a post) by the midday train,
in charge of the guard. As you insist on knowing every step I
take at Thorpe Ambrose, I may as well tell you that my messenger
(for I can't go to the station myself) is that curious old
creature whom I mentioned to you in my first letter. Ever since
that time he has been perpetually hanging about here for a look
at me. I am not sure whether I frighten him or fascinate him;
perhaps I do both together. All you need care to know is that
I can trust him with my trifling errands, and possibly, as time
goes on, with something more. L. G."
Meanwhile the train had started from the Thorpe Ambrose station,
and the squire and his traveling companion were on their way to
London.
Some men, finding themselves in Allan's company under present
circumstances, might have felt curious to know the nature of his
business in the metropolis. Young Pedgift's unerring instinct as
a man of the world penetrated the secret without the slightest
difficulty. "The old story," thought this wary old head, wagging
privately on its lusty young shoulders, "There's a woman in the
case, as usual. Any other business would have been turned over
to me." Perfectly satisfied with this conclusion, Mr. Pedgift the
younger proceeded, with an eye to his professional interest, to
make himself agreeable to his client in the capacity of volunteer
courier. He seized on the whole administrative business of the
journey to London, as he had seized on the whole administrative
business of the picnic at the Broads. On reaching the terminus,
Allan was ready to go to any hotel that might be recommended. His
invaluable solicitor straight-way drove him to a hotel at which
the Pedgift family had been accustomed to put up for three
generations.
"You don't object to vegetables, sir?" said the cheerful Pedgift,
as the cab stopped at a hotel in Covent Garden Market. "Very
good; you may leave the rest to my grandfather, my father, and
me. I don't know which of the three is most beloved and respected
in this house. How d'ye do, William? (Our head-waiter, Mr.
Armadale.) Is your wife's rheumatism better, and does the little
boy get on nicely at school? Your master's out, is he? Never
mind, you'll do. This, William, is Mr. Armadale of Thorpe
Ambrose. I have prevailed on Mr. Armadale to try our house. Have
you got the bedroom I wrote for? Very good. Let Mr. Armadale have
it instead of me (my grandfather's favorite bedroom, sir; No. 57,
on the second floor); pray take it; I can sleep anywhere. Will
you have the mattress on the top of the feather-bed? You hear,
William? Tell Matilda, the mattress on the top of the
feather-bed. How is Matilda? Has she got the toothache, as usual?
The head-chambermaid, Mr. Armadale, and a most extraordinary
woman; she will _not_ part with a hollow tooth in her lower jaw.
My grandfather says, 'Have it out;' my father says, 'Have it
out;' I say, 'Have it out;' and Matilda turns a deaf ear to all
three of us. Yes, William, yes; if Mr. Armadale approves, this
sitting-room will do. About dinner, sir? Shall we say, in that
case, half-past seven? William, half-past seven. Not the least
need to order anything, Mr. Armadale. The head-waiter has only
to give my compliments to the cook, and the best dinner in London
will be sent up, punctual to the minute, as a necessary
consequence. Say, Mr. Pedgift Junior, if you please, William;
otherwise, sir, we might get my grandfather's dinner or my
father's dinner, and they _might_ turn out a little too heavy
and old-fashioned in their way of feeding for you and me. As to
the wine, William. At dinner, _my_ Champagne, and the sherry that
my father thinks nasty. After dinner, the claret with the blue
seal--the wine my innocent grandfather said wasn't worth sixpence
a bottle. Ha! ha! poor old boy! You will send up the evening
papers and the play-bills, just as usual, and--that will do?
I think, William, for the present. An invaluable servant, Mr.
Armadale; they're all invaluable servants in this house. We may
not be fashionable here, sir, but by the Lord Harry we are snug!
A cab? you would like a cab? Don't stir! I've rung the bell
twice--that means, Cab wanted in a hurry. Might I ask, Mr.
Armadale, which way your business takes you? Toward Bayswater?
Would you mind dropping me in the park? It's a habit of mine when
I'm in London to air myself among the aristocracy. Yours truly,
sir, has an eye for a fine woman and a fine horse; and when
he's in Hyde Park he's quite in his native element." Thus the
all-accomplished Pedgift ran on; and by these little arts did
he recommend himself to the good opinion of his client.
When the dinner hour united the traveling companions again in
their sitting-room at the hotel, a far less acute observer than
young Pedgift must have noticed the marked change that appeared
in Allan's manner. He looked vexed and puzzled, and sat drumming
with his fingers on the dining-table without uttering a word.
"I'm afraid something has happened to annoy you, sir, since we
parted company in the Park?" said Pedgift Junior. "Excuse the
question; I only ask it in case I can be of any use."
"Something that I never expected has happened," returned Allan;
"I don't know what to make of it. I should like to have your
opinion," he added, after a little hesitation; "that is to say,
if you will excuse my not entering into any particulars?"
"Certainly!" assented young Pedgift. "Sketch it in outline, sir.
The merest hint will do; I wasn't born yesterday." ("Oh, these
women!" thought the youthful philosopher, in parenthesis.)
"Well," began Allan, "you know what I said when we got to this
hotel; I said I had a place to go to in Bayswater" (Pedgift
mentally checked off the first point: Case in the suburbs,
Bayswater); "and a person--that is to say--no--as I said before,
a person to inquire after." (Pedgift checked off the next point:
Person in the case. She-person, or he-person? She-person,
unquestionably!) "Well, I went to the house, and when I asked
for her--I mean the person--she--that is to say, the person--oh,
confound it!" cried Allan, "I shall drive myself mad, and you,
too, if I try to tell my story in this roundabout way. Here it is
in two words. I went to No. 18 Kingsdown Crescent, to see a lady
named Mandeville; and, when I asked for her, the servant said
Mrs. Mandeville had gone away, without telling anybody where, and
without even leaving an address at which letters could be sent to
her. There! it's out at last. And what do you think of it now?"
"Tell me first, sir," said the wary Pedgift, "what inquiries you
made when you found this lady had vanished?"
"Inquiries!" repeated Allan. "I was utterly staggered; I didn't
say anything. What inquiries ought I to have made?"
Pedgift Junior cleared his throat, and crossed his legs in a
strictly professional manner.
"I have no wish, Mr. Armadale," he began, "to inquire into your
business with Mrs. Mandeville--"
"No," interposed Allan, bluntly; "I hope you won't inquire into
that. My business with Mrs. Mandeville must remain a secret."
"But," pursued Pedgift, laying down the law with the forefinger
of one hand on the outstretched palm of the other, "I may,
perhaps, be allowed to ask generally whether your business with
Mrs. Mandeville is of a nature to interest you in tracing her
from Kingsdown Crescent to her present residence?"
"Certainly!" said Allan. "I have a very particular reason for
wishing to see her."
"In that case, sir," returned Pedgift Junior, "there were two
obvious questions which you ought to have asked, to begin
with--namely, on what date Mrs. Mandeville left, and how she
left. Having discovered this, you should have ascertained next
under what domestic circumstances she went away--whether there
was a misunderstanding with anybody; say a difficulty about money
matters. Also, whether she went away alone, or with somebody
else. Also, whether the house was her own, or whether she only
lodged in it. Also, in the latter event--"
"Stop! stop! you're making my head swim," cried Allan. "I don't
understand all these ins and outs. I'm not used to this sort of
thing."
"I've been used to it myself from my childhood upward, sir,"
remarked Pedgift. "And if I can be of any assistance, say the
word."
"You're very kind," returned Allan. "If you could only help me to
find Mrs. Mandeville; and if you wouldn't mind leaving the thing
afterward entirely in my hands--?"
"I'll leave it in your hands, sir, with all the pleasure in
life," said Pedgift Junior. ("And I'll lay five to one," he
added, mentally, "when the time comes, you'll leave it in mine!")
"We'll go to Bayswater together, Mr. Armadale, tomorrow morning.
In the meantime. here's the soup. The case now before the court
is, Pleasure versus Business. I don't know what you say, sir;
I say, without a moment's hesitation, Verdict for the plaintiff.
Let us gather our rosebuds while we may. Excuse my high spirits,
Mr. Armadale. Though buried in the country, I was made for a
London life; the very air of the metropolis intoxicates me."
With that avowal the irresistible Pedgift placed a chair for
his patron, and issued his orders cheerfully to his viceroy,
the head-waiter. "Iced punch, William, after the soup. I answer
for the punch, Mr. Armadale; it's made after a recipe of my
great-uncle's. He kept a tavern, and founded the fortunes of the
family. I don't mind telling you the Pedgifts have had a publican
among them; there's no false pride about me. 'Worth makes the man
(as Pope says) and want of it the fellow; the rest is all but
leather and prunella.' I cultivate poetry as well as music, sir,
in my leisure hours; in fact, I'm more or less on familiar terms
with the whole of the nine Muses. Aha! here's the punch! The
memory of my great-uncle, the publican, Mr. Armadale--drunk in
solemn silence!"
Allan tried hard to emulate his companion's gayety and good
humor, but with very indifferent success. His visit to Kingsdown
Crescent recurred ominously again and again to his memory all
through the dinner, and all through the public amusements to
which he and his legal adviser repaired at a later hour of the
evening. When Pedgift Junior put out his candle that night, he
shook his wary head, and regretfully apostrophized "the women"
for the second time.
By ten o'clock the next morning the indefatigable Pedgift was on
the scene of action. To Allan's great relief, he proposed making
the necessary inquiries at Kingsdown Crescent in his own person,
while his patron waited near at hand, in the cab which had
brought them from the hotel. After a delay of little more than
five minutes, he reappeared, in full possession of all attainable
particulars. His first proceeding was to request Allan to step
out of the cab, and to pay the driver. Next, he politely offered
his arm, and led the way round the corner of the crescent, across
a square, and into a by-street, which was rendered exceptionally
lively by the presence of the local cab-stand. Here he stopped,
and asked jocosely whether Mr. Armadale saw his way now, or
whether it would be necessary to test his patience by making an
explanation.
"See my way?" repeated Allan, in bewilderment. "I see nothing
but a cab-stand."
Pedgift Junior smiled compassionately, and entered on his
explanation. It was a lodging-house at Kingsdown Crescent, he
begged to state to begin with. He had insisted on seeing the
landlady. A very nice person, with all the remains of having been
a fine girl about fifty years ago; quite in Pedgift's style--if
he had only been alive at the beginning of the present
century--quite in Pedgift's style. But perhaps Mr. Armadale would
prefer hearing about Mrs. Mandeville? Unfortunately, there was
nothing to tell. There had been no quarreling, and not a farthing
left unpaid: the lodger had gone, and there wasn't an explanatory
circumstance to lay hold of anywhere. It was either Mrs.
Mandeville's way to vanish, or there was something under the
rose, quite undiscoverable so far. Pedgift had got the date on
which she left, and the time of day at which she left, and the
means by which she left. The means might help to trace her. She
had gone away in a cab which the servant had fetched from the
nearest stand. The stand was now before their eyes; and the
waterman was the first person to apply to--going to the waterman
for information being clearly (if Mr. Armadale would excuse the
joke) going to the fountain-head. Treating the subject in this
airy manner, and telling Allan that he would be back in a moment,
Pedgift Junior sauntered down the street, and beckoned the
waterman confidentially into the nearest public-house.
In a little while the two re-appeared, the waterman taking
Pedgift in succession to the first, third, fourth, and sixth
of the cabmen whose vehicles were on the stand. The longest
conference was held with the sixth man; and it ended in the
sudden approach of the sixth cab to the part of the street
where Allan was waiting.
"Get in, sir," said Pedgift, opening the door; "I've found the
man. He remembers the lady; and, though he has forgotten the name
of the street, he believes he can find the place he drove her to
when he once gets back into the neighborhood. I am charmed to
inform you, Mr. Armadale, that we are in luck's way so far. I
asked the waterman to show me the regular men on the stand; and
it turns out that one of the regular men drove Mrs. Mandeville.
The waterman vouches for him; he's quite an anomaly--a
respectable cabman; drives his own horse, and has never been in
any trouble. These are the sort of men, sir, who sustain one's
belief in human nature. I've had a look at our friend, and I
agree with the waterman; I think we can depend on him."
The investigation required some exercise of patience at the
outset. It was not till the cab had traversed the distance
between Bayswater and Pimlico that the driver began to slacken
his pace and look about him. After once or twice retracing its
course, the vehicle entered a quiet by-street, ending in a dead
wall, with a door in it; and stopped at the last house on the
left-hand side, the house next to the wall.
"Here it is, gentlemen," said the man, opening the cab door.
Allan and Allan's adviser both got out, and both looked at the
house, with the same feeling of instinctive distrust.
Buildings have their physiognomy--especially buildings in great
cities--and the face of this house was essentially furtive in its
expression. The front windows were all shut, and the front blinds
were all drawn down. It looked no larger than the other houses in
the street, seen in front; but it ran back deceitfully and gained
its greater accommodation by means of its greater depth. It
affected to be a shop on the ground-floor; but it exhibited
absolutely nothing in the space that intervened between the
window and an inner row of red curtains, which hid the interior
entirely from view. At one side was the shop door, having more
red curtains behind the glazed part of it, and bearing a brass
plate on the wooden part of it, inscribed with the name of
"Oldershaw." On the other side was the private door, with a bell
marked Professional; and another brass plate, indicating a
medical occupant on this side of the house, for the name on it
was, "Doctor Downward." If ever brick and mortar spoke yet, the
brick and mortar here said plainly, "We have got our secrets
inside, and we mean to keep them."
"This can't be the place," said Allan; "there must be some
mistake."
'You know best, sir," remarked Pedgift Junior, with his sardonic
gravity. "You know Mrs. Mandeville's habits."
"I!" exclaimed Allan. "You may be surprised to hear it; but Mrs.
Mandeville is a total stranger to me."
"I'm not in the least surprised to hear it, sir; the landlady at
Kingsdown Crescent informed me that Mrs. Mandeville was an old
woman. Suppose we inquire?" added the impenetrable Pedgift,
looking at the red curtains in the shop window with a strong
suspicion that Mrs. Mandeville's granddaughter might possibly
be behind them.
They tried the shop door first. It was locked. They rang. A lean
and yellow young woman, with a tattered French novel in her hand,
opened it.
"Good-morning, miss," said Pedgift. "Is Mrs. Mandeville at home?"
The yellow young woman stared at him in astonishment. "No person
of that name is known here," she answered, sharply, in a foreign
accent.
"Perhaps they know her at the private door?" suggested Pedgift
Junior.
"Perhaps they do," said the yellow young woman, and shut the door
in his face.
"Rather a quick-tempered young person that, sir," said Pedgift.
"I congratulate Mrs. Mandeville on not being acquainted with
her." He led the way, as he spoke, to Doctor Downward's side
of the premises, and rang the bell.
The door was opened this time by a man in a shabby livery. He,
too, stared when Mrs. Mandeville's name was mentioned; and he,
too, knew of no such person in the house.
"Very odd," said Pedgift, appealing to Allan.
"What is odd?" asked a softly stepping, softly speaking gentleman
in black, suddenly appearing on the threshold of the parlor door.
Pedgift Junior politely explained the circumstances, and begged
to know whether he had the pleasure of speaking to Doctor
Downward.
The doctor bowed. If the expression may be pardoned, he was
one of those carefully constructed physicians in whom the
public--especially the female public--implicitly trust. He had
the necessary bald head, the necessary double eyeglass, the
necessary black clothes, and the necessary blandness of manner,
all complete. His voice was soothing, his ways were deliberate,
his smile was confidential. What particular branch of his
profession Doctor Downward followed was not indicated on his
door-plate; but he had utterly mistaken his vocation if he was
not a ladies' medical man.
"Are you quite sure there is no mistake about the name?" asked
the doctor, with a strong underlying anxiety in his manner. "I
have known very serious inconvenience to arise sometimes from
mistakes about names. No? There is really no mistake? In that
case, gentlemen, I can only repeat what my servant has already
told you. Don't apologize, pray. Good-morning." The doctor
withdrew as noiselessly as he had appeared; the man in the shabby
livery silently opened the door; and Allan and his companion
found themselves in the street again.
"Mr. Armadale," said Pedgift, "I don't know how you feel; I feel
puzzled."
"That's awkward," returned Allan. "I was just going to ask you
what we ought to do next."
"I don't like the look of the place, the look of the shop-woman,
or the look of the doctor," pursued the other. "And yet I can't
say I think they are deceiving us; I can't say I think they
really know Mrs. Mandeville's name."
The impressions of Pedgift Junior seldom misled him; and they had
not misled him in this case. The caution which had dictated Mrs.
Oldershaw's private removal from Bayswater was the caution which
frequently overreaches itself. It had warned her to trust nobody
at Pimlico with the secret of the name she had assumed as Miss
Gwilt's reference; but it had entirely failed to prepare her for
the emergency that had really happened. In a word, Mrs. Oldershaw
had provided for everything except for the one unimaginable
contingency of an after-inquiry into the character of Miss Gwilt.
"We must do something," said Allan; "it seems useless to stop
here."
Nobody had ever yet caught Pedgift Junior at the end of his
resources; and Allan failed to catch him at the end of them now.
"I quite agree with you, sir," he said; "we must do something.
We'll cross-examine the cabman."
The cabman proved to be immovable. Charged with mistaking the
place, he pointed to the empty shop window. "I don't know what
you may have seen, gentlemen," he remarked; "but there's the only
shop window I ever saw with nothing at all inside it. _That_
fixed the place in my mind at the time, and I know it again when
I see it." Charged with mistaking the person or the day, or the
house at which he had taken the person up, the cabman proved to
be still unassailable. The servant who fetched him was marked
as a girl well known on the stand. The day was marked as the
unluckiest working-day he had had since the first of the year;
and the lady was marked as having had her money ready at the
right moment (which not one elderly lady in a hundred usually
had), and having paid him his fare on demand without disputing
it (which not one elderly lady in a hundred usually did). "Take
my number, gentlemen," concluded the cabman, "and pay me for my
time; and what I've said to you, I'll swear to anywhere."
Pedgift made a note in his pocket-book of the man's number.
Having added to it the name of the street, and the names on the
two brass plates, he quietly opened the cab door. "We are quite
in the dark, thus far," he said. "Suppose we grope our way back
to the hotel?"
He spoke and looked more seriously than usual The mere fact of
"Mrs. Mandeville's" having changed her lodging without telling
any one where she was going, and without leaving any address
at which letters could be forwarded to her--which the jealous
malignity of Mrs. Milroy had interpreted as being undeniably
suspicious in itself--had produced no great impression on the
more impartial judgment of Allan's solicitor. People frequently
left their lodgings in a private manner, with perfectly
producible reasons for doing so. But the appearance of the place
to which the cabman persisted in declaring that he had driven
"Mrs. Mandeville" set the character and proceedings of that
mysterious lady before Pedgift Junior in a new light. His
personal interest in the inquiry suddenly strengthened, and he
began to feel a curiosity to know the real nature of Allan's
business which he had not felt yet.
"Our next move, Mr. Armadale, is not a very easy move to see,"
he said, as they drove back to the hotel. "Do you think you could
put me in possession of any further particulars?"
Allan hesitated; and Pedgift Junior saw that he had advanced a
little too far. "I mustn't force it," he thought; "I must give it
time, and let it come of its own accord." "In the absence of any
other information, sir," he resumed, "what do you say to my
making some inquiry about that queer shop, and about those two
names on the door-plate? My business in London, when I leave you,
is of a professional nature; and I am going into the right
quarter for getting information, if it is to be got."
"There can't be any harm, I suppose, in making inquiries,"
replied Allan.
He, too, spoke more seriously than usual; he, too, was beginning
to feel an all-mastering curiosity to know more. Some vague
connection, not to be distinctly realized or traced out, began
to establish itself in his mind between the difficulty of
approaching Miss Gwilt's family circumstances and the difficulty
of approaching Miss Gwilt's reference. "I'll get down and walk,
and leave you to go on to your business," he said. "I want to
consider a little about this, and a walk and a cigar will help
me."
"My business will be done, sir, between one and two," said
Pedgift, when the cab had been stopped, and Allan had got out.
"Shall we meet again at two o'clock, at the hotel?"
Allan nodded, and the cab drove off.