human
You knew Elsley Vavasour well?
gpt
No man better.
human
Did you think that there was any tendency to madness in him?
gpt
No more than in any other selfish, vain, irritable man, with a strong imagination left to run riot.
human
Humph! you seem to have divined his character. May I ask you if you knew him before you met him at Aberalva?
gpt
You would ask, what cause I have for inquiring? I will tell you presently. Meanwhile I may say, that Mellot told me frankly that you had some power over him; and mentioned, mysteriously, a name--John Briggs, I think--which it appears that he once assumed.
human
If Mellot thought fit to tell you anything, I may frankly tell you all. John Briggs is his real name. I have known him from childhood.
gpt
You have kept your secret mercifully, and used it wisely, sir; and I and others shall be always your debtors for it. Now I dare tell you in turn, in strictest confidence of course--
human
I am far too poor to afford the luxury of babbling.
gpt
I expected as much, said he drily.
human
Now, I suppose that you wish me to exert myself in finding the man?
gpt
I do.
human
Were Mrs. Vavasour only concerned, I should say--Not I! Better that she should never set eyes on him again.
gpt
Better, indeed! said he bitterly:
human
Major Campbell's wish is a command. Where have you searched for him?
gpt
At his address, at his publisher's, at the houses of various literary friends of his, and yet no trace.
human
Has he gone to the Continent?
gpt
Heaven knows! I have inquired at every passport office for news of any one answering his description; indeed, I have two detectives, I may tell you, at this moment, watching every possible place. There is but one hope, if he be alive. Can he have gone home to his native town?
human
Never! Anywhere but there.
gpt
Is there any old friend of the lower class with whom he may have taken lodgings?
human
There was a fellow, a noisy blackguard, whom Briggs was asking after this very summer--a fellow who went off from Whitbury with some players. I know Briggs used to go to the theatre with him as a boy--what was his name? He tried acting, but did not succeed; and then became a scene-shifter, or something of the kind, at the Adelphi. He has some complaint, I forget what, which made him an out-patient at St. Mumpsimus's, some months every year. I know that he was there this summer, for I wrote to ask, at Briggs's request, and Briggs sent him a sovereign through me.
gpt
But what makes you fancy that he can have taken shelter with such a man, and one who knows his secret?
human
It is but a chance: but he may have done it from the mere feeling of loneliness--just to hold by some one whom he knows in this great wilderness; especially a man in whose eyes he will be a great man, and to whom he has done a kindness; still, it is the merest chance.
gpt
We will take it, nevertheless, forlorn hope though it be.
human
Does John Barker live here? asks Thurnall, putting his head in cautiously for fear of drunken Irishmen, who might be seized with the national impulse to
gpt
What's that to you?
human
Here is a gentleman wants to speak to him.
gpt
So do a many as won't have that pleasure, and would be little the better for it if they had. Get along with you, I knows your lay.
human
We really want to speak to him, and to pay him, if he will--
gpt
Go along! I'm up to the something to your advantage dodge, and to the mustachio dodge too. Do you fancy I don't know a bailiff, because he's dressed like a swell?
human
But, my good woman!
gpt
You put your crocodile foot in here, and I'll hit the hot water over the both of you!
human
My dear soul! I am a doctor belonging to the hospital which your husband goes to; and have known him since he was a boy, down in Berkshire.
gpt
You?
human
My name is Thurnall. I was a medical man once in Whitbury, where your husband was born.
gpt
You? said she again, in a softened tone,
human
I knows that name well enough.
gpt
You do? What was your name, then?
human
Never you mind: I'm no credit to it, so I'll let it be. But come in, for the old county's sake. Can't offer you a chair, he's pawned 'em all. Pleasant old place it was down there, when I was a young girl; they say it's grow'd a grand place now, wi' a railroad. I think many times I'd like to go down and die there.
gpt
My good woman, said Major Campbell, a little impatiently,
human
Why then?
gpt
If he will answer a few questions, I will give him five shillings. If he can find out for me what I want, I will give him five pounds.
human
Shouldn't I do as well? If you gi' it he, it's little out of it I shall see, but he coming home tipsy when it's spent. Ah, dear! it was a sad day for me when I first fell in with they play-goers!
gpt
Why should she not do it as well? said Thurnall.
human
Mrs. Barker, do you know anything of a person named Briggs--John Briggs, the apothecary's son, at Whitbury?
gpt
Know he? yes, and too much reason. That was where it all begun, along of that play-going of he's and my master's.
human
Have you seen him lately?
gpt
I seen 'un? I'd hit this water over the fellow, and all his play-acting merryandrews, if ever he sot a foot here!
human
But have you heard of him?
gpt
Ees-- said she carelessly;
human
My good woman, said Campbell, panting for breath,
gpt
Five pounds is a sight to me: but it's a sight more than the sight of he's worth,
human
That's the gentleman's concern, said Tom.
gpt
The money's yours. I suppose you know the worth of it by now?
human
Ees, none better. But I don't want he to get hold of it; he's made away with enough already;
gpt
Curiously impassive people, we Wessex worthies, when we are a little ground down with trouble. You must give her time, and she will do our work. She wants the money, but she is long past being excited at the prospect of it.
human
What's that you're whispering?
gpt
You don't trust us yet, eh?--then, there! and he took five sovereigns from his pocket, and tossed them on the table.
human
There's your money! I trust you to do the work, as you've been paid beforehand.
gpt
Sally, you go down with these gentlemen to the Jonson's Head, and if he ben't there, go to the Fighting Cocks; and if he ben't there, go to the Duke of Wellington; and tell he there's two gentlemen has heard of his poetry, and wants to hear 'un excite. And then you give he a glass of liquor, and praise up his nonsense, and he'll tell you all he knows, and a sight more. Gi' un plenty to drink. It'll be a saving and a charity, for if he don't get it out of you, he will out of me.
human
Can't I do anything for you? asked Tom, whose heart always yearned over a Berkshire soul.
gpt
I have plenty of friends down at Whitbury still.
human
More than I have. No, sir, said she sadly, and with the first touch of sweetness they had yet heard in her voice.
gpt
I've cured my own bacon, and I must eat it. There's none down there minds me, but them that would be ashamed of me. And I couldn't go without he, and they wouldn't take he in; so I must just bide.
human
God help her!
gpt
Misery breeds that temper, and only misery, in our people. I can show you as thorough gentlemen and ladies, people round Whitbury, living on ten shillings a week, as you will show me in Belgravia living on five thousand a year.
human
I don't doubt it, said Campbell....
gpt
So 'she couldn't go without he,' drunken dog as he is! Thus it is with them all the world over.
human
So much the worse for them, said Tom cynically,
gpt
I fancy sometimes that they were all meant to be the mates of angels, and stooped to men as a _pis aller_; reversing the old story of the sons of heaven and the daughters of men.
human
And accounting for the present degeneracy. When the sons of heaven married the daughters of men, their offspring were giants and men of renown. Now the sons of men marry the daughters of heaven, and the offspring is Wiggle, Waggle, Windbag, and Redtape.