 Act 1, Scene 5, of No Tharovere. On the morning of the next day, Wilding went out alone after leaving a message with his clerk. If Mr. Vendale should ask for me, he said, or if Mr. Bintree should call, tell them I am gone to the Foundling. All that his partner had said to him all that his lawyer following on the same side could urge, had left him persisting unshaken in his own point of view. To find the lost man whose place he had usurped was now the paramount interest of his life, and to inquire at the Foundling was plainly to take the first step in the direction of discovery. To the Foundling accordingly, the wine-merchant now went. The once familiar aspect of the building was altered to him, as the look of the portrait over the chimney-piece was altered to him. His one dearest association with the place which had sheltered his childhood had been broken away from it for ever. A strange reluctance possessed him when he stated his business at the door. His heart ached as he sat alone in the waiting-room while the treasurer of the institution was being sent for to see him. When the interview began it was only by a painful effort that he could compose himself sufficiently to mention the nature of his errand. The treasurer listened with a face that promised all needful attention, but promised nothing more. We are obliged to be cautious, he said, when it came to his turn to speak, about all inquiries which are made by strangers. You can hardly consider me a stranger, answered Wilding simply. I was one of your poor lost children here in the bygone time. The treasurer politely rejoined that this circumstance inspired him with a special interest in his visitor. But he pressed nevertheless for that visitor's motive in making his inquiry. Without further preface Wilding told him his motive, suppressing nothing. The treasurer rose and led the way into the room in which the registers of the institution were kept. All the information which our books can give is heartily at your service, he said. After the time that has elapsed I am afraid it is the only information we have to offer you. The books were consulted and the entry was found expressed as follows. 3 March 1836. Adopted and removed from the Foundling Hospital. A male infant named Walter Wilding. Name and condition of the person adopting the child, Mrs Jane Ann Miller Widow. Address Lyme Tree Lodge, Groombridge Wells. References? The Reverend John Harker, Groombridge Wells. And Messrs Giles Jeremy and Giles Bankers Lombard Street. Is that all? asked the wine merchant. Have you no after-communication with Mrs Miller? None or some reference to it must have appeared in this book. May I take a copy of the entry? Certainly. You are a little agitated. Let me make a copy for you. My only chance, I suppose, said Wilding, looking sadly at the copy, is to inquire at Mrs Miller's residence and to try if her references can help me. That is the only chance I see at present, answered the treasurer. I heartily wish I could have been of some further assistance to you. With those farewell words to comfort him, Wilding set forth on the journey of investigation, which began from the Foundling Doors. The first stage to make for was plainly the house of business of the bankers in Lombard Street. Two of the partners in the firm were inaccessible to chance visitors when he asked for them. The third, after raising certain inevitable difficulties, consented to let a clerk examine the ledger marked with the initial letter M. The account of Mrs Miller, widow of Groombridge Wells, was found. Two long lines in faded ink were drawn across it, and at the bottom of the page there appeared this note. Account closed, September 30, 1837. And so the first stage of the journey was reached, and so it ended in no thoroughfare. After sending a note to Cripple Corner to inform his partner that his absence might be prolonged for some hours, Wilding took his place in the train and started for the second stage of the journey, Mrs Miller's residence at Groombridge Wells. Mothers and children travelled with him. Mothers and children met each other at the station. Mothers and children were in the shops when he entered them to inquire for Lime Tree Lodge. Everywhere the nearest and dearest of human relations showed itself happily in the happy light of day. Everywhere he was reminded of the treasured delusion from which he had been awakened so cruelly. Of the lost memory which had passed from him, like a reflection from a glass. Inquiring here, inquiring there, he could hear of no such place as Lime Tree Lodge. Passing a house agent's office he went in wearily and put the question for the last time. The house agent pointed across the street to a dreary mansion of many windows, which might have been a manufacturing, but which was a hotel. That's where Lime Tree Lodge stood, sir, said the man, ten years ago. The second stage reached, and no thoroughfare again. But one chance was left. The clerical reference, Mr Harker, still remained to be found. Customers coming in at the moment to occupy the house agent's attention, Wilding went down the street and entering a bookseller's shop, asked if he could be informed of the Reverend John Harker's present address. The bookseller looked unaffectedly shocked and astonished, and made no answer. Wilding repeated his question. The bookseller took up from his counter a prim little volume in a binding of Sober Gray. He handed it to his visitor open at the title-page. Wilding read, The martyrdom of the Reverend John Harker in New Zealand, related by a former member of his flock. Wilding put the book down on the counter. I beg your pardon, he said, thinking a little perhaps of his own present martyrdom while he spoke. The silent bookseller acknowledged the apology by a bow. Wilding went out. Third and last stage and no thoroughfare for the third and last time. There was nothing more to be done. There was absolutely no choice but to go back to London and defeated on all points. From time to time on the return journey, the wine merchant looked at his copy of the entry in the Foundling Register. There is one among the many forms of despair, perhaps the most pitiable of all, which persists in disguising itself as hope. Wilding checked himself in the act of throwing the useless morsel of paper out of the carriage window. It may lead to something yet, he thought. While I live I won't part with it. When I die my executor shall find it sealed up with my will. Now the mention of a will set the good wine merchant on a new track of thought. Without diverting his mind from its engrossing subject, he must make his will immediately. The application of the phrase no thoroughfare to the case had originated with Mr. Vintry. In their first long conference following the discovery, that sagacious personage had a hundred times repeated with an obstructive shake of the head. No thoroughfare, sir, no thoroughfare. My belief is that there is no way out of this at this time of day, and my advice is make yourself comfortable where you are. In the course of the protracted consultation a magnum of the forty-five-year-old port wine had been produced for the wetting of Mr. Vintry's legal whistle. But the more clearly he saw his way through the wine, the more emphatically he did not see his way through the case, repeating as often as he set his glass down empty. Mr. Wilding, no thoroughfare. Rest and be thankful. It is certain that the honest wine merchant's anxiety to make a will originated in profound conscientiousness, though it is possible, and quite consistent with his rectitude, that he may unconsciously have derived some feeling of relief from the prospect of delegating his own difficulty to two other men who were to come after him. Be that as it may, he pursued his new track of thought with great ardour and lost no time in begging George Vendale and Mr. Vintry to meet him in Cripple Corner and share his confidence. Being all three assembled with closed doors, said Mr. Vintry addressing the new partner on the occasion, I wish to observe, before our friend and my client entrusts us with his further views, that I have endorsed what I understand from him to have been your advice, Mr. Vendale, and what would be the advice of every sensible man. I have told him that he positively must keep his secret. I have spoken with Mrs. Goldstor both in his presence and in his absence, and if anybody is to be trusted, which is a very large if, I think she is to be trusted to that extent. I have pointed out to our friend and my client that to set on foot random inquiries would not only be to raise the devil in the likeness of all the swindlers in the kingdom, but would also be to waste the estate. Now you see Mr. Vendale, our friend and my client, does not desire to waste the estate, but on the contrary desires to husband it for what he considers. But I can't say I do the rightful owner. If such rightful owner should ever be found, I am very much mistaken if he ever will be, but never mind that. Mr. Wilding and I are at least agreed that the estate is not to be wasted. Now I have yielded to Mr. Wilding's desire to keep an advertisement at intervals flowing through the newspapers, cautiously inviting any person who may know anything about that adopted infant taken from the Foundling Hospital to come to my office, and I have pledged myself that such advertisement shall regularly appear. I have gathered from our friend and my client that I meet you here to-day to take his instructions, not to give him advice. I am prepared to receive his instructions and to respect his wishes. But you will please observe that this does not imply my approval of either as a matter of professional opinion. Thus, Mr. Bintree, talking quite as much at Wilding as to Vendale, and yet in spite of his care for his client, he was so amused by his client's quixotic conduct as to eye him from time to time with twinkling eyes in the light of a highly comical curiosity. Nothing, observed Wilding, can be clearer. I only wish my head were as clear as yours, Mr. Bintree. If you feel that singing in it coming on, hinted the lawyer with an alarmed glass, put it off. I mean the interview. Not at all. I thank you, said Wilding, what I was going to- Don't excite yourself, Mr. Wilding, urged the lawyer. No, I wasn't going to, said the wine-merchant. Mr. Bintree and George Vendale, would you have any hesitation or objection to become my joint trustees and executors, or can you at once consent? I consent, replied George Vendale readily. I consent, said Bintree, not so readily. Thank you both. Mr. Bintree, my instructions for my last will and testament are short and plain. Perhaps you will now have the goodness to take them down. I leave the whole of my real and personal estate, without any exception or reservation whatsoever, to you too, my joint trustees and executors, in trust, to pay over the whole to the true Walter Wilding, if he shall be found and identified within two years after the day of my death. Failing that, in trust to you too, to pay over the whole as a benefaction and legacy to the Foundling Hospital. Those are all your instructions, are they, Mr. Wilding? Demanded Bintree after a blank silence, during which nobody had looked at anybody. The whole? And as to those instructions, you have absolutely made up your mind, Mr. Wilding? Absolutely, decidedly, finally. It only remains, said the lawyer, with one shrug of his shoulders, to get them into technical and binding format to execute and attest. Now does that press? Is there any hurry about it? You are not going to die yet, sir? Mr. Bintree answered Wilding gravely. When I am going to die is within other knowledge than yours or mine. I shall be glad to have this matter off my mind, if you please. We are lawyer and client again. Rejoined Bintree, who for the nonce had become almost sympathetic. If this day, week, here, at the same hour, will suit Mr. Vendale and yourself, I will enter in my diary that I attend you accordingly. The appointment was made and in due sequence kept. The will was formally signed, sealed, delivered, and witnessed, and was carried off by Mr. Bintree for safe storage among the papers of his clients, ranged in their respective iron boxes, with their respective owners' names outside, on iron tiers in his consulting room, as if that legal sanctuary were a condensed family vault of clients. With more heart than he had lately had for former subjects of interest, Wilding then set about completing his patriarchal establishment, being much assisted not only by Mrs. Goldstraw, but by Vendale too, who perhaps had in his mind the giving of an Obenriser dinner as soon as possible. Anyhow, the establishment being reported in sound working order, the Obenrisers' guardian and ward were invited to dinner, and Madame Dore was included in the invitation. If Vendale had been overhead and he is in love before, a phrase not to be taken as implying the faintest doubt about it, this dinner plunged him down in love ten thousand fathoms deep. Yet for the life of him he could not get one word alone with charming marguerite. So surely as a blessed moment seemed to come, Obenriser in his filmy state would stand at Vendale's elbow, or the broad back of Madame Dore would appear before his eyes. That speechless matron was never seen in a front view, from the moment of her arrival until that of departure, except at dinner, and from the instant of her retirement to the drawing-room, after a hearty participation in that meal, she turned her face to the wall again. Yet through four or five delightful though distracting hours, marguerite was to be seen, marguerite was to be heard, marguerite was to be occasionally touched. When they made the round of the old dark cellars, Vendale led her by the hand. When she sang to him in the lighted room at night, Vendale, standing by her, held her relinquished gloves, and would have bartered them against every drop of the forty-five-year-old, though it had been forty-five times forty-five years old, and its net price forty-five times forty-five pounds per dozen. And still when she was gone, and a great gap of an extinguisher was clapped on Cripple Corner, he tormented himself by wondering, did she think that he admired her? Did she think that he adored her? Did she suspect that she had won him heart and soul? Did she care to think at all about it? And so did she, and didn't she, up and down the gamut, and above the line and below the line, dear, dear, poor, restless heart of humanity, to think that the men who were mummies thousands of years ago did the same, and ever found the secret how to be quiet after it. What do you think, George? Wilding asked him next day. Of Mr. Obenriser, I won't ask you what you think of Miss Obenriser. I don't know, said Vendale, and I never did know what to think of him. He is well-informed and clever, said Wilding. Certainly clever. A good musician. He had played very well and sung very well overnight. Unquestionably a good musician, and talks well. Yes, said George Vendale, ruminating. And talks well. Do you know, Wilding, it oddly occurs to me, as I think about him, that he doesn't keep silence well. How do you mean he is not obtrusively talkative? No, I don't mean that, but when he is silent you can hardly help vaguely, though perhaps most unjustly, mistrusting him. Take people whom you know and like. Take anyone you know and like. Soon done, my good fellow, said Wilding, I take you. Ha! I didn't bargain for that, or foresee it, returned Vendale, laughing. However, take me. Reflect for a moment. Is your approving knowledge of my interesting face mainly founded? However, various the momentary expressions it may include, on my face when I am silent, I think it is, said Wilding. I think so too. Now you see, when Obenreiser speaks, in other words, when he is allowed to explain himself away, he comes out right enough. But when he has not the opportunity of explaining himself away, he comes out rather wrong. Therefore it is that I say he does not keep silence well. And passing hastily in review such faces as I know and don't trust, I am inclined to think, now I give my mind to it, that none of them keep silence well. This proposition in physiognomy, being new to Wilding, he was at first slow to admit it, until asking himself the question whether Mrs. Goldstraw kept silence well, and remembering that her face in repose decidedly invited trustfulness, he was as glad as men usually are to believe what they desire to believe. But, as he was very slow to regain his spirits or his health, his partner, as another means of setting him up, and perhaps also with contingent Obenreiser views, reminded him of those musical schemes of his in connection with his family, and how a singing class was to be formed in the house and a choir in a neighbouring church. The class was established speedily, and two or three of the people having already some musical knowledge and singing tolerably, the choir soon followed. The latter was led and chiefly taught by Wilding himself, who had hopes of converting his dependence into so many foundlings in respect of their capacity to sing sacred choruses. Now the Obenreiser's being skilled musicians, it was easily brought to pass that they should be asked to join these musical unions. Guardian and ward consenting, or guardian consenting for both, it was necessarily brought to pass that Vendale's life became a life of absolute thraldom and enchantment. For in the moldy Christopher Wren Church on Sundays, with its dearly beloved brethren assembled and met together, five and twenty strong, was not that her voice, that shot like light into the darkest places, thrilling the walls and pillars as though they were pieces of his heart. What time to, Madame Dore, in a corner of the high pew turning her back upon everybody could not fail to be ritualistically right at some moment of the service, like the man whom the doctors recommended to get drunk once a month, and who, that he might not overlook it, got drunk every day. But even those Seraphic Sundays were surpassed by the Wednesday concerts established for the patriarchal family. At those concerts she would sit down to the piano and sing them in her own tongue, songs of her own land, songs calling from the mountaintops to Vendale, rise above the groveling-level country, come far away from the crowd, pursue me as I mount higher, higher, higher, melting into the azure distance, rise to my supremist height of all, and love me here. Then would the pretty bodice, the clocked stocking and the silver-buckled shooby, like the broad forehead and the fair eyes, fraught with the spring of a very chamois until the strain was over. Not even over Vendale himself did these songs of hers cast a more potent spell than over Jerry Ladle in his different way, steadily refusing to muddle the harmony by taking any share in it, and evincing the supremist contempt for scales and such-like rudiments of music, which indeed seldom captivate mere listeners. Jerry did at first give up the whole business for a bad job, and the whole of the performers for a set of howling dervishes. But, discrying traces of un-muddled harmony in a part-song one day, he gave his two undersellermen faint hopes of getting on towards something in course of time. An anthem of handles led to further encouragement from him, though he objected that the great musician must have been down in some of them foreign sellers pretty much, for to go and say the same things so many times over, which, took it in how you might, he considered a certain sign of your having took it in somehow. On a third occasion the public appearance of Mr Jarvis with a flute and of an odd man with a violin and the performance of a duet by the two did so astonish him that, solely on his own impulse and motion, he became inspired with the words an-core, repeatedly pronouncing them, as if calling in a familiar manner for some lady who had distinguished herself in the orchestra. But this was his final testimony to the merits of his mates, for the instrumental duet being performed at the first Wednesday concert and being presently followed by the voice of Margarito Brunerizer, he sat with his mouth open entranced until she had finished, when, rising from his place with much solemnity and prefacing what he was about to say with a bow that specifically included Mr Wilding in it, he delivered himself of the gratifying sentiment, you may all on your get to bed. And ever afterwards declined to render homage in any other words to the musical powers of the family. Thus began a separate personal acquaintance between Margarito Brunerizer and Joey Ladle. She laughed so heartily at his compliment and yet was so abashed by it that Joey may bold to say to her, after the concert was over, he hoped he wasn't so muddled in his head as to have took a liberty. She made him a gracious reply and Joey ducked him return. You'll change the luck time about miss, said Joey, ducking again. It's such as you in the place that can bring round the luck of the place. Can I round the luck? she answered in her pretty English with a pretty wonder. I fear I do not understand. I am so stupid. Young master wilding miss. Joey explained confidentially, though not much to her enlightenment, changed the luck before he took in young master George. So I say, and so they'll find, Lord, only come into the place and sing over the luck a few times miss, and he won't be able to help itself. With this and with a whole brood of ducks, Joey backed out for the presents. But Joey, being a privileged person and even an involuntary conquest being pleasant to youth and beauty, Marguerite merrily looked out for him next time. Where is my Mr. Joey, please? she asked Vendale. So Joey was produced and shaken hands with, and that became an institution. Another institution arose in this wise. Joey was a little hard of hearing. He himself said it was wipers and perhaps it might have been, but whatever the cause of the effect, there the effect was upon him. On this first occasion he had been seen to sidle along the wall with his left hand to his left ear until he had sidled himself into a seat pretty near the singer in which place and position he had remained until addressing to his friends the amateurs the compliment before mentioned. It was observed on the following Wednesday that Joey's action as a pecking machine was impaired at dinner and it was rumoured about the table that this was explainable by his high strung expectations of Miss Obenris' singing and his fears of not getting a place where he could hear every note and syllable. The rumour reaching Wilding's ears he in his good nature called Joey to the front at night before Marguerite began. Thus the institution came into being that on succeeding nights Marguerite's running her hands over the keys before singing always said to Vendale where is my Mr Joey please and that Vendale always brought him forth and stationed him nearby that he should then when all eyes were upon him express in his face the utmost contempt for the exertions of his friends and confidence in Marguerite alone whom he would stand contemplating not unlike the rhinoceros out of the spelling-book tamed and on his hind legs was a part of the institution. Also that when he remained after the singing in his most ecstatic state some bold spirit from the back should say what do you think of it Joey? and he should be goaded to reply as having that instant conceived the retort art of that you may all on you get to bed these were other parts of the institution but the simple pleasures and small jests of Cripple Corner were not destined to have a long life underlying them from the first was a serious matter which every member of the patriarchal family knew of but which by tacit agreement all forebore to speak of Mr Wilding's health was in a bad way he might have overcome the shock he had sustained in the one great affection of his life or he might have overcome his consciousness of being in the enjoyment of another man's property but the two together were too much for him a man haunted by twin ghosts he became deeply depressed the inseparable spectres sat at the board with him ate from his platter drank from his cup and stood by his bedside at night when he recalled his supposed mother's love he felt as though he had stolen it when he rallied a little under the respect and attachment of his dependence he felt as though he were even fraudulent in making them happy for that should have been the unknown man's duty and gratification gradually under the pressure of his brooding mind his body stooped his step lost its elasticity his eyes were seldom lifted from the ground he knew he could not help the deplorable mistake that had been made but he knew he could not mend it for the days and weeks went by and no one claimed his name or his possessions and now they began to creep over him a cloudy consciousness of often recurring confusion in his head he would unaccountably lose sometimes whole hours sometimes a whole day and night once his remembrance stopped as he sat at the head of the dinner-table and was blank until daybreak another time it stopped as he was beating time to their singing and went on again when he and his partner were walking in the courtyard by the light of the moon half the night later he asked Vendale always full of consideration work and help how this was Vendale only replied you have not been quite well, that's all he looked for explanation into the faces of his people but they would put it off with glad to see you looking so much better, sir or hope you're doing nicely now, sir which was no information at all at length when the partnership was but five months old Walter Wilding took to his bed and his housekeeper became his nurse lying here perhaps she will not mind my calling you Sally, Mrs. Goldstraw said the poor wine merchant it sounds more natural to me, sir than any other name and I like it better thank you, Sally I think, Sally, I must have later been subject to fits is that so, Sally don't mind telling me now it has happened, sir ah, that's the explanation he quietly remarked Mr. Open Riser, Sally talks of the world as being so small that it is not strange how often the same people come together and come together at various places and various stages of life but it does seem strange, Sally that I should, as I may say come round to the Foundling to die he extended his hand to her and she gently took it you are not going to die, dear Mr. Wilding so Mr. Bintre said but I think he was wrong the old child feeling is coming back upon me, Sally the old hush and rest as I used to fall asleep after an interval he said in a placid voice please kiss me, nurse and it was evident believed himself to be lying in the old dormitory as she had been used to bend over the fatherless and motherless children Sally bent over the fatherless and motherless man and put her lips to his forehead murmuring God bless you God bless you he replied in the same tone after another interval he opened his eyes in his own character and said don't move me, Sally because of what I am going to say I lie quite easily I think my time is come I don't know how it may appear to you, Sally but insensibility fell upon him for a few minutes he merged from it once more I don't know how it may appear to you, Sally but so it appears to me when he had thus conscientiously finished his favourite sentence his time came and he died End of Act 1, Scene 5 and End of Act 1 Recording by Alan Chant of Tumbridge Kent, England www.7oaksprep.kent.sch.uk Recorded in March 2007 Act 2, Scene 1 of No Therafair This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Alan Chant No Therafair by Charles Dickens Act 2, Scene 1 Vendale Makes Love The Summer and the Autumn Past Christmas and the New Year were at hand As executors honestly bent on performing their duty towards the dead Vendale and Bintree had held more than one anxious consultation on the subject of Wilding's will The lawyer had declared from the first that it was simply impossible to take any action in the matter at all The only obvious inquiries to make in relation to the lost man had been made already by Wilding himself with this result that time and death together had left not a trace of him discoverable To advertise for the claimant to the property it would be necessary to mention particulars a course of proceeding which would invite half the imposters in England to present themselves in the character of the true Walter Wilding If we find a chance of tracing the lost man we will take it If we don't let us meet for another consultation on the first anniversary of Wilding's death So Bintree advised and so with the most earnest desire to fulfill his dead friend's wishes Vendale was feigned to let the matter rest for the present Turning from his interest in the past to his interest in the future Vendale still found himself confronting a doubtful prospect Months on months had passed since his first visit to Soho Square and through all that time the one language in which he had told Marguerite that he loved her was the language of the eyes assisted at convenient opportunities by the language of the hand What was the obstacle in his way? The one immovable obstacle which had been in his way from the first? No matter how fairly the opportunities looked Vendale's efforts to speak with Marguerite alone ended invariably in one and the same result Under the most accidental circumstances in the most innocent manner possible Obenriser was always in the way With the last days of the old year came an unexpected chance of spending an evening with Marguerite which Vendale resolved should be a chance of speaking privately to her as well A cordial note from Obenriser invited him on New Year's Day to a little family dinner in Soho Square We shall only be for the note said We shall only be to Vendale determined before the evening is out New Year's Day among the English is associated with the giving and receiving of dinners and with nothing more New Year's Day among the foreigners is the grand opportunity of the year for the giving and receiving of presents It is occasionally possible to acclimatise a foreign custom In this instance Vendale felt no hesitation about making the attempt His one difficulty was to decide what his New Year's gift to Marguerite should be The defensive pride of the peasant's daughter morbidly sensitive to the inequality between her social position and his would be secretly roused against him if he ventured on a rich offering A gift which a poor man's purse might purchase was the one gift that could be trusted to find its way to her heart for the givers' sake Stoutly resisting temptation in the form of diamonds and rubies Vendale bought a brooch of the filigree work of Genoa the simplest and most unpretending ornament that he could find in the jeweller's shop He slipped his gift into Marguerite's hand as she held it out to welcome him on the day of the dinner This is your first New Year's Day in England, he said Will you help me to make it like a New Year's Day at home? She thanked him a little constrainedly as she looked at the jeweller's box uncertain what it might contain opening the box and discovering the studiously simple form under which Vendale's little keepsake offered itself to her She penetrated his motive on the spot Her face turned on him brightly with a look which said I own you have pleased and fluttered me Never had she been so charming in Vendale's eyes as she was at that moment Her winter dress a petticoat of dark silk with a body of black velvet rising to her neck and enclosing it softly in a little circle of swans down heightened by all the force of contrast the dazzling fairness of her hair and her complexion It was only when she turned aside from him to the glass and taking out the brooch that she wore put his New Year's gift in its place that Vendale's attention wandered far enough away from her to discover the presence of other persons in the room He now became conscious that the hands of Obenriser were affectionately in possession of his elbows He now heard the voice of Obenriser thanking him for his attention to Marguerite with the faintest possible ring of mockery in its tone Such a simple present, dear sir, and showing such nice tact He now discovered for the first time that there was one other guest and but one besides himself whom Obenriser presented as a compatriot and friend The friend's face was mouldy and the friend's figure was fat His age was suggestive of the autumnal period of human life In the course of the evening he developed two extraordinary capabilities One was a capacity for silence The other was a capacity for emptying bottles Madame Dore was not in the room Neither was there any visible place reserved for her when they sat down to table Obenriser explained that it was the good door's simple habit to dine always in the middle of the day She would make her excuses later in the evening Vendale wondered whether the good door had on this occasion varied her domestic employment from cleaning Obenriser's gloves to cooking Obenriser's dinner This at least was certain The dishes served were one and all as achievements in cookery high above the reach of the rudimentary art of England The dinner was unobtrusively perfect As for the wine the eyes of the speechless friend rolled over it as in solemn ecstasy Sometimes he said, good, when a bottle came in full and sometimes he said, ah, when a bottle went out empty and there his contributions to the gaiety of the evening ended Silence is occasionally infectious oppressed by private anxieties of their own but Agarit and Vendale appeared to feel the influence of the speechless friend The whole responsibility of keeping the talk going rested on Obenriser's shoulder and manfully did Obenriser sustain it He opened his heart in the character of an enlightened foreigner and sang the praises of England When other topics ran dry he returned to this inexhaustible source and always set the stream running again as copiously as ever Obenriser would have given an arm, an eye, or a leg to have been born an Englishman Out of England there was no such institution as a home no such thing as a fireside no such object as a beautiful woman His dear Miss Margarit would excuse him if he accounted for her attractions on the theory that English blood must have mixed at some form of time with their obscure and unknown ancestry Survey this English nation and behold tall, clean, plump and solid people Look at their cities what magnificence in their public buildings what admirable order and propriety in their streets Admire their laws combining the eternal principle of justice with the other eternal principle of pounds, shillings and pence and applying the product to all civil injuries from an injury to a man's honour to an injury to a man's nose You have ruined my daughter, pounds, shillings and pence You have knocked me down with a blow in my face pounds, shillings and pence Where was the material prosperity of such a country as that to stop? Obenriser projecting himself into the future failed to see the end of it Obenriser's enthusiasm and treated permission to exhale itself English fashion in a toast Here is our modest little dinner over Here is our frugal dessert on the table and here is the admirer of England conforming to national customs and making a speech Toast to your white cliffs of Albion, Mr Vendale to your national virtues your charming climate and your fascinating women to your hearths, to your homes, to your habeas corpus and to all your other institutions in one word to England heap, heap, heap, array Obenriser's voice had barely chanted the last note of the English cheer The speechless friend had barely drained the last drop out of his glass when the festive proceedings were interrupted by a modest tap at the door A woman's servant came in and approached her master with a little note in her hand Obenriser opened the note with a frown and after reading it with an expression of genuine annoyance passed it on to his compatriot and friend Vendale's spirits rose as he watched these proceedings Had he found an ally in the annoying little note was the long-looked-for chance actually coming at last I am afraid there is no help for it said Obenriser addressing his fellow countrymen I am afraid we must go The speechless friend handed back the letter shrugged his heavy shoulders and poured himself out a last glass of wine His fat fingers lingered fondly round the neck of the bottle They pressed it with a little amateurish squeeze at parting His globular eyes looked dimly as through an intervening haze at Vendale and Marguerite His heavy articulation laboured and brought forth a whole sentence at a berth I think, he said, I should have liked a little more wine His breath failed him after that effort He gasped and walked to the door Obenriser addressed himself to Vendale with an appearance of the deepest distress I am so shocked, so confused, so distressed he began A misfortune has happened to one of my compatriots He is alone, he is ignorant of your language I am my good friend here, have no choice but to go and help him What can I say in my excuse? How can I describe my affliction at depriving myself in this way of the honour of your company? He paused, evidently expecting to see Vendale take up his hat and retire Deserning his opportunity at last, Vendale determined to do nothing of the kind He met Obenriser dexterously with Obenriser's own weapons Pray don't distress yourself, he said I'll wait here with the greatest pleasure till you come back Marguerite blushed deeply and turned away to her embroidery frame in a corner by the window The film showed itself in Obenriser's eyes and the smile came something sourly to Obenriser's lips To have told Vendale that there was no reasonable prospect of him coming back in good time To have been to risk offending a man whose favourable opinion was of solid commercial importance to him Accepting his defeat with the best possible grace he declared himself to be equally honoured and delighted by Vendale's proposal So frank, so friendly, so English, he bustled about, apparently looking for something he wanted Disappeared for a moment through the folding doors communicating with the next room Came back with his hat and coat and protesting that he would return at the earliest possible moment Embraced Vendale's elbows and vanished from the scene in company with the speechless friend Vendale turned to the corner by the window in which Marguerite had placed herself with her work There as if she had dropped from the ceiling or come up through the floor there in the old attitude With her face to the stove sat an obstacle that had not been foreseen in the person of Madame Dore She half got up, half looked over her broad shoulder at Vendale and plumped down again Was she at work? Yes. Cleaning open-rises gloves as before? No. Darning open-rises stockings The case was now desperate. Two serious considerations presented themselves to Vendale Was it possible to put Madame Dore into the stove? The stove wouldn't hold her Was it possible to treat Madame Dore not as a living woman but as an article of furniture? Could the mind be brought to contemplate this respectable matron purely in the light of a Chest of drawers with a black gore's head-dress accidentally left on the top of it? Yes. The mind could be brought to do that With a comparatively trifling effort Vendale's mind did it As he took his place on the old-fashioned window-seat close by Marguerite and her embroidery A slight movement appeared in the chest of drawers but no remark issued from it Let it be remembered that solid furniture is not easy to move and that it has this Advantage in consequence there is no fear of upsetting it Unusually silent and unusually constrained with the bright colour fast fading from her face With a feverish energy possessing her fingers the pretty Marguerite bent over her embroidery And worked as if her life depended on it Hardly less agitated himself Vendale felt the importance of leading her very gently to the avowal which he was eager to make To the other sweeter avowal still which he was longing to hear A woman's love is never to be taken by storm It yields insensibly to a system of gradual approach It ventures by the roundabout way and listens to the low voice That led her memory back to their past meetings when they were travelling together in Switzerland They revived the impressions, they recalled the events of the happy bygone time Little by little Marguerite's constraint vanished She smiled, she was interested, she looked at Vendale, she grew idle with her needle She made full stitches in her work Their voices sank lower and lower, their faces bent nearer and nearer to each other as they spoke And Madame D'or, Madame D'or behaved like an angel She never looked round, she never said a word, she went on with Obenriser's stockings Pulling each stocking up tight over her left arm and holding that armour loft from time to time To catch the light on her work, there were moments, delicate and indescribable moments When Madame D'or appeared to be sitting upside down and contemplating one of her own respectable legs elevated in the air As the minutes wore on these elevations followed each other at longer and longer intervals Now and again the black gore's headdress nodded, dropped forward, recovered itself A little heap of stockings slid softly from Madame D'or's lap and remained unnoticed on the floor A prodigious ball of Worsted followed the stockings and rolled lazily under the table The black gore's headdress nodded, dropped forward, recovered itself, nodded again, dropped forward again And recovered itself no more A composite sound, partly as of the purring of an immense cat, partly as of the planing of a soft board Rose over the hushed voices of the lovers and hummed at regular intervals through the room Nature and Madame D'or had combined together in Vendale's interests The best of women was asleep Marguerite rose to stop, not the snoring, let us say the audible repose of Madame D'or Vendale laid his hand on her arm and pressed her back gently into her chair Don't disturb her, he whispered, I have been waiting to tell you a secret, let me tell it now Marguerite resumed her seat, she tried to resume her needle, it was useless, her eyes failed her, her hand failed her, she could find nothing We have been talking, said Vendale, of the happy time when we first met and first travelled together I have a confession to make, I have been concealing something When we spoke of my first visit to Switzerland, I told you of all the impressions I have brought back with me to England, except one Can you guess what that one is? Her eyes looked steadily at the embroidery and her face turned a little away from him Signs of disturbance began to appear in the neat velvet bodice round the region of the brooch, she made no reply Vendale pressed the question without mercy Can you guess what the one's Swiss impression is, which I have not told you yet? Her face turned back towards him and a faint smile trembled on her lips An impression of the mountains, perhaps, she said slyly No, a much more precious impression than that, of the lakes No, the lakes have not grown dearer and dearer in remembrance to me every day The lakes are not associated with my happiness in the present and my hopes in the future Marguerite, all that makes life worth having hangs for me on a word from your lips Marguerite, I love you Her head drooped as he took her hand, he drew her to him and looked at her The tears escaped from her downcast eyes and fell slowly over her cheeks Oh, Mr. Vendale, she said sadly, it would have been kinder to have kept your secret Have you forgotten the distance between us? It can never, never be There can be but one distance between us, Marguerite, a distance of your making My love, my darling, there is no higher rank in goodness There is no higher rank in beauty than yours Come, whisper the one little word which tells me you will be my wife She sighed bitterly Think of your family, she murmured, and think of mine Vendale drew her a little nearer to him If you dwell on such an obstacle as that, he said, I shall think, but one thought I shall think, I have offended you She started and looked up, oh no, she exclaimed innocently The instant the words passed her lips she saw the construction that might be placed on them Her confession had escaped her in spite of herself A lovely flash of colour overspread her face She made a momentary effort to disengage herself from her lover's embrace She looked up at him intreatingly She tried to speak The words died on her lips in the kiss that Vendale pressed on them Let me go, Mr. Vendale, she said faintly Call me George She laid her head on his bosom All her heart went out to him at last George, she whispered, say you love me Her arms twined themselves gently around his neck Her lips timidly touching his cheek murmured the delicious words I love you In the moment of silence that followed The sound of the opening and closing of the house-door Came clear to them through the wintry stillness of the street Marguerite started to her feet, let me go, she said He has come back She hurried from the room and touched Madame Dore's shoulder in passing Madame Dore woke up with a loud snort Looked first over one shoulder and then over the other Peered down into her lap and discovered neither stockings, Woosted nor darning-needle in it At the same moment footsteps became audible ascending the stairs Mon Dieu! said Madame Dore Addressing herself to the stove and trembling violently Vendale picked up the stockings and the ball and huddled them All back in a heap over her shoulder Mon Dieu! said Madame Dore for the second time As the avalanche of Woosted poured into her capacious lap The door opened and Obenreiser came in His first glance round the room showed him that Marguerite was absent What? he exclaimed My niece is away, my niece is not here to entertain you in my absence This is unpardonable, I shall bring her back instantly Vendale stopped him I beg you will not disturb, Miss Obenreiser, he said You have returned, I see, without your friend My friend remains and consoles our afflicted compatriot A harse-rending scene, Mr. Vendale The household gods at the pawnbrokers, the family immersed in tears We all embraced in silence My admirable friend alone possessed his composure He sent out on the spot for a bottle of wine Can I say a word to you in private, Mr. Obenreiser? Assuredly, he turned to Madame Dore My good creature, you are sinking for want of repose Mr. Vendale will excuse you Madame Dore rose and set forth sideways on her journey from the stove to bed She dropped a stocking Vendale picked it up for her and opened one of the folding doors She advanced a step and dropped three more stockings Vendale stooping to recover them as before Obenreiser interfered with profuse apologies And with a warning look at Madame Dore Madame Dore acknowledged the look by dropping the whole of the stockings in a heap And then shuffling away panic-stricken from the scene of disaster Obenreiser swept up the complete collection fiercely in both hands Go!" he cried, giving his prodigious hand full of preparatory swing in the air Madame Dore said, Monde, and vanished into the next room pursued by a shower of stockings What you must think, Mr. Vendale, said Obenreiser, closing the door Of this deplorable intrusion of domestic details For myself I blush at it We are beginning the new year as badly as possible Everything has gone wrong tonight Be seated, pray, and say What may I offer you? Shall we pay our best respects to another of your noble English institutions? It is my study to be what you call jolly I propose a grog Vendale declined the grog with all needful respect for that noble institution I wish to speak to you on a subject in which I am deeply interested," he said You must have noticed, Mr. Obenreiser, that I have from the first felt no ordinary admiration for your charming niece You are very good. In my niece's name I thank you Perhaps you may have noticed latterly that my admiration for Miss Obenreiser has grown into a tenderer and deeper feeling Shall we say friendship, Mr. Vendale? Say love, and we shall be nearer to the truth Obenreiser started out of his chair The faintly discernable beat which was his nearest approach to a change of colour Showed itself suddenly in his cheeks You are Miss Obenreiser's guardian, pursued Vendale I ask you to confer upon me the greatest of all favours I ask you to give me her hand in marriage Obenreiser dropped back into his chair Mr. Vendale, he said, you petrify me I will wait, rejoined Vendale, until you have recovered yourself One word before I recover myself You have said nothing about this to my niece I have opened my whole heart to your niece And I have reason to hope What? Interposed Obenreiser, you have made a proposal to my niece Without first asking for my authority to pay your addresses to her He struck his hand on the table and lost his hold over himself For the first time in Vendale's experience of him Sir! he exclaimed indignantly What sort of conduct is this? As a man of honour speaking to a man of honour How can you justify it? I can only justify it as one of our English institutions Said Vendale quietly You admire our English institutions I can't honestly tell you Mr. Obenreiser That I regret what I have done I can only assure you that I have not acted in the matter With any intentional disrespect towards yourself This said, may I ask you to tell me plainly What objection you see to favouring my suit I see this immense objection, answered Obenreiser That my niece and you are not on a social equality together My niece is the daughter of a poor peasant And you are the son of a gentleman You do us an honour He added luring himself gradually to his customary polite level Which deserves and has our most grateful acknowledgments But the inequality is too glaring The sacrifice is too great You English are a proud people, Mr. Vendale I have observed enough of this country to see That such a marriage as you propose would be a scandal here Not a hand would be held out to your peasant wife And all of your best friends would desert you One moment, said Vendale, interposing on his side I may claim without any great arrogance To know more of my country people in general And of my own friends in particular than you do In the estimation of everybody whose opinion is worth having My wife herself would be the one sufficient justification Of my marriage If I did not feel certain, observe I say certain That I am offering her a position Which she can accept without so much as the shadow of an humiliation I would never cost me what it might have asked her to be my wife Is there any other obstacle that you see? Have you any personal objection to me? Openriser spread out both his hands in courteous protest Personal objection? He exclaimed, Dear sir, the bear question is painful to me We are both men of business, pursued Vendale And you naturally expect me to satisfy you That I have the means of supporting a wife I can explain my pecuniary position in two words I inherit from my parents a fortune of twenty thousand pounds In half of that sum I have only a life interest To which, if I die leaving a widow, my widow succeeds If I die leaving children The money itself is divided among them as they come of age The other half of my fortune is at my own disposal And is invested in the wine business I see my way to greatly improving that business As it stands at present I cannot state my return From my capital embarked at more than twelve hundred a year Add the yearly value of my life interest And the total reach is a present annual income of fifteen hundred pounds I have the fairest prospect of soon making it more In the meantime, do you object to me on pecuniary grounds? Driven back to his last entrenchment Obenriser rose and took a turn backwards and forwards in the room For the moment he was plainly at a loss What to say or do next Before I answer that last question He said after a little close consideration with himself I beg leave to revert for a moment to Miss Marguerite You said something just now Which seems to imply that she returns the sentiment With which you are pleased to regard her I have the inestimable happiness said Vendale Of knowing that she loves me Obenriser stood silent for a moment With the film over his eyes And the faintly perceptible beat Becoming visible again in his cheeks If you will excuse me for a few minutes He said with ceremonious politeness I should like to have an opportunity of speaking to my niece With those words he bowed and quitted the room Left to himself, Vendale's thoughts As a necessary result of the interview thus far Turned instinctively to the consideration of Obenriser's motives He had put obstacles in the way of their courtship He was now putting obstacles in the way of the marriage A marriage offering advantages which even his ingenuity could not dispute On the face of it his conduct was incomprehensible What did it mean? Seeking under the surface for the answer to that question And remembering that Obenriser was a man of about his own age Also that Marguerite was strictly speaking his half-nice only Vendale asked himself with a lover's ready jealousy Whether he had a rival to fear As well as a guardian to conciliate The thought just crossed his mind and no more The sense of Marguerite's kiss still lingering on his cheek Reminded him gently that even the jealousy of a moment Was now a treason to her On reflection it seemed most likely that a personal motive of another kind Might suggest the true explanation of Obenriser's conduct Marguerite's grace and beauty were precious ornaments in that little household They gave it a special social attraction and a special social importance They armed Obenriser with a certain influence in reserve Which he could always depend upon to make his house attractive And which he might always bring more or less to bear On the forwarding of his own private ends Was he the sort of man to resign such advantages as were here implied Without obtaining the fullest possible compensation for the loss? A connection by marriage with Vendale offered him solid advantages Beyond all doubt But there were hundreds of men in London with far greater power And far wider influence than Vendale possessed Was it possible that this man's ambition secretly looked higher than the highest prospects That could be offered to him by the alliance now proposed for his niece? As the question passed through Vendale's mind The man himself reappeared to answer it or not to answer it As the event might prove A marked change was visible in Obenriser when he resumed his place His manner was less assured And there were plain traces about his mouth of recent agitation Which had not been successfully composed Had he said something referring either to Vendale or to himself Which had raised Margaret's spirit And which had placed him for the first time face to face With a resolute assertion of his niece's will It might Or might not be This only was certain He looked like a man who had met with a repulse I have spoken to my niece, he began I find Mr. Vendale that even your influence has not entirely blinded her To the social objections to your proposal May I ask, returned Vendale If that is the only result of your interview with Miss Obenriser A momentary flash leapt out through the Obenriser film You are master of the situation He answered in a tone of sardonic submission If you insist on my admitting it I do admit it in these words My niece's will and mine used to be one, Mr. Vendale You have come between us And her will is now yours In my country we know when we are beaten And we submit with the best grace I submit with my best grace on certain conditions Let us revert to the statement of your pecuniary position I have an objection to you, my dear sir A most amazing, a most audacious objection From a man in my position to a man in yours What is it? You have honoured me by making a proposal for my niece's hand For the present? With best thanks and respects I beg to decline it Why? Because you are not rich enough This objection, as the speaker had foreseen Took Vendale completely by surprise For the moment he was speechless Your income is fifteen hundred a year Pursued open riser In my miserable country I should fall on my knees before your income And say, what a princely fortune In wealthy England I sit as I am And say, a modest independence, dear sir Nothing more Enough perhaps for a wife in your own rank of life Who has no social prejudices to conquer? Not more than half enough for a wife Who is a meanly born foreigner And who has all your social prejudices against her Sir, if my niece is ever to marry you She will have what you call uphill work of it In taking her place at starting Yes, yes this is not your view But it remains, immovably remains My view for all that For my niece is sake I claim that this uphill work Shall be made as smooth as possible Ever material advantage she can have to help her Aught in common justice to be hers Now tell me, Mr. Vendale, on your fifteen hundred a year Can your wife have a house in a fashionable quarter? A footman to open her door? A battler to wait at her table? And a carriage and horses to drive about in? I see the answer in your face Your face says no, very good Tell me one more thing, and I have done Take the mass of your educated, accomplished And lovely country women Is it, or is it not, the fact that a lady Who has a house in a fashionable quarter A footman to open her door? A battler to wait at her table? And a carriage and horses to drive about in? Is a lady who has gained four steps In female estimation at starting? Yes, or no? Come to the point, said Vendale, You view this question as a question of terms What are your terms? The lowest terms, dear sir, On which you can provide your wife With those four steps at starting Double your present income The most rigid economy cannot do it in England unless You said just now that you expected greatly To increase the value of your business To work and increase it I am a good devil after all On the day when you satisfy me by plane proofs That your income has risen to three thousand a year Ask me for my niece's hand, and it is yours May I inquire if you have mentioned this arrangement To Miss Obenriser? Certainly, she has a last little morsel of regard Still left for me, Mr. Vendale, Which is not yours yet, and she accepts my terms In other words, she submits to be guided By her guardians' regard for her welfare And by her guardians' superior knowledge of the world He threw himself back in his chair In firm reliance on his position And in full possession of his excellent temper Any open assertion of his own interests In the situation in which Vendale was now placed Seemed to be, for the present at least, hopeless He found himself literally left with no ground to stand on Whether Obenriser's objections were the genuine product Of Obenriser's own view of the case Or whether he was simply delaying the marriage In the hope of ultimately breaking it off altogether In either of these events Any present resistance on Vendale's part Would be equally useless There was no help for it but to yield Making the best terms that he could on his own side I protest against the conditions you impose on me He began Naturally, said Obenriser I dare say I shall protest myself in your place Say, however, pursued Vendale That I accept your terms In that case I must be permitted To make two stipulations on my part In the first place I shall expect To be allowed to see your niece Aha, to see my niece And to make her in as great a hurry To be married as you are yourself Suppose I say no You would see her perhaps without my permission Decidedly Oh, how delightfully frank, how exquisitely English You shall see her, Mr. Vendale On certain days which we will appoint together What next? Your objection to my income, proceeded Vendale Has taken me completely by surprise I wish to be assured against any repetition Of that surprise Your present views of my qualification for marriage Require me to have an income of three thousand a year Can I be certain in the future As your experience of England enlarges That your estimate will rise no higher? In plain English, said Obenriser You doubt my word? Do you propose to take my word for it When I inform you that I have doubled my income? Asked Vendale If my memory does not deceive me You stipulated a minute since for plain proofs Well played, Mr. Vendale You combine the foreign quickness With the English solidity Accept my best congratulations Accept also my written guarantee He rose, seated himself at a writing desk At a side table, wrote a few lines And presented them to Vendale with a low bow The engagement was perfectly explicit And was signed and dated with scrupulous care Are you satisfied with your guarantee? I am satisfied Come to hear it, I am sure We have had our little skirmish We have really been wonderfully clever on both sides For the present our affairs are settled I bear no malice, you bear no malice Come, Mr. Vendale, a good English shake hands Vendale gave his hand a little bewildered By Obenriser's sudden transitions From one humour to another When may I expect to see Miss Obenriser again? He asked as he rose to go On me with a visit tomorrow, said Obenriser And we will settle it then Do you have a grog before you go? No? Well, well, we will reserve the grog Till you have had your three thousand a year And are ready to be married Ha! When will that be? I made an estimate some months since The capacities of my business, said Vendale If that estimate is correct I shall double my present income And be married, added Obenriser And be married, repeated Vendale Within a year from this time Good night Act 2, Scene 2 of No Thorefair This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit LibriVox.org Vendale Makes Mischief When Vendale entered his office the next morning The dull commercial routine at Cripple Corner met him with a new face Marguerite had an interest in it now The whole machinery which Wilding's death had set in motion To realise the value of the business The balancing of ledgers, the estimating of debts The taking of stock and the rest of it Was now transformed into machinery Which indicated the chances for and against a speedy marriage After looking over results as presented by his accountant And checking additions and subtractions As rendered by the clerks Vendale turned his attention to the stock taking department next And sent a message to the sellers Desiring to see the report The cellarman's appearance The moment he put his head in at the door Of his master's private room Suggested that something very extraordinary Must have happened that morning There was an approach to alacrity in Joey Ladle's movements There was something which actually simulated Cheerfulness in Joey Ladle's face What's the matter? asked Vendale Anything wrong? I should wish to mention one thing Answered Joey Young Mr. Vendale I have never set myself up for a prophet Who ever said you did No prophet as far as I've heard Tell of that profession Proceeded Joey Ever lived principally underground No prophet whatever else he might take in at the pause Ever took in wine from morning to night For a number of years together When I said to young master Wilding Respecting his changing the name of the firm That one of these days he might find He'd changed the luck of the firm Did I put myself forward as a prophet? No, I didn't As what I said to him come true? Yes, it has In a time of pebbles to never you young Mr. Vendale No such thing was ever known as a mistake Made in a consignment delivered at these doors There's a mistake being made now Pleased to remark that it happened before Miss Margaret came here For which reason it don't go against what I've said Respecting Miss Margaret singing round the luck Read that sir Concluded Joey Pointing attention to a special passage in the report With a forefinger which appeared to be in process Of taking in through the pause Nothing more remarkable than dirt It's foreign to my nature to crow over the house I serve But I feel a kind of solemn duty to ask you to read that Vendale read as follows Note, regarding the Swiss Champagne An irregularity has been discovered in the last consignment Received from the firm of Defresnir and Coe Vendale stopped and referred to a memorandum book by his side That was in Mr. Wilding's time, he said The vintage was a particularly good one and he took the whole of it The Swiss Champagne has done very well, hasn't it? I don't say it's done badly, answered the settlement It may have got sick in our customers' bins Or it may have burst in our customers' hands But I don't say it's done badly with us Vendale resumed the reading of the note We find the number of the cases to be quite correct by the books But six of them which present a slight difference from the rest in the brand Have been opened and have been found to contain a red wine instead of champagne The similarity in the brand, we supposed, caused a mistake to be made In sending the consignment from Neuchâtel The error has not been found to extend beyond six cases Is that all? exclaimed Vendale, tossing the note away from him Joey Ladle's eyes followed the flying morsel of paper drearily I'm glad to see you take it easy, sir, he said Whatever happens, it will be always a comfort to you to remember that you took it easy at first Sometimes one mistake leads to another A man drops a bit of orange peel on the pavement by mistake And another man treads on it by mistake And there's a job at the hospital and a party crippled for life I'm glad you take it easy, sir In Pembelsen Nevy's time we shouldn't have taken it easy till we had seen the end of it Without desiring to crow over the house young Mr. Vendale I wish you well through it No offence, sir, said the Salomon opening the door to get out and looking in again ominously before he shut it I'm, my lord, and moll and collie I grant you, but I'm an old servant of Pembelsen Nevy And I wish you well through them six cases of red wine Left by himself Vendale laughed and took up his pen I may as well send a line to de Fresnir and company, he thought, before I forget He wrote it once in these terms Dear sirs, we are taking stock and a trifling mistake has been discovered in the last consignment of champagne sent by your house two hours Six of the cases contain red wine which we hereby return to you The matter can easily be set right either by your sending us six cases of the champagne if they can be produced Or if not by your crediting us with the value of six cases on the amount last paid, five hundred pounds, by our firm to yours Your faithful servants, wilding and co This letter dispatched to the post the subject dropped at once out of Vendale's mind He had other and far more interesting matters to think of Later in the day he paid the visit to Obenriser which had been agreed on between them Certain evenings in the week were set apart which he was privileged to spend with Marguerite Always, however, in the presence of a third person On this stipulation Obenriser politely but positively insisted The one concession he made was to give Vendale his choice of who the third person should be Confiding in past experience, his choice fell unhesitatingly on the excellent woman who mended Obenriser's stockings On hearing of the responsibility entrusted to her, Madame Dors' intellectual nature burst suddenly into a new stage of development She waited till Obenriser's eye was off her and then she looked at Vendale and dimly winked The time passed. The happy evenings with Marguerite came and went It was the tenth morning since Vendale had written to the Swiss firm when the answer appeared on his desk with the other letters of the day Dear sirs, we beg to offer our excuses for the little mistake which has happened At the same time we regret to add that the statement of our error with which you have favoured us has led us to a very unexpected discovery The affair is a most serious one for you and for us. The particulars are as follows Having no more champagne of the vintage last sent to you, we made arrangements to credit your firm to the value of six cases as suggested by yourself On taking this step, certain forms observed in our mode of doing business necessitated a reference to our banker's book as well as to our ledger The result is a moral certainty that no such remittance as you mentioned can have reached our house And a literal certainty that no such remittance has been paid to our account at the bank It is needless at this stage of the proceedings to trouble you with details The money has unquestionably been stolen in the course of its transit from you to us Certain peculiarities which we observe relating to the manner in which the fort has been perpetrated lead us to conclude that the thief may have calculated on being able to pay the missing sum to our bankers Before an inevitable discovery followed the annual striking of our balance This would not have happened in the usual course for another three months During that period but for your letter we might have remained perfectly unconscious of this robbery that has been committed We mentioned this last circumstance as it may help to show you that we have to do in this case with no ordinary thief Thus far we have not even a suspicion of who that thief is But we believe you will assist us in making some advance towards discovery by examining the receipt forged of course which has no doubt purported to come to you from our house Be pleased to look and see whether it is a receipt entirely in manuscript or whether it is a numbered and printed form which merely requires the filling in of the amount The settlement of this apparently trivial question is we assure you a matter of vital importance Anxiously awaiting your reply we remain with high esteem and consideration to Fresnia Eci Vendell had the letter on his desk and waited a moment to steady his mind under the shock that had fallen on it At the time of all others when it was most important to him to increase the value of his business that business was threatened with a loss of five hundred pounds He thought of Margaritas he took the key from his pocket and opened the iron chamber in the wall where the books and papers of the firm were kept He was still in the chamber searching for the forged receipt when he was startled by a voice speaking close behind him A thousand pardons said the voice I am afraid I disturb you He turned and found himself face to face with Margarita's guardian I have called, pursued open riser, to know if I can be of any use Business of my own takes me away for some days to Manchester and Liverpool Can I combine any business of yours with it I am entirely at your disposal in the character of commercial traveller for the firm of Wilding and Cole Excuse me one moment said Vendell I will speak with you directly He turned round again and continued his search among the papers You come at a time when friendly offers are more than usually precious to me he resumed I have had very bad news this morning from Neuchâtel Bad news exclaimed open riser from Defresnia and Company Yes a remittance we sent to them has been stolen I am threatened with a loss of five hundred pounds What's that? Turning sharply and looking into the room for the second time Vendell discovered his envelope case overthrown on the floor and open riser on his knees picking up the contents All my awkwardness said open riser this dreadful news if you startled me I stepped back He became too deeply interested in collecting the scattered envelopes to finish the sentence Don't trouble yourself said Vendell the clock will pick the things up This dreadful news repeated open riser persisting in collecting the envelopes This dreadful news If you will read the letter said Vendell you will find I have exaggerated nothing there it is open on my desk He resumed his search and in a moment more discovered the forged receipt It was on the numbered and printed form described by the Swiss firm Vendell made a memorandum of the number and the date Having replaced the receipt and locked up the iron chamber he had leisure to notice open riser Reading the letter in the recess of a window at the far end of the room Come to the fire said Vendell you look perished with the cold out there I will ring for some more colds Open riser rose and came slowly back to the desk My garrit will be as sorry to hear this as I am he said kindly What do you mean to do? I am in the hands of Defresnir and company answered Vendell In my total ignorance of the circumstances I can only do what they recommend The receipt which I have just found turns out to be the numbered and printed form They seem to attach some special importance to its discovery You have had experience when you were in the Swiss house of their way of doing business Can you guess what object they have in view? Open riser offered a suggestion Suppose I examine the receipt he said Are you ill? asked Vendell startled by the change in his face Which now showed itself plainly for the first time Pray go to the fire you seem to be shivering I hope you are not going to be ill Not I said open riser perhaps I have caught cold Your English climate might have spared an admirer of your English institutions Let me look at the receipt Vendell opened the iron chamber Open riser took a chair and drew it close to the fire He held both hands over the flames Let me look at the receipt he repeated eagerly As Vendell appeared with the paper in his hand At the same moment a porter entered the room with a fresh supply of coals Vendell told him to make a good fire The man obeyed the order with a disastrous alacrity As he stepped forward and raised the scuttle His foot caught in a fold of the rug And he discharged his entire cargo of coals into the grate The result was an instant smothering of the flame And the production of a stream of yellow smoke Without a visible morsel of fire to account for it Emiseel! whispered open riser to himself With a look at the man which the man remembered for many a long day afterwards Will you come into the clerk's room? asked Vendell Say he have a stove there No no no matter Vendell handed him the receipt Open riser's interest in examining it appeared to have been quenched as suddenly And as effectively as the fire itself He just glanced over the document and said No I don't understand it I am sorry to be of no use I will write to Neuchâtel by tonight's post said Vendell Putting away the receipt for the second time We must wait and see what comes of it By tonight's post repeated open riser Let me see you will get the answer In eight or nine days time I shall be back before then If I can be of any service as commercial traveller Perhaps you will let me know between this and then You will send me written instructions My best thanks I shall be most anxious for your answer from Neuchâtel Who knows it may be a mistake my dear friend after all Courage! Courage! Courage! He had entered the room with no appearance of being pressed for time He now snatched up his hat and took his leave with the air of a man who had not Another moment to lose Left by himself Vendell took a turn thoughtfully in the room His previous impression of open riser was shaken by what he had heard And seen at the interview which had just taken place He was disposed for the first time to doubt whether in this case He had not been a little hasty and hard in his judgment on another man Open riser's surprise and regret on hearing the news from Neuchâtel Or the plainest marks of being honestly felt Not politely assumed for the occasion With troubles of his own to encounter Suffering to all appearance from the first insidious attack of a serious illness He had looked and spoken like a man who really deplored the disaster That had fallen on his friend Hitherto Vendell had tried vainly to alter the first opinion of Marguerite's guardian For Marguerite's sake All the generous instincts in his nature now combined together And shook the evidence which had seemed unanswerable up to this time Who knows, he thought, I may have read that man's face wrongly after all The time passed The happy evenings with Marguerite came and went It was again the tenth morning since Vendell had written to the Swiss firm And again the answer appeared on his desk with the other letters of the day Dear sir, my senior partner, Monsieur de Fresnier Has been called away by urgent business to Milan In his absence and with his full concurrence and authority I now write to you again on the subject of the missing five hundred pounds Your discovery that the forged receipt is executed upon one of our numbered and printed forms Has caused inexpressible surprise and distress to my partner and to myself At the time when your remittance was stolen But three keys were in existence opening the strongbox in which our receipt forms Are invariably kept My partner had one key, I had the other The third was in the possession of a gentleman who, at that period Occupied a position of trust in our house We should as soon have thought of suspecting one of ourselves As of suspecting this person Suspicion now points to him nevertheless I cannot prevail upon myself to inform you who the person is So long as there is the shadow of a chance that he may come innocently out of the inquiry Which must now be instituted Forgive my silence, the motive of it is good The form our investigation must now take is simple enough The handwriting of your receipt must be compared by competent persons whom we have at our disposal With certain specimens of handwriting in our possession I cannot send you the specimens for business reasons Which, when you hear them, you are sure to approve I must beg you to send me the receipt to Neuchâtel And in making this request I must accompany it by word of necessary warning If the person at whom suspicion now points Really proves to be the person who has committed this forger and theft I have reason to fear that circumstances may have already put him on his guard The only evidence against him is the evidence in your hands And he will move heaven and earth to obtain and destroy it I strongly urge you not to trust the receipt to the post Send it to me without loss of time by a private hand And choose nobody for your messenger but a person long established in your own employment A custom to travelling, capable of speaking French A man of courage, a man of honesty, and above all things A man who can be trusted to let no stranger scrape acquaintance with him on the route Tell no one, absolutely no one, but your messenger of the turn this matter has now taken The safe transit of the receipt may depend on your interpreting literally The advice which I give you at the end of this letter I have only to add that every possible saving of time is now of the last importance More than one of our receipt forms is missing And it is impossible to say what new frauds may not be committed If we fail to lay hands on the thief Your faithful service, Roland, signing for Defresnia Essie Who was the suspected man? In Vendel's position it seemed useless to inquire Who was to be sent to Neuchâtel with the receipt? Men of courage and men of honesty were to be had at Cripple Corner for the asking But where was the man who was accustomed to foreign travelling Who could speak the French language And who could be really relied on to let no stranger scrape acquaintance with him on his route There was but one man at hand who combined all these requisites in his own person And that man was Vendel himself It was a sacrifice to leave his business It was a greater sacrifice to leave Marguerite But a matter of five hundred pounds was involved in the pending inquiry And a literal interpretation of Monsieur Roland's advice Was insisted on in terms which there was no trifling with The more Vendel thought of it The more plainly the necessity faced him and said, Go! As he locked up the letter with the receipt The association of ideas reminded him of Obenriser A guess that the identity of the suspected man looked more possible now Obenriser might know The thought had barely passed through his mind when the door opened And Obenriser entered the room They told me at Soho Square, You were expected back last night, said Vendel, greeting him Have you done well in the country? Are you better? A thousand thanks Obenriser had done admirably well Obenriser was infinitely better And now what news? Any letter from Neuchâtel? A very strange letter answered Vendel The matter has taken a new turn and the letter insists Without accepting anybody On my keeping our next proceedings a profound secret Without accepting anybody? Repeated Obenriser As he said the words he walked away again thoughtfully To the window at the other end of the room Looked out for a moment And suddenly came back to Vendel Surely they must have forgotten, he resumed Or they would have accepted me It is Mr. Rolland who writes, said Vendel And as you say he must certainly have forgotten That view of the matter quite escaped me I was just wishing I had you to consult when you came into the room And here I am tied by a formal prohibition Which cannot possibly have been intended to include you How very annoying Obenriser's filmy eyes fixed on Vendel attentively Perhaps it is more than annoying, he said I came this morning not only to hear the news But to offer myself as messenger, negotiator, what you will Would you believe it? I have letters which oblige me to go to Switzerland immediately Messages, documents, anything I could have taken them all To Defresnia and Rolland, for you You are the very man I wanted, returned Vendel I had decided most unwillingly on going to Neuchâtel myself Not five minutes since, because I could find no one here Capable of taking my place Let me look at the letter again He opened the strong room to get at the letter Obenriser at first glancing round him to make sure that they were alone Followed a step or two and waited, measuring Vendel with his eye Vendel was the tallest man and unmistakably the strongest man Also of the two Obenriser turned away and warmed himself at the fire Meanwhile Vendel read the last paragraph in the letter For the third time There was the plain warning There was the closing sentence which insisted on a literal interpretation of it The hand which was leading Vendel in the dark led him on that condition only A large sum was at stake, a terrible suspicion remained to be verified If he acted on his own responsibility And if anything happened to defeat the object in view, who would be blamed? As a man of business Vendel had but one course to follow He locked the letter up again It is most annoying, he said to Obenriser It is a piece of forgetfulness on Monsieur Roland's part which puts me to serious inconvenience And places me in an absurdly false position to you What am I to do? I am acting in a very serious matter and acting entirely in the dark I have no choice but to be guided, not by the spirit but by the letter of my instructions You understand me, I am sure You know if I had not been fettered in this way how gladly I should have accepted your services Say no more, returned Obenriser In your place I should have done the same My good friend, I take no offence I thank you for your compliment We shall be travelling companions at any rate, had it Obenriser You go as I go at once At once I must speak to Marguerite first, of course Surely, surely speak to her this evening Come and pick me up on the way to the station We go together by the mail train to-night? By the mail train to-night It was later than Vendell had anticipated when he drove up to the house in Soho Square Business difficulties, occasioned by his sudden departure, had presented themselves by dozens A cruelly large share of the time which he had hoped to devote to Marguerite Had been claimed by duties at his office which it was impossible to neglect To his surprise and delight she was alone in the drawing-room when he entered it We have only a few minutes, George, she said But Madame Dore has been good to me, and we can have those few minutes alone She threw her arms round his neck and whispered eagerly Have you done anything to offend Mr Obenriser? I exclaimed Vendell in amazement Hush, she said, I want to whisper it You know the little photograph I have of you This afternoon it happened to be on the chimney-piece He took it up and looked at it, and I saw his face in the glass I know you have offended him He is merciless, he is revengeful, he is as secret as the grave Don't go with him, George, don't go with him My own love, returned Vendell, you are letting your fancy frighten you Obenriser and I were never better friends than we are at the moment Before a word more could be said the sudden movement of some ponderous body shook the floor of the next room The shock was followed by the appearance of Madame Dore Obenriser exclaimed his excellent person in a whisper and plumped down instantly in her regular place by the stove Obenriser came in with a courier's bag strapped over his shoulder Are you ready? he asked, addressing Vendell Can I take anything for you? you have no travelling bag I have got one, here is the compartment for papers open at your service Thank you said Vendell I have only one paper of importance with me and that paper I am bound to take charge of myself Here it is, he added, touching the breast pocket of his coat and here it must remain till we get to Neuchâtel As he said these words Marguerite's hand caught his and pressed it significantly She was looking towards Obenriser Before Vendell could look in his turn Obenriser had wheeled round and was taking leave of Madame Dore Adieu, my charming niece, he said, turning to Marguerite next En route, my friend, for Neuchâtel He tapped Vendell lightly over the breast pocket of his coat and led the way to the door Vendell's last look was for Marguerite Marguerite's last words to him were Don't go! End of act to, seen to, and end of act to Recording by Alan Chant of Tumbridge Kent, England www.7oaksprep.kent.sh.uk