|

may, perhaps, be allowed to ask generally, whether your business with Mrs. Mandeville is of a nature to interest you in tracing her from Kingsdown Crescent to her present resi

"Certainly!" said Allan. "I have a very particular reason for wishing to see her."

"In that case, sir," returned Pedgift junior, "there were two obvious questions which you ought to have asked, to begin with-namely, on what date Mrs. Mandeville left, and how she left. Having discovered this, you should have ascertained next, under what domestic circumstances she went awaywhether there was a misunderstanding with anybody; say a difficulty about money-matters. Also, whether she went away alone, or with somebody else. Also, whether the house was her own, or whether she only lodged in it. Also, in the latter

three of us. Yes, William, yes; if Mr. Armadale approves, this | finger of one hand on the outstretched palm of the other, "1 sitting-room will do. About dinner, sir? You would prefer getting your business over first, and coming back to dinner? Shall we say, in that case, half-past seven? William, half-past seven. Not the least need to order anything, Mr. Armadale. The head-dence?" waiter has only to give my compliments to the cook, and the best dinner in London will be sent up, punctual to the minute, as a necessary consequence. Say Mr. Pedgift, junior, if you please, William-otherwise, sir, we might get my graudfather's dinner, or my father's dinner, and they might turn out a little too heavy and old-fashioned in their way of feeding for you and me. As to the wine, William. At dinner, my champagne, and the sherry that my father thinks nasty. After dinner, the claret with the blue seal-tue wine my innocent grandfather said wasn't worth sixpence a bottle. Ha ha! poor old boy! You will send up the evening papers and the playbills just as usual, and-that will do, I think, William, for the present. An in-event-" valuable servant, Mr. Armadale; they're all invaluable servants in this house. We may not be fashionable here, sir, but by the Lord Harry we are soug! A cab? you would like a cab? Don't stir! I've rung the bell twice-that means, cab wanted in a hurry. Might I ask, Mr. Armadale, which way your business takes you? Towards Bayswater? Would you mind dropping me in the park? It's a habit of mine when I'm in London to air myself among the aristocracy. Yours truly, sir, has an eye for a fine woman and a fine horse; and when he's in Hyde Park he's quite in his native element." Thus the all-accomplished Pedgift ran on; and by these little arts did he recommend himself to the good opinion of his client.

When the dinner hour united the traveling companions again in their sitting-room at the hotel, a far less acute observer than young Pedgift must have noticed the marked change that appeared in Allan's manner. He looked vexed and puzzled, and sat drumming with his fingers on the diningtable without uttering a word.

"I'm afraid something has happened to annoy you, sir, since we parted company in the park?" said Pedgift, junior. "Excuse the question-I only ask it in case I can be of any use."

"Something that I never expected has happened," returned Allan; "I don't know what to make of it. I should like to have your opinion," he added, after a little hesitation; "that is to say, if you will excuse my not entering into any particulars."

"Certainly!", assented young Pedgift. "Sketch it in outline, sir. The merest hint will do; I wasn't born yesterday. (Oh, these women!" thought the youthful philosopher, in parenthesis.)

"Well," began Allan, "you know what I said when we got to this hotel; I said I had a place to go to in Bayswater." | (Pedgift mentally checked off the first point Case in the suburts, Bayswater); "and a person-that is to say-no-as I sail before, a person to inquire after." (Pedgift checked off the next point-Person in the case. She-person, or he-person? She-person unquestionably !) "Well, I went to the house, and when I asked for her-I mean the person-she-that is to say, the person-oh, confound it!" cried Allan, "I shall drive myself mad, and you too, if I try to tell my story in this roundabout way. Here it is in two words. I went to No. 18 Kingsdown Crescent, to see a lady named Mandeville; and when I asked for her, the servant said Mrs. Mandeville had gone away, without telling anybody where, and without even leaving an address at which letters could be sent to her. There! it's out at last, and what do you think of it now?"

"Tell me first, sir," said the wary Pedgift, "what inquiries you made, when you found this lady had vanished?"

"Inquiries ?" repeated Allan, "I was utterly staggered; I didn't say anything. What inquiries ought I to have made?" Pe gift junior cleared his throat, and crossed his legs in a strictly professional manner.

"Stop! stop! you're making my head swim," cried Allan. "I don't understand all these ins and outs-I'm not used to this sort of thing."

"I've been used to it sir," remarked Pedgift. ay the word."

myself from my childhood upwards, "And if I can be of any assistance,

"You're very kind," returned Allan. "If you could only help me to find Mrs. Mandeville; and if you wouldn't mind leaving the thing afterwards entirely in my hands- ?” '

"I'll leave it in your hands, sir, with all the pleasure in life," said Pedgift, junior. (“And I'll lay five to one," he added mentally, "when the time comes, you'll leave it in mine!) We'll go to Bayswater together, Mr. Armadale, tomorrow morning. In the meantime here's the soup. The case now before the court is-pleasure versus business. I don't know what you say, sir; I say, without a moment's besitation, verdict for the plaintiff. Let us gather our rosebuds while we may. Excuse my high spirits, Mr. Armadale. Though buried in the country, I was made for a London life; the very air of the metropolis intoxicates me." With that avowal the irresistible Fedgift placed a chair for his patron, and issued bis orders cheerfully to his viceroy, the head waiter. “Iced punch, William, after the soup. I answer for the punch, Mr. Armadale-it's made after a receipt of my great-uncle's. He kept a tavern, and founded the fortunes of the family. I don't mind telling you the Pedgifts have had a publican among them; there's no false pride about me. 'Worth makes the man (as Pope says), and want of it the fellow; the rest is all but leather and prunella.' I cultivate poetry as well as music, sir, in my leisure hours; in fact, I'm more or less on familiar terms with the whole of the nine Muses. Aha! here's the punch! The memory of my great-uncle, the publican, Mr. Armadale-drunk in solemn silence!"'

Allan tried hard to emulate his companion's gaiety and good humor, but with very indifferent success. His visit to Kingsdown Crescent recurred ominously again and again to his memory, all through the dinner, and all through the public amusements to which he and his legal adviser repaired at a later hour of the evening. When Pedgift, junior, put out his candle that night, he sbook his wary head, and regretfully apostrophized "the women" for the second time.

By ten o'clock the next morning, the indefatigable Pedgift was on the scene of action. To Allan's great relief, he proposed making the necessary inquiries at Kingsdown Crescent, in his own person, while his patron waited near at hand, in the cab which had brought them from the hotel. After a delay of little more than five minutes, he reappeared, in full possession of all attainable particulars. His first proceeding was to request Allan to step out of the cab, and to pay the driver. Next, he politely offered his arm, and led the way round the corner of the crescent, across a square, and into a by-street, which was rendered exceptionally lively by the presence of the local cab

"I have no wish, Mr. Armadale," he began, "to inquire stand. Here he stopped, and asked jocosely, whether Mr. into your business with Mrs. Mandeville-”

"No," interposed Allan bluntly, "I hope you won't inquire into that. My business with Mrs. Mandeville must remain a secret."

"But," pursued Pedgift, laying down the law with the fore

Armadale saw his way now, or whether it would be necessary to test his patience by making an explanation.

"See my way?" repeated Alan in bewilderment. "I see nothing but a cab-stand."

Pedgift, junior, smiled compassionately, and entered on his

explanation. It was a lodging-house at Kings lown Crescent, he begged to state, to begin with. He had insisted on seeing the landlady. A very nice person, with all the remains of having been a fine girl about fifty years ago; quite in Pedgift's style -if he had only been alive in the beginning of the present century-quite in Pedgift's style. But perhaps Mr. Armadale would prefer hearing about Mrs. Mandeville? Unfortunately, there was nothing to tell. There had been no quarreling, and not a farthing left unpaid: the lodger had gone, and there wasn't an explanatory circumstance to lay hold of anywhere. It was either Mrs. Mandeville's way to vanish, or there was something under the rose, quite undiscoverable so far. Pedgift had got the date on which she left, and the time of day at which she left, and the means by which she left. The means might help to trace her. She had gone away in a cab which the servant had fetched from the nearest stand. The stand was now before their eyes; and the waterman was the first person to apply to-going to the waterman for information, being clearly (if Mr. Armadale would excuse the joke) going to the fountain-head. Treating the subject in this airy manner, and telling Allan that he would be back in a moment, Pedgift, junior, sauntered down the street, and beckoned the waterman confidentially to the nearest public-house.

In a little while the two reappeared; the waterman taking Pedgift in succession to the first, third, fourth and sixth of the cabmen whose vehicles were on the stand. The longest conference was held with the sixth man; and it ended in the sudden approach of the sixth cab to the part of the street where Allan was waiting.

"I!" exclaimed Allan. "You may be surprised to hear it --but Mrs. Mandeville is a total stranger to me."

"I'm not in the least surprised to hear it, sir-the landlady at Kingsdown Crescent informed me that Mrs Mandeville was an old woman. Suppose we inquire ?" added the impenetrable Pedgift, looking at the red curtains in the shop-window with a strong suspicion that Mrs. Mandeville's granddaughter might possibly be behind them.

They tried the shop-door first. It was locked. They rang. A lean and yellow young woman, with a tattered French novei in her hand opened it.

"Good-morning, miss," said Pedgift. "Is Mrs. Mandeville at home?''

The yellow, young woman stared at him in astonishment. "No person of that name is known here," she answered sharply, in a foreign accent.

"Perhaps they know her at the private door?" suggested Pedgift junior.

"Perhaps they do," said the yellow, young woman, and shut the door in his face.

"Rather a quick-tempered young person that, sir," said Pedgift. "I congratulate Mrs. Mandeville on not being acquainted with her." He led the way, as he spoke, to Dr. Downward's side of the premises, and rang the bell.

The door was opened this time by a man in a shabby livery. He, too, stared, when Mrs. Mandevil.e's name was mentioned; and he, too, knew of no such person in the house. "Very odd," said Pedgift, appealing to Allan. “What is odd ?” asked a softly-stepping, softly-speaking gen

parlor-door.

Pedgift, junior, politely explained the circumstances, and begged to know whether he had the pleasure of speaking to Doctor Downward.

"Get in, sir," said Pedgit, opening the door, "I've found❘tleman in black, suddenly appearing on the threshold of the the man. He remembers the lady; and, though he has forgotten the name of the street, he believes he can find the place he drove her to when he once gets back into the neighborhood. I am charmed to inform you, Mr. Armadale, that we are in luck's way so far. I asked the waterman to show me the regular men on the staud-and it turns out that one of the regular men drove Mrs. Mandeville. The waterman vouches for him; he's quite an anomaly a respectable cabman; drives his own horse, and has never been in any trouble. These are the sort of men, sir, who sustain one's belief in human nature. I've had a look at our friend; and I agree with the waterman -I think we can depend on him."

The doctor bowed. If the expression may be pardoned, he was one of those carefully-constructed physicians, in whom the public-especially the female public-implicitly trust. He had the necessary bald head, the necessary double eyeglass, the necessary black clothes, and the necessary blandness of manner, all complete. His voice was soothing, his ways were deliberate, his smile was confidential. What particular branch of his profession Doctor Downward followed, was not indicated on his doorplate-but be had utterly mistaken his vocation, if he was not a ladies' medical man.

"Are you quite sure there is no mistake about the name?" asked the doctor, with a strong underlying anxiety in his manner. "I have known very serious inconvenience to arise sometimes from mistakes about names. No? There is really no mistake? In that case, gentlemen, I can only repeat what my

The investigation required some exercise of patience at the outset. It was not until the cab had traversed the distance between Bayswater and Pimlico, that the driver began to slacken his pace and look about him. After once or twice retracing its course, the vehicle entered a quiet by-street, ending in a dead wall with a door in it; and stopped at the last house on the left-hand side, the house next to the wall. "Here it is, gentlemen," said the man, opening the cab- servant has already told you. Don't apologize, pray. Gooddoor. morning." The doctor withdrew as noiselessly as he had Allan and Allan's adviser both got out, and both looked at appeared; the man in the shabby livery silently opened the the house, with the same feeling of instinctive distrust. Build-door; and Allan and his companion found themselves in the ings have their physiognomy-especially buildings in great cities street again.

"That's awkward," returned Allan; "I was just going to ask you what we ought to do next."

"And

"I don't like the look of the place, the look of the shopwoman, or the look of the doctor," pursued the other. yet I can't say I think they are deceiving us-I can't say I think they really do know Mrs. Mandeville's name."

-and the face of this house was essentially furtive in its expres- "Mr. Armadale," said Pedgift, "I don't know how you feel sion. The front windows were all shut, and the front blinds-I feel puzzled." were all drawn down. It looked no larger than the other houses in the street, seen in front; but it ran back deceitfully, and gained its greater accommodation by means of its greater depth. It affected to be a shop on the ground-floor-but it exhibited absolutely nothing in the space that intervened between the window and an inner row of red curtains, which hid the interior entirely from view. At one side was the shopdoor, having more red curtains behind the glazed part of it, and bearing a brass plate on the wooden part of it, inscribed with the name of "Oldershaw." On the other side was the private door, with a bell marked Professional; and another brass plate, indicating a medical occupant on this side of the house, for the name on it was "Doctor Downward." If ever brick and mortar spoke yet, the brick and mortar here said plainly, "We have got our secrets inside, and we mean to keep them." "This can't be the place," said Allan ;"there must be some mistake."

"You know best, sir," remarked Pedgift, junior, with his sardonic gravity. "You know Mrs. Mandeville's habits."

The impressions of Pedgift, junior, seldom misled him; and they had not misled him in this case. The caution which had dictated Mrs. Oldershaw's private removal from Bayswater, was the caution which frequently overreaches itself. It had warned ber to trust nobody at Pimlico with the secret of the name she had assumed as Miss Gwilt's reference; but it had entirely failed to prepare her for the emergency that had really happened. In a word, Mrs. Oldershaw bad provided for everything, except for the one imaginable contingency of an after inquiry into the character of Miss Gwilt.

"We must do something," said Allan; "it seems useless to stop here."

Nobody had ever yet caught Pedgift, junior, at the end of his

resources; and Allan failed to catch him at the end of them now. "I quite agree with you, sir," he said; "we must do something. We'll cross-examine the cabman."

ened, and he began to feel a curiosity to know the real nature of Allan's business which he had not felt yet.

"Our next move, Mr. Armadale, is not a very easy move to see," he said, as they drove back to the hotel. "Do you think you could put me in possession of any further particulars ?'' Allan hesitated; and Pedgift, junior, saw that he had advanced a little too far. "I musn't force it," he thought; "I must give it time, and let it come of its own accord." "In the absence of any other information, sir," he resumed, "what do you say, to my making some inquiry about that queer shop, and about those two names on the door-plate? My business in London, when I leave you, is of a professional nature; and I am going into the right quarter for getting information, if it is to be got."

The cabman proved to be immovable. Charged with mistaking the place, he pointed to the empty shop-window. "I don't know what you may have seen, gentlemen," he remarked; "but there's the only shop window I ever saw with nothing at all inside it. That fixed the place in my mind at the time, and I know it again when I see it." Charged with mistaking the person, or the day, or the house at which he had taken the person up, the cabman proved to be still unassailable. The servant who fetched him was marked as a girl well-known on the stand. The day was marked as the unluckiest working day he had had since the first of the year; and the lady was marked, as having had her money ready at the right moment (which not one elderly lady in a hundred usually had), and having paid him his fare on demand, without disputing it He, too, spoke more seriously than usual; he, too, was begin(which not one elderly lady in a hundred usually did.) "Take ning to feel an all-mastering curiosity to know more. Some my number, gentlemen," concluded the cabman, "and pay me vague connection, not to be distinctly realized or traced out,

"There can't be any harm, I suppose, in making inquiries," replied Allan.

for my time; and what I've said to you I'll swear to any- | began to establish itself in his mind between the difficulty of where."

Pedgift made a note in his pocket-book of the man's number. Having added to it the name of the street, and the names on the two brass plates, he quietly opened the cab-door. "We are quite in the dark, thus far," he said. "Suppose we grope our way back to the hotel ?"

approaching Miss Gwilt's family circumstances, and the difficulty of approaching Miss Gwilt's reference. "I'll get down and walk, and leave you to go on to your business," he said. "I want to consider a little about this; and a walk and a cigar will help me."

"My business will be done, sir, between one and two," said Pedgift, when the cab had been stopped, atd Allan had got out. "Shall we meet again at two o'clock, at the hotel ?" Allan nodded, and the cab drove off.

He spoke and looked more seriously than usual. The mere fact of "Mrs. Mandeville's" having changed her lodging without telling any one where she was going, and without leaving any address at which letters could be forwarded to her-which the jealous malignity of Mrs. Milroy had interpeted as being undeniably suspicious in itself-had produced no great impression on the more impartial judgment of Allan's solicitor. People frequently left their lodgings in a private manner, with perfectly produceable reasons for doing so. But the appearance of the place to which the cabman persisted in declaring that he had driven "Mrs. Mandeville," set the character and proceedings of that mysterious lady before Pedgift junior in a new light. His personal interest in the inquiry suddenly strength-thing at present."'

CHAPTER V-ALLAN AT BAY.

Two o'clock came; and Pedgift, junior, punctual to his time, came with it. His vivacity of the morning had all sparkled out; he greeted Allan with his customary politeness, but without his customary smile; and when the head waiter came in for orders, his dismissal was instantly pronounced in words never yet heard to issue from the lips of Pedgift in that hotel :-“ No

"You seem to be in low spirits," said Allan. "Can't we get our information? Can nobody tell you anything about the house in Pimlico?"

dreadful necessity of perpetual secrecy and perpetual deceit in relation to her past life-such was the aspect in which the beautiful governess at Thorpe-Ambrose now stood revealed to Allan's

Three different people have told me about it, Mr. Arma-eyes! dale; and they have all three said the same thing."

Falsely revealed, or truly revealed? Had she stolen her way back to decent society, and a reputable employment, by means of a false character? She had. Did her position impose on her the dreadful necessity of perpetual secrecy and perpetual deceit, in relation to her past life? It did. Was she some such pitiable

Allan eagerly drew his chair nearer to the place occupied by his traveling companion. His reflections in the interval since they bad last seen each other, had not tended to compose him. That strange connection, so easy to feel, so hard to trace, between the difficulty of approaching Miss Gwilt's family circum-victim to the treachery of a man unknown as Allan had supstances, and the difficulty of approaching Miss Gwilt's reference, which had already established itself in his thoughts, had by this time stealthily taken a firmer and firmer hold on his mind. Doubts troubled him which he could neither understand nor express. Curiosity filled him which he half longed and half dreaded to satisfy.

"I am afraid I must trouble you with a question or two, sir, before I can come to the point," said Pedgift, junior. "I don't want to force myself into your confidence; I only want to see my way, in what looks to me like a very awkward business. Do you mind telling me whether others beside yourself are interested in this inquiry of ours?

posed? She was no such pitiable victim. The conclusion which Allan had drawn-the conclusion literally forced into bis mind by the facts before him-was, nevertheless, the conclusion of all others that was even furthest from touching on the truth. The true story of Miss Gwilt's connection with the house in Pimlico and the people who inhabited it-a house rightly described as filled with wicke i secrets, and people rightly represented as perpetually in danger of feelin: the grasp of the law -was a story which coming events were yet to disclose: a story infinitely less revolting, and yet infinitely more terrible, than Allan or Allan's companion had either of them supposed. "I tried to spare you, Mr. Armadale," repeated Pergift.

"Other people are interested in it," replied Allan. "There's "I was anxious, if I could possibly avoid it, not to distress no o1jection to telling you that."

"Is the person a young woman, Mr. Armadale ?''

you."

Allan looked up, and made an effort to control bimself. 'You have distressed me dreadfully," he said. "You have quite crushed me down. But it is not your fault. I ought to

"Is there any other person who is the object of the inquiry besides Mrs. Mandeville herself?" pursued Pedgift, winding his way a little deeper into the secret. "Yes; there is another person," said Allan, answering feel you have done me a service--and what I ought to do rather unwillingly. I will do, when I am my own man again. There is one thing," Allan added, after a moment's painful consideration, "which ought to be understood between us at once. The advice you offered me just now was very kindly meant, and it was the best advice that could be given. I will take it gratefully. We will never talk of this again, if you please; and I beg and entreat you will never speak about it to any other person. Will you promise me that?''

Allan started. "How do you come to guess that " he began then checked himself, when it was too late. "Don't ask me any more questions," he resumed. "I'm a bad hand at defending myself against a sharp fellow like you; and I'm bound in honor towards other people to keep the particulars of this business to myself."

Pedgift, junior, had apparently heard enough for his purpose. He drew his chair, in his turn, nearer to Allan. He was evidently anxious and embarrassed—but his professional manner began to show itself again from sheer force of habit.

'I've done with my questions, sir." he said; "and I have something to say now, on my side. In my father's absence, perhaps you may be kindly disposed to consider me as your legal adviser. If you will take my advice, you will not stir another step in this inquiry.'

"What do you mean?' interposed Allan.

Pedgift gave the promise with every evident sincerity, but without his professional confidence of manner. The distress in Allan's face seemed to daunt him. After a moment of very uncharacteristic hesitation, he considerately quitted the room.

Left by himself Allan rang for writing materials, and took out of his pocket-book the fatal letter of introduction to “Mrs. Mandeville," which he had received from the major's wise.

A man accustomed to consider consequences and to prepare himself for action by previous thought would, in Allan's present circumstances, have felt some difficulty as to the course wbich it might now be least embarrassing, and least dangerous to pursue. Accustomed to let his impulses direct him on all other occasions, Allan acted on impulse in the serious emergency that now confronted him. Though his attachment to Miss Gwilt was nothing like the deeply-rooted feeling which he had him. self honestly believed it to be, she had taken no common place

"It is just possible, Mr. Armadale, that the cabman, positive as he is, may have been mistaken. I strongly recommend you to take it for granted that he is mistaken-and to drop it there."' The caution was kindly intended; but it came too late. Allan did what ninety-nine men out of hundred in his position would have done--he declined to take his lawyer's advice "Very well, sir," said Pedgift, junior; "if you will have it, in his admiration, and she filled him with no common grief you must have it.'

He leaned forward close to Allan's ear, and whispered what he had heard of the house in Pimlico, and of the people who occupied it.

"Don't blame me, Mr. Armadale,” he added, when the irrevocable words had been spoken. "I tried to spare you."

Allan suffered the shock, as all great shocks are suffered, in silence. His first impulse would have driven him headlong for refuge to that very view of the cabman's assertion which had just been recommended to him, but for one damning circumstauce which placed itself inexorably in his way. Miss Gwilt's marked reluctance to approach the story of her past life, rose irrepressibly on his memory, in indirect but horrible confirma- | tion of the evidenca which connected Miss Gwilt's reference with the house in Pimlico. One conclusion, and one only-the conclusion which any man must have drawn, hearing what he had just heard, and knowing no more than he knew-forced it self into bis mind. A miserable, fallen woman, who had abandoned herself in her extremity to the help of retches skilled in criminal concealment who had stolen her way back to decent society and a reputable employment, by means of a false character-and whose position now imposed on her the

when he thought of her now. His one dominant desire, at that critical moment in his life, was a man's merciful desire to protect from exposure and ruin the unhappy woman who had lost her place in his estimation, without losing her claim to the forbearance that could spare, and to the compassion that cou'd shield her. “I can't go back to Thorpe- Ambrose ; I can't trust myself to speak to her, or to see her again. But I can keep ber miserable secret-and I will!" With that thought in his heart, Allan set himself to perform the first and foremost duty which now claimed him—the duty of communicating with Mrs. Milroy. If he had possessed a higher mental capacity and a clearer mental view, he might have found the letter no easy one to write. As it was, he calculated no consequences, and felt no difficulty. His instinct warned him to withdraw at once from the position in which he now stood towards the major's wife, and he wrote what his instinct counseled him to write under these circumstances, as rapidly as the pen could travel over the paper :

"Dunn's Hotel, Covent Garden, Tuesday. "DEAR MADAM-Pray excuse my not returning to ThorpeAmbrose to-day, as I said I would. Unforeseen circumstances