Complete Novels of Maria Edgeworth

by Maria Edgeworth

  “I have answered, I hope, both distinctly and respectfully, all the questions that you have asked me,” said Forester, turning to Mr. W —— . “I hope you will no longer keep me in the dark. Of what am I suspected?” “I will tell you, sir,” replied the deliberate, unfeeling magistrate; “you are suspected of having, I will not say stolen, but you are more than suspected of having come unfairly by a certain ten-guinea bank-note, which the young gentleman who has just left the room lost a few months ago.” Forester, as this speech was slowly pronounced, sat down, folded his arms, and appeared totally insensible — quite unconscious that he was in the presence of a magistrate, or that any human being was observing him. “Ah, mon cher monsieur, pardonnez!” cried Pasgrave, bursting into tears. “N’en parlons plus,” added he, turning to the magistrate. “Je payerai tout ce qu’il faut. I will pay de ten guineas. I will satisfy every body. I cannot never forgive myself if I bring him into any disgrace.” “Disgrace!” exclaimed Forester, starting up, and repeating the word in a tone which made every person in the room, not excepting the phlegmatic magistrate, start and look up to him, with a sudden feeling of inferiority. His ardent eye spoke the language of his soul. No words could express his emotion. The master-tailor dropped his day-book. “Constable — call a constable!” cried the justice. “Sir, you forget in whose presence you are — you think, I suppose, that your friends, the Campbells, will bear you out. Sir, I would have you to know that all the Campbells in Scotland can’t bail you for a felony. Sir, philosophers should know these things. If you cannot clear yourself to my entire satisfaction, Mr. Forester, I shall commit you — in one word — to gaol: yes — look as you please, sir — to gaol. And if the doctor and his son, and all his family, come up to bail you, I shall, meo periculo, refuse their bail. The law, sir, is no respecter of persons. So none of your rhodomontades, young gentleman, in my presence; but step into this closet, if you please; and, I advise you, bring your mind into a becoming temperament, whilst I go to dinner. Gentlemen,” continued he to Macpherson and Pasgrave, “you’ll be so good to wait here in this apartment. Constable, look to your prisoner,” pointing to the door of the closet. “John, let me know when Dr. Campbell arrives; and tell them to send up dinner directly,” said the justice to his butler.

  Whilst he dines, we must leave the tailor complaining that he was wasting precious time; the foreman in the panic of guilt; and the good-natured dancing-master half distracted betwixt his fears and his ignorance. He looked from time to time through the key-hole of the closet in which Forester was confined, and exclaimed, “Grand Dieu! comme il a l’air noble à cet instant! Ah! lui coupable! he go to gaol! it is impossible!”

  “We shall see how that will be presently,” said the foreman, who had hitherto preserved absolute silence. “I abide by my books,” said the master-tailor; “and I wish Dr. Campbell would make haste. I have lost a day!”

  In spite of the tailor’s imperial exclamation, he was obliged to wait some time longer. When Mackenzie arrived at Dr. Campbell’s, Henry was not at home: he was gone to the house at the back of the meadows, to prepare some chemical experiments for the next day’s lecture. Mackenzie, however, found Dr. Campbell at home in his study; and, in a soft hypocritical voice, lamented that he was obliged to communicate some disagreeable circumstances relating to young Mr. Forester. “You do not, I presume, know where that unfortunate, misguided youth is at present — at this moment, I mean.” “I do not know where he is at this moment,” said Dr. Campbell, calmly; “but I know where he has been for some time — at Mr. — —’s, the bookseller. I have had my eye upon him ever since he left this house. I have traced him from place to place. Though I have said little about him, Mr. Mackenzie, I have a great regard for my unfortunate ward.” “I am sorry for it, sir,” said Mackenzie: “I fear I must wound your feelings the more deeply.” “What is the matter? pray speak at once,” cried Dr. Campbell, who now forgot all his usual calmness. “Where is Forester?” “He is at this moment before Mr. W —— , the magistrate, sir, charged with — but, I own, I cannot believe him guilty—” “Charged with what? For God’s sake, speak plainly, Mr. Mackenzie!” “Then, in one word, sir, my lost bank-note is traced home to Mr. Forester. M. Pasgrave says he received it from him.” “Surely, sir,” said Dr. Campbell, with indignation, “you would not insinuate that Forester has stolen your bank-note?” “I insinuate nothing, doctor,” said Archibald; “but, I fear, the thing is too plainly proved. My bank-note has certain stains, by which it has been identified. All that I know is, that Mr. W —— says he can take no bail; and that he must commit Mr. Forester to gaol, unless he can clear himself. He says, that a few days before he left your house, you paid him his quarterly allowance of fifty guineas, in five ten-guinea bank-notes.” “He says true — I did so,” said Dr. Campbell eagerly. “And he says that you gave them to him wrapped in a piece of paper, on which the numbers of the notes were written.” “I remember it distinctly: I desired him to take care of that paper.” “He is not famous for taking care, you know, sir, of any thing. He says, he believes he threw it into his trunk; but he has lost the key of the trunk, I understand.” “No matter; we can break it open this instant, and search for the paper,” cried Dr. Campbell, who was now extremely alarmed for his ward. Mackenzie stood by without offering any assistance, whilst Dr. Campbell broke open the trunk, and searched it with the greatest anxiety. It was in terrible disorder. The coat and waistcoat which Forester wore at the ball were crammed in at the top; and underneath appeared unfolded linen, books, boots, maps, shoes, cravats, fossils, and heaps of little rumpled bits of paper, in which the fossils had once been contained. Dr. Campbell opened every one of these. The paper he wanted was not amongst them. He took every thing out of the box, shook and searched all the pockets of the coat, in which Forester used, before his reformation, to keep hoards of strange papers. No list of bank-notes appeared. At length, Dr. Campbell espied the white corner of a paper-mark in a volume of Goldsmith’s Animated Nature, He pulled out this mark, and to his great joy, he found it to be the very paper he wanted. “So it’s found, is it?” said Mackenzie, disappointed; whilst Dr. Campbell seized his hat, left every thing upon the floor, and was very near locking the door of the room upon Mackenzie. “Don’t lock me in here, doctor — I am going back with you to Mr. W — —’s” said Arcibald. “Won’t you stay? dinner’s going up — Mr. W —— was going this dinner when I came away.” Without listening to him, Dr. Campbell just let him out, locked the door, and hurried away to his poor ward.

  “I have let things go to far,” said he to himself. “As long as Forester’s credit was not in danger, as long as he was unknown, it was very well; but now his character is at stake; he may pay too dear for his experience.”

  “Dr. Campbell,” said the pompous magistrate, who hated philosophers, rising from table as Dr. Campbell entered, “do not speak to me of bailing this ward of yours — it is impossible, sir; I know my duty.” “I am not come to offer bail for my ward,” said Dr. Campbell, “but to prove his innocence.” “We must hope the best,” said Mr. W —— ; and, having forced the doctor to pledge him in a bumper of port, “Now I am ready to proceed again to the examination of all parties concerned.”

  Dr. Campbell was now shown into the room where Mr. Macpherson, his foreman and Pasgrave, were waiting. “Ah, monsieur, Dieu merci, vous voila!” exclaimed Pasgrave. “You may go,” said Mr. W —— to the constable: “but wait below stairs.” He unlocked the closet-door. Forester, at the sight of Dr. Campbell, covered his face with his hands; but, an instant afterwards, advanced with intrepidity. “You cannot, I am sure, believe me to be guilty of any meanness, Dr. Campbell,” said he. “Imprudent I have been, and I suffer for my folly.” “Guilty!” cried Dr. Campbell; “no: I could almost as soon suspect my own son of such an action. But my belief is nothing to the purpose. We must prove your innocence.” “Ah, oui, monsieur — and mine too; for I am innocent, I can assure you,” cried M. Pasgrave.

  “The whole business,
sir,” said the banker’s clerk, who had, by this time, returned to hear the termination of the affair—”the whole thing can be settled in two minutes, by a gentleman like you, who understands business. Mr. Forester cannot recollect the number or the firm of a ten-guinea bank-note which he gave to M. Pasgrave. M. Pasgrave cannot recollect either; and he is in doubt whether he received this stained note, which Mr. Mackenzie lost, from Mr. Forester or from Mr. Macpherson, the tailor.” “There can be no doubt about me,” said Macpherson. “Dr. Campbell, will you be so good to look at the entry? I acknowledge, I gave M. Pasgrave a ten-guinea note; but here’s the number of it, 177, of Forbes’s bank. Mr. Mackenzie’s note, you see, is of the bank of Scotland; and the stains upon it are so remarkable, that, if I had ever seen it before, I should certainly remember it. I’ll take my oath I never saw it before.” “Sir,” said Forester eagerly to Dr. Campbell, “you gave me five ten-guinea notes: here are four of them in this pocket-book; the fifth I gave to M. Pasgrave. Can you tell me the number of that note?” “I can,” said Dr. Campbell, producing the paper which he found in Goldsmith’s Animated Nature. “I had the precaution to write down the numbers of all your notes myself: here they are.” Forester opened his pocket-book: his four remaining notes were compared, and perfectly agreed with the numbers in the list. The fifth, the number of the note which he gave to Pasgrave, was 1260, of the New Bank. “One of your ten-guinea notes,” said Dr. Campbell to Pasgrave, “you paid into the bank of Scotland; and this gentleman,” pointing to the banker’s clerk, “stopped it this morning. Now you have had another ten-guinea note; what became of that?” Pasgrave, who understood Dr. Campbell’s plain method of questioning him, answered immediately, “I did give the other to my hair-dresser, not long ago, who lives in —— street.” Dr. Campbell instantly went himself to the hair-dresser, found that he had the note still in his possession, brought him to Mr. W — —’s, and, when the note was examined, it was found to be 1260 of the New Bank, which exactly corresponded with the entry in the list of notes which Dr. Campbell had produced.

  “Then all is right,” said Dr. Campbell. “Ah, oui! — Ah, non!” exclaimed Pasgrave. “What will become of me?” “Compose yourself, my good sir,” said Dr. Campbell. “You had but two ten-guinea notes, you are sure of that?” “But two — but two: I will swear but two.” “You are now certain which of these two notes you had from my ward. The other, you say, you received from — —” “From dis gentleman, I will swear,” cried Pasgrave, pulling the tailor’s foreman forwards. “I can swear now I am in no embarras: I am sure I did get de oder note from dis gentleman.” The master-tailor was astonished to see all the pallid marks of guilt in his foreman’s countenance. “Did you change the note that I gave you in the inner room?” said Mr. Macpherson. The foreman, as soon as he could command his voice, denied the charge; and persisted in it that he gave the note and change, which his master wrapped up, exactly as it was, to the dancing-master. Dr. Campbell proposed that the tailor’s shop, and the foreman’s room, should be searched. Mr. W —— sent proper people to Mr. Macpherson’s; and whilst they are searching his house, we may inquire what has become of Henry Campbell.

  THE CATASTROPHE.

  Henry Campbell, the last time we heard of him, was at the house at the back of the meadows. When he went into the large room to his chemical experiments, the little girl, who was proud of having arranged it neatly, ran on before him, and showed him the places where all his things were put. “The writing and the figures are not rubbed off your slate — there it is, sir,” said she, pointing to a high shelf. “But whose handkerchief is this?” said Henry, taking up a handkerchief which was under the slate. “Gracious! that must be the good gentleman’s handkerchief; he missed it just as he was going out of the house. He thought he had left it at the washerwoman’s, where I met him; and he’s gone back to look for it there. I’ll run with it to the washerwoman’s, — maybe she knows where to find him.” “But you have not told me who he is. Whom do you mean by the good gentleman?” “The good gentleman, sir, that I saw with you at the watchmaker’s, the day that you helped me to carry the great geranium out of my grandmother’s room.” “Do you mean that Forester has been here?” exclaimed Henry. “I never heard his name, sir; but I mean that the gentleman has been here, whom I call the good gentleman, because it was he who went with me to my cross schoolmistress, to try to persuade her to use me well. She beat me, to be sure, after he was gone, for what he had said; but I’m not the less obliged to him, because he did every thing as he thought for the best. And so I’ll run with his handkerchief to the woman’s, who will give it safe to him.”

  Henry recollected his promise to his father. It required all his power over himself to forbear questioning the child, and endeavouring to find out something more of his friend. He determined to mention the circumstance to his father, and to Flora, as soon as he returned home. He was always impatient to tell any thing to his sister that interested himself or his friends; for Flora’s gaiety was not of that unfeeling sort which seeks merely for amusement, and which, unmixed with sympathy for others, may divert in a companion, but disgusts in a friend.

  Whilst Henry was reflecting upon the manner in which he might most expeditiously arrange his chemical experiments and return home, the little girl came running back, with a face of great distress. As soon as she had breath to speak, she told Henry that when she went to the washerwoman’s with the handkerchief, she was told a sad piece of news; that Mr. Forester had been taken up, and carried before Mr. W —— , the magistrate. “We don’t know what he has done: I’m sure I don’t think he can have done any thing wrong.” Henry no sooner heard these words than he left all his retorts, rushed out of the house, hurried home to his father, and learned from Flora, with great surprise, that his father had already been sent for, and was gone to Mr. W — —’s. She did not know the circumstances that Mackenzie related to Dr. Campbell, but she told him that her father seemed much alarmed; that she met him crossing the hall, and that he could not stop to speak to her. Henry proceeded directly to Mr. W — —’s, and he arrived there just as the people returned from the search of the tailor’s house. His opinion of Forester’s innocence was so strong, that when he entered the room, he instantly walked up to him, and embraced him, with a species of frank confidence in his manner which, to Forester, was more expressive than any thing that he could have said. The whole affair was quickly explained to him; and the people who had been sent to Mr. Macpherson’s now came up-stairs to Mr. W —— , and produced a ten-guinea bank-note, which was found in the foreman’s box. Upon examination, this note was discovered to be the very note which Mr. Macpherson sent with the change to Pasgrave. It was No. 177, of Sir William Forbes’s bank, as mentioned in the circumstantial entry in the day-book. The joy of the poor dancing-master at this complete proof of his innocence was rapturous and voluble. Secure of the sympathy of Forester, Henry, and Dr. Campbell, he looked at them by turns, whilst he congratulated himself upon this “éclaircissement,” and assured the banker’s clerk that he would in future keep accounts. We are impatient to get rid of the guilty foreman: he stood a horrible image of despair. He was committed to gaol; and was carried away by the constables, without being pitied by any person present. Every body, however, was shocked. Mackenzie broke silence first, by exclaiming, “Well, now, I presume, Mr. W —— , I may take possession of my bank-note again.” He took up all the notes which lay upon the table to search amongst them for his own. “Mine, you know, is stained,” said Archibald. “But it is very singular,” said Henry Campbell, who was looking over his shoulder, “that here are two stained notes. That which was found in the foreman’s box is stained in one corner, exactly as yours was stained, Mr. Mackenzie.” Macpherson, the tailor, now stooped to examine it. “Is this No. 177, the note that I sent in change, by my foreman, to M. Pasgrave? I’ll take my oath it was not stained in that manner when I took it out of my desk. It was a new and quite clean note: it must have been stained since.” “And it must have
been stained with vitriolic acid,” continued Henry. “Ay, there’s cunning for you,” cried Archibald. “The foreman, I suppose, stained it, that it might not be known again.” “Have you any vitriolic acid in your house?” pursued Henry, addressing himself to the master-tailor. “Not I, indeed, sir; we have nothing to do with such things. They’d be very dangerous to us.” “Pray,” said Henry, “will you give me leave, Mr. W —— , to ask the person who searched the foreman’s box a few questions?” “Certainly sir,” said Mr. W —— ; “though, I protest, I cannot see what you are driving at.” Henry inquired what was found in the box with the bank-note. The man who searched it enumerated a variety of things. “None of these,” said Henry, “could have stained the note: are you sure that there was nothing else?” “Nothing in the world; nothing but an old glass stopper, I believe.” “I wish I could see that stopper,” said Henry. “This note was rolled round it,” said the man: “but I threw it into the box again. I’ll go and fetch it, sir, if you have any curiosity to see it.” “Curiosity to see an old stopper? No!” cried Archibald Mackenzie, with a forced laugh; “what good would that do us? We have been kept here long enough. I move that we go home to our dinners.” But Dr. Campbell, who saw that Henry had some particular reason for wishing to see this glass stopper, seconded his son. The man went for it; and when he brought it into the room, Henry Campbell looked at it very carefully, and then decidedly said, fixing his eyes upon Archibald Mackenzie, who in vain struggled to keep his countenance from changing. “This glass stopper, Mr. Mackenzie, is the stopper of my father’s vitriolic acid bottle, that was broken the night the cat was killed. This stopper has stained both the bank-notes. And it must have been in the pocket of your waistcoat.” “My pocket!” interrupted Archibald: “how should it come into my pocket? It never was in my pocket, sir.” Henry pointed to the stain on his waistcoat. He wore the very waistcoat in question. “Sir,” said Archibald, “I don’t know what you mean by pointing at my waistcoat. It is stained, it is true, and very likely by vitriolic acid; but, as I have been so often in the doctor’s laboratory, when your chemical experiments have been going on, is it not very natural to suppose that a drop of one of the acids might have fallen on my clothes? I have seen your waistcoats stained, I am sure. Really, Mr. Campbell, you are unfriendly, uncharitable; your partiality for Mr. Forester should not blind you, surely. I know you want to exculpate him from having any hand in the death of that cat: but that should not, my dear sir, make you forget what is due to justice. You should not, permit me to say, endeavour to criminate an innocent person.” “This is all very fine,” said Henry; “and you may prove your innocence to me at once, Mr. Mackenzie, if you think proper, by showing that the waistcoat was really, as you assert, stained by a drop of vitriolic acid falling upon the outside of it. Will you show us the inside of the pocket?” Mackenzie, who was now in too much confusion to know distinctly what Henry meant to prove, turned the pocket inside out, and repeated, “That stopper was never in my pocket, I’ll swear.” “Don’t swear to that, for God’s sake,” said Henry. “Consider what you are saying. You see that there is a hole burnt in this pocket. Now if a drop of acid had fallen, as you said, upon the outside of the waistcoat, it must have been more burnt on the outside than on the inside.” “I don’t know — I can’t pretend to be positive,” said Archibald; “but what signifies all this rout about the stopper?” “It signifies a great deal to me,” said Dr. Campbell, turning away from Mackenzie with contempt, and addressing himself to his ward, who met his approving eye with proud delight—”it signifies a great deal to me. Forgive me, Mr. Forester, for having doubted your word for a moment.” Forester held his guardian’s hand, without being able for some instants to reply. “You are coming home with us, Forester?” said Henry. “No,” said Dr. Campbell, smiling; “you must not ask him to come home with us to-night. We have a little dance at our house to-night. Lady Catherine Mackenzie wished to take leave of her Edinburgh friends. She goes from us to-morrow. We must not expect to see Forester at a ball; but to-morrow morning—” “I see,” said Forester, smiling, “you have no faith in my reformation. Well, I have affairs to settle with my master, the printer. I must go home, and take leave of him. He has been a good master to me; and I must go and finish my task of correcting. Adieu.” He abruptly left Dr. Campbell and Henry, and went to the bookseller’s, to inform him of all that had passed, and to thank him for his kindness. “You will be at a loss to-morrow for a corrector of the press,” said he. “I am determined you shall not suffer for my vagaries. Send home the proof-sheets of the work in hand to me, at Dr. Campbell’s, and I will return them to you punctually corrected. Employ me till you have provided yourself with another, I will not say a better hand. I do not imagine,” continued Forester, “that I can pay you for your kindness to me by presents; indeed, I know you are in such circumstances that you disdain money. But I hope you will accept of a small mark of my regard — a complete font of new types.”