She looked at the title.`Is it written by a man or a woman, miss? If it's written by a woman, I had rather not read it on that account.If it's written by a man, I beg to inform him that he knows nothing about it.'
She handed me back the tract, and opened the door.We must sow the good seed somehow.I waited till the door was shut on me, and slipped the tract into the letter-box.When I had dropped another tract through the area railings, I felt relieved, in some small degree, of a heavy responsibility towards others.
We had a meeting that evening of the Select Committee of the Mothers'-Small-Clothes-Conversion-Society.
The object of this excellent Charity is--as all serious people know--to rescue unredeemed fathers' trousers from the pawnbroker, and to prevent their resumption, on the part of the irreclaimable parent, by abridging them immediately to suit the proportions of the innocent son.I was a member, at that time, of the select committee; and I mention the Society here, because my precious and admirable friend, Mr.Godfrey Ablewhite, was associated with our work of moral and material usefulness.I had expected to see him in the board-room, on the Monday evening of which I am now writing, and had proposed to tell him, when we met, of dear Aunt Verinder's arrival in London.To my great disappointment he never appeared.On my expressing a feeling of surprise at his absence, my sisters of the Committee all looked up together from their trousers (we had a great pressure of business that night), and asked in amazement, if I had not heard the news.I acknowledged my ignorance, and was then told, for the first time, of an event which forms, so to speak, the starting-point of this narrative.On the previous Friday, two gentlemen--occupying widely different positions in society--had been the victims of an outrage which had startled all London.One of the gentlemen was Mr.Septimus Luker, of Lambeth.The other was Mr.Godfrey Ablewhite.
Living in my present isolation, I have no means of introducing the newspaper account of the outrage into my narrative.I was also deprived, at the time, of the inestimable advantage of hearing the events related by the fervid eloquence of Mr.Godfrey Able-white.All I can do is to state the facts as they were stated, on that Monday evening, to me; proceeding on the plan which I have been taught from infancy to adopt in folding up my clothes.
Everything shall be put neatly, and everything shall be put in its place.
These lines are written by a poor weak woman.From a poor weak woman who will be cruel enough to expect more?
The date--thanks to my dear parents, no dictionary that ever was written can be more particular than I am about dates--was Friday, June 30th, 1848.
Early on that memorable day, our gifted Mr.Godfrey happened to be cashing a cheque at a banking-house in Lombard Street.The name of the firm is accidentally blotted in my diary, and my sacred regard for truth forbids me to hazard a guess in a matter of this kind.Fortunately, the name of the firm doesn't matter.What does matter is a circumstance that occurred when Mr.Godfrey had transacted his business.On gaining the door, he encountered a gentleman--a perfect stranger to him--who was accidentally leaving the office exactly at the same time as himself.A momentary contest of politeness ensued between them as to who should be the first to pass through the door of the bank.The stranger insisted on making Mr.Godfrey precede him; Mr.
Godfrey said a few civil words; they bowed, and parted in the street.
Thoughtless and superficial people may say, Here is surely a very trumpery little incident related in an absurdly circumstantial manner.Oh, my young friends and fellow-sinners! beware of presuming to exercise your poor carnal reason.Oh, be morally tidy.Let your faith be as your stockings, and your stockings as your faith.Both ever spotless, and both ready to put on at a moment's notice!
I beg a thousand pardons.I have fallen insensibly into my Sunday-school style.Most inappropriate in such a record as this.Let me try to be worldly--let me say that trifles, in this case as in many others, led to terrible results.
Merely premising that the polite stranger was Mr.Luker, of Lambeth, we will now follow Mr.Godfrey home to his residence at Kilburn.
He found waiting for him, in the hall, a poorly clad but delicate and interesting-looking little boy.The boy handed him a letter, merely mentioning that he had been entrusted with it by an old lady whom he did not know, and who had given him no instructions to wait for an answer.Such incidents as these were not uncommon in Mr.Godfrey's large experience as a promoter of public charities.He let the boy go, and opened the letter.
The handwriting was entirely unfamiliar to him.It requested his attendance, within an hour's time, at a house in Northumberland Street, Strand, which he had never had occasion to enter before.The object sought was to obtain from the worthy manager certain details on the subject of the Mothers'-Small-Clothes-Conversion-Society, and the information was wanted by an elderly lady who proposed adding largely to the resources of the charity, if her questions were met by satisfactory replies.She mentioned her name, and she added that the shortness of her stay in London prevented her from giving any longer notice to the eminent philanthropist whom she addressed.
Ordinary people might have hesitated before setting aside their own engagements to suit the convenience of a stranger.The Christian hero never hesitates where good is to be done.Mr.Godfrey instantly turned back, and proceeded to the house in Northumberland Street.A most respectable though somewhat corpulent man answered the door, and, on hearing Mr.Godfrey's name, immediately conducted him into an empty apartment at the back, on the drawing-room floor.He noticed two unusual things on entering the room.
