Mrs. Oliphant

“ Oldham had he himself been five-and-twenty, but even by heroes of that tender age, the soft old loveliness of Miss Mead had been found very attractive; not that she pretended to any sort of juvenility—rather the reverse, in fact—but she had a perception of the things and colours that became her, such as most pretty women attain to, after their youth is over, even if the knowledge does not come by nature. ”

“ Whatever they might happen to be, they were women, and a man owed it to himself to look as respectable as possible in presence of such visitors. When he had seated himself in his library after breakfast to wait for them, he bethought himself of the address in his pocket-book, and taking it out read it over. Miss Mead, Blossoms, Beddington—a fragrant, honeyed name, the very sound of which would beguile the bees and butterflies,—could it be she who was coming to see him, and if it was, what could she want? ”

“ But then who was the woman in the omnibus last night?—He knew nobody at Chester, and to be sure that kind of woman was a common enough sight both in town and country, a woman in an indescribable shawl, which had been all sorts of colours, and was now no colour at all, and a thick veil on a shabby bonnet. Not the sort of person to awaken curiosity in the most susceptible bosom. Mr. Oldham established himself in his comer with a little pleasurable excitement, and forgot his momentary sensation of wonder. ”

“ He looked all about, and made his way upstairs trying to find her; finally he called the landlord to pursue his inquiries, and finding them vain, settled himself to wait; feeling more baffled, circumvented, alarmed, and disrespectable than ever man did before. But he could not renew the irritating conversation. She had escaped him somehow, he could not tell by what means; and the unlucky witness of Jasper Tyrrel’s death was left alone in the country inn, nobody being able to tell him anything about this woman in the veil, or about any man with a peculiar voice. ”

“ Miss Mead, Blossoms, was still looking at him with lively female curiosity, making him out. The eyes of the stout but perplexed Quixote fell embarrassed before her amused inspection. He got up after two or three unsuccessful efforts, from the treacherous little rocking-chair. “To tell the truth, I don’t understand babies,” said Mr. Oldham, with a sigh of perplexity—and Miss Mead, whose curiosity grew upon her, carried him off to The Blossoms to luncheon, with an amount of amusement which it took all her good-breeding to repress. ”

“ There’s something about an innocent child that has to be kept out of wicked hands, and you ask me what business it is of mine. What business is it of any man’s to stop wickedness? Here’s a virtuous woman and an innocent child—”
“The man’s mad,” cried his friend. “You know no more about the business than little Jack Horner. What is Miss Mead, Blossoms, to you? Give it up to the police, and come to dinner. If you go on like this you’ll carve out business for yourself for all the rest of your life.”
“Upon my word, I think you’re very rash, Oldham,” said another. ”

“ He glanced over at the little man in the cravat, and it occurred to him that the sharp eyes looked as if they were listening; accordingly he drew out his pocket-book, opened it slowly, found the page, and after pondering over it for a moment, tore out the portion which contained Miss Mead’s address. “There,” said Mr. Oldham, not without a sensation of timidity—“that is the lady’s name.”
His companion put up a double eyeglass, shaking back her pretty grey ringlets with the smile of half-conscious fascination which never forsakes a woman who has been a beauty in her youth. ”

“ Oldham went down to Chester by the express train that night. Anxious as he was to fulfil his charitable mission, and not without a thrill of curiosity which was purely personal, a man who weighs seventeen stone owes some duties to himself which must not be neglected. When he got so far on his journey, he felt it necessary to pause and refresh himself; not to say that to land at Beddington, where perhaps, for anything Mr. Oldham knew, there was no inn, at midnight, would have been an unprofitable proceeding. ”

“ A man of your size requires to be cautious. You have got a very queer colour already, I can tell you. You’ll have to take care of yourself in this hot weather—and don’t, for Heaven’s sake, drink, when you’re in that heated condition, such great draughts of beer.”
“Poor dear Mr. Oldham is so public-spirited: it’s such a pity he’s so delicate,” said Fanny, with a sunny glance of intelligence to one of those light young fellows who had made the best of his opportunity, and thrown poor Oldham into the shade. ”

“ When Mr. Oldham, not to be uncivil, turned again to speak to the person who sat next him, the terrified eyes looked relieved, but did not cease to watch. Who could it be? Dinner was barely over before Mr. Oldham, pausing in the midst of a sentence, said “Hallo!” softly to himself. He had found it out;—it was the man with the cravat, who had travelled with Miss Mead and himself to Beddington. He jumped at the second step of this discovery when he concluded that this was Sir Joseph Lambert, and that possibly here might be a means of hearing of the poor little child. ”

“ The poor little widow, whose veil always dropped over her frightened face and had to be put back, again clasped her hands in supplication. Mr. Oldham was much moved—he did not know what to say.
“I will tell you all I heard, but that was not much,” he said. “The murderer said, ‘Give up the address—tell me where the child, is’—and the man who was killed refused. Perhaps, on the whole,” said Mr. Oldham with candour, “it is wrong to say the murderer, for it might be only manslaughter. ”

“ A woman is no longer afraid of any troublesome results following a chance gaze of admiration when she is over forty: and this, Mr. Oldham thought, was clearly a very sweet woman, careful of other people’s feelings. He picked up her parasol for her with anxious zeal, and recovering himself, with a little curiosity to know where she was going, asked what was the name of the next station, and could she tell him when they would reach Beddington? ”

“ It’s not so pleasant to help to hang a man, I can tell you, whatever you may think of the ‘ends of justice.’ What is this new aggravation you have got into now? Something you’ve found in the poor fellow’s pockets? But what in the name of common-sense had you to do with that!”
Once more the lines of Mr. Oldham’s face grew limp and haggard. He unfolded and spread out in his hand the villanous scrap of paper, on which was written in pencil in the scrawling handwriting of an uneducated person, the name of Miss Mead, Blossoms, Beddington. ”

“ She was eagerly inspecting a quantity of trifling matters which had been taken from the poor fellow’s pockets, examining particularly every scrap of paper, with intense stealthy curiosity. Mr. Oldham thought he saw a gleam of disappointment in her face. “You don’t find what you’re looking for?” he said.
The woman looked up and made him a defiant curtsey. “I’d have been disappointed if I’d looked for anything particular,” she said; “but I knew Jasper, poor soul! too well for that. Nothing as would bring a shilling; he never knew how to buy a sensible article in his life. ”

“ Mr. Oldham said to himself, and he heaved a decorous sigh at the recollection of Fanny Maidstone. But on the whole it must be allowed he had no particular wish that it had never happened. He took out his pocket-book before he went to bed, and read the name of the lady he was going to see, not without a smile of expectation. Miss Mead, Blossoms; after all, if she should happen to be five-and-twenty, and pretty?—Mr. Oldham tucked himself into the comfortable bed that awaited him, and went to sleep with a smile. ”

“ Mr. Oldham appealed to the guard, and insisted upon getting in. “I want to smoke my cigar,” said the unfortunate man, who never could smoke a cigar in his life. “Don’t allow smoking in the carriages,” said that functionary, “plenty of room, sir, in the next compartment” The precious moments ran on, while Mr. Oldham in his bridal costume stood at the door of the carriage which all the occupants by a simultaneous impulse were defending. He grew excited about it, like a true Englishman. ”

“ Instead of the eager welcome he had met with out of doors, his friends, who already knew the story, received him with great indifference: and did their best, as friends should, to pour cold water on his excitement and lessen his self-importance. “Had I been you, Oldham, I’d have kept very quiet about it,” said one: “it’s unpleasant to have anything to do with a murder: ten to one but the popular voice a dozen years after this, when the story is told, makes you out as the culprit” “And not to speak of that,” said another, “think of all the confounded bore! ”

“ He leaned his arm upon the table, and bent over, looking into the new-comer’s face.
“When you did me the honour to travel with me to Beddington, did you find what you wanted, Sir Joseph?” said Mr. Oldham. “I recognised you as soon as I saw you. You found what you sought, did you not?” The pursuer fixed his eyes upon the man he suspected with a scrutiny which was felt all over the table, felt so strongly that the very fact made a diversion in favour of the suspected. ”

“ I have some lads watching at the railway. It must be to look for the child, of course, that they have come here.”
“And I suppose you’ve been to Jenny Brown and warned her!—No?—then you’d much better go directly,” said Miss Mead. “Come with me, I will show you the nearest way.”
“But oh, Auntie! don’t leave us. Think, how are we to go up the avenue by ourselves when there is such a wretch about?” cried one of the girls. Mr. Oldham’s soft heart was moved by the voice of distress. ”

“ Oldham, with a groan; and notwithstanding her gratitude, Miss Mead laughed at the inferior creature in the depths of its perplexity.
“We must not do anything rashly,” she said, with the pleasantest look of wisdom in her mirth. “Jenny was paid three months in advance, and the time is just up, she tells me. I will write to the agent in Chester, and inquire about it. She could not give the baby up to you, you know, at a moment’s notice, even if you understood about babies;” and she wound up with a laugh which did not sound at all like ridicule to Mr. Oldham’s anxious ears. ”

“ Oldham rose very materially in the estimation of the general company, as a man who successfully manages to conceal what he is thinking or feeling generally does in English society. His friends paid him much additional deference that night, because they were all tolerably sure that he had the name of Miss Mead, Blossoms, Beddington, laid up safely somewhere, and did not mean to expose that unknown woman to the cross-examinations of law. ”

“ When he got back with the wine, she was tying her bonnet-strings again and preparing to depart “I am sure we are very much obliged to you,” said the cheerful sister, whose ruddy countenance was overcast in sympathy. “Ellen, dear, say so yourself;—and sorry to have given you so much trouble: but you see it’s her only child—and she came back from Pau all this way when she saw it in the papers about there being a child mentioned. Poor dear! Don’t fret, Ellen darling, you’ll find him yet; a child can’t be hidden away like a watch or apiece of money—and I am sure, sir, we are much obliged to you.” ”

“ Oldham’s confusion was such, that, had she been a sensible woman whom he addressed, she might have passed on with perfect freedom, and left him totally unenlightened; but she was not a sensible woman, and she could not resist the opportunity.
“Who do you suppose I could meet on Beddington Common, if it were not a madman like yourself!” she said, with a sneer. “Do you go all over the country asking everybody if they’ve heard a voice! I haven't heard no voice but your own, and I’ve heard it afore, and it ain't pleasant.” ”

“ Oldham departed on a visit which he had suddenly engaged to make, not because the house was one which attracted him much, or the company entirely to his mind, but because it happened to be in Cheshire, and would afford a very good and sufficient excuse for a run to Beddington. He went off in good spirits, pleased with his prospects, and secretly assuring himself that before he came back it was possible——. The house he was going to was a great country-house, where a large party had assembled—its owner was a hospitable, profuse man, who invited everybody who came in his way ”

“ The man whom Mr. Oldham addressed thus confidentially was of course a bagman, and knew nobody but the Waiters at the “Star,” and the shopkeepers who gave him orders; and Mr. Oldham naturally proceeded to inform the company that he, too, was quite ignorant of the country, and knew nobody thereabout. There was a woman sitting by the door of the omnibus whom he did not notice much, one of those wrapped-up stealthy figures, in a faded shawl and gauze veil, which are to be seen everywhere. ”

“ The railway station was a beleaguered fortress, through which not a traveller passed except under the strictest scrutiny; and every horse and vehicle within five miles of Beddington was laid under embargo before bedtime, that is, before the ordinary bedtime of the village, for nobody dreamed of retiring to rest that night. Mr. Oldham telegraphed up to London for all kinds of people; be sent to his friend Coleman for a detective officer, and sent a separate message at the same time to Scotland Yard. ”