Oldham

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Very soon, now, appears, on the south side of the line, the skirts of Oldham town, scattered about the side and summit of a barren slope, with the tower of the parish church, peeping up between the chimneys of the cotton factories behind Oldham Edge. If the traveller can see no fine prospective meaning in the manufacturing system, he will not be delighted with the scene; for the country has a monotonous look, and is bleak and sterile, with hardly anything worthy of the name of a tree to be seen upon it. ”

“ 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 ”

“ But altogether, when London fills me with despair, I often think of Lancashire and am comforted for the future. I think of the people I had tea with at Bacup, all mill-hands, but so refined, gentle and good; and I think of the wonderful development of the civic sense in a town like Oldham, with all its public institutions, its combinations of workpeople for every possible object, and its generally happy and healthy tone. I wish the streets were less ugly, but after all, our climate is hard and drives people indoors three-parts of the year, and the race has very little artistic gift. ”

“ Miss Mead, with a silvery overflow of sound, which somehow pleased, even while it disconcerted, the impulsive man. And then what was he to do? Compassion had impelled Mr. Oldham to this enterprise without much time for thought, but it was, perhaps, the hardest of all his experiences. He sat down, not without some difficulty, in a curiously low chair, which, to his confusion, he found to be a rocking-chair, and held out his arms to the child. “Will you come to me, Charlie?” he said, in his softest voice, blushing fiery red, and feeling as if he never could, by any means, get up again. ”

“ Oldham, though rather beyond middle age, and stout enough to count double, was unmarried, and the best thing that could be done for him was a little room at the end of a long passage projecting in a quaint way over the yard of the inn, just by the side of the archway. The “Angel” is an old house, as everybody knows, and full of expedients to make room ”

“ After all, it maketh but little difference what part of this wilderness a man chooseth. It all seems dismal enough to a body from the old countries."
"Yes," rejoined Mr. Oldham. "I often think of what a witty man at Plymouth once said. Quoth he, `it may be said of the two Englands, as our Saviour said of the wine, "no man having tasted the old straightway desireth the new; for he saith the old is better."
All this while, Mary, who had taken a cross path with Mr. and Mrs. Collier, found means to linger behind, and hear many kind things from Brown. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Go and see No. 341, by William Stott, of Oldham, R.B.A.,—a name that sounds quite Shakspearian, like "Goodman Puff of Barson,"—and give yourself three guesses at what W. S. of Oldham means by it. It represents a very carotty-haired young woman, looking pale as a turnip—"white flesh," as the gardeners say—taking a bathe in the sea when no one is looking, and where police regulations are not in force. She is so tallowy in face and flesh colour, and her hair so flaming red, that the title might be, "A 'Dip' in the Sea." Well, this is William Stott of Oldham's "Venus;" and if you'll turn to No. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The only person who had any real knowledge was silent as death, and kept his hand fast upon his breast-pocket, in which he kept the pocket-book where the name of Miss Mead, Blossoms, Beddington, was treasured up for future use. He was badgered with all sorts of questions, and the truth, a dozen times at least, was on the eve of bursting from his troubled lips. But by a supernatural effort of self-control he restrained himself. If Mr. Oldham had a weakness it was for the feebler and fairer half of humanity. ”

“ It's enough to addle your brains, to try to start to follow back all the ways things happen . . . ways you'd never thought of as of the least importance."
"Your Uncle Burton was of some importance to us," she told him. "Miss Oldham at the pension said that she had just met a new American, down from Genoa, and when I heard your name I said, 'Oh, I used to know an old Mr. Crittenden who ran a wood-working factory up in Vermont, where I used to visit an old cousin of mine,' and that was why Miss Oldham introduced us, that silly way, as cousins." ”

“ This romantic spot being the only place of fashionable resort in the vicinity of the populous town of Oldham, and the unrivalled reputation which it has so long deservedly enjoyed, render it peculiar desirable to any gentleman who may wish to acquire an independency at a trifling risk. ”

“ Oldham looked at the agitated women before him. To give them the address was easy enough, but then how if it got to the ears of the police people, from whom all this time he had been defending the unknown Miss Mead? It was as good as publishing it at once in the papers to give it to these women. Besides, he did not like to let this matter out of his own hands. He could not explain to himself his reluctance about it. Never was a goodnatured man in a greater strait He could not withhold a scrap of comfort, however problematical, from the poor little weeping mother: and what was he to do? ”

“ 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. ”

“ Collier," replied Oldham, "England is no place now-a-days for christian folks to live within. They talk about their reformed church, but I tell you their bishops, their deans, and their deacons, are all whelps from the Roman litter; and tame 'em as you can, the nature of the beast will shew itself. It is a sad pity that king Charles (I mean no disrespect to his majesty) should suffer those black coats from the ninneversities to get upon his royal back---I trow they'll ride him to destruction. But, as I was saying, England is full of malignant enemies to the true faith ”

“ For two years white settlers moved into Connecticut, and took up farms in the most fertile places. But the Indians were soon unfriendly. An Englishman named Oldham, who had been trading in Connecticut, was murdered by a party of Block Island braves, several of whom were said—by the frontier settlers—to have taken refuge among the Pequots, who gave them ample protection. When the Governor of Massachusetts heard of this, he was exceedingly wroth, for Oldham was a resident of Dorchester and was a friend of his. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Lovell.—Upon my word, Oldham—
Oldham.—There you, fly out again now; it's impossible to do any thing with a youngster unless he has a tractable disposition. Here now, as I said, is Cherbourg,—here Portsmouth,—this little streak that I draw with my finger, the Channel. Jersey is somewhere there by the devilled biscuits; dy'e understand, Lovell?
Lovell.—Thank you, I do.
Oldham.—Good. Then this is our coast well manned, throughout its length, with troops: steady tried troops, mind, none of your gaping, staring boys:—well protected. ”

“ Of all the fugitive writers on the Protestant side who contributed to foment the agitation produced by the revelations of Titus Oates, Oldham is the ablest and boldest. He is not merely the most honest representative of the spirit that actuated his party, at a period when the kingdom was convulsed by religious feuds, but the only one whose works, addressed to the passions of the hour, are worth reproduction. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”