Benjulia’s servants had but a dull time of it, poor souls, in the lonely house. Towards the end of December, they subscribed among themselves to buy one of those wonderful Christmas Numbers — presenting year after year the same large-eyed ladies, long-legged lovers, corpulent children, snow landscapes, and gluttonous merry-makings — which have become a national institution: say, the pictorial plum puddings of the English nation.
The servants had plenty of time to enjoy their genial newspaper, before the dining-room bell disturbed them.
For some weeks past, the master had again begun to spend the whole of his time in the mysterious laboratory. On the rare occasions when he returned to the house, he was always out of temper. If the servants knew nothing else, they knew what these signs meant — the great man was harder at work than ever; and in spite of his industry, he was not getting on so well as usual.
On this particular evening, the bell rang at the customary time — and the cook (successor to the unfortunate creature with pretensions to beauty and sentiment) hastened to get the dinner ready.
The footman turned to the dresser, and took from it a little heap of newspapers; carefully counting them before he ventured to carry them upstairs. This was Doctor Benjulia’s regular weekly supply of medical literature; and here, again, the mysterious man presented an incomprehensible problem to his fellow-creatures. He subscribed to every medical publication in England — and he never read one of them! The footman cut the leaves; and the master, with his forefinger to help him, ran his eye up and down the pages; apparently in search of some announcement that he never found — and, still more extraordinary, without showing the faintest sign of disappointment when he had done. Every week, he briskly shoved his unread periodicals into a huge basket, and sent them downstairs as waste paper.
The footman took up the newspapers and the dinner together — and was received with frowns and curses. He was abused for everything that he did in his own department, and for everything that the cook had done besides. “Whatever the master’s working at,” he announced, on returning to the kitchen, “he’s farther away from hitting the right nail on the head than ever. Upon my soul, I think I shall have to give warning! Let’s relieve our minds. Where’s the Christmas Number?”
Half an hour later, the servants were startled by a tremendous bang of the house-door which shook the whole building. The footman ran upstairs: the dining-room was empty; the master’s hat was not on its peg in the hall; and the medical newspapers were scattered about in the wildest confusion. Close to the fender lay a crumpled leaf, torn out. Its position suggested that it had narrowly missed being thrown into the fire. The footman smoothed it out, and looked at it.
One side of the leaf contained a report of a lecture. This was dry reading. The footman tried the other side, and found a review of a new medical work.
This would have been dull reading too, but for an extract from a Preface, stating how the book came to be published, and what wonderful discoveries, relating to peoples’ brains, it contained. There were some curious things said here — especially about a melancholy deathbed at a place called Montreal — which made the Preface almost as interesting as a story. But what was there in this to hurry the master out of the house, as if the devil had been at his heels?
Doctor Benjulia’s nearest neighbour was a small farmer named Gregg. He was taking a nap that evening, when his wife bounced into the room, and said, “Here’s the big doctor gone mad!” And there he was truly, at Mrs. Gregg’s heels, clamouring to have the horse put to in the gig, and to be driven to London instantly. He said, “Pay yourself what you please”— and opened his pocket-book, full of bank-notes. Mr. Gregg said, “It seems, sir, this is a matter of life or death.” Whereupon he looked at Mr. Gregg — and considered a little — and, becoming quiet on a sudden, answered, “Yes, it is.”
On the road to London, he never once spoke — except to himself — and then only from time to time.
It seemed, judging by what fell from him now and then, that he was troubled about a man and a letter. He had suspected the man all along; but he had nevertheless given him the letter — and now it had ended in the letter turning out badly for Doctor Benjulia himself. Where he went to in London, it was not possible to say. Mr. Gregg’s horse was not fast enough for him. As soon as he could find one, he took a cab.
The shopman of Mr. Barrable, the famous publisher of medical works, had just put up the shutters, and was going downstairs to his tea, when he heard a knocking at the shop door. The person proved to be a very tall man, in a violent hurry to buy Mr. Ovid Vere’s new book. He said, by way of apology, that he was in that line himself, and that his name was Benjulia. The shopman knew him by reputation, and sold him the book. He was in such a hurry to read it, that he actually began in the shop. It was necessary to tell him that business hours were over. Hearing this, he ran out, and told the cabman to drive as fast as possible to Pall Mall.
The library waiter at Doctor Benjulia’s Club found him in the library, busy with a book.
He was quite alone; the members, at that hour of the evening, being generally at dinner, or in the smoking-room. The man whose business it was to attend to the fires, went in during the night, from time to time, and always found him in the same corner. It began to get late. He finished his reading; but it seemed to make no difference. There he sat — wide awake — holding his closed book on his knee, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. This went on till it was time to close the Club. They were obliged to disturb him. He said nothing; and went slowly down into the hall, leaving his book behind him. It was an awful night, raining and sleeting — but he took no notice of the weather. When they fetched a cab, the driver refused to take him to where he lived, on such a night as that. He only said, “Very well; go to the nearest hotel.”
The night porter at the hotel let in a tall gentleman, and showed him into one of the bedrooms kept ready for persons arriving late. Having no luggage, he paid the charges beforehand. About eight o’clock in the morning, he rang for the waiter — who observed that his bed had not been slept in. All he wanted for breakfast was the strongest coffee that could be made. It was not strong enough to please him when he tasted it; and he had some brandy put in. He paid, and was liberal to the waiter, and went away.
The policeman on duty, that day, whose beat included the streets at the back of Fairfield Gardens, noticed in one of them, a tall gentleman walking backwards and forwards, and looking from time to time at one particular house. When he passed that way again, there was the gentleman still patrolling the street, and still looking towards the same house. The policeman waited a little, and watched. The place was a respectable lodging house, and the stranger was certainly a gentleman, though a queer one to look at. It was not the policeman’s business to interfere on suspicion, except in the case of notoriously bad characters. So, though he did think it odd, he went on again.
Between twelve and one o’clock in the afternoon, Ovid left his Lodgings, to go to the neighbouring livery stables, and choose an open carriage. The sun was shining, and the air was brisk and dry, after the stormy night. It was just the day when he might venture to take Carmina out for a drive.
On his way down the street, he heard footsteps behind him, and felt himself touched on the shoulder. He turned — and discovered Benjulia. On the point of speaking resentfully, he restrained himself. There was something in the wretch’s face that struck him with horror.
Benjulia said, “I won’t keep you long; I want to know one thing. Will she live or die?”
“Her life is safe — I hope.”
“Through your new mode of treatment?”
His eyes and his voice said more than his words. Ovid instantly knew that he had seen the book; and that the book had forestalled him in the discovery to which he had devoted his life. Was it possible to pity a man whose hardened nature never pitied others? All things are possible to a large heart. Ovid shrank from answering him.
Benjulia spoke again.
“When we met that night at my garden gate,” he said, “you told me my life should answer for her life, if she died. My neglect has not killed her — and you have no need to keep your word. But I don’t get off, Mr. Ovid Vere, without paying the penalty. You have taken something from me, which was dearer than life, I wished to tell you that — I have no more to say.”
Ovid silently offered his hand.
Benjulia’s head drooped in thought. The generous protest of the man whom he had injured, spoke in that outstretched hand. He looked at Ovid.
“No!” he said — and walked away.
Leaving the street, he went round to Fairfield Gardens, and rang the bell at Mr. Gallilee’s door. The bell was answered by a polite old woman — a stranger to him among the servants.
“Is Zo in the house?” he inquired.
“Nobody’s in the house, sir. It’s to be let, if you please, as soon as the furniture can be moved.”
“Do you know where Zo is? I mean, Mr. Gallilee’s youngest child.”
“I’m sorry to say, sir, I’m not acquainted with the family.”
He waited at the door, apparently hesitating what to do next. “I’ll go upstairs,” he said suddenly; “I want to look at the house. You needn’t go with me; I know my way.”
“Thank you kindly, sir!”
He went straight to the schoolroom.
The repellent melancholy of an uninhabited place had fallen on it already. The plain furniture was not worth taking care of: it was battered and old, and left to dust and neglect. There were two common deal writing desks, formerly used by the two girls. One of them was covered with splashes of ink: varied here and there by barbarous caricatures of faces, in which dots and strokes represented eyes, noses, and mouths. He knew whose desk this was, and opened the cover of it. In the recess beneath were soiled tables of figures, torn maps, and dogs-eared writing books. The ragged paper cover of one of............