‘Go on, Mr. Bagwax. Papa will be looking
at you.’
‘Jemima,’ he said, ’will you recompense
me by your love for what I have lost on the other
side of the globe?’ She recompensed him, and
he was happy.
The future father and son-in-law sat and discussed
their joint affairs for an hour after the ladies had
retired. As to Jemima and his love, Bagwax was
allowed to be altogether triumphant. Mrs. Curlydown
kissed him, and he kissed Sophia. That was in
public. What passed between him and Jemima no
human eye saw. The old post-office clerk took
the younger one to his heart, and declared that he
was perfectly satisfied with his girl’s choice.
‘I’ve always known that you were steady,’
he said, ’and that’s what I look to.
She has had her admirers, and perhaps might have looked
higher; but what’s rank or money if a man’s
fond of pleasure?’ But when that was settled
they returned again to the Caldigate envelope.
Curlydown was not quite so sure as to that question
of duty. The proposed journey to Sydney, with
a pound a-day allowed for expenses, and the traveller’s
salary going on all the time, would put a nice sum
of ready-money into Bagwax’s pocket. ’It
wouldn’t be less than two hundred towards furnishing
my boy,’ said Curlydown. ’You’ll
want it. And as for the delay, what’s six
months? Girls like to have a little time to boast
about it.’
But Bagwax had made up his mind, and nothing would
shake him. ’If they’ll let me go
out all the same, to set matters right, of course I’d
take the job. I should think it a duty, and would
bear the delay as well as I could. If Jemima
thought it right I’m sure she wouldn’t
complain. But since I saw that letter on that
stamp my conscience has told me that I must reveal
it all. It might be me as was in prison, and Jemima
who was told that I had a wife in Australia.
Since I’ve looked at it in that light I’ve
been more determined than ever to go to Sir John Joram’s
chambers on Monday. Good-night, Mr. Curlydown.
I am very glad you asked me down to the cottage to-day;
more glad than anything.’
At half-past eleven, by the last train, Bagwax returned
to town, and spent the night with mingled dreams,
in which Sydney, Jemima, and the envelope were all
in their turns eluding him, and all in their turns
within his grasp.
Sir John Backs His Opinion
Well, Mr. Bagwax, I’m glad that it’s only
one envelope this time.’ This was said
by Sir John Joram to the honest and energetic post-office
clerk on the morning of Wednesday the 3d September,
when the lawyer would have been among the partridges
down in Suffolk but for the vicissitudes of John Caldigate’s
case. It was hard upon Sir John, and went something
against the grain with him. He was past the time
of life at which men are enthusiastic as to the wrongs
of others,—as was Bagwax; and had, in truth,
much less to gain from the cause, or to expect, than
