The Senator’s Letter
Soon after this Senator Gotobed went down, alone,
to Dillsborough and put himself up at the Bush Inn.
Although he had by no means the reputation of being
a rich man, he did not seem to care much what money
he spent in furthering any object he had taken in hand.
He never knew how near he had been to meeting the
direst inhospitality at Mr. Runciman’s house.
That worthy innkeeper, knowing well the Senator’s
sympathy with Goarly, Scrobby and Bearside, and being
heart and soul devoted to the Rufford interest, had
almost refused the Senator the accommodation he wanted.
It was only when Mrs. Runciman represented to him
that she could charge ten shillings a day for the
use of her sitting-room, and also that Lord Rufford
himself had condescended to entertain the gentleman,
that Runciman gave way. Mr. Gotobed would, no
doubt, have delighted in such inhospitality.
He would have gone to the second-rate inn, which was
very second-rate indeed, and have acquired a further
insight into British manners and British prejudices.
As it was, he made himself at home in the best upstairs
sitting-room at the Bush, and was quite unaware of
the indignity offered to him when Mr. Runciman refused
to send him up the best sherry. Let us hope that
this refusal was remembered by the young woman in
the bar when she made out the Senator’s bill.
He stayed at Dillsborough for three or four days during
which he saw Goarly once and Bearside on two or three
occasions,—and moreover handed to that
busy attorney three bank notes for five pounds each.
Bearside was clever enough to make him believe that
Goarly would certainly obtain serious damages from
the lord. With Bearside he was fairly satisfied,
thinking however that the man was much more illiterate
and ignorant than the general run of lawyers in the
United States; but with Goarly he was by no means satisfied.
Goarly endeavoured to keep out of his way and could
not be induced to come to him at the Bush. Three
times he walked out to the house near Dillsborough
Wood, on each of which occasions Mrs. Goarly pestered
him for money, and told him at great length the history
of her forlorn goose. Scrobby, of whom he had
heard, he could not see at all; and he found that
Bearside was very unwilling to say anything about
Scrobby. Scrobby, and the red herrings and the
strychnine and the dead fox were, according to Bearside,
to be kept quite distinct from the pheasants and the
wheat. Bearside declared over and over again
that there was no evidence to connect his client with
the demise of the fox. When asked whether he did
not think that his client had compassed the death
of the animal, he assured the Senator that in such
matters, he never ventured to think.
“Let us go by the evidence, Mr. Gotobed,”
he said.
“But I am paying my money for the sake of getting
at the facts.”
“Evidence is facts, sir,” said the attorney.
“Any way let us settle about the pheasants first”
