Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 290: what you’re looking at

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JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. I assented to the proposal so kindly and consi- derately made for providing me with another situation; and commenced my preparatives for departure. My knowledge of English topography was quite sufficient to make me aware that my new destination could not be more than twenty or thirty miles from London; and perhaps I might have hesitated to settle myself in such close vicin- age of the metropolis, were it not for the intelli- gence that Heather Place was in so lonely a situa- tion. I tarried the whole of the following day at Manchester; and in the morning of the ensuing one was ready for departure. Mr. Rowland, on paying the wages that were due to me, presented me with twenty pounds in addition; and both him- self and his wife bade me farewell in the kindest manner. CHAPTER LII. THE WHITE COTTAGE, Ir was about eight o’clock in the evening of the second day,—for I had slept at Birmingham, and tarried there a few hours to see the great manufac- turing town,—that I alighted from a stage-coach at a tavern in Bagshot. On inquiring of the waiter relative to Heather Place, I was informed that it was exactly five miles distant—that no high road passed near—and that it was therefore only to be reached by a private conveyance, unless I waited until the morrow, when at mid-day a car- rier’s van would leave Bagshot, and, passing by Heather Place, would set me down there. I had been rather anxious to reach my destination that evening, in consequence of Mr. Rowland’s letter to inform Mr. Shackleford that he might expect me: but I did not think it worth while to go to the expense nor adopt the ceremony of hiring a chaise to proceed thither. While I was yet con- versing with the waiter at the entrance of the tavern, and hesitating what course I should pur- sue, a gentlemanly-looking man, who was smoking a cigar as he leant against the door-post, and who had overheard our discourse, joined in it. “I myself am going in that direction presently,” he said: “I have my own vehicle, and shall not only be glad to oblige you with a lift, but shall welcome your companionship.” “You are going to-night, Mr. Henley?” said the waiter. “Yes,” replied the gentleman; “I must be at High Wycombe to-morrow morning by ten o’clock ; and I mean to get as far as Windsor to-night. I have ordered my chaise for nine o’clock; and it will not take me a mile out of my road to put you, sir, down at Heather Place. So if you mean to accompany me, you will have just time to get some refreshments.” *T hope, Mr. Henley,” said the waiter, in a tone of remonstrance, “that you Rave not got much money about you ?” “ Nonsense !” cried the individual thus addressed, as he emitted a long puff of smoke from between his lips. ‘You don’t think I believe all the old women’s stories that are told about highwaymen on Bagshot Heath and its neighbourhood. The days for your Dick Turpins have gone by.” 277 “Well, sir, all I know,” rejoined the waiter, “is that a commercial gentleman in the same line of business as yourself, was robbed three weeks bae 3? “Oh! exclaimed Mr. Henley, with a laugh: “if there has been a bagman in my line here as lately as three weeks, that accounts for the few orders I managed to get to-day in your precious little town of Bagshot. As for all the money I collected, you might put it in coppers into a tumbler and cover it over with a cheese-plate. But joking apart, I have not got much money about me; and if I had, I should not be scared by the flying rumours that have reached my ears. Besides, I always carry a couple of pistols with me; and you may depend upon it that if I met my death, I should not be the only person left dead in the road after the scuffle. But what were you going to say about a bagman who was robbed three weeks ago ?”” “You know Mr. Wilkins, sir?” resumed the waiter. “I recollect you were here at the same time with himself, just about this season last ear.” u You don’t mean that short, stout, podgy little fellow, who drank two bottles of wine and wound it all up with brandy-and-water P” “ Yes, sir—that was Mr. Wilkins.” “ Oh, well,” observed Mr. Henley, with a signi- ‘ficant smile, “ if drinking his couple of bottles a- day is his habit, I don’t wonder he found it con- venient to be robbed: but I should be very much surprised if the house he travels for would let him travel for them much longer.” “Mr. Wilkins, sir, is a very honourable man, I believe,” answered the waiter. “It was only a matter of twenty odd pounds he was robbed of, and I heard him say that he should not mention the matter to his employers, as it was so small a sum.” *Well—and what account did he give of it ?” inquired Henley. “That he was attacked by a man with a black mask on his face a “Oh! I suppose he had been recently seeing a melodrama at the Surrey or Victoria Theatre,” interrupted Henley; “and so, when he had got his two bottles in his head, he had all the horrors of black masks likewise. Stuff and nonsense! Why, I have heard these reports about a highway- man for the last two years; and do you think it is possible that the fellow would stick to the same neighbourhood so long and pursue his depreda- tions, without being caught? Not a bit of it! He would have had a bullet through his head long before this. Well, sir,’ added Mr. Henley, turn- ing to me, “ what do you say ?” “T am exceedingly obliged to you,” I answered, “for your kind proposal: but as it would be tak- ing you out of your way, I could not think of putting you to such an inconvenience.” “No inconvenience!” exclaimed the commercial traveller: and then he added with a laugh, “ But I suppose you are frightened by what this fool here’”—alluding to the waiter—“has been saying about a masked highwayman.” “ Frightened—no!” I responded, somewhat ine dignantly: “but I do not mind admitting this much, that I think it no proof of true courage to run foolish risks; and there seems to me to be NOO) SS co AA