III
With regard to the subject now in hand, I may state, at the outset, thatMr. Godfrey Ablewhite's life had two sides to it.
The side turned up to the public view, presented the spectacle ofa gentleman, possessed of considerable reputation as a speaker atcharitable meetings, and endowed with administrative abilities, whichhe placed at the disposal of various Benevolent Societies, mostly ofthe female sort. The side kept hidden from the general notice, exhibitedthis same gentleman in the totally different character of a man ofpleasure, with a villa in the suburbs which was not taken in his ownname, and with a lady in the villa, who was not taken in his own name,either.
My investigations in the villa have shown me several fine picturesand statues; furniture tastefully selected, and admirably made; and aconservatory of the rarest flowers, the match of which it would not beeasy to find in all London. My investigation of the lady has resulted inthe discovery of jewels which are worthy to take rank with the flowers,and of carriages and horses which have (deservedly) produced a sensationin the Park, among persons well qualified to judge of the build of theone, and the breed of the others.
All this is, so far, common enough. The villa and the lady aresuch familiar objects in London life, that I ought to apologise forintroducing them to notice. But what is not common and not familiar (inmy experience), is that all these fine things were not only ordered,but paid for. The pictures, the statues, the flowers, the jewels,the carriages, and the horses--inquiry proved, to my indescribableastonishment, that not a sixpence of debt was owing on any of them. Asto the villa, it had been bought, out and out, and settled on the lady.
I might have tried to find the right reading of this riddle, and triedin vain--but for Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite's death, which caused an inquiryto be made into the state of his affairs.
The inquiry elicited these facts:--
That Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite was entrusted with the care of a sum oftwenty thousand pounds--as one of two Trustees for a young gentleman,who was still a minor in the year eighteen hundred and forty-eight. Thatthe Trust was to lapse, and that the young gentleman was to receive thetwenty thousand pounds on the day when he came of age, in the month ofFebruary, eighteen hundred and fifty. That, pending the arrival of thisperiod, an income of six hundred pounds was to be paid to him by his twoTrustees, half-yearly--at Christmas and Midsummer Day. That this incomewas regularly paid by the active Trustee, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. Thatthe twenty thousand pounds (from which the income was supposed tobe derived) had every farthing of it been sold out of the Funds, atdifferent periods, ending with the end of the year eighteen hundred andforty-seven. That the power of attorney, authorising the bankers to sellout the stock, and the various written orders telling them what amountsto sell out, were formally signed by both the Trustees. That thesignature of the second Trustee (a retired army officer, living inthe country) was a signature forged, in every case, by the activeTrustee--otherwise Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.
In these facts lies the explanation of Mr. Godfrey's honourable conduct,in paying the debts incurred for the lady and the villa--and (as youwill presently see) of more besides.
We may now advance to the date of Miss Verinder's birthday (in the yeareighteen hundred and forty-eight)--the twenty-first of June.
On the day before, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite arrived at his father's house,and asked (as I know from Mr. Ablewhite, senior, himself) for a loan ofthree hundred pounds. Mark the sum; and remember at the same time,that the half-yearly payment to the young gentleman was due onthe twenty-fourth of the month. Also, that the whole of the younggentleman's fortune had been spent by his Trustee, by the end of theyear 'forty-seven.
Mr. Ablewhite, senior, refused to lend his son a farthing.
The next day Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite rode over, with you, to LadyVerinder's house. A few hours afterwards, Mr. Godfrey (as you yourselfhave told me) made a proposal of marriage to Miss Verinder. Here, he sawhis way no doubt--if accepted--to the end of all his money anxieties,present and future. But, as events actually turned out, what happened?Miss Verinder refused him.
On the night of the birthday, therefore, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite'specuniary position was this. He had three hundred pounds to find onthe twenty-fourth of the month, and twenty thousand pounds to find inFebruary eighteen hundred and fifty. Failing to raise these sums, atthese times, he was a ruined man.
Under those circumstances, what takes place next?
You exasperate Mr. Candy, the doctor, on the sore subject of hisprofession; and he plays you a practical joke, in return, with a dose oflaudanum. He trusts the administration of the dose, prepared in a littlephial, to Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite--who has himself confessed the share hehad in the matter, under circumstances which shall presently be relatedto you. Mr. Godfrey is all the readier to enter into the conspiracy,having himself suffered from your sharp tongue in the course of theevening. He joins Betteredge in persuading you to drink a little brandyand water before you go to bed. He privately drops the dose of laudanuminto your cold grog. And you drink the mixture.
Let us now shift the scene, if you please to Mr. Luker's house atLambeth. And allow me to remark, by way of preface, that Mr. Bruff andI, together, have found a means of forcing the money-lender to makea clean breast of it. We have carefully sifted the statement he hasaddressed to us; and here it is at your service.