CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
TREATS OF MRS. DURBY'S LOST PARCEL IN PARTICULAR, AND OF LOST-LUGGAGE INGENERAL.
We need scarcely say that Edwin Gurwood took a good deal of trouble tofind poor Mrs Durby's lost parcel. Had he known what its contents werehe might perhaps have done more. As she positively asserted that shehad carried it into the cab with her and had not left it in the train,immediate application was not made at the station for it, but Edwindrove her in a cab to Scotland Yard, and there introduced her to thepolice officials whose duty it is to take charge of articles left incabs. Here she was asked to describe the appearance of her parcel,which she did, by saying that it was a roundish one in brown paper,fastened with a piece of string, and having the name of Durby written onit in pencil, without any address.
Not feeling quite sure however of the fidelity of the nurse's memory,Edwin then went to the station and made inquiries there, but onapplication to the lost-luggage office no such parcel had been depositedthere. The reader may perhaps be surprised at this, as it is well-knownthat every train is searched by the porters on its arrival at aterminus, and all forgotten articles are conveyed at once to thelost-luggage office. In the ordinary course of things Mrs Durby'sparcel would have been found and restored to her on application, but ithappened that a careless porter searched the "Flying Dutchman" that day,and had failed to observe the parcel which lay in a dark corner underthe seat. When the carriage therefore was shunted the parcel was leftto repose in it all night as well as all next day, which happened to beSunday.
The parcel had a longish excursion on its own account after that. Thecarriage in which it lay happened to be a "through one," and belonged toanother company, to whose line it was accordingly forwarded on thefollowing Monday. It reached a remote station in the west of Englandthat night and there the parcel was discovered. It lay all night there,and next day was forwarded to the lost-luggage office of that line.Here it was examined; the various pieces of paper were unrolled one byone and the doubled-up slipper was discovered; this was examined, andthe little parcel found; the name of Durby having been noted andcommented on, the covering of note-paper was removed, and the match-boxrevealed, from the inside of which was produced the pill-box, which,when opened, disclosed to the astonished gaze of the officials anantique gold ring set with diamonds! As the name "Mrs Durby" writtenin pencil did not furnish a clue to the owner, the ring was given intothe charge of the custodier of the lost-luggage office, and adescription of it with a note of all particulars regarding it, wasforwarded to the Clearing-House in London.
The lost-luggage office, we may remark in passing, was a wonderfulplace--a place in which a moralist might find much material for mentalmastication. Here, on an extensive series of shelves, were deposited inlarge quantities the evidences of man's defective memory; the sad proofsof human fallibility. There were caps and comforters andtravelling-bags in great abundance. There were shawls and rugs, andumbrellas and parasols, and sticks and hat-boxes in such numbers as tosuggest the idea that hundreds of travellers, smitten with irresistiblefeelings of gratitude, had left these articles as a trifling testimonyof respect to the railway company. There were carpet-bags here not onlyin large numbers but in great variety of form and size.Smelling-bottles, pocket-handkerchiefs, flasks, pocket-books, gun-cases,portmanteaux, books, cigar cases, etcetera, enough to have stocked agigantic curiosity shop, and there were several articles which one couldnot account for having been forgotten on any other supposition than thatthe owners were travelling maniacs. One gentleman had left behind him apair of leathern hunting-breeches, a soldier had forgotten his knapsack,a cripple his crutches! a Scotchman his bagpipes; but the most amazingcase of all was a church door! We do not jest, reader. It is a factthat such an article was forgotten, or left or lost, on a railway, and,more amazing still, it was never claimed, but after having beenadvertised, and having lain in the lost goods office the appointed time,it was sold by auction with other things. Many of the articles werepowerfully suggestive of definite ideas. One could not look upon thosedelicate kid gloves without thinking of the young bride, whose agitatedsoul was incapable of extending a thought to such trifles. That MrsGamp-like umbrella raised to mental vision, as if by magic, the despairof the stout elderly female who, arriving unexpectedly and allunprepared at her journey's end, sought to collect her scatteredthoughts and belongings and launch herself out on the platform, in thefirm belief that a minute's delay would insure her being carried tounknown regions far beyond her destination, and it was impossible tolook at that fur travelling-cap with ear-pieces cocked knowingly on asable muff, without thinking of the bland bald-headed old gentleman whohad worn it during a night journey, and had pulled it in all ways abouthis head and over his eyes, and had crushed it into the cushions of hiscarriage in a vain endeavour to sleep, and had let it fall off andtemporarily lost it and trod upon it and unintentionally sat upon it,and had finally, in the great hurry of waking suddenly on arrival, andin the intense joy of meeting with his blooming girls, flung it off,seized his hat and bag and rug, left the carriage in a whirlwind ofgreeting, forgot it altogether, and so lost it for ever.
"Nay, not lost," we hear some one saying; "he would surely call at thelost-luggage office on discovering his loss and regain his property."
Probably he might, but certainly he would only act like many hundreds oftravellers if he were to leave his property there and never call for itat all.
True, much that finds its way to the lost-luggage office is reclaimedand restored, but it is a fact that the quantity never reclaimed is solarge on almost any railway that it forms sufficient to warrant anannual sale by auction which realises some hundreds of pounds. Oneyear's sale of lost-luggage on the Grand National Trunk Railway amountedto 500 pounds! and this was not more than an average year's sale. Everypossible effort is of course made to restore lost-luggage before such asale takes place. In the first place, everything bearing a name andaddress is returned at once to the owner, but of course there aremultitudes of small articles which have neither name nor address. Suchof these as are locked or tied up are suffered to remain for a shorttime in an office, where they may be readily reclaimed; but if notclaimed soon they are opened, and if addresses are found inside are sentto their owners. In the event of no addresses being found they areretained for a year, then advertised for sale by public auction, and theproceeds go to reduce that large sum--perhaps 16,000 poundss or more--which the company has to pay annually as compensation for lost anddamaged goods. On one railway where the lost-luggage was allowed to liea considerable time before being examined a singular case occurred. Ahat-box was opened and found to contain Bank of England notes to theamount of 65 pounds, with two letters, which led to its being restoredto its owner after having lain for more than a year. The owner had beenso positive that he had left the hat-box at a hotel that he had made noinquiry for it at the railway office.
A sale-catalogue of left and unclaimed property on one of our chiefrailways, which now lies before us, presents some curious "lots." Hereare some of them: 70 walking-sticks, 30 silk umbrellas, and there areeleven similar lots, besides innumerable parasols--50 muffs and boas--acrate containing 140 billycocks and hats--24 looking-glasses--160packets of cloth buttons--15 frying-pans and 18 ploughshares--3 buttermachines--2 gas-meters, 2 shovels, and a pair of spectacles--a box ofsanitary powder and a 15-horse power horizontal steam-engine! How someof these things, especially the last, could come to be lost at all, is amystery which we have been quite unable to fathom. Of these lots thecatalogue contains 404, and the sale was to occupy two days.
After having failed to obtain any information as to the missing brownpaper parcel, Mrs Durby felt so overwhelmed with distress and shamethat she took the whole matter into serious consideration, and,resolving to forego her visit to her brother, returned straight toClatterby, where, in a burst of tears, she related her misadventures toNetta. It need scarcely be said that Netta did not blame her old andfaithful nurse. Her disposition was of that mi
ld sympathetic naturewhich induces one,--when an accident occurs, such as the breaking of avaluable piece of china,--to hasten to excuse rather than to abuse theunhappy breaker, who, in nine cases out of ten, is far more severelypunished by his or her own conscience than the sin deserves! Instead,therefore, of blaming the nurse, Netta soothed her; said that it did notmatter _much_; that the ring was valuable to her only as a gift from herfather; that no doubt some other means of paying their debts would soonbe devised; that it would have been an absolute miracle, if nurse hadretained her self-possession, in the terrible circumstances, in whichshe had been placed, and in fact tried so earnestly and touchingly tocomfort her, that she unintentionally heaped coals of intensest fire onthe poor woman's head, and caused Mrs Durby not only to blame herselfmore than ever, but to throw her arms round Netta's neck, and all butfall down on her knees and worship her.
Thereafter the subject was dismissed, and in a short time almostforgotten.