I wouldn't have such a thing
happen to anybody I was nearly interested in, on any account. 'Twould
be enough to wear one's life out.--You were going to say, friend--' he
added, turning to John again.
'Only that Mrs Rudge lives on a little pension from the family, and that
Barnaby's as free of the house as any cat or dog about it,' answered
John. 'Shall he do your errand, sir?'
'Oh yes,' replied the guest. 'Oh certainly. Let him do it by all means.
Please to bring him here that I may charge him to be quick. If he
objects to come you may tell him it's Mr Chester. He will remember my
name, I dare say.'
John was so very much astonished to find who his visitor was, that he
could express no astonishment at all, by looks or otherwise, but left
the room as if he were in the most placid and imperturbable of all
possible conditions. It has been reported that when he got downstairs,
he looked steadily at the boiler for ten minutes by the clock, and all
that time never once left off shaking his head; for which statement
there would seem to be some ground of truth and feasibility, inasmuch
as that interval of time did certainly elapse, before he returned with
Barnaby to the guest's apartment.
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