Our Mutual Friend

-new books, in bran-new bindings liberally gilded, and requested to see the messenger who had brought the paper. He was a boy of about fifteen. Mortimer look

riting i

e, s

you to w

er, Jess

who found

s,

s your

had involved him in a little difficulty, then said, folding a plait

it f

y, upon his guard, and again

ur fat

in it before you paid it, if you liked. I went first to your office, according to the direction of th

is stunted figure was coarse; but he was cleaner than other boys of his type; and his writing, though large and round, was good; and he glanced at the backs o

scertain if it was possible to restore life?’

ere drowned in the Red Sea, ain’t more beyond restoring to life. If Lazar

ith his hat upon his head, ‘you seem to b

eacher at the scho

Laz

! We should have no peace in our place, if that

o have a go

ut if she knows her letters it’s the m

he latter part of the dialogue; when the boy spoke these words slightingly of his s

d the boy, resisting; ‘I h

, they all three went away together in the vehicle that had brought the boy; the two friends (once

rt of Chancery, and attorneys at Common Law, five years; and — except gratuitously taking instructions, on an average once a

, and have had no business at all, and never shall ha

rticular,’ returned Mortimer, with great com

g his legs up on the opposite

ut mine up too?’ returned Mort

‘because it was understood that we wanted a bar

e it was understood that we wanted a solicitor

called a set of chambers,’ said Eugene; ‘and each of us has the fourth of a clerk — Cass

nd what he will turn out when arrived at maturity, I cannot conceive. Whether, in that shabby rook’s nest, he is always plotting wisdom, or plotting murder; whether he will grow up, after so

ry under any letter from A to Z that I abominate, it is energy. It is such a conventional superstition, such parrot gabble! What the deuce! Am I to rush out into the street, colla

e a good opportunity, show me something really wor

ill I,’ s

ithin the limits of the London Post-office town delivery, ma

e so much moral sewage, and to be pausing until its own weight forced it over the bank and sunk it in the river. In and out among vessels that seemed to have got ashore, and houses that seemed to have got afloat — am

any yards.’ He spoke in the singular num

id Mortimer, slipping over the stones and refuse

er’s, sir; wher

ty brazier, not fitted to the hearth; and a common lamp, shaped like a hyacinthroot, smoked and flared in the neck of a stone bottle on the table. There was a wooden bunk or berth in a corner, and in another corner a wooden stair leading above — so clumsy and steep that it was little better than a ladder. Two or three old sculls and oars stood against the wall, and against another part of the wall was a small dresser, making a spare

tleman,

ned, raised its ruffled head,

Lightwood Esqui

found,’ said Mortimer, glancing rather sh

circumstarnce to the police, and the police have took possession of it. No time ain’t been los

all, with the police heading, BODY FOUND. The two friends read the handbil

e,’ said Lightwood, glancing from the des

y pa

her work in her hand, a

imer; ‘but threepence in

,’ said Gaffer Hexam,

kets empty, and t

mpty, and turned inside out. And here,’ moving the light to another, ‘HER pocket was found empty, and turned inside out. And so was this one’s. And so was that one’s. I can’t r

te r

y boots, and her linen marked with a

te r

p, in a pair of list slippers and a nightcap, wot had offered — it afterwards come out — to make a hole in the water for a quartern of rum stood afore

n put it down on the table and stood behind it looking intently at his visitors. He had the special

l these yourself; di

slowly rejoined, ‘And what

timer Lightwood interpos

? And what might Mr Eugene

ly, if you found a

u, simply, m

n much violence and robbery,

posing sort. If you’d got your living to haul out of the river every day of

ghtwood, an extremely pale and disturbed face appear

ffer Hexam, stopping short

the man, in a hurried

os

I may know it.’ He was panting, and could hardly speak; but, he showed a copy of the newly-printed bill that was still wet upon

Mr Lightwood, is

ightw

the stranger confronted each

kward silence with his airy self-possession, ‘

d it, afte

were a stran

ter st

eeking a M

N

e on a fruitless errand, and will not find w

o howling fury of a drunken woman were banging herself against a cell-door in the back-yard at his elbow. With the same air of a recluse much given to study, he desisted from his books to bestow a distrustful nod of recognition upon Gaffer, plainly importing, ‘Ah! we know all about YOU, and you’ll overdo it some day;’ and to inform Mr Morrimer Lightwood an

r, taking up his keys. Which a deferent

ey all went in. They quickly came out again, no one speaking but Eugene: w

e. Too late to know for certain, whether injuries received before or after death; one excellent surgical opinion said, before; other excellent surgical opinion said, after. Steward of ship in which gentleman came home passenger, had been round to view, and could swear to identity. Likewise could swear to clo

remarked, when he had finished his summing up. ‘It has given him a bad turn to be sure!’ This wa

ained that it was

r, with an attentive ear;

od explain

n his desk, and the fingers and thumb of his right hand, fitting themselves to the fingers and

Seems you’re not accusto

himneypiece with drooping head, looked roun

to identify, I

es

ou iden

e sight. O! a horri

’ asked Mr Inspector. ‘Give us a descr

nger; ‘it would be quit

inst the wicket, and laid his left arm along the top of it, and with his right hand turned

ow; or you wouldn’t have come here, you know. Well, then; a

to publish their disagreements and misfortunes, except on the last necessity. I do not dispute that you disc

where the satellite, with his eye up

tor, ‘you will not object

but I have not.’ He reddened and was

ange of voice or manner, ‘you will not ob

at

titude. The stranger stepped up to the desk, and wrote in a rather tremulous hand — Mr Inspector taking sidelong note of every

here, I pr

ing t

ly, from th

— from th

night,

m and opened the wicket, and

er, keep him in view without giving offence, ascertain that h

and resumed his books. The two friends who had watched him, more amused by the professional manner than suspicious of Mr Ju

person struck in that particular way. Might, however, have been Stomach and not Mind. If so, rum stomach. But to be sure there were rum everythings. Pity there was not a word of truth in that superstition about bodies bleeding when touched by t

fer Hexam and his son went their separate way. But, arriving at the last corner, Gaffer bade his boy go home whi

und his sister again seated before the fire at her wo

id you g

out in t

sity for that. It w

nd I was afraid he might know what my face meant. But there! Don’t mind me, Charley! I

one could read it. And when I wrote slowest and smeared but with my

g her seat close to his seat by the fir

ost of your time,

me! I like t

contrive a little (wake out of my sleep contriving sometimes), how to get together a shilling now, an

ourite, and can make

eve that learning was a good thing, and that we might

stuff about

r, and laying her rich brown cheek against them as

y, when you are at the

the boy struck in, with a backward no

fire, I seem to see in the burning

that’s been under the mud that was under the water in the days of No

hat dull glow near it, coming and going, that I mean. When I l

’ said the boy. ‘Te

nts my eye

d tell us what you

arley, when you were quite a b

interposed the boy, ‘for I knew a littl

s filled with pleasant tears, as he put bo

her door-steps, sitting on the bank of the river, wandering about to get through the time. You are rather heavy to carry, Charley, and I am often obliged to rest. Sometimes we are s

o him twice or thrice, ‘that I snuggled un

such a shelter after out of doors! And father pulls my shoes off, and dries my feet at the fire, and has me to sit by him while he smokes his pipe long after you are abed, and I notice that father’s is a large hand but never a heavy one w

unt here, as much as to say

the pictures of wha

boy, ‘and give us a fortune

was deserting him, and I should have lost my influence. I have not the influence I want to have, I cannot stop some dreadful things I try to stop, but I go on in the hope and trust that the tim

the fortune-tellin

changed her attitude since she began, and who now mournfully s

am I,

hollow down

the flare,’ said the boy, glancing from her eyes to the bra

he school; and you get prizes; and you go on better and better; and yo

boy, seeming to be rather relieved by this default on t

rise to be a master full of learning and respect. But the secret has come to f

t has

and that even if father could be got to forgive your taking it (which he never c

ain can be, Liz?’ ask

e am I, Charley, left alone with father, keeping him as straight as I can, watching for more influence than I have, and hoping

Lizzie. Your library of books is the

f learning very much, Charley. But I should feel it much more, if I di

t mid-day following he reappeared at the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters,

, as was duly recorded in the newspapers. Mr Inspector watched the proceedings too, and kept his watching closely to himself. Mr Julius Handford having given his right address, and being reported in solvent ci

bly with one another, and contradicted themselves. It was also made interesting by the testimony of Job Potterson, the ship’s steward, and one Mr Jacob Kibble, a fellow-passenger, that the deceased Mr John Harmon did bring over, in a hand-valise with which he did disembark, the sum realized by the forced sale of his little landed property, and that the sum ex

suspicious circumstances, though by whose act or in what precise manner there was no evidence before this Jury to show. And they appended to their verdict, a recommendation to the Home Office (which Mr Inspector appeared to think highly sensible),

g about in boats, putting this and that together. But, according to the success with which you put this and that together, you get a woman and a

nd ebbed and flowed, now in the town, now in the country, now among palaces, now among hovels, now among lords and ladies and gentlefolks, now among