The Moonstone - Page 168/404

The date--thanks to my dear parents, no dictionary that ever was written

can be more particular than I am about dates--was Friday, June 30th,

1848.

Early on that memorable day, our gifted Mr. Godfrey happened to be

cashing a cheque at a banking-house in Lombard Street. The name of the

firm is accidentally blotted in my diary, and my sacred regard for truth

forbids me to hazard a guess in a matter of this kind. Fortunately, the

name of the firm doesn't matter. What does matter is a circumstance that

occurred when Mr. Godfrey had transacted his business. On gaining the

door, he encountered a gentleman--a perfect stranger to him--who was

accidentally leaving the office exactly at the same time as himself. A

momentary contest of politeness ensued between them as to who should be

the first to pass through the door of the bank. The stranger insisted on

making Mr. Godfrey precede him; Mr. Godfrey said a few civil words; they

bowed, and parted in the street.

Thoughtless and superficial people may say, Here is surely a very

trumpery little incident related in an absurdly circumstantial manner.

Oh, my young friends and fellow-sinners! beware of presuming to exercise

your poor carnal reason. Oh, be morally tidy. Let your faith be as your

stockings, and your stockings as your faith. Both ever spotless, and

both ready to put on at a moment's notice!

I beg a thousand pardons. I have fallen insensibly into my Sunday-school

style. Most inappropriate in such a record as this. Let me try to be

worldly--let me say that trifles, in this case as in many others, led

to terrible results. Merely premising that the polite stranger was Mr.

Luker, of Lambeth, we will now follow Mr. Godfrey home to his residence

at Kilburn.

He found waiting for him, in the hall, a poorly clad but delicate and

interesting-looking little boy. The boy handed him a letter, merely

mentioning that he had been entrusted with it by an old lady whom he did

not know, and who had given him no instructions to wait for an answer.

Such incidents as these were not uncommon in Mr. Godfrey's large

experience as a promoter of public charities. He let the boy go, and

opened the letter.

The handwriting was entirely unfamiliar to him. It requested his

attendance, within an hour's time, at a house in Northumberland Street,

Strand, which he had never had occasion to enter before. The object

sought was to obtain from the worthy manager certain details on the

subject of the Mothers'-Small-Clothes-Conversion-Society, and the

information was wanted by an elderly lady who proposed adding largely to

the resources of the charity, if her questions were met by satisfactory

replies. She mentioned her name, and she added that the shortness of

her stay in London prevented her from giving any longer notice to the

eminent philanthropist whom she addressed.