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.