The Moonstone - Page 347/404

Having congratulated Betteredge on the progress that he had made (he

persisted in taking notes every time I opened my lips; declining, at

the same time, to pay the slightest attention to anything said by Mr.

Blake); and having promised to return for a second visit of inspection

in a day or two, we prepared to leave the house, going out by the back

way. Before we were clear of the passages downstairs, I was stopped by

Betteredge, just as I was passing the door which led into his own room.

"Could I say two words to you in private?" he asked, in a mysterious

whisper.

I consented of course. Mr. Blake walked on to wait for me in the garden,

while I accompanied Betteredge into his room. I fully anticipated a

demand for certain new concessions, following the precedent already

established in the cases of the stuffed buzzard, and the Cupid's wing.

To my great surprise, Betteredge laid his hand confidentially on my arm,

and put this extraordinary question to me: "Mr. Jennings, do you happen to be acquainted with ROBINSON CRUSOE?"

I answered that I had read ROBINSON CRUSOE when I was a child.

"Not since then?" inquired Betteredge.

"Not since then."

He fell back a few steps, and looked at me with an expression of

compassionate curiosity, tempered by superstitious awe.

"He has not read ROBINSON CRUSOE since he was a child," said Betteredge,

speaking to himself--not to me. "Let's try how ROBINSON CRUSOE strikes

him now!"

He unlocked a cupboard in a corner, and produced a dirty and dog's-eared

book, which exhaled a strong odour of stale tobacco as he turned over

the leaves. Having found a passage of which he was apparently in

search, he requested me to join him in the corner; still mysteriously

confidential, and still speaking under his breath.

"In respect to this hocus-pocus of yours, sir, with the laudanum and Mr.

Franklin Blake," he began. "While the workpeople are in the house, my

duty as a servant gets the better of my feelings as a man. When the

workpeople are gone, my feelings as a man get the better of my duty as a

servant. Very good. Last night, Mr. Jennings, it was borne in powerfully

on my mind that this new medical enterprise of yours would end badly.

If I had yielded to that secret Dictate, I should have put all the

furniture away again with my own hand, and have warned the workmen off

the premises when they came the next morning."