He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope (ebook reader with internet browser txt) 📖

CHAPTER XXIII

COLONEL OSBORNE AND MR BOZZLE RETURN TO LONDON

 

Hugh Stanbury went down on the Saturday, by the early express to

Exeter, on his road to Lessboro’. He took his ticket through to

Lessboro’, not purposing to stay at Exeter; but, from the exigencies of

the various trains, it was necessary that he should remain for half an

hour at the Exeter Station. This took place on the Saturday, and

Colonel Osborne’s visit to the Clock House had been made on the Friday.

Colonel Osborne had returned to Lessboro’, had slept again at Mrs

Clegg’s house, and returned to London on the Saturday. It so happened

that, he also was obliged to spend half an hour at the Exeter Station,

and that his half-hour, and Hugh Stanbury’s half-hour, were one and the

same. They met, therefore, as a matter of course, upon the platform.

Stanbury was the first to see the other, and he found that he must

determine on the spur of the moment what he would say, and what he

would do. He had received no direct commission from Trevelyan as to his

meeting with Colonel Osborne. Trevelyan had declared that, as to the

matter of quarrelling, he meant to retain the privilege of doing that

for himself; but Stanbury had quite understood that this was only the

vague expression of an angry man. The Colonel had taken a glass of

sherry, and had lighted a cigar, and was quite comfortable having

thrown aside, for a time, that consciousness of the futility of his

journey which had perplexed him when Stanbury accosted him.

 

‘What! Mr Stanbury how do you do? Fine day, isn’t it? Are you going up

or down?’

 

‘I’m going to see my own people at Nuncombe Putney, a village, beyond

Lessboro’,’ said Hugh.

 

‘Ah indeed.’ Colonel Osborne of course perceived it once that as this

man was going to the house at which he had just been visiting, it would

be better that he should himself explain what he had done. If he were

to allow this mention of Nuncombe Putney to pass without saying that he

himself had been there, he would be convicted of at least some purpose

of secrecy in what he had been doing. ‘Very strange,’ said he; ‘I was

at Nuncombe Putney myself yesterday.’

 

‘I know you were,’ said Stanbury.

 

‘And how did you know it?’ There had been a tone of anger in Stanbury’s

voice which Colonel Osborne had at once appreciated, and which made him

assume a similar one. As they spoke there was a man standing in a

corner close by the bookstall, with his eye upon them, and that man was

Bozzle, the ex-policeman who was doing his duty with sedulous activity

by seeing ‘the Colonel’ back to London. Now Bozzle did not know Hugh

Stanbury, and was angry with himself that, he should be so ignorant. It

is the pride of a detective ex-policeman to know everybody that comes

in his way.

 

‘Well, I had been so informed. My friend Trevelyan knew that you were

there—or that you were going there.’

 

‘I don’t care who knew that I was going there,’ said the Colonel.

 

‘I won’t pretend to understand how that may be, Colonel Osborne; but I

think you must be aware, after, what took place in Curzon Street, that

it would have been better that you should not have attempted to see Mrs

Trevelyan. Whether you have seen her I do not know.’

 

‘What business is it of yours, Mr Stanbury, whether I have seen that

lady or not?’

 

‘Unhappily for me, her husband has made it my business.’

 

‘Very unhappily for you, I should say.’

 

‘And the lady is staying at my mother’s house.’

 

‘I presume the lady is not a prisoner in your mother’s house, and that

your mother’s hospitality is not so restricted but that her guest may

see an old friend under her roof.’ This, Colonel Osborne said with an

assumed look of almost righteous indignation, which was not at all lost

upon Bozzle. They had returned back towards the bookstall, and Bozzle,

with his eyes fixed on a copy of the ‘D. R.’ which he had just bought,

was straining his ears to the utmost to catch what was being said.

 

‘You best know whether you have seen her or not.’

 

‘I have seen her.’

 

‘Then I shall take leave to tell you, Colonel Osborne, that you have

acted in a most unfriendly way, and have done that which must tend to

keep an affectionate husband apart from his wife.’

 

‘Sir, I don’t at all understand this kind of thing addressed to me. The

father of the lady you are speaking of has been my most intimate friend

for thirty years.’ After all, the Coonel was a mean man when he could

take pride in his youth, and defend himself on the score of his age, in

one and the same proceeding.

 

‘I have nothing further to say,’ replied Stanbury.

 

‘You have said too much already, Mr Stanbury.’

 

‘I think not, Colonel Osborne. You have, I fear, done an incredible

deal of mischief by going to Nuncombe Putney; and, after all that you

have heard on the subject, you must have known that it would be

mischievous. I cannot understand how you can force yourself about a

man’s wife against the man’s expressed wish.’

 

‘Sir, I didn’t force myself upon anybody. Sir, I went down to see an

old friend and a remarkable piece of antiquity. And, when another old

friend was in the neighbourhood, close by, one of the oldest friends I

have in the world, wasn’t I to go and see her? God bless my soul! What

business is it of yours? I never heard such impudence in my life!’ Let

the charitable reader suppose that Colonel Osborne did not know that he

was lying—that he really thought, when he spoke, that he had gone down

to Lessboro’ to see the remarkable piece of antiquity.

 

‘Good morning,’ said Hugh Stanbury, turning on his heels and walking

away. Colonel Osborne shook himself, inflated his cheeks, and blew

forth the breath out of his mouth, put his thumbs up to the armholes of

his waistcoat, and walked about the platform as though he thought it to

be incumbent on him to show that he was somebody, somebody that ought

not to be insulted, somebody, perhaps, whom a very pretty woman might

prefer to her own husband, in spite of a small difference in age. He

was angry, but not quite so much angry as proud. And he was safe, too.

He thought that he was safe. When he should come to account for himself

and his actions to his old friend, Sir Marmaduke, he felt that he would

be able to show that he had been, in all respects, true to friendship.

Sir Marmaduke had unfortunately given his daughter to a jealous,

disagreeable fellow, and the fault all lay in that. As for Hugh

Stanbury he would simply despise Hugh Stanbury, and have done with it.

 

Mr Bozzle, though he had worked hard in the cause, had heard but a word

or two. Eaves-droppers seldom do hear more than that. A porter had

already told him who was Hugh Stanbury, that he was Mr Hugh Stanbury,

and that his aunt lived at Exeter. And Bozzle, knowing that the lady

about whom he was concerned was living with a Mrs Stanbury at the house

he had been watching, put two and two together with his natural

cleverness. ‘God bless my soul! what business is it of yours?’ Those

words were nearly all that Bozzle had been able to hear; but even those

sufficiently indicated a quarrel. ‘The lady’ was living with Mrs

Stanbury, having been so placed by her husband; and young Stanbury was

taking the lady’s part! Bozzle began to fear that the husband had not

confided in him with that perfect faith which he felt to be essentially

necessary to the adequate performance of the duties of his great

profession. A sudden thought, however, struck him. Something might be

done on the journey up to London. He at once made his way back to the

ticket-window and exchanged his ticket second-class for first-class. It

was a noble deed, the expense falling all upon his own pocket; for, in

the natural course of things, he would have charged his employers with

the full first-class fare. He had seen Colonel Osborne seat himself in

a carriage, and within two minutes he was occupying the opposite place.

The Colonel was aware that he had noticed the man’s face lately, but

did not know where.

 

‘Very fine summer weather, sir,’ said Bozzle.

 

‘Very fine,’ said the Colonel, burying himself behind a newspaper.

 

‘They is getting up their wheat nicely in these parts, sir.’

 

The answer to this was no more than a grunt. But Bozzle was not

offended. Not to be offended is the special duty of all policemen, in

and out of office; and the journey from Exeter to London was long, and

was all before him.

 

‘A very nice little secluded village is Nuncombe Putney,’ said Bozzle,

as the train was leaving the Salisbury station.

 

At Salisbury two ladies had left the carriage, no one else had got in,

and Bozzle. was alone with the Colonel.

 

‘I dare say,’ said the Colonel, ‘who by this time had relinquished his

shield, and who had begun to compose himself for sleep, or to pretend

to compose himself, as soon as he heard Bozzle’s voice. He had been

looking at Bozzle, and though he had not discovered the man’s trade,

had told himself that his companion was a thing of dangers a thing to

be avoided, by one engaged, as had been he himself, on a special and

secret mission.

 

‘Saw you there calling at the Clock House,’ said Bozzle.

 

‘Very likely,’ said the Colonel, throwing his head well back into the

corner,