The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (little readers .TXT) đ
- Author: Wilkie Collins
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There! thank God, thatâs told! Neither you nor I need trouble our heads any more about Mr. Blake, senior. Leave him to the Dukedom; and let you and I stick to the Diamond.
The Diamond takes us back to Mr. Franklin, who was the innocent means of bringing that unlucky jewel into the house.
Our nice boy didnât forget us after he went abroad. He wrote every now and then; sometimes to my lady, sometimes to Miss Rachel, and sometimes to me. We had had a transaction together, before he left, which consisted in his borrowing of me a ball of string, a four-bladed knife, and seven-and-sixpence in moneyâthe colour of which last I have not seen, and never expect to see again. His letters to me chiefly related to borrowing more. I heard, however, from my lady, how he got on abroad, as he grew in years and stature. After he had learnt what the institutions of Germany could teach him, he gave the French a turn next, and the Italians a turn after that. They made him among them a sort of universal genius, as well as I could understand it. He wrote a little; he painted a little; he sang and played and composed a littleâborrowing, as I suspect, in all these cases, just as he had borrowed from me. His motherâs fortune (seven hundred a year) fell to him when he came of age, and ran through him, as it might be through a sieve. The more money he had, the more he wanted; there was a hole in Mr. Franklinâs pocket that nothing would sew up. Wherever he went, the lively, easy way of him made him welcome. He lived here, there, and everywhere; his address (as he used to put it himself) being âPost Office, Europeâto be left till called for.â Twice over, he made up his mind to come back to England and see us; and twice over (saving your presence), some unmentionable woman stood in the way and stopped him. His third attempt succeeded, as you know already from what my lady told me. On Thursday the twenty-fifth of May, we were to see for the first time what our nice boy had grown to be as a man. He came of good blood; he had a high courage; and he was five-and-twenty years of age, by our reckoning. Now you know as much of Mr. Franklin Blake as I didâbefore Mr. Franklin Blake came down to our house.
The Thursday was as fine a summerâs day as ever you saw: and my lady and Miss Rachel (not expecting Mr. Franklin till dinner-time) drove out to lunch with some friends in the neighbourhood.
When they were gone, I went and had a look at the bedroom which had been got ready for our guest, and saw that all was straight. Then, being butler in my ladyâs establishment, as well as steward (at my own particular request, mind, and because it vexed me to see anybody but myself in possession of the key of the late Sir Johnâs cellar)âthen, I say, I fetched up some of our famous Latour claret, and set it in the warm summer air to take off the chill before dinner. Concluding to set myself in the warm summer air nextâseeing that what is good for old claret is equally good for old ageâI took up my beehive chair to go out into the back court, when I was stopped by hearing a sound like the soft beating of a drum, on the terrace in front of my ladyâs residence.
Going round to the terrace, I found three mahogany-coloured Indians, in white linen frocks and trousers, looking up at the house.
The Indians, as I saw on looking closer, had small hand-drums slung in front of them. Behind them stood a little delicate-looking light-haired English boy carrying a bag. I judged the fellows to be strolling conjurors, and the boy with the bag to be carrying the tools of their trade. One of the three, who spoke English and who exhibited, I must own, the most elegant manners, presently informed me that my judgment was right. He requested permission to show his tricks in the presence of the lady of the house.
Now I am not a sour old man. I am generally all for amusement, and the last person in the world to distrust another person because he happens to be a few shades darker than myself. But the best of us have our weaknessesâand my weakness, when I know a family plate-basket to be out on a pantry-table, is to be instantly reminded of that basket by the sight of a strolling stranger whose manners are superior to my own. I accordingly informed the Indian that the lady of the house was out; and I warned him and his party off the premises. He made me a beautiful bow in return; and he and his party went off the premises. On my side, I returned to my beehive chair, and set myself down on the sunny side of the court, and fell (if the truth must be owned), not exactly into a sleep, but into the next best thing to it.
I was roused up by my daughter Penelope running out at me as if the house was on fire. What do you think she wanted? She wanted to have the three Indian jugglers instantly taken up; for this reason, namely, that they knew who was coming from London to visit us, and that they meant some mischief to Mr. Franklin Blake.
Mr. Franklinâs name roused me. I opened my eyes, and made my girl explain herself.
It appeared that Penelope had just come from our lodge, where she had been having a gossip with the lodge-keeperâs daughter. The two girls had seen the Indians pass out, after I had warned them off, followed by their little boy. Taking it into their heads that the boy was ill-used by the foreignersâfor no reason that I could discover, except that he was pretty and delicate-lookingâthe two girls had stolen along the inner side of the hedge between us and the road, and had watched the proceedings of the foreigners on the outer side. Those proceedings resulted in the performance of the following extraordinary tricks.
They first looked up the road, and down the road, and made sure that they were alone. Then they all three faced about, and stared hard in the direction of our house. Then they jabbered and disputed in their own language, and looked at each other like men in doubt. Then they all turned to their little English boy, as if they expected him to help them. And then the chief Indian, who spoke English, said to the boy, âHold out your hand.â
On hearing those dreadful words, my daughter Penelope said she didnât know what prevented her heart from flying straight out of her. I thought privately that it might have been her stays. All I said, however, was, âYou make my flesh creep.â (Nota bene: Women like these little compliments.)
Well, when the Indian said, âHold out your hand,â the boy shrunk back, and shook his head, and said he didnât like it. The Indian, thereupon, asked him (not at all unkindly), whether he would like to be sent back to London, and left where they had found him, sleeping in an empty basket in a marketâa hungry, ragged, and forsaken little boy. This, it seems, ended the difficulty. The little chap unwillingly held out his hand. Upon that, the Indian took a bottle from his bosom, and poured out of it some black stuff, like ink, into the palm of the boyâs hand. The Indianâfirst touching the boyâs head, and making signs over it in the airâthen said, âLook.â The boy became quite stiff, and stood like a statue, looking into the ink in the hollow of his hand.
(So far, it seemed to me to be juggling, accompanied by a foolish waste of ink. I was beginning to feel sleepy again, when Penelopeâs next words stirred me up.)
The Indians looked up the road and down the road once moreâand then the chief Indian said these words to the boy; âSee the English gentleman from foreign parts.â
The boy said, âI see him.â
The Indian said, âIs it on the road to this house, and on no other, that the English gentleman will travel today?â
The boy said, âIt is on the road to this house, and on no other, that the English gentleman will travel today.â
The Indian put a second questionâafter waiting a little first. He said: âHas the English gentleman got It about him?â
The boy answeredâalso, after waiting a little firstââYes.â
The Indian put a third and last question: âWill the English gentleman come here, as he has promised to come, at the close of day?â
The boy said, âI canât tell.â
The Indian asked why.
The boy said, âI am tired. The mist rises in my head, and puzzles me. I can see no more today.â
With that the catechism ended. The chief Indian said something in his own language to the other two, pointing to the boy, and pointing towards the town, in which (as we afterwards discovered) they were lodged. He then, after making more signs on the boyâs head, blew on his forehead, and so woke him up with a start. After that, they all went on their way towards the town, and the girls saw them no more.
Most things they say have a moral, if you only look for it. What was the moral of this?
The moral was, as I thought: First, that the chief juggler had heard Mr. Franklinâs arrival talked of among the servants out-of-doors, and saw his way to making a little money by it. Second, that he and his men and boy (with a view to making the said money) meant to hang about till they saw my lady drive home, and then to come back, and foretell Mr. Franklinâs arrival by magic. Third, that Penelope had heard them rehearsing their hocus-pocus, like actors rehearsing a play. Fourth, that I should do well to have an eye, that evening, on the plate-basket. Fifth, that Penelope would do well to cool down, and leave me, her father, to doze off again in the sun.
That appeared to me to be the sensible view. If you know anything of the ways of young women, you wonât be surprised to hear that Penelope wouldnât take it. The moral of the thing was serious, according to my daughter. She particularly reminded me of the Indianâs third question, Has the English gentleman got It about him? âOh, father!â says Penelope, clasping her hands, âdonât joke about this. What does âItâ mean?â
âWeâll ask Mr. Franklin, my dear,â I said, âif you can wait till Mr. Franklin comes.â I winked to show I meant that in joke. Penelope took it quite seriously. My girlâs earnestness tickled me. âWhat on earth should Mr. Franklin know about it?â I inquired. âAsk him,â says Penelope. âAnd see whether he thinks it a laughing matter, too.â With that parting shot, my daughter left me.
I settled it with myself, when she was gone, that I really would ask Mr. Franklinâmainly to set Penelopeâs mind at rest. What was said between us, when I did ask him, later on that same day, you will find set out fully in its proper place. But as I donât wish to raise your expectations and then disappoint them, I will take leave to warn you hereâbefore we go any furtherâthat you wonât find the ghost of a joke in our conversation on the subject of the jugglers. To my great surprise, Mr. Franklin, like Penelope, took the thing seriously. How seriously, you will understand, when I tell you that, in his opinion, âItâ meant the Moonstone.
I am truly
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