Mrs b.u.t.t had been forewarned of the impending visit, and, although she confessed to some uncomfortable feelings in respect of infection and dirt, received him with a gracious air.
"You"ve come to breakfast, I understand?"
"Well, I believe I "ave," answered the little man, with an involuntary glance at his dilapidated clothes; ""avin" been inwited--unless," he added, somewhat doubtfully, "the inwite came in a dream."
"You may go in and clear up that point for yourself," said the landlady, as she ushered the poor man into the parlour, where he was almost startled to find an amiable gentleman waiting to receive him.
"Come along, Zook, I like punctuality. Are you hungry?"
""Ungry as a "awk, sir," replied Zook, glancing at the table and rubbing his hands, for there entered his nostrils delicious odours, the causes of which very seldom entered his throat. "W"y, sir, I _know"d_ you was a gent, from the wery first!"
"I have at least entered my native sh.e.l.l," said Charlie, with a laugh.
"Sit down. We"ve no time to waste. Now what"ll you have? Coffee, tea, pork-sausage, ham and egg, b.u.t.tered toast, hot rolls. Just help yourself, and fancy you"re in the lodging-house at your own table."
"Well, sir, that _would_ be a stretch o" fancy that would strain me a"most to the bustin" p"int. Coffee, if you please. Oh yes, sugar an"
milk _in course_. I never let slip a chance as I knows on. W"ich bread? well, "ot rolls is temptin", but I allers "ad a weakness for sappy things, so "ot b.u.t.tered toast--if you can spare it."
"Spare it, my good man!" said Charlie, laughing. "There"s a whole loaf in the kitchen and pounds of b.u.t.ter when you"ve finished this, not to mention the shops round the corner."
It was a more gratifying treat to Charlie than he had expected, to see this poor man eat to his heart"s content of viands which he so thoroughly appreciated and so rarely enjoyed. What Zook himself felt, it is impossible for well-to-do folk to conceive, or an ordinary pen to describe; but, as he sat there, opposite to his big friend and champion, stowing away the good things with zest and devotion of purpose, it was easy to believe that his watery eyes were charged with the tears of grat.i.tude, as well as with those of a chronic cold to which he was subject.
Breakfast over, they started off in quest of the old woman with teetotal proclivities.
"How did you come to know her?" asked Charlie, as they went along.
"Through a "ouse in the city as I was connected with afore I got run over an" lamed. They used to send me with parcels to this old "ooman.
In course I didn"t know for sartin" w"at was in the parcels, but "avin"
a nose, you see, an" bein" able to smell, I guessed that it was a compound o" wittles an" wursted work."
"A strange compound, Zook."
"Well, they wasn"t "zactly compounded--they was sometimes the one an"
sometimes the other; never mixed to my knowledge."
"What house was it that sent you?"
"Withers and Company."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Charlie in surprise. "I know the house well. The head of it is a well-known philanthropist. How came you to leave them?
They never would have allowed an old servant to come to your pa.s.s-- unless, indeed, he was--"
"A fool, sir, or wuss," interrupted Zook; "an" that"s just what I was.
I runned away from "em, sir, an" I"ve been ashamed to go back since.
But that"s "ow I come to know old Missis Mag, an" it"s down "ere she lives."
They turned into a narrow pa.s.sage which led to a small court at the back of a ma.s.s of miserable buildings, and here they found the residence of the old woman.
"By the way, Zook, what"s her name?" asked Charlie.
"Mrs Mag Samson."
"Somehow the name sounds familiar to me," said Charlie, as he knocked at the door.
A very small girl opened it and admitted that her missis was at "ome; whereupon our hero turned to his companion.
"I"ll manage her best without company, Zook," he said; "so you be off; and see that you come to my lodging to-night at six to hear the result of my interview and have tea."
"I will, sir."
"And here, Zook, put that in your pocket, and take a good dinner."
"I will, sir."
"And--hallo! Zook, come here. Not a word about all this in the lodging-house;--stay, now I think of it, don"t go to the lodging-house at all. Go to a casual ward where they"ll make you take a good bath.
Be sure you give yourself a good scrub. D"ye hear?"
"Yes, sir." He walked away murmuring, "More "am and hegg an" b.u.t.tered toast to-night! Zook, you"re in luck to-day--in clover, my boy! in clover!"
Meanwhile, Charlie Brooke found himself in the presence of a bright-eyed little old woman, who bade him welcome with the native grace of one who is a born, though not a social, lady, and beautified by Christianity.
Her visitor went at once straight to the point.
"Forgive my intrusion, Mrs Samson," he said, taking the chair to which the old woman pointed, "but, indeed, I feel a.s.sured that you will, when I state that the object of my visit is to ask you to aid in the rescue of a friend from drink."
"No man intrudes on me who comes on such an errand; but how does it happen, sir, that you think _I_ am able to aid you?"
To this Charlie replied by giving her an account of his meeting and conversation with Zook, and followed that up with a full explanation of his recent efforts and a graphic description of Isaac Leather.
The old woman listened attentively, and, as her visitor proceeded, with increasing interest not unmingled with surprise and amus.e.m.e.nt.
When he had concluded, Mrs Samson rose, and, opening a door leading to another room, held up her finger to impose silence, and softly bade him look in.
He did so. The room was a very small one, scantily furnished, with a low truckle-bed in one corner, and there, on the bed, lay the object of his quest--Isaac Leather! Charlie had just time to see that the thin pale face was not that of a dead, but of a sleeping, man when the old woman gently pulled him back and re-closed the door.
"That"s your man, I think."
"Yes, that"s the man--I thank G.o.d for this most astonishing and unlooked-for success."
"Ah! sir," returned the woman, sitting down again, "most of our successes are unlooked for, and, when they do come, we are not too ready to recognise the hand of the Giver."
"Nevertheless you must admit that some incidents do seem almost miraculous," said Charlie. "To have found _you_ out in this great city, the very person who had Mr Leather in her keeping, does seem unaccountable, does it not?"
"Not so unaccountable as it seems to you," replied the old woman, "and certainly not so much of a miracle as it would have been if you had found him by searching the lodging-houses. Here is the way that G.o.d seems to have brought it about. I have for many years been a pensioner of the house of Withers and Company, by whom I was employed until the senior partner made me a sort of female city-missionary amongst the poor. I devoted myself particularly to the reclaiming of drunkards-- having special sympathy with them. A friend of mine, Miss Molloy, also employed by the senior partner in works of charity, happened to be acquainted with Mr Leather and his family. She knew of his failing, and she found out--for she has a strange power, that I never could understand, of inducing people to make a confidant of her,--she found out (what no one else knew, it seems) that poor Mr Leather wished to put himself under some sort of restraint, for he could not resist temptation when it came in his way. Knowing about me, she naturally advised him to put himself in my hands. He objected at first, but agreed at last on condition that none of his people should be told anything about it. I did not like to receive him on such conditions, but gave in because he would come on no other. Well, sir, you came down here because you had information which led you to think Mr Leather had come to this part of the city. You met with a runaway servant of Withers and Company--not very wonderful that. He naturally knows about me and fetches you here. Don"t you see?"
"Yes, I see," replied Charlie, with an amused expression; "still I cannot help looking on the whole affair as very wonderful, and I hope that that does not disqualify me from recognising G.o.d"s leading in the matter."
"Nay, young sir," returned the old woman, "that ought rather to qualify you for such recognition, for are not His ways said to be wonderful--ay, sometimes `past finding out"? But what we know not now, we shall know hereafter. I thought that when my poor boy went to sea--"
"Mrs Samson!" exclaimed Charlie, with a sudden start, "I see it now!
Was your boy"s name Fred?"