ing. Entre nous, I am somewhat puzzled, just now, certainly— but never fear! I shall find a way out of the wood yet. Expect me at nine, to a minute,-Yours as ever, "HARRY HARTLEY, Esq. "O. GAMMON. This he sealed and directed; and requesting his laundress to put it into the office in time for the first post, without fail-he got into bed, and slept for a couple of hours: when he awoke somewhat refreshed, made his toilet as usual, and partook of a slight breakfast. "You did not suppose I had absconded, Mrs Brown, eh?” he enquired, with a melancholy smile, as she removed his breakfast things. “No, sir; indeed I did not believe a word of it-you've always been a kind and just master to me, sir-and"—she raised her apron to her eyes, and sobbed. "And I hope long to continue so, Mrs Brown. By the way, were not your wages due a day or two ago?" "Oh yes ! sir-but it does not signify, sir, the least; though on second thoughts-it does, sir; for my little niece is to be taken into the country-she's dying, I fear and her mother's been out of work for "Here's a ten-pound note, Mrs Brown," replied Mr Gammon, taking one from his pocket-book-" pay yourself your wages; write me a receipt as usual, and keep the rest on account of the next quarter's wages, if it will assist you just now." She took the bank-note with many expressions of thankfulness; and but for her tears, which flowed plentifully, she might have noticed that there was something deadly in the eye of her kind and tranquil master. On her retiring, he rosé, and walked to and fro for a long time, with folded arms, wrapped in profound meditation— from which he was occasionally unpleasantly startled by hearing knocks at his door, and then his laundress assuring the visitor that Mr Gammon was out of town, but would return on the morrow. It was a cheerless November day, the snow fluttering lazily through the foggy air; but his room was made cheerful enough, by the large fire which he kept up. snug and Opening his desk, he sat down, about noon, and wrote a very long letterin the course of which, however, he repeatedly laid down his pen-got up and walked to and fro, heaving deep sighs, and being occasionally exceedingly agitated. At length he concluded it, paused some time, and then folded it up, and sealed it. Then he spent at least two hours in going over all the papers in his desk and cabinet; a considerable number of them he burnt, and replaced and arranged the remainder carefully. Then again he walked to and fro. The cat, a very fine and favourite cat, one which had been several years an inmate of the chambers, attracted his attention, by rubbing against his legs. "Poor puss!" he exclaimed, stroking her fondly on the back; and, after a while, the glossy creature sidled away, as it were reluctantly, from his caressing hand, and lay comfortably coiled up on the hearth-rug, as before. Again he walked to and fro, absorbed in melancholy reflection for some time; from which he was roused, about five, by Mrs Brown bringing in the spare dinner-which, having barely tasted, he soon dismissed, telling Mrs Brown that he felt a strange shooting pain in his head, but doubted not his being well enough to keep his appointment at the club-as she knew had been his habit for years. He requested her to have his dressing-room ready by a quarter to eight, and a coach fetched by eight o'clock precisely; and as soon as she had withdrawn, he sat down and wrote the following letter to the oldest and most devoted personal friend he had in the world: "MY DEAR I entreat you, by our long unbroken friendship, to keep the enclosed letter by you for a fortnight; and then, with your own hand, and alone, deliver it to the individual to whom it is addressed. Burn this note to you the instant you shall have read it—and take care that no eye sees the enclosed but hers--or all my efforts to secure a little provision for her will be frustrated. In the corner of the top drawer of my cabinet will be found, folded up, a document referred to in the enclosed letter-in fact, my will—and which I wish you, as an old friend, to take the very earliest opportunity of discovering, accidentally. You will find the date all correct, and safe. Call here to-morrow-at any hour you please—and say that you have called to see me, according to my appointment. Bear this in mind, by the value you set upon my friendship. Whatever you may then see or hear, be firm and prudent.-O. G.” "Wednesday." In this letter he enclosed the long letter already spoken of, and having sealed and directed the whole with elaborate distinctness, he threw his cloak round him, and went with his packet to the post-office, and with his own hand, after an instant's hesitation, dropped it into the box, and returned to his chambers. Then he took another sheet of paper, and wrote thus:→→→→ "DEAR VIPER,-I doubt whether, after all, there will be a dissolution; but, at any rate, I will perform my promise, and be ready with what you wish for Sunday week.-Your's ever, "P.S.—I shall call on you on Saturday." "O. G." This he folded up and directed, and proceeded to commence the following: "Thavies' Inn, Wednesday. "DEAR SIR,—I have finally determined to make every sacrifice in order to extricate myself, with honour, from my present embarrassments. You will, therefore, as soon as you get this, please to sell out all my" here he laid down his pen; and Mrs Brown presently announcing that every thing was ready in his dressing-room, he thanked her, and proceeded to shave and dress. He was not more than a quarter of an hour over his toilet. He had put on his usual evening dress—his blue bodycoat, black trowsers, a plain shirt and black stock, and a white waistcoat-scarcely whiter, however, than the face of him that wore it. "I am going for the coach now, sir," said Mrs Brown, knocking at the door. "If you please," he replied, briskly and cheerfully-and the instant that he had heard her close the outer door after her, he opened the secret spring drawer in his desk, and took out a very small glass phial, with a glass stopper, over which was tied some bladder, to preserve its contents from the air. His face was ghastly pale; his knees trembled; his hands were cold and damp as those of the dead. He took a strong peppermint lozenge from the mantelpiece, and chewed it, while he removed the stopper from the bottle, which contained about half a drachm of the most subtle and potent poison which has been discovered by man-one extinguishing life almost instantaneously, and leaving no trace of its presence except a slight odour, which he had taken the precaution of masking and overpowering with that of the peppermint. He returned to get his hat, which was in his dressingroom; he put it on-and in glancing at the glass, scarcely recognised the ghastly image it reflected. His object was, to complete the deception he intended practising on the Insurance Company, with whom he had effected a policy on his life for £2000—and also to deceive every body into the notion of his having died suddenly, but naturally. Having stirred up the large red fire, and made a kind of hollow in it, he took out the stopper, and dropped it, with the bladder, into the fire; took his pen in his right hand, with a fresh dip of ink in it; kneeled down on the fender; uttered aloud the word " Emma;" poured the whole of the deadly contents into his mouth, and succeeded in dropping the phial into the very heart of the fire-falling down the next instant on the hearth-rug, oblivious, insensible— dead. However it might have been, that the instant after he had done this direful deed, he would have GIVEN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE, had it been his, to have undone what he had donehe had succeeded, for the present, in effecting his object. Poor Mrs Brown's terror, on discovering her master stretched senseless on the floor-his hat pushed partly down over his eyes in the act of falling—may be imagined. Medical assistance was called in, but only to announce that "the vital spark had fled.” It was clearly either apoplexy, said the intelligent medical man, or an organic disease of the heart. Of this opinion were the coroner and his jury, without hesitation. The deceased had evidently been seized while in the very act of writing to some broker. [Gammon had no more "stock" of any sort, for all he had written that letter, than the cat which had witnessed, and been for a moment disturbed by, his death.] Mr Hartley came, and produced the letter he had received, and spoke of the disappointment they had all felt on account of Mr Gammon's non VOL. III. 2 H arrival: the other letters—the appointments which he had made for the morrow-the evidence which he had taken care to enable his laundress to give-all these things were decisive—it was really "scarcely a case requiring an inquest;" but as they had been called, they returned a verdict of "Died by the Visitation of God." He was buried a few days afterwards in the adjoining churchyard, (St Andrew's,) where he lies mouldering away quietly enough, certainly; but whether (in the language of the solemn and sublime burial-service which his sorrowful friend had procured to be read over his remains) “in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ," is another, and a fearful question. His "friend" was faithful and discreet, obeying his injunctions to the letter. The "individual" alluded to in Mr Gammon's note to him, was a beautiful girl whom Mr Gammon had seduced under a solemn promise of marriage; who was passionately attached to him; whose name he had uttered when on the eve of death; and to whom he had, some six months before, bequeathed the amount of the policy--his will being witnessed by Mary Brown, his housekeeper. Though his creditors were, of course, entitled to every farthing of the £2000, out of which he had so artfully swindled the Insurance Company, they generously allowed her, in consideration of her peculiar and melancholy situation, to receive the sum of £1000! |