"This Rokesmith is a needy young man," Mr. Boffin went on unmoved. "He gets acquainted with my affairs and gets to know that I mean to settle a sum of money upon this young lady."

"I indignantly deny it!" said the secretary quietly. "But our connection being at an end, it matters little what I say."

"I discharge you," Mr. Boffin retorted. "There"s your money."

"Mrs. Boffin," said Rokesmith, "for your unvarying kindness I thank you with the warmest grat.i.tude. Miss Wilfer, good-bye."

"Oh, Mr. Rokesmith," said Bella in her tears, "hear one word from me before you go. I am deeply sorry for the reproaches you have borne on my account. Out of the depths of my heart I beg your pardon."

She gave him her hand, and he put it to his lips and said, "G.o.d bless you!"

"There was a time when I deserved to be "righted," as Mr. Boffin has done," Bella went on, "but I hope that I shall never deserve it again."

Once more John Rokesmith put her hand to his lips, and then relinquished it, and left the room.

Bella threw her arms round Mrs. Boffin"s neck. "He has been most shamefully abused and driven away, and I am the cause of it. I must go home; I am very grateful for all you have done for me, but I can"t stay here."

"Now, Bella," said Mr. Boffin, "look before you leap. Go away, and you can never come back. And you mustn"t expect that I"m a-going to settle money on you if you leave me like this, because I"m not. Not one bra.s.s farthing."

"No power on earth could make me take it now," said Bella haughtily.

Then she broke into sobs over saying good-bye to Mrs. Boffin, said a last word to Mr. Boffin, and ran upstairs. A few minutes later she went out of the house.

"That was well done," said Bella when she was in the street, "and now I"ll go and see my dear, darling pa in the city."

_IV.--The Runaway Marriage_

Bella found her way to her father"s office in the city. It was after hours, and the little man was alone, having tea on a small cottage loaf and a pennyworth of milk, for R. Wilfer was but a clerk on a small income. He immediately fetched another loaf and another pennyworth of milk, and then, before she could tell him she had left the Boffins, who should come along but John Rokesmith. And John Rokesmith not only came in, but he caught Bella in his arms, and she was content to leave her head on his breast as if that were her head"s chosen and lasting resting place.

"I knew you would come to him, and I followed you," said Rokesmith. "You _are_ mine."

"Yes, I am yours if you think me worth taking," Bella responded.

Then Bella"s father had to hear what had happened, and said his daughter had done well.

"To think," said Wilfer, looking round the office, "that anything of a tender nature should come off here is what tickles me."

A few weeks later and Bella and her father went out early one morning and took the steamer to Greenwich. And at Greenwich there was John Rokesmith, and presently in a church John and Bella were joined together in wedlock.

They had been married a year, and lived in a little house at Blackheath.

John Rokesmith went up to the city every day, and explained that he was "in a China house." From time to time he would ask her, "Would you like to be rich _now_, my darling?" and got for answer, "Dear John, am I not rich?"

But for all that a change came in their affairs. For Mortimer Lightwood, who had met Bella at the Boffins", seeing her walking with her husband, recognised him as Julius Handford; and as Mr. Inspector had never discovered what became of Mr. Julius Handford, he must needs pay Mr.

Rokesmith a visit. And then it turned out that John Rokesmith was not only Julius Handford, but John Harmon himself, much to Mr. Inspector"s astonishment.

More surprises were to follow, for when John came home next day he told Bella that he had left the China house, and was better off.

"We must have our headquarters in London now, my dear, and there"s a house ready for us."

And the house which John and Bella visited next day was none other than the Boffins", and when they arrived, there were Mr. and Mrs. Boffin beaming at them. Mrs. Boffin told Bella that John Rokesmith was John Harmon, and how, remembering him as a small boy, she had guessed it quite early. Then Mrs. Boffin admitted that John, despairing of winning Bella"s heart, and determined that there should be no question of money in the marriage, he was for going away, and that Noddy said he would prove that she loved him. "We was all of us in it, my beauty," Mrs.

Boffin concluded, "and when you was married there was we hid up in the church organ by this husband of yours, for he wouldn"t let us out with it then, as was first meant. But it was Noddy who said that he would prove you had a true heart of gold. "If she was to stand up for you when you was slighted," he said to John, "and if she was to do that against her own interest, how would that do?" "Do?" says John, "it would raise me to the skies." "Then," says my Noddy, "get ready for the ascent, John, for up you go. Look out for being slighted and oppressed." And then he began. And how he did begin, didn"t he?"

"It looks as if old Harmon"s spirit had found rest at last, and as if his money had turned bright again after a long rust in the dark," said Mrs. Boffin to her husband that night.

"Yes, old lady."

The mystery of the Harmon murder is yet to be explained. John Harmon, going on sh.o.r.e with a fellow pa.s.senger, who greatly resembled him, was drugged and robbed of his money in a house near the river by this man.

But the robber, who had taken Harmon"s clothes, was himself robbed and thrown into the water, and Harmon recovered consciousness and made his escape just at the time when the body of his a.s.sailant was recovered. In this state of strange excitement he turned up at the police station, and, unwilling to reveal his ident.i.ty at the moment, pa.s.sed himself off as Julius Handford.

Pickwick Papers

d.i.c.kens first became known to the public through the famous "Sketches by Boz," which appeared in the "Monthly Magazine" in December, 1833, the complete series being collected and published in volume form three years later. This was followed by the immortal "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" in 1836, which soon placed d.i.c.kens in the front rank of English novelists. Frankly humorous as "Pickwick" is, d.i.c.kens, in a preface to a later edition, recorded with satisfaction that "legal reforms had pared the claws of Messrs. Dodson and Fogg," that the laws relating to imprisonment for debt had been altered, and the Fleet Prison pulled down.

_I.--Mr. Pickwick Engages Sam Weller_

Mr. Pickwick"s apartments in Goswell Street were of a very neat and comfortable description, peculiarly adapted for a man of his genius and observation, and importance as General Chairman of the world-famed Pickwick Club.

His landlady, Mrs. Bardell, was a comely woman of bustling manners and agreeable appearance, with a natural gift for cooking. Cleanliness and quiet reigned throughout the house, and in it Mr. Pickwick"s will was law.

To anyone acquainted with these things and with Mr. Pickwick"s admirably regulated mind, his conduct on the morning previous to his setting out for Eatanswill seemed most mysterious and unaccountable. He paced the room, popped his head out of the window, and constantly referred to his watch. It was evident to Mrs. Bardell, who was dusting the apartment, that something of importance was in contemplation.

"Mrs. Bardell," said Mr. Pickwick at last, "your little boy is a very long time gone."

"Why, it"s a good long way to the Borough, sir!" remonstrated Mrs.

Bardell.

"Very true; so it is. Mrs. Bardell do you think it"s a much greater expense to keep two people than to keep one?"

"La, Mr. Pickwick!" said Mrs. Bardell, colouring, as she fancied she observed a species of matrimonial twinkle in the eyes of her lodger.

"La, Mr. Pickwick, what a question!"

"Well, but _do_ you?" inquired Mr. Pickwick.

"That depends," said Mrs. Bardell, "a good deal upon the person, you know, Mr. Pickwick; and whether it"s a saving and careful person, sir."

"That"s very true," said Mr. Pickwick; "but the person I have in my eye (here he looked very hard at Mrs. Bardell) I think possesses these qualities. To tell you the truth, I have made up my mind. You"ll think it very strange now that I never consulted you about this matter till I sent your little boy out this morning, eh?"

Mrs. Bardell had long worshipped Mr. Pickwick at a distance, and now she thought he was going to propose. A deliberate plan, too--sent her little boy to the Borough to get him out of the way! How thoughtful! How considerate!