"Morrison, Arthur - The Case Of The Ward Lane Tabernacle (1896)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison Arthur)

now has, I believe, no relations in the world. It was also soon after these
events that her present housekeeper first came to her in place of an older and
very deaf woman, quite useless, who had been with her before. I believe she is
moderately rich, and that one or two charities will benefit considerably at her
death; also I should be far from astonished to find Hewitt's own name in her
will, though this is no more than idle conjecture. The one possession to which
she clings with all her soul--her one pride and treasure--is her great-uncle
Joseph's snuff-box, the lid of which she steadfastly believes to be made of a
piece of Noah's original ark discovered on the top of Mount Ararat by some
intrepid explorer of vague identity about a hundred years ago. This is her one
weakness, and woe to the unhappy creature who dares hint a suggestion that
possibly the wood of the ark rotted away to nothing a few thousand years before
her great-uncle Joseph ever took snuff. I believe he would be bodily assaulted.
The box is brought for Hewitt's admiration at every tea ceremony at Fulham, when
Hewitt handles it reverently and expresses as much astonishment and interest as
if he had never seen or heard of it before. It is on these occasions only that
Mrs. Mallett's customary stiffness relaxes. The sides of the box are of cedar of
Lebanon, she explains (which very possibly they are), and the gold mountings
were worked up from spade guineas (which one can believe without undue strain on
the reason). And it is usually these times, when the old lady softens under the
combined influence of tea and uncle Joseph's snuff-box, that Hewitt seizes to
lead up to his hint of some starving governess or distressed clerk, with the
full confidence that the more savagely the story is received the better will the
poor people be treated as soon as he turns his back.
It was her jealous care of uncle Joseph's snuff-box that first brought Mrs.
Mallett into contact with Martin Hewitt, and the occasion, though not perhaps
testing his acuteness to the extent that some did, was nevertheless one of the
most curious and fantastic on which he has ever been engaged She was then some
ten or twelve years younger than she is now, but Hewitt assures me she looked
exactly the same; that is to say, she was harsh, angular, and seemed little more
than fifty years of age. It was before the time of Kerrett, and another youth
occupied the outer office. Hewitt sat late one afternoon with his door ajar when
he heard a stranger enter the outer office, and a voice, which he afterwards
knew well as Mrs. Mallett's, ask "Is Mr. Martin Hewitt in?"
"Yes, ma'am, I think so. If you will write your name and----"
"Is he in there?" And with three strides Mrs. Mallett was at the inner door
and stood before Hewitt himself, while the routed office-lad stared helplessly
in the rear.
"Mr. Hewitt," Mrs. Mallet said, "I have come to put an affair into your hands,
which I shall require to be attended to at once."
Hewitt was surprised, but he bowed politely, and said, with some suspicion of
a hint in his tone, "Yes--I rather supposed you were in a hurry."
She glanced quickly in Hewitt's face and went on: "I am not accustomed to
needless ceremony, Mr. Hewitt. My name is Mallett--Mrs. Mallett--and here is my
card. I have come to consult you on a matter of great annoyance and some danger
to myself. The fact is I am being watched and followed by a number of persons."
Hewitt's gaze was steadfast, but he reflected that possibly this curious woman
was a lunatic, the delusion of being watched and followed by unknown people
being perhaps the most common of all; also it was no unusual thing to have a
lunatic visit the office with just such a complaint. So he only said soothingly,