“Bristow, you have the cheek of the Deuce himself,” was all that the astonished Squire could say.
It may just be remarked that Tom’s ambition has since been gratified. He is now, and has been for some time, member for W——. He is clever, ambitious, and a tolerable orator, as oratory is reckoned nowadays. What may not such a man aspire to?
Mr. Hoskyns is a frequent guest both of Tom and Lionel. Chatting with the former one day over the “walnuts and the wine,” said the old man: “I have often puzzled my brain over that affair of Baldry’s—that positive assertion of his that he saw and spoke to me one night in the Thornfield Road when I was most certainly not there. Have you ever thought about it since?”
“Once or twice, I dare say, but I could have enlightened you at the time had I chosen to do so. It was I whom Baldry met. I had made myself up to resemble you, and previously to my visit to the prison in your character, I thought I would try the effect of my disguise upon somebody who had known you well for years. As it so happened, Baldry was the first of your acquaintances whom I encountered on my nocturnal ramble. The rest you know.”
“You young vagabond! And yet you have the audacity to call yourself a respectable member of society. Perhaps you can explain the mystery of the ghostly footsteps at Park Newton when poor Pearce, the butler, was frightened out of the small quantity of wit that he could lay claim to?”
“That, too, I can explain. The ghostly footsteps, as it happened, were very corporeal footsteps, being those of none other than your humble servant.”
“But how did you get into the room? It had been nailed up months before.”
“The nailing up was more apparent than real. The nails were sham nails. The door could be unlocked at any time, and the room entered in the ordinary way.”
“But how about the cough—Mr. Osmond’s peculiar cough?”
“That was an imitation by me from lessons given me by Mr. Dering. It answered the purpose admirably for which it was intended.”
“To hear such sounds at midnight in a room where a man had been murdered was enough to shake the strongest nerves. I wonder you were not frightened yourself to be in the room.”
“That would have been ridiculous. There was nothing to be afraid of.”