the clearance effected under the superintendence of the office of works, for the amalgamation under one roof of the various courts of law, has carried away a large portion of clement's inn, and has obliterated the pillared entrance to that dusky but genial home of the shady and impecunious. in the days of our story, however, inn and entrance were still there; the former tenanted by human sheep of various degrees of blackness--roistering government-office clerks, with the insolvent court--which at the outset of their career had been but a light cloud as small as a man's hand, but which year by year had assumed larger and more definite proportions--ever lowering over them; third-rate attorneys, who combined law with discount, "doing" little bills for ten and twenty pounds with the aforenamed government clerks, and carefully putting in an appearance at somerset house on pay-days to receive their money, or the refresher which was to induce the withholding of the document--it is always "a document"--until another quarter had elapsed; agents for companies of all kinds of limited and unlimited liability; newspaper writers obliged to have cheap chambers in the neighbourhood of their offices; foreigners representing continental firms, and wanting a cheap and quasi-respectable address; an actor or two, a score of needy men-about-town, and a few jews. round the pillars seethed and bubbled a scum of humanity of the nastiest kind--vendors of the fried fish and the pickled whelk, boot-blackers of abnormally horrid appearance: and emaciated children from the neighbouring clare market and the adjoining courts, thieves and impostors from their infancy, hung about the cab-rank, and added to the general filth and squalor. a pleasant slough of despond, that little spot, now standing bare and cleared, surrounded by the balmy holywell, the virtuous wych, with drury lane running from it at right-angles, and the dirtiest corner of the great legal cobweb of courts and alleys at its back.
it was a hot morning in july when a cab drew up at the pillars, and gilbert lloyd jumped out, paid the driver, and made his way into the inn. the exhalations from the barrows of the fried-fish vendors were potent, and the change to the faint, sickly perfume of the west-indian pine-apple, tastefully arranged in slices on an open barrow which blocked the immediate thoroughfare, was scarcely refreshing. perhaps in july the second-hand garments, even the uniforms, which the jewish gentlemen who deal in such trophies hang up at the entrances of their warehouses, are a thought stronger in flavour than in the winter; and a fifth-hand portmanteau, which has seen a great deal of service under various owners, is apt, under the influence of the sun, to suggest its presence. but gilbert lloyd paid no heed to anything of this kind; he had roughed it too long to care for what came between the wind and his nobility; not being a literary photographer on the lookout for "character," he paid no attention to any of the surroundings, but went straight on, making his way through the jostling crowd until he arrived at a door, on the posts of which was painted "gammidge's private-inquiry office, ground-floor." a farther reference to the right-hand door of the first-floor discovered a still more elaborate placard, announcing that "nichs. gammidge, many years in the detective police, undertook inquiries of a private and confidential nature; agents all over the continent; strictest secrecy observed; divorce cases particularly attended to; ring right-hand bell; and no connection with foreign impostors trading on n.g.'s new invention."
gilbert lloyd with some difficulty--for in the dingy passage there was but little light even on that bright summer morning--read this description, and in obedience to its suggestion pulled the right-hand bell. the sound of the bell, vibrating loudly, apparently had the effect of putting a sudden stop to a muttered conversation of a groaning character, which had been dimly audible; the door was opened by a spring from the inside, and gilbert entered. he found himself in a low-ceilinged dirty room, with no other furniture than a couple of chairs and a very rickety deal table. the windows were covered more than half-way up with blinds improvised out of old newspapers; a clock with one hand was on the wall; an almanac, much ink-scored and pin-marked, stood on the mantel-shelf; and a limp map of great britain, evidently torn out of an ancient bradshaw, was pinned behind the door. at first, on entering, gilbert lloyd thought himself the sole occupant of the room; but when his eyes had become accustomed to the partial darkness, he discovered someone rubbing himself against the wall at the opposite end of the room, and apparently trying to squeeze himself through into the next house. a little hard looking at and careful study made him out a very thin, small, white-faced young man, with hollow cheeks, a sharp face, and a keen restless eye. as gilbert's glance fell on him, or rather, as he seemed to feel it fall on him, he shook himself with an odd restless motion, as though to endeavour to get rid of some spell of fascination, but evidently desired to keep as much as possible in the background. the groaning, smothered conversation meanwhile had recommenced in another quarter, and gilbert, looking round, noticed a door evidently leading into an inner room.
"is this mr. gammidge's office?" he asked abruptly of the white-faced young man.
the white-faced young man gave a sudden start, as though a pin had been run into him, but never spoke.
"mr. gammidge's office--is this mr. gammidge's office?" repeated gilbert.
"i--i believe so," said the white-faced young man, taken aback by the sharpness of the key in which the inquiry was made. "i have no reason to think it's not."
"where is mr. gammidge?"
"not in!" wonderfully sharp and pert came this reply; constant lying in one groove oils the tongue so splendidly.
"not in?" echoed gilbert half savagely.
"not in! sure to be in later in the day. got most important business on just now for--"
"stow it!" the words came not from the white-faced young man, nor from gilbert, but yet they were perfectly audible.
on hearing them, the white-faced young man became silent at once, and gilbert looked round in amazement. the muttered groans became fainter, a sound as of clinking money was heard, then as of the opening of a door, the farewell of a gruff voice, the departure of a thick pair of boots; then one door slammed, and the inner door, which gilbert had noticed on his first entrance, opened, and a man stood in the doorway with a beckoning forefinger.
a short stout man in a brown wig, with a fat unintelligent face, with heavy pendulous cheeks and a great jowl, and a round stupid chin, but with an eye like a beryl--small, bright, and luminous; a man with just sufficient intelligence to know that he was considerably overrated, and that the best chance for him in keeping up the deception lay in affectation of deepest mystery, and in saying as little as possible. mr. gammidge had been made a hero in certain police-cases during his professional career, by two or three "gentlemen of the press," who had described a few of his peculiarities--a peculiar roll of his head, a sonorous manner of taking snuff, a half-crow of triumph in his throat when he thought he saw his way out of a complication--in their various organs. henceforth these peculiarities were his stock-in-trade, and he relied upon them for all his great personal effects.
when gilbert lloyd obeyed the influence of the beckoning forefinger, he passed through the door of communication between the inner and outer rooms, and found himself in an apartment smaller and not less dingy than that he had left. in the middle of it was a large desk, on which were a huge leaden inkstand, a few worn quill-pens, and a very inky blotting-pad. sentinel on one flank stood a big swollen post-office directory, two years old; sentinel on the other, a stumpy manuscript volume in a loose binding, labelled "cases." the walls blossomed with bills offering large sums as rewards for information to be given respecting persons who had absconded; and on a disused and paralytic green-cloth screen, standing in a helpless attitude close by the desk, was pinned a bill, setting forth the sessions of the central criminal court for the year, with the dates on which mr. gammidge was engaged in any of the trials pending distinguished by a broad cross with a black-lead pencil.
as soon as gilbert lloyd had entered the room, mr. gammidge closed the door carefully behind him, and placing himself in front of him, indulged him with the peculiar roll of the head, while he took a sonorous pinch of snuff, and said in a thick confidential voice, "now, captin?"
"i'm no captain," said lloyd shortly, "and you don't recollect me; though you're ready to swear you do, and though i have employed you before this."
lloyd paused here for a moment; but as mr. gammidge merely looked at him helplessly, and muttered under his breath something about "such a many gents," he went on.
"my name is gilbert lloyd. i manage lord ticehurst's racing matters for him; and last year i employed you to look after one of our boys, who we thought was going wrong; do you recollect now?"
"perfectly," said mr. gammidge, brightening. "boy had been laid hold of by a tout from a sporting-paper, who was practisin' on him through his father, given to drink, and his sister, on 'oom the tout was supposed to be sweet."
"exactly; well, you found that out clearly enough, and got us all the information required. now i want you again."
"more boys goin' wrong, sir?" asked mr. gammidge. "they're the out-and-outest young scamps; they're that precocious and knowin'--"
"it's not a boy that i want to know about this time," said lloyd, checking the flow of his companion's eloquence; "it's a woman."
"that's more in my way; three-fourths of my business is connected with them. did you 'appen to take any notice of the young man in that room as you came through? he's the best 'nose' in london. find out anything. lor' bless you, that young man have been in more divorce cases than the serjeant himself. he can hide behind a walking-stick, and see through the pipe of a chubb's latch-key. there's nothing like him in london."
"put him on to my business at once, then. look at this card." mr. grammidge produced a large pair of tortoiseshell-rimmed double eye-glasses, and proceeded to make an elaborate investigation. "you know the name? i thought so. now, your man must keep account of everyone who goes in here by day or night, so long as she's at home; and when she goes out he must follow her, and, so far as he can, find out who speaks to her, and where. there is a five-pound note to begin with. you understand?"
"you may look upon it as good as done, sir," said mr. gammidge, commencing to make a memorandum of the number and date of the bank-note in his pocket-book, "and to let you know at the old address?"
"no; when he has anything to tell, drop me a line, and i'll meet him here. good-day."
the white-faced young man, entering fully into his new occupation, speedily deserved the encomiastic remarks which had been lavished upon him by his principal, and in a short time mr. lloyd was furnished with full information as to the personal appearance of the various visitors at the bayswater villa, and of the friends whom miss lambert was in the habit of meeting away from her home. in both these categories gilbert lloyd found, as he had expected to find, a very accurate representation of miles challoner. the information, all expected as it was, irritated and chafed him; and he gave up a whole day to considering how he could best put a stop to the ripening intimacy between miles and gertrude, or, at all events, weaken it. finally, he decided on paying a visit to mrs. bloxam, and seeing whether she could not be frightened with a suspicion, perfectly undefined, of something horrible and mysterious which would take place if the intimacy were permitted to go on unchecked. accordingly, upon a day when the white-faced young man had ascertained that miss lambert would be for some time absent from home, mr. lloyd presented himself at the bayswater villa, and, without sending in his name, followed the servant into the room, where mrs. bloxam was seated. at first sight of the man who had dared in former days to invade the sanctity of her sheepfold and carry off one of her pet lambs, the old lady was exceedingly indignant, and her first impulse was to order the intruder to leave the house; but a moment's reflection convinced her that as he yet had the power of being exceedingly dangerous to gertrude, or, at all events, of causing her the greatest annoyance, it would be better to temporise. she therefore listened to all gilbert lloyd's bland assurances that, although there was an unfortunate estrangement between his wife and himself, he took the greatest interest in her career, and it was purely as a matter of friendship that he had come to warn her, through her ablest and best friend, of the danger she incurred in forming a certain acquaintance. so well did mrs. bloxam play her listening part, and so earnest was she in her thanks to her informant, that even the rouséturfite was taken in, and went away convinced that he had made his coup..
a few days afterwards he called again, and this time asked for miss lambert. the servant said that miss lambert was out. for mrs. bloxam: mrs. bloxam was out. gilbert lloyd then took out a card and handed it to the servant, begging her to give it to her mistress; but the servant, just glancing at it, handed it back, saying she had strict orders, in case the gentleman bearing that name ever called again, to refuse him admittance, and to return his card.