How long the inevitable wine-talk lasted on the particular social occasion of which I am now writing is more than I can undertake to say.I had heard so many other conversations of the same sort at so many other tables that my attention wandered away wearily, and I began to forget all about the dull little dinner-party and the badly-assorted company of guests of whom I formed one.How long I remained in this not over-courteous condition of mental oblivion is more than I can tell; but when my attention was recalled, in due course of time, to the little world around me, Ifound that the good wine had begun to do its good office.
The stream of talk on either side of the host's chair was now beginning to flow cheerfully and continuously; the wine-conversation had worn itself out; and one of the elder guests--Mr.Wendell--was occupied in telling the other guest--Mr.
Trowbridge--of a small fraud which had lately been committed on him by a clerk in his employment.The first part of the story Imissed altogether.The last part, which alone caught my attention, followed the career of the clerk to the dock of the Old Bailey.
"So, as I was telling you," continued Mr.Wendell, "I made up my mind to prosecute, and I did prosecute.Thoughtless people blamed me for sending the young man to prison, and said I might just as well have forgiven him, seeing that the trifling sum of money Ihad lost by his breach of trust was barely as much as ten pounds.
Of course, personally speaking, I would much rather not have gone into court; but I considered that my duty to society in general, and to my brother merchants in particular, absolutely compelled me to prosecute for the sake of example.I acted on that principle, and I don't regret that I did so.The circumstances under which the man robbed me were particularly disgraceful.He was a hardened reprobate, sir, if ever there was one yet; and Ibelieve, in my conscience, that he wanted nothing but the opportunity to be as great a villain as Fauntleroy himself."At the moment when Mr.Wendell personified his idea of consummate villainy by quoting the example of Fauntleroy, I saw the other middle-aged gentleman--Mr.Trowbridge--color up on a sudden, and begin to fidget in his chair.
"The next time you want to produce an instance of a villain, sir," said Mr.Trowbridge, "I wish you could contrive to quote some other example than Fauntleroy."Mr.Wendell naturally enough looked excessively astonished when he heard these words, which were very firmly and, at the same time, very politely addressed to him.
"May I inquire why you object to my example?" he asked.
"I object to it, sir," said Mr.Trowbridge, "because it makes me very uncomfortable to hear Fauntleroy called a villain.""Good heavens above!" exclaimed Mr.Wendell, utterly bewildered.
"Uncomfortable!--you, a mercantile man like myself--you, whose character stands so high everywhere--you uncomfortable when you hear a man who was hanged for forgery called a villain! In the name of wonder, why?""Because," answered Mr.Trowbridge, with perfect composure, "Fauntleroy was a friend of mine.""Excuse me, my dear sir," retorted Mr.Wendell, in as polished a tone of sarca** as he could command; "but of all the friends whom you have made in the course of your useful and honorable career, I should have thought the friend you have just mentioned would have been the very last to whom you were likely to refer in respectable society, at least by name.""Fauntleroy committed an unpardonable crime, and died a disgraceful death," said Mr.Trowbridge."But, for all that, Fauntleroy was a friend of mine, and in that character I shall always acknowledge him boldly to my dying day.I have a tenderness for his memory, though he violated a sacred trust, and die d for it on the gallows.Don't look shocked, Mr.Wendell.Iwill tell you, and our other friends here, if they will let me, why I feel that tenderness, which looks so strange and so discreditable in your eyes.It is rather a curious anecdote, sir, and has an interest, I think, for all observers of human nature quite apart from its connection with the unhappy man of whom we have been talking.You young gentlemen," continued Mr.
Trowbridge, addressing himself to us juniors, "have heard of Fauntleroy, though he sinned and suffered, and shocked all England long before your time?"We answered that we had certainly heard of him as one of the famous criminals of his day.We knew that he had been a partner in a great London banking-house; that he had not led a very virtuous life; that he had possessed himself, by forgery, of trust-moneys which he was doubly bound to respect; and that he had been hanged for his offense, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-four, when the gallows was still set up for other crimes than murder, and when Jack Ketch was in fashion as one of the hard-working reformers of the age.
"Very good," said Mr.Trowbridge."You both of you know quite enough of Fauntleroy to be interested in what I am going to tell you.When the bottles have been round the table, I will start with my story."The bottles went round--claret for the degenerate youngsters;port for the sterling, steady-headed, middle-aged gentlemen.Mr.
Trowbridge sipped his wine--meditated a little--sipped again--and started with the promised anecdote in these terms: