His coming back,
however, is not the question: I thought you might be able to give me a
close description of him. You went to Liverpool when the unfortunate
passengers arrived there."
But Clerk Gum was unable to give any satisfactory response. No doubt he
had heard enough of what Gordon was like at the time, he observed, but
it had passed out of his memory. A fair man, he thought he was described,
with light hair. He had heard nothing of Gordon since; didn't want to,
if his lordship would excuse his saying it; firmly believed he was at
the bottom of the sea.
Patient, respectful, apparently candid, he spoke, attending his guest,
hat in hand, to the outer gate, when it pleased him to depart. But, take
it for all in all, there remained a certain doubtful feeling in Lord
Hartledon's mind regarding the interview; for some subtle discernment had
whispered to him that both Gum and his wife could have given him the
description of Gordon, and would not do so.
He turned slowly towards home, thinking of this. As he passed the waste
ground and Pike's shed, he cast his eyes towards it; a curl of smoke
was ascending from the extemporized chimney, still discernible in the
twilight. It occurred to Lord Hartledon that this man, who had the
character of being so lawless, had been rather suspiciously intimate with
the man Gorton. Not that the intimacy in itself was suspicious; birds
of a feather flocked together; but the most simple and natural thing
connected with Gorton would have borne suspicion to Hartledon's mind now.
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