‘Good-day, child,’ said Mr. Grigg. ‘Day of Judgment—queer notion for a child—always remember Bible.’
When Mrs Turvey and Topsy had departed, Messrs. Grigg and Limpet had a long and earnest conversation with Dr. Birnie, the result of which was the drawing up of an advertisement, to be inserted in the Times, requesting the present address of Mr. George Englehardt, the rescued passenger of the Bon Espoir. He might be able to prove even to the law that Gurth Egerton was dead, and his property at liberty to be dealt with.
And when his employers were busy in room B, Mr. Jabez slipped out of the office, and, meeting Mrs. Turvey at the door, escorted her home to what he informed her he now looked upon as a haunted house.
‘The sort of house, Susan,’ he said, ‘which I had in my mind’s eye, Horatio, when I wrote a few lines promiscuously, beginning:
And over all there hung a sense of fear
That e’en the boldest might well have daunted;
And apparitions made it very clear
The place was haunted,’—
which mutilation of Hood, being dramatically recited in High Holborn, caused the passers-by to stare, and Mrs. Turvey to clutch hold of Jabez’s arm tightly, if not lovingly.