Woodbridge, and it is probable that FitzGerald had helped “poor young Smith” substantially. His anxiety lest Posh should contract smallpox, and his indifference as to himself, are admirably illustrative of the man’s unselfishness.
But now that the partnership was at an end he began to frequent Lowestoft less. During 1871 he sold the Scandal, and on September 4th he wrote to Dr. Aldis Wright from Woodbridge (Letters, II, p. 126, Eversley Edition): “I run over to Lowestoft occasionally for a few days, but do not abide there long: no longer having my dear little Ship for company. . . .”
Who bought the Scandal I do not know. Posh has no recollection, and Dr. Aldis Wright has been unable to trace with certainty the subsequent owner of her, though he has reason to think that she was sold to Sir Cuthbert Quilter. She had served her purpose. She was, as Posh assures me, a “fast and handy little schooner.”
After her sale FitzGerald still remained the mortgagee of the Meum and Tuum and the Henrietta. But this was not to last indefinitely. Posh’s spirit of independence and love of “bare” were fated to put an end to all business relations between his old “guv’nor” and him.
CHAPTER XVII
BY ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE
Matters were still progressing fairly satisfactorily when FitzGerald visited Lowestoft in September, 1872. On the 29th of that month he wrote to Mr. Spalding (Two Suffolk Friends, p. 122):—
“. . . Posh—after no fish caught for 3 weeks—has had his boat come home with nearly all her fleet of nets torn to pieces in last week’s winds. . . . he . . . went with me to the theatre afterwards, where he admired the ‘Gays,’ as he called the Scenes; but fell asleep before Shylock had whetted his knife in the Merchant of Venice. . . .”
“Gays” is East Anglian for pictures.
* * * * *
Towards the end of 1873 relations began to be severely strained between mortgagor