“You must have been going up to London then by the express,” said his friend.
“Yes. And I’ve special cause to remember the night—it was dismal, rainy, and chilly. The train was very full, and I was a little anxious about my luggage, as it contained some articles of considerable value. There was no room for it in the luggage vans, which were full when I joined the train, and I had to speak rather sharply to a porter who I suspect was not over sober. He jerked up my things very roughly on to the top of the first-class carriage into which I got, and was going to leave one of the most important articles on the platform, if I had not jumped out and seen it put up myself. And then I had to scold him again for not covering the luggage properly with the tarpaulin, without which protection it would, some of it at least, have been damaged, as a steady rain was falling. I don’t know when I have been more put out, and really I felt ashamed of myself afterwards. However, all was right in the end; the luggage was all safe and uninjured, and I had a prosperous journey.”
“I’ll wish you good morning, sir,” said Thomas Bradly to the doctor, as they entered the station yard. “A pleasant journey to you, sir; and there’ll be many of us working-men as’ll be very proud to see and hear you again in Crossbourne.”
“Farewell, my good friend,” said the other. “I shall look forward with much pleasure to the fulfilment of my promise.”
A few minutes more, and Dr and Mrs Prosser were on their way back to the great city.
Chapter Sixteen.
Confession and Explanation.
When Edward Taylor’s accident and its cause were known in Crossbourne, the consternation caused among the enemies of religion and of the temperance cause was indescribable. Thomas Bradly made no secret of what had happened, and of how Foster’s persecutors had been outwitted: not in any revengeful spirit, but partly because he thought it better that the plain truth should be known, and so the mouths of the marvel-mongers be stopped; and partly because he felt sure that the enemy would keep pretty still when they knew that their late proceedings were blazed abroad. So he just quietly told one or two of his fellow-workmen all the particulars, without note or comment, and left the account to do its own work.