“Just so, dear Jane; I’ll do so, if I’m spared to-morrow.”
Chapter Eighteen.
All Right.
Ernest Maltby was deeply interested in the account which Thomas Bradly gave him of the work going on in the heart of Lydia Philips.
“This is the Lord’s doing,” he said, “and is marvellous in our eyes. I am so glad that she came to you, Thomas; and equally so that you have come to me about her, for I think I know of a situation that may suit her nicely.”
“Indeed, sir; I’m truly glad of that.”
“Yes; I heard yesterday from our old friend Dr Prosser that he is wanting to find just such a young woman as Lydia Philips to fill a place which is now vacant, and the appointment to which is in his hands. I will write to him about her at once, if Lydia is willing to go. Perhaps you would be good enough to call at her house as you go by, and ask her to step up and speak to me.—By the way, Thomas, have you heard anything more about the bag since poor Taylor made his confession to you? I have been so busy lately that I have quite forgotten to ask you.”
“Nothing, sir, but Lydia’s story; and that, as you see, merely confirms poor Ned’s account. We’re fast now: the bag’s been in London half a year now, or thereabouts, if it hasn’t been destroyed long ago; and, if it’s still in existence somewhere or other, we’ve nothing whatever to show us where. I’ve not liked to trouble you any more about it, but I’ve left no stone unturned. I got a friend of mine, the guard of one of the trains, to inquire at the left-luggage office at Saint Pancras; and I put an advertisement for a week together into the London papers, offering five pounds reward to any one as’d bring the bag just as it was when it was lost; but it were all of no use, and I didn’t expect as it would be, as it were taken up to London so long ago. It would have turned up months since if it had got into honest hands, and they had found our address in the bag. But I thought it best to try everything I could think of. And now me and Jane’s satisfied to leave it to the Lord to find it for us in his own way.”