50 POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF
While the old gentleman repeated these lines a second time, to enable Mr, Snodgrass to note them down, Mr. Pickwick perused the linea- ments of his face with an expression of great interest. The old gentle- man having concluded his dictation, and Mr. Snodgrass having returned his note-book to his pocket, Mr. Pickwick said, —
<* Excuse me, Sir, for making the remark on so short an acquaint- ance ; but a gentleman like yourself cannot fail, I should think, to have observed many scenes and incidents worth recording, in the course of your experience as a minister of the Gospel."
" I have witnessed some certainly," replied the old gentleman ; " but the incidents and characters have been of a homely and ordinary nature, my sphere of action being so very limited."
" You did make some notes, I think, about John Edmunds, did you not? " inquired Mr. Wardle who appeared very desirous to draw his friend out, for the edification of his new visiters.
The old gentleman slightly nodded his head in token of assent, and was proceeding to change the subject, when Mr. Pickwick said, —
" I beg your pardon, Sir ; but pray, if I may venture to inquire, who was John Edmunds ? "
'* The very thing I was about to ask," said Mr. Snodgrass, eagerly.
- ' You are fairly in for it," said the jolly host. " You must satisfy
the curiosity of these gentlemen, sooner or later; so you had better take advantage of this favourable opportunity, and do so at once."
The old gentleman smiled good-humouredly as he drew his chair forward ; — the remainder of the party drew their chairs closer together, especially Mr. Tupman and the spinster aunt, who were possibly rather hard of hearing ; and the old lady's ear-trumpet having been duly adjusted, and Mr. Miller (who had fallen asleep during the recital of the verses) roused from his slumbers by an admonitory pinch, administered beneath the table by his ex-partner the solemn fat man, the old gentleman, without further preface, commenced the following tale, to which we have taken the liberty of prefixing the title of
THE CONVICT'S RETURN.
" When I first settled in this village," said the old gentleman. " which is now just five-and-twenty years ago, the most notorious person among my parishioners was a man of the name of Edmunds, who leased a small farm near this spot. He was a morose, savage- hearted, bad man : idle and dissolute in his habits ; cruel and ferocious in his disposition. Beyond the few lazy and reckless vagabonds with whom he sauntered away his time in the fields, or sotted in the ale- house, he had not a single friend or acquaintance ; no one cared to speak to the man whom many feared, and every one detested — and Edmunds was shunned by all.
" This man had a wife and one son, who, when I first came here, was about twelve years old. Of the acuteness of that woman's sufferings, of the gentle and enduring manner in which she bore them, of the agony of solicitude with which she reared that boy, no one can form an adequate conception. Heaven forgive me the supposition, if it be an uncharitable one, but I do firmly and in my soul believe, that the man systematically tried for many years to break her heart ; but she bore it all
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