The Crock of Gold | Page 9

was through Mrs.
Quarles's room: she had had the dog placed there for her special safety,
as she slept on the ground floor; and it was not to be thought that Mr.
Jennings could do so incorrect a thing as to pass through her room after
bed-time, locked or unlocked--indeed, when the question was delicately
hinted to him, he was quite shocked at it--quite shocked. But if he did
not go that way, which way did he go? He deposed, indeed, and his
testimony was no ways to be doubted, that he went through the front
door, and so round; which, under the circumstances, was at once a very
brave and a very foolish thing to do; for it is, first, little wisdom to go
round two sides of a square to quiet a dog, when one might have easily
called to him from the men-servants' window; and secondly, albeit Mr.
Jennings was a strict man, an upright man, shrewd withal, and
calculating, no one had ever thought him capable of that Roman virtue,
courage. Still, he had reluctantly confessed to this one heroic act, and it
was a bold one, so let him take the credit of it--mainly because--
Sixthly, Jonathan Floyd, footman, after having heard the dog bark at
intervals, surely for more than a couple of hours, thought he might as
well turn out of his snug berth for a minute, just to see what ailed the
dog, or how many thieves were really breaking in. Well, as he looked,
he fancied he saw a boat moving on the lake, but as there was no moon,
he might have been mistaken.
_By a Juryman._ It might be a punt.
_By another._ He did'nt know how many boats there were on the
lake-side: they had a boat-house at the Hall, by the water's edge, and
therefore he concluded something in it; really did'nt know; might be a
boat, might be a punt, might be both--or neither.
_By the Coroner._ Could not swear which way it was moving; and,
really, if put upon his Bible oath, wouldn't be positive about a boat at

all, it was so dark, and he was so sleepy.
Not long afterwards, as the dog got still more violent, he turned his
eyes from straining after shadows on the lake, to look at home, and
then all at once noticed Mr. Jennings trying to quiet the noisy animal
with the usual blandishments of "Good dog, good dog--quiet, Don,
quiet--down, good dog--down, Don, down!"
_By a Juryman._ He would swear to the words.
But Don would not hear of being quiet. After that, knowing all must be
right if Mr. Jennings was about, he (deponent) turned in again, went to
sleep, and thought no more of it till he heard of Mrs. Quarles's death in
the morning. If he may be so bold as to speak his mind, he thinks the
house-keeper, being fat, died o' the 'plexy in a nateral way, and that the
dog barking so, just as she was a-going off, is proof positive of it. He'd
often heard of dogs doing so; they saw the sperit gliding away, and
barked at it; his (deponent's) own grandmother--
At this juncture--for the court was getting fidgetty--the coroner cut
short the opinions of Jonathan Floyd: and when Mr. Crown, summing
up, presented in one focus all this evidence to the misty minds of the
assembled jurymen, it puzzled them entirely; they could not see their
way, fairly addled, did not know at all what to make of it. On the
threshold, there was no proof it was a murder--the Union doctor was
loud and staunch on this; and next, there seemed to be no motive for
the deed, and no one to suspect of it: so they left the matter open, found
her simply "Dead," and troubled their heads no more about the
business.
Good Mr. Evans, the vicar, preached her funeral sermon, only as last
Sunday, amplifying the idea that she "was cut off in the midst of her
days:" and thereby encouraging many of the simpler folks, who knew
that Mrs. Quarles had long passed seventy, in the luminous notion that
house-keepers in great establishments are privileged, among other
undoubted perquisites, to live to a hundred and forty, unless cut off by
apoplexy or murder.

Mr. Simon Jennings, as nephew and next of kin, followed the body to
its last home in the capacity of chief mourner; to do him justice, he was
a real mourner, bewailed her loudly, and had never been the same man
since. Moreover, although aforetime not much given to indiscriminate
charity, he had now gained no small credit by distributing his aunt's
wardrobe among the poorer families at Hurstley. It was really very kind
of him, and the more so,