The Golden Shoemaker Part 38

"I'm deeply thankful, Mr. Horn," he said, "to see you looking so well."

"Thank you, Tommy," responded "Cobbler" Horn, with a smile, as he reached out his hand. "The Lord is very good. No doubt He has more work for me to do yet."

As Tommy almost reverently took the hand of his beloved and honoured friend he thought to himself, "I wonder whether he has considered what I said?"

"The last time we met, Tommy," began "Cobbler" Horn, as though in answer to the unspoken question of the little man--"But, sit down, friend, sit down."

Tommy protested that he would rather stand; but, being overborne, he effected a compromise, by placing himself quite forward on the edge of the chair, and depositing his hat on the floor, between his feet.

"You remember the time?" resumed "Cobbler" Horn.

"Oh yes; quite well!"

"It was the afternoon of the day I was taken ill."

"Yes; and Mrs. Bunn said you _would_ go out in that dreadful rain."

Tommy did not add that he himself, watching through his shop window, in the hope that his friend would come across to ask the meaning of his mysterious words, had, with a sinking heart, seen him walk off in the opposite direction through the drenching shower.

"Well," said "Cobbler" Horn, with a smile, "I've had to pay for that, and shall be all the wiser, no doubt. But there was something you said that afternoon that I want to ask you about. At the time I thought I knew what you meant. But I am inclined now to think I was mistaken, and that your words referred to something quite different from what I then supposed. Do you remember what you said?"

It was impossible for Tommy Dudgeon to conceal the agitation of his mind.

He rejoiced at the opportunity to make known his great discovery to his friend; and yet he trembled lest he should prove unequal to the task. He thought, for a moment, that he would gain time by seeming not to understand the reference his friend had made.

"What words do you speak of, chiefly, Mr. Horn?" he asked tremulously, "I said so many----"

But Tommy Dudgeon could not dissemble. He stammered, stopped, wiped his forehead, and stretched out his hands as though in appeal to the mercy of his hearers.

"Of course I know what words you mean!" he cried. "I wanted to tell you of something I had seen for weeks, but that you didn't seem to see. And I can see it still; and there's no mistake about it. I'm as certain sure of it, as that I am sitting on this chair. It was about the sec'tary, and some one else; and yet not anybody else, because they're both the same. May I tell you, Mr. Horn? Can you bear it, do you think?"

"The Golden Shoemaker" regarded the eager face of his little friend with glistening eyes; and Miss Jemima, leaning towards him over the framework of the iron bedstead, listened with an intent countenance, from which all trace of disfavour had vanished away.

"Yes," said "Cobbler" Horn, in grave, calm tones; "tell us all. We are not unprepared."

"Thank you," said the little man, fervently. "But, oh, I wish you knew! I wish G.o.d had been pleased to make it known to you," he added with a reminiscence of his Old Testament studies, "in a dream and vision of the night. Oh, my dear friend, don't you see that what you've been longing and praying for all these years has come to pa.s.s--as we always knew it would; and--and that she's come back! she's come back? There, that's what I meant!"

"Then it really was so," said "Cobbler" Horn. "I'm surprised I did not perceive your meaning at the time."

Tommy thought him wonderfully calm.

"But I must tell you, Tommy, that we have now very much reason to think that your surmise is correct."

"_Surmise_ is not the word, Mr. Horn; I know she's come back!"

"Of course you do," interposed Miss Jemima, in emphatic tones.

Tommy looked gratefully towards the hitherto dreadful lady; and she regarded him with eyes which seemed to say, "you have won my favour once for all."

"Can you tell us, Tommy," asked "Cobbler" Horn, "what has made you so very sure?"

"Yes," replied Tommy, with energy, "I'll tell you. Everything has made me sure--the way she walks along the street, with her head up, and putting her foot down as if a regiment of soldiers wouldn't stop her; and her manner of coming into the shop and saying, 'How are you to-day, Mr.

Dudgeon?' and her sitting in the old arm-chair, and putting her head on one side like a knowing little bird, and asking questions about everything, and letting her eyes s.h.i.+ne on you like stars. Begging your pardon, Mr. Horn, she's just the little la.s.sie all over. Why I should know her with my eyes shut, if she were only to speak up, and say, 'Well, Tommy, how are you, to-day?'"

"But," asked "Cobbler" Horn, whose heart, secretly, was almost bursting with delight, "may you not be mistaken, after all?"

"I am not mistaken," replied Tommy firmly.

"But it's such a long while ago," suggested "Cobbler" Horn; "and--and she will be very much altered by this time. You _can't_ be sure that a young woman is the same person as a little girl you haven't seen for more than a dozen years."

Herein, perhaps, "Cobbler" Horn's own chief difficulty lay. "How," he asked, "can I think of Marian as being other than a little girl?" Tommy Dudgeon did not seem to be troubled in that way at all.

"Yes," he said, "I can be quite sure when I have known the little girl as I knew that one; and when I have watched, and listened to, the young woman, as I have been watching and listening to the sec'tary for these months past."

"Cobbler" Horn and Miss Jemima exchanged glances.

"This is truly wonderful!" said he.

"Not at all!" retorted she. "The wonder is, Thomas, that you and I have been so blind all this time."

"The Golden Shoemaker" smiled gently, as he lay back upon his pillows. The image of a small, dark-eyed child held possession of his mind; and he had not been able readily to bring himself to see his little Marian in any other form. As for any real doubt, there was only a shred of it left in his mind now. Yet he still said to himself that he must make a.s.surance doubly sure.

"Well, Tommy," he said, "we are very much obliged to you. And now, will you do us another kindness? We are expecting some friends this afternoon who may be able to give us a good deal of light on this subject. Will you come, when we send for you, and hear what they have to say?"

"That I will!" was the hearty response, "I'll come, Mr. Horn, whenever you send."

"You have met these friends before, Tommy," said "Cobbler" Horn. "They are Mr. and Mrs. Burton--at the 'Home,' you know."

Tommy nodded.

"They found Miss Owen when she was a very little girl; and brought her up as their own child; and we hope that what they may tell us about her will help us to decide whether what we think is true."

Tommy nodded again with beaming eyes, and shortly afterwards took his leave.

"Now, brother," said Miss Jemima, "you must take some rest, or we shall have you ill again."

"Not much danger of that!" replied "Cobbler" Horn, smiling. "I think, please G.o.d, I've found a better medicine now, than all the doctors in the world could give me."

"Yes; but you are excited, and the reaction will come, if you do not take care."

"Well, perhaps you are right, Jemima. But first, don't you think she had better be out of the way when Mr. and Mrs. Burton come?"

"Yes, I've thought of that; she can take that poor girl along the road for a drive."

"A capital idea. Have it arranged, Jemima."

"Very well. I'll go and see about it at once; and you get to sleep."