THE WIDOW AND HER FRIENDS.
The catastrophe described in the last chapter had taken place during the first week in March.By the end of that month old Mr Wharton had probably reconciled himself to the tragedy, although in fact it had affected him very deeply.In the first days after the news had reached him he seemed to be bowed to the ground.
Stone Buildings were neglected, and the Eldon saw nothing of him.
Indeed, he barely left the house from which he had been so long banished by the presence of his son-in-law.It seemed to Everett, who now came to live with him and his sister, as though his father was overcome by the horror of the affair.But after a while he recovered himself, and appeared one morning in court with his wig and gown, and argued a case,--which was now unusual with him,--as though to show the world that a dreadful episode in his life was passed, and should be thought of no more.At this period, three or four weeks after the occurrence,--he rarely spoke to his daughter about Lopez; but to Everett the man's name would often be on his tongue.'I do not know that there could have been any other deliverance,' he said to his son one day.'I thought it would have killed me when I first heard it, and it nearly killed her.But, at any rate, now there is peace.'
But the widow seemed to feel it more as time went on.At first she was stunned, and for a while absolutely senseless.It was not till two days after the occurrence that the fact became known to her,--not known as a certainty to her father and brother.It seemed as though the man had been careful to carry with him no record of identity, the nature of which would permit it to outlive the crush of the train.No card was found, no scrap of paper with his name; and it was discovered at last that when he left the house on the fatal morning he had been careful to dress himself in shirt and socks, with handkerchief and collar that had been newly purchased for his proposed journey and which bore no mark.The fragments of his body set identity at defiance, and even his watch had been crumpled into ashes.Of course the fact became certain with no great delay.The man himself was missing, and was accurately described both by the young lady from the refreshment room, and by the suspicious pundit who had actually seen the thing done.There was first belief that it was so, which was not communicated to Emily,--and then certainty.
There was an inquest held of course,--well, we will say on the body,--and, singularly enough, great difference of opinion as to the manner, though of course none as to the immediate cause of the death.Had it been accidental, or premeditated? The pundit, who in the performance of his duties on the Tenway platform was so efficient and valuable, gave half-a-dozen opinions in half-a-dozen minutes when subjected to the questions of the Coroner.In his own mind he had not the least doubt in the world as to what had happened.But he was made to believe that he was not to speak his own mind.The gentleman, he said, certainly might have walked down by accident.The gentleman's back was turned, and it was possible that the gentleman did not hear the train.He was quite certain that the gentleman knew of the train; but yet he could not say.The gentleman walked down before the train o'purpose; but perhaps he didn't mean to do himself an injury.
There was a deal of this, till the Coroner, putting all his wrath into his brow, told the man that he was a disgrace to the service, and expressed a hope that the Company would no longer employ a man so evidently unfit for his position.But the man was in truth a conscientious and useful pundit, with a large family, and evident capabilities for his business.At last a verdict was given,--that the man's name was Ferdinand Lopez, that he had been crushed by an express train on the London and North Western Line, and that there was no evidence to show how his presence on the line had been occasioned.Of course, Mr Wharton had employed counsel, and of course the counsel's object had been to avoid a verdict of felo de se.Appended to the verdict was a recommendation from the jury that the Railway Company should be advised to signalize their express trains at the Tenway Junction Station.