They had walked along the Strand, and into Pall Mall, and had turned up-hill towards Hyde Park Corner; Bradley Headstone waiting on the pace and lead of Riderhood, and leaving him to indicate the course. So slow were the schoolmaster's thoughts, and so indistinct his purposes when they were but tributary to the one absorbing purpose or rather when, like dark trees under a stormy sky, they only lined the long vista at the end of which he saw those two figures of Wrayburn and Lizzie on which his eyes were fixed--that at least a good half-mile was traversed before he spoke again.
Even then, it was only to ask:
'Where is your Lock?'
'Twenty mile and odd--call it five-and-twenty mile and odd, if you like--up stream,' was the sullen reply.
'How is it called?'
'Plashwater Weir Mill Lock.'
'Suppose I was to offer you five shillings; what then?'
'Why, then, I'd take it,' said Mr Riderhood.
The schoolmaster put his hand in his pocket, and produced two half-crowns, and placed them in Mr Riderhood's palm: who stopped at a convenient doorstep to ring them both, before acknowledging their receipt.
'There's one thing about you, T'otherest Governor,' said Riderhood, faring on again, 'as looks well and goes fur. You're a ready money man. Now;' when he had carefully pocketed the coins on that side of himself which was furthest from his new friend; 'what's this for?'
'For you.'
'Why, o' course I know THAT,' said Riderhood, as arguing something that was self-evident. 'O' course I know very well as no man in his right senses would suppose as anythink would make me give it up agin when I'd once got it. But what do you want for it?'
'I don't know that I want anything for it. Or if I do want anything for it, I don't know what it is.' Bradley gave this answer in a stolid, vacant, and self-communing manner, which Mr Riderhood found very extraordinary.
'You have no goodwill towards this Wrayburn,' said Bradley, coming to the name in a reluctant and forced way, as if he were dragged to it.
'No.'
'Neither have I.'
Riderhood nodded, and asked: 'Is it for that?'
'It's as much for that as anything else. It's something to be agreed with, on a subject that occupies so much of one's thoughts.'
'It don't agree with YOU,' returned Mr Riderhood, bluntly. 'No! It don't, T'otherest Governor, and it's no use a lookin' as if you wanted to make out that it did. I tell you it rankles in you. It rankles in you, rusts in you, and pisons you.'
'Say that it does so,' returned Bradley with quivering lips; 'is there no cause for it?'
'Cause enough, I'll bet a pound!' cried Mr Riderhood.
'Haven't you yourself declared that the fellow has heaped provocations, insults, and affronts on you, or something to that effect? He has done the same by me. He is made of venomous insults and affronts, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. Are you so hopeful or so stupid, as not to know that he and the other will treat your application with contempt, and light their cigars with it?'
'I shouldn't wonder if they did, by George!' said Riderhood, turning angry.
'If they did! They will. Let me ask you a question. I know something more than your name about you; I knew something about Gaffer Hexam. When did you last set eyes upon his daughter?'
'When did I last set eyes upon his daughter, T'otherest Governor?' repeated Mr Riderhood, growing intentionally slower of comprehension as the other quickened in his speech.
'Yes. Not to speak to her. To see her--anywhere?'
The Rogue had got the clue he wanted, though he held it with a clumsy hand. Looking perplexedly at the passionate face, as if he were trying to work out a sum in his mind, he slowly answered:
'I ain't set eyes upon her--never once--not since the day of Gaffer's death.'
'You know her well, by sight?'
'I should think I did! No one better.'
'And you know him as well?'
'Who's him?' asked Riderhood, taking off his hat and rubbing his forehead, as he directed a dull look at his questioner.
'Curse the name! Is it so agreeable to you that you want to hear it again?'
'Oh! HIM!' said Riderhood, who had craftily worked the schoolmaster into this corner, that he might again take note of his face under its evil possession. 'I'd know HIM among a thousand.'
'Did you--' Bradley tried to ask it quietly; but, do what he might with his voice, he could not subdue his face;--'did you ever see them together?'
(The Rogue had got the clue in both hands now.)'I see 'em together, T'otherest Governor, on the very day when Gaffer was towed ashore.'