All this is, so far, common enough. The villa and the lady are
such familiar objects in London life, that I ought to apologise for
introducing them to notice. But what is not common and not familiar (in
my experience), is that all these fine things were not only ordered,
but paid for. The pictures, the statues, the flowers, the jewels,
the carriages, and the horses--inquiry proved, to my indescribable
astonishment, that not a sixpence of debt was owing on any of them. As
to the villa, it had been bought, out and out, and settled on the lady.
I might have tried to find the right reading of this riddle, and tried
in vain--but for Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite's death, which caused an inquiry
to be made into the state of his affairs.
The inquiry elicited these facts:-That Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite was entrusted with the care of a sum of
twenty thousand pounds--as one of two Trustees for a young gentleman,
who was still a minor in the year eighteen hundred and forty-eight. That
the Trust was to lapse, and that the young gentleman was to receive the
twenty thousand pounds on the day when he came of age, in the month of
February, eighteen hundred and fifty. That, pending the arrival of this
period, an income of six hundred pounds was to be paid to him by his two
Trustees, half-yearly--at Christmas and Midsummer Day. That this income
was regularly paid by the active Trustee, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. That
the twenty thousand pounds (from which the income was supposed to
be derived) had every farthing of it been sold out of the Funds, at
different periods, ending with the end of the year eighteen hundred and
forty-seven. That the power of attorney, authorising the bankers to sell
out the stock, and the various written orders telling them what amounts
to sell out, were formally signed by both the Trustees. That the
signature of the second Trustee (a retired army officer, living in
the country) was a signature forged, in every case, by the active
Trustee--otherwise Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.
In these facts lies the explanation of Mr. Godfrey's honourable conduct,
in paying the debts incurred for the lady and the villa--and (as you
will presently see) of more besides.
We may now advance to the date of Miss Verinder's birthday (in the year
eighteen hundred and forty-eight)--the twenty-first of June.
On the day before, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite arrived at his father's house,
and asked (as I know from Mr. Ablewhite, senior, himself) for a loan of
three hundred pounds. Mark the sum; and remember at the same time,
that the half-yearly payment to the young gentleman was due on
the twenty-fourth of the month. Also, that the whole of the young
gentleman's fortune had been spent by his Trustee, by the end of the
year 'forty-seven.