Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/66

62 which was adorned by two or three broken-down and rusty iron railings that looked like jagged teeth—when he was suddenly arrested by a hideous-looking woman, who threw her arms about him, and addressed him in a shrill voice thus—

"What, he's come back to his best friends, has he? He's come back to his old granny, after frightening her out of her poor old wits by staying away four days and four nights. Where have you been, Jim, my deary? And where did you get your fine toggery?"

"Where did I get my fine toggery? What do you mean, you old hag? I don't know you, and you don't know me. Let me pass, will you? or I'll knock you down!"

"No, no," she screamed; "he wouldn't knock down his old granny; he wouldn't knock down his precious granny that nursed him, and brought him up like a gentleman, and will tell him a secret one of these days worth a mint of money, if he treats her well."

Jabez pricked up his ears at the words "mint of money," and said in rather a milder tone—

"I tell you, my good woman, you mistake me for somebody else. I never saw you before."

"What! you're not my Jim?" "No. My name is Jabez North. If you're not satisfied, here's my card," and he took out his card-case.

The old woman stuck her arms a kimbo, and stared at him with a gaze of admiration.

"Lor'," she cried, "don't he do it nat'ral? Ain't he a born genius? He's been a-doing the respectable reduced tradesman, or the young man brought up to the church, what waits upon the gentry with a long letter, and has a wife and two innocent children staying in another town, and only wants the railway fare to go to 'em. Eh, Jim, that's what you've been a-doing, ain't it now? And you've brought home the swag like a good lad to your grandmother, haven't you now?" she said in a wheedling tone.

"I tell you, you confounded old fool, I'm not the man you take me for."

"What, not my Jim! And you can look at me with his eyes and tell me so with his voice. Then, if you're not him, he's dead, and you're his ghost."

Jabez thought the old woman was mad; but he was no coward, and the adventure began to interest him. Who was this man who was so like him, and who was to learn a secret some day worth a mint of money?

"Will you come with me, then," said the old woman, "and let me get a light, and see whether you are my Jim or not?"

"Where's the house?" asked Jabez.