The Dark Clue by James Wilson Read Free Book Online Page A

dons!’
    â€˜We’ll lose the light, sir, is all I was thinking,’ said the cook.
    â€˜Very true, Mrs. Holt,’ said Davenant. He turned to me. ‘She’s quite right, I fear, Mr. Hartright. You will, I hope, forgive me …?’
    â€˜Of course,’ I said. ‘It was very good of you to give me as much time as you have.’
    â€˜Nonsense,’ he said. ‘Delighted to help. If I have. Which I doubt. . .’
    I started to speak, but he held up his hand, and went on:
    â€˜None of your damned flattery, now. Go on up, Mrs. Holt, and get on your regalia. I’ll be with you in a moment.’ Then he took my arm affably, and led me downstairs.
    He had opened the door, and was about to shake my hand, when he stopped suddenly, and said:
    â€˜Will you wait a minute, Mr. Hartright? Something I think may assist you.’
    He crossed the hall, and entered a room at the back of the house. I stood beneath his bay window, and looked about me. To the south, the smoke hung over London like a great mantle, so thick and black that just to see it was to feel the weight of it on your chest, and its woolly itch against your skin; but here a fresh breeze ruffled my hair, and there were chinks of blue between the grey-rimmed clouds that churned and tumbled above the heath. Something in their wild motion put me in mind of sporting sea creatures, and I watched, rapt, until his voice roused me from my reverie:
    â€˜Here,’ he said, handing me a folded sheet of paper. ‘Two more people who knew him well. But neither of them painters; so you may be sure that what they tell you will be untainted by artistic rancour. Michael Gudgeon’s an antiquary, who travelled with Turner years ago on a tour of Kent and Sussex. And Amelia Bennett is old Benjamin Waley’s daughter…’
    He paused, searching my face for some sign of recognition. I shook my head.
    â€˜You’re too young, I suppose,’ he said, with a sigh. ‘He was quite a man in his day. A great amateur, who befriended Turner when he was little more than a boy.’
    I thanked him warmly, and started for Kensington in high good spirits. I had trusted to fate, and fate had amply repaid me; and some almost superstitious conviction told me that it had not done with me yet, but would repay me further still when I got home.
    And I was not mistaken; for there, in the hall, was the enclosed note from Ruskin!
    My love as always, to you and to the children.
    Walter
    VI
    Letter from John Ruskin to Walter Hartright,
1st August, 185–
    163
Dennmark Hill,

1st August
,185–
    Dear Mr. Hartright,
    Thank you for your letter of 21st July. I should have replied sooner, had I been here to receive it, but I only returned yesterday from a long absence in Italy and France.
    Yes, I shall be happy to talk to you about Turner – although I am not sure how far it lies within my power (or the power of any man or woman) to light your way. I fear, however, that I shall be unable to see you this week – for, as I am sure you know, it is the inevitable consequence of travel to come back and find one’s garden choked with weeds, and, if I do not set to at once, some of my tenderest plants (a book, a lecture, and a thousand shy little shoots that seem to have sprung from my words, and to want only encouragement to flourish) will surely die. Would Thursday next, at three o’clock, be convenient?
    Yours very truly,
    John Ruskin
    VII
    From the diary of Marian Halcombe, 4th August, 185-
    A small cottage, with but one window on each floor, and entirely unremarkable save for a curious iron railing on the parapet, thatlooked as if a balcony had decided to emigrate from its original home to the roof. On one side, a tavern; on the other a little shop, advertising ‘ales’, ‘refreshments’ and ‘first-class ginger-beer’; next to that, a knock-kneed gateway bearing a weatherbeaten sign – all you could read