The Penn's Grove record., 1884-11-15

zone anything TOT nlIlSelI unaSSlSteus
''COnfound it ~ muttered Harold, in
real chagrln, as he picked up his letter,
81 shall cause uncle to lose his seat, and
he'll,be getting all sorts Of dining-room
doors slammed in his face. It's cruel
hard lines, considering all he has done
for me. He'll never trust me again,
either ; for he told me those facts over
an after-dinner bottle at his club, and
l ought not to have been such a fool as
to remind him of them" Thus did
Harold Pleasby sO~liloquise, pondering
with CONSERVATION over the terms of
that very private letter which was CO.
ing to fall under Lord Huxmouth's
eyes.
The train stopped at Didcot, and
Harold had 10 change trains for Lon
don. His first impulse was to hire a
trap and post back to Oxford, to try
and get his letter from the post-office
authorities but a moments reelection
convinced him that he should be too
late. On making inquiries of the guard
he learned, indeed, that his letter must
be actually in the train by which he
was travelling, for the bags had been
collected half-an-hour before he had
left Oxford.
There was nothing for it then, but to
go on to London, and, once there, to
try whether the letter might not be
stopped by hook o crook from being
delivered at its destination.
Harold was a bold fellow, who had
won many an uphill cricket-match by
steady blocking without losing his
narVra . hYtf ha nOrld pnalo fraa hifo fnn
when occasion required it, and he re.
solved to make such a n now, He
dismissed the idea of going to Grosve-
nor Square, where Lord HuxmOuth
lived, ~waylaying the postman, and at
tempting to bride that official, Tor he
thought it would be of no use and he
dIsllked the notion of c~orrupting one of
Lord Huxmouth's servants, because he
knew that secrets which get into the
ears of menials are like water poured
into a percolator. Having made up his
mind that his uncle would be ruined if
his letter reached Lord Huxmouth's
hands, he thought that his simplest
course would be to drive straight to
st. Martin's-le Grand, and confess his
dilemma straightforwardly to one of the
high officials there. He happened to
know one of the ornamental upper
clerks of the establishments pleasant
fellow, named Gosling, who had been
at school and college with him and he
felt sure this functionary would give
him the letter if he could do so. At
P~addington, Harold made but one
bound across the platform, without
claiming his portmanteau and scram-
bled into a hanson. He saw the scar
let curricle of the post-office standing
apart from the row of cabs, and he con
graduated himself that he should have
a good start of that vehicle. But alasl
his hanson had scarcely got well under
weigh, before the bright two.wheeled
trap, so light on it's springs and drawn
by such a capital little t~rotter, came
flashing past him. Harold ratified his
umbrella against the ~trap-door of his
cab, and shouted to the driver to bestir
himself if he wished to earn an extra
halfcrown. The cabman did his best,
but the mail-cart, with its gilt cipher
and emblazoned crown, the fast gray
%trotter, and the sedate driver in blue,
were quickly vanishing into a tricolored
speck. AT a turn in the road the speck
melted and Harold, on arriving at the
post.otfice, felt that he must be at least
five minutes behind-hand In the time
race which he had been running. The
driver pointed significantly to the steam
ing sides of his horse, who looked as If
he had been taking a Turkish bath, and
remarked that it was useless trying to
beat the Queens mails. Harold flung
him his fare and ran breathless into the
office "Mr. Gosling 2" he asked of the
first messenger he met.
lover the way, sir, in the new build
ings," answered the messenger ; ''but
L doubt whether you'll find him now,
it's just struck four.
Doesn't Mr.. Gosllng stay after four
then p"
mo, sir all the young gentlemen
leave as soon as they can. Thank you,
sir, this is the way.
He said ''thank you" because he had
received a two-shilling piece ; and, TAX
ing Harold over the way to the new
buildings. he consigned him to another
messenger, who. on receipt of a similar
gratuity, put John Pleasby's nephew
into a waiting room and left him there
for ten minutes. When he returned
Harold was Tuning and stamping his
foot. "Really l must see MI. Gosling
at once" he said, before the messenger
had opened his mouth.
"Mr. Gosling asks if you'll kindly
wait five minutes, sir" was the reply.
Hang it. no; not a minute ~ shouted
Harold. Take me to Mr.. Gosling i'm
mediately, wherever he is :" and he
pushed the messenger so deliberately out
of the room that the latter ran down
the tagged passage in some fear, as if
he had a tlpsy customer at his heels.
Luckily the pair me the ornamental
clerk coming down a staircase. He had
a crutch-stick and an eyeglass and was
chewing a t%oothpick. MY dea-ar
Pleasby--" he began ; but Harold
cut him short, clutching him by the cuff
and drawing him aside to explain his
errand. Then Mr.. Gosling dropped his
affectation of manner and flung away
his t~oothpick. You're just like the
Others" he remarked seriously ; ''you
people of the public have the oldest
ideas about the post-office I: Just come
here"
He reascended the staircase and
Op6ucu u uOOI. I1dTOlu, following llm
in the hope Of recovering his letter,
found hlmrelf in a glass cage, or box,
where a couple of watchers were sur
veying some eight dozen clerks, sorting
letters on a long table below. There
was another cage of the same sort on
the opposite side of the room, and every
movement of the sorters could he dis
tinctly seen from them. The humping
made by the instruments with which
the stamps were defaced and the post
marks stroke vas incessant. As fast
as a letter-bag was emptied on to the
table, its contents were dispersed in a
second, like a snow-wraith in a high
wind and the letters that had been
stamped were swept away in heaps to a
farther end of the table, where they
were classed in categories and tied up
into bundles. The bundling process
done, they were transferred to baskets,
and from the baskets they went into
wide-mouthed bags of coarse canvas
that were all blotched with sealing-wax.
No machine worked by steam and cut
ting straw into chaf would have dis,
posed more quickly of a mass of papers
than this observation-disclosures postal