Part 10 (1/2)
They did so. And no doubt their action proved to be for the happiness of each of them.
Posh was walking with FitzGerald on one occasion down Quay Lane, Woodbridge, when Mrs. FitzGerald (who was living at Gorleston at the time, but had gone over to Woodbridge, possibly to see some old friends) appeared walking towards them. FitzGerald removed the glove he was wearing on his right hand. Mrs. FitzGerald removed the glove she was wearing on her right hand. There was a momentary hesitation as the husband pa.s.sed the wife. But Posh thinks that the two hands did not meet. FitzGerald bowed with all his courtesy, and pa.s.sed on.
Posh says that Mrs. FitzGerald was a ”fine figure of a woman.” And I believe that she was, indeed, so fine a figure of a woman that the length of her stride excited the admiration of the local schoolboys when she was still Miss Barton. She was older than FitzGerald when he married her, and both were nearer fifty than forty.
In this context I give the following letter from FitzGerald to Posh, though I have been unable to fix its date with any certainty.
”WOODBRIDGE, _Tuesday_.
”DEAR POSH,
”I find that I may very likely have to go to London on Thursday--not to be home till Friday perhaps. If I do this it will be scarce worth while your coming over here to-morrow, so far as _I_ am concerned; though you will perhaps see Newson.
”Poor young Smith of the Sportsman was brought home ill last week, and died of the very worst Small Pox in a Day or two. There have been _three_ Deaths from it here: all from London. As young Smith died in _Quay Lane_ leading down to the Boat Inn, I should not like you to be about there with any chance of Danger, though I have been up and down several times myself.
”Ever yours, ”E. FG.”
”The Sportsman” was a public-house at Woodbridge, and it is probable that FitzGerald had helped ”poor young Smith” substantially. His anxiety lest Posh should contract smallpox, and his indifference as to himself, are admirably ill.u.s.trative of the man's unselfishness.
But now that the partners.h.i.+p was at an end he began to frequent Lowestoft less. During 1871 he sold the _Scandal_, and on September 4th he wrote to Dr. Aldis Wright from Woodbridge (_Letters_, II, p. 126, Eversley Edition): ”I run over to Lowestoft occasionally for a few days, but do not abide there long: no longer having my dear little s.h.i.+p for company. . . .”
Who bought the _Scandal_ I do not know. Posh has no recollection, and Dr. Aldis Wright has been unable to trace with certainty the subsequent owner of her, though he has reason to think that she was sold to Sir Cuthbert Quilter. She had served her purpose. She was, as Posh a.s.sures me, a ”fast and handy little schooner.”
After her sale FitzGerald still remained the mortgagee of the _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_. But this was not to last indefinitely. Posh's spirit of independence and love of ”bare” were fated to put an end to all business relations between his old ”guv'nor” and him.
CHAPTER XVII BY ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE
Matters were still progressing fairly satisfactorily when FitzGerald visited Lowestoft in September, 1872. On the 29th of that month he wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 122):--
”. . . Posh--after no fish caught for 3 weeks--has had his boat come home with nearly all her fleet of nets torn to pieces in last week's winds. . . . he . . . went with me to the theatre afterwards, where he admired the 'Gays,' as he called the Scenes; but fell asleep before Shylock had whetted his knife in the Merchant of Venice. . . .”
”Gays” is East Anglian for pictures.
Towards the end of 1873 relations began to be severely strained between mortgagor and mortgagee. On December the 31st FitzGerald wrote from 12 Marine Terrace, Lowestoft:--
”12 MARINE TERRACE, ”_December_ 31.
”JOSEPH FLETCHER,
”As you cannot talk with me without confusion, I write a few words to you on the subject of the two grievances which you began about this morning.
”1st. As to your being _under_ your Father: I said no such thing: but wrote that he was to be _either_ Partner, or (with your Mother) constantly employed, and consulted with as to the Boats. It is indeed for _their_ sakes, and that of your own Family, that I have come to take all this trouble
”2ndly. As to the Bill of Sale to me. If you could be calm enough, you would see that this would be a Protection _to yourself_. You do not pay your different Creditors _all_ their Bill at the year's end.
Now, if any one of these should happen to want _all_ his Money; he might, by filing a Bankruptcy against you, seize upon your Nets and everything else you have to pay his Debt.
”As to your supposing that _I_ should use the Bill of Sale except in the last necessity (which I do not calculate upon), you prove that you can have but little remembrance of what I have hitherto done for you and am still willing to do for your Family's sake quite as much as for your own.
”The Nets were included in the Valuation which Mr. b.a.l.l.s made of the whole Property; which valuation (as you ought to remember) I reduced even lower than Mr. b.a.l.l.s' Valuation; which you yourself thought too low at the time. Therefore (however much the Nets, &c. may have been added to since) surely _I_ have the first claim on them in Justice, if not by the Mortgage. I repeat, however, that I proposed the Bill of Sale quite as much as a Protection to yourself and yours as to myself.