on the Monday evening of which I am now writing,
and had proposed to tell him, when we met, of dear Aunt Verinder's
arrival in London. To my great disappointment he never appeared. On
my expressing a feeling of surprise at his absence, my sisters of the
Committee all looked up together from their trousers (we had a great
pressure of business that night), and asked in amazement, if I had not
heard the news. I acknowledged my ignorance, and was then told, for the
first time, of an event which forms, so to speak, the starting-point
of this narrative. On the previous Friday, two gentlemen--occupying
widely-different positions in society--had been the victims of an
outrage which had startled all London. One of the gentlemen was Mr.
Septimus Luker, of Lambeth. The other was Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.

Living in my present isolation, I have no means of introducing the
newspaper-account of the outrage into my narrative. I was also deprived,
at the time, of the inestimable advantage of hearing the events related
by the fervid eloquence of Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. All I can do is to
state the facts as they were stated, on that Monday evening, to me;
proceeding on the plan which I have been taught from infancy to adopt
in folding up my clothes. Everything shall be put neatly, and everything
shall be put in its place. These lines are written by a poor weak woman.
From a poor weak woman who will be cruel enough to expect more?

The date--thanks to my dear parents, no dictionary that ever was written
can be more particular than I am about dates--was Friday, June 30th,
1848.

Early on that memorable day, our gifted Mr. Godfrey happened to be
cashing a cheque at a banking-house in Lombard Street. The name of the
firm is accidentally blotted in my diary, and my sacred regard for truth
forbids me to hazard a guess in a matter of this kind. Fortunately, the
name of the firm doesn't matter. What does matter is a circumstance that
occurred when Mr. Godfrey had transacted his business. On gaining the
door, he encountered a gentleman--a perfect stranger to him--who was
accidentally leaving the office exactly at the same time as himself. A
momentary contest of politeness ensued between them as to who should be
the first to pass through the door of the bank. The stranger insisted on
making Mr. Godfrey precede him; Mr. Godfrey said a few civil words; they
bowed, and parted in the street.

Thoughtless and superficial people may say, Here is surely