"Mr.Coverdale!--Mr.Coverdale!" said he, repeating my name twice, in order to make up for the hesitating and ineffectual way in which he uttered it."I ask your pardon, sir, but I hear you are going to Blithedale tomorrow."I knew the pale, elderly face, with the redtipt nose, and the patch over one eye; and likewise saw something characteristic in the old fellow's way of standing under the arch of a gate, only revealing enough of himself to make me recognize him as an acquaintance.He was a very shy personage, this Mr.Moodie; and the trait was the more singular, as his mode of getting his bread necessarily brought him into the stir and hubbub of the world more than the generality of men.
"Yes, Mr.Moodie," I answered, wondering what interest he could take in the fact, "it is my intention to go to Blithedale to-morrow.Can I be of any service to you before my departure?""If you pleased, Mr.Coverdale," said he, "you might do me a very great favor.""A very great one?" repeated I, in a tone that must have expressed but little alacrity of beneficence, although I was ready to do the old man any amount of kindness involving no special trouble to myself."A very great favor, do you say? My time is brief, Mr.Moodie, and I have a good many preparations to make.But be good enough to tell me what you wish.""Ah, sir," replied Old Moodie, "I don't quite like to do that; and, on further thoughts, Mr.Coverdale, perhaps I had better apply to some older gentleman, or to some lady, if you would have the kindness to make me known to one, who may happen to be going to Blithedale.You are a young man, sir!""Does that fact lessen my availability for your purpose?" asked I.
"However, if an older man will suit you better, there is Mr.
Hollingsworth, who has three or four years the advantage of me in age, and is a much more solid character, and a philanthropist to boot.I am only a poet, and, so the critics tell me, no great affair at that! But what can this business be, Mr.Moodie? It begins to interest me;especially since your hint that a lady's influence might be found desirable.Come, I am really anxious to be of service to you."But the old fellow, in his civil and demure manner, was both freakish and obstinate; and he had now taken some notion or other into his head that made him hesitate in his former design.
"I wonder, sir," said he, "whether you know a lady whom they call Zenobia?""Not personally," I answered, "although I expect that pleasure to-morrow, as she has got the start of the rest of us, and is already a resident at Blithedale.But have you a literary turn, Mr.Moodie? or have you taken up the advocacy of women's rights? or what else can have interested you in this lady? Zenobia, by the bye, as I suppose you know, is merely her public name; a sort of mask in which she comes before the world, retaining all the privileges of privacy,--a contrivance, in short, like the white drapery of the Veiled Lady, only a little more transparent.
But it is late.Will you tell me what I can do for you?""Please to excuse me to-night, Mr.Coverdale," said Moodie."You are very kind; but I am afraid I have troubled you, when, after all, there may be no need.Perhaps, with your good leave, I will come to your lodgings to-morrow morning, before you set out for Blithedale.I wish you a good-night, sir, and beg pardon for stopping you."And so he slipt away; and, as he did not show himself the next morning, it was only through subsequent events that I ever arrived at a plausible conjecture as to what his business could have been.Arriving at my room, I threw a lump of cannel coal upon the grate, lighted a cigar, and spent an hour in musings of every hue, from the brightest to the most sombre;being, in truth, not so very confident as at some former periods that this final step, which would mix me up irrevocably with the Blithedale affair, was the wisest that could possibly be taken.It was nothing short of midnight when I went to bed, after drinking a glass of particularly fine sherry on which I used to pride myself in those days.
It was the very last bottle; and I finished it, with a friend, the next forenoon, before setting out for Blithedale.
