2
The beginning of the end
It was baking-day in the establishment of Mr. Andrew Treverton when the messenger intrusted with Doctor Chennery's letter found his way to the garden door of the cottage at Bayswater. After he had rung three times, he heard a gruff voice, on the other side of the wall, roaring at him to let the bell alone, and asking who he was, and what the devil he wanted.
"A letter for Mr. Treverton," said the messenger, nervously backing away from the door while he spoke.
"Chuck it over the wall, then, and be off with you!" answered the gruff voice.
The messenger obeyed both injunctions, he was a meek, modest, elderly man; and when Nature mixed up the ingredients of his disposition, the capability of resenting injuries was not among them.
The man with the gruff voice—or
