Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 100 CHAPTER LXX
Our deeds still travel with us from afar,
And what we have been makes us what we are.’B
ulstrode’s first object after Lydgate had left Stone Court
was to examine Raffles’s pockets, which he imagined
were sure to carry signs in the shape of hotel-bills of the plac-
es he had stopped in, if he had not told the truth in saying
that he had come straight from Liverpool because he was ill
and had no money. There were various bills crammed into
his pocketbook, but none of a later date than Christmas at
any other place, except one, which bore date that morning.
This was crumpled up with a hand-bill about a horse-fair
in one of his tail-pockets, and represented the cost of three
days’ stay at an inn at Bilkley, where the fair was held— a
town at least forty miles from Middlemarch. The bill was
heavy, and since Raffles had no luggage with him, it seemed
probable that he had left his portmanteau behind in pay-
ment, in order to save money for his travelling fare; for his
purse was empty, and he had only a couple of sixpences and
some loose pence in his pockets.
Bulstrode gathered a sense of safety from these in-
dications that Raffles had really kept at a distance from
Middlemarch since his memorable visit at Christmas. At a