"The Moonstone" — "Second period. The Discovery of the Truth. (1848-1849.) Second Narrative. Contributed by Mathew Bruff, Solicitor, of Gray's Inn Square," Ch. II: "You would have been entitled to pay the money backin one year's time from the date at which it was first advanced to you."

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"You would have been entitled to pay the money backin one year's time from the date at which it was first advanced to you."

Harper & Bros. house illustrator William Jewett

Wood engraving

17.5 x 11.8 cm

The second illustration for the twentieth weekly part of Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone: A Romance in the Harper's Weekly (16 May 1868), page 309. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

The illustrations appearing here are courtesy of the E. J. Pratt Fine Arts Library, University of Toronto, and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of B. C.

Passage Illustrated: The Head Brahmin pays Mr. Bruff a Professional Call.

The Indian bowed.

"May I ask how it is that Mr. Luker himself did not advance the money that you require?"

"Mr. Luker informed me, sir, that he had no money to lend."

"And so he recommended you to come to me?"

The Indian, in his turn, pointed to the card. "It is written there," he said.

Briefly answered, and thoroughly to the purpose! If the Moonstone had been in my possession, this Oriental gentleman would have murdered me, I am well aware, without a moment's hesitation. At the same time, and barring that slight drawback, I am bound to testify that he was the perfect model of a client. He might not have respected my life. But he did what none of my own countrymen had ever done, in all my experience of them — he respected my time.

"I am sorry," I said, "that you should have had the trouble of coming to me. Mr. Luker is quite mistaken in sending you here. I am trusted, like other men in my profession, with money to lend. But I never lend it to strangers, and I never lend it on such a security as you have produced."

Far from attempting, as other people would have done, to induce me to relax my own rules, the Indian only made me another bow, and wrapped up his box in its two coverings without a word of protest. He rose—this admirable assassin rose to go, the moment I had answered him!

"Will your condescension towards a stranger, excuse my asking one question," he said, "before I take my leave?"

I bowed on my side. Only one question at parting! The average in my experience was fifty.

"Supposing, sir, it had been possible (and customary) for you to lend me the money," he said, "in what space of time would it have been possible (and customary) for me to pay it back?"

"According to the usual course pursued in this country," I answered, "you would have been entitled to pay the money back (if you liked) in one year's time from the date at which it was first advanced to you."

The Indian made me a last bow, the lowest of all—and suddenly and softly walked out of the room.— "Second period. The Discovery of the Truth. (1848-1849.) Second Narrative. Contributed by Mathew Bruff, Solicitor, of Gray's Inn Square," Ch. II: p. 310.

Commentary: Mr. Bruff's Exotic Client

Cuff, like Collins's lawyers here and elsewhere has, at least in his professional life, total belief in objective reality, or the power of appearance, and, like lawyer Bruff, is powerless to do anything in the direction of recovering the stolen diamond, however knowledgeable he may be after the event. Indeed the link between the names of Bruff and Cuff followss a favourite Dickensiansatriric device, echoing the Coodles and Doodles of politics in Bleak House, or the Messrs, Aggs, Baggs and Caggs, and Alley, Balley and Calley of the legal world of Our Mutual Friend, and certainly argues against the uniqueness of Cuff. — Laidlaw, p. 213.

In the absence of Cuff, Bruff enables the reader to piece together how the mystery will be resolved. That the thread of the plot involving the three Brahmins will join the thread of the story of the diamond's disappearance is signalled by the arrival in London of their leader, whose English like his western dress is impeccable and yet somehow exotic. The assault on Godfrey Ablewhite, revealed in the narrative section delivered by Miss Clack, begins to make sense now that the Indians have likewise mugged the money-lender, Septimus Luker, and have ascertained when the diamond which was surety for Godfrey's loan must be redeemed: "in one year's time from the date at which it was first advanced" or towards the end of June 1849.Armed with this knowledge (given them by Mr. Bruff), the Brahmins will now watch both Luker's London office and his bank, which by coincidence is also Godfrey Ablewhite's.

William Jewett has drawn his version of Mr. Bruff with far greater conviction and realism than C. B.'s previous image of the attorney in his interview with Miss Clack, "You are not so good a lawyer, Miss Clack, as I supposed." (18 April 1868). However, whereas the old family attorney is perfectly convincing, the "Indian" who has come to consult him, with long hair and straggling moustache, is anything but convincing as a denizen of the Indian subcontinent. As an American Jewett seems to have been aware that natives of Indian might have very dark skins, but he was clearly unaware of the bone structure and facial features appropriate to the Brahmin who consults Bruff about the period of the loan on the Moonstone. The figure of the leader of the guardians of the gem, however, markedly resembles the three men in the illustration of the assault upon Godfrey Ablewhite, "Without the slightest previous noise to warn him, he felt himself suddenly seized round the neck from behind" (4 April 1868). The problem here, then, is one of visual continuity, common enough when more than one artist is responsible for a narrative-pictorial series, as was the case with all but r=the first of the Christmas Books of Dickens, 1844-48: the illustrator "C. B.," responsible for the earlier, comic image of Mathew Bruff is not the one responsible for the two Indian illustrations, which have a high seriousness and conviction that C. B.'s illustration of Mathew Bruff lacks. Jewett's detailing of the office, with law books, bills, and wastepaper basket suggests more the modest practice of a "store front" American lawyer of the period than a successful London barrister, but these details nevertheless enforce the viewer's belief, as does the jewelled box that the Brahmin (his eyes glazed over, and not regarding the shrewd attorney who is studying him) clasps as he stands to depart. The most compelling pieces of realia, however, are the quill behind Mr. Bruff's ear and his business-like swivel-chair, both of which suggest that Jewett may have had a specific lawyer and legal office in mind.

Relevant Illustrations of Matthew Bruff and the Brahmin from the Serial (1868), Collins Clear-Type Press (1910), and Doubleday Literary Guild Edition (1946)

Left: The earlier scene in which the Brahmins search Godfrey Ablewhite in the house in Northumberland Street, "Without the slightest previous noise to warn him, he felt himself suddenly seized round the neck from behind" (fourteenth instalment). Centre: Alfred Pearse's realisation of the interview, but with a more plausible (turbaned) Brahmin, "'Excuse my asking one question.'" (1910). Right: William Sharp's full-page, more convincing depiction of the three Brahmins with their clairvoyant, The Three Jugglers on the Verinder Estate [uncaptioned] (1946). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Materials

The Moonstone and British India (1857, 1868, and 1876)
Detection and Disruption inside and outside the 'quiet English home' in The Moonstone
Illustrations by F. A. Fraser for Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone: A Romance (1890)
Illustrations by John Sloan for Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone: A Romance (1908)
Illustrations by Alfred Pearse for The Moonstone: A Romance (1910)
The 1944 illustrations by William Sharp for The Moonstone (1946).

Last updated 28 November 2016