An Encounter with a Stranger
A well-dressed stranger stops to pick up a dropped half-crown and insists it belongs to the narrator. After the narrator verifies his money is complete, the stranger declares it a godsend and proposes equal sharing. Despite the narrator’s refusal, the stranger invites them for a warming drink on the cold morning, and Strap’s whispered insistence leads to compliance. The stranger reveals his Scottish grandmother, praises the Scots as brave, well-educated, and honest, citing his former servant Gregor Macgregor as an example, which deeply moves the narrator and brings Strap to tears.
A Fateful Card Game
Entering a public house, the stranger suggests playing cards to stay awake, proposing whist despite claiming rarely to play. A fourth player joins from the fireside, and after cutting for partners, the narrator and this player win steadily against the stranger and Strap for threepence a game. The narrator grows confident as his luck continues, and stakes escalate. Soon the fortune reverses; the narrator and Strap lose their gains plus forty shillings of their own money. When their antagonists kindly offer another chance, Strap wisely advises departure, but the stranger who lost challenges the narrator to piquet for a crown. The narrator accepts, and within an hour loses every shilling he possesses, with Strap refusing to lend him anything.
Penniless Again
The remaining gentleman expresses sorrow at the narrator’s devastating loss, noting he had tried to signal the narrator to stop but was too absorbed in the game to notice. He questions Strap’s honesty based on suspicious behavior but accepts the narrator’s defense of his companion’s anxiety. After paying the eighteenpence reckoning, the gentleman departs warmly, leaving the narrator bereft of all money and overwhelmed with grief.
CHAPTER XV
This opening section of the chapter establishes that the narrator and Strap arrived in London less than 48 hours earlier and have already suffered a string of severe misfortunes, culminating in being robbed of all their money. The pair are making their way back to their lodging in a state of deep distress and tension.
Strap Moralises and Presents His Purse
On the walk to their lodging, Strap laments their terrible fortune, moralising about the value of prudence, and clarifies that when he earlier referred to a fool, he meant only himself. Once they reach their lodging, Strap, moved by the narrator’s despair, gives him his entire life savings (two half-guineas and half a crown) to support him, refusing to take the money back and insisting it is more appropriate for the gentleman narrator to rely on him than the reverse. The narrator is deeply touched by Strap’s selfless generosity.
The Landlord Unravels the Mystery
The pair inform their landlord of the robbery they suffered, and he reveals they were targeted by a criminal “money-dropper” and his accomplices, who trick strangers into accompanying them to isolated locations to be robbed, and recounts other cases of similar fraud and violence in London. When they tell the landlord about their failed attempt to seek help from Member of Parliament Mr. Cringer, the landlord explains that MPs require bribes to assist constituents, and their servants expect payment for granting access. He advises the narrator to bribe Cringer’s footman a shilling the next time he visits to ensure he is admitted.
Bribing the Footman
The next morning, the narrator follows the landlord’s advice, slipping a shilling to Cringer’s footman when he presents his letter of introduction from Mr. Crab. The bribe works immediately: the footman lets him in and takes his letter, telling him to wait in a cold side passage for a response. The narrator waits 45 minutes in the unheated space, watching several other Scottish men he knows from home pass freely into Cringer’s audience chamber, while he hides his face to avoid being recognised in his shabby, unfashionable clothing.
A Disappointing Interview with Cringer
When Cringer finally emerges, he is greeting the wealthy, well-dressed Squire Gawky warmly, shaking his hand and inviting him to dinner. When he turns to the narrator, he pretends to struggle to remember his name, then dismisses his request for a surgeon’s mate warrant by claiming there is already a large crowd of Scottish surgeons waiting at the Navy Office for the next vacancy, and that the commissioners have even requested a guard for protection. He vaguely promises to help when new ships are commissioned, leaving the narrator deeply mortified at the cold, dismissive reception from the former footman of his grandfather’s household, who has risen to become a wealthy MP.
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