Squire Gawky Arrives as Lodger
Squire Gawky, Roderick’s former acquaintance from Scotland who now holds an army lieutenancy, becomes a lodger in the Lavement household’s first floor. Gawky initially pretends not to recognize Roderick, easing Roderick’s fears of retaliation for their past conflict in Scotland.
The Night Rescue and Mistaken Identity
Returning late one night from a patient’s house, Roderick sees a Scotchman being restrained by watchmen alongside two other men. Driven by loyalty to his home country, he attacks the watchman holding the Scotchman to free him, but the man flees, leaving Roderick to be beaten by the other watchmen. Roderick later learns the man he rescued was Gawky, who had been robbed and abused by footpads.
Accused of Insolence
The next day, Gawky lies to the Lavement family about showing great bravery to escape his attackers, so Roderick confronts him, using his swollen, injured eye as proof that he was the one who rescued Gawky. Gawky is stunned into silence, and Roderick is reprimanded by his mistress for insolent behaviour, though Gawky later feigns forgiveness, advising Roderick to be more certain of his claims before making accusations in future.
Gawky’s Secret Marriage to Miss Lavement
Miss Lavement flirts with Gawky to win his affection, and less than two weeks later, the pair elope to the Fleet to marry without her parents’ prior knowledge. They return home the next morning to ask for her parents’ blessing: her father approves the match as Gawky never asked for a dowry, and her mother is relieved to be rid of a rival for her husband’s attention.
The Conspiracy Against Me
Gawky still resents Roderick for exposing his cowardice during the footpad attack, and shares this anger with his wife, who also hates Roderick for spurning her advances and knowing unflattering details about her character. The pair plot to destroy Roderick’s reputation and life.
The Planted Evidence
After the apothecary Lavement accuses Roderick of stealing large quantities of medicine from the household, he demands Roderick’s chest key, searches his room with the entire family present, and finds the stolen goods hidden inside the chest, planted there by Gawky and his wife to frame Roderick.
My Disgraceful Dismissal
Roderick protests his innocence and accuses Gawky of framing him, but Lavement chooses to believe the planted evidence, and dismisses Roderick from his service immediately with no opportunity to clear his name.
Deserted by All Friends
Roderick first tries to appeal to the schoolmaster Mr. Concordance for help, but finds him away in the country. He then attempts to seek help from other local acquaintances, but the servants have spread the story of his alleged theft, and no one will listen to his side of the story, leaving him completely deserted, with his reputation ruined, no money, and no support.
A Garret in St. Giles’s
With no other options, Roderick moves his remaining belongings to the house of a former lodger, then after being rejected by all his contacts, rents a cheap garret room near St. Giles’s for nine pence per week, where he later accidentally discovers the woman he previously courted living in miserable, destitute conditions and provides her with relief.
CHAPTER XXI
The narrator is sitting in his solitary retreat musing on his unhappy fate when he hears a groan from the adjacent chamber, rushes in to find a woman collapsed on a miserable truckle bed with no visible signs of life, and is stunned to recognize her as the very lady who once won his heart and to whose fate he had once been nearly inseparably bound. He revives her with a smelling bottle, and she tearfully confesses she is a sex worker who contracted a dangerous, common illness for her profession after being swindled of all her money and possessions by a fraudulent advertising doctor, who left her destitute three days prior with no food for 48 hours and a landlady threatening to turn her out onto the street. He forgives her for her past plot to take advantage of him, offers to share his meager remaining funds and let her lodge with him to cut costs while he cares for her illness, and soon finds she is both a pleasant companion who eases his low spirits and a devoted nurse who serves him with great fidelity, prompting him to beg her to share the full story of how her beauty, education, and good sense led her to her current disgraced, destitute life.
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