第五十二章
In Chapter LII, the narrator makes several unsuccessful attempts to recover the ring and watch lost to Strutwell and Straddle, eventually being reduced to pawning his gold-inlaid sword for subsistence. After exhausting this small supply and paying a debt to his landlord, he follows Banter’s advice to a Covent Garden gaming house, where he enjoys an extraordinary run of luck, winning 150 guineas. Strap’s ecstatic reaction to the windfall is only restrained by the narrator’s fear that joy has driven him mad. The chapter closes with the repentant Mrs. Gawky (formerly Miss Lavement) begging the narrator’s forgiveness and aid, which he freely grants.
Failed Attempts to Recover Stolen Watch and Jewel
Banter rebukes the narrator for squandering the diamond and watch on rascals instead of converting them into cash, and the narrator resolves to retrieve the valuables by stratagem rather than force. He visits Straddle under the pretext that the diamond has loosened in its setting and offers to have it reset by a Parisian jeweller; Straddle, however, is not deceived and replies that he has already sent it to his own jeweller. He then devises a scheme to recover the watch from the Earl of Strutwell by dropping it to damage the mechanism, justifying a request to take it away for repairs.
Failed Schemes to Deceive Strutwell
When the narrator tries to renew his visit to Strutwell in order to put his scheme into execution, he is received in the parlour as before but is told by the valet-de-chambre that his lordship is too unwell to receive company, and is asked to come again at the levee. Interpreting this as an ill omen, the narrator leaves in a fury, but nevertheless besieges Strutwell at his levee, persecuting him with importunate solicitations in the hope of gleaning some advantage. He never obtains another private hearing, however, and lacks the resolution to undeceive Strap, whose anxious, eager looks whenever he comes home betray his mounting impatience for news of the patron’s bounty.
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