During the winter of 1869-70 it seems that Posh conceived the idea that the capital of the firm of FitzGerald and Fletcher justified the working partner in increasing the stock-in-trade. A boat-building company at Southwold put up some craft at auction, and among them was one which had already seen a good deal of sea service named the Henrietta. This Posh bought for about £100 without consulting his partner. It transpired afterwards that the sale was not acceptable to all the shareholders of the company that owned the boat, especially to a Jerry Cole, one of the principal shareholders, and there was a good deal of bother for Posh in obtaining delivery of his purchase. It may be as well to include all the letters relating to this transaction in one chapter without regard to dates.

The first is dated February 1st—that is to say, February 1st, 1870—and was written at Woodbridge by FitzGerald to his partner. The letter, as handed to me by Posh, was incomplete, and lacked signature. No doubt the second sheet had been lost with those “sackfuls.”

“Woodbridge, February 1st.

“My dear Posh,

“Mr. Spalding was with me last night; and I asked him if I was justified in the scolding I gave you about buying the Lugger and Nets too; telling him the particulars. He would not go so far as to say I was wrong; but he thought that you were not to blame either. Therefore I consider that I was wrong; and, as I told you, I am very glad to find myself wrong, though very sorry to have been so: and I cannot let a day pass without writing to say so. You may think that I had better have said nothing to anybody about it: but I always do ask of another if I am right. If Mr. Spalding had been at Lowestoft at the time all this would not have happened: as it has happened, I wish to take all the blame on myself.

“All this will make you wish the more to be quit of such a Partner. I am sure, however, that I thought myself right: and am glad to recant. Perhaps another Partner would not do so much: but you say you will not have another.

“Mr. Spalding thinks you would have done better to stick to one Lugger, considering the double trouble of two. But he says he is not a proper judge. I think the chief evil is that this new Boat will keep you ashore in the Net-room, which I am persuaded hurts you. I told you I was sure the Dust of the nets hurt you: and (oddly enough) the first thing I saw, on opening a Paper here on my return, was a Report on the influence of Dust in causing Disease. I hope you have seen the Doctor and told him all—about last Summer’s Illness. Let me hear what he says. I should have advised Worthington, but he is very expensive. One thing I am sure of: the more you eat, and the less you drink, the better.”

Even here, when Posh had obviously gone beyond his rights and bought another boat without consultation with his capitalist partner, FitzGerald shows his anxiety and solicitude for the man.

There is a good deal of dust flying about the net chambers; for the cutch and oil and thread all shred off and poison the air. “Why,” said Posh the other day, “he bought me one o’ them things that goo oover the mouth” (a respirator), “but lor! I should ha’ been ashamed ta be seed a wearin’ on it!”

Dr. Worthington referred to in the letter is one of a long line of medical practitioners, and was the Lowestoft medical attendant of FitzGerald himself. I have experienced great kindness from both this Dr. Worthington and his son Dr. Dick Worthington. The former tells me that FitzGerald would never enter his house, but would stand on the doorstep to consult. He had no objection to the doctor entering his (FitzGerald’s) lodgings, and on one occasion when Dr. Worthington called on him at 12 Marine Terrace the doctor saw all his medicine bottles unopened in a row. “You know this isn’t fair to me,” said the justly irritated doctor. “I do what I can for you, and you won’t take my medicines.” “My dear doctor,” said FitzGerald, “it does me good to see you.”

Dr. Aldis Wright says that this is merely an instance of FitzGerald’s rule that he would never enter the house of his equal. Of course his “social” equal is inferred, for the rule would have been unnecessary if the “equal” bore another significance. His inferiors in station he would visit and charm by his manner and speech. But the house of a society equal he avoided, lest he should be compelled, for mere courtesy, to go where he would not.

I have, of course, chuckled over the opinion that Dr. Worthington senior was “very expensive.” But I believe that FitzGerald was one of those (I might almost say “of us”) who regarded all doctor’s bills as luxuries! At all events, if FitzGerald was right, I can say that Dr. Dick Worthington is not atavistic in this particular!

Mr. Spalding’s opinion inclined FitzGerald to make no difficulty about finding the money for the Henrietta. He lodged it at his bankers’ for Posh to draw when occasion required. But Posh seems to have been a little in advance. There is no heading whatever to the following letter.

“Dear Posh,

“I don’t understand your letter. That which I had on Friday, enclosing Mr. Craigie’s, said that you had not drawn the money, your letter of To-day tells me that you had drawn the money, before the Letter from Southwold came. Was not that letter Mr. Craigie’s letter?

“Anyhow, I think you ought not (after all I have said) to have drawn the money (to keep in your house) till you wanted it. And you could have got it at the Bank any morning on which you got another letter from Southwold, telling you the business was to be settled.

“Moreover, I think you should have written me on Saturday, in answer to my letter. You are very good in attending to any letters of mine about stores, or fish, which I don’t care about. But you somehow do not attend so regularly to things which I do care about, such as gales of wind in which you are out, and such directions as I have given over and over again about money matters.

“However, I don’t mean to kick up another row; provided you now do, and at once, what I positively desire.

“Which is; to take the money directly to Mr. Barnard, and ask him, as from me, to pay it to my account at Messrs. Bacon and Cobbold’s Bank at Woodbridge. Then if you tell me the address of the Auctioneer or Agent, at Southwold who manage [sic] the business, Bacon and Cobbold will write to them at once that the money is ready for them directly the Lugger is ready for you. And, write me a line to-morrow to say that this is done.

“This makes a trouble to you, and to me, and to Bankers, but I think you must blame yourself for not attending to my directions. But I am yours not the less.

“E. FG.

Mr. Craigie was an old Southwold friend of the Fletcher family, with whom Fletcher senior (Posh’s father) had spent Christmas for over forty years. The criticism of Posh’s system appears, to the impartial critic, to be both painful and true. But Posh, in this case, was not altogether to blame. This Mr. Jerry Cole, before mentioned, was keeping things back. He had a preponderating interest in that Southwold company, and he thought that the Henrietta had been sold too cheap, and that hung up the delivery. At least that’s what Posh tells me, and at this date I can’t get any better evidence than his.

Shortly after the last letter FitzGerald wrote again. Now his kind anxiety about this man, whom he still loved, outweighed all thought of money. It was a bitter winter, and Posh, he thought, was not over-hale.

“Woodbridge, Saturday.

“Dear Captain,

“Whatever is to be done about the money, do not you go over to Southwold while this weather lasts. I think it is colder than I ever knew. Don’t go, I say—there can be no hurry for the boat (even if you can get it) for a a [sic] week or so. Perhaps it may be as well at Southwold as at Lowestoft.

“I wish you were here to play Allfours with me To-night.

“Yours,
“E. FG.”

Posh got the lugger in March, 1870, and on March 2nd FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (Two Suffolk Friends, p. 118): “Posh has, I believe, gone off to Southwold in hope to bring his Lugger home. I advised him last night to ascertain first by letter whether she were ready for his hands; but you know he will go his own way, and that generally is as good as anybody’s. He now works all day in his Net-loft: and I wonder how he keeps as well as he is, shut up there from fresh air and among frowsy Nets. . . . I think he has mistaken in not sending the Meum and Tuum to the West this spring. . . . But I have not meddled, nor indeed is it my Business to meddle now. . . .”

I think this must have been written about the date of the letter with which I commence the next chapter, or possibly a little later. It would, almost certainly, be after the catches of mackerel mentioned by “Mr. Manby” as hereinafter appears, and, very likely, after the termination of the partnership.