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diff --git a/old/2003-05-08-7481-8.zip b/old/2003-05-08-7481-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3887d10 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2003-05-08-7481-8.zip diff --git a/old/2003-05-08-7481.zip b/old/2003-05-08-7481.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..233f1b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2003-05-08-7481.zip diff --git a/old/7tclr10.txt b/old/7tclr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa606a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7tclr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,24772 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Clerks, by Anthony Trollope +#43 in our series by Anthony Trollope + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Three Clerks + +Author: Anthony Trollope + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7481] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE CLERKS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Delphine Lettau, Mark Sherwood +and the people at Distributed Proofreading + + + + +THE THREE CLERKS + +BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE + + + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY W. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE + + + +ANTHONY TROLLOPE + +Born London, April 24, 1815 +Died London, December 6, 1882 + + + +INTRODUCTION + +There is the proper mood and the just environment for the reading +as well as for the writing of works of fiction, and there can be +no better place for the enjoying of a novel by Anthony Trollope +than under a tree in Kensington Gardens of a summer day. Under a +tree in the avenue that reaches down from the Round Pond to the +Long Water. There, perhaps more than anywhere else, lingers the +early Victorian atmosphere. As we sit beneath our tree, we see in +the distance the dun, red-brick walls of Kensington Palace, where +one night Princess Victoria was awakened to hear that she was +Queen; there in quaint, hideously ugly Victorian rooms are to be +seen Victorian dolls and other playthings; the whole environment +is early Victorian. Here to the mind's eye how easy it is to +conjure up ghosts of men in baggy trousers and long flowing +whiskers, of prim women in crinolines, in hats with long trailing +feathers and with ridiculous little parasols, or with Grecian- +bends and chignons--church-parading to and fro beneath the trees +or by the water's edge--perchance, even the fascinating Lady +Crinoline and the elegant Mr. Macassar Jones, whose history has +been written by Clerk Charley in the pages we are introducing to +the 'gentle reader'. As a poetaster of an earlier date has +written:-- + + Where Kensington high o'er the neighbouring lands + 'Midst green and sweets, a royal fabric, stands, + And sees each spring, luxuriant in her bowers, + A snow of blossoms, and a wild of flowers, + The dames of Britain oft in crowds repair + To gravel walks, and unpolluted air. + Here, while the town in damps and darkness lies, + They breathe in sunshine, and see azure skies; + Each walk, with robes of various dyes bespread, + Seems from afar a moving tulip bed, + Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow, + And chintz, the rival of the showery bow. + +Indeed, the historian of social manners, when dealing with the +Victorian period, will perforce have recourse to the early +volumes of Punch and to the novels of Thackeray, Dickens, and +Trollope. + +There are certain authors of whom personally we know little, but +of whose works we cannot ever know enough, such a one for example +as Shakespeare; others of whose lives we know much, but for whose +works we can have but scant affection: such is Doctor Johnson; +others who are intimate friends in all their aspects, as +Goldsmith and Charles Lamb; yet others, who do not quite come +home to our bosoms, whose writings we cannot entirely approve, +but for whom and for whose works we find a soft place somewhere +in our hearts, and such a one is Anthony Trollope. His novels are +not for every-day reading, any more than are those of Marryat and +Borrow--to take two curious examples. There are times and moods +and places in which it would be quite impossible to read _The +Three Clerks_; others in which this story is almost wholly +delightful. With those who are fond of bed-reading Trollope +should ever be a favourite, and it is no small compliment to say +this, for small is the noble army of authors who have given us +books which can enchant in the witching hour between waking and +slumber. It is probable that all lovers of letters have their +favourite bed-books. Thackeray has charmingly told us of his. Of +the few novels that can really be enjoyed when the reader is +settling down for slumber almost all have been set forth by +writers who--consciously or unconsciously--have placed character +before plot; Thackeray himself, Miss Austen, Borrow, Marryat, +Sterne, Dickens, Goldsmith and--Trollope. + +Books are very human in their way, as what else should they be, +children of men and women as they are? Just as with human friends +so with book friends, first impressions are often misleading; +good literary coin sometimes seems to ring untrue, but the +untruth is in the ear of the reader, not of the writer. For +instance, Trollope has many odd and irritating tricks which are +apt to scare off those who lack perseverance and who fail to +understand that there must be something admirable in that which +was once much admired by the judicious. He shares with Thackeray +the sinful habit of pulling up his readers with a wrench by +reminding them that what is set before them is after all mere +fiction and that the characters in whose fates they are becoming +interested are only marionettes. With Dickens and others he +shares the custom, so irritating to us of to-day, of ticketing +his personages with clumsy, descriptive labels, such as, in +_The Three Clerks_, Mr. Chaffanbrass, Sir Gregory Hardlines, +Sir Warwick West End, Mr. Neverbend, Mr. Whip Vigil, Mr. Nogo and +Mr. Gitemthruet. He must plead guilty, also, to some bad ways +peculiarly his own, or which he made so by the thoroughness with +which he indulged in them. He moralizes in his own person in +deplorable manner: is not this terrible:--'Poor Katie!--dear, +darling, bonnie Katie!--sweet, sweetest, dearest child! why, oh, +why, has that mother of thine, that tender-hearted loving mother, +put thee unguarded in the way of such perils as this? Has she not +sworn to herself that over thee at least she would watch as a hen +over her young, so that no unfortunate love should quench thy +young spirit, or blanch thy cheek's bloom?' Is this not +sufficient to make the gentlest reader swear to himself? + +Fortunately this and some other appalling passages occur after +the story is in full swing and after the three Clerks and those +with whom they come into contact have proved themselves +thoroughly interesting companions. Despite all his old-fashioned +tricks Trollope does undoubtedly succeed in giving blood and life +to most of his characters; they are not as a rule people of any +great eccentricity or of profound emotions; but ordinary, every- +day folk, such as all of us have met, and loved or endured. +Trollope fills very adequately a space between Thackeray and +Dickens, of whom the former deals for the most part with the +upper 'ten', the latter with the lower 'ten'; Trollope with the +suburban and country-town 'ten'; the three together giving us a +very complete and detailed picture of the lives led by our +grandmothers and grandfathers, whose hearts were in the same +place as our own, but whose manners of speech, of behaviour and +of dress have now entered into the vague region known as the +'days of yore'. + +_The Three Clerks_ is an excellent example of Trollope's +handiwork. The development of the plot is sufficiently skilful to +maintain the reader's interest, and the major part of the +characters is lifelike, always well observed and sometimes +depicted with singular skill and insight. Trollope himself liked +the work well:-- + +'The plot is not so good as that of _The Macdermots_; nor +are any characters in the book equal to those of Mrs. Proudie and +the Warden; but the work has a more continued interest, and +contains the first well-described love-scene that I ever wrote. +The passage in which Kate Woodward, thinking she will die, tries +to take leave of the lad she loves, still brings tears to my eyes +when I read it. I had not the heart to kill her. I never could do +that. And I do not doubt that they are living happily together to +this day. + +'The lawyer Chaffanbrass made his first appearance in this novel, +and I do not think that I have cause to be ashamed of him. But +this novel now is chiefly noticeable to me from the fact that in +it I introduced a character under the name of Sir Gregory +Hardlines, by which I intended to lean very heavily on that much +loathed scheme of competitive examination, of which at that time +Sir Charles Trevelyan was the great apostle. Sir Gregory +Hardlines was intended for Sir Charles Trevelyan--as any one at +the time would know who had taken an interest in the Civil +Service. 'We always call him Sir Gregory,' Lady Trevelyan said to +me afterwards when I came to know her husband. I never learned to +love competitive examination; but I became, and am, very fond of +Sir Charles Trevelyan. Sir Stafford Northcote, who is now +Chancellor of the Exchequer, was then leagued with his friend Sir +Charles, and he too appears in _The Three Clerks_ under the +feebly facetious name of Sir Warwick West End. But for all that +_The Three Clerks_ was a good novel.' + +Which excerpt from Trollope's _Autobiography_ serves to +throw light not only upon the novel in question, but also upon +the character of its author. + +Trollope served honestly and efficiently for many a long year in +the Post Office, achieving his entrance through a farce of an +examination:-- + +'The story of that examination', he says, 'is given accurately in +the opening chapters of a novel written by me, called _The +Three Clerks_. If any reader of this memoir would refer to +that chapter and see how Charley Tudor was supposed to have been +admitted into the Internal Navigation Office, that reader will +learn how Anthony Trollope was actually admitted into the +Secretary's office of the General Post Office in 1834.' + +Poe's description of the manner in which he wrote _The +Raven_ is incredible, being probably one of his solemn and +sombre jokes; equally incredible is Trollope's confession of his +humdrum, mechanical methods of work. Doubtless he believed he was +telling the whole truth, but only here and there in his +_Autobiography_ does he permit to peep out touches of light, +which complete the portrait of himself. It is impossible that for +the reader any character in fiction should live which has not +been alive to its creator; so is it with Trollope, who, speaking +of his characters, says, + +'I have wandered alone among the rooks and woods, crying at their +grief, laughing at their absurdities, and thoroughly enjoying +their joy. I have been impregnated with my own creations till it +has been my only excitement to sit with the pen in my hand, and +drive my team before me at as quick a pace as I could make them +travel.' + +There is a plain matter-of-factness about Trollope's narratives +which is convincing, making it difficult for the reader to call +himself back to fact and to remember that he has been wandering +in a world of fiction. In _The Three Clerks_, the young men +who give the tale its title are all well drawn. To accomplish +this in the cases of Alaric and Charley Tudor was easy enough for +a skilled writer, but to breathe life into Harry Norman was +difficult. At first he appears to be a lay-figure, a priggish +dummy of an immaculate hero, a failure in portraiture; but toward +the end of the book it is borne in on us that our dislike had +been aroused by the lifelike nature of the painting, dislike +toward a real man, priggish indeed in many ways, but with a very +human strain of obstinacy and obdurateness, which few writers +would have permitted to have entered into the make-up of any of +their heroes. Of the other men, Undy Scott may be named as among +the very best pieces of portraiture in Victorian fiction; touch +after touch of detail is added to the picture with really +admirable skill, and Undy lives in the reader's memory as vividly +as he must have existed in the imagination of his creator. There +are some strong and curious passages in Chapter XLIV, in which +the novelist contrasts the lives and fates of Varney, Bill Sykes +and Undy Scott; they stir the blood, proving uncontestibly that +Undy Scott was as real to Trollope as he is to us: 'The figure of +Undy swinging from a gibbet at the broad end of Lombard Street +would have an effect. Ah, my fingers itch to be at the rope.' + +Trollope possessed the rare and beautiful gift of painting the +hearts and souls of young girls, and of this power he has given +an admirable example in Katie Woodward. It would be foolish and +cruel to attempt to epitomize, or rather to draw in miniature, +this portrait that Trollope has drawn at full length; were it not +for any other end, those that are fond of all that is graceful +and charming in young womanhood should read _The Three Clerks_, +so becoming the friend, nay, the lover of Katie. Her sisters are not +so attractive, simply because nature did not make them so; a very +fine, faithful woman, Gertrude; a dear thing, Linda. All three worthy +of their mother, she who, as we are told in a delicious phrase, +'though adverse to a fool' 'could sympathize with folly '. + +These eight portraits are grouped in the foreground of this +'conversation' piece, the background being filled with slighter +but always live figures. + +Particularly striking, as being somewhat unusual with Trollope, +is the depiction of the public-house, 'The Pig and Whistle', in +Norfolk Street, the landlady, Mrs. Davis, and the barmaid, Norah +Geraghty. We can almost smell the gin, the effluvia of stale +beer, the bad tobacco, hear the simpers and see the sidlings of +Norah, feel sick with and at Charley:--he 'got up and took her +hand; and as he did so, he saw that her nails were dirty. He put +his arms round her waist and kissed her; and as he caressed her, +his olfactory nerves perceived that the pomatum in her hair was +none of the best ... and then he felt very sick'. But, oh, why +'olfactory nerves'? Was it vulgar in early Victorian days to call +a nose a nose? + +How far different would have been Dickens's treatment of such +characters and such a scene; out of Mrs. Davis and Norah he would +have extracted fun, and it would never have entered into his mind +to have brought such a man as Charley into contact with them in a +manner that must hurt that young hero's susceptibilities. +Thackeray would have followed a third way, judging by his +treatment of the Fotheringay and Captain Costigan, partly +humorous, partly satirical, partly serious. + +Trollope was not endowed with any spark of wit, his satire tends +towards the obvious, and his humour is mild, almost unconscious, +as if he could depict for us what of the humorous came under his +observation without himself seeing the fun in it. Where he sets +forth with intent to be humorous he sometimes attains almost to +the tragic; there are few things so sad as a joke that misses +fire or a jester without sense of humour. + +Of the genius of a writer of fiction there is scarce any other +test so sure as this of the reality of his characters. Few are +the authors that have created for us figures of fiction that are +more alive to us than the historic shadows of the past, whose +dead bones historians do not seem to be able to clothe with flesh +and blood. Trollope hovers on the border line between genius and +great talent, or rather it would be more fair to say that with +regard to him opinions may justly differ. For our own part we +hold that his was not talent streaked with genius, but rather a +jog-trot genius alloyed with mediocrity. He lacked the supreme +unconsciousness of supreme genius, for of genius as of talent +there are degrees. There are characters in _The Three Clerks_ +that live; those who have read the tale must now and again when +passing Norfolk Street, Strand, regret that it would be waste of +time to turn down that rebuilt thoroughfare in search of 'The Pig +and Whistle', which was 'one of these small tranquil shrines of +Bacchus in which the god is worshipped with as constant a +devotion, though with less noisy demonstration of zeal than in +his larger and more public temples'. Alas; lovers of Victorian London +must lament that such shrines grow fewer day by day; the great +thoroughfares know them no more; they hide nervously in old-world +corners, and in them you will meet old-world characters, who not +seldom seem to have lost themselves on their way to the pages +of Charles Dickens. + +Despite the advent of electric tramways, Hampton would still be +recognized by the three clerks, 'the little village of Hampton, +with its old-fashioned country inn, and its bright, quiet, grassy +river.' Hampton is now as it then was, the 'well-loved resort of +cockneydom'. + +So let us alight from the tramcar at Hampton, and look about on +the outskirts of the village for 'a small old-fashioned brick +house, abutting on the road, but looking from its front windows +on to a lawn and garden, which stretched down to the river'. +Surbiton Cottage it is called. Let us peep in at that merry, +happy family party; and laugh at Captain Cuttwater, waking from +his placid sleep, rubbing his eyes in wonderment, and asking, +'What the devil is all the row about?' But it is only with our +mind's eye that we can see Surbiton Cottage--a cottage in the air +it is, but more substantial to some of us than many a real jerry- +built villa of red brick and stucco. + +Old-fashioned seem to us the folk who once dwelt there, old- +fashioned in all save that their hearts were true and their +outlook on life sane and clean; they live still, though their +clothes be of a quaint fashion and their talk be of yesterday. + +Who knows but that they will live long after we who love them +shall be dead and turned to dust? + +W. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE. + + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES +II. THE INTERNAL NAVIGATION +III. THE WOODWARDS +IV. CAPTAIN CUTTWATER +V. BUSHEY PARK +VI. SIR GREGORY HARDLINES +VII. MR. FIDUS NEVERBEND +VIII. THE HON. UNDECIMUS SCOTT +IX. MR. MANYLODES +X. WHEAL MARY JANE +XI. THE THREE KINGS +XII. CONSOLATION +XIII. A COMMUNICATION OF IMPORTANCE +XIV. VERY SAD +XV. NORMAN RETURNS TO TOWN +XVI. THE FIRST WEDDING +XVII. THE HONOURABLE MRS. VAL AND MISS GOLIGHTLY +XVIII. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--MORNING +XIX. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--AFTERNOON +XX. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--EVENING +XXI. HAMPTON COURT BRIDGE +XXII. CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR; OR, MY AUNT'S WILL +XXIII. SURBITON COLLOQUIES +XXIV. MR. M'BUFFER ACCEPTS THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS +XXV. CHISWICK GARDENS +XXVI. KATIE'S FIRST BALL +XXVII. EXCELSIOR +XXVIII. OUTERMAN _v_. TUDOR +XXIX. EASY IS THE SLOPE OF HELL +XXX. MRS. WOODWARD'S REQUEST +XXXI. HOW APOLLO SAVED THE NAVVY +XXXII. THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE +XXXIII. TO STAND, OR NOT TO STAND +XXXIV. WESTMINSTER HALL +XXXV. MRS. VAL'S NEW CARRIAGE +XXXVI. TICKLISH STOCK +XXXVII. TRIBULATION +XXXVIII. ALARIC TUDOR TAKES A WALK +XXXIX. THE LAST BREAKFAST +XL. MR. CHAFFANBRASS +XLI. THE OLD BAILEY +XLII. A PARTING INTERVIEW +XLIII. MILLBANK +XLIV. THE CRIMINAL POPULATION IS DISPOSED OF +XLV. THE FATE OF THE NAVVIES +XLVI. MR. NOGO'S LAST QUESTION +XLVII. CONCLUSION + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES + + +All the English world knows, or knows of, that branch of the +Civil Service which is popularly called the Weights and Measures. +Every inhabitant of London, and every casual visitor there, has +admired the handsome edifice which generally goes by that name, +and which stands so conspicuously confronting the Treasury +Chambers. It must be owned that we have but a slip-slop way of +christening our public buildings. When a man tells us that he +called on a friend at the Horse Guards, or looked in at the Navy +Pay, or dropped a ticket at the Woods and Forests, we put up with +the accustomed sounds, though they are in themselves, perhaps, +indefensible. The 'Board of Commissioners for Regulating Weights +and Measures', and the 'Office of the Board of Commissioners for +Regulating Weights and Measures', are very long phrases; and as, +in the course of this tale, frequent mention will be made of the +public establishment in question, the reader's comfort will be +best consulted by maintaining its popular though improper +denomination. + +It is generally admitted that the Weights and Measures is a well- +conducted public office; indeed, to such a degree of efficiency +has it been brought by its present very excellent secretary, the +two very worthy assistant-secretaries, and especially by its late +most respectable chief clerk, that it may be said to stand quite +alone as a high model for all other public offices whatever. It +is exactly antipodistic of the Circumlocution Office, and as such +is always referred to in the House of Commons by the gentleman +representing the Government when any attack on the Civil Service, +generally, is being made. + +And when it is remembered how great are the interests entrusted +to the care of this board, and of these secretaries and of that +chief clerk, it must be admitted that nothing short of superlative +excellence ought to suffice the nation. All material intercourse +between man and man must be regulated, either justly or +unjustly, by weights and measures; and as we of all people +depend most on such material intercourse, our weights and +measures should to us be a source of never-ending concern. And +then that question of the decimal coinage! is it not in these +days of paramount importance? Are we not disgraced by the twelve +pennies in our shilling, by the four farthings in our penny? One +of the worthy assistant-secretaries, the worthier probably of the +two, has already grown pale beneath the weight of this question. +But he has sworn within himself, with all the heroism of a +Nelson, that he will either do or die. He will destroy the +shilling or the shilling shall destroy him. In his more ardent +moods he thinks that he hears the noise of battle booming round +him, and talks to his wife of Westminster Abbey or a peerage. +Then what statistical work of the present age has shown half the +erudition contained in that essay lately published by the +secretary on _The Market Price of Coined Metals_? What other +living man could have compiled that chronological table which is +appended to it, showing the comparative value of the metallic +currency for the last three hundred years? Compile it indeed! +What other secretary or assistant-secretary belonging to any +public office of the present day, could even read it and live? It +completely silenced Mr. Muntz for a session, and even _The +Times_ was afraid to review it. + +Such a state of official excellence has not, however, been +obtained without its drawbacks, at any rate in the eyes of the +unambitious tyros and unfledged novitiates of the establishment. +It is a very fine thing to be pointed out by envying fathers as a +promising clerk in the Weights and Measures, and to receive civil +speeches from mammas with marriageable daughters. But a clerk in +the Weights and Measures is soon made to understand that it is +not for him to-- + + Sport with Amaryllis in the shade. + +It behoves him that his life should be grave and his pursuits +laborious, if he intends to live up to the tone of those around +him. And as, sitting there at his early desk, his eyes already +dim with figures, he sees a jaunty dandy saunter round the +opposite corner to the Council Office at eleven o'clock, he +cannot but yearn after the pleasures of idleness. + + Were it not better done, as others use? + +he says or sighs. But then comes Phoebus in the guise of the +chief clerk, and touches his trembling ears-- + + As he pronounces lastly on each deed, + Of so much fame, in Downing Street--expect the meed. + +And so the high tone of the office is maintained. + +Such is the character of the Weights and Measures at this present +period of which we are now treating. The exoteric crowd of the +Civil Service, that is, the great body of clerks attached to +other offices, regard their brethren of the Weights as prigs and +pedants, and look on them much as a master's favourite is apt to +be regarded by other boys at school. But this judgement is an +unfair one. Prigs and pedants, and hypocrites too, there are +among them, no doubt--but there are also among them many stirred +by an honourable ambition to do well for their country and +themselves, and to two such men the reader is now requested to +permit himself to be introduced. + +Henry Norman, the senior of the two, is the second son of a +gentleman of small property in the north of England. He was +educated at a public school, and thence sent to Oxford; but +before he had finished his first year at Brasenose his father was +obliged to withdraw him from it, finding himself unable to bear +the expense of a university education for his two sons. His elder +son at Cambridge was extravagant; and as, at the critical moment +when decision became necessary, a nomination in the Weights and +Measures was placed at his disposal, old Mr. Norman committed the +not uncommon injustice of preferring the interests of his elder +but faulty son to those of the younger with whom no fault had +been found, and deprived his child of the chance of combining the +glories and happiness of a double first, a fellow, a college +tutor, and a don. + +Whether Harry Norman gained or lost most by the change we need +not now consider, but at the age of nineteen he left Oxford and +entered on his new duties. It must not, however, be supposed that +this was a step which he took without difficulty and without +pause. It is true that the grand modern scheme for competitive +examinations had not as yet been composed. Had this been done, +and had it been carried out, how awful must have been the +cramming necessary to get a lad into the Weights and Measures! +But, even as things were then, it was no easy matter for a young +man to convince the chief clerk that he had all the acquirements +necessary for the high position to which he aspired. + +Indeed, that chief clerk was insatiable, and generally succeeded +in making every candidate conceive the very lowest opinion of +himself and his own capacities before the examination was over. +Some, of course, were sent away at once with ignominy, as +evidently incapable. Many retired in the middle of it with a +conviction that they must seek their fortunes at the bar, or in +medical pursuits, or some other comparatively easy walk of life. +Others were rejected on the fifth or sixth day as being deficient +in conic sections, or ignorant of the exact principles of +hydraulic pressure. And even those who were retained were so +retained, as it were, by an act of grace. The Weights and +Measures was, and indeed is, like heaven--no man can deserve it. +No candidate can claim as his right to be admitted to the +fruition of the appointment which has been given to him. Henry +Norman, however, was found, at the close of his examination, to +be the least undeserving of the young men then under notice, and +was duly installed in his clerkship. + +It need hardly be explained, that to secure so high a level of +information as that required at the Weights and Measures, a scale +of salaries equally exalted has been found necessary. Young men +consequently enter at L100 a year. We are speaking, of course, of +that more respectable branch of the establishment called the +Secretary's Department. At none other of our public offices do +men commence with more than L90--except, of course, at those in +which political confidence is required. Political confidence is +indeed as expensive as hydraulic pressure, though generally found +to be less difficult of attainment. + +Henry Norman, therefore, entered on his labours under good +auspices, having L10 per annum more for the business and +pleasures of life in London than most of his young brethren of +the Civil Service. Whether this would have sufficed of itself to +enable him to live up to that tone of society to which he had +been accustomed cannot now be surmised, as very shortly after his +appointment an aunt died, from whom he inherited some L150 or +L200 a year. He was, therefore, placed above all want, and soon +became a shining light even in that bright gallery of spiritualized +stars which formed the corps of clerks in the Secretary's Office +at the Weights and Measures. + +Young Norman was a good-looking lad when he entered the public +service, and in a few years he grew up to be a handsome man. He +was tall and thin and dark, muscular in his proportions, and +athletic in his habits. From the date of his first enjoyment of +his aunt's legacy he had a wherry on the Thames, and was soon +known as a man whom it was hard for an amateur to beat. He had a +racket in a racket-court at St. John's Wood Road, and as soon as +fortune and merit increased his salary by another L100 a year, he +usually had a nag for the season. This, however, was not attained +till he was able to count five years' service in the Weights and +Measures. He was, as a boy, somewhat shy and reserved in his +manners, and as he became older he did not shake off the fault. +He showed it, however, rather among men than with women, and, +indeed, in spite of his love of exercise, he preferred the +society of ladies to any of the bachelor gaieties of his +unmarried acquaintance. He was, nevertheless, frank and confident +in those he trusted, and true in his friendships, though, +considering his age, too slow in making a friend. Such was Henry +Norman at the time at which our tale begins. What were the faults +in his character it must be the business of the tale to show. + +The other young clerk in this office to whom we alluded is Alaric +Tudor. He is a year older than Henry Norman, though he began his +official career a year later, and therefore at the age of twenty- +one. How it happened that he contrived to pass the scrutinizing +instinct and deep powers of examination possessed by the chief +clerk, was a great wonder to his friends, though apparently none +at all to himself. He took the whole proceeding very easily; +while another youth alongside of him, who for a year had been +reading up for his promised nomination, was so awe-struck by the +severity of the proceedings as to lose his powers of memory and +forget the very essence of the differential calculus. + +Of hydraulic pressure and the differential calculus young Tudor +knew nothing, and pretended to know nothing. He told the chief +clerk that he was utterly ignorant of all such matters, that his +only acquirements were a tolerably correct knowledge of English, +French, and German, with a smattering of Latin and Greek, and +such an intimacy with the ordinary rules of arithmetic and with +the first books of Euclid, as he had been able to pick up while +acting as a tutor, rather than a scholar, in a small German +university. + +The chief clerk raised his eyebrows and said he feared it would +not do. A clerk, however, was wanting. It was very clear that the +young gentleman who had only showed that he had forgotten his +conic sections could not be supposed to have passed. The +austerity of the last few years had deterred more young men from +coming forward than the extra L10 had induced to do so. One +unfortunate, on the failure of all his hopes, had thrown himself +into the Thames from the neighbouring boat-stairs; and though he +had been hooked out uninjured by the man who always attends there +with two wooden legs, the effect on his parents' minds had been +distressing. Shortly after this occurrence the chief clerk had +been invited to attend the Board, and the Chairman of the +Commissioners, who, on the occasion, was of course prompted by +the Secretary, recommended Mr. Hardlines to be a _leetle_ +more lenient. In doing so the quantity of butter which he poured +over Mr. Hardlines' head and shoulders with the view of +alleviating the misery which such a communication would be sure +to inflict, was very great. But, nevertheless, Mr. Hardlines came +out from the Board a crestfallen and unhappy man. 'The service,' +he said, 'would go to the dogs, and might do for anything he +cared, and he did not mind how soon. If the Board chose to make +the Weights and Measures a hospital for idiots, it might do so. +He had done what little lay in his power to make the office +respectable; and now, because mammas complained when their cubs +of sons were not allowed to come in there and rob the public and +destroy the office books, he was to be thwarted and reprimanded! +He had been,' he said, 'eight-and-twenty years in office, and was +still in his prime--but he should,' he thought, 'take advantage +of the advice of his medical friends, and retire. He would never +remain there to see the Weights and Measures become a hospital +for incurables!' + +It was thus that Mr. Hardlines, the chief clerk, expressed +himself. He did not, however, send in a medical certificate, nor +apply for a pension; and the first apparent effect of the little +lecture which he had received from the Chairman, was the +admission into the service of Alaric Tudor. Mr. Hardlines was +soon forced to admit that the appointment was not a bad one, as +before his second year was over, young Tudor had produced a very +smart paper on the merits--or demerits--of the strike bushel. + +Alaric Tudor when he entered the office was by no means so +handsome a youth as Harry Norman; but yet there was that in his +face which was more expressive, and perhaps more attractive. He +was a much slighter man, though equally tall. He could boast no +adventitious capillary graces, whereas young Norman had a pair of +black curling whiskers, which almost surrounded his face, and had +been the delight and wonder of the maidservants in his mother's +house, when he returned home for his first official holiday. +Tudor wore no whiskers, and his light-brown hair was usually cut +so short as to give him something of the appearance of a clean +Puritan. But in manners he was no Puritan; nor yet in his mode of +life. He was fond of society, and at an early period of his age +strove hard to shine in it. He was ambitious; and lived with the +steady aim of making the most of such advantages as fate and +fortune had put in his way. Tudor was perhaps not superior to +Norman in point of intellect; but he was infinitely his superior +in having early acquired a knowledge how best to use such +intellect as he had. + +His education had been very miscellaneous, and disturbed by many +causes, but yet not ineffective or deficient. His father had been +an officer in a cavalry regiment, with a fair fortune, which he +had nearly squandered in early life. He had taken Alaric when +little more than an infant, and a daughter, his only other child, +to reside in Brussels. Mrs. Tudor was then dead, and the +remainder of the household had consisted of a French governess, a +_bonne_, and a man-cook. Here Alaric remained till he had +perfectly acquired the French pronunciation, and very nearly as +perfectly forgotten the English. He was then sent to a private +school in England, where he remained till he was sixteen, +returning home to Brussels but once during those years, when he +was invited to be present at his sister's marriage with a Belgian +banker. At the age of sixteen he lost his father, who, on dying, +did not leave behind him enough of the world's wealth to pay for +his own burial. His half-pay of course died with him, and young +Tudor was literally destitute. + +His brother-in-law, the banker, paid for his half-year's +schooling in England, and then removed him to a German academy, +at which it was bargained that he should teach English without +remuneration, and learn German without expense. Whether he taught +much English may be doubtful, but he did learn German thoroughly; +and in that, as in most other transactions of his early life, +certainly got the best of the bargain which had been made for +him. + +At the age of twenty he was taken to the Brussels bank as a +clerk; but here he soon gave visible signs of disliking the +drudgery which was exacted from him. Not that he disliked +banking. He would gladly have been a partner with ever so small a +share, and would have trusted to himself to increase his stake. +But there is a limit to the good nature of brothers-in-law, even +in Belgium; and Alaric was quite aware that no such good luck as +this could befall him, at any rate until he had gone through many +years of servile labour. His sister also, though sisterly enough +in her disposition to him, did not quite like having a brother +employed as a clerk in her husband's office. They therefore put +their heads together, and, as the Tudors had good family +connexions in England, a nomination in the Weights and Measures +was procured. + +The nomination was procured; but when it was ascertained how very +short a way this went towards the attainment of the desired +object, and how much more difficult it was to obtain Mr. +Hardlines' approval than the Board's favour, young Tudor's +friends despaired, and recommended him to abandon the idea, as, +should he throw himself into the Thames, he might perhaps fall +beyond the reach of the waterman's hook. Alaric himself, however, +had no such fears. He could not bring himself to conceive that he +could fail in being fit for a clerkship in a public office, and +the result of his examination proved at any rate that he had been +right to try. + +The close of his first year's life in London found him living in +lodgings with Henry Norman. At that time Norman's income was +nearly three times as good as his own. To say that Tudor selected +his companion because of his income would be to ascribe unjustly +to him vile motives and a mean instinct. He had not done so. The +two young men had been thrown, together by circumstances. They +worked at the same desk, liked each other's society, and each +being alone in the world, thereby not unnaturally came together. +But it may probably be said that had Norman been as poor as +Tudor, Tudor might probably have shrunk from rowing in the same +boat with him. + +As it was they lived together and were fast allies; not the less +so that they did not agree as to many of their avocations. Tudor, +at his friend's solicitation, had occasionally attempted to pull +an oar from Searle's slip to Battersea bridge. But his failure in +this line was so complete, and he had to encounter so much of +Norman's raillery, which was endurable, and of his instruction, +which was unendurable, that he very soon gave up the pursuit. He +was not more successful with a racket; and keeping a horse was of +course out of the question. + +They had a bond of union in certain common friends whom they much +loved, and with whom they much associated. At least these friends +soon became common to them. The acquaintance originally belonged +to Norman, and he had first cemented his friendship with Tudor by +introducing him at the house of Mrs. Woodward. Since he had done +so, the one young man was there nearly as much as the other. + +Who and what the Woodwards were shall be told in a subsequent +chapter. As they have to play as important a part in the tale +about to be told as our two friends of the Weights and Measures, +it would not be becoming to introduce them at the end of this. + +As regards Alaric Tudor it need only be further said, by way of +preface, of him as of Harry Norman, that the faults of his +character must be made to declare themselves in the course of our +narrative. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE INTERNAL NAVIGATION + + +The London world, visitors as well as residents, are well +acquainted also with Somerset House; and it is moreover tolerably +well known that Somerset House is a nest of public offices, which +are held to be of less fashionable repute than those situated in +the neighbourhood of Downing Street, but are not so decidedly +plebeian as the Custom House, Excise, and Post Office. + +But there is one branch of the Civil Service located in Somerset +House, which has little else to redeem it from the lowest depths +of official vulgarity than the ambiguous respectability of its +material position. This is the office of the Commissioners of +Internal Navigation. The duties to be performed have reference to +the preservation of canal banks, the tolls to be levied at locks, +and disputes with the Admiralty as to points connected with tidal +rivers. The rooms are dull and dark, and saturated with the fog +which rises from the river, and their only ornament is here and +there some dusty model of an improved barge. Bargees not +unfrequently scuffle with hobnailed shoes through the passages, +and go in and out, leaving behind them a smell of tobacco, to +which the denizens of the place are not unaccustomed. + +Indeed, the whole office is apparently infected with a leaven of +bargedom. Not a few of the men are employed from time to time in +the somewhat lethargic work of inspecting the banks and towing- +paths of the canals which intersect the country. This they +generally do seated on a load of hay, or perhaps of bricks, in +one of those long, ugly, shapeless boats, which are to be seen +congregating in the neighbourhood of Brentford. So seated, they +are carried along at the rate of a mile and a half an hour, and +usually while away the time in gentle converse with the man at +the rudder, or in silent abstraction over a pipe. + +But the dullness of such a life as this is fully atoned for by +the excitement of that which follows it in London. The men of the +Internal Navigation are known to be fast, nay, almost furious in +their pace of living; not that they are extravagant in any great +degree, a fault which their scale of salaries very generally +forbids; but they are one and all addicted to Coal Holes and +Cider Cellars; they dive at midnight hours into Shades, and know +all the back parlours of all the public-houses in the neighbourhood +of the Strand. Here they leave messages for one another, and call +the girl at the bar by her Christian name. They are a set of men +endowed with sallow complexions, and they wear loud clothing, +and spend more money in gin-and-water than in gloves. + +The establishment is not unusually denominated the 'Infernal +Navigation', and the gentlemen employed are not altogether +displeased at having it so called. The 'Infernal Navvies', +indeed, rather glory in the name. The navvies of Somerset House +are known all over London, and there are those who believe that +their business has some connexion with the rivers or railroads of +that bourne from whence no traveller returns. Looking, however, +from their office windows into the Thames, one might be tempted +to imagine that the infernal navigation with which they are +connected is not situated so far distant from the place of their +labours. + +The spirit who guards the entrance into this elysium is by no +means so difficult to deal with as Mr. Hardlines. And it was well +that it was so some few years since for young Charley Tudor, a +cousin of our friend Alaric; for Charley Tudor could never have +passed muster at the Weights and Measures. Charles Tudor, the +third of the three clerks alluded to in our title-page, is the +son of a clergyman, who has a moderate living on the Welsh +border, in Shropshire. Had he known to what sort of work he was +sending his son, he might probably have hesitated before he +accepted for him a situation in the Internal Navigation Office. +He was, however, too happy in getting it to make many inquiries +as to its nature. We none of us like to look a gift-horse in the +mouth. Old Mr. Tudor knew that a clerkship in the Civil Service +meant, or should mean, a respectable maintenance for life, and +having many young Tudors to maintain himself, he was only too +glad to find one of them provided for. + +Charley Tudor was some few years younger than his cousin Alaric +when he came up to town, and Alaric had at that time some three +or four years' experience of London life. The examination at the +Internal Navigation was certainly not to be so much dreaded as +that at the Weights and Measures; but still there was an +examination; and Charley, who had not been the most diligent of +schoolboys, approached it with great dread after a preparatory +evening passed with the assistance of his cousin and Mr. Norman. + +Exactly at ten in the morning he walked into the lobby of his +future workshop, and found no one yet there but two aged seedy +messengers. He was shown into a waiting-room, and there he +remained for a couple of hours, during which every clerk in the +establishment came to have a look at him. At last he was ushered +into the Secretary's room. + +'Ah!' said the Secretary, 'your name is Tudor, isn't it?' + +Charley confessed to the fact. + +'Yea,' said the Secretary, 'I have heard about you from Sir +Gilbert de Salop.' Now Sir Gilbert de Salop was the great family +friend of this branch of the Tudors. But Charley, finding that no +remark suggested itself to him at this moment concerning Sir +Gilbert, merely said, 'Yes, sir.' + +'And you wish to serve the Queen?' said the Secretary. + +Charley, not quite knowing whether this was a joke or not, said +that he did. + +'Quite right--it is a very fair ambition,' continued the great +official functionary--'quite right--but, mind you, Mr. Tudor, if +you come to us you must come to work. I hope you like hard work; +you should do so, if you intend to remain with us.' + +Charley said that he thought he did rather like hard work. +Hereupon a senior clerk standing by, though a man not given to +much laughter, smiled slightly, probably in pity at the unceasing +labour to which the youth was about to devote himself. + +'The Internal Navigation requires great steadiness, good natural +abilities, considerable education, and--and--and no end of +application. Come, Mr. Tudor, let us see what you can do.' And so +saying, Mr. Oldeschole, the Secretary, motioned him to sit down +at an office table opposite to himself. + +Charley did as he was bid, and took from the hands of his future +master an old, much-worn quill pen, with which the great man had +been signing minutes. + +'Now,' said the great man, 'just copy the few first sentences of +that leading article--either one will do,' and he pushed over to +him a huge newspaper. + +To tell the truth, Charley did not know what a leading article +was, and so he sat abashed, staring at the paper. + +'Why don't you write?' asked the Secretary. + +'Where shall I begin, sir?' stammered poor Charley, looking +piteously into the examiner's face. + +'God bless my soul! there; either of those leading articles,' and +leaning over the table, the Secretary pointed to a particular +spot. + +Hereupon Charley began his task in a large, ugly, round hand, +neither that of a man nor of a boy, and set himself to copy the +contents of the paper. 'The name of Pacifico stinks in the +nostril of the British public. It is well known to all the world +how sincerely we admire the vers_i_tility of Lord Palmerston's +genius; how cordially we s_i_mpathize with his patriotic energies. +But the admiration which even a Palmerston inspires must have a +bound, and our s_i_mpathy may be called on too far. When we +find ourselves asked to pay--'. By this time Charley had half covered +the half-sheet of foolscap which had been put before him, and +here at the word 'pay' he unfortunately suffered a large blot of ink +to fall on the paper. + +'That won't do, Mr. Tudor, that won't do--come, let us look,' and +stretching over again, the Secretary took up the copy. + +'Oh dear! oh dear! this is very bad; versatility with an 'i!'- +sympathy with an 'i!' sympathize with an 'i!' Why, Mr. Tudor, you +must be very fond of 'i's' down in Shropshire.' + +Charley looked sheepish, but of course said nothing. + +'And I never saw a viler hand in my life. Oh dear, oh dear, I +must send you back to Sir Gilbert. Look here, Snape, this will +never do--never do for the Internal Navigation, will it?' + +Snape, the attendant senior clerk, said, as indeed he could not +help saying, that the writing was very bad. + +'I never saw worse in my life,' said the Secretary. 'And now, Mr. +Tudor, what do you know of arithmetic?' + +Charley said that he thought he knew arithmetic pretty well;--'at +least some of it,' he modestly added. + +'Some of it!' said the Secretary, slightly laughing. 'Well, I'll +tell you what--this won't do at all;' and he took the unfortunate +manuscript between his thumb and forefinger. 'You had better go +home and endeavour to write something a little better than this. +Mind, if it is not very much better it won't do. And look here; +take care that you do it yourself. If you bring me the writing of +any one else, I shall be sure to detect you. I have not any more +time now; as to arithmetic, we'll examine you in 'some of it' to- +morrow.' + +So Charley, with a faint heart, went back to his cousin's +lodgings and waited till the two friends had arrived from the +Weights and Measures. The men there made a point of staying up to +five o'clock, as is the case with all model officials, and it was +therefore late before he could get himself properly set to work. +But when they did arrive, preparations for calligraphy were made +on a great scale; a volume of Gibbon was taken down, new quill +pens, large and small, and steel pens by various makers were +procured; cream-laid paper was provided, and ruled lines were put +beneath it. And when this was done, Charley was especially +cautioned to copy the spelling as well as the wording. + +He worked thus for an hour before dinner, and then for three +hours in the evening, and produced a very legible copy of half a +chapter of the 'Decline and Fall.' + +'I didn't think they examined at all at the Navigation,' said +Norman. + +'Well, I believe it's quite a new thing,' said Alaric Tudor. 'The +schoolmaster must be abroad with a vengeance, if he has got as +far as that.' + +And then they carefully examined Charley's work, crossed his t's, +dotted his i's, saw that his spelling was right, and went to bed. + +Again, punctually at ten o'clock, Charley presented himself at +the Internal Navigation; and again saw the two seedy old +messengers warming themselves at the lobby fire. On this occasion +he was kept three hours in the waiting-room, and some of the +younger clerks ventured to come and speak to him. At length Mr. +Snape appeared, and desired the acolyte to follow him. Charley, +supposing that he was again going to the awful Secretary, did so +with a palpitating heart. But he was led in another direction +into a large room, carrying his manuscript neatly rolled in his +hand. Here Mr. Snape introduced him to five other occupants of +the chamber; he, Mr. Snape himself, having a separate desk there, +being, in official parlance, the head of the room. Charley was +told to take a seat at a desk, and did so, still thinking that +the dread hour of his examination was soon to come. His +examination, however, was begun and over. No one ever asked for +his calligraphic manuscript, and as to his arithmetic, it may be +presumed that his assurance that he knew 'some of it,' was deemed +to be adequate evidence of sufficient capacity. And in this +manner, Charley Tudor became one of the Infernal Navvies. + +He was a gay-hearted, thoughtless, rollicking young lad, when he +came up to town; and it may therefore be imagined that he easily +fell into the peculiar ways and habits of the office. A short +bargee's pilot-coat, and a pipe of tobacco, were soon familiar to +him; and he had not been six months in London before he had his +house-of-call in a cross lane running between Essex Street and +Norfolk Street. 'Mary, my dear, a screw of bird's-eye!' came +quite habitually to his lips; and before his fist year was out, +he had volunteered a song at the Buckingham Shades. + +The assurance made to him on his first visit to the office by Mr. +Secretary Oldeschole, that the Internal Navigation was a place of +herculean labours, had long before this time become matter to him +of delightful ridicule. He had found himself to be one of six +young men, who habitually spent about five hours a day together +in the same room, and whose chief employment was to render the +life of the wretched Mr. Snape as unendurable as possible. There +were copies to be written, and entries to be made, and books to +be indexed. But these things were generally done by some extra +hand, as to the necessity of whose attendance for such purpose +Mr. Snape was forced to certify. But poor Snape knew that he had +no alternative. He rule six unruly young navvies! There was not +one of them who did not well know how to make him tremble in his +shoes. + +Poor Mr. Snape had selected for his own peculiar walk in life a +character for evangelical piety. Whether he was a hypocrite--as +all the navvies averred--or a man sincere as far as one so weak +could accomplish sincerity, it is hardly necessary for us to +inquire. He was not by nature an ill-natured man, but he had +become by education harsh to those below him, and timid and +cringing with those above. In the former category must by no +means be included the six young men who were nominally under his +guidance. They were all but acknowledged by him as his superiors. +Ignorant as they were, they could hardly be more so than he. +Useless as they were, they did as much for the public service as +he did. He sometimes complained of them; but it was only when +their misconduct had been so loud as to make it no longer +possible that he should not do so. + +Mr. Snape being thus by character and predilection a religious +man, and having on various occasions in olden days professed much +horror at having his ears wounded by conversation which was +either immoral or profane, it had of course become the habitual +practice of the navvies to give continual utterance to every +description of ribaldry and blasphemy for his especial edification. +Doubtless it may be concluded from the habits of the men, that +even without such provocation, their talk would have exceeded +the yea, yea, and nay, nay, to which young men should confine +themselves. But they especially concerted schemes of blasphemy +and dialogues of iniquity for Mr. Snape's particular advantage; +and continued daily this disinterested amusement, till at last an +idea got abroad among them that Mr. Snape liked it. Then they +changed their tactics and canted through their noses in the +manner which they imagined to be peculiar to methodist preachers. +So on the whole, Mr. Snape had an uneasy life of it at the Internal +Navigation. + +Into all these malpractices Charley Tudor plunged headlong. And +how should it have been otherwise? How can any youth of nineteen +or twenty do other than consort himself with the daily companions +of his usual avocations? Once and again, in one case among ten +thousand, a lad may be found formed of such stuff, that he +receives neither the good nor the bad impulses of those around +him. But such a one is a _lapsus naturae_. He has been born +without the proper attributes of youth, or at any rate, brought +up so as to have got rid of them. + +Such, a one, at any rate, Charley Tudor was not. He was a little +shocked at first by the language he heard; but that feeling soon +wore off. His kind heart, also, in the first month of his +novitiate, sympathized with the daily miseries of Mr. Snape; but +he also soon learnt to believe that Mr. Snape was a counterfeit, +and after the first half year could torture him with as much +gusto as any of his brethren. Alas! no evil tendency communicates +itself among young men more quickly than cruelty. Those infernal +navvies were very cruel to Mr. Snape. + +And yet young Tudor was a lad of a kindly heart, of a free, +honest, open disposition, deficient in no proportion of mind +necessary to make an estimable man. But he was easily malleable, +and he took at once the full impression of the stamp to which he +was subjected. Had he gone into the Weights and Measures, a +hypothesis which of course presumes a total prostration of the +intellects and energy of Mr. Hardlines, he would have worked +without a groan from ten till five, and have become as good a +model as the best of them. As it was, he can be hardly said to +have worked at all, soon became _facile princeps_ in the list of +habitual idlers, and was usually threatened once a quarter with +dismissal, even from that abode of idleness, in which the very +nature of true work was unknown. + +Some tidings of Charley's doings in London, and non-doings at the +Internal Navigation, of course found their way to the Shropshire +parsonage. His dissipation was not of a very costly kind; but L90 +per annum will hardly suffice to afford an ample allowance of +gin-and-water and bird's-eye tobacco, over and above the other +wants of a man's life. Bills arrived there requiring payment; and +worse than this, letters also came through Sir Gilbert de Salop +from Mr. Oldeschole, the Secretary, saying that young Tudor was +disgracing the office, and lowering the high character of the +Internal Navigation; and that he must be removed, unless he could +be induced to alter his line of life, &c. + +Urgent austere letters came from the father, and fond heart- +rending appeals from the mother. Charley's heart was rent. It +was, at any rate, a sign in him that he was not past hope of +grace, that he never laughed at these monitions, that he never +showed such letters to his companions, never quizzed his +'governor's' lectures, or made merry over the grief of his +mother. But if it be hard for a young man to keep in the right +path when he has not as yet strayed out of it, how much harder is +it to return to it when he has long since lost the track! It was +well for the father to write austere letters, well for the mother +to make tender appeals, but Charley could not rid himself of his +companions, nor of his debts, nor yet even of his habits. He +could not get up in the morning and say that he would at once be +as his cousin Alaric, or as his cousin's friend, Mr. Norman. It +is not by our virtues or our vices that we are judged, even by +those who know us best; but by such credit for virtues or for +vices as we may have acquired. Now young Tudor's credit for +virtue was very slight, and he did not know how to extend it. + +At last papa and mamma Tudor came up to town to make one last +effort to save their son; and also to save, on his behalf, the +valuable official appointment which he held. He had now been +three years in his office, and his salary had risen to L110 per +annum. L110 per annum was worth saving if it could be saved. The +plan adopted by Mrs. Tudor was that of beseeching their cousin +Alaric to take Charley under his especial wing. + +When Charley first arrived in town, the fact of Alaric and Norman +living together had given the former a good excuse for not +offering to share his lodgings with his cousin. Alaric, with the +advantage in age of three or four years--at that period of life +the advantage lies in that direction--with his acquired +experience of London life, and also with all the wondrous eclat +of the Weights and Measures shining round him, had perhaps been a +little too unwilling to take by the hand a rustic cousin who was +about to enter life under the questionable auspices of the +Internal Navigation. He had helped Charley to transcribe the +chapter of Gibbon, and had, it must be owned, lent him from time +to time a few odd pounds in his direst necessities. But their +course in life had hitherto been apart. Of Norman, Charley had +seen less even than of his cousin. + +And now it became a difficult question with Alaric how he was to +answer the direct appeal made to him by Mrs. Tudor;--'Pray, pray +let him live with you, if it be only for a year, Alaric,' the +mother had said, with the tears running down her cheeks. 'You are +so good, so discreet, so clever--you can save him.' Alaric +promised, or was ready to promise, anything else, but hesitated +as to the joint lodgings. 'How could he manage it,' said he, +'living, as he was, with another man? He feared that Mr. Norman +would not accede to such an arrangement. As for himself, he would +do anything but leave his friend Norman.' To tell the truth, +Alaric thought much, perhaps too much, of the respectability of +those with whom he consorted. He had already begun to indulge +ambitious schemes, already had ideas stretching even beyond the +limits of the Weights and Measures, and fully intended to make +the very most of himself. + +Mrs. Tudor, in her deep grief, then betook herself to Mr. Norman, +though with that gentleman she had not even the slightest +acquaintance. With a sulking heart, with a consciousness of her +unreasonableness, but with the eloquence of maternal sorrow, she +made her request. Mr. Norman heard her out with all the calm +propriety of the Weights and Measures, begged to have a day to +consider, and then acceded to the request. + +'I think we ought to do it,' said he to Alaric. The mother's +tears had touched his heart, and his sense of duty had prevailed. +Alaric, of course, could now make no further objection, and thus +Charley the Navvy became domesticated with his cousin Alaric and +Harry Norman. + +The first great question to be settled, and it is a very great +question with a young man, was that of latch-key or no latch-key. +Mrs. Richards, the landlady, when she made ready the third +bedroom for the young gentleman, would, as was her wont in such +matters, have put a latchkey on the toilet-table as a matter of +course, had she not had some little conversation with Mamma Tudor +regarding her son. Mamma Tudor had implored and coaxed, and +probably bribed Mrs. Richards to do something more than 'take her +son in and do for him'; and Mrs. Richards, as her first +compliance with these requests, had kept the latch-key in her own +pocket. So matters went on for a week; but when Mrs. Richards +found that her maidservant was never woken by Mr. Charley's raps +after midnight, and that she herself was obliged to descend in +her dressing-gown, she changed her mind, declared to herself that +it was useless to attempt to keep a grown gentleman in leading- +strings, and put the key on the table on the second Monday +morning. + +As none of the three men ever dined at home, Alaric and Norman +having clubs which they frequented, and Charley eating his dinner +at some neighbouring dining-house, it may be imagined that this +change of residence did our poor navvy but little good. It had, +however, a salutary effect on him, at any rate at first. He +became shamed into a quieter and perhaps cleaner mode of dressing +himself; he constrained himself to sit down to breakfast with his +monitors at half-past eight, and was at any rate so far regardful +of Mrs. Richards as not to smoke in his bedroom, and to come home +sober enough to walk upstairs without assistance every night for +the first month. + +But perhaps the most salutary effect made by this change on young +Tudor was this, that he was taken by his cousin one Sunday to the +Woodwards. Poor Charley had had but small opportunity of learning +what are the pleasures of decent society. He had gone headlong +among the infernal navvies too quickly to allow of that slow and +gradual formation of decent alliances which is all in all to a +young man entering life. A boy is turned loose into London, and +desired to choose the good and eschew the bad. Boy as he is, he +might probably do so if the opportunity came in his way. But no +such chance is afforded him. To eschew the bad is certainly +possible for him; but as to the good, he must wait till he be +chosen. This it is, that is too much for him. He cannot live +without society, and so he falls. + +Society, an ample allowance of society, this is the first +requisite which a mother should seek in sending her son to live +alone in London; balls, routs, picnics, parties; women, pretty, +well-dressed, witty, easy-mannered; good pictures, elegant +drawing rooms, well got-up books, Majolica and Dresden china-- +these are the truest guards to protect a youth from dissipation +and immorality. + + These are the books, the arts, the academes + That show, contain, and nourish all the world, + +if only a youth could have them at his disposal. Some of these +things, though by no means all, Charley Tudor encountered at the +Woodwards. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE WOODWARDS + + +It is very difficult nowadays to say where the suburbs of London +come to an end, and where the country begins. The railways, +instead of enabling Londoners to live in the country, have turned +the country into a city. London will soon assume the shape of a +great starfish. The old town, extending from Poplar to Hammersmith, +will be the nucleus, and the various railway lines will be the projecting +rays. + +There are still, however, some few nooks within reach of the +metropolis which have not been be-villaged and be-terraced out of +all look of rural charm, and the little village of Hampton, with +its old-fashioned country inn, and its bright, quiet, grassy +river, is one of them, in spite of the triple metropolitan +waterworks on the one side, and the close vicinity on the other +of Hampton Court, that well-loved resort of cockneydom. + +It was here that the Woodwards lived. Just on the outskirts of +the village, on the side of it farthest from town, they inhabited +not a villa, but a small old-fashioned brick house, abutting on +to the road, but looking from its front windows on to a lawn and +garden, which stretched down to the river. + +The grounds were not extensive, being included, house and all, in +an area of an acre and a half: but the most had been made of it; +it sloped prettily to the river, and was absolutely secluded from +the road. Thus Surbiton Cottage, as it was called, though it had +no pretension to the grandeur of a country-house, was a desirable +residence for a moderate family with a limited income. + +Mrs. Woodward's family, for there was no Mr. Woodward in the +case, consisted of herself and three daughters. There was +afterwards added to this an old gentleman, an uncle of Mrs. +Woodward's, but he had not arrived at the time at which we would +wish first to introduce our readers to Hampton. + +Mrs. Woodward was the widow of a clergyman who had held a living +in London, and had resided there. He had, however, died when two +of his children were very young, and while the third was still a +baby. From that time Mrs. Woodward had lived at the cottage at +Hampton, and had there maintained a good repute, paying her way +from month to month as widows with limited incomes should do, and +devoting herself to the amusements and education of her +daughters. + +It was not, probably, from any want of opportunity to cast them +aside, that Mrs. Woodward had remained true to her weeds; for at +the time of her husband's death she was a young and a very pretty +woman; and an income of L400 a year, though moderate enough for +all the wants of a gentleman's family, would no doubt have added +sufficiently to her charms to have procured her a second +alliance, had she been so minded. + +Twelve years, however, had now elapsed since Mr. Woodward had +been gathered to his fathers, and the neighbouring world of +Hampton, who had all of them declared over and over again that +the young widow would certainly marry again, were now becoming as +unanimous in their expressed opinion that the old widow knew the +value of her money too well to risk it in the keeping of the best +he that ever wore boots. + +At the date at which our story commences, she was a comely little +woman, past forty, somewhat below the middle height, rather +_embonpoint_, as widows of forty should be, with pretty fat +feet, and pretty fat hands; wearing just a _soupcon_ of a +widow's cap on her head, with her hair, now slightly grey, parted +in front, and brushed very smoothly, but not too carefully, in +_bandeaux_ over her forehead. + +She was a quick little body, full of good-humour, slightly given +to repartee, and perhaps rather too impatient of a fool. But +though averse to a fool, she could sympathize with folly. A great +poet has said that women are all rakes at heart; and there was +something of the rake at heart about Mrs. Woodward. She never +could be got to express adequate horror at fast young men, and +was apt to have her own sly little joke at women who prided +themselves on being punctilious. She could, perhaps, the more +safely indulge in this, as scandal had never even whispered a +word against herself. + +With her daughters she lived on terms almost of equality. The two +elder were now grown up; that is, they were respectively eighteen +and seventeen years old. They were devotedly attached to their +mother, looked on her as the only perfect woman in existence, and +would willingly do nothing that could vex her; but they perhaps +were not quite so systematically obedient to her as children +should be to their only surviving parent. Mrs. Woodward, however, +found nothing amiss, and no one else therefore could well have a +right to complain. + +They were both pretty--but Gertrude, the elder, was by far the +more strikingly so. They were, nevertheless, much alike; they +both had rich brown hair, which they, like their mother, wore +simply parted over the forehead. They were both somewhat taller +than her, and were nearly of a height. But in appearance, as in +disposition, Gertrude carried by far the greater air of command. +She was the handsomer of the two, and the cleverer. She could +write French and nearly speak it, while her sister could only +read it. She could play difficult pieces from sight, which it +took her sister a morning's pains to practise. She could fill in +and finish a drawing, while her sister was still struggling, and +struggling in vain, with the first principles of the art. + +But there was a softness about Linda, for such was the name of +the second Miss Woodward, which in the eyes of many men made up +both for the superior beauty and superior talent of Gertrude. +Gertrude was, perhaps, hardly so soft as so young a girl should +be. In her had been magnified that spirit of gentle raillery +which made so attractive a part of her mother's character. She +enjoyed and emulated her mother's quick sharp sayings, but she +hardly did so with her mother's grace, and sometimes attempted it +with much more than her mother's severity. She also detested +fools; but in promulgating her opinion on this subject, she was +too apt to declare who the fools were whom she detested. + +It may be thought that under such circumstances there could be +but little confidence between the sisters; but, nevertheless, in +their early days, they lived together as sisters should do. +Gertrude, when she spoke of fools, never intended to include +Linda in the number; and Linda appreciated too truly, and admired +too thoroughly, her sister's beauty and talent to be jealous of +either. + +Of the youngest girl, Katie, it is not necessary at present to +say much. At this time she was but thirteen years of age, and was +a happy, pretty, romping child. She gave fair promise to be at +any rate equal to her sisters in beauty, and in mind was quick +and intelligent. Her great taste was for boating, and the romance +of her life consisted in laying out ideal pleasure-grounds, and +building ideal castles in a little reedy island or ait which lay +out in the Thames, a few perches from the drawing-room windows. + +Such was the family of the Woodwards. Harry Norman's father and +Mr. Woodward had been first cousins, and hence it had been quite +natural that when Norman came up to reside in London he should be +made welcome to Surbiton Cottage. He had so been made welcome, +and had thus got into a habit of spending his Saturday evenings +and Sundays at the home of his relatives. In summer he could row +up in his own wherry, and land himself and carpet-bag direct on +the Woodwards' lawn, and in the winter he came down by the +Hampton Court five p.m. train--and in each case he returned on +the Monday morning. Thus, as regards that portion of his time +which was most his own, he may be said almost to have lived at +Surbiton Cottage, and if on any Sunday he omitted to make his +appearance, the omission was ascribed by the ladies of Hampton, +in some half-serious sort of joke, to metropolitan allurements +and temptations which he ought to have withstood. + +When Tudor and Norman came to live together, it was natural +enough that Tudor also should be taken down to Surbiton Cottage. +Norman could not leave him on every Saturday without telling him +much of his friends whom he went to visit, and he could hardly +say much of them without offering to introduce his companion to +them. Tudor accordingly went there, and it soon came to pass that +he also very frequently spent his Sundays at Hampton. + +It must be remembered that at this time, the time, that is, of +Norman and Tudor's first entrance on their London life, the girls +at Surbiton Cottage were mere girls--that is, little more than +children; they had not, as it were, got their wings so as to be +able to fly away when the provocation to do so might come; they +were, in short, Gertrude and Linda Woodward, and not the Miss +Woodwards: their drawers came down below their frocks, instead of +their frocks below their drawers; and in lieu of studying the +French language, as is done by grown-up ladies, they did French +lessons, as is the case with ladies who are not grown-up. Under +these circumstances there was no embarrassment as to what the +young people should call each other, and they soon became very +intimate as Harry and Alaric, Gertrude and Linda. + +It is not, however, to be conceived that Alaric Tudor at once +took the same footing in the house as Norman. This was far from +being the case. In the first place he never slept there, seeing +that there was no bed for him; and the most confidential +intercourse in the household took place as they sat cosy over the +last embers of the drawing-room fire, chatting about everything +and nothing, as girls always can do, after Tudor had gone away to +his bed at the inn, on the opposite side of the way. And then +Tudor did not come on every Saturday, and at first did not do so +without express invitation; and although the girls soon +habituated themselves to the familiarity of their new friend's +Christian name, it was some time before Mrs. Woodward did so. + +Two--three years soon flew by, and Linda and Gertrude became the +Miss Woodwards; their frocks were prolonged, their drawers +curtailed, and the lessons abandoned. But still Alaric Tudor and +Harry Norman came to Hampton not less frequently than of yore, +and the world resident on that portion of the left bank of the +Thames found out that Harry Norman and Gertrude Woodward were to +be man and wife, and that Alaric Tudor and Linda Woodward were to +go through the same ceremony. They found this out, or said that +they had done so. But, as usual, the world was wrong; at least in +part, for at the time of which we are speaking no word of love- +making had passed, at any rate, between the last-named couple. + +And what was Mrs. Woodward about all this time? Was she match- +making or match-marring; or was she negligently omitting the +duties of a mother on so important an occasion? She was certainly +neither match-making nor match-marring; but it was from no +negligence that she was thus quiescent. She knew, or thought she +knew, that the two young men were fit to be husbands to her +daughters, and she felt that if the wish for such an alliance +should spring up between either pair, there was no reason why she +should interfere to prevent it. But she felt also that she should +not interfere to bring any such matter to pass. These young +people had by chance been thrown together. Should there be love- +passages among them, as it was natural to suppose there might be, +it would be well. Should there be none such, it would be well +also. She thoroughly trusted her own children, and did not +distrust her friends; and so as regards Mrs. Woodward the matter +was allowed to rest. + +We cannot say that on this matter we quite approve of her +conduct, though we cannot but admire the feeling which engendered +it. Her daughters were very young; though they had made such +positive advances as have been above described towards the +discretion of womanhood, they were of the age when they would +have been regarded as mere boys had they belonged to the other +sex. The assertion made by Clara Van Artevelde, that women 'grow +upon the sunny side of the wall,' is doubtless true; but young +ladies, gifted as they are with such advantages, may perhaps be +thought to require some counsel, some advice, in those first +tender years in which they so often have to make or mar their +fortunes. + +Not that Mrs. Woodward gave them no advice; not but that she +advised them well and often--but she did so, perhaps, too much as +an equal, too little as a parent. + +But, be that as it may--and I trust my readers will not be +inclined so early in our story to lean heavily on Mrs. Woodward, +whom I at once declare to be my own chief favourite in the tale-- +but, be that as it may, it so occurred that Gertrude, before she +was nineteen, had listened to vows of love from Harry Norman, +which she neither accepted nor repudiated; and that Linda had, +before she was eighteen, perhaps unfortunately, taught herself to +think it probable that she might have to listen to vows of love +from Alaric Tudor. + +There had been no concealment between the young men as to their +feelings. Norman had told his friend scores of times that it was +the first wish of his heart to marry Gertrude Woodward; and had +told him, moreover, what were his grounds for hope, and what his +reasons for despair. + +'She is as proud as a queen,' he had once said as he was rowing +from Hampton to Searle's Wharf, and lay on his oars as the +falling tide carried his boat softly past the green banks of +Richmond--'she is as proud as a queen, and yet as timid as a +fawn. She lets me tell her that I love her, but she will not say +a word to me in reply; as for touching her in the way of a +caress, I should as soon think of putting my arm round a +goddess.' + +'And why not put your arms round a goddess?' said Alaric, who was +perhaps a little bolder than his friend, and a little less +romantic. To this Harry answered nothing, but, laying his back to +his work, swept on past the gardens of Kew, and shot among the +wooden dangers of Putney Bridge. + +'I wish you could bring yourself to make up to Linda,' said he, +resting again from his labours; 'that would make the matter so +much easier.' + +'Bring myself!' said Alaric; 'what you mean is, that you wish I +could bring Linda to consent to be made up to.' + +'I don't think you would have much difficulty,' said Harry, +finding it much easier to answer for Linda than for her sister; +'but perhaps you don't admire her?' + +'I think her by far the prettier of the two,' said Alaric. + +'That's nonsense,' said Harry, getting rather red in the face, +and feeling rather angry. + +'Indeed I do; and so, I am convinced, would most men. You need +not murder me, man. You want me to make up to Linda, and surely +it will be better that I should admire my own wife than yours.' + +'Oh! you may admire whom you like; but to say that she is +prettier than Gertrude--why, you know, it is nonsense.' + +'Very well, my dear fellow; then to oblige you, I'll fall in love +with Gertrude.' + +'I know you won't do that,' said Harry, 'for you are not so very +fond of each other; but, joking apart, I do wish so you would +make up to Linda.' + +'Well, I will when _my_ aunt leaves _me_ L200 a year.' + +There was no answering this; so the two men changed the +conversation as they walked up together from the boat wharf to +the office of the Weights and Measures. + +It was just at this time that fortune and old Mr. Tudor, of the +Shropshire parsonage, brought Charley Tudor to reside with our +two heroes. For the first month, or six weeks, Charley was +ruthlessly left by his companions to get through his Sundays as +best he could. It is to be hoped that he spent them in divine +worship; but it may, we fear, be surmised with more probability, +that he paid his devotions at the shrine of some very inferior +public-house deity in the neighbourhood of Somerset House. As a +matter of course, both Norman and Tudor spoke much of their new +companion to the ladies at Surbiton Cottage, and as by degrees +they reported somewhat favourably of his improved morals, Mrs. +Woodward, with a woman's true kindness, begged that he might be +brought down to Hampton. + +'I am afraid you will find him very rough,' said his cousin +Alaric. + +'At any rate you will not find him a fool,' said Norman, who was +always the more charitable of the two. + +'Thank God for that!' said Mrs. Woodward,' and if he will come +next Saturday, let him by all means do so. Pray give my +compliments to him, and tell him how glad I shall be to see him.' + +And thus was this wild wolf to be led into the sheep-cote; this +infernal navvy to be introduced among the angels of Surbiton +Cottage. Mrs. Woodward thought that she had a taste for +reclaiming reprobates, and was determined to try her hand on +Charley Tudor. + +Charley went, and his debut was perfectly successful. We have +hitherto only looked on the worst side of his character; but bad +as his character was, it had a better side. He was good-natured +in the extreme, kind-hearted and affectionate; and, though too +apt to be noisy and even boisterous when much encouraged, was not +without a certain innate genuine modesty, which the knowledge of +his own iniquities had rather increased than blunted; and, as +Norman had said of him, he was no fool. His education had not +been good, and he had done nothing by subsequent reading to make +up for this deficiency; but he was well endowed with mother-wit, +and owed none of his deficiencies to nature's churlishness. + +He came, and was well received. The girls thought he would surely +get drunk before he left the table, and Mrs. Wood ward feared the +austere precision of her parlourmaid might be offended by some +unworthy familiarity; but no accident of either kind seemed to +occur. He came to the tea-table perfectly sober, and, as far as +Mrs. Woodward could tell, was unaware of the presence of the +parlour-maiden. + +On the Sunday morning, Charley went to church, just like a +Christian. Now Mrs. Woodward certainly had expected that he would +have spent those two hours in smoking and attacking the parlour- +maid. He went to church, however, and seemed in no whit astray +there; stood up when others stood up, and sat down when others +sat down. After all, the infernal navvies, bad as they doubtless +were, knew something of the recognized manners of civilized life. + +Thus Charley Tudor ingratiated himself at Surbiton Cottage, and +when he left, received a kind intimation from its mistress that +she would be glad to see him again. No day was fixed, and so +Charley could not accompany his cousin and Harry Norman on the +next Saturday; but it was not long before he got another direct +invitation, and so he also became intimate at Hampton. There +could be no danger of any one falling in love with him, for Katie +was still a child. + +Things stood thus at Surbiton Cottage when Mrs. Woodward received +a proposition from a relative of her own, which surprised them +all not a little. This was from a certain Captain Cuttwater, who +was a maternal uncle to Mrs. Woodward, and consisted of nothing +less than an offer to come and live with them for the remaining +term of his natural life. Now Mrs. Woodward's girls had seen very +little of their grand-uncle, and what little they had seen had +only taught them to laugh at him. When his name was mentioned in +the family conclave, he was always made the subject of some +little feminine joke; and Mrs. Woodward, though she always took +her uncle's part, did so in a manner that made them feel that he +was fair game for their quizzing. + +When the proposal was first enunciated to the girls, they one and +all, for Katie was one of the council, suggested that it should +be declined with many thanks. + +'He'll take us all for midshipmen,' said Linda, 'and stop our +rations, and mast-head us whenever we displease him.' + +'I am sure he is a cross old hunks, though mamma says he's not,' +said Katie, with all the impudence of spoilt fourteen. + +'He'll interfere with every one of our pursuits,' said Gertrude, +more thoughtfully, 'and be sure to quarrel with the young men.' + +But Mrs. Woodward, though she had consulted her daughters, +had arguments of her own in favour of Captain Cuttwater's +proposition, which she had not yet made known to them. Good- +humoured and happy as she always was, she had her cares in the +world. Her income was only L400 a year, and that, now that the +Income Tax had settled down on it, was barely sufficient for her +modest wants. A moiety of this died with her, and the remainder +would be but a poor support for her three daughters, if at the +time of her death it should so chance that she should leave them +in want of support. She had always regarded Captain Cuttwater as +a probable source of future aid. He was childless and unmarried, +and had not, as far as she was aware, another relative in the +world. It would, therefore, under any circumstances, be bad +policy to offend him. But the letter in which he had made his +offer had been of a very peculiar kind. He had begun by saying +that he was to be turned out of his present berth by a d--- Whig +Government on account of his age, he being as young a man as ever +he had been; that it behoved him to look out for a place of +residence, in which he might live, and, if it should so please +God, die also. He then said that he expected to pay L200 a year +for his board and lodging, which he thought might as well go to +his niece as to some shark, who would probably starve him. He +also said that, poor as he was and always had been, he had +contrived to scrape together a few hundred pounds; that he was +well aware that if he lived among strangers he should be done out +of every shilling of it; but that if his niece would receive him, +he hoped to be able to keep it together for the benefit of his +grand-nieces, &c. + +Now Mrs. Woodward knew her uncle to be an honest-minded man; she +knew also, that, in spite of his protestation as to being a very +poor man, he had saved money enough to make him of some +consequence wherever he went; and she therefore conceived that +she could not with prudence send him to seek a home among chance +strangers. She explained as much of this to the girls as she +thought proper, and ended the matter by making them understand +that Captain Cuttwater was to be received. + +On the Saturday after this the three scions of the Civil Service +were all at Surbiton Cottage, and it will show how far Charley +had then made good his ground, to state that the coming of the +captain was debated in his presence. + +'And when is the great man to be here?' said Norman. + +'At once, I believe,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'that is, perhaps, +before the end of this week, and certainly before the end of +next.' + +'And what is he like?' said Alaric. + +'Why, he has a tail hanging down behind, like a cat or a dog,' +said Katie. + +'Hold your tongue, miss,' said Gertrude. 'As he is to come he +must be treated with respect; but it is a great bore. To me it +will destroy all the pleasures of life.' + +'Nonsense, Gertrude,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'it is almost wicked of +you to say so. Destroy all the pleasure of life to have an old +gentleman live in the same house with you!--you ought to be more +moderate, my dear, in what you say.' + +'That's all very well, mamma,' said Gertrude, 'but you know you +don't like him yourself.' + +'But is it true that Captain Cuttwater wears a pigtail?' asked +Norman. + +'I don't care what he wears,' said Gertrude; 'he may wear three +if he likes.' + +'Oh! I wish he would,' said Katie, laughing; 'that would be so +delicious. Oh, Linda, fancy Captain Cuttwater with three pigtails!' + + +'I am sorry to disappoint you, Katie,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'but +your uncle does not wear even one; he once did, but he cut it off +long since.' + +'I am so sorry,' said Katie. + +'I suppose he'll want to dine early, and go to bed early?' said +Linda. + +'His going to bed early would be a great blessing,' said +Gertrude, mindful of their midnight conclaves on Saturdays and +Sundays. + +'But his getting up early won't be a blessing at all,' said +Linda, who had a weakness on that subject. + +'Talking of bed, Harry, you'll have the worst of it,' said Katie, +'for the captain is to have your room.' + +'Yes, indeed,' said Mrs. Woodward, sighing gently, 'we shall no +longer have a bed for you, Harry; that _is_ the worst of it.' + +Harry of course assured her that if that was the worst of it +there was nothing very bad in it. He could have a bed at the inn +as well as Alaric and Charley. The amount of that evil would only +be half-a-crown a night. + +And thus the advent of Captain Cuttwater was discussed. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CAPTAIN CUTTWATER + + +Captain Cuttwater had not seen much service afloat; that is, he +had not been personally concerned in many of those sea- +engagements which in and about the time of Nelson gave so great a +halo of glory to the British Lion; nor had it even been permitted +to him to take a prominent part in such minor affairs as have +since occurred; he had not the opportunity of distinguishing +himself either at the battle of Navarino or the bombarding of +Acre; and, unfortunately for his ambition, the period of his +retirement came before that great Baltic campaign, in which, had +he been there, he would doubtless have distinguished himself as +did so many others. His earliest years were spent in cruising +among the West Indies; he then came home and spent some +considerable portion of his life in idleness--if that time can be +said to have been idly spent which he devoted to torturing the +Admiralty with applications, remonstrances, and appeals. Then he +was rated as third lieutenant on the books of some worm-eaten old +man-of-war at Portsmouth, and gave up his time to looking after +the stowage of anchors, and counting fathoms of rope. At last he +was again sent afloat as senior lieutenant in a ten-gun brig, and +cruised for some time off the coast of Africa, hunting for +slavers; and returning after a while from this enterprising +employment, he received a sort of amphibious appointment at +Devonport. What his duties were here, the author, being in all +points a landsman, is unable to describe. Those who were inclined +to ridicule Captain Cuttwater declared that the most important of +them consisted in seeing that the midshipmen in and about the +dockyard washed their faces, and put on clean linen not less +often than three times a week. According to his own account, he +had many things of a higher nature to attend to; and, indeed, +hardly a ship sank or swam in Hamoaze except by his special +permission, for a space of twenty years, if his own view of his +own career may be accepted as correct. + +He had once declared to certain naval acquaintances, over his +third glass of grog, that he regarded it as his birthright to be +an Admiral; but at the age of seventy-two he had not yet acquired +his birthright, and the probability of his ever attaining it was +becoming very small indeed. He was still bothering Lords and +Secretaries of the Admiralty for further promotion, when he was +astounded by being informed by the Port-Admiral that he was to +be made happy by half-pay and a pension. The Admiral, in +communicating the intelligence, had pretended to think that he +was giving the captain information which could not be otherwise +than grateful to him, but he was not the less aware that the old +man would be furious at being so treated. What, pension him! put +him on half-pay--shelf him for life, while he was still anxiously +expecting that promotion, that call to higher duties which had so +long been his due, and which, now that his powers were matured, +could hardly be longer denied to him! And after all that he had +done for his country--his ungrateful, thankless, ignorant +country--was he thus to be treated? Was he to be turned adrift +without any mark of honour, any special guerdon, any sign of his +Sovereign's favour to testify as to his faithful servitude of +sixty years' devotion? He, who had regarded it as his merest +right to be an Admiral, and had long indulged the hope of being +greeted in the streets of Devonport as Sir Bartholomew Cuttwater, +K.C.B., was he to be thus thrown aside in his prime, with no +other acknowledgement than the bare income to which he was +entitled! + +It is hardly too much to say, that no old officers who have +lacked the means to distinguish themselves, retire from either of +our military services, free from the bitter disappointment and +sour feelings of neglected worth, which Captain Cuttwater felt so +keenly. A clergyman, or a doctor, or a lawyer, feels himself no +whit disgraced if he reaches the end of his worldly labours +without special note or honour. But to a soldier or a sailor, +such indifference to his merit is wormwood. It is the bane of the +professions. Nine men out of ten who go into it must live +discontented, and die disappointed. + +Captain Cuttwater had no idea that he was an old man. He had +lived for so many years among men of his own stamp, who had grown +grey and bald, and rickety, and weak alongside of him, that he +had no opportunity of seeing that he was more grey or more +rickety than his neighbours. No children had become men and women +at his feet; no new race had gone out into the world and fought +their battles under his notice. One set of midshipmen had +succeeded to another, but his old comrades in the news-rooms and +lounging-places at Devonport had remained the same; and Captain +Cuttwater had never learnt to think that he was not doing, and +was not able to do good service for his country. + +The very name of Captain Cuttwater was odious to every clerk at +the Admiralty. He, like all naval officers, hated the Admiralty, +and thought, that of all Englishmen, those five who had been +selected to sit there in high places as joint lords were the most +incapable. He pestered them with continued and almost continuous +applications on subjects of all sorts. He was always asking for +increased allowances, advanced rank, more assistance, less work, +higher privileges, immunities which could not be granted, and +advantages to which he had no claim. He never took answers, but +made every request the subject of a prolonged correspondence; +till at last some energetic Assistant-Secretary declared that it +should no longer be borne, and Captain Cuttwater was dismissed +with pension and half-pay. During his service he had contrived to +save some four or five thousand pounds, and now he was about to +retire with an assured income adequate to all his wants. The +public who had the paying of Captain Cuttwater may, perhaps, +think that he was amply remunerated for what he had done; but the +captain himself entertained a very different opinion. + +Such is the view which we are obliged to take of the professional +side of Captain Cuttwater's character. But the professional side +was by far the worst. Counting fathoms of rope and looking after +unruly midshipmen on shore are not duties capable of bringing out +in high relief the better traits of a main's character. Uncle +Bat, as during the few last years of his life he was always +called at Surbiton Cottage, was a gentleman and a man of honour, +in spite of anything that might be said to the contrary at the +Admiralty. He was a man with a soft heart, though the end of his +nose was so large, so red, and so pimply; and rough as was his +usage to little midshipmen when his duty caused him to encounter +them in a body, he had befriended many a one singly with kind +words and an open hand. The young rogues would unmercifully quiz +Old Nosey, for so Captain Cuttwater was generally called in +Devonport, whenever they could safely do so; but, nevertheless, +in their young distresses they knew him for their friend, and +were not slow to come to him. + +In person Captain Cuttwater was a tall, heavy man, on whose iron +constitution hogsheads of Hollands and water seemed to have had +no very powerful effect. He was much given to profane oaths; but +knowing that manners required that he should refrain before +ladies, and being unable to bring his tongue sufficiently under +command to do so, he was in the habit of 'craving the ladies' +pardon' after every slip. + +All that was really remarkable in Uncle Bat's appearance was +included in his nose. It had always been a generous, weighty, +self-confident nose, inviting to itself more observation than any +of its brother features demanded. But in latter years it had +spread itself out in soft, porous, red excrescences, to such an +extent as to make it really deserving of considerable attention. +No stranger ever passed Captain Cuttwater in the streets of +Devonport without asking who he was, or, at any rate, specially +noticing him. + +It must, of course, be admitted that a too strongly pronounced +partiality for alcoholic drink had produced these defects in +Captain Cuttwater's nasal organ; and yet he was a most staunch +friend of temperance. No man alive or dead had ever seen Captain +Cuttwater the worse for liquor; at least so boasted the captain +himself, and there were none, at any rate in Devonport, to give +him the lie. Woe betide the midshipman whom he should see elated +with too much wine; and even to the common sailor who should be +tipsy at the wrong time, he would show no mercy. Most eloquent +were the discourses which he preached against drunkenness, and +they always ended with a reference to his own sobriety. The truth +was, that drink would hardly make Captain Cuttwater drunk. It +left his brain untouched, but punished his nose. + +Mrs. Woodward had seen her uncle but once since she had become a +widow. He had then come up to London to attack the Admiralty at +close quarters, and had sojourned for three or four days at +Surbiton Cottage. This was now some ten years since, and the +girls had forgotten even what he was like. Great preparations +were made for him. Though the summer had nearly commenced, a +large fire was kept burning in his bedroom--his bed was newly +hung with new curtains; two feather beds were piled on each +other, and everything was done which five women could think +desirable to relieve the ailings of suffering age. The fact, +however, was that Captain Cuttwater was accustomed to a small +tent bedstead in a room without a carpet, that he usually slept +on a single mattress, and that he never had a fire in his +bedroom, even in the depth of winter. + +Travelling from Devonport to London is now an easy matter; and +Captain Cuttwater, old as he was, found himself able to get +through to Hampton in one day. Mrs. Woodward went to meet him at +Hampton Court in a fly, and conveyed him to his new home, +together with a carpet-bag, a cocked hat, a sword, and a very +small portmanteau. When she inquired after the remainder of his +luggage, he asked her what more lumber she supposed he wanted. No +more lumber at any rate made its appearance, then or afterwards; +and the fly proceeded with an easy load to Surbiton Cottage. + +There was great anxiety on the part of the girls when the wheels +were heard to stop at the front door. Gertrude kept her place +steadily standing on the rug in the drawing-room; Linda ran to +the door and then back again; but Katie bolted out and ensconced +herself behind the parlour-maid, who stood at the open door, +looking eagerly forth to get the first view of Uncle Bat. + +'So here you are, Bessie, as snug as ever,' said the captain, as +he let himself ponderously down from the fly. Katie had never +before heard her mother called Bessie, and had never seen +anything approaching in size or colour to such a nose, consequently +she ran away frightened. + +'That's Gertrude--is it?' said the captain. + +'Gertrude, uncle! Why Gertrude is a grown-up woman now. That's +Katie, whom you remember an infant.' + +'God bless my soul!' said the captain, as though he thought that +girls must grow twice quicker at Hampton than they did at +Devonport or elsewhere, 'God bless my soul!' + +He was then ushered into the drawing-room, and introduced in form +to his grand-nieces. 'This is Gertrude, uncle, and this Linda; +there is just enough difference for you to know them apart. And +this Katie. Come here, Katie, and kiss your uncle.' + +Katie came up, hesitated, looked horrified, but did manage to get +her face somewhat close to the old man's without touching the +tremendous nose, and then having gone through this peril she +retreated again behind the sofa. + +'Well; bless my stars, Bessie, you don't tell me those are your +children?' + +'Indeed, uncle, I believe they are. It's a sad tale for me to +tell, is it not?' said the blooming mother with a laugh. + +'Why, they'll be looking out for husbands next,' said Uncle Bat. + +'Oh! they're doing that already, every day,' said Katie. + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Uncle Bat; 'I suppose so, I suppose so;-- +ha, ha, ha!' + +Gertrude turned away to the window, disgusted and angry, and made +up her mind to hate Uncle Bat for ever afterwards. Linda made a +little attempt to smile, and felt somewhat glad in her heart that +her uncle was a man who could indulge in a joke. + +He was then taken upstairs to his bedroom, and here he greatly +frightened Katie, and much scandalized the parlour-maid by +declaring, immediately on his entering the room, that it was 'd----- +hot, d---ation hot; craving your pardon, ladies!' + +'We thought, uncle, you'd like a fire,' began Mrs. Woodward, 'as----' + +'A fire in June, when I can hardly carry my coat on my back!' + +'It's the last day of May now,' said Katie timidly, from behind +the bed-curtains. + +This, however, did not satisfy the captain, and orders were +forthwith given that the fire should be taken away, the curtains +stripped off, the feather beds removed, and everything reduced to +pretty much the same state in which it had usually been left for +Harry Norman's accommodation. So much for all the feminine care +which had been thrown away upon the consideration of Uncle Bat's +infirmities. + +'God bless my soul!' said he, wiping his brow with a huge +coloured handkerchief as big as a mainsail, 'one night in such a +furnace as that would have brought on the gout.' + +He had dined in town, and by the time that his chamber had been +stripped of its appendages, he was nearly ready for bed. Before +he did so, he was asked to take a glass of sherry. + +'Ah! sherry,' said he, taking up the bottle and putting it down +again. 'Sherry, ah! yes; very good wine, I am sure. You haven't a +drop of rum in the house, have you?' + +Mrs. Woodward declared with sorrow that she had not. + +'Or Hollands?' said Uncle Bat. But the ladies of Surbiton Cottage +were unsupplied also with Hollands. + +'Gin?' suggested the captain, almost in despair. + +Mrs. Woodward had no gin, but she could send out and get it; and +the first evening of Captain Cuttwater's visit saw Mrs. Woodward's +own parlour-maid standing at the bar of the Green Dragon, while +two gills of spirits were being measured out for her. + +'Only for the respect she owed to Missus,' as she afterwards +declared, 'she never would have so demeaned herself for all the +captains in the Queen's battalions.' + +The captain, however, got his grog; and having enlarged somewhat +vehemently while he drank it on the iniquities of those +scoundrels at the Admiralty, took himself off to bed; and left +his character and peculiarities to the tender mercies of his +nieces. + +The following day was Friday, and on the Saturday Norman and +Tudor were to come down as a matter of course. During the long +days, they usually made their appearance after dinner; but they +had now been specially requested to appear in good orderly time, +in honour of the captain. Their advent had been of course spoken +of, and Mrs. Woodward had explained to Uncle Bat that her cousin +Harry usually spent his Sundays at Hampton, and that he usually +also brought with him a friend of his, a Mr. Tudor. To all this, +as a matter of course, Uncle Bat had as yet no objection to make. + +The young men came, and were introduced with due ceremony. +Surbiton Cottage, however, during dinnertime, was very unlike +what it had been before, in the opinion of all the party there +assembled. The girls felt themselves called upon, they hardly +knew why, to be somewhat less intimate in their manner with the +young men than they customarily were; and Harry and Alaric, with +quick instinct, reciprocated the feeling. Mrs. Woodward, even, +assumed involuntarily somewhat of a company air; and Uncle Bat, +who sat at the bottom of the table, in the place usually assigned +to Norman, was awkward in doing the honours of the house to +guests who were in fact much more at home there than himself. + +After dinner the young people strolled out into the garden, and +Katie, as was her wont, insisted on Harry Norman rowing her over +to her damp paradise in the middle of the river. He attempted, +vainly, to induce Gertrude to accompany them. Gertrude was either +coy with her lover, or indifferent; for very few were the +occasions on which she could be induced to gratify him with the +rapture of a _tete-a-tete_ encounter. So that, in fact, Harry +Norman's Sunday visits were generally moments of expected +bliss of which the full fruition was but seldom attained. So +while Katie went off to the island, Alaric and the two girls sat +under a spreading elm tree and watched the little boat as it shot +across the water. 'And what do you think of Uncle Bat?' said +Gertrude. + +'Well, I am sure he's a good sort of fellow, and a very, gallant +officer, but--' + +'But what?' said Linda. + +'It's a thousand pities he should have ever been removed from +Devonport, where I am sure he was both useful and ornamental.' + +Both the girls laughed cheerily; and as the sound came across the +water to Norman's ears, he repented himself of his good nature to +Katie, and determined that her sojourn in the favourite island +should, on this occasion, be very short. + +'But he is to pay mamma a great deal of money,' said Linda, 'and +his coming will be a great benefit to her in that way.' + +'There ought to be something to compensate for the bore,' said +Gertrude. + +'We must only make the best of him,' said Alaric. 'For my part, I +am rather fond of old gentlemen with long noses; but it seemed to +me that he was not quite so fond of us. I thought he looked +rather shy at Harry and me.' + +Both the girls protested against this, and declared that there +could be nothing in it. + +'Well, now, I'll tell you what, Gertrude,' said Alaric, 'I am +quite sure that he looks on me, especially, as an interloper; and +yet I'll bet you a pair of gloves I am his favourite before a +month is over.' + +'Oh, no; Linda is to be his favourite,' said Gertrude. + +'Indeed I am not,' said Linda. 'I liked him very well till he +drank three huge glasses of gin-and-water last night, but I never +can fancy him after that. You can't conceive, Alaric, what the +drawing-room smelt like. I suppose he'll do the same every +evening.' + +'Well, what can you expect?' said Gertrude; 'if mamma will have +an old sailor to live with her, of course he'll drink grog.' + +While this was going on in the garden, Mrs. Woodward sat +dutifully with her uncle while he sipped his obnoxious toddy, and +answered his questions about their two friends. + +'They were both in the Weights and Measures, by far the most +respectable public office in London,' as she told him, 'and both +doing extremely well there. They were, indeed, young men sure to +distinguish themselves and get on in the world. Had this not been +so, she might perhaps have hesitated to receive them so +frequently, and on such intimate terms, at Surbiton Cottage.' +This she said in a half-apologetic manner, and yet with a feeling +of anger at herself that she should condescend to apologize to +any one as to her own conduct in her own house. + +'They are very-nice young men, I am sure,' said Uncle Bat. + +'Indeed they are,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'And very civil to the young ladies,' said Uncle Bat. + +'They have known them since they were children, uncle; and of +course that makes them more intimate than young men generally are +with young ladies;' and again Mrs. Woodward was angry with +herself for making any excuses on the subject. + +'Are they well off?' asked the prudent captain. + +'Harry Norman is very well off; he has a private fortune. Both of +them have excellent situations.' + +'To my way of thinking that other chap is the better fellow. At +any rate he seems to have more gumption about him.' + +'Why, uncle, you don't mean to tell me that you think Harry +Norman a fool?' said Mrs. Woodward. Harry Norman was Mrs. +Woodward's special friend, and she fondly indulged the hope of +seeing him in time become the husband of her elder and favourite +daughter; if, indeed, she can be fairly said to have had a +favourite child. + +Captain Cuttwater poured out another glass of rum, and dropped +the subject. + +Soon afterwards the whole party came in from the lawn. Katie was +all draggled and wet, for she had persisted in making her way +right across the island to look out for a site for another +palace. Norman was a little inclined to be sulky, for Katie had +got the better of him; when she had got out of the boat, he could +not get her into it again; and as he could not very well leave +her in the island, he had been obliged to remain paddling about, +while he heard the happy voices of Alaric and the two girls from +the lawn. Alaric was in high good-humour, and entered the room +intent on his threatened purpose of seducing Captain Cuttwater's +affections. The two girls were both blooming with happy glee, and +Gertrude was especially bright in spite of the somewhat sombre +demeanour of her lover. + +Tea was brought in, whereupon Captain Cuttwater, having taken a +bit of toast and crammed it into his saucer, fell fast asleep in +an arm-chair. + +'You'll have very little opportunity to-night,' said Linda, +almost in a whisper. + +'Opportunity for what?' asked Mrs. Woodward. + +'Hush,' said Gertrude, 'we'll tell you by and by, mamma. You'll +wake Uncle Bat if you talk now.' + +'I am so thirsty,' said Katie, bouncing into the room with dry +shoes and stockings on. 'I am so thirsty. Oh, Linda, do give me +some tea.' + +'Hush,' said Alaric, pointing to the captain, who was thoroughly +enjoying himself, and uttering sonorous snores at regular fixed +intervals. + +'Sit down, Katie, and don't make a noise,' said Mrs. Woodward, +gently. + +Katie slunk into a chair, opened wide her large bright eyes, +applied herself diligently to her teacup, and then, after taking +breath, said, in a very audible whisper to her sister, 'Are not +we to talk at all, Linda? That will be very dull, I think.' + +'Yes, my dear, you are to talk as much as you please, and as +often as you please, and as loud as you please; that is to say, +if your mamma will let you,' said Captain Cuttwater, without any +apparent waking effort, and in a moment the snoring was going on +again as regularly as before. + +Katie looked round, and again opened her eyes and laughed. Mrs. +Woodward said, 'You are very good-natured, uncle.' The girls +exchanged looks with Alaric, and Norman, who had not yet +recovered his good-humour, went on sipping his tea. + +As soon as the tea-things were gone, Uncle Bat yawned and shook +himself, and asked if it was not nearly time to go to bed. + +'Whenever you like, Uncle Bat,' said Mrs. Woodward, who began to +find that she agreed with Gertrude, that early habits on the part +of her uncle would be a family blessing. 'But perhaps you'll take +something before you go?' + +'Well, I don't mind if I do take a thimbleful of rum-and-water.' +So the odious spirit-bottle was again brought into the drawing- +room. + +'Did you call at the Admiralty, sir, as you came through town?' +said Alaric. + +'Call at the Admiralty, sir!' said the captain, turning sharply +round at the questioner; 'what the deuce should I call at the +Admiralty for? craving the ladies' pardon.' + +'Well, indeed, I don't know,' said Alaric, not a bit abashed. +'But sailors always do call there, for the pleasure, I suppose, +of kicking their heels in the lords' waiting-room.' + +'I have done with that game,' said Captain Cuttwater, now wide +awake; and in his energy he poured half a glass more rum into his +beaker. 'I've done with that game, and I'll tell you what, Mr. +Tudor, if I had a dozen sons to provide for to-morrow--' + +'Oh, I do so wish you had,' said Katie; 'it would be such fun. +Fancy Uncle Bat having twelve sons, Gertrude. What would you call +them all, uncle?' + +'Why, I tell you what, Miss Katie, I wouldn't call one of them a +sailor. I'd sooner make tailors of them.' + +'Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, apothecary, +ploughboy, thief,' said Katie. 'That would only be eight; what +should the other four be, uncle?' + +'You're quite right, Captain Cuttwater,' said Alaric, 'at least +as far as the present moment goes; but the time is coming when +things at the Admiralty will be managed very differently.' + +'Then I'm d----- if that time can come too soon--craving the +ladies' pardon!' said Uncle Bat. + +'I don't know what you mean, Alaric,' said Harry Norman, who was +just at present somewhat disposed to contradict his friend, and +not ill-inclined to contradict the captain also; 'as far as I can +judge, the Admiralty is the very last office the Government will +think of touching.' + +'The Government!' shouted Captain Cuttwater; 'oh! if we are to +wait for the Government, the navy may go to the deuce, sir.' + +'It's the pressure from without that must do the work,' said +Alaric. + +'Pressure from without!' said Norman, scornfully; 'I hate to hear +such trash.' + +'We'll see, young gentleman, we'll see,' said the captain; 'it +may be trash, and it may be right that five fellows who never did +the Queen a day's service in their life, should get fifteen +hundred or two thousand a year, and have the power of robbing an +old sailor like me of the reward due to me for sixty years' hard +work. Reward! no; but the very wages that I have actually earned. +Look at me now, d--- me, look at me! Here I am, Captain +Cuttwater--with sixty years' service--and I've done more perhaps +for the Queen's navy than--than--' + +'It's too true, Captain Cuttwater,' said Alaric, speaking with a +sort of mock earnestness which completely took in the captain, +but stealing a glance at the same time at the two girls, who sat +over their work at the drawing-room table, 'it's too true; and +there's no doubt the whole thing must be altered, and that soon. +In the first place, we must have a sailor at the head of the +navy.' + +'Yes,' said the captain, 'and one that knows something about it +too.' + +'You'll never have a sailor sitting as first lord,' said Norman, +authoritatively; 'unless it be when some party man, high in rank, +may happen to have been in the navy as a boy.' + +'And why not?' said Captain Cuttwater quite angrily. + +'Because the first lord must sit in the Cabinet, and to do that +he must be a thorough politician.' + +'D----- politicians! craving the ladies' pardon,' said Uncle Bat. + +'Amen!' said Alaric. + +Uncle Bat, thinking that he had thoroughly carried his point, +finished his grog, took up his candlestick, and toddled off to +bed. + +'Well, I think I have done something towards carrying my point,' +said Alaric. + +'I didn't think you were half so cunning,' said Linda, laughing. + +'I cannot think how you can condescend to advocate opinions +diametrically opposed to your own convictions,' said Norman, +somewhat haughtily. + +'Fee, fo, fum!' said Alaric. + +'What is it all about?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Alaric wants to do all he can to ingratiate himself with Uncle +Bat,' said Gertrude; 'and I am sure he's going the right way to +work,' + +'It's very good-natured on his part,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I don't know what you are talking about,' said Katie, yawning, +'and I think you are all very stupid; so I'll go to bed.' + +The rest soon followed her. They did not sit up so late chatting +over the fire this evening, as was their wont on Saturdays, +though none of them knew what cause prevented it. + + + +CHAPTER V + +BUSHEY PARK + + +The next day being Sunday, the whole party very properly went to +church; but during the sermon Captain Cuttwater very improperly +went to sleep, and snored ponderously the whole time. Katie was +so thoroughly shocked that she did not know which way to look; +Norman, who had recovered his good-humour, and Alaric, could not +refrain from smiling as they caught the eyes of the two girls; +and Mrs. Woodward made sundry little abortive efforts to wake her +uncle with her foot. Altogether abortive they were not, for the +captain would open his eyes and gaze at her for a moment in the +most good-natured, lack-lustre manner conceivable; but then, in a +moment, he would be again asleep and snoring, with all the +regularity of a kitchen-clock. This was at first very dreadful to +the Woodwards; but after a month or two they got used to it, and +so apparently did the pastor and the people of Hampton. + +After church there was a lunch of course; and then, according to +their wont, they went out to walk. These Sunday walks in general +were matters of some difficulty. The beautiful neighbourhood of +Hampton Court, with its palace-gardens and lovely park, is so +popular with Londoners that it is generally alive on that day +with a thronged multitude of men, women, and children, and thus +becomes not an eligible resort for lovers of privacy. Captain +Cuttwater, however, on this occasion, insisted on seeing the +chestnuts and the crowd, and consequently, they all went into +Bushey Park. + +Uncle Bat, who professed himself to be a philanthropist, and who +was also a bit of a democrat, declared himself delighted with what +he saw. It was a great thing for the London citizens to come down +there with their wives and children, and eat their dinners in the +open air under the spreading trees; and both Harry and Alaric +agreed with him. Mrs. Woodward, however, averred that it would +be much better if they would go to church first, and Gertrude +and Linda were of opinion that the Park was spoilt by the dirty +bits of greasy paper which were left about on all sides. Katie +thought it very hard that, as all the Londoners were allowed to +eat their dinners in the Park, she might not have hers there also. +To which Captain Cuttwater rejoined that he should give them a +picnic at Richmond before the summer was over. + +All the world knows how such a party as that of our friends by +degrees separates itself into twos and threes, when sauntering +about in shady walks. It was seldom, indeed, that Norman could +induce his Dulcinea to be so complaisant in his favour; but +either accident or kindness on her part favoured him on this +occasion, and as Katie went on eliciting from Uncle Bat fresh +promises as to the picnic, Harry and Gertrude found themselves +together under one avenue of trees, while Alaric and Linda were +equally fortunate, or unfortunate, under another. + +'I did so wish to speak a few words to you, Gertrude,' said +Norman; 'but it seems as though, now that this captain has come +among us, all our old habits and ways are to be upset.' + +'I don't see that _you_ need say that,' said she. 'We may, +perhaps, be put out a little--that is, mamma and Linda and I; but +I do not see that you need suffer.' + +'Suffer--no, not suffer--and yet it is suffering.' + +'What is suffering?' said she. + +'Why, to be as we were last night--not able to speak to each +other.' + +'Come, Harry, you should be a little reasonable,' said she, +laughing. 'If you did not talk last night whose fault was it?' + +'I suppose you will say it was my own. Perhaps it was. But I +could not feel comfortable while he was drinking gin-and-water--' + +'It was rum,' said Gertrude, rather gravely. + +'Well, rum-and-water in your mother's drawing-room, and cursing +and swearing before you and Linda, as though he were in the +cockpit of a man-of-war.' + +'Alaric you saw was able to make himself happy, and I am sure he +is not more indifferent to us than you are.' + +'Alaric seemed to me to be bent on making a fool of the old man; +and, to tell the truth, I cannot approve of his doing so.' + +'It seems to me, Harry, that you do not approve of what any of us +are doing,' said she; 'I fear we are all in your black books-- +Captain Cuttwater, and mamma, and Alaric, and I, and all of us.' + +'Well now, Gertrude, do you mean to say you think it right that +Katie should sit by and hear a man talk as Captain Cuttwater +talked last night? Do you mean to say that the scene which +passed, with the rum and the curses, and the absurd ridicule +which was thrown on your mother's uncle, was such as should take +place in your mother's drawing-room?' + +'I mean to say, Harry, that my mother is the best and only judge +of what should, and what should not, take place there.' + +Norman felt himself somewhat silenced by this, and walked on for +a time without speaking. He was a little too apt to take upon +himself the character of Mentor; and, strange to say, he was +aware of his own fault in this particular. Thus, though the +temptation to preach was very powerful, he refrained himself for +a while. His present desire was to say soft things rather than +sharp words; and though lecturing was at this moment much easier +to him than love-making, he bethought himself of his object, and +controlled the spirit of morality which was strong within him. + +'But we were so happy before your uncle came,' he said, speaking +with his sweetest voice, and looking at the beautiful girl beside +him with all the love he was able to throw into his handsome +face. + +'And we are happy now that he has come--or at any rate ought to +be,' said Gertrude, doing a little in the Mentor line herself, +now that the occasion came in her way. + +'Ah! Gertrude, you know very well there is only one thing can +make me happy,' said Harry. + +'Why, you unreasonable man! just now you said you were perfectly +happy before Captain Cuttwater came, I suppose the one thing now +necessary is to send him away again.' + +'No, Gertrude, the thing necessary is to take you away.' + +'What! out of the contamination of poor old Uncle Bat's bottle of +rum? But, Harry, you see it would be cowardly in me to leave +mamma and Linda to suffer the calamity alone.' + +'I wonder, Gertrude, whether, in your heart of hearts, you really +care a straw about me,' said Harry, who was now very sentimental +and somewhat lachrymose. + +'You know we all care very much about you, and it is very wrong +in you to express such a doubt,' said Gertrude, with a duplicity +that was almost wicked; as if she did not fully understand that +the kind of 'caring' of which Norman spoke was of a very +different nature from the general 'caring' which she, on his +behalf, shared with the rest of her family. + +'All of you--yes, but I am not speaking of all of you; I am +speaking of you, Gertrude--you in particular. Can you ever love +me well enough to be my wife?' + +'Well, there is no knowing what I may be able to do in three or +four years' time; but even that must depend very much on how you +behave yourself in the mean time. If you get cross because +Captain Cuttwater has come here, and snub Alaric and Linda, as +you did last night, and scold at mamma because she chooses to let +her own uncle live in her own house, why, to tell you the truth, +I don't think I ever shall.' + +All persons who have a propensity to lecture others have a strong +constitutional dislike to being lectured themselves. Such was +decidedly the case with Harry Norman. In spite of his strong +love, and his anxious desire to make himself agreeable, his brow +became somewhat darkened, and his lips somewhat compressed. He +would not probably have been annoyed had he not been found fault +with for snubbing his friend Tudor. Why should Gertrude, his +Gertrude, put herself forward to defend his friend? Let her say +what she chose for her mother, or even for her profane, dram- +drinking, vulgar old uncle, but it was too much that she should +take up the cudgels for Alaric Tudor. + +'Well,' said he, 'I was annoyed last night, and I must own it. It +grieved me to hear Alaric turning your uncle into ridicule, and +that before your mother's face; and it grieved me to see you and +Linda encourage him. In what Alaric said about the Admiralty he +did not speak truthfully.' + +'Do you mean to say that Alaric said what was false?' + +'Inasmuch as he was pretending to express his own opinion, he did +say what was false.' + +'Then I must and will say that I never yet knew Alaric say a word +that was not true; and, which is more, I am quite sure that he +would not accuse you of falsehood behind your back in a fit of +jealousy.' + +'Jealousy!' said Norman, looking now as black as grim death +itself. + +'Yes, it is jealousy. It so turned out that Alaric got on better +last night with Captain Cuttwater than you did, and that makes +you jealous.' + +'Pish!' said Norman, somewhat relieved, but still sufficiently +disgusted that his lady-love should suppose that he could be +otherwise than supremely indifferent to the opinion of Captain +Cuttwater. + +The love-scene, however, was fatally interrupted; and the pair +were not long before they joined the captain, Mrs. Woodward, and +Katie. + +And how fared it with the other pair under the other avenue of +chestnuts? + +Alaric Tudor had certainly come out with no defined intention of +making love as Harry Norman had done; but with such a companion +it was very difficult for him to avoid it. Linda was much more +open to attacks of this nature than her sister. Not that she was +as a general rule willingly and wilfully inclined to give more +encouragement to lovers than Gertrude; but she had less power of +fence, less skill in protecting herself, and much less of that +naughty self-esteem which makes some women fancy that all love- +making to them is a liberty, and the want of which makes others +feel that all love-making is to them a compliment. + +Alaric Tudor had no defined intention of making love; but he had +a sort of suspicion that he might, if he pleased, do so +successfully; and he had no defined intention of letting it +alone. He was a far-seeing, prudent man; for his age perhaps too +prudent; but he was nevertheless fully susceptible of the +pleasure of holding an affectionate, close intercourse with so +sweet a girl as Linda Woodward; and though he knew that marriage +with a girl without a dowry would for him be a death-blow to all +his high hopes, he could hardly resist the temptation of +conjugating the verb to love. Had he been able to choose from the +two sisters, he would probably have selected Gertrude in spite of +what he had said to Norman in the boat; but Gertrude was +bespoken; and it therefore seemed all but unnatural that there +should not be some love passages between him and Linda. + +Ah! Mrs. Woodward, my friend, my friend, was it well that thou +shouldst leave that sweet unguarded rosebud of thine to such +perils as these? + +They, also, commenced their wooing by talking over Captain +Cuttwater; but they did not quarrel over him. Linda was quite +content to be told by her friend what she ought to do, and how +she ought to think about her uncle; and Alaric had a better way +of laying down the law than Norman. He could do so without +offending his hearer's pride, and consequently was generally +better listened to than his friend, though his law was probably +not in effect so sound. + +But they had soon done with Captain Cuttwater, and Alaric had to +choose another subject. Gertrude and Norman were at some distance +from them, but were in sight and somewhat in advance. + +'Look at Harry,' said Alaric; 'I know from the motion of his +shoulder that he is at this moment saying something very tender.' + +'It is ten times more likely that they are quarrelling,' said +Linda. + +'Oh! the quarrels of lovers--we know all about that, don't we?' + +'You must not call them lovers, Alaric; mamma would not like it, +nor indeed would Gertrude, I am sure.' + +'I would not for the world do anything that Mrs. Woodward would +not like; but between ourselves, Linda, are they not lovers?' + +'No; that is, not that I know of. I don't believe that they are a +bit,' said Linda, blushing at her own fib. + +'And why should they not be? How indeed is it possible that they +should not be; that is--for I heartily beg Gertrude's pardon--how +is it possible that Harry should not be in love with her?' + +'Indeed, Gertrude is very, very beautiful,' said Linda, with the +faintest possible sigh, occasioned by the remembrance of her own +inferior charms. + +'Indeed she is, very, very beautiful,' repeated Alaric, speaking +with an absent air as though his mind were fully engaged in +thinking of the beauty of which he spoke. + +It was not in Linda's nature to be angry because her sister was +admired, and because she was not. But yet there was something in +Alaric's warm tone of admiration which gave her a feeling of +unhappiness which she would have been quite unable to define, +even had she attempted it. She saw her sister and Harry Norman +before her, and she knew in her heart that they were lovers, in +spite of her little weak declaration to the contrary. She saw how +earnestly her sister was loved, and she in her kindly loving +nature could not but envy her fancied happiness. Envy--no--it +certainly was not envy. She would not for worlds have robbed her +sister of her admirer; but it was so natural for her to feel that +it must be delicious to be admired! + +She did not begrudge Gertrude Norman's superior beauty, nor his +greater wealth; she knew that Gertrude was entitled to more, much +more, than herself. But seeing that Norman was Gertrude's lover, +was it not natural that Alaric should be hers? And then, though +Harry was the handsomer and the richer, she liked Alaric so much +the better of the two. But now that Alaric was alone with her, +the only subject he could think to talk of was Gertrude's beauty! + +It must not be supposed that these thoughts in their plainly- +developed form passed through Linda's mind. It was not that she +thought all this, but that she felt it. Such feelings are quite +involuntary, whereas one's thoughts are more or less under +command. Linda would not have allowed herself to think in this +way for worlds; but she could not control her feelings. + +They walked on side by side, perfectly silent for a minute or +two, and an ill-natured tear was gathering itself in the corner +of Linda's eye: she was afraid even to raise her hand to brush it +away, for fear Alaric should see her, and thus it went on +gathering till it was like to fall. + +'How singular it is,' said Alaric--'how very singular, the way in +which I find myself living with you all! such a perfect stranger +as I am.' + +'A perfect stranger!' said Linda, who, having remembered Alaric +since the days of her short frocks and lessons, looked on him as +a very old friend indeed. + +'Yes, a perfect stranger, if you think of it. What do any of you +know about me? Your mother never saw my mother; your father knew +nothing of my father; there is no kindred blood common to us. +Harry Norman, there, is your near cousin; but what am I that I +should be thus allowed to live with you, and walk with you, and +have a common interest in all your doings?' + +'Why, you are a dear friend of mamma's, are you not?' + +'A dear friend of mamma's! said he, 'well, indeed, I hope I am; +for your mother is at any rate a dear friend to me. But, Linda, +one cannot be so much without longing to be more. Look at Harry, +how happy he is!' + +'But, Alaric, surely you would not interfere with Harry,' said +Linda, whose humble, innocent heart thought still of nothing but +the merits of her sister; and then, remembering that it was +necessary that she should admit nothing on Gertrude's behalf, she +entered her little protest against the assumption that her sister +acknowledged Norman for her lover. 'That is, you would not do so, +if there were anything in it.' + +'I interfere with Harry!' said Alaric, switching the heads off +the bits of fern with the cane he carried. 'No, indeed. I have no +wish at all to do that. It is not that of which I was thinking. +Harry is welcome to all his happiness; that is, if Gertrude can +be brought to make him happy.' + +Linda, made no answer now; but the tear came running down her +face, and her eyes became dim, and her heart beat very quick, and +she didn't quite remember where she was. Up to this moment no man +had spoken a word of love to Linda Woodward, and to some girls +the first word is very trying. + +'Interfere with Harry!' Alaric repeated again, and renewed his +attack on the ferns. 'Well, Linda, what an opinion you must have +of me!' + +Linda was past answering; she could not protest--nor would it +have been expedient to do so--that her opinion of her companion +was not unfavourable. + +'Gertrude is beautiful, very beautiful,' he continued, still +beating about the bush as modest lovers do, and should do; 'but +she is not the only beautiful girl in Surbiton Cottage, nor to my +eyes is she the most so.' + +Linda was now quite beside herself. She knew that decorum +required that she should say something stiff and stately to +repress such language, but if all her future character for +propriety had depended on it, she could not bring herself to say +a word. She knew that Gertrude, when so addressed, would have +maintained her dignity, and have concealed her secret, even if +she allowed herself to have a secret to conceal. She knew that it +behoved her to be repellent and antagonistic to the first vows of +a first lover. But, alas! she had no power of antagonism, no +energy for repulse left in her. Her knees seemed to be weak +beneath her, and all she could do was to pluck to pieces the few +flowers that she carried at her waist. + +Alaric saw his advantage, but was too generous to push it +closely; nor indeed did he choose to commit himself to all the +assured intentions of a positive declaration. He wished to raise +an interest in Linda's heart, and having done so, to leave the +matter to chance. Something, however, it was necessary that he +should say. He walked a while by her in silence, decapitating the +ferns, and then coming close to her, he said-- + +'Linda, dear Linda! you are not angry with me?' Linda, however, +answered nothing. 'Linda, dearest Linda! speak one word to me.' + +'Don't!' said Linda through her tears. 'Pray don't, Alaric; pray +don't.' + +'Well, Linda, I will not say another word to you now. Let us walk +gently; we shall catch them up quite in time before they leave +the park.' + +And so they sauntered on, exchanging no further words. Linda by +degrees recovered her calmness, and as she did so, she found +herself to be, oh! so happy. She had never, never envied Gertrude +her lover; but it was so sweet, so very sweet, to be able to +share her sister's happiness. And Alaric, was he also happy? At +the moment he doubtless enjoyed the triumph of his success. But +still he had a feeling of sad care at his heart. How was he to +marry a girl without a shilling? Were all his high hopes, was all +his soaring ambition, to be thrown over for a dream of love? + +Ah! Mrs. Woodward, my friend, my friend, thou who wouldst have +fed thy young ones, like the pelican, with blood from thine own +breast, had such feeding been of avail; thou who art the kindest +of mothers; has it been well for thee to subject to such perils +this poor weak young dove of thine? + +Uncle Bat had become tired with his walk, and crawled home so +slowly that Alaric and Linda caught the party just as they +reached the small wicket which leads out of the park on the side +nearest to Hampton. Nothing was said or thought of their absence, +and they all entered the house together. Four of them, however, +were conscious that that Sunday's walk beneath the chestnuts of +Bushey Park would long be remembered. + +Nothing else occurred to make the day memorable. In the evening, +after dinner, Mrs. Woodward and her daughters went to church, +leaving her younger guests to entertain the elder one. The elder +one soon took the matter in his own hand by going to sleep; and +Harry and Alaric being thus at liberty, sauntered out down the +river side. They both made a forced attempt at good-humour, each +speaking cheerily to the other; but there was no confidence +between them as there had been on that morning when Harry rowed +his friend up to London. Ah me! what had occurred between them to +break the bonds of their mutual trust--to quench the ardour of +their firm friendship? But so it was between them now. It was +fated that they never again should place full confidence in each +other. + +There was no such breach between the sisters, at least not as +yet; but even between them there was no free and full interchange +of their hopes and fears. Gertrude and Linda shared the same +room, and were accustomed--as what girls are not?--to talk half +through the night of all their wishes, thoughts, and feelings. +And Gertrude was generally prone enough to talk of Harry Norman. +Sometimes she would say she loved him a little, just a little; at +others she would declare that she loved him not at all--that is, +not as heroines love in novels, not as she thought she could +love, and would do, should it ever be her lot to be wooed by such +a lover as her young fancy pictured to her. Then she would +describe her beau ideal, and the description certainly gave no +counterpart of Harry Norman. To tell the truth, however, Gertrude +was as yet heart whole; and when she talked of love and Harry +Norman, she did not know what love was. + +On this special Sunday evening she was disinclined to speak of +him at all. Not that she loved him more than usual, but that she +was beginning to think that she could not ever really love him at +all. She had taught herself to think that he might probably be +her husband, and had hitherto felt no such repugnance to her +destiny as caused her to shun the subject. But now she was +beginning to think of the matter seriously; and as she did so, +she felt that life might have for her a lot more blessed than +that of sharing the world with her cousin Harry. + +When, therefore, Linda began to question her about her lover, and +to make little hints of her desire to tell what Alaric had said +of her and Norman, Gertrude gave her no encouragement. She would +speak of Captain Cuttwater, of Katie's lessons, of the new dress +they were to make for their mother, of Mr. Everscreech's long +sermon, of anything in fact but of Harry Norman. + +Now this was very hard on poor Linda. Her heart was bursting +within her to tell her sister that she also was beloved; but she +could not do so without some little encouragement. + +In all their conferences she took the cue of the conversation +from her sister; and though she could have talked about Alaric by +the hour, if Gertrude would have consented to talk about Harry, +she did not know how to start the subject of her own lover, while +Gertrude was so cold and uncommunicative as to hers. She +struggled very hard to obtain the privilege for which she so +anxiously longed; but in doing so she only met with a sad and +sore rebuff. + +'Gertrude,' at last said Linda, when Gertrude thought that the +subject had been put to rest at any rate for that night, 'don't +you think mamma would be pleased if she knew that you had engaged +yourself to Harry Norman?' + +'No,' said Gertrude, evincing her strong mind by the tone in +which she spoke; 'I do not. If mamma wished it, she would have +told me; for she never has any secrets. I should be as wrong to +engage myself with Harry as you would be with Alaric. For though +Harry has property of his own, while poor Alaric has none, he has +a very insufficient income for a married man, and I have no +fortune with which to help him. If nothing else prevented it, I +should consider it wicked in me to make myself a burden to a man +while he is yet so young and comparatively so poor.' + +Prudent, sensible, high-minded, well-disciplined Gertrude! But +had her heart really felt a spark of love for the man of whom she +spoke, how much would prudent, sensible, high-minded considerations +have weighed with her? Alas! not a feather. + +Having made her prudent, high-minded speech, she turned round and +slept; and poor Linda also turned round and bedewed her pillow. +She no longer panted to tell her sister of Alaric's love. + +On the next morning the two young men returned to town, and the +customary dullness of the week began. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SIR GREGORY HARDLINES + + +Great changes had been going on at the Weights and Measures; or +rather it might be more proper to say that great changes were now +in progress. From that moment in which it had been hinted to Mr. +Hardlines that he must relax the rigour of his examinations, he +had pondered deeply over the matter. Hitherto he had confined his +efforts to his own office, and, so far from feeling personally +anxious for the amelioration of the Civil Service generally, had +derived no inconsiderable share of his happiness from the +knowledge that there were such sinks of iniquity as the Internal +Navigation. To be widely different from others was Mr. Hardlines' +glory. He was, perhaps, something of a Civil Service Pharisee, +and wore on his forehead a broad phylactery, stamped with the +mark of Crown property. He thanked God that he was not as those +publicans at Somerset House, and took glory to himself in paying +tithes of official cumin. + +But now he was driven to a wider range. Those higher Pharisees +who were above him in his own pharisaical establishment, had +interfered with the austerity of his worship. He could not turn +against them there, on their own ground. He, of all men, could +not be disobedient to official orders. But if he could promote a +movement beyond the walls of the Weights and Measures; if he +could make Pharisees of those benighted publicans in the Strand; +if he could introduce conic sections into the Custom House, and +political economy into the Post Office; if, by any effort of his, +the Foreign Office clerks could be forced to attend punctually at +ten; and that wretched saunterer, whom five days a week he saw +lounging into the Council Office--if he could be made to mend his +pace, what a wide field for his ambition would Mr. Hardlines then +have found! + +Great ideas opened themselves to his mind as he walked to and +from his office daily. What if he could become the parent of a +totally different order of things! What if the Civil Service, +through his instrumentality, should become the nucleus of the +best intellectual diligence in the country, instead of being a +byword for sloth and ignorance! Mr. Hardlines meditated deeply on +this, and, as he did so, it became observed on all sides that he +was an altered man as regarded his solicitude for the Weights and +Measures. One or two lads crept in, by no means conspicuous for +their attainments in abstract science; young men, too, were +observed to leave not much after four o'clock, without calling +down on themselves Mr. Hardlines' usual sarcasm. Some said he was +growing old, others that he was broken-hearted. But Mr. Hardlines +was not old, nor broken in heart or body. He was thinking of +higher things than the Weights and Measures, and at last he +published a pamphlet. + +Mr. Hardlines had many enemies, all in the Civil Service, one of +the warmest of whom was Mr. Oldeschole, of the Navigation, and at +first they rejoiced greatly that Job's wish had been accomplished +on their behalf, and that their enemy had written a book. They +were down on Mr. Hardlines with reviews, counter pamphlets, +official statements, and indignant contradiction; but Mr. +Hardlines lived through this storm of missiles, and got his book +to be feted and made much of by some Government pundits, who were +very bigwigs indeed. And at last he was invited over to the +building on the other side, to discuss the matter with a +President, a Secretary of State, a Lord Commissioner, two joint +Secretaries, and three Chairmen. + +And then, for a period of six months, the light of Mr. Hardlines' +face ceased to shine on the children of the Weights and Measures, +and they felt, one and all, that the glory had in a certain +measure departed from their house. Now and again Mr. Hardlines +would look in, but he did so rather as an enemy than as a friend. +There was always a gleam of antagonistic triumph in his eye, +which showed that he had not forgotten the day when he was called +in question for his zeal. He was felt to be in opposition to his +own Board, rather than in co-operation with it. The Secretary and +the Assistant-Secretaries would say little caustic things about +him to the senior clerks, and seemed somewhat to begrudge him his +new honours. But for all this Mr. Hardlines cared little. The +President and the Secretary of State, the joint Secretaries and +the Chairmen, all allowed themselves to be led by him in this +matter. His ambition was about to be gratified. It was his +destiny that he should remodel the Civil Service. What was it to +him whether or no one insignificant office would listen to his +charming? Let the Secretary at the Weights and Measures sneer as +he would; he would make that hero of the metallic currency know +that he, Mr. Hardlines, was his master. + +At the end of six months his budding glory broke out into +splendid, full-blown, many-coloured flowers. He resigned his +situation at the Weights and Measures, and was appointed Chief +Commissioner of the Board of Civil Service Examination, with a +salary of L2,000 a year; he was made a K.C.B., and shone forth to +the world as Sir Gregory Hardlines; and he received a present of +L1,000, that happy _ne plus ultra_ of Governmental liberality. +Sir Gregory Hardlines was forced to acknowledge to himself that he +was born to a great destiny. + +When Sir Gregory, as we must now call him, was first invited to +give his attendance at another office, he found it expedient to +take with him one of the young men from the Weights and Measures, +and he selected Alaric Tudor. Now this was surprising to many, +for Tudor had been brought into the office not quite in +accordance with Sir Gregory's views. But during his four years of +service Alaric had contrived to smooth down any acerbity which +had existed on this score; either the paper on the strike-bushel, +or his own general intelligence, or perhaps a certain amount of +flattery which he threw into his daily intercourse with the chief +clerk, had been efficacious, and when Sir Gregory was called upon +to select a man to take with him to his new temporary office, he +selected Alaric Tudor. + +The main effect which such selection had upon our story rises +from the circumstance that it led to an introduction between +Tudor and the Honourable Undecimus Scott, and that this +introduction brought about a close alliance. + +We will postpone for a short while such description of the +character and position of this gentleman as it may be indispensable +to give, and will in this place merely say that the Honourable +Undecimus Scott had been chosen to act as secretary to the +temporary commission that was now making inquiry as to the +proposed Civil Service examinations, and that in this capacity he +was necessarily thrown into communication with Tudor. He was a +man who had known much of officialities, had filled many +situations, was acquainted with nearly all the secretaries, +assistant-secretaries, and private secretaries in London, had +been in Parliament, and was still hand-and-glove with all young +members who supported Government. Tudor, therefore, thought it a +privilege to know him, and allowed himself to become, in a +certain degree, subject to his influence. + +When it was declared to the world of Downing Street that Sir +Gregory Hardlines was to be a great man, to have an office of his +own, and to reign over assistant-commissioners and subject +secretaries, there was great commotion at the Weights and +Measures; and when his letter of resignation was absolutely +there, visible to the eyes of clerks, properly docketed and duly +minuted, routine business was, for a day, nearly suspended. +Gentlemen walked in and out from each other's rooms, asking this +momentous question--Who was to fill the chair which had so long +been honoured by the great Hardlines? Who was to be thought +worthy to wear that divine mantle? + +But even this was not the question of the greatest moment which +at that period disturbed the peace of the office. It was well +known that the chief clerk must be chosen from one of the three +senior clerks, and that he would be so chosen by the voice of the +Commissioners. There were only three men who were deeply +interested in this question. But who would then be the new senior +clerk, and how would he be chosen? A strange rumour began to be +afloat that the new scheme of competitive examination was about +to be tried in filling up this vacancy, occasioned by the +withdrawal of Sir Gregory Hardlines. From hour to hour the rumour +gained ground, and men's minds began to be much disturbed. + +It was no wonder that men's minds should be disturbed. +Competitive examinations at eighteen, twenty, and twenty-two may +be very well, and give an interesting stimulus to young men at +college. But it is a fearful thing for a married man with a +family, who has long looked forward to rise to a certain income +by the worth of his general conduct and by the value of his +seniority--it is a fearful thing for such a one to learn that he +has again to go through his school tricks, and fill up examination +papers, with all his juniors round him using their stoutest efforts to +take his promised bread from out of his mouth. _Detur digno_ is a +maxim which will make men do their best to merit rewards; every +man can find courage within his heart to be worthy; but _detur digniori_ +is a fearful law for such a profession as the Civil Service. What +worth can make a man safe against the possible greater worth +which will come treading on his heels? The spirit of the age raises, +from year to year, to a higher level the standard of education. The +prodigy of 1857, who is now destroying all the hopes of the man +who was well enough in 1855, will be a dunce to the tyro of 1860. + +There were three or four in the Weights and Measures who felt all +this with the keenest anxiety. The fact of their being there, and +of their having passed the scrutiny of Mr. Hardlines, was proof +enough that they were men of high attainments; but then the +question arose to them and others whether they were men exactly +of those attainments which were _now_ most required. Who is +to say what shall constitute the merits of the _dignior_? It +may one day be conic sections, another Greek iambics, and a third +German philosophy. Rumour began to say that foreign languages +were now very desirable. The three excellent married gentlemen +who stood first in succession for the coveted promotion were +great only in their vernacular. + +Within a week from the secession of Sir Gregory, his immediate +successor had been chosen, and it had been officially declared +that the vacant situation in the senior class was to be thrown +open as a prize for the best man in the office. Here was a +brilliant chance for young merit! The place was worth L600 a- +year, and might be gained by any one who now received no more +than L100. Each person desirous of competing was to send in his +name to the Secretary, on or before that day fortnight; and on +that day month, the candidates were to present themselves before +Sir Gregory Hardlines and his board of Commissioners. + +And yet the joy of the office was by no means great. The senior +of those who might become competitors, was of course a miserable, +disgusted man. He went about fruitlessly endeavouring to +instigate rebellion against Sir Gregory, that very Sir Gregory +whom he had for many years all but worshipped. Poor Jones was, to +tell the truth, in a piteous case. He told the Secretary flatly +that he would not compete with a lot of boys fresh from school, +and his friends began to think of removing his razors. Nor were +Brown and Robinson in much better plight. They both, it is true, +hated Jones ruthlessly, and desired nothing better than an +opportunity of supplanting him. They were, moreover, fast friends +themselves; but not the less on that account had Brown a mortal +fear of Robinson, as also had Robinson a mortal fear of Brown. + +Then came the bachelors. First there was Uppinall, who, when he +entered the office, was supposed to know everything which a young +man had ever known. Those who looked most to dead knowledge were +inclined to back him as first favourite. It had, however, been +remarked, that his utility as a clerk had not been equal to the +profundity of his acquirements. Of all the candidates he was the +most self-confident. + +The next to him was Mr. A. Minusex, a wondrous arithmetician. He +was one who could do as many sums without pen and paper as a +learned pig; who was so given to figures that he knew the number +of stairs in every flight he had gone up and down in the +metropolis; one who, whatever the subject before him might be, +never thought but always counted. Many who knew the peculiar +propensities of Sir Gregory's earlier days thought that Mr. +Minusex was not an unlikely candidate. + +The sixth in order was our friend Norman. The Secretary and the +two Assistant-Secretaries, when they first put their heads +together on the matter, declared that he was the most useful man +in the office. + +There was a seventh, named Alphabet Precis. Mr. Precis' peculiar +forte was a singular happiness in official phraseology. Much that +he wrote would doubtless have been considered in the purlieus of +Paternoster Row as ungrammatical, if not unintelligible; but +according to the syntax of Downing Street, it was equal to +Macaulay, and superior to Gibbon. He had frequently said to his +intimate friends, that in official writing, style was everything; +and of his writing it certainly did form a very prominent part. +He knew well, none perhaps so well, when to beg leave to lay +before the Board--and when simply to submit to the Commissioners. +He understood exactly to whom it behoved the secretary 'to have +the honour of being a very humble servant,' and to whom the more +simple 'I am, sir,' was a sufficiently civil declaration. These +are qualifications great in official life, but were not quite so +much esteemed at the time of which we are speaking as they had +been some few years previously. + +There was but one other named as likely to stand with any +probability of success, and he was Alaric Tudor. Among the very +juniors of the office he was regarded as the great star of the +office. There was a dash about him and a quick readiness for any +work that came to hand in which, perhaps, he was not equalled by +any of his compeers. Then, too, he was the special friend of Sir +Gregory. + +But no one had yet heard Tudor say that he intended to compete +with his seven seniors--none yet knew whether he would put +himself forward as an adversary to his own especial friend, +Norman. That Norman would be a candidate had been prominently +stated. For some few days not a word was spoken, even between the +friends themselves, as to Tudor's intention. + +On the Sunday they were as usual at Hampton, and then the subject +was mooted by no less a person than Captain Cuttwater. + +So you young gentlemen up in London are all going to be examined, +are you?' said he; 'what is it to be about? Who's to be first +lieutenant of the ship, is that it?' + +'Oh no,' said Alaric, 'nothing half so high as that. Boatswain's +mate would be nearer the mark.' + +'And who is to be the successful man?' + +'Oh, Harry Norman, here. He was far the first favourite in +yesterday's betting.' + +And how do you stand yourself?' said Uncle Bat. + +'Oh! I'm only an outsider,' said Alaric. 'They put my name down +just to swell the number, but I shall be scratched before the +running begins.' + +'Indeed he won't,' said Harry. 'He'll run and distance us all. +There is no one who has a chance with him. Why, he is Sir +Gregory's own pet.' + +There was nothing more said on the subject at Surbiton Cottage. +The ladies seemed instinctively to perceive that it was a matter +which they had better leave alone. Not only were the two young +men to be pitted against each other, but Gertrude and Linda were +as divided in their wishes on the subject as the two candidates +could be themselves. + +On the following morning, however, Norman introduced the subject. +'I suppose you were only jesting yesterday,' said he, 'when you +told the captain that you were not going to be a candidate?' + +'Indeed I can hardly say that I was in jest or in earnest,' said +Alaric. 'I simply meant to decline to discuss the subject with +Uncle Bat.' + +'But of course you do mean to stand?' said Harry. Alaric made no +answer. + +'Perhaps you would rather decline to discuss the matter with me +also?' said Harry. + +'Not at all; I would much prefer discussing it openly and +honestly. My own impression is, that I had better leave it +alone.' + +'And why so?' said Harry. + +'Why so?' repeated Alaric. 'Well, there are so many reasons. In +the first place, there would be seven to one against me; and I +must confess that if I did stand I should not like to be beaten.' + +'The same argument might keep us all back,' said Norman. + +'That's true; but one man will be more sensitive, more cowardly, +if you will, than another; and then I think no one should stand +who does not believe himself to have a fair chance. His doing so +might probably mar his future prospects. How can I put myself in +competition with such men as Uppinall and Minuses?' + +Harry laughed slightly, for he knew it had been asked by many how +such men as Uppinall and Minusex could think of putting +themselves in competition with Alaric Tudor. + +'That is something like mock-modesty, is it not, Alaric?' + +'No, by heaven, it is not! I know well what those men are made +of; and I know, or think I know, my own abilities. I will own +that I rank myself as a human creature much higher than I rank +them. But they have that which I have not, and that which they +have is that which these examiners will chiefly require.' + +'If you have no other reason,' said Norman, 'I would strongly +advise you to send in your name.' + +'Well, Harry, I have another reason; and, though last, it is by +no means the least. You will be a candidate, and probably the +successful one. To tell you the truth, I have no inclination to +stand against you.' + +Norman turned very red, and then answered somewhat gravely: 'I +would advise you to lay aside that objection. I fairly tell you +that I consider your chance better than my own.' + +'And suppose it be so, which I am sure it is not--but suppose it +be so, what then?' + +'Why, you will do right to take advantage of it.' + +'Yes, and so gain a step and lose a friend!' said Alaric. 'No; +there can be no heartburn to me in your being selected, for +though I am older than you, you are my senior in the office. But +were I to be put over your head, it would in the course of nature +make a division between us; and if it were possible that you +should forgive it, it would be quite impossible that Gertrude +should do so. I value your friendship and that of the Woodwards +too highly to risk it.' + +Norman instantly fired up with true generous energy. 'I should be +wretched,' said he, 'if I thought that such a consideration +weighed with you; I would rather withdraw myself than allow such +a feeling to interfere with your prospects. Indeed, after what +you have said, I shall not send in my own name unless you also +send in yours.' + +'I shall only be creating fuel for a feud,' said Alaric. 'To put +you out of the question, no promotion could compensate to me for +what I should lose at Hampton.' + +'Nonsense, man; you would lose nothing. Faith, I don't know +whether it is not I that should lose, if I were successful at +your expense.' + +'How would Gertrude receive me?' said Alaric, pushing the matter +further than he perhaps should have done. + +'We won't mind Gertrude,' said Norman, with a little shade of +black upon his brow. 'You are an older man than I, and therefore +promotion is to you of more importance than to me. You are also a +poorer man. I have some means besides that drawn from my office, +which, if I marry, I can settle on my wife; you have none such. I +should consider myself to be worse than wicked if I allowed any +consideration of such a nature to stand in the way of your best +interests. Believe me, Alaric, that though I shall, as others, be +anxious for success myself, I should, in failing, be much +consoled by knowing that you had succeeded.' And as he finished +speaking he grasped his friend's hand warmly in token of the +truth of his assertion. + +Alaric brushed a tear from his eye, and ended by promising to be +guided by his friend's advice. Harry Norman, as he walked into +the office, felt a glow of triumph as he reflected that he had +done his duty by his friend with true disinterested honesty. And +Alaric, he also felt a glow of triumph as he reflected that, come +what might, there would be now no necessity for him to break with +Norman or with the Woodwards. Norman must now always remember +that it was at his own instigation that he, Alaric, had consented +to be a candidate. + +As regarded the real fact of the candidature, the prize was too +great to allow of his throwing away such a chance. Alaric's +present income was L200; that which he hoped to gain was L600! + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MR. FIDUS NEVERBEND + +Immediately on entering the office, Tudor gave it to be +understood that he intended to give in his name as a candidate; +but he had hardly done so when his attention was called off from +the coming examinations by another circumstance, which was +ultimately of great importance to him. One of the Assistant- +Secretaries sent for him, and told him that his services having +been required by Sir Gregory Hardlines for a week or so, he was +at once to go over to that gentleman's office; and Alaric could +perceive that, as Sir Gregory's name was mentioned, the +Assistant-Secretary smiled on him with no aspect of benign +solicitude. + +He went over accordingly, and found that Sir Gregory, having been +desired to select a man for a special service in the country, had +named him. He was to go down to Tavistock with another gentleman +from the Woods and Forests, for the purpose of settling some +disputed point as to the boundaries and privileges of certain +mines situated there on Crown property. + +'You know nothing about mining, I presume?' said Sir Gregory. + +'Nothing whatever,' said Alaric. + +'I thought not; that was one reason why I selected you. What is +wanted is a man of sharp intelligence and plain common sense, and +one also who can write English; for it will fall to your lot to +draw up the report on the matter. Mr. Neverbend, who is to be +your colleague, cannot put two words together.' + +'Mr. Neverbend!' said Alaric. + +'Yes, Fidus Neverbend, of the Woods and Forests; a very excellent +public servant, and one in whom the fullest confidence can be +placed. But between you and me, he will never set the Thames on +fire.' + +'Does he understand mining?' asked Alaric. + +'He understands Government properties, and will take care that +the Crown be not wronged; but, Tudor, the Government will look to +you to get the true common-sense view of the case. I trust--I +mean that I really do trust, that you will not disgrace my +choice.' + +Alaric of course promised that he would do his best, expressed +the deepest gratitude to his patron, and went off to put himself +into communication with Mr. Neverbend at the Woods and Forests, +having received an assurance that the examination in his own +office should not take place till after his return from +Tavistock. He was not slow to perceive that if he could manage to +come back with all the _eclat_ of a successful mission, the +prestige of such a journey would go far to assist him on his +coming trial. + +Mr. Fidus Neverbend was an absolute dragon of honesty. His +integrity was of such an all-pervading nature, that he bristled +with it as a porcupine does with its quills. He had theories and +axioms as to a man's conduct, and the conduct especially of a man +in the Queen's Civil Service, up to which no man but himself +could live. Consequently no one but himself appeared to himself +to be true and just in all his dealings. + +A quarter of an hour spent over a newspaper was in his eyes a +downright robbery. If he saw a man so employed, he would divide +out the total of salary into hourly portions, and tell him to a +fraction of how much he was defrauding the public. If he ate a +biscuit in the middle of the day, he did so with his eyes firmly +fixed on some document, and he had never been known to be absent +from his office after ten or before four. + +When Sir Gregory Hardlines declared that Mr. Fidus Neverbend +would never set the Thames on fire, he meant to express his +opinion that that gentleman was a fool; and that those persons +who were responsible for sending Mr. Neverbend on the mission now +about to be undertaken, were little better than fools themselves +for so sending him. But Mr. Neverbend was no fool. He was not a +disciple of Sir Gregory's school. He had never sat in that +philosopher's porch, or listened to the high doctrines prevalent +at the Weights and Measures. He could not write with all Mr. +Precis' conventional correctness, or dispose of any subject at a +moment's notice as would Mr. Uppinall; but, nevertheless, he was +no fool. Sir Gregory, like many other wise men, thought that +there were no swans but of his own hatching, and would ask, with +all the pompous conceit of Pharisees in another age, whether good +could come out of the Woods and Forests? + +Sir Gregory, however, perfectly succeeded in his object of +imbuing Tudor with a very indifferent opinion of his new +colleague's abilities. It was his object that Tudor should +altogether take the upper hand in the piece of work which was to +be done between them, and that it should be clearly proved how +very incapable the Woods and Forests were of doing their own +business. + +Mr. Fidus Neverbend, however, whatever others in the outer world +might think of him, had a high character in his own office, and +did not under-estimate himself. He, when he was told that a young +clerk named Tudor was to accompany him, conceived that he might +look on his companion rather in the light of a temporary private +secretary than an equal partner, and imagined that new glory was +added to him by his being so treated. The two men therefore met +each other with very different views. + +But though Mr. Neverbend was no fool, he was not an equal either +in tact or ability to Alaric Tudor. Alaric had his interview with +him, and was not slow to perceive the sort of man with whom he +had to act. Of course, on this occasion, little more than +grimaces and civility passed between them; but Mr. Neverbend, +even in his grimaces and civility, managed to show that he +regarded himself as decidedly No. 1 upon the occasion. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor,' said he, 'I think of starting on Tuesday. +Tuesday will not, I suppose, be inconvenient to you?' + +'Sir Gregory has already told me that we are expected to be at +Tavistock on Tuesday evening.' + +'Ah! I don't know about that,' said Neverbend; 'that may be all +very well for Sir Gregory, but I rather think I shall stay the +night at Plymouth.' + +'It will be the same to me,' said Tudor; 'I haven't looked at the +papers yet, so I can hardly say what may be necessary.' + +'No, no; of course not. As to the papers, I don't know that there +is much with which you need trouble yourself. I believe I am +pretty well up in the case. But, Mr. Tudor, there will be a good +deal of writing to do when we are there.' + +'We are both used to that, I fancy,' said Tudor, 'so it won't +kill us.' + +'No, of course not. I understand that there will be a good many +people for me to see, a great many conflicting interests for me +to reconcile; and probably I may find myself obliged to go down +two or three of these mines.' + +'Well, that will be good fun,' said Alaric. + +Neverbend drew himself up. The idea of having fun at the cost of +Government was painful to him; however, he spared the stranger +his reproaches, and merely remarked that the work he surmised +would be heavy enough both for the man who went below ground, and +for the one who remained above. + +The only point settled between them was that of their starting by +an early train on the Tuesday named; and then Alaric returned to +Sir Gregory's office, there to read through and digest an immense +bulk of papers all bearing on the question at issue. There had, +it appeared, been lately opened between the Tamar and the Tavy a +new mine, which had become exceedingly prosperous--outrageously +prosperous, as shareholders and directors of neighbouring mines +taught themselves to believe. Some question had arisen as to the +limits to which the happy possessors of this new tin El Dorado +were entitled to go; squabbles, of course, had been the result, +and miners and masters had fought and bled, each side in defence +of its own rights. As a portion of these mines were on Crown +property it became necessary that the matter should be looked to, +and as the local inspector was accused of having been bribed and +bought, and of being, in fact, an absolute official Judas, it +became necessary to send some one to inspect the inspector. Hence +had come Alaric's mission. The name of the mine in question was +Wheal Mary Jane, and Alaric had read the denomination half a +score of times before he learnt that there was no real female in +the case. + +The Sunday before he went was of course passed at Hampton, and +there he received the full glory of his special appointment. He +received glory, and Norman in an equal degree fell into the +background. Mrs. Woodward stuck kindly to Harry, and endeavoured, +in her gentle way, to quiz the projected trip to Devonshire. But +the other party was too strong, and her raillery failed to have +the intended effect. Gertrude especially expressed her opinion +that it was a great thing for so young a man to have been +selected for such employment by such a person; and Linda, though +she said less, could not prevent her tell-tale face from saying +more. Katie predicted that Alaric would certainly marry Mary Jane +Wheal, and bring her to Surbiton Cottage, and Captain Cuttwater +offered to the hero introductions to all the old naval officers +at Devonport. + +'By jingo! I should like to go with you,' said the captain. + +'I fear the pleasure would not repay the trouble,' said Alaric, +laughing. + +'Upon my word I think I'll do it,' said the captain. 'It would be +of the greatest possible service to you as an officer of the +Crown. It would give you so much weight there. I could make you +known, you know----' + +'I could not hear of such a thing,' said Alaric, trembling at the +idea which Uncle Bat had conjured up. + +'There is Admiral Starbod, and Captain Focassel, and old +Hardaport, and Sir Jib Boom--why, d--n me, they would all do +anything for me--craving the ladies' pardon.' + +Alaric, in his own defence, was obliged to declare that the rules +of the service especially required that he should hold no +friendly communication with any one during the time that he was +employed on this special service. Poor Captain Cuttwater, grieved +to have his good nature checked, was obliged to put up with this +excuse, and consoled himself with abusing the Government which +could condescend to give so absurd an order. + +This was on the Saturday. On the Sunday, going to church, the +captain suggested that Alaric might, at any rate, just call upon +Sir Jib on the sly. 'It would be a great thing for you,' said +Uncle Bat. 'I'll write a note to-night, and you can take it with +you. Sir Jib is a rising man, and you'll regret it for ever if +you miss the opportunity.' Now Sir Jib Boom was between seventy +and eighty, and he and Captain Cuttwater had met each other +nearly every day for the last twenty years, and had never met +without a squabble. + +After church they had their usual walk, and Linda's heart +palpitated as she thought that she might have to undergo another +_tete-a-tete_ with her lover. But it palpitated in vain. It +so turned out that Alaric either avoided, or, at any rate, did +not use the privilege, and Linda returned home with an undefined +feeling of gentle disappointment. She had fully made up her mind +to be very staid, very discreet, and very collected; to take a +leaf out of her sister's book, and give him no encouragement +whatever; she would not absolutely swear to him that she did not +now, and never could, return his passion; but she would point out +how very imprudent any engagement between two young persons, +situated as they were, must be--how foolish it would be for them +to bind themselves, for any number of years, to a marriage which +must be postponed; she would tell Alaric all this, and make him +understand that he was not to regard himself as affianced to her; +but she with a woman's faith would nevertheless remain true to +him. This was Linda's great resolve, and the strong hope, that in +a very few weeks, Alaric would be promoted to a marrying income +of L600 per annum, made the prospect of the task not so painful +as it might otherwise have been. Fate, however, robbed her of the +pleasure, if it would have been a pleasure, of sacrificing her +love to her duty; and 'dear Linda, dearest Linda,' was not again +whispered into her ear. + +'And what on earth is it that you are to do down in the mines?' +asked Mrs. Woodward as they sat together in the evening. + +'Nothing on the earth, Mrs. Woodward--it is to be all below the +surface, forty fathom deep,' said Alaric. + +'Take care that you ever come up again,' said she. + +'They say the mine is exceedingly rich--perhaps I may be tempted +to stay down there.' + +'Then you'll be like the gloomy gnome, that lives in dark, cold +mines,' said Katie. + +'Isn't it very dangerous, going down into those places?' asked +Linda. + +'Men go down and come up again every day of their lives, and what +other men can do, I can, I suppose.' + +'That doesn't follow at all,' said Captain Cuttwater, 'What sort +of a figure would you make on a yard-arm, reefing a sail in a +gale of wind?' + +'Pray do take care of yourself,' said Gertrude. + +Norman's brow grew black. 'I thought that it was settled that Mr. +Neverbend was to go down, and that you were to stay above +ground,' said he. + +'So Mr. Neverbend settled it; but that arrangement may, perhaps, +be unsettled again,' said Alaric, with a certain feeling of +confidence in his own strong will. + +'I don't at all doubt,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'that if we were to +get a sly peep at you, we should find you both sitting comfortably +at your inn all the time, and that neither of you will go a foot below +the ground.' + +'Very likely. All I mean to say is, that if Neverbend goes down +I'll go too.' + +'But mind, you gloomy gnome, mind you bring up a bit of gold for +me,' said Katie. + +On the Monday morning he started with the often-expressed good +wishes of all the party, and with a note for Sir Jib Boom, which +the captain made him promise that he would deliver, and which +Alaric fully determined to lose long before he got to Plymouth. + +That evening he and Norman passed together. As soon as their +office hours were over, they went into the London Exhibition, +which was then open; and there, walking up and down the long +centre aisle, they talked with something like mutual confidence +of their future prospects. This was a favourite resort with +Norman, who had schooled himself to feel an interest in works of +art. Alaric's mind was of a different cast; he panted rather for +the great than the beautiful; and was inclined to ridicule the +growing taste of the day for torsos, Palissy ware, and Assyrian +monsters. + +There was then some mutual confidence between the two young men. +Norman, who was apt to examine himself and his own motives more +strictly than Alaric ever did, had felt that something like +suspicion as to his friend had crept over him; and he had felt +also that there was no ground for such suspicion. He had +determined to throw it off, and to be again cordial with his +companion. He had resolved so to do before his last visit at +Hampton; but it was at Hampton that the suspicion had been +engendered, and there he found himself unable to be genial, +kindly, and contented. Surbiton Cottage was becoming to him +anything but the abode of happiness that it had once been. A year +ago he had been the hero of the Hampton Sundays; he could not but +now feel that Alaric had, as it were, supplanted him with his own +friends. The arrival even of so insignificant a person as Captain +Cuttwater--and Captain Cuttwater was very insignificant in +Norman's mind--had done much to produce this state of things. He +had been turned out of his bedroom at the cottage, and had +therefore lost those last, loving, lingering words, sometimes +protracted to so late an hour, which had been customary after +Alaric's departure to his inn--those last lingering words which +had been so sweet because their sweetness had not been shared +with his friend. + +He could not be genial and happy at Surbiton Cottage; but he was +by no means satisfied with himself that he should not have been +so. When he found that he had been surly with Alaric, he was much +more angry with himself than Alaric was with him. Alaric, indeed, +was indifferent about it. He had no wish to triumph over Harry, +but he had an object to pursue, and he was not the man to allow +himself to be diverted from it by any one's caprice. + +'This trip is a great thing for you,' said Harry. + +'Well, I really don't know. Of course I could not decline it; but +on the whole I should be just as well pleased to have been +spared. If I get through it well, why it will be well. But even +that cannot help me at this examination.' + +'I don't know that.' + +'Why--a week passed in the slush of a Cornish mine won't teach a +man algebra.' + +'It will give you _prestige_.' + +'Then you mean to say the examiners won't examine fairly; well, +perhaps so. But what will be the effect on me if I fail? I know +nothing of mines. I have a colleague with me of whom I can only +learn that he is not weak enough to be led, or wise enough to +lead; who is so self-opinionated that he thinks he is to do the +whole work himself, and yet so jealous that he fears I shall take +the very bread out of his mouth. What am I to do with such a +man?' + +'You must manage him,' said Harry. + +'That is much easier said than done,' replied Alaric. 'I wish you +had the task instead of me.' + +'So do not I. Sir Gregory, when he chose you, knew what he was +about.' + +'Upon my word, Harry, you are full of compliments to-day. I +really ought to take my hat off.' + +'No, I am not; I am in no mood for compliments. I know very well +what stuff you are made of. I know your superiority to myself. I +know you will be selected to go up over all our heads. I feel all +this; and Alaric, you must not be surprised that, to a certain +degree, it is painful to me to feel it. But, by God's help I will +get over it; and if you succeed it shall go hard with me, but I +will teach myself to rejoice at it. Look at that fawn there,' +said he, turning away his face to hide the tear in his eye, 'did +you ever see more perfect motion?' + +Alaric was touched; but there was more triumph than sympathy in +his heart. It was sweet, much too sweet, to him to hear his +superiority thus acknowledged. He was superior to the men who +worked round him in his office. He was made of a more plastic +clay than they, and despite the inferiority of his education, he +knew himself to be fit for higher work than they could do. As the +acknowledgement was made to him by the man whom, of those around +him, he certainly ranked second to himself, he could not but feel +that his heart's blood ran warm within him, he could not but +tread with an elastic step. + +But it behoved him to answer Harry, and to answer him in other +spirit than this. + +'Oh, Harry,' said he, 'you have some plot to ruin me by my own +conceit; to make me blow myself out and destroy myself, poor frog +that I am, in trying to loom as largely as that great cow, Fidus +Neverbend. You know I am fully conscious how much inferior my +education has been to yours.' + +'Education is nothing,' said Harry. + +Education is nothing! Alaric triumphantly re-echoed the words in +his heart--'Education is nothing--mind, mind is everything; mind +and the will.' So he expressed himself to his own inner self; but +out loud he spoke much more courteously. + +'It is the innate modesty of your own heart, Harry, that makes +you think so highly of me and so meanly of yourself. But the +proof of what we each can do is yet to be seen. Years alone can +decide that. That your career will be honourable and happy, of +that I feel fully sure! I wish I were as confident of mine.' + +'But, Alaric,' said Norman, going on rather with the thread of +his own thoughts, than answering or intending to answer what the +other said, 'in following up your high ambition--and I know you +have a high ambition--do not allow yourself to believe that the +end justifies the means, because you see that men around you act +as though they believed so.' + +'Do I do so--do I seem to do so?' said Alaric, turning sharply +round. + +'Don't be angry with me, Alaric; don't think that I want to +preach; but sometimes I fancy, not that you do so, but that your +mind is turning that way; that in your eager desire for +honourable success you won't scrutinize the steps you will have +to take.' + +'That I would get to the top of the hill, in short, even though +the hillside be miry. Well, I own I wish to get to the top of the +hill.' + +'But not to defile yourself in doing so.' + +'When a man comes home from a successful chase, with his bag well +stuffed with game, the women do not quarrel with him because +there is mud on his gaiters.' + +'Alaric, that which is evil is evil. Lies are evil--' + +'And am I a liar?' + +'Heaven forbid that I should say so: heaven forbid that I should +have to think so! but it is by such doctrines as that that men +become liars.' + +'What! by having muddy gaiters?' + +'By disregarding the means in looking to the end.' + +'And I will tell you how men become mere vegetables, by filling +their minds with useless--needless scruples--by straining at +gnats--' + +'Well, finish your quotation,' said Harry. + +'I have finished it; in speaking to you I would not for the world +go on, and seem to insinuate that you would swallow a camel. No +insinuation could be more base or unjust. But, nevertheless, I +think you may be too over-scrupulous. What great man ever rose to +greatness,' continued Alaric, after they had walked nearly the +length of the building in silence, 'who thought it necessary to +pick his steps in the manner you have described?' + +'Then I would not be great,' said Harry. + +'But, surely, God intends that there shall be great men on the +earth?' + +'He certainly wishes that there should be good men,' said Harry. + +'And cannot a man be good and great?' + +'That is the problem for a man to solve. Do you try that. Good +you certainly can be, if you look to Him for assistance. Let that +come first; and then the greatness, if that be possible.' + +'It is all a quibble about a word,' said Alaric. 'What is good? +David was a man after God's own heart, and a great man too, and +yet he did things which, were I to do, I should be too base to +live. Look at Jacob--how did he achieve the tremendous rights of +patriarchal primogeniture? But, come, the policemen are trying to +get rid of us; it is time for us to go,' and so they left the +building, and passed the remainder of the evening in concord +together--in concord so soon to be dissolved, and, ah! perhaps +never to be renewed. + +On the next morning Alaric and his new companion met each other +at an early hour at the Paddington station. Neverbend was rather +fussy with his dispatch-box, and a large official packet, which +an office messenger, dashing up in, a cab, brought to him at the +moment of his departure. Neverbend's enemies were wont to declare +that a messenger, a cab, and a big packet always rushed up at the +moment of his starting on any of his official trips. Then he had +his ticket to get and his _Times_ to buy, and he really had +not leisure to do more than nod at Alaric till he had folded his +rug around him, tried that the cushion was soft enough, and +completed his arrangements for the journey. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor,' at last he said, as soon as the train was in +motion, 'and how are you this morning--ready for work, I hope?' + +'Well, not exactly at this moment,' said Alaric. 'One has to get +up so early for these morning trains.' + +'Early, Mr. Tudor! my idea is that no hour should be considered +either early or late when the Crown requires our services.' + +'Just at present the Crown requires nothing else of us, I +suppose, but that we should go along at the rate of forty miles +an hour.' + +'There is nothing like saving time,' said Neverbend. 'I know you +have, as yet, had no experience in these sort of cases, so I have +brought you the papers which refer to a somewhat similar matter +that occurred in the Forest of Dean. I was sent down there, and +that is the report which I then wrote. I propose to take it for +the model of that which we shall have to draw up when we return +from Tavistock;' and as he spoke he produced a voluminous +document, or treatise, in which he had contrived to render more +obscure some matter that he had been sent to clear up, on the +Crown property in the Forest of Dean. + +Now Alaric had been told of this very report, and was aware that +he was going to Tavistock in order that the joint result of his +and Mr. Neverbend's labours might be communicated to the Crown +officers in intelligible language. + +The monster report before him contained twenty-six pages of close +folio writing, and he felt that he really could not oblige Mr. +Neverbend by reading it. + +'Forest of Dean! ah, that's coal, is it not?' said Alaric. 'Mary +Jane seems to be exclusively in the tin line. I fear there will +be no analogy.' + +'The cases are in many respects similar,' said Neverbend, 'and +the method of treating them----' + +'Then I really cannot concur with you as to the propriety of my +reading it. I should feel myself absolutely wrong to read a word +of such a report, for fear I might be prejudiced by your view of +the case. It would, in my mind, be positively dishonest in me to +encourage any bias in my own feelings either on one side or the +other.' + +'But really, Mr. Tudor----' + +'I need not say how much personal advantage it would be to me to +have the benefit of your experience, but my conscience tells me +that I should not do it--so I think I'll go to sleep.' + +Mr. Neverbend did not know what to make of his companion; whether +to admire the high tone of his official honesty, or to reprobate +his idleness in refusing to make himself master of the report. +While he was settling the question in his own mind, Tudor went to +sleep, and did not wake till he was invited to partake of ten +minutes' refreshment at Swindon. + +'I rather think,' said Mr. Neverbend, 'that I shall go on to +Tavistock to-night.' + +'Oh! of course,' said Alaric. 'I never for a moment thought of +stopping short of it;' and, taking out a book, he showed himself +disinclined for further conversation. + +'Of course, it's open to me to do as I please in such a matter,' +said Neverbend, continuing his subject as soon as they reached +the Bristol station, 'but on the whole I rather think we had +better go on to Tavistock to-night.' + +'No, I will not stop at Plymouth,' he said, as he passed by +Taunton; and on reaching Exeter he declared that he had fully +made up his mind on the subject. + +'We'll get a chaise at Plymouth,' said Alaric. + +'I think there will be a public conveyance,' said Neverbend. + +'But a chaise will be the quickest,' said the one. + +'And much the dearest,' said the other. + +'That won't signify much to us,' said Alaric; 'we shan't pay the +bill.' + +'It will signify a great deal to me,' said Neverbend, with a look +of ferocious honesty; and so they reached Plymouth. + +On getting out of the railway carriage, Alaric at once hired a +carriage with a pair of horses; the luggage was strapped on, and +Mr. Neverbend, before his time for expostulation had fairly come, +found himself posting down the road to Tavistock, followed at a +respectful distance by two coaches and an omnibus. + +They were soon drinking tea together at the Bedford Hotel, and I +beg to assure any travelling readers that they might have drunk +tea in a much worse place. Mr. Neverbend, though he made a great +struggle to protect his dignity, and maintain the superiority of +his higher rank, felt the ground sinking from beneath his feet +from hour to hour. He could not at all understand how it was, but +even the servants at the hotel seemed to pay more deference to +Tudor than to him; and before the evening was over he absolutely +found himself drinking port wine negus, because his colleague had +ordered it for him. + +'And now,' said Neverbend, who was tired with his long journey, +'I think I'll go to bed.' + +'Do,' said Alaric, who was not at all tired, 'and I'll go through +this infernal mass of papers. I have hardly looked at them yet. +Now that I am in the neighbourhood I shall better understand the +strange names.' + +So Alaric went to work, and studied the dry subject that was +before him. It will luckily not be necessary for us to do so +also. It will be sufficient for us to know that Wheal Mary Jane +was at that moment the richest of all the rich mines that had +then been opened in that district; that the, or its, or her +shares (which is the proper way of speaking of them I am +shamefully ignorant) were at an enormous premium; that these two +Commissioners would have to see and talk to some scores of loud +and angry men, deeply interested in their success or failure, and +that that success or failure might probably in part depend on the +view which these two Commissioners might take. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HON. UNDECIMUS SCOTT + + +The Hon. Undecimus Scott was the eleventh son of the Lord +Gaberlunzie. Lord Gaberlunzie was the representative of a very +old and very noble race, more conspicuous, however, at the +present time for its age and nobility than for its wealth. The +Hon. Undecimus, therefore, learnt, on arriving at manhood, that +he was heir only to the common lot of mortality, and that he had +to earn his own bread. This, however, could not have surprised +him much, as nine of his brethren had previously found themselves +in the same condition. + +Lord Gaberlunzie certainly was not one of those wealthy peers who +are able to make two or three elder sons, and after that to +establish any others that may come with comfortable younger +children's portions. The family was somewhat accustomed to the +_res angusta domi_; but they were fully alive to the fact, +that a noble brood, such as their own, ought always to be able to +achieve comfort and splendour in the world's broad field, by due +use of those privileges which spring from a noble name. Cauldkail +Castle, in Aberdeenshire, was the family residence; but few of +the eleven young Scotts were ever to be found there after +arriving at that age at which they had been able to fly from the +paternal hall. + +It is a terrible task, that of having to provide for eleven sons. +With two or three a man may hope, with some reasonable chance of +seeing his hope fulfilled, that things will go well with him, and +that he may descend to his grave without that worst of wretchedness, +that gnawing grief which comes from bad children. But who can hope +that eleven sons will all walk in the narrow path? + +Had Lord Gaberlunzie, however, been himself a patriarch, and +ruled the pastoral plains of Palestine, instead of the bleak +mountains which surround Cauldkail Castle, he could not have been +more indifferent as to the number of his sons. They flew away, +each as his time came, with the early confidence of young birds, +and as seldom returned to disturb the family nest. + +They were a cannie, comely, sensible brood. Their father and +mother, if they gave them nothing else, gave them strong bodies +and sharp brains. They were very like each other, though always +with a difference. Red hair, bright as burnished gold; high, but +not very high, cheek bones; and small, sharp, twinkling eyes, +were the Gaberlunzie personal characteristics. There were three +in the army, two in the navy, and one at a foreign embassy; one +was at the diggings, another was chairman of a railway company, +and our own more particular friend, Undecimus, was picking up +crumbs about the world in a manner that satisfied the paternal +mind that he was quite able to fly alone. + +There is a privilege common to the sons of all noble lords, the +full value of which the young Scotts learnt very early in life-- +that of making any woman with a tocher an honourable lady. 'Ye +maun be a puir chiel, gin ye'll be worth less than ten thoosand +pound in the market o' marriage; and ten thoosand pound is a +gawcey grand heritage!' Such had been the fatherly precept which +Lord Gaberlunzie had striven to instil into each of his noble +sons; and it had not been thrown away upon them. One after the +other they had gone forth into the market-place alluded to, and +had sold themselves with great ease and admirable discretion. +There had been but one Moses in the lot: the Hon. Gordon Hamilton +Scott had certainly brought home a bundle of shagreen spectacle +cases in the guise of a widow with an exceedingly doubtful +jointure; doubtful indeed at first, but very soon found to admit +of no doubt whatever. He was the one who, with true Scotch +enterprise, was prosecuting his fortunes at the Bendigo diggings, +while his wife consoled herself at home with her title. + +Undecimus, with filial piety, had taken his father exactly at his +word, and swapped himself for L10,000. He had, however, found +himself imbued with much too high an ambition to rest content +with the income arising from his matrimonial speculation. He had +first contrived to turn his real L10,000 into a fabulous L50,000, +and had got himself returned to Parliament for the Tillietudlem +district burghs on the credit of his great wealth; he then set +himself studiously to work to make a second market by placing his +vote at the disposal of the Government. + +Nor had he failed of success in his attempt, though he had +hitherto been able to acquire no high or permanent post. He had +soon been appointed private secretary to the First Lord of the +Stannaries, and he found that his duty in this capacity required +him to assist the Government whip in making and keeping houses. +This occupation was congenial to his spirit, and he worked hard +and well at it; but the greatest of men are open to the tainting +breath of suspicion, and the Honourable Undecimus Scott, or Undy +Scott, as he was generally now called, did not escape. Ill- +natured persons whispered that he was not on all occasions true +to his party; and once when his master, the whip-in-chief, +overborne with too much work, had been tempted to put himself to +bed comfortably in his own house, instead of on his usual +uneasy couch behind the Speaker's chair, Undy had greatly failed. +The leader of a party whose struggles for the religion of his +country had hitherto met but small success, saw at a glance the +opportunity which fortune had placed in his way; he spied with +eagle eye the nakedness of that land of promise which is +compressed in the district round the Treasury benches; the barren +field before him was all his own, and he put and carried his +motion for closing the parks on Sundays. + +He became a hero; but Undy was all but undone. The highest hope +of the Sabbatarian had been to address an almost empty house for +an hour and a half on this his favourite subject. But the chance +was too good to be lost; he sacrificed his oratorical longings on +the altar of party purpose, and limited his speech to a mere +statement of his motion. Off flew on the wings of Hansom a +youthful member, more trusty than the trusted Undy, to the abode +of the now couchant Treasury Argus. Morpheus had claimed him all +for his own. He was lying in true enjoyment, with his tired limbs +stretched between the unaccustomed sheets, and snoring with free +and sonorous nose, restrained by the contiguity of no Speaker's +elbow. But even in his deepest slumber the quick wheels of the +bounding cab struck upon the tympanum of his anxious ear. He +roused himself as does a noble watch-dog when the 'suspicious +tread of theft' approaches. The hurry of the jaded horse, the +sudden stop, the maddened furious knock, all told a tale which +his well-trained ear only knew too well. He sat up for a moment, +listening in his bed, stretched himself with one involuntary +yawn, and then stood upright on the floor. It should not at any +rate be boasted by any one that he had been found in bed. + +With elastic step, three stairs at a time, up rushed that young +and eager member. It was well for the nerves of Mrs. Whip Vigil +that the calls of society still held her bound in some distant +brilliant throng; for no consideration would have stopped the +patriotic energy of that sucking statesman. Mr. Vigil had already +performed the most important act of a speedy toilet, when his +door was opened, and as his young friend appeared was already +buttoning his first brace. + +'Pumpkin is up!' said the eager juvenile,' and we have only five +men in the house.' + +'And where the devil is Undy Scott?' said the Right Hon. Mr. +Vigil. + +'The devil only knows,' said the other. + +'I deserve it for trusting him,' said the conscience-stricken but +worthy public servant. By this time he had on his neckcloth and +boots; in his eager haste to serve his country he had forgotten +his stockings. 'I deserve it for trusting him--and how many men +have they?' + +'Forty-one when I left.' + +'Then they'll divide, of course?' + +'Of course they will,' said the promising young dove of the +Treasury. + +And now Mr. Whip Vigil had buttoned on that well-made frock with +which the Parliamentary world is so conversant, and as he +descended the stairs, arranged with pocket-comb his now grizzling +locks. His well-brushed hat stood ready to his touch below, and +when he entered the cab he was apparently as well dressed a +gentleman as when about three hours after noon he may be seen +with slow and easy step entering the halls of the Treasury +chambers. + +But ah! alas, he was all too late. He came but to see the ruin +which Undy's defection had brought about. He might have taken his +rest, and had a quiet mind till the next morning's _Times_ +revealed to him the fact of Mr. Pumpkin's grand success. When he +arrived, the numbers were being taken, and he, even he, Mr. Whip +Vigil, he the great arch-numberer, was excluded from the number +of the counted. When the doors were again open the Commons of +England had decided by a majority of forty-one to seven that the +parks of London should, one and all, be closed on Sundays; and +Mr. Pumpkin had achieved among his own set a week's immortality. + +'We mustn't have this again, Vigil,' said a very great man the +next morning, with a good-humoured smile on his face, however, as +he uttered the reprimand. 'It will take us a whole night, and God +knows how much talking, to undo what those fools did yesterday.' + +Mr. Vigil resolved to leave nothing again to the unassisted +industry or honesty of Undy Scott, and consequently that +gentleman's claims on his party did not stand so highly as they +might have done but for this accident. Parliament was soon +afterwards dissolved, and either through the lukewarm support of +his Government friends, or else in consequence of his great +fortune having been found to be ambiguous, the independent +electors of the Tillietudlem burghs took it into their heads to +unseat Mr. Scott. Unseated for Tillietudlem, he had no means of +putting himself forward elsewhere, and he had to repent, in the +sackcloth and ashes of private life, the fault which had cost him +the friendship of Mr. Vigil. + +His life, however, was not strictly private. He had used the +Honourable before his name, and the M.P. which for a time had +followed after it, to acquire for himself a seat as director at a +bank board. He was a Vice-President of the Caledonian, English, +Irish, and General European and American Fire and Life Assurance +Society; such, at least, had been the name of the joint-stock +company in question when he joined it; but he had obtained much +credit by adding the word 'Oriental,' and inserting it after the +allusion to Europe; he had tried hard to include the fourth +quarter of the globe; but, as he explained to some of his +friends, it would have made the name too cumbrous for the +advertisements. He was a director also of one or two minor +railways, dabbled in mining shares, and, altogether, did a good +deal of business in the private stock-jobbing line. + +In spite of his former delinquencies, his political friends did +not altogether throw him over. In the first place, the time might +come when he would be again useful, and then he had managed to +acquire that air and tact which make one official man agreeable +to another. He was always good-humoured; when in earnest, there +was a dash of drollery about him; in his most comic moods he ever +had some serious purpose in view; he thoroughly understood the +esoteric and exoteric bearings of modern politics, and knew well +that though he should be a model of purity before the public, it +did not behove him to be very strait-laced with his own party. He +took everything in good part, was not over-talkative, over- +pushing, or presumptuous; he felt no strong bias of his own; had +at his fingers' ends the cant phraseology of ministerial +subordinates, and knew how to make himself useful. He knew also-- +a knowledge much more difficult to acquire--how to live among +men so as never to make himself disagreeable. + +But then he could not be trusted! True. But how many men in his +walk of life can be trusted? And those who can--at how terribly +high a price do they rate their own fidelity! How often must a +minister be forced to confess to himself that he cannot afford to +employ good faith! Undy Scott, therefore, from time to time, +received some ministerial bone, some Civil Service scrap of +victuals thrown to him from the Government table, which, if it +did not suffice to maintain him in all the comforts of a Treasury +career, still preserved for him a connexion with the Elysium of +public life; gave him, as it were, a link by which he could hang +on round the outer corners of the State's temple, and there watch +with advantage till the doors of Paradise should be re-opened to +him. He was no Lucifer, who, having wilfully rebelled against the +high majesty of Heaven, was doomed to suffer for ever in +unavailing, but still proud misery, the penalties of his asserted +independence; but a poor Peri, who had made a lapse and thus +forfeited, for a while, celestial joys, and was now seeking for +some welcome offering, striving to perform some useful service, +by which he might regain his lost glory. + +The last of the good things thus tendered to him was not yet all +consumed. When Mr. Hardlines, now Sir Gregory, was summoned to +assist at, or rather preside over, the deliberations of the +committee which was to organize a system of examination for the +Civil Service, the Hon. U. Scott had been appointed secretary to +that committee. This, to be sure, afforded but a fleeting moment +of halcyon bliss; but a man like Mr. Scott knew how to prolong +such a moment to its uttermost stretch. The committee had ceased +to sit, and the fruits of their labour were already apparent in +the establishment of a new public office, presided over by Sir +Gregory; but still the clever Undy continued to draw his salary. + +Undy was one of those men who, though married and the fathers of +families, are always seen and known '_en garcon_'. No one +had a larger circle of acquaintance than Undy Scott; no one, +apparently, a smaller circle than Mrs. Undy Scott. So small, +indeed, was it, that its _locale_ was utterly unknown in the +fashionable world. At the time of which we are now speaking Undy +was the happy possessor of a bedroom in Waterloo Place, and +rejoiced in all the comforts of a first-rate club. But the sacred +spot, in which at few and happy intervals he received the +caresses of the wife of his bosom and the children of his loins, +is unknown to the author. + +In age, Mr. Scott, at the time of the Tavistock mining inquiry, +was about thirty-five. Having sat in Parliament for five years, +he had now been out for four, and was anxiously looking for the +day when the universal scramble of a general election might give +him another chance. In person he was, as we have said, stalwart +and comely, hirsute with copious red locks, not only over his +head, but under his chin and round his mouth. He was well made, +six feet high, neither fat nor thin, and he looked like a +gentleman. He was careful in his dress, but not so as to betray +the care that he took; he was imperturbable in temper, though +restless in spirit; and the one strong passion of his life was +the desire of a good income at the cost of the public. + +He had an easy way of getting intimate with young men when it +suited him, and as easy a way of dropping them afterwards +when that suited him. He had no idea of wasting his time or +opportunities in friendships. Not that he was indifferent as to +his companions, or did not appreciate the pleasure of living with +pleasant men; but that life was too short, and with him the race +too much up hill, to allow of his indulging in such luxuries. He +looked on friendship as one of those costly delights with which +none but the rich should presume to gratify themselves. He could +not afford to associate with his fellow-men on any other terms +than those of making capital of them. It was not for him to walk +and talk and eat and drink with a man because he liked him. How +could the eleventh son of a needy Scotch peer, who had to +maintain his rank and position by the force of his own wit, how +could such a one live, if he did not turn to some profit even the +convivialities of existence? + +Acting in accordance with his fixed and conscientious rule in +this respect, Undy Scott had struck up an acquaintance with +Alaric Tudor. He saw that Alaric was no ordinary clerk, that Sir +Gregory was likely to have the Civil Service under his thumb, and +that Alaric was a great favourite with the great man. It would +but little have availed Undy to have striven to be intimate with +Sir Gregory himself. The Knight Commander of the Bath would have +been deaf to his blandishments; but it seemed probable that the +ears of Alaric might be tickled. + +And thus Alaric and Undy Scott had become fast friends; that is, +as fast as such friends generally are. Alaric was no more blind +to his own interest than was his new ally. But there was this +difference between them; Undy lived altogether in the utilitarian +world which he had formed around himself, whereas Alaric lived in +two worlds. When with Undy his pursuits and motives were much +such as those of Undy himself; but at Surbiton Cottage, and with +Harry Norman, he was still susceptible of a higher feeling. He +had been very cool to poor Linda on his last visit to Hampton; +but it was not that his heart was too hard for love. He had begun +to discern that Gertrude would never attach herself to Norman; +and if Gertrude were free, why should she not be his? + +Poor Linda! + +Scott had early heard--and of what official event did he not +obtain early intelligence?--that Neverbend was to go down to +Tavistock about the Mary Jane tin mine, and that a smart +colleague was required for him. He would fain, for reasons of his +own, have been that smart colleague himself; but that he knew was +impossible. He and Neverbend were the Alpha and Omega of official +virtues and vices. But he took an opportunity of mentioning +before Sir Gregory, in a passing unpremeditated way, how +excellently adapted Tudor was for the work. It so turned out that +his effort was successful, and that Tudor was sent. + +The whole of their first day at Tavistock was passed by Neverbend +and Alaric in hearing interminable statements from the various +mining combatants, and when at seven o'clock Alaric shut up for +the evening he was heartily sick of the job. The next morning +before breakfast he sauntered out to air himself in front of the +hotel, and who should come whistling up the street, with a cigar +in his mouth, but his new friend Undy Scott. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MR. MANYLODES + + +Alaric Tudor was very much surprised. Had he seen Sir Gregory +himself, or Captain Cuttwater, walking up the street of +Tavistock, he could not have been more startled. It first +occurred to him that Scott must have been sent down as a third +Commissioner to assist at the investigation; and he would have +been right glad to have known that this was the case, for he +found that the management of Mr. Neverbend was no pastime. But he +soon learnt that such relief was not at hand for him. + +'Well, Tudor, my boy,' said he, 'and how do you like the clotted +cream and the thick ankles of the stout Devonshire lasses?' + +'I have neither tasted the one, nor seen the other,' said Alaric. +'As yet I have encountered nothing but the not very civil +tongues, and not very clear brains of Cornish roughs.' + +'A Boeotian crew! but, nevertheless, they know on which side +their bread is buttered--and in general it goes hard with them +but they butter it on both sides. And how does the faithful +Neverbend conduct himself? Talk of Boeotians, if any man ever was +born in a foggy air, it must have been my friend Fidus.' + +Alaric merely shrugged his shoulders, and laughed slightly. 'But +what on earth brings you down to Tavistock?' said he. + +'Oh! I am a denizen of the place, naturalized, and all but +settled; have vast interests here, and a future constituency. Let +the Russells look well to themselves. The time is quickly coming +when you will address me in the House with bitter sarcasm as the +honourable but inconsistent member for Tavistock; egad, who knows +but you may have to say Right Honourable?' + +'Oh! I did not know the wind blew in that quarter,' said Alaric, +not ill-pleased at the suggestion that he also, on some future +day, might have a seat among the faithful Commons. + +'The wind blows from all quarters with me,' said Undy; 'but in +the meantime I am looking out for shares.' + +'Will you come in and breakfast?' asked the other. + +'What, with friend Fidus? no, thank'ee; I am not, by many +degrees, honest enough to suit his book. He would be down on some +little public peccadillo of mine before I had swallowed my first +egg. Besides, I would not for worlds break the pleasure of your +_tete-a-tete_.' + +'Will you come down after dinner?' + +'No; neither after dinner, nor before breakfast; not all the +coffee, nor all the claret of the Bedford shall tempt me. +Remember, my friend, you are paid for it; I am not.' + +'Well, then, good morning,' said Alaric. 'I must go in and face +my fate, like a Briton.' + +Undy went on for a few steps, and then returned, as though a +sudden thought had struck him. 'But, Tudor, I have bowels of +compassion within me, though no pluck. I am willing to rescue +you from your misery, though I will not partake it. Come up to +me this evening, and I will give you a glass of brandy-punch. +Your true miners never drink less generous tipple.' + +'How on earth am I to shake off this incubus of the Woods and +Works?' + +'Shake him off? Why, make him drunk and put him to bed; or tell +him at once that the natural iniquity of your disposition makes +it necessary that you should spend a few hours of the day in the +company of a sinner like myself. Tell him that his virtue is too +heavy for the digestive organs of your unpractised stomach. Tell +him what you will, but come. I myself am getting sick of those +mining Vandals, though I am so used to dealing with them.' + +Alaric promised that he would come, and then went in to +breakfast. Undy also returned to his breakfast, well pleased with +this first success in the little scheme which at present occupied +his mind. The innocent young Commissioner little dreamt that the +Honourable Mr. Scott had come all the way to Tavistock on purpose +to ask him to drink brandy-punch at the Blue Dragon! + +Another day went wearily and slowly on with Alaric and Mr. +Neverbend. Tedious, never-ending statements had to be taken down +in writing; the same things were repeated over and over again, +and were as often contradicted; men who might have said in five +words all that they had to say, would not be constrained to say +it in less than five thousand, and each one seemed to think, or +pretended to seem to think, that all the outer world and the +Government were leagued together to defraud the interest to which +he himself was specially attached. But this was not the worst of +it. There were points which were as clear as daylight; but Tudor +could not declare them to be so, as by doing so he was sure to +elicit a different opinion from Mr. Neverbend. + +'I am not quite so clear on that point, Mr. Tudor,' he would say. + +Alaric, till experience made him wise, would attempt to argue it. + +'That is all very well, but I am not quite so sure of it. We will +reserve the point, if you please,' and so affairs went on darkly, +no ray of light being permitted to shine in on the matter in +dispute. + +It was settled, however, before dinner, that they should both go +down the Wheal Mary Jane on the following day. Neverbend had done +what he could to keep this crowning honour of the inquiry +altogether in his own hands, but he had found that in this +respect Tudor was much too much for him. + +Immediately after dinner Alaric announced that he was going to +spend the evening with a friend. + +'A friend!' said Neverbend, somewhat startled; 'I did not know +that you had any friends in Tavistock.' + +'Not a great many; but it so happened that I did meet a man I +know, this morning, and promised to go to him in the evening. I +hope you'll excuse my leaving you?' + +'Oh! I don't mind for myself,' said Neverbend, 'though, when men +are together, it's as well for them to keep together. But, Mr. +Tudor----' + +'Well?' said Alaric, who felt growing within him a determination +to put down at once anything like interference with his private +hours. + +'Perhaps I ought not to mention it,' said Neverbend, 'but I do +hope you'll not get among mining people. Only think what our +position here is.' + +'What on earth do you mean?' said Alaric. 'Do you think I shall +be bribed over by either side because I choose to drink a glass +of wine with a friend at another hotel?' + +'Bribed! No, I don't think you'll be bribed; but I think we +should both keep ourselves absolutely free from all chance of +being talked to on the subject, except before each other and +before witnesses. I would not drink brandy-and-water at the Blue +Dragon, before this report be written, even if my brother were +there.' + +'Well, Mr. Neverbend, I am not so much afraid of myself. But +wherever there are two men, there will be two opinions. So good +night, if it so chance that you are in bed before my return.' + +So Tudor went out, and Neverbend prepared himself to sit up for +him. He would sooner have remained up all night than have gone to +bed before his colleague came back. + +Three days Alaric Tudor had now passed with Mr. Neverbend, and +not only three days but three evenings also! A man may endure to +be bored in the course of business through the day, but it +becomes dreadful when the infliction is extended to post-prandial +hours. It does not often occur that one is doomed to bear the +same bore both by day and night; any change gives some ease; but +poor Alaric for three days had had no change. He felt like a +liberated convict as he stepped freely forth into the sweet +evening air, and made his way through the town to the opposition +inn. + +Here he found Undy on the door-steps with a cigar in his mouth. +'Here I am, waiting for you,' said he. 'You are fagged to death, +I know, and we'll get a mouthful of fresh air before we go +upstairs,'--and so saying he put his arm through Alaric's, and +they strolled off through the suburbs of the town. + +'You don't smoke,' said Undy, with his cigar-case in his hand. +'Well--I believe you are right--cigars cost a great deal of +money, and can't well do a man any real good. God Almighty could +never have intended us to make chimneys of our mouths and noses. +Does Fidus ever indulge in a weed?' + +'He never indulges in anything,' said Alaric. + +'Except honesty,' said the other, 'and in that he is a beastly +glutton. He gorges himself with it till all his faculties are +overpowered and his mind becomes torpid. It's twice worse than +drinking. I wonder whether he'll do a bit of speculation before +he goes back to town.' + +'Who, Neverbend?--he never speculates!' + +'Why not? Ah, my fine fellow, you don't know the world yet. Those +sort of men, dull drones like Neverbend, are just the fellows who +go the deepest. I'll be bound he will not return without a few +Mary Janes in his pocket-book. He'll be a fool if he does, I +know.' + +'Why, that's the very mine we are down here about.' + +'And that's the very reason why he'll purchase Mary Janes. He has +an opportunity of knowing their value. Oh, let Neverbend alone. +He is not so young as you are, my dear fellow.' + +'Young or old, I think you mistake his character.' + +'Why, Tudor, what would you think now if he not only bought for +himself, but was commissioned to buy by the very men who sent him +down here?' + +'It would be hard to make me believe it.' + +'Ah! faith is a beautiful thing; what a pity that it never +survives the thirtieth year;--except with women and fools.' + +'And have you no faith, Scott?' + +'Yes--much in myself--some little in Lord Palmerston, that is, in +his luck; and a good deal in a bank-note. But I have none at all +in Fidus Neverbend. What! have faith in a man merely because he +tells me to have it! His method of obtaining it is far too easy.' + +'I trust neither his wit nor his judgement; but I don't believe +him to be a thief.' + +'Thief! I said nothing of thieves. He may, for aught I know, be +just as good as the rest of the world; all I say is, that I +believe him to be no better. But come, we must go back to the +inn; there is an ally of mine coming to me; a perfect specimen of +a sharp Cornish mining stockjobber--as vulgar a fellow as you +ever met, and as shrewd. He won't stay very long, so you need not +be afraid of him.' + +Alaric began to feel uneasy, and to think that there might by +possibility be something in what Neverbend had said to him. He +did not like the idea of meeting a Cornish stock-jobber in a +familiar way over his brandy-punch, while engaged, as he +now was, on the part of Government; he felt that there might be +impropriety in it, and he would have been glad to get off if he +could. But he felt ashamed to break his engagement, and thus +followed Undy into the hotel. + +'Has Mr. Manylodes been here?' said Scott, as he walked upstairs. + +'He's in the bar now, sir,' said the waiter. + +'Beg him to come up, then. In the bar! why, that man must have a +bar within himself--the alcohol he consumes every day would be a +tidy sale for a small public-house.' + +Up they went, and Mr. Manylodes was not long in following them. +He was a small man, more like an American in appearance than an +Englishman. He had on a common black hat, a black coat, black +waistcoat, and black trousers, thick boots, a coloured shirt, and +very dirty hands. Though every article he wore was good, and most +of them such as gentlemen wear, no man alive could have mistaken +him for a gentleman. No man, conversant with the species to which +he belonged, could have taken him for anything but what he was. +As he entered the room, a faint, sickly, second-hand smell of +alcohol pervaded the atmosphere. + +'Well, Manylodes,' said Scott, 'I'm glad to see you again. This +is my friend, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Your servant, sir,' said Manylodes, just touching his hat, +without moving it from his head. 'And how are you, Mr. Scott? I +am glad to see you again in these parts, sir.' + +'And how's trade? Come, Tudor, what will you drink? Manylodes, I +know, takes brandy; their sherry is vile, and their claret worse; +maybe they may have a fairish glass of port. And how is trade, +Manylodes?' + +'We're all as brisk as bees at present. I never knew things +sharper. If you've brought a little money with you, now's your +time. But I tell you this, you'll find it sharp work for the +eyesight.' + +'Quick's the word, I suppose.' + +'Lord love you! Quick! Why, a fellow must shave himself before he +goes to bed if he wants to be up in time these days.' + +'I suppose so.' + +'Lord love you! why there was old Sam Weazle; never caught +napping yet--why at Truro, last Monday, he bought up to 450 New +Friendships, and before he was a-bed they weren't worth, not this +bottle of brandy. Well, old Sam was just bit by those Cambourne +lads.' + +'And how did that happen?' + +'Why, the New Friendships certainly was very good while they +lasted; just for three months they was the thing certainly. Why, +it came up, sir, as if there weren't no end of it, and just as +clean as that half-crown--but I know'd there was an end coming.' + +'Water, I suppose,' said Undy, sipping his toddy. + +'Them clean takes, Mr. Scott, they never lasts. There was water, +but that weren't the worst. Old Weazle knew of that; he +calculated he'd back the metal agin the water, and so he bought +all up he could lay his finger on. But the stuff was run out. +Them Cambourne boys--what did they do? Why, they let the water in +on purpose. By Monday night old Weazle knew it all, and then you +may say it was as good as a play.' + +'And how did you do in the matter?' + +'Oh, I sold. I did very well--bought at L7 2s. 3d. and sold at L6 +19s. 10 1/2d., and got my seven per cent, for the four months. +But, Lord love you, them clean takes never lasts. I worn't going +to hang on. Here's your health, Mr. Scott. Yours, Mr.---, I +didn't just catch the gen'leman's name;' and without waiting for +further information on the point, he finished his brandy-and- +water. + +'So it's all up with the New Friendships, is it?' said Undy. + +'Up and down, Mr. Scott; every dog has his day; these Mary Janes +will be going the same way some of them days. We're all mortal;' +and with this moral comparison between the uncertainty of human +life and the vicissitudes of the shares in which he trafficked, +Mr. Manylodes proceeded to put some more sugar and brandy into +his tumbler. + +'True, true--we are all mortal--Manylodes and Mary Janes; old +friendships and New Friendships: while they last we must make the +most we can of them; buy them cheap and sell them dear; and above +all things get a good percentage,' + +'That's the game, Mr. Scott; and I will say no man understands it +better than yourself--keep the ball a-running--that's your maxim. +Are you going it deep in Mary Jane, Mr. Scott?' + +'Who? I! O no--she's a cut above me now, I fear. The shares are +worth any money now, I suppose.' + +'Worth any money! I think they are, Mr. Scott, but I believe----' +and then bringing his chair close up to that of his aristocratic +friend, resting his hands, one on Mr. Scott's knee, and the other +on his elbow, and breathing brandy into his ear, he whispered to +him words of great significance. + +'I'll leave you, Scott,' said Alaric, who did not enjoy the +society of Mr. Manylodes, and to whom the nature of the +conversation was, in his present position, extremely irksome; 'I +must be back at the Bedford early.' + +'Early--why early? surely our honest friend can get himself to +bed without your interference. Come, you don't like the brandy +toddy, nor I either. We'll see what sort of a hand they are at +making a bowl of bishop.' + +'Not for me, Scott.' + +'Yes, for you, man; surely you are not tied to that fellow's +apron-strings,' he said, removing himself from the close +contiguity of Mr. Manylodes, and speaking under his voice; 'take +my advice; if you once let that man think you fear him, you'll +never get the better of him.' + +Alaric allowed himself to be persuaded and stayed. + +'I have just ten words of business to say to this fellow,' +continued Scott, 'and then we will be alone.' + +It was a lovely autumn evening, early in September, and Alaric +sat himself at an open window, looking out from the back of the +hotel on to the Brentor, with its singular parish church, built +on its highest apex, while Undy held deep council with his friend +of the mines. But from time to time, some word of moment found +its way to Alaric's ears, and made him also unconsciously fix his +mind on the _irritamenta malorum_, which are dug from the +bowels of the earth in those western regions. + +'Minting money, sir; it's just minting money. There's been no +chance like it in my days. L4 12s. 6d. paid up; and they'll be at +L25 in Truro before sun sets on Saturday, Lord love you, Mr. +Scott, now's your time. If, as I hear, they--' and then there was +a very low whisper, and Alaric, who could not keep his eye +altogether from Mr. Manylodes' countenance, saw plainly that that +worthy gentleman was talking of himself; and in spite of his +better instincts, a desire came over him to know more of what +they were discussing, and he could not keep from thinking that +shares bought at L4 12s. 6d., and realizing L25, must be very nice +property. + +'Well, I'll manage it,' said Scott, still in a sort of whisper, +but audibly enough for Alaric to hear. 'Forty, you say? I'll take +them at L5 1s. 1d.--very well;' and he took out his pocket-book +and made a memorandum. 'Come, Tudor, here's the bishop. We have +done our business, so now we'll enjoy ourselves. What, Manylodes, +are you off?' + +'Lord love you, Mr. Scott, I've a deal to do before I get to my +downy; and I don't like those doctored tipples. Good night, Mr. +Scott. I wishes you good night, sir;' and making another slight +reference to his hat, which had not been removed from his head +during the whole interview, Mr. Manylodes took himself off. + +'There, now, is a specimen of a species of the _genus homo_, +class Englishman, which is, I believe, known nowhere but in +Cornwall.' + +'Cornwall and Devonshire, I suppose,' said Alaric. + +'No; he is out of his true element here. If you want to see him +in all the glory of his native county you should go west of +Truro. From Truro to Hayle is the land of the Manylodes. And a +singular species it is. But, Tudor, you'll be surprised, I +suppose, if I tell you that I have made a purchase for you.' + +'A purchase for me!' + +'Yes; I could not very well consult you before that fellow, and +yet as the chance came in my way, I did not like to lose it. +Come, the bishop ain't so bad, is it, though it is doctored +tipple?' and he refilled Alaric's glass. + +'But what have you purchased for me, Scott?' + +'Forty shares in the Mary Jane.' + +'Then you may undo the bargain again, for I don't want them, and +shall not take them.' + +'You need not be a bit uneasy, my dear fellow. I've bought them +at a little over L5, and they'll be saleable to-morrow at double +the money--or at any rate to-morrow week. But what's your +objection to them?' + +'In the first place, I've got no money to buy shares.' + +'That's just the reason why you should buy them; having no money, +you can't but want some; and here's your way to make it. You can +have no difficulty in raising L200.' + +'And in the next place, I should not think of buying mining +shares, and more especially these, while I am engaged as I now +am.' + +'Fal de ral, de ral, de ral! That's all very fine, Mr. +Commissioner; only you mistake your man; you think you are +talking to Mr. Neverbend.' + +'Well, Scott, I shan't have them.' + +'Just as you please, my dear fellow; there's no compulsion. Only +mark this; the ball is at your foot now, but it won't remain +there. 'There is a tide in the affairs of men'--you know the +rest; and you know also that 'tide and time wait for no man.' If +you are contented with your two or three hundred a year in the +Weights and Measures, God forbid that I should tempt you to +higher thoughts--only in that case I have mistaken my man.' + +'I must be contented with it, if I can get nothing better,' said +Tudor, weakly. + +'Exactly; you must be contented--or rather you must put up with +it--if you can get nothing better. That's the meaning of +contentment all the world over. You argue in a circle. You must +be a mere clerk if you cannot do better than other mere clerks. +But the fact of your having such an offer as that I now make you, +is proof that you can do better than others; proves, in fact, +that you need not be a mere clerk, unless you choose to remain +so.' + +'Buying these shares might lose me all that I have got, and could +not do more than put a hundred pounds or so in my pocket.' + +'Gammon--' + +'Could I go back and tell Sir Gregory openly that I had bought +them?' + +'Why, Tudor, you are the youngest fish I ever met, sent out to +swim alone in this wicked world of ours. Who the deuce talks +openly of his speculations? Will Sir Gregory tell you what shares +he buys? Is not every member of the House, every man in the +Government, every barrister, parson, and doctor, that can collect +a hundred pounds, are not all of them at the work? And do they +talk openly of the matter? Does the bishop put it into his +charge, or the parson into his sermon?' + +'But they would not be ashamed to tell their friends.' + +'Would not they? Oh! the Rev. Mr. Pickabit, of St. Judas Without, +would not be ashamed to tell his bishop! But the long and the +short of the thing is this; most men circumstanced as you are +have no chance of doing anything good till they are forty or +fifty, and then their energies are worn out. You have had tact +enough to push yourself up early, and yet it seems you have not +pluck enough to take the goods the gods provide you.' + +'The gods!--you mean the devils rather,' said Alaric, who sat +listening and drinking, almost unconsciously, his doctored +tipple. + +'Call them what you will for me. Fortune has generally been +esteemed a goddess, but misfortune a very devil. But, Tudor, you +don't know the world. Here is a chance in your way. Of course +that keg of brandy who went out just now understands very well +who you are. He wants to be civil to me, and he thinks it wise to +be civil to you also. He has a hat full of these shares, and he +tells me that, knowing my weakness, and presuming that you have +the same, he bought a few extra this morning, thinking we might +like them. Now, I have no hesitation in saying there is not a +single man whom the Government could send down here, from Sir +Gregory downwards, who could refuse the chance.' + +'I am quite sure that Neverbend----' + +'Oh! for Heaven's sake don't choke me with Neverbend; the fools +are fools, and will be so; they are used for their folly. I speak +of men with brains. How do you think that such men as Hardlines, +Vigil, and Mr. Estimate have got up in the world? Would they be +where they are now, had they been contented with their salaries?' + +'They had private fortunes.' + +'Very private they must have been--I never heard of them. No; +what fortunes they have they made. Two of them are in Parliament, +and the other has a Government situation of L2,000 a year, with +little or nothing to do. But they began life early, and never +lost a chance.' + +'It is quite clear that that blackguard who was here just now +thinks that he can influence my opinion by inducing me to have an +interest in the matter.' + +'He had no such idea--nor have I. Do you think I would persuade +you to such villany? Do you think I do not know you too well? Of +course the possession of these shares can have no possible effect +on your report, and is not expected to have any. But when men +like you and me become of any note in the world, others, such as +Manylodes, like to know that we are embarked in the same +speculation with themselves. Why are members of Parliament asked +to be directors, and vice-governors, and presidents, and +guardians, of all the joint-stock societies that are now set +agoing? Not because of their capital, for they generally have +none; not for their votes, because one vote can be but of little +use in any emergency. It is because the names of men of note are +worth money. Men of note understand this, and enjoy the fat of +the land accordingly. I want to see you among the number.' + +'Twas thus the devil pleaded for the soul of Alaric Tudor; and, +alas! he did not plead in vain. Let him but have a fair hearing, +and he seldom does. 'Tis in this way that the truth of that awful +mystery, the fall of man, comes home to us; that we cannot hear +the devil plead, and resist the charm of his eloquence. To listen +is to be lost. 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from +evil!' Let that petition come forth from a man's heart, a true +and earnest prayer, and he will be so led that he shall not hear +the charmer, let him charm ever so wisely. + +'Twas but a thin veil that the Hon. Undecimus Scott threw over +the bait with which he fished for the honesty of Alaric Tudor, +and yet it sufficed. One would say that a young man, fortified +with such aspirations as those which glowed in Alaric's breast, +should have stood a longer siege; should have been able to look +with clearer eyesight on the landmarks which divide honour from +dishonour, integrity from fraud, and truth from falsehood. But he +had never prayed to be delivered from evil. His desire had rather +been that he might be led into temptation. + +He had never so prayed--yet had he daily said his prayers at +fitting intervals. On every returning Sunday had he gone through, +with all the fitting forms, the ordinary worship of a Christian. +Nor had he done this as a hypocrite. With due attention and a +full belief he had weekly knelt at God's temple, and given, if +not his mind, at least his heart, to the service of his church. +But the inner truth of the prayer which he repeated so often had +not come home to him. Alas! how many of us from week to week call +ourselves worms and dust and miserable sinners, describe +ourselves as chaff for the winds, grass for the burning, stubble +for the plough, as dirt and filth fit only to be trodden under +foot, and yet in all our doings before the world cannot bring +home to ourselves the conviction that we require other guidance +than our own! + +Alaric Tudor had sighed for permission to go forth among +worldlings and there fight the world's battle. Power, station, +rank, wealth, all the good things which men earn by tact, +diligence, and fortune combined, and which were so far from him +at his outset in life, became daily more dear to his heart. And +now his honourable friend twitted him with being a mere clerk! +No, he was not, never had been, never would be such. Had he not +already, in five or six short years, distanced his competitors, +and made himself the favourite and friend of men infinitely above +him in station? Was he not now here in Tavistock on a mission +which proved that he was no mere clerk? Was not the fact of his +drinking bishop in the familiar society of a lord's son, and an +ex-M.P., a proof of it? + +It would be calumny on him to say that he had allowed Scott to +make him tipsy on this occasion. He was far from being tipsy; but +yet the mixture which he had been drinking had told upon his +brain. + +'But, Undy,' said he--he had never before called his honourable +friend by his Christian name--'but, Undy, if I take these shares, +where am I to get the money to pay for them? + +'The chances are you may part with them before you leave +Tavistock. If so, you will not have to pay for them. You will +only have to pocket the difference.' + +'Or pay the loss.' + +'Or pay the loss. But there's no chance of that. I'll guarantee +you against that.' + +'But I shan't like to sell them. I shan't choose to be +trafficking in shares. Buying a few as an investment may, +perhaps, be a different thing.' + +'Oh, Alaric, Alaric, to what a pass had your conscience come, +when it could be so silenced!' + +'Well, I suppose you can raise a couple of hundred--L205 will +cover the whole thing, commission and all; but, mind, I don't +advise you to keep them long--I shall take two months' dividends, +and then sell.' + +'Two hundred and five pounds,' said Tudor, to whom the sum seemed +anything but trifling; 'and when must it be paid?' + +'Well, I can give Manylodes a cheque for the whole, dated this +day week. You'll be back in town before that. We must allow him +L5 for the accommodation. I suppose you can pay the money in at +my banker's by that day?' + +Alaric had some portion of the amount himself, and he knew that +Norman had money by him; he felt also a half-drunken conviction +that if Norman failed him, Captain Cuttwater would not let him +want such a sum; and so he said that he could, and the bargain +was completed. + +As he went downstairs whistling with an affected ease, and a +gaiety which, he by no means felt, Undy Scott leant back in his +chair, and began to speculate whether his new purchase was worth +the purchase-money. 'He's a sharp fellow; certainly, in some +things, and may do well yet; but he's uncommonly green. That, +however, will wear off. I should not be surprised if he told +Neverbend the whole transaction before this time to-morrow.' And +then Mr. Scott finished his cigar and went to bed. + +When Alaric entered the sitting-room at the Bedford, he found +Neverbend still seated at a table covered with official books and +huge bundles of official papers. An enormous report was open +before him, from which he was culling the latent sweets, and +extracting them with a pencil. He glowered at Alaric with a +severe suspicious eye, which seemed to accuse him at once of the +deed which he had done. + +'You are very late,' said Neverbend, 'but I have not been sorry +to be alone. I believe I have been able to embody in a rough +draft the various points which we have hitherto discussed. I have +just been five hours and a half at it;' and Fidus looked at his +watch; 'five hours and forty minutes. To-morrow, perhaps, that +is, if you are not going to your friend again, you'll not object +to make a fair copy----' + +'Copy!' shouted Alaric, in whose brain the open air had not +diminished the effect of the bishop, and who remembered, with all +the energy of pot valour, that he was not a mere clerk; 'copy-- +bother; I'm going to bed, old fellow; and I advise you to do the +same.' + +And then, taking up a candlestick and stumbling somewhat +awkwardly against a chair, Tudor went off to his room, waiting no +further reply from his colleague. + +Mr. Neverbend slowly put up his papers and followed him. 'He is +decidedly the worse for drink--decidedly so,' said he to himself, +as he pulled off his clothes. 'What a disgrace to the Woods and +Works--what a disgrace!' + +And he resolved in his mind that he would be very early at the +pit's mouth. He would not be kept from his duty while a +dissipated colleague collected his senses by the aid of soda- +water. + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHEAL MARY JANE + + +Mr. Manylodes was, at any rate, right in this, that that +beverage, which men call bishop, is a doctored tipple; and Alaric +Tudor, when he woke in the morning, owned the truth. It had been +arranged that certain denizens of the mine should meet the two +Commissioners at the pit-mouth at eight o'clock, and it had been +settled at dinner-time that breakfast should be on the table at +seven, sharp. Half an hour's quick driving would take them to the +spot. + +At seven Mr. Fidus Neverbend, who had never yet been known to be +untrue to an appointment by the fraction of a second, was +standing over the breakfast-table alone. He was alone, but not on +that account unhappy. He could hardly disguise the pleasure with +which he asked the waiter whether Mr. Tudor was yet dressed, or +the triumph which he felt when he heard that his colleague was +not _quite ready_. + +'Bring the tea and the eggs at once,' said Neverbend, very +briskly. + +'Won't you wait for Mr. Tudor?' asked the waiter, with an air of +surprise. Now the landlord, waiter, boots, and chambermaid, the +chambermaid especially, had all, in Mr. Neverbend's estimation, +paid Tudor by far too much consideration; and he was determined +to show that he himself was first fiddle. + +'Wait! no; quite out of the question--bring the hot water +immediately--and tell the ostler to have the fly at the door at +half-past seven exact.' + +'Yes, sir,' said the man, and disappeared. + +Neverbend waited five minutes, and then rang the bell +impetuously. 'If you don't bring me my tea immediately, I shall +send for Mr. Boteldale.' Now Mr. Boteldale was the landlord. + +'Mr. Tudor will be down in ten minutes,' was the waiter's false +reply; for up to that moment poor Alaric had not yet succeeded in +lifting his throbbing head from his pillow. The boots was now +with him administering soda-water and brandy, and he was +pondering in his sickened mind whether, by a manful effort, he +could rise and dress himself; or whether he would not throw +himself backwards on his coveted bed, and allow Neverbend the +triumph of descending alone to the nether world. + +Neverbend nearly threw the loaf at the waiter's head. Wait ten +minutes longer! what right had that vile Devonshire napkin- +twirler to make to him so base a proposition? 'Bring me my +breakfast, sir,' shouted Neverbend, in a voice that made the +unfortunate sinner jump out of the room, as though he had been +moved by a galvanic battery. + +In five minutes, tea made with lukewarm water, and eggs that were +not half boiled were brought to the impatient Commissioner. As a +rule Mr. Neverbend, when travelling on the public service, made a +practice of enjoying his meals. It was the only solace which he +allowed himself; the only distraction from the cares of office +which he permitted either to his body or his mind. But on this +great occasion his country required that he should forget his +comforts; and he drank his tasteless tea, and ate his uncooked +eggs, threatening the waiter as he did so with sundry pains and +penalties, in the form of sixpences withheld. + +'Is the fly there?' said he, as he bolted a last morsel of cold +roast beef. + +'Coming, sir,' said the waiter, as he disappeared round a corner. + +In the meantime Alaric sat lackadaisical on his bedside, all +undressed, leaning his head upon his hand, and feeling that his +struggle to dress himself was all but useless. The sympathetic +boots stood by with a cup of tea--well-drawn comfortable tea--in +his hand, and a small bit of dry toast lay near on an adjacent +plate. + +'Try a bit o' toast, sir,' said boots. + +'Ugh!' ejaculated poor Alaric. + +'Have a leetle drop o' rum in the tea, sir, and it'll set you all +to rights in two minutes.' + +The proposal made Alaric very sick, and nearly completed the +catastrophe. 'Ugh!' he said. + +'There's the trap, sir, for Mr. Neverbend,' said the boots, whose +ears caught the well-known sound. + +'The devil it is!' said Alaric, who was now stirred up to instant +action. 'Take my compliments to Mr. Neverbend, and tell him I'll +thank him to wait ten minutes.' + +Boots, descending with the message, found Mr. Neverbend ready +coated and gloved, standing at the hotel door. The fly was there, +and the lame ostler holding the horse; but the provoking driver +had gone back for his coat. + +'Please, sir, Mr. Tudor says as how you're not to go just at +present, but to wait ten minutes till he be ready.' + +Neverbend looked at the man, but he would not trust himself to +speak. Wait ten minutes, and it now wanted five-and-twenty +minutes to eight!--no--not for all the Tudors that ever sat upon +the throne of England. + +There he stood with his watch in his hand as the returning Jehu +hurried round from the stable yard. 'You are now seven minutes +late,' said he, 'and if you are not at the place by eight +o'clock, I shall not give you one farthing!' + +'All right,' said Jehu. 'We'll be at Mary Jane in less than no +time;' and off they went, not at the quickest pace. But +Neverbend's heart beat high with triumph, as he reflected that he +had carried the point on which he had been so intent. + +Alaric, when he heard the wheels roll off, shook from him his +lethargy. It was not only that Neverbend would boast that he +alone had gone through the perils of their subterranean duty, but +that doubtless he would explain in London how his colleague had +been deterred from following him. It was a grievous task, that of +dressing himself, as youthful sinners know but too well. Every +now and then a qualm would come over him, and make the work seem +all but impossible. Boots, however, stuck to him like a man, +poured cold water over his head, renewed his tea-cup, comforted +him with assurances of the bracing air, and put a paper full of +sandwiches in his pocket. + +'For heaven's sake put them away,' said Alaric, to whom the very +idea of food was repulsive. + +'You'll want 'em, sir, afore you are half way to Mary Jane; and +it a'n't no joke going down and up again. I know what's what, +sir.' + +The boots stuck to him like a man. He did not only get him +sandwiches, but he procured for him also Mr. Boteldale's own +fast-trotting pony, and just as Neverbend was rolling up to the +pit's mouth fifteen minutes after his time, greatly resolving in +his own mind to button his breeches pocket firmly against the +recreant driver, Alaric started on the chase after him. + +Mr. Neverbend had a presentiment that, sick as his friend might +be, nauseous as doubtless were the qualms arising from yesterday's +intemperance, he would make an attempt to recover his lost +ground. He of the Woods and Works had begun to recognize the +energy of him of the Weights and Measures, and felt that there +was in it a force that would not easily be overcome, even by the +fumes of bishop. But yet it would be a great thing for the Woods +and Works if he, Neverbend, could descend in this perilous +journey to the deep bowels of the earth, leaving the Weights and +Measures stranded in the upper air. This descent among the hidden +riches of a lower world, this visit to the provocations of evils +not yet dug out from their durable confinement, was the keystone, +as it were, of the whole mission. Let Neverbend descend alone, +alone inspect the wonders of that dirty deep, and Tudor might +then talk and write as he pleased. In such case all the world of +the two public offices in Question, and of some others cognate to +them, would adjudge that he, Neverbend, had made himself master +of the situation. + +Actuated by these correct calculations, Mr. Neverbend was rather +fussy to begin an immediate descent when he found himself on the +spot. Two native gentlemen, who were to accompany the Commissioners, +or the Commissioner, as appeared likely to be the case, were already +there, as were also the men who were to attend upon them. + +It was an ugly uninviting place to look at, with but few visible +signs of wealth. The earth, which had been burrowed out by these +human rabbits in their search after tin, lay around in huge +ungainly heaps; the overground buildings of the establishment +consisted of a few ill-arranged sheds, already apparently in a +state of decadence; dirt and slush, and pods of water confined by +muddy dams, abounded on every side; muddy men, with muddy carts +and muddy horses, slowly crawled hither and thither, apparently +with no object, and evidently indifferent as to whom they might +overset in their course. The inferior men seemed to show no +respect to those above them, and the superiors to exercise no +authority over those below them. There was, a sullen equality +among them all. On the ground around was no vegetation; nothing +green met the eye, some few stunted bushes appeared here and +there, nearly smothered by heaped-up mud, but they had about them +none of the attractiveness of foliage. The whole scene, though +consisting of earth alone, was unearthly, and looked as though +the devil had walked over the place with hot hoofs, and then +raked it with a huge rake. + +'I am afraid I am very late,' said Neverbend, getting out of his +fly in all the haste he could muster, and looking at his watch +the moment his foot touched the ground, 'very late indeed, +gentlemen; I really must apologize, but it was the driver; I was +punctual to the minute, I was indeed. But come, gentlemen, we +won't lose another moment,' and Mr. Neverbend stepped out as +though he were ready at an instant's notice to plunge head +foremost down the deepest shaft in all that region of mines. + +'Oh, sir, there a'n't no cause of hurry whatsomever,' said one of +the mining authorities; 'the day is long enough.' + +'Oh, but there is cause of hurry, Mr. Undershot,' said Neverbend +angrily 'great cause of hurry; we must do this work very +thoroughly; and I positively have not time to get through all +that I have before me. + +'But-a'n't the other gen'leman a-coming?' asked Mr. Undershot. + +'Surely Mr. Tooder isn't a going to cry off?' said the other. +'Why, he was so hot about it yesterday.' + +'Mr. Tudor is not very well this morning,' said Mr. Neverbend. +'As his going down is not necessary for the inquiry, and is +merely a matter of taste on his part, he has not joined me this +morning. Come, gentlemen, are we ready?' + +It was then for the first time explained to Mr. Neverbend that he +had to go through a rather complicated adjustment of his toilet +before he would be considered fit to meet, the infernal gods. He +must, he was informed, envelop himself from head to foot in +miner's habiliments, if he wished to save every stitch he had on +him from dirt and destruction. He must also cover up his head +with a linen cap, so constituted as to carry a lump of mud with a +candle stuck in it, if he wished to save either his head from +filth or his feet from falling. Now Mr. Neverbend, like most +clerks in public offices, was somewhat particular about his +wardrobe; it behoved him, as a gentleman frequenting the West +End, to dress well, and it also behoved him to dress cheaply; he +was, moreover, careful both as to his head and feet; he could +not, therefore, reject the recommended precautions, but yet the +time!--the time thus lost might destroy all. + +He hurried into the shed where his toilet was to be made, and +suffered himself to be prepared in the usual way. He took off his +own great coat, and put on a muddy course linen jacket that +covered the upper portion of his body completely; he then dragged +on a pair of equally muddy overalls; and lastly submitted to a +most uninviting cap, which came down over his ears, and nearly +over his eyes, and on the brow of which a lump of mud was then +affixed, bearing a short tallow candle. + +But though dressed thus in miner's garb, Mr. Neverbend could not +be said to look the part he filled. He was a stout, reddish-faced +gentleman, with round shoulders and huge whiskers, he was nearly +bald, and wore spectacles, and in the costume in which he now +appeared he did not seem to be at his ease. Indeed, all his air +of command, all his personal dignity and dictatorial tone, left +him as soon as he found himself metamorphosed into a fat pseudo- +miner. He was like a cock whose feathers had been trailed through +the mud, and who could no longer crow aloud, or claim the +dunghill as his own. His appearance was somewhat that of a dirty +dissipated cook who, having been turned out of one of the clubs +for drunkenness, had been wandering about the streets all night. +He began to wish that he was once more in the well-known +neighbourhood of Charing Cross. + +The adventure, however, must now be carried through. There was +still enough of manhood in his heart to make him feel that he +could not return to his colleague at Tavistock without visiting +the wonders which he had come so far to see. When he reached the +head of the shaft, however, the affair did appear to him to be +more terrible than he had before conceived. He was invited to get +into a rough square bucket, in which there was just room for +himself and another to stand; he was specially cautioned to keep +his head straight, and his hands and elbows from protruding, and +then the windlass began to turn, and the upper world, the +sunlight, and all humanity receded from his view. + +The world receded from his view, but hardly soon enough; +for as the windlass turned and the bucket descended, his last +terrestrial glance, looking out among the heaps of mud, descried +Alaric Tudor galloping on Mr. Boteldale's pony up to the very +mouth of the mine. + +'_Facilis descensus Averni_.' The bucket went down easy +enough, and all too quick. The manner in which it grounded itself +on the first landing grated discordantly on Mr. Neverbend's finer +perceptibilities. But when he learnt, after the interchange of +various hoarse and to him unintelligible bellowings, that he was +to wait in that narrow damp lobby for the coming of his fellow- +Commissioner, the grating on his feelings was even more +discordant. He had not pluck enough left to grumble: but he +grunted his displeasure. He grunted, however, in vain; for in +about a quarter of an hour Alaric was close to him, shoulder to +shoulder. He also wore a white jacket, &c., with a nightcap of +mud and candle on his head; but somehow he looked as though he +had worn them all his life. The fast gallop, and the excitement +of the masquerade, which for him had charms the sterner Neverbend +could not feel, had dissipated his sickness; and he was once more +all himself. + +'So I've caught you at the first stage,' said he, good-humouredly; +for though he knew how badly he had been treated, he was much +too wise to show his knowledge. 'It shall go hard but I'll distance +you before we have done,' he said to himself. Poor Neverbend +only grunted. + +And then they all went down a second stage in another bucket; and +then a third in a third bucket; and then the business commenced. +As far as this point passive courage alone had been required; to +stand upright in a wooden tub and go down, and down, and down, +was in itself easy enough, so long as the heart did not utterly +faint. Mr. Neverbend's heart had grown faintish, but still he had +persevered, and now stood on a third lobby, listening with dull, +unintelligent ears to eager questions asked, by his colleague, +and to the rapid answers of their mining guides. Tudor was +absolutely at work with paper and pencil, taking down notes in +that wretched Pandemonium. + +'There now, sir,' said the guide; 'no more of them ugly buckets, +Mr. Neverbend; we can trust to our own arms and legs for the rest +of it, and so saying, he pointed out to Mr. Neverbend's horror- +stricken eyes a perpendicular iron ladder fixed firmly against +the upright side of a shaft, and leading--for aught Mr. Neverbend +could see--direct to hell itself. + +'Down here, is it?' said Alaric peeping over. + +'I'll go first,' said the guide; and down he went, down, down, +down, till Neverbend looking over, could barely see the glimmer +of his disappearing head light. Was it absolutely intended that +he should disappear in the same way? Had he bound himself to go +down that fiendish upright ladder? And were he to go down it, +what then? Would it be possible that a man of his weight should +ever come up again? + +'Shall it be you or I next?' said Alaric very civilly. Neverbend +could only pant and grunt, and Alaric, with a courteous nod, +placed himself on the ladder, and went down, down, down, till of +him also nothing was left but the faintest glimmer. Mr. Neverbend +remained above with one of the mining authorities; one attendant +miner also remained with them. + +'Now, Sir,' said the authority, 'if you are ready, the ladder is +quite free.' + +Free! What would not Neverbend have given to be free also +himself! He looked down the free ladder, and the very look made +him sink. It seemed to him as though nothing but a spider could +creep down that perpendicular abyss. And then a sound, slow, +sharp, and continuous, as of drops falling through infinite space +on to deep water, came upon his ear; and he saw that the sides of +the abyss were covered with slime; and the damp air made him +cough, and the cap had got over his spectacles and nearly blinded +him; and he was perspiring with a cold, clammy sweat. + +'Well, sir, shall we be going on?' said the authority. 'Mr. +Tooder'll be at the foot of the next set before this.' + +Mr. Neverbend wished that Mr. Tudor's journey might still be +down, and down, and down, till he reached the globe's centre, in +which conflicting attractions might keep him for ever fixed. In +his despair he essayed to put one foot upon the ladder, and then +looked piteously up to the guide's face. Even in that dark, dingy +atmosphere the light of the farthing candle on his head revealed +the agony of his heart. His companions, though they were miners, +were still men. They saw his misery, and relented. + +'Maybe thee be afeared?' said the working miner, 'and if so be +thee bee'st, thee'd better bide.' + +'I am sure I should never come up again,' said Neverbend, with a +voice pleading for mercy, but with all the submission of one +prepared to suffer without resistance if mercy should not be +forthcoming. + +'Thee bee'st for sartan too thick and weazy like for them +stairs,' said the miner. + +'I am, I am,' said Neverbend, turning on the man a look of the +warmest affection, and shoving the horrid, heavy, encumbered cap +from off his spectacles; 'yes, I am too fat.' How would he have +answered, with what aspect would he have annihilated the sinner, +had such a man dared to call him weazy up above, on _terra +firma_, under the canopy of heaven? + +His troubles, however, or at any rate his dangers, were brought +to an end. As soon as it became plainly manifest that his zeal in +the public service would carry him no lower, and would hardly +suffice to keep life throbbing in his bosom much longer, even in +his present level, preparations were made for his ascent. A bell +was rung; hoarse voices were again heard speaking and answering +in sounds quite unintelligible to a Cockney's ears; chains +rattled, the windlass whirled, and the huge bucket came tumbling +down, nearly on their heads. Poor Neverbend was all but lifted +into it. Where now was all the pride of the morn that had seen +him go forth the great dictator of the mines? Where was that +towering spirit with which he had ordered his tea and toast, and +rebuked the slowness of his charioteer? Where the ambition that +had soared so high over the pet of the Weights and Measures? +Alas, alas! how few of us there are who have within us the +courage to be great in adversity. _'Aequam memento'_--&c., +&c.!--if thou couldst but have thought of it, O Neverbend, who +need'st must some day die. + +But Neverbend did not think of it. How few of us do remember such +lessons at those moments in which they ought to be of use to us! +He was all but lifted into the tub, and then out of it, and then +again into another, till he reached the upper world, a sight +piteous to behold. His spectacles had gone from him, his cap +covered his eyes, his lamp had reversed itself, and soft globules +of grease had fallen on his nose, he was bathed in perspiration, +and was nevertheless chilled through to his very bones, his +whiskers were fringed with mud, and his black cravat had been +pulled from his neck and lost in some infernal struggle. +Nevertheless, the moment in which he seated himself on a hard +stool in that rough shed was perhaps the happiest in his life; +some Christian brought him beer; had it been nectar from the +brewery of the gods, he could not have drunk it with greater +avidity. + +By slow degrees he made such toilet as circumstances allowed, and +then had himself driven back to Tavistock, being no more willing +to wait for Tudor now than he had been in the early morning. But +Jehu found him much more reasonable on his return; and as that +respectable functionary pocketed his half-crown, he fully +understood the spirit in which it was given. Poor Neverbend had +not now enough pluck left in him to combat the hostility of a +postboy. + +Alaric, who of course contrived to see all that was to be seen, +and learn all that was to be learnt, in the dark passages of the +tin mine, was careful on his return to use his triumph with the +greatest moderation. His conscience was, alas, burdened with the +guilty knowledge of Undy's shares. When he came to think of the +transaction as he rode leisurely back to Tavistock, he knew how +wrong he had been, and yet he felt a kind of triumph at the spoil +which he held; for he had heard among the miners that the shares +of Mary Jane were already going up to some incredible standard of +value. In this manner, so said he to himself, had all the great +minds of the present day made their money, and kept themselves +afloat. 'Twas thus he tried to comfort himself; but not as yet +successfully. + +There were no more squabbles between Mr. Neverbend and Mr. Tudor; +each knew that of himself, which made him bear and forbear; and +so the two Commissioners returned to town on good terms with each +other, and Alaric wrote a report, which delighted the heart of +Sir Gregory Hardlines, ruined the opponents of the great tin +mine, and sent the Mary Jane shares up, and up, and up, till +speculating men thought that they could not give too high a price +to secure them. + +Alaric returned to town on Friday. It had been arranged that he, +and Charley, and Norman, should all go down to Hampton on the +Saturday; and then, on the following week, the competitive +examination was to take place. But Alaric's first anxiety after +his return was to procure the L206, which he had to pay for the +shares which he held in his pocket-book. He all but regretted, as +he journeyed up to town, with the now tame Fidus seated opposite +to him, that he had not disposed of them at Tavistock even at +half their present value, so that he might have saved himself the +necessity of being a borrower, and have wiped his hands of the +whole affair. + +He and Norman dined together at their club in Waterloo Place, the +Pythagorean, a much humbler establishment than that patronized by +Scott, and one that was dignified by no politics. After dinner, +as they sat over their pint of sherry, Alaric made his request. + +'Harry,' said he, suddenly, 'you are always full of money--I want +you to lend me L150.' + +Norman was much less quick in his mode of speaking than his +friend, and at the present moment was inclined to be somewhat +slower than usual. This affair of the examination pressed upon +his spirits, and made him dull and unhappy. During the whole of +dinner he had said little or nothing, and had since been sitting +listlessly gazing at vacancy, and balancing himself on the hind- +legs of his chair. + +'O yes--certainly,' said he; but he said it without the eagerness +with which Alaric thought that he should have answered his +request. + +'If it's inconvenient, or if you don't like it,' said Alaric, the +blood mounting to his forehead, 'it does not signify. I can do +without it.' + +'I can lend it you without any inconvenience,' said Harry. 'When +do you want it--not to-night, I suppose?' + +'No--not to-night--I should like to have it early to-morrow +morning; but I see you don't like it, so I'll manage it some +other way.' + +'I don't know what you mean by not liking it. I have not the +slightest objection to lending you any money I can spare. I don't +think you'll find any other of your friends who will like it +better. You can have it by eleven o'clock to-morrow.' + +Intimate as the two men were, there had hitherto been very little +borrowing or lending between them; and now Alaric felt as though +he owed it to his intimacy with his friend to explain to him why +he wanted so large a sum in so short a time. He felt, moreover, +that he would not himself be so much ashamed of what he had done +if he could confess it to some one else. He could then solace +himself with the reflection that he had done nothing secret. +Norman, he supposed, would be displeased; but then Norman's +displeasure could not injure him, and with Norman there would be +no danger that the affair would go any further. + +'You must think it very strange,' said he, 'that I should want +such a sum; but the truth is I have bought some shares.' + +'Railway shares?' said Norman, in a tone that certainly did not +signify approval. He disliked speculation altogether, and had an +old-fashioned idea that men who do speculate, should have money +wherewith to do it. + +'No--not railway shares exactly.' + +'Canal?' suggested Norman. + +'No--not canal.' + +'Gas?' + +'Mines,' said Alaric, bringing out the dread truth at last. + +Harry Norman's brow grew very black. 'Not that mine that you've +been down about, I hope,' said he. + +'Yes--that very identical Mary Jane that I went down, and down +about,' said Alaric, trying to joke on the subject. 'Don't look +so very black, my dear fellow. I know all that you have to say +upon the matter. I did what was very foolish, I dare say; but the +idea never occurred to me till it was too late, that I might be +suspected of making a false report on the subject, because I had +embarked a hundred pounds in it.' + +'Alaric, if it were known--' + +'Then it mustn't be known,' said Tudor. 'I am sorry for it; but, +as I told you, the idea didn't occur to me till it was too late. +The shares are bought now, and must be paid for to-morrow. I +shall sell them the moment I can, and you shall have the money in +three or four days.' + +'I don't care one straw about the money,' said Norman, now quick +enough, but still in great displeasure; 'I would give double the +amount that you had not done this.' + +'Don't be so suspicious, Harry,' said the other--'don't try to +think the worst of your friend. By others, by Sir Gregory +Hardlines, Neverbend, and such men, I might expect to be judged +harshly in such a matter. But I have a right to expect that you +will believe me. I tell you that I did this inadvertently, and am +sorry for it; surely that ought to be sufficient.' + +Norman said nothing more; but he felt that Tudor had done that +which, if known, would disgrace him for ever. It might, however, +very probably never be known; and it might also be that Tudor +would never act so dishonestly again. On the following morning +the money was paid; and in the course of the next week the shares +were resold, and the money repaid, and Alaric Tudor, for the +first time in his life, found himself to be the possessor of over +three hundred pounds. + +Such was the price which Scott, Manylodes, & Co., had found it +worth their while to pay him for his good report on Mary Jane. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE THREE KINGS + + +And now came the all-important week. On the Saturday the three +young men went down to Hampton. Charley had lately been leading a +very mixed sort of life. One week he would consort mainly with +the houri of the Norfolk Street beer-shop, and the next he would +be on his good behaviour, and live as respectably as circumstances +permitted him to do. His scope in this respect was not large. The +greatest respectability which his unassisted efforts could possibly +achieve was to dine at a cheap eating-house, and spend his +evenings, at a cigar divan. He belonged to no club, and his circle +of friends, except in the houri and navvy line, was very limited. Who +could expect that a young man from the Internal Navigation would +sit for hours and hours alone in a dull London lodging, over his book +and tea-cup? Who should expect that any young man will do so? +And yet mothers, and aunts, and anxious friends, do expect it--very +much in vain. + +During Alaric's absence at Tavistock, Norman had taken Charley by +the hand and been with him a good deal. He had therefore spent an +uncommonly respectable week, and the Norfolk Street houri would +have been _au desespoir_, but that she had other Charleys to +her bow. When he found himself getting into a first-class +carriage at the Waterloo-bridge station with his two comrades, he +began to appreciate the comfort of decency, and almost wished +that he also had been brought up among the stern morals and hard +work of the Weights and Measures. + +Nothing special occurred at Surbiton Cottage. It might have been +evident to a watchful bystander that Alaric was growing in favour +with all the party, excepting Mrs. Woodward, and that, as he did +so, Harry was more and more cherished by her. + +This was specially shown in one little scene. Alaric had brought +down with him to Hampton the documents necessary to enable him to +draw out his report on Mary Jane. Indeed, it was all but +necessary that he should do so, as his coming examination would +leave him but little time for other business during the week. On +Saturday night he sat up at his inn over the papers, and on +Sunday morning, when Mrs. Woodward and the girls came down, ready +bonneted, for church, he signified his intention of remaining at +his work. + +'I certainly think he might have gone to church,' said Mrs. +Woodward, when the hall-door closed behind the party, as they +started to their place of worship. + +'Oh! mamma, think how much he has to do,' said Gertrude. + +'Nonsense,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'it's all affectation, and he +ought to go to church. Government clerks are not worked so hard +as all that; are they, Harry?' + +'Alaric is certainly very busy, but I think he should go to +church all the same,' said Harry, who himself never omitted +divine worship. + +'But surely this is a work of necessity?' said Linda. + +'Fiddle-de-de,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I hate affectation, my dear. +It's very grand, I dare say, for a young man's services to be in +such request that he cannot find time to say his prayers. He'll +find plenty of time for gossiping by and by, I don't doubt.' + +Linda could say nothing further, for an unbidden tear moistened +her eyelid as she heard her mother speak so harshly of her lover. +Gertrude, however, took up the cudgels for him, and so did +Captain Cuttwater. + +'I think you are a little hard upon him, mamma,' said Gertrude, +'particularly when you know that, as a rule, he always goes to +church. I have heard you say yourself what an excellent churchman +he is.' + +'Young men change sometimes,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Upon my word, Bessie, I think you are very uncharitable this fine +Sunday morning,' said the captain. 'I wonder how you'll feel if +we have that chapter about the beam and the mote.' + +Mrs. Woodward did not quite like being scolded by her uncle +before her daughters, but she said nothing further. Katie, +however, looked daggers at the old man from out her big bright +eyes. What right had any man, were he ever so old, ever so much +an uncle, to scold her mamma? Katie was inclined to join her +mother and take Harry Norman's side, for it was Harry Norman who +owned the boat. + +They were now at the church door, and they entered without saying +anything further. Let us hope that charity, which surpasseth all +other virtues, guided their prayers while they were there, and +filled their hearts. In the meantime Alaric, unconscious how he +had been attacked and how defended, worked hard at his Tavistock +notes. + +Mrs. Woodward was quite right in this, that the Commissioner of +the Mines, though he was unable to find time to go to church, did +find time to saunter about with the girls before dinner. Was it +to be expected that he should not do so? for what other purpose +was he there at Hampton? + +They were all very serious this Sunday afternoon, and Katie could +make nothing of them. She and Charley, indeed, went off by +themselves to a desert island, or a place that would have been a +desert island had the water run round it, and there built +stupendous palaces and laid out glorious gardens. Charley was the +most good-natured of men, and could he have only brought a boat +with him, as Harry so often did, he would soon have been first +favourite with Katie. + +'It shan't be at all like Hampton Court,' said Katie, speaking of +the new abode which Charley was to build for her. + +'Not at all,' said Charley. + +'Nor yet Buckingham Palace.' + +'No,' said Charley, 'I think we'll have it Gothic.' + +'Gothic!' said Katie, looking up at him with all her eyes. 'Will +Gothic be most grand? What's Gothic?' + +Charley began to consider. 'Westminster Abbey,' said he at last. + +'Oh--but Charley, I don't want a church. Is the Alhambra Gothic?' + +Charley was not quite sure, but thought it probably was. They +decided, therefore, that the new palace should be built after the +model of the Alhambra. + +The afternoon was but dull and lugubrious to the remainder of the +party. The girls seemed to feel that there was something solemn +about the coming competition between two such dear friends, which +prevented and should prevent them all from being merry. Harry +perfectly sympathized in the feeling; and even Alaric, though +depressed himself by no melancholy forebodings, was at any rate +conscious that he should refrain from any apparent anticipation +of a triumph. They all went to church in the evening; but even +this amendment in Alaric's conduct hardly reconciled him to Mrs. +Woodward. + +'I suppose we shall all be very clever before long,' said she, +after tea; 'but really I don't know that we shall be any the +better for it. Now in this office of yours, by the end of next +week, there will be three or four men with broken hearts, and +there will be one triumphant jackanapes, so conceited and proud, +that he'll never bring himself to do another good ordinary day's +work as long as he lives. Nothing will persuade me but that it is +not only very bad, but very unjust also.' + +'The jackanapes must learn to put up with ordinary work,' said +Alaric, 'or he'll soon find himself reduced to his former +insignificance.' + +'And the men with the broken hearts; they, I suppose, must put up +with their wretchedness too,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'and their +wives, also, and children, who have been looking forward for +years to this vacancy as the period of their lives at which they +are to begin to be comfortable. I hate such heartlessness. I hate +the very name of Sir Gregory Hardlines.' + +'But, mamma, won't the general effect be to produce a much higher +class of education among the men?' said Gertrude. + +'In the army and navy the best men get on the best,' said Linda. + +'Do they, by jingo!' said Uncle Bat. 'It's very little you know +about the navy, Miss Linda.' + +'Well, then, at any rate they ought,' said Linda. + +'I would have a competitive examination in every service,' said +Gertrude. 'It would make young men ambitious. They would not be +so idle and empty as they now are, if they had to contend in this +way for every step upwards in the world.' + +'The world,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'will soon be like a fishpond, +very full of fish, but with very little food for them. Every one +is scrambling for the others' prey, and they will end at last by +eating one another. If Harry gets this situation, will not that +unfortunate Jones, who for years has been waiting for it, always +regard him as a robber?' + +'My maxim is this,' said Uncle Bat; 'if a youngster goes into any +service, say the navy, and does his duty by his country like a +man, why, he shouldn't be passed over. Now look at me; I was +on the books of the _Catamaran_, one of the old seventy-fours, +in '96; I did my duty then and always; was never in the black +book or laid up sick; was always rough and ready for any work +that came to hand; and when I went into the _Mudlark_ as lieutenant +in year '9, little Bobby Howard had just joined the old _Cat._ as a +young middy. And where am I now? and where is Bobby Howard? +Why, d----e, I'm on the shelf, craving the ladies' pardon; and he's +a Lord of the Admiralty, if you please, and a Member of Parliament. +Now I say Cuttwater's as good a name as Howard for going to sea +with any day; and if there'd been a competitive examination for +Admiralty Lords five years ago, Bobby Howard would never have +been where he is now, and somebody else who knows more +about his profession than all the Howards put together, might +perhaps have been in his place. And so, my lads, here's to you, +and I hope the best man will win.' + +Whether Uncle Bat agreed with his niece or with his grandnieces +was not very apparent from the line of his argument; but they all +laughed at his eagerness, and nothing more was said that evening +about the matter. + +Alaric, Harry, and Charley, of course returned to town on the +following day. Breakfast on Monday morning at Surbiton Cottage +was an early affair when the young men were there; so early, that +Captain Cuttwater did not make his appearance. Since his arrival +at the cottage, Mrs. Woodward had found an excuse for a later +breakfast in the necessity of taking it with her uncle; so that +the young people were generally left alone. Linda was the family +tea-maker, and was, therefore, earliest down; and Alaric being +the first on this morning to leave the hotel, found her alone in +the dining-room. + +He had never renewed the disclosure of his passion; but Linda had +thought that whenever he shook hands with her since that +memorable walk, she had always felt a more than ordinary +pressure. This she had been careful not to return, but she had +not the heart to rebuke it. Now, when he bade her good morning, +he certainly held her hand in his longer than he need have done. +He looked at her too, as though his looks meant something more +than ordinary looking; at least so Linda thought; but yet he said +nothing, and so Linda, slightly trembling, went on with the +adjustment of her tea-tray. + +'It will be all over, Linda, when we meet again,' said Alaric. +His mind she found was intent on his examination, not on his +love. But this was natural, was as it should be. If--and she was +certain in her heart that it would be so--if he should be +successful, then he might speak of love without having to speak +in the same breath of poverty as well. 'It will be all over when +we meet again,' he said. + +'I suppose it will,' said Linda. + +'I don't at all like it; it seems so unnatural having to contend +against one's friend. And yet one cannot help it; one cannot +allow one's self to go to the wall' + +'I'm sure Harry doesn't mind it,' said Linda. + +'I'm sure I do,' said he. 'If I fail I shall be unhappy, and if I +succeed I shall be equally so. I shall set all the world against +me. I know what your mother meant when she talked of a jackanapes +yesterday. If I get the promotion I may wish good-bye to Surbiton +Cottage.' + +'Oh, Alaric!' + +'Harry would forgive me; but Harry's friends would never do so.' + +'How can you say so? I am sure mamma has no such feeling, nor yet +even Gertrude; I mean that none of us have.' + +'It is very natural all of you should, for he is your cousin.' + +'You are just the same as our cousin. I am sure we think quite as +much of you as of Harry. Even Gertrude said she hoped that you +would get it.' + +'Dear Gertrude!' + +'Because, you know, Harry does not want it so much as you do. I +am sure I wish you success with all my heart. Perhaps it's wicked +to wish for either of you over the other; but you can't both get +it at once, you know.' + +At this moment Katie came in, and soon afterwards Gertrude and +the two other young men, and so nothing further was said on the +subject. + +Charley parted with the competitors at the corner of Waterloo +Bridge. He turned into Somerset House, being there regarded on +these Monday mornings as a prodigy of punctuality; and Alaric and +Harry walked back along the Strand, arm-in-arm, toward their own +office. + +'Well, lads, I hope you'll both win,' said Charley. 'And +whichever wins most, why of course he'll stand an uncommon good +dinner.' + +'Oh! that's of course,' said Alaric. 'We'll have it at the +Trafalgar.' + +And so the two walked on together, arm-in-arm, to the Weights and +Measures. + +The ceremony which was now about to take place at the Weights and +Measures was ordained to be the first of those examinations +which, under the auspices of Sir Gregory Hardlines, were destined +to revivify, clarify, and render perfect the Civil Service of the +country. It was a great triumph to Sir Gregory to see the darling +object of his heart thus commencing its existence in the very +cradle in which he, as an infant Hercules, had made his first +exertions in the cause. It was to be his future fortune to +superintend these intellectual contests, in a stately office of +his own, duly set apart and appointed for the purpose. But the +throne on which he was to sit had not yet been prepared for him, +and he was at present constrained to content himself with +exercising his power, now here and now there, according as his +services might be required, carrying the appurtenances of his +royalty about with him. + +But Sir Gregory was not a solitary monarch. In days long gone by +there were, as we all know, three kings at Cologne, and again +three kings at Brentford. So also were there three kings at the +Civil Service Examination Board. But of these three Sir Gregory +was by far the greatest king. He sat in the middle, had two +thousand jewels to his crown, whereas the others had only twelve +hundred each, and his name ran first in all the royal warrants. +Nevertheless, Sir Gregory, could he have had it so, would, like +most other kings, have preferred an undivided sceptre. + +Of his co-mates on the throne the elder in rank was a west +country baronet, who, not content with fatting beeves and +brewing beer like his sires, aspired to do something for his country. +Sir Warwick Westend was an excellent man, full of the best +intentions, and not more than decently anxious to get the good +things of Government into his hand. He was, perhaps, rather too +much inclined to think that he could see further through a +millstone than another, and had a way of looking as though he +were always making the attempt. He was a man born to grace, if +not his country, at any rate his county; and his conduct was +uniformly such as to afford the liveliest satisfaction to his +uncles, aunts, and relations in general. If as a king he had a +fault, it was this, that he allowed that other king, Sir Gregory, +to carry him in his pocket. + +But Sir Gregory could not at all get the third king into his +pocket. This gentleman was a worthy clergyman from Cambridge, one +Mr. Jobbles by name. Mr. Jobbles had for many years been +examining undergraduates for little goes and great goes, and had +passed his life in putting posing questions, in detecting +ignorance by viva voce scrutiny, and eliciting learning by +printed papers. He, by a stupendous effort of his mathematical +mind, had divided the adult British male world into classes and +sub-classes, and could tell at a moment's notice how long it +would take him to examine them all. His soul panted for the work. +Every man should, he thought, be made to pass through some 'go.' +The greengrocer's boy should not carry out cabbages unless his +fitness for cabbage-carrying had been ascertained, and till it +had also been ascertained that no other boy, ambitious of the +preferment, would carry them better. Difficulty! There was no +difficulty. Could not he, Jobbles, get through 5,000 viva voces +in every five hours--that is, with due assistance? and would not +55,000 printed papers, containing 555,000 questions, be getting +themselves answered at the same time, with more or less +precision? + +So now Mr. Jobbles was about to try his huge plan by a small +commencement. + +On the present occasion the examination was actually to be +carried on by two of the kings in person. Sir Gregory had +declared that as so large a portion of his heart and affections +was bound up with the gentlemen of the Weights and Measures, he +could not bring himself actually to ask questions of them, and +then to listen to or read their answers. Should any of his loved +ones make some fatal _faux pas_, his tears, like those of +the recording angel, would blot out the error. His eyes would +refuse to see faults, if there should be faults, in those whom he +himself had nurtured. Therefore, though he came with his +colleagues to the Weights and Measures, he did not himself take +part in the examination. + +At eleven o'clock the Board-room was opened, and the candidates +walked in and seated themselves. Fear of Sir Gregory, and other +causes, had thinned the number. Poor Jones, who by right of +seniority should have had the prize, declined to put himself in +competition with his juniors, and in lieu thereof sent up to the +Lords of the Treasury an awful memorial spread over fifteen folio +pages--very uselessly. The Lords of the Treasury referred it to the +three kings, whose secretary put a minute upon it. Sir Gregory +signed the minute, and some gentleman at the Treasury wrote a short +letter to Mr. Jones, apprising that unhappy gentleman that my Lords +had taken the matter into their fullest consideration, and that +nothing could be done to help him. Had Jones been consulted by any +other disappointed Civil Service Werter as to the expediency of +complaining to the Treasury Lords, Jones would have told him +exactly what would be the result. The disappointed one, however, +always thinks that all the Treasury Lords will give all their +ears to him, though they are deafer than Icarus to the world +beside. + +Robinson stood his ground like a man; but Brown found out, a day +or two before the struggle came, that he could not bring himself +to stand against his friend. Jones, he said, he knew was +incompetent, but Robinson ought to get it; so he, for one, would +not stand in Robinson's way. + +Uppinall was there, as confident as a bantam cock; and so was +Alphabet Precis, who had declared to all his friends that if the +pure well of official English undefiled was to count for +anything, he ought to be pretty safe. But poor Minusex was ill, +and sent a certificate. He had so crammed himself with unknown +quantities, that his mind--like a gourmand's stomach--had broken +down under the effort, and he was now sobbing out algebraic +positions under his counterpane. + +Norman and Alaric made up the five who still had health, +strength, and pluck to face the stern justice of the new kings; +and they accordingly took their seats on five chairs, equally +distant, placing themselves in due order of seniority. + +And then, first of all, Sir Gregory made a little speech, +standing up at the head of the Board-room table, with an +attendant king on either hand, and the Secretary, and two +Assistant-Secretaries, standing near him. Was not this a proud +moment for Sir Gregory? + +'It had now become his duty,' he said, 'to take his position in +that room, that well-known, well-loved room, under circumstances +of which he had little dreamt when he first entered it with awe- +struck steps, in the days of his early youth. But, nevertheless, +even then ambition had warmed him. That ambition had been to +devote every energy of his mind, every muscle of his body, every +hour of his life, to the Civil Service of his country. It was not +much, perhaps, that he had been able to do; he could not boast of +those acute powers of mind, of that gigantic grasp of intellect, +of which they saw in those days so wonderful an example in a high +place.' Sir Gregory here gratefully alluded to that statesman who +had given him his present appointment. 'But still he had devoted +all his mind, such as it was, and every hour of his life, to the +service; and now he had his reward. If he might be allowed to +give advice to the gentlemen before him, gentlemen of whose, +admirable qualifications for the Civil Service of the country he +himself was so well aware, his advice should be this--That they +should look on none of their energies as applicable to private +purposes, regard none of their hours as their own. They were +devoted in a peculiar way to the Civil Service, and they should +feel that such was their lot in life. They should know that their +intellects were a sacred pledge intrusted to them for the good of +that service, and should use them accordingly. This should be +their highest ambition. And what higher ambition,' asked Sir +Gregory, 'could they have? They all, alas! knew that the service +had been disgraced in other quarters by idleness, incompetency, +and, he feared he must say, dishonesty; till incompetency and +dishonesty had become, not the exception, but the rule. It was +too notorious that the Civil Service was filled by the family +fools of the aristocracy and middle classes, and that any family +who had no fool to send, sent in lieu thereof some invalid past +hope. Thus the service had become a hospital for incurables and +idiots. It was,' said Sir Gregory, 'for him and them to cure all +that. He would not,' he said, 'at that moment, say anything with +reference to salaries. It was, as they were all aware, a very +difficult subject, and did not seem to be necessarily connected +with the few remarks which the present opportunity had seemed to +him to call for.' He then told them they were all his beloved +children; that they were a credit to the establishment; that he +handed them over without a blush to his excellent colleagues, Sir +Warwick Westend and Mr. Jobbles, and that he wished in his heart +that each of them could be successful. And having so spoken, Sir +Gregory went his way. + +It was beautiful then to see how Mr. Jobbles swam down the long +room and handed out his examination papers to the different +candidates as he passed them. 'Twas a pity there should have been +but five; the man did it so well, so quickly, with such a gusto! +He should have been allowed to try his hand upon five hundred +instead of five. His step was so rapid and his hand and arm moved +so dexterously, that no conceivable number would have been too +many for him. But, even with five, he showed at once that the +right man was in the right place. Mr. Jobbles was created for the +conducting of examinations. + +And then the five candidates, who had hitherto been all ears, of +a sudden became all eyes, and devoted themselves in a manner +which would have been delightful to Sir Gregory, to the papers +before them. Sir Warwick, in the meantime, was seated in his +chair, hard at work looking through his millstone. + +It is a dreadful task that of answering examination papers--only +to be exceeded in dreadfulness by the horrors of Mr. Jobbles' +viva voce torments. A man has before him a string of questions, +and he looks painfully down them, from question to question, +searching for some allusion to that special knowledge which he +has within him. He too often finds that no such allusion is made. +It appears that the Jobbles of the occasion has exactly known the +blank spots of his mind and fitted them all. He has perhaps +crammed himself with the winds and tides, and there is no more +reference to those stormy subjects than if Luna were extinct; but +he has, unfortunately, been loose about his botany, and question +after question would appear to him to have been dictated by Sir +Joseph Paxton or the head-gardener at Kew. And then to his own +blank face and puzzled look is opposed the fast scribbling of +some botanic candidate, fast as though reams of folio could +hardly contain all the knowledge which he is able to pour forth. + +And so, with a mixture of fast-scribbling pens and blank faces, +our five friends went to work. The examination lasted for four +days, and it was arranged that on each of the four days each of +the five candidates should be called up to undergo a certain +quantum of Mr. Jobbles' viva voce. This part of his duty Mr. +Jobbles performed with a mildness of manner that was beyond all +praise. A mother training her first-born to say 'papa,' could not +do so with a softer voice, or more affectionate demeanour. + +'The planet Jupiter,' said he to Mr. Precis; 'I have no doubt you +know accurately the computed distance of that planet from the +sun, and also that of our own planet. Could you tell me now, how +would you calculate the distance in inches, say from London +Bridge to the nearest portion of Jupiter's disc, at twelve +o'clock on the first of April?' Mr. Jobbles, as he put his little +question, smiled the sweetest of smiles, and spoke in a tone +conciliating and gentle, as though he were asking Mr. Precis to +dine with him and take part of a bottle of claret at half-past +six. + +But, nevertheless, Mr. Precis looked very blank. + +'I am not asking the distance, you know,' said Mr. Jobbles, +smiling sweeter than ever; 'I am only asking how you would +compute it.' + +But still Mr. Precis looked exceedingly blank. + +'Never mind,' said Mr. Jobbles, with all the encouragement which +his voice could give, 'never mind. Now, suppose that _a_ be +a milestone; _b_ a turnpike-gate--,' and so on. + +But Mr. Jobbles, in spite of his smiles, so awed the hearts of +some of his candidates, that two of them retired at the end of +the second day. Poor Robinson, thinking, and not without +sufficient ground, that he had not a ghost of a chance, +determined to save himself from further annoyance; and then +Norman, put utterly out of conceit with himself by what he deemed +the insufficiency of his answers, did the same. He had become low +in spirits, unhappy in temperament, and self-diffident to a +painful degree. Alaric, to give him his due, did everything in +his power to persuade him to see the task out to the last. But +the assurance and composure of Alaric's manner did more than +anything else to provoke and increase Norman's discomfiture. He +had been schooling himself to bear a beating with a good grace, +and he began to find that he could only bear it as a disgrace. On +the morning of the third day, instead of taking his place in the +Board-room, he sent in a note to Mr. Jobbles, declaring that he +withdrew from the trial. Mr. Jobbles read the note, and smiled +with satisfaction as he put it into his pocket. It was an +acknowledgement of his own unrivalled powers as an Examiner. + +Mr. Precis, still trusting to his pure well, went on to the end, +and at the end declared that so ignorant was Mr. Jobbles of his +duty that he had given them no opportunity of showing what they +could do in English composition. Why had he not put before them +the papers in some memorable official case, and desired them to +make an abstract; those, for instance, on the much-vexed question +of penny versus pound, as touching the new standard for the +decimal coinage? Mr. Jobbles an Examiner indeed! And so Mr. +Precis bethought himself that he also, if unsuccessful, would go +to the Lords of the Treasury. + +And Mr. Uppinall and Alaric Tudor also went on. Those who knew +anything of the matter, when they saw how the running horses were +reduced in number, and what horses were left on the course--when +they observed also how each steed came to the post on each +succeeding morning, had no doubt whatever of the result. So that +when Alaric was declared on the Saturday morning to have gained +the prize, there was very little astonishment either felt or +expressed at the Weights and Measures. + +Alaric's juniors wished him joy with some show of reality in +their manner; but the congratulations of his seniors, including +the Secretary and Assistant-Secretaries, the new Chief Clerk and +the men in the class to which he was now promoted, were very cold +indeed. But to this he was indifferent. It was the nature of +Tudor's disposition, that he never for a moment rested satisfied +with the round of the ladder on which he had contrived to place +himself. He had no sooner gained a step than he looked upwards to +see how the next step was to be achieved. His motto might well +have been 'Excelsior!' if only he could have taught himself to +look to heights that were really high. When he found that the +august Secretary received him on his promotion without much +_empressement_, he comforted himself by calculating how long +it would be before he should fill that Secretary's chair--if +indeed it should ever be worth his while to fill it. + +The Secretary at the Weights and Measures had, after all, but a +dull time of it, and was precluded by the routine of his office +from parliamentary ambition and the joys of government. Alaric +was already beginning to think that this Weights and Measures +should only be a stepping-stone to him; and that when Sir +Gregory, with his stern dogma of devotion to the service, had +been of sufficient use to him, he also might with advantage be +thrown over. In the meantime an income of L600 a year brought +with it to the young bachelor some very comfortable influence. +But the warmest and the pleasantest of all the congratulations +which he received was from his dear friend Undy Scott. + +'Ah, my boy,' said Undy, pressing his hand, 'you'll soon be one +of us. By the by, I want to put you up for the Downing; you +should leave that Pythagorean: there's nothing to be got by it.' + +Now, the Downing was a political club, in which, however, +politics had latterly become a good deal mixed. But the +Government of the day generally found there a liberal support, +and recognized and acknowledged its claim to consideration. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CONSOLATION + + +On the following Sunday neither Tudor nor Norman was at Hampton. +They had both felt that they could not comfortably meet each +other there, and each had declined to go. They had promised to +write; and now that the matter was decided, how were they or +either of them to keep the promise? + +It may be thought that the bitterness of the moment was over with +Norman as soon as he gave up; but such was not the case. Let him +struggle as he would with himself he could not rally, nor bring +himself to feel happy on what had occurred. He would have been +better satisfied if Alaric would have triumphed; but Alaric +seemed to take it all as a matter of course, and never spoke of +his own promotion unless he did so in answer to some remark of +his companion; then he could speak easily enough; otherwise he +was willing to let the matter go by as one settled and at rest. +He had consulted Norman about the purchase of a horse, but he +hitherto had shown no other sign that he was a richer man than +formerly. + +It was a very bitter time for Norman. He could not divest his +mind of the subject. What was he to do? Where was he to go? How +was he to get away, even for a time, from Alaric Tudor? And then, +was he right in wishing to get away from him? Had he not told +himself, over and over again, that it behoved him as a man and a +friend and a Christian to conquer the bitter feeling of envy +which preyed on his spirits? Had he not himself counselled Alaric +to stand this examination? and had he not promised that his doing +so should make no difference in their friendship? Had he not +pledged himself to rejoice in the success of his friend? and now +was he to break his word both to that friend and to himself? + +Schooling himself, or trying to school himself in this way, he +made no attempt at escaping from his unhappiness. They passed the +Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings together. It was now +nearly the end of September, and London was empty; that is, empty +as regards those friends and acquaintances with whom Norman might +have found some resource. On the Saturday they left their office +early; for all office routine had, during this week, been broken +through by the immense importance of the ceremony which was going +on; and then it became necessary to write to Mrs. Woodward. + +'Will you write to Hampton or shall I?' said Alaric, as they +walked arm-in-arm under the windows of Whitehall. + +'Oh! you, of course,' said Norman; 'you have much to tell them; I +have nothing.' + +'Just as you please,' said the other. 'That is, of course, I will +if you like it. But I think it would come better from you. You +are nearer to them than I am; and it will have less a look of +triumph on my part, and less also of disappointment on yours, if +you write. If you tell them that you literally threw away your +chance, you will only tell them the truth.' + +Norman assented, but he said nothing further. What business had +Alaric to utter such words as triumph and disappointment? He +could not keep his arm, on which Alaric was leaning, from +spasmodically shrinking from the touch. He had been beaten by a +man, nay worse, had yielded to a man, who had not the common +honesty to refuse a bribe; and yet he was bound to love this man. +He could not help asking himself the question which he would do. +Would he love him or hate him? + +But while he was so questioning himself, he got home, and had to +sit down and write his letter--this he did at once, but not +without difficulty. It ran as follows:-- + +'My dear Mrs. Woodward,-- + +'I write a line to tell you of my discomfiture and Alaric's +success. I gave up at the end of the second day. Of course I will +tell you all about it when we meet. No one seemed to doubt that +Alaric would get it, as a matter of course. I shall be with you +on next Saturday. Alaric says he will not go down till the +Saturday after, when I shall be at Normansgrove. My best love to +the girls. Tell Katie I shan't drown either myself or the boat, + +'Yours ever affectionately, + +'H. N. + +'Saturday, September, 185-. + +'Pray write me a kind letter to comfort me.' + +Mrs. Woodward did write him a very kind letter, and it did +comfort him. And she wrote also, as she was bound to do, a letter +of congratulation to Alaric. This letter, though it expressed in +the usual terms the satisfaction which one friend has in +another's welfare, was not written in the same warm affectionate +tone as that to Norman. Alaric perceived instantly that it was +not cordial. He loved Mrs. Woodward dearly, and greatly desired +her love and sympathy. But what then? He could not have +everything. He determined, therefore, not to trouble his mind. If +Mrs. Woodward did not sympathize with him, others of the family +would do so; and success would ultimately bring her round. What +woman ever yet refused to sympathize with successful ambition? + +Alaric also received a letter from Captain Cuttwater, in which +that gallant veteran expressed his great joy at the result of the +examination--'Let the best man win all the world over,' said he, +'whatever his name is. And they'll have to make the same rule at +the Admiralty too. The days of the Howards are gone by; that is, +unless they can prove themselves able seamen, which very few of +them ever did yet. Let the best man win; that's what I say; and +let every man get his fair share of promotion.' Alaric did not +despise the sympathy of Captain Cuttwater. It might turn out that +even Captain Cuttwater could be made of use. + +Mrs. Woodward's letter to Harry was full of the tenderest +affection. It was a flattering, soothing, loving letter, such as +no man ever could have written. It was like oil poured into his +wounds, and made him feel that the world was not all harsh to +him. He had determined not to go to Hampton that Saturday; but +Mrs. Woodward's letter almost made him rush there at once that he +might throw himself into her arms--into her arms, and at her +daughter's feet. The time had now come to him when he wanted to +be comforted by the knowledge that his love was returned. He +resolved that during his next visit he would formally propose to +Gertrude. + +The determination to do this, and a strong hope that he might do +it successfully, kept him up during the interval. On the +following week he was to go to his father's place to shoot, +having obtained leave of absence for a month; and he felt that he +could still enjoy himself if he could take with him the +conviction that all was right at Surbiton Cottage. Mrs. Woodward, +in her letter, though she had spoken much of the girls, had said +nothing special about Gertrude. Nevertheless, Norman gathered +from it that she intended that he should go thither to look for +comfort, and that he would find there the comfort that he +required. + +And Mrs. Woodward had intended that such should be the effect of +her letter. It was at present the dearest wish of her heart to +see Norman and Gertrude married. That Norman had often declared +his love to her eldest daughter she knew very well, and she knew +also that Gertrude had never rejected him. Having perfect +confidence in her child, she had purposely abstained from saying +anything that could bias her opinion. She had determined to leave +the matter in the hands of the young people themselves, judging +that it might be best arranged as a true love-match between them, +without interference from her; she had therefore said nothing to +Gertrude on the subject. + +Mrs. Woodward, however, discovered that she was in error, when it +was too late for her to retrieve her mistake; and, indeed, had +she discovered it before that letter was written, what could she +have done? She could not have forbidden Harry to come to her +house--she could not have warned him not to throw himself at her +daughter's feet. The cup was prepared for his lips, and it was +necessary that he should drink of it. There was nothing for which +she could blame him; nothing for which she could blame herself; +nothing for which she did blame her daughter. It was sorrowful, +pitiful, to be lamented, wept for, aye, and groaned for; many +inward groans it cost her; but it was at any rate well that she +could attribute her sorrow to the spite of circumstances rather +than to the ill-conduct of those she loved. + +Nor would it have been fair to blame Gertrude in the matter. +While she was yet a child, this friend of her mother's had been +thrown with her, and when she was little more than a child, she +found that this friend had become a lover. She liked him, in one +sense loved him, and was accustomed to regard him as one whom it +would be almost wrong in her not to like and love. What wonder +then that when he first spoke to her warm words of adoration, she +had not been able at once to know her own heart, and tell him +that his hopes would be in vain? + +She perceived by instinct, rather than by spoken words, that her +mother was favourable to this young lover, that if she accepted +him she would please her mother, that the course of true love +might in their case run smooth. What wonder then that she should +have hesitated before she found it necessary to say that she +could not, would not, be Harry Norman's wife? + +On the Saturday morning, the morning of that night which was, as +he hoped, to see him go to bed a happy lover, so happy in his +love as to be able to forget his other sorrows, she was sitting +alone with her mother. It was natural that their conversation +should turn to Alaric and Harry. Alaric, with his happy +prospects, was soon dismissed; but Mrs. Woodward continued to +sing the praises of him who, had she been potent with the magi of +the Civil Service, would now be the lion of the Weights and +Measures. + +'I must say I think it was weak of him to retire,' said Gertrude. +'Alaric says in his letter to Uncle Bat, that had he persevered +he would in all probability have been successful.' + +'I should rather say that it was generous,' said her mother. + +'Well, I don't know, mamma; that of course depends on his +motives; but wouldn't generosity of that sort between two young +men in such a position be absurd?' + +'You mean that such regard for his friend would be Quixotic.' + +'Yes, mamma.' + +'Perhaps it would. All true generosity, all noble feeling, is now +called Quixotic. But surely, Gertrude, you and I should not +quarrel with Harry on that account.' + +'I think he got frightened, mamma, and had not nerve to go +through with it.' + +Mrs. Woodward looked vexed; but she made no immediate reply, and +for some time the mother and daughter went on working without +further conversation. At last Gertrude said:-- + +'I think every man is bound to do the best he can for himself-- +that is, honestly; there is something spoony in one man allowing +another to get before him, as long as he can manage to be first +himself.' + +Mrs. Woodward did not like the tone in which her daughter spoke. +She felt that it boded ill for Harry's welfare; and she tried, +but tried in vain, to elicit from her daughter the expression of +a kinder feeling. + +'Well, my dear, I must say I think you are hard on him. But, +probably, just at present you have the spirit of contradiction in +you. If I were to begin to abuse him, perhaps I should get you to +praise him.' + +'Oh, mamma, I did not abuse him.' + +'Something like it, my dear, when you said he was spoony.' + +'Oh, mamma, I would not abuse him for worlds--I know how good he +is, I know how you love him, but, but---' and Gertrude, though +very little given to sobbing moods, burst into tears. + +'Come here, Gertrude; come here, my child,' said Mrs. Woodward, +now moved more for her daughter than for her favourite; 'what is +it? what makes you cry? I did not really mean that you abused +poor Harry.' + +Gertrude got up from her chair, knelt at her mother's feet, and +hid her face in her mother's lap. 'Oh, mamma,' she said, with a +half-smothered voice, 'I know what you mean; I know what you +wish; but--but--but, oh, mamma, you must not--must not, must not +think of it any more.' + +'Then may God help him!' said Mrs. Woodward, gently caressing her +daughter, who was still sobbing with her face buried in her +mother's lap. 'May God Almighty lighten the blow to him! But oh, +Gertrude, I had hoped, I had so hoped----' + +'Oh, mamma, don't, pray don't,' and Gertrude sobbed as though she +were going into hysterics. + +'No, my child, I will not say another word. Dear as he is to me, +you are and must be ten times dearer. There, Gertrude, it is over +now; over at least between us. We know each other's hearts now. +It is my fault that we did not do so sooner.' They did understand +each other at last, and the mother made no further attempt to +engage her daughter's love for the man she would have chosen as +her daughter's husband. + +But still the worst was to come, as Mrs. Woodward well knew--and +as Gertrude knew also; to come, too, on this very day. Mrs. +Woodward, with a woman's keen perception, felt assured that Harry +Norman, when he found himself at the Cottage, freed from the +presence of the successful candidate, surrounded by the +affectionate faces of all her circle, would melt at once and look +to his love for consolation. She understood the feelings of his +heart as well as though she had read them in a book; and yet she +could do nothing to save him from his fresh sorrows. The cup was +prepared for him, and it was necessary that he should drink it. +She could not tell him, could not tell even him, that her +daughter had rejected him, when as yet he had made no offer. + +And so Harry Norman hurried down to his fate. When he reached the +Cottage, Mrs. Woodward and Linda and Katie were in the drawing- +room. + +'Harry, my dear Harry,' said Mrs. Woodward, rushing to him, +throwing her arms round him, and kissing him; 'we know it all, we +understand it all--my fine, dear, good Harry.' + +Harry was melted in a moment, and in the softness of his mood +kissed Katie too, and Linda also. Katie he had often kissed, but +never Linda, cousins though they were. Linda merely laughed, but +Norman blushed; for he remembered that had it so chanced that +Gertrude had been there, he would not have dared to kiss her. + +'Oh, Harry,' said Katie, 'we are so sorry--that is, not sorry +about Alaric, but sorry about you. Why were there not two +prizes?' + +'It's all right as it is, Katie,' said he; 'we need none of us be +sorry at all. Alaric is a clever fellow; everybody gave him +credit for it before, and now he has proved that everybody is +right.' + +'He is older than you, you know, and therefore he ought to be +cleverer,' said Katie, trying to make things pleasant. + +And then they went out into the garden. But where was Gertrude +all this time? She had been in the drawing-room a moment before +his arrival. They walked out into the lawn, but nothing was said +about her absence. Norman could not bring himself to ask for her, +and Mrs. Woodward could not trust herself to talk of her. + +'Where is the captain?' said Harry. + +'He's at Hampton Court,' said Linda; 'he has found another navy +captain there, and he goes over every day to play backgammon.' As +they were speaking, however, the captain walked through the house +on to the lawn. + +'Well, Norman, how are you, how are you? sorry you couldn't all +win. But you're a man of fortune, you know, so it doesn't +signify.' + +'Not a great deal of fortune,' said Harry, looking sheepish. + +'Well, I only hope the best man got it. Now, at the Admiralty the +worst man gets it always.' + +'The worst man didn't get it here,' said Harry. + +'No, no,' said Uncle Bat, 'I'm sure he did not; nor he won't long +at the Admiralty either, I can tell them that. But where's +Gertrude?' + +'She's in her bedroom, dressing for dinner,' said Katie. + +'Hoity toity,' said Uncle Bat, 'she's going to make herself very +grand to-day. That's all for you, Master Norman. Well, I suppose +we may all go in and get ready; but mind, I have got no +sweetheart, and so I shan't make myself grand at all;' and so +they all went in to dress for dinner. + +When Norman came down, Gertrude was in the drawing-room alone. +But he knew that they would be alone but for a minute, and that a +minute would not serve for his purpose. She said one soft gentle +word of condolence to him, some little sentence that she had been +studying to pronounce. All her study was thrown away; for Norman, +in his confusion, did not understand a word that she spoke. Her +tone, however, was kind and affectionate; and she shook hands +with him apparently with cordiality. He, however, ventured no +kiss with her. He did not even press her hand, when for a moment +he held it within his own. + +Dinner was soon over, and the autumn evening still admitted of +their going out. Norman was not sorry to urge the fact that the +ladies had done so, as an excuse to Captain Cuttwater for not +sitting with him over his wine. He heard their voices in the +garden, and went out to join them, prepared to ascertain his fate +if fortune would give him an opportunity of doing so. He found +the party to consist of Mrs. Woodward, Linda, and Katie; Gertrude +was not there. + +'I think the evenings get warmer as the winter gets nearer,' said +Harry. + +'Yes,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'but they are so dangerous. The night +comes on all at once, and then the air is so damp and cold.' + +And so they went on talking about the weather. + +'Your boat is up in London, I know, Harry,' said Katie, with a +voice of reproach, but at the same time with a look of entreaty. + +'Yes, it's at Searle's,' said Norman. + +'But the punt is here,' said Katie. + +'Not this evening, Katie,' said he. + +'Katie, how can you be such a tease?' said Mrs. Woodward; 'you'll +make Harry hate the island, and you too. I wonder you can be so +selfish.' + +Poor Katie's eyes became suffused with tears. + +'My dear Katie, it's very bad of me, isn't it?' said Norman, +'and the fine weather so nearly over too; I ought to take you, +oughtn't I? come, we will go.' + +'No, we won't,' said Katie, taking his big hand in both her +little ones, 'indeed we won't. It was very wrong of me to bother +you; and you with--with--with so much to think of. Dear Harry, I +don't want to go at all, indeed I don't,' and she turned away +from the little path which led to the place where the punt was +moored. + +They sauntered on for a while together, and then Norman left +them. He said nothing, but merely stole away from the lawn +towards the drawing-room window. Mrs. Woodward well knew with +what object he went, and would have spared him from his immediate +sorrow by following him; but she judged that it would be better +both for him and for her daughter that he should learn the truth. + +He went in through the open drawing-room window, and found +Gertrude alone. She was on the sofa with a book in her hand; and +had he been able to watch her closely he would have seen that the +book trembled as he entered the room. But he was unable to watch +anything closely. His own heart beat so fast, his own confusion +was so great, that he could hardly see the girl whom he now hoped +to gain as his wife. Had Alaric been coming to his wooing, he +would have had every faculty at his call. But then Alaric could +not have loved as Norman loved. + +And so we will leave them. In about half an hour, when the short +twilight was becoming dusk, Mrs. Woodward returned, and found +Norman standing alone on the hearthrug before the fireplace. +Gertrude was away, and he was leaning against the mantelpiece, +with his hands behind his back, staring at vacancy; but oh! with +such an aspect of dull, speechless agony in his face. + +Mrs. Woodward looked up at him, and would have burst into tears, +had she not remembered that they would not be long alone; she +therefore restrained herself, but gave one involuntary sigh; and +then, taking off her bonnet, placed herself where she might sit +without staring at him in his sorrow. + +Katie came in next. 'Oh! Harry, it's so lucky we didn't start in +the punt,' said she, 'for it's going to pour, and we never should +have been back from the island in that slow thing.' + +Norman looked at her and tried to smile, but the attempt was a +ghastly failure. Katie, gazing up into his face, saw that he was +unhappy, and slunk away, without further speech, to her distant +chair. There, from time to time, she would look up at him, and +her little heart melted with ruth to see the depth of his misery. +'Why, oh why,' thought she, 'should that greedy Alaric have taken +away the only prize?' + +And then Linda came running in with her bonnet ribbons all moist +with the big raindrops. 'You are a nice squire of dames,' said +she, 'to leave us all out to get wet through by ourselves;' and +then she also, looking up, saw that jesting was at present ill- +timed, and so sat herself down quietly at the tea-table. + +But Norman never moved. He saw them come in one after another. He +saw the pity expressed in Mrs. Woodward's face; he heard the +light-hearted voices of the two girls, and observed how, when +they saw him, their light-heartedness was abashed; but still he +neither spoke nor moved. He had been stricken with a fearful +stroke, and for a while was powerless. + +Captain Cuttwater, having shaken off his dining-room nap, came +for his tea; and then, at last, Gertrude also, descending from +her own chamber, glided quietly into the room. When she did so, +Norman, with a struggle, roused himself, and took a chair next to +Mrs. Woodward, and opposite to her eldest daughter. + +Who could describe the intense discomfiture of that tea-party, or +paint in fitting colours the different misery of each one there +assembled? Even Captain Cuttwater at once knew that something was +wrong, and munched his bread-and-butter and drank his tea in +silence. Linda surmised what had taken place; though she was +surprised, she was left without any doubt. Poor Katie was still +in the dark, but she also knew that there was cause for sorrow, +and crept more and more into her little self. Mrs. Woodward sat +with averted face, and ever and anon she put her handkerchief to +her eyes. Gertrude was very pale, and all but motionless, but she +had schooled herself, and managed to drink her tea with more +apparent indifference than any of the others. Norman sat as he +had before been standing, with that dreadful look of agony upon +his brow. + +Immediately after tea Mrs. Woodward got up and went to her +dressing-room. Her dressing-room, though perhaps not improperly +so called, was not an exclusive closet devoted to combs, +petticoats, and soap and water. It was a comfortable snug room, +nicely furnished, with sofa and easy chairs, and often open to +others besides her handmaidens. Thither she betook herself, that +she might weep unseen; but in about twenty minutes her tears were +disturbed by a gentle knock at the door. + +Very soon after she went, Gertrude also left the room, and then +Katie crept off. + +'I have got a headache to-night,' said Norman, after the +remaining three had sat silent for a minute or two; 'I think I'll +go across and go to bed.' + +'A headache!' said Linda. 'Oh, I am so sorry that you have got to +go to that horrid inn.' + +'Oh! I shall do very well there,' said Norman, trying to smile. + +'Will you have my room?' said the captain good-naturedly; 'any +sofa does for me.' + +Norman assured them as well as he could that his present headache +was of such a nature that a bed at the inn would be the best +thing for him; and then, shaking hands with them, he moved to the +door. + +'Stop a moment, Harry,' said Linda, 'and let me tell mamma. +She'll give you something for your head.' He made a sign to her, +however, to let him pass, and then, creeping gently upstairs, he +knocked at Mrs. Woodward's door. + +'Come in,' said Mrs. Woodward, and Harry Norman, with all his +sorrows still written on his face, stood before her. + +'Oh! Harry,' said she, 'come in; I am so glad that you have come +to me. Oh! Harry, dear Harry, what shall I say to comfort you? +What can I say--what can I do?' + +Norman, forgetting his manhood, burst into tears, and throwing +himself on a sofa, buried his face on the arm and sobbed like a +young girl. But the tears of a man bring with them no comfort as +do those of the softer sex. He was a strong tall man, and it was +dreadful to see him thus convulsed. + +Mrs. Woodward stood by him, and put her hand caressingly on his +shoulder. She saw he had striven to speak, and had found himself +unable to do so. 'I know how it is,' said she, 'you need not tell +me; I know it all. Would that she could have seen you with my +eyes; would that she could have judged you with my mind!' + +'Oh, Mrs. Woodward!' + +'To me, Harry, you should have been the dearest, the most welcome +son. But you are so still. No son could be dearer. Oh, that she +could have seen you as I see you!' + +'There is no hope,' said he. He did not put it as a question; but +Mrs. Woodward saw that it was intended that she should take it as +such if she pleased. What could she say to him? She knew that +there was no hope. Had it been Linda, Linda might have been +moulded to her will. But with Gertrude there could now be no +hope. What could she say? She knelt down and kissed his brow, and +mingled her tears with his. + +'Oh, Harry--oh, Harry! my dearest, dearest son!' + +'Oh, Mrs. Woodward, I have loved her so truly.' + +What could Mrs. Woodward do but cry also? what but that, and +throw such blame as she could upon her own shoulders? She was +bound to defend her daughter. + +'It has been my fault, Harry,' she said; 'it is I whom you must +blame, not poor Gertrude.' + +'I blame no one,' said he. + +'I know you do not; but it is I whom you should blame. I should +have learnt how her heart stood, and have prevented this--but I +thought, I thought it would have been otherwise.' + +Norman looked up at her, and took her hand, and pressed it. 'I +will go now,' he said, 'and don't expect me here to-morrow. I +could not come in. Say that I thought it best to go to town +because I am unwell. Good-bye, Mrs. Woodward; pray write to me. I +can't come to the Cottage now for a while, but pray write to me: +do not you forget me, Mrs. Woodward.' + +Mrs. Woodward fell upon his breast and wept, and bade God bless +him, and called him her son and her dearest friend, and sobbed +till her heart was nigh to break. 'What,' she thought, 'what +could her daughter wish for, when she repulsed from her feet such +a suitor as Harry Norman?' + +He then went quietly down the stairs, quietly out of the house, +and having packed up his bag at the inn, started off through the +pouring rain, and walked away through the dark stormy night, +through the dirt and mud and wet, to his London lodgings; nor was +he again seen at Surbiton Cottage for some months after this +adventure. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A COMMUNICATION OF IMPORTANCE + + +Norman's dark wet walk did him physically no harm, and morally +some good. He started on it in that frame of mind which induces a +man to look with indifference on all coming evils under the +impression that the evils already come are too heavy to admit of +any increase. But by the time that he was thoroughly wet through, +well splashed with mud, and considerably fatigued by his first +five or six miles' walk, he began to reflect that life was not +over with him, and that he must think of future things as well as +those that were past. + +He got home about two o'clock, and having knocked up his +landlady, Mrs. Richards, betook himself to bed. Alaric had been +in his room for the last two hours, but of Charley and his latch- +key Mrs. Richards knew nothing. She stated her belief, however, +that two a.m. seldom saw that erratic gentleman in his bed. + +On the following morning, Alaric, when he got his hot water, +heard that Norman returned during the night from Hampton, and he +immediately guessed what had brought him back. He knew that +nothing short of some great trouble would have induced Harry to +leave the Cottage so abruptly, and that that trouble must have +been of such a nature as to make his remaining with the Woodwards +an aggravation of it. No such trouble could have come on him but +the one. + +As Charley seldom made his appearance at the breakfast table on +Sunday mornings, Alaric foresaw that he must undergo a _tete-a- +tete_ which would not be agreeable to himself, and which must +be much more disagreeable to his companion; but for this there +was no help. Harry had, however, prepared himself for what he had +to go through, and immediately that the two were alone, he told +his tale in a very few words. + +'Alaric,' said he, 'I proposed to Gertrude last night, and she +refused me.' + +Alaric Tudor was deeply grieved for his friend. There was +something in the rejected suitor's countenance--something in the +tone of voice, which would have touched any heart softer than +stone; and Alaric's heart had not as yet been so hardened by the +world as to render him callous to the sight of such grief as +this. + +'Take my word for it, Harry, she'll think better of it in a month +or two,' he said. + +'Never-never; I am sure of it. Not only from her own manner, but +from her mother's,' said Harry. And yet, during half his walk +home, he had been trying to console himself with the reflection +that most young ladies reject their husbands once or twice before +they accept them. + +There is no offering a man comfort in such a sorrow as this; +unless, indeed, he be one to whom the worship of Bacchus may be +made a fitting substitute for that of the Paphian goddess. + +There is a sort of disgrace often felt, if never acknowledged, +which attaches itself to a man for having put himself into +Norman's present position, and this generally prevents him from +confessing his defeat in such matters. The misfortune in question +is one which doubtless occurs not unfrequently to mankind; but as +mankind generally bear their special disappointments in silence, +and as the vanity of women is generally exceeded by their good- +nature, the secret, we believe, in most cases remains a secret. + + Shall I, wasting in despair, + Die because a woman's fair? + If she be not fair for me, + What care I how fair she be? + +This was the upshot of the consideration which Withers, the poet, +gave to the matter, and Withers was doubtless right. 'Tis thus +that rejected lovers should think, thus that they should demean +themselves; but they seldom come to this philosophy till a few +days have passed by, and talking of their grievance does not +assist them in doing so. + +When, therefore, Harry had declared what had happened to him, and +had declared also that he had no further hope, he did not at +first find himself much the better for what he had confessed. He +was lackadaisical and piteous, and Alaric, though he had +endeavoured to be friendly, soon found that he had no power of +imparting any comfort. Early in the day they parted, and did not +see each other again till the following morning. + +'I was going down to Normansgrove on Thursday,' said Harry. + +'Yes, I know,' said Alaric. + +'I think I shall ask leave to go to-day. It can't make much +difference, and the sooner I get away the better.' + +And so it was settled. Norman left town the same afternoon, and +Alaric, with his blushing honours thick upon him, was left alone. + +London was now very empty, and he was constrained to enjoy his +glory very much by himself. He had never associated much with the +Minusexes and Uppinalls, nor yet with the Joneses and Robinsons +of his own office, and it could not be expected that there should +be any specially confidential intercourse between them just at +the present moment. Undy was of course out of town with the rest +of the fashionable world, and Alaric, during the next week, was +left very much on his own hands. + +'And so,' said he to himself, as he walked solitary along the +lone paths of Rotten Row, and across the huge desert to the +Marble Arch, 'and so poor Harry's hopes have been all in vain; he +has lost his promotion, and now he has lost his bride--poor +Harry!'--and then it occurred to him that as he had acquired the +promotion it might be his destiny to win the bride also. He had +never told himself that he loved Gertrude; he had looked on her +as Norman's own, and he, at any rate, was not the man to sigh in +despair after anything that was out of his reach. But now, now +that Harry's chance was over, and that no bond of friendship +could interfere with such a passion, why should he not tell +himself that he loved Gertrude? 'If, as Harry had himself said, +there was no longer any hope for him, why,' said Alaric to +himself, 'why should not I try my chance?' Of Linda, of 'dear, +dearest Linda,' at this moment he thought very little, or, +perhaps, not at all. Of what Mrs. Woodward might say, of that he +did think a good deal. + +The week was melancholy and dull, and it passed very slowly at +Hampton. On the Sunday morning it became known to them all that +Norman was gone, but the subject, by tacit consent, was allowed +to pass all but unnoticed. Even Katie, even Uncle Bat, were aware +that something had occurred which ought to prevent them from +inquiring too particularly why Harry had started back to town in +so sudden a manner; and so they said nothing. To Linda, Gertrude +had told what had happened; and Linda, as she heard it, asked +herself whether she was prepared to be equally obdurate with her +lover. He had now the means of supporting a wife, and why should +she be obdurate? + +Nothing was said on the subject between Gertrude and her mother. +What more could Mrs. Woodward say? It would have been totally +opposed to the whole principle of her life to endeavour, by any +means, to persuade her daughter to the match, or to have used her +maternal influence in Norman's favour. And she was well aware +that it would have been impossible to do so successfully. +Gertrude was not a girl to be talked into a marriage by any +parent, and certainly not by such a parent as her mother. There +was, therefore, nothing further to be said about it. + +On. Saturday Alaric went down, but his arrival hardly made things +more pleasant. Mrs. Woodward could not bring herself to be +cordial with him, and the girls were restrained by a certain +feeling that it would not be right to show too much outward joy +at Alaric's success. Linda said one little word of affectionate +encouragement, but it produced no apparent return from Alaric. +His immediate object was to recover Mrs. Woodward's good graces; +and he thought before he went that he had reason to hope that he +might do so. + +Of all the household, Captain Cuttwater was the most emphatic in +his congratulations. 'He had no doubt,' he said, 'that the best +man had won. He had always hoped that the best man might win. He +had not had the same luck when he was young, but he was very glad +to see such an excellent rule brought into the service. It would +soon work great changes, he was quite sure, at the Board of +Admiralty.' + +On the Sunday afternoon Captain Cuttwater asked him into his own +bedroom, and told him with a solemn, serious manner that he had a +communication of importance to make to him. Alaric followed the +captain into the well-known room in which Norman used to sleep, +wondering what could be the nature of Uncle Bat's important +communication. It might, probably, be some tidings of Sir Jib +Boom. + +'Mr. Alaric,' said the old man, as soon as they were both seated +on opposite sides of a little Pembroke table that stood in the +middle of the room, 'I was heartily glad to hear of your success +at the Weights and Measures; not that I ever doubted it if they +made a fair sailing match of it.' + +'I am sure I am much obliged to you, Captain Cuttwater.' + +'That is as may be, by and by. But the fact is, I have taken a +fancy to you. I like fellows that know how to push themselves.' + +Alaric had nothing for it but to repeat again that he felt +himself grateful for Captain Cuttwater's good opinion. + +'Not that I have anything to say against Mr. Norman--a very nice +young man, indeed, he is, very nice, though perhaps not quite so +cheerful in his manners as he might be.' + +Alaric began to take his friend's part, and declared what a very +worthy fellow Harry was. + +'I am sure of it--I am sure of it,' said Uncle Bat; 'but +everybody can't be A1; and a man can't make everybody his heir.' + +Alaric pricked up his ears. So after all Captain Cuttwater was +right in calling his communication important. But what business +had Captain Cuttwater to talk of making new heirs?--had he not +declared that the Woodwards were his heirs? + +'I have got a little money, Mr. Alaric,' he went on saying in a +low modest tone, very different from that he ordinarily used; 'I +have got a little money--not much--and it will of course go to my +niece here.' + +'Of course,' said Alaric. + +'That is to say--it will go to her children, which is all the +same thing.' + +'Quite the same thing,' said Alaric. + +'But my idea is this: if a man has saved a few pounds himself, I +think he has a right to give it to those he loves best. Now I +have no children of my own.' + +Alaric declared himself aware of the fact. + +'And I suppose I shan't have any now.' + +'Not if you don't marry,' said Alaric, who felt rather at a loss +for a proper answer. He could not, however, have made a better +one. + +'No; that's what I mean; but I don't think I shall marry. I am +very well contented here, and I like Surbiton Cottage amazingly.' + +'It's a charming place,' said Alaric. + +'No, I don't suppose I shall ever have any children of my own,'-- +and then Uncle Bat sighed gently--'and so I have been considering +whom I should like to adopt.' + +'Quite right, Captain Cuttwater.' + +'Whom I should like to adopt. I should like to have one whom I +could call in a special manner my own. Now, Mr. Alaric, I have +made up my mind, and who do you think it is?' + +'Oh! Captain Cuttwater, I couldn't guess on such a matter. I +shouldn't like to guess wrong.' + +'Perhaps not--no; that's right;--well then, I'll tell you; it's +Gertrude.' + +Alaric was well aware that it was Gertrude before her name had +been pronounced. + +'Yes, it's Gertrude; of course I couldn't go out of Bessie's +family--of course it must be either Gertrude, or Linda, or Katie. +Now Linda and Katie are very well, but they haven't half the +gumption that Gertrude has.' + +'No, they have not,' said Alaric. + +'I like gumption,' said Captain Cuttwater. 'You've a great deal +of gumption--that's why I like you.' + +Alaric laughed, and muttered something. + +'Now I have been thinking of something;' and Uncle Bat looked +strangely mysterious--'I wonder what you think of Gertrude?' + +'Who--I?' said Alaric. + +'I can see through a millstone as well as another,' said the +captain; 'and I used to think that Norman and Gertrude meant to +hit it off together.' + +Alaric said nothing. He did not feel inclined to tell Norman's +secret, and yet he could not belie Gertrude by contradicting the +justice of Captain Cuttwater's opinion. + +'I used to think so--but now I find there's nothing in it. I am +sure Gertrude wouldn't have him, and I think she's right. He +hasn't gumption enough.' + +'Harry Norman is no fool.' + +'I dare say not,' said the captain; 'but take my word, she'll +never have him--Lord bless you, Norman knows that as well as I +do.' + +Alaric knew it very well himself also; but he did not say so. + +'Now, the long and the short of it is this--why don't you make up +to her? If you'll make up to her and carry the day, all I can say +is, I will do all I can to keep the pot a-boiling; and if you +think it will help you, you may tell Gertrude that I say so.' + +This was certainly an important communication, and one to which +Alaric found it very difficult to give any immediate answer. He +said a great deal about his affection for Mrs. Woodward, of his +admiration for Miss Woodward, of his strong sense of Captain +Cuttwater's kindness, and of his own unworthiness; but he left +the captain with an impression that he was not prepared at the +present moment to put himself forward as a candidate for +Gertrude's hand. + +'I don't know what the deuce he would have,' said the captain to +himself. 'She's as fine a girl as he's likely to find; and two or +three thousand pounds isn't so easily got every day by a fellow +that hasn't a shilling of his own.' + +When Alaric took his departure the next morning, he thought he +perceived, from Mrs. Woodward's manner, that there was less than +her usual cordiality in the tone in which she said that of course +he would return at the end of the week. + +'I will if possible,' he said, 'and I need not say that I hope to +do so; but I fear I may be kept in town--at any rate I'll write.' +When the end of the week came he wrote to say that unfortunately +he was kept in town. He thoroughly understood that people are +most valued when they make themselves scarce. He got in reply a +note from Gertrude, saying that her mother begged that on the +following Saturday he would come and bring Charley with him. + +On his return to town, Alaric, by appointment, called on Sir +Gregory. He had not seen his patron yet since his great report on +Wheal Mary Jane had been sent in. That report had been written +exclusively by himself, and poor Neverbend had been obliged to +content himself with putting all his voluminous notes into +Tudor's hands. He afterwards obediently signed the report, and +received his reward for doing so. Alaric never divulged to +official ears how Neverbend had halted in the course of his +descent to the infernal gods. + +'I thoroughly congratulate you,' said Sir Gregory. 'You have +justified my choice, and done your duty with credit to yourself +and benefit to the public. I hope you may go on and prosper. As +long as you remember that your own interests should always be +kept in subservience to those of the public service, you will not +fail to receive the praise which such conduct deserves.' + +Alaric thanked Sir Gregory for his good opinion, and as he did +so, he thought of his new banker's account, and of the L300 which +was lying there. After all, which of them was right, Sir Gregory +Hardlines or Undy Scott? Or was it that Sir Gregory's opinions +were such as should control the outward conduct, and Undy's those +which should rule the inner man? + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +VERY SAD + + +Norman prolonged his visit to his father considerably beyond the +month. At first he applied for and received permission to stay +away another fortnight, and at the end of that fortnight he sent +up a medical certificate in which the doctor alleged that he +would be unable to attend to business for some considerable +additional period. It was not till after Christmas Day that he +reappeared at the Weights and Measures. + +Alaric kept his appointment at Hampton, and took Charley with +him. And on the two following Saturdays he also went there, and +on both occasions Charley accompanied him. During these visits, +he devoted himself, as closely as he could, to Mrs. Woodward. He +talked to her of Norman, and of Norman's prospects in the office; +he told her how he had intended to abstain from offering himself +as a competitor, till he had, as it were, been forced by Norman +to do so; he declared over and over again that Norman would have +been victorious had he stood his ground to the end, and assured +her that such was the general opinion through the whole +establishment. And this he did without talking much about +himself, or praising himself in any way when he did so. His +speech was wholly of his friend, and of the sorrow that he felt +that his friend should have been disappointed in his hopes. + +All this had its effects. Of Norman's rejected love they neither +of them spoke. Each knew that the other must be aware of it, but +the subject was far too tender to be touched, at any rate as yet. +And so matters went on, and Alaric regained the footing of favour +which he had for a while lost with the mistress of the house. + +But there was one inmate of Surbiton Cottage who saw that though +Alaric spent so much of his tune with Mrs. Woodward, he found +opportunity also for other private conversation; and this was +Linda. Why was it that in the moments before they dressed for +dinner Alaric was whispering with Gertrude, and not with her? Why +was it that Alaric had felt it necessary to stay from church that +Sunday evening when Gertrude also had been prevented from going +by a headache? He had remained, he said, in order that Captain +Cuttwater might have company; but Linda was not slow to learn +that Uncle Bat had been left to doze away the time by himself. +Why, on the following Monday, had Gertrude been down so early, +and why had Alaric been over from the inn full half an hour +before his usual time? Linda saw and knew all this, and was +disgusted. But even then she did not, could not think that Alaric +could be untrue to her; that her own sister would rob her of her +lover. It could not be that there should be such baseness in +human nature! + +Poor Linda! + +And yet, though she did not believe that such falseness could +exist in this world of hers at Surbiton Cottage, she could not +restrain herself from complaining rather petulantly to her +sister, as they were going to bed on that Sunday evening. + +'I hope your headache is better,' she said, in a tone of voice as +near to irony as her soft nature could produce. + +'Yes, it is quite well now,' said Gertrude, disdaining to notice +the irony. + +'I dare say Alaric had a headache too. I suppose one was about as +bad as the other.' + +'Linda,' said Gertrude, answering rather with dignity than with +anger, 'you ought to know by this time that it is not likely that +I should plead false excuses. Alaric never said he had a +headache.' + +'He said he stayed from church to be with Uncle Bat; but when we +came back we found him with you.' + +'Uncle Bat went to sleep, and then he came into the drawing- +room.' + +The two girls said nothing more about it. Linda should have +remembered that she had never breathed a word to her sister of +Alaric's passion for herself. Gertrude's solemn propriety had +deterred her, just as she was about to do so. How very little of +that passion had Alaric breathed himself! and yet, alas! enough +to fill the fond girl's heart with dreams of love, which occupied +all her waking, all her sleeping thoughts. Oh! ye ruthless +swains, from whose unhallowed lips fall words full of poisoned +honey, do ye never think of the bitter agony of many months, of +the dull misery of many years, of the cold monotony of an +uncheered life, which follow so often as the consequence of your +short hour of pastime? + +On the Monday morning, as soon as Alaric and Charley had started +for town--it was the morning on which Linda had been provoked to +find that both Gertrude and Alaric had been up half an hour +before they should have been--Gertrude followed her mother to her +dressing-room, and with palpitating heart closed the door behind +her. + +Linda remained downstairs, putting away her tea and sugar, not in +the best of humours; but Katie, according to her wont, ran up +after her mother. + +'Katie,' said Gertrude, as Katie bounced into the room, 'dearest +Katie, I want to speak a word to mamma--alone. Will you mind +going down just for a few minutes?' and she put her arm round her +sister, and kissed her with almost unwonted tenderness. + +'Go, Katie, dear,' said Mrs. Woodward; and Katie, speechless, +retired. + +'Gertrude has got something particular to tell mamma; something +that I may not hear. I wonder what it is about,' said Katie to +her second sister. + +Linda's heart sank within her. 'Could it be? No, it could not, +could not be, that the sweet voice which had whispered in her +ears those well-remembered words, could have again whispered the +same into other ears--that the very Gertrude who had warned her +not to listen to such words from such lips, should have listened +to them herself, and have adopted them and made them her own! It +could not, could not be!' and yet Linda's heart sank low within +her. + + + * * * * * + + +'If you really love him,' said the mother, again caressing her +eldest daughter as she acknowledged her love, but hardly with +such tenderness as when that daughter had repudiated that other +love--'if you really love him, dearest, of course I do not, of +course I cannot, object.' + +'I do, mamma; I do.' + +'Well, then, Gertrude, so be it. I have not a word to say against +your choice. Had I not believed him to be an excellent young man, +I should not have allowed him to be here with you so much as he +has been. We cannot all see with the same eyes, dearest, can we?' + +'No, mamma; but pray don't think I dislike poor Harry; and, oh! +mamma, pray don't set him against Alaric because of this----' + +'Set him against Alaric! No, Gertrude. I certainly shall not do +that. But whether I can reconcile Harry to it, that is another +thing.' + +'At any rate he has no right to be angry at it,' said Gertrude, +assuming her air of dignity. + +'Certainly not with you, Gertrude.' + +'No, nor with Alaric,' said she, almost with indignation. + +'That depends on what has passed between them. It is very hard to +say how men so situated regard each other.' + +'I know everything that has passed between them,' said Gertrude. +'I never gave Harry any encouragement. As soon as I understood my +own feelings I endeavoured to make him understand them also.' + +'But, my dearest, no one is blaming you.' + +'But you are blaming Alaric.' + +'Indeed I am not, Gertrude.' + +'No man could have behaved more honourably to his friend,' said +Gertrude; 'no man more nobly; and if Harry does not feel it so, +he has not the good heart for which I always gave him credit.' + +'Poor fellow! his friendship for Alaric will be greatly tried.' + +'And, mamma, has not Alaric's friendship been tried? and has it +not borne the trial nobly? Harry told him of--of--of his +intentions; Harry told him long, long, long ago----' + +'Ah me!--poor Harry!' sighed Mrs. Woodward. + +'But you think nothing of Alaric!' + +'Alaric is successful, my dear, and can----' Think sufficiently +of himself, Mrs. Woodward was going to say, but she stopped +herself. + +'Harry told him all,' continued Gertrude, 'and Alaric--Alaric +said nothing of his own feelings. Alaric never said a word to me +that he might not have said before his friend--till--till--You +must own, mamma, that no one can have behaved more nobly than +Alaric has done.' + +Mrs. Woodward, nevertheless, had her own sentiments on the +matter, which were not quite in unison with those of her +daughter. But then she was not in love with Alaric, and her +daughter was. She thought that Alaric's love was a passion that +had but lately come to the birth, and that had he been true to +his friend--nobly true as Gertrude had described him--it would +never have been born at all, or at any rate not till Harry had +had a more prolonged chance of being successful with his suit. +Mrs. Woodward understood human nature better than her daughter, +or, at least, flattered herself that she did so, and she felt +well assured that Alaric had not been dying for love during the +period of Harry's unsuccessful courtship. He might, she thought, +have waited a little longer before he chose for his wife the girl +whom his friend had loved, seeing that he had been made the +confidant of that love. + +Such were the feelings which Mrs. Woodward felt herself unable to +repress; but she could not refuse her consent to the marriage. +After all, she had some slight twinge of conscience, some inward +conviction that she was prejudiced in Harry's favour, as her +daughter was in Alaric's. Then she had lost all right to object +to Alaric, by allowing him to be so constantly at the Cottage; +and then again, there was nothing to which in reason she could +object. In point of immediate income, Alaric was now the better +match of the two. She kissed her daughter, therefore, and +promised that she would do her best to take Alaric to her heart +as her son-in-law. + +'You will tell Uncle Bat, mamma?' said Gertrude. + +'O yes--certainly, my dear; of course he'll be told. But I +suppose it does not make much matter, immediately?' + +'I think he should be told, mamma; I should not like him to think +that he was treated with anything like disrespect.' + +'Very well, my dear, I'll tell him,' said Mrs. Woodward, who was +somewhat surprised at her daughter's punctilious feelings about +Uncle Bat. However, it was all very proper; and she was glad to +think that her children were inclined to treat their grand-uncle +with respect, in spite of his long nose. + +And then Gertrude was preparing to leave the room, but her mother +stopped her. 'Gertrude, dear,' said she. + +'Yes, mamma.' + +'Come here, dearest; shut the door. Gertrude, have you told Linda +yet?' + +'No, mamma, not yet.' + +As Mrs. Woodward asked the question, there was an indescribable +look of painful emotion on her brow. It did not escape Gertrude's +eye, and was not to her perfectly unintelligible. She had +conceived an idea--why, she did not know--that these recent +tidings of hers would not be altogether agreeable to her sister. + +'No, mamma, I have not told her; of course I told you first. But +now I shall do so immediately.' + +'Let me tell her,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'will you, Gertrude?' + +'Oh! certainly, mamma, if you wish it.' + +Things were going wrong with Mrs. Woodward. She had perceived, +with a mother's anxious eye, that her second daughter was not +indifferent to Alaric Tudor. While she yet thought that Norman +and Gertrude would have suited each other, this had caused her no +disquietude. She herself had entertained none of those grand +ideas to which Gertrude had given utterance with so much +sententiousness, when she silenced Linda's tale of love before +the telling of it had been commenced. Mrs. Woodward had always +felt sufficiently confident that Alaric would push himself in the +world, and she would have made no objection to him as a son-in- +law had he been contented to take the second instead of the first +of her flock. + +She had never spoken to Linda on the matter, and Linda had +offered to her no confidence; but she felt all but sure that her +second child would not have entertained the affection which she +had been unable altogether to conceal, had no lover's plea been +poured into her ears. Mrs. Woodward questioned her daughters but +little, but she understood well the nature of each, and could +nearly read their thoughts. Linda's thoughts it was not difficult +to read. + +'Linda, pet,' she said, as soon as she could get Linda into her +room without absolutely sending for her, 'you have not yet heard +Gertrude's news?' + +'No,' said Linda, turning very pale, and feeling that her heart +was like to burst. + +'I would let no one tell you but myself, Linda. Come here, +dearest; don't stand there away from me. Can you guess what it +is?' + +Linda, for a moment, could not speak. 'No, mamma,' she said at +last, 'I don't know what it is.' + +Mrs. Woodward twined her arm round her daughter's waist, as they +sat on the sofa close to each other. Linda tried to compose +herself, but she felt that she was trembling in her mother's +arms. She would have given anything to be calm; anything to hide +her secret. She little guessed then how well her mother knew it. +Her eyes were turned down, and she found that she could not raise +them to her mother's face. + +'No, mamma,' she said. 'I don't know--what is it?' + +'Gertrude is to be married, Linda. She is engaged.' + +'I thought she refused Harry,' said Linda, through whose mind a +faint idea was passing of the cruelty of nature's arrangements, +which gave all the lovers to her sister. + +'Yes, dearest, she did; and now another has made an offer--she +has accepted him.' Mrs. Woodward could hardly bring herself to +speak out that which she had to say, and yet she felt that she +was only prolonging the torture for which she was so anxious to +find a remedy. + +'Has she?' said Linda, on whom the full certainty of her misery +had now all but come. + +'She has accepted our dear Alaric.' + +Our dear Alaric! what words for Linda's ears! They did reach her +ears, but they did not dwell there--her soft gentle nature sank +beneath the sound. Her mother, when she looked to her for a +reply, found that she was sinking through her arms. Linda had +fainted. + +Mrs. Woodward neither screamed, nor rang for assistance, nor +emptied the water-jug over her daughter, nor did anything else +which would have the effect of revealing to the whole household +the fact that Linda had fainted. She had seen girls faint before, +and was not frightened. But how, when Linda recovered, was she to +be comforted? + +Mrs. Woodward laid her gently on the sofa, undid her dress, +loosened her stays, and then sat by her chafing her hands, and +moistening her lips and temples, till gradually the poor girl's +eyes reopened. The recovery from a fainting fit, a real fainting +fit I beg young ladies to understand, brings with it a most +unpleasant sensation, and for some minutes Linda's sorrow was +quelled by her sufferings; but as she recovered her strength she +remembered where she was and what had happened, and sobbing +violently she burst into an hysterical storm of tears. + +Her most poignant feeling now was one of fear lest her mother +should have guessed her secret; and this Mrs. Woodward well +understood. She could do nothing towards comforting her child +till there was perfect confidence between them. It was easy to +arrive at this with Linda, nor would it afterwards be difficult +to persuade her as to the course she ought to take. The two girls +were so essentially different; the one so eager to stand alone +and guide herself, the other so prone to lean on the nearest +support that came to her hand. + +It was not long before Linda had told her mother everything. +Either by words, or tears, or little signs of mute confession, +she made her mother understand, with all but exactness, what had +passed between Alaric and herself, and quite exactly what had +been the state of her own heart. She sobbed, and wept, and looked +up to her mother for forgiveness as though she had been guilty of +a great sin; and when her mother caressed her with all a mother's +tenderness, and told her that she was absolved from all fault, +free of all blame, she was to a certain degree comforted. +Whatever might now happen, her mother would be on her side. But +Mrs. Woodward, when she looked into the matter, found that it was +she that should have demanded pardon of her daughter, not her +daughter of her! Why had this tender lamb been allowed to wander +out of the fold, while a wolf in sheep's clothing was invited +into the pasture-ground? + +Gertrude, with her talent, her beauty, and dignity of demeanour, +had hitherto been, perhaps, the closest to the mother's heart-- +had been, if not the most cherished, yet the most valued; +Gertrude had been the apple of her eye. This should be altered +now. If a mother's love could atone for a mother's negligence, +Mrs. Woodward would atone to her child for this hour of misery! +And Katie--her sweet bonny Katie--she, at least, should be +protected from the wolves. Those were the thoughts that passed +through Mrs. Woodward's heart as she sat there caressing Linda. +But how were things to be managed now at the present moment? It +was quite clear that the wolf in sheep's clothing must be +admitted into the pastoral family; either that, or the fairest +lamb of the flock must be turned out altogether, to take upon +herself lupine nature, and roam the woods a beast of prey. As +matters stood it behoved them to make such a sheep of Alaric as +might be found practicable. + +And so Mrs. Woodward set to work to teach her daughter how best +she might conduct herself in her present state of wretchedness. +She had to bear with her sister's success, to listen to her +sister's joy, to enter into all her future plans, to assist at +her toilet, to prepare her wedding garments, to hear the +congratulations of friends, and take a sister's share in a +sister's triumph, and to do this without once giving vent to a +reproach. And she had worse than this to do; she had to encounter +Alaric, and to wish him joy of his bride; she had to protect her +female pride from the disgrace which a hopeless but acknowledged +love would throw on it; she had to live in the house with Alaric +as though he were her brother, and as though she had never +thought to live with him in any nearer tie. She would have to +stand at the altar as her sister's bridesmaid, and see them +married, and she would have to smile and be cheerful as she did +so. + +This was the lesson which Mrs. Woodward had now to teach +her daughter; and she so taught it that Linda did all that +circumstances and her mother required of her. Late on that +afternoon she went to Gertrude, and, kissing her, wished her joy. +At that moment Gertrude was the more embarrassed of the two. + +'Linda, dear Linda,' she said, embracing her sister convulsively. + +'I hope you will be happy, Gertrude, with all my heart,' said +Linda; and so she relinquished her lover. + +We talk about the weakness of women--and Linda Woodward was, in +many a way, weak enough--but what man, what giant, has strength +equal to this? It was not that her love was feeble. Her heart was +capable of truest love, and she had loved Alaric truly. But she +had that within her which enabled her to overcome herself, and +put her own heart, and hopes, and happiness--all but her maiden +pride--into the background, when the hopes and happiness of +another required it. + +She still shared the same room with her sister; and those who +know how completely absorbed a girl is by her first acknowledged +love, may imagine how many questions she had to answer, to how +many propositions she was called to assent, for how many schemes +she had to vouchsafe a sister's interest, while her heart was +telling her that she should have been the questioner, she should +have been the proposer, that the schemes should all have been her +own. + +But she bore it bravely. When Alaric first came down, which he +did in the middle of the week, she was, as she told her mother, +too weak to stand in his presence. Her mother strongly advised +her not to absent herself; so she sat gently by, while he kissed +Mrs. Woodward and Katie. She sat and trembled, for her turn she +knew must come. It did come; Alaric, with an assurance which told +more for his courage than for his heart, came up to her, and with +a smiling face offered her his hand. She rose up and muttered +some words which she had prepared for the occasion, and he, still +holding her by the hand, stooped down and kissed her cheek. Mrs. +Woodward looked on with an angry flush on her brow, and hated him +for his cold-hearted propriety of demeanour. + +Linda went up to her mother's room, and, sitting on her mother's +bed, sobbed herself into tranquillity. + +It was very grievous to Mrs. Woodward to have to welcome Alaric +to her house. For Alaric's own sake she would no longer have +troubled herself to do so; but Gertrude was still her daughter, +her dear child. Gertrude had done nothing to disentitle her to a +child's part, and a child's protection; and even had she done so, +Mrs. Woodward was not a woman to be unforgiving to her child. For +Gertrude's sake she had to make Alaric welcome; she forced +herself to smile on him and call him her son; to make him more at +home in her house even than Harry had ever been; to give him +privileges which he, wolf as he was, had so little deserved. + +But Captain Cuttwater made up by the warmth of his +congratulations for any involuntary coolness which Alaric might +have detected in those of Mrs. Woodward. It had become a strong +wish of the old man's heart that he might make Alaric, at any +rate in part, his heir, without doing an injustice to his niece +or her family. He had soon seen and appreciated what he had +called the 'gumption' both of Gertrude and Alaric. Had Harry +married Gertrude, and Alaric Linda, he would have regarded either +of those matches with disfavour. But now he was quite satisfied-- +now he could look on Alaric as his son and Gertrude as his +daughter, and use his money according to his fancy, without +incurring the reproaches of his conscience. + +'Quite right, my boy, 'he said to Alaric, slapping him on the +back at the same time with pretty nearly all his power--'quite +right. Didn't I know you were the winning horse?--didn't I tell +you how it would be? Do you think I don't know what gumption +means? If I had not had my own weather-eye open, aye, and d--- +wide open, the most of my time, I shouldn't have two or three +thousand pounds to give away now to any young fellow that I take +a fancy to.' + +Alaric was, of course, all smiles and good humour, and Gertrude +not less so. The day after he heard of the engagement Uncle Bat +went to town, and, on his return, he gave Gertrude L100 to buy +her wedding-clothes, and half that sum to her mother, in order +that the thing might go off, as he expressed himself, 'slip-slap, +and no mistake.' To Linda he gave nothing, but promised her that +he would not forget her when her time came. + +All this time Norman was at Normansgrove; but there were three of +the party who felt that it behoved them to let him know what was +going on. Mrs. Woodward wrote first, and on the following day +both Gertrude and Alaric wrote to him, the former from Hampton, +and the latter from his office in London. + +All these letters were much laboured, but, with all this labour, +not one of them contained within it a grain of comfort. That from +Mrs. Woodward came first and told the tale. Strange to say, +though Harry had studiously rejected from his mind all idea of +hope as regarded Gertrude, nevertheless the first tidings of her +betrothal with Alaric struck him as though he had still fancied +himself a favoured lover. He felt as though, in his absence, he +had been robbed of a prize which was all his own, as though a +chattel had been taken from him to which he had a full right; as +though all the Hampton party, Mrs. Woodward included, were in a +conspiracy to defraud him the moment his back was turned. + +The blow was so severe that it laid him prostrate at once. He +could not sob away his sorrow on his mother's bosom; no one could +teach him how to bear his grief with meek resignation. He had +never spoken of his love to his friends at Normansgrove. They had +all been witnesses to his deep disappointment, but that had been +attributed to his failure at his office. He was not a man to seek +for sympathy in the sorrows of his heart. He had told Alaric of +his rejection, because he had already told him of his love, but +he had whispered no word of it to anyone besides. On the day on +which he received Mrs. Woodward's letter, he appeared at dinner +ghastly pale, and evidently so ill as to be all but unable to sit +at table; but he would say nothing to anybody; he sat brooding +over his grief till he was unable to sit any longer. + +And yet Mrs. Woodward had written with all her skill, with all +her heart striving to pluck the sting away from the tidings which +she had to communicate. She had felt, however, that she owed as +much, at least, to her daughter as she did to him, and she failed +to call Alaric perjured, false, dishonoured, unjust, disgraced, +and treacherous. Nothing short of her doing so would have been +deemed by Norman fitting mention of Tudor's sin; nothing else +would have satisfied the fury of his wrath. + +On the next morning he received Gertrude's letter and Alaric's. +The latter he never read--he opened it, saw that it began as +usual, 'My dear Harry,' and then crammed it into his pocket. By +return of post it went back under a blank cover, addressed to +Alaric at the Weights and Measures. The days of duelling were +gone by--unfortunately, as Norman now thought, but nothing, he +determined, should ever induce him again to hold friendly +intercourse with the traitor. He abstained from making any such +oath as to the Woodwards; but determined that his conduct in that +respect should be governed by the manner in which Alaric was +received by them. + +But Gertrude's letter he read over and over again, and each time +he did so he indulged in a fresh burst of hatred against the man +who had deceived him. 'A dishonest villain!' he said to himself +over and over again; 'what right had I to suppose he would be +true to me when I found that he had been so false to others?' + +'Dearest Harry,' the letter began. Dearest Harry!--Why should she +begin with a lie? He was not dearest! 'You must not, must not, +must not be angry with Alaric,' she went on to say, as soon as +she had told her tale. Oh, must he not? Not be angry with Alaric! +Not angry with the man who had forgotten every law of honour, +every principle of honesty, every tie of friendship! Not angry +with the man whom he had trusted with the key of his treasure, +and who had then robbed him; who had stolen from him all his +contentment, all his joy, his very heart's blood; not angry with +him! + +'Our happiness will never be perfect unless you will consent to +share it.' Thus simply, in the affection of her heart, had +Gertrude concluded the letter by which she intended to pour balm +into the wounds of her rejected lover, and pave the way for the +smoothing of such difficulties as might still lie in the way of +her love. + +'Their happiness would not be perfect unless he would consent to +share it.' Every word in the sentence was gall to him. It must +have been written with the object of lacerating his wounds, and +torturing his spirit; so at least said Norman to himself. He read +the letter over and over again. At one time he resolved to keep +it till he could thrust it back into her hand, and prove to her +of what cruelty she had been guilty. Then he thought of sending +it to Mrs. Woodward, and asking her how, after that, could she +think that he should ever again enter her doors at Hampton. +Finally he tore it into a thousand bits, and threw them behind +the fire. + +'Share their happiness!' and as he repeated the words he gave the +last tear to the fragments of paper which he still held in his +hand. Could he at that moment as easily have torn to shreds all +hope of earthly joys for those two lovers, he would then have +done it, and cast the ruins to the flames. + +Oh! what a lesson he might have learnt from Linda! And yet what +were his injuries to hers? He in fact had not been injured, at +least not by him against whom the strength of his wrath most +fiercely raged. The two men had both admired Gertrude, but Norman +had started on the race first. Before Alaric had had time to know +his own mind, he had learnt that Norman claimed the beauty as his +own. He had acknowledged to himself that Norman had a right to do +so, and had scrupulously abstained from interfering with him. Why +should Norman, like a dog in the manger, begrudge to his friend +the fodder which he himself could not enjoy? To him, at any rate, +Alaric had in this been no traitor. 'Twas thus at least that +Gertrude argued in her heart, and 'twas thus that Mrs. Woodward +tried to argue also. + +But who could excuse Alaric's falseness to Linda? And yet Linda +had forgiven him. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +NORMAN RETURNS TO TOWN + + +Harry Norman made no answer to either of his three letters beyond +that of sending Alaric's back unread; but this, without other +reply, was sufficient to let them all guess, nearly with +accuracy, what was the state of his mind. Alaric told Gertrude +how his missive had been treated, and Gertrude, of course, told +her mother. + +There was very little of that joy at Surbiton Cottage which +should have been the forerunner of a wedding. None of the +Woodward circle were content thus to lose their friend. And then +their unhappiness on this score was augmented by hearing that +Harry had sent up a medical certificate, instead of returning to +his duties when his prolonged leave of absence was expired. + +To Alaric this, at the moment, was a relief. He had dreaded the +return of Norman to London. There were so many things to cause +infinite pain to them both. All Norman's things, his books and +clothes, his desks and papers and pictures, his whips and sticks, +and all those sundry belongings which even a bachelor collects +around him--were strewing the rooms in which Alaric still lived. +He had of course felt that it was impossible that they should +ever again reside together. Not only must they quarrel, but all +the men at their office must know that they had quarrelled. And +yet some intercourse must be maintained between them; they must +daily meet in the rooms at the Weights and Measures; and it would +now in their altered position become necessary that in some +things Norman should receive instructions from Alaric as his +superior officer. But if Alaric thought of this often, so did +Norman; and before the last fortnight had expired, the thinking +of it had made him so ill that his immediate return to London was +out of the question. + +Mrs. Woodward's heart melted within her when she heard that Harry +was really ill. She had gone on waiting day after day for an +answer to her letter, but no answer came. No answer came, but in +lieu thereof she heard that Harry was laid up at Normansgrove. +She heard it, and Gertrude heard it, and in spite of the coming +wedding there was very little joy at Surbiton Cottage. + +And then Mrs. Woodward wrote again; and a man must have had a +heart of stone not to be moved by such a letter. She had 'heard,' +she said, 'that he was ill, and the tidings had made her +wretched--the more so inasmuch as he had sent no answer to her +last letter. Was he very ill? was he dangerously ill? She hoped, +she would fain hope, that his illness had not arisen from any +mental grief. If he did not reply to this, or get some of his +family to do so, there would be nothing for her but to go, +herself, to Normansgrove. She could not remain quiet while she +was left in such painful doubt about her dearest, well-loved +Harry Norman.' How to speak of Gertrude, or how not to speak of +her, Mrs. Woodward knew not--at last she added: 'The three girls +send their kindest love; they are all as wretchedly anxious as I +am. I know you are too good to wish that poor Gertrude should +suffer, but, if you did, you might have your wish. The tidings of +your illness, together with your silence, have robbed her of all +her happiness;' and it ended thus:--'Dearest Harry! do not be +cruel to us; our hearts are all with you.' + +This was too much for Norman's sternness; and he relented, at +least as far as Mrs. Woodward was concerned. He wrote to say that +though he was still weak, he was not dangerously ill; and that he +intended, if nothing occurred amiss, to be in town about the end +of the year. He hoped he might then see her to thank her for all +her kindness. She would understand that he could not go down to +Surbiton Cottage; but as she would doubtless have some occasion +for coming up to town, they might thus contrive to meet. He then +sent his love to Linda and Katie, and ended by saying that he had +written to Charley Tudor to take lodgings for him. Not the +slightest allusion was made either to Gertrude or Alaric, except +that which might seem to be conveyed in the intimation that he +could make no more visits to Hampton. + +This letter was very cold. It just permitted Mrs. Woodward to +know that Norman did not regard them all as strangers; and that +was all. Linda said it was very sad; and Gertrude said, not to +her mother but to Alaric, that it was heartless. Captain +Cuttwater predicted that he would soon come round, and be as +sound as a roach again in six months' time. Alaric said nothing; +but he went on with his wooing, and this he did so successfully, +as to make Gertrude painfully alive to what would have been, in +her eyes, the inferiority of her lot, had she unfortunately +allowed herself to become the victim of Norman's love. + +Alaric went on with his wooing, and he also went on with his +share-buying. Undy Scott had returned to town for a week or two +to wind up the affairs of his expiring secretaryship, and he made +Alaric understand that a nice thing might yet be done in Mary +Janes. Alaric had been very foolish to sell so quickly; so at +least said Undy. To this Alaric replied that he had bought the +shares thoughtlessly, and had felt a desire to get rid of them as +quickly as he could. Those were scruples at which Undy laughed +pleasantly, and Alaric soon laughed with him. + +'At any rate,' said Undy, 'your report is written, and off your +hands now: so you may do what you please in the matter, like a +free man, with a safe conscience.' + +Alaric supposed that he might. + +'I am as fond of the Civil Service as any man,' said Undy; 'just +as fond of it as Sir Gregory himself. I have been in it, and may +be in it again. If I do, I shall do my duty. But I have no idea +of having my hands tied. My purse is my own, to do what I like +with it. Whether I buy beef or mutton, or shares in Cornwall, is +nothing to anyone. I give the Crown what it pays for, my five or +six hours a day, and nothing more. When I was appointed private +secretary to the First Lord of the Stannaries, I told my friend +Whip Vigil that those were the terms on which I accepted office; +and Vigil agreed with me.' Alaric, pupil as he was to the great +Sir Gregory, declared that he also agreed with him. 'That is not +Sir Gregory's doctrine, but it's mine,' said Undy; 'and though +it's my own, I think it by far the honester doctrine of the two.' + +Alaric did not sift the matter very deeply, nor did he ask Undy, +or himself either, whether in using the contents of his purse in +the purchase of shares he would be justified in turning to his +own purpose any information which he might obtain in his official +career. Nor did he again offer to put that broad test to himself +which he had before proposed, and ask himself whether he would +dare to talk of what he was doing in the face of day, in his own +office, before Sir Gregory, or before the Neverbends of the +Service. He had already learnt the absurdity of such tests. Did +other men talk of such doings? Was it not notorious that the +world speculated, and that the world was generally silent in the +matter? Why should he attempt to be wiser than those around him? +Was it not sufficient for him to be wise in his generation? What +man had ever become great, who allowed himself to be impeded by +small scruples? If the sportsman returned from the field laden +with game, who would scrutinize the mud on his gaiters? +'Excelsior!' said Alaric to himself with a proud ambition; and so +he attempted to rise by the purchase and sale of mining shares. + +When he was fairly engaged in the sport, his style of play so +fascinated Undy that they embarked in a sort of partnership, +_pro hoc vice_, good to the last during the ups and downs of +Wheal Mary Jane. Mary Jane, no doubt, would soon run dry, or else +be drowned, as had happened to New Friendship. But in the +meantime something might be done. + +'Of course you'll be consulted about those other papers,' said +Undy. 'It might be as well they should be kept back for a week or +two.' + +'Well, I'll see,' said Alaric; and as he said it, he felt that +his face was tinged with a blush of shame. But what then? Who +would look at the dirt on his gaiters, if he filled his bag with +game? + +Mrs. Woodward was no whit angered by the coldness of Norman's +letter. She wished that he could have brought himself to write in +a different style, but she remembered his grief, and knew that as +time should work its cure upon it, he would come round and again +be gentle and affectionate, at any rate with her. + +She misdoubted Charley's judgement in the choice of lodgings, and +therefore she talked over the matter with Alaric. It was at last +decided that he, Alaric, should move instead of driving Norman +away. His final movement would soon take place; that movement +which would rob him of the freedom of lodginghood, and invest him +with all the ponderous responsibility and close restraint of a +householder. He and Gertrude were to be married in February, and +after spending a cold honeymoon in Paris and Brussels, were to +begin their married life amidst the sharp winds of a London +March. But love, gratified love, will, we believe, keep out even +an English east wind. If so, it is certainly the only thing that +will. + +Charley, therefore, wrote to Norman, telling him that he could +remain in his old home, and humbly asking permission to remain +there with him. To this request he received a kind rejoinder in +the affirmative. Though Charley was related to Alaric, there had +always apparently been a closer friendship between him and Norman +than between the two cousins; and now, in his fierce unbridled +quarrel with Alaric, and in his present coolness with the +Woodwards, he seemed to turn to Charley with more than ordinary +affection. + +Norman made his appearance at the office on the first Monday of +the new year. He had hitherto sat at the same desk with Alaric, +each of them occupying one side of it; on his return he found +himself opposite to a stranger. Alaric had, of course, been +promoted to a room of his own. + +The Weights and Measures had never been a noisy office; but now +it became more silent than ever. Men there talked but little at +any time, and now they seemed to cease from talking altogether. +It was known to all that the Damon and Pythias of the establishment +were Damon and Pythias no longer; that war waged between them, +and that if all accounts were true, they were ready to fly each at +the other's throat. Some attributed this to the competitive examination; +others said it was love; others declared that it was money, the root +of evil; and one rash young gentleman stated his positive knowledge +that it was all three. At any rate something dreadful was expected; +and men sat anxious at their desks, fearing the coming evil. + +On the Monday the two men did not meet, nor on the Tuesday. On +the next morning, Alaric, having acknowledged to himself the +necessity of breaking the ice, walked into the room where Norman +sat with three or four others. It was absolutely necessary that +he should make some arrangement with him as to a certain branch +of office-work; and though it was competent for him, as the +superior, to have sent for Norman as the inferior, he thought it +best to abstain from doing so, even though he were thereby +obliged to face his enemy, for the first time, in the presence of +others. + +'Well, Mr. Embryo,' said he, speaking to the new junior, and +standing with his back to the fire in an easy way, as though +there was nothing wrong under the sun, or at least nothing at the +Weights and Measures, 'well, Mr. Embryo, how do you get on with +those calculations?' + +'Pretty well, I believe, sir; I think I begin to understand them +now,' said the tyro, producing for Alaric's gratification five or +six folio sheets covered with intricate masses of figures. + +'Ah! yes; that will do very well,' said Alaric, taking up one of +the sheets, and looking at it with an assumed air of great +interest. Though he acted his part pretty well, his mind was very +far removed from Mr. Embryo's efforts. + +Norman sat at his desk, as black as a thunder-cloud, with his +eyes turned intently at the paper before him; but so agitated +that he could not even pretend to write. + +'By the by, Norman,' said Alaric, 'when will it suit you to look +through those Scotch papers with me?' + +'My name, sir, is Mr. Norman,' said Harry, getting up and +standing by his chair with all the firmness of a Paladin of old. + +'With all my heart,' said Alaric. 'In speaking to you I can have +but one wish, and that is to do so in any way that may best +please you.' + +'Any instructions you may have to give I will attend to, as far +as my duty goes,' said Norman. + +And then Alaric, pushing Mr. Embryo from his chair without much +ceremony, sat down opposite to his former friend, and said and +did what he had to say and do with an easy unaffected air, in +which there was, at any rate, none of the usual superciliousness +of a neophyte's authority. Norman was too agitated to speak +reasonably, or to listen calmly, but Alaric knew that though he +might not do so to-day, he would to-morrow, or if not to-morrow, +then the next day; and so from day to day he came into Norman's +room and transacted his business. Mr. Embryo got accustomed to +looking through the window at the Council Office for the ten +minutes that he remained there, and Norman also became reconciled +to the custom. And thus, though they never met in any other way, +they daily had a kind of intercourse with each other, which, at +last, contrived to get itself arranged into a certain amount of +civility on both sides. + +Immediately that Norman's arrival was heard of at Surbiton +Cottage, Mrs. Woodward hastened up to town to see him. She wrote +to him to say that she would be at his lodgings at a certain +hour, and begged him to come thither to her. Of course he did not +refuse, and so they met. Mrs. Woodward had much doubted whether +or no she would take Linda or Katie with her, but at last she +resolved to go alone. Harry, she thought, would be more willing +to speak freely to her, to open his heart to her, if there were +nobody by but herself. + +Their meeting was very touching, and characteristic of the two +persons. Mrs. Woodward was sad enough, but her sadness was +accompanied by a strength of affection that carried before it +every obstacle. Norman was also sad; but he was at first stern +and cold, and would have remained so to the last, had not his +manly anger been overpowered by her feminine tenderness. + +It was singular, but not the less true, that at this period +Norman appeared to have forgotten altogether that he had ever +proposed to Gertrude, and been rejected by her. All that he said +and all that he thought was exactly what he might have said and +thought had Alaric taken from him his affianced bride. No suitor +had ever felt his suit to be more hopeless than he had done; and +yet he now regarded himself as one whose high hopes of happy love +had all been destroyed by the treachery of a friend and the +fickleness of a woman. + +This made the task of appeasing him very difficult to Mrs. +Woodward. She could not in plain language remind him that he had +been plainly rejected; nor could she, on the other hand, permit +her daughter to be branded with a fault of which she had never +been guilty. + +Mrs. Woodward had wished, though she had hardly hoped, so to +mollify Norman as to induce him to promise to be at the wedding; +but she soon found that this was out of the question. There was +no mitigating his anger against Alaric. + +'Mrs. Woodward,' said he, standing very upright, and looking very +stiff, 'I will never again willingly put myself in any position +where I must meet him.' + +'Oh! Harry, don't say so--think of your close friendship, think +of your long friendship.' + +'Why did he not think of it?' + +'But, Harry--if not for his sake, if not for your own, at any +rate do so for ours; for my sake, for Katie's and Linda's, for +Gertrude's sake.' + +'I had rather not speak of Gertrude, Mrs. Woodward.' + +'Ah! Harry, Gertrude has done you no injury; why should you thus +turn your heart against her? You should not blame her; if you +have anyone to blame, it is me.' + +'No; you have been true to me.' + +'And has she been false? Oh! Harry, think how we have loved you! +You should be more just to us.' + +'Tush!' he said. 'I do not believe in justice; there is no +justice left. I would have given everything I had for him. I +would have made any sacrifice. His happiness was as much my +thought as my own. And now--and yet you talk to me of justice.' + +'And if he had injured you, Harry, would you not forgive him? Do +you repeat your prayers without thinking of them? Do you not wish +to forgive them that trespass against you?' Norman groaned +inwardly in the spirit. 'Do you not think of this when you kneel +every night before your God?' + +'There are injuries which a man cannot forgive, is not expected +to forgive.' + +'Are there, Harry? Oh! that is a dangerous doctrine. In that way +every man might nurse his own wrath till anger would make devils +of us all. Our Saviour has made no exceptions.' + +'In one sense, I do forgive him, Mrs. Woodward. I wish him no +evil. But it is impossible that I should call a man who has so +injured me my friend. I look upon him as disgraced for ever.' + +She then endeavoured to persuade him to see Gertrude, or at any +rate to send his love to her. But in this also he was obdurate. +'It could,' he said, 'do no good.' He could not answer for +himself that his feelings would not betray him. A message would +be of no use; if true, it would not be gracious; if false, it had +better be avoided. He was quite sure Gertrude would be indifferent +as to any message from him. The best thing for them both would +be that they should forget each other. + +He promised, however, that he would go down to Hampton +immediately after the marriage, and he sent his kindest love to +Linda and Katie. 'And, dear Mrs. Woodward,' said he, 'I know you +think me very harsh, I know you think me vindictive--but pray, +pray believe that I understand all your love, and acknowledge all +your goodness. The time will, perhaps, come when we shall be as +happy together as we once were.' + +Mrs. Woodward, trying to smile through her tears, could only say +that she would pray that that time might soon come; and so, +bidding God bless him, as a mother might bless her child, she +left him and returned to Hampton, not with a light heart. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FIRST WEDDING + + +In spite, however, of Norman and his anger, on a cold snowy +morning in the month of February, Gertrude stood at the altar in +Hampton Church, a happy trusting bride, and Linda stood smiling +behind her, the lovely leader of the nuptial train. Nor were +Linda's smiles false or forced, much less treacherous. She had +taught herself to look on Alaric as her sister's husband, and +though in doing so she had suffered, and did still suffer, she +now thought of her own lost lover in no other guise. + +A housemaid, not long since, who was known in the family in which +she lived to be affianced to a neighbouring gardener, came +weeping to her mistress. + +'Oh, ma'am!' + +'Why, Susan, what ails you?' + +'Oh, ma'am!' + +'Well, Susan--what is it?--why are you crying?' + +'Oh, ma'am--John!' + +'Well--what of John? I hope he is not misbehaving.' + +'Indeed, ma'am, he is then; the worst of misbehaviour; for he's +gone and got hisself married.' And poor Susan gave vent to a +flood of tears. + +Her mistress tried to comfort her, and not in vain. She told her +that probably she might be better as she was; that John, seeing +what he had done, must be a false creature, who would undoubtedly +have used her ill; and she ended her good counsel by trying to +make Susan understand that there were still as good fish in the +sea as had ever yet been caught out of it. + +'And that's true too, ma'am,' said Susan, with her apron to her +eyes. + +'Then you should not be downhearted, you know.' + +'Nor I han't down'arted, ma'am, for thank God I could love any +man, but it's the looks on it, ma'am; it's that I mind.' + +How many of us are there, women and men too, who think most of +the 'looks of it' under such circumstances; and who, were we as +honest as poor Susan, ought to thank God, as she did, that we can +love anyone; anyone, that is, of the other sex. We are not all of +us susceptible of being torn to tatters by an unhappy passion; +not even all those of us who may be susceptible of a true and +honest love. And it is well that it is so. It is one of God's +mercies; and if we were as wise as Susan, we should thank God for +it. + +Linda was, perhaps, one of those. She was good, affectionate, +tender, and true. But she was made of that stuff which can bend +to the north wind. The world was not all over with her because a +man had been untrue to her. She had had her grief, and had been +told to meet it like a Christian; she had been obedient to the +telling, and now felt the good result. So when Gertrude was +married she stood smiling behind her; and when her new brother- +in-law kissed her in the vestry-room she smiled again, and +honestly wished them happiness. + +And Katie was there, very pretty and bonny, still childish, with +her short dress and long trousers, but looking as though she, +too, would soon feel the strength of her own wings, and be able +to fly away from her mother's nest. Dear Katie! Her story has yet +to be told. To her belongs neither the soft easiness of her +sister Linda nor the sterner dignity of Gertrude. But she has a +character of her own, which contains, perhaps, higher qualities +than those given to either of her sisters. + +And there were other bridesmaids there; how many it boots not now +to say. We must have the spaces round our altars greatly widened +if this passion for bevies of attendant nymphs be allowed to go +on increasing--and if crinolines increase also. If every bride is +to have twelve maidens, and each maiden to stand on no less than +a twelve-yard circle, what modest temple will ever suffice for a +sacrifice to Hymen? + +And Mrs. Woodward was there, of course; as pretty to my thinking +as either of her daughters, or any of the bridesmaids. She was +very pretty and smiling and quiet. But when Gertrude said 'I +will,' she was thinking of Harry Norman, and grieving that he was +not there. + +And Captain Cuttwater was there, radiant in a new blue coat, made +specially for the occasion, and elastic with true joy. He had +been very generous. He had given L1,000 to Alaric, and settled +L150 a year on Gertrude, payable, of course, after his death. +This, indeed, was the bulk of what he had to give, and Mrs. +Woodward had seen with regret his exuberant munificence to one of +her children. But Gertrude was her child, and of course she could +not complain. + +And Charley was there, acting as best man. It was just the place +and just the work for Charley. He forgot all his difficulties, +all his duns, and also all his town delights. Without a sigh he +left his lady in Norfolk Street to mix gin-sling for other +admirers, and felt no regret though four brother navvies were +going to make a stunning night of it at the 'Salon de Seville +dansant,' at the bottom of Holborn Hill. However, he had his +hopes that he might be back in time for some of that fun. + +And Undy Scott was there. He and Alaric had fraternized so +greatly of late that the latter had, as a matter of course, asked +him to his wedding, and Mrs. Woodward had of course expressed +her delight at receiving Alaric's friend. Undy also was a pleasant +fellow for a wedding party; he was full of talk, fond of ladies, +being no whit abashed in his attendance on them by the remembrance +of his bosom's mistress, whom he had left, let us hope, happy in +her far domestic retirement. Undy Scott was a good man at a +wedding, and made himself specially agreeable on this occasion. + +But the great glory of the day was the presence of Sir Gregory +Hardlines. It was a high honour, considering all that rested on +Sir Gregory's shoulders, for so great a man to come all the way +down to Hampton to see a clerk in the Weights and Measures +married. + + Cum tot sustineas, et tanta negotia solus, + +--for we may call it 'solus,' Sir Warwick and Mr. Jobbles being +sources of more plague than profit in carrying out your noble +schemes--while so many things are on your shoulders, Sir Gregory; +while you are defending the Civil Service by your pen[?], +adorning it by your conduct, perfecting it by new rules, how +could any man have had the face to ask you to a wedding? + +Nevertheless Sir Gregory was there, and did not lose the +excellent opportunity which a speech at the breakfast-table +afforded him for expressing his opinion on the Civil Service of +his country. + +And so Gertrude Woodward became Gertrude Tudor, and she and +Alaric were whirled away by a post-chaise and post-boy, done out +with white bows, to the Hampton Court station; from thence they +whisked up to London, and then down to Dover; and there we will +leave them. + +They were whisked away, having first duly gone through the amount +of badgering which the bride and bridegroom have to suffer at the +wedding breakfast-table. They drank their own health in +champagne. Alaric made a speech, in which he said he was quite +unworthy of his present happiness, and Gertrude picked up all the +bijoux, gold pencil-cases, and silver cream-jugs, which were +thrown at her from all sides. All the men made speeches, and all +the women laughed, but the speech of the day was that celebrated +one made by Sir Gregory, in which he gave a sketch of Alaric +Tudor as the beau ideal of a clerk in the Civil Service. 'His +heart,' said he, energetically, 'is at the Weights and Measures;' +but Gertrude looked at him as though she did not believe a word +of it. + +And so Alaric and Gertrude were whisked away, and the wedding +guests were left to look sheepish at each other, and take +themselves off as best they might. Sir Gregory, of course, had +important public business which precluded him from having the +gratification of prolonging his stay at Hampton. Charley got away +in perfect time to enjoy whatever there might be to be enjoyed at +the dancing saloon of Seville, and Undy Scott returned to his +club. + +Then all was again quiet at Surbiton Cottage. Captain Cuttwater, +who had perhaps drunk the bride's health once too often, went to +sleep; Katie, having taken off her fine clothes, roamed about the +house disconsolate, and Mrs. Woodward and Linda betook themselves +to their needles. + +The Tudors went to Brussels, and were made welcome by the Belgian +banker, whose counters he had deserted so much to his own +benefit, and from thence to Paris, and, having been there long +enough to buy a French bonnet and wonder at the enormity of +French prices, they returned to a small but comfortable house +they had prepared for themselves in the neighbourhood of +Westbourne Terrace. + +Previous to this Norman had been once, and but once, at Hampton, +and, when there, he had failed in being comfortable himself, or +in making the Woodwards so; he could not revert to his old +habits, or sit, or move, or walk, as though nothing special had +happened since he had been last there. He could not talk about +Gertrude, and he could not help talking of her. By some closer +packing among the ladies a room had now been prepared for him in +the house; even this upset him, and brought to his mind all those +unpleasant thoughts which he should have endeavoured to avoid. + +He did not repeat his visit before the Tudors returned; and then +for some time he was prevented from doing so by the movements of +the Woodwards themselves. Mrs. Woodward paid a visit to her +married daughter, and, when she returned, Linda did the same. And +so for a while Norman was, as it were, divided from his old +friends, whereas Tudor, as a matter of course, was one of +themselves. + +It was only natural that Mrs. Woodward should forgive Alaric and +receive him to her bosom, now that he was her son-in-law. After +all, such ties as these avail more than any predilections, more +than any effort of judgement in the choice of the objects of our +affections. We associate with those with whom the tenor of life +has thrown us, and from habit we learn to love those with whom we +are brought to associate. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE HONOURABLE MRS. VAL AND MISS GOLIGHTLY + + +The first eighteen months of Gertrude's married life were not +unhappy, though, like all persons entering on the realities of +the world, she found much to disappoint her. At first her +husband's society was sufficient for her; and to give him his +due, he was not at first an inattentive husband. Then came the +baby, bringing with him, as first babies always should do, a sort +of second honeymoon of love, and a renewal of those services +which women so delight to receive from their bosoms' lord. + +She had of course made acquaintances since she had settled +herself in London, and had, in her modest way, done her little +part in adding to the gaiety of the great metropolis. In this +respect indeed Alaric's commencement of life had somewhat +frightened Mrs. Woodward, and the more prudent of his friends. +Grand as his official promotion had been, his official income at +the time of his marriage did not exceed L600 a year, and though +this was to be augmented occasionally till it reached L800, yet +even with this advantage it could hardly suffice for a man and +his wife and a coming family to live in an expensive part of +London, and enable him to 'see his friends' occasionally, as the +act of feeding one's acquaintance is now generally called. + +Gertrude, like most English girls of her age, was at first so +ignorant about money that she hardly knew whether L600 was or was +not a sufficient income to justify their present mode of living; +but she soon found reason to suspect that her husband at any rate +endeavoured to increase it by other means. We say to suspect, +because he never spoke to her on the subject; he never told her +of Mary Janes and New Friendships; or hinted that he had +extensive money dealings in connexion with Undy Scott. + +But it can be taken for granted that no husband can carry on such +dealings long without some sort of cognizance on his wife's part +as to what he is doing; a woman who is not trusted by her lord +may choose to remain in apparent darkness, may abstain from +questions, and may consider it either her duty or her interest to +assume an ignorance as to her husband's affairs; but the partner +of one's bed and board, the minister who soothes one's headaches, +and makes one's tea, and looks after one's linen, can't but have +the means of guessing the thoughts which occupy her companion's +mind and occasionally darken his brow. + +Much of Gertrude's society had consisted of that into which +Alaric was thrown by his friendship with Undy Scott. There was a +brother of Undy's living in town, one Valentine Scott--a captain +in a cavalry regiment, and whose wife was by no means of that +delightfully retiring disposition evinced by Undy's better half. +The Hon. Mrs. Valentine, or Mrs. Val Scott as she was commonly +called, was a very pushing woman, and pushed herself into a +prominent place among Gertrude's friends. She had been the widow +of Jonathan Golightly, Esq., umquhile sheriff of the city of +London, and stockbroker, and when she gave herself and her +jointure up to Captain Val, she also brought with her, to enliven +the house, a daughter Clementina, the only remaining pledge of +her love for the stockbroker. + +When Val Scott entered the world, his father's precepts as to the +purposes of matrimony were deeply graven on his heart. He was the +best looking of the family, and, except Undy, the youngest. He +had not Undy's sharpness, his talent for public matters, or his +aptitude for the higher branches of the Civil Service; but he had +wit to wear his sash and epaulets with an easy grace, and to +captivate the heart, person, and some portion of the purse, of +the Widow Golightly. The lady was ten years older than the +gentleman; but then she had a thousand a year, and, to make +matters more pleasant, the beauteous Clementina had a fortune of +her own. + +Under these circumstances the marriage had been contracted +without any deceit, or attempt at deceit, by either party. Val +wanted an income, and the sheriff's widow wanted the utmost +amount of social consideration which her not very extensive means +would purchase for her. On the whole, the two parties to the +transaction were contented with their bargain. Mrs. Val, it is +true, kept her income very much in her own hands; but still she +consented to pay Val's tailors' bills, and it is something for a +man to have bed and board found him for nothing. It is true, +again, the lady did not find that the noble blood of her husband +gave her an immediate right of entry into the best houses in +London; but it did bring her into some sort of contact with some +few people of rank and fame; and being a sensible woman, she had +not been unreasonable in her expectations. + +When she had got what she could from her husband in this +particular, she did not trouble him much further. He delighted in +the Rag, and there spent the most of his time; happily, she +delighted in what she called the charms of society, and as +society expanded itself before her, she was also, we must +suppose, happy. She soon perceived that more in her immediate +line was to be obtained from Undy than from her own member of the +Gaberlunzie family, and hence had sprung up her intimacy with +Mrs. Tudor. + +It cannot be said that Gertrude was very fond of the Honourable +Mrs. Val, nor even of her daughter, Clementina Golightly, who was +more of her own age. These people had become her friends from the +force of circumstances, and not from predilection. To tell the +truth, Mrs. Val, who had in her day encountered, with much +patience, a good deal of snubbing, and who had had to be thankful +when she was patronized, now felt that her day for being a great +lady had come, and that it behoved her to patronize others. She +tried her hand upon Gertrude, and found the practice so congenial +to her spirits, so pleasantly stimulating, so well adapted to +afford a gratifying compensation for her former humility, that +she continued to give up a good deal of her time to No. 5, Albany +Row, Westbourne Terrace, at which house the Tudors resided. + +The young bride was not exactly the woman to submit quietly to +patronage from any Mrs. Val, however honourable she might be; but +for a while Gertrude hardly knew what it meant; and at her first +outset the natural modesty of youth, and her inexperience in her +new position, made her unwilling to take offence and unequal to +rebellion. By degrees, however, this feeling of humility wore +off; she began to be aware of the assumed superiority of Mrs. +Val's friendship, and by the time that their mutual affection was +of a year's standing, Gertrude had determined, in a quiet way, +without saying anything to anybody, to put herself on a footing +of more perfect equality with the Honourable Mrs. Val. + +Clementina Golightly was, in the common parlance of a large +portion of mankind, a 'doosed fine gal.' She stood five feet six, +and stood very well, on very good legs, but with rather large +feet. She was as straight as a grenadier, and had it been her +fate to carry a milk-pail, she would have carried it to +perfection. Instead of this, however, she was permitted to expend +an equal amount of energy in every variation of waltz and polka +that the ingenuity of the dancing professors of the age has been +able to produce. Waltzes and polkas suited her admirably; for she +was gifted with excellent lungs and perfect powers of breathing, +and she had not much delight in prolonged conversation. Her +fault, if she had one, was a predilection for flirting; but she +did her flirtations in a silent sort of way, much as we may +suppose the fishes do theirs, whose amours we may presume to +consist in swimming through their cool element in close +contiguity with each other. 'A feast of reason and a flow of +soul' were not the charms by which Clementina Golightly essayed +to keep her admirers spell-bound at her feet. To whirl rapidly +round a room at the rate of ten miles an hour, with her right +hand outstretched in the grasp of her partner's, and to know that +she was tightly buoyed up, like a horse by a bearing-rein, by his +other hand behind her back, was for her sufficient. To do this, +as she did do it, without ever crying for mercy, with no +slackness of breath, and apparently without distress, must have +taken as much training as a horse gets for a race. But the +training had in nowise injured her; and now, having gone through +her gallops and run all her heats for three successive seasons, +she was still sound of wind and limb, and fit to run at any +moment when called upon. + +We have said nothing about the face of the beauteous Clementina, +and indeed nothing can be said about it. There was no feature in +it with which a man could have any right to find fault; that she +was a 'doosed fine girl' was a fact generally admitted; but +nevertheless you might look at her for four hours consecutively +on a Monday evening, and yet on Tuesday you would not know her. +She had hair which was brownish and sufficiently silky--and which +she wore, as all other such girls do, propped out on each side of +her face by thick round velvet pads, which, when the waltzing +pace became exhilarating, occasionally showed themselves, looking +greasy. She had a pair of eyes set straight in her head, +faultless in form, and perfectly inexpressive. She had a nose +equally straight, but perhaps a little too coarse in dimensions. +She had a mouth not over large, with two thin lips and small +whitish teeth; and she had a chin equal in contour to the rest of +her face, but on which Venus had not deigned to set a dimple. +Nature might have defied a French passport officer to give a +description of her, by which even her own mother or a detective +policeman might have recognized her. + +When to the above list of attractions it is added that Clementina +Golightly had L20,000 of her own, and a reversionary interest in +her mother's jointure, it may be imagined that she did not want +for good-winded cavaliers to bear her up behind, and whirl around +with her with outstretched hands. + +'I am not going to stay a moment, my dear,' said Mrs. Val, +seating herself on Gertrude's sofa, having rushed up almost +unannounced into the drawing-room, followed by Clementina; +'indeed, Lady Howlaway is waiting for me this moment; but I must +settle with you about the June flower-show.' + +'Oh! thank you, Mrs. Scott, don't trouble yourself about me,' +said Gertrude; 'I don't think I shall go.' + +'Oh! nonsense, my dear; of course you'll go; it's the show of the +year, and the Grand duke is to be there--baby is all right now, +you know; I must not hear of your not going.' + +'All the same--I fear I must decline,' said Gertrude; 'I think I +shall be at Hampton.' + +'Oh! nonsense, my dear; of course you must show yourself. People +will say all manner of things else. Clementina has promised to +meet Victoire Jaquetanapes there and a party of French people, +people of the very highest ton. You'll be delighted, my dear.' + +'M. Jaquetanapes is the most delicious polkist you ever met,' +said Clementina. 'He has got a new back step that will quite +amaze you.' As Gertrude in her present condition was not much +given to polkas, this temptation did not have great effect. + +'Oh, you must come, of course, my dear--and pray let me recommend +you to go to Madame Bosconi for your bonnet; she has such darling +little ducks, and as cheap as dirt. But I want you to arrange +about the carriage; you can do that with Mr. Tudor, and I can +settle with you afterwards. Captain Scott won't go, of course; +but I have no doubt Undecimus and Mr. Tudor will come later and +bring us home; we can manage very well with the one carriage.' + +In spite of her thousand a year the Honourable Mrs. Val was not +ashamed to look after the pounds, shillings, and pence. And +so, having made her arrangements, Mrs. Val took herself off, +hurrying to appease the anger of Lady Howlaway, and followed by +Clementina, who since her little outburst as to the new back step +of M. Jaquetanapes had not taken much part in the conversation. + +Flower-shows are a great resource for the Mrs. Scotts of London +life. They are open to ladies who cannot quite penetrate the +inner sancta of fashionable life, and yet they are frequented by +those to whom those sancta are everyday household walks. There at +least the Mrs. Scotts of the outer world can show themselves in +close contiguity, and on equal terms, with the Mrs. Scotts of the +inner world. And then, who is to know the difference? If also one +is an Honourable Mrs. Scott, and can contrive to appear as such +in the next day's _Morning Post_, may not one fairly boast +that the ends of society have been attained? Where is the +citadel? How is one to know when one has taken it? + +Gertrude could not be quite so defiant with her friends as she +would have wished to have been, as they were borne with and +encouraged by her husband. Of Undy's wife Alaric saw nothing and +heard little, but it suited Undy to make use of his sister-in- +law's house, and it suited Alaric to be intimate with Undy's +sister-in-law. Moreover, had not Clementina Golightly L20,000, +and was she not a 'doosed fine girl?' This was nothing to Alaric +now, and might not be considered to be much to Undy. But that +far-seeing, acute financier knew that there were other means of +handling a lady's money than that of marrying her. He could not +at present acquire a second fortune in that way; but he might +perhaps acquire the management of this L20,000 if he could +provide the lady with a husband of the proper temperament. Undy +Scott did not want to appropriate Miss Golightly's fortune, he +only wanted to have the management of it. + +Looking round among his acquaintance for a fitting _parti_ +for the sweet Clementina, his mind, after much consideration, +settled upon Charley Tudor. There were many young men much nearer +and dearer to Undy than Charley, who might be equally desirous of +so great a prize; but he could think of none over whom he might +probably exercise so direct a control. Charley was a handsome gay +fellow, and waltzed _au ravir_; he might, therefore, without +difficulty, make his way with the fair Clementina. He was +distressingly poor, and would therefore certainly jump at an +heiress--he was delightfully thoughtless and easy of leading, and +therefore the money, when in his hands, might probably be +manageable. He was also Alaric's cousin, and therefore acceptable. + +Undy did not exactly open his mind to Alaric Tudor in this +matter. Alaric's education was going on rapidly; but his mind had +not yet received with sufficient tenacity those principles of +philosophy which would enable him to look at this scheme in its +proper light. He had already learnt the great utility, one may +almost say the necessity, of having a command of money; he was +beginning also to perceive that money was a thing not to be +judged of by the ordinary rules which govern a man's conduct. In +other matters it behoves a gentleman to be open, above-board, +liberal, and true; good-natured, generous, confiding, self- +denying, doing unto others as he would wish that others should do +unto him; but in the acquirement and use of money--that is, its +use with the object of acquiring more, its use in the usurer's +sense--his practice should be exactly the reverse; he should be +close, secret, exacting, given to concealment, not over troubled +by scruples; suspicious, without sympathies, self-devoted, and +always doing unto others exactly that which he is on his guard to +prevent others from doing unto him--viz., making money by them. +So much Alaric had learnt, and had been no inapt scholar. But he +had not yet appreciated the full value of the latitude allowed by +the genius of the present age to men who deal successfully in +money. He had, as we have seen, acknowledged to himself that a +sportsman may return from the field with his legs and feet a +little muddy; but he did not yet know how deep a man may wallow +in the mire, how thoroughly he may besmear himself from head to +foot in the blackest, foulest mud, and yet be received an +honoured guest by ladies gay and noble lords, if only his bag be +sufficiently full. + + Rem..., quocunque modo rem! + +The remainder of the passage was doubtless applicable to former +times, but now is hardly worth repeating. + +As Alaric's stomach was not yet quite suited for strong food, +Undy fitted this matter to his friend's still juvenile capacities. +There was an heiress, a 'doosed fine girl' as Undy insisted, +laying peculiar strength on the word of emphasis, with L20,000, +and there was Charley Tudor, a devilish decent fellow, without +a rap. Why not bring them together? This would only be a +mark of true friendship on the part of Undy; and on Alaric's +part, it would be no more than one cousin would be bound to do +for another. Looking at it in this light, Alaric saw nothing in +the matter which could interfere with his quiet conscience. + +'I'll do what I can,' said Undy. 'Mrs. Val is inclined to have a +way of her own in most things; but if anybody can lead her, I +can. Charley must take care that Val himself doesn't take his +part, that's all. If he interferes, it would be all up with us.' + +And thus Alaric, intent mainly on the interest of his cousin, and +actuated perhaps a little by the feeling that a rich cousin would +be more serviceable than a poor one, set himself to work, in +connexion with Undy Scott, to make prey of Clementina Golightly's +L20,000. + +But if Undy had no difficulty in securing the co-operation of +Alaric in this matter, Alaric by no means found it equally easy +to secure the co-operation of Charley. Charley Tudor had not yet +learnt to look upon himself as a marketable animal, worth a +certain sum of money, in consequence of such property in good +appearance, address, &c., as God had been good enough to endow +him withal. + +He daily felt the depth and disagreeable results of his own +poverty, and not unfrequently, when specially short of the +Queen's medium, sighed for some of those thousands and tens of +thousands with which men's mouths are so glibly full. He had +often tried to calculate what would be his feelings if some +eccentric, good-natured old stranger should leave him, say, five +thousand a year; he had often walked about the street, with his +hands in his empty pockets, building delicious castles in the +air, and doing the most munificent actions imaginable with his +newly-acquired wealth, as all men in such circumstances do; +relieving distress, rewarding virtue, and making handsome +presents to all his friends, and especially to Mrs. Woodward. So +far Charley was not guiltless of coveting wealth; but he had +never for a moment thought of realizing his dreams by means of +his personal attractions. It had never occurred to him that any +girl having money could think it worth her while to marry him. +He, navvy as he was, with his infernal friends and pot-house +love, with his debts and idleness and low associations, with his +saloons of Seville, his Elysium in Fleet Street, and his Paradise +near the Surrey Gardens, had hitherto thought little enough of +his own attractions. No kind father had taught him that he was +worth L10,000 in any market in the world. When he had dreamt of +money, he had never dreamt of it as accruing to him in return for +any value or worth which he had inherent in himself. Even in his +lighter moments he had no such conceit; and at those periods, few +and far between, in which he did think seriously Of the world at +large, this special method of escaping from his difficulties-- +never once presented itself to his mind. + +When, therefore, Alaric first spoke to him of marrying L20,000 +and Clementina Golightly, his surprise was unbounded. + +'L20,000!' said Alaric, 'and a doosed fine girl, you know;' and +he also laid great stress on the latter part of the offer, +knowing how inflammable was Charley's heart, and at the same time +how little mercenary was his mind. + +But Charley was not only surprised at the proposed arrangement, +but apparently also unwilling to enter into, it. He argued that +in the first place no girl in her senses would accept him. To +this Alaric replied that as Clementina had not much sense to +speak of, that objection might fall to the ground. Then Charley +expressed an idea that Miss Golightly's friends might probably +object when they learnt what were the exact pecuniary resources +of the expectant husband; to which Alaric argued that the +circumstances of the case were very lucky, inasmuch as some of +Clementina's natural friends were already prepossessed in favour +of such an arrangement. + +Driven thus from two of his strongholds, Charley, in the most +modest of voices, in a voice one may say quite shamefaced and +conscious of its master's weakness--suggested that he was not +quite sure that at the present moment he was very much in love +with the lady in question. + +Alaric had married for love, and was not two years married, yet +had his education so far progressed in that short period as to +enable him to laugh at such an objection. + +'Then, my dear fellow, what the deuce do you mean to do with +yourself? You'll certainly go to the dogs. + +Charley had an idea that he certainly should; and also had an +idea that Miss Clementina and her L20,000 might not improbably go +in the same direction, if he had anything to do with them. + +'And as for loving her,' continued Alaric, 'that's all my eye. +Love is a luxury which none but the rich or the poor can afford. +We middle-class paupers, who are born with good coats on our +backs, but empty purses, can have nothing to do with it.' + +'But you married for love, Alaric?' + +'My marriage was not a very prudent one, and should not be taken +as an example. And then I did get some fortune with my wife; and +what is more, I was not so fearfully in want of it as you are.' + +Charley acknowledged the truth of this, said that he would think +of the matrimonial project, and promised, at any rate, to call on +Clementina on an early occasion. He had already made her +acquaintance, had already danced with her, and certainly could +not take upon himself to deny that she was a 'doosed fine girl.' + +But Charley had reasons of his own, reasons which he could not +make known to Alaric, for not thinking much of, or trusting much +to, Miss Golightly's fortune. In the first place, he regarded +marriage on such a grand scale as that now suggested, as a +ceremony which must take a long time to adjust; the wooing of a +lady with so many charms could not be carried on as might be the +wooing of a chambermaid or a farmer's daughter. It must take +months at least to conciliate the friends of so rich an heiress, +and months at the end of them to prepare the wedding gala. But +Charley could not wait for months; before one month was over he +would probably be laid up in some vile limbo, an unfortunate poor +prisoner at the suit of an iron-hearted tailor. + +At this very moment of Alaric's proposition, at this instant when +he found himself talking with so much coolness of the expedience +or inexpedience of appropriating to his own purpose a slight +trifle of L20,000, he was in dire strait as to money difficulties. + +He had lately, that is, within the last twelve months, made +acquaintance with an interesting gentleman named Jabesh M'Ruen. +Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen was in the habit of relieving the distresses of +such impoverished young gentlemen as Charley Tudor; and though he +did this with every assurance of philanthropic regard, though in +doing so he only made one stipulation, 'Pray be punctual, Mr. +Tudor, now pray do be punctual, sir, and you may always count on +me,' nevertheless, in spite of all his goodness, Mr. M'Ruen's +young friends seldom continued to hold their heads well up over +the world's waters. + +On the morning after this conversation with Alaric, Charley +intended to call on his esteemed old friend. Many were the +morning calls he did make; many were the weary, useless, aimless +walks which he took to that little street at the back of +Mecklenburg Square, with the fond hope of getting some relief +from Mr. M'Ruen; and many also were the calls, the return visits, +as it were, which Mr. M'Ruen made at the Internal Navigation, and +numerous were the whispers which he would there whisper into the +ears of the young clerk, Mr. Snape the while sitting by, with a +sweet unconscious look, as though he firmly believed Mr. M'Ruen +to be Charley's maternal uncle. + +And then, too, Charley had other difficulties, which in his mind +presented great obstacles to the Golightly scheme, though Alaric +would have thought little of them, and Undy nothing. What was he +to do with his Norfolk Street lady, his barmaid houri, his Norah +Geraghty, to whom he had sworn all manner of undying love, and +for whom in some sort of fashion he really had an affection? And +Norah was not a light-of-love whom it was as easy to lay down as +to pick up. Charley had sworn to love her, and she had sworn to +love Charley; and to give her her due, she had kept her word to +him. Though her life rendered necessary a sort of daily or rather +nightly flirtation with various male comers--as indeed, for the +matter of that, did also the life of Miss Clementina Golightly-- +yet she had in her way been true to her lover. She had been true +to him, and Charley did not doubt her, and in a sort of low way +respected her; though it was but a dissipated and debauched +respect. There had even been talk between them of marriage, and +who can say what in his softer moments, when his brain had been +too weak or the toddy too strong, Charley may not have promised? + +And there was yet another objection to Miss Golightly; one even +more difficult of mention, one on which Charley felt himself more +absolutely constrained to silence than even either of the other +two. He was sufficiently disinclined to speak to his cousin +Alaric as to the merits either of Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen or of Miss +Geraghty, but he could have been eloquent on either rather than +whisper a word as to the third person who stood between him and +the L20,000. + +The school in which Charley now lived, that of the infernal +navvies, had taught him to laugh at romance; but it had not been +so successful in quelling the early feelings of his youth, in +drying up the fountains of poetry within him, as had been the +case with his cousin, in that other school in which he had been a +scholar. Charley was a dissipated, dissolute rake, and in some +sense had degraded himself; but he had still this chance of +safety on his side, that he himself reprobated his own sins. He +dreamt of other things and a better life. He made visions to +himself of a sweet home, and a sweeter, sweetest, lovely wife; a +love whose hair should not be redolent of smoke, nor her hands +reeking with gin, nor her services at the demand of every +libertine who wanted a screw of tobacco, or a glass of 'cold +without.' + +He had made such a vision to himself, and the angel with which he +had filled it was not a creature of his imagination. She who was +to reign in this ethereal paradise, this happy home, far as the +poles away from Norfolk Street, was a living being in the +sublunar globe, present sometimes to Charley's eyes, and now so +often present to his thoughts; and yet she was but a child, and +as ignorant that she had ever touched a lover's heart by her +childish charms as though she had been a baby. + +After all, even on Charley's part, it was but a vision. He never +really thought that his young inamorata would or could be to him +a real true heart's companion, returning his love with the double +love of a woman, watching his health, curing his vices, and +making the sweet things of the world a living reality around him. +This love of his was but a vision, but not the less on that +account did it interfere with his cousin Alaric's proposition, in +reference to Miss Clementina Golightly. + +That other love also, that squalid love of his, was in truth no +vision--was a stern, palpable reality, very difficult to get rid +of, and one which he often thought to himself would very probably +swallow up that other love, and drive his sweet dream far away +into utter darkness and dim chaotic space. + +But at any rate it was clear that there was no room in his heart +for the beauteous Clementina, 'doosed fine girl' as she +undoubtedly was, and serviceable as the L20,000 most certainly +would have been. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--MORNING + + +On the morning after this conversation with Alaric, Charley left +his lodgings with a heavy heart, and wended his way towards +Mecklenburg Square. At the corner of Davies Street he got an +omnibus, which for fourpence took him to one of the little alleys +near Gray's Inn, and there he got down, and threading the well- +known locality, through Bedford Place and across Theobald's Road, +soon found himself at the door of his generous patron. Oh! how he +hated the house; how he hated the blear-eyed, cross-grained, +dirty, impudent fish-fag of an old woman who opened the door for +him; how he hated Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen, to whom he now came a +supplicant for assistance, and how, above all, he hated himself +for being there. + +He was shown into Mr. M'Ruen's little front parlour, where he had +to wait for fifteen minutes, while his patron made such a +breakfast as generally falls to the lot of such men. We can +imagine the rancid butter, the stale befingered bread, the +ha'porth of sky-blue milk, the tea innocent of China's wrongs, +and the soiled cloth. Mr. M'Ruen always did keep Charley waiting +fifteen minutes, and so he was no whit surprised; the doing so +was a part of the tremendous interest which the wretched old +usurer received for his driblets of money. + +There was not a bit of furniture in the room on which Charley had +not speculated till speculation could go no further; the old +escritoire or secretaire which Mr. M'Ruen always opened the moment +he came into the room; the rickety Pembroke table, covered with +dirty papers which stood in the middle of it; the horsehair- +bottomed chairs, on which Charley declined to sit down, unless he +had on his thickest winter trousers, so perpendicular had become +some atoms on the surface, which, when new, had no doubt been +horizontal; the ornaments (!) on the chimney, broken bits of +filthy crockery, full of wisps of paper, with a china duck +without a tail, and a dog to correspond without a head; the +pictures against the wall, with their tarnished dingy frames and +cracked glasses, representing three of the Seasons; how the +fourth had gone before its time to its final bourne by an unhappy +chance, Mr. M'Ruen had once explained to Charley, while +endeavouring to make his young customer take the other three as a +good value for L7 10s. in arranging a little transaction, the +total amount of which did not exceed L15. + +In that instance, however, Charley, who had already dabbled +somewhat deeply in dressing-cases, utterly refused to trade in +the articles produced. + +Charley stood with his back to the dog and duck, facing Winter, +with Spring on his right and Autumn on his left; it was well that +Summer was gone, no summer could have shed light on that +miserable chamber. He knew that he would have to wait, and was +not therefore impatient, and at the end of fifteen minutes Mr. +M'Ruen shuffled into the room in his slippers. + +He was a little man, with thin grey hair, which stood upright +from his narrow head--what his age might have been it was +impossible to guess; he was wizened, and dry, and grey, but still +active enough on his legs when he had exchanged his slippers for +his shoes; and as keen in all his senses as though years could +never tell upon him. + +He always wore round his neck a stiff-starched deep white +handkerchief, not fastened with a bow in front, the ends being +tucked in so as to be invisible. This cravat not only covered his +throat but his chin also, so that his head seemed to grow forth +from it without the aid of any neck; and he had a trick of +turning his face round within it, an inch or two to the right or +to the left, in a manner which seemed to indicate that his +cranium was loose and might be removed at pleasure. + +He shuffled into the room where Charley was standing with little +short quick steps, and putting out his hand, just touched that of +his customer, by way of going through the usual process of +greeting. + +Some short statement must be made of Charley's money dealings +with Mr. M'Ruen up to this period. About two years back a tailor +had an over-due bill of his for L20, of which he was unable to +obtain payment, and being unwilling to go to law, or perhaps +being himself in Mr. M'Ruen's power, he passed this bill to that +worthy gentleman--what amount of consideration he got for it, it +matters not now to inquire; Mr. M'Ruen very shortly afterwards +presented himself at the Internal Navigation, and introduced +himself to our hero. He did this with none of the overbearing +harshness of the ordinary dun, or the short caustic decision of a +creditor determined to resort to the utmost severity of the law. +He turned his head about and smiled, and just showed the end of +the bill peeping out from among a parcel of others, begged Mr. +Tudor to be punctual, he would only ask him to be punctual, and +would in such case do anything for him, and ended his visit by +making an appointment to meet Charley in the little street behind +Mecklenburg Square. Charley kept his appointment, and came away +from Mr. M'Ruen's with a well-contented mind. He had, it is true, +left L5 behind him, and had also left the bill, still entire; but +he had obtained a promise of unlimited assistance from the good- +natured gentleman, and had also received instructions how he was +to get a brother clerk to draw a bill, how he was to accept it +himself, and how his patron was to discount it for him, paying +him real gold out of the Bank of England in exchange for his +worthless signature. + +Charley stepped lighter on the ground as he left Mr. M'Ruen's +house on that eventful morning than he had done for many a day. +There was something delightful in the feeling that he could make +money of his name in this way, as great bankers do of theirs, by +putting it at the bottom of a scrap of paper. He experienced a +sort of pride too in having achieved so respectable a position in +the race of ruin which he was running, as to have dealings with a +bill-discounter. He felt that he was putting himself on a par +with great men, and rising above the low level of the infernal +navvies. Mr. M'Ruen had pulled the bill out of a heap of bills +which he always carried in his huge pocket-book, and showed to +Charley the name of an impoverished Irish peer on the back of it; +and the sight of that name had made Charley quite in love with +rum. He already felt that he was almost hand-and-glove with Lord +Mount-Coffeehouse; for it was a descendant of the nobleman so +celebrated in song. 'Only be punctual, Mr. Tudor; only be +punctual, and I will do anything for you,' Mr. M'Ruen had said, +as Charley left the house. Charley, however, never had been +punctual, and yet his dealings with Mr. M'Ruen had gone on from +that day to this. What absolute money he had ever received into +his hand he could not now have said, but it was very little, +probably not amounting in all to L50. Yet he had already paid +during the two years more than double that sum to this sharp- +clawed vulture, and still owed him the amounts of more bills than +he could number. Indeed he had kept no account of these double- +fanged little documents; he had signed them whenever told to do +so, and had even been so preposterously foolish as to sign them +in blank. All he knew was that at the beginning of every quarter +Mr. M'Ruen got nearly the half of his little modicum of salary, +and that towards the middle of it he usually contrived to obtain +an advance of some small, some very small sum, and that when +doing so he always put his hand to a fresh bit of paper. + +He was beginning to be heartily sick of the bill-discounter. His +intimacy with the lord had not yet commenced, nor had he +experienced any of the delights which he had expected to accrue +to him from the higher tone of extravagance in which he entered +when he made Mr. M'Ruen's acquaintance. And then the horrid fatal +waste of time which he incurred in pursuit of the few pounds +which he occasionally obtained, filled even his heart with a sort +of despair. Morning after morning he would wait in that hated +room; and then day after day, at two o'clock, he would attend the +usurer's city haunt--and generally all in vain. The patience of +Mr. Snape was giving way, and the discipline even of the Internal +Navigation felt itself outraged. + +And now Charley stood once more in that dingy little front +parlour in which he had never yet seen a fire, and once more Mr. +Jabesh M'Ruen shuffled into the room in his big cravat and dirty +loose slippers. + +'How d'ye do, Mr. Tudor, how d'ye do? I hope you have brought a +little of this with you;' and Jabesh opened out his left hand, +and tapped the palm of it with the middle finger of his right, by +way of showing that he expected some money: not that he did +expect any, cormorant that he was; this was not the period of the +quarter in which he ever got money from his customer. + +'Indeed I have not, Mr. M'Ruen; but I positively must get some.' + +'Oh--oh--oh--oh--Mr. Tudor--Mr. Tudor! How can we go on if you +are so unpunctual? Now I would do anything for you if you would +only be punctual.' + +'Oh! bother about that--you know your own game well enough.' + +'Be punctual, Mr. Tudor, only be punctual, and we shall be all +right--and so you have not got any of this?' and Jabesh went +through the tapping again. + +'Not a doit,' said Charley; 'but I shall be up the spout +altogether if you don't do something to help me.' + +'But you are so unpunctual, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Oh, d--- it; you'll make me sick if you say that again. What +else do you live by but that? But I positively must have some +money from you to-day. If not I am done for.' + +'I don't think I can, Mr. Tudor; not to-day, Mr. Tudor--some +other day, say this day month; that is, if you'll be punctual.' + +'This day month! no, but this very day, Mr. M'Ruen--why, you got +L18 from me when I received my last salary, and I have not had a +shilling back since.' + +'But you are so unpunctual, Mr. Tudor,' and Jabesh twisted his +head backwards and forwards within his cravat, rubbing his chin +with the interior starch. + +'Well, then, I'll tell you what it is,' said Charley, 'I'll be +shot if you get a shilling from me on the 1st of October, and you +may sell me up as quick as you please. If I don't give a history +of your business that will surprise some people, my name isn't +Tudor.' + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Mr. M'Ruen, with a soft quiet laugh. + +'Well, really, Mr. Tudor, I would do more for you than any other +young man that I know, if you were only a little more punctual. +How much is it you want now?' + +'L15--or L10--L10 will do.' + +'Ten pounds!' said Jabesh, as though Charley had asked for ten +thousand--'ten pounds!--if two or three would do--' + +'But two or three won't do.' + +'And whose name will you bring?' + +'Whose name! why Scatterall's, to be sure.' Now Scatterall was +one of the navvies; and from him Mr. M'Ruen had not yet succeeded +in extracting one farthing, though he had his name on a volume of +Charley's bills. + +'Scatterall--I don't like Mr. Scatterall,' said Jabesh; 'he is +very dissipated, and the most unpunctual young man I ever met-- +you really must get some one else, Mr. Tudor; you really must.' + +'Oh, that's nonsense--Scatterall is as good as anybody--I +couldn't ask any of the other fellows--they are such a low set.' + +'But Mr. Scatterall is so unpunctual. There's your cousin, Mr. +Alaric Tudor.' + +'My cousin Alaric! Oh, nonsense! you don't suppose I'd ask him to +do such a thing? You might as well tell me to go to my father.' + +'Or that other gentleman you live with; Mr. Norman. He is a most +punctual gentleman. Bring me his name, and I'll let you have L10 +or L8--I'll let you have L8 at once.' + +'I dare say you will, Mr. M'Ruen, or L80; and be only too happy +to give it me. But you know that is out of the question. Now I +won't wait any longer; just give me an answer to this: if I come +to you in the city will you let me have some money to-day? If you +won't, why I must go elsewhere--that's all.' + +The interview ended by an appointment being made for another +meeting to come off at two p.m. that day, at the 'Banks of +Jordan,' a public-house in Sweeting's Alley, as well known to +Charley as the little front parlour of Mr. M'Ruen's house. 'Bring +the bill-stamp with you, Mr. Tudor,' said Jabesh, by way of a +last parting word of counsel; 'and let Mr. Scatterall sign it-- +that is, if it must be Mr. Scatterall; but I wish you would bring +your cousin's name.' + +'Nonsense!' + +'Well, then, bring it signed--but I'll fill it; you young fellows +understand nothing of filling in a bill properly.' + +And then taking his leave the infernal navvy hurried off, and +reached his office in Somerset House at a quarter past eleven +o'clock. As he walked along he bought the bit of stamped paper on +which his friend Scatterall was to write his name. + +When he reached the office he found that a great commotion was +going on. Mr. Snape was standing up at his desk, and the first +word which greeted Charley's ears was an intimation from that +gentleman that Mr. Oldeschole had desired that Mr. Tudor, when he +arrived, should be instructed to attend in the board-room. + +'Very well,' said Charley, in a tone of great indifference, 'with +all my heart; I rather like seeing Oldeschole now and then. But +he mustn't keep me long, for I have to meet my grandmother at +Islington at two o'clock;' and Charley, having hung up his hat, +prepared to walk off to the Secretary's room. + +'You'll be good enough to wait a few minutes, Mr. Tudor,' said +Snape. 'Another gentleman is with Mr. Oldeschole at present. You +will be good enough to sit down and go on with the Kennett and +Avon lock entries, till Mr. Oldeschole is ready to see you.' + +Charley sat down at his desk opposite to his friend Scatterall. +'I hope, Mr. Snape, you had a pleasant meeting at evening prayers +yesterday,' said he, with a tone of extreme interest. + +'You had better mind the lock entries at present, Mr. Tudor; they +are greatly in arrear.' + +'And the evening meetings are docketed up as close as wax, I +suppose. What the deuce is in the wind, Dick?' Mr. Scatterall's +Christian name was Richard. 'Where's Corkscrew?' Mr. Corkscrew +was also a navvy, and was one of those to whom Charley had +specially alluded when he spoke of the low set. + +'Oh, here's a regular go,' said Scatterall. 'It's all up with +Corkscrew, I believe.' + +'Why, what's the cheese now?' + +'Oh! it's all about some pork chops, which Screwy had for supper +last night.' Screwy was a name of love which among his brother +navvies was given to Mr. Corkscrew. 'Mr. Snape seems to think +they did not agree with him.' + +'Pork chops in July!' exclaimed Charley. + +'Poor Screwy forgot the time of year,' said another navvy; 'he +ought to have called it lamb and grass.' + +And then the story was told. On the preceding afternoon, Mr. +Corkscrew had been subjected to the dire temptation of a boating +party to the Eel-pie Island for the following day, and a dinner +thereon. There were to be at the feast no less than four-and- +twenty jolly souls, and it was intimated to Mr. Corkscrew that as +no soul was esteemed to be more jolly than his own, the party +would be considered as very imperfect unless he could join it. +Asking for a day's leave Mr. Corkscrew knew to be out of the +question; he had already taken too many without asking. He was +therefore driven to take another in the same way, and had to look +about for some excuse which might support him in his difficulty. +An excuse it must be, not only new, but very valid; one so strong +that it could not be overset; one so well avouched that it could +not be doubted. Accordingly, after mature consideration, he sat +down after leaving his office, and wrote the following letter, +before he started on an evening cruising expedition with some +others of the party to prepare for the next day's festivities. + +'Thursday morning,--July, 185-. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'I write from my bed where I am suffering a most tremendous +indiggestion, last night I eat a stunning supper off pork chopps +and never remembered that pork chopps always does disagree with +me, but I was very indiscrete and am now teetotally unable to +rise my throbing head from off my pillar, I have took four blu +pills and some salts and sena, plenty of that, and shall be the +thing to-morrow morning no doubt, just at present I feel just as +if I had a mill stone inside my stomac--Pray be so kind as to +make it all right with Mr. Oldeschole and believe me to remain, + +'Your faithful and obedient servant, + +'VERAX CORKSCREW. + +'Thomas Snape, Esq., &c., + +'Internal Navigation Office, Somerset House.' + +Having composed this letter of excuse, and not intending to +return to his lodgings that evening, he had to make provision for +its safely reaching the hands of Mr. Snape in due time on the +following morning. This he did, by giving it to the boy who came +to clean the lodging-house boots, with sundry injunctions that if +he did not deliver it at the office by ten o'clock on the +following morning, the sixpence accruing to him would never be +paid. Mr. Corkscrew, however, said nothing as to the letter not +being delivered before ten the next morning, and as other +business took the boy along the Strand the same evening, he saw +no reason why he should not then execute his commission. He +accordingly did so, and duly delivered the letter into the hands +of a servant girl, who was cleaning the passages of the office. + +Fortune on this occasion was blind to the merits of Mr. +Corkscrew, and threw him over most unmercifully. It so happened +that Mr. Snape had been summoned to an evening conference with +Mr. Oldeschole and the other pundits of the office, to discuss +with them, or rather to hear discussed, some measure which they +began to think it necessary to introduce, for amending the +discipline of the department. + +'We are getting a bad name, whether we deserve it or not,' said +Mr. Oldeschole. 'That fellow Hardlines has put us into his blue- +book, and now there's an article in the _Times_!' + +Just at this moment, a messenger brought in to Mr. Snape the +unfortunate letter of which we have given a copy. + +'What's that?' said Mr. Oldeschole. + +'A note from Mr. Corkscrew, sir,' said Snape. + +'He's the worst of the whole lot,' said Mr. Oldeschole. + +'He is very bad,' said Snape; 'but I rather think that perhaps, +sir, Mr. Tudor is the worst of all.' + +'Well, I don't know,' said the Secretary, muttering _sotto +voce_ to the Under-Secretary, while Mr. Snape read the letter +--'Tudor, at any rate, is a gentleman.' + +Mr. Snape read the letter, and his face grew very long. There was +a sort of sneaking civility about Corkscrew, not prevalent indeed +at all times, but which chiefly showed itself when he and Mr. +Snape were alone together, which somewhat endeared him to the +elder clerk. He would have screened the sinner had he had either +the necessary presence of mind or the necessary pluck. But he had +neither. He did not know how to account for the letter but by the +truth, and he feared to conceal so flagrant a breach of +discipline at the moment of the present discussion. + +Things at any rate so turned out that Mr. Corkscrew's letter was +read in full conclave in the board-room of the office, just as he +was describing the excellence of his manoeuvre with great glee to +four or five other jolly souls at the 'Magpie and Stump.' + +At first it was impossible to prevent a fit of laughter, in which +even Mr. Snape joined; but very shortly the laughter gave way to +the serious considerations to which such an epistle was sure to +give rise at such a moment. What if Sir Gregory Hardlines should +get hold of it and put it into his blue-book! What if the +_Times_ should print it and send it over the whole world, +accompanied by a few of its most venomous touches, to the eternal +disgrace of the Internal Navigation, and probably utter +annihilation of Mr. Oldeschole's official career! An example must +be made! + +Yes, an example must be made. Messengers were sent off scouring +the town for Mr. Corkscrew, and about midnight he was found, +still true to the 'Magpie and Stump,' but hardly in condition to +understand the misfortune which had befallen him. So much as +this, however, did make itself manifest to him, that he must by +no means join his jolly-souled brethren at the Eel-pie Island, +and that he must be at his office punctually at ten o'clock the +next morning if he had any intention of saving himself from +dismissal. When Charley arrived at his office, Mr. Corkscrew was +still with the authorities, and Charley's turn was to come next. + +Charley was rather a favourite with Mr. Oldeschole, having been +appointed by himself at the instance of Mr. Oldeschole's great +friend, Sir Gilbert de Salop; and he was, moreover, the best- +looking of the whole lot of navvies; but he was no favourite with +Mr. Snape. + +'Poor Screwy--it will be all up with him,' said Charley. 'He +might just as well have gone on with his party and had his fun +out.' + +'It will, I imagine, be necessary to make more than one example, +Mr. Tudor,' said Mr. Snape, with a voice of utmost severity. + +'A-a-a-men,' said Charley. 'If everything else fails, I think +I'll go into the green line. You couldn't give me a helping hand, +could you, Mr. Snape?' There was a rumour afloat in the office +that Mr. Snape's wife held some little interest in a small +greengrocer's establishment. + +'Mr. Tudor to attend in the board-room, immediately,' said a fat +messenger, who opened the door wide with a start, and then stood +with it in his hand while he delivered the message. + +'All right,' said Charley; 'I'll tumble up and be with them in +ten seconds;' and then collecting together a large bundle of the +arrears of the Kennett and Avon lock entries, being just as much +as he could carry, he took the disordered papers and placed them +on Mr. Snape's desk, exactly over the paper on which he was +writing, and immediately under his nose. + +'Mr. Tudor--Mr. Tudor!' said Snape. + +'As I am to tear myself away from you, Mr. Snape, it is better +that I should hand over these valuable documents to your safe +keeping. There they are, Mr. Snape; pray see that you have got +them all;' and so saying, he left the room to attend to the high +behests of Mr. Oldeschole. + +As he went along the passages he met Verax Corkscrew returning +from his interview. 'Well, Screwy,' said he, 'and how fares it +with you? Pork chops are bad things in summer, ain't they?' + +'It's all U-P,' said Corkscrew, almost crying. 'I'm to go down to +the bottom, and I'm to stay at the office till seven o'clock +every day for a month; and old Foolscap says he'll ship me the +next time I'm absent half-an-hour without leave.' + +'Oh! is that all?' said Charley. 'If that's all you get for pork +chops and senna, I'm all right. I shouldn't wonder if I did not +get promoted;' and so he went in to his interview. + +What was the nature of the advice given him, what amount of +caution he was called on to endure, need not here be exactly +specified. We all know with how light a rod a father chastises +the son he loves, let Solomon have given what counsel he may to +the contrary. Charley, in spite of his manifold sins, was a +favourite, and he came forth from the board-room an unscathed +man. In fact, he had been promoted as he had surmised, seeing +that Corkscrew who had been his senior was now his junior. He +came forth unscathed, and walking with an easy air into his room, +put his hat on his head and told his brother clerks that he +should be there to-morrow morning at ten, or at any rate soon +after. + +'And where are you going now, Mr. Tudor?' said Snape. + +'To meet my grandmother at Islington, if you please, sir,' said +Charley. 'I have permission from Mr. Oldeschole to attend upon +her for the rest of the day--perhaps you would like to ask him.' +And so saying he went off to his appointment with Mr. M'Ruen at +the 'Banks of Jordan.' + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--AFTERNOON + + +The 'Banks of Jordan' was a public-house in the city, which from +its appearance did not seem to do a very thriving trade; but as +it was carried on from year to year in the same dull, monotonous, +dead-alive sort of fashion, it must be surmised that some one +found an interest in keeping it open. + +Charley, when he entered the door punctually at two o'clock, saw +that it was as usual nearly deserted. One long, lanky, middle- +aged man, seedy as to his outward vestments, and melancholy in +countenance, sat at one of the tables. But he was doing very +little good for the establishment: he had no refreshment of any +kind before him, and was intent only on a dingy pocket-book in +which he was making entries with a pencil. + +You enter the 'Banks of Jordan' by two folding doors in a corner +of a very narrow alley behind the Exchange. As you go in, you +observe on your left a little glass partition, something like a +large cage, inside which, in a bar, are four or five untempting- +looking bottles; and also inside the cage, on a chair, is to be +seen a quiet-looking female, who is invariably engaged in the +manufacture of some white article of inward clothing. Anything +less like the flashy-dressed bar-maidens of the western gin +palaces it would be difficult to imagine. To this encaged +sempstress no one ever speaks unless it be to give a rare order +for a mutton chop or pint of stout. And even for this she hardly +stays her sewing for a moment, but touches a small bell, and the +ancient waiter, who never shows himself but when called for, and +who is the only other inhabitant of the place ever visible, +receives the order from her through an open pane in the cage as +quietly as she received it from her customer. + +The floor of the single square room of the establishment is +sanded, and the tables are ranged round the walls, each table +being fixed to the floor, and placed within wooden partitions, by +which the occupier is screened from any inquiring eyes on either +side. + +Such was Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen's house-of-call in the city, and of +many a mutton chop and many a pint of stout had Charley partaken +there while waiting for the man of money. To him it seemed to be +inexcusable to sit down in a public inn and call for nothing; he +perceived, however, that the large majority of the frequenters of +the 'Banks of Jordan' so conducted themselves. + +He was sufficiently accustomed to the place to know how to give +his orders without troubling that diligent barmaid, and had done +so about ten minutes when Jabesh, more punctual than usual, +entered the place. This Charley regarded as a promising sign of +forthcoming cash. It very frequently happened that he waited +there an hour, and that after all Jabesh would not come; and then +the morning visit to Mecklenburg Square had to be made again; and +so poor Charley's time, or rather the time of his poor office, +was cut up, wasted, and destroyed. + +'A mutton chop!' said Mr. M'Ruen, looking at Charley's banquet. +'A very nice thing indeed in the middle of the day. I don't mind +if I have one myself,' and so Charley had to order another chop +and more stout. + +'They have very nice sherry here, excellent sherry,' said M'Ruen. +'The best, I think, in the city--that's why I come here.' + +'Upon my honour, Mr. M'Ruen, I shan't have money to pay for it +until I get some from you,' said Charley, as he called for a pint +of sherry. + +'Never mind, John, never mind the sherry to-day,' said M'Ruen. +'Mr. Tudor is very kind, but I'll take beer;' and the little man +gave a laugh and twisted his head, and ate his chop and drank his +stout, as though he found that both were very good indeed. When +he had finished, Charley paid the bill and discovered that he was +left with ninepence in his pocket. + +And then he produced the bill stamp. 'Waiter,' said he, 'pen and +ink,' and the waiter brought pen and ink. + +'Not to-day,' said Jabesh, wiping his mouth with the table-cloth. +'Not to-day, Mr. Tudor--I really haven't time to go into it to- +day--and I haven't brought the other bills with me; I quite +forgot to bring the other bills with me, and I can do nothing +without them,' and Mr. M'Ruen got up to go. + +But this was too much for Charley. He had often before bought +bill stamps in vain, and in vain had paid for mutton chops and +beer for Mr. M'Ruen's dinner; but he had never before, when doing +so, been so hard pushed for money as he was now. He was +determined to make a great attempt to gain his object. + +'Nonsense,' said he, getting up and standing so as to prevent +M'Ruen from leaving the box; 'that's d--- nonsense.' + +'Oh! don't swear,' said M'Ruen--'pray don't take God's name in +vain; I don't like it.' + +'I shall swear, and to some purpose too, if that's your game. Now +look here----' + +'Let me get up, and we'll talk of it as we go to the bank--you +are so unpunctual, you know.' + +'D--- your punctuality.' + +'Oh! don't swear, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Look here--if you don't let me have this money to-day, by all +that is holy I will never pay you a farthing again--not one +farthing; I'll go into the court, and you may get your money as +you can.' + +'But, Mr. Tudor, let me get up, and we'll talk about it in the +street, as we go along.' + +'There's the stamp,' said Charley. 'Fill it up, and then I'll go +with you to the bank.' + +M'Ruen took the bit of paper, and twisted it over and over again +in his hand, considering the while whether he had yet squeezed +out of the young man all that could be squeezed with safety, or +whether by an additional turn, by giving him another small +advancement, he might yet get something more. He knew that Tudor +was in a very bad state, that he was tottering on the outside +edge of the precipice; but he also knew that he had friends. +Would his friends when they came forward to assist their young +Pickle out of the mire, would they pay such bills as these or +would they leave poor Jabesh to get his remedy at law? That was +the question which Mr. M'Ruen had to ask and to answer. He was +not one of those noble vultures who fly at large game, and who +are willing to run considerable risk in pursuit of their prey. +Mr. M'Ruen avoided courts of law as much as he could, and +preferred a small safe trade; one in which the fall of a single +customer could never be ruinous to him; in which he need run no +risk of being transported for forgery, incarcerated for perjury, +or even, if possibly it might be avoided, gibbeted by some lawyer +or judge for his malpractices. + +'But you are so unpunctual,' he said, having at last made up his +mind that he had made a very good thing of Charley, and that +probably he might go a _little_ further without much danger. +'I wish to oblige you, Mr. Tudor; but pray do be punctual;' and +so saying he slowly spread the little document before him, across +which Scatterall had already scrawled his name, and slowly began +to write in the date. Slowly, with his head low down over the +table, and continually twisting it inside his cravat, he filled +up the paper, and then looking at it with the air of a connoisseur +in such matters, he gave it to Charley to sign. + +'But you haven't put in the amount,' said Charley. + +Mr. M'Ruen twisted his head and laughed. He delighted in playing +with his game as a fisherman does with a salmon. 'Well--no--I +haven't put in the amount yet. Do you sign it, and I'll do that +at once.' + +'I'll do it,' said Charley; 'I'll say L15, and you'll give me L10 +on that.' + +'No, no, no!' said Jabesh, covering the paper over with his +hands; 'you young men know nothing of filling bills; just sign +it, Mr. Tudor, and I'll do the rest.' And so Charley signed it, +and then M'Ruen, again taking the pen, wrote in 'fifteen pounds' +as the recognized amount of the value of the document. He also +took out his pocket-book and filled a cheque, but he was very +careful that Charley should not see the amount there written. +'And now,' said he, 'we will go to the bank.' + +As they made their way to the house in Lombard Street which Mr. +M'Ruen honoured by his account, Charley insisted on knowing how +much he was to have for the bill. Jabesh suggested L3 10s.; +Charley swore he would take nothing less than L8; but by the time +they had arrived at the bank, it had been settled that L5 was to +be paid in cash, and that Charley was to have the three Seasons +for the balance whenever he chose to send for them. When Charley, +as he did at first, positively refused to accede to these terms, +Mr. M'Ruen tendered him back the bill, and reminded him with a +plaintive voice that he was so unpunctual, so extremely +unpunctual. + +Having reached the bank, which the money-lender insisted on +Charley entering with him, Mr. M'Ruen gave the cheque across the +counter, and wrote on the back of it the form in which he would +take the money, whereupon a note and five sovereigns were handed +to him. The cheque was for L15, and was payable to C. Tudor, +Esq., so that proof might be forthcoming at a future time, if +necessary, that he had given to his customer full value for the +bill. Then in the outer hall of the bank, unseen by the clerks, +he put, one after another, slowly and unwillingly, four +sovereigns into Charley's hand. + +'The other--where's the other?' said Charley. + +Jabesh smiled sweetly and twisted his head. + +'Come, give me the other,' said Charley roughly. + +'Four is quite enough, quite enough for what you want; and +remember my time, Mr. Tudor; you should remember my time.' + +'Give me the other sovereign,' said Charley, taking hold of the +front of his coat. + +'Well, well, you shall have ten shillings; but I want the rest +for a purpose.' + +'Give me the sovereign,' said Charley, 'or I'll drag you in +before them all in the bank and expose you; give me the other +sovereign, I say.' + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Mr. M'Ruen; 'I thought you liked a joke, +Mr. Tudor. Well, here it is. And now do be punctual, pray do be +punctual, and I'll do anything I can for you.' + +And then they parted, Charley going westward towards his own +haunts, and M'Ruen following his daily pursuits in the city. + +Charley had engaged to pull up to Avis's at Putney with Harry +Norman, to dine there, take a country walk, and row back in the +cool of the evening; and he had promised to call at the Weights +and Measures with that object punctually at five. + +'You can get away in time for that, I suppose,' said Harry. + +'Well, I'll try and manage it,' said Charley, laughing. + +Nothing could be kinder, nay, more affectionate, than Norman had +been to his fellow-lodger during the last year and a half. It +seemed as though he had transferred to Alaric's cousin all the +friendship which he had once felt for Alaric; and the deeper were +Charley's sins of idleness and extravagance, the wider grew +Norman's forgiveness, and the more sincere his efforts to +befriend him. As one result of this, Charley was already deep in +his debt. Not that Norman had lent him money, or even paid bills +for him; but the lodgings in which they lived had been taken by +Norman, and when the end of the quarter came he punctually paid +his landlady. + +Charley had once, a few weeks before the period of which we are +now writing, told Norman that he had no money to pay his long +arrear, and that he would leave the lodgings and shift for +himself as best he could. He had said the same thing to Mrs. +Richards, the landlady, and had gone so far as to pack up all his +clothes; but his back was no sooner turned than Mrs. Richards, +under Norman's orders, unpacked them all, and hid away the +portmanteau. It was well for him that this was done. He had +bespoken for himself a bedroom at the public-house in Norfolk +Street, and had he once taken up his residence there he would +have been ruined for ever. + +He was still living with Norman, and ever increasing his debt. In +his misery at this state of affairs, he had talked over with +Harry all manner of schemes for increasing his income, but he had +never told him a word about Mr. M'Ruen. Why his salary, which was +now L150 per annum, should not be able to support him, Norman +never asked. Charley the while was very miserable, and the more +miserable he was, the less he found himself able to rescue +himself from his dissipation. What moments of ease he had were +nearly all spent in Norfolk Street; and such being the case how +could he abstain from going there? + +'Well, Charley, and how do 'Crinoline and Macassar' go on?' said +Norman, as they sauntered away together up the towing-path above +Putney. Now there were those who had found out that Charley +Tudor, in spite of his wretched, idle, vagabond mode of life, was +no fool; indeed, that there was that talent within him which, if +turned to good account, might perhaps redeem him from ruin and +set him on his legs again; at least so thought some of his +friends, among whom Mrs. Woodward was the most prominent. She +insisted that if he would make use of his genius he might employ +his spare time to great profit by writing for magazines or +periodicals; and, inspirited by so flattering a proposition, +Charley had got himself introduced to the editor of a newly- +projected publication. At his instance he was to write a tale for +approval, and 'Crinoline and Macassar' was the name selected for +his first attempt. + +The affair had been fully talked over at Hampton, and it had been +arranged that the young author should submit his story, when +completed, to the friendly criticism of the party assembled at +Surbiton Cottage, before he sent it to the editor. He had +undertaken to have 'Crinoline and Macassar' ready for perusal on +the next Saturday, and in spite of Mr. M'Ruen and Norah Geraghty, +he had really been at work. + +'Will it be finished by Saturday, Charley?' said Norman. + +'Yes--at least I hope so; but if that's not done, I have another +all complete.' + +'Another! and what is that called?' + +'Oh, that's a very short one,' said Charley, modestly. + +'But, short as it is, it must have a name, I suppose. What's the +name of the short one?' + +'Why, the name is long enough; it's the longest part about it. +The editor gave me the name, you know, and then I had to write +the story. It's to be called "Sir Anthony Allan-a-dale and the +Baron of Ballyporeen."' + +'Oh! two rival knights in love with the same lady, of course,' +and Harry gave a gentle sigh as he thought of his own still +unhealed grief. 'The scene is laid in Ireland, I presume?' + +'No, not in Ireland; at least not exactly. I don't think the +scene is laid anywhere in particular; it's up in a mountain, near +a castle. There isn't any lady in it--at least, not alive.' + +'Heavens, Charley! I hope you are not dealing with dead women.' + +'No--that is, I have to bring them to life again. I'll tell you +how it is. In the first paragraph, Sir Anthony Allan-a-dale is +lying dead, and the Baron of Ballyporeen is standing over him +with a bloody sword. You must always begin with an incident now, +and then hark back for your explanation and description; that's +what the editor says is the great secret of the present day, and +where we beat all the old fellows that wrote twenty years ago.' + +'Oh!--yes--I see. They used to begin at the beginning; that was +very humdrum.' + +'A devilish bore, you know, for a fellow who takes up a novel +because he's dull. Of course he wants his fun at once. If you +begin with a long history of who's who and all that, why he won't +read three pages; but if you touch him up with a startling +incident or two at the first go off, then give him a chapter of +horrors, then another of fun, then a little love or a little +slang, or something of that sort, why, you know, about the end of +the first volume, you may describe as much as you like, and tell +everything about everybody's father and mother for just as many +pages as you want to fill. At least that's what the editor says.' + +'_Meleager ab ovo_ may be introduced with safety when you +get as far as that,' suggested Norman. + +'Yes, you may bring him in too, if you like,' said Charley, who +was somewhat oblivious of his classicalities. 'Well, Sir Anthony +is lying dead and the Baron is standing over him, when out come +Sir Anthony's retainers----' + +'Out--out of what?' + +'Out of the castle: that's all explained afterwards. Out come the +retainers, and pitch into the Baron till they make mincemeat of +him.' + +'They don't kill him, too?' + +'Don't they though? I rather think they do, and no mistake.' + +'And so both your heroes are dead in the first chapter.' + +'First chapter! why that's only the second paragraph. I'm only to +be allowed ten paragraphs for each number, and I am expected to +have an incident for every other paragraph for the first four +days.' + +'That's twenty incidents.' + +'Yes--it's a great bother finding so many.--I'm obliged to make +the retainers come by all manner of accidents; and I should never +have finished the job if I hadn't thought of setting the castle +on fire. 'And now forked tongues of liquid fire, and greedy +lambent flames burst forth from every window of the devoted +edifice. The devouring element----.' That's the best passage in +the whole affair.' + +'This is for the _Daily Delight_, isn't it?' + +'Yes, for the _Daily Delight_. It is to begin on the 1st of +September with the partridges. We expect a most tremendous sale. +It will be the first halfpenny publication in the market, and as +the retailers will get them for sixpence a score--twenty-four to +the score--they'll go off like wildfire.' + +'Well, Charley, and what do you do with the dead bodies of your +two heroes?' + +'Of course I needn't tell you that it was not the Baron who +killed Sir Anthony at all.' + +'Oh! wasn't it? O dear--that was a dreadful mistake on the part +of the retainers.' + +'But as natural as life. You see these two grandees were next- +door neighbours, and there had been a feud between the families +for seven centuries--a sort of Capulet and Montague affair. One +Adelgitha, the daughter of the Thane of Allan-a-dale--there were +Thanes in those days, you know--was betrothed to the eldest son +of Sir Waldemar de Ballyporeen. This gives me an opportunity of +bringing in a succinct little account of the Conquest, which will +be beneficial to the lower classes. The editor peremptorily +insists upon that kind of thing.' + +'_Omne tulit punctum_,' said Norman. + +'Yes, I dare say,' said Charley, who was now too intent on his +own new profession to attend much to his friend's quotation. +'Well, where was I?--Oh! the eldest son of Sir Waldemar went off +with another lady and so the feud began. There is a very pretty +scene between Adelgitha and her lady's-maid.' + +'What, seven centuries before the story begins?' + +'Why not? The editor says that the unities are altogether thrown +over now, and that they are regular bosh--our game is to stick in +a good bit whenever we can get it--I got to be so fond of +Adelgitha that I rather think she's the heroine.' + +'But doesn't that take off the interest from your dead grandees?' + +'Not a bit; I take it chapter and chapter about. Well, you see, +the retainers had no sooner made mincemeat of the Baron--a very +elegant young man was the Baron, just returned from the +Continent, where he had learnt to throw aside all prejudices +about family feuds and everything eke, and he had just come over +in a friendly way, to say as much to Sir Anthony, when, as he +crossed the drawbridge, he stumbled over the corpse of his +ancient enemy--well, the retainers had no sooner made mincemeat +of him, than they perceived that Sir Anthony was lying with an +open bottle in his hand, and that he had taken poison.' + +'Having committed suicide?' asked Norman. + +'No, not at all. The editor says that we must always have a slap +at some of the iniquities of the times. He gave me three or four +to choose from; there was the adulteration of food, and the want +of education for the poor, and street music, and the miscellaneous +sale of poisons.' + +'And so you chose poisons and killed the knight?' + +'Exactly; at least I didn't kill him, for he comes all right +again after a bit. He had gone out to get something to do him +good after a hard night, a Seidlitz powder, or something of that +sort, and an apothecary's apprentice had given him prussic acid +in mistake.' + +'And how is it possible he should have come to life after taking +prussic acid?' + +'Why, there I have a double rap at the trade. The prussic acid is +so bad of its kind, that it only puts him into a kind of torpor +for a week. Then we have the trial of the apothecary's boy; that +is an excellent episode, and gives me a grand hit at the +absurdity of our criminal code.' + +'Why, Charley, it seems to me that you are hitting at +everything.' + +'Oh! ah! right and left, that's the game for us authors. The +press is the only _censor morum_ going now--and who so fit? +Set a thief to catch a thief, you know. Well, I have my hit at +the criminal code, and then Sir Anthony comes out of his torpor.' + +'But how did it come to pass that the Baron's sword was all +bloody?' + +'Ah, there was the difficulty; I saw that at once. It was +necessary to bring in something to be killed, you know. I thought +of a stray tiger out of Wombwell's menagerie; but the editor says +that we must not trespass against the probabilities; so I have +introduced a big dog. The Baron had come across a big dog, and +seeing that the brute had a wooden log tied to his throat, +thought he must be mad, and so he killed him.' + +'And what's the end of it, Charley?' + +'Why, the end is rather melancholy. Sir Anthony reforms, leaves +off drinking, and takes to going to church everyday. He becomes a +Puseyite, puts up a memorial window to the Baron, and reads the +Tracts. At last he goes over to the Pope, walks about in nasty +dirty clothes all full of vermin, and gives over his estate to +Cardinal Wiseman. Then there are the retainers; they all come to +grief, some one way and some another. I do that for the sake of +the Nemesis.' + +'I would not have condescended to notice them, I think,' said +Norman. + +'Oh! I must; there must be a Nemesis. The editor specially +insists on a Nemesis.' + +The conclusion of Charley's novel brought them back to the boat. +Norman, when he started, had intended to employ the evening in +giving good counsel to his friend, and in endeavouring to arrange +some scheme by which he might rescue the brand from the burning; +but he had not the heart to be severe and sententious while +Charley was full of his fun. It was so much pleasanter to talk to +him on the easy terms of equal friendship than turn Mentor and +preach a sermon. + +'Well, Charley,' said he, as they were walking up from the boat +wharf--Norman to his club, and Charley towards his lodgings--from +which route, however, he meant to deviate as soon as ever he +might be left alone--'well, Charley, I wish you success with all +my heart; I wish you could do something--I won't say to keep you +out of mischief.' + +'I wish I could, Harry,' said Charley, thoroughly abashed; 'I +wish I could--indeed I wish I could--but it is so hard to go +right when one has begun to go wrong.' + +'It is hard; I know it is.' + +'But you never can know how hard, Harry, for you have never +tried,' and then they went on walking for a while in silence, +side by side. + +'You don't know the sort of place that office of mine is,' +continued Charley. 'You don't know the sort of fellows the men +are. I hate the place; I hate the men I live with. It is all so +dirty, so disreputable, so false. I cannot conceive that any +fellow put in there as young as I was should ever do well +afterwards.' + +'But at any rate you might try your best, Charley.' + +'Yes, I might do that still; and I know I don't; and where should +I have been now, if it hadn't been for you?' + +'Never mind about that; I sometimes think we might have done more +for each other if we had been more together. But remember the +motto you said you'd choose, Charley--Excelsior! We can none of +us mount the hill without hard labour. Remember that word, +Charley--Excelsior! Remember it now--now, to-night; remember how +you dream of higher things, and begin to think of them in your +waking moments also;' and so they parted. + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--EVENING + + 'Excelsior!' said Charley to himself, as he walked on a few +steps towards his lodgings, having left Norman at the door of his +club. 'Remember it now--now, to-night.' + +Yes--now is the time to remember it, if it is ever to be +remembered to any advantage. He went on with stoic resolution to +the end of the street, determined to press home and put the last +touch to 'Crinoline and Macassar;' but as he went he thought of +his interview with Mr. M'Ruen and of the five sovereigns still in +his pocket, and altered his course. + +Charley had not been so resolute with the usurer, so determined +to get L5 from him on this special day, without a special object +in view. His credit was at stake in a more than ordinary manner; +he had about a week since borrowed money from the woman who kept +the public-house in Norfolk Street, and having borrowed it for a +week only, felt that this was a debt of honour which it was +incumbent on him to pay. Therefore, when he had walked the length +of one street on his road towards his lodgings, he retraced his +steps and made his way back to his old haunts. + +The house which he frequented was hardly more like a modern +London gin-palace than was that other house in the city which Mr. +M'Ruen honoured with his custom. It was one of those small +tranquil shrines of Bacchus in which the god is worshipped +perhaps with as constant a devotion, though with less noisy +demonstrations of zeal than in his larger and more public +temples. None absolutely of the lower orders were encouraged to +come thither for oblivion. It had about it nothing inviting to +the general eye. No gas illuminations proclaimed its midnight +grandeur. No huge folding doors, one set here and another there, +gave ingress and egress to a wretched crowd of poverty-stricken +midnight revellers. No reiterated assertions in gaudy letters, +each a foot long, as to the peculiar merits of the old tom or +Hodge's cream of the valley, seduced the thirsty traveller. The +panelling over the window bore the simple announcement, in modest +letters, of the name of the landlady, Mrs. Davis; and the same +name appeared with equal modesty on the one gas lamp opposite the +door. + +Mrs. Davis was a widow, and her customers were chiefly people who +knew her and frequented her house regularly. Lawyers' clerks, who +were either unmarried, or whose married homes were perhaps not so +comfortable as the widow's front parlour; tradesmen, not of the +best sort, glad to get away from the noise of their children; +young men who had begun the cares of life in ambiguous positions, +just on the confines of respectability, and who, finding +themselves too weak in flesh to cling on to the round of the +ladder above them, were sinking from year to year to lower steps, +and depths even below the level of Mrs. Davis's public-house. To +these might be added some few of a somewhat higher rank in life, +though perhaps of a lower rank of respectability; young men who, +like Charley Tudor and his comrades, liked their ease and self- +indulgence, and were too indifferent as to the class of +companions against whom they might rub their shoulders while +seeking it. + +The 'Cat and Whistle,' for such was the name of Mrs. Davis's +establishment, had been a house of call for the young men of the +Internal Navigation long before Charley's time. What first gave +rise to the connexion it is not now easy to say; but Charley had +found it, and had fostered it into a close alliance, which +greatly exceeded any amount of intimacy which existed previously +to his day. + +It must not be presumed that he, in an ordinary way, took his +place among the lawyers' clerks, and general run of customers in +the front parlour; occasionally he condescended to preside there +over the quiet revels, to sing a song for the guests, which was +sure to be applauded to the echo, and to engage in a little +skirmish of politics with a retired lamp-maker and a silversmith's +foreman from the Strand, who always called him 'Sir,' and received +what he said with the greatest respect; but, as a rule, he quaffed +his Falernian in a little secluded parlour behind the bar, in which +sat the widow Davis, auditing her accounts in the morning, and +giving out orders in the evening to Norah Geraghty, her barmaid, +and to an attendant sylph, who ministered to the front parlour, +taking in goes of gin and screws of tobacco, and bringing out +the price thereof with praiseworthy punctuality. + +Latterly, indeed, Charley had utterly deserted the front parlour; +for there had come there a pestilent fellow, highly connected +with the Press, as the lamp-maker declared, but employed as an +assistant shorthand-writer somewhere about the Houses of +Parliament, according to the silversmith, who greatly interfered +with our navvy's authority. He would not at all allow that what +Charley said was law, entertained fearfully democratic principles +of his own, and was not at all the gentleman. So Charley drew +himself up, declined to converse any further on politics with a +man who seemed to know more about them than himself, and confined +himself exclusively to the inner room. + +On arriving at this elysium, on the night in question, he found +Mrs. Davis usefully engaged in darning a stocking, while +Scatterall sat opposite with a cigar in his mouth, his hat over +his nose, and a glass of gin and water before him. + +'I began to think you weren't coming,' said Scatterall, 'and I +was getting so deuced dull that I was positively thinking of +going home.' + +'That's very civil of you, Mr. Scatterall,' said the widow. + +'Well, you've been sitting there for the last half-hour without +saying a word to me; and it is dull. Looking at a woman mending +stockings is dull, ain't it, Charley?' + +'That depends,' said Charley, 'partly on whom the woman may be, +and partly on whom the man may be. Where's Norah, Mrs. Davis?' + +'She's not very well to-night; she has got a headache; there +ain't many of them here to-night, so she's lying down.' + +'A little seedy, I suppose,' said Scatterall. + +Charley felt rather angry with his friend for applying such an +epithet to his lady-love; however, he did not resent it, but +sitting down, lighted his pipe and sipped his gin and water. + +And so they sat for the next quarter of an hour, saying very +little to each other. What was the nature of the attraction which +induced two such men as Charley Tudor and Dick Scatterall to give +Mrs. Davis the benefit of their society, while she was mending +her stockings, it might be difficult to explain. They could have +smoked in their own rooms as well, and have drunk gin and water +there, if they had any real predilection for that mixture. Mrs. +Davis was neither young nor beautiful, nor more than ordinarily +witty. Charley, it is true, had an allurement to entice him +thither, but this could not be said of Scatterall, to whom the +lovely Norah was never more than decently civil. Had they been +desired, in their own paternal halls, to sit and see their +mother's housekeeper darn the family stockings, they would, +probably, both of them have rebelled, even though the supply of +tobacco and gin and water should be gratuitous and unlimited. + +It must be presumed that the only charm of the pursuit was in its +acknowledged impropriety. They both understood that there was +something fast in frequenting Mrs. Davis's inner parlour, +something slow in remaining at home; and so they both sat there, +and Mrs. Davis went on with her darning-needle, nothing abashed. + +'Well, I think I shall go,' said Scatterall, shaking off the last +ash from the end of his third cigar. + +'Do,' said Charley; 'you should be careful, you know; late hours +will hurt your complexion.' + +'It's so deuced dull,' said Scatterall. + +'Why don't you go into the parlour, and have a chat with the +gentlemen?' suggested Mrs. Davis; 'there's Mr. Peppermint there +now, lecturing about the war; upon my word he talks very well.' + +'He's so deuced low,' said Scatterall. + +'He's a bumptious noisy blackguard too,' said Charley; 'he +doesn't know how to speak to a gentleman, when he meets one.' + +Scatterall gave a great yawn. 'I suppose you're not going, +Charley?' said he. + +'Oh yes, I am,' said Charley, 'in about two hours.' + +'Two hours! well, good night, old fellow, for I'm off. Three +cigars, Mrs. Davis, and two goes of gin and water, the last +cold.' Then, having made this little commercial communication to +the landlady, he gave another yawn, and took himself away. Mrs. +Davis opened her little book, jotted down the items, and then, +having folded up her stockings, and put them into a basket, +prepared herself for conversation. + +But, though Mrs. Davis prepared herself for conversation, she did +not immediately commence it. Having something special to say, she +probably thought that she might improve her opportunity of saying +it by allowing Charley to begin. She got up and pottered about +the room, went to a cupboard, and wiped a couple of glasses, and +then out into the bar and arranged the jugs and pots. This done, +she returned to the little room, and again sat herself down in +her chair. + +'Here's your five pounds, Mrs. Davis,' said Charley; 'I wish you +knew the trouble I have had to get it for you.' + +To give Mrs. Davis her due, this was not the subject on which she +was anxious to speak. She would have been at present well +inclined that Charley should remain her debtor. 'Indeed, Mr. +Tudor, I am very sorry you should have taken any trouble on such +a trifle. If you're short of money, it will do for me just as +well in October.' + +Charley looked at the sovereigns, and bethought himself how very +short of cash he was. Then he thought of the fight he had had to +get them, in order that he might pay the money which he had felt +so ashamed of having borrowed, and he determined to resist the +temptation. + +'Did you ever know me flush of cash? You had better take them +while you can get them,' and as he pushed them across the table +with his stick, he remembered that all he had left was ninepence. + +'I don't want the money at present, Mr. Tudor,' said the widow. +'We're such old friends that there ought not to be a word between +us about such a trifle--now don't leave yourself bare; take what +you want and settle with me at quarter-day.' + +'Well, I'll take a sovereign,' said he, 'for to tell you the +truth, I have only the ghost of a shilling in my pocket.' And so +it was settled; Mrs. Davis reluctantly pocketed four of Mr. +M'Ruen's sovereigns, and Charley kept in his own possession the +fifth, as to which he had had so hard a combat in the lobby of +the bank. + +He then sat silent for a while and smoked, and Mrs. Davis again +waited for him to begin the subject on which she wished to speak. +'And what's the matter with Norah all this time?' he said at +last. + +'What's the matter with her?' repeated Mrs. Davis. 'Well, I think +you might know what's the matter with her. You don't suppose +she's made of stone, do you?' + +Charley saw that he was in for it. It was in vain that Norman's +last word was still ringing in his ears. 'Excelsior!' What had he +to do with 'Excelsior?' What miserable reptile on God's earth was +more prone to crawl downwards than he had shown himself to be? +And then again a vision floated across his mind's eye of a young +sweet angel face with large bright eyes, with soft delicate skin, +and all the exquisite charms of gentle birth and gentle nurture. +A single soft touch seemed to press his arm, a touch that he had +so often felt, and had never felt without acknowledging to +himself that there was something in it almost divine. All this +passed rapidly through his mind, as he was preparing to answer +Mrs. Davis's question touching Norah Geraghty. + +'You don't think she's made of stone, do you?' said the widow, +repeating her words. + +'Indeed I don't think she's made of anything but what's suitable +to a very nice young woman,' said Charley. + +'A nice young woman! Is that all you can say for her? I call her +a very fine girl.' Miss Golightly's friends could not say +anything more, even for that young lady. 'I don't know where +you'll pick up a handsomer, or a better-conducted one either, for +the matter of that.' + +'Indeed she is,' said Charley. + +'Oh! for the matter of that, no one knows it better than +yourself, Mr. Tudor; and she's as well able to keep a man's house +over his head as some others that take a deal of pride in +themselves.' + +'I'm quite sure of it,' said Charley. + +'Well, the long and the short of it is this, Mr. Tudor.' And as +she spoke the widow got a little red in the face: she had, as +Charley thought, an unpleasant look of resolution about her--a +roundness about her mouth, and a sort of fierceness in her eyes. +'The long and the short of it is this, Mr. Tudor, what do you +mean to do about the girl?' + +'Do about her?' said Charley, almost bewildered in his misery. + +'Yes, do about her. Do you mean to make her your wife? That's +plain English. Because I'll tell you what: I'll not see her put +upon any longer. It must be one thing or the other; and that at +once. And if you've a grain of honour in you, Mr. Tudor--and I +think you are honourable--you won't back from your word with the +girl now.' + +'Back from my word?' said Charley. + +'Yes, back from your word,' said Mrs. Davis, the flood-gates of +whose eloquence were now fairly opened. 'I'm sure you're too much +of the gentleman to deny your own words, and them repeated more +than once in my presence--Cheroots--yes, are there none there, +child?--Oh, they are in the cupboard.' These last words were not +part of her address to Charley, but were given in reply to a +requisition from the attendant nymph outside. 'You're too much of +a gentleman to do that, I know. And so, as I'm her natural +friend--and indeed she's my cousin, not that far off--I think +it's right that we should all understand one another.' + +'Oh, quite right,' said Charley. + +'You can't expect that she should go and sacrifice herself for +you, you know,' said Mrs. Davis, who now that she had begun +hardly knew how to stop herself. 'A girl's time is her money. +She's at her best now, and a girl like her must make her hay +while the sun shines. She can't go on fal-lalling with you, and +then nothing to come of it. You mustn't suppose she's to lose her +market that way.' + +'God knows I should be sorry to injure her, Mrs. Davis.' + +'I believe you would, because I take you for an honourable +gentleman as will be as good as your word. Now, there's +Peppermint there.' + +'What! that fellow in the parlour?' + +'And an honourable gentleman he is. Not that I mean to compare +him to you, Mr. Tudor, nor yet doesn't Norah; not by no means. +But there he is. Well, he comes with the most honourablest +proposals, and will make her Mrs. Peppermint to-morrow, if so be +that she'll have it.' + +'You don't mean to say that there has been anything between +them?' said Charley, who in spite of the intense desire which he +had felt a few minutes since to get the lovely Norah altogether +off his hands, now felt an acute pang of jealousy.' You don't +mean to say that there has been anything between them?' + +'Nothing as you have any right to object to, Mr. Tudor. You may +be sure I wouldn't allow of that, nor yet wouldn't Norah demean +herself to it.' + +'Then how did she get talking to him?' + +'She didn't get talking to him. But he has eyes in his head, and +you don't suppose but what he can see with them. If a girl is in +the public line, of course any man is free to speak to her. If +you don't like it, it is for you to take her out of it. Not but +what, for a girl that is in the public line, Norah Geraghty keeps +herself to herself as much as any girl you ever set eyes on.' + +'What the d--- has she to do with this fellow then?' + +'Why, he's a widower, and has three young children; and he's +looking out for a mother for them; and he thinks Norah will suit. +There, now you have the truth, and the whole truth.' + +'D--- his impudence!' said Charley. + +'Well, I don't see that there's any impudence. He has a house of +his own and the means to keep it. Now I'll tell you what it is. +Norah can't abide him--' + +Charley looked a little better satisfied when he heard this +declaration. + +'Norah can't abide the sight of him; nor won't of any man as long +as you are hanging after her. She's as true as steel, and proud +you ought to be of her.' Proud, thought Charley, as he again +muttered to himself, 'Excelsior!'--'But, Mr. Tudor, I won't see +her put upon; that's the long and the short of it. If you like to +take her, there she is. I don't say she's just your equal as to +breeding, though she's come of decent people too; but she's good +as gold. She'll make a shilling go as far as any young woman I +know; and if L100 or L150 are wanting for furniture or the like +of that, why, I've that regard for her, that that shan't stand in +the way. Now, Mr. Tudor, I've spoke honest; and if you're the +gentleman as I takes you to be, you'll do the same.' + +To do Mrs. Davis justice, it must be acknowledged that in her way +she had spoken honestly. Of course she knew that such a marriage +would be a dreadful misalliance for young Tudor; of course she +knew that all his friends would be heart-broken when they heard +of it. But what had she to do with his friends? Her sympathies, +her good wishes, were for her friend. Had Norah fallen a victim +to Charley's admiration, and then been cast off to eat the +bitterest bread to which any human being is ever doomed, what +then would Charley's friends have cared for her? There was a fair +fight between them. If Norah Geraghty, as a reward for her +prudence, could get a husband in a rank of life above her, +instead of falling into utter destruction as might so easily have +been the case, who could do other than praise her--praise her and +her clever friend who had so assisted her in her struggle? + + Dolus an virtus-- + +Had Mrs. Davis ever studied the classics she would have thus +expressed herself. + +Poor Charley was altogether thrown on his beam-ends. He had +altogether played Mrs. Davis's game in evincing jealousy at Mr. +Peppermint's attentions. He knew this, and yet for the life of +him he could not help being jealous. He wanted to get rid of Miss +Geraghty, and yet he could not endure that anyone else should lay +claim to her favour. He was very weak. He knew how much depended +on the way in which he might answer this woman at the present +moment; he knew that he ought now to make it plain to her, that +however foolish he might have been, however false he might have +been, it was quite out of the question that he should marry her +barmaid. But he did not do so. He was worse than weak. It was not +only the disinclination to give pain, or even the dread of the +storm that would ensue, which deterred him; but an absurd dislike +to think that Mr. Peppermint should be graciously received there +as the barmaid's acknowledged admirer. + +'Is she really ill now?' said he. + +'She's not so ill but what she shall make herself well enough to +welcome you, if you'll say the word that you ought to say. The +most that ails her is fretting at the long delay.--Bolt the door, +child, and go to bed; there will be no one else here now. Go up, +and tell Miss Geraghty to come down; she hasn't got her clothes +off yet, I know.' + +Mrs. Davis was too good a general to press Charley for an +absolute, immediate, fixed answer to her question. She knew that +she had already gained much, by talking thus of the proposed +marriage, by setting it thus plainly before Charley, without +rebuke or denial from him. He had not objected to receiving a +visit from Norah, on the implied understanding that she was to +come down to him as his affianced bride. He had not agreed to +this in words; but silence gives consent, and Mrs. Davis felt +that should it ever hereafter become necessary to prove anything, +what had passed would enable her to prove a good deal. + +Charley puffed at his cigar and sipped his gin and water. It was +now twelve o'clock, and he thoroughly wished himself at home and +in bed. The longer he thought of it the more impossible it +appeared that he should get out of the house without the scene +which he dreaded. The girl had bolted the door, put away her cups +and mugs, and her step upstairs had struck heavily on his ears. +The house was not large or high, and he fancied that he heard +mutterings on the landing-place. Indeed he did not doubt but that +Miss Geraghty had listened to most of the conversation which had +taken place. + +'Excuse me a minute, Mr. Tudor,' said Mrs. Davis, who was now +smiling and civil enough; 'I will go upstairs myself; the silly +girl is shamefaced, and does not like to come down'; and up went +Mrs. Davis to see that her barmaid's curls and dress were nice +and jaunty. It would not do now, at this moment, for Norah to +offend her lover by any untidiness. Charley for a moment thought +of the front door. The enemy had allowed him an opportunity for +retreating. He might slip out before either of the women came +down, and then never more be heard of in Norfolk Street again. He +had his hand in his waistcoat pocket, with the intent of leaving +the sovereign on the table; but when the moment came he felt +ashamed of the pusillanimity of such an escape, and therefore +stood, or rather sat his ground, with a courage worthy of a +better purpose. + +Down the two women came, and Charley felt his heart beating +against his ribs. As the steps came nearer the door, he began to +wish that Mr. Peppermint had been successful. The widow entered +the room first, and at her heels the expectant beauty. We can +hardly say that she was blushing; but she did look rather +shamefaced, and hung back a little at the door, as though she +still had half a mind to think better of it, and go off to her +bed. + +'Come in, you little fool,' said Mrs. Davis. 'You needn't be +ashamed of coming down to see him; you have done that often +enough before now.' + +Norah simpered and sidled. 'Well, I'm sure now!' said she. +'Here's a start, Mr. Tudor; to be brought downstairs at this time +of night; and I'm sure I don't know what it's about'; and then +she shook her curls, and twitched her dress, and made as though +she were going to pass through the room to her accustomed place +at the bar. + +Norah Geraghty was a fine girl. Putting her in comparison with +Miss Golightly, we are inclined to say that she was the finer +girl of the two; and that, barring position, money, and fashion, +she was qualified to make the better wife. In point of education, +that is, the effects of education, there was not perhaps much to +choose between them. Norah could make an excellent pudding, and +was willing enough to exercise her industry and art in doing so; +Miss Golightly could copy music, but she did not like the +trouble; and could play a waltz badly. Neither of them had ever +read anything beyond a few novels. In this respect, as to the +amount of labour done, Miss Golightly had certainly far surpassed +her rival competitor for Charley's affections. + +Charley got up and took her hand; and as he did so, he saw that +her nails were dirty. He put his arms round her waist and kissed +her; and as he caressed her, his olfactory nerves perceived that +the pomatum in her hair was none of the best. He thought of those +young lustrous eyes that would look up so wondrously into his +face; he thought of the gentle touch, which would send a thrill +through all his nerves; and then he felt very sick. + +'Well, upon my word, Mr. Tudor,' said Miss Geraghty, 'you're +making very free to-night.' She did not, however, refuse to sit +down on his knee, though while sitting there she struggled and +tossed herself, and shook her long ringlets in Charley's face, +till he wished her--safe at home in Mr. Peppermint's nursery. + +'And is that what you brought me down for, Mrs. Davis?' said +Norah. 'Well, upon my word, I hope the door's locked; we shall +have all the world in here else.' + +'If you hadn't come down to him, he'd have come up to you,' said +Mrs. Davis. + +'Would he though?' said Norah; 'I think he knows a trick worth +two of that;' and she looked as though she knew well how to +defend herself, if any over-zeal on the part of her lover should +ever induce him to violate the sanctum of her feminine retirement. + +There was no over-zeal now about Charley. He ought to have been +happy enough, for he had his charmer in his arms; but he showed +very little of the ecstatic joy of a favoured lover. There he sat +with Norah in his arms, and as we have said, Norah was a handsome +girl; but he would much sooner have been copying the Kennett and +Avon canal lock entries in Mr. Snape's room at the Internal +Navigation. + +'Lawks, Mr. Tudor, you needn't hold me so tight,' said Norah. + +'He means to hold you tight enough now,' said Mrs. Davis. 'He's +very angry because I mentioned another gentleman's name.' + +'Well, now you didn't?' said Norah, pretending to look very +angry. + +'Well, I just did; and if you'd only seen him! You must be very +careful what you say to that gentleman, or there'll be a row in +the house.' + +'I!' said Norah. 'What I say to him! It's very little I have to +say to the man. But I shall tell him this; he'd better take +himself somewhere else, if he's going to make himself troublesome.' + +All this time Charley had said nothing, but was sitting with his +hat on his head, and his cigar in his mouth. The latter appendage +he had laid down for a moment when he saluted Miss Geraghty; but +he had resumed it, having at the moment no intention of repeating +the compliment. + +'And so you were jealous, were you?' said she, turning round and +looking at him. 'Well now, some people might have more respect +for other people than to mix up their names that way, with the +names of any men that choose to put themselves forward. What +would you say if I was to talk to you about Miss----' + +Charley stopped her mouth. It was not to be borne that she should +be allowed to pronounce the name that was about to fall from her +lips. + +'So you were jealous, were you?' said she, when she was again +able to speak. 'Well, my!' + +'Mrs. Davis told me flatly that you were going to marry the man,' +said Charley; 'so what was I to think?' + +'It doesn't matter what you think now,' said Mrs. Davis; 'for you +must be off from this. Do you know what o'clock it is? Do you +want the house to get a bad name? Come, you two understand each +other now, so you may as well give over billing and cooing for +this time. It's all settled now, isn't it, Mr. Tudor?' + +'Oh yes, I suppose so,' said Charley. + +'Well, and what do you say, Norah?' + +'Oh, I'm sure I'm agreeable if he is. Ha! ha! ha! I only hope he +won't think me too forward--he! he! he!' + +And then with another kiss, and very few more words of any sort, +Charley took himself off. + +'I'll have nothing more to do with him,' said Norah, bursting +into tears, as soon as the door was well bolted after Charley's +exit. 'I'm only losing myself with him. He don't mean anything, +and I said he didn't all along. He'd have pitched me to Old +Scratch, while I was sitting there on his knee, if he'd have had +his own way--so he would;' and poor Norah cried heartily, as she +went to her work in her usual way among the bottles and taps. + +'Why, you fool you, what do you expect? You don't think he's to +jump down your throat, do you? You can but try it on; and then if +it don't do, why there's the other one to fall back on; only, if +I had the choice, I'd rather have young Tudor, too.' + +'So would I,' said Norah; 'I can't abide that other fellow.' + +'Well, there, that's how it is, you know--beggars can't be +choosers. But come, make us a drop of something hot; a little +drop will do yourself good; but it's better not to take it before +him, unless when he presses you.' + +So the two ladies sat down to console themselves, as best they +might, for the reverses which trade and love so often bring with +them. + +Charley walked off a miserable man. He was thoroughly ashamed of +himself, thoroughly acknowledged his own weakness; and yet as he +went out from the 'Cat and Whistle,' he felt sure that he should +return there again to renew the degradation from which he had +suffered this night. Indeed, what else could he do now? He had, +as it were, solemnly plighted his troth to the girl before a +third person who had brought them together, with the acknowledged +purpose of witnessing that ceremony. He had, before Mrs. Davis, +and before the girl herself, heard her spoken of as his wife, and +had agreed to the understanding that such an arrangement was a +settled thing. What else had he to do now but to return and +complete his part of the bargain? What else but that, and be a +wretched, miserable, degraded man for the rest of his days; +lower, viler, more contemptible, infinitely lower, even than his +brother clerics at the office, whom in his pride he had so much +despised? + +He walked from Norfolk Street into the Strand, and there the +world was still alive, though it was now nearly one o'clock. The +debauched misery, the wretched outdoor midnight revelry of the +world was there, streaming in and out from gin-palaces, and +bawling itself hoarse with horrid, discordant, screech-owl slang. +But he went his way unheeding and uncontaminated. Now, now that +it was useless, he was thinking of the better things of the +world; nothing now seemed worth his grasp, nothing now seemed +pleasurable, nothing capable of giving joy, but what was decent, +good, reputable, cleanly, and polished. How he hated now +that lower world with which he had for the last three years +condescended to pass so much of his time! how he hated himself +for his own vileness! He thought of what Alaric was, of what +Norman was, of what he himself might have been--he that was +praised by Mrs. Woodward for his talent, he that was encouraged +to place himself among the authors of the day! He thought of all +this, and then he thought of what he was--the affianced husband +of Norah Geraghty! + +He went along the Strand, over the crossing under the statue of +Charles on horseback, and up Pall Mall East till he came to the +opening into the park under the Duke of York's column. The London +night world was all alive as he made his way. From the Opera +Colonnade shrill voices shrieked out at him as he passed, and +drunken men coming down from the night supper-houses in the +Haymarket saluted him with affectionate cordiality. The hoarse +waterman from the cabstand, whose voice had perished in the night +air, croaked out at him the offer of a vehicle; and one of the +night beggar-women who cling like burrs to those who roam the +street a these unhallowed hours still stuck to him, as she had +done ever since he had entered the Strand. + +'Get away with you,' said Charley, turning at the wretched +creature in his fierce anger; 'get away, or I'll give you in +charge.' + +'That you may never know what it is to be in misery yourself!' +said the miserable Irishwoman. + +'If you follow me a step farther I'll have you locked up,' said +Charley. + +'Oh, then, it's you that have the hard heart,' said she; 'and +it's you that will suffer yet.' + +Charley looked round, threw her the odd halfpence which he had in +his pocket, and then turned down towards the column. The woman +picked up her prize, and, with a speedy blessing, took herself +off in search of other prey. + +His way home would have taken him up Waterloo Place, but the +space round the column was now deserted and quiet, and sauntering +there, without thinking of what he did, he paced up and down +between the Clubs and the steps leading into the park. There, +walking to and fro slowly, he thought of his past career, of all +the circumstances of his life since his life had been left to his +own control, and of the absence of all hope for the future. + +What was he to do? He was deeply, inextricably in debt. That +wretch, M'Ruen, had his name on bills which it was impossible +that he should ever pay. Tradesmen held other bills of his which +were either now over-due, or would very shortly become so. He was +threatened with numerous writs, any one of which would suffice to +put him into gaol. From his poor father, burdened as he was with +other children, he knew that he had no right to expect further +assistance. He was in debt to Norman, his best, he would have +said his only friend, had it not been that in all his misery he +could not help still thinking of Mrs. Woodward as his friend. + +And yet how could his venture to think longer of her, +contaminated as he now was with the horrid degradation of his +acknowledged love at the 'Cat and Whistle!' No; he must think no +more of the Woodwards; he must dream no more of those angel eyes +which in his waking moments had so often peered at him out of +heaven, teaching him to think of higher things, giving him higher +hopes than those which had come to him from the working of his +own unaided spirit. Ah! lessons taught in vain! vain hopes! +lessons that had come all too late! hopes that had been cherished +only to be deceived! It was all over now! He had made his bed, +and he must lie on it; he had sown his seed, and he must reap his +produce; there was now no 'Excelsior' left for him within the +bounds of human probability. + +He had promised to go to Hampton with Harry Norman on Saturday, +and he would go there for the last time. He would go there and +tell Mrs. Woodward so much of the truth as he could bring himself +to utter; he would say farewell to that blest abode; he would +take Linda's soft hand in his for the last time; for the last +time he would hear the young, silver-ringing, happy voice of his +darling Katie; for the last time look into her bright face; for +the last time play with her as with a child of heaven--and then +he would return to the 'Cat and Whistle.' + +And having made this resolve he went home to his lodgings. It was +singular that in all his misery the idea hardly once occurred to +him of setting himself right in the world by accepting his +cousin's offer of Miss Golightly's hand and fortune. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HAMPTON COURT BRIDGE + + +Before the following Saturday afternoon Charley's spirits had +somewhat recovered their natural tone. Not that he was in a happy +frame of mind; the united energies of Mr. M'Ruen and Mrs. Davis +had been too powerful to allow of that; not that he had given +over his projected plan of saying a long farewell to Mrs. +Woodward, or at any rate of telling her something of his +position; he still felt that he could not continue to live on +terms of close intimacy both with her daughters and with Norah +Geraghty. But the spirits of youth are ever buoyant, and the +spirits of no one could be endowed, with more natural buoyancy +than those of the young navvy. Charley, therefore, in spite of +his misfortunes, was ready with his manuscript when Saturday +afternoon arrived, and, according to agreement, met Norman at the +railway station. + +Only one evening had intervened since the night in which he had +ratified his matrimonial engagement, and in spite of the delicate +nature of his position he had for that evening allowed Mr. +Peppermint to exercise his eloquence on the heart of the fair +Norah without interruption. He the while had been engaged in +completing the memoirs of 'Crinoline and Macassar.' + +'Well, Charley,' they asked, one and all, as soon as he reached +the Cottage, 'have you got the story? Have you brought the +manuscript? Is it all finished and ready for that dreadful +editor?' + +Charley produced a roll, and Linda and Katie instantly pounced +upon it. + +'Oh! it begins with poetry,' said Linda. + +'I am so glad,' said Katie. 'Is there much poetry in it, Charley? +I do so hope there is.' + +'Not a word of it,' said Charley; 'that which Linda sees is a +song that the heroine is singing, and it isn't supposed to be +written by the author at all.' + +'I'm so sorry that there's no poetry,' said Katie. 'Can't you +write poetry, Charley?' + +'At any rate there's lots of love in it,' said Linda, who was +turning over the pages. + +'Is there?' said Katie. 'Well, that's next best; but they should +go together. You should have put all your love into verse, +Charley, and then your prose would have done for the funny +parts.' + +'Perhaps it's all fun,' said Mrs. Woodward. 'But come, girls, +this is not fair; I won't let you look at the story till it's +read in full committee.' And so saying, Mrs. Woodward took the +papers from her daughters, and tying them up, deposited them safe +in custody. 'We'll have it out when the tea-things are gone.' + +But before the tea-things had come, an accident happened, which +had been like to dismiss 'Crinoline and Macassar' altogether from +the minds of the whole of the Woodward family. The young men had, +as usual, dined in town, and therefore they were all able to +spend the long summer evening out of doors. Norman's boat was +down at Hampton, and it was therefore determined that they should +row down as far as Hampton Court Park and back. Charley and +Norman were to row; and Mrs. Woodward agreed to accompany her +daughters. Uncle Bat was left at home, to his nap and rum and +water. + +Norman was so expert a Thames waterman, that he was quite able to +manage the boat without a steersman, and Charley was nearly his +equal. But there is some amusement in steering, and Katie was +allowed to sit between the tiller-ropes. + +'I can steer very well, mamma: can't I, Harry? I always steer +when we go to the island, and we run the boat straight into the +little creek, only just broad enough to hold it.' Katie's visits +to the island, however, were not so frequent as they had +heretofore been, for she was approaching to sixteen years of age, +and wet feet and draggled petticoats had lost some of their +charms. Mrs. Woodward, trusting more to the experience of her two +knights than to the skill of the lady at the helm, took her seat, +and they went off merrily down the stream. + +All the world knows that it is but a very little distance from +Hampton Church to Hampton Court Bridge, especially when one has +the stream with one. They were very soon near to the bridge, and +as they approached it, they had to pass a huge barge, that was +lazily making its way down to Brentford. + +'There's lots of tune for the big arch,' said Charley. + +'Pull away then,' said Harry. + +They both pulled hard, and shot alongside and past the barge. But +the stream was strong, and the great ugly mass of black timber +moved behind them quicker than it seemed to do. + +'It will be safer to take the one to the left,' said Harry. + +'Oh! there's lots of tune,' said Charley. + +'No,' said Harry,' do as I tell you and go to the left.--Pull +your left hand a little, Katie.' + +Charley did as he was bid, and Katie intended to do the same; but +unfortunately she pulled the wrong hand. They were now very near +the bridge, and the barge was so close to them as to show that +there might have been danger in attempting to get through the +same arch with her. + +'Your left hand, Katie, your left,' shouted Norman; 'your left +string.' Katie was confused, and gave first a pull with her +right, and then a pull with her left, and then a strong pull with +her right. The two men backed water as hard as they could, but +the effect of Katie's steering was to drive the nose of the boat +right into one of the wooden piers of the bridge. + +The barge went on its way, and luckily made its entry under the +arch before the little craft had swung round into the stream +before it; as it was, the boat, still clinging by its nose, came +round with its stern against the side of the barge, and as the +latter went on, the timbers of Norman's wherry cracked and +crumpled in the rude encounter. + +The ladies should all have kept their seats. Mrs. Woodward did do +so. Linda jumped up, and being next to the barge, was pulled up +into it by one of the men. Katie stood bolt upright, with the +tiller-ropes still in her hand, awe-struck at the misfortune she +had caused; but while she was so standing, the stern of the boat +was lifted nearly out of the water by the weight of the barge, +and Katie was pitched, behind her mother's back, head foremost +into the water. + +Norman, at the moment, was endeavouring to steady the boat, and +shove it off from the barge, and had also lent a hand to assist +Linda in her escape. Charley was on the other side, standing up +and holding on by the piers of the bridge, keeping his eyes on +the ladies, so as to be of assistance to them when assistance +might be needed. + +And now assistance was sorely needed, and luckily had not to be +long waited for. Charley, with a light and quick step, passed +over the thwarts, and, disregarding Mrs. Woodward's scream, let +himself down, over the gun-wale behind her seat into the water. +Katie can hardly be said to have sunk at all. She had, at least, +never been so much under the water as to be out of sight. Her +clothes kept up her light body; and when Charley got close to +her, she had been carried up to the piers of the bridge, and was +panting with her head above water, and beating the stream with +her little hands. + +She was soon again in comparative safety. Charley had her by one +arm as he held on with the other to the boat, and kept himself +afloat with his legs. Mrs. Woodward leaned over and caught her +daughter's clothes; while Linda, who had seen what had happened, +stood shrieking on the barge, as it made its way on, heedless of +the ruin it left behind. + +Another boat soon came to their assistance from the shore, and +Mrs. Woodward and Katie were got safely into it. Charley returned +to the battered wherry, and assisted Norman in extricating it +from its position; and a third boat went to Linda's rescue, who +would otherwise have found herself in rather an uncomfortable +position the next morning at Brentford. + +The hugging and kissing to which Katie was subjected when she was +carried up to the inn, near the boat-slip on the Surrey side of +the river, may be imagined; as may also the faces she made at the +wineglassful of stiff brandy and water which she was desired to +drink. She was carried home in a fly, and by the time she arrived +there, had so completely recovered her life and spirits as to put +a vehement negative on her mother's proposition that she should +at once go to bed. + +'And not hear dear Charley's story?' said she, with tears in her +eyes. 'And, mamma, I can't and won't go to bed without seeing +Charley. I didn't say one word yet to thank him for jumping into +the water after me.' + +It was in vain that her mother told her that Charley's story +would amuse her twice as much when she should read it printed; it +was in vain that Mrs. Woodward assured her that Charley should +come up to her room door; and hear her thanks as he stood in the +passage, with the door ajar. Katie was determined to hear the +story read. It must be read, if read at all, that Saturday night, +as it was to be sent to the editor in the course of the week; and +reading 'Crinoline and Macassar' out loud on a Sunday was not to +be thought of at Surbiton Cottage. Katie was determined to hear +the story read, and to sit very near the author too during the +reading; to sit near him, and to give him such praise as even in +her young mind she felt that an author would like to hear. +Charley had pulled her out of the river, and no one, as far as +her efforts could prevent it, should be allowed to throw cold +water on him. + +Norman and Charley, wet as the latter was, contrived to bring the +shattered boat back to Hampton. When they reached the lawn at +Surbiton Cottage they were both in high spirits. An accident, if +it does no material harm, is always an inspiriting thing, unless +one feels that it has been attributable to one's own fault. +Neither of them could in this instance attach any blame to +himself, and each felt that he had done what in him lay to +prevent the possible ill effect of the mischance. As for the +boat, Harry was too happy to think that none of his friends were +hurt to care much about that. + +As they walked across the lawn Mrs. Woodward ran out to them. 'My +dear, dear Charley,' she said, 'what am I to say to thank you?' +It was the first time Mrs. Woodward had ever called him by his +Christian name. It had hitherto made him in a certain degree +unhappy that she never did so, and now the sound was very +pleasant to him. + +'Oh, Mrs. Woodward,' said he, laughing, 'you mustn't touch me, +for I'm all mud.' + +'My dear, dear Charley, what can I say to you? and dear Harry, I +fear we've spoilt your beautiful new boat.' + +'I fear we've spoilt Katie's beautiful new hat,' said Norman. + +Mrs. Woodward had taken and pressed a hand of each of them, in +spite of Charley's protestations about the mud. + +'Oh! you're in a dreadful state,' said she; 'you had better take +something at once; you'll catch your death of cold.' + +'I'd better take myself off to the inn,' said Charley, 'and get +some clean clothes; that's all I want. But how is Katie--and how +is Linda?' + +And so, after a multitude of such inquiries on both sides, and of +all manner of affectionate greetings, Charley went off to make +himself dry, preparatory to the reading of the manuscript. + +During his absence, Linda and Katie came down to the drawing- +room. Linda was full of fun as to her journey with the bargeman; +but Katie was a little paler than usual, and somewhat more +serious and quiet than she was wont to be. + +Norman was the first in the drawing-room, and received the thanks +of the ladies for his prowess in assisting them; and Charley was +not slow to follow him, for he was never very long at his toilet. +He came in with a jaunty laughing air, as though nothing +particular had happened, and as if he had not a care in the +world. And yet while he had been dressing he had been thinking +almost more than ever of Norah Geraghty. O that she, and Mrs. +Davis with her, and Jabesh M'Ruen with both of them, could be +buried ten fathom deep out of his sight, and out of his mind! + +When he entered the room, Katie felt her heart beat so strongly +that she hardly knew how to thank him for saving her life. A year +ago she would have got up and kissed him innocently; but a year +makes a great difference. She could not do that now, so she gave +him her little hand, and held his till he came and sat down at +his place at the table. + +'Oh, Charley, I don't know what to say to you,' said she; and he +could see and feel that her whole body was shaking with emotion. + +'Then I'll tell you what to say: 'Charley, here is your tea, and +some bread, and some butter, and some jam, and some muffin,' for +I'll tell you what, my evening bath has made me as hungry as a +hunter. I hope it has done the same to you.' + +Katie, still holding his hand, looked up into his face, and he +saw that her eyes were suffused with tears. She then left his +side, and, running round the room, filled a plate with all the +things he had asked for, and, bringing them to him, again took +her place beside him. 'I wish I knew how to do more than that,' +said she. + +'I suppose, Charley, you'll have to make an entry about that +barge on Monday morning, won't you?' said Linda. 'Mind you put in +it how beautiful I looked sailing through the arch.' + + 'Yes, and how very gallant the bargeman was,' said Norman. + +'Yes, and how much you enjoyed the idea of going down the river +with him, while, we came back to the Cottage,' said Charley. +'We'll put it all down at the Navigation, and old Snape shall +make a special minute about it.' + +Katie drank her tea in silence, and tried to eat, though without +much success. When chatting voices and jokes were to be heard at +the Cottage, the sound of her voice was usually the foremost; but +now she sat demure and quiet. She was realizing the danger from +which she had escaped, and, as is so often the case, was +beginning to fear it now that it was over. + +'Ah, Katie, my bonny bird,' said her mother, seeing that she was +not herself, and knowing that the excitement and overpowering +feelings of gratitude were too much for her-come here; you should +be in bed, my foolish little puss, should you not?' + +'Indeed, she should,' said Uncle Bat, who was somewhat hard- +hearted about the affair of the accident, and had been cruel +enough, after hearing an account of it, to declare that it was +all Katie's fault. + +'Indeed, she should; and if she had gone to bed a little earlier +in the evening it would have been all the better for Master +Norman's boat.' + +'Oh! mamma, don't send me to bed,' said she, with tears in her +eyes. 'Pray don't send me to bed now; I'm quite well, only I +can't talk because I'm thinking of what Charley did for me;' and +so saying she got up, and, hiding her face on her mother's +shoulder, burst into tears. + +'My dearest child,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'I'm afraid you'll make +yourself ill. We'll put off the reading, won't we, Charley? We +have done enough for one evening.' + +'Of course we will,' said he. 'Reading a stupid story will be +very slow work after all we've gone through today.' + +'No, no, no,' said Katie; 'it shan't be put off; there won't be +any other time for hearing it. And, mamma it must be read; and I +know it won't be stupid. Oh; mamma, dear mamma, do let us hear it +read; I'm quite well now.' + +Mrs. Woodward found herself obliged to give way. She had not the +heart to bid her daughter go away to bed, nor, had she done so, +would it have been of any avail. Katie would only have lain and +sobbed in her own room, and very probably have gone into +hysterics. The best thing for her was to try to turn the current +of her thoughts, and thus by degrees tame down her excited +feelings. + +'Well, darling, then we will have the story, if Charley will let +us. Go and fetch it, dearest.' Katie raised herself from her +mother's bosom, and, going across the room, fetched the roll of +papers to Charley. As he prepared to take it she took his hand in +hers, and, bending her head over it, tenderly kissed it. 'You +mustn't think,' said she, 'that because I say nothing, I don't +know what it is that you've done for me; but I don't know how to +say it.' + +Charley was at any rate as ignorant what he ought to say as Katie +was. He felt the pressure of her warm lips on his hand, and +hardly knew where he was. He felt that he blushed and looked +abashed, and dreaded, fearfully dreaded, lest Mrs. Woodward +should surmise that he estimated at other than its intended +worth, her daughter's show of affection for him. + +'I shouldn't mind doing it every night,' said he, 'in such +weather as this. I think it rather good fun going into the water +with my clothes on.' Katie looked up at him through her tears, as +though she would say that she well understood what that meant. + +Mrs. Woodward saw that if the story was to be read, the sooner +they began it the better. + +'Come, Charley,' said she, 'now for the romance. Katie, come and +sit by me.' But Katie had already taken her seat, a little behind +Charley, quite in the shade, and she was not to be moved. + +'But I won't read it myself,' said Charley; 'you must read it, +Mrs. Woodward.' + +'O yes, Mrs. Woodward, you are to read it,' said Norman. + +'O yes, do read it, manna,' said Linda. + +Katie said nothing, but she would have preferred that Charley +should have read it himself. + +'Well, if I can,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Snape says I write the worst hand in all Somerset House,' said +Charley; 'but still I think you'll be able to manage it.' + +'I hate that Mr. Snape,' said Katie, _sotto voce_. And then +Mrs. Woodward unrolled the manuscript and began her task. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR; OR, MY AUNT'S WILL + + +'Well, Linda was right,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'it does begin with +poetry.' + +'It's only a song,' said Charley, apologetically--'and after all +there is only one verse of that'--and then Mrs. Woodward began + +"CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR." + +'Ladies and gentlemen, that is the name of Mr. Charles Tudor's +new novel.' + +'Crinoline and Macassar!' said Uncle Bat. 'Are they intended for +human beings' names?' + +'They are the heroine and the hero, as I take it,' said Mrs. +Woodward, 'and I presume them to be human, unless they turn out +to be celestial.' + +'I never heard such names in my life,' said the captain. + +'At any rate, uncle, they are as good as Sir Jib Boom and Captain +Hardaport,' said Katie, pertly. + +'We won't mind about that,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I'm going to +begin, and I beg I may not be interrupted.' + +"CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR." + +"The lovely Crinoline was sitting alone at a lattice window on a +summer morning, and as she sat she sang with melancholy cadence +the first part of the now celebrated song which had then lately +appeared, from the distinguished pen of Sir G-- H--," + +'Who is Sir G-- H--, Charley?' + +'Oh, it wouldn't do for me to tell that,' said Charley. 'That +must be left to the tact and intelligence of my readers.' + +'Oh, very well,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'we will abstain from all +impertinent questions'--'from the distinguished pen of Sir G-- H--. +The ditty which she sang ran as follows:-- + + My heart's at my office, my heart is always there-- + My heart's at my office, docketing with care; + Docketing the papers, and copying all day, + My heart's at my office, though I be far away. + +"'Ah me!' said the Lady Crinoline--" + +'What--is she a peer's daughter?' said Uncle Bat. + +'Not exactly,' said Charley, 'it's only a sort of semi-poetic way +one has of speaking of one's heroine.' + +"'Ah me!' said the Lady Crinoline--' his heart! his heart!--I +wonder whether he has got a heart;' and then she sang again in +low plaintive voice the first line of the song, suiting the +cadence to her own case:-- + + His heart is at his office, his heart is _always_ there. + +"'It was evident that the Lady Crinoline did not repeat the words +in the feeling of their great author, who when he wrote them had +intended to excite to high deeds of exalted merit that portion of +the British youth which is employed in the Civil Service of the +country. + +"Crinoline laid down her lute--it was in fact an accordion--and +gazing listlessly over the rails of the balcony, looked out at +the green foliage which adorned the enclosure of the square +below. + +"It was Tavistock Square. The winds of March and the showers of +April had been successful in producing the buds of May." + +'Ah, Charley, that's taken from the old song,' said Katie, 'only +you've put buds instead of flowers.' + +'That's quite allowable,' said Mrs. Woodward--"successful in +producing the buds of May. The sparrows chirped sweetly on the +house-top, and the coming summer gladdened the hearts of all--of +all except poor Crinoline. + +"'I wonder whether he has a heart, said she; 'and if he has, I +wonder whether it is at his office.' + +"As she thus soliloquized, the door was opened by a youthful +page, on whose well-formed breast, buttons seemed to grow like +mushrooms in the meadows in August. + +"'Mr. Macassar Jones,' said the page; and having so said, he +discreetly disappeared. He was in his line of life a valuable +member of society. He had brought from his last place a +twelvemonth's character that was creditable alike to his head and +heart; he was now found to be a trustworthy assistant in the +household of the Lady Crinoline's mother, and was the delight of +his aged parents, to whom he regularly remitted no inconsiderable +portion of his wages. Let it always be remembered that the life +even of a page may be glorious. All honour to the true and +brave!" + +'Goodness, Charley--how very moral you are!' said Linda. + +'Yes,' said he; 'that's indispensable. It's the intention of the +_Daily Delight_ always to hold up a career of virtue to the +lower orders as the thing that pays. Honesty, high wages, and hot +dinners. Those are our principles.' + +'You'll have a deal to do before you'll bring the lower orders to +agree with you,' said Uncle Bat. + +'We have a deal to do,' said Charley, 'and we'll do it. The power +of the cheap press is unbounded.' + +"As the page closed the door, a light, low, melancholy step was +heard to make its way across the drawing-room. Crinoline's heart +had given one start when she had heard the announcement of the +well-known name. She had once glanced with eager inquiring eye +towards the door. But not in vain to her had an excellent mother +taught the proprieties of elegant life. Long before Macassar +Jones was present in the chamber she had snatched up the tambour- +frame that lay beside her, and when he entered she was zealously +engaged on the fox's head that was to ornament the toe of a left- +foot slipper. Who shall dare to say that those slippers were +intended to grace the feet of Macassar Jones?" + +'But I suppose they were,' said Katie. + +'You must wait and see,' said her mother; 'for my part I am not +at all so sure of that.' + +'Oh, but I know they must be; for she's in love with him,' said +Katie. + +"'Oh, Mr. Macassar,' said the Lady Crinoline, when he had drawn +nigh to her, 'and how are you to-day?' This mention of his +Christian name betrayed no undue familiarity, as the two families +were intimate, and Macassar had four elder brothers. 'I am so +sorry mamma is not at home; she will regret not seeing you +amazingly.' + +"Macassar had his hat in his hand, and he stood a while gazing at +the fox in the pattern. 'Won't you sit down?' said Crinoline. + +"'Is it very dusty in the street to-day?' asked Crinoline; and as +she spoke she turned upon him a face wreathed in the sweetest +smiles, radiant with elegant courtesy, and altogether expressive +of extreme gentility, unsullied propriety, and a very high tone +of female education. 'Is it very dusty in the street to-day?' + +"Charmed by the involuntary grace of her action, Macassar essayed +to turn his head towards her as he replied; he could not turn it +much, for he wore an all-rounder; but still he was enabled by a +side glance to see more of that finished elegance than was +perhaps good for his peace of mind. + +"'Yes,' said he, 'it is dusty;--it certainly is dusty, rather;-- +but not very--and then in most streets they've got the water- +carts.' + +"'Ah, I love those water-carts!' said Crinoline; 'the dust, you +know, is so trying.' + +"'To the complexion?' suggested Macassar, again looking round as +best he might over the bulwark of his collar. + +"Crinoline laughed slightly; it was perhaps hardly more than a +simper, and turning her lovely eyes from her work, she said, +'Well, to the complexion, if you will. What would you gentlemen +say if we ladies were to be careless of our complexions?' + +"Macassar merely sighed gently--perhaps he had no fitting answer; +perhaps his heart was too full for him to answer. He sat with his +eye fixed on his hat, which still dangled in his hand; but his +mind's eye was far away. + +"'Is it in his office?' thought Crinoline to herself; 'or is it +here? Is it anywhere?' + +"'Have you learnt the song I sent you? said he at last, waking, +as it were, from a trance. + +"'Not yet,' said she--'that is, not quite; that is, I could not +sing it before strangers yet.' + +"'Strangers!' said Macassar; and he looked at her again with an +energy that produced results not beneficial either to his neck or +his collar. + +"Crinoline was delighted at this expression of feeling. 'At any +rate it is somewhere,' said she to herself; 'and it can hardly be +all at his office.' + +"'Well, I will not say strangers,' she said out loud; 'it sounds +--it sounds--I don't know how it sounds. But what I mean is, that +as yet I've only sung it before mamma!'" + +'I declare I don't know which is the biggest fool of the two,' +said Uncle Bat, very rudely.' As for him, if I had him on the +forecastle of a man-of-war for a day or two, I'd soon teach him +to speak out.' + +'You forget, sir,' said Charley,' he's not a sailor, he's only +in the Civil Service; we're all very bashful in the Civil +Service.' + +'I think he is rather spooney, I must say,' said Katie; whereupon +Mrs. Woodward went on reading. + +"'It's a sweet thing, isn't it?' said Macassar. + +"'Oh, very!' said Crinoline, with a rapturous expression which +pervaded her whole head and shoulders as well as her face and +bust--'very sweet, and so new.' + +"'It quite comes home to me,' said Macassar, and he sighed +deeply. + +"'Then it is at his office,' said Crinoline to herself; and she +sighed also. + +"They both sat silent for a while, looking into the square-- +Crinoline was at one window, and Macassar at the other: 'I must +go now,' said he: 'I promised to be back at three.' + +"'Back where?' said she. + +"'At my office,' said he. + +"Crinoline sighed. After all, it was at his office; it was too +evident that it was there, and nowhere else. Well, and why should +it not be there? why should not Macassar Jones be true to his +duty and to his country? What had she to do with his heart? Why +should she wish it elsewhere? 'Twas thus she tried to console +herself, but in vain. Had she had an office of her own it might +perhaps have been different; but Crinoline was only a woman; and +often she sighed over the degradation of her lot. + +"'Good morning, Miss Crinoline,' said he. + +"'Good morning, Mr. Macassar,' said she; 'mamma will so regret +that she has lost the pleasure of seeing you.' + +"And then she rung the bell. Macassar went downstairs perhaps +somewhat slower, with perhaps more of melancholy than when he +entered. The page opened the hall-door with alacrity, and shut it +behind him with a slam. + +"All honour to the true and brave! + +"Crinoline again took up the note of her sorrow, and with her +lute in her hand, she warbled forth the line which stuck like a +thorn in her sweet bosom:-- + +His heart is in his office--his heart IS ALWAYS _there_." + +'There,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'that's the end of the first +chapter.' + +'Well, I like the page the best,' said Linda, 'because he seems +to know what he is about.' + +'Oh, so does the lady,' said Charley; 'but it wouldn't at all do +if we made the hero and heroine go about their work like humdrum +people. You'll see that the Lady Crinoline knows very well what's +what.' + +'Oh, Charley, pray don't tell us,' said Katie; 'I do so like Mr. +Macassar, he is so spooney; pray go on, mamma.' + +'I'm ready,' said Mrs. Woodward, again taking up the manuscript. + +"CHAPTER II + +"The lovely Crinoline was the only daughter of fond parents; and +though they were not what might be called extremely wealthy, +considering the vast incomes of some residents in the metropolis, +and were not perhaps wont to mix in the highest circles of the +Belgravian aristocracy, yet she was enabled to dress in all the +elegance of fashion, and contrived to see a good deal of that +society which moves in the highly respectable neighbourhood of +Russell Square and Gower Street. + +"Her dresses were made at the distinguished establishment of +Madame Mantalini, in Hanover Square; at least she was in the +habit of getting one dress there every other season, and this was +quite sufficient among her friends to give her a reputation for +dealing in the proper quarter. Once she had got a bonnet direct +from Paris, which gave her ample opportunity of expressing a +frequent opinion not favourable to the fabricators of a British +article. She always took care that her shoes had within them the +name of a French cordonnier; and her gloves were made to order in +the Rue Du Bac, though usually bought and paid for in Tottenham +Court Road." + +'What a false creature!' said Linda. + +'False!' said Charley; 'and how is a girl to get along if she be +not false? What girl could live for a moment before the world if +she were to tell the whole truth about the get-up of her +wardrobe--the patchings and make-believes, the chipped ribbons +and turned silks, the little bills here, and the little bills +there? How else is an allowance of L20 a year to be made +compatible with an appearance of unlimited income? How else are +young men to be taught to think that in an affair of dress money +is a matter of no moment whatsoever?' + +'Oh, Charley, Charley, don't be slanderous,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I only repeat what the editor says to me--I know nothing about +it myself. Only we are requested 'to hold the mirror up to +nature,'--and to art too, I believe. We are to set these things +right, you know.' + +'We--who are we?' said Katie. + +'Why, the _Daily Delight_,' said Charley. + +'But I hope there's nothing false in patching and turning,' said +Mrs. Woodward; 'for if there be, I'm the falsest woman alive. + + To gar the auld claes look amaist as weel's the new + +is, I thought, one of the most legitimate objects of a woman's +diligence.' + +'It all depends on the spirit of the stitches,' said Charley the +censor. + +'Well, I must say I don't like mending up old clothes a bit +better than Charley does,' said Katie; 'but pray go on, mamma;' +so Mrs. Woodward continued to read. + +"On the day of Macassar's visit in Tavistock Square, Crinoline +was dressed in a most elegant morning costume. It was a very +light barege muslin, extremely full; and which, as she had +assured her friend, Miss Manasseh, of Keppel Street, had been +sent home from the establishment in Hanover Square only the day +before. I am aware that Miss Manasseh instantly propagated an +ill-natured report that she had seen the identical dress in a +milliner's room up two pairs back in Store Street; but then Miss +Manasseh was known to be envious; and had moreover seen twelve +seasons out in those localities, whereas the fair Crinoline, +young thing, had graced Tavistock Square only for two years; and +her mother was ready to swear that she had never passed the +nursery door till she came there. The ground of the dress was a +light pea-green, and the pattern was ivy wreaths entwined with +pansies and tulips--each flounce showed a separate wreath--and +there were nine flounces, the highest of which fairy circles was +about three inches below the smallest waist that ever was tightly +girded in steel and whalebone. + +"Macassar had once declared, in a moment of ecstatic energy, that +a small waist was the chiefest grace in woman. How often had the +Lady Crinoline's maid, when in the extreme agony of her labour, +put a malediction on his name on account of this speech! + +"It is unnecessary to speak of the drapery of the arms, which +showed the elaborate lace of the sleeve beneath, and sometimes +also the pearly whiteness of that rounded arm. This was a sight +which would almost drive Macassar to distraction. At such moments +as that the hopes of the patriotic poet for the good of the Civil +Service were not strictly fulfilled in the heart of Macassar +Jones. Oh, if the Lady Crinoline could but have known! + +"It is unnecessary also to describe the strange and hidden +mechanism of that mysterious petticoat which gave such full +dimensions, such ample sweeping proportions to the _tout +ensemble_ of the lady's appearance. It is unnecessary, and +would perhaps be improper, and as far as I am concerned, is +certainly impossible." + +Here Charley blushed, as Mrs. Woodward looked at him from over +the top of the paper. + +"Let it suffice to say that she could envelop a sofa without the +slightest effort, throw her draperies a yard and a half from her +on either side without any appearance of stretching, completely +fill a carriage; or, which was more frequently her fate, entangle +herself all but inextricably in a cab. + +"A word, however, must be said of those little feet that peeped +out now and again so beautifully from beneath the artistic +constructions above alluded to-of the feet, or perhaps rather of +the shoes. But yet, what can be said of them successfully? That +French name so correctly spelt, so elaborately accented, so +beautifully finished in gold letters, which from their form, +however, one would say that the _cordonnier_ must have imported +from England, was only visible to those favoured knights who were +occasionally permitted to carry the shoes home in their pockets. + +"But a word must be said about the hair dressed _a +l'imperatrice_, redolent of the sweetest patchouli, disclosing +all the glories of that ingenuous, but perhaps too open brow. A +word must be said; but, alas! how inefficacious to do justice to +the ingenuity so wonderfully displayed! The hair of the Lady +Crinoline was perhaps more lovely than abundant: to produce that +glorious effect, that effect which has now symbolized among +English lasses the head-dress _a l'imperatrice_ as the one +idea of feminine beauty, every hair was called on to give its +separate aid. As is the case with so many of us who are anxious +to put our best foot foremost, everything was abstracted from the +rear in order to create a show in the front. Then to complete the +garniture of the head, to make all perfect, to leave no point of +escape for the susceptible admirer of modern beauty, some dorsal +appendage was necessary of mornings as well as in the more fully +bedizened period of evening society. + +"Everything about the sweet Crinoline was wont to be green. It is +the sweetest and most innocent of colours; but, alas! a colour +dangerous for the heart's ease of youthful beauty. Hanging from +the back of her head were to be seen moss and fennel, and various +grasses--rye grass and timothy, trefoil and cinquefoil, vetches, +and clover, and here and there young fern. A story was told, but +doubtless false, as it was traced to the mouth of Miss Manasseh, +that once while Crinoline was reclining in a paddock at Richmond, +having escaped with the young Macassar from the heat of a +neighbouring drawing-room, a cow had attempted to feed from her +head." + +'Oh, Charley, a cow!' said Katie. + +'Well, but you see I don't give it as true,' said Charley. + +'I shall never get it done if Katie won't hold her tongue,' said +Mrs. Woodward. + +"But perhaps it was when at the seaside in September, at +Broadstairs, Herne Bay, or Dover, Crinoline and her mamma +invigorated themselves with the sea-breezes of the ocean--perhaps +it was there that she was enabled to assume that covering for her +head in which her soul most delighted. It was a Tom and Jerry hat +turned up at the sides, with a short but knowing feather, velvet +trimmings, and a steel buckle blinking brightly in the noonday +sun. Had Macassar seen her in this he would have yielded himself +her captive at once, quarter or no quarter. It was the most +marked, and perhaps the most attractive peculiarity of the Lady +Crinoline's face, that the end of her nose was a little turned +up. This charm, in unison with the upturned edges of her cruel- +hearted hat, was found by many men to be invincible. + +"We all know how dreadful is the spectacle of a Saracen's head, +as it appears, or did appear, painted on a huge board at the top +of Snow Hill. From that we are left to surmise with what +tremendous audacity of countenance, with what terror-striking +preparations of the outward man, an Eastern army is led to +battle. Can any men so fearfully bold in appearance ever turn +their backs and fly? They look as though they could destroy by +the glance of their ferocious eyes. Who could withstand the +hirsute horrors of those fiery faces? + +"There is just such audacity, a courage of a similar description, +perhaps we may say an equal invincibility, in the charms of those +Tom and Jerry hats when duly put on, over a face of the proper +description--over such a face as that of the Lady Crinoline. They +give to the wearer an appearance of concentration of pluck. But +as the Eastern array does quail before the quiet valour of +Europe, so, we may perhaps say, does the open, quick audacity of +the Tom and Jerry tend to less powerful results than the modest +enduring patience of the bonnet." + +'So ends the second chapter--bravo, Charley,' said Mrs. Woodward. +'In the name of the British female public, I beg to thank you for +your exertions.' + +'The editor said I was to write down turned-up hats,' said +Charley. 'I rather like them myself.' + +'I hope my new slouch is not an audacious Saracen's head,' said +Linda. + +'Or mine,' said Katie. 'But you may say what you like about them +now; for mine is drowned.' + +'Come, girls, there are four more chapters, I see. Let me finish +it, and then we can discuss it afterwards.' + +"CHAPTER III + +"Having thus described the Lady Crinoline----" + +'You haven't described her at all,' said Linda; 'you haven't got +beyond her clothes yet.' + +'There is nothing beyond them,' said Charley. + +'You haven't even described her face,' said Katie; 'you have only +said that she had a turned-up nose.' + +'There is nothing further that one can say about it,' said +Charley. + +"Having thus described the Lady Crinoline,' continued Mrs. +Woodward, 'it now becomes our duty, as impartial historians, to +give some account of Mr. Macassar Jones. + +"We are not prepared to give the exact name of the artist by whom +Mr. Macassar Jones was turned out to the world so perfectly +dressed a man. Were we to do so, the signal service done to one +establishment by such an advertisement would draw down on us the +anger of the trade at large, and the tailors of London would be +in league against the _Daily Delight_. It is sufficient to +remark that the artist's offices are not a hundred miles from +Pall Mall. Nor need we expressly name the bootmaker to whom is +confided the task of making those feet 'small by degrees and +beautifully less.' The process, we understand, has been painful, +but the effect is no doubt remunerative. + +"In three especial walks of dress has Macassar Jones been more +than ordinarily careful to create a sensation; and we believe we +may assert that he has been successful in all. We have already +alluded to his feet. Ascending from them, and ascending not far, +we come to his coat. It is needless to say that it is a frock; +needless to say that it is a long frock--long as those usually +worn by younger infants, and apparently made so for the same +purpose. But look at the exquisitely small proportions of the +collar; look at the grace of the long sleeves, the length of +back, the propriety, the innate respectability, the perfect +decorum--we had almost said the high moral worth--of the whole. +Who would not willingly sacrifice any individual existence that +he might become the exponent of such a coat? Macassar Jones was +proud to do so. + +"But he had bestowed perhaps the greatest amount of personal +attention on his collar. It was a matter more within his own +grasp than those great and important articles to which attention +has been already drawn; but one, nevertheless, on which he was +able to expend the whole amount of his energy and genius. Some +people may think that an all-rounder is an all-rounder, and that +if one is careful to get an all-rounder one has done all that is +necessary. But so thought not Macassar Jones. Some men wear +collars of two plies of linen, some men of three; but Macassar +Jones wore collars of four plies. Some men--some sensual, self- +indulgent men--appear to think that the collar should be made for +the neck; but Macassar Jones knew better. He, who never spared +him self when the cause was good, he knew that the neck had been +made for the collar--it was at any rate evident that such was the +case with his own. Little can be said of his head, except that it +was small, narrow, and genteel; but his hat might be spoken of, +and perhaps with advantage. Of the loose but studied tie of his +inch-wide cravat a paragraph might be made; but we would fain not +be tedious. + +"We will only further remark that he always carried with him a +wonderful representation of himself, like to him to a miracle, +only smaller in its dimensions, like as a duodecimo is to a +folio--a babe, as it were, of his own begetting--a little +_alter ego_ in which he took much delight. It was his umbrella. +Look at the delicate finish of its lower extremity; look at the long, +narrow, and well-made coat in which it is enveloped from its neck +downwards, without speck, or blemish, or wrinkle; look at the little +wooden head, nicely polished, with the effigy of a human face on +one side of it--little eyes it has, and a sort of nose; look closer at it, +and you will perceive a mouth, not expressive indeed, but still it is +there--a mouth and chin; and is it, or is it not, an attempt at a pair +of whiskers? It certainly has a moustache. + +"Such were Mr. Macassar Jones and his umbrella. He was an +excellent clerk, and did great credit to the important office to +which he was attached--namely, that of the Episcopal Audit Board. +He was much beloved by the other gentlemen who were closely +connected with him in that establishment; and may be said, for +the first year or two of his service, to have been, not exactly +the life and soul, but, we may perhaps say with more propriety, +the pervading genius of the room in which he sat. + +"But, alas! at length a cloud came over his brow. At first it was +but a changing shadow; but it settled into a dark veil of sorrow +which obscured all his virtues, and made the worthy senior of his +room shake his thin grey locks once and again. He shook them more +in sorrow than in anger; for he knew that Macassar was in love, +and he remembered the days of his youth. Yes; Macassar was in +love. He had seen the lovely Crinoline. To see was to admire; to +admire was to love; to love--that is, to love her, to love +Crinoline, the exalted, the sought-after, the one so much in +demand, as he had once expressed himself to one of his bosom +friends--to love her was to despair. He did despair; and +despairing sighed, and sighing was idle. + +"But he was not all idle. The genius of the man had that within +it which did not permit itself to evaporate in mere sighs. Sighs, +with the high-minded, force themselves into the guise of poetry, +and so it had been with him. He got leave of absence for a week, +and shut himself up alone in his lodgings; for a week in his +lodgings, during the long evenings of winter, did he remain +unseen and unheard of. His landlady thought that he was in debt, +and his friends whispered abroad that he had caught scarlatina. +But at the end of the seven days he came forth, pale indeed, but +with his countenance lighted up by ecstatic fire, and as he +started for his office, he carefully folded and put into his +pocket the elegantly written poem on which he had been so +intently engaged." + +'I'm so glad we are to have more poetry,' said Katie. 'Is it +another song?' + +'You'll see,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +"Macassar had many bosom friends at his office, to all of whom, +one by one, he had confided the tale of his love. For a while he +doubted to which of them he should confide the secret of his +inspiration; but genius will not hide its head under a bushel; +and thus, before long, did Macassar's song become the common +property of the Episcopal Audit Board. Even the Bishops sang it, +so Macassar was assured by one of his brother clerks who was made +of a coarser clay than his colleague--even the Bishops sang it +when they met in council together on their own peculiar bench. + +"It would be useless to give the whole of it here; for it +contained ten verses. The last two were those which Macassar was +wont to sing to himself, as he wandered lonely under the elms of +Kensington Gardens. + + "'Oh, how she walks, + And how she talks, + And sings like a bird serene; + But of this be sure + While the world shall endure, + The loveliest lady that'll ever be seen + Will still be the Lady Crinoline, + The lovely Lady Crinoline. + +With her hair done all _a l'imperatrice_, + Sweetly done with the best of grease, + She looks like a Goddess or Queen,-- + And so I declare, + And solemnly swear, + That the loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is still the Lady Crinoline, + The lovely Lady Crinoline.'" + +'And so ends the third chapter,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +Both Katie and Linda were beginning to criticize, but Mrs. +Woodward repressed them sternly, and went on with + +"CHAPTER IV + +"'It was a lovely day towards the end of May that Macassar Jones, +presenting himself before the desk of the senior clerk at one +o'clock, begged for permission to be absent for two hours. The +request was preferred with meek and hesitating voice, and with +downcast eyes. + +"The senior clerk shook his grey locks sadly! sadly he shook his +thin grey locks, for he grieved at the sight which he saw. 'Twas +sad to see the energies of this young man thus sapped in his +early youth by the all-absorbing strength of a hopeless passion. +Crinoline was now, as it were, a household word at the Episcopal +Audit Board. The senior clerk believed her to be cruel, and as he +knew for what object these two hours of idleness were requested, +he shook his thin grey locks in sorrow. + +"'I'll be back at three, sir, punctual,' said Macassar. + +"'But, Mr. Jones, you are absent nearly every day for the same +period.' + +"'To-day shall be the last; to-day shall end it all,' said +Macassar, with a look of wretched desperation. + +"'What--what would Sir Gregory say?' said the senior clerk. + +"Macassar Jones sighed deeply. Nature had not made the senior +clerk a cruel man; but yet this allusion _was_ cruel. The +young Macassar had drunk deeply of the waters that welled from +the fountain of Sir Gregory's philosophy. He had been proud to +sit humbly at the feet of such a Gamaliel; and now it rent his +young heart to be thus twitted with the displeasure of the great +master whom he so loved and so admired. + +"'Well, go, Mr. Jones,' said the senior clerk, 'go, but as you +go, resolve that to-morrow you will remain at your desk. Now go, +and may prosperity attend you!' + +"'All shall be decided to-day,' said Macassar, and as he spoke an +unusual spark gleamed in his eye. He went, and as he went the +senior clerk shook his thin grey hairs. He was a bachelor, and he +distrusted the charms of the sex. + +"Macassar, returning to his desk, took up his hat and his +umbrella, and went forth. His indeed was a plight at which that +old senior clerk might well shake his thin grey hairs in sorrow, +for Macassar was the victim of mysterious circumstances, which, +from his youth upwards, had marked him out for a fate of no +ordinary nature. The tale must now be told." + +'O dear!' said Linda; 'is it something horrid?' + +'I hope it is,' said Katie; 'perhaps he's already married to some +old hag or witch.' + +'You don't say who his father and mother are; but I suppose he'll +turn out to be somebody else's son,' said Linda. + +'He's a very nice young man for a small tea-party, at any rate,' +said Uncle Bat. + +"The tale must now be told," continued Mrs. Woodward. "In his +early years Macassar Jones had had a maiden aunt. This lady died--" + +'Oh, mamma, if you read it in that way I shall certainly cry,' +said Katie. + +'Well, my dear, if your heart is so susceptible you had better +indulge it.' "This lady died and left behind her----" + +'What?' said Linda. + +'A diamond ring?' said Katie. + +'A sealed manuscript, which was found in a secret drawer?' +suggested Linda. + +'Perhaps a baby,' said Uncle Bat. + +"And left behind her a will----" + +'Did she leave anything else?' asked Norman. + +'Ladies and gentlemen, if I am to be interrupted in this way, I +really must resign my task,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'we shall never +get to bed.' + +'I won't say another word,' said Katie. + +"In his early years Macassar had had a maiden aunt. This lady +died and left behind her a will, in which, with many expressions +of the warmest affection and fullest confidence, she left L3,000 +in the three per cents----" + +'What are the three per cents?' said Katie. + +'The three per cents is a way in which people get some of their +money to spend regularly, when they have got a large sum locked +up somewhere,' said Linda. + +'Oh!' said Katie. + +'Will you hold your tongue, miss?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +"Left L3,000 in the three per cents to her nephew. But she left +it on these conditions, that he should be married before he was +twenty-five, and that he should have a child lawfully born in the +bonds of wedlock before he was twenty-six. And then the will went +on to state that the interest of the money should accumulate till +Macassar had attained the latter age; and that in the event of +his having failed to comply with the conditions and stipulations +above named, the whole money, principal and interest, should be +set aside, and by no means given up to the said Macassar, but +applied to the uses, purposes, and convenience of that excellent +charitable institution, denominated the Princess Charlotte's +Lying-in Hospital. + +"Now the nature of this will had been told in confidence by +Macassar to some of his brother clerks, and was consequently well +known at the Episcopal Audit Board. It had given rise there to a +spirit of speculation against which the senior clerk had +protested in vain. Bets were made, some in favour of Macassar, +and some in that of the hospital; but of late the odds were going +much against our hero. It was well known that in three short +months he would attain that disastrous age, which, if it found +him a bachelor, would find him also denuded of his legacy. And +then how short a margin remained for the second event! The odds +were daily rising against Macassar, and as he heard the bets +offered and taken at the surrounding desks, his heart quailed +within him. + +"And the lovely Crinoline, she also had heard of this eccentric +will; she and her mother. L3,000 with interest arising for some +half score of years would make a settlement by no means +despicable in Tavistock Square, and would enable Macassar to +maintain a house over which even Crinoline need not be ashamed to +preside. But what if the legacy should be lost! She also knew to +a day what was the age of her swain; she knew how close upon her +was that day, which, if she passed it unwedded, would see her +resolved to be deaf for ever to the vows of Macassar. Still, if +she managed well, there might be time--at any rate for the +marriage. + +"But, alas! Macassar made no vows; none at least which the most +attentive ear could consider to be audible. Crinoline's ear was +attentive, but hitherto in vain. He would come there daily to +Tavistock Square; daily would that true and valiant page lay open +the path to his mistress's feet; daily would Macassar sit there +for a while and sigh. But the envious hour would pass away, while +the wished-for word was still unsaid; and he would hurry back, +and complete with figures, too often erroneous, the audit of some +diocesan balance. + +"'You must help him, my dear,' said Crinoline's mamma. + +"'But he says nothing, mamma,' said Crinoline in tears. + +"'You must encourage him to speak, my dear.' + +"'I do encourage him; but by that time it is always three +o'clock, and then he has to go away.' + +"'You should be quicker, my dear. You should encourage him more +at once. Now try to-day; if you can't do anything to-day I really +must get your papa to interfere.' + +"Crinoline had ever been an obedient child, and now, as ever, she +determined to obey. But it was a hard task for her. In three +months he would be twenty-five--in fifteen months twenty-six. +She, however, would do her best; and then, if her efforts were +unavailing, she could only trust to Providence and her papa. + +"With sad and anxious heart did Macassar that day take up his new +silk hat, take up also his darling umbrella, and descend the +sombre steps of the Episcopal Audit Office. 'Seven to one on the +Lying-in,' were the last words which reached his ears as the door +of his room closed behind him. His was a dreadful position. What +if that sweet girl, that angel whom he so worshipped, what if +she, melted by his tale of sorrow--that is, if he could prevail +on himself to tell it--should take pity, and consent to be +hurried prematurely to the altar of Hymen; and then if, after +all, the legacy should be forfeited! Poverty for himself he could +endure; at least he thought so; but poverty for her! could he +bear that? What if he should live to see her deprived of that +green headdress, robbed of those copious draperies, reduced to +English shoes, compelled to desert that shrine in Hanover Square, +and all through him! His brain reeled round, his head swam, his +temples throbbed, his knees knocked against each other, his blood +stagnated, his heart collapsed, a cold clammy perspiration +covered him from head to foot; he could hardly reach the +courtyard, and there obtain the support of a pillar. Dreadful +thoughts filled his mind; the Thames, the friendly Thames, was +running close to him; should he not put a speedy end to all his +misery? Those horrid words, that 'seven to one on the Lying-in,' +still rang in his ears; were the chances really seven to one +against his getting his legacy? 'Oh!' said he, 'my aunt, my aunt, +my aunt, my aunt, my aunt!' + +"But at last he roused the spirit of the man within him. 'Faint +heart never won fair lady,' seemed to be whispered to him from +every stone in Somerset House. The cool air blowing through the +passages revived him, and he walked forth through the wide +portals, resolving that he would return a happy, thriving lover, +or that he would return no more--that night. What would he care +for Sir Gregory, what for the thin locks of the senior clerk, if +Crinoline should reject him? + +"It was his custom, as he walked towards Tavistock Square, to +stop at a friendly pastry-cook's in Covent Garden, and revive his +spirits for the coming interview with Banbury tarts and cherry- +brandy. In the moments of his misery something about the pastry- +cook's girl, something that reminded him of Crinoline, it was +probably her nose, had tempted him to confide to her his love. He +had told her everything; the kind young creature pitied him, and +as she ministered to his wants, was wont to ask sweetly as to his +passion. + +"'And how was the lovely Lady Crinoline yesterday?' asked she. He +had entrusted to her a copy of his poem. + +"'More beauteous than ever,' he said, but somewhat indistinctly, +for his mouth was clogged with the Banbury tart. + +"'And good-natured, I hope. Indeed, I don't know how she can +resist,' said the girl; 'I'm sure you'll make it all right to- +day, for I see you've got your winning way with you.' + +"Winning way, with seven to one against him! Macassar sighed, and +spilt some of his cherry-brandy over his shirt front. The kind- +hearted girl came and wiped it for him. 'I think I'll have +another glass,' said he, with a deep voice. He did take another +glass--and also ate another tart. + +"'He'll pop to-day as sure as eggs, now he's taken them two +glasses of popping powder,' said the girl, as he went out of the +shop. 'Well, it's astonishing to me what the men find to be +afraid of.' + +"And so Macassar hastened towards Tavistock Square, all too +quickly; for, as he made his way across Great Russell Street, he +found that he was very hot. He leant against the rail, and, +taking off his hat and gloves, began to cool himself, and wipe +away the dust with his pocket-handkerchief. 'I wouldn't have +minded the expense of a cab,' said he to himself, 'only the +chances are so much against me: seven to one!' + +"But he had no time to lose. He had had but two precious hours at +his disposal, and thirty minutes were already gone. He hurried on +to Tavistock Square, and soon found that well-known door open +before him. + +"'The Lady Crinoline sits upstairs alone,' said the page, 'and is +a-thinking of you.' Then he added in a whisper, 'Do you go at her +straight, Mr. Macassar; slip-slap, and no mistake.' + +"All honour to the true and brave! + +"CHAPTER V + +"As Macassar walked across the drawing-room, Crinoline failed to +perceive his presence, although his boots did creak rather +loudly. Such at least must be presumed to have been the case, for +she made no immediate sign of having noticed him. She was sitting +at the open window, with her lute in hand, gazing into the +vacancy of the square below; and as Macassar walked across the +room, a deep sigh escaped from her bosom. The page closed the +door, and at the same moment Crinoline touched her lute, or +rather pulled it at the top and bottom, and threw one wild witch +note to the wind. As she did so, a line of a song escaped from +her lips with a low, melancholy, but still rapturous cadence-- + + 'His heart is at his office, his heart is _always_ there.' + +"'Oh, Mr. Macassar, is that you?' she exclaimed. She struggled to +rise, but, finding herself unequal to the effort, she sank back +again on a chair, dropped her lute on a soft footstool, and then +buried her face in her hands. It was dreadful for Macassar to +witness such agony. + +"'Is anything the matter?' said he. + +"'The matter!' said she. 'Ah! ah!' + +"'I hope you are not sick?' said he. + +"'Sick!' said she. 'Well, I fear I am very sick.' + +"'What is it?' said he. 'Perhaps only bilious,' he suggested. + +"'Oh! oh! oh!' said she. + +"'I see I'm in the way; and I think I had better go,' and so he +prepared to depart. 'No! no! no!' said she, jumping up from her +chair. 'Oh! Mr. Macassar, don't be so cruel. Do you wish to see +me sink on the carpet before your feet?' + +"Macassar denied the existence of any such wish; and said that he +humbly begged her pardon if he gave any offence. + +"'Offence!' said she, smiling sweetly on him; sweetly, but yet +sadly. 'Offence! no--no offence. Indeed, I don't know how you +could--but never mind--I am such a silly thing. One's feelings +will sometimes get the better of one; don't you often find it +so?' + +"'O yes! quite so,' said Macassar. 'I think it's the heat.' + +"'He's a downright noodle,' said Crinoline's mamma to her sister- +in-law, who lived with them. The two were standing behind a chink +in the door, which separated the drawing-room from a chamber +behind it. + +"'Won't you sit down, Mr. Macassar?' Macassar sat down. 'Mamma +will be so sorry to miss you again. She's calling somewhere in +Grosvenor Square, I believe. She wanted me to go with her; but I +could not bring myself to go with her to-day. It's useless for +the body to go out, when the heart still remains at home. Don't +you find it so?' + +"'Oh, quite so,' said Macassar. The cherry-brandy had already +evaporated before the blaze of all that beauty, and he was +bethinking himself how he might best take himself off. Let the +hospital have the filthy lucre! He would let the money go, and +would show the world that he loved for the sake of love alone! He +looked at his watch, and found that it was already past two. + +"Crinoline, when she saw that watch, knew that something must be +done at once. She appreciated more fully than her lover did +the value of this world's goods; and much as she doubtless +sympathized with the wants of the hospital in question, she felt +that charity should begin at home. So she fairly burst out into a +flood of tears. + +"Macassar was quite beside himself. He had seen her weep before, +but never with such frightful violence. She rushed up from her +chair, and passing so close to him as nearly to upset him by the +waft of her petticoats, threw herself on to an ottoman, and +hiding her face on the stump in the middle of it, sobbed and +screeched, till Macassar feared that the buttons behind her dress +would crack and fly off. + +"'Oh! oh! oh!' sobbed Crinoline. + +"'It must be the heat,' said Macassar, knocking down a flower-pot +in his attempt to open the window a little wider. 'O dear, what +have I done?' said he. 'I think I'd better go.' + +"'Never mind the flower-pot,' said Crinoline, looking up through +her tears. 'Oh! oh! oh! oh! me. Oh! my heart.' + +"Macassar looked at his watch. He had only forty-five minutes +left for everything. The expense of a cab would, to be sure, be +nothing if he were successful; but then, what chance was there of +that? + +"'Can I do anything for you in the Strand?' said he. 'I must be +at my office at three.' + +"'In the Strand!' she screeched. 'What could he do for me in the +Strand? Heartless--heartless--heartless! Well, go--go--go to your +office, Mr. Macassar; your heart is there, I know. It is always +there. Go--don't let me stand between you and your duties-- +between you and Sir Gregory. Oh! how I hate that man! Go! why +should I wish to prevent you? Of course I have no such wish. To +me it is quite indifferent; only, mamma will be so sorry to miss +you. You don't know how mamma loves you. She loves you almost as +a son. But go--go; pray go!' + +"And then Crinoline looked at him. Oh! how she looked at him! It +was as though all the goddesses of heaven were inviting him to +come and eat ambrosia with them on a rosy-tinted cloud. All the +goddesses, did we say? No, but one goddess, the most beautiful of +them all. His heart beat violently against his ribs, and he felt +that he was almost man enough for anything. Instinctively his +hand went again to his waistcoat pocket. + +"'You shan't look at your watch so often,' said she, putting up +her delicate hand and stopping his. 'There, I'll look at it for +you. It's only just two, and you needn't go to your office for +this hour;' and as she squeezed it back into his pocket, he felt +her fingers pressing against his heart, and felt her hair--done +all _a l'imperatrice_--in sweet contact with his cheek. 'There, +I shall hold it there,' said she, 'so that you shan't look at it again.' + +"'Will you stay till I bid you go?' said Crinoline. + +"Macassar declared that he did not care a straw for the senior +clerk, or for Sir Gregory either. He would stay there for ever, +he said. + +"'What! for ever in mamma's drawing-room?' said Crinoline, +opening wide her lovely eyes with surprise. + +"'For ever near to you,' said Macassar. + +"'Oh, Mr. Macassar,' said Crinoline, dropping her hand from his +waistcoat, and looking bashfully towards the ground, 'what can +you mean?' + +"Down went Macassar on his knees, and down went Crinoline into +her chair. There was perhaps rather too much distance between +them, but that did not much matter now. There he was on both +knees, with his hands clasped together as they were wont to be +when he said his prayers, with his umbrella beside him on one +side, and his hat on the other, making his declaration in full +and unmistakable terms. A yard or two of floor, more or less, +between them, was neither here nor there. At first the bashful +Crinoline could not bring herself to utter a distinct consent, +and Macassar was very nearly up and away, in a returning fit of +despair. But her good-nature came to his aid; and as she quickly +said, 'I will, I will, I will,' he returned to his posture in +somewhat nearer quarters, and was transported into the seventh +heaven by the bliss of kissing her hand. + +"'Oh, Macassar!' said she. + +"'Oh, Crinoline!' said he. + +"'You must come and tell papa to-morrow,' said she. + +"He readily promised to do so. + +"'You had better come to breakfast; before he goes into the +city,' said she. + +"And so the matter was arranged, and the lovely Lady Crinoline +became the affianced bride of the happy Macassar. + +"It was past three when he left the house, but what did he care +for that? He was so mad with joy that he did not even know +whither he was going. He went on straight ahead, and came to no +check, till he found himself waving his hat over his head in the +New Road. He then began to conceive that his conduct must have +been rather wild, for he was brought to a stand-still in a +crossing by four or five cabmen, who were rival candidates for +his custom. + +"'Somerset House, old brick!' he shouted out, as he jumped into a +hansom, and as he did so he poked one of the other cabbies +playfully in the ribs with his umbrella. + +"'Is mamma don't know as 'ow 'e's hout, I shouldn't vonder,' said +the cabman--and away went Macassar, singing at the top of his +voice as he sat in the cab-- + + 'The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is the lovely Lady Crinoline.' + +"The cab passed through Covent Garden on its way. 'Stop at the +pastry-cook's at the corner,' said Macassar up through the little +trap-door. The cab drew up suddenly. 'She's mine, she's mine!' +shouted Macassar, rushing into the shop, and disregarding in the +ecstasy of the moment the various customers who were quietly +eating their ices. 'She's mine, she's mine! + + With her hair done all _a l'imperatrice_, + Sweetly done with the best of grease. + +And now for Somerset House.' + +"Arrived at those ancient portals, he recklessly threw +eighteenpence to the cabman, and ran up the stone stairs which +led to his office. As he did so the clock, with iron tongue, +tolled four. But what recked he what it tolled? He rushed into +his room, where his colleagues were now locking their desks, and +waving abroad his hat and his umbrella, repeated the chorus of +his song. 'She's mine, she's mine-- + + The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is the lovely Lady Crinoline; + +and she's mine, she's mine!' + +"Exhausted nature could no more. He sank into a chair, and his +brother clerks stood in a circle around him. Soon a spirit of +triumph seemed to actuate them all; they joined hands in that +friendly circle, and dancing with joyful glee, took up with one +voice the burden of the song-- + + 'Oh how she walks, + And how she talks, + And sings like a bird serene, + But of this be sure, + While the world shall endure, + The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is still the Lady Crinoline-- + The lovely Lady Crinoline.' + +"And that old senior clerk with the thin grey hair--was he angry +at this general ebullition of joy? O no! The just severity of his +discipline was always tempered with genial mercy. Not a word did +he say of that broken promise, not a word of the unchecked +diocesan balance, not a word of Sir Gregory's anger. He shook his +thin grey locks; but he shook them neither in sorrow nor in +anger. 'God bless you, Macassar Jones,', said he, 'God bless +you!' + +"He too had once been young, had once loved, had once hoped and +feared, and hoped again, and had once knelt at the feet of +beauty. But alas! he had knelt in vain. + +"'May God be with you, Macassar Jones,' said he, as he walked out +of the office door with his coloured bandana pressed to his eyes. +'May God be with you, and make your bed fruitful!' + + "'For the loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is the lovely Lady Crinoline,' + +shouted the junior clerks, still dancing in mad glee round the +happy lover. + +"We have said that they all joined in this kindly congratulation +to their young friend. But no. There was one spirit there whom +envy had soured, one whom the happiness of another had made +miserable, one whose heart beat in no unison with these jocund +sounds. As Macassar's joy was at its height, in the proud moment +of his triumph, a hated voice struck his ears, and filled his +soul with dismay once more. + +"'There's two to one still on the Lying-in,' said this hateful +Lucifer. + +"And so Macassar was not all happy even yet, as he walked home to +his lodgings. + +"CHAPTER VI + +"We have but one other scene to record, but one short scene, and +then our tale will be told and our task will be done. And this +last scene shall not, after the usual manner of novelists, be +that of the wedding, but rather one which in our eyes is of a +much more enduring interest. Crinoline and Macassar were duly +married in Bloomsbury Church. The dresses are said to have come +from the house in Hanover Square. Crinoline behaved herself with +perfect propriety, and Macassar went through his work like a man. +When we have said that, we have said all that need be said on +that subject. + +"But we must beg our readers to pass over the space of the next +twelve months, and to be present with us in that front sitting- +room of the elegant private lodgings, which the married couple +now prudently occupied in Alfred Place. Lodgings! yes, they were +only lodgings; for not as yet did they know what might be the +extent of their income. + +"In this room during the whole of a long autumn day sat Macassar +in a frame of mind not altogether to be envied. During the +greater portion of it he was alone; but ever and anon some +bustling woman would enter and depart without even deigning to +notice the questions which he asked. And then after a while he +found himself in company with a very respectable gentleman in +black, who belonged to the medical profession. 'Is it coming?' +asked Macassar. 'Is it, is it coming?' + +"'Well, we hope so--we hope so,' said the medical gentleman. 'If +not to-day, it will be to-morrow. If I should happen to be +absent, Mrs. Gamp is all that you could desire. If not to-day, it +will certainly be to-morrow,'--and so the medical gentleman went +his way. + +"Now the coming morrow would be Macassar's birthday. On that +morrow he would be twenty-six. + +"All alone he sat there till the autumn sun gave way to the +shades of evening. Some one brought him a mutton chop, but it was +raw and he could not eat; he went to the sideboard and prepared +to make himself a glass of negus, but the water was all cold. His +water at least was cold, though Mrs. Gamp's was hot enough. It +was a sad and mournful evening. He thought he would go out, for +he found that he was not wanted; but a low drizzling rain +prevented him. Had he got wet he could not have changed his +clothes, for they were all in the wardrobe in his wife's room. +All alone he sat till the shades of evening were hidden by the +veil of night. + +"But what sudden noise is that he hears within the house? Why do +those heavy steps press so rapidly against the stairs? What feet +are they which are so busy in the room above him? He opens the +sitting-room door, but he can see nothing. He has been left there +without a candle. He peers up the stairs, but a faint glimmer of +light shining through the keyhole of his wife's door is all that +meets his eye. 'Oh, my aunt! my aunt!' he says as he leans +against the banisters. 'My aunt, my aunt, my aunt!' + +"What a birthday will this be for him on the morrow! He already +hears the sound of the hospital bells as they ring with joy at +the acquisition of their new wealth; he must dash from his lips, +tear from his heart, banish for ever from his eyes, that vision +of a sweet little cottage at Brompton, with a charming dressing- +room for himself, and gas laid on all over the house. + +"'Lodgings! I hate, I detest lodgings!' he said to himself. +'Connubial bliss and furnished lodgings are not compatible. My +aunt, my aunt, for what misery hast thou not to answer! Oh, Mrs. +Gamp, could you be so obliging as to tell me what o'clock it is?' +The last question was asked as Mrs. Gamp suddenly entered the +room with a candle. Macassar's watch had been required for the +use of one of the servants. + +"'It's just half-past heleven, this wery moment as is,' said Mrs. +Gamp; 'and the finest boy babby as my heyes, which has seen a +many, has ever sat upon.' + +"Up, up to the ceiling went the horsehair cushion of the lodging- +house sofa--up went the footstool after it, and its four wooden +legs in falling made a terrible clatter on the mahogany loo- +table. Macassar in his joy got hold of Mrs. Gamp, and kissed her +heartily, forgetful of the fumes of gin. 'Hurrah!' shouted he,' +hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! Oh, Mrs. Gamp, I feel so--so--so--I +really don't know how I feel.' + +"He danced round the room with noisy joy, till Mrs. Gamp made him +understand how very unsuited were such riotous ebullitions to the +weak state of his lady-love upstairs. He then gave over, not the +dancing but the noise, and went on capering round the room with +suppressed steps, ever and anon singing to himself in a whisper, + + 'The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is still the Lady Crinoline.' + +"A few minutes afterwards a knock at the door was heard, and the +monthly nurse entered. She held something in her embrace; but he +could not see what. He looked down pryingly into her arms, and at +the first glance thought that it was his umbrella. But then he +heard a little pipe, and he knew that it was his child. + +"We will not intrude further on the first interview between +Macassar and his heir." + + + * * * * * + + +'And so ends the romantic history of "Crinoline and Macassar",' +said Mrs. Woodward; 'and I am sure, Charley, we are all very much +obliged to you for the excellent moral lessons you have given +us.' + +'I'm so delighted with it,' said Katie; 'I do so like that +Macassar.' + +'So do I,' said Linda, yawning; 'and the old man with the thin +grey hair.' + +'Come, girls, it's nearly one o'clock, and we'll go to bed,' said +the mother. 'Uncle Bat has been asleep these two hours.' + +And so they went off to their respective chambers. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SURBITON COLLOQUIES + + +All further conversation in the drawing-room was forbidden for +that night. Mrs. Woodward would have willingly postponed the +reading of Charley's story so as to enable Katie to go to bed +after the accident, had she been able to do so. But she was not +able to do so without an exercise of a species of authority which +was distasteful to her, and which was very seldom heard, seen, or +felt within the limits of Surbiton Cottage. It would moreover +have been very ungracious to snub Charley's manuscript, just when +Charley had made himself such a hero; and she had, therefore, +been obliged to read it. But now that it was done, she hurried +Katie off to bed, not without many admonitions. + +'Good night,' she said to Charley; 'and God bless you, and make +you always as happy as we are now. What a household we should +have had to-night, had it not been for you!' + +Charley rubbed his eyes with his hand, and muttered something +about there not having been the slightest danger in the world. + +'And remember, Charley,' she said, paying no attention to his +mutterings, 'we always liked you--liked you very much; but liking +and loving are very different things. Now you are a dear, dear +friend--one of the dearest.' + +In answer to this, Charley was not even able to mutter; so he +went his way to the inn, and lay awake half the night thinking +how Katie had kissed his hand: during the other half he dreamt, +first that Katie was drowned, and then that Norah was his bride. + +Linda and Katie had been so hurried off, that they had only been +just able to shake hands with Harry and Charley. There is, +however, an old proverb, that though one man may lead a horse to +water, a thousand cannot make him drink. It was easy to send +Katie to bed, but very difficult to prevent her talking when she +was there. + +'Oh, Linda,' she said, 'what can I do for him?' + +'Do for him?' said Linda; 'I don't know that you can do anything +for him. I don't suppose he wants you to do anything.' Linda +still looked on her sister as a child; but Katie was beginning to +put away childish things. + +'Couldn't I make something for him, Linda--something for him to +keep as a present, you know? I would work so hard to get it +done.' + +'Work a pair of slippers, as Crinoline did,' said Linda. + +Katie was brushing her hair at the moment, and then she sat still +with the brush in her hand, thinking. 'No,' said she, after a +while, 'not a pair of slippers--I shouldn't like a pair of +slippers.' + +'Why not?' said Linda. + +'Oh--I don't know--but I shouldn't.' Katie had said that +Crinoline was working slippers for Macassar because she was in +love with him; and having said so, she could not now work +slippers for Charley. Poor Katie! she was no longer a child when +she thought thus. + +'Then make him a purse,' said Linda. + +'A purse is such a little thing.' + +'Then work him the cover for a sofa, like what mamma and I are +doing for Gertrude.' + +'But he hasn't got a house,' said Katie. + +'He'll have a house by the time you've done the sofa, and a wife +to sit on it too.' + +'Oh, Linda, you are so ill-natured.' + +'Why, child, what do you want me to say? If you were to give him +one of those grand long tobacco pipes they have in the shop +windows, that's what he'd like the best; or something of that +sort. I don't think he cares much for girls' presents, such as +purses and slippers.' + +'Doesn't he?' said Katie, mournfully. + +'No; not a bit. You know he's such a rake.' + +'Oh! Linda; I don't think he's so very bad, indeed I don't; and +mamma doesn't think so; and you know Harry said on Easter Sunday +that he was much better than he used to be.' + +'I know Harry is very good-natured to him.' + +'And isn't Charley just as good-natured to Harry? I am quite sure +he is. Harry has only to ask the least thing, and Charley always +does it. Do you remember how Charley went up to town for him the +Sunday before last?' + +'And so he ought,' said Linda. 'He ought to do whatever Harry +tells him.' + +'Well, Linda, I don't know why he ought,' said Katie. 'They are +not brothers, you know, nor yet even cousins.' + +'But Harry is very--so very--so very superior, you know,' said +Linda. + +'I don't know any such thing,' said Katie. + +'Oh! Katie, don't you know that Charley is such a rake?' + +'But rakes are just the people who don't do whatever they are +told; so that's no reason. And I am quite sure that Charley is +much the cleverer.' + +'And I am quite sure he is not--nor half so clever; nor nearly so +well educated. Why, don't you know the navvies are the most +ignorant young men in London? Charley says so himself.' + +'That's his fun,' said Katie: 'besides, he always makes little of +himself. I am quite sure Harry could never have made all that +about Macassar and Crinoline out of his own head.' + +'No! because he doesn't think of such nonsensical things. I +declare, Miss Katie, I think you are in love with Master +Charley.' + +Katie, who was still sitting at the dressing-table, blushed up to +her forehead; and at the same time her eyes were suffused with +tears. But there was no one to see either of those tell-tale +symptoms, for Linda was in bed. + +'I know he saved my life,' said Katie, as soon as she could trust +herself to speak without betraying her emotion--'I know he +jumped into the river after me, and very, very nearly drowned +himself; and I don't think any other man in the world would have +done so much for me besides him.' + +'Oh, Katie! Harry would in a moment.' + +'Not for me; perhaps he might for you--though I'm not quite sure +that he would.' It was thus that Katie took her revenge on her +sister. + +'I'm quite sure he would for anybody, even for Sally.' Sally was +an assistant in the back kitchen. 'But I don't mean to say, +Katie, that you shouldn't feel grateful to Charley; of course you +should.' + +'And so I do,' said Katie, now bursting out into tears, overdone +by her emotion and fatigue; 'and so I do--and I do love him, and +will love him, if he's ever so much a rake! But you know, Linda, +that is very different from being in love; and it was very ill- +natured of you to say so, very.' + +Linda was out of bed in a trice, and sitting with her arm round +her sister's neck. + +'Why, you darling little foolish child, you! I was only +quizzing,' said she. 'Don't you know that I love Charley too?' + +'But you shouldn't quiz about such a thing as that. If you'd +fallen into the river, and Harry had pulled you out, then you'd +know what I mean; but I'm not at all sure that he could have done +it.' + +Katie's perverse wickedness on this point was very nearly giving +rise to another contest between the sisters. Linda's common +sense, however, prevailed, and giving up the point of Harry's +prowess, she succeeded at last in getting Katie into bed. 'You +know mamma will be so angry if she hears us,' said Linda, 'and I +am sure you will be ill to-morrow.' + +'I don't care a bit about being ill to-tomorrow; and yet I do +too,' she added, after a pause, 'for it's Sunday. It would be so +stupid not to be able to go out to-morrow.' + +'Well, then, try to go to sleep at once'--and Linda carefully +tucked the clothes around her sister. + +'I think it shall be a purse,' said Katie. + +'A purse will certainly be the best; that is, if you don't like +the slippers,' and Linda rolled herself up comfortably in the +bed. + +'No--I don't like the slippers at all. It shall be a purse. I can +do that the quickest, you know. It's so stupid to give a thing +when everything about it is forgotten, isn't it?' + +'Very stupid,' said Linda, nearly asleep. + +'And when it's worn out I can make another, can't I?' + +'H'm'm'm,' said Linda, quite asleep. + +And then Katie went asleep also, in her sister's arms. + +Early in the morning--that is to say, not very early, perhaps +between seven and eight--Mrs. Woodward came into their room, and +having inspected her charges, desired that Katie should not get +up for morning church, but lie in bed till the middle of the day. + +'Oh, mamma, it will be so stupid not going to church after +tumbling into the river; people will say that all my clothes are +wet.' + +'People will about tell the truth as to some of them,' said Mrs. +Woodward; 'but don't you mind about people, but lie still and go +to sleep if you can. Linda, do you come and dress in my room.' + +'And is Charley to lie in bed too?' said Katie. 'He was in the +river longer than I was.' + +'It's too late to keep Charley in bed,' said Linda, 'for I see +him coming along the road now with a towel; he's been bathing.' + +'Oh, I do so wish I could go and bathe,' said Katie. + +Poor Katie was kept in bed till the afternoon. Charley and Harry, +however, were allowed to come up to her bedroom door, and hear +her pronounce herself quite well. + +'How d'ye do, Mr. Macassar?' said she. + +'And how d'ye do, my Lady Crinoline?' said Harry. After that +Katie never called Charley Mr. Macassar again. + +They all went to church, and Katie was left to sleep or read, or +think of the new purse that she was to make, as best she might. + +And then they dined, and then they walked out; but still without +Katie. She was to get up and dress while they were out, so as to +receive them in state in the drawing-room on their return. Four +of them walked together; for Uncle Bat now usually took himself +off to his friend at Hampton Court on Sunday afternoon. Mrs. +Woodward walked with Charley, and Harry and Linda paired +together. + +'Now,' said Charley to himself, 'now would have been the time to +have told Mrs. Woodward everything, but for that accident of +yesterday. Now I can tell her nothing; to do so now would be to +demand her sympathy and to ask for assistance;' and so he +determined to tell her nothing. + +But the very cause which made Charley dumb on the subject of his +own distresses made Mrs. Woodward inquisitive about them. She +knew that his life was not like that of Harry--steady, sober, and +discreet; but she felt that she did not like him, or even love +him the less on this account. Nay, it was not clear to her that +these failings of his did not give him additional claims on her +sympathies. What could she do for him? how could she relieve him? +how could she bring him back to the right way? She spoke to him +of his London life, praised his talents, encouraged him to +exertion, besought him to have some solicitude, and, above all, +some respect for himself. And then, with that delicacy which such +a woman, and none but such a woman, can use in such a matter, she +asked him whether he was still in debt. + +Charley, with shame we must own it, had on this subject been +false to all his friends. He had been false to his father and his +mother, and had never owned to them the half of what he owed; he +had been false to Alaric, and false to Harry; but now, now, at +such a moment as this, he would not allow himself to be false to +Mrs. Woodward. + +'Yes,' he said, 'he was in debt--rather.' + +Mrs. Woodward pressed him to say whether his debts were heavy-- +whether he owed much. + +'It's no use thinking of it, Mrs. Woodward,' said he; 'not the +least. I know I ought not to come down here; and I don't think I +will any more.' + +'Not come down here!' said Mrs. Woodward. 'Why not? There's very +little expense in that. I dare say you'd spend quite as much in +London.' + +'Oh--of course--three times as much, perhaps; that is, if I had +it--but I don't mean that.' + +'What do you mean?' said she. + +Charley walked on in silence, with melancholy look, very +crestfallen, his thumbs stuck into his waistcoat pockets. + +'Upon my word I don't know what you mean,' said Mrs. Woodward. 'I +should have thought coming to Hampton might perhaps--perhaps have +kept you--I don't exactly mean out of mischief.' That, however, +in spite of her denial, was exactly what Mrs. Woodward did mean. + +'So it does--but--' said Charley, now thoroughly ashamed of +himself. + +'But what?' said she. + +'I am not fit to be here,' said Charley; and as he spoke his +manly self-control all gave way, and big tears rolled down his +cheeks. + +Mrs. Woodward, in her woman's heart, resolved, that if it might +in any way be possible, she would make him fit, fit not only to +be there, but to hold his head up with the best in any company in +which he might find himself. + +She questioned him no further then. Her wish now was not to +torment him further, but to comfort him. She determined that she +would consult with Harry and with her uncle, and take counsel +from them as to what steps might be taken to save the brand from +the burning. She talked to him as a mother might have done, +leaning on his arm, as she returned; leaning on him as a woman +never leans on a man whom she deems unfit for her society. All +this Charley's heart and instinct fully understood, and he was +not ungrateful. + +But yet he had but little to comfort him. He must return to town +on Monday; return to Mr. Snape and the lock entries, to Mr. +M'Ruen and the three Seasons--to Mrs. Davis, Norah Geraghty, and +that horrid Mr. Peppermint. He never once thought of Clementina +Golightly, to whom at that moment he was being married by the +joint energies of Undy Scott and his cousin Alaric. + +And what had Linda and Norman been doing all this time? Had they +been placing mutual confidence in each other? No; they had not +come to that yet. Linda still remembered the pang with which she +had first heard of Gertrude's engagement, and Harry Norman had +not yet been able to open his seared heart to a second love. + +In the course of the evening a letter was brought to Captain +Cuttwater, which did not seem to raise his spirits. + +'Whom is your letter from, uncle?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'From Alaric,' said he, gruffly, crumpling it up and putting it +into his pocket. And then he turned to his rum and water in a +manner that showed his determination to say nothing more on the +matter. + +In the morning Harry and Charley returned to town. Captain +Cuttwater went up with them; and all was again quiet at Surbiton +Cottage. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MR. M'BUFFER ACCEPTS THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS + + +It was an anxious hour for the Honourable Undecimus Scott when he +first learnt that Mr. M'Buffer had accepted the Stewardship of +the Chiltern Hundreds. The Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds! +Does it never occur to anyone how many persons are appointed to +that valuable situation? Or does anyone ever reflect why a Member +of Parliament, when he wishes to resign his post of honour, +should not be simply gazetted in the newspapers as having done +so, instead of being named as the new Steward of the Chiltern +Hundreds? No one ever does think of it; resigning and becoming a +steward are one and the same thing, with this difference, +however, that one of the grand bulwarks of the British constitution +is thus preserved. + +Well, Mr. M'Buffer, who, having been elected by the independent +electors of the Tillietudlem burghs to serve them in Parliament, +could not, in accordance with the laws of the constitution, have +got himself out of that honourable but difficult position by any +scheme of his own, found himself on a sudden a free man, the +Queen having selected him to be her steward for the district in +question. We have no doubt but that the deed of appointment set +forth that her Majesty had been moved to this step by the firm +trust she had in the skill and fidelity of the said Mr. M'Buffer; +but if so her Majesty's trust would seem to have been somewhat +misplaced, as Mr. M'Buffer, having been a managing director of a +bankrupt swindle, from which he had contrived to pillage some +thirty or forty thousand pounds, was now unable to show his face +at Tillietudlem, or in the House of Commons; and in thus +retreating from his membership had no object but to save +himself from the expulsion which he feared. It was, however, a +consolation for him to think that in what he had done the +bulwarks of the British constitution had been preserved. + +It was an anxious moment for Undy. The existing Parliament had +still a year and a half, or possibly two years and a half, to +run. He had already been withdrawn from the public eye longer +than he thought was suitable to the success of his career. He +particularly disliked obscurity for he had found that in his case +obscurity had meant comparative poverty. An obscure man, as he +observed early in life, had nothing to sell. Now, Undy had once +had something to sell, and a very good market he had made of it. +He was of course anxious that those halcyon days should return. +Fond of him as the electors of Tillietudlem no doubt were, +devoted as they might be in a general way to his interests still, +still it was possible that they might forget him, if he remained +too long away from their embraces. 'Out of sight out of mind' is +a proverb which opens to us the worst side of human nature. But +even at Tillietudlem nature's worst side might sometimes show +itself. + +Actuated by such feelings as these, Undy heard with joy the +tidings of M'Buffer's stewardship, and determined to rush to the +battle at once. Battle he knew there must be. To be brought in +for the district of Tillietudlem was a prize which had never yet +fallen to any man's lot without a contest. Tillietudlem was no +poor pocket borough to be disposed of, this way or that way, +according to the caprice or venal call of some aristocrat. The +men of Tillietudlem knew the value of their votes, and would only +give them according to their consciences. The way to win these +consciences, to overcome the sensitive doubts of a free and +independent Tillietudlem elector, Undy knew to his cost. + +It was almost a question, as he once told Alaric, whether all +that he could sell was worth all that he was compelled to buy. +But having put his neck to the collar in this line of life, he +was not now going to withdraw. Tillietudlem was once more vacant, +and Undy determined to try it again, undaunted by former outlays. +To make an outlay, however, at any rate, in electioneering +matters, it is necessary that a man should have in hand some +ready cash; at the present moment Undy had very little, and +therefore the news of Mr. M'Buffer's retirement to the German +baths for his health was not heard with unalloyed delight. + +He first went into the city, as men always do when they want +money; though in what portion of the city they find it, has never +come to the author's knowledge. Charley Tudor, to be sure, did +get L5 by going to the 'Banks of Jordan;' but the supply likely +to be derived from such a fountain as that would hardly be +sufficient for Undy's wants. Having done what he could in the +city, he came to Alaric, and prayed for the assistance of all his +friend's energies in the matter. Alaric would not have been, and +was not unwilling to assist him to the extent of his own +immediate means; but his own immediate means were limited, and +Undy's desire for ready cash was almost unlimited. + +There was a certain railway or proposed railway in Ireland, in +which Undy had ventured very deeply, more so indeed than he had +deemed it quite prudent to divulge to his friend; and in order to +gain certain ends he had induced Alaric to become a director of +this line. The line in question was the Great West Cork, which +was to run from Skibbereen to Bantry, and the momentous question +now hotly debated before the Railway Board was on the moot point +of a branch to Ballydehob. If Undy could carry the West Cork and +Ballydehob branch entire, he would make a pretty thing of it; but +if, as there was too much reason to fear, his Irish foes should +prevail, and leave--as Undy had once said in an eloquent speech +at a very influential meeting of shareholders--and leave the +unfortunate agricultural and commercial interest of Ballydehob +steeped in Cimmerian darkness, the chances were that poor Undy +would be well nigh ruined. + +Such being the case, he had striven, not unsuccessfully, to draw +Alaric into the concern. Alaric had bought very cheaply a good +many shares, which many people said were worth nothing, and had, +by dint of Undy's machinations, been chosen a director on the +board. Undy himself meanwhile lay by, hoping that fortune might +restore him to Parliament, and haply put him on that committee +which must finally adjudicate as to the great question of the +Ballydehob branch. + +Such were the circumstances under which he came to Alaric with +the view of raising such a sum of money as might enable him to +overcome the scruples of the Tillietudlem electors, and place +himself in the shoes lately vacated by Mr. M'Buffer. + +They were sitting together after dinner when he commenced the +subject. He and Mrs. Val and Clementina had done the Tudors the +honour of dining with them; and the ladies had now gone up into +the drawing-room, and were busy talking over the Chiswick affair, +which was to come off in the next week, and after which Mrs. Val +intended to give a small evening party to the most _elite_ +of her acquaintance. + +'We won't have all the world, my dear,' she had said to Gertrude, +'but just a few of our own set that are really nice. Clementina +is dying to try that new back step with M. Jaquetanape, so we +won't crowd the room.' Such were the immediate arrangements of +the Tudor and Scott party. + +'So M'Buffer is off at last,' said Scott, as he seated himself +and filled his glass, after closing the dining-room door. 'He +brought his pigs to a bad market after all.' + +'He was an infernal rogue,' said Alaric. + +'Well, I suppose he was,' said Undy; 'and a fool into the bargain +to be found out.' + +'He was a downright swindler,' said Alaric. + +'After all,' said the other, not paying much attention to +Alaric's indignation, 'he did not do so very badly. Why, M'Buffer +has been at it now for thirteen years. He began with nothing; he +had neither blood nor money; and God knows he had no social +merits to recommend him. He is as vulgar as a hog, as awkward as +an elephant, and as ugly as an ape. I believe he never had a +friend, and was known at his club to be the greatest bore that +ever came out of Scotland; and yet for thirteen years he has +lived on the fat of the land; for five years he has been in +Parliament, his wife has gone about in her carriage, and every +man in the city has been willing to shake hands with him.' + +'And what has it all come to?' said Alaric, whom the question of +M'Buffer's temporary prosperity made rather thoughtful. + +'Well, not so bad either; he has had his fling for thirteen +years, and that's something. Thirteen good years out of a man's +life is more than falls to the lot of every one. And then, I +suppose, he has saved something.' + +'And he is spoken of everywhere as a monster for whom hanging is +too good.' + +'Pshaw! that won't hang him. Yesterday he was a god; to-day he is +a devil; to-morrow he'll be a man again; that's all.' + +'But you don't mean to tell me, Undy, that the consciousness of +such crimes as those which M'Buffer has committed must not make a +man wretched in this world, and probably in the next also?' + +'Judge not, and ye shall not be judged,' said Undy, quoting +Scripture as the devil did before him; 'and as for consciousness +of crime, I suppose M'Buffer has none at all. I have no doubt he +thinks himself quite as honest as the rest of the world. He +firmly believes that all of us are playing the same game, and +using the same means, and has no idea whatever that dishonesty is +objectionable.' + +'And you, what do you think about it yourself?' + +'I think the greatest rogues are they who talk most of their +honesty; and, therefore, as I wish to be thought honest myself, I +never talk of my own.' + +They both sat silent for a while, Undy bethinking himself what +arguments would be most efficacious towards inducing Alaric to +strip himself of every available shilling that he had; and Alaric +debating in his own mind that great question which he so often +debated, as to whether men, men of the world, the great and best +men whom he saw around him, really endeavoured to be honest, or +endeavoured only to seem so. Honesty was preached to him on every +side; but did he, in his intercourse with the world, find men to +be honest? Or did it behove him, a practical man like him, a man +so determined to battle with the world as he had determined, did +it behove such a one as he to be more honest than his neighbours? + +He also encouraged himself by that mystic word, 'Excelsior!' To +him it was a watchword of battle, repeated morning, noon, and +night. It was the prevailing idea of his life. 'Excelsior'! Yes; +how great, how grand, how all-absorbing is the idea! But what if +a man may be going down, down to Tophet, and yet think the while +that he is scaling the walls of heaven? + +'But you wish to think yourself honest,' he said, disturbing Undy +just as that hero had determined on the way in which he would +play his present hand of cards. + +'I have not the slightest difficulty about that,' said Undy; 'and +I dare say you have none either. But as to M'Buffer, his going +will be a great thing for us, if, as I don't doubt, I can get his +seat.' + +'It will be a great thing for you,' said Alaric, who, as well as +Undy, had his Parliamentary ambition. + +'And for you too, my boy. We should carry the Ballydehob branch +to a dead certainty; and even if we did not do that, we'd bring +it so near it that the expectation of it would send the shares up +like mercury in fine weather. They are at L2 12s. 6d. now, and, +if I am in the House next Session, they'll be up to L7 10s. +before Easter; and what's more, my dear fellow, if we can't help +ourselves in that way, they'll be worth nothing in a very few +months.' + +Alaric looked rather blank; for he had invested deeply in this +line, of which he was now a director, of a week's standing, or +perhaps we should say sitting. He had sold out all his golden +hopes in the Wheal Mary Jane for the sake of embarking his money +and becoming a director in this Irish Railway, and in one other +speculation nearer home, of which Undy had a great opinion, viz.: +the Limehouse Thames Bridge Company. Such being the case, he did +not like to hear the West Cork with the Ballydehob branch spoken +of so slightingly. + +'The fact is, a man can do anything if he is in the House, and he +can do nothing if he is not,' said Undy. 'You know our old +Aberdeen saying, 'You scratch me and I'll scratch you.' It is not +only what a man may do himself for himself, but it is what others +will do for him when he is in a position to help them. Now, there +are those fellows; I am hand-and-glove with all of them; but +there is not one of them would lift a finger to help me as I am +now; but let me get my seat again, and they'll do for me just +anything I ask them. Vigil moves the new writ to-night; I got a +line from him asking me whether I was ready. There was no good to +be got by waiting, so I told him to fire away.' + +'I suppose you'll go down at once?' said Alaric. + +'Well, that as may be--at least, yes; that's my intention. But +there's one thing needful--and that is the needful.' + +'Money?' suggested Alaric. + +'Yes, money--cash--rhino--tin--ready--or by what other name the +goddess would be pleased to have herself worshipped; money, sir; +there's the difficulty, now as ever. Even at Tillietudlem money +will have its weight.' + +'Can't your father assist you?' said Alaric. + +'My father! I wonder how he'd look if he got a letter from me +asking for money. You might as well expect a goose to feed her +young with blood out of her own breast, like a pelican, as expect +that a Scotch lord should give money to his younger sons like an +English duke. What would my father get by my being member for +Tillietudlem? No; I must look nearer home than my father. What +can you do for me?' + +'I?' + +'Yes, you,' said Undy; 'I am sure you don't mean to say you'll +refuse to lend me a helping hand if you can. I must realize by +the Ballydehobs, if I am once in the House; and then you'd have +your money back at once.' + +'It is not that,' said Alaric; 'but I haven't got it.' + +'I am sure you could let me have a thousand or so,' said Undy. 'I +think a couple of thousand would carry it, and I could make out +the other myself.' + +'Every shilling I have,' said Alaric, 'is either in the +Ballydehobs or in the Limehouse Bridge. Why don't you sell +yourself?' + +'So I have,' said Undy; 'everything that I can without utter +ruin. The Ballydehobs are not saleable, as you know.' + +'What can I do for you, then?' + +Undy set himself again to think. 'I have no doubt I could get a +thousand on our joint names. That blackguard, M'Ruen, would do +it.' + +'Who is M'Ruen?' asked Alaric. + +'A low blackguard of a discounting Jew Christian. He would do it; +but then, heaven knows what he would charge, and he'd make so +many difficulties that I shouldn't have the money for the next +fortnight.' + +'I wouldn't have my name on a bill in such a man's hands on any +account,' said Alaric. + +'Well, I don't like it myself,' said Undy; 'but what the deuce am +I to do? I might as well go to Tillietudlem without my head as +without money.' + +'I thought you'd kept a lot of the Mary Janes,' said Alaric. + +'So I had, but they're gone now. I tell you I've managed L1,000 +myself. It would murder me now if the seat were to go into other +hands. I'd get the Committee on the Limehouse Bridge, and we +should treble our money. Vigil told me he would not refuse the +Committee, though of course the Government won't consent to a +grant if they can help it.' + +'Well, Undy, I can let you have L250, and that is every shilling +I have at my banker's.' + +'They would not let you overdraw a few hundreds?' suggested +Undy. + +'I certainly shall not try them,' said Alaric. + +'You are so full of scruple, so green, so young,' said Undy, +almost in an enthusiasm of remonstrance. 'What can be the harm of +trying them?' + +'My credit.' + +'Fal lal. What's the meaning of credit? How are you to know +whether you have got any credit if you don't try? Come, I'll tell +you how you can do it. Old Cuttwater would lend it you for the +asking.' + +To this proposition Alaric at first turned a deaf ear; but by +degrees he allowed Undy to talk him over. Undy showed him that if +he lost the Tillietudlem burghs on this occasion it would be +useless for him to attempt to stand for them again. In such case, +he would have no alternative at the next general election but to +stand for the borough of Strathbogy in Aberdeenshire; whereas, if +he could secure Tillietudlem as a seat for himself, all the +Gaberlunzie interest in the borough of Strathbogy, which was +supposed to be by no means small, should be transferred to Alaric +himself. Indeed, Sandie Scott, the eldest hope of the Gaberlunzie +family, would, in such case, himself propose Alaric to the +electors. Ca'stalk Cottage, in which the Hon. Sandie lived, and +which was on the outskirts of the Gaberlunzie property, was +absolutely within the boundary of the borough. + +Overcome by these and other arguments, Alaric at last consented +to ask from Captain Cuttwater the loan of L700. That sum Undy had +agreed to accept as a sufficient contribution to that desirable +public object, the re-seating himself for the Tillietudlem +borough, and as Alaric on reflection thought that it would be +uncomfortable to be left penniless himself, and as it was just as +likely that Uncle Bat would lend him L700 as L500, he determined +to ask for a loan of the entire sum. He accordingly did so, and +the letter, as we have seen, reached the captain while Harry and +Charley were at Surbiton Cottage. The old gentleman was anything +but pleased. In the first place he liked his money, though not +with any overweening affection; in the next place, he had done a +great deal for Alaric, and did not like being asked to do more; +and lastly, he feared that there must be some evil cause for the +necessity of such a loan so soon after Alaric's marriage. + +Alaric in making his application had not done so actually without +making any explanation on the subject. He wrote a long letter, +worded very cleverly, which only served to mystify the captain, +as Alaric had intended that it should do. Captain Cuttwater was +most anxious that Alaric, whom he looked on as his adopted son, +should rise in the world; he would have been delighted to think +that he might possibly live to see him in Parliament; would +probably have made considerable pecuniary sacrifice for such an +object. With the design, therefore, of softening Captain +Cuttwater's heart, Alaric in his letter had spoken about great +changes that were coming, of the necessity that there was of his +stirring himself, of the great pecuniary results to be expected +from a small present expenditure; and ended by declaring that the +money was to be used in forwarding the election of his friend +Scott for the Tillietudlem district burghs. + +Now, the fact was, that Uncle Bat, though he cared a great deal +for Alaric, did not care a rope's end for Undy Scott, and could +enjoy his rum-punch just as keenly if Mr. Scott was in obscurity +as he could possibly hope to do even if that gentleman should be +promoted to be a Lord of the Treasury. He was not at all pleased +to think that his hard-earned moidores should run down the +gullies of the Tillietudlem boroughs in the shape of muddy ale or +vitriolic whisky; and yet this was the first request that Alaric +had ever made to him, and he did not like to refuse Alaric's +first request. So he came up to town himself on the following +morning with Harry and Charley, determined to reconcile all these +difficulties by the light of his own wisdom. + +In the evening he returned to Surbiton Cottage, having been into +the city, sold out stock for L700, and handed over the money to +Alaric Tudor. + +On the following morning Undy Scott set out for Scotland, +properly freighted, Mr. Whip Vigil having in due course moved for +a new writ for the Tillietudlem borough in the place of Mr. +M'Buffer, who had accepted the situation of Steward of the +Chiltern Hundreds. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +CHISWICK GARDENS + + +The following Thursday was as fine as a Chiswick flower-show-day +ought to be, and so very seldom is. The party who had agreed to +congregate there--the party, that is, whom we are to meet--was +very select. Linda and Katie had come up to spend a few days with +their sister. Mrs. Val, Clementina, Gertrude, and Linda were to +go in a carriage, for which Alaric was destined to pay, and which +Mrs. Val had hired, having selected it regardless of expense, as +one which, by its decent exterior and polished outward graces, +conferred on its temporary occupiers an agreeable appearance of +proprietorship. The two Miss Neverbends, sisters of Fidus, were +also to be with them, and they with Katie followed humbly, as +became their station, in a cab, which was not only hired, but +which very vulgarly told the fact to all the world. + +Slight as had been the intimacy between Fidus Neverbend and +Alaric at Tavistock, nevertheless a sort of friendship had since +grown up between them. Alaric had ascertained that Fidus might in +a certain degree be useful to him, that the good word of the +Aristides of the Works and Buildings might be serviceable, and +that, in short, Neverbend was worth cultivating. Neverbend, on +the other hand, when he perceived that Tudor was likely to become +a Civil Service hero, a man to be named with glowing eulogy at +all the Government Boards in London, felt unconsciously a desire +to pay him some of that reverence which a mortal always feels for +a god. And thus there was formed between them a sort of alliance, +which included also the ladies of the family. + +Not that Mrs. Val, or even Mrs. A. Tudor, encountered Lactimel +and Ugolina Neverbend on equal terms. There is a distressing +habitual humility in many unmarried ladies of an uncertain age, +which at the first blush tells the tale against them which they +are so painfully anxious to leave untold. In order to maintain +their places but yet a little longer in that delicious world of +love, sighs, and dancing partners, from which it must be so hard +for a maiden, with all her youthful tastes about her, to tear +herself for ever away, they smile and say pretty things, put up +with the caprices of married women, and play second fiddle, +though the doing so in no whit assists them in their task. Nay, +the doing so does but stamp them the more plainly with that +horrid name from which they would so fain escape. Their plea is +for mercy--'Have pity on me, have pity on me; put up with me but +for one other short twelve months; and then, if then I shall +still have failed, I will be content to vanish from the world for +ever.' When did such plea for pity from one woman ever find real +entrance into the heart of another? + +On such terms, however, the Misses Neverbend were content to +follow Mrs. Val to the Chiswick flower-show, and to feed on the +crumbs which might chance to fall from the rich table of Miss +Golightly; to partake of broken meat in the shape of cast-off +adorers, and regale themselves with lukewarm civility from the +outsiders in the throng which followed that adorable heiress. + +And yet the Misses Neverbend were quite as estimable as the +divine Clementina, and had once been, perhaps, as attractive as +she is now. They had never waltzed, it is true, as Miss Golightly +waltzes. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any lady ever did. In +the pursuit of that amusement Ugolina was apt to be stiff and +ungainly, and to turn herself, or allow herself to be turned, as +though she were made of wood; she was somewhat flat in her +figure, looking as though she had been uncomfortably pressed into +an unbecoming thinness of substance, and a corresponding breadth +of surface, and this conformation did not assist her in acquiring +a graceful flowing style of motion. The elder sister, Lactimel, +was of a different form, but yet hardly more fit to shine in the +mazes of the dance than her sister. She had her charms, +nevertheless, which consisted of a somewhat stumpy dumpy +comeliness. She was altogether short in stature, and very short +below the knee. She had fair hair and a fair skin, small bones +and copious soft flesh. She had a trick of sighing gently in the +evolutions of the waltz, which young men attributed to her +softness of heart, and old ladies to her shortness of breath. +They both loved dancing dearly, and were content to enjoy it +whenever the chance might be given to them by the aid of Miss +Golightly's crumbs. + +The two sisters were as unlike in their inward lights as in their +outward appearance. Lactimel walked ever on the earth, but +Ugolina never deserted the clouds. Lactimel talked prose and +professed to read it; Ugolina read poetry and professed to write +it. Lactimel was utilitarian. _Cui bono_?--though probably +in less classic phrase--was the question she asked as to +everything. Ugolina was transcendental, and denied that there +could be real good in anything. Lactimel would have clothed +and fed the hungry and naked, so that all mankind might be +comfortable. Ugolina would have brought mankind back to their +original nakedness, and have taught them to feed on the grasses +of the field, so that the claims of the body, which so vitally +oppose those of the mind, might remain unheeded and despised. +They were both a little nebulous in their doctrines, and apt to +be somewhat unintelligible in their discourse, when indulged in +the delights of unrestrained conversation. Lactimel had a theory +that every poor brother might eat of the fat and drink of the +sweet, might lie softly, and wear fine linen, if only some body +or bodies could be induced to do their duties; and Ugolina was +equally strong in a belief that if the mind were properly looked +to, all appreciation of human ill would cease. But they delighted +in generalizing rather than in detailed propositions; and had not +probably, even in their own minds, realized any exact idea as to +the means by which the results they desired were to be brought +about. + +They toadied Mrs. Val--poor young women, how little should they +be blamed for this fault, which came so naturally to them in +their forlorn position!--they toadied Mrs. Val, and therefore +Mrs. Val bore with them; they bored Gertrude, and Gertrude, for +her husband's sake, bore with them also; they were confidential +with Clementina, and Clementina, of course, snubbed them. They +called Clementina 'the sweetest creature.' Lactimel declared that +she was born to grace the position of a wife and mother, and +Ugolina swore that her face was perfect poetry. Whereupon +Clementina laughed aloud, and elegantly made a grimace with her +nose and mouth, as she turned the 'perfect poetry' to her mother. +Such were the ladies of the party who went to the Chiswick +flower-show, and who afterwards were to figure at Mrs. Val's +little evening 'the dansant,' at which nobody was to be admitted +who was not nice. + +They were met at the gate of the Gardens by a party of young men, +of whom Victoire Jaquetanape was foremost. Alaric and Charley +were to come down there when their office work was done. Undy was +by this time on his road to Tillietudlem; and Captain Val was +playing billiards at his club. The latter had given a promise +that he would make his appearance--a promise, however, which no +one expected, or wished him to keep. + +The happy Victoire was dressed up to his eyes. That, perhaps, is +not saying much, for he was only a few feet high; but what he +wanted in quantity he fully made up in quality. He was a well- +made, shining, jaunty little Frenchman, who seemed to be +perfectly at ease with himself and all the world. He had the +smallest little pair of moustaches imaginable, the smallest +little imperial, the smallest possible pair of boots, and the +smallest possible pair of gloves. Nothing on earth could be +nicer, or sweeter, or finer, than he was. But he did not carry +his finery like a hog in armour, as an Englishman so often does +when an Englishman stoops to be fine. It sat as naturally on +Victoire as though he had been born in it. He jumped about in his +best patent leather boots, apparently quite heedless whether he +spoilt them or not; and when he picked up Miss Golightly's +parasol from the gravel, he seemed to suffer no anxiety about his +gloves. + +He handed out the ladies one after another, as though his life +had been passed in handing out ladies, as, indeed, it probably +had--in handing them out and handing them in; and when Mrs. Val's +'private' carriage passed on, he was just as courteous to the +Misses Neverbend and Katie in their cab, as he had been to the +greater ladies who had descended from the more ambitious vehicle. +As Katie said afterwards to Linda, when she found the free use of +her voice in their own bedroom, 'he was a darling little duck of +a man, only he smelt so strongly of tobacco.' + +But when they were once in the garden, Victoire had no time for +anyone but Mrs. Val and Clementina. He had done his duty by the +Misses Neverbend and those other two insipid young English girls, +and now he had his own affairs to look after. He also knew that +Miss Golightly had L20,000 of her own! + +He was one of those butterfly beings who seem to have been +created that they may flutter about from flower to flower in the +summer hours of such gala times as those now going on at +Chiswick, just as other butterflies do. What the butterflies were +last winter, or what will become of them next winter, no one but +the naturalist thinks of inquiring. How they may feed themselves +on flower-juice, or on insects small enough to be their prey, is +matter of no moment to the general world. It is sufficient that +they flit about in the sunbeams, and add bright glancing spangles +to the beauty of the summer day. + +And so it was with Victoire Jaquetanape. He did no work. He made +no honey. He appeared to no one in the more serious moments of +life. He was the reverse of Shylock; he would neither buy with +you nor sell with you, but he would eat with you and drink with +you; as for praying, he did little of that either with or without +company. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, as butterflies +should be clothed, and fared sumptuously everyday; but whence +came his gay colours, or why people fed him with pate and +champagne, nobody knew and nobody asked. + +Like most Frenchmen of his class, he never talked about himself. +He understood life, and the art of pleasing, and the necessity +that he should please, too well to do so. All that his companions +knew of him was that he came from France, and that when the +gloomy months came on in England, the months so unfitted for a +French butterfly, he packed up his azure wings and sought some +more genial climate, certain to return and be seen again when the +world of London became habitable. + +If he had means of living no one knew it; if he was in debt no +one ever heard of it; if he had a care in the world he concealed +it. He abounded in acquaintances who were always glad to see him, +and would have regarded it as quite de trop to have a friend. +Nevertheless time was flying on with him as with others; and, +butterfly as he was, the idea of Miss Golightly's L20,000 struck +him with delightful amazement--500,000 francs! 500,000 francs! +and so he resolved to dance his very best, warm as the weather +undoubtedly was at the present moment. + +'Ah, he was charmed to see madame and mademoiselle look so +charmingly,' he said, walking between mother and daughter, but +paying apparently much the greater share of attention to the +elder lady. In this respect we Englishmen might certainly learn +much from the manners of our dear allies. We know well enough how +to behave ourselves to our fair young countrywomen; we can be +civil enough to young women--nature teaches us that; but it is so +seldom that we are sufficiently complaisant to be civil to old +women. And yet that, after all, is the soul of gallantry. It is +to the sex that we profess to do homage. Our theory is, that +feminine weakness shall receive from man's strength humble and +respectful service. But where is the chivalry, where the +gallantry, if we only do service in expectation of receiving such +guerdon as rosy cheeks and laughing eyes can bestow? + +It may be said that Victoire had an object in being civil to Mrs. +Val. But the truth is, all French Victoires are courteous to old +ladies. An Englishman may probably be as forward as a Frenchman +in rushing into a flaming building to save an old woman's life; +but then it so rarely happens that occasion offers itself for +gallantry such as that. A man, however, may with ease be civil to +a dozen old women in one day. + +And so they went on, walking through parterres and glass-houses, +talking of theatres, balls, dinner-parties, picnics, concerts, +operas, of ladies married and single, of single gentlemen who +should be married, and of married gentlemen who should be single, +of everything, indeed, except the flowers, of which neither +Victoire nor his companions took the slightest notice. + +'And madame really has a dance to-night in her own house?' + +'O yes,' said Mrs. Val; 'that is, just a few quadrilles and +waltzes for Clementina. I really hardly know whether the people +will take the carpet up or no.' The people, consisting of the +cook and housemaid--for the page had, of course, come with the +carriage--were at this moment hard at work wrenching up the +nails, as Mrs. Val was very well aware. + +'It will be delightful, charming,' said Victoire. + +'Just a few people of our own set, you know,' said Mrs. Val: 'no +crowd, or fuss, or anything of that sort; just a few people that +we know are nice, in a quiet homely way.' + +'Ah, that is so pleasing,' said M. Victoire: 'that is just what I +like; and is mademoiselle engaged for--?' + +No. Mademoiselle was not engaged either for--or for--or for-- +&c., &c., &c.; and then out came the little tablets, under the +dome of a huge greenhouse filled with the most costly exotics, +and Clementina and her fellow-labourer in the cause of Terpsichore +went to work to make their arrangements for the evening. + +And the rest of the party followed them. Gertrude was accompanied +by an Englishman just as idle and quite as useless as M. +Victoire, of the butterfly tribe also, but not so graceful, and +without colour. + +And then came the Misses Neverbend walking together, and with +them, one on each side, two tall Frenchmen, whose faces had been +remodelled in that mould into which so large a proportion of +Parisians of the present day force their heads, in order that +they may come out with some look of the Emperor about them. Were +there not some such machine as this in operation, it would be +impossible that so many Frenchmen should appear with elongated, +angular, hard faces, all as like each other as though they were +brothers! The cut of the beard, the long prickly-ended, clotted +moustache, which looks as though it were being continually rolled +up in saliva, the sallow, half-bronzed, apparently unwashed +colour--these may all, perhaps, be assumed by any man after a +certain amount of labour and culture. But how it has come to pass +that every Parisian has been able to obtain for himself a pair of +the Emperor's long, hard, bony, cruel-looking cheeks, no +Englishman has yet been able to guess. That having the power they +should have the wish to wear this mask is almost equally +remarkable. Can it be that a political phase, when stamped on a +people with an iron hand of sufficient power of pressure, will +leave its impress on the outward body as well as on the inward +soul? If so, a Frenchman may, perhaps, be thought to have gained +in the apparent stubborn wilfulness of his countenance some +recompense for his compelled loss of all political wilfulness +whatever. + +Be this as it may, the two Misses Neverbend walked on, each with +a stubborn long-faced Frenchman at her side, looking altogether +not ill pleased at this instance of the excellence of French +manners. After them came Linda, talking to some acquaintance of +her own, and then poor dear little Katie with another Frenchman, +sterner, more stubborn-looking, more long-faced, more like the +pattern after whom he and they had been remodelled, than any of +them. + +Poor little Katie! This was her first day in public. With many +imploring caresses, with many half-formed tears in her bright +eyes, with many assurances of her perfect health, she had induced +her mother to allow her to come to the flower-show; to allow her +also to go to Mrs. Val's dance, at which there were to be none +but such very nice people. Katie was to commence her life, to +open her ball with this flower-show. In her imagination it was +all to be one long bright flower-show, in which, however, the +sweet sorrowing of the sensitive plant would ever and anon invite +her to pity and tears. When she entered that narrow portal she +entered the world, and there she found herself walking on the +well-mown grass with this huge, stern, bearded Frenchman by her +side! As to talking to him, that was quite out of the question. +At the gate some slight ceremony of introduction had been gone +through, which had consisted in all the Frenchmen taking off +their hats and bowing to the two married ladies, and in the +Englishmen standing behind and poking the gravel with their +canes. But in this no special notice had of course been taken of +Katie; and she had a kind of idea, whence derived she knew not, +that it would be improper for her to talk to this man, unless she +were actually and _bona fide_ introduced to him. And then, +again, poor Katie was not very confident in her French, and then +her companion was not very intelligible in his English; so when +the gentleman asked, 'Is it that mademoiselle lofe de fleurs?' +poor little Katie felt herself tremble, and tried in vain to +mutter something; and when, again essaying to do his duty, he +suggested that 'all de beaute of Londres did delight to valk +itself at Chisveek,' she was equally dumb, merely turning on him +her large eyes for one moment, to show that she knew that he +addressed her. After that he walked on as silent as herself, +still keeping close to her side; and other ladies, who had not +the good fortune to have male companions, envied her happiness in +being so attended. + +But Alaric and Charley were coming, she knew; Alaric was her +brother-in-law now, and therefore she would be delighted to meet +him; and Charley, dear Charley! she had not seen him since he +went away that morning, now four days since; and four days was a +long time, considering that he had saved her life. Her busy +little fingers had been hard at work the while, and now she had +in her pocket the purse which she had been so eager to make, and +which she was almost afraid to bestow. + +'Oh, Linda,' she had said, 'I don't think I will, after all; it +is such a little thing.' + +'Nonsense, child, you wouldn't give him a worked counterpane; +little things are best for presents.' + +'But it isn't good enough,' she said, looking at her handiwork in +despair. But, nevertheless, she persevered, working in the golden +beads with constant diligence, so that she might be able to give +it to Charley among the Chiswick flowers. Oh! what a place it was +in which to bestow a present, with all the eyes of all the world +upon her! + +And then this dance to which she was going! The thought of what +she would do there troubled her. Would anyone ask her to dance? +Would Charley think of her when he had so many grown-up girls, +girls quite grown up, all around him? It would be very sad if at +this London party it should be her fate to sit down the whole +evening and see others dance. It would suffice for her, she +thought, if she could stand up with Linda, but she had an idea +that this would not be allowed at a London party; and then Linda, +perhaps, might not like it. Altogether she had much upon her +mind, and was beginning to think that, perhaps, she might have +been happier to have stayed at home with her mamma. She had not +quite recovered from the effect of her toss into the water, or +the consequent excitement, and a very little misery would upset +her. And so she walked on with her Napoleonic companion, from +whom she did not know how to free herself, through one glass- +house after another, across lawns and along paths, attempting +every now and then to get a word with Linda, and not at all so +happy as she had hoped to have been. + +At last Gertrude came to her rescue. They were all congregated +for a while in one great flower-house, and Gertrude, finding +herself near her sister, asked her how she liked it all. + +'Oh! it is very beautiful,' said Katie, 'only--' + +'Only what, dear?' + +'Would you let me come with you a little while! Look here'--and +she crept softly around to the other side of her sister, sidling +with little steps away from the Frenchman, at whom, however, she +kept furtively looking, as though she feared that he would detect +her in the act. 'Look here, Gertrude,' she said, twitching her +sister's arm; 'that gentleman there--you see him, don't you? he's +a Frenchman, and I don't know how to get away from him.' + +'How to get away from him?' said Gertrude. 'That's M. Delabarbe +de l'Empereur, a great friend of Mrs. Val's, and a very quiet +sort of man, I believe; he won't eat you.' + +'No, he won't eat me, I know; but I can't look at anything, +because he will walk so close to me! Mayn't I come with you?' + +Gertrude told her she might, and so Katie made good her escape, +hiding herself from her enemy as well as she could behind her +sister's petticoats. He, poor man, was perhaps as rejoiced at the +arrangement as Katie herself; at any rate he made no attempt to +regain his prey, but went on by himself, looking as placidly +stern as ever, till he was absorbed by Mrs. Val's more immediate +party, and then he devoted himself to her, while M. Jaquetanape +settled with Clementina the properest arrangement for the waltzes +of the evening. + +Katie was beginning to be tranquilly happy, and was listening to +the enthusiasm of Ugolina Neverbend, who declared that flowers +were the female poet's fitting food--it may be doubted whether +she had ever tried it--when her heart leaped within her on +hearing a sharp, clear, well-known voice, almost close behind +her. It was Charley Tudor. After her silent promenade with M. +Delabarbe de l'Empereur, Katie had been well pleased to put up +with the obscure but yet endurable volubility of Ugolina; but now +she felt almost as anxious to get quit of Ugolina as she had +before been to shake off the Frenchman. + +'Flowers are Nature's chef-d'oeuvre,' said Ugolina; 'they convey +to me the purest and most direct essence of that heavenly power +of production which is the sweetest evidence which Jehovah gives +us of His presence.' + +'Do they?' said Katie, looking over her shoulder to watch what +Charley was doing, and to see whether he was coming to notice +her. + +'They are the bright stars of His immediate handiwork,' said +Ugolina; 'and if our dim eyes could read them aright, they would +whisper to us the secret of His love.' + +'Yes, I dare say they would,' said Katie, who felt, perhaps, a +little disappointed because Charley lingered a while shaking +hands with Mrs. Val and Clementina Golightly. + +It was, however, but for a moment. There was much shaking of +hands to be done, and a considerable taking off of hats to be +gone through; and as Alaric and Charley encountered the head of +the column first, it was only natural that they should work their +way through it gradually. Katie, however, never guessed--how +could she?--that Charley had calculated that by reaching her last +he would be able to remain with her. + +She was still listening to Ugolina, who was mounting higher and +higher up to heaven, when she found her hand in Charley's. +Ugolina might now mount up, and get down again as best she could, +for Katie could no longer listen to her. + +Alaric had not seen her yet since her ducking. She had to listen +to and to answer his congratulations, Charley standing by and +making his comments. + +'Charley says you took to the water quite naturally, and swam +like a duck,' said Alaric. + +'Only she went in head foremost,' said Charley. + +'All bathers ought to do that,' said Alaric; 'and tell me, Katie, +did you feel comfortable when you were in the water?' + +'Indeed I don't recollect anything about it,' said she, 'only +that I saw Charley coming to me, just when I was going to sink +for the last time.' + +'Sink! Why, I'm told that you floated like a deal board.' + +'The big hat and the crinoline kept her up,' said Charley; 'she +had no idea of sinking.' + +'Oh! Charley, you know I was under the water for a long time; and +that if you had not come, just at that very moment, I should +never have come up again.' + +And then Alaric went on, and Charley and Katie were left +together. + +How was she to give him the purse? It was burning a hole in her +pocket till she could do so; and yet how was she to get it out of +her possession into his, and make her little speech, here in the +public garden? She could have done it easily enough at home in +the drawing-room at Surbiton Cottage. + +'And how do you like the gardens?' asked Charley. + +'Oh! they are beautiful; but I have hardly been able to see +anything yet. I have been going about with a great big Frenchman +--there, that man there--he has such a queer name.' + +'Did his name prevent your seeing?' + +'No, not his name; I didn't know his name then. + +But it seemed so odd to be walking about with such a man as that. +But I want to go back, and look at the black and yellow roses in +that house, there. Would you go with me? that is, if we may. I +wonder whether we may!' + +Charley was clearly of opinion that they might, and should, and +would; and so away they sallied back to the roses, and Katie +began to enjoy the first instalment of the happiness which she +had anticipated. In the temple of the roses the crowd at first +was great, and she could not get the purse out of her pocket, nor +make her speech; but after a while the people passed on, and +there was a lull before others filled their places, and Katie +found herself opposite to a beautiful black rose, with no one +close to her but Charley. + +'I have got something for you,' she said; and as she spoke she +felt herself to be almost hot with blushing. + +'Something for me!' said Charley; and he also felt himself +abashed, he did not know why. + +'It's only a very little thing,' said Katie, feeling in her +pocket, 'and I am almost ashamed to ask you to take it. But I +made it all myself; no one else put a stitch in it,' and so +saying, and looking round to see that she was not observed, she +handed her gift to Charley. + +'Oh! Katie, dearest Katie,' said he, 'I am so much obliged to +you--I'll keep it till I die.' + +'I didn't know what to make that was better,' said she. + +'Nothing on earth could possibly be better,' said he. + +'A plate of bread and butter and a purse are a very poor return +for saving one's life,' said she, half laughing, half crying. + +He looked at her with his eyes full of love; and as he looked, he +swore within himself that come what might, he would never see +Norah Geraghty again, but would devote his life to an endeavour +to make himself worthy of the angel that was now with him. Katie +the while was looking up anxiously into his face. She was +thinking of no other love than that which it became her to feel +for the man who had saved her life. She was thinking of no other +love; but her young heart was opening itself to a very different +feeling. She was sinking deep, deep in waters which were to go +near to drown her warm heart; much nearer than those other waters +which she fancied had all but closed for ever over her life. + +She looked into his face and saw that he was pleased; and that, +for the present, was enough for her. She was at any rate happy +now. So they passed on through the roses, and then lost +themselves among the geraniums, and wondered at the gigantic +rhododendrons, and beautiful azaleas, and so went on from house +to house, and from flower-bed to flower-bed, Katie talking and +Charley listening, till she began to wonder at her former +supineness, and to say both to herself and out loud to her +companion, how very, very, very glad she was that her mother had +let her come. + +Poor Katie!--dear, darling, bonny Katie!--sweet sweetest, dearest +child! why, oh why, has that mother of thine, that tender-hearted +loving mother, put thee unguarded in the way of such peril as +this? Has she not sworn to herself that over thee at least she +would watch as a hen does over her young, so that no unfortunate +love should quench thy young spirit, or blanch thy cheek's bloom? +Has she not trembled at the thought of what would have befallen +thee, had thy fate been such as Linda's? Has she not often--oh, +how often!--on her knees thanked the Almighty God that Linda's +spirit was not as thine; that this evil had happened to the lamb +whose temper had been fitted by Him to endure it? And yet--here +thou art--all unguarded, all unaided, left by thyself to drink of +the cup of sweet poison, and none near to warn thee that the +draught is deadly. + +Alas!--'twould be useless to warn thee now. The false god has +been placed upon the altar, the temple all shining with gems and +gold has been built around him, the incense-cup is already +swinging; nothing will now turn the idolater from her worship, +nothing short of a miracle. + +Our Katie's childish days are now all gone. A woman's passion +glows within her breast, though as yet she has not scanned it +with a woman's intelligence. Her mother, listening to a child's +entreaty, had suffered her darling to go forth for a child's +amusement. It was doomed that the child should return no more; +but in lieu of her, a fair, heart-laden maiden, whose every +fondest thought must henceforth be of a stranger's welfare and a +stranger's fate. + +But it must not be thought that Charley abused the friendship of +Mrs. Woodward, and made love to Katie, as love is usually made-- +with warm words, assurances of affection, with squeezing of the +hand, with sighs, and all a lover's ordinary catalogue of +resources. Though we have said that he was a false god, yet he +was hardly to be blamed for the temple, and gems, and gold, with +which he was endowed; not more so, perhaps, than the unconscious +bud which is made so sacred on the banks of the Egyptian river. +He loved too, perhaps as warmly, though not so fatally as Katie +did; but he spoke no word of his love. He walked among the +flowers with her, laughing and listening to her in his usual +light-hearted, easy manner; every now and again his arm would +thrill with pleasure, as he felt on it the touch of her little +fingers, and his heart would leap within him as he gazed on the +speaking beauty of her face; but he was too honest-hearted to +talk to the young girl, to Mrs. Woodward's child, of love. He +talked to her as to a child--but she listened to him and loved +him as a woman. + +And so they rambled on till the hour appointed for quitting this +Elysium had arrived. Every now and again they had a glimpse of +some one of their party, which had satisfied Katie that they were +not lost. At first Clementina was seen tracing with her parasol +on the turf the plan of a new dance. Then Ugolina passed by them +describing the poetry of the motion of the spheres in a full flow +of impassioned eloquence to M. Delabarbe de l'Empereur: '_C'est +toujours vrai; ce que mademoiselle dit est toujours vrai_,' +was the Frenchman's answer, which they heard thrice repeated. And +then Lactimel and Captain Val were seen together, the latter +having disappointed the prophecies which had been made respecting +him. Lactimel had an idea that as the Scotts were great people, +they were all in Parliament, and she was endeavouring to persuade +Captain Val that something ought to be done for the poor. + +'Think,' said she, 'only think, Captain Scott, of all the money +that this _fete_ must cost.' + +'A doosed sight,' said the captain, hardly articulating from +under his thick, sandy-coloured moustache, which, growing +downwards from his nose, looked like a heavy thatch put on to +protect his mouth from the inclemency of the clouds above. 'A +doosed sight,' said the captain. + +'Now suppose, Captain Scott, that all this money could be +collected. The tickets, you know, and the dresses, and----' + +'I wish I knew how to do it,' said the captain. + +Lactimel went on with her little scheme for expending the cost of +the flower-show in bread and bacon for the poor Irish of Saffron +Hill; but Charley and Katie heard no more, for the mild +philosopher passed out of hearing and out of sight. + +At last Katie got a poke in her back from a parasol, just as +Charley had expended half a crown, one of Mr. M'Ruen's last, in +purchasing for her one simple beautiful flower, to put into her +hair that night. + +'You naughty puss!' said Gertrude, 'we have been looking for you +all over the gardens. Mrs. Val and the Miss Neverbends have been +waiting this half-hour.' Katie looked terribly frightened. 'Come +along, and don't keep them waiting any longer. They are all in +the passage. This was your fault, Master Charley.' + +'O no, it was not,' said Katie; 'but we thought----' + +'Never mind thinking,' said Gertrude, 'but come along.' And so +they hurried on, and were soon replaced in their respective +vehicles, and then went back to town. + +'Well, I do think the Chiswick Gardens is the nicest place in all +the world,' said Katie, leaning back in the cab, and meditating +on her past enjoyment. + +'They are very pretty--very,' said Lactimel Neverbend. 'I only +wish every cottar had such a garden behind his cottage. I am sure +we might manage it, if we set about it in the right way.' + +'What! as big as Chiswick?' said Katie. + +'No; not so big,' said Lactimel; 'but quite as nicely kept.' + +'I think the pigs would get in,' said Katie. + +'It would be much easier, and more important too, to keep their +minds nicely,' said Ugolina; and there the pigs could never get +in.' + +'No; I suppose not,' said Katie. + +'I don't know that,' said Lactimel. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +KATIE'S FIRST BALL + + +In spite of Mrs. Val's oft-repeated assurance that they would +have none but nice people, she had done her best to fill her +rooms, and not unsuccessfully. She had, it is true, eschewed the +Golightly party, who resided some north of Oxford Street, in the +purlieus of Fitzroy Square, and some even to the east of +Tottenham Court Road. She had eschewed the Golightlys, and +confined herself to the Scott connexion; but so great had been +her success in life, that, even under these circumstances, she +had found herself able to fill her rooms respectably. If, indeed, +there was no absolute crowding, if some space was left in the +front drawing-room sufficient for the operations of dancers, she +could still attribute this apparent want of fashionable +popularity to the selections of the few nice people whom she had +asked. The Hon. Mrs. Val was no ordinary woman, and understood +well how to make the most of the goods with which the gods +provided her. + +The Miss Neverbends were to dine with the Tudors, and go with +them to the dance in the evening, and their brother Fidus was to +meet them there. Charley was, of course, one of the party at +dinner; and as there was no other gentleman there, Alaric had an +excellent opportunity, when the ladies went up to their toilets, +to impress on his cousin the expediency of his losing no time in +securing to himself Miss Golightly's twenty thousand pounds. The +conversation, as will be seen, at last became rather animated. + +'Well, Charley, what do you think of the beautiful Clementina?' +said Alaric, pushing over the bottle to his cousin, as soon as +they found themselves alone. 'A 'doosed' fine girl, as Captain +Val says, isn't she?' + +'A 'doosed' fine girl, of course,' said Charley, laughing. 'She +has too much go in her for me, I'm afraid.' + +'Marriage and children will soon pull that down. She'd make an +excellent wife for such a man as you; and to tell you the truth, +Charley, if you'll take my advice, you'll lose no time in making +up to her. She has got that d---- French fellow at her heels, and +though I don't suppose she cares one straw about him, it may be +well to make sure.' + +'But you don't mean in earnest that you think that Miss Golightly +would have me?' + +'Indeed I do--you are just the man to get on with girls; and, as +far as I can see, you are just the man that will never get on in +any other way under the sun.' + +Charley sighed as he thought of his many debts, his poor +prospects, and his passionate love. There seemed, indeed, to be +little chance that he ever would get on at all in the ordinary +sense of the word. 'I'm sure she'd refuse me,' said he, still +wishing to back out of the difficulty. 'I'm sure she would--I've +not got a penny in the world, you know.' + +'That's just the reason--she has got lots of money, and you have +got none.' + +'Just the reason why she should refuse me, you should say.' + +'Well--what if she does? There's no harm done. 'Faint heart never +won fair lady.' You've everything to back you--Mrs. Val is led by +Undy Scott, and Undy is all on your side.' + +'But she has got guardians, hasn't she?' + +'Yes--her father's first cousin, old Sam Golightly. He is dying; +or dead probably by this time; only Mrs. Val won't have the news +brought to her, because of this party. He had a fit of apoplexy +yesterday. Then there's her father's brother-in-law, Figgs; he's +bedridden. When old Golightly is off the hooks altogether, +another will be chosen, and Undy talks of putting in my name as +that of a family friend; so you'll have everything to assist +you.' + +Charley looked very grave. He had not been in the habit of +discussing such matters, but it seemed to him, that if Alaric was +about to become in any legal manner the guardian of Miss +Golightly's fortune, that that in itself was reason enough why +he, Alaric, should not propose such a match as this. Needy men, +to be sure, did often marry rich ladies, and the world looked on +and regarded it only as a matter of course; but surely it would +be the duty of a guardian to protect his ward from such a fate, +if it were in his power to do so. + +Alaric, who saw something of what was going on in his cousin's +mind, essayed to remove the impression which was thus made. +'Besides, you know, Clementina is no chicken. Her fortune is at +her own disposal. All the guardians on earth cannot prevent her +marrying you if she makes up her mind to do so.' + +Charley gulped down his glass of wine, and then sat staring at +the fire, saying nothing further. It was true enough that he was +very poor--true enough that Miss Golightly's fortune would set +him on his legs, and make a man of him--true enough, perhaps, +that no other expedient of which he could think would do so. But +then there were so many arguments that were 'strong against the +deed.' In the first place, he thought it impossible that he +should be successful in such a suit, and then again it would +hardly be honest to obtain such success, if it were possible; +then, thirdly, he had no sort of affection whatsoever for Miss +Golightly; and fourthly, lastly, and chiefly, he loved so dearly, +tenderly, loved poor Katie Woodward. + +As he thought of this, he felt horror-stricken with himself at +allowing the idea of his becoming a suitor to another to dwell +for an instant on his mind, and looking up with all the +resolution which he was able to summon, he said--'It's +impossible, Alaric, quite impossible! I couldn't do it.' + +'Then what do you mean to do?' said Alaric, who was angry at +having his scheme thus thwarted; 'do you mean to be a beggar?--or +if not, how do you intend to get out of your difficulties?' + +'I trust not a beggar,' said Charley, sadly. + +'What other hope have you? what rational hope of setting yourself +right?' + +'Perhaps I may do something by writing,' said Charley, very +bashfully. + +'By writing! ha, ha, ha,' and Alaric laughed somewhat cruelly at +the poor navvy--' do something by writing! what will you do by +writing? will you make L20,000--or 20,000 pence? Of all trades +going, that, I should say, is likely to be the poorest for a poor +man--the poorest and the most heart-breaking. What have you made +already to encourage you?' + +'The editor says that 'Crinoline and Macassar' will come to L4 +10s.' + +'And when will you get it?' + +'The editor says that the rule is to pay six months after the +date of publication. The _Daily Delight_ is only a new thing, +you know. The editor says that, if the sale comes up to his expectations, +he will increase the scale of pay.' + +'A prospect of L4 10s. for a fortnight's hard work! That's a bad +look-out, my boy; you had better take the heiress.' + +'It may be a bad look-out,' said Charley, whose spirit was raised +by his cousin's sneers--'but at any rate it's honest. And I'll +tell you what, Alaric, I'd sooner earn L50 by writing for the +press, than get L1,000 in any other way you can think of. It may +be a poor trade in one way; and authors, I believe, are poor; but +I am sure it has its consolations.' + +'Well, Charley, I hope with all my heart that you may find them. +For my own part, seeing what a place the world is, seeing what +are the general aspirations of other men, seeing what, as it +appears to me, the Creator has intended for the goal of our +labours, I look for advancement, prosperity, and such rank and +station as I may be able to win for myself. The labourer is +worthy of his hire, and I do not mean to refuse such wages as may +come in my way.' + +'Yes,' said Charley, who, now that his spirit was roused, +determined to fight his battle manfully, 'yes, the labourer is +worthy of his hire; but were I to get Miss Golightly's fortune I +should be taking the hire without labour.' + +'Bah!' said Alaric. + +'It would be dishonest in every way, for I do not love her, and +should not love her at the moment that I married her.' + +'Honesty!' said Alaric, still sneering; 'there is no sign of the +dishonesty of the age so strong as the continual talk which one +hears about honesty!' It was quite manifest that Alaric had not +sat at the feet of Undy Scott without profiting by the lessons +which he had heard. + +'With what face,' continued he, 'can you pretend to be more +honest than your neighbours?' + +'I know that it is wrong, and unmanly too, to hunt a girl down +merely for what she has got.' + +'There are a great many wrong and unmanly men about, then,' said +Alaric. 'Look through the Houses of Parliament, and see how many +men there have married for money; aye, and made excellent +husbands afterwards. I'll tell you what it is, Charley, it is all +humbug in you to pretend to be better than others; you are not a +bit better;--mind, I do not say you are worse. We have none of us +too much of this honesty of which we are so fond of prating. +Where was your honesty when you ordered the coat for which you +know you cannot pay? or when you swore to the bootmaker that he +should have the amount of his little bill after next quarter-day, +knowing in your heart at the time that he wouldn't get a farthing +of it? If you are so honest, why did you waste your money to-day +in going to Chiswick, instead of paying some portion of your +debts? Honest! you are, I dare say, indifferently honest as the +world goes, like the rest of us. But I think you might put the +burden of Clementina's fortune on your conscience without feeling +much the worse for it after what you have already gone through.' + +Charley became very red in the face as he sat silent, listening +to Alaric's address--nor did he speak at once at the first pause, +so Alaric went on. 'The truth, I take it, is, that at the present +moment you have no personal fancy for this girl.' + +'No, I have not,' said Charley. + +'And you are so incredibly careless as to all prudential +considerations as to prefer your immediate personal fancies to +the future welfare of your whole life. I can say no more. If you +will think well of my proposition, I will do all I can to assist +you. I have no doubt you would make a good husband to Miss +Golightly, and that she would be very happy with you. If you +think otherwise there is an end of it; but pray do not talk so +much about your honesty--your tailor would arrest you to-morrow +if he heard you.' + +'There are two kinds of honesty, I take it,' said Charley, +speaking with suppressed anger and sorrow visible in his face, +'that which the world sees and that which it does not see. For +myself, I have nothing to say in my own defence. I have made my +bed badly, and must lie on it as it is. I certainly will not mend +it by marrying a girl that I can never love. And as for you, +Alaric, all who know you and love you watch your career with the +greatest hope. We know your ambition, and all look to see you +rise in the world. But in rising, as you will do, you should +remember this--that nothing that is wrong can become right +because other people do it.' + +'Well, Charley,' said the other, 'thank you for the lecture. I +did not certainly expect it from you; but it is not on that +account the less welcome. And now, suppose we go upstairs and +dress for Mrs. Val;' and so they went upstairs. + +Katie's heart beat high as she got out of the carriage--Mrs. +Val's private carriage had been kept on for the occasion--and saw +before and above her on the stairs a crowd of muslin crushing its +way on towards the room prepared for dancing. Katie had never +been to a ball before. We hope that the word ball may not bring +down on us the adverse criticism of the _Morning Post_. It +was probably not a ball in the strictly fashionable sense of the +word, but it was so to Katie to all intents and purposes. Her +dancing had hitherto been done either at children's parties, or +as a sort of supplemental amusement to the evening tea-gatherings +at Hampton or Hampton Court. She had never yet seen the muse +worshipped with the premeditated ceremony of banished carpets, +chalked floors, and hired musicians. Her heart consequently beat +high as she made her way upstairs, linked arm-in-arm with Ugolina +Neverbend. + +'Shall you dance much?' said Ugolina. + +'Oh, I hope so,' said Katie. + +'I shall not. It is an amusement of which I am peculiarly fond, +and for which my active habits suit me.' This was probably said +with some allusion to her sister, who was apt to be short of +breath. 'But in the dances of the present day conversation is +impossible, and I look upon any pursuit as barbaric which stops +the "feast of reason and the flow of soul."' + +Katie did not quite understand this, but she thought in her heart +that she would not at all mind giving up talking for the whole +evening if she could only get dancing enough. But on this matter +her heart misgave her. To be sure, she was engaged to Charley for +the first quadrille and second waltz; but there her engagements +stopped, whereas Clementina, as she was aware, had a whole book +full of them. What if she should get no more dancing when +Charley's good nature should have been expended? She had an idea +that no one would care to dance with her when older partners were +to be had. Ah, Katie, you do not yet know the extent of your +riches, or half the wealth of your own attractions! + +And then they all heard another little speech from Mrs. Val. 'She +was really quite ashamed--she really was--to see so many people; +she could not wish any of her guests away, that would be +impossible--though perhaps one or two might be spared,' she said +in a confidential whisper to Gertrude. Who the one or two might +be it would be difficult to decide, as she had made the same +whisper to every one; 'but she really was ashamed; there was +almost a crowd, and she had quite intended that the house should +be nearly empty. The fact was, everybody asked had come, and as +she could not, of course, have counted on that, why, she had got, +you see, twice as many people as she had expected.' And then she +went on, and made the same speech to the next arrival. + +Katie, who wanted to begin the play at the beginning, kept her +eye anxiously on Charley, who was still standing with Lactimel +Neverbend on his arm. 'Oh, now,' said she to herself, 'if he +should forget me and begin dancing with Miss Neverbend!' But then +she remembered how he had jumped into the water, and determined +that, even with such provocation as that, she must not be angry +with him. + +But there was no danger of Charley's forgetting. 'Come,' said he, +'we must not lose any more time, if we mean to dance the first +set. Alaric will be our _vis-a-vis_--he is going to dance +with Miss Neverbend,' and so they stood up. Katie tightened her +gloves, gave her dress a little shake, looked at her shoes, and +then the work of the evening began. + +'I shouldn't have liked to have sat down for the first dance,' +she said confidentially to Charley,' because it's my first ball.' + +'Sit down! I don't suppose you'll be let to sit down the whole +evening. You'll be crying out for mercy about three or four +o'clock in the morning.' + +'It's you to go on now,' said Katie, whose eyes were intent on +the figure, and who would not have gone wrong herself, or allowed +her partner to do so, on any consideration. And so the dance went +on right merrily. + +'I've got to dance the first polka with Miss Golightly,' said +Charley. + +'And the next with me,' said Katie. + +'You may be sure I shan't forget that.' + +'You lucky man to get Miss Golightly for a partner. I am told she +is the most beautiful dancer in the world.' + +'O no--Mademoiselle.......is much better,' said Charley, naming +the principal stage performer of the day. 'If one is to go the +whole hog, one had better do it thoroughly.' + +Katie did not quite understand then what he meant, and merely +replied that she would look at the performance. In this, however, +she was destined to be disappointed, for Charley had hardly left +her before Miss Golightly brought up to her the identical M. +Delabarbe de l'Empereur who had so terribly put her out in the +gardens. This was done so suddenly, that Katie's presence of mind +was quite insufficient to provide her with any means of escape. +The Frenchman bowed very low and said nothing. Katie made a +little curtsy, and was equally silent. Then she felt her own arm +gathered up and put within his, and she stood up to take her +share in the awful performance. She felt herself to be in such a +nervous fright that she would willingly have been home again at +Hampton if she could; but as this was utterly impossible, she had +only to bethink herself of her steps, and get through the work as +best she might. + +Away went Charley and Clementina leading the throng; away went M. +Jaquetanape and Linda; away went another Frenchman, clasping in +his arms the happy Ugolina. Away went Lactimel with a young +Weights and Measures--and then came Katie's turn. She pressed +her lips together, shut her eyes, and felt the tall Frenchman's +arms behind her back, and made a start. 'Twas like plunging into +cold water on the first bathing day of the season--'_ce n'est +que le premier pas que coute._' When once off Katie did not +find it so bad. The Frenchman danced well, and Katie herself was +a wicked little adept. At home, at Surbiton, dancing with another +girl, she had with great triumph tired out the fingers both of +her mother and sister, and forced them to own that it was +impossible to put her down. M. de l'Empereur, therefore, had his +work before him, and he did it like a man--as long as he could. + +Katie, who had not yet assumed the airs or will of a grown-up +young lady, thought that she was bound to go on as long as her +grand partner chose to go with her. He, on the other hand, +accustomed in his gallantry to obey all ladies' wishes, +considered himself bound to leave it to her to stop when she +pleased. And so they went on with apparently interminable +gyrations. Charley and the heiress had twice been in motion, and +had twice stopped, and still they were going on; Ugolina had +refreshed herself with many delicious observations, and Lactimel +had thrice paused to advocate dancing for the million, and still +they went on; the circle was gradually left to themselves, and +still they went on; people stood round, some admiring and others +pitying; and still they went on. Katie, thinking of her steps and +her business, did not perceive that she and her partner were +alone; and ever and anon, others of course joined in--and so they +went on--and on--and on. + +M. Delabarbe de l'Empereur was a strong and active man, but he +began to perceive that the lady was too much for him. He was +already melting away with his exertions, while his partner was as +cool as a cucumber. She, with her active young legs, her lightly +filled veins, and small agile frame, could have gone on almost +for ever; but M. de l'Empereur was more encumbered. Gallantry was +at last beat by nature, his overtasked muscles would do no more +for him, and he was fain to stop, dropping his partner into a +chair, and throwing himself in a state of utter exhaustion +against the wall. + +Katie was hardly out of breath as she received the +congratulations of her friends; but at the moment she could not +understand why they were quizzing her. In after times, however, +she was often reproached with having danced a Frenchman to death +in the evening, in revenge for his having bored her in the +morning. It was observed that M. Delabarbe de l'Empereur danced +no more that evening. Indeed, he very soon left the house. + +Katie had not been able to see Miss Golightly's performance, but +it had been well worth seeing. She was certainly no ordinary +performer, and if she did not quite come up to the remarkable +movements which one sees on the stage under the name of dancing, +the fault was neither in her will nor her ability, but only in +her education. Charley also was peculiarly well suited to give +her 'ample verge and room enough' to show off all her perfections. +Her most peculiar merit consisted, perhaps, in her power of stopping +herself suddenly, while going on at the rate of a hunt one way, and +without any pause or apparent difficulty going just as fast the other +way. This was done by a jerk which must, one would be inclined to +think, have dislocated all her bones and entirely upset her internal +arrangements. But no; it was done without injury, or any disagreeable +result either to her brain or elsewhere. We all know how a steamer +is manoeuvred when she has to change her course, how we stop +her and ease her and back her; but Miss Golightly stopped and +eased and backed all at once, and that without collision with +any other craft. It was truly very wonderful, and Katie ought to +have looked at her. + +Katie soon found occasion to cast off her fear that her evening's +happiness would be destroyed by a dearth of partners. Her +troubles began to be of an exactly opposite description. She had +almost envied Miss Golightly her little book full of engagements, +and now she found herself dreadfully bewildered by a book of her +own. Some one had given her a card and a pencil, and every moment +she could get to herself was taken up in endeavouring to guard +herself from perfidy on her own part. All down the card, at +intervals which were not very far apart, there were great C's, +which stood for Charley, and her firmest feeling was that no +earthly consideration should be allowed to interfere with those +landmarks. And then there were all manner of hieroglyphics-- +sometimes, unfortunately, illegible to Katie herself--French +names and English names mixed together in a manner most +vexatious; and to make matters worse, she found that she had put +down both Victoire Jaquetanape and Mr. Johnson of the Weights, by +a great I, and she could not remember with whom she was bound to +dance the lancers, and to which she had promised the last polka +before supper. One thing, however, was quite fixed: when supper +should arrive she was to go downstairs with Charley. + +'What dreadful news, Linda!' said Charley; 'did you hear it?' +Linda was standing up with Mr. Neverbend for a sober quadrille, +and Katie also was close by with her partner. 'Dreadful news +indeed!' + +'What is it?' said Linda. + +'A man can die but once, to be sure; but to be killed in such a +manner as that, is certainly very sad.' + +'Killed! who has been killed?' said Neverbend. + +'Well, perhaps I shouldn't say killed. He only died in the cab as +he went home.' + +'Died in a cab! how dreadful!' said Neverbend. 'Who? who was it, +Mr. Tudor?' + +'Didn't you hear? How very odd! Why M. de l'Empereur, to be sure. +I wonder what the coroner will bring it in.' + +'How can you talk such nonsense, Charley?' said Linda. + +'Very well, Master Charley,' said Katie. 'All that comes of being +a writer of romances. I suppose that's to be the next contribution +to the _Daily Delight_.' + +Neverbend went off on his quadrille not at all pleased with the +joke. Indeed, he was never pleased with a joke, and in this +instance he ventured to suggest to his partner that the idea of a +gentleman expiring in a cab was much too horrid to be laughed at. + +'Oh, we never mind Charley Tudor,' said Linda; 'he always goes on +in that way. We all like him so much.' + +Mr. Neverbend, who, though not very young, still had a +susceptible heart within his bosom, had been much taken by +Linda's charms. He already began to entertain an idea that as a +Mrs. Neverbend would be a desirable adjunct to his establishment +at some future period, he could not do better than offer himself +and his worldly goods to the acceptance of Miss Woodward; he +therefore said nothing further in disparagement of the family +friend; but he resolved that no such alliance should ever induce +him to make Mr. Charles Tudor welcome at his house. But what +could he have expected? The Internal Navigation had ever been a +low place, and he was surprised that the Hon. Mrs. Val should +have admitted one of the navvies inside her drawing-room. + +And so the ball went on. Mr. Johnson came duly for the lancers, +and M. Jaquetanape for the polka. Johnson was great at the +lancers, knowing every turn and vagary in that most intricate and +exclusive of dances; and it need hardly be said that the polka +with M. Jaquetanape was successful. The last honour, however, was +not without evil results, for it excited the envy of Ugolina, +who, proud of her own performance, had longed, but hitherto in +vain, to be whirled round the room by that wondrously expert +foreigner. + +'Well, my dear,' said Ugolina, with an air that plainly said that +Katie was to be treated as a child, 'I hope you have had dancing +enough.' + +'Oh, indeed I have not,' said Katie, fully appreciating the +purport and cause of her companion's remark; 'not near enough.' + +'Ah--but, my dear--you should remember,' said Ugolina; 'your +mamma will be displeased if you fatigue yourself.' + +'My mamma is never displeased because we amuse ourselves, and I +am not a bit fatigued;' and so saying Katie walked off, and took +refuge with her sister Gertrude. What business had any Ugolina +Neverbend to interfere between her and her mamma? + +Then came the supper. There was a great rush to get downstairs, +but Charley was so clever that even this did not put him out. Of +course there was no sitting down; which means that the bashful, +retiring, and obedient guests were to stand on their legs; while +those who were forward, and impudent, and disobedient, found +seats for themselves wherever they could. Charley was certainly +among the latter class, and he did not rest therefore till he had +got Katie into an old arm-chair in one corner of the room, in +such a position as to enable himself to eat his own supper +leaning against the chimney-piece. + +'I say, Johnson,' said he, 'do bring me some ham and chicken-- +it's for a lady--I'm wedged up here and can't get out--and, +Johnson, some sherry.' + +The good-natured young Weights obeyed, and brought the desired +provisions. + +'And Johnson--upon my word I'm sorry to be so troublesome--but +one more plateful if you please--for another lady--a good deal, +if you please, for this lady, for she's very hungry; and some +more sherry.' + +Johnson again obeyed--the Weights are always obedient--and +Charley of course appropriated the second portion to his own +purposes. + +'Oh, Charley, that was a fib--now wasn't it? You shouldn't have +said it was for a lady.' + +'But then I shouldn't have got it.' + +'Oh, but that's no reason; according to that everybody might tell +a fib whenever they wanted anything.' + +'Well, everybody does--everybody except you, Katie.' + +'O no,' said Katie--'no they don't--mamma, and Linda, and +Gertrude never do; nor Harry Norman, he never does, nor Alaric.' + +'No, Harry Norman never does,' said Charley, with something like +vexation in his tone. He made no exception to Katie's list of +truth-tellers, but he was thinking within himself whether Alaric +had a juster right to be in the catalogue than himself. 'Harry +Norman never does, certainly. You must not compare me with them, +Katie. They are patterns of excellence. I am all the other way, +as everybody knows.' He was half laughing as he spoke, but +Katie's sharp ear knew that he was more than half in earnest, and +she felt she had pained him by what she had said. + +'Oh, Charley, I didn't mean that; indeed I did not. I know that +in all serious things you are as truthful as they are--and quite +as good--that is, in many ways.' Poor Katie! she wanted to +console him, she wanted to be kind, and yet she could not be +dishonest. + +'Quite as good! no, you know I am not.' + +'You are as good-hearted, if not better; and you will be as +steady, won't you, Charley? I am sure you will; and I know you +are more clever, really more clever than either of them.' + +'Oh! Katie.' + +'I am quite sure you are. I have always said so; don't be angry +with me for what I said.' + +'Angry with you! I couldn't be angry with you.' + +'I wouldn't, for the world, say anything to vex you. I like you +better than either of them, though Alaric is my brother-in-law. +Of course I do; how could I help it, when you saved my life?' + +'Saved your life! Pooh! I didn't save your life. Any boy could +have done the same, or any waterman about the place. When you +fell in, the person who was nearest you pulled you out, that was +all.' + +There was something almost approaching to ferocity in his voice +as he said this; and yet when Katie timidly looked up she saw +that he had turned his back to the room, and that his eyes were +full of tears. He had felt that he was loved by this child, but +that he was loved from a feeling of uncalled-for gratitude. He +could not stop to analyse this, to separate the sweet from the +bitter; but he knew that the latter prevailed. It is so little +flattering to be loved when such love is the offspring of +gratitude. And then when that gratitude is unnecessary, when it +has been given in mistake for supposed favours, the acceptance of +such love is little better than a cheat! + +'That was not all,' said Katie, very decidedly. 'It never shall +be all in my mind. If you had not been with us I should now have +been drowned, and cold, and dead; and mamma! where would she have +been? Oh! Charley, I shall think myself so wicked if I have said +anything to vex you.' + +Charley did not analyse his feelings, nor did Katie analyse hers. +It would have been impossible for her to do so. But could she +have done it, and had she done it, she would have found that her +gratitude was but the excuse which she made to herself for a +passionate love which she could not have excused, even to +herself, in any other way. + +He said everything he could to reassure her and make her happy, +and she soon smiled and laughed again. + +'Now, that's what my editor would call a Nemesis,' said Charley. + +'Oh, that's a Nemesis, is it?' + +'Johnson was cheated into doing my work, and getting me my +supper; and then you scolded me, and took away my appetite, so +that I couldn't eat it; that's a Nemesis. Johnson is avenged, +only, unluckily, he doesn't know it, and wickedness is punished.' + +'Well, mind you put it into the _Daily Delight_. But all the +girls are going upstairs; pray let me get out,' and so Katie went +upstairs again. + +It was then past one. About two hours afterwards, Gertrude, +looking for her sister that she might take her home, found her +seated on a bench, with her feet tucked under her dress. She was +very much fatigued, and she looked to be so; but there was still +a bright laughing sparkle in her eye, which showed that her +spirits were not even yet weary. + +'Well, Katie, have you had enough dancing?' + +'Nearly,' said Katie, yawning. + +'You look as if you couldn't stand.' + +'Yes, I am too tired to stand; but still I think I could dance a +little more, only--' + +'Only what?' + +'Whisper,' said Katie; and Gertrude put down her ear near to her +sister's lips. 'Both my shoes are quite worn out, and my toes are +all out on the floor.' + +It was clearly time for them to go home, so away they all went. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +EXCELSIOR + + +The last words that Katie spoke as she walked down Mrs. Val's +hall, leaning on Charley's arm, as he led her to the carriage, +were these-- + +'You will be steady, Charley, won't you? you will try to be +steady, won't you, dear Charley?' and as she spoke she almost +imperceptibly squeezed the arm on which she was leaning. Charley +pressed her little hand as he parted from her, but he said +nothing. What could he say, in that moment of time, in answer to +such a request? Had he made the reply which would have come most +readily to his lips, it would have been this: 'It is too late, +Katie--too late for me to profit by a caution, even from you--no +steadiness now will save me.' Katie, however, wanted no other +answer than the warm pressure which she felt on her hand. + +And then, leaning back in the carriage, and shutting her eyes, +she tried to think quietly over the events of the night. But it +was, alas! a dream, and yet so like reality that she could not +divest herself of the feeling that the ball was still going on. +She still seemed to see the lights and hear the music, to feel +herself whirled round the room, and to see others whirling, +whirling, whirling on every side of her. She thought over all the +names on her card, and the little contests that had taken place +for her hand, and all Charley's jokes, and M. de l'Empereur's +great disaster; and then as she remembered how long she had gone +on twisting round with the poor unfortunate ill-used Frenchman, +she involuntarily burst out into a fit of laughter. + +'Good gracious, Katie, what is the matter? I thought you were +asleep,' said Gertrude. + +'So did I,' said Linda. 'What on earth can you be laughing at +now?' + +'I was laughing at myself,' said Katie, still going on with her +half-suppressed chuckle, 'and thinking what a fool I was to go on +dancing so long with that M. de l'Empereur. Oh dear, Gertrude, I +am so tired: shall we be home soon?' and then she burst out +crying. + +The excitement and fatigue of the day had been too much for her, +and she was now completely overcome. Ugolina Neverbend's advice, +though not quite given in the kindest way, had in itself been +good. Mrs. Woodward would, in truth, have been unhappy could she +have seen her child at this moment. Katie made an attempt to +laugh off her tears, but she failed, and her sobs then became +hysterical, and she lay with her head on her married sister's +shoulder, almost choking herself in her attempts to repress them. + +'Dear Katie, don't sob so,' said Linda--'don't cry, pray don't +cry, dear Katie.' + +'She had better let it have its way,' said Gertrude; 'she will be +better directly, won't you, Katie?' + +In a little time she was better, and then she burst out laughing +again. 'I wonder why the man went on when he was so tired. What a +stupid man he must be!' + +Gertrude and Linda both laughed in order to comfort her and bring +her round. + +'Do you know, I think it was because he didn't know how to say +'stop' in English;' and then she burst out laughing again, and +that led to another fit of hysterical tears. + +When they reached home Gertrude and Linda soon got her into bed. +Linda was to sleep with her, and she also was not very long in +laying her head on her pillow. But before she did so Katie was +fast asleep, and twice in her sleep she cried out, 'Oh, Charley! +Oh, Charley!' Then Linda guessed how it was with her sister, and +in the depths of her loving heart she sorrowed for the coming +grief which she foresaw. + +When the morning came Katie was feverish, and had a headache. It +was thought better that she should remain in town, and Alaric +took Linda down to Hampton. The next day Mrs. Woodward came up, +and as the invalid was better she took her home. But still she +was an invalid. The doctor declared that she had never quite +recovered from her fall into the river, and prescribed quiet and +cod-liver oil. All the truth about the Chiswick fete and the five +hours' dancing, and the worn-out shoes, was not told to him, or +he might, perhaps, have acquitted the water-gods of the injury. +Nor was it all, perhaps, told to Mrs. Woodward. + +'I'm afraid she tired herself at the ball,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I think she did a little,' said Linda. + +'Did she dance much?' said Mrs. Woodward, looking anxiously. + +'She did dance a good deal,' said Linda. + +Mrs. Woodward was too wise to ask any further questions. + +As it was a fine night Alaric had declared his intention of +walking home from Mrs. Val's party, and he and Charley started +together. They soon parted on their roads, but not before Alaric +had had time to notice Charley's perverse stupidity as to Miss +Golightly. + +'So you wouldn't take my advice about Clementina?' said he. + +'It was quite impossible, Alaric,' said Charley, in an apologetic +voice. 'I couldn't do it, and, what is more, I am sure I never +shall.' + +'No, not now; you certainly can't do it now. If I am not very +much mistaken, the chance is gone. I think you'll find she +engaged herself to that Frenchman tonight.' + +'Very likely,' said Charley. + +'Well--I did the best I could for you. Good night, old fellow.' + +'I'm sure I'm much obliged to you. Good night,' said Charley. + +Alaric's suggestion with reference to the heiress was quite +correct: M. Jaquetanape had that night proposed, and been duly +accepted. He was to present himself to his loved one's honourable +mother on the following morning as her future son-in-law, +comforted and supported in his task of doing so by an assurance +from the lady that if her mother would not give her consent the +marriage should go on all the same without it. How delightful to +have such a dancer for her lover! thought Clementina. That was +her 'Excelsior.' + +Charley walked home with a sad heart. He had that day given a +pledge that he would on the morrow go to the 'Cat and Whistle,' +and visit his lady-love. Since the night when he sat there with +Norah Geraghty on his knee, now nearly a fortnight since, he had +spent but little of his time there. He had, indeed, gone there +once or twice with his friend Scatterall, but had contrived to +avoid any confidential intercourse with either the landlady or +the barmaid, alleging, as an excuse for his extra-ordinary +absence, that his time was wholly occupied by the demands made on +it by the editor of the _Daily Delight_. Mrs. Davis, however, +was much too sharp, and so also we may say was Miss Geraghty, +to be deceived. They well knew that such a young man as +Charley would go wherever his inclination led him. Till lately it +had been all but impossible to get him out of the little back +parlour at the 'Cat and Whistle'; now it was nearly as difficult +to get him into it. They both understood what this meant. + +'You'd better take up with Peppermint and have done with it,' +said the widow. 'What's the good of your shilly-shallying till +you're as thin as a whipping-post? If you don't mind what you're +after he'll be off too.' + +'And the d---- go along with him,' said Miss Geraghty, who had +still about her a twang of the County Clare, from whence she +came. + +'With all my heart,' said Mrs. Davis; 'I shall save my hundred +pounds: but if you'll be led by me you'll not throw Peppermint +over till you're sure of the other; and, take my word for it, +you're----' + +'I hate Peppermint.' + +'Nonsense; he's an honest good sort of man, and a deal more +likely to keep you out of want than the other.' + +Hereupon Norah began to cry, and to wipe her beautiful eyes with +the glass-cloth. Hers, indeed, was a cruel position. Her face was +her fortune, and her fortune she knew was deteriorating from day +to day. She could not afford to lose the lover that she loved, +and also the lover that she did not love. Matrimony with her was +extremely desirable, and she was driven to confess that it might +very probably be either now or never. Much as she hated +Peppermint, she was quite aware that she would take him if she +could not do better. But then, was it absolutely certain that she +must lose the lover that so completely suited her taste? Mrs. +Davis said it was. Norah herself, confiding, as it is so natural +that ladies should do, a little too much in her own beauty, +thought that she couldn't but have a chance left. She also had +her high aspirations; she desired to rise in the world, to leave +goes of gin and screws of tobacco behind her, and to reach some +position more worthy of the tastes of a woman. 'Excelsior,' +translated doubtless into excellent Irish, was her motto also. It +would be so great a thing to be the wife of Charles Tudor, Esq., +of the Civil Service, and more especially as she dearly and truly +loved the same Charles Tudor in her heart of hearts. + +She knew, however, that it was not for her to indulge in the +luxury of a heart, if circumstances absolutely forbade it. To eat +and drink and clothe herself, and, if possible, to provide eating +and drinking and clothes for her future years, this was the +business of life, this was the only real necessity. She had +nothing to say in opposition to Mrs. Davis, and therefore she +went on crying, and again wiped her eyes with the glass-cloth. + +Mrs. Davis, however, was no stern monitor, unindulgent to the +weakness of human nature. When she saw how Norah took to heart +her sad fate, she resolved to make one more effort in her favour. +She consequently dressed herself very nicely, put on her best +bonnet, and took the unprecedented step of going off to the +Internal Navigation, and calling on Charley in the middle of his +office. + +Charley was poking over the Kennett and Avon lock entries, with +his usual official energy, when the office messenger came up and +informed him that a lady was waiting to see him. + +'A lady!' said Charley: 'what lady?' and he immediately began +thinking of the Woodwards, whom he was to meet that afternoon at +Chiswick. + +'I'm sure I can't say, sir: all that she said was that she was a +lady,' answered the messenger, falsely, for he well knew that the +woman was Mrs. Davis, of the 'Cat and Whistle.' + +Now the clerks at the Internal Navigation were badly off for a +waiting-room; and in no respect can the different ranks of +different public offices be more plainly seen than in the +presence or absence of such little items of accommodation as +this. At the Weights and Measures there was an elegant little +chamber, carpeted, furnished with leathern-bottomed chairs, and a +clock, supplied with cream-laid note-paper, new pens, and the +_Times_ newspaper, quite a little Elysium, in which to pass +half an hour, while the Secretary, whom one had called to see, +was completing his last calculation on the matter of the decimal +coinage. But there were no such comforts at the Internal +Navigation. There was, indeed, a little room at the top of the +stairs, in which visitors were requested to sit down; but even +here two men were always at work--at work, or else at play. + +Into this room Mrs. Davis was shown, and there Charley found her. +Long and intimately as the young navvy had been acquainted with +the landlady of the 'Cat and Whistle,' he had never before seen +her arrayed for the outer world. It may be doubted whether Sir +John Falstaff would, at the first glance, have known even Dame +Quickly in her bonnet, that is, if Dame Quickly in those days had +had a bonnet. At any rate Charley was at fault for a moment, and +was shaking hands with the landlady before he quite recognized +who she was. + +The men in the room, however, had recognized her, and Charley +well knew that they had done so. + +'Mr. Tudor,' she began, not a bit abashed, 'I want to know what +it is you are a-going to do?' + +Though she was not abashed, Charley was, and very much so. +However, he contrived to get her out of the room, so that he +might speak to her somewhat more privately in the passage. The +gentlemen at the Internal Navigation were well accustomed to this +mode of colloquy, as their tradesmen not unfrequently called, +with the view of having a little conversation, which could not +conveniently be held in the public room. + +'And, Mr. Tudor, what are you a-going to do about that poor girl +there?' said Mrs. Davis, as soon as she found herself in the +passage, and saw that Charley was comfortably settled with his +back against the wall. + +'She may go to Hong-Kong for me.' That is what Charley should +have said. But he did not say it. He had neither the sternness of +heart nor the moral courage to enable him to do so. He was very +anxious, it is true, to get altogether quit of Norah Geraghty; +but his present immediate care was confined to a desire of +getting Mrs. Davis out of the office. + +'Do!' said Charley. 'Oh, I don't know; I'll come and settle +something some of these days; let me see when--say next Tuesday.' + +'Settle something,' said Mrs. Davis. 'If you are an honest man, +as I take you, there is only one thing to settle; when do you +mean to marry her?' + +'Hush!' said Charley; for, as she was speaking, Mr. Snape came +down the passage leading from Mr. Oldeschole's room. 'Hush!' Mr. +Snape as he passed walked very slowly, and looked curiously round +into the widow's face. 'I'll be even with you, old fellow, for +that,' said Charley to himself; and it may be taken for granted +that he kept his word before long. + +'Oh! it is no good hushing any more,' said Mrs. Davis, hardly +waiting till Mr. Snape's erect ears were out of hearing. 'Hushing +won't do no good; there's that girl a-dying, and her grave'll be +a-top of your head, Mr. Tudor; mind I tell you that fairly; so +now I want to know what it to you're a-going to do.' And then +Mrs. Davis lifted up the lid of a market basket which hung on her +left arm, took out her pocket-handkerchief, and began to wipe her +eyes. + +Unfortunate Charley! An idea occurred to him that he might bolt +and leave her. But then the chances were that she would make her +way into his very room, and tell her story there, out before them +all. He well knew that this woman was capable of many things if +her temper were fairly roused. And yet what could he say to her +to induce her to go out from that building, and leave him alone +to his lesser misfortunes? + +'She's a-dying, I tell you, Mr. Tudor,' continued the landlady, +'and if she do die, be sure of this, I won't be slow to tell the +truth about it. I'm the only friend she's got, and I'm not going +to see her put upon. So just tell me this in two words--what is +it you're a-going to do?' And then Mrs. Davis replaced her +kerchief in the basket, stood boldly erect in the middle of the +passage, waiting for Charley's answer. + +Just at this moment Mr. Snape again appeared in the passage, +going towards Mr. Oldeschole's room. The pernicious old man! He +hated Charley Tudor; and, to tell the truth, there was no love +lost between them. Charley, afflicted and out of spirits as he +was at the moment, could not resist the opportunity of being +impertinent to his old foe: 'I'm afraid you'll make yourself very +tired, Mr. Snape, if you walk about so much,' said he. Mr. Snape +merely looked at him, and then hard at Mrs. Davis, and passed on +to Mr. Oldeschole's room. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor, will you be so good as to tell me what it is +you're going to do about this poor girl?' + +'My goodness, Mrs. Davis, you know how I am situated--how can you +expect me to give an answer to such a question in such a place as +this? I'll come to the 'Cat and Whistle' on Tuesday.' + +'Gammon!' said the eloquent lady. 'You know you means gammon.' + +Charley, perhaps, did mean gammon; but he protested that he had +never been more truthfully in earnest in his life. Mr. Oldeschole's +door opened, and Mrs. Davis perceiving it, whipped out her +handkerchief in haste, and again began wiping her eyes, not +without audible sobs. 'Confound the woman!' said Charley to +himself; 'what on earth shall I do with her?' + +Mr. Oldeschole's door opened, and out of it came Mr. Oldeschole, +and Mr. Snape following him. What means the clerk had used to +bring forth the Secretary need not now be inquired. Forth they +both came, and passed along the passage, brushing close by +Charley and Mrs. Davis; Mr. Oldeschole, when he saw that one of +the clerks was talking to a woman who apparently was crying, +looked very intently on the ground, and passed by with a quick +step; Mr. Snape looked as intently at the woman, and passed very +slowly. Each acted according to his lights. + +'I don't mean gammon at all, Mrs. Davis--indeed, I don't--I'll be +there on Tuesday night certainly, if not sooner--I will indeed--I +shall be in a desperate scrape if they see me here talking to you +any longer; there is a rule against women being in the office at +all.' + +'And there's a rule against the clerks marrying, I suppose,' said +Mrs. Davis. + +The colloquy ended in Charley promising to spend the Saturday +evening at the 'Cat and Whistle,' with the view of then and there +settling what he meant to do about 'that there girl'; nothing +short of such an undertaking on his part would induce Mrs. Davis +to budge. Had she known her advantage she might have made even +better terms. He would almost rather have given her a written +promise to marry her barmaid, than have suffered her to remain +there till Mr. Oldeschole should return and see her there again. +So Mrs. Davis, with her basket and pocket-handkerchief, went her +way about her marketing, and Charley, as he returned to his room, +gave the strictest injunctions to the messenger that not, on any +ground or excuse whatever, was any woman to be again allowed to +see him at the office. + +When, therefore, on the fine summer morning, with the early +daylight all bright around him, Charley walked home from Mrs. +Val's party, he naturally felt sad enough. He had one sixpence +left in his pocket; he was engaged to spend the evening of the +following day with the delightful Norah at the 'Cat and Whistle,' +then and there to plight her his troth, in whatever formal and +most irretrievable manner Mrs. Davis might choose to devise; and +as he thought of these things he had ringing in his ears the last +sounds of that angel voice, 'You will be steady, Charley, won't +you? I know you will, dear Charley--won't you now?' + +Steady! Would not the best thing for him be to step down to +Waterloo Bridge and throw himself over? He still had money enough +left to pay the toll--though not enough to hire a pistol. And so +he went home and got into bed. + +On that same day, the day that was to witness Charley's betrothal +to Miss Geraghty, and that of M. Jaquetanape with Miss Golightly, +Alaric Tudor had an appointment with Sir Gregory Hardlines at the +new office of the Civil Service Examination Board. Alaric had +been invited to wait upon the great man, in terms which made him +perfectly understand that the communication to be made was one +which would not be unpleasing or uncomplimentary to himself. +Indeed, he pretty well guessed what was to be said to him. Since +his promotion at the Weights and Measures he had gone on rising +in estimation as a man of value to the Civil Service at large. +Nearly two years had now passed since that date, and in these +pages nothing has been said of his official career during the +time. It had, however, been everything that he or his friends +could have wished it to be. He had so put himself forward as +absolutely to have satisfied the actual chief clerk of his +office, and was even felt by some of the secretaries to be +treading very closely on their heels. + +And yet a great portion of his time had been spent, not at the +Weights and Measures, but in giving some sort of special +assistance to Sir Gregory's Board. The authorities at the Weights +and Measures did not miss him; they would have been well content +that he should have remained for ever with Sir Gregory. + +He had also become somewhat known to the official world, even +beyond the confines of the Weights and Measures, or the +Examination Board, He had changed his club, and now belonged to +the Downing. He had there been introduced by his friend Undy to +many men, whom to know should be the very breath in the nostrils +of a rising official aspirant. Mr. Whip Vigil, of the Treasury, +had more than once taken him by the hand, and even the Chancellor +of the Exchequer usually nodded to him whenever that o'ertasked +functionary found a moment to look in at the official club. + +Things had not been going quite smoothly at the Examination +Board. Tidings had got about that Mr. Jobbles was interfering +with Sir Gregory, and that Sir Gregory didn't like it. To be +sure, when this had been indiscreetly alluded to in the House by +one of those gentlemen who pass their leisure hours in looking +out for raws in the hide of the Government carcass, some other +gentleman, some gentleman from the Treasury bench, had been able +to give a very satisfactory reply. For why, indeed, should any +gentleman sit on the Treasury bench if he be not able, when so +questioned, to give very satisfactory replies? Giving satisfactory +replies to ill-natured questions is, one may say, the constitutional +work of such gentlemen, who have generally well learned how +to do so, and earned their present places by asking the selfsame +questions themselves, when seated as younger men in other +parts of the House. + +But though the answer given in this instance was so eminently +satisfactory as to draw down quite a chorus of triumphant +acclamations from the official supporters of Government, +nevertheless things had not gone on at the Board quite as +smoothly as might have been desirable. Mr. Jobbles was enthusiastically +intent on examining the whole adult male population of Great Britain, +and had gone so far as to hint that female competitors might, at +some future time, be made subject to his all-measuring rule and +compass. Sir Gregory, however, who, having passed his early +days in an office, may, perhaps, be supposed to have had some +slight prejudice remaining in favour of ancient customs, was not +inclined to travel so quickly. Moreover, he preferred following his +own lead, to taking any other lead whatever that Mr. Jobbles might +point out as preferable. + +Mr. Jobbles wanted to crush all patronage at a blow; any system +of patronage would lamentably limit the number of candidates +among whom his examination papers would be distributed. He longed +to behold, crowding around him, an attendance as copious as Mr. +Spurgeon's, and to see every head bowed over the posing questions +which he should have dictated. No legion could be too many for +him. He longed to be at this great work; but his energies were +crushed by the opposition of his colleagues. Sir Gregory thought +--and Sir Warwick, though he hardly gave a firm support to Sir +Gregory, would not lend his countenance to Mr. Jobbles--Sir +Gregory thought that enough would be done for the present, if +they merely provided that every one admitted into the Service +should be educated in such a manner as to be fit for any +profession or calling under the sun; and that, with this slight +proviso, the question of patronage might for the present remain +untouched. 'Do you,' he would have said to the great officers of +Government, 'appoint whom you like. In this respect remain quite +unfettered. I, however, I am the St. Peter to whom are confided +the keys of the Elysium. Do you send whatever candidates you +please: it is for me merely to say whether or not they shall +enter.' But Mr. Jobbles would have gone much farther. He would +have had all mankind for candidates, and have selected from the +whole mass those most worthy of the high reward. And so there was +a split at the Examination Board, which was not to be healed even +by the very satisfactory reply given by the Treasury gentleman in +the House of Commons. + +Neither Sir Gregory nor his rival were men likely to give way, +and it soon appeared manifest to the powers that be, that +something must be done. It therefore came to light that Mr. +Jobbles had found that his clerical position was hardly +compatible with a seat at a lay board, and he retired to the more +congenial duties of a comfortable prebendal stall at Westminster. +'So that by his close vicinity,' as was observed by a newspaper +that usually supported the Government, 'he might be able to be of +material use, whenever his advice should be required by the Board +of Commissioners.' Sir Gregory in the meantime was instructed to +suggest the name of another colleague; and, therefore, he sent +for Alaric Tudor. + +Alaric, of course, knew well what had been going on at the Board. +He had been Sir Gregory's confidential man all through; had +worked out cases for him, furnished him with arguments, backed +his views, and had assisted him, whenever such a course had been +necessary, in holding Mr. Jobbles' head under the pump. Alaric +knew well on which side his bread was buttered, and could see +with a glance which star was in the ascendant; he perfectly +understood the points and merits of the winning horse. He went in +to win upon Sir Gregory, and he won. When Mr. Jobbles made his +last little speech at the Board, and retired to his house in the +Dean's yard, Alaric felt tolerably certain that he himself would +be invited to fill the vacant place. + +And he was so invited. 'That is L1,200 a year, at any rate,' said +he to himself, as with many words of submissive gratitude he +thanked his patron for the nomination. 'That is L1,200 a year. So +far, so good. And now what must be the next step? Excelsior! It +is very nice to be a Commissioner, and sit at a Board at Sir +Gregory's right hand: much nicer than being a junior clerk at the +Weights and Measures, like Harry Norman. But there are nicer +things even than that; there are greater men even than Sir +Gregory; richer figures than even L1,200 a year!' + +So he went to his old office, wrote his resignation, and walked +home meditating to what next step above he should now aspire to +rise. 'Excelsior!' he still said to himself, 'Excelsior!' + +At the same moment Charley was leaving the Internal Navigation, +and as he moved with unusual slowness down the steps, he +bethought himself how he might escape from the fangs of his +Norah; how, if such might still be possible, he might fit himself +for the love of Katie Woodward. Excelsior! such also was the +thought of his mind; but he did not dare to bring the word to +utterance. It was destined that his thoughts should be interrupted +by no very friendly hand. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +OUTERMAN _v_ TUDOR + + +Charley sat at his office on the Saturday afternoon, very +meditative and unlike himself. What was he to do when his office +hours were over? In the first place he had not a shilling in the +world to get his dinner. His habit was to breakfast at home at +his lodgings with Harry, and then to dine, as best he might, at +some tavern, if he had not the good fortune to be dining out. He +had a little dinner bill at a house which he frequented in the +Strand; but the bill he knew had reached its culminating point. +It would, he was aware, be necessary that it should be decreased, +not augmented, at the next commercial transaction which might +take place between him and the tavern-keeper. + +This was not the first time by many in which he had been in a +similar plight--but his resource in such case had been to tell +the truth gallantly to his friend Mrs. Davis; and some sort of +viands, not at all unprepossessing to him in his hunger, would +always be forthcoming for him at the 'Cat and Whistle.' This +supply was now closed to him. Were he, under his present +circumstances, to seek for his dinner from the fair hands of +Norah Geraghty, it would be tantamount to giving himself up as +lost for ever. + +This want of a dinner, however, was a small misfortune in +comparison with others which afflicted him. Should or should he +not keep his promise to Mrs. Davis, and go to the 'Cat and +Whistle' that evening? That was the question which disturbed his +equanimity, and hindered him from teasing Mr. Snape in his usual +vivacious manner. + +And here let it not be said that Charley must be altogether +despicable in being so weak; that he is not only a vulgar rake in +his present habits, but a fool also, and altogether spiritless, +and of a low disposition. Persons who may so argue of him, who so +argue of those whom they meet in the real living world, are +ignorant of the twists and turns, and rapid changes in character +which are brought about by outward circumstances. Many a youth, +abandoned by his friends to perdition on account of his folly, +might have yet prospered, had his character not been set down as +gone, before, in truth, it was well formed. It is not one calf +only that should be killed for the returning prodigal. Oh, +fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, guardians, and elderly friends +in general, kill seven fatted calves if seven should unfortunately +be necessary! + +And then there was a third calamity. Charley had, at this moment, +in his pocket a certain document, which in civil but still +somewhat peremptory language invited him to meet a very +celebrated learned pundit, being no less than one of Her +Majesty's puisne judges, at some court in Westminster, to explain +why he declined to pay to one Nathaniel Outerman, a tailor, the +sum of &c., &c., &c.; and the document then went on to say, that +any hesitation on Charley's part to accept this invitation would +be regarded as great contempt shown to the said learned pundit, +and would be treated accordingly. Now Charley had not paid the +slightest attention to this requisition from the judge. It would, +he conceived, have been merely putting his head into the lion's +mouth to do so. But yet he knew that such documents meant +something; that the day of grace was gone by, and that Mr. +Nathaniel Outerman would very speedily have him locked up. + +So Charley sat meditative over his lock entries, and allowed even +his proposed vengeance on Mr. Snape to be delayed. + +'I say, Charley,' said Scatterall, coming over and whispering to +him, 'you couldn't lend me half a crown, could you?' + +Charley said nothing, but looked on his brother navvy in a manner +that made any other kind of reply quite unnecessary. + +'I was afraid it was so,' said Scatterall, in a melancholy voice. +And then, as if by the brilliance of his thought he had suddenly +recovered his spirits, he made a little proposition. + +'I'll tell you what you might do, Charley. I put my watch up the +spout last week. It's a silver turnip, so I only got fifteen +shillings; yours is a Cox and Savary, and it's gold. I'm sure +you'd get L3 for it easily--perhaps L3 3s. Now, if you'll do +that, and take my turnip down, I'll let you have the turnip to +wear, if you'll let me have ten shillings of the money. You see, +you'd get clear--let me see how much.' And Scatterall went to +work with a sheet of foolscap paper, endeavouring to make some +estimate of what amount of ready cash Charley might have in his +pocket on completion of this delicate little arrangement. + +'You be d--,' said Charley. + +'You'll not do it, then?' said Dick. + +Charley merely repeated with a little more emphasis the speech +which he had just before made. + +'Oh, very well,' said Scatterall; 'there couldn't have been a +fairer bargain; at least it was all on your side; for you would +have had the watch to wear, and nearly all the money too.' + +Charley still repeated the same little speech. This was uncivil; +for it had evidently been looked on by Scatterall as unsatisfactory. + +'Oh, very well,' said that gentleman, now in a state of mild +anger--' only I saw that you had a fine new purse, and I thought +you'd wish to have something to put in it.' + +Charley again repeated his offensive mandate; but he did it in a +spirit of bravado, in order to maintain his reputation. The +allusion to the purse made him sadder than ever. He put his hand +into his breast-pocket, and felt that it was near his heart: and +then he fancied that he again heard her words--'You will be +steady; won't you, dear Charley?' + +At four o'clock, he was by no means in his usual hurry to go +away, and he sat there drawing patterns on his blotting-paper, +and chopping up a stick of sealing-wax with his penknife, in a +very disconsolate way. Scatterall went. Corkscrew went. Mr. +Snape, having carefully brushed his hat and taken down from its +accustomed peg the old cotton umbrella, also took his departure; +and the fourth navvy, who inhabited the same room, went also. The +iron-fingered hand of time struck a quarter past four on the +Somerset House clock, and still Charley Tudor lingered at his +office. The maid who came to sweep the room was thoroughly +amazed, and knew that something must be wrong. + +Just as he was about to move, Mr. Oldeschole came bustling into +the room. 'Where is Corkscrew?' said he. 'Gone,' said Charley. +'And Scatterall?' asked Oldeschole. 'Gone, sir,' said Charley. +'And Mr. Snape?' said the Secretary. 'Oh, he is gone, of course,' +said Charley, taking his revenge at last. + +'Then, Mr. Tudor, I must trouble you to copy these papers for me +at once. They are wanted immediately for Sir Gregory Hardlines.' +It was quite clear that Mr. Oldeschole was very much in earnest +about the job, and that he was rejoiced to find that he still had +one clerk to aid him. + +Charley sat down and did the required work. On any other day he +would greatly have disliked such a summons, but now he did not +care much about it. He made the copies, however, as quickly as he +could, and then took them in to Mr. Oldeschole. + +The worthy Secretary rewarded him by a lecture; a lecture, +however, which, as Charley well understood, was intended all in +kindness. He told him how Mr. Snape complained of him, how the +office books told against him, how the clerks talked, and all +Somerset House made stories of his grotesque iniquities. With +penitential air Charley listened and promised. Mr. Oldeschole +promised also that bygones should be bygones. 'I wonder whether +the old cock would lend me a five-pound note! I dare say he +would,' said Charley to himself, as he left the office. He +abstained, however, from asking for it. + +Returning to his room, he took his hat and went downstairs. As he +was sauntering forth through the archway into the Strand, a man +with a decent coat but a very bad hat came up to him. + +'I'm afraid I must trouble you to go with me, Mr. Tudor,' said the man. + +'All right,' said Charley; 'Outerman, I suppose; isn't it?' + +'All right,' said the bailiff. + +And away the two walked together to a sponging-house in Cursitor +Street. + +Charley had been arrested at the suit of Mr. Outerman, the +tailor. He perfectly understood the fact, and made no special +objection to following the bailiff. One case was at any rate off +his mind; he could not now, be his will to do so ever so good, +keep his appointment with Norah Geraghty. Perhaps it was quite as +well for him to be arrested just at this moment, as be left at +liberty. It must have come sooner or later. So he walked on with +the bailiff not without some feeling of consolation. + +The man had suggested to him a cab; but Charley had told him, +without the slightest _mauvaise honte_, that he had not about +him the means of paying for a cab. The man again suggested that +perhaps he had better go home and get some money, as he would +find it in Cursitor Street very desirable to have some. To this Charley +replied that neither had he any money at home. + +'That's blue,' said the man. + +'It is rather blue,' said Charley; and on they went very amicably +arm-in-arm. + +We need not give any detailed description of Charley's prison- +house. He was luckily not detained there so long as to make it +necessary that we should become acquainted with his fellow- +captives, or even have much intercourse with his jailers. He was +taken to the sponging-house, and it was there imparted to him +that he had better send for two things--first of all for money, +which was by far the more desirable of the two; and secondly, for +bail, which even if forthcoming was represented as being at best +but a dubious advantage. + +'There's Mrs. Davis, she'd bail you, of course, and willing,' +said the bailiff. + +'Mrs. Davis!' said Charley, surprised that the man should know +aught of his personal acquaintances. + +'Yes, Mrs. Davis of the 'Cat and Whistle.' She'd do it in course, +along of Miss Geraghty.' + +Charley perceived with a shudder that his matrimonial +arrangements were known and talked of even in the distant world +of Cursitor Street. He declined, however, the assistance of the +landlady, which no doubt would have been willingly forthcoming, +and was divided between his three friends, Alaric, Harry, and Mr. +M'Ruen. Alaric was his cousin and his natural resource in such a +position, but he had lately rejected Alaric's advice, and now +felt a disinclination to call upon him in his difficulty. Harry +he knew would assist him, would at once pay Mr. Outerman's bill, +and relieve him from all immediate danger; but the sense of what +he already owed to Norman made him unwilling to incur further +obligations;--so he decided on sending for Mr. M'Ruen. In spite +of his being so poorly supplied with immediate cash, it was +surmised from his appearance, clothes, and known rank, that any +little outlay made in his behalf would be probably repaid, and he +was therefore furnished with a messenger on credit. This man was +first to call at Mr. M'Ruen's with a note, and then to go to +Charley's lodgings and get his brushes, razors, &c., these being +the first necessaries of life for which a man naturally looks +when once overtaken by such a misfortune as that with which +Charley was now afflicted. + +In the process of time the brushes and razors came, and so did +Mr. M'Ruen. + +'This is very kind of you,' said Charley, in rather a doleful +voice, for he was already becoming tired of Cursitor Street. + +Mr. M'Ruen twisted his head round inside his cravat, and put out +three fingers by way of shaking hands with the prisoner. + +'You seem pretty comfortable here,' said M'Ruen. Charley +dissented to this, and said that he was extremely uncomfortable. + +'And what is it that I can do for you, Mr. Tudor?' said M'Ruen. + +'Do for me! Why, bail me, to be sure; they won't let me out +unless somebody bails me. You know I shan't run away.' + +'Bail you!' said M'Ruen. + +'Yes, bail me,' said Charley. 'You don't mean to say that you +have any objection?' + +Mr. M'Ruen looked very sharply at his young client from head to +foot. 'I don't know about bail,' he said: 'it's very dangerous, +very; why didn't you send for Mr. Norman or your cousin?' + +'Because I didn't choose,' said Charley--'because I preferred +sending to some one I could pay for the trouble.' + +'Ha--ha--ha,' laughed M'Ruen; 'but that's just it--can you pay? +You owe me a great deal of money, Mr. Tudor. You are so +unpunctual, you know.' + +'There are two ways of telling that story,' said Charley; 'but +come, I don't want to quarrel with you about that now--you go +bail for me now, and you'll find your advantage in it. You know +that well enough.' + +'Ha--ha--ha,' laughed the good-humoured usurer; 'ha--ha--ha-- +well, upon my word I don't know. You owe me a great deal of +money, Mr. Tudor. Now, what o'clock is it by you, I wonder?' + +Charley took out his watch--the Cox and Savary, before alluded +to--and said that it was past seven. + +'Aye; you've a very nice watch, I see. Come, Mr. Tudor, you owe +me a great deal of money, and you are the most unpunctual young +man I know; but yet I don't like to see you distressed. I'll tell +you what, now--do you hand over your watch to me, just as a +temporary loan--you can't want it here, you know; and I'll come +down and bail you out to-morrow.' + +Charley declined dealing on these terms; and then Mr. M'Ruen at +last went away, leaving Charley to his fate, and lamenting quite +pathetically that he was such an unpunctual young man, so very +unpunctual that it was impossible to do anything to assist him. +Charley, however, manfully resisted the second attack upon his +devoted watch. + +'That's very blue, very blue indeed,' said the master of the +house, as Mr. M'Ruen took his departure--'ha'n't you got no +huncles nor hants, nor nothin' of that sort?' + +Charley declared that he had lots of uncles and aunts, +grandfathers and grandmothers, and a perfect wealth of cousins, +and that he would send for some of the leading members of his +family to-morrow. Satisfied with this, the man supplied him with +bread and cheese, gin and water, and plenty of tobacco; and, +fortified with these comforts, Charley betook himself at last +very lugubriously, to a filthy, uninviting bed., + +He had, we have seen, sent for his brushes, and hence came +escape; but in a manner that he had little recked of, and of +which, had he been asked, he would as little have approved. Mrs. +Richards, his landlady, was not slow in learning from the +messenger how it came to pass that Charley wanted the articles of +his toilet so suddenly demanded. 'Why, you see, he's just been +quodded,' said the boy. + +Mrs. Richards was quite enough up to the world, and had dealt +with young men long enough, to know what this meant; nor indeed +was she much surprised. She had practical knowledge that Charley +had no strong propensity to pay his debts, and she herself was +not unaccustomed to answer the emissaries of Mr. Outerman and +other greedy tradesmen who were similarly situated. To Mrs. +Richards herself Charley was not in debt, and she had therefore +nothing to embitter her own feelings against him. Indeed, she had +all that fondness for him which a lodging-house keeper generally +has for a handsome, dissipated, easy-tempered young man; and when +she heard that he had been 'quodded,' immediately made up her +mind that steps must be taken for his release. + +But what was she to do? Norman, who she was aware would 'unquod' +him immediately, if he were in the way, was down at Hampton, and +was not expected to be at his lodgings for two or three days. +After some cogitation, Mrs. Richards resolved that there was +nothing for it but to go down to Hampton herself, and break the +news to his friends. Charley would not have been a bit obliged to +her had he known it, but Mrs. Richards acted for the best. There +was a train down to Hampton Court that night, and a return train +to bring her home again--so off she started. + +Mrs. Woodward had on that same afternoon taken down Katie, who +was still an invalid;--Norman had gone down with them, and was to +remain there for some few days--going up and down every morning +and evening. Mrs. Woodward was sitting in the drawing-room; Linda +and Katie were with her, the latter lying in state on her sofa as +invalid young ladies should do; Captain Cuttwater was at Hampton +Court, and Norman was on the water; when a fly from the railway +made its way up to the door of the Cottage. + +'Mrs. Richards, ma'am,' said the demure parlour-maid, ushering in +the lodging-house keeper, who in her church-going best made a +very decent appearance. + +'Oh, Mrs. Richards, how are you?' said Mrs. Woodward, who knew +the woman very well--'pray sit down--are there any news from +London?' + +'Oh, ma'am, such news--such bad news--Mister Charley--.' Up +jumped Katie from her sofa and stood erect upon the floor. She +stood there, with her mouth slightly open, with her eyes intently +fixed on Mrs. Richards, with her little hands each firmly +clenched, drawing her breath with hard, short, palpitating +efforts. There she stood, but said nothing. + +'Oh, Mrs. Richards--what is it?' said Mrs. Woodward; 'for +Heaven's sake what is the matter?' + +'Oh, ma'am; he's been took,' said Mrs. Richards. + +'Took!' repeated Mrs. Woodward. 'Katie, dear Katie--sit down, my +child--sit down.' + +'Oh, mamma! oh, mamma!' said she, apparently unable to move, and +certainly all but unable to stand. + +'Tell us, Mrs. Richards, what is it--what has happened to Mr. +Tudor?' and as she spoke Mrs. Woodward got up and passed her arm +around her younger daughter's waist--Linda also got up and +joined the group. + +'Why, ma'am,' said Mrs. Richards, 'he's been took by the +bailiffs, and now he's in prison.' + +Katie did not faint. She never had fainted, and probably did not +know the way; but she clenched her hands still tighter, breathed +harder than before, and repeated her appeal to her mother in a +voice of agony. 'Oh, mamma! oh, mamma!' + +Katie had no very accurate conception of what an arrest for debt +meant. She knew that next to death imprisonment was the severest +punishment inflicted on erring mortals, and she now heard that +Charley was in prison. She did not stop to think whether it was +for his life, or for some more limited period. It was enough for +her to know, that this terrible misfortune had come upon him, to +him who, to her young fancy, was so bright, so good, so clever, +so excellent, upon him who had saved her life--upon him whom she +so dearly loved. + +'Oh, mamma! oh, mamma!' she said, and then in agony she shut her +eyes and shuddered violently. + +Mrs. Woodward was greatly afflicted. She was indeed sorry to hear +such tidings of Charley Tudor; but her grief was now deeper even +than that. She could not be longer blind to the sort of feeling +which her child evinced for this young man; she could not think +that these passionate bursts of overpowering sorrow were the +result of mere childish friendship; she could not but see that +her Katie's bosom now held a woman's heart, and that that heart +was no longer her own. + +And then Mrs. Woodward reflected of what nature, of what sort, +was this man whom she had allowed to associate with her darling, +almost as a brother does with his sister; whom she had warmed in +her bosom till he had found an opportunity of inflicting this +deadly wound. With terrible bitterness she upbraided herself as +she sat down and bade Mrs. Richards go on with her tale. She knew +that nothing which could now be said would add to Katie's +anguish. + +Mrs. Richards' story was soon told. It simply amounted to this-- +that 'Mister Charley,' as she always called him, had been +arrested for debt at the suit of a tailor, and that she had +learnt the circumstances from the fact of the prisoner having +sent for his brushes. + +'And so I thought the best thing was to come and tell Mr. +Norman,' said Mrs. Richards, concluding her speech. + +Nothing could be done till Norman came in. Linda went out with +Mrs. Richards to get some refreshment in the dining-room, and +Mrs. Woodward sat with her arm round Katie's neck on the sofa, +comforting her with kisses and little caressing touches, but +saying nothing. Katie, still unconscious of her passion, gave way +to spasmodic utterance of her own grief. + +'Oh, mamma!' she said--' what can be done? What can we do? You +will do something, mamma, won't you? Poor Charley! Dear Charley! +Harry will do something--won't he? Won't Harry go to London, and +do something?' + +Mrs. Woodward did what she could to quiet her. Something should +be done, she said. They must wait till Harry came in, and then +settle what was best. Nothing could be done till Harry came in. +'You must be patient, Katie, or else you will make yourself +really ill.' + +Katie became afraid that she would be sent off to bed on the +score of her illness before Harry had come, and thus lose the +advantage of hearing what was the step decided on. So she sat +silent in the corner of her sofa feigning to be asleep, but +pondering in her mind what sort of penalties were the penalties +of imprisonment, how dreadful, how endurable, or how unendurable. +Would they put chains on him? would they starve him? would they +cut off his beautiful brown hair? + +Mrs. Woodward sat silent waiting for Harry's return. When first +she had watched Katie's extreme misery, and guessed the secret of +her child's heart, she had felt something like hard, bitter anger +against Charley. But by degrees this feeling softened down. It +was by no means natural to her, nor akin to her usual tenderness. +After all, the fault hitherto was probably more her own than his. + +Mrs. Richards was sent back to town. She was thanked for the +trouble she had taken, and told that Mr. Norman would do in the +matter all that was necessary to be done. So she took her +departure, and Linda returned to the drawing-room. + +Unfortunately Captain Cuttwater came in first. They none of them +mentioned Charley's misfortune to him. Charley was no favourite +with Uncle Bat, and his remarks would not have been of the most +cheering tendency. + +At last Norman came also. He came, as was his wont, through the +drawing-room window, and, throwing himself into a chair, began to +tell the girls how much they had lost by not joining him on the +river. + +'Harry,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'step into the dining-room with me +for a moment.' + +Harry got up to follow her. Katie and Linda also instantly jumped +from their seats to do the same. Mrs. Woodward looked round, and +motioned to them to stay with their uncle. Linda obediently, +though reluctantly, remained; but Katie's impulse was too strong +for her. She gave one imploring look at her mother, a look which +Mrs. Woodward well understood, and then taking silence for +consent, crept into the dining-room. + +'Harry,' said Mrs. Woodward, as soon as the dining-room door was +closed, 'Charley has been arrested;' and then she told him how +Mrs. Richards had been at the Cottage, and what was the nature of +the tidings she had brought. + +Norman was not much surprised, nor did he feign to be so. He took +the news so coolly that Katie almost hated him. 'Did she say who +had arrested him, or what was the amount?' he asked. + +Mrs. Woodward replied that she knew no more than what she had +already told. Katie stood in the shade with her eyes fixed upon +her cousin, but as yet she said nothing. How cruel, how stony- +hearted must he be to hear such dreadful tidings and remain thus +undisturbed! Had Charley heard that Norman was arrested, he would +have been half way to London by this time. So, at least, thought +Katie. + +'Something can be done for him, Harry, can there not? We must +contrive to do something--eh, Harry?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I fear it is too late to do anything to-night,' said Harry, +looking at his watch. 'The last train is gone, and I could not +possibly find him out before twelve.' + +'And to-morrow is Sunday,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Oh, Harry, pray do something!' said Katie, 'pray, pray, pray, +do! Oh, Harry, think of Charley being in prison! Oh, Harry, he +would do anything for you!' and then she burst into tears, and +caught hold of Harry's arm and the front of his coat to add force +to her entreaty. + +'Katie,' said her mother, 'don't be so foolish. Harry will, of +course, do whatever is best.' + +'But, mamma, he says he will do nothing; why does he not go at +once?' + +'I will go at once, dear Katie,' said he; 'I will go now +directly. I don't know whether we can set him free to-night, or +even to-morrow, as to-morrow is Sunday; but it certainly shall be +done on Monday, you may be sure of that at any rate. Whatever can +be done shall be done;' and, without further talk upon the +subject, he took his hat and went his way. + +'May God Almighty bless him!' said Mrs. Woodward. 'How infinitely +greater are truth and honesty than any talent, however brilliant!' +She spoke only to herself and no one even guessed what was +the nature of the comparison which she thus made. + +As soon as Norman was gone, Katie went to bed: and in the morning +she was pronounced to be too unwell to get up. And, indeed, she +was far from well. During the night she only slept by short +starts, and in her sleep she was restless and uneasy; then, when +she woke, she would burst out into fits of tears, and lie sobbing +hysterically till she slept again. In the morning, Mrs. Woodward +said something about Charley's misconduct, and this threw her +into a wretched state of misery, from which nothing would rouse +her till her mother promised that the prodigal should not be +thrown over and abandoned. + +Poor Mrs. Woodward was in a dreadful state of doubt as to what it +now behoved her to do. She felt that, however anxious she might +be to assist Charley for his own sake, it was her bounden duty to +separate him from her child. Whatever merits he might have--and +in her eyes he had many--at any rate he had not those which a +mother would desire to see in the future husband of her daughter. +He was profligate, extravagant, careless, and idle; his prospects +in life were in every respect bad; he had no self-respect, no +self-reliance, no moral strength. Was it not absolutely necessary +that she should put a stop to any love that might have sprung up +between such a man as this and her own young bright-eyed darling? + +Put a stop to it! Yes, indeed, most expedient; nay, absolutely +necessary--if it were only possible. Now, when it was too late, +she began to perceive that she had not known of what material her +own child was formed. At sixteen, Gertrude and Linda had in +reality been little more than children. In manner, Katie had been +more childish even than them, and yet--Mrs. Woodward, as she +thought of these things, felt her heart faint within her. + +She was resolved that, cost what it might, Charley must be +banished from the Cottage. But at the first word of assumed +displeasure that she uttered, Katie fell into such an agony of +grief that her soft heart gave way, and she found herself obliged +to promise that the sinner should be forgiven. Katie the while +was entirely unconscious of the state of her own feelings. Had +she thought that she loved him as women love, had any thought of +such love and of him together even entered her mind, she could +not have talked of him as she now talked. Had he been her +brother, she could not have been less guarded in her protestations +of affection, or more open in her appeals to her mother that he +might be forgiven. Such was her present state; but it was doomed +that her eyes should soon be opened, and that she should know +her own sorrow. + +On the Sunday afternoon, Norman returned to Hampton with the +tidings that Charley was once more a free man. The key of gold +which he had taken with him had been found potent enough to open +all barriers, even those with which the sanctity of Sunday had +surrounded the prisoner. Mr. Outerman, and the bailiff, and the +messenger, had all been paid their full claims, and Charley, with +his combs and brushes, had returned to the more benign custody of +Mrs. Richards. + +'And why didn't he come down with you?' said Katie to Norman, who +had gone up to her bedroom to give her the good tidings. + +Norman looked at Mrs. Woodward, but made no reply. + +'He would probably prefer remaining in town at present,' said +Mrs. Woodward. 'It will be more comfortable for him to do so.' + +And then Katie was left alone to meditate why Charley should be +more comfortable after his arrest in London than at Hampton; and +after a while she thought that she had surmised the truth. 'Poor +Charley! perhaps he is ashamed. He need not be ashamed to come at +any rate to me.' + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +EASY IS THE SLOPE OF HELL + + +The electors for the Tillietudlem district burghs, disgusted by +the roguery of Mr. M'Buffer, and anxiously on the alert to +replace him by a strictly honest man, returned our friend Undy by +a glorious majority. He had no less than 312 votes, as opposed to +297, and though threatened with the pains and penalties of a +petition, he was not a little elated by his success. A petition +with regard to the Tillietudlem burghs was almost as much a +matter of course as a contest; at any rate the threat of a +petition was so. Undy, however, had lived through this before, +and did not fear but that he might do so again. Threatened folks +live long; parliamentary petitions are very costly, and Undy's +adversaries were, if possible, even in more need of money than +himself. + +He communicated his good fortune to his friend Alaric in the +following letter:-- + +'Bellenden Arms, Tillietudlem, July, 185-. + +'My DEAR DIRECTOR, + +'Here I am once more a constituent part of the legislative wisdom +of the United Kingdom, thanks to the patriotic discretion of the +pot-wallopers, burgage-tenants, and ten-pound freeholders of +these loyal towns. The situation is a proud one; I could only +wish that it had been less expensive. I am plucked as clean as +ever was pigeon; and over and above the loss of every feather I +carried, old M'Cleury, my agent here, will have a bill against me +that will hardly be settled before the next election. I do not +complain, however; a man cannot have luxuries without paying for +them; and this special luxury of serving one's country in +Parliament is one for which a man has so often to pay, without +the subsequent fruition of the thing paid for, that a successful +candidate should never grumble, however much he may have been +mulcted. They talk of a petition; but, thank God, there are still +such things as recognizances; and, moreover, to give M'Cleury his +due, I do not think he has left a hole open for them to work at. +He is a thorough rascal, but no man does better work. + +'I find there is already a slight rise in the West Corks. Keep +your eye open. If you find you can realize L4 4s. or even L4, +sell, and let the West of Cork and Ballydehob go straight to the +devil. We should then be able to do better with our money. But I +doubt of such a sale with so large a stock as we hold. I got a +letter yesterday from that Cork attorney, and I find that he is +quite prepared to give way about the branch. He wants his price, +of course; and he must have it. When once we have carried that +point, then it will be plain sailing; our only regret then will +be that we didn't go further into it. The calls, of course, must +be met; I shall be able to do something in October, but shall not +have a shilling sooner--unless I sell, which I will not do under +80s. + +'I was delighted to hear of your promotion; not that you'll +remain in the shop long, but it gives you a better name and a +better claim. Old Golightly was buried yesterday, as of course +you have heard. Mrs. Val quite agrees with me that your name had +better be put in as that of Clem's trustee. She's going to marry +that d---- Frenchman. What an unmitigated ass that cousin of +yours must be! I can't say I admire her taste; but nevertheless +she is welcome for me. It would, however, be most scandalous if +we were to allow him to get possession of her money. He would, as +a matter of course, make ducks and drakes of it in no time. +Speculate probably in some Russian railway, or Polish mine, and +lose every shilling. You will of course see it tied up tight in +the hands of the trustees, and merely pay him, or if possible +her, the interest of it. Now that I am once more in, I hope we +shall be able to do something to protect the fortunes of married +women. + +'You will be quite safe in laying out Clem's money, or a portion +of it, in the West Corks. Indeed, I don't know how you could well +do better with it. You will find Figgs a mere shadow. I think we +can pull through in this manner. If not we must get--to take our +joint bill. He would sooner do that than have the works stopped. +But then we should have to pay a tremendous price for it. + +'So we were well out of the Mary Janes at last. The take last +month was next to nothing, and now she's full of water. Manylodes +hung on till just the last, and yet got out on his feet after +all. That fellow will make a mint of money yet. What a pity that +he should be such a rogue! If he were honest, honest enough I +mean to be trusted, he might do anything. + +'I shall leave this on Wednesday night, take the oaths on +Thursday, and will see you in the evening. M'Carthy Desmond will +at once move that I be put on the West Cork Committee, in place +of Nogo, who won't act. My shares are all at present registered +in Val's name. It will be well, however, to have them all +transferred to you. + +'Yours ever, + +'U.S. + +'M'Cleury has pledged himself to put me in again without further +expense, if I have to stand before the next general election, in +consequence of taking place under Government. I earnestly hope +his sincerity may be tried.' + +During the month of July, Alaric was busy enough. He had to do +the work of his new office, to attend to his somewhat critical +duties as director of the West Cork Railway, to look after the +interests of Miss Golightly, whose marriage was to take place in +August, and to watch the Parliamentary career of his friend Undy, +with whose pecuniary affairs he was now bound up in a manner +which he could not avoid feeling to be very perilous. + +July passed by, and was now over, and members were looking to be +relieved from their sultry labours, and to be allowed to seek air +and exercise on the mountains. The Ballydehob branch line had +received the sanction of Parliament through the means which the +crafty Undy had so well understood how to use; but from some +cause hitherto not sufficiently fathomed, the shares had +continued to be depressed in value in spite of that desirable +event. It was necessary, however, that calls should be paid up to +the amount of L5 a share, and as Undy and Alaric held nearly a +thousand shares between them, a large amount of money was +required. This, however, was made to be forthcoming from Miss +Golightly's fortune. + +On the first of August that interesting young lady was married to +the man--shall we say of her heart or of her feet? The marriage +went off very nicely, but as we have already had one wedding, and +as others may perhaps be before us, we cannot spare much time or +many pages to describe how Miss Golightly became Madame +Jaquetanape. The lady seemed well pleased with everything that +was done, and had even in secret but one care in the world. There +was to be a dance after she and her Victoire were gone, and she +could not join in it! + +We, however, are in the position, as regards Clementina, in which +needy gentlemen not unfrequently place themselves with reference +to rich heiresses. We have more concern with her money than +herself. She was married, and M. Jaquetanape became the happy +possessor of an income of L800 a year. Everybody conceived him to +behave well on the occasion. He acknowledged that he had very +little means of his own--about 4,000 francs a year, from rents in +Paris. He expressed himself willing to agree to any settlement, +thinking, perhaps with wisdom, that he might in this way best +make sure of his wife's income, and was quite content when +informed that he would receive his quarterly payments from so +respectable a source as one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for +the regulation of the Civil Service. The Bank of France could not +have offered better security. + +Thus Alaric obtained full control of Miss Golightly's fortune: +for Figgs, his co-trustee, was, as has been said, a shadow. He +obtained the full control of L20,000, and out of it he paid the +calls due upon the West Cork shares, held both by himself and +Undy Scott. But he put a salve upon his conscience, and among his +private memoranda, appertaining to that lady's money affairs he +made an entry, intelligible to any who might read it, that he had +so invested this money on her behalf. The entry was in itself a +lie--a foolish, palpable lie--and yet he found in it something to +quiet remorse and stupefy his conscience. + +Undy Scott had become tyrannical in his logic as soon as he had +persuaded Alaric to make use of a portion of Madame Jaquetanape's +marriage portion. 'You have taken part of the girl's money,' was +Undy's argument; 'you have already converted to your own purposes +so much of her fortune; it is absurd for you now to talk of +conscience and honesty, of your high duties as a trustee, of the +inviolable distinction between meum and tuum. You have already +shown that the distinction is not inviolable; let us have no more +such nonsense; there are still left L15,000 on which we can +trade; open the till, and let us go on swimmingly with the +business.' + +Alaric was not addressed absolutely in these words; he would not +probably have allowed the veil with which he still shrouded his +dishonesty to be withdrawn with so rough a hand; but that which +was said was in effect the same. In September he left town for a +few weeks and went down to Scotland, still with Undy Scott. He +had at first much liked this man's society, for Scott was gay, +lively, clever, and a good companion at all points. But latterly +he had become weary of him. He now put up with him as men in +business have to put up with partners whom they may not like; or, +perhaps, to speak the truth openly, he bore with him as a rogue +bears with his confederate, though he absolutely hates his +brother rogue on account of his very roguery. Alaric Tudor was +now a rogue; despite his high office, his grand ideas, his +exalted ambition; despite his talent, zeal, and well-directed +official labours, he was a rogue; a thief, a villain who had +stolen the money of the orphan, who had undertaken a trust merely +that he might break it; a robber, doubly disgraced by being a +robber with an education, a Bill Sykes without any of those +excuses which a philanthropist cannot but make for wretches +brought up in infamy. + +Alas, alas! how is it that in these days such men become rogues? +How is it that we see in such frightful instances the impotency +of educated men to withstand the allurements of wealth? Men are +not now more keen after the pleasures which wealth can buy than +were their forefathers. One would rather say that they are less +so. The rich labour now, and work with an assiduity that often +puts to shame the sweat in which the poor man earns his bread. +The rich rogue, or the rogue that would be rich, is always a +laborious man. He allows himself but little recreation, for +dishonest labour admits of no cessation. His wheel is one which +cannot rest without disclosing the nature of the works which move +it. It is not for pleasure that men + + Put rancours in the vessel of their peace; + +nor yet primarily for ambition. Men do not wish to rise by +treachery, or to become great through dishonesty. The object, the +ultimate object, which a man sets before himself, is generally a +good one. But he sets it up in so enviable a point of view, his +imagination makes it so richly desirable, by being gazed at it +becomes so necessary to existence, that its attainment is +imperative. The object is good, but the means of attaining it-the +path to the object-ah! there is the slip. Expediency is the +dangerous wind by which so many of us have wrecked our little +boats. + +And we do so more now than ever, because great ships, swimming in +deepest waters, have unluckily come safe to haven though wafted +there by the same pernicious wind. Every great man, who gains a +great end by dishonest means, does more to deteriorate his +country and lower the standard of his countrymen than legions of +vulgar thieves, or nameless unaspiring rogues. Who has injured us +so much in this way as he whose name still stands highest among +modern politicians? Who has given so great a blow to political +honesty, has done so much to banish from men's minds the idea of +a life-ruling principle, as Sir Robert Peel? + +It would shock many were we to attribute to him the roguery of +the Sadleirs and Camerons, of the Robsons and Redpaths of the +present day; but could we analyse causes and effects, we might +perhaps do so with no injustice. He has taught us as a great +lesson, that a man who has before him a mighty object may +dispense with those old-fashioned rules of truth to his +neighbours and honesty to his own principles, which should guide +us in ordinary life. At what point ordinary life ends, at what +crisis objects may be considered great enough to justify the use +of a dispensing power, that he has not taught us; that no Sir +Robert Peel can teach us; that must unfortunately be left to the +judgement of the individual. How prone we are, each of us, to +look on our own object as great, how ready to make excuses for +receiving such a lesson for our guide; how willing to think that +we may be allowed to use this dispensing power ourselves--this +experience teaches us in very plain language. + +Thrice in his political life did Sir Robert Peel change his +political creed, and carry, or assist to carry, with more or less +of self-gratulation, the measures of his adversaries. Thrice by +doing so he kept to himself that political power which he had +fairly forfeited by previous opposition to the requirements of +his country. Such an apposition of circumstances is at any rate +suspicious. But let us give him credit for the expression of a +true belief; of a belief at first that the corn-laws should be +maintained, and then of a belief that they should not; let us, +with a forced confidence in his personal honesty, declare so much +of him; nevertheless, he should surely have felt, had he been +politically as well as personally honest, that he was not the man +to repeal them.' + +But it was necessary, his apologist will say, that the corn-laws +should be repealed; he saw the necessity, and yielded to it. It +certainly was necessary, very necessary, very unavoidable; +absolutely necessary one may say; a fact, which the united +efforts of all the Peels of the day could in nowise longer delay, +having already delayed it to the utmost extent of their power. It +was essential that the corn-laws should be repealed; but by no +means essential that this should be done by Sir Robert Peel. + +It was a matter of indifference to us Englishmen who did the +deed. But to Sir Robert Peel it was a matter of great moment that +he should do it. He did it, and posterity will point at him as a +politician without policy, as a statesman without a principle, as +a worshipper at the altar of expediency, to whom neither vows +sworn to friends, nor declarations made to his country, were in +any way binding. Had Sir Robert Peel lived, and did the people +now resolutely desire that the Church of England should be +abandoned, that Lords and Commons should bow the neck, that the +Crown should fall, who can believe that Sir Robert Peel would not +be ready to carry out their views? Readers, it may be that to you +such deeds as those are horrible even to be thought of or +expressed; to me I own that they are so. So also to Sir Robert +Peel was Catholic Emancipation horrible, so was Reform of +Parliament, so was the Corn Law Repeal. They were horrible to +him, horrible to be thought of, horrible to be expressed. But the +people required these measures, and therefore he carried them, +arguing on their behalf with all the astuteness of a practised +statesman. + +That Sir Robert Peel should be a worshipper of expediency might +be matter of small moment to any but his biographer, were it not +that we are so prone to copy the example of those whose names are +ever in our mouths. It has now become the doctrine of a large +class of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, +subversive of a man's interests, and incompatible with quick +onward movement. Such a doctrine in politics is to be deplored; +but alas! who can confine it to politics? It creeps with gradual, +but still with sure and quick motion, into all the doings of our +daily life. How shall the man who has taught himself that he may +be false in the House of Commons, how shall he be true in the +Treasury chambers? or if false there, how true on the Exchange? +and if false there, how shall he longer have any truth within +him? + +And thus Alaric Tudor had become a rogue, and was obliged, as it +were in his own defence, to consort with a rogue. He went down to +Scotland with Undy, leaving his wife and child at home, not +because he could thus best amuse his few leisure days, but +because this new work of his, this laborious trade of roguery, +allowed him no leisure days. When can villany have either days +or hours of leisure? + +Among other things to be done in the north, Alaric was to make +acquaintance with the constituents of the little borough of +Strathbogy, which it was his ambition to represent in the next +Parliament. Strathbogy was on the confines of the Gaberlunzie +property; and indeed the lord's eldest son, who was the present +member, lived almost within the municipal boundary. Ca'stocks +Cottage, as his residence was called, was but a humble house for +a peer's eldest son; but Mr. Scott was not ashamed to live there, +and there for a while he entertained his brother Undy and Alaric +Tudor. Mr. Scott intended, when the present session was over, to +retire from the labours of parliamentary life. It may be that he +thought that he had done enough for his country; it may be that +the men of Strathbogy thought that he had not done enough for +them; it may be that there was some family understanding between +him and his brother. This, however, was clear, that he did not +intend to stand again himself, and that he professed himself +ready to put forward Alaric Tudor as a worthy successor, and to +give him the full benefit and weight of the Gaberlunzie interest. + +But not for nothing was Alaric to receive such important +assistance. + +'There are but 312 electors altogether,' said Undy one morning as +they went out shooting, 'and out of these we can command a +hundred and twenty. It must be odd if you cannot get enough +outsiders to turn them into a majority. Indeed you may look on it +as a certain seat. No man in England or Scotland could give you +one more certain.' + +This was not the first occasion on which Undy had spoken of all +that he was doing for his friend, and Alaric therefore, somewhat +disgusted with the subject, made no reply. + +'I never had things made so easy for me when I wasn't in,' +continued Undy; 'nor have I ever found them so easy since. I +don't suppose it will cost you above L500, or at most L600, +altogether.' + +'Well, that will be a comfort,' said Alaric. + +'A comfort! why I should say it would. What with the election and +petition together, Tillietudlem never cost me less than L2,000. +It cost me just as much, too, when I was thrown out.' + +'That was a bore for you,' said Alaric. + +'Upon my word you take it rather coolly,' said Undy; 'another man +would thank a fellow for putting such a nice thing in his way.' + +'If the obligation be so deep,' said Alaric, becoming very red in +the face, 'I would rather not accept it. It is not too late for +you to take the cheaper seat to yourself, if you prefer it; and I +will look elsewhere.' + +'Oh, of course; perhaps at Tillietudlem; but for Heaven's sake, +my dear fellow, don't let us quarrel about it. You are perfectly +welcome to whatever assistance we can give you at Strathbogy. I +only meant to say that I hope it will be efficacious. And on the +score of expense I'll tell you what we'll do--that is, if you +think that fair; we'll put the cost of the two elections +together, and share and share alike.' + +'Considering that the election will not take place for at least +more than twelve months, there will be time enough to settle +that,' said Alaric. + +'Well, that's true, too,' said Undy; and then they went on, and +for some time separated on the mountain, complaining, when they +met again, of the game being scarce and the dogs wild, as men +always do. But as they walked home, Undy, who regretted the loss +of good time, again began about money matters. + +'How many of those bridge shares will you take?' said he. This +was a projected bridge from Poplar to Rotherhithe, which had been +got up by some city gentlemen, and as to which Undy Scott was, or +pretended to be, very sanguine. + +'None,' said Alaric. 'Unless I can get rid of those confounded +West Cork and Ballydehobs, I can buy nothing more of anything.' + +'Believe me, my dear fellow, the Ballydehobs are no such +confounded things at all. If you are ever a rich man it will be +through the Ballydehobs. But what you say about the bridge shares +is nonsense. You have a large command of capital, and you cannot +apply it better.' + +Alaric winced, and wished in his heart that Clementina +Jaquetanape, _nee_ Golightly, with all her money, was buried +deep in the bogs of Ballydehob. Though he was a rogue, he could +not yet bear his roguery with comfort to himself. It sat, +however, as easy on Undy as though he had been to the manner +born. + +'I have no capital now at my disposal,' said he; 'and I doubt +whether I should be doing right to lay out a ward's money in such +a manner.' + +A slight smile came over Undy's gay unconcerned features; it was +very slight, but nevertheless it was very eloquent and very +offensive also. Alaric understood it well; it made him hate the +owner of it, but it made him hate himself still more. + +'It is as well to be hung for a sheep as for a lamb,' said Undy's +smile; 'and, moreover,' continued the smile, 'is it not +ridiculous enough for you, Alaric Tudor, rogue as you are, to +profess to me, Undy Scott, rogue as I am, any solicitude as to +your ward's welfare, seeing that you have already taken to +yourself, for your own dishonest purposes, a considerable slice +of the fortune that has been trusted to your keeping? You have +done this, and yet you talk to me of not having capital at your +disposal! You have capital, and you will dispose of that capital +for your own purposes, as long as a shilling remains uninvested +of your ward's money. We are both rogues. God knows it, and you +and I know it; but I am not such a hypocritical rogue as to make +mock boasts of my honesty to my brother rogue.' + +This was certainly a long speech to have been made by a smile +which crossed Mr. Scott's face but for a moment, but every word +of it was there expressed, and every word of it was there read. +Alaric did not at all like being addressed so uncivilly. It +seemed to tend but little to that 'Excelsior' for which his soul +panted; but what could he do? how could he help himself? Was it +not all true? could he contradict the smile? Alas! it was true; +it was useless for him now to attempt even to combat such smiles. +'Excelsior,' indeed! his future course might now probably be +called by some very different designation. Easy, very easy, is +the slope of hell. + +Before they had returned to Ca'stocks Cottage, Undy had succeeded +in persuading his friend that the game must be played on--on and +on, and out. If a man intends to make a fortune in the share- +market he will never do it by being bold one day and timid the +next. No turf betting-book can be made up safely except on +consistent principles. Half-measures are always ruinous. In +matters of speculation one attempt is made safe by another. No +man, it is true, can calculate accurately what may be the upshot +of a single venture; but a sharp fellow may calculate with a fair +average of exactness what will be the aggregate upshot of many +ventures. All mercantile fortunes have been made by the knowledge +and understanding of this rule. If a man speculates but once and +again, now and then, as it were, he must of course be a loser. He +will be playing a game which he does not understand, and playing +it against men who do understand it. Men who so play always lose. +But he who speculates daily puts himself exactly in the reversed +position. He plays a game which experience teaches him to play +well, and he plays generally against men who have no such +advantage. Of course he wins. + +All these valuable lessons did Undy Scott teach to Alaric Tudor, +and the result was that Alaric agreed to order--for self and +partner--a considerable number of shares in the Limehouse Bridge +Company. Easy, very easy, is the slope of hell. + +And then in the evening, on this evening and other evenings, on +all evenings, they talked over the prospects of the West Cork and +Ballydehob branch, and of the Limehouse Bridge, which according +to Undy's theory is destined to work quite a revolution in the +East-end circles of the metropolis. Undy had noble ideas about +this bridge. The shares at the present moment were greatly at a +discount--so much the better, for they could be bought at a +cheaper rate; and they were sure to rise to some very respectable +figure as soon as Undy should have played out with reference to +them the parliamentary game which he had in view. + +And so from morning to morning, and from night to night, they +talked over their unholy trade till the price of shares and the +sounds of sums of money entered into Alaric's soul. And this, +perhaps, is one of the greatest penalties to which men who embark +in such trade are doomed, that they can never shake off the +remembrance of their calculations; they can never drop the shop; +they have no leisure, no ease; they can never throw themselves +with loose limbs and vacant mind at large upon the world's green +sward, and call children to come and play with them. At the +Weights and Measures Alaric's hours of business had been from ten +to five. In Undy's office they continued from one noon till the +next, incessantly; even in his dreams he was working in the share +market. + +On his return to town Alaric found a letter from Captain +Cuttwater, pressing very urgently for the repayment of his money. +It had been lent on the express understanding that it was to be +repaid when Parliament broke up. It was now the end of October, +and Uncle Bat was becoming uneasy. + +Alaric, when he received the letter, crushed it in his hand, and +cursed the strictness of the man who had done so much for him. On +the next day another slice was taken from the fortune of Madame +Jaquetanape; and his money, with the interest, was remitted to +Captain Cuttwater. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +MRS. WOODWARD'S REQUEST + + +We will now go back for a while to Hampton. The author, for one, +does so with pleasure. Though those who dwell there be not +angels, yet it is better to live with the Woodwards and Harry +Norman, with Uncle Bat, or even with the unfortunate Charley, +than with such as Alaric and Undy Scott. The man who is ever +looking after money is fitting company only for the devils, of +whom, indeed, he is already one. + +But Charley cannot any longer be called one of the Cottage +circle. It was now the end of October, and since the day of his +arrest, he had not yet been there. He had not been asked; nor +would he go uninvited, as after what had passed at Hampton Court +Bridge he surely might have done. + +And consequently they were all unhappy. No one was more so than +Charley. When the prospect of the happy evening with Norah had +been so violently interrupted by his arrest, he had, among his +other messages, sent word to the 'Cat and Whistle,' excusing his +absence by a statement of the true cause. From that day to this +of which we are now speaking he had seen neither Mrs. Davis nor +her fair protegee. + +Nor were they better contented at the Cottage. Mrs. Woodward was +harassed by different feelings and different fears, which +together made her very unhappy. Her Katie was still ill; not ill +indeed so that she was forced to keep her bed and receive daily +visits from pernicious doctors, but, nevertheless, so ill as to +make a mother very anxious. + +She had never been quite strong, quite herself, from the night of +Mrs. Val's dance. The doctor who had attended her declared that +her ducking in the river had given her cold: and that this, not +having been duly checked, still hung about her. Then she had been +taken to a physician in London, who poked her on the back and +tapped her on the breast, listened to her lungs through a wooden +pipe--such was the account which Katie gave herself when she +returned home--and prescribed rum and milk and cod-liver oil, +declaring, with an authoritative nod, that there was no organic +disease--as yet. + +'And what shall we do with her, doctor?' asked Mrs. Woodward. + +'Go on with the rum and milk and cod-liver oil, you can't do +better.' + +'And the cough, doctor?' + +'Why, if that doesn't go before the cold weather begins, you may +as well take her to Torquay for the winter.' + +Oh! consumption, thou scourge of England's beauty! how many +mothers, gasping with ill-suppressed fears, have listened to such +words as these--have listened and then hoped; listened again and +hoped again with fainter hopes; have listened again, and then +hoped no more! + +But there was much on Mrs. Woodward's mind which she could not +bring herself to tell to any doctor, but which still left in her +breast an impression that she was perhaps keeping back the true +cause of Katie's illness. Charley had not been at Hampton since +his arrest, and it was manifest to all that Katie was therefore +wretched. + +'But why do you not ask him, mamma?' she had urged when her +mother suggested that he stayed away because he did not like to +show himself after what had occurred. 'What will he think of us? +he that saved my life, mamma! Oh, mamma! you promised to forgive +him. Do ask him. You know he will come if you ask him.' + +Mrs. Woodward could not explain to her--could not explain to any +one--why she did not invite him. Norman guessed it all, and Mrs. +Woodward saw that he had done so; but still she could not talk to +him of Katie's feelings, could not tell him that she feared her +child was heart-laden with so sad a love. So Mrs. Woodward had no +confidant in her sorrow, no counsel which she could seek to aid +her own wavering judgement. It was prudent, she thought, that +Katie and Charley should be kept apart. Prudent! was it not even +imperative on her to save her child from such a fate? But then, +when she saw the rosy cheek grow pale by degrees, as she watched +the plump little arms grow gradually thin and wan, as those high +spirits fell, and that voice which had ever been so frequent in +the house and so clear,--when the sound of it became low and +rare, then her heart would misgive her, and she would all but +resolve to take the only step which she knew would bring a bright +gleam on her child's face, and give a happy tone to her darling's +voice. + +During the earlier portion of these days, Katie had with eager +constancy reiterated her request that Charley should be asked to +Hampton; but of a sudden her prayers ceased. She spoke no more of +Charley, asked no longer after his coming, ceased even to inquire +frequently of his welfare. But yet, when his name was mentioned, +she would open wide her bright eyes, would listen with all her +ears, and show only too plainly to one who watched her as a +mother only can watch, what were the thoughts which filled her +heart. + +'Linda,' she had said one night, as they sat in their room, +preparing themselves for bed, 'Linda, why does not mamma invite +Charley to come down to Hampton?' + +'Oh! I don't know,' said Linda; who, however, if she did not +know, was not far wrong in the guess she made. 'I suppose she +thinks he'd be ashamed to show himself after having been in +prison.' + +'Ashamed! Why should he be ashamed after so long? Didn't you hear +Harry say that the same thing often happens to young men? Is he +never to come here again? Dear Linda, I know you know; do tell +me.' + +'Well, I'm sure I do not know, if that's not the reason.' + +'Oh! Linda, dear Linda, yes, you do,' said Katie, throwing +herself on her knees, resting her arms on her sister's lap, and +looking up wistfully into her sister's face. Her long hair was +streaming down her back; her white, naked feet peeped out from +beneath her bedroom dress, and large tears glistened in her eyes. +Who could have resisted the prayers of such a suppliant? +Certainly not Linda, the soft-hearted Linda. + +'Do tell me,' continued Katie, 'do tell me--I am sure you know; +and, Linda, if it is wrong to ask mamma about it, I'll never, +never ask her again. I know mamma is unhappy about it. If my +asking is wrong, I'll not make her unhappy any more in that way.' + +Linda, for a while, did not know what to answer. Her hesitating +manner immediately revealed to Katie that there was a secret, and +that her sister could tell it if she would. + +'Oh! Linda, do tell me, do tell me, dear Linda; you ought to tell +me for mamma's sake.' + +At last, with much hesitation, Linda told her the whole tale. + +'Perhaps mamma thinks that you are too fond of Charley.' + +An instant light flashed across Katie's heart--across her heart, +and brain, and senses. Not another word was necessary to explain +to her the whole mystery, to tell the whole tale, to reveal to +her the secret of her own love, of her mother's fears, and of his +assumed unwillingness. She got up slowly from her knees, kissed +her sister's cheek and neck, smiled at her so sweetly, so sadly, +and then sitting on her old seat, began playing with her long +hair, and gazing at vacancy. + +'It is only what I guess, you know, Katie--you would make me tell +you, but I am sure there is nothing in it.' + +'Dear Linda,' said she, 'you are so good; I am so much obliged to +you.' + +After that Katie spoke no further of Charley. But it was evident +to them all, that though she said nothing, she had not ceased to +think of him. Nor did her cheek again become rosy, nor her arms +round, nor her voice happy. She got weaker than ever, and poor +Mrs. Woodward was overcome with sorrow. + +Nor was this the only cause of grief at Surbiton Cottage. During +the last few weeks a bitter estrangement had taken place between +the Woodwards and the Tudors, Alaric Tudor, that is, and +Gertrude. Two years had now passed since Norman had chosen to +quarrel with Alaric, and during all that period the two had never +spoken amicably together, though they had met on business very +frequently; on all such occasions Alaric had been unperturbed and +indifferent, whereas Norman had been gloomy, and had carried a +hostile brow and angry eye. At their period of life, two years +generally does much to quiet feelings of ill-will and pacify +animosity; but Norman's feelings had by no means been quieted, +nor his animosity pacified. He had loved Alaric with a close and +manly love; now he hated him with a close and, I fear I may say, +a manly hatred. Alaric had, as he thought, answered his love by +treachery; and there was that in Norman's heart which would not +allow him to forgive one who had been a traitor to him. He had +that kind of selfishness so common to us, but of which we are so +unconscious, which will not allow us to pardon a sin against our +own _amour propre_. Alaric might have been forgiven, though +he had taken his friend's money, distanced him in his office, +though he had committed against him all offences which one friend +can commit against another, all but this. Norman had been proud +of his love, and yet ashamed of it--proud of loving such a girl +as Gertrude, and ashamed of being known to be in love at all. He +had confided his love to Alaric, and Alaric had robbed him of his +love, and wounded both his pride and his shame. + +Norman lacked the charity which should have been capable of +forgiving even this. He now looked at all Alaric's doings through +a different glass from that which he had used when Alaric had +been dear to him. He saw, or thought that he saw, that his +successful rival was false, ambitious, treacherous, and +dishonest; he made no excuses for him, gave him no credit for his +industry, accorded no admiration to his talent. He never spoke +ill of Alaric Tudor, to others; but he fed his own heart with +speaking and thinking ill of him to himself. + +Of Gertrude he thought very differently. He had taught himself to +disconnect her from the treachery of her husband--or rather her +memory; for, from the day on which he had learnt that she was +engaged to Alaric, he had never seen her. He still loved the +remembrance of her. In his solitary walks with Mrs. Woodward he +would still speak of her as he might of one in some distant +clime, for whose welfare he was deeply interested. He had seen +and caressed her baby at Hampton. She was still dear to him. Had +Alaric been called to his long account, it would have been his +dearest wish to have become at some future tune the husband of +his widow. + +To all these feelings on Norman's part Alaric was very +indifferent; but their existence operated as a drawback on his +wife's comfort, and, to a certain degree, on his own. Mrs. +Woodward would not banish Norman from the Cottage, even for her +daughter's sake, and it came by degrees to be understood that the +Tudors, man and wife, should not go there unless they were aware +that Norman was absent. Norman, on the other hand, did absent +himself when it was understood that Alaric and Gertrude were +coming; and thus the Woodwards kept up their intercourse with +both. + +But this was a bore. Alaric thought it most probable that Norman +would marry one of the younger sisters, and he knew that family +quarrels are uncomfortable and injudicious. When therefore he +became a Civil Service Commissioner, and was thus removed from +business intercourse with Norman, he conceived that it would be +wise to arrange a reconciliation. He discussed the matter with +Gertrude, and she, fully agreeing with him, undertook the task of +making the proposal through her mother. This she did with all the +kindness and delicacy of a woman. She desired her mother to tell +Harry how much she had valued his friendship, how greatly she +regretted the loss of it, how anxious her husband was to renew, +if possible, their former terms of affection. Mrs. Woodward, by +no means sanguine, undertook the commission. She undertook it, +and utterly failed; and when Gertrude, in her disappointment, +spoke bitterly of Norman's bitterness, both mother and sister, +both Mrs. Woodward and Linda, took Norman's part. + +'I wish it could be otherwise,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'I wish it +for all our sakes; but he is a man not easily to be turned, and I +cannot blame him. He has suffered very much.' + +Gertrude became very red. Her mother's words contained a reproach +against herself, tacit and unintended indeed, but not the less +keenly felt. + +'I am not aware that Mr. Norman has any cause of just complaint,' +she said, 'against any one, unless it be himself. For the sake of +charity and old associations we have wished that all ideas of +injury should be forgiven and forgotten. If he chooses still to +indulge his rancour, he must do so. I had taken him to be a +better Christian.' + +More words had sprung from these. Mrs. Woodward, who, in truth, +loved Norman the better for the continuance of his sorrow, would +not give up his part; and so the mother and child parted, and the +two sisters parted, not quarrelling indeed, not absolutely with +angry words, but in a tone of mind towards each other widely +differing from that of former years. Mrs. Woodward had lost none +of the love of the parent; but Gertrude had forgotten somewhat of +the reverence of the child. + +All this had added much to the grief created by Katie's illness. + +And then of a sudden Katie became silent, as well as sad and ill +--silent and sad, but so soft, so loving in her manner. Her gentle +little caresses, the tender love ever lying in her eye, the +constant pressure of her thin small hand, would all but break her +mother's heart. Katie would sit beside her on the sofa in the +drawing-room for hours; a book, taken up as an excuse, would be +in her lap, and she would sit there gazing listlessly into the +vacant daylight till the evening would come; and then, when the +room was shaded and sombre, when the light of the fire merely +served to make the objects indistinct, she would lean gently and +by degrees upon her mother's bosom, would coax her mother's arm +round her neck, and would thus creep as it were into her mother's +heart of hearts. And then slow tears would trickle down her +cheeks, very slow, one by one, till they would fall as telltales +on her mother's hand. + +'Katie, my darling Katie,' the mother would say. + +'I'm only tired, mamma,' would be her answer. 'Don't move, mamma; +pray don't move. I am so comfortable.' + +And then at night she would put herself to rest close circled in +Linda's arms. She would twist up her little feet, and lie so +quiet there, that Linda would remain motionless that she might +not disturb her Katie's sleep; but soon warm tears would be +running on her bosom, and she would know that Katie was still +thinking of her love. + +Linda, among all her virtues, had not that of reticence, and her +mother had soon learnt from her what had been said that night in +their bedroom about Charley. But this violation of confidence, if +it was a violation, was hardly necessary to make Mrs. Woodward +aware of what was passing in her daughter's bosom. When Katie +ceased to ask that Charley might be sent for, when she ceased to +plead for his pardon and to praise his virtues, Mrs. Woodward +knew well the cause of her silence. It was not that others +suspected her love, but that she had learned to suspect it +herself. It was not that she was ashamed of loving Charley, but +that she felt at once that such love would distress her mother's +heart. + +As she sat there that night fingering her silken hair, she had +asked herself whether in truth this man was master of her heart; +she had probed her young bosom, which now, by a sudden growth, +became quick with a woman's impulse, and she had owned to herself +that she did love him. He was dearer to her, she found, than all +in the world beside. Fondly as she loved her sister, sweet to her +as were her mother's caresses, their love was not as precious to +her as his might be. And then she remembered what he was, what +was the manner of his life, what his character; how different he +was from Alaric or Harry Norman; she remembered this, and knew +that her love was an unhappy passion. Herself she would have +sacrificed: prisoner as he had been, debtor as he was, drunkard, +penniless, and a spendthrift, she would not have hesitated to +take him for her guide through life, and have done what a woman +might to guide him in return. But she would not sacrifice her +mother. She saw now why Charley was not asked, and silently +acquiesced in his banishment. + +She was not yet quite seventeen. Not yet seventeen! the reader +will say. She was still such a child, and yet arguing to herself +about spendthrift debtors and self-sacrifice! All this bombast at +sixteen and a half. No, my ungentle reader, not all this bombast +at sixteen and a half. The bombast is mine. It is my fault if I +cannot put into fitting language the thoughts which God put into +her young heart. In her mind's soliloquy, Charley's vices were +probably all summed up in the one word, unsteady. Why is he so +unsteady? Why does he like these wicked things?' And then as +regarded Mrs. Woodward, she did but make a resolve that not even +for her love would she add to the unhappiness of that loving, +tenderest mother. There was no bombast in Katie, either expressed +or unexpressed. + +After much consideration on the matter, Mrs. Woodward determined +that she should ask Charley down to the Cottage. In the first +place, she felt bitterly her apparent ingratitude to him. When +last they had been together, the day after Katie's escape at the +bridge, when his tale had just been read, she had told him, with +the warmth of somewhat more than friendly affection, that +henceforth they must be more than common friends. She had +promised him her love, she had almost promised him the affection +and care of a mother; and now how was she keeping her promise? He +had fallen into misfortune, and she had immediately deserted him. +Over and over again she said to herself that her first duty was +to her own child; but even with this reflection, she could hardly +reconcile herself to her neglect of him. + +And then, moreover, she felt that it was impossible that all +their friendship, all their mutual regard, should die away +suddenly without any explanation. An attempt to bring about this +would not cure Katie's love. If this were done, would not Katie +always think of Charley's wrong? + +And, lastly, it was quite clear that Katie had put a check on her +own heart. A meeting now might be the reverse of dangerous. It +would be well that Katie should use herself to be with him now +again; well, at any rate, that she should see him once before +their proposed journey to Torquay; for, alas, the journey to +Torquay was now insisted on by the London physician--insisted on, +although he opined with a nod, somewhat less authoritative than +his former nod, that the young lady was touched by no organic +disease. + +'And then,' said Mrs. Woodward to herself, 'his heart is good, +and I will speak openly to him.' And so Charley was again invited +to the cottage. After some demurring between him and Norman, he +accepted the invitation. + +Mrs. Val's dance had taken place in June, and it was now late in +October. Four months had intervened, and during that period +Charley had seen none of the Woodwards. He had over and over +again tried to convince himself that this was his own fault, and +that he had no right to accuse Mrs. Woodward of ingratitude. But +he was hardly successful. He did feel, in spite of himself, that +he had been dropped because of the disgrace attaching to his +arrest; that Mrs. Woodward had put him aside as being too bad to +associate with her and her daughters; and that it was intended +that henceforth they should be strangers. + +He still had Katie's purse, and he made a sort of resolve that as +long as he kept that in his possession, as long as he had that +near his heart, he would not go near Norah Geraghty. This +resolution he had kept; but though he did not go to the 'Cat and +Whistle,' he frequented other places which were as discreditable, +or more so. He paid many very fruitless visits to Mr. M'Ruen; +contrived to run up a score with the proprietor of the dancing +saloon in Holborn; and was as negligent as ever in the matter of +the lock entries. + +'It is no use now,' he would say to himself, when some +aspirations for higher things came across his heart; 'it is too +late now to go back. Those who once cared for me have thrown me +over.' And then he would again think of Waterloo Bridge, and the +Monument, and of what might be done for threepence or fourpence +in a pistol gallery. + +And then at last came the invitation to Hampton. He was once more +to talk to Mrs. Woodward, and associate with Linda--to see Katie +once more. When he had last left the house he had almost been as +much at home as any one of the family; and now he was to return +to it as a perfect stranger. As he travelled down with Norman by +the railway, he could not help feeling that the journey was +passing over too quickly. He was like a prisoner going to his +doom. As he crossed the bridge, and remembered how Katie had +looked when she lay struggling in the water, how he had been +feted and caressed after pulling her out, he made a bitter +contrast between his present position and that which he then +enjoyed. Were it not for very shame, he would have found it in +his heart to return to London. + +And then in a moment they were at the Cottage door. The road had +never been so short. Norman, who had not fathomed Charley's +feelings, was happy and light-hearted--more so than was usual +with him, for he was unaffectedly glad to witness Charley's +return to Hampton. He rang sharply at the door, and when it was +opened, walked with happy confidence into the drawing-room. +Charley was bound to follow him, and there he found himself again +in the presence of Mrs. Woodward and her daughters. Katie would +fain have absented herself, but Mrs. Woodward knew that the first +meeting could take place in no more favourable manner. + +Mrs. Woodward bade him welcome with a collected voice, and +assured, if not easy manner. She shook hands with him cordially, +and said a few words as to her pleasure of seeing him again. Then +he next took Linda's hand, and she too made a little speech, more +awkwardly than her mother, saying something mal a propos about +the very long time he had been away; and then she laughed with a +little titter, trying to recover herself. And at last he came to +Katie. There was no getting over it. She also stretched out her +now thin hand, and Charley, as he touched it, perceived how +altered she was. Katie looked up into his face, and tried to +speak, but she could not articulate a word. She looked into his +face, and then at Mrs. Woodward, as though imploring her mother's +aid to tell her how to act or what to say; and then finding her +power of utterance impeded by rising sobs, she dropped back again +on her seat, and hid her face upon the arm of the sofa. + +'Our Katie is not so well as when you last saw her--is she, +Charley?' said Mrs. Woodward. 'She is very weak just now; but +thank God she has, we believe, no dangerous symptoms about her. +You have heard, perhaps, that we are going to Torquay for the +winter?' + +And so they went on talking. The ice was broken and the worst was +over. They did not talk, it is true, as in former days; there was +no confidence between them now, and each of them felt that there +was none; but they nevertheless fell into a way of unembarrassed +conversation, and were all tolerably at their ease. + +And then they went to dinner, and Charley was called on to +discuss Admiralty matters with Uncle Bat; and then he and Norman +sat after dinner a little longer than usual; and then they had a +short walk, during which Katie remained at home; but short as it +was, it was quite long enough, for it was very dull; and then +there was tea; and then more constrained conversation, in which +Katie took no part whatever; and then Mrs. Woodward and the girls +took their candles, and Charley went over to the inn on the other +side of the road. Oh! how different was this from the former +evenings at Surbiton Cottage. + +Charley had made no plan for any special interview with Katie; +had, indeed, not specially thought about it at all; but he could +not but feel an intense desire to say one word to her in private, +and learn whether all her solicitude for him was over. 'Dear +Charley, you will be steady; won't you?' Those had been her last +words to him. Nothing could have been sweeter; although they +brought before his mind the remembrance of his own unworthy +career, they had been inexpressibly sweet, as testifying the +interest she felt in him. And was that all over now? Had it all +been talked away by Mrs. Woodward's cautious wisdom, because he +had lain for one night in a sponging-house? + +But the next day came, and as it passed, it appeared to him that +no opportunity of speaking one word to her was to be allowed to +him. + +She did not, however, shun him. She was not up at breakfast, but +she sat next to him at lunch, and answered him when he spoke to +her. + +In the evening they again went out to walk, and then Charley +found that Linda and Norman went one way, and that he was alone +with Mrs. Woodward. It was manifest to him that this arrangement +had been made on purpose, and he felt that he was to undergo some +private conversation, the nature of which he dreaded. He dreaded +it very much; when he heard it, it made him very wretched; but it +was not the less full of womanly affection and regard for him. + +'I cannot let you go from us, Charley,' began Mrs. Woodward, +'without telling you how deep a sorrow it has been to me to be so +long without seeing you. I know you have thought me very +ungrateful.' + +'Ungrateful, Mrs. Woodward! 'O no! I have done nothing to make +gratitude necessary.' + +'Yes, Charley, you have--you have done much, too much. You have +saved my child's life.' + +'O no, I did not,' said he; 'besides, I hate gratitude. I don't +want any one to be grateful to me. Gratitude is almost as +offensive as pity. Of course I pulled Kate out of the water when +she fell in; and I would have done as much for your favourite +cat.' He said this with something of bitterness in his tone; it +was not much, for though he felt bitterly he did not intend to +show it; but Mrs. Woodward's ear did not fail to catch it. + +'Don't be angry with us, Charley; don't make us more unhappy than +we already are.' + +'Unhappy!' said he, as though he thought that all the unhappiness +in the world was at the present moment reserved for his own +shoulders. + +'Yes, we are not so happy now as we were when you were last with +us. Poor Katie is very ill.' + +'But you don't think there is any danger, Mrs. Woodward?' + +There are many tones in which such a question may be asked--and +is asked from day to day--all differing widely from each other, +and giving evidence of various shades of feeling in the speaker. +Charley involuntarily put his whole heart into it. Mrs. Woodward +could not but love him for feeling for her child, though she +would have given so much that the two might have been indifferent +to each other. + +'I do not know,' she said. 'We hope not. But I should not be sent +with her to Torquay if she were not very ill. She is very ill, +and it is absolutely essential that nothing should be allowed to +excite her painfully. I tell you this, Charley, to excuse our +apparent unkindness in not having you here sooner.' + +Charley walked by her in silence. Why should his coming excite +her more than Norman's? What could there be painful to her in +seeing him? Did the fact of his having been arrested attach to +his visit any peculiar probability of excitement? + +'Do not suppose that we have not thought of you,' continued Mrs. +Woodward.' We have all done so daily. Nay, I have done so myself +all but hourly. Ah, Charley, you will never know how truly I love +you.' + +Charley's heart was as soft as it was inflammable. He was utterly +unable to resist such tenderness as Mrs. Woodward showed to him. +He had made a little resolution to be stiff and stern, to ask for +no favour and to receive none, not to palliate his own conduct, +or to allow Mrs. Woodward to condemn it. He had felt that as the +Woodwards had given him up, they had no longer any right to +criticize him. To them at least, one and all, to Mrs. Woodward +and her daughters, his conduct had been _sans reproche_. They +had no cause to upbraid him on their own account; and they had +now abandoned the right to do so on his own. With such assumed +sternness he began his walk; but now it had all melted before the +warmth of one tender word from a woman's mouth. + +'I know I am not worth thinking about,' said he. + +'Do not say so; pray do not say so. Do not think that we say so +to ourselves. I grieve for your faults. Charley; I know they are +grievous and wicked; but I know how much there is of good in you. +I know how clever you are, how excellent your heart is, how sweet +your disposition. I trust, I trust in God, you may reform, and be +the pride of your friends. I trust that I yet may be proud of +knowing you----' + +'No one will ever be proud of me,' said Charley. + +'We shall all be proud of you, if you will resolve to turn away +from childish things now that you are no longer a child--your +faults are faults which as yet may be so easily relinquished. +But, oh, Charley----' and then Mrs. Woodward paused and looked +wistfully into his face. She had now come to the point at which +she had to make her prayer to him. She had resolved to tell him +the cause of her fears, and to trust to his honour to free her +from them. Now was the moment for her to speak out; but now that +the moment was come, the words were wanting. + +She looked wistfully into his face, but he did not even guess +what was her meaning. He knew the secret of his own love; but he +did not know that Katie also had her secret. He had never dreamt +that his faults, among all their ill effects, had paled her +cheek, made wan her arm, silenced her voice, and dimmed her eye. +When he had heard Katie cough, he had in nowise connected the +hated sound with his own arrest. He had thought only of his own +love. + +'Oh! Charley--I know I can trust you,' said Mrs. Woodward. 'I +know you are gentle and good. You will be gentle and good to us, +will you not? you will not make us all wretched?' + +Charley declared that he would not willingly do anything to cause +pain to any of them. + +'No--I am sure you will not. And therefore, Charley, you must not +see Katie any more.' + +At this time they had turned off the road into a shady lane, in +which the leaves of autumn were beginning to fall. A path led +over a stile away from the lane into the fields, and Mrs. +Woodward had turned towards it, as though intending to continue +their walk in that direction. But when she had reached the stile, +she had sat down upon the steps of it, and Charley had been +listening to her, standing by, leaning on the top rail. + +'And therefore, Charley, you must not see Katie any more.' So +much she said, and then she looked into his face with imploring +eyes. + +It was impossible that he should answer her at once. He had to +realize so much that had hitherto not been expressed between +them, before he could fully understand what she meant; and then +he was called on to give up so much that he now learnt for the +first time was within his reach! Before he could answer her he +had to assure himself that Katie loved him; he had to understand +that her love for one so abandoned was regarded as fatal; and he +had to reply to a mother's prayer that he would remove himself +from the reach of a passion which to him was worth all the world +beside. + +He turned his face away from her, but still stood leaning on the +stile, with his arms folded on it. She watched him for a while in +silence, and at last she saw big tears drop from his face on to +the dust of the path on the farther side. There they came rolling +down, large globules of sorrow. Nothing is so painful to a woman +as a man in tears, and Mrs. Woodward's heart was wrung to its +very core. Why was he not like Alaric or Norman, so that she +might make him welcome to her daughter's heart? + +She leant towards him and put her hand caressingly on his arm. +'It shall be so, shall it not, Charley?' + +'Oh, of course, if you say so.' + +'I have your word, then? If I have your word, that will be a +perfect bond. I have your word, have I not, Charley?' + +'What!--never see her in my life?' said he, turning almost +fiercely on Mrs. Woodward. + +'That, you know, is more than you can promise,' said she, very +gently. 'It is not to the letter of the promise that I would bind +you, but to its spirit. You understand well what I mean; you know +what I wish, and why I wish it. Say that you will obey my wish, +and I will leave the mode of doing it to your own honour. Have I +your promise?' + +He shook her hand off his arm almost roughly, though +unintentionally, and turning sharply round leant with his back +against the stile. The traces of tears were still on his cheeks, +but he was no longer crying; there was, however, a look on his +face of heart-rending sorrow which Mrs. Woodward could hardly +endure. + +'I do understand you,' said he, 'and since you demand it, I will +promise;' and then they walked home side by side, without +interchanging a single word. + +When they reached the house, Mrs. Woodward went to her room, and +Charley found himself alone with Katie. + +'I hope you find yourself better this evening,' said he. + +'Oh, I am quite well,' she answered, with her sweetest, kindest +voice; 'I am quite well, only sometimes I am a little weak.' + +He walked up to the window as though to pass on to the lawn; but +the season was too far advanced for that, and the window was +locked. He retraced his steps, therefore, and passing out of the +drawing-room into the hall, stood at the open front door till he +heard Mrs. Woodward come down. Then he followed her into the +room. + +'Good-bye,' he said to her suddenly; 'I shall start by the early +train to-morrow, and shall not see you.' She pressed his hand, +but he in nowise returned the pressure. 'Good-bye, Linda; good- +bye, Katie; good night, Captain Cuttwater.' And so he went his +way, as Adam did when he was driven out of Paradise. + +Early on the following morning, the cook, while engaged in her +most matutinal duties, was disturbed by a ring at the front door. +She, and she only of the household, was up, and as she had not +completed her toilet with much minuteness, she was rather +embarrassed when, on opening the door, she saw Mr. Charles Tudor. + +'I beg your pardon, cook, for troubling you so early; but I have +left something in the drawing-room. I can find it myself;' and, +so saying, he hurried into the room, so as to prevent the servant +from following him. + +Katie had a well-worn, well-known little workbox, which, in years +now long past; had been given to her either by Alaric or Harry. +Doubtless she had now work-boxes grander both in appearance and +size; but, nevertheless, whether from habit or from choice, her +custom was, in her daily needlework, to use this old friend. +Often and often had Charley played with it many wicked pranks. +Once, while Katie had as yet no pretension to be grown up, he had +put a snail into it, and had incurred her severe displeasure. He +had stuffed it full of acorns, and been rewarded by being pelted +with them round the lawn; and had filled it with nuts, for which +he had not found it so difficult to obtain pardon. He knew every +hole and corner in it! he was intimate with all her little +feminine nicknacks--her silver thimble, her scissors, her bit of +wax, and the yard-measure, which twisted itself in and out of an +ivory cottage--he knew them all, as well as though they were his +own; and he knew also where the workbox stood. + +He closed the door behind him, and then, with his quickest +motion, raised the lid and put within the box, just under the bit +of work on which she was employed, a light small paper parcel. It +contained the purse which she had worked for him, and had given +to him with such sweet affection at the Chiswick flower-show. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +HOW APOLLO SAVED THE NAVVY + + +About the middle of November, the Woodwards went to Torquay, and +remained there till the following May. Norman went with them to +see them properly settled in their new lodgings, and visited them +at Christmas, and once again during their stay there. He then +went down to fetch them home, and when they all returned, +informed Charley, with whom he was still living, that he was +engaged to Linda. It was arranged, he said, that they were to be +married in August. + +On the whole, the journey to Torquay was considered to have been +successful. Katie's health had been the only object in going +there, and the main consideration while they remained. She +returned, if not well, at any rate not worse. She had got through +the winter, and her lungs were still pronounced to be free from +those dreadful signs of decay, the name of which has broken so +many mothers' hearts, and sent dismay into the breasts of so many +fathers. During her sojourn at Torquay she had grown much, and, +as is often the case with those who grow quickly, she had become +weak and thin. People at Torquay are always weak and thin, and +Mrs. Woodward had not, therefore, been greatly frightened at +this. Her spirits, though by no means such as they had been in +former days, had improved, she had occupied herself more than she +had done during the last two months at Hampton, and had, at least +so Mrs. Woodward fondly flattered herself, ceased to be always +thinking of Charley Tudor. It was quite clear that she had firmly +made up her mind to some certain line of conduct with reference +to him; she never mentioned his name, nor was it mentioned in her +hearing by either her mother or sister during their stay at +Torquay. When Norman came down, she always found some opportunity +of inquiring from him as to Charley's health and welfare; but she +did this in a manner which showed that she had succeeded in +placing her feelings wonderfully under control. + +On that Monday morning, on which Charley had returned to town +after his early visit to her workbox, she had not failed to find +the purse. Linda was with her when she did so, but she had +contrived so to conceal her emotion, that nothing was seen and +nothing suspected. She felt at once that it was intended that all +intercourse should be broken off between them. She knew +instinctively that this was the effect of some precaution on her +mother's part, and with a sad bosom and a broken heart, she +acquiesced in it. She said nothing, even to herself, of the truth +and constancy of her love; she made no mental resolution against +any other passion; she did not even think whether or not she +might ever be tempted to love another; but she felt a dumb aching +numbness about her heart; and, looking round about her, she +seemed to feel that all was dark and dismal. + +And so they sojourned through the winter at Torquay. The effort +which Katie made was undoubtedly salutary to her. She took again +to her work and her lessons--studies we should probably now call +them--and before she left Torquay, she had again learned how to +smile; but not to laugh with that gay ringing silver laughter, +ringing, but yet not loud, which to Charley's ear had been as +sweet as heavenly music. During this time Uncle Bat remained at +Hampton, keeping bachelor's house by himself. + +And then while they were at Torquay, Linda and Norman became +engaged to each other. Their loves were honest, true, and happy; +but not of a nature to give much scope to a novelist of a +romantic turn. Linda knew she was not Norman's first love, and +requited Norman, of course, by telling him something, not much, +of Alaric's falseness to her. Norman made but one ungenerous +stipulation. It was this: that in marrying him Linda must give up +all acquaintance with her brother-in-law. He would never, he +said, be the means of separating two sisters; she and Gertrude +might have such intercourse together as their circumstances might +render possible; but it was quite out of the question that either +he, Harry Norman, or his wife, should ever again associate with +Alaric Tudor. + +In such matters Linda had always been guided by others; so she +sighed and promised, and the engagement was duly ratified by all +the parties concerned. + +We must now return to Charley. When he got back to town, he felt +that he had lost his amulet; his charm had gone from him, and he +had nothing now left whereby to save himself from ruin and +destruction. He was utterly flung over by the Woodwards; that now +was to him an undoubted fact. When Mrs. Woodward told him that he +was never again to see Katie, that was, of course, tantamount to +turning him out of the Cottage. It might be all very well to talk +to him of affection and friendship; but it was manifest that no +further signs of either were to be shown to him. He had proved +himself to be unworthy, and was no more to be considered as one +of the circle which made the drawing-room at Surbiton Cottage its +centre. He could not quite explain all this to Norman, as he +could not tell him what had passed between him and Mrs. Woodward; +but he said enough to make his friend know that he intended to go +to Hampton no more. + +It would be wrong, perhaps, to describe Charley as being angry +with Mrs. Woodward. He knew that she was only doing her duty by +her child; he knew that she was actuated by the purest and best +of motives; he was not able to say a word against her even to +himself; but, nevertheless, he desired to be revenged on her--not +by injuring her, not by injuring Katie--but by injuring himself. +He would make Mrs. Woodward feel what she had done, by rushing, +himself, on his own ruin. He would return to the 'Cat and +Whistle'--he would keep his promise and marry Norah Geraghty--he +would go utterly to destruction, and then Mrs. Woodward would +know and feel what she had done in banishing him from her +daughter's presence! + +Having arrived at this magnanimous resolution after a fortnight's +doubt and misery, he proceeded to put his purpose into execution. +It was now some considerable time since he had been at the 'Cat +and Whistle;' he had had no further visit from Mrs. Davis, but he +had received one or two notes both from her and Norah, to which, +as long as he had Katie's purse, he was resolute in not replying; +messages also had reached him from the landlady through Dick +Scatterall, in the last of which he was reminded that there was a +trifle due at the bar, and another trifle for money lent. + +One night, having lashed himself up to a fit state of wretched +desperation, he found himself at the well-known corner of the +street leading out of the Strand. On his journey thither he had +been trying to realize to himself what it would be to be the +husband of Norah Geraghty; what would be the joy of returning to +a small house in some dingy suburb and finding her to receive +him. Could he really love her when she would be bone of his bone +and flesh of his flesh, the wife of his bosom and the mother of +his children? In such a case would he ever be able to forget that +he had known Katie Woodward? Would those words of hers ever ring +in his ears, then as now--'You will be steady, dear Charley; +won't you?' + +There are those who boast that a gentleman must always be a +gentleman; that a man, let him marry whom he will, raises or +degrades his wife to the level of his own condition, and that +King Cophetua could share his throne with a beggar-woman without +sullying its splendour or diminishing its glory. How a king may +fare in such a condition, the author, knowing little of kings, +will not pretend to say; nor yet will he offer an opinion whether +a lowly match be fatally injurious to a marquess, duke, or earl; +but this he will be bold to affirm, that a man from the ordinary +ranks of the upper classes, who has had the nurture of a +gentleman, prepares for himself a hell on earth in taking a wife +from any rank much below his own--a hell on earth, and, alas! too +often another hell elsewhere also. He must either leave her or +loathe her. She may be endowed with all those moral virtues which +should adorn all women, and which, thank God, are common to women +in this country; but he will have to endure habits, manners, and +ideas, which the close contiguity of married life will force upon +his disgusted palate, and which must banish all love. Man by +instinct desires in his wife something softer, sweeter, more +refined than himself; and though in failing to obtain this, the +fault may be all his own, he will not on that account the more +easily reconcile himself to the want. + +Charley knew that he was preparing such misery for himself. As he +went along, determined to commit a moral suicide by allying +himself to the barmaid, he constrained himself to look with his +mind's eye 'upon this picture and on that.' + +He had felt of what nature was the sort of love with which Katie +Woodward had inspired his heart; and he felt also what was that +other sort of love to which the charms of Norah Geraghty had +given birth. + +Norah was a fine girl, smart enough in her outward apparel, but +apt occasionally to disclose uncomfortable secrets, if from any +accident more than her outward apparel might momentarily become +visible. When dressed up for a Sunday excursion she had her +attractions, and even on ordinary evenings, a young man such as +Charley, after imbibing two or three glasses of spirits and +water, and smoking two or three cigars, might find her to be what +some of her friends would have called 'very good company.' As to +her mind, had Charley been asked about it, he would probably have +said that he was ignorant whether she had any; but this he did +know, that she was sharp and quick, alert in counting change, and +gifted with a peculiar power of detecting bad coin by the touch. +Such was Norah Geraghty, whom Charley was to marry. + +And then that other portrait was limned with equal accuracy +before his eyes. Katie, with all her juvenile spirit, was +delightfully feminine; every motion of hers was easy, and every +form into which she could twist her young limbs was graceful. She +had all the nice ideas and ways which a girl acquires when she +grows from childhood to woman's stature, under the eye of a +mother who is a lady. Katie could be untidy on occasions; but her +very untidiness was inviting. All her belongings were nice; she +had no hidden secrets, the chance revealing of which would +disgrace her. She might come in from her island palaces in a +guise which would call down some would-be-censorious exclamation +from her mother; but all others but her mother would declare that +Katie in such moments was more lovely than ever. And Katie's +beauty pleased more than the eye--it came home to the mind and +heart of those who saw her. It spoke at once to the intelligence, +and required, for its full appreciation, an exercise of the +mental faculties, as well as animal senses. If the owner of that +outward form were bad or vile, one would be inclined to say that +Nature must have lied when she endowed her with so fair an index. +Such was Katie Woodward, whom Charley was not to marry. + +As he turned down Norfolk Street, he thought of all this, as the +gambler, sitting with his razor before him with which he intends +to cut his throat, may be supposed to think of the stakes which +he has failed to win, and the fortune he has failed to make. +Norah Geraghty was Charley's razor, and he plunged boldly into +the 'Cat and Whistle,' determined to draw it at once across his +weasand, and sever himself for ever from all that is valuable in +the world. + +It was now about eleven o'clock, at which hour the 'Cat and +Whistle' generally does its most stirring trade. This Charley +knew; but he also knew that the little back parlour, even if +there should be an inmate in it at the time of his going in, +would soon be made private for his purposes. + +When he went in, Mrs. Davis was standing behind the counter, +dressed in a cap of wonderful grandeur, and a red tabinet gown, +which rustled among the pots and jars, sticking out from her to a +tremendous width, inflated by its own magnificence and a +substratum of crinoline. Charley had never before seen her +arrayed in such royal robes. Her accustomed maid was waiting as +usual on the guests, and another girl also was assisting; but +Norah did not appear to Charley's first impatient glance. + +He at once saw that something wonderful was going on. The front +parlour was quite full, and the ministering angel was going in +and out quickly, with more generous supplies of the gifts of +Bacchus than were usual at the 'Cat and Whistle.' Gin and water +was the ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its +denizens inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours generally +did so with a bottom of brandy. But now Mrs. Davis was mixing +port-wine negus as fast as her hands could make it. + +And then there were standing round the counter four or five +customers, faces well known to Charley, all of whom seemed to be +dressed with a splendour second only to that of the landlady. One +man had on an almost new brown frock coat with a black velvet +collar, and white trousers. Two had blue swallow-tailed coats +with brass buttons; and a fourth, a dashing young lawyer's clerk +from Clement's Inn, was absolutely stirring a mixture, which he +called a mint julep, with a yellow kid glove dangling out of his +hand. + +They all stood back when Charley entered; they had been +accustomed to make way for him in former days, and though he had +latterly ceased to rule at the 'Cat and Whistle' as he once did, +they were too generous to trample on fallen greatness. He gave +his hand to Mrs. Davis across the counter, and asked her in the +most unconcerned voice which he could assume what was in the +wind. She tittered and laughed, told him he had come too late for +the fun, and then retreated into the little back parlour, whither +he followed her. She was at any rate in a good humour, and seemed +quite inclined to forgive his rather uncivil treatment of her +notes and messages. + +In the back parlour Charley found more people drinking, and among +them three ladies of Mrs. Davis's acquaintance. They were all +very fine in their apparel, and very comfortable as to their +immediate employment, for each had before her a glass of hot +tipple. One of them, a florid-faced dame about fifty, Charley had +seen before, and knew to be the wife of a pork butcher and +sausage maker in the neighbourhood. Directly he entered the room, +Mrs. Davis formally introduced him to them all. 'A very +particular friend of mine, Mrs. Allchops; and of Norah's too, I +can assure you,' said Mrs. Davis. + +'Ah, Mr. Tudor, and how be you? A sight of you is good for sore +eyes,' said she of the sausages, rising with some difficulty from +her chair, and grasping Charley's hand with all the pleasant +cordiality of old friendship. + +'The gen'leman seems to be a little too late for the fair,' said +a severe lodging-house keeper from Cecil Street. + + 'Them as wills not, when they may, + When they wills they shall have nay,' + +said a sarcastic rival barmaid from a neighbouring public, to +whom all Norah's wrongs and all Mr. Tudor's false promises were +fully known. + +Charley was not the fellow to allow himself to be put down, even +by feminine raillery; so he plucked up his spirit, sad as he was +at heart, and replied to them all _en masse_. + +'Well, ladies, what's in the wind now? You seem to be very cosy +here, all of you; suppose you allow me to join you.' + +'With a 'eart and a 'alf,' said Mrs. Allchops, squeezing her +corpulence up to the end of the horsehair sofa, so as to make +room for him between herself and the poetic barmaid. 'I'd sooner +have a gentleman next to me nor a lady hany day of the week; so +come and sit down, my birdie.' + +But Charley, as he was about to accept the invitation of his +friend Mrs. Allchops, caught Mrs. Davis's eye, and followed her +out of the room into the passage. 'Step up to the landing, Mr. +Tudor,' said she; and Charley stepped up. 'Come in here, Mr. +Tudor--you won't mind my bedroom for once.' And Charley followed +her in, not minding her bedroom. + +'Of course you know what has happened, Mr. Tudor?' said she. + +'Devil a bit,' said Charley. + +'Laws, now--don't you indeed? Well, that is odd.' + +'How the deuce should I know? Where's Norah?' + +'Why--she's at Gravesend.' + +'At Gravesend--you don't mean to say she's----' + +'I just do then; she's just gone and got herself spliced to +Peppermint this morning. They had the banns said these last three +Sundays; and this morning they was at St. Martin's at eight +o'clock, and has been here junketing ever since, and now they're +away to Gravesend.' + +'Gravesend!' said Charley, struck by the suddenness of his +rescue, as the gambler would have been had some stranger seized +the razor at the moment when it was lifted to his throat. + +'Yes, Gravesend,' said Mrs. Davis; 'and they'll come up home to +his own house by the first boat to-morrow.' + +'So Norah's married!' said Charley, with a slight access of +sentimental softness in his voice. + +'She's been and done it now, Mr. Tudor, and no mistake; and it's +better so, ain't it? Why, Lord love you, she'd never have done +for you, you know; and she's the very article for such a man as +Peppermint.' + +There was something good-natured in this, and so Charley felt it. +As long as Mrs. Davis could do anything to assist her cousin's +views, by endeavouring to seduce or persuade her favourite lover +into a marriage, she left no stone unturned, working on her +cousin's behalf. But now, now that all those hopes were over, now +that Norah had consented to sacrifice love to prudence, why +should Mrs. Davis quarrel with an old friend any longer?--why +should not things be made pleasant to him as to the others? + +'And now, Mr. Tudor, come down, and drink a glass to their +healths, and wish 'em both well, and don't mind what them women +says to you. You're well out of a mess; and now it's all over, +I'm glad it is as it is.' + +Charley went down and took his glass and drank 'prosperity to the +bride and bridegroom.' The sarcastic rival barmaid said little +snappish things to him, offered him a bit of green ribbon, and +told him that if he 'minded hisself,' somebody might, perhaps, +take him yet. But Charley was proof against this. + +He sat there about half an hour, and then went his way, shaking +hands with all the ladies and bowing to the gentlemen. On the +following day, as soon as he left his office, he called at the +'Cat and Whistle,' and paid his little bill there, and said his +last farewell to Mrs. Davis. He never visited the house again. +Now that Norah was gone the attractions were not powerful. +Reader, you and I will at the same time say our farewells to Mrs. +Davis, to Mr. Peppermint also, and to his bride. If thou art an +elegant reader, unaccustomed to the contamination of pipes and +glasses, I owe thee an apology in that thou hast been caused to +linger a while among things so unsavoury. But if thou art one who +of thine own will hast taken thine ease in thine inn, hast +enjoyed the freedom of a sanded parlour, hast known 'that ginger +is hot in the mouth,' and made thyself light-hearted with a yard +of clay, then thou wilt confess there are worse establishments +than the 'Cat and Whistle,' less generous landladies than Mrs. +Davis. + +When all this happened the Woodwards had not been long at +Torquay. Mr. Peppermint was made a happy man before Christmas; +and therefore Charley was left to drift before the wind without +the ballast of any lady's love to keep him in sailing trim. Poor +fellow! he had had wealth on one side, beauty and love on +another, and on the third all those useful qualities which Miss +Geraghty has been described as possessing. He had been thus +surrounded by feminine attractions, and had lost them all. Two of +those, from whom he had to choose, had married others, and he was +banished from the presence of the third. Under such circumstances +what could he do but drift about the gulfs and straits of the +London ocean without compass or rudder, and bruise his timbers +against all the sunken rocks that might come in his way? + +And then Norman told him of his coming marriage, and Charley was +more sad than ever. And thus matters went on with him till the +period at which our story will be resumed at the return of the +Woodwards to Hampton. + +In the meantime another winter and another spring had passed over +Alaric's head, and now the full tide of the London season found +him still rising, and receiving every day more of the world's +homage. Sir Gregory Hardlines had had every reason to praise his +own judgement in selecting Mr. Tudor for the vacant seat among +the Magi. + +From that moment all had gone smooth with Sir Gregory; there was +no one to interfere with his hobby, or run counter to his +opinion. Alaric was all that was conciliatory and amiable in a +colleague. He was not submissive and cringing; and had he been +so, Sir Gregory, to do him justice, would have been disgusted; +but neither was he self-opinionated nor obstinate like Mr. +Jobbles. He insisted on introducing no crotchets of his own, and +allowed Sir Gregory all the credit of the Commission. + +This all went on delightfully for a while; but on one morning, +early in May, Alaric somewhat disturbed the equanimity of his +chief by communicating to him his intention of becoming a +candidate for the representation of the borough of Strathbogy, at +the next general election, which was to take place very shortly +after the close of the session. Sir Gregory was dumbfounded, and +expressed himself as incapable of believing that Tudor really +meant to throw up L1,200 a year on the mere speculation of its +being possible that he should get into Parliament. Men in +general, as Sir Gregory endeavoured to explain with much +eloquence, go into Parliament for the sake of getting places of +L1,200 a year. For what earthly reason should Alaric again be +going to the bottom of the ladder, seeing that he had already +attained a rung of such very respectable altitude? Alaric said to +himself, 'Excelsior!' To Sir Gregory he suggested that it might +be possible that he should get into Parliament without giving up +his seat at the Board. Earth and heaven, it might be hoped, would +not come together, even though so great a violence as this should +be done to the time-honoured practices of the Government. Sir +Gregory suggested that it was contrary to the constitution. +Alaric replied that the constitution had been put upon to as +great an extent before this, and had survived. Sir Gregory +regarded it as all but impossible, and declared it to be quite +unusual. Alaric rejoined that something of the same kind had been +done at the Poor Law Board. To this Sir Gregory replied, gently +pluming his feathers with conscious greatness, that at the Poor +Law Board the chief of the Commission was the Parliamentary +officer. Alaric declared that he was perfectly willing to give +way if Sir Gregory would go into the House himself. To this Sir +Gregory demurred; not feeling himself called on to change the +sphere of his utility. And so the matter was debated between +them, till at last Sir Gregory promised to consult his friend the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. The ice was thus broken, and Alaric +was quite contented with the part which he had taken in the +conversation. + +With his own official prospects, in spite of the hazardous step +which he now meditated, he was quite contented. He had an idea +that in the public service of the Government, as well as in all +other services, men who were known to be worth their wages would +find employment. He was worth his wages. Men who could serve +their country well, who could adapt themselves to work, who were +practical, easy in harness, able to drive and patient to be +driven, were not, unfortunately, as plentiful as blackberries. He +began to perceive that a really useful man could not be found +miscellaneously under every hat in Pall Mall. He knew his own +value, and did not fear but that he should find a price for it in +some of the world's markets. He would not, therefore, allow +himself to be deterred from further progress by any fear that in +doing so he risked the security of his daily bread; no, not +though the risk extended to his wife; she had taken him for +better or worse; if the better came she should share it; if the +worse, why let her share that also, with such consolation as his +affection might be able to offer. + +There was something noble in this courage, in this lack of +prudence. It may be a question whether men, in marrying, do not +become too prudent. A single man may risk anything, says the +world; but a man with a wife should be sure of his means. Why so? +A man and a woman are but two units. A man and a woman with ten +children are but twelve units. It is sad to see a man starving-- +sad to see a woman starving--very sad to see children starving. +But how often does it come to pass that the man who will work is +seen begging his bread? we may almost say never--unless, indeed, +he be a clergyman. Let the idle man be sure of his wife's bread +before he marries her; but the working man, one would say, may +generally trust to God's goodness without fear. + +With his official career Alaric was, as we have said, well +contented; in his stock-jobbing line of business he also had had +moments of great exaltation, and some moments of considerable +depression. The West Corks had vacillated. Both he and Undy had +sold and bought and sold again; and on the whole their stake in +that stupendous national line of accommodation was not so all- +absorbing as it had once been. But if money had been withdrawn +from this, it had been invested elsewhere, and the great sum +borrowed from Madame Jaquetanape's fortune had been in no part +replaced--one full moiety of it had been taken--may one not say +stolen?--to enable Alaric and Undy to continue their speculations. + +The undertaking to which they were now both wedded was the +Limehouse and Rotherhithe Bridge. Of this Undy was chairman, and +Alaric was a director, and at the present moment they looked for +ample fortune, or what would nearly be ample ruin, to the +decision of a committee of the House of Commons which was about +to sit with the view of making inquiry as to the necessity of the +bridge in question. + +Mr. Nogo, the member for Mile End, was the parent of this +committee. He asserted that the matter was one of such vital +importance not only to the whole metropolis, but to the country +at large, that the Government were bound in the first place to +give a large subsidy towards building the bridge, and afterwards +to pay a heavy annual sum towards the amount which it would be +necessary to raise by tolls. Mr. Whip Vigil, on the other hand, +declared on the part of Government that the bridge was wholly +unnecessary; that if it were built it ought to be pulled down +again; and that not a stiver could be given out of the public +purse with such an object. + +On this they joined issue. Mr. Nogo prayed for a committee, and +Mr. Vigil, having duly consulted his higher brethren in the +Government, conceded this point. It may easily be conceived how +high were now the hopes both of Undy Scott and Alaric Tudor. It +was not at all necessary for them that the bridge should ever be +built; that, probably, was out of the question; that, very +likely, neither of them regarded as a possibility. But if a +committee of the House of Commons could be got to say that it +ought to be built, they might safely calculate on selling out at +a large profit. + +But who were to sit on the committee? That was now the all- +momentous question. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE + + +There is a sport prevalent among the downs in Hampshire to which, +though not of a high degree, much interest is attached. Men and +boys, with social glee and happy boyish shouts, congregate +together on a hill-side, at the mouth of a narrow hole, and +proceed, with the aid of a well-trained bull-dog, to draw a +badger. If the badger be at all commendable in his class this is +by no means an easy thing to do. He is a sturdy animal, and well +fortified with sharp and practised teeth; his hide is of the +toughest; his paws of the strongest, and his dead power of +resistance so great as to give him more than an equal chance with +the bull-dog. The delighted sportsmen stand round listening to +the growls and snarls, the tearings, gnawings, and bloody +struggles of the combatants within.--'Well done, badger!--Well +done, bull-dog!--Draw him, bulldog!--Bite him, badger!' Each has +his friends, and the interest of the moment is intense. The +badger, it is true, has done no harm. He has been doing as it was +appointed for him to do, poor badger, in that hole of his. But +then, why were badgers created but to be drawn? Why, indeed, but +to be drawn, or not to be drawn, as the case may be? See! the +bull-dog returns minus an ear, with an eye hanging loose, his +nether lip torn off, and one paw bitten through and through. +Limping, dejected, beaten, glaring fearfully from his one +remaining eye, the dog comes out; and the badger within rolls +himself up with affected ease, hiding his bloody wounds from the +public eye. + +So it is that the sport is played in Hampshire; and so also at +Westminster--with a difference, however. In Hampshire the two +brutes retain ever their appointed natures. The badger is always +a badger, and the bull-dog never other than a bull-dog. At +Westminster there is a juster reciprocity of position. The badger +when drawn has to take his place outside the hole, and fight +again for the home of his love; while the victorious bull-dog +assumes a state of badgerdom, dons the skin of his enemy, and, in +his turn, submits to be baited. + +The pursuit is certainly full of interest, but it is somewhat +deficient in dignity. + +The parliamentary committee, which was to sit with reference to +the Limehouse and Rotherhithe Bridge, had been one of the effects +of a baiting-match such as that above described. In this contest +the enemies of the proud occupier of the den on the mountain-side +had not been contented to attempt to expel him with a single +bull-dog. A whole pack had been let loose at his devoted throat. +Bull-dogs had been at him, and terriers, mastiffs, blood-hounds, +lurchers, and curs; but so accustomed was he to the contest, so +knowing in his fence, so ready with all the weapons given to him +by nature, that, in spite of the numbers and venom of his +enemies, he had contrived to hold his own. Some leading hounds +had fallen to rise no more; others had retreated, yelping to +their kennels, to lie quiet for a while, till time might give +them courage for a new attack. The country round was filled with +the noise of their plaints, and the yowling and howling of canine +defeat. The grey old badger meanwhile sat proud in his hole, with +all his badger kin around him, and laughed his well-known badger +laugh at his disconsolate foes. Such a brock had not for years +been seen in the country-side; so cool, so resolute, so knowing +in his badger ways, so impregnable in his badger hole, and so +good-humoured withal. He could bite full sore with those old +teeth of his, and yet he never condescended to show them. A +badger indeed of whom the country might well be proud! + +But in the scramble of the fight some little curs had been +permitted to run away with some little bones; and, in this way, +Mr. Nogo, the member for Mile End, had been allowed to carry his +motion for a committee to inquire as to the expediency of the +Government's advancing a quarter of a million towards the +completion of that momentous national undertaking, the building +of a bridge from Limehouse to Rotherhithe. + +Very much had been said about this bridge, till men living out of +the light of parliamentary life, nine hundred and ninety-nine +men, that is, out of every thousand in the Queen's dominions, had +begun to think that it was the great want of the age. Men living +in the light, the supporters of the bridge as well as its +enemies, knew very well that such an erection was quite unneeded, +and would in all probability never be made. But then the firm of +Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, who held a vast quantity of the +bridge shares, and who were to be the contractors for building +it, had an all-powerful influence in the borough of Limehouse. +Where would Mr. Nogo be if he did not cultivate the friendship of +such men as Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam? + +And so Mr. Nogo, and those who acted with Mr. Nogo--men, that +is, who had little jobs of their own to do, and in the doing of +which Mr. Nogo occasionally assisted, Undy Scott, for instance, +and such-like--these men, I say, had talked much about the +bridge; and gentlemen on the Treasury bench, who could have +afforded to show up the folly of the scheme, and to put Mr. Nogo +down at once, had he been alone, felt themselves under the +necessity of temporizing. As to giving a penny of the public +money for such a purpose, that they knew was out of the question; +that Mr. Nogo never expected; that they all knew Mr. Nogo never +expected. But as Mr. Nogo's numbers were so respectable, it was +necessary to oppose him in a respectable parliamentary steady +manner. He had fifteen with him! Had he been quite alone, Mr. +Vigil would have sneered him off; had he had but four to back +him, the old badger would have laughed them out of face with a +brace of grins. But fifteen--! Mr. Whip Vigil thought that the +committee would be the most safe. So would the outer world be +brought to confess that the interests of Limehouse and Poplar, +Rotherhithe and Deptford, had not been overlooked by a careful +Government. + +But of whom was the committee to be made up? That was now the +question which to Mr. Nogo, in his hour of temporary greatness, +was truly momentous. He of course was to be the chairman, and to +him appertained the duty of naming the other members; of naming +them indeed--so much he could undoubtedly do by the strength of +his own privilege. But of what use to name a string of men to +whom Mr. Vigil would not consent? Mr. Nogo, did he do so, would +have to divide on every name, and be beaten at every division. +There would be no triumph in that. No; Mr. Nogo fully understood +that his triumph must be achieved--if he were destined to a +triumph--by an astute skill in his selection, not by an open +choice of friends. He must obtain a balance on his side, but one +in which the scale would lean so slightly to his side that Mr. +Vigil's eyes might be deceived. Those who knew Mr. Vigil best +were inclined to surmise that such an arrangement was somewhat +beyond Mr. Nogo's political capacity. There is a proverb which +goes to show that a certain little lively animal may be shaved if +he be caught napping; but then the difficulty of so catching him +is extreme. + +Mr. Nogo, at the head of the list, put Mr. Vigil himself. This, +of course, was a necessity to him--would that he could have +dispensed with it! Then he named sundry supporters of the +Government, sundry members also of the opposition; and he filled +up the list with certain others who could not be regarded as sure +supporters of one side or the other, but with whom, for certain +reasons, he thought he might in this particular case be safe. +Undy Scott was of course not among the number, as Mr. Nogo would +only have damaged his cause by naming a man known to have a +pecuniary interest in the concern. + +The member for Mile End was doubtless sharp, but Mr. Vigil was +sharper. His object was, in fact, merely to do his duty to the +country by preventing a profuse and useless expenditure of money. +His anxiety was a perfectly honest one--to save the Exchequer +namely. But the circumstances of the case required that he should +fight the battle according to the tactics of the House, and he +well understood how to do so. + +When the list was read he objected to two or three names--only to +two or three. They were not those of staunch enemies of the +Government; nor did he propose in their places the names of +staunch supporters. He suggested certain gentlemen who, from +their acquaintance with bridges, tolls, rivers, &c., would, as he +said, be probably of use. He, also, was sure of his men, and as +he succeeded with two of them, he was also pretty sure of his +committee. + +And then the committee met, and a lot of witnesses were in +attendance. The chairman opened his case, and proceeded to prove, +by the evidence of sundry most respectable men connected with +Limehouse, and with the portions of Surrey and Kent lying +immediately opposite to it, that the most intense desire for +friendly and commercial intercourse was felt; but that, though +absolutely close to each other, the districts were so divided by +adverse circumstances, circumstances which were monstrous +considering the advance of science in the nineteenth century, +that the dearest friends were constrained to perpetual banishment +from each other; and that the men of Kent were utterly unable to +do any trade at Limehouse, and the Limehousians equally unable to +carry on traffic in Surrey. + +It was wonderful that the narrow river should be so effective for +injury. One gentleman from Poplar proved that, having given his +daughter in marriage to a man of Deptford two years since, he had +not yet been able to see her since that day. Her house, by the +crow's flight, was but seven furlongs from his own; but, as he +kept no horse, he could not get to her residence without a four +hours' walk, for which he felt himself to be too old. He was, +however, able to visit his married daughter at Reading, and be +back to tea. The witness declared that his life was made +miserable by his being thus debarred from his child, and he wiped +his eyes with his pocket-handkerchief piteously, sitting there in +front of the committee. In answer to Mr. Vigil he admitted that +there might be a ferry, but stated that he did not know. Having +had, from childhood, an aversion to the water, he had not +inquired. He was aware that some rash people had gone through the +Tunnel, but for himself he did not think the Tunnel a safe mode +of transit. + +Another gentleman belonging to Rotherhithe, who was obliged to be +almost daily at Blackwall, maintained two horses for the express +purpose of going backwards and forwards, round by London Bridge. +They cost him L70 per annum each. Such a bridge as that now +proposed, and which the gentleman declared that he regarded as an +embryo monument of national glory, would save him L140 per annum. +He then proceeded to make a little speech about the spirit of the +age, and the influence of routine, which he described as a gloomy +gnome. But his oratory was cruelly cut short by Mr. Vigil, who +demanded of him whether he ever used the river steamers. The +witness shuddered fearfully as he assured the committee that he +never did, and referred to the _Cricket_, whose boilers burst +in the year 1842; besides, he had, he said, his things to carry +with him. + +Another witness told how unsafe was the transit of heavy goods by +barge from one side of the river to another. He had had a cargo +of marine stores which would go to sea before their time. The +strong ebb of the tide, joined to the river current, had +positively carried the barge away, and its course had not been +stopped till it had drifted on shore at Purfleet. He acknowledged +that something had transpired of the bargemen being drunk, but he +had no knowledge himself that such had been the case. No other +cargoes of his own had been carried away, but he had heard that +such was often the case. He thought that the bridge was +imperatively demanded. Would the tolls pay? He felt sure that +they would. Why, then, should not the bridge be built as a +commercial speculation, without Government aid? He thought that +in such cases a fostering Government was bound to come forward +and show the way. He had a few shares in the bridge himself. He +had paid up L1 a share. They were now worth 2s. 6d. each. They +had been worth nothing before the committee had been ordered to +sit. He declined to give any opinion as to what the shares would +be worth if the money were granted. + +Ladies at Limehouse proved that if there were a bridge they could +save 30s. a year each, by buying their tea and sugar at +Rotherhithe; and so singular are the usages of trade, that the +ladies of Rotherhithe would benefit their husbands equally, and +return the compliment, by consuming the bread of Limehouse. The +shores of Kent were pining for the beef of the opposite bank, and +only too anxious to give in return the surplus stock of their own +poultry. + +'Let but a bridge be opened,' as was asserted by one animated +vendor of rope, 'and Poplar would soon rival Pimlico. Perhaps +that might not be desirable in the eyes of men who lived in the +purlieus of the Court, and who were desirous to build no new +bridge, except that over the ornamental water in St. James's +Park.' Upon uttering which the rope-vendor looked at Mr. Vigil as +though he expected him to sink at once under the table. + +Mr. Blocks, of the great firm of Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, +then came forward. He declared that a large sum of money was +necessary before this great national undertaking could be begun +in a spirit worthy of the nineteenth century. It was intended to +commence the approaches on each side of the river a quarter of a +mile from the first abutment of the bridge, in order to acquire +the necessary altitude without a steep ascent. He then described +what a glorious bridge this bridge would be; how it would eclipse +all bridges that had ever been built; how the fleets of all +nations would ride under it; how many hundred thousand square +feet of wrought iron would be consumed in its construction; how +many tons of Portland stone in the abutments, parapets, and +supporting walls; how much timber would be buried twenty fathoms +deep in the mud of the river; how many miles of paving-stone +would be laid down. Mr. Blocks went on with his astonishing +figures till the committee were bewildered, and even Mr. Vigil, +though well used to calculations, could hardly raise his mind to +the dimensions of the proposed undertaking. + +The engineer followed, and showed how easily this great work +could be accomplished. There was no difficulty, literally none. +The patronage of the Crown was all that was required. The +engineer was asked whether by the word patronage he meant money, +and after a little laughing and a few counter questions, he +admitted that, in his estimation, patronage and money did mean +the same thing. + +Such was the case made out by the promoters of the bridge, and +the chairman and his party were very sanguine of success. They +conceived that Mr. Blocks' figures had completely cowed their +antagonists. + +Mr. Vigil then took his case in hand, and brought forward his +witnesses. It now appeared that the intercourse between the +people living on each side of the river was immense, and ever on +the increase. Limehouse, it would seem, had nothing to do but to +go to Deptford, and that Deptford consumed all its time in +returning the visit. Little children were sent across continually +on the most trifling errands, going and coming for one halfpenny. +An immense income was made by the owners of the ferry. No two +adjacent streets in London had more to do with each other than +had the lanes of Rotherhithe and the lanes of Limehouse. +Westminster and Lambeth were further apart, and less connected by +friendly intercourse. The frequenters of the ferry were found to +outnumber the passengers over Waterloo Bridge by ten to one. + +Indeed, so lamentable a proposition as this of building a bridge +across the river had never before been mooted by the public. Men +conversant with such matters gave it as their opinion that no +amount of tolls that could reasonably be expected would pay one +per cent on the money which it was proposed to expend; that sum, +however, they stated, would not more than half cover the full +cost of the bridge. Traffic would be prohibited by the heavy +charges which would be necessary, and the probability would be +that the ferry would still continue to be the ordinary mode of +crossing the river. + +A gentleman, accustomed to use strong figures of speech, declared +that if such a bridge were built, the wisest course would be to +sow the surface with grass, and let it out for grazing. This +witness was taken specially in hand by Mr. Nogo, and targed very +tightly. Mr. Vigil had contrived to prove, out of the mouths of +inimical witnesses, the very reverse of that which they had been +summoned thither to assert. The secret of the ferry had been +first brought to the light by the gentleman who could not visit +his daughter at Deptford, and so on. These triumphs had evidently +been very pleasant to Mr. Vigil, and Mr. Nogo thought that he +might judiciously take a leaf out of the Treasury book. Actuated +by this ambition, he, with the assistance of his friend, the +M'Carthy Desmond, put no less than 2,250 questions to the +gentleman who suggested the grazing, in order to induce him to +say, that if there were a bridge, men would probably walk over +it. But they could not bring him to own to a single passenger, +unless they would abandon the tolls. The most that they could get +from him was, that perhaps an old woman, with more money than +wit, might go over it on a Sunday afternoon, if--which he did not +believe--any old woman existed, _in that part of the world_, +who had more money than wit. + +This witness was kept in the chair for three days, during which +Mr. Vigil was nearly driven wild by the loss of his valuable +time. But he did not complain. Nor would he have complained, +though he might have absented himself, had the witness been kept +in the chair three weeks instead of three days. The expense of +the committee, including witnesses, shorthand-writers, and +printing, was about L60 a day, but it never occurred to any one +of the number to get up and declare with indignation, that such a +waste of money and time on so palpably absurd a scheme was +degrading, and to demand an immediate close of their labours. It +all went smoothly to the end, and Mr. Nogo walked off from his +task with the approving conscience of a patriotic legislator. + +At the close the members met to prepare their report. It was then +the first week in August, and they were naturally in a hurry to +finish their work. It was now their duty to decide on the merits +of what they had heard, to form a judgement as to the veracity of +the witnesses, and declare, on behalf of the country which they +represented, whether or no this bridge should be built at the +expense of the nation. + +With his decision each was ready enough; but not one of them +dreamed of being influenced by anything which had been said +before them. All the world--that is, all that were in any way +concerned in the matter--knew that the witnesses for the bridge +were anxious to have it built, and that the witnesses against the +bridge were anxious to prevent the building. It would be the +worst of ignorance, ignorance of the usage of the world we live +in, to suppose that any member of Parliament could be influenced +by such manoeuvres. Besides, was not the mind of each man fully +known before the committee met? + +Various propositions were made by the members among themselves, +and various amendments moved. The balance of the different +parties had been nearly preserved. A decided victory was not to +be expected on either side. At last the resolution to which the +committee came was this: 'That this committee is not prepared, +under existing circumstances, to recommend a grant of public +money for the purpose of erecting a bridge at Limehouse; but that +the committee consider that the matter is still open to +consideration should further evidence be adduced.' + +Mr. Vigil was perfectly satisfied. He did not wish to acerbate +the member for Mile End, and was quite willing to give him a lift +towards keeping his seat for the borough, if able to do so +without cost to the public exchequer. At Limehouse the report of +the committee was declared by certain persons to be as good as a +decision in their favour; it was only postponing the matter for +another session. But Mr. Vigil knew that he had carried his +point, and the world soon agreed with him. He at least did his +work successfully, and, considering the circumstances of his +position, he did it with credit to himself. + +A huge blue volume was then published, containing, among other +things, all Mr. Nogo's 2,250 questions and their answers; and so +the Limehouse and Rotherhithe bridge dropped into oblivion and +was forgotten. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +TO STAND, OR NOT TO STAND + + +Sir Gregory Hardlines had been somewhat startled by Alaric's +announcement of his parliamentary intentions. It not unnaturally +occurred to that great man that should Mr. Tudor succeed at +Strathbogy, and should he also succeed in being allowed to hold +his office and seat together, he, Tudor, would very soon become +first fiddle at the Civil Service Examination Board. This was a +view of the matter which was by no means agreeable to Sir +Gregory. Not for this had he devoted his time, his energy, and +the best powers of his mind to the office of which he was at +present the chief; not for this had he taken by the hand a young +clerk, and brought him forward, and pushed him up, and seated him +in high places. To have kept Mr. Jobbles would have been better +than this; he, at any rate, would not have aspired to parliamentary +honours. + +And when Sir Gregory came to look into it, he hardly knew whether +those bugbears with which he had tried to frighten Tudor were +good serviceable bugbears, such as would stand the strain of such +a man's logic and reason. Was there really any reason why one of +the commissioners should not sit in Parliament? Would his doing +so be subversive of the constitution? Or would the ministers of +the day object to an additional certain vote? This last point of +view was one in which it did not at all delight Sir Gregory to +look at the subject in question. He determined that he would not +speak on the matter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or to any +of the Government wigs who might be considered to be bigger wigs +than himself. + +And Alaric thought over the matter coolly also. He looked at it +till the bugbears shrank into utter insignificance; till they +became no more than forms of shreds and patches put up to +frighten birds out of cherry-orchards. + +Why should the constitution be wounded by the presence of one +more commissioner in Parliament? Why should not he do his public +duty and hold his seat at the same time, as was done by so many +others? But he would have to go out if the ministry went out. +That was another difficulty, another bugbear, more substantial +perhaps than the others; but he was prepared to meet even that. +He was a poor man; his profession was that of the Civil Service; +his ambition was to sit in Parliament. He would see whether he +could not combine his poverty with his profession, and with his +ambition also. Sir Gregory resolved in his fear that he would not +speak to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the matter; Alaric, +on the other hand, in his audacity, resolved that he would do so. + +It was thus that Sir Gregory regarded the matter. 'See all that I +have done for this man,' said he to himself; 'see how I have +warmed him in my bosom, how I have lifted him to fortune and +renown, how I have heaped benefits on his head! If gratitude in +this world be possible, that man should be grateful to me; if one +man can ever have another's interest at heart, that man should +have a heartfelt anxiety as to my interest. And yet how is it? I +have placed him in the chair next to my own, and now he is +desirous of sitting above me!' + +'Twas thus Sir Gregory communed with himself. But Alaric's +soliloquy was very different. A listener who could have overheard +both would hardly have thought that the same question was being +discussed by the two. 'I have got so high,' said Alaric, 'by my +own labour, by my own skill and tact; and why should I stop here? +I have left my earliest colleagues far behind me; have distanced +those who were my competitors in the walk of life; why should I +not still go on and distance others also? why stop when I am only +second or third? It is very natural that Sir Gregory should wish +to keep me out of Parliament; I cannot in the least blame him; +let us all fight as best each may for himself. He does not wish a +higher career; I do. Sir Gregory will now do all that he can to +impede my views, because they are antagonistic to his own; very +well; I must only work the harder to overcome his objections.' +There was no word in all this of gratitude; there was no thought +in Alaric's mind that it behoved him to be grateful to Sir +Gregory. It was for his own sake, not for his pupil's, that Sir +Gregory had brought this pupil forward. Grateful, indeed! In +public life when is there time for gratitude? Who ever thinks of +other interest than his own? + +Such was Alaric's theory of life. But not the less would he have +expected gratitude from those whom he might serve. Such also very +probably was Sir Gregory's theory when he thought of those who +had helped him, instead of those whom he himself had helped. + +And so they met, and discussed Alaric's little proposition. + +'Since I saw you yesterday,' said Sir Gregory, 'I have been +thinking much of what you were saying to me of your wish to go +into Parliament.' + +'I am very much obliged to you,' said Alaric. + +'I need hardly tell you, Tudor, how anxious I am to further your +advancement. I greatly value your ability and diligence, and have +shown that I am anxious to make them serviceable to the public.' + +'I am fully aware that I owe you a great deal, Sir Gregory.' + +'Oh, I don't mean that; that's nothing; I am not thinking of +myself. I only want you to understand that I am truly anxious to +see you take that line in public matters which may make your +services most valuable to the public, and which may redound the +most to your own advantage. I have thought of what you said to me +with the most mature deliberation, and I am persuaded that I +shall best do my duty to you, and to the service, by recommending +you to abandon altogether your idea of going into Parliament.' + +Sir Gregory said this in his weightiest manner. He endeavoured to +assume some of that authority with which he had erst cowed the +young Tudor at the Weights and Measures, and as he finished his +speech he assumed a profound look which ought to have been very +convincing. + +But the time was gone by with Alaric when such tricks of +legerdemain were convincing to him. A grave brow, compressed +lips, and fixed eyes, had no longer much effect upon him. He had +a point to gain, and he was thinking of that, and not of Sir +Gregory's grimaces. + +'Then you will not see the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the +subject?' + +'No,' said Sir Gregory; 'it would be useless for me to do so. I +could not advocate such a scheme, feeling certain that it would be +injurious both to yourself and to the service; and I would not +desire to see the Chancellor with the view of opposing your wishes.' + +'I am much obliged to you for that, at any rate,' said Alaric. + +'But I do hope that you will not carry your plan any farther. +When I tell you, as I do with the utmost sincerity, that I feel +certain that an attempt to seat yourself in Parliament can only +lead to the ruin of your prospects as a Civil servant--prospects +which are brighter now than those of any other young man in the +service--I cannot but think that you must hesitate before you +take any step which will, in my opinion, render your resignation +necessary.' + +'I shall be sorry to resign, Sir Gregory, as I have such true +pleasure in serving with you.' + +'And, I presume, a salary of L1,200 a year is not unacceptable?' +said Sir Gregory, with the very faintest of smiles. + +'By no means,' said Alaric; 'I am a poor man, depending +altogether on my own exertions for an income. I cannot afford to +throw away a chance.' + +'Then take my word for it, you should give up all idea of +Parliament,' said Sir Gregory, who thought that he had carried +his point. + +'But I call a seat in Parliament a chance,' said Alaric; 'the +best chance that a man, circumstanced as I am, can possibly have. +I have the offer of a seat, Sir Gregory, and I can't afford to +throw it away.' + +'Then it is my duty to tell you, as the head of your office, that +it will be your duty to resign before you offer yourself as a +candidate.' + +'That you mean is your present opinion, Sir Gregory?' + +'Yes, Mr. Tudor, that is my opinion--an opinion which I shall be +forced to express to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if you +persist in this infatuation.' + +Alaric looked very grave, but not a whit angry. 'I am sorry for +it, Sir Gregory, very sorry; I had hoped to have had your +countenance.' + +'I would give it you, Mr. Tudor, if I could consistently with my +duty as a public servant; but as I cannot, I am sure you will not +ask for it.' How Fidus Neverbend would have admired the chief +commissioner could he have seen and heard him at this moment! +'But,' he continued, relaxing for a while the muscles of his +face, 'I hope, I do hope, you will think better of this. What are +you to gain? Come, Tudor, think of it that way. What are you to +gain? You, with a wife and young family coming up about your +heels, what are you to gain by going into Parliament? That is +what I ask you. What are you to gain?' It was delightful to see +how pleasantly practical Sir Gregory could become when he chose +to dismount from his high horse. + +'It is considered a high position in this country, that of a +member of Parliament,' said Alaric. 'A man in gaining that is +generally supposed to have gained something.' + +'True, quite true. It is a desirable position for a rich man, or +a rich man's eldest son, or even for a poor man, if by getting +into Parliament he can put himself in the way of improving his +income. But, my dear Tudor, you are in none of these positions. +Abandon the idea, my dear Tudor--pray abandon it. If not for your +own sake, at any rate do so for that of your wife and child.' + +Sir Gregory might as well have whistled. Not a word that he said +had the slightest effect on Alaric. How was it possible that his +words should have any effect, seeing that Alaric was convinced +that Sir Gregory was pleading for his own advantage, and not for +that of his listener? Alaric did listen. He received all that Sir +Gregory said with the most profound attention; schooled his face +into a look of the most polite deference; and then, with his most +cruel tone, informed Sir Gregory that his mind was quite made up, +and that he did intend to submit himself to the electors of +Strathbogy. + +'And as to what you say about my seat at the board, Sir Gregory, +you may probably be right. Perhaps it will be as well that I +should see the Chancellor of the Exchequer myself.' + +'"Who will to Cupar maun to Cupar,"' said Sir Gregory; 'I can +only say, Mr. Tudor, that I am very sorry for you, and very sorry +for your wife--very sorry, very sorry indeed.' + +'And who will to Strathbogy maun to Strathbogy,' said Alaric, +laughing; 'there is certainly an air of truth about the proverb +as applied to myself just at present. But the fact is, whether +for good or for bad, I maun to Strathbogy. That is my present +destiny. The fact that I have a wife and a child does make the +step a most momentous one. But, Sir Gregory, I should never +forgive myself were I to throw away such an opportunity.' + +'Then I have nothing more to say, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Of course I shall try to save my place,' continued Alaric. + +'I look upon that as quite impossible,' said Sir Gregory. + +'It can do me no harm at any rate to see the Chancellor of the +Exchequer. If he tells me that a seat in Parliament and a seat at +the board are incompatible, and that as one of the Civil Service +Commissioners I am not free to stand for the borough, I will in +that case, Sir Gregory, put my resignation in your hands before I +publish my address.' + +And so they parted, each determined to do all that in him lay to +thwart the wishes of the other. Alaric was not in the least +influenced by anything that Sir Gregory had said to him; he had +made up his mind, and was determined to be turned from it by no +arguments that his colleague could use; but nevertheless he could +not but be meditative, as, walking home across the Parks, he +thought of his wife and child. It is true that he had a second +trade; he was a stock-jobber as well as a Civil Service +Commissioner; but he already perceived how very difficult it was +to realize an income to which he could trust from that second +precarious pursuit. He had also lived in a style considerably +beyond that which his official income would have enabled him to +assume. He had on the whole, he thought, done very well; but yet +it would be a dreadful thing to have to trust to so precarious a +livelihood. He had realized nothing; he had not yet been able to +pay back the money which he had so fraudulently taken, and to +acquit himself of a debt which now lay daily heavier and heavier +on his soul. He felt that he must repay not only that but Undy's +share also, before he could again pass a happy day or a quiet +night. This plan of throwing up L1,200 a year would badly assist +him in getting rid of this incubus. + +But still that watchword of his goaded him on--'Excelsior!' he +still said to himself; 'Excelsior!' If he halted now, now when +the ball was at his foot, he might never have another chance. +Very early in life before a beard was on his chin, before he +could style himself a man according to the laws of his country, +he had determined within himself that a seat in Parliament was +the only fitting ambition for an Englishman. That was now within +his reach. Would he be such a dastard as to draw back his hand, +and be deterred from taking it, by old women's tales of prudence, +and the self-interested lectures of Sir Gregory Hardlines? + +'Excelsior!' There was not much that could be so styled in that +debt of his to M. and Madame Jaquetanape. If he could only pay +that off he felt that he could brave the world without a fear. +Come what come might he would sell out and do so. The bridge +committee was sitting, and his shares were already worth more +than he had paid for them. Mr. Blocks had just given his +evidence, and the commercial world was willing enough to invest +in the Limehouse bridge. He would sell out and put his conscience +at rest. + +But then to do so successfully, he must induce Undy to do so too; +and that he knew would not at present be an easy task. Who had +ever been successful in getting back money from Undy Scott? He +had paid the last half-year's interest with most commendable +punctuality, and was not that a great deal from Undy Scott? + +But what if this appropriation of another's money, what if this +fraud should be detected and exposed before he had succeeded in +paying back the L10,000. What if he should wake some morning and +find himself in the grip of some Newgate myrmidon? A terrible new +law had just been passed for the protection of trust property; a +law in which he had not felt the slightest interest when he had +first seen in the daily newspapers some tedious account of the +passing of the various clauses, but which was now terrible to his +innermost thoughts. + +His walk across the Parks was not made happy by much self- +triumph. In spite of his commissionership and coming parliamentary +honours, his solitary moments were seldom very happy. It was at +his club, when living with Undy and Undy's peers, that he was +best able to throw off his cares and enjoy himself. But even then, +high as he was mounted on his fast-trotting horse, black Care +would sit behind him, ever mounted on the same steed. + +And bitterly did poor Gertrude feel the misery of these evenings +which her husband passed at his club; but she never reviled him +or complained; she never spoke of her sorrow even to her mother +or sister. She did not even blame him in her own heart. She knew +that he had other business than that of his office, higher hopes +than those attached to his board; and she taught herself to +believe that his career required him to be among public men. + +He had endeavoured to induce her to associate constantly with +Mrs. Val, so that her evenings might not be passed alone; but +Gertrude, after trying Mrs. Val for a time, had quietly +repudiated the closeness of this alliance. Mrs. Val had her ideas +of 'Excelsior,' her ambition to rule, and these ideas and this +ambition did not at all suit Gertrude's temper. Not even for her +husband's sake could she bring herself to be patronized by Mrs. +Val. They were still very dear friends, of course; but they did +not live in each other's arms as Alaric had intended they should +do. + +He returned home after his interview with Sir Gregory, and found +his wife in the drawing-room with her child. He usually went down +from his office to his club, and she was therefore the more ready +to welcome him for having broken through his habit on the present +occasion. + +She left her infant sprawling on the floor, and came up to greet +him with a kiss. + +'Ger,'--said he, putting his arm round her and embracing her--'I +have come home to consult you on business;' and then he seated +himself on the sofa, taking her with him, and still in his arms. +There was but little doubt that she would consent to anything +which he could propose to her after such a fashion, in such a +guise as this; that he knew full well. + +'Well, love,' said she, 'and what is the business about? You know +that I always think that to be best which you think to be best.' + +'Yes, Ger; but this is a very important matter;' and then he +looked grave, but managed at the same time to look happy and +contented. 'This is a matter of vital importance to you, and I +will do nothing in it without your consent.' + +'What is best for you must be best for me,' said Gertrude, +kissing his forehead. + +Then he explained to her what had passed between himself and Sir +Gregory, and what his own ideas were as regarded the borough of +Strathbogy. 'Sir Gregory,' said he, 'is determined that I shall +not remain at the board and sit in Parliament at the same time; +but I do not see why Sir Gregory is to have his own way in +everything. If you are not afraid of the risk, I will make up my +mind to stand it at all events, and to resign if the Minister +makes it imperative. If, however, you fear the result, I will let +the matter drop, and tell the Scotts to find another candidate. I +am anxious to go into Parliament, I confess; but I will never do +so at the expense of your peace of mind.' + +The way in which he put upon her the whole weight of the decision +was not generous. Nor was the mode he adopted of inducing her to +back his own wishes. If there were risk to her--and in truth +there was fearful risk--it was his duty to guard her from the +chance, not hers to say whether such danger should be encountered +or no. The nature of her answer may be easily surmised. She was +generous, though he was not. She would never retard his advance, +or be felt as a millstone round his neck. She encouraged him with +all her enthusiasm, and bade him throw prudence to the winds. If +he rose, must she not rise also? Whatever step in life was good +for him, must it not be good for her as well? And so that matter +was settled between them--pleasantly enough. + +He endured a fortnight of considerable excitement, during which +he and Sir Gregory did not smile at each other, and then he saw +the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That gentleman promised to speak +to the Prime Minister, feeling himself unable to answer the +question put to him, definitely out of his own head; and then +another fortnight passed on. At the end of that time the +Chancellor of the Exchequer sent for Alaric, and they had a +second interview. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor,' said the great man, 'this is a matter of very +considerable importance, and one on which I am not even yet +prepared to give you a positive answer.' + +This was very good news for Alaric. Sir Gregory had spoken of the +matter as one on which there could be no possible doubt. He had +asserted that the British lion would no longer sleep peaceably in +his lair, if such a violence were put on the constitution as that +meditated by the young commissioner. It was quite clear that the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Prime Minister also, looked +at it in a very different light. They doubted, and Alaric was +well aware that their doubt was as good as certainty to him. + +The truth was that the Prime Minister had said to the Chancellor +of the Exchequer, in a half-serious, half-jocular way, that he +didn't see why he should reject a vote when offered to him by a +member of the Civil Service. The man must of course do his work-- +and should it be found that his office work and his seat in +Parliament interfered with each other, why, he must take the +consequences. And if--or--or--made a row about it in the House +and complained, why in that case also Mr. Tudor must take the +consequences. And then, enough having been said on that matter, +the conversation dropped. + +'I am not prepared to give a positive answer,' said the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, who of course did not choose to +commit himself. + +Alaric assured the great man that he was not so unreasonable as +to expect a positive answer. Positive answers, as he well knew, +were not often forthcoming among official men; official men, as +he had already learnt, prefer to do their business by answers +which are not positive. He himself had become adverse to positive +answers since he had become a commissioner, and was quite +prepared to dispense with them in the parliamentary career which +he hoped that he was now about to commence. This much, however, +was quite clear, that he might offer himself as a candidate to +the electors of Strathbogy without resigning; and that Sir +Gregory's hostile remonstrance on the subject, should he choose +to make one, would not be received as absolute law by the greater +powers. + +Accordingly as Alaric was elated, Sir Gregory was depressed. He +had risen high, but now this young tyro whom he had fostered was +about to climb above his head. O the ingratitude of men! + +Alaric, however, showed no triumph. He was more submissive, more +gracious than ever to his chief. It was only to himself that he +muttered 'Excelsior! + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +WESTMINSTER HALL + + +The parliamentary committee pursued their animated inquiries +respecting the Limehouse bridge all through the sultry month of +July. How Mr. Vigil must have hated Mr. Nogo, and the M'Carthy +Desmond! how sick he must have been of that eternal witness who, +with imperturbable effrontery, answered the 2,250 questions put +to him without admitting anything! To Mr. Vigil it was all mere +nonsense, sheer waste of time. Had he been condemned to sit for +eight days in close contiguity to the clappers of a small mill, +he would have learnt as much as he did from the witnesses before +the committee. Nevertheless he went through it and did not lose +his temper. He smiled sweetly on Mr. Nogo every morning, and +greeted the titled Irishman with his easy familiar nod, as though +the continued sitting of this very committee was of all things to +him the most desirable. Such is Mr. Vigil's peculiar tact, such +his special talent; these are the gifts--gifts by no means +ordinary--which have made him Right Honourable, and recommended +him to the confidence of successive badgers. + +But though the committee was uninteresting to Mr. Vigil, it was +not so to the speculative inhabitants of Limehouse, or to the +credulous shopkeepers of Rotherhithe. On the evening of the day +on which Mr. Blocks was examined, the shares went up 20 per cent; +and when his evidence was published _in extenso_ the next +Saturday morning by the _Capel Court Share-buyer_, a periodical +which served for Bible and Prayer-book, as well as a Compendium +of the Whole Duty of Man, to Undy Scott and his friends, a further rise +in the price of this now valuable property was the immediate +consequence. + +Now, then, was the time for Alaric to sell and get out of his +difficulties if ever he could do so. Shares which he bought for +30s. were now worth nearly L2 10s. He was strongly of opinion +that they would fall again, and that the final result of the +committee would leave them of a less value than their original +purchase-money, and probably altogether valueless. He could not, +however, act in the matter without consulting Undy, so closely +linked were they in the speculation; and even at the present +price his own shares would not enable him to pay back the full +amount of what he had taken. + +The joint property of the two was, however, at its present market +price, worth L12,000--L10,000 would make him a free man. He was +perfectly willing to let Undy have the full use of the difference +in amount; nay, he was ready enough to give it to him altogether, +if by so doing he could place the whole of his ward's money once +more in safety. With the power of offering such a douceur to his +friend's rapacity, he flattered himself that he might have a +chance of being successful. He was thus prepared to discuss the +matter with his partner. + +It so happened that at the same moment Undy was desirous of +discussing the same subject, their joint interest, namely, in the +Limehouse bridge; there was no difficulty therefore in their +coming together. They met at the door of the committee-room when +Mr. Nogo had just put his 999th question to the adverse witness; +and as the summons to prayers prevented the 1,000th being +proceeded with at that moment, Undy and Alaric sauntered back +along the passages, and then walking up and down the immense +space of Westminster Hall, said each to the other what he had to +say on the matter mooted between them. + +Undy was in great glee, and seemed to look on his fortune as +already made. They had at first confined their remarks to the +special evidence of the witness who had last been in the chair; +and Undy, with the volubility which was common to him when he was +in high spirits, had been denouncing him as an ass who was +injuring his own cause by his over obstinacy. + +'Nothing that he can say,' said Undy, 'will tell upon the share- +market. The stock is rising from hour to hour; and Piles himself +told me that he knew from sure intelligence that the Chancellor +of the Exchequer is prepared to give way, whatever Vigil may say +to the contrary. Their firm, Piles says, is buying every share +they can lay their hands on.' + +'Then in God's name let them buy ours,' said Alaric. + +'Buy ours!' said Undy. 'You don't mean to tell me that you wish +to sell now? You don't mean to say that you want to back out, now +that the game is all going our own way?' + +'Indeed I do, and I intend to do so; just listen to me, Undy----' + +'I tell you fairly, Tudor, I will not sell a share; what you may +choose to do with your own I cannot say. But if you will be +guided by me you will keep every share you have got. Instead of +selling we should both add to our stock. I at any rate am +resolved to do so.' + +'Listen to me, Undy,' said Alaric. + +'The truth is,' said Undy--who at the present moment preferred +talking to listening--'the truth is, you do not understand buying +and selling shares. We should both be ruined very quickly were I +to allow myself to be led by you; you are too timid, too much +afraid of risking your money; your speculative pluck hardly rises +higher than the Three per cents, and never soars above a first- +class mortgage on land.' + +'I could be as sanguine as you are, and as bold,' said Alaric, +'were I venturing with my own money.' + +'In the name of goodness get that bugbear out of your head,' said +Undy. 'Whatever good it might have done you to think of that some +time ago, it can do you no good now.' There was a bitter truth in +this which made Alaric's heart sink low within his breast. +'Wherever the money came from, whose property it may have been or +be, it has been used; and now your only safety is in making the +best use of it. A little daring, a little audacity--it is that +which ruins men. When you sit down to play brag, you must brag it +out, or lose your money.' + +'But, my dear fellow, there is no question here of losing money. +If we sell now we shall realize about L2,000.' + +'And will that, or the half of that, satisfy you? Is that your +idea of a good thing? Will that be sufficient to pay for the +dozen of bad things which a fellow is always putting his foot +into? It won't satisfy me. I can tell you that, at any rate.' + +Alaric felt very desirous of keeping Undy in a good humour. He +wished, if possible, to persuade him rather than to drive him; to +coax him into repaying this money, and not absolutely to demand +the repayment. 'Come,' said he, 'what do you call a good thing +yourself?' + +'I call cent per cent a good thing, and I'll not sell a share +till they come up to that.' + +'They'll never do that, Undy.' + +'That's your opinion. I think differently. And I'm sure you will +own I have had more experience of the share-market than you have. +When I see such men as Blocks and Piles buying fast, I know very +well which way the wind blows. A man may be fishing a long time, +Tudor, in these waters, before he gets such a haul as this; but +he must be a great fool to let go his net when he does get it.' + +They both then remained silent for a time, for each was doubtful +how best to put forward the view which he himself wished to urge. +Their projects were diametrically different, and yet neither +could carry his own without the assistance of the other. + +'I tell you what I propose,' said Undy. + +'Wait a moment, Undy,' said Alaric; 'listen to me for one moment. +I can hear nothing till you do so, and then I will hear +anything.' + +'Well, what is it?' + +We have each of us put something near to L5,000 into this +venture.' + +'I have put more,' said Scott. + +'Very well. But we have each of us withdrawn a sum equal to that +I have named from my ward's fortune for this purpose.' + +'I deny that,' said Undy. 'I have taken nothing from your ward's +fortune. I have had no power to do so. You have done as you +pleased with that fortune. But I am ready to admit that I have +borrowed L5,000--not from your ward, but from you.' + +Alaric was nearly beside himself; but he still felt that he +should have no chance of carrying his point if he lost his +temper. + +'That is ungenerous of you, Scott, to say the least of it; but +we'll let that pass. To enable me to lend you the L5,000, and to +enable me to join you in this speculation, L10,000 has been +withdrawn from Clementina's fortune.' + +'I know nothing about that,' said Scott. + +'Know nothing about it!' said Alaric, looking at him with +withering scorn. But Undy was not made of withering material, and +did not care a straw for his friend's scorn. + +'Nothing whatever,' said he. + +'Well, so be it,' said Alaric; 'but the fact is, the money has +been withdrawn.' + +'I don't doubt that in the least,' said Undy. 'I am not now going +to argue whether the fault has been most mine or yours,' +continued Alaric. + +'Well, that is kind of you,' said Undy, 'considering that you are +the girl's trustee, and that I have no more to do with it than +that fellow in the wig there.' + +'I wish at any rate you would let me explain myself,' said +Alaric, who felt that his patience was fast going, and who could +hardly resist the temptation of seizing his companion by the +throat, and punishing him on the spot for his iniquity. + +'I don't prevent you, my dear fellow--only remember this: I will +not permit you to assert, without contradicting you, that I am +responsible for Clem's fortune. Now, go on, and explain away as +hard as you like.' + +Alaric, under these circumstances, found it not very easy to put +what he had to say into any words that his companion would admit. +He fully intended at some future day to thrust Scott's innocence +down his throat, and tell him that he was not only a thief, but a +mean, lying, beggarly thief. But the present was not the time. +Too much depended on his inducing Undy to act with him. + +'Ten thousand pounds has at any rate been taken.' + +'That I won't deny.' + +'And half that sum has been lent to you.' + +'I acknowledge a debt of L5,000.' + +'It is imperative that L10,000 should at once be repaid.' + +'I have no objection in life.' + +'I can sell my shares in the Limehouse bridge,' continued Alaric, +'for L6,000, and I am prepared to do so.' + +'The more fool you,' said Undy,' if you do it; especially as +L6,000 won't pay L10,000, and as the same property, if overheld +another month or two, in all probability will do so.' + +'I am ready to sacrifice that and more than that,' said Alaric. +'If you will sell out L4,000, and let me at once have that +amount, so as to make up the full sum I owe, I will make you a +free present of the remainder of the debt. Come, Undy, you cannot +but call that a good thing. You will have pocketed two thousand +pounds, according to the present market value of the shares, and +that without the slightest risk.' + +Undy for a while seemed staggered by the offer. Whether it was +Alaric's extreme simplicity in making it, or his own good luck in +receiving it, or whether by any possible chance some all but +dormant remnant of feeling within his heart was touched, we will +not pretend to say. But for a while he walked on silent, as +though wavering in his resolution, and looking as if he wished to +be somewhat more civil, somewhat less of the bully, than he had +been. + +There was no one else to whom Alaric could dare to open his heart +on this subject of his ward's fortune; there was none other but +this ally of his to whom he could confide, whom he could consult. +Unpromising, therefore, though Undy was as a confederate, Alaric, +when he thought he saw this change in his manner, poured forth at +once the full tide of his feelings. + +'Undy,' said he, 'pray bear with me a while. The truth is, I +cannot endure this misery any longer. I do not now want to blame +anyone but myself. The thing has been done, and it is useless now +to talk of blame. The thing has been done, and all that now +remains for me is to undo it; to put this girl's money back +again, and get this horrid weight from off my breast.' + +'Upon my word, my dear fellow, I did not think that you took it +in such a light as that,' said Undy. + +'I am miserable about it,' said Alaric. 'It keeps me awake all +night, and destroys all my energy during the day.' + +'Oh, that's all bile,' said Undy. 'You should give up fish for a +few days, and take a blue pill at night.' + +'Scott, this money must be paid back at once, or I shall lose my +senses. Fortune has so far favoured me as to enable me to put my +hand at once on the larger portion of it. You must let me have +the remainder. In God's name say that you will do so.' + +Undy Scott unfortunately had not the power to do as he was asked. +Whether he would have done so, had he had the power, may be +doubtful. He was somewhat gravelled for an answer to Alaric's +earnest supplication, and therefore made none till the request +was repeated. + +'In God's name let me have this money,' repeated Alaric. 'You +will then have made two thousand pounds by the transaction.' + +'My dear Tudor,' said he, 'your stomach is out of order, I can +see it as well as possible from the way you talk.' + +Here was an answer for a man to get to the most earnest appeal +which he could make! Here was comfort for a wretch suffering from +fear, remorse, and shame, as Alaric was suffering. He had spoken +of his feelings and his heart, but these were regions quite out +of Undy Scott's cognizance. 'Take a blue pill,' said he, 'and +you'll be as right as a trivet in a couple of days.' + +What was Alaric to say? What could he say to a man who at such a +crisis could talk to him of blue pills? For a while he said +nothing; but the form of his face changed, a darkness came over +his brow which Scott had never before seen there, the colour flew +from his face, his eyes sparkled, and a strange appearance of +resolute defiance showed itself round his mouth. Scott began to +perceive that his medical advice would not be taken in good part. + +'Scott,' said he, stopping short in his walk and taking hold of +the collar of his companion's coat, not loosely by the button, +but with a firm grip which Undy felt that it would be difficult +to shake off--'Scott, you will find that I am not to be trifled +with. You have made a villain of me. I can see no way to escape +from my ruin without your aid; but by the living God, if I fall, +you shall fall with me. Tell me now; will you let me have the sum +I demand? If you do not, I will go to your brother's wife and +tell her what has become of her daughter's money.' + +'You may go to the devil's wife if you like it,' said Undy, 'and +tell her whatever you please.' + +'You refuse, then?' said Alaric, still keeping hold of Undy's +coat. + +'Come, take your hand off,' said Undy. 'You will make me think +your head is wrong as well as your stomach, if you go on like +this. Take your hand off and listen to me. I will then explain to +you why I cannot do what you would have me. Take your hand away, +I say; do you not see that people are looking at us.' + +They were now standing at the upper end of the hall--close under +the steps which lead to the Houses of Parliament; and, as Undy +said, the place was too public for a display of physical +resentment. Alaric took his hand away. 'Well,' said he, 'now tell +me what is to hinder you from letting me have the money you owe +me?' + +'Only this,' said Undy, 'that every share I have in the concern +is made over by way of security to old M'Cleury, and he now holds +them. Till I have redeemed them, I have no power of selling.' + +Alaric, when he heard these words, could hardly prevent himself +from falling in the middle of the hall. All his hopes were then +over; he had no chance of shaking this intolerable burden from +his shoulders; he had taken the woman's money, this money which +had been entrusted to his honour and safe-keeping, and thrown it +into a bottomless gulf. + +'And now listen to me,' said Undy, looking at his watch. 'I must +be in the House in ten or fifteen minutes, for this bill about +married women is on, and I am interested in it: listen to me now +for five minutes. All this that you have been saying is sheer +nonsense.' + +'I think you'll find that it is not all nonsense,' said Alaric. + +'Oh, I am not in the least afraid of your doing anything rash. +You'll be cautious enough I know when you come to be cool; +especially if you take a little physic. What I want to say is +this--Clem's money is safe enough. I tell you these bridge shares +will go on rising till the beginning of next session. Instead of +selling, what we should do is to buy up six or seven thousand +pounds more.' + +'What, with Clementina's money?' + +'It's as well to be hung for a sheep as a lamb. Besides, your +doing so is your only safety. My brother Val insists upon having +250 shares.' + +'Your brother Val!' said Alaric. + +'Yes, Val; and why shouldn't he? I would give them to him if I +could, but I can't. M'Cleury, as I tell you, has every share of +mine in his possession.' + +'Your brother Val wants 250 shares! And does he expect me to give +them to him?' + +'Well--I rather think he does. That is, not to give them, of +course; you don't suppose he wants you to make him a present of +money. But he wants you to accommodate him with the price of +them. You can either do that, or let him have so many of your +own; it will be as broad as it is long; and he'll give you his +note of hand for the amount.' + +Now it was well known among the acquaintance of the Scott family, +that the note of hand of the Honourable Captain Val was not worth +the paper on which it was written. + +Alaric was so astonished at this monstrous request, coming as it +did after such a conversation, that he did not well know how to +take it. + +Was Undy mad, or was he in joke? What man in his senses would +think of lending six or seven hundred pounds to Val Scott! 'I +suppose you are in jest,' said he, somewhat bitterly. + +'I never was more in earnest in my life,' said Undy. 'I'll just +explain how the matter is; and as you are sharp enough, you'll +see at once that you had better oblige him. Val, you know, is +always hard up; he can't touch a shilling of that woman's money, +and just at present he has none of his own. So he came to me this +morning to raise the wind.' + +'And you are kind enough to pass him on to me.' + +'Listen a moment. I did not do anything of the kind. I never lend +money to Val. It's a principle with me not to do so, and he knows +it.' + +'Then just tell him that my principles in this respect are +identical with your own.' + +'That's all very well; and you may tell him so yourself, if you +like it; but hear first of all what his arguments are. Of course +I told him I could do nothing for him. 'But,' said he, 'you can +get Tudor to do it.' I told him, of course, that I could do +nothing of the kind. 'Oh!' said Val, 'I know the game you are +both playing. I know all about Clem's money.' Val, you know, +never says much. He was playing pool at the time, at the club; +but he came back after his stroke, and whispered to me--'You and +Tudor must let me have 250 of those shares, and then it'll be all +right.' Now Val, you know, is a most determined fellow. + +Alaric, when he heard this, looked up into his companion's face +to see whether he was talking to the Evil One himself. Oh, what a +net of ruin was closing round him!--how inextricable were the +toils into which he had fallen! + +'After all,' continued Undy,' what he asks is not much, and I +really think you should do it for him. He is quite willing to +give you his assistance at Strathbogy, and he is entitled to some +accommodation.' + +'Some accommodation!' repeated Alaric, almost lost in the +consideration of his own misery. + +'Yes; I really think he is. And, Tudor, you may be sure of this, +you know; you will be quite safe with him. Val is the very soul +of honour. Do this for him, and you'll hear no more about it. You +may be quite sure he'll ask for nothing further, and that he'll +never say a word to annoy you. He's devilish honourable is Val; +no man can be more so; though, perhaps, you wouldn't think it.' + +'Devilish honourable!' said Alaric. 'Only he would like to have a +bribe.' + +'A bribe!' said Scott. 'Come, my dear fellow, don't you make an +ass of yourself. Val is like the rest of us; when money is going, +he likes to have a share of it. If you come to that, every man +who is paid either for talking or for not talking is bribed.' + +'I don't know that I ever heard of a much clearer case of a bribe +than this which you now demand for your brother.' + +'Bribe or no bribe,' said Undy, looking at his watch, 'I strongly +advise you to do for him what he asks; it will be better for all +of us. And let me give you another piece of advice: never use +hard words among friends. Do you remember the Mary Janes which +Manylodes brought for you in his pocket to the hotel at +Tavistock?' Here Alaric turned as pale as a spectre. 'Don't talk +of bribes, my dear fellow. We are all of us giving and taking +bribes from our cradles to our graves; but men of the world +generally call them by some prettier names. Now, if you are not +desirous to throw your cards up altogether, get these shares for +Val, and let him or me have them to-morrow morning.' And so +saying Undy disappeared into the House, through the side door out +of the hall, which is appropriated to the use of honourable +members. + +And then Alaric was left alone. He had never hitherto realized +the true facts of the position in which he had placed himself; +but now he did so. He was in the hands of these men, these +miscreants, these devils; he was completely at their mercy, and +he already felt that they were as devoid of mercy as they were of +justice. A cold sweat broke out all over him, and he continued +walking up and down the hall, ignorant as to where he was and +what he was doing, almost thoughtless, stunned, as it were, by +his misery and the conviction that he was a ruined man. He had +remained there an hour after Undy had left him, before he roused +himself sufficiently to leave the hall and think of returning +home. It was then seven o'clock, and he remembered that he had +asked his cousin to dine with him. He got into a cab, therefore, +and desired to be driven home. + +What was he to do? On one point he instantly made up his mind. He +would not give one shilling to Captain Val; he would not advance +another shilling to Undy; and he would at once sell out his own +shares, and make such immediate restitution as might now be in +his power. The mention of Manylodes and the mining shares had +come home to him with frightful reality, and nearly stunned him. +What right, indeed, had he to talk of bribes with scorn--he who +so early in his own life had allowed himself to be bought? How +could he condemn the itching palm of such a one as Val Scott--he +who had been so ready to open his own when he had been tempted by +no want, by no poverty? + +He would give nothing to Captain Val to bribe him to silence. He +knew that if he did so, he would be a slave for ever. The +appetite of such a shark as that, when once he has tasted blood, +is unappeasable. There is nothing so ruinous as buying the +silence of a rogue who has a secret. + +What you buy you never possess; and the price that is once paid +must be repaid again and again, as often as the rogue may demand +it. Any alternative must be better than this. + +And yet what other alternative was there? He did not doubt that +Val, when disappointed of his prey, would reveal whatever he +might know to his wife, or to his stepson. Then there would be +nothing for Alaric but confession and ruin. And how could he +believe what Undy Scott had told him? Who else could have given +information against him but Undy himself? Who else could have put +up so heavily stupid a man as Captain Scott to make such a +demand? Was it not clear that his own colleague, his own partner, +his own intimate associate, Undy Scott himself, was positively +working out his ruin? Where were now his high hopes, where now +his seat in Parliament, his authority at the board, his proud +name, his soaring ambition, his constant watchword? 'Excelsior' +--ah me--no! no longer 'Excelsior'; but he thought of the cells of +Newgate, of convict prisons, and then of his young wife and of +his baby. + +He made an effort to assume his ordinary demeanour, and partially +succeeded. He went at once up to his drawing-room, and there he +found Charley and Gertrude waiting dinner for him; luckily he had +no other guests. + +'Are you ill, Alaric?' said Gertrude, directly she saw him. + +'Ill! No,' said he; 'only fagged, dearest; fagged and worried, +and badgered and bored; but, thank God, not ill;' and he +endeavoured to put on his usual face, and speak in his usual +tone. 'I have kept you waiting most unmercifully for your dinner, +Charley; but then I know you navvies always lunch on mutton +chops.' + +'Oh, I am not particularly in a hurry,' said Charley; 'but I deny +the lunch. This has been a bad season for mutton chops in the +neighbourhood of Somerset House; somehow they have not grown this +year.' + +Alaric ran up to prepare for dinner, and his wife followed him. + +'Oh! Alaric,' said she, 'you are so pale: what is the matter? Do +tell me,' and she put her arm through his, took hold of his hand, +and looked up into his face. + +'The matter! Nothing is the matter--a man can't always be +grinning;' and he gently shook her off, and walked through their +bedroom to his own dressing-room. Having entered it he shut the +door, and then, sitting down, bowed his head upon a small table +and buried it in his hands. All the world seemed to go round and +round with him; he was giddy, and he felt that he could not +stand. + +Gertrude paused a moment in the bedroom to consider, and then +followed him. 'What is it you want?' said he, as soon as he heard +the handle turn, 'do leave me alone for one moment. I am fagged +with the heat, and I want one minute's rest.' + +'Oh, Alaric, I see you are ill,' said she. 'For God's sake do not +send me from you,' and coming into the room she knelt down beside +his chair. 'I know you are suffering, Alaric; do let me do +something for you.' + +He longed to tell her everything. He panted to share his sorrows +with one other bosom; to have one near him to whom he could speak +openly of everything, to have one counsellor in his trouble. In +that moment he all but resolved to disclose everything to her, +but at last he found that he could not do it. Charley was there +waiting for his dinner; and were he now to tell his secret to his +wife, neither of them, neither he nor she, would be able to act +the host or hostess. If done at all, it could not at any rate be +done at the present moment. + +'I am better now,' said he, giving a long and deep sigh; and then +he threw his arms round his wife and passionately embraced her. +'My own angel, my best, best love, how much too good or much too +noble you are for such a husband as I am!' + +'I wish I could be good enough for you,' she replied, as she +began to arrange his things for dressing. 'You are so tired, +dearest; wash your hands and come down--don't trouble yourself to +dress this evening; unless, indeed, you are going out again.' + +'Gertrude,' said he, 'if there be a soul on earth that has not in +it a spark of what is good or generous, it is the soul of Undy +Scott;' and so saying he began the operations of his toilet. + +Now Gertrude had never liked Undy Scott; she had attributed to +him whatever faults her husband might have as a husband; and at +the present moment she was not inclined to fight for any of the +Scott family. + +'He is a very worldly man, I think,' said she. + +'Worldly!--no--but hellish,' said Alaric; 'hellish, and damnable, +and fiendish.' + +'Oh, Alaric, what has he done?' + +'Never mind; I cannot tell you; he has done nothing. It is not +that he has done anything, or can do anything to me--but his +heart--but never mind--I wish--I wish I had never seen him.' + +'Alaric, if it be about money tell me the worst, and I'll bear it +without a murmur. As long as you are well I care for nothing +else--have you given up your place?' + +'No, dearest, no; I can keep my place. It is nothing about that. +I have lost no money; I have rather made money. It is the +ingratitude of that man which almost kills me. But come, dearest, +we will go down to Charley. And Gertrude, mind this, be quite +civil to Mrs. Val at present. We will break from the whole set +before long; but in the meantime I would have you be very civil +to Mrs. Val.' + +And so they went down to dinner, and Alaric, after taking a glass +of wine, played his part almost as though he had no weight upon +his soul. After dinner he drank freely, and as he drank his +courage rose. 'Why should I tell her?' he said to himself as he +went to bed. 'The chances are that all will yet go well.' + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +MRS. VAL'S NEW CARRIAGE + + +On the next morning Alaric went to his office without speaking +further as to the trouble on his mind, and endeavoured to comfort +himself as best he might as he walked down to his office. Then he +had also to decide whether it would better suit his purpose to +sell out at once and pay up every shilling that he could, or +whether he would hold on, and hope that Undy's predictions would +be fulfilled, and that the bridge shares would go on rising till +they would sell for all that was required of him. + +Unfortunate man! what would he have given now to change his +position for Norman's single clerkship, or even for Charley's +comparative poverty! + +Gertrude stayed within all day; but not all day in solitude. +About four in the afternoon the Hon. Mrs. Val called, and with +her came her daughter Clem, now Madame Jaquetanape, and the two +Misses Neverbend. M. Jaquetanape had since his marriage made +himself very agreeable to his honourable mother-in-law, so much +so that he now occupied the place in her good graces which Undy +had formerly filled, and which after Undy's reign had fallen to +Alaric's lot. Mrs. Val liked to have about her some confidential +gentleman; and as she never thought of placing her confidence in +her husband, she was prone to select first one man and then +another as her taste and interest dictated. Immediately after +their marriage, Victoire and Clem had consented to join +housekeeping with their parent. Nothing could be more pleasant +than this; their income was unembarrassed, and Mrs. Val, for the +first time in her life, was able to set up her carriage. Among +the effects arising from this cause, the female Neverbends, who +had lately been worshippers of Gertrude, veered round in their +idolatry, and paid their vows before Mrs. Val's new yellow +panels. In this new carriage now came the four ladies to pay a +morning visit to Mrs. Tudor. It was wonderful to see into how +small dimensions the Misses Neverbend had contrived to pack, not +themselves, but their crinoline. + +As has before been hinted, Gertrude did not love Mrs. Val; nor +did she love Clem the danseuse; nor did she specially love the +Misses Neverbend. They were all of a class essentially different +from that in which she had been brought up; and, moreover, Mrs. +Val was not content to allow Gertrude into her set without ruling +over her, or at any rate patronizing her. Gertrude had borne with +them all for her husband's sake; and was contented to do so yet +for a while longer, but she thought in her heart that she would +be able to draw some consolation from her husband's misfortune if +it should be the means of freeing her from Mrs. Val. + +'Oh, my dear,' said Mrs. Val, throwing herself down into a sofa +as though she were exhausted--'what a dreadful journey it is to +you up here! How those poor horses will stand it this weather I +don't know, but it nearly kills me; it does indeed.' The Tudors, +as has been said, lived in one of the quiet streets of Westbournia, +not exactly looking into Hyde Park, but very near to it; Mrs. Val, +on the other hand, lived in Ebury Street, Pimlico; her house was +much inferior to that of the Tudors; it was small, ill built, and +afflicted with all the evils which bad drainage and bad ventilation +can produce; but then it was reckoned to be within the precincts +of Belgravia, and was only five minutes' walk from Buckingham +Palace. Mrs. Val, therefore, had fair ground for twitting her dear +friend with living so far away from the limits of fashion. 'You really +must come down somewhat nearer to the world; indeed you must, +my dear,' said the Hon. Mrs. Val. + +'We are thinking of moving; but then we are talking of going to +St. John's Wood, or Islington,' said Gertrude, wickedly. + +'Islington!' said the Honourable Mrs. Val, nearly fainting. + +'Is not Islington and St. Giles' the same place?' asked the +innocent Clem, with some malice, however, to counterbalance her +innocence. + +'O no!' said Lactimel. 'St Giles' is where the poor wretched +starving Irish dwell. Their utter misery in the middle of this +rich metropolis is a crying disgrace to the Prime Minister.' Poor +Badger, how much he has to bear! 'Only think,' continued +Lactimel, with a soft pathetic drawl, 'they have none to feed +them, none to clothe them, none to do for them!' + +'It is a great question,' said Ugolina, 'whether promiscuous +charity is a blessing or a curse. It is probably the greatest +question of the age. I myself am inclined to think--' + +'But, ma,' said Madame Jaquetanape, 'Mrs. Tudor doesn't really +mean that she is going to live at St. Giles', does she?' + +'I said Islington,' said Gertrude. 'We may go to St. Giles' next, +perhaps.' Had she known all, how dreadful would such jokes have +been to her! + +Mrs. Val saw that she was being quizzed, and, not liking it, +changed the conversation. 'Ugolina,' said she, 'might I trouble +you to look out of the front window? I hope those stupid men of +mine are not letting the horses stand still. They were so warm +coming here, that they will be sure to catch cold.' The stupid +men, however, were round the corner at the public-house, and +Ugolina could only report that as she did not see them she +supposed the horses were walking about. + +'And so,' said Mrs. Val, 'Mr. Tudor is thinking of resigning his +place at the Civil Service Board, and standing for that borough +of Lord Gaberlunzie's, in Aberdeenshire?' + +'I really cannot say,' said Gertrude; 'but I believe he has some +idea of going into Parliament. I rather believe he will continue +to hold his place.' + +'Oh, that I know to be impossible! I was told that by a gentleman +who has been much longer in the service than Mr. Tudor, and who +understands all its bearings.' She here alluded to Fidus +Neverbend. + +'I cannot say,' said Gertrude. 'I do not think Mr. Tudor has +quite made up his mind yet.' + +'Well, my dear, I'll tell you fairly what I think about it. You +know the regard I have for you and Mr. Tudor. He, too, is +Clementina's trustee; that is to say, her fortune is partly +consigned to his care; so I cannot but have a very great interest +about him, and be very anxious that he should do well. Now, my +dear, I'll tell you fairly what I think, and what all the world +is saying. He ought not to think of Parliament. He ought not, +indeed, my dear. I speak for your sake, and your child's. He is +not a man of fortune, and he ought not to think of Parliament. He +has a very fine situation, and he really should be contented.' + +This was intolerable to Gertrude. She felt that she must put Mrs. +Val down, and yet she hardly knew how to do it without being +absolutely rude; whereas her husband had specially begged her to +be civil to this woman at present. 'Oh,' said she, with a slight +smile, 'Mr. Tudor will be able to take care of himself; you will +find, I hope, that there is no cause for uneasiness.' + +'Well, I hope not, I am sure I hope not,' said Mrs. Val, looking +very grave. 'But I tell you fairly that the confidence which we +all have in your husband will be much shaken if he does anything +rash. He should think of this, you know. He has no private +fortune to back him; we must remember that.' + +Gertrude became very red in the face; but she would not trust +herself to answer Mrs. Val at the spur of the moment. + +'It makes such a difference, when one has got no private +fortune,' said Madame Jaquetanape, the heiress. 'Does it not, +Lactimel?' + +'Oh, indeed it does,' said Lactimel. 'I wish every one had a +private fortune; it would be so nice, wouldn't it?' + +'There would be very little poetry in the world if you were to +banish poverty,' said Ugolina. 'Poverty may be called the parent +of poetry. Look at Milton, how poor he was; and Homer, he begged +his bread.' + +'But Lord Byron was not a beggar,' said Clem, contemptuously. + +'I do hope Mr. Tudor will think of what he is doing,' continued +Mrs. Val. 'It is certainly most good-natured and most disinterested +of my dear father-in-law, Lord Gaberlunzie, to place his borough +at Mr. Tudor's disposal. It is just like him, dear good old nobleman. +But, my dear, it will be a thousand pities if Mr. Tudor should be +led on by his lordship's kindness to bring about his own ruin.' + +Mrs. Val had once in her life seen his good-natured lordship. +Soon after her marriage she had insisted on Captain Val taking +her down to the family mansion. She stayed there one night, and +then left it, and since that had shown no further desire to visit +Cauldkail Castle. She did not the less delight to talk about her +dear good father-in-law, the lord. Why should she give his son +Val board and lodging, but that she might be enabled to do so? +She was not the woman to buy an article, and not make of it all +the use of which it might be capable. + +'Pray do not concern yourself,' said Gertrude. 'I can assure you +Mr. Tudor will manage very well for himself--but should any +misfortune happen to him he will not, you may be certain, +attribute it to Lord Gaberlunzie.' + +'I am told that Sir Gregory is most opposed to it,' continued +Mrs. Val. 'I heard that from Mr. Neverbend, who is altogether in +Sir Gregory's confidence--did not you, my dears?' and she turned +round to the sisters of Fidus for confirmation. + +'I heard my brother say that as Mr. Tudor's office is not +parliamentary but permanent, and as he has to attend from ten +till four----' + +'Alaric has not to attend from ten till four,' said Gertrude, who +could not endure the idea that her husband should be ranked with +common clerks, like Fidus Neverbend. + +'Oh, I didn't know,' said Lactimel, meekly. 'Perhaps Fidus only +meant that as it is one of those offices where the people have +something to do, the commissioners couldn't be in their offices +and in Parliament at the same time.' + +'I did understand,' said Ugolina, 'that Sir Gregory Hardlines had +put his veto upon it; but I must confess that it is a subject +which I have not sufficiently studied to enable me----' + +'It's L1,200 a year, isn't it?' asked the bride. + +'Twelve hundred pounds a year,' said her mother--'a very serious +consideration when there is no private fortune to back it, on +either side. Now if it were Victoire----' + +'He couldn't sit in Parliament, ma, because he's an alien--only +for that I shouldn't think of his doing anything else.' + +'Perhaps that may be altered before long,' said Lactimel, +graciously. + +'If Jews are to be admitted,' said Ugolina, 'who certainly belong +to an alien nation; a nation expressly set apart and separated +from all people--a peculiar nation distinct from all others, I +for one cannot discern----' + +What Ugolina could or could not discern about the Jews was +communicated perhaps to Madame Jaquetanape or to Lactimel, but +not to Gertrude or to Mrs. Val; for the latter, taking Gertrude +apart into a corner as it were of the sofa, began confidentially +to repeat to her her fears about her husband. + +'I see, my dear,' said she, 'that you don't like my speaking +about it.' + +'Upon my word,' said Gertrude, 'I am very indifferent about it. +But would it not be better if you said what you have to say to my +husband?' + +'I intend to do so. I intend to do that also. But I know that a +wife ought to have influence over her husband, and I believe that +you have influence over yours.' + +'Not the least,' said Gertrude, who was determined to contradict +Mrs. Val in everything. + +'I am sorry to hear it,' said Mrs. Val, who among all her +excellent acquirements, did not possess that specially excellent +one of understanding repartee. 'I am very sorry to hear it, and I +shall certainly speak to him the more seriously on that account. +I think I have some influence over him; at any rate I ought to +have.' + +'I dare say you have,' said Gertrude; 'Alaric always says that no +experience is worth anything that is not obtained by years.' + +Mrs. Val at least understood this, and continued her lecture with +some additional severity. 'Well, my dear, I am glad he has so +much wisdom. But what I was going to say is this: you know how +much we have at stake with Mr. Tudor--what a very large sum of +Clementina's money lies in his hands. Now I really should not +have consented to the arrangement had I thought it possible that +Mr. Tudor would have given up his income with the idea of going +into Parliament. It wouldn't have been right or prudent of me to +do so. I have the greatest opinion of your husband's talents and +judgement, or I should not of course have entrusted him with the +management of Clementina's fortune; but I really shall think it +right to make some change if this project of his goes on.' + +'Why, what is it you suspect?' said Gertrude. 'Do you think that +Mr. Tudor intends to use your daughter's income if he loses a +portion of his own? I never heard such a thing in my life.' + +'Hush! my dear--gently--I would not for worlds let Clementina +hear a word of this; it might disturb her young happiness. She is +so charmed with her husband; her married life is so fortunate; +Victoire is so--so--so everything that we all wish, that I would +not for the world breathe in her hearing a shadow of a suspicion.' + +'Good gracious! Mrs. Scott, what do you mean? Suspicion!--what +suspicion? Do you suspect my husband of robbing you?' Oh, +Gertrude; poor Gertrude! she was doomed to know it all before +long. + +'Oh dear, no,' said Mrs. Val; 'nothing of the kind, I assure you. +Of course we suspect nothing of the sort. But one does like to +have one's money in safe hands. Of course Mr. Tudor wouldn't have +been chosen as trustee if he hadn't had a good income of his own; +and look here, my dear,'--and Mrs. Val whispered very confidentially, +--'Mr. Tudor we all know is greatly concerned in this bridge that +the committee is sitting about; and he and my brother-in-law, +Undecimus, are always dealing in shares. Gentlemen do, I know; +and therefore I don't say that there is anything against it. But +considering all, I hope Mr. Tudor won't take it ill if we propose to +change our trustee.' + +'I am very certain he will not,' said Gertrude. 'It is a +laborious business, and he will be glad enough to be rid of it. +When he was asked to accept it, he thought it would be ill- +natured to refuse; I am certain, however, he will be very glad to +give up the work to any other person who may be appointed. I will +be sure to tell him this evening what you have said.' + +'You need not trouble yourself to do that,' said Mrs. Val. 'I +shall see him myself before long.' + +'It will be no trouble,' said Gertrude, very indignantly, for she +was very angry, and had, as she thought, great cause for anger. +'I shall certainly think it my duty to do so after what has +passed. Of course you will now take steps to relieve him as soon +as possible.' + +'You have taken me up a great deal too quick, my dear,' said Mrs. +Val. 'I did not intend----' + +'Oh--one can't be too quick on such a matter as this,' said +Gertrude. 'When confidence is once lost between two persons it is +better that the connexion which has grown out of confidence +should be put an end to as soon as possible.' + +'Lost confidence! I said nothing about lost confidence!' + +'Alaric will so understand it, I am quite sure; at any rate I +will tell him what you have said. Suspicion indeed! who has dared +to suspect him of anything not honest or upright?' + +Gertrude's eyes flashed with anger as she vindicated her absent +lord. Mrs. Val had been speaking with bated breath, so that no +one had heard her but she to whom she was speaking; but Gertrude +had been unable so to confine her answers, and as she made her +last reply Madame Jaquetanape and the Misses Neverbend were all +ears. + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Mrs. Val. 'Upon my word, my dear, it is +amusing to hear you take it up. However, I assure you I meant +nothing but what was kind and friendly. Come, Clementina, we have +been sitting here a most unconscionable time. Will you allow me, +my dear, to ring for my carriage?' + +'Mamma,' said Clem, 'have you asked Mrs. Tudor to our little +dance?' + +'No, my dear; I have left that for you to do. It's your party, +you know--but I sincerely hope Mrs. Tudor will come.' + +'Oh yes,' said Clementina, the tongue of whose eloquence was now +loosened. 'You must come, Mrs. Tudor; indeed you must. It will be +so charming; just a few nice people, you know, and nothing more.' + +'Thank you,' said Gertrude; 'but I never dance now.' She had +inwardly resolved that nothing should ever induce her again to +enter Mrs. Val's house. + +'Oh, but you must come,' said Clementina. 'It will be so +charming. We only mean to dance one kind of dance--that new thing +they have just brought over from Spain--the Contrabandista. It is +a polka step, only very quick, and you take every other turn by +yourself; so you have to take your partner up and let him go as +quick as possible. You don't know how charming it is, and it will +be all the rage. We are to have the music out in the street, just +as they have in Spain.' + +'It would be much too difficult for me,' said Gertrude. + +'It is difficult,' said the enthusiastic Clem; 'but Victoire +gives us lessons in it everyday from twelve to two--doesn't he, +Ugolina?' + +'I'm afraid I shouldn't have time to go to school,' said +Gertrude. + +'Oh, it doesn't take much time--six or seven or eight lessons +will do it pretty well. I have almost learnt it already, and +Ugolina is coming on very fast. Lactimel is not quite so perfect. +She has learnt the step, but she cannot bring herself to let +Victoire go quick enough. Do come, and bring Mr. Tudor with you.' + +'As he has not to attend from ten till four, he could come and +take lessons too,' said Lactimel, who, now that she was no longer +a hanger-on of Gertrude's, could afford to have her little +revenge. + +'That would be delightful,' said Clem. 'Mr. Charles Tudor does +come in sometimes at twelve o'clock, and I think he does it +almost as well as Victoire.' + +Gertrude, however, would go neither to the rehearsals nor to the +finished performance; and as Mrs. Val's men had by this time been +induced to leave the beershop, the whole party went away, leaving +Gertrude to her meditations. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +TICKLISH STOCK + + +Alaric returned from his office worn and almost as wretched as he +had been on the day before. He had spent a miserable day. In the +morning Sir Gregory had asked him whether he had finally made up +his mind to address the electors of Strathbogy. 'No, not +finally,' said Alaric, 'but I think I shall do so.' + +'Then I must tell you, Tudor,' said Sir Gregory, speaking more in +sorrow than in anger, 'that you will not have my countenance. I +cannot but think also that you are behaving with ingratitude.' +Alaric prepared to make some petulant answer, but Sir Gregory, in +the meantime, left the room. + +Every one was falling away from him. He felt inclined to rush +after Sir Gregory, and promise to be guided in this matter solely +by him, but his pride prevented him: though he was no longer +sanguine and confident as he had been a week ago, still his +ambition was high. 'Those who play brag must brag it out, or they +will lose their money.' This had been said by Undy; but it was +not the less true on that account. Alaric felt that he was +playing brag, and that his only game was to brag it out. + +He walked home slowly through the Parks. His office and house +were so circumstanced that, though they were some two miles +distant, he could walk from one to the other almost without +taking his feet off the grass. This had been the cause of great +enjoyment to him; but now he sauntered on with his hands behind +his back, staring straight before him, with fixed eyes, going by +his accustomed route, but never thinking for a moment where he +was. The tune was gone when he could watch the gambols of +children, smile at the courtships of nursery-maids, watch the +changes in the dark foliage of the trees, and bend from his +direct path hither and thither to catch the effects of distant +buildings, and make for his eye half-rural landscapes in the +middle of the metropolis. No landscapes had beauty for him now; +the gambols even of his own baby were unattractive to him; leaves +might bud forth and nourish and fall without his notice. How went +the share-market? that was the only question that had an interest +for him. The dallyings of Capel Court were the only courtships +that he now cared to watch. + +And with what a terribly eager eye had he now to watch them! If +his shares went up quickly, at once, with an unprecedented +success, he might possibly be saved. That was all. But if they +did not--! Such was the phase of life under which at the present +moment it behoved him to exist. + +And then, when he reached his home, how was he welcomed? With all +the fond love which a loving wife can show; so much at least was +his; but before he had felt the sweetness of her caresses, before +he had acknowledged how great was the treasure that he possessed, +forth from her eager lips had come the whole tale of Mrs. Val's +impertinence. + +'I will never see her again, Alaric! never; she talked of her +daughter's money, and said something of suspicion!' Suspicion! +Gertrude's eye again flashed fire with anger; and she all but +stamped with her little foot upon the ground. Suspicion! suspect +him, her husband, the choice of her heart, her Alaric, the human +god whom she worshipped! suspect him of robbery! her lord, her +heart, her soul, the strong staff on which she leaned so +securely, with such true feminine confidence! Suspect him of +common vile dishonesty!--'You will never ask me to see her again +--will you, Alaric?' + +What was he to say to her? how was he to bear this? His heart +yearned to tell her all; he longed for the luxury of having one +bosom to whom he could entrust his misery, his slight remaining +hope. But how could he himself, at one blow, by one word, destroy +the high and polished shaft on which she whom he loved had placed +him? He could not do it. He would suffer by himself; hope by +himself, cease to hope by himself, and endure all, till either +his sufferings or his hopes should be over. + +He had to pretend that he was indignant at Mrs. Val's +interference; he had to counterfeit the feelings of outraged +honour, which was so natural to Gertrude. This he failed to do +well. Had he been truly honest--had that woman's suspicion really +done him injustice--he would have received his wife's tidings +with grave displeasure, and have simply resolved to acquit +himself as soon as possible of the disagreeable trust which had +been reposed in him. But such was not now his conduct. He +contented himself by calling Mrs. Val names, and pretended to +laugh at her displeasure. + +'But you will give up this trust, won't you?' said Gertrude. + +'I will think about it,' said he. 'Before I do anything I must +consult old Figgs. Things of that kind can't be put out of their +course by the spleen of an old woman like Mrs. Val.' + +'Oh, Alaric, I do so wish you had had nothing to do with these +Scotts!' + +'So do I,' said he, bitterly; 'I hate them--but, Gertrude, don't +talk about them now; my head aches, and I am tired.' + +He sat at home the whole evening; and though he was by no means +gay, and hardly affectionate in his demeanour to her, yet she +could not but feel that some good effect had sprung from his +recent dislike to the Scotts, since it kept him at home with her. +Lately he had generally spent his evenings at his club. She +longed to speak to him of his future career, of his proposed seat +in Parliament, of his office-work; but he gave her no encouragement +to speak of such things, and, as he pleaded that he was ill, she left +him in quiet on the sofa. + +On the next morning he again went to his office, and in the +course of the morning a note was brought to him from Undy. It ran +as follows:-- + +'MY DEAR TUDOR, + +'Is Val to have the shares? Let me have a line by the bearer. + +'Yours ever, + +'U. S.' + +To this he replied by making an appointment to meet Undy before +dinner at his own office. + +At the time fixed Undy came, and was shown by the sole remaining +messenger into Alaric's private room. The two shook hands +together in their accustomed way. Undy smiled good-humouredly, as +he always did; and Alaric maintained his usual composed and +uncommunicative look. + +'Well,' said Undy, sitting down, 'how about those shares?' + +'I am glad you have come,' said Alaric, 'because I want to speak +to you with some earnestness.' + +'I am quite in earnest myself,' said Undy; 'and so, by G--, is +Val. I never saw a fellow more in earnest--nor yet apparently +more hard up. I hope you have the shares ready, or else a cheque +for the amount.' + +'Look here, Undy; if my doing this were the only means of saving +both you and me from rotting in gaol, by the Creator that made me +I would not do it!' + +'I don't know that it will have much effect upon me, one way or +the other,' said Undy, coolly; 'but it seems to me to be the only +way that can save yourself from some such fate. Shall I tell you +what the clauses are of this new bill about trust property?' + +'I know the clauses well enough; I know my own position; and I +know yours also.' + +'D--- your impudence!' said Undy; 'how do you dare to league me +with your villany? Have I been the girl's trustee? have I drawn, +or could I have drawn, a shilling of her money? I tell you, +Tudor, you are in the wrong box. You have one way of escape, and +one only. I don't want to ruin you; I'll save you if I can; I +think you have treated the girl in a most shameful way, +nevertheless I'll save you if I can; but mark this, if this money +be not at once produced I cannot save you.' + +Alaric felt that he was covered with cold perspiration. His +courage did not fail him; he would willingly have taken Undy by +the throat, could his doing so have done himself or his cause any +good; but he felt that he was nearly overset by the cool deep +villany of his companion. + +'I have treated the girl badly--very badly,' he said, after a +pause; 'whether or no you have done so too I leave to your own +conscience, if you have a conscience. I do not now mean to accuse +you; but you may know this for certain--my present anxiety is to +restore to her that which I have taken from her; and for no +earthly consideration--not to save my own wife--will I increase +the deficiency.' + +'Why, man, what nonsense you talk--as if I did not know all the +time that you have your pocket full of these shares.' + +'Whatever I have, I hold for her. If I could succeed in getting +out of your hands enough to make up the full sum that I owe her--' + +'You will succeed in getting nothing from me. When I borrowed +L5,000 from you, it was not understood that I was to be called +upon for the money in three or four months' time.' + +'Now look here, Scott; you have threatened me with ruin and a +prison, and I will not say but your threats may possibly prove +true. It may be that I am ruined; but, if I fall, you shall share +my fall.' + +'That's false,' said Undy. 'I am free to hold my head before the +world, which you are not. I have done nothing to bring me to +shame.' + +'Nothing to bring you to shame, and yet you would now have me +give you a further portion of this girl's money!' + +'Nothing! I care nothing about the girl's money. I have not +touched it, nor do I want to touch it. I bring you a message from +my brother; you have ample means of your own to comply with his +request.' + +'Then tell your brother,' said Alaric, now losing all control +over his temper--'tell your brother, if indeed he have any part +in this villany--tell your brother that if it were to save me +from the gallows, he should not have a shilling. I have done very +badly in this matter; I have acted shamefully, and I am ashamed, +but----' + +'Oh, I want to hear none of your rhapsodies,' said Undy. 'If you +will not now do what I ask you, I may as well go, and you may +take the consequences;' and he lifted his hat as though preparing +to take his leave. + +'But you shall hear me,' said Alaric, rising quickly from his +seat, and standing between Undy and the door. Undy very coolly +walked to the bell and rang it. 'I have much to answer for,' +continued Alaric, 'but I would not have your sin on my soul, I +would not be as black as you are, though, by being so, I could +save myself with certainty from all earthly punishment.' + +As he finished, the messenger opened the door. 'Show Mr. Scott +out,' said Alaric. + +'By, by,' said Undy. 'You will probably hear from Mrs. Val and +her daughter to-morrow,' and so saying he walked jauntily along +the passage, and went jauntily to his dinner at his club. It was +part of his philosophy that nothing should disturb the even tenor +of his way, or interfere with his animal comforts. He was at the +present moment over head and ears in debt; he was playing a game +which, in all human probability, would end in his ruin; the +ground was sinking beneath his feet on every side; and yet he +thoroughly enjoyed his dinner. Alaric could not make such use of +his philosophy. Undy Scott might be the worse man of the two, but +he was the better philosopher. + +Not on the next day, or on the next, did Alaric hear from Mrs. +Val, but on the following Monday he got a note from her begging +him to call in Ebury Street. She underscored every line of it +once or twice, and added, in a postscript, that he would, she was +sure, at once acknowledge the NECESSITY of her request, as she +wished to communicate with him on the subject of her DAUGHTER'S +FORTUNE. + +Alaric immediately sent an answer to her by a messenger. 'My dear +Mrs. Scott,' said he, 'I am very sorry that an engagement +prevents my going to you this evening; but, as I judge by your +letter, and by what I have heard from Gertrude, that you are +anxious about this trust arrangement, I will call at ten to- +morrow morning on my way to the office.' + +Having written and dispatched this, he sat for an hour leaning +with his elbows on the table and his hands clasped, looking with +apparent earnestness at the rows of books which stood inverted +before him, trying to make up his mind as to what step he should +now take. + +Not that he sat an hour undisturbed. Every five minutes some one +would come knocking at the door; the name of some aspirant to the +Civil Service would be brought to him, or the card of some +influential gentleman desirous of having a little job perpetrated +in favour of his own peculiarly interesting, but perhaps not very +highly-educated, young candidate. But on this morning Alaric +would see no one; to every such intruder he sent a reply that he +was too deeply engaged at the present moment to see any one. +After one he would be at liberty, &c., &c. + +And so he sat and looked at the books; but he could in nowise +make up his mind. He could in nowise bring himself even to try to +make up his mind--that is, to make any true effort towards doing +so. His thoughts would run off from him, not into the happy +outer world, but into a multitude of noisy, unpleasant paths, all +intimately connected with his present misery, but none of which +led him at all towards the conclusions at which he would fain +arrive. He kept on reflecting what Sir Gregory would think when +he heard of it; what all those clerks would say at the Weights +and Measures, among whom he had held his head so high; what +shouts there would be among the navvies and other low pariahs of +the service; how Harry Norman would exult--(but he did not yet +know Harry Norman);--how the Woodwards would weep; how Gertrude-- +and then as he thought of that he bowed his head, for he could no +longer endure the open light of day. At one o'clock he was no +nearer to any decision than he had been when he reached his +office. + +At three he put himself into a cab, and was taken to the city. +Oh, the city, the weary city, where men go daily to look for +money, but find none; where every heart is eaten up by an +accursed famishing after gold; where dark, gloomy banks come +thick on each other, like the black, ugly apertures to the realms +below in a mining district, each of them a separate little pit- +mouth into hell. Alaric went into the city, and found that the +shares were still rising. That imperturbable witness was still in +the chair at the committee, and men said that he was disgusting +the members by the impregnable endurance of his hostility. A man +who could answer 2,250 questions without admitting anything must +be a liar! Such a one could convince no one! And so the shares +went on rising, rising, and rising, and Messrs. Blocks, Piles, +and Cofferdam were buying up every share; either doing that +openly--or else selling on the sly. + +Alaric found that he could at once realize L7,600. Were he to do +this, there would be at any rate seven-eighths of his ward's +fortune secure. + +Might he not, in such a case, calculate that even Mrs. Val's +heart would be softened, and that time would be allowed him to +make up the small remainder? Oh, but in such case he must tell +Mrs. Val; and could he calculate on her forbearance? Might he not +calculate with much more certainty on her love of triumphing? +Would he not be her slave if she had the keeping of his secret? +And why should he run so terrible a risk of destroying himself? +Why should he confide in Mrs. Val, and deprive himself of the +power of ever holding up his head again, when, possibly, he might +still run out his course with full sails, and bring his vessel +into port, giving no knowledge to the world of the perilous state +in which she had been thus ploughing the deep? He need not, at +any rate, tell everything to Mrs. Val at his coming visit on the +morrow. + +He consulted his broker with his easiest air of common concern as +to his money; and the broker gave him a dubious opinion. 'They +may go a little higher, sir; indeed I think they will. But they +are ticklish stock, sir--uncommon ticklish. I should not like to +hold many myself, sir.' Alaric knew that the man was right; they +were ticklish stock: but nevertheless he made up his mind to hold +on a little longer. + +He then got into another cab and went back to his office; and as +he went he began to bethink himself to whom of all his friends he +might apply for such a loan as would enable him to make up this +sum of money, if he sold his shares on the morrow. Captain +Cuttwater was good for L1,000, but he knew that he could not get +more from him. It would be bad borrowing, he thought, from Sir +Gregory. Intimate as he had been with that great man, he knew +nothing of his money concerns; but he had always heard that Sir +Gregory was a close man. Sir Warwick, his other colleague, was in +easy circumstances; but then he had never been intimate with Sir +Warwick. Norman--ah, if he had known Norman now, Norman would +have pulled him through; but hope in that quarter there was, of +course, none. Norman was gone, and Norman's place had been filled +by Undy Scott! What could be done with Undy Scott he had already +tried. Fidus Neverbend! he had a little money saved; but Fidus +was not the man to do anything without security. He, he, Alaric +Tudor, he, whose credit had stood, did stand, so high, did not +know where to borrow, how to raise a thousand pounds; and yet he +felt that had he not wanted it so sorely, he could have gotten it +easily. + +He was in a bad state for work when he got back to the office on +that day. He was flurried, ill at ease, wretched, all but +distracted; nevertheless he went rigidly to it, and remained +there till late in the evening. He was a man generally blessed +with excellent health; but now he suddenly found himself ill, and +all but unable to accomplish the task which he had prescribed to +himself. His head was heavy and his eyes weak, and he could not +bring himself to think of the papers which lay before him. + +Then at last he went home, and had another sad and solitary walk +across the Parks, during which he vainly tried to rally himself +again, and collect his energies for the work which he had to do. +It was in such emergencies as this that he knew that it most +behoved a man to fall back upon what manliness there might be +within him; now was the time for him to be true to himself; he +had often felt proud of his own energy of purpose; and now was +the opportunity for him to use such energy, if his pride in this +respect had not been all in vain. + +Such were the lessons with which he endeavoured to strengthen +himself, but it was in vain; he could not feel courageous--he +could not feel hopeful--he could not do other than despair. When +he got home, he again prostrated himself, again declared himself +ill, again buried his face in his hands, and answered the +affection of his wife by saying that a man could not always be +cheerful, could not always laugh. Gertrude, though she was very +far indeed from guessing the truth, felt that something +extraordinary was the matter, and knew that her husband's +uneasiness was connected with the Scotts. + +He came down to dinner, and though he ate but little, he drank +glass after glass of sherry. He thus gave himself courage to go +out in the evening and face the world at his club. He found Undy +there as he expected, but he had no conversation with him, though +they did not absolutely cut each other. Alaric fancied that men +stared at him, and sat apart by himself, afraid to stand up among +talking circles, or to put himself forward as it was his wont to +do. He himself avoided other men, and then felt that others were +avoiding him. He took up one evening paper after another, +pretending to read them, but hardly noticing a word that came +beneath his eye: at last, however, a name struck him which +riveted his attention, and he read the following paragraph, which +was among many others, containing information as to the coming +elections. + +'STRATHBOGY.--We hear that Lord Gaberlunzie's eldest son will +retire from this borough, and that his place will be filled by +his brother, the Honourable Captain Valentine Scott. The family +have been so long connected with Strathbogy by ties of friendship +and near neighbourhood, and the mutual alliance has been so much +to the taste of both parties, that no severance need be +anticipated.' + +Alaric's first emotion was one of anger at the whole Scott tribe, +and his first resolve was to go down to Strathbogy and beat that +inanimate fool, Captain Val, on his own ground; but he was not +long in reflecting that, under his present circumstances, it +would be madness in him to bring his name prominently forward in +any quarrel with the Scott family. This disappointment he might +at any rate bear; it would be well for him if this were all. He +put the paper down with an affected air of easy composure, and +walked home through the glaring gas-lights, still trying to +think--still trying, but in vain, to come to some definite +resolve. + +And then on the following morning he went off to call on Mrs. +Val. He had as yet told Gertrude nothing. When she asked him what +made him start so early, he merely replied that he had business +to do on his road. As lie went, he had considerable doubt whether +or no it would be better for him to break his word to Mrs. Val, +and not go near her at all. In such event he might be sure that +she would at once go to work and do her worst; but, nevertheless, +he would gain a day, or probably two, and one or two days might +do all that he required; whereas he could not see Mrs. Val +without giving her some explanation, which if false would be +discovered to be false, and if true would be self-condemnatory. +He again, however, failed to decide, and at last knocked at Mrs. +Val's door merely because he found himself there. + +He was shown up into the drawing-room, and found, of course, Mrs. +Val seated on a sofa; and he also found, which was not at all of +course, Captain Val, on a chair on one side of the table, and M. +Victoire Jaquetanape on the other. Mrs. Val shook hands with him +much in her usual way, but still with an air of importance in her +face; the Frenchman was delighted to see M. Tudere, and the +Honourable Val got up from his chair, said 'How do?' and then sat +down again. + +'I requested you to call, Mr. Tudor,' said Mrs. Val, opening her +tale in a most ceremonious manner, 'because we all think it +necessary to know somewhat more than has yet been told to us of +the manner in which my daughter's money has been invested.' + +Captain Val wiped his moustache with the middle finger of his +right hand, by way of saying that he quite assented to his wife's +proposition; and Victoire remarked that 'Madame was a leetle +anxious, just a leetle anxious; not that anything could be wrong +with M. Tudere, but because she was one excellent mamma.' + +'I thought you knew, Mrs. Scott,' said Alaric, 'that your +daughter's money is in the funds.' + +'Then I may understand clearly that none of the amount so +invested has been sold out or otherwise appropriated by you.' +said Mrs. Val. + +'Will you allow me to inquire what has given rise to these +questions just at the present moment?' asked Alaric. + +'Yes, certainly,' said Mrs. Val; 'rumours have reached my +husband--rumours which, I am happy to say, I do not believe--that +my daughter's money has been used for purposes of speculation.' +Whereupon Captain Val again wiped his upper lip, but did not find +it necessary to speak. + +'May I venture to ask Captain Scott from what source such rumours +have reached him!' + +'Ah-ha-what source? d---- lies, very likely; d---- lies, I dare +say; but people do talk--eh--you know,' so much the eloquent +embryo member for Strathbogy vouchsafed. + + 'And therefore, Mr. Tudor, you mustn't be surprised that we +should ask you this question.' + +'It is one simple, simple question,' said Victoire, 'and if M. +Tudere will say that it is all right, I, for myself, will be +satisfied.' The amiable Victoire, to tell the truth, was still +quite satisfied to leave his wife's income in Alaric's hands, and +would not have been at all satisfied to remove it to the hands of +his respected step-papa-in-law, or even his admired mamma-in-law. + +'When I undertook this trust,' said Alaric, 'which I did with +considerable hesitation, I certainly did not expect to be +subjected to any such cross-examination as this. I consider such +questions as insults, and therefore I shall refuse to answer +them. You, Mrs. Scott, have of course a right to look after your +daughter's interests, as has M. Jaquetanape to look after those +of his wife; but I will not acknowledge that Captain Scott has +any such right whatsoever, nor can I think that his conduct in +this matter is disinterested;' and as he spoke he looked at +Captain Val, but he might just as well have looked at the door; +Captain Val only wiped his moustache with his finger once more. +'My answer to your inquiries, Mrs. Scott, is this--I shall not +condescend to go into any details as to Madame Jaquetanape 's +fortune with anyone but my co-trustee. I shall, however, on +Saturday next, be ready to give up my trust to any other person +who may be legally appointed to receive it, and will then produce +all the property that has been entrusted to my keeping:' and so +saying, Alaric got up and took his hat as though to depart. + +'And do you mean to say, Mr. Tudor, that you will not answer my +question?' said Mrs. Scott. + +'I mean to say, most positively, that I will answer no +questions,' said Alaric. + +'Oh, confound, not do at all; d----,' said the captain. 'The +girl's money all gone, and you won't answer questions!' + +'No!' shouted Alaric, walking across the room till he closely +confronted the captain. 'No--no--I will answer no questions that +may be asked in your hearing. But that your wife's presence +protects you, I would kick you down your own stairs before me.' + +Captain Val retreated a step--he could retreat no more--and wiped +his moustache with both hands at once. Mrs. Val screamed. +Victoire took hold of the back of a chair, as though he thought +it well that he should be armed in the general battle that was to +ensue; and Alaric, without further speech, walked out of the +room, and went away to his office. + +'So you have given up Strathbogy?' said Sir Gregory to him, in +the course of the day. + +'I think I have,' said Alaric; 'considering all things, I believe +it will be the best for me to do so.' + +'Not a doubt of it,' said Sir Gregory--'not a doubt of it, my +dear fellow;' and then Sir Gregory began to evince, by the +cordiality of his official confidence, that he had fully taken +Alaric back into his good graces. It was nothing to him that +Strathbogy had given up Alaric instead of Alaric giving up +Strathbogy. He was sufficiently pleased at knowing that the +danger of his being supplanted by his own junior was over. + +And then Alaric again went into the weary city, again made +inquiries about his shares, and again returned to his office, and +thence to his home. + +But on his return to his office, he found lying on his table a +note in Undy's handwriting, but not signed, in which he was +informed that things would yet be well, if the required shares +should be forthcoming on the following day. + +He crumpled the note tight in his hand, and was about to fling it +among the waste paper, but in a moment he thought better of it, +and smoothing the paper straight, he folded it, and laid it +carefully on his desk. + +That day, on his visit into the city, he had found that the +bridge shares had fallen to less than the value of their original +purchase-money; and that evening he told Gertrude everything. The +author does not dare to describe the telling. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +TRIBULATION + + +We must now return for a short while to Surbiton Cottage. It was +not so gay a place as it once had been; merry laughter was not so +often heard among the shrubbery walks, nor was a boat to be seen +so often glancing in and out between the lawn and the adjacent +island. The Cottage had become a demure, staid abode, of which +Captain Cuttwater was in general the most vivacious inmate; and +yet there was soon to be marrying, and giving in marriage. + +Linda's wedding-day had twice been fixed. That first-named had +been postponed in consequence of the serious illness of Norman's +elder brother. The life of that brother had been very different +in its course from Harry's; it had been dissipated at college in +riotous living, and had since been stained with debauchery during +the career of his early manhood in London. The consequence had +been that his health had been broken down, and he was now +tottering to an early grave. + +Cuthbert Norman was found to be so ill when the day first named +for Linda's marriage approached, that it had been thought +absolutely necessary to postpone the ceremony. What amount of +consolation Mrs. Woodward might have received from the knowledge +that her daughter, by this young man's decease, would become Mrs. +Norman of Normansgrove, we need not inquire; but such consolation, +if it existed at all, did not tend to dispel the feeling of sombre +disappointment which such delay was sure to produce. The heir, +however, rallied, and another day, early in August, was fixed. + +Katie, the while, was still an invalid; and, as such, puzzled all +the experience of that very experienced medical gentleman, who +has the best aristocratic practice in the neighbourhood of +Hampton Court. He, and the London physician, agreed that her +lungs were not affected; but yet she would not get well. The +colour would not come to her cheeks, the flesh would not return +to her arms, nor the spirit of olden days shine forth in her +eyes. She did not keep her bed, or confine herself to her room, +but she went about the house with a slow, noiseless, gentle +tread, so unlike the step of that Katie whom we once knew. + +But that which was a mystery to the experienced medical +gentleman, was no mystery to her mother. Mrs. Woodward well knew +why her child was no longer rosy, plump, and _debonnaire_. +As she watched her Katie move about so softly, as she saw her +constant attempt to smile whenever her mother's eye was on her, +that mother's heart almost gave way; she almost brought herself +to own that she would rather see her darling the wife of an idle, +ruined spendthrift, than watch her thus drifting away to an early +grave. These days were by no means happy days for Mrs. Woodward. + +When that July day was fixed for Linda's marriage, certain +invitations were sent out to bid the family friends to the +wedding. These calls were not so numerous as they had been when +Gertrude became a bride. No Sir Gregory was to come down from +town, no gallant speech-makers from London clubs were to be +gathered there, to wake the echoes of the opposite shore with +matrimonial wit. Mrs. Woodward could not bear that her daughter +should be married altogether, as it were, in the dark; but for +many considerations the guests were to be restricted in numbers, +and the mirth was to be restrained and quiet. + +When the list was made out, Katie saw it, and saw that Charley's +name was not there. + +'Mamma,' she said, touching her mother's arm in her sweet winning +way, 'may not Charley come to Linda's wedding? You know how fond +Harry is of him: would not Harry wish that he should be here?' + +Mrs. Woodward's eyes immediately filled with tears, and she +looked at her daughter, not knowing how to answer her. She had +never spoken to Katie of her love; no word had ever passed +between them on the subject which was now always nearest to the +hearts of them both. Mrs. Woodward had much in her character, as +a mother, that was excellent, nay, all but perfect; but she could +not bring herself to question her own children as to the inward +secrets of their bosoms. She knew not at once how to answer +Katie's question; and so she looked up at her with wistful eyes, +laden with tears. + +'You may do so, mamma,' said Katie. Katie was already a braver +woman than her mother. 'I think Harry would like it, and poor +Charley will feel hurt at being left out; you may do it, mamma, +if you like; it will not do any harm.' + +Mrs. Woodward quite understood the nature of the promise conveyed +in her daughter's assurance, and replied that Charley should be +asked. He was asked, and promised, of course, to come. But when +the wedding was postponed, when the other guests were put off, he +also was informed that his attendance at Hampton was not +immediately required; and so he still remained a stranger to the +Cottage. + +And then after a while another day was named, the guests, and +Charley with them, were again invited, and Norman was again +assured that he should be made happy. But, alas! his hopes were +again delusive. News arrived at Surbiton Cottage which made it +indispensable that the marriage should be again postponed, news +worse than any which had ever yet been received there, news which +stunned them all, and made it clear to them that this year was no +time for marrying. Alaric had been arrested. Alaric, their own +Gertrude's own husband, their son-in-law and brother-in-law, the +proud, the high, the successful, the towering man of the world, +Alaric had been arrested, and was to be tried for embezzling the +money of his ward. + +These fatal tidings were brought to Hampton by Harry Norman +himself; how they were received we must now endeavour to tell. + +But that it would be tedious we might describe the amazement with +which that news was received at the Weights and Measures. Though +the great men at the Weights were jealous of Alaric, they were +not the less proud of him. They had watched him rise with a +certain amount of displeasure, and yet they had no inconsiderable +gratification in boasting that two of the Magi, the two working +Magi of the Civil Service, had been produced by their own +establishment. When therefore tidings reached them that Tudor had +been summoned in a friendly way to Bow Street, that he had there +passed a whole morning, and that the inquiry had ended in his +temporary suspension from his official duties, and in his having +to provide two bailsmen, each for L1,000, as security that he +would on a certain day be forthcoming to stand his trial at the +Old Bailey for defrauding his ward--when, I say, these tidings +were carried from room to room at the Weights and Measures, the +feelings of surprise were equalled by those of shame and +disappointment. + +No one knew who brought this news to the Weights and Measures. No +one ever does know how such tidings fly; one of the junior clerks +had heard it from a messenger, to whom it had been told +downstairs; then another messenger, who had been across to the +Treasury Chambers with an immediate report as to a projected +change in the size of the authorized butter-firkin, heard the +same thing, and so the news by degrees was confirmed. + +But all this was not sufficient for Norman. As soon as the rumour +reached him, he went off to Bow Street, and there learnt the +actual truth as it has been above stated. Alaric was then there, +and the magistrates had decided on requiring bail; he had, in +fact, been committed. + +It would be dreadful that the Woodwards should first hear all +this from the lips of a stranger, and this reflection induced +Norman at once to go to Hampton; but it was dreadful, also, to +find himself burdened with the task of first telling such +tidings. When he found himself knocking at the Cottage door he +was still doubtful how he might best go through the work he had +before him. + +He found that he had a partial reprieve; but then it was so +partial that it would have been much better for him to have had +no such reprieve at all. Mrs. Woodward was at Sunbury with Linda, +and no one was at home but Katie. What was he to do? was he to +tell Katie? or was he to pretend that all was right, that no +special business had brought him unexpectedly to Hampton? + +'Oh, Harry, Linda will be so unhappy,' said Katie as soon as she +saw him. 'They have gone to dine at Sunbury, and they won't be +home till ten or eleven. Uncle Bat dined early with me, and he +has gone to Hampton Court. Linda will be so unhappy. But, good +gracious, Harry, is there anything the matter?' + +'Mrs. Woodward has not heard from Gertrude to-day, has she?' + +'No--not a word--Gertrude is not ill, is she? Oh, do tell me,' +said Katie, who now knew that there was some misfortune to be +told. + +'No; Gertrude is not ill.' + +'Is Alaric ill, then? Is there anything the matter with Alaric?' + +'He is not ill,' said Norman,' but he is in some trouble. I came +down as I thought your mother should be told.' + +So much he said, but would say no more. In this he probably took +the most unwise course that was open to him. He might have held +his tongue altogether, and let Katie believe that love alone had +brought him down, as it had done so often before; or he might +have told her all, feeling sure that all must be told her before +long. But he did neither; he left her in suspense, and the +consequence was that before her mother's return she was very ill. + +It was past eleven before the fly was heard in which Linda and +her mother returned home. Katie had then gone upstairs, but not +to bed. She had seated herself in the armchair in her mother's +dressing-room, and sitting there waited till she should be told +by her mother what had occurred. When the sound of the wheels +caught her ears, she came to the door of the room and held it in +her hand that she might learn what passed. She heard Linda's +sudden and affectionate greeting; she heard Mrs. Woodward's +expression of gratified surprise; and then she heard also +Norman's solemn tone, by which, as was too clear, all joy, all +gratification, was at once suppressed. Then she heard the dining- +room door close, and she knew that he was telling his tale to +Linda and her mother. + +O the misery of that next hour! For an hour they remained there +talking, and Katie knew nothing of what they were talking; she +knew only that Norman had brought unhappiness to them all. A +dozen different ideas passed across her mind. First she thought +that Alaric was dismissed, then that he was dead; was it not +possible that Harry had named Alaric's name to deceive her? might +not this misfortune, whatever it was, be with Charley? might not +he be dead? Oh! better so than the other. She knew, and said as +much to herself over and over again; but she did not the less +feel that his death must involve her own also. + +At last the dining-room door opened, and she heard her mother's +step on the stairs. Her heart beat so that she could hardly +support herself. She did not get up, but sat quite quiet, waiting +for the tidings which she knew that she should now hear. Her +mother's face, when she entered the room, nearly drove her to +despair; Mrs. Woodward had been crying, bitterly, violently, +convulsively crying; and when one has reached the age of forty, +the traces of such tears are not easily effaced even from a +woman's cheek. + +'Mamma, mamma, what is it? pray, pray tell me; oh! mamma, what is +it?' said Katie, jumping up and rushing into her mother's arms. + +'Oh! Katie,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'why are you not in bed? Oh! my +darling, I wish you were in bed; I do so wish you were in bed--my +child, my child!' and, seating herself in the nearest chair, Mrs. +Woodward again gave herself up to uncontrolled weeping. + +Then Linda came up with the copious tears still streaming down +her face. She made no effort to control them; at her age tears +are the easiest resource in time of grief. Norman had kept her +back a moment to whisper one word of love, and she then followed +her mother into the room. + +Katie was now kneeling at her mother's feet. 'Linda,' she said, +with more quietness than either of the others was able to assume, +'what has happened? what makes mamma so unhappy? Has anything +happened to Alaric?' But Linda was in no state to tell anything. + +'Do tell me, mamma,' said Katie; 'do tell me all at once. Has +anything--anything happened to--to Charley?' + +'Oh, it is worse than that, a thousand times worse than that!' +said Mrs. Woodward, who, in the agony of her own grief, became +for the instant ungenerous. + +Katie's blood rushed back to her heart, and for a moment her own +hand relaxed the hold which she had on that of her mother. She +had never spoken of her love; for her mother's sake she had been +silent; for her mother's sake she had determined to suffer and be +silent--now, and ever! Well; she would bear this also. It was but +for a moment she relaxed her hold; and then again she tightened +her fingers round her mother's hand, and held it in a firmer +grasp. 'It is Alaric, then?' she said. + +'God forgive me,' said Mrs. Woodward, speaking through her sobs-- +'God forgive me! I am a brokenhearted woman, and say I know not +what. My Katie, my darling, my best of darlings--will you forgive +me?' + +'Oh, mamma,' said Katie, kissing her mother's hands, and her +arms, and the very hem of her garment, 'oh, mamma, do not speak +so. But I wish I knew what this sorrow is, so that I might share +it with you; may I not be told, mamma? is it about Alaric?' + +'Yes, Katie. Alaric is in trouble.' + +'What trouble--is he ill?' + +'No--he is not ill. It is about money.' + +'Has he been arrested?' asked Katie, thinking of Charley's +misfortune. 'Could not Harry get him out? Harry is so good; he +would do anything, even for Alaric, when he is in trouble.' + +'He will do everything for him that he can,' said Linda, through +her tears. + +'He has not been arrested,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'he is still at +home; but he is in trouble about Miss Golightly's money--and--and +he is to be tried.' + +'Tried,' said Katie; 'tried like a criminal!' + +Katie might well express herself as horrified. Yes, he had to be +tried like a criminal; tried as pickpockets, housebreakers, and +shoplifters are tried, and for a somewhat similar offence; with +this difference, however, that pickpockets, housebreakers, and +shoplifters, are seldom educated men, and are in general led on +to crime by want. He was to be tried for the offence of making +away with some of Miss Golightly's money for his own purposes. +This was explained to Katie, with more or less perspicuity; and +then Gertrude's mother and sisters lifted up their voices +together and wept. + +He might, it is true, be acquitted; they would none of them +believe him to be guilty, though they all agreed that he had +probably been imprudent; but then the public shame of the trial! +the disgrace which must follow such an accusation! What a +downfall was here! 'Oh, Gertrude! oh, Gertrude!' sobbed Mrs. +Woodward; and indeed, at that time, it did not fare well with +Gertrude. + +It was very late before Mrs. Woodward and her daughters went to +bed that night; and then Katie, though she did not specially +complain, was very ill. She had lately received more than one +wound, which was still unhealed; and now this additional blow, +though she apparently bore it better than the others, altogether +upset her. When the morning came, she complained of headache, and +it was many days after that before she left her bed. + +But Mrs. Woodward was up early. Indeed, she could hardly be said +to have been in bed at all; for though she had lain down for an +hour or two, she had not slept. Early in the morning she knocked +at Harry's door, and begged him to come out to her. He was not +long in obeying her summons, and soon joined her in the little +breakfast parlour. + +'Harry, said she, 'you must go and see Alaric.' + +Harry's brow grew black. On the previous evening he had spoken of +Alaric without bitterness, nay, almost with affection; of +Gertrude he had spoken with the truest brotherly love; he had +assured Mrs. Woodward that he would do all that was in his power +for them; that he would spare neither his exertions nor his +purse. He had a truer idea than she had of what might probably be +the facts of the case, and was prepared, by all the means at his +disposal, to help his sister-in-law, if such aid would help her. +But he had not thought of seeing Alaric. + +'I do not think it would do any good,' said he. + +'Yes, Harry, it will; it will do the greatest good; whom else can +I get to see him? who else can find out and let us know what +really is required of us, what we ought to do? I would do it +myself, but I could not understand it; and he would never trust +us sufficiently to tell me all the truth.' + +'We will make Charley go to him. He will tell everything to +Charley, if he will to anyone.' + +'We cannot trust Charley; he is so thoughtless, so imprudent. +Besides, Harry, I cannot tell everything to Charley as I can to +you. If there be any deficiency in this woman's fortune, of +course it must be made good; and in that case I must raise the +money. I could not arrange all this with Charley.' + +'There cannot, I think, be very much wanting,' said Norman, who +had hardly yet realized the idea that Alaric had actually used +his ward's money for his own purposes. 'He has probably made some +bad investment, or trusted persons that he should not have +trusted. My small property is in the funds, and I can get the +amount at a moment's notice. I do not think there will be any +necessity to raise more money than that. At any rate, whatever +happens, you must not touch your own income; think of Katie.' + +'But, Harry--dear, good, generous Harry--you are so good, so +generous! But, Harry, we need not talk of that now. You will see +him, though, won't you?' + +'It will do no good,' said Harry; 'we have no mutual trust in +each other.' + +'Do not be unforgiving, Harry, now that he requires forgiveness.' + +'If he does require forgiveness, Mrs. Woodward, if it shall turn +out that he has been guilty, God knows that I will forgive him. I +trust this may not be the case; and it would be useless for me to +thrust myself upon him now, when a few days may replace us again +in our present relations to each other.' + +'I don't understand you, Harry; why should there always be a +quarrel between two brothers, between the husbands of two +sisters? I know you mean to be kind, I know you are most kind, +most generous; but why should you be so stern?' + +'What I mean is this--if I find him in adversity, I shall be +ready to offer him my hand; it will then be for him to say +whether he will take it. But if the storm blow over, in such case +I would rather that we should remain as we are.' + +Norman talked of forgiveness, and accused himself of no want of +charity in this respect. He had no idea that his own heart was +still hard as the nether millstone against Alaric Tudor. But yet +such was the truth. His money he could give; he could give also +his time and mind, he could lend his best abilities to rescue his +former friend and his own former love from misfortune. He could +do this, and he thought therefore that he was forgiving; but +there was no forgiveness in such assistance. There was generosity +in it, for he was ready to part with his money; there was +kindness of heart, for he was anxious to do good to his fellow- +creature; but there were with these both pride and revenge. +Alaric had out-topped him in everything, and it was sweet to +Norman's pride that his hand should be the one to raise from his +sudden fall the man who had soared so high above him. Alaric had +injured him, and what revenge is so perfect as to repay gross +injuries by great benefits? Is it not thus that we heap coals of +fire on our enemies' heads? Not that Norman indulged in thoughts +such as these; not that he resolved thus to gratify his pride, +thus to indulge his revenge. He was unconscious of his own sin, +but he was not the less a sinner. + +'No,' said he, 'I will not see him myself; it will do no good.' + +Mrs. Woodward found that it was useless to try to bend him. That, +indeed, she knew from a long experience. It was then settled that +she should go up to Gertrude that morning, travelling up to town +together with Norman, and that when she had learned from her +daughter, or from Alaric--if Alaric would talk to her about his +concerns--what was really the truth of the matter, she should +come to Norman's office, and tell him what it would be necessary +for him to do. + +And then the marriage was again put off. This, in itself, was a +great misery, as young ladies who have just been married, or who +may now be about to be married, will surely own. The words 'put +off' are easily written, the necessity of such a 'put off' is +easily arranged in the pages of a novel; an enforced delay of a +month or two in an affair which so many folk willingly delay for +so many years, sounds like a slight thing; but, nevertheless, a +matrimonial 'put off' is, under any circumstances, a great grief. +To have to counter-write those halcyon notes which have given +glad promise of the coming event; to pack up and put out of +sight, and, if possible, out of mind, the now odious finery with +which the house has for the last weeks been strewed; to give the +necessary information to the pastry-cook, from whose counter the +sad tidings will be disseminated through all the neighbourhood; +to annul the orders which have probably been given for rooms and +horses for the happy pair; to live, during the coming interval, a +mark for Pity's unpitying finger; to feel, and know, and hourly +calculate, how many slips there may be between the disappointed +lip and the still distant cup; all these things in themselves +make up a great grief, which is hardly lightened by the knowledge +that they have been caused by a still greater grief. + +These things had Linda now to do, and the poor girl had none to +help her in the doing of them. A few hurried words were spoken on +that morning between her and Norman, and for the second time she +set to work to put off her wedding. Katie, the meantime, lay sick +in bed, and Mrs. Woodward had gone to London to learn the worst +and to do the best in this dire affliction that had come upon +them. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +ALARIC TUDOR TAKES A WALK + + +There is, undoubtedly, a propensity in human love to attach +itself to excellence; but it has also, as undoubtedly, a +propensity directly antagonistic to this, and which teaches it to +put forth its strongest efforts in favour of inferiority. Watch +any fair flock of children in which there may be one blighted +bud, and you will see that that blighted one is the mother's +darling. What filial affection is ever so strong as that evinced +by a child for a parent in misfortune? Even among the rough, +sympathies of schoolboys, the cripple, the sickly one, or the +orphan without a home, will find the warmest friendship and a +stretch of kindness. Love, that must bow and do reverence to +superiority, can protect and foster inferiority; and what is so +sweet as to be able to protect? + +Gertrude's love for her husband had never been so strong as when +she learnt that that love must now stand in the place of all +other sympathies, of all other tenderness. Alaric told her of his +crime, and in his bitterness he owned that he was no longer +worthy of her love. She answered by opening her arms to him with +more warmth than ever, and bidding him rest his weary head upon +her breast. Had they not taken each other for better or for +worse? had not their bargain been that they would be happy +together if such should be their lot, or sad together if God +should so will it?--and would she be the first to cry off from +such a bargain? + +It seldom happens that a woman's love is quenched by a man's +crime. Women in this respect are more enduring than men; they +have softer sympathies, and less acute, less selfish, appreciation +of the misery of being joined to that which has been shamed. It +was not many hours since Gertrude had boasted to herself of the +honour and honesty of her lord, and tossed her head with defiant +scorn when a breath of suspicion had been muttered against his +name. Then she heard from his own lips the whole truth, learnt +that that odious woman had only muttered what she soon would +have a right to speak out openly, knew that fame and honour, +high position and pride of life, were all gone; and then in that bitter +hour she felt that she had never loved him as she did then. + +He had done wrong, he had sinned grievously; but no sooner did +she acknowledge so much than she acknowledged also that a man may +sin and yet not be all sinful; that glory may be tarnished, and +yet not utterly destroyed; that pride may get a fall, and yet +live to rise again. He had sinned, and had repented; and now to +her eyes he was again as pure as snow. Others would now doubt +him, that must needs be the case; but she would never doubt him; +no, not a whit the more in that he had once fallen. He should +still be the cynosure of her eyes, the pride of her heart, the +centre of her hopes. Marina said of her lord, when he came to her +shattered in limb, from the hands of the torturer-- + + 'I would not change + My exiled, mangled, persecuted husband, + Alive or dead, for prince or paladin, + In story or in fable, with a world + To back his suit.' + +Gertrude spoke to herself in the same language. She would not +have changed her Alaric, branded with infamy as he now was, or +soon would be, for the proudest he that carried his head high +among the proud ones of the earth. Such is woman's love; such is +the love of which a man's heart is never capable! + +Alaric's committal had taken place very much in the manner in +which it was told at the Weights and Measures. He had received a +note from one of the Bow Street magistrates, begging his +attendance in the private room at the police-office. There he had +passed nearly the whole of one day; and he was also obliged to +pass nearly the whole of another in the same office. On this +second day the proceedings were not private, and he was +accompanied by his own solicitor. + +It would be needless to describe how a plain case was, as usual, +made obscure by the lawyers, how Acts of Parliament were +consulted, how the magistrate doubted, how indignant Alaric's +attorney became when it was suggested that some insignificant +piece of evidence should be admitted, which, whether admitted or +rejected, could have no real bearing on the case. In these +respects this important examination was like other important +examinations of the same kind, such as one sees in the newspapers +whenever a man above the ordinary felon's rank becomes amenable +to the outraged laws. It ended, however, in Alaric being +committed, and giving bail to stand his trial in about a +fortnight's time; and in his being assured by his attorney that +he would most certainly be acquitted. That bit of paper on which +he had made an entry that certain shares bought by him had been +bought on behalf of his ward, would save him; so said the +attorney: to which, however, Alaric answered not much. Could any +acutest lawyer, let him be made of never so fine an assortment of +forensic indignation, now whitewash his name and set him again +right before the world? He, of course, communicated with Sir +Gregory, and agreed to be suspended from his commissionership +till the trial should be over. His two colleagues then became +bail for him. + +So much having been settled, he got into a cab with his attorney, +and having dropped that gentleman on the road, he returned home. +The excitement of the examination and the necessity for action +had sustained him? but now--what was to sustain him now? How was +he to get through the intervening fortnight, banished as he was +from his office, from his club, and from all haunts of men? His +attorney, who had other rogues to attend to besides him, made +certain set appointments with him--and for the rest, he might sit +at home and console himself as best he might with his own +thoughts. 'Excelsior!' This was the pass to which 'Excelsior' had +brought _Sic itur ad astro!_--Alas, his road had taken him +hitherto in quite a different direction. + +He sent for Charley, and when Charley came he made Gertrude +explain to him what had happened. He had confessed his own fault +once, to his own wife, and he could not bring himself to do it +again. Charley was thunderstruck at the greatness of the ruin, +but he offered what assistance he could give. Anything that he +could do, he would. Alaric had sent for him for a purpose, and +that purpose at any rate Charley could fulfil. He went into the +city to ascertain what was now the price of the Limehouse bridge +shares, and returned with the news that they were falling, +falling, falling. + +No one else called at Alaric's door that day. Mrs. Val, though +she did not come there, by no means allowed her horses to be +idle; she went about sedulously among her acquaintance, dropping +tidings of her daughter's losses. 'They will have enough left to +live upon, thank God,' said she; 'but did you ever hear of so +barefaced, so iniquitous a robbery? Well, I am not cruel; but my +own opinion is that he should certainly be hanged.' + +To this Ugolina assented fully, adding, that she had been so +shocked by the suddenness and horror of the news, as to have +become perfectly incapacitated ever since for any high order of +thought. + +Lactimel, whose soft bosom could not endure the idea of putting +an end to the life of a fellow-creature, suggested perpetual +banishment to the penal colonies; perhaps Norfolk Island. 'And +what will she do?' said Lactimel. + +'Indeed I cannot guess,' said Ugolina; 'her education has been +sadly deficient.' + +None but Charley called on Alaric that day, and he found himself +shut up alone with his wife and child. His own house seemed to +him a prison. He did not dare to leave it; he did not dare to +walk out and face the public as long as daylight continued; he +was ashamed to show himself, and so he sat alone in his dining- +room thinking, thinking, thinking. Do what he would, he could not +get those shares out of his mind; they had entered like iron into +his soul, as poison into his blood; they might still rise, they +might yet become of vast value, might pay all his debts, and +enable him to begin again. And then this had been a committee +day; he had had no means of knowing how things had gone there, of +learning the opinions of the members, of whispering to Mr. Piles, +or hearing the law on the matter laid down by the heavy deep +voice of the great Mr. Blocks. And so he went on thinking, +thinking, thinking, but ever as though he had a clock-weight +fixed to his heart and pulling at its strings. For, after all, +what were the shares or the committee to him? Let the shares rise +to ever so fabulous a value, let the Chancellor of the Exchequer +be ever so complaisant in giving away his money, what avail would +it be to him? what avail now? He must stand his trial for the +crime of which he had been guilty. + +With the utmost patience Gertrude endeavoured to soothe him, and +to bring his mind into some temper in which it could employ +itself. She brought him their baby, thinking that he would play +with his child, but all that he said was--'My poor boy! I have +ruined him already;' and then turning away from the infant, he +thrust his hands deep into his trousers-pockets, and went on +calculating about the shares. + +When the sun had well set, and the daylight had, at last, +dwindled out, he took up his hat and wandered out among the new +streets and rows of houses which lay between his own house and +the Western Railway. He got into a district in which he had never +been before, and as he walked about here, he thought of the fate +of other such swindlers as himself;--yes, though he did not speak +the word, he pronounced it as plainly, and as often, in the +utterance of his mind, as though it was being rung out to him +from every steeple in London; he thought of the fate of such +swindlers as himself; how one had been found dead in the streets, +poisoned by himself; how another, after facing the cleverest +lawyers in the land, was now dying in a felon's prison; how a +third had vainly endeavoured to fly from justice by aid of wigs, +false whiskers, painted furrows, and other disguises. Should he +try to escape also, and avoid the ignominy of a trial? He knew it +would be in vain; he knew that, at this moment, he was dogged at +the distance of some thirty yards by an amiable policeman in +mufti, placed to watch his motions by his two kind bailsmen, who +preferred this small expense to the risk of losing a thousand +pounds a-piece. + +As he turned short round a corner, into the main road leading +from the railway station to Bayswater, he came close upon a man +who was walking quickly in the opposite direction, and found +himself face to face with Undy Scott. How on earth should Undy +Scott have come out there to Bayswater, at that hour of the +night, he, the constant denizen of clubs, the well-known +frequenter of Pall Mall, the member for the Tillietudlem burghs, +whose every hour was occupied in the looking after things +political, or things commercial? Who could have expected him in a +back road at Bayswater? There, however, he was, and Alaric, +before he knew of his presence, had almost stumbled against him. + +'Scott!' said Alaric, starting back. + +'Hallo, Tudor, what the deuce brings you here? but I suppose +you'll ask me the same question?' said Undy. + +Alaric Tudor could not restrain himself. 'You scoundrel,' said +he, seizing Undy by the collar; 'you utterly unmitigated +scoundrel! You premeditated, wilful villain!' and he held Undy as +though he intended to choke him. + +But Undy Scott was not a man to be thus roughly handled with +impunity; and in completing the education which he had received, +the use of his fists had not been overlooked. He let out with his +right hand, and struck Alaric twice with considerable force on +the side of his jaw, so that the teeth rattled in his mouth. + +But Alaric, at the moment, hardly felt it. 'You have brought me +and mine to ruin,' said he; 'you have done it purposely, like a +fiend. But, low as I have fallen, I would not change places with +you for all that the earth holds. I have been a villain; but such +villany as yours--ugh--' and so saying, he flung his enemy from +him, and Undy, tottering back, saved himself against the wall. + +In a continued personal contest between the two men, Undy would +probably have had the best of it, for he would certainly have +been the cooler of the two, and was also the more skilful in such +warfare; but he felt in a moment that he could gain nothing by +thrashing Tudor, whereas he might damage himself materially by +having his name brought forward at the present moment in +connexion with that of his old friend. + +'You reprobate!' said he, preparing to pass on; 'it has been my +misfortune to know you, and one cannot touch pitch and not be +defiled. But, thank God, you'll come by your deserts now. If you +will take my advice you'll hang yourself;' and so they parted. + +The amiable policeman in mufti remained at a convenient distance +during this little interview, having no special mission to keep +the peace, pending his present employment; but, as he passed by, +he peered into Undy's face, and recognized the honourable member +for the Tillietudlem burghs. A really sharp policeman knows every +one of any note in London. It might, perhaps, be useful that +evidence should be given at the forthcoming trial of the little +contest which we have described. If so, our friend in mufti was +prepared to give it. + +On the following morning, at about eleven, a cab drove up to the +door, and Alaric, standing at the dining-room window, saw Mrs. +Woodward get out of it. + +'There's your mother,' said Alaric to his wife. 'I will not see +her--let her go up to the drawing-room.' + +'Oh! Alaric, will you not see mamma?' + +'How can I, with my face swollen as it is now? Besides, what +would be the good? What can I say to her? I know well enough what +she has to say to me, without listening to it.' + +'Dear Alaric, mamma will say nothing to you that is not kind; do +see her, for my sake, Alaric.' + +But misery had not made him docile. He merely turned from her, +and shook his head impatiently. Gertrude then ran out to welcome +her mother, who was in the hall. + +And what a welcoming it was! 'Come upstairs, mamma, come into the +drawing-room,' said Gertrude, who would not stop even to kiss her +mother till they found themselves secured from the servants' +eyes. She knew that one word of tenderness would bring her to the +ground. + +'Mamma, mamma!' she almost shrieked, and throwing herself into +her mother's arms wept convulsively. Mrs. Woodward wanted no more +words to tell her that Alaric had been guilty. + +'But, Gertrude, how much is it?' whispered the mother, as, after +a few moments of passionate grief, they sat holding each other's +hands on the sofa. 'How much money is wanting? Can we not make it +up? If it be all paid before the day of trial, will not that do? +will not that prevent it?' + +Gertrude could not say. She knew that L10,000 had been +abstracted. Mrs. Woodward groaned as she heard the sum named. But +then there were those shares, which had not long since been worth +much more than half that sum, which must still be worth a large +part of it. + +'But we must know, dearest, before Harry can do anything,' said +Mrs. Woodward. + +Gertrude blushed crimson when Harry Norman's name was mentioned. +And had it come to that--that they must look to him for aid? + +'Can you not ask him, love?' said Mrs. Woodward. 'I saw him in +the dining-room; go and ask him; when he knows that we are doing +our best for him, surely he will help us.' + +Gertrude, with a heavy heart, went down on her message, and did +not return for fifteen or twenty minutes. It may easily be +conceived that Norman's name was not mentioned between her and +her husband, but she made him understand that an effort would be +made for him if only the truth could be ascertained. + +'It will be of no use,' said he. + +'Don't say so, Alaric; we cannot tell what may be of use. But at +any rate it will be weight off your heart to know that this money +has been paid. It is that which overpowers you now, and not your +own misfortune.' + +At last he suffered her to lead him, and she put down on paper +such figures as he dictated to her. It was, however, impossible +to say what was the actual deficiency; that must depend upon the +present value of the shares; these he said he was prepared to +give over to his own attorney, if it was thought that by so doing +he should be taking the best steps towards repairing the evil he +had done; and then he began calculating how much the shares might +possibly be worth, and pointing out under what circumstances they +should be sold, and under what again they should be overheld till +the market had improved. All this was worse than Greek to +Gertrude; but she collected what facts she could, and then +returned to her mother. + +And they discussed the matter with all the wit and all the +volubility which women have on such occasions. Paper was brought +forth, and accounts were made out between them, not such as would +please the eyes of a Civil Service Examiner, but yet accurate in +their way. How they worked and racked their brains, and strained +their women's nerves in planning how justice might be defeated, +and the dishonesty of the loved one covered from shame! Uncle Bat +was ready with his share. He had received such explanation as +Mrs. Woodward had been able to give, and though when he first +heard the news he had spoken severely of Alaric, still his money +should be forthcoming for the service of the family. He could +produce some fifteen hundred pounds; and would if needs be that +he should do so. Then Harry--but the pen fell from Gertrude's +fingers as she essayed to write down Harry Norman's contribution +to the relief of her husband's misery. + +'Remember, Gertrude, love, in how short a time he will be your +brother.' + +'But when will it be, mamma? Is it to be on Thursday, as we had +planned? Of course, mamma, I cannot be there.' + +And then there was a break in their accounts, and Mrs. Woodward +explained to Gertrude that they had all thought it better to +postpone Linda's marriage till after the trial; and this, of +course was the source of fresh grief. When men such as Alaric +Tudor stoop to dishonesty, the penalties of detection are not +confined to their own hearthstone. The higher are the branches of +the tree and the wider, the greater will be the extent of earth +which its fall will disturb. + +Gertrude's pen, however, again went to work. The shares were put +down at L5,000. 'If they can only be sold for so much, I think we +may manage it,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I am sure that Harry can get +the remainder--indeed he said he could have more than that.' + +'And what will Linda do?' + +'Linda will never want it, love; and if she did, what of that? +would she not give all she has for you?' + +And then Mrs. Woodward went her way to Norman's office, without +having spoken to Alaric. 'You will come again soon, mamma,' said +Gertrude. Mrs. Woodward promised that she would. + +'And, mamma,' and she whispered close into her mother's ear, as +she made her next request; 'and, mamma, you will be with me on +that day?' + +We need not follow Norman in his efforts to have her full fortune +restored to Madame Jaquetanape. He was daily in connexion with +Alaric's lawyer, and returned sometimes with hope and sometimes +without it. Mrs. Val's lawyer would receive no overtures towards +a withdrawal of the charge, or even towards any mitigation in +their proceedings, unless the agent coming forward on behalf of +the lady's late trustee, did so with the full sum of L20,000 in +his hands. + +We need not follow Charley, who was everyday with Alaric, and who +was, unknown to Alaric, an agent between him and Norman. 'Well, +Charley, what are they doing to-day?' was Alaric's constant +question to him, even up to the very eve of his trial. + +If any spirit ever walks it must be that of the stockjobber, for +how can such a one rest in its grave without knowing what shares +are doing? + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +THE LAST BREAKFAST + + +And that day was not long in coming; indeed, it came with +terrible alacrity; much too quickly for Gertrude, much too +quickly for Norman; and much too quickly for Alaric's lawyer. To +Alaric only did the time pass slowly, for he found himself +utterly without employment. + +Norman and Uncle Bat between them had raised something about +L6,000; but when the day came on which they were prepared to +dispose of the shares, the Limehouse bridge was found to be worth +nothing. They were, as the broker had said, ticklish stock; so +ticklish that no one would have them at any price. When Undy, +together with his agent from Tillietudlem, went into the market +about the same time to dispose of theirs, they were equally +unsuccessful. How the agent looked and spoke and felt may be +imagined; for the agent had made large advances, and had no other +security; but Undy had borne such looks and speeches before, and +merely said that it was very odd--extremely odd; he had been +greatly deceived by Mr. Piles. Mr. Piles also said it was very +odd; but he did not appear to be nearly so much annoyed as the +agent from Tillietudlem; and it was whispered that, queer as +things now looked, Messrs. Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, had not +made a bad thing of the bridge. + +Overture after overture was made to the lawyer employed by Mrs. +Val's party. Norman first offered the L6,000 and the shares; then +when the shares were utterly rejected by the share-buying world, +he offered to make himself personally responsible for the +remainder of the debt, and to bind himself by bond to pay it +within six months. At first these propositions were listened to, +and Alaric's friends were led to believe that the matter would be +handled in such a way that the prosecution would fall to the +ground. But at last all composition was refused. The adverse +attorney declared, first, that he was not able to accept any +money payment short of the full amount with interest, and then he +averred, that as criminal proceedings had been taken they could +not now be stayed. Whether or no Alaric's night attack had +anything to do with this, whether Undy had been the means of +instigating this rigid adherence to justice, we are not prepared +to say. + +That day for which Gertrude had prayed her mother's assistance +came all too soon. They had become at last aware that the trial +must go on. Charley was with them on the last evening, and +completed their despair by telling them that their attorney had +resolved to make no further efforts at a compromise. + +Perhaps the most painful feeling to Gertrude through the whole of +the last fortnight had been the total prostration of her +husband's energy, and almost of his intellect; he seemed to have +lost the power of judging for himself, and of thinking and +deciding what conduct would be best for him in his present +condition. He who had been so energetic, so full of life, so +ready for all emergencies, so clever at devices, so able to +manage not only for himself but for his friends, he was, as it +were, paralysed and unmanned. He sat from morning to night +looking at the empty fire-grate, and hardly ventured to speak of +the ordeal that he had to undergo. + +His lawyer was to call for him on the morning of the trial, and +Mrs. Woodward was to be at the house soon after he had left it. +He had not yet seen her since the inquiry had commenced, and it +was very plain that he did not wish to do so. Mrs. Woodward was +to be there and to remain till his fate had been decided, and +then--Not a word had yet been said as to the chance of his not +returning; but Mrs. Woodward was aware that he would probably be +unable to do so, and felt, that if such should be the case, she +could not leave her daughter alone. + +And so Alaric and his wife sat down to breakfast on that last +morning. She had brought their boy down; but as she perceived +that the child's presence did not please his father, he had been +sent back to the nursery, and they were alone. She poured out his +tea for him, put bread upon his plate, and then sat down close +beside him, endeavouring to persuade him to eat. She had never +yet found fault with him, she had never even ventured to give him +counsel, but now she longed to entreat him to collect himself and +take a man's part in the coming trial. He sat in the seat +prepared for him, but, instead of eating, he thrust his hands +after his accustomed manner into his pockets and sat glowering at +the teacups. + +'Come, Alaric, won't you eat your breakfast?' said she. + +'No; breakfast! no-how can I eat now? how can you think that I +could eat at such a time as this? Do you take yours; never mind +me.' + +'But, dearest, you will be faint if you do not eat; think what +you have to go through; remember how many eyes will be on you to- +day.' + +He shuddered violently as she spoke, and motioned to her with his +hand not to go on with what she was saying. + +'I know, I know,' said she passionately, 'dearest, dearest love-- +I know how dreadful it is; would that I could bear it for you! +would that I could!' + +He turned away his head, for a tear was in his eye. It was the +first that had come to his assistance since this sorrow had come +upon him. + +'Don't turn from me, dearest Alaric; do not turn from me now at +our last moments. To me at least you are the same noble Alaric +that you ever were.' + +'Noble!' said he, with all the self-scorn which he so truly felt. + +'To me you are, now as ever; but, Alaric, I do so fear that you +will want strength, physical strength, you know, to go through +all this. I would have you bear yourself like a man before them +all.' + +'It will be but little matter,' said he. + +'It will be matter. It will be matter to me. My darling, darling +husband, rouse yourself,' and she knelt before his knees and +prayed to him; 'for my sake do it; eat and drink that you may +have the power of a man when all the world is looking at you. If +God forgives us our sins, surely we should so carry ourselves +that men may not be ashamed to do so.' + +He did not answer her, but he turned to the table and broke the +bread, and put his lips to the cup. And then she gave him food as +she would give it to a child, and he with a child's obedience ate +and drank what was put before him. As he did so, every now and +again a single tear forced itself beneath his eyelid and trickled +down his face, and in some degree Gertrude was comforted. + +He had hardly finished his enforced breakfast when the cab and +the lawyer came to the door. The learned gentleman had the good +taste not to come in, and so the servant told them that Mr. +Gitemthruet was there. + +'Say that your master will be with him in a minute,' said +Gertrude, quite coolly; and then the room door was again closed, +and the husband and wife had now to say adieu. + +Alaric rose from his chair and made a faint attempt to smile. +'Well, Gertrude,' said he, 'it has come at last.' + +She rushed into his embrace, and throwing her arms around him, +buried her face upon his breast. 'Alaric, Alaric, my husband! my +love, my best, my own, my only love!' + +'I cannot say much now, Gertrude, but I know how good you are; +you will come and see me, if they will let you, won't you?' + +'See you!' said she, starting back, but still holding him and +looking up earnestly into his face. 'See you!' and then she +poured out her love with all the passion of a Ruth: '"Whither +thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge.... +Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the +Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and +me." See you, Alaric; oh, it cannot be that they will hinder the +wife from being with her husband. But, Alaric,' she went on, 'do +not droop now, love--will you?' + +'I cannot brazen it out,' said he. 'I know too well what it is +that I have done.' + +'No, not that, Alaric; I would not have that. But remember, all +is not over, whatever they may do. Ah, how little will really be +over, whatever they can do! You have repented, have you not, +Alaric?' + +'I think so, I hope so,' said Alaric, with his eyes upon the +ground. + +'You have repented, and are right before God; do not fear then +what man can do to you. I would not have you brazen, Alaric; but +be manly, be collected, be your own self, the man that I have +loved, the man that I do now love so well, better, better than +ever;' and she threw herself on him and kissed him and clung to +him, and stroked his hair and put her hand upon his face, and +then holding him from her, looked up to him as though he were a +hero whom she all but worshipped. + +'Gertrude, Gertrude--that I should have brought you to this!' + +'Never mind,' said she; 'we will win through it yet--we will yet +be happy together, far, far away from here--remember that--let +that support you through all. And now, Alaric, you will come up +for one moment and kiss him before you go.' + +'The man will be impatient.' + +'Never mind; let him be impatient-you shall not go away without +blessing your boy; come up, Alaric.' And she took him by the hand +and led him like a child into the nursery. + +'Where is the nurse? bring him here--papa is going away--Alley, +boy, give papa a big kiss.' + +Alaric, for the first time for the fortnight, took the little +fellow into his arms and kissed him. 'God bless you, my bairn,' +said he, 'and grant that all this may never be visited against +you, here or hereafter!' + +'And now go,' said Gertrude, as they descended the stairs +together, 'and may God in His mercy watch over and protect you +and give you back to me! And, Alaric, wherever you are I will be +close to you, remember that. I will be quite, quite close to you. +Now, one kiss--oh, dearest, dearest Alaric--there--there--now +go.' And so he went, and Gertrude shutting herself into her room +threw herself on to the bed, and wept aloud. + + + +CHAPTER XL + +MR. CHAFFANBRASS + + +We must now follow Alaric to his trial. He was, of course, much +too soon at court. All people always are, who are brought to the +court perforce, criminals for instance, and witnesses, and other +such-like unfortunate wretches; whereas many of those who only go +there to earn their bread are very often as much too late. He was +to be tried at the Old Bailey. As I have never seen the place, +and as so many others have seen it, I will not attempt to +describe it. Here Mr. Gitemthruet was quite at home; he hustled +and jostled, elbowed and ordered, as though he were the second +great man of the place, and the client whom he was to defend was +the first. In this latter opinion he was certainly right. Alaric +was the hero of the day, and people made way for him as though he +had won a victory in India, and was going to receive the freedom +of the city in a box. As he passed by, a gleam of light fell on +him from a window, and at the instant three different artists had +him photographed, daguerreotyped, and bedevilled; four graphic +members of the public press took down the details of his hat, +whiskers, coat, trousers, and boots; and the sub-editor of the +_Daily Delight_ observed that 'there was a slight tremor in +the first footstep which he took within the precincts of the +prison, but in every other respect his demeanour was dignified +and his presence manly; he had light-brown gloves, one of which +was on his left hand, but the other was allowed to swing from his +fingers. The court was extremely crowded, and some fair ladies +appeared there to grace its customarily ungracious walls. On the +bench we observed Lord Killtime, Sir Gregory Hardlines, and Mr. +Whip Vigil. Mr. Undecimus Scott, who had been summoned as a +witness by the prisoner, was also accommodated by the sheriffs +with a seat.' Such was the opening paragraph of the seven columns +which were devoted by the _Daily Delight_ to the all-absorbing +subject. + +But Mr. Gitemthruet made his way through artists, reporters, and +the agitated crowd with that happy air of command which can so +easily be assumed by men at a moment's notice, when they feel +themselves to be for that moment of importance. 'Come this way, +Mr. Tudor; follow me and we will get on without any trouble; just +follow me close,' said Mr. Gitemthruet to his client, in a +whisper which was audible to not a few. Tudor, who was essaying, +and not altogether unsuccessfully, to bear the public gaze +undismayed, did as he was bid, and followed Mr. Gitemthruet. + +'Now,' said the attorney, 'we'll sit here--Mr. Chaffanbrass will +be close to us, there; so that I can touch him up as we go along; +of course, you know, you can make any suggestion, only you must +do it through me. Here's his lordship; uncommon well he looks, +don't he? You'd hardly believe him to be seventy-seven, but he's +not a day less, if he isn't any more; and he has as much work in +him yet as you or I, pretty nearly. If you want to insure a man's +life, Mr. Tudor, put him on the bench; then he'll never die. We +lawyers are not like bishops, who are always for giving up, and +going out on a pension.' + +But Alaric was not at the moment inclined to meditate much on the +long years of judges. He was thinking, or perhaps trying to +think, whether it would not be better for him to save this crowd +that was now gathered together all further trouble, and plead +guilty at once. He knew he was guilty, he could not understand +that it was possible that any juryman should have a doubt about +it; he had taken the money that did not belong to him; that would +be made quite clear; he had taken it, and had not repaid it; +there was the absolute _corpus delicti_ in court, in the shape +of a deficiency of some thousands of pounds. What possible +doubt would there be in the breast of anyone as to his guilt? Why +should he vex his own soul by making himself for a livelong day +the gazing-stock for the multitude? Why should he trouble all +those wigged counsellors, when one word from him would set all at +rest? + +'Mr. Gitemthruet, I think I'll plead guilty,' said he. + +'Plead what!' said Mr. Gitemthruet, turning round upon his client +with a sharp, angry look. It was the first time that his attorney +had shown any sign of disgust, displeasure, or even disapprobation +since he had taken Alaric's matter in hand. 'Plead what! Ah, you're +joking, I know; upon my soul you gave me a start.' + +Alaric endeavoured to explain to him that he was not joking, nor +in a mood to joke; but that he really thought the least vexatious +course would be for him to plead guilty. + +'Then I tell you it would be the most vexatious proceeding ever I +heard of in all my practice. But you are in my hands, Mr. Tudor, +and you can't do it. You have done me the honour to come to me, +and now you must be ruled by me. Plead guilty! Why, with such a +case as you have got, you would disgrace yourself for ever if you +did so. Think of your friends, Mr. Tudor, if you won't think of +me or of yourself.' + +His lawyer's eloquence converted him, and he resolved that he +would run his chance. During this time all manner of little legal +preliminaries had been going on; and now the court was ready for +business; the jury were in their box, the court-keeper cried +silence, and Mr. Gitemthruet was busy among his papers with +frantic energy. But nothing was yet seen of the great Mr. +Chaffanbrass. + +'I believe we may go on with the trial for breach of trust,' said +the judge. 'I do not know why we are waiting.' + +Then up and spoke Mr. Younglad, who was Alaric's junior counsel. +Mr. Younglad was a promising common-law barrister, now commencing +his career, of whom his friends were beginning to hope that he +might, if he kept his shoulders well to the collar, at some +distant period make a living out of his profession. He was +between forty and forty-five years of age, and had already +overcome the natural diffidence of youth in addressing a learned +bench and a crowded court. + +'My lud,' said Younglad, 'my learned friend, Mr. Chaffanbrass, +who leads for the prisoner, is not yet in court. Perhaps, my lud, +on behalf of my client, I may ask for a few moments' delay.' + +'And if Mr. Chaffanbrass has undertaken to lead for the prisoner, +why is he not in court?' said the judge, looking as though he had +uttered a poser which must altogether settle Mr. Younglad's +business. + +But Mr. Younglad had not been sitting, and walking and listening, +let alone talking occasionally, in criminal courts, for the last +twenty years, to be settled so easily. + +'My lud, if your ludship will indulge me with five minutes' +delay--we will not ask more than five minutes--your ludship +knows, no one better, the very onerous duties--' + +'When I was at the bar I took no briefs to which I could not +attend,' said the judge. + +'I am sure you did not, my lud; and my learned friend, should he +ever sit in your ludship's seat, will be able to say as much for +himself, when at some future time he may be--; but, my lud, Mr. +Chaffanbrass is now in court.' And as he spoke, Mr. Chaffanbrass, +carrying in his hand a huge old blue bag, which, as he entered, +he took from his clerk's hands, and bearing on the top of his +head a wig that apparently had not been dressed for the last ten +years, made his way in among the barristers, caring little on +whose toes he trod, whose papers he upset, or whom he elbowed on +his road. Mr. Chaffanbrass was the cock of this dunghill, and +well he knew how to make his crowing heard there. + +'And now, pray, let us lose no more time,' said the judge. + +'My lord, if time has been lost through me, I am very sorry; but +if your lordship's horse had fallen down in the street as mine +did just now----' + +'My horse never falls down in the street, Mr. Chaffanbrass.' + +'Some beasts, my lord, can always keep their legs under them, and +others can't; and men are pretty much in the same condition. I +hope the former may be the case with your lordship and your +lordship's cob for many years.' The judge, knowing of old that +nothing could prevent Mr. Chaffanbrass from having the last word, +now held his peace, and the trial began. + +There are not now too many pages left to us for the completion of +our tale; but, nevertheless, we must say a few words about Mr. +Chaffanbrass. He was one of an order of barristers by no means +yet extinct, but of whom it may be said that their peculiarities +are somewhat less often seen than they were when Mr. Chaffanbrass +was in his prime. He confined his practice almost entirely to one +class of work, the defence, namely, of culprits arraigned for +heavy crimes, and in this he was, if not unrivalled, at least +unequalled. Rivals he had, who, thick as the skins of such men +may be presumed to be, not unfrequently writhed beneath the +lashes which his tongue could inflict. To such a perfection had +he carried his skill and power of fence, so certain was he in +attack, so invulnerable when attacked, that few men cared to come +within the reach of his forensic flail. To the old stagers who +were generally opposed to him, the gentlemen who conducted +prosecutions on the part of the Crown, and customarily spent +their time and skill in trying to hang those marauders on the +public safety whom it was the special business of Mr. Chaffanbrass +to preserve unhung, to these he was, if not civil, at least forbearing; +but when any barrister, who was comparatively a stranger to him, +ventured to oppose him, there was no measure to his impudent +sarcasm and offensive sneers. + +Those, however, who most dreaded Mr. Chaffanbrass, and who had +most occasion to do so, were the witnesses. A rival lawyer could +find a protection on the bench when his powers of endurance were +tried too far; but a witness in a court of law has no protection. +He comes there unfeed, without hope of guerdon, to give such +assistance to the State in repressing crime and assisting justice +as his knowledge in this particular case may enable him to +afford; and justice, in order to ascertain whether his testimony +be true, finds it necessary to subject him to torture. One would +naturally imagine that an undisturbed thread of clear evidence +would be best obtained from a man whose position was made easy +and whose mind was not harassed; but this is not the fact: to +turn a witness to good account, he must be badgered this way and +that till he is nearly mad; he must be made a laughingstock for +the court; his very truths must be turned into falsehoods, so +that he may be falsely shamed; he must be accused of all manner +of villany, threatened with all manner of punishment; he must be +made to feel that he has no friend near him, that the world is +all against him; he must be confounded till he forget his right +hand from his left, till his mind be turned into chaos, and his +heart into water; and then let him give his evidence. What will +fall from his lips when in this wretched collapse must be of +special value, for the best talents of practised forensic heroes +are daily used to bring it about; and no member of the Humane +Society interferes to protect the wretch. Some sorts of torture +are, as it were, tacitly allowed even among humane people. Eels +are skinned alive, and witnesses are sacrificed, and no one's +blood curdles at the sight, no soft heart is sickened at the +cruelty. + +To apply the thumbscrew, the boot, and the rack to the victim +before him was the work of Mr. Chaffanbrass's life. And it may be +said of him that the labour he delighted in physicked pain. He +was as little averse to this toil as the cat is to that of +catching mice. And, indeed, he was not unlike a cat in his method +of proceeding; for he would, as it were, hold his prey for a +while between his paws, and pat him with gentle taps before he +tore him. He would ask a few civil little questions in his +softest voice, glaring out of his wicked old eye as he did so at +those around him, and then, when he had his mouse well in hand, +out would come his envenomed claw, and the wretched animal would +feel the fatal wound in his tenderest part. + +Mankind in general take pleasure in cruelty, though those who are +civilized abstain from it on principle. On the whole Mr. +Chaffanbrass is popular at the Old Bailey. Men congregate to hear +him turn a witness inside out, and chuckle with an inward +pleasure at the success of his cruelty. This Mr. Chaffanbrass +knows, and, like an actor who is kept up to his high mark by the +necessity of maintaining his character, he never allows himself +to grow dull over his work. Therefore Mr. Chaffanbrass bullies +when it is quite unnecessary that he should bully; it is a labour +of love; and though he is now old, and stiff in his joints, +though ease would be dear to him, though like a gladiator +satiated with blood, he would as regards himself be so pleased to +sheathe his sword, yet he never spares himself. He never spares +himself, and he never spares his victim. + +As a lawyer, in the broad and high sense of the word, it may be +presumed that Mr. Chaffanbrass knows little or nothing. He has, +indeed, no occasion for such knowledge. His business is to +perplex a witness and bamboozle a jury, and in doing that he is +generally successful. He seldom cares for carrying the judge with +him: such tactics, indeed, as his are not likely to tell upon a +judge. That which he loves is, that a judge should charge against +him, and a jury give a verdict in his favour. When he achieves +that he feels that he has earned his money. Let others, the young +lads and spooneys of his profession, undertake the milk-and-water +work of defending injured innocence; it is all but an insult to +his practised ingenuity to invite his assistance to such +tasteless business. Give him a case in which he has all the world +against him; Justice with her sword raised high to strike; Truth +with open mouth and speaking eyes to tell the bloody tale; +outraged humanity shrieking for punishment; a case from which +Mercy herself, with averted eyes, has loathing turned and bade +her sterner sister do her work; give him such a case as this, and +then you will see Mr. Chaffanbrass in his glory. Let him, by the +use of his high art, rescue from the gallows and turn loose upon +the world the wretch whose hands are reeking with the blood of +father, mother, wife, and brother, and you may see Mr. Chaffanbrass, +elated with conscious worth, rub his happy hands with infinite +complacency. Then will his ambition be satisfied, and he will feel +that in the verdict of the jury he has received the honour due to +his genius. He will have succeeded in turning black into white, +in washing the blackamoor, in dressing in the fair robe of innocence +the foulest, filthiest wretch of his day; and as he returns to his home, +he will be proudly conscious that he is no little man. + +In person, however, Mr. Chaffanbrass is a little man, and a very +dirty little man. He has all manner of nasty tricks about him, +which make him a disagreeable neighbour to barristers sitting +near to him. He is profuse with snuff, and very generous with his +handkerchief. He is always at work upon his teeth, which do not +do much credit to his industry. His wig is never at ease upon his +head, but is poked about by him, sometimes over one ear, +sometimes over the other, now on the back of his head, and then +on his nose; and it is impossible to say in which guise he looks +most cruel, most sharp, and most intolerable. His linen is never +clean, his hands never washed, and his clothes apparently never +new. He is about five feet six in height, and even with that +stoops greatly. His custom is to lean forward, resting with both +hands on the sort of desk before him, and then to fix his small +brown basilisk eye on the victim in the box before him. In this +position he will remain unmoved by the hour together, unless the +elevation and fall of his thick eyebrows and the partial closing +of his wicked eyes can be called motion. But his tongue! that +moves; there is the weapon which he knows how to use! + +Such is Mr. Chaffanbrass in public life; and those who only know +him in public life can hardly believe that at home he is one of +the most easy, good-tempered, amiable old gentlemen that ever was +pooh-poohed by his grown-up daughters, and occasionally told to +keep himself quiet in a corner. Such, however, is his private +character. Not that he is a fool in his own house; Mr. Chaffanbrass +can never be a fool; but he is so essentially good-natured, so +devoid of any feeling of domestic tyranny, so placid in his +domesticities, that he chooses to be ruled by his own children. +But in his own way he is fond of hospitality; he delights in a cosy +glass of old port with an old friend in whose company he may +be allowed to sit in his old coat and old slippers. He delights +also in his books, in his daughters' music, and in three or four +live pet dogs, and birds, and squirrels, whom morning and night +he feeds with his own hands. He is charitable, too, and subscribes +largely to hospitals founded for the relief of the suffering poor. + +Such was Mr. Chaffanbrass, who had been selected by the astute +Mr. Gitemthruet to act as leading counsel on behalf of Alaric. If +any human wisdom could effect the escape of a client in such +jeopardy, the wisdom of Mr. Chaffanbrass would be likely to do +it; but, in truth, the evidence was so strong against him, that +even this Newgate hero almost feared the result. + +I will not try the patience of anyone by stating in detail all +the circumstances of the trial. In doing so I should only copy, +or, at any rate, might copy, the proceedings at some of those +modern _causes celebres_ with which all those who love such +subjects are familiar. And why should I force such matters on +those who do not love them? The usual opening speech was made by +the chief man on the prosecuting side, who, in the usual manner, +declared 'that his only object was justice; that his heart bled +within him to see a man of such acknowledged public utility as +Mr. Tudor in such a position; that he sincerely hoped that the +jury might find it possible to acquit him, but that--' And then +went into his 'but' with so much venom that it was clearly +discernible to all, that in spite of his protestations, his heart +was set upon a conviction. + +When he had finished, the witnesses for the prosecution were +called--the poor wretches whose fate it was to be impaled alive +that day by Mr. Chaffanbrass. They gave their evidence, and in +due course were impaled. Mr. Chaffanbrass had never been greater. +The day was hot, and he thrust his wig back till it stuck rather +on the top of his coat-collar than on his head; his forehead +seemed to come out like the head of a dog from his kennel, and he +grinned with his black teeth, and his savage eyes twinkled, till +the witnesses sank almost out of sight as they gazed at him. + +And yet they had very little to prove, and nothing that he could +disprove. They had to speak merely to certain banking transactions, +to say that certain moneys had been so paid in and so drawn out, +in stating which they had their office books to depend on. But +not the less on this account were they made victims. To one +clerk it was suggested that he might now and then, once in three +months or so, make an error in a figure; and, having acknowledged +this, he was driven about until he admitted that it was very possible +that every entry he made in the bank books in the course of the +year was false. 'And you, such as you,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, 'do +you dare to come forward to give evidence on commercial affairs? +Go down, sir, and hide your ignominy.' The wretch, convinced that +he was ruined for ever, slunk out of court, and was ashamed to +show himself at his place of business for the next three days. + +There were ten or twelve witnesses, all much of the same sort, +who proved among them that this sum of twenty thousand pounds had +been placed at Alaric's disposal, and that now, alas! the twenty +thousand pounds were not forthcoming. It seemed to be a very +simple case; and, to Alaric's own understanding, it seemed +impossible that his counsel should do anything for him. But as +each impaled victim shrank with agonized terror from the torture, +Mr. Gitemthruet would turn round to Alaric and assure him that +they were going on well, quite as well as he had expected. Mr. +Chaffanbrass was really exerting himself; and when Mr. Chaffanbrass +did really exert himself he rarely failed. + +And so the long day faded itself away in the hot sweltering +court, and his lordship, at about seven o'clock, declared his +intention of adjourning. Of course a _cause celebre_ such as +this was not going to decide itself in one day. Alaric's guilt +was clear as daylight to all concerned; but a man who had risen +to be a Civil Service Commissioner, and to be entrusted with the +guardianship of twenty thousand pounds, was not to be treated +like a butcher who had merely smothered his wife in an ordinary +way, or a housebreaker who had followed his professional career +to its natural end; more than that was due to the rank and +station of the man, and to the very respectable retaining fee +with which Mr. Gitemthruet had found himself enabled to secure +the venom of Mr. Chaffanbrass. So the jury retired to regale +themselves _en masse_ at a neighbouring coffee-house; Alaric +was again permitted to be at large on bail (the amiable policeman +in mufti still attending him at a distance); and Mr. Chaffanbrass +and his lordship retired to prepare themselves by rest for the +morrow's labours. + +But what was Alaric to do? He soon found himself under the +guardianship of the constant Gitemthruet in a neighbouring +tavern, and his cousin Charley was with him. Charley had been in +court the whole day, except that he had twice posted down to the +West End in a cab to let Gertrude and Mrs. Woodward know how +things were going on. He had posted down and posted back again, +and, crowded as the court had been, he had contrived to make his +way in, using that air of authority to which the strongest-minded +policeman will always bow; till at last the very policemen +assisted him, as though he were in some way connected with the +trial. + +On his last visit at Gertrude's house he had told her that it was +very improbable that the trial should be finished that day. She +had then said nothing as to Alaric's return to his own house; it +had indeed not occurred to her that he would be at liberty to do +so: Charley at once caught at this, and strongly recommended his +cousin to remain where he was. 'You will gain nothing by going +home,' said he; 'Gertrude does not expect you; Mrs. Woodward is +there; and it will be better for all parties that you should +remain.' Mr. Gitemthruet strongly backed his advice, and Alaric, +so counselled, resolved to remain where he was. Charley promised +to stay with him, and the policeman in mufti, without making any +promise at all, silently acquiesced in the arrangement. Charley +made one more visit to the West, saw Norman at his lodgings, and +Mrs. Woodward and Gertrude in Albany Place, and then returned to +make a night of it with Alaric. We need hardly say that Charley +made a night of it in a very different manner from that to which +he and his brother navvies were so well accustomed. + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +THE OLD BAILEY + + +The next morning, at ten o'clock, the court was again crowded. +The judge was again on his bench, prepared for patient endurance; +and Lord Killtime and Sir Gregory Hardlines were alongside of +him. The jury were again in their box, ready with pen and paper +to give their brightest attention--a brightness which will be dim +enough before the long day be over; the counsel for the +prosecution were rummaging among their papers; the witnesses for +the defence were sitting there among the attorneys, with the +exception of the Honourable Undecimus Scott, who was accommodated +with a seat near the sheriff, and whose heart, to tell the truth, +was sinking somewhat low within his breast, in spite of the glass +of brandy with which he had fortified himself. Alaric was again +present under the wings of Mr. Gitemthruet; and the great Mr. +Chaffanbrass was in his place. He was leaning over a slip of +paper which he held in his hand, and with compressed lips was +meditating his attack upon his enemies; on this occasion his wig +was well over his eyes, and as he peered up from under it to the +judge's face, he cocked his nose with an air of supercilious +contempt for all those who were immediately around him. + +It was for him to begin the day's sport by making a speech, not +so much in defence of his client as in accusation of the +prosecutors. 'It had never,' he said, 'been his fate, he might +say his misfortune, to hear a case against a man in a respectable +position, opened by the Crown with such an amount of envenomed +virulence.' He was then reminded that the prosecution was not +carried on by the Crown. 'Then,' said he, 'we may attribute this +virulence to private malice; that it is not to be attributed to +any fear that this English bride should lose her fortune, or that +her French husband should be deprived of any portion of his +spoil, I shall be able to prove to a certainty. Did I allow +myself that audacity of denunciation which my learned friend has +not considered incompatible with the dignity of his new silk +gown? Could I permit myself such latitude of invective as he has +adopted?'--a slight laugh was here heard in the court, and an +involuntary smile played across the judge's face--'yes,' +continued Mr. Chaffanbrass, 'I boldly aver that I have never +forgotten myself, and what is due to humanity, as my learned +friend did in his address to the jury. Gentlemen of the jury, you +will not confound the natural indignation which counsel must feel +when defending innocence from the false attacks, with the +uncalled-for, the unprofessional acerbity which has now been used +in promoting such an accusation as this. I may at times be angry, +when I see mean falsehood before me in vain assuming the garb of +truth--for with such juries as I meet here it generally is in +vain--I may at times forget myself in anger; but, if we talk of +venom, virulence, and eager hostility, I yield the palm, without +a contest, to my learned friend in the new silk gown.' + +He then went on to dispose of the witnesses whom they had heard +on the previous day, and expressed a regret that an _expose_ +should have been made so disgraceful to the commercial establishments +of this great commercial city. It only showed what was the effect +on such establishments of that undue parsimony which was now +one of the crying evils of the times. Having thus shortly disposed +of them, he came to what all men knew was the real interest of +the day's doings. 'But,' said he, 'the evidence in this case, to +which your attention will be chiefly directed, will be, not that for +the accusation, but that for the defence. It will be my business +to show to you, not only that my client is guiltless, but to what +temptations to be guilty he has been purposely and wickedly +subjected. I shall put into that bar an honourable member of the +House of Commons, who will make some revelations as to his own +life, who will give us an insight into the ways and means of a legislator, +which will probably surprise us all, not excluding his lordship on +the bench. He will be able to explain to us--and I trust I may be +able to induce him to do so, for it is possible that he may be a little +coy--he will be able to explain to us why my client, who is in no +way connected either with the Scotts, or the Golightlys, or the +Figgs, or the Jaquetanapes, why he was made the lady's trustee; +and he will also, perhaps, tell us, after some slight, gentle persuasion, +whether he has himself handled, or attempted to handle, any of +this lady's money.' + +Mr. Chaffanbrass then went on to state that, as the forms of the +court would not give him the power of addressing the jury again, +he must now explain to them what he conceived to be the facts of +the case. He then admitted that his client, in his anxiety to do +the best he could with the fortune entrusted to him, had invested +it badly. The present fate of these unfortunate bridge shares, as +to which the commercial world had lately held so many different +opinions, proved that: but it had nevertheless been a _bona +fide_ investment, made in conjunction with, and by the advice +of, Mr. Scott, the lady's uncle, who thus, for his own purposes, +got possession of money which was in truth confided to him for +other purposes. His client, Mr. Chaffanbrass acknowledged, had +behaved with great indiscretion; but the moment he found that the +investment would be an injurious one to the lady whose welfare +was in his hands, he at once resolved to make good the whole +amount from his own pocket. That he had done so, or, at any rate, +would have done so, but for this trial, would be proved to them. +Nobler conduct than this it was impossible to imagine. Whereas, +the lady's uncle, the honourable member of Parliament, the +gentleman who had made a stalking-horse of his, Mr. Chaffanbrass's, +client, refused to refund a penny of the spoil, and was now the +instigator of this most unjust proceeding. + +As Mr. Chaffanbrass thus finished his oration, Undy Scott tried +to smile complacently on those around him. But why did the big +drops of sweat stand on his brow as his eye involuntarily caught +those of Mr. Chaffanbrass? Why did he shuffle his feet, and +uneasily move his hands and feet hither and thither, as a man +does when he tries in vain to be unconcerned? Why did he pull his +gloves on and off, and throw himself back with that affected air +which is so unusual to him? All the court was looking at him, and +every one knew that he was wretched. Wretched! aye, indeed he +was; for the assurance even of an Undy Scott, the hardened man of +the clubs, the thrice elected and twice rejected of Tillietudlem, +fell prostrate before the well-known hot pincers of Chaffanbrass, +the torturer! + +The first witness called was Henry Norman. Alaric looked up for a +moment with surprise, and then averted his eyes. Mr. Gitemthruet +had concealed from him the fact that Norman was to be called. He +merely proved this, that having heard from Mrs. Woodward, who was +the prisoner's mother-in-law, and would soon be his own mother- +in-law, that a deficiency had been alleged to exist in the +fortune of Madame Jaquetanape, he had, on the part of Mrs. +Woodward, produced what he believed would cover this deficiency, +and that when he had been informed that more money was wanting, +he had offered to give security that the whole should be paid in +six months. Of course, on him Mr. Chaffanbrass exercised none of +his terrible skill, and as the lawyers on the other side declined +to cross-examine him, he was soon able to leave the court. This +he did speedily, for he had no desire to witness Alaric's misery. + +And then the Honourable Undecimus Scott was put into the witness- +box. It was suggested, on his behalf, that he might give his +evidence from the seat which he then occupied, but this Mr. +Chaffanbrass would by no means allow. His intercourse with Mr. +Scott, he said, must be of a nearer, closer, and more confidential +nature than such an arrangement as that would admit. A witness, +to his way of thinking, was never an efficient witness till he had +his arm on the rail of a witness-box. He must trouble Mr. Scott to +descend from the grandeur of his present position; he might return +to his seat after he had been examined--if he then should have +a mind to do so. Our friend Undy found that he had to obey, and +he was soon confronted with Mr. Chaffanbrass in the humbler +manner which that gentleman thought so desirable. + +'You are a member of the House of Commons, I believe, Mr. Scott?' +began Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +Undy acknowledged that he was so. + +'And you are the son of a peer, I believe?' + +'A Scotch peer,' said Undy. + +'Oh, a Scotch peer,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, bringing his wig +forward over his left eye in a manner that was almost irresistible +--'a Scotch peer--a member of Parliament, and son of a Scotch +peer; and you have been a member of the Government, I believe, +Mr. Scott?' + +Undy confessed that he had been in office for a short time. + +'A member of Parliament, a son of a peer, and one of the +Government of this great and free country. You ought to be a +proud and a happy man. You are a man of fortune, too, I believe, +Mr. Scott?' + +'That is a matter of opinion,' said Undy; 'different people have +different ideas. I don't know what you call fortune.' + +'Why I call L20,000 a fortune--this sum that the lady had who +married the Frenchman. Have you L20,000?' + +'I shall not answer that question.' + +'Have you L10,000? You surely must have as much as that, as I +know you married a fortune yourself,--unless, indeed, a false- +hearted trustee has got hold of your money also. Come, have you +got L10,000?' + +'I shall not answer you.' + +'Have you got any income at all? Now, I demand an answer to that +on your oath, sir.' + +'My lord, must I answer such questions?' said Undy. + +'Yes, sir; you must answer them, and many more like them,' said +Mr. Chaffanbrass. 'My lord, it is essential to my client that I +should prove to the jury whether this witness is or is not a +penniless adventurer; if he be a respectable member of society, +he can have no objection to let me know whether he has the means +of living.' + +'Perhaps, Mr. Scott,' said the judge, 'you will not object to +state whether or no you possess any fixed income.' + +'Have you, or have you not, got an income on which you live?' +demanded Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +'I have an income,' said Undy, not, however, in a voice that +betokened much self-confidence in the strength of his own answer. + +'You have an income, have you? And now, Mr. Scott, will you tell +us what profession you follow at this moment with the object of +increasing your income? I think we may surmise, by the tone of +your voice, that your income is not very abundant.' + +'I have no profession,' said Undy. + +'On your oath, you are in no profession?' + +'Not at present.' + +'On your oath, you are not a stock-jobber?' + +Undy hesitated for a moment. + +'By the virtue of your oath, sir, are you a stock-jobber, or are +you not?' + +'No, I am not. At least, I believe not.' + +'You believe not!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass--and it would be +necessary to hear the tone in which this was said to understand +the derision which was implied. 'You believe you are not a stock- +jobber! Are you, or are you not, constantly buying shares and +selling shares--railway shares--bridge shares--mining shares--and +such-like?' + +'I sometimes buy shares.' + +'And sometimes sell them?' + +'Yes--and sometimes sell them.' + +Where Mr. Chaffanbrass had got his exact information, we cannot +say; but very exact information he had acquired respecting Undy's +little transactions. He questioned him about the Mary Janes and +Old Friendships, about the West Corks and the Ballydehob Branch, +about sundry other railways and canals, and finally about the +Limehouse bridge; and then again he asked his former question. +'And now,' said he, 'will you tell the jury whether you are a +stock-jobber or no?' + +'It is all a matter of opinion,' said Undy. 'Perhaps I may be, in +your sense of the word.' + +'My sense of the word!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass. 'You are as much a +stock-jobber, sir, as that man is a policeman, or his lordship is +a judge. And now, Mr. Scott, I am sorry that I must go back to +your private affairs, respecting which you are so unwilling to +speak. I fear I must trouble you to tell me this--How did you +raise the money with which you bought that latter batch--the +large lump of the bridge shares--of which we were speaking?' + +'I borrowed it from Mr. Tudor,' said Undy, who had prepared +himself to answer this question glibly. + +'You borrowed it from Mr. Alaric Tudor--that is, from the +gentleman now upon his trial. You borrowed it, I believe, just at +the time that he became the lady's trustee?' + +'Yes,' said Undy; 'I did so.' + +'You have not repaid him as yet?' + +'No--not yet,' said Undy. + +'I thought not. Can you at all say when Mr. Tudor may probably +get his money?' + +'I am not at present prepared to name a day. When the money was +lent it was not intended that it should be repaid at an early +day.' + +'Oh! Mr. Tudor did not want his money at an early day--didn't he? +But, nevertheless, he has, I believe, asked for it since, and +that very pressingly?' + +'He has never asked for it,' said Undy. + +'Allow me to remind you, Mr. Scott, that I have the power of +putting my client into that witness-box, although he is on his +trial; and, having so reminded you, let me again beg you to say +whether he has not asked you for repayment of this large sum of +money very pressingly.' + +'No; he has never done so.' + +'By the value of your oath, sir--if it has any value--did not my +client beseech you to allow these shares to be sold while they +were yet saleable, in order that your niece's trust money might +be replaced in the English funds?' + +'He said something as to the expediency of selling them, and I +differed from him.' + +'You thought it would be better for the lady's interest that they +should remain unsold?' + +'I made no question of the lady's interest. I was not her +trustee.' + +'But the shares were bought with the lady's money.' + +'What shares?' asked Undy. + +'What shares, sir? Those shares which you had professed to hold +on the lady's behalf, and which afterwards you did not scruple to +call your own. Those shares of yours--since you have the +deliberate dishonesty so to call them--those shares of yours, +were they not bought with the lady's money?' + +'They were bought with the money which I borrowed from Mr. +Tudor.' + +'And where did Mr. Tudor get that money?' + +'That is a question you must ask himself,' said Undy. + +'It is a question, sir, that just at present I prefer to ask you. +Now, sir, be good enough to tell the jury, whence Mr. Tudor got +that money; or tell them, if you dare do so, that you do not +know.' + +Undy for a minute remained silent, and Mr. Chaffanbrass remained +silent also. But if the fury of his tongue for a moment was at +rest, that of his eyes was as active as ever. He kept his gaze +steadily fixed upon the witness, and stood there with compressed +lips, still resting on his two hands, as though he were quite +satisfied thus to watch the prey that was in his power. For an +instant he glanced up to the jury, and then allowed his eyes to +resettle on the face of the witness, as though he might have +said, 'There, gentlemen, there he is--the son of a peer, a member +of Parliament; what do you think of him?' + +The silence of that minute was horrible to Undy, and yet he could +hardly bring himself to break it. The judge looked at him with +eyes which seemed to read his inmost soul; the jury looked at +him, condemning him one and all; Alaric looked at him with +fierce, glaring eyes of hatred, the same eyes that had glared at +him that night when he had been collared in the street; the whole +crowd looked at him derisively; but the eyes of them all were as +nothing to the eyes of Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +'I never saw him so great; I never did,' said Mr. Gitemthruet, +whispering to his client; and Alaric, even he, felt some +consolation in the terrible discomfiture of his enemy. + +'I don't know where he got it,' said Undy, at last breaking the +terrible silence, and wiping the perspiration from his brow. + +'Oh, you don't!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, knocking his wig back, +and coming well out of his kennel. 'After waiting for a quarter +of an hour or so, you are able to tell the jury at last that you +don't know anything about it. He took the small trifle of change +out of his pocket, I suppose?' + +'I don't know where he took it from.' + +'And you didn't ask?' + +'No.' + +'You got the money; that was all you know. But this was just at +the time that Mr. Tudor became the lady's trustee; I think you +have admitted that.' + +'It may have been about the time.' + +'Yes; it may have been about the time, as you justly observe, Mr. +Scott. Luckily, you know, we have the dates of the two transactions. +But it never occurred to your innocent mind that the money which +you got into your hands was a part of the lady's fortune; that +never occurred to your innocent mind--eh, Mr. Scott?' + +'I don't know that my mind is a more innocent mind than your +own,' said Undy. + +'I dare say not. Well, did the idea ever occur to your guilty +mind?' + +'Perhaps my mind is not more guilty than your own, either.' + +'Then may God help me,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, 'for I must be at +a bad pass. You told us just now, Mr. Scott, that some time since +Mr. Tudor advised you to sell these shares--what made him give +you this advice?' + +'He meant, he said, to sell his own.' + +'And he pressed you to sell yours?' + +'Yes.' + +'He urged you to do so more than once?' + +'Yes; I believe he did.' + +'And now, Mr. Scott, can you explain to the jury why he was so +solicitous that you should dispose of your property?' + +'I do not know why he should have done so, unless he wanted back +his money.' + +'Then he did ask for his own money?' + +'No; he never asked for it. But if I had sold the shares perhaps +he might have asked for it.' + +'Oh!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass; and as he uttered the monosyllable +he looked up at the jury, and gently shook his head, and gently +shook his hands. Mr. Chaffanbrass was famous for these little +silent addresses to the jury-box. + +But not even yet had he done with this suspicious loan. We cannot +follow him through the whole of his examination; for he kept our +old friend under the harrow for no less than seven hours. Though +he himself made no further statement to the jury, he made it +perfectly plain, by Undy's own extracted admissions, or by the +hesitation of his denials, that he had knowingly received this +money out of his niece's fortune, and that he had refused to sell +the shares bought with this money, when pressed to do so by +Tudor, in order that the trust-money might be again made up. + +There were those who blamed Mr. Chaffanbrass for thus admitting +that his client had made away with his ward's money by lending it +to Undy; but that acute gentleman saw clearly that he could not +contend against the fact of the property having been fraudulently +used; but he saw that he might induce the jury to attach so much +guilt to Undy, that Tudor would, as it were, be whitened by the +blackness of the other's villany. The judge, he well knew, would +blow aside all this froth; but then the judge could not find the +verdict. + +Towards the end of the day, when Undy was thoroughly worn out--at +which time, however, Mr. Chaffanbrass was as brisk as ever, for +nothing ever wore him out when he was pursuing his game--when the +interest of those who had been sweltering in the hot court all +the day was observed to flag, Mr. Chaffanbrass began twisting +round his finger a bit of paper, of which those who were best +acquainted with his manner knew that he would soon make use. + +'Mr. Scott,' said he, suddenly dropping the derisive sarcasm of +his former tone, and addressing him with all imaginable courtesy, +'could you oblige me by telling me whose handwriting that is?' +and he handed to him the scrap of paper. Undy took it, and saw +that the writing was his own; his eyes were somewhat dim, and he +can hardly be said to have read it. It was a very short +memorandum, and it ran as follows: 'All will yet be well, if +those shares be ready to-morrow morning.' + +'Well, Mr. Scott,' said the lawyer, 'do you recognize the +handwriting?' + +Undy looked at it, and endeavoured to examine it closely, but he +could not; his eyes swam, and his head was giddy, and he felt +sick. Could he have satisfied himself that the writing was not +clearly and manifestly his own, he would have denied the document +altogether; but he feared to do this; the handwriting might be +proved to be his own. + +'It is something like my own,' said he. + +'Something like your own, is it?' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, as +though he were much surprised. 'Like your own! Well, will you +have the goodness to read it?' + +Undy turned it in his hand as though the proposed task were +singularly disagreeable to him. Why, thought he to himself, +should he be thus browbeaten by a dirty old Newgate lawyer? Why +not pluck up his courage, and, at any rate, show that he was a +man? 'No,' said he, 'I will not read it.' + +'Then I will. Gentlemen of the jury, have the goodness to listen +to me.' Of course there was a contest then between him and the +lawyers on the other side whether the document might or might not +be read; but equally of course the contest ended in the judge's +decision that it should be read. And Mr. Chaffanbrass did read it +in a voice audible to all men. 'All will yet be well, if those +shares be ready to-morrow morning.' We may take it as admitted, I +suppose, that this is in your handwriting, Mr. Scott?' + +'It probably may be, though I will not say that it is.' + +'Do you not know, sir, with positive certainty that it is your +writing?' + +To this Undy made no direct answer. 'What is your opinion, Mr. +Scott?' said the judge; 'you can probably give an opinion by +which the jury would be much guided.' + +'I think it is, my lord,' said Undy. + +'He thinks it is, said Mr. Chaffanbrass, addressing the jury. +'Well, for once I agree with you. I think it is also--and how +will you have the goodness to explain it. To whom was it +addressed?' + +'I cannot say.' + +'When was it written?' + +'I do not know.' + +'What does it mean?' + +'I cannot remember.' + +'Was it addressed to Mr. Tudor?' + +'I should think not.' + +'Now, Mr. Scott, have the goodness to look at the jury, and to +speak a little louder. You are in the habit of addressing a +larger audience than this, and cannot, therefore, be shamefaced. +You mean to tell the jury that you think that that note was not +intended by you for Mr. Tudor?' + +'I think not,' said Undy. + +'But you can't say who it was intended for?' + +'No.' + +'And by the virtue of your oath, you have told us all that you +know about it?' Undy remained silent, but Mr. Chaffanbrass did +not press him for an answer. 'You have a brother, named +Valentine, I think.' Now Captain Val had been summoned also, and +was at this moment in court. Mr. Chaffanbrass requested that he +might be desired to leave it, and, consequently, he was ordered +out in charge of a policeman. + +'And now, Mr. Scott--was that note written by you to Mr. Tudor, +with reference to certain shares, which you proposed that Mr. +Tudor should place in your brother's hands? Now, sir, I ask you, +as a member of Parliament, as a member of the Government, as the +son of a peer, to give a true answer to that question.' And then +again Undy was silent; and again Mr. Chaffanbrass leant on the +desk and glared at him. 'And remember, sir, member of Parliament +and nobleman as you are, you shall be indicted for perjury, if +you are guilty of perjury.' + +'My lord,' said Undy, writhing in torment, 'am I to submit to +this?' + +'Mr. Chaffanbrass,' said the judge, 'you should not threaten your +witness. Mr. Scott--surely you can answer the question.' + +Mr. Chaffanbrass seemed not to have even heard what the judge +said, so intently were his eyes fixed on poor Undy. 'Well, Mr. +Scott,' he said at last, very softly, 'is it convenient for you +to answer me? Did that note refer to a certain number of bridge +shares, which you required Mr. Tudor to hand over to the +stepfather of this lady?' + +Undy had no trust in his brother. He felt all but sure that, +under the fire of Mr. Chaffanbrass, he would confess everything. +It would be terrible to own the truth, but it would be more +terrible to be indicted for perjury. So he sat silent. + +'My lord, perhaps you will ask him,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +'Mr. Scott, you understand the question--why do you not answer +it?' asked the judge. But Undy still remained silent. + +'You may go now,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass. 'Your eloquence is of +the silent sort; but, nevertheless, it is very impressive. You +may go now, and sit on that bench again, if, after what has +passed, the sheriff thinks proper to permit it.' + +Undy, however, did not try that officer's complaisance. He +retired from the witness-box, and was not again seen during the +trial in any conspicuous place in the court. + +It was then past seven o'clock; but Mr. Chaffanbrass insisted on +going on with the examination of Captain Val. It did not last +long. Captain Val, also, was in that disagreeable position, that +he did not know what Undy had confessed, and what denied. So he, +also, refused to answer the questions of Mr. Chaffanbrass, saying +that he might possibly damage himself should he do so. This was +enough for Mr. Chaffanbrass, and then his work was done. + +At eight o'clock the court again adjourned; again Charley posted +off--for the third time that day--to let Gertrude know that, even +as yet, all was not over; and again he and Alaric spent a +melancholy evening at the neighbouring tavern; and then, again, +on the third morning, all were re-assembled at the Old Bailey. + +Or rather they were not all re-assembled. But few came now, and +they were those who were obliged to come. The crack piece of the +trial, that portion to which, among the connoisseurs, the +interest was attached, that was all over. Mr. Chaffanbrass had +done his work. Undy Scott, the member of Parliament, had been +gibbeted, and the rest was, in comparison, stale, flat, and +unprofitable. The judge and jury, however, were there, so were +the prosecuting counsel, so were Mr. Chaffanbrass and Mr. +Younglad, and so was poor Alaric. The work of the day was +commenced by the judge's charge, and then Alaric, to his infinite +dismay, found how all the sophistry and laboured arguments of his +very talented advocate were blown to the winds, and shown to be +worthless. 'Gentlemen,' said the judge to the jurors, after he +had gone through all the evidence, and told them what was +admissible, and what was not--'gentlemen, I must especially +remind you, that in coming to a verdict in the matter, no amount +of guilt on the part of any other person can render guiltless him +whom you are now trying, or palliate his guilt if he be guilty. +An endeavour has been made to affix a deep stigma on one of the +witnesses who has been examined before you; and to induce you to +feel, rather than to think, that Mr. Tudor is, at any rate, +comparatively innocent--innocent as compared with that gentleman. +That is not the issue which you are called on to decide; not +whether Mr. Scott, for purposes of his own, led Mr. Tudor on to +guilt, and then turned against him; but whether Mr. Tudor himself +has, or has not, been guilty under this Act of Parliament that +has been explained to you. + +'As regards the evidence of Mr. Scott, I am justified in telling +you, that if the prisoner's guilt depended in any way on that +evidence, it would be your duty to receive it with the most +extreme caution, and to reject it altogether if not corroborated. +That evidence was not trustworthy, and in a great measure +justified the treatment which the witness encountered from the +learned barrister who examined him. But Mr. Scott was a witness +for the defence, not for the prosecution. The case for the +prosecution in no way hangs on his evidence. + +'If it be your opinion that Mr. Tudor is guilty, and that he was +unwarily enticed into guilt by Mr. Scott; that the whole +arrangement of this trust was brought about by Mr. Scott or +others, to enable him or them to make a cat's-paw of this new +trustee, and thus use the lady's money for their own purposes, +such an opinion on your part may justify you in recommending the +prisoner to the merciful consideration of the bench; but it +cannot justify you in finding a verdict of not guilty.' + +As Alaric heard this, and much more to the same effect, his +hopes, which certainly had been high during the examination of +Undy Scott, again sank to zero, and left him in despair. He had +almost begun to doubt the fact of his own guilt, so wondrously +had his conduct been glossed over by Mr. Chaffanbrass, so +strikingly had any good attempt on his part been brought to the +light, so black had Scott been made to appear. Ideas floated +across his brain that he might go forth, not only free of the +law, but whitewashed also in men's opinions, that he might again +sit on his throne at the Civil Service Board, again cry to +himself 'Excelsior,' and indulge the old dreams of his ambition. + +But, alas! the deliberate and well-poised wisdom of the judge +seemed to shower down cold truth upon the jury from his very +eyes. His words were low in their tone, though very clear, +impassive, delivered without gesticulation or artifice, such as +that so powerfully used by Mr. Chaffanbrass; but Alaric himself +felt that it was impossible to doubt the truth of such a man; +impossible to suppose that any juryman should do so. Ah me! why +had he brought himself thus to quail beneath the gaze of an old +man seated on a bench? with what object had he forced himself to +bend his once proud neck? He had been before in courts such as +this, and had mocked within his own spirit the paraphernalia of +the horsehair wigs, the judges' faded finery, and the red cloth; +he had laughed at the musty, stale solemnity by which miscreants +were awed, and policemen enchanted; now, these things told on +himself heavily enough; he felt now their weight and import. + +And then the jury retired from the court to consider their +verdict, and Mr. Gitemthruet predicted that they would be hungry +enough before they sat down to their next meal. 'His lordship was +dead against us,' said Mr. Gitemthruet; 'but that was a matter of +course; we must look to the jury, and the city juries are very +fond of Mr. Chaffanbrass; I am not quite sure, however, that Mr. +Chaffanbrass was right: I would not have admitted so much myself; +but then no one knows a city jury so well as Mr. Chaffanbrass.' + +Other causes came on, and still the jury did not return to court. +Mr. Chaffanbrass seemed to have forgotten the very existence of +Alaric Tudor, and was deeply engaged in vindicating a city +butcher from an imputation of having vended a dead ass by way of +veal. All his indignation was now forgotten, and he was full of +boisterous fun, filling the court with peals of laughter. One +o'clock came, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and still no +verdict. At the latter hour, when the court was about to be +adjourned, the foreman came in, and assured the judge that there +was no probability that they could agree; eleven of them thought +one way, while the twelfth was opposed to them. 'You must reason +with the gentleman,' said the judge. 'I have, my lord,' said the +foreman, 'but it's all thrown away upon him.' 'Reason with him +again,' said the judge, rising from his bench and preparing to go +to his dinner. + +And then one of the great fundamental supports of the British +constitution was brought into play. Reason was thrown away upon +this tough juryman, and, therefore, it was necessary to ascertain +what effect starvation might have upon him. A verdict, that is, a +unanimous decision from these twelve men as to Alaric's guilt, +was necessary; it might be that three would think him innocent, +and nine guilty, or that any other division of opinion might take +place; but such divisions among a jury are opposed to the spirit +of the British constitution. Twelve men must think alike; or, if +they will not, they must be made to do so. 'Reason with him +again,' said the judge, as he went to his own dinner. Had the +judge bade them remind him how hungry he would soon be if he +remained obstinate, his lordship would probably have expressed +the thought which was passing through his mind. 'There is one of +us, my lord,' said the foreman, 'who will I know be very ill +before long; he is already so bad that he can't sit upright.' + +There are many ludicrous points in our blessed constitution, but +perhaps nothing so ludicrous as a juryman praying to a judge for +mercy. He has been caught, shut up in a box, perhaps, for five or +six days together, badgered with half a dozen lawyers till he is +nearly deaf with their continual talking, and then he is locked +up until he shall die or find a verdict. Such at least is the +intention of the constitution. The death, however, of three or +four jurymen from starvation would not suit the humanity of the +present age, and therefore, when extremities are nigh at hand, +the dying jurymen, with medical certificates, are allowed to be +carried off. It is devoutly to be wished that one juryman might +be starved to death while thus serving the constitution; the +absurdity then would cure itself, and a verdict of a majority +would be taken. + +But in Alaric's case, reason or hunger did prevail at the last +moment, and as the judge was leaving the court, he was called +back to receive the verdict. Alaric, also, was brought back, +still under Mr. Gitemthruet's wing, and with him came Charley. A +few officers of the court were there, a jailer and a policeman or +two, those whose attendance was absolutely necessary, but with +these exceptions the place was empty. Not long since men were +crowding for seats, and the policemen were hardly able to +restrain the pressure of those who pushed forward; but now there +was no pushing; the dingy, dirty benches, a few inches of which +had lately been so desirable, were not at all in request, and +were anything but inviting in appearance; Alaric sat himself down +on the very spot which had lately been sacred to Mr. Chaffanbrass, +and Mr. Gitemthruet, seated above him, might also fancy himself +a barrister. There they sat for five minutes in perfect silence; the +suspense of the moment cowed even the attorney, and Charley, +who sat on the other side of Alaric, was so affected that he could +hardly have spoken had he wished to do so. + +And then the judge, who had been obliged to re-array himself +before he returned to the bench, again took his seat, and an +officer of the court inquired of the foreman of the jury, in his +usual official language, what their finding was. + +'Guilty on the third count,' said the foreman. 'Not guilty on the +four others. We beg, however, most strongly to recommend the +prisoner to your lordship's merciful consideration, believing +that he has been led into this crime by one who has been much +more guilty than himself.' + +'I knew Mr. Chaffanbrass was wrong,' said Mr. Gitemthruet. 'I +knew he was wrong when he acknowledged so much. God bless my +soul! in a court of law one should never acknowledge anything! +what's the use?' + +And then came the sentence. He was to be confined at the +Penitentiary at Millbank for six months. 'The offence,' said the +judge, 'of which you have been found guilty, and of which you +most certainly have been guilty, is one most prejudicial to the +interests of the community. That trust which the weaker of +mankind should place in the stronger, that reliance which widows +and orphans should feel in their nearest and dearest friends, +would be destroyed, if such crimes as these were allowed to pass +unpunished. But in your case there are circumstances which do +doubtless palliate the crime of which you have been guilty; the +money which you took will, I believe, be restored; the trust +which you were courted to undertake should not have been imposed +on you; and in the tale of villany which has been laid before +us, you have by no means been the worst offender. I have, +therefore, inflicted on you the slightest penalty which the law +allows me. Mr. Tudor, I know what has been your career, how great +your services to your country, how unexceptionable your conduct +as a public servant; I trust, I do trust, I most earnestly, most +hopefully trust, that your career of utility is not over. Your +abilities are great, and you are blessed with the power of +thinking; I do beseech you to consider, while you undergo that +confinement which you needs must suffer, how little any wealth is +worth an uneasy conscience.' + +And so the trial was over. Alaric was taken off in custody; the +policeman in mufti was released from his attendance; and Charley, +with a heavy heart, carried the news to Gertrude and Mrs. +Woodward. + +'And as for me,' said Gertrude, when she had so far recovered +from the first shock as to be able to talk to her mother--'as for +me, I will have lodgings at Millbank.' + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +A PARTING INTERVIEW + + +Mrs. Woodward remained with her eldest daughter for two days +after the trial, and then she was forced to return to Hampton. +She had earnestly entreated Gertrude to accompany her, with her +child; but Mrs. Tudor was inflexible. She had, she said, very +much to do; so much, that she could not possibly leave London; +the house and furniture were on her hands, and must be disposed +of; their future plans must be arranged; and then nothing, she +said, should induce her to sleep out of sight of her husband's +prison, or to omit any opportunity of seeing him which the prison +rules would allow her. + +Mrs. Woodward would not have left one child in such extremity, +had not the state of another child made her presence at the +Cottage indispensable. Katie's anxiety about the trial had of +course been intense, so intense as to give her a false strength, +and somewhat to deceive Linda as to her real state. Tidings of +course passed daily between London and the Cottage, but for three +days they told nothing. On the morning of the fourth day, +however, Norman brought the heavy news, and Katie sank completely +under it. When she first heard the result of the trial she +swooned away, and remained for some time nearly unconscious. But +returning consciousness brought with it no relief, and she lay +sobbing on her pillow, till she became so weak, that Linda in her +fright wrote up to her mother begging her to return at once. +Then, wretched as it made her to leave Gertrude in her trouble, +Mrs. Woodward did return. + +For a fortnight after this there was an unhappy household at +Surbiton Cottage. Linda's marriage was put off till the period of +Alaric's sentence should be over, and till something should be +settled as to his and Gertrude's future career. It was now +August, and they spoke of the event as one which perhaps might +occur in the course of the following spring. At this time, also, +they were deprived for a while of the comfort of Norman's visits +by his enforced absence at Normansgrove. Harry's eldest brother +was again ill, and at last the news of his death was received at +Hampton. Under other circumstances such tidings as those might, +to a certain extent, have brought their own consolation with +them. Harry would now be Mr. Norman of Normansgrove, and Linda +would become Mrs. Norman of Normansgrove; Harry's mother had long +been dead, and his father was an infirm old man, who would be too +glad to give up to his son the full management of the estate, now +that the eldest son was a man to whom that estate could be +trusted. All those circumstances had, of course, been talked over +between Harry and Linda, and it was understood that Harry was now +to resign his situation at the Weights and Measures. But Alaric's +condition, Gertrude's misery, and Katie's illness, threw all such +matters into the background. Katie became no better; but then the +doctors said that she did not become any worse, and gave it as +their opinion that she ought to recover. She had youth, they +said, on her side; and then her lungs were not affected. This was +the great question which they were all asking of each other +continually. The poor girl lived beneath a stethoscope, and bore +all their pokings and tappings with exquisite patience. She +herself believed that she was dying, and so she repeatedly told +her mother. Mrs. Woodward could only say that all was in God's +hands, but that the physicians still encouraged them to hope the +best. + +One day Mrs. Woodward was sitting with a book in her usual place +at the side of Katie's bed; she looked every now and again at her +patient, and thought that she was slumbering; and at last she +rose from her chair to creep away, so sure was she that she might +be spared for a moment. But just as she was silently rising, a +thin, slight, pale hand crept out from beneath the clothes, and +laid itself on her arm. + +'I thought you were asleep, love,' said she. + +'No, mamma, I was not asleep. I was thinking of something. Don't +go away, mamma, just now. I want to ask you something.' + +Mrs. Woodward again sat down, and taking her daughter's hand in +her own, caressed it. + +'I want to ask a favour of you, mamma,' said Katie. + +'A favour, my darling! what is it? you know I will do anything in +my power that you ask me.' + +'Ah, mamma, I do not know whether you will do this.' + +'What is it, Katie? I will do anything that is for your good. I +am sure you know that, Katie.' + +'Mamma, I know I am going to die. Oh, mamma, don't say anything +now, don't cry now--dear, dear mamma; I don't say it to make you +unhappy; but you know when I am so ill I ought to think about it, +ought I not, mamma?' + +'But, Katie, the doctor says that he thinks you are not so +dangerously ill; you should not, therefore, despond; it will +increase your illness, and hinder your chance of getting well. +That would be wrong, wouldn't it, love?' + +'Mamma, I feel that I shall never again be well, and therefore--' +It was useless telling Mrs. Woodward not to cry; what else could +she do? 'Dear mamma, I am so sorry to make you unhappy, but you +are my own mamma, and therefore I must tell you. I can be happy +still, mamma, if you will let me talk to you about it.' + +'You shall talk, dearest; I will hear what you say; but oh, +Katie, I cannot bear to hear you talk of dying. I do not think +you are dying. If I did think so, my child, my trust in your +goodness is so strong that I should tell you.' + +'You know, mamma, it might have been much worse; suppose I had +been drowned, when he, when Charley, you know, saved me;' and as +she mentioned his name a tear for the first time ran down each +cheek; 'how much worse that would have been! think, mamma, what +it would be to be drowned without a moment for one's prayers.' + +'It is quite right we should prepare ourselves for death. Whether +we live, or whether we die, we shall be better for doing that.' + +Katie still held her mother's hand in hers, and lay back against +the pillows which had been placed behind her back. 'And now, +mamma,' she said at last, 'I am going to ask you this favour--I +want to see Charley once more.' + +Mrs. Woodward was so much astonished at the request that at first +she knew not what answer to make. 'To see Charley!' she said at +last. + +'Yes, mamma; I want to see Charley once more; there need be no +secrets between us now, mamma.' + +'There have never been any secrets between us,' said Mrs. +Woodward, embracing her. 'You have never had any secrets from +me?' + +'Not intentionally, mamma; I have never meant to keep anything +secret from you. And I know you have known what I felt about +Charley.' + +'I know that you have behaved like an angel, my child; I know +your want of selfishness, your devotion to others, has been such +as to shame me; I know your conduct has been perfect: oh, my +Katie, I have understood it, and I have so loved you, so admired +you.' + +Katie smiled through her tears as she returned her mother's +embrace. 'Well, mamma,' she said, 'at any rate you know that I +love him. Oh, mamma, I do love him so dearly. It is not now like +Gertrude's love, or Linda's. I know that I can never be his wife. +I did know before, that for many reasons I ought not to wish to +be so; but now I know I never, never can be.' + +Mrs. Woodward was past the power of speaking, and so Katie went +on. + +'But I do not love him the less for that reason; I think I love +him the more. I never, never, could have loved anyone else, +mamma; never, never; and that is one reason why I do not so much +mind being ill now.' + +Mrs. Woodward bowed forward, and hid her face in the counterpane, +but she still kept hold of her daughter's hand. + +'And, mamma,' she continued, 'as I do love him so dearly, I feel +that I should try to do something for him. I ought to do so; and, +mamma, I could not be happy without seeing him. He is not just +like a brother or a brother-in-law, such as Harry and Alaric; we +are not bound to each other as relations are; but yet I feel that +something does bind me to him. I know he doesn't love me as I +love him; but yet I think he loves me dearly; and if I speak to +him now, mamma, now that I am--that I am so ill, perhaps he will +mind me. Mamma, it will be as though one came unto him from the +dead.' + +Mrs. Woodward did not know how to refuse any request that Katie +might now make to her, and felt herself altogether unequal to the +task of refusing this request. For many reasons she would have +done so, had she been able; in the first place she did not think +that all chance of Katie's recovery was gone; and then at the +present moment she felt no inclination to draw closer to her any +of the Tudor family. She could not but feel that Alaric had been +the means of disgracing and degrading one child; and truly, +deeply, warmly, as she sympathized with the other, she could not +bring herself to feel the same sympathy for the object of her +love. It was a sore day for her and hers, that on which the +Tudors had first entered her house. + +Nevertheless she assented to Katie's proposal, and undertook the +task of asking Charley down to Hampton. + +Since Alaric's conviction Charley led a busy life; and as men who +have really something to do have seldom time to get into much +mischief, he had been peculiarly moral and respectable. It is not +surprising that at such a moment Gertrude found that Alaric's +newer friends fell off from him. Of course they did; nor is it a +sign of ingratitude or heartlessness in the world that at such a +period of great distress new friends should fall off. New +friends, like one's best coat and polished patent-leather dress +boots, are only intended for holiday wear. At other times they +are neither serviceable nor comfortable; they do not answer the +required purposes, and are ill adapted to give us the ease we +seek. A new coat, however, has this advantage, that it will in +time become old and comfortable; so much can by no means be +predicted with certainty of a new friend. Woe to those men who go +through the world with none but new coats on their backs, with no +boots but those of polished leather, with none but new friends to +comfort them in adversity. + +But not the less, when misfortune does come, are we inclined to +grumble at finding ourselves deserted. Gertrude, though she +certainly wished to see no Mrs. Val and no Miss Neverbends, did +feel lonely enough when her mother left her, and wretched enough. +But she was not altogether deserted. At this time Charley was +true to her, and did for her all those thousand nameless things +which a woman cannot do for herself. He came to her everyday +after leaving his office, and on one excuse or another remained +with her till late every evening. + +He was not a little surprised one morning on receiving Mrs. +Woodward's invitation to Hampton. Mrs. Woodward in writing had +had some difficulty in wording her request. She hardly liked +asking Charley to come because Katie was ill; nor did she like to +ask him without mentioning Katie's illness. 'I need not explain +to you,' she said in her note, 'that we are all in great +distress; poor Katie is very ill, and you will understand what we +must feel about Alaric and Gertrude. Harry is still at Normansgrove. +We shall all be glad to see you, and Katie, who never forgets +what you did for her, insists on my asking you at once. I am sure +you will not refuse her, so I shall expect you to-morrow.' Charley +would not have refused her anything, and it need hardly be said +that he accepted the invitation. + +Mrs. Woodward was at a loss how to receive him, or what to say to +him. Though Katie was so positive that her own illness would be +fatal--a symptom which might have confirmed those who watched her +in their opinion that her disease was not consumption--her mother +was by no means so desponding. She still thought it not +impossible that her child might recover, and so thinking could +not but be adverse to any declaration on Katie's part of her own +feelings. She had endeavoured to explain this to her daughter; +but Katie was so carried away by her enthusiasm, was at the +present moment so devoted, and, as it were, exalted above her +present life, that all that her mother said was thrown away upon +her. Mrs. Woodward might have refused her daughter's request, and +have run the risk of breaking her heart by the refusal; but now +that the petition had been granted, it was useless to endeavour +to teach her to repress her feelings. + +'Charley,' said Mrs. Woodward, when he had been some little time +in the house, 'our dear Katie wants to see you; she is very ill, +you know.' + +Charley said he knew she was ill. + +'You remember our walk together, Charley.' + +'Yes,' said Charley, 'I remember it well. I made you a promise +then, and I have kept it. I have now come here only because you +have sent for me.' This he said in the tone which a man uses when +he feels himself to have been injured. + +'I know it, Charley; you have kept your promise; I knew you +would, and I know you will. I have the fullest trust in you; and +now you shall come and see her.' + +Charley was to return to town that night, and they had not +therefore much time to lose; they went upstairs at once, and +found Linda and Uncle Bat in the patient's room. It was a lovely +August evening, and the bedroom window opening upon the river was +unclosed. Katie, as she sat propped up against the pillows, could +look out upon the water and see the reedy island, on which in +happy former days she had so delighted to let her imagination +revel. + +'It is very good of you to come and see me, Charley,' said she, +as he made his way up to her bedside. + +He took her wasted hand in his own and pressed it, and, as he did +so, a tear forced itself into each corner of his eyes. She smiled +as though to cheer him, and said that now she saw him she could +be quite happy, only for poor Alaric and Gertrude. She hoped she +might live to see Alaric again; but if not, Charley was to give +him her best-best love. + +'Live to see him! of course you will,' said Uncle Bat. + +'What's to hinder you?' Uncle Bat, like the rest of them, tried +to cheer her, and make her think that she might yet live. + +After a while Uncle Bat went out of the room, and Linda followed +him. Mrs. Woodward would fain have remained, but she perfectly +understood that it was part of the intended arrangement with +Katie, that Charley should be alone with her. 'I will come back +in a quarter of an hour,' she said, rising to follow the others. +'You must not let her talk too much, Charley: you see how weak +she is.' + +'Mamma, when you come, knock at the door, will you?' said Katie. +Mrs. Woodward, who found herself obliged to act in complete +obedience to her daughter, promised that she would; and then they +were left alone. + +'Sit down, Charley,' said she; he was still standing by her +bedside, and now at her bidding he sat in the chair which Captain +Cuttwater had occupied. 'Come here nearer to me,' said she; 'this +is where mamma always sits, and Linda when mamma is not here.' +Charley did as he was bid, and, changing his seat, came and sat +down close to her bed-head. + +'Charley, do you remember how you went into the water for me?' +said she, again smiling, and pulling her hand out and resting it +on his arm which lay on the bed beside her. + +'Indeed I do, Katie--I remember the day very well.' + +'That was a very happy day in spite of the tumble, was it not, +Charley? And do you remember the flower-show, and the dance at +Mrs. Val's?' + +Charley did remember them all well. Ah me! how often had he +thought of them! + +'I think of those days so often--too often,' continued Katie. +'But, dear Charley, I cannot remember too often that you saved my +life.' + +Charley once more tried to explain to her that there was nothing +worthy of notice in his exploit of that day. + +'Well, Charley, I may think as I like, you know,' she said, with +something of the obstinacy of old days. 'I think you did save my +life, and all the people in the world won't make me think +anything else; but, Charley, I have something now to tell you.' + +He sat and listened. It seemed to him as though he were only +there to listen; as though, were he to make his own voice +audible, he would violate the sanctity of the place. His thoughts +were serious enough, but he could not pitch his voice so as to +suit the tone in which she addressed him. + +'We were always friends, were we not?' said she; 'we were always +good friends, Charley. Do you remember how you were to build a +palace for me in the dear old island out there? You were always +so kind, so good to me.' + +Charley said he remembered it all--they were happy days; the +happiest days, he said, that he had ever known. + +'And you used to love me, Charley?' + +'Used!' said he, 'do you think I do not love you now?' + +'I am sure you do. And, Charley, I love you also. That it is that +I want to tell you. I love you so well that I cannot go away from +this world in peace without wishing you farewell. Charley, if you +love me, you will think of me when I am gone; and then for my +sake you will be steady.' + +Here were all her old words over again--'You will be steady, +won't you, Charley? I know you will be steady, now.' How much +must she have thought of him! How often must his career have +caused her misery and pain! How laden must that innocent bosom +have been with anxiety on his account! He had promised her then +that he would reform; but he had broken his promise. He now +promised her again, but how could he hope that she would believe +him? + +'You know how ill I am, don't you? You know that I am dying, +Charley?' + +Charley of course declared that he still hoped that she would +recover. + +'If I thought so,' said she, 'I should not say what I am now +saying; but I feel that I may tell the truth. Dear Charley, +dearest Charley, I love you with all my heart--I do not know how +it came so; I believe I have always loved you since I first knew +you; I used to think it was because you saved my life; but I know +it was not that. I was so glad it was you that came to me in the +water, and not Harry; so that I know I loved you before that.' + +'Dear Katie, you have not loved me, or thought of me, more than I +have loved and thought of you.' + +'Ah, Charley,' she said, smiling in her sad sweet way--'I don't +think you know how a girl can love; you have so many things to +think of, so much to amuse you up in London; you don't know what +it is to think of one person for days and days, and nights and +nights together. That is the way I have thought of you, I don't +think there can be any harm,' she continued, 'in loving a person +as I have loved you. Indeed, how could I help it? I did not love +you on purpose. But I think I should be wrong to die without +telling you. When I am dead, Charley, will you think of this, and +try--try to give up your bad ways? When I tell you that I love +you so dearly, and ask you on my deathbed, I think you will do +this.' + +Charley went down on his knees, and bowing his head before her +and before his God, he made the promise. He made it, and we may +so far anticipate the approaching end of our story as to declare +that the promise he then made was faithfully kept. + +'Katie, Katie, my own Katie, my own, own, own Katie--oh, Katie, +you must not die, you must not leave me! Oh, Katie, I have so +dearly loved you! Oh, Katie, I do so dearly love you! If you knew +all, if you could know all, you would believe me.' + +At this moment Mrs. Woodward knocked at the door, and Charley +rose from his knees. 'Not quite yet, mamma,' said Katie, as Mrs. +Woodward opened the door. 'Not quite yet; in five minutes, mamma, +you may come.' Mrs. Woodward, not knowing how to refuse, again +went away. + +'Charley, I never gave you anything but once, and you returned it +to me, did you not?' + +'Yes,' said he, 'the purse--I put it in your box, because----' + +And then he remembered that he could not say why he had returned +it without breaking in a manner that confidence which Mrs. +Woodward had put in him. + +'I understand it all. You must not think I am angry with you. I +know how good you were about it. But Charley, you may have it +back now; here it is;' and putting her hand under the pillow, she +took it out, carefully folded up in new tissue paper. 'There, +Charley, you must never part with it again as long as there are +two threads of it together; but I know you never will; and +Charley, you must never talk of it to anybody but to your wife; +and you must tell her all about it.' + +He took the purse, and put it to his lips, and then pressed it to +his heart. 'No,' said he, 'I will never part with it again. I +think I can promise that.' 'And now, dearest, good-bye,' said +she; 'dearest, dearest Charley, good-bye; perhaps we shall know +each other in heaven. Kiss me, Charley, before you go,' So he +stooped down over her, and pressed his lips to hers. + +Charley, leaving the room, found Mrs. Woodward at the other end +of the passage, standing at the door of her own dressing-room. +'You are to go to her now,' he said. 'Good-bye,' and without +further speech to any of them he hurried out of the house. + +None but Mrs. Woodward had seen him; but she saw that the tears +were streaming down his cheeks as he passed her, and she +expressed no surprise that he had left the Cottage without going +through the formality of making his adieux. + +And then he walked up to town, as Norman once had done after a +parting interview with her whom he had loved. It might be +difficult to say which at the moment suffered the bitterest +grief. + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +MILLBANK + + +The immediate neighbourhood of Millbank Penitentiary is not one +which we should, for its own sake, choose for our residence, +either on account of its natural beauty, or the excellence of its +habitations. That it is a salubrious locality must be presumed +from the fact that it has been selected for the site of the +institution in question; but salubrity, though doubtless a great +recommendation, would hardly reconcile us to the extremely dull, +and one might almost say, ugly aspect which this district bears. + +To this district, however, ugly as it is, we must ask our readers +to accompany us, while we pay a short visit to poor Gertrude. It +was certainly a sad change from her comfortable nursery and +elegant drawing-room near Hyde Park. Gertrude had hitherto never +lived in an ugly house. Surbiton Cottage and Albany Place were +the only two homes that she remembered, and neither of them was +such as to give her much fitting preparation for the melancholy +shelter which she found at No. 5, Paradise Row, Millbank. + +But Gertrude did not think much of this when she changed her +residence. Early one morning, leaning on Charley's arm, she had +trudged down across the Park, through Westminster, and on to the +close vicinity of the prison; and here they sought for and +obtained such accommodation as she thought fitting to her present +situation. Charley had begged her to get into a cab, and when she +refused that, had implored her to indulge in the luxury of an +omnibus; but Gertrude's mind was now set upon economy; she would +come back, she said, in an omnibus when the day would be hotter, +and she would be alone, but she was very well able to walk the +distance once. + +She procured, for seven shillings a week, a sitting-room and +bedroom, from whence she could see the gloomy prison walls, and +also a truckle-bed for the young girl whom she was to bring with +her as her maid. This was a little Hampton maiden, whom she had +brought from the country to act as fag and deputy to her grand +nurse; but the grand nurse was now gone, and the fag was promoted +to the various offices of nurse, lady's-maid, and parlour +servant. The rest of the household in Albany Place had already +dispersed with the discreet view of bettering their situations. + +Everything in the house was given up to pay what Alaric owed. +Independently of his dreadful liability to Madame Jaquetanape, he +could not have been said to be in debt; but still, like most +other men who live as he had done, when his career was thus +brought to a sudden close, it was found that there were many +people looking for money. There were little bills, as the owners +said of them, which had been forgotten, of course, on account of +their insignificance, but which being so very little might now be +paid, equally of course, without any trouble. It is astonishing +how easy it is to accumulate three or four hundred pounds' worth +of little bills, when one lives before the world in a good house +and in visible possession of a good income. + +At the moment of Alaric's conviction, there was but a slender +stock of money forthcoming for these little bills. The necessary +expense of his trial,--and it had been by no means trifling,--he +had, of course, been obliged to pay. His salary had been +suspended, and all the money that he could lay his hands on had +been given up towards making restitution towards the dreadful sum +of L20,000 that had been his ruin. The bills, however, did not +come in till after his trial, and then there was but little left +but the furniture. + +As the new trustees employed on behalf of Madame Jaquetanape and +Mr. Figgs were well aware that they had much more to expect from +the generosity of Tudor's friends than from any legal seizure of +his property, they did not interfere in the disposal of the +chairs and tables. But not on that account did Gertrude conceive +herself entitled to make any use on her own behalf of such money +as might come into her hands. The bills should be paid, and then +every farthing that could be collected should be given towards +lessening the deficiency. Six thousand pounds had already been +made up by the joint efforts of Norman and Captain Cuttwater. +Undy Scott's acknowledgement for the other four thousand had been +offered, but the new trustees declined to accept it as of any +value whatsoever. They were equally incredulous as to the bridge +shares, which from that day to this have never held up their +heads, even to the modest height of half a crown a share. + +Gertrude's efforts to make the most of everything had been +unceasing. When her husband was sentenced, she had in her +possession a new dress and some finery for her baby, which were +not yet paid for; these she took back with her own hand, offering +to the milliners her own trinkets by way of compensation for +their loss. When the day for removal came, she took with her +nothing that she imagined could be sold. She would have left the +grander part of her own wardrobe, if the auctioneers would have +undertaken to sell it. Some few things, books and trifling +household articles, which she thought were dear to Alaric, she +packed up; and such were sent to Hampton. On the day of her +departure she dressed herself in a plain dark gown, one that was +almost mourning, and then, with her baby in her lap, and her +young maid beside her, and Charley fronting her in the cab, she +started for her new home. + +I had almost said that her pride had left her. Such an assertion +would be a gross libel on her. No; she was perhaps prouder than +ever, as she left her old home. There was a humility in her cheap +dress, in her large straw bonnet coming far over her face, in her +dark gloves and little simple collar; nay, there was a humility +in her altered voice, and somewhat chastened mien; but the spirit +of the woman was wholly unbroken. She had even a pride in her +very position, in her close and dear tie with the convicted +prisoner. She was his for better and for worse; she would now +show him what was her idea of the vow she had made. To the men +who came to ticket and number the furniture, to the tradesmen's +messengers who called for money, to the various workmen with whom +the house was then invaded, she was humble enough; but had Mrs. +Val come across her with pity, or the Miss Neverbends with their +sententious twaddlings, she would have been prouder than ever. +Fallen indeed! She had had no fall; nor had he; he was still a +man, with a greater aggregate of good in him than falls to the +average lot of mortals. Who would dare to tell her that he had +fallen? 'Twas thus that her pride was still strong within her; +and as it supported her through this misery, who can blame her +for it? + +She was allowed into the prison twice a week; on Tuesdays and +Fridays she was permitted to spend one hour with her husband, and +to take her child with her. It is hardly necessary to say that +she was punctual to the appointed times. This, however, occupied +but a short period, even of those looked-for days; and in spite +of her pride, and her constant needle, the weary six months went +from her all too slowly. + +Nor did they pass with swifter foot within the prison. Alaric was +allowed the use of books and pens and paper, but even with these +he found a day in prison to be almost an unendurable eternity. +This was the real punishment of his guilt; it was not that he +could not eat well, and lie soft, or enjoy the comforts which had +always surrounded him; but that the day would not pass away. The +slowness of the lagging hours nearly drove him mad. He made a +thousand resolutions as to reading, writing, and employment for +his mind. He attempted to learn whole pages by rote, and to +fatigue himself to rest by exercise of his memory. But his memory +would not work; his mind would continue idle; he was impotent +over his own faculties. Oh, if he could only sleep while these +horrid weeks were passing over him! + +All hope of regaining his situation had of course passed from +him, all hope of employment in England. Emigration must now be +his lot; and hers also, and the lot of that young one that was +already born to them, and of that other one who was, alas! now +coming to the world, whose fate it would be first to see the +light under the walls of its father's prison.--Yes, they must +emigrate.--But there was nothing so very terrible in that. Alaric +felt that even his utter poverty would be no misfortune if only +his captivity were over. Poverty!--how could any man be poor who +had liberty to roam the world? + +We all of us acknowledge that the educated man who breaks the +laws is justly liable to a heavier punishment than he who has +been born in ignorance, and bred, as it were, in the lap of sin; +but we hardly realize how much greater is the punishment which, +when he be punished, the educated man is forced to undergo. +Confinement to the man whose mind has never been lifted above +vacancy is simply remission from labour. Confinement, with +labour, is simply the enforcement of that which has hitherto been +his daily lot. But what must a prison be to him whose intellect +has received the polish of the world's poetry, who has known what +it is to feed more than the belly, to require other aliment than +bread and meat? + +And then, what does the poor criminal lose? His all, it will be +said; and the rich can lose no more. But this is not so. No man +loses his all by any sentence which a human judge can inflict. No +man so loses anything approaching to his all, however much he may +have lost before. But the one man has too often had no self- +respect to risk; the other has stood high in his own esteem, has +held his head proudly before the world, has aspired to walk in +some way after the fashion of a god. Alaric had so aspired, and +how must he have felt during those prison days! Of what nature +must his thoughts have been when they turned to Gertrude and his +child! His sin had indeed been heavy, and heavy was the penalty +which he suffered. When they had been thus living for about three +months, Gertrude's second child was born. Mrs. Woodward was with +her at the time, and she had suffered but little except that for +three weeks she was unable to see her husband; then, in the teeth +of all counsel, and in opposition to all medical warning, she +could resist no longer, and carried the newborn stranger to his +father. + +'Poor little wretch!' said Alaric, as he stooped to kiss him. + +'Wretch!' said Gertrude, looking up to him with a smile upon her +face--'he is no wretch. He is a sturdy little man, that shall yet +live to make your heart dance with joy.' + +Mrs. Woodward came often to see her. She did not stay, for there +was no bed in which she could have slept; but the train put her +down at Vauxhall, and she had but to pass the bridge, and she was +close to Gertrude's lodgings. And now the six months had nearly +gone by, when, by appointment, she brought Norman with her. At +this time he had given up his clerkship at the Weights and +Measures, and was about to go to Normansgrove for the remainder +of the winter. Both Alaric and Norman had shown a great distaste +to meet each other. But Harry's heart softened towards Gertrude. +Her conduct during her husband's troubles had been so excellent, +that he could not but forgive her the injuries which he fancied +he owed to her. + +Everything was now prepared for their departure. They were to +sail on the very day after Alaric's liberation, so as to save him +from the misery of meeting those who might know him. And now +Harry came with Mrs. Woodward to bid farewell, probably for ever +on this side the grave, to her whom he had once looked on as his +own. How different were their lots now! Harry was Mr. Norman of +Normansgrove, immediately about to take his place as the squire +of his parish, to sit among brother magistrates, to decide about +roads and poachers, parish rates and other all-absorbing topics, +to be a rural magistrate, and fill a place among perhaps the most +fortunate of the world's inhabitants. Gertrude was the wife of a +convicted felon, who was about to come forth from his prison in +utter poverty, a man who, in such a catalogue as the world makes +of its inhabitants, would be ranked among the very lowest. + +And did Gertrude even now regret her choice? No, not for a +moment! She still felt certain in her heart of hearts that she +had loved the one who was the most worthy of a woman's love. We +cannot, probably, all agree in her opinion; but we will agree in +this, at least, that she was now right to hold such opinion. Had +Normansgrove stretched from one boundary of the county to the +other, it would have weighed as nothing. Had Harry's virtues been +as bright as burnished gold--and indeed they had been bright-- +they would have weighed as nothing. A nobler stamp of manhood was +on her husband--so at least Gertrude felt;--and manhood is the +one virtue which in a woman's breast outweighs all others. + +They had not met since the evening on which Gertrude had declared +to him that she never could love him; and Norman, as he got out +of the cab with Mrs. Woodward, at No. 5, Paradise Row, Millbank, +felt his heart beat within him almost as strongly as he had done +when he was about to propose to her. He followed Mrs. Woodward +into the dingy little house, and immediately found himself in +Gertrude's presence. + +I should exaggerate the fact were I to say that he would not have +known her; but had he met her elsewhere, met her where he did not +expect to meet her, he would have looked at her more than once +before he felt assured that he was looking at Gertrude Woodward. +It was not that she had grown pale, or worn, or haggard; though, +indeed, her face had on it that weighty look of endurance which +care will always give; it was not that she had lost her beauty, +and become unattractive in his eyes; but that the whole nature of +her mien and form, the very trick of her gait was changed. Her +eye was as bright as ever, but it was steady, composed, and +resolved; her lips were set and compressed, and there was no +playfulness round her mouth. Her hair was still smooth and +bright, but it was more brushed off from her temples than it had +been of yore, and was partly covered by a bit of black lace, +which we presume we must call a cap; here and there, too, through +it, Norman's quick eye detected a few grey hairs. She was stouter +too than she had been, or else she seemed to be so from the +changes in her dress. Her step fell heavier on the floor than it +used to do, and her voice was quicker and more decisive in its +tones. When she spoke to her mother, she did so as one sister +might do to another; and, indeed, Mrs. Woodward seemed to +exercise over her very little of the authority of a parent. The +truth was that Gertrude had altogether ceased to be a girl, had +altogether become a woman. Linda, with whom Norman at once +compared her, though but one year younger, was still a child in +comparison with her elder sister. Happy, happy Linda! + +Gertrude had certainly proved herself to be an excellent wife; +but perhaps she might have made herself more pleasing to others +if she had not so entirely thrown off from herself all traces of +juvenility. Could she, in this respect, have taken a lesson from +her mother, she would have been a wiser woman. We have said that +she consorted with Mrs. Woodward as though they had been sisters; +but one might have said that Gertrude took on herself the manners +of the elder sister. It is true that she had hard duties to +perform, a stern world to overcome, an uphill fight before her +with poverty, distress, and almost, nay, absolutely, with +degradation. It was well for her and Alaric that she could face +it all with the true courage of an honest woman. But yet those +who had known her in her radiant early beauty could not but +regret that the young freshness of early years should all have +been laid aside so soon. + +'Linda, at any rate, far exceeds her in beauty,' was Norman's +first thought, as he stood for a moment to look at her--'and then +Linda too is so much more feminine.' 'Twas thus that Harry Norman +consoled himself in the first moment of his first interview with +Alaric's wife. And he was right in his thoughts. The world would +now have called Linda the more lovely of the two, and certainly +the more feminine in the ladylike sense of the word. If, however, +devotion be feminine, and truth to one selected life's companion, +if motherly care be so, and an indomitable sense of the duties +due to one's own household, then Gertrude was not deficient in +feminine character. + +'You find me greatly altered, Harry, do you not?' said she, +taking his hand frankly, and perceiving immediately the effect +which she had made upon him. 'I am a steady old matron, am I +not?--with a bairn on each side of me,' and she pointed to her +baby in the cradle, and to her other boy sitting on his +grandmother's knee. + +Harry said he did find her altered. It was her dress, he said, +and the cap on her head. + +'Yes, Harry; and some care and trouble too. To you, you know, to +a friend such as you are, I must own that care and trouble do +tell upon one. Not, thank God, that I have more than I can bear; +not that I have not blessings for which I cannot but be too +thankful.' + +'And so these are your boys, Gertrude?' + +'Yes,' said she, cheerfully; 'these are the little men, that in +the good times coming will be managing vast kingdoms, and giving +orders to this worn-out old island of yours. Alley, my boy, sing +your new song about the 'good and happy land.' But Alley, who +had got hold of his grandmother's watch, and was staring with all +his eyes at the stranger, did not seem much inclined to be +musical at the present moment. + +'And this is Charley's godson,' continued Gertrude, taking up the +baby. 'Dear Charley! he has been such a comfort to me.' + +'I have heard all about you daily from him,' said Harry. + +'I know you have--and he is daily talking of you, Harry. And so +he should do; so we all should do. What a glorious change this is +for him! is it not, Harry?' + +Charley by this time had torn himself away from Mr. Snape and the +navvies, and transferred the whole of his official zeal and +energies to the Weights and Measures. The manner and reason of +this must, however, be explained in a subsequent chapter. + +'Yes,' said Harry, 'he has certainly got into a better office.' + +'And he will do well there?' + +'I am sure he will. It was impossible he should do well at that +other place. No man could do so. He is quite an altered man now. +The only fault I find with him is that he is so full of his +heroes and heroines.' + +'So he is, Harry; he is always asking me what he is to do with +some forlorn lady or gentleman, 'Oh, smother her!' I said the +other day. 'Well,' said he, with a melancholy gravity, 'I'll try +it; but I fear it won't answer.' Poor Charley! what a friend you +have been to him, Harry!' + +'A friend!' said Mrs. Woodward, who was still true to her +adoration of Norman. 'Indeed he has been a friend--a friend to us +all. Who is there like him?' + +Gertrude could have found it in her heart to go back to the +subject of old days, and tell her mother that there was somebody +much better even than Harry Norman. But the present was hardly a +time for such an assertion of her own peculiar opinion. + +'Yes, Harry,' she said, 'we have all much, too much, to thank you +for. I have to thank you on his account.' + +'Oh no,' said he, ungraciously; 'there is nothing to thank me +for,--not on his account. Your mother and Captain Cuttwater----' +and then he stopped himself. What he meant was that he had +sacrificed his little fortune--for at the time his elder brother +had still been living--not to rescue, or in attempting to +rescue, his old friend from misfortune--not, at least, because +that man had been his friend; but because he was the husband of +Gertrude Woodward, and of Mrs. Woodward's daughter. Could he have +laid bare his heart, he would have declared that Alaric Tudor +owed him nothing; that he had never forgiven, never could +forgive, the wrongs he had received from him; but that he had +forgiven Alaric's wife; and that having done so in the tenderness +of his heart, he had been ready to give up all that he possessed +for her protection. He would have spared Gertrude what pain he +could; but he would not lie, and speak of Alaric Tudor with +affection. + +'But there is, Harry; there is,' said Gertrude; 'much--too much +--greatly too much. It is that now weighs me down more than +anything. Oh! Harry, how are we to pay to you all this money?' + +'It is with Mrs. Woodward,' said he coldly, 'and Captain +Cuttwater, not with me, that you should speak of that. Mr. Tudor +owes me nothing.' + +'Oh, Harry, Harry,' said she, 'do not call him Mr. Tudor--pray, +pray; now that we are going--now that we shall never wound your +sight again! do not call him Mr. Tudor. + +He has done wrong; I do not deny it; but which of us is there +that has not?' + +'It was not on that account,' said he; 'I could forgive all +that.' + +Gertrude understood him, and her cheeks and brow became tinged +with red. It was not from shame, nor yet wholly from a sense of +anger, but mingled feelings filled her heart; feelings which she +could in nowise explain. 'If you have forgiven him that'--she +would have said, had she thought it right to speak out her mind-- +'if you have forgiven him that, then there is nothing left for +further forgiveness.' + +Gertrude had twice a better knowledge of the world than he had, +twice a quicker perception of how things were going, and should +be made to go. She saw that it was useless to refer further to +her husband. Norman had come there at her request to say adieu to +her; that she and he, who had been friends since she was a child, +might see each other before they were separated for ever by half +a world, and that they might part in love and charity. She would +be his sister-in-law, he would be son to her mother, husband to +her Linda; he had been, though he now denied it, her husband's +staunchest friend in his extremity; and it would have added +greatly to the bitterness of her departure had she been forced to +go without speaking to him one kindly word. The opportunity was +given to her, and she would not utterly mar its sweetness by +insisting on his injustice to her husband. + +They all remained silent for a while, during which Gertrude +fondled her baby, and Norman produced before the elder boy some +present that he had brought for him. + +'Now, Alley,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'you're a made man; won't that +do beautifully to play with on board the big ship?' + +'And so, Harry, you have given up official life altogether,' said +Gertrude. + +'Yes,' said he--'the last day of the last year saw my finale at +the Weights and Measures. I did not live long--officially--to +enjoy my promotion. I almost wish myself back again.' + +'You'll go in on melting days, like the retired tallow-chandler,' +said Gertrude; 'but, joking apart, I wish you joy on your freedom +from thraldom; a government office in England is thraldom. If a +man were to give his work only, it would be well. All men who +have to live by labour must do that; but a man has to give himself +as well as his work; to sacrifice his individuality; to become body +and soul a part of a lumbering old machine.' + +This hardly came well from Gertrude, seeing that Alaric at any +rate had never been required to sacrifice any of his individuality. +But she was determined to hate all the antecedents of his life, +as though those antecedents, and not the laxity of his own +principles, had brought about his ruin. She was prepared +to live entirely for the future, and to look back on her London +life as bad, tasteless, and demoralizing. England to her was no +longer a glorious country; for England's laws had made a felon of +her husband. She would go to a new land, new hopes, new ideas, +new freedom, new work, new life, and new ambition. 'Excelsior!' +there was no longer an excelsior left for talent and perseverance +in this effete country. She and hers would soon find room for +their energies in a younger land; and as she went she could not +but pity those whom she left behind. Her reasoning was hardly +logical, but, perhaps, it was not unfortunate. + +'For myself,' said Norman, not quite following all this--'I +always liked the Civil Service, and now I leave it with a sort of +regret. I am quite glad that Charley has my old desk; it will +keep up a sort of tie between me and the place.' + +'What does Linda say about it, mamma?' + +'Linda and I are both of Harry's way of thinking,' said Mrs. +Woodward, 'because Normansgrove is such a distance.' + +'Distance!' repeated Gertrude, with something of sorrow, but more +of scorn in her tone. 'Distance, mamma! why you can get to her +between breakfast and dinner. Think where Melbourne is, mamma!' + +'It has nearly broken my heart to think of it,' said Mrs. +Woodward. + +'And you will still have Linda, mamma, and our darling Katie, and +Harry, and dear Charley. If the idea of distance should frighten +anyone it is me. But nothing shall frighten me while I have my +husband and children. Harry, you must not let mamma be too often +alone when some other knight shall have come and taken away +Katie.' + +'We will take her to Normansgrove for good and all, if she will +let us,' said Harry. + +And now the time came for them to part. Harry was to say good-bye +to her, and then to see her no more. Early on the following +morning Gertrude was to go to Hampton and see Katie for the last +time; to see Katie for the last time, and the Cottage, and the +shining river, and all the well-known objects among which she had +passed her life. To Mrs. Woodward, to Linda, and Katie, all this +was subject of inexpressible melancholy; but with Gertrude every +feeling of romance seemed to have been absorbed by the realities +of life. She would, of course, go to Katie and give her a +farewell embrace, since Katie was still too weak to come to her; +she would say farewell to Uncle Bat, to whom she and Alaric owed +so much; she would doubtless shed a tear or two, and feel some +emotion at parting, even from the inanimate associations of her +youth; but all this would now impress no lasting sorrow on her. + +She was eager to be off, eager for her new career, eager that he +should stand on a soil where he could once more face his fellow- +creatures without shame. She panted to put thousands of leagues +of ocean between him and his disgrace. + +On the following morning Gertrude was to go to Hampton for two +hours, and then to return to Millbank, with her mother and +sister, for whose accommodation a bed had been hired in the +neighbourhood. On that evening Alaric would be released from his +prison; and then before daybreak on the following day they were +to take their way to the far-off docks, and place themselves on +board the vessel which was to carry them to their distant home. + +'God bless you, Gertrude,' said Norman, whose eyes were not dry. + +'God Almighty bless you, Harry, you and Linda--and make you +happy. If Linda does not write constantly very constantly, you +must do it for her. We have delayed the happiness of your +marriage, Harry--you must forgive us that, as well as all our +other trespasses. I fear Linda will never forgive that.' + +'You won't find her unmerciful on that score,' said he. 'Dear +Gertrude, good-bye.' + +She put up her face to him, and he kissed her, for the first time +in his life. 'He bade me give you his love,' said she, in her +last whisper; 'I must, you know, do his bidding.' + +Norman's heart palpitated so that he could hardly compose his +voice for his last answer; but even then he would not be untrue +to his inexorable obstinacy; he could not send his love to a man +he did not love. 'Tell him,' said he, 'that he has my sincerest +wishes for success wherever he may be; and Gertrude, I need +hardly say----' but he could get no further. + +And so they parted. + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE CRIMINAL POPULATION IS DISPOSED OF + + +Before we put Alaric on board the ship which is to take him away +from the land in which he might have run so exalted a career, we +must say one word as to the fate and fortunes of his old friend +Undy Scott. This gentleman has not been represented in our pages +as an amiable or high-minded person. He has indeed been the bad +spirit of the tale, the Siva of our mythology, the devil that has +led our hero into temptation, the incarnation of evil, which it +is always necessary that the novelist should have personified in +one of his characters to enable him to bring about his misfortunes, +his tragedies, and various requisite catastrophes. Scott had his +Varney and such-like; Dickens his Bill Sykes and such-like; all +of whom are properly disposed of before the end of those +volumes in which are described their respective careers. + +I have ventured to introduce to my readers, as my devil, Mr. Undy +Scott, M.P. for the Tillietudlem district burghs; and I also feel +myself bound to dispose of him, though of him I regret I cannot +make so decent an end as was done with Sir Richard Varney and +Bill Sykes. + +He deserves, however, as severe a fate as either of those heroes. +With the former we will not attempt to compare him, as the vices +and devilry of the days of Queen Elizabeth are in no way similar +to those in which we indulge; but with Bill Sykes we may contrast +him, as they flourished in the same era, and had their points of +similitude, as well as their points of difference. + +They were both apparently born to prey on their own species; they +both resolutely adhered to a fixed rule that they would in nowise +earn their bread, and to a rule equally fixed that, though they +would earn no bread, they would consume much. They were both of +them blessed with a total absence of sensibility and an utter +disregard to the pain of others, and had no other use for a heart +than that of a machine for maintaining the circulation of the +blood. It is but little to say that neither of them ever acted on +principle, on a knowledge, that is, of right and wrong, and a +selection of the right; in their studies of the science of evil +they had progressed much further than this, and had taught +themselves to believe that that which other men called virtue +was, on its own account, to be regarded as mawkish, insipid, and +useless for such purposes as the acquisition of money or +pleasure; whereas vice was, on its own account, to be preferred, +as offering the only road to those things which they were +desirous of possessing. + +So far there was a great resemblance between Bill Sykes and Mr. +Scott; but then came the points of difference, which must give to +the latter a great pre-eminence in the eyes of that master whom +they had both so worthily served. Bill could not boast the merit +of selecting the course which he had run; he had served the +Devil, having had, as it were, no choice in the matter; he was +born and bred and educated an evil-doer, and could hardly have +deserted from the colours of his great Captain, without some +spiritual interposition to enable him to do so. To Undy a warmer +reward must surely be due: he had been placed fairly on the +world's surface, with power to choose between good and bad, and +had deliberately taken the latter; to him had, at any rate, been +explained the theory of _meum_ and _tuum_, and he had resolved +that he liked _tuum_ better than _meum_; he had learnt that +there is a God ruling over us, and a Devil hankering after us, and +had made up his mind that he would belong to the latter. Bread +and water would have come to him naturally without any villany +on his part, aye, and meat and milk, and wine and oil, the fat +things of the world; but he elected to be a villain; he liked to do +the Devil's bidding.--Surely he was the better servant; surely he +shall have the richer reward. + +And yet poor Bill Sykes, for whom here I would willingly say a +word or two, could I, by so saying, mitigate the wrath against +him, is always held as the more detestable scoundrel. Lady, you +now know them both. Is it not the fact, that, knowing him as you +do, you could spend a pleasant hour enough with Mr. Scott, +sitting next to him at dinner; whereas your blood would creep +within you, your hair would stand on end, your voice would stick +in your throat, if you were suddenly told that Bill Sykes was in +your presence? + +Poor Bill! I have a sort of love for him, as he walks about +wretched with that dog of his, though I know that it is necessary +to hang him. Yes, Bill; I, your friend, cannot gainsay that, must +acknowledge that. Hard as the case may be, you must be hung; hung +out of the way of further mischief; my spoons, my wife's throat, +my children's brains, demand that. You, Bill, and polecats, and +such-like, must be squelched when we can come across you, seeing +that you make yourself so universally disagreeable. It is your +ordained nature to be disagreeable; you plead silently. I know +it; I admit the hardship of your case; but still, my Bill, self- +preservation is the first law of nature. You must be hung. But, +while hanging you, I admit that you are more sinned against than +sinning. There is another, Bill, another, who will surely take +account of this in some way, though it is not for me to tell you +how. + +Yes, I hang Bill Sykes with soft regret; but with what a savage +joy, with what exultation of heart, with what alacrity of eager +soul, with what aptitude of mind to the deed, would I hang my +friend, Undy Scott, the member of Parliament for the Tillietudlem +burghs, if I could but get at his throat for such a purpose! Hang +him! aye, as high as Haman! In this there would be no regret, no +vacillation of purpose, no doubt as to the propriety of the +sacrifice, no feeling that I was so treating him, not for his own +desert, but for my advantage. + +We hang men, I believe, with this object only, that we should +deter others from crime; but in hanging Bill we shall hardly +deter his brother. Bill Sykes must look to crime for his bread, +seeing that he has been so educated, seeing that we have not yet +taught him another trade. + +But if I could hang Undy Scott, I think I should deter some +others. The figure of Undy swinging from a gibbet at the broad +end of Lombard Street would have an effect. Ah! my fingers itch +to be at the rope. + +Fate, however, and the laws are averse. To gibbet him, in one +sense, would have been my privilege, had I drunk deeper from that +Castalian rill whose dark waters are tinged with the gall of +poetic indignation; but as in other sense I may not hang him, I +will tell how he was driven from his club, and how he ceased to +number himself among the legislators of his country. + +Undy Scott, among his other good qualities, possessed an enormous +quantity of that which schoolboys in these days call 'cheek.' He +was not easily browbeaten, and was generally prepared to browbeat +others. Mr. Chaffanbrass certainly did get the better of him; but +then Mr. Chaffanbrass was on his own dunghill. Could Undy Scott +have had Mr. Chaffanbrass down at the clubs, there would have +been, perhaps, another tale to tell. + +Give me the cock that can crow in any yard; such cocks, however, +we know are scarce. Undy Scott, as he left the Old Bailey, was +aware that he had cut a sorry figure, and felt that he must +immediately do something to put himself right again, at any rate +before his portion of the world. He must perform some exploit +uncommonly cheeky in order to cover his late discomfiture. To get +the better of Mr. Chaffanbrass at the Old Bailey had been beyond +him; but he might yet do something at the clubs to set aside the +unanimous verdict which had been given against him in the city. +Nay, he must do something, unless he was prepared to go to the +wall utterly, and at once. + +Going to the wall with Undy would mean absolute ruin; he lived +but on the cheekiness of his gait and habits; he had become +member of Parliament, Government official, railway director, and +club aristocrat, merely by dint of cheek. He had now received a +great blow; he had stood before a crowd, and been annihilated by +the better cheek of Mr. Chaffanbrass, and, therefore, it behoved +him at once to do something. When the perfume of the rose grows +stale, the flower is at once thrown aside, and carried off as +foul refuse. It behoved Undy to see that his perfume was +maintained in its purity, or he, too, would be carried off. + +The club to which Undy more especially belonged was called the +Downing; and of this Alaric was also a member, having been +introduced into it by his friend. Here had Alaric spent by far +too many of the hours of his married life, and had become well +known and popular. At the time of his conviction, the summer was +far advanced; it was then August; but Parliament was still +sitting, and there were sufficient club men remaining in London +to create a daily gathering at the Downing. + +On the day following that on which the verdict was found, Undy +convened a special committee of the club, in order that he might +submit to it a proposition which he thought it indispensable +should come from him; so, at least, he declared. The committee +did assemble, and when Undy met it, he saw among the faces before +him not a few with whom he would willingly have dispensed. +However, he had come there to exercise his cheek; no one there +should cow him; the wig of Mr. Chaffanbrass was, at any rate, +absent. + +And so he submitted his proposition. I need not trouble my +readers with the neat little speech in which it was made. Undy +was true to himself, and the speech was neat. The proposition was +this: that as he had unfortunately been the means of introducing +Mr. Alaric Tudor to the club, he considered it to be his duty to +suggest that the name of that gentleman should be struck off the +books. He then expressed his unmitigated disgust at the crime of +which Tudor had been found guilty, uttered some nice little +platitudes in the cause of virtue, and expressed a hope 'that he +might so far refer to a personal matter as to say that his +father's family would take care that the lady, whose fortune had +been the subject of the trial, should not lose one penny through +the dishonesty of her trustee.' + +Oh, Undy, as high as Haman, if I could! as high as Haman! and if +not in Lombard Street, then on that open ground where Waterloo +Place bisects Pall Mall, so that all the clubs might see thee! + +'He would advert,' he said, 'to one other matter, though, +perhaps, his doing so was unnecessary. It was probably known to +them all that he had been a witness at the late trial; an +iniquitous attempt had been made by the prisoner's counsel to +connect his name with the prisoner's guilt. They all too well +knew the latitude allowed to lawyers in the criminal courts, to +pay much attention to this. Had he' (Undy Scott) 'in any way +infringed the laws of his country, he was there to answer for it. +But he would go further than this, and declare that if any member +of that club doubted his probity in the matter, he was perfectly +willing to submit to such member documents which would,' &c., &c. + +He finished his speech, and an awful silence reigned around him. +No enthusiastic ardour welcomed the well-loved Undy back to his +club, and comforted him after the rough usage of the unpolished +Chaffanbrass. No ten or twenty combined voices expressed, by +their clamorous negation of the last-proposed process, that their +Undy was above reproach. The eyes around looked into him with no +friendly alacrity. Undy, Undy, more cheek still, still more +cheek, or you are surely lost. + +'If,' said he, in a well-assumed indignant tone of injured +innocence, 'there be any in the club who do suspect me of +anything unbecoming a gentleman in this affair, I am willing to +retire from it till the matter shall have been investigated; but +in such case I demand that the investigation be immediate.' + +Oh, Undy, Undy, the supply of cheek is not bad; it is all but +unlimited; but yet it suffices thee not. 'Can there be positions +in this modern West End world of mine,' thought Undy to himself, +'in which cheek, unbounded cheek, will not suffice?' Oh, Undy, +they are rare; but still there are such, and this, unfortunately +for thee, seemeth to be one of them. + +And then got up a discreet old baronet, one who moveth not often +in the affairs around him, but who, when he moveth, stirreth many +waters; a man of broad acres, and a quiet, well-assured fame +which has grown to him without his seeking it, as barnacles grow +to the stout keel when it has been long a-swimming; him, of all +men, would Undy have wished to see unconcerned with these +matters. + +Not in many words, nor eloquent did Sir Thomas speak. 'He felt it +his duty,' he said, 'to second the proposal made by Mr. Scott for +removing Mr. Tudor from amongst them. He had watched this trial +with some care, and he pitied Mr. Tudor from the bottom of his +heart. He would not have thought that he could have felt so +strong a sympathy for a man convicted of dishonesty. But, Mr. +Tudor had been convicted, and he must incur the penalties of his +fault. One of these penalties must, undoubtedly, be his +banishment from this club. He therefore seconded Mr. Scott's +proposal.' + +He then stood silent for a moment, having finished that task; but +yet he did not sit down. Why, oh, why does he not sit down? why, +O Undy, does he thus stand, looking at the surface of the table +on which he is leaning? + +'And now,' he said, 'he had another proposition to make; and that +was that Mr. Undecimus Scott should also be expelled from the +club,' and having so spoken, in a voice of unusual energy, he +then sat down. + +And now, Undy, you may as well pack up, and be off, without +further fuss, to Boulogne, Ostend, or some such idle Elysium, +with such money-scrapings as you may be able to collect together. +No importunity will avail thee anything against the judges and +jurymen who are now trying thee. One word from that silent old +baronet was worse to thee than all that Mr. Chaffanbrass could +say. Come! pack up; and begone. + +But he was still a Member of Parliament. The Parliament, however, +was about to be dissolved, and, of course, it would be useless +for him to stand again; he, like Mr. M'Buffer had had his spell +of it, and he recognized the necessity of vanishing. He at first +thought that his life as a legislator might be allowed to come to +a natural end, that he might die as it were in his bed, without +suffering the acute pain of applying for the Chiltern Hundreds. +In this, however, he found himself wrong. The injured honour of +all the Tillietudlemites rose against him with one indignant +shout; and a rumour, a horrid rumour, of a severer fate met his +ears. He applied at once for the now coveted sinecure,--and was +refused. Her Majesty could not consent to entrust to him the +duties of the situation in question--; and in lieu thereof the +House expelled him by its unanimous voice. + +And now, indeed, it was time for him to pack and begone. He was +now liable to the vulgarest persecution from the vulgar herd; his +very tailor and bootmaker would beleaguer him, and coarse +unwashed bailiffs take him by the collar. Yes, now indeed, it was +time to be off. + +And off he was. He paid one fleeting visit to my Lord at +Cauldkail Castle, collecting what little he might; another to his +honourable wife, adding some slender increase to his little +budget, and then he was off. Whither, it is needless to say--to +Hamburg perhaps, or to Ems, or the richer tables of Homburg. How +he flourished for a while with ambiguous success; how he talked +to the young English tourists of what he had done when in +Parliament, especially for the rights of married women; how he +poked his 'Honourable' card in every one's way, and lugged Lord +Gaberlunzie into all conversations; how his face became pimply +and his wardrobe seedy; and how at last his wretched life will +ooze out from him in some dark corner, like the filthy juice of a +decayed fungus which makes hideous the hidden wall on which it +bursts, all this is unnecessary more particularly to describe. He +is probably still living, and those who desire his acquaintance +will find him creeping round some gambling table, and trying to +look as though he had in his pocket ample means to secure those +hoards of money which men are so listlessly raking about. From +our view he has now vanished. + +It was a bitter February morning, when two cabs stood packing +themselves at No. 5, Paradise Row, Millbank. It was hardly yet +six o'clock, and Paradise Row was dark as Erebus; that solitary +gas-light sticking out from the wall of the prison only made +darkness visible; the tallow candles which were brought in and +out with every article that was stuffed under a seat, or into a +corner, would get themselves blown out; and the sleet which was +falling fast made the wicks wet, so that they could with +difficulty be relighted. + +But at last the cabs were packed with luggage, and into one got +Gertrude with her husband, her baby, and her mother; and into the +other Charley handed Linda, then Alley, and lastly, the youthful +maiden, who humbly begged his pardon as she stepped up to the +vehicle; and then, having given due directions to the driver, he +not without difficulty squeezed himself into the remaining space. + +Such journeys as these are always made at a slow pace. Cabmen +know very well who must go fast, and who may go slow. Women with +children going on board an emigrant vessel at six o'clock on a +February morning may be taken very slowly. And very slowly +Gertrude and her party were taken. Time had been--nay, it was but +the other day--when Alaric's impatient soul would have spurned at +such a pace as this. But now he sat tranquil enough. His wife +held one of his hands, and the other he pressed against his eyes, +as though shading them from the light. Light there was none, but +he had not yet learnt to face Mrs. Woodward even in the darkness. + +He had come out of the prison on the day before, and had spent an +evening with her. It is needless to say that no one had upbraided +him, that no one had hinted that his backslidings had caused all +this present misery, had brought them all to that wretched cabin, +and would on the morrow separate, perhaps for ever, a mother and +a child who loved each other so dearly. No one spoke to him of +this; perhaps no one thought of it; he, however, did so think of +it that he could not hold his head up before them. + +'He was ill,' Gertrude said; 'his long confinement had prostrated +him; but the sea air would revive him in a day or two.' And then +she made herself busy, and got the tea for them, and strove, not +wholly in vain,' to drive dull care away!' + +But slowly as the cabs went in spite of Charley's vocal +execrations, they did get to the docks in time. Who, indeed, was +ever too late at the docks? Who, that ever went there, had not to +linger, linger, linger, till every shred of patience was clean +worn out? They got to the docks in time, and got on board that +fast-sailing, clipper-built, never-beaten, always-healthy ship, +the _Flash of Lightning_, 5,600 tons, A 1. Why, we have often +wondered, are ships designated as A 1, seeing that all ships are of +that class? Where is the excellence, seeing that all share it? Of +course the _Flash of Lightning_ was A 1. The author has for +years been looking out, and has not yet found a ship advertised as +A 2, or even as B 1. What is this catalogue of comparative +excellence, of which there is but one visible number? + +The world, we think, makes a great mistake on the subject of +saying, or acting, farewell. The word or deed should partake of +the suddenness of electricity; but we all drawl through it at a +snail's pace. We are supposed to tear ourselves from our friends; +but tearing is a process which should be done quickly. What is so +wretched as lingering over a last kiss, giving the hand for the +third time, saying over and over again, 'Good-bye, John, God +bless you; and mind you write!' Who has not seen his dearest +friends standing round the window of a railway carriage, while +the train would not start, and has not longed to say to them, +'Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once!' And of +all such farewells, the ship's farewell is the longest and the +most dreary. One sits on a damp bench, snuffing up the odour of +oil and ropes, cudgelling one's brains to think what further word +of increased tenderness can be spoken. No tenderer word can be +spoken. One returns again and again to the weather, to coats and +cloaks, perhaps even to sandwiches and the sherry flask. All +effect is thus destroyed, and a trespass is made even on the +domain of feeling. + +I remember a line of poetry, learnt in my earliest youth, and +which I believe to have emanated from a sentimental Frenchman, a +man of genius, with whom my parents were acquainted. It is as +follows:-- + + Are you go?--Is you gone?--And I left?--Vera vell! + +Now the whole business of a farewell is contained in that line. +When the moment comes, let that be said; let that be said and +felt, and then let the dear ones depart. + +Mrs. Woodward and Gertrude--God bless them!--had never studied +the subject. They knew no better than to sit in the nasty cabin, +surrounded by boxes, stewards, porters, children, and abominations +of every kind, holding each other's hands, and pressing damp +handkerchiefs to their eyes. The delay, the lingering, upset even +Gertrude, and brought her for a moment down to the usual level +of leave-taking womanhood. Alaric, the meanwhile, stood leaning +over the taffrail with Charley, as mute as the fishes beneath him. + +'Write to us the moment you get there,' said Charley. How often +had the injunction been given! 'And now we had better get off-- +you'll be better when we are gone, Alaric,'--Charley had some +sense of the truth about him--'and, Alaric, take my word for it, +I'll come and set the Melbourne Weights and Measures to rights +before long--I'll come and weigh your gold for you.' + +'We had better be going now,' said Charley, looking down into the +cabin; 'they may let loose and be off any moment now.' + +'Oh, Charley, not yet, not yet,' said Linda, clinging to her +sister. + +'You'll have to go down to the Nore, if you stay; that's all,' +said Charley. + +And then again began the kissing and the crying. Yes, ye dear +ones--it is hard to part--it is hard for the mother to see the +child of her bosom torn from her for ever; it is cruel that +sisters should be severed: it is a harsh sentence for the world +to give, that of such a separation as this. These, O ye loving +hearts, are the penalties of love! Those that are content to love +must always be content to pay them. + +'Go, mamma, go,' said Gertrude; 'dearest, best, sweetest mother-- +my own, own mother; go, Linda, darling Linda. Give my kindest +love to Harry--Charley, you and Harry will be good to mamma, I +know you will. And mamma'--and then she whispered to her mother +one last prayer in Charley's favour--'she may love him now, +indeed she may.' + +Alaric came to them at the last moment--'Mrs. Woodward,' said he, +'say that you forgive me.' + +'I do,' said she, embracing him--'God knows that I do;--but, +Alaric, remember what a treasure you possess.' + +And so they parted. May God speed the wanderers! + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE FATE OF THE NAVVIES + + +And now, having dispatched Alaric and his wife and bairns on +their long journey, we must go back for a while and tell how +Charley had been transformed from an impudent, idle young Navvy +into a well-conducted, zealous young Weights. + +When Alaric was convicted, Charley had, as we all know, belonged +to the Internal Navigation; when the six months' sentence had +expired, Charley was in full blow at the decorous office in +Whitehall; and during the same period Norman had resigned and +taken on himself the new duties of a country squire. The change +which had been made had affected others than Charley. It had been +produced by one of those far-stretching, world-moving commotions +which now and then occur, sometimes twice or thrice in a +generation, and, perhaps, not again for half a century, causing +timid men to whisper in corners, and the brave and high-spirited +to struggle with the struggling waves, so that when the storm +subsides they may be found floating on the surface. A moral +earthquake had been endured by a portion of the Civil Service of +the country. + +The Internal Navigation had--No, my prognostic reader, it had not +been reformed; no new blood had been infused into it; no attempt +had been made to produce a better discipline by the appointment +of a younger secretary; there had been no carting away of decayed +wood in the shape of Mr. Snape, or gathering of rank weeds in the +form of Mr. Corkscrew; nothing of the kind had been attempted. +No--the disease had gone too far either for phlebotomy, purging, +or cautery. The Internal Navigation had ceased to exist! Its +demise had been in this wise.--It may be remembered that some +time since Mr. Oldeschole had mentioned in the hearing of Mr. +Snape that things were going wrong. Sir Gregory Hardlines had +expressed an adverse opinion as to the Internal Navigation, and +worse, ten times worse than that, there had been an article in +the _Times_. Now, we all know that if anything is ever done +in any way towards improvement in these days, the public press +does it. And we all know, also, of what the public press +consists. Mr. Oldeschole knew this well, and even Mr. Snape had a +glimmering idea of the truth. When he read that article, Mr. +Oldeschole felt that his days were numbered, and Mr. Snape, when +he heard of it, began to calculate for the hundredth time to what +highest amount of pension he might be adjudged to be entitled by +a liberal-minded Treasury minute. + +Mr. Oldeschole began to set his house in order, hopelessly; for +any such effort the time was gone by. It was too late for the +office to be so done by, and too late for Mr. Oldeschole to do +it. He had no aptitude for new styles and modern improvements; he +could not understand Sir Gregory's code of rules, and was +dumbfounded by the Civil Service requisitions that were made upon +him from time to time. Then came frequent calls for him to attend +at Sir Gregory's office. There a new broom had been brought in, +in the place of our poor friend Alaric, a broom which seemed +determined to sweep all before it with an unmitigable energy. Mr. +Oldeschole found that he could not stand at all before this young +Hercules, seeing that his special stall was considered to be the +foulest in the whole range of the Augean stables. He soon saw +that the river was to be turned in on him, and that he was to be +officially obliterated in the flood. + +The civility of those wonder-doing demigods--those Magi of the +Civil Service office--was most oppressive to him. When he got to +the board, he was always treated with a deference which he knew +was but a prelude to barbaric tortures. They would ask him to sit +down in a beautiful new leathern arm-chair, as though he were +really some great man, and then examine him as they would a +candidate for the Custom House, smiling always, but looking at +him as though they were determined to see through him. + +They asked him all manner of questions; but there was one +question which they put to him, day after day, for four days, +that nearly drove him mad. It was always put by that horrid young +lynx-eyed new commissioner, who sat there with his hair brushed +high from off his forehead, peering out of his capacious, +excellently-washed shirt-collars, a personification of conscious +official zeal. + +'And now, Mr. Oldeschole, if you have had leisure to consider the +question more fully, perhaps you can define to us what is the-- +hum--hm--the use--hm--hm--the exact use of the Internal +Navigation Office?' + +And then Sir Warwick would go on looking through his millstone as +though now he really had a hope of seeing something, and Sir +Gregory would lean back in his chair, and rubbing his hands +slowly over each other, like a great Akinetos as he was, wait +leisurely for Mr. Oldeschole's answer, or rather for his no +answer. + +What a question was this to ask of a man who had spent all his +life in the Internal Navigation Office! O reader! should it +chance that thou art a clergyman, imagine what it would be to +thee, wert thou asked what is the exact use of the Church of +England; and that, too, by some stubborn catechist whom thou wert +bound to answer; or, if a lady, happy in a husband and family, +say, what would be thy feelings if demanded to define the exact +use of matrimony? Use! Is it not all in all to thee? + +Mr. Oldeschole felt a hearty inward conviction that his office +had been of very great use. In the first place, had he not drawn +from it a thousand a year for the last five-and-twenty years? had +it not given maintenance and employment to many worthy men who +might perhaps have found it difficult to obtain maintenance +elsewhere? had it not always been an office, a public office of +note and reputation, with proper work assigned to it? The use of +it--the exact use of it? Mr. Oldeschole at last declared, with +some indignation in his tone, that he had been there for forty +years and knew well that the office was very useful; but that he +would not undertake to define its exact use. 'Thank you, thank +you, Mr. Oldeschole--that will do, I think,' said the very +spruce-looking new gentleman out of his shirt-collars. + +In these days there was a kind of prescience at the Internal +Navigation that something special was going to be done with them. +Mr. Oldeschole said nothing openly; but it may be presumed that +he did whisper somewhat to those of the seniors around him in +whom he most confided. And then, his frequent visits to Whitehall +were spoken of even by the most thoughtless of the navvies, and +the threatenings of the coming storm revealed themselves with +more or less distinctness to every mind. + +At last the thundercloud broke and the bolt fell. Mr. Oldeschole +was informed that the Lords of the Treasury had resolved on +breaking up the establishment and providing for the duties in +another way. As the word duties passed Sir Gregory's lips a +slight smile was seen to hover round the mouth of the new +commissioner. Mr. Oldeschole would, he was informed, receive an +official notification to this effect on the following morning; +and on the following morning accordingly a dispatch arrived, of +great length, containing the resolution of my Lords, and putting +an absolute extinguisher on the life of every navvy. + +How Mr. Oldeschole, with tears streaming down his cheeks, +communicated the tidings to the elder brethren; and how the elder +brethren, with palpitating hearts and quivering voices, repeated +the tale to the listening juniors, I cannot now describe. The +boldest spirits were then cowed, the loudest miscreants were then +silenced, there were but few gibes, but little jeering at the +Internal Navigation on that day; though Charley, who had already +other hopes, contrived to keep up his spirits. The men stood +about talking in clusters, and old animosities were at an end. +The lamb sat down with the wolf, and Mr. Snape and Dick +Scatterall became quite confidential. + +'I knew it was going to happen,' said Mr. Snape to him. 'Indeed, +Mr. Oldeschole has been consulting us about it for some time; but +I must own I did not think it would be so sudden; I must own +that.' + +'If you knew it was coming,' said Corkscrew, 'why didn't you tell +a chap?' + +'I was not at liberty,' said Mr. Snape, looking very wise. + +'We shall all have liberty enough now,' said Scatterall; 'I +wonder what they'll do with us; eh, Charley?' + +'I believe they will send the worst of us to Spike Island or +Dartmoor prison,' said Charley; 'but Mr. Snape, no doubt, has +heard and can tell us.' + +'Oh, come, Charley! It don't do to chaff now,' said a young +navvy, who was especially down in the mouth. 'I wonder will they +do anything for a fellow?' + +'I heard my uncle, in Parliament Street, say, that when a chap +has got any _infested_ interest in a thing, they can't turn +him out,' said Corkscrew; 'and my uncle is a parliamentary +agent.' + +'Can't they though!' said Scatterall. 'It seems to me that they +mean to, at any rate; there wasn't a word about pensions or +anything of that sort, was there, Mr. Snape?' + +'Not a word,' said Snape. 'But those who are entitled to pensions +can't be affected injuriously. As far as I can see they must give +me my whole salary. I don't think they can do less.' + +'You're all serene then, Mr. Snape,' said Charley; 'you're in the +right box. Looking at matters in that light, Mr. Snape, I think +you ought to stand something handsome in the shape of lunch. +Come, what do you say to chops and stout all round? Dick will go +over and order it in a minute.' + +'I wish you wouldn't, Charley,' said the navvy who seemed to be +most affected, and who, in his present humour, could not endure a +joke, As Mr. Snape did not seem to accede to Charley's views, the +liberal proposition fell to the ground. + +'Care killed a cat,' said Scatterall. 'I shan't break my heart +about it. I never liked the shop--did you, Charley?' + +'Well, I must say I think we have been very comfortable here, +under Mr. Snape,' said Charley. But if Mr. Snape is to go, why +the office certainly would be deuced dull without him.' + +'Charley!' said the broken-hearted young navvy, in a tone of +reproach. + +Sorrow, however, did not take away their appetite, and as Mr. +Snape did not see fitting occasion for providing a banquet, they +clubbed together, and among them managed to get a spread of +beefsteaks and porter. Scatterall, as requested, went across the +Strand to order it at the cookshop, while Corkscrew and Charley +prepared the tables. 'And now mind it's the thing,' said Dick, +who, with intimate familiarity, had penetrated into the eating- +house kitchen; 'not dry, you know, or too much done; and lots of +fat.' + +And then, as the generous viands renewed their strength, and as +the potent stout warmed their blood, happier ideas came to them, +and they began to hope that the world was not all over. 'Well, I +shall try for the Customs,' said the unhappy one, after a deep +pull at the pewter. 'I shall try for the Customs; one does get +such stunning feeds for tenpence at that place in Thames Street.' +Poor youth! his ideas of earning his bread did not in their +wildest flight spread beyond the public offices of the Civil +Service. + +For a few days longer they hung about the old office, doing +nothing--how could men so circumstanced do anything?--and +waiting for their fate. At last their fate was announced. Mr. +Oldeschole retired with his full salary. Secretaries and such- +like always retire with full pay, as it is necessary that dignity +should be supported. Mr. Snape and the other seniors were +pensioned, with a careful respect to their years of service; with +which arrangement they all of them expressed themselves highly +indignant, and loudly threatened to bring the cruelty of their +treatment before Parliament, by the aid of sundry members, who +were supposed to be on the look out for such work; but as nothing +further was ever heard of them, it may be presumed that the +members in question did not regard the case as one on which the +Government of the day was sufficiently vulnerable to make it +worth their while to trouble themselves. Of the younger clerks, +two or three, including the unhappy one, were drafted into other +offices; some others received one or more years' pay, and then +tore themselves away from the fascinations of London life; among +those was Mr. R. Scatterall, who, in after years, will doubtless +become a lawgiver in Hong-Kong; for to that colony has he betaken +himself. Some few others, more unfortunate than the rest, among +whom poor Screwy was the most conspicuous, were treated with a +more absolute rigour, and were sent upon the world portionless. +Screwy had been constant in his devotion to pork chops, and had +persisted in spelling blue without the final 'e.' He was +therefore, declared unworthy of any further public confidence +whatever. He is now in his uncle's office in Parliament Street; +and it is to be hoped that his peculiar talents may there be +found useful. + +And so the Internal Navigation Office came to an end, and the +dull, dingy rooms were vacant. Ruthless men shovelled off as +waste paper all the lock entries of which Charley had once been +so proud; and the ponderous ledgers, which Mr. Snape had +delighted to haul about, were sent away into Cimmerian darkness, +and probably to utter destruction. And then the Internal +Navigation was no more. + +Among those who were drafted into other offices was Charley, whom +propitious fate took to the Weights and Measures. But it must not +be imagined that chance took him there. The Weights and Measures +was an Elysium, the door of which was never casually open. + +Charley at this time was a much-altered man; not that he had +become a good clerk at his old office--such a change one may say +was impossible; there were no good clerks at the Internal +Navigation, and Charley had so long been among navvies the most +knavish or navviest, that any such transformation would have met +with no credence--but out of his office he had become a much- +altered man. As Katie had said, it was as though some one had +come to him from the dead. He could not go back to his old +haunts, he could not return like a dog to his vomit, as long as +he had that purse so near his heart, as long as that voice +sounded in his ear, while the memory of that kiss lingered in his +heart. + +He now told everything to Gertrude, all his debts, all his love, +and all his despair. There is no relief for sorrow like the +sympathy of a friend, if one can only find it. But then the +sympathy must be real; mock sympathy always tells the truth +against itself, always fails to deceive. He told everything to +Gertrude, and by her counsel he told much to Norman. He could not +speak to him, true friend as he was, of Katie and her love. There +was that about the subject which made it too sacred for man's +ears, too full of tenderness to be spoken of without feminine +tears. It was only in the little parlour at Paradise Row, when +the evening had grown dark, and Gertrude was sitting with her +baby in her arms, that the boisterous young navvy could bring +himself to speak of his love. + +During these months Katie's health had greatly improved, and as +she herself had gained in strength, she had gradually begun to +think that it was yet possible for her to live. Little was now +said by her about Charley, and not much was said of him in her +hearing; but still she did learn how he had changed his office, +and with his office his mode of life; she did hear of his +literary efforts, and of his kindness to Gertrude, and it would +seem as though it were ordained that his moral life and her +physical life were to gain strength together. + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +MR. NOGO'S LAST QUESTION + + +But at this time Charley was not idle. The fate of 'Crinoline and +Macassar' has not yet been told; nor has that of the two rival +chieftains, the 'Baron of Ballyporeen and Sir Anthony Allan-a- +dale.' These heartrending tales appeared in due course, bit by +bit, in the pages of the _Daily Delight_. On every morning +of the week, Sundays excepted, a page and a half of Charley's +narrative was given to the expectant public; and though I am not +prepared to say that the public received the offering with any +violent acclamations of applause, that his name became suddenly +that of a great unknown, that literary cliques talked about him +to the exclusion of other topics, or that he rose famous one +morning as Byron did after the publication of the 'Corsair,' +nevertheless something was said in his praise. The _Daily +Delight_, on the whole, was rather belittled by its grander +brethren of the press; but a word or two was said here and there +to exempt Charley's fictions from the general pooh-poohing with +which the remainder of the publication was treated. + +Success, such as this even, is dear to the mind of a young +author, and Charley began to feel that he had done something. The +editor was proportionably civil to him, and he was encouraged to +commence a third historiette. + +'We have polished off poison and petticoats pretty well,' said +the editor; 'what do you say to something political?' + +Charley had no objection in life. + +'This Divorce Bill, now--we could have half a dozen married +couples all separating, getting rid of their ribs and buckling +again, helter-skelter, every man to somebody else's wife; and the +parish parson refusing to do the work; just to show the +immorality of the thing.' + +Charley said he'd think about it. + +'Or the Danubian Principalities and the French Alliance--could +you manage now to lay your scene in Constantinople?' + +Charley doubted whether he could. + +'Or perhaps India is the thing? The Cawnpore massacre would work +up into any lengths you pleased. You could get a file of the +_Times_, you know, for your facts.' + +But while the editor was giving these various valuable hints as +to the author's future subjects, the author himself, with base +mind, was thinking how much he should be paid for his past +labours. At last he ventured, in the mildest manner, to allude to +the subject. + +'Payment!' said the editor. + +Charley said that he had understood that there was to be some +fixed scale of pay; so much per sheet, or something of that sort. + +'Undoubtedly there will,' said the editor; 'and those who will +have the courage and perseverance to work through with us, till +the publication has obtained that wide popularity which it is +sure to achieve, will doubtless be paid,--be paid as no writers +for any periodical in this metropolis have ever yet been paid. +But at present, Mr. Tudor, you really must be aware that it is +quite out of the question.' + +Charley had not the courage and perseverance to work through with +the _Daily Delight_ till it had achieved its promised popularity, +and consequently left its ranks like a dastard. He consulted both +Gertrude and Norman on the subject, and on their advice set +himself to work on his own bottom. 'You may perhaps manage to +fly alone,' said Gertrude; 'but you will find it very difficult to fly if +you tie the whole weight of the _Daily Delight_ under your wings.' +So Charley prepared himself for solitary soaring. + +While he was thus working, the time arrived at which Norman was +to leave his office, and it occurred to him that it might be +possible that he should bequeath his vacancy to Charley. He went +himself to Sir Gregory, and explained, not only his own +circumstances, and his former friendship with Alaric Tudor, but +also the relationship between Alaric and Charley. He then learnt, +in the strictest confidence of course, that the doom of the +Internal Navigation had just been settled, and that it would be +necessary to place in other offices those young men who could in +any way be regarded as worth their salt, and, after considerable +manoeuvring, had it so arranged that the ne'er-do-well young +navvy should recommence his official life under better auspices. + +Nor did Charley come in at the bottom of his office, but was +allowed, by some inscrutable order of the great men who arranged +those things, to take a position in the Weights and Measures +equal in seniority and standing to that which he had held at the +Navigation, and much higher, of course, in pay. There is an old +saying, which the unenlightened credit, and which declares that +that which is sauce for the goose is sauce also for the gander. +Nothing put into a proverb since the days of Solomon was ever +more untrue. That which is sauce for the goose is not sauce for +the gander, and especially is not so in official life. Poor +Screwy was the goose, and certainly got the sauce best suited to +him when he was turned adrift out of the Civil Service. Charley +was the gander, and fond as I am of him for his many excellent +qualities, I am fain to own that justice might fairly have +demanded that he should be cooked after the same receipt. But it +suited certain potent personages to make a swan of him; and +therefore, though it had long been an assured fact through the +whole service that no man was ever known to enter the Weights and +Measures without the strictest examination, though the character +of aspirants for that high office was always subjected to a rigid +scrutiny, though knowledge, accomplishments, industry, morality, +outward decency, inward zeal, and all the cardinal virtues were +absolutely requisite, still Charley was admitted, without any +examination or scrutiny whatever, during the commotion consequent +upon the earthquake above described. + +Charley went to the Weights some time during the recess. In the +process of the next session Mr. Nogo gave notice that he meant to +ask the Government a question as to a gross act of injustice +which had been perpetrated--so at least the matter had been +represented to him--on the suppression of the Internal Navigation +Office. + +Mr. Nogo did not at first find it very easy to get a fitting +opportunity for asking his question. He had to give notice, and +inquiries had to be made, and the responsible people were away, +and various customary accidents happened, so that it was late in +June before the question was put. Mr. Nogo, however, persevered +ruthlessly, and after six months' labour, did deliver himself of +an indignant, and, as his friends declared to him, a very telling +speech. + +It was reported at the time by the opposition newspapers, and +need not therefore be given here. But the upshot was this: two +men bearing equal character--Mr. Nogo would not say whether the +characters of the gentlemen were good or bad; he would only say +equal characters--sat in the same room at this now defunct +office; one was Mr. Corkscrew and the other Mr. Tudor. One had no +friends in the Civil Service, but the other was more fortunate. +Mr. Corkscrew had been sent upon the world a ruined, blighted +man, without any compensation, without any regard for his +interests, without any consideration for his past services or +future prospects. They would be told that the Government had no +further need of his labours, and that they could not dare to +saddle the country with a pension for so young a man. But what +had been done in the case of the other gentleman? Why, he had +been put into a valuable situation, in the best Government office +in London, had been placed over the heads of a dozen others, who +had been there before him, &c., &c., &c. And then Mr. Nogo ended +with so vehement an attack on Sir Gregory, and the Government as +connected with him, that the dogs began to whet their teeth and +prepare for a tug at the great badger. + +But circumstances were mischancy with Mr. Nogo, and all he said +redounded only to the credit of our friend Charley. His black +undoubtedly was black; the merits of Charley and Mr. Corkscrew, +as public servants, had been about equal; but Mr. Whip Vigil +turned the black into white in three minutes. + +As he got upon his legs, smiling after the manner of his great +exemplar, he held in his hand a small note and a newspaper. 'A +comparison,' he said, 'had been instituted between the merits of +two gentlemen formerly in the employment of the Crown, one of +them had been selected for further employment, and the other +rejected. The honourable member for Mile End had, he regretted to +say, instituted this comparison. They all knew what was the +proverbial character of a comparison. It was, however, ready made +to his hands, and there was nothing left for him, Mr. Whip Vigil, +but to go on with it. This, however, he would do in as light a +manner as possible. It had been thought that the one gentleman +would not suit the public service, and that the other would do +so. It was for him merely to defend this opinion. He now held in +his hand a letter written by the protege of the honourable member +for Limehouse; he would not read it--' (cries of 'Read, read!') +'no, he would not read it, but the honourable member might if he +would--and could. He himself was prepared to say that a gentleman +who chose to express himself in such a style in his private +notes--this note, however, was not private in the usual sense-- +could hardly be expected to command a proper supply of wholesome +English, such as the service of the Crown demanded!' Then Mr. +Vigil handed across to Mr. Nogo poor Screwy's unfortunate letter +about the pork chops. 'As to the other gentleman, whose name was +now respectably known in the lighter walks of literature, he +would, if permitted, read the opinion expressed as to his style +of language by a literary publication of the day; and then the +House would see whether or no the produce of the Civil Service +field had not been properly winnowed; whether the wheat had not +been garnered, and the chaff neglected.' And then the right +honourable gentleman read some half-dozen lines, highly +eulogistic of Charley's first solitary flight. + +Poor Mr. Nogo remained in silence, feeling that his black had +become white to all intents and purposes; and the big badger sat +by and grinned, not deigning to notice the dogs around him. Thus +it may be seen that that which is sauce for the goose is not +sauce for the gander. + +Early in the spring Norman was married; and then, as had been +before arranged, Charley once more went to Surbiton Cottage. The +marriage was a very quiet affair. The feeling of disgrace which +had fallen upon them all since the days of Alaric's trial had by +no means worn itself away. There were none of them yet--no, not +one of the Cottage circle, from Uncle Bat down to the parlour- +maid--who felt that they had a right to hold up their faces +before the light of day as they had formerly done. There was a +cloud over their house, visible perhaps with more or less +distinctness to all eyes, but which to themselves appeared black +as night. That evil which Alaric had done to them was not to be +undone in a few moons. We are all of us responsible for our +friends, fathers-in-law for their sons-in-law, brothers for their +sisters, husbands for their wives, parents for their children, +and children even for their parents. We cannot wipe off from us, +as with a wet cloth, the stains left by the fault of those who +are near to us. The ink-spot will cling. Oh! Alaric, Alaric, that +thou, thou who knewest all this, that thou shouldest have done +this thing! They had forgiven his offence against them, but they +could not forget their own involuntary participation in his +disgrace. It was not for them now to shine forth to the world +with fine gala doings, and gay gaudy colours, as they had done +when Gertrude had been married. + +But still there was happiness--quiet, staid happiness--at the +Cottage. Mrs. Woodward could not but be happy to see Linda +married to Harry Norman, her own favourite, him whom she had +selected in her heart for her son-in-law from out of all the +world. And now, too, she was beginning to be conscious that Harry +and Linda were better suited for each other than he and Gertrude +would have been. What would have been Linda's fate, how +unendurable, had she been Alaric's wife, when Alaric fell? How +would she have borne such a fall? What could she have done, poor +lamb, towards mending the broken thread or binding the bruised +limbs? What balm could she have poured into such wounds as those +which fate had inflicted on Gertrude and her household? But at +Normansgrove, with a steady old housekeeper at her back, and her +husband always by to give her courage, Linda would find the very +place for which she was suited. + +And then Mrs. Woodward had another source of joy, of liveliest +joy, in Katie's mending looks. She was at the wedding, though +hardly with her mother's approval. + +As she got better her old spirit returned to her, and it became +difficult to refuse her anything. It was in vain that her mother +talked of the cold church, and easterly winds, and the necessary +lightness of a bridesmaid's attire. Katie argued that the church +was only two hundred yards off, that she never suffered from the +cold, and that though dressed in light colours, as became a +bridesmaid, she would, if allowed to go, wear over her white +frock any amount of cloaks which her mother chose to impose on +her. Of course she went, and we will not say how beautiful she +looked, when she clung to Linda in the vestry-room, and all her +mother's wrappings fell in disorder from her shoulders. + +So Linda was married and carried off to Normansgrove, and Katie +remained with her mother and Uncle Bat. + +'Mamma, we will never part--will we, mamma?' said she, as they +comforted each other that evening after the Normans were gone, +and when Charley also had returned to London. + +'When you go, Katie, I think you must take me with you,' said her +mother, smiling through her tears. 'But what will poor Uncle Bat +do? I fear you can't take him also.' + +'I will never go from you, mamma.' + +Her mother knew what she meant. Charley had been there, Charley +to whom she had declared her love when lying, as she thought, on +her bed of death--Charley had been there again, and had stood +close to her, and touched her hand, and looked--oh, how much +handsomer he was than Harry, how much brighter than Alaric!--he +had touched her hand, and spoken to her one word of joy at her +recovered health. But that had been all. There was a sort of +compact, Katie knew, that there should be no other Tudor +marriage. Charley was not now the scamp he had been, but still-- +it was understood that her love was not to win its object. + +'I will never go from you, mamma.' + +But Mrs. Woodward's heart was not hard as the nether millstone. +She drew her daughter to her, and as she pressed her to her +bosom, she whispered into her ears that she now hoped they might +all be happy. + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +CONCLUSION + + +Our tale and toils have now drawn nigh to an end; our loves and +our sorrows are over; and we are soon to part company with the +three clerks and their three wives. Their three wives? Why, yes. +It need hardly be told in so many words to an habitual novel- +reader that Charley did get his bride at last. + +Nevertheless, Katie kept her promise to Mrs. Woodward. What +promise did she ever make and not keep? She kept her promise, and +did not go from her mother. She married Mr. Charles Tudor, of the +Weights and Measures, that distinguished master of modern +fiction, as the _Literary Censor_ very civilly called him +the other day; and Mr. Charles Tudor became master of Surbiton +Cottage. + +Reader! take one last leap with me, and presume that two years +have flown from us since the end of the last chapter; or rather +somewhat more than two years, for we would have it high midsummer +when we take our last farewell of Surbiton Cottage. + +But sundry changes had taken place at the Cottage, and of such a +nature, that were it not for the old name's sake, we should now +find ourselves bound to call the place Surbiton Villa, or +Surbiton Hall, or Surbiton House. It certainly had no longer any +right to the title of a cottage; for Charley, in anticipation of +what Lucina might do for him, had added on sundry rooms, a +children's room on the ground floor, and a nursery above, and a +couple of additional bedrooms on the other side, so that the +house was now a comfortable abode for an increasing family. + +At the time of which we are now speaking Lucina had not as yet +done much; for, in truth, Charley had been married but little +over twelve months; but there appeared every reason to believe +that the goddess would be propitious. There was already one +little rocking shrine, up in that cosy temple opening out of +Katie's bedroom--we beg her pardon, we should have said Mrs. +Charles Tudor's bedroom--one precious tabernacle in which was +laid a little man-deity, a young Charley, to whom was daily paid +a multitude of very sincere devotions. + +How precious are all the belongings of a first baby; how dear are +the cradle, the lace-caps, the first coral, all the little duds +which are made with such punctilious care and anxious efforts of +nicest needlework to encircle that small lump of pink humanity! +What care is taken that all shall be in order! See that basket +lined with crimson silk, prepared to hold his various garments, +while the mother, jealous of her nurse, insists on tying every +string with her own fingers. And then how soon the change comes; +how different it is when there are ten of them, and the tenth is +allowed to inherit the well-worn wealth which the ninth, a year +ago, had received from the eighth. There is no crimson silk +basket then, I trow. + +'Jane, Jane, where are my boots?' 'Mary, I've lost my trousers!' +Such sounds are heard, shouted through the house from powerful +lungs. + +'Why, Charley,' says the mother, as her eldest hope rushes in to +breakfast with dishevelled hair and dirty hands, 'you've got no +handkerchief on your neck--what have you done with your +handkerchief?' + +'No, mamma; it came off in the hay-loft, and I can't find it.' + +'Papa,' says the lady wife, turning to her lord, who is reading +his newspaper over his coffee--'papa, you really must speak to +Charley; he will not mind me. He was dressed quite nicely an hour +ago, and do see what a figure he has made himself.' + +'Charley,' says papa, not quite relishing this disturbance in the +midst of a very interesting badger-baiting--'Charley, my boy, if +you don't mind your P's and Q's, you and I shall fall out; mind +that;' and he again goes on with his sport; and mamma goes on +with her teapot, looking not exactly like Patience on a monument. + +Such are the joys which await you, Mr. Charles Tudor; but not to +such have you as yet arrived. As yet there is but the one little +pink deity in the rocking shrine above; but one, at least, of +your own. At the moment of which we are now speaking there were +visitors at Surbiton Cottage, and the new nursery was brought +into full use. Mr. and Mrs. Norman of Normansgrove were there +with their two children and two maids, and grandmamma Woodward +had her hands quite full in the family nursery line. + +It was a beautiful summer evening, and the two young mothers were +sitting with Mrs. Woodward and Uncle Bat in the drawing-room, +waiting for their lords' return from London. As usual, when they +stayed late, the two men were to dine at their club and come down +to tea. The nursemaids were walking on the lawn before the window +with their charges, and the three ladies were busily employed +with some fairly-written manuscript pages, which they were +cutting carefully into shape, and arranging in particular form. + +'Now, mamma,' said Katie, 'if you laugh once while you are +reading it, you'll spoil it all.' + +'I'll do the best I can, my dear, but I'm sure I shall break +down; you have made it so very abusive,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Mamma, I think I'll take out that about official priggism-- +hadn't I better, Linda?' + +'Indeed, I think you had; I'm sure mamma would break down there,' +said Linda. 'Mamma, I'm sure you would never get over the +official priggism.' + +'I don't think I should, my dear,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'What is it you are all concocting?' said Captain Cuttwater; +'some infernal mischief, I know, craving your pardons.' + +'If you tell, Uncle Bat, I'll never forgive you,' said Katie. + +'Oh, you may trust me; I never spoil sport, if I can't make any; +but the fun ought to be very good, for you've been a mortal long +time about it.' + +And then the two younger ladies again went on clipping and +arranging their papers, while Mrs. Woodward renewed her protest +that she would do her best as to reading their production. While +they were thus employed the postman's knock was heard, and a +letter was brought in from the far-away Australian exiles. The +period at which these monthly missives arrived were moments of +intense anxiety, and the letter was seized upon with eager +avidity. It was from Gertrude to her mother, as all these letters +were; but in such a production they had a joint property, and it +was hardly possible to say who first mastered its contents. + +It will only be necessary here to give some extracts from the +letter, which was by no means a short one. So much must be done +in order that our readers may know something of the fate of those +who perhaps may be called the hero and heroine of the tale. The +author does not so call them; he professes to do his work without +any such appendages to his story--heroism there may be, and he +hopes there is--more or less of it there should be in a true +picture of most characters; but heroes and heroines, as so +called, are not commonly met with in our daily walks of life. + +Before Gertrude's letter had been disposed of, Norman and Charley +came in, and it was therefore discussed in full conclave. +Alaric's path in the land of his banishment had not been over +roses. The upward struggle of men, who have fallen from a high +place once gained, that second mounting of the ladder of life, +seldom is an easy path. He, and with him Gertrude and his +children, had been called on to pay the full price of his +backsliding. His history had gone with him to the Antipodes; and, +though the knowledge of what he had done was not there so +absolute a clog upon his efforts, so overpowering a burden, as it +would have been in London, still it was a burden and a heavy one. + +It had been well for Gertrude that she had prepared herself to +give up all her luxuries by her six months' residence in that +Millbank Paradise of luxuries: for some time she had little +enough in the 'good and happy land,' to which she had taught +herself and her children to look forward. That land of promise +had not flowed with milk and honey when first she put her foot +upon its soil; its produce for her had been gall and bitter herbs +for many a weary month after she first landed. But her heart had +never sunk within her. She had never forgotten that he, if he +were to work well, should have at least one cheerful companion by +his side. She had been true to him, then as ever. And yet it is +so hard to be true to high principles in little things. The +heroism of the Roman, who, for his country's sake, leapt his +horse into a bottomless gulf, was as nothing to that of a woman +who can keep her temper through poverty, and be cheerful in +adversity. + +Through poverty, scorn, and bad repute, under the privations of a +hard life, separated from so many that she had loved, and from +everything that she had liked, Gertrude had still been true to +her ideas of her marriage vow; true, also, to her pure and single +love. She had entwined herself with him in sunny weather; and +when the storm came she did her best to shelter the battered stem +to which she had trusted herself. + +By degrees things mended with them; and in this letter, which is +now passing from eager hand to hand in Katie's drawing-room, +Gertrude spoke with better hope of their future prospects. + +'Thank God, we are once more all well,' she said; 'and Alaric's +spirits are higher than they were. He has, indeed, had much to +try them. They think, I believe, in England, that any kind of +work here is sure to command a high price; of this I am quite +sure, that in no employment in England are people so tasked as +they are here. Alaric was four months in these men's counting- +house, and I am sure another four months would have seen him in +his grave. Though I knew not then what other provision might be +made for us, I implored him, almost on my knees, to give up that. +He was expected to be there for ten, sometimes twelve, hours a +day; and they thought he should always be kept going like a +steam-engine. You know Alaric never was afraid of work; but that +would have killed him. And what was it for? What did they give +him for that--for all his talent, all his experience, all his +skill? And he did give them all. His salary was two pounds ten a +week! And then, when he told them of all he was doing for them, +they had the baseness to remind him of----. Dearest mother, is +not the world hard? It was that that made me insist that he +should leave them.' + +Alaric's present path was by no means over roses. This certainly +was a change from those days on which he had sat, one of a mighty +trio, at the Civil Service Examination Board, striking terror +into candidates by a scratch of his pen, and making happy the +desponding heart by his approving nod. His ambition now was not +to sit among the magnates of Great Britain, and make his voice +thunder through the columns of the _Times_; it ranged somewhat +lower at this period, and was confined for the present to a strong +desire to see his wife and bairns sufficiently fed, and not left +absolutely without clothing. He inquired little as to the feeling of +the electors of Strathbogy. + +And had he utterly forgotten the stirring motto of his early +days? Did he ever mutter 'Excelsior' to himself, as, with weary +steps, he dragged himself home from that hated counting-house? +Ah! he had fatally mistaken the meaning of the word which he had +so often used. There had been the error of his life. 'Excelsior!' +When he took such a watchword for his use, he should surely have +taught himself the meaning of it. + +He had now learnt that lesson in a school somewhat of the +sternest; but, as time wore kindly over him, he did teach himself +to accept the lesson with humility. His spirit had been wellnigh +broken as he was carried from that court-house in the Old Bailey +to his prison on the river-side; and a broken spirit, like a +broken goblet, can never again become whole. But Nature was a +kind mother to him, and did not permit him to be wholly crushed. +She still left within the plant the germ of life, which enabled +it again to spring up and vivify, though sorely bruised by the +heels of those who had ridden over it. He still repeated to +himself the old watchword, though now in humbler tone and more +bated breath; and it may be presumed that he had now a clearer +meaning of its import. + +'But his present place,' continued Gertrude, 'is much--very much +more suited to him. He is corresponding clerk in the first bank +here, and though his pay is nearly double what it was at the +other place, his hours of work are not so oppressive. He goes at +nine and gets away at five--that is, except on the arrival or +dispatch of the English mails.' Here was a place of bliss for a +man who had been a commissioner, attending at the office at such +hours as best suited himself, and having clerks at his beck to do +all that he listed. And yet, as Gertrude said, this was a place +of bliss to him. It was a heaven as compared with that other +hell. + +'Alley is such a noble boy,' said Gertrude, becoming almost +joyous as she spoke of her own immediate cares. 'He is most like +Katie, I think, of us all; and yet he is very like his papa. He +goes to a day-school now, with his books slung over his back in a +bag. You never saw such a proud little fellow as he is, and so +manly. Charley is just like you--oh! so like. It makes me so +happy that he is. He did not talk so early as Alley, but, +nevertheless, he is more forward than the other children I see +here. The little monkeys! they are neither of them the least like +me. But one can always see oneself, and it don't matter if one +does not.' + +'If ever there was a brick, Gertrude is one,' said Norman. + +'A brick!' said Charley--'why you might cut her to pieces, and +build another Kensington palace out of the slices. I believe she +is a brick.' + +'I wonder whether I shall ever see her again?' said Mrs. +Woodward, not with dry eyes. + +'Oh yes, mamma,' said Katie. 'She shall come home to us some day, +and we will endeavour to reward her for it all.' + +Dear Katie, who will not love you for such endeavour? But, +indeed, the reward for heroism cometh not here. + +There was much more in the letter, but enough has been given for +our purpose. It will be seen that hope yet remained both for +Alaric and his wife; and hope not without a reasonable base. Bad +as he had been, it had not been with him as with Undy Scott. The +devil had not contrived to put his whole claw upon him. He had +not divested himself of human affections and celestial hopes. He +had not reduced himself to the present level of a beast, with the +disadvantages of a soul and of an eternity, as the other man had +done. He had not put himself beyond the pale of true brotherhood +with his fellow-men. We would have hanged Undy had the law +permitted us; but now we will say farewell to the other, hoping +that he may yet achieve exaltation of another kind. + +And to thee, Gertrude--how shall we say farewell to thee, +excluded as thou art from that dear home, where those who love +thee so well are now so happy? Their only care remaining is now +thy absence. Adversity has tried thee in its crucible, and thou +art found to be of virgin gold, unalloyed; hadst thou still been +lapped in prosperity, the true ring of thy sterling metal would +never have been heard. Farewell to thee, and may those young +budding flowerets of thine break forth into golden fruit to +gladden thy heart in coming days! + +The reading of Gertrude's letter, and the consequent discussion, +somewhat put off the execution of the little scheme which had +been devised for that evening's amusement; but, nevertheless, it +was still broad daylight when Mrs. Woodward consigned the +precious document to her desk; the drawing-room windows were +still open, and the bairns were still being fondled in the room. +It was the first week in July, when the night almost loses her +dominion, and when those hours which she generally claims as her +own, become the pleasantest of the day. + +'Oh, Charley,' said Katie, at last, 'we have great news for you, +too. Here is another review on "The World's Last Wonder."' + +Now 'The World's Last Wonder' was Charley's third novel; but he +was still sensitive enough on the subject of reviews to look +with much anxiety for what was said of him. These notices were +habitually sent down to him at Hampton, and his custom was to +make his wife or her mother read them, while he sat by in lordly +ease in his arm-chair, receiving homage when homage came to him, +and criticizing the critics when they were uncivil. + +'Have you?' said Charley. 'What is it? Why did you not show it me +before?' + +'Why, we were talking of dear Gertrude,' said Katie; 'and it is +not so pleasant but that it will keep. What paper do you think it +is?' + +'What paper? how on earth can I tell?--show it me.' + +'No; but do guess, Charley; and then mamma will read it--pray +guess now.' + +'Oh, bother, I can't guess. _The Literary Censor_, I +suppose--I know they have turned against me.' + +'No, it's not that,' said Linda; 'guess again.' + +'_The Guardian Angel_,' said Charley. + +'No--that angel has not taken you under his wings as yet,' said +Katie. + +'I know it's not the _Times_,' said Charley, 'for I have +seen that.' + +'O no,' said Katie, seriously; 'if it was anything of that sort, +we would not keep you in suspense.' + +'Well, I'll be shot if I guess any more--there are such thousands +of them.' + +'But there is only one _Daily Delight_,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Nonsense!' said Charley. 'You don't mean to tell me that my dear +old friend and foster-father has fallen foul of me--my old +teacher and master, if not spiritual pastor; well--well--well! +The ingratitude of the age! I gave him my two beautiful stories, +the first-fruits of my vine, all for love; to think that he +should now lay his treacherous axe to the root of the young tree +--well, give it here.' + +'No--mamma will read it--we want Harry to hear it.' + +'O yes--let Mrs. Woodward read it,' said Harry. 'I trust it is +severe. I know no man who wants a dragging over the coals more +peremptorily than you do.' + +'Thankee, sir. Well, grandmamma, go on; but if there be anything +very bad, give me a little notice, for I am nervous.' + +And then Mrs. Woodward began to read, Linda sitting with Katie's +baby in her arms, and Katie performing a similar office for her +sister. + +"'The World's Last Wonder,' by Charles Tudor, Esq." + +'He begins with a lie,' said Charley, 'for I never called myself +Esquire.' + +'Oh, that was a mistake,' said Katie, forgetting herself. + +'Men of that kind shouldn't make such mistakes,' said Charley. +'When one fellow attempts to cut up another fellow, he ought to +take special care that he does it fairly.' + +"By the author of 'Bathos.'" + +'I didn't put that in,' said Charley, 'that was the publisher. I +only put Charles Tudor.' + +'Don't be so touchy, Charley, and let me go on,' said Mrs. +Woodward. + +'Well, fire away--it's good fun to you, I dare say, as the fly +said to the spider.' + +'Well, Charley, at any rate we are not the spiders,' said Linda. +Katie said nothing, but she could not help feeling that she must +look rather spiderish. + +'Mr. Tudor has acquired some little reputation as a humorist, but +as is so often the case with those who make us laugh, his very +success will prove his ruin.' + +'Then upon my word the _Daily Delight_ is safe,' said +Charley. 'It will never be ruined in that way.' + +'There is an elaborate jocosity about him, a determined eternity +of most industrious fun, which gives us the idea of a boy who is +being rewarded for having duly learnt by rote his daily lesson +out of Joe Miller.' + +'Now, I'll bet ten to one he has never read the book at all-- +well, never mind--go on.' + +"'The World's Last Wonder' is the description of a woman who kept +a secret under certain temptations to reveal it, which, as Mr. +Tudor supposes, might have moved any daughter of Eve to break her +faith." + +'I haven't supposed anything of the kind,' said Charley. + +'This secret, which we shall not disclose, as we would not wish +to be thought less trustworthy than Mr. Tudor's wonderful woman--' + +'We shall find that he does disclose it, of course; that is the +way with all of them.' + +--'Is presumed to permeate the whole three volumes.' + +'It is told at full length in the middle of the second,' said +Charley. + +'And the effect upon the reader of course is, that he has ceased +to interest himself about it, long before it is disclosed to him! + +'The lady in question is engaged to be married to a gentleman, a +circumstance which in the pages of a novel is not calculated to +attract much special attention. She is engaged to be married, but +the gentleman who has the honour of being her intended sposo----' + +'Intended sposo!' said Charley, expressing by his upturned lip a +withering amount of scorn--'how well I know the fellow's low +attempts at wit! That's the editor himself--that's my literary +papa. I know him as well as though I had seen him at it.' + +Katie and Mrs. Woodward exchanged furtive glances, but neither of +them moved a muscle of her face. + +'But the gentleman who has the honour of being her intended +sposo,' continued Mrs. Woodward. + +'What the devil's a sposo?' said Uncle Bat, who was sitting in an +arm-chair with a handkerchief over his head. + +'Why, you're not a sposo, Uncle Bat,' said Linda; 'but Harry is, +and so is Charley.' + +'Oh, I see,' said the captain; 'it's a bird with his wings +clipped.' + +'But the gentleman who has the honour of being her intended +sposo----' again read Mrs. Woodward. + +'Now I'm sure I'm speaking by the card,' said Charley, 'when I +say that there is not another man in London who could have +written that line, and who would have used so detestable a word. +I think I remember his using it in one of his lectures to me; +indeed I'm sure I do. Sposo! I should like to tweak his nose oh!' + +'Are you going to let me go on?' said Mrs. Woodward--'her +intended sposo'--Charley gave a kick with his foot and satisfied +himself with that--'is determined to have nothing to say to her +in the matrimonial line till she has revealed to him this secret +which he thinks concerns his own honour.' + +'There, I knew he'd tell it.' + +'He has not told it yet,' said Norman. + +'The lady, however, is obdurate, wonderfully so, of course, +seeing that she is the world's last wonder, and so the match is +broken off. But the secret is of such a nature that the lady's +invincible objection to revealing it is bound up with the fact of +her being a promised bride.' + +'I wonder he didn't say sposa,' said Charley. + +'I never thought of that,' said Katie. + +Mrs. Woodward and Linda looked at her, but Charley did not, and +her blunder passed by unnoticed. + +'Now that she is free from her matrimonial bonds, she is free +also to tell the secret; and indeed the welfare both of the +gentleman and of the lady imperiously demands that it should be +told. Should he marry her, he is destined to learn it after his +marriage; should he not marry her, he may hear it at any time. +She sends for him and tells him, not the first of these facts, by +doing which all difficulty would have at once been put an end to--' + +'It is quite clear he has never read the story, quite clear,' +said Charley. + +'She tells him only the last, viz., that as they are now +strangers he may know the secret; but that when once known it +will raise a barrier between them that no years, no penance, no +sorrow on his part, no tenderness on hers, can ever break down. +She then asks him--will he hear the secret?' + +'She does not ask any such thing,' said Charley; 'the letter that +contains it has been already sent to him. She merely gives him an +opportunity of returning it unopened.' + +'The gentleman, who is not without a grain of obstinacy in his +own composition and many grains of curiosity, declares it to be +impossible that he can go to the altar in ignorance of facts +which he is bound to know, and the lady, who seems to be of an +affectionate disposition, falls in tenderness at his feet. She is +indeed in a very winning mood, and quite inclined to use every +means allowable to a lady for retaining her lover; every means +that is short of that specially feminine one of telling her +secret. + +'We will give an extract from this love scene, partly for the +sake of its grotesque absurdity--' + +Charley kicked out another foot, as though he thought that the +editor of the _Daily Delight_ might perhaps be within reach. + +'--And partly because it gives a fair example of the manner in +which Mr. Tudor endeavours to be droll even in the midst of his +most tender passages. + +'Leonora was at this time seated--' + +'Oh, skip the extract,' said Charley; 'I suppose there are three +or four pages of it?' + +'It goes down to where Leonora says that his fate and her own are +in his hands.' + +'Yes, about three columns,' said Charley; 'that's an easy way of +making an article--eh, Harry?' + +'_Aliter non fit, amice, liber_,' said the classical Norman. + +'Well, skip the extract, grandmamma.' + +'Now, did anyone ever before read such a mixture of the bombastic +and the burlesque? We are called upon to cry over every joke, +and, for the life of us, we cannot hold our sides when the +catastrophes occur. It is a salad in which the pungency of the +vinegar has been wholly subdued by the oil, and the fatness of +the oil destroyed by the tartness of the vinegar.' + +'His old simile,' said Charley; 'he was always talking about +literary salads.' + +'The gentleman, of course, gives way at the last minute,' +continued Mrs. Woodward. 'The scene in which he sits with the +unopened letter lying on his table before him has some merit; but +this probably arises from the fact that the letter is dumb, and +the gentleman equally so.' + +'D--nation!' said Charley, whose patience could not stand such +impudence at this. + +'The gentleman, who, as we should have before said, is the eldest +son of a man of large reputed fortune----' + +'There--I knew he'd tell it.' + +'Oh, but he hasn't told it,' said Norman. + +'Doesn't the word 'reputed' tell it?' + +'--The eldest son of a man of large reputed fortune, does at last +marry the heroine; and then he discovers--But what he discovers, +those who feel any interest in the matter may learn from the book +itself; we must profess that we felt none. + +'We will not say there is nothing in the work indicative of +talent. The hero's valet, Jacob Brush, and the heroine's lady's- +maid, Jacintha Pintail, are both humorous and good in their way. +Why it should be so, we do not pretend to say; but it certainly +does appear to us that Mr. Tudor is more at home in the servants' +hall than in the lady's boudoir.' + +'Abominable scoundrel!' said Charley. + +'But what we must chiefly notice,' continued the article, 'in the +furtherance of those views by which we profess that we are +governed--' + +'Now, I know, we are to have something very grandiloquent and +very false,' said Charley. + +'--Is this: that no moral purpose can be served by the volumes +before us. The hero acts wrongly throughout, but nevertheless he +is rewarded at last. There is no Nemesis--' + +'No what?' said Charley, jumping up from his chair and looking +over the table. + +'No Nemesis,' said Mrs. Woodward, speaking with only half- +sustained voice, and covering with her arms the document which +she had been reading. + +Charley looked sharply at his wife, then at Linda, then at Mrs. +Woodward. Not one of them could keep her face. He made a snatch +at the patched-up manuscript, and as he did so, Katie almost +threw out of her arms the baby she was holding. + +'Take him, Harry, take him,' said she, handing over the child to +his father. And then gliding quick as thought through the +furniture of the drawing-room, she darted out upon the lawn, to +save herself from the coming storm. + +Charley was quickly after her; but as he made his exit, one chair +fell to the right of him, and another to the left. Mrs. Woodward +followed them, and so did Harry and Linda, each with a baby. + +And then Captain Cuttwater, waking from his placid nap, rubbed +his eyes in wondering amazement. + +'What the devil is all the row about?' said he. But there was +nobody to answer him. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Clerks, by Anthony Trollope + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE CLERKS *** + +This file should be named 7tclr10.txt or 7tclr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7tclr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7tclr10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks, Delphine Lettau, Mark Sherwood +and the people at Distributed Proofreading + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Three Clerks + +Author: Anthony Trollope + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7481] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE CLERKS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Delphine Lettau, Mark Sherwood +and the people at Distributed Proofreading + + + + +THE THREE CLERKS + +BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE + + + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY W. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE + + + +ANTHONY TROLLOPE + +Born London, April 24, 1815 +Died London, December 6, 1882 + + + +INTRODUCTION + +There is the proper mood and the just environment for the reading +as well as for the writing of works of fiction, and there can be +no better place for the enjoying of a novel by Anthony Trollope +than under a tree in Kensington Gardens of a summer day. Under a +tree in the avenue that reaches down from the Round Pond to the +Long Water. There, perhaps more than anywhere else, lingers the +early Victorian atmosphere. As we sit beneath our tree, we see in +the distance the dun, red-brick walls of Kensington Palace, where +one night Princess Victoria was awakened to hear that she was +Queen; there in quaint, hideously ugly Victorian rooms are to be +seen Victorian dolls and other playthings; the whole environment +is early Victorian. Here to the mind's eye how easy it is to +conjure up ghosts of men in baggy trousers and long flowing +whiskers, of prim women in crinolines, in hats with long trailing +feathers and with ridiculous little parasols, or with Grecian- +bends and chignons--church-parading to and fro beneath the trees +or by the water's edge--perchance, even the fascinating Lady +Crinoline and the elegant Mr. Macassar Jones, whose history has +been written by Clerk Charley in the pages we are introducing to +the 'gentle reader'. As a poetaster of an earlier date has +written:-- + + Where Kensington high o'er the neighbouring lands + 'Midst green and sweets, a royal fabric, stands, + And sees each spring, luxuriant in her bowers, + A snow of blossoms, and a wild of flowers, + The dames of Britain oft in crowds repair + To gravel walks, and unpolluted air. + Here, while the town in damps and darkness lies, + They breathe in sunshine, and see azure skies; + Each walk, with robes of various dyes bespread, + Seems from afar a moving tulip bed, + Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow, + And chintz, the rival of the showery bow. + +Indeed, the historian of social manners, when dealing with the +Victorian period, will perforce have recourse to the early +volumes of Punch and to the novels of Thackeray, Dickens, and +Trollope. + +There are certain authors of whom personally we know little, but +of whose works we cannot ever know enough, such a one for example +as Shakespeare; others of whose lives we know much, but for whose +works we can have but scant affection: such is Doctor Johnson; +others who are intimate friends in all their aspects, as +Goldsmith and Charles Lamb; yet others, who do not quite come +home to our bosoms, whose writings we cannot entirely approve, +but for whom and for whose works we find a soft place somewhere +in our hearts, and such a one is Anthony Trollope. His novels are +not for every-day reading, any more than are those of Marryat and +Borrow--to take two curious examples. There are times and moods +and places in which it would be quite impossible to read _The +Three Clerks_; others in which this story is almost wholly +delightful. With those who are fond of bed-reading Trollope +should ever be a favourite, and it is no small compliment to say +this, for small is the noble army of authors who have given us +books which can enchant in the witching hour between waking and +slumber. It is probable that all lovers of letters have their +favourite bed-books. Thackeray has charmingly told us of his. Of +the few novels that can really be enjoyed when the reader is +settling down for slumber almost all have been set forth by +writers who--consciously or unconsciously--have placed character +before plot; Thackeray himself, Miss Austen, Borrow, Marryat, +Sterne, Dickens, Goldsmith and--Trollope. + +Books are very human in their way, as what else should they be, +children of men and women as they are? Just as with human friends +so with book friends, first impressions are often misleading; +good literary coin sometimes seems to ring untrue, but the +untruth is in the ear of the reader, not of the writer. For +instance, Trollope has many odd and irritating tricks which are +apt to scare off those who lack perseverance and who fail to +understand that there must be something admirable in that which +was once much admired by the judicious. He shares with Thackeray +the sinful habit of pulling up his readers with a wrench by +reminding them that what is set before them is after all mere +fiction and that the characters in whose fates they are becoming +interested are only marionettes. With Dickens and others he +shares the custom, so irritating to us of to-day, of ticketing +his personages with clumsy, descriptive labels, such as, in +_The Three Clerks_, Mr. Chaffanbrass, Sir Gregory Hardlines, +Sir Warwick West End, Mr. Neverbend, Mr. Whip Vigil, Mr. Nogo and +Mr. Gitemthruet. He must plead guilty, also, to some bad ways +peculiarly his own, or which he made so by the thoroughness with +which he indulged in them. He moralizes in his own person in +deplorable manner: is not this terrible:--'Poor Katie!--dear, +darling, bonnie Katie!--sweet, sweetest, dearest child! why, oh, +why, has that mother of thine, that tender-hearted loving mother, +put thee unguarded in the way of such perils as this? Has she not +sworn to herself that over thee at least she would watch as a hen +over her young, so that no unfortunate love should quench thy +young spirit, or blanch thy cheek's bloom?' Is this not +sufficient to make the gentlest reader swear to himself? + +Fortunately this and some other appalling passages occur after +the story is in full swing and after the three Clerks and those +with whom they come into contact have proved themselves +thoroughly interesting companions. Despite all his old-fashioned +tricks Trollope does undoubtedly succeed in giving blood and life +to most of his characters; they are not as a rule people of any +great eccentricity or of profound emotions; but ordinary, every- +day folk, such as all of us have met, and loved or endured. +Trollope fills very adequately a space between Thackeray and +Dickens, of whom the former deals for the most part with the +upper 'ten', the latter with the lower 'ten'; Trollope with the +suburban and country-town 'ten'; the three together giving us a +very complete and detailed picture of the lives led by our +grandmothers and grandfathers, whose hearts were in the same +place as our own, but whose manners of speech, of behaviour and +of dress have now entered into the vague region known as the +'days of yore'. + +_The Three Clerks_ is an excellent example of Trollope's +handiwork. The development of the plot is sufficiently skilful to +maintain the reader's interest, and the major part of the +characters is lifelike, always well observed and sometimes +depicted with singular skill and insight. Trollope himself liked +the work well:-- + +'The plot is not so good as that of _The Macdermots_; nor +are any characters in the book equal to those of Mrs. Proudie and +the Warden; but the work has a more continued interest, and +contains the first well-described love-scene that I ever wrote. +The passage in which Kate Woodward, thinking she will die, tries +to take leave of the lad she loves, still brings tears to my eyes +when I read it. I had not the heart to kill her. I never could do +that. And I do not doubt that they are living happily together to +this day. + +'The lawyer Chaffanbrass made his first appearance in this novel, +and I do not think that I have cause to be ashamed of him. But +this novel now is chiefly noticeable to me from the fact that in +it I introduced a character under the name of Sir Gregory +Hardlines, by which I intended to lean very heavily on that much +loathed scheme of competitive examination, of which at that time +Sir Charles Trevelyan was the great apostle. Sir Gregory +Hardlines was intended for Sir Charles Trevelyan--as any one at +the time would know who had taken an interest in the Civil +Service. 'We always call him Sir Gregory,' Lady Trevelyan said to +me afterwards when I came to know her husband. I never learned to +love competitive examination; but I became, and am, very fond of +Sir Charles Trevelyan. Sir Stafford Northcote, who is now +Chancellor of the Exchequer, was then leagued with his friend Sir +Charles, and he too appears in _The Three Clerks_ under the +feebly facetious name of Sir Warwick West End. But for all that +_The Three Clerks_ was a good novel.' + +Which excerpt from Trollope's _Autobiography_ serves to +throw light not only upon the novel in question, but also upon +the character of its author. + +Trollope served honestly and efficiently for many a long year in +the Post Office, achieving his entrance through a farce of an +examination:-- + +'The story of that examination', he says, 'is given accurately in +the opening chapters of a novel written by me, called _The +Three Clerks_. If any reader of this memoir would refer to +that chapter and see how Charley Tudor was supposed to have been +admitted into the Internal Navigation Office, that reader will +learn how Anthony Trollope was actually admitted into the +Secretary's office of the General Post Office in 1834.' + +Poe's description of the manner in which he wrote _The +Raven_ is incredible, being probably one of his solemn and +sombre jokes; equally incredible is Trollope's confession of his +humdrum, mechanical methods of work. Doubtless he believed he was +telling the whole truth, but only here and there in his +_Autobiography_ does he permit to peep out touches of light, +which complete the portrait of himself. It is impossible that for +the reader any character in fiction should live which has not +been alive to its creator; so is it with Trollope, who, speaking +of his characters, says, + +'I have wandered alone among the rooks and woods, crying at their +grief, laughing at their absurdities, and thoroughly enjoying +their joy. I have been impregnated with my own creations till it +has been my only excitement to sit with the pen in my hand, and +drive my team before me at as quick a pace as I could make them +travel.' + +There is a plain matter-of-factness about Trollope's narratives +which is convincing, making it difficult for the reader to call +himself back to fact and to remember that he has been wandering +in a world of fiction. In _The Three Clerks_, the young men +who give the tale its title are all well drawn. To accomplish +this in the cases of Alaric and Charley Tudor was easy enough for +a skilled writer, but to breathe life into Harry Norman was +difficult. At first he appears to be a lay-figure, a priggish +dummy of an immaculate hero, a failure in portraiture; but toward +the end of the book it is borne in on us that our dislike had +been aroused by the lifelike nature of the painting, dislike +toward a real man, priggish indeed in many ways, but with a very +human strain of obstinacy and obdurateness, which few writers +would have permitted to have entered into the make-up of any of +their heroes. Of the other men, Undy Scott may be named as among +the very best pieces of portraiture in Victorian fiction; touch +after touch of detail is added to the picture with really +admirable skill, and Undy lives in the reader's memory as vividly +as he must have existed in the imagination of his creator. There +are some strong and curious passages in Chapter XLIV, in which +the novelist contrasts the lives and fates of Varney, Bill Sykes +and Undy Scott; they stir the blood, proving uncontestibly that +Undy Scott was as real to Trollope as he is to us: 'The figure of +Undy swinging from a gibbet at the broad end of Lombard Street +would have an effect. Ah, my fingers itch to be at the rope.' + +Trollope possessed the rare and beautiful gift of painting the +hearts and souls of young girls, and of this power he has given +an admirable example in Katie Woodward. It would be foolish and +cruel to attempt to epitomize, or rather to draw in miniature, +this portrait that Trollope has drawn at full length; were it not +for any other end, those that are fond of all that is graceful +and charming in young womanhood should read _The Three Clerks_, +so becoming the friend, nay, the lover of Katie. Her sisters are not +so attractive, simply because nature did not make them so; a very +fine, faithful woman, Gertrude; a dear thing, Linda. All three worthy +of their mother, she who, as we are told in a delicious phrase, +'though adverse to a fool' 'could sympathize with folly '. + +These eight portraits are grouped in the foreground of this +'conversation' piece, the background being filled with slighter +but always live figures. + +Particularly striking, as being somewhat unusual with Trollope, +is the depiction of the public-house, 'The Pig and Whistle', in +Norfolk Street, the landlady, Mrs. Davis, and the barmaid, Norah +Geraghty. We can almost smell the gin, the effluvia of stale +beer, the bad tobacco, hear the simpers and see the sidlings of +Norah, feel sick with and at Charley:--he 'got up and took her +hand; and as he did so, he saw that her nails were dirty. He put +his arms round her waist and kissed her; and as he caressed her, +his olfactory nerves perceived that the pomatum in her hair was +none of the best ... and then he felt very sick'. But, oh, why +'olfactory nerves'? Was it vulgar in early Victorian days to call +a nose a nose? + +How far different would have been Dickens's treatment of such +characters and such a scene; out of Mrs. Davis and Norah he would +have extracted fun, and it would never have entered into his mind +to have brought such a man as Charley into contact with them in a +manner that must hurt that young hero's susceptibilities. +Thackeray would have followed a third way, judging by his +treatment of the Fotheringay and Captain Costigan, partly +humorous, partly satirical, partly serious. + +Trollope was not endowed with any spark of wit, his satire tends +towards the obvious, and his humour is mild, almost unconscious, +as if he could depict for us what of the humorous came under his +observation without himself seeing the fun in it. Where he sets +forth with intent to be humorous he sometimes attains almost to +the tragic; there are few things so sad as a joke that misses +fire or a jester without sense of humour. + +Of the genius of a writer of fiction there is scarce any other +test so sure as this of the reality of his characters. Few are +the authors that have created for us figures of fiction that are +more alive to us than the historic shadows of the past, whose +dead bones historians do not seem to be able to clothe with flesh +and blood. Trollope hovers on the border line between genius and +great talent, or rather it would be more fair to say that with +regard to him opinions may justly differ. For our own part we +hold that his was not talent streaked with genius, but rather a +jog-trot genius alloyed with mediocrity. He lacked the supreme +unconsciousness of supreme genius, for of genius as of talent +there are degrees. There are characters in _The Three Clerks_ +that live; those who have read the tale must now and again when +passing Norfolk Street, Strand, regret that it would be waste of +time to turn down that rebuilt thoroughfare in search of 'The Pig +and Whistle', which was 'one of these small tranquil shrines of +Bacchus in which the god is worshipped with as constant a +devotion, though with less noisy demonstration of zeal than in +his larger and more public temples'. Alas; lovers of Victorian London +must lament that such shrines grow fewer day by day; the great +thoroughfares know them no more; they hide nervously in old-world +corners, and in them you will meet old-world characters, who not +seldom seem to have lost themselves on their way to the pages +of Charles Dickens. + +Despite the advent of electric tramways, Hampton would still be +recognized by the three clerks, 'the little village of Hampton, +with its old-fashioned country inn, and its bright, quiet, grassy +river.' Hampton is now as it then was, the 'well-loved resort of +cockneydom'. + +So let us alight from the tramcar at Hampton, and look about on +the outskirts of the village for 'a small old-fashioned brick +house, abutting on the road, but looking from its front windows +on to a lawn and garden, which stretched down to the river'. +Surbiton Cottage it is called. Let us peep in at that merry, +happy family party; and laugh at Captain Cuttwater, waking from +his placid sleep, rubbing his eyes in wonderment, and asking, +'What the devil is all the row about?' But it is only with our +mind's eye that we can see Surbiton Cottage--a cottage in the air +it is, but more substantial to some of us than many a real jerry- +built villa of red brick and stucco. + +Old-fashioned seem to us the folk who once dwelt there, old- +fashioned in all save that their hearts were true and their +outlook on life sane and clean; they live still, though their +clothes be of a quaint fashion and their talk be of yesterday. + +Who knows but that they will live long after we who love them +shall be dead and turned to dust? + +W. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE. + + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES +II. THE INTERNAL NAVIGATION +III. THE WOODWARDS +IV. CAPTAIN CUTTWATER +V. BUSHEY PARK +VI. SIR GREGORY HARDLINES +VII. MR. FIDUS NEVERBEND +VIII. THE HON. UNDECIMUS SCOTT +IX. MR. MANYLODES +X. WHEAL MARY JANE +XI. THE THREE KINGS +XII. CONSOLATION +XIII. A COMMUNICATION OF IMPORTANCE +XIV. VERY SAD +XV. NORMAN RETURNS TO TOWN +XVI. THE FIRST WEDDING +XVII. THE HONOURABLE MRS. VAL AND MISS GOLIGHTLY +XVIII. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--MORNING +XIX. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--AFTERNOON +XX. A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--EVENING +XXI. HAMPTON COURT BRIDGE +XXII. CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR; OR, MY AUNT'S WILL +XXIII. SURBITON COLLOQUIES +XXIV. MR. M'BUFFER ACCEPTS THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS +XXV. CHISWICK GARDENS +XXVI. KATIE'S FIRST BALL +XXVII. EXCELSIOR +XXVIII. OUTERMAN _v_. TUDOR +XXIX. EASY IS THE SLOPE OF HELL +XXX. MRS. WOODWARD'S REQUEST +XXXI. HOW APOLLO SAVED THE NAVVY +XXXII. THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE +XXXIII. TO STAND, OR NOT TO STAND +XXXIV. WESTMINSTER HALL +XXXV. MRS. VAL'S NEW CARRIAGE +XXXVI. TICKLISH STOCK +XXXVII. TRIBULATION +XXXVIII. ALARIC TUDOR TAKES A WALK +XXXIX. THE LAST BREAKFAST +XL. MR. CHAFFANBRASS +XLI. THE OLD BAILEY +XLII. A PARTING INTERVIEW +XLIII. MILLBANK +XLIV. THE CRIMINAL POPULATION IS DISPOSED OF +XLV. THE FATE OF THE NAVVIES +XLVI. MR. NOGO'S LAST QUESTION +XLVII. CONCLUSION + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES + + +All the English world knows, or knows of, that branch of the +Civil Service which is popularly called the Weights and Measures. +Every inhabitant of London, and every casual visitor there, has +admired the handsome edifice which generally goes by that name, +and which stands so conspicuously confronting the Treasury +Chambers. It must be owned that we have but a slip-slop way of +christening our public buildings. When a man tells us that he +called on a friend at the Horse Guards, or looked in at the Navy +Pay, or dropped a ticket at the Woods and Forests, we put up with +the accustomed sounds, though they are in themselves, perhaps, +indefensible. The 'Board of Commissioners for Regulating Weights +and Measures', and the 'Office of the Board of Commissioners for +Regulating Weights and Measures', are very long phrases; and as, +in the course of this tale, frequent mention will be made of the +public establishment in question, the reader's comfort will be +best consulted by maintaining its popular though improper +denomination. + +It is generally admitted that the Weights and Measures is a well- +conducted public office; indeed, to such a degree of efficiency +has it been brought by its present very excellent secretary, the +two very worthy assistant-secretaries, and especially by its late +most respectable chief clerk, that it may be said to stand quite +alone as a high model for all other public offices whatever. It +is exactly antipodistic of the Circumlocution Office, and as such +is always referred to in the House of Commons by the gentleman +representing the Government when any attack on the Civil Service, +generally, is being made. + +And when it is remembered how great are the interests entrusted +to the care of this board, and of these secretaries and of that +chief clerk, it must be admitted that nothing short of superlative +excellence ought to suffice the nation. All material intercourse +between man and man must be regulated, either justly or +unjustly, by weights and measures; and as we of all people +depend most on such material intercourse, our weights and +measures should to us be a source of never-ending concern. And +then that question of the decimal coinage! is it not in these +days of paramount importance? Are we not disgraced by the twelve +pennies in our shilling, by the four farthings in our penny? One +of the worthy assistant-secretaries, the worthier probably of the +two, has already grown pale beneath the weight of this question. +But he has sworn within himself, with all the heroism of a +Nelson, that he will either do or die. He will destroy the +shilling or the shilling shall destroy him. In his more ardent +moods he thinks that he hears the noise of battle booming round +him, and talks to his wife of Westminster Abbey or a peerage. +Then what statistical work of the present age has shown half the +erudition contained in that essay lately published by the +secretary on _The Market Price of Coined Metals_? What other +living man could have compiled that chronological table which is +appended to it, showing the comparative value of the metallic +currency for the last three hundred years? Compile it indeed! +What other secretary or assistant-secretary belonging to any +public office of the present day, could even read it and live? It +completely silenced Mr. Muntz for a session, and even _The +Times_ was afraid to review it. + +Such a state of official excellence has not, however, been +obtained without its drawbacks, at any rate in the eyes of the +unambitious tyros and unfledged novitiates of the establishment. +It is a very fine thing to be pointed out by envying fathers as a +promising clerk in the Weights and Measures, and to receive civil +speeches from mammas with marriageable daughters. But a clerk in +the Weights and Measures is soon made to understand that it is +not for him to-- + + Sport with Amaryllis in the shade. + +It behoves him that his life should be grave and his pursuits +laborious, if he intends to live up to the tone of those around +him. And as, sitting there at his early desk, his eyes already +dim with figures, he sees a jaunty dandy saunter round the +opposite corner to the Council Office at eleven o'clock, he +cannot but yearn after the pleasures of idleness. + + Were it not better done, as others use? + +he says or sighs. But then comes Phoebus in the guise of the +chief clerk, and touches his trembling ears-- + + As he pronounces lastly on each deed, + Of so much fame, in Downing Street--expect the meed. + +And so the high tone of the office is maintained. + +Such is the character of the Weights and Measures at this present +period of which we are now treating. The exoteric crowd of the +Civil Service, that is, the great body of clerks attached to +other offices, regard their brethren of the Weights as prigs and +pedants, and look on them much as a master's favourite is apt to +be regarded by other boys at school. But this judgement is an +unfair one. Prigs and pedants, and hypocrites too, there are +among them, no doubt--but there are also among them many stirred +by an honourable ambition to do well for their country and +themselves, and to two such men the reader is now requested to +permit himself to be introduced. + +Henry Norman, the senior of the two, is the second son of a +gentleman of small property in the north of England. He was +educated at a public school, and thence sent to Oxford; but +before he had finished his first year at Brasenose his father was +obliged to withdraw him from it, finding himself unable to bear +the expense of a university education for his two sons. His elder +son at Cambridge was extravagant; and as, at the critical moment +when decision became necessary, a nomination in the Weights and +Measures was placed at his disposal, old Mr. Norman committed the +not uncommon injustice of preferring the interests of his elder +but faulty son to those of the younger with whom no fault had +been found, and deprived his child of the chance of combining the +glories and happiness of a double first, a fellow, a college +tutor, and a don. + +Whether Harry Norman gained or lost most by the change we need +not now consider, but at the age of nineteen he left Oxford and +entered on his new duties. It must not, however, be supposed that +this was a step which he took without difficulty and without +pause. It is true that the grand modern scheme for competitive +examinations had not as yet been composed. Had this been done, +and had it been carried out, how awful must have been the +cramming necessary to get a lad into the Weights and Measures! +But, even as things were then, it was no easy matter for a young +man to convince the chief clerk that he had all the acquirements +necessary for the high position to which he aspired. + +Indeed, that chief clerk was insatiable, and generally succeeded +in making every candidate conceive the very lowest opinion of +himself and his own capacities before the examination was over. +Some, of course, were sent away at once with ignominy, as +evidently incapable. Many retired in the middle of it with a +conviction that they must seek their fortunes at the bar, or in +medical pursuits, or some other comparatively easy walk of life. +Others were rejected on the fifth or sixth day as being deficient +in conic sections, or ignorant of the exact principles of +hydraulic pressure. And even those who were retained were so +retained, as it were, by an act of grace. The Weights and +Measures was, and indeed is, like heaven--no man can deserve it. +No candidate can claim as his right to be admitted to the +fruition of the appointment which has been given to him. Henry +Norman, however, was found, at the close of his examination, to +be the least undeserving of the young men then under notice, and +was duly installed in his clerkship. + +It need hardly be explained, that to secure so high a level of +information as that required at the Weights and Measures, a scale +of salaries equally exalted has been found necessary. Young men +consequently enter at £100 a year. We are speaking, of course, of +that more respectable branch of the establishment called the +Secretary's Department. At none other of our public offices do +men commence with more than £90--except, of course, at those in +which political confidence is required. Political confidence is +indeed as expensive as hydraulic pressure, though generally found +to be less difficult of attainment. + +Henry Norman, therefore, entered on his labours under good +auspices, having £10 per annum more for the business and +pleasures of life in London than most of his young brethren of +the Civil Service. Whether this would have sufficed of itself to +enable him to live up to that tone of society to which he had +been accustomed cannot now be surmised, as very shortly after his +appointment an aunt died, from whom he inherited some £150 or +£200 a year. He was, therefore, placed above all want, and soon +became a shining light even in that bright gallery of spiritualized +stars which formed the corps of clerks in the Secretary's Office +at the Weights and Measures. + +Young Norman was a good-looking lad when he entered the public +service, and in a few years he grew up to be a handsome man. He +was tall and thin and dark, muscular in his proportions, and +athletic in his habits. From the date of his first enjoyment of +his aunt's legacy he had a wherry on the Thames, and was soon +known as a man whom it was hard for an amateur to beat. He had a +racket in a racket-court at St. John's Wood Road, and as soon as +fortune and merit increased his salary by another £100 a year, he +usually had a nag for the season. This, however, was not attained +till he was able to count five years' service in the Weights and +Measures. He was, as a boy, somewhat shy and reserved in his +manners, and as he became older he did not shake off the fault. +He showed it, however, rather among men than with women, and, +indeed, in spite of his love of exercise, he preferred the +society of ladies to any of the bachelor gaieties of his +unmarried acquaintance. He was, nevertheless, frank and confident +in those he trusted, and true in his friendships, though, +considering his age, too slow in making a friend. Such was Henry +Norman at the time at which our tale begins. What were the faults +in his character it must be the business of the tale to show. + +The other young clerk in this office to whom we alluded is Alaric +Tudor. He is a year older than Henry Norman, though he began his +official career a year later, and therefore at the age of twenty- +one. How it happened that he contrived to pass the scrutinizing +instinct and deep powers of examination possessed by the chief +clerk, was a great wonder to his friends, though apparently none +at all to himself. He took the whole proceeding very easily; +while another youth alongside of him, who for a year had been +reading up for his promised nomination, was so awe-struck by the +severity of the proceedings as to lose his powers of memory and +forget the very essence of the differential calculus. + +Of hydraulic pressure and the differential calculus young Tudor +knew nothing, and pretended to know nothing. He told the chief +clerk that he was utterly ignorant of all such matters, that his +only acquirements were a tolerably correct knowledge of English, +French, and German, with a smattering of Latin and Greek, and +such an intimacy with the ordinary rules of arithmetic and with +the first books of Euclid, as he had been able to pick up while +acting as a tutor, rather than a scholar, in a small German +university. + +The chief clerk raised his eyebrows and said he feared it would +not do. A clerk, however, was wanting. It was very clear that the +young gentleman who had only showed that he had forgotten his +conic sections could not be supposed to have passed. The +austerity of the last few years had deterred more young men from +coming forward than the extra £10 had induced to do so. One +unfortunate, on the failure of all his hopes, had thrown himself +into the Thames from the neighbouring boat-stairs; and though he +had been hooked out uninjured by the man who always attends there +with two wooden legs, the effect on his parents' minds had been +distressing. Shortly after this occurrence the chief clerk had +been invited to attend the Board, and the Chairman of the +Commissioners, who, on the occasion, was of course prompted by +the Secretary, recommended Mr. Hardlines to be a _leetle_ +more lenient. In doing so the quantity of butter which he poured +over Mr. Hardlines' head and shoulders with the view of +alleviating the misery which such a communication would be sure +to inflict, was very great. But, nevertheless, Mr. Hardlines came +out from the Board a crestfallen and unhappy man. 'The service,' +he said, 'would go to the dogs, and might do for anything he +cared, and he did not mind how soon. If the Board chose to make +the Weights and Measures a hospital for idiots, it might do so. +He had done what little lay in his power to make the office +respectable; and now, because mammas complained when their cubs +of sons were not allowed to come in there and rob the public and +destroy the office books, he was to be thwarted and reprimanded! +He had been,' he said, 'eight-and-twenty years in office, and was +still in his prime--but he should,' he thought, 'take advantage +of the advice of his medical friends, and retire. He would never +remain there to see the Weights and Measures become a hospital +for incurables!' + +It was thus that Mr. Hardlines, the chief clerk, expressed +himself. He did not, however, send in a medical certificate, nor +apply for a pension; and the first apparent effect of the little +lecture which he had received from the Chairman, was the +admission into the service of Alaric Tudor. Mr. Hardlines was +soon forced to admit that the appointment was not a bad one, as +before his second year was over, young Tudor had produced a very +smart paper on the merits--or demerits--of the strike bushel. + +Alaric Tudor when he entered the office was by no means so +handsome a youth as Harry Norman; but yet there was that in his +face which was more expressive, and perhaps more attractive. He +was a much slighter man, though equally tall. He could boast no +adventitious capillary graces, whereas young Norman had a pair of +black curling whiskers, which almost surrounded his face, and had +been the delight and wonder of the maidservants in his mother's +house, when he returned home for his first official holiday. +Tudor wore no whiskers, and his light-brown hair was usually cut +so short as to give him something of the appearance of a clean +Puritan. But in manners he was no Puritan; nor yet in his mode of +life. He was fond of society, and at an early period of his age +strove hard to shine in it. He was ambitious; and lived with the +steady aim of making the most of such advantages as fate and +fortune had put in his way. Tudor was perhaps not superior to +Norman in point of intellect; but he was infinitely his superior +in having early acquired a knowledge how best to use such +intellect as he had. + +His education had been very miscellaneous, and disturbed by many +causes, but yet not ineffective or deficient. His father had been +an officer in a cavalry regiment, with a fair fortune, which he +had nearly squandered in early life. He had taken Alaric when +little more than an infant, and a daughter, his only other child, +to reside in Brussels. Mrs. Tudor was then dead, and the +remainder of the household had consisted of a French governess, a +_bonne_, and a man-cook. Here Alaric remained till he had +perfectly acquired the French pronunciation, and very nearly as +perfectly forgotten the English. He was then sent to a private +school in England, where he remained till he was sixteen, +returning home to Brussels but once during those years, when he +was invited to be present at his sister's marriage with a Belgian +banker. At the age of sixteen he lost his father, who, on dying, +did not leave behind him enough of the world's wealth to pay for +his own burial. His half-pay of course died with him, and young +Tudor was literally destitute. + +His brother-in-law, the banker, paid for his half-year's +schooling in England, and then removed him to a German academy, +at which it was bargained that he should teach English without +remuneration, and learn German without expense. Whether he taught +much English may be doubtful, but he did learn German thoroughly; +and in that, as in most other transactions of his early life, +certainly got the best of the bargain which had been made for +him. + +At the age of twenty he was taken to the Brussels bank as a +clerk; but here he soon gave visible signs of disliking the +drudgery which was exacted from him. Not that he disliked +banking. He would gladly have been a partner with ever so small a +share, and would have trusted to himself to increase his stake. +But there is a limit to the good nature of brothers-in-law, even +in Belgium; and Alaric was quite aware that no such good luck as +this could befall him, at any rate until he had gone through many +years of servile labour. His sister also, though sisterly enough +in her disposition to him, did not quite like having a brother +employed as a clerk in her husband's office. They therefore put +their heads together, and, as the Tudors had good family +connexions in England, a nomination in the Weights and Measures +was procured. + +The nomination was procured; but when it was ascertained how very +short a way this went towards the attainment of the desired +object, and how much more difficult it was to obtain Mr. +Hardlines' approval than the Board's favour, young Tudor's +friends despaired, and recommended him to abandon the idea, as, +should he throw himself into the Thames, he might perhaps fall +beyond the reach of the waterman's hook. Alaric himself, however, +had no such fears. He could not bring himself to conceive that he +could fail in being fit for a clerkship in a public office, and +the result of his examination proved at any rate that he had been +right to try. + +The close of his first year's life in London found him living in +lodgings with Henry Norman. At that time Norman's income was +nearly three times as good as his own. To say that Tudor selected +his companion because of his income would be to ascribe unjustly +to him vile motives and a mean instinct. He had not done so. The +two young men had been thrown, together by circumstances. They +worked at the same desk, liked each other's society, and each +being alone in the world, thereby not unnaturally came together. +But it may probably be said that had Norman been as poor as +Tudor, Tudor might probably have shrunk from rowing in the same +boat with him. + +As it was they lived together and were fast allies; not the less +so that they did not agree as to many of their avocations. Tudor, +at his friend's solicitation, had occasionally attempted to pull +an oar from Searle's slip to Battersea bridge. But his failure in +this line was so complete, and he had to encounter so much of +Norman's raillery, which was endurable, and of his instruction, +which was unendurable, that he very soon gave up the pursuit. He +was not more successful with a racket; and keeping a horse was of +course out of the question. + +They had a bond of union in certain common friends whom they much +loved, and with whom they much associated. At least these friends +soon became common to them. The acquaintance originally belonged +to Norman, and he had first cemented his friendship with Tudor by +introducing him at the house of Mrs. Woodward. Since he had done +so, the one young man was there nearly as much as the other. + +Who and what the Woodwards were shall be told in a subsequent +chapter. As they have to play as important a part in the tale +about to be told as our two friends of the Weights and Measures, +it would not be becoming to introduce them at the end of this. + +As regards Alaric Tudor it need only be further said, by way of +preface, of him as of Harry Norman, that the faults of his +character must be made to declare themselves in the course of our +narrative. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE INTERNAL NAVIGATION + + +The London world, visitors as well as residents, are well +acquainted also with Somerset House; and it is moreover tolerably +well known that Somerset House is a nest of public offices, which +are held to be of less fashionable repute than those situated in +the neighbourhood of Downing Street, but are not so decidedly +plebeian as the Custom House, Excise, and Post Office. + +But there is one branch of the Civil Service located in Somerset +House, which has little else to redeem it from the lowest depths +of official vulgarity than the ambiguous respectability of its +material position. This is the office of the Commissioners of +Internal Navigation. The duties to be performed have reference to +the preservation of canal banks, the tolls to be levied at locks, +and disputes with the Admiralty as to points connected with tidal +rivers. The rooms are dull and dark, and saturated with the fog +which rises from the river, and their only ornament is here and +there some dusty model of an improved barge. Bargees not +unfrequently scuffle with hobnailed shoes through the passages, +and go in and out, leaving behind them a smell of tobacco, to +which the denizens of the place are not unaccustomed. + +Indeed, the whole office is apparently infected with a leaven of +bargedom. Not a few of the men are employed from time to time in +the somewhat lethargic work of inspecting the banks and towing- +paths of the canals which intersect the country. This they +generally do seated on a load of hay, or perhaps of bricks, in +one of those long, ugly, shapeless boats, which are to be seen +congregating in the neighbourhood of Brentford. So seated, they +are carried along at the rate of a mile and a half an hour, and +usually while away the time in gentle converse with the man at +the rudder, or in silent abstraction over a pipe. + +But the dullness of such a life as this is fully atoned for by +the excitement of that which follows it in London. The men of the +Internal Navigation are known to be fast, nay, almost furious in +their pace of living; not that they are extravagant in any great +degree, a fault which their scale of salaries very generally +forbids; but they are one and all addicted to Coal Holes and +Cider Cellars; they dive at midnight hours into Shades, and know +all the back parlours of all the public-houses in the neighbourhood +of the Strand. Here they leave messages for one another, and call +the girl at the bar by her Christian name. They are a set of men +endowed with sallow complexions, and they wear loud clothing, +and spend more money in gin-and-water than in gloves. + +The establishment is not unusually denominated the 'Infernal +Navigation', and the gentlemen employed are not altogether +displeased at having it so called. The 'Infernal Navvies', +indeed, rather glory in the name. The navvies of Somerset House +are known all over London, and there are those who believe that +their business has some connexion with the rivers or railroads of +that bourne from whence no traveller returns. Looking, however, +from their office windows into the Thames, one might be tempted +to imagine that the infernal navigation with which they are +connected is not situated so far distant from the place of their +labours. + +The spirit who guards the entrance into this elysium is by no +means so difficult to deal with as Mr. Hardlines. And it was well +that it was so some few years since for young Charley Tudor, a +cousin of our friend Alaric; for Charley Tudor could never have +passed muster at the Weights and Measures. Charles Tudor, the +third of the three clerks alluded to in our title-page, is the +son of a clergyman, who has a moderate living on the Welsh +border, in Shropshire. Had he known to what sort of work he was +sending his son, he might probably have hesitated before he +accepted for him a situation in the Internal Navigation Office. +He was, however, too happy in getting it to make many inquiries +as to its nature. We none of us like to look a gift-horse in the +mouth. Old Mr. Tudor knew that a clerkship in the Civil Service +meant, or should mean, a respectable maintenance for life, and +having many young Tudors to maintain himself, he was only too +glad to find one of them provided for. + +Charley Tudor was some few years younger than his cousin Alaric +when he came up to town, and Alaric had at that time some three +or four years' experience of London life. The examination at the +Internal Navigation was certainly not to be so much dreaded as +that at the Weights and Measures; but still there was an +examination; and Charley, who had not been the most diligent of +schoolboys, approached it with great dread after a preparatory +evening passed with the assistance of his cousin and Mr. Norman. + +Exactly at ten in the morning he walked into the lobby of his +future workshop, and found no one yet there but two aged seedy +messengers. He was shown into a waiting-room, and there he +remained for a couple of hours, during which every clerk in the +establishment came to have a look at him. At last he was ushered +into the Secretary's room. + +'Ah!' said the Secretary, 'your name is Tudor, isn't it?' + +Charley confessed to the fact. + +'Yea,' said the Secretary, 'I have heard about you from Sir +Gilbert de Salop.' Now Sir Gilbert de Salop was the great family +friend of this branch of the Tudors. But Charley, finding that no +remark suggested itself to him at this moment concerning Sir +Gilbert, merely said, 'Yes, sir.' + +'And you wish to serve the Queen?' said the Secretary. + +Charley, not quite knowing whether this was a joke or not, said +that he did. + +'Quite right--it is a very fair ambition,' continued the great +official functionary--'quite right--but, mind you, Mr. Tudor, if +you come to us you must come to work. I hope you like hard work; +you should do so, if you intend to remain with us.' + +Charley said that he thought he did rather like hard work. +Hereupon a senior clerk standing by, though a man not given to +much laughter, smiled slightly, probably in pity at the unceasing +labour to which the youth was about to devote himself. + +'The Internal Navigation requires great steadiness, good natural +abilities, considerable education, and--and--and no end of +application. Come, Mr. Tudor, let us see what you can do.' And so +saying, Mr. Oldeschole, the Secretary, motioned him to sit down +at an office table opposite to himself. + +Charley did as he was bid, and took from the hands of his future +master an old, much-worn quill pen, with which the great man had +been signing minutes. + +'Now,' said the great man, 'just copy the few first sentences of +that leading article--either one will do,' and he pushed over to +him a huge newspaper. + +To tell the truth, Charley did not know what a leading article +was, and so he sat abashed, staring at the paper. + +'Why don't you write?' asked the Secretary. + +'Where shall I begin, sir?' stammered poor Charley, looking +piteously into the examiner's face. + +'God bless my soul! there; either of those leading articles,' and +leaning over the table, the Secretary pointed to a particular +spot. + +Hereupon Charley began his task in a large, ugly, round hand, +neither that of a man nor of a boy, and set himself to copy the +contents of the paper. 'The name of Pacifico stinks in the +nostril of the British public. It is well known to all the world +how sincerely we admire the vers_i_tility of Lord Palmerston's +genius; how cordially we s_i_mpathize with his patriotic energies. +But the admiration which even a Palmerston inspires must have a +bound, and our s_i_mpathy may be called on too far. When we +find ourselves asked to pay--'. By this time Charley had half covered +the half-sheet of foolscap which had been put before him, and +here at the word 'pay' he unfortunately suffered a large blot of ink +to fall on the paper. + +'That won't do, Mr. Tudor, that won't do--come, let us look,' and +stretching over again, the Secretary took up the copy. + +'Oh dear! oh dear! this is very bad; versatility with an 'i!'- +sympathy with an 'i!' sympathize with an 'i!' Why, Mr. Tudor, you +must be very fond of 'i's' down in Shropshire.' + +Charley looked sheepish, but of course said nothing. + +'And I never saw a viler hand in my life. Oh dear, oh dear, I +must send you back to Sir Gilbert. Look here, Snape, this will +never do--never do for the Internal Navigation, will it?' + +Snape, the attendant senior clerk, said, as indeed he could not +help saying, that the writing was very bad. + +'I never saw worse in my life,' said the Secretary. 'And now, Mr. +Tudor, what do you know of arithmetic?' + +Charley said that he thought he knew arithmetic pretty well;--'at +least some of it,' he modestly added. + +'Some of it!' said the Secretary, slightly laughing. 'Well, I'll +tell you what--this won't do at all;' and he took the unfortunate +manuscript between his thumb and forefinger. 'You had better go +home and endeavour to write something a little better than this. +Mind, if it is not very much better it won't do. And look here; +take care that you do it yourself. If you bring me the writing of +any one else, I shall be sure to detect you. I have not any more +time now; as to arithmetic, we'll examine you in 'some of it' to- +morrow.' + +So Charley, with a faint heart, went back to his cousin's +lodgings and waited till the two friends had arrived from the +Weights and Measures. The men there made a point of staying up to +five o'clock, as is the case with all model officials, and it was +therefore late before he could get himself properly set to work. +But when they did arrive, preparations for calligraphy were made +on a great scale; a volume of Gibbon was taken down, new quill +pens, large and small, and steel pens by various makers were +procured; cream-laid paper was provided, and ruled lines were put +beneath it. And when this was done, Charley was especially +cautioned to copy the spelling as well as the wording. + +He worked thus for an hour before dinner, and then for three +hours in the evening, and produced a very legible copy of half a +chapter of the 'Decline and Fall.' + +'I didn't think they examined at all at the Navigation,' said +Norman. + +'Well, I believe it's quite a new thing,' said Alaric Tudor. 'The +schoolmaster must be abroad with a vengeance, if he has got as +far as that.' + +And then they carefully examined Charley's work, crossed his t's, +dotted his i's, saw that his spelling was right, and went to bed. + +Again, punctually at ten o'clock, Charley presented himself at +the Internal Navigation; and again saw the two seedy old +messengers warming themselves at the lobby fire. On this occasion +he was kept three hours in the waiting-room, and some of the +younger clerks ventured to come and speak to him. At length Mr. +Snape appeared, and desired the acolyte to follow him. Charley, +supposing that he was again going to the awful Secretary, did so +with a palpitating heart. But he was led in another direction +into a large room, carrying his manuscript neatly rolled in his +hand. Here Mr. Snape introduced him to five other occupants of +the chamber; he, Mr. Snape himself, having a separate desk there, +being, in official parlance, the head of the room. Charley was +told to take a seat at a desk, and did so, still thinking that +the dread hour of his examination was soon to come. His +examination, however, was begun and over. No one ever asked for +his calligraphic manuscript, and as to his arithmetic, it may be +presumed that his assurance that he knew 'some of it,' was deemed +to be adequate evidence of sufficient capacity. And in this +manner, Charley Tudor became one of the Infernal Navvies. + +He was a gay-hearted, thoughtless, rollicking young lad, when he +came up to town; and it may therefore be imagined that he easily +fell into the peculiar ways and habits of the office. A short +bargee's pilot-coat, and a pipe of tobacco, were soon familiar to +him; and he had not been six months in London before he had his +house-of-call in a cross lane running between Essex Street and +Norfolk Street. 'Mary, my dear, a screw of bird's-eye!' came +quite habitually to his lips; and before his fist year was out, +he had volunteered a song at the Buckingham Shades. + +The assurance made to him on his first visit to the office by Mr. +Secretary Oldeschole, that the Internal Navigation was a place of +herculean labours, had long before this time become matter to him +of delightful ridicule. He had found himself to be one of six +young men, who habitually spent about five hours a day together +in the same room, and whose chief employment was to render the +life of the wretched Mr. Snape as unendurable as possible. There +were copies to be written, and entries to be made, and books to +be indexed. But these things were generally done by some extra +hand, as to the necessity of whose attendance for such purpose +Mr. Snape was forced to certify. But poor Snape knew that he had +no alternative. He rule six unruly young navvies! There was not +one of them who did not well know how to make him tremble in his +shoes. + +Poor Mr. Snape had selected for his own peculiar walk in life a +character for evangelical piety. Whether he was a hypocrite--as +all the navvies averred--or a man sincere as far as one so weak +could accomplish sincerity, it is hardly necessary for us to +inquire. He was not by nature an ill-natured man, but he had +become by education harsh to those below him, and timid and +cringing with those above. In the former category must by no +means be included the six young men who were nominally under his +guidance. They were all but acknowledged by him as his superiors. +Ignorant as they were, they could hardly be more so than he. +Useless as they were, they did as much for the public service as +he did. He sometimes complained of them; but it was only when +their misconduct had been so loud as to make it no longer +possible that he should not do so. + +Mr. Snape being thus by character and predilection a religious +man, and having on various occasions in olden days professed much +horror at having his ears wounded by conversation which was +either immoral or profane, it had of course become the habitual +practice of the navvies to give continual utterance to every +description of ribaldry and blasphemy for his especial edification. +Doubtless it may be concluded from the habits of the men, that +even without such provocation, their talk would have exceeded +the yea, yea, and nay, nay, to which young men should confine +themselves. But they especially concerted schemes of blasphemy +and dialogues of iniquity for Mr. Snape's particular advantage; +and continued daily this disinterested amusement, till at last an +idea got abroad among them that Mr. Snape liked it. Then they +changed their tactics and canted through their noses in the +manner which they imagined to be peculiar to methodist preachers. +So on the whole, Mr. Snape had an uneasy life of it at the Internal +Navigation. + +Into all these malpractices Charley Tudor plunged headlong. And +how should it have been otherwise? How can any youth of nineteen +or twenty do other than consort himself with the daily companions +of his usual avocations? Once and again, in one case among ten +thousand, a lad may be found formed of such stuff, that he +receives neither the good nor the bad impulses of those around +him. But such a one is a _lapsus naturae_. He has been born +without the proper attributes of youth, or at any rate, brought +up so as to have got rid of them. + +Such, a one, at any rate, Charley Tudor was not. He was a little +shocked at first by the language he heard; but that feeling soon +wore off. His kind heart, also, in the first month of his +novitiate, sympathized with the daily miseries of Mr. Snape; but +he also soon learnt to believe that Mr. Snape was a counterfeit, +and after the first half year could torture him with as much +gusto as any of his brethren. Alas! no evil tendency communicates +itself among young men more quickly than cruelty. Those infernal +navvies were very cruel to Mr. Snape. + +And yet young Tudor was a lad of a kindly heart, of a free, +honest, open disposition, deficient in no proportion of mind +necessary to make an estimable man. But he was easily malleable, +and he took at once the full impression of the stamp to which he +was subjected. Had he gone into the Weights and Measures, a +hypothesis which of course presumes a total prostration of the +intellects and energy of Mr. Hardlines, he would have worked +without a groan from ten till five, and have become as good a +model as the best of them. As it was, he can be hardly said to +have worked at all, soon became _facile princeps_ in the list of +habitual idlers, and was usually threatened once a quarter with +dismissal, even from that abode of idleness, in which the very +nature of true work was unknown. + +Some tidings of Charley's doings in London, and non-doings at the +Internal Navigation, of course found their way to the Shropshire +parsonage. His dissipation was not of a very costly kind; but £90 +per annum will hardly suffice to afford an ample allowance of +gin-and-water and bird's-eye tobacco, over and above the other +wants of a man's life. Bills arrived there requiring payment; and +worse than this, letters also came through Sir Gilbert de Salop +from Mr. Oldeschole, the Secretary, saying that young Tudor was +disgracing the office, and lowering the high character of the +Internal Navigation; and that he must be removed, unless he could +be induced to alter his line of life, &c. + +Urgent austere letters came from the father, and fond heart- +rending appeals from the mother. Charley's heart was rent. It +was, at any rate, a sign in him that he was not past hope of +grace, that he never laughed at these monitions, that he never +showed such letters to his companions, never quizzed his +'governor's' lectures, or made merry over the grief of his +mother. But if it be hard for a young man to keep in the right +path when he has not as yet strayed out of it, how much harder is +it to return to it when he has long since lost the track! It was +well for the father to write austere letters, well for the mother +to make tender appeals, but Charley could not rid himself of his +companions, nor of his debts, nor yet even of his habits. He +could not get up in the morning and say that he would at once be +as his cousin Alaric, or as his cousin's friend, Mr. Norman. It +is not by our virtues or our vices that we are judged, even by +those who know us best; but by such credit for virtues or for +vices as we may have acquired. Now young Tudor's credit for +virtue was very slight, and he did not know how to extend it. + +At last papa and mamma Tudor came up to town to make one last +effort to save their son; and also to save, on his behalf, the +valuable official appointment which he held. He had now been +three years in his office, and his salary had risen to £110 per +annum. £110 per annum was worth saving if it could be saved. The +plan adopted by Mrs. Tudor was that of beseeching their cousin +Alaric to take Charley under his especial wing. + +When Charley first arrived in town, the fact of Alaric and Norman +living together had given the former a good excuse for not +offering to share his lodgings with his cousin. Alaric, with the +advantage in age of three or four years--at that period of life +the advantage lies in that direction--with his acquired +experience of London life, and also with all the wondrous éclat +of the Weights and Measures shining round him, had perhaps been a +little too unwilling to take by the hand a rustic cousin who was +about to enter life under the questionable auspices of the +Internal Navigation. He had helped Charley to transcribe the +chapter of Gibbon, and had, it must be owned, lent him from time +to time a few odd pounds in his direst necessities. But their +course in life had hitherto been apart. Of Norman, Charley had +seen less even than of his cousin. + +And now it became a difficult question with Alaric how he was to +answer the direct appeal made to him by Mrs. Tudor;--'Pray, pray +let him live with you, if it be only for a year, Alaric,' the +mother had said, with the tears running down her cheeks. 'You are +so good, so discreet, so clever--you can save him.' Alaric +promised, or was ready to promise, anything else, but hesitated +as to the joint lodgings. 'How could he manage it,' said he, +'living, as he was, with another man? He feared that Mr. Norman +would not accede to such an arrangement. As for himself, he would +do anything but leave his friend Norman.' To tell the truth, +Alaric thought much, perhaps too much, of the respectability of +those with whom he consorted. He had already begun to indulge +ambitious schemes, already had ideas stretching even beyond the +limits of the Weights and Measures, and fully intended to make +the very most of himself. + +Mrs. Tudor, in her deep grief, then betook herself to Mr. Norman, +though with that gentleman she had not even the slightest +acquaintance. With a sulking heart, with a consciousness of her +unreasonableness, but with the eloquence of maternal sorrow, she +made her request. Mr. Norman heard her out with all the calm +propriety of the Weights and Measures, begged to have a day to +consider, and then acceded to the request. + +'I think we ought to do it,' said he to Alaric. The mother's +tears had touched his heart, and his sense of duty had prevailed. +Alaric, of course, could now make no further objection, and thus +Charley the Navvy became domesticated with his cousin Alaric and +Harry Norman. + +The first great question to be settled, and it is a very great +question with a young man, was that of latch-key or no latch-key. +Mrs. Richards, the landlady, when she made ready the third +bedroom for the young gentleman, would, as was her wont in such +matters, have put a latchkey on the toilet-table as a matter of +course, had she not had some little conversation with Mamma Tudor +regarding her son. Mamma Tudor had implored and coaxed, and +probably bribed Mrs. Richards to do something more than 'take her +son in and do for him'; and Mrs. Richards, as her first +compliance with these requests, had kept the latch-key in her own +pocket. So matters went on for a week; but when Mrs. Richards +found that her maidservant was never woken by Mr. Charley's raps +after midnight, and that she herself was obliged to descend in +her dressing-gown, she changed her mind, declared to herself that +it was useless to attempt to keep a grown gentleman in leading- +strings, and put the key on the table on the second Monday +morning. + +As none of the three men ever dined at home, Alaric and Norman +having clubs which they frequented, and Charley eating his dinner +at some neighbouring dining-house, it may be imagined that this +change of residence did our poor navvy but little good. It had, +however, a salutary effect on him, at any rate at first. He +became shamed into a quieter and perhaps cleaner mode of dressing +himself; he constrained himself to sit down to breakfast with his +monitors at half-past eight, and was at any rate so far regardful +of Mrs. Richards as not to smoke in his bedroom, and to come home +sober enough to walk upstairs without assistance every night for +the first month. + +But perhaps the most salutary effect made by this change on young +Tudor was this, that he was taken by his cousin one Sunday to the +Woodwards. Poor Charley had had but small opportunity of learning +what are the pleasures of decent society. He had gone headlong +among the infernal navvies too quickly to allow of that slow and +gradual formation of decent alliances which is all in all to a +young man entering life. A boy is turned loose into London, and +desired to choose the good and eschew the bad. Boy as he is, he +might probably do so if the opportunity came in his way. But no +such chance is afforded him. To eschew the bad is certainly +possible for him; but as to the good, he must wait till he be +chosen. This it is, that is too much for him. He cannot live +without society, and so he falls. + +Society, an ample allowance of society, this is the first +requisite which a mother should seek in sending her son to live +alone in London; balls, routs, picnics, parties; women, pretty, +well-dressed, witty, easy-mannered; good pictures, elegant +drawing rooms, well got-up books, Majolica and Dresden china-- +these are the truest guards to protect a youth from dissipation +and immorality. + + These are the books, the arts, the academes + That show, contain, and nourish all the world, + +if only a youth could have them at his disposal. Some of these +things, though by no means all, Charley Tudor encountered at the +Woodwards. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE WOODWARDS + + +It is very difficult nowadays to say where the suburbs of London +come to an end, and where the country begins. The railways, +instead of enabling Londoners to live in the country, have turned +the country into a city. London will soon assume the shape of a +great starfish. The old town, extending from Poplar to Hammersmith, +will be the nucleus, and the various railway lines will be the projecting +rays. + +There are still, however, some few nooks within reach of the +metropolis which have not been be-villaged and be-terraced out of +all look of rural charm, and the little village of Hampton, with +its old-fashioned country inn, and its bright, quiet, grassy +river, is one of them, in spite of the triple metropolitan +waterworks on the one side, and the close vicinity on the other +of Hampton Court, that well-loved resort of cockneydom. + +It was here that the Woodwards lived. Just on the outskirts of +the village, on the side of it farthest from town, they inhabited +not a villa, but a small old-fashioned brick house, abutting on +to the road, but looking from its front windows on to a lawn and +garden, which stretched down to the river. + +The grounds were not extensive, being included, house and all, in +an area of an acre and a half: but the most had been made of it; +it sloped prettily to the river, and was absolutely secluded from +the road. Thus Surbiton Cottage, as it was called, though it had +no pretension to the grandeur of a country-house, was a desirable +residence for a moderate family with a limited income. + +Mrs. Woodward's family, for there was no Mr. Woodward in the +case, consisted of herself and three daughters. There was +afterwards added to this an old gentleman, an uncle of Mrs. +Woodward's, but he had not arrived at the time at which we would +wish first to introduce our readers to Hampton. + +Mrs. Woodward was the widow of a clergyman who had held a living +in London, and had resided there. He had, however, died when two +of his children were very young, and while the third was still a +baby. From that time Mrs. Woodward had lived at the cottage at +Hampton, and had there maintained a good repute, paying her way +from month to month as widows with limited incomes should do, and +devoting herself to the amusements and education of her +daughters. + +It was not, probably, from any want of opportunity to cast them +aside, that Mrs. Woodward had remained true to her weeds; for at +the time of her husband's death she was a young and a very pretty +woman; and an income of £400 a year, though moderate enough for +all the wants of a gentleman's family, would no doubt have added +sufficiently to her charms to have procured her a second +alliance, had she been so minded. + +Twelve years, however, had now elapsed since Mr. Woodward had +been gathered to his fathers, and the neighbouring world of +Hampton, who had all of them declared over and over again that +the young widow would certainly marry again, were now becoming as +unanimous in their expressed opinion that the old widow knew the +value of her money too well to risk it in the keeping of the best +he that ever wore boots. + +At the date at which our story commences, she was a comely little +woman, past forty, somewhat below the middle height, rather +_embonpoint_, as widows of forty should be, with pretty fat +feet, and pretty fat hands; wearing just a _soupçon_ of a +widow's cap on her head, with her hair, now slightly grey, parted +in front, and brushed very smoothly, but not too carefully, in +_bandeaux_ over her forehead. + +She was a quick little body, full of good-humour, slightly given +to repartee, and perhaps rather too impatient of a fool. But +though averse to a fool, she could sympathize with folly. A great +poet has said that women are all rakes at heart; and there was +something of the rake at heart about Mrs. Woodward. She never +could be got to express adequate horror at fast young men, and +was apt to have her own sly little joke at women who prided +themselves on being punctilious. She could, perhaps, the more +safely indulge in this, as scandal had never even whispered a +word against herself. + +With her daughters she lived on terms almost of equality. The two +elder were now grown up; that is, they were respectively eighteen +and seventeen years old. They were devotedly attached to their +mother, looked on her as the only perfect woman in existence, and +would willingly do nothing that could vex her; but they perhaps +were not quite so systematically obedient to her as children +should be to their only surviving parent. Mrs. Woodward, however, +found nothing amiss, and no one else therefore could well have a +right to complain. + +They were both pretty--but Gertrude, the elder, was by far the +more strikingly so. They were, nevertheless, much alike; they +both had rich brown hair, which they, like their mother, wore +simply parted over the forehead. They were both somewhat taller +than her, and were nearly of a height. But in appearance, as in +disposition, Gertrude carried by far the greater air of command. +She was the handsomer of the two, and the cleverer. She could +write French and nearly speak it, while her sister could only +read it. She could play difficult pieces from sight, which it +took her sister a morning's pains to practise. She could fill in +and finish a drawing, while her sister was still struggling, and +struggling in vain, with the first principles of the art. + +But there was a softness about Linda, for such was the name of +the second Miss Woodward, which in the eyes of many men made up +both for the superior beauty and superior talent of Gertrude. +Gertrude was, perhaps, hardly so soft as so young a girl should +be. In her had been magnified that spirit of gentle raillery +which made so attractive a part of her mother's character. She +enjoyed and emulated her mother's quick sharp sayings, but she +hardly did so with her mother's grace, and sometimes attempted it +with much more than her mother's severity. She also detested +fools; but in promulgating her opinion on this subject, she was +too apt to declare who the fools were whom she detested. + +It may be thought that under such circumstances there could be +but little confidence between the sisters; but, nevertheless, in +their early days, they lived together as sisters should do. +Gertrude, when she spoke of fools, never intended to include +Linda in the number; and Linda appreciated too truly, and admired +too thoroughly, her sister's beauty and talent to be jealous of +either. + +Of the youngest girl, Katie, it is not necessary at present to +say much. At this time she was but thirteen years of age, and was +a happy, pretty, romping child. She gave fair promise to be at +any rate equal to her sisters in beauty, and in mind was quick +and intelligent. Her great taste was for boating, and the romance +of her life consisted in laying out ideal pleasure-grounds, and +building ideal castles in a little reedy island or ait which lay +out in the Thames, a few perches from the drawing-room windows. + +Such was the family of the Woodwards. Harry Norman's father and +Mr. Woodward had been first cousins, and hence it had been quite +natural that when Norman came up to reside in London he should be +made welcome to Surbiton Cottage. He had so been made welcome, +and had thus got into a habit of spending his Saturday evenings +and Sundays at the home of his relatives. In summer he could row +up in his own wherry, and land himself and carpet-bag direct on +the Woodwards' lawn, and in the winter he came down by the +Hampton Court five p.m. train--and in each case he returned on +the Monday morning. Thus, as regards that portion of his time +which was most his own, he may be said almost to have lived at +Surbiton Cottage, and if on any Sunday he omitted to make his +appearance, the omission was ascribed by the ladies of Hampton, +in some half-serious sort of joke, to metropolitan allurements +and temptations which he ought to have withstood. + +When Tudor and Norman came to live together, it was natural +enough that Tudor also should be taken down to Surbiton Cottage. +Norman could not leave him on every Saturday without telling him +much of his friends whom he went to visit, and he could hardly +say much of them without offering to introduce his companion to +them. Tudor accordingly went there, and it soon came to pass that +he also very frequently spent his Sundays at Hampton. + +It must be remembered that at this time, the time, that is, of +Norman and Tudor's first entrance on their London life, the girls +at Surbiton Cottage were mere girls--that is, little more than +children; they had not, as it were, got their wings so as to be +able to fly away when the provocation to do so might come; they +were, in short, Gertrude and Linda Woodward, and not the Miss +Woodwards: their drawers came down below their frocks, instead of +their frocks below their drawers; and in lieu of studying the +French language, as is done by grown-up ladies, they did French +lessons, as is the case with ladies who are not grown-up. Under +these circumstances there was no embarrassment as to what the +young people should call each other, and they soon became very +intimate as Harry and Alaric, Gertrude and Linda. + +It is not, however, to be conceived that Alaric Tudor at once +took the same footing in the house as Norman. This was far from +being the case. In the first place he never slept there, seeing +that there was no bed for him; and the most confidential +intercourse in the household took place as they sat cosy over the +last embers of the drawing-room fire, chatting about everything +and nothing, as girls always can do, after Tudor had gone away to +his bed at the inn, on the opposite side of the way. And then +Tudor did not come on every Saturday, and at first did not do so +without express invitation; and although the girls soon +habituated themselves to the familiarity of their new friend's +Christian name, it was some time before Mrs. Woodward did so. + +Two--three years soon flew by, and Linda and Gertrude became the +Miss Woodwards; their frocks were prolonged, their drawers +curtailed, and the lessons abandoned. But still Alaric Tudor and +Harry Norman came to Hampton not less frequently than of yore, +and the world resident on that portion of the left bank of the +Thames found out that Harry Norman and Gertrude Woodward were to +be man and wife, and that Alaric Tudor and Linda Woodward were to +go through the same ceremony. They found this out, or said that +they had done so. But, as usual, the world was wrong; at least in +part, for at the time of which we are speaking no word of love- +making had passed, at any rate, between the last-named couple. + +And what was Mrs. Woodward about all this time? Was she match- +making or match-marring; or was she negligently omitting the +duties of a mother on so important an occasion? She was certainly +neither match-making nor match-marring; but it was from no +negligence that she was thus quiescent. She knew, or thought she +knew, that the two young men were fit to be husbands to her +daughters, and she felt that if the wish for such an alliance +should spring up between either pair, there was no reason why she +should interfere to prevent it. But she felt also that she should +not interfere to bring any such matter to pass. These young +people had by chance been thrown together. Should there be love- +passages among them, as it was natural to suppose there might be, +it would be well. Should there be none such, it would be well +also. She thoroughly trusted her own children, and did not +distrust her friends; and so as regards Mrs. Woodward the matter +was allowed to rest. + +We cannot say that on this matter we quite approve of her +conduct, though we cannot but admire the feeling which engendered +it. Her daughters were very young; though they had made such +positive advances as have been above described towards the +discretion of womanhood, they were of the age when they would +have been regarded as mere boys had they belonged to the other +sex. The assertion made by Clara Van Artevelde, that women 'grow +upon the sunny side of the wall,' is doubtless true; but young +ladies, gifted as they are with such advantages, may perhaps be +thought to require some counsel, some advice, in those first +tender years in which they so often have to make or mar their +fortunes. + +Not that Mrs. Woodward gave them no advice; not but that she +advised them well and often--but she did so, perhaps, too much as +an equal, too little as a parent. + +But, be that as it may--and I trust my readers will not be +inclined so early in our story to lean heavily on Mrs. Woodward, +whom I at once declare to be my own chief favourite in the tale-- +but, be that as it may, it so occurred that Gertrude, before she +was nineteen, had listened to vows of love from Harry Norman, +which she neither accepted nor repudiated; and that Linda had, +before she was eighteen, perhaps unfortunately, taught herself to +think it probable that she might have to listen to vows of love +from Alaric Tudor. + +There had been no concealment between the young men as to their +feelings. Norman had told his friend scores of times that it was +the first wish of his heart to marry Gertrude Woodward; and had +told him, moreover, what were his grounds for hope, and what his +reasons for despair. + +'She is as proud as a queen,' he had once said as he was rowing +from Hampton to Searle's Wharf, and lay on his oars as the +falling tide carried his boat softly past the green banks of +Richmond--'she is as proud as a queen, and yet as timid as a +fawn. She lets me tell her that I love her, but she will not say +a word to me in reply; as for touching her in the way of a +caress, I should as soon think of putting my arm round a +goddess.' + +'And why not put your arms round a goddess?' said Alaric, who was +perhaps a little bolder than his friend, and a little less +romantic. To this Harry answered nothing, but, laying his back to +his work, swept on past the gardens of Kew, and shot among the +wooden dangers of Putney Bridge. + +'I wish you could bring yourself to make up to Linda,' said he, +resting again from his labours; 'that would make the matter so +much easier.' + +'Bring myself!' said Alaric; 'what you mean is, that you wish I +could bring Linda to consent to be made up to.' + +'I don't think you would have much difficulty,' said Harry, +finding it much easier to answer for Linda than for her sister; +'but perhaps you don't admire her?' + +'I think her by far the prettier of the two,' said Alaric. + +'That's nonsense,' said Harry, getting rather red in the face, +and feeling rather angry. + +'Indeed I do; and so, I am convinced, would most men. You need +not murder me, man. You want me to make up to Linda, and surely +it will be better that I should admire my own wife than yours.' + +'Oh! you may admire whom you like; but to say that she is +prettier than Gertrude--why, you know, it is nonsense.' + +'Very well, my dear fellow; then to oblige you, I'll fall in love +with Gertrude.' + +'I know you won't do that,' said Harry, 'for you are not so very +fond of each other; but, joking apart, I do wish so you would +make up to Linda.' + +'Well, I will when _my_ aunt leaves _me_ £200 a year.' + +There was no answering this; so the two men changed the +conversation as they walked up together from the boat wharf to +the office of the Weights and Measures. + +It was just at this time that fortune and old Mr. Tudor, of the +Shropshire parsonage, brought Charley Tudor to reside with our +two heroes. For the first month, or six weeks, Charley was +ruthlessly left by his companions to get through his Sundays as +best he could. It is to be hoped that he spent them in divine +worship; but it may, we fear, be surmised with more probability, +that he paid his devotions at the shrine of some very inferior +public-house deity in the neighbourhood of Somerset House. As a +matter of course, both Norman and Tudor spoke much of their new +companion to the ladies at Surbiton Cottage, and as by degrees +they reported somewhat favourably of his improved morals, Mrs. +Woodward, with a woman's true kindness, begged that he might be +brought down to Hampton. + +'I am afraid you will find him very rough,' said his cousin +Alaric. + +'At any rate you will not find him a fool,' said Norman, who was +always the more charitable of the two. + +'Thank God for that!' said Mrs. Woodward,' and if he will come +next Saturday, let him by all means do so. Pray give my +compliments to him, and tell him how glad I shall be to see him.' + +And thus was this wild wolf to be led into the sheep-cote; this +infernal navvy to be introduced among the angels of Surbiton +Cottage. Mrs. Woodward thought that she had a taste for +reclaiming reprobates, and was determined to try her hand on +Charley Tudor. + +Charley went, and his debut was perfectly successful. We have +hitherto only looked on the worst side of his character; but bad +as his character was, it had a better side. He was good-natured +in the extreme, kind-hearted and affectionate; and, though too +apt to be noisy and even boisterous when much encouraged, was not +without a certain innate genuine modesty, which the knowledge of +his own iniquities had rather increased than blunted; and, as +Norman had said of him, he was no fool. His education had not +been good, and he had done nothing by subsequent reading to make +up for this deficiency; but he was well endowed with mother-wit, +and owed none of his deficiencies to nature's churlishness. + +He came, and was well received. The girls thought he would surely +get drunk before he left the table, and Mrs. Wood ward feared the +austere precision of her parlourmaid might be offended by some +unworthy familiarity; but no accident of either kind seemed to +occur. He came to the tea-table perfectly sober, and, as far as +Mrs. Woodward could tell, was unaware of the presence of the +parlour-maiden. + +On the Sunday morning, Charley went to church, just like a +Christian. Now Mrs. Woodward certainly had expected that he would +have spent those two hours in smoking and attacking the parlour- +maid. He went to church, however, and seemed in no whit astray +there; stood up when others stood up, and sat down when others +sat down. After all, the infernal navvies, bad as they doubtless +were, knew something of the recognized manners of civilized life. + +Thus Charley Tudor ingratiated himself at Surbiton Cottage, and +when he left, received a kind intimation from its mistress that +she would be glad to see him again. No day was fixed, and so +Charley could not accompany his cousin and Harry Norman on the +next Saturday; but it was not long before he got another direct +invitation, and so he also became intimate at Hampton. There +could be no danger of any one falling in love with him, for Katie +was still a child. + +Things stood thus at Surbiton Cottage when Mrs. Woodward received +a proposition from a relative of her own, which surprised them +all not a little. This was from a certain Captain Cuttwater, who +was a maternal uncle to Mrs. Woodward, and consisted of nothing +less than an offer to come and live with them for the remaining +term of his natural life. Now Mrs. Woodward's girls had seen very +little of their grand-uncle, and what little they had seen had +only taught them to laugh at him. When his name was mentioned in +the family conclave, he was always made the subject of some +little feminine joke; and Mrs. Woodward, though she always took +her uncle's part, did so in a manner that made them feel that he +was fair game for their quizzing. + +When the proposal was first enunciated to the girls, they one and +all, for Katie was one of the council, suggested that it should +be declined with many thanks. + +'He'll take us all for midshipmen,' said Linda, 'and stop our +rations, and mast-head us whenever we displease him.' + +'I am sure he is a cross old hunks, though mamma says he's not,' +said Katie, with all the impudence of spoilt fourteen. + +'He'll interfere with every one of our pursuits,' said Gertrude, +more thoughtfully, 'and be sure to quarrel with the young men.' + +But Mrs. Woodward, though she had consulted her daughters, +had arguments of her own in favour of Captain Cuttwater's +proposition, which she had not yet made known to them. Good- +humoured and happy as she always was, she had her cares in the +world. Her income was only £400 a year, and that, now that the +Income Tax had settled down on it, was barely sufficient for her +modest wants. A moiety of this died with her, and the remainder +would be but a poor support for her three daughters, if at the +time of her death it should so chance that she should leave them +in want of support. She had always regarded Captain Cuttwater as +a probable source of future aid. He was childless and unmarried, +and had not, as far as she was aware, another relative in the +world. It would, therefore, under any circumstances, be bad +policy to offend him. But the letter in which he had made his +offer had been of a very peculiar kind. He had begun by saying +that he was to be turned out of his present berth by a d--- Whig +Government on account of his age, he being as young a man as ever +he had been; that it behoved him to look out for a place of +residence, in which he might live, and, if it should so please +God, die also. He then said that he expected to pay £200 a year +for his board and lodging, which he thought might as well go to +his niece as to some shark, who would probably starve him. He +also said that, poor as he was and always had been, he had +contrived to scrape together a few hundred pounds; that he was +well aware that if he lived among strangers he should be done out +of every shilling of it; but that if his niece would receive him, +he hoped to be able to keep it together for the benefit of his +grand-nieces, &c. + +Now Mrs. Woodward knew her uncle to be an honest-minded man; she +knew also, that, in spite of his protestation as to being a very +poor man, he had saved money enough to make him of some +consequence wherever he went; and she therefore conceived that +she could not with prudence send him to seek a home among chance +strangers. She explained as much of this to the girls as she +thought proper, and ended the matter by making them understand +that Captain Cuttwater was to be received. + +On the Saturday after this the three scions of the Civil Service +were all at Surbiton Cottage, and it will show how far Charley +had then made good his ground, to state that the coming of the +captain was debated in his presence. + +'And when is the great man to be here?' said Norman. + +'At once, I believe,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'that is, perhaps, +before the end of this week, and certainly before the end of +next.' + +'And what is he like?' said Alaric. + +'Why, he has a tail hanging down behind, like a cat or a dog,' +said Katie. + +'Hold your tongue, miss,' said Gertrude. 'As he is to come he +must be treated with respect; but it is a great bore. To me it +will destroy all the pleasures of life.' + +'Nonsense, Gertrude,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'it is almost wicked of +you to say so. Destroy all the pleasure of life to have an old +gentleman live in the same house with you!--you ought to be more +moderate, my dear, in what you say.' + +'That's all very well, mamma,' said Gertrude, 'but you know you +don't like him yourself.' + +'But is it true that Captain Cuttwater wears a pigtail?' asked +Norman. + +'I don't care what he wears,' said Gertrude; 'he may wear three +if he likes.' + +'Oh! I wish he would,' said Katie, laughing; 'that would be so +delicious. Oh, Linda, fancy Captain Cuttwater with three pigtails!' + + +'I am sorry to disappoint you, Katie,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'but +your uncle does not wear even one; he once did, but he cut it off +long since.' + +'I am so sorry,' said Katie. + +'I suppose he'll want to dine early, and go to bed early?' said +Linda. + +'His going to bed early would be a great blessing,' said +Gertrude, mindful of their midnight conclaves on Saturdays and +Sundays. + +'But his getting up early won't be a blessing at all,' said +Linda, who had a weakness on that subject. + +'Talking of bed, Harry, you'll have the worst of it,' said Katie, +'for the captain is to have your room.' + +'Yes, indeed,' said Mrs. Woodward, sighing gently, 'we shall no +longer have a bed for you, Harry; that _is_ the worst of it.' + +Harry of course assured her that if that was the worst of it +there was nothing very bad in it. He could have a bed at the inn +as well as Alaric and Charley. The amount of that evil would only +be half-a-crown a night. + +And thus the advent of Captain Cuttwater was discussed. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CAPTAIN CUTTWATER + + +Captain Cuttwater had not seen much service afloat; that is, he +had not been personally concerned in many of those sea- +engagements which in and about the time of Nelson gave so great a +halo of glory to the British Lion; nor had it even been permitted +to him to take a prominent part in such minor affairs as have +since occurred; he had not the opportunity of distinguishing +himself either at the battle of Navarino or the bombarding of +Acre; and, unfortunately for his ambition, the period of his +retirement came before that great Baltic campaign, in which, had +he been there, he would doubtless have distinguished himself as +did so many others. His earliest years were spent in cruising +among the West Indies; he then came home and spent some +considerable portion of his life in idleness--if that time can be +said to have been idly spent which he devoted to torturing the +Admiralty with applications, remonstrances, and appeals. Then he +was rated as third lieutenant on the books of some worm-eaten old +man-of-war at Portsmouth, and gave up his time to looking after +the stowage of anchors, and counting fathoms of rope. At last he +was again sent afloat as senior lieutenant in a ten-gun brig, and +cruised for some time off the coast of Africa, hunting for +slavers; and returning after a while from this enterprising +employment, he received a sort of amphibious appointment at +Devonport. What his duties were here, the author, being in all +points a landsman, is unable to describe. Those who were inclined +to ridicule Captain Cuttwater declared that the most important of +them consisted in seeing that the midshipmen in and about the +dockyard washed their faces, and put on clean linen not less +often than three times a week. According to his own account, he +had many things of a higher nature to attend to; and, indeed, +hardly a ship sank or swam in Hamoaze except by his special +permission, for a space of twenty years, if his own view of his +own career may be accepted as correct. + +He had once declared to certain naval acquaintances, over his +third glass of grog, that he regarded it as his birthright to be +an Admiral; but at the age of seventy-two he had not yet acquired +his birthright, and the probability of his ever attaining it was +becoming very small indeed. He was still bothering Lords and +Secretaries of the Admiralty for further promotion, when he was +astounded by being informed by the Port-Admiral that he was to +be made happy by half-pay and a pension. The Admiral, in +communicating the intelligence, had pretended to think that he +was giving the captain information which could not be otherwise +than grateful to him, but he was not the less aware that the old +man would be furious at being so treated. What, pension him! put +him on half-pay--shelf him for life, while he was still anxiously +expecting that promotion, that call to higher duties which had so +long been his due, and which, now that his powers were matured, +could hardly be longer denied to him! And after all that he had +done for his country--his ungrateful, thankless, ignorant +country--was he thus to be treated? Was he to be turned adrift +without any mark of honour, any special guerdon, any sign of his +Sovereign's favour to testify as to his faithful servitude of +sixty years' devotion? He, who had regarded it as his merest +right to be an Admiral, and had long indulged the hope of being +greeted in the streets of Devonport as Sir Bartholomew Cuttwater, +K.C.B., was he to be thus thrown aside in his prime, with no +other acknowledgement than the bare income to which he was +entitled! + +It is hardly too much to say, that no old officers who have +lacked the means to distinguish themselves, retire from either of +our military services, free from the bitter disappointment and +sour feelings of neglected worth, which Captain Cuttwater felt so +keenly. A clergyman, or a doctor, or a lawyer, feels himself no +whit disgraced if he reaches the end of his worldly labours +without special note or honour. But to a soldier or a sailor, +such indifference to his merit is wormwood. It is the bane of the +professions. Nine men out of ten who go into it must live +discontented, and die disappointed. + +Captain Cuttwater had no idea that he was an old man. He had +lived for so many years among men of his own stamp, who had grown +grey and bald, and rickety, and weak alongside of him, that he +had no opportunity of seeing that he was more grey or more +rickety than his neighbours. No children had become men and women +at his feet; no new race had gone out into the world and fought +their battles under his notice. One set of midshipmen had +succeeded to another, but his old comrades in the news-rooms and +lounging-places at Devonport had remained the same; and Captain +Cuttwater had never learnt to think that he was not doing, and +was not able to do good service for his country. + +The very name of Captain Cuttwater was odious to every clerk at +the Admiralty. He, like all naval officers, hated the Admiralty, +and thought, that of all Englishmen, those five who had been +selected to sit there in high places as joint lords were the most +incapable. He pestered them with continued and almost continuous +applications on subjects of all sorts. He was always asking for +increased allowances, advanced rank, more assistance, less work, +higher privileges, immunities which could not be granted, and +advantages to which he had no claim. He never took answers, but +made every request the subject of a prolonged correspondence; +till at last some energetic Assistant-Secretary declared that it +should no longer be borne, and Captain Cuttwater was dismissed +with pension and half-pay. During his service he had contrived to +save some four or five thousand pounds, and now he was about to +retire with an assured income adequate to all his wants. The +public who had the paying of Captain Cuttwater may, perhaps, +think that he was amply remunerated for what he had done; but the +captain himself entertained a very different opinion. + +Such is the view which we are obliged to take of the professional +side of Captain Cuttwater's character. But the professional side +was by far the worst. Counting fathoms of rope and looking after +unruly midshipmen on shore are not duties capable of bringing out +in high relief the better traits of a main's character. Uncle +Bat, as during the few last years of his life he was always +called at Surbiton Cottage, was a gentleman and a man of honour, +in spite of anything that might be said to the contrary at the +Admiralty. He was a man with a soft heart, though the end of his +nose was so large, so red, and so pimply; and rough as was his +usage to little midshipmen when his duty caused him to encounter +them in a body, he had befriended many a one singly with kind +words and an open hand. The young rogues would unmercifully quiz +Old Nosey, for so Captain Cuttwater was generally called in +Devonport, whenever they could safely do so; but, nevertheless, +in their young distresses they knew him for their friend, and +were not slow to come to him. + +In person Captain Cuttwater was a tall, heavy man, on whose iron +constitution hogsheads of Hollands and water seemed to have had +no very powerful effect. He was much given to profane oaths; but +knowing that manners required that he should refrain before +ladies, and being unable to bring his tongue sufficiently under +command to do so, he was in the habit of 'craving the ladies' +pardon' after every slip. + +All that was really remarkable in Uncle Bat's appearance was +included in his nose. It had always been a generous, weighty, +self-confident nose, inviting to itself more observation than any +of its brother features demanded. But in latter years it had +spread itself out in soft, porous, red excrescences, to such an +extent as to make it really deserving of considerable attention. +No stranger ever passed Captain Cuttwater in the streets of +Devonport without asking who he was, or, at any rate, specially +noticing him. + +It must, of course, be admitted that a too strongly pronounced +partiality for alcoholic drink had produced these defects in +Captain Cuttwater's nasal organ; and yet he was a most staunch +friend of temperance. No man alive or dead had ever seen Captain +Cuttwater the worse for liquor; at least so boasted the captain +himself, and there were none, at any rate in Devonport, to give +him the lie. Woe betide the midshipman whom he should see elated +with too much wine; and even to the common sailor who should be +tipsy at the wrong time, he would show no mercy. Most eloquent +were the discourses which he preached against drunkenness, and +they always ended with a reference to his own sobriety. The truth +was, that drink would hardly make Captain Cuttwater drunk. It +left his brain untouched, but punished his nose. + +Mrs. Woodward had seen her uncle but once since she had become a +widow. He had then come up to London to attack the Admiralty at +close quarters, and had sojourned for three or four days at +Surbiton Cottage. This was now some ten years since, and the +girls had forgotten even what he was like. Great preparations +were made for him. Though the summer had nearly commenced, a +large fire was kept burning in his bedroom--his bed was newly +hung with new curtains; two feather beds were piled on each +other, and everything was done which five women could think +desirable to relieve the ailings of suffering age. The fact, +however, was that Captain Cuttwater was accustomed to a small +tent bedstead in a room without a carpet, that he usually slept +on a single mattress, and that he never had a fire in his +bedroom, even in the depth of winter. + +Travelling from Devonport to London is now an easy matter; and +Captain Cuttwater, old as he was, found himself able to get +through to Hampton in one day. Mrs. Woodward went to meet him at +Hampton Court in a fly, and conveyed him to his new home, +together with a carpet-bag, a cocked hat, a sword, and a very +small portmanteau. When she inquired after the remainder of his +luggage, he asked her what more lumber she supposed he wanted. No +more lumber at any rate made its appearance, then or afterwards; +and the fly proceeded with an easy load to Surbiton Cottage. + +There was great anxiety on the part of the girls when the wheels +were heard to stop at the front door. Gertrude kept her place +steadily standing on the rug in the drawing-room; Linda ran to +the door and then back again; but Katie bolted out and ensconced +herself behind the parlour-maid, who stood at the open door, +looking eagerly forth to get the first view of Uncle Bat. + +'So here you are, Bessie, as snug as ever,' said the captain, as +he let himself ponderously down from the fly. Katie had never +before heard her mother called Bessie, and had never seen +anything approaching in size or colour to such a nose, consequently +she ran away frightened. + +'That's Gertrude--is it?' said the captain. + +'Gertrude, uncle! Why Gertrude is a grown-up woman now. That's +Katie, whom you remember an infant.' + +'God bless my soul!' said the captain, as though he thought that +girls must grow twice quicker at Hampton than they did at +Devonport or elsewhere, 'God bless my soul!' + +He was then ushered into the drawing-room, and introduced in form +to his grand-nieces. 'This is Gertrude, uncle, and this Linda; +there is just enough difference for you to know them apart. And +this Katie. Come here, Katie, and kiss your uncle.' + +Katie came up, hesitated, looked horrified, but did manage to get +her face somewhat close to the old man's without touching the +tremendous nose, and then having gone through this peril she +retreated again behind the sofa. + +'Well; bless my stars, Bessie, you don't tell me those are your +children?' + +'Indeed, uncle, I believe they are. It's a sad tale for me to +tell, is it not?' said the blooming mother with a laugh. + +'Why, they'll be looking out for husbands next,' said Uncle Bat. + +'Oh! they're doing that already, every day,' said Katie. + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Uncle Bat; 'I suppose so, I suppose so;-- +ha, ha, ha!' + +Gertrude turned away to the window, disgusted and angry, and made +up her mind to hate Uncle Bat for ever afterwards. Linda made a +little attempt to smile, and felt somewhat glad in her heart that +her uncle was a man who could indulge in a joke. + +He was then taken upstairs to his bedroom, and here he greatly +frightened Katie, and much scandalized the parlour-maid by +declaring, immediately on his entering the room, that it was 'd----- +hot, d---ation hot; craving your pardon, ladies!' + +'We thought, uncle, you'd like a fire,' began Mrs. Woodward, 'as----' + +'A fire in June, when I can hardly carry my coat on my back!' + +'It's the last day of May now,' said Katie timidly, from behind +the bed-curtains. + +This, however, did not satisfy the captain, and orders were +forthwith given that the fire should be taken away, the curtains +stripped off, the feather beds removed, and everything reduced to +pretty much the same state in which it had usually been left for +Harry Norman's accommodation. So much for all the feminine care +which had been thrown away upon the consideration of Uncle Bat's +infirmities. + +'God bless my soul!' said he, wiping his brow with a huge +coloured handkerchief as big as a mainsail, 'one night in such a +furnace as that would have brought on the gout.' + +He had dined in town, and by the time that his chamber had been +stripped of its appendages, he was nearly ready for bed. Before +he did so, he was asked to take a glass of sherry. + +'Ah! sherry,' said he, taking up the bottle and putting it down +again. 'Sherry, ah! yes; very good wine, I am sure. You haven't a +drop of rum in the house, have you?' + +Mrs. Woodward declared with sorrow that she had not. + +'Or Hollands?' said Uncle Bat. But the ladies of Surbiton Cottage +were unsupplied also with Hollands. + +'Gin?' suggested the captain, almost in despair. + +Mrs. Woodward had no gin, but she could send out and get it; and +the first evening of Captain Cuttwater's visit saw Mrs. Woodward's +own parlour-maid standing at the bar of the Green Dragon, while +two gills of spirits were being measured out for her. + +'Only for the respect she owed to Missus,' as she afterwards +declared, 'she never would have so demeaned herself for all the +captains in the Queen's battalions.' + +The captain, however, got his grog; and having enlarged somewhat +vehemently while he drank it on the iniquities of those +scoundrels at the Admiralty, took himself off to bed; and left +his character and peculiarities to the tender mercies of his +nieces. + +The following day was Friday, and on the Saturday Norman and +Tudor were to come down as a matter of course. During the long +days, they usually made their appearance after dinner; but they +had now been specially requested to appear in good orderly time, +in honour of the captain. Their advent had been of course spoken +of, and Mrs. Woodward had explained to Uncle Bat that her cousin +Harry usually spent his Sundays at Hampton, and that he usually +also brought with him a friend of his, a Mr. Tudor. To all this, +as a matter of course, Uncle Bat had as yet no objection to make. + +The young men came, and were introduced with due ceremony. +Surbiton Cottage, however, during dinnertime, was very unlike +what it had been before, in the opinion of all the party there +assembled. The girls felt themselves called upon, they hardly +knew why, to be somewhat less intimate in their manner with the +young men than they customarily were; and Harry and Alaric, with +quick instinct, reciprocated the feeling. Mrs. Woodward, even, +assumed involuntarily somewhat of a company air; and Uncle Bat, +who sat at the bottom of the table, in the place usually assigned +to Norman, was awkward in doing the honours of the house to +guests who were in fact much more at home there than himself. + +After dinner the young people strolled out into the garden, and +Katie, as was her wont, insisted on Harry Norman rowing her over +to her damp paradise in the middle of the river. He attempted, +vainly, to induce Gertrude to accompany them. Gertrude was either +coy with her lover, or indifferent; for very few were the +occasions on which she could be induced to gratify him with the +rapture of a _tête-à-tête_ encounter. So that, in fact, Harry +Norman's Sunday visits were generally moments of expected +bliss of which the full fruition was but seldom attained. So +while Katie went off to the island, Alaric and the two girls sat +under a spreading elm tree and watched the little boat as it shot +across the water. 'And what do you think of Uncle Bat?' said +Gertrude. + +'Well, I am sure he's a good sort of fellow, and a very, gallant +officer, but--' + +'But what?' said Linda. + +'It's a thousand pities he should have ever been removed from +Devonport, where I am sure he was both useful and ornamental.' + +Both the girls laughed cheerily; and as the sound came across the +water to Norman's ears, he repented himself of his good nature to +Katie, and determined that her sojourn in the favourite island +should, on this occasion, be very short. + +'But he is to pay mamma a great deal of money,' said Linda, 'and +his coming will be a great benefit to her in that way.' + +'There ought to be something to compensate for the bore,' said +Gertrude. + +'We must only make the best of him,' said Alaric. 'For my part, I +am rather fond of old gentlemen with long noses; but it seemed to +me that he was not quite so fond of us. I thought he looked +rather shy at Harry and me.' + +Both the girls protested against this, and declared that there +could be nothing in it. + +'Well, now, I'll tell you what, Gertrude,' said Alaric, 'I am +quite sure that he looks on me, especially, as an interloper; and +yet I'll bet you a pair of gloves I am his favourite before a +month is over.' + +'Oh, no; Linda is to be his favourite,' said Gertrude. + +'Indeed I am not,' said Linda. 'I liked him very well till he +drank three huge glasses of gin-and-water last night, but I never +can fancy him after that. You can't conceive, Alaric, what the +drawing-room smelt like. I suppose he'll do the same every +evening.' + +'Well, what can you expect?' said Gertrude; 'if mamma will have +an old sailor to live with her, of course he'll drink grog.' + +While this was going on in the garden, Mrs. Woodward sat +dutifully with her uncle while he sipped his obnoxious toddy, and +answered his questions about their two friends. + +'They were both in the Weights and Measures, by far the most +respectable public office in London,' as she told him, 'and both +doing extremely well there. They were, indeed, young men sure to +distinguish themselves and get on in the world. Had this not been +so, she might perhaps have hesitated to receive them so +frequently, and on such intimate terms, at Surbiton Cottage.' +This she said in a half-apologetic manner, and yet with a feeling +of anger at herself that she should condescend to apologize to +any one as to her own conduct in her own house. + +'They are very-nice young men, I am sure,' said Uncle Bat. + +'Indeed they are,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'And very civil to the young ladies,' said Uncle Bat. + +'They have known them since they were children, uncle; and of +course that makes them more intimate than young men generally are +with young ladies;' and again Mrs. Woodward was angry with +herself for making any excuses on the subject. + +'Are they well off?' asked the prudent captain. + +'Harry Norman is very well off; he has a private fortune. Both of +them have excellent situations.' + +'To my way of thinking that other chap is the better fellow. At +any rate he seems to have more gumption about him.' + +'Why, uncle, you don't mean to tell me that you think Harry +Norman a fool?' said Mrs. Woodward. Harry Norman was Mrs. +Woodward's special friend, and she fondly indulged the hope of +seeing him in time become the husband of her elder and favourite +daughter; if, indeed, she can be fairly said to have had a +favourite child. + +Captain Cuttwater poured out another glass of rum, and dropped +the subject. + +Soon afterwards the whole party came in from the lawn. Katie was +all draggled and wet, for she had persisted in making her way +right across the island to look out for a site for another +palace. Norman was a little inclined to be sulky, for Katie had +got the better of him; when she had got out of the boat, he could +not get her into it again; and as he could not very well leave +her in the island, he had been obliged to remain paddling about, +while he heard the happy voices of Alaric and the two girls from +the lawn. Alaric was in high good-humour, and entered the room +intent on his threatened purpose of seducing Captain Cuttwater's +affections. The two girls were both blooming with happy glee, and +Gertrude was especially bright in spite of the somewhat sombre +demeanour of her lover. + +Tea was brought in, whereupon Captain Cuttwater, having taken a +bit of toast and crammed it into his saucer, fell fast asleep in +an arm-chair. + +'You'll have very little opportunity to-night,' said Linda, +almost in a whisper. + +'Opportunity for what?' asked Mrs. Woodward. + +'Hush,' said Gertrude, 'we'll tell you by and by, mamma. You'll +wake Uncle Bat if you talk now.' + +'I am so thirsty,' said Katie, bouncing into the room with dry +shoes and stockings on. 'I am so thirsty. Oh, Linda, do give me +some tea.' + +'Hush,' said Alaric, pointing to the captain, who was thoroughly +enjoying himself, and uttering sonorous snores at regular fixed +intervals. + +'Sit down, Katie, and don't make a noise,' said Mrs. Woodward, +gently. + +Katie slunk into a chair, opened wide her large bright eyes, +applied herself diligently to her teacup, and then, after taking +breath, said, in a very audible whisper to her sister, 'Are not +we to talk at all, Linda? That will be very dull, I think.' + +'Yes, my dear, you are to talk as much as you please, and as +often as you please, and as loud as you please; that is to say, +if your mamma will let you,' said Captain Cuttwater, without any +apparent waking effort, and in a moment the snoring was going on +again as regularly as before. + +Katie looked round, and again opened her eyes and laughed. Mrs. +Woodward said, 'You are very good-natured, uncle.' The girls +exchanged looks with Alaric, and Norman, who had not yet +recovered his good-humour, went on sipping his tea. + +As soon as the tea-things were gone, Uncle Bat yawned and shook +himself, and asked if it was not nearly time to go to bed. + +'Whenever you like, Uncle Bat,' said Mrs. Woodward, who began to +find that she agreed with Gertrude, that early habits on the part +of her uncle would be a family blessing. 'But perhaps you'll take +something before you go?' + +'Well, I don't mind if I do take a thimbleful of rum-and-water.' +So the odious spirit-bottle was again brought into the drawing- +room. + +'Did you call at the Admiralty, sir, as you came through town?' +said Alaric. + +'Call at the Admiralty, sir!' said the captain, turning sharply +round at the questioner; 'what the deuce should I call at the +Admiralty for? craving the ladies' pardon.' + +'Well, indeed, I don't know,' said Alaric, not a bit abashed. +'But sailors always do call there, for the pleasure, I suppose, +of kicking their heels in the lords' waiting-room.' + +'I have done with that game,' said Captain Cuttwater, now wide +awake; and in his energy he poured half a glass more rum into his +beaker. 'I've done with that game, and I'll tell you what, Mr. +Tudor, if I had a dozen sons to provide for to-morrow--' + +'Oh, I do so wish you had,' said Katie; 'it would be such fun. +Fancy Uncle Bat having twelve sons, Gertrude. What would you call +them all, uncle?' + +'Why, I tell you what, Miss Katie, I wouldn't call one of them a +sailor. I'd sooner make tailors of them.' + +'Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, apothecary, +ploughboy, thief,' said Katie. 'That would only be eight; what +should the other four be, uncle?' + +'You're quite right, Captain Cuttwater,' said Alaric, 'at least +as far as the present moment goes; but the time is coming when +things at the Admiralty will be managed very differently.' + +'Then I'm d----- if that time can come too soon--craving the +ladies' pardon!' said Uncle Bat. + +'I don't know what you mean, Alaric,' said Harry Norman, who was +just at present somewhat disposed to contradict his friend, and +not ill-inclined to contradict the captain also; 'as far as I can +judge, the Admiralty is the very last office the Government will +think of touching.' + +'The Government!' shouted Captain Cuttwater; 'oh! if we are to +wait for the Government, the navy may go to the deuce, sir.' + +'It's the pressure from without that must do the work,' said +Alaric. + +'Pressure from without!' said Norman, scornfully; 'I hate to hear +such trash.' + +'We'll see, young gentleman, we'll see,' said the captain; 'it +may be trash, and it may be right that five fellows who never did +the Queen a day's service in their life, should get fifteen +hundred or two thousand a year, and have the power of robbing an +old sailor like me of the reward due to me for sixty years' hard +work. Reward! no; but the very wages that I have actually earned. +Look at me now, d--- me, look at me! Here I am, Captain +Cuttwater--with sixty years' service--and I've done more perhaps +for the Queen's navy than--than--' + +'It's too true, Captain Cuttwater,' said Alaric, speaking with a +sort of mock earnestness which completely took in the captain, +but stealing a glance at the same time at the two girls, who sat +over their work at the drawing-room table, 'it's too true; and +there's no doubt the whole thing must be altered, and that soon. +In the first place, we must have a sailor at the head of the +navy.' + +'Yes,' said the captain, 'and one that knows something about it +too.' + +'You'll never have a sailor sitting as first lord,' said Norman, +authoritatively; 'unless it be when some party man, high in rank, +may happen to have been in the navy as a boy.' + +'And why not?' said Captain Cuttwater quite angrily. + +'Because the first lord must sit in the Cabinet, and to do that +he must be a thorough politician.' + +'D----- politicians! craving the ladies' pardon,' said Uncle Bat. + +'Amen!' said Alaric. + +Uncle Bat, thinking that he had thoroughly carried his point, +finished his grog, took up his candlestick, and toddled off to +bed. + +'Well, I think I have done something towards carrying my point,' +said Alaric. + +'I didn't think you were half so cunning,' said Linda, laughing. + +'I cannot think how you can condescend to advocate opinions +diametrically opposed to your own convictions,' said Norman, +somewhat haughtily. + +'Fee, fo, fum!' said Alaric. + +'What is it all about?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Alaric wants to do all he can to ingratiate himself with Uncle +Bat,' said Gertrude; 'and I am sure he's going the right way to +work,' + +'It's very good-natured on his part,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I don't know what you are talking about,' said Katie, yawning, +'and I think you are all very stupid; so I'll go to bed.' + +The rest soon followed her. They did not sit up so late chatting +over the fire this evening, as was their wont on Saturdays, +though none of them knew what cause prevented it. + + + +CHAPTER V + +BUSHEY PARK + + +The next day being Sunday, the whole party very properly went to +church; but during the sermon Captain Cuttwater very improperly +went to sleep, and snored ponderously the whole time. Katie was +so thoroughly shocked that she did not know which way to look; +Norman, who had recovered his good-humour, and Alaric, could not +refrain from smiling as they caught the eyes of the two girls; +and Mrs. Woodward made sundry little abortive efforts to wake her +uncle with her foot. Altogether abortive they were not, for the +captain would open his eyes and gaze at her for a moment in the +most good-natured, lack-lustre manner conceivable; but then, in a +moment, he would be again asleep and snoring, with all the +regularity of a kitchen-clock. This was at first very dreadful to +the Woodwards; but after a month or two they got used to it, and +so apparently did the pastor and the people of Hampton. + +After church there was a lunch of course; and then, according to +their wont, they went out to walk. These Sunday walks in general +were matters of some difficulty. The beautiful neighbourhood of +Hampton Court, with its palace-gardens and lovely park, is so +popular with Londoners that it is generally alive on that day +with a thronged multitude of men, women, and children, and thus +becomes not an eligible resort for lovers of privacy. Captain +Cuttwater, however, on this occasion, insisted on seeing the +chestnuts and the crowd, and consequently, they all went into +Bushey Park. + +Uncle Bat, who professed himself to be a philanthropist, and who +was also a bit of a democrat, declared himself delighted with what +he saw. It was a great thing for the London citizens to come down +there with their wives and children, and eat their dinners in the +open air under the spreading trees; and both Harry and Alaric +agreed with him. Mrs. Woodward, however, averred that it would +be much better if they would go to church first, and Gertrude +and Linda were of opinion that the Park was spoilt by the dirty +bits of greasy paper which were left about on all sides. Katie +thought it very hard that, as all the Londoners were allowed to +eat their dinners in the Park, she might not have hers there also. +To which Captain Cuttwater rejoined that he should give them a +picnic at Richmond before the summer was over. + +All the world knows how such a party as that of our friends by +degrees separates itself into twos and threes, when sauntering +about in shady walks. It was seldom, indeed, that Norman could +induce his Dulcinea to be so complaisant in his favour; but +either accident or kindness on her part favoured him on this +occasion, and as Katie went on eliciting from Uncle Bat fresh +promises as to the picnic, Harry and Gertrude found themselves +together under one avenue of trees, while Alaric and Linda were +equally fortunate, or unfortunate, under another. + +'I did so wish to speak a few words to you, Gertrude,' said +Norman; 'but it seems as though, now that this captain has come +among us, all our old habits and ways are to be upset.' + +'I don't see that _you_ need say that,' said she. 'We may, +perhaps, be put out a little--that is, mamma and Linda and I; but +I do not see that you need suffer.' + +'Suffer--no, not suffer--and yet it is suffering.' + +'What is suffering?' said she. + +'Why, to be as we were last night--not able to speak to each +other.' + +'Come, Harry, you should be a little reasonable,' said she, +laughing. 'If you did not talk last night whose fault was it?' + +'I suppose you will say it was my own. Perhaps it was. But I +could not feel comfortable while he was drinking gin-and-water--' + +'It was rum,' said Gertrude, rather gravely. + +'Well, rum-and-water in your mother's drawing-room, and cursing +and swearing before you and Linda, as though he were in the +cockpit of a man-of-war.' + +'Alaric you saw was able to make himself happy, and I am sure he +is not more indifferent to us than you are.' + +'Alaric seemed to me to be bent on making a fool of the old man; +and, to tell the truth, I cannot approve of his doing so.' + +'It seems to me, Harry, that you do not approve of what any of us +are doing,' said she; 'I fear we are all in your black books-- +Captain Cuttwater, and mamma, and Alaric, and I, and all of us.' + +'Well now, Gertrude, do you mean to say you think it right that +Katie should sit by and hear a man talk as Captain Cuttwater +talked last night? Do you mean to say that the scene which +passed, with the rum and the curses, and the absurd ridicule +which was thrown on your mother's uncle, was such as should take +place in your mother's drawing-room?' + +'I mean to say, Harry, that my mother is the best and only judge +of what should, and what should not, take place there.' + +Norman felt himself somewhat silenced by this, and walked on for +a time without speaking. He was a little too apt to take upon +himself the character of Mentor; and, strange to say, he was +aware of his own fault in this particular. Thus, though the +temptation to preach was very powerful, he refrained himself for +a while. His present desire was to say soft things rather than +sharp words; and though lecturing was at this moment much easier +to him than love-making, he bethought himself of his object, and +controlled the spirit of morality which was strong within him. + +'But we were so happy before your uncle came,' he said, speaking +with his sweetest voice, and looking at the beautiful girl beside +him with all the love he was able to throw into his handsome +face. + +'And we are happy now that he has come--or at any rate ought to +be,' said Gertrude, doing a little in the Mentor line herself, +now that the occasion came in her way. + +'Ah! Gertrude, you know very well there is only one thing can +make me happy,' said Harry. + +'Why, you unreasonable man! just now you said you were perfectly +happy before Captain Cuttwater came, I suppose the one thing now +necessary is to send him away again.' + +'No, Gertrude, the thing necessary is to take you away.' + +'What! out of the contamination of poor old Uncle Bat's bottle of +rum? But, Harry, you see it would be cowardly in me to leave +mamma and Linda to suffer the calamity alone.' + +'I wonder, Gertrude, whether, in your heart of hearts, you really +care a straw about me,' said Harry, who was now very sentimental +and somewhat lachrymose. + +'You know we all care very much about you, and it is very wrong +in you to express such a doubt,' said Gertrude, with a duplicity +that was almost wicked; as if she did not fully understand that +the kind of 'caring' of which Norman spoke was of a very +different nature from the general 'caring' which she, on his +behalf, shared with the rest of her family. + +'All of you--yes, but I am not speaking of all of you; I am +speaking of you, Gertrude--you in particular. Can you ever love +me well enough to be my wife?' + +'Well, there is no knowing what I may be able to do in three or +four years' time; but even that must depend very much on how you +behave yourself in the mean time. If you get cross because +Captain Cuttwater has come here, and snub Alaric and Linda, as +you did last night, and scold at mamma because she chooses to let +her own uncle live in her own house, why, to tell you the truth, +I don't think I ever shall.' + +All persons who have a propensity to lecture others have a strong +constitutional dislike to being lectured themselves. Such was +decidedly the case with Harry Norman. In spite of his strong +love, and his anxious desire to make himself agreeable, his brow +became somewhat darkened, and his lips somewhat compressed. He +would not probably have been annoyed had he not been found fault +with for snubbing his friend Tudor. Why should Gertrude, his +Gertrude, put herself forward to defend his friend? Let her say +what she chose for her mother, or even for her profane, dram- +drinking, vulgar old uncle, but it was too much that she should +take up the cudgels for Alaric Tudor. + +'Well,' said he, 'I was annoyed last night, and I must own it. It +grieved me to hear Alaric turning your uncle into ridicule, and +that before your mother's face; and it grieved me to see you and +Linda encourage him. In what Alaric said about the Admiralty he +did not speak truthfully.' + +'Do you mean to say that Alaric said what was false?' + +'Inasmuch as he was pretending to express his own opinion, he did +say what was false.' + +'Then I must and will say that I never yet knew Alaric say a word +that was not true; and, which is more, I am quite sure that he +would not accuse you of falsehood behind your back in a fit of +jealousy.' + +'Jealousy!' said Norman, looking now as black as grim death +itself. + +'Yes, it is jealousy. It so turned out that Alaric got on better +last night with Captain Cuttwater than you did, and that makes +you jealous.' + +'Pish!' said Norman, somewhat relieved, but still sufficiently +disgusted that his lady-love should suppose that he could be +otherwise than supremely indifferent to the opinion of Captain +Cuttwater. + +The love-scene, however, was fatally interrupted; and the pair +were not long before they joined the captain, Mrs. Woodward, and +Katie. + +And how fared it with the other pair under the other avenue of +chestnuts? + +Alaric Tudor had certainly come out with no defined intention of +making love as Harry Norman had done; but with such a companion +it was very difficult for him to avoid it. Linda was much more +open to attacks of this nature than her sister. Not that she was +as a general rule willingly and wilfully inclined to give more +encouragement to lovers than Gertrude; but she had less power of +fence, less skill in protecting herself, and much less of that +naughty self-esteem which makes some women fancy that all love- +making to them is a liberty, and the want of which makes others +feel that all love-making is to them a compliment. + +Alaric Tudor had no defined intention of making love; but he had +a sort of suspicion that he might, if he pleased, do so +successfully; and he had no defined intention of letting it +alone. He was a far-seeing, prudent man; for his age perhaps too +prudent; but he was nevertheless fully susceptible of the +pleasure of holding an affectionate, close intercourse with so +sweet a girl as Linda Woodward; and though he knew that marriage +with a girl without a dowry would for him be a death-blow to all +his high hopes, he could hardly resist the temptation of +conjugating the verb to love. Had he been able to choose from the +two sisters, he would probably have selected Gertrude in spite of +what he had said to Norman in the boat; but Gertrude was +bespoken; and it therefore seemed all but unnatural that there +should not be some love passages between him and Linda. + +Ah! Mrs. Woodward, my friend, my friend, was it well that thou +shouldst leave that sweet unguarded rosebud of thine to such +perils as these? + +They, also, commenced their wooing by talking over Captain +Cuttwater; but they did not quarrel over him. Linda was quite +content to be told by her friend what she ought to do, and how +she ought to think about her uncle; and Alaric had a better way +of laying down the law than Norman. He could do so without +offending his hearer's pride, and consequently was generally +better listened to than his friend, though his law was probably +not in effect so sound. + +But they had soon done with Captain Cuttwater, and Alaric had to +choose another subject. Gertrude and Norman were at some distance +from them, but were in sight and somewhat in advance. + +'Look at Harry,' said Alaric; 'I know from the motion of his +shoulder that he is at this moment saying something very tender.' + +'It is ten times more likely that they are quarrelling,' said +Linda. + +'Oh! the quarrels of lovers--we know all about that, don't we?' + +'You must not call them lovers, Alaric; mamma would not like it, +nor indeed would Gertrude, I am sure.' + +'I would not for the world do anything that Mrs. Woodward would +not like; but between ourselves, Linda, are they not lovers?' + +'No; that is, not that I know of. I don't believe that they are a +bit,' said Linda, blushing at her own fib. + +'And why should they not be? How indeed is it possible that they +should not be; that is--for I heartily beg Gertrude's pardon--how +is it possible that Harry should not be in love with her?' + +'Indeed, Gertrude is very, very beautiful,' said Linda, with the +faintest possible sigh, occasioned by the remembrance of her own +inferior charms. + +'Indeed she is, very, very beautiful,' repeated Alaric, speaking +with an absent air as though his mind were fully engaged in +thinking of the beauty of which he spoke. + +It was not in Linda's nature to be angry because her sister was +admired, and because she was not. But yet there was something in +Alaric's warm tone of admiration which gave her a feeling of +unhappiness which she would have been quite unable to define, +even had she attempted it. She saw her sister and Harry Norman +before her, and she knew in her heart that they were lovers, in +spite of her little weak declaration to the contrary. She saw how +earnestly her sister was loved, and she in her kindly loving +nature could not but envy her fancied happiness. Envy--no--it +certainly was not envy. She would not for worlds have robbed her +sister of her admirer; but it was so natural for her to feel that +it must be delicious to be admired! + +She did not begrudge Gertrude Norman's superior beauty, nor his +greater wealth; she knew that Gertrude was entitled to more, much +more, than herself. But seeing that Norman was Gertrude's lover, +was it not natural that Alaric should be hers? And then, though +Harry was the handsomer and the richer, she liked Alaric so much +the better of the two. But now that Alaric was alone with her, +the only subject he could think to talk of was Gertrude's beauty! + +It must not be supposed that these thoughts in their plainly- +developed form passed through Linda's mind. It was not that she +thought all this, but that she felt it. Such feelings are quite +involuntary, whereas one's thoughts are more or less under +command. Linda would not have allowed herself to think in this +way for worlds; but she could not control her feelings. + +They walked on side by side, perfectly silent for a minute or +two, and an ill-natured tear was gathering itself in the corner +of Linda's eye: she was afraid even to raise her hand to brush it +away, for fear Alaric should see her, and thus it went on +gathering till it was like to fall. + +'How singular it is,' said Alaric--'how very singular, the way in +which I find myself living with you all! such a perfect stranger +as I am.' + +'A perfect stranger!' said Linda, who, having remembered Alaric +since the days of her short frocks and lessons, looked on him as +a very old friend indeed. + +'Yes, a perfect stranger, if you think of it. What do any of you +know about me? Your mother never saw my mother; your father knew +nothing of my father; there is no kindred blood common to us. +Harry Norman, there, is your near cousin; but what am I that I +should be thus allowed to live with you, and walk with you, and +have a common interest in all your doings?' + +'Why, you are a dear friend of mamma's, are you not?' + +'A dear friend of mamma's! said he, 'well, indeed, I hope I am; +for your mother is at any rate a dear friend to me. But, Linda, +one cannot be so much without longing to be more. Look at Harry, +how happy he is!' + +'But, Alaric, surely you would not interfere with Harry,' said +Linda, whose humble, innocent heart thought still of nothing but +the merits of her sister; and then, remembering that it was +necessary that she should admit nothing on Gertrude's behalf, she +entered her little protest against the assumption that her sister +acknowledged Norman for her lover. 'That is, you would not do so, +if there were anything in it.' + +'I interfere with Harry!' said Alaric, switching the heads off +the bits of fern with the cane he carried. 'No, indeed. I have no +wish at all to do that. It is not that of which I was thinking. +Harry is welcome to all his happiness; that is, if Gertrude can +be brought to make him happy.' + +Linda, made no answer now; but the tear came running down her +face, and her eyes became dim, and her heart beat very quick, and +she didn't quite remember where she was. Up to this moment no man +had spoken a word of love to Linda Woodward, and to some girls +the first word is very trying. + +'Interfere with Harry!' Alaric repeated again, and renewed his +attack on the ferns. 'Well, Linda, what an opinion you must have +of me!' + +Linda was past answering; she could not protest--nor would it +have been expedient to do so--that her opinion of her companion +was not unfavourable. + +'Gertrude is beautiful, very beautiful,' he continued, still +beating about the bush as modest lovers do, and should do; 'but +she is not the only beautiful girl in Surbiton Cottage, nor to my +eyes is she the most so.' + +Linda was now quite beside herself. She knew that decorum +required that she should say something stiff and stately to +repress such language, but if all her future character for +propriety had depended on it, she could not bring herself to say +a word. She knew that Gertrude, when so addressed, would have +maintained her dignity, and have concealed her secret, even if +she allowed herself to have a secret to conceal. She knew that it +behoved her to be repellent and antagonistic to the first vows of +a first lover. But, alas! she had no power of antagonism, no +energy for repulse left in her. Her knees seemed to be weak +beneath her, and all she could do was to pluck to pieces the few +flowers that she carried at her waist. + +Alaric saw his advantage, but was too generous to push it +closely; nor indeed did he choose to commit himself to all the +assured intentions of a positive declaration. He wished to raise +an interest in Linda's heart, and having done so, to leave the +matter to chance. Something, however, it was necessary that he +should say. He walked a while by her in silence, decapitating the +ferns, and then coming close to her, he said-- + +'Linda, dear Linda! you are not angry with me?' Linda, however, +answered nothing. 'Linda, dearest Linda! speak one word to me.' + +'Don't!' said Linda through her tears. 'Pray don't, Alaric; pray +don't.' + +'Well, Linda, I will not say another word to you now. Let us walk +gently; we shall catch them up quite in time before they leave +the park.' + +And so they sauntered on, exchanging no further words. Linda by +degrees recovered her calmness, and as she did so, she found +herself to be, oh! so happy. She had never, never envied Gertrude +her lover; but it was so sweet, so very sweet, to be able to +share her sister's happiness. And Alaric, was he also happy? At +the moment he doubtless enjoyed the triumph of his success. But +still he had a feeling of sad care at his heart. How was he to +marry a girl without a shilling? Were all his high hopes, was all +his soaring ambition, to be thrown over for a dream of love? + +Ah! Mrs. Woodward, my friend, my friend, thou who wouldst have +fed thy young ones, like the pelican, with blood from thine own +breast, had such feeding been of avail; thou who art the kindest +of mothers; has it been well for thee to subject to such perils +this poor weak young dove of thine? + +Uncle Bat had become tired with his walk, and crawled home so +slowly that Alaric and Linda caught the party just as they +reached the small wicket which leads out of the park on the side +nearest to Hampton. Nothing was said or thought of their absence, +and they all entered the house together. Four of them, however, +were conscious that that Sunday's walk beneath the chestnuts of +Bushey Park would long be remembered. + +Nothing else occurred to make the day memorable. In the evening, +after dinner, Mrs. Woodward and her daughters went to church, +leaving her younger guests to entertain the elder one. The elder +one soon took the matter in his own hand by going to sleep; and +Harry and Alaric being thus at liberty, sauntered out down the +river side. They both made a forced attempt at good-humour, each +speaking cheerily to the other; but there was no confidence +between them as there had been on that morning when Harry rowed +his friend up to London. Ah me! what had occurred between them to +break the bonds of their mutual trust--to quench the ardour of +their firm friendship? But so it was between them now. It was +fated that they never again should place full confidence in each +other. + +There was no such breach between the sisters, at least not as +yet; but even between them there was no free and full interchange +of their hopes and fears. Gertrude and Linda shared the same +room, and were accustomed--as what girls are not?--to talk half +through the night of all their wishes, thoughts, and feelings. +And Gertrude was generally prone enough to talk of Harry Norman. +Sometimes she would say she loved him a little, just a little; at +others she would declare that she loved him not at all--that is, +not as heroines love in novels, not as she thought she could +love, and would do, should it ever be her lot to be wooed by such +a lover as her young fancy pictured to her. Then she would +describe her beau idéal, and the description certainly gave no +counterpart of Harry Norman. To tell the truth, however, Gertrude +was as yet heart whole; and when she talked of love and Harry +Norman, she did not know what love was. + +On this special Sunday evening she was disinclined to speak of +him at all. Not that she loved him more than usual, but that she +was beginning to think that she could not ever really love him at +all. She had taught herself to think that he might probably be +her husband, and had hitherto felt no such repugnance to her +destiny as caused her to shun the subject. But now she was +beginning to think of the matter seriously; and as she did so, +she felt that life might have for her a lot more blessed than +that of sharing the world with her cousin Harry. + +When, therefore, Linda began to question her about her lover, and +to make little hints of her desire to tell what Alaric had said +of her and Norman, Gertrude gave her no encouragement. She would +speak of Captain Cuttwater, of Katie's lessons, of the new dress +they were to make for their mother, of Mr. Everscreech's long +sermon, of anything in fact but of Harry Norman. + +Now this was very hard on poor Linda. Her heart was bursting +within her to tell her sister that she also was beloved; but she +could not do so without some little encouragement. + +In all their conferences she took the cue of the conversation +from her sister; and though she could have talked about Alaric by +the hour, if Gertrude would have consented to talk about Harry, +she did not know how to start the subject of her own lover, while +Gertrude was so cold and uncommunicative as to hers. She +struggled very hard to obtain the privilege for which she so +anxiously longed; but in doing so she only met with a sad and +sore rebuff. + +'Gertrude,' at last said Linda, when Gertrude thought that the +subject had been put to rest at any rate for that night, 'don't +you think mamma would be pleased if she knew that you had engaged +yourself to Harry Norman?' + +'No,' said Gertrude, evincing her strong mind by the tone in +which she spoke; 'I do not. If mamma wished it, she would have +told me; for she never has any secrets. I should be as wrong to +engage myself with Harry as you would be with Alaric. For though +Harry has property of his own, while poor Alaric has none, he has +a very insufficient income for a married man, and I have no +fortune with which to help him. If nothing else prevented it, I +should consider it wicked in me to make myself a burden to a man +while he is yet so young and comparatively so poor.' + +Prudent, sensible, high-minded, well-disciplined Gertrude! But +had her heart really felt a spark of love for the man of whom she +spoke, how much would prudent, sensible, high-minded considerations +have weighed with her? Alas! not a feather. + +Having made her prudent, high-minded speech, she turned round and +slept; and poor Linda also turned round and bedewed her pillow. +She no longer panted to tell her sister of Alaric's love. + +On the next morning the two young men returned to town, and the +customary dullness of the week began. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SIR GREGORY HARDLINES + + +Great changes had been going on at the Weights and Measures; or +rather it might be more proper to say that great changes were now +in progress. From that moment in which it had been hinted to Mr. +Hardlines that he must relax the rigour of his examinations, he +had pondered deeply over the matter. Hitherto he had confined his +efforts to his own office, and, so far from feeling personally +anxious for the amelioration of the Civil Service generally, had +derived no inconsiderable share of his happiness from the +knowledge that there were such sinks of iniquity as the Internal +Navigation. To be widely different from others was Mr. Hardlines' +glory. He was, perhaps, something of a Civil Service Pharisee, +and wore on his forehead a broad phylactery, stamped with the +mark of Crown property. He thanked God that he was not as those +publicans at Somerset House, and took glory to himself in paying +tithes of official cumin. + +But now he was driven to a wider range. Those higher Pharisees +who were above him in his own pharisaical establishment, had +interfered with the austerity of his worship. He could not turn +against them there, on their own ground. He, of all men, could +not be disobedient to official orders. But if he could promote a +movement beyond the walls of the Weights and Measures; if he +could make Pharisees of those benighted publicans in the Strand; +if he could introduce conic sections into the Custom House, and +political economy into the Post Office; if, by any effort of his, +the Foreign Office clerks could be forced to attend punctually at +ten; and that wretched saunterer, whom five days a week he saw +lounging into the Council Office--if he could be made to mend his +pace, what a wide field for his ambition would Mr. Hardlines then +have found! + +Great ideas opened themselves to his mind as he walked to and +from his office daily. What if he could become the parent of a +totally different order of things! What if the Civil Service, +through his instrumentality, should become the nucleus of the +best intellectual diligence in the country, instead of being a +byword for sloth and ignorance! Mr. Hardlines meditated deeply on +this, and, as he did so, it became observed on all sides that he +was an altered man as regarded his solicitude for the Weights and +Measures. One or two lads crept in, by no means conspicuous for +their attainments in abstract science; young men, too, were +observed to leave not much after four o'clock, without calling +down on themselves Mr. Hardlines' usual sarcasm. Some said he was +growing old, others that he was broken-hearted. But Mr. Hardlines +was not old, nor broken in heart or body. He was thinking of +higher things than the Weights and Measures, and at last he +published a pamphlet. + +Mr. Hardlines had many enemies, all in the Civil Service, one of +the warmest of whom was Mr. Oldeschole, of the Navigation, and at +first they rejoiced greatly that Job's wish had been accomplished +on their behalf, and that their enemy had written a book. They +were down on Mr. Hardlines with reviews, counter pamphlets, +official statements, and indignant contradiction; but Mr. +Hardlines lived through this storm of missiles, and got his book +to be fêted and made much of by some Government pundits, who were +very bigwigs indeed. And at last he was invited over to the +building on the other side, to discuss the matter with a +President, a Secretary of State, a Lord Commissioner, two joint +Secretaries, and three Chairmen. + +And then, for a period of six months, the light of Mr. Hardlines' +face ceased to shine on the children of the Weights and Measures, +and they felt, one and all, that the glory had in a certain +measure departed from their house. Now and again Mr. Hardlines +would look in, but he did so rather as an enemy than as a friend. +There was always a gleam of antagonistic triumph in his eye, +which showed that he had not forgotten the day when he was called +in question for his zeal. He was felt to be in opposition to his +own Board, rather than in co-operation with it. The Secretary and +the Assistant-Secretaries would say little caustic things about +him to the senior clerks, and seemed somewhat to begrudge him his +new honours. But for all this Mr. Hardlines cared little. The +President and the Secretary of State, the joint Secretaries and +the Chairmen, all allowed themselves to be led by him in this +matter. His ambition was about to be gratified. It was his +destiny that he should remodel the Civil Service. What was it to +him whether or no one insignificant office would listen to his +charming? Let the Secretary at the Weights and Measures sneer as +he would; he would make that hero of the metallic currency know +that he, Mr. Hardlines, was his master. + +At the end of six months his budding glory broke out into +splendid, full-blown, many-coloured flowers. He resigned his +situation at the Weights and Measures, and was appointed Chief +Commissioner of the Board of Civil Service Examination, with a +salary of £2,000 a year; he was made a K.C.B., and shone forth to +the world as Sir Gregory Hardlines; and he received a present of +£1,000, that happy _ne plus ultra_ of Governmental liberality. +Sir Gregory Hardlines was forced to acknowledge to himself that he +was born to a great destiny. + +When Sir Gregory, as we must now call him, was first invited to +give his attendance at another office, he found it expedient to +take with him one of the young men from the Weights and Measures, +and he selected Alaric Tudor. Now this was surprising to many, +for Tudor had been brought into the office not quite in +accordance with Sir Gregory's views. But during his four years of +service Alaric had contrived to smooth down any acerbity which +had existed on this score; either the paper on the strike-bushel, +or his own general intelligence, or perhaps a certain amount of +flattery which he threw into his daily intercourse with the chief +clerk, had been efficacious, and when Sir Gregory was called upon +to select a man to take with him to his new temporary office, he +selected Alaric Tudor. + +The main effect which such selection had upon our story rises +from the circumstance that it led to an introduction between +Tudor and the Honourable Undecimus Scott, and that this +introduction brought about a close alliance. + +We will postpone for a short while such description of the +character and position of this gentleman as it may be indispensable +to give, and will in this place merely say that the Honourable +Undecimus Scott had been chosen to act as secretary to the +temporary commission that was now making inquiry as to the +proposed Civil Service examinations, and that in this capacity he +was necessarily thrown into communication with Tudor. He was a +man who had known much of officialities, had filled many +situations, was acquainted with nearly all the secretaries, +assistant-secretaries, and private secretaries in London, had +been in Parliament, and was still hand-and-glove with all young +members who supported Government. Tudor, therefore, thought it a +privilege to know him, and allowed himself to become, in a +certain degree, subject to his influence. + +When it was declared to the world of Downing Street that Sir +Gregory Hardlines was to be a great man, to have an office of his +own, and to reign over assistant-commissioners and subject +secretaries, there was great commotion at the Weights and +Measures; and when his letter of resignation was absolutely +there, visible to the eyes of clerks, properly docketed and duly +minuted, routine business was, for a day, nearly suspended. +Gentlemen walked in and out from each other's rooms, asking this +momentous question--Who was to fill the chair which had so long +been honoured by the great Hardlines? Who was to be thought +worthy to wear that divine mantle? + +But even this was not the question of the greatest moment which +at that period disturbed the peace of the office. It was well +known that the chief clerk must be chosen from one of the three +senior clerks, and that he would be so chosen by the voice of the +Commissioners. There were only three men who were deeply +interested in this question. But who would then be the new senior +clerk, and how would he be chosen? A strange rumour began to be +afloat that the new scheme of competitive examination was about +to be tried in filling up this vacancy, occasioned by the +withdrawal of Sir Gregory Hardlines. From hour to hour the rumour +gained ground, and men's minds began to be much disturbed. + +It was no wonder that men's minds should be disturbed. +Competitive examinations at eighteen, twenty, and twenty-two may +be very well, and give an interesting stimulus to young men at +college. But it is a fearful thing for a married man with a +family, who has long looked forward to rise to a certain income +by the worth of his general conduct and by the value of his +seniority--it is a fearful thing for such a one to learn that he +has again to go through his school tricks, and fill up examination +papers, with all his juniors round him using their stoutest efforts to +take his promised bread from out of his mouth. _Detur digno_ is a +maxim which will make men do their best to merit rewards; every +man can find courage within his heart to be worthy; but _detur digniori_ +is a fearful law for such a profession as the Civil Service. What +worth can make a man safe against the possible greater worth +which will come treading on his heels? The spirit of the age raises, +from year to year, to a higher level the standard of education. The +prodigy of 1857, who is now destroying all the hopes of the man +who was well enough in 1855, will be a dunce to the tyro of 1860. + +There were three or four in the Weights and Measures who felt all +this with the keenest anxiety. The fact of their being there, and +of their having passed the scrutiny of Mr. Hardlines, was proof +enough that they were men of high attainments; but then the +question arose to them and others whether they were men exactly +of those attainments which were _now_ most required. Who is +to say what shall constitute the merits of the _dignior_? It +may one day be conic sections, another Greek iambics, and a third +German philosophy. Rumour began to say that foreign languages +were now very desirable. The three excellent married gentlemen +who stood first in succession for the coveted promotion were +great only in their vernacular. + +Within a week from the secession of Sir Gregory, his immediate +successor had been chosen, and it had been officially declared +that the vacant situation in the senior class was to be thrown +open as a prize for the best man in the office. Here was a +brilliant chance for young merit! The place was worth £600 a- +year, and might be gained by any one who now received no more +than £100. Each person desirous of competing was to send in his +name to the Secretary, on or before that day fortnight; and on +that day month, the candidates were to present themselves before +Sir Gregory Hardlines and his board of Commissioners. + +And yet the joy of the office was by no means great. The senior +of those who might become competitors, was of course a miserable, +disgusted man. He went about fruitlessly endeavouring to +instigate rebellion against Sir Gregory, that very Sir Gregory +whom he had for many years all but worshipped. Poor Jones was, to +tell the truth, in a piteous case. He told the Secretary flatly +that he would not compete with a lot of boys fresh from school, +and his friends began to think of removing his razors. Nor were +Brown and Robinson in much better plight. They both, it is true, +hated Jones ruthlessly, and desired nothing better than an +opportunity of supplanting him. They were, moreover, fast friends +themselves; but not the less on that account had Brown a mortal +fear of Robinson, as also had Robinson a mortal fear of Brown. + +Then came the bachelors. First there was Uppinall, who, when he +entered the office, was supposed to know everything which a young +man had ever known. Those who looked most to dead knowledge were +inclined to back him as first favourite. It had, however, been +remarked, that his utility as a clerk had not been equal to the +profundity of his acquirements. Of all the candidates he was the +most self-confident. + +The next to him was Mr. A. Minusex, a wondrous arithmetician. He +was one who could do as many sums without pen and paper as a +learned pig; who was so given to figures that he knew the number +of stairs in every flight he had gone up and down in the +metropolis; one who, whatever the subject before him might be, +never thought but always counted. Many who knew the peculiar +propensities of Sir Gregory's earlier days thought that Mr. +Minusex was not an unlikely candidate. + +The sixth in order was our friend Norman. The Secretary and the +two Assistant-Secretaries, when they first put their heads +together on the matter, declared that he was the most useful man +in the office. + +There was a seventh, named Alphabet Precis. Mr. Precis' peculiar +forte was a singular happiness in official phraseology. Much that +he wrote would doubtless have been considered in the purlieus of +Paternoster Row as ungrammatical, if not unintelligible; but +according to the syntax of Downing Street, it was equal to +Macaulay, and superior to Gibbon. He had frequently said to his +intimate friends, that in official writing, style was everything; +and of his writing it certainly did form a very prominent part. +He knew well, none perhaps so well, when to beg leave to lay +before the Board--and when simply to submit to the Commissioners. +He understood exactly to whom it behoved the secretary 'to have +the honour of being a very humble servant,' and to whom the more +simple 'I am, sir,' was a sufficiently civil declaration. These +are qualifications great in official life, but were not quite so +much esteemed at the time of which we are speaking as they had +been some few years previously. + +There was but one other named as likely to stand with any +probability of success, and he was Alaric Tudor. Among the very +juniors of the office he was regarded as the great star of the +office. There was a dash about him and a quick readiness for any +work that came to hand in which, perhaps, he was not equalled by +any of his compeers. Then, too, he was the special friend of Sir +Gregory. + +But no one had yet heard Tudor say that he intended to compete +with his seven seniors--none yet knew whether he would put +himself forward as an adversary to his own especial friend, +Norman. That Norman would be a candidate had been prominently +stated. For some few days not a word was spoken, even between the +friends themselves, as to Tudor's intention. + +On the Sunday they were as usual at Hampton, and then the subject +was mooted by no less a person than Captain Cuttwater. + +So you young gentlemen up in London are all going to be examined, +are you?' said he; 'what is it to be about? Who's to be first +lieutenant of the ship, is that it?' + +'Oh no,' said Alaric, 'nothing half so high as that. Boatswain's +mate would be nearer the mark.' + +'And who is to be the successful man?' + +'Oh, Harry Norman, here. He was far the first favourite in +yesterday's betting.' + +And how do you stand yourself?' said Uncle Bat. + +'Oh! I'm only an outsider,' said Alaric. 'They put my name down +just to swell the number, but I shall be scratched before the +running begins.' + +'Indeed he won't,' said Harry. 'He'll run and distance us all. +There is no one who has a chance with him. Why, he is Sir +Gregory's own pet.' + +There was nothing more said on the subject at Surbiton Cottage. +The ladies seemed instinctively to perceive that it was a matter +which they had better leave alone. Not only were the two young +men to be pitted against each other, but Gertrude and Linda were +as divided in their wishes on the subject as the two candidates +could be themselves. + +On the following morning, however, Norman introduced the subject. +'I suppose you were only jesting yesterday,' said he, 'when you +told the captain that you were not going to be a candidate?' + +'Indeed I can hardly say that I was in jest or in earnest,' said +Alaric. 'I simply meant to decline to discuss the subject with +Uncle Bat.' + +'But of course you do mean to stand?' said Harry. Alaric made no +answer. + +'Perhaps you would rather decline to discuss the matter with me +also?' said Harry. + +'Not at all; I would much prefer discussing it openly and +honestly. My own impression is, that I had better leave it +alone.' + +'And why so?' said Harry. + +'Why so?' repeated Alaric. 'Well, there are so many reasons. In +the first place, there would be seven to one against me; and I +must confess that if I did stand I should not like to be beaten.' + +'The same argument might keep us all back,' said Norman. + +'That's true; but one man will be more sensitive, more cowardly, +if you will, than another; and then I think no one should stand +who does not believe himself to have a fair chance. His doing so +might probably mar his future prospects. How can I put myself in +competition with such men as Uppinall and Minuses?' + +Harry laughed slightly, for he knew it had been asked by many how +such men as Uppinall and Minusex could think of putting +themselves in competition with Alaric Tudor. + +'That is something like mock-modesty, is it not, Alaric?' + +'No, by heaven, it is not! I know well what those men are made +of; and I know, or think I know, my own abilities. I will own +that I rank myself as a human creature much higher than I rank +them. But they have that which I have not, and that which they +have is that which these examiners will chiefly require.' + +'If you have no other reason,' said Norman, 'I would strongly +advise you to send in your name.' + +'Well, Harry, I have another reason; and, though last, it is by +no means the least. You will be a candidate, and probably the +successful one. To tell you the truth, I have no inclination to +stand against you.' + +Norman turned very red, and then answered somewhat gravely: 'I +would advise you to lay aside that objection. I fairly tell you +that I consider your chance better than my own.' + +'And suppose it be so, which I am sure it is not--but suppose it +be so, what then?' + +'Why, you will do right to take advantage of it.' + +'Yes, and so gain a step and lose a friend!' said Alaric. 'No; +there can be no heartburn to me in your being selected, for +though I am older than you, you are my senior in the office. But +were I to be put over your head, it would in the course of nature +make a division between us; and if it were possible that you +should forgive it, it would be quite impossible that Gertrude +should do so. I value your friendship and that of the Woodwards +too highly to risk it.' + +Norman instantly fired up with true generous energy. 'I should be +wretched,' said he, 'if I thought that such a consideration +weighed with you; I would rather withdraw myself than allow such +a feeling to interfere with your prospects. Indeed, after what +you have said, I shall not send in my own name unless you also +send in yours.' + +'I shall only be creating fuel for a feud,' said Alaric. 'To put +you out of the question, no promotion could compensate to me for +what I should lose at Hampton.' + +'Nonsense, man; you would lose nothing. Faith, I don't know +whether it is not I that should lose, if I were successful at +your expense.' + +'How would Gertrude receive me?' said Alaric, pushing the matter +further than he perhaps should have done. + +'We won't mind Gertrude,' said Norman, with a little shade of +black upon his brow. 'You are an older man than I, and therefore +promotion is to you of more importance than to me. You are also a +poorer man. I have some means besides that drawn from my office, +which, if I marry, I can settle on my wife; you have none such. I +should consider myself to be worse than wicked if I allowed any +consideration of such a nature to stand in the way of your best +interests. Believe me, Alaric, that though I shall, as others, be +anxious for success myself, I should, in failing, be much +consoled by knowing that you had succeeded.' And as he finished +speaking he grasped his friend's hand warmly in token of the +truth of his assertion. + +Alaric brushed a tear from his eye, and ended by promising to be +guided by his friend's advice. Harry Norman, as he walked into +the office, felt a glow of triumph as he reflected that he had +done his duty by his friend with true disinterested honesty. And +Alaric, he also felt a glow of triumph as he reflected that, come +what might, there would be now no necessity for him to break with +Norman or with the Woodwards. Norman must now always remember +that it was at his own instigation that he, Alaric, had consented +to be a candidate. + +As regarded the real fact of the candidature, the prize was too +great to allow of his throwing away such a chance. Alaric's +present income was £200; that which he hoped to gain was £600! + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MR. FIDUS NEVERBEND + +Immediately on entering the office, Tudor gave it to be +understood that he intended to give in his name as a candidate; +but he had hardly done so when his attention was called off from +the coming examinations by another circumstance, which was +ultimately of great importance to him. One of the Assistant- +Secretaries sent for him, and told him that his services having +been required by Sir Gregory Hardlines for a week or so, he was +at once to go over to that gentleman's office; and Alaric could +perceive that, as Sir Gregory's name was mentioned, the +Assistant-Secretary smiled on him with no aspect of benign +solicitude. + +He went over accordingly, and found that Sir Gregory, having been +desired to select a man for a special service in the country, had +named him. He was to go down to Tavistock with another gentleman +from the Woods and Forests, for the purpose of settling some +disputed point as to the boundaries and privileges of certain +mines situated there on Crown property. + +'You know nothing about mining, I presume?' said Sir Gregory. + +'Nothing whatever,' said Alaric. + +'I thought not; that was one reason why I selected you. What is +wanted is a man of sharp intelligence and plain common sense, and +one also who can write English; for it will fall to your lot to +draw up the report on the matter. Mr. Neverbend, who is to be +your colleague, cannot put two words together.' + +'Mr. Neverbend!' said Alaric. + +'Yes, Fidus Neverbend, of the Woods and Forests; a very excellent +public servant, and one in whom the fullest confidence can be +placed. But between you and me, he will never set the Thames on +fire.' + +'Does he understand mining?' asked Alaric. + +'He understands Government properties, and will take care that +the Crown be not wronged; but, Tudor, the Government will look to +you to get the true common-sense view of the case. I trust--I +mean that I really do trust, that you will not disgrace my +choice.' + +Alaric of course promised that he would do his best, expressed +the deepest gratitude to his patron, and went off to put himself +into communication with Mr. Neverbend at the Woods and Forests, +having received an assurance that the examination in his own +office should not take place till after his return from +Tavistock. He was not slow to perceive that if he could manage to +come back with all the _éclat_ of a successful mission, the +prestige of such a journey would go far to assist him on his +coming trial. + +Mr. Fidus Neverbend was an absolute dragon of honesty. His +integrity was of such an all-pervading nature, that he bristled +with it as a porcupine does with its quills. He had theories and +axioms as to a man's conduct, and the conduct especially of a man +in the Queen's Civil Service, up to which no man but himself +could live. Consequently no one but himself appeared to himself +to be true and just in all his dealings. + +A quarter of an hour spent over a newspaper was in his eyes a +downright robbery. If he saw a man so employed, he would divide +out the total of salary into hourly portions, and tell him to a +fraction of how much he was defrauding the public. If he ate a +biscuit in the middle of the day, he did so with his eyes firmly +fixed on some document, and he had never been known to be absent +from his office after ten or before four. + +When Sir Gregory Hardlines declared that Mr. Fidus Neverbend +would never set the Thames on fire, he meant to express his +opinion that that gentleman was a fool; and that those persons +who were responsible for sending Mr. Neverbend on the mission now +about to be undertaken, were little better than fools themselves +for so sending him. But Mr. Neverbend was no fool. He was not a +disciple of Sir Gregory's school. He had never sat in that +philosopher's porch, or listened to the high doctrines prevalent +at the Weights and Measures. He could not write with all Mr. +Precis' conventional correctness, or dispose of any subject at a +moment's notice as would Mr. Uppinall; but, nevertheless, he was +no fool. Sir Gregory, like many other wise men, thought that +there were no swans but of his own hatching, and would ask, with +all the pompous conceit of Pharisees in another age, whether good +could come out of the Woods and Forests? + +Sir Gregory, however, perfectly succeeded in his object of +imbuing Tudor with a very indifferent opinion of his new +colleague's abilities. It was his object that Tudor should +altogether take the upper hand in the piece of work which was to +be done between them, and that it should be clearly proved how +very incapable the Woods and Forests were of doing their own +business. + +Mr. Fidus Neverbend, however, whatever others in the outer world +might think of him, had a high character in his own office, and +did not under-estimate himself. He, when he was told that a young +clerk named Tudor was to accompany him, conceived that he might +look on his companion rather in the light of a temporary private +secretary than an equal partner, and imagined that new glory was +added to him by his being so treated. The two men therefore met +each other with very different views. + +But though Mr. Neverbend was no fool, he was not an equal either +in tact or ability to Alaric Tudor. Alaric had his interview with +him, and was not slow to perceive the sort of man with whom he +had to act. Of course, on this occasion, little more than +grimaces and civility passed between them; but Mr. Neverbend, +even in his grimaces and civility, managed to show that he +regarded himself as decidedly No. 1 upon the occasion. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor,' said he, 'I think of starting on Tuesday. +Tuesday will not, I suppose, be inconvenient to you?' + +'Sir Gregory has already told me that we are expected to be at +Tavistock on Tuesday evening.' + +'Ah! I don't know about that,' said Neverbend; 'that may be all +very well for Sir Gregory, but I rather think I shall stay the +night at Plymouth.' + +'It will be the same to me,' said Tudor; 'I haven't looked at the +papers yet, so I can hardly say what may be necessary.' + +'No, no; of course not. As to the papers, I don't know that there +is much with which you need trouble yourself. I believe I am +pretty well up in the case. But, Mr. Tudor, there will be a good +deal of writing to do when we are there.' + +'We are both used to that, I fancy,' said Tudor, 'so it won't +kill us.' + +'No, of course not. I understand that there will be a good many +people for me to see, a great many conflicting interests for me +to reconcile; and probably I may find myself obliged to go down +two or three of these mines.' + +'Well, that will be good fun,' said Alaric. + +Neverbend drew himself up. The idea of having fun at the cost of +Government was painful to him; however, he spared the stranger +his reproaches, and merely remarked that the work he surmised +would be heavy enough both for the man who went below ground, and +for the one who remained above. + +The only point settled between them was that of their starting by +an early train on the Tuesday named; and then Alaric returned to +Sir Gregory's office, there to read through and digest an immense +bulk of papers all bearing on the question at issue. There had, +it appeared, been lately opened between the Tamar and the Tavy a +new mine, which had become exceedingly prosperous--outrageously +prosperous, as shareholders and directors of neighbouring mines +taught themselves to believe. Some question had arisen as to the +limits to which the happy possessors of this new tin El Dorado +were entitled to go; squabbles, of course, had been the result, +and miners and masters had fought and bled, each side in defence +of its own rights. As a portion of these mines were on Crown +property it became necessary that the matter should be looked to, +and as the local inspector was accused of having been bribed and +bought, and of being, in fact, an absolute official Judas, it +became necessary to send some one to inspect the inspector. Hence +had come Alaric's mission. The name of the mine in question was +Wheal Mary Jane, and Alaric had read the denomination half a +score of times before he learnt that there was no real female in +the case. + +The Sunday before he went was of course passed at Hampton, and +there he received the full glory of his special appointment. He +received glory, and Norman in an equal degree fell into the +background. Mrs. Woodward stuck kindly to Harry, and endeavoured, +in her gentle way, to quiz the projected trip to Devonshire. But +the other party was too strong, and her raillery failed to have +the intended effect. Gertrude especially expressed her opinion +that it was a great thing for so young a man to have been +selected for such employment by such a person; and Linda, though +she said less, could not prevent her tell-tale face from saying +more. Katie predicted that Alaric would certainly marry Mary Jane +Wheal, and bring her to Surbiton Cottage, and Captain Cuttwater +offered to the hero introductions to all the old naval officers +at Devonport. + +'By jingo! I should like to go with you,' said the captain. + +'I fear the pleasure would not repay the trouble,' said Alaric, +laughing. + +'Upon my word I think I'll do it,' said the captain. 'It would be +of the greatest possible service to you as an officer of the +Crown. It would give you so much weight there. I could make you +known, you know----' + +'I could not hear of such a thing,' said Alaric, trembling at the +idea which Uncle Bat had conjured up. + +'There is Admiral Starbod, and Captain Focassel, and old +Hardaport, and Sir Jib Boom--why, d--n me, they would all do +anything for me--craving the ladies' pardon.' + +Alaric, in his own defence, was obliged to declare that the rules +of the service especially required that he should hold no +friendly communication with any one during the time that he was +employed on this special service. Poor Captain Cuttwater, grieved +to have his good nature checked, was obliged to put up with this +excuse, and consoled himself with abusing the Government which +could condescend to give so absurd an order. + +This was on the Saturday. On the Sunday, going to church, the +captain suggested that Alaric might, at any rate, just call upon +Sir Jib on the sly. 'It would be a great thing for you,' said +Uncle Bat. 'I'll write a note to-night, and you can take it with +you. Sir Jib is a rising man, and you'll regret it for ever if +you miss the opportunity.' Now Sir Jib Boom was between seventy +and eighty, and he and Captain Cuttwater had met each other +nearly every day for the last twenty years, and had never met +without a squabble. + +After church they had their usual walk, and Linda's heart +palpitated as she thought that she might have to undergo another +_tête-à-tête_ with her lover. But it palpitated in vain. It +so turned out that Alaric either avoided, or, at any rate, did +not use the privilege, and Linda returned home with an undefined +feeling of gentle disappointment. She had fully made up her mind +to be very staid, very discreet, and very collected; to take a +leaf out of her sister's book, and give him no encouragement +whatever; she would not absolutely swear to him that she did not +now, and never could, return his passion; but she would point out +how very imprudent any engagement between two young persons, +situated as they were, must be--how foolish it would be for them +to bind themselves, for any number of years, to a marriage which +must be postponed; she would tell Alaric all this, and make him +understand that he was not to regard himself as affianced to her; +but she with a woman's faith would nevertheless remain true to +him. This was Linda's great resolve, and the strong hope, that in +a very few weeks, Alaric would be promoted to a marrying income +of £600 per annum, made the prospect of the task not so painful +as it might otherwise have been. Fate, however, robbed her of the +pleasure, if it would have been a pleasure, of sacrificing her +love to her duty; and 'dear Linda, dearest Linda,' was not again +whispered into her ear. + +'And what on earth is it that you are to do down in the mines?' +asked Mrs. Woodward as they sat together in the evening. + +'Nothing on the earth, Mrs. Woodward--it is to be all below the +surface, forty fathom deep,' said Alaric. + +'Take care that you ever come up again,' said she. + +'They say the mine is exceedingly rich--perhaps I may be tempted +to stay down there.' + +'Then you'll be like the gloomy gnome, that lives in dark, cold +mines,' said Katie. + +'Isn't it very dangerous, going down into those places?' asked +Linda. + +'Men go down and come up again every day of their lives, and what +other men can do, I can, I suppose.' + +'That doesn't follow at all,' said Captain Cuttwater, 'What sort +of a figure would you make on a yard-arm, reefing a sail in a +gale of wind?' + +'Pray do take care of yourself,' said Gertrude. + +Norman's brow grew black. 'I thought that it was settled that Mr. +Neverbend was to go down, and that you were to stay above +ground,' said he. + +'So Mr. Neverbend settled it; but that arrangement may, perhaps, +be unsettled again,' said Alaric, with a certain feeling of +confidence in his own strong will. + +'I don't at all doubt,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'that if we were to +get a sly peep at you, we should find you both sitting comfortably +at your inn all the time, and that neither of you will go a foot below +the ground.' + +'Very likely. All I mean to say is, that if Neverbend goes down +I'll go too.' + +'But mind, you gloomy gnome, mind you bring up a bit of gold for +me,' said Katie. + +On the Monday morning he started with the often-expressed good +wishes of all the party, and with a note for Sir Jib Boom, which +the captain made him promise that he would deliver, and which +Alaric fully determined to lose long before he got to Plymouth. + +That evening he and Norman passed together. As soon as their +office hours were over, they went into the London Exhibition, +which was then open; and there, walking up and down the long +centre aisle, they talked with something like mutual confidence +of their future prospects. This was a favourite resort with +Norman, who had schooled himself to feel an interest in works of +art. Alaric's mind was of a different cast; he panted rather for +the great than the beautiful; and was inclined to ridicule the +growing taste of the day for torsos, Palissy ware, and Assyrian +monsters. + +There was then some mutual confidence between the two young men. +Norman, who was apt to examine himself and his own motives more +strictly than Alaric ever did, had felt that something like +suspicion as to his friend had crept over him; and he had felt +also that there was no ground for such suspicion. He had +determined to throw it off, and to be again cordial with his +companion. He had resolved so to do before his last visit at +Hampton; but it was at Hampton that the suspicion had been +engendered, and there he found himself unable to be genial, +kindly, and contented. Surbiton Cottage was becoming to him +anything but the abode of happiness that it had once been. A year +ago he had been the hero of the Hampton Sundays; he could not but +now feel that Alaric had, as it were, supplanted him with his own +friends. The arrival even of so insignificant a person as Captain +Cuttwater--and Captain Cuttwater was very insignificant in +Norman's mind--had done much to produce this state of things. He +had been turned out of his bedroom at the cottage, and had +therefore lost those last, loving, lingering words, sometimes +protracted to so late an hour, which had been customary after +Alaric's departure to his inn--those last lingering words which +had been so sweet because their sweetness had not been shared +with his friend. + +He could not be genial and happy at Surbiton Cottage; but he was +by no means satisfied with himself that he should not have been +so. When he found that he had been surly with Alaric, he was much +more angry with himself than Alaric was with him. Alaric, indeed, +was indifferent about it. He had no wish to triumph over Harry, +but he had an object to pursue, and he was not the man to allow +himself to be diverted from it by any one's caprice. + +'This trip is a great thing for you,' said Harry. + +'Well, I really don't know. Of course I could not decline it; but +on the whole I should be just as well pleased to have been +spared. If I get through it well, why it will be well. But even +that cannot help me at this examination.' + +'I don't know that.' + +'Why--a week passed in the slush of a Cornish mine won't teach a +man algebra.' + +'It will give you _prestige_.' + +'Then you mean to say the examiners won't examine fairly; well, +perhaps so. But what will be the effect on me if I fail? I know +nothing of mines. I have a colleague with me of whom I can only +learn that he is not weak enough to be led, or wise enough to +lead; who is so self-opinionated that he thinks he is to do the +whole work himself, and yet so jealous that he fears I shall take +the very bread out of his mouth. What am I to do with such a +man?' + +'You must manage him,' said Harry. + +'That is much easier said than done,' replied Alaric. 'I wish you +had the task instead of me.' + +'So do not I. Sir Gregory, when he chose you, knew what he was +about.' + +'Upon my word, Harry, you are full of compliments to-day. I +really ought to take my hat off.' + +'No, I am not; I am in no mood for compliments. I know very well +what stuff you are made of. I know your superiority to myself. I +know you will be selected to go up over all our heads. I feel all +this; and Alaric, you must not be surprised that, to a certain +degree, it is painful to me to feel it. But, by God's help I will +get over it; and if you succeed it shall go hard with me, but I +will teach myself to rejoice at it. Look at that fawn there,' +said he, turning away his face to hide the tear in his eye, 'did +you ever see more perfect motion?' + +Alaric was touched; but there was more triumph than sympathy in +his heart. It was sweet, much too sweet, to him to hear his +superiority thus acknowledged. He was superior to the men who +worked round him in his office. He was made of a more plastic +clay than they, and despite the inferiority of his education, he +knew himself to be fit for higher work than they could do. As the +acknowledgement was made to him by the man whom, of those around +him, he certainly ranked second to himself, he could not but feel +that his heart's blood ran warm within him, he could not but +tread with an elastic step. + +But it behoved him to answer Harry, and to answer him in other +spirit than this. + +'Oh, Harry,' said he, 'you have some plot to ruin me by my own +conceit; to make me blow myself out and destroy myself, poor frog +that I am, in trying to loom as largely as that great cow, Fidus +Neverbend. You know I am fully conscious how much inferior my +education has been to yours.' + +'Education is nothing,' said Harry. + +Education is nothing! Alaric triumphantly re-echoed the words in +his heart--'Education is nothing--mind, mind is everything; mind +and the will.' So he expressed himself to his own inner self; but +out loud he spoke much more courteously. + +'It is the innate modesty of your own heart, Harry, that makes +you think so highly of me and so meanly of yourself. But the +proof of what we each can do is yet to be seen. Years alone can +decide that. That your career will be honourable and happy, of +that I feel fully sure! I wish I were as confident of mine.' + +'But, Alaric,' said Norman, going on rather with the thread of +his own thoughts, than answering or intending to answer what the +other said, 'in following up your high ambition--and I know you +have a high ambition--do not allow yourself to believe that the +end justifies the means, because you see that men around you act +as though they believed so.' + +'Do I do so--do I seem to do so?' said Alaric, turning sharply +round. + +'Don't be angry with me, Alaric; don't think that I want to +preach; but sometimes I fancy, not that you do so, but that your +mind is turning that way; that in your eager desire for +honourable success you won't scrutinize the steps you will have +to take.' + +'That I would get to the top of the hill, in short, even though +the hillside be miry. Well, I own I wish to get to the top of the +hill.' + +'But not to defile yourself in doing so.' + +'When a man comes home from a successful chase, with his bag well +stuffed with game, the women do not quarrel with him because +there is mud on his gaiters.' + +'Alaric, that which is evil is evil. Lies are evil--' + +'And am I a liar?' + +'Heaven forbid that I should say so: heaven forbid that I should +have to think so! but it is by such doctrines as that that men +become liars.' + +'What! by having muddy gaiters?' + +'By disregarding the means in looking to the end.' + +'And I will tell you how men become mere vegetables, by filling +their minds with useless--needless scruples--by straining at +gnats--' + +'Well, finish your quotation,' said Harry. + +'I have finished it; in speaking to you I would not for the world +go on, and seem to insinuate that you would swallow a camel. No +insinuation could be more base or unjust. But, nevertheless, I +think you may be too over-scrupulous. What great man ever rose to +greatness,' continued Alaric, after they had walked nearly the +length of the building in silence, 'who thought it necessary to +pick his steps in the manner you have described?' + +'Then I would not be great,' said Harry. + +'But, surely, God intends that there shall be great men on the +earth?' + +'He certainly wishes that there should be good men,' said Harry. + +'And cannot a man be good and great?' + +'That is the problem for a man to solve. Do you try that. Good +you certainly can be, if you look to Him for assistance. Let that +come first; and then the greatness, if that be possible.' + +'It is all a quibble about a word,' said Alaric. 'What is good? +David was a man after God's own heart, and a great man too, and +yet he did things which, were I to do, I should be too base to +live. Look at Jacob--how did he achieve the tremendous rights of +patriarchal primogeniture? But, come, the policemen are trying to +get rid of us; it is time for us to go,' and so they left the +building, and passed the remainder of the evening in concord +together--in concord so soon to be dissolved, and, ah! perhaps +never to be renewed. + +On the next morning Alaric and his new companion met each other +at an early hour at the Paddington station. Neverbend was rather +fussy with his dispatch-box, and a large official packet, which +an office messenger, dashing up in, a cab, brought to him at the +moment of his departure. Neverbend's enemies were wont to declare +that a messenger, a cab, and a big packet always rushed up at the +moment of his starting on any of his official trips. Then he had +his ticket to get and his _Times_ to buy, and he really had +not leisure to do more than nod at Alaric till he had folded his +rug around him, tried that the cushion was soft enough, and +completed his arrangements for the journey. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor,' at last he said, as soon as the train was in +motion, 'and how are you this morning--ready for work, I hope?' + +'Well, not exactly at this moment,' said Alaric. 'One has to get +up so early for these morning trains.' + +'Early, Mr. Tudor! my idea is that no hour should be considered +either early or late when the Crown requires our services.' + +'Just at present the Crown requires nothing else of us, I +suppose, but that we should go along at the rate of forty miles +an hour.' + +'There is nothing like saving time,' said Neverbend. 'I know you +have, as yet, had no experience in these sort of cases, so I have +brought you the papers which refer to a somewhat similar matter +that occurred in the Forest of Dean. I was sent down there, and +that is the report which I then wrote. I propose to take it for +the model of that which we shall have to draw up when we return +from Tavistock;' and as he spoke he produced a voluminous +document, or treatise, in which he had contrived to render more +obscure some matter that he had been sent to clear up, on the +Crown property in the Forest of Dean. + +Now Alaric had been told of this very report, and was aware that +he was going to Tavistock in order that the joint result of his +and Mr. Neverbend's labours might be communicated to the Crown +officers in intelligible language. + +The monster report before him contained twenty-six pages of close +folio writing, and he felt that he really could not oblige Mr. +Neverbend by reading it. + +'Forest of Dean! ah, that's coal, is it not?' said Alaric. 'Mary +Jane seems to be exclusively in the tin line. I fear there will +be no analogy.' + +'The cases are in many respects similar,' said Neverbend, 'and +the method of treating them----' + +'Then I really cannot concur with you as to the propriety of my +reading it. I should feel myself absolutely wrong to read a word +of such a report, for fear I might be prejudiced by your view of +the case. It would, in my mind, be positively dishonest in me to +encourage any bias in my own feelings either on one side or the +other.' + +'But really, Mr. Tudor----' + +'I need not say how much personal advantage it would be to me to +have the benefit of your experience, but my conscience tells me +that I should not do it--so I think I'll go to sleep.' + +Mr. Neverbend did not know what to make of his companion; whether +to admire the high tone of his official honesty, or to reprobate +his idleness in refusing to make himself master of the report. +While he was settling the question in his own mind, Tudor went to +sleep, and did not wake till he was invited to partake of ten +minutes' refreshment at Swindon. + +'I rather think,' said Mr. Neverbend, 'that I shall go on to +Tavistock to-night.' + +'Oh! of course,' said Alaric. 'I never for a moment thought of +stopping short of it;' and, taking out a book, he showed himself +disinclined for further conversation. + +'Of course, it's open to me to do as I please in such a matter,' +said Neverbend, continuing his subject as soon as they reached +the Bristol station, 'but on the whole I rather think we had +better go on to Tavistock to-night.' + +'No, I will not stop at Plymouth,' he said, as he passed by +Taunton; and on reaching Exeter he declared that he had fully +made up his mind on the subject. + +'We'll get a chaise at Plymouth,' said Alaric. + +'I think there will be a public conveyance,' said Neverbend. + +'But a chaise will be the quickest,' said the one. + +'And much the dearest,' said the other. + +'That won't signify much to us,' said Alaric; 'we shan't pay the +bill.' + +'It will signify a great deal to me,' said Neverbend, with a look +of ferocious honesty; and so they reached Plymouth. + +On getting out of the railway carriage, Alaric at once hired a +carriage with a pair of horses; the luggage was strapped on, and +Mr. Neverbend, before his time for expostulation had fairly come, +found himself posting down the road to Tavistock, followed at a +respectful distance by two coaches and an omnibus. + +They were soon drinking tea together at the Bedford Hotel, and I +beg to assure any travelling readers that they might have drunk +tea in a much worse place. Mr. Neverbend, though he made a great +struggle to protect his dignity, and maintain the superiority of +his higher rank, felt the ground sinking from beneath his feet +from hour to hour. He could not at all understand how it was, but +even the servants at the hotel seemed to pay more deference to +Tudor than to him; and before the evening was over he absolutely +found himself drinking port wine negus, because his colleague had +ordered it for him. + +'And now,' said Neverbend, who was tired with his long journey, +'I think I'll go to bed.' + +'Do,' said Alaric, who was not at all tired, 'and I'll go through +this infernal mass of papers. I have hardly looked at them yet. +Now that I am in the neighbourhood I shall better understand the +strange names.' + +So Alaric went to work, and studied the dry subject that was +before him. It will luckily not be necessary for us to do so +also. It will be sufficient for us to know that Wheal Mary Jane +was at that moment the richest of all the rich mines that had +then been opened in that district; that the, or its, or her +shares (which is the proper way of speaking of them I am +shamefully ignorant) were at an enormous premium; that these two +Commissioners would have to see and talk to some scores of loud +and angry men, deeply interested in their success or failure, and +that that success or failure might probably in part depend on the +view which these two Commissioners might take. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HON. UNDECIMUS SCOTT + + +The Hon. Undecimus Scott was the eleventh son of the Lord +Gaberlunzie. Lord Gaberlunzie was the representative of a very +old and very noble race, more conspicuous, however, at the +present time for its age and nobility than for its wealth. The +Hon. Undecimus, therefore, learnt, on arriving at manhood, that +he was heir only to the common lot of mortality, and that he had +to earn his own bread. This, however, could not have surprised +him much, as nine of his brethren had previously found themselves +in the same condition. + +Lord Gaberlunzie certainly was not one of those wealthy peers who +are able to make two or three elder sons, and after that to +establish any others that may come with comfortable younger +children's portions. The family was somewhat accustomed to the +_res angusta domi_; but they were fully alive to the fact, +that a noble brood, such as their own, ought always to be able to +achieve comfort and splendour in the world's broad field, by due +use of those privileges which spring from a noble name. Cauldkail +Castle, in Aberdeenshire, was the family residence; but few of +the eleven young Scotts were ever to be found there after +arriving at that age at which they had been able to fly from the +paternal hall. + +It is a terrible task, that of having to provide for eleven sons. +With two or three a man may hope, with some reasonable chance of +seeing his hope fulfilled, that things will go well with him, and +that he may descend to his grave without that worst of wretchedness, +that gnawing grief which comes from bad children. But who can hope +that eleven sons will all walk in the narrow path? + +Had Lord Gaberlunzie, however, been himself a patriarch, and +ruled the pastoral plains of Palestine, instead of the bleak +mountains which surround Cauldkail Castle, he could not have been +more indifferent as to the number of his sons. They flew away, +each as his time came, with the early confidence of young birds, +and as seldom returned to disturb the family nest. + +They were a cannie, comely, sensible brood. Their father and +mother, if they gave them nothing else, gave them strong bodies +and sharp brains. They were very like each other, though always +with a difference. Red hair, bright as burnished gold; high, but +not very high, cheek bones; and small, sharp, twinkling eyes, +were the Gaberlunzie personal characteristics. There were three +in the army, two in the navy, and one at a foreign embassy; one +was at the diggings, another was chairman of a railway company, +and our own more particular friend, Undecimus, was picking up +crumbs about the world in a manner that satisfied the paternal +mind that he was quite able to fly alone. + +There is a privilege common to the sons of all noble lords, the +full value of which the young Scotts learnt very early in life-- +that of making any woman with a tocher an honourable lady. 'Ye +maun be a puir chiel, gin ye'll be worth less than ten thoosand +pound in the market o' marriage; and ten thoosand pound is a +gawcey grand heritage!' Such had been the fatherly precept which +Lord Gaberlunzie had striven to instil into each of his noble +sons; and it had not been thrown away upon them. One after the +other they had gone forth into the market-place alluded to, and +had sold themselves with great ease and admirable discretion. +There had been but one Moses in the lot: the Hon. Gordon Hamilton +Scott had certainly brought home a bundle of shagreen spectacle +cases in the guise of a widow with an exceedingly doubtful +jointure; doubtful indeed at first, but very soon found to admit +of no doubt whatever. He was the one who, with true Scotch +enterprise, was prosecuting his fortunes at the Bendigo diggings, +while his wife consoled herself at home with her title. + +Undecimus, with filial piety, had taken his father exactly at his +word, and swapped himself for £10,000. He had, however, found +himself imbued with much too high an ambition to rest content +with the income arising from his matrimonial speculation. He had +first contrived to turn his real £10,000 into a fabulous £50,000, +and had got himself returned to Parliament for the Tillietudlem +district burghs on the credit of his great wealth; he then set +himself studiously to work to make a second market by placing his +vote at the disposal of the Government. + +Nor had he failed of success in his attempt, though he had +hitherto been able to acquire no high or permanent post. He had +soon been appointed private secretary to the First Lord of the +Stannaries, and he found that his duty in this capacity required +him to assist the Government whip in making and keeping houses. +This occupation was congenial to his spirit, and he worked hard +and well at it; but the greatest of men are open to the tainting +breath of suspicion, and the Honourable Undecimus Scott, or Undy +Scott, as he was generally now called, did not escape. Ill- +natured persons whispered that he was not on all occasions true +to his party; and once when his master, the whip-in-chief, +overborne with too much work, had been tempted to put himself to +bed comfortably in his own house, instead of on his usual +uneasy couch behind the Speaker's chair, Undy had greatly failed. +The leader of a party whose struggles for the religion of his +country had hitherto met but small success, saw at a glance the +opportunity which fortune had placed in his way; he spied with +eagle eye the nakedness of that land of promise which is +compressed in the district round the Treasury benches; the barren +field before him was all his own, and he put and carried his +motion for closing the parks on Sundays. + +He became a hero; but Undy was all but undone. The highest hope +of the Sabbatarian had been to address an almost empty house for +an hour and a half on this his favourite subject. But the chance +was too good to be lost; he sacrificed his oratorical longings on +the altar of party purpose, and limited his speech to a mere +statement of his motion. Off flew on the wings of Hansom a +youthful member, more trusty than the trusted Undy, to the abode +of the now couchant Treasury Argus. Morpheus had claimed him all +for his own. He was lying in true enjoyment, with his tired limbs +stretched between the unaccustomed sheets, and snoring with free +and sonorous nose, restrained by the contiguity of no Speaker's +elbow. But even in his deepest slumber the quick wheels of the +bounding cab struck upon the tympanum of his anxious ear. He +roused himself as does a noble watch-dog when the 'suspicious +tread of theft' approaches. The hurry of the jaded horse, the +sudden stop, the maddened furious knock, all told a tale which +his well-trained ear only knew too well. He sat up for a moment, +listening in his bed, stretched himself with one involuntary +yawn, and then stood upright on the floor. It should not at any +rate be boasted by any one that he had been found in bed. + +With elastic step, three stairs at a time, up rushed that young +and eager member. It was well for the nerves of Mrs. Whip Vigil +that the calls of society still held her bound in some distant +brilliant throng; for no consideration would have stopped the +patriotic energy of that sucking statesman. Mr. Vigil had already +performed the most important act of a speedy toilet, when his +door was opened, and as his young friend appeared was already +buttoning his first brace. + +'Pumpkin is up!' said the eager juvenile,' and we have only five +men in the house.' + +'And where the devil is Undy Scott?' said the Right Hon. Mr. +Vigil. + +'The devil only knows,' said the other. + +'I deserve it for trusting him,' said the conscience-stricken but +worthy public servant. By this time he had on his neckcloth and +boots; in his eager haste to serve his country he had forgotten +his stockings. 'I deserve it for trusting him--and how many men +have they?' + +'Forty-one when I left.' + +'Then they'll divide, of course?' + +'Of course they will,' said the promising young dove of the +Treasury. + +And now Mr. Whip Vigil had buttoned on that well-made frock with +which the Parliamentary world is so conversant, and as he +descended the stairs, arranged with pocket-comb his now grizzling +locks. His well-brushed hat stood ready to his touch below, and +when he entered the cab he was apparently as well dressed a +gentleman as when about three hours after noon he may be seen +with slow and easy step entering the halls of the Treasury +chambers. + +But ah! alas, he was all too late. He came but to see the ruin +which Undy's defection had brought about. He might have taken his +rest, and had a quiet mind till the next morning's _Times_ +revealed to him the fact of Mr. Pumpkin's grand success. When he +arrived, the numbers were being taken, and he, even he, Mr. Whip +Vigil, he the great arch-numberer, was excluded from the number +of the counted. When the doors were again open the Commons of +England had decided by a majority of forty-one to seven that the +parks of London should, one and all, be closed on Sundays; and +Mr. Pumpkin had achieved among his own set a week's immortality. + +'We mustn't have this again, Vigil,' said a very great man the +next morning, with a good-humoured smile on his face, however, as +he uttered the reprimand. 'It will take us a whole night, and God +knows how much talking, to undo what those fools did yesterday.' + +Mr. Vigil resolved to leave nothing again to the unassisted +industry or honesty of Undy Scott, and consequently that +gentleman's claims on his party did not stand so highly as they +might have done but for this accident. Parliament was soon +afterwards dissolved, and either through the lukewarm support of +his Government friends, or else in consequence of his great +fortune having been found to be ambiguous, the independent +electors of the Tillietudlem burghs took it into their heads to +unseat Mr. Scott. Unseated for Tillietudlem, he had no means of +putting himself forward elsewhere, and he had to repent, in the +sackcloth and ashes of private life, the fault which had cost him +the friendship of Mr. Vigil. + +His life, however, was not strictly private. He had used the +Honourable before his name, and the M.P. which for a time had +followed after it, to acquire for himself a seat as director at a +bank board. He was a Vice-President of the Caledonian, English, +Irish, and General European and American Fire and Life Assurance +Society; such, at least, had been the name of the joint-stock +company in question when he joined it; but he had obtained much +credit by adding the word 'Oriental,' and inserting it after the +allusion to Europe; he had tried hard to include the fourth +quarter of the globe; but, as he explained to some of his +friends, it would have made the name too cumbrous for the +advertisements. He was a director also of one or two minor +railways, dabbled in mining shares, and, altogether, did a good +deal of business in the private stock-jobbing line. + +In spite of his former delinquencies, his political friends did +not altogether throw him over. In the first place, the time might +come when he would be again useful, and then he had managed to +acquire that air and tact which make one official man agreeable +to another. He was always good-humoured; when in earnest, there +was a dash of drollery about him; in his most comic moods he ever +had some serious purpose in view; he thoroughly understood the +esoteric and exoteric bearings of modern politics, and knew well +that though he should be a model of purity before the public, it +did not behove him to be very strait-laced with his own party. He +took everything in good part, was not over-talkative, over- +pushing, or presumptuous; he felt no strong bias of his own; had +at his fingers' ends the cant phraseology of ministerial +subordinates, and knew how to make himself useful. He knew also-- +a knowledge much more difficult to acquire--how to live among +men so as never to make himself disagreeable. + +But then he could not be trusted! True. But how many men in his +walk of life can be trusted? And those who can--at how terribly +high a price do they rate their own fidelity! How often must a +minister be forced to confess to himself that he cannot afford to +employ good faith! Undy Scott, therefore, from time to time, +received some ministerial bone, some Civil Service scrap of +victuals thrown to him from the Government table, which, if it +did not suffice to maintain him in all the comforts of a Treasury +career, still preserved for him a connexion with the Elysium of +public life; gave him, as it were, a link by which he could hang +on round the outer corners of the State's temple, and there watch +with advantage till the doors of Paradise should be re-opened to +him. He was no Lucifer, who, having wilfully rebelled against the +high majesty of Heaven, was doomed to suffer for ever in +unavailing, but still proud misery, the penalties of his asserted +independence; but a poor Peri, who had made a lapse and thus +forfeited, for a while, celestial joys, and was now seeking for +some welcome offering, striving to perform some useful service, +by which he might regain his lost glory. + +The last of the good things thus tendered to him was not yet all +consumed. When Mr. Hardlines, now Sir Gregory, was summoned to +assist at, or rather preside over, the deliberations of the +committee which was to organize a system of examination for the +Civil Service, the Hon. U. Scott had been appointed secretary to +that committee. This, to be sure, afforded but a fleeting moment +of halcyon bliss; but a man like Mr. Scott knew how to prolong +such a moment to its uttermost stretch. The committee had ceased +to sit, and the fruits of their labour were already apparent in +the establishment of a new public office, presided over by Sir +Gregory; but still the clever Undy continued to draw his salary. + +Undy was one of those men who, though married and the fathers of +families, are always seen and known '_en garçon_'. No one +had a larger circle of acquaintance than Undy Scott; no one, +apparently, a smaller circle than Mrs. Undy Scott. So small, +indeed, was it, that its _locale_ was utterly unknown in the +fashionable world. At the time of which we are now speaking Undy +was the happy possessor of a bedroom in Waterloo Place, and +rejoiced in all the comforts of a first-rate club. But the sacred +spot, in which at few and happy intervals he received the +caresses of the wife of his bosom and the children of his loins, +is unknown to the author. + +In age, Mr. Scott, at the time of the Tavistock mining inquiry, +was about thirty-five. Having sat in Parliament for five years, +he had now been out for four, and was anxiously looking for the +day when the universal scramble of a general election might give +him another chance. In person he was, as we have said, stalwart +and comely, hirsute with copious red locks, not only over his +head, but under his chin and round his mouth. He was well made, +six feet high, neither fat nor thin, and he looked like a +gentleman. He was careful in his dress, but not so as to betray +the care that he took; he was imperturbable in temper, though +restless in spirit; and the one strong passion of his life was +the desire of a good income at the cost of the public. + +He had an easy way of getting intimate with young men when it +suited him, and as easy a way of dropping them afterwards +when that suited him. He had no idea of wasting his time or +opportunities in friendships. Not that he was indifferent as to +his companions, or did not appreciate the pleasure of living with +pleasant men; but that life was too short, and with him the race +too much up hill, to allow of his indulging in such luxuries. He +looked on friendship as one of those costly delights with which +none but the rich should presume to gratify themselves. He could +not afford to associate with his fellow-men on any other terms +than those of making capital of them. It was not for him to walk +and talk and eat and drink with a man because he liked him. How +could the eleventh son of a needy Scotch peer, who had to +maintain his rank and position by the force of his own wit, how +could such a one live, if he did not turn to some profit even the +convivialities of existence? + +Acting in accordance with his fixed and conscientious rule in +this respect, Undy Scott had struck up an acquaintance with +Alaric Tudor. He saw that Alaric was no ordinary clerk, that Sir +Gregory was likely to have the Civil Service under his thumb, and +that Alaric was a great favourite with the great man. It would +but little have availed Undy to have striven to be intimate with +Sir Gregory himself. The Knight Commander of the Bath would have +been deaf to his blandishments; but it seemed probable that the +ears of Alaric might be tickled. + +And thus Alaric and Undy Scott had become fast friends; that is, +as fast as such friends generally are. Alaric was no more blind +to his own interest than was his new ally. But there was this +difference between them; Undy lived altogether in the utilitarian +world which he had formed around himself, whereas Alaric lived in +two worlds. When with Undy his pursuits and motives were much +such as those of Undy himself; but at Surbiton Cottage, and with +Harry Norman, he was still susceptible of a higher feeling. He +had been very cool to poor Linda on his last visit to Hampton; +but it was not that his heart was too hard for love. He had begun +to discern that Gertrude would never attach herself to Norman; +and if Gertrude were free, why should she not be his? + +Poor Linda! + +Scott had early heard--and of what official event did he not +obtain early intelligence?--that Neverbend was to go down to +Tavistock about the Mary Jane tin mine, and that a smart +colleague was required for him. He would fain, for reasons of his +own, have been that smart colleague himself; but that he knew was +impossible. He and Neverbend were the Alpha and Omega of official +virtues and vices. But he took an opportunity of mentioning +before Sir Gregory, in a passing unpremeditated way, how +excellently adapted Tudor was for the work. It so turned out that +his effort was successful, and that Tudor was sent. + +The whole of their first day at Tavistock was passed by Neverbend +and Alaric in hearing interminable statements from the various +mining combatants, and when at seven o'clock Alaric shut up for +the evening he was heartily sick of the job. The next morning +before breakfast he sauntered out to air himself in front of the +hotel, and who should come whistling up the street, with a cigar +in his mouth, but his new friend Undy Scott. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MR. MANYLODES + + +Alaric Tudor was very much surprised. Had he seen Sir Gregory +himself, or Captain Cuttwater, walking up the street of +Tavistock, he could not have been more startled. It first +occurred to him that Scott must have been sent down as a third +Commissioner to assist at the investigation; and he would have +been right glad to have known that this was the case, for he +found that the management of Mr. Neverbend was no pastime. But he +soon learnt that such relief was not at hand for him. + +'Well, Tudor, my boy,' said he, 'and how do you like the clotted +cream and the thick ankles of the stout Devonshire lasses?' + +'I have neither tasted the one, nor seen the other,' said Alaric. +'As yet I have encountered nothing but the not very civil +tongues, and not very clear brains of Cornish roughs.' + +'A Boeotian crew! but, nevertheless, they know on which side +their bread is buttered--and in general it goes hard with them +but they butter it on both sides. And how does the faithful +Neverbend conduct himself? Talk of Boeotians, if any man ever was +born in a foggy air, it must have been my friend Fidus.' + +Alaric merely shrugged his shoulders, and laughed slightly. 'But +what on earth brings you down to Tavistock?' said he. + +'Oh! I am a denizen of the place, naturalized, and all but +settled; have vast interests here, and a future constituency. Let +the Russells look well to themselves. The time is quickly coming +when you will address me in the House with bitter sarcasm as the +honourable but inconsistent member for Tavistock; egad, who knows +but you may have to say Right Honourable?' + +'Oh! I did not know the wind blew in that quarter,' said Alaric, +not ill-pleased at the suggestion that he also, on some future +day, might have a seat among the faithful Commons. + +'The wind blows from all quarters with me,' said Undy; 'but in +the meantime I am looking out for shares.' + +'Will you come in and breakfast?' asked the other. + +'What, with friend Fidus? no, thank'ee; I am not, by many +degrees, honest enough to suit his book. He would be down on some +little public peccadillo of mine before I had swallowed my first +egg. Besides, I would not for worlds break the pleasure of your +_tête-à-tête_.' + +'Will you come down after dinner?' + +'No; neither after dinner, nor before breakfast; not all the +coffee, nor all the claret of the Bedford shall tempt me. +Remember, my friend, you are paid for it; I am not.' + +'Well, then, good morning,' said Alaric. 'I must go in and face +my fate, like a Briton.' + +Undy went on for a few steps, and then returned, as though a +sudden thought had struck him. 'But, Tudor, I have bowels of +compassion within me, though no pluck. I am willing to rescue +you from your misery, though I will not partake it. Come up to +me this evening, and I will give you a glass of brandy-punch. +Your true miners never drink less generous tipple.' + +'How on earth am I to shake off this incubus of the Woods and +Works?' + +'Shake him off? Why, make him drunk and put him to bed; or tell +him at once that the natural iniquity of your disposition makes +it necessary that you should spend a few hours of the day in the +company of a sinner like myself. Tell him that his virtue is too +heavy for the digestive organs of your unpractised stomach. Tell +him what you will, but come. I myself am getting sick of those +mining Vandals, though I am so used to dealing with them.' + +Alaric promised that he would come, and then went in to +breakfast. Undy also returned to his breakfast, well pleased with +this first success in the little scheme which at present occupied +his mind. The innocent young Commissioner little dreamt that the +Honourable Mr. Scott had come all the way to Tavistock on purpose +to ask him to drink brandy-punch at the Blue Dragon! + +Another day went wearily and slowly on with Alaric and Mr. +Neverbend. Tedious, never-ending statements had to be taken down +in writing; the same things were repeated over and over again, +and were as often contradicted; men who might have said in five +words all that they had to say, would not be constrained to say +it in less than five thousand, and each one seemed to think, or +pretended to seem to think, that all the outer world and the +Government were leagued together to defraud the interest to which +he himself was specially attached. But this was not the worst of +it. There were points which were as clear as daylight; but Tudor +could not declare them to be so, as by doing so he was sure to +elicit a different opinion from Mr. Neverbend. + +'I am not quite so clear on that point, Mr. Tudor,' he would say. + +Alaric, till experience made him wise, would attempt to argue it. + +'That is all very well, but I am not quite so sure of it. We will +reserve the point, if you please,' and so affairs went on darkly, +no ray of light being permitted to shine in on the matter in +dispute. + +It was settled, however, before dinner, that they should both go +down the Wheal Mary Jane on the following day. Neverbend had done +what he could to keep this crowning honour of the inquiry +altogether in his own hands, but he had found that in this +respect Tudor was much too much for him. + +Immediately after dinner Alaric announced that he was going to +spend the evening with a friend. + +'A friend!' said Neverbend, somewhat startled; 'I did not know +that you had any friends in Tavistock.' + +'Not a great many; but it so happened that I did meet a man I +know, this morning, and promised to go to him in the evening. I +hope you'll excuse my leaving you?' + +'Oh! I don't mind for myself,' said Neverbend, 'though, when men +are together, it's as well for them to keep together. But, Mr. +Tudor----' + +'Well?' said Alaric, who felt growing within him a determination +to put down at once anything like interference with his private +hours. + +'Perhaps I ought not to mention it,' said Neverbend, 'but I do +hope you'll not get among mining people. Only think what our +position here is.' + +'What on earth do you mean?' said Alaric. 'Do you think I shall +be bribed over by either side because I choose to drink a glass +of wine with a friend at another hotel?' + +'Bribed! No, I don't think you'll be bribed; but I think we +should both keep ourselves absolutely free from all chance of +being talked to on the subject, except before each other and +before witnesses. I would not drink brandy-and-water at the Blue +Dragon, before this report be written, even if my brother were +there.' + +'Well, Mr. Neverbend, I am not so much afraid of myself. But +wherever there are two men, there will be two opinions. So good +night, if it so chance that you are in bed before my return.' + +So Tudor went out, and Neverbend prepared himself to sit up for +him. He would sooner have remained up all night than have gone to +bed before his colleague came back. + +Three days Alaric Tudor had now passed with Mr. Neverbend, and +not only three days but three evenings also! A man may endure to +be bored in the course of business through the day, but it +becomes dreadful when the infliction is extended to post-prandial +hours. It does not often occur that one is doomed to bear the +same bore both by day and night; any change gives some ease; but +poor Alaric for three days had had no change. He felt like a +liberated convict as he stepped freely forth into the sweet +evening air, and made his way through the town to the opposition +inn. + +Here he found Undy on the door-steps with a cigar in his mouth. +'Here I am, waiting for you,' said he. 'You are fagged to death, +I know, and we'll get a mouthful of fresh air before we go +upstairs,'--and so saying he put his arm through Alaric's, and +they strolled off through the suburbs of the town. + +'You don't smoke,' said Undy, with his cigar-case in his hand. +'Well--I believe you are right--cigars cost a great deal of +money, and can't well do a man any real good. God Almighty could +never have intended us to make chimneys of our mouths and noses. +Does Fidus ever indulge in a weed?' + +'He never indulges in anything,' said Alaric. + +'Except honesty,' said the other, 'and in that he is a beastly +glutton. He gorges himself with it till all his faculties are +overpowered and his mind becomes torpid. It's twice worse than +drinking. I wonder whether he'll do a bit of speculation before +he goes back to town.' + +'Who, Neverbend?--he never speculates!' + +'Why not? Ah, my fine fellow, you don't know the world yet. Those +sort of men, dull drones like Neverbend, are just the fellows who +go the deepest. I'll be bound he will not return without a few +Mary Janes in his pocket-book. He'll be a fool if he does, I +know.' + +'Why, that's the very mine we are down here about.' + +'And that's the very reason why he'll purchase Mary Janes. He has +an opportunity of knowing their value. Oh, let Neverbend alone. +He is not so young as you are, my dear fellow.' + +'Young or old, I think you mistake his character.' + +'Why, Tudor, what would you think now if he not only bought for +himself, but was commissioned to buy by the very men who sent him +down here?' + +'It would be hard to make me believe it.' + +'Ah! faith is a beautiful thing; what a pity that it never +survives the thirtieth year;--except with women and fools.' + +'And have you no faith, Scott?' + +'Yes--much in myself--some little in Lord Palmerston, that is, in +his luck; and a good deal in a bank-note. But I have none at all +in Fidus Neverbend. What! have faith in a man merely because he +tells me to have it! His method of obtaining it is far too easy.' + +'I trust neither his wit nor his judgement; but I don't believe +him to be a thief.' + +'Thief! I said nothing of thieves. He may, for aught I know, be +just as good as the rest of the world; all I say is, that I +believe him to be no better. But come, we must go back to the +inn; there is an ally of mine coming to me; a perfect specimen of +a sharp Cornish mining stockjobber--as vulgar a fellow as you +ever met, and as shrewd. He won't stay very long, so you need not +be afraid of him.' + +Alaric began to feel uneasy, and to think that there might by +possibility be something in what Neverbend had said to him. He +did not like the idea of meeting a Cornish stock-jobber in a +familiar way over his brandy-punch, while engaged, as he +now was, on the part of Government; he felt that there might be +impropriety in it, and he would have been glad to get off if he +could. But he felt ashamed to break his engagement, and thus +followed Undy into the hotel. + +'Has Mr. Manylodes been here?' said Scott, as he walked upstairs. + +'He's in the bar now, sir,' said the waiter. + +'Beg him to come up, then. In the bar! why, that man must have a +bar within himself--the alcohol he consumes every day would be a +tidy sale for a small public-house.' + +Up they went, and Mr. Manylodes was not long in following them. +He was a small man, more like an American in appearance than an +Englishman. He had on a common black hat, a black coat, black +waistcoat, and black trousers, thick boots, a coloured shirt, and +very dirty hands. Though every article he wore was good, and most +of them such as gentlemen wear, no man alive could have mistaken +him for a gentleman. No man, conversant with the species to which +he belonged, could have taken him for anything but what he was. +As he entered the room, a faint, sickly, second-hand smell of +alcohol pervaded the atmosphere. + +'Well, Manylodes,' said Scott, 'I'm glad to see you again. This +is my friend, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Your servant, sir,' said Manylodes, just touching his hat, +without moving it from his head. 'And how are you, Mr. Scott? I +am glad to see you again in these parts, sir.' + +'And how's trade? Come, Tudor, what will you drink? Manylodes, I +know, takes brandy; their sherry is vile, and their claret worse; +maybe they may have a fairish glass of port. And how is trade, +Manylodes?' + +'We're all as brisk as bees at present. I never knew things +sharper. If you've brought a little money with you, now's your +time. But I tell you this, you'll find it sharp work for the +eyesight.' + +'Quick's the word, I suppose.' + +'Lord love you! Quick! Why, a fellow must shave himself before he +goes to bed if he wants to be up in time these days.' + +'I suppose so.' + +'Lord love you! why there was old Sam Weazle; never caught +napping yet--why at Truro, last Monday, he bought up to 450 New +Friendships, and before he was a-bed they weren't worth, not this +bottle of brandy. Well, old Sam was just bit by those Cambourne +lads.' + +'And how did that happen?' + +'Why, the New Friendships certainly was very good while they +lasted; just for three months they was the thing certainly. Why, +it came up, sir, as if there weren't no end of it, and just as +clean as that half-crown--but I know'd there was an end coming.' + +'Water, I suppose,' said Undy, sipping his toddy. + +'Them clean takes, Mr. Scott, they never lasts. There was water, +but that weren't the worst. Old Weazle knew of that; he +calculated he'd back the metal agin the water, and so he bought +all up he could lay his finger on. But the stuff was run out. +Them Cambourne boys--what did they do? Why, they let the water in +on purpose. By Monday night old Weazle knew it all, and then you +may say it was as good as a play.' + +'And how did you do in the matter?' + +'Oh, I sold. I did very well--bought at £7 2s. 3d. and sold at £6 +19s. 10 1/2d., and got my seven per cent, for the four months. +But, Lord love you, them clean takes never lasts. I worn't going +to hang on. Here's your health, Mr. Scott. Yours, Mr.---, I +didn't just catch the gen'leman's name;' and without waiting for +further information on the point, he finished his brandy-and- +water. + +'So it's all up with the New Friendships, is it?' said Undy. + +'Up and down, Mr. Scott; every dog has his day; these Mary Janes +will be going the same way some of them days. We're all mortal;' +and with this moral comparison between the uncertainty of human +life and the vicissitudes of the shares in which he trafficked, +Mr. Manylodes proceeded to put some more sugar and brandy into +his tumbler. + +'True, true--we are all mortal--Manylodes and Mary Janes; old +friendships and New Friendships: while they last we must make the +most we can of them; buy them cheap and sell them dear; and above +all things get a good percentage,' + +'That's the game, Mr. Scott; and I will say no man understands it +better than yourself--keep the ball a-running--that's your maxim. +Are you going it deep in Mary Jane, Mr. Scott?' + +'Who? I! O no--she's a cut above me now, I fear. The shares are +worth any money now, I suppose.' + +'Worth any money! I think they are, Mr. Scott, but I believe----' +and then bringing his chair close up to that of his aristocratic +friend, resting his hands, one on Mr. Scott's knee, and the other +on his elbow, and breathing brandy into his ear, he whispered to +him words of great significance. + +'I'll leave you, Scott,' said Alaric, who did not enjoy the +society of Mr. Manylodes, and to whom the nature of the +conversation was, in his present position, extremely irksome; 'I +must be back at the Bedford early.' + +'Early--why early? surely our honest friend can get himself to +bed without your interference. Come, you don't like the brandy +toddy, nor I either. We'll see what sort of a hand they are at +making a bowl of bishop.' + +'Not for me, Scott.' + +'Yes, for you, man; surely you are not tied to that fellow's +apron-strings,' he said, removing himself from the close +contiguity of Mr. Manylodes, and speaking under his voice; 'take +my advice; if you once let that man think you fear him, you'll +never get the better of him.' + +Alaric allowed himself to be persuaded and stayed. + +'I have just ten words of business to say to this fellow,' +continued Scott, 'and then we will be alone.' + +It was a lovely autumn evening, early in September, and Alaric +sat himself at an open window, looking out from the back of the +hotel on to the Brentor, with its singular parish church, built +on its highest apex, while Undy held deep council with his friend +of the mines. But from time to time, some word of moment found +its way to Alaric's ears, and made him also unconsciously fix his +mind on the _irritamenta malorum_, which are dug from the +bowels of the earth in those western regions. + +'Minting money, sir; it's just minting money. There's been no +chance like it in my days. £4 12s. 6d. paid up; and they'll be at +£25 in Truro before sun sets on Saturday, Lord love you, Mr. +Scott, now's your time. If, as I hear, they--' and then there was +a very low whisper, and Alaric, who could not keep his eye +altogether from Mr. Manylodes' countenance, saw plainly that that +worthy gentleman was talking of himself; and in spite of his +better instincts, a desire came over him to know more of what +they were discussing, and he could not keep from thinking that +shares bought at £4 12s. 6d., and realizing £25, must be very nice +property. + +'Well, I'll manage it,' said Scott, still in a sort of whisper, +but audibly enough for Alaric to hear. 'Forty, you say? I'll take +them at £5 1s. 1d.--very well;' and he took out his pocket-book +and made a memorandum. 'Come, Tudor, here's the bishop. We have +done our business, so now we'll enjoy ourselves. What, Manylodes, +are you off?' + +'Lord love you, Mr. Scott, I've a deal to do before I get to my +downy; and I don't like those doctored tipples. Good night, Mr. +Scott. I wishes you good night, sir;' and making another slight +reference to his hat, which had not been removed from his head +during the whole interview, Mr. Manylodes took himself off. + +'There, now, is a specimen of a species of the _genus homo_, +class Englishman, which is, I believe, known nowhere but in +Cornwall.' + +'Cornwall and Devonshire, I suppose,' said Alaric. + +'No; he is out of his true element here. If you want to see him +in all the glory of his native county you should go west of +Truro. From Truro to Hayle is the land of the Manylodes. And a +singular species it is. But, Tudor, you'll be surprised, I +suppose, if I tell you that I have made a purchase for you.' + +'A purchase for me!' + +'Yes; I could not very well consult you before that fellow, and +yet as the chance came in my way, I did not like to lose it. +Come, the bishop ain't so bad, is it, though it is doctored +tipple?' and he refilled Alaric's glass. + +'But what have you purchased for me, Scott?' + +'Forty shares in the Mary Jane.' + +'Then you may undo the bargain again, for I don't want them, and +shall not take them.' + +'You need not be a bit uneasy, my dear fellow. I've bought them +at a little over £5, and they'll be saleable to-morrow at double +the money--or at any rate to-morrow week. But what's your +objection to them?' + +'In the first place, I've got no money to buy shares.' + +'That's just the reason why you should buy them; having no money, +you can't but want some; and here's your way to make it. You can +have no difficulty in raising £200.' + +'And in the next place, I should not think of buying mining +shares, and more especially these, while I am engaged as I now +am.' + +'Fal de ral, de ral, de ral! That's all very fine, Mr. +Commissioner; only you mistake your man; you think you are +talking to Mr. Neverbend.' + +'Well, Scott, I shan't have them.' + +'Just as you please, my dear fellow; there's no compulsion. Only +mark this; the ball is at your foot now, but it won't remain +there. 'There is a tide in the affairs of men'--you know the +rest; and you know also that 'tide and time wait for no man.' If +you are contented with your two or three hundred a year in the +Weights and Measures, God forbid that I should tempt you to +higher thoughts--only in that case I have mistaken my man.' + +'I must be contented with it, if I can get nothing better,' said +Tudor, weakly. + +'Exactly; you must be contented--or rather you must put up with +it--if you can get nothing better. That's the meaning of +contentment all the world over. You argue in a circle. You must +be a mere clerk if you cannot do better than other mere clerks. +But the fact of your having such an offer as that I now make you, +is proof that you can do better than others; proves, in fact, +that you need not be a mere clerk, unless you choose to remain +so.' + +'Buying these shares might lose me all that I have got, and could +not do more than put a hundred pounds or so in my pocket.' + +'Gammon--' + +'Could I go back and tell Sir Gregory openly that I had bought +them?' + +'Why, Tudor, you are the youngest fish I ever met, sent out to +swim alone in this wicked world of ours. Who the deuce talks +openly of his speculations? Will Sir Gregory tell you what shares +he buys? Is not every member of the House, every man in the +Government, every barrister, parson, and doctor, that can collect +a hundred pounds, are not all of them at the work? And do they +talk openly of the matter? Does the bishop put it into his +charge, or the parson into his sermon?' + +'But they would not be ashamed to tell their friends.' + +'Would not they? Oh! the Rev. Mr. Pickabit, of St. Judas Without, +would not be ashamed to tell his bishop! But the long and the +short of the thing is this; most men circumstanced as you are +have no chance of doing anything good till they are forty or +fifty, and then their energies are worn out. You have had tact +enough to push yourself up early, and yet it seems you have not +pluck enough to take the goods the gods provide you.' + +'The gods!--you mean the devils rather,' said Alaric, who sat +listening and drinking, almost unconsciously, his doctored +tipple. + +'Call them what you will for me. Fortune has generally been +esteemed a goddess, but misfortune a very devil. But, Tudor, you +don't know the world. Here is a chance in your way. Of course +that keg of brandy who went out just now understands very well +who you are. He wants to be civil to me, and he thinks it wise to +be civil to you also. He has a hat full of these shares, and he +tells me that, knowing my weakness, and presuming that you have +the same, he bought a few extra this morning, thinking we might +like them. Now, I have no hesitation in saying there is not a +single man whom the Government could send down here, from Sir +Gregory downwards, who could refuse the chance.' + +'I am quite sure that Neverbend----' + +'Oh! for Heaven's sake don't choke me with Neverbend; the fools +are fools, and will be so; they are used for their folly. I speak +of men with brains. How do you think that such men as Hardlines, +Vigil, and Mr. Estimate have got up in the world? Would they be +where they are now, had they been contented with their salaries?' + +'They had private fortunes.' + +'Very private they must have been--I never heard of them. No; +what fortunes they have they made. Two of them are in Parliament, +and the other has a Government situation of £2,000 a year, with +little or nothing to do. But they began life early, and never +lost a chance.' + +'It is quite clear that that blackguard who was here just now +thinks that he can influence my opinion by inducing me to have an +interest in the matter.' + +'He had no such idea--nor have I. Do you think I would persuade +you to such villany? Do you think I do not know you too well? Of +course the possession of these shares can have no possible effect +on your report, and is not expected to have any. But when men +like you and me become of any note in the world, others, such as +Manylodes, like to know that we are embarked in the same +speculation with themselves. Why are members of Parliament asked +to be directors, and vice-governors, and presidents, and +guardians, of all the joint-stock societies that are now set +agoing? Not because of their capital, for they generally have +none; not for their votes, because one vote can be but of little +use in any emergency. It is because the names of men of note are +worth money. Men of note understand this, and enjoy the fat of +the land accordingly. I want to see you among the number.' + +'Twas thus the devil pleaded for the soul of Alaric Tudor; and, +alas! he did not plead in vain. Let him but have a fair hearing, +and he seldom does. 'Tis in this way that the truth of that awful +mystery, the fall of man, comes home to us; that we cannot hear +the devil plead, and resist the charm of his eloquence. To listen +is to be lost. 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from +evil!' Let that petition come forth from a man's heart, a true +and earnest prayer, and he will be so led that he shall not hear +the charmer, let him charm ever so wisely. + +'Twas but a thin veil that the Hon. Undecimus Scott threw over +the bait with which he fished for the honesty of Alaric Tudor, +and yet it sufficed. One would say that a young man, fortified +with such aspirations as those which glowed in Alaric's breast, +should have stood a longer siege; should have been able to look +with clearer eyesight on the landmarks which divide honour from +dishonour, integrity from fraud, and truth from falsehood. But he +had never prayed to be delivered from evil. His desire had rather +been that he might be led into temptation. + +He had never so prayed--yet had he daily said his prayers at +fitting intervals. On every returning Sunday had he gone through, +with all the fitting forms, the ordinary worship of a Christian. +Nor had he done this as a hypocrite. With due attention and a +full belief he had weekly knelt at God's temple, and given, if +not his mind, at least his heart, to the service of his church. +But the inner truth of the prayer which he repeated so often had +not come home to him. Alas! how many of us from week to week call +ourselves worms and dust and miserable sinners, describe +ourselves as chaff for the winds, grass for the burning, stubble +for the plough, as dirt and filth fit only to be trodden under +foot, and yet in all our doings before the world cannot bring +home to ourselves the conviction that we require other guidance +than our own! + +Alaric Tudor had sighed for permission to go forth among +worldlings and there fight the world's battle. Power, station, +rank, wealth, all the good things which men earn by tact, +diligence, and fortune combined, and which were so far from him +at his outset in life, became daily more dear to his heart. And +now his honourable friend twitted him with being a mere clerk! +No, he was not, never had been, never would be such. Had he not +already, in five or six short years, distanced his competitors, +and made himself the favourite and friend of men infinitely above +him in station? Was he not now here in Tavistock on a mission +which proved that he was no mere clerk? Was not the fact of his +drinking bishop in the familiar society of a lord's son, and an +ex-M.P., a proof of it? + +It would be calumny on him to say that he had allowed Scott to +make him tipsy on this occasion. He was far from being tipsy; but +yet the mixture which he had been drinking had told upon his +brain. + +'But, Undy,' said he--he had never before called his honourable +friend by his Christian name--'but, Undy, if I take these shares, +where am I to get the money to pay for them? + +'The chances are you may part with them before you leave +Tavistock. If so, you will not have to pay for them. You will +only have to pocket the difference.' + +'Or pay the loss.' + +'Or pay the loss. But there's no chance of that. I'll guarantee +you against that.' + +'But I shan't like to sell them. I shan't choose to be +trafficking in shares. Buying a few as an investment may, +perhaps, be a different thing.' + +'Oh, Alaric, Alaric, to what a pass had your conscience come, +when it could be so silenced!' + +'Well, I suppose you can raise a couple of hundred--£205 will +cover the whole thing, commission and all; but, mind, I don't +advise you to keep them long--I shall take two months' dividends, +and then sell.' + +'Two hundred and five pounds,' said Tudor, to whom the sum seemed +anything but trifling; 'and when must it be paid?' + +'Well, I can give Manylodes a cheque for the whole, dated this +day week. You'll be back in town before that. We must allow him +£5 for the accommodation. I suppose you can pay the money in at +my banker's by that day?' + +Alaric had some portion of the amount himself, and he knew that +Norman had money by him; he felt also a half-drunken conviction +that if Norman failed him, Captain Cuttwater would not let him +want such a sum; and so he said that he could, and the bargain +was completed. + +As he went downstairs whistling with an affected ease, and a +gaiety which, he by no means felt, Undy Scott leant back in his +chair, and began to speculate whether his new purchase was worth +the purchase-money. 'He's a sharp fellow; certainly, in some +things, and may do well yet; but he's uncommonly green. That, +however, will wear off. I should not be surprised if he told +Neverbend the whole transaction before this time to-morrow.' And +then Mr. Scott finished his cigar and went to bed. + +When Alaric entered the sitting-room at the Bedford, he found +Neverbend still seated at a table covered with official books and +huge bundles of official papers. An enormous report was open +before him, from which he was culling the latent sweets, and +extracting them with a pencil. He glowered at Alaric with a +severe suspicious eye, which seemed to accuse him at once of the +deed which he had done. + +'You are very late,' said Neverbend, 'but I have not been sorry +to be alone. I believe I have been able to embody in a rough +draft the various points which we have hitherto discussed. I have +just been five hours and a half at it;' and Fidus looked at his +watch; 'five hours and forty minutes. To-morrow, perhaps, that +is, if you are not going to your friend again, you'll not object +to make a fair copy----' + +'Copy!' shouted Alaric, in whose brain the open air had not +diminished the effect of the bishop, and who remembered, with all +the energy of pot valour, that he was not a mere clerk; 'copy-- +bother; I'm going to bed, old fellow; and I advise you to do the +same.' + +And then, taking up a candlestick and stumbling somewhat +awkwardly against a chair, Tudor went off to his room, waiting no +further reply from his colleague. + +Mr. Neverbend slowly put up his papers and followed him. 'He is +decidedly the worse for drink--decidedly so,' said he to himself, +as he pulled off his clothes. 'What a disgrace to the Woods and +Works--what a disgrace!' + +And he resolved in his mind that he would be very early at the +pit's mouth. He would not be kept from his duty while a +dissipated colleague collected his senses by the aid of soda- +water. + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHEAL MARY JANE + + +Mr. Manylodes was, at any rate, right in this, that that +beverage, which men call bishop, is a doctored tipple; and Alaric +Tudor, when he woke in the morning, owned the truth. It had been +arranged that certain denizens of the mine should meet the two +Commissioners at the pit-mouth at eight o'clock, and it had been +settled at dinner-time that breakfast should be on the table at +seven, sharp. Half an hour's quick driving would take them to the +spot. + +At seven Mr. Fidus Neverbend, who had never yet been known to be +untrue to an appointment by the fraction of a second, was +standing over the breakfast-table alone. He was alone, but not on +that account unhappy. He could hardly disguise the pleasure with +which he asked the waiter whether Mr. Tudor was yet dressed, or +the triumph which he felt when he heard that his colleague was +not _quite ready_. + +'Bring the tea and the eggs at once,' said Neverbend, very +briskly. + +'Won't you wait for Mr. Tudor?' asked the waiter, with an air of +surprise. Now the landlord, waiter, boots, and chambermaid, the +chambermaid especially, had all, in Mr. Neverbend's estimation, +paid Tudor by far too much consideration; and he was determined +to show that he himself was first fiddle. + +'Wait! no; quite out of the question--bring the hot water +immediately--and tell the ostler to have the fly at the door at +half-past seven exact.' + +'Yes, sir,' said the man, and disappeared. + +Neverbend waited five minutes, and then rang the bell +impetuously. 'If you don't bring me my tea immediately, I shall +send for Mr. Boteldale.' Now Mr. Boteldale was the landlord. + +'Mr. Tudor will be down in ten minutes,' was the waiter's false +reply; for up to that moment poor Alaric had not yet succeeded in +lifting his throbbing head from his pillow. The boots was now +with him administering soda-water and brandy, and he was +pondering in his sickened mind whether, by a manful effort, he +could rise and dress himself; or whether he would not throw +himself backwards on his coveted bed, and allow Neverbend the +triumph of descending alone to the nether world. + +Neverbend nearly threw the loaf at the waiter's head. Wait ten +minutes longer! what right had that vile Devonshire napkin- +twirler to make to him so base a proposition? 'Bring me my +breakfast, sir,' shouted Neverbend, in a voice that made the +unfortunate sinner jump out of the room, as though he had been +moved by a galvanic battery. + +In five minutes, tea made with lukewarm water, and eggs that were +not half boiled were brought to the impatient Commissioner. As a +rule Mr. Neverbend, when travelling on the public service, made a +practice of enjoying his meals. It was the only solace which he +allowed himself; the only distraction from the cares of office +which he permitted either to his body or his mind. But on this +great occasion his country required that he should forget his +comforts; and he drank his tasteless tea, and ate his uncooked +eggs, threatening the waiter as he did so with sundry pains and +penalties, in the form of sixpences withheld. + +'Is the fly there?' said he, as he bolted a last morsel of cold +roast beef. + +'Coming, sir,' said the waiter, as he disappeared round a corner. + +In the meantime Alaric sat lackadaisical on his bedside, all +undressed, leaning his head upon his hand, and feeling that his +struggle to dress himself was all but useless. The sympathetic +boots stood by with a cup of tea--well-drawn comfortable tea--in +his hand, and a small bit of dry toast lay near on an adjacent +plate. + +'Try a bit o' toast, sir,' said boots. + +'Ugh!' ejaculated poor Alaric. + +'Have a leetle drop o' rum in the tea, sir, and it'll set you all +to rights in two minutes.' + +The proposal made Alaric very sick, and nearly completed the +catastrophe. 'Ugh!' he said. + +'There's the trap, sir, for Mr. Neverbend,' said the boots, whose +ears caught the well-known sound. + +'The devil it is!' said Alaric, who was now stirred up to instant +action. 'Take my compliments to Mr. Neverbend, and tell him I'll +thank him to wait ten minutes.' + +Boots, descending with the message, found Mr. Neverbend ready +coated and gloved, standing at the hotel door. The fly was there, +and the lame ostler holding the horse; but the provoking driver +had gone back for his coat. + +'Please, sir, Mr. Tudor says as how you're not to go just at +present, but to wait ten minutes till he be ready.' + +Neverbend looked at the man, but he would not trust himself to +speak. Wait ten minutes, and it now wanted five-and-twenty +minutes to eight!--no--not for all the Tudors that ever sat upon +the throne of England. + +There he stood with his watch in his hand as the returning Jehu +hurried round from the stable yard. 'You are now seven minutes +late,' said he, 'and if you are not at the place by eight +o'clock, I shall not give you one farthing!' + +'All right,' said Jehu. 'We'll be at Mary Jane in less than no +time;' and off they went, not at the quickest pace. But +Neverbend's heart beat high with triumph, as he reflected that he +had carried the point on which he had been so intent. + +Alaric, when he heard the wheels roll off, shook from him his +lethargy. It was not only that Neverbend would boast that he +alone had gone through the perils of their subterranean duty, but +that doubtless he would explain in London how his colleague had +been deterred from following him. It was a grievous task, that of +dressing himself, as youthful sinners know but too well. Every +now and then a qualm would come over him, and make the work seem +all but impossible. Boots, however, stuck to him like a man, +poured cold water over his head, renewed his tea-cup, comforted +him with assurances of the bracing air, and put a paper full of +sandwiches in his pocket. + +'For heaven's sake put them away,' said Alaric, to whom the very +idea of food was repulsive. + +'You'll want 'em, sir, afore you are half way to Mary Jane; and +it a'n't no joke going down and up again. I know what's what, +sir.' + +The boots stuck to him like a man. He did not only get him +sandwiches, but he procured for him also Mr. Boteldale's own +fast-trotting pony, and just as Neverbend was rolling up to the +pit's mouth fifteen minutes after his time, greatly resolving in +his own mind to button his breeches pocket firmly against the +recreant driver, Alaric started on the chase after him. + +Mr. Neverbend had a presentiment that, sick as his friend might +be, nauseous as doubtless were the qualms arising from yesterday's +intemperance, he would make an attempt to recover his lost +ground. He of the Woods and Works had begun to recognize the +energy of him of the Weights and Measures, and felt that there +was in it a force that would not easily be overcome, even by the +fumes of bishop. But yet it would be a great thing for the Woods +and Works if he, Neverbend, could descend in this perilous +journey to the deep bowels of the earth, leaving the Weights and +Measures stranded in the upper air. This descent among the hidden +riches of a lower world, this visit to the provocations of evils +not yet dug out from their durable confinement, was the keystone, +as it were, of the whole mission. Let Neverbend descend alone, +alone inspect the wonders of that dirty deep, and Tudor might +then talk and write as he pleased. In such case all the world of +the two public offices in Question, and of some others cognate to +them, would adjudge that he, Neverbend, had made himself master +of the situation. + +Actuated by these correct calculations, Mr. Neverbend was rather +fussy to begin an immediate descent when he found himself on the +spot. Two native gentlemen, who were to accompany the Commissioners, +or the Commissioner, as appeared likely to be the case, were already +there, as were also the men who were to attend upon them. + +It was an ugly uninviting place to look at, with but few visible +signs of wealth. The earth, which had been burrowed out by these +human rabbits in their search after tin, lay around in huge +ungainly heaps; the overground buildings of the establishment +consisted of a few ill-arranged sheds, already apparently in a +state of decadence; dirt and slush, and pods of water confined by +muddy dams, abounded on every side; muddy men, with muddy carts +and muddy horses, slowly crawled hither and thither, apparently +with no object, and evidently indifferent as to whom they might +overset in their course. The inferior men seemed to show no +respect to those above them, and the superiors to exercise no +authority over those below them. There was, a sullen equality +among them all. On the ground around was no vegetation; nothing +green met the eye, some few stunted bushes appeared here and +there, nearly smothered by heaped-up mud, but they had about them +none of the attractiveness of foliage. The whole scene, though +consisting of earth alone, was unearthly, and looked as though +the devil had walked over the place with hot hoofs, and then +raked it with a huge rake. + +'I am afraid I am very late,' said Neverbend, getting out of his +fly in all the haste he could muster, and looking at his watch +the moment his foot touched the ground, 'very late indeed, +gentlemen; I really must apologize, but it was the driver; I was +punctual to the minute, I was indeed. But come, gentlemen, we +won't lose another moment,' and Mr. Neverbend stepped out as +though he were ready at an instant's notice to plunge head +foremost down the deepest shaft in all that region of mines. + +'Oh, sir, there a'n't no cause of hurry whatsomever,' said one of +the mining authorities; 'the day is long enough.' + +'Oh, but there is cause of hurry, Mr. Undershot,' said Neverbend +angrily 'great cause of hurry; we must do this work very +thoroughly; and I positively have not time to get through all +that I have before me. + +'But-a'n't the other gen'leman a-coming?' asked Mr. Undershot. + +'Surely Mr. Tooder isn't a going to cry off?' said the other. +'Why, he was so hot about it yesterday.' + +'Mr. Tudor is not very well this morning,' said Mr. Neverbend. +'As his going down is not necessary for the inquiry, and is +merely a matter of taste on his part, he has not joined me this +morning. Come, gentlemen, are we ready?' + +It was then for the first time explained to Mr. Neverbend that he +had to go through a rather complicated adjustment of his toilet +before he would be considered fit to meet, the infernal gods. He +must, he was informed, envelop himself from head to foot in +miner's habiliments, if he wished to save every stitch he had on +him from dirt and destruction. He must also cover up his head +with a linen cap, so constituted as to carry a lump of mud with a +candle stuck in it, if he wished to save either his head from +filth or his feet from falling. Now Mr. Neverbend, like most +clerks in public offices, was somewhat particular about his +wardrobe; it behoved him, as a gentleman frequenting the West +End, to dress well, and it also behoved him to dress cheaply; he +was, moreover, careful both as to his head and feet; he could +not, therefore, reject the recommended precautions, but yet the +time!--the time thus lost might destroy all. + +He hurried into the shed where his toilet was to be made, and +suffered himself to be prepared in the usual way. He took off his +own great coat, and put on a muddy course linen jacket that +covered the upper portion of his body completely; he then dragged +on a pair of equally muddy overalls; and lastly submitted to a +most uninviting cap, which came down over his ears, and nearly +over his eyes, and on the brow of which a lump of mud was then +affixed, bearing a short tallow candle. + +But though dressed thus in miner's garb, Mr. Neverbend could not +be said to look the part he filled. He was a stout, reddish-faced +gentleman, with round shoulders and huge whiskers, he was nearly +bald, and wore spectacles, and in the costume in which he now +appeared he did not seem to be at his ease. Indeed, all his air +of command, all his personal dignity and dictatorial tone, left +him as soon as he found himself metamorphosed into a fat pseudo- +miner. He was like a cock whose feathers had been trailed through +the mud, and who could no longer crow aloud, or claim the +dunghill as his own. His appearance was somewhat that of a dirty +dissipated cook who, having been turned out of one of the clubs +for drunkenness, had been wandering about the streets all night. +He began to wish that he was once more in the well-known +neighbourhood of Charing Cross. + +The adventure, however, must now be carried through. There was +still enough of manhood in his heart to make him feel that he +could not return to his colleague at Tavistock without visiting +the wonders which he had come so far to see. When he reached the +head of the shaft, however, the affair did appear to him to be +more terrible than he had before conceived. He was invited to get +into a rough square bucket, in which there was just room for +himself and another to stand; he was specially cautioned to keep +his head straight, and his hands and elbows from protruding, and +then the windlass began to turn, and the upper world, the +sunlight, and all humanity receded from his view. + +The world receded from his view, but hardly soon enough; +for as the windlass turned and the bucket descended, his last +terrestrial glance, looking out among the heaps of mud, descried +Alaric Tudor galloping on Mr. Boteldale's pony up to the very +mouth of the mine. + +'_Facilis descensus Averni_.' The bucket went down easy +enough, and all too quick. The manner in which it grounded itself +on the first landing grated discordantly on Mr. Neverbend's finer +perceptibilities. But when he learnt, after the interchange of +various hoarse and to him unintelligible bellowings, that he was +to wait in that narrow damp lobby for the coming of his fellow- +Commissioner, the grating on his feelings was even more +discordant. He had not pluck enough left to grumble: but he +grunted his displeasure. He grunted, however, in vain; for in +about a quarter of an hour Alaric was close to him, shoulder to +shoulder. He also wore a white jacket, &c., with a nightcap of +mud and candle on his head; but somehow he looked as though he +had worn them all his life. The fast gallop, and the excitement +of the masquerade, which for him had charms the sterner Neverbend +could not feel, had dissipated his sickness; and he was once more +all himself. + +'So I've caught you at the first stage,' said he, good-humouredly; +for though he knew how badly he had been treated, he was much +too wise to show his knowledge. 'It shall go hard but I'll distance +you before we have done,' he said to himself. Poor Neverbend +only grunted. + +And then they all went down a second stage in another bucket; and +then a third in a third bucket; and then the business commenced. +As far as this point passive courage alone had been required; to +stand upright in a wooden tub and go down, and down, and down, +was in itself easy enough, so long as the heart did not utterly +faint. Mr. Neverbend's heart had grown faintish, but still he had +persevered, and now stood on a third lobby, listening with dull, +unintelligent ears to eager questions asked, by his colleague, +and to the rapid answers of their mining guides. Tudor was +absolutely at work with paper and pencil, taking down notes in +that wretched Pandemonium. + +'There now, sir,' said the guide; 'no more of them ugly buckets, +Mr. Neverbend; we can trust to our own arms and legs for the rest +of it, and so saying, he pointed out to Mr. Neverbend's horror- +stricken eyes a perpendicular iron ladder fixed firmly against +the upright side of a shaft, and leading--for aught Mr. Neverbend +could see--direct to hell itself. + +'Down here, is it?' said Alaric peeping over. + +'I'll go first,' said the guide; and down he went, down, down, +down, till Neverbend looking over, could barely see the glimmer +of his disappearing head light. Was it absolutely intended that +he should disappear in the same way? Had he bound himself to go +down that fiendish upright ladder? And were he to go down it, +what then? Would it be possible that a man of his weight should +ever come up again? + +'Shall it be you or I next?' said Alaric very civilly. Neverbend +could only pant and grunt, and Alaric, with a courteous nod, +placed himself on the ladder, and went down, down, down, till of +him also nothing was left but the faintest glimmer. Mr. Neverbend +remained above with one of the mining authorities; one attendant +miner also remained with them. + +'Now, Sir,' said the authority, 'if you are ready, the ladder is +quite free.' + +Free! What would not Neverbend have given to be free also +himself! He looked down the free ladder, and the very look made +him sink. It seemed to him as though nothing but a spider could +creep down that perpendicular abyss. And then a sound, slow, +sharp, and continuous, as of drops falling through infinite space +on to deep water, came upon his ear; and he saw that the sides of +the abyss were covered with slime; and the damp air made him +cough, and the cap had got over his spectacles and nearly blinded +him; and he was perspiring with a cold, clammy sweat. + +'Well, sir, shall we be going on?' said the authority. 'Mr. +Tooder'll be at the foot of the next set before this.' + +Mr. Neverbend wished that Mr. Tudor's journey might still be +down, and down, and down, till he reached the globe's centre, in +which conflicting attractions might keep him for ever fixed. In +his despair he essayed to put one foot upon the ladder, and then +looked piteously up to the guide's face. Even in that dark, dingy +atmosphere the light of the farthing candle on his head revealed +the agony of his heart. His companions, though they were miners, +were still men. They saw his misery, and relented. + +'Maybe thee be afeared?' said the working miner, 'and if so be +thee bee'st, thee'd better bide.' + +'I am sure I should never come up again,' said Neverbend, with a +voice pleading for mercy, but with all the submission of one +prepared to suffer without resistance if mercy should not be +forthcoming. + +'Thee bee'st for sartan too thick and weazy like for them +stairs,' said the miner. + +'I am, I am,' said Neverbend, turning on the man a look of the +warmest affection, and shoving the horrid, heavy, encumbered cap +from off his spectacles; 'yes, I am too fat.' How would he have +answered, with what aspect would he have annihilated the sinner, +had such a man dared to call him weazy up above, on _terra +firma_, under the canopy of heaven? + +His troubles, however, or at any rate his dangers, were brought +to an end. As soon as it became plainly manifest that his zeal in +the public service would carry him no lower, and would hardly +suffice to keep life throbbing in his bosom much longer, even in +his present level, preparations were made for his ascent. A bell +was rung; hoarse voices were again heard speaking and answering +in sounds quite unintelligible to a Cockney's ears; chains +rattled, the windlass whirled, and the huge bucket came tumbling +down, nearly on their heads. Poor Neverbend was all but lifted +into it. Where now was all the pride of the morn that had seen +him go forth the great dictator of the mines? Where was that +towering spirit with which he had ordered his tea and toast, and +rebuked the slowness of his charioteer? Where the ambition that +had soared so high over the pet of the Weights and Measures? +Alas, alas! how few of us there are who have within us the +courage to be great in adversity. _'Aequam memento'_--&c., +&c.!--if thou couldst but have thought of it, O Neverbend, who +need'st must some day die. + +But Neverbend did not think of it. How few of us do remember such +lessons at those moments in which they ought to be of use to us! +He was all but lifted into the tub, and then out of it, and then +again into another, till he reached the upper world, a sight +piteous to behold. His spectacles had gone from him, his cap +covered his eyes, his lamp had reversed itself, and soft globules +of grease had fallen on his nose, he was bathed in perspiration, +and was nevertheless chilled through to his very bones, his +whiskers were fringed with mud, and his black cravat had been +pulled from his neck and lost in some infernal struggle. +Nevertheless, the moment in which he seated himself on a hard +stool in that rough shed was perhaps the happiest in his life; +some Christian brought him beer; had it been nectar from the +brewery of the gods, he could not have drunk it with greater +avidity. + +By slow degrees he made such toilet as circumstances allowed, and +then had himself driven back to Tavistock, being no more willing +to wait for Tudor now than he had been in the early morning. But +Jehu found him much more reasonable on his return; and as that +respectable functionary pocketed his half-crown, he fully +understood the spirit in which it was given. Poor Neverbend had +not now enough pluck left in him to combat the hostility of a +postboy. + +Alaric, who of course contrived to see all that was to be seen, +and learn all that was to be learnt, in the dark passages of the +tin mine, was careful on his return to use his triumph with the +greatest moderation. His conscience was, alas, burdened with the +guilty knowledge of Undy's shares. When he came to think of the +transaction as he rode leisurely back to Tavistock, he knew how +wrong he had been, and yet he felt a kind of triumph at the spoil +which he held; for he had heard among the miners that the shares +of Mary Jane were already going up to some incredible standard of +value. In this manner, so said he to himself, had all the great +minds of the present day made their money, and kept themselves +afloat. 'Twas thus he tried to comfort himself; but not as yet +successfully. + +There were no more squabbles between Mr. Neverbend and Mr. Tudor; +each knew that of himself, which made him bear and forbear; and +so the two Commissioners returned to town on good terms with each +other, and Alaric wrote a report, which delighted the heart of +Sir Gregory Hardlines, ruined the opponents of the great tin +mine, and sent the Mary Jane shares up, and up, and up, till +speculating men thought that they could not give too high a price +to secure them. + +Alaric returned to town on Friday. It had been arranged that he, +and Charley, and Norman, should all go down to Hampton on the +Saturday; and then, on the following week, the competitive +examination was to take place. But Alaric's first anxiety after +his return was to procure the £206, which he had to pay for the +shares which he held in his pocket-book. He all but regretted, as +he journeyed up to town, with the now tame Fidus seated opposite +to him, that he had not disposed of them at Tavistock even at +half their present value, so that he might have saved himself the +necessity of being a borrower, and have wiped his hands of the +whole affair. + +He and Norman dined together at their club in Waterloo Place, the +Pythagorean, a much humbler establishment than that patronized by +Scott, and one that was dignified by no politics. After dinner, +as they sat over their pint of sherry, Alaric made his request. + +'Harry,' said he, suddenly, 'you are always full of money--I want +you to lend me £150.' + +Norman was much less quick in his mode of speaking than his +friend, and at the present moment was inclined to be somewhat +slower than usual. This affair of the examination pressed upon +his spirits, and made him dull and unhappy. During the whole of +dinner he had said little or nothing, and had since been sitting +listlessly gazing at vacancy, and balancing himself on the hind- +legs of his chair. + +'O yes--certainly,' said he; but he said it without the eagerness +with which Alaric thought that he should have answered his +request. + +'If it's inconvenient, or if you don't like it,' said Alaric, the +blood mounting to his forehead, 'it does not signify. I can do +without it.' + +'I can lend it you without any inconvenience,' said Harry. 'When +do you want it--not to-night, I suppose?' + +'No--not to-night--I should like to have it early to-morrow +morning; but I see you don't like it, so I'll manage it some +other way.' + +'I don't know what you mean by not liking it. I have not the +slightest objection to lending you any money I can spare. I don't +think you'll find any other of your friends who will like it +better. You can have it by eleven o'clock to-morrow.' + +Intimate as the two men were, there had hitherto been very little +borrowing or lending between them; and now Alaric felt as though +he owed it to his intimacy with his friend to explain to him why +he wanted so large a sum in so short a time. He felt, moreover, +that he would not himself be so much ashamed of what he had done +if he could confess it to some one else. He could then solace +himself with the reflection that he had done nothing secret. +Norman, he supposed, would be displeased; but then Norman's +displeasure could not injure him, and with Norman there would be +no danger that the affair would go any further. + +'You must think it very strange,' said he, 'that I should want +such a sum; but the truth is I have bought some shares.' + +'Railway shares?' said Norman, in a tone that certainly did not +signify approval. He disliked speculation altogether, and had an +old-fashioned idea that men who do speculate, should have money +wherewith to do it. + +'No--not railway shares exactly.' + +'Canal?' suggested Norman. + +'No--not canal.' + +'Gas?' + +'Mines,' said Alaric, bringing out the dread truth at last. + +Harry Norman's brow grew very black. 'Not that mine that you've +been down about, I hope,' said he. + +'Yes--that very identical Mary Jane that I went down, and down +about,' said Alaric, trying to joke on the subject. 'Don't look +so very black, my dear fellow. I know all that you have to say +upon the matter. I did what was very foolish, I dare say; but the +idea never occurred to me till it was too late, that I might be +suspected of making a false report on the subject, because I had +embarked a hundred pounds in it.' + +'Alaric, if it were known--' + +'Then it mustn't be known,' said Tudor. 'I am sorry for it; but, +as I told you, the idea didn't occur to me till it was too late. +The shares are bought now, and must be paid for to-morrow. I +shall sell them the moment I can, and you shall have the money in +three or four days.' + +'I don't care one straw about the money,' said Norman, now quick +enough, but still in great displeasure; 'I would give double the +amount that you had not done this.' + +'Don't be so suspicious, Harry,' said the other--'don't try to +think the worst of your friend. By others, by Sir Gregory +Hardlines, Neverbend, and such men, I might expect to be judged +harshly in such a matter. But I have a right to expect that you +will believe me. I tell you that I did this inadvertently, and am +sorry for it; surely that ought to be sufficient.' + +Norman said nothing more; but he felt that Tudor had done that +which, if known, would disgrace him for ever. It might, however, +very probably never be known; and it might also be that Tudor +would never act so dishonestly again. On the following morning +the money was paid; and in the course of the next week the shares +were resold, and the money repaid, and Alaric Tudor, for the +first time in his life, found himself to be the possessor of over +three hundred pounds. + +Such was the price which Scott, Manylodes, & Co., had found it +worth their while to pay him for his good report on Mary Jane. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE THREE KINGS + + +And now came the all-important week. On the Saturday the three +young men went down to Hampton. Charley had lately been leading a +very mixed sort of life. One week he would consort mainly with +the houri of the Norfolk Street beer-shop, and the next he would +be on his good behaviour, and live as respectably as circumstances +permitted him to do. His scope in this respect was not large. The +greatest respectability which his unassisted efforts could possibly +achieve was to dine at a cheap eating-house, and spend his +evenings, at a cigar divan. He belonged to no club, and his circle +of friends, except in the houri and navvy line, was very limited. Who +could expect that a young man from the Internal Navigation would +sit for hours and hours alone in a dull London lodging, over his book +and tea-cup? Who should expect that any young man will do so? +And yet mothers, and aunts, and anxious friends, do expect it--very +much in vain. + +During Alaric's absence at Tavistock, Norman had taken Charley by +the hand and been with him a good deal. He had therefore spent an +uncommonly respectable week, and the Norfolk Street houri would +have been _au désespoir_, but that she had other Charleys to +her bow. When he found himself getting into a first-class +carriage at the Waterloo-bridge station with his two comrades, he +began to appreciate the comfort of decency, and almost wished +that he also had been brought up among the stern morals and hard +work of the Weights and Measures. + +Nothing special occurred at Surbiton Cottage. It might have been +evident to a watchful bystander that Alaric was growing in favour +with all the party, excepting Mrs. Woodward, and that, as he did +so, Harry was more and more cherished by her. + +This was specially shown in one little scene. Alaric had brought +down with him to Hampton the documents necessary to enable him to +draw out his report on Mary Jane. Indeed, it was all but +necessary that he should do so, as his coming examination would +leave him but little time for other business during the week. On +Saturday night he sat up at his inn over the papers, and on +Sunday morning, when Mrs. Woodward and the girls came down, ready +bonneted, for church, he signified his intention of remaining at +his work. + +'I certainly think he might have gone to church,' said Mrs. +Woodward, when the hall-door closed behind the party, as they +started to their place of worship. + +'Oh! mamma, think how much he has to do,' said Gertrude. + +'Nonsense,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'it's all affectation, and he +ought to go to church. Government clerks are not worked so hard +as all that; are they, Harry?' + +'Alaric is certainly very busy, but I think he should go to +church all the same,' said Harry, who himself never omitted +divine worship. + +'But surely this is a work of necessity?' said Linda. + +'Fiddle-de-de,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I hate affectation, my dear. +It's very grand, I dare say, for a young man's services to be in +such request that he cannot find time to say his prayers. He'll +find plenty of time for gossiping by and by, I don't doubt.' + +Linda could say nothing further, for an unbidden tear moistened +her eyelid as she heard her mother speak so harshly of her lover. +Gertrude, however, took up the cudgels for him, and so did +Captain Cuttwater. + +'I think you are a little hard upon him, mamma,' said Gertrude, +'particularly when you know that, as a rule, he always goes to +church. I have heard you say yourself what an excellent churchman +he is.' + +'Young men change sometimes,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Upon my word, Bessie, I think you are very uncharitable this fine +Sunday morning,' said the captain. 'I wonder how you'll feel if +we have that chapter about the beam and the mote.' + +Mrs. Woodward did not quite like being scolded by her uncle +before her daughters, but she said nothing further. Katie, +however, looked daggers at the old man from out her big bright +eyes. What right had any man, were he ever so old, ever so much +an uncle, to scold her mamma? Katie was inclined to join her +mother and take Harry Norman's side, for it was Harry Norman who +owned the boat. + +They were now at the church door, and they entered without saying +anything further. Let us hope that charity, which surpasseth all +other virtues, guided their prayers while they were there, and +filled their hearts. In the meantime Alaric, unconscious how he +had been attacked and how defended, worked hard at his Tavistock +notes. + +Mrs. Woodward was quite right in this, that the Commissioner of +the Mines, though he was unable to find time to go to church, did +find time to saunter about with the girls before dinner. Was it +to be expected that he should not do so? for what other purpose +was he there at Hampton? + +They were all very serious this Sunday afternoon, and Katie could +make nothing of them. She and Charley, indeed, went off by +themselves to a desert island, or a place that would have been a +desert island had the water run round it, and there built +stupendous palaces and laid out glorious gardens. Charley was the +most good-natured of men, and could he have only brought a boat +with him, as Harry so often did, he would soon have been first +favourite with Katie. + +'It shan't be at all like Hampton Court,' said Katie, speaking of +the new abode which Charley was to build for her. + +'Not at all,' said Charley. + +'Nor yet Buckingham Palace.' + +'No,' said Charley, 'I think we'll have it Gothic.' + +'Gothic!' said Katie, looking up at him with all her eyes. 'Will +Gothic be most grand? What's Gothic?' + +Charley began to consider. 'Westminster Abbey,' said he at last. + +'Oh--but Charley, I don't want a church. Is the Alhambra Gothic?' + +Charley was not quite sure, but thought it probably was. They +decided, therefore, that the new palace should be built after the +model of the Alhambra. + +The afternoon was but dull and lugubrious to the remainder of the +party. The girls seemed to feel that there was something solemn +about the coming competition between two such dear friends, which +prevented and should prevent them all from being merry. Harry +perfectly sympathized in the feeling; and even Alaric, though +depressed himself by no melancholy forebodings, was at any rate +conscious that he should refrain from any apparent anticipation +of a triumph. They all went to church in the evening; but even +this amendment in Alaric's conduct hardly reconciled him to Mrs. +Woodward. + +'I suppose we shall all be very clever before long,' said she, +after tea; 'but really I don't know that we shall be any the +better for it. Now in this office of yours, by the end of next +week, there will be three or four men with broken hearts, and +there will be one triumphant jackanapes, so conceited and proud, +that he'll never bring himself to do another good ordinary day's +work as long as he lives. Nothing will persuade me but that it is +not only very bad, but very unjust also.' + +'The jackanapes must learn to put up with ordinary work,' said +Alaric, 'or he'll soon find himself reduced to his former +insignificance.' + +'And the men with the broken hearts; they, I suppose, must put up +with their wretchedness too,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'and their +wives, also, and children, who have been looking forward for +years to this vacancy as the period of their lives at which they +are to begin to be comfortable. I hate such heartlessness. I hate +the very name of Sir Gregory Hardlines.' + +'But, mamma, won't the general effect be to produce a much higher +class of education among the men?' said Gertrude. + +'In the army and navy the best men get on the best,' said Linda. + +'Do they, by jingo!' said Uncle Bat. 'It's very little you know +about the navy, Miss Linda.' + +'Well, then, at any rate they ought,' said Linda. + +'I would have a competitive examination in every service,' said +Gertrude. 'It would make young men ambitious. They would not be +so idle and empty as they now are, if they had to contend in this +way for every step upwards in the world.' + +'The world,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'will soon be like a fishpond, +very full of fish, but with very little food for them. Every one +is scrambling for the others' prey, and they will end at last by +eating one another. If Harry gets this situation, will not that +unfortunate Jones, who for years has been waiting for it, always +regard him as a robber?' + +'My maxim is this,' said Uncle Bat; 'if a youngster goes into any +service, say the navy, and does his duty by his country like a +man, why, he shouldn't be passed over. Now look at me; I was +on the books of the _Catamaran_, one of the old seventy-fours, +in '96; I did my duty then and always; was never in the black +book or laid up sick; was always rough and ready for any work +that came to hand; and when I went into the _Mudlark_ as lieutenant +in year '9, little Bobby Howard had just joined the old _Cat._ as a +young middy. And where am I now? and where is Bobby Howard? +Why, d----e, I'm on the shelf, craving the ladies' pardon; and he's +a Lord of the Admiralty, if you please, and a Member of Parliament. +Now I say Cuttwater's as good a name as Howard for going to sea +with any day; and if there'd been a competitive examination for +Admiralty Lords five years ago, Bobby Howard would never have +been where he is now, and somebody else who knows more +about his profession than all the Howards put together, might +perhaps have been in his place. And so, my lads, here's to you, +and I hope the best man will win.' + +Whether Uncle Bat agreed with his niece or with his grandnieces +was not very apparent from the line of his argument; but they all +laughed at his eagerness, and nothing more was said that evening +about the matter. + +Alaric, Harry, and Charley, of course returned to town on the +following day. Breakfast on Monday morning at Surbiton Cottage +was an early affair when the young men were there; so early, that +Captain Cuttwater did not make his appearance. Since his arrival +at the cottage, Mrs. Woodward had found an excuse for a later +breakfast in the necessity of taking it with her uncle; so that +the young people were generally left alone. Linda was the family +tea-maker, and was, therefore, earliest down; and Alaric being +the first on this morning to leave the hotel, found her alone in +the dining-room. + +He had never renewed the disclosure of his passion; but Linda had +thought that whenever he shook hands with her since that +memorable walk, she had always felt a more than ordinary +pressure. This she had been careful not to return, but she had +not the heart to rebuke it. Now, when he bade her good morning, +he certainly held her hand in his longer than he need have done. +He looked at her too, as though his looks meant something more +than ordinary looking; at least so Linda thought; but yet he said +nothing, and so Linda, slightly trembling, went on with the +adjustment of her tea-tray. + +'It will be all over, Linda, when we meet again,' said Alaric. +His mind she found was intent on his examination, not on his +love. But this was natural, was as it should be. If--and she was +certain in her heart that it would be so--if he should be +successful, then he might speak of love without having to speak +in the same breath of poverty as well. 'It will be all over when +we meet again,' he said. + +'I suppose it will,' said Linda. + +'I don't at all like it; it seems so unnatural having to contend +against one's friend. And yet one cannot help it; one cannot +allow one's self to go to the wall' + +'I'm sure Harry doesn't mind it,' said Linda. + +'I'm sure I do,' said he. 'If I fail I shall be unhappy, and if I +succeed I shall be equally so. I shall set all the world against +me. I know what your mother meant when she talked of a jackanapes +yesterday. If I get the promotion I may wish good-bye to Surbiton +Cottage.' + +'Oh, Alaric!' + +'Harry would forgive me; but Harry's friends would never do so.' + +'How can you say so? I am sure mamma has no such feeling, nor yet +even Gertrude; I mean that none of us have.' + +'It is very natural all of you should, for he is your cousin.' + +'You are just the same as our cousin. I am sure we think quite as +much of you as of Harry. Even Gertrude said she hoped that you +would get it.' + +'Dear Gertrude!' + +'Because, you know, Harry does not want it so much as you do. I +am sure I wish you success with all my heart. Perhaps it's wicked +to wish for either of you over the other; but you can't both get +it at once, you know.' + +At this moment Katie came in, and soon afterwards Gertrude and +the two other young men, and so nothing further was said on the +subject. + +Charley parted with the competitors at the corner of Waterloo +Bridge. He turned into Somerset House, being there regarded on +these Monday mornings as a prodigy of punctuality; and Alaric and +Harry walked back along the Strand, arm-in-arm, toward their own +office. + +'Well, lads, I hope you'll both win,' said Charley. 'And +whichever wins most, why of course he'll stand an uncommon good +dinner.' + +'Oh! that's of course,' said Alaric. 'We'll have it at the +Trafalgar.' + +And so the two walked on together, arm-in-arm, to the Weights and +Measures. + +The ceremony which was now about to take place at the Weights and +Measures was ordained to be the first of those examinations +which, under the auspices of Sir Gregory Hardlines, were destined +to revivify, clarify, and render perfect the Civil Service of the +country. It was a great triumph to Sir Gregory to see the darling +object of his heart thus commencing its existence in the very +cradle in which he, as an infant Hercules, had made his first +exertions in the cause. It was to be his future fortune to +superintend these intellectual contests, in a stately office of +his own, duly set apart and appointed for the purpose. But the +throne on which he was to sit had not yet been prepared for him, +and he was at present constrained to content himself with +exercising his power, now here and now there, according as his +services might be required, carrying the appurtenances of his +royalty about with him. + +But Sir Gregory was not a solitary monarch. In days long gone by +there were, as we all know, three kings at Cologne, and again +three kings at Brentford. So also were there three kings at the +Civil Service Examination Board. But of these three Sir Gregory +was by far the greatest king. He sat in the middle, had two +thousand jewels to his crown, whereas the others had only twelve +hundred each, and his name ran first in all the royal warrants. +Nevertheless, Sir Gregory, could he have had it so, would, like +most other kings, have preferred an undivided sceptre. + +Of his co-mates on the throne the elder in rank was a west +country baronet, who, not content with fatting beeves and +brewing beer like his sires, aspired to do something for his country. +Sir Warwick Westend was an excellent man, full of the best +intentions, and not more than decently anxious to get the good +things of Government into his hand. He was, perhaps, rather too +much inclined to think that he could see further through a +millstone than another, and had a way of looking as though he +were always making the attempt. He was a man born to grace, if +not his country, at any rate his county; and his conduct was +uniformly such as to afford the liveliest satisfaction to his +uncles, aunts, and relations in general. If as a king he had a +fault, it was this, that he allowed that other king, Sir Gregory, +to carry him in his pocket. + +But Sir Gregory could not at all get the third king into his +pocket. This gentleman was a worthy clergyman from Cambridge, one +Mr. Jobbles by name. Mr. Jobbles had for many years been +examining undergraduates for little goes and great goes, and had +passed his life in putting posing questions, in detecting +ignorance by viva voce scrutiny, and eliciting learning by +printed papers. He, by a stupendous effort of his mathematical +mind, had divided the adult British male world into classes and +sub-classes, and could tell at a moment's notice how long it +would take him to examine them all. His soul panted for the work. +Every man should, he thought, be made to pass through some 'go.' +The greengrocer's boy should not carry out cabbages unless his +fitness for cabbage-carrying had been ascertained, and till it +had also been ascertained that no other boy, ambitious of the +preferment, would carry them better. Difficulty! There was no +difficulty. Could not he, Jobbles, get through 5,000 viva voces +in every five hours--that is, with due assistance? and would not +55,000 printed papers, containing 555,000 questions, be getting +themselves answered at the same time, with more or less +precision? + +So now Mr. Jobbles was about to try his huge plan by a small +commencement. + +On the present occasion the examination was actually to be +carried on by two of the kings in person. Sir Gregory had +declared that as so large a portion of his heart and affections +was bound up with the gentlemen of the Weights and Measures, he +could not bring himself actually to ask questions of them, and +then to listen to or read their answers. Should any of his loved +ones make some fatal _faux pas_, his tears, like those of +the recording angel, would blot out the error. His eyes would +refuse to see faults, if there should be faults, in those whom he +himself had nurtured. Therefore, though he came with his +colleagues to the Weights and Measures, he did not himself take +part in the examination. + +At eleven o'clock the Board-room was opened, and the candidates +walked in and seated themselves. Fear of Sir Gregory, and other +causes, had thinned the number. Poor Jones, who by right of +seniority should have had the prize, declined to put himself in +competition with his juniors, and in lieu thereof sent up to the +Lords of the Treasury an awful memorial spread over fifteen folio +pages--very uselessly. The Lords of the Treasury referred it to the +three kings, whose secretary put a minute upon it. Sir Gregory +signed the minute, and some gentleman at the Treasury wrote a short +letter to Mr. Jones, apprising that unhappy gentleman that my Lords +had taken the matter into their fullest consideration, and that +nothing could be done to help him. Had Jones been consulted by any +other disappointed Civil Service Werter as to the expediency of +complaining to the Treasury Lords, Jones would have told him +exactly what would be the result. The disappointed one, however, +always thinks that all the Treasury Lords will give all their +ears to him, though they are deafer than Icarus to the world +beside. + +Robinson stood his ground like a man; but Brown found out, a day +or two before the struggle came, that he could not bring himself +to stand against his friend. Jones, he said, he knew was +incompetent, but Robinson ought to get it; so he, for one, would +not stand in Robinson's way. + +Uppinall was there, as confident as a bantam cock; and so was +Alphabet Precis, who had declared to all his friends that if the +pure well of official English undefiled was to count for +anything, he ought to be pretty safe. But poor Minusex was ill, +and sent a certificate. He had so crammed himself with unknown +quantities, that his mind--like a gourmand's stomach--had broken +down under the effort, and he was now sobbing out algebraic +positions under his counterpane. + +Norman and Alaric made up the five who still had health, +strength, and pluck to face the stern justice of the new kings; +and they accordingly took their seats on five chairs, equally +distant, placing themselves in due order of seniority. + +And then, first of all, Sir Gregory made a little speech, +standing up at the head of the Board-room table, with an +attendant king on either hand, and the Secretary, and two +Assistant-Secretaries, standing near him. Was not this a proud +moment for Sir Gregory? + +'It had now become his duty,' he said, 'to take his position in +that room, that well-known, well-loved room, under circumstances +of which he had little dreamt when he first entered it with awe- +struck steps, in the days of his early youth. But, nevertheless, +even then ambition had warmed him. That ambition had been to +devote every energy of his mind, every muscle of his body, every +hour of his life, to the Civil Service of his country. It was not +much, perhaps, that he had been able to do; he could not boast of +those acute powers of mind, of that gigantic grasp of intellect, +of which they saw in those days so wonderful an example in a high +place.' Sir Gregory here gratefully alluded to that statesman who +had given him his present appointment. 'But still he had devoted +all his mind, such as it was, and every hour of his life, to the +service; and now he had his reward. If he might be allowed to +give advice to the gentlemen before him, gentlemen of whose, +admirable qualifications for the Civil Service of the country he +himself was so well aware, his advice should be this--That they +should look on none of their energies as applicable to private +purposes, regard none of their hours as their own. They were +devoted in a peculiar way to the Civil Service, and they should +feel that such was their lot in life. They should know that their +intellects were a sacred pledge intrusted to them for the good of +that service, and should use them accordingly. This should be +their highest ambition. And what higher ambition,' asked Sir +Gregory, 'could they have? They all, alas! knew that the service +had been disgraced in other quarters by idleness, incompetency, +and, he feared he must say, dishonesty; till incompetency and +dishonesty had become, not the exception, but the rule. It was +too notorious that the Civil Service was filled by the family +fools of the aristocracy and middle classes, and that any family +who had no fool to send, sent in lieu thereof some invalid past +hope. Thus the service had become a hospital for incurables and +idiots. It was,' said Sir Gregory, 'for him and them to cure all +that. He would not,' he said, 'at that moment, say anything with +reference to salaries. It was, as they were all aware, a very +difficult subject, and did not seem to be necessarily connected +with the few remarks which the present opportunity had seemed to +him to call for.' He then told them they were all his beloved +children; that they were a credit to the establishment; that he +handed them over without a blush to his excellent colleagues, Sir +Warwick Westend and Mr. Jobbles, and that he wished in his heart +that each of them could be successful. And having so spoken, Sir +Gregory went his way. + +It was beautiful then to see how Mr. Jobbles swam down the long +room and handed out his examination papers to the different +candidates as he passed them. 'Twas a pity there should have been +but five; the man did it so well, so quickly, with such a gusto! +He should have been allowed to try his hand upon five hundred +instead of five. His step was so rapid and his hand and arm moved +so dexterously, that no conceivable number would have been too +many for him. But, even with five, he showed at once that the +right man was in the right place. Mr. Jobbles was created for the +conducting of examinations. + +And then the five candidates, who had hitherto been all ears, of +a sudden became all eyes, and devoted themselves in a manner +which would have been delightful to Sir Gregory, to the papers +before them. Sir Warwick, in the meantime, was seated in his +chair, hard at work looking through his millstone. + +It is a dreadful task that of answering examination papers--only +to be exceeded in dreadfulness by the horrors of Mr. Jobbles' +viva voce torments. A man has before him a string of questions, +and he looks painfully down them, from question to question, +searching for some allusion to that special knowledge which he +has within him. He too often finds that no such allusion is made. +It appears that the Jobbles of the occasion has exactly known the +blank spots of his mind and fitted them all. He has perhaps +crammed himself with the winds and tides, and there is no more +reference to those stormy subjects than if Luna were extinct; but +he has, unfortunately, been loose about his botany, and question +after question would appear to him to have been dictated by Sir +Joseph Paxton or the head-gardener at Kew. And then to his own +blank face and puzzled look is opposed the fast scribbling of +some botanic candidate, fast as though reams of folio could +hardly contain all the knowledge which he is able to pour forth. + +And so, with a mixture of fast-scribbling pens and blank faces, +our five friends went to work. The examination lasted for four +days, and it was arranged that on each of the four days each of +the five candidates should be called up to undergo a certain +quantum of Mr. Jobbles' viva voce. This part of his duty Mr. +Jobbles performed with a mildness of manner that was beyond all +praise. A mother training her first-born to say 'papa,' could not +do so with a softer voice, or more affectionate demeanour. + +'The planet Jupiter,' said he to Mr. Precis; 'I have no doubt you +know accurately the computed distance of that planet from the +sun, and also that of our own planet. Could you tell me now, how +would you calculate the distance in inches, say from London +Bridge to the nearest portion of Jupiter's disc, at twelve +o'clock on the first of April?' Mr. Jobbles, as he put his little +question, smiled the sweetest of smiles, and spoke in a tone +conciliating and gentle, as though he were asking Mr. Precis to +dine with him and take part of a bottle of claret at half-past +six. + +But, nevertheless, Mr. Precis looked very blank. + +'I am not asking the distance, you know,' said Mr. Jobbles, +smiling sweeter than ever; 'I am only asking how you would +compute it.' + +But still Mr. Precis looked exceedingly blank. + +'Never mind,' said Mr. Jobbles, with all the encouragement which +his voice could give, 'never mind. Now, suppose that _a_ be +a milestone; _b_ a turnpike-gate--,' and so on. + +But Mr. Jobbles, in spite of his smiles, so awed the hearts of +some of his candidates, that two of them retired at the end of +the second day. Poor Robinson, thinking, and not without +sufficient ground, that he had not a ghost of a chance, +determined to save himself from further annoyance; and then +Norman, put utterly out of conceit with himself by what he deemed +the insufficiency of his answers, did the same. He had become low +in spirits, unhappy in temperament, and self-diffident to a +painful degree. Alaric, to give him his due, did everything in +his power to persuade him to see the task out to the last. But +the assurance and composure of Alaric's manner did more than +anything else to provoke and increase Norman's discomfiture. He +had been schooling himself to bear a beating with a good grace, +and he began to find that he could only bear it as a disgrace. On +the morning of the third day, instead of taking his place in the +Board-room, he sent in a note to Mr. Jobbles, declaring that he +withdrew from the trial. Mr. Jobbles read the note, and smiled +with satisfaction as he put it into his pocket. It was an +acknowledgement of his own unrivalled powers as an Examiner. + +Mr. Precis, still trusting to his pure well, went on to the end, +and at the end declared that so ignorant was Mr. Jobbles of his +duty that he had given them no opportunity of showing what they +could do in English composition. Why had he not put before them +the papers in some memorable official case, and desired them to +make an abstract; those, for instance, on the much-vexed question +of penny versus pound, as touching the new standard for the +decimal coinage? Mr. Jobbles an Examiner indeed! And so Mr. +Precis bethought himself that he also, if unsuccessful, would go +to the Lords of the Treasury. + +And Mr. Uppinall and Alaric Tudor also went on. Those who knew +anything of the matter, when they saw how the running horses were +reduced in number, and what horses were left on the course--when +they observed also how each steed came to the post on each +succeeding morning, had no doubt whatever of the result. So that +when Alaric was declared on the Saturday morning to have gained +the prize, there was very little astonishment either felt or +expressed at the Weights and Measures. + +Alaric's juniors wished him joy with some show of reality in +their manner; but the congratulations of his seniors, including +the Secretary and Assistant-Secretaries, the new Chief Clerk and +the men in the class to which he was now promoted, were very cold +indeed. But to this he was indifferent. It was the nature of +Tudor's disposition, that he never for a moment rested satisfied +with the round of the ladder on which he had contrived to place +himself. He had no sooner gained a step than he looked upwards to +see how the next step was to be achieved. His motto might well +have been 'Excelsior!' if only he could have taught himself to +look to heights that were really high. When he found that the +august Secretary received him on his promotion without much +_empressement_, he comforted himself by calculating how long +it would be before he should fill that Secretary's chair--if +indeed it should ever be worth his while to fill it. + +The Secretary at the Weights and Measures had, after all, but a +dull time of it, and was precluded by the routine of his office +from parliamentary ambition and the joys of government. Alaric +was already beginning to think that this Weights and Measures +should only be a stepping-stone to him; and that when Sir +Gregory, with his stern dogma of devotion to the service, had +been of sufficient use to him, he also might with advantage be +thrown over. In the meantime an income of £600 a year brought +with it to the young bachelor some very comfortable influence. +But the warmest and the pleasantest of all the congratulations +which he received was from his dear friend Undy Scott. + +'Ah, my boy,' said Undy, pressing his hand, 'you'll soon be one +of us. By the by, I want to put you up for the Downing; you +should leave that Pythagorean: there's nothing to be got by it.' + +Now, the Downing was a political club, in which, however, +politics had latterly become a good deal mixed. But the +Government of the day generally found there a liberal support, +and recognized and acknowledged its claim to consideration. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CONSOLATION + + +On the following Sunday neither Tudor nor Norman was at Hampton. +They had both felt that they could not comfortably meet each +other there, and each had declined to go. They had promised to +write; and now that the matter was decided, how were they or +either of them to keep the promise? + +It may be thought that the bitterness of the moment was over with +Norman as soon as he gave up; but such was not the case. Let him +struggle as he would with himself he could not rally, nor bring +himself to feel happy on what had occurred. He would have been +better satisfied if Alaric would have triumphed; but Alaric +seemed to take it all as a matter of course, and never spoke of +his own promotion unless he did so in answer to some remark of +his companion; then he could speak easily enough; otherwise he +was willing to let the matter go by as one settled and at rest. +He had consulted Norman about the purchase of a horse, but he +hitherto had shown no other sign that he was a richer man than +formerly. + +It was a very bitter time for Norman. He could not divest his +mind of the subject. What was he to do? Where was he to go? How +was he to get away, even for a time, from Alaric Tudor? And then, +was he right in wishing to get away from him? Had he not told +himself, over and over again, that it behoved him as a man and a +friend and a Christian to conquer the bitter feeling of envy +which preyed on his spirits? Had he not himself counselled Alaric +to stand this examination? and had he not promised that his doing +so should make no difference in their friendship? Had he not +pledged himself to rejoice in the success of his friend? and now +was he to break his word both to that friend and to himself? + +Schooling himself, or trying to school himself in this way, he +made no attempt at escaping from his unhappiness. They passed the +Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings together. It was now +nearly the end of September, and London was empty; that is, empty +as regards those friends and acquaintances with whom Norman might +have found some resource. On the Saturday they left their office +early; for all office routine had, during this week, been broken +through by the immense importance of the ceremony which was going +on; and then it became necessary to write to Mrs. Woodward. + +'Will you write to Hampton or shall I?' said Alaric, as they +walked arm-in-arm under the windows of Whitehall. + +'Oh! you, of course,' said Norman; 'you have much to tell them; I +have nothing.' + +'Just as you please,' said the other. 'That is, of course, I will +if you like it. But I think it would come better from you. You +are nearer to them than I am; and it will have less a look of +triumph on my part, and less also of disappointment on yours, if +you write. If you tell them that you literally threw away your +chance, you will only tell them the truth.' + +Norman assented, but he said nothing further. What business had +Alaric to utter such words as triumph and disappointment? He +could not keep his arm, on which Alaric was leaning, from +spasmodically shrinking from the touch. He had been beaten by a +man, nay worse, had yielded to a man, who had not the common +honesty to refuse a bribe; and yet he was bound to love this man. +He could not help asking himself the question which he would do. +Would he love him or hate him? + +But while he was so questioning himself, he got home, and had to +sit down and write his letter--this he did at once, but not +without difficulty. It ran as follows:-- + +'My dear Mrs. Woodward,-- + +'I write a line to tell you of my discomfiture and Alaric's +success. I gave up at the end of the second day. Of course I will +tell you all about it when we meet. No one seemed to doubt that +Alaric would get it, as a matter of course. I shall be with you +on next Saturday. Alaric says he will not go down till the +Saturday after, when I shall be at Normansgrove. My best love to +the girls. Tell Katie I shan't drown either myself or the boat, + +'Yours ever affectionately, + +'H. N. + +'Saturday, September, 185-. + +'Pray write me a kind letter to comfort me.' + +Mrs. Woodward did write him a very kind letter, and it did +comfort him. And she wrote also, as she was bound to do, a letter +of congratulation to Alaric. This letter, though it expressed in +the usual terms the satisfaction which one friend has in +another's welfare, was not written in the same warm affectionate +tone as that to Norman. Alaric perceived instantly that it was +not cordial. He loved Mrs. Woodward dearly, and greatly desired +her love and sympathy. But what then? He could not have +everything. He determined, therefore, not to trouble his mind. If +Mrs. Woodward did not sympathize with him, others of the family +would do so; and success would ultimately bring her round. What +woman ever yet refused to sympathize with successful ambition? + +Alaric also received a letter from Captain Cuttwater, in which +that gallant veteran expressed his great joy at the result of the +examination--'Let the best man win all the world over,' said he, +'whatever his name is. And they'll have to make the same rule at +the Admiralty too. The days of the Howards are gone by; that is, +unless they can prove themselves able seamen, which very few of +them ever did yet. Let the best man win; that's what I say; and +let every man get his fair share of promotion.' Alaric did not +despise the sympathy of Captain Cuttwater. It might turn out that +even Captain Cuttwater could be made of use. + +Mrs. Woodward's letter to Harry was full of the tenderest +affection. It was a flattering, soothing, loving letter, such as +no man ever could have written. It was like oil poured into his +wounds, and made him feel that the world was not all harsh to +him. He had determined not to go to Hampton that Saturday; but +Mrs. Woodward's letter almost made him rush there at once that he +might throw himself into her arms--into her arms, and at her +daughter's feet. The time had now come to him when he wanted to +be comforted by the knowledge that his love was returned. He +resolved that during his next visit he would formally propose to +Gertrude. + +The determination to do this, and a strong hope that he might do +it successfully, kept him up during the interval. On the +following week he was to go to his father's place to shoot, +having obtained leave of absence for a month; and he felt that he +could still enjoy himself if he could take with him the +conviction that all was right at Surbiton Cottage. Mrs. Woodward, +in her letter, though she had spoken much of the girls, had said +nothing special about Gertrude. Nevertheless, Norman gathered +from it that she intended that he should go thither to look for +comfort, and that he would find there the comfort that he +required. + +And Mrs. Woodward had intended that such should be the effect of +her letter. It was at present the dearest wish of her heart to +see Norman and Gertrude married. That Norman had often declared +his love to her eldest daughter she knew very well, and she knew +also that Gertrude had never rejected him. Having perfect +confidence in her child, she had purposely abstained from saying +anything that could bias her opinion. She had determined to leave +the matter in the hands of the young people themselves, judging +that it might be best arranged as a true love-match between them, +without interference from her; she had therefore said nothing to +Gertrude on the subject. + +Mrs. Woodward, however, discovered that she was in error, when it +was too late for her to retrieve her mistake; and, indeed, had +she discovered it before that letter was written, what could she +have done? She could not have forbidden Harry to come to her +house--she could not have warned him not to throw himself at her +daughter's feet. The cup was prepared for his lips, and it was +necessary that he should drink of it. There was nothing for which +she could blame him; nothing for which she could blame herself; +nothing for which she did blame her daughter. It was sorrowful, +pitiful, to be lamented, wept for, aye, and groaned for; many +inward groans it cost her; but it was at any rate well that she +could attribute her sorrow to the spite of circumstances rather +than to the ill-conduct of those she loved. + +Nor would it have been fair to blame Gertrude in the matter. +While she was yet a child, this friend of her mother's had been +thrown with her, and when she was little more than a child, she +found that this friend had become a lover. She liked him, in one +sense loved him, and was accustomed to regard him as one whom it +would be almost wrong in her not to like and love. What wonder +then that when he first spoke to her warm words of adoration, she +had not been able at once to know her own heart, and tell him +that his hopes would be in vain? + +She perceived by instinct, rather than by spoken words, that her +mother was favourable to this young lover, that if she accepted +him she would please her mother, that the course of true love +might in their case run smooth. What wonder then that she should +have hesitated before she found it necessary to say that she +could not, would not, be Harry Norman's wife? + +On the Saturday morning, the morning of that night which was, as +he hoped, to see him go to bed a happy lover, so happy in his +love as to be able to forget his other sorrows, she was sitting +alone with her mother. It was natural that their conversation +should turn to Alaric and Harry. Alaric, with his happy +prospects, was soon dismissed; but Mrs. Woodward continued to +sing the praises of him who, had she been potent with the magi of +the Civil Service, would now be the lion of the Weights and +Measures. + +'I must say I think it was weak of him to retire,' said Gertrude. +'Alaric says in his letter to Uncle Bat, that had he persevered +he would in all probability have been successful.' + +'I should rather say that it was generous,' said her mother. + +'Well, I don't know, mamma; that of course depends on his +motives; but wouldn't generosity of that sort between two young +men in such a position be absurd?' + +'You mean that such regard for his friend would be Quixotic.' + +'Yes, mamma.' + +'Perhaps it would. All true generosity, all noble feeling, is now +called Quixotic. But surely, Gertrude, you and I should not +quarrel with Harry on that account.' + +'I think he got frightened, mamma, and had not nerve to go +through with it.' + +Mrs. Woodward looked vexed; but she made no immediate reply, and +for some time the mother and daughter went on working without +further conversation. At last Gertrude said:-- + +'I think every man is bound to do the best he can for himself-- +that is, honestly; there is something spoony in one man allowing +another to get before him, as long as he can manage to be first +himself.' + +Mrs. Woodward did not like the tone in which her daughter spoke. +She felt that it boded ill for Harry's welfare; and she tried, +but tried in vain, to elicit from her daughter the expression of +a kinder feeling. + +'Well, my dear, I must say I think you are hard on him. But, +probably, just at present you have the spirit of contradiction in +you. If I were to begin to abuse him, perhaps I should get you to +praise him.' + +'Oh, mamma, I did not abuse him.' + +'Something like it, my dear, when you said he was spoony.' + +'Oh, mamma, I would not abuse him for worlds--I know how good he +is, I know how you love him, but, but---' and Gertrude, though +very little given to sobbing moods, burst into tears. + +'Come here, Gertrude; come here, my child,' said Mrs. Woodward, +now moved more for her daughter than for her favourite; 'what is +it? what makes you cry? I did not really mean that you abused +poor Harry.' + +Gertrude got up from her chair, knelt at her mother's feet, and +hid her face in her mother's lap. 'Oh, mamma,' she said, with a +half-smothered voice, 'I know what you mean; I know what you +wish; but--but--but, oh, mamma, you must not--must not, must not +think of it any more.' + +'Then may God help him!' said Mrs. Woodward, gently caressing her +daughter, who was still sobbing with her face buried in her +mother's lap. 'May God Almighty lighten the blow to him! But oh, +Gertrude, I had hoped, I had so hoped----' + +'Oh, mamma, don't, pray don't,' and Gertrude sobbed as though she +were going into hysterics. + +'No, my child, I will not say another word. Dear as he is to me, +you are and must be ten times dearer. There, Gertrude, it is over +now; over at least between us. We know each other's hearts now. +It is my fault that we did not do so sooner.' They did understand +each other at last, and the mother made no further attempt to +engage her daughter's love for the man she would have chosen as +her daughter's husband. + +But still the worst was to come, as Mrs. Woodward well knew--and +as Gertrude knew also; to come, too, on this very day. Mrs. +Woodward, with a woman's keen perception, felt assured that Harry +Norman, when he found himself at the Cottage, freed from the +presence of the successful candidate, surrounded by the +affectionate faces of all her circle, would melt at once and look +to his love for consolation. She understood the feelings of his +heart as well as though she had read them in a book; and yet she +could do nothing to save him from his fresh sorrows. The cup was +prepared for him, and it was necessary that he should drink it. +She could not tell him, could not tell even him, that her +daughter had rejected him, when as yet he had made no offer. + +And so Harry Norman hurried down to his fate. When he reached the +Cottage, Mrs. Woodward and Linda and Katie were in the drawing- +room. + +'Harry, my dear Harry,' said Mrs. Woodward, rushing to him, +throwing her arms round him, and kissing him; 'we know it all, we +understand it all--my fine, dear, good Harry.' + +Harry was melted in a moment, and in the softness of his mood +kissed Katie too, and Linda also. Katie he had often kissed, but +never Linda, cousins though they were. Linda merely laughed, but +Norman blushed; for he remembered that had it so chanced that +Gertrude had been there, he would not have dared to kiss her. + +'Oh, Harry,' said Katie, 'we are so sorry--that is, not sorry +about Alaric, but sorry about you. Why were there not two +prizes?' + +'It's all right as it is, Katie,' said he; 'we need none of us be +sorry at all. Alaric is a clever fellow; everybody gave him +credit for it before, and now he has proved that everybody is +right.' + +'He is older than you, you know, and therefore he ought to be +cleverer,' said Katie, trying to make things pleasant. + +And then they went out into the garden. But where was Gertrude +all this time? She had been in the drawing-room a moment before +his arrival. They walked out into the lawn, but nothing was said +about her absence. Norman could not bring himself to ask for her, +and Mrs. Woodward could not trust herself to talk of her. + +'Where is the captain?' said Harry. + +'He's at Hampton Court,' said Linda; 'he has found another navy +captain there, and he goes over every day to play backgammon.' As +they were speaking, however, the captain walked through the house +on to the lawn. + +'Well, Norman, how are you, how are you? sorry you couldn't all +win. But you're a man of fortune, you know, so it doesn't +signify.' + +'Not a great deal of fortune,' said Harry, looking sheepish. + +'Well, I only hope the best man got it. Now, at the Admiralty the +worst man gets it always.' + +'The worst man didn't get it here,' said Harry. + +'No, no,' said Uncle Bat, 'I'm sure he did not; nor he won't long +at the Admiralty either, I can tell them that. But where's +Gertrude?' + +'She's in her bedroom, dressing for dinner,' said Katie. + +'Hoity toity,' said Uncle Bat, 'she's going to make herself very +grand to-day. That's all for you, Master Norman. Well, I suppose +we may all go in and get ready; but mind, I have got no +sweetheart, and so I shan't make myself grand at all;' and so +they all went in to dress for dinner. + +When Norman came down, Gertrude was in the drawing-room alone. +But he knew that they would be alone but for a minute, and that a +minute would not serve for his purpose. She said one soft gentle +word of condolence to him, some little sentence that she had been +studying to pronounce. All her study was thrown away; for Norman, +in his confusion, did not understand a word that she spoke. Her +tone, however, was kind and affectionate; and she shook hands +with him apparently with cordiality. He, however, ventured no +kiss with her. He did not even press her hand, when for a moment +he held it within his own. + +Dinner was soon over, and the autumn evening still admitted of +their going out. Norman was not sorry to urge the fact that the +ladies had done so, as an excuse to Captain Cuttwater for not +sitting with him over his wine. He heard their voices in the +garden, and went out to join them, prepared to ascertain his fate +if fortune would give him an opportunity of doing so. He found +the party to consist of Mrs. Woodward, Linda, and Katie; Gertrude +was not there. + +'I think the evenings get warmer as the winter gets nearer,' said +Harry. + +'Yes,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'but they are so dangerous. The night +comes on all at once, and then the air is so damp and cold.' + +And so they went on talking about the weather. + +'Your boat is up in London, I know, Harry,' said Katie, with a +voice of reproach, but at the same time with a look of entreaty. + +'Yes, it's at Searle's,' said Norman. + +'But the punt is here,' said Katie. + +'Not this evening, Katie,' said he. + +'Katie, how can you be such a tease?' said Mrs. Woodward; 'you'll +make Harry hate the island, and you too. I wonder you can be so +selfish.' + +Poor Katie's eyes became suffused with tears. + +'My dear Katie, it's very bad of me, isn't it?' said Norman, +'and the fine weather so nearly over too; I ought to take you, +oughtn't I? come, we will go.' + +'No, we won't,' said Katie, taking his big hand in both her +little ones, 'indeed we won't. It was very wrong of me to bother +you; and you with--with--with so much to think of. Dear Harry, I +don't want to go at all, indeed I don't,' and she turned away +from the little path which led to the place where the punt was +moored. + +They sauntered on for a while together, and then Norman left +them. He said nothing, but merely stole away from the lawn +towards the drawing-room window. Mrs. Woodward well knew with +what object he went, and would have spared him from his immediate +sorrow by following him; but she judged that it would be better +both for him and for her daughter that he should learn the truth. + +He went in through the open drawing-room window, and found +Gertrude alone. She was on the sofa with a book in her hand; and +had he been able to watch her closely he would have seen that the +book trembled as he entered the room. But he was unable to watch +anything closely. His own heart beat so fast, his own confusion +was so great, that he could hardly see the girl whom he now hoped +to gain as his wife. Had Alaric been coming to his wooing, he +would have had every faculty at his call. But then Alaric could +not have loved as Norman loved. + +And so we will leave them. In about half an hour, when the short +twilight was becoming dusk, Mrs. Woodward returned, and found +Norman standing alone on the hearthrug before the fireplace. +Gertrude was away, and he was leaning against the mantelpiece, +with his hands behind his back, staring at vacancy; but oh! with +such an aspect of dull, speechless agony in his face. + +Mrs. Woodward looked up at him, and would have burst into tears, +had she not remembered that they would not be long alone; she +therefore restrained herself, but gave one involuntary sigh; and +then, taking off her bonnet, placed herself where she might sit +without staring at him in his sorrow. + +Katie came in next. 'Oh! Harry, it's so lucky we didn't start in +the punt,' said she, 'for it's going to pour, and we never should +have been back from the island in that slow thing.' + +Norman looked at her and tried to smile, but the attempt was a +ghastly failure. Katie, gazing up into his face, saw that he was +unhappy, and slunk away, without further speech, to her distant +chair. There, from time to time, she would look up at him, and +her little heart melted with ruth to see the depth of his misery. +'Why, oh why,' thought she, 'should that greedy Alaric have taken +away the only prize?' + +And then Linda came running in with her bonnet ribbons all moist +with the big raindrops. 'You are a nice squire of dames,' said +she, 'to leave us all out to get wet through by ourselves;' and +then she also, looking up, saw that jesting was at present ill- +timed, and so sat herself down quietly at the tea-table. + +But Norman never moved. He saw them come in one after another. He +saw the pity expressed in Mrs. Woodward's face; he heard the +light-hearted voices of the two girls, and observed how, when +they saw him, their light-heartedness was abashed; but still he +neither spoke nor moved. He had been stricken with a fearful +stroke, and for a while was powerless. + +Captain Cuttwater, having shaken off his dining-room nap, came +for his tea; and then, at last, Gertrude also, descending from +her own chamber, glided quietly into the room. When she did so, +Norman, with a struggle, roused himself, and took a chair next to +Mrs. Woodward, and opposite to her eldest daughter. + +Who could describe the intense discomfiture of that tea-party, or +paint in fitting colours the different misery of each one there +assembled? Even Captain Cuttwater at once knew that something was +wrong, and munched his bread-and-butter and drank his tea in +silence. Linda surmised what had taken place; though she was +surprised, she was left without any doubt. Poor Katie was still +in the dark, but she also knew that there was cause for sorrow, +and crept more and more into her little self. Mrs. Woodward sat +with averted face, and ever and anon she put her handkerchief to +her eyes. Gertrude was very pale, and all but motionless, but she +had schooled herself, and managed to drink her tea with more +apparent indifference than any of the others. Norman sat as he +had before been standing, with that dreadful look of agony upon +his brow. + +Immediately after tea Mrs. Woodward got up and went to her +dressing-room. Her dressing-room, though perhaps not improperly +so called, was not an exclusive closet devoted to combs, +petticoats, and soap and water. It was a comfortable snug room, +nicely furnished, with sofa and easy chairs, and often open to +others besides her handmaidens. Thither she betook herself, that +she might weep unseen; but in about twenty minutes her tears were +disturbed by a gentle knock at the door. + +Very soon after she went, Gertrude also left the room, and then +Katie crept off. + +'I have got a headache to-night,' said Norman, after the +remaining three had sat silent for a minute or two; 'I think I'll +go across and go to bed.' + +'A headache!' said Linda. 'Oh, I am so sorry that you have got to +go to that horrid inn.' + +'Oh! I shall do very well there,' said Norman, trying to smile. + +'Will you have my room?' said the captain good-naturedly; 'any +sofa does for me.' + +Norman assured them as well as he could that his present headache +was of such a nature that a bed at the inn would be the best +thing for him; and then, shaking hands with them, he moved to the +door. + +'Stop a moment, Harry,' said Linda, 'and let me tell mamma. +She'll give you something for your head.' He made a sign to her, +however, to let him pass, and then, creeping gently upstairs, he +knocked at Mrs. Woodward's door. + +'Come in,' said Mrs. Woodward, and Harry Norman, with all his +sorrows still written on his face, stood before her. + +'Oh! Harry,' said she, 'come in; I am so glad that you have come +to me. Oh! Harry, dear Harry, what shall I say to comfort you? +What can I say--what can I do?' + +Norman, forgetting his manhood, burst into tears, and throwing +himself on a sofa, buried his face on the arm and sobbed like a +young girl. But the tears of a man bring with them no comfort as +do those of the softer sex. He was a strong tall man, and it was +dreadful to see him thus convulsed. + +Mrs. Woodward stood by him, and put her hand caressingly on his +shoulder. She saw he had striven to speak, and had found himself +unable to do so. 'I know how it is,' said she, 'you need not tell +me; I know it all. Would that she could have seen you with my +eyes; would that she could have judged you with my mind!' + +'Oh, Mrs. Woodward!' + +'To me, Harry, you should have been the dearest, the most welcome +son. But you are so still. No son could be dearer. Oh, that she +could have seen you as I see you!' + +'There is no hope,' said he. He did not put it as a question; but +Mrs. Woodward saw that it was intended that she should take it as +such if she pleased. What could she say to him? She knew that +there was no hope. Had it been Linda, Linda might have been +moulded to her will. But with Gertrude there could now be no +hope. What could she say? She knelt down and kissed his brow, and +mingled her tears with his. + +'Oh, Harry--oh, Harry! my dearest, dearest son!' + +'Oh, Mrs. Woodward, I have loved her so truly.' + +What could Mrs. Woodward do but cry also? what but that, and +throw such blame as she could upon her own shoulders? She was +bound to defend her daughter. + +'It has been my fault, Harry,' she said; 'it is I whom you must +blame, not poor Gertrude.' + +'I blame no one,' said he. + +'I know you do not; but it is I whom you should blame. I should +have learnt how her heart stood, and have prevented this--but I +thought, I thought it would have been otherwise.' + +Norman looked up at her, and took her hand, and pressed it. 'I +will go now,' he said, 'and don't expect me here to-morrow. I +could not come in. Say that I thought it best to go to town +because I am unwell. Good-bye, Mrs. Woodward; pray write to me. I +can't come to the Cottage now for a while, but pray write to me: +do not you forget me, Mrs. Woodward.' + +Mrs. Woodward fell upon his breast and wept, and bade God bless +him, and called him her son and her dearest friend, and sobbed +till her heart was nigh to break. 'What,' she thought, 'what +could her daughter wish for, when she repulsed from her feet such +a suitor as Harry Norman?' + +He then went quietly down the stairs, quietly out of the house, +and having packed up his bag at the inn, started off through the +pouring rain, and walked away through the dark stormy night, +through the dirt and mud and wet, to his London lodgings; nor was +he again seen at Surbiton Cottage for some months after this +adventure. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A COMMUNICATION OF IMPORTANCE + + +Norman's dark wet walk did him physically no harm, and morally +some good. He started on it in that frame of mind which induces a +man to look with indifference on all coming evils under the +impression that the evils already come are too heavy to admit of +any increase. But by the time that he was thoroughly wet through, +well splashed with mud, and considerably fatigued by his first +five or six miles' walk, he began to reflect that life was not +over with him, and that he must think of future things as well as +those that were past. + +He got home about two o'clock, and having knocked up his +landlady, Mrs. Richards, betook himself to bed. Alaric had been +in his room for the last two hours, but of Charley and his latch- +key Mrs. Richards knew nothing. She stated her belief, however, +that two a.m. seldom saw that erratic gentleman in his bed. + +On the following morning, Alaric, when he got his hot water, +heard that Norman returned during the night from Hampton, and he +immediately guessed what had brought him back. He knew that +nothing short of some great trouble would have induced Harry to +leave the Cottage so abruptly, and that that trouble must have +been of such a nature as to make his remaining with the Woodwards +an aggravation of it. No such trouble could have come on him but +the one. + +As Charley seldom made his appearance at the breakfast table on +Sunday mornings, Alaric foresaw that he must undergo a _tête-à- +tête_ which would not be agreeable to himself, and which must +be much more disagreeable to his companion; but for this there +was no help. Harry had, however, prepared himself for what he had +to go through, and immediately that the two were alone, he told +his tale in a very few words. + +'Alaric,' said he, 'I proposed to Gertrude last night, and she +refused me.' + +Alaric Tudor was deeply grieved for his friend. There was +something in the rejected suitor's countenance--something in the +tone of voice, which would have touched any heart softer than +stone; and Alaric's heart had not as yet been so hardened by the +world as to render him callous to the sight of such grief as +this. + +'Take my word for it, Harry, she'll think better of it in a month +or two,' he said. + +'Never-never; I am sure of it. Not only from her own manner, but +from her mother's,' said Harry. And yet, during half his walk +home, he had been trying to console himself with the reflection +that most young ladies reject their husbands once or twice before +they accept them. + +There is no offering a man comfort in such a sorrow as this; +unless, indeed, he be one to whom the worship of Bacchus may be +made a fitting substitute for that of the Paphian goddess. + +There is a sort of disgrace often felt, if never acknowledged, +which attaches itself to a man for having put himself into +Norman's present position, and this generally prevents him from +confessing his defeat in such matters. The misfortune in question +is one which doubtless occurs not unfrequently to mankind; but as +mankind generally bear their special disappointments in silence, +and as the vanity of women is generally exceeded by their good- +nature, the secret, we believe, in most cases remains a secret. + + Shall I, wasting in despair, + Die because a woman's fair? + If she be not fair for me, + What care I how fair she be? + +This was the upshot of the consideration which Withers, the poet, +gave to the matter, and Withers was doubtless right. 'Tis thus +that rejected lovers should think, thus that they should demean +themselves; but they seldom come to this philosophy till a few +days have passed by, and talking of their grievance does not +assist them in doing so. + +When, therefore, Harry had declared what had happened to him, and +had declared also that he had no further hope, he did not at +first find himself much the better for what he had confessed. He +was lackadaisical and piteous, and Alaric, though he had +endeavoured to be friendly, soon found that he had no power of +imparting any comfort. Early in the day they parted, and did not +see each other again till the following morning. + +'I was going down to Normansgrove on Thursday,' said Harry. + +'Yes, I know,' said Alaric. + +'I think I shall ask leave to go to-day. It can't make much +difference, and the sooner I get away the better.' + +And so it was settled. Norman left town the same afternoon, and +Alaric, with his blushing honours thick upon him, was left alone. + +London was now very empty, and he was constrained to enjoy his +glory very much by himself. He had never associated much with the +Minusexes and Uppinalls, nor yet with the Joneses and Robinsons +of his own office, and it could not be expected that there should +be any specially confidential intercourse between them just at +the present moment. Undy was of course out of town with the rest +of the fashionable world, and Alaric, during the next week, was +left very much on his own hands. + +'And so,' said he to himself, as he walked solitary along the +lone paths of Rotten Row, and across the huge desert to the +Marble Arch, 'and so poor Harry's hopes have been all in vain; he +has lost his promotion, and now he has lost his bride--poor +Harry!'--and then it occurred to him that as he had acquired the +promotion it might be his destiny to win the bride also. He had +never told himself that he loved Gertrude; he had looked on her +as Norman's own, and he, at any rate, was not the man to sigh in +despair after anything that was out of his reach. But now, now +that Harry's chance was over, and that no bond of friendship +could interfere with such a passion, why should he not tell +himself that he loved Gertrude? 'If, as Harry had himself said, +there was no longer any hope for him, why,' said Alaric to +himself, 'why should not I try my chance?' Of Linda, of 'dear, +dearest Linda,' at this moment he thought very little, or, +perhaps, not at all. Of what Mrs. Woodward might say, of that he +did think a good deal. + +The week was melancholy and dull, and it passed very slowly at +Hampton. On the Sunday morning it became known to them all that +Norman was gone, but the subject, by tacit consent, was allowed +to pass all but unnoticed. Even Katie, even Uncle Bat, were aware +that something had occurred which ought to prevent them from +inquiring too particularly why Harry had started back to town in +so sudden a manner; and so they said nothing. To Linda, Gertrude +had told what had happened; and Linda, as she heard it, asked +herself whether she was prepared to be equally obdurate with her +lover. He had now the means of supporting a wife, and why should +she be obdurate? + +Nothing was said on the subject between Gertrude and her mother. +What more could Mrs. Woodward say? It would have been totally +opposed to the whole principle of her life to endeavour, by any +means, to persuade her daughter to the match, or to have used her +maternal influence in Norman's favour. And she was well aware +that it would have been impossible to do so successfully. +Gertrude was not a girl to be talked into a marriage by any +parent, and certainly not by such a parent as her mother. There +was, therefore, nothing further to be said about it. + +On. Saturday Alaric went down, but his arrival hardly made things +more pleasant. Mrs. Woodward could not bring herself to be +cordial with him, and the girls were restrained by a certain +feeling that it would not be right to show too much outward joy +at Alaric's success. Linda said one little word of affectionate +encouragement, but it produced no apparent return from Alaric. +His immediate object was to recover Mrs. Woodward's good graces; +and he thought before he went that he had reason to hope that he +might do so. + +Of all the household, Captain Cuttwater was the most emphatic in +his congratulations. 'He had no doubt,' he said, 'that the best +man had won. He had always hoped that the best man might win. He +had not had the same luck when he was young, but he was very glad +to see such an excellent rule brought into the service. It would +soon work great changes, he was quite sure, at the Board of +Admiralty.' + +On the Sunday afternoon Captain Cuttwater asked him into his own +bedroom, and told him with a solemn, serious manner that he had a +communication of importance to make to him. Alaric followed the +captain into the well-known room in which Norman used to sleep, +wondering what could be the nature of Uncle Bat's important +communication. It might, probably, be some tidings of Sir Jib +Boom. + +'Mr. Alaric,' said the old man, as soon as they were both seated +on opposite sides of a little Pembroke table that stood in the +middle of the room, 'I was heartily glad to hear of your success +at the Weights and Measures; not that I ever doubted it if they +made a fair sailing match of it.' + +'I am sure I am much obliged to you, Captain Cuttwater.' + +'That is as may be, by and by. But the fact is, I have taken a +fancy to you. I like fellows that know how to push themselves.' + +Alaric had nothing for it but to repeat again that he felt +himself grateful for Captain Cuttwater's good opinion. + +'Not that I have anything to say against Mr. Norman--a very nice +young man, indeed, he is, very nice, though perhaps not quite so +cheerful in his manners as he might be.' + +Alaric began to take his friend's part, and declared what a very +worthy fellow Harry was. + +'I am sure of it--I am sure of it,' said Uncle Bat; 'but +everybody can't be A1; and a man can't make everybody his heir.' + +Alaric pricked up his ears. So after all Captain Cuttwater was +right in calling his communication important. But what business +had Captain Cuttwater to talk of making new heirs?--had he not +declared that the Woodwards were his heirs? + +'I have got a little money, Mr. Alaric,' he went on saying in a +low modest tone, very different from that he ordinarily used; 'I +have got a little money--not much--and it will of course go to my +niece here.' + +'Of course,' said Alaric. + +'That is to say--it will go to her children, which is all the +same thing.' + +'Quite the same thing,' said Alaric. + +'But my idea is this: if a man has saved a few pounds himself, I +think he has a right to give it to those he loves best. Now I +have no children of my own.' + +Alaric declared himself aware of the fact. + +'And I suppose I shan't have any now.' + +'Not if you don't marry,' said Alaric, who felt rather at a loss +for a proper answer. He could not, however, have made a better +one. + +'No; that's what I mean; but I don't think I shall marry. I am +very well contented here, and I like Surbiton Cottage amazingly.' + +'It's a charming place,' said Alaric. + +'No, I don't suppose I shall ever have any children of my own,'-- +and then Uncle Bat sighed gently--'and so I have been considering +whom I should like to adopt.' + +'Quite right, Captain Cuttwater.' + +'Whom I should like to adopt. I should like to have one whom I +could call in a special manner my own. Now, Mr. Alaric, I have +made up my mind, and who do you think it is?' + +'Oh! Captain Cuttwater, I couldn't guess on such a matter. I +shouldn't like to guess wrong.' + +'Perhaps not--no; that's right;--well then, I'll tell you; it's +Gertrude.' + +Alaric was well aware that it was Gertrude before her name had +been pronounced. + +'Yes, it's Gertrude; of course I couldn't go out of Bessie's +family--of course it must be either Gertrude, or Linda, or Katie. +Now Linda and Katie are very well, but they haven't half the +gumption that Gertrude has.' + +'No, they have not,' said Alaric. + +'I like gumption,' said Captain Cuttwater. 'You've a great deal +of gumption--that's why I like you.' + +Alaric laughed, and muttered something. + +'Now I have been thinking of something;' and Uncle Bat looked +strangely mysterious--'I wonder what you think of Gertrude?' + +'Who--I?' said Alaric. + +'I can see through a millstone as well as another,' said the +captain; 'and I used to think that Norman and Gertrude meant to +hit it off together.' + +Alaric said nothing. He did not feel inclined to tell Norman's +secret, and yet he could not belie Gertrude by contradicting the +justice of Captain Cuttwater's opinion. + +'I used to think so--but now I find there's nothing in it. I am +sure Gertrude wouldn't have him, and I think she's right. He +hasn't gumption enough.' + +'Harry Norman is no fool.' + +'I dare say not,' said the captain; 'but take my word, she'll +never have him--Lord bless you, Norman knows that as well as I +do.' + +Alaric knew it very well himself also; but he did not say so. + +'Now, the long and the short of it is this--why don't you make up +to her? If you'll make up to her and carry the day, all I can say +is, I will do all I can to keep the pot a-boiling; and if you +think it will help you, you may tell Gertrude that I say so.' + +This was certainly an important communication, and one to which +Alaric found it very difficult to give any immediate answer. He +said a great deal about his affection for Mrs. Woodward, of his +admiration for Miss Woodward, of his strong sense of Captain +Cuttwater's kindness, and of his own unworthiness; but he left +the captain with an impression that he was not prepared at the +present moment to put himself forward as a candidate for +Gertrude's hand. + +'I don't know what the deuce he would have,' said the captain to +himself. 'She's as fine a girl as he's likely to find; and two or +three thousand pounds isn't so easily got every day by a fellow +that hasn't a shilling of his own.' + +When Alaric took his departure the next morning, he thought he +perceived, from Mrs. Woodward's manner, that there was less than +her usual cordiality in the tone in which she said that of course +he would return at the end of the week. + +'I will if possible,' he said, 'and I need not say that I hope to +do so; but I fear I may be kept in town--at any rate I'll write.' +When the end of the week came he wrote to say that unfortunately +he was kept in town. He thoroughly understood that people are +most valued when they make themselves scarce. He got in reply a +note from Gertrude, saying that her mother begged that on the +following Saturday he would come and bring Charley with him. + +On his return to town, Alaric, by appointment, called on Sir +Gregory. He had not seen his patron yet since his great report on +Wheal Mary Jane had been sent in. That report had been written +exclusively by himself, and poor Neverbend had been obliged to +content himself with putting all his voluminous notes into +Tudor's hands. He afterwards obediently signed the report, and +received his reward for doing so. Alaric never divulged to +official ears how Neverbend had halted in the course of his +descent to the infernal gods. + +'I thoroughly congratulate you,' said Sir Gregory. 'You have +justified my choice, and done your duty with credit to yourself +and benefit to the public. I hope you may go on and prosper. As +long as you remember that your own interests should always be +kept in subservience to those of the public service, you will not +fail to receive the praise which such conduct deserves.' + +Alaric thanked Sir Gregory for his good opinion, and as he did +so, he thought of his new banker's account, and of the £300 which +was lying there. After all, which of them was right, Sir Gregory +Hardlines or Undy Scott? Or was it that Sir Gregory's opinions +were such as should control the outward conduct, and Undy's those +which should rule the inner man? + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +VERY SAD + + +Norman prolonged his visit to his father considerably beyond the +month. At first he applied for and received permission to stay +away another fortnight, and at the end of that fortnight he sent +up a medical certificate in which the doctor alleged that he +would be unable to attend to business for some considerable +additional period. It was not till after Christmas Day that he +reappeared at the Weights and Measures. + +Alaric kept his appointment at Hampton, and took Charley with +him. And on the two following Saturdays he also went there, and +on both occasions Charley accompanied him. During these visits, +he devoted himself, as closely as he could, to Mrs. Woodward. He +talked to her of Norman, and of Norman's prospects in the office; +he told her how he had intended to abstain from offering himself +as a competitor, till he had, as it were, been forced by Norman +to do so; he declared over and over again that Norman would have +been victorious had he stood his ground to the end, and assured +her that such was the general opinion through the whole +establishment. And this he did without talking much about +himself, or praising himself in any way when he did so. His +speech was wholly of his friend, and of the sorrow that he felt +that his friend should have been disappointed in his hopes. + +All this had its effects. Of Norman's rejected love they neither +of them spoke. Each knew that the other must be aware of it, but +the subject was far too tender to be touched, at any rate as yet. +And so matters went on, and Alaric regained the footing of favour +which he had for a while lost with the mistress of the house. + +But there was one inmate of Surbiton Cottage who saw that though +Alaric spent so much of his tune with Mrs. Woodward, he found +opportunity also for other private conversation; and this was +Linda. Why was it that in the moments before they dressed for +dinner Alaric was whispering with Gertrude, and not with her? Why +was it that Alaric had felt it necessary to stay from church that +Sunday evening when Gertrude also had been prevented from going +by a headache? He had remained, he said, in order that Captain +Cuttwater might have company; but Linda was not slow to learn +that Uncle Bat had been left to doze away the time by himself. +Why, on the following Monday, had Gertrude been down so early, +and why had Alaric been over from the inn full half an hour +before his usual time? Linda saw and knew all this, and was +disgusted. But even then she did not, could not think that Alaric +could be untrue to her; that her own sister would rob her of her +lover. It could not be that there should be such baseness in +human nature! + +Poor Linda! + +And yet, though she did not believe that such falseness could +exist in this world of hers at Surbiton Cottage, she could not +restrain herself from complaining rather petulantly to her +sister, as they were going to bed on that Sunday evening. + +'I hope your headache is better,' she said, in a tone of voice as +near to irony as her soft nature could produce. + +'Yes, it is quite well now,' said Gertrude, disdaining to notice +the irony. + +'I dare say Alaric had a headache too. I suppose one was about as +bad as the other.' + +'Linda,' said Gertrude, answering rather with dignity than with +anger, 'you ought to know by this time that it is not likely that +I should plead false excuses. Alaric never said he had a +headache.' + +'He said he stayed from church to be with Uncle Bat; but when we +came back we found him with you.' + +'Uncle Bat went to sleep, and then he came into the drawing- +room.' + +The two girls said nothing more about it. Linda should have +remembered that she had never breathed a word to her sister of +Alaric's passion for herself. Gertrude's solemn propriety had +deterred her, just as she was about to do so. How very little of +that passion had Alaric breathed himself! and yet, alas! enough +to fill the fond girl's heart with dreams of love, which occupied +all her waking, all her sleeping thoughts. Oh! ye ruthless +swains, from whose unhallowed lips fall words full of poisoned +honey, do ye never think of the bitter agony of many months, of +the dull misery of many years, of the cold monotony of an +uncheered life, which follow so often as the consequence of your +short hour of pastime? + +On the Monday morning, as soon as Alaric and Charley had started +for town--it was the morning on which Linda had been provoked to +find that both Gertrude and Alaric had been up half an hour +before they should have been--Gertrude followed her mother to her +dressing-room, and with palpitating heart closed the door behind +her. + +Linda remained downstairs, putting away her tea and sugar, not in +the best of humours; but Katie, according to her wont, ran up +after her mother. + +'Katie,' said Gertrude, as Katie bounced into the room, 'dearest +Katie, I want to speak a word to mamma--alone. Will you mind +going down just for a few minutes?' and she put her arm round her +sister, and kissed her with almost unwonted tenderness. + +'Go, Katie, dear,' said Mrs. Woodward; and Katie, speechless, +retired. + +'Gertrude has got something particular to tell mamma; something +that I may not hear. I wonder what it is about,' said Katie to +her second sister. + +Linda's heart sank within her. 'Could it be? No, it could not, +could not be, that the sweet voice which had whispered in her +ears those well-remembered words, could have again whispered the +same into other ears--that the very Gertrude who had warned her +not to listen to such words from such lips, should have listened +to them herself, and have adopted them and made them her own! It +could not, could not be!' and yet Linda's heart sank low within +her. + + + * * * * * + + +'If you really love him,' said the mother, again caressing her +eldest daughter as she acknowledged her love, but hardly with +such tenderness as when that daughter had repudiated that other +love--'if you really love him, dearest, of course I do not, of +course I cannot, object.' + +'I do, mamma; I do.' + +'Well, then, Gertrude, so be it. I have not a word to say against +your choice. Had I not believed him to be an excellent young man, +I should not have allowed him to be here with you so much as he +has been. We cannot all see with the same eyes, dearest, can we?' + +'No, mamma; but pray don't think I dislike poor Harry; and, oh! +mamma, pray don't set him against Alaric because of this----' + +'Set him against Alaric! No, Gertrude. I certainly shall not do +that. But whether I can reconcile Harry to it, that is another +thing.' + +'At any rate he has no right to be angry at it,' said Gertrude, +assuming her air of dignity. + +'Certainly not with you, Gertrude.' + +'No, nor with Alaric,' said she, almost with indignation. + +'That depends on what has passed between them. It is very hard to +say how men so situated regard each other.' + +'I know everything that has passed between them,' said Gertrude. +'I never gave Harry any encouragement. As soon as I understood my +own feelings I endeavoured to make him understand them also.' + +'But, my dearest, no one is blaming you.' + +'But you are blaming Alaric.' + +'Indeed I am not, Gertrude.' + +'No man could have behaved more honourably to his friend,' said +Gertrude; 'no man more nobly; and if Harry does not feel it so, +he has not the good heart for which I always gave him credit.' + +'Poor fellow! his friendship for Alaric will be greatly tried.' + +'And, mamma, has not Alaric's friendship been tried? and has it +not borne the trial nobly? Harry told him of--of--of his +intentions; Harry told him long, long, long ago----' + +'Ah me!--poor Harry!' sighed Mrs. Woodward. + +'But you think nothing of Alaric!' + +'Alaric is successful, my dear, and can----' Think sufficiently +of himself, Mrs. Woodward was going to say, but she stopped +herself. + +'Harry told him all,' continued Gertrude, 'and Alaric--Alaric +said nothing of his own feelings. Alaric never said a word to me +that he might not have said before his friend--till--till--You +must own, mamma, that no one can have behaved more nobly than +Alaric has done.' + +Mrs. Woodward, nevertheless, had her own sentiments on the +matter, which were not quite in unison with those of her +daughter. But then she was not in love with Alaric, and her +daughter was. She thought that Alaric's love was a passion that +had but lately come to the birth, and that had he been true to +his friend--nobly true as Gertrude had described him--it would +never have been born at all, or at any rate not till Harry had +had a more prolonged chance of being successful with his suit. +Mrs. Woodward understood human nature better than her daughter, +or, at least, flattered herself that she did so, and she felt +well assured that Alaric had not been dying for love during the +period of Harry's unsuccessful courtship. He might, she thought, +have waited a little longer before he chose for his wife the girl +whom his friend had loved, seeing that he had been made the +confidant of that love. + +Such were the feelings which Mrs. Woodward felt herself unable to +repress; but she could not refuse her consent to the marriage. +After all, she had some slight twinge of conscience, some inward +conviction that she was prejudiced in Harry's favour, as her +daughter was in Alaric's. Then she had lost all right to object +to Alaric, by allowing him to be so constantly at the Cottage; +and then again, there was nothing to which in reason she could +object. In point of immediate income, Alaric was now the better +match of the two. She kissed her daughter, therefore, and +promised that she would do her best to take Alaric to her heart +as her son-in-law. + +'You will tell Uncle Bat, mamma?' said Gertrude. + +'O yes--certainly, my dear; of course he'll be told. But I +suppose it does not make much matter, immediately?' + +'I think he should be told, mamma; I should not like him to think +that he was treated with anything like disrespect.' + +'Very well, my dear, I'll tell him,' said Mrs. Woodward, who was +somewhat surprised at her daughter's punctilious feelings about +Uncle Bat. However, it was all very proper; and she was glad to +think that her children were inclined to treat their grand-uncle +with respect, in spite of his long nose. + +And then Gertrude was preparing to leave the room, but her mother +stopped her. 'Gertrude, dear,' said she. + +'Yes, mamma.' + +'Come here, dearest; shut the door. Gertrude, have you told Linda +yet?' + +'No, mamma, not yet.' + +As Mrs. Woodward asked the question, there was an indescribable +look of painful emotion on her brow. It did not escape Gertrude's +eye, and was not to her perfectly unintelligible. She had +conceived an idea--why, she did not know--that these recent +tidings of hers would not be altogether agreeable to her sister. + +'No, mamma, I have not told her; of course I told you first. But +now I shall do so immediately.' + +'Let me tell her,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'will you, Gertrude?' + +'Oh! certainly, mamma, if you wish it.' + +Things were going wrong with Mrs. Woodward. She had perceived, +with a mother's anxious eye, that her second daughter was not +indifferent to Alaric Tudor. While she yet thought that Norman +and Gertrude would have suited each other, this had caused her no +disquietude. She herself had entertained none of those grand +ideas to which Gertrude had given utterance with so much +sententiousness, when she silenced Linda's tale of love before +the telling of it had been commenced. Mrs. Woodward had always +felt sufficiently confident that Alaric would push himself in the +world, and she would have made no objection to him as a son-in- +law had he been contented to take the second instead of the first +of her flock. + +She had never spoken to Linda on the matter, and Linda had +offered to her no confidence; but she felt all but sure that her +second child would not have entertained the affection which she +had been unable altogether to conceal, had no lover's plea been +poured into her ears. Mrs. Woodward questioned her daughters but +little, but she understood well the nature of each, and could +nearly read their thoughts. Linda's thoughts it was not difficult +to read. + +'Linda, pet,' she said, as soon as she could get Linda into her +room without absolutely sending for her, 'you have not yet heard +Gertrude's news?' + +'No,' said Linda, turning very pale, and feeling that her heart +was like to burst. + +'I would let no one tell you but myself, Linda. Come here, +dearest; don't stand there away from me. Can you guess what it +is?' + +Linda, for a moment, could not speak. 'No, mamma,' she said at +last, 'I don't know what it is.' + +Mrs. Woodward twined her arm round her daughter's waist, as they +sat on the sofa close to each other. Linda tried to compose +herself, but she felt that she was trembling in her mother's +arms. She would have given anything to be calm; anything to hide +her secret. She little guessed then how well her mother knew it. +Her eyes were turned down, and she found that she could not raise +them to her mother's face. + +'No, mamma,' she said. 'I don't know--what is it?' + +'Gertrude is to be married, Linda. She is engaged.' + +'I thought she refused Harry,' said Linda, through whose mind a +faint idea was passing of the cruelty of nature's arrangements, +which gave all the lovers to her sister. + +'Yes, dearest, she did; and now another has made an offer--she +has accepted him.' Mrs. Woodward could hardly bring herself to +speak out that which she had to say, and yet she felt that she +was only prolonging the torture for which she was so anxious to +find a remedy. + +'Has she?' said Linda, on whom the full certainty of her misery +had now all but come. + +'She has accepted our dear Alaric.' + +Our dear Alaric! what words for Linda's ears! They did reach her +ears, but they did not dwell there--her soft gentle nature sank +beneath the sound. Her mother, when she looked to her for a +reply, found that she was sinking through her arms. Linda had +fainted. + +Mrs. Woodward neither screamed, nor rang for assistance, nor +emptied the water-jug over her daughter, nor did anything else +which would have the effect of revealing to the whole household +the fact that Linda had fainted. She had seen girls faint before, +and was not frightened. But how, when Linda recovered, was she to +be comforted? + +Mrs. Woodward laid her gently on the sofa, undid her dress, +loosened her stays, and then sat by her chafing her hands, and +moistening her lips and temples, till gradually the poor girl's +eyes reopened. The recovery from a fainting fit, a real fainting +fit I beg young ladies to understand, brings with it a most +unpleasant sensation, and for some minutes Linda's sorrow was +quelled by her sufferings; but as she recovered her strength she +remembered where she was and what had happened, and sobbing +violently she burst into an hysterical storm of tears. + +Her most poignant feeling now was one of fear lest her mother +should have guessed her secret; and this Mrs. Woodward well +understood. She could do nothing towards comforting her child +till there was perfect confidence between them. It was easy to +arrive at this with Linda, nor would it afterwards be difficult +to persuade her as to the course she ought to take. The two girls +were so essentially different; the one so eager to stand alone +and guide herself, the other so prone to lean on the nearest +support that came to her hand. + +It was not long before Linda had told her mother everything. +Either by words, or tears, or little signs of mute confession, +she made her mother understand, with all but exactness, what had +passed between Alaric and herself, and quite exactly what had +been the state of her own heart. She sobbed, and wept, and looked +up to her mother for forgiveness as though she had been guilty of +a great sin; and when her mother caressed her with all a mother's +tenderness, and told her that she was absolved from all fault, +free of all blame, she was to a certain degree comforted. +Whatever might now happen, her mother would be on her side. But +Mrs. Woodward, when she looked into the matter, found that it was +she that should have demanded pardon of her daughter, not her +daughter of her! Why had this tender lamb been allowed to wander +out of the fold, while a wolf in sheep's clothing was invited +into the pasture-ground? + +Gertrude, with her talent, her beauty, and dignity of demeanour, +had hitherto been, perhaps, the closest to the mother's heart-- +had been, if not the most cherished, yet the most valued; +Gertrude had been the apple of her eye. This should be altered +now. If a mother's love could atone for a mother's negligence, +Mrs. Woodward would atone to her child for this hour of misery! +And Katie--her sweet bonny Katie--she, at least, should be +protected from the wolves. Those were the thoughts that passed +through Mrs. Woodward's heart as she sat there caressing Linda. +But how were things to be managed now at the present moment? It +was quite clear that the wolf in sheep's clothing must be +admitted into the pastoral family; either that, or the fairest +lamb of the flock must be turned out altogether, to take upon +herself lupine nature, and roam the woods a beast of prey. As +matters stood it behoved them to make such a sheep of Alaric as +might be found practicable. + +And so Mrs. Woodward set to work to teach her daughter how best +she might conduct herself in her present state of wretchedness. +She had to bear with her sister's success, to listen to her +sister's joy, to enter into all her future plans, to assist at +her toilet, to prepare her wedding garments, to hear the +congratulations of friends, and take a sister's share in a +sister's triumph, and to do this without once giving vent to a +reproach. And she had worse than this to do; she had to encounter +Alaric, and to wish him joy of his bride; she had to protect her +female pride from the disgrace which a hopeless but acknowledged +love would throw on it; she had to live in the house with Alaric +as though he were her brother, and as though she had never +thought to live with him in any nearer tie. She would have to +stand at the altar as her sister's bridesmaid, and see them +married, and she would have to smile and be cheerful as she did +so. + +This was the lesson which Mrs. Woodward had now to teach +her daughter; and she so taught it that Linda did all that +circumstances and her mother required of her. Late on that +afternoon she went to Gertrude, and, kissing her, wished her joy. +At that moment Gertrude was the more embarrassed of the two. + +'Linda, dear Linda,' she said, embracing her sister convulsively. + +'I hope you will be happy, Gertrude, with all my heart,' said +Linda; and so she relinquished her lover. + +We talk about the weakness of women--and Linda Woodward was, in +many a way, weak enough--but what man, what giant, has strength +equal to this? It was not that her love was feeble. Her heart was +capable of truest love, and she had loved Alaric truly. But she +had that within her which enabled her to overcome herself, and +put her own heart, and hopes, and happiness--all but her maiden +pride--into the background, when the hopes and happiness of +another required it. + +She still shared the same room with her sister; and those who +know how completely absorbed a girl is by her first acknowledged +love, may imagine how many questions she had to answer, to how +many propositions she was called to assent, for how many schemes +she had to vouchsafe a sister's interest, while her heart was +telling her that she should have been the questioner, she should +have been the proposer, that the schemes should all have been her +own. + +But she bore it bravely. When Alaric first came down, which he +did in the middle of the week, she was, as she told her mother, +too weak to stand in his presence. Her mother strongly advised +her not to absent herself; so she sat gently by, while he kissed +Mrs. Woodward and Katie. She sat and trembled, for her turn she +knew must come. It did come; Alaric, with an assurance which told +more for his courage than for his heart, came up to her, and with +a smiling face offered her his hand. She rose up and muttered +some words which she had prepared for the occasion, and he, still +holding her by the hand, stooped down and kissed her cheek. Mrs. +Woodward looked on with an angry flush on her brow, and hated him +for his cold-hearted propriety of demeanour. + +Linda went up to her mother's room, and, sitting on her mother's +bed, sobbed herself into tranquillity. + +It was very grievous to Mrs. Woodward to have to welcome Alaric +to her house. For Alaric's own sake she would no longer have +troubled herself to do so; but Gertrude was still her daughter, +her dear child. Gertrude had done nothing to disentitle her to a +child's part, and a child's protection; and even had she done so, +Mrs. Woodward was not a woman to be unforgiving to her child. For +Gertrude's sake she had to make Alaric welcome; she forced +herself to smile on him and call him her son; to make him more at +home in her house even than Harry had ever been; to give him +privileges which he, wolf as he was, had so little deserved. + +But Captain Cuttwater made up by the warmth of his +congratulations for any involuntary coolness which Alaric might +have detected in those of Mrs. Woodward. It had become a strong +wish of the old man's heart that he might make Alaric, at any +rate in part, his heir, without doing an injustice to his niece +or her family. He had soon seen and appreciated what he had +called the 'gumption' both of Gertrude and Alaric. Had Harry +married Gertrude, and Alaric Linda, he would have regarded either +of those matches with disfavour. But now he was quite satisfied-- +now he could look on Alaric as his son and Gertrude as his +daughter, and use his money according to his fancy, without +incurring the reproaches of his conscience. + +'Quite right, my boy, 'he said to Alaric, slapping him on the +back at the same time with pretty nearly all his power--'quite +right. Didn't I know you were the winning horse?--didn't I tell +you how it would be? Do you think I don't know what gumption +means? If I had not had my own weather-eye open, aye, and d--- +wide open, the most of my time, I shouldn't have two or three +thousand pounds to give away now to any young fellow that I take +a fancy to.' + +Alaric was, of course, all smiles and good humour, and Gertrude +not less so. The day after he heard of the engagement Uncle Bat +went to town, and, on his return, he gave Gertrude £100 to buy +her wedding-clothes, and half that sum to her mother, in order +that the thing might go off, as he expressed himself, 'slip-slap, +and no mistake.' To Linda he gave nothing, but promised her that +he would not forget her when her time came. + +All this time Norman was at Normansgrove; but there were three of +the party who felt that it behoved them to let him know what was +going on. Mrs. Woodward wrote first, and on the following day +both Gertrude and Alaric wrote to him, the former from Hampton, +and the latter from his office in London. + +All these letters were much laboured, but, with all this labour, +not one of them contained within it a grain of comfort. That from +Mrs. Woodward came first and told the tale. Strange to say, +though Harry had studiously rejected from his mind all idea of +hope as regarded Gertrude, nevertheless the first tidings of her +betrothal with Alaric struck him as though he had still fancied +himself a favoured lover. He felt as though, in his absence, he +had been robbed of a prize which was all his own, as though a +chattel had been taken from him to which he had a full right; as +though all the Hampton party, Mrs. Woodward included, were in a +conspiracy to defraud him the moment his back was turned. + +The blow was so severe that it laid him prostrate at once. He +could not sob away his sorrow on his mother's bosom; no one could +teach him how to bear his grief with meek resignation. He had +never spoken of his love to his friends at Normansgrove. They had +all been witnesses to his deep disappointment, but that had been +attributed to his failure at his office. He was not a man to seek +for sympathy in the sorrows of his heart. He had told Alaric of +his rejection, because he had already told him of his love, but +he had whispered no word of it to anyone besides. On the day on +which he received Mrs. Woodward's letter, he appeared at dinner +ghastly pale, and evidently so ill as to be all but unable to sit +at table; but he would say nothing to anybody; he sat brooding +over his grief till he was unable to sit any longer. + +And yet Mrs. Woodward had written with all her skill, with all +her heart striving to pluck the sting away from the tidings which +she had to communicate. She had felt, however, that she owed as +much, at least, to her daughter as she did to him, and she failed +to call Alaric perjured, false, dishonoured, unjust, disgraced, +and treacherous. Nothing short of her doing so would have been +deemed by Norman fitting mention of Tudor's sin; nothing else +would have satisfied the fury of his wrath. + +On the next morning he received Gertrude's letter and Alaric's. +The latter he never read--he opened it, saw that it began as +usual, 'My dear Harry,' and then crammed it into his pocket. By +return of post it went back under a blank cover, addressed to +Alaric at the Weights and Measures. The days of duelling were +gone by--unfortunately, as Norman now thought, but nothing, he +determined, should ever induce him again to hold friendly +intercourse with the traitor. He abstained from making any such +oath as to the Woodwards; but determined that his conduct in that +respect should be governed by the manner in which Alaric was +received by them. + +But Gertrude's letter he read over and over again, and each time +he did so he indulged in a fresh burst of hatred against the man +who had deceived him. 'A dishonest villain!' he said to himself +over and over again; 'what right had I to suppose he would be +true to me when I found that he had been so false to others?' + +'Dearest Harry,' the letter began. Dearest Harry!--Why should she +begin with a lie? He was not dearest! 'You must not, must not, +must not be angry with Alaric,' she went on to say, as soon as +she had told her tale. Oh, must he not? Not be angry with Alaric! +Not angry with the man who had forgotten every law of honour, +every principle of honesty, every tie of friendship! Not angry +with the man whom he had trusted with the key of his treasure, +and who had then robbed him; who had stolen from him all his +contentment, all his joy, his very heart's blood; not angry with +him! + +'Our happiness will never be perfect unless you will consent to +share it.' Thus simply, in the affection of her heart, had +Gertrude concluded the letter by which she intended to pour balm +into the wounds of her rejected lover, and pave the way for the +smoothing of such difficulties as might still lie in the way of +her love. + +'Their happiness would not be perfect unless he would consent to +share it.' Every word in the sentence was gall to him. It must +have been written with the object of lacerating his wounds, and +torturing his spirit; so at least said Norman to himself. He read +the letter over and over again. At one time he resolved to keep +it till he could thrust it back into her hand, and prove to her +of what cruelty she had been guilty. Then he thought of sending +it to Mrs. Woodward, and asking her how, after that, could she +think that he should ever again enter her doors at Hampton. +Finally he tore it into a thousand bits, and threw them behind +the fire. + +'Share their happiness!' and as he repeated the words he gave the +last tear to the fragments of paper which he still held in his +hand. Could he at that moment as easily have torn to shreds all +hope of earthly joys for those two lovers, he would then have +done it, and cast the ruins to the flames. + +Oh! what a lesson he might have learnt from Linda! And yet what +were his injuries to hers? He in fact had not been injured, at +least not by him against whom the strength of his wrath most +fiercely raged. The two men had both admired Gertrude, but Norman +had started on the race first. Before Alaric had had time to know +his own mind, he had learnt that Norman claimed the beauty as his +own. He had acknowledged to himself that Norman had a right to do +so, and had scrupulously abstained from interfering with him. Why +should Norman, like a dog in the manger, begrudge to his friend +the fodder which he himself could not enjoy? To him, at any rate, +Alaric had in this been no traitor. 'Twas thus at least that +Gertrude argued in her heart, and 'twas thus that Mrs. Woodward +tried to argue also. + +But who could excuse Alaric's falseness to Linda? And yet Linda +had forgiven him. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +NORMAN RETURNS TO TOWN + + +Harry Norman made no answer to either of his three letters beyond +that of sending Alaric's back unread; but this, without other +reply, was sufficient to let them all guess, nearly with +accuracy, what was the state of his mind. Alaric told Gertrude +how his missive had been treated, and Gertrude, of course, told +her mother. + +There was very little of that joy at Surbiton Cottage which +should have been the forerunner of a wedding. None of the +Woodward circle were content thus to lose their friend. And then +their unhappiness on this score was augmented by hearing that +Harry had sent up a medical certificate, instead of returning to +his duties when his prolonged leave of absence was expired. + +To Alaric this, at the moment, was a relief. He had dreaded the +return of Norman to London. There were so many things to cause +infinite pain to them both. All Norman's things, his books and +clothes, his desks and papers and pictures, his whips and sticks, +and all those sundry belongings which even a bachelor collects +around him--were strewing the rooms in which Alaric still lived. +He had of course felt that it was impossible that they should +ever again reside together. Not only must they quarrel, but all +the men at their office must know that they had quarrelled. And +yet some intercourse must be maintained between them; they must +daily meet in the rooms at the Weights and Measures; and it would +now in their altered position become necessary that in some +things Norman should receive instructions from Alaric as his +superior officer. But if Alaric thought of this often, so did +Norman; and before the last fortnight had expired, the thinking +of it had made him so ill that his immediate return to London was +out of the question. + +Mrs. Woodward's heart melted within her when she heard that Harry +was really ill. She had gone on waiting day after day for an +answer to her letter, but no answer came. No answer came, but in +lieu thereof she heard that Harry was laid up at Normansgrove. +She heard it, and Gertrude heard it, and in spite of the coming +wedding there was very little joy at Surbiton Cottage. + +And then Mrs. Woodward wrote again; and a man must have had a +heart of stone not to be moved by such a letter. She had 'heard,' +she said, 'that he was ill, and the tidings had made her +wretched--the more so inasmuch as he had sent no answer to her +last letter. Was he very ill? was he dangerously ill? She hoped, +she would fain hope, that his illness had not arisen from any +mental grief. If he did not reply to this, or get some of his +family to do so, there would be nothing for her but to go, +herself, to Normansgrove. She could not remain quiet while she +was left in such painful doubt about her dearest, well-loved +Harry Norman.' How to speak of Gertrude, or how not to speak of +her, Mrs. Woodward knew not--at last she added: 'The three girls +send their kindest love; they are all as wretchedly anxious as I +am. I know you are too good to wish that poor Gertrude should +suffer, but, if you did, you might have your wish. The tidings of +your illness, together with your silence, have robbed her of all +her happiness;' and it ended thus:--'Dearest Harry! do not be +cruel to us; our hearts are all with you.' + +This was too much for Norman's sternness; and he relented, at +least as far as Mrs. Woodward was concerned. He wrote to say that +though he was still weak, he was not dangerously ill; and that he +intended, if nothing occurred amiss, to be in town about the end +of the year. He hoped he might then see her to thank her for all +her kindness. She would understand that he could not go down to +Surbiton Cottage; but as she would doubtless have some occasion +for coming up to town, they might thus contrive to meet. He then +sent his love to Linda and Katie, and ended by saying that he had +written to Charley Tudor to take lodgings for him. Not the +slightest allusion was made either to Gertrude or Alaric, except +that which might seem to be conveyed in the intimation that he +could make no more visits to Hampton. + +This letter was very cold. It just permitted Mrs. Woodward to +know that Norman did not regard them all as strangers; and that +was all. Linda said it was very sad; and Gertrude said, not to +her mother but to Alaric, that it was heartless. Captain +Cuttwater predicted that he would soon come round, and be as +sound as a roach again in six months' time. Alaric said nothing; +but he went on with his wooing, and this he did so successfully, +as to make Gertrude painfully alive to what would have been, in +her eyes, the inferiority of her lot, had she unfortunately +allowed herself to become the victim of Norman's love. + +Alaric went on with his wooing, and he also went on with his +share-buying. Undy Scott had returned to town for a week or two +to wind up the affairs of his expiring secretaryship, and he made +Alaric understand that a nice thing might yet be done in Mary +Janes. Alaric had been very foolish to sell so quickly; so at +least said Undy. To this Alaric replied that he had bought the +shares thoughtlessly, and had felt a desire to get rid of them as +quickly as he could. Those were scruples at which Undy laughed +pleasantly, and Alaric soon laughed with him. + +'At any rate,' said Undy, 'your report is written, and off your +hands now: so you may do what you please in the matter, like a +free man, with a safe conscience.' + +Alaric supposed that he might. + +'I am as fond of the Civil Service as any man,' said Undy; 'just +as fond of it as Sir Gregory himself. I have been in it, and may +be in it again. If I do, I shall do my duty. But I have no idea +of having my hands tied. My purse is my own, to do what I like +with it. Whether I buy beef or mutton, or shares in Cornwall, is +nothing to anyone. I give the Crown what it pays for, my five or +six hours a day, and nothing more. When I was appointed private +secretary to the First Lord of the Stannaries, I told my friend +Whip Vigil that those were the terms on which I accepted office; +and Vigil agreed with me.' Alaric, pupil as he was to the great +Sir Gregory, declared that he also agreed with him. 'That is not +Sir Gregory's doctrine, but it's mine,' said Undy; 'and though +it's my own, I think it by far the honester doctrine of the two.' + +Alaric did not sift the matter very deeply, nor did he ask Undy, +or himself either, whether in using the contents of his purse in +the purchase of shares he would be justified in turning to his +own purpose any information which he might obtain in his official +career. Nor did he again offer to put that broad test to himself +which he had before proposed, and ask himself whether he would +dare to talk of what he was doing in the face of day, in his own +office, before Sir Gregory, or before the Neverbends of the +Service. He had already learnt the absurdity of such tests. Did +other men talk of such doings? Was it not notorious that the +world speculated, and that the world was generally silent in the +matter? Why should he attempt to be wiser than those around him? +Was it not sufficient for him to be wise in his generation? What +man had ever become great, who allowed himself to be impeded by +small scruples? If the sportsman returned from the field laden +with game, who would scrutinize the mud on his gaiters? +'Excelsior!' said Alaric to himself with a proud ambition; and so +he attempted to rise by the purchase and sale of mining shares. + +When he was fairly engaged in the sport, his style of play so +fascinated Undy that they embarked in a sort of partnership, +_pro hoc vice_, good to the last during the ups and downs of +Wheal Mary Jane. Mary Jane, no doubt, would soon run dry, or else +be drowned, as had happened to New Friendship. But in the +meantime something might be done. + +'Of course you'll be consulted about those other papers,' said +Undy. 'It might be as well they should be kept back for a week or +two.' + +'Well, I'll see,' said Alaric; and as he said it, he felt that +his face was tinged with a blush of shame. But what then? Who +would look at the dirt on his gaiters, if he filled his bag with +game? + +Mrs. Woodward was no whit angered by the coldness of Norman's +letter. She wished that he could have brought himself to write in +a different style, but she remembered his grief, and knew that as +time should work its cure upon it, he would come round and again +be gentle and affectionate, at any rate with her. + +She misdoubted Charley's judgement in the choice of lodgings, and +therefore she talked over the matter with Alaric. It was at last +decided that he, Alaric, should move instead of driving Norman +away. His final movement would soon take place; that movement +which would rob him of the freedom of lodginghood, and invest him +with all the ponderous responsibility and close restraint of a +householder. He and Gertrude were to be married in February, and +after spending a cold honeymoon in Paris and Brussels, were to +begin their married life amidst the sharp winds of a London +March. But love, gratified love, will, we believe, keep out even +an English east wind. If so, it is certainly the only thing that +will. + +Charley, therefore, wrote to Norman, telling him that he could +remain in his old home, and humbly asking permission to remain +there with him. To this request he received a kind rejoinder in +the affirmative. Though Charley was related to Alaric, there had +always apparently been a closer friendship between him and Norman +than between the two cousins; and now, in his fierce unbridled +quarrel with Alaric, and in his present coolness with the +Woodwards, he seemed to turn to Charley with more than ordinary +affection. + +Norman made his appearance at the office on the first Monday of +the new year. He had hitherto sat at the same desk with Alaric, +each of them occupying one side of it; on his return he found +himself opposite to a stranger. Alaric had, of course, been +promoted to a room of his own. + +The Weights and Measures had never been a noisy office; but now +it became more silent than ever. Men there talked but little at +any time, and now they seemed to cease from talking altogether. +It was known to all that the Damon and Pythias of the establishment +were Damon and Pythias no longer; that war waged between them, +and that if all accounts were true, they were ready to fly each at +the other's throat. Some attributed this to the competitive examination; +others said it was love; others declared that it was money, the root +of evil; and one rash young gentleman stated his positive knowledge +that it was all three. At any rate something dreadful was expected; +and men sat anxious at their desks, fearing the coming evil. + +On the Monday the two men did not meet, nor on the Tuesday. On +the next morning, Alaric, having acknowledged to himself the +necessity of breaking the ice, walked into the room where Norman +sat with three or four others. It was absolutely necessary that +he should make some arrangement with him as to a certain branch +of office-work; and though it was competent for him, as the +superior, to have sent for Norman as the inferior, he thought it +best to abstain from doing so, even though he were thereby +obliged to face his enemy, for the first time, in the presence of +others. + +'Well, Mr. Embryo,' said he, speaking to the new junior, and +standing with his back to the fire in an easy way, as though +there was nothing wrong under the sun, or at least nothing at the +Weights and Measures, 'well, Mr. Embryo, how do you get on with +those calculations?' + +'Pretty well, I believe, sir; I think I begin to understand them +now,' said the tyro, producing for Alaric's gratification five or +six folio sheets covered with intricate masses of figures. + +'Ah! yes; that will do very well,' said Alaric, taking up one of +the sheets, and looking at it with an assumed air of great +interest. Though he acted his part pretty well, his mind was very +far removed from Mr. Embryo's efforts. + +Norman sat at his desk, as black as a thunder-cloud, with his +eyes turned intently at the paper before him; but so agitated +that he could not even pretend to write. + +'By the by, Norman,' said Alaric, 'when will it suit you to look +through those Scotch papers with me?' + +'My name, sir, is Mr. Norman,' said Harry, getting up and +standing by his chair with all the firmness of a Paladin of old. + +'With all my heart,' said Alaric. 'In speaking to you I can have +but one wish, and that is to do so in any way that may best +please you.' + +'Any instructions you may have to give I will attend to, as far +as my duty goes,' said Norman. + +And then Alaric, pushing Mr. Embryo from his chair without much +ceremony, sat down opposite to his former friend, and said and +did what he had to say and do with an easy unaffected air, in +which there was, at any rate, none of the usual superciliousness +of a neophyte's authority. Norman was too agitated to speak +reasonably, or to listen calmly, but Alaric knew that though he +might not do so to-day, he would to-morrow, or if not to-morrow, +then the next day; and so from day to day he came into Norman's +room and transacted his business. Mr. Embryo got accustomed to +looking through the window at the Council Office for the ten +minutes that he remained there, and Norman also became reconciled +to the custom. And thus, though they never met in any other way, +they daily had a kind of intercourse with each other, which, at +last, contrived to get itself arranged into a certain amount of +civility on both sides. + +Immediately that Norman's arrival was heard of at Surbiton +Cottage, Mrs. Woodward hastened up to town to see him. She wrote +to him to say that she would be at his lodgings at a certain +hour, and begged him to come thither to her. Of course he did not +refuse, and so they met. Mrs. Woodward had much doubted whether +or no she would take Linda or Katie with her, but at last she +resolved to go alone. Harry, she thought, would be more willing +to speak freely to her, to open his heart to her, if there were +nobody by but herself. + +Their meeting was very touching, and characteristic of the two +persons. Mrs. Woodward was sad enough, but her sadness was +accompanied by a strength of affection that carried before it +every obstacle. Norman was also sad; but he was at first stern +and cold, and would have remained so to the last, had not his +manly anger been overpowered by her feminine tenderness. + +It was singular, but not the less true, that at this period +Norman appeared to have forgotten altogether that he had ever +proposed to Gertrude, and been rejected by her. All that he said +and all that he thought was exactly what he might have said and +thought had Alaric taken from him his affianced bride. No suitor +had ever felt his suit to be more hopeless than he had done; and +yet he now regarded himself as one whose high hopes of happy love +had all been destroyed by the treachery of a friend and the +fickleness of a woman. + +This made the task of appeasing him very difficult to Mrs. +Woodward. She could not in plain language remind him that he had +been plainly rejected; nor could she, on the other hand, permit +her daughter to be branded with a fault of which she had never +been guilty. + +Mrs. Woodward had wished, though she had hardly hoped, so to +mollify Norman as to induce him to promise to be at the wedding; +but she soon found that this was out of the question. There was +no mitigating his anger against Alaric. + +'Mrs. Woodward,' said he, standing very upright, and looking very +stiff, 'I will never again willingly put myself in any position +where I must meet him.' + +'Oh! Harry, don't say so--think of your close friendship, think +of your long friendship.' + +'Why did he not think of it?' + +'But, Harry--if not for his sake, if not for your own, at any +rate do so for ours; for my sake, for Katie's and Linda's, for +Gertrude's sake.' + +'I had rather not speak of Gertrude, Mrs. Woodward.' + +'Ah! Harry, Gertrude has done you no injury; why should you thus +turn your heart against her? You should not blame her; if you +have anyone to blame, it is me.' + +'No; you have been true to me.' + +'And has she been false? Oh! Harry, think how we have loved you! +You should be more just to us.' + +'Tush!' he said. 'I do not believe in justice; there is no +justice left. I would have given everything I had for him. I +would have made any sacrifice. His happiness was as much my +thought as my own. And now--and yet you talk to me of justice.' + +'And if he had injured you, Harry, would you not forgive him? Do +you repeat your prayers without thinking of them? Do you not wish +to forgive them that trespass against you?' Norman groaned +inwardly in the spirit. 'Do you not think of this when you kneel +every night before your God?' + +'There are injuries which a man cannot forgive, is not expected +to forgive.' + +'Are there, Harry? Oh! that is a dangerous doctrine. In that way +every man might nurse his own wrath till anger would make devils +of us all. Our Saviour has made no exceptions.' + +'In one sense, I do forgive him, Mrs. Woodward. I wish him no +evil. But it is impossible that I should call a man who has so +injured me my friend. I look upon him as disgraced for ever.' + +She then endeavoured to persuade him to see Gertrude, or at any +rate to send his love to her. But in this also he was obdurate. +'It could,' he said, 'do no good.' He could not answer for +himself that his feelings would not betray him. A message would +be of no use; if true, it would not be gracious; if false, it had +better be avoided. He was quite sure Gertrude would be indifferent +as to any message from him. The best thing for them both would +be that they should forget each other. + +He promised, however, that he would go down to Hampton +immediately after the marriage, and he sent his kindest love to +Linda and Katie. 'And, dear Mrs. Woodward,' said he, 'I know you +think me very harsh, I know you think me vindictive--but pray, +pray believe that I understand all your love, and acknowledge all +your goodness. The time will, perhaps, come when we shall be as +happy together as we once were.' + +Mrs. Woodward, trying to smile through her tears, could only say +that she would pray that that time might soon come; and so, +bidding God bless him, as a mother might bless her child, she +left him and returned to Hampton, not with a light heart. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FIRST WEDDING + + +In spite, however, of Norman and his anger, on a cold snowy +morning in the month of February, Gertrude stood at the altar in +Hampton Church, a happy trusting bride, and Linda stood smiling +behind her, the lovely leader of the nuptial train. Nor were +Linda's smiles false or forced, much less treacherous. She had +taught herself to look on Alaric as her sister's husband, and +though in doing so she had suffered, and did still suffer, she +now thought of her own lost lover in no other guise. + +A housemaid, not long since, who was known in the family in which +she lived to be affianced to a neighbouring gardener, came +weeping to her mistress. + +'Oh, ma'am!' + +'Why, Susan, what ails you?' + +'Oh, ma'am!' + +'Well, Susan--what is it?--why are you crying?' + +'Oh, ma'am--John!' + +'Well--what of John? I hope he is not misbehaving.' + +'Indeed, ma'am, he is then; the worst of misbehaviour; for he's +gone and got hisself married.' And poor Susan gave vent to a +flood of tears. + +Her mistress tried to comfort her, and not in vain. She told her +that probably she might be better as she was; that John, seeing +what he had done, must be a false creature, who would undoubtedly +have used her ill; and she ended her good counsel by trying to +make Susan understand that there were still as good fish in the +sea as had ever yet been caught out of it. + +'And that's true too, ma'am,' said Susan, with her apron to her +eyes. + +'Then you should not be downhearted, you know.' + +'Nor I han't down'arted, ma'am, for thank God I could love any +man, but it's the looks on it, ma'am; it's that I mind.' + +How many of us are there, women and men too, who think most of +the 'looks of it' under such circumstances; and who, were we as +honest as poor Susan, ought to thank God, as she did, that we can +love anyone; anyone, that is, of the other sex. We are not all of +us susceptible of being torn to tatters by an unhappy passion; +not even all those of us who may be susceptible of a true and +honest love. And it is well that it is so. It is one of God's +mercies; and if we were as wise as Susan, we should thank God for +it. + +Linda was, perhaps, one of those. She was good, affectionate, +tender, and true. But she was made of that stuff which can bend +to the north wind. The world was not all over with her because a +man had been untrue to her. She had had her grief, and had been +told to meet it like a Christian; she had been obedient to the +telling, and now felt the good result. So when Gertrude was +married she stood smiling behind her; and when her new brother- +in-law kissed her in the vestry-room she smiled again, and +honestly wished them happiness. + +And Katie was there, very pretty and bonny, still childish, with +her short dress and long trousers, but looking as though she, +too, would soon feel the strength of her own wings, and be able +to fly away from her mother's nest. Dear Katie! Her story has yet +to be told. To her belongs neither the soft easiness of her +sister Linda nor the sterner dignity of Gertrude. But she has a +character of her own, which contains, perhaps, higher qualities +than those given to either of her sisters. + +And there were other bridesmaids there; how many it boots not now +to say. We must have the spaces round our altars greatly widened +if this passion for bevies of attendant nymphs be allowed to go +on increasing--and if crinolines increase also. If every bride is +to have twelve maidens, and each maiden to stand on no less than +a twelve-yard circle, what modest temple will ever suffice for a +sacrifice to Hymen? + +And Mrs. Woodward was there, of course; as pretty to my thinking +as either of her daughters, or any of the bridesmaids. She was +very pretty and smiling and quiet. But when Gertrude said 'I +will,' she was thinking of Harry Norman, and grieving that he was +not there. + +And Captain Cuttwater was there, radiant in a new blue coat, made +specially for the occasion, and elastic with true joy. He had +been very generous. He had given £1,000 to Alaric, and settled +£150 a year on Gertrude, payable, of course, after his death. +This, indeed, was the bulk of what he had to give, and Mrs. +Woodward had seen with regret his exuberant munificence to one of +her children. But Gertrude was her child, and of course she could +not complain. + +And Charley was there, acting as best man. It was just the place +and just the work for Charley. He forgot all his difficulties, +all his duns, and also all his town delights. Without a sigh he +left his lady in Norfolk Street to mix gin-sling for other +admirers, and felt no regret though four brother navvies were +going to make a stunning night of it at the 'Salon de Seville +dansant,' at the bottom of Holborn Hill. However, he had his +hopes that he might be back in time for some of that fun. + +And Undy Scott was there. He and Alaric had fraternized so +greatly of late that the latter had, as a matter of course, asked +him to his wedding, and Mrs. Woodward had of course expressed +her delight at receiving Alaric's friend. Undy also was a pleasant +fellow for a wedding party; he was full of talk, fond of ladies, +being no whit abashed in his attendance on them by the remembrance +of his bosom's mistress, whom he had left, let us hope, happy in +her far domestic retirement. Undy Scott was a good man at a +wedding, and made himself specially agreeable on this occasion. + +But the great glory of the day was the presence of Sir Gregory +Hardlines. It was a high honour, considering all that rested on +Sir Gregory's shoulders, for so great a man to come all the way +down to Hampton to see a clerk in the Weights and Measures +married. + + Cum tot sustineas, et tanta negotia solus, + +--for we may call it 'solus,' Sir Warwick and Mr. Jobbles being +sources of more plague than profit in carrying out your noble +schemes--while so many things are on your shoulders, Sir Gregory; +while you are defending the Civil Service by your pen[?], +adorning it by your conduct, perfecting it by new rules, how +could any man have had the face to ask you to a wedding? + +Nevertheless Sir Gregory was there, and did not lose the +excellent opportunity which a speech at the breakfast-table +afforded him for expressing his opinion on the Civil Service of +his country. + +And so Gertrude Woodward became Gertrude Tudor, and she and +Alaric were whirled away by a post-chaise and post-boy, done out +with white bows, to the Hampton Court station; from thence they +whisked up to London, and then down to Dover; and there we will +leave them. + +They were whisked away, having first duly gone through the amount +of badgering which the bride and bridegroom have to suffer at the +wedding breakfast-table. They drank their own health in +champagne. Alaric made a speech, in which he said he was quite +unworthy of his present happiness, and Gertrude picked up all the +bijoux, gold pencil-cases, and silver cream-jugs, which were +thrown at her from all sides. All the men made speeches, and all +the women laughed, but the speech of the day was that celebrated +one made by Sir Gregory, in which he gave a sketch of Alaric +Tudor as the beau idéal of a clerk in the Civil Service. 'His +heart,' said he, energetically, 'is at the Weights and Measures;' +but Gertrude looked at him as though she did not believe a word +of it. + +And so Alaric and Gertrude were whisked away, and the wedding +guests were left to look sheepish at each other, and take +themselves off as best they might. Sir Gregory, of course, had +important public business which precluded him from having the +gratification of prolonging his stay at Hampton. Charley got away +in perfect time to enjoy whatever there might be to be enjoyed at +the dancing saloon of Seville, and Undy Scott returned to his +club. + +Then all was again quiet at Surbiton Cottage. Captain Cuttwater, +who had perhaps drunk the bride's health once too often, went to +sleep; Katie, having taken off her fine clothes, roamed about the +house disconsolate, and Mrs. Woodward and Linda betook themselves +to their needles. + +The Tudors went to Brussels, and were made welcome by the Belgian +banker, whose counters he had deserted so much to his own +benefit, and from thence to Paris, and, having been there long +enough to buy a French bonnet and wonder at the enormity of +French prices, they returned to a small but comfortable house +they had prepared for themselves in the neighbourhood of +Westbourne Terrace. + +Previous to this Norman had been once, and but once, at Hampton, +and, when there, he had failed in being comfortable himself, or +in making the Woodwards so; he could not revert to his old +habits, or sit, or move, or walk, as though nothing special had +happened since he had been last there. He could not talk about +Gertrude, and he could not help talking of her. By some closer +packing among the ladies a room had now been prepared for him in +the house; even this upset him, and brought to his mind all those +unpleasant thoughts which he should have endeavoured to avoid. + +He did not repeat his visit before the Tudors returned; and then +for some time he was prevented from doing so by the movements of +the Woodwards themselves. Mrs. Woodward paid a visit to her +married daughter, and, when she returned, Linda did the same. And +so for a while Norman was, as it were, divided from his old +friends, whereas Tudor, as a matter of course, was one of +themselves. + +It was only natural that Mrs. Woodward should forgive Alaric and +receive him to her bosom, now that he was her son-in-law. After +all, such ties as these avail more than any predilections, more +than any effort of judgement in the choice of the objects of our +affections. We associate with those with whom the tenor of life +has thrown us, and from habit we learn to love those with whom we +are brought to associate. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE HONOURABLE MRS. VAL AND MISS GOLIGHTLY + + +The first eighteen months of Gertrude's married life were not +unhappy, though, like all persons entering on the realities of +the world, she found much to disappoint her. At first her +husband's society was sufficient for her; and to give him his +due, he was not at first an inattentive husband. Then came the +baby, bringing with him, as first babies always should do, a sort +of second honeymoon of love, and a renewal of those services +which women so delight to receive from their bosoms' lord. + +She had of course made acquaintances since she had settled +herself in London, and had, in her modest way, done her little +part in adding to the gaiety of the great metropolis. In this +respect indeed Alaric's commencement of life had somewhat +frightened Mrs. Woodward, and the more prudent of his friends. +Grand as his official promotion had been, his official income at +the time of his marriage did not exceed £600 a year, and though +this was to be augmented occasionally till it reached £800, yet +even with this advantage it could hardly suffice for a man and +his wife and a coming family to live in an expensive part of +London, and enable him to 'see his friends' occasionally, as the +act of feeding one's acquaintance is now generally called. + +Gertrude, like most English girls of her age, was at first so +ignorant about money that she hardly knew whether £600 was or was +not a sufficient income to justify their present mode of living; +but she soon found reason to suspect that her husband at any rate +endeavoured to increase it by other means. We say to suspect, +because he never spoke to her on the subject; he never told her +of Mary Janes and New Friendships; or hinted that he had +extensive money dealings in connexion with Undy Scott. + +But it can be taken for granted that no husband can carry on such +dealings long without some sort of cognizance on his wife's part +as to what he is doing; a woman who is not trusted by her lord +may choose to remain in apparent darkness, may abstain from +questions, and may consider it either her duty or her interest to +assume an ignorance as to her husband's affairs; but the partner +of one's bed and board, the minister who soothes one's headaches, +and makes one's tea, and looks after one's linen, can't but have +the means of guessing the thoughts which occupy her companion's +mind and occasionally darken his brow. + +Much of Gertrude's society had consisted of that into which +Alaric was thrown by his friendship with Undy Scott. There was a +brother of Undy's living in town, one Valentine Scott--a captain +in a cavalry regiment, and whose wife was by no means of that +delightfully retiring disposition evinced by Undy's better half. +The Hon. Mrs. Valentine, or Mrs. Val Scott as she was commonly +called, was a very pushing woman, and pushed herself into a +prominent place among Gertrude's friends. She had been the widow +of Jonathan Golightly, Esq., umquhile sheriff of the city of +London, and stockbroker, and when she gave herself and her +jointure up to Captain Val, she also brought with her, to enliven +the house, a daughter Clementina, the only remaining pledge of +her love for the stockbroker. + +When Val Scott entered the world, his father's precepts as to the +purposes of matrimony were deeply graven on his heart. He was the +best looking of the family, and, except Undy, the youngest. He +had not Undy's sharpness, his talent for public matters, or his +aptitude for the higher branches of the Civil Service; but he had +wit to wear his sash and epaulets with an easy grace, and to +captivate the heart, person, and some portion of the purse, of +the Widow Golightly. The lady was ten years older than the +gentleman; but then she had a thousand a year, and, to make +matters more pleasant, the beauteous Clementina had a fortune of +her own. + +Under these circumstances the marriage had been contracted +without any deceit, or attempt at deceit, by either party. Val +wanted an income, and the sheriff's widow wanted the utmost +amount of social consideration which her not very extensive means +would purchase for her. On the whole, the two parties to the +transaction were contented with their bargain. Mrs. Val, it is +true, kept her income very much in her own hands; but still she +consented to pay Val's tailors' bills, and it is something for a +man to have bed and board found him for nothing. It is true, +again, the lady did not find that the noble blood of her husband +gave her an immediate right of entry into the best houses in +London; but it did bring her into some sort of contact with some +few people of rank and fame; and being a sensible woman, she had +not been unreasonable in her expectations. + +When she had got what she could from her husband in this +particular, she did not trouble him much further. He delighted in +the Rag, and there spent the most of his time; happily, she +delighted in what she called the charms of society, and as +society expanded itself before her, she was also, we must +suppose, happy. She soon perceived that more in her immediate +line was to be obtained from Undy than from her own member of the +Gaberlunzie family, and hence had sprung up her intimacy with +Mrs. Tudor. + +It cannot be said that Gertrude was very fond of the Honourable +Mrs. Val, nor even of her daughter, Clementina Golightly, who was +more of her own age. These people had become her friends from the +force of circumstances, and not from predilection. To tell the +truth, Mrs. Val, who had in her day encountered, with much +patience, a good deal of snubbing, and who had had to be thankful +when she was patronized, now felt that her day for being a great +lady had come, and that it behoved her to patronize others. She +tried her hand upon Gertrude, and found the practice so congenial +to her spirits, so pleasantly stimulating, so well adapted to +afford a gratifying compensation for her former humility, that +she continued to give up a good deal of her time to No. 5, Albany +Row, Westbourne Terrace, at which house the Tudors resided. + +The young bride was not exactly the woman to submit quietly to +patronage from any Mrs. Val, however honourable she might be; but +for a while Gertrude hardly knew what it meant; and at her first +outset the natural modesty of youth, and her inexperience in her +new position, made her unwilling to take offence and unequal to +rebellion. By degrees, however, this feeling of humility wore +off; she began to be aware of the assumed superiority of Mrs. +Val's friendship, and by the time that their mutual affection was +of a year's standing, Gertrude had determined, in a quiet way, +without saying anything to anybody, to put herself on a footing +of more perfect equality with the Honourable Mrs. Val. + +Clementina Golightly was, in the common parlance of a large +portion of mankind, a 'doosed fine gal.' She stood five feet six, +and stood very well, on very good legs, but with rather large +feet. She was as straight as a grenadier, and had it been her +fate to carry a milk-pail, she would have carried it to +perfection. Instead of this, however, she was permitted to expend +an equal amount of energy in every variation of waltz and polka +that the ingenuity of the dancing professors of the age has been +able to produce. Waltzes and polkas suited her admirably; for she +was gifted with excellent lungs and perfect powers of breathing, +and she had not much delight in prolonged conversation. Her +fault, if she had one, was a predilection for flirting; but she +did her flirtations in a silent sort of way, much as we may +suppose the fishes do theirs, whose amours we may presume to +consist in swimming through their cool element in close +contiguity with each other. 'A feast of reason and a flow of +soul' were not the charms by which Clementina Golightly essayed +to keep her admirers spell-bound at her feet. To whirl rapidly +round a room at the rate of ten miles an hour, with her right +hand outstretched in the grasp of her partner's, and to know that +she was tightly buoyed up, like a horse by a bearing-rein, by his +other hand behind her back, was for her sufficient. To do this, +as she did do it, without ever crying for mercy, with no +slackness of breath, and apparently without distress, must have +taken as much training as a horse gets for a race. But the +training had in nowise injured her; and now, having gone through +her gallops and run all her heats for three successive seasons, +she was still sound of wind and limb, and fit to run at any +moment when called upon. + +We have said nothing about the face of the beauteous Clementina, +and indeed nothing can be said about it. There was no feature in +it with which a man could have any right to find fault; that she +was a 'doosed fine girl' was a fact generally admitted; but +nevertheless you might look at her for four hours consecutively +on a Monday evening, and yet on Tuesday you would not know her. +She had hair which was brownish and sufficiently silky--and which +she wore, as all other such girls do, propped out on each side of +her face by thick round velvet pads, which, when the waltzing +pace became exhilarating, occasionally showed themselves, looking +greasy. She had a pair of eyes set straight in her head, +faultless in form, and perfectly inexpressive. She had a nose +equally straight, but perhaps a little too coarse in dimensions. +She had a mouth not over large, with two thin lips and small +whitish teeth; and she had a chin equal in contour to the rest of +her face, but on which Venus had not deigned to set a dimple. +Nature might have defied a French passport officer to give a +description of her, by which even her own mother or a detective +policeman might have recognized her. + +When to the above list of attractions it is added that Clementina +Golightly had £20,000 of her own, and a reversionary interest in +her mother's jointure, it may be imagined that she did not want +for good-winded cavaliers to bear her up behind, and whirl around +with her with outstretched hands. + +'I am not going to stay a moment, my dear,' said Mrs. Val, +seating herself on Gertrude's sofa, having rushed up almost +unannounced into the drawing-room, followed by Clementina; +'indeed, Lady Howlaway is waiting for me this moment; but I must +settle with you about the June flower-show.' + +'Oh! thank you, Mrs. Scott, don't trouble yourself about me,' +said Gertrude; 'I don't think I shall go.' + +'Oh! nonsense, my dear; of course you'll go; it's the show of the +year, and the Grand duke is to be there--baby is all right now, +you know; I must not hear of your not going.' + +'All the same--I fear I must decline,' said Gertrude; 'I think I +shall be at Hampton.' + +'Oh! nonsense, my dear; of course you must show yourself. People +will say all manner of things else. Clementina has promised to +meet Victoire Jaquêtanápes there and a party of French people, +people of the very highest ton. You'll be delighted, my dear.' + +'M. Jaquêtanápes is the most delicious polkist you ever met,' +said Clementina. 'He has got a new back step that will quite +amaze you.' As Gertrude in her present condition was not much +given to polkas, this temptation did not have great effect. + +'Oh, you must come, of course, my dear--and pray let me recommend +you to go to Madame Bosconi for your bonnet; she has such darling +little ducks, and as cheap as dirt. But I want you to arrange +about the carriage; you can do that with Mr. Tudor, and I can +settle with you afterwards. Captain Scott won't go, of course; +but I have no doubt Undecimus and Mr. Tudor will come later and +bring us home; we can manage very well with the one carriage.' + +In spite of her thousand a year the Honourable Mrs. Val was not +ashamed to look after the pounds, shillings, and pence. And +so, having made her arrangements, Mrs. Val took herself off, +hurrying to appease the anger of Lady Howlaway, and followed by +Clementina, who since her little outburst as to the new back step +of M. Jaquêtanápes had not taken much part in the conversation. + +Flower-shows are a great resource for the Mrs. Scotts of London +life. They are open to ladies who cannot quite penetrate the +inner sancta of fashionable life, and yet they are frequented by +those to whom those sancta are everyday household walks. There at +least the Mrs. Scotts of the outer world can show themselves in +close contiguity, and on equal terms, with the Mrs. Scotts of the +inner world. And then, who is to know the difference? If also one +is an Honourable Mrs. Scott, and can contrive to appear as such +in the next day's _Morning Post_, may not one fairly boast +that the ends of society have been attained? Where is the +citadel? How is one to know when one has taken it? + +Gertrude could not be quite so defiant with her friends as she +would have wished to have been, as they were borne with and +encouraged by her husband. Of Undy's wife Alaric saw nothing and +heard little, but it suited Undy to make use of his sister-in- +law's house, and it suited Alaric to be intimate with Undy's +sister-in-law. Moreover, had not Clementina Golightly £20,000, +and was she not a 'doosed fine girl?' This was nothing to Alaric +now, and might not be considered to be much to Undy. But that +far-seeing, acute financier knew that there were other means of +handling a lady's money than that of marrying her. He could not +at present acquire a second fortune in that way; but he might +perhaps acquire the management of this £20,000 if he could +provide the lady with a husband of the proper temperament. Undy +Scott did not want to appropriate Miss Golightly's fortune, he +only wanted to have the management of it. + +Looking round among his acquaintance for a fitting _parti_ +for the sweet Clementina, his mind, after much consideration, +settled upon Charley Tudor. There were many young men much nearer +and dearer to Undy than Charley, who might be equally desirous of +so great a prize; but he could think of none over whom he might +probably exercise so direct a control. Charley was a handsome gay +fellow, and waltzed _au ravir_; he might, therefore, without +difficulty, make his way with the fair Clementina. He was +distressingly poor, and would therefore certainly jump at an +heiress--he was delightfully thoughtless and easy of leading, and +therefore the money, when in his hands, might probably be +manageable. He was also Alaric's cousin, and therefore acceptable. + +Undy did not exactly open his mind to Alaric Tudor in this +matter. Alaric's education was going on rapidly; but his mind had +not yet received with sufficient tenacity those principles of +philosophy which would enable him to look at this scheme in its +proper light. He had already learnt the great utility, one may +almost say the necessity, of having a command of money; he was +beginning also to perceive that money was a thing not to be +judged of by the ordinary rules which govern a man's conduct. In +other matters it behoves a gentleman to be open, above-board, +liberal, and true; good-natured, generous, confiding, self- +denying, doing unto others as he would wish that others should do +unto him; but in the acquirement and use of money--that is, its +use with the object of acquiring more, its use in the usurer's +sense--his practice should be exactly the reverse; he should be +close, secret, exacting, given to concealment, not over troubled +by scruples; suspicious, without sympathies, self-devoted, and +always doing unto others exactly that which he is on his guard to +prevent others from doing unto him--viz., making money by them. +So much Alaric had learnt, and had been no inapt scholar. But he +had not yet appreciated the full value of the latitude allowed by +the genius of the present age to men who deal successfully in +money. He had, as we have seen, acknowledged to himself that a +sportsman may return from the field with his legs and feet a +little muddy; but he did not yet know how deep a man may wallow +in the mire, how thoroughly he may besmear himself from head to +foot in the blackest, foulest mud, and yet be received an +honoured guest by ladies gay and noble lords, if only his bag be +sufficiently full. + + Rem..., quocunque modo rem! + +The remainder of the passage was doubtless applicable to former +times, but now is hardly worth repeating. + +As Alaric's stomach was not yet quite suited for strong food, +Undy fitted this matter to his friend's still juvenile capacities. +There was an heiress, a 'doosed fine girl' as Undy insisted, +laying peculiar strength on the word of emphasis, with £20,000, +and there was Charley Tudor, a devilish decent fellow, without +a rap. Why not bring them together? This would only be a +mark of true friendship on the part of Undy; and on Alaric's +part, it would be no more than one cousin would be bound to do +for another. Looking at it in this light, Alaric saw nothing in +the matter which could interfere with his quiet conscience. + +'I'll do what I can,' said Undy. 'Mrs. Val is inclined to have a +way of her own in most things; but if anybody can lead her, I +can. Charley must take care that Val himself doesn't take his +part, that's all. If he interferes, it would be all up with us.' + +And thus Alaric, intent mainly on the interest of his cousin, and +actuated perhaps a little by the feeling that a rich cousin would +be more serviceable than a poor one, set himself to work, in +connexion with Undy Scott, to make prey of Clementina Golightly's +£20,000. + +But if Undy had no difficulty in securing the co-operation of +Alaric in this matter, Alaric by no means found it equally easy +to secure the co-operation of Charley. Charley Tudor had not yet +learnt to look upon himself as a marketable animal, worth a +certain sum of money, in consequence of such property in good +appearance, address, &c., as God had been good enough to endow +him withal. + +He daily felt the depth and disagreeable results of his own +poverty, and not unfrequently, when specially short of the +Queen's medium, sighed for some of those thousands and tens of +thousands with which men's mouths are so glibly full. He had +often tried to calculate what would be his feelings if some +eccentric, good-natured old stranger should leave him, say, five +thousand a year; he had often walked about the street, with his +hands in his empty pockets, building delicious castles in the +air, and doing the most munificent actions imaginable with his +newly-acquired wealth, as all men in such circumstances do; +relieving distress, rewarding virtue, and making handsome +presents to all his friends, and especially to Mrs. Woodward. So +far Charley was not guiltless of coveting wealth; but he had +never for a moment thought of realizing his dreams by means of +his personal attractions. It had never occurred to him that any +girl having money could think it worth her while to marry him. +He, navvy as he was, with his infernal friends and pot-house +love, with his debts and idleness and low associations, with his +saloons of Seville, his Elysium in Fleet Street, and his Paradise +near the Surrey Gardens, had hitherto thought little enough of +his own attractions. No kind father had taught him that he was +worth £10,000 in any market in the world. When he had dreamt of +money, he had never dreamt of it as accruing to him in return for +any value or worth which he had inherent in himself. Even in his +lighter moments he had no such conceit; and at those periods, few +and far between, in which he did think seriously Of the world at +large, this special method of escaping from his difficulties-- +never once presented itself to his mind. + +When, therefore, Alaric first spoke to him of marrying £20,000 +and Clementina Golightly, his surprise was unbounded. + +'£20,000!' said Alaric, 'and a doosed fine girl, you know;' and +he also laid great stress on the latter part of the offer, +knowing how inflammable was Charley's heart, and at the same time +how little mercenary was his mind. + +But Charley was not only surprised at the proposed arrangement, +but apparently also unwilling to enter into, it. He argued that +in the first place no girl in her senses would accept him. To +this Alaric replied that as Clementina had not much sense to +speak of, that objection might fall to the ground. Then Charley +expressed an idea that Miss Golightly's friends might probably +object when they learnt what were the exact pecuniary resources +of the expectant husband; to which Alaric argued that the +circumstances of the case were very lucky, inasmuch as some of +Clementina's natural friends were already prepossessed in favour +of such an arrangement. + +Driven thus from two of his strongholds, Charley, in the most +modest of voices, in a voice one may say quite shamefaced and +conscious of its master's weakness--suggested that he was not +quite sure that at the present moment he was very much in love +with the lady in question. + +Alaric had married for love, and was not two years married, yet +had his education so far progressed in that short period as to +enable him to laugh at such an objection. + +'Then, my dear fellow, what the deuce do you mean to do with +yourself? You'll certainly go to the dogs. + +Charley had an idea that he certainly should; and also had an +idea that Miss Clementina and her £20,000 might not improbably go +in the same direction, if he had anything to do with them. + +'And as for loving her,' continued Alaric, 'that's all my eye. +Love is a luxury which none but the rich or the poor can afford. +We middle-class paupers, who are born with good coats on our +backs, but empty purses, can have nothing to do with it.' + +'But you married for love, Alaric?' + +'My marriage was not a very prudent one, and should not be taken +as an example. And then I did get some fortune with my wife; and +what is more, I was not so fearfully in want of it as you are.' + +Charley acknowledged the truth of this, said that he would think +of the matrimonial project, and promised, at any rate, to call on +Clementina on an early occasion. He had already made her +acquaintance, had already danced with her, and certainly could +not take upon himself to deny that she was a 'doosed fine girl.' + +But Charley had reasons of his own, reasons which he could not +make known to Alaric, for not thinking much of, or trusting much +to, Miss Golightly's fortune. In the first place, he regarded +marriage on such a grand scale as that now suggested, as a +ceremony which must take a long time to adjust; the wooing of a +lady with so many charms could not be carried on as might be the +wooing of a chambermaid or a farmer's daughter. It must take +months at least to conciliate the friends of so rich an heiress, +and months at the end of them to prepare the wedding gala. But +Charley could not wait for months; before one month was over he +would probably be laid up in some vile limbo, an unfortunate poor +prisoner at the suit of an iron-hearted tailor. + +At this very moment of Alaric's proposition, at this instant when +he found himself talking with so much coolness of the expedience +or inexpedience of appropriating to his own purpose a slight +trifle of £20,000, he was in dire strait as to money difficulties. + +He had lately, that is, within the last twelve months, made +acquaintance with an interesting gentleman named Jabesh M'Ruen. +Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen was in the habit of relieving the distresses of +such impoverished young gentlemen as Charley Tudor; and though he +did this with every assurance of philanthropic regard, though in +doing so he only made one stipulation, 'Pray be punctual, Mr. +Tudor, now pray do be punctual, sir, and you may always count on +me,' nevertheless, in spite of all his goodness, Mr. M'Ruen's +young friends seldom continued to hold their heads well up over +the world's waters. + +On the morning after this conversation with Alaric, Charley +intended to call on his esteemed old friend. Many were the +morning calls he did make; many were the weary, useless, aimless +walks which he took to that little street at the back of +Mecklenburg Square, with the fond hope of getting some relief +from Mr. M'Ruen; and many also were the calls, the return visits, +as it were, which Mr. M'Ruen made at the Internal Navigation, and +numerous were the whispers which he would there whisper into the +ears of the young clerk, Mr. Snape the while sitting by, with a +sweet unconscious look, as though he firmly believed Mr. M'Ruen +to be Charley's maternal uncle. + +And then, too, Charley had other difficulties, which in his mind +presented great obstacles to the Golightly scheme, though Alaric +would have thought little of them, and Undy nothing. What was he +to do with his Norfolk Street lady, his barmaid houri, his Norah +Geraghty, to whom he had sworn all manner of undying love, and +for whom in some sort of fashion he really had an affection? And +Norah was not a light-of-love whom it was as easy to lay down as +to pick up. Charley had sworn to love her, and she had sworn to +love Charley; and to give her her due, she had kept her word to +him. Though her life rendered necessary a sort of daily or rather +nightly flirtation with various male comers--as indeed, for the +matter of that, did also the life of Miss Clementina Golightly-- +yet she had in her way been true to her lover. She had been true +to him, and Charley did not doubt her, and in a sort of low way +respected her; though it was but a dissipated and debauched +respect. There had even been talk between them of marriage, and +who can say what in his softer moments, when his brain had been +too weak or the toddy too strong, Charley may not have promised? + +And there was yet another objection to Miss Golightly; one even +more difficult of mention, one on which Charley felt himself more +absolutely constrained to silence than even either of the other +two. He was sufficiently disinclined to speak to his cousin +Alaric as to the merits either of Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen or of Miss +Geraghty, but he could have been eloquent on either rather than +whisper a word as to the third person who stood between him and +the £20,000. + +The school in which Charley now lived, that of the infernal +navvies, had taught him to laugh at romance; but it had not been +so successful in quelling the early feelings of his youth, in +drying up the fountains of poetry within him, as had been the +case with his cousin, in that other school in which he had been a +scholar. Charley was a dissipated, dissolute rake, and in some +sense had degraded himself; but he had still this chance of +safety on his side, that he himself reprobated his own sins. He +dreamt of other things and a better life. He made visions to +himself of a sweet home, and a sweeter, sweetest, lovely wife; a +love whose hair should not be redolent of smoke, nor her hands +reeking with gin, nor her services at the demand of every +libertine who wanted a screw of tobacco, or a glass of 'cold +without.' + +He had made such a vision to himself, and the angel with which he +had filled it was not a creature of his imagination. She who was +to reign in this ethereal paradise, this happy home, far as the +poles away from Norfolk Street, was a living being in the +sublunar globe, present sometimes to Charley's eyes, and now so +often present to his thoughts; and yet she was but a child, and +as ignorant that she had ever touched a lover's heart by her +childish charms as though she had been a baby. + +After all, even on Charley's part, it was but a vision. He never +really thought that his young inamorata would or could be to him +a real true heart's companion, returning his love with the double +love of a woman, watching his health, curing his vices, and +making the sweet things of the world a living reality around him. +This love of his was but a vision, but not the less on that +account did it interfere with his cousin Alaric's proposition, in +reference to Miss Clementina Golightly. + +That other love also, that squalid love of his, was in truth no +vision--was a stern, palpable reality, very difficult to get rid +of, and one which he often thought to himself would very probably +swallow up that other love, and drive his sweet dream far away +into utter darkness and dim chaotic space. + +But at any rate it was clear that there was no room in his heart +for the beauteous Clementina, 'doosed fine girl' as she +undoubtedly was, and serviceable as the £20,000 most certainly +would have been. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--MORNING + + +On the morning after this conversation with Alaric, Charley left +his lodgings with a heavy heart, and wended his way towards +Mecklenburg Square. At the corner of Davies Street he got an +omnibus, which for fourpence took him to one of the little alleys +near Gray's Inn, and there he got down, and threading the well- +known locality, through Bedford Place and across Theobald's Road, +soon found himself at the door of his generous patron. Oh! how he +hated the house; how he hated the blear-eyed, cross-grained, +dirty, impudent fish-fag of an old woman who opened the door for +him; how he hated Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen, to whom he now came a +supplicant for assistance, and how, above all, he hated himself +for being there. + +He was shown into Mr. M'Ruen's little front parlour, where he had +to wait for fifteen minutes, while his patron made such a +breakfast as generally falls to the lot of such men. We can +imagine the rancid butter, the stale befingered bread, the +ha'porth of sky-blue milk, the tea innocent of China's wrongs, +and the soiled cloth. Mr. M'Ruen always did keep Charley waiting +fifteen minutes, and so he was no whit surprised; the doing so +was a part of the tremendous interest which the wretched old +usurer received for his driblets of money. + +There was not a bit of furniture in the room on which Charley had +not speculated till speculation could go no further; the old +escritoire or secrétaire which Mr. M'Ruen always opened the moment +he came into the room; the rickety Pembroke table, covered with +dirty papers which stood in the middle of it; the horsehair- +bottomed chairs, on which Charley declined to sit down, unless he +had on his thickest winter trousers, so perpendicular had become +some atoms on the surface, which, when new, had no doubt been +horizontal; the ornaments (!) on the chimney, broken bits of +filthy crockery, full of wisps of paper, with a china duck +without a tail, and a dog to correspond without a head; the +pictures against the wall, with their tarnished dingy frames and +cracked glasses, representing three of the Seasons; how the +fourth had gone before its time to its final bourne by an unhappy +chance, Mr. M'Ruen had once explained to Charley, while +endeavouring to make his young customer take the other three as a +good value for £7 10s. in arranging a little transaction, the +total amount of which did not exceed £15. + +In that instance, however, Charley, who had already dabbled +somewhat deeply in dressing-cases, utterly refused to trade in +the articles produced. + +Charley stood with his back to the dog and duck, facing Winter, +with Spring on his right and Autumn on his left; it was well that +Summer was gone, no summer could have shed light on that +miserable chamber. He knew that he would have to wait, and was +not therefore impatient, and at the end of fifteen minutes Mr. +M'Ruen shuffled into the room in his slippers. + +He was a little man, with thin grey hair, which stood upright +from his narrow head--what his age might have been it was +impossible to guess; he was wizened, and dry, and grey, but still +active enough on his legs when he had exchanged his slippers for +his shoes; and as keen in all his senses as though years could +never tell upon him. + +He always wore round his neck a stiff-starched deep white +handkerchief, not fastened with a bow in front, the ends being +tucked in so as to be invisible. This cravat not only covered his +throat but his chin also, so that his head seemed to grow forth +from it without the aid of any neck; and he had a trick of +turning his face round within it, an inch or two to the right or +to the left, in a manner which seemed to indicate that his +cranium was loose and might be removed at pleasure. + +He shuffled into the room where Charley was standing with little +short quick steps, and putting out his hand, just touched that of +his customer, by way of going through the usual process of +greeting. + +Some short statement must be made of Charley's money dealings +with Mr. M'Ruen up to this period. About two years back a tailor +had an over-due bill of his for £20, of which he was unable to +obtain payment, and being unwilling to go to law, or perhaps +being himself in Mr. M'Ruen's power, he passed this bill to that +worthy gentleman--what amount of consideration he got for it, it +matters not now to inquire; Mr. M'Ruen very shortly afterwards +presented himself at the Internal Navigation, and introduced +himself to our hero. He did this with none of the overbearing +harshness of the ordinary dun, or the short caustic decision of a +creditor determined to resort to the utmost severity of the law. +He turned his head about and smiled, and just showed the end of +the bill peeping out from among a parcel of others, begged Mr. +Tudor to be punctual, he would only ask him to be punctual, and +would in such case do anything for him, and ended his visit by +making an appointment to meet Charley in the little street behind +Mecklenburg Square. Charley kept his appointment, and came away +from Mr. M'Ruen's with a well-contented mind. He had, it is true, +left £5 behind him, and had also left the bill, still entire; but +he had obtained a promise of unlimited assistance from the good- +natured gentleman, and had also received instructions how he was +to get a brother clerk to draw a bill, how he was to accept it +himself, and how his patron was to discount it for him, paying +him real gold out of the Bank of England in exchange for his +worthless signature. + +Charley stepped lighter on the ground as he left Mr. M'Ruen's +house on that eventful morning than he had done for many a day. +There was something delightful in the feeling that he could make +money of his name in this way, as great bankers do of theirs, by +putting it at the bottom of a scrap of paper. He experienced a +sort of pride too in having achieved so respectable a position in +the race of ruin which he was running, as to have dealings with a +bill-discounter. He felt that he was putting himself on a par +with great men, and rising above the low level of the infernal +navvies. Mr. M'Ruen had pulled the bill out of a heap of bills +which he always carried in his huge pocket-book, and showed to +Charley the name of an impoverished Irish peer on the back of it; +and the sight of that name had made Charley quite in love with +rum. He already felt that he was almost hand-and-glove with Lord +Mount-Coffeehouse; for it was a descendant of the nobleman so +celebrated in song. 'Only be punctual, Mr. Tudor; only be +punctual, and I will do anything for you,' Mr. M'Ruen had said, +as Charley left the house. Charley, however, never had been +punctual, and yet his dealings with Mr. M'Ruen had gone on from +that day to this. What absolute money he had ever received into +his hand he could not now have said, but it was very little, +probably not amounting in all to £50. Yet he had already paid +during the two years more than double that sum to this sharp- +clawed vulture, and still owed him the amounts of more bills than +he could number. Indeed he had kept no account of these double- +fanged little documents; he had signed them whenever told to do +so, and had even been so preposterously foolish as to sign them +in blank. All he knew was that at the beginning of every quarter +Mr. M'Ruen got nearly the half of his little modicum of salary, +and that towards the middle of it he usually contrived to obtain +an advance of some small, some very small sum, and that when +doing so he always put his hand to a fresh bit of paper. + +He was beginning to be heartily sick of the bill-discounter. His +intimacy with the lord had not yet commenced, nor had he +experienced any of the delights which he had expected to accrue +to him from the higher tone of extravagance in which he entered +when he made Mr. M'Ruen's acquaintance. And then the horrid fatal +waste of time which he incurred in pursuit of the few pounds +which he occasionally obtained, filled even his heart with a sort +of despair. Morning after morning he would wait in that hated +room; and then day after day, at two o'clock, he would attend the +usurer's city haunt--and generally all in vain. The patience of +Mr. Snape was giving way, and the discipline even of the Internal +Navigation felt itself outraged. + +And now Charley stood once more in that dingy little front +parlour in which he had never yet seen a fire, and once more Mr. +Jabesh M'Ruen shuffled into the room in his big cravat and dirty +loose slippers. + +'How d'ye do, Mr. Tudor, how d'ye do? I hope you have brought a +little of this with you;' and Jabesh opened out his left hand, +and tapped the palm of it with the middle finger of his right, by +way of showing that he expected some money: not that he did +expect any, cormorant that he was; this was not the period of the +quarter in which he ever got money from his customer. + +'Indeed I have not, Mr. M'Ruen; but I positively must get some.' + +'Oh--oh--oh--oh--Mr. Tudor--Mr. Tudor! How can we go on if you +are so unpunctual? Now I would do anything for you if you would +only be punctual.' + +'Oh! bother about that--you know your own game well enough.' + +'Be punctual, Mr. Tudor, only be punctual, and we shall be all +right--and so you have not got any of this?' and Jabesh went +through the tapping again. + +'Not a doit,' said Charley; 'but I shall be up the spout +altogether if you don't do something to help me.' + +'But you are so unpunctual, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Oh, d--- it; you'll make me sick if you say that again. What +else do you live by but that? But I positively must have some +money from you to-day. If not I am done for.' + +'I don't think I can, Mr. Tudor; not to-day, Mr. Tudor--some +other day, say this day month; that is, if you'll be punctual.' + +'This day month! no, but this very day, Mr. M'Ruen--why, you got +£18 from me when I received my last salary, and I have not had a +shilling back since.' + +'But you are so unpunctual, Mr. Tudor,' and Jabesh twisted his +head backwards and forwards within his cravat, rubbing his chin +with the interior starch. + +'Well, then, I'll tell you what it is,' said Charley, 'I'll be +shot if you get a shilling from me on the 1st of October, and you +may sell me up as quick as you please. If I don't give a history +of your business that will surprise some people, my name isn't +Tudor.' + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Mr. M'Ruen, with a soft quiet laugh. + +'Well, really, Mr. Tudor, I would do more for you than any other +young man that I know, if you were only a little more punctual. +How much is it you want now?' + +'£15--or £10--£10 will do.' + +'Ten pounds!' said Jabesh, as though Charley had asked for ten +thousand--'ten pounds!--if two or three would do--' + +'But two or three won't do.' + +'And whose name will you bring?' + +'Whose name! why Scatterall's, to be sure.' Now Scatterall was +one of the navvies; and from him Mr. M'Ruen had not yet succeeded +in extracting one farthing, though he had his name on a volume of +Charley's bills. + +'Scatterall--I don't like Mr. Scatterall,' said Jabesh; 'he is +very dissipated, and the most unpunctual young man I ever met-- +you really must get some one else, Mr. Tudor; you really must.' + +'Oh, that's nonsense--Scatterall is as good as anybody--I +couldn't ask any of the other fellows--they are such a low set.' + +'But Mr. Scatterall is so unpunctual. There's your cousin, Mr. +Alaric Tudor.' + +'My cousin Alaric! Oh, nonsense! you don't suppose I'd ask him to +do such a thing? You might as well tell me to go to my father.' + +'Or that other gentleman you live with; Mr. Norman. He is a most +punctual gentleman. Bring me his name, and I'll let you have £10 +or £8--I'll let you have £8 at once.' + +'I dare say you will, Mr. M'Ruen, or £80; and be only too happy +to give it me. But you know that is out of the question. Now I +won't wait any longer; just give me an answer to this: if I come +to you in the city will you let me have some money to-day? If you +won't, why I must go elsewhere--that's all.' + +The interview ended by an appointment being made for another +meeting to come off at two p.m. that day, at the 'Banks of +Jordan,' a public-house in Sweeting's Alley, as well known to +Charley as the little front parlour of Mr. M'Ruen's house. 'Bring +the bill-stamp with you, Mr. Tudor,' said Jabesh, by way of a +last parting word of counsel; 'and let Mr. Scatterall sign it-- +that is, if it must be Mr. Scatterall; but I wish you would bring +your cousin's name.' + +'Nonsense!' + +'Well, then, bring it signed--but I'll fill it; you young fellows +understand nothing of filling in a bill properly.' + +And then taking his leave the infernal navvy hurried off, and +reached his office in Somerset House at a quarter past eleven +o'clock. As he walked along he bought the bit of stamped paper on +which his friend Scatterall was to write his name. + +When he reached the office he found that a great commotion was +going on. Mr. Snape was standing up at his desk, and the first +word which greeted Charley's ears was an intimation from that +gentleman that Mr. Oldeschole had desired that Mr. Tudor, when he +arrived, should be instructed to attend in the board-room. + +'Very well,' said Charley, in a tone of great indifference, 'with +all my heart; I rather like seeing Oldeschole now and then. But +he mustn't keep me long, for I have to meet my grandmother at +Islington at two o'clock;' and Charley, having hung up his hat, +prepared to walk off to the Secretary's room. + +'You'll be good enough to wait a few minutes, Mr. Tudor,' said +Snape. 'Another gentleman is with Mr. Oldeschole at present. You +will be good enough to sit down and go on with the Kennett and +Avon lock entries, till Mr. Oldeschole is ready to see you.' + +Charley sat down at his desk opposite to his friend Scatterall. +'I hope, Mr. Snape, you had a pleasant meeting at evening prayers +yesterday,' said he, with a tone of extreme interest. + +'You had better mind the lock entries at present, Mr. Tudor; they +are greatly in arrear.' + +'And the evening meetings are docketed up as close as wax, I +suppose. What the deuce is in the wind, Dick?' Mr. Scatterall's +Christian name was Richard. 'Where's Corkscrew?' Mr. Corkscrew +was also a navvy, and was one of those to whom Charley had +specially alluded when he spoke of the low set. + +'Oh, here's a regular go,' said Scatterall. 'It's all up with +Corkscrew, I believe.' + +'Why, what's the cheese now?' + +'Oh! it's all about some pork chops, which Screwy had for supper +last night.' Screwy was a name of love which among his brother +navvies was given to Mr. Corkscrew. 'Mr. Snape seems to think +they did not agree with him.' + +'Pork chops in July!' exclaimed Charley. + +'Poor Screwy forgot the time of year,' said another navvy; 'he +ought to have called it lamb and grass.' + +And then the story was told. On the preceding afternoon, Mr. +Corkscrew had been subjected to the dire temptation of a boating +party to the Eel-pie Island for the following day, and a dinner +thereon. There were to be at the feast no less than four-and- +twenty jolly souls, and it was intimated to Mr. Corkscrew that as +no soul was esteemed to be more jolly than his own, the party +would be considered as very imperfect unless he could join it. +Asking for a day's leave Mr. Corkscrew knew to be out of the +question; he had already taken too many without asking. He was +therefore driven to take another in the same way, and had to look +about for some excuse which might support him in his difficulty. +An excuse it must be, not only new, but very valid; one so strong +that it could not be overset; one so well avouched that it could +not be doubted. Accordingly, after mature consideration, he sat +down after leaving his office, and wrote the following letter, +before he started on an evening cruising expedition with some +others of the party to prepare for the next day's festivities. + +'Thursday morning,--July, 185-. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'I write from my bed where I am suffering a most tremendous +indiggestion, last night I eat a stunning supper off pork chopps +and never remembered that pork chopps always does disagree with +me, but I was very indiscrete and am now teetotally unable to +rise my throbing head from off my pillar, I have took four blu +pills and some salts and sena, plenty of that, and shall be the +thing to-morrow morning no doubt, just at present I feel just as +if I had a mill stone inside my stomac--Pray be so kind as to +make it all right with Mr. Oldeschole and believe me to remain, + +'Your faithful and obedient servant, + +'VERAX CORKSCREW. + +'Thomas Snape, Esq., &c., + +'Internal Navigation Office, Somerset House.' + +Having composed this letter of excuse, and not intending to +return to his lodgings that evening, he had to make provision for +its safely reaching the hands of Mr. Snape in due time on the +following morning. This he did, by giving it to the boy who came +to clean the lodging-house boots, with sundry injunctions that if +he did not deliver it at the office by ten o'clock on the +following morning, the sixpence accruing to him would never be +paid. Mr. Corkscrew, however, said nothing as to the letter not +being delivered before ten the next morning, and as other +business took the boy along the Strand the same evening, he saw +no reason why he should not then execute his commission. He +accordingly did so, and duly delivered the letter into the hands +of a servant girl, who was cleaning the passages of the office. + +Fortune on this occasion was blind to the merits of Mr. +Corkscrew, and threw him over most unmercifully. It so happened +that Mr. Snape had been summoned to an evening conference with +Mr. Oldeschole and the other pundits of the office, to discuss +with them, or rather to hear discussed, some measure which they +began to think it necessary to introduce, for amending the +discipline of the department. + +'We are getting a bad name, whether we deserve it or not,' said +Mr. Oldeschole. 'That fellow Hardlines has put us into his blue- +book, and now there's an article in the _Times_!' + +Just at this moment, a messenger brought in to Mr. Snape the +unfortunate letter of which we have given a copy. + +'What's that?' said Mr. Oldeschole. + +'A note from Mr. Corkscrew, sir,' said Snape. + +'He's the worst of the whole lot,' said Mr. Oldeschole. + +'He is very bad,' said Snape; 'but I rather think that perhaps, +sir, Mr. Tudor is the worst of all.' + +'Well, I don't know,' said the Secretary, muttering _sotto +voce_ to the Under-Secretary, while Mr. Snape read the letter +--'Tudor, at any rate, is a gentleman.' + +Mr. Snape read the letter, and his face grew very long. There was +a sort of sneaking civility about Corkscrew, not prevalent indeed +at all times, but which chiefly showed itself when he and Mr. +Snape were alone together, which somewhat endeared him to the +elder clerk. He would have screened the sinner had he had either +the necessary presence of mind or the necessary pluck. But he had +neither. He did not know how to account for the letter but by the +truth, and he feared to conceal so flagrant a breach of +discipline at the moment of the present discussion. + +Things at any rate so turned out that Mr. Corkscrew's letter was +read in full conclave in the board-room of the office, just as he +was describing the excellence of his manoeuvre with great glee to +four or five other jolly souls at the 'Magpie and Stump.' + +At first it was impossible to prevent a fit of laughter, in which +even Mr. Snape joined; but very shortly the laughter gave way to +the serious considerations to which such an epistle was sure to +give rise at such a moment. What if Sir Gregory Hardlines should +get hold of it and put it into his blue-book! What if the +_Times_ should print it and send it over the whole world, +accompanied by a few of its most venomous touches, to the eternal +disgrace of the Internal Navigation, and probably utter +annihilation of Mr. Oldeschole's official career! An example must +be made! + +Yes, an example must be made. Messengers were sent off scouring +the town for Mr. Corkscrew, and about midnight he was found, +still true to the 'Magpie and Stump,' but hardly in condition to +understand the misfortune which had befallen him. So much as +this, however, did make itself manifest to him, that he must by +no means join his jolly-souled brethren at the Eel-pie Island, +and that he must be at his office punctually at ten o'clock the +next morning if he had any intention of saving himself from +dismissal. When Charley arrived at his office, Mr. Corkscrew was +still with the authorities, and Charley's turn was to come next. + +Charley was rather a favourite with Mr. Oldeschole, having been +appointed by himself at the instance of Mr. Oldeschole's great +friend, Sir Gilbert de Salop; and he was, moreover, the best- +looking of the whole lot of navvies; but he was no favourite with +Mr. Snape. + +'Poor Screwy--it will be all up with him,' said Charley. 'He +might just as well have gone on with his party and had his fun +out.' + +'It will, I imagine, be necessary to make more than one example, +Mr. Tudor,' said Mr. Snape, with a voice of utmost severity. + +'A-a-a-men,' said Charley. 'If everything else fails, I think +I'll go into the green line. You couldn't give me a helping hand, +could you, Mr. Snape?' There was a rumour afloat in the office +that Mr. Snape's wife held some little interest in a small +greengrocer's establishment. + +'Mr. Tudor to attend in the board-room, immediately,' said a fat +messenger, who opened the door wide with a start, and then stood +with it in his hand while he delivered the message. + +'All right,' said Charley; 'I'll tumble up and be with them in +ten seconds;' and then collecting together a large bundle of the +arrears of the Kennett and Avon lock entries, being just as much +as he could carry, he took the disordered papers and placed them +on Mr. Snape's desk, exactly over the paper on which he was +writing, and immediately under his nose. + +'Mr. Tudor--Mr. Tudor!' said Snape. + +'As I am to tear myself away from you, Mr. Snape, it is better +that I should hand over these valuable documents to your safe +keeping. There they are, Mr. Snape; pray see that you have got +them all;' and so saying, he left the room to attend to the high +behests of Mr. Oldeschole. + +As he went along the passages he met Verax Corkscrew returning +from his interview. 'Well, Screwy,' said he, 'and how fares it +with you? Pork chops are bad things in summer, ain't they?' + +'It's all U-P,' said Corkscrew, almost crying. 'I'm to go down to +the bottom, and I'm to stay at the office till seven o'clock +every day for a month; and old Foolscap says he'll ship me the +next time I'm absent half-an-hour without leave.' + +'Oh! is that all?' said Charley. 'If that's all you get for pork +chops and senna, I'm all right. I shouldn't wonder if I did not +get promoted;' and so he went in to his interview. + +What was the nature of the advice given him, what amount of +caution he was called on to endure, need not here be exactly +specified. We all know with how light a rod a father chastises +the son he loves, let Solomon have given what counsel he may to +the contrary. Charley, in spite of his manifold sins, was a +favourite, and he came forth from the board-room an unscathed +man. In fact, he had been promoted as he had surmised, seeing +that Corkscrew who had been his senior was now his junior. He +came forth unscathed, and walking with an easy air into his room, +put his hat on his head and told his brother clerks that he +should be there to-morrow morning at ten, or at any rate soon +after. + +'And where are you going now, Mr. Tudor?' said Snape. + +'To meet my grandmother at Islington, if you please, sir,' said +Charley. 'I have permission from Mr. Oldeschole to attend upon +her for the rest of the day--perhaps you would like to ask him.' +And so saying he went off to his appointment with Mr. M'Ruen at +the 'Banks of Jordan.' + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--AFTERNOON + + +The 'Banks of Jordan' was a public-house in the city, which from +its appearance did not seem to do a very thriving trade; but as +it was carried on from year to year in the same dull, monotonous, +dead-alive sort of fashion, it must be surmised that some one +found an interest in keeping it open. + +Charley, when he entered the door punctually at two o'clock, saw +that it was as usual nearly deserted. One long, lanky, middle- +aged man, seedy as to his outward vestments, and melancholy in +countenance, sat at one of the tables. But he was doing very +little good for the establishment: he had no refreshment of any +kind before him, and was intent only on a dingy pocket-book in +which he was making entries with a pencil. + +You enter the 'Banks of Jordan' by two folding doors in a corner +of a very narrow alley behind the Exchange. As you go in, you +observe on your left a little glass partition, something like a +large cage, inside which, in a bar, are four or five untempting- +looking bottles; and also inside the cage, on a chair, is to be +seen a quiet-looking female, who is invariably engaged in the +manufacture of some white article of inward clothing. Anything +less like the flashy-dressed bar-maidens of the western gin +palaces it would be difficult to imagine. To this encaged +sempstress no one ever speaks unless it be to give a rare order +for a mutton chop or pint of stout. And even for this she hardly +stays her sewing for a moment, but touches a small bell, and the +ancient waiter, who never shows himself but when called for, and +who is the only other inhabitant of the place ever visible, +receives the order from her through an open pane in the cage as +quietly as she received it from her customer. + +The floor of the single square room of the establishment is +sanded, and the tables are ranged round the walls, each table +being fixed to the floor, and placed within wooden partitions, by +which the occupier is screened from any inquiring eyes on either +side. + +Such was Mr. Jabesh M'Ruen's house-of-call in the city, and of +many a mutton chop and many a pint of stout had Charley partaken +there while waiting for the man of money. To him it seemed to be +inexcusable to sit down in a public inn and call for nothing; he +perceived, however, that the large majority of the frequenters of +the 'Banks of Jordan' so conducted themselves. + +He was sufficiently accustomed to the place to know how to give +his orders without troubling that diligent barmaid, and had done +so about ten minutes when Jabesh, more punctual than usual, +entered the place. This Charley regarded as a promising sign of +forthcoming cash. It very frequently happened that he waited +there an hour, and that after all Jabesh would not come; and then +the morning visit to Mecklenburg Square had to be made again; and +so poor Charley's time, or rather the time of his poor office, +was cut up, wasted, and destroyed. + +'A mutton chop!' said Mr. M'Ruen, looking at Charley's banquet. +'A very nice thing indeed in the middle of the day. I don't mind +if I have one myself,' and so Charley had to order another chop +and more stout. + +'They have very nice sherry here, excellent sherry,' said M'Ruen. +'The best, I think, in the city--that's why I come here.' + +'Upon my honour, Mr. M'Ruen, I shan't have money to pay for it +until I get some from you,' said Charley, as he called for a pint +of sherry. + +'Never mind, John, never mind the sherry to-day,' said M'Ruen. +'Mr. Tudor is very kind, but I'll take beer;' and the little man +gave a laugh and twisted his head, and ate his chop and drank his +stout, as though he found that both were very good indeed. When +he had finished, Charley paid the bill and discovered that he was +left with ninepence in his pocket. + +And then he produced the bill stamp. 'Waiter,' said he, 'pen and +ink,' and the waiter brought pen and ink. + +'Not to-day,' said Jabesh, wiping his mouth with the table-cloth. +'Not to-day, Mr. Tudor--I really haven't time to go into it to- +day--and I haven't brought the other bills with me; I quite +forgot to bring the other bills with me, and I can do nothing +without them,' and Mr. M'Ruen got up to go. + +But this was too much for Charley. He had often before bought +bill stamps in vain, and in vain had paid for mutton chops and +beer for Mr. M'Ruen's dinner; but he had never before, when doing +so, been so hard pushed for money as he was now. He was +determined to make a great attempt to gain his object. + +'Nonsense,' said he, getting up and standing so as to prevent +M'Ruen from leaving the box; 'that's d--- nonsense.' + +'Oh! don't swear,' said M'Ruen--'pray don't take God's name in +vain; I don't like it.' + +'I shall swear, and to some purpose too, if that's your game. Now +look here----' + +'Let me get up, and we'll talk of it as we go to the bank--you +are so unpunctual, you know.' + +'D--- your punctuality.' + +'Oh! don't swear, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Look here--if you don't let me have this money to-day, by all +that is holy I will never pay you a farthing again--not one +farthing; I'll go into the court, and you may get your money as +you can.' + +'But, Mr. Tudor, let me get up, and we'll talk about it in the +street, as we go along.' + +'There's the stamp,' said Charley. 'Fill it up, and then I'll go +with you to the bank.' + +M'Ruen took the bit of paper, and twisted it over and over again +in his hand, considering the while whether he had yet squeezed +out of the young man all that could be squeezed with safety, or +whether by an additional turn, by giving him another small +advancement, he might yet get something more. He knew that Tudor +was in a very bad state, that he was tottering on the outside +edge of the precipice; but he also knew that he had friends. +Would his friends when they came forward to assist their young +Pickle out of the mire, would they pay such bills as these or +would they leave poor Jabesh to get his remedy at law? That was +the question which Mr. M'Ruen had to ask and to answer. He was +not one of those noble vultures who fly at large game, and who +are willing to run considerable risk in pursuit of their prey. +Mr. M'Ruen avoided courts of law as much as he could, and +preferred a small safe trade; one in which the fall of a single +customer could never be ruinous to him; in which he need run no +risk of being transported for forgery, incarcerated for perjury, +or even, if possibly it might be avoided, gibbeted by some lawyer +or judge for his malpractices. + +'But you are so unpunctual,' he said, having at last made up his +mind that he had made a very good thing of Charley, and that +probably he might go a _little_ further without much danger. +'I wish to oblige you, Mr. Tudor; but pray do be punctual;' and +so saying he slowly spread the little document before him, across +which Scatterall had already scrawled his name, and slowly began +to write in the date. Slowly, with his head low down over the +table, and continually twisting it inside his cravat, he filled +up the paper, and then looking at it with the air of a connoisseur +in such matters, he gave it to Charley to sign. + +'But you haven't put in the amount,' said Charley. + +Mr. M'Ruen twisted his head and laughed. He delighted in playing +with his game as a fisherman does with a salmon. 'Well--no--I +haven't put in the amount yet. Do you sign it, and I'll do that +at once.' + +'I'll do it,' said Charley; 'I'll say £15, and you'll give me £10 +on that.' + +'No, no, no!' said Jabesh, covering the paper over with his +hands; 'you young men know nothing of filling bills; just sign +it, Mr. Tudor, and I'll do the rest.' And so Charley signed it, +and then M'Ruen, again taking the pen, wrote in 'fifteen pounds' +as the recognized amount of the value of the document. He also +took out his pocket-book and filled a cheque, but he was very +careful that Charley should not see the amount there written. +'And now,' said he, 'we will go to the bank.' + +As they made their way to the house in Lombard Street which Mr. +M'Ruen honoured by his account, Charley insisted on knowing how +much he was to have for the bill. Jabesh suggested £3 10s.; +Charley swore he would take nothing less than £8; but by the time +they had arrived at the bank, it had been settled that £5 was to +be paid in cash, and that Charley was to have the three Seasons +for the balance whenever he chose to send for them. When Charley, +as he did at first, positively refused to accede to these terms, +Mr. M'Ruen tendered him back the bill, and reminded him with a +plaintive voice that he was so unpunctual, so extremely +unpunctual. + +Having reached the bank, which the money-lender insisted on +Charley entering with him, Mr. M'Ruen gave the cheque across the +counter, and wrote on the back of it the form in which he would +take the money, whereupon a note and five sovereigns were handed +to him. The cheque was for £15, and was payable to C. Tudor, +Esq., so that proof might be forthcoming at a future time, if +necessary, that he had given to his customer full value for the +bill. Then in the outer hall of the bank, unseen by the clerks, +he put, one after another, slowly and unwillingly, four +sovereigns into Charley's hand. + +'The other--where's the other?' said Charley. + +Jabesh smiled sweetly and twisted his head. + +'Come, give me the other,' said Charley roughly. + +'Four is quite enough, quite enough for what you want; and +remember my time, Mr. Tudor; you should remember my time.' + +'Give me the other sovereign,' said Charley, taking hold of the +front of his coat. + +'Well, well, you shall have ten shillings; but I want the rest +for a purpose.' + +'Give me the sovereign,' said Charley, 'or I'll drag you in +before them all in the bank and expose you; give me the other +sovereign, I say.' + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Mr. M'Ruen; 'I thought you liked a joke, +Mr. Tudor. Well, here it is. And now do be punctual, pray do be +punctual, and I'll do anything I can for you.' + +And then they parted, Charley going westward towards his own +haunts, and M'Ruen following his daily pursuits in the city. + +Charley had engaged to pull up to Avis's at Putney with Harry +Norman, to dine there, take a country walk, and row back in the +cool of the evening; and he had promised to call at the Weights +and Measures with that object punctually at five. + +'You can get away in time for that, I suppose,' said Harry. + +'Well, I'll try and manage it,' said Charley, laughing. + +Nothing could be kinder, nay, more affectionate, than Norman had +been to his fellow-lodger during the last year and a half. It +seemed as though he had transferred to Alaric's cousin all the +friendship which he had once felt for Alaric; and the deeper were +Charley's sins of idleness and extravagance, the wider grew +Norman's forgiveness, and the more sincere his efforts to +befriend him. As one result of this, Charley was already deep in +his debt. Not that Norman had lent him money, or even paid bills +for him; but the lodgings in which they lived had been taken by +Norman, and when the end of the quarter came he punctually paid +his landlady. + +Charley had once, a few weeks before the period of which we are +now writing, told Norman that he had no money to pay his long +arrear, and that he would leave the lodgings and shift for +himself as best he could. He had said the same thing to Mrs. +Richards, the landlady, and had gone so far as to pack up all his +clothes; but his back was no sooner turned than Mrs. Richards, +under Norman's orders, unpacked them all, and hid away the +portmanteau. It was well for him that this was done. He had +bespoken for himself a bedroom at the public-house in Norfolk +Street, and had he once taken up his residence there he would +have been ruined for ever. + +He was still living with Norman, and ever increasing his debt. In +his misery at this state of affairs, he had talked over with +Harry all manner of schemes for increasing his income, but he had +never told him a word about Mr. M'Ruen. Why his salary, which was +now £150 per annum, should not be able to support him, Norman +never asked. Charley the while was very miserable, and the more +miserable he was, the less he found himself able to rescue +himself from his dissipation. What moments of ease he had were +nearly all spent in Norfolk Street; and such being the case how +could he abstain from going there? + +'Well, Charley, and how do 'Crinoline and Macassar' go on?' said +Norman, as they sauntered away together up the towing-path above +Putney. Now there were those who had found out that Charley +Tudor, in spite of his wretched, idle, vagabond mode of life, was +no fool; indeed, that there was that talent within him which, if +turned to good account, might perhaps redeem him from ruin and +set him on his legs again; at least so thought some of his +friends, among whom Mrs. Woodward was the most prominent. She +insisted that if he would make use of his genius he might employ +his spare time to great profit by writing for magazines or +periodicals; and, inspirited by so flattering a proposition, +Charley had got himself introduced to the editor of a newly- +projected publication. At his instance he was to write a tale for +approval, and 'Crinoline and Macassar' was the name selected for +his first attempt. + +The affair had been fully talked over at Hampton, and it had been +arranged that the young author should submit his story, when +completed, to the friendly criticism of the party assembled at +Surbiton Cottage, before he sent it to the editor. He had +undertaken to have 'Crinoline and Macassar' ready for perusal on +the next Saturday, and in spite of Mr. M'Ruen and Norah Geraghty, +he had really been at work. + +'Will it be finished by Saturday, Charley?' said Norman. + +'Yes--at least I hope so; but if that's not done, I have another +all complete.' + +'Another! and what is that called?' + +'Oh, that's a very short one,' said Charley, modestly. + +'But, short as it is, it must have a name, I suppose. What's the +name of the short one?' + +'Why, the name is long enough; it's the longest part about it. +The editor gave me the name, you know, and then I had to write +the story. It's to be called "Sir Anthony Allan-a-dale and the +Baron of Ballyporeen."' + +'Oh! two rival knights in love with the same lady, of course,' +and Harry gave a gentle sigh as he thought of his own still +unhealed grief. 'The scene is laid in Ireland, I presume?' + +'No, not in Ireland; at least not exactly. I don't think the +scene is laid anywhere in particular; it's up in a mountain, near +a castle. There isn't any lady in it--at least, not alive.' + +'Heavens, Charley! I hope you are not dealing with dead women.' + +'No--that is, I have to bring them to life again. I'll tell you +how it is. In the first paragraph, Sir Anthony Allan-a-dale is +lying dead, and the Baron of Ballyporeen is standing over him +with a bloody sword. You must always begin with an incident now, +and then hark back for your explanation and description; that's +what the editor says is the great secret of the present day, and +where we beat all the old fellows that wrote twenty years ago.' + +'Oh!--yes--I see. They used to begin at the beginning; that was +very humdrum.' + +'A devilish bore, you know, for a fellow who takes up a novel +because he's dull. Of course he wants his fun at once. If you +begin with a long history of who's who and all that, why he won't +read three pages; but if you touch him up with a startling +incident or two at the first go off, then give him a chapter of +horrors, then another of fun, then a little love or a little +slang, or something of that sort, why, you know, about the end of +the first volume, you may describe as much as you like, and tell +everything about everybody's father and mother for just as many +pages as you want to fill. At least that's what the editor says.' + +'_Meleager ab ovo_ may be introduced with safety when you +get as far as that,' suggested Norman. + +'Yes, you may bring him in too, if you like,' said Charley, who +was somewhat oblivious of his classicalities. 'Well, Sir Anthony +is lying dead and the Baron is standing over him, when out come +Sir Anthony's retainers----' + +'Out--out of what?' + +'Out of the castle: that's all explained afterwards. Out come the +retainers, and pitch into the Baron till they make mincemeat of +him.' + +'They don't kill him, too?' + +'Don't they though? I rather think they do, and no mistake.' + +'And so both your heroes are dead in the first chapter.' + +'First chapter! why that's only the second paragraph. I'm only to +be allowed ten paragraphs for each number, and I am expected to +have an incident for every other paragraph for the first four +days.' + +'That's twenty incidents.' + +'Yes--it's a great bother finding so many.--I'm obliged to make +the retainers come by all manner of accidents; and I should never +have finished the job if I hadn't thought of setting the castle +on fire. 'And now forked tongues of liquid fire, and greedy +lambent flames burst forth from every window of the devoted +edifice. The devouring element----.' That's the best passage in +the whole affair.' + +'This is for the _Daily Delight_, isn't it?' + +'Yes, for the _Daily Delight_. It is to begin on the 1st of +September with the partridges. We expect a most tremendous sale. +It will be the first halfpenny publication in the market, and as +the retailers will get them for sixpence a score--twenty-four to +the score--they'll go off like wildfire.' + +'Well, Charley, and what do you do with the dead bodies of your +two heroes?' + +'Of course I needn't tell you that it was not the Baron who +killed Sir Anthony at all.' + +'Oh! wasn't it? O dear--that was a dreadful mistake on the part +of the retainers.' + +'But as natural as life. You see these two grandees were next- +door neighbours, and there had been a feud between the families +for seven centuries--a sort of Capulet and Montague affair. One +Adelgitha, the daughter of the Thane of Allan-a-dale--there were +Thanes in those days, you know--was betrothed to the eldest son +of Sir Waldemar de Ballyporeen. This gives me an opportunity of +bringing in a succinct little account of the Conquest, which will +be beneficial to the lower classes. The editor peremptorily +insists upon that kind of thing.' + +'_Omne tulit punctum_,' said Norman. + +'Yes, I dare say,' said Charley, who was now too intent on his +own new profession to attend much to his friend's quotation. +'Well, where was I?--Oh! the eldest son of Sir Waldemar went off +with another lady and so the feud began. There is a very pretty +scene between Adelgitha and her lady's-maid.' + +'What, seven centuries before the story begins?' + +'Why not? The editor says that the unities are altogether thrown +over now, and that they are regular bosh--our game is to stick in +a good bit whenever we can get it--I got to be so fond of +Adelgitha that I rather think she's the heroine.' + +'But doesn't that take off the interest from your dead grandees?' + +'Not a bit; I take it chapter and chapter about. Well, you see, +the retainers had no sooner made mincemeat of the Baron--a very +elegant young man was the Baron, just returned from the +Continent, where he had learnt to throw aside all prejudices +about family feuds and everything eke, and he had just come over +in a friendly way, to say as much to Sir Anthony, when, as he +crossed the drawbridge, he stumbled over the corpse of his +ancient enemy--well, the retainers had no sooner made mincemeat +of him, than they perceived that Sir Anthony was lying with an +open bottle in his hand, and that he had taken poison.' + +'Having committed suicide?' asked Norman. + +'No, not at all. The editor says that we must always have a slap +at some of the iniquities of the times. He gave me three or four +to choose from; there was the adulteration of food, and the want +of education for the poor, and street music, and the miscellaneous +sale of poisons.' + +'And so you chose poisons and killed the knight?' + +'Exactly; at least I didn't kill him, for he comes all right +again after a bit. He had gone out to get something to do him +good after a hard night, a Seidlitz powder, or something of that +sort, and an apothecary's apprentice had given him prussic acid +in mistake.' + +'And how is it possible he should have come to life after taking +prussic acid?' + +'Why, there I have a double rap at the trade. The prussic acid is +so bad of its kind, that it only puts him into a kind of torpor +for a week. Then we have the trial of the apothecary's boy; that +is an excellent episode, and gives me a grand hit at the +absurdity of our criminal code.' + +'Why, Charley, it seems to me that you are hitting at +everything.' + +'Oh! ah! right and left, that's the game for us authors. The +press is the only _censor morum_ going now--and who so fit? +Set a thief to catch a thief, you know. Well, I have my hit at +the criminal code, and then Sir Anthony comes out of his torpor.' + +'But how did it come to pass that the Baron's sword was all +bloody?' + +'Ah, there was the difficulty; I saw that at once. It was +necessary to bring in something to be killed, you know. I thought +of a stray tiger out of Wombwell's menagerie; but the editor says +that we must not trespass against the probabilities; so I have +introduced a big dog. The Baron had come across a big dog, and +seeing that the brute had a wooden log tied to his throat, +thought he must be mad, and so he killed him.' + +'And what's the end of it, Charley?' + +'Why, the end is rather melancholy. Sir Anthony reforms, leaves +off drinking, and takes to going to church everyday. He becomes a +Puseyite, puts up a memorial window to the Baron, and reads the +Tracts. At last he goes over to the Pope, walks about in nasty +dirty clothes all full of vermin, and gives over his estate to +Cardinal Wiseman. Then there are the retainers; they all come to +grief, some one way and some another. I do that for the sake of +the Nemesis.' + +'I would not have condescended to notice them, I think,' said +Norman. + +'Oh! I must; there must be a Nemesis. The editor specially +insists on a Nemesis.' + +The conclusion of Charley's novel brought them back to the boat. +Norman, when he started, had intended to employ the evening in +giving good counsel to his friend, and in endeavouring to arrange +some scheme by which he might rescue the brand from the burning; +but he had not the heart to be severe and sententious while +Charley was full of his fun. It was so much pleasanter to talk to +him on the easy terms of equal friendship than turn Mentor and +preach a sermon. + +'Well, Charley,' said he, as they were walking up from the boat +wharf--Norman to his club, and Charley towards his lodgings--from +which route, however, he meant to deviate as soon as ever he +might be left alone--'well, Charley, I wish you success with all +my heart; I wish you could do something--I won't say to keep you +out of mischief.' + +'I wish I could, Harry,' said Charley, thoroughly abashed; 'I +wish I could--indeed I wish I could--but it is so hard to go +right when one has begun to go wrong.' + +'It is hard; I know it is.' + +'But you never can know how hard, Harry, for you have never +tried,' and then they went on walking for a while in silence, +side by side. + +'You don't know the sort of place that office of mine is,' +continued Charley. 'You don't know the sort of fellows the men +are. I hate the place; I hate the men I live with. It is all so +dirty, so disreputable, so false. I cannot conceive that any +fellow put in there as young as I was should ever do well +afterwards.' + +'But at any rate you might try your best, Charley.' + +'Yes, I might do that still; and I know I don't; and where should +I have been now, if it hadn't been for you?' + +'Never mind about that; I sometimes think we might have done more +for each other if we had been more together. But remember the +motto you said you'd choose, Charley--Excelsior! We can none of +us mount the hill without hard labour. Remember that word, +Charley--Excelsior! Remember it now--now, to-night; remember how +you dream of higher things, and begin to think of them in your +waking moments also;' and so they parted. + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A DAY WITH ONE OF THE NAVVIES.--EVENING + + 'Excelsior!' said Charley to himself, as he walked on a few +steps towards his lodgings, having left Norman at the door of his +club. 'Remember it now--now, to-night.' + +Yes--now is the time to remember it, if it is ever to be +remembered to any advantage. He went on with stoic resolution to +the end of the street, determined to press home and put the last +touch to 'Crinoline and Macassar;' but as he went he thought of +his interview with Mr. M'Ruen and of the five sovereigns still in +his pocket, and altered his course. + +Charley had not been so resolute with the usurer, so determined +to get £5 from him on this special day, without a special object +in view. His credit was at stake in a more than ordinary manner; +he had about a week since borrowed money from the woman who kept +the public-house in Norfolk Street, and having borrowed it for a +week only, felt that this was a debt of honour which it was +incumbent on him to pay. Therefore, when he had walked the length +of one street on his road towards his lodgings, he retraced his +steps and made his way back to his old haunts. + +The house which he frequented was hardly more like a modern +London gin-palace than was that other house in the city which Mr. +M'Ruen honoured with his custom. It was one of those small +tranquil shrines of Bacchus in which the god is worshipped +perhaps with as constant a devotion, though with less noisy +demonstrations of zeal than in his larger and more public +temples. None absolutely of the lower orders were encouraged to +come thither for oblivion. It had about it nothing inviting to +the general eye. No gas illuminations proclaimed its midnight +grandeur. No huge folding doors, one set here and another there, +gave ingress and egress to a wretched crowd of poverty-stricken +midnight revellers. No reiterated assertions in gaudy letters, +each a foot long, as to the peculiar merits of the old tom or +Hodge's cream of the valley, seduced the thirsty traveller. The +panelling over the window bore the simple announcement, in modest +letters, of the name of the landlady, Mrs. Davis; and the same +name appeared with equal modesty on the one gas lamp opposite the +door. + +Mrs. Davis was a widow, and her customers were chiefly people who +knew her and frequented her house regularly. Lawyers' clerks, who +were either unmarried, or whose married homes were perhaps not so +comfortable as the widow's front parlour; tradesmen, not of the +best sort, glad to get away from the noise of their children; +young men who had begun the cares of life in ambiguous positions, +just on the confines of respectability, and who, finding +themselves too weak in flesh to cling on to the round of the +ladder above them, were sinking from year to year to lower steps, +and depths even below the level of Mrs. Davis's public-house. To +these might be added some few of a somewhat higher rank in life, +though perhaps of a lower rank of respectability; young men who, +like Charley Tudor and his comrades, liked their ease and self- +indulgence, and were too indifferent as to the class of +companions against whom they might rub their shoulders while +seeking it. + +The 'Cat and Whistle,' for such was the name of Mrs. Davis's +establishment, had been a house of call for the young men of the +Internal Navigation long before Charley's time. What first gave +rise to the connexion it is not now easy to say; but Charley had +found it, and had fostered it into a close alliance, which +greatly exceeded any amount of intimacy which existed previously +to his day. + +It must not be presumed that he, in an ordinary way, took his +place among the lawyers' clerks, and general run of customers in +the front parlour; occasionally he condescended to preside there +over the quiet revels, to sing a song for the guests, which was +sure to be applauded to the echo, and to engage in a little +skirmish of politics with a retired lamp-maker and a silversmith's +foreman from the Strand, who always called him 'Sir,' and received +what he said with the greatest respect; but, as a rule, he quaffed +his Falernian in a little secluded parlour behind the bar, in which +sat the widow Davis, auditing her accounts in the morning, and +giving out orders in the evening to Norah Geraghty, her barmaid, +and to an attendant sylph, who ministered to the front parlour, +taking in goes of gin and screws of tobacco, and bringing out +the price thereof with praiseworthy punctuality. + +Latterly, indeed, Charley had utterly deserted the front parlour; +for there had come there a pestilent fellow, highly connected +with the Press, as the lamp-maker declared, but employed as an +assistant shorthand-writer somewhere about the Houses of +Parliament, according to the silversmith, who greatly interfered +with our navvy's authority. He would not at all allow that what +Charley said was law, entertained fearfully democratic principles +of his own, and was not at all the gentleman. So Charley drew +himself up, declined to converse any further on politics with a +man who seemed to know more about them than himself, and confined +himself exclusively to the inner room. + +On arriving at this elysium, on the night in question, he found +Mrs. Davis usefully engaged in darning a stocking, while +Scatterall sat opposite with a cigar in his mouth, his hat over +his nose, and a glass of gin and water before him. + +'I began to think you weren't coming,' said Scatterall, 'and I +was getting so deuced dull that I was positively thinking of +going home.' + +'That's very civil of you, Mr. Scatterall,' said the widow. + +'Well, you've been sitting there for the last half-hour without +saying a word to me; and it is dull. Looking at a woman mending +stockings is dull, ain't it, Charley?' + +'That depends,' said Charley, 'partly on whom the woman may be, +and partly on whom the man may be. Where's Norah, Mrs. Davis?' + +'She's not very well to-night; she has got a headache; there +ain't many of them here to-night, so she's lying down.' + +'A little seedy, I suppose,' said Scatterall. + +Charley felt rather angry with his friend for applying such an +epithet to his lady-love; however, he did not resent it, but +sitting down, lighted his pipe and sipped his gin and water. + +And so they sat for the next quarter of an hour, saying very +little to each other. What was the nature of the attraction which +induced two such men as Charley Tudor and Dick Scatterall to give +Mrs. Davis the benefit of their society, while she was mending +her stockings, it might be difficult to explain. They could have +smoked in their own rooms as well, and have drunk gin and water +there, if they had any real predilection for that mixture. Mrs. +Davis was neither young nor beautiful, nor more than ordinarily +witty. Charley, it is true, had an allurement to entice him +thither, but this could not be said of Scatterall, to whom the +lovely Norah was never more than decently civil. Had they been +desired, in their own paternal halls, to sit and see their +mother's housekeeper darn the family stockings, they would, +probably, both of them have rebelled, even though the supply of +tobacco and gin and water should be gratuitous and unlimited. + +It must be presumed that the only charm of the pursuit was in its +acknowledged impropriety. They both understood that there was +something fast in frequenting Mrs. Davis's inner parlour, +something slow in remaining at home; and so they both sat there, +and Mrs. Davis went on with her darning-needle, nothing abashed. + +'Well, I think I shall go,' said Scatterall, shaking off the last +ash from the end of his third cigar. + +'Do,' said Charley; 'you should be careful, you know; late hours +will hurt your complexion.' + +'It's so deuced dull,' said Scatterall. + +'Why don't you go into the parlour, and have a chat with the +gentlemen?' suggested Mrs. Davis; 'there's Mr. Peppermint there +now, lecturing about the war; upon my word he talks very well.' + +'He's so deuced low,' said Scatterall. + +'He's a bumptious noisy blackguard too,' said Charley; 'he +doesn't know how to speak to a gentleman, when he meets one.' + +Scatterall gave a great yawn. 'I suppose you're not going, +Charley?' said he. + +'Oh yes, I am,' said Charley, 'in about two hours.' + +'Two hours! well, good night, old fellow, for I'm off. Three +cigars, Mrs. Davis, and two goes of gin and water, the last +cold.' Then, having made this little commercial communication to +the landlady, he gave another yawn, and took himself away. Mrs. +Davis opened her little book, jotted down the items, and then, +having folded up her stockings, and put them into a basket, +prepared herself for conversation. + +But, though Mrs. Davis prepared herself for conversation, she did +not immediately commence it. Having something special to say, she +probably thought that she might improve her opportunity of saying +it by allowing Charley to begin. She got up and pottered about +the room, went to a cupboard, and wiped a couple of glasses, and +then out into the bar and arranged the jugs and pots. This done, +she returned to the little room, and again sat herself down in +her chair. + +'Here's your five pounds, Mrs. Davis,' said Charley; 'I wish you +knew the trouble I have had to get it for you.' + +To give Mrs. Davis her due, this was not the subject on which she +was anxious to speak. She would have been at present well +inclined that Charley should remain her debtor. 'Indeed, Mr. +Tudor, I am very sorry you should have taken any trouble on such +a trifle. If you're short of money, it will do for me just as +well in October.' + +Charley looked at the sovereigns, and bethought himself how very +short of cash he was. Then he thought of the fight he had had to +get them, in order that he might pay the money which he had felt +so ashamed of having borrowed, and he determined to resist the +temptation. + +'Did you ever know me flush of cash? You had better take them +while you can get them,' and as he pushed them across the table +with his stick, he remembered that all he had left was ninepence. + +'I don't want the money at present, Mr. Tudor,' said the widow. +'We're such old friends that there ought not to be a word between +us about such a trifle--now don't leave yourself bare; take what +you want and settle with me at quarter-day.' + +'Well, I'll take a sovereign,' said he, 'for to tell you the +truth, I have only the ghost of a shilling in my pocket.' And so +it was settled; Mrs. Davis reluctantly pocketed four of Mr. +M'Ruen's sovereigns, and Charley kept in his own possession the +fifth, as to which he had had so hard a combat in the lobby of +the bank. + +He then sat silent for a while and smoked, and Mrs. Davis again +waited for him to begin the subject on which she wished to speak. +'And what's the matter with Norah all this time?' he said at +last. + +'What's the matter with her?' repeated Mrs. Davis. 'Well, I think +you might know what's the matter with her. You don't suppose +she's made of stone, do you?' + +Charley saw that he was in for it. It was in vain that Norman's +last word was still ringing in his ears. 'Excelsior!' What had he +to do with 'Excelsior?' What miserable reptile on God's earth was +more prone to crawl downwards than he had shown himself to be? +And then again a vision floated across his mind's eye of a young +sweet angel face with large bright eyes, with soft delicate skin, +and all the exquisite charms of gentle birth and gentle nurture. +A single soft touch seemed to press his arm, a touch that he had +so often felt, and had never felt without acknowledging to +himself that there was something in it almost divine. All this +passed rapidly through his mind, as he was preparing to answer +Mrs. Davis's question touching Norah Geraghty. + +'You don't think she's made of stone, do you?' said the widow, +repeating her words. + +'Indeed I don't think she's made of anything but what's suitable +to a very nice young woman,' said Charley. + +'A nice young woman! Is that all you can say for her? I call her +a very fine girl.' Miss Golightly's friends could not say +anything more, even for that young lady. 'I don't know where +you'll pick up a handsomer, or a better-conducted one either, for +the matter of that.' + +'Indeed she is,' said Charley. + +'Oh! for the matter of that, no one knows it better than +yourself, Mr. Tudor; and she's as well able to keep a man's house +over his head as some others that take a deal of pride in +themselves.' + +'I'm quite sure of it,' said Charley. + +'Well, the long and the short of it is this, Mr. Tudor.' And as +she spoke the widow got a little red in the face: she had, as +Charley thought, an unpleasant look of resolution about her--a +roundness about her mouth, and a sort of fierceness in her eyes. +'The long and the short of it is this, Mr. Tudor, what do you +mean to do about the girl?' + +'Do about her?' said Charley, almost bewildered in his misery. + +'Yes, do about her. Do you mean to make her your wife? That's +plain English. Because I'll tell you what: I'll not see her put +upon any longer. It must be one thing or the other; and that at +once. And if you've a grain of honour in you, Mr. Tudor--and I +think you are honourable--you won't back from your word with the +girl now.' + +'Back from my word?' said Charley. + +'Yes, back from your word,' said Mrs. Davis, the flood-gates of +whose eloquence were now fairly opened. 'I'm sure you're too much +of the gentleman to deny your own words, and them repeated more +than once in my presence--Cheroots--yes, are there none there, +child?--Oh, they are in the cupboard.' These last words were not +part of her address to Charley, but were given in reply to a +requisition from the attendant nymph outside. 'You're too much of +a gentleman to do that, I know. And so, as I'm her natural +friend--and indeed she's my cousin, not that far off--I think +it's right that we should all understand one another.' + +'Oh, quite right,' said Charley. + +'You can't expect that she should go and sacrifice herself for +you, you know,' said Mrs. Davis, who now that she had begun +hardly knew how to stop herself. 'A girl's time is her money. +She's at her best now, and a girl like her must make her hay +while the sun shines. She can't go on fal-lalling with you, and +then nothing to come of it. You mustn't suppose she's to lose her +market that way.' + +'God knows I should be sorry to injure her, Mrs. Davis.' + +'I believe you would, because I take you for an honourable +gentleman as will be as good as your word. Now, there's +Peppermint there.' + +'What! that fellow in the parlour?' + +'And an honourable gentleman he is. Not that I mean to compare +him to you, Mr. Tudor, nor yet doesn't Norah; not by no means. +But there he is. Well, he comes with the most honourablest +proposals, and will make her Mrs. Peppermint to-morrow, if so be +that she'll have it.' + +'You don't mean to say that there has been anything between +them?' said Charley, who in spite of the intense desire which he +had felt a few minutes since to get the lovely Norah altogether +off his hands, now felt an acute pang of jealousy.' You don't +mean to say that there has been anything between them?' + +'Nothing as you have any right to object to, Mr. Tudor. You may +be sure I wouldn't allow of that, nor yet wouldn't Norah demean +herself to it.' + +'Then how did she get talking to him?' + +'She didn't get talking to him. But he has eyes in his head, and +you don't suppose but what he can see with them. If a girl is in +the public line, of course any man is free to speak to her. If +you don't like it, it is for you to take her out of it. Not but +what, for a girl that is in the public line, Norah Geraghty keeps +herself to herself as much as any girl you ever set eyes on.' + +'What the d--- has she to do with this fellow then?' + +'Why, he's a widower, and has three young children; and he's +looking out for a mother for them; and he thinks Norah will suit. +There, now you have the truth, and the whole truth.' + +'D--- his impudence!' said Charley. + +'Well, I don't see that there's any impudence. He has a house of +his own and the means to keep it. Now I'll tell you what it is. +Norah can't abide him--' + +Charley looked a little better satisfied when he heard this +declaration. + +'Norah can't abide the sight of him; nor won't of any man as long +as you are hanging after her. She's as true as steel, and proud +you ought to be of her.' Proud, thought Charley, as he again +muttered to himself, 'Excelsior!'--'But, Mr. Tudor, I won't see +her put upon; that's the long and the short of it. If you like to +take her, there she is. I don't say she's just your equal as to +breeding, though she's come of decent people too; but she's good +as gold. She'll make a shilling go as far as any young woman I +know; and if £100 or £150 are wanting for furniture or the like +of that, why, I've that regard for her, that that shan't stand in +the way. Now, Mr. Tudor, I've spoke honest; and if you're the +gentleman as I takes you to be, you'll do the same.' + +To do Mrs. Davis justice, it must be acknowledged that in her way +she had spoken honestly. Of course she knew that such a marriage +would be a dreadful misalliance for young Tudor; of course she +knew that all his friends would be heart-broken when they heard +of it. But what had she to do with his friends? Her sympathies, +her good wishes, were for her friend. Had Norah fallen a victim +to Charley's admiration, and then been cast off to eat the +bitterest bread to which any human being is ever doomed, what +then would Charley's friends have cared for her? There was a fair +fight between them. If Norah Geraghty, as a reward for her +prudence, could get a husband in a rank of life above her, +instead of falling into utter destruction as might so easily have +been the case, who could do other than praise her--praise her and +her clever friend who had so assisted her in her struggle? + + Dolus an virtus-- + +Had Mrs. Davis ever studied the classics she would have thus +expressed herself. + +Poor Charley was altogether thrown on his beam-ends. He had +altogether played Mrs. Davis's game in evincing jealousy at Mr. +Peppermint's attentions. He knew this, and yet for the life of +him he could not help being jealous. He wanted to get rid of Miss +Geraghty, and yet he could not endure that anyone else should lay +claim to her favour. He was very weak. He knew how much depended +on the way in which he might answer this woman at the present +moment; he knew that he ought now to make it plain to her, that +however foolish he might have been, however false he might have +been, it was quite out of the question that he should marry her +barmaid. But he did not do so. He was worse than weak. It was not +only the disinclination to give pain, or even the dread of the +storm that would ensue, which deterred him; but an absurd dislike +to think that Mr. Peppermint should be graciously received there +as the barmaid's acknowledged admirer. + +'Is she really ill now?' said he. + +'She's not so ill but what she shall make herself well enough to +welcome you, if you'll say the word that you ought to say. The +most that ails her is fretting at the long delay.--Bolt the door, +child, and go to bed; there will be no one else here now. Go up, +and tell Miss Geraghty to come down; she hasn't got her clothes +off yet, I know.' + +Mrs. Davis was too good a general to press Charley for an +absolute, immediate, fixed answer to her question. She knew that +she had already gained much, by talking thus of the proposed +marriage, by setting it thus plainly before Charley, without +rebuke or denial from him. He had not objected to receiving a +visit from Norah, on the implied understanding that she was to +come down to him as his affianced bride. He had not agreed to +this in words; but silence gives consent, and Mrs. Davis felt +that should it ever hereafter become necessary to prove anything, +what had passed would enable her to prove a good deal. + +Charley puffed at his cigar and sipped his gin and water. It was +now twelve o'clock, and he thoroughly wished himself at home and +in bed. The longer he thought of it the more impossible it +appeared that he should get out of the house without the scene +which he dreaded. The girl had bolted the door, put away her cups +and mugs, and her step upstairs had struck heavily on his ears. +The house was not large or high, and he fancied that he heard +mutterings on the landing-place. Indeed he did not doubt but that +Miss Geraghty had listened to most of the conversation which had +taken place. + +'Excuse me a minute, Mr. Tudor,' said Mrs. Davis, who was now +smiling and civil enough; 'I will go upstairs myself; the silly +girl is shamefaced, and does not like to come down'; and up went +Mrs. Davis to see that her barmaid's curls and dress were nice +and jaunty. It would not do now, at this moment, for Norah to +offend her lover by any untidiness. Charley for a moment thought +of the front door. The enemy had allowed him an opportunity for +retreating. He might slip out before either of the women came +down, and then never more be heard of in Norfolk Street again. He +had his hand in his waistcoat pocket, with the intent of leaving +the sovereign on the table; but when the moment came he felt +ashamed of the pusillanimity of such an escape, and therefore +stood, or rather sat his ground, with a courage worthy of a +better purpose. + +Down the two women came, and Charley felt his heart beating +against his ribs. As the steps came nearer the door, he began to +wish that Mr. Peppermint had been successful. The widow entered +the room first, and at her heels the expectant beauty. We can +hardly say that she was blushing; but she did look rather +shamefaced, and hung back a little at the door, as though she +still had half a mind to think better of it, and go off to her +bed. + +'Come in, you little fool,' said Mrs. Davis. 'You needn't be +ashamed of coming down to see him; you have done that often +enough before now.' + +Norah simpered and sidled. 'Well, I'm sure now!' said she. +'Here's a start, Mr. Tudor; to be brought downstairs at this time +of night; and I'm sure I don't know what it's about'; and then +she shook her curls, and twitched her dress, and made as though +she were going to pass through the room to her accustomed place +at the bar. + +Norah Geraghty was a fine girl. Putting her in comparison with +Miss Golightly, we are inclined to say that she was the finer +girl of the two; and that, barring position, money, and fashion, +she was qualified to make the better wife. In point of education, +that is, the effects of education, there was not perhaps much to +choose between them. Norah could make an excellent pudding, and +was willing enough to exercise her industry and art in doing so; +Miss Golightly could copy music, but she did not like the +trouble; and could play a waltz badly. Neither of them had ever +read anything beyond a few novels. In this respect, as to the +amount of labour done, Miss Golightly had certainly far surpassed +her rival competitor for Charley's affections. + +Charley got up and took her hand; and as he did so, he saw that +her nails were dirty. He put his arms round her waist and kissed +her; and as he caressed her, his olfactory nerves perceived that +the pomatum in her hair was none of the best. He thought of those +young lustrous eyes that would look up so wondrously into his +face; he thought of the gentle touch, which would send a thrill +through all his nerves; and then he felt very sick. + +'Well, upon my word, Mr. Tudor,' said Miss Geraghty, 'you're +making very free to-night.' She did not, however, refuse to sit +down on his knee, though while sitting there she struggled and +tossed herself, and shook her long ringlets in Charley's face, +till he wished her--safe at home in Mr. Peppermint's nursery. + +'And is that what you brought me down for, Mrs. Davis?' said +Norah. 'Well, upon my word, I hope the door's locked; we shall +have all the world in here else.' + +'If you hadn't come down to him, he'd have come up to you,' said +Mrs. Davis. + +'Would he though?' said Norah; 'I think he knows a trick worth +two of that;' and she looked as though she knew well how to +defend herself, if any over-zeal on the part of her lover should +ever induce him to violate the sanctum of her feminine retirement. + +There was no over-zeal now about Charley. He ought to have been +happy enough, for he had his charmer in his arms; but he showed +very little of the ecstatic joy of a favoured lover. There he sat +with Norah in his arms, and as we have said, Norah was a handsome +girl; but he would much sooner have been copying the Kennett and +Avon canal lock entries in Mr. Snape's room at the Internal +Navigation. + +'Lawks, Mr. Tudor, you needn't hold me so tight,' said Norah. + +'He means to hold you tight enough now,' said Mrs. Davis. 'He's +very angry because I mentioned another gentleman's name.' + +'Well, now you didn't?' said Norah, pretending to look very +angry. + +'Well, I just did; and if you'd only seen him! You must be very +careful what you say to that gentleman, or there'll be a row in +the house.' + +'I!' said Norah. 'What I say to him! It's very little I have to +say to the man. But I shall tell him this; he'd better take +himself somewhere else, if he's going to make himself troublesome.' + +All this time Charley had said nothing, but was sitting with his +hat on his head, and his cigar in his mouth. The latter appendage +he had laid down for a moment when he saluted Miss Geraghty; but +he had resumed it, having at the moment no intention of repeating +the compliment. + +'And so you were jealous, were you?' said she, turning round and +looking at him. 'Well now, some people might have more respect +for other people than to mix up their names that way, with the +names of any men that choose to put themselves forward. What +would you say if I was to talk to you about Miss----' + +Charley stopped her mouth. It was not to be borne that she should +be allowed to pronounce the name that was about to fall from her +lips. + +'So you were jealous, were you?' said she, when she was again +able to speak. 'Well, my!' + +'Mrs. Davis told me flatly that you were going to marry the man,' +said Charley; 'so what was I to think?' + +'It doesn't matter what you think now,' said Mrs. Davis; 'for you +must be off from this. Do you know what o'clock it is? Do you +want the house to get a bad name? Come, you two understand each +other now, so you may as well give over billing and cooing for +this time. It's all settled now, isn't it, Mr. Tudor?' + +'Oh yes, I suppose so,' said Charley. + +'Well, and what do you say, Norah?' + +'Oh, I'm sure I'm agreeable if he is. Ha! ha! ha! I only hope he +won't think me too forward--he! he! he!' + +And then with another kiss, and very few more words of any sort, +Charley took himself off. + +'I'll have nothing more to do with him,' said Norah, bursting +into tears, as soon as the door was well bolted after Charley's +exit. 'I'm only losing myself with him. He don't mean anything, +and I said he didn't all along. He'd have pitched me to Old +Scratch, while I was sitting there on his knee, if he'd have had +his own way--so he would;' and poor Norah cried heartily, as she +went to her work in her usual way among the bottles and taps. + +'Why, you fool you, what do you expect? You don't think he's to +jump down your throat, do you? You can but try it on; and then if +it don't do, why there's the other one to fall back on; only, if +I had the choice, I'd rather have young Tudor, too.' + +'So would I,' said Norah; 'I can't abide that other fellow.' + +'Well, there, that's how it is, you know--beggars can't be +choosers. But come, make us a drop of something hot; a little +drop will do yourself good; but it's better not to take it before +him, unless when he presses you.' + +So the two ladies sat down to console themselves, as best they +might, for the reverses which trade and love so often bring with +them. + +Charley walked off a miserable man. He was thoroughly ashamed of +himself, thoroughly acknowledged his own weakness; and yet as he +went out from the 'Cat and Whistle,' he felt sure that he should +return there again to renew the degradation from which he had +suffered this night. Indeed, what else could he do now? He had, +as it were, solemnly plighted his troth to the girl before a +third person who had brought them together, with the acknowledged +purpose of witnessing that ceremony. He had, before Mrs. Davis, +and before the girl herself, heard her spoken of as his wife, and +had agreed to the understanding that such an arrangement was a +settled thing. What else had he to do now but to return and +complete his part of the bargain? What else but that, and be a +wretched, miserable, degraded man for the rest of his days; +lower, viler, more contemptible, infinitely lower, even than his +brother clerics at the office, whom in his pride he had so much +despised? + +He walked from Norfolk Street into the Strand, and there the +world was still alive, though it was now nearly one o'clock. The +debauched misery, the wretched outdoor midnight revelry of the +world was there, streaming in and out from gin-palaces, and +bawling itself hoarse with horrid, discordant, screech-owl slang. +But he went his way unheeding and uncontaminated. Now, now that +it was useless, he was thinking of the better things of the +world; nothing now seemed worth his grasp, nothing now seemed +pleasurable, nothing capable of giving joy, but what was decent, +good, reputable, cleanly, and polished. How he hated now +that lower world with which he had for the last three years +condescended to pass so much of his time! how he hated himself +for his own vileness! He thought of what Alaric was, of what +Norman was, of what he himself might have been--he that was +praised by Mrs. Woodward for his talent, he that was encouraged +to place himself among the authors of the day! He thought of all +this, and then he thought of what he was--the affianced husband +of Norah Geraghty! + +He went along the Strand, over the crossing under the statue of +Charles on horseback, and up Pall Mall East till he came to the +opening into the park under the Duke of York's column. The London +night world was all alive as he made his way. From the Opera +Colonnade shrill voices shrieked out at him as he passed, and +drunken men coming down from the night supper-houses in the +Haymarket saluted him with affectionate cordiality. The hoarse +waterman from the cabstand, whose voice had perished in the night +air, croaked out at him the offer of a vehicle; and one of the +night beggar-women who cling like burrs to those who roam the +street a these unhallowed hours still stuck to him, as she had +done ever since he had entered the Strand. + +'Get away with you,' said Charley, turning at the wretched +creature in his fierce anger; 'get away, or I'll give you in +charge.' + +'That you may never know what it is to be in misery yourself!' +said the miserable Irishwoman. + +'If you follow me a step farther I'll have you locked up,' said +Charley. + +'Oh, then, it's you that have the hard heart,' said she; 'and +it's you that will suffer yet.' + +Charley looked round, threw her the odd halfpence which he had in +his pocket, and then turned down towards the column. The woman +picked up her prize, and, with a speedy blessing, took herself +off in search of other prey. + +His way home would have taken him up Waterloo Place, but the +space round the column was now deserted and quiet, and sauntering +there, without thinking of what he did, he paced up and down +between the Clubs and the steps leading into the park. There, +walking to and fro slowly, he thought of his past career, of all +the circumstances of his life since his life had been left to his +own control, and of the absence of all hope for the future. + +What was he to do? He was deeply, inextricably in debt. That +wretch, M'Ruen, had his name on bills which it was impossible +that he should ever pay. Tradesmen held other bills of his which +were either now over-due, or would very shortly become so. He was +threatened with numerous writs, any one of which would suffice to +put him into gaol. From his poor father, burdened as he was with +other children, he knew that he had no right to expect further +assistance. He was in debt to Norman, his best, he would have +said his only friend, had it not been that in all his misery he +could not help still thinking of Mrs. Woodward as his friend. + +And yet how could his venture to think longer of her, +contaminated as he now was with the horrid degradation of his +acknowledged love at the 'Cat and Whistle!' No; he must think no +more of the Woodwards; he must dream no more of those angel eyes +which in his waking moments had so often peered at him out of +heaven, teaching him to think of higher things, giving him higher +hopes than those which had come to him from the working of his +own unaided spirit. Ah! lessons taught in vain! vain hopes! +lessons that had come all too late! hopes that had been cherished +only to be deceived! It was all over now! He had made his bed, +and he must lie on it; he had sown his seed, and he must reap his +produce; there was now no 'Excelsior' left for him within the +bounds of human probability. + +He had promised to go to Hampton with Harry Norman on Saturday, +and he would go there for the last time. He would go there and +tell Mrs. Woodward so much of the truth as he could bring himself +to utter; he would say farewell to that blest abode; he would +take Linda's soft hand in his for the last time; for the last +time he would hear the young, silver-ringing, happy voice of his +darling Katie; for the last time look into her bright face; for +the last time play with her as with a child of heaven--and then +he would return to the 'Cat and Whistle.' + +And having made this resolve he went home to his lodgings. It was +singular that in all his misery the idea hardly once occurred to +him of setting himself right in the world by accepting his +cousin's offer of Miss Golightly's hand and fortune. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HAMPTON COURT BRIDGE + + +Before the following Saturday afternoon Charley's spirits had +somewhat recovered their natural tone. Not that he was in a happy +frame of mind; the united energies of Mr. M'Ruen and Mrs. Davis +had been too powerful to allow of that; not that he had given +over his projected plan of saying a long farewell to Mrs. +Woodward, or at any rate of telling her something of his +position; he still felt that he could not continue to live on +terms of close intimacy both with her daughters and with Norah +Geraghty. But the spirits of youth are ever buoyant, and the +spirits of no one could be endowed, with more natural buoyancy +than those of the young navvy. Charley, therefore, in spite of +his misfortunes, was ready with his manuscript when Saturday +afternoon arrived, and, according to agreement, met Norman at the +railway station. + +Only one evening had intervened since the night in which he had +ratified his matrimonial engagement, and in spite of the delicate +nature of his position he had for that evening allowed Mr. +Peppermint to exercise his eloquence on the heart of the fair +Norah without interruption. He the while had been engaged in +completing the memoirs of 'Crinoline and Macassar.' + +'Well, Charley,' they asked, one and all, as soon as he reached +the Cottage, 'have you got the story? Have you brought the +manuscript? Is it all finished and ready for that dreadful +editor?' + +Charley produced a roll, and Linda and Katie instantly pounced +upon it. + +'Oh! it begins with poetry,' said Linda. + +'I am so glad,' said Katie. 'Is there much poetry in it, Charley? +I do so hope there is.' + +'Not a word of it,' said Charley; 'that which Linda sees is a +song that the heroine is singing, and it isn't supposed to be +written by the author at all.' + +'I'm so sorry that there's no poetry,' said Katie. 'Can't you +write poetry, Charley?' + +'At any rate there's lots of love in it,' said Linda, who was +turning over the pages. + +'Is there?' said Katie. 'Well, that's next best; but they should +go together. You should have put all your love into verse, +Charley, and then your prose would have done for the funny +parts.' + +'Perhaps it's all fun,' said Mrs. Woodward. 'But come, girls, +this is not fair; I won't let you look at the story till it's +read in full committee.' And so saying, Mrs. Woodward took the +papers from her daughters, and tying them up, deposited them safe +in custody. 'We'll have it out when the tea-things are gone.' + +But before the tea-things had come, an accident happened, which +had been like to dismiss 'Crinoline and Macassar' altogether from +the minds of the whole of the Woodward family. The young men had, +as usual, dined in town, and therefore they were all able to +spend the long summer evening out of doors. Norman's boat was +down at Hampton, and it was therefore determined that they should +row down as far as Hampton Court Park and back. Charley and +Norman were to row; and Mrs. Woodward agreed to accompany her +daughters. Uncle Bat was left at home, to his nap and rum and +water. + +Norman was so expert a Thames waterman, that he was quite able to +manage the boat without a steersman, and Charley was nearly his +equal. But there is some amusement in steering, and Katie was +allowed to sit between the tiller-ropes. + +'I can steer very well, mamma: can't I, Harry? I always steer +when we go to the island, and we run the boat straight into the +little creek, only just broad enough to hold it.' Katie's visits +to the island, however, were not so frequent as they had +heretofore been, for she was approaching to sixteen years of age, +and wet feet and draggled petticoats had lost some of their +charms. Mrs. Woodward, trusting more to the experience of her two +knights than to the skill of the lady at the helm, took her seat, +and they went off merrily down the stream. + +All the world knows that it is but a very little distance from +Hampton Church to Hampton Court Bridge, especially when one has +the stream with one. They were very soon near to the bridge, and +as they approached it, they had to pass a huge barge, that was +lazily making its way down to Brentford. + +'There's lots of tune for the big arch,' said Charley. + +'Pull away then,' said Harry. + +They both pulled hard, and shot alongside and past the barge. But +the stream was strong, and the great ugly mass of black timber +moved behind them quicker than it seemed to do. + +'It will be safer to take the one to the left,' said Harry. + +'Oh! there's lots of tune,' said Charley. + +'No,' said Harry,' do as I tell you and go to the left.--Pull +your left hand a little, Katie.' + +Charley did as he was bid, and Katie intended to do the same; but +unfortunately she pulled the wrong hand. They were now very near +the bridge, and the barge was so close to them as to show that +there might have been danger in attempting to get through the +same arch with her. + +'Your left hand, Katie, your left,' shouted Norman; 'your left +string.' Katie was confused, and gave first a pull with her +right, and then a pull with her left, and then a strong pull with +her right. The two men backed water as hard as they could, but +the effect of Katie's steering was to drive the nose of the boat +right into one of the wooden piers of the bridge. + +The barge went on its way, and luckily made its entry under the +arch before the little craft had swung round into the stream +before it; as it was, the boat, still clinging by its nose, came +round with its stern against the side of the barge, and as the +latter went on, the timbers of Norman's wherry cracked and +crumpled in the rude encounter. + +The ladies should all have kept their seats. Mrs. Woodward did do +so. Linda jumped up, and being next to the barge, was pulled up +into it by one of the men. Katie stood bolt upright, with the +tiller-ropes still in her hand, awe-struck at the misfortune she +had caused; but while she was so standing, the stern of the boat +was lifted nearly out of the water by the weight of the barge, +and Katie was pitched, behind her mother's back, head foremost +into the water. + +Norman, at the moment, was endeavouring to steady the boat, and +shove it off from the barge, and had also lent a hand to assist +Linda in her escape. Charley was on the other side, standing up +and holding on by the piers of the bridge, keeping his eyes on +the ladies, so as to be of assistance to them when assistance +might be needed. + +And now assistance was sorely needed, and luckily had not to be +long waited for. Charley, with a light and quick step, passed +over the thwarts, and, disregarding Mrs. Woodward's scream, let +himself down, over the gun-wale behind her seat into the water. +Katie can hardly be said to have sunk at all. She had, at least, +never been so much under the water as to be out of sight. Her +clothes kept up her light body; and when Charley got close to +her, she had been carried up to the piers of the bridge, and was +panting with her head above water, and beating the stream with +her little hands. + +She was soon again in comparative safety. Charley had her by one +arm as he held on with the other to the boat, and kept himself +afloat with his legs. Mrs. Woodward leaned over and caught her +daughter's clothes; while Linda, who had seen what had happened, +stood shrieking on the barge, as it made its way on, heedless of +the ruin it left behind. + +Another boat soon came to their assistance from the shore, and +Mrs. Woodward and Katie were got safely into it. Charley returned +to the battered wherry, and assisted Norman in extricating it +from its position; and a third boat went to Linda's rescue, who +would otherwise have found herself in rather an uncomfortable +position the next morning at Brentford. + +The hugging and kissing to which Katie was subjected when she was +carried up to the inn, near the boat-slip on the Surrey side of +the river, may be imagined; as may also the faces she made at the +wineglassful of stiff brandy and water which she was desired to +drink. She was carried home in a fly, and by the time she arrived +there, had so completely recovered her life and spirits as to put +a vehement negative on her mother's proposition that she should +at once go to bed. + +'And not hear dear Charley's story?' said she, with tears in her +eyes. 'And, mamma, I can't and won't go to bed without seeing +Charley. I didn't say one word yet to thank him for jumping into +the water after me.' + +It was in vain that her mother told her that Charley's story +would amuse her twice as much when she should read it printed; it +was in vain that Mrs. Woodward assured her that Charley should +come up to her room door; and hear her thanks as he stood in the +passage, with the door ajar. Katie was determined to hear the +story read. It must be read, if read at all, that Saturday night, +as it was to be sent to the editor in the course of the week; and +reading 'Crinoline and Macassar' out loud on a Sunday was not to +be thought of at Surbiton Cottage. Katie was determined to hear +the story read, and to sit very near the author too during the +reading; to sit near him, and to give him such praise as even in +her young mind she felt that an author would like to hear. +Charley had pulled her out of the river, and no one, as far as +her efforts could prevent it, should be allowed to throw cold +water on him. + +Norman and Charley, wet as the latter was, contrived to bring the +shattered boat back to Hampton. When they reached the lawn at +Surbiton Cottage they were both in high spirits. An accident, if +it does no material harm, is always an inspiriting thing, unless +one feels that it has been attributable to one's own fault. +Neither of them could in this instance attach any blame to +himself, and each felt that he had done what in him lay to +prevent the possible ill effect of the mischance. As for the +boat, Harry was too happy to think that none of his friends were +hurt to care much about that. + +As they walked across the lawn Mrs. Woodward ran out to them. 'My +dear, dear Charley,' she said, 'what am I to say to thank you?' +It was the first time Mrs. Woodward had ever called him by his +Christian name. It had hitherto made him in a certain degree +unhappy that she never did so, and now the sound was very +pleasant to him. + +'Oh, Mrs. Woodward,' said he, laughing, 'you mustn't touch me, +for I'm all mud.' + +'My dear, dear Charley, what can I say to you? and dear Harry, I +fear we've spoilt your beautiful new boat.' + +'I fear we've spoilt Katie's beautiful new hat,' said Norman. + +Mrs. Woodward had taken and pressed a hand of each of them, in +spite of Charley's protestations about the mud. + +'Oh! you're in a dreadful state,' said she; 'you had better take +something at once; you'll catch your death of cold.' + +'I'd better take myself off to the inn,' said Charley, 'and get +some clean clothes; that's all I want. But how is Katie--and how +is Linda?' + +And so, after a multitude of such inquiries on both sides, and of +all manner of affectionate greetings, Charley went off to make +himself dry, preparatory to the reading of the manuscript. + +During his absence, Linda and Katie came down to the drawing- +room. Linda was full of fun as to her journey with the bargeman; +but Katie was a little paler than usual, and somewhat more +serious and quiet than she was wont to be. + +Norman was the first in the drawing-room, and received the thanks +of the ladies for his prowess in assisting them; and Charley was +not slow to follow him, for he was never very long at his toilet. +He came in with a jaunty laughing air, as though nothing +particular had happened, and as if he had not a care in the +world. And yet while he had been dressing he had been thinking +almost more than ever of Norah Geraghty. O that she, and Mrs. +Davis with her, and Jabesh M'Ruen with both of them, could be +buried ten fathom deep out of his sight, and out of his mind! + +When he entered the room, Katie felt her heart beat so strongly +that she hardly knew how to thank him for saving her life. A year +ago she would have got up and kissed him innocently; but a year +makes a great difference. She could not do that now, so she gave +him her little hand, and held his till he came and sat down at +his place at the table. + +'Oh, Charley, I don't know what to say to you,' said she; and he +could see and feel that her whole body was shaking with emotion. + +'Then I'll tell you what to say: 'Charley, here is your tea, and +some bread, and some butter, and some jam, and some muffin,' for +I'll tell you what, my evening bath has made me as hungry as a +hunter. I hope it has done the same to you.' + +Katie, still holding his hand, looked up into his face, and he +saw that her eyes were suffused with tears. She then left his +side, and, running round the room, filled a plate with all the +things he had asked for, and, bringing them to him, again took +her place beside him. 'I wish I knew how to do more than that,' +said she. + +'I suppose, Charley, you'll have to make an entry about that +barge on Monday morning, won't you?' said Linda. 'Mind you put in +it how beautiful I looked sailing through the arch.' + + 'Yes, and how very gallant the bargeman was,' said Norman. + +'Yes, and how much you enjoyed the idea of going down the river +with him, while, we came back to the Cottage,' said Charley. +'We'll put it all down at the Navigation, and old Snape shall +make a special minute about it.' + +Katie drank her tea in silence, and tried to eat, though without +much success. When chatting voices and jokes were to be heard at +the Cottage, the sound of her voice was usually the foremost; but +now she sat demure and quiet. She was realizing the danger from +which she had escaped, and, as is so often the case, was +beginning to fear it now that it was over. + +'Ah, Katie, my bonny bird,' said her mother, seeing that she was +not herself, and knowing that the excitement and overpowering +feelings of gratitude were too much for her-come here; you should +be in bed, my foolish little puss, should you not?' + +'Indeed, she should,' said Uncle Bat, who was somewhat hard- +hearted about the affair of the accident, and had been cruel +enough, after hearing an account of it, to declare that it was +all Katie's fault. + +'Indeed, she should; and if she had gone to bed a little earlier +in the evening it would have been all the better for Master +Norman's boat.' + +'Oh! mamma, don't send me to bed,' said she, with tears in her +eyes. 'Pray don't send me to bed now; I'm quite well, only I +can't talk because I'm thinking of what Charley did for me;' and +so saying she got up, and, hiding her face on her mother's +shoulder, burst into tears. + +'My dearest child,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'I'm afraid you'll make +yourself ill. We'll put off the reading, won't we, Charley? We +have done enough for one evening.' + +'Of course we will,' said he. 'Reading a stupid story will be +very slow work after all we've gone through today.' + +'No, no, no,' said Katie; 'it shan't be put off; there won't be +any other time for hearing it. And, mamma it must be read; and I +know it won't be stupid. Oh; mamma, dear mamma, do let us hear it +read; I'm quite well now.' + +Mrs. Woodward found herself obliged to give way. She had not the +heart to bid her daughter go away to bed, nor, had she done so, +would it have been of any avail. Katie would only have lain and +sobbed in her own room, and very probably have gone into +hysterics. The best thing for her was to try to turn the current +of her thoughts, and thus by degrees tame down her excited +feelings. + +'Well, darling, then we will have the story, if Charley will let +us. Go and fetch it, dearest.' Katie raised herself from her +mother's bosom, and, going across the room, fetched the roll of +papers to Charley. As he prepared to take it she took his hand in +hers, and, bending her head over it, tenderly kissed it. 'You +mustn't think,' said she, 'that because I say nothing, I don't +know what it is that you've done for me; but I don't know how to +say it.' + +Charley was at any rate as ignorant what he ought to say as Katie +was. He felt the pressure of her warm lips on his hand, and +hardly knew where he was. He felt that he blushed and looked +abashed, and dreaded, fearfully dreaded, lest Mrs. Woodward +should surmise that he estimated at other than its intended +worth, her daughter's show of affection for him. + +'I shouldn't mind doing it every night,' said he, 'in such +weather as this. I think it rather good fun going into the water +with my clothes on.' Katie looked up at him through her tears, as +though she would say that she well understood what that meant. + +Mrs. Woodward saw that if the story was to be read, the sooner +they began it the better. + +'Come, Charley,' said she, 'now for the romance. Katie, come and +sit by me.' But Katie had already taken her seat, a little behind +Charley, quite in the shade, and she was not to be moved. + +'But I won't read it myself,' said Charley; 'you must read it, +Mrs. Woodward.' + +'O yes, Mrs. Woodward, you are to read it,' said Norman. + +'O yes, do read it, manna,' said Linda. + +Katie said nothing, but she would have preferred that Charley +should have read it himself. + +'Well, if I can,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Snape says I write the worst hand in all Somerset House,' said +Charley; 'but still I think you'll be able to manage it.' + +'I hate that Mr. Snape,' said Katie, _sotto voce_. And then +Mrs. Woodward unrolled the manuscript and began her task. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR; OR, MY AUNT'S WILL + + +'Well, Linda was right,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'it does begin with +poetry.' + +'It's only a song,' said Charley, apologetically--'and after all +there is only one verse of that'--and then Mrs. Woodward began + +"CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR." + +'Ladies and gentlemen, that is the name of Mr. Charles Tudor's +new novel.' + +'Crinoline and Macassar!' said Uncle Bat. 'Are they intended for +human beings' names?' + +'They are the heroine and the hero, as I take it,' said Mrs. +Woodward, 'and I presume them to be human, unless they turn out +to be celestial.' + +'I never heard such names in my life,' said the captain. + +'At any rate, uncle, they are as good as Sir Jib Boom and Captain +Hardaport,' said Katie, pertly. + +'We won't mind about that,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I'm going to +begin, and I beg I may not be interrupted.' + +"CRINOLINE AND MACASSAR." + +"The lovely Crinoline was sitting alone at a lattice window on a +summer morning, and as she sat she sang with melancholy cadence +the first part of the now celebrated song which had then lately +appeared, from the distinguished pen of Sir G-- H--," + +'Who is Sir G-- H--, Charley?' + +'Oh, it wouldn't do for me to tell that,' said Charley. 'That +must be left to the tact and intelligence of my readers.' + +'Oh, very well,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'we will abstain from all +impertinent questions'--'from the distinguished pen of Sir G-- H--. +The ditty which she sang ran as follows:-- + + My heart's at my office, my heart is always there-- + My heart's at my office, docketing with care; + Docketing the papers, and copying all day, + My heart's at my office, though I be far away. + +"'Ah me!' said the Lady Crinoline--" + +'What--is she a peer's daughter?' said Uncle Bat. + +'Not exactly,' said Charley, 'it's only a sort of semi-poetic way +one has of speaking of one's heroine.' + +"'Ah me!' said the Lady Crinoline--' his heart! his heart!--I +wonder whether he has got a heart;' and then she sang again in +low plaintive voice the first line of the song, suiting the +cadence to her own case:-- + + His heart is at his office, his heart is _always_ there. + +"'It was evident that the Lady Crinoline did not repeat the words +in the feeling of their great author, who when he wrote them had +intended to excite to high deeds of exalted merit that portion of +the British youth which is employed in the Civil Service of the +country. + +"Crinoline laid down her lute--it was in fact an accordion--and +gazing listlessly over the rails of the balcony, looked out at +the green foliage which adorned the enclosure of the square +below. + +"It was Tavistock Square. The winds of March and the showers of +April had been successful in producing the buds of May." + +'Ah, Charley, that's taken from the old song,' said Katie, 'only +you've put buds instead of flowers.' + +'That's quite allowable,' said Mrs. Woodward--"successful in +producing the buds of May. The sparrows chirped sweetly on the +house-top, and the coming summer gladdened the hearts of all--of +all except poor Crinoline. + +"'I wonder whether he has a heart, said she; 'and if he has, I +wonder whether it is at his office.' + +"As she thus soliloquized, the door was opened by a youthful +page, on whose well-formed breast, buttons seemed to grow like +mushrooms in the meadows in August. + +"'Mr. Macassar Jones,' said the page; and having so said, he +discreetly disappeared. He was in his line of life a valuable +member of society. He had brought from his last place a +twelvemonth's character that was creditable alike to his head and +heart; he was now found to be a trustworthy assistant in the +household of the Lady Crinoline's mother, and was the delight of +his aged parents, to whom he regularly remitted no inconsiderable +portion of his wages. Let it always be remembered that the life +even of a page may be glorious. All honour to the true and +brave!" + +'Goodness, Charley--how very moral you are!' said Linda. + +'Yes,' said he; 'that's indispensable. It's the intention of the +_Daily Delight_ always to hold up a career of virtue to the +lower orders as the thing that pays. Honesty, high wages, and hot +dinners. Those are our principles.' + +'You'll have a deal to do before you'll bring the lower orders to +agree with you,' said Uncle Bat. + +'We have a deal to do,' said Charley, 'and we'll do it. The power +of the cheap press is unbounded.' + +"As the page closed the door, a light, low, melancholy step was +heard to make its way across the drawing-room. Crinoline's heart +had given one start when she had heard the announcement of the +well-known name. She had once glanced with eager inquiring eye +towards the door. But not in vain to her had an excellent mother +taught the proprieties of elegant life. Long before Macassar +Jones was present in the chamber she had snatched up the tambour- +frame that lay beside her, and when he entered she was zealously +engaged on the fox's head that was to ornament the toe of a left- +foot slipper. Who shall dare to say that those slippers were +intended to grace the feet of Macassar Jones?" + +'But I suppose they were,' said Katie. + +'You must wait and see,' said her mother; 'for my part I am not +at all so sure of that.' + +'Oh, but I know they must be; for she's in love with him,' said +Katie. + +"'Oh, Mr. Macassar,' said the Lady Crinoline, when he had drawn +nigh to her, 'and how are you to-day?' This mention of his +Christian name betrayed no undue familiarity, as the two families +were intimate, and Macassar had four elder brothers. 'I am so +sorry mamma is not at home; she will regret not seeing you +amazingly.' + +"Macassar had his hat in his hand, and he stood a while gazing at +the fox in the pattern. 'Won't you sit down?' said Crinoline. + +"'Is it very dusty in the street to-day?' asked Crinoline; and as +she spoke she turned upon him a face wreathed in the sweetest +smiles, radiant with elegant courtesy, and altogether expressive +of extreme gentility, unsullied propriety, and a very high tone +of female education. 'Is it very dusty in the street to-day?' + +"Charmed by the involuntary grace of her action, Macassar essayed +to turn his head towards her as he replied; he could not turn it +much, for he wore an all-rounder; but still he was enabled by a +side glance to see more of that finished elegance than was +perhaps good for his peace of mind. + +"'Yes,' said he, 'it is dusty;--it certainly is dusty, rather;-- +but not very--and then in most streets they've got the water- +carts.' + +"'Ah, I love those water-carts!' said Crinoline; 'the dust, you +know, is so trying.' + +"'To the complexion?' suggested Macassar, again looking round as +best he might over the bulwark of his collar. + +"Crinoline laughed slightly; it was perhaps hardly more than a +simper, and turning her lovely eyes from her work, she said, +'Well, to the complexion, if you will. What would you gentlemen +say if we ladies were to be careless of our complexions?' + +"Macassar merely sighed gently--perhaps he had no fitting answer; +perhaps his heart was too full for him to answer. He sat with his +eye fixed on his hat, which still dangled in his hand; but his +mind's eye was far away. + +"'Is it in his office?' thought Crinoline to herself; 'or is it +here? Is it anywhere?' + +"'Have you learnt the song I sent you? said he at last, waking, +as it were, from a trance. + +"'Not yet,' said she--'that is, not quite; that is, I could not +sing it before strangers yet.' + +"'Strangers!' said Macassar; and he looked at her again with an +energy that produced results not beneficial either to his neck or +his collar. + +"Crinoline was delighted at this expression of feeling. 'At any +rate it is somewhere,' said she to herself; 'and it can hardly be +all at his office.' + +"'Well, I will not say strangers,' she said out loud; 'it sounds +--it sounds--I don't know how it sounds. But what I mean is, that +as yet I've only sung it before mamma!'" + +'I declare I don't know which is the biggest fool of the two,' +said Uncle Bat, very rudely.' As for him, if I had him on the +forecastle of a man-of-war for a day or two, I'd soon teach him +to speak out.' + +'You forget, sir,' said Charley,' he's not a sailor, he's only +in the Civil Service; we're all very bashful in the Civil +Service.' + +'I think he is rather spooney, I must say,' said Katie; whereupon +Mrs. Woodward went on reading. + +"'It's a sweet thing, isn't it?' said Macassar. + +"'Oh, very!' said Crinoline, with a rapturous expression which +pervaded her whole head and shoulders as well as her face and +bust--'very sweet, and so new.' + +"'It quite comes home to me,' said Macassar, and he sighed +deeply. + +"'Then it is at his office,' said Crinoline to herself; and she +sighed also. + +"They both sat silent for a while, looking into the square-- +Crinoline was at one window, and Macassar at the other: 'I must +go now,' said he: 'I promised to be back at three.' + +"'Back where?' said she. + +"'At my office,' said he. + +"Crinoline sighed. After all, it was at his office; it was too +evident that it was there, and nowhere else. Well, and why should +it not be there? why should not Macassar Jones be true to his +duty and to his country? What had she to do with his heart? Why +should she wish it elsewhere? 'Twas thus she tried to console +herself, but in vain. Had she had an office of her own it might +perhaps have been different; but Crinoline was only a woman; and +often she sighed over the degradation of her lot. + +"'Good morning, Miss Crinoline,' said he. + +"'Good morning, Mr. Macassar,' said she; 'mamma will so regret +that she has lost the pleasure of seeing you.' + +"And then she rung the bell. Macassar went downstairs perhaps +somewhat slower, with perhaps more of melancholy than when he +entered. The page opened the hall-door with alacrity, and shut it +behind him with a slam. + +"All honour to the true and brave! + +"Crinoline again took up the note of her sorrow, and with her +lute in her hand, she warbled forth the line which stuck like a +thorn in her sweet bosom:-- + +His heart is in his office--his heart IS ALWAYS _there_." + +'There,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'that's the end of the first +chapter.' + +'Well, I like the page the best,' said Linda, 'because he seems +to know what he is about.' + +'Oh, so does the lady,' said Charley; 'but it wouldn't at all do +if we made the hero and heroine go about their work like humdrum +people. You'll see that the Lady Crinoline knows very well what's +what.' + +'Oh, Charley, pray don't tell us,' said Katie; 'I do so like Mr. +Macassar, he is so spooney; pray go on, mamma.' + +'I'm ready,' said Mrs. Woodward, again taking up the manuscript. + +"CHAPTER II + +"The lovely Crinoline was the only daughter of fond parents; and +though they were not what might be called extremely wealthy, +considering the vast incomes of some residents in the metropolis, +and were not perhaps wont to mix in the highest circles of the +Belgravian aristocracy, yet she was enabled to dress in all the +elegance of fashion, and contrived to see a good deal of that +society which moves in the highly respectable neighbourhood of +Russell Square and Gower Street. + +"Her dresses were made at the distinguished establishment of +Madame Mantalini, in Hanover Square; at least she was in the +habit of getting one dress there every other season, and this was +quite sufficient among her friends to give her a reputation for +dealing in the proper quarter. Once she had got a bonnet direct +from Paris, which gave her ample opportunity of expressing a +frequent opinion not favourable to the fabricators of a British +article. She always took care that her shoes had within them the +name of a French cordonnier; and her gloves were made to order in +the Rue Du Bac, though usually bought and paid for in Tottenham +Court Road." + +'What a false creature!' said Linda. + +'False!' said Charley; 'and how is a girl to get along if she be +not false? What girl could live for a moment before the world if +she were to tell the whole truth about the get-up of her +wardrobe--the patchings and make-believes, the chipped ribbons +and turned silks, the little bills here, and the little bills +there? How else is an allowance of £20 a year to be made +compatible with an appearance of unlimited income? How else are +young men to be taught to think that in an affair of dress money +is a matter of no moment whatsoever?' + +'Oh, Charley, Charley, don't be slanderous,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I only repeat what the editor says to me--I know nothing about +it myself. Only we are requested 'to hold the mirror up to +nature,'--and to art too, I believe. We are to set these things +right, you know.' + +'We--who are we?' said Katie. + +'Why, the _Daily Delight_,' said Charley. + +'But I hope there's nothing false in patching and turning,' said +Mrs. Woodward; 'for if there be, I'm the falsest woman alive. + + To gar the auld claes look amaist as weel's the new + +is, I thought, one of the most legitimate objects of a woman's +diligence.' + +'It all depends on the spirit of the stitches,' said Charley the +censor. + +'Well, I must say I don't like mending up old clothes a bit +better than Charley does,' said Katie; 'but pray go on, mamma;' +so Mrs. Woodward continued to read. + +"On the day of Macassar's visit in Tavistock Square, Crinoline +was dressed in a most elegant morning costume. It was a very +light barege muslin, extremely full; and which, as she had +assured her friend, Miss Manasseh, of Keppel Street, had been +sent home from the establishment in Hanover Square only the day +before. I am aware that Miss Manasseh instantly propagated an +ill-natured report that she had seen the identical dress in a +milliner's room up two pairs back in Store Street; but then Miss +Manasseh was known to be envious; and had moreover seen twelve +seasons out in those localities, whereas the fair Crinoline, +young thing, had graced Tavistock Square only for two years; and +her mother was ready to swear that she had never passed the +nursery door till she came there. The ground of the dress was a +light pea-green, and the pattern was ivy wreaths entwined with +pansies and tulips--each flounce showed a separate wreath--and +there were nine flounces, the highest of which fairy circles was +about three inches below the smallest waist that ever was tightly +girded in steel and whalebone. + +"Macassar had once declared, in a moment of ecstatic energy, that +a small waist was the chiefest grace in woman. How often had the +Lady Crinoline's maid, when in the extreme agony of her labour, +put a malediction on his name on account of this speech! + +"It is unnecessary to speak of the drapery of the arms, which +showed the elaborate lace of the sleeve beneath, and sometimes +also the pearly whiteness of that rounded arm. This was a sight +which would almost drive Macassar to distraction. At such moments +as that the hopes of the patriotic poet for the good of the Civil +Service were not strictly fulfilled in the heart of Macassar +Jones. Oh, if the Lady Crinoline could but have known! + +"It is unnecessary also to describe the strange and hidden +mechanism of that mysterious petticoat which gave such full +dimensions, such ample sweeping proportions to the _tout +ensemble_ of the lady's appearance. It is unnecessary, and +would perhaps be improper, and as far as I am concerned, is +certainly impossible." + +Here Charley blushed, as Mrs. Woodward looked at him from over +the top of the paper. + +"Let it suffice to say that she could envelop a sofa without the +slightest effort, throw her draperies a yard and a half from her +on either side without any appearance of stretching, completely +fill a carriage; or, which was more frequently her fate, entangle +herself all but inextricably in a cab. + +"A word, however, must be said of those little feet that peeped +out now and again so beautifully from beneath the artistic +constructions above alluded to-of the feet, or perhaps rather of +the shoes. But yet, what can be said of them successfully? That +French name so correctly spelt, so elaborately accented, so +beautifully finished in gold letters, which from their form, +however, one would say that the _cordonnier_ must have imported +from England, was only visible to those favoured knights who were +occasionally permitted to carry the shoes home in their pockets. + +"But a word must be said about the hair dressed _à +l'imperatrice_, redolent of the sweetest patchouli, disclosing +all the glories of that ingenuous, but perhaps too open brow. A +word must be said; but, alas! how inefficacious to do justice to +the ingenuity so wonderfully displayed! The hair of the Lady +Crinoline was perhaps more lovely than abundant: to produce that +glorious effect, that effect which has now symbolized among +English lasses the head-dress _à l'imperatrice_ as the one +idea of feminine beauty, every hair was called on to give its +separate aid. As is the case with so many of us who are anxious +to put our best foot foremost, everything was abstracted from the +rear in order to create a show in the front. Then to complete the +garniture of the head, to make all perfect, to leave no point of +escape for the susceptible admirer of modern beauty, some dorsal +appendage was necessary of mornings as well as in the more fully +bedizened period of evening society. + +"Everything about the sweet Crinoline was wont to be green. It is +the sweetest and most innocent of colours; but, alas! a colour +dangerous for the heart's ease of youthful beauty. Hanging from +the back of her head were to be seen moss and fennel, and various +grasses--rye grass and timothy, trefoil and cinquefoil, vetches, +and clover, and here and there young fern. A story was told, but +doubtless false, as it was traced to the mouth of Miss Manasseh, +that once while Crinoline was reclining in a paddock at Richmond, +having escaped with the young Macassar from the heat of a +neighbouring drawing-room, a cow had attempted to feed from her +head." + +'Oh, Charley, a cow!' said Katie. + +'Well, but you see I don't give it as true,' said Charley. + +'I shall never get it done if Katie won't hold her tongue,' said +Mrs. Woodward. + +"But perhaps it was when at the seaside in September, at +Broadstairs, Herne Bay, or Dover, Crinoline and her mamma +invigorated themselves with the sea-breezes of the ocean--perhaps +it was there that she was enabled to assume that covering for her +head in which her soul most delighted. It was a Tom and Jerry hat +turned up at the sides, with a short but knowing feather, velvet +trimmings, and a steel buckle blinking brightly in the noonday +sun. Had Macassar seen her in this he would have yielded himself +her captive at once, quarter or no quarter. It was the most +marked, and perhaps the most attractive peculiarity of the Lady +Crinoline's face, that the end of her nose was a little turned +up. This charm, in unison with the upturned edges of her cruel- +hearted hat, was found by many men to be invincible. + +"We all know how dreadful is the spectacle of a Saracen's head, +as it appears, or did appear, painted on a huge board at the top +of Snow Hill. From that we are left to surmise with what +tremendous audacity of countenance, with what terror-striking +preparations of the outward man, an Eastern army is led to +battle. Can any men so fearfully bold in appearance ever turn +their backs and fly? They look as though they could destroy by +the glance of their ferocious eyes. Who could withstand the +hirsute horrors of those fiery faces? + +"There is just such audacity, a courage of a similar description, +perhaps we may say an equal invincibility, in the charms of those +Tom and Jerry hats when duly put on, over a face of the proper +description--over such a face as that of the Lady Crinoline. They +give to the wearer an appearance of concentration of pluck. But +as the Eastern array does quail before the quiet valour of +Europe, so, we may perhaps say, does the open, quick audacity of +the Tom and Jerry tend to less powerful results than the modest +enduring patience of the bonnet." + +'So ends the second chapter--bravo, Charley,' said Mrs. Woodward. +'In the name of the British female public, I beg to thank you for +your exertions.' + +'The editor said I was to write down turned-up hats,' said +Charley. 'I rather like them myself.' + +'I hope my new slouch is not an audacious Saracen's head,' said +Linda. + +'Or mine,' said Katie. 'But you may say what you like about them +now; for mine is drowned.' + +'Come, girls, there are four more chapters, I see. Let me finish +it, and then we can discuss it afterwards.' + +"CHAPTER III + +"Having thus described the Lady Crinoline----" + +'You haven't described her at all,' said Linda; 'you haven't got +beyond her clothes yet.' + +'There is nothing beyond them,' said Charley. + +'You haven't even described her face,' said Katie; 'you have only +said that she had a turned-up nose.' + +'There is nothing further that one can say about it,' said +Charley. + +"Having thus described the Lady Crinoline,' continued Mrs. +Woodward, 'it now becomes our duty, as impartial historians, to +give some account of Mr. Macassar Jones. + +"We are not prepared to give the exact name of the artist by whom +Mr. Macassar Jones was turned out to the world so perfectly +dressed a man. Were we to do so, the signal service done to one +establishment by such an advertisement would draw down on us the +anger of the trade at large, and the tailors of London would be +in league against the _Daily Delight_. It is sufficient to +remark that the artist's offices are not a hundred miles from +Pall Mall. Nor need we expressly name the bootmaker to whom is +confided the task of making those feet 'small by degrees and +beautifully less.' The process, we understand, has been painful, +but the effect is no doubt remunerative. + +"In three especial walks of dress has Macassar Jones been more +than ordinarily careful to create a sensation; and we believe we +may assert that he has been successful in all. We have already +alluded to his feet. Ascending from them, and ascending not far, +we come to his coat. It is needless to say that it is a frock; +needless to say that it is a long frock--long as those usually +worn by younger infants, and apparently made so for the same +purpose. But look at the exquisitely small proportions of the +collar; look at the grace of the long sleeves, the length of +back, the propriety, the innate respectability, the perfect +decorum--we had almost said the high moral worth--of the whole. +Who would not willingly sacrifice any individual existence that +he might become the exponent of such a coat? Macassar Jones was +proud to do so. + +"But he had bestowed perhaps the greatest amount of personal +attention on his collar. It was a matter more within his own +grasp than those great and important articles to which attention +has been already drawn; but one, nevertheless, on which he was +able to expend the whole amount of his energy and genius. Some +people may think that an all-rounder is an all-rounder, and that +if one is careful to get an all-rounder one has done all that is +necessary. But so thought not Macassar Jones. Some men wear +collars of two plies of linen, some men of three; but Macassar +Jones wore collars of four plies. Some men--some sensual, self- +indulgent men--appear to think that the collar should be made for +the neck; but Macassar Jones knew better. He, who never spared +him self when the cause was good, he knew that the neck had been +made for the collar--it was at any rate evident that such was the +case with his own. Little can be said of his head, except that it +was small, narrow, and genteel; but his hat might be spoken of, +and perhaps with advantage. Of the loose but studied tie of his +inch-wide cravat a paragraph might be made; but we would fain not +be tedious. + +"We will only further remark that he always carried with him a +wonderful representation of himself, like to him to a miracle, +only smaller in its dimensions, like as a duodecimo is to a +folio--a babe, as it were, of his own begetting--a little +_alter ego_ in which he took much delight. It was his umbrella. +Look at the delicate finish of its lower extremity; look at the long, +narrow, and well-made coat in which it is enveloped from its neck +downwards, without speck, or blemish, or wrinkle; look at the little +wooden head, nicely polished, with the effigy of a human face on +one side of it--little eyes it has, and a sort of nose; look closer at it, +and you will perceive a mouth, not expressive indeed, but still it is +there--a mouth and chin; and is it, or is it not, an attempt at a pair +of whiskers? It certainly has a moustache. + +"Such were Mr. Macassar Jones and his umbrella. He was an +excellent clerk, and did great credit to the important office to +which he was attached--namely, that of the Episcopal Audit Board. +He was much beloved by the other gentlemen who were closely +connected with him in that establishment; and may be said, for +the first year or two of his service, to have been, not exactly +the life and soul, but, we may perhaps say with more propriety, +the pervading genius of the room in which he sat. + +"But, alas! at length a cloud came over his brow. At first it was +but a changing shadow; but it settled into a dark veil of sorrow +which obscured all his virtues, and made the worthy senior of his +room shake his thin grey locks once and again. He shook them more +in sorrow than in anger; for he knew that Macassar was in love, +and he remembered the days of his youth. Yes; Macassar was in +love. He had seen the lovely Crinoline. To see was to admire; to +admire was to love; to love--that is, to love her, to love +Crinoline, the exalted, the sought-after, the one so much in +demand, as he had once expressed himself to one of his bosom +friends--to love her was to despair. He did despair; and +despairing sighed, and sighing was idle. + +"But he was not all idle. The genius of the man had that within +it which did not permit itself to evaporate in mere sighs. Sighs, +with the high-minded, force themselves into the guise of poetry, +and so it had been with him. He got leave of absence for a week, +and shut himself up alone in his lodgings; for a week in his +lodgings, during the long evenings of winter, did he remain +unseen and unheard of. His landlady thought that he was in debt, +and his friends whispered abroad that he had caught scarlatina. +But at the end of the seven days he came forth, pale indeed, but +with his countenance lighted up by ecstatic fire, and as he +started for his office, he carefully folded and put into his +pocket the elegantly written poem on which he had been so +intently engaged." + +'I'm so glad we are to have more poetry,' said Katie. 'Is it +another song?' + +'You'll see,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +"Macassar had many bosom friends at his office, to all of whom, +one by one, he had confided the tale of his love. For a while he +doubted to which of them he should confide the secret of his +inspiration; but genius will not hide its head under a bushel; +and thus, before long, did Macassar's song become the common +property of the Episcopal Audit Board. Even the Bishops sang it, +so Macassar was assured by one of his brother clerks who was made +of a coarser clay than his colleague--even the Bishops sang it +when they met in council together on their own peculiar bench. + +"It would be useless to give the whole of it here; for it +contained ten verses. The last two were those which Macassar was +wont to sing to himself, as he wandered lonely under the elms of +Kensington Gardens. + + "'Oh, how she walks, + And how she talks, + And sings like a bird serene; + But of this be sure + While the world shall endure, + The loveliest lady that'll ever be seen + Will still be the Lady Crinoline, + The lovely Lady Crinoline. + +With her hair done all _à l'impératrice_, + Sweetly done with the best of grease, + She looks like a Goddess or Queen,-- + And so I declare, + And solemnly swear, + That the loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is still the Lady Crinoline, + The lovely Lady Crinoline.'" + +'And so ends the third chapter,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +Both Katie and Linda were beginning to criticize, but Mrs. +Woodward repressed them sternly, and went on with + +"CHAPTER IV + +"'It was a lovely day towards the end of May that Macassar Jones, +presenting himself before the desk of the senior clerk at one +o'clock, begged for permission to be absent for two hours. The +request was preferred with meek and hesitating voice, and with +downcast eyes. + +"The senior clerk shook his grey locks sadly! sadly he shook his +thin grey locks, for he grieved at the sight which he saw. 'Twas +sad to see the energies of this young man thus sapped in his +early youth by the all-absorbing strength of a hopeless passion. +Crinoline was now, as it were, a household word at the Episcopal +Audit Board. The senior clerk believed her to be cruel, and as he +knew for what object these two hours of idleness were requested, +he shook his thin grey locks in sorrow. + +"'I'll be back at three, sir, punctual,' said Macassar. + +"'But, Mr. Jones, you are absent nearly every day for the same +period.' + +"'To-day shall be the last; to-day shall end it all,' said +Macassar, with a look of wretched desperation. + +"'What--what would Sir Gregory say?' said the senior clerk. + +"Macassar Jones sighed deeply. Nature had not made the senior +clerk a cruel man; but yet this allusion _was_ cruel. The +young Macassar had drunk deeply of the waters that welled from +the fountain of Sir Gregory's philosophy. He had been proud to +sit humbly at the feet of such a Gamaliel; and now it rent his +young heart to be thus twitted with the displeasure of the great +master whom he so loved and so admired. + +"'Well, go, Mr. Jones,' said the senior clerk, 'go, but as you +go, resolve that to-morrow you will remain at your desk. Now go, +and may prosperity attend you!' + +"'All shall be decided to-day,' said Macassar, and as he spoke an +unusual spark gleamed in his eye. He went, and as he went the +senior clerk shook his thin grey hairs. He was a bachelor, and he +distrusted the charms of the sex. + +"Macassar, returning to his desk, took up his hat and his +umbrella, and went forth. His indeed was a plight at which that +old senior clerk might well shake his thin grey hairs in sorrow, +for Macassar was the victim of mysterious circumstances, which, +from his youth upwards, had marked him out for a fate of no +ordinary nature. The tale must now be told." + +'O dear!' said Linda; 'is it something horrid?' + +'I hope it is,' said Katie; 'perhaps he's already married to some +old hag or witch.' + +'You don't say who his father and mother are; but I suppose he'll +turn out to be somebody else's son,' said Linda. + +'He's a very nice young man for a small tea-party, at any rate,' +said Uncle Bat. + +"The tale must now be told," continued Mrs. Woodward. "In his +early years Macassar Jones had had a maiden aunt. This lady died--" + +'Oh, mamma, if you read it in that way I shall certainly cry,' +said Katie. + +'Well, my dear, if your heart is so susceptible you had better +indulge it.' "This lady died and left behind her----" + +'What?' said Linda. + +'A diamond ring?' said Katie. + +'A sealed manuscript, which was found in a secret drawer?' +suggested Linda. + +'Perhaps a baby,' said Uncle Bat. + +"And left behind her a will----" + +'Did she leave anything else?' asked Norman. + +'Ladies and gentlemen, if I am to be interrupted in this way, I +really must resign my task,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'we shall never +get to bed.' + +'I won't say another word,' said Katie. + +"In his early years Macassar had had a maiden aunt. This lady +died and left behind her a will, in which, with many expressions +of the warmest affection and fullest confidence, she left £3,000 +in the three per cents----" + +'What are the three per cents?' said Katie. + +'The three per cents is a way in which people get some of their +money to spend regularly, when they have got a large sum locked +up somewhere,' said Linda. + +'Oh!' said Katie. + +'Will you hold your tongue, miss?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +"Left £3,000 in the three per cents to her nephew. But she left +it on these conditions, that he should be married before he was +twenty-five, and that he should have a child lawfully born in the +bonds of wedlock before he was twenty-six. And then the will went +on to state that the interest of the money should accumulate till +Macassar had attained the latter age; and that in the event of +his having failed to comply with the conditions and stipulations +above named, the whole money, principal and interest, should be +set aside, and by no means given up to the said Macassar, but +applied to the uses, purposes, and convenience of that excellent +charitable institution, denominated the Princess Charlotte's +Lying-in Hospital. + +"Now the nature of this will had been told in confidence by +Macassar to some of his brother clerks, and was consequently well +known at the Episcopal Audit Board. It had given rise there to a +spirit of speculation against which the senior clerk had +protested in vain. Bets were made, some in favour of Macassar, +and some in that of the hospital; but of late the odds were going +much against our hero. It was well known that in three short +months he would attain that disastrous age, which, if it found +him a bachelor, would find him also denuded of his legacy. And +then how short a margin remained for the second event! The odds +were daily rising against Macassar, and as he heard the bets +offered and taken at the surrounding desks, his heart quailed +within him. + +"And the lovely Crinoline, she also had heard of this eccentric +will; she and her mother. £3,000 with interest arising for some +half score of years would make a settlement by no means +despicable in Tavistock Square, and would enable Macassar to +maintain a house over which even Crinoline need not be ashamed to +preside. But what if the legacy should be lost! She also knew to +a day what was the age of her swain; she knew how close upon her +was that day, which, if she passed it unwedded, would see her +resolved to be deaf for ever to the vows of Macassar. Still, if +she managed well, there might be time--at any rate for the +marriage. + +"But, alas! Macassar made no vows; none at least which the most +attentive ear could consider to be audible. Crinoline's ear was +attentive, but hitherto in vain. He would come there daily to +Tavistock Square; daily would that true and valiant page lay open +the path to his mistress's feet; daily would Macassar sit there +for a while and sigh. But the envious hour would pass away, while +the wished-for word was still unsaid; and he would hurry back, +and complete with figures, too often erroneous, the audit of some +diocesan balance. + +"'You must help him, my dear,' said Crinoline's mamma. + +"'But he says nothing, mamma,' said Crinoline in tears. + +"'You must encourage him to speak, my dear.' + +"'I do encourage him; but by that time it is always three +o'clock, and then he has to go away.' + +"'You should be quicker, my dear. You should encourage him more +at once. Now try to-day; if you can't do anything to-day I really +must get your papa to interfere.' + +"Crinoline had ever been an obedient child, and now, as ever, she +determined to obey. But it was a hard task for her. In three +months he would be twenty-five--in fifteen months twenty-six. +She, however, would do her best; and then, if her efforts were +unavailing, she could only trust to Providence and her papa. + +"With sad and anxious heart did Macassar that day take up his new +silk hat, take up also his darling umbrella, and descend the +sombre steps of the Episcopal Audit Office. 'Seven to one on the +Lying-in,' were the last words which reached his ears as the door +of his room closed behind him. His was a dreadful position. What +if that sweet girl, that angel whom he so worshipped, what if +she, melted by his tale of sorrow--that is, if he could prevail +on himself to tell it--should take pity, and consent to be +hurried prematurely to the altar of Hymen; and then if, after +all, the legacy should be forfeited! Poverty for himself he could +endure; at least he thought so; but poverty for her! could he +bear that? What if he should live to see her deprived of that +green headdress, robbed of those copious draperies, reduced to +English shoes, compelled to desert that shrine in Hanover Square, +and all through him! His brain reeled round, his head swam, his +temples throbbed, his knees knocked against each other, his blood +stagnated, his heart collapsed, a cold clammy perspiration +covered him from head to foot; he could hardly reach the +courtyard, and there obtain the support of a pillar. Dreadful +thoughts filled his mind; the Thames, the friendly Thames, was +running close to him; should he not put a speedy end to all his +misery? Those horrid words, that 'seven to one on the Lying-in,' +still rang in his ears; were the chances really seven to one +against his getting his legacy? 'Oh!' said he, 'my aunt, my aunt, +my aunt, my aunt, my aunt!' + +"But at last he roused the spirit of the man within him. 'Faint +heart never won fair lady,' seemed to be whispered to him from +every stone in Somerset House. The cool air blowing through the +passages revived him, and he walked forth through the wide +portals, resolving that he would return a happy, thriving lover, +or that he would return no more--that night. What would he care +for Sir Gregory, what for the thin locks of the senior clerk, if +Crinoline should reject him? + +"It was his custom, as he walked towards Tavistock Square, to +stop at a friendly pastry-cook's in Covent Garden, and revive his +spirits for the coming interview with Banbury tarts and cherry- +brandy. In the moments of his misery something about the pastry- +cook's girl, something that reminded him of Crinoline, it was +probably her nose, had tempted him to confide to her his love. He +had told her everything; the kind young creature pitied him, and +as she ministered to his wants, was wont to ask sweetly as to his +passion. + +"'And how was the lovely Lady Crinoline yesterday?' asked she. He +had entrusted to her a copy of his poem. + +"'More beauteous than ever,' he said, but somewhat indistinctly, +for his mouth was clogged with the Banbury tart. + +"'And good-natured, I hope. Indeed, I don't know how she can +resist,' said the girl; 'I'm sure you'll make it all right to- +day, for I see you've got your winning way with you.' + +"Winning way, with seven to one against him! Macassar sighed, and +spilt some of his cherry-brandy over his shirt front. The kind- +hearted girl came and wiped it for him. 'I think I'll have +another glass,' said he, with a deep voice. He did take another +glass--and also ate another tart. + +"'He'll pop to-day as sure as eggs, now he's taken them two +glasses of popping powder,' said the girl, as he went out of the +shop. 'Well, it's astonishing to me what the men find to be +afraid of.' + +"And so Macassar hastened towards Tavistock Square, all too +quickly; for, as he made his way across Great Russell Street, he +found that he was very hot. He leant against the rail, and, +taking off his hat and gloves, began to cool himself, and wipe +away the dust with his pocket-handkerchief. 'I wouldn't have +minded the expense of a cab,' said he to himself, 'only the +chances are so much against me: seven to one!' + +"But he had no time to lose. He had had but two precious hours at +his disposal, and thirty minutes were already gone. He hurried on +to Tavistock Square, and soon found that well-known door open +before him. + +"'The Lady Crinoline sits upstairs alone,' said the page, 'and is +a-thinking of you.' Then he added in a whisper, 'Do you go at her +straight, Mr. Macassar; slip-slap, and no mistake.' + +"All honour to the true and brave! + +"CHAPTER V + +"As Macassar walked across the drawing-room, Crinoline failed to +perceive his presence, although his boots did creak rather +loudly. Such at least must be presumed to have been the case, for +she made no immediate sign of having noticed him. She was sitting +at the open window, with her lute in hand, gazing into the +vacancy of the square below; and as Macassar walked across the +room, a deep sigh escaped from her bosom. The page closed the +door, and at the same moment Crinoline touched her lute, or +rather pulled it at the top and bottom, and threw one wild witch +note to the wind. As she did so, a line of a song escaped from +her lips with a low, melancholy, but still rapturous cadence-- + + 'His heart is at his office, his heart is _always_ there.' + +"'Oh, Mr. Macassar, is that you?' she exclaimed. She struggled to +rise, but, finding herself unequal to the effort, she sank back +again on a chair, dropped her lute on a soft footstool, and then +buried her face in her hands. It was dreadful for Macassar to +witness such agony. + +"'Is anything the matter?' said he. + +"'The matter!' said she. 'Ah! ah!' + +"'I hope you are not sick?' said he. + +"'Sick!' said she. 'Well, I fear I am very sick.' + +"'What is it?' said he. 'Perhaps only bilious,' he suggested. + +"'Oh! oh! oh!' said she. + +"'I see I'm in the way; and I think I had better go,' and so he +prepared to depart. 'No! no! no!' said she, jumping up from her +chair. 'Oh! Mr. Macassar, don't be so cruel. Do you wish to see +me sink on the carpet before your feet?' + +"Macassar denied the existence of any such wish; and said that he +humbly begged her pardon if he gave any offence. + +"'Offence!' said she, smiling sweetly on him; sweetly, but yet +sadly. 'Offence! no--no offence. Indeed, I don't know how you +could--but never mind--I am such a silly thing. One's feelings +will sometimes get the better of one; don't you often find it +so?' + +"'O yes! quite so,' said Macassar. 'I think it's the heat.' + +"'He's a downright noodle,' said Crinoline's mamma to her sister- +in-law, who lived with them. The two were standing behind a chink +in the door, which separated the drawing-room from a chamber +behind it. + +"'Won't you sit down, Mr. Macassar?' Macassar sat down. 'Mamma +will be so sorry to miss you again. She's calling somewhere in +Grosvenor Square, I believe. She wanted me to go with her; but I +could not bring myself to go with her to-day. It's useless for +the body to go out, when the heart still remains at home. Don't +you find it so?' + +"'Oh, quite so,' said Macassar. The cherry-brandy had already +evaporated before the blaze of all that beauty, and he was +bethinking himself how he might best take himself off. Let the +hospital have the filthy lucre! He would let the money go, and +would show the world that he loved for the sake of love alone! He +looked at his watch, and found that it was already past two. + +"Crinoline, when she saw that watch, knew that something must be +done at once. She appreciated more fully than her lover did +the value of this world's goods; and much as she doubtless +sympathized with the wants of the hospital in question, she felt +that charity should begin at home. So she fairly burst out into a +flood of tears. + +"Macassar was quite beside himself. He had seen her weep before, +but never with such frightful violence. She rushed up from her +chair, and passing so close to him as nearly to upset him by the +waft of her petticoats, threw herself on to an ottoman, and +hiding her face on the stump in the middle of it, sobbed and +screeched, till Macassar feared that the buttons behind her dress +would crack and fly off. + +"'Oh! oh! oh!' sobbed Crinoline. + +"'It must be the heat,' said Macassar, knocking down a flower-pot +in his attempt to open the window a little wider. 'O dear, what +have I done?' said he. 'I think I'd better go.' + +"'Never mind the flower-pot,' said Crinoline, looking up through +her tears. 'Oh! oh! oh! oh! me. Oh! my heart.' + +"Macassar looked at his watch. He had only forty-five minutes +left for everything. The expense of a cab would, to be sure, be +nothing if he were successful; but then, what chance was there of +that? + +"'Can I do anything for you in the Strand?' said he. 'I must be +at my office at three.' + +"'In the Strand!' she screeched. 'What could he do for me in the +Strand? Heartless--heartless--heartless! Well, go--go--go to your +office, Mr. Macassar; your heart is there, I know. It is always +there. Go--don't let me stand between you and your duties-- +between you and Sir Gregory. Oh! how I hate that man! Go! why +should I wish to prevent you? Of course I have no such wish. To +me it is quite indifferent; only, mamma will be so sorry to miss +you. You don't know how mamma loves you. She loves you almost as +a son. But go--go; pray go!' + +"And then Crinoline looked at him. Oh! how she looked at him! It +was as though all the goddesses of heaven were inviting him to +come and eat ambrosia with them on a rosy-tinted cloud. All the +goddesses, did we say? No, but one goddess, the most beautiful of +them all. His heart beat violently against his ribs, and he felt +that he was almost man enough for anything. Instinctively his +hand went again to his waistcoat pocket. + +"'You shan't look at your watch so often,' said she, putting up +her delicate hand and stopping his. 'There, I'll look at it for +you. It's only just two, and you needn't go to your office for +this hour;' and as she squeezed it back into his pocket, he felt +her fingers pressing against his heart, and felt her hair--done +all _à l'impératrice_--in sweet contact with his cheek. 'There, +I shall hold it there,' said she, 'so that you shan't look at it again.' + +"'Will you stay till I bid you go?' said Crinoline. + +"Macassar declared that he did not care a straw for the senior +clerk, or for Sir Gregory either. He would stay there for ever, +he said. + +"'What! for ever in mamma's drawing-room?' said Crinoline, +opening wide her lovely eyes with surprise. + +"'For ever near to you,' said Macassar. + +"'Oh, Mr. Macassar,' said Crinoline, dropping her hand from his +waistcoat, and looking bashfully towards the ground, 'what can +you mean?' + +"Down went Macassar on his knees, and down went Crinoline into +her chair. There was perhaps rather too much distance between +them, but that did not much matter now. There he was on both +knees, with his hands clasped together as they were wont to be +when he said his prayers, with his umbrella beside him on one +side, and his hat on the other, making his declaration in full +and unmistakable terms. A yard or two of floor, more or less, +between them, was neither here nor there. At first the bashful +Crinoline could not bring herself to utter a distinct consent, +and Macassar was very nearly up and away, in a returning fit of +despair. But her good-nature came to his aid; and as she quickly +said, 'I will, I will, I will,' he returned to his posture in +somewhat nearer quarters, and was transported into the seventh +heaven by the bliss of kissing her hand. + +"'Oh, Macassar!' said she. + +"'Oh, Crinoline!' said he. + +"'You must come and tell papa to-morrow,' said she. + +"He readily promised to do so. + +"'You had better come to breakfast; before he goes into the +city,' said she. + +"And so the matter was arranged, and the lovely Lady Crinoline +became the affianced bride of the happy Macassar. + +"It was past three when he left the house, but what did he care +for that? He was so mad with joy that he did not even know +whither he was going. He went on straight ahead, and came to no +check, till he found himself waving his hat over his head in the +New Road. He then began to conceive that his conduct must have +been rather wild, for he was brought to a stand-still in a +crossing by four or five cabmen, who were rival candidates for +his custom. + +"'Somerset House, old brick!' he shouted out, as he jumped into a +hansom, and as he did so he poked one of the other cabbies +playfully in the ribs with his umbrella. + +"'Is mamma don't know as 'ow 'e's hout, I shouldn't vonder,' said +the cabman--and away went Macassar, singing at the top of his +voice as he sat in the cab-- + + 'The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is the lovely Lady Crinoline.' + +"The cab passed through Covent Garden on its way. 'Stop at the +pastry-cook's at the corner,' said Macassar up through the little +trap-door. The cab drew up suddenly. 'She's mine, she's mine!' +shouted Macassar, rushing into the shop, and disregarding in the +ecstasy of the moment the various customers who were quietly +eating their ices. 'She's mine, she's mine! + + With her hair done all _á l'impératrice_, + Sweetly done with the best of grease. + +And now for Somerset House.' + +"Arrived at those ancient portals, he recklessly threw +eighteenpence to the cabman, and ran up the stone stairs which +led to his office. As he did so the clock, with iron tongue, +tolled four. But what recked he what it tolled? He rushed into +his room, where his colleagues were now locking their desks, and +waving abroad his hat and his umbrella, repeated the chorus of +his song. 'She's mine, she's mine-- + + The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is the lovely Lady Crinoline; + +and she's mine, she's mine!' + +"Exhausted nature could no more. He sank into a chair, and his +brother clerks stood in a circle around him. Soon a spirit of +triumph seemed to actuate them all; they joined hands in that +friendly circle, and dancing with joyful glee, took up with one +voice the burden of the song-- + + 'Oh how she walks, + And how she talks, + And sings like a bird serene, + But of this be sure, + While the world shall endure, + The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is still the Lady Crinoline-- + The lovely Lady Crinoline.' + +"And that old senior clerk with the thin grey hair--was he angry +at this general ebullition of joy? O no! The just severity of his +discipline was always tempered with genial mercy. Not a word did +he say of that broken promise, not a word of the unchecked +diocesan balance, not a word of Sir Gregory's anger. He shook his +thin grey locks; but he shook them neither in sorrow nor in +anger. 'God bless you, Macassar Jones,', said he, 'God bless +you!' + +"He too had once been young, had once loved, had once hoped and +feared, and hoped again, and had once knelt at the feet of +beauty. But alas! he had knelt in vain. + +"'May God be with you, Macassar Jones,' said he, as he walked out +of the office door with his coloured bandana pressed to his eyes. +'May God be with you, and make your bed fruitful!' + + "'For the loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is the lovely Lady Crinoline,' + +shouted the junior clerks, still dancing in mad glee round the +happy lover. + +"We have said that they all joined in this kindly congratulation +to their young friend. But no. There was one spirit there whom +envy had soured, one whom the happiness of another had made +miserable, one whose heart beat in no unison with these jocund +sounds. As Macassar's joy was at its height, in the proud moment +of his triumph, a hated voice struck his ears, and filled his +soul with dismay once more. + +"'There's two to one still on the Lying-in,' said this hateful +Lucifer. + +"And so Macassar was not all happy even yet, as he walked home to +his lodgings. + +"CHAPTER VI + +"We have but one other scene to record, but one short scene, and +then our tale will be told and our task will be done. And this +last scene shall not, after the usual manner of novelists, be +that of the wedding, but rather one which in our eyes is of a +much more enduring interest. Crinoline and Macassar were duly +married in Bloomsbury Church. The dresses are said to have come +from the house in Hanover Square. Crinoline behaved herself with +perfect propriety, and Macassar went through his work like a man. +When we have said that, we have said all that need be said on +that subject. + +"But we must beg our readers to pass over the space of the next +twelve months, and to be present with us in that front sitting- +room of the elegant private lodgings, which the married couple +now prudently occupied in Alfred Place. Lodgings! yes, they were +only lodgings; for not as yet did they know what might be the +extent of their income. + +"In this room during the whole of a long autumn day sat Macassar +in a frame of mind not altogether to be envied. During the +greater portion of it he was alone; but ever and anon some +bustling woman would enter and depart without even deigning to +notice the questions which he asked. And then after a while he +found himself in company with a very respectable gentleman in +black, who belonged to the medical profession. 'Is it coming?' +asked Macassar. 'Is it, is it coming?' + +"'Well, we hope so--we hope so,' said the medical gentleman. 'If +not to-day, it will be to-morrow. If I should happen to be +absent, Mrs. Gamp is all that you could desire. If not to-day, it +will certainly be to-morrow,'--and so the medical gentleman went +his way. + +"Now the coming morrow would be Macassar's birthday. On that +morrow he would be twenty-six. + +"All alone he sat there till the autumn sun gave way to the +shades of evening. Some one brought him a mutton chop, but it was +raw and he could not eat; he went to the sideboard and prepared +to make himself a glass of negus, but the water was all cold. His +water at least was cold, though Mrs. Gamp's was hot enough. It +was a sad and mournful evening. He thought he would go out, for +he found that he was not wanted; but a low drizzling rain +prevented him. Had he got wet he could not have changed his +clothes, for they were all in the wardrobe in his wife's room. +All alone he sat till the shades of evening were hidden by the +veil of night. + +"But what sudden noise is that he hears within the house? Why do +those heavy steps press so rapidly against the stairs? What feet +are they which are so busy in the room above him? He opens the +sitting-room door, but he can see nothing. He has been left there +without a candle. He peers up the stairs, but a faint glimmer of +light shining through the keyhole of his wife's door is all that +meets his eye. 'Oh, my aunt! my aunt!' he says as he leans +against the banisters. 'My aunt, my aunt, my aunt!' + +"What a birthday will this be for him on the morrow! He already +hears the sound of the hospital bells as they ring with joy at +the acquisition of their new wealth; he must dash from his lips, +tear from his heart, banish for ever from his eyes, that vision +of a sweet little cottage at Brompton, with a charming dressing- +room for himself, and gas laid on all over the house. + +"'Lodgings! I hate, I detest lodgings!' he said to himself. +'Connubial bliss and furnished lodgings are not compatible. My +aunt, my aunt, for what misery hast thou not to answer! Oh, Mrs. +Gamp, could you be so obliging as to tell me what o'clock it is?' +The last question was asked as Mrs. Gamp suddenly entered the +room with a candle. Macassar's watch had been required for the +use of one of the servants. + +"'It's just half-past heleven, this wery moment as is,' said Mrs. +Gamp; 'and the finest boy babby as my heyes, which has seen a +many, has ever sat upon.' + +"Up, up to the ceiling went the horsehair cushion of the lodging- +house sofa--up went the footstool after it, and its four wooden +legs in falling made a terrible clatter on the mahogany loo- +table. Macassar in his joy got hold of Mrs. Gamp, and kissed her +heartily, forgetful of the fumes of gin. 'Hurrah!' shouted he,' +hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! Oh, Mrs. Gamp, I feel so--so--so--I +really don't know how I feel.' + +"He danced round the room with noisy joy, till Mrs. Gamp made him +understand how very unsuited were such riotous ebullitions to the +weak state of his lady-love upstairs. He then gave over, not the +dancing but the noise, and went on capering round the room with +suppressed steps, ever and anon singing to himself in a whisper, + + 'The loveliest lady that ever was seen + Is still the Lady Crinoline.' + +"A few minutes afterwards a knock at the door was heard, and the +monthly nurse entered. She held something in her embrace; but he +could not see what. He looked down pryingly into her arms, and at +the first glance thought that it was his umbrella. But then he +heard a little pipe, and he knew that it was his child. + +"We will not intrude further on the first interview between +Macassar and his heir." + + + * * * * * + + +'And so ends the romantic history of "Crinoline and Macassar",' +said Mrs. Woodward; 'and I am sure, Charley, we are all very much +obliged to you for the excellent moral lessons you have given +us.' + +'I'm so delighted with it,' said Katie; 'I do so like that +Macassar.' + +'So do I,' said Linda, yawning; 'and the old man with the thin +grey hair.' + +'Come, girls, it's nearly one o'clock, and we'll go to bed,' said +the mother. 'Uncle Bat has been asleep these two hours.' + +And so they went off to their respective chambers. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SURBITON COLLOQUIES + + +All further conversation in the drawing-room was forbidden for +that night. Mrs. Woodward would have willingly postponed the +reading of Charley's story so as to enable Katie to go to bed +after the accident, had she been able to do so. But she was not +able to do so without an exercise of a species of authority which +was distasteful to her, and which was very seldom heard, seen, or +felt within the limits of Surbiton Cottage. It would moreover +have been very ungracious to snub Charley's manuscript, just when +Charley had made himself such a hero; and she had, therefore, +been obliged to read it. But now that it was done, she hurried +Katie off to bed, not without many admonitions. + +'Good night,' she said to Charley; 'and God bless you, and make +you always as happy as we are now. What a household we should +have had to-night, had it not been for you!' + +Charley rubbed his eyes with his hand, and muttered something +about there not having been the slightest danger in the world. + +'And remember, Charley,' she said, paying no attention to his +mutterings, 'we always liked you--liked you very much; but liking +and loving are very different things. Now you are a dear, dear +friend--one of the dearest.' + +In answer to this, Charley was not even able to mutter; so he +went his way to the inn, and lay awake half the night thinking +how Katie had kissed his hand: during the other half he dreamt, +first that Katie was drowned, and then that Norah was his bride. + +Linda and Katie had been so hurried off, that they had only been +just able to shake hands with Harry and Charley. There is, +however, an old proverb, that though one man may lead a horse to +water, a thousand cannot make him drink. It was easy to send +Katie to bed, but very difficult to prevent her talking when she +was there. + +'Oh, Linda,' she said, 'what can I do for him?' + +'Do for him?' said Linda; 'I don't know that you can do anything +for him. I don't suppose he wants you to do anything.' Linda +still looked on her sister as a child; but Katie was beginning to +put away childish things. + +'Couldn't I make something for him, Linda--something for him to +keep as a present, you know? I would work so hard to get it +done.' + +'Work a pair of slippers, as Crinoline did,' said Linda. + +Katie was brushing her hair at the moment, and then she sat still +with the brush in her hand, thinking. 'No,' said she, after a +while, 'not a pair of slippers--I shouldn't like a pair of +slippers.' + +'Why not?' said Linda. + +'Oh--I don't know--but I shouldn't.' Katie had said that +Crinoline was working slippers for Macassar because she was in +love with him; and having said so, she could not now work +slippers for Charley. Poor Katie! she was no longer a child when +she thought thus. + +'Then make him a purse,' said Linda. + +'A purse is such a little thing.' + +'Then work him the cover for a sofa, like what mamma and I are +doing for Gertrude.' + +'But he hasn't got a house,' said Katie. + +'He'll have a house by the time you've done the sofa, and a wife +to sit on it too.' + +'Oh, Linda, you are so ill-natured.' + +'Why, child, what do you want me to say? If you were to give him +one of those grand long tobacco pipes they have in the shop +windows, that's what he'd like the best; or something of that +sort. I don't think he cares much for girls' presents, such as +purses and slippers.' + +'Doesn't he?' said Katie, mournfully. + +'No; not a bit. You know he's such a rake.' + +'Oh! Linda; I don't think he's so very bad, indeed I don't; and +mamma doesn't think so; and you know Harry said on Easter Sunday +that he was much better than he used to be.' + +'I know Harry is very good-natured to him.' + +'And isn't Charley just as good-natured to Harry? I am quite sure +he is. Harry has only to ask the least thing, and Charley always +does it. Do you remember how Charley went up to town for him the +Sunday before last?' + +'And so he ought,' said Linda. 'He ought to do whatever Harry +tells him.' + +'Well, Linda, I don't know why he ought,' said Katie. 'They are +not brothers, you know, nor yet even cousins.' + +'But Harry is very--so very--so very superior, you know,' said +Linda. + +'I don't know any such thing,' said Katie. + +'Oh! Katie, don't you know that Charley is such a rake?' + +'But rakes are just the people who don't do whatever they are +told; so that's no reason. And I am quite sure that Charley is +much the cleverer.' + +'And I am quite sure he is not--nor half so clever; nor nearly so +well educated. Why, don't you know the navvies are the most +ignorant young men in London? Charley says so himself.' + +'That's his fun,' said Katie: 'besides, he always makes little of +himself. I am quite sure Harry could never have made all that +about Macassar and Crinoline out of his own head.' + +'No! because he doesn't think of such nonsensical things. I +declare, Miss Katie, I think you are in love with Master +Charley.' + +Katie, who was still sitting at the dressing-table, blushed up to +her forehead; and at the same time her eyes were suffused with +tears. But there was no one to see either of those tell-tale +symptoms, for Linda was in bed. + +'I know he saved my life,' said Katie, as soon as she could trust +herself to speak without betraying her emotion--'I know he +jumped into the river after me, and very, very nearly drowned +himself; and I don't think any other man in the world would have +done so much for me besides him.' + +'Oh, Katie! Harry would in a moment.' + +'Not for me; perhaps he might for you--though I'm not quite sure +that he would.' It was thus that Katie took her revenge on her +sister. + +'I'm quite sure he would for anybody, even for Sally.' Sally was +an assistant in the back kitchen. 'But I don't mean to say, +Katie, that you shouldn't feel grateful to Charley; of course you +should.' + +'And so I do,' said Katie, now bursting out into tears, overdone +by her emotion and fatigue; 'and so I do--and I do love him, and +will love him, if he's ever so much a rake! But you know, Linda, +that is very different from being in love; and it was very ill- +natured of you to say so, very.' + +Linda was out of bed in a trice, and sitting with her arm round +her sister's neck. + +'Why, you darling little foolish child, you! I was only +quizzing,' said she. 'Don't you know that I love Charley too?' + +'But you shouldn't quiz about such a thing as that. If you'd +fallen into the river, and Harry had pulled you out, then you'd +know what I mean; but I'm not at all sure that he could have done +it.' + +Katie's perverse wickedness on this point was very nearly giving +rise to another contest between the sisters. Linda's common +sense, however, prevailed, and giving up the point of Harry's +prowess, she succeeded at last in getting Katie into bed. 'You +know mamma will be so angry if she hears us,' said Linda, 'and I +am sure you will be ill to-morrow.' + +'I don't care a bit about being ill to-tomorrow; and yet I do +too,' she added, after a pause, 'for it's Sunday. It would be so +stupid not to be able to go out to-morrow.' + +'Well, then, try to go to sleep at once'--and Linda carefully +tucked the clothes around her sister. + +'I think it shall be a purse,' said Katie. + +'A purse will certainly be the best; that is, if you don't like +the slippers,' and Linda rolled herself up comfortably in the +bed. + +'No--I don't like the slippers at all. It shall be a purse. I can +do that the quickest, you know. It's so stupid to give a thing +when everything about it is forgotten, isn't it?' + +'Very stupid,' said Linda, nearly asleep. + +'And when it's worn out I can make another, can't I?' + +'H'm'm'm,' said Linda, quite asleep. + +And then Katie went asleep also, in her sister's arms. + +Early in the morning--that is to say, not very early, perhaps +between seven and eight--Mrs. Woodward came into their room, and +having inspected her charges, desired that Katie should not get +up for morning church, but lie in bed till the middle of the day. + +'Oh, mamma, it will be so stupid not going to church after +tumbling into the river; people will say that all my clothes are +wet.' + +'People will about tell the truth as to some of them,' said Mrs. +Woodward; 'but don't you mind about people, but lie still and go +to sleep if you can. Linda, do you come and dress in my room.' + +'And is Charley to lie in bed too?' said Katie. 'He was in the +river longer than I was.' + +'It's too late to keep Charley in bed,' said Linda, 'for I see +him coming along the road now with a towel; he's been bathing.' + +'Oh, I do so wish I could go and bathe,' said Katie. + +Poor Katie was kept in bed till the afternoon. Charley and Harry, +however, were allowed to come up to her bedroom door, and hear +her pronounce herself quite well. + +'How d'ye do, Mr. Macassar?' said she. + +'And how d'ye do, my Lady Crinoline?' said Harry. After that +Katie never called Charley Mr. Macassar again. + +They all went to church, and Katie was left to sleep or read, or +think of the new purse that she was to make, as best she might. + +And then they dined, and then they walked out; but still without +Katie. She was to get up and dress while they were out, so as to +receive them in state in the drawing-room on their return. Four +of them walked together; for Uncle Bat now usually took himself +off to his friend at Hampton Court on Sunday afternoon. Mrs. +Woodward walked with Charley, and Harry and Linda paired +together. + +'Now,' said Charley to himself, 'now would have been the time to +have told Mrs. Woodward everything, but for that accident of +yesterday. Now I can tell her nothing; to do so now would be to +demand her sympathy and to ask for assistance;' and so he +determined to tell her nothing. + +But the very cause which made Charley dumb on the subject of his +own distresses made Mrs. Woodward inquisitive about them. She +knew that his life was not like that of Harry--steady, sober, and +discreet; but she felt that she did not like him, or even love +him the less on this account. Nay, it was not clear to her that +these failings of his did not give him additional claims on her +sympathies. What could she do for him? how could she relieve him? +how could she bring him back to the right way? She spoke to him +of his London life, praised his talents, encouraged him to +exertion, besought him to have some solicitude, and, above all, +some respect for himself. And then, with that delicacy which such +a woman, and none but such a woman, can use in such a matter, she +asked him whether he was still in debt. + +Charley, with shame we must own it, had on this subject been +false to all his friends. He had been false to his father and his +mother, and had never owned to them the half of what he owed; he +had been false to Alaric, and false to Harry; but now, now, at +such a moment as this, he would not allow himself to be false to +Mrs. Woodward. + +'Yes,' he said, 'he was in debt--rather.' + +Mrs. Woodward pressed him to say whether his debts were heavy-- +whether he owed much. + +'It's no use thinking of it, Mrs. Woodward,' said he; 'not the +least. I know I ought not to come down here; and I don't think I +will any more.' + +'Not come down here!' said Mrs. Woodward. 'Why not? There's very +little expense in that. I dare say you'd spend quite as much in +London.' + +'Oh--of course--three times as much, perhaps; that is, if I had +it--but I don't mean that.' + +'What do you mean?' said she. + +Charley walked on in silence, with melancholy look, very +crestfallen, his thumbs stuck into his waistcoat pockets. + +'Upon my word I don't know what you mean,' said Mrs. Woodward. 'I +should have thought coming to Hampton might perhaps--perhaps have +kept you--I don't exactly mean out of mischief.' That, however, +in spite of her denial, was exactly what Mrs. Woodward did mean. + +'So it does--but--' said Charley, now thoroughly ashamed of +himself. + +'But what?' said she. + +'I am not fit to be here,' said Charley; and as he spoke his +manly self-control all gave way, and big tears rolled down his +cheeks. + +Mrs. Woodward, in her woman's heart, resolved, that if it might +in any way be possible, she would make him fit, fit not only to +be there, but to hold his head up with the best in any company in +which he might find himself. + +She questioned him no further then. Her wish now was not to +torment him further, but to comfort him. She determined that she +would consult with Harry and with her uncle, and take counsel +from them as to what steps might be taken to save the brand from +the burning. She talked to him as a mother might have done, +leaning on his arm, as she returned; leaning on him as a woman +never leans on a man whom she deems unfit for her society. All +this Charley's heart and instinct fully understood, and he was +not ungrateful. + +But yet he had but little to comfort him. He must return to town +on Monday; return to Mr. Snape and the lock entries, to Mr. +M'Ruen and the three Seasons--to Mrs. Davis, Norah Geraghty, and +that horrid Mr. Peppermint. He never once thought of Clementina +Golightly, to whom at that moment he was being married by the +joint energies of Undy Scott and his cousin Alaric. + +And what had Linda and Norman been doing all this time? Had they +been placing mutual confidence in each other? No; they had not +come to that yet. Linda still remembered the pang with which she +had first heard of Gertrude's engagement, and Harry Norman had +not yet been able to open his seared heart to a second love. + +In the course of the evening a letter was brought to Captain +Cuttwater, which did not seem to raise his spirits. + +'Whom is your letter from, uncle?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'From Alaric,' said he, gruffly, crumpling it up and putting it +into his pocket. And then he turned to his rum and water in a +manner that showed his determination to say nothing more on the +matter. + +In the morning Harry and Charley returned to town. Captain +Cuttwater went up with them; and all was again quiet at Surbiton +Cottage. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MR. M'BUFFER ACCEPTS THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS + + +It was an anxious hour for the Honourable Undecimus Scott when he +first learnt that Mr. M'Buffer had accepted the Stewardship of +the Chiltern Hundreds. The Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds! +Does it never occur to anyone how many persons are appointed to +that valuable situation? Or does anyone ever reflect why a Member +of Parliament, when he wishes to resign his post of honour, +should not be simply gazetted in the newspapers as having done +so, instead of being named as the new Steward of the Chiltern +Hundreds? No one ever does think of it; resigning and becoming a +steward are one and the same thing, with this difference, +however, that one of the grand bulwarks of the British constitution +is thus preserved. + +Well, Mr. M'Buffer, who, having been elected by the independent +electors of the Tillietudlem burghs to serve them in Parliament, +could not, in accordance with the laws of the constitution, have +got himself out of that honourable but difficult position by any +scheme of his own, found himself on a sudden a free man, the +Queen having selected him to be her steward for the district in +question. We have no doubt but that the deed of appointment set +forth that her Majesty had been moved to this step by the firm +trust she had in the skill and fidelity of the said Mr. M'Buffer; +but if so her Majesty's trust would seem to have been somewhat +misplaced, as Mr. M'Buffer, having been a managing director of a +bankrupt swindle, from which he had contrived to pillage some +thirty or forty thousand pounds, was now unable to show his face +at Tillietudlem, or in the House of Commons; and in thus +retreating from his membership had no object but to save +himself from the expulsion which he feared. It was, however, a +consolation for him to think that in what he had done the +bulwarks of the British constitution had been preserved. + +It was an anxious moment for Undy. The existing Parliament had +still a year and a half, or possibly two years and a half, to +run. He had already been withdrawn from the public eye longer +than he thought was suitable to the success of his career. He +particularly disliked obscurity for he had found that in his case +obscurity had meant comparative poverty. An obscure man, as he +observed early in life, had nothing to sell. Now, Undy had once +had something to sell, and a very good market he had made of it. +He was of course anxious that those halcyon days should return. +Fond of him as the electors of Tillietudlem no doubt were, +devoted as they might be in a general way to his interests still, +still it was possible that they might forget him, if he remained +too long away from their embraces. 'Out of sight out of mind' is +a proverb which opens to us the worst side of human nature. But +even at Tillietudlem nature's worst side might sometimes show +itself. + +Actuated by such feelings as these, Undy heard with joy the +tidings of M'Buffer's stewardship, and determined to rush to the +battle at once. Battle he knew there must be. To be brought in +for the district of Tillietudlem was a prize which had never yet +fallen to any man's lot without a contest. Tillietudlem was no +poor pocket borough to be disposed of, this way or that way, +according to the caprice or venal call of some aristocrat. The +men of Tillietudlem knew the value of their votes, and would only +give them according to their consciences. The way to win these +consciences, to overcome the sensitive doubts of a free and +independent Tillietudlem elector, Undy knew to his cost. + +It was almost a question, as he once told Alaric, whether all +that he could sell was worth all that he was compelled to buy. +But having put his neck to the collar in this line of life, he +was not now going to withdraw. Tillietudlem was once more vacant, +and Undy determined to try it again, undaunted by former outlays. +To make an outlay, however, at any rate, in electioneering +matters, it is necessary that a man should have in hand some +ready cash; at the present moment Undy had very little, and +therefore the news of Mr. M'Buffer's retirement to the German +baths for his health was not heard with unalloyed delight. + +He first went into the city, as men always do when they want +money; though in what portion of the city they find it, has never +come to the author's knowledge. Charley Tudor, to be sure, did +get £5 by going to the 'Banks of Jordan;' but the supply likely +to be derived from such a fountain as that would hardly be +sufficient for Undy's wants. Having done what he could in the +city, he came to Alaric, and prayed for the assistance of all his +friend's energies in the matter. Alaric would not have been, and +was not unwilling to assist him to the extent of his own +immediate means; but his own immediate means were limited, and +Undy's desire for ready cash was almost unlimited. + +There was a certain railway or proposed railway in Ireland, in +which Undy had ventured very deeply, more so indeed than he had +deemed it quite prudent to divulge to his friend; and in order to +gain certain ends he had induced Alaric to become a director of +this line. The line in question was the Great West Cork, which +was to run from Skibbereen to Bantry, and the momentous question +now hotly debated before the Railway Board was on the moot point +of a branch to Ballydehob. If Undy could carry the West Cork and +Ballydehob branch entire, he would make a pretty thing of it; but +if, as there was too much reason to fear, his Irish foes should +prevail, and leave--as Undy had once said in an eloquent speech +at a very influential meeting of shareholders--and leave the +unfortunate agricultural and commercial interest of Ballydehob +steeped in Cimmerian darkness, the chances were that poor Undy +would be well nigh ruined. + +Such being the case, he had striven, not unsuccessfully, to draw +Alaric into the concern. Alaric had bought very cheaply a good +many shares, which many people said were worth nothing, and had, +by dint of Undy's machinations, been chosen a director on the +board. Undy himself meanwhile lay by, hoping that fortune might +restore him to Parliament, and haply put him on that committee +which must finally adjudicate as to the great question of the +Ballydehob branch. + +Such were the circumstances under which he came to Alaric with +the view of raising such a sum of money as might enable him to +overcome the scruples of the Tillietudlem electors, and place +himself in the shoes lately vacated by Mr. M'Buffer. + +They were sitting together after dinner when he commenced the +subject. He and Mrs. Val and Clementina had done the Tudors the +honour of dining with them; and the ladies had now gone up into +the drawing-room, and were busy talking over the Chiswick affair, +which was to come off in the next week, and after which Mrs. Val +intended to give a small evening party to the most _élite_ +of her acquaintance. + +'We won't have all the world, my dear,' she had said to Gertrude, +'but just a few of our own set that are really nice. Clementina +is dying to try that new back step with M. Jaquêtanàpe, so we +won't crowd the room.' Such were the immediate arrangements of +the Tudor and Scott party. + +'So M'Buffer is off at last,' said Scott, as he seated himself +and filled his glass, after closing the dining-room door. 'He +brought his pigs to a bad market after all.' + +'He was an infernal rogue,' said Alaric. + +'Well, I suppose he was,' said Undy; 'and a fool into the bargain +to be found out.' + +'He was a downright swindler,' said Alaric. + +'After all,' said the other, not paying much attention to +Alaric's indignation, 'he did not do so very badly. Why, M'Buffer +has been at it now for thirteen years. He began with nothing; he +had neither blood nor money; and God knows he had no social +merits to recommend him. He is as vulgar as a hog, as awkward as +an elephant, and as ugly as an ape. I believe he never had a +friend, and was known at his club to be the greatest bore that +ever came out of Scotland; and yet for thirteen years he has +lived on the fat of the land; for five years he has been in +Parliament, his wife has gone about in her carriage, and every +man in the city has been willing to shake hands with him.' + +'And what has it all come to?' said Alaric, whom the question of +M'Buffer's temporary prosperity made rather thoughtful. + +'Well, not so bad either; he has had his fling for thirteen +years, and that's something. Thirteen good years out of a man's +life is more than falls to the lot of every one. And then, I +suppose, he has saved something.' + +'And he is spoken of everywhere as a monster for whom hanging is +too good.' + +'Pshaw! that won't hang him. Yesterday he was a god; to-day he is +a devil; to-morrow he'll be a man again; that's all.' + +'But you don't mean to tell me, Undy, that the consciousness of +such crimes as those which M'Buffer has committed must not make a +man wretched in this world, and probably in the next also?' + +'Judge not, and ye shall not be judged,' said Undy, quoting +Scripture as the devil did before him; 'and as for consciousness +of crime, I suppose M'Buffer has none at all. I have no doubt he +thinks himself quite as honest as the rest of the world. He +firmly believes that all of us are playing the same game, and +using the same means, and has no idea whatever that dishonesty is +objectionable.' + +'And you, what do you think about it yourself?' + +'I think the greatest rogues are they who talk most of their +honesty; and, therefore, as I wish to be thought honest myself, I +never talk of my own.' + +They both sat silent for a while, Undy bethinking himself what +arguments would be most efficacious towards inducing Alaric to +strip himself of every available shilling that he had; and Alaric +debating in his own mind that great question which he so often +debated, as to whether men, men of the world, the great and best +men whom he saw around him, really endeavoured to be honest, or +endeavoured only to seem so. Honesty was preached to him on every +side; but did he, in his intercourse with the world, find men to +be honest? Or did it behove him, a practical man like him, a man +so determined to battle with the world as he had determined, did +it behove such a one as he to be more honest than his neighbours? + +He also encouraged himself by that mystic word, 'Excelsior!' To +him it was a watchword of battle, repeated morning, noon, and +night. It was the prevailing idea of his life. 'Excelsior'! Yes; +how great, how grand, how all-absorbing is the idea! But what if +a man may be going down, down to Tophet, and yet think the while +that he is scaling the walls of heaven? + +'But you wish to think yourself honest,' he said, disturbing Undy +just as that hero had determined on the way in which he would +play his present hand of cards. + +'I have not the slightest difficulty about that,' said Undy; 'and +I dare say you have none either. But as to M'Buffer, his going +will be a great thing for us, if, as I don't doubt, I can get his +seat.' + +'It will be a great thing for you,' said Alaric, who, as well as +Undy, had his Parliamentary ambition. + +'And for you too, my boy. We should carry the Ballydehob branch +to a dead certainty; and even if we did not do that, we'd bring +it so near it that the expectation of it would send the shares up +like mercury in fine weather. They are at £2 12s. 6d. now, and, +if I am in the House next Session, they'll be up to £7 10s. +before Easter; and what's more, my dear fellow, if we can't help +ourselves in that way, they'll be worth nothing in a very few +months.' + +Alaric looked rather blank; for he had invested deeply in this +line, of which he was now a director, of a week's standing, or +perhaps we should say sitting. He had sold out all his golden +hopes in the Wheal Mary Jane for the sake of embarking his money +and becoming a director in this Irish Railway, and in one other +speculation nearer home, of which Undy had a great opinion, viz.: +the Limehouse Thames Bridge Company. Such being the case, he did +not like to hear the West Cork with the Ballydehob branch spoken +of so slightingly. + +'The fact is, a man can do anything if he is in the House, and he +can do nothing if he is not,' said Undy. 'You know our old +Aberdeen saying, 'You scratch me and I'll scratch you.' It is not +only what a man may do himself for himself, but it is what others +will do for him when he is in a position to help them. Now, there +are those fellows; I am hand-and-glove with all of them; but +there is not one of them would lift a finger to help me as I am +now; but let me get my seat again, and they'll do for me just +anything I ask them. Vigil moves the new writ to-night; I got a +line from him asking me whether I was ready. There was no good to +be got by waiting, so I told him to fire away.' + +'I suppose you'll go down at once?' said Alaric. + +'Well, that as may be--at least, yes; that's my intention. But +there's one thing needful--and that is the needful.' + +'Money?' suggested Alaric. + +'Yes, money--cash--rhino--tin--ready--or by what other name the +goddess would be pleased to have herself worshipped; money, sir; +there's the difficulty, now as ever. Even at Tillietudlem money +will have its weight.' + +'Can't your father assist you?' said Alaric. + +'My father! I wonder how he'd look if he got a letter from me +asking for money. You might as well expect a goose to feed her +young with blood out of her own breast, like a pelican, as expect +that a Scotch lord should give money to his younger sons like an +English duke. What would my father get by my being member for +Tillietudlem? No; I must look nearer home than my father. What +can you do for me?' + +'I?' + +'Yes, you,' said Undy; 'I am sure you don't mean to say you'll +refuse to lend me a helping hand if you can. I must realize by +the Ballydehobs, if I am once in the House; and then you'd have +your money back at once.' + +'It is not that,' said Alaric; 'but I haven't got it.' + +'I am sure you could let me have a thousand or so,' said Undy. 'I +think a couple of thousand would carry it, and I could make out +the other myself.' + +'Every shilling I have,' said Alaric, 'is either in the +Ballydehobs or in the Limehouse Bridge. Why don't you sell +yourself?' + +'So I have,' said Undy; 'everything that I can without utter +ruin. The Ballydehobs are not saleable, as you know.' + +'What can I do for you, then?' + +Undy set himself again to think. 'I have no doubt I could get a +thousand on our joint names. That blackguard, M'Ruen, would do +it.' + +'Who is M'Ruen?' asked Alaric. + +'A low blackguard of a discounting Jew Christian. He would do it; +but then, heaven knows what he would charge, and he'd make so +many difficulties that I shouldn't have the money for the next +fortnight.' + +'I wouldn't have my name on a bill in such a man's hands on any +account,' said Alaric. + +'Well, I don't like it myself,' said Undy; 'but what the deuce am +I to do? I might as well go to Tillietudlem without my head as +without money.' + +'I thought you'd kept a lot of the Mary Janes,' said Alaric. + +'So I had, but they're gone now. I tell you I've managed £1,000 +myself. It would murder me now if the seat were to go into other +hands. I'd get the Committee on the Limehouse Bridge, and we +should treble our money. Vigil told me he would not refuse the +Committee, though of course the Government won't consent to a +grant if they can help it.' + +'Well, Undy, I can let you have £250, and that is every shilling +I have at my banker's.' + +'They would not let you overdraw a few hundreds?' suggested +Undy. + +'I certainly shall not try them,' said Alaric. + +'You are so full of scruple, so green, so young,' said Undy, +almost in an enthusiasm of remonstrance. 'What can be the harm of +trying them?' + +'My credit.' + +'Fal lal. What's the meaning of credit? How are you to know +whether you have got any credit if you don't try? Come, I'll tell +you how you can do it. Old Cuttwater would lend it you for the +asking.' + +To this proposition Alaric at first turned a deaf ear; but by +degrees he allowed Undy to talk him over. Undy showed him that if +he lost the Tillietudlem burghs on this occasion it would be +useless for him to attempt to stand for them again. In such case, +he would have no alternative at the next general election but to +stand for the borough of Strathbogy in Aberdeenshire; whereas, if +he could secure Tillietudlem as a seat for himself, all the +Gaberlunzie interest in the borough of Strathbogy, which was +supposed to be by no means small, should be transferred to Alaric +himself. Indeed, Sandie Scott, the eldest hope of the Gaberlunzie +family, would, in such case, himself propose Alaric to the +electors. Ca'stalk Cottage, in which the Hon. Sandie lived, and +which was on the outskirts of the Gaberlunzie property, was +absolutely within the boundary of the borough. + +Overcome by these and other arguments, Alaric at last consented +to ask from Captain Cuttwater the loan of £700. That sum Undy had +agreed to accept as a sufficient contribution to that desirable +public object, the re-seating himself for the Tillietudlem +borough, and as Alaric on reflection thought that it would be +uncomfortable to be left penniless himself, and as it was just as +likely that Uncle Bat would lend him £700 as £500, he determined +to ask for a loan of the entire sum. He accordingly did so, and +the letter, as we have seen, reached the captain while Harry and +Charley were at Surbiton Cottage. The old gentleman was anything +but pleased. In the first place he liked his money, though not +with any overweening affection; in the next place, he had done a +great deal for Alaric, and did not like being asked to do more; +and lastly, he feared that there must be some evil cause for the +necessity of such a loan so soon after Alaric's marriage. + +Alaric in making his application had not done so actually without +making any explanation on the subject. He wrote a long letter, +worded very cleverly, which only served to mystify the captain, +as Alaric had intended that it should do. Captain Cuttwater was +most anxious that Alaric, whom he looked on as his adopted son, +should rise in the world; he would have been delighted to think +that he might possibly live to see him in Parliament; would +probably have made considerable pecuniary sacrifice for such an +object. With the design, therefore, of softening Captain +Cuttwater's heart, Alaric in his letter had spoken about great +changes that were coming, of the necessity that there was of his +stirring himself, of the great pecuniary results to be expected +from a small present expenditure; and ended by declaring that the +money was to be used in forwarding the election of his friend +Scott for the Tillietudlem district burghs. + +Now, the fact was, that Uncle Bat, though he cared a great deal +for Alaric, did not care a rope's end for Undy Scott, and could +enjoy his rum-punch just as keenly if Mr. Scott was in obscurity +as he could possibly hope to do even if that gentleman should be +promoted to be a Lord of the Treasury. He was not at all pleased +to think that his hard-earned moidores should run down the +gullies of the Tillietudlem boroughs in the shape of muddy ale or +vitriolic whisky; and yet this was the first request that Alaric +had ever made to him, and he did not like to refuse Alaric's +first request. So he came up to town himself on the following +morning with Harry and Charley, determined to reconcile all these +difficulties by the light of his own wisdom. + +In the evening he returned to Surbiton Cottage, having been into +the city, sold out stock for £700, and handed over the money to +Alaric Tudor. + +On the following morning Undy Scott set out for Scotland, +properly freighted, Mr. Whip Vigil having in due course moved for +a new writ for the Tillietudlem borough in the place of Mr. +M'Buffer, who had accepted the situation of Steward of the +Chiltern Hundreds. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +CHISWICK GARDENS + + +The following Thursday was as fine as a Chiswick flower-show-day +ought to be, and so very seldom is. The party who had agreed to +congregate there--the party, that is, whom we are to meet--was +very select. Linda and Katie had come up to spend a few days with +their sister. Mrs. Val, Clementina, Gertrude, and Linda were to +go in a carriage, for which Alaric was destined to pay, and which +Mrs. Val had hired, having selected it regardless of expense, as +one which, by its decent exterior and polished outward graces, +conferred on its temporary occupiers an agreeable appearance of +proprietorship. The two Miss Neverbends, sisters of Fidus, were +also to be with them, and they with Katie followed humbly, as +became their station, in a cab, which was not only hired, but +which very vulgarly told the fact to all the world. + +Slight as had been the intimacy between Fidus Neverbend and +Alaric at Tavistock, nevertheless a sort of friendship had since +grown up between them. Alaric had ascertained that Fidus might in +a certain degree be useful to him, that the good word of the +Aristides of the Works and Buildings might be serviceable, and +that, in short, Neverbend was worth cultivating. Neverbend, on +the other hand, when he perceived that Tudor was likely to become +a Civil Service hero, a man to be named with glowing eulogy at +all the Government Boards in London, felt unconsciously a desire +to pay him some of that reverence which a mortal always feels for +a god. And thus there was formed between them a sort of alliance, +which included also the ladies of the family. + +Not that Mrs. Val, or even Mrs. A. Tudor, encountered Lactimel +and Ugolina Neverbend on equal terms. There is a distressing +habitual humility in many unmarried ladies of an uncertain age, +which at the first blush tells the tale against them which they +are so painfully anxious to leave untold. In order to maintain +their places but yet a little longer in that delicious world of +love, sighs, and dancing partners, from which it must be so hard +for a maiden, with all her youthful tastes about her, to tear +herself for ever away, they smile and say pretty things, put up +with the caprices of married women, and play second fiddle, +though the doing so in no whit assists them in their task. Nay, +the doing so does but stamp them the more plainly with that +horrid name from which they would so fain escape. Their plea is +for mercy--'Have pity on me, have pity on me; put up with me but +for one other short twelve months; and then, if then I shall +still have failed, I will be content to vanish from the world for +ever.' When did such plea for pity from one woman ever find real +entrance into the heart of another? + +On such terms, however, the Misses Neverbend were content to +follow Mrs. Val to the Chiswick flower-show, and to feed on the +crumbs which might chance to fall from the rich table of Miss +Golightly; to partake of broken meat in the shape of cast-off +adorers, and regale themselves with lukewarm civility from the +outsiders in the throng which followed that adorable heiress. + +And yet the Misses Neverbend were quite as estimable as the +divine Clementina, and had once been, perhaps, as attractive as +she is now. They had never waltzed, it is true, as Miss Golightly +waltzes. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any lady ever did. In +the pursuit of that amusement Ugolina was apt to be stiff and +ungainly, and to turn herself, or allow herself to be turned, as +though she were made of wood; she was somewhat flat in her +figure, looking as though she had been uncomfortably pressed into +an unbecoming thinness of substance, and a corresponding breadth +of surface, and this conformation did not assist her in acquiring +a graceful flowing style of motion. The elder sister, Lactimel, +was of a different form, but yet hardly more fit to shine in the +mazes of the dance than her sister. She had her charms, +nevertheless, which consisted of a somewhat stumpy dumpy +comeliness. She was altogether short in stature, and very short +below the knee. She had fair hair and a fair skin, small bones +and copious soft flesh. She had a trick of sighing gently in the +evolutions of the waltz, which young men attributed to her +softness of heart, and old ladies to her shortness of breath. +They both loved dancing dearly, and were content to enjoy it +whenever the chance might be given to them by the aid of Miss +Golightly's crumbs. + +The two sisters were as unlike in their inward lights as in their +outward appearance. Lactimel walked ever on the earth, but +Ugolina never deserted the clouds. Lactimel talked prose and +professed to read it; Ugolina read poetry and professed to write +it. Lactimel was utilitarian. _Cui bono_?--though probably +in less classic phrase--was the question she asked as to +everything. Ugolina was transcendental, and denied that there +could be real good in anything. Lactimel would have clothed +and fed the hungry and naked, so that all mankind might be +comfortable. Ugolina would have brought mankind back to their +original nakedness, and have taught them to feed on the grasses +of the field, so that the claims of the body, which so vitally +oppose those of the mind, might remain unheeded and despised. +They were both a little nebulous in their doctrines, and apt to +be somewhat unintelligible in their discourse, when indulged in +the delights of unrestrained conversation. Lactimel had a theory +that every poor brother might eat of the fat and drink of the +sweet, might lie softly, and wear fine linen, if only some body +or bodies could be induced to do their duties; and Ugolina was +equally strong in a belief that if the mind were properly looked +to, all appreciation of human ill would cease. But they delighted +in generalizing rather than in detailed propositions; and had not +probably, even in their own minds, realized any exact idea as to +the means by which the results they desired were to be brought +about. + +They toadied Mrs. Val--poor young women, how little should they +be blamed for this fault, which came so naturally to them in +their forlorn position!--they toadied Mrs. Val, and therefore +Mrs. Val bore with them; they bored Gertrude, and Gertrude, for +her husband's sake, bore with them also; they were confidential +with Clementina, and Clementina, of course, snubbed them. They +called Clementina 'the sweetest creature.' Lactimel declared that +she was born to grace the position of a wife and mother, and +Ugolina swore that her face was perfect poetry. Whereupon +Clementina laughed aloud, and elegantly made a grimace with her +nose and mouth, as she turned the 'perfect poetry' to her mother. +Such were the ladies of the party who went to the Chiswick +flower-show, and who afterwards were to figure at Mrs. Val's +little evening 'the dansant,' at which nobody was to be admitted +who was not nice. + +They were met at the gate of the Gardens by a party of young men, +of whom Victoire Jaquêtanàpe was foremost. Alaric and Charley +were to come down there when their office work was done. Undy was +by this time on his road to Tillietudlem; and Captain Val was +playing billiards at his club. The latter had given a promise +that he would make his appearance--a promise, however, which no +one expected, or wished him to keep. + +The happy Victoire was dressed up to his eyes. That, perhaps, is +not saying much, for he was only a few feet high; but what he +wanted in quantity he fully made up in quality. He was a well- +made, shining, jaunty little Frenchman, who seemed to be +perfectly at ease with himself and all the world. He had the +smallest little pair of moustaches imaginable, the smallest +little imperial, the smallest possible pair of boots, and the +smallest possible pair of gloves. Nothing on earth could be +nicer, or sweeter, or finer, than he was. But he did not carry +his finery like a hog in armour, as an Englishman so often does +when an Englishman stoops to be fine. It sat as naturally on +Victoire as though he had been born in it. He jumped about in his +best patent leather boots, apparently quite heedless whether he +spoilt them or not; and when he picked up Miss Golightly's +parasol from the gravel, he seemed to suffer no anxiety about his +gloves. + +He handed out the ladies one after another, as though his life +had been passed in handing out ladies, as, indeed, it probably +had--in handing them out and handing them in; and when Mrs. Val's +'private' carriage passed on, he was just as courteous to the +Misses Neverbend and Katie in their cab, as he had been to the +greater ladies who had descended from the more ambitious vehicle. +As Katie said afterwards to Linda, when she found the free use of +her voice in their own bedroom, 'he was a darling little duck of +a man, only he smelt so strongly of tobacco.' + +But when they were once in the garden, Victoire had no time for +anyone but Mrs. Val and Clementina. He had done his duty by the +Misses Neverbend and those other two insipid young English girls, +and now he had his own affairs to look after. He also knew that +Miss Golightly had £20,000 of her own! + +He was one of those butterfly beings who seem to have been +created that they may flutter about from flower to flower in the +summer hours of such gala times as those now going on at +Chiswick, just as other butterflies do. What the butterflies were +last winter, or what will become of them next winter, no one but +the naturalist thinks of inquiring. How they may feed themselves +on flower-juice, or on insects small enough to be their prey, is +matter of no moment to the general world. It is sufficient that +they flit about in the sunbeams, and add bright glancing spangles +to the beauty of the summer day. + +And so it was with Victoire Jaquêtanàpe. He did no work. He made +no honey. He appeared to no one in the more serious moments of +life. He was the reverse of Shylock; he would neither buy with +you nor sell with you, but he would eat with you and drink with +you; as for praying, he did little of that either with or without +company. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, as butterflies +should be clothed, and fared sumptuously everyday; but whence +came his gay colours, or why people fed him with pate and +champagne, nobody knew and nobody asked. + +Like most Frenchmen of his class, he never talked about himself. +He understood life, and the art of pleasing, and the necessity +that he should please, too well to do so. All that his companions +knew of him was that he came from France, and that when the +gloomy months came on in England, the months so unfitted for a +French butterfly, he packed up his azure wings and sought some +more genial climate, certain to return and be seen again when the +world of London became habitable. + +If he had means of living no one knew it; if he was in debt no +one ever heard of it; if he had a care in the world he concealed +it. He abounded in acquaintances who were always glad to see him, +and would have regarded it as quite de trop to have a friend. +Nevertheless time was flying on with him as with others; and, +butterfly as he was, the idea of Miss Golightly's £20,000 struck +him with delightful amazement--500,000 francs! 500,000 francs! +and so he resolved to dance his very best, warm as the weather +undoubtedly was at the present moment. + +'Ah, he was charmed to see madame and mademoiselle look so +charmingly,' he said, walking between mother and daughter, but +paying apparently much the greater share of attention to the +elder lady. In this respect we Englishmen might certainly learn +much from the manners of our dear allies. We know well enough how +to behave ourselves to our fair young countrywomen; we can be +civil enough to young women--nature teaches us that; but it is so +seldom that we are sufficiently complaisant to be civil to old +women. And yet that, after all, is the soul of gallantry. It is +to the sex that we profess to do homage. Our theory is, that +feminine weakness shall receive from man's strength humble and +respectful service. But where is the chivalry, where the +gallantry, if we only do service in expectation of receiving such +guerdon as rosy cheeks and laughing eyes can bestow? + +It may be said that Victoire had an object in being civil to Mrs. +Val. But the truth is, all French Victoires are courteous to old +ladies. An Englishman may probably be as forward as a Frenchman +in rushing into a flaming building to save an old woman's life; +but then it so rarely happens that occasion offers itself for +gallantry such as that. A man, however, may with ease be civil to +a dozen old women in one day. + +And so they went on, walking through parterres and glass-houses, +talking of theatres, balls, dinner-parties, picnics, concerts, +operas, of ladies married and single, of single gentlemen who +should be married, and of married gentlemen who should be single, +of everything, indeed, except the flowers, of which neither +Victoire nor his companions took the slightest notice. + +'And madame really has a dance to-night in her own house?' + +'O yes,' said Mrs. Val; 'that is, just a few quadrilles and +waltzes for Clementina. I really hardly know whether the people +will take the carpet up or no.' The people, consisting of the +cook and housemaid--for the page had, of course, come with the +carriage--were at this moment hard at work wrenching up the +nails, as Mrs. Val was very well aware. + +'It will be delightful, charming,' said Victoire. + +'Just a few people of our own set, you know,' said Mrs. Val: 'no +crowd, or fuss, or anything of that sort; just a few people that +we know are nice, in a quiet homely way.' + +'Ah, that is so pleasing,' said M. Victoire: 'that is just what I +like; and is mademoiselle engaged for--?' + +No. Mademoiselle was not engaged either for--or for--or for-- +&c., &c., &c.; and then out came the little tablets, under the +dome of a huge greenhouse filled with the most costly exotics, +and Clementina and her fellow-labourer in the cause of Terpsichore +went to work to make their arrangements for the evening. + +And the rest of the party followed them. Gertrude was accompanied +by an Englishman just as idle and quite as useless as M. +Victoire, of the butterfly tribe also, but not so graceful, and +without colour. + +And then came the Misses Neverbend walking together, and with +them, one on each side, two tall Frenchmen, whose faces had been +remodelled in that mould into which so large a proportion of +Parisians of the present day force their heads, in order that +they may come out with some look of the Emperor about them. Were +there not some such machine as this in operation, it would be +impossible that so many Frenchmen should appear with elongated, +angular, hard faces, all as like each other as though they were +brothers! The cut of the beard, the long prickly-ended, clotted +moustache, which looks as though it were being continually rolled +up in saliva, the sallow, half-bronzed, apparently unwashed +colour--these may all, perhaps, be assumed by any man after a +certain amount of labour and culture. But how it has come to pass +that every Parisian has been able to obtain for himself a pair of +the Emperor's long, hard, bony, cruel-looking cheeks, no +Englishman has yet been able to guess. That having the power they +should have the wish to wear this mask is almost equally +remarkable. Can it be that a political phase, when stamped on a +people with an iron hand of sufficient power of pressure, will +leave its impress on the outward body as well as on the inward +soul? If so, a Frenchman may, perhaps, be thought to have gained +in the apparent stubborn wilfulness of his countenance some +recompense for his compelled loss of all political wilfulness +whatever. + +Be this as it may, the two Misses Neverbend walked on, each with +a stubborn long-faced Frenchman at her side, looking altogether +not ill pleased at this instance of the excellence of French +manners. After them came Linda, talking to some acquaintance of +her own, and then poor dear little Katie with another Frenchman, +sterner, more stubborn-looking, more long-faced, more like the +pattern after whom he and they had been remodelled, than any of +them. + +Poor little Katie! This was her first day in public. With many +imploring caresses, with many half-formed tears in her bright +eyes, with many assurances of her perfect health, she had induced +her mother to allow her to come to the flower-show; to allow her +also to go to Mrs. Val's dance, at which there were to be none +but such very nice people. Katie was to commence her life, to +open her ball with this flower-show. In her imagination it was +all to be one long bright flower-show, in which, however, the +sweet sorrowing of the sensitive plant would ever and anon invite +her to pity and tears. When she entered that narrow portal she +entered the world, and there she found herself walking on the +well-mown grass with this huge, stern, bearded Frenchman by her +side! As to talking to him, that was quite out of the question. +At the gate some slight ceremony of introduction had been gone +through, which had consisted in all the Frenchmen taking off +their hats and bowing to the two married ladies, and in the +Englishmen standing behind and poking the gravel with their +canes. But in this no special notice had of course been taken of +Katie; and she had a kind of idea, whence derived she knew not, +that it would be improper for her to talk to this man, unless she +were actually and _bona fide_ introduced to him. And then, +again, poor Katie was not very confident in her French, and then +her companion was not very intelligible in his English; so when +the gentleman asked, 'Is it that mademoiselle lofe de fleurs?' +poor little Katie felt herself tremble, and tried in vain to +mutter something; and when, again essaying to do his duty, he +suggested that 'all de beauté of Londres did delight to valk +itself at Chisveek,' she was equally dumb, merely turning on him +her large eyes for one moment, to show that she knew that he +addressed her. After that he walked on as silent as herself, +still keeping close to her side; and other ladies, who had not +the good fortune to have male companions, envied her happiness in +being so attended. + +But Alaric and Charley were coming, she knew; Alaric was her +brother-in-law now, and therefore she would be delighted to meet +him; and Charley, dear Charley! she had not seen him since he +went away that morning, now four days since; and four days was a +long time, considering that he had saved her life. Her busy +little fingers had been hard at work the while, and now she had +in her pocket the purse which she had been so eager to make, and +which she was almost afraid to bestow. + +'Oh, Linda,' she had said, 'I don't think I will, after all; it +is such a little thing.' + +'Nonsense, child, you wouldn't give him a worked counterpane; +little things are best for presents.' + +'But it isn't good enough,' she said, looking at her handiwork in +despair. But, nevertheless, she persevered, working in the golden +beads with constant diligence, so that she might be able to give +it to Charley among the Chiswick flowers. Oh! what a place it was +in which to bestow a present, with all the eyes of all the world +upon her! + +And then this dance to which she was going! The thought of what +she would do there troubled her. Would anyone ask her to dance? +Would Charley think of her when he had so many grown-up girls, +girls quite grown up, all around him? It would be very sad if at +this London party it should be her fate to sit down the whole +evening and see others dance. It would suffice for her, she +thought, if she could stand up with Linda, but she had an idea +that this would not be allowed at a London party; and then Linda, +perhaps, might not like it. Altogether she had much upon her +mind, and was beginning to think that, perhaps, she might have +been happier to have stayed at home with her mamma. She had not +quite recovered from the effect of her toss into the water, or +the consequent excitement, and a very little misery would upset +her. And so she walked on with her Napoleonic companion, from +whom she did not know how to free herself, through one glass- +house after another, across lawns and along paths, attempting +every now and then to get a word with Linda, and not at all so +happy as she had hoped to have been. + +At last Gertrude came to her rescue. They were all congregated +for a while in one great flower-house, and Gertrude, finding +herself near her sister, asked her how she liked it all. + +'Oh! it is very beautiful,' said Katie, 'only--' + +'Only what, dear?' + +'Would you let me come with you a little while! Look here'--and +she crept softly around to the other side of her sister, sidling +with little steps away from the Frenchman, at whom, however, she +kept furtively looking, as though she feared that he would detect +her in the act. 'Look here, Gertrude,' she said, twitching her +sister's arm; 'that gentleman there--you see him, don't you? he's +a Frenchman, and I don't know how to get away from him.' + +'How to get away from him?' said Gertrude. 'That's M. Delabarbe +de l'Empereur, a great friend of Mrs. Val's, and a very quiet +sort of man, I believe; he won't eat you.' + +'No, he won't eat me, I know; but I can't look at anything, +because he will walk so close to me! Mayn't I come with you?' + +Gertrude told her she might, and so Katie made good her escape, +hiding herself from her enemy as well as she could behind her +sister's petticoats. He, poor man, was perhaps as rejoiced at the +arrangement as Katie herself; at any rate he made no attempt to +regain his prey, but went on by himself, looking as placidly +stern as ever, till he was absorbed by Mrs. Val's more immediate +party, and then he devoted himself to her, while M. Jaquêtanàpe +settled with Clementina the properest arrangement for the waltzes +of the evening. + +Katie was beginning to be tranquilly happy, and was listening to +the enthusiasm of Ugolina Neverbend, who declared that flowers +were the female poet's fitting food--it may be doubted whether +she had ever tried it--when her heart leaped within her on +hearing a sharp, clear, well-known voice, almost close behind +her. It was Charley Tudor. After her silent promenade with M. +Delabarbe de l'Empereur, Katie had been well pleased to put up +with the obscure but yet endurable volubility of Ugolina; but now +she felt almost as anxious to get quit of Ugolina as she had +before been to shake off the Frenchman. + +'Flowers are Nature's chef-d'oeuvre,' said Ugolina; 'they convey +to me the purest and most direct essence of that heavenly power +of production which is the sweetest evidence which Jehovah gives +us of His presence.' + +'Do they?' said Katie, looking over her shoulder to watch what +Charley was doing, and to see whether he was coming to notice +her. + +'They are the bright stars of His immediate handiwork,' said +Ugolina; 'and if our dim eyes could read them aright, they would +whisper to us the secret of His love.' + +'Yes, I dare say they would,' said Katie, who felt, perhaps, a +little disappointed because Charley lingered a while shaking +hands with Mrs. Val and Clementina Golightly. + +It was, however, but for a moment. There was much shaking of +hands to be done, and a considerable taking off of hats to be +gone through; and as Alaric and Charley encountered the head of +the column first, it was only natural that they should work their +way through it gradually. Katie, however, never guessed--how +could she?--that Charley had calculated that by reaching her last +he would be able to remain with her. + +She was still listening to Ugolina, who was mounting higher and +higher up to heaven, when she found her hand in Charley's. +Ugolina might now mount up, and get down again as best she could, +for Katie could no longer listen to her. + +Alaric had not seen her yet since her ducking. She had to listen +to and to answer his congratulations, Charley standing by and +making his comments. + +'Charley says you took to the water quite naturally, and swam +like a duck,' said Alaric. + +'Only she went in head foremost,' said Charley. + +'All bathers ought to do that,' said Alaric; 'and tell me, Katie, +did you feel comfortable when you were in the water?' + +'Indeed I don't recollect anything about it,' said she, 'only +that I saw Charley coming to me, just when I was going to sink +for the last time.' + +'Sink! Why, I'm told that you floated like a deal board.' + +'The big hat and the crinoline kept her up,' said Charley; 'she +had no idea of sinking.' + +'Oh! Charley, you know I was under the water for a long time; and +that if you had not come, just at that very moment, I should +never have come up again.' + +And then Alaric went on, and Charley and Katie were left +together. + +How was she to give him the purse? It was burning a hole in her +pocket till she could do so; and yet how was she to get it out of +her possession into his, and make her little speech, here in the +public garden? She could have done it easily enough at home in +the drawing-room at Surbiton Cottage. + +'And how do you like the gardens?' asked Charley. + +'Oh! they are beautiful; but I have hardly been able to see +anything yet. I have been going about with a great big Frenchman +--there, that man there--he has such a queer name.' + +'Did his name prevent your seeing?' + +'No, not his name; I didn't know his name then. + +But it seemed so odd to be walking about with such a man as that. +But I want to go back, and look at the black and yellow roses in +that house, there. Would you go with me? that is, if we may. I +wonder whether we may!' + +Charley was clearly of opinion that they might, and should, and +would; and so away they sallied back to the roses, and Katie +began to enjoy the first instalment of the happiness which she +had anticipated. In the temple of the roses the crowd at first +was great, and she could not get the purse out of her pocket, nor +make her speech; but after a while the people passed on, and +there was a lull before others filled their places, and Katie +found herself opposite to a beautiful black rose, with no one +close to her but Charley. + +'I have got something for you,' she said; and as she spoke she +felt herself to be almost hot with blushing. + +'Something for me!' said Charley; and he also felt himself +abashed, he did not know why. + +'It's only a very little thing,' said Katie, feeling in her +pocket, 'and I am almost ashamed to ask you to take it. But I +made it all myself; no one else put a stitch in it,' and so +saying, and looking round to see that she was not observed, she +handed her gift to Charley. + +'Oh! Katie, dearest Katie,' said he, 'I am so much obliged to +you--I'll keep it till I die.' + +'I didn't know what to make that was better,' said she. + +'Nothing on earth could possibly be better,' said he. + +'A plate of bread and butter and a purse are a very poor return +for saving one's life,' said she, half laughing, half crying. + +He looked at her with his eyes full of love; and as he looked, he +swore within himself that come what might, he would never see +Norah Geraghty again, but would devote his life to an endeavour +to make himself worthy of the angel that was now with him. Katie +the while was looking up anxiously into his face. She was +thinking of no other love than that which it became her to feel +for the man who had saved her life. She was thinking of no other +love; but her young heart was opening itself to a very different +feeling. She was sinking deep, deep in waters which were to go +near to drown her warm heart; much nearer than those other waters +which she fancied had all but closed for ever over her life. + +She looked into his face and saw that he was pleased; and that, +for the present, was enough for her. She was at any rate happy +now. So they passed on through the roses, and then lost +themselves among the geraniums, and wondered at the gigantic +rhododendrons, and beautiful azaleas, and so went on from house +to house, and from flower-bed to flower-bed, Katie talking and +Charley listening, till she began to wonder at her former +supineness, and to say both to herself and out loud to her +companion, how very, very, very glad she was that her mother had +let her come. + +Poor Katie!--dear, darling, bonny Katie!--sweet sweetest, dearest +child! why, oh why, has that mother of thine, that tender-hearted +loving mother, put thee unguarded in the way of such peril as +this? Has she not sworn to herself that over thee at least she +would watch as a hen does over her young, so that no unfortunate +love should quench thy young spirit, or blanch thy cheek's bloom? +Has she not trembled at the thought of what would have befallen +thee, had thy fate been such as Linda's? Has she not often--oh, +how often!--on her knees thanked the Almighty God that Linda's +spirit was not as thine; that this evil had happened to the lamb +whose temper had been fitted by Him to endure it? And yet--here +thou art--all unguarded, all unaided, left by thyself to drink of +the cup of sweet poison, and none near to warn thee that the +draught is deadly. + +Alas!--'twould be useless to warn thee now. The false god has +been placed upon the altar, the temple all shining with gems and +gold has been built around him, the incense-cup is already +swinging; nothing will now turn the idolater from her worship, +nothing short of a miracle. + +Our Katie's childish days are now all gone. A woman's passion +glows within her breast, though as yet she has not scanned it +with a woman's intelligence. Her mother, listening to a child's +entreaty, had suffered her darling to go forth for a child's +amusement. It was doomed that the child should return no more; +but in lieu of her, a fair, heart-laden maiden, whose every +fondest thought must henceforth be of a stranger's welfare and a +stranger's fate. + +But it must not be thought that Charley abused the friendship of +Mrs. Woodward, and made love to Katie, as love is usually made-- +with warm words, assurances of affection, with squeezing of the +hand, with sighs, and all a lover's ordinary catalogue of +resources. Though we have said that he was a false god, yet he +was hardly to be blamed for the temple, and gems, and gold, with +which he was endowed; not more so, perhaps, than the unconscious +bud which is made so sacred on the banks of the Egyptian river. +He loved too, perhaps as warmly, though not so fatally as Katie +did; but he spoke no word of his love. He walked among the +flowers with her, laughing and listening to her in his usual +light-hearted, easy manner; every now and again his arm would +thrill with pleasure, as he felt on it the touch of her little +fingers, and his heart would leap within him as he gazed on the +speaking beauty of her face; but he was too honest-hearted to +talk to the young girl, to Mrs. Woodward's child, of love. He +talked to her as to a child--but she listened to him and loved +him as a woman. + +And so they rambled on till the hour appointed for quitting this +Elysium had arrived. Every now and again they had a glimpse of +some one of their party, which had satisfied Katie that they were +not lost. At first Clementina was seen tracing with her parasol +on the turf the plan of a new dance. Then Ugolina passed by them +describing the poetry of the motion of the spheres in a full flow +of impassioned eloquence to M. Delabarbe de l'Empereur: '_C'est +toujours vrai; ce que mademoiselle dit est toujours vrai_,' +was the Frenchman's answer, which they heard thrice repeated. And +then Lactimel and Captain Val were seen together, the latter +having disappointed the prophecies which had been made respecting +him. Lactimel had an idea that as the Scotts were great people, +they were all in Parliament, and she was endeavouring to persuade +Captain Val that something ought to be done for the poor. + +'Think,' said she, 'only think, Captain Scott, of all the money +that this _fête_ must cost.' + +'A doosed sight,' said the captain, hardly articulating from +under his thick, sandy-coloured moustache, which, growing +downwards from his nose, looked like a heavy thatch put on to +protect his mouth from the inclemency of the clouds above. 'A +doosed sight,' said the captain. + +'Now suppose, Captain Scott, that all this money could be +collected. The tickets, you know, and the dresses, and----' + +'I wish I knew how to do it,' said the captain. + +Lactimel went on with her little scheme for expending the cost of +the flower-show in bread and bacon for the poor Irish of Saffron +Hill; but Charley and Katie heard no more, for the mild +philosopher passed out of hearing and out of sight. + +At last Katie got a poke in her back from a parasol, just as +Charley had expended half a crown, one of Mr. M'Ruen's last, in +purchasing for her one simple beautiful flower, to put into her +hair that night. + +'You naughty puss!' said Gertrude, 'we have been looking for you +all over the gardens. Mrs. Val and the Miss Neverbends have been +waiting this half-hour.' Katie looked terribly frightened. 'Come +along, and don't keep them waiting any longer. They are all in +the passage. This was your fault, Master Charley.' + +'O no, it was not,' said Katie; 'but we thought----' + +'Never mind thinking,' said Gertrude, 'but come along.' And so +they hurried on, and were soon replaced in their respective +vehicles, and then went back to town. + +'Well, I do think the Chiswick Gardens is the nicest place in all +the world,' said Katie, leaning back in the cab, and meditating +on her past enjoyment. + +'They are very pretty--very,' said Lactimel Neverbend. 'I only +wish every cottar had such a garden behind his cottage. I am sure +we might manage it, if we set about it in the right way.' + +'What! as big as Chiswick?' said Katie. + +'No; not so big,' said Lactimel; 'but quite as nicely kept.' + +'I think the pigs would get in,' said Katie. + +'It would be much easier, and more important too, to keep their +minds nicely,' said Ugolina; and there the pigs could never get +in.' + +'No; I suppose not,' said Katie. + +'I don't know that,' said Lactimel. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +KATIE'S FIRST BALL + + +In spite of Mrs. Val's oft-repeated assurance that they would +have none but nice people, she had done her best to fill her +rooms, and not unsuccessfully. She had, it is true, eschewed the +Golightly party, who resided some north of Oxford Street, in the +purlieus of Fitzroy Square, and some even to the east of +Tottenham Court Road. She had eschewed the Golightlys, and +confined herself to the Scott connexion; but so great had been +her success in life, that, even under these circumstances, she +had found herself able to fill her rooms respectably. If, indeed, +there was no absolute crowding, if some space was left in the +front drawing-room sufficient for the operations of dancers, she +could still attribute this apparent want of fashionable +popularity to the selections of the few nice people whom she had +asked. The Hon. Mrs. Val was no ordinary woman, and understood +well how to make the most of the goods with which the gods +provided her. + +The Miss Neverbends were to dine with the Tudors, and go with +them to the dance in the evening, and their brother Fidus was to +meet them there. Charley was, of course, one of the party at +dinner; and as there was no other gentleman there, Alaric had an +excellent opportunity, when the ladies went up to their toilets, +to impress on his cousin the expediency of his losing no time in +securing to himself Miss Golightly's twenty thousand pounds. The +conversation, as will be seen, at last became rather animated. + +'Well, Charley, what do you think of the beautiful Clementina?' +said Alaric, pushing over the bottle to his cousin, as soon as +they found themselves alone. 'A 'doosed' fine girl, as Captain +Val says, isn't she?' + +'A 'doosed' fine girl, of course,' said Charley, laughing. 'She +has too much go in her for me, I'm afraid.' + +'Marriage and children will soon pull that down. She'd make an +excellent wife for such a man as you; and to tell you the truth, +Charley, if you'll take my advice, you'll lose no time in making +up to her. She has got that d---- French fellow at her heels, and +though I don't suppose she cares one straw about him, it may be +well to make sure.' + +'But you don't mean in earnest that you think that Miss Golightly +would have me?' + +'Indeed I do--you are just the man to get on with girls; and, as +far as I can see, you are just the man that will never get on in +any other way under the sun.' + +Charley sighed as he thought of his many debts, his poor +prospects, and his passionate love. There seemed, indeed, to be +little chance that he ever would get on at all in the ordinary +sense of the word. 'I'm sure she'd refuse me,' said he, still +wishing to back out of the difficulty. 'I'm sure she would--I've +not got a penny in the world, you know.' + +'That's just the reason--she has got lots of money, and you have +got none.' + +'Just the reason why she should refuse me, you should say.' + +'Well--what if she does? There's no harm done. 'Faint heart never +won fair lady.' You've everything to back you--Mrs. Val is led by +Undy Scott, and Undy is all on your side.' + +'But she has got guardians, hasn't she?' + +'Yes--her father's first cousin, old Sam Golightly. He is dying; +or dead probably by this time; only Mrs. Val won't have the news +brought to her, because of this party. He had a fit of apoplexy +yesterday. Then there's her father's brother-in-law, Figgs; he's +bedridden. When old Golightly is off the hooks altogether, +another will be chosen, and Undy talks of putting in my name as +that of a family friend; so you'll have everything to assist +you.' + +Charley looked very grave. He had not been in the habit of +discussing such matters, but it seemed to him, that if Alaric was +about to become in any legal manner the guardian of Miss +Golightly's fortune, that that in itself was reason enough why +he, Alaric, should not propose such a match as this. Needy men, +to be sure, did often marry rich ladies, and the world looked on +and regarded it only as a matter of course; but surely it would +be the duty of a guardian to protect his ward from such a fate, +if it were in his power to do so. + +Alaric, who saw something of what was going on in his cousin's +mind, essayed to remove the impression which was thus made. +'Besides, you know, Clementina is no chicken. Her fortune is at +her own disposal. All the guardians on earth cannot prevent her +marrying you if she makes up her mind to do so.' + +Charley gulped down his glass of wine, and then sat staring at +the fire, saying nothing further. It was true enough that he was +very poor--true enough that Miss Golightly's fortune would set +him on his legs, and make a man of him--true enough, perhaps, +that no other expedient of which he could think would do so. But +then there were so many arguments that were 'strong against the +deed.' In the first place, he thought it impossible that he +should be successful in such a suit, and then again it would +hardly be honest to obtain such success, if it were possible; +then, thirdly, he had no sort of affection whatsoever for Miss +Golightly; and fourthly, lastly, and chiefly, he loved so dearly, +tenderly, loved poor Katie Woodward. + +As he thought of this, he felt horror-stricken with himself at +allowing the idea of his becoming a suitor to another to dwell +for an instant on his mind, and looking up with all the +resolution which he was able to summon, he said--'It's +impossible, Alaric, quite impossible! I couldn't do it.' + +'Then what do you mean to do?' said Alaric, who was angry at +having his scheme thus thwarted; 'do you mean to be a beggar?--or +if not, how do you intend to get out of your difficulties?' + +'I trust not a beggar,' said Charley, sadly. + +'What other hope have you? what rational hope of setting yourself +right?' + +'Perhaps I may do something by writing,' said Charley, very +bashfully. + +'By writing! ha, ha, ha,' and Alaric laughed somewhat cruelly at +the poor navvy--' do something by writing! what will you do by +writing? will you make £20,000--or 20,000 pence? Of all trades +going, that, I should say, is likely to be the poorest for a poor +man--the poorest and the most heart-breaking. What have you made +already to encourage you?' + +'The editor says that 'Crinoline and Macassar' will come to £4 +10s.' + +'And when will you get it?' + +'The editor says that the rule is to pay six months after the +date of publication. The _Daily Delight_ is only a new thing, +you know. The editor says that, if the sale comes up to his expectations, +he will increase the scale of pay.' + +'A prospect of £4 10s. for a fortnight's hard work! That's a bad +look-out, my boy; you had better take the heiress.' + +'It may be a bad look-out,' said Charley, whose spirit was raised +by his cousin's sneers--'but at any rate it's honest. And I'll +tell you what, Alaric, I'd sooner earn £50 by writing for the +press, than get £1,000 in any other way you can think of. It may +be a poor trade in one way; and authors, I believe, are poor; but +I am sure it has its consolations.' + +'Well, Charley, I hope with all my heart that you may find them. +For my own part, seeing what a place the world is, seeing what +are the general aspirations of other men, seeing what, as it +appears to me, the Creator has intended for the goal of our +labours, I look for advancement, prosperity, and such rank and +station as I may be able to win for myself. The labourer is +worthy of his hire, and I do not mean to refuse such wages as may +come in my way.' + +'Yes,' said Charley, who, now that his spirit was roused, +determined to fight his battle manfully, 'yes, the labourer is +worthy of his hire; but were I to get Miss Golightly's fortune I +should be taking the hire without labour.' + +'Bah!' said Alaric. + +'It would be dishonest in every way, for I do not love her, and +should not love her at the moment that I married her.' + +'Honesty!' said Alaric, still sneering; 'there is no sign of the +dishonesty of the age so strong as the continual talk which one +hears about honesty!' It was quite manifest that Alaric had not +sat at the feet of Undy Scott without profiting by the lessons +which he had heard. + +'With what face,' continued he, 'can you pretend to be more +honest than your neighbours?' + +'I know that it is wrong, and unmanly too, to hunt a girl down +merely for what she has got.' + +'There are a great many wrong and unmanly men about, then,' said +Alaric. 'Look through the Houses of Parliament, and see how many +men there have married for money; aye, and made excellent +husbands afterwards. I'll tell you what it is, Charley, it is all +humbug in you to pretend to be better than others; you are not a +bit better;--mind, I do not say you are worse. We have none of us +too much of this honesty of which we are so fond of prating. +Where was your honesty when you ordered the coat for which you +know you cannot pay? or when you swore to the bootmaker that he +should have the amount of his little bill after next quarter-day, +knowing in your heart at the time that he wouldn't get a farthing +of it? If you are so honest, why did you waste your money to-day +in going to Chiswick, instead of paying some portion of your +debts? Honest! you are, I dare say, indifferently honest as the +world goes, like the rest of us. But I think you might put the +burden of Clementina's fortune on your conscience without feeling +much the worse for it after what you have already gone through.' + +Charley became very red in the face as he sat silent, listening +to Alaric's address--nor did he speak at once at the first pause, +so Alaric went on. 'The truth, I take it, is, that at the present +moment you have no personal fancy for this girl.' + +'No, I have not,' said Charley. + +'And you are so incredibly careless as to all prudential +considerations as to prefer your immediate personal fancies to +the future welfare of your whole life. I can say no more. If you +will think well of my proposition, I will do all I can to assist +you. I have no doubt you would make a good husband to Miss +Golightly, and that she would be very happy with you. If you +think otherwise there is an end of it; but pray do not talk so +much about your honesty--your tailor would arrest you to-morrow +if he heard you.' + +'There are two kinds of honesty, I take it,' said Charley, +speaking with suppressed anger and sorrow visible in his face, +'that which the world sees and that which it does not see. For +myself, I have nothing to say in my own defence. I have made my +bed badly, and must lie on it as it is. I certainly will not mend +it by marrying a girl that I can never love. And as for you, +Alaric, all who know you and love you watch your career with the +greatest hope. We know your ambition, and all look to see you +rise in the world. But in rising, as you will do, you should +remember this--that nothing that is wrong can become right +because other people do it.' + +'Well, Charley,' said the other, 'thank you for the lecture. I +did not certainly expect it from you; but it is not on that +account the less welcome. And now, suppose we go upstairs and +dress for Mrs. Val;' and so they went upstairs. + +Katie's heart beat high as she got out of the carriage--Mrs. +Val's private carriage had been kept on for the occasion--and saw +before and above her on the stairs a crowd of muslin crushing its +way on towards the room prepared for dancing. Katie had never +been to a ball before. We hope that the word ball may not bring +down on us the adverse criticism of the _Morning Post_. It +was probably not a ball in the strictly fashionable sense of the +word, but it was so to Katie to all intents and purposes. Her +dancing had hitherto been done either at children's parties, or +as a sort of supplemental amusement to the evening tea-gatherings +at Hampton or Hampton Court. She had never yet seen the muse +worshipped with the premeditated ceremony of banished carpets, +chalked floors, and hired musicians. Her heart consequently beat +high as she made her way upstairs, linked arm-in-arm with Ugolina +Neverbend. + +'Shall you dance much?' said Ugolina. + +'Oh, I hope so,' said Katie. + +'I shall not. It is an amusement of which I am peculiarly fond, +and for which my active habits suit me.' This was probably said +with some allusion to her sister, who was apt to be short of +breath. 'But in the dances of the present day conversation is +impossible, and I look upon any pursuit as barbaric which stops +the "feast of reason and the flow of soul."' + +Katie did not quite understand this, but she thought in her heart +that she would not at all mind giving up talking for the whole +evening if she could only get dancing enough. But on this matter +her heart misgave her. To be sure, she was engaged to Charley for +the first quadrille and second waltz; but there her engagements +stopped, whereas Clementina, as she was aware, had a whole book +full of them. What if she should get no more dancing when +Charley's good nature should have been expended? She had an idea +that no one would care to dance with her when older partners were +to be had. Ah, Katie, you do not yet know the extent of your +riches, or half the wealth of your own attractions! + +And then they all heard another little speech from Mrs. Val. 'She +was really quite ashamed--she really was--to see so many people; +she could not wish any of her guests away, that would be +impossible--though perhaps one or two might be spared,' she said +in a confidential whisper to Gertrude. Who the one or two might +be it would be difficult to decide, as she had made the same +whisper to every one; 'but she really was ashamed; there was +almost a crowd, and she had quite intended that the house should +be nearly empty. The fact was, everybody asked had come, and as +she could not, of course, have counted on that, why, she had got, +you see, twice as many people as she had expected.' And then she +went on, and made the same speech to the next arrival. + +Katie, who wanted to begin the play at the beginning, kept her +eye anxiously on Charley, who was still standing with Lactimel +Neverbend on his arm. 'Oh, now,' said she to herself, 'if he +should forget me and begin dancing with Miss Neverbend!' But then +she remembered how he had jumped into the water, and determined +that, even with such provocation as that, she must not be angry +with him. + +But there was no danger of Charley's forgetting. 'Come,' said he, +'we must not lose any more time, if we mean to dance the first +set. Alaric will be our _vis-à-vis_--he is going to dance +with Miss Neverbend,' and so they stood up. Katie tightened her +gloves, gave her dress a little shake, looked at her shoes, and +then the work of the evening began. + +'I shouldn't have liked to have sat down for the first dance,' +she said confidentially to Charley,' because it's my first ball.' + +'Sit down! I don't suppose you'll be let to sit down the whole +evening. You'll be crying out for mercy about three or four +o'clock in the morning.' + +'It's you to go on now,' said Katie, whose eyes were intent on +the figure, and who would not have gone wrong herself, or allowed +her partner to do so, on any consideration. And so the dance went +on right merrily. + +'I've got to dance the first polka with Miss Golightly,' said +Charley. + +'And the next with me,' said Katie. + +'You may be sure I shan't forget that.' + +'You lucky man to get Miss Golightly for a partner. I am told she +is the most beautiful dancer in the world.' + +'O no--Mademoiselle.......is much better,' said Charley, naming +the principal stage performer of the day. 'If one is to go the +whole hog, one had better do it thoroughly.' + +Katie did not quite understand then what he meant, and merely +replied that she would look at the performance. In this, however, +she was destined to be disappointed, for Charley had hardly left +her before Miss Golightly brought up to her the identical M. +Delabarbe de l'Empereur who had so terribly put her out in the +gardens. This was done so suddenly, that Katie's presence of mind +was quite insufficient to provide her with any means of escape. +The Frenchman bowed very low and said nothing. Katie made a +little curtsy, and was equally silent. Then she felt her own arm +gathered up and put within his, and she stood up to take her +share in the awful performance. She felt herself to be in such a +nervous fright that she would willingly have been home again at +Hampton if she could; but as this was utterly impossible, she had +only to bethink herself of her steps, and get through the work as +best she might. + +Away went Charley and Clementina leading the throng; away went M. +Jaquêtanàpe and Linda; away went another Frenchman, clasping in +his arms the happy Ugolina. Away went Lactimel with a young +Weights and Measures--and then came Katie's turn. She pressed +her lips together, shut her eyes, and felt the tall Frenchman's +arms behind her back, and made a start. 'Twas like plunging into +cold water on the first bathing day of the season--'_ce n'est +que le premier pas que coute._' When once off Katie did not +find it so bad. The Frenchman danced well, and Katie herself was +a wicked little adept. At home, at Surbiton, dancing with another +girl, she had with great triumph tired out the fingers both of +her mother and sister, and forced them to own that it was +impossible to put her down. M. de l'Empereur, therefore, had his +work before him, and he did it like a man--as long as he could. + +Katie, who had not yet assumed the airs or will of a grown-up +young lady, thought that she was bound to go on as long as her +grand partner chose to go with her. He, on the other hand, +accustomed in his gallantry to obey all ladies' wishes, +considered himself bound to leave it to her to stop when she +pleased. And so they went on with apparently interminable +gyrations. Charley and the heiress had twice been in motion, and +had twice stopped, and still they were going on; Ugolina had +refreshed herself with many delicious observations, and Lactimel +had thrice paused to advocate dancing for the million, and still +they went on; the circle was gradually left to themselves, and +still they went on; people stood round, some admiring and others +pitying; and still they went on. Katie, thinking of her steps and +her business, did not perceive that she and her partner were +alone; and ever and anon, others of course joined in--and so they +went on--and on--and on. + +M. Delabarbe de l'Empereur was a strong and active man, but he +began to perceive that the lady was too much for him. He was +already melting away with his exertions, while his partner was as +cool as a cucumber. She, with her active young legs, her lightly +filled veins, and small agile frame, could have gone on almost +for ever; but M. de l'Empereur was more encumbered. Gallantry was +at last beat by nature, his overtasked muscles would do no more +for him, and he was fain to stop, dropping his partner into a +chair, and throwing himself in a state of utter exhaustion +against the wall. + +Katie was hardly out of breath as she received the +congratulations of her friends; but at the moment she could not +understand why they were quizzing her. In after times, however, +she was often reproached with having danced a Frenchman to death +in the evening, in revenge for his having bored her in the +morning. It was observed that M. Delabarbe de l'Empereur danced +no more that evening. Indeed, he very soon left the house. + +Katie had not been able to see Miss Golightly's performance, but +it had been well worth seeing. She was certainly no ordinary +performer, and if she did not quite come up to the remarkable +movements which one sees on the stage under the name of dancing, +the fault was neither in her will nor her ability, but only in +her education. Charley also was peculiarly well suited to give +her 'ample verge and room enough' to show off all her perfections. +Her most peculiar merit consisted, perhaps, in her power of stopping +herself suddenly, while going on at the rate of a hunt one way, and +without any pause or apparent difficulty going just as fast the other +way. This was done by a jerk which must, one would be inclined to +think, have dislocated all her bones and entirely upset her internal +arrangements. But no; it was done without injury, or any disagreeable +result either to her brain or elsewhere. We all know how a steamer +is manoeuvred when she has to change her course, how we stop +her and ease her and back her; but Miss Golightly stopped and +eased and backed all at once, and that without collision with +any other craft. It was truly very wonderful, and Katie ought to +have looked at her. + +Katie soon found occasion to cast off her fear that her evening's +happiness would be destroyed by a dearth of partners. Her +troubles began to be of an exactly opposite description. She had +almost envied Miss Golightly her little book full of engagements, +and now she found herself dreadfully bewildered by a book of her +own. Some one had given her a card and a pencil, and every moment +she could get to herself was taken up in endeavouring to guard +herself from perfidy on her own part. All down the card, at +intervals which were not very far apart, there were great C's, +which stood for Charley, and her firmest feeling was that no +earthly consideration should be allowed to interfere with those +landmarks. And then there were all manner of hieroglyphics-- +sometimes, unfortunately, illegible to Katie herself--French +names and English names mixed together in a manner most +vexatious; and to make matters worse, she found that she had put +down both Victoire Jaquêtanàpe and Mr. Johnson of the Weights, by +a great I, and she could not remember with whom she was bound to +dance the lancers, and to which she had promised the last polka +before supper. One thing, however, was quite fixed: when supper +should arrive she was to go downstairs with Charley. + +'What dreadful news, Linda!' said Charley; 'did you hear it?' +Linda was standing up with Mr. Neverbend for a sober quadrille, +and Katie also was close by with her partner. 'Dreadful news +indeed!' + +'What is it?' said Linda. + +'A man can die but once, to be sure; but to be killed in such a +manner as that, is certainly very sad.' + +'Killed! who has been killed?' said Neverbend. + +'Well, perhaps I shouldn't say killed. He only died in the cab as +he went home.' + +'Died in a cab! how dreadful!' said Neverbend. 'Who? who was it, +Mr. Tudor?' + +'Didn't you hear? How very odd! Why M. de l'Empereur, to be sure. +I wonder what the coroner will bring it in.' + +'How can you talk such nonsense, Charley?' said Linda. + +'Very well, Master Charley,' said Katie. 'All that comes of being +a writer of romances. I suppose that's to be the next contribution +to the _Daily Delight_.' + +Neverbend went off on his quadrille not at all pleased with the +joke. Indeed, he was never pleased with a joke, and in this +instance he ventured to suggest to his partner that the idea of a +gentleman expiring in a cab was much too horrid to be laughed at. + +'Oh, we never mind Charley Tudor,' said Linda; 'he always goes on +in that way. We all like him so much.' + +Mr. Neverbend, who, though not very young, still had a +susceptible heart within his bosom, had been much taken by +Linda's charms. He already began to entertain an idea that as a +Mrs. Neverbend would be a desirable adjunct to his establishment +at some future period, he could not do better than offer himself +and his worldly goods to the acceptance of Miss Woodward; he +therefore said nothing further in disparagement of the family +friend; but he resolved that no such alliance should ever induce +him to make Mr. Charles Tudor welcome at his house. But what +could he have expected? The Internal Navigation had ever been a +low place, and he was surprised that the Hon. Mrs. Val should +have admitted one of the navvies inside her drawing-room. + +And so the ball went on. Mr. Johnson came duly for the lancers, +and M. Jaquêtanàpe for the polka. Johnson was great at the +lancers, knowing every turn and vagary in that most intricate and +exclusive of dances; and it need hardly be said that the polka +with M. Jaquêtanàpe was successful. The last honour, however, was +not without evil results, for it excited the envy of Ugolina, +who, proud of her own performance, had longed, but hitherto in +vain, to be whirled round the room by that wondrously expert +foreigner. + +'Well, my dear,' said Ugolina, with an air that plainly said that +Katie was to be treated as a child, 'I hope you have had dancing +enough.' + +'Oh, indeed I have not,' said Katie, fully appreciating the +purport and cause of her companion's remark; 'not near enough.' + +'Ah--but, my dear--you should remember,' said Ugolina; 'your +mamma will be displeased if you fatigue yourself.' + +'My mamma is never displeased because we amuse ourselves, and I +am not a bit fatigued;' and so saying Katie walked off, and took +refuge with her sister Gertrude. What business had any Ugolina +Neverbend to interfere between her and her mamma? + +Then came the supper. There was a great rush to get downstairs, +but Charley was so clever that even this did not put him out. Of +course there was no sitting down; which means that the bashful, +retiring, and obedient guests were to stand on their legs; while +those who were forward, and impudent, and disobedient, found +seats for themselves wherever they could. Charley was certainly +among the latter class, and he did not rest therefore till he had +got Katie into an old arm-chair in one corner of the room, in +such a position as to enable himself to eat his own supper +leaning against the chimney-piece. + +'I say, Johnson,' said he, 'do bring me some ham and chicken-- +it's for a lady--I'm wedged up here and can't get out--and, +Johnson, some sherry.' + +The good-natured young Weights obeyed, and brought the desired +provisions. + +'And Johnson--upon my word I'm sorry to be so troublesome--but +one more plateful if you please--for another lady--a good deal, +if you please, for this lady, for she's very hungry; and some +more sherry.' + +Johnson again obeyed--the Weights are always obedient--and +Charley of course appropriated the second portion to his own +purposes. + +'Oh, Charley, that was a fib--now wasn't it? You shouldn't have +said it was for a lady.' + +'But then I shouldn't have got it.' + +'Oh, but that's no reason; according to that everybody might tell +a fib whenever they wanted anything.' + +'Well, everybody does--everybody except you, Katie.' + +'O no,' said Katie--'no they don't--mamma, and Linda, and +Gertrude never do; nor Harry Norman, he never does, nor Alaric.' + +'No, Harry Norman never does,' said Charley, with something like +vexation in his tone. He made no exception to Katie's list of +truth-tellers, but he was thinking within himself whether Alaric +had a juster right to be in the catalogue than himself. 'Harry +Norman never does, certainly. You must not compare me with them, +Katie. They are patterns of excellence. I am all the other way, +as everybody knows.' He was half laughing as he spoke, but +Katie's sharp ear knew that he was more than half in earnest, and +she felt she had pained him by what she had said. + +'Oh, Charley, I didn't mean that; indeed I did not. I know that +in all serious things you are as truthful as they are--and quite +as good--that is, in many ways.' Poor Katie! she wanted to +console him, she wanted to be kind, and yet she could not be +dishonest. + +'Quite as good! no, you know I am not.' + +'You are as good-hearted, if not better; and you will be as +steady, won't you, Charley? I am sure you will; and I know you +are more clever, really more clever than either of them.' + +'Oh! Katie.' + +'I am quite sure you are. I have always said so; don't be angry +with me for what I said.' + +'Angry with you! I couldn't be angry with you.' + +'I wouldn't, for the world, say anything to vex you. I like you +better than either of them, though Alaric is my brother-in-law. +Of course I do; how could I help it, when you saved my life?' + +'Saved your life! Pooh! I didn't save your life. Any boy could +have done the same, or any waterman about the place. When you +fell in, the person who was nearest you pulled you out, that was +all.' + +There was something almost approaching to ferocity in his voice +as he said this; and yet when Katie timidly looked up she saw +that he had turned his back to the room, and that his eyes were +full of tears. He had felt that he was loved by this child, but +that he was loved from a feeling of uncalled-for gratitude. He +could not stop to analyse this, to separate the sweet from the +bitter; but he knew that the latter prevailed. It is so little +flattering to be loved when such love is the offspring of +gratitude. And then when that gratitude is unnecessary, when it +has been given in mistake for supposed favours, the acceptance of +such love is little better than a cheat! + +'That was not all,' said Katie, very decidedly. 'It never shall +be all in my mind. If you had not been with us I should now have +been drowned, and cold, and dead; and mamma! where would she have +been? Oh! Charley, I shall think myself so wicked if I have said +anything to vex you.' + +Charley did not analyse his feelings, nor did Katie analyse hers. +It would have been impossible for her to do so. But could she +have done it, and had she done it, she would have found that her +gratitude was but the excuse which she made to herself for a +passionate love which she could not have excused, even to +herself, in any other way. + +He said everything he could to reassure her and make her happy, +and she soon smiled and laughed again. + +'Now, that's what my editor would call a Nemesis,' said Charley. + +'Oh, that's a Nemesis, is it?' + +'Johnson was cheated into doing my work, and getting me my +supper; and then you scolded me, and took away my appetite, so +that I couldn't eat it; that's a Nemesis. Johnson is avenged, +only, unluckily, he doesn't know it, and wickedness is punished.' + +'Well, mind you put it into the _Daily Delight_. But all the +girls are going upstairs; pray let me get out,' and so Katie went +upstairs again. + +It was then past one. About two hours afterwards, Gertrude, +looking for her sister that she might take her home, found her +seated on a bench, with her feet tucked under her dress. She was +very much fatigued, and she looked to be so; but there was still +a bright laughing sparkle in her eye, which showed that her +spirits were not even yet weary. + +'Well, Katie, have you had enough dancing?' + +'Nearly,' said Katie, yawning. + +'You look as if you couldn't stand.' + +'Yes, I am too tired to stand; but still I think I could dance a +little more, only--' + +'Only what?' + +'Whisper,' said Katie; and Gertrude put down her ear near to her +sister's lips. 'Both my shoes are quite worn out, and my toes are +all out on the floor.' + +It was clearly time for them to go home, so away they all went. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +EXCELSIOR + + +The last words that Katie spoke as she walked down Mrs. Val's +hall, leaning on Charley's arm, as he led her to the carriage, +were these-- + +'You will be steady, Charley, won't you? you will try to be +steady, won't you, dear Charley?' and as she spoke she almost +imperceptibly squeezed the arm on which she was leaning. Charley +pressed her little hand as he parted from her, but he said +nothing. What could he say, in that moment of time, in answer to +such a request? Had he made the reply which would have come most +readily to his lips, it would have been this: 'It is too late, +Katie--too late for me to profit by a caution, even from you--no +steadiness now will save me.' Katie, however, wanted no other +answer than the warm pressure which she felt on her hand. + +And then, leaning back in the carriage, and shutting her eyes, +she tried to think quietly over the events of the night. But it +was, alas! a dream, and yet so like reality that she could not +divest herself of the feeling that the ball was still going on. +She still seemed to see the lights and hear the music, to feel +herself whirled round the room, and to see others whirling, +whirling, whirling on every side of her. She thought over all the +names on her card, and the little contests that had taken place +for her hand, and all Charley's jokes, and M. de l'Empereur's +great disaster; and then as she remembered how long she had gone +on twisting round with the poor unfortunate ill-used Frenchman, +she involuntarily burst out into a fit of laughter. + +'Good gracious, Katie, what is the matter? I thought you were +asleep,' said Gertrude. + +'So did I,' said Linda. 'What on earth can you be laughing at +now?' + +'I was laughing at myself,' said Katie, still going on with her +half-suppressed chuckle, 'and thinking what a fool I was to go on +dancing so long with that M. de l'Empereur. Oh dear, Gertrude, I +am so tired: shall we be home soon?' and then she burst out +crying. + +The excitement and fatigue of the day had been too much for her, +and she was now completely overcome. Ugolina Neverbend's advice, +though not quite given in the kindest way, had in itself been +good. Mrs. Woodward would, in truth, have been unhappy could she +have seen her child at this moment. Katie made an attempt to +laugh off her tears, but she failed, and her sobs then became +hysterical, and she lay with her head on her married sister's +shoulder, almost choking herself in her attempts to repress them. + +'Dear Katie, don't sob so,' said Linda--'don't cry, pray don't +cry, dear Katie.' + +'She had better let it have its way,' said Gertrude; 'she will be +better directly, won't you, Katie?' + +In a little time she was better, and then she burst out laughing +again. 'I wonder why the man went on when he was so tired. What a +stupid man he must be!' + +Gertrude and Linda both laughed in order to comfort her and bring +her round. + +'Do you know, I think it was because he didn't know how to say +'stop' in English;' and then she burst out laughing again, and +that led to another fit of hysterical tears. + +When they reached home Gertrude and Linda soon got her into bed. +Linda was to sleep with her, and she also was not very long in +laying her head on her pillow. But before she did so Katie was +fast asleep, and twice in her sleep she cried out, 'Oh, Charley! +Oh, Charley!' Then Linda guessed how it was with her sister, and +in the depths of her loving heart she sorrowed for the coming +grief which she foresaw. + +When the morning came Katie was feverish, and had a headache. It +was thought better that she should remain in town, and Alaric +took Linda down to Hampton. The next day Mrs. Woodward came up, +and as the invalid was better she took her home. But still she +was an invalid. The doctor declared that she had never quite +recovered from her fall into the river, and prescribed quiet and +cod-liver oil. All the truth about the Chiswick fête and the five +hours' dancing, and the worn-out shoes, was not told to him, or +he might, perhaps, have acquitted the water-gods of the injury. +Nor was it all, perhaps, told to Mrs. Woodward. + +'I'm afraid she tired herself at the ball,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I think she did a little,' said Linda. + +'Did she dance much?' said Mrs. Woodward, looking anxiously. + +'She did dance a good deal,' said Linda. + +Mrs. Woodward was too wise to ask any further questions. + +As it was a fine night Alaric had declared his intention of +walking home from Mrs. Val's party, and he and Charley started +together. They soon parted on their roads, but not before Alaric +had had time to notice Charley's perverse stupidity as to Miss +Golightly. + +'So you wouldn't take my advice about Clementina?' said he. + +'It was quite impossible, Alaric,' said Charley, in an apologetic +voice. 'I couldn't do it, and, what is more, I am sure I never +shall.' + +'No, not now; you certainly can't do it now. If I am not very +much mistaken, the chance is gone. I think you'll find she +engaged herself to that Frenchman tonight.' + +'Very likely,' said Charley. + +'Well--I did the best I could for you. Good night, old fellow.' + +'I'm sure I'm much obliged to you. Good night,' said Charley. + +Alaric's suggestion with reference to the heiress was quite +correct: M. Jaquêtanàpe had that night proposed, and been duly +accepted. He was to present himself to his loved one's honourable +mother on the following morning as her future son-in-law, +comforted and supported in his task of doing so by an assurance +from the lady that if her mother would not give her consent the +marriage should go on all the same without it. How delightful to +have such a dancer for her lover! thought Clementina. That was +her 'Excelsior.' + +Charley walked home with a sad heart. He had that day given a +pledge that he would on the morrow go to the 'Cat and Whistle,' +and visit his lady-love. Since the night when he sat there with +Norah Geraghty on his knee, now nearly a fortnight since, he had +spent but little of his time there. He had, indeed, gone there +once or twice with his friend Scatterall, but had contrived to +avoid any confidential intercourse with either the landlady or +the barmaid, alleging, as an excuse for his extra-ordinary +absence, that his time was wholly occupied by the demands made on +it by the editor of the _Daily Delight_. Mrs. Davis, however, +was much too sharp, and so also we may say was Miss Geraghty, +to be deceived. They well knew that such a young man as +Charley would go wherever his inclination led him. Till lately it +had been all but impossible to get him out of the little back +parlour at the 'Cat and Whistle'; now it was nearly as difficult +to get him into it. They both understood what this meant. + +'You'd better take up with Peppermint and have done with it,' +said the widow. 'What's the good of your shilly-shallying till +you're as thin as a whipping-post? If you don't mind what you're +after he'll be off too.' + +'And the d---- go along with him,' said Miss Geraghty, who had +still about her a twang of the County Clare, from whence she +came. + +'With all my heart,' said Mrs. Davis; 'I shall save my hundred +pounds: but if you'll be led by me you'll not throw Peppermint +over till you're sure of the other; and, take my word for it, +you're----' + +'I hate Peppermint.' + +'Nonsense; he's an honest good sort of man, and a deal more +likely to keep you out of want than the other.' + +Hereupon Norah began to cry, and to wipe her beautiful eyes with +the glass-cloth. Hers, indeed, was a cruel position. Her face was +her fortune, and her fortune she knew was deteriorating from day +to day. She could not afford to lose the lover that she loved, +and also the lover that she did not love. Matrimony with her was +extremely desirable, and she was driven to confess that it might +very probably be either now or never. Much as she hated +Peppermint, she was quite aware that she would take him if she +could not do better. But then, was it absolutely certain that she +must lose the lover that so completely suited her taste? Mrs. +Davis said it was. Norah herself, confiding, as it is so natural +that ladies should do, a little too much in her own beauty, +thought that she couldn't but have a chance left. She also had +her high aspirations; she desired to rise in the world, to leave +goes of gin and screws of tobacco behind her, and to reach some +position more worthy of the tastes of a woman. 'Excelsior,' +translated doubtless into excellent Irish, was her motto also. It +would be so great a thing to be the wife of Charles Tudor, Esq., +of the Civil Service, and more especially as she dearly and truly +loved the same Charles Tudor in her heart of hearts. + +She knew, however, that it was not for her to indulge in the +luxury of a heart, if circumstances absolutely forbade it. To eat +and drink and clothe herself, and, if possible, to provide eating +and drinking and clothes for her future years, this was the +business of life, this was the only real necessity. She had +nothing to say in opposition to Mrs. Davis, and therefore she +went on crying, and again wiped her eyes with the glass-cloth. + +Mrs. Davis, however, was no stern monitor, unindulgent to the +weakness of human nature. When she saw how Norah took to heart +her sad fate, she resolved to make one more effort in her favour. +She consequently dressed herself very nicely, put on her best +bonnet, and took the unprecedented step of going off to the +Internal Navigation, and calling on Charley in the middle of his +office. + +Charley was poking over the Kennett and Avon lock entries, with +his usual official energy, when the office messenger came up and +informed him that a lady was waiting to see him. + +'A lady!' said Charley: 'what lady?' and he immediately began +thinking of the Woodwards, whom he was to meet that afternoon at +Chiswick. + +'I'm sure I can't say, sir: all that she said was that she was a +lady,' answered the messenger, falsely, for he well knew that the +woman was Mrs. Davis, of the 'Cat and Whistle.' + +Now the clerks at the Internal Navigation were badly off for a +waiting-room; and in no respect can the different ranks of +different public offices be more plainly seen than in the +presence or absence of such little items of accommodation as +this. At the Weights and Measures there was an elegant little +chamber, carpeted, furnished with leathern-bottomed chairs, and a +clock, supplied with cream-laid note-paper, new pens, and the +_Times_ newspaper, quite a little Elysium, in which to pass +half an hour, while the Secretary, whom one had called to see, +was completing his last calculation on the matter of the decimal +coinage. But there were no such comforts at the Internal +Navigation. There was, indeed, a little room at the top of the +stairs, in which visitors were requested to sit down; but even +here two men were always at work--at work, or else at play. + +Into this room Mrs. Davis was shown, and there Charley found her. +Long and intimately as the young navvy had been acquainted with +the landlady of the 'Cat and Whistle,' he had never before seen +her arrayed for the outer world. It may be doubted whether Sir +John Falstaff would, at the first glance, have known even Dame +Quickly in her bonnet, that is, if Dame Quickly in those days had +had a bonnet. At any rate Charley was at fault for a moment, and +was shaking hands with the landlady before he quite recognized +who she was. + +The men in the room, however, had recognized her, and Charley +well knew that they had done so. + +'Mr. Tudor,' she began, not a bit abashed, 'I want to know what +it is you are a-going to do?' + +Though she was not abashed, Charley was, and very much so. +However, he contrived to get her out of the room, so that he +might speak to her somewhat more privately in the passage. The +gentlemen at the Internal Navigation were well accustomed to this +mode of colloquy, as their tradesmen not unfrequently called, +with the view of having a little conversation, which could not +conveniently be held in the public room. + +'And, Mr. Tudor, what are you a-going to do about that poor girl +there?' said Mrs. Davis, as soon as she found herself in the +passage, and saw that Charley was comfortably settled with his +back against the wall. + +'She may go to Hong-Kong for me.' That is what Charley should +have said. But he did not say it. He had neither the sternness of +heart nor the moral courage to enable him to do so. He was very +anxious, it is true, to get altogether quit of Norah Geraghty; +but his present immediate care was confined to a desire of +getting Mrs. Davis out of the office. + +'Do!' said Charley. 'Oh, I don't know; I'll come and settle +something some of these days; let me see when--say next Tuesday.' + +'Settle something,' said Mrs. Davis. 'If you are an honest man, +as I take you, there is only one thing to settle; when do you +mean to marry her?' + +'Hush!' said Charley; for, as she was speaking, Mr. Snape came +down the passage leading from Mr. Oldeschole's room. 'Hush!' Mr. +Snape as he passed walked very slowly, and looked curiously round +into the widow's face. 'I'll be even with you, old fellow, for +that,' said Charley to himself; and it may be taken for granted +that he kept his word before long. + +'Oh! it is no good hushing any more,' said Mrs. Davis, hardly +waiting till Mr. Snape's erect ears were out of hearing. 'Hushing +won't do no good; there's that girl a-dying, and her grave'll be +a-top of your head, Mr. Tudor; mind I tell you that fairly; so +now I want to know what it to you're a-going to do.' And then +Mrs. Davis lifted up the lid of a market basket which hung on her +left arm, took out her pocket-handkerchief, and began to wipe her +eyes. + +Unfortunate Charley! An idea occurred to him that he might bolt +and leave her. But then the chances were that she would make her +way into his very room, and tell her story there, out before them +all. He well knew that this woman was capable of many things if +her temper were fairly roused. And yet what could he say to her +to induce her to go out from that building, and leave him alone +to his lesser misfortunes? + +'She's a-dying, I tell you, Mr. Tudor,' continued the landlady, +'and if she do die, be sure of this, I won't be slow to tell the +truth about it. I'm the only friend she's got, and I'm not going +to see her put upon. So just tell me this in two words--what is +it you're a-going to do?' And then Mrs. Davis replaced her +kerchief in the basket, stood boldly erect in the middle of the +passage, waiting for Charley's answer. + +Just at this moment Mr. Snape again appeared in the passage, +going towards Mr. Oldeschole's room. The pernicious old man! He +hated Charley Tudor; and, to tell the truth, there was no love +lost between them. Charley, afflicted and out of spirits as he +was at the moment, could not resist the opportunity of being +impertinent to his old foe: 'I'm afraid you'll make yourself very +tired, Mr. Snape, if you walk about so much,' said he. Mr. Snape +merely looked at him, and then hard at Mrs. Davis, and passed on +to Mr. Oldeschole's room. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor, will you be so good as to tell me what it is +you're going to do about this poor girl?' + +'My goodness, Mrs. Davis, you know how I am situated--how can you +expect me to give an answer to such a question in such a place as +this? I'll come to the 'Cat and Whistle' on Tuesday.' + +'Gammon!' said the eloquent lady. 'You know you means gammon.' + +Charley, perhaps, did mean gammon; but he protested that he had +never been more truthfully in earnest in his life. Mr. Oldeschole's +door opened, and Mrs. Davis perceiving it, whipped out her +handkerchief in haste, and again began wiping her eyes, not +without audible sobs. 'Confound the woman!' said Charley to +himself; 'what on earth shall I do with her?' + +Mr. Oldeschole's door opened, and out of it came Mr. Oldeschole, +and Mr. Snape following him. What means the clerk had used to +bring forth the Secretary need not now be inquired. Forth they +both came, and passed along the passage, brushing close by +Charley and Mrs. Davis; Mr. Oldeschole, when he saw that one of +the clerks was talking to a woman who apparently was crying, +looked very intently on the ground, and passed by with a quick +step; Mr. Snape looked as intently at the woman, and passed very +slowly. Each acted according to his lights. + +'I don't mean gammon at all, Mrs. Davis--indeed, I don't--I'll be +there on Tuesday night certainly, if not sooner--I will indeed--I +shall be in a desperate scrape if they see me here talking to you +any longer; there is a rule against women being in the office at +all.' + +'And there's a rule against the clerks marrying, I suppose,' said +Mrs. Davis. + +The colloquy ended in Charley promising to spend the Saturday +evening at the 'Cat and Whistle,' with the view of then and there +settling what he meant to do about 'that there girl'; nothing +short of such an undertaking on his part would induce Mrs. Davis +to budge. Had she known her advantage she might have made even +better terms. He would almost rather have given her a written +promise to marry her barmaid, than have suffered her to remain +there till Mr. Oldeschole should return and see her there again. +So Mrs. Davis, with her basket and pocket-handkerchief, went her +way about her marketing, and Charley, as he returned to his room, +gave the strictest injunctions to the messenger that not, on any +ground or excuse whatever, was any woman to be again allowed to +see him at the office. + +When, therefore, on the fine summer morning, with the early +daylight all bright around him, Charley walked home from Mrs. +Val's party, he naturally felt sad enough. He had one sixpence +left in his pocket; he was engaged to spend the evening of the +following day with the delightful Norah at the 'Cat and Whistle,' +then and there to plight her his troth, in whatever formal and +most irretrievable manner Mrs. Davis might choose to devise; and +as he thought of these things he had ringing in his ears the last +sounds of that angel voice, 'You will be steady, Charley, won't +you? I know you will, dear Charley--won't you now?' + +Steady! Would not the best thing for him be to step down to +Waterloo Bridge and throw himself over? He still had money enough +left to pay the toll--though not enough to hire a pistol. And so +he went home and got into bed. + +On that same day, the day that was to witness Charley's betrothal +to Miss Geraghty, and that of M. Jaquêtanàpe with Miss Golightly, +Alaric Tudor had an appointment with Sir Gregory Hardlines at the +new office of the Civil Service Examination Board. Alaric had +been invited to wait upon the great man, in terms which made him +perfectly understand that the communication to be made was one +which would not be unpleasing or uncomplimentary to himself. +Indeed, he pretty well guessed what was to be said to him. Since +his promotion at the Weights and Measures he had gone on rising +in estimation as a man of value to the Civil Service at large. +Nearly two years had now passed since that date, and in these +pages nothing has been said of his official career during the +time. It had, however, been everything that he or his friends +could have wished it to be. He had so put himself forward as +absolutely to have satisfied the actual chief clerk of his +office, and was even felt by some of the secretaries to be +treading very closely on their heels. + +And yet a great portion of his time had been spent, not at the +Weights and Measures, but in giving some sort of special +assistance to Sir Gregory's Board. The authorities at the Weights +and Measures did not miss him; they would have been well content +that he should have remained for ever with Sir Gregory. + +He had also become somewhat known to the official world, even +beyond the confines of the Weights and Measures, or the +Examination Board, He had changed his club, and now belonged to +the Downing. He had there been introduced by his friend Undy to +many men, whom to know should be the very breath in the nostrils +of a rising official aspirant. Mr. Whip Vigil, of the Treasury, +had more than once taken him by the hand, and even the Chancellor +of the Exchequer usually nodded to him whenever that o'ertasked +functionary found a moment to look in at the official club. + +Things had not been going quite smoothly at the Examination +Board. Tidings had got about that Mr. Jobbles was interfering +with Sir Gregory, and that Sir Gregory didn't like it. To be +sure, when this had been indiscreetly alluded to in the House by +one of those gentlemen who pass their leisure hours in looking +out for raws in the hide of the Government carcass, some other +gentleman, some gentleman from the Treasury bench, had been able +to give a very satisfactory reply. For why, indeed, should any +gentleman sit on the Treasury bench if he be not able, when so +questioned, to give very satisfactory replies? Giving satisfactory +replies to ill-natured questions is, one may say, the constitutional +work of such gentlemen, who have generally well learned how +to do so, and earned their present places by asking the selfsame +questions themselves, when seated as younger men in other +parts of the House. + +But though the answer given in this instance was so eminently +satisfactory as to draw down quite a chorus of triumphant +acclamations from the official supporters of Government, +nevertheless things had not gone on at the Board quite as +smoothly as might have been desirable. Mr. Jobbles was enthusiastically +intent on examining the whole adult male population of Great Britain, +and had gone so far as to hint that female competitors might, at +some future time, be made subject to his all-measuring rule and +compass. Sir Gregory, however, who, having passed his early +days in an office, may, perhaps, be supposed to have had some +slight prejudice remaining in favour of ancient customs, was not +inclined to travel so quickly. Moreover, he preferred following his +own lead, to taking any other lead whatever that Mr. Jobbles might +point out as preferable. + +Mr. Jobbles wanted to crush all patronage at a blow; any system +of patronage would lamentably limit the number of candidates +among whom his examination papers would be distributed. He longed +to behold, crowding around him, an attendance as copious as Mr. +Spurgeon's, and to see every head bowed over the posing questions +which he should have dictated. No legion could be too many for +him. He longed to be at this great work; but his energies were +crushed by the opposition of his colleagues. Sir Gregory thought +--and Sir Warwick, though he hardly gave a firm support to Sir +Gregory, would not lend his countenance to Mr. Jobbles--Sir +Gregory thought that enough would be done for the present, if +they merely provided that every one admitted into the Service +should be educated in such a manner as to be fit for any +profession or calling under the sun; and that, with this slight +proviso, the question of patronage might for the present remain +untouched. 'Do you,' he would have said to the great officers of +Government, 'appoint whom you like. In this respect remain quite +unfettered. I, however, I am the St. Peter to whom are confided +the keys of the Elysium. Do you send whatever candidates you +please: it is for me merely to say whether or not they shall +enter.' But Mr. Jobbles would have gone much farther. He would +have had all mankind for candidates, and have selected from the +whole mass those most worthy of the high reward. And so there was +a split at the Examination Board, which was not to be healed even +by the very satisfactory reply given by the Treasury gentleman in +the House of Commons. + +Neither Sir Gregory nor his rival were men likely to give way, +and it soon appeared manifest to the powers that be, that +something must be done. It therefore came to light that Mr. +Jobbles had found that his clerical position was hardly +compatible with a seat at a lay board, and he retired to the more +congenial duties of a comfortable prebendal stall at Westminster. +'So that by his close vicinity,' as was observed by a newspaper +that usually supported the Government, 'he might be able to be of +material use, whenever his advice should be required by the Board +of Commissioners.' Sir Gregory in the meantime was instructed to +suggest the name of another colleague; and, therefore, he sent +for Alaric Tudor. + +Alaric, of course, knew well what had been going on at the Board. +He had been Sir Gregory's confidential man all through; had +worked out cases for him, furnished him with arguments, backed +his views, and had assisted him, whenever such a course had been +necessary, in holding Mr. Jobbles' head under the pump. Alaric +knew well on which side his bread was buttered, and could see +with a glance which star was in the ascendant; he perfectly +understood the points and merits of the winning horse. He went in +to win upon Sir Gregory, and he won. When Mr. Jobbles made his +last little speech at the Board, and retired to his house in the +Dean's yard, Alaric felt tolerably certain that he himself would +be invited to fill the vacant place. + +And he was so invited. 'That is £1,200 a year, at any rate,' said +he to himself, as with many words of submissive gratitude he +thanked his patron for the nomination. 'That is £1,200 a year. So +far, so good. And now what must be the next step? Excelsior! It +is very nice to be a Commissioner, and sit at a Board at Sir +Gregory's right hand: much nicer than being a junior clerk at the +Weights and Measures, like Harry Norman. But there are nicer +things even than that; there are greater men even than Sir +Gregory; richer figures than even £1,200 a year!' + +So he went to his old office, wrote his resignation, and walked +home meditating to what next step above he should now aspire to +rise. 'Excelsior!' he still said to himself, 'Excelsior!' + +At the same moment Charley was leaving the Internal Navigation, +and as he moved with unusual slowness down the steps, he +bethought himself how he might escape from the fangs of his +Norah; how, if such might still be possible, he might fit himself +for the love of Katie Woodward. Excelsior! such also was the +thought of his mind; but he did not dare to bring the word to +utterance. It was destined that his thoughts should be interrupted +by no very friendly hand. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +OUTERMAN _v_ TUDOR + + +Charley sat at his office on the Saturday afternoon, very +meditative and unlike himself. What was he to do when his office +hours were over? In the first place he had not a shilling in the +world to get his dinner. His habit was to breakfast at home at +his lodgings with Harry, and then to dine, as best he might, at +some tavern, if he had not the good fortune to be dining out. He +had a little dinner bill at a house which he frequented in the +Strand; but the bill he knew had reached its culminating point. +It would, he was aware, be necessary that it should be decreased, +not augmented, at the next commercial transaction which might +take place between him and the tavern-keeper. + +This was not the first time by many in which he had been in a +similar plight--but his resource in such case had been to tell +the truth gallantly to his friend Mrs. Davis; and some sort of +viands, not at all unprepossessing to him in his hunger, would +always be forthcoming for him at the 'Cat and Whistle.' This +supply was now closed to him. Were he, under his present +circumstances, to seek for his dinner from the fair hands of +Norah Geraghty, it would be tantamount to giving himself up as +lost for ever. + +This want of a dinner, however, was a small misfortune in +comparison with others which afflicted him. Should or should he +not keep his promise to Mrs. Davis, and go to the 'Cat and +Whistle' that evening? That was the question which disturbed his +equanimity, and hindered him from teasing Mr. Snape in his usual +vivacious manner. + +And here let it not be said that Charley must be altogether +despicable in being so weak; that he is not only a vulgar rake in +his present habits, but a fool also, and altogether spiritless, +and of a low disposition. Persons who may so argue of him, who so +argue of those whom they meet in the real living world, are +ignorant of the twists and turns, and rapid changes in character +which are brought about by outward circumstances. Many a youth, +abandoned by his friends to perdition on account of his folly, +might have yet prospered, had his character not been set down as +gone, before, in truth, it was well formed. It is not one calf +only that should be killed for the returning prodigal. Oh, +fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, guardians, and elderly friends +in general, kill seven fatted calves if seven should unfortunately +be necessary! + +And then there was a third calamity. Charley had, at this moment, +in his pocket a certain document, which in civil but still +somewhat peremptory language invited him to meet a very +celebrated learned pundit, being no less than one of Her +Majesty's puisne judges, at some court in Westminster, to explain +why he declined to pay to one Nathaniel Outerman, a tailor, the +sum of &c., &c., &c.; and the document then went on to say, that +any hesitation on Charley's part to accept this invitation would +be regarded as great contempt shown to the said learned pundit, +and would be treated accordingly. Now Charley had not paid the +slightest attention to this requisition from the judge. It would, +he conceived, have been merely putting his head into the lion's +mouth to do so. But yet he knew that such documents meant +something; that the day of grace was gone by, and that Mr. +Nathaniel Outerman would very speedily have him locked up. + +So Charley sat meditative over his lock entries, and allowed even +his proposed vengeance on Mr. Snape to be delayed. + +'I say, Charley,' said Scatterall, coming over and whispering to +him, 'you couldn't lend me half a crown, could you?' + +Charley said nothing, but looked on his brother navvy in a manner +that made any other kind of reply quite unnecessary. + +'I was afraid it was so,' said Scatterall, in a melancholy voice. +And then, as if by the brilliance of his thought he had suddenly +recovered his spirits, he made a little proposition. + +'I'll tell you what you might do, Charley. I put my watch up the +spout last week. It's a silver turnip, so I only got fifteen +shillings; yours is a Cox and Savary, and it's gold. I'm sure +you'd get £3 for it easily--perhaps £3 3s. Now, if you'll do +that, and take my turnip down, I'll let you have the turnip to +wear, if you'll let me have ten shillings of the money. You see, +you'd get clear--let me see how much.' And Scatterall went to +work with a sheet of foolscap paper, endeavouring to make some +estimate of what amount of ready cash Charley might have in his +pocket on completion of this delicate little arrangement. + +'You be d--,' said Charley. + +'You'll not do it, then?' said Dick. + +Charley merely repeated with a little more emphasis the speech +which he had just before made. + +'Oh, very well,' said Scatterall; 'there couldn't have been a +fairer bargain; at least it was all on your side; for you would +have had the watch to wear, and nearly all the money too.' + +Charley still repeated the same little speech. This was uncivil; +for it had evidently been looked on by Scatterall as unsatisfactory. + +'Oh, very well,' said that gentleman, now in a state of mild +anger--' only I saw that you had a fine new purse, and I thought +you'd wish to have something to put in it.' + +Charley again repeated his offensive mandate; but he did it in a +spirit of bravado, in order to maintain his reputation. The +allusion to the purse made him sadder than ever. He put his hand +into his breast-pocket, and felt that it was near his heart: and +then he fancied that he again heard her words--'You will be +steady; won't you, dear Charley?' + +At four o'clock, he was by no means in his usual hurry to go +away, and he sat there drawing patterns on his blotting-paper, +and chopping up a stick of sealing-wax with his penknife, in a +very disconsolate way. Scatterall went. Corkscrew went. Mr. +Snape, having carefully brushed his hat and taken down from its +accustomed peg the old cotton umbrella, also took his departure; +and the fourth navvy, who inhabited the same room, went also. The +iron-fingered hand of time struck a quarter past four on the +Somerset House clock, and still Charley Tudor lingered at his +office. The maid who came to sweep the room was thoroughly +amazed, and knew that something must be wrong. + +Just as he was about to move, Mr. Oldeschole came bustling into +the room. 'Where is Corkscrew?' said he. 'Gone,' said Charley. +'And Scatterall?' asked Oldeschole. 'Gone, sir,' said Charley. +'And Mr. Snape?' said the Secretary. 'Oh, he is gone, of course,' +said Charley, taking his revenge at last. + +'Then, Mr. Tudor, I must trouble you to copy these papers for me +at once. They are wanted immediately for Sir Gregory Hardlines.' +It was quite clear that Mr. Oldeschole was very much in earnest +about the job, and that he was rejoiced to find that he still had +one clerk to aid him. + +Charley sat down and did the required work. On any other day he +would greatly have disliked such a summons, but now he did not +care much about it. He made the copies, however, as quickly as he +could, and then took them in to Mr. Oldeschole. + +The worthy Secretary rewarded him by a lecture; a lecture, +however, which, as Charley well understood, was intended all in +kindness. He told him how Mr. Snape complained of him, how the +office books told against him, how the clerks talked, and all +Somerset House made stories of his grotesque iniquities. With +penitential air Charley listened and promised. Mr. Oldeschole +promised also that bygones should be bygones. 'I wonder whether +the old cock would lend me a five-pound note! I dare say he +would,' said Charley to himself, as he left the office. He +abstained, however, from asking for it. + +Returning to his room, he took his hat and went downstairs. As he +was sauntering forth through the archway into the Strand, a man +with a decent coat but a very bad hat came up to him. + +'I'm afraid I must trouble you to go with me, Mr. Tudor,' said the man. + +'All right,' said Charley; 'Outerman, I suppose; isn't it?' + +'All right,' said the bailiff. + +And away the two walked together to a sponging-house in Cursitor +Street. + +Charley had been arrested at the suit of Mr. Outerman, the +tailor. He perfectly understood the fact, and made no special +objection to following the bailiff. One case was at any rate off +his mind; he could not now, be his will to do so ever so good, +keep his appointment with Norah Geraghty. Perhaps it was quite as +well for him to be arrested just at this moment, as be left at +liberty. It must have come sooner or later. So he walked on with +the bailiff not without some feeling of consolation. + +The man had suggested to him a cab; but Charley had told him, +without the slightest _mauvaise honte_, that he had not about +him the means of paying for a cab. The man again suggested that +perhaps he had better go home and get some money, as he would +find it in Cursitor Street very desirable to have some. To this Charley +replied that neither had he any money at home. + +'That's blue,' said the man. + +'It is rather blue,' said Charley; and on they went very amicably +arm-in-arm. + +We need not give any detailed description of Charley's prison- +house. He was luckily not detained there so long as to make it +necessary that we should become acquainted with his fellow- +captives, or even have much intercourse with his jailers. He was +taken to the sponging-house, and it was there imparted to him +that he had better send for two things--first of all for money, +which was by far the more desirable of the two; and secondly, for +bail, which even if forthcoming was represented as being at best +but a dubious advantage. + +'There's Mrs. Davis, she'd bail you, of course, and willing,' +said the bailiff. + +'Mrs. Davis!' said Charley, surprised that the man should know +aught of his personal acquaintances. + +'Yes, Mrs. Davis of the 'Cat and Whistle.' She'd do it in course, +along of Miss Geraghty.' + +Charley perceived with a shudder that his matrimonial +arrangements were known and talked of even in the distant world +of Cursitor Street. He declined, however, the assistance of the +landlady, which no doubt would have been willingly forthcoming, +and was divided between his three friends, Alaric, Harry, and Mr. +M'Ruen. Alaric was his cousin and his natural resource in such a +position, but he had lately rejected Alaric's advice, and now +felt a disinclination to call upon him in his difficulty. Harry +he knew would assist him, would at once pay Mr. Outerman's bill, +and relieve him from all immediate danger; but the sense of what +he already owed to Norman made him unwilling to incur further +obligations;--so he decided on sending for Mr. M'Ruen. In spite +of his being so poorly supplied with immediate cash, it was +surmised from his appearance, clothes, and known rank, that any +little outlay made in his behalf would be probably repaid, and he +was therefore furnished with a messenger on credit. This man was +first to call at Mr. M'Ruen's with a note, and then to go to +Charley's lodgings and get his brushes, razors, &c., these being +the first necessaries of life for which a man naturally looks +when once overtaken by such a misfortune as that with which +Charley was now afflicted. + +In the process of time the brushes and razors came, and so did +Mr. M'Ruen. + +'This is very kind of you,' said Charley, in rather a doleful +voice, for he was already becoming tired of Cursitor Street. + +Mr. M'Ruen twisted his head round inside his cravat, and put out +three fingers by way of shaking hands with the prisoner. + +'You seem pretty comfortable here,' said M'Ruen. Charley +dissented to this, and said that he was extremely uncomfortable. + +'And what is it that I can do for you, Mr. Tudor?' said M'Ruen. + +'Do for me! Why, bail me, to be sure; they won't let me out +unless somebody bails me. You know I shan't run away.' + +'Bail you!' said M'Ruen. + +'Yes, bail me,' said Charley. 'You don't mean to say that you +have any objection?' + +Mr. M'Ruen looked very sharply at his young client from head to +foot. 'I don't know about bail,' he said: 'it's very dangerous, +very; why didn't you send for Mr. Norman or your cousin?' + +'Because I didn't choose,' said Charley--'because I preferred +sending to some one I could pay for the trouble.' + +'Ha--ha--ha,' laughed M'Ruen; 'but that's just it--can you pay? +You owe me a great deal of money, Mr. Tudor. You are so +unpunctual, you know.' + +'There are two ways of telling that story,' said Charley; 'but +come, I don't want to quarrel with you about that now--you go +bail for me now, and you'll find your advantage in it. You know +that well enough.' + +'Ha--ha--ha,' laughed the good-humoured usurer; 'ha--ha--ha-- +well, upon my word I don't know. You owe me a great deal of +money, Mr. Tudor. Now, what o'clock is it by you, I wonder?' + +Charley took out his watch--the Cox and Savary, before alluded +to--and said that it was past seven. + +'Aye; you've a very nice watch, I see. Come, Mr. Tudor, you owe +me a great deal of money, and you are the most unpunctual young +man I know; but yet I don't like to see you distressed. I'll tell +you what, now--do you hand over your watch to me, just as a +temporary loan--you can't want it here, you know; and I'll come +down and bail you out to-morrow.' + +Charley declined dealing on these terms; and then Mr. M'Ruen at +last went away, leaving Charley to his fate, and lamenting quite +pathetically that he was such an unpunctual young man, so very +unpunctual that it was impossible to do anything to assist him. +Charley, however, manfully resisted the second attack upon his +devoted watch. + +'That's very blue, very blue indeed,' said the master of the +house, as Mr. M'Ruen took his departure--'ha'n't you got no +huncles nor hants, nor nothin' of that sort?' + +Charley declared that he had lots of uncles and aunts, +grandfathers and grandmothers, and a perfect wealth of cousins, +and that he would send for some of the leading members of his +family to-morrow. Satisfied with this, the man supplied him with +bread and cheese, gin and water, and plenty of tobacco; and, +fortified with these comforts, Charley betook himself at last +very lugubriously, to a filthy, uninviting bed., + +He had, we have seen, sent for his brushes, and hence came +escape; but in a manner that he had little recked of, and of +which, had he been asked, he would as little have approved. Mrs. +Richards, his landlady, was not slow in learning from the +messenger how it came to pass that Charley wanted the articles of +his toilet so suddenly demanded. 'Why, you see, he's just been +quodded,' said the boy. + +Mrs. Richards was quite enough up to the world, and had dealt +with young men long enough, to know what this meant; nor indeed +was she much surprised. She had practical knowledge that Charley +had no strong propensity to pay his debts, and she herself was +not unaccustomed to answer the emissaries of Mr. Outerman and +other greedy tradesmen who were similarly situated. To Mrs. +Richards herself Charley was not in debt, and she had therefore +nothing to embitter her own feelings against him. Indeed, she had +all that fondness for him which a lodging-house keeper generally +has for a handsome, dissipated, easy-tempered young man; and when +she heard that he had been 'quodded,' immediately made up her +mind that steps must be taken for his release. + +But what was she to do? Norman, who she was aware would 'unquod' +him immediately, if he were in the way, was down at Hampton, and +was not expected to be at his lodgings for two or three days. +After some cogitation, Mrs. Richards resolved that there was +nothing for it but to go down to Hampton herself, and break the +news to his friends. Charley would not have been a bit obliged to +her had he known it, but Mrs. Richards acted for the best. There +was a train down to Hampton Court that night, and a return train +to bring her home again--so off she started. + +Mrs. Woodward had on that same afternoon taken down Katie, who +was still an invalid;--Norman had gone down with them, and was to +remain there for some few days--going up and down every morning +and evening. Mrs. Woodward was sitting in the drawing-room; Linda +and Katie were with her, the latter lying in state on her sofa as +invalid young ladies should do; Captain Cuttwater was at Hampton +Court, and Norman was on the water; when a fly from the railway +made its way up to the door of the Cottage. + +'Mrs. Richards, ma'am,' said the demure parlour-maid, ushering in +the lodging-house keeper, who in her church-going best made a +very decent appearance. + +'Oh, Mrs. Richards, how are you?' said Mrs. Woodward, who knew +the woman very well--'pray sit down--are there any news from +London?' + +'Oh, ma'am, such news--such bad news--Mister Charley--.' Up +jumped Katie from her sofa and stood erect upon the floor. She +stood there, with her mouth slightly open, with her eyes intently +fixed on Mrs. Richards, with her little hands each firmly +clenched, drawing her breath with hard, short, palpitating +efforts. There she stood, but said nothing. + +'Oh, Mrs. Richards--what is it?' said Mrs. Woodward; 'for +Heaven's sake what is the matter?' + +'Oh, ma'am; he's been took,' said Mrs. Richards. + +'Took!' repeated Mrs. Woodward. 'Katie, dear Katie--sit down, my +child--sit down.' + +'Oh, mamma! oh, mamma!' said she, apparently unable to move, and +certainly all but unable to stand. + +'Tell us, Mrs. Richards, what is it--what has happened to Mr. +Tudor?' and as she spoke Mrs. Woodward got up and passed her arm +around her younger daughter's waist--Linda also got up and +joined the group. + +'Why, ma'am,' said Mrs. Richards, 'he's been took by the +bailiffs, and now he's in prison.' + +Katie did not faint. She never had fainted, and probably did not +know the way; but she clenched her hands still tighter, breathed +harder than before, and repeated her appeal to her mother in a +voice of agony. 'Oh, mamma! oh, mamma!' + +Katie had no very accurate conception of what an arrest for debt +meant. She knew that next to death imprisonment was the severest +punishment inflicted on erring mortals, and she now heard that +Charley was in prison. She did not stop to think whether it was +for his life, or for some more limited period. It was enough for +her to know, that this terrible misfortune had come upon him, to +him who, to her young fancy, was so bright, so good, so clever, +so excellent, upon him who had saved her life--upon him whom she +so dearly loved. + +'Oh, mamma! oh, mamma!' she said, and then in agony she shut her +eyes and shuddered violently. + +Mrs. Woodward was greatly afflicted. She was indeed sorry to hear +such tidings of Charley Tudor; but her grief was now deeper even +than that. She could not be longer blind to the sort of feeling +which her child evinced for this young man; she could not think +that these passionate bursts of overpowering sorrow were the +result of mere childish friendship; she could not but see that +her Katie's bosom now held a woman's heart, and that that heart +was no longer her own. + +And then Mrs. Woodward reflected of what nature, of what sort, +was this man whom she had allowed to associate with her darling, +almost as a brother does with his sister; whom she had warmed in +her bosom till he had found an opportunity of inflicting this +deadly wound. With terrible bitterness she upbraided herself as +she sat down and bade Mrs. Richards go on with her tale. She knew +that nothing which could now be said would add to Katie's +anguish. + +Mrs. Richards' story was soon told. It simply amounted to this-- +that 'Mister Charley,' as she always called him, had been +arrested for debt at the suit of a tailor, and that she had +learnt the circumstances from the fact of the prisoner having +sent for his brushes. + +'And so I thought the best thing was to come and tell Mr. +Norman,' said Mrs. Richards, concluding her speech. + +Nothing could be done till Norman came in. Linda went out with +Mrs. Richards to get some refreshment in the dining-room, and +Mrs. Woodward sat with her arm round Katie's neck on the sofa, +comforting her with kisses and little caressing touches, but +saying nothing. Katie, still unconscious of her passion, gave way +to spasmodic utterance of her own grief. + +'Oh, mamma!' she said--' what can be done? What can we do? You +will do something, mamma, won't you? Poor Charley! Dear Charley! +Harry will do something--won't he? Won't Harry go to London, and +do something?' + +Mrs. Woodward did what she could to quiet her. Something should +be done, she said. They must wait till Harry came in, and then +settle what was best. Nothing could be done till Harry came in. +'You must be patient, Katie, or else you will make yourself +really ill.' + +Katie became afraid that she would be sent off to bed on the +score of her illness before Harry had come, and thus lose the +advantage of hearing what was the step decided on. So she sat +silent in the corner of her sofa feigning to be asleep, but +pondering in her mind what sort of penalties were the penalties +of imprisonment, how dreadful, how endurable, or how unendurable. +Would they put chains on him? would they starve him? would they +cut off his beautiful brown hair? + +Mrs. Woodward sat silent waiting for Harry's return. When first +she had watched Katie's extreme misery, and guessed the secret of +her child's heart, she had felt something like hard, bitter anger +against Charley. But by degrees this feeling softened down. It +was by no means natural to her, nor akin to her usual tenderness. +After all, the fault hitherto was probably more her own than his. + +Mrs. Richards was sent back to town. She was thanked for the +trouble she had taken, and told that Mr. Norman would do in the +matter all that was necessary to be done. So she took her +departure, and Linda returned to the drawing-room. + +Unfortunately Captain Cuttwater came in first. They none of them +mentioned Charley's misfortune to him. Charley was no favourite +with Uncle Bat, and his remarks would not have been of the most +cheering tendency. + +At last Norman came also. He came, as was his wont, through the +drawing-room window, and, throwing himself into a chair, began to +tell the girls how much they had lost by not joining him on the +river. + +'Harry,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'step into the dining-room with me +for a moment.' + +Harry got up to follow her. Katie and Linda also instantly jumped +from their seats to do the same. Mrs. Woodward looked round, and +motioned to them to stay with their uncle. Linda obediently, +though reluctantly, remained; but Katie's impulse was too strong +for her. She gave one imploring look at her mother, a look which +Mrs. Woodward well understood, and then taking silence for +consent, crept into the dining-room. + +'Harry,' said Mrs. Woodward, as soon as the dining-room door was +closed, 'Charley has been arrested;' and then she told him how +Mrs. Richards had been at the Cottage, and what was the nature of +the tidings she had brought. + +Norman was not much surprised, nor did he feign to be so. He took +the news so coolly that Katie almost hated him. 'Did she say who +had arrested him, or what was the amount?' he asked. + +Mrs. Woodward replied that she knew no more than what she had +already told. Katie stood in the shade with her eyes fixed upon +her cousin, but as yet she said nothing. How cruel, how stony- +hearted must he be to hear such dreadful tidings and remain thus +undisturbed! Had Charley heard that Norman was arrested, he would +have been half way to London by this time. So, at least, thought +Katie. + +'Something can be done for him, Harry, can there not? We must +contrive to do something--eh, Harry?' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'I fear it is too late to do anything to-night,' said Harry, +looking at his watch. 'The last train is gone, and I could not +possibly find him out before twelve.' + +'And to-morrow is Sunday,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Oh, Harry, pray do something!' said Katie, 'pray, pray, pray, +do! Oh, Harry, think of Charley being in prison! Oh, Harry, he +would do anything for you!' and then she burst into tears, and +caught hold of Harry's arm and the front of his coat to add force +to her entreaty. + +'Katie,' said her mother, 'don't be so foolish. Harry will, of +course, do whatever is best.' + +'But, mamma, he says he will do nothing; why does he not go at +once?' + +'I will go at once, dear Katie,' said he; 'I will go now +directly. I don't know whether we can set him free to-night, or +even to-morrow, as to-morrow is Sunday; but it certainly shall be +done on Monday, you may be sure of that at any rate. Whatever can +be done shall be done;' and, without further talk upon the +subject, he took his hat and went his way. + +'May God Almighty bless him!' said Mrs. Woodward. 'How infinitely +greater are truth and honesty than any talent, however brilliant!' +She spoke only to herself and no one even guessed what was +the nature of the comparison which she thus made. + +As soon as Norman was gone, Katie went to bed: and in the morning +she was pronounced to be too unwell to get up. And, indeed, she +was far from well. During the night she only slept by short +starts, and in her sleep she was restless and uneasy; then, when +she woke, she would burst out into fits of tears, and lie sobbing +hysterically till she slept again. In the morning, Mrs. Woodward +said something about Charley's misconduct, and this threw her +into a wretched state of misery, from which nothing would rouse +her till her mother promised that the prodigal should not be +thrown over and abandoned. + +Poor Mrs. Woodward was in a dreadful state of doubt as to what it +now behoved her to do. She felt that, however anxious she might +be to assist Charley for his own sake, it was her bounden duty to +separate him from her child. Whatever merits he might have--and +in her eyes he had many--at any rate he had not those which a +mother would desire to see in the future husband of her daughter. +He was profligate, extravagant, careless, and idle; his prospects +in life were in every respect bad; he had no self-respect, no +self-reliance, no moral strength. Was it not absolutely necessary +that she should put a stop to any love that might have sprung up +between such a man as this and her own young bright-eyed darling? + +Put a stop to it! Yes, indeed, most expedient; nay, absolutely +necessary--if it were only possible. Now, when it was too late, +she began to perceive that she had not known of what material her +own child was formed. At sixteen, Gertrude and Linda had in +reality been little more than children. In manner, Katie had been +more childish even than them, and yet--Mrs. Woodward, as she +thought of these things, felt her heart faint within her. + +She was resolved that, cost what it might, Charley must be +banished from the Cottage. But at the first word of assumed +displeasure that she uttered, Katie fell into such an agony of +grief that her soft heart gave way, and she found herself obliged +to promise that the sinner should be forgiven. Katie the while +was entirely unconscious of the state of her own feelings. Had +she thought that she loved him as women love, had any thought of +such love and of him together even entered her mind, she could +not have talked of him as she now talked. Had he been her +brother, she could not have been less guarded in her protestations +of affection, or more open in her appeals to her mother that he +might be forgiven. Such was her present state; but it was doomed +that her eyes should soon be opened, and that she should know +her own sorrow. + +On the Sunday afternoon, Norman returned to Hampton with the +tidings that Charley was once more a free man. The key of gold +which he had taken with him had been found potent enough to open +all barriers, even those with which the sanctity of Sunday had +surrounded the prisoner. Mr. Outerman, and the bailiff, and the +messenger, had all been paid their full claims, and Charley, with +his combs and brushes, had returned to the more benign custody of +Mrs. Richards. + +'And why didn't he come down with you?' said Katie to Norman, who +had gone up to her bedroom to give her the good tidings. + +Norman looked at Mrs. Woodward, but made no reply. + +'He would probably prefer remaining in town at present,' said +Mrs. Woodward. 'It will be more comfortable for him to do so.' + +And then Katie was left alone to meditate why Charley should be +more comfortable after his arrest in London than at Hampton; and +after a while she thought that she had surmised the truth. 'Poor +Charley! perhaps he is ashamed. He need not be ashamed to come at +any rate to me.' + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +EASY IS THE SLOPE OF HELL + + +The electors for the Tillietudlem district burghs, disgusted by +the roguery of Mr. M'Buffer, and anxiously on the alert to +replace him by a strictly honest man, returned our friend Undy by +a glorious majority. He had no less than 312 votes, as opposed to +297, and though threatened with the pains and penalties of a +petition, he was not a little elated by his success. A petition +with regard to the Tillietudlem burghs was almost as much a +matter of course as a contest; at any rate the threat of a +petition was so. Undy, however, had lived through this before, +and did not fear but that he might do so again. Threatened folks +live long; parliamentary petitions are very costly, and Undy's +adversaries were, if possible, even in more need of money than +himself. + +He communicated his good fortune to his friend Alaric in the +following letter:-- + +'Bellenden Arms, Tillietudlem, July, 185-. + +'My DEAR DIRECTOR, + +'Here I am once more a constituent part of the legislative wisdom +of the United Kingdom, thanks to the patriotic discretion of the +pot-wallopers, burgage-tenants, and ten-pound freeholders of +these loyal towns. The situation is a proud one; I could only +wish that it had been less expensive. I am plucked as clean as +ever was pigeon; and over and above the loss of every feather I +carried, old M'Cleury, my agent here, will have a bill against me +that will hardly be settled before the next election. I do not +complain, however; a man cannot have luxuries without paying for +them; and this special luxury of serving one's country in +Parliament is one for which a man has so often to pay, without +the subsequent fruition of the thing paid for, that a successful +candidate should never grumble, however much he may have been +mulcted. They talk of a petition; but, thank God, there are still +such things as recognizances; and, moreover, to give M'Cleury his +due, I do not think he has left a hole open for them to work at. +He is a thorough rascal, but no man does better work. + +'I find there is already a slight rise in the West Corks. Keep +your eye open. If you find you can realize £4 4s. or even £4, +sell, and let the West of Cork and Ballydehob go straight to the +devil. We should then be able to do better with our money. But I +doubt of such a sale with so large a stock as we hold. I got a +letter yesterday from that Cork attorney, and I find that he is +quite prepared to give way about the branch. He wants his price, +of course; and he must have it. When once we have carried that +point, then it will be plain sailing; our only regret then will +be that we didn't go further into it. The calls, of course, must +be met; I shall be able to do something in October, but shall not +have a shilling sooner--unless I sell, which I will not do under +80s. + +'I was delighted to hear of your promotion; not that you'll +remain in the shop long, but it gives you a better name and a +better claim. Old Golightly was buried yesterday, as of course +you have heard. Mrs. Val quite agrees with me that your name had +better be put in as that of Clem's trustee. She's going to marry +that d---- Frenchman. What an unmitigated ass that cousin of +yours must be! I can't say I admire her taste; but nevertheless +she is welcome for me. It would, however, be most scandalous if +we were to allow him to get possession of her money. He would, as +a matter of course, make ducks and drakes of it in no time. +Speculate probably in some Russian railway, or Polish mine, and +lose every shilling. You will of course see it tied up tight in +the hands of the trustees, and merely pay him, or if possible +her, the interest of it. Now that I am once more in, I hope we +shall be able to do something to protect the fortunes of married +women. + +'You will be quite safe in laying out Clem's money, or a portion +of it, in the West Corks. Indeed, I don't know how you could well +do better with it. You will find Figgs a mere shadow. I think we +can pull through in this manner. If not we must get--to take our +joint bill. He would sooner do that than have the works stopped. +But then we should have to pay a tremendous price for it. + +'So we were well out of the Mary Janes at last. The take last +month was next to nothing, and now she's full of water. Manylodes +hung on till just the last, and yet got out on his feet after +all. That fellow will make a mint of money yet. What a pity that +he should be such a rogue! If he were honest, honest enough I +mean to be trusted, he might do anything. + +'I shall leave this on Wednesday night, take the oaths on +Thursday, and will see you in the evening. M'Carthy Desmond will +at once move that I be put on the West Cork Committee, in place +of Nogo, who won't act. My shares are all at present registered +in Val's name. It will be well, however, to have them all +transferred to you. + +'Yours ever, + +'U.S. + +'M'Cleury has pledged himself to put me in again without further +expense, if I have to stand before the next general election, in +consequence of taking place under Government. I earnestly hope +his sincerity may be tried.' + +During the month of July, Alaric was busy enough. He had to do +the work of his new office, to attend to his somewhat critical +duties as director of the West Cork Railway, to look after the +interests of Miss Golightly, whose marriage was to take place in +August, and to watch the Parliamentary career of his friend Undy, +with whose pecuniary affairs he was now bound up in a manner +which he could not avoid feeling to be very perilous. + +July passed by, and was now over, and members were looking to be +relieved from their sultry labours, and to be allowed to seek air +and exercise on the mountains. The Ballydehob branch line had +received the sanction of Parliament through the means which the +crafty Undy had so well understood how to use; but from some +cause hitherto not sufficiently fathomed, the shares had +continued to be depressed in value in spite of that desirable +event. It was necessary, however, that calls should be paid up to +the amount of £5 a share, and as Undy and Alaric held nearly a +thousand shares between them, a large amount of money was +required. This, however, was made to be forthcoming from Miss +Golightly's fortune. + +On the first of August that interesting young lady was married to +the man--shall we say of her heart or of her feet? The marriage +went off very nicely, but as we have already had one wedding, and +as others may perhaps be before us, we cannot spare much time or +many pages to describe how Miss Golightly became Madame +Jaquêtanàpe. The lady seemed well pleased with everything that +was done, and had even in secret but one care in the world. There +was to be a dance after she and her Victoire were gone, and she +could not join in it! + +We, however, are in the position, as regards Clementina, in which +needy gentlemen not unfrequently place themselves with reference +to rich heiresses. We have more concern with her money than +herself. She was married, and M. Jaquêtanàpe became the happy +possessor of an income of £800 a year. Everybody conceived him to +behave well on the occasion. He acknowledged that he had very +little means of his own--about 4,000 francs a year, from rents in +Paris. He expressed himself willing to agree to any settlement, +thinking, perhaps with wisdom, that he might in this way best +make sure of his wife's income, and was quite content when +informed that he would receive his quarterly payments from so +respectable a source as one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for +the regulation of the Civil Service. The Bank of France could not +have offered better security. + +Thus Alaric obtained full control of Miss Golightly's fortune: +for Figgs, his co-trustee, was, as has been said, a shadow. He +obtained the full control of £20,000, and out of it he paid the +calls due upon the West Cork shares, held both by himself and +Undy Scott. But he put a salve upon his conscience, and among his +private memoranda, appertaining to that lady's money affairs he +made an entry, intelligible to any who might read it, that he had +so invested this money on her behalf. The entry was in itself a +lie--a foolish, palpable lie--and yet he found in it something to +quiet remorse and stupefy his conscience. + +Undy Scott had become tyrannical in his logic as soon as he had +persuaded Alaric to make use of a portion of Madame Jaquêtanàpe's +marriage portion. 'You have taken part of the girl's money,' was +Undy's argument; 'you have already converted to your own purposes +so much of her fortune; it is absurd for you now to talk of +conscience and honesty, of your high duties as a trustee, of the +inviolable distinction between meum and tuum. You have already +shown that the distinction is not inviolable; let us have no more +such nonsense; there are still left £15,000 on which we can +trade; open the till, and let us go on swimmingly with the +business.' + +Alaric was not addressed absolutely in these words; he would not +probably have allowed the veil with which he still shrouded his +dishonesty to be withdrawn with so rough a hand; but that which +was said was in effect the same. In September he left town for a +few weeks and went down to Scotland, still with Undy Scott. He +had at first much liked this man's society, for Scott was gay, +lively, clever, and a good companion at all points. But latterly +he had become weary of him. He now put up with him as men in +business have to put up with partners whom they may not like; or, +perhaps, to speak the truth openly, he bore with him as a rogue +bears with his confederate, though he absolutely hates his +brother rogue on account of his very roguery. Alaric Tudor was +now a rogue; despite his high office, his grand ideas, his +exalted ambition; despite his talent, zeal, and well-directed +official labours, he was a rogue; a thief, a villain who had +stolen the money of the orphan, who had undertaken a trust merely +that he might break it; a robber, doubly disgraced by being a +robber with an education, a Bill Sykes without any of those +excuses which a philanthropist cannot but make for wretches +brought up in infamy. + +Alas, alas! how is it that in these days such men become rogues? +How is it that we see in such frightful instances the impotency +of educated men to withstand the allurements of wealth? Men are +not now more keen after the pleasures which wealth can buy than +were their forefathers. One would rather say that they are less +so. The rich labour now, and work with an assiduity that often +puts to shame the sweat in which the poor man earns his bread. +The rich rogue, or the rogue that would be rich, is always a +laborious man. He allows himself but little recreation, for +dishonest labour admits of no cessation. His wheel is one which +cannot rest without disclosing the nature of the works which move +it. It is not for pleasure that men + + Put rancours in the vessel of their peace; + +nor yet primarily for ambition. Men do not wish to rise by +treachery, or to become great through dishonesty. The object, the +ultimate object, which a man sets before himself, is generally a +good one. But he sets it up in so enviable a point of view, his +imagination makes it so richly desirable, by being gazed at it +becomes so necessary to existence, that its attainment is +imperative. The object is good, but the means of attaining it-the +path to the object-ah! there is the slip. Expediency is the +dangerous wind by which so many of us have wrecked our little +boats. + +And we do so more now than ever, because great ships, swimming in +deepest waters, have unluckily come safe to haven though wafted +there by the same pernicious wind. Every great man, who gains a +great end by dishonest means, does more to deteriorate his +country and lower the standard of his countrymen than legions of +vulgar thieves, or nameless unaspiring rogues. Who has injured us +so much in this way as he whose name still stands highest among +modern politicians? Who has given so great a blow to political +honesty, has done so much to banish from men's minds the idea of +a life-ruling principle, as Sir Robert Peel? + +It would shock many were we to attribute to him the roguery of +the Sadleirs and Camerons, of the Robsons and Redpaths of the +present day; but could we analyse causes and effects, we might +perhaps do so with no injustice. He has taught us as a great +lesson, that a man who has before him a mighty object may +dispense with those old-fashioned rules of truth to his +neighbours and honesty to his own principles, which should guide +us in ordinary life. At what point ordinary life ends, at what +crisis objects may be considered great enough to justify the use +of a dispensing power, that he has not taught us; that no Sir +Robert Peel can teach us; that must unfortunately be left to the +judgement of the individual. How prone we are, each of us, to +look on our own object as great, how ready to make excuses for +receiving such a lesson for our guide; how willing to think that +we may be allowed to use this dispensing power ourselves--this +experience teaches us in very plain language. + +Thrice in his political life did Sir Robert Peel change his +political creed, and carry, or assist to carry, with more or less +of self-gratulation, the measures of his adversaries. Thrice by +doing so he kept to himself that political power which he had +fairly forfeited by previous opposition to the requirements of +his country. Such an apposition of circumstances is at any rate +suspicious. But let us give him credit for the expression of a +true belief; of a belief at first that the corn-laws should be +maintained, and then of a belief that they should not; let us, +with a forced confidence in his personal honesty, declare so much +of him; nevertheless, he should surely have felt, had he been +politically as well as personally honest, that he was not the man +to repeal them.' + +But it was necessary, his apologist will say, that the corn-laws +should be repealed; he saw the necessity, and yielded to it. It +certainly was necessary, very necessary, very unavoidable; +absolutely necessary one may say; a fact, which the united +efforts of all the Peels of the day could in nowise longer delay, +having already delayed it to the utmost extent of their power. It +was essential that the corn-laws should be repealed; but by no +means essential that this should be done by Sir Robert Peel. + +It was a matter of indifference to us Englishmen who did the +deed. But to Sir Robert Peel it was a matter of great moment that +he should do it. He did it, and posterity will point at him as a +politician without policy, as a statesman without a principle, as +a worshipper at the altar of expediency, to whom neither vows +sworn to friends, nor declarations made to his country, were in +any way binding. Had Sir Robert Peel lived, and did the people +now resolutely desire that the Church of England should be +abandoned, that Lords and Commons should bow the neck, that the +Crown should fall, who can believe that Sir Robert Peel would not +be ready to carry out their views? Readers, it may be that to you +such deeds as those are horrible even to be thought of or +expressed; to me I own that they are so. So also to Sir Robert +Peel was Catholic Emancipation horrible, so was Reform of +Parliament, so was the Corn Law Repeal. They were horrible to +him, horrible to be thought of, horrible to be expressed. But the +people required these measures, and therefore he carried them, +arguing on their behalf with all the astuteness of a practised +statesman. + +That Sir Robert Peel should be a worshipper of expediency might +be matter of small moment to any but his biographer, were it not +that we are so prone to copy the example of those whose names are +ever in our mouths. It has now become the doctrine of a large +class of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, +subversive of a man's interests, and incompatible with quick +onward movement. Such a doctrine in politics is to be deplored; +but alas! who can confine it to politics? It creeps with gradual, +but still with sure and quick motion, into all the doings of our +daily life. How shall the man who has taught himself that he may +be false in the House of Commons, how shall he be true in the +Treasury chambers? or if false there, how true on the Exchange? +and if false there, how shall he longer have any truth within +him? + +And thus Alaric Tudor had become a rogue, and was obliged, as it +were in his own defence, to consort with a rogue. He went down to +Scotland with Undy, leaving his wife and child at home, not +because he could thus best amuse his few leisure days, but +because this new work of his, this laborious trade of roguery, +allowed him no leisure days. When can villany have either days +or hours of leisure? + +Among other things to be done in the north, Alaric was to make +acquaintance with the constituents of the little borough of +Strathbogy, which it was his ambition to represent in the next +Parliament. Strathbogy was on the confines of the Gaberlunzie +property; and indeed the lord's eldest son, who was the present +member, lived almost within the municipal boundary. Ca'stocks +Cottage, as his residence was called, was but a humble house for +a peer's eldest son; but Mr. Scott was not ashamed to live there, +and there for a while he entertained his brother Undy and Alaric +Tudor. Mr. Scott intended, when the present session was over, to +retire from the labours of parliamentary life. It may be that he +thought that he had done enough for his country; it may be that +the men of Strathbogy thought that he had not done enough for +them; it may be that there was some family understanding between +him and his brother. This, however, was clear, that he did not +intend to stand again himself, and that he professed himself +ready to put forward Alaric Tudor as a worthy successor, and to +give him the full benefit and weight of the Gaberlunzie interest. + +But not for nothing was Alaric to receive such important +assistance. + +'There are but 312 electors altogether,' said Undy one morning as +they went out shooting, 'and out of these we can command a +hundred and twenty. It must be odd if you cannot get enough +outsiders to turn them into a majority. Indeed you may look on it +as a certain seat. No man in England or Scotland could give you +one more certain.' + +This was not the first occasion on which Undy had spoken of all +that he was doing for his friend, and Alaric therefore, somewhat +disgusted with the subject, made no reply. + +'I never had things made so easy for me when I wasn't in,' +continued Undy; 'nor have I ever found them so easy since. I +don't suppose it will cost you above £500, or at most £600, +altogether.' + +'Well, that will be a comfort,' said Alaric. + +'A comfort! why I should say it would. What with the election and +petition together, Tillietudlem never cost me less than £2,000. +It cost me just as much, too, when I was thrown out.' + +'That was a bore for you,' said Alaric. + +'Upon my word you take it rather coolly,' said Undy; 'another man +would thank a fellow for putting such a nice thing in his way.' + +'If the obligation be so deep,' said Alaric, becoming very red in +the face, 'I would rather not accept it. It is not too late for +you to take the cheaper seat to yourself, if you prefer it; and I +will look elsewhere.' + +'Oh, of course; perhaps at Tillietudlem; but for Heaven's sake, +my dear fellow, don't let us quarrel about it. You are perfectly +welcome to whatever assistance we can give you at Strathbogy. I +only meant to say that I hope it will be efficacious. And on the +score of expense I'll tell you what we'll do--that is, if you +think that fair; we'll put the cost of the two elections +together, and share and share alike.' + +'Considering that the election will not take place for at least +more than twelve months, there will be time enough to settle +that,' said Alaric. + +'Well, that's true, too,' said Undy; and then they went on, and +for some time separated on the mountain, complaining, when they +met again, of the game being scarce and the dogs wild, as men +always do. But as they walked home, Undy, who regretted the loss +of good time, again began about money matters. + +'How many of those bridge shares will you take?' said he. This +was a projected bridge from Poplar to Rotherhithe, which had been +got up by some city gentlemen, and as to which Undy Scott was, or +pretended to be, very sanguine. + +'None,' said Alaric. 'Unless I can get rid of those confounded +West Cork and Ballydehobs, I can buy nothing more of anything.' + +'Believe me, my dear fellow, the Ballydehobs are no such +confounded things at all. If you are ever a rich man it will be +through the Ballydehobs. But what you say about the bridge shares +is nonsense. You have a large command of capital, and you cannot +apply it better.' + +Alaric winced, and wished in his heart that Clementina +Jaquêtanàpe, _née_ Golightly, with all her money, was buried +deep in the bogs of Ballydehob. Though he was a rogue, he could +not yet bear his roguery with comfort to himself. It sat, +however, as easy on Undy as though he had been to the manner +born. + +'I have no capital now at my disposal,' said he; 'and I doubt +whether I should be doing right to lay out a ward's money in such +a manner.' + +A slight smile came over Undy's gay unconcerned features; it was +very slight, but nevertheless it was very eloquent and very +offensive also. Alaric understood it well; it made him hate the +owner of it, but it made him hate himself still more. + +'It is as well to be hung for a sheep as for a lamb,' said Undy's +smile; 'and, moreover,' continued the smile, 'is it not +ridiculous enough for you, Alaric Tudor, rogue as you are, to +profess to me, Undy Scott, rogue as I am, any solicitude as to +your ward's welfare, seeing that you have already taken to +yourself, for your own dishonest purposes, a considerable slice +of the fortune that has been trusted to your keeping? You have +done this, and yet you talk to me of not having capital at your +disposal! You have capital, and you will dispose of that capital +for your own purposes, as long as a shilling remains uninvested +of your ward's money. We are both rogues. God knows it, and you +and I know it; but I am not such a hypocritical rogue as to make +mock boasts of my honesty to my brother rogue.' + +This was certainly a long speech to have been made by a smile +which crossed Mr. Scott's face but for a moment, but every word +of it was there expressed, and every word of it was there read. +Alaric did not at all like being addressed so uncivilly. It +seemed to tend but little to that 'Excelsior' for which his soul +panted; but what could he do? how could he help himself? Was it +not all true? could he contradict the smile? Alas! it was true; +it was useless for him now to attempt even to combat such smiles. +'Excelsior,' indeed! his future course might now probably be +called by some very different designation. Easy, very easy, is +the slope of hell. + +Before they had returned to Ca'stocks Cottage, Undy had succeeded +in persuading his friend that the game must be played on--on and +on, and out. If a man intends to make a fortune in the share- +market he will never do it by being bold one day and timid the +next. No turf betting-book can be made up safely except on +consistent principles. Half-measures are always ruinous. In +matters of speculation one attempt is made safe by another. No +man, it is true, can calculate accurately what may be the upshot +of a single venture; but a sharp fellow may calculate with a fair +average of exactness what will be the aggregate upshot of many +ventures. All mercantile fortunes have been made by the knowledge +and understanding of this rule. If a man speculates but once and +again, now and then, as it were, he must of course be a loser. He +will be playing a game which he does not understand, and playing +it against men who do understand it. Men who so play always lose. +But he who speculates daily puts himself exactly in the reversed +position. He plays a game which experience teaches him to play +well, and he plays generally against men who have no such +advantage. Of course he wins. + +All these valuable lessons did Undy Scott teach to Alaric Tudor, +and the result was that Alaric agreed to order--for self and +partner--a considerable number of shares in the Limehouse Bridge +Company. Easy, very easy, is the slope of hell. + +And then in the evening, on this evening and other evenings, on +all evenings, they talked over the prospects of the West Cork and +Ballydehob branch, and of the Limehouse Bridge, which according +to Undy's theory is destined to work quite a revolution in the +East-end circles of the metropolis. Undy had noble ideas about +this bridge. The shares at the present moment were greatly at a +discount--so much the better, for they could be bought at a +cheaper rate; and they were sure to rise to some very respectable +figure as soon as Undy should have played out with reference to +them the parliamentary game which he had in view. + +And so from morning to morning, and from night to night, they +talked over their unholy trade till the price of shares and the +sounds of sums of money entered into Alaric's soul. And this, +perhaps, is one of the greatest penalties to which men who embark +in such trade are doomed, that they can never shake off the +remembrance of their calculations; they can never drop the shop; +they have no leisure, no ease; they can never throw themselves +with loose limbs and vacant mind at large upon the world's green +sward, and call children to come and play with them. At the +Weights and Measures Alaric's hours of business had been from ten +to five. In Undy's office they continued from one noon till the +next, incessantly; even in his dreams he was working in the share +market. + +On his return to town Alaric found a letter from Captain +Cuttwater, pressing very urgently for the repayment of his money. +It had been lent on the express understanding that it was to be +repaid when Parliament broke up. It was now the end of October, +and Uncle Bat was becoming uneasy. + +Alaric, when he received the letter, crushed it in his hand, and +cursed the strictness of the man who had done so much for him. On +the next day another slice was taken from the fortune of Madame +Jaquêtanàpe; and his money, with the interest, was remitted to +Captain Cuttwater. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +MRS. WOODWARD'S REQUEST + + +We will now go back for a while to Hampton. The author, for one, +does so with pleasure. Though those who dwell there be not +angels, yet it is better to live with the Woodwards and Harry +Norman, with Uncle Bat, or even with the unfortunate Charley, +than with such as Alaric and Undy Scott. The man who is ever +looking after money is fitting company only for the devils, of +whom, indeed, he is already one. + +But Charley cannot any longer be called one of the Cottage +circle. It was now the end of October, and since the day of his +arrest, he had not yet been there. He had not been asked; nor +would he go uninvited, as after what had passed at Hampton Court +Bridge he surely might have done. + +And consequently they were all unhappy. No one was more so than +Charley. When the prospect of the happy evening with Norah had +been so violently interrupted by his arrest, he had, among his +other messages, sent word to the 'Cat and Whistle,' excusing his +absence by a statement of the true cause. From that day to this +of which we are now speaking he had seen neither Mrs. Davis nor +her fair protégée. + +Nor were they better contented at the Cottage. Mrs. Woodward was +harassed by different feelings and different fears, which +together made her very unhappy. Her Katie was still ill; not ill +indeed so that she was forced to keep her bed and receive daily +visits from pernicious doctors, but, nevertheless, so ill as to +make a mother very anxious. + +She had never been quite strong, quite herself, from the night of +Mrs. Val's dance. The doctor who had attended her declared that +her ducking in the river had given her cold: and that this, not +having been duly checked, still hung about her. Then she had been +taken to a physician in London, who poked her on the back and +tapped her on the breast, listened to her lungs through a wooden +pipe--such was the account which Katie gave herself when she +returned home--and prescribed rum and milk and cod-liver oil, +declaring, with an authoritative nod, that there was no organic +disease--as yet. + +'And what shall we do with her, doctor?' asked Mrs. Woodward. + +'Go on with the rum and milk and cod-liver oil, you can't do +better.' + +'And the cough, doctor?' + +'Why, if that doesn't go before the cold weather begins, you may +as well take her to Torquay for the winter.' + +Oh! consumption, thou scourge of England's beauty! how many +mothers, gasping with ill-suppressed fears, have listened to such +words as these--have listened and then hoped; listened again and +hoped again with fainter hopes; have listened again, and then +hoped no more! + +But there was much on Mrs. Woodward's mind which she could not +bring herself to tell to any doctor, but which still left in her +breast an impression that she was perhaps keeping back the true +cause of Katie's illness. Charley had not been at Hampton since +his arrest, and it was manifest to all that Katie was therefore +wretched. + +'But why do you not ask him, mamma?' she had urged when her +mother suggested that he stayed away because he did not like to +show himself after what had occurred. 'What will he think of us? +he that saved my life, mamma! Oh, mamma! you promised to forgive +him. Do ask him. You know he will come if you ask him.' + +Mrs. Woodward could not explain to her--could not explain to any +one--why she did not invite him. Norman guessed it all, and Mrs. +Woodward saw that he had done so; but still she could not talk to +him of Katie's feelings, could not tell him that she feared her +child was heart-laden with so sad a love. So Mrs. Woodward had no +confidant in her sorrow, no counsel which she could seek to aid +her own wavering judgement. It was prudent, she thought, that +Katie and Charley should be kept apart. Prudent! was it not even +imperative on her to save her child from such a fate? But then, +when she saw the rosy cheek grow pale by degrees, as she watched +the plump little arms grow gradually thin and wan, as those high +spirits fell, and that voice which had ever been so frequent in +the house and so clear,--when the sound of it became low and +rare, then her heart would misgive her, and she would all but +resolve to take the only step which she knew would bring a bright +gleam on her child's face, and give a happy tone to her darling's +voice. + +During the earlier portion of these days, Katie had with eager +constancy reiterated her request that Charley should be asked to +Hampton; but of a sudden her prayers ceased. She spoke no more of +Charley, asked no longer after his coming, ceased even to inquire +frequently of his welfare. But yet, when his name was mentioned, +she would open wide her bright eyes, would listen with all her +ears, and show only too plainly to one who watched her as a +mother only can watch, what were the thoughts which filled her +heart. + +'Linda,' she had said one night, as they sat in their room, +preparing themselves for bed, 'Linda, why does not mamma invite +Charley to come down to Hampton?' + +'Oh! I don't know,' said Linda; who, however, if she did not +know, was not far wrong in the guess she made. 'I suppose she +thinks he'd be ashamed to show himself after having been in +prison.' + +'Ashamed! Why should he be ashamed after so long? Didn't you hear +Harry say that the same thing often happens to young men? Is he +never to come here again? Dear Linda, I know you know; do tell +me.' + +'Well, I'm sure I do not know, if that's not the reason.' + +'Oh! Linda, dear Linda, yes, you do,' said Katie, throwing +herself on her knees, resting her arms on her sister's lap, and +looking up wistfully into her sister's face. Her long hair was +streaming down her back; her white, naked feet peeped out from +beneath her bedroom dress, and large tears glistened in her eyes. +Who could have resisted the prayers of such a suppliant? +Certainly not Linda, the soft-hearted Linda. + +'Do tell me,' continued Katie, 'do tell me--I am sure you know; +and, Linda, if it is wrong to ask mamma about it, I'll never, +never ask her again. I know mamma is unhappy about it. If my +asking is wrong, I'll not make her unhappy any more in that way.' + +Linda, for a while, did not know what to answer. Her hesitating +manner immediately revealed to Katie that there was a secret, and +that her sister could tell it if she would. + +'Oh! Linda, do tell me, do tell me, dear Linda; you ought to tell +me for mamma's sake.' + +At last, with much hesitation, Linda told her the whole tale. + +'Perhaps mamma thinks that you are too fond of Charley.' + +An instant light flashed across Katie's heart--across her heart, +and brain, and senses. Not another word was necessary to explain +to her the whole mystery, to tell the whole tale, to reveal to +her the secret of her own love, of her mother's fears, and of his +assumed unwillingness. She got up slowly from her knees, kissed +her sister's cheek and neck, smiled at her so sweetly, so sadly, +and then sitting on her old seat, began playing with her long +hair, and gazing at vacancy. + +'It is only what I guess, you know, Katie--you would make me tell +you, but I am sure there is nothing in it.' + +'Dear Linda,' said she, 'you are so good; I am so much obliged to +you.' + +After that Katie spoke no further of Charley. But it was evident +to them all, that though she said nothing, she had not ceased to +think of him. Nor did her cheek again become rosy, nor her arms +round, nor her voice happy. She got weaker than ever, and poor +Mrs. Woodward was overcome with sorrow. + +Nor was this the only cause of grief at Surbiton Cottage. During +the last few weeks a bitter estrangement had taken place between +the Woodwards and the Tudors, Alaric Tudor, that is, and +Gertrude. Two years had now passed since Norman had chosen to +quarrel with Alaric, and during all that period the two had never +spoken amicably together, though they had met on business very +frequently; on all such occasions Alaric had been unperturbed and +indifferent, whereas Norman had been gloomy, and had carried a +hostile brow and angry eye. At their period of life, two years +generally does much to quiet feelings of ill-will and pacify +animosity; but Norman's feelings had by no means been quieted, +nor his animosity pacified. He had loved Alaric with a close and +manly love; now he hated him with a close and, I fear I may say, +a manly hatred. Alaric had, as he thought, answered his love by +treachery; and there was that in Norman's heart which would not +allow him to forgive one who had been a traitor to him. He had +that kind of selfishness so common to us, but of which we are so +unconscious, which will not allow us to pardon a sin against our +own _amour propre_. Alaric might have been forgiven, though +he had taken his friend's money, distanced him in his office, +though he had committed against him all offences which one friend +can commit against another, all but this. Norman had been proud +of his love, and yet ashamed of it--proud of loving such a girl +as Gertrude, and ashamed of being known to be in love at all. He +had confided his love to Alaric, and Alaric had robbed him of his +love, and wounded both his pride and his shame. + +Norman lacked the charity which should have been capable of +forgiving even this. He now looked at all Alaric's doings through +a different glass from that which he had used when Alaric had +been dear to him. He saw, or thought that he saw, that his +successful rival was false, ambitious, treacherous, and +dishonest; he made no excuses for him, gave him no credit for his +industry, accorded no admiration to his talent. He never spoke +ill of Alaric Tudor, to others; but he fed his own heart with +speaking and thinking ill of him to himself. + +Of Gertrude he thought very differently. He had taught himself to +disconnect her from the treachery of her husband--or rather her +memory; for, from the day on which he had learnt that she was +engaged to Alaric, he had never seen her. He still loved the +remembrance of her. In his solitary walks with Mrs. Woodward he +would still speak of her as he might of one in some distant +clime, for whose welfare he was deeply interested. He had seen +and caressed her baby at Hampton. She was still dear to him. Had +Alaric been called to his long account, it would have been his +dearest wish to have become at some future tune the husband of +his widow. + +To all these feelings on Norman's part Alaric was very +indifferent; but their existence operated as a drawback on his +wife's comfort, and, to a certain degree, on his own. Mrs. +Woodward would not banish Norman from the Cottage, even for her +daughter's sake, and it came by degrees to be understood that the +Tudors, man and wife, should not go there unless they were aware +that Norman was absent. Norman, on the other hand, did absent +himself when it was understood that Alaric and Gertrude were +coming; and thus the Woodwards kept up their intercourse with +both. + +But this was a bore. Alaric thought it most probable that Norman +would marry one of the younger sisters, and he knew that family +quarrels are uncomfortable and injudicious. When therefore he +became a Civil Service Commissioner, and was thus removed from +business intercourse with Norman, he conceived that it would be +wise to arrange a reconciliation. He discussed the matter with +Gertrude, and she, fully agreeing with him, undertook the task of +making the proposal through her mother. This she did with all the +kindness and delicacy of a woman. She desired her mother to tell +Harry how much she had valued his friendship, how greatly she +regretted the loss of it, how anxious her husband was to renew, +if possible, their former terms of affection. Mrs. Woodward, by +no means sanguine, undertook the commission. She undertook it, +and utterly failed; and when Gertrude, in her disappointment, +spoke bitterly of Norman's bitterness, both mother and sister, +both Mrs. Woodward and Linda, took Norman's part. + +'I wish it could be otherwise,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'I wish it +for all our sakes; but he is a man not easily to be turned, and I +cannot blame him. He has suffered very much.' + +Gertrude became very red. Her mother's words contained a reproach +against herself, tacit and unintended indeed, but not the less +keenly felt. + +'I am not aware that Mr. Norman has any cause of just complaint,' +she said, 'against any one, unless it be himself. For the sake of +charity and old associations we have wished that all ideas of +injury should be forgiven and forgotten. If he chooses still to +indulge his rancour, he must do so. I had taken him to be a +better Christian.' + +More words had sprung from these. Mrs. Woodward, who, in truth, +loved Norman the better for the continuance of his sorrow, would +not give up his part; and so the mother and child parted, and the +two sisters parted, not quarrelling indeed, not absolutely with +angry words, but in a tone of mind towards each other widely +differing from that of former years. Mrs. Woodward had lost none +of the love of the parent; but Gertrude had forgotten somewhat of +the reverence of the child. + +All this had added much to the grief created by Katie's illness. + +And then of a sudden Katie became silent, as well as sad and ill +--silent and sad, but so soft, so loving in her manner. Her gentle +little caresses, the tender love ever lying in her eye, the +constant pressure of her thin small hand, would all but break her +mother's heart. Katie would sit beside her on the sofa in the +drawing-room for hours; a book, taken up as an excuse, would be +in her lap, and she would sit there gazing listlessly into the +vacant daylight till the evening would come; and then, when the +room was shaded and sombre, when the light of the fire merely +served to make the objects indistinct, she would lean gently and +by degrees upon her mother's bosom, would coax her mother's arm +round her neck, and would thus creep as it were into her mother's +heart of hearts. And then slow tears would trickle down her +cheeks, very slow, one by one, till they would fall as telltales +on her mother's hand. + +'Katie, my darling Katie,' the mother would say. + +'I'm only tired, mamma,' would be her answer. 'Don't move, mamma; +pray don't move. I am so comfortable.' + +And then at night she would put herself to rest close circled in +Linda's arms. She would twist up her little feet, and lie so +quiet there, that Linda would remain motionless that she might +not disturb her Katie's sleep; but soon warm tears would be +running on her bosom, and she would know that Katie was still +thinking of her love. + +Linda, among all her virtues, had not that of reticence, and her +mother had soon learnt from her what had been said that night in +their bedroom about Charley. But this violation of confidence, if +it was a violation, was hardly necessary to make Mrs. Woodward +aware of what was passing in her daughter's bosom. When Katie +ceased to ask that Charley might be sent for, when she ceased to +plead for his pardon and to praise his virtues, Mrs. Woodward +knew well the cause of her silence. It was not that others +suspected her love, but that she had learned to suspect it +herself. It was not that she was ashamed of loving Charley, but +that she felt at once that such love would distress her mother's +heart. + +As she sat there that night fingering her silken hair, she had +asked herself whether in truth this man was master of her heart; +she had probed her young bosom, which now, by a sudden growth, +became quick with a woman's impulse, and she had owned to herself +that she did love him. He was dearer to her, she found, than all +in the world beside. Fondly as she loved her sister, sweet to her +as were her mother's caresses, their love was not as precious to +her as his might be. And then she remembered what he was, what +was the manner of his life, what his character; how different he +was from Alaric or Harry Norman; she remembered this, and knew +that her love was an unhappy passion. Herself she would have +sacrificed: prisoner as he had been, debtor as he was, drunkard, +penniless, and a spendthrift, she would not have hesitated to +take him for her guide through life, and have done what a woman +might to guide him in return. But she would not sacrifice her +mother. She saw now why Charley was not asked, and silently +acquiesced in his banishment. + +She was not yet quite seventeen. Not yet seventeen! the reader +will say. She was still such a child, and yet arguing to herself +about spendthrift debtors and self-sacrifice! All this bombast at +sixteen and a half. No, my ungentle reader, not all this bombast +at sixteen and a half. The bombast is mine. It is my fault if I +cannot put into fitting language the thoughts which God put into +her young heart. In her mind's soliloquy, Charley's vices were +probably all summed up in the one word, unsteady. Why is he so +unsteady? Why does he like these wicked things?' And then as +regarded Mrs. Woodward, she did but make a resolve that not even +for her love would she add to the unhappiness of that loving, +tenderest mother. There was no bombast in Katie, either expressed +or unexpressed. + +After much consideration on the matter, Mrs. Woodward determined +that she should ask Charley down to the Cottage. In the first +place, she felt bitterly her apparent ingratitude to him. When +last they had been together, the day after Katie's escape at the +bridge, when his tale had just been read, she had told him, with +the warmth of somewhat more than friendly affection, that +henceforth they must be more than common friends. She had +promised him her love, she had almost promised him the affection +and care of a mother; and now how was she keeping her promise? He +had fallen into misfortune, and she had immediately deserted him. +Over and over again she said to herself that her first duty was +to her own child; but even with this reflection, she could hardly +reconcile herself to her neglect of him. + +And then, moreover, she felt that it was impossible that all +their friendship, all their mutual regard, should die away +suddenly without any explanation. An attempt to bring about this +would not cure Katie's love. If this were done, would not Katie +always think of Charley's wrong? + +And, lastly, it was quite clear that Katie had put a check on her +own heart. A meeting now might be the reverse of dangerous. It +would be well that Katie should use herself to be with him now +again; well, at any rate, that she should see him once before +their proposed journey to Torquay; for, alas, the journey to +Torquay was now insisted on by the London physician--insisted on, +although he opined with a nod, somewhat less authoritative than +his former nod, that the young lady was touched by no organic +disease. + +'And then,' said Mrs. Woodward to herself, 'his heart is good, +and I will speak openly to him.' And so Charley was again invited +to the cottage. After some demurring between him and Norman, he +accepted the invitation. + +Mrs. Val's dance had taken place in June, and it was now late in +October. Four months had intervened, and during that period +Charley had seen none of the Woodwards. He had over and over +again tried to convince himself that this was his own fault, and +that he had no right to accuse Mrs. Woodward of ingratitude. But +he was hardly successful. He did feel, in spite of himself, that +he had been dropped because of the disgrace attaching to his +arrest; that Mrs. Woodward had put him aside as being too bad to +associate with her and her daughters; and that it was intended +that henceforth they should be strangers. + +He still had Katie's purse, and he made a sort of resolve that as +long as he kept that in his possession, as long as he had that +near his heart, he would not go near Norah Geraghty. This +resolution he had kept; but though he did not go to the 'Cat and +Whistle,' he frequented other places which were as discreditable, +or more so. He paid many very fruitless visits to Mr. M'Ruen; +contrived to run up a score with the proprietor of the dancing +saloon in Holborn; and was as negligent as ever in the matter of +the lock entries. + +'It is no use now,' he would say to himself, when some +aspirations for higher things came across his heart; 'it is too +late now to go back. Those who once cared for me have thrown me +over.' And then he would again think of Waterloo Bridge, and the +Monument, and of what might be done for threepence or fourpence +in a pistol gallery. + +And then at last came the invitation to Hampton. He was once more +to talk to Mrs. Woodward, and associate with Linda--to see Katie +once more. When he had last left the house he had almost been as +much at home as any one of the family; and now he was to return +to it as a perfect stranger. As he travelled down with Norman by +the railway, he could not help feeling that the journey was +passing over too quickly. He was like a prisoner going to his +doom. As he crossed the bridge, and remembered how Katie had +looked when she lay struggling in the water, how he had been +feted and caressed after pulling her out, he made a bitter +contrast between his present position and that which he then +enjoyed. Were it not for very shame, he would have found it in +his heart to return to London. + +And then in a moment they were at the Cottage door. The road had +never been so short. Norman, who had not fathomed Charley's +feelings, was happy and light-hearted--more so than was usual +with him, for he was unaffectedly glad to witness Charley's +return to Hampton. He rang sharply at the door, and when it was +opened, walked with happy confidence into the drawing-room. +Charley was bound to follow him, and there he found himself again +in the presence of Mrs. Woodward and her daughters. Katie would +fain have absented herself, but Mrs. Woodward knew that the first +meeting could take place in no more favourable manner. + +Mrs. Woodward bade him welcome with a collected voice, and +assured, if not easy manner. She shook hands with him cordially, +and said a few words as to her pleasure of seeing him again. Then +he next took Linda's hand, and she too made a little speech, more +awkwardly than her mother, saying something mal à propos about +the very long time he had been away; and then she laughed with a +little titter, trying to recover herself. And at last he came to +Katie. There was no getting over it. She also stretched out her +now thin hand, and Charley, as he touched it, perceived how +altered she was. Katie looked up into his face, and tried to +speak, but she could not articulate a word. She looked into his +face, and then at Mrs. Woodward, as though imploring her mother's +aid to tell her how to act or what to say; and then finding her +power of utterance impeded by rising sobs, she dropped back again +on her seat, and hid her face upon the arm of the sofa. + +'Our Katie is not so well as when you last saw her--is she, +Charley?' said Mrs. Woodward. 'She is very weak just now; but +thank God she has, we believe, no dangerous symptoms about her. +You have heard, perhaps, that we are going to Torquay for the +winter?' + +And so they went on talking. The ice was broken and the worst was +over. They did not talk, it is true, as in former days; there was +no confidence between them now, and each of them felt that there +was none; but they nevertheless fell into a way of unembarrassed +conversation, and were all tolerably at their ease. + +And then they went to dinner, and Charley was called on to +discuss Admiralty matters with Uncle Bat; and then he and Norman +sat after dinner a little longer than usual; and then they had a +short walk, during which Katie remained at home; but short as it +was, it was quite long enough, for it was very dull; and then +there was tea; and then more constrained conversation, in which +Katie took no part whatever; and then Mrs. Woodward and the girls +took their candles, and Charley went over to the inn on the other +side of the road. Oh! how different was this from the former +evenings at Surbiton Cottage. + +Charley had made no plan for any special interview with Katie; +had, indeed, not specially thought about it at all; but he could +not but feel an intense desire to say one word to her in private, +and learn whether all her solicitude for him was over. 'Dear +Charley, you will be steady; won't you?' Those had been her last +words to him. Nothing could have been sweeter; although they +brought before his mind the remembrance of his own unworthy +career, they had been inexpressibly sweet, as testifying the +interest she felt in him. And was that all over now? Had it all +been talked away by Mrs. Woodward's cautious wisdom, because he +had lain for one night in a sponging-house? + +But the next day came, and as it passed, it appeared to him that +no opportunity of speaking one word to her was to be allowed to +him. + +She did not, however, shun him. She was not up at breakfast, but +she sat next to him at lunch, and answered him when he spoke to +her. + +In the evening they again went out to walk, and then Charley +found that Linda and Norman went one way, and that he was alone +with Mrs. Woodward. It was manifest to him that this arrangement +had been made on purpose, and he felt that he was to undergo some +private conversation, the nature of which he dreaded. He dreaded +it very much; when he heard it, it made him very wretched; but it +was not the less full of womanly affection and regard for him. + +'I cannot let you go from us, Charley,' began Mrs. Woodward, +'without telling you how deep a sorrow it has been to me to be so +long without seeing you. I know you have thought me very +ungrateful.' + +'Ungrateful, Mrs. Woodward! 'O no! I have done nothing to make +gratitude necessary.' + +'Yes, Charley, you have--you have done much, too much. You have +saved my child's life.' + +'O no, I did not,' said he; 'besides, I hate gratitude. I don't +want any one to be grateful to me. Gratitude is almost as +offensive as pity. Of course I pulled Kate out of the water when +she fell in; and I would have done as much for your favourite +cat.' He said this with something of bitterness in his tone; it +was not much, for though he felt bitterly he did not intend to +show it; but Mrs. Woodward's ear did not fail to catch it. + +'Don't be angry with us, Charley; don't make us more unhappy than +we already are.' + +'Unhappy!' said he, as though he thought that all the unhappiness +in the world was at the present moment reserved for his own +shoulders. + +'Yes, we are not so happy now as we were when you were last with +us. Poor Katie is very ill.' + +'But you don't think there is any danger, Mrs. Woodward?' + +There are many tones in which such a question may be asked--and +is asked from day to day--all differing widely from each other, +and giving evidence of various shades of feeling in the speaker. +Charley involuntarily put his whole heart into it. Mrs. Woodward +could not but love him for feeling for her child, though she +would have given so much that the two might have been indifferent +to each other. + +'I do not know,' she said. 'We hope not. But I should not be sent +with her to Torquay if she were not very ill. She is very ill, +and it is absolutely essential that nothing should be allowed to +excite her painfully. I tell you this, Charley, to excuse our +apparent unkindness in not having you here sooner.' + +Charley walked by her in silence. Why should his coming excite +her more than Norman's? What could there be painful to her in +seeing him? Did the fact of his having been arrested attach to +his visit any peculiar probability of excitement? + +'Do not suppose that we have not thought of you,' continued Mrs. +Woodward.' We have all done so daily. Nay, I have done so myself +all but hourly. Ah, Charley, you will never know how truly I love +you.' + +Charley's heart was as soft as it was inflammable. He was utterly +unable to resist such tenderness as Mrs. Woodward showed to him. +He had made a little resolution to be stiff and stern, to ask for +no favour and to receive none, not to palliate his own conduct, +or to allow Mrs. Woodward to condemn it. He had felt that as the +Woodwards had given him up, they had no longer any right to +criticize him. To them at least, one and all, to Mrs. Woodward +and her daughters, his conduct had been _sans reproche_. They +had no cause to upbraid him on their own account; and they had +now abandoned the right to do so on his own. With such assumed +sternness he began his walk; but now it had all melted before the +warmth of one tender word from a woman's mouth. + +'I know I am not worth thinking about,' said he. + +'Do not say so; pray do not say so. Do not think that we say so +to ourselves. I grieve for your faults. Charley; I know they are +grievous and wicked; but I know how much there is of good in you. +I know how clever you are, how excellent your heart is, how sweet +your disposition. I trust, I trust in God, you may reform, and be +the pride of your friends. I trust that I yet may be proud of +knowing you----' + +'No one will ever be proud of me,' said Charley. + +'We shall all be proud of you, if you will resolve to turn away +from childish things now that you are no longer a child--your +faults are faults which as yet may be so easily relinquished. +But, oh, Charley----' and then Mrs. Woodward paused and looked +wistfully into his face. She had now come to the point at which +she had to make her prayer to him. She had resolved to tell him +the cause of her fears, and to trust to his honour to free her +from them. Now was the moment for her to speak out; but now that +the moment was come, the words were wanting. + +She looked wistfully into his face, but he did not even guess +what was her meaning. He knew the secret of his own love; but he +did not know that Katie also had her secret. He had never dreamt +that his faults, among all their ill effects, had paled her +cheek, made wan her arm, silenced her voice, and dimmed her eye. +When he had heard Katie cough, he had in nowise connected the +hated sound with his own arrest. He had thought only of his own +love. + +'Oh! Charley--I know I can trust you,' said Mrs. Woodward. 'I +know you are gentle and good. You will be gentle and good to us, +will you not? you will not make us all wretched?' + +Charley declared that he would not willingly do anything to cause +pain to any of them. + +'No--I am sure you will not. And therefore, Charley, you must not +see Katie any more.' + +At this time they had turned off the road into a shady lane, in +which the leaves of autumn were beginning to fall. A path led +over a stile away from the lane into the fields, and Mrs. +Woodward had turned towards it, as though intending to continue +their walk in that direction. But when she had reached the stile, +she had sat down upon the steps of it, and Charley had been +listening to her, standing by, leaning on the top rail. + +'And therefore, Charley, you must not see Katie any more.' So +much she said, and then she looked into his face with imploring +eyes. + +It was impossible that he should answer her at once. He had to +realize so much that had hitherto not been expressed between +them, before he could fully understand what she meant; and then +he was called on to give up so much that he now learnt for the +first time was within his reach! Before he could answer her he +had to assure himself that Katie loved him; he had to understand +that her love for one so abandoned was regarded as fatal; and he +had to reply to a mother's prayer that he would remove himself +from the reach of a passion which to him was worth all the world +beside. + +He turned his face away from her, but still stood leaning on the +stile, with his arms folded on it. She watched him for a while in +silence, and at last she saw big tears drop from his face on to +the dust of the path on the farther side. There they came rolling +down, large globules of sorrow. Nothing is so painful to a woman +as a man in tears, and Mrs. Woodward's heart was wrung to its +very core. Why was he not like Alaric or Norman, so that she +might make him welcome to her daughter's heart? + +She leant towards him and put her hand caressingly on his arm. +'It shall be so, shall it not, Charley?' + +'Oh, of course, if you say so.' + +'I have your word, then? If I have your word, that will be a +perfect bond. I have your word, have I not, Charley?' + +'What!--never see her in my life?' said he, turning almost +fiercely on Mrs. Woodward. + +'That, you know, is more than you can promise,' said she, very +gently. 'It is not to the letter of the promise that I would bind +you, but to its spirit. You understand well what I mean; you know +what I wish, and why I wish it. Say that you will obey my wish, +and I will leave the mode of doing it to your own honour. Have I +your promise?' + +He shook her hand off his arm almost roughly, though +unintentionally, and turning sharply round leant with his back +against the stile. The traces of tears were still on his cheeks, +but he was no longer crying; there was, however, a look on his +face of heart-rending sorrow which Mrs. Woodward could hardly +endure. + +'I do understand you,' said he, 'and since you demand it, I will +promise;' and then they walked home side by side, without +interchanging a single word. + +When they reached the house, Mrs. Woodward went to her room, and +Charley found himself alone with Katie. + +'I hope you find yourself better this evening,' said he. + +'Oh, I am quite well,' she answered, with her sweetest, kindest +voice; 'I am quite well, only sometimes I am a little weak.' + +He walked up to the window as though to pass on to the lawn; but +the season was too far advanced for that, and the window was +locked. He retraced his steps, therefore, and passing out of the +drawing-room into the hall, stood at the open front door till he +heard Mrs. Woodward come down. Then he followed her into the +room. + +'Good-bye,' he said to her suddenly; 'I shall start by the early +train to-morrow, and shall not see you.' She pressed his hand, +but he in nowise returned the pressure. 'Good-bye, Linda; good- +bye, Katie; good night, Captain Cuttwater.' And so he went his +way, as Adam did when he was driven out of Paradise. + +Early on the following morning, the cook, while engaged in her +most matutinal duties, was disturbed by a ring at the front door. +She, and she only of the household, was up, and as she had not +completed her toilet with much minuteness, she was rather +embarrassed when, on opening the door, she saw Mr. Charles Tudor. + +'I beg your pardon, cook, for troubling you so early; but I have +left something in the drawing-room. I can find it myself;' and, +so saying, he hurried into the room, so as to prevent the servant +from following him. + +Katie had a well-worn, well-known little workbox, which, in years +now long past; had been given to her either by Alaric or Harry. +Doubtless she had now work-boxes grander both in appearance and +size; but, nevertheless, whether from habit or from choice, her +custom was, in her daily needlework, to use this old friend. +Often and often had Charley played with it many wicked pranks. +Once, while Katie had as yet no pretension to be grown up, he had +put a snail into it, and had incurred her severe displeasure. He +had stuffed it full of acorns, and been rewarded by being pelted +with them round the lawn; and had filled it with nuts, for which +he had not found it so difficult to obtain pardon. He knew every +hole and corner in it! he was intimate with all her little +feminine nicknacks--her silver thimble, her scissors, her bit of +wax, and the yard-measure, which twisted itself in and out of an +ivory cottage--he knew them all, as well as though they were his +own; and he knew also where the workbox stood. + +He closed the door behind him, and then, with his quickest +motion, raised the lid and put within the box, just under the bit +of work on which she was employed, a light small paper parcel. It +contained the purse which she had worked for him, and had given +to him with such sweet affection at the Chiswick flower-show. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +HOW APOLLO SAVED THE NAVVY + + +About the middle of November, the Woodwards went to Torquay, and +remained there till the following May. Norman went with them to +see them properly settled in their new lodgings, and visited them +at Christmas, and once again during their stay there. He then +went down to fetch them home, and when they all returned, +informed Charley, with whom he was still living, that he was +engaged to Linda. It was arranged, he said, that they were to be +married in August. + +On the whole, the journey to Torquay was considered to have been +successful. Katie's health had been the only object in going +there, and the main consideration while they remained. She +returned, if not well, at any rate not worse. She had got through +the winter, and her lungs were still pronounced to be free from +those dreadful signs of decay, the name of which has broken so +many mothers' hearts, and sent dismay into the breasts of so many +fathers. During her sojourn at Torquay she had grown much, and, +as is often the case with those who grow quickly, she had become +weak and thin. People at Torquay are always weak and thin, and +Mrs. Woodward had not, therefore, been greatly frightened at +this. Her spirits, though by no means such as they had been in +former days, had improved, she had occupied herself more than she +had done during the last two months at Hampton, and had, at least +so Mrs. Woodward fondly flattered herself, ceased to be always +thinking of Charley Tudor. It was quite clear that she had firmly +made up her mind to some certain line of conduct with reference +to him; she never mentioned his name, nor was it mentioned in her +hearing by either her mother or sister during their stay at +Torquay. When Norman came down, she always found some opportunity +of inquiring from him as to Charley's health and welfare; but she +did this in a manner which showed that she had succeeded in +placing her feelings wonderfully under control. + +On that Monday morning, on which Charley had returned to town +after his early visit to her workbox, she had not failed to find +the purse. Linda was with her when she did so, but she had +contrived so to conceal her emotion, that nothing was seen and +nothing suspected. She felt at once that it was intended that all +intercourse should be broken off between them. She knew +instinctively that this was the effect of some precaution on her +mother's part, and with a sad bosom and a broken heart, she +acquiesced in it. She said nothing, even to herself, of the truth +and constancy of her love; she made no mental resolution against +any other passion; she did not even think whether or not she +might ever be tempted to love another; but she felt a dumb aching +numbness about her heart; and, looking round about her, she +seemed to feel that all was dark and dismal. + +And so they sojourned through the winter at Torquay. The effort +which Katie made was undoubtedly salutary to her. She took again +to her work and her lessons--studies we should probably now call +them--and before she left Torquay, she had again learned how to +smile; but not to laugh with that gay ringing silver laughter, +ringing, but yet not loud, which to Charley's ear had been as +sweet as heavenly music. During this time Uncle Bat remained at +Hampton, keeping bachelor's house by himself. + +And then while they were at Torquay, Linda and Norman became +engaged to each other. Their loves were honest, true, and happy; +but not of a nature to give much scope to a novelist of a +romantic turn. Linda knew she was not Norman's first love, and +requited Norman, of course, by telling him something, not much, +of Alaric's falseness to her. Norman made but one ungenerous +stipulation. It was this: that in marrying him Linda must give up +all acquaintance with her brother-in-law. He would never, he +said, be the means of separating two sisters; she and Gertrude +might have such intercourse together as their circumstances might +render possible; but it was quite out of the question that either +he, Harry Norman, or his wife, should ever again associate with +Alaric Tudor. + +In such matters Linda had always been guided by others; so she +sighed and promised, and the engagement was duly ratified by all +the parties concerned. + +We must now return to Charley. When he got back to town, he felt +that he had lost his amulet; his charm had gone from him, and he +had nothing now left whereby to save himself from ruin and +destruction. He was utterly flung over by the Woodwards; that now +was to him an undoubted fact. When Mrs. Woodward told him that he +was never again to see Katie, that was, of course, tantamount to +turning him out of the Cottage. It might be all very well to talk +to him of affection and friendship; but it was manifest that no +further signs of either were to be shown to him. He had proved +himself to be unworthy, and was no more to be considered as one +of the circle which made the drawing-room at Surbiton Cottage its +centre. He could not quite explain all this to Norman, as he +could not tell him what had passed between him and Mrs. Woodward; +but he said enough to make his friend know that he intended to go +to Hampton no more. + +It would be wrong, perhaps, to describe Charley as being angry +with Mrs. Woodward. He knew that she was only doing her duty by +her child; he knew that she was actuated by the purest and best +of motives; he was not able to say a word against her even to +himself; but, nevertheless, he desired to be revenged on her--not +by injuring her, not by injuring Katie--but by injuring himself. +He would make Mrs. Woodward feel what she had done, by rushing, +himself, on his own ruin. He would return to the 'Cat and +Whistle'--he would keep his promise and marry Norah Geraghty--he +would go utterly to destruction, and then Mrs. Woodward would +know and feel what she had done in banishing him from her +daughter's presence! + +Having arrived at this magnanimous resolution after a fortnight's +doubt and misery, he proceeded to put his purpose into execution. +It was now some considerable time since he had been at the 'Cat +and Whistle;' he had had no further visit from Mrs. Davis, but he +had received one or two notes both from her and Norah, to which, +as long as he had Katie's purse, he was resolute in not replying; +messages also had reached him from the landlady through Dick +Scatterall, in the last of which he was reminded that there was a +trifle due at the bar, and another trifle for money lent. + +One night, having lashed himself up to a fit state of wretched +desperation, he found himself at the well-known corner of the +street leading out of the Strand. On his journey thither he had +been trying to realize to himself what it would be to be the +husband of Norah Geraghty; what would be the joy of returning to +a small house in some dingy suburb and finding her to receive +him. Could he really love her when she would be bone of his bone +and flesh of his flesh, the wife of his bosom and the mother of +his children? In such a case would he ever be able to forget that +he had known Katie Woodward? Would those words of hers ever ring +in his ears, then as now--'You will be steady, dear Charley; +won't you?' + +There are those who boast that a gentleman must always be a +gentleman; that a man, let him marry whom he will, raises or +degrades his wife to the level of his own condition, and that +King Cophetua could share his throne with a beggar-woman without +sullying its splendour or diminishing its glory. How a king may +fare in such a condition, the author, knowing little of kings, +will not pretend to say; nor yet will he offer an opinion whether +a lowly match be fatally injurious to a marquess, duke, or earl; +but this he will be bold to affirm, that a man from the ordinary +ranks of the upper classes, who has had the nurture of a +gentleman, prepares for himself a hell on earth in taking a wife +from any rank much below his own--a hell on earth, and, alas! too +often another hell elsewhere also. He must either leave her or +loathe her. She may be endowed with all those moral virtues which +should adorn all women, and which, thank God, are common to women +in this country; but he will have to endure habits, manners, and +ideas, which the close contiguity of married life will force upon +his disgusted palate, and which must banish all love. Man by +instinct desires in his wife something softer, sweeter, more +refined than himself; and though in failing to obtain this, the +fault may be all his own, he will not on that account the more +easily reconcile himself to the want. + +Charley knew that he was preparing such misery for himself. As he +went along, determined to commit a moral suicide by allying +himself to the barmaid, he constrained himself to look with his +mind's eye 'upon this picture and on that.' + +He had felt of what nature was the sort of love with which Katie +Woodward had inspired his heart; and he felt also what was that +other sort of love to which the charms of Norah Geraghty had +given birth. + +Norah was a fine girl, smart enough in her outward apparel, but +apt occasionally to disclose uncomfortable secrets, if from any +accident more than her outward apparel might momentarily become +visible. When dressed up for a Sunday excursion she had her +attractions, and even on ordinary evenings, a young man such as +Charley, after imbibing two or three glasses of spirits and +water, and smoking two or three cigars, might find her to be what +some of her friends would have called 'very good company.' As to +her mind, had Charley been asked about it, he would probably have +said that he was ignorant whether she had any; but this he did +know, that she was sharp and quick, alert in counting change, and +gifted with a peculiar power of detecting bad coin by the touch. +Such was Norah Geraghty, whom Charley was to marry. + +And then that other portrait was limned with equal accuracy +before his eyes. Katie, with all her juvenile spirit, was +delightfully feminine; every motion of hers was easy, and every +form into which she could twist her young limbs was graceful. She +had all the nice ideas and ways which a girl acquires when she +grows from childhood to woman's stature, under the eye of a +mother who is a lady. Katie could be untidy on occasions; but her +very untidiness was inviting. All her belongings were nice; she +had no hidden secrets, the chance revealing of which would +disgrace her. She might come in from her island palaces in a +guise which would call down some would-be-censorious exclamation +from her mother; but all others but her mother would declare that +Katie in such moments was more lovely than ever. And Katie's +beauty pleased more than the eye--it came home to the mind and +heart of those who saw her. It spoke at once to the intelligence, +and required, for its full appreciation, an exercise of the +mental faculties, as well as animal senses. If the owner of that +outward form were bad or vile, one would be inclined to say that +Nature must have lied when she endowed her with so fair an index. +Such was Katie Woodward, whom Charley was not to marry. + +As he turned down Norfolk Street, he thought of all this, as the +gambler, sitting with his razor before him with which he intends +to cut his throat, may be supposed to think of the stakes which +he has failed to win, and the fortune he has failed to make. +Norah Geraghty was Charley's razor, and he plunged boldly into +the 'Cat and Whistle,' determined to draw it at once across his +weasand, and sever himself for ever from all that is valuable in +the world. + +It was now about eleven o'clock, at which hour the 'Cat and +Whistle' generally does its most stirring trade. This Charley +knew; but he also knew that the little back parlour, even if +there should be an inmate in it at the time of his going in, +would soon be made private for his purposes. + +When he went in, Mrs. Davis was standing behind the counter, +dressed in a cap of wonderful grandeur, and a red tabinet gown, +which rustled among the pots and jars, sticking out from her to a +tremendous width, inflated by its own magnificence and a +substratum of crinoline. Charley had never before seen her +arrayed in such royal robes. Her accustomed maid was waiting as +usual on the guests, and another girl also was assisting; but +Norah did not appear to Charley's first impatient glance. + +He at once saw that something wonderful was going on. The front +parlour was quite full, and the ministering angel was going in +and out quickly, with more generous supplies of the gifts of +Bacchus than were usual at the 'Cat and Whistle.' Gin and water +was the ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its +denizens inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours generally +did so with a bottom of brandy. But now Mrs. Davis was mixing +port-wine negus as fast as her hands could make it. + +And then there were standing round the counter four or five +customers, faces well known to Charley, all of whom seemed to be +dressed with a splendour second only to that of the landlady. One +man had on an almost new brown frock coat with a black velvet +collar, and white trousers. Two had blue swallow-tailed coats +with brass buttons; and a fourth, a dashing young lawyer's clerk +from Clement's Inn, was absolutely stirring a mixture, which he +called a mint julep, with a yellow kid glove dangling out of his +hand. + +They all stood back when Charley entered; they had been +accustomed to make way for him in former days, and though he had +latterly ceased to rule at the 'Cat and Whistle' as he once did, +they were too generous to trample on fallen greatness. He gave +his hand to Mrs. Davis across the counter, and asked her in the +most unconcerned voice which he could assume what was in the +wind. She tittered and laughed, told him he had come too late for +the fun, and then retreated into the little back parlour, whither +he followed her. She was at any rate in a good humour, and seemed +quite inclined to forgive his rather uncivil treatment of her +notes and messages. + +In the back parlour Charley found more people drinking, and among +them three ladies of Mrs. Davis's acquaintance. They were all +very fine in their apparel, and very comfortable as to their +immediate employment, for each had before her a glass of hot +tipple. One of them, a florid-faced dame about fifty, Charley had +seen before, and knew to be the wife of a pork butcher and +sausage maker in the neighbourhood. Directly he entered the room, +Mrs. Davis formally introduced him to them all. 'A very +particular friend of mine, Mrs. Allchops; and of Norah's too, I +can assure you,' said Mrs. Davis. + +'Ah, Mr. Tudor, and how be you? A sight of you is good for sore +eyes,' said she of the sausages, rising with some difficulty from +her chair, and grasping Charley's hand with all the pleasant +cordiality of old friendship. + +'The gen'leman seems to be a little too late for the fair,' said +a severe lodging-house keeper from Cecil Street. + + 'Them as wills not, when they may, + When they wills they shall have nay,' + +said a sarcastic rival barmaid from a neighbouring public, to +whom all Norah's wrongs and all Mr. Tudor's false promises were +fully known. + +Charley was not the fellow to allow himself to be put down, even +by feminine raillery; so he plucked up his spirit, sad as he was +at heart, and replied to them all _en masse_. + +'Well, ladies, what's in the wind now? You seem to be very cosy +here, all of you; suppose you allow me to join you.' + +'With a 'eart and a 'alf,' said Mrs. Allchops, squeezing her +corpulence up to the end of the horsehair sofa, so as to make +room for him between herself and the poetic barmaid. 'I'd sooner +have a gentleman next to me nor a lady hany day of the week; so +come and sit down, my birdie.' + +But Charley, as he was about to accept the invitation of his +friend Mrs. Allchops, caught Mrs. Davis's eye, and followed her +out of the room into the passage. 'Step up to the landing, Mr. +Tudor,' said she; and Charley stepped up. 'Come in here, Mr. +Tudor--you won't mind my bedroom for once.' And Charley followed +her in, not minding her bedroom. + +'Of course you know what has happened, Mr. Tudor?' said she. + +'Devil a bit,' said Charley. + +'Laws, now--don't you indeed? Well, that is odd.' + +'How the deuce should I know? Where's Norah?' + +'Why--she's at Gravesend.' + +'At Gravesend--you don't mean to say she's----' + +'I just do then; she's just gone and got herself spliced to +Peppermint this morning. They had the banns said these last three +Sundays; and this morning they was at St. Martin's at eight +o'clock, and has been here junketing ever since, and now they're +away to Gravesend.' + +'Gravesend!' said Charley, struck by the suddenness of his +rescue, as the gambler would have been had some stranger seized +the razor at the moment when it was lifted to his throat. + +'Yes, Gravesend,' said Mrs. Davis; 'and they'll come up home to +his own house by the first boat to-morrow.' + +'So Norah's married!' said Charley, with a slight access of +sentimental softness in his voice. + +'She's been and done it now, Mr. Tudor, and no mistake; and it's +better so, ain't it? Why, Lord love you, she'd never have done +for you, you know; and she's the very article for such a man as +Peppermint.' + +There was something good-natured in this, and so Charley felt it. +As long as Mrs. Davis could do anything to assist her cousin's +views, by endeavouring to seduce or persuade her favourite lover +into a marriage, she left no stone unturned, working on her +cousin's behalf. But now, now that all those hopes were over, now +that Norah had consented to sacrifice love to prudence, why +should Mrs. Davis quarrel with an old friend any longer?--why +should not things be made pleasant to him as to the others? + +'And now, Mr. Tudor, come down, and drink a glass to their +healths, and wish 'em both well, and don't mind what them women +says to you. You're well out of a mess; and now it's all over, +I'm glad it is as it is.' + +Charley went down and took his glass and drank 'prosperity to the +bride and bridegroom.' The sarcastic rival barmaid said little +snappish things to him, offered him a bit of green ribbon, and +told him that if he 'minded hisself,' somebody might, perhaps, +take him yet. But Charley was proof against this. + +He sat there about half an hour, and then went his way, shaking +hands with all the ladies and bowing to the gentlemen. On the +following day, as soon as he left his office, he called at the +'Cat and Whistle,' and paid his little bill there, and said his +last farewell to Mrs. Davis. He never visited the house again. +Now that Norah was gone the attractions were not powerful. +Reader, you and I will at the same time say our farewells to Mrs. +Davis, to Mr. Peppermint also, and to his bride. If thou art an +elegant reader, unaccustomed to the contamination of pipes and +glasses, I owe thee an apology in that thou hast been caused to +linger a while among things so unsavoury. But if thou art one who +of thine own will hast taken thine ease in thine inn, hast +enjoyed the freedom of a sanded parlour, hast known 'that ginger +is hot in the mouth,' and made thyself light-hearted with a yard +of clay, then thou wilt confess there are worse establishments +than the 'Cat and Whistle,' less generous landladies than Mrs. +Davis. + +When all this happened the Woodwards had not been long at +Torquay. Mr. Peppermint was made a happy man before Christmas; +and therefore Charley was left to drift before the wind without +the ballast of any lady's love to keep him in sailing trim. Poor +fellow! he had had wealth on one side, beauty and love on +another, and on the third all those useful qualities which Miss +Geraghty has been described as possessing. He had been thus +surrounded by feminine attractions, and had lost them all. Two of +those, from whom he had to choose, had married others, and he was +banished from the presence of the third. Under such circumstances +what could he do but drift about the gulfs and straits of the +London ocean without compass or rudder, and bruise his timbers +against all the sunken rocks that might come in his way? + +And then Norman told him of his coming marriage, and Charley was +more sad than ever. And thus matters went on with him till the +period at which our story will be resumed at the return of the +Woodwards to Hampton. + +In the meantime another winter and another spring had passed over +Alaric's head, and now the full tide of the London season found +him still rising, and receiving every day more of the world's +homage. Sir Gregory Hardlines had had every reason to praise his +own judgement in selecting Mr. Tudor for the vacant seat among +the Magi. + +From that moment all had gone smooth with Sir Gregory; there was +no one to interfere with his hobby, or run counter to his +opinion. Alaric was all that was conciliatory and amiable in a +colleague. He was not submissive and cringing; and had he been +so, Sir Gregory, to do him justice, would have been disgusted; +but neither was he self-opinionated nor obstinate like Mr. +Jobbles. He insisted on introducing no crotchets of his own, and +allowed Sir Gregory all the credit of the Commission. + +This all went on delightfully for a while; but on one morning, +early in May, Alaric somewhat disturbed the equanimity of his +chief by communicating to him his intention of becoming a +candidate for the representation of the borough of Strathbogy, at +the next general election, which was to take place very shortly +after the close of the session. Sir Gregory was dumbfounded, and +expressed himself as incapable of believing that Tudor really +meant to throw up £1,200 a year on the mere speculation of its +being possible that he should get into Parliament. Men in +general, as Sir Gregory endeavoured to explain with much +eloquence, go into Parliament for the sake of getting places of +£1,200 a year. For what earthly reason should Alaric again be +going to the bottom of the ladder, seeing that he had already +attained a rung of such very respectable altitude? Alaric said to +himself, 'Excelsior!' To Sir Gregory he suggested that it might +be possible that he should get into Parliament without giving up +his seat at the Board. Earth and heaven, it might be hoped, would +not come together, even though so great a violence as this should +be done to the time-honoured practices of the Government. Sir +Gregory suggested that it was contrary to the constitution. +Alaric replied that the constitution had been put upon to as +great an extent before this, and had survived. Sir Gregory +regarded it as all but impossible, and declared it to be quite +unusual. Alaric rejoined that something of the same kind had been +done at the Poor Law Board. To this Sir Gregory replied, gently +pluming his feathers with conscious greatness, that at the Poor +Law Board the chief of the Commission was the Parliamentary +officer. Alaric declared that he was perfectly willing to give +way if Sir Gregory would go into the House himself. To this Sir +Gregory demurred; not feeling himself called on to change the +sphere of his utility. And so the matter was debated between +them, till at last Sir Gregory promised to consult his friend the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. The ice was thus broken, and Alaric +was quite contented with the part which he had taken in the +conversation. + +With his own official prospects, in spite of the hazardous step +which he now meditated, he was quite contented. He had an idea +that in the public service of the Government, as well as in all +other services, men who were known to be worth their wages would +find employment. He was worth his wages. Men who could serve +their country well, who could adapt themselves to work, who were +practical, easy in harness, able to drive and patient to be +driven, were not, unfortunately, as plentiful as blackberries. He +began to perceive that a really useful man could not be found +miscellaneously under every hat in Pall Mall. He knew his own +value, and did not fear but that he should find a price for it in +some of the world's markets. He would not, therefore, allow +himself to be deterred from further progress by any fear that in +doing so he risked the security of his daily bread; no, not +though the risk extended to his wife; she had taken him for +better or worse; if the better came she should share it; if the +worse, why let her share that also, with such consolation as his +affection might be able to offer. + +There was something noble in this courage, in this lack of +prudence. It may be a question whether men, in marrying, do not +become too prudent. A single man may risk anything, says the +world; but a man with a wife should be sure of his means. Why so? +A man and a woman are but two units. A man and a woman with ten +children are but twelve units. It is sad to see a man starving-- +sad to see a woman starving--very sad to see children starving. +But how often does it come to pass that the man who will work is +seen begging his bread? we may almost say never--unless, indeed, +he be a clergyman. Let the idle man be sure of his wife's bread +before he marries her; but the working man, one would say, may +generally trust to God's goodness without fear. + +With his official career Alaric was, as we have said, well +contented; in his stock-jobbing line of business he also had had +moments of great exaltation, and some moments of considerable +depression. The West Corks had vacillated. Both he and Undy had +sold and bought and sold again; and on the whole their stake in +that stupendous national line of accommodation was not so all- +absorbing as it had once been. But if money had been withdrawn +from this, it had been invested elsewhere, and the great sum +borrowed from Madame Jaquêtanàpe's fortune had been in no part +replaced--one full moiety of it had been taken--may one not say +stolen?--to enable Alaric and Undy to continue their speculations. + +The undertaking to which they were now both wedded was the +Limehouse and Rotherhithe Bridge. Of this Undy was chairman, and +Alaric was a director, and at the present moment they looked for +ample fortune, or what would nearly be ample ruin, to the +decision of a committee of the House of Commons which was about +to sit with the view of making inquiry as to the necessity of the +bridge in question. + +Mr. Nogo, the member for Mile End, was the parent of this +committee. He asserted that the matter was one of such vital +importance not only to the whole metropolis, but to the country +at large, that the Government were bound in the first place to +give a large subsidy towards building the bridge, and afterwards +to pay a heavy annual sum towards the amount which it would be +necessary to raise by tolls. Mr. Whip Vigil, on the other hand, +declared on the part of Government that the bridge was wholly +unnecessary; that if it were built it ought to be pulled down +again; and that not a stiver could be given out of the public +purse with such an object. + +On this they joined issue. Mr. Nogo prayed for a committee, and +Mr. Vigil, having duly consulted his higher brethren in the +Government, conceded this point. It may easily be conceived how +high were now the hopes both of Undy Scott and Alaric Tudor. It +was not at all necessary for them that the bridge should ever be +built; that, probably, was out of the question; that, very +likely, neither of them regarded as a possibility. But if a +committee of the House of Commons could be got to say that it +ought to be built, they might safely calculate on selling out at +a large profit. + +But who were to sit on the committee? That was now the all- +momentous question. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE + + +There is a sport prevalent among the downs in Hampshire to which, +though not of a high degree, much interest is attached. Men and +boys, with social glee and happy boyish shouts, congregate +together on a hill-side, at the mouth of a narrow hole, and +proceed, with the aid of a well-trained bull-dog, to draw a +badger. If the badger be at all commendable in his class this is +by no means an easy thing to do. He is a sturdy animal, and well +fortified with sharp and practised teeth; his hide is of the +toughest; his paws of the strongest, and his dead power of +resistance so great as to give him more than an equal chance with +the bull-dog. The delighted sportsmen stand round listening to +the growls and snarls, the tearings, gnawings, and bloody +struggles of the combatants within.--'Well done, badger!--Well +done, bull-dog!--Draw him, bulldog!--Bite him, badger!' Each has +his friends, and the interest of the moment is intense. The +badger, it is true, has done no harm. He has been doing as it was +appointed for him to do, poor badger, in that hole of his. But +then, why were badgers created but to be drawn? Why, indeed, but +to be drawn, or not to be drawn, as the case may be? See! the +bull-dog returns minus an ear, with an eye hanging loose, his +nether lip torn off, and one paw bitten through and through. +Limping, dejected, beaten, glaring fearfully from his one +remaining eye, the dog comes out; and the badger within rolls +himself up with affected ease, hiding his bloody wounds from the +public eye. + +So it is that the sport is played in Hampshire; and so also at +Westminster--with a difference, however. In Hampshire the two +brutes retain ever their appointed natures. The badger is always +a badger, and the bull-dog never other than a bull-dog. At +Westminster there is a juster reciprocity of position. The badger +when drawn has to take his place outside the hole, and fight +again for the home of his love; while the victorious bull-dog +assumes a state of badgerdom, dons the skin of his enemy, and, in +his turn, submits to be baited. + +The pursuit is certainly full of interest, but it is somewhat +deficient in dignity. + +The parliamentary committee, which was to sit with reference to +the Limehouse and Rotherhithe Bridge, had been one of the effects +of a baiting-match such as that above described. In this contest +the enemies of the proud occupier of the den on the mountain-side +had not been contented to attempt to expel him with a single +bull-dog. A whole pack had been let loose at his devoted throat. +Bull-dogs had been at him, and terriers, mastiffs, blood-hounds, +lurchers, and curs; but so accustomed was he to the contest, so +knowing in his fence, so ready with all the weapons given to him +by nature, that, in spite of the numbers and venom of his +enemies, he had contrived to hold his own. Some leading hounds +had fallen to rise no more; others had retreated, yelping to +their kennels, to lie quiet for a while, till time might give +them courage for a new attack. The country round was filled with +the noise of their plaints, and the yowling and howling of canine +defeat. The grey old badger meanwhile sat proud in his hole, with +all his badger kin around him, and laughed his well-known badger +laugh at his disconsolate foes. Such a brock had not for years +been seen in the country-side; so cool, so resolute, so knowing +in his badger ways, so impregnable in his badger hole, and so +good-humoured withal. He could bite full sore with those old +teeth of his, and yet he never condescended to show them. A +badger indeed of whom the country might well be proud! + +But in the scramble of the fight some little curs had been +permitted to run away with some little bones; and, in this way, +Mr. Nogo, the member for Mile End, had been allowed to carry his +motion for a committee to inquire as to the expediency of the +Government's advancing a quarter of a million towards the +completion of that momentous national undertaking, the building +of a bridge from Limehouse to Rotherhithe. + +Very much had been said about this bridge, till men living out of +the light of parliamentary life, nine hundred and ninety-nine +men, that is, out of every thousand in the Queen's dominions, had +begun to think that it was the great want of the age. Men living +in the light, the supporters of the bridge as well as its +enemies, knew very well that such an erection was quite unneeded, +and would in all probability never be made. But then the firm of +Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, who held a vast quantity of the +bridge shares, and who were to be the contractors for building +it, had an all-powerful influence in the borough of Limehouse. +Where would Mr. Nogo be if he did not cultivate the friendship of +such men as Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam? + +And so Mr. Nogo, and those who acted with Mr. Nogo--men, that +is, who had little jobs of their own to do, and in the doing of +which Mr. Nogo occasionally assisted, Undy Scott, for instance, +and such-like--these men, I say, had talked much about the +bridge; and gentlemen on the Treasury bench, who could have +afforded to show up the folly of the scheme, and to put Mr. Nogo +down at once, had he been alone, felt themselves under the +necessity of temporizing. As to giving a penny of the public +money for such a purpose, that they knew was out of the question; +that Mr. Nogo never expected; that they all knew Mr. Nogo never +expected. But as Mr. Nogo's numbers were so respectable, it was +necessary to oppose him in a respectable parliamentary steady +manner. He had fifteen with him! Had he been quite alone, Mr. +Vigil would have sneered him off; had he had but four to back +him, the old badger would have laughed them out of face with a +brace of grins. But fifteen--! Mr. Whip Vigil thought that the +committee would be the most safe. So would the outer world be +brought to confess that the interests of Limehouse and Poplar, +Rotherhithe and Deptford, had not been overlooked by a careful +Government. + +But of whom was the committee to be made up? That was now the +question which to Mr. Nogo, in his hour of temporary greatness, +was truly momentous. He of course was to be the chairman, and to +him appertained the duty of naming the other members; of naming +them indeed--so much he could undoubtedly do by the strength of +his own privilege. But of what use to name a string of men to +whom Mr. Vigil would not consent? Mr. Nogo, did he do so, would +have to divide on every name, and be beaten at every division. +There would be no triumph in that. No; Mr. Nogo fully understood +that his triumph must be achieved--if he were destined to a +triumph--by an astute skill in his selection, not by an open +choice of friends. He must obtain a balance on his side, but one +in which the scale would lean so slightly to his side that Mr. +Vigil's eyes might be deceived. Those who knew Mr. Vigil best +were inclined to surmise that such an arrangement was somewhat +beyond Mr. Nogo's political capacity. There is a proverb which +goes to show that a certain little lively animal may be shaved if +he be caught napping; but then the difficulty of so catching him +is extreme. + +Mr. Nogo, at the head of the list, put Mr. Vigil himself. This, +of course, was a necessity to him--would that he could have +dispensed with it! Then he named sundry supporters of the +Government, sundry members also of the opposition; and he filled +up the list with certain others who could not be regarded as sure +supporters of one side or the other, but with whom, for certain +reasons, he thought he might in this particular case be safe. +Undy Scott was of course not among the number, as Mr. Nogo would +only have damaged his cause by naming a man known to have a +pecuniary interest in the concern. + +The member for Mile End was doubtless sharp, but Mr. Vigil was +sharper. His object was, in fact, merely to do his duty to the +country by preventing a profuse and useless expenditure of money. +His anxiety was a perfectly honest one--to save the Exchequer +namely. But the circumstances of the case required that he should +fight the battle according to the tactics of the House, and he +well understood how to do so. + +When the list was read he objected to two or three names--only to +two or three. They were not those of staunch enemies of the +Government; nor did he propose in their places the names of +staunch supporters. He suggested certain gentlemen who, from +their acquaintance with bridges, tolls, rivers, &c., would, as he +said, be probably of use. He, also, was sure of his men, and as +he succeeded with two of them, he was also pretty sure of his +committee. + +And then the committee met, and a lot of witnesses were in +attendance. The chairman opened his case, and proceeded to prove, +by the evidence of sundry most respectable men connected with +Limehouse, and with the portions of Surrey and Kent lying +immediately opposite to it, that the most intense desire for +friendly and commercial intercourse was felt; but that, though +absolutely close to each other, the districts were so divided by +adverse circumstances, circumstances which were monstrous +considering the advance of science in the nineteenth century, +that the dearest friends were constrained to perpetual banishment +from each other; and that the men of Kent were utterly unable to +do any trade at Limehouse, and the Limehousians equally unable to +carry on traffic in Surrey. + +It was wonderful that the narrow river should be so effective for +injury. One gentleman from Poplar proved that, having given his +daughter in marriage to a man of Deptford two years since, he had +not yet been able to see her since that day. Her house, by the +crow's flight, was but seven furlongs from his own; but, as he +kept no horse, he could not get to her residence without a four +hours' walk, for which he felt himself to be too old. He was, +however, able to visit his married daughter at Reading, and be +back to tea. The witness declared that his life was made +miserable by his being thus debarred from his child, and he wiped +his eyes with his pocket-handkerchief piteously, sitting there in +front of the committee. In answer to Mr. Vigil he admitted that +there might be a ferry, but stated that he did not know. Having +had, from childhood, an aversion to the water, he had not +inquired. He was aware that some rash people had gone through the +Tunnel, but for himself he did not think the Tunnel a safe mode +of transit. + +Another gentleman belonging to Rotherhithe, who was obliged to be +almost daily at Blackwall, maintained two horses for the express +purpose of going backwards and forwards, round by London Bridge. +They cost him £70 per annum each. Such a bridge as that now +proposed, and which the gentleman declared that he regarded as an +embryo monument of national glory, would save him £140 per annum. +He then proceeded to make a little speech about the spirit of the +age, and the influence of routine, which he described as a gloomy +gnome. But his oratory was cruelly cut short by Mr. Vigil, who +demanded of him whether he ever used the river steamers. The +witness shuddered fearfully as he assured the committee that he +never did, and referred to the _Cricket_, whose boilers burst +in the year 1842; besides, he had, he said, his things to carry +with him. + +Another witness told how unsafe was the transit of heavy goods by +barge from one side of the river to another. He had had a cargo +of marine stores which would go to sea before their time. The +strong ebb of the tide, joined to the river current, had +positively carried the barge away, and its course had not been +stopped till it had drifted on shore at Purfleet. He acknowledged +that something had transpired of the bargemen being drunk, but he +had no knowledge himself that such had been the case. No other +cargoes of his own had been carried away, but he had heard that +such was often the case. He thought that the bridge was +imperatively demanded. Would the tolls pay? He felt sure that +they would. Why, then, should not the bridge be built as a +commercial speculation, without Government aid? He thought that +in such cases a fostering Government was bound to come forward +and show the way. He had a few shares in the bridge himself. He +had paid up £1 a share. They were now worth 2s. 6d. each. They +had been worth nothing before the committee had been ordered to +sit. He declined to give any opinion as to what the shares would +be worth if the money were granted. + +Ladies at Limehouse proved that if there were a bridge they could +save 30s. a year each, by buying their tea and sugar at +Rotherhithe; and so singular are the usages of trade, that the +ladies of Rotherhithe would benefit their husbands equally, and +return the compliment, by consuming the bread of Limehouse. The +shores of Kent were pining for the beef of the opposite bank, and +only too anxious to give in return the surplus stock of their own +poultry. + +'Let but a bridge be opened,' as was asserted by one animated +vendor of rope, 'and Poplar would soon rival Pimlico. Perhaps +that might not be desirable in the eyes of men who lived in the +purlieus of the Court, and who were desirous to build no new +bridge, except that over the ornamental water in St. James's +Park.' Upon uttering which the rope-vendor looked at Mr. Vigil as +though he expected him to sink at once under the table. + +Mr. Blocks, of the great firm of Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, +then came forward. He declared that a large sum of money was +necessary before this great national undertaking could be begun +in a spirit worthy of the nineteenth century. It was intended to +commence the approaches on each side of the river a quarter of a +mile from the first abutment of the bridge, in order to acquire +the necessary altitude without a steep ascent. He then described +what a glorious bridge this bridge would be; how it would eclipse +all bridges that had ever been built; how the fleets of all +nations would ride under it; how many hundred thousand square +feet of wrought iron would be consumed in its construction; how +many tons of Portland stone in the abutments, parapets, and +supporting walls; how much timber would be buried twenty fathoms +deep in the mud of the river; how many miles of paving-stone +would be laid down. Mr. Blocks went on with his astonishing +figures till the committee were bewildered, and even Mr. Vigil, +though well used to calculations, could hardly raise his mind to +the dimensions of the proposed undertaking. + +The engineer followed, and showed how easily this great work +could be accomplished. There was no difficulty, literally none. +The patronage of the Crown was all that was required. The +engineer was asked whether by the word patronage he meant money, +and after a little laughing and a few counter questions, he +admitted that, in his estimation, patronage and money did mean +the same thing. + +Such was the case made out by the promoters of the bridge, and +the chairman and his party were very sanguine of success. They +conceived that Mr. Blocks' figures had completely cowed their +antagonists. + +Mr. Vigil then took his case in hand, and brought forward his +witnesses. It now appeared that the intercourse between the +people living on each side of the river was immense, and ever on +the increase. Limehouse, it would seem, had nothing to do but to +go to Deptford, and that Deptford consumed all its time in +returning the visit. Little children were sent across continually +on the most trifling errands, going and coming for one halfpenny. +An immense income was made by the owners of the ferry. No two +adjacent streets in London had more to do with each other than +had the lanes of Rotherhithe and the lanes of Limehouse. +Westminster and Lambeth were further apart, and less connected by +friendly intercourse. The frequenters of the ferry were found to +outnumber the passengers over Waterloo Bridge by ten to one. + +Indeed, so lamentable a proposition as this of building a bridge +across the river had never before been mooted by the public. Men +conversant with such matters gave it as their opinion that no +amount of tolls that could reasonably be expected would pay one +per cent on the money which it was proposed to expend; that sum, +however, they stated, would not more than half cover the full +cost of the bridge. Traffic would be prohibited by the heavy +charges which would be necessary, and the probability would be +that the ferry would still continue to be the ordinary mode of +crossing the river. + +A gentleman, accustomed to use strong figures of speech, declared +that if such a bridge were built, the wisest course would be to +sow the surface with grass, and let it out for grazing. This +witness was taken specially in hand by Mr. Nogo, and targed very +tightly. Mr. Vigil had contrived to prove, out of the mouths of +inimical witnesses, the very reverse of that which they had been +summoned thither to assert. The secret of the ferry had been +first brought to the light by the gentleman who could not visit +his daughter at Deptford, and so on. These triumphs had evidently +been very pleasant to Mr. Vigil, and Mr. Nogo thought that he +might judiciously take a leaf out of the Treasury book. Actuated +by this ambition, he, with the assistance of his friend, the +M'Carthy Desmond, put no less than 2,250 questions to the +gentleman who suggested the grazing, in order to induce him to +say, that if there were a bridge, men would probably walk over +it. But they could not bring him to own to a single passenger, +unless they would abandon the tolls. The most that they could get +from him was, that perhaps an old woman, with more money than +wit, might go over it on a Sunday afternoon, if--which he did not +believe--any old woman existed, _in that part of the world_, +who had more money than wit. + +This witness was kept in the chair for three days, during which +Mr. Vigil was nearly driven wild by the loss of his valuable +time. But he did not complain. Nor would he have complained, +though he might have absented himself, had the witness been kept +in the chair three weeks instead of three days. The expense of +the committee, including witnesses, shorthand-writers, and +printing, was about £60 a day, but it never occurred to any one +of the number to get up and declare with indignation, that such a +waste of money and time on so palpably absurd a scheme was +degrading, and to demand an immediate close of their labours. It +all went smoothly to the end, and Mr. Nogo walked off from his +task with the approving conscience of a patriotic legislator. + +At the close the members met to prepare their report. It was then +the first week in August, and they were naturally in a hurry to +finish their work. It was now their duty to decide on the merits +of what they had heard, to form a judgement as to the veracity of +the witnesses, and declare, on behalf of the country which they +represented, whether or no this bridge should be built at the +expense of the nation. + +With his decision each was ready enough; but not one of them +dreamed of being influenced by anything which had been said +before them. All the world--that is, all that were in any way +concerned in the matter--knew that the witnesses for the bridge +were anxious to have it built, and that the witnesses against the +bridge were anxious to prevent the building. It would be the +worst of ignorance, ignorance of the usage of the world we live +in, to suppose that any member of Parliament could be influenced +by such manoeuvres. Besides, was not the mind of each man fully +known before the committee met? + +Various propositions were made by the members among themselves, +and various amendments moved. The balance of the different +parties had been nearly preserved. A decided victory was not to +be expected on either side. At last the resolution to which the +committee came was this: 'That this committee is not prepared, +under existing circumstances, to recommend a grant of public +money for the purpose of erecting a bridge at Limehouse; but that +the committee consider that the matter is still open to +consideration should further evidence be adduced.' + +Mr. Vigil was perfectly satisfied. He did not wish to acerbate +the member for Mile End, and was quite willing to give him a lift +towards keeping his seat for the borough, if able to do so +without cost to the public exchequer. At Limehouse the report of +the committee was declared by certain persons to be as good as a +decision in their favour; it was only postponing the matter for +another session. But Mr. Vigil knew that he had carried his +point, and the world soon agreed with him. He at least did his +work successfully, and, considering the circumstances of his +position, he did it with credit to himself. + +A huge blue volume was then published, containing, among other +things, all Mr. Nogo's 2,250 questions and their answers; and so +the Limehouse and Rotherhithe bridge dropped into oblivion and +was forgotten. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +TO STAND, OR NOT TO STAND + + +Sir Gregory Hardlines had been somewhat startled by Alaric's +announcement of his parliamentary intentions. It not unnaturally +occurred to that great man that should Mr. Tudor succeed at +Strathbogy, and should he also succeed in being allowed to hold +his office and seat together, he, Tudor, would very soon become +first fiddle at the Civil Service Examination Board. This was a +view of the matter which was by no means agreeable to Sir +Gregory. Not for this had he devoted his time, his energy, and +the best powers of his mind to the office of which he was at +present the chief; not for this had he taken by the hand a young +clerk, and brought him forward, and pushed him up, and seated him +in high places. To have kept Mr. Jobbles would have been better +than this; he, at any rate, would not have aspired to parliamentary +honours. + +And when Sir Gregory came to look into it, he hardly knew whether +those bugbears with which he had tried to frighten Tudor were +good serviceable bugbears, such as would stand the strain of such +a man's logic and reason. Was there really any reason why one of +the commissioners should not sit in Parliament? Would his doing +so be subversive of the constitution? Or would the ministers of +the day object to an additional certain vote? This last point of +view was one in which it did not at all delight Sir Gregory to +look at the subject in question. He determined that he would not +speak on the matter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or to any +of the Government wigs who might be considered to be bigger wigs +than himself. + +And Alaric thought over the matter coolly also. He looked at it +till the bugbears shrank into utter insignificance; till they +became no more than forms of shreds and patches put up to +frighten birds out of cherry-orchards. + +Why should the constitution be wounded by the presence of one +more commissioner in Parliament? Why should not he do his public +duty and hold his seat at the same time, as was done by so many +others? But he would have to go out if the ministry went out. +That was another difficulty, another bugbear, more substantial +perhaps than the others; but he was prepared to meet even that. +He was a poor man; his profession was that of the Civil Service; +his ambition was to sit in Parliament. He would see whether he +could not combine his poverty with his profession, and with his +ambition also. Sir Gregory resolved in his fear that he would not +speak to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the matter; Alaric, +on the other hand, in his audacity, resolved that he would do so. + +It was thus that Sir Gregory regarded the matter. 'See all that I +have done for this man,' said he to himself; 'see how I have +warmed him in my bosom, how I have lifted him to fortune and +renown, how I have heaped benefits on his head! If gratitude in +this world be possible, that man should be grateful to me; if one +man can ever have another's interest at heart, that man should +have a heartfelt anxiety as to my interest. And yet how is it? I +have placed him in the chair next to my own, and now he is +desirous of sitting above me!' + +'Twas thus Sir Gregory communed with himself. But Alaric's +soliloquy was very different. A listener who could have overheard +both would hardly have thought that the same question was being +discussed by the two. 'I have got so high,' said Alaric, 'by my +own labour, by my own skill and tact; and why should I stop here? +I have left my earliest colleagues far behind me; have distanced +those who were my competitors in the walk of life; why should I +not still go on and distance others also? why stop when I am only +second or third? It is very natural that Sir Gregory should wish +to keep me out of Parliament; I cannot in the least blame him; +let us all fight as best each may for himself. He does not wish a +higher career; I do. Sir Gregory will now do all that he can to +impede my views, because they are antagonistic to his own; very +well; I must only work the harder to overcome his objections.' +There was no word in all this of gratitude; there was no thought +in Alaric's mind that it behoved him to be grateful to Sir +Gregory. It was for his own sake, not for his pupil's, that Sir +Gregory had brought this pupil forward. Grateful, indeed! In +public life when is there time for gratitude? Who ever thinks of +other interest than his own? + +Such was Alaric's theory of life. But not the less would he have +expected gratitude from those whom he might serve. Such also very +probably was Sir Gregory's theory when he thought of those who +had helped him, instead of those whom he himself had helped. + +And so they met, and discussed Alaric's little proposition. + +'Since I saw you yesterday,' said Sir Gregory, 'I have been +thinking much of what you were saying to me of your wish to go +into Parliament.' + +'I am very much obliged to you,' said Alaric. + +'I need hardly tell you, Tudor, how anxious I am to further your +advancement. I greatly value your ability and diligence, and have +shown that I am anxious to make them serviceable to the public.' + +'I am fully aware that I owe you a great deal, Sir Gregory.' + +'Oh, I don't mean that; that's nothing; I am not thinking of +myself. I only want you to understand that I am truly anxious to +see you take that line in public matters which may make your +services most valuable to the public, and which may redound the +most to your own advantage. I have thought of what you said to me +with the most mature deliberation, and I am persuaded that I +shall best do my duty to you, and to the service, by recommending +you to abandon altogether your idea of going into Parliament.' + +Sir Gregory said this in his weightiest manner. He endeavoured to +assume some of that authority with which he had erst cowed the +young Tudor at the Weights and Measures, and as he finished his +speech he assumed a profound look which ought to have been very +convincing. + +But the time was gone by with Alaric when such tricks of +legerdemain were convincing to him. A grave brow, compressed +lips, and fixed eyes, had no longer much effect upon him. He had +a point to gain, and he was thinking of that, and not of Sir +Gregory's grimaces. + +'Then you will not see the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the +subject?' + +'No,' said Sir Gregory; 'it would be useless for me to do so. I +could not advocate such a scheme, feeling certain that it would be +injurious both to yourself and to the service; and I would not +desire to see the Chancellor with the view of opposing your wishes.' + +'I am much obliged to you for that, at any rate,' said Alaric. + +'But I do hope that you will not carry your plan any farther. +When I tell you, as I do with the utmost sincerity, that I feel +certain that an attempt to seat yourself in Parliament can only +lead to the ruin of your prospects as a Civil servant--prospects +which are brighter now than those of any other young man in the +service--I cannot but think that you must hesitate before you +take any step which will, in my opinion, render your resignation +necessary.' + +'I shall be sorry to resign, Sir Gregory, as I have such true +pleasure in serving with you.' + +'And, I presume, a salary of £1,200 a year is not unacceptable?' +said Sir Gregory, with the very faintest of smiles. + +'By no means,' said Alaric; 'I am a poor man, depending +altogether on my own exertions for an income. I cannot afford to +throw away a chance.' + +'Then take my word for it, you should give up all idea of +Parliament,' said Sir Gregory, who thought that he had carried +his point. + +'But I call a seat in Parliament a chance,' said Alaric; 'the +best chance that a man, circumstanced as I am, can possibly have. +I have the offer of a seat, Sir Gregory, and I can't afford to +throw it away.' + +'Then it is my duty to tell you, as the head of your office, that +it will be your duty to resign before you offer yourself as a +candidate.' + +'That you mean is your present opinion, Sir Gregory?' + +'Yes, Mr. Tudor, that is my opinion--an opinion which I shall be +forced to express to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if you +persist in this infatuation.' + +Alaric looked very grave, but not a whit angry. 'I am sorry for +it, Sir Gregory, very sorry; I had hoped to have had your +countenance.' + +'I would give it you, Mr. Tudor, if I could consistently with my +duty as a public servant; but as I cannot, I am sure you will not +ask for it.' How Fidus Neverbend would have admired the chief +commissioner could he have seen and heard him at this moment! +'But,' he continued, relaxing for a while the muscles of his +face, 'I hope, I do hope, you will think better of this. What are +you to gain? Come, Tudor, think of it that way. What are you to +gain? You, with a wife and young family coming up about your +heels, what are you to gain by going into Parliament? That is +what I ask you. What are you to gain?' It was delightful to see +how pleasantly practical Sir Gregory could become when he chose +to dismount from his high horse. + +'It is considered a high position in this country, that of a +member of Parliament,' said Alaric. 'A man in gaining that is +generally supposed to have gained something.' + +'True, quite true. It is a desirable position for a rich man, or +a rich man's eldest son, or even for a poor man, if by getting +into Parliament he can put himself in the way of improving his +income. But, my dear Tudor, you are in none of these positions. +Abandon the idea, my dear Tudor--pray abandon it. If not for your +own sake, at any rate do so for that of your wife and child.' + +Sir Gregory might as well have whistled. Not a word that he said +had the slightest effect on Alaric. How was it possible that his +words should have any effect, seeing that Alaric was convinced +that Sir Gregory was pleading for his own advantage, and not for +that of his listener? Alaric did listen. He received all that Sir +Gregory said with the most profound attention; schooled his face +into a look of the most polite deference; and then, with his most +cruel tone, informed Sir Gregory that his mind was quite made up, +and that he did intend to submit himself to the electors of +Strathbogy. + +'And as to what you say about my seat at the board, Sir Gregory, +you may probably be right. Perhaps it will be as well that I +should see the Chancellor of the Exchequer myself.' + +'"Who will to Cupar maun to Cupar,"' said Sir Gregory; 'I can +only say, Mr. Tudor, that I am very sorry for you, and very sorry +for your wife--very sorry, very sorry indeed.' + +'And who will to Strathbogy maun to Strathbogy,' said Alaric, +laughing; 'there is certainly an air of truth about the proverb +as applied to myself just at present. But the fact is, whether +for good or for bad, I maun to Strathbogy. That is my present +destiny. The fact that I have a wife and a child does make the +step a most momentous one. But, Sir Gregory, I should never +forgive myself were I to throw away such an opportunity.' + +'Then I have nothing more to say, Mr. Tudor.' + +'Of course I shall try to save my place,' continued Alaric. + +'I look upon that as quite impossible,' said Sir Gregory. + +'It can do me no harm at any rate to see the Chancellor of the +Exchequer. If he tells me that a seat in Parliament and a seat at +the board are incompatible, and that as one of the Civil Service +Commissioners I am not free to stand for the borough, I will in +that case, Sir Gregory, put my resignation in your hands before I +publish my address.' + +And so they parted, each determined to do all that in him lay to +thwart the wishes of the other. Alaric was not in the least +influenced by anything that Sir Gregory had said to him; he had +made up his mind, and was determined to be turned from it by no +arguments that his colleague could use; but nevertheless he could +not but be meditative, as, walking home across the Parks, he +thought of his wife and child. It is true that he had a second +trade; he was a stock-jobber as well as a Civil Service +Commissioner; but he already perceived how very difficult it was +to realize an income to which he could trust from that second +precarious pursuit. He had also lived in a style considerably +beyond that which his official income would have enabled him to +assume. He had on the whole, he thought, done very well; but yet +it would be a dreadful thing to have to trust to so precarious a +livelihood. He had realized nothing; he had not yet been able to +pay back the money which he had so fraudulently taken, and to +acquit himself of a debt which now lay daily heavier and heavier +on his soul. He felt that he must repay not only that but Undy's +share also, before he could again pass a happy day or a quiet +night. This plan of throwing up £1,200 a year would badly assist +him in getting rid of this incubus. + +But still that watchword of his goaded him on--'Excelsior!' he +still said to himself; 'Excelsior!' If he halted now, now when +the ball was at his foot, he might never have another chance. +Very early in life before a beard was on his chin, before he +could style himself a man according to the laws of his country, +he had determined within himself that a seat in Parliament was +the only fitting ambition for an Englishman. That was now within +his reach. Would he be such a dastard as to draw back his hand, +and be deterred from taking it, by old women's tales of prudence, +and the self-interested lectures of Sir Gregory Hardlines? + +'Excelsior!' There was not much that could be so styled in that +debt of his to M. and Madame Jaquêtanàpe. If he could only pay +that off he felt that he could brave the world without a fear. +Come what come might he would sell out and do so. The bridge +committee was sitting, and his shares were already worth more +than he had paid for them. Mr. Blocks had just given his +evidence, and the commercial world was willing enough to invest +in the Limehouse bridge. He would sell out and put his conscience +at rest. + +But then to do so successfully, he must induce Undy to do so too; +and that he knew would not at present be an easy task. Who had +ever been successful in getting back money from Undy Scott? He +had paid the last half-year's interest with most commendable +punctuality, and was not that a great deal from Undy Scott? + +But what if this appropriation of another's money, what if this +fraud should be detected and exposed before he had succeeded in +paying back the £10,000. What if he should wake some morning and +find himself in the grip of some Newgate myrmidon? A terrible new +law had just been passed for the protection of trust property; a +law in which he had not felt the slightest interest when he had +first seen in the daily newspapers some tedious account of the +passing of the various clauses, but which was now terrible to his +innermost thoughts. + +His walk across the Parks was not made happy by much self- +triumph. In spite of his commissionership and coming parliamentary +honours, his solitary moments were seldom very happy. It was at +his club, when living with Undy and Undy's peers, that he was +best able to throw off his cares and enjoy himself. But even then, +high as he was mounted on his fast-trotting horse, black Care +would sit behind him, ever mounted on the same steed. + +And bitterly did poor Gertrude feel the misery of these evenings +which her husband passed at his club; but she never reviled him +or complained; she never spoke of her sorrow even to her mother +or sister. She did not even blame him in her own heart. She knew +that he had other business than that of his office, higher hopes +than those attached to his board; and she taught herself to +believe that his career required him to be among public men. + +He had endeavoured to induce her to associate constantly with +Mrs. Val, so that her evenings might not be passed alone; but +Gertrude, after trying Mrs. Val for a time, had quietly +repudiated the closeness of this alliance. Mrs. Val had her ideas +of 'Excelsior,' her ambition to rule, and these ideas and this +ambition did not at all suit Gertrude's temper. Not even for her +husband's sake could she bring herself to be patronized by Mrs. +Val. They were still very dear friends, of course; but they did +not live in each other's arms as Alaric had intended they should +do. + +He returned home after his interview with Sir Gregory, and found +his wife in the drawing-room with her child. He usually went down +from his office to his club, and she was therefore the more ready +to welcome him for having broken through his habit on the present +occasion. + +She left her infant sprawling on the floor, and came up to greet +him with a kiss. + +'Ger,'--said he, putting his arm round her and embracing her--'I +have come home to consult you on business;' and then he seated +himself on the sofa, taking her with him, and still in his arms. +There was but little doubt that she would consent to anything +which he could propose to her after such a fashion, in such a +guise as this; that he knew full well. + +'Well, love,' said she, 'and what is the business about? You know +that I always think that to be best which you think to be best.' + +'Yes, Ger; but this is a very important matter;' and then he +looked grave, but managed at the same time to look happy and +contented. 'This is a matter of vital importance to you, and I +will do nothing in it without your consent.' + +'What is best for you must be best for me,' said Gertrude, +kissing his forehead. + +Then he explained to her what had passed between himself and Sir +Gregory, and what his own ideas were as regarded the borough of +Strathbogy. 'Sir Gregory,' said he, 'is determined that I shall +not remain at the board and sit in Parliament at the same time; +but I do not see why Sir Gregory is to have his own way in +everything. If you are not afraid of the risk, I will make up my +mind to stand it at all events, and to resign if the Minister +makes it imperative. If, however, you fear the result, I will let +the matter drop, and tell the Scotts to find another candidate. I +am anxious to go into Parliament, I confess; but I will never do +so at the expense of your peace of mind.' + +The way in which he put upon her the whole weight of the decision +was not generous. Nor was the mode he adopted of inducing her to +back his own wishes. If there were risk to her--and in truth +there was fearful risk--it was his duty to guard her from the +chance, not hers to say whether such danger should be encountered +or no. The nature of her answer may be easily surmised. She was +generous, though he was not. She would never retard his advance, +or be felt as a millstone round his neck. She encouraged him with +all her enthusiasm, and bade him throw prudence to the winds. If +he rose, must she not rise also? Whatever step in life was good +for him, must it not be good for her as well? And so that matter +was settled between them--pleasantly enough. + +He endured a fortnight of considerable excitement, during which +he and Sir Gregory did not smile at each other, and then he saw +the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That gentleman promised to speak +to the Prime Minister, feeling himself unable to answer the +question put to him, definitely out of his own head; and then +another fortnight passed on. At the end of that time the +Chancellor of the Exchequer sent for Alaric, and they had a +second interview. + +'Well, Mr. Tudor,' said the great man, 'this is a matter of very +considerable importance, and one on which I am not even yet +prepared to give you a positive answer.' + +This was very good news for Alaric. Sir Gregory had spoken of the +matter as one on which there could be no possible doubt. He had +asserted that the British lion would no longer sleep peaceably in +his lair, if such a violence were put on the constitution as that +meditated by the young commissioner. It was quite clear that the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Prime Minister also, looked +at it in a very different light. They doubted, and Alaric was +well aware that their doubt was as good as certainty to him. + +The truth was that the Prime Minister had said to the Chancellor +of the Exchequer, in a half-serious, half-jocular way, that he +didn't see why he should reject a vote when offered to him by a +member of the Civil Service. The man must of course do his work-- +and should it be found that his office work and his seat in +Parliament interfered with each other, why, he must take the +consequences. And if--or--or--made a row about it in the House +and complained, why in that case also Mr. Tudor must take the +consequences. And then, enough having been said on that matter, +the conversation dropped. + +'I am not prepared to give a positive answer,' said the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, who of course did not choose to +commit himself. + +Alaric assured the great man that he was not so unreasonable as +to expect a positive answer. Positive answers, as he well knew, +were not often forthcoming among official men; official men, as +he had already learnt, prefer to do their business by answers +which are not positive. He himself had become adverse to positive +answers since he had become a commissioner, and was quite +prepared to dispense with them in the parliamentary career which +he hoped that he was now about to commence. This much, however, +was quite clear, that he might offer himself as a candidate to +the electors of Strathbogy without resigning; and that Sir +Gregory's hostile remonstrance on the subject, should he choose +to make one, would not be received as absolute law by the greater +powers. + +Accordingly as Alaric was elated, Sir Gregory was depressed. He +had risen high, but now this young tyro whom he had fostered was +about to climb above his head. O the ingratitude of men! + +Alaric, however, showed no triumph. He was more submissive, more +gracious than ever to his chief. It was only to himself that he +muttered 'Excelsior! + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +WESTMINSTER HALL + + +The parliamentary committee pursued their animated inquiries +respecting the Limehouse bridge all through the sultry month of +July. How Mr. Vigil must have hated Mr. Nogo, and the M'Carthy +Desmond! how sick he must have been of that eternal witness who, +with imperturbable effrontery, answered the 2,250 questions put +to him without admitting anything! To Mr. Vigil it was all mere +nonsense, sheer waste of time. Had he been condemned to sit for +eight days in close contiguity to the clappers of a small mill, +he would have learnt as much as he did from the witnesses before +the committee. Nevertheless he went through it and did not lose +his temper. He smiled sweetly on Mr. Nogo every morning, and +greeted the titled Irishman with his easy familiar nod, as though +the continued sitting of this very committee was of all things to +him the most desirable. Such is Mr. Vigil's peculiar tact, such +his special talent; these are the gifts--gifts by no means +ordinary--which have made him Right Honourable, and recommended +him to the confidence of successive badgers. + +But though the committee was uninteresting to Mr. Vigil, it was +not so to the speculative inhabitants of Limehouse, or to the +credulous shopkeepers of Rotherhithe. On the evening of the day +on which Mr. Blocks was examined, the shares went up 20 per cent; +and when his evidence was published _in extenso_ the next +Saturday morning by the _Capel Court Share-buyer_, a periodical +which served for Bible and Prayer-book, as well as a Compendium +of the Whole Duty of Man, to Undy Scott and his friends, a further rise +in the price of this now valuable property was the immediate +consequence. + +Now, then, was the time for Alaric to sell and get out of his +difficulties if ever he could do so. Shares which he bought for +30s. were now worth nearly £2 10s. He was strongly of opinion +that they would fall again, and that the final result of the +committee would leave them of a less value than their original +purchase-money, and probably altogether valueless. He could not, +however, act in the matter without consulting Undy, so closely +linked were they in the speculation; and even at the present +price his own shares would not enable him to pay back the full +amount of what he had taken. + +The joint property of the two was, however, at its present market +price, worth £12,000--£10,000 would make him a free man. He was +perfectly willing to let Undy have the full use of the difference +in amount; nay, he was ready enough to give it to him altogether, +if by so doing he could place the whole of his ward's money once +more in safety. With the power of offering such a douceur to his +friend's rapacity, he flattered himself that he might have a +chance of being successful. He was thus prepared to discuss the +matter with his partner. + +It so happened that at the same moment Undy was desirous of +discussing the same subject, their joint interest, namely, in the +Limehouse bridge; there was no difficulty therefore in their +coming together. They met at the door of the committee-room when +Mr. Nogo had just put his 999th question to the adverse witness; +and as the summons to prayers prevented the 1,000th being +proceeded with at that moment, Undy and Alaric sauntered back +along the passages, and then walking up and down the immense +space of Westminster Hall, said each to the other what he had to +say on the matter mooted between them. + +Undy was in great glee, and seemed to look on his fortune as +already made. They had at first confined their remarks to the +special evidence of the witness who had last been in the chair; +and Undy, with the volubility which was common to him when he was +in high spirits, had been denouncing him as an ass who was +injuring his own cause by his over obstinacy. + +'Nothing that he can say,' said Undy, 'will tell upon the share- +market. The stock is rising from hour to hour; and Piles himself +told me that he knew from sure intelligence that the Chancellor +of the Exchequer is prepared to give way, whatever Vigil may say +to the contrary. Their firm, Piles says, is buying every share +they can lay their hands on.' + +'Then in God's name let them buy ours,' said Alaric. + +'Buy ours!' said Undy. 'You don't mean to tell me that you wish +to sell now? You don't mean to say that you want to back out, now +that the game is all going our own way?' + +'Indeed I do, and I intend to do so; just listen to me, Undy----' + +'I tell you fairly, Tudor, I will not sell a share; what you may +choose to do with your own I cannot say. But if you will be +guided by me you will keep every share you have got. Instead of +selling we should both add to our stock. I at any rate am +resolved to do so.' + +'Listen to me, Undy,' said Alaric. + +'The truth is,' said Undy--who at the present moment preferred +talking to listening--'the truth is, you do not understand buying +and selling shares. We should both be ruined very quickly were I +to allow myself to be led by you; you are too timid, too much +afraid of risking your money; your speculative pluck hardly rises +higher than the Three per cents, and never soars above a first- +class mortgage on land.' + +'I could be as sanguine as you are, and as bold,' said Alaric, +'were I venturing with my own money.' + +'In the name of goodness get that bugbear out of your head,' said +Undy. 'Whatever good it might have done you to think of that some +time ago, it can do you no good now.' There was a bitter truth in +this which made Alaric's heart sink low within his breast. +'Wherever the money came from, whose property it may have been or +be, it has been used; and now your only safety is in making the +best use of it. A little daring, a little audacity--it is that +which ruins men. When you sit down to play brag, you must brag it +out, or lose your money.' + +'But, my dear fellow, there is no question here of losing money. +If we sell now we shall realize about £2,000.' + +'And will that, or the half of that, satisfy you? Is that your +idea of a good thing? Will that be sufficient to pay for the +dozen of bad things which a fellow is always putting his foot +into? It won't satisfy me. I can tell you that, at any rate.' + +Alaric felt very desirous of keeping Undy in a good humour. He +wished, if possible, to persuade him rather than to drive him; to +coax him into repaying this money, and not absolutely to demand +the repayment. 'Come,' said he, 'what do you call a good thing +yourself?' + +'I call cent per cent a good thing, and I'll not sell a share +till they come up to that.' + +'They'll never do that, Undy.' + +'That's your opinion. I think differently. And I'm sure you will +own I have had more experience of the share-market than you have. +When I see such men as Blocks and Piles buying fast, I know very +well which way the wind blows. A man may be fishing a long time, +Tudor, in these waters, before he gets such a haul as this; but +he must be a great fool to let go his net when he does get it.' + +They both then remained silent for a time, for each was doubtful +how best to put forward the view which he himself wished to urge. +Their projects were diametrically different, and yet neither +could carry his own without the assistance of the other. + +'I tell you what I propose,' said Undy. + +'Wait a moment, Undy,' said Alaric; 'listen to me for one moment. +I can hear nothing till you do so, and then I will hear +anything.' + +'Well, what is it?' + +We have each of us put something near to £5,000 into this +venture.' + +'I have put more,' said Scott. + +'Very well. But we have each of us withdrawn a sum equal to that +I have named from my ward's fortune for this purpose.' + +'I deny that,' said Undy. 'I have taken nothing from your ward's +fortune. I have had no power to do so. You have done as you +pleased with that fortune. But I am ready to admit that I have +borrowed £5,000--not from your ward, but from you.' + +Alaric was nearly beside himself; but he still felt that he +should have no chance of carrying his point if he lost his +temper. + +'That is ungenerous of you, Scott, to say the least of it; but +we'll let that pass. To enable me to lend you the £5,000, and to +enable me to join you in this speculation, £10,000 has been +withdrawn from Clementina's fortune.' + +'I know nothing about that,' said Scott. + +'Know nothing about it!' said Alaric, looking at him with +withering scorn. But Undy was not made of withering material, and +did not care a straw for his friend's scorn. + +'Nothing whatever,' said he. + +'Well, so be it,' said Alaric; 'but the fact is, the money has +been withdrawn.' + +'I don't doubt that in the least,' said Undy. 'I am not now going +to argue whether the fault has been most mine or yours,' +continued Alaric. + +'Well, that is kind of you,' said Undy, 'considering that you are +the girl's trustee, and that I have no more to do with it than +that fellow in the wig there.' + +'I wish at any rate you would let me explain myself,' said +Alaric, who felt that his patience was fast going, and who could +hardly resist the temptation of seizing his companion by the +throat, and punishing him on the spot for his iniquity. + +'I don't prevent you, my dear fellow--only remember this: I will +not permit you to assert, without contradicting you, that I am +responsible for Clem's fortune. Now, go on, and explain away as +hard as you like.' + +Alaric, under these circumstances, found it not very easy to put +what he had to say into any words that his companion would admit. +He fully intended at some future day to thrust Scott's innocence +down his throat, and tell him that he was not only a thief, but a +mean, lying, beggarly thief. But the present was not the time. +Too much depended on his inducing Undy to act with him. + +'Ten thousand pounds has at any rate been taken.' + +'That I won't deny.' + +'And half that sum has been lent to you.' + +'I acknowledge a debt of £5,000.' + +'It is imperative that £10,000 should at once be repaid.' + +'I have no objection in life.' + +'I can sell my shares in the Limehouse bridge,' continued Alaric, +'for £6,000, and I am prepared to do so.' + +'The more fool you,' said Undy,' if you do it; especially as +£6,000 won't pay £10,000, and as the same property, if overheld +another month or two, in all probability will do so.' + +'I am ready to sacrifice that and more than that,' said Alaric. +'If you will sell out £4,000, and let me at once have that +amount, so as to make up the full sum I owe, I will make you a +free present of the remainder of the debt. Come, Undy, you cannot +but call that a good thing. You will have pocketed two thousand +pounds, according to the present market value of the shares, and +that without the slightest risk.' + +Undy for a while seemed staggered by the offer. Whether it was +Alaric's extreme simplicity in making it, or his own good luck in +receiving it, or whether by any possible chance some all but +dormant remnant of feeling within his heart was touched, we will +not pretend to say. But for a while he walked on silent, as +though wavering in his resolution, and looking as if he wished to +be somewhat more civil, somewhat less of the bully, than he had +been. + +There was no one else to whom Alaric could dare to open his heart +on this subject of his ward's fortune; there was none other but +this ally of his to whom he could confide, whom he could consult. +Unpromising, therefore, though Undy was as a confederate, Alaric, +when he thought he saw this change in his manner, poured forth at +once the full tide of his feelings. + +'Undy,' said he, 'pray bear with me a while. The truth is, I +cannot endure this misery any longer. I do not now want to blame +anyone but myself. The thing has been done, and it is useless now +to talk of blame. The thing has been done, and all that now +remains for me is to undo it; to put this girl's money back +again, and get this horrid weight from off my breast.' + +'Upon my word, my dear fellow, I did not think that you took it +in such a light as that,' said Undy. + +'I am miserable about it,' said Alaric. 'It keeps me awake all +night, and destroys all my energy during the day.' + +'Oh, that's all bile,' said Undy. 'You should give up fish for a +few days, and take a blue pill at night.' + +'Scott, this money must be paid back at once, or I shall lose my +senses. Fortune has so far favoured me as to enable me to put my +hand at once on the larger portion of it. You must let me have +the remainder. In God's name say that you will do so.' + +Undy Scott unfortunately had not the power to do as he was asked. +Whether he would have done so, had he had the power, may be +doubtful. He was somewhat gravelled for an answer to Alaric's +earnest supplication, and therefore made none till the request +was repeated. + +'In God's name let me have this money,' repeated Alaric. 'You +will then have made two thousand pounds by the transaction.' + +'My dear Tudor,' said he, 'your stomach is out of order, I can +see it as well as possible from the way you talk.' + +Here was an answer for a man to get to the most earnest appeal +which he could make! Here was comfort for a wretch suffering from +fear, remorse, and shame, as Alaric was suffering. He had spoken +of his feelings and his heart, but these were regions quite out +of Undy Scott's cognizance. 'Take a blue pill,' said he, 'and +you'll be as right as a trivet in a couple of days.' + +What was Alaric to say? What could he say to a man who at such a +crisis could talk to him of blue pills? For a while he said +nothing; but the form of his face changed, a darkness came over +his brow which Scott had never before seen there, the colour flew +from his face, his eyes sparkled, and a strange appearance of +resolute defiance showed itself round his mouth. Scott began to +perceive that his medical advice would not be taken in good part. + +'Scott,' said he, stopping short in his walk and taking hold of +the collar of his companion's coat, not loosely by the button, +but with a firm grip which Undy felt that it would be difficult +to shake off--'Scott, you will find that I am not to be trifled +with. You have made a villain of me. I can see no way to escape +from my ruin without your aid; but by the living God, if I fall, +you shall fall with me. Tell me now; will you let me have the sum +I demand? If you do not, I will go to your brother's wife and +tell her what has become of her daughter's money.' + +'You may go to the devil's wife if you like it,' said Undy, 'and +tell her whatever you please.' + +'You refuse, then?' said Alaric, still keeping hold of Undy's +coat. + +'Come, take your hand off,' said Undy. 'You will make me think +your head is wrong as well as your stomach, if you go on like +this. Take your hand off and listen to me. I will then explain to +you why I cannot do what you would have me. Take your hand away, +I say; do you not see that people are looking at us.' + +They were now standing at the upper end of the hall--close under +the steps which lead to the Houses of Parliament; and, as Undy +said, the place was too public for a display of physical +resentment. Alaric took his hand away. 'Well,' said he, 'now tell +me what is to hinder you from letting me have the money you owe +me?' + +'Only this,' said Undy, 'that every share I have in the concern +is made over by way of security to old M'Cleury, and he now holds +them. Till I have redeemed them, I have no power of selling.' + +Alaric, when he heard these words, could hardly prevent himself +from falling in the middle of the hall. All his hopes were then +over; he had no chance of shaking this intolerable burden from +his shoulders; he had taken the woman's money, this money which +had been entrusted to his honour and safe-keeping, and thrown it +into a bottomless gulf. + +'And now listen to me,' said Undy, looking at his watch. 'I must +be in the House in ten or fifteen minutes, for this bill about +married women is on, and I am interested in it: listen to me now +for five minutes. All this that you have been saying is sheer +nonsense.' + +'I think you'll find that it is not all nonsense,' said Alaric. + +'Oh, I am not in the least afraid of your doing anything rash. +You'll be cautious enough I know when you come to be cool; +especially if you take a little physic. What I want to say is +this--Clem's money is safe enough. I tell you these bridge shares +will go on rising till the beginning of next session. Instead of +selling, what we should do is to buy up six or seven thousand +pounds more.' + +'What, with Clementina's money?' + +'It's as well to be hung for a sheep as a lamb. Besides, your +doing so is your only safety. My brother Val insists upon having +250 shares.' + +'Your brother Val!' said Alaric. + +'Yes, Val; and why shouldn't he? I would give them to him if I +could, but I can't. M'Cleury, as I tell you, has every share of +mine in his possession.' + +'Your brother Val wants 250 shares! And does he expect me to give +them to him?' + +'Well--I rather think he does. That is, not to give them, of +course; you don't suppose he wants you to make him a present of +money. But he wants you to accommodate him with the price of +them. You can either do that, or let him have so many of your +own; it will be as broad as it is long; and he'll give you his +note of hand for the amount.' + +Now it was well known among the acquaintance of the Scott family, +that the note of hand of the Honourable Captain Val was not worth +the paper on which it was written. + +Alaric was so astonished at this monstrous request, coming as it +did after such a conversation, that he did not well know how to +take it. + +Was Undy mad, or was he in joke? What man in his senses would +think of lending six or seven hundred pounds to Val Scott! 'I +suppose you are in jest,' said he, somewhat bitterly. + +'I never was more in earnest in my life,' said Undy. 'I'll just +explain how the matter is; and as you are sharp enough, you'll +see at once that you had better oblige him. Val, you know, is +always hard up; he can't touch a shilling of that woman's money, +and just at present he has none of his own. So he came to me this +morning to raise the wind.' + +'And you are kind enough to pass him on to me.' + +'Listen a moment. I did not do anything of the kind. I never lend +money to Val. It's a principle with me not to do so, and he knows +it.' + +'Then just tell him that my principles in this respect are +identical with your own.' + +'That's all very well; and you may tell him so yourself, if you +like it; but hear first of all what his arguments are. Of course +I told him I could do nothing for him. 'But,' said he, 'you can +get Tudor to do it.' I told him, of course, that I could do +nothing of the kind. 'Oh!' said Val, 'I know the game you are +both playing. I know all about Clem's money.' Val, you know, +never says much. He was playing pool at the time, at the club; +but he came back after his stroke, and whispered to me--'You and +Tudor must let me have 250 of those shares, and then it'll be all +right.' Now Val, you know, is a most determined fellow. + +Alaric, when he heard this, looked up into his companion's face +to see whether he was talking to the Evil One himself. Oh, what a +net of ruin was closing round him!--how inextricable were the +toils into which he had fallen! + +'After all,' continued Undy,' what he asks is not much, and I +really think you should do it for him. He is quite willing to +give you his assistance at Strathbogy, and he is entitled to some +accommodation.' + +'Some accommodation!' repeated Alaric, almost lost in the +consideration of his own misery. + +'Yes; I really think he is. And, Tudor, you may be sure of this, +you know; you will be quite safe with him. Val is the very soul +of honour. Do this for him, and you'll hear no more about it. You +may be quite sure he'll ask for nothing further, and that he'll +never say a word to annoy you. He's devilish honourable is Val; +no man can be more so; though, perhaps, you wouldn't think it.' + +'Devilish honourable!' said Alaric. 'Only he would like to have a +bribe.' + +'A bribe!' said Scott. 'Come, my dear fellow, don't you make an +ass of yourself. Val is like the rest of us; when money is going, +he likes to have a share of it. If you come to that, every man +who is paid either for talking or for not talking is bribed.' + +'I don't know that I ever heard of a much clearer case of a bribe +than this which you now demand for your brother.' + +'Bribe or no bribe,' said Undy, looking at his watch, 'I strongly +advise you to do for him what he asks; it will be better for all +of us. And let me give you another piece of advice: never use +hard words among friends. Do you remember the Mary Janes which +Manylodes brought for you in his pocket to the hotel at +Tavistock?' Here Alaric turned as pale as a spectre. 'Don't talk +of bribes, my dear fellow. We are all of us giving and taking +bribes from our cradles to our graves; but men of the world +generally call them by some prettier names. Now, if you are not +desirous to throw your cards up altogether, get these shares for +Val, and let him or me have them to-morrow morning.' And so +saying Undy disappeared into the House, through the side door out +of the hall, which is appropriated to the use of honourable +members. + +And then Alaric was left alone. He had never hitherto realized +the true facts of the position in which he had placed himself; +but now he did so. He was in the hands of these men, these +miscreants, these devils; he was completely at their mercy, and +he already felt that they were as devoid of mercy as they were of +justice. A cold sweat broke out all over him, and he continued +walking up and down the hall, ignorant as to where he was and +what he was doing, almost thoughtless, stunned, as it were, by +his misery and the conviction that he was a ruined man. He had +remained there an hour after Undy had left him, before he roused +himself sufficiently to leave the hall and think of returning +home. It was then seven o'clock, and he remembered that he had +asked his cousin to dine with him. He got into a cab, therefore, +and desired to be driven home. + +What was he to do? On one point he instantly made up his mind. He +would not give one shilling to Captain Val; he would not advance +another shilling to Undy; and he would at once sell out his own +shares, and make such immediate restitution as might now be in +his power. The mention of Manylodes and the mining shares had +come home to him with frightful reality, and nearly stunned him. +What right, indeed, had he to talk of bribes with scorn--he who +so early in his own life had allowed himself to be bought? How +could he condemn the itching palm of such a one as Val Scott--he +who had been so ready to open his own when he had been tempted by +no want, by no poverty? + +He would give nothing to Captain Val to bribe him to silence. He +knew that if he did so, he would be a slave for ever. The +appetite of such a shark as that, when once he has tasted blood, +is unappeasable. There is nothing so ruinous as buying the +silence of a rogue who has a secret. + +What you buy you never possess; and the price that is once paid +must be repaid again and again, as often as the rogue may demand +it. Any alternative must be better than this. + +And yet what other alternative was there? He did not doubt that +Val, when disappointed of his prey, would reveal whatever he +might know to his wife, or to his stepson. Then there would be +nothing for Alaric but confession and ruin. And how could he +believe what Undy Scott had told him? Who else could have given +information against him but Undy himself? Who else could have put +up so heavily stupid a man as Captain Scott to make such a +demand? Was it not clear that his own colleague, his own partner, +his own intimate associate, Undy Scott himself, was positively +working out his ruin? Where were now his high hopes, where now +his seat in Parliament, his authority at the board, his proud +name, his soaring ambition, his constant watchword? 'Excelsior' +--ah me--no! no longer 'Excelsior'; but he thought of the cells of +Newgate, of convict prisons, and then of his young wife and of +his baby. + +He made an effort to assume his ordinary demeanour, and partially +succeeded. He went at once up to his drawing-room, and there he +found Charley and Gertrude waiting dinner for him; luckily he had +no other guests. + +'Are you ill, Alaric?' said Gertrude, directly she saw him. + +'Ill! No,' said he; 'only fagged, dearest; fagged and worried, +and badgered and bored; but, thank God, not ill;' and he +endeavoured to put on his usual face, and speak in his usual +tone. 'I have kept you waiting most unmercifully for your dinner, +Charley; but then I know you navvies always lunch on mutton +chops.' + +'Oh, I am not particularly in a hurry,' said Charley; 'but I deny +the lunch. This has been a bad season for mutton chops in the +neighbourhood of Somerset House; somehow they have not grown this +year.' + +Alaric ran up to prepare for dinner, and his wife followed him. + +'Oh! Alaric,' said she, 'you are so pale: what is the matter? Do +tell me,' and she put her arm through his, took hold of his hand, +and looked up into his face. + +'The matter! Nothing is the matter--a man can't always be +grinning;' and he gently shook her off, and walked through their +bedroom to his own dressing-room. Having entered it he shut the +door, and then, sitting down, bowed his head upon a small table +and buried it in his hands. All the world seemed to go round and +round with him; he was giddy, and he felt that he could not +stand. + +Gertrude paused a moment in the bedroom to consider, and then +followed him. 'What is it you want?' said he, as soon as he heard +the handle turn, 'do leave me alone for one moment. I am fagged +with the heat, and I want one minute's rest.' + +'Oh, Alaric, I see you are ill,' said she. 'For God's sake do not +send me from you,' and coming into the room she knelt down beside +his chair. 'I know you are suffering, Alaric; do let me do +something for you.' + +He longed to tell her everything. He panted to share his sorrows +with one other bosom; to have one near him to whom he could speak +openly of everything, to have one counsellor in his trouble. In +that moment he all but resolved to disclose everything to her, +but at last he found that he could not do it. Charley was there +waiting for his dinner; and were he now to tell his secret to his +wife, neither of them, neither he nor she, would be able to act +the host or hostess. If done at all, it could not at any rate be +done at the present moment. + +'I am better now,' said he, giving a long and deep sigh; and then +he threw his arms round his wife and passionately embraced her. +'My own angel, my best, best love, how much too good or much too +noble you are for such a husband as I am!' + +'I wish I could be good enough for you,' she replied, as she +began to arrange his things for dressing. 'You are so tired, +dearest; wash your hands and come down--don't trouble yourself to +dress this evening; unless, indeed, you are going out again.' + +'Gertrude,' said he, 'if there be a soul on earth that has not in +it a spark of what is good or generous, it is the soul of Undy +Scott;' and so saying he began the operations of his toilet. + +Now Gertrude had never liked Undy Scott; she had attributed to +him whatever faults her husband might have as a husband; and at +the present moment she was not inclined to fight for any of the +Scott family. + +'He is a very worldly man, I think,' said she. + +'Worldly!--no--but hellish,' said Alaric; 'hellish, and damnable, +and fiendish.' + +'Oh, Alaric, what has he done?' + +'Never mind; I cannot tell you; he has done nothing. It is not +that he has done anything, or can do anything to me--but his +heart--but never mind--I wish--I wish I had never seen him.' + +'Alaric, if it be about money tell me the worst, and I'll bear it +without a murmur. As long as you are well I care for nothing +else--have you given up your place?' + +'No, dearest, no; I can keep my place. It is nothing about that. +I have lost no money; I have rather made money. It is the +ingratitude of that man which almost kills me. But come, dearest, +we will go down to Charley. And Gertrude, mind this, be quite +civil to Mrs. Val at present. We will break from the whole set +before long; but in the meantime I would have you be very civil +to Mrs. Val.' + +And so they went down to dinner, and Alaric, after taking a glass +of wine, played his part almost as though he had no weight upon +his soul. After dinner he drank freely, and as he drank his +courage rose. 'Why should I tell her?' he said to himself as he +went to bed. 'The chances are that all will yet go well.' + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +MRS. VAL'S NEW CARRIAGE + + +On the next morning Alaric went to his office without speaking +further as to the trouble on his mind, and endeavoured to comfort +himself as best he might as he walked down to his office. Then he +had also to decide whether it would better suit his purpose to +sell out at once and pay up every shilling that he could, or +whether he would hold on, and hope that Undy's predictions would +be fulfilled, and that the bridge shares would go on rising till +they would sell for all that was required of him. + +Unfortunate man! what would he have given now to change his +position for Norman's single clerkship, or even for Charley's +comparative poverty! + +Gertrude stayed within all day; but not all day in solitude. +About four in the afternoon the Hon. Mrs. Val called, and with +her came her daughter Clem, now Madame Jaquêtanàpe, and the two +Misses Neverbend. M. Jaquêtanàpe had since his marriage made +himself very agreeable to his honourable mother-in-law, so much +so that he now occupied the place in her good graces which Undy +had formerly filled, and which after Undy's reign had fallen to +Alaric's lot. Mrs. Val liked to have about her some confidential +gentleman; and as she never thought of placing her confidence in +her husband, she was prone to select first one man and then +another as her taste and interest dictated. Immediately after +their marriage, Victoire and Clem had consented to join +housekeeping with their parent. Nothing could be more pleasant +than this; their income was unembarrassed, and Mrs. Val, for the +first time in her life, was able to set up her carriage. Among +the effects arising from this cause, the female Neverbends, who +had lately been worshippers of Gertrude, veered round in their +idolatry, and paid their vows before Mrs. Val's new yellow +panels. In this new carriage now came the four ladies to pay a +morning visit to Mrs. Tudor. It was wonderful to see into how +small dimensions the Misses Neverbend had contrived to pack, not +themselves, but their crinoline. + +As has before been hinted, Gertrude did not love Mrs. Val; nor +did she love Clem the danseuse; nor did she specially love the +Misses Neverbend. They were all of a class essentially different +from that in which she had been brought up; and, moreover, Mrs. +Val was not content to allow Gertrude into her set without ruling +over her, or at any rate patronizing her. Gertrude had borne with +them all for her husband's sake; and was contented to do so yet +for a while longer, but she thought in her heart that she would +be able to draw some consolation from her husband's misfortune if +it should be the means of freeing her from Mrs. Val. + +'Oh, my dear,' said Mrs. Val, throwing herself down into a sofa +as though she were exhausted--'what a dreadful journey it is to +you up here! How those poor horses will stand it this weather I +don't know, but it nearly kills me; it does indeed.' The Tudors, +as has been said, lived in one of the quiet streets of Westbournia, +not exactly looking into Hyde Park, but very near to it; Mrs. Val, +on the other hand, lived in Ebury Street, Pimlico; her house was +much inferior to that of the Tudors; it was small, ill built, and +afflicted with all the evils which bad drainage and bad ventilation +can produce; but then it was reckoned to be within the precincts +of Belgravia, and was only five minutes' walk from Buckingham +Palace. Mrs. Val, therefore, had fair ground for twitting her dear +friend with living so far away from the limits of fashion. 'You really +must come down somewhat nearer to the world; indeed you must, +my dear,' said the Hon. Mrs. Val. + +'We are thinking of moving; but then we are talking of going to +St. John's Wood, or Islington,' said Gertrude, wickedly. + +'Islington!' said the Honourable Mrs. Val, nearly fainting. + +'Is not Islington and St. Giles' the same place?' asked the +innocent Clem, with some malice, however, to counterbalance her +innocence. + +'O no!' said Lactimel. 'St Giles' is where the poor wretched +starving Irish dwell. Their utter misery in the middle of this +rich metropolis is a crying disgrace to the Prime Minister.' Poor +Badger, how much he has to bear! 'Only think,' continued +Lactimel, with a soft pathetic drawl, 'they have none to feed +them, none to clothe them, none to do for them!' + +'It is a great question,' said Ugolina, 'whether promiscuous +charity is a blessing or a curse. It is probably the greatest +question of the age. I myself am inclined to think--' + +'But, ma,' said Madame Jaquêtanàpe, 'Mrs. Tudor doesn't really +mean that she is going to live at St. Giles', does she?' + +'I said Islington,' said Gertrude. 'We may go to St. Giles' next, +perhaps.' Had she known all, how dreadful would such jokes have +been to her! + +Mrs. Val saw that she was being quizzed, and, not liking it, +changed the conversation. 'Ugolina,' said she, 'might I trouble +you to look out of the front window? I hope those stupid men of +mine are not letting the horses stand still. They were so warm +coming here, that they will be sure to catch cold.' The stupid +men, however, were round the corner at the public-house, and +Ugolina could only report that as she did not see them she +supposed the horses were walking about. + +'And so,' said Mrs. Val, 'Mr. Tudor is thinking of resigning his +place at the Civil Service Board, and standing for that borough +of Lord Gaberlunzie's, in Aberdeenshire?' + +'I really cannot say,' said Gertrude; 'but I believe he has some +idea of going into Parliament. I rather believe he will continue +to hold his place.' + +'Oh, that I know to be impossible! I was told that by a gentleman +who has been much longer in the service than Mr. Tudor, and who +understands all its bearings.' She here alluded to Fidus +Neverbend. + +'I cannot say,' said Gertrude. 'I do not think Mr. Tudor has +quite made up his mind yet.' + +'Well, my dear, I'll tell you fairly what I think about it. You +know the regard I have for you and Mr. Tudor. He, too, is +Clementina's trustee; that is to say, her fortune is partly +consigned to his care; so I cannot but have a very great interest +about him, and be very anxious that he should do well. Now, my +dear, I'll tell you fairly what I think, and what all the world +is saying. He ought not to think of Parliament. He ought not, +indeed, my dear. I speak for your sake, and your child's. He is +not a man of fortune, and he ought not to think of Parliament. He +has a very fine situation, and he really should be contented.' + +This was intolerable to Gertrude. She felt that she must put Mrs. +Val down, and yet she hardly knew how to do it without being +absolutely rude; whereas her husband had specially begged her to +be civil to this woman at present. 'Oh,' said she, with a slight +smile, 'Mr. Tudor will be able to take care of himself; you will +find, I hope, that there is no cause for uneasiness.' + +'Well, I hope not, I am sure I hope not,' said Mrs. Val, looking +very grave. 'But I tell you fairly that the confidence which we +all have in your husband will be much shaken if he does anything +rash. He should think of this, you know. He has no private +fortune to back him; we must remember that.' + +Gertrude became very red in the face; but she would not trust +herself to answer Mrs. Val at the spur of the moment. + +'It makes such a difference, when one has got no private +fortune,' said Madame Jaquêtanàpe, the heiress. 'Does it not, +Lactimel?' + +'Oh, indeed it does,' said Lactimel. 'I wish every one had a +private fortune; it would be so nice, wouldn't it?' + +'There would be very little poetry in the world if you were to +banish poverty,' said Ugolina. 'Poverty may be called the parent +of poetry. Look at Milton, how poor he was; and Homer, he begged +his bread.' + +'But Lord Byron was not a beggar,' said Clem, contemptuously. + +'I do hope Mr. Tudor will think of what he is doing,' continued +Mrs. Val. 'It is certainly most good-natured and most disinterested +of my dear father-in-law, Lord Gaberlunzie, to place his borough +at Mr. Tudor's disposal. It is just like him, dear good old nobleman. +But, my dear, it will be a thousand pities if Mr. Tudor should be +led on by his lordship's kindness to bring about his own ruin.' + +Mrs. Val had once in her life seen his good-natured lordship. +Soon after her marriage she had insisted on Captain Val taking +her down to the family mansion. She stayed there one night, and +then left it, and since that had shown no further desire to visit +Cauldkail Castle. She did not the less delight to talk about her +dear good father-in-law, the lord. Why should she give his son +Val board and lodging, but that she might be enabled to do so? +She was not the woman to buy an article, and not make of it all +the use of which it might be capable. + +'Pray do not concern yourself,' said Gertrude. 'I can assure you +Mr. Tudor will manage very well for himself--but should any +misfortune happen to him he will not, you may be certain, +attribute it to Lord Gaberlunzie.' + +'I am told that Sir Gregory is most opposed to it,' continued +Mrs. Val. 'I heard that from Mr. Neverbend, who is altogether in +Sir Gregory's confidence--did not you, my dears?' and she turned +round to the sisters of Fidus for confirmation. + +'I heard my brother say that as Mr. Tudor's office is not +parliamentary but permanent, and as he has to attend from ten +till four----' + +'Alaric has not to attend from ten till four,' said Gertrude, who +could not endure the idea that her husband should be ranked with +common clerks, like Fidus Neverbend. + +'Oh, I didn't know,' said Lactimel, meekly. 'Perhaps Fidus only +meant that as it is one of those offices where the people have +something to do, the commissioners couldn't be in their offices +and in Parliament at the same time.' + +'I did understand,' said Ugolina, 'that Sir Gregory Hardlines had +put his veto upon it; but I must confess that it is a subject +which I have not sufficiently studied to enable me----' + +'It's £1,200 a year, isn't it?' asked the bride. + +'Twelve hundred pounds a year,' said her mother--'a very serious +consideration when there is no private fortune to back it, on +either side. Now if it were Victoire----' + +'He couldn't sit in Parliament, ma, because he's an alien--only +for that I shouldn't think of his doing anything else.' + +'Perhaps that may be altered before long,' said Lactimel, +graciously. + +'If Jews are to be admitted,' said Ugolina, 'who certainly belong +to an alien nation; a nation expressly set apart and separated +from all people--a peculiar nation distinct from all others, I +for one cannot discern----' + +What Ugolina could or could not discern about the Jews was +communicated perhaps to Madame Jaquêtanàpe or to Lactimel, but +not to Gertrude or to Mrs. Val; for the latter, taking Gertrude +apart into a corner as it were of the sofa, began confidentially +to repeat to her her fears about her husband. + +'I see, my dear,' said she, 'that you don't like my speaking +about it.' + +'Upon my word,' said Gertrude, 'I am very indifferent about it. +But would it not be better if you said what you have to say to my +husband?' + +'I intend to do so. I intend to do that also. But I know that a +wife ought to have influence over her husband, and I believe that +you have influence over yours.' + +'Not the least,' said Gertrude, who was determined to contradict +Mrs. Val in everything. + +'I am sorry to hear it,' said Mrs. Val, who among all her +excellent acquirements, did not possess that specially excellent +one of understanding repartee. 'I am very sorry to hear it, and I +shall certainly speak to him the more seriously on that account. +I think I have some influence over him; at any rate I ought to +have.' + +'I dare say you have,' said Gertrude; 'Alaric always says that no +experience is worth anything that is not obtained by years.' + +Mrs. Val at least understood this, and continued her lecture with +some additional severity. 'Well, my dear, I am glad he has so +much wisdom. But what I was going to say is this: you know how +much we have at stake with Mr. Tudor--what a very large sum of +Clementina's money lies in his hands. Now I really should not +have consented to the arrangement had I thought it possible that +Mr. Tudor would have given up his income with the idea of going +into Parliament. It wouldn't have been right or prudent of me to +do so. I have the greatest opinion of your husband's talents and +judgement, or I should not of course have entrusted him with the +management of Clementina's fortune; but I really shall think it +right to make some change if this project of his goes on.' + +'Why, what is it you suspect?' said Gertrude. 'Do you think that +Mr. Tudor intends to use your daughter's income if he loses a +portion of his own? I never heard such a thing in my life.' + +'Hush! my dear--gently--I would not for worlds let Clementina +hear a word of this; it might disturb her young happiness. She is +so charmed with her husband; her married life is so fortunate; +Victoire is so--so--so everything that we all wish, that I would +not for the world breathe in her hearing a shadow of a suspicion.' + +'Good gracious! Mrs. Scott, what do you mean? Suspicion!--what +suspicion? Do you suspect my husband of robbing you?' Oh, +Gertrude; poor Gertrude! she was doomed to know it all before +long. + +'Oh dear, no,' said Mrs. Val; 'nothing of the kind, I assure you. +Of course we suspect nothing of the sort. But one does like to +have one's money in safe hands. Of course Mr. Tudor wouldn't have +been chosen as trustee if he hadn't had a good income of his own; +and look here, my dear,'--and Mrs. Val whispered very confidentially, +--'Mr. Tudor we all know is greatly concerned in this bridge that +the committee is sitting about; and he and my brother-in-law, +Undecimus, are always dealing in shares. Gentlemen do, I know; +and therefore I don't say that there is anything against it. But +considering all, I hope Mr. Tudor won't take it ill if we propose to +change our trustee.' + +'I am very certain he will not,' said Gertrude. 'It is a +laborious business, and he will be glad enough to be rid of it. +When he was asked to accept it, he thought it would be ill- +natured to refuse; I am certain, however, he will be very glad to +give up the work to any other person who may be appointed. I will +be sure to tell him this evening what you have said.' + +'You need not trouble yourself to do that,' said Mrs. Val. 'I +shall see him myself before long.' + +'It will be no trouble,' said Gertrude, very indignantly, for she +was very angry, and had, as she thought, great cause for anger. +'I shall certainly think it my duty to do so after what has +passed. Of course you will now take steps to relieve him as soon +as possible.' + +'You have taken me up a great deal too quick, my dear,' said Mrs. +Val. 'I did not intend----' + +'Oh--one can't be too quick on such a matter as this,' said +Gertrude. 'When confidence is once lost between two persons it is +better that the connexion which has grown out of confidence +should be put an end to as soon as possible.' + +'Lost confidence! I said nothing about lost confidence!' + +'Alaric will so understand it, I am quite sure; at any rate I +will tell him what you have said. Suspicion indeed! who has dared +to suspect him of anything not honest or upright?' + +Gertrude's eyes flashed with anger as she vindicated her absent +lord. Mrs. Val had been speaking with bated breath, so that no +one had heard her but she to whom she was speaking; but Gertrude +had been unable so to confine her answers, and as she made her +last reply Madame Jaquêtanàpe and the Misses Neverbend were all +ears. + +'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Mrs. Val. 'Upon my word, my dear, it is +amusing to hear you take it up. However, I assure you I meant +nothing but what was kind and friendly. Come, Clementina, we have +been sitting here a most unconscionable time. Will you allow me, +my dear, to ring for my carriage?' + +'Mamma,' said Clem, 'have you asked Mrs. Tudor to our little +dance?' + +'No, my dear; I have left that for you to do. It's your party, +you know--but I sincerely hope Mrs. Tudor will come.' + +'Oh yes,' said Clementina, the tongue of whose eloquence was now +loosened. 'You must come, Mrs. Tudor; indeed you must. It will be +so charming; just a few nice people, you know, and nothing more.' + +'Thank you,' said Gertrude; 'but I never dance now.' She had +inwardly resolved that nothing should ever induce her again to +enter Mrs. Val's house. + +'Oh, but you must come,' said Clementina. 'It will be so +charming. We only mean to dance one kind of dance--that new thing +they have just brought over from Spain--the Contrabandista. It is +a polka step, only very quick, and you take every other turn by +yourself; so you have to take your partner up and let him go as +quick as possible. You don't know how charming it is, and it will +be all the rage. We are to have the music out in the street, just +as they have in Spain.' + +'It would be much too difficult for me,' said Gertrude. + +'It is difficult,' said the enthusiastic Clem; 'but Victoire +gives us lessons in it everyday from twelve to two--doesn't he, +Ugolina?' + +'I'm afraid I shouldn't have time to go to school,' said +Gertrude. + +'Oh, it doesn't take much time--six or seven or eight lessons +will do it pretty well. I have almost learnt it already, and +Ugolina is coming on very fast. Lactimel is not quite so perfect. +She has learnt the step, but she cannot bring herself to let +Victoire go quick enough. Do come, and bring Mr. Tudor with you.' + +'As he has not to attend from ten till four, he could come and +take lessons too,' said Lactimel, who, now that she was no longer +a hanger-on of Gertrude's, could afford to have her little +revenge. + +'That would be delightful,' said Clem. 'Mr. Charles Tudor does +come in sometimes at twelve o'clock, and I think he does it +almost as well as Victoire.' + +Gertrude, however, would go neither to the rehearsals nor to the +finished performance; and as Mrs. Val's men had by this time been +induced to leave the beershop, the whole party went away, leaving +Gertrude to her meditations. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +TICKLISH STOCK + + +Alaric returned from his office worn and almost as wretched as he +had been on the day before. He had spent a miserable day. In the +morning Sir Gregory had asked him whether he had finally made up +his mind to address the electors of Strathbogy. 'No, not +finally,' said Alaric, 'but I think I shall do so.' + +'Then I must tell you, Tudor,' said Sir Gregory, speaking more in +sorrow than in anger, 'that you will not have my countenance. I +cannot but think also that you are behaving with ingratitude.' +Alaric prepared to make some petulant answer, but Sir Gregory, in +the meantime, left the room. + +Every one was falling away from him. He felt inclined to rush +after Sir Gregory, and promise to be guided in this matter solely +by him, but his pride prevented him: though he was no longer +sanguine and confident as he had been a week ago, still his +ambition was high. 'Those who play brag must brag it out, or they +will lose their money.' This had been said by Undy; but it was +not the less true on that account. Alaric felt that he was +playing brag, and that his only game was to brag it out. + +He walked home slowly through the Parks. His office and house +were so circumstanced that, though they were some two miles +distant, he could walk from one to the other almost without +taking his feet off the grass. This had been the cause of great +enjoyment to him; but now he sauntered on with his hands behind +his back, staring straight before him, with fixed eyes, going by +his accustomed route, but never thinking for a moment where he +was. The tune was gone when he could watch the gambols of +children, smile at the courtships of nursery-maids, watch the +changes in the dark foliage of the trees, and bend from his +direct path hither and thither to catch the effects of distant +buildings, and make for his eye half-rural landscapes in the +middle of the metropolis. No landscapes had beauty for him now; +the gambols even of his own baby were unattractive to him; leaves +might bud forth and nourish and fall without his notice. How went +the share-market? that was the only question that had an interest +for him. The dallyings of Capel Court were the only courtships +that he now cared to watch. + +And with what a terribly eager eye had he now to watch them! If +his shares went up quickly, at once, with an unprecedented +success, he might possibly be saved. That was all. But if they +did not--! Such was the phase of life under which at the present +moment it behoved him to exist. + +And then, when he reached his home, how was he welcomed? With all +the fond love which a loving wife can show; so much at least was +his; but before he had felt the sweetness of her caresses, before +he had acknowledged how great was the treasure that he possessed, +forth from her eager lips had come the whole tale of Mrs. Val's +impertinence. + +'I will never see her again, Alaric! never; she talked of her +daughter's money, and said something of suspicion!' Suspicion! +Gertrude's eye again flashed fire with anger; and she all but +stamped with her little foot upon the ground. Suspicion! suspect +him, her husband, the choice of her heart, her Alaric, the human +god whom she worshipped! suspect him of robbery! her lord, her +heart, her soul, the strong staff on which she leaned so +securely, with such true feminine confidence! Suspect him of +common vile dishonesty!--'You will never ask me to see her again +--will you, Alaric?' + +What was he to say to her? how was he to bear this? His heart +yearned to tell her all; he longed for the luxury of having one +bosom to whom he could entrust his misery, his slight remaining +hope. But how could he himself, at one blow, by one word, destroy +the high and polished shaft on which she whom he loved had placed +him? He could not do it. He would suffer by himself; hope by +himself, cease to hope by himself, and endure all, till either +his sufferings or his hopes should be over. + +He had to pretend that he was indignant at Mrs. Val's +interference; he had to counterfeit the feelings of outraged +honour, which was so natural to Gertrude. This he failed to do +well. Had he been truly honest--had that woman's suspicion really +done him injustice--he would have received his wife's tidings +with grave displeasure, and have simply resolved to acquit +himself as soon as possible of the disagreeable trust which had +been reposed in him. But such was not now his conduct. He +contented himself by calling Mrs. Val names, and pretended to +laugh at her displeasure. + +'But you will give up this trust, won't you?' said Gertrude. + +'I will think about it,' said he. 'Before I do anything I must +consult old Figgs. Things of that kind can't be put out of their +course by the spleen of an old woman like Mrs. Val.' + +'Oh, Alaric, I do so wish you had had nothing to do with these +Scotts!' + +'So do I,' said he, bitterly; 'I hate them--but, Gertrude, don't +talk about them now; my head aches, and I am tired.' + +He sat at home the whole evening; and though he was by no means +gay, and hardly affectionate in his demeanour to her, yet she +could not but feel that some good effect had sprung from his +recent dislike to the Scotts, since it kept him at home with her. +Lately he had generally spent his evenings at his club. She +longed to speak to him of his future career, of his proposed seat +in Parliament, of his office-work; but he gave her no encouragement +to speak of such things, and, as he pleaded that he was ill, she left +him in quiet on the sofa. + +On the next morning he again went to his office, and in the +course of the morning a note was brought to him from Undy. It ran +as follows:-- + +'MY DEAR TUDOR, + +'Is Val to have the shares? Let me have a line by the bearer. + +'Yours ever, + +'U. S.' + +To this he replied by making an appointment to meet Undy before +dinner at his own office. + +At the time fixed Undy came, and was shown by the sole remaining +messenger into Alaric's private room. The two shook hands +together in their accustomed way. Undy smiled good-humouredly, as +he always did; and Alaric maintained his usual composed and +uncommunicative look. + +'Well,' said Undy, sitting down, 'how about those shares?' + +'I am glad you have come,' said Alaric, 'because I want to speak +to you with some earnestness.' + +'I am quite in earnest myself,' said Undy; 'and so, by G--, is +Val. I never saw a fellow more in earnest--nor yet apparently +more hard up. I hope you have the shares ready, or else a cheque +for the amount.' + +'Look here, Undy; if my doing this were the only means of saving +both you and me from rotting in gaol, by the Creator that made me +I would not do it!' + +'I don't know that it will have much effect upon me, one way or +the other,' said Undy, coolly; 'but it seems to me to be the only +way that can save yourself from some such fate. Shall I tell you +what the clauses are of this new bill about trust property?' + +'I know the clauses well enough; I know my own position; and I +know yours also.' + +'D--- your impudence!' said Undy; 'how do you dare to league me +with your villany? Have I been the girl's trustee? have I drawn, +or could I have drawn, a shilling of her money? I tell you, +Tudor, you are in the wrong box. You have one way of escape, and +one only. I don't want to ruin you; I'll save you if I can; I +think you have treated the girl in a most shameful way, +nevertheless I'll save you if I can; but mark this, if this money +be not at once produced I cannot save you.' + +Alaric felt that he was covered with cold perspiration. His +courage did not fail him; he would willingly have taken Undy by +the throat, could his doing so have done himself or his cause any +good; but he felt that he was nearly overset by the cool deep +villany of his companion. + +'I have treated the girl badly--very badly,' he said, after a +pause; 'whether or no you have done so too I leave to your own +conscience, if you have a conscience. I do not now mean to accuse +you; but you may know this for certain--my present anxiety is to +restore to her that which I have taken from her; and for no +earthly consideration--not to save my own wife--will I increase +the deficiency.' + +'Why, man, what nonsense you talk--as if I did not know all the +time that you have your pocket full of these shares.' + +'Whatever I have, I hold for her. If I could succeed in getting +out of your hands enough to make up the full sum that I owe her--' + +'You will succeed in getting nothing from me. When I borrowed +£5,000 from you, it was not understood that I was to be called +upon for the money in three or four months' time.' + +'Now look here, Scott; you have threatened me with ruin and a +prison, and I will not say but your threats may possibly prove +true. It may be that I am ruined; but, if I fall, you shall share +my fall.' + +'That's false,' said Undy. 'I am free to hold my head before the +world, which you are not. I have done nothing to bring me to +shame.' + +'Nothing to bring you to shame, and yet you would now have me +give you a further portion of this girl's money!' + +'Nothing! I care nothing about the girl's money. I have not +touched it, nor do I want to touch it. I bring you a message from +my brother; you have ample means of your own to comply with his +request.' + +'Then tell your brother,' said Alaric, now losing all control +over his temper--'tell your brother, if indeed he have any part +in this villany--tell your brother that if it were to save me +from the gallows, he should not have a shilling. I have done very +badly in this matter; I have acted shamefully, and I am ashamed, +but----' + +'Oh, I want to hear none of your rhapsodies,' said Undy. 'If you +will not now do what I ask you, I may as well go, and you may +take the consequences;' and he lifted his hat as though preparing +to take his leave. + +'But you shall hear me,' said Alaric, rising quickly from his +seat, and standing between Undy and the door. Undy very coolly +walked to the bell and rang it. 'I have much to answer for,' +continued Alaric, 'but I would not have your sin on my soul, I +would not be as black as you are, though, by being so, I could +save myself with certainty from all earthly punishment.' + +As he finished, the messenger opened the door. 'Show Mr. Scott +out,' said Alaric. + +'By, by,' said Undy. 'You will probably hear from Mrs. Val and +her daughter to-morrow,' and so saying he walked jauntily along +the passage, and went jauntily to his dinner at his club. It was +part of his philosophy that nothing should disturb the even tenor +of his way, or interfere with his animal comforts. He was at the +present moment over head and ears in debt; he was playing a game +which, in all human probability, would end in his ruin; the +ground was sinking beneath his feet on every side; and yet he +thoroughly enjoyed his dinner. Alaric could not make such use of +his philosophy. Undy Scott might be the worse man of the two, but +he was the better philosopher. + +Not on the next day, or on the next, did Alaric hear from Mrs. +Val, but on the following Monday he got a note from her begging +him to call in Ebury Street. She underscored every line of it +once or twice, and added, in a postscript, that he would, she was +sure, at once acknowledge the NECESSITY of her request, as she +wished to communicate with him on the subject of her DAUGHTER'S +FORTUNE. + +Alaric immediately sent an answer to her by a messenger. 'My dear +Mrs. Scott,' said he, 'I am very sorry that an engagement +prevents my going to you this evening; but, as I judge by your +letter, and by what I have heard from Gertrude, that you are +anxious about this trust arrangement, I will call at ten to- +morrow morning on my way to the office.' + +Having written and dispatched this, he sat for an hour leaning +with his elbows on the table and his hands clasped, looking with +apparent earnestness at the rows of books which stood inverted +before him, trying to make up his mind as to what step he should +now take. + +Not that he sat an hour undisturbed. Every five minutes some one +would come knocking at the door; the name of some aspirant to the +Civil Service would be brought to him, or the card of some +influential gentleman desirous of having a little job perpetrated +in favour of his own peculiarly interesting, but perhaps not very +highly-educated, young candidate. But on this morning Alaric +would see no one; to every such intruder he sent a reply that he +was too deeply engaged at the present moment to see any one. +After one he would be at liberty, &c., &c. + +And so he sat and looked at the books; but he could in nowise +make up his mind. He could in nowise bring himself even to try to +make up his mind--that is, to make any true effort towards doing +so. His thoughts would run off from him, not into the happy +outer world, but into a multitude of noisy, unpleasant paths, all +intimately connected with his present misery, but none of which +led him at all towards the conclusions at which he would fain +arrive. He kept on reflecting what Sir Gregory would think when +he heard of it; what all those clerks would say at the Weights +and Measures, among whom he had held his head so high; what +shouts there would be among the navvies and other low pariahs of +the service; how Harry Norman would exult--(but he did not yet +know Harry Norman);--how the Woodwards would weep; how Gertrude-- +and then as he thought of that he bowed his head, for he could no +longer endure the open light of day. At one o'clock he was no +nearer to any decision than he had been when he reached his +office. + +At three he put himself into a cab, and was taken to the city. +Oh, the city, the weary city, where men go daily to look for +money, but find none; where every heart is eaten up by an +accursed famishing after gold; where dark, gloomy banks come +thick on each other, like the black, ugly apertures to the realms +below in a mining district, each of them a separate little pit- +mouth into hell. Alaric went into the city, and found that the +shares were still rising. That imperturbable witness was still in +the chair at the committee, and men said that he was disgusting +the members by the impregnable endurance of his hostility. A man +who could answer 2,250 questions without admitting anything must +be a liar! Such a one could convince no one! And so the shares +went on rising, rising, and rising, and Messrs. Blocks, Piles, +and Cofferdam were buying up every share; either doing that +openly--or else selling on the sly. + +Alaric found that he could at once realize £7,600. Were he to do +this, there would be at any rate seven-eighths of his ward's +fortune secure. + +Might he not, in such a case, calculate that even Mrs. Val's +heart would be softened, and that time would be allowed him to +make up the small remainder? Oh, but in such case he must tell +Mrs. Val; and could he calculate on her forbearance? Might he not +calculate with much more certainty on her love of triumphing? +Would he not be her slave if she had the keeping of his secret? +And why should he run so terrible a risk of destroying himself? +Why should he confide in Mrs. Val, and deprive himself of the +power of ever holding up his head again, when, possibly, he might +still run out his course with full sails, and bring his vessel +into port, giving no knowledge to the world of the perilous state +in which she had been thus ploughing the deep? He need not, at +any rate, tell everything to Mrs. Val at his coming visit on the +morrow. + +He consulted his broker with his easiest air of common concern as +to his money; and the broker gave him a dubious opinion. 'They +may go a little higher, sir; indeed I think they will. But they +are ticklish stock, sir--uncommon ticklish. I should not like to +hold many myself, sir.' Alaric knew that the man was right; they +were ticklish stock: but nevertheless he made up his mind to hold +on a little longer. + +He then got into another cab and went back to his office; and as +he went he began to bethink himself to whom of all his friends he +might apply for such a loan as would enable him to make up this +sum of money, if he sold his shares on the morrow. Captain +Cuttwater was good for £1,000, but he knew that he could not get +more from him. It would be bad borrowing, he thought, from Sir +Gregory. Intimate as he had been with that great man, he knew +nothing of his money concerns; but he had always heard that Sir +Gregory was a close man. Sir Warwick, his other colleague, was in +easy circumstances; but then he had never been intimate with Sir +Warwick. Norman--ah, if he had known Norman now, Norman would +have pulled him through; but hope in that quarter there was, of +course, none. Norman was gone, and Norman's place had been filled +by Undy Scott! What could be done with Undy Scott he had already +tried. Fidus Neverbend! he had a little money saved; but Fidus +was not the man to do anything without security. He, he, Alaric +Tudor, he, whose credit had stood, did stand, so high, did not +know where to borrow, how to raise a thousand pounds; and yet he +felt that had he not wanted it so sorely, he could have gotten it +easily. + +He was in a bad state for work when he got back to the office on +that day. He was flurried, ill at ease, wretched, all but +distracted; nevertheless he went rigidly to it, and remained +there till late in the evening. He was a man generally blessed +with excellent health; but now he suddenly found himself ill, and +all but unable to accomplish the task which he had prescribed to +himself. His head was heavy and his eyes weak, and he could not +bring himself to think of the papers which lay before him. + +Then at last he went home, and had another sad and solitary walk +across the Parks, during which he vainly tried to rally himself +again, and collect his energies for the work which he had to do. +It was in such emergencies as this that he knew that it most +behoved a man to fall back upon what manliness there might be +within him; now was the time for him to be true to himself; he +had often felt proud of his own energy of purpose; and now was +the opportunity for him to use such energy, if his pride in this +respect had not been all in vain. + +Such were the lessons with which he endeavoured to strengthen +himself, but it was in vain; he could not feel courageous--he +could not feel hopeful--he could not do other than despair. When +he got home, he again prostrated himself, again declared himself +ill, again buried his face in his hands, and answered the +affection of his wife by saying that a man could not always be +cheerful, could not always laugh. Gertrude, though she was very +far indeed from guessing the truth, felt that something +extraordinary was the matter, and knew that her husband's +uneasiness was connected with the Scotts. + +He came down to dinner, and though he ate but little, he drank +glass after glass of sherry. He thus gave himself courage to go +out in the evening and face the world at his club. He found Undy +there as he expected, but he had no conversation with him, though +they did not absolutely cut each other. Alaric fancied that men +stared at him, and sat apart by himself, afraid to stand up among +talking circles, or to put himself forward as it was his wont to +do. He himself avoided other men, and then felt that others were +avoiding him. He took up one evening paper after another, +pretending to read them, but hardly noticing a word that came +beneath his eye: at last, however, a name struck him which +riveted his attention, and he read the following paragraph, which +was among many others, containing information as to the coming +elections. + +'STRATHBOGY.--We hear that Lord Gaberlunzie's eldest son will +retire from this borough, and that his place will be filled by +his brother, the Honourable Captain Valentine Scott. The family +have been so long connected with Strathbogy by ties of friendship +and near neighbourhood, and the mutual alliance has been so much +to the taste of both parties, that no severance need be +anticipated.' + +Alaric's first emotion was one of anger at the whole Scott tribe, +and his first resolve was to go down to Strathbogy and beat that +inanimate fool, Captain Val, on his own ground; but he was not +long in reflecting that, under his present circumstances, it +would be madness in him to bring his name prominently forward in +any quarrel with the Scott family. This disappointment he might +at any rate bear; it would be well for him if this were all. He +put the paper down with an affected air of easy composure, and +walked home through the glaring gas-lights, still trying to +think--still trying, but in vain, to come to some definite +resolve. + +And then on the following morning he went off to call on Mrs. +Val. He had as yet told Gertrude nothing. When she asked him what +made him start so early, he merely replied that he had business +to do on his road. As lie went, he had considerable doubt whether +or no it would be better for him to break his word to Mrs. Val, +and not go near her at all. In such event he might be sure that +she would at once go to work and do her worst; but, nevertheless, +he would gain a day, or probably two, and one or two days might +do all that he required; whereas he could not see Mrs. Val +without giving her some explanation, which if false would be +discovered to be false, and if true would be self-condemnatory. +He again, however, failed to decide, and at last knocked at Mrs. +Val's door merely because he found himself there. + +He was shown up into the drawing-room, and found, of course, Mrs. +Val seated on a sofa; and he also found, which was not at all of +course, Captain Val, on a chair on one side of the table, and M. +Victoire Jaquêtanàpe on the other. Mrs. Val shook hands with him +much in her usual way, but still with an air of importance in her +face; the Frenchman was delighted to see M. Tudere, and the +Honourable Val got up from his chair, said 'How do?' and then sat +down again. + +'I requested you to call, Mr. Tudor,' said Mrs. Val, opening her +tale in a most ceremonious manner, 'because we all think it +necessary to know somewhat more than has yet been told to us of +the manner in which my daughter's money has been invested.' + +Captain Val wiped his moustache with the middle finger of his +right hand, by way of saying that he quite assented to his wife's +proposition; and Victoire remarked that 'Madame was a leetle +anxious, just a leetle anxious; not that anything could be wrong +with M. Tudere, but because she was one excellent mamma.' + +'I thought you knew, Mrs. Scott,' said Alaric, 'that your +daughter's money is in the funds.' + +'Then I may understand clearly that none of the amount so +invested has been sold out or otherwise appropriated by you.' +said Mrs. Val. + +'Will you allow me to inquire what has given rise to these +questions just at the present moment?' asked Alaric. + +'Yes, certainly,' said Mrs. Val; 'rumours have reached my +husband--rumours which, I am happy to say, I do not believe--that +my daughter's money has been used for purposes of speculation.' +Whereupon Captain Val again wiped his upper lip, but did not find +it necessary to speak. + +'May I venture to ask Captain Scott from what source such rumours +have reached him!' + +'Ah-ha-what source? d---- lies, very likely; d---- lies, I dare +say; but people do talk--eh--you know,' so much the eloquent +embryo member for Strathbogy vouchsafed. + + 'And therefore, Mr. Tudor, you mustn't be surprised that we +should ask you this question.' + +'It is one simple, simple question,' said Victoire, 'and if M. +Tudere will say that it is all right, I, for myself, will be +satisfied.' The amiable Victoire, to tell the truth, was still +quite satisfied to leave his wife's income in Alaric's hands, and +would not have been at all satisfied to remove it to the hands of +his respected step-papa-in-law, or even his admired mamma-in-law. + +'When I undertook this trust,' said Alaric, 'which I did with +considerable hesitation, I certainly did not expect to be +subjected to any such cross-examination as this. I consider such +questions as insults, and therefore I shall refuse to answer +them. You, Mrs. Scott, have of course a right to look after your +daughter's interests, as has M. Jaquêtanàpe to look after those +of his wife; but I will not acknowledge that Captain Scott has +any such right whatsoever, nor can I think that his conduct in +this matter is disinterested;' and as he spoke he looked at +Captain Val, but he might just as well have looked at the door; +Captain Val only wiped his moustache with his finger once more. +'My answer to your inquiries, Mrs. Scott, is this--I shall not +condescend to go into any details as to Madame Jaquêtanàpe 's +fortune with anyone but my co-trustee. I shall, however, on +Saturday next, be ready to give up my trust to any other person +who may be legally appointed to receive it, and will then produce +all the property that has been entrusted to my keeping:' and so +saying, Alaric got up and took his hat as though to depart. + +'And do you mean to say, Mr. Tudor, that you will not answer my +question?' said Mrs. Scott. + +'I mean to say, most positively, that I will answer no +questions,' said Alaric. + +'Oh, confound, not do at all; d----,' said the captain. 'The +girl's money all gone, and you won't answer questions!' + +'No!' shouted Alaric, walking across the room till he closely +confronted the captain. 'No--no--I will answer no questions that +may be asked in your hearing. But that your wife's presence +protects you, I would kick you down your own stairs before me.' + +Captain Val retreated a step--he could retreat no more--and wiped +his moustache with both hands at once. Mrs. Val screamed. +Victoire took hold of the back of a chair, as though he thought +it well that he should be armed in the general battle that was to +ensue; and Alaric, without further speech, walked out of the +room, and went away to his office. + +'So you have given up Strathbogy?' said Sir Gregory to him, in +the course of the day. + +'I think I have,' said Alaric; 'considering all things, I believe +it will be the best for me to do so.' + +'Not a doubt of it,' said Sir Gregory--'not a doubt of it, my +dear fellow;' and then Sir Gregory began to evince, by the +cordiality of his official confidence, that he had fully taken +Alaric back into his good graces. It was nothing to him that +Strathbogy had given up Alaric instead of Alaric giving up +Strathbogy. He was sufficiently pleased at knowing that the +danger of his being supplanted by his own junior was over. + +And then Alaric again went into the weary city, again made +inquiries about his shares, and again returned to his office, and +thence to his home. + +But on his return to his office, he found lying on his table a +note in Undy's handwriting, but not signed, in which he was +informed that things would yet be well, if the required shares +should be forthcoming on the following day. + +He crumpled the note tight in his hand, and was about to fling it +among the waste paper, but in a moment he thought better of it, +and smoothing the paper straight, he folded it, and laid it +carefully on his desk. + +That day, on his visit into the city, he had found that the +bridge shares had fallen to less than the value of their original +purchase-money; and that evening he told Gertrude everything. The +author does not dare to describe the telling. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +TRIBULATION + + +We must now return for a short while to Surbiton Cottage. It was +not so gay a place as it once had been; merry laughter was not so +often heard among the shrubbery walks, nor was a boat to be seen +so often glancing in and out between the lawn and the adjacent +island. The Cottage had become a demure, staid abode, of which +Captain Cuttwater was in general the most vivacious inmate; and +yet there was soon to be marrying, and giving in marriage. + +Linda's wedding-day had twice been fixed. That first-named had +been postponed in consequence of the serious illness of Norman's +elder brother. The life of that brother had been very different +in its course from Harry's; it had been dissipated at college in +riotous living, and had since been stained with debauchery during +the career of his early manhood in London. The consequence had +been that his health had been broken down, and he was now +tottering to an early grave. + +Cuthbert Norman was found to be so ill when the day first named +for Linda's marriage approached, that it had been thought +absolutely necessary to postpone the ceremony. What amount of +consolation Mrs. Woodward might have received from the knowledge +that her daughter, by this young man's decease, would become Mrs. +Norman of Normansgrove, we need not inquire; but such consolation, +if it existed at all, did not tend to dispel the feeling of sombre +disappointment which such delay was sure to produce. The heir, +however, rallied, and another day, early in August, was fixed. + +Katie, the while, was still an invalid; and, as such, puzzled all +the experience of that very experienced medical gentleman, who +has the best aristocratic practice in the neighbourhood of +Hampton Court. He, and the London physician, agreed that her +lungs were not affected; but yet she would not get well. The +colour would not come to her cheeks, the flesh would not return +to her arms, nor the spirit of olden days shine forth in her +eyes. She did not keep her bed, or confine herself to her room, +but she went about the house with a slow, noiseless, gentle +tread, so unlike the step of that Katie whom we once knew. + +But that which was a mystery to the experienced medical +gentleman, was no mystery to her mother. Mrs. Woodward well knew +why her child was no longer rosy, plump, and _débonnaire_. +As she watched her Katie move about so softly, as she saw her +constant attempt to smile whenever her mother's eye was on her, +that mother's heart almost gave way; she almost brought herself +to own that she would rather see her darling the wife of an idle, +ruined spendthrift, than watch her thus drifting away to an early +grave. These days were by no means happy days for Mrs. Woodward. + +When that July day was fixed for Linda's marriage, certain +invitations were sent out to bid the family friends to the +wedding. These calls were not so numerous as they had been when +Gertrude became a bride. No Sir Gregory was to come down from +town, no gallant speech-makers from London clubs were to be +gathered there, to wake the echoes of the opposite shore with +matrimonial wit. Mrs. Woodward could not bear that her daughter +should be married altogether, as it were, in the dark; but for +many considerations the guests were to be restricted in numbers, +and the mirth was to be restrained and quiet. + +When the list was made out, Katie saw it, and saw that Charley's +name was not there. + +'Mamma,' she said, touching her mother's arm in her sweet winning +way, 'may not Charley come to Linda's wedding? You know how fond +Harry is of him: would not Harry wish that he should be here?' + +Mrs. Woodward's eyes immediately filled with tears, and she +looked at her daughter, not knowing how to answer her. She had +never spoken to Katie of her love; no word had ever passed +between them on the subject which was now always nearest to the +hearts of them both. Mrs. Woodward had much in her character, as +a mother, that was excellent, nay, all but perfect; but she could +not bring herself to question her own children as to the inward +secrets of their bosoms. She knew not at once how to answer +Katie's question; and so she looked up at her with wistful eyes, +laden with tears. + +'You may do so, mamma,' said Katie. Katie was already a braver +woman than her mother. 'I think Harry would like it, and poor +Charley will feel hurt at being left out; you may do it, mamma, +if you like; it will not do any harm.' + +Mrs. Woodward quite understood the nature of the promise conveyed +in her daughter's assurance, and replied that Charley should be +asked. He was asked, and promised, of course, to come. But when +the wedding was postponed, when the other guests were put off, he +also was informed that his attendance at Hampton was not +immediately required; and so he still remained a stranger to the +Cottage. + +And then after a while another day was named, the guests, and +Charley with them, were again invited, and Norman was again +assured that he should be made happy. But, alas! his hopes were +again delusive. News arrived at Surbiton Cottage which made it +indispensable that the marriage should be again postponed, news +worse than any which had ever yet been received there, news which +stunned them all, and made it clear to them that this year was no +time for marrying. Alaric had been arrested. Alaric, their own +Gertrude's own husband, their son-in-law and brother-in-law, the +proud, the high, the successful, the towering man of the world, +Alaric had been arrested, and was to be tried for embezzling the +money of his ward. + +These fatal tidings were brought to Hampton by Harry Norman +himself; how they were received we must now endeavour to tell. + +But that it would be tedious we might describe the amazement with +which that news was received at the Weights and Measures. Though +the great men at the Weights were jealous of Alaric, they were +not the less proud of him. They had watched him rise with a +certain amount of displeasure, and yet they had no inconsiderable +gratification in boasting that two of the Magi, the two working +Magi of the Civil Service, had been produced by their own +establishment. When therefore tidings reached them that Tudor had +been summoned in a friendly way to Bow Street, that he had there +passed a whole morning, and that the inquiry had ended in his +temporary suspension from his official duties, and in his having +to provide two bailsmen, each for £1,000, as security that he +would on a certain day be forthcoming to stand his trial at the +Old Bailey for defrauding his ward--when, I say, these tidings +were carried from room to room at the Weights and Measures, the +feelings of surprise were equalled by those of shame and +disappointment. + +No one knew who brought this news to the Weights and Measures. No +one ever does know how such tidings fly; one of the junior clerks +had heard it from a messenger, to whom it had been told +downstairs; then another messenger, who had been across to the +Treasury Chambers with an immediate report as to a projected +change in the size of the authorized butter-firkin, heard the +same thing, and so the news by degrees was confirmed. + +But all this was not sufficient for Norman. As soon as the rumour +reached him, he went off to Bow Street, and there learnt the +actual truth as it has been above stated. Alaric was then there, +and the magistrates had decided on requiring bail; he had, in +fact, been committed. + +It would be dreadful that the Woodwards should first hear all +this from the lips of a stranger, and this reflection induced +Norman at once to go to Hampton; but it was dreadful, also, to +find himself burdened with the task of first telling such +tidings. When he found himself knocking at the Cottage door he +was still doubtful how he might best go through the work he had +before him. + +He found that he had a partial reprieve; but then it was so +partial that it would have been much better for him to have had +no such reprieve at all. Mrs. Woodward was at Sunbury with Linda, +and no one was at home but Katie. What was he to do? was he to +tell Katie? or was he to pretend that all was right, that no +special business had brought him unexpectedly to Hampton? + +'Oh, Harry, Linda will be so unhappy,' said Katie as soon as she +saw him. 'They have gone to dine at Sunbury, and they won't be +home till ten or eleven. Uncle Bat dined early with me, and he +has gone to Hampton Court. Linda will be so unhappy. But, good +gracious, Harry, is there anything the matter?' + +'Mrs. Woodward has not heard from Gertrude to-day, has she?' + +'No--not a word--Gertrude is not ill, is she? Oh, do tell me,' +said Katie, who now knew that there was some misfortune to be +told. + +'No; Gertrude is not ill.' + +'Is Alaric ill, then? Is there anything the matter with Alaric?' + +'He is not ill,' said Norman,' but he is in some trouble. I came +down as I thought your mother should be told.' + +So much he said, but would say no more. In this he probably took +the most unwise course that was open to him. He might have held +his tongue altogether, and let Katie believe that love alone had +brought him down, as it had done so often before; or he might +have told her all, feeling sure that all must be told her before +long. But he did neither; he left her in suspense, and the +consequence was that before her mother's return she was very ill. + +It was past eleven before the fly was heard in which Linda and +her mother returned home. Katie had then gone upstairs, but not +to bed. She had seated herself in the armchair in her mother's +dressing-room, and sitting there waited till she should be told +by her mother what had occurred. When the sound of the wheels +caught her ears, she came to the door of the room and held it in +her hand that she might learn what passed. She heard Linda's +sudden and affectionate greeting; she heard Mrs. Woodward's +expression of gratified surprise; and then she heard also +Norman's solemn tone, by which, as was too clear, all joy, all +gratification, was at once suppressed. Then she heard the dining- +room door close, and she knew that he was telling his tale to +Linda and her mother. + +O the misery of that next hour! For an hour they remained there +talking, and Katie knew nothing of what they were talking; she +knew only that Norman had brought unhappiness to them all. A +dozen different ideas passed across her mind. First she thought +that Alaric was dismissed, then that he was dead; was it not +possible that Harry had named Alaric's name to deceive her? might +not this misfortune, whatever it was, be with Charley? might not +he be dead? Oh! better so than the other. She knew, and said as +much to herself over and over again; but she did not the less +feel that his death must involve her own also. + +At last the dining-room door opened, and she heard her mother's +step on the stairs. Her heart beat so that she could hardly +support herself. She did not get up, but sat quite quiet, waiting +for the tidings which she knew that she should now hear. Her +mother's face, when she entered the room, nearly drove her to +despair; Mrs. Woodward had been crying, bitterly, violently, +convulsively crying; and when one has reached the age of forty, +the traces of such tears are not easily effaced even from a +woman's cheek. + +'Mamma, mamma, what is it? pray, pray tell me; oh! mamma, what is +it?' said Katie, jumping up and rushing into her mother's arms. + +'Oh! Katie,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'why are you not in bed? Oh! my +darling, I wish you were in bed; I do so wish you were in bed--my +child, my child!' and, seating herself in the nearest chair, Mrs. +Woodward again gave herself up to uncontrolled weeping. + +Then Linda came up with the copious tears still streaming down +her face. She made no effort to control them; at her age tears +are the easiest resource in time of grief. Norman had kept her +back a moment to whisper one word of love, and she then followed +her mother into the room. + +Katie was now kneeling at her mother's feet. 'Linda,' she said, +with more quietness than either of the others was able to assume, +'what has happened? what makes mamma so unhappy? Has anything +happened to Alaric?' But Linda was in no state to tell anything. + +'Do tell me, mamma,' said Katie; 'do tell me all at once. Has +anything--anything happened to--to Charley?' + +'Oh, it is worse than that, a thousand times worse than that!' +said Mrs. Woodward, who, in the agony of her own grief, became +for the instant ungenerous. + +Katie's blood rushed back to her heart, and for a moment her own +hand relaxed the hold which she had on that of her mother. She +had never spoken of her love; for her mother's sake she had been +silent; for her mother's sake she had determined to suffer and be +silent--now, and ever! Well; she would bear this also. It was but +for a moment she relaxed her hold; and then again she tightened +her fingers round her mother's hand, and held it in a firmer +grasp. 'It is Alaric, then?' she said. + +'God forgive me,' said Mrs. Woodward, speaking through her sobs-- +'God forgive me! I am a brokenhearted woman, and say I know not +what. My Katie, my darling, my best of darlings--will you forgive +me?' + +'Oh, mamma,' said Katie, kissing her mother's hands, and her +arms, and the very hem of her garment, 'oh, mamma, do not speak +so. But I wish I knew what this sorrow is, so that I might share +it with you; may I not be told, mamma? is it about Alaric?' + +'Yes, Katie. Alaric is in trouble.' + +'What trouble--is he ill?' + +'No--he is not ill. It is about money.' + +'Has he been arrested?' asked Katie, thinking of Charley's +misfortune. 'Could not Harry get him out? Harry is so good; he +would do anything, even for Alaric, when he is in trouble.' + +'He will do everything for him that he can,' said Linda, through +her tears. + +'He has not been arrested,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'he is still at +home; but he is in trouble about Miss Golightly's money--and--and +he is to be tried.' + +'Tried,' said Katie; 'tried like a criminal!' + +Katie might well express herself as horrified. Yes, he had to be +tried like a criminal; tried as pickpockets, housebreakers, and +shoplifters are tried, and for a somewhat similar offence; with +this difference, however, that pickpockets, housebreakers, and +shoplifters, are seldom educated men, and are in general led on +to crime by want. He was to be tried for the offence of making +away with some of Miss Golightly's money for his own purposes. +This was explained to Katie, with more or less perspicuity; and +then Gertrude's mother and sisters lifted up their voices +together and wept. + +He might, it is true, be acquitted; they would none of them +believe him to be guilty, though they all agreed that he had +probably been imprudent; but then the public shame of the trial! +the disgrace which must follow such an accusation! What a +downfall was here! 'Oh, Gertrude! oh, Gertrude!' sobbed Mrs. +Woodward; and indeed, at that time, it did not fare well with +Gertrude. + +It was very late before Mrs. Woodward and her daughters went to +bed that night; and then Katie, though she did not specially +complain, was very ill. She had lately received more than one +wound, which was still unhealed; and now this additional blow, +though she apparently bore it better than the others, altogether +upset her. When the morning came, she complained of headache, and +it was many days after that before she left her bed. + +But Mrs. Woodward was up early. Indeed, she could hardly be said +to have been in bed at all; for though she had lain down for an +hour or two, she had not slept. Early in the morning she knocked +at Harry's door, and begged him to come out to her. He was not +long in obeying her summons, and soon joined her in the little +breakfast parlour. + +'Harry, said she, 'you must go and see Alaric.' + +Harry's brow grew black. On the previous evening he had spoken of +Alaric without bitterness, nay, almost with affection; of +Gertrude he had spoken with the truest brotherly love; he had +assured Mrs. Woodward that he would do all that was in his power +for them; that he would spare neither his exertions nor his +purse. He had a truer idea than she had of what might probably be +the facts of the case, and was prepared, by all the means at his +disposal, to help his sister-in-law, if such aid would help her. +But he had not thought of seeing Alaric. + +'I do not think it would do any good,' said he. + +'Yes, Harry, it will; it will do the greatest good; whom else can +I get to see him? who else can find out and let us know what +really is required of us, what we ought to do? I would do it +myself, but I could not understand it; and he would never trust +us sufficiently to tell me all the truth.' + +'We will make Charley go to him. He will tell everything to +Charley, if he will to anyone.' + +'We cannot trust Charley; he is so thoughtless, so imprudent. +Besides, Harry, I cannot tell everything to Charley as I can to +you. If there be any deficiency in this woman's fortune, of +course it must be made good; and in that case I must raise the +money. I could not arrange all this with Charley.' + +'There cannot, I think, be very much wanting,' said Norman, who +had hardly yet realized the idea that Alaric had actually used +his ward's money for his own purposes. 'He has probably made some +bad investment, or trusted persons that he should not have +trusted. My small property is in the funds, and I can get the +amount at a moment's notice. I do not think there will be any +necessity to raise more money than that. At any rate, whatever +happens, you must not touch your own income; think of Katie.' + +'But, Harry--dear, good, generous Harry--you are so good, so +generous! But, Harry, we need not talk of that now. You will see +him, though, won't you?' + +'It will do no good,' said Harry; 'we have no mutual trust in +each other.' + +'Do not be unforgiving, Harry, now that he requires forgiveness.' + +'If he does require forgiveness, Mrs. Woodward, if it shall turn +out that he has been guilty, God knows that I will forgive him. I +trust this may not be the case; and it would be useless for me to +thrust myself upon him now, when a few days may replace us again +in our present relations to each other.' + +'I don't understand you, Harry; why should there always be a +quarrel between two brothers, between the husbands of two +sisters? I know you mean to be kind, I know you are most kind, +most generous; but why should you be so stern?' + +'What I mean is this--if I find him in adversity, I shall be +ready to offer him my hand; it will then be for him to say +whether he will take it. But if the storm blow over, in such case +I would rather that we should remain as we are.' + +Norman talked of forgiveness, and accused himself of no want of +charity in this respect. He had no idea that his own heart was +still hard as the nether millstone against Alaric Tudor. But yet +such was the truth. His money he could give; he could give also +his time and mind, he could lend his best abilities to rescue his +former friend and his own former love from misfortune. He could +do this, and he thought therefore that he was forgiving; but +there was no forgiveness in such assistance. There was generosity +in it, for he was ready to part with his money; there was +kindness of heart, for he was anxious to do good to his fellow- +creature; but there were with these both pride and revenge. +Alaric had out-topped him in everything, and it was sweet to +Norman's pride that his hand should be the one to raise from his +sudden fall the man who had soared so high above him. Alaric had +injured him, and what revenge is so perfect as to repay gross +injuries by great benefits? Is it not thus that we heap coals of +fire on our enemies' heads? Not that Norman indulged in thoughts +such as these; not that he resolved thus to gratify his pride, +thus to indulge his revenge. He was unconscious of his own sin, +but he was not the less a sinner. + +'No,' said he, 'I will not see him myself; it will do no good.' + +Mrs. Woodward found that it was useless to try to bend him. That, +indeed, she knew from a long experience. It was then settled that +she should go up to Gertrude that morning, travelling up to town +together with Norman, and that when she had learned from her +daughter, or from Alaric--if Alaric would talk to her about his +concerns--what was really the truth of the matter, she should +come to Norman's office, and tell him what it would be necessary +for him to do. + +And then the marriage was again put off. This, in itself, was a +great misery, as young ladies who have just been married, or who +may now be about to be married, will surely own. The words 'put +off' are easily written, the necessity of such a 'put off' is +easily arranged in the pages of a novel; an enforced delay of a +month or two in an affair which so many folk willingly delay for +so many years, sounds like a slight thing; but, nevertheless, a +matrimonial 'put off' is, under any circumstances, a great grief. +To have to counter-write those halcyon notes which have given +glad promise of the coming event; to pack up and put out of +sight, and, if possible, out of mind, the now odious finery with +which the house has for the last weeks been strewed; to give the +necessary information to the pastry-cook, from whose counter the +sad tidings will be disseminated through all the neighbourhood; +to annul the orders which have probably been given for rooms and +horses for the happy pair; to live, during the coming interval, a +mark for Pity's unpitying finger; to feel, and know, and hourly +calculate, how many slips there may be between the disappointed +lip and the still distant cup; all these things in themselves +make up a great grief, which is hardly lightened by the knowledge +that they have been caused by a still greater grief. + +These things had Linda now to do, and the poor girl had none to +help her in the doing of them. A few hurried words were spoken on +that morning between her and Norman, and for the second time she +set to work to put off her wedding. Katie, the meantime, lay sick +in bed, and Mrs. Woodward had gone to London to learn the worst +and to do the best in this dire affliction that had come upon +them. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +ALARIC TUDOR TAKES A WALK + + +There is, undoubtedly, a propensity in human love to attach +itself to excellence; but it has also, as undoubtedly, a +propensity directly antagonistic to this, and which teaches it to +put forth its strongest efforts in favour of inferiority. Watch +any fair flock of children in which there may be one blighted +bud, and you will see that that blighted one is the mother's +darling. What filial affection is ever so strong as that evinced +by a child for a parent in misfortune? Even among the rough, +sympathies of schoolboys, the cripple, the sickly one, or the +orphan without a home, will find the warmest friendship and a +stretch of kindness. Love, that must bow and do reverence to +superiority, can protect and foster inferiority; and what is so +sweet as to be able to protect? + +Gertrude's love for her husband had never been so strong as when +she learnt that that love must now stand in the place of all +other sympathies, of all other tenderness. Alaric told her of his +crime, and in his bitterness he owned that he was no longer +worthy of her love. She answered by opening her arms to him with +more warmth than ever, and bidding him rest his weary head upon +her breast. Had they not taken each other for better or for +worse? had not their bargain been that they would be happy +together if such should be their lot, or sad together if God +should so will it?--and would she be the first to cry off from +such a bargain? + +It seldom happens that a woman's love is quenched by a man's +crime. Women in this respect are more enduring than men; they +have softer sympathies, and less acute, less selfish, appreciation +of the misery of being joined to that which has been shamed. It +was not many hours since Gertrude had boasted to herself of the +honour and honesty of her lord, and tossed her head with defiant +scorn when a breath of suspicion had been muttered against his +name. Then she heard from his own lips the whole truth, learnt +that that odious woman had only muttered what she soon would +have a right to speak out openly, knew that fame and honour, +high position and pride of life, were all gone; and then in that bitter +hour she felt that she had never loved him as she did then. + +He had done wrong, he had sinned grievously; but no sooner did +she acknowledge so much than she acknowledged also that a man may +sin and yet not be all sinful; that glory may be tarnished, and +yet not utterly destroyed; that pride may get a fall, and yet +live to rise again. He had sinned, and had repented; and now to +her eyes he was again as pure as snow. Others would now doubt +him, that must needs be the case; but she would never doubt him; +no, not a whit the more in that he had once fallen. He should +still be the cynosure of her eyes, the pride of her heart, the +centre of her hopes. Marina said of her lord, when he came to her +shattered in limb, from the hands of the torturer-- + + 'I would not change + My exiled, mangled, persecuted husband, + Alive or dead, for prince or paladin, + In story or in fable, with a world + To back his suit.' + +Gertrude spoke to herself in the same language. She would not +have changed her Alaric, branded with infamy as he now was, or +soon would be, for the proudest he that carried his head high +among the proud ones of the earth. Such is woman's love; such is +the love of which a man's heart is never capable! + +Alaric's committal had taken place very much in the manner in +which it was told at the Weights and Measures. He had received a +note from one of the Bow Street magistrates, begging his +attendance in the private room at the police-office. There he had +passed nearly the whole of one day; and he was also obliged to +pass nearly the whole of another in the same office. On this +second day the proceedings were not private, and he was +accompanied by his own solicitor. + +It would be needless to describe how a plain case was, as usual, +made obscure by the lawyers, how Acts of Parliament were +consulted, how the magistrate doubted, how indignant Alaric's +attorney became when it was suggested that some insignificant +piece of evidence should be admitted, which, whether admitted or +rejected, could have no real bearing on the case. In these +respects this important examination was like other important +examinations of the same kind, such as one sees in the newspapers +whenever a man above the ordinary felon's rank becomes amenable +to the outraged laws. It ended, however, in Alaric being +committed, and giving bail to stand his trial in about a +fortnight's time; and in his being assured by his attorney that +he would most certainly be acquitted. That bit of paper on which +he had made an entry that certain shares bought by him had been +bought on behalf of his ward, would save him; so said the +attorney: to which, however, Alaric answered not much. Could any +acutest lawyer, let him be made of never so fine an assortment of +forensic indignation, now whitewash his name and set him again +right before the world? He, of course, communicated with Sir +Gregory, and agreed to be suspended from his commissionership +till the trial should be over. His two colleagues then became +bail for him. + +So much having been settled, he got into a cab with his attorney, +and having dropped that gentleman on the road, he returned home. +The excitement of the examination and the necessity for action +had sustained him? but now--what was to sustain him now? How was +he to get through the intervening fortnight, banished as he was +from his office, from his club, and from all haunts of men? His +attorney, who had other rogues to attend to besides him, made +certain set appointments with him--and for the rest, he might sit +at home and console himself as best he might with his own +thoughts. 'Excelsior!' This was the pass to which 'Excelsior' had +brought _Sic itur ad astro!_--Alas, his road had taken him +hitherto in quite a different direction. + +He sent for Charley, and when Charley came he made Gertrude +explain to him what had happened. He had confessed his own fault +once, to his own wife, and he could not bring himself to do it +again. Charley was thunderstruck at the greatness of the ruin, +but he offered what assistance he could give. Anything that he +could do, he would. Alaric had sent for him for a purpose, and +that purpose at any rate Charley could fulfil. He went into the +city to ascertain what was now the price of the Limehouse bridge +shares, and returned with the news that they were falling, +falling, falling. + +No one else called at Alaric's door that day. Mrs. Val, though +she did not come there, by no means allowed her horses to be +idle; she went about sedulously among her acquaintance, dropping +tidings of her daughter's losses. 'They will have enough left to +live upon, thank God,' said she; 'but did you ever hear of so +barefaced, so iniquitous a robbery? Well, I am not cruel; but my +own opinion is that he should certainly be hanged.' + +To this Ugolina assented fully, adding, that she had been so +shocked by the suddenness and horror of the news, as to have +become perfectly incapacitated ever since for any high order of +thought. + +Lactimel, whose soft bosom could not endure the idea of putting +an end to the life of a fellow-creature, suggested perpetual +banishment to the penal colonies; perhaps Norfolk Island. 'And +what will she do?' said Lactimel. + +'Indeed I cannot guess,' said Ugolina; 'her education has been +sadly deficient.' + +None but Charley called on Alaric that day, and he found himself +shut up alone with his wife and child. His own house seemed to +him a prison. He did not dare to leave it; he did not dare to +walk out and face the public as long as daylight continued; he +was ashamed to show himself, and so he sat alone in his dining- +room thinking, thinking, thinking. Do what he would, he could not +get those shares out of his mind; they had entered like iron into +his soul, as poison into his blood; they might still rise, they +might yet become of vast value, might pay all his debts, and +enable him to begin again. And then this had been a committee +day; he had had no means of knowing how things had gone there, of +learning the opinions of the members, of whispering to Mr. Piles, +or hearing the law on the matter laid down by the heavy deep +voice of the great Mr. Blocks. And so he went on thinking, +thinking, thinking, but ever as though he had a clock-weight +fixed to his heart and pulling at its strings. For, after all, +what were the shares or the committee to him? Let the shares rise +to ever so fabulous a value, let the Chancellor of the Exchequer +be ever so complaisant in giving away his money, what avail would +it be to him? what avail now? He must stand his trial for the +crime of which he had been guilty. + +With the utmost patience Gertrude endeavoured to soothe him, and +to bring his mind into some temper in which it could employ +itself. She brought him their baby, thinking that he would play +with his child, but all that he said was--'My poor boy! I have +ruined him already;' and then turning away from the infant, he +thrust his hands deep into his trousers-pockets, and went on +calculating about the shares. + +When the sun had well set, and the daylight had, at last, +dwindled out, he took up his hat and wandered out among the new +streets and rows of houses which lay between his own house and +the Western Railway. He got into a district in which he had never +been before, and as he walked about here, he thought of the fate +of other such swindlers as himself;--yes, though he did not speak +the word, he pronounced it as plainly, and as often, in the +utterance of his mind, as though it was being rung out to him +from every steeple in London; he thought of the fate of such +swindlers as himself; how one had been found dead in the streets, +poisoned by himself; how another, after facing the cleverest +lawyers in the land, was now dying in a felon's prison; how a +third had vainly endeavoured to fly from justice by aid of wigs, +false whiskers, painted furrows, and other disguises. Should he +try to escape also, and avoid the ignominy of a trial? He knew it +would be in vain; he knew that, at this moment, he was dogged at +the distance of some thirty yards by an amiable policeman in +mufti, placed to watch his motions by his two kind bailsmen, who +preferred this small expense to the risk of losing a thousand +pounds a-piece. + +As he turned short round a corner, into the main road leading +from the railway station to Bayswater, he came close upon a man +who was walking quickly in the opposite direction, and found +himself face to face with Undy Scott. How on earth should Undy +Scott have come out there to Bayswater, at that hour of the +night, he, the constant denizen of clubs, the well-known +frequenter of Pall Mall, the member for the Tillietudlem burghs, +whose every hour was occupied in the looking after things +political, or things commercial? Who could have expected him in a +back road at Bayswater? There, however, he was, and Alaric, +before he knew of his presence, had almost stumbled against him. + +'Scott!' said Alaric, starting back. + +'Hallo, Tudor, what the deuce brings you here? but I suppose +you'll ask me the same question?' said Undy. + +Alaric Tudor could not restrain himself. 'You scoundrel,' said +he, seizing Undy by the collar; 'you utterly unmitigated +scoundrel! You premeditated, wilful villain!' and he held Undy as +though he intended to choke him. + +But Undy Scott was not a man to be thus roughly handled with +impunity; and in completing the education which he had received, +the use of his fists had not been overlooked. He let out with his +right hand, and struck Alaric twice with considerable force on +the side of his jaw, so that the teeth rattled in his mouth. + +But Alaric, at the moment, hardly felt it. 'You have brought me +and mine to ruin,' said he; 'you have done it purposely, like a +fiend. But, low as I have fallen, I would not change places with +you for all that the earth holds. I have been a villain; but such +villany as yours--ugh--' and so saying, he flung his enemy from +him, and Undy, tottering back, saved himself against the wall. + +In a continued personal contest between the two men, Undy would +probably have had the best of it, for he would certainly have +been the cooler of the two, and was also the more skilful in such +warfare; but he felt in a moment that he could gain nothing by +thrashing Tudor, whereas he might damage himself materially by +having his name brought forward at the present moment in +connexion with that of his old friend. + +'You reprobate!' said he, preparing to pass on; 'it has been my +misfortune to know you, and one cannot touch pitch and not be +defiled. But, thank God, you'll come by your deserts now. If you +will take my advice you'll hang yourself;' and so they parted. + +The amiable policeman in mufti remained at a convenient distance +during this little interview, having no special mission to keep +the peace, pending his present employment; but, as he passed by, +he peered into Undy's face, and recognized the honourable member +for the Tillietudlem burghs. A really sharp policeman knows every +one of any note in London. It might, perhaps, be useful that +evidence should be given at the forthcoming trial of the little +contest which we have described. If so, our friend in mufti was +prepared to give it. + +On the following morning, at about eleven, a cab drove up to the +door, and Alaric, standing at the dining-room window, saw Mrs. +Woodward get out of it. + +'There's your mother,' said Alaric to his wife. 'I will not see +her--let her go up to the drawing-room.' + +'Oh! Alaric, will you not see mamma?' + +'How can I, with my face swollen as it is now? Besides, what +would be the good? What can I say to her? I know well enough what +she has to say to me, without listening to it.' + +'Dear Alaric, mamma will say nothing to you that is not kind; do +see her, for my sake, Alaric.' + +But misery had not made him docile. He merely turned from her, +and shook his head impatiently. Gertrude then ran out to welcome +her mother, who was in the hall. + +And what a welcoming it was! 'Come upstairs, mamma, come into the +drawing-room,' said Gertrude, who would not stop even to kiss her +mother till they found themselves secured from the servants' +eyes. She knew that one word of tenderness would bring her to the +ground. + +'Mamma, mamma!' she almost shrieked, and throwing herself into +her mother's arms wept convulsively. Mrs. Woodward wanted no more +words to tell her that Alaric had been guilty. + +'But, Gertrude, how much is it?' whispered the mother, as, after +a few moments of passionate grief, they sat holding each other's +hands on the sofa. 'How much money is wanting? Can we not make it +up? If it be all paid before the day of trial, will not that do? +will not that prevent it?' + +Gertrude could not say. She knew that £10,000 had been +abstracted. Mrs. Woodward groaned as she heard the sum named. But +then there were those shares, which had not long since been worth +much more than half that sum, which must still be worth a large +part of it. + +'But we must know, dearest, before Harry can do anything,' said +Mrs. Woodward. + +Gertrude blushed crimson when Harry Norman's name was mentioned. +And had it come to that--that they must look to him for aid? + +'Can you not ask him, love?' said Mrs. Woodward. 'I saw him in +the dining-room; go and ask him; when he knows that we are doing +our best for him, surely he will help us.' + +Gertrude, with a heavy heart, went down on her message, and did +not return for fifteen or twenty minutes. It may easily be +conceived that Norman's name was not mentioned between her and +her husband, but she made him understand that an effort would be +made for him if only the truth could be ascertained. + +'It will be of no use,' said he. + +'Don't say so, Alaric; we cannot tell what may be of use. But at +any rate it will be weight off your heart to know that this money +has been paid. It is that which overpowers you now, and not your +own misfortune.' + +At last he suffered her to lead him, and she put down on paper +such figures as he dictated to her. It was, however, impossible +to say what was the actual deficiency; that must depend upon the +present value of the shares; these he said he was prepared to +give over to his own attorney, if it was thought that by so doing +he should be taking the best steps towards repairing the evil he +had done; and then he began calculating how much the shares might +possibly be worth, and pointing out under what circumstances they +should be sold, and under what again they should be overheld till +the market had improved. All this was worse than Greek to +Gertrude; but she collected what facts she could, and then +returned to her mother. + +And they discussed the matter with all the wit and all the +volubility which women have on such occasions. Paper was brought +forth, and accounts were made out between them, not such as would +please the eyes of a Civil Service Examiner, but yet accurate in +their way. How they worked and racked their brains, and strained +their women's nerves in planning how justice might be defeated, +and the dishonesty of the loved one covered from shame! Uncle Bat +was ready with his share. He had received such explanation as +Mrs. Woodward had been able to give, and though when he first +heard the news he had spoken severely of Alaric, still his money +should be forthcoming for the service of the family. He could +produce some fifteen hundred pounds; and would if needs be that +he should do so. Then Harry--but the pen fell from Gertrude's +fingers as she essayed to write down Harry Norman's contribution +to the relief of her husband's misery. + +'Remember, Gertrude, love, in how short a time he will be your +brother.' + +'But when will it be, mamma? Is it to be on Thursday, as we had +planned? Of course, mamma, I cannot be there.' + +And then there was a break in their accounts, and Mrs. Woodward +explained to Gertrude that they had all thought it better to +postpone Linda's marriage till after the trial; and this, of +course was the source of fresh grief. When men such as Alaric +Tudor stoop to dishonesty, the penalties of detection are not +confined to their own hearthstone. The higher are the branches of +the tree and the wider, the greater will be the extent of earth +which its fall will disturb. + +Gertrude's pen, however, again went to work. The shares were put +down at £5,000. 'If they can only be sold for so much, I think we +may manage it,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I am sure that Harry can get +the remainder--indeed he said he could have more than that.' + +'And what will Linda do?' + +'Linda will never want it, love; and if she did, what of that? +would she not give all she has for you?' + +And then Mrs. Woodward went her way to Norman's office, without +having spoken to Alaric. 'You will come again soon, mamma,' said +Gertrude. Mrs. Woodward promised that she would. + +'And, mamma,' and she whispered close into her mother's ear, as +she made her next request; 'and, mamma, you will be with me on +that day?' + +We need not follow Norman in his efforts to have her full fortune +restored to Madame Jaquêtanàpe. He was daily in connexion with +Alaric's lawyer, and returned sometimes with hope and sometimes +without it. Mrs. Val's lawyer would receive no overtures towards +a withdrawal of the charge, or even towards any mitigation in +their proceedings, unless the agent coming forward on behalf of +the lady's late trustee, did so with the full sum of £20,000 in +his hands. + +We need not follow Charley, who was everyday with Alaric, and who +was, unknown to Alaric, an agent between him and Norman. 'Well, +Charley, what are they doing to-day?' was Alaric's constant +question to him, even up to the very eve of his trial. + +If any spirit ever walks it must be that of the stockjobber, for +how can such a one rest in its grave without knowing what shares +are doing? + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +THE LAST BREAKFAST + + +And that day was not long in coming; indeed, it came with +terrible alacrity; much too quickly for Gertrude, much too +quickly for Norman; and much too quickly for Alaric's lawyer. To +Alaric only did the time pass slowly, for he found himself +utterly without employment. + +Norman and Uncle Bat between them had raised something about +£6,000; but when the day came on which they were prepared to +dispose of the shares, the Limehouse bridge was found to be worth +nothing. They were, as the broker had said, ticklish stock; so +ticklish that no one would have them at any price. When Undy, +together with his agent from Tillietudlem, went into the market +about the same time to dispose of theirs, they were equally +unsuccessful. How the agent looked and spoke and felt may be +imagined; for the agent had made large advances, and had no other +security; but Undy had borne such looks and speeches before, and +merely said that it was very odd--extremely odd; he had been +greatly deceived by Mr. Piles. Mr. Piles also said it was very +odd; but he did not appear to be nearly so much annoyed as the +agent from Tillietudlem; and it was whispered that, queer as +things now looked, Messrs. Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, had not +made a bad thing of the bridge. + +Overture after overture was made to the lawyer employed by Mrs. +Val's party. Norman first offered the £6,000 and the shares; then +when the shares were utterly rejected by the share-buying world, +he offered to make himself personally responsible for the +remainder of the debt, and to bind himself by bond to pay it +within six months. At first these propositions were listened to, +and Alaric's friends were led to believe that the matter would be +handled in such a way that the prosecution would fall to the +ground. But at last all composition was refused. The adverse +attorney declared, first, that he was not able to accept any +money payment short of the full amount with interest, and then he +averred, that as criminal proceedings had been taken they could +not now be stayed. Whether or no Alaric's night attack had +anything to do with this, whether Undy had been the means of +instigating this rigid adherence to justice, we are not prepared +to say. + +That day for which Gertrude had prayed her mother's assistance +came all too soon. They had become at last aware that the trial +must go on. Charley was with them on the last evening, and +completed their despair by telling them that their attorney had +resolved to make no further efforts at a compromise. + +Perhaps the most painful feeling to Gertrude through the whole of +the last fortnight had been the total prostration of her +husband's energy, and almost of his intellect; he seemed to have +lost the power of judging for himself, and of thinking and +deciding what conduct would be best for him in his present +condition. He who had been so energetic, so full of life, so +ready for all emergencies, so clever at devices, so able to +manage not only for himself but for his friends, he was, as it +were, paralysed and unmanned. He sat from morning to night +looking at the empty fire-grate, and hardly ventured to speak of +the ordeal that he had to undergo. + +His lawyer was to call for him on the morning of the trial, and +Mrs. Woodward was to be at the house soon after he had left it. +He had not yet seen her since the inquiry had commenced, and it +was very plain that he did not wish to do so. Mrs. Woodward was +to be there and to remain till his fate had been decided, and +then--Not a word had yet been said as to the chance of his not +returning; but Mrs. Woodward was aware that he would probably be +unable to do so, and felt, that if such should be the case, she +could not leave her daughter alone. + +And so Alaric and his wife sat down to breakfast on that last +morning. She had brought their boy down; but as she perceived +that the child's presence did not please his father, he had been +sent back to the nursery, and they were alone. She poured out his +tea for him, put bread upon his plate, and then sat down close +beside him, endeavouring to persuade him to eat. She had never +yet found fault with him, she had never even ventured to give him +counsel, but now she longed to entreat him to collect himself and +take a man's part in the coming trial. He sat in the seat +prepared for him, but, instead of eating, he thrust his hands +after his accustomed manner into his pockets and sat glowering at +the teacups. + +'Come, Alaric, won't you eat your breakfast?' said she. + +'No; breakfast! no-how can I eat now? how can you think that I +could eat at such a time as this? Do you take yours; never mind +me.' + +'But, dearest, you will be faint if you do not eat; think what +you have to go through; remember how many eyes will be on you to- +day.' + +He shuddered violently as she spoke, and motioned to her with his +hand not to go on with what she was saying. + +'I know, I know,' said she passionately, 'dearest, dearest love-- +I know how dreadful it is; would that I could bear it for you! +would that I could!' + +He turned away his head, for a tear was in his eye. It was the +first that had come to his assistance since this sorrow had come +upon him. + +'Don't turn from me, dearest Alaric; do not turn from me now at +our last moments. To me at least you are the same noble Alaric +that you ever were.' + +'Noble!' said he, with all the self-scorn which he so truly felt. + +'To me you are, now as ever; but, Alaric, I do so fear that you +will want strength, physical strength, you know, to go through +all this. I would have you bear yourself like a man before them +all.' + +'It will be but little matter,' said he. + +'It will be matter. It will be matter to me. My darling, darling +husband, rouse yourself,' and she knelt before his knees and +prayed to him; 'for my sake do it; eat and drink that you may +have the power of a man when all the world is looking at you. If +God forgives us our sins, surely we should so carry ourselves +that men may not be ashamed to do so.' + +He did not answer her, but he turned to the table and broke the +bread, and put his lips to the cup. And then she gave him food as +she would give it to a child, and he with a child's obedience ate +and drank what was put before him. As he did so, every now and +again a single tear forced itself beneath his eyelid and trickled +down his face, and in some degree Gertrude was comforted. + +He had hardly finished his enforced breakfast when the cab and +the lawyer came to the door. The learned gentleman had the good +taste not to come in, and so the servant told them that Mr. +Gitemthruet was there. + +'Say that your master will be with him in a minute,' said +Gertrude, quite coolly; and then the room door was again closed, +and the husband and wife had now to say adieu. + +Alaric rose from his chair and made a faint attempt to smile. +'Well, Gertrude,' said he, 'it has come at last.' + +She rushed into his embrace, and throwing her arms around him, +buried her face upon his breast. 'Alaric, Alaric, my husband! my +love, my best, my own, my only love!' + +'I cannot say much now, Gertrude, but I know how good you are; +you will come and see me, if they will let you, won't you?' + +'See you!' said she, starting back, but still holding him and +looking up earnestly into his face. 'See you!' and then she +poured out her love with all the passion of a Ruth: '"Whither +thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge.... +Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the +Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and +me." See you, Alaric; oh, it cannot be that they will hinder the +wife from being with her husband. But, Alaric,' she went on, 'do +not droop now, love--will you?' + +'I cannot brazen it out,' said he. 'I know too well what it is +that I have done.' + +'No, not that, Alaric; I would not have that. But remember, all +is not over, whatever they may do. Ah, how little will really be +over, whatever they can do! You have repented, have you not, +Alaric?' + +'I think so, I hope so,' said Alaric, with his eyes upon the +ground. + +'You have repented, and are right before God; do not fear then +what man can do to you. I would not have you brazen, Alaric; but +be manly, be collected, be your own self, the man that I have +loved, the man that I do now love so well, better, better than +ever;' and she threw herself on him and kissed him and clung to +him, and stroked his hair and put her hand upon his face, and +then holding him from her, looked up to him as though he were a +hero whom she all but worshipped. + +'Gertrude, Gertrude--that I should have brought you to this!' + +'Never mind,' said she; 'we will win through it yet--we will yet +be happy together, far, far away from here--remember that--let +that support you through all. And now, Alaric, you will come up +for one moment and kiss him before you go.' + +'The man will be impatient.' + +'Never mind; let him be impatient-you shall not go away without +blessing your boy; come up, Alaric.' And she took him by the hand +and led him like a child into the nursery. + +'Where is the nurse? bring him here--papa is going away--Alley, +boy, give papa a big kiss.' + +Alaric, for the first time for the fortnight, took the little +fellow into his arms and kissed him. 'God bless you, my bairn,' +said he, 'and grant that all this may never be visited against +you, here or hereafter!' + +'And now go,' said Gertrude, as they descended the stairs +together, 'and may God in His mercy watch over and protect you +and give you back to me! And, Alaric, wherever you are I will be +close to you, remember that. I will be quite, quite close to you. +Now, one kiss--oh, dearest, dearest Alaric--there--there--now +go.' And so he went, and Gertrude shutting herself into her room +threw herself on to the bed, and wept aloud. + + + +CHAPTER XL + +MR. CHAFFANBRASS + + +We must now follow Alaric to his trial. He was, of course, much +too soon at court. All people always are, who are brought to the +court perforce, criminals for instance, and witnesses, and other +such-like unfortunate wretches; whereas many of those who only go +there to earn their bread are very often as much too late. He was +to be tried at the Old Bailey. As I have never seen the place, +and as so many others have seen it, I will not attempt to +describe it. Here Mr. Gitemthruet was quite at home; he hustled +and jostled, elbowed and ordered, as though he were the second +great man of the place, and the client whom he was to defend was +the first. In this latter opinion he was certainly right. Alaric +was the hero of the day, and people made way for him as though he +had won a victory in India, and was going to receive the freedom +of the city in a box. As he passed by, a gleam of light fell on +him from a window, and at the instant three different artists had +him photographed, daguerreotyped, and bedevilled; four graphic +members of the public press took down the details of his hat, +whiskers, coat, trousers, and boots; and the sub-editor of the +_Daily Delight_ observed that 'there was a slight tremor in +the first footstep which he took within the precincts of the +prison, but in every other respect his demeanour was dignified +and his presence manly; he had light-brown gloves, one of which +was on his left hand, but the other was allowed to swing from his +fingers. The court was extremely crowded, and some fair ladies +appeared there to grace its customarily ungracious walls. On the +bench we observed Lord Killtime, Sir Gregory Hardlines, and Mr. +Whip Vigil. Mr. Undecimus Scott, who had been summoned as a +witness by the prisoner, was also accommodated by the sheriffs +with a seat.' Such was the opening paragraph of the seven columns +which were devoted by the _Daily Delight_ to the all-absorbing +subject. + +But Mr. Gitemthruet made his way through artists, reporters, and +the agitated crowd with that happy air of command which can so +easily be assumed by men at a moment's notice, when they feel +themselves to be for that moment of importance. 'Come this way, +Mr. Tudor; follow me and we will get on without any trouble; just +follow me close,' said Mr. Gitemthruet to his client, in a +whisper which was audible to not a few. Tudor, who was essaying, +and not altogether unsuccessfully, to bear the public gaze +undismayed, did as he was bid, and followed Mr. Gitemthruet. + +'Now,' said the attorney, 'we'll sit here--Mr. Chaffanbrass will +be close to us, there; so that I can touch him up as we go along; +of course, you know, you can make any suggestion, only you must +do it through me. Here's his lordship; uncommon well he looks, +don't he? You'd hardly believe him to be seventy-seven, but he's +not a day less, if he isn't any more; and he has as much work in +him yet as you or I, pretty nearly. If you want to insure a man's +life, Mr. Tudor, put him on the bench; then he'll never die. We +lawyers are not like bishops, who are always for giving up, and +going out on a pension.' + +But Alaric was not at the moment inclined to meditate much on the +long years of judges. He was thinking, or perhaps trying to +think, whether it would not be better for him to save this crowd +that was now gathered together all further trouble, and plead +guilty at once. He knew he was guilty, he could not understand +that it was possible that any juryman should have a doubt about +it; he had taken the money that did not belong to him; that would +be made quite clear; he had taken it, and had not repaid it; +there was the absolute _corpus delicti_ in court, in the shape +of a deficiency of some thousands of pounds. What possible +doubt would there be in the breast of anyone as to his guilt? Why +should he vex his own soul by making himself for a livelong day +the gazing-stock for the multitude? Why should he trouble all +those wigged counsellors, when one word from him would set all at +rest? + +'Mr. Gitemthruet, I think I'll plead guilty,' said he. + +'Plead what!' said Mr. Gitemthruet, turning round upon his client +with a sharp, angry look. It was the first time that his attorney +had shown any sign of disgust, displeasure, or even disapprobation +since he had taken Alaric's matter in hand. 'Plead what! Ah, you're +joking, I know; upon my soul you gave me a start.' + +Alaric endeavoured to explain to him that he was not joking, nor +in a mood to joke; but that he really thought the least vexatious +course would be for him to plead guilty. + +'Then I tell you it would be the most vexatious proceeding ever I +heard of in all my practice. But you are in my hands, Mr. Tudor, +and you can't do it. You have done me the honour to come to me, +and now you must be ruled by me. Plead guilty! Why, with such a +case as you have got, you would disgrace yourself for ever if you +did so. Think of your friends, Mr. Tudor, if you won't think of +me or of yourself.' + +His lawyer's eloquence converted him, and he resolved that he +would run his chance. During this time all manner of little legal +preliminaries had been going on; and now the court was ready for +business; the jury were in their box, the court-keeper cried +silence, and Mr. Gitemthruet was busy among his papers with +frantic energy. But nothing was yet seen of the great Mr. +Chaffanbrass. + +'I believe we may go on with the trial for breach of trust,' said +the judge. 'I do not know why we are waiting.' + +Then up and spoke Mr. Younglad, who was Alaric's junior counsel. +Mr. Younglad was a promising common-law barrister, now commencing +his career, of whom his friends were beginning to hope that he +might, if he kept his shoulders well to the collar, at some +distant period make a living out of his profession. He was +between forty and forty-five years of age, and had already +overcome the natural diffidence of youth in addressing a learned +bench and a crowded court. + +'My lud,' said Younglad, 'my learned friend, Mr. Chaffanbrass, +who leads for the prisoner, is not yet in court. Perhaps, my lud, +on behalf of my client, I may ask for a few moments' delay.' + +'And if Mr. Chaffanbrass has undertaken to lead for the prisoner, +why is he not in court?' said the judge, looking as though he had +uttered a poser which must altogether settle Mr. Younglad's +business. + +But Mr. Younglad had not been sitting, and walking and listening, +let alone talking occasionally, in criminal courts, for the last +twenty years, to be settled so easily. + +'My lud, if your ludship will indulge me with five minutes' +delay--we will not ask more than five minutes--your ludship +knows, no one better, the very onerous duties--' + +'When I was at the bar I took no briefs to which I could not +attend,' said the judge. + +'I am sure you did not, my lud; and my learned friend, should he +ever sit in your ludship's seat, will be able to say as much for +himself, when at some future time he may be--; but, my lud, Mr. +Chaffanbrass is now in court.' And as he spoke, Mr. Chaffanbrass, +carrying in his hand a huge old blue bag, which, as he entered, +he took from his clerk's hands, and bearing on the top of his +head a wig that apparently had not been dressed for the last ten +years, made his way in among the barristers, caring little on +whose toes he trod, whose papers he upset, or whom he elbowed on +his road. Mr. Chaffanbrass was the cock of this dunghill, and +well he knew how to make his crowing heard there. + +'And now, pray, let us lose no more time,' said the judge. + +'My lord, if time has been lost through me, I am very sorry; but +if your lordship's horse had fallen down in the street as mine +did just now----' + +'My horse never falls down in the street, Mr. Chaffanbrass.' + +'Some beasts, my lord, can always keep their legs under them, and +others can't; and men are pretty much in the same condition. I +hope the former may be the case with your lordship and your +lordship's cob for many years.' The judge, knowing of old that +nothing could prevent Mr. Chaffanbrass from having the last word, +now held his peace, and the trial began. + +There are not now too many pages left to us for the completion of +our tale; but, nevertheless, we must say a few words about Mr. +Chaffanbrass. He was one of an order of barristers by no means +yet extinct, but of whom it may be said that their peculiarities +are somewhat less often seen than they were when Mr. Chaffanbrass +was in his prime. He confined his practice almost entirely to one +class of work, the defence, namely, of culprits arraigned for +heavy crimes, and in this he was, if not unrivalled, at least +unequalled. Rivals he had, who, thick as the skins of such men +may be presumed to be, not unfrequently writhed beneath the +lashes which his tongue could inflict. To such a perfection had +he carried his skill and power of fence, so certain was he in +attack, so invulnerable when attacked, that few men cared to come +within the reach of his forensic flail. To the old stagers who +were generally opposed to him, the gentlemen who conducted +prosecutions on the part of the Crown, and customarily spent +their time and skill in trying to hang those marauders on the +public safety whom it was the special business of Mr. Chaffanbrass +to preserve unhung, to these he was, if not civil, at least forbearing; +but when any barrister, who was comparatively a stranger to him, +ventured to oppose him, there was no measure to his impudent +sarcasm and offensive sneers. + +Those, however, who most dreaded Mr. Chaffanbrass, and who had +most occasion to do so, were the witnesses. A rival lawyer could +find a protection on the bench when his powers of endurance were +tried too far; but a witness in a court of law has no protection. +He comes there unfeed, without hope of guerdon, to give such +assistance to the State in repressing crime and assisting justice +as his knowledge in this particular case may enable him to +afford; and justice, in order to ascertain whether his testimony +be true, finds it necessary to subject him to torture. One would +naturally imagine that an undisturbed thread of clear evidence +would be best obtained from a man whose position was made easy +and whose mind was not harassed; but this is not the fact: to +turn a witness to good account, he must be badgered this way and +that till he is nearly mad; he must be made a laughingstock for +the court; his very truths must be turned into falsehoods, so +that he may be falsely shamed; he must be accused of all manner +of villany, threatened with all manner of punishment; he must be +made to feel that he has no friend near him, that the world is +all against him; he must be confounded till he forget his right +hand from his left, till his mind be turned into chaos, and his +heart into water; and then let him give his evidence. What will +fall from his lips when in this wretched collapse must be of +special value, for the best talents of practised forensic heroes +are daily used to bring it about; and no member of the Humane +Society interferes to protect the wretch. Some sorts of torture +are, as it were, tacitly allowed even among humane people. Eels +are skinned alive, and witnesses are sacrificed, and no one's +blood curdles at the sight, no soft heart is sickened at the +cruelty. + +To apply the thumbscrew, the boot, and the rack to the victim +before him was the work of Mr. Chaffanbrass's life. And it may be +said of him that the labour he delighted in physicked pain. He +was as little averse to this toil as the cat is to that of +catching mice. And, indeed, he was not unlike a cat in his method +of proceeding; for he would, as it were, hold his prey for a +while between his paws, and pat him with gentle taps before he +tore him. He would ask a few civil little questions in his +softest voice, glaring out of his wicked old eye as he did so at +those around him, and then, when he had his mouse well in hand, +out would come his envenomed claw, and the wretched animal would +feel the fatal wound in his tenderest part. + +Mankind in general take pleasure in cruelty, though those who are +civilized abstain from it on principle. On the whole Mr. +Chaffanbrass is popular at the Old Bailey. Men congregate to hear +him turn a witness inside out, and chuckle with an inward +pleasure at the success of his cruelty. This Mr. Chaffanbrass +knows, and, like an actor who is kept up to his high mark by the +necessity of maintaining his character, he never allows himself +to grow dull over his work. Therefore Mr. Chaffanbrass bullies +when it is quite unnecessary that he should bully; it is a labour +of love; and though he is now old, and stiff in his joints, +though ease would be dear to him, though like a gladiator +satiated with blood, he would as regards himself be so pleased to +sheathe his sword, yet he never spares himself. He never spares +himself, and he never spares his victim. + +As a lawyer, in the broad and high sense of the word, it may be +presumed that Mr. Chaffanbrass knows little or nothing. He has, +indeed, no occasion for such knowledge. His business is to +perplex a witness and bamboozle a jury, and in doing that he is +generally successful. He seldom cares for carrying the judge with +him: such tactics, indeed, as his are not likely to tell upon a +judge. That which he loves is, that a judge should charge against +him, and a jury give a verdict in his favour. When he achieves +that he feels that he has earned his money. Let others, the young +lads and spooneys of his profession, undertake the milk-and-water +work of defending injured innocence; it is all but an insult to +his practised ingenuity to invite his assistance to such +tasteless business. Give him a case in which he has all the world +against him; Justice with her sword raised high to strike; Truth +with open mouth and speaking eyes to tell the bloody tale; +outraged humanity shrieking for punishment; a case from which +Mercy herself, with averted eyes, has loathing turned and bade +her sterner sister do her work; give him such a case as this, and +then you will see Mr. Chaffanbrass in his glory. Let him, by the +use of his high art, rescue from the gallows and turn loose upon +the world the wretch whose hands are reeking with the blood of +father, mother, wife, and brother, and you may see Mr. Chaffanbrass, +elated with conscious worth, rub his happy hands with infinite +complacency. Then will his ambition be satisfied, and he will feel +that in the verdict of the jury he has received the honour due to +his genius. He will have succeeded in turning black into white, +in washing the blackamoor, in dressing in the fair robe of innocence +the foulest, filthiest wretch of his day; and as he returns to his home, +he will be proudly conscious that he is no little man. + +In person, however, Mr. Chaffanbrass is a little man, and a very +dirty little man. He has all manner of nasty tricks about him, +which make him a disagreeable neighbour to barristers sitting +near to him. He is profuse with snuff, and very generous with his +handkerchief. He is always at work upon his teeth, which do not +do much credit to his industry. His wig is never at ease upon his +head, but is poked about by him, sometimes over one ear, +sometimes over the other, now on the back of his head, and then +on his nose; and it is impossible to say in which guise he looks +most cruel, most sharp, and most intolerable. His linen is never +clean, his hands never washed, and his clothes apparently never +new. He is about five feet six in height, and even with that +stoops greatly. His custom is to lean forward, resting with both +hands on the sort of desk before him, and then to fix his small +brown basilisk eye on the victim in the box before him. In this +position he will remain unmoved by the hour together, unless the +elevation and fall of his thick eyebrows and the partial closing +of his wicked eyes can be called motion. But his tongue! that +moves; there is the weapon which he knows how to use! + +Such is Mr. Chaffanbrass in public life; and those who only know +him in public life can hardly believe that at home he is one of +the most easy, good-tempered, amiable old gentlemen that ever was +pooh-poohed by his grown-up daughters, and occasionally told to +keep himself quiet in a corner. Such, however, is his private +character. Not that he is a fool in his own house; Mr. Chaffanbrass +can never be a fool; but he is so essentially good-natured, so +devoid of any feeling of domestic tyranny, so placid in his +domesticities, that he chooses to be ruled by his own children. +But in his own way he is fond of hospitality; he delights in a cosy +glass of old port with an old friend in whose company he may +be allowed to sit in his old coat and old slippers. He delights +also in his books, in his daughters' music, and in three or four +live pet dogs, and birds, and squirrels, whom morning and night +he feeds with his own hands. He is charitable, too, and subscribes +largely to hospitals founded for the relief of the suffering poor. + +Such was Mr. Chaffanbrass, who had been selected by the astute +Mr. Gitemthruet to act as leading counsel on behalf of Alaric. If +any human wisdom could effect the escape of a client in such +jeopardy, the wisdom of Mr. Chaffanbrass would be likely to do +it; but, in truth, the evidence was so strong against him, that +even this Newgate hero almost feared the result. + +I will not try the patience of anyone by stating in detail all +the circumstances of the trial. In doing so I should only copy, +or, at any rate, might copy, the proceedings at some of those +modern _causes célèbres_ with which all those who love such +subjects are familiar. And why should I force such matters on +those who do not love them? The usual opening speech was made by +the chief man on the prosecuting side, who, in the usual manner, +declared 'that his only object was justice; that his heart bled +within him to see a man of such acknowledged public utility as +Mr. Tudor in such a position; that he sincerely hoped that the +jury might find it possible to acquit him, but that--' And then +went into his 'but' with so much venom that it was clearly +discernible to all, that in spite of his protestations, his heart +was set upon a conviction. + +When he had finished, the witnesses for the prosecution were +called--the poor wretches whose fate it was to be impaled alive +that day by Mr. Chaffanbrass. They gave their evidence, and in +due course were impaled. Mr. Chaffanbrass had never been greater. +The day was hot, and he thrust his wig back till it stuck rather +on the top of his coat-collar than on his head; his forehead +seemed to come out like the head of a dog from his kennel, and he +grinned with his black teeth, and his savage eyes twinkled, till +the witnesses sank almost out of sight as they gazed at him. + +And yet they had very little to prove, and nothing that he could +disprove. They had to speak merely to certain banking transactions, +to say that certain moneys had been so paid in and so drawn out, +in stating which they had their office books to depend on. But +not the less on this account were they made victims. To one +clerk it was suggested that he might now and then, once in three +months or so, make an error in a figure; and, having acknowledged +this, he was driven about until he admitted that it was very possible +that every entry he made in the bank books in the course of the +year was false. 'And you, such as you,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, 'do +you dare to come forward to give evidence on commercial affairs? +Go down, sir, and hide your ignominy.' The wretch, convinced that +he was ruined for ever, slunk out of court, and was ashamed to +show himself at his place of business for the next three days. + +There were ten or twelve witnesses, all much of the same sort, +who proved among them that this sum of twenty thousand pounds had +been placed at Alaric's disposal, and that now, alas! the twenty +thousand pounds were not forthcoming. It seemed to be a very +simple case; and, to Alaric's own understanding, it seemed +impossible that his counsel should do anything for him. But as +each impaled victim shrank with agonized terror from the torture, +Mr. Gitemthruet would turn round to Alaric and assure him that +they were going on well, quite as well as he had expected. Mr. +Chaffanbrass was really exerting himself; and when Mr. Chaffanbrass +did really exert himself he rarely failed. + +And so the long day faded itself away in the hot sweltering +court, and his lordship, at about seven o'clock, declared his +intention of adjourning. Of course a _cause célèbre_ such as +this was not going to decide itself in one day. Alaric's guilt +was clear as daylight to all concerned; but a man who had risen +to be a Civil Service Commissioner, and to be entrusted with the +guardianship of twenty thousand pounds, was not to be treated +like a butcher who had merely smothered his wife in an ordinary +way, or a housebreaker who had followed his professional career +to its natural end; more than that was due to the rank and +station of the man, and to the very respectable retaining fee +with which Mr. Gitemthruet had found himself enabled to secure +the venom of Mr. Chaffanbrass. So the jury retired to regale +themselves _en masse_ at a neighbouring coffee-house; Alaric +was again permitted to be at large on bail (the amiable policeman +in mufti still attending him at a distance); and Mr. Chaffanbrass +and his lordship retired to prepare themselves by rest for the +morrow's labours. + +But what was Alaric to do? He soon found himself under the +guardianship of the constant Gitemthruet in a neighbouring +tavern, and his cousin Charley was with him. Charley had been in +court the whole day, except that he had twice posted down to the +West End in a cab to let Gertrude and Mrs. Woodward know how +things were going on. He had posted down and posted back again, +and, crowded as the court had been, he had contrived to make his +way in, using that air of authority to which the strongest-minded +policeman will always bow; till at last the very policemen +assisted him, as though he were in some way connected with the +trial. + +On his last visit at Gertrude's house he had told her that it was +very improbable that the trial should be finished that day. She +had then said nothing as to Alaric's return to his own house; it +had indeed not occurred to her that he would be at liberty to do +so: Charley at once caught at this, and strongly recommended his +cousin to remain where he was. 'You will gain nothing by going +home,' said he; 'Gertrude does not expect you; Mrs. Woodward is +there; and it will be better for all parties that you should +remain.' Mr. Gitemthruet strongly backed his advice, and Alaric, +so counselled, resolved to remain where he was. Charley promised +to stay with him, and the policeman in mufti, without making any +promise at all, silently acquiesced in the arrangement. Charley +made one more visit to the West, saw Norman at his lodgings, and +Mrs. Woodward and Gertrude in Albany Place, and then returned to +make a night of it with Alaric. We need hardly say that Charley +made a night of it in a very different manner from that to which +he and his brother navvies were so well accustomed. + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +THE OLD BAILEY + + +The next morning, at ten o'clock, the court was again crowded. +The judge was again on his bench, prepared for patient endurance; +and Lord Killtime and Sir Gregory Hardlines were alongside of +him. The jury were again in their box, ready with pen and paper +to give their brightest attention--a brightness which will be dim +enough before the long day be over; the counsel for the +prosecution were rummaging among their papers; the witnesses for +the defence were sitting there among the attorneys, with the +exception of the Honourable Undecimus Scott, who was accommodated +with a seat near the sheriff, and whose heart, to tell the truth, +was sinking somewhat low within his breast, in spite of the glass +of brandy with which he had fortified himself. Alaric was again +present under the wings of Mr. Gitemthruet; and the great Mr. +Chaffanbrass was in his place. He was leaning over a slip of +paper which he held in his hand, and with compressed lips was +meditating his attack upon his enemies; on this occasion his wig +was well over his eyes, and as he peered up from under it to the +judge's face, he cocked his nose with an air of supercilious +contempt for all those who were immediately around him. + +It was for him to begin the day's sport by making a speech, not +so much in defence of his client as in accusation of the +prosecutors. 'It had never,' he said, 'been his fate, he might +say his misfortune, to hear a case against a man in a respectable +position, opened by the Crown with such an amount of envenomed +virulence.' He was then reminded that the prosecution was not +carried on by the Crown. 'Then,' said he, 'we may attribute this +virulence to private malice; that it is not to be attributed to +any fear that this English bride should lose her fortune, or that +her French husband should be deprived of any portion of his +spoil, I shall be able to prove to a certainty. Did I allow +myself that audacity of denunciation which my learned friend has +not considered incompatible with the dignity of his new silk +gown? Could I permit myself such latitude of invective as he has +adopted?'--a slight laugh was here heard in the court, and an +involuntary smile played across the judge's face--'yes,' +continued Mr. Chaffanbrass, 'I boldly aver that I have never +forgotten myself, and what is due to humanity, as my learned +friend did in his address to the jury. Gentlemen of the jury, you +will not confound the natural indignation which counsel must feel +when defending innocence from the false attacks, with the +uncalled-for, the unprofessional acerbity which has now been used +in promoting such an accusation as this. I may at times be angry, +when I see mean falsehood before me in vain assuming the garb of +truth--for with such juries as I meet here it generally is in +vain--I may at times forget myself in anger; but, if we talk of +venom, virulence, and eager hostility, I yield the palm, without +a contest, to my learned friend in the new silk gown.' + +He then went on to dispose of the witnesses whom they had heard +on the previous day, and expressed a regret that an _exposé_ +should have been made so disgraceful to the commercial establishments +of this great commercial city. It only showed what was the effect +on such establishments of that undue parsimony which was now +one of the crying evils of the times. Having thus shortly disposed +of them, he came to what all men knew was the real interest of +the day's doings. 'But,' said he, 'the evidence in this case, to +which your attention will be chiefly directed, will be, not that for +the accusation, but that for the defence. It will be my business +to show to you, not only that my client is guiltless, but to what +temptations to be guilty he has been purposely and wickedly +subjected. I shall put into that bar an honourable member of the +House of Commons, who will make some revelations as to his own +life, who will give us an insight into the ways and means of a legislator, +which will probably surprise us all, not excluding his lordship on +the bench. He will be able to explain to us--and I trust I may be +able to induce him to do so, for it is possible that he may be a little +coy--he will be able to explain to us why my client, who is in no +way connected either with the Scotts, or the Golightlys, or the +Figgs, or the Jaquêtanàpes, why he was made the lady's trustee; +and he will also, perhaps, tell us, after some slight, gentle persuasion, +whether he has himself handled, or attempted to handle, any of +this lady's money.' + +Mr. Chaffanbrass then went on to state that, as the forms of the +court would not give him the power of addressing the jury again, +he must now explain to them what he conceived to be the facts of +the case. He then admitted that his client, in his anxiety to do +the best he could with the fortune entrusted to him, had invested +it badly. The present fate of these unfortunate bridge shares, as +to which the commercial world had lately held so many different +opinions, proved that: but it had nevertheless been a _bona +fide_ investment, made in conjunction with, and by the advice +of, Mr. Scott, the lady's uncle, who thus, for his own purposes, +got possession of money which was in truth confided to him for +other purposes. His client, Mr. Chaffanbrass acknowledged, had +behaved with great indiscretion; but the moment he found that the +investment would be an injurious one to the lady whose welfare +was in his hands, he at once resolved to make good the whole +amount from his own pocket. That he had done so, or, at any rate, +would have done so, but for this trial, would be proved to them. +Nobler conduct than this it was impossible to imagine. Whereas, +the lady's uncle, the honourable member of Parliament, the +gentleman who had made a stalking-horse of his, Mr. Chaffanbrass's, +client, refused to refund a penny of the spoil, and was now the +instigator of this most unjust proceeding. + +As Mr. Chaffanbrass thus finished his oration, Undy Scott tried +to smile complacently on those around him. But why did the big +drops of sweat stand on his brow as his eye involuntarily caught +those of Mr. Chaffanbrass? Why did he shuffle his feet, and +uneasily move his hands and feet hither and thither, as a man +does when he tries in vain to be unconcerned? Why did he pull his +gloves on and off, and throw himself back with that affected air +which is so unusual to him? All the court was looking at him, and +every one knew that he was wretched. Wretched! aye, indeed he +was; for the assurance even of an Undy Scott, the hardened man of +the clubs, the thrice elected and twice rejected of Tillietudlem, +fell prostrate before the well-known hot pincers of Chaffanbrass, +the torturer! + +The first witness called was Henry Norman. Alaric looked up for a +moment with surprise, and then averted his eyes. Mr. Gitemthruet +had concealed from him the fact that Norman was to be called. He +merely proved this, that having heard from Mrs. Woodward, who was +the prisoner's mother-in-law, and would soon be his own mother- +in-law, that a deficiency had been alleged to exist in the +fortune of Madame Jaquêtanàpe, he had, on the part of Mrs. +Woodward, produced what he believed would cover this deficiency, +and that when he had been informed that more money was wanting, +he had offered to give security that the whole should be paid in +six months. Of course, on him Mr. Chaffanbrass exercised none of +his terrible skill, and as the lawyers on the other side declined +to cross-examine him, he was soon able to leave the court. This +he did speedily, for he had no desire to witness Alaric's misery. + +And then the Honourable Undecimus Scott was put into the witness- +box. It was suggested, on his behalf, that he might give his +evidence from the seat which he then occupied, but this Mr. +Chaffanbrass would by no means allow. His intercourse with Mr. +Scott, he said, must be of a nearer, closer, and more confidential +nature than such an arrangement as that would admit. A witness, +to his way of thinking, was never an efficient witness till he had +his arm on the rail of a witness-box. He must trouble Mr. Scott to +descend from the grandeur of his present position; he might return +to his seat after he had been examined--if he then should have +a mind to do so. Our friend Undy found that he had to obey, and +he was soon confronted with Mr. Chaffanbrass in the humbler +manner which that gentleman thought so desirable. + +'You are a member of the House of Commons, I believe, Mr. Scott?' +began Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +Undy acknowledged that he was so. + +'And you are the son of a peer, I believe?' + +'A Scotch peer,' said Undy. + +'Oh, a Scotch peer,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, bringing his wig +forward over his left eye in a manner that was almost irresistible +--'a Scotch peer--a member of Parliament, and son of a Scotch +peer; and you have been a member of the Government, I believe, +Mr. Scott?' + +Undy confessed that he had been in office for a short time. + +'A member of Parliament, a son of a peer, and one of the +Government of this great and free country. You ought to be a +proud and a happy man. You are a man of fortune, too, I believe, +Mr. Scott?' + +'That is a matter of opinion,' said Undy; 'different people have +different ideas. I don't know what you call fortune.' + +'Why I call £20,000 a fortune--this sum that the lady had who +married the Frenchman. Have you £20,000?' + +'I shall not answer that question.' + +'Have you £10,000? You surely must have as much as that, as I +know you married a fortune yourself,--unless, indeed, a false- +hearted trustee has got hold of your money also. Come, have you +got £10,000?' + +'I shall not answer you.' + +'Have you got any income at all? Now, I demand an answer to that +on your oath, sir.' + +'My lord, must I answer such questions?' said Undy. + +'Yes, sir; you must answer them, and many more like them,' said +Mr. Chaffanbrass. 'My lord, it is essential to my client that I +should prove to the jury whether this witness is or is not a +penniless adventurer; if he be a respectable member of society, +he can have no objection to let me know whether he has the means +of living.' + +'Perhaps, Mr. Scott,' said the judge, 'you will not object to +state whether or no you possess any fixed income.' + +'Have you, or have you not, got an income on which you live?' +demanded Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +'I have an income,' said Undy, not, however, in a voice that +betokened much self-confidence in the strength of his own answer. + +'You have an income, have you? And now, Mr. Scott, will you tell +us what profession you follow at this moment with the object of +increasing your income? I think we may surmise, by the tone of +your voice, that your income is not very abundant.' + +'I have no profession,' said Undy. + +'On your oath, you are in no profession?' + +'Not at present.' + +'On your oath, you are not a stock-jobber?' + +Undy hesitated for a moment. + +'By the virtue of your oath, sir, are you a stock-jobber, or are +you not?' + +'No, I am not. At least, I believe not.' + +'You believe not!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass--and it would be +necessary to hear the tone in which this was said to understand +the derision which was implied. 'You believe you are not a stock- +jobber! Are you, or are you not, constantly buying shares and +selling shares--railway shares--bridge shares--mining shares--and +such-like?' + +'I sometimes buy shares.' + +'And sometimes sell them?' + +'Yes--and sometimes sell them.' + +Where Mr. Chaffanbrass had got his exact information, we cannot +say; but very exact information he had acquired respecting Undy's +little transactions. He questioned him about the Mary Janes and +Old Friendships, about the West Corks and the Ballydehob Branch, +about sundry other railways and canals, and finally about the +Limehouse bridge; and then again he asked his former question. +'And now,' said he, 'will you tell the jury whether you are a +stock-jobber or no?' + +'It is all a matter of opinion,' said Undy. 'Perhaps I may be, in +your sense of the word.' + +'My sense of the word!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass. 'You are as much a +stock-jobber, sir, as that man is a policeman, or his lordship is +a judge. And now, Mr. Scott, I am sorry that I must go back to +your private affairs, respecting which you are so unwilling to +speak. I fear I must trouble you to tell me this--How did you +raise the money with which you bought that latter batch--the +large lump of the bridge shares--of which we were speaking?' + +'I borrowed it from Mr. Tudor,' said Undy, who had prepared +himself to answer this question glibly. + +'You borrowed it from Mr. Alaric Tudor--that is, from the +gentleman now upon his trial. You borrowed it, I believe, just at +the time that he became the lady's trustee?' + +'Yes,' said Undy; 'I did so.' + +'You have not repaid him as yet?' + +'No--not yet,' said Undy. + +'I thought not. Can you at all say when Mr. Tudor may probably +get his money?' + +'I am not at present prepared to name a day. When the money was +lent it was not intended that it should be repaid at an early +day.' + +'Oh! Mr. Tudor did not want his money at an early day--didn't he? +But, nevertheless, he has, I believe, asked for it since, and +that very pressingly?' + +'He has never asked for it,' said Undy. + +'Allow me to remind you, Mr. Scott, that I have the power of +putting my client into that witness-box, although he is on his +trial; and, having so reminded you, let me again beg you to say +whether he has not asked you for repayment of this large sum of +money very pressingly.' + +'No; he has never done so.' + +'By the value of your oath, sir--if it has any value--did not my +client beseech you to allow these shares to be sold while they +were yet saleable, in order that your niece's trust money might +be replaced in the English funds?' + +'He said something as to the expediency of selling them, and I +differed from him.' + +'You thought it would be better for the lady's interest that they +should remain unsold?' + +'I made no question of the lady's interest. I was not her +trustee.' + +'But the shares were bought with the lady's money.' + +'What shares?' asked Undy. + +'What shares, sir? Those shares which you had professed to hold +on the lady's behalf, and which afterwards you did not scruple to +call your own. Those shares of yours--since you have the +deliberate dishonesty so to call them--those shares of yours, +were they not bought with the lady's money?' + +'They were bought with the money which I borrowed from Mr. +Tudor.' + +'And where did Mr. Tudor get that money?' + +'That is a question you must ask himself,' said Undy. + +'It is a question, sir, that just at present I prefer to ask you. +Now, sir, be good enough to tell the jury, whence Mr. Tudor got +that money; or tell them, if you dare do so, that you do not +know.' + +Undy for a minute remained silent, and Mr. Chaffanbrass remained +silent also. But if the fury of his tongue for a moment was at +rest, that of his eyes was as active as ever. He kept his gaze +steadily fixed upon the witness, and stood there with compressed +lips, still resting on his two hands, as though he were quite +satisfied thus to watch the prey that was in his power. For an +instant he glanced up to the jury, and then allowed his eyes to +resettle on the face of the witness, as though he might have +said, 'There, gentlemen, there he is--the son of a peer, a member +of Parliament; what do you think of him?' + +The silence of that minute was horrible to Undy, and yet he could +hardly bring himself to break it. The judge looked at him with +eyes which seemed to read his inmost soul; the jury looked at +him, condemning him one and all; Alaric looked at him with +fierce, glaring eyes of hatred, the same eyes that had glared at +him that night when he had been collared in the street; the whole +crowd looked at him derisively; but the eyes of them all were as +nothing to the eyes of Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +'I never saw him so great; I never did,' said Mr. Gitemthruet, +whispering to his client; and Alaric, even he, felt some +consolation in the terrible discomfiture of his enemy. + +'I don't know where he got it,' said Undy, at last breaking the +terrible silence, and wiping the perspiration from his brow. + +'Oh, you don't!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, knocking his wig back, +and coming well out of his kennel. 'After waiting for a quarter +of an hour or so, you are able to tell the jury at last that you +don't know anything about it. He took the small trifle of change +out of his pocket, I suppose?' + +'I don't know where he took it from.' + +'And you didn't ask?' + +'No.' + +'You got the money; that was all you know. But this was just at +the time that Mr. Tudor became the lady's trustee; I think you +have admitted that.' + +'It may have been about the time.' + +'Yes; it may have been about the time, as you justly observe, Mr. +Scott. Luckily, you know, we have the dates of the two transactions. +But it never occurred to your innocent mind that the money which +you got into your hands was a part of the lady's fortune; that +never occurred to your innocent mind--eh, Mr. Scott?' + +'I don't know that my mind is a more innocent mind than your +own,' said Undy. + +'I dare say not. Well, did the idea ever occur to your guilty +mind?' + +'Perhaps my mind is not more guilty than your own, either.' + +'Then may God help me,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, 'for I must be at +a bad pass. You told us just now, Mr. Scott, that some time since +Mr. Tudor advised you to sell these shares--what made him give +you this advice?' + +'He meant, he said, to sell his own.' + +'And he pressed you to sell yours?' + +'Yes.' + +'He urged you to do so more than once?' + +'Yes; I believe he did.' + +'And now, Mr. Scott, can you explain to the jury why he was so +solicitous that you should dispose of your property?' + +'I do not know why he should have done so, unless he wanted back +his money.' + +'Then he did ask for his own money?' + +'No; he never asked for it. But if I had sold the shares perhaps +he might have asked for it.' + +'Oh!' said Mr. Chaffanbrass; and as he uttered the monosyllable +he looked up at the jury, and gently shook his head, and gently +shook his hands. Mr. Chaffanbrass was famous for these little +silent addresses to the jury-box. + +But not even yet had he done with this suspicious loan. We cannot +follow him through the whole of his examination; for he kept our +old friend under the harrow for no less than seven hours. Though +he himself made no further statement to the jury, he made it +perfectly plain, by Undy's own extracted admissions, or by the +hesitation of his denials, that he had knowingly received this +money out of his niece's fortune, and that he had refused to sell +the shares bought with this money, when pressed to do so by +Tudor, in order that the trust-money might be again made up. + +There were those who blamed Mr. Chaffanbrass for thus admitting +that his client had made away with his ward's money by lending it +to Undy; but that acute gentleman saw clearly that he could not +contend against the fact of the property having been fraudulently +used; but he saw that he might induce the jury to attach so much +guilt to Undy, that Tudor would, as it were, be whitened by the +blackness of the other's villany. The judge, he well knew, would +blow aside all this froth; but then the judge could not find the +verdict. + +Towards the end of the day, when Undy was thoroughly worn out--at +which time, however, Mr. Chaffanbrass was as brisk as ever, for +nothing ever wore him out when he was pursuing his game--when the +interest of those who had been sweltering in the hot court all +the day was observed to flag, Mr. Chaffanbrass began twisting +round his finger a bit of paper, of which those who were best +acquainted with his manner knew that he would soon make use. + +'Mr. Scott,' said he, suddenly dropping the derisive sarcasm of +his former tone, and addressing him with all imaginable courtesy, +'could you oblige me by telling me whose handwriting that is?' +and he handed to him the scrap of paper. Undy took it, and saw +that the writing was his own; his eyes were somewhat dim, and he +can hardly be said to have read it. It was a very short +memorandum, and it ran as follows: 'All will yet be well, if +those shares be ready to-morrow morning.' + +'Well, Mr. Scott,' said the lawyer, 'do you recognize the +handwriting?' + +Undy looked at it, and endeavoured to examine it closely, but he +could not; his eyes swam, and his head was giddy, and he felt +sick. Could he have satisfied himself that the writing was not +clearly and manifestly his own, he would have denied the document +altogether; but he feared to do this; the handwriting might be +proved to be his own. + +'It is something like my own,' said he. + +'Something like your own, is it?' said Mr. Chaffanbrass, as +though he were much surprised. 'Like your own! Well, will you +have the goodness to read it?' + +Undy turned it in his hand as though the proposed task were +singularly disagreeable to him. Why, thought he to himself, +should he be thus browbeaten by a dirty old Newgate lawyer? Why +not pluck up his courage, and, at any rate, show that he was a +man? 'No,' said he, 'I will not read it.' + +'Then I will. Gentlemen of the jury, have the goodness to listen +to me.' Of course there was a contest then between him and the +lawyers on the other side whether the document might or might not +be read; but equally of course the contest ended in the judge's +decision that it should be read. And Mr. Chaffanbrass did read it +in a voice audible to all men. 'All will yet be well, if those +shares be ready to-morrow morning.' We may take it as admitted, I +suppose, that this is in your handwriting, Mr. Scott?' + +'It probably may be, though I will not say that it is.' + +'Do you not know, sir, with positive certainty that it is your +writing?' + +To this Undy made no direct answer. 'What is your opinion, Mr. +Scott?' said the judge; 'you can probably give an opinion by +which the jury would be much guided.' + +'I think it is, my lord,' said Undy. + +'He thinks it is, said Mr. Chaffanbrass, addressing the jury. +'Well, for once I agree with you. I think it is also--and how +will you have the goodness to explain it. To whom was it +addressed?' + +'I cannot say.' + +'When was it written?' + +'I do not know.' + +'What does it mean?' + +'I cannot remember.' + +'Was it addressed to Mr. Tudor?' + +'I should think not.' + +'Now, Mr. Scott, have the goodness to look at the jury, and to +speak a little louder. You are in the habit of addressing a +larger audience than this, and cannot, therefore, be shamefaced. +You mean to tell the jury that you think that that note was not +intended by you for Mr. Tudor?' + +'I think not,' said Undy. + +'But you can't say who it was intended for?' + +'No.' + +'And by the virtue of your oath, you have told us all that you +know about it?' Undy remained silent, but Mr. Chaffanbrass did +not press him for an answer. 'You have a brother, named +Valentine, I think.' Now Captain Val had been summoned also, and +was at this moment in court. Mr. Chaffanbrass requested that he +might be desired to leave it, and, consequently, he was ordered +out in charge of a policeman. + +'And now, Mr. Scott--was that note written by you to Mr. Tudor, +with reference to certain shares, which you proposed that Mr. +Tudor should place in your brother's hands? Now, sir, I ask you, +as a member of Parliament, as a member of the Government, as the +son of a peer, to give a true answer to that question.' And then +again Undy was silent; and again Mr. Chaffanbrass leant on the +desk and glared at him. 'And remember, sir, member of Parliament +and nobleman as you are, you shall be indicted for perjury, if +you are guilty of perjury.' + +'My lord,' said Undy, writhing in torment, 'am I to submit to +this?' + +'Mr. Chaffanbrass,' said the judge, 'you should not threaten your +witness. Mr. Scott--surely you can answer the question.' + +Mr. Chaffanbrass seemed not to have even heard what the judge +said, so intently were his eyes fixed on poor Undy. 'Well, Mr. +Scott,' he said at last, very softly, 'is it convenient for you +to answer me? Did that note refer to a certain number of bridge +shares, which you required Mr. Tudor to hand over to the +stepfather of this lady?' + +Undy had no trust in his brother. He felt all but sure that, +under the fire of Mr. Chaffanbrass, he would confess everything. +It would be terrible to own the truth, but it would be more +terrible to be indicted for perjury. So he sat silent. + +'My lord, perhaps you will ask him,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass. + +'Mr. Scott, you understand the question--why do you not answer +it?' asked the judge. But Undy still remained silent. + +'You may go now,' said Mr. Chaffanbrass. 'Your eloquence is of +the silent sort; but, nevertheless, it is very impressive. You +may go now, and sit on that bench again, if, after what has +passed, the sheriff thinks proper to permit it.' + +Undy, however, did not try that officer's complaisance. He +retired from the witness-box, and was not again seen during the +trial in any conspicuous place in the court. + +It was then past seven o'clock; but Mr. Chaffanbrass insisted on +going on with the examination of Captain Val. It did not last +long. Captain Val, also, was in that disagreeable position, that +he did not know what Undy had confessed, and what denied. So he, +also, refused to answer the questions of Mr. Chaffanbrass, saying +that he might possibly damage himself should he do so. This was +enough for Mr. Chaffanbrass, and then his work was done. + +At eight o'clock the court again adjourned; again Charley posted +off--for the third time that day--to let Gertrude know that, even +as yet, all was not over; and again he and Alaric spent a +melancholy evening at the neighbouring tavern; and then, again, +on the third morning, all were re-assembled at the Old Bailey. + +Or rather they were not all re-assembled. But few came now, and +they were those who were obliged to come. The crack piece of the +trial, that portion to which, among the connoisseurs, the +interest was attached, that was all over. Mr. Chaffanbrass had +done his work. Undy Scott, the member of Parliament, had been +gibbeted, and the rest was, in comparison, stale, flat, and +unprofitable. The judge and jury, however, were there, so were +the prosecuting counsel, so were Mr. Chaffanbrass and Mr. +Younglad, and so was poor Alaric. The work of the day was +commenced by the judge's charge, and then Alaric, to his infinite +dismay, found how all the sophistry and laboured arguments of his +very talented advocate were blown to the winds, and shown to be +worthless. 'Gentlemen,' said the judge to the jurors, after he +had gone through all the evidence, and told them what was +admissible, and what was not--'gentlemen, I must especially +remind you, that in coming to a verdict in the matter, no amount +of guilt on the part of any other person can render guiltless him +whom you are now trying, or palliate his guilt if he be guilty. +An endeavour has been made to affix a deep stigma on one of the +witnesses who has been examined before you; and to induce you to +feel, rather than to think, that Mr. Tudor is, at any rate, +comparatively innocent--innocent as compared with that gentleman. +That is not the issue which you are called on to decide; not +whether Mr. Scott, for purposes of his own, led Mr. Tudor on to +guilt, and then turned against him; but whether Mr. Tudor himself +has, or has not, been guilty under this Act of Parliament that +has been explained to you. + +'As regards the evidence of Mr. Scott, I am justified in telling +you, that if the prisoner's guilt depended in any way on that +evidence, it would be your duty to receive it with the most +extreme caution, and to reject it altogether if not corroborated. +That evidence was not trustworthy, and in a great measure +justified the treatment which the witness encountered from the +learned barrister who examined him. But Mr. Scott was a witness +for the defence, not for the prosecution. The case for the +prosecution in no way hangs on his evidence. + +'If it be your opinion that Mr. Tudor is guilty, and that he was +unwarily enticed into guilt by Mr. Scott; that the whole +arrangement of this trust was brought about by Mr. Scott or +others, to enable him or them to make a cat's-paw of this new +trustee, and thus use the lady's money for their own purposes, +such an opinion on your part may justify you in recommending the +prisoner to the merciful consideration of the bench; but it +cannot justify you in finding a verdict of not guilty.' + +As Alaric heard this, and much more to the same effect, his +hopes, which certainly had been high during the examination of +Undy Scott, again sank to zero, and left him in despair. He had +almost begun to doubt the fact of his own guilt, so wondrously +had his conduct been glossed over by Mr. Chaffanbrass, so +strikingly had any good attempt on his part been brought to the +light, so black had Scott been made to appear. Ideas floated +across his brain that he might go forth, not only free of the +law, but whitewashed also in men's opinions, that he might again +sit on his throne at the Civil Service Board, again cry to +himself 'Excelsior,' and indulge the old dreams of his ambition. + +But, alas! the deliberate and well-poised wisdom of the judge +seemed to shower down cold truth upon the jury from his very +eyes. His words were low in their tone, though very clear, +impassive, delivered without gesticulation or artifice, such as +that so powerfully used by Mr. Chaffanbrass; but Alaric himself +felt that it was impossible to doubt the truth of such a man; +impossible to suppose that any juryman should do so. Ah me! why +had he brought himself thus to quail beneath the gaze of an old +man seated on a bench? with what object had he forced himself to +bend his once proud neck? He had been before in courts such as +this, and had mocked within his own spirit the paraphernalia of +the horsehair wigs, the judges' faded finery, and the red cloth; +he had laughed at the musty, stale solemnity by which miscreants +were awed, and policemen enchanted; now, these things told on +himself heavily enough; he felt now their weight and import. + +And then the jury retired from the court to consider their +verdict, and Mr. Gitemthruet predicted that they would be hungry +enough before they sat down to their next meal. 'His lordship was +dead against us,' said Mr. Gitemthruet; 'but that was a matter of +course; we must look to the jury, and the city juries are very +fond of Mr. Chaffanbrass; I am not quite sure, however, that Mr. +Chaffanbrass was right: I would not have admitted so much myself; +but then no one knows a city jury so well as Mr. Chaffanbrass.' + +Other causes came on, and still the jury did not return to court. +Mr. Chaffanbrass seemed to have forgotten the very existence of +Alaric Tudor, and was deeply engaged in vindicating a city +butcher from an imputation of having vended a dead ass by way of +veal. All his indignation was now forgotten, and he was full of +boisterous fun, filling the court with peals of laughter. One +o'clock came, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and still no +verdict. At the latter hour, when the court was about to be +adjourned, the foreman came in, and assured the judge that there +was no probability that they could agree; eleven of them thought +one way, while the twelfth was opposed to them. 'You must reason +with the gentleman,' said the judge. 'I have, my lord,' said the +foreman, 'but it's all thrown away upon him.' 'Reason with him +again,' said the judge, rising from his bench and preparing to go +to his dinner. + +And then one of the great fundamental supports of the British +constitution was brought into play. Reason was thrown away upon +this tough juryman, and, therefore, it was necessary to ascertain +what effect starvation might have upon him. A verdict, that is, a +unanimous decision from these twelve men as to Alaric's guilt, +was necessary; it might be that three would think him innocent, +and nine guilty, or that any other division of opinion might take +place; but such divisions among a jury are opposed to the spirit +of the British constitution. Twelve men must think alike; or, if +they will not, they must be made to do so. 'Reason with him +again,' said the judge, as he went to his own dinner. Had the +judge bade them remind him how hungry he would soon be if he +remained obstinate, his lordship would probably have expressed +the thought which was passing through his mind. 'There is one of +us, my lord,' said the foreman, 'who will I know be very ill +before long; he is already so bad that he can't sit upright.' + +There are many ludicrous points in our blessed constitution, but +perhaps nothing so ludicrous as a juryman praying to a judge for +mercy. He has been caught, shut up in a box, perhaps, for five or +six days together, badgered with half a dozen lawyers till he is +nearly deaf with their continual talking, and then he is locked +up until he shall die or find a verdict. Such at least is the +intention of the constitution. The death, however, of three or +four jurymen from starvation would not suit the humanity of the +present age, and therefore, when extremities are nigh at hand, +the dying jurymen, with medical certificates, are allowed to be +carried off. It is devoutly to be wished that one juryman might +be starved to death while thus serving the constitution; the +absurdity then would cure itself, and a verdict of a majority +would be taken. + +But in Alaric's case, reason or hunger did prevail at the last +moment, and as the judge was leaving the court, he was called +back to receive the verdict. Alaric, also, was brought back, +still under Mr. Gitemthruet's wing, and with him came Charley. A +few officers of the court were there, a jailer and a policeman or +two, those whose attendance was absolutely necessary, but with +these exceptions the place was empty. Not long since men were +crowding for seats, and the policemen were hardly able to +restrain the pressure of those who pushed forward; but now there +was no pushing; the dingy, dirty benches, a few inches of which +had lately been so desirable, were not at all in request, and +were anything but inviting in appearance; Alaric sat himself down +on the very spot which had lately been sacred to Mr. Chaffanbrass, +and Mr. Gitemthruet, seated above him, might also fancy himself +a barrister. There they sat for five minutes in perfect silence; the +suspense of the moment cowed even the attorney, and Charley, +who sat on the other side of Alaric, was so affected that he could +hardly have spoken had he wished to do so. + +And then the judge, who had been obliged to re-array himself +before he returned to the bench, again took his seat, and an +officer of the court inquired of the foreman of the jury, in his +usual official language, what their finding was. + +'Guilty on the third count,' said the foreman. 'Not guilty on the +four others. We beg, however, most strongly to recommend the +prisoner to your lordship's merciful consideration, believing +that he has been led into this crime by one who has been much +more guilty than himself.' + +'I knew Mr. Chaffanbrass was wrong,' said Mr. Gitemthruet. 'I +knew he was wrong when he acknowledged so much. God bless my +soul! in a court of law one should never acknowledge anything! +what's the use?' + +And then came the sentence. He was to be confined at the +Penitentiary at Millbank for six months. 'The offence,' said the +judge, 'of which you have been found guilty, and of which you +most certainly have been guilty, is one most prejudicial to the +interests of the community. That trust which the weaker of +mankind should place in the stronger, that reliance which widows +and orphans should feel in their nearest and dearest friends, +would be destroyed, if such crimes as these were allowed to pass +unpunished. But in your case there are circumstances which do +doubtless palliate the crime of which you have been guilty; the +money which you took will, I believe, be restored; the trust +which you were courted to undertake should not have been imposed +on you; and in the tale of villany which has been laid before +us, you have by no means been the worst offender. I have, +therefore, inflicted on you the slightest penalty which the law +allows me. Mr. Tudor, I know what has been your career, how great +your services to your country, how unexceptionable your conduct +as a public servant; I trust, I do trust, I most earnestly, most +hopefully trust, that your career of utility is not over. Your +abilities are great, and you are blessed with the power of +thinking; I do beseech you to consider, while you undergo that +confinement which you needs must suffer, how little any wealth is +worth an uneasy conscience.' + +And so the trial was over. Alaric was taken off in custody; the +policeman in mufti was released from his attendance; and Charley, +with a heavy heart, carried the news to Gertrude and Mrs. +Woodward. + +'And as for me,' said Gertrude, when she had so far recovered +from the first shock as to be able to talk to her mother--'as for +me, I will have lodgings at Millbank.' + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +A PARTING INTERVIEW + + +Mrs. Woodward remained with her eldest daughter for two days +after the trial, and then she was forced to return to Hampton. +She had earnestly entreated Gertrude to accompany her, with her +child; but Mrs. Tudor was inflexible. She had, she said, very +much to do; so much, that she could not possibly leave London; +the house and furniture were on her hands, and must be disposed +of; their future plans must be arranged; and then nothing, she +said, should induce her to sleep out of sight of her husband's +prison, or to omit any opportunity of seeing him which the prison +rules would allow her. + +Mrs. Woodward would not have left one child in such extremity, +had not the state of another child made her presence at the +Cottage indispensable. Katie's anxiety about the trial had of +course been intense, so intense as to give her a false strength, +and somewhat to deceive Linda as to her real state. Tidings of +course passed daily between London and the Cottage, but for three +days they told nothing. On the morning of the fourth day, +however, Norman brought the heavy news, and Katie sank completely +under it. When she first heard the result of the trial she +swooned away, and remained for some time nearly unconscious. But +returning consciousness brought with it no relief, and she lay +sobbing on her pillow, till she became so weak, that Linda in her +fright wrote up to her mother begging her to return at once. +Then, wretched as it made her to leave Gertrude in her trouble, +Mrs. Woodward did return. + +For a fortnight after this there was an unhappy household at +Surbiton Cottage. Linda's marriage was put off till the period of +Alaric's sentence should be over, and till something should be +settled as to his and Gertrude's future career. It was now +August, and they spoke of the event as one which perhaps might +occur in the course of the following spring. At this time, also, +they were deprived for a while of the comfort of Norman's visits +by his enforced absence at Normansgrove. Harry's eldest brother +was again ill, and at last the news of his death was received at +Hampton. Under other circumstances such tidings as those might, +to a certain extent, have brought their own consolation with +them. Harry would now be Mr. Norman of Normansgrove, and Linda +would become Mrs. Norman of Normansgrove; Harry's mother had long +been dead, and his father was an infirm old man, who would be too +glad to give up to his son the full management of the estate, now +that the eldest son was a man to whom that estate could be +trusted. All those circumstances had, of course, been talked over +between Harry and Linda, and it was understood that Harry was now +to resign his situation at the Weights and Measures. But Alaric's +condition, Gertrude's misery, and Katie's illness, threw all such +matters into the background. Katie became no better; but then the +doctors said that she did not become any worse, and gave it as +their opinion that she ought to recover. She had youth, they +said, on her side; and then her lungs were not affected. This was +the great question which they were all asking of each other +continually. The poor girl lived beneath a stethoscope, and bore +all their pokings and tappings with exquisite patience. She +herself believed that she was dying, and so she repeatedly told +her mother. Mrs. Woodward could only say that all was in God's +hands, but that the physicians still encouraged them to hope the +best. + +One day Mrs. Woodward was sitting with a book in her usual place +at the side of Katie's bed; she looked every now and again at her +patient, and thought that she was slumbering; and at last she +rose from her chair to creep away, so sure was she that she might +be spared for a moment. But just as she was silently rising, a +thin, slight, pale hand crept out from beneath the clothes, and +laid itself on her arm. + +'I thought you were asleep, love,' said she. + +'No, mamma, I was not asleep. I was thinking of something. Don't +go away, mamma, just now. I want to ask you something.' + +Mrs. Woodward again sat down, and taking her daughter's hand in +her own, caressed it. + +'I want to ask a favour of you, mamma,' said Katie. + +'A favour, my darling! what is it? you know I will do anything in +my power that you ask me.' + +'Ah, mamma, I do not know whether you will do this.' + +'What is it, Katie? I will do anything that is for your good. I +am sure you know that, Katie.' + +'Mamma, I know I am going to die. Oh, mamma, don't say anything +now, don't cry now--dear, dear mamma; I don't say it to make you +unhappy; but you know when I am so ill I ought to think about it, +ought I not, mamma?' + +'But, Katie, the doctor says that he thinks you are not so +dangerously ill; you should not, therefore, despond; it will +increase your illness, and hinder your chance of getting well. +That would be wrong, wouldn't it, love?' + +'Mamma, I feel that I shall never again be well, and therefore--' +It was useless telling Mrs. Woodward not to cry; what else could +she do? 'Dear mamma, I am so sorry to make you unhappy, but you +are my own mamma, and therefore I must tell you. I can be happy +still, mamma, if you will let me talk to you about it.' + +'You shall talk, dearest; I will hear what you say; but oh, +Katie, I cannot bear to hear you talk of dying. I do not think +you are dying. If I did think so, my child, my trust in your +goodness is so strong that I should tell you.' + +'You know, mamma, it might have been much worse; suppose I had +been drowned, when he, when Charley, you know, saved me;' and as +she mentioned his name a tear for the first time ran down each +cheek; 'how much worse that would have been! think, mamma, what +it would be to be drowned without a moment for one's prayers.' + +'It is quite right we should prepare ourselves for death. Whether +we live, or whether we die, we shall be better for doing that.' + +Katie still held her mother's hand in hers, and lay back against +the pillows which had been placed behind her back. 'And now, +mamma,' she said at last, 'I am going to ask you this favour--I +want to see Charley once more.' + +Mrs. Woodward was so much astonished at the request that at first +she knew not what answer to make. 'To see Charley!' she said at +last. + +'Yes, mamma; I want to see Charley once more; there need be no +secrets between us now, mamma.' + +'There have never been any secrets between us,' said Mrs. +Woodward, embracing her. 'You have never had any secrets from +me?' + +'Not intentionally, mamma; I have never meant to keep anything +secret from you. And I know you have known what I felt about +Charley.' + +'I know that you have behaved like an angel, my child; I know +your want of selfishness, your devotion to others, has been such +as to shame me; I know your conduct has been perfect: oh, my +Katie, I have understood it, and I have so loved you, so admired +you.' + +Katie smiled through her tears as she returned her mother's +embrace. 'Well, mamma,' she said, 'at any rate you know that I +love him. Oh, mamma, I do love him so dearly. It is not now like +Gertrude's love, or Linda's. I know that I can never be his wife. +I did know before, that for many reasons I ought not to wish to +be so; but now I know I never, never can be.' + +Mrs. Woodward was past the power of speaking, and so Katie went +on. + +'But I do not love him the less for that reason; I think I love +him the more. I never, never, could have loved anyone else, +mamma; never, never; and that is one reason why I do not so much +mind being ill now.' + +Mrs. Woodward bowed forward, and hid her face in the counterpane, +but she still kept hold of her daughter's hand. + +'And, mamma,' she continued, 'as I do love him so dearly, I feel +that I should try to do something for him. I ought to do so; and, +mamma, I could not be happy without seeing him. He is not just +like a brother or a brother-in-law, such as Harry and Alaric; we +are not bound to each other as relations are; but yet I feel that +something does bind me to him. I know he doesn't love me as I +love him; but yet I think he loves me dearly; and if I speak to +him now, mamma, now that I am--that I am so ill, perhaps he will +mind me. Mamma, it will be as though one came unto him from the +dead.' + +Mrs. Woodward did not know how to refuse any request that Katie +might now make to her, and felt herself altogether unequal to the +task of refusing this request. For many reasons she would have +done so, had she been able; in the first place she did not think +that all chance of Katie's recovery was gone; and then at the +present moment she felt no inclination to draw closer to her any +of the Tudor family. She could not but feel that Alaric had been +the means of disgracing and degrading one child; and truly, +deeply, warmly, as she sympathized with the other, she could not +bring herself to feel the same sympathy for the object of her +love. It was a sore day for her and hers, that on which the +Tudors had first entered her house. + +Nevertheless she assented to Katie's proposal, and undertook the +task of asking Charley down to Hampton. + +Since Alaric's conviction Charley led a busy life; and as men who +have really something to do have seldom time to get into much +mischief, he had been peculiarly moral and respectable. It is not +surprising that at such a moment Gertrude found that Alaric's +newer friends fell off from him. Of course they did; nor is it a +sign of ingratitude or heartlessness in the world that at such a +period of great distress new friends should fall off. New +friends, like one's best coat and polished patent-leather dress +boots, are only intended for holiday wear. At other times they +are neither serviceable nor comfortable; they do not answer the +required purposes, and are ill adapted to give us the ease we +seek. A new coat, however, has this advantage, that it will in +time become old and comfortable; so much can by no means be +predicted with certainty of a new friend. Woe to those men who go +through the world with none but new coats on their backs, with no +boots but those of polished leather, with none but new friends to +comfort them in adversity. + +But not the less, when misfortune does come, are we inclined to +grumble at finding ourselves deserted. Gertrude, though she +certainly wished to see no Mrs. Val and no Miss Neverbends, did +feel lonely enough when her mother left her, and wretched enough. +But she was not altogether deserted. At this time Charley was +true to her, and did for her all those thousand nameless things +which a woman cannot do for herself. He came to her everyday +after leaving his office, and on one excuse or another remained +with her till late every evening. + +He was not a little surprised one morning on receiving Mrs. +Woodward's invitation to Hampton. Mrs. Woodward in writing had +had some difficulty in wording her request. She hardly liked +asking Charley to come because Katie was ill; nor did she like to +ask him without mentioning Katie's illness. 'I need not explain +to you,' she said in her note, 'that we are all in great +distress; poor Katie is very ill, and you will understand what we +must feel about Alaric and Gertrude. Harry is still at Normansgrove. +We shall all be glad to see you, and Katie, who never forgets +what you did for her, insists on my asking you at once. I am sure +you will not refuse her, so I shall expect you to-morrow.' Charley +would not have refused her anything, and it need hardly be said +that he accepted the invitation. + +Mrs. Woodward was at a loss how to receive him, or what to say to +him. Though Katie was so positive that her own illness would be +fatal--a symptom which might have confirmed those who watched her +in their opinion that her disease was not consumption--her mother +was by no means so desponding. She still thought it not +impossible that her child might recover, and so thinking could +not but be adverse to any declaration on Katie's part of her own +feelings. She had endeavoured to explain this to her daughter; +but Katie was so carried away by her enthusiasm, was at the +present moment so devoted, and, as it were, exalted above her +present life, that all that her mother said was thrown away upon +her. Mrs. Woodward might have refused her daughter's request, and +have run the risk of breaking her heart by the refusal; but now +that the petition had been granted, it was useless to endeavour +to teach her to repress her feelings. + +'Charley,' said Mrs. Woodward, when he had been some little time +in the house, 'our dear Katie wants to see you; she is very ill, +you know.' + +Charley said he knew she was ill. + +'You remember our walk together, Charley.' + +'Yes,' said Charley, 'I remember it well. I made you a promise +then, and I have kept it. I have now come here only because you +have sent for me.' This he said in the tone which a man uses when +he feels himself to have been injured. + +'I know it, Charley; you have kept your promise; I knew you +would, and I know you will. I have the fullest trust in you; and +now you shall come and see her.' + +Charley was to return to town that night, and they had not +therefore much time to lose; they went upstairs at once, and +found Linda and Uncle Bat in the patient's room. It was a lovely +August evening, and the bedroom window opening upon the river was +unclosed. Katie, as she sat propped up against the pillows, could +look out upon the water and see the reedy island, on which in +happy former days she had so delighted to let her imagination +revel. + +'It is very good of you to come and see me, Charley,' said she, +as he made his way up to her bedside. + +He took her wasted hand in his own and pressed it, and, as he did +so, a tear forced itself into each corner of his eyes. She smiled +as though to cheer him, and said that now she saw him she could +be quite happy, only for poor Alaric and Gertrude. She hoped she +might live to see Alaric again; but if not, Charley was to give +him her best-best love. + +'Live to see him! of course you will,' said Uncle Bat. + +'What's to hinder you?' Uncle Bat, like the rest of them, tried +to cheer her, and make her think that she might yet live. + +After a while Uncle Bat went out of the room, and Linda followed +him. Mrs. Woodward would fain have remained, but she perfectly +understood that it was part of the intended arrangement with +Katie, that Charley should be alone with her. 'I will come back +in a quarter of an hour,' she said, rising to follow the others. +'You must not let her talk too much, Charley: you see how weak +she is.' + +'Mamma, when you come, knock at the door, will you?' said Katie. +Mrs. Woodward, who found herself obliged to act in complete +obedience to her daughter, promised that she would; and then they +were left alone. + +'Sit down, Charley,' said she; he was still standing by her +bedside, and now at her bidding he sat in the chair which Captain +Cuttwater had occupied. 'Come here nearer to me,' said she; 'this +is where mamma always sits, and Linda when mamma is not here.' +Charley did as he was bid, and, changing his seat, came and sat +down close to her bed-head. + +'Charley, do you remember how you went into the water for me?' +said she, again smiling, and pulling her hand out and resting it +on his arm which lay on the bed beside her. + +'Indeed I do, Katie--I remember the day very well.' + +'That was a very happy day in spite of the tumble, was it not, +Charley? And do you remember the flower-show, and the dance at +Mrs. Val's?' + +Charley did remember them all well. Ah me! how often had he +thought of them! + +'I think of those days so often--too often,' continued Katie. +'But, dear Charley, I cannot remember too often that you saved my +life.' + +Charley once more tried to explain to her that there was nothing +worthy of notice in his exploit of that day. + +'Well, Charley, I may think as I like, you know,' she said, with +something of the obstinacy of old days. 'I think you did save my +life, and all the people in the world won't make me think +anything else; but, Charley, I have something now to tell you.' + +He sat and listened. It seemed to him as though he were only +there to listen; as though, were he to make his own voice +audible, he would violate the sanctity of the place. His thoughts +were serious enough, but he could not pitch his voice so as to +suit the tone in which she addressed him. + +'We were always friends, were we not?' said she; 'we were always +good friends, Charley. Do you remember how you were to build a +palace for me in the dear old island out there? You were always +so kind, so good to me.' + +Charley said he remembered it all--they were happy days; the +happiest days, he said, that he had ever known. + +'And you used to love me, Charley?' + +'Used!' said he, 'do you think I do not love you now?' + +'I am sure you do. And, Charley, I love you also. That it is that +I want to tell you. I love you so well that I cannot go away from +this world in peace without wishing you farewell. Charley, if you +love me, you will think of me when I am gone; and then for my +sake you will be steady.' + +Here were all her old words over again--'You will be steady, +won't you, Charley? I know you will be steady, now.' How much +must she have thought of him! How often must his career have +caused her misery and pain! How laden must that innocent bosom +have been with anxiety on his account! He had promised her then +that he would reform; but he had broken his promise. He now +promised her again, but how could he hope that she would believe +him? + +'You know how ill I am, don't you? You know that I am dying, +Charley?' + +Charley of course declared that he still hoped that she would +recover. + +'If I thought so,' said she, 'I should not say what I am now +saying; but I feel that I may tell the truth. Dear Charley, +dearest Charley, I love you with all my heart--I do not know how +it came so; I believe I have always loved you since I first knew +you; I used to think it was because you saved my life; but I know +it was not that. I was so glad it was you that came to me in the +water, and not Harry; so that I know I loved you before that.' + +'Dear Katie, you have not loved me, or thought of me, more than I +have loved and thought of you.' + +'Ah, Charley,' she said, smiling in her sad sweet way--'I don't +think you know how a girl can love; you have so many things to +think of, so much to amuse you up in London; you don't know what +it is to think of one person for days and days, and nights and +nights together. That is the way I have thought of you, I don't +think there can be any harm,' she continued, 'in loving a person +as I have loved you. Indeed, how could I help it? I did not love +you on purpose. But I think I should be wrong to die without +telling you. When I am dead, Charley, will you think of this, and +try--try to give up your bad ways? When I tell you that I love +you so dearly, and ask you on my deathbed, I think you will do +this.' + +Charley went down on his knees, and bowing his head before her +and before his God, he made the promise. He made it, and we may +so far anticipate the approaching end of our story as to declare +that the promise he then made was faithfully kept. + +'Katie, Katie, my own Katie, my own, own, own Katie--oh, Katie, +you must not die, you must not leave me! Oh, Katie, I have so +dearly loved you! Oh, Katie, I do so dearly love you! If you knew +all, if you could know all, you would believe me.' + +At this moment Mrs. Woodward knocked at the door, and Charley +rose from his knees. 'Not quite yet, mamma,' said Katie, as Mrs. +Woodward opened the door. 'Not quite yet; in five minutes, mamma, +you may come.' Mrs. Woodward, not knowing how to refuse, again +went away. + +'Charley, I never gave you anything but once, and you returned it +to me, did you not?' + +'Yes,' said he, 'the purse--I put it in your box, because----' + +And then he remembered that he could not say why he had returned +it without breaking in a manner that confidence which Mrs. +Woodward had put in him. + +'I understand it all. You must not think I am angry with you. I +know how good you were about it. But Charley, you may have it +back now; here it is;' and putting her hand under the pillow, she +took it out, carefully folded up in new tissue paper. 'There, +Charley, you must never part with it again as long as there are +two threads of it together; but I know you never will; and +Charley, you must never talk of it to anybody but to your wife; +and you must tell her all about it.' + +He took the purse, and put it to his lips, and then pressed it to +his heart. 'No,' said he, 'I will never part with it again. I +think I can promise that.' 'And now, dearest, good-bye,' said +she; 'dearest, dearest Charley, good-bye; perhaps we shall know +each other in heaven. Kiss me, Charley, before you go,' So he +stooped down over her, and pressed his lips to hers. + +Charley, leaving the room, found Mrs. Woodward at the other end +of the passage, standing at the door of her own dressing-room. +'You are to go to her now,' he said. 'Good-bye,' and without +further speech to any of them he hurried out of the house. + +None but Mrs. Woodward had seen him; but she saw that the tears +were streaming down his cheeks as he passed her, and she +expressed no surprise that he had left the Cottage without going +through the formality of making his adieux. + +And then he walked up to town, as Norman once had done after a +parting interview with her whom he had loved. It might be +difficult to say which at the moment suffered the bitterest +grief. + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +MILLBANK + + +The immediate neighbourhood of Millbank Penitentiary is not one +which we should, for its own sake, choose for our residence, +either on account of its natural beauty, or the excellence of its +habitations. That it is a salubrious locality must be presumed +from the fact that it has been selected for the site of the +institution in question; but salubrity, though doubtless a great +recommendation, would hardly reconcile us to the extremely dull, +and one might almost say, ugly aspect which this district bears. + +To this district, however, ugly as it is, we must ask our readers +to accompany us, while we pay a short visit to poor Gertrude. It +was certainly a sad change from her comfortable nursery and +elegant drawing-room near Hyde Park. Gertrude had hitherto never +lived in an ugly house. Surbiton Cottage and Albany Place were +the only two homes that she remembered, and neither of them was +such as to give her much fitting preparation for the melancholy +shelter which she found at No. 5, Paradise Row, Millbank. + +But Gertrude did not think much of this when she changed her +residence. Early one morning, leaning on Charley's arm, she had +trudged down across the Park, through Westminster, and on to the +close vicinity of the prison; and here they sought for and +obtained such accommodation as she thought fitting to her present +situation. Charley had begged her to get into a cab, and when she +refused that, had implored her to indulge in the luxury of an +omnibus; but Gertrude's mind was now set upon economy; she would +come back, she said, in an omnibus when the day would be hotter, +and she would be alone, but she was very well able to walk the +distance once. + +She procured, for seven shillings a week, a sitting-room and +bedroom, from whence she could see the gloomy prison walls, and +also a truckle-bed for the young girl whom she was to bring with +her as her maid. This was a little Hampton maiden, whom she had +brought from the country to act as fag and deputy to her grand +nurse; but the grand nurse was now gone, and the fag was promoted +to the various offices of nurse, lady's-maid, and parlour +servant. The rest of the household in Albany Place had already +dispersed with the discreet view of bettering their situations. + +Everything in the house was given up to pay what Alaric owed. +Independently of his dreadful liability to Madame Jaquêtanàpe, he +could not have been said to be in debt; but still, like most +other men who live as he had done, when his career was thus +brought to a sudden close, it was found that there were many +people looking for money. There were little bills, as the owners +said of them, which had been forgotten, of course, on account of +their insignificance, but which being so very little might now be +paid, equally of course, without any trouble. It is astonishing +how easy it is to accumulate three or four hundred pounds' worth +of little bills, when one lives before the world in a good house +and in visible possession of a good income. + +At the moment of Alaric's conviction, there was but a slender +stock of money forthcoming for these little bills. The necessary +expense of his trial,--and it had been by no means trifling,--he +had, of course, been obliged to pay. His salary had been +suspended, and all the money that he could lay his hands on had +been given up towards making restitution towards the dreadful sum +of £20,000 that had been his ruin. The bills, however, did not +come in till after his trial, and then there was but little left +but the furniture. + +As the new trustees employed on behalf of Madame Jaquêtanàpe and +Mr. Figgs were well aware that they had much more to expect from +the generosity of Tudor's friends than from any legal seizure of +his property, they did not interfere in the disposal of the +chairs and tables. But not on that account did Gertrude conceive +herself entitled to make any use on her own behalf of such money +as might come into her hands. The bills should be paid, and then +every farthing that could be collected should be given towards +lessening the deficiency. Six thousand pounds had already been +made up by the joint efforts of Norman and Captain Cuttwater. +Undy Scott's acknowledgement for the other four thousand had been +offered, but the new trustees declined to accept it as of any +value whatsoever. They were equally incredulous as to the bridge +shares, which from that day to this have never held up their +heads, even to the modest height of half a crown a share. + +Gertrude's efforts to make the most of everything had been +unceasing. When her husband was sentenced, she had in her +possession a new dress and some finery for her baby, which were +not yet paid for; these she took back with her own hand, offering +to the milliners her own trinkets by way of compensation for +their loss. When the day for removal came, she took with her +nothing that she imagined could be sold. She would have left the +grander part of her own wardrobe, if the auctioneers would have +undertaken to sell it. Some few things, books and trifling +household articles, which she thought were dear to Alaric, she +packed up; and such were sent to Hampton. On the day of her +departure she dressed herself in a plain dark gown, one that was +almost mourning, and then, with her baby in her lap, and her +young maid beside her, and Charley fronting her in the cab, she +started for her new home. + +I had almost said that her pride had left her. Such an assertion +would be a gross libel on her. No; she was perhaps prouder than +ever, as she left her old home. There was a humility in her cheap +dress, in her large straw bonnet coming far over her face, in her +dark gloves and little simple collar; nay, there was a humility +in her altered voice, and somewhat chastened mien; but the spirit +of the woman was wholly unbroken. She had even a pride in her +very position, in her close and dear tie with the convicted +prisoner. She was his for better and for worse; she would now +show him what was her idea of the vow she had made. To the men +who came to ticket and number the furniture, to the tradesmen's +messengers who called for money, to the various workmen with whom +the house was then invaded, she was humble enough; but had Mrs. +Val come across her with pity, or the Miss Neverbends with their +sententious twaddlings, she would have been prouder than ever. +Fallen indeed! She had had no fall; nor had he; he was still a +man, with a greater aggregate of good in him than falls to the +average lot of mortals. Who would dare to tell her that he had +fallen? 'Twas thus that her pride was still strong within her; +and as it supported her through this misery, who can blame her +for it? + +She was allowed into the prison twice a week; on Tuesdays and +Fridays she was permitted to spend one hour with her husband, and +to take her child with her. It is hardly necessary to say that +she was punctual to the appointed times. This, however, occupied +but a short period, even of those looked-for days; and in spite +of her pride, and her constant needle, the weary six months went +from her all too slowly. + +Nor did they pass with swifter foot within the prison. Alaric was +allowed the use of books and pens and paper, but even with these +he found a day in prison to be almost an unendurable eternity. +This was the real punishment of his guilt; it was not that he +could not eat well, and lie soft, or enjoy the comforts which had +always surrounded him; but that the day would not pass away. The +slowness of the lagging hours nearly drove him mad. He made a +thousand resolutions as to reading, writing, and employment for +his mind. He attempted to learn whole pages by rote, and to +fatigue himself to rest by exercise of his memory. But his memory +would not work; his mind would continue idle; he was impotent +over his own faculties. Oh, if he could only sleep while these +horrid weeks were passing over him! + +All hope of regaining his situation had of course passed from +him, all hope of employment in England. Emigration must now be +his lot; and hers also, and the lot of that young one that was +already born to them, and of that other one who was, alas! now +coming to the world, whose fate it would be first to see the +light under the walls of its father's prison.--Yes, they must +emigrate.--But there was nothing so very terrible in that. Alaric +felt that even his utter poverty would be no misfortune if only +his captivity were over. Poverty!--how could any man be poor who +had liberty to roam the world? + +We all of us acknowledge that the educated man who breaks the +laws is justly liable to a heavier punishment than he who has +been born in ignorance, and bred, as it were, in the lap of sin; +but we hardly realize how much greater is the punishment which, +when he be punished, the educated man is forced to undergo. +Confinement to the man whose mind has never been lifted above +vacancy is simply remission from labour. Confinement, with +labour, is simply the enforcement of that which has hitherto been +his daily lot. But what must a prison be to him whose intellect +has received the polish of the world's poetry, who has known what +it is to feed more than the belly, to require other aliment than +bread and meat? + +And then, what does the poor criminal lose? His all, it will be +said; and the rich can lose no more. But this is not so. No man +loses his all by any sentence which a human judge can inflict. No +man so loses anything approaching to his all, however much he may +have lost before. But the one man has too often had no self- +respect to risk; the other has stood high in his own esteem, has +held his head proudly before the world, has aspired to walk in +some way after the fashion of a god. Alaric had so aspired, and +how must he have felt during those prison days! Of what nature +must his thoughts have been when they turned to Gertrude and his +child! His sin had indeed been heavy, and heavy was the penalty +which he suffered. When they had been thus living for about three +months, Gertrude's second child was born. Mrs. Woodward was with +her at the time, and she had suffered but little except that for +three weeks she was unable to see her husband; then, in the teeth +of all counsel, and in opposition to all medical warning, she +could resist no longer, and carried the newborn stranger to his +father. + +'Poor little wretch!' said Alaric, as he stooped to kiss him. + +'Wretch!' said Gertrude, looking up to him with a smile upon her +face--'he is no wretch. He is a sturdy little man, that shall yet +live to make your heart dance with joy.' + +Mrs. Woodward came often to see her. She did not stay, for there +was no bed in which she could have slept; but the train put her +down at Vauxhall, and she had but to pass the bridge, and she was +close to Gertrude's lodgings. And now the six months had nearly +gone by, when, by appointment, she brought Norman with her. At +this time he had given up his clerkship at the Weights and +Measures, and was about to go to Normansgrove for the remainder +of the winter. Both Alaric and Norman had shown a great distaste +to meet each other. But Harry's heart softened towards Gertrude. +Her conduct during her husband's troubles had been so excellent, +that he could not but forgive her the injuries which he fancied +he owed to her. + +Everything was now prepared for their departure. They were to +sail on the very day after Alaric's liberation, so as to save him +from the misery of meeting those who might know him. And now +Harry came with Mrs. Woodward to bid farewell, probably for ever +on this side the grave, to her whom he had once looked on as his +own. How different were their lots now! Harry was Mr. Norman of +Normansgrove, immediately about to take his place as the squire +of his parish, to sit among brother magistrates, to decide about +roads and poachers, parish rates and other all-absorbing topics, +to be a rural magistrate, and fill a place among perhaps the most +fortunate of the world's inhabitants. Gertrude was the wife of a +convicted felon, who was about to come forth from his prison in +utter poverty, a man who, in such a catalogue as the world makes +of its inhabitants, would be ranked among the very lowest. + +And did Gertrude even now regret her choice? No, not for a +moment! She still felt certain in her heart of hearts that she +had loved the one who was the most worthy of a woman's love. We +cannot, probably, all agree in her opinion; but we will agree in +this, at least, that she was now right to hold such opinion. Had +Normansgrove stretched from one boundary of the county to the +other, it would have weighed as nothing. Had Harry's virtues been +as bright as burnished gold--and indeed they had been bright-- +they would have weighed as nothing. A nobler stamp of manhood was +on her husband--so at least Gertrude felt;--and manhood is the +one virtue which in a woman's breast outweighs all others. + +They had not met since the evening on which Gertrude had declared +to him that she never could love him; and Norman, as he got out +of the cab with Mrs. Woodward, at No. 5, Paradise Row, Millbank, +felt his heart beat within him almost as strongly as he had done +when he was about to propose to her. He followed Mrs. Woodward +into the dingy little house, and immediately found himself in +Gertrude's presence. + +I should exaggerate the fact were I to say that he would not have +known her; but had he met her elsewhere, met her where he did not +expect to meet her, he would have looked at her more than once +before he felt assured that he was looking at Gertrude Woodward. +It was not that she had grown pale, or worn, or haggard; though, +indeed, her face had on it that weighty look of endurance which +care will always give; it was not that she had lost her beauty, +and become unattractive in his eyes; but that the whole nature of +her mien and form, the very trick of her gait was changed. Her +eye was as bright as ever, but it was steady, composed, and +resolved; her lips were set and compressed, and there was no +playfulness round her mouth. Her hair was still smooth and +bright, but it was more brushed off from her temples than it had +been of yore, and was partly covered by a bit of black lace, +which we presume we must call a cap; here and there, too, through +it, Norman's quick eye detected a few grey hairs. She was stouter +too than she had been, or else she seemed to be so from the +changes in her dress. Her step fell heavier on the floor than it +used to do, and her voice was quicker and more decisive in its +tones. When she spoke to her mother, she did so as one sister +might do to another; and, indeed, Mrs. Woodward seemed to +exercise over her very little of the authority of a parent. The +truth was that Gertrude had altogether ceased to be a girl, had +altogether become a woman. Linda, with whom Norman at once +compared her, though but one year younger, was still a child in +comparison with her elder sister. Happy, happy Linda! + +Gertrude had certainly proved herself to be an excellent wife; +but perhaps she might have made herself more pleasing to others +if she had not so entirely thrown off from herself all traces of +juvenility. Could she, in this respect, have taken a lesson from +her mother, she would have been a wiser woman. We have said that +she consorted with Mrs. Woodward as though they had been sisters; +but one might have said that Gertrude took on herself the manners +of the elder sister. It is true that she had hard duties to +perform, a stern world to overcome, an uphill fight before her +with poverty, distress, and almost, nay, absolutely, with +degradation. It was well for her and Alaric that she could face +it all with the true courage of an honest woman. But yet those +who had known her in her radiant early beauty could not but +regret that the young freshness of early years should all have +been laid aside so soon. + +'Linda, at any rate, far exceeds her in beauty,' was Norman's +first thought, as he stood for a moment to look at her--'and then +Linda too is so much more feminine.' 'Twas thus that Harry Norman +consoled himself in the first moment of his first interview with +Alaric's wife. And he was right in his thoughts. The world would +now have called Linda the more lovely of the two, and certainly +the more feminine in the ladylike sense of the word. If, however, +devotion be feminine, and truth to one selected life's companion, +if motherly care be so, and an indomitable sense of the duties +due to one's own household, then Gertrude was not deficient in +feminine character. + +'You find me greatly altered, Harry, do you not?' said she, +taking his hand frankly, and perceiving immediately the effect +which she had made upon him. 'I am a steady old matron, am I +not?--with a bairn on each side of me,' and she pointed to her +baby in the cradle, and to her other boy sitting on his +grandmother's knee. + +Harry said he did find her altered. It was her dress, he said, +and the cap on her head. + +'Yes, Harry; and some care and trouble too. To you, you know, to +a friend such as you are, I must own that care and trouble do +tell upon one. Not, thank God, that I have more than I can bear; +not that I have not blessings for which I cannot but be too +thankful.' + +'And so these are your boys, Gertrude?' + +'Yes,' said she, cheerfully; 'these are the little men, that in +the good times coming will be managing vast kingdoms, and giving +orders to this worn-out old island of yours. Alley, my boy, sing +your new song about the 'good and happy land.' But Alley, who +had got hold of his grandmother's watch, and was staring with all +his eyes at the stranger, did not seem much inclined to be +musical at the present moment. + +'And this is Charley's godson,' continued Gertrude, taking up the +baby. 'Dear Charley! he has been such a comfort to me.' + +'I have heard all about you daily from him,' said Harry. + +'I know you have--and he is daily talking of you, Harry. And so +he should do; so we all should do. What a glorious change this is +for him! is it not, Harry?' + +Charley by this time had torn himself away from Mr. Snape and the +navvies, and transferred the whole of his official zeal and +energies to the Weights and Measures. The manner and reason of +this must, however, be explained in a subsequent chapter. + +'Yes,' said Harry, 'he has certainly got into a better office.' + +'And he will do well there?' + +'I am sure he will. It was impossible he should do well at that +other place. No man could do so. He is quite an altered man now. +The only fault I find with him is that he is so full of his +heroes and heroines.' + +'So he is, Harry; he is always asking me what he is to do with +some forlorn lady or gentleman, 'Oh, smother her!' I said the +other day. 'Well,' said he, with a melancholy gravity, 'I'll try +it; but I fear it won't answer.' Poor Charley! what a friend you +have been to him, Harry!' + +'A friend!' said Mrs. Woodward, who was still true to her +adoration of Norman. 'Indeed he has been a friend--a friend to us +all. Who is there like him?' + +Gertrude could have found it in her heart to go back to the +subject of old days, and tell her mother that there was somebody +much better even than Harry Norman. But the present was hardly a +time for such an assertion of her own peculiar opinion. + +'Yes, Harry,' she said, 'we have all much, too much, to thank you +for. I have to thank you on his account.' + +'Oh no,' said he, ungraciously; 'there is nothing to thank me +for,--not on his account. Your mother and Captain Cuttwater----' +and then he stopped himself. What he meant was that he had +sacrificed his little fortune--for at the time his elder brother +had still been living--not to rescue, or in attempting to +rescue, his old friend from misfortune--not, at least, because +that man had been his friend; but because he was the husband of +Gertrude Woodward, and of Mrs. Woodward's daughter. Could he have +laid bare his heart, he would have declared that Alaric Tudor +owed him nothing; that he had never forgiven, never could +forgive, the wrongs he had received from him; but that he had +forgiven Alaric's wife; and that having done so in the tenderness +of his heart, he had been ready to give up all that he possessed +for her protection. He would have spared Gertrude what pain he +could; but he would not lie, and speak of Alaric Tudor with +affection. + +'But there is, Harry; there is,' said Gertrude; 'much--too much +--greatly too much. It is that now weighs me down more than +anything. Oh! Harry, how are we to pay to you all this money?' + +'It is with Mrs. Woodward,' said he coldly, 'and Captain +Cuttwater, not with me, that you should speak of that. Mr. Tudor +owes me nothing.' + +'Oh, Harry, Harry,' said she, 'do not call him Mr. Tudor--pray, +pray; now that we are going--now that we shall never wound your +sight again! do not call him Mr. Tudor. + +He has done wrong; I do not deny it; but which of us is there +that has not?' + +'It was not on that account,' said he; 'I could forgive all +that.' + +Gertrude understood him, and her cheeks and brow became tinged +with red. It was not from shame, nor yet wholly from a sense of +anger, but mingled feelings filled her heart; feelings which she +could in nowise explain. 'If you have forgiven him that'--she +would have said, had she thought it right to speak out her mind-- +'if you have forgiven him that, then there is nothing left for +further forgiveness.' + +Gertrude had twice a better knowledge of the world than he had, +twice a quicker perception of how things were going, and should +be made to go. She saw that it was useless to refer further to +her husband. Norman had come there at her request to say adieu to +her; that she and he, who had been friends since she was a child, +might see each other before they were separated for ever by half +a world, and that they might part in love and charity. She would +be his sister-in-law, he would be son to her mother, husband to +her Linda; he had been, though he now denied it, her husband's +staunchest friend in his extremity; and it would have added +greatly to the bitterness of her departure had she been forced to +go without speaking to him one kindly word. The opportunity was +given to her, and she would not utterly mar its sweetness by +insisting on his injustice to her husband. + +They all remained silent for a while, during which Gertrude +fondled her baby, and Norman produced before the elder boy some +present that he had brought for him. + +'Now, Alley,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'you're a made man; won't that +do beautifully to play with on board the big ship?' + +'And so, Harry, you have given up official life altogether,' said +Gertrude. + +'Yes,' said he--'the last day of the last year saw my finale at +the Weights and Measures. I did not live long--officially--to +enjoy my promotion. I almost wish myself back again.' + +'You'll go in on melting days, like the retired tallow-chandler,' +said Gertrude; 'but, joking apart, I wish you joy on your freedom +from thraldom; a government office in England is thraldom. If a +man were to give his work only, it would be well. All men who +have to live by labour must do that; but a man has to give himself +as well as his work; to sacrifice his individuality; to become body +and soul a part of a lumbering old machine.' + +This hardly came well from Gertrude, seeing that Alaric at any +rate had never been required to sacrifice any of his individuality. +But she was determined to hate all the antecedents of his life, +as though those antecedents, and not the laxity of his own +principles, had brought about his ruin. She was prepared +to live entirely for the future, and to look back on her London +life as bad, tasteless, and demoralizing. England to her was no +longer a glorious country; for England's laws had made a felon of +her husband. She would go to a new land, new hopes, new ideas, +new freedom, new work, new life, and new ambition. 'Excelsior!' +there was no longer an excelsior left for talent and perseverance +in this effete country. She and hers would soon find room for +their energies in a younger land; and as she went she could not +but pity those whom she left behind. Her reasoning was hardly +logical, but, perhaps, it was not unfortunate. + +'For myself,' said Norman, not quite following all this--'I +always liked the Civil Service, and now I leave it with a sort of +regret. I am quite glad that Charley has my old desk; it will +keep up a sort of tie between me and the place.' + +'What does Linda say about it, mamma?' + +'Linda and I are both of Harry's way of thinking,' said Mrs. +Woodward, 'because Normansgrove is such a distance.' + +'Distance!' repeated Gertrude, with something of sorrow, but more +of scorn in her tone. 'Distance, mamma! why you can get to her +between breakfast and dinner. Think where Melbourne is, mamma!' + +'It has nearly broken my heart to think of it,' said Mrs. +Woodward. + +'And you will still have Linda, mamma, and our darling Katie, and +Harry, and dear Charley. If the idea of distance should frighten +anyone it is me. But nothing shall frighten me while I have my +husband and children. Harry, you must not let mamma be too often +alone when some other knight shall have come and taken away +Katie.' + +'We will take her to Normansgrove for good and all, if she will +let us,' said Harry. + +And now the time came for them to part. Harry was to say good-bye +to her, and then to see her no more. Early on the following +morning Gertrude was to go to Hampton and see Katie for the last +time; to see Katie for the last time, and the Cottage, and the +shining river, and all the well-known objects among which she had +passed her life. To Mrs. Woodward, to Linda, and Katie, all this +was subject of inexpressible melancholy; but with Gertrude every +feeling of romance seemed to have been absorbed by the realities +of life. She would, of course, go to Katie and give her a +farewell embrace, since Katie was still too weak to come to her; +she would say farewell to Uncle Bat, to whom she and Alaric owed +so much; she would doubtless shed a tear or two, and feel some +emotion at parting, even from the inanimate associations of her +youth; but all this would now impress no lasting sorrow on her. + +She was eager to be off, eager for her new career, eager that he +should stand on a soil where he could once more face his fellow- +creatures without shame. She panted to put thousands of leagues +of ocean between him and his disgrace. + +On the following morning Gertrude was to go to Hampton for two +hours, and then to return to Millbank, with her mother and +sister, for whose accommodation a bed had been hired in the +neighbourhood. On that evening Alaric would be released from his +prison; and then before daybreak on the following day they were +to take their way to the far-off docks, and place themselves on +board the vessel which was to carry them to their distant home. + +'God bless you, Gertrude,' said Norman, whose eyes were not dry. + +'God Almighty bless you, Harry, you and Linda--and make you +happy. If Linda does not write constantly very constantly, you +must do it for her. We have delayed the happiness of your +marriage, Harry--you must forgive us that, as well as all our +other trespasses. I fear Linda will never forgive that.' + +'You won't find her unmerciful on that score,' said he. 'Dear +Gertrude, good-bye.' + +She put up her face to him, and he kissed her, for the first time +in his life. 'He bade me give you his love,' said she, in her +last whisper; 'I must, you know, do his bidding.' + +Norman's heart palpitated so that he could hardly compose his +voice for his last answer; but even then he would not be untrue +to his inexorable obstinacy; he could not send his love to a man +he did not love. 'Tell him,' said he, 'that he has my sincerest +wishes for success wherever he may be; and Gertrude, I need +hardly say----' but he could get no further. + +And so they parted. + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE CRIMINAL POPULATION IS DISPOSED OF + + +Before we put Alaric on board the ship which is to take him away +from the land in which he might have run so exalted a career, we +must say one word as to the fate and fortunes of his old friend +Undy Scott. This gentleman has not been represented in our pages +as an amiable or high-minded person. He has indeed been the bad +spirit of the tale, the Siva of our mythology, the devil that has +led our hero into temptation, the incarnation of evil, which it +is always necessary that the novelist should have personified in +one of his characters to enable him to bring about his misfortunes, +his tragedies, and various requisite catastrophes. Scott had his +Varney and such-like; Dickens his Bill Sykes and such-like; all +of whom are properly disposed of before the end of those +volumes in which are described their respective careers. + +I have ventured to introduce to my readers, as my devil, Mr. Undy +Scott, M.P. for the Tillietudlem district burghs; and I also feel +myself bound to dispose of him, though of him I regret I cannot +make so decent an end as was done with Sir Richard Varney and +Bill Sykes. + +He deserves, however, as severe a fate as either of those heroes. +With the former we will not attempt to compare him, as the vices +and devilry of the days of Queen Elizabeth are in no way similar +to those in which we indulge; but with Bill Sykes we may contrast +him, as they flourished in the same era, and had their points of +similitude, as well as their points of difference. + +They were both apparently born to prey on their own species; they +both resolutely adhered to a fixed rule that they would in nowise +earn their bread, and to a rule equally fixed that, though they +would earn no bread, they would consume much. They were both of +them blessed with a total absence of sensibility and an utter +disregard to the pain of others, and had no other use for a heart +than that of a machine for maintaining the circulation of the +blood. It is but little to say that neither of them ever acted on +principle, on a knowledge, that is, of right and wrong, and a +selection of the right; in their studies of the science of evil +they had progressed much further than this, and had taught +themselves to believe that that which other men called virtue +was, on its own account, to be regarded as mawkish, insipid, and +useless for such purposes as the acquisition of money or +pleasure; whereas vice was, on its own account, to be preferred, +as offering the only road to those things which they were +desirous of possessing. + +So far there was a great resemblance between Bill Sykes and Mr. +Scott; but then came the points of difference, which must give to +the latter a great pre-eminence in the eyes of that master whom +they had both so worthily served. Bill could not boast the merit +of selecting the course which he had run; he had served the +Devil, having had, as it were, no choice in the matter; he was +born and bred and educated an evil-doer, and could hardly have +deserted from the colours of his great Captain, without some +spiritual interposition to enable him to do so. To Undy a warmer +reward must surely be due: he had been placed fairly on the +world's surface, with power to choose between good and bad, and +had deliberately taken the latter; to him had, at any rate, been +explained the theory of _meum_ and _tuum_, and he had resolved +that he liked _tuum_ better than _meum_; he had learnt that +there is a God ruling over us, and a Devil hankering after us, and +had made up his mind that he would belong to the latter. Bread +and water would have come to him naturally without any villany +on his part, aye, and meat and milk, and wine and oil, the fat +things of the world; but he elected to be a villain; he liked to do +the Devil's bidding.--Surely he was the better servant; surely he +shall have the richer reward. + +And yet poor Bill Sykes, for whom here I would willingly say a +word or two, could I, by so saying, mitigate the wrath against +him, is always held as the more detestable scoundrel. Lady, you +now know them both. Is it not the fact, that, knowing him as you +do, you could spend a pleasant hour enough with Mr. Scott, +sitting next to him at dinner; whereas your blood would creep +within you, your hair would stand on end, your voice would stick +in your throat, if you were suddenly told that Bill Sykes was in +your presence? + +Poor Bill! I have a sort of love for him, as he walks about +wretched with that dog of his, though I know that it is necessary +to hang him. Yes, Bill; I, your friend, cannot gainsay that, must +acknowledge that. Hard as the case may be, you must be hung; hung +out of the way of further mischief; my spoons, my wife's throat, +my children's brains, demand that. You, Bill, and polecats, and +such-like, must be squelched when we can come across you, seeing +that you make yourself so universally disagreeable. It is your +ordained nature to be disagreeable; you plead silently. I know +it; I admit the hardship of your case; but still, my Bill, self- +preservation is the first law of nature. You must be hung. But, +while hanging you, I admit that you are more sinned against than +sinning. There is another, Bill, another, who will surely take +account of this in some way, though it is not for me to tell you +how. + +Yes, I hang Bill Sykes with soft regret; but with what a savage +joy, with what exultation of heart, with what alacrity of eager +soul, with what aptitude of mind to the deed, would I hang my +friend, Undy Scott, the member of Parliament for the Tillietudlem +burghs, if I could but get at his throat for such a purpose! Hang +him! aye, as high as Haman! In this there would be no regret, no +vacillation of purpose, no doubt as to the propriety of the +sacrifice, no feeling that I was so treating him, not for his own +desert, but for my advantage. + +We hang men, I believe, with this object only, that we should +deter others from crime; but in hanging Bill we shall hardly +deter his brother. Bill Sykes must look to crime for his bread, +seeing that he has been so educated, seeing that we have not yet +taught him another trade. + +But if I could hang Undy Scott, I think I should deter some +others. The figure of Undy swinging from a gibbet at the broad +end of Lombard Street would have an effect. Ah! my fingers itch +to be at the rope. + +Fate, however, and the laws are averse. To gibbet him, in one +sense, would have been my privilege, had I drunk deeper from that +Castalian rill whose dark waters are tinged with the gall of +poetic indignation; but as in other sense I may not hang him, I +will tell how he was driven from his club, and how he ceased to +number himself among the legislators of his country. + +Undy Scott, among his other good qualities, possessed an enormous +quantity of that which schoolboys in these days call 'cheek.' He +was not easily browbeaten, and was generally prepared to browbeat +others. Mr. Chaffanbrass certainly did get the better of him; but +then Mr. Chaffanbrass was on his own dunghill. Could Undy Scott +have had Mr. Chaffanbrass down at the clubs, there would have +been, perhaps, another tale to tell. + +Give me the cock that can crow in any yard; such cocks, however, +we know are scarce. Undy Scott, as he left the Old Bailey, was +aware that he had cut a sorry figure, and felt that he must +immediately do something to put himself right again, at any rate +before his portion of the world. He must perform some exploit +uncommonly cheeky in order to cover his late discomfiture. To get +the better of Mr. Chaffanbrass at the Old Bailey had been beyond +him; but he might yet do something at the clubs to set aside the +unanimous verdict which had been given against him in the city. +Nay, he must do something, unless he was prepared to go to the +wall utterly, and at once. + +Going to the wall with Undy would mean absolute ruin; he lived +but on the cheekiness of his gait and habits; he had become +member of Parliament, Government official, railway director, and +club aristocrat, merely by dint of cheek. He had now received a +great blow; he had stood before a crowd, and been annihilated by +the better cheek of Mr. Chaffanbrass, and, therefore, it behoved +him at once to do something. When the perfume of the rose grows +stale, the flower is at once thrown aside, and carried off as +foul refuse. It behoved Undy to see that his perfume was +maintained in its purity, or he, too, would be carried off. + +The club to which Undy more especially belonged was called the +Downing; and of this Alaric was also a member, having been +introduced into it by his friend. Here had Alaric spent by far +too many of the hours of his married life, and had become well +known and popular. At the time of his conviction, the summer was +far advanced; it was then August; but Parliament was still +sitting, and there were sufficient club men remaining in London +to create a daily gathering at the Downing. + +On the day following that on which the verdict was found, Undy +convened a special committee of the club, in order that he might +submit to it a proposition which he thought it indispensable +should come from him; so, at least, he declared. The committee +did assemble, and when Undy met it, he saw among the faces before +him not a few with whom he would willingly have dispensed. +However, he had come there to exercise his cheek; no one there +should cow him; the wig of Mr. Chaffanbrass was, at any rate, +absent. + +And so he submitted his proposition. I need not trouble my +readers with the neat little speech in which it was made. Undy +was true to himself, and the speech was neat. The proposition was +this: that as he had unfortunately been the means of introducing +Mr. Alaric Tudor to the club, he considered it to be his duty to +suggest that the name of that gentleman should be struck off the +books. He then expressed his unmitigated disgust at the crime of +which Tudor had been found guilty, uttered some nice little +platitudes in the cause of virtue, and expressed a hope 'that he +might so far refer to a personal matter as to say that his +father's family would take care that the lady, whose fortune had +been the subject of the trial, should not lose one penny through +the dishonesty of her trustee.' + +Oh, Undy, as high as Haman, if I could! as high as Haman! and if +not in Lombard Street, then on that open ground where Waterloo +Place bisects Pall Mall, so that all the clubs might see thee! + +'He would advert,' he said, 'to one other matter, though, +perhaps, his doing so was unnecessary. It was probably known to +them all that he had been a witness at the late trial; an +iniquitous attempt had been made by the prisoner's counsel to +connect his name with the prisoner's guilt. They all too well +knew the latitude allowed to lawyers in the criminal courts, to +pay much attention to this. Had he' (Undy Scott) 'in any way +infringed the laws of his country, he was there to answer for it. +But he would go further than this, and declare that if any member +of that club doubted his probity in the matter, he was perfectly +willing to submit to such member documents which would,' &c., &c. + +He finished his speech, and an awful silence reigned around him. +No enthusiastic ardour welcomed the well-loved Undy back to his +club, and comforted him after the rough usage of the unpolished +Chaffanbrass. No ten or twenty combined voices expressed, by +their clamorous negation of the last-proposed process, that their +Undy was above reproach. The eyes around looked into him with no +friendly alacrity. Undy, Undy, more cheek still, still more +cheek, or you are surely lost. + +'If,' said he, in a well-assumed indignant tone of injured +innocence, 'there be any in the club who do suspect me of +anything unbecoming a gentleman in this affair, I am willing to +retire from it till the matter shall have been investigated; but +in such case I demand that the investigation be immediate.' + +Oh, Undy, Undy, the supply of cheek is not bad; it is all but +unlimited; but yet it suffices thee not. 'Can there be positions +in this modern West End world of mine,' thought Undy to himself, +'in which cheek, unbounded cheek, will not suffice?' Oh, Undy, +they are rare; but still there are such, and this, unfortunately +for thee, seemeth to be one of them. + +And then got up a discreet old baronet, one who moveth not often +in the affairs around him, but who, when he moveth, stirreth many +waters; a man of broad acres, and a quiet, well-assured fame +which has grown to him without his seeking it, as barnacles grow +to the stout keel when it has been long a-swimming; him, of all +men, would Undy have wished to see unconcerned with these +matters. + +Not in many words, nor eloquent did Sir Thomas speak. 'He felt it +his duty,' he said, 'to second the proposal made by Mr. Scott for +removing Mr. Tudor from amongst them. He had watched this trial +with some care, and he pitied Mr. Tudor from the bottom of his +heart. He would not have thought that he could have felt so +strong a sympathy for a man convicted of dishonesty. But, Mr. +Tudor had been convicted, and he must incur the penalties of his +fault. One of these penalties must, undoubtedly, be his +banishment from this club. He therefore seconded Mr. Scott's +proposal.' + +He then stood silent for a moment, having finished that task; but +yet he did not sit down. Why, oh, why does he not sit down? why, +O Undy, does he thus stand, looking at the surface of the table +on which he is leaning? + +'And now,' he said, 'he had another proposition to make; and that +was that Mr. Undecimus Scott should also be expelled from the +club,' and having so spoken, in a voice of unusual energy, he +then sat down. + +And now, Undy, you may as well pack up, and be off, without +further fuss, to Boulogne, Ostend, or some such idle Elysium, +with such money-scrapings as you may be able to collect together. +No importunity will avail thee anything against the judges and +jurymen who are now trying thee. One word from that silent old +baronet was worse to thee than all that Mr. Chaffanbrass could +say. Come! pack up; and begone. + +But he was still a Member of Parliament. The Parliament, however, +was about to be dissolved, and, of course, it would be useless +for him to stand again; he, like Mr. M'Buffer had had his spell +of it, and he recognized the necessity of vanishing. He at first +thought that his life as a legislator might be allowed to come to +a natural end, that he might die as it were in his bed, without +suffering the acute pain of applying for the Chiltern Hundreds. +In this, however, he found himself wrong. The injured honour of +all the Tillietudlemites rose against him with one indignant +shout; and a rumour, a horrid rumour, of a severer fate met his +ears. He applied at once for the now coveted sinecure,--and was +refused. Her Majesty could not consent to entrust to him the +duties of the situation in question--; and in lieu thereof the +House expelled him by its unanimous voice. + +And now, indeed, it was time for him to pack and begone. He was +now liable to the vulgarest persecution from the vulgar herd; his +very tailor and bootmaker would beleaguer him, and coarse +unwashed bailiffs take him by the collar. Yes, now indeed, it was +time to be off. + +And off he was. He paid one fleeting visit to my Lord at +Cauldkail Castle, collecting what little he might; another to his +honourable wife, adding some slender increase to his little +budget, and then he was off. Whither, it is needless to say--to +Hamburg perhaps, or to Ems, or the richer tables of Homburg. How +he flourished for a while with ambiguous success; how he talked +to the young English tourists of what he had done when in +Parliament, especially for the rights of married women; how he +poked his 'Honourable' card in every one's way, and lugged Lord +Gaberlunzie into all conversations; how his face became pimply +and his wardrobe seedy; and how at last his wretched life will +ooze out from him in some dark corner, like the filthy juice of a +decayed fungus which makes hideous the hidden wall on which it +bursts, all this is unnecessary more particularly to describe. He +is probably still living, and those who desire his acquaintance +will find him creeping round some gambling table, and trying to +look as though he had in his pocket ample means to secure those +hoards of money which men are so listlessly raking about. From +our view he has now vanished. + +It was a bitter February morning, when two cabs stood packing +themselves at No. 5, Paradise Row, Millbank. It was hardly yet +six o'clock, and Paradise Row was dark as Erebus; that solitary +gas-light sticking out from the wall of the prison only made +darkness visible; the tallow candles which were brought in and +out with every article that was stuffed under a seat, or into a +corner, would get themselves blown out; and the sleet which was +falling fast made the wicks wet, so that they could with +difficulty be relighted. + +But at last the cabs were packed with luggage, and into one got +Gertrude with her husband, her baby, and her mother; and into the +other Charley handed Linda, then Alley, and lastly, the youthful +maiden, who humbly begged his pardon as she stepped up to the +vehicle; and then, having given due directions to the driver, he +not without difficulty squeezed himself into the remaining space. + +Such journeys as these are always made at a slow pace. Cabmen +know very well who must go fast, and who may go slow. Women with +children going on board an emigrant vessel at six o'clock on a +February morning may be taken very slowly. And very slowly +Gertrude and her party were taken. Time had been--nay, it was but +the other day--when Alaric's impatient soul would have spurned at +such a pace as this. But now he sat tranquil enough. His wife +held one of his hands, and the other he pressed against his eyes, +as though shading them from the light. Light there was none, but +he had not yet learnt to face Mrs. Woodward even in the darkness. + +He had come out of the prison on the day before, and had spent an +evening with her. It is needless to say that no one had upbraided +him, that no one had hinted that his backslidings had caused all +this present misery, had brought them all to that wretched cabin, +and would on the morrow separate, perhaps for ever, a mother and +a child who loved each other so dearly. No one spoke to him of +this; perhaps no one thought of it; he, however, did so think of +it that he could not hold his head up before them. + +'He was ill,' Gertrude said; 'his long confinement had prostrated +him; but the sea air would revive him in a day or two.' And then +she made herself busy, and got the tea for them, and strove, not +wholly in vain,' to drive dull care away!' + +But slowly as the cabs went in spite of Charley's vocal +execrations, they did get to the docks in time. Who, indeed, was +ever too late at the docks? Who, that ever went there, had not to +linger, linger, linger, till every shred of patience was clean +worn out? They got to the docks in time, and got on board that +fast-sailing, clipper-built, never-beaten, always-healthy ship, +the _Flash of Lightning_, 5,600 tons, A 1. Why, we have often +wondered, are ships designated as A 1, seeing that all ships are of +that class? Where is the excellence, seeing that all share it? Of +course the _Flash of Lightning_ was A 1. The author has for +years been looking out, and has not yet found a ship advertised as +A 2, or even as B 1. What is this catalogue of comparative +excellence, of which there is but one visible number? + +The world, we think, makes a great mistake on the subject of +saying, or acting, farewell. The word or deed should partake of +the suddenness of electricity; but we all drawl through it at a +snail's pace. We are supposed to tear ourselves from our friends; +but tearing is a process which should be done quickly. What is so +wretched as lingering over a last kiss, giving the hand for the +third time, saying over and over again, 'Good-bye, John, God +bless you; and mind you write!' Who has not seen his dearest +friends standing round the window of a railway carriage, while +the train would not start, and has not longed to say to them, +'Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once!' And of +all such farewells, the ship's farewell is the longest and the +most dreary. One sits on a damp bench, snuffing up the odour of +oil and ropes, cudgelling one's brains to think what further word +of increased tenderness can be spoken. No tenderer word can be +spoken. One returns again and again to the weather, to coats and +cloaks, perhaps even to sandwiches and the sherry flask. All +effect is thus destroyed, and a trespass is made even on the +domain of feeling. + +I remember a line of poetry, learnt in my earliest youth, and +which I believe to have emanated from a sentimental Frenchman, a +man of genius, with whom my parents were acquainted. It is as +follows:-- + + Are you go?--Is you gone?--And I left?--Vera vell! + +Now the whole business of a farewell is contained in that line. +When the moment comes, let that be said; let that be said and +felt, and then let the dear ones depart. + +Mrs. Woodward and Gertrude--God bless them!--had never studied +the subject. They knew no better than to sit in the nasty cabin, +surrounded by boxes, stewards, porters, children, and abominations +of every kind, holding each other's hands, and pressing damp +handkerchiefs to their eyes. The delay, the lingering, upset even +Gertrude, and brought her for a moment down to the usual level +of leave-taking womanhood. Alaric, the meanwhile, stood leaning +over the taffrail with Charley, as mute as the fishes beneath him. + +'Write to us the moment you get there,' said Charley. How often +had the injunction been given! 'And now we had better get off-- +you'll be better when we are gone, Alaric,'--Charley had some +sense of the truth about him--'and, Alaric, take my word for it, +I'll come and set the Melbourne Weights and Measures to rights +before long--I'll come and weigh your gold for you.' + +'We had better be going now,' said Charley, looking down into the +cabin; 'they may let loose and be off any moment now.' + +'Oh, Charley, not yet, not yet,' said Linda, clinging to her +sister. + +'You'll have to go down to the Nore, if you stay; that's all,' +said Charley. + +And then again began the kissing and the crying. Yes, ye dear +ones--it is hard to part--it is hard for the mother to see the +child of her bosom torn from her for ever; it is cruel that +sisters should be severed: it is a harsh sentence for the world +to give, that of such a separation as this. These, O ye loving +hearts, are the penalties of love! Those that are content to love +must always be content to pay them. + +'Go, mamma, go,' said Gertrude; 'dearest, best, sweetest mother-- +my own, own mother; go, Linda, darling Linda. Give my kindest +love to Harry--Charley, you and Harry will be good to mamma, I +know you will. And mamma'--and then she whispered to her mother +one last prayer in Charley's favour--'she may love him now, +indeed she may.' + +Alaric came to them at the last moment--'Mrs. Woodward,' said he, +'say that you forgive me.' + +'I do,' said she, embracing him--'God knows that I do;--but, +Alaric, remember what a treasure you possess.' + +And so they parted. May God speed the wanderers! + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE FATE OF THE NAVVIES + + +And now, having dispatched Alaric and his wife and bairns on +their long journey, we must go back for a while and tell how +Charley had been transformed from an impudent, idle young Navvy +into a well-conducted, zealous young Weights. + +When Alaric was convicted, Charley had, as we all know, belonged +to the Internal Navigation; when the six months' sentence had +expired, Charley was in full blow at the decorous office in +Whitehall; and during the same period Norman had resigned and +taken on himself the new duties of a country squire. The change +which had been made had affected others than Charley. It had been +produced by one of those far-stretching, world-moving commotions +which now and then occur, sometimes twice or thrice in a +generation, and, perhaps, not again for half a century, causing +timid men to whisper in corners, and the brave and high-spirited +to struggle with the struggling waves, so that when the storm +subsides they may be found floating on the surface. A moral +earthquake had been endured by a portion of the Civil Service of +the country. + +The Internal Navigation had--No, my prognostic reader, it had not +been reformed; no new blood had been infused into it; no attempt +had been made to produce a better discipline by the appointment +of a younger secretary; there had been no carting away of decayed +wood in the shape of Mr. Snape, or gathering of rank weeds in the +form of Mr. Corkscrew; nothing of the kind had been attempted. +No--the disease had gone too far either for phlebotomy, purging, +or cautery. The Internal Navigation had ceased to exist! Its +demise had been in this wise.--It may be remembered that some +time since Mr. Oldeschole had mentioned in the hearing of Mr. +Snape that things were going wrong. Sir Gregory Hardlines had +expressed an adverse opinion as to the Internal Navigation, and +worse, ten times worse than that, there had been an article in +the _Times_. Now, we all know that if anything is ever done +in any way towards improvement in these days, the public press +does it. And we all know, also, of what the public press +consists. Mr. Oldeschole knew this well, and even Mr. Snape had a +glimmering idea of the truth. When he read that article, Mr. +Oldeschole felt that his days were numbered, and Mr. Snape, when +he heard of it, began to calculate for the hundredth time to what +highest amount of pension he might be adjudged to be entitled by +a liberal-minded Treasury minute. + +Mr. Oldeschole began to set his house in order, hopelessly; for +any such effort the time was gone by. It was too late for the +office to be so done by, and too late for Mr. Oldeschole to do +it. He had no aptitude for new styles and modern improvements; he +could not understand Sir Gregory's code of rules, and was +dumbfounded by the Civil Service requisitions that were made upon +him from time to time. Then came frequent calls for him to attend +at Sir Gregory's office. There a new broom had been brought in, +in the place of our poor friend Alaric, a broom which seemed +determined to sweep all before it with an unmitigable energy. Mr. +Oldeschole found that he could not stand at all before this young +Hercules, seeing that his special stall was considered to be the +foulest in the whole range of the Augean stables. He soon saw +that the river was to be turned in on him, and that he was to be +officially obliterated in the flood. + +The civility of those wonder-doing demigods--those Magi of the +Civil Service office--was most oppressive to him. When he got to +the board, he was always treated with a deference which he knew +was but a prelude to barbaric tortures. They would ask him to sit +down in a beautiful new leathern arm-chair, as though he were +really some great man, and then examine him as they would a +candidate for the Custom House, smiling always, but looking at +him as though they were determined to see through him. + +They asked him all manner of questions; but there was one +question which they put to him, day after day, for four days, +that nearly drove him mad. It was always put by that horrid young +lynx-eyed new commissioner, who sat there with his hair brushed +high from off his forehead, peering out of his capacious, +excellently-washed shirt-collars, a personification of conscious +official zeal. + +'And now, Mr. Oldeschole, if you have had leisure to consider the +question more fully, perhaps you can define to us what is the-- +hum--hm--the use--hm--hm--the exact use of the Internal +Navigation Office?' + +And then Sir Warwick would go on looking through his millstone as +though now he really had a hope of seeing something, and Sir +Gregory would lean back in his chair, and rubbing his hands +slowly over each other, like a great Akinetos as he was, wait +leisurely for Mr. Oldeschole's answer, or rather for his no +answer. + +What a question was this to ask of a man who had spent all his +life in the Internal Navigation Office! O reader! should it +chance that thou art a clergyman, imagine what it would be to +thee, wert thou asked what is the exact use of the Church of +England; and that, too, by some stubborn catechist whom thou wert +bound to answer; or, if a lady, happy in a husband and family, +say, what would be thy feelings if demanded to define the exact +use of matrimony? Use! Is it not all in all to thee? + +Mr. Oldeschole felt a hearty inward conviction that his office +had been of very great use. In the first place, had he not drawn +from it a thousand a year for the last five-and-twenty years? had +it not given maintenance and employment to many worthy men who +might perhaps have found it difficult to obtain maintenance +elsewhere? had it not always been an office, a public office of +note and reputation, with proper work assigned to it? The use of +it--the exact use of it? Mr. Oldeschole at last declared, with +some indignation in his tone, that he had been there for forty +years and knew well that the office was very useful; but that he +would not undertake to define its exact use. 'Thank you, thank +you, Mr. Oldeschole--that will do, I think,' said the very +spruce-looking new gentleman out of his shirt-collars. + +In these days there was a kind of prescience at the Internal +Navigation that something special was going to be done with them. +Mr. Oldeschole said nothing openly; but it may be presumed that +he did whisper somewhat to those of the seniors around him in +whom he most confided. And then, his frequent visits to Whitehall +were spoken of even by the most thoughtless of the navvies, and +the threatenings of the coming storm revealed themselves with +more or less distinctness to every mind. + +At last the thundercloud broke and the bolt fell. Mr. Oldeschole +was informed that the Lords of the Treasury had resolved on +breaking up the establishment and providing for the duties in +another way. As the word duties passed Sir Gregory's lips a +slight smile was seen to hover round the mouth of the new +commissioner. Mr. Oldeschole would, he was informed, receive an +official notification to this effect on the following morning; +and on the following morning accordingly a dispatch arrived, of +great length, containing the resolution of my Lords, and putting +an absolute extinguisher on the life of every navvy. + +How Mr. Oldeschole, with tears streaming down his cheeks, +communicated the tidings to the elder brethren; and how the elder +brethren, with palpitating hearts and quivering voices, repeated +the tale to the listening juniors, I cannot now describe. The +boldest spirits were then cowed, the loudest miscreants were then +silenced, there were but few gibes, but little jeering at the +Internal Navigation on that day; though Charley, who had already +other hopes, contrived to keep up his spirits. The men stood +about talking in clusters, and old animosities were at an end. +The lamb sat down with the wolf, and Mr. Snape and Dick +Scatterall became quite confidential. + +'I knew it was going to happen,' said Mr. Snape to him. 'Indeed, +Mr. Oldeschole has been consulting us about it for some time; but +I must own I did not think it would be so sudden; I must own +that.' + +'If you knew it was coming,' said Corkscrew, 'why didn't you tell +a chap?' + +'I was not at liberty,' said Mr. Snape, looking very wise. + +'We shall all have liberty enough now,' said Scatterall; 'I +wonder what they'll do with us; eh, Charley?' + +'I believe they will send the worst of us to Spike Island or +Dartmoor prison,' said Charley; 'but Mr. Snape, no doubt, has +heard and can tell us.' + +'Oh, come, Charley! It don't do to chaff now,' said a young +navvy, who was especially down in the mouth. 'I wonder will they +do anything for a fellow?' + +'I heard my uncle, in Parliament Street, say, that when a chap +has got any _infested_ interest in a thing, they can't turn +him out,' said Corkscrew; 'and my uncle is a parliamentary +agent.' + +'Can't they though!' said Scatterall. 'It seems to me that they +mean to, at any rate; there wasn't a word about pensions or +anything of that sort, was there, Mr. Snape?' + +'Not a word,' said Snape. 'But those who are entitled to pensions +can't be affected injuriously. As far as I can see they must give +me my whole salary. I don't think they can do less.' + +'You're all serene then, Mr. Snape,' said Charley; 'you're in the +right box. Looking at matters in that light, Mr. Snape, I think +you ought to stand something handsome in the shape of lunch. +Come, what do you say to chops and stout all round? Dick will go +over and order it in a minute.' + +'I wish you wouldn't, Charley,' said the navvy who seemed to be +most affected, and who, in his present humour, could not endure a +joke, As Mr. Snape did not seem to accede to Charley's views, the +liberal proposition fell to the ground. + +'Care killed a cat,' said Scatterall. 'I shan't break my heart +about it. I never liked the shop--did you, Charley?' + +'Well, I must say I think we have been very comfortable here, +under Mr. Snape,' said Charley. But if Mr. Snape is to go, why +the office certainly would be deuced dull without him.' + +'Charley!' said the broken-hearted young navvy, in a tone of +reproach. + +Sorrow, however, did not take away their appetite, and as Mr. +Snape did not see fitting occasion for providing a banquet, they +clubbed together, and among them managed to get a spread of +beefsteaks and porter. Scatterall, as requested, went across the +Strand to order it at the cookshop, while Corkscrew and Charley +prepared the tables. 'And now mind it's the thing,' said Dick, +who, with intimate familiarity, had penetrated into the eating- +house kitchen; 'not dry, you know, or too much done; and lots of +fat.' + +And then, as the generous viands renewed their strength, and as +the potent stout warmed their blood, happier ideas came to them, +and they began to hope that the world was not all over. 'Well, I +shall try for the Customs,' said the unhappy one, after a deep +pull at the pewter. 'I shall try for the Customs; one does get +such stunning feeds for tenpence at that place in Thames Street.' +Poor youth! his ideas of earning his bread did not in their +wildest flight spread beyond the public offices of the Civil +Service. + +For a few days longer they hung about the old office, doing +nothing--how could men so circumstanced do anything?--and +waiting for their fate. At last their fate was announced. Mr. +Oldeschole retired with his full salary. Secretaries and such- +like always retire with full pay, as it is necessary that dignity +should be supported. Mr. Snape and the other seniors were +pensioned, with a careful respect to their years of service; with +which arrangement they all of them expressed themselves highly +indignant, and loudly threatened to bring the cruelty of their +treatment before Parliament, by the aid of sundry members, who +were supposed to be on the look out for such work; but as nothing +further was ever heard of them, it may be presumed that the +members in question did not regard the case as one on which the +Government of the day was sufficiently vulnerable to make it +worth their while to trouble themselves. Of the younger clerks, +two or three, including the unhappy one, were drafted into other +offices; some others received one or more years' pay, and then +tore themselves away from the fascinations of London life; among +those was Mr. R. Scatterall, who, in after years, will doubtless +become a lawgiver in Hong-Kong; for to that colony has he betaken +himself. Some few others, more unfortunate than the rest, among +whom poor Screwy was the most conspicuous, were treated with a +more absolute rigour, and were sent upon the world portionless. +Screwy had been constant in his devotion to pork chops, and had +persisted in spelling blue without the final 'e.' He was +therefore, declared unworthy of any further public confidence +whatever. He is now in his uncle's office in Parliament Street; +and it is to be hoped that his peculiar talents may there be +found useful. + +And so the Internal Navigation Office came to an end, and the +dull, dingy rooms were vacant. Ruthless men shovelled off as +waste paper all the lock entries of which Charley had once been +so proud; and the ponderous ledgers, which Mr. Snape had +delighted to haul about, were sent away into Cimmerian darkness, +and probably to utter destruction. And then the Internal +Navigation was no more. + +Among those who were drafted into other offices was Charley, whom +propitious fate took to the Weights and Measures. But it must not +be imagined that chance took him there. The Weights and Measures +was an Elysium, the door of which was never casually open. + +Charley at this time was a much-altered man; not that he had +become a good clerk at his old office--such a change one may say +was impossible; there were no good clerks at the Internal +Navigation, and Charley had so long been among navvies the most +knavish or navviest, that any such transformation would have met +with no credence--but out of his office he had become a much- +altered man. As Katie had said, it was as though some one had +come to him from the dead. He could not go back to his old +haunts, he could not return like a dog to his vomit, as long as +he had that purse so near his heart, as long as that voice +sounded in his ear, while the memory of that kiss lingered in his +heart. + +He now told everything to Gertrude, all his debts, all his love, +and all his despair. There is no relief for sorrow like the +sympathy of a friend, if one can only find it. But then the +sympathy must be real; mock sympathy always tells the truth +against itself, always fails to deceive. He told everything to +Gertrude, and by her counsel he told much to Norman. He could not +speak to him, true friend as he was, of Katie and her love. There +was that about the subject which made it too sacred for man's +ears, too full of tenderness to be spoken of without feminine +tears. It was only in the little parlour at Paradise Row, when +the evening had grown dark, and Gertrude was sitting with her +baby in her arms, that the boisterous young navvy could bring +himself to speak of his love. + +During these months Katie's health had greatly improved, and as +she herself had gained in strength, she had gradually begun to +think that it was yet possible for her to live. Little was now +said by her about Charley, and not much was said of him in her +hearing; but still she did learn how he had changed his office, +and with his office his mode of life; she did hear of his +literary efforts, and of his kindness to Gertrude, and it would +seem as though it were ordained that his moral life and her +physical life were to gain strength together. + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +MR. NOGO'S LAST QUESTION + + +But at this time Charley was not idle. The fate of 'Crinoline and +Macassar' has not yet been told; nor has that of the two rival +chieftains, the 'Baron of Ballyporeen and Sir Anthony Allan-a- +dale.' These heartrending tales appeared in due course, bit by +bit, in the pages of the _Daily Delight_. On every morning +of the week, Sundays excepted, a page and a half of Charley's +narrative was given to the expectant public; and though I am not +prepared to say that the public received the offering with any +violent acclamations of applause, that his name became suddenly +that of a great unknown, that literary cliques talked about him +to the exclusion of other topics, or that he rose famous one +morning as Byron did after the publication of the 'Corsair,' +nevertheless something was said in his praise. The _Daily +Delight_, on the whole, was rather belittled by its grander +brethren of the press; but a word or two was said here and there +to exempt Charley's fictions from the general pooh-poohing with +which the remainder of the publication was treated. + +Success, such as this even, is dear to the mind of a young +author, and Charley began to feel that he had done something. The +editor was proportionably civil to him, and he was encouraged to +commence a third historiette. + +'We have polished off poison and petticoats pretty well,' said +the editor; 'what do you say to something political?' + +Charley had no objection in life. + +'This Divorce Bill, now--we could have half a dozen married +couples all separating, getting rid of their ribs and buckling +again, helter-skelter, every man to somebody else's wife; and the +parish parson refusing to do the work; just to show the +immorality of the thing.' + +Charley said he'd think about it. + +'Or the Danubian Principalities and the French Alliance--could +you manage now to lay your scene in Constantinople?' + +Charley doubted whether he could. + +'Or perhaps India is the thing? The Cawnpore massacre would work +up into any lengths you pleased. You could get a file of the +_Times_, you know, for your facts.' + +But while the editor was giving these various valuable hints as +to the author's future subjects, the author himself, with base +mind, was thinking how much he should be paid for his past +labours. At last he ventured, in the mildest manner, to allude to +the subject. + +'Payment!' said the editor. + +Charley said that he had understood that there was to be some +fixed scale of pay; so much per sheet, or something of that sort. + +'Undoubtedly there will,' said the editor; 'and those who will +have the courage and perseverance to work through with us, till +the publication has obtained that wide popularity which it is +sure to achieve, will doubtless be paid,--be paid as no writers +for any periodical in this metropolis have ever yet been paid. +But at present, Mr. Tudor, you really must be aware that it is +quite out of the question.' + +Charley had not the courage and perseverance to work through with +the _Daily Delight_ till it had achieved its promised popularity, +and consequently left its ranks like a dastard. He consulted both +Gertrude and Norman on the subject, and on their advice set +himself to work on his own bottom. 'You may perhaps manage to +fly alone,' said Gertrude; 'but you will find it very difficult to fly if +you tie the whole weight of the _Daily Delight_ under your wings.' +So Charley prepared himself for solitary soaring. + +While he was thus working, the time arrived at which Norman was +to leave his office, and it occurred to him that it might be +possible that he should bequeath his vacancy to Charley. He went +himself to Sir Gregory, and explained, not only his own +circumstances, and his former friendship with Alaric Tudor, but +also the relationship between Alaric and Charley. He then learnt, +in the strictest confidence of course, that the doom of the +Internal Navigation had just been settled, and that it would be +necessary to place in other offices those young men who could in +any way be regarded as worth their salt, and, after considerable +manoeuvring, had it so arranged that the ne'er-do-well young +navvy should recommence his official life under better auspices. + +Nor did Charley come in at the bottom of his office, but was +allowed, by some inscrutable order of the great men who arranged +those things, to take a position in the Weights and Measures +equal in seniority and standing to that which he had held at the +Navigation, and much higher, of course, in pay. There is an old +saying, which the unenlightened credit, and which declares that +that which is sauce for the goose is sauce also for the gander. +Nothing put into a proverb since the days of Solomon was ever +more untrue. That which is sauce for the goose is not sauce for +the gander, and especially is not so in official life. Poor +Screwy was the goose, and certainly got the sauce best suited to +him when he was turned adrift out of the Civil Service. Charley +was the gander, and fond as I am of him for his many excellent +qualities, I am fain to own that justice might fairly have +demanded that he should be cooked after the same receipt. But it +suited certain potent personages to make a swan of him; and +therefore, though it had long been an assured fact through the +whole service that no man was ever known to enter the Weights and +Measures without the strictest examination, though the character +of aspirants for that high office was always subjected to a rigid +scrutiny, though knowledge, accomplishments, industry, morality, +outward decency, inward zeal, and all the cardinal virtues were +absolutely requisite, still Charley was admitted, without any +examination or scrutiny whatever, during the commotion consequent +upon the earthquake above described. + +Charley went to the Weights some time during the recess. In the +process of the next session Mr. Nogo gave notice that he meant to +ask the Government a question as to a gross act of injustice +which had been perpetrated--so at least the matter had been +represented to him--on the suppression of the Internal Navigation +Office. + +Mr. Nogo did not at first find it very easy to get a fitting +opportunity for asking his question. He had to give notice, and +inquiries had to be made, and the responsible people were away, +and various customary accidents happened, so that it was late in +June before the question was put. Mr. Nogo, however, persevered +ruthlessly, and after six months' labour, did deliver himself of +an indignant, and, as his friends declared to him, a very telling +speech. + +It was reported at the time by the opposition newspapers, and +need not therefore be given here. But the upshot was this: two +men bearing equal character--Mr. Nogo would not say whether the +characters of the gentlemen were good or bad; he would only say +equal characters--sat in the same room at this now defunct +office; one was Mr. Corkscrew and the other Mr. Tudor. One had no +friends in the Civil Service, but the other was more fortunate. +Mr. Corkscrew had been sent upon the world a ruined, blighted +man, without any compensation, without any regard for his +interests, without any consideration for his past services or +future prospects. They would be told that the Government had no +further need of his labours, and that they could not dare to +saddle the country with a pension for so young a man. But what +had been done in the case of the other gentleman? Why, he had +been put into a valuable situation, in the best Government office +in London, had been placed over the heads of a dozen others, who +had been there before him, &c., &c., &c. And then Mr. Nogo ended +with so vehement an attack on Sir Gregory, and the Government as +connected with him, that the dogs began to whet their teeth and +prepare for a tug at the great badger. + +But circumstances were mischancy with Mr. Nogo, and all he said +redounded only to the credit of our friend Charley. His black +undoubtedly was black; the merits of Charley and Mr. Corkscrew, +as public servants, had been about equal; but Mr. Whip Vigil +turned the black into white in three minutes. + +As he got upon his legs, smiling after the manner of his great +exemplar, he held in his hand a small note and a newspaper. 'A +comparison,' he said, 'had been instituted between the merits of +two gentlemen formerly in the employment of the Crown, one of +them had been selected for further employment, and the other +rejected. The honourable member for Mile End had, he regretted to +say, instituted this comparison. They all knew what was the +proverbial character of a comparison. It was, however, ready made +to his hands, and there was nothing left for him, Mr. Whip Vigil, +but to go on with it. This, however, he would do in as light a +manner as possible. It had been thought that the one gentleman +would not suit the public service, and that the other would do +so. It was for him merely to defend this opinion. He now held in +his hand a letter written by the protégé of the honourable member +for Limehouse; he would not read it--' (cries of 'Read, read!') +'no, he would not read it, but the honourable member might if he +would--and could. He himself was prepared to say that a gentleman +who chose to express himself in such a style in his private +notes--this note, however, was not private in the usual sense-- +could hardly be expected to command a proper supply of wholesome +English, such as the service of the Crown demanded!' Then Mr. +Vigil handed across to Mr. Nogo poor Screwy's unfortunate letter +about the pork chops. 'As to the other gentleman, whose name was +now respectably known in the lighter walks of literature, he +would, if permitted, read the opinion expressed as to his style +of language by a literary publication of the day; and then the +House would see whether or no the produce of the Civil Service +field had not been properly winnowed; whether the wheat had not +been garnered, and the chaff neglected.' And then the right +honourable gentleman read some half-dozen lines, highly +eulogistic of Charley's first solitary flight. + +Poor Mr. Nogo remained in silence, feeling that his black had +become white to all intents and purposes; and the big badger sat +by and grinned, not deigning to notice the dogs around him. Thus +it may be seen that that which is sauce for the goose is not +sauce for the gander. + +Early in the spring Norman was married; and then, as had been +before arranged, Charley once more went to Surbiton Cottage. The +marriage was a very quiet affair. The feeling of disgrace which +had fallen upon them all since the days of Alaric's trial had by +no means worn itself away. There were none of them yet--no, not +one of the Cottage circle, from Uncle Bat down to the parlour- +maid--who felt that they had a right to hold up their faces +before the light of day as they had formerly done. There was a +cloud over their house, visible perhaps with more or less +distinctness to all eyes, but which to themselves appeared black +as night. That evil which Alaric had done to them was not to be +undone in a few moons. We are all of us responsible for our +friends, fathers-in-law for their sons-in-law, brothers for their +sisters, husbands for their wives, parents for their children, +and children even for their parents. We cannot wipe off from us, +as with a wet cloth, the stains left by the fault of those who +are near to us. The ink-spot will cling. Oh! Alaric, Alaric, that +thou, thou who knewest all this, that thou shouldest have done +this thing! They had forgiven his offence against them, but they +could not forget their own involuntary participation in his +disgrace. It was not for them now to shine forth to the world +with fine gala doings, and gay gaudy colours, as they had done +when Gertrude had been married. + +But still there was happiness--quiet, staid happiness--at the +Cottage. Mrs. Woodward could not but be happy to see Linda +married to Harry Norman, her own favourite, him whom she had +selected in her heart for her son-in-law from out of all the +world. And now, too, she was beginning to be conscious that Harry +and Linda were better suited for each other than he and Gertrude +would have been. What would have been Linda's fate, how +unendurable, had she been Alaric's wife, when Alaric fell? How +would she have borne such a fall? What could she have done, poor +lamb, towards mending the broken thread or binding the bruised +limbs? What balm could she have poured into such wounds as those +which fate had inflicted on Gertrude and her household? But at +Normansgrove, with a steady old housekeeper at her back, and her +husband always by to give her courage, Linda would find the very +place for which she was suited. + +And then Mrs. Woodward had another source of joy, of liveliest +joy, in Katie's mending looks. She was at the wedding, though +hardly with her mother's approval. + +As she got better her old spirit returned to her, and it became +difficult to refuse her anything. It was in vain that her mother +talked of the cold church, and easterly winds, and the necessary +lightness of a bridesmaid's attire. Katie argued that the church +was only two hundred yards off, that she never suffered from the +cold, and that though dressed in light colours, as became a +bridesmaid, she would, if allowed to go, wear over her white +frock any amount of cloaks which her mother chose to impose on +her. Of course she went, and we will not say how beautiful she +looked, when she clung to Linda in the vestry-room, and all her +mother's wrappings fell in disorder from her shoulders. + +So Linda was married and carried off to Normansgrove, and Katie +remained with her mother and Uncle Bat. + +'Mamma, we will never part--will we, mamma?' said she, as they +comforted each other that evening after the Normans were gone, +and when Charley also had returned to London. + +'When you go, Katie, I think you must take me with you,' said her +mother, smiling through her tears. 'But what will poor Uncle Bat +do? I fear you can't take him also.' + +'I will never go from you, mamma.' + +Her mother knew what she meant. Charley had been there, Charley +to whom she had declared her love when lying, as she thought, on +her bed of death--Charley had been there again, and had stood +close to her, and touched her hand, and looked--oh, how much +handsomer he was than Harry, how much brighter than Alaric!--he +had touched her hand, and spoken to her one word of joy at her +recovered health. But that had been all. There was a sort of +compact, Katie knew, that there should be no other Tudor +marriage. Charley was not now the scamp he had been, but still-- +it was understood that her love was not to win its object. + +'I will never go from you, mamma.' + +But Mrs. Woodward's heart was not hard as the nether millstone. +She drew her daughter to her, and as she pressed her to her +bosom, she whispered into her ears that she now hoped they might +all be happy. + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +CONCLUSION + + +Our tale and toils have now drawn nigh to an end; our loves and +our sorrows are over; and we are soon to part company with the +three clerks and their three wives. Their three wives? Why, yes. +It need hardly be told in so many words to an habitual novel- +reader that Charley did get his bride at last. + +Nevertheless, Katie kept her promise to Mrs. Woodward. What +promise did she ever make and not keep? She kept her promise, and +did not go from her mother. She married Mr. Charles Tudor, of the +Weights and Measures, that distinguished master of modern +fiction, as the _Literary Censor_ very civilly called him +the other day; and Mr. Charles Tudor became master of Surbiton +Cottage. + +Reader! take one last leap with me, and presume that two years +have flown from us since the end of the last chapter; or rather +somewhat more than two years, for we would have it high midsummer +when we take our last farewell of Surbiton Cottage. + +But sundry changes had taken place at the Cottage, and of such a +nature, that were it not for the old name's sake, we should now +find ourselves bound to call the place Surbiton Villa, or +Surbiton Hall, or Surbiton House. It certainly had no longer any +right to the title of a cottage; for Charley, in anticipation of +what Lucina might do for him, had added on sundry rooms, a +children's room on the ground floor, and a nursery above, and a +couple of additional bedrooms on the other side, so that the +house was now a comfortable abode for an increasing family. + +At the time of which we are now speaking Lucina had not as yet +done much; for, in truth, Charley had been married but little +over twelve months; but there appeared every reason to believe +that the goddess would be propitious. There was already one +little rocking shrine, up in that cosy temple opening out of +Katie's bedroom--we beg her pardon, we should have said Mrs. +Charles Tudor's bedroom--one precious tabernacle in which was +laid a little man-deity, a young Charley, to whom was daily paid +a multitude of very sincere devotions. + +How precious are all the belongings of a first baby; how dear are +the cradle, the lace-caps, the first coral, all the little duds +which are made with such punctilious care and anxious efforts of +nicest needlework to encircle that small lump of pink humanity! +What care is taken that all shall be in order! See that basket +lined with crimson silk, prepared to hold his various garments, +while the mother, jealous of her nurse, insists on tying every +string with her own fingers. And then how soon the change comes; +how different it is when there are ten of them, and the tenth is +allowed to inherit the well-worn wealth which the ninth, a year +ago, had received from the eighth. There is no crimson silk +basket then, I trow. + +'Jane, Jane, where are my boots?' 'Mary, I've lost my trousers!' +Such sounds are heard, shouted through the house from powerful +lungs. + +'Why, Charley,' says the mother, as her eldest hope rushes in to +breakfast with dishevelled hair and dirty hands, 'you've got no +handkerchief on your neck--what have you done with your +handkerchief?' + +'No, mamma; it came off in the hay-loft, and I can't find it.' + +'Papa,' says the lady wife, turning to her lord, who is reading +his newspaper over his coffee--'papa, you really must speak to +Charley; he will not mind me. He was dressed quite nicely an hour +ago, and do see what a figure he has made himself.' + +'Charley,' says papa, not quite relishing this disturbance in the +midst of a very interesting badger-baiting--'Charley, my boy, if +you don't mind your P's and Q's, you and I shall fall out; mind +that;' and he again goes on with his sport; and mamma goes on +with her teapot, looking not exactly like Patience on a monument. + +Such are the joys which await you, Mr. Charles Tudor; but not to +such have you as yet arrived. As yet there is but the one little +pink deity in the rocking shrine above; but one, at least, of +your own. At the moment of which we are now speaking there were +visitors at Surbiton Cottage, and the new nursery was brought +into full use. Mr. and Mrs. Norman of Normansgrove were there +with their two children and two maids, and grandmamma Woodward +had her hands quite full in the family nursery line. + +It was a beautiful summer evening, and the two young mothers were +sitting with Mrs. Woodward and Uncle Bat in the drawing-room, +waiting for their lords' return from London. As usual, when they +stayed late, the two men were to dine at their club and come down +to tea. The nursemaids were walking on the lawn before the window +with their charges, and the three ladies were busily employed +with some fairly-written manuscript pages, which they were +cutting carefully into shape, and arranging in particular form. + +'Now, mamma,' said Katie, 'if you laugh once while you are +reading it, you'll spoil it all.' + +'I'll do the best I can, my dear, but I'm sure I shall break +down; you have made it so very abusive,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Mamma, I think I'll take out that about official priggism-- +hadn't I better, Linda?' + +'Indeed, I think you had; I'm sure mamma would break down there,' +said Linda. 'Mamma, I'm sure you would never get over the +official priggism.' + +'I don't think I should, my dear,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'What is it you are all concocting?' said Captain Cuttwater; +'some infernal mischief, I know, craving your pardons.' + +'If you tell, Uncle Bat, I'll never forgive you,' said Katie. + +'Oh, you may trust me; I never spoil sport, if I can't make any; +but the fun ought to be very good, for you've been a mortal long +time about it.' + +And then the two younger ladies again went on clipping and +arranging their papers, while Mrs. Woodward renewed her protest +that she would do her best as to reading their production. While +they were thus employed the postman's knock was heard, and a +letter was brought in from the far-away Australian exiles. The +period at which these monthly missives arrived were moments of +intense anxiety, and the letter was seized upon with eager +avidity. It was from Gertrude to her mother, as all these letters +were; but in such a production they had a joint property, and it +was hardly possible to say who first mastered its contents. + +It will only be necessary here to give some extracts from the +letter, which was by no means a short one. So much must be done +in order that our readers may know something of the fate of those +who perhaps may be called the hero and heroine of the tale. The +author does not so call them; he professes to do his work without +any such appendages to his story--heroism there may be, and he +hopes there is--more or less of it there should be in a true +picture of most characters; but heroes and heroines, as so +called, are not commonly met with in our daily walks of life. + +Before Gertrude's letter had been disposed of, Norman and Charley +came in, and it was therefore discussed in full conclave. +Alaric's path in the land of his banishment had not been over +roses. The upward struggle of men, who have fallen from a high +place once gained, that second mounting of the ladder of life, +seldom is an easy path. He, and with him Gertrude and his +children, had been called on to pay the full price of his +backsliding. His history had gone with him to the Antipodes; and, +though the knowledge of what he had done was not there so +absolute a clog upon his efforts, so overpowering a burden, as it +would have been in London, still it was a burden and a heavy one. + +It had been well for Gertrude that she had prepared herself to +give up all her luxuries by her six months' residence in that +Millbank Paradise of luxuries: for some time she had little +enough in the 'good and happy land,' to which she had taught +herself and her children to look forward. That land of promise +had not flowed with milk and honey when first she put her foot +upon its soil; its produce for her had been gall and bitter herbs +for many a weary month after she first landed. But her heart had +never sunk within her. She had never forgotten that he, if he +were to work well, should have at least one cheerful companion by +his side. She had been true to him, then as ever. And yet it is +so hard to be true to high principles in little things. The +heroism of the Roman, who, for his country's sake, leapt his +horse into a bottomless gulf, was as nothing to that of a woman +who can keep her temper through poverty, and be cheerful in +adversity. + +Through poverty, scorn, and bad repute, under the privations of a +hard life, separated from so many that she had loved, and from +everything that she had liked, Gertrude had still been true to +her ideas of her marriage vow; true, also, to her pure and single +love. She had entwined herself with him in sunny weather; and +when the storm came she did her best to shelter the battered stem +to which she had trusted herself. + +By degrees things mended with them; and in this letter, which is +now passing from eager hand to hand in Katie's drawing-room, +Gertrude spoke with better hope of their future prospects. + +'Thank God, we are once more all well,' she said; 'and Alaric's +spirits are higher than they were. He has, indeed, had much to +try them. They think, I believe, in England, that any kind of +work here is sure to command a high price; of this I am quite +sure, that in no employment in England are people so tasked as +they are here. Alaric was four months in these men's counting- +house, and I am sure another four months would have seen him in +his grave. Though I knew not then what other provision might be +made for us, I implored him, almost on my knees, to give up that. +He was expected to be there for ten, sometimes twelve, hours a +day; and they thought he should always be kept going like a +steam-engine. You know Alaric never was afraid of work; but that +would have killed him. And what was it for? What did they give +him for that--for all his talent, all his experience, all his +skill? And he did give them all. His salary was two pounds ten a +week! And then, when he told them of all he was doing for them, +they had the baseness to remind him of----. Dearest mother, is +not the world hard? It was that that made me insist that he +should leave them.' + +Alaric's present path was by no means over roses. This certainly +was a change from those days on which he had sat, one of a mighty +trio, at the Civil Service Examination Board, striking terror +into candidates by a scratch of his pen, and making happy the +desponding heart by his approving nod. His ambition now was not +to sit among the magnates of Great Britain, and make his voice +thunder through the columns of the _Times_; it ranged somewhat +lower at this period, and was confined for the present to a strong +desire to see his wife and bairns sufficiently fed, and not left +absolutely without clothing. He inquired little as to the feeling of +the electors of Strathbogy. + +And had he utterly forgotten the stirring motto of his early +days? Did he ever mutter 'Excelsior' to himself, as, with weary +steps, he dragged himself home from that hated counting-house? +Ah! he had fatally mistaken the meaning of the word which he had +so often used. There had been the error of his life. 'Excelsior!' +When he took such a watchword for his use, he should surely have +taught himself the meaning of it. + +He had now learnt that lesson in a school somewhat of the +sternest; but, as time wore kindly over him, he did teach himself +to accept the lesson with humility. His spirit had been wellnigh +broken as he was carried from that court-house in the Old Bailey +to his prison on the river-side; and a broken spirit, like a +broken goblet, can never again become whole. But Nature was a +kind mother to him, and did not permit him to be wholly crushed. +She still left within the plant the germ of life, which enabled +it again to spring up and vivify, though sorely bruised by the +heels of those who had ridden over it. He still repeated to +himself the old watchword, though now in humbler tone and more +bated breath; and it may be presumed that he had now a clearer +meaning of its import. + +'But his present place,' continued Gertrude, 'is much--very much +more suited to him. He is corresponding clerk in the first bank +here, and though his pay is nearly double what it was at the +other place, his hours of work are not so oppressive. He goes at +nine and gets away at five--that is, except on the arrival or +dispatch of the English mails.' Here was a place of bliss for a +man who had been a commissioner, attending at the office at such +hours as best suited himself, and having clerks at his beck to do +all that he listed. And yet, as Gertrude said, this was a place +of bliss to him. It was a heaven as compared with that other +hell. + +'Alley is such a noble boy,' said Gertrude, becoming almost +joyous as she spoke of her own immediate cares. 'He is most like +Katie, I think, of us all; and yet he is very like his papa. He +goes to a day-school now, with his books slung over his back in a +bag. You never saw such a proud little fellow as he is, and so +manly. Charley is just like you--oh! so like. It makes me so +happy that he is. He did not talk so early as Alley, but, +nevertheless, he is more forward than the other children I see +here. The little monkeys! they are neither of them the least like +me. But one can always see oneself, and it don't matter if one +does not.' + +'If ever there was a brick, Gertrude is one,' said Norman. + +'A brick!' said Charley--'why you might cut her to pieces, and +build another Kensington palace out of the slices. I believe she +is a brick.' + +'I wonder whether I shall ever see her again?' said Mrs. +Woodward, not with dry eyes. + +'Oh yes, mamma,' said Katie. 'She shall come home to us some day, +and we will endeavour to reward her for it all.' + +Dear Katie, who will not love you for such endeavour? But, +indeed, the reward for heroism cometh not here. + +There was much more in the letter, but enough has been given for +our purpose. It will be seen that hope yet remained both for +Alaric and his wife; and hope not without a reasonable base. Bad +as he had been, it had not been with him as with Undy Scott. The +devil had not contrived to put his whole claw upon him. He had +not divested himself of human affections and celestial hopes. He +had not reduced himself to the present level of a beast, with the +disadvantages of a soul and of an eternity, as the other man had +done. He had not put himself beyond the pale of true brotherhood +with his fellow-men. We would have hanged Undy had the law +permitted us; but now we will say farewell to the other, hoping +that he may yet achieve exaltation of another kind. + +And to thee, Gertrude--how shall we say farewell to thee, +excluded as thou art from that dear home, where those who love +thee so well are now so happy? Their only care remaining is now +thy absence. Adversity has tried thee in its crucible, and thou +art found to be of virgin gold, unalloyed; hadst thou still been +lapped in prosperity, the true ring of thy sterling metal would +never have been heard. Farewell to thee, and may those young +budding flowerets of thine break forth into golden fruit to +gladden thy heart in coming days! + +The reading of Gertrude's letter, and the consequent discussion, +somewhat put off the execution of the little scheme which had +been devised for that evening's amusement; but, nevertheless, it +was still broad daylight when Mrs. Woodward consigned the +precious document to her desk; the drawing-room windows were +still open, and the bairns were still being fondled in the room. +It was the first week in July, when the night almost loses her +dominion, and when those hours which she generally claims as her +own, become the pleasantest of the day. + +'Oh, Charley,' said Katie, at last, 'we have great news for you, +too. Here is another review on "The World's Last Wonder."' + +Now 'The World's Last Wonder' was Charley's third novel; but he +was still sensitive enough on the subject of reviews to look +with much anxiety for what was said of him. These notices were +habitually sent down to him at Hampton, and his custom was to +make his wife or her mother read them, while he sat by in lordly +ease in his arm-chair, receiving homage when homage came to him, +and criticizing the critics when they were uncivil. + +'Have you?' said Charley. 'What is it? Why did you not show it me +before?' + +'Why, we were talking of dear Gertrude,' said Katie; 'and it is +not so pleasant but that it will keep. What paper do you think it +is?' + +'What paper? how on earth can I tell?--show it me.' + +'No; but do guess, Charley; and then mamma will read it--pray +guess now.' + +'Oh, bother, I can't guess. _The Literary Censor_, I +suppose--I know they have turned against me.' + +'No, it's not that,' said Linda; 'guess again.' + +'_The Guardian Angel_,' said Charley. + +'No--that angel has not taken you under his wings as yet,' said +Katie. + +'I know it's not the _Times_,' said Charley, 'for I have +seen that.' + +'O no,' said Katie, seriously; 'if it was anything of that sort, +we would not keep you in suspense.' + +'Well, I'll be shot if I guess any more--there are such thousands +of them.' + +'But there is only one _Daily Delight_,' said Mrs. Woodward. + +'Nonsense!' said Charley. 'You don't mean to tell me that my dear +old friend and foster-father has fallen foul of me--my old +teacher and master, if not spiritual pastor; well--well--well! +The ingratitude of the age! I gave him my two beautiful stories, +the first-fruits of my vine, all for love; to think that he +should now lay his treacherous axe to the root of the young tree +--well, give it here.' + +'No--mamma will read it--we want Harry to hear it.' + +'O yes--let Mrs. Woodward read it,' said Harry. 'I trust it is +severe. I know no man who wants a dragging over the coals more +peremptorily than you do.' + +'Thankee, sir. Well, grandmamma, go on; but if there be anything +very bad, give me a little notice, for I am nervous.' + +And then Mrs. Woodward began to read, Linda sitting with Katie's +baby in her arms, and Katie performing a similar office for her +sister. + +"'The World's Last Wonder,' by Charles Tudor, Esq." + +'He begins with a lie,' said Charley, 'for I never called myself +Esquire.' + +'Oh, that was a mistake,' said Katie, forgetting herself. + +'Men of that kind shouldn't make such mistakes,' said Charley. +'When one fellow attempts to cut up another fellow, he ought to +take special care that he does it fairly.' + +"By the author of 'Bathos.'" + +'I didn't put that in,' said Charley, 'that was the publisher. I +only put Charles Tudor.' + +'Don't be so touchy, Charley, and let me go on,' said Mrs. +Woodward. + +'Well, fire away--it's good fun to you, I dare say, as the fly +said to the spider.' + +'Well, Charley, at any rate we are not the spiders,' said Linda. +Katie said nothing, but she could not help feeling that she must +look rather spiderish. + +'Mr. Tudor has acquired some little reputation as a humorist, but +as is so often the case with those who make us laugh, his very +success will prove his ruin.' + +'Then upon my word the _Daily Delight_ is safe,' said +Charley. 'It will never be ruined in that way.' + +'There is an elaborate jocosity about him, a determined eternity +of most industrious fun, which gives us the idea of a boy who is +being rewarded for having duly learnt by rote his daily lesson +out of Joe Miller.' + +'Now, I'll bet ten to one he has never read the book at all-- +well, never mind--go on.' + +"'The World's Last Wonder' is the description of a woman who kept +a secret under certain temptations to reveal it, which, as Mr. +Tudor supposes, might have moved any daughter of Eve to break her +faith." + +'I haven't supposed anything of the kind,' said Charley. + +'This secret, which we shall not disclose, as we would not wish +to be thought less trustworthy than Mr. Tudor's wonderful woman--' + +'We shall find that he does disclose it, of course; that is the +way with all of them.' + +--'Is presumed to permeate the whole three volumes.' + +'It is told at full length in the middle of the second,' said +Charley. + +'And the effect upon the reader of course is, that he has ceased +to interest himself about it, long before it is disclosed to him! + +'The lady in question is engaged to be married to a gentleman, a +circumstance which in the pages of a novel is not calculated to +attract much special attention. She is engaged to be married, but +the gentleman who has the honour of being her intended sposo----' + +'Intended sposo!' said Charley, expressing by his upturned lip a +withering amount of scorn--'how well I know the fellow's low +attempts at wit! That's the editor himself--that's my literary +papa. I know him as well as though I had seen him at it.' + +Katie and Mrs. Woodward exchanged furtive glances, but neither of +them moved a muscle of her face. + +'But the gentleman who has the honour of being her intended +sposo,' continued Mrs. Woodward. + +'What the devil's a sposo?' said Uncle Bat, who was sitting in an +arm-chair with a handkerchief over his head. + +'Why, you're not a sposo, Uncle Bat,' said Linda; 'but Harry is, +and so is Charley.' + +'Oh, I see,' said the captain; 'it's a bird with his wings +clipped.' + +'But the gentleman who has the honour of being her intended +sposo----' again read Mrs. Woodward. + +'Now I'm sure I'm speaking by the card,' said Charley, 'when I +say that there is not another man in London who could have +written that line, and who would have used so detestable a word. +I think I remember his using it in one of his lectures to me; +indeed I'm sure I do. Sposo! I should like to tweak his nose oh!' + +'Are you going to let me go on?' said Mrs. Woodward--'her +intended sposo'--Charley gave a kick with his foot and satisfied +himself with that--'is determined to have nothing to say to her +in the matrimonial line till she has revealed to him this secret +which he thinks concerns his own honour.' + +'There, I knew he'd tell it.' + +'He has not told it yet,' said Norman. + +'The lady, however, is obdurate, wonderfully so, of course, +seeing that she is the world's last wonder, and so the match is +broken off. But the secret is of such a nature that the lady's +invincible objection to revealing it is bound up with the fact of +her being a promised bride.' + +'I wonder he didn't say sposa,' said Charley. + +'I never thought of that,' said Katie. + +Mrs. Woodward and Linda looked at her, but Charley did not, and +her blunder passed by unnoticed. + +'Now that she is free from her matrimonial bonds, she is free +also to tell the secret; and indeed the welfare both of the +gentleman and of the lady imperiously demands that it should be +told. Should he marry her, he is destined to learn it after his +marriage; should he not marry her, he may hear it at any time. +She sends for him and tells him, not the first of these facts, by +doing which all difficulty would have at once been put an end to--' + +'It is quite clear he has never read the story, quite clear,' +said Charley. + +'She tells him only the last, viz., that as they are now +strangers he may know the secret; but that when once known it +will raise a barrier between them that no years, no penance, no +sorrow on his part, no tenderness on hers, can ever break down. +She then asks him--will he hear the secret?' + +'She does not ask any such thing,' said Charley; 'the letter that +contains it has been already sent to him. She merely gives him an +opportunity of returning it unopened.' + +'The gentleman, who is not without a grain of obstinacy in his +own composition and many grains of curiosity, declares it to be +impossible that he can go to the altar in ignorance of facts +which he is bound to know, and the lady, who seems to be of an +affectionate disposition, falls in tenderness at his feet. She is +indeed in a very winning mood, and quite inclined to use every +means allowable to a lady for retaining her lover; every means +that is short of that specially feminine one of telling her +secret. + +'We will give an extract from this love scene, partly for the +sake of its grotesque absurdity--' + +Charley kicked out another foot, as though he thought that the +editor of the _Daily Delight_ might perhaps be within reach. + +'--And partly because it gives a fair example of the manner in +which Mr. Tudor endeavours to be droll even in the midst of his +most tender passages. + +'Leonora was at this time seated--' + +'Oh, skip the extract,' said Charley; 'I suppose there are three +or four pages of it?' + +'It goes down to where Leonora says that his fate and her own are +in his hands.' + +'Yes, about three columns,' said Charley; 'that's an easy way of +making an article--eh, Harry?' + +'_Aliter non fit, amice, liber_,' said the classical Norman. + +'Well, skip the extract, grandmamma.' + +'Now, did anyone ever before read such a mixture of the bombastic +and the burlesque? We are called upon to cry over every joke, +and, for the life of us, we cannot hold our sides when the +catastrophes occur. It is a salad in which the pungency of the +vinegar has been wholly subdued by the oil, and the fatness of +the oil destroyed by the tartness of the vinegar.' + +'His old simile,' said Charley; 'he was always talking about +literary salads.' + +'The gentleman, of course, gives way at the last minute,' +continued Mrs. Woodward. 'The scene in which he sits with the +unopened letter lying on his table before him has some merit; but +this probably arises from the fact that the letter is dumb, and +the gentleman equally so.' + +'D--nation!' said Charley, whose patience could not stand such +impudence at this. + +'The gentleman, who, as we should have before said, is the eldest +son of a man of large reputed fortune----' + +'There--I knew he'd tell it.' + +'Oh, but he hasn't told it,' said Norman. + +'Doesn't the word 'reputed' tell it?' + +'--The eldest son of a man of large reputed fortune, does at last +marry the heroine; and then he discovers--But what he discovers, +those who feel any interest in the matter may learn from the book +itself; we must profess that we felt none. + +'We will not say there is nothing in the work indicative of +talent. The hero's valet, Jacob Brush, and the heroine's lady's- +maid, Jacintha Pintail, are both humorous and good in their way. +Why it should be so, we do not pretend to say; but it certainly +does appear to us that Mr. Tudor is more at home in the servants' +hall than in the lady's boudoir.' + +'Abominable scoundrel!' said Charley. + +'But what we must chiefly notice,' continued the article, 'in the +furtherance of those views by which we profess that we are +governed--' + +'Now, I know, we are to have something very grandiloquent and +very false,' said Charley. + +'--Is this: that no moral purpose can be served by the volumes +before us. The hero acts wrongly throughout, but nevertheless he +is rewarded at last. There is no Nemesis--' + +'No what?' said Charley, jumping up from his chair and looking +over the table. + +'No Nemesis,' said Mrs. Woodward, speaking with only half- +sustained voice, and covering with her arms the document which +she had been reading. + +Charley looked sharply at his wife, then at Linda, then at Mrs. +Woodward. Not one of them could keep her face. He made a snatch +at the patched-up manuscript, and as he did so, Katie almost +threw out of her arms the baby she was holding. + +'Take him, Harry, take him,' said she, handing over the child to +his father. And then gliding quick as thought through the +furniture of the drawing-room, she darted out upon the lawn, to +save herself from the coming storm. + +Charley was quickly after her; but as he made his exit, one chair +fell to the right of him, and another to the left. Mrs. Woodward +followed them, and so did Harry and Linda, each with a baby. + +And then Captain Cuttwater, waking from his placid nap, rubbed +his eyes in wondering amazement. + +'What the devil is all the row about?' said he. But there was +nobody to answer him. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Clerks, by Anthony Trollope + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE CLERKS *** + +This file should be named 8tclr10.txt or 8tclr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8tclr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8tclr10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks, Delphine Lettau, Mark Sherwood +and the people at Distributed Proofreading + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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