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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7661.txt b/7661.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..917a7e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/7661.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4737 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook What Will He Do With It, by Lytton, V3 +#89 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +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: What Will He Do With It, Book 3. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7661] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 1, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT WILL HE DO WITH IT, V3 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + +BOOK III. + + +CHAPTER I. + + Certes, the lizard is a shy and timorous creature. He runs into + chinks and crannies if you come too near to him, and sheds his very + tail for fear, if you catch it by the tip. He has not his being in + good society: no one cages him, no one pets. He is an idle vagrant. + But when he steals through the green herbage, and basks unmolested + in the sun, he crowds perhaps as much enjoyment into one summer hour + as a parrot, however pampered and erudite, spreads over a whole + drawing-room life spent in saying "How dye do" and "Pretty Poll." + +ON that dull and sombre summer morning in which the grandfather and +grandchild departed from the friendly roof of Mr. Merle, very dull and +very sombre were the thoughts of little Sophy. She walked slowly behind +the gray cripple, who had need to lean so heavily on his staff, and her +eye had not even a smile for the golden buttercups that glittered on dewy +meads alongside the barren road. + +Thus had they proceeded apart and silent till they had passed the second +milestone. There, Waife, rousing from his own reveries, which were +perhaps yet more dreary than those of the dejected child, halted +abruptly, passed his hand once or twice rapidly over his forehead, and, +turning round to Sophy, looked into her face with great kindness as she +came slowly to his side. + +"You are sad, little one?" said he. + +"Very sad, Grandy." + +"And displeased with me? Yes, displeased that I have taken you suddenly +away from the pretty young gentleman, who was so kind to you, without +encouraging the chance that you were to meet with him again." + +"It was not like you, Grandy," answered Sophy; and her under-lip slightly +pouted, while the big tears swelled to her eye. + +"True," said the vagabond; "anything resembling common-sense is not like +me. But don't you think that I did what I felt was best for you? Must I +not have some good cause for it, whenever I have the heart deliberately +to vex you?" + +Sophy took his hand and pressed it, but she could not trust herself to +speak, for she felt that at such effort she would have burst out into +hearty crying. Then Waife proceeded to utter many of those wise sayings, +old as the hills, and as high above our sorrows as hills are from the +valley in which we walk. He said how foolish it was to unsettle the mind +by preposterous fancies and impossible hopes. The pretty young gentleman +could never be anything to her, nor she to the pretty young gentleman. +It might be very well for the pretty young gentleman to promise to +correspond with her, but as soon as he returned to his friends he would +have other things to think of, and she would soon be forgotten; while +she, on the contrary, would be thinking of him, and the Thames and the +butterflies, and find hard life still more irksome. Of all this, and +much more, in the general way of consolers who set out on the principle +that grief is a matter of logic, did Gentleman Waife deliver himself with +a vigour of ratiocination which admitted of no reply, and conveyed not a +particle of comfort. And feeling this, that great actor--not that he was +acting then-suddenly stopped, clasped the child in his arms, and murmured +in broken accents,--"But if I see you thus cast down, I shall have no +strength left to hobble on through the world; and the sooner I lie down, +and the dust is shovelled over me, why, the better for you; for it seems +that Heaven sends you friends, and I tear you from them." + +And then Sophy fairly gave way to her sobs: she twined her little arms +round the old man's neck convulsively, kissed his rough face with +imploring pathetic fondness, and forced out through her tears, "Don't +talk so! I've been ungrateful and wicked. I don't care for any one but +my own dear, dear Grandy." + +After this little scene, they both composed themselves, and felt much +lighter of heart. They pursued their journey, no longer apart, but side +by side, and the old man leaning, though very lightly, on the child's +arm. But there was no immediate reaction from gloom to gayety. Waife +began talking in softened undertones, and vaguely, of his own past +afflictions; and partial as was the reference, how vast did the old man's +sorrows seem beside the child's regrets; and yet he commented on them as +if rather in pitying her state than grieving for his own. + +"Ah, at your age, my darling, I had not your troubles and hardships. I +had not to trudge these dusty roads on foot with a broken-down good-for- +nothing scatterling; I trod rich carpets, and slept under silken +curtains. I took the air in gay carriages,--I such a scapegrace; and +you, little child, you so good! All gone, all melted away from me, and +not able now to be sure that you will have a crust of bread this day +week." + +"Oh, yes! I shall have bread, and you too, Grandy," cried Sophy, with +cheerful voice. "It was you who taught me to pray to God, and said that +in all your troubles God had been good to you: and He has been so good to +me since I prayed to Him; for I have no dreadful Mrs. Crane to beat me +now, and say things more hard to bear than beating; and you have taken me +to yourself. How I prayed for that! And I take care of you too, +Grandy,--don't I? I prayed for that too; and as to carriages," added +Sophy, with superb air, "I don't care if I am never in a carriage as long +as I live; and you know I have been in a van, which is bigger than a +carriage, and I didn't like that at all. But how came people to behave +so ill to you, Grandy?" + +"I never said people behaved ill to me, Sophy." + +"Did not they take away the carpets and silk curtains, and all the fine +things you had as a little boy?" + +"I don't know," replied Waife, with a puzzled look, "that people actually +took them away; but they melted away. + +"However, I had much still to be thankful for: I was so strong, and had +such high spirits, Sophy, and found people not behaving ill to me,--quite +the contrary, so kind. I found no Crane (she monster) as you did, my +little angel. Such prospects before me, if I had walked straight towards +them! But I followed my own fancy, which led me zigzag; and now that I +would stray back into the high road, you see before you a man whom a +Justice of the Peace could send to the treadmill for presuming to live +without a livelihood." + +SOPHY.--"Not without a livelihood!--the what did you call it?-- +independent income,--that is, the Three Pounds, Grandy?" + +WAIFE (admiringly).--"Sensible child. That is true. Yes, Heaven is very +good to me still. Ah! what signifies fortune? How happy I was with my +dear Lizzy, and yet no two persons could live more from hand to mouth." + +SOPHY (rather jealously).--"tizzy?" + +WAIFE (with moistened eyes, and looking down).--"My wife. She was only +spared to me two years: such sunny years! And how grateful I ought to be +that she did not live longer. She was saved--such--such--such shame and +misery!" A long pause. + +Waife resumed, with a rush from memory, as if plucking himself from the +claws of a harpy,--"What's the good of looking back? A man's gone self +is a dead thing. It is not I--now tramping this road, with you to lean +upon--whom I see, when I would turn to look behind on that which I once +was: it is another being, defunct and buried; and when I say to myself, +'that being did so and so,' it is like reading an epitaph on a tombstone. +So, at last, solitary and hopeless, I came back to my own land; and I +found you,--a blessing greater than I had ever dared to count on. And +how was I to maintain you, and take you from that long-nosed alligator +called Crane, and put you in womanly gentle hands; for I never thought +then of subjecting you to all you have since undergone with me,--I who +did not know one useful thing in life by which a man can turn a penny. +And then, as I was all alone in a village ale-house, on my way back from- +it does not signify from what, or from whence, but I was disappointed and +despairing, Providence mercifully threw in my way--Mr. Rugge, and +ordained me to be of great service to that ruffian, and that ruffian of +great use to me." + +Sorfiy.--"Ah, how was that?" + +WAIFE.--"It was fair time in the village wherein I stopped, and Rugge's +principal actor was taken off by delirium tremens, which is Latin for a +disease common to men who eat little and drink much. Rugge came into the +alehouse bemoaning his loss. A bright thought struck me. Once in my day +I had been used to acting. I offered to try my chance on Mr. Rugge's +stage: he caught at me, I at him. I succeeded: we came to terms, and my +little Sophy was thus taken from that ringleted crocodile, and placed +with Christian females who wore caps and read their Bible. Is not Heaven +good to us, Sophy; and to me too--me, such a scamp?" + +"And you did all that,--suffered all that for my sake?" + +"Suffered, but I liked it. And, besides, I must have done something; and +there were reasons--in short, I was quite happy; no, not actually happy, +but comfortable and merry. Providence gives thick hides to animals that +must exist in cold climates; and to the man whom it reserves for sorrow, +Providence gives a coarse, jovial temper. Then, when by a mercy I was +saved from what I most disliked and dreaded, and never would have thought +of but that I fancied it might be a help to you,--I mean the London +stage,--and had that bad accident on the railway, how did it end? Oh! +in saving you" (and Waife closed his eyes and shuddered), "in saving your +destiny from what might be much worse for you, body and soul, than the +worst that has happened to you with me. And so we have been thrown +together; and so you have supported me; and so, when we could exist +without Mr. Rugge, Providence got rid of him for us. And so we are now +walking along the high road; and through yonder trees you can catch a +peep of the roof under which we are about to rest for a while; and there +you will learn what I have done with the Three Pounds!" + +"It is not the Spotted Boy, Grandy?" + +"No," said Waife, sighing; "the Spotted Boy is a handsome income; but let +us only trust in Providence, and I should not wonder if our new +acquisition proved a monstrous--" + +"Monstrous!" + +"Piece of good fortune." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + The investment revealed. + +Gentleman Waife passed through a turnstile, down a narrow lane, and +reached a solitary cottage. He knocked at the door; an old peasant woman +opened it, and dropped him a civil courtesy. "Indeed, sir, I am glad you +are come. I 'se most afeared he be dead." + +"Dead!" exclaimed Waife. "Oh, Sophy, if he should be dead!" + +"Who?" + +Waife did not heed the question. "What makes you think him dead?" said +he, fumbling in his pockets, from which he at last produced a key. "You +have not been disobeying my strict orders, and tampering with the door?" + +"Lor' love ye, no, sir. But he made such a noise at fust--awful! And +now he's as still as a corpse. And I did peep through the keyhole, and +he was stretched stark." + +"Hunger, perhaps," said the Comedian; "'t is his way when he has been +kept fasting much over his usual hours. Follow me, Sophy." He put aside +the woman, entered the sanded kitchen, ascended a stair that led from it; +and Sophy following, stopped at a door and listened: not a sound. +Timidly he unlocked the portals and crept in, when, suddenly such a +rush,--such a spring, and a mass of something vehement yet soft, dingy +yet whitish, whirled past the actor, and came pounce against Sophy, who +therewith uttered a shriek. "Stop him, stop him, for heaven's sake," +cried Waife. "Shut the door below,--seize him." Downstairs, however, +went the mass, and downstairs after it hobbled Waife, returning in a few +moments with the recaptured and mysterious fugitive. "There," he cried +triumphantly to Sophy, who, standing against the wall with her face +buried in her frock, long refused to look up,--"there,--tame as a lamb, +and knows me. See!" he seated himself on the floor, and Sophy, +hesitatingly opening her eyes, beheld gravely gazing at her from under a +profusion of shaggy locks an enormous-- + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Denoumente! + +POODLE! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Zoology in connection with history. + +"Walk to that young lady, sir,--walk, I say." The poodle slowly rose on +his hind legs, and, with an aspect inexpressibly solemn, advanced towards +Sophy, who hastily receded into the room in which the creature had been +confined. + +"Make a bow--no--a bow, sir; that is right: you can shake hands another +time. Run down, Sophy, and ask for his dinner." + +"Yes; that I will;" and Sophy flew down the stairs. + +The dog, still on his hind legs, stood in the centre of the floor +dignified, but evidently expectant. + + +"That will do; lie down and die. Die this moment, sir." The dog +stretched himself out, closed his eyes, and to all appearance gave up the +ghost. "A most splendid investment," said Waife, with enthusiasm; "and +upon the whole, clog cheap. Ho! you are not to bring up his dinner; it +is not you who are to make friends with the dog; it is my little girl; +send her up; Sophy, Sophy!" + +"She be fritted, sir," said the woman, holding a plate of canine +comestibles; "but lauk, sir, bent he really dead?" + +"Sophy, Sophy" + +"Please let me stay here, Grandy," said Sophy's voice from the foot of +the stairs. + +"Nonsense! it is sixteen hours since he has had a morsel to eat. And he +will never bite the hand that feeds him now. Come up, I say." + +Sophy slowly reascended, and Waife summoning the poodle to life, insisted +upon the child's feeding him. And indeed, when that act of charity was +performed, the dog evinced his gratitude by a series of unsophisticated +bounds and waggings of the tail, which gradually removed Sophy's +apprehensions, and laid the foundation for that intimate friendship which +is the natural relation between child and dog. + +"And how did you come by him?" asked Sophy; "and is this really the--the +INVESTMENT?" + +"Shut the door carefully, but see first that the woman is not listening. +Lie down, sir, there, at the feet of the young lady. Good dog! How did +I come by him? I will tell you. The first day we arrived at the village +which we have just left I went into the tobacconist's. While I was +buying my ounce of canaster that dog entered the shop. In his mouth was +a sixpence wrapped in paper. He lifted himself on his hind legs, and +laid his missive on the counter. The shopwoman--you know her, Mrs. +Traill--unfolded the paper and read the order. 'Clever dog that, sir,' +said she. 'To fetch and carry?' said I, indifferently. 'More than that, +sir; you shall see. The order is for two penn'orth of snuff. The dog +knows he is to take back fourpence. I will give him a penny +short.' So she took the sixpence and gave the dog threepence out of it. +The dog shook his head and looked gravely into her face. 'That's all +you'll get,' said she. The dog shook his head again, and tapped his paw +once on the counter, as much as to say, 'I'm not to be done: a penny +more, if you please.' 'If you'll not take that, you shall have nothing,' +said Mrs. Traill, and she took back the threepence." + +"Dear! and what did the dog do then,--snarl or bite?" "Not so; he knew +he was in his rights, and did not lower himself by showing bad temper. +The dog looked quietly round, saw a basket which contained two or three +pounds of candles lying in a corner for the shop boy to take to some +customer; took up the basket in his mouth, and turned tail, as much as to +say, 'Tit for tat then.' He understood, you see, what is called 'the law +of reprisals.' 'Come back this moment,' cried Mrs. Traill. The dog +walked out of the shop; then she ran after him, and counted the fourpence +before him, on which he dropped the basket, picked up the right change, +and went off demurely. 'To whom does that poodle belong?' said I. 'To a +poor drunken man,' said Mrs. Traill; 'I wish it was in better hands.' +'So do I, ma'am,' answered I; 'did he teach it?' 'No, it was taught by +his brother, who was an old soldier, and died in his house two weeks ago. +It knows a great many tricks, and is quite young. It might make a +fortune as a show, sir.' So I was thinking. I inquired the owner's +address, called on him, and found him disposed to sell the dog. But he +asked L3, a sum that seemed out of the question then. Still I kept the +dog in my eye; called every day to make friends with it, and ascertain +its capacities. And at last, thanks to you, Sophy, I bought the dog; and +what is more, as soon as I had two golden sovereigns to show, I got him +for that sum, and we have still L1. left (besides small savings from our +lost salaries) to go to the completion of his education, and the +advertisement of his merits. I kept this a secret from Merle,--from all. +I would not even let the drunken owner know where I took the dog to +yesterday. I brought him here, where, I learned in the village, there +were two rooms to let, locked him up, and my story is told." + +"But why keep it such a secret?" + +"Because I don't want Rugge to trace us. He might do one a mischief; +because I have a grand project of genteel position and high prices for +the exhibition of that dog. And why should it be known where we come +from, or what we were? And because, if the owner knew where to find the +dog, he might decoy it back from us. Luckily he had not made the dog so +fond of him but what, unless it be decoyed, it will accustom itself to +us. And now I propose that we should stay a week or so here, and devote +ourselves exclusively to developing the native powers of this gifted +creature. Get out the dominos." + +"What is his name?" + +"Ha! that is the first consideration. What shall be his name?" + +"Has he not one already?" + +"Yes,--trivial and unattractive,--Mop! In private life it might pass. +But in public life--give a dog a bad name and hang him. Mop, indeed!" + +Therewith Mop, considering himself appealed to, rose and stretched +himself. + +"Right," said Gentleman Waife; "stretch yourself--you decidedly require +it." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Mop becomes a personage.--Much thought is bestowed on the verbal + dignities, without which a personage would become a mop.--The + importance of names is apparent in all history.--If Augustus had + called himself king, Rome would have risen against him as a Tarquin; + so he remained a simple equestrian, and modestly called himself + Imperator.--Mop chooses his own title in a most mysterious manner, + and ceases to be Mop. + +"The first noticeable defect in your name of Mop," said Gentleman Waife, +"is, as you yourself denote, the want of elongation. Monosyllables are +not imposing, and in striking compositions their meaning is elevated by +periphrasis; that is to say, Sophy, that what before was a short truth, +an elegant author elaborates into a long stretch." + +"Certainly," said Sophy, thoughtfully; "I don't think the name of Mop +would draw! Still he is very like a mop." + +"For that reason the name degrades him the more, and lowers him from an +intellectual phenomenon to a physical attribute, which is vulgar. I hope +that that dog will enable us to rise in the scale of being. For whereas +we in acting could only command a threepenny audience--reserved seats a +shilling--he may aspire to half-crowns and dress-boxes; that is, if we +can hit on a name which inspires respect. Now, although the dog is big, +it is not by his size that he is to become famous, or we might call him +Hercules or Goliath; neither is it by his beauty, or Adonis would not be +unsuitable. It is by his superior sagacity and wisdom. And there I am +puzzled to find his prototype amongst mortals; for, perhaps, it may be my +ignorance of history--" + +"You ignorant, indeed, Grandfather!" + +"But considering the innumerable millions who have lived on the earth, it +is astonishing how few I can call to mind who have left behind them a +proverbial renown for wisdom. There is, indeed, Solomon, but he fell off +at the last; and as he belongs to sacred history, we must not take a +liberty with his name. Who is there very, very wise, besides Solomon? +Think, Sophy,--Profane History." + +Sophy (after a musing pause).--"Puss in Boots." + +"Well, he was wise; but then he was not human; he was a cat. Ha! +Socrates. Shall we call him Socrates, Socrates, Socrates?" + +SOPHY.--"Socrates, Socrates!" Mop yawned. + +WAIFE.--"He don't take to Socrates,--prosy!" + +SOPHY.--"Ah, Mr. Merle's book about the Brazen Head, Friar Bacon! He +must have been very wise." + +WAIFE.--"Not bad; mysterious, but not recondite; historical, yet +familiar. What does Mop say to it? Friar, Friar, Friar Bacon, sir, +--Friar!" + +SOPHY (coaxingly).--"Friar!" + +Mop, evidently conceiving that appeal is made to some other personage, +canine or human, not present, rouses up, walks to the door, smells at the +chink, returns, shakes his head, and rests on his haunches, eying his two +friends superciliously. + +SOPHY.--"He does not take to that name." + +WAIFE.--"He has his reasons for it; and indeed there are many worthy +persons who disapprove of anything that savours of magical practices. +Mop intimates that on entering public life one should beware of offending +the respectable prejudices of a class." + +Mr. Waife then, once more resorting to the recesses of scholastic memory, +plucked therefrom, somewhat by the head and shoulders, sundry names +reverenced in a by-gone age. He thought of the seven wise men of Greece, +but could only recall the nomenclature of two out of the--even,--a sad +proof of the distinction between collegiate fame and popular renown. He +called Thales; he called Bion. Mop made no response. "Wonderful +intelligence!" said Waife; "he knows that Thales and Bion would not +draw!--obsolete." + +Mop was equally mute to Aristotle. He pricked up his cars at Plato, +perhaps because the sound was not wholly dissimilar from that of Ponto, +--a name of which he might have had vague reminiscences. The Romans not +having cultivated an original philosophy, though they contrived to +produce great men without it, Waife passed by that perished people. He +crossed to China, and tried Confucius. Mop had evidently never heard of +him. + +"I am at the end of my list, so far as the wise men are concerned," said +Waife, wiping his forehead. "If Mop were to distinguish himself by +valour, one would find heroes by the dozen,--Achilles, and Hector, and +Julius Caesar, and Pompey, and Bonaparte, and Alexander the Great, and +the Duke of Marlborough. Or, if he wrote poetry, we could fit him to a +hair. But wise men certainly are scarce, and when one has hit on a wise +man's name it is so little known to the vulgar that it would carry no +more weight with it than Spot or Toby. But necessarily some name the dog +must have, and take to sympathetically." + +Sophy meanwhile had extracted the dominos from Waife's bundle, and with +the dominos an alphabet and a multiplication-table in printed capitals. +As the Comedian's one eye rested upon the last, he exclaimed, "But after +all, Mop's great strength will probably be in arithmetic, and the science +of numbers is the root of all wisdom. Besides, every man, high and low, +wants to make a fortune, and associations connected with addition and +multiplication are always pleasing. Who, then, is the sage at +computation most universally known? Unquestionably Cocker! He must take +to that, Cocker, Cocker" (commandingly),--"C-o-c-k-e-r" (with persuasive +sweetness). + +Mop looked puzzled; he put his head first on one side, then on the other. + +SOPHY (with mellifluous endearment).--"Cocker, good Cocker; Cocker dear!" + +BOTH.--"Cocker, Cocker, Cocker!" + +Excited and bewildered, Mop put up his head, and gave vent to his +perplexities in a long and lugubrious howl, to which certainly none who +heard it could have desired addition or multiplication. + +"Stop this instant, sir,--stop; I shoot you! You are dead,--down!" +Waife adjusted his staff to his shoulder gun-wise; and at the word of +command, "Down," Mop was on his side, stiff and lifeless. "Still," said +Waife, "a name connected with profound calculation would be the most +appropriate; for instance, Sir Isaac--" + +Before the. Comedian could get out the word Newton, Mop had sprung to +his four feet, and, with wagging tail and wriggling back, evinced a sense +of beatified recognition. + +"Astounding!" said Waife, rather awed. "Can it be the name? +Impossible. Sir Isaac, Sir Isaac!" + +"Bow-wow!" answered Mop, joyously. + +"If there be any truth in the doctrine of metempsychosis," faltered +Gentleman Waife, "if the great Newton could have transmigrated into that +incomparable animal! Newton, Newton!" To that name Mop made no +obeisance, but, evidently still restless, walked round the room, smelling +at every corner, and turning to look back with inquisitive earnestness at +his new master. + +"He does not seem to catch at the name of Newton," said Waife, trying it +thrice again, and vainly, "and yet he seems extremely well versed in the +principle of gravity. Sir Isaac!" The dog bounded towards him, put his +paws on his shoulder, and licked his face. "Just cut out those figures +carefully, my dear, and see if we can get him to tell us how much twice +ten are--I mean by addressing him as Sir Isaac." + +Sophy cut the figures from the multiplication table, and arranged them, +at Waife's instruction, in a circle on the floor. "Now, Sir Isaac." Mop +lifted a paw, and walked deliberately round the letters. "Now, Sir +Isaac, how much are ten times two?" Mop deliberately made his survey and +calculation, and, pausing at twenty, stooped, and took the letters in his +mouth. + +"It is not natural," cried Sophy, much alarmed. "It must be wicked, and +I'd rather have nothing to do with it, please." + +"Silly child! He was but obeying my sign. He had been taught that trick +already under the name of Mop. The only strange thing is, that he should +do it also under the name of Sir Isaac, and much more cheerfully too. +However, whether he has been the great Newton or not, a live dog is +better than a dead lion. But it is clear that, in acknowledging the name +of Sir Isaac, he does not encourage us to take that of Newton; and he is +right: for it might be thought unbecoming to apply to an animal, however +extraordinary, who by the severity of fortune is compelled to exhibit his +talents for a small pecuniary reward, the family name of so great a +philosopher. Sir Isaac, after all, is a vague appellation; any dog has a +right to be Sir Isaac--Newton may be left conjectural. Let us see if we +can add to our arithmetical information. Look at me, Sir Isaac." Sir +Isaac looked and grinned affectionately; and under that title learned a +new combination with a facility that might have relieved Sophy's mind of +all superstitious belief that the philosopher was resuscitated in the +dog, had she known that in life that great master of calculations the +most abstruse could not accurately cast up a simple sum in addition. +Nothing brought him to the end of his majestic tether like dot and carry +one. Notable type of our human incompleteness, where men might deem our +studies had made us most complete! Notable type, too, of that grandest +order of all human genius which seems to arrive at results by intuition, +which a child might pose by a row of figures on a slate, while it is +solving the laws that link the stars to infinity! But /revenons a nos +moutons/, what was the astral attraction that incontestably bound the +reminiscences of Mop to the cognominal distinction of Sir Isaac? I had +prepared a very erudite and subtle treatise upon this query, enlivened by +quotations from the ancient Mystics,--such as Iamblicus and Proclus,--as +well as by a copious reference to the doctrine of the more modern +Spiritualists, from Sir Kenelm Digby and Swedenborg, to Monsieur Cahagnet +and Judge Edwards. It was to be called Inquiry into the Law of +Affinities, by Philomopsos: when, unluckily for my treatise, I arrived at +the knowledge of a fact which, though it did not render the treatise less +curious, knocked on the head the theory upon which it was based. The +baptismal name of the old soldier, Mop's first proprietor and earliest +preceptor, was Isaac; and his master being called in the homely household +by that Christian name, the sound had entered into Mop's youngest and +most endeared associations. His canine affections had done much towards +ripening his scholastic education. "Where is Isaac?" "Call Isaac!" +"Fetch Isaac his hat," etc. Stilled was that name when the old soldier +died; but when heard again, Mop's heart was moved, and in missing the old +master, he felt more at home with the new. As for the title, "Sir," it +was a mere expletive in his ears. Such was the fact, and such the +deduction to be drawn from it. Not that it will satisfy every one. I +know that philosophers who deny all that they have not witnessed, and +refuse to witness what they resolve to deny, will reject the story in +toto; and will prove, by reference to their own dogs, that a dog never +recognizes the name of his master,--never yet could be taught arithmetic. +I know also that there are Mystics who will prefer to believe that Mop +was in direct spiritual communication with unseen Isaacs, or in a state +of clairvoyance, or under the influence of the odic fluid. But did we +ever yet find in human reason a question with only one side to it? Is +not truth a polygon? Have not sages arisen in our day to deny even the +principle of gravity, for which we bad been so long contentedly taking +the word of the great Sir Isaac? It is that blessed spirit of +controversy which keeps the world going; and it is that which, perhaps, +explains why Mr. Waife, when his memory was fairly put to it, could +remember, out of the history of the myriads who have occupied our planet +from the date of Adam to that in which I now write, so very few men whom +the world will agree to call wise, and out of that very few so scant a +percentage with names sufficiently known to make them more popularly +significant of pre-eminent sagacity than if they had been called--Mops. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + The vagrant having got his dog, proceeds to hunt fortune with it, + leaving behind him a trap to catch rats.--What the trap does catch + is "just like his luck." + +Sir Isaac, to designate him by his new name, improved much upon +acquaintance. He was still in the ductile season of youth, and took +to learning as an amusement to himself. His last master, a stupid sot, +had not gained his affections; and perhaps even the old soldier, though +gratefully remembered and mourned, had not stolen into his innermost +heart, as Waife and Sophy gently contrived to do. In short, in a very +few days he became perfectly accustomed and extremely attached to them. +When Waife had ascertained the extent of his accomplishments, and added +somewhat to their range in matters which cost no great trouble, he +applied himself to the task of composing a little drama which might bring +them all into more interesting play, and in which though Sophy and +himself were performers the dog had the premier role. And as soon as +this was done, and the dog's performances thus ranged into methodical +order and sequence, he resolved to set off to a considerable town at some +distance, and to which Mr. Rugge was no visitor. + +His bill at the cottage made but slight inroad into his pecuniary +resources; for in the intervals of leisure from his instructions to Sir +Isaac, Waife had performed various little services to the lone widow with +whom they lodged, which Mrs. Saunders (such was her name) insisted upon +regarding as money's worth. He had repaired and regulated to a minute an +old clock which had taken no note of time for the last three years; he +had mended all the broken crockery by some cement of his own invention, +and for which she got him the materials. And here his ingenuity was +remarkable, for when there was only a fragment to be found of a cup and a +fragment or two of a saucer, he united them both into some pretty form, +which, if not useful, at all events looked well on a shelf. He bound, in +smart showy papers, sundry tattered old books which had belonged to his +landlady's defunct husband, a Scotch gardener, and which she displayed on +a side table, under the japan tea-tray. More than all, he was of service +to her in her vocation; for Mrs. Saunders eked out a small pension--which +she derived from the affectionate providence of her Scotch husband, in +insuring his life in her favour--by the rearing and sale of poultry; and +Waife saved her the expense of a carpenter by the construction of a new +coop, elevated above the reach of the rats, who had hitherto made sad +ravage amongst the chickens; while he confided to her certain secrets in +the improvement of breed and the cheaper processes of fattening, which +excited her gratitude no less than her wonder. "The fact is," said +Gentleman Waife, "that my life has known makeshifts. Once, in a foreign +country, I kept poultry, upon the principle that the poultry should keep +me." + +Strange it was to notice such versatility of invention, such readiness of +resource, such familiarity with divers nooks and crannies in the +practical experience of life, in a man now so hard put to it for a +livelihood. There are persons, however, who might have a good stock of +talent, if they did not turn it all into small change. And you, reader, +know as well as I do, that when a sovereign or a shilling is once broken +into, the change scatters and dispends itself in a way quite +unaccountable. Still coppers are useful in household bills; and when +Waife was really at a pinch, somehow or other, by hook or by crook, he +scraped together intellectual halfpence enough to pay his way. + +Mrs. Saunders grew quite fond of her lodgers. Waife she regarded as a +prodigy of genius; Sophy was the prettiest and best of children. Sir +Isaac, she took for granted, was worthy of his owners. But the Comedian +did not confide to her his dog's learning, nor the use to which he +designed to put it. And in still greater precaution, when he took his +leave, he extracted from Mrs. Saunders a solemn promise that she would +set no one on his track in case of impertinent inquiries. + +"You see before you," said he, "a man who has enemies, such as rats are +to your chickens: chickens despise rats when raised, as yours are now, +above the reach of claws and teeth. Some day or other I may so raise a +coop for that little one: I am too old for coops. Meanwhile, if a rat +comes sneaking here after us, send it off the wrong way, with a flea in +its ear." + +Mrs. Saunders promised, between tears and laughter; blessed Waife, kissed +Sophy, patted Sir Isaac, and stood long at her threshold watching the +three, as the early sun lit their forms receding in the narrow green +lane,--dewdrops sparkling on the hedgerows, and the skylark springing +upward from the young corn. + +Then she slowly turned indoors, and her home seemed very solitary. We +can accustom ourselves to loneliness, but we should beware of infringing +the custom. Once admit two or three faces seated at your hearthside, or +gazing out from your windows on the laughing sun, and when they are gone, +they carry off the glow from your grate and the sunbeam from your panes. +Poor Mrs. Saunders! in vain she sought to rouse herself, to put the rooms +to rights, to attend to the chickens to distract her thoughts. The one- +eyed cripple, the little girl, the shaggy-faced dog, still haunted her; +and when at noon she dined all alone off the remnants of the last night's +social supper, the very click of the renovated clock seemed to say, +"Gone, gone;" and muttering, "Ah! gone," she reclined back on her chair, +and indulged herself in a good womanlike cry. From this luxury she was +startled by a knock at the door. "Could they have come back?" No; the +door opened, and a genteel young man, in a black coat and white +neckcloth, stepped in. + +"I beg your pardon, ma'am--your name 's Saunders--sell poultry?" + +"At your service, sir. Spring chickens?" Poor people, whatever their +grief, must sell their chickens, if they have any to sell. + +"Thank you, ma'am; not at this moment. The fact is, that I call to make +some inquiries Have not you lodgers here?" + +Lodgers! at that word the expanding soul of Mrs. Saunders reclosed +hermetically; the last warning of Waife revibrated in her ears this white +neckclothed gentleman, was he not a rat? + +"No, sir, I ha'n't no lodgers." + +"But you have had some lately, eh? a crippled elderly man and a little +girl." + +"Don't know anything about them; leastways," said Mrs. Saunders, suddenly +remembering that she was told less to deny facts than to send inquirers +upon wrong directions," leastways, at this blessed time. Pray, sir, what +makes you ask?" + +"Why, I was instructed to come down to ------, and find out where this +person, one William Waife, had gone. Arrived yesterday, ma'am. All I +could hear is, that a person answering to his description left the place +several days ago, and had been seen by a boy, who was tending sheep, to +come down the lane to your house, and you were supposed to have lodgers +(you take lodgers sometimes, I think, ma'am), because you had been buying +some trifling articles of food not in your usual way of custom. +Circumstantial evidence, ma'am: you can have no motive to conceal the +truth." + +"I should think not indeed, sir," retorted Mrs. Saunders, whom the +ominous words "circumstantial evidence" set doubly on her guard. "I did +see a gentleman such as you mention, and a pretty young lady, about ten +days agone, or so, and they did lodge here a night or two, but they are +gone to--" + +"Yes, ma'am,--gone where?" + +"Lunnon." + +"Really--very likely. By the train or on foot?" + +"On foot, I s'pose." + +"Thank you, ma'am. If you should see them again, or hear where they are, +oblige me by conveying this card to Mr. Waife. My employer, ma'am, Mr. +Gotobed, Craven Street, Strand,--eminent solicitor. He has something of +importance to communciate to Mr. Waife." + +"Yes, sir,--a lawyer; I understand." And as of all ratlike animals in +the world Mrs. Saunders had the ignorance to deem a lawyer was the most +emphatically devouring, she congratulated herself with her whole heart on +the white lies she had told in favour of the intended victims. + +The black-coated gentleman having thus obeyed his instructions and +attained his object, nodded, went his way, and regained the fly which he +had left at the turnstile. "Back to the inn," cried he, "quick: I must +be in time for the three o'clock train to London." + +And thus terminated the result of the great barrister's first +instructions to his eminent solicitor to discover a lame man and a little +girl. No inquiry, on the whole, could have been more skilfully +conducted. Mr. Gotobed sends his head clerk; the head clerk employs the +policeman of the village; gets upon the right track; comes to the right +house; and is altogether in the wrong,--in a manner highly creditable to +his researches. + + +"In London, of course: all people of that kind come back to London," said +Mr. Gotobed. "Give me the heads in writing, that I may report to my +distinguished client. Most satisfactory. That young man will push his +way,--businesslike and methodical." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + The cloud has its silver lining. + +Thus turning his back on the good fortune which he had so carefully +cautioned Mrs. Saunders against favouring on his behalf, the vagrant was +now on his way to the ancient municipal town of Gatesboro', which, being +the nearest place of fitting opulence and population, Mr. Waife had +resolved to honour with the debut of Sir Isaac as soon as he had +appropriated to himself the services of that promising quadruped. +He had consulted a map of the county before quitting Mr. Merle's roof, +and ascertained that he could reach Gatesboro' by a short cut for foot- +travellers along fields and lanes. He was always glad to avoid the high +road: doubtless for such avoidance he had good reasons. But prudential +reasons were in this instance supported by vagrant inclinations. High +roads are for the prosperous. By-paths and ill-luck go together. But +by-paths have their charm, and ill-luck its pleasant moments. + +They passed then from the high road into a long succession of green +pastures, through which a straight public path conducted them into one of +those charming lanes never seen out of this bowery England,--a lane deep +sunk amidst high banks with overhanging oaks, and quivering ash, gnarled +wych-elm, vivid holly and shaggy brambles, with wild convolvulus and +creeping woodbine forcing sweet life through all. Sometimes the banks +opened abruptly, leaving patches of green sward, and peeps through still +sequestered gates, or over moss-grown pales, into the park or paddock of +some rural thane. New villas or old manor-houses on lawny uplands, +knitting, as it were, together England's feudal memories with England's +freeborn hopes,--the old land with its young people; for England is so +old, and the English are so young! And the gray cripple and the bright- +haired child often paused, and gazed upon the demesnes and homes of +owners whose lots were cast in such pleasant places. But there was no +grudging envy in their gaze; perhaps because their life was too remote +from those grand belongings. And therefore they could enjoy and possess +every banquet of the eye. For at least the beauty of what we see is ours +for the moment, on the simple condition that we do not covet the thing +which gives to our eyes that beauty. As the measureless sky and the +unnumbered stars are equally granted to king and to beggar; and in our +wildest ambition we do not sigh for a monopoly of the empyrean, or the +fee-simple of the planets: so the earth too, with all its fenced gardens +and embattled walls, all its landmarks of stern property and churlish +ownership, is ours too by right of eye. Ours to gaze on the fair +possessions with such delight as the gaze can give; grudging to the +unseen owner his other, and, it may be, more troubled rights, as little +as we grudge an astral proprietor his acres of light in Capricorn. +Benignant is the law that saith, "Thou shalt not covet." + +When the sun was at the highest our wayfarers found a shadowy nook for +their rest and repast. Before them ran a shallow limpid trout-stream; +on the other side its margin, low grassy meadows, a farmhouse in the +distance, backed by a still grove, from which rose a still church tower +and its still spire. Behind them, a close-shaven sloping lawn terminated +the hedgerow of the lane; seen clearly above it, with parterres of +flowers on the sward, drooping lilacs and laburnums farther back, and a +pervading fragrance from the brief-lived and rich syringas. The cripple +had climbed over a wooden rail that separated the lane from the rill, and +seated himself under the shade of a fantastic hollow thorn-tree. Sophy, +reclined beside him, was gathering some pale scentless violets from a +mound which the brambles had guarded from the sun. The dog had descended +to the waters to quench his thirst, but still stood knee-deep in the +shallow stream, and appeared lost in philosophical contemplation of a +swarm of minnows, which his immersion had disturbed, but which now made +itself again visible on the farther side of the glassy brook, undulating +round and round a tiny rocklet which interrupted the glide of the waves, +and caused them to break into a low melodious murmur. "For these and all +thy mercies, O Lord, make us thankful," said the victim of ill-luck, in +the tritest words of a pious custom. But never, perhaps, at aldermanic +feasts was the grace more sincerely said. + +And then he untied the bundle, which the dog, who had hitherto carried it +by the way, had now carefully deposited at his side. "As I live," +ejaculated Waife, "Mrs. Saunders is a woman in ten thousand. See, Sophy, +not contented with the bread and cheese to which I bade her stint her +beneficence, a whole chicken,--a little cake too for you, Sophy; she has +not even forgotten the salt. Sophy, that woman deserves the handsomest +token of our gratitude; and we will present her with a silver teapot the +first moment we can afford it." + +His spirits exhilarated by the unexpected good cheer, the Comedian gave +way to his naturally blithe humour; and between every mouthful he rattled +or rather drolled on, now infant-like, now sage-like. He cast out the +rays of his liberal humour, careless where they fell,--on the child, on +the dog, on the fishes that played beneath the wave, on the cricket that +chirped amidst the grass; the woodpecker tapped the tree, and the +cripple's merry voice answered it in bird-like mimicry. To this riot of +genial babble there was a listener, of whom neither grandfather nor +grandchild was aware. Concealed by thick brushwood a few paces farther +on, a young angler, who might be five or six and twenty, had seated +himself, just before the arrival of our vagrant to those banks and +waters, for the purpose of changing an unsuccessful fly. At the sound of +voices, perhaps suspecting an unlicensed rival, for that part of the +stream was preserved,--he had suspended his task, and noiselessly put +aside the clustering leaves to reconnoitre. The piety of Waife's simple +grace seemed to surprise him pleasingly, for a sweet approving smile +crossed his lips. He continued to look and to listen. He forgot the +fly, and a trout sailed him by unheeded. But Sir Isaac, having probably +satisfied his speculative mind as to the natural attributes of minnows, +now slowly reascended the bank, and after a brief halt and a sniff, +walked majestically towards the hidden observer, looked at him with great +solemnity, and uttered an inquisitive bark,--a bark not hostile, not +menacing; purely and dryly interrogative. Thus detected, the angler +rose; and Waife, whose attention was directed that way by the bark, saw +him, called to Sir Isaac, and said politely, "There is no harm in my dog, +sir." + +The young man muttered some inaudible reply, and, lifting up his rod as +in sign of his occupation or excuse for his vicinity, came out from the +intervening foliage, and stepped quietly to Waife's side. Sir Isaac +followed him, sniffed again, seemed satisfied; and seating himself on his +haunches, fixed his attention upon the remains of the chicken which lay +defenceless on the grass. The new comer was evidently of the rank of +gentleman; his figure was slim and graceful, his face pale, meditative, +refined. He would have impressed you at once with the idea of what he +really was,--an Oxford scholar; and you would perhaps have guessed him +designed for the ministry of the Church, if not actually in orders. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Mr. Waife excites the admiration, and benignly pities the infirmity, + of an Oxford scholar. + +"You are str-str-strangers?" said the Oxonian, after a violent exertion +to express himself, caused by an impediment in his speech. + +WAIFE.--"Yes, sir, travellers. I trust we are not trespassing: this is +not private ground, I think?" + +OXONIAN.--"And if-f-f-f--it were, my f-f-father would not war-n-n you +off-ff--f." + +"Is it your father's ground, then? Sir, I beg you a thousand pardons." + +The apology was made in the Comedian's grandest style: it imposed greatly +on the young scholar. Waife might have been a duke in disguise; but I +will do the angler the justice to say that such discovery of rank would +have impressed him little more in the vagrant's favour. It had been that +impromptu "grace"--that thanksgiving which the scholar felt was for +something more than the carnal food--which had first commanded his +respect and wakened his interest. Then that innocent careless talk--part +uttered to dog and child, part soliloquized, part thrown out to the ears +of the lively teeming Nature--had touched a somewhat kindred chord in the +angler's soul; for he was somewhat of a poet and much of a soliloquist, +and could confer with Nature, nor feel that impediment in speech which +obstructed his intercourse with men. Having thus far indicated that oral +defect in our new acquaintance, the reader will cheerfully excuse me for +not enforcing it over much. Let it be among the things /subaudita/, as +the sense of it gave to a gifted and aspiring nature, thwarted in the +sublime career of Preacher, an exquisite mournful pain. And I no more +like to raise a laugh at his infirmity behind his back, than I should +before his pale, powerful, melancholy face; therefore I suppress the +infirmity in giving the reply. + +OXONIAN.--" On the other side the lane, where the garden slopes downward, +is my father's house. This ground is his property certainly, but he puts +it to its best use, in lending it to those who so piously acknowledge +that Father from whom all good comes. Your child, I presume, sir?" + +"My grandchild." + +"She seems delicate: I hope you have not far to go?" + +"Not very far, thank you, sir. But my little girl looks more delicate +than she is. You are not tired, darling?" + +"Oh, not at all!" There was no mistaking the looks of real love +interchanged between the old man and the child; the scholar felt much +interested and somewhat puzzled. + +"Who and what could they be? so unlike foot wayfarers!" On the other +hand, too, Waife took a liking to the courteous young man, and conceived +a sincere pity for his physical affliction. But he did not for those +reasons depart from the discreet caution he had prescribed to himself in +seeking new fortunes and shunning old perils, so he turned the subject. + +"You are an angler, sir? I suppose the trout in the stream run small?" + +"Not very: a little higher up I have caught them at four pounds weight." + +WAIFE.--"There goes a fine fish yonder,--see! balancing himself between +those weeds." + +OXONIAN.--"Poor fellow, let him be safe to-day. After all, it is a cruel +sport, and I should break myself of it. But it is strange that whatever +our love for Nature we always seek some excuse for trusting ourselves +alone to her. A gun, a rod, a sketch-book, a geologist's hammer, an +entomologist's net, a something." + +WAIFE.--"Is it not because all our ideas would run wild if not +concentrated on a definite pursuit? Fortune and Nature are earnest +females, though popular beauties; and they do not look upon coquettish +triflers in the light of genuine wooers." + +The Oxonian, who, in venting his previous remark, had thought it likely +he should be above his listener's comprehension, looked surprised. What +pursuits, too, had this one-eyed philosopher? + +"You have a definite pursuit, sir?" + +"I--alas! when a man moralizes, it is a sign that he has known error: it +is because I have been a trifler that I rail against triflers. And +talking of that, time flies, and we must be off and away." + +Sophy re-tied the bundle. Sir Isaac, on whom, meanwhile, she had +bestowed the remains of the chicken, jumped up and described a circle. + +"I wish you success in your pursuit, whatever it be," stuttered out the +angler. + +"And I no less heartily, sir, wish you success in yours." + +"Mine! Success there is beyond my power." + +"How, sir? Does it rest so much with others?" + +"No, my failure is in myself. My career should be the Church, my pursuit +the cure of souls, and--and--this pitiful infirmity! How can I speak the +Divine Word--I--I--a stutterer!" + +The young man did not pause for an answer, but plunged through the +brushwood that bespread the banks of the rill, and his hurried path could +be traced by the wave of the foliage through which he forced his way. + +"We all have our burdens," said Gentleman Waife, as Sir Isaac took up the +bundle and stalked on, placid and refreshed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + The nomad, entering into civilized life, adopts its arts, shaves his + poodle, and puts on a black coat.--Hints at the process by which a + Cast-off exalts himself into a Take-in. + +At twilight they stopped at a quiet inn within eight miles of Gatesboro'. +Sophy, much tired, was glad to creep to bed. Waife sat up long after +her; and, in preparation for the eventful morrow, washed and shaved Sir +Isaac. You would not have known the dog again; he was dazzling. Not +Ulysses, rejuvenated by Pallas Athene, could have been more changed for +the better. His flanks revealed a skin most daintily mottled; his tail +became leonine, with an imperial tuft; his mane fell in long curls like +the beard of a Ninevite king; his boots were those of a courtier in the +reign of Charles II.; his eyes looked forth in dark splendour from locks +white as the driven snow. This feat performed, Waife slept the sleep of +the righteous, and Sir Isaac, stretched on the floor beside the bed, +licked his mottled flanks and shivered: "/il faut souffrir pour etre +beau/." Much marvelling, Sophy the next morning beheld the dog; but, +before she was up, Waife had paid the bill and was waiting for her on +the road, impatient to start. He did not heed her exclamation, half +compassionate, half admiring; he was absorbed in thought. Thus they +proceeded slowly on till within two miles of the town, and then Waife +turned aside, entered a wood, and there, with the aid of Sophy, put the +dog upon a deliberate rehearsal of the anticipated drama. The dog was +not in good spirits, but he went through his part with mechanical +accuracy, though slight enthusiasm. + +"He is to be relied upon, in spite of his French origin," said Waife. +"All national prejudice fades before the sense of a common interest. +And we shall always find more genuine solidity of character in a French +poodle than in an English mastiff, whenever a poodle is of use to us and +the mastiff is not. But oh, waste of care! oh, sacrifice of time to +empty names! oh, emblem of fashionable education! It never struck me +before,--does it not, child though thou art, strike thee now,--by the +necessities of our drama, this animal must be a French dog?" + +"Well, Grandfather?" + +"And we have given him an English name! Precious result of our own +scholastic training, taught at preparatory academies precisely that which +avails us naught when we are to face the world! What is to be done? +Unlearn him his own cognomen,--teach him another name,--too late, too +late. We cannot afford the delay." + +"I don't see why he should be called any name at all. He observes your +signs just as well without." + +"If I had but discovered that at the beginning. Pity! Such a fine name +too. Sir Isaac! /Vanitas vanitatum!/ What desire chiefly kindles the +ambitious? To create a name, perhaps bequeath a title,--exalt into Sir +Isaacs a progeny of slops! And, after all, it is possible (let us hope +it in this instance) that a sensible young dog may learn his letters and +shoulder his musket just as well, though all the appellations by which +humanity knows him be condensed into a pitiful monosyllable. +Nevertheless (as you will find when you are older), people are obliged in +practice to renounce for themselves the application of those rules which +they philosophically prescribe for others. Thus, while I grant that a +change of name for that dog is a question belonging to the policy of Ifs +and Buts, commonly called the policy of Expediency, about which one may +differ from others and one's own self every quarter of an hour, a change +of name for me belongs to the policy of Must and Shall; namely the policy +of Necessity, against which let no dog bark,--though I have known dogs +howl at it! William Waife is no more: he is dead; he is buried; and even +Juliet Araminta is the baseless fabric of a vision." + +Sophy raised inquiringly her blue guileless eyes. + +"You see before you a man who has used up the name of Waife, and who on +entering the town of Gatesboro' becomes a sober, staid, and respectable +personage, under the appellation of Chapman. You are Miss Chapman. +Rugge and his Exhibition 'leave not a wrack behind.'" + +Sophy smiled, and then sighed,--the smile for her grandfather's gay +spirits; wherefore the sigh? Was it that some instinct in that fresh, +loyal nature revolted from the thought of these aliases, which, if +requisite for safety, were still akin to imposture? If so, poor child, +she had much yet to set right with her conscience! All I can say is, +that after she had smiled she sighed. And more reasonably might a reader +ask his author to subject a zephyr to the microscope than a female's sigh +to analysis. + +"Take the dog with you, my dear, back into the lane; I will join you in a +few minutes. You are neatly dressed, and, if not, would look so. I, in +this old coat, have the air of a pedler, so I will change it, and enter +the town of Gatesboro' in the character of--a man whom you will soon see +before you. Leave those things alone, de-Isaacized Sir Isaac! Follow +your mistress,--go!" + +Sophy left the wood, and walked on slowly towards the town, with her hand +pensively resting on Sir Isaac's head. In less than ten minutes she was +joined by Waife, attired in respectable black; his hat and shoes well +brushed; a new green shade to his eye; and with his finest air of /Pere +noble/. He was now in his favourite element. HE WAS ACTING: call it not +imposture. Was Lord Chatham an impostor when he draped his flannels into +the folds of the toga, and arranged the curls of his wig so as to add +more sublime effect to the majesty of his brow and the terrors of its +nod? And certainly, considering that Waife, after all, was but a +professional vagabond, considering all the turns and shifts to which he +has been put for bread and salt, the wonder is, not that he is full of +stage tricks and small deceptions, but that he has contrived to retain at +heart so much childish simplicity. When a man for a series of years has +only had his wits to live by, I say not that he is necessarily a rogue,-- +he may be a good fellow; but you can scarcely expect his code of honour +to be precisely the same as Sir Philip Sidney's. Homer expresses through +the lips of Achilles that sublime love of truth which even in those +remote times was the becoming characteristic of a gentleman and a +soldier. But then, Achilles is well off during his whole life, which, +though distinguished, is short. On the other hand Ulysses, who is sorely +put to it, kept out of his property in Ithaca, and, in short, living on +his wits, is not the less befriended by the immaculate Pallas because his +wisdom savours somewhat of stage trick and sharp practice. And as to +convenient aliases and white fibs, where would have been the use of his +wits, if Ulysses had disdained such arts, and been magnanimously munched +up by Polyphemus? Having thus touched on the epic side of Mr. Waife's +character with the clemency due to human nature, but with the caution +required by the interests of society, permit him to resume a "duplex +course," sanctioned by ancient precedent, but not commended to modern +imitation. + +Just as our travellers neared the town, the screech of a railway whistle +resounded towards the right,--a long train rushed from the jaws of a +tunnel and shot into the neighbouring station. + +"How lucky!" exclaimed Waife; "make haste, my dear!" + +Was he going to take the train? Pshaw! he was at his journey's end. +He was going to mix with the throng that would soon stream through those +white gates into the town; he was going to purloin the respectable +appearance of a passenger by the train. And so well did he act the part +of a bewildered stranger just vomited forth into unfamiliar places by one +of those panting steam monsters,--so artfully, amidst the busy +competition of nudging elbows, over-bearing shoulders, and the +impedimenta of carpet-bags, portmanteaus, babies in arms, and shin- +assailing trucks, did he look round, consequentially, on the /qui vive/, +turning his one eye, now on Sophy, now on Sir Isaac, and griping his +bundle to his breast as if he suspected all his neighbours to be Thugs, +condottieri, and swellmob,--that in an instant fly-men, omnibus drivers, +cads, and porters marked him for their own. "Gatesboro' Arms," "Spread +Eagle," "Royal Hotel," "Saracen's Head; very comfortable, centre of High +Street, opposite the Town Hall,"--were shouted, bawled, whispered, or +whined into his ear. + +"Is there an honest porter?" asked the Comedian, piteously. An Irishman +presented himself. "And is it meself can serve your honour?"--"Take this +bundle, and walk on before me to the High Street."--"Could not I take the +bundle, Grandfather? The man will charge so much," said the prudent +Sophy. "Hush! you indeed!" said the Pere Noble, as if addressing an +exiled Altesse royale,--"you take a bundle--Miss--Chapman!" + +They soon gained the High Street. Waife examined the fronts of the +various inns which they passed by with an eye accustomed to decipher the +physiognomy of hostelries. The Saracen's Head pleased him, though its +imposing size daunted Sophy. He arrested the steps of the porter, +"Follow me close," and stepped across the open threshold into the bar. +The landlady herself was there, portly and imposing, with an auburn +toupet, a silk gown, a cameo brooch, and an ample bosom. + +"You have a private sitting-room, ma'am?" said the Comedian, lifting his +hat. There are so many ways of lifting a hat,-for instance, the way for +which Louis XIV. was so renowned. But the Comedian's way on the present +occasion rather resembled that of the late Duke of B--------, not quite +royal, but as near to royalty as becomes a subject. He added, recovering +his head,--"And on the first floor?" The landlady did not courtesy, but +she bowed, emerged from the bar, and set foot on the broad stairs; then, +looking back graciously, her eyes rested on Sir Isaac, who had stalked +forth in advance and with expansive nostrils sniffed. She hesitated. +"Your dog, sir! shall Boots take it round to the stables?" + +"The stables, ma'am--the stables, my dear," turning to Sophy, with a +smile more ducal than the previous bow; "what would they say at home if +they heard that noble animal was consigned to-stables? Ma'am, my dog is +my companion, and as much accustomed to drawing-rooms as I am myself." +Still the landlady paused. The dog might be accustomed to drawing-rooms, +but her drawing-room was not accustomed to dogs. She had just laid down +a new carpet. And such are the strange and erratic affinities in nature, +such are the incongruous concatenations in the cross-stitch of ideas, +that there are associations between dogs and carpets, which, if wrongful +to the owners of dogs, beget no unreasonable apprehensions in the +proprietors of carpets. So there stood the landlady, and there stood the +dog! and there they might be standing to this day had not the Comedian +dissolved the spell. "Take up my effects again," said he, turning to the +porter; "doubtless they are more habituated to distinguish between dog +and dog at the Royal Hotel." + +The landlady was mollified in a moment. Nor was it only the rivalries +that necessarily existed between the Saracen's Head and the Royal Hotel +that had due weight with her. A gentleman who could not himself deign to +carry even that small bundle must be indeed a gentleman! Had he come +with a portmanteau--even with a carpet-bag--the porter's service would +have been no evidence of rank; but accustomed as she was chiefly to +gentlemen engaged in commercial pursuits, it was new to her experience, +--a gentleman with effects so light, and hands so aristocratically +helpless. Herein were equally betokened the two attributes of birth and +wealth; namely, the habit of command and the disdain of shillings. A +vague remembrance of the well-known story how a man and his dog had +arrived at the Granby Hotel, at Harrowgate, and been sent away roomless +to the other and less patrician establishment, because, while he had a +dog, he had not a servant; when, five minutes after such dismissal, came +carriages and lackeys and an imperious valet, asking for his grace the +Duke of A--------, who had walked on before with his dog, and who, oh, +everlasting thought of remorse! had been sent away to bring the other +establishment into fashion,--a vague reminiscence of that story, I say, +flashed upon the landlady's mind, and she exclaimed, "I only thought, +sir, you might prefer the stables; of course, it is as you please. This +way, sir. He is a fine animal, indeed, and seems mild." + +"You may bring up the bundle, porter," quoth the Pere Noble. "Take my +arm, my dear; these steps are very steep." + +The landlady threw open the door of a handsome sitting-room,--her best: +she pulled down the blinds to shut out the glare of the sun; then +retreating to the threshold awaited further orders. + +"Rest yourself, my dear," said the Actor, placing Sophy on a couch with +that tender respect for sex and childhood which so specially belongs to +the high-bred. "The room will do, ma'am. I will let you know later +whether we shall require beds. As to dinner, I am not particular,-- +a cutlet, a chicken, what you please, at seven o'clock. Stay, I beg your +pardon for detaining you, but where does the Mayor live?" + +"His private residence is a mile out of the town, but his counting-house +is just above the Town Hall,--to the right, sir." + +"Name?" + +"Mr. Hartopp!" + +"Hartopp! Ah! to be sure! Hartopp. His political opinions, I think, +are" (ventures at a guess) "enlightened?" + +LANDLADY.--"Very much so, sir. Mr. Hartopp is highly respected." + +WAIFE.--"The chief municipal officer of a town so thriving--fine shops +and much plate glass--must march with the times. I think I have heard +that Mr. Hartopp promotes the spread of intelligence and the propagation +of knowledge." + +LANDLADY (rather puzzled).--"I dare say, sir. The Mayor takes great +interest in the Gatesboro' Athemeum and Literary Institute." + +WAIFE.--"Exactly what I should have presumed from his character and +station. I will detain you no longer, ma'am" (ducal bow). The landlady +descended the stairs. Was her guest a candidate for the representation +of the town at the next election? March with the times!--spread of +intelligence! All candidates she ever knew had that way of expressing +themselves,--"March" and "Spread." Not an address had parliamentary +aspirant put forth to the freemen and electors of Gatesboro' but what +"March" had been introduced by the candidate, and "Spread" been suggested +by the committee. Still she thought that her guest, upon the whole, +looked and bowed more like a member of the Upper House,--perhaps one of +the amiable though occasionally prosy peers who devote the teeth of +wisdom to the cracking of those very hard nuts, "How to educate the +masses," "What to do with our criminals," and such like problems, upon +which already have been broken so many jawbones tough as that with which +Samson slew the Philistines. + +"Oh, Grandfather!" sighed Sophy, "what are you about? We shall be +ruined, you, too, who are so careful not to get into debt. And what have +we left to pay the people here?" + +"Sir Isaac! and THIS!" returned the Comedian, touching his forehead. "Do +not alarm yourself: stay here and repose; and don't let Sir Isaac out of +the room on any account!" + +He took off his hat, brushed the nap carefully with his sleeve, replaced +it on his head,--not jauntily aside, not like a jeune premier, but with +equilateral brims, and in composed fashion, like a /pere noble/; then, +making a sign to Sir Isaac to rest quiet, be passed to the door; there he +halted, and turning towards Sophy, and, meeting her wistful eyes, his +own eye moistened. "Ah!" he murmured, "Heaven grant I may succeed now, +for if I do, then you shall indeed be a little lady!" + +He was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Showing with what success Gentleman Waife assumes the pleasing part + of friend to the enlightenment of the age and the progress of the + people. + +On the landing-place, Waife encountered the Irish porter, who, having +left the bundle in the drawing-room, was waiting patiently to be paid for +his trouble. + +The Comedian surveyed the good-humoured shrewd face, on every line of +which was writ the golden maxim, "Take things asy." "I beg your pardon, +my friend; I had almost forgotten you. Have you been long in this town?" + +"Four years, and long life to your honour!" + +"Do you know Mr. Hartopp, the Mayor?" + +"Is it his worship the Mayor? Sure and it is the Mayor as has made a man +o' Mike Callaghan." + +The Comedian evinced urbane curiosity to learn the history of that +process, and drew forth a grateful tale. Four summers ago Mike had +resigned the "first gem of the sea" in order to assist in making hay for +a Saxon taskmaster. + +Mr. Hartopp, who farmed largely, had employed him in that rural +occupation. Seized by a malignant fever, Mr. Hartopp had helped him +through it, and naturally conceived a liking for the man he helped. +Thus, as Mike became convalescent, instead of passing the poor man back +to his own country, which at that time gave little employment to the +surplus of its agrarian population beyond an occasional shot at a +parson,--an employment, though animated, not lucrative, he exercised +Mike's returning strength upon a few light jobs in his warehouse; and +finally, Mike marrying imprudently the daughter of a Gatesboro' +operative, Mr. Hartopp set him up in life as a professional messenger +and porter, patronized by the Corporation. The narrative made it evident +that Mr. Hartopp was a kind and worthy man, and the Comedian's heart +warmed towards him. + +"An honour to our species, this Mr. Hartopp!" said Waife, striking his +staff upon the floor; "I covet his acquaintance. Would he see you if you +called at his counting-house?" + +Mike replied in the affirmative with eager pride. "Mr. Hartopp would see +him at once. Sure, did not the Mayor know that time was money? Mr. +Hartopp was not a man to keep the poor waiting." + +"Go down and stay outside the hall door; you shall take a note for me to +the Mayor." + +Waife then passed into the bar, and begged the favour of a sheet of note- +paper. The landlady seated him at her own desk, and thus wrote the +Comedian: + + "Mr. Chapman presents his compliments to the Mayor of Gatesboro', + and requests the Honour of a very short interview. Mr. Chapman's + deep interest in the permanent success of those literary institutes + which are so distinguished a feature of this enlightened age, and + Mr. Mayor's well-known zeal in the promotion of those invaluable + societies, must be Mr. Chapman's excuse for the liberty he ventures + to take in this request. Mr. C. may add that of late he has + earnestly directed his attention to the best means of extracting new + uses from those noble but undeveloped institutions. + + "Saracens Head, &c." + +This epistle, duly sealed and addressed, Waife delivered to the care of +Mike Callaghan; and simultaneously he astounded that functionary with no +less a gratuity than half a crown. Cutting short the fervent blessings +which this generous donation naturally called forth, the Comedian said, +with his happiest combination of suavity and loftiness, "And should the +Mayor ask you what sort of person I am,--for I have not the honour to be +known to him, and there are so many adventurers about, that he might +reasonably expect me to be one, perhaps you can say that I don't look +like a person he need be afraid to admit. You know a gentleman by sight! +Bring back an answer as soon as may be; perhaps I sha'n't stay long in +the town. You will find me in the High Street, looking at the shops." + +The porter took to his legs, impatient to vent his overflowing heart upon +the praises of this munificent stranger. A gentleman, indeed! Mike +should think so! If Mike's good word with the Mayor was worth money, +Gentleman Waife had put his half-crown out upon famous interest. + +The Comedian strolled along the High Street, and stopped before a +stationer's shop, at the window of which was displayed a bill, entitled, + + GATESBORO' ATHENIEUM + AND LITERARY INSTITUTE. + + LECTURE ON CONCHOLOGY. + + BY PROFESSOR LONG. + Author of "Researches into the Natural + History of Limpets." + +Waife entered the shop, and lifted his hat,--"Permit me, sir, to look at +that hand-bill." + +"Certainly, sir; but the lecture is over; you can see by the date: it +came off last week. We allow the bills of previous proceedings at our +Athenaeum to be exposed at the window till the new bills are prepared, +--keeps the whole thing alive, sir." + +"Conchology," said the Comedian, "is a subject which requires deep +research, and on which a learned man may say much without fear of +contradiction. But how far is Gatesboro' from the British Ocean?" + +"I don't know exactly, sir,--a long way." + +"Then, as shells are not familiar to the youthful remembrances of your +fellow-townsmen, possibly the lecturer may have found an audience rather +select than numerous." + +"It was a very attentive audience, sir, and highly respectable: Miss +Grieve's young ladies' (the genteelest seminary in the town) attended." + +WAIFE.--"Highly creditable to the young ladies. But, pardon me, is your +Athenaeum a Mechanics' institute?" + +SHOPMAN.--"It was so called at first. But, somehow or other, the mere +operatives fell off, and it was thought advisable to change the word +'Mechanics' into the word 'Literary.' Gatesboro' is not a manufacturing +town, and the mechanics here do not realize the expectations of that +taste for abstract science on which the originators of these societies +founded their--" + +WAIFE (insinuatingly interrupting).--"Their calculations of intellectual +progress and their tables of pecuniary return. Few of these societies, +I am told, are really self-supporting: I suppose Professor Long is!--and +if he resides in Gatesboro', and writes on limpets, he is probably a man +of independent fortune." + +SHOPMAN.--"Why, sir, the professor was engaged from London,--five guineas +and his travelling expenses. The funds of the society could ill afford +such outlay; but we have a most worthy mayor, who, assisted by his +foreman, Mr. Williams, our treasurer, is, I may say, the life and soul +of the institute." + +"A literary man himself, your mayor?" + +The shopman smiled. "Not much in that way, sir; but anything to +enlighten the working classes. This is Professor Long's great work upon +limpets, two vols. post octavo. The Mayor has just presented it to the +library of the institute. I was cutting the leaves when you came in." + +"Very prudent in you, sir. If limpets were but able to read printed +character in the English tongue, this work would have more interest for +them than the ablest investigations upon the political and social history +of man. But," added the Comedian, shaking his head mournfully, "the +human species is not testaceous; and what the history of man might be to +a limpet, the history of limpets is to a man." So saying, Mr. Waife +bought a sheet of cardboard and some gilt foil, relifted his hat, and +walked out. + +The shopman scratched his head thoughtfully; he glanced from his window +at the form of the receding stranger, and mechanically resumed the task +of cutting those leaves, which, had the volumes reached the shelves of +the library uncut, would have so remained to the crack of doom. + +Mike Callaghan now came in sight, striding fast; "Mr. Mayor sends his +love--bother-o'-me--his respex; and will be happy to see your honour." + +In three minutes more the Comedian was seated in a little parlour that +adjoined Mr. Hartopp's counting-house,--Mr. Hartopp seated also, vis-a- +vis. The Mayor had one of those countenances upon which good-nature +throws a sunshine softer than Claude ever shed upon canvas. Josiah +Hartopp had risen in life by little other art than that of quiet +kindliness. As a boy at school, he had been ever ready to do a good turn +to his school-fellows; and his school-fellows at last formed themselves +into a kind of police, for the purpose of protecting Jos. Hartopp's pence +and person from the fists and fingers of each other. He was evidently so +anxious to please his master, not from fear of the rod, but the desire to +spare that worthy man the pain of inflicting it, that he had more trouble +taken with his education than was bestowed on the brightest intellect +that school ever reared; and where other boys were roughly flogged, Jos. +Hartopp was soothingly patted on the head, and told not to be cast down, +but try again. The same even-handed justice returned the sugared chalice +to his lips in his apprenticeship to an austere leather-seller, who, not +bearing the thought to lose sight of so mild a face, raised him into +partnership, and ultimately made him his son-in-law and residuary +legatee. Then Mr. Hartopp yielded to the advice of friends who desired +his exaltation, and from a leather-seller became a tanner. Hides +themselves softened their asperity to that gentle dealer, and melted into +golden fleeces. He became rich enough to hire a farm for health and +recreation. He knew little of husbandry, but he won the heart of a +bailiff who might have reared a turnip from a deal table. Gradually the +farm became his fee-simple, and the farmhouse expanded into a villa. +Wealth and honours flowed in from a brimmed horn. The surliest man in +the town would have been ashamed of saying a rude thing to Jos. Hartopp. +If he spoke in public, though he hummed and hawed lamentably, no one was +so respectfully listened to. As for the parliamentary representation of +the town, he could have returned himself for one seat and Mike Callaghan +for the other, had he been so disposed. But he was too full of the milk +of humanity to admit into his veins a drop from the gall of party. He +suffered others to legislate for his native land, and (except on one +occasion when he had been persuaded to assist in canvassing, not indeed +the electors of Gatesboro', but those of a distant town in which he +possessed some influence, on behalf of a certain eminent orator) Jos. +Hartopp was only visible in politics whenever Parliament was to be +petitioned in favour of some humane measure, or against a tax that would +have harassed the poor. + +If anything went wrong with him in his business, the whole town combined +to set it right for him. Was a child born to him, Gatesboro' rejoiced as +a mother. Did measles or scarlatina afflict his neighbourhood, the first +anxiety of Gatesboro' was for Mr. Hartopp's nursery. No one would have +said Mrs. Hartopp's nursery; and when in such a department the man's name +supersedes the woman's, can more be said in proof of the tenderness he +excites? In short, Jos. Hartopp was a notable instance of a truth not +commonly recognized; namely, that affection is power, and that, if you do +make it thoroughly and unequivocally clear that you love your neighbours, +though it may not be quite so well as you love yourself,--still, +cordially and disinterestedly, you will find your neighbours much better +fellows than Mrs. Grundy gives them credit for,--but always provided that +your talents be not such as to excite their envy, nor your opinions such +as to offend their prejudices. + +MR. HARTOPP.--"You take an interest, you say, in literary institutes, and +have studied the subject?" + +THE COMEDIAN.--"Of late, those institutes have occupied my thoughts as +representing the readiest means of collecting liberal ideas into a +profitable focus." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"Certainly it is a great thing to bring classes together in +friendly union." + +THE COMEDIAN.--"For laudable objects." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"To cultivate their understandings." + +THE COMEDIAN.--"To warm their hearts." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"To give them useful knowledge." + +THE COMEDIAN.--"And pleasurable sensations." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"In a word, to instruct them." + +THE COMEDIAN.--"And to amuse." + +"Eh!" said the Mayor,--"amuse!" + +Now, every one about the person of this amiable man was on the constant +guard to save him from the injurious effects of his own benevolence; and +accordingly his foreman, hearing that he was closeted with a stranger, +took alarm, and entered on pretence of asking instructions about an order +for hides, in reality, to glower upon the intruder, and keep his master's +hands out of imprudent pockets. + +Mr. Hartopp, who, though not brilliant, did not want for sense, and +was a keener observer than was generally supposed, divined the kindly +intentions of his assistant. "A gentleman interested in the Gatesboro' +Athenaeum. My foreman, sir,--Mr. Williams, the treasurer of our +institute. Take a chair, Williams." + +"You said to amuse, Mr. Chapman, but--" + +"You did not find Professor Long on conchology amusing." + +"Why," said the Mayor, smiling blandly, "I myself am not a man of +science, and therefore his lecture, though profound, was a little dry +to me." + +"Must it not have been still more dry to your workmen, Mr. Mayor?" + +"They did not attend," said Williams. "Up-hill task we have to secure +the Gatesboro' mechanics, when anything really solid is to be addressed +to their understandings." + +"Poor things, they are so tired at night," said the Mayor, +compassionately; "but they wish to improve themselves, and they take +books from the library." + +"Novels," quoth the stern Williams: "it will be long before they take out +that valuable 'History of Limpets." + +"If a lecture were as amusing as a novel, would not they attend it?" +asked the Comedian. + +"I suppose they would," returned Mr. Williams. "But our object is to +instruct; and instruction, sir--" + +"Could be made amusing. If, for instance, the lecturer could produce a +live shell-fish, and, by showing what kindness can do towards developing +intellect and affection in beings without soul,--make man himself more +kind to his fellow-man?" + +Mr. Williams laughed grimly. "Well, sir!" + +"This is what I should propose to do." + +"With a shell-fish!" cried the Mayor. + +"No, sir; with a creature of nobler attributes,--A DOG!" + +The listeners stared at each other like dumb animals as Waife continued,- +"By winning interest for the individuality of a gifted quadruped, I +should gradually create interest in the natural history of its species. +I should lead the audience on to listen to comparisons with other members +of the great family which once associated with Adam. I should lay the +foundation for an instructive course of natural history, and from +vertebrated mammifers who knows but we might gradually arrive at the +nervous system of the molluscous division, and produce a sensation by the +production of a limpet?" + +"Theoretical," said Mr. Williams. + +"Practical, sir; since I take it for granted that the Athenaeum, at +present, is rather a tax upon the richer subscribers, including Mr. +Mayor." + +"Nothing to speak of," said the mild Hartopp. Williams looked towards +his master with unspeakable love, and groaned. "Nothing indeed--oh!" + +"These societies should be wholly self-supporting," said the Comedian, +"and inflict no pecuniary loss upon Mr. Mayor." + +"Certainly," said Williams, "that is the right principle. Mr. Mayor +should be protected." + +"And if I show you how to make these societies self-supporting--" + +"We should be very much obliged to you." + +"I propose, then, to give an exhibition at your rooms." Mr. Williams +nudged the Mayor, and coughed, the Comedian not appearing to remark cough +nor nudge. + +"Of course gratuitously. I am not a professional lecturer, gentlemen." + +Mr. Williams looked charmed to hear it. + +"And when I have made my first effort successful, as I feel sure it will +be, I will leave it to you, gentlemen, to continue my undertaking. But I +cannot stay long here. If the day after to-morrow--" + +"That is our ordinary soiree night," said the Mayor. "But you said a +dog, sir,--dogs not admitted,-eh, Williams?" + +MR. WILLIAMS.--"A mere by-law, which the subcommittee can suspend if +necessary. But would not the introduction of a live animal be less +dignified than--" + +"A dead failure," put in the Comedian, gravely. The Mayor would have +smiled, but he was afraid of doing so lest he might hurt the feelings of +Mr. Williams, who did not seem to take the joke. + +"We are a purely intellectual body," said the latter gentleman, "and a +dog--" + +"A learned dog, I presume," observed the Mayor. + +MR. WILLIAMS (nodding).--"Might form a dangerous precedent for the +introduction of other quadrupeds. We might thus descend even to the +level of a learned pig. We are not a menagerie, Mr.--Mr.--" + +"Chapman," said the Mayor, urbanely. + +"Enough," said the Comedian, rising with his grand air; "if I considered +myself at liberty, gentlemen, to say who and what I am, you would be sure +that I am not trifling with what I consider a very grave and important +subject. As to suggesting anything derogatory to the dignity of science, +and the eminent repute of the Gatesboro' Athenaeum, it would be idle to +vindicate myself. These gray hairs are--" + +He did not conclude that sentence, save by a slight wave of the hand. +The two burgesses bowed reverentially, and the Comedian went on,-- + +"But when you speak of precedent, Mr. Williams, allow me to refer you to +precedents in point. Aristotle wrote to Alexander the Great for animals +to exhibit to the Literary Institute of Athens. At the colleges in Egypt +lectures were delivered on a dog called Anubis, as inferior, I boldly +assert, to that dog which I have referred to, as an Egyptian College to +a British Institute. The ancient Etrurians, as is shown by the erudite +Schweighduser in that passage--you understand Greek, I presume, Mr. +Williams?" + +Mr. Williams could not say he did. + +THE COMEDIAN.--"Then I will not quote that passage in Schweighauser upon +the Molossian dogs in general, and the dog of Alcibiades in particular. +But it proves beyond a doubt, that, in every ancient literary institute, +learned dogs were highly estimated; and there was even a philosophical +Academy called the Cynic,--that is, Doggish, or Dog-school, of which +Diogenes was the most eminent professor. He, you know, went about with a +lantern looking for an honest man, and could not find one! Why? Because +the Society of Dogs had raised his standard of human honesty to an +impracticable height. But I weary you; otherwise I could lecture on in +this way for the hour together, if you think the Gatesboro' operatives +prefer erudition to amusement." + +"A great scholar," whispered Mr. Williams.--Aloud: "and I've nothing to +say against your precedents, sir. I think you have made out that part of +the case. But, after all, a learned dog is not so very uncommon as to be +in itself the striking attraction which you appear to suppose." + +"It is not the mere learning of my dog of which I boast," replied the +Comedian. "Dogs may be learned, and men too; but it is the way that +learning is imparted, whether by dog or man, for the edification of the +masses, in order, as Pope expresses himself, 'to raise the genius and to +mend the heart' that alone adorns the possessor, exalts the species, +interests the public, and commands the respect of such judges as I see +before me." The grand bow. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Williams, hesitatingly, "sentiments that do honour to +your head and heart; and if we could, in the first instance, just see the +dog privately." + +"'Nothing easier!" said the Comedian. "Will you do me the honour to +meet him at tea this evening?" + +"Rather will you not come and take tea at my house?" said the Mayor, +with a shy glance towards Mr. Williams. + +THE COMEDIAN.--"You are very kind; but my time is so occupied that I have +long since made it a rule to decline all private invitations out of my +own home. At my years, Mr. Mayor, one may be excused for taking leave of +society and its forms; but you are comparatively young men. I presume on +the authority of these gray hairs, and I shall expect you this evening, +--say at nine o'clock." The Actor waved his hand graciously and +withdrew. + +"A scholar AND a gentleman," said Williams, emphatically. And the Mayor, +thus authorized to allow vent to his kindly heart, added, "A humourist, +and a pleasant one. Perhaps he is right, and our poor operatives would +thank us more for a little innocent amusement than for those lectures, +which they may be excused for thinking rather dull, since even you fell +asleep when Professor Long got into the multilocular shell of the very +first class of cephalous mollusca; and it is my belief that harmless +laughter has a good moral effect upon the working class,--only don't +spread it about that I said so, for we know excellent persons of a +serious turn of mind whose opinions that sentiment might shock." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + HISTORICAL PROBLEM: "Is Gentleman Waife a swindler or a man of + genius?" ANSWER: "Certainly a swindler, if he don't succeed." + Julius Caesar owed two millions when he risked the experiment of + being general in Gaul. If Julius Caesar had not lived to cross the + Rubicon and pay off his debts, what would his creditors have called + Julius Caesar? + +I need not say that Mr. Hartopp and his foreman came duly to tea, but the +Comedian exhibited Sir Isaac's talents very sparingly,--just enough to +excite admiration without sating curiosity. Sophy, whose pretty face and +well-bred air were not unappreciated, was dismissed early to bed by a +sign from her grandfather, and the Comedian then exerted his powers to +entertain his visitors, so that even Sir Isaac was soon forgotten. Hard +task, by writing, to convey a fair idea of this singular vagrant's +pleasant vein. It was not so much what he said as the way of saying it, +which gave to his desultory talk the charm of humour. He had certainly +seen an immense deal of life somehow or other; and without appearing at +the time to profit much by observation, without perhaps being himself +conscious that he did profit, there was something in the very +/enfantillage/ of his loosest prattle, by which, with a glance of the +one lustrous eye and a twist of the mobile lip, he could convey the +impression of an original genius playing with this round world of ours-- +tossing it up, catching it again--easily as a child plays with its party- +coloured ball. His mere book-knowledge was not much to boast of, though +early in life he must have received a fair education. He had a +smattering of the ancient classics, sufficient, perhaps, to startle +the unlearned. If he had not read them, he had read about them; and at +various odds and ends of his life he had picked up acquaintance with the +popular standard modern writers. But literature with him was the +smallest stripe in the party-coloured ball. Still it was astonishing how +far and wide the Comedian could spread the sands of lore that the winds +had drifted round the door of his playful, busy intellect. Where, for +instance, could he ever have studied the nature and prospects of +Mechanics' Institutes? and yet how well he seemed to understand them. +Here, perhaps, his experience in one kind of audience helped him to the +key to all miscellaneous assemblages. In fine, the man was an actor; and +if he had thought fit to act the part of Professor Long himself, he would +have done it to the life. + +The two burghers had not spent so pleasant an evening for many years. As +the clock struck twelve, the Mayor, whose gig had been in waiting a whole +hour to take him to his villa, rose reluctantly to depart. + +"And," said Williams, "the bills must be out to-morrow. What shall we +advertise?" + +"The simpler the better," said Waife; "only pray head the performance +with the assurance that it is under the special patronage of his worship +the Mayor." + +The Mayor felt his breast swell as if he had received some overwhelming +personal obligation. + +"Suppose it run thus," continued the Comedian,--"Illustrations from +Domestic Life and Natural History, with LIVE examples: PART FIRST--THE +DOG!" + +"It will take," said the Mayor: "dogs are such popular animals!" + +"Yes," said Williams; "and though for that very reason some might think +that by the 'live example of a dog' we compromised the dignity of the +Institute, still the importance of Natural History--" + +"And," added the Comedian, "the sanctifying influences of domestic +life--" + +"May," concluded Mr. Williams, "carry off whatever may seem to the higher +order of minds a too familiar attraction in the--dog!" + +"I do not fear the result," said Waife, "provided the audience be +sufficiently numerous; for that (which is an indispensable condition to a +fair experiment) I issue hand-bills, only where distributed by the +Mayor." + +"Don't be too sanguine. I distributed bills on behalf of Professor Long, +and the audience was not numerous. How ever, I will do my best. Is +there nothing more in which I can be of use to you, Mr. Chapman?" + +"Yes, later." Williams took alarm, and approached the Mayor's breast- +pocket protectingly. The Comedian withdrew him aside and whispered, "I +intend to give the Mayor a little outline of the exhibition, and bring +him into it, in order that his fellow-townsmen may signify their regard +for him by a cheer; it will please his good heart, and be touching, +you'll see--mum!" Williams shook the Comedian by the hand, relieved, +affected, and confiding. + +The visitors departed; and the Comedian lighted his hand-candlestick, +whistled to Sir Isaac, and went to bed without one compunctious thought +upon the growth of his bill and the deficit in his pockets. And yet it +was true, as Sophy implied, that the Comedian had an honest horror of +incurring debt. He generally thought twice before he risked owing even +the most trifling bill; and when the bill came in, if it left him +penniless, it was paid. And, now, what reckless extravagance! The best +apartments! dinner, tea, in the first hotel of the town! half-a-crown to +a porter! That lavish mode of life renewed with the dawning sun! not a +care for the morrow; and I dare not conjecture how few the shillings in +that purse. What aggravation, too, of guilt! Bills incurred without +means under a borrowed name! I don't pretend to be a lawyer; but it +looks to me very much like swindling. Yet the wretch sleeps. But are we +sure that we are not shallow moralists? Do we carry into account the +right of genius to draw bills upon the Future? Does not the most prudent +general sometimes burn his ships? Does not the most upright merchant +sometimes take credit on the chance of his ventures? May not that +peaceful slumberer be morally sure that he has that argosy afloat in his +own head, which amply justifies his use of the "Saracen's"? If his plan +should fail? He will tell you that is impossible! But if it should +fail, you say. Listen; there runs a story-I don't vouch for its truth: +I tell it as it was told to me--there runs a storv that in the late +Russian war a certain naval veteran, renowned for professional daring and +scientific invention, was examined before some great officials as to the +chances of taking Cronstadt. "If you send me," said the admiral, "with +so many ships of the line, and so many gunboats, Cronstadt of course will +be taken." "But," said a prudent lord, "suppose it should not be taken?" +"That is impossible: it must be taken!" "Yes," persisted my lord, "you +think so, no doubt; but still, if it should not be taken,--what then?" +"What then?--why, there's an end of the British fleet!" The great men +took alarm, and that admiral was not sent. But they misconstrued the +meaning of his answer. He meant not to imply any considerable danger to +the British fleet. He meant to prove that one hypothesis was impossible +by the suggestion of a counter-impossibility more self-evident. "It is +impossible but what I shall take Cronstadt!" "But if you don't take it!" +"It is impossible but what I shall take it; for if I don't take it, +there's an end of the British fleet; and as it is impossible that there +should be an end of the British fleet, it is impossible that I should not +take Cronstadt!"--Q.E.D. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + In which everything depends on Sir Isaac's success in discovering + the law of attraction. + +On the appointed evening, at eight o'clock, the great room of the +Gatesboro' Athenaeum was unusually well filled. Not only had the Mayor +exerted himself to the utmost for that object, but the hand-bill itself +promised a rare relief from the prosiness of abstract enlightenment and +elevated knowledge. Moreover, the stranger himself had begun to excite +speculation and curiosity. He was an amateur, not a cut-and-dry +professor. The Mayor and Mr. Williams had both spread the report that +there was more in him than appeared on the surface; prodigiously learned, +but extremely agreeable, fine manners, too!--Who could he be? Was +Chapman his real name? etc. + +The Comedian had obtained permission to arrange the room beforehand. +He had the raised portion of it for his stage, and he had been fortunate +enough to find a green curtain to be drawn across it. From behind this +screen he now emerged and bowed. The bow redoubled the first +conventional applause. He then began a very short address,--extremely +well delivered, as you may suppose, but rather in the conversational than +the oratorical style. He said it was his object to exhibit the +intelligence of that Universal Friend of Man, the Dog, in some manner +appropriate, not only to its sagacious instincts, but to its affectionate +nature, and to convey thereby the moral that talents, however great, +learning, however deep, were of no avail, unless rendered serviceable to +Man. (Applause.) He must be pardoned then, if, in order to effect this +object, he was compelled to borrow some harmless effects from the stage. +In a word, his dog could represent to them the plot of a little drama. +And he, though he could not say that he was altogether unaccustomed to +public speaking (here a smile, modest, but august as that of some famous +parliamentary orator who makes his first appearance at a vestry), still +wholly new to its practice in the special part he had undertaken, would +rely on their indulgence to efforts aspiring to no other merit than that +of aiding the Hero of the Piece in a familiar illustration of those +qualities in which dogs might give a lesson to humanity. Again he bowed, +and retired behind the curtain. A pause of three minutes! the curtain +drew up. Could that be the same Mr. Chapman whom the spectators beheld +before them? Could three minutes suffice to change the sleek, +respectable, prosperous-looking gentleman who had just addressed them +into that image of threadbare poverty and hunger-pinched dejection? +Little aid from theatrical costume: the clothes seemed the same, only to +have grown wondrous aged and rusty. The face, the figure, the man,-- +these had undergone a transmutation beyond the art of the mere stage +wardrobe, be it ever so amply stored, to effect. But for the patch over +the eye, you could not have recognized Mr. Chapman. There was, indeed, +about him, still, an air of dignity; but it was the dignity of woe,-- +a dignity, too, not of an affable civilian, but of some veteran soldier. +You could not mistake. Though not in uniform, the melancholy man must +have been a warrior! The way the coat was buttoned across the chest, the +black stock tightened round the throat, the shoulders thrown back in the +disciplined habit of a life, though the head bent forward in the +despondency of an eventful crisis,--all spoke the decayed but not +ignoble hero of a hundred fields. + +There was something foreign, too, about the veteran's air. Mr. Chapman +had looked so thoroughly English: that tragical and meagre personage +looked so unequivocally French. + +Not a word had the Comedian yet said; and yet all this had the first +sight of him conveyed to the audience. There was an amazed murmur, then +breathless stillness; the story rapidly unfolded itself, partly by words, +much more by look and ac tion. There sat a soldier who had fought under +Napoleon at Marengo and Austerlitz, gone through the snows of Muscovy, +escaped the fires of Waterloo,--the soldier of the Empire! Wondrous +ideal of a wondrous time! and nowhere winning more respect and awe than +in that land of the old English foe, in which with slight knowledge of +the Beautiful in Art, there is so reverent a sympathy for all that is +grand in Man! There sat the soldier, penniless and friendless, there, +scarcely seen, reclined his grandchild, weak and slowly dying for the +want of food; and all that the soldier possesses wherewith to buy bread +for the day, is his cross of the Legion of Honour. It was given to him +by the hand of the Emperor: must he pawn or sell it? Out on the pomp of +decoration which we have substituted for the voice of passionate nature +on our fallen stage! Scenes so faithful to the shaft of a column,-- +dresses by which an antiquary can define a date to a year! Is delusion +there? Is it thus we are snatched from Thebes to Athens? No; place a +really fine actor on a deal board, and for Thebes and Athens you may hang +up a blanket! Why, that very cross which the old soldier holds--away +from his sight--in that tremulous hand, is but patched up from the foil +and cardboard bought at the stationer's shop. You might see it was +nothing more, if you tried to see. Did a soul present think of such +minute investigation? Not one. In the actor's hand that trumpery became +at once the glorious thing by which Napoleon had planted the sentiment of +knightly heroism in the men whom Danton would have launched upon earth +ruthless and bestial, as galley-slaves that had burst their chain. + +The badge, wrought from foil and cardboard, took life and soul: it begot +an interest, inspired a pathos, as much as if it had been made--oh! not +of gold and gems, but of flesh and blood. And the simple broken words +that the veteran addressed to it! The scenes, the fields, the hopes, the +glories it conjured up! And now to be wrenched away,--sold to supply +Man's humblest, meanest wants,--sold--the last symbol of such a past! +It was indeed "/propter vitam vivendi perdere causas/." He would have +starved rather,--but the child? And then the child rose up and came into +play. She would not suffer such a sacrifice,--she was not hungry,--she +was not weak; and when her voice failed her, she looked up into that iron +face and smiled,--nothing but a smile. Outcame the pocket-handkerchiefs! +The soldier seizes the cross, and turns away. It shall be sold! As he +opens the door, a dog enters gravely,--licks his hand, approaches the +table, raises itself on its hind legs, surveys the table dolefully, +shakes its head, whines, comes to its master, pulls him by the skirt, +looks into his face inquisitively. + +What does all this mean? It soon comes out, and very naturally. The dog +belonged to an old fellow-soldier, who had gone to the Isle of France to +claim his share in the inheritance of a brother who had settled and died +there, and who, meanwhile, had confided it to the care of our veteran, +who was then in comparatively easy circumstances, since ruined by the +failure and fraud of a banker to whom he had intrusted his all; and his +small pension, including the yearly sum to which his cross entitled him, +had been forestalled and mortgaged to pay the petty debts which, relying +on his dividend from the banker, he had innocently incurred. The dog's +owner had been gone for months; his return might be daily expected. +Meanwhile the dog was at the hearth, but the wolf at the door. Now, this +sagacious animal had been taught to perform the duties of messenger and +major-domo. At stated intervals he applied to his master for sous, and +brought back the supplies which the sous purchased. He now, as usual, +came to the table for the accustomed coin--the last sou was gone,--the +dog's occupation was at an end. But could not the dog be sold? +Impossible: it was the property of another,--a sacred deposit; one would +be as bad as the fraudulent banker if one could apply to one's own +necessities the property one holds in trust. These little biographical +particulars came out in that sort of bitter and pathetic humour which a +study of Shakspeare, or the experience of actual life, had taught the +Comedian to be a natural relief to an intense sorrow. The dog meanwhile +aided the narrative by his by-play. Still intent upon the sous, he +thrust his nose into his master's pockets; he appealed touchingly to the +child, and finally put back his head and vented his emotion in a +lugubrious and elegiacal howl. Suddenly there is heard without the sound +of a showman's tin trumpet! Whether the actor had got some obliging +person to perform on that instrument, or whether, as more likely, it was +but a trick of ventriloquism, we leave to conjecture. At that note, an +idea seemed to seize the dog. He ran first to his master, who was on the +threshold about to depart; pulled him back into the centre of the room: +next he ran to the child, dragging her towards the same spot, though with +great tenderness, and then, uttering a joyous bark, he raised himself on +his hind legs and, with incomparable solemnity, performed a minuet step! +The child catches the idea from the dog. Was he not more worth seeing +than the puppet-show in the streets? might not people give money to see +him, and the old soldier still keep his cross? To-day there is a public +fete in the gardens yonder: that showman must be going thither; why not +go too? What! he the old soldier,--he stoop to show off a dog! he! he! +The dog looked at him deprecatingly and stretched himself on the floor-- +lifeless. + +Yes, that is the alternative--shall his child die too, and he be too +proud to save her? Ah! and if the cross can be saved also! But pshaw! +what did the dog know that people would care to see? Oh, much, much. +When the child was alone and sad, it would come and play with her. See +those old dominos! She ranged them on the floor, and the dog leaped up +and came to prove his skill. Artfully, then, the Comedian had planned +that the dog should make some sad mistakes, alternated by some marvellous +surprises. No, he would not do: yes, he would do. The audience took it +seriously, and became intensely interested in the dog's success; so sorry +for his blunders, so triumphant in his lucky hits. And then the child +calmed the hasty irritable old man so sweetly, and corrected the dog so +gently, and talked to the animal; told it how much they relied on it, and +produced her infant alphabet, and spelt out "Save us." The dog looked at +the letters meditatively, and henceforth it was evident that he took more +pains. Better and better; he will do, he will do! The child shall not +starve, the cross shall not be sold. Down drops the curtain. +End of Act I. + + +Act II. opens with a dialogue spoken off the stage. Invisible dramatis +persona, that subsist, with airy tongues, upon the mimetic art of the +Comedian. You understand that there is a vehement dispute going on. The +dog must not be admitted into a part of the gardens where a more refined +and exclusive section of the company have hired seats, in order to +contemplate, without sharing, the rude dances or jostling promenade of +the promiscuous merry-makers. Much hubbub, much humour; some persons for +the dog, some against him; privilege and decorum here, equality and +fraternity there. A Bonapartist colonel sees the cross on the soldier's +breast, and, /mille tonnerres/! he settles the point. He pays for three +reserved seats,--one for the soldier, one for the child, and a third for +the dog. The veteran enters,--the child, not strong enough to have +pushed through the crowd, raised on his shoulder, Rolla-like; the dog led +by a string. He enters erect and warrior-like; his spirit has been +roused by contest; his struggles have been crowned by victory. But (and +here the art of the drama and the actor culminated towards the highest +point)--but he now at once includes in the list of his dramatis persona +the whole of his Gatesboro' audience. They are that select company into +which he has thus forced his way. As he sees them seated before him, so +calm, orderly, and dignified, /mauvaise honte/ steals over the breast +more accustomed to front the cannon than the battery of ladies' eyes. +He places the child in a chair abashed and humbled; he drops into a seat +beside her shrinkingly; and the dog, with more self-possession and sense +of his own consequence, brushes with his paw some imaginary dust from a +third chair, as in the superciliousness of the well dressed, and then +seats himself, and looks round with serene audacity. + +The chairs were skilfully placed on one side of the stage, as close as +possible to the front row of the audience. The soldier ventures a +furtive glance along the lines, and then speaks to his grandchild in +whispered, bated breath: "Now they are there, what are they come for? +To beg? He can never have the boldness to exhibit an animal for sous,-- +impossible; no, no, let them slink back again and sell the cross." And +the child whispers courage; bids him look again along the rows; those +faces seem very kind. He again lifts his eyes, glances round, and with +an extemporaneous tact that completed the illusion to which the audience +were already gently lending themselves, made sundry complimentary +comments on the different faces actually before him, selected most +felicitously. The audience, taken by surprise, as some fair female, or +kindly burgess, familiar to their associations, was thus pointed out to +their applause, became heartily genial in their cheers and laughter. +And the Comedian's face, unmoved by such demonstrations,--so shy and +sad, insinuated its pathos underneath cheer and laugh. You now learned +through the child that a dance, on which the company had been supposed to +be gazing, was concluded, and that they would not be displeased by an +interval of some other diversion. Now was the tune! The dog, as if to +convey a sense of the prevalent ennui, yawned audibly, patted the child +on the shoulder, and looked up in her face. "A game of dominos," +whispered the little girl. The dog gleefully grinned assent. Timidly +she stole forth the old dominos, and ranged them on the ground; on which +she slipped from her chair, the dog slipped from his; they began to play. +The experiment was launched; the soldier saw that the curiosity of the +company was excited, that the show would commence, the sons follow; and +as if he at least would not openly shame his service and his Emperor, he +turned aside, slid his hand to his breast, tore away his cross, and hid +it. Scarce a murmured word accompanied the action, the acting said all; +and a noble thrill ran through the audience. Oh, sublime art of the +mime! + +The Mayor sat very near where the child and dog were at play. The +Comedian had (as he before implied he would do) discreetly prepared that +gentleman for direct and personal appeal. The little girl turned her +blue eyes innocently towards Mr. Hartopp, and said, "The dog beats me, +sir; will you try what you can do?" + +A roar, and universal clapping of hands, amidst which the worthy +magistrate stepped on the stage. At the command of its young mistress +the dog made the magistrate a polite bow, and straight to the game went +magistrate and dog. From that time the interest became, as it were, +personal to all present. "Will you come, sir," said the child to a young +gentleman, who was straining his neck to see how the dominos were played, +"and observe that it is all fair? You, too, sir?" to Mr. Williams. The +Comedian stood beside the dog, whose movements he directed with +undetected skill, while appearing only to fix his eyes on the ground in +conscious abasement. Those on the rows from behind now pressed forward; +those in advance either came on the stage, or stood up intently +contemplating. The Mayor was defeated, the crowd became too thick, and +the caresses bestowed on the dog seemed to fatigue him. He rose and +retreated to a corner haughtily. "Manners, sir," said the soldier; "it +is not for the like of us to be proud; excuse him, ladies and gentlemen. +"He only wishes to please all," said the child, deprecatingly. "Say how +many would you have round us at a time, so that the rest may not be +prevented seeing you." She spread the multiplication figures before the +dog; the dog put his paw on 10. "Astonishing!" said the Mayor. + +"Will you choose them yourself, sir?" + +The dog nodded, walked leisurely round, keeping one eye towards the one +eye of his master and selected ten persons, amongst whom were the Mayor, +Mr. Williams, and three pretty young ladies who had been induced to +ascend the stage. The others were chosen no less judiciously. + +The dog was then artfully led on from one accomplishment to another, +much within the ordinary range which bounds the instruction of learned +animals. He was asked to say how many ladies were on the stage: he spelt +three. What were their names? "The Graces." Then he was asked who was +the first magistrate in the town. The dog made a bow to the Mayor. +"What had made that gentleman first magistrate?" The dog looked to the +alphabet and spelt "Worth." "Were there any persons present more +powerful than the Mayor?" The dog bowed to the three young ladies. +"What made them more powerful?" The dog spelt "Beauty." When ended the +applause these answers received, the dog went through the musket exercise +with the soldier's staff; and as soon as he had performed that, he came +to the business part of the exhibition, seized the hat which his master +had dropped on the ground, and carried it round to each person on the +stage. They looked at one another. "He is a poor soldier's dog," said +the child, hiding her face. "No, no; a soldier cannot beg," cried the +Comedian. The Mayor dropped a coin in the hat; others did the same or +affected to do it. The dog took the hat to his master, who waved him +aside. There was a pause. The dog laid the hat softly at the soldier's +feet, and looked up at the child beseechingly. "What," asked she, +raising her head proudly--"what secures WORTH and defends BEAUTY?" The +dog took up the staff and shouldered it. "And to what can the soldier +look for aid when he starves and will not beg?" The dog seemed puzzled, +--the suspense was awful. "Good heavens," thought the Comedian, "if the +brute should break down after all!--and when I took such care that the +words should lie undisturbed-right before his nose!" With a deep sigh +the veteran started from his despondent attitude, and crept along the +floor as if for escape--so broken-down, so crestfallen. Every eye was on +that heartbroken face and receding figure; and the eye of that +heartbroken face was on the dog, and the foot of that receding figure +seemed to tremble, recoil, start, as it passed by the alphabetical +letters which still lay on the ground as last arranged. "Ah! to what +should he look for aid?" repeated the grandchild, clasping her little +hands. The dog had now caught the cue, and put his paw first upon +"WORTH," and then upon "BEAUTY." + +"Worth!" cried the ladies--"Beauty!" exclaimed the Mayor. "Wonderful, +wonderful!" + +"Take up the hat," said the child, and turning to the Mayor--"Ah! tell +him, sir, that what Worth and Beauty give to Valour in distress is not +alms but tribute." + +The words were little better than a hack claptrap; but the sweet voice +glided through the assembly, and found its way into every heart. + +"Is it so?" asked the old soldier, as his hand hoveringly passed above +the coins. "Upon my honour it is, sir!" said the Mayor, with serious +emphasis. The audience thought it the best speech he had ever made in +his life, and cheered him till the roof rang again. "Oh! bread, bread, +for you, darling!" cried the veteran, bowing his head over the child, and +taking out his cross and kissing it with passion; "and the badge of +honour still for me!" + +While the audience was in the full depth of its emotion, and generous +tears in many an eye, Waife seized his moment, dropped the actor, and +stepped forth to the front as the man--simple, quiet, earnest man--artless +man! + +"This is no mimic scene, ladies and gentlemen. It is a tale in real life +that stands out before you. I am here to appeal to those hearts that are +not vainly open to human sorrows. I plead for what I have represented. +True, that the man who needs your aid is not one of that soldiery which +devastated Europe. But he has fought in battles as severe, and been left +by fortune to as stern a desolation. True, he is not a Frenchman; he is +one of a land you will not love less than France,--it is your own. He, +too, has a child whom he would save from famine. He, too, has nothing +left to sell or to pawn for bread,--except--oh, not this gilded badge, +see, this is only foil and cardboard,--except, I say, the thing itself, +of which you respect even so poor a symbol,--nothing left to sell or to +pawn but Honour! For these I have pleaded this night as a showman; for +these, less haughty than the Frenchman, I stretch my hands towards you +without shame; for these I am a beggar." + +He was silent. The dog quietly took up the hat and approached the Mayor +again. The Mayor extracted the half-crown he had previously deposited, +and dropped into the hat two golden sovereigns. Who does not guess the +rest? All crowded forward,--youth and age, man and woman. And most +ardent of all were those whose life stands most close to vicissitude, +most exposed to beggary, most sorely tried in the alternative between +bread and honour. Not an operative there but spared his mite. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Omne ignotum pro magnifico.--Rumour, knowing nothing of his + antecedents, exalts Gentleman Waife into Don Magnifico. + +The Comedian and his two coadjutors were followed to the Saracen's Head +inn by a large crowd, but at respectful distance. Though I know few +things less pleasing than to have been decoyed and entrapped into an +unexpected demand upon one's purse,--when one only counted, too, upon +an agreeable evening,--and hold, therefore, in just abhorrence the +circulating plate which sometimes follows a public oration, homily, or +other eloquent appeal to British liberality; yet, I will venture to say, +there was not a creature whom the Comedian had surprised into impulsive +beneficence who regretted his action, grudged its cost, or thought he had +paid too dear for his entertainment. All had gone through a series of +such pleasurable emotions that all had, as it were, wished a vent for +their gratitude; and when the vent was found, it became an additional +pleasure. But, strange to say, no one could satisfactorily explain to +himself these two questions,--for what, and to whom had he given his +money? It was not a general conjecture that the exhibitor wanted the +money for his own uses. No; despite the evidence in favour of that idea, +a person so respectable, so dignified, addressing them, too, with that +noble assurance to which a man who begs for himself is not morally +entitled,--a person thus characterized must be some high-hearted +philanthropist who condescended to display his powers at an Institute +purely intellectual, perhaps on behalf of an eminent but decayed author, +whose name, from the respect due to letters, was delicately concealed. +Mr. Williams, considered the hardest head and most practical man in the +town, originated and maintained that hypothesis. Probably the stranger +was an author himself, a great and affluent author. Had not great and +affluent authors--men who are the boast of our time and land--acted, yea, +on a common stage, and acted inimitably too, on behalf of some lettered +brother or literary object? Therefore in these guileless minds, with all +the pecuniary advantages of extreme penury and forlorn position, the +Comedian obtained the respect due to prosperous circumstances and high +renown. But there was one universal wish expressed by all who had been +present, as they took their way homeward; and that wish was to renew the +pleasure they had experienced, even if they paid the same price for it. +Could not the long-closed theatre be re-opened, and the great man be +induced by philanthropic motives, and an assured sum raised by voluntary +subscriptions, to gratify the whole town, as he had gratified its +selected intellect? Mr. Williams, in a state of charitable thaw, now +softest of the soft, like most hard men when once softened, suggested +this idea to the Mayor. The Mayor said evasively that he would think of +it, and that he intended to pay his respects to Mr. Chapman before he +returned home, that very night: it was proper. Mr. Williams and many +others wished to accompany his worship. But the kind magistrate +suggested that Mr. Chapman would be greatly fatigued: that the presence +of many might seem more an intrusion than a compliment; that he, the +Mayor, had better go alone, and at a somewhat later hour, when Mr. +Chapman, though not retired to bed, might have had time for rest and +refreshment. This delicate consideration had its weight; and the streets +were thin when the Mayor's gig stopped, on its way villa-wards, at the +Saracen's Head. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + It is the interval between our first repinings and our final + resignation, in which, both with individuals and communities, is to + be found all that makes a history worth telling. Ere yet we yearn + for what is out of our reach, we are still in the cradle. When + wearied out with our yearnings, desire again falls asleep; we are on + the deathbed. + +Sophy (leaning on her grandfather's arm as they ascend the stair of the +Saracen's Head).--"But I am so tired, Grandy: I'd rather go to bed at +once, please!" + +GENTLEMAN WAIFE.--"Surely you could take something to eat first-- +something nice,--Miss Chapman?"--(Whispering close), "We can live in +clover now,--a phrase which means" (aloud to the landlady, who crossed +the landing-place above) "grilled chicken and mushrooms for supper, +ma'am! Why don't you smile, Sopby? Oh, darling, you are ill!" + +"No, no, Grandy, dear; only tired: let me go to bed. I shall be better +to-morrow; I shall indeed!" + +Waife looked fondly into her face, but his spirits were too much +exhilarated to allow him to notice the unusual flush upon her cheek, +except with admiration of the increased beauty which the heightened +colour gave to her soft features. + +"Well," said he, "you are a pretty child!--a very pretty child, and you +act wonderfully. You would make a fortune on the stage; but--" + +SOPHY (eagerly).--"But--no, no, never!--not the stage!" + +WAIFE.--"I don't wish you to go on the stage, as you know. A private +exhibition--like the one to-night, for instance--has" (thrusting his +hand into his pocket) "much to recommend it." + +SOPHY (with a sigh).--"Thank Heaven! that is over now; and you'll not be +in want of money for a long, long time! Dear Sir Isaac!" + +She began caressing Sir Isaac, who received her attentions with solemn +pleasure. They were now in Sophy's room; and Waife, after again pressing +the child in vain to take some refreshment, bestowed on her his kiss and +blessing, and whistled "/Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre/" to Sir Isaac, +who, considering that melody an invitation to supper, licked his lips, +and stalked forth, rejoicing, but decorous. + +Left alone, the child breathed long and hard, pressing her hands to her +bosom, and sank wearily on the foot of the bed. There were no shutters +to the window, and the moonlight came in gently, stealing across that +part of the wall and floor which the ray of the candle left in shade. +The girl raised her eyes slowly towards the window,--towards the glimpse +of the blue sky, and the slanting lustre of the moon. There is a certain +epoch in our childhood, when what is called the romance of sentiment +first makes itself vaguely felt. And ever with the dawn of that +sentiment the moon and the stars take a strange and haunting fascination. +Few persons in middle life-even though they be genuine poets--feel the +peculiar spell in the severe stillness and mournful splendour of starry +skies which impresses most of us, even though no poets at all, in that +mystic age when Childhood nearly touches upon Youth, and turns an unquiet +heart to those marvellous riddles within us and without, which we cease +to conjecture when experience has taught us that they have no solution +upon this side the grave. Lured by the light, the child rose softly, +approached the window, and, resting her upturned face upon both hands, +gazed long into the heavens, communing evidently with herself, for her +lips moved and murmured indistinctly. Slowly she retired from the +casement, and again seated herself at the foot of the bed, disconsolate. +And then her thoughts ran somewhat thus, though she might not have shaped +them exactly in the same words: "No, I cannot understand it. Why was I +contented and happy before I knew him? Why did I see no harm, no shame +in this way of life--not even on that stage with those people--until he +said, 'It was what he wished I had never stooped to'? And Grandfather +says our paths are so different they cannot cross each other again. +There is a path of life, then, which I can never enter; there is a path +on which I must always, always walk, always, always, always that path,-- +no escape! Never to come into that other one where there is no disguise, +no hiding, no false names,--never, never!" she started impatiently, and +with a wild look,--"It is killing me!" + +Then, terrified by her own impetuosity, she threw herself on the bed, +weeping low. Her heart had now gone back to her grandfather; it was +smiting her for ingratitude to him. Could there be shame or wrong in +what he asked,--what he did? And was she to murmur if she aided him to +exist? What was the opinion of a stranger boy compared to the approving +sheltering love of her sole guardian and tried fostering friend? And +could people choose their own callings and modes of life? If one road +went this way, another that, and they on the one road were borne farther +and farther away from those on the other--as that idea came, consolation +stopped, and in her noiseless weeping there was a bitterness as of +despair. But the tears ended by relieving the grief that caused them. +Wearied out of conjecture and complaint, her mind relapsed into the old +native, childish submission. With a fervour in which there was self- +reproach she repeated her meek, nightly prayer, that God would bless her +dear grandfather, and suffer her to be his comfort and support. Then +mechanically she undressed, extinguished the candle, and crept into bed. +The moonlight became bolder and bolder; it advanced tip the floors, along +the walls; now it floods her very pillow, and seems to her eyes to take a +holy loving kindness, holier and more loving as the lids droop beneath +it. A vague remembrance of some tale of "guardian spirits," with which +Waife had once charmed her wonder, stirred through her lulling thoughts, +linking itself with the presence of that encircling moonlight. There! +see the eyelids are closed, no tear upon their fringe. See the dimples +steal out as the sweet lips are parted. She sleeps, she dreams already! +Where and what is the rude world of waking now? Are there not guardian +spirits? Deride the question if thou wilt, stern man, the reasoning and +self-reliant; but thou, O fair mother, who hast marked the strange +happiness on the face of a child that has wept itself to sleep, what +sayest thou to the soft tradition, which surely had its origin in the +heart of the earliest mother? + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + There is no man so friendless but what he can find a friend sincere + enough to tell him disagreeable truths. + +Meanwhile the Comedian had made himself and Sir Isaac extremely +comfortable. No unabstemious man by habit was Gentleman Waife. He could +dine on a crust, and season it with mirth; and as for exciting drinks, +there was a childlike innocence in his humour never known to a brain that +has been washed in alcohol. But on this special occasion, Waife's heart +was made so bounteous by the novel sense of prosperity that it compelled +him to treat himself. He did honour to the grilled chicken to which he +had vainly tempted Sophy. He ordered half a pint of port to be mulled +into negus. He helped himself with a bow, as if himself were a guest, +and nodded each time he took off his glass, as much as to say, "Your +health, Mr. Waife!" He even offered a glass of the exhilarating draught +to Sir Isaac, who, exceedingly offended, retreated under the sofa, whence +he peered forth through his deciduous ringlets, with brows knit in grave +rebuke. Nor was it without deliberate caution--a whisker first, and then +a paw--that he emerged from his retreat, when a plate heaped with the +remains of the feast was placed upon the hearth-rug. + +The supper over, and the attendant gone, the negus still left, Waife +lighted his pipe, and, gazing on Sir Isaac, thus addressed that canine +philosopher: "Illustrious member of the Quadrupedal Society of Friends to +Man, and, as possessing those abilities for practical life which but few +friends to man ever display in his service, promoted to high rank-- +Commissary-General of the Victualling Department, and Chancellor of the +Exchequer--I have the honour to inform you that a vote of thanks in your +favour has been proposed in this house, and carried unanimously." Sir +Isaac, looking shy, gave another lick to the plate, and wagged his tail. +"It is true that thou wert once (shall I say it?) in fault at 'Beauty and +Worth,'--thy memory deserted thee; thy peroration was on the verge of a +breakdown; but 'Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit, I as the Latin +grammar philosophically expresseth it. Mortals the wisest, not only on +two legs but even upon four, occasionally stumble. The greatest general, +statesman, sage, is not he who commits no blunder, but he who best +repairs a blunder and converts it to success. This was thy merit and +distinction! It hath never been mine! I recognize thy superior genius. +I place in thee unqualified confidence; and consigning thee to the arms +of Morpheus, since I see that panegyric acts on thy nervous system as a +salubrious soporific, I now move that this House do resolve itself into a +Committee of Ways and Means for the Consideration of the Budget!" + +Therewith, while Sir Isaac fell into a profound sleep the Comedian +deliberately emptied his pockets on the table; and arranging gold and +silver before him, thrice carefully counted the total, and then divided +it into sundry small heaps. + +"That's for the bill," quoth he,--"Civil List!--a large item. That's +for Sophy, the darling! She shall have a teacher, and learn Music,-- +Education Grant; Current Expenses for the next fortnight; Miscellaneous +Estimates; tobacco,--we'll call that Secret-service Money. Ah, scamp, +vagrant, is not Heaven kind to thee at last? A few more such nights, and +who knows but thine old age may have other roof than the workhouse? And +Sophy?--Ah, what of her? Merciful Providence, spare my life till she has +outgrown its uses!" A tear came to his eye; he brushed it away quickly, +and, recounting his money, hummed a joyous tune. + +The door opened; Waife looked up in surprise, sweeping his hand over the +coins, and restoring them to his pocket. The Mayor entered. + +As Mr. Hartopp walked slowly up the room, his eye fixed Waife's; and that +eye was so searching, though so mild, that the Comedian felt himself +change colour. His gay spirits fell,--falling lower and lower, the +nearer the Mayor's step came to him; and when Hartopp, without speaking, +took his hand,--not in compliment, not in congratulation, but pressed it +as if in deep compassion, still looking him full in the face, with those +pitying, penetrating eyes, the actor experienced a sort of shock as if he +were read through, despite all his histrionic disguises, read through to +his heart's core; and, as silent as his visitor, sank back in his chair, +--abashed, disconcerted. + +MR. HARTOPP.--"Poor man!" + +THE COMEDIAN (rousing himself with an effort, but still confused).-- +"Down, Sir Isaac, down! This visit, Mr. Mayor, is an honour which may +well take a dog by surprise! Forgive him!" + +MR. HARTOPP (patting Sir Isaac, who was inquisitively sniffing his +garments, and drawing a chair close to the actor, who thereon edged his +own chair a little away,--in vain; for, on that movement, Mr. Hartopp +advanced in proportion).--"Your dog is a very admirable and clever +animal; but in the exhibition of a learned dog there is something which +tends to sadden one. By what privations has he been forced out of his +natural ways? By what fastings and severe usage have his instincts been +distorted into tricks? Hunger is a stern teacher, Mr. Chapman; and to +those whom it teaches, we cannot always give praise unmixed with pity." + +THE COMEDIAN (ill at ease under this allegorical tone, and surprised at a +quicker intelligence in Mr. Hartopp than he had given that person credit +for).--"You speak like an oracle, Mr. Mayor; but that dog, at least, has +been mildly educated and kindly used. Inborn genius, sir, will have its +vent. Hum! a most intelligent audience honoured us to-night; and our +best thanks are due to you." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"Mr. Chapman, let us be frank with each other. I am not a +clever man; perhaps a dull one. If I had set up for a clever man, I +should not be where I am now. Hush! no compliments. But my life has +brought me into frequent contact with those who suffer; and the dullest +of us gain a certain sharpness in the matters to which our observation is +habitually drawn. You took me in at first, it is true. I thought you +were a philanthropical humourist, who might have crotchets, as many +benevolent men, with time on their hands and money in their pockets, are +apt to form. But when it came to the begging hat (I ask your pardon; +don't let me offend you), when it came to the begging hat, I recognized +the man who wants philanthropy from others, and whose crotchets are to be +regarded in a professional point of view. Sir, I have come here alone, +because I alone perhaps see the case as it really is. Will you confide +in me? you may do it safely. To be plain, who and what are you?" + +THE COMEDIAN (evasively).--"What do you take me for, Mr. Mayor? What can +I be other than an itinerant showman, who has had resort to a harmless +stratagem in order to obtain an audience, and create a surprise that +might cover the naked audacity of the 'begging hat'!" + +MR. HARTOPP (gravely).--"When a man of your ability and education is +reduced to such stratagems, he must have committed some great faults. +Pray Heaven it be no worse than faults!" + +THE COMEDIAN (bitterly).--"That is always the way with the prosperous. +Is a man unfortunate? They say, 'Why don't he help himself?' Does he +try to help himself? They say, 'With so much ability, why does not he +help himself better?' Ability and education! Snares and springes, Mr. +Mayor! Ability and education! the two worst mantraps that a poor fellow +can put his foot into! Aha! Did not you say if you had set up to be +clever, you would not be where you now are:' A wise saying; I admire you +for it. Well, well, I and my dog have amused your townsfolk; they have +amply repaid us. We are public servants; according as we act in public-- +hiss us or applaud. Are we to submit to an inquisition into our private +character? Are you to ask how many mutton bones has that dog stolen? +how many cats has he worried? or how many shirts has the showman in his +wallet? how many debts has he left behind him? what is his rent-roll +on earth, and his account with Heaven? Go and put those questions to +ministers, philosophers, generals, poets. When they have acknowledged +your right to put them, come to me and the other dog." + +MR. HARTOPP (rising and drawing on his gloves).--"I beg your pardon! I +have done, sir. And yet I conceived an interest in you. It is because I +have no talents myself that I admire those who have. I felt a mournful +anxiety, too, for your poor little girl,--so young, so engaging. And is +it necessary that you should bring up that child in a course of life +certainly equivocal, and to females dangerous?" + +The Comedian lifted his eyes suddenly, and stared hard at the face of his +visitor, and in that face there was so much of benevolent humanity, so +much sweetness contending with authoritative rebuke, that the vagabond's +hardihood gave way! He struck his breast, and groaned aloud. + +MR. HARTOPP (pressing on the advantage he had gained).--"And have you no +alarm for her health? Do you not see how delicate she is? Do you not +see that her very talent comes from her susceptibility to emotions which +must wear her away?" + +WAIFE.-"No, no! stop, stop, stop! you terrify me, you break my heart. +Man, man! it is all for her that I toil and show and beg,--if you call it +begging. Do you think I care what becomes of this battered hulk? Not a +straw. What am I to do? What! what! You tell me to confide in you; +wherefore? How can you help me? Would you give me employment? What am +I fit for? Nothing! You could find work and bread for an Irish +labourer, nor ask who or what he was; but to a man who strays towards +you, seemingly from a sphere in which, if Poverty enters, she drops a +courtesy, and is called 'genteel,' you cry, 'Hold, produce your passport; +where are your credentials, references?' I have none. I have slipped +out of the world I once moved in. I can no more appeal to those I knew +in it than if I had transmigrated from one of yon stars, and said, 'See +there what I was once!' Oh, but you do not think she looks ill!--do you? +do you? Wretch that I am! And I thought to save her!" + +The old man trembled from head to foot, and his cheek was as pale as +ashes. + +Again the good magistrate took his hand, but this time the clasp was +encouraging. "Cheer up: where there is a will there is a way; you +justify the opinion I formed in your favour despite all circumstances +to the contrary. When I asked you to confide in me, it was not from +curiosity, but because I would serve you if I can. Reflect on what I +have said. True, you can know but little of me. Learn what is said of +me by my neighbours before you trust me further. For the rest, to-morrow +you will have many proposals to renew your performance. Excuse me if I +do not actively encourage it. I will not, at least, interfere to your +detriment; but--" + +"But," exclaimed Waife, not much heeding this address, "but you think she +looks ill? you think this is injuring her? you think I am murdering my +grandchild,--my angel of life, my all?" + +"Not so; I spoke too bluntly. Yet still--" + +"Yes, yes, yet still--" + +"Still, if you love her so dearly, would you blunt her conscience and +love of truth? Were you not an impostor tonight? Would you ask her to +reverence and imitate and pray for an impostor?" + +"I never saw it in that light!" faltered Waife, struck to the soul; +"never, never, so help me Heaven!" + +"I felt sure you did not," said the Mayor; "you saw but the sport of the +thing; you took to it as a schoolboy. I have known many such men, with +high animal spirits like yours. Such men err thoughtlessly; but did they +ever sin consciously, they could not keep those high spirits! Good +night, Mr. Chapman, I shall hear from you again." + +The door closed on the form of the visitor; Waife's head sank on his +breast, and all the deep lines upon brow and cheek stood forth, records +of mighty griefs revived,--a countenance so altered, now its innocent +arch play was gone, that you would not have known it. At length he rose +very quietly, took up the candle, and stole into Sophy's room. Shading +the light with careful hand, he looked on her face as she slept. The +smile was still upon the parted lip: the child was still in the fairyland +of dreams. But the cheek was thinner than it had been weeks ago, and the +little hand that rested on the coverlet seemed wasted. Waife took that +hand noiselessly into his own! it was hot and dry. He dropped it with a +look of unutterable fear and anguish, and, shaking his head piteously; +stole back again. Seating himself by the table at which he had been +caught counting his gains, he folded his arms, and rooted his gaze on the +floor; and there, motionless, and as if in stupefied suspense of thought +itself, he sat till the dawn crept over the sky,--till the sun shone into +the windows. The dog, crouched at his feet, sometimes started up and +whined as to attract his notice: he did not heed it. The clock struck +six; the house began to stir. The chambermaid came into the room. Waife +rose and took his hat, brushing its nap mechanically with his sleeve. +"Who did you say was the best here?" he asked with a vacant smile, +touching the chambermaid's arm. + +"Sir! the best--what?" + +"The best doctor, ma'am; none of your parish apothecaries,--the best +physician,--Dr. Gill,--did you say Gill? Thank you; his address, High +Street. Close by, ma'am." With his grand bow,--such is habit!-- +Gentleman Waife smiled graciously, and left the room. Sir Isaac +stretched himself and followed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + In every civilized society there is found a race of men who retain + the instincts of the aboriginal cannibal, and live upon their + fellow-men as a natural food. These interesting but formidable + bipeds, having caught their victim, invariably select one part of + his body on which to fasten their relentless grinders. The part + thus selected is peculiarly susceptible, Providence having made it + alive to the least nibble; it is situated just above the hip-joint, + it is protected by a tegument of exquisite fibre, vulgarly called + "THE BREECHES POCKET." The thoroughbred Anthropophagite usually + begins with his own relations and friends; and so long as he + confines his voracity to the domestic circle, the law interferes + little, if at all, with his venerable propensities. But when he has + exhausted all that allows itself to be edible in the bosom of + private life, the man-eater falls loose on society, and takes to + prowling,--then "Sauve qui peut!" the laws rouse themselves, put on + their spectacles, call for their wigs and gowns, and the + Anthropophagite turned prowler is not always sure of his dinner. It + is when he has arrived at this stage of development that the man- + eater becomes of importance, enters into the domain of history, and + occupies the thoughts of Moralists. + +On the same morning in which Waife thus went forth from the Saracen's +Head in quest of the doctor, but at a later hour, a man, who, to judge by +the elaborate smartness of his attire, and the jaunty assurance of his +saunter, must have wandered from the gay purlieus of Regent Street, +threaded his way along the silent and desolate thoroughfares that +intersect the remotest districts of Bloomsbury. He stopped at the turn +into a small street still more sequestered than those which led to it, +and looked up to the angle on the wall whereon the name of the street +should have been inscribed. But the wall had been lately whitewashed, +and the whitewash had obliterated the expected epigraph. The man +muttered an impatient execration; and, turning round as if to seek a +passenger of whom to make inquiry, beheld on the opposite side of the way +another man apparently engaged in the same research. Involuntarily each +crossed over the road towards the other. + +"Pray, sir," quoth the second wayfarer in that desert, "can you tell me +if this is a street that is called a Place,--Podden Place, Upper?" + +"Sir," returned the sprucer wayfarer, "it is the question I would have +asked of you." + +"Strange!" + +"Very strange indeed that more than one person can, in this busy age, +employ himself in discovering a Podden Place! Not a soul to inquire of, +--not a shop that I see, not an orange-stall!" + +"Ha!" cried the other, in a hoarse sepulchral voice, "Ha! there is a pot- +boy! Boy! boy! boy! I say. Hold, there! hold! Is this Podden Place, +--Upper?" + +"Yes, it be," answered the pot-boy, with a sleepy air, caught in that +sleepy atmosphere; and chiming his pewter against an area rail with a +dull clang, he chanted forth "Pots oho!" with a note as dirge-like as +that which in the City of the Plague chanted "Out with the dead!" + +Meanwhile the two wayfarers exchanged bows and parted; the sprucer +wayfarer whether from the indulgence of a reflective mood, or from an +habitual indifference to things and persons not concerning him, ceased to +notice his fellow-solitary, and rather busied himself in sundry little +coquetries appertaining to his own person. He passed his hand through +his hair, re-arranged the cock of his hat, looked complacently at his +boots, which still retained the gloss of the morning's varnish, drew down +his wristbands, and, in a word, gave sign of a man who desires to make an +effect, and feels that he ought to do it. So occupied was he in this +self-commune that when he stopped at length at one of the small doors in +the small street and lifted his hand to the knocker, he started to see +that Wayfarer the Second was by his side. The two men now examined each +other briefly but deliberately. Wayfarer the First was still young,-- +certainly handsome, but with an indescribable look about the eye and lip, +from which the other recoiled with an instinctive awe,--a hard look, a +cynical look,--a sidelong, quiet, defying, remorseless look. His clothes +were so new of gloss that they seemed put on for the first time, were +shaped to the prevailing fashion, and of a taste for colours less subdued +than is usual with Englishmen, yet still such as a person of good mien +could wear without incurring the charge of vulgarity, though liable to +that of self-conceit. If you doubted that the man were a gentleman, you +would have been puzzled to guess what else he could be. Were it not for +the look we have mentioned, and which was perhaps not habitual, his +appearance might have been called prepossessing. In his figure there was +the grace, in his step the elasticity which come from just proportions +and muscular strength. In his hand he carried a supple switch-stick, +slight and innocuous to appearance, but weighted at the handle after the +fashion of a life-preserver. The tone of his voice was not displeasing +to the ear, though there might be something artificial in the swell of +it,--the sort of tone men assume when they desire to seem more frank and +off-hand than belongs to their nature,--a sort of rollicking tone which +is to the voice what swagger is to, the gait. Still that look! it +produced on you the effect which might be created by some strange animal, +not without beauty, but deadly to man. Wayfarer the Second was big and +burly, middle-aged, large-whiskered, his complexion dirty. He wore a +wig,--a wig evident, unmistakable,--a wig curled and rusty,--over the wig +a dingy white hat. His black stock fitted tight round his throat, and +across his breast he had thrown the folds of a Scotch plaid. + +WAYFARER THE FIRST.--"YOU call here, too,--on Mrs. Crane?" + +WAYFARER THE SECOND.--"Mrs. Crane? you too? Strange!" + +WAYFARER THE FIRST (with constrained civility).--"Sir, I call on +business,--private business." + +WAYFARER THE SECOND (with candid surliness).--"So do I." + +WAYFARER THE FIRST.--"Oh!" + +WAYFARER THE SECOND.--"Ha! the locks unbar!" + +The door opened, and an old meagre woman-servant presented herself. + +WAYFARER THE FIRST (gliding before the big man with a serpent's +undulating celerity of movement).--"Mrs. Crane lives here?"--"Yes!" +"She's at home I suppose?"--"Yes!"--"Take up my card; say I come alone, +not with this gentleman." + +Wayfarer the Second seems to have been rather put out by the manner of +his rival. He recedes a step. + +"You know the lady of this mansion well, sir?" "Extremely well." + +"Ha! then I yield you the precedence; I yield it, sir, but conditionally. +You will not be long?" + +"Not a moment longer than I can help; the land will be clear for you in +an hour or less." + +"Or less, so please you, let it be or less. Servant, sir." + +"Sir, yours: come, my Hebe, track the dancers; that is, go up the stairs, +and let me renew the dreams of youth in the eyes of Bella!" + +The old woman meanwhile had been turning over the card in her withered +palm, looking from the card to the visitor's face, and then to the card +again, and mumbling to herself. At length she spoke: + +"You, Mr. Losely! you!--Jasper Losely! how you be changed! what ha' ye +done to yourself? where's your comeliness? where's the look that stole +ladies' hearts? you, Jasper Losely! you are his goblin!" + +"Hold your peace, old hussey!" said the visitor, evidently annoyed at +remarks so disparaging. "I am Jasper Losely, more bronzed of cheek, more +iron of hand." He raised his switch with a threatening gesture, that +might be in play, for the lips wore smiles, or might be in earnest, for +the brows were bent; and pushing into the passage, and shutting the door, +said, "Is your mistress up stairs? show me to her room, or--" + +The old crone gave him one angry glance, which sank frightened beneath +the cruel gleam of his eyes, and hastening up the stairs with a quicker +stride than her age seemed to warrant, cried out, "Mistress, mistress! +here is Mr. Losely! Jasper Losely himself!" By the time the visitor had +reached the landing-place of the first floor, a female form had emerged +from a room above, a female face peered over the banisters. Losely +looked up and started as he saw it. A haggard face,--the face of one +over whose life there has passed a blight. When last seen by him it had +possessed beauty, though of a masculine rather than womanly character. +Now of that beauty not a trace! the cheeks shrunk and hollow left the +nose sharp, long, beaked as a bird of prey. The hair, once glossy in its +ebon hue, now grizzled, harsh, neglected, hung in tortured, tangled +meshes,--a study for an artist who would paint a fury. But the eyes were +bright,--brighter than ever; bright now with a glare that lighted up the +whole face bending over the man. In those burning eyes was there love? +was there hate? was there welcome? was there menace? Impossible to +distinguish; but at least one might perceive that there was joy. + +"So," said the voice from above, "so we do meet at last, Jasper Losely! +you are come!" + +Drawing a loose kind of dressing-robe more closely round her, the +mistress of the house now descended the stairs, rapidly, flittingly, with +a step noiseless as a spectre's, and, grasping Losely firmly by the hand, +led him into a chill, dank, sunless drawing-room, gazing into his face +fixedly all the while. + +He winced and writhed. "There, there, let us sit down, my dear Mrs. +Crane." + +"And once I was called Bella." + +"Ages ago! Basta! All things have their end. Do take those eyes of +yours off my face; they were always so bright! and--really--now they are +perfect burning-glasses! How close it is! Peuh! I am dead tired. May +I ask for a glass of water; a drop of wine in it--or--brandy will do as +well." + +"Ho! you have come to brandy and morning drams, eh, Jasper?" said Mrs. +Crane, with a strange, dreary accent. "I, too, once tried if fire could +burn up thought, but it did not succeed with me; that is years ago; and- +there--see the bottles are full still!" + +While thus speaking, she had unlocked a chiffonniere of the shape usually +found in "genteel lodgings," and taken out a leathern spirit-case +containing four bottles, with a couple of wine-glasses. This case she +placed on the table before Mr., Losely, and contemplated him at leisure +while he helped himself to the raw spirits. + +As she thus stood, an acute student of Lavater might have recognized, in +her harsh and wasted countenance, signs of an original nature superior to +that of her visitor; on her knitted brow, a sense higher in quality than +on his smooth low forehead; on her straight stern lip, less cause for +distrust than in the false good-humour which curved his handsome mouth +into that smile of the fickle, which, responding to mirth but not to +affection, is often lighted and never warmed. It is true that in that +set pressure of her lip there might be cruelty, and, still more, the +secretiveness which can harbour deceit; and yet, by the nervous workings +of that lip, when relieved from such pressure, you would judge the woman +to be rather by natural temperament passionate and impulsive than +systematically cruel or deliberately-false,--false or cruel only as some +predominating passion became the soul's absolute tyrant, and adopted the +tyrant's vices. Above all, in those very lines destructive to beauty +that had been ploughed, not by time, over her sallow cheeks, there was +written the susceptibility to grief, to shame, to the sense of fall, +which was not visible in the unreflective, reckless aspect of the sleek +human animal before her. + +In the room, too, there were some evidences of a cultivated taste. On +the walls, book-shelves, containing volumes of a decorous and severe +literature, such as careful parents allow to studious daughters,--the +stately masterpieces of Fenelon and Racine; selections approved by +boarding-schools from Tasso, Dante, Metastasio; amongst English authors, +Addison, Johnson, Blair (his lectures as well as sermons); elementary +works on such sciences as admit female neophytes into their porticos, +if not into their penetralia,--botany, chemistry, astronomy. Prim as +soldiers on parade stood the books,--not a gap in their ranks,--evidently +never now displaced for recreation; well bound, yet faded, dusty; relics +of a bygone life. Some of them might perhaps have been prizes at school, +or birthday gifts from proud relations. There, too, on the table, near +the spirit-case, lay open a once handsome workbox,--no silks now on the +skeleton reels; discoloured, but not by use, in its nest of tarnished +silk slept the golden thimble. There, too, in the corner, near a music- +stand piled high with musical compositions of various schools and +graduated complexity from "lessons for beginners" to the most arduous +gamut of a German oratorio, slunk pathetically a poor lute-harp, the +strings long since broken. There, too, by the window, hung a wire bird- +cage, the bird long since dead. In a word, round the woman gazing on +Jasper Losely, as he complacently drank his brandy, grouped the forlorn +tokens of an early state,--the lost golden age of happy girlish studies, +of harmless girlish tastes. + +"Basta, eno'," said Mr. Losely, pushing aside the glass which he had +twice filled and twice drained, "to business. Let me see the child: +I feel up to it now." + +A darker shade fell over Arabella Crane's face, as she said," The child! +she is not here! I have disposed of her long ago." + +"Eh!--disposed of her! what do you mean?" + +"Do you ask as if you feared I had put her out of the world? No! Well, +then,--you come to England to see the child? You miss--you love, the +child of that--of that--" She paused, checked herself, and added in an +altered voice, "of that honest, high-minded gentlewoman whose memory must +be so dear to me,--you love that child; very natural, Jasper." + +"Love her! a child I have scarcely seen since she was born! do talk +common-sense. No. But have I not told you that she ought to be money's +worth to me; ay, and she shall be yet, despite that proud man's +disdainful insolence." + +"That proud man! what, you have ventured to address him--visit him--since +your return to England?" + +"Of course. That's what brought me over. I imagined the man would +rejoice at what I told him, open his pursestrings, lavish blessings and +bank-notes. And the brute would not even believe me; all because--" + +"Because you had sold the right to be believed before. I told you, when +I took the child, that you would never succeed there, that--I would never +encourage you in the attempt. But you had sold the future as you sold +your past,--too cheaply, it seems, Jasper." + +"Too cheaply, indeed. Who could ever have supposed that I should have +been fobbed off with such a pittance?" + +"Who, indeed, Jasper! You were made to spend fortunes, and call them +pittances when spent, Jasper! You should have been a prince, Jasper; +such princely tastes! Trinkets and dress, horses and dice, and plenty of +ladies to look and die! Such princely spirit too! bounding all return +for loyal sacrifice to the honour you vouchsafed in accepting it!" + +Uttering this embittered irony, which nevertheless seemed rather to +please than to offend her guest, she kept moving about the room, and +(whether from some drawer in the furniture, or from her own person, +Losely's careless eye did not observe) she suddenly drew forth a +miniature, and, placing it before him, exclaimed, "Ah, but you are +altered from those days; see what you then were!" + +Losely's gaze, thus abruptly invited, fixed itself on the effigies of a +youth eminently handsome, and of that kind of beauty which, without being +effeminate, approaches to the fineness and brilliancy of the female +countenance,--a beauty which renders its possessor inconveniently +conspicuous, and too often, by winning that ready admiration which it +costs no effort to obtain, withdraws the desire of applause from +successes to be achieved by labour, and hardens egotism by the excuses it +lends to self-esteem. It is true that this handsome face had not the +elevation bestowed by thoughtful expression but thoughtful expression is +not the attribute a painter seeks to give to the abstract comeliness of +early youth; and it is seldom to be acquired without that constitutional +wear and tear which is injurious to mere physical beauty. And over the +whole countenance was diffused a sunny light, the freshness of buxom +health, of luxuriant vigour; so that even that arrogant vanity which an +acute observer might have detected as the prevailing mental +characteristic seemed but a glad exultation in the gifts of benignant +Nature. Not there the look which, in the matured man gazing on the +bright ghost of his former self, might have daunted the timid and warned +the wise. "And I was like this! True! I remember well when it was +taken, and no one called it flattering," said Mr. Losely, with pathetic +self-condolence. "But I can't be very much changed," he added, with a +half laugh. "At my age one may have a manlier look, yet--" + +"Yet still be handsome, Jasper," said Mrs. Crane. "You are so. But look +at me; what am I?" + +"Oh, a very fine woman, my dear Crane,--always were. But you neglect +yourself: you should not do that; keep it up to the last. Well, but to +return to the child. You have disposed of her without my consent, +without letting me know?" + +"Letting you know! How many years is it since you even gave me your +address! Never fear: she is in good hands." + +"Whose? At all events I must see her." + +"See her! What for?" + +"What for! Hang it, it is natural that, now I am in England, I should at +least wish to know what she is like. And I think it very strange that +you should send her away, and then make all these difficulties. What's +your object? I don't understand it." + +"My object? What could be my object but to serve you? At your request I +took, fed, reared a child, whom you could not expect me to love, at my +own cost. Did I ever ask you for a shilling? Did I ever suffer you to +give me one? Never! At last, hearing no more from you, and what little +I heard of you making me think that, if anything happened to me (and I +was very ill at the time), you could only find her a burden,--at last I +say, the old man came to me,--you had given him my address,--and he +offered to take her, and I consented. She is with him." + +"The old man! She is with him! And where is he?" + +"I don't know." + +"Humph; how does he live? Can he have got any money?" + +"I don't know." + +"Did any old friends take him up?" + +"Would he go to old friends?" + +Mr. Losely tossed off two fresh glasses of brandy, one after the other, +and, rising, walked to and fro the room, his hands buried in his pockets, +and in no comfortable vein of reflection. At length he paused and said, +"Well, upon the whole, I don't see what I could do with the girl just at +present, though, of course, I ought to know where she is, and with whom. +Tell me, Mrs. Crane, what is she like,--pretty or plain?" + +"I suppose the chit would be called pretty,--by some persons at least." + +"Very pretty? handsome?" asked Losely, abruptly. "Handsome or not, what +does it signify? what good comes of beauty? You had beauty enough; what +have you done with it?" + +At that question, Losely drew himself up with a sudden loftiness of look +and gesture, which, though prompted but by offended vanity, improved the +expression of the countenance, and restored to it much of its earlier +character. Mrs. Crane gazed on him, startled into admiration, and it was +in an altered voice, half reproachful, half bitter, that she continued, + +"And now that you are satisfied about her, have you no questions to ask +about me?--what I do? how I live?" "My dear Mrs. Crane, I know that you +are comfortably off, and were never of a mercenary temper. I trust you +are happy, and so forth: I wish I were; things don't prosper with me. If +you could conveniently lend me a five-pound note--" + +"You would borrow of me, Jasper? Ah! you come to me in your troubles. +You shall have the money,--five pounds, ten pounds, what you please, but +you will call again for it: you need me now; you will not utterly desert +me now?" + +"Best of creatures!--never!" He seized her hand and kissed it. She +withdrew it quickly from his clasp, and, glancing over him from head to +foot, said, "But are you really in want?--you are well-dressed, Jasper; +that you always were." + +"Not always; three days ago very much the reverse: but I have had a +trifling aid, and--" + +"Aid in England? from whom? where? Not from him whom you say you had the +courage to seek?" + +"From whom else? Have I no claim? A miserable alms flung to me. Curse +him! I tell you that man's look and language so galled me,--so galled," +echoed Losely, shifting his hold from the top of his switch to the +centre, and bringing the murderous weight of the lead down on the palm of +his other hand, "that, if his eye had quitted mine for a moment, I think +I must have brained him, and been--" + +"Hanged!" said Mrs. Crane. + +"Of course, hanged," returned Losely, resuming the reckless voice and +manner in which there was that peculiar levity which comes from hardness +of heart, as from the steel's hardness comes the blade's play. "But if a +man did not sometimes forget consequences, there would be an end of the +gallows. I am glad that his eye never left mine." And the leaden head +of the switch fell with a dull dumb sound on the floor. + +Mrs. Crane made no immediate rejoinder, but fixed on her lawless visitor +a gaze in which there was no womanly fear (though Losely's aspect and +gesture might have sent a thrill through the nerves of many a hardy man), +but which was not without womanly compassion, her countenance gradually +softening more and more, as if under the influence of recollections +mournful but not hostile. At length she said in a low voice, "Poor +Jasper! Is all the vain ambition that made you so false shrunk into a +ferocity that finds you so powerless? Would your existence, after all, +have been harder, poorer, meaner, if your faith had been kept to me?" + +Evidently disliking that turn in the conversation, but checking a reply +which might have been rude had no visions of five pounds, ten pounds, +loomed in the distance, Mr. Losely said, "Pshaw! Bella, pshaw! I was a +fool, I dare say, and a sad dog, a very sad dog; but I had always the +greatest regard for you, and always shall! Hillo, what's that? A knock +at the door! Oh, by the by, a queer-looking man, in a white hat, called +at the same time I did, to see you on private business, gave way to me, +said he should come again; may I ask who he is?" + +"I cannot guess; no one ever calls here on business except the tax- +gatherer." + +The old woman-servant now entered. "A gentleman, ma'am; says his name is +Rugge." + +"Rugge,--Rugge; let me think." + +"I am here, Mrs. Crane," said the manager, striding in. "You don't, +perhaps, call me to mind by name; but--oho! not gone, sir! Do I intrude +prematurely?" + +"No, I have done; good-day, my dear Mrs. Crane." + +"Stay, Jasper. I remember you now, Mr. Rugge; take a chair." + +She whispered a few words into Losely's ear, then turned to the manager, +and said aloud, "I saw you at Mr. Waife's lodging, at the time he had +that bad accident." + +"And I had the honour to accompany you home, ma'am, and--but shall I +speak out before this gentleman?" + +"Certainly; you see he is listening to you with attention. This +gentleman and I have no secrets from each other. What has become of that +person? This gentleman wishes to know." + +LOSELY.--"Yes, sir, I wish to know-particularly." + +RUGGE.--"So do I; that is partly what I came about. You are aware, I +think, ma'am, that I engaged him and Juliet Araminta, that is, Sophy." + +LOSELY.--"Sophy? engaged them, sir,--how?" + +RUGGE.--"Theatrical line, sir,--Rugge's Exhibition; he was a great actor +once, that fellow Waife." + +LOSELY.--"Oh, actor! well, sir, go on." + +RUGGE (who in the course of his address turns from the lady to the +gentleman, from the gentleman to the lady, with appropriate gesture and +appealing look).--"But he became a wreck, a block of a man; lost an eye +and his voice too. How ever, to serve him, I took his grandchild and him +too. He left me--shamefully, and ran off with his grandchild, sir. Now, +ma'am, to be plain with you, that little girl I looked upon as my +property,--a very valuable property. She is worth a great deal to me, +and I have been done out of her. If you can help me to get her back, +articled and engaged say for three years, I am willing and happy, ma'am, +to pay something handsome,--uncommon handsome." + +MRS. CRANE (loftily).--"Speak to that gentleman; he may treat with you." + +LOSELY.--"What do you call uncommon handsome, Mr.--Mr. Tugge?" + +RUGGE.--"Rugge! Sir; we sha'n't disagree, I hope, provided you have the +power to get Waife to bind the girl to me." + +LOSELY.--"I may have the power to transfer the young lady to your care-- +young lady is a more respectful phrase than girl--and possibly to +dispense with Mr. Waife's consent to such arrangement. But excuse me if +I say that I must know a little more of yourself, before I could promise +to exert such a power on your behalf." + +RUGGE.--"Sir, I shall be proud to improve our acquaintance. As to Waife, +the old vagabond, he has injured and affronted me, sir. I don't bear +malice, but I have a spirit: Britons have a spirit, sir. And you will +remember, ma'am, that when I accompanied you home, I observed that Mr. +Waife was a mysterious man, and had apparently known better days, and +that when a man is mysterious, and falls into the sear and yellow leaf, +ma'am, without that which should accompany old age, sir, one has a right +to suspect that some time or other, he has done something or other, +ma'am, which makes him fear lest the very stones prate of his whereabout, +sir. And you did not deny, ma'am, that the mystery was suspicious; but +you said, with uncommon good sense, that it was nothing to me what Mr. +Waife had once been, so long as he was of use to me at that particular +season. Since then, sir, he has ceased to be of use,--ceased, too, in +the unhandsomest manner. And if you would, ma'am, from a sense of +justice, just unravel the mystery, put me in possession of the secret, +it might make that base man of use to me again, give me a handle over +him, sir, so that I might awe him into restoring my property, as, morally +speaking, Juliet Araminta most undoubtedly is. That's why I call,-- +leaving my company, to which I am a father, orphans for the present. But +I have missed that little girl,--that young lady, sir. I called her a +phenomenon, ma'am; missed her much: it is natural, sir, I appeal to you. +No man can be done out of a valuable property and not feel it, if he has +a heart in his bosom. And if I had her back safe, I should indulge +ambition. I have always had ambition. The theatre at York, sir,--that +is my ambition; I had it from a child, sir; dreamed of it three tunes, +ma'am. If I had back my property in that phenomenon, I would go at the +thing, slap-bang, take the York, and bring out the phenomenon with A +CLAW!" + +LOSELY (musingly).--"You say the young lady is a phenomenon, and for this +phenomenon you are willing to pay something handsome,--a vague +expression. Put it into L. s. d." + +RUGGE.--"Sir, if she can be bound to me legally for three years, I would +give L100. I did offer to Waife L50,--to you, sir, L100." + +Losely's eyes flashed, and his hands opened restlessly. "But, confound +it, where is she? Have you no clew?" + +RUGGE.--"No, but we can easily find one; it was not worth my while to +hunt them up before I was quite sure that, if I regained my property in +that phenomenon, the law would protect it." + +MRS. CRANE (moving to the door).--"Well, Jasper Losely, you will sell the +young lady, I doubt not; and when you have sold her, let me know." She +came back and whispered, "You will not perhaps now want money from me, +but I shall see you again; for, if you would find the child, you will +need my aid." + +"Certainly, my dear friend, I will call again; honour bright." + +Mrs. Crane here bowed to the gentlemen, and swept out of the room. + +Thus left alone, Losely and Rugge looked at each other with a shy and yet +cunning gaze,--Rugge's hands in his trouser's pockets, his head thrown +back; Losely's hands in voluntarily expanded, his head bewitchingly bent +forward, and a little on one side. + +"Sir," said Rugge, at length, "what do you say to a chop and a pint of +wine? Perhaps we could talk more at our ease elsewhere. I am only in +town for a day; left my company thirty miles off,--orphans, as I said +before." + +"Mr. Rugge," said Losely, "I have no desire to stay in London, or indeed +in England; and the sooner we can settle this matter the better. Grant +that we find the young lady, you provide for her board and lodging; teach +her your honourable profession; behave, of course, kindly to her." + +"Like a father." + +"And give to me the sum of L100?" + +"That is, if you can legally make her over to me. But, sir, may I +inquire by what authority you would act in this matter?" + +"On that head it will be easy to satisfy you; meanwhile I accept your +proposal of an early dinner. Let us adjourn; is it to your house?" + +"I have no exact private house in London; but I know a public one, +--commodious." + +"Be it so. After you, sir." + +As they descended the stairs, the old woman-servant stood at the street +door. Rugge went out first; the woman detained Losely. "Do you find her +altered?" + +"Whom? Mrs. Crane?--why, years will tell. But you seem to have known +me; I don't remember you." + +"Not Bridget Greggs?" + +"Is it possible? I left you a middle-aged, rosy-faced woman. True, I +recognize you now. There's a crown for you. I wish I had more to +spare!" + +Bridget pushed back the silver. + +"No; I dare not! Take money from you, Jasper Losely! Mistress would not +forgive me!" + +Losely, not unreluctantly, restored the crown to his pocket; and, with a +snort rather than sigh of relief, stepped into open daylight. As he +crossed the street to join Rugge, who was waiting for him on the shady +side, he mechanically turned to look back at the house, and, at the open +window of an upper story, he beheld again those shining eyes which had +glared down on him from the stairs. He tried to smile, and waved his +hand feebly. The eyes seemed to return the smile; and as he walked down +the street, arm-in-arm with the ruffian manager, slowly recovering his +springy step, and in the gloss of the new garments that set forth his +still symmetrical proportions, the eyes followed him watchfully, +steadfastly, till his form had vanished, and the dull street was once +more a solitude. + +Then Arabella Crane turned from the window. Putting her hand to her +heart, "How it beats!" she muttered; "if in love or in hate, in scorn +or in pity, beats once more with a human emotion. He will come again; +whether for money or for woman's wit, what care I?--he will come. I will +hold, I will cling to him, no more to part; for better for worse, as it +should have been once at the altar. And the child?" she paused; was it +in compunction? "The child!" she continued fiercely, and as if lashing +herself into rage, "the child of that treacherous, hateful mother,--yes! +I will help him to sell her back as a stage-show,--help him in all that +does not lift her to a state from which she may look down with disdain on +me. Revenge on her, on that cruel house: revenge is sweet. Oh! that it +were revenge alone that bids me cling to him who deserves revenge the +most." She closed her burning eyes, and sat down droopingly, rocking +herself to and fro like one in pain. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief--enemies + with the worst intentions, or friends with the best. + +The conference between Mr. Rugge and Mr. Losely terminated in an +appointment to meet, the next day, at the village in which this story +opened. Meanwhile Mr. Rugge would return to his "orphans," and arrange +performances in which for some days they might dispense with a father's +part. Losely, on his side, undertook to devote the intervening hours to +consultation with a solicitor to whom Mr. Rugge recommended him as to the +prompt obtaining of legal powers to enforce the authority he asserted +himself to possess. He would also persuade Mrs. Crane to accompany him +to the village and aid in the requisite investigations; entertaining a +tacit but instinctive belief in the superiority of her acuteness. "Set a +female to catch a female," quoth Mr. Rugge. + +On the day and in the place thus fixed the three hunters opened their +chase. They threw off at the Cobbler's stall. They soon caught the same +scent which had been followed by the lawyer's clerk. They arrived at +Mrs. Saunders's; there the two men would have been at fault like their +predecessor. But the female was more astute. To drop the metaphor Mrs. +Saunders could not stand the sharp cross-examination of one of her own +sex. "That woman deceives us," said Mrs. Crane on leaving the house." +They have not gone to London. What could they do there? Any man with a +few stage juggling tricks can get on in country villages but would be +lost in cities. Perhaps, as it seems he has got a dog,--we have found +out that from Mrs. Saunders,--he will make use of it for an itinerant +puppet-show." + +"Punch!" said Mr. Rugge; "not a doubt of it." + +"In that case," observed Mrs. Crane, "they are probably not far off. Let +us print handbills, offering a reward for their clew, and luring the old +man himself by an assurance that the inquiry is made in order that he may +learn of something to his advantage." + +In the course of the evening the handbills were printed. The next day +they were posted up on the walls, not only of that village, but on those +of the small towns and hamlets for some miles round. The handbills ran +invitingly thus, "If William Waife, who left--on the 20th ult., will +apply at the Red Lion Inn at -------, for X. X., he will learn of +something greatly to his advantage. A reward of L5 will be given to any +one who will furnish information where the said William Waife and the +little girl who accompanies him may be found. The said William Waife is +about sixty years of age, of middle stature, strongly built, has lost one +eye, and is lame of one leg. The little girl, called Sophy, is twelve +years old, but looks younger; has blue eyes and light brown hair. They +had with them a white French poodle dog. This bill is printed by the +friends of the missing party." The next day passed; no information: but +on the day following, a young gentleman of good mien, dressed in black, +rode into the town, stopped at the Red Lion Inn, and asked to see X. X. +The two men were out on their researches; Mrs. Crane stayed at home to +answer inquiries. + +The gentleman was requested to dismount, and walk in. Mrs. Crane +received him in the inn parlour, which swarmed with flies. She stood in +the centre,--vigilant, grim spider of the place. + +"I c-ca-call," said the gentleman, stammering fearfully, in con- +consequence of a b-b-bill--I--ch-chanced to see in my ri-ri-ri-ride +yesterday--on a wa-wa-wall. You-you, I--sup-sup--" + +"Am X. X.," put in Mrs. Crane, growing impatient, "one of the friends of +Mr. Waife, by whom the handbill has been circulated; it will indeed be a +great relief to us to know where they are,--the little girl more +especially." + +Mrs. Crane was respectably dressed,--in silk iron-gray; she had crisped +her flaky tresses into stiff hard ringlets, that fell like long screws +from under a black velvet band. Mrs. Crane never wore a cap, nor could +you fancy her in a cap; but the velvet band looked as rigid as if gummed +to a hoop of steel. Her manner and tone of voice were those of an +educated person, not unused to some society above the vulgar; and yet the +visitor, in whom the reader recognizes the piscatorial Oxonian, with whom +Waife had interchanged philosophy on the marge of the running brooklet, +drew back as she advanced and spoke; and, bent on an errand of kindness, +he was seized with a vague misgiving. + +MRS. CRANE (blandly).--"I fear they must be badly off. I hope they are +not wanting the necessaries of life. But pray be seated, sir." She +looked at him again, and with more respect in her address than she had +before thrown into it, added, with a half courtesy, as she seated herself +by his side, "A clergyman of the Established Church, I presume, sir?" + +OXONIAN (stammer, as on a former occasion, respectfully omitted).--"With +this defect, ma'am!--But to the point. Some days ago I happened to fall +in with an elderly person, such as is described, with a very pretty +female child and a French dog. The man--gentleman, perhaps I may call +him, judging from his conversation--interested me much; so did the little +girl. And if I could be the means of directing real friends anxious to +serve them--" + +Mrs. CRANE.--"You would indeed be a benefactor. And where are they now, +sir?" + +OXONIAN.--"That I cannot positively tell you. But before I say more, +will you kindly satisfy my curiosity? He is perhaps an eccentric +person,--this Mr. Waife?--a little--" The Oxonian stopped, and touched +his forehead. Mrs. Crane made no prompt reply: she was musing. Unwarily +the scholar continued: "Because, in that case, I should not like to +interfere." + +MRS. CRANE.--"Quite right, sir. His own friends would not interfere with +his roving ways, his little whims on any account. Poor man, why should +they? He has no property for them to covet. But it is a long story. I +had the care of that dear little girl from her infancy, sweet child!" + +OXONIAN.--"So she seems." + +MRS. CRANE.--"And now she has a most comfortable home provided for her; +and a young girl, with good friends, ought not to be tramping about the +country, whatever an old man may do. You must allow that, sir?" + +OXONIAN.--"Well,--yes, I allow that; it occurred to me. But what is the +man?--the gentleman?" + +MRS. CRANE.--"Very 'eccentric,' as you say, and inconsiderate, perhaps, +as to the little girl. We will not call it insane, sir. But--are you +married?" + +OXONIAN (blushing).--"No, ma'am." + +MRS. CRANE.--"But you have a sister, perhaps?" + +OXONIAN.--"Yes; I have one sister." + +MRS. CRANE.--"Would you like your sister to be running about the country +in that way,--carried off from her home, kindred, and friends?" + +OXONIAN.--"Ah! I understand. The poor little girl is fond of the old +man,--a relation, grandfather perhaps? and he has taken her from her +home; and though not actually insane, he is still--" + +MRS. CRANE.--"An unsafe guide for a female child, delicately reared. +I reared her; of good prospects, too. O sir, let us save the child! +Look--" She drew from a sidepocket in her stiff iron-gray apron a folded +paper; she placed it in the Oxonian's hand; he glanced over and returned +it. + +"I see, ma'am. I cannot hesitate after this. It is a good many miles +off where I met the persons whom I have no doubt that you seek; and two +or three days ago my father received a letter from a very worthy, +excellent man, with whom he is often brought into communication upon +benevolent objects,--a Mr. Hartopp, the Mayor of Gatesboro', in which, +among other matters, the Mayor mentioned briefly that the Literary +Institute of that town had been much delighted by the performance of a +very remarkable man with one eye, about whom there seemed some mystery, +with a little girl and a learned dog; and I can't help thinking that the +man, the girl, and the dog, must be those whom I saw and you seek." + +MRS. CRANE.--"At Gatesboro'? is that far?" + +OXONIAN.--"Some way; but you can get a cross train from this village. I +hope that the old man will not be separated from the little girl; they +seemed very fond of each other." + +MRS. CRANE.--"No doubt of it; very fond: it would be cruel to separate +them. A comfortable home for both. I don't know, sir, if I dare offer +to a gentleman of your evident rank the reward,--but for the poor of your +parish." + +OXONIAN.--"Oh, ma'am, our poor want for nothing: my father is rich. But +if you would oblige me by a line after you have found these interesting +persons; I am going to a distant part of the country to-morrow,--to +Montfort Court, in -------shire." + +MRS. CRANE.--"To Lord Montfort, the head of the noble family of Vipont?" + +OXONIAN.--"Yes; do you know any of the family, ma'am? If you could refer +me to one of them, I should feel more satisfied as to--" + +MRS. CRANE (hastily).--"Indeed, sir, every one must know that great +family by name and repute. I know no more. So you are going to Lord +Montfort's! The Marchioness, they say, is very beautiful." + +OXONIAN.--"And good as beautiful. I have the honour to be connected both +with her and Lord Montfort; they are cousins, and my grandfather was a +Vipont. I should have told you my name,--Morley; George Vipont Morley." + +Mrs. Crane made a profound courtesy, and, with an unmistakable smile of +satisfaction, said, as if half in soliloquy, "So it is to one of that +noble family--to a Vipont--that the dear child will owe her restoration +to my embrace! Bless you, sir!" + +"I hope I have done right," said George Vipont Morley, as he mounted his +horse. "I must have done right, surely!" he said again, when he was on +the high road. "I fear I have not done right," he said a third time, as +the face of Mrs. Crane began to haunt him; and when at sunset he reached +his home, tired out, horse and man, with an unusually long ride, and the +green water-bank on which he had overheard poor Waife's simple grace and +joyous babble came in sight, "After all," he said dolefully, "it was no +business of mine." + +"I meant well; but--" His little sister ran to the gate to greet him. +"Yes, I did quite right. How should I like my sister to be roving the +country, and acting at Literary Institutes 'with a poodle dog? Quite +right; kiss me, Jane!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Let a king and a beggar converse freely together, and it is the + beggar's fault if he does not say something which makes the king + lift his hat to him. + +The scene shifts back to Gatesboro', the forenoon of the day succeeding +the memorable exhibition at the Institute of that learned town. Mr. +Hartopp was in the little parlour behind his country-house, his hours of +business much broken into by those intruders who deem no time +unseasonable for the indulgence of curiosity, the interchange of thought, +or the interests of general humanity and of national enlightenment. The +excitement produced on the previous evening by Mr. Chapman, Sophy, and +Sir Isaac was greatly on the increase. Persons who had seen them +naturally called on the Mayor to talk over the exhibition. Persons who +had not seen them, still more naturally dropped in just to learn what was +really Mr. Mayor's private opinion. The little parlour was thronged by a +regular levee There was the proprietor of a dismal building, still +called "The Theatre," which was seldom let except at election time, when +it was hired by the popular candidate for the delivery of those harangues +upon liberty and conscience, tyranny and oppression, which furnish the +staple of declamation equally to the dramatist and the orator. There was +also the landlord of the Royal Hotel, who had lately built to his house +"The City Concert-Room,"--a superb apartment, but a losing speculation. +There, too, were three highly respectable persons, of a serious turn of +mind, who came to suggest doubts whether an entertainment of so frivolous +a nature was not injurious to the morality of Gatesboro'. Besides these +notables, there were loungers and gossips, with no particular object +except that of ascertaining who Mr. Chapman was by birth and parentage, +and suggesting the expediency of a deputation, ostensibly for the purpose +of asking him to repeat his performance, but charged with private +instructions to cross-examine him as to his pedigree. The gentle Mayor +kept his eyes fixed on a mighty ledger-book, pen in hand. The attitude +was a rebuke on intruders, and in ordinary times would have been so +considered. But mildness, however majestic, is not always effective in +periods of civic commotion. The room was animated by hubbub. You caught +broken sentences here and there crossing each other, like the sounds that +had been frozen in the air, and set free by a thaw, according to the +veracious narrative of Baron Munchausen. + +PLAYHOUSE PROPRIETOR.--"The theatre is the--" + +SERIOUS GENTLEMAN.--"Plausible snare by which a population, at present +grave and well-disposed, is decoyed into becoming--" + +EXCITED ADMIRER.--"A French poodle, sir, that plays at dominos like a--" + +CREDULOUS CONJECTURER.--"Benevolent philanthropist, condescending to act +for the benefit of some distressed brother who is--" + +PROPRIETOR of CITY CONCERT-ROOM.--"One hundred and twenty feet long by +forty, Mr. Mayor! Talk of that damp theatre, sir, you might as well talk +of the--" + +Suddenly the door flew open, and pushing aside a clerk who designed to +announce him, in burst Mr. Chapman himself. + +He had evidently expected to find the Mayor alone, for at the sight of +that throng he checked himself, and stood mute at the threshold. The +levee for a moment was no less surprised, and no less mute. But the good +folks soon recovered themselves. To many it was a pleasure to accost and +congratulate the man who the night before had occasioned to them emotions +so agreeable. Cordial smiles broke out; friendly hands were thrust +forth. Brief but hearty compliments, mingled with entreaties to renew +the performance to a larger audience, were showered round. The Comedian +stood hat in hand, mechanically passing his sleeve over its nap, +muttering half inaudibly, "You see before you a man," and turning his +single eye from one face to the other, as if strug gling to guess what +was meant, or where he was. The Mayor rose and came forward,--"My dear +friends," said he, mildly, "Mr. Chapman calls by appointment. Perhaps he +may have something to say to me confidentially." + +The three serious gentlemen, who had hitherto remained aloof, eying Mr. +Chapman much as three inquisitors might have eyed a Jew, shook three +solemn heads, and set the example of retreat. The last to linger were +the rival proprietors of the theatre and the city concert-room. Each +whispered the stranger,--one the left ear, one the right. Each thrust +into his hand a printed paper. As the door closed on them the Comedian +let fall the papers: his arm drooped to his side; his whole frame seemed +to collapse. Hartopp took him by the hand, and led him gently to his own +armchair beside the table. The Comedian dropped on the chair, still +without speaking. + +MR. HARTOPP.--"What is the matter? What has happened?" + +WAIFE.--"She is very ill,--in a bad way; the doctor says so,--Dr. Gill." + +MR. HARTOPP (feelingly).--"Your little girl in a bad way! Oh, no; +doctors always exaggerate in order to get more credit for the cure. Not +that I would disparage Dr. Gill, fellow-townsman, first-rate man. Still +'t is the way with doctors to talk cheerfully if one is in danger, and to +look solemn if there is nothing to fear." + +WAIFE.--"DO you think so: you have children of your own, sir?--of her +age, too?--Eh! eh!" + +MR. HARTOPP.--"Yes; I know all about children,--better, I think, than +Mrs. H. does. What is the complaint?" + +WAIFE.--"The doctor says it is low fever." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"Caused by nervous excitement, perhaps." + +WAIFE (looking up).--"Yes: that's what he says,--nervous excitement." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"Clever sensitive children, subjected precociously to +emulation and emotion, are always liable to such maladies. My third +girl, Anna Maria, fell, into a low fever, caused by nervous excitement +in trying for school prizes." + +WATFE.--"Did she die of it, sir?" + +MR. HARTOPP (shuddering).--"Die! no! I removed her from school, set her +to take care of the poultry, forbade all French exercises, made her take +English exercises instead, and ride on a donkey. She's quite another +thing now, cheeks as red as an apple, and as firm as a cricket-ball." + +WAIFE.--"I will keep poultry; I will buy a donkey. Oh, sir! you don't +think she will go to heaven yet, and leave me here?" + +MR. HARTOPP.--"Not if you give her rest and quiet. But no excitement, no +exhibitions." + +WAIFE (emptying his pockets on the table).--"Will you kindly count that +money, sir? Don't you think that would be enough to find her some pretty +lodgings hereabouts till she gets quite strong again? With green +fields,--she's fond of green fields and a farm-yard with poultry,--though +we were lodging a few days ago with a good woman who kept hens, and Sophy +did not seem to take to them much. A canary bird is more of a companion, +and--" + +HARTOPP (interrupting).--"Ay--ay--and you! what would you do?" + +WAIFE.--"Why, I and the dog would go away for a little while about the +country." + +HARTOPP.--"Exhibiting?" + +WAIFE.--"That money will not last forever, and what can we do, I and the +dog, in order to get more for her?" + +HARTOPP (pressing his hand warmly).--"You are a good man, sir. I am sure +of it; you cannot have done things which you should be afraid to tell me. +Make me your confidant, and I may then find some employment fit for you, +and you need not separate yourself from your little girl." + +WAIFE.--"Separate from her! I should only leave her for a few days at a +time till she gets well. This money would keep her,--how long? Two +months? three? how long? the doctor would not charge much." + +HARTOPP.--"YOU will not confide in me then? At your age,--have you no +friends,--no one to speak a good word for you?" + +WAIFE (jerking up his head with a haughty air).--"So--so! Who talks to +you about me, sir? I am speaking of my innocent child. Does she want a +good word spoken for her? Heaven has written it in her face." + +Hartopp persisted no more; the excellent man was sincerely grieved at his +visitor's obstinate avoidance of the true question at issue; for the +Mayor could have found employment for a man of Waife's evident education +and talent. But such employment would entail responsibilites and trust. +How recommend to it a man of whose life and circumstances nothing could +be known,--a man without a character? And Waife interested him deeply. +We have all felt that there are some persons towards whom we are +attracted by a peculiar sympathy not to be explained,--a something in the +manner, the cut of the face, the tone of the voice. If there are fifty +applicants for a benefit in our gift, one of the fifty wins his way to +our preference at first sight, though with no better right to it than his +fellows. We can no more say why we like the man than we can say why we +fall in love with a woman in whom no one else would discover a charm. +"There is," says a Latin love-poet, "no why or wherefore in liking." +Hartopp, therefore, had taken, from the first moment, to Waife,--the +staid, respectable, thriving man, all muffled up from head to foot in the +whitest lawn of reputation,--to the wandering, shifty, tricksome +scatterling, who had not seemingly secured, through the course of a +life bordering upon age, a single certificate for good conduct. On his +hearthstone, beside his ledger-book, stood the Mayor, looking with a +respectful admiration that puzzled himself upon the forlorn creature, who +could give no reason why he should not be rather in the Gatesboro' parish +stocks than in its chief magistrate's easy-chair. Yet, were the Mayor's +sympathetic liking and respectful admiration wholly unaccountable? Runs +there not between one warm human heart and another the electric chain of +a secret understanding? In that maimed outcast, so stubbornly hard to +himself, so tremulously sensitive for his sick child, was there not the +majesty to which they who have learned that Nature has her nobles, +reverently bow the head! A man true to man's grave religion can no more +despise a life wrecked in all else, while a hallowing affection stands +out sublime through the rents and chinks of fortune, than he can profane +with rude mockery a temple in ruins,--if still left there the altar. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Very well so far as it goes. + +MR. HARTOPP.--"I cannot presume to question you further, Mr. Chapman. +But to one of your knowledge of the world, I need not say that your +silence deprives me of the power to assist yourself. We'll talk no more +of that." + +WAIFE.--"Thank you, gratefully, Mr. Mayor." + +MR. HARTOPP.--"But for the little girl, make your mind easy,--at least +for the present. I will place her at my farm cottage. My bailiff's +wife, a kind woman, will take care of her, while you pursue your calling +elsewhere. As for this money, you will want it yourself; your poor +little child shall cost you nothing. So that's settled. Let me come up +and see her. I am a bit of a doctor myself. Every man blest with a +large family, in whose house there is always some interesting case of +small-pox, measles, whooping-cough, scarlatina, etc., has a good private +practice of his own. I'm not brilliant in book-learning, Mr. Chapman. +But as to children's complaints in a practical way," added Hartopp, with +a glow of pride, "Mrs. H. says she'd rather trust the little ones to me +than to Dr. Gill. I'll see your child, and set her up I'll be bound. +But now I think of it," continued Hartopp, softening more and more, "if +exhibit you must, why not stay at Gatesboro' for a time? More may be +made in this town than elsewhere." + +"No, no; I could not have the heart to act here again without her. I +feel at present as if I can never again act at all!" + +"Something else will turn up. Providence is so kind to me, Mr. Mayor." + +Waife turned to the door. "You will come soon?" he said anxiously. + +The Mayor, who had been locking up his ledgers and papers, replied, "I +will but stay to give some orders; in a quarter of an hour I shall be at +your hotel." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Sophy hides heart and shows temper. + +The child was lying on a sofa drawn near the window in her own room, and +on her lap was the doll Lionel had given to her. Carried with her in her +wanderings, she had never played with it; never altered a ribbon in its +yellow tresses; but at least once a day she had taken it forth and looked +at it in secret. And all that morning, left much to herself, it had been +her companion. She was smoothing down its frock, which she fancied had +got ruffled,--smoothing it down with a sort of fearful tenderness, the +doll all the while staring her full in the face with its blue bead eyes. +Waife, seated near her, was trying to talk gayly; to invent fairy tales +blithe with sport and fancy: but his invention flagged, and the fairies +prosed awfully. He had placed the dominos before Sir Isaac, but Sophy +had scarcely looked at them, from the languid heavy eyes on which the +doll so stupidly fixed its own. Sir Isaac himself seemed spiritless; he +was aware that something was wrong. Now and then he got up restlessly, +sniffed the dominos, and placed a paw gently, very gently, on Sophy's +knee. Not being encouraged, he lay down again uneasily, often shifting +his position as if the floor was grown too hard for him. Thus the Mayor +found the three. He approached Sophy with the step of a man accustomed +to sick-rooms and ailing children,--step light as if shod with felt,--put +his hand on her shoulder, kissed her forehead, and then took the doll. +Sophy started, and took it back from him quickly, but without a word; +then she hid it behind her pillow. The Mayor smiled. "My dear child, do +you think I should hurt your doll?" + +Sophy coloured and said murmuringly, "No, sir, not hurt it, but--" she +stopped short. + +"I have been talking to your grandpapa about you, my dear, and we both +wish to give you a little holiday. Dolls are well enough for the winter, +but green fields and daisy chains for the summer." + +Sophy glanced from the Mayor to her grandfather, and back again to the +Mayor, shook her curls from her eyes, and looked seriously inquisitive. + +The Mayor, observing her quietly, stole her hand into his own, feeling +the pulse as if merely caressing the slender wrist. Then he began to +describe his bailiff's cottage, with woodbine round the porch, the farm- +yard, the bee-hives, the pretty duck-pond with an osier island, and the +great China gander who had a pompous strut, which made him the droll est +creature possible. And Sophy should go there in a day or two, and be +as happy as one of the bees, but not so busy. Sophy listened very +earnestly, very gravely, and then sliding her hand from the Mayor, +caught hold of her grandfather's arm firmly, and said, "And you, Grandy, +--will you like it? won't it be dull for you, Grandy dear?" + +"Why, my darling," said Waife, "I and Sir Isaac will go and take a stroll +about the country for a few weeks, and--" + +SOPHY (passionately).--"I thought so; I thought he meant that. I tried +not to believe it; go away,--you? and who's to take care of you? who'll +understand you? I want care! I! I! No, no, it is you,--you who want +care. I shall be well to-morrow,--quite well, don't fear. He shall not +be sent away from me; he shall not, sir. Oh, Grandfather, Grandfather, +how could you?" She flung herself on his breast, clinging there,-- +clinging as if infancy and age were but parts of the same whole. + +"But," said the Mayor, "it is not as if you were going to school, my +dear; you are going for a holiday. And your grandfather must leave you, +--must travel about; 'tis his calling. If you fell ill and were with +him, think how much you would be in his way. Do you know," he added, +smiling, "I shall begin to fear that you are selfish." + +"Selfish!" exclaimed Waife, angrily. + +"Selfish!" echoed Sophy, with a melancholy scorn that came from a +sentiment so deep that mortal eye could scarce fathom it. "Oh, no, sir! +can you say it is for his good, not for what he supposes mine that you +want us to part? The pretty cottage, and all for me; and what for him? +--tramp, tramp along the hot dusty roads. Do you see that he is lame? +Oh, Sir, I know him; you don't. Selfish! he would have no merry ways +that make you laugh without me; would you, Grandy dear? Go away, you are +a naughty man,--go, or I shall hate you as much as that dreadful Mr. +Rugge." + +"Rugge,--who is he?" said the Mayor, curiously, catching at any clew. + +"Hush, my darling!--hush!" said Waife, fondling her on his breast. +"Hush! What is to be done, sir?" + +Hartopp made a sly sign to him to say no more before Sophy, and then +replied, addressing himself to her, "What is to be done? Nothing shall +be done, my dear child, that you dislike. I don't wish to part you two. +Don't hate me; lie down again; that's a dear. There, I have smoothed +your pillow for you. Oh, here's your pretty doll again." Sophy snatched +at the doll petulantly, and made what the French call a moue at the good +man as she suffered her grandfather to replace her on the sofa. + +"She has a strong temper of her own," muttered the Mayor; "so has Anna +Maria a strong temper!" + +Now, if I were anyway master of my own pen, and could write as I pleased, +without being hurried along helter-skelter by the tyrannical exactions of +that "young Rapid" in buskins and chiton called "THE HISTORIC MUSE," I +would break off this chapter, open my window, rest my eyes on the green +lawn without, and indulge in a rhapsodical digression upon that +beautifier of the moral life which is called "Good Temper." Ha! the +Historic Muse is dozing. By her leave!--Softly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Being an essay on temper in general, and a hazardous experiment on the +reader's in particular. + +There, the window is open! how instinctively the eye rests upon the +green! How the calm colour lures and soothes it! But is there to the +green only a single hue? See how infinite the variety of its tints! +What sombre gravity in yon cedar, yon motionless pine-tree! What lively +but unvarying laugh in yon glossy laurels! Do those tints charm us like +the play in the young leaves of the lilac,--lighter here, darker there, +as the breeze (and so slight the breeze!) stirs them into checker,--into +ripple? Oh, sweet green, to the world what sweet temper is to man's +life! Who would reduce into one dye all thy lovely varieties? who +exclude the dark steadfast verdure that lives on through the winter day; +or the mutinous caprice of the gentler, younger tint that came fresh +through the tears of April, and will shadow with sportive tremor the +blooms of luxuriant June? + +Happy the man on whose marriage-hearth temper smiles kind from the eyes +of woman! "No deity present," saith the heathen proverb, "where absent +Prudence;" no joy long a guest where Peace is not a dweller,--peace, so +like Faith that they may be taken for each other, and poets have clad +them with the same veil. But in childhood, in early youth, expect not +the changeless green of the cedar. Wouldst thou distinguish fine temper +from spiritless dulness, from cold simulation,--ask less what the temper +than what the disposition. + +Is the nature sweet and trustful; is it free from the morbid self-love +which calls itself "sensitive feeling" and frets at imaginary offences; +is the tendency to be grateful for kindness, yet take kindness meekly, +and accept as a benefit what the vain call a due? From dispositions thus +blessed, sweet temper will come forth to gladden thee, spontaneous and +free. Quick with some, with some slow, word and look emerge out of the +heart. Be thy first question, "Is the heart itself generous and tender?" +If it be so, self-control comes with deepening affection. Call not that +a good heart which, hastening to sting if a fibre be ruffled, cries, "I +am no hypocrite." Accept that excuse, and revenge becomes virtue. But +where the heart, if it give the offence, pines till it win back the +pardon; if offended itself, bounds forth to forgive, ever longing to +soothe, ever grieved if it wound; then be sure that its nobleness will +need but few trials of pain in each outbreak to refine and chastise its +expression. Fear not then; be but noble thyself, thou art safe! + +Yet what in childhood is often called, rebukingly, "temper" is but the +cordial and puissant vitality which contains all the elements that make +temper the sweetest at last. Who amongst us, how wise soever, can +construe a child's heart? who conjecture all the springs that secretly +vibrate within, to a touch on the surface of feeling? Each child, but +especially the girl-child, would task the whole lore of a sage deep as +Shakspeare to distinguish those subtle emotions which we grown folks have +outlived. + +"She has a strong temper," said the Mayor, when Soppy snatched the doll +from his hand a second time, and pouted at him, spoiled child, looking so +divinely cross, so petulantly pretty! And how on earth could the Mayor +know what associations with that stupid doll made her think it profaned +by the touch of a stranger? Was it to her eyes as to his,--mere waxwork +and frippery; or a symbol of holy remembrances, of gleams into a fairer +world, of "devotion to something afar from the sphere of her sorrow?" +Was not the evidence of "strong temper" the very sign of affectionate +depth of heart? Poor little Sophy! Hide it again,--safe out of sight, +close, inscrutable, unguessed, as childhood's first treasures of +sentiment ever are! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + The object of civilization being always to settle people one way or + the other, the Mayor of Gatesboro' entertains a statesmanlike + ambition to settle Gentleman Waife; no doubt a wise conception, and + in accordance with the genius of the Nation. Every session of + Parliament England is employed in settling folks, whether at home or + at the Antipodes, who ignorantly object to be settled in her way; in + short, "I'll settle them," has become a vulgar idiom, tantamount to + a threat of uttermost extermination or smash; therefore the Mayor of + Gatesboro' harbouring that benignant idea with reference to + "Gentleman Waife," all kindly readers will exclaim, "Dii meliora! + What will he do with it?" + +The doll once more safe behind the pillow, Sophy's face gradually +softened; she bent forward, touched the Mayor's hand timidly, and looked +at him with pleading, penitent eyes, still wet with tears,--eyes that +said, though the lips were silent, "I'll not hate you. I was ungrateful +and peevish; may I beg pardon?" + +"I forgive you with all my heart," cried the Mayor, interpreting the look +aright. "And now try and compose yourself and sleep while I talk with +your grandpapa below." + +"I don't see how it is possible that I can leave her," said Waife, when +the two men had adjourned to the sitting-room. "I am sure," quoth the +Mayor, seriously, "that it is the best thing for her: her pulse has much +nervous excitability; she wants a complete rest; she ought not to move +about with you on any account. But come: though I must not know, it +seems, who and what you are, Mr. Chapman, I don't think you will run off +with my cow; and if you like to stay at the bailiff's cottage for a week +or two with your grandchild, you shall be left in peace, and asked no +questions. I will own to you a weakness of mine: I value myself on being +seldom or never taken in. I don't think I could forgive the man who did +take me in. But taken in I certainly shall be, if, despite all your +mystery, you are not as honest a fellow as ever stood upon shoe-leather! +So come to the cottage." + +Waife was very much affected by this confiding kindness; but he shook his +head despondently, and that same abject, almost cringing humility of mien +and manner which had pained at times Lionel and Vance crept over the +whole man, so that he seemed to cower and shrink as a Pariah before a +Brahmin. "No, sir; thank you most humbly. No, sir; that must not be. +I must work for my daily bread; if what a poor vagabond like me may do +can be called work. I have made it a rule for years not to force myself +to the hearth and home of any kind man, who, not knowing my past, has a +right to suspect me. Where I lodge, I pay as a lodger; or whatever +favour shown me spares my purse, I try to return in some useful humble +way. Why, sir, how could I make free and easy with another man's board +and roof-tree for days or weeks together, when I would not even come to +your hearthstone for a cup of tea?" The Mayor remembered, and was +startled. Waife hurried on. "But for my poor child I have no such +scruples,--no shame, no false pride. I take what you offer her +gratefully,--gratefully. Ah, sir, she is not in her right place with me; +but there's no use kicking against the pricks. Where was I? Oh! well, +I tell you what we will do, sir. I will take her to the cottage in a day +or two,--as soon as she is well enough to go,--and spend the day with +her, and deceive her, sir! yes, deceive, cheat her, sir! I am a cheat, +a player, and she'll think I'm going to stay with her; and at night, when +she's asleep, I'll creep off, I and the other dog. But I'll leave a +letter for her: it will soothe her, and she'll be patient and wait. I +will come back again to see her in a week, and once every week, till +she's well again." + +"And what will you do?" + +"I don't know; but," said the actor, forcing a laugh, "I 'm not a man +likely to starve. Oh, never fear, sir." + +So the Mayor went away, and strolled across the fields to his bailiff's +cottage, to prepare for the guest it would receive. "It is all very well +that the poor man should be away for some days," thought Mr. Hartopp. +"Before he comes again, I shall have hit on some plan to serve him; and I +can learn more about him from the child in his absence, and see what he +is really fit for. There's a schoolmaster wanted in Morley's village. +Old Morley wrote to me to recommend him one. Good salary,--pretty house. +But it would be wrong to set over young children--recommend to a +respectable proprietor and his parson--a man whom I know nothing about. +Impossible! that will not do. If there was any place of light service +which did not require trust or responsibility,--but there is no such +place in Great Britain. Suppose I were to set him up in some easy way of +business,--a little shop, eh? I don't know. What would Williams say? +If, indeed, I were taken in! if the man I am thus credulously trusting +turned out a rogue,"--the Mayor paused and actually shivered at that +thought,--"why then, I should be fallen indeed. My wife would not let me +have half-a-crown in my pockets; and I could, not walk a hundred yards +but Williams would be at my heels to protect me from being stolen by +gypsies. Taken in by him! No, impossible! But if it turn out as I +suspect,--that, contrary to vulgar prudence, I am divining a really great +and good man in difficulties, aha, what a triumph I shall then gain over +them all! How Williams will revere me!" The good man laughed aloud at +that thought, and walked on with a prouder step. + + + + +CHAPTER, XXIII. + + A pretty trifle in its way, no doubt, is the love between youth and + youth,--gay varieties of the bauble spread the counter of the great + toy-shop; but thou, courteous dame Nature, raise thine arm to yon + shelf, somewhat out of every-day reach, and bring me down that + obsolete, neglected, unconsidered thing, the love between age and + childhood. + +The next day Sophy was better; the day after, improvement was more +visible; and on the third day Waife paid his bill, and conducted her to +the rural abode to which, credulous at last of his promises to share it +with her for a time, he enticed her fated steps. It was little more than +a mile beyond the suburbs of the town; and, though the walk tired her, +she concealed fatigue, and would not suffer him to carry her. The +cottage now smiled out before them,--thatched gable roof, with fancy +barge board; half Swiss, half what is called Elizabethan; all the fences +and sheds round it, as only your rich traders, condescending to turn +farmers, construct and maintain,--sheds and fences, trim and neat, as if +models in waxwork. The breezy air came fresh from the new haystacks; +from the woodbine round the porch; from the breath of the lazy kine, as +they stood knee-deep in the pool, that, belted with weeds and broad- +leaved water-lilies, lay calm and gleaming amidst level pastures. + +Involuntarily they arrested their steps, to gaze on the cheerful +landscape and inhale the balmy air. Meanwhile the Mayor came out from +the cottage porch, his wife leaning on his arm, and two of his younger +children bounding on before, with joyous faces, giving chase to a gaudy +butterfly which they had started from the woodbine. + +Mrs. Hartopp had conceived a lively curiosity to see and judge for +herself of the objects of her liege lord's benevolent interest. She +shared, of course, the anxiety which formed the standing excitement of +all those who lived but for one godlike purpose, that of preserving +Josiah Hartopp from being taken in. But whenever the Mayor specially +wished to secure his wife's countenance to any pet project of his own, +and convince her either that he was not taken in, or that to be +discreetly taken in is in this world a very popular and sure mode of +getting up, he never failed to attain his end. That man was the +cunningest creature! As full of wiles and stratagems in order to get his +own way--in benevolent objects--as men who set up to be clever are for +selfish ones. Mrs. Hartopp was certainly a good woman, but a made good +woman. Married to another man, I suspect that she would have been a +shrew. Petruchio would never have tamed her, I'll swear. But she, poor +lady, had been gradually, but completely, subdued, subjugated, absolutely +cowed beneath the weight of her spouse's despotic mildness; for in +Hartopp there was a weight of soft quietude, of placid oppression, wholly +irresistible. It would have buried a Titaness under a Pelion of moral +feather-beds. Mass upon mass of downy influence descended upon you, +seemingly yielding as it fell, enveloping, overbearing, stifling you; not +presenting a single hard point of contact; giving in as you pushed +against it; supplying itself seductively round you, softer and softer, +heavier and heavier,--till, I assure you, ma'am, no matter how high your +natural wifely spirit, you would have had it smothered out of you, your +last rebellious murmur dying languidly away under the descending fleeces. + +"So kind in you to come with me, Mary," said Hartopp. "I could not have +been happy without your approval: look at the child; something about her +like Mary Anne, and Mary Anne is the picture of you!" + +Waife advanced, uncovering; the two children, having lost trace of the +butterfly, had run up towards Sophy. But her shy look made themselves +shy,--shyness is so contagious, and they stood a little aloof, gazing at +her. Sir Isaac stalked direct to the Mayor, sniffed at him, and wagged +his tail. + +Mrs. Hartopp now bent over Sophy, and acknowledging that the face was +singularly pretty, glanced graciously towards the husband, and said, "I +see the likeness!" then to Sophy, "I fear you are tired, my dear: you +must not overfatigue yourself; and you must take milk fresh from the cow +every morning." And now the bailiff's wife came briskly out, a tidy, +fresh-coloured, kind-faced woman, fond of children; the more so because +she had none of her own. + +So they entered the farm-yard, Mrs. Hartopp being the chief talker; and +she, having pointed out to Sophy the cows and the turkeys, the hen-coops, +and the great China gander, led her by the one hand--while Sophy's other +hand clung firmly to Waife's'--across the little garden, with its patent +bee-hives, into the house, took off her bonnet, and kissed her. "Very +like Mary Anne!--Mary Anne, dear." One of the two children owning that +name approached,--snub-nosed, black-eyed, with cheeks like peonies. +"This little girl, my Mary Anne, was as pale as you,--over-study; and +now, my dear child, you must try and steal a little of her colour. Don't +you think my Mary Anne is like her papa, Mr. Chapman?" + +"Like me!" exclaimed the Mayor, whispering Waife, "image of her mother! +the same intellectual look!" + +Said the artful actor, "Indeed, ma'am, the young lady has her father's +mouth and eyebrows, but that acute, sensible expression is yours,--quite +yours. Sir Isaac, make a bow to the young lady, and then, sir, go +through the sword exercise!" + +The dog, put upon his tricks, delighted the children; and the poor actor, +though his heart lay in his breast like lead, did his best to repay +benevolence by mirth. Finally, much pleased, Mrs. Hartopp took her +husband's arm to depart. The children, on being separated from Sir +Isaac, began to cry. The Mayor interrupted his wife,--who, if left to +herself, would have scolded them into worse crying,--told Mary Anne that +he relied on her strong intellect to console her brother Tom; observed to +Tom that it was not like his manly nature to set an example of weeping to +his sister; and contrived thus to flatter their tears away in a trice, +and sent them forward in a race to the turnstile. + +Waife and Sophy were alone in the cottage parlour, Mrs. Gooch, the +bailiff's wife, walking part of the way back with the good couple, in +order to show the Mayor a heifer who had lost appetite and taken to +moping. "Let us steal out into the back garden, my darling," said Waife. +"I see an arbour there, where I will compose myself with a pipe,--a +liberty I should not like to take indoors." They stepped across the +threshold, and gained the arbour, which stood at the extreme end of the +small kitchen-garden, and commanded a pleasant view of pastures and +cornfields, backed by the blue outline of distant hills. Afar were +faintly heard the laugh of the Mayor's happy children, now and then a +tinkling sheep-bell, or the tap of the woodpecker, unrepressed by the +hush of the. Midmost summer, which stills the more tuneful choristers +amidst their coverts. Waife lighted his pipe, and smoked silently; +Sophy, resting her head on his bosom, silent also. She was exquisitely +sensitive to nature: the quiet beauty of all round her was soothing a +spirit lately troubled, and health came stealing gently back through +frame and through heart. At length she said softly, "We could be so +happy here, Grandfather! It cannot last, can it?" + +"It is no use in this life, my dear," returned Waife, philosophizing, "no +use at all disturbing present happiness by asking, 'Can it last?' To-day +is man's, to-morrow his Maker's. But tell me frankly, do you really +dislike so much the idea of exhibiting? I don't mean as we did in Mr. +Rugge's show. I know you hate that; but in a genteel private way, as the +other night. You sigh! Out with it." + +"I like what you like, Grandy." + +"That's not true. I like to smoke; you don't. Come, you do dislike +acting? Why? you do it so well,--wonderfully. Generally speaking, +people like what they do well." + +"It is not the acting itself, Grandy dear, that I don't like. When I am +in some part, I am carried away; I am not myself. I am some one else!" + +"And the applause?" + +"I don't feel it. I dare say I should miss it if it did not come; but it +does not seem to me as if I were applauded. If I felt that, I should +stop short, and get frightened. It is as if that somebody else into whom +I was changed was making friends with the audience; and all my feeling is +for that somebody,--just as, Grandy dear, when it is over, and we two are +alone together, all my feeling is for you,--at least (hanging her head) +it used to be; but lately, somehow, I am ashamed to think how I have been +feeling for myself more than for you. Is it--is it that I am growing +selfish? as Mr. Mayor said. Oh, no! Now we are here,--not in those +noisy towns,--not in the inns and on the highways; now here, here, I do +feel again for you,--all for you!" + +"You are my little angel, you are," said Waife, tremulously. "Selfish! +you! a good joke that! Now you see, I am not what is called +Demonstrative,--a long word, Sophy, which means, that I don't show to you +always how fond I am of you; and, indeed," he added ingenuously, "I am +not al ways aware of it myself. I like acting,--I like the applause, and +the lights, and the excitement, and the illusion,--the make-belief of the +whole thing: it takes me out of memory and thought; it is a world that +has neither past, present, nor future, an interlude in time,-an escape +from space. I suppose it is the same with poets when they are making +verses. Yes, I like all this; and, when I think of it, I forget you too +much. And I never observed, Heaven forgive me! that you were pale and +drooping till it was pointed out to me. Well, take away your arms. Let +us consult! As soon as you get quite, quite well, how shall we live? +what shall we do? You are as wise as a little woman, and such a careful, +prudent housekeeper; and I'm such a harumscarum old fellow, without a +sound idea in my head. What shall we do if we give up acting +altogether?" + +"Give up acting altogether, when you like it so! No, no. I will like it +too, Grandy. But--but--" she stopped short, afraid to imply blame or to +give pain. + +"But what? let us make clean breasts, one to the other; tell truth, and +shame the Father of Lies." + +"Tell truth," said Sophy, lifting up to him her pure eyes with such +heavenly, loving kindness that, if the words did imply reproof, the eyes +stole it away. "Could we but manage to tell truth off the stage, I +should not dislike acting! Oh, Grandfather, when that kind gentleman and +his lady and those merry children come up and speak to us, don't you feel +ready to creep into the earth?--I do. Are we telling truth? are we +living truth? one name to-day, another name to morrow? I should not +mind acting on a stage or in a room, for the time, but always acting, +always,--we ourselves 'make beliefs!' Grandfather, must that be? They +don't do it; I mean by they, all who are good and looked up to and +respected, as--as--oh, Grandy! Grandy! what am I saying? I have pained +you." + +Waife indeed was striving hard to keep down emotion; but his lips were +set firmly and the blood had left them, and his hands were trembling. + +"We must, hide ourselves," he said in a very low voice; "we must take +false names; I--because--because of reasons I can't tell even to you; and +you, because I failed to get you a proper home, where you ought to be; +and there is one who, if he pleases, and he may please it any day, could +take you away from me, if he found you out; and so--and so--" He paused +abruptly, looked at her fearful wondering soft face, and, rising, drew +himself up with one of those rare outbreaks of dignity which elevated the +whole character of his person. "But as for me," said he, "if I have lost +all name; if, while I live, I must be this wandering, skulking outcast,-- +look above, Sophy,--look up above: there all secrets will be known, all +hearts read; and there my best hope to find a place in which I may wait +your coming is in what has lost me all birthright here. Not to exalt +myself do I say this,--no; but that you may have comfort, darling, if +ever hereafter you are pained by what men say to you of me." + +As he spoke, the expression of his face, at first solemn and lofty, +relaxed into melancholy submission. Then passing his arm into hers, and +leaning on it as if sunk once more into the broken cripple needing her +frail support, he drew her forth from the arbour, and paced the little +garden slowly, painfully. At length he seemed to recover himself, and +said in his ordinary cheerful tone, "But to the point in question, +suppose we have done with acting and roaming, and keep to one name and +settle somewhere like plain folks, again I ask, How shall we live?" + +"I have been thinking of that," answered Sophy. "You remember that those +good Miss Burtons taught me all kinds of needlework, and I know people +can make money by needlework. And then, Grandy dear, what can't you do? +Do you forget Mrs. Saunders's books that you bound, and her cups and +saucers that you mended? So we would both work, and have a little +cottage and a garden, that we could take care of, and sell the herbs and +vegetables. Oh, I have thought over it all, the last fortnight, a +hundred hundred times, only I did not dare to speak first." + +Waife listened very attentively. "I can make very good baskets," said +he, rubbing his chin, "famous baskets (if one could hire a bit of osier +ground), and, as you say, there might be other fancy articles I could +turn out prettily enough, and you could work samplers, and urn-rugs, and +doileys, and pincushions, and so forth; and what with a rood or two of +garden ground, and poultry (the Mayor says poultry is healthy for +children), upon my word, if we could find a safe place, and people would +not trouble us with their gossip, and we could save a little money for +you when I am--" + +"Bees too,--honey?" interrupted Sophy, growing more and more interested +and excited. + +"Yes, bees,--certainly. A cottage of that kind in a village would not be +above L6 a year, and L20 spent on materials for fancy-works would set us +up. Ah but furniture, beds and tables,--monstrous dear!" + +"Oh, no! very little would do at first." + +"Let us count the money we have left," said Waife, throwing himself down +on a piece of sward that encircled a shady mulberry-tree. Old man and +child counted the money, bit by bit, gayly yet anxiously,--babbling, +interrupting each other,--scheme upon scheme: they forgot past and +present as much as in acting plays; they were absorbed in the future,-- +innocent simple future,--innocent as the future planned by two infants +fresh from "Robinson Crusoe" or fairy tales. + +"I remember, I remember, just the place for us," cried Waife, suddenly. +"It is many, many, many years since I was there; I was courting my Lizzy +at the time,--alas! alas. But no sad thoughts now!--just the place, near +a large town, but in a pretty village quite retired from it. 'T was +there I learned to make baskets. I had broken my leg; fall from a horse; +nothing to do. I lodged with an old basketmaker; he had a capital trade. +Rivulet at the back of his house; reeds, osiers, plentiful. I see them +now, as I saw them from my little casement while my leg was setting. And +Lizzy used to write to me such dear letters; my baskets were all for her. +We had baskets enough to have furnished a house with bask'ts; could have +dined in baskets, sat in baskets, slept in baskets. With a few lessons I +could soon recover the knack of the work. I should like to see the place +again; it would be shaking hands with my youth once more. None who could +possibly recognize me could be now living. Saw no one but the surgeon, +the basketmaker, and his wife; all so old they must be long since +gathered to their fathers. Perhaps no one carries on the basket trade +now. I may revive it and have it all to myself; perhaps the cottage +itself may be easily hired." Thus, ever disposed to be sanguine, the +vagabond chattered on, Sophy listening fondly, and smiling up in his +face. "And a fine large park close by: the owners, great lords, deserted +it then; perhaps it is deserted still. You might wander over it as if it +were your own, Sophy. Such wonderful trees,--such green solitudes; and +pretty shy hares running across the vistas,--stately deer too! We will +make friends with the lodge-keepers, and we will call the park yours, +Sophy; and I shall be a genius who weaves magical baskets, and you shall +be the enchanted princess concealed from all evil eyes, knitting doileys +of pearl under leaves of emerald, and catching no sound from the world of +perishable life, except as the boughs whisper and the birds sing." + +"Dear me, here you are; we thought you were lost," said the bailiff's +wife; "tea is waiting for you, and there's husband, sir, coming up from +his work; he'll be proud and glad to know you, sir, and you too, my dear; +we have no children of our own." + +It is past eleven. Sophy, worn out, but with emotions far more +pleasurable than she has long known, is fast asleep. Waife kneels by her +side, looking at her. He touches her hand, so cool and soft; all fever +gone: he rises on tiptoe; he bends over her forehead,--a kiss there, and +a tear; he steals away, down, down the stairs. At the porch is the +bailiff holding Sir Isaac. + +"We'll take all care of her," said Mr. Gooch. "You'll not know her again +when you come back." + +Waife pressed the hand of his grandchild's host, but did not speak. + +"You are sure you will find your way,--no, that's the wrong turn,-- +straight onto the town. They'll be sitting up for you at the Saracen's +Head, I suppose, of course, sir? It seems not hospitable like, your +going away at the dead of night thus. But I understand you don't like +crying, sir, we men don't; and your sweet little girl I dare say would +sob ready to break her heart if she knew. Fine moonlight night, sir,-- +straight on. And I say, don't fret about her: wife loves children +dearly,--so do I. Good-night." + +On went Waife,--lamely, slowly,--Sir Isaac's white coat gleaming in the +moon, ghostlike. On he went, his bundle strapped across his shoulder, +leaning on his staff, along by the folded sheep and the sleeping cattle. +But when he got into the high road, Gatesboro' full before him, with all +its roofs and spires, he turned his back on the town, and tramped once +more along the desert thoroughfare,--more slowly and more, more lamely +and more, till several milestones were passed; and then he crept through +the gap of a hedgerow to the sheltering eaves of a haystack; and under +that roof-tree he and Sir Isaac lay down to rest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Laugh at forebodings of evil, but tremble after day-dreams of + happiness. + +Waife left behind him at the cottage two letters,--one entrusted to the +bailiff, with a sealed bag, for Mr. Hartopp; one for Sophy, placed on a +chair beside her bed. + +The first letter was as follows:-- + +"I trust, dear and honoured sir, that I shall come back safely; and when +I do, I may have found perhaps a home for her, and some way of life such +as you would not blame. But, in case of accident, I have left with Mr. +Gooch, sealed up, the money we made at Gatesboro', after paying the inn +bill, doctor, etc., and retaining the mere trifle I need in case I and +Sir Isaac fail to support ourselves. You will kindly take care of it. +I should not feel safe with more money about me, an old man. + +"I might be robbed; besides, I am careless. I never can keep money; it +slips out of my hands like an eel. Heaven bless you, sir; your kindness +seems like a miracle vouchsafed to me for that child's dear sake. No +evil can chance to her with you; and if I should fall ill and die, even +then you, who would have aided the tricksome vagrant, will not grudge the +saving hand to the harmless child." + +The letter to Sophy ran thus:-- + +"Darling, forgive me; I have stolen away from you, but only for a few +days, and only in order to see if we cannot gain the magic home where I +am to be the Genius, and you the Princess. I go forth with such a light +heart, Sophy dear, I shall be walking thirty miles a day, and not feel an +ache in the lame leg: you could not keep up with me; you know you could +not. So think over the cottage and the basket-work, and practise at +samplers and pincushions, when it is too hot to play; and be stout and +strong against I come back. That, I trust, will be this day week,---'t +is but seven days; and then we will only act fairy dramas to nodding +trees, with linnets for the orchestra; and even Sir Isaac shall not be +demeaned by mercenary tricks, but shall employ his arithmetical talents +in casting up the weekly bills, and he shall never stand on his hind legs +except on sunny days, when he shall carry a parasol to shade an enchanted +princess. Laugh; darling,--let me fancy I see you laughing; but don't +fret,--don't fancy I desert you. Do try and get well,--quite, quite +well; I ask it of you on my knees." + +The letter and the bag were taken over at sunrise to Mr. Hartopp's villa. +Mr. Hartopp was an early man. Sophy overslept herself: her room was to +the west; the morning beams did not reach its windows; and the cottage +without children woke up to labour noiseless and still. So when at last +she shook off sleep, and tossing her hair from her blue eyes, looked +round and became conscious of the strange place, she still fancied the +hour early. But she got up, drew the curtain from the window, saw the +sun high in the heavens, and, ashamed of her laziness, turned, and lo! +the letter on the chair! Her heart at once misgave her; the truth +flashed upon a reason prematurely quick in the intuition which belongs to +the union of sensitive affection and active thought. She drew a long +breath, and turned deadly pale. It was some minutes before she could +take up the letter, before she could break the seal. When she did, she +read on noiselessly, her tears dropping over the page, without effort or +sob. She had no egotistical sorrow, no grief in being left alone with +strangers: it was the pathos of the old man's lonely wanderings, of his +bereavement, of his counterfeit glee, and genuine self-sacrifice; this it +was that suffused her whole heart with unutterable yearnings of +tenderness, gratitude, pity, veneration. But when she had wept silently +for some time, she kissed the letter with devout passion, and turned to +that Heaven to which the outcast had taught her first to pray. + +Afterwards she stood still, musing a little while, and the sorrowful +shade gradually left her face. Yes; she would obey him: she would not +fret; she would try and get well and strong. He would feel, at the +distance, that she was true to his wishes; that she was fitting herself +to be again his companion: seven days would soon pass. Hope, that can +never long quit the heart of childhood, brightened over her meditations, +as the morning sun over a landscape that just before had lain sad amidst +twilight and under rains. + +When she came downstairs, Mrs. Gooch was pleased and surprised to observe +the placid smile upon her face, and the quiet activity with which, after +the morning meal, she moved about by the good woman's side assisting her +in her dairywork and other housewife tasks, talking little, comprehending +quickly,--composed, cheerful. + +"I am so glad to see you don't pine after your good grandpapa, as we +feared you would." + +"He told me not to pine," answered Sophy, simply, but with a quivering +lip. + +When the noon deepened, and it became too warm for exercise, Sophy +timidly asked if Mrs. Gooch had any worsted and knitting-needles, and +being accommodated with those implements and materials, she withdrew to +the arbour, and seated herself to work,--solitary and tranquil. + +What made, perhaps, the chief strength in this poor child's nature was +its intense trustfulness,--a part, perhaps, of its instinctive +appreciation of truth. She trusted in Waife, in the future, in +Providence, in her own childish, not helpless, self. + +Already, as her slight fingers sorted the worsteds and her graceful taste +shaded their hues into blended harmony, her mind was weaving, not less +harmoniously, the hues in the woof of dreams,--the cottage home, the +harmless tasks, Waife with his pipe in the armchair under some porch, +covered like that one yonder,--why not?--with fragrant woodbine, and life +if humble, honest, truthful, not shrinking from the day, so that if +Lionel met her again she should not blush, nor he be shocked. And if +their ways were so different as her grandfather said, still they might +cross, as they had crossed before, and--the work slid from her hand-- +the sweet lips parted, smiling: a picture came before her eyes,--her +grandfather, Lionel, herself; all three, friends, and happy; a stream, +fair as the Thames had seemed; green trees all bathed in summer; the boat +gliding by; in that boat they three, borne softly on,--away, away,--what +matters whither?--by her side the old man; facing her, the boy's bright +kind eyes. She started. She heard noises,--a swing ing gate, footsteps. +She started,--she rose,--voices; one strange to her,--a man's voice,-- +then the Mayor's. A third voice,--shrill, stern; a terrible voice,-heard +in infancy, associated with images of cruelty, misery, woe. It could not +be! impossible! Near, nearer, came the footsteps. Seized with the +impulse of flight, she sprang to the mouth of the arbour. Fronting her +glared two dark, baleful eyes. She stood,--arrested, spellbound, as a +bird fixed rigid by the gaze of a serpent. + +"Yes, Mr. Mayor; all right! it is our little girl,--our dear Sophy. This +way, Mr. Losely. Such a pleasant surprise for you, Sophy, my love!" +said Mrs. Crane. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT WILL HE DO WITH IT, V3 *** + +******** This file should be named 7661.txt or 7661.zip ******** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +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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