Barnaby Rudge

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Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty'

    Part 1    Part 2

BARNABY RUDGE ***




Produced by Donald Lainson





BARNABY RUDGE

A TALE OF THE RIOTS OF ‘EIGHTY


by Charles Dickens



Contibutor’s Note:

I’ve left in archaic forms such as ‘to-morrow’ or ‘to-day’ as they
occured in my copy. Also please be aware if spell-checking, that within
dialog many ‘mispelled’ words exist, i.e. ‘wery’ for ‘very’, as intended
by the author.

D.L.




PREFACE


The late Mr Waterton having, some time ago, expressed his opinion that
ravens are gradually becoming extinct in England, I offered the few
following words about my experience of these birds.

The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of whom I
was, at different times, the proud possessor. The first was in the bloom
of his youth, when he was discovered in a modest retirement in London,
by a friend of mine, and given to me. He had from the first, as Sir Hugh
Evans says of Anne Page, ‘good gifts’, which he improved by study and
attention in a most exemplary manner. He slept in a stable--generally
on horseback--and so terrified a Newfoundland dog by his preternatural
sagacity, that he has been known, by the mere superiority of his genius,
to walk off unmolested with the dog’s dinner, from before his face. He
was rapidly rising in acquirements and virtues, when, in an evil hour,
his stable was newly painted. He observed the workmen closely, saw that
they were careful of the paint, and immediately burned to possess it. On
their going to dinner, he ate up all they had left behind, consisting of
a pound or two of white lead; and this youthful indiscretion terminated
in death.

While I was yet inconsolable for his loss, another friend of mine
in Yorkshire discovered an older and more gifted raven at a village
public-house, which he prevailed upon the landlord to part with for a
consideration, and sent up to me. The first act of this Sage, was, to
administer to the effects of his predecessor, by disinterring all the
cheese and halfpence he had buried in the garden--a work of immense
labour and research, to which he devoted all the energies of his mind.
When he had achieved this task, he applied himself to the acquisition
of stable language, in which he soon became such an adept, that he would
perch outside my window and drive imaginary horses with great skill,
all day. Perhaps even I never saw him at his best, for his former master
sent his duty with him, ‘and if I wished the bird to come out very
strong, would I be so good as to show him a drunken man’--which I never
did, having (unfortunately) none but sober people at hand.

But I could hardly have respected him more, whatever the stimulating
influences of this sight might have been. He had not the least respect,
I am sorry to say, for me in return, or for anybody but the cook; to
whom he was attached--but only, I fear, as a Policeman might have been.
Once, I met him unexpectedly, about half-a-mile from my house, walking
down the middle of a public street, attended by a pretty large crowd,
and spontaneously exhibiting the whole of his accomplishments. His
gravity under those trying circumstances, I can never forget, nor the
extraordinary gallantry with which, refusing to be brought home, he
defended himself behind a pump, until overpowered by numbers. It may
have been that he was too bright a genius to live long, or it may have
been that he took some pernicious substance into his bill, and thence
into his maw--which is not improbable, seeing that he new-pointed
the greater part of the garden-wall by digging out the mortar, broke
countless squares of glass by scraping away the putty all round the
frames, and tore up and swallowed, in splinters, the greater part of a
wooden staircase of six steps and a landing--but after some three years
he too was taken ill, and died before the kitchen fire. He kept his eye
to the last upon the meat as it roasted, and suddenly turned over
on his back with a sepulchral cry of ‘Cuckoo!’ Since then I have been
ravenless.

No account of the Gordon Riots having been to my knowledge introduced
into any Work of Fiction, and the subject presenting very extraordinary
and remarkable features, I was led to project this Tale.

It is unnecessary to say, that those shameful tumults, while they
reflect indelible disgrace upon the time in which they occurred, and all
who had act or part in them, teach a good lesson. That what we falsely
call a religious cry is easily raised by men who have no religion, and
who in their daily practice set at nought the commonest principles of
right and wrong; that it is begotten of intolerance and persecution;
that it is senseless, besotted, inveterate and unmerciful; all History
teaches us. But perhaps we do not know it in our hearts too well,
to profit by even so humble an example as the ‘No Popery’ riots of
Seventeen Hundred and Eighty.

However imperfectly those disturbances are set forth in the following
pages, they are impartially painted by one who has no sympathy with the
Romish Church, though he acknowledges, as most men do, some esteemed
friends among the followers of its creed.

In the description of the principal outrages, reference has been had to
the best authorities of that time, such as they are; the account given
in this Tale, of all the main features of the Riots, is substantially
correct.

Mr Dennis’s allusions to the flourishing condition of his trade in those
days, have their foundation in Truth, and not in the Author’s fancy. Any
file of old Newspapers, or odd volume of the Annual Register, will prove
this with terrible ease.

Even the case of Mary Jones, dwelt upon with so much pleasure by the
same character, is no effort of invention. The facts were stated,
exactly as they are stated here, in the House of Commons. Whether they
afforded as much entertainment to the merry gentlemen assembled there,
as some other most affecting circumstances of a similar nature mentioned
by Sir Samuel Romilly, is not recorded.

That the case of Mary Jones may speak the more emphatically for
itself, I subjoin it, as related by SIR WILLIAM MEREDITH in a speech in
Parliament, ‘on Frequent Executions’, made in 1777.

‘Under this act,’ the Shop-lifting Act, ‘one Mary Jones was executed,
whose case I shall just mention; it was at the time when press warrants
were issued, on the alarm about Falkland Islands. The woman’s husband
was pressed, their goods seized for some debts of his, and she, with two
small children, turned into the streets a-begging. It is a circumstance
not to be forgotten, that she was very young (under nineteen), and most
remarkably handsome. She went to a linen-draper’s shop, took some coarse
linen off the counter, and slipped it under her cloak; the shopman saw
her, and she laid it down: for this she was hanged. Her defence was (I
have the trial in my pocket), “that she had lived in credit, and wanted
for nothing, till a press-gang came and stole her husband from her; but
since then, she had no bed to lie on; nothing to give her children
to eat; and they were almost naked; and perhaps she might have done
something wrong, for she hardly knew what she did.” The parish officers
testified the truth of this story; but it seems, there had been a good
deal of shop-lifting about Ludgate; an example was thought necessary;
and this woman was hanged for the comfort and satisfaction of
shopkeepers in Ludgate Street. When brought to receive sentence,
she behaved in such a frantic manner, as proved her mind to be in a
distracted and desponding state; and the child was sucking at her breast
when she set out for Tyburn.’



Chapter 1


In the year 1775, there stood upon the borders of Epping Forest, at a
distance of about twelve miles from London--measuring from the Standard
in Cornhill, or rather from the spot on or near to which the Standard
used to be in days of yore--a house of public entertainment called the
Maypole; which fact was demonstrated to all such travellers as
could neither read nor write (and at that time a vast number both of
travellers and stay-at-homes were in this condition) by the emblem
reared on the roadside over against the house, which, if not of those
goodly proportions that Maypoles were wont to present in olden times,
was a fair young ash, thirty feet in height, and straight as any arrow
that ever English yeoman drew.

The Maypole--by which term from henceforth is meant the house, and not
its sign--the Maypole was an old building, with more gable ends than a
lazy man would care to count on a sunny day; huge zig-zag chimneys, out
of which it seemed as though even smoke could not choose but come in
more than naturally fantastic shapes, imparted to it in its tortuous
progress; and vast stables, gloomy, ruinous, and empty. The place was
said to have been built in the days of King Henry the Eighth; and there
was a legend, not only that Queen Elizabeth had slept there one night
while upon a hunting excursion, to wit, in a certain oak-panelled room
with a deep bay window, but that next morning, while standing on a
mounting block before the door with one foot in the stirrup, the virgin
monarch had then and there boxed and cuffed an unlucky page for some
neglect of duty. The matter-of-fact and doubtful folks, of whom there
were a few among the Maypole customers, as unluckily there always are
in every little community, were inclined to look upon this tradition as
rather apocryphal; but, whenever the landlord of that ancient hostelry
appealed to the mounting block itself as evidence, and triumphantly
pointed out that there it stood in the same place to that very day, the
doubters never failed to be put down by a large majority, and all true
believers exulted as in a victory.

Whether these, and many other stories of the like nature, were true or
untrue, the Maypole was really an old house, a very old house, perhaps
as old as it claimed to be, and perhaps older, which will sometimes
happen with houses of an uncertain, as with ladies of a certain, age.
Its windows were old diamond-pane lattices, its floors were sunken
and uneven, its ceilings blackened by the hand of time, and heavy with
massive beams. Over the doorway was an ancient porch, quaintly and
grotesquely carved; and here on summer evenings the more favoured
customers smoked and drank--ay, and sang many a good song too,
sometimes--reposing on two grim-looking high-backed settles, which,
like the twin dragons of some fairy tale, guarded the entrance to the
mansion.

In the chimneys of the disused rooms, swallows had built their nests
for many a long year, and from earliest spring to latest autumn whole
colonies of sparrows chirped and twittered in the eaves. There were more
pigeons about the dreary stable-yard and out-buildings than anybody
but the landlord could reckon up. The wheeling and circling flights
of runts, fantails, tumblers, and pouters, were perhaps not quite
consistent with the grave and sober character of the building, but the
monotonous cooing, which never ceased to be raised by some among them
all day long, suited it exactly, and seemed to lull it to rest. With its
overhanging stories, drowsy little panes of glass, and front bulging
out and projecting over the pathway, the old house looked as if it were
nodding in its sleep. Indeed, it needed no very great stretch of fancy
to detect in it other resemblances to humanity. The bricks of which it
was built had originally been a deep dark red, but had grown yellow and
discoloured like an old man’s skin; the sturdy timbers had decayed like
teeth; and here and there the ivy, like a warm garment to comfort it in
its age, wrapt its green leaves closely round the time-worn walls.

It was a hale and hearty age though, still: and in the summer or
autumn evenings, when the glow of the setting sun fell upon the oak and
chestnut trees of the adjacent forest, the old house, partaking of its
lustre, seemed their fit companion, and to have many good years of life
in him yet.

The evening with which we have to do, was neither a summer nor an autumn
one, but the twilight of a day in March, when the wind howled dismally
among the bare branches of the trees, and rumbling in the wide chimneys
and driving the rain against the windows of the Maypole Inn, gave such
of its frequenters as chanced to be there at the moment an undeniable
reason for prolonging their stay, and caused the landlord to prophesy
that the night would certainly clear at eleven o’clock precisely,--which
by a remarkable coincidence was the hour at which he always closed his
house.

The name of him upon whom the spirit of prophecy thus descended was
John Willet, a burly, large-headed man with a fat face, which betokened
profound obstinacy and slowness of apprehension, combined with a very
strong reliance upon his own merits. It was John Willet’s ordinary
boast in his more placid moods that if he were slow he was sure; which
assertion could, in one sense at least, be by no means gainsaid, seeing
that he was in everything unquestionably the reverse of fast, and withal
one of the most dogged and positive fellows in existence--always sure
that what he thought or said or did was right, and holding it as a thing
quite settled and ordained by the laws of nature and Providence, that
anybody who said or did or thought otherwise must be inevitably and of
necessity wrong.

Mr Willet walked slowly up to the window, flattened his fat nose
against the cold glass, and shading his eyes that his sight might not
be affected by the ruddy glow of the fire, looked abroad. Then he
walked slowly back to his old seat in the chimney-corner, and, composing
himself in it with a slight shiver, such as a man might give way to and
so acquire an additional relish for the warm blaze, said, looking round
upon his guests:

‘It’ll clear at eleven o’clock. No sooner and no later. Not before and
not arterwards.’

‘How do you make out that?’ said a little man in the opposite corner.
‘The moon is past the full, and she rises at nine.’

John looked sedately and solemnly at his questioner until he had brought
his mind to bear upon the whole of his observation, and then made
answer, in a tone which seemed to imply that the moon was peculiarly his
business and nobody else’s:

‘Never you mind about the moon. Don’t you trouble yourself about her.
You let the moon alone, and I’ll let you alone.’

‘No offence I hope?’ said the little man.

Again John waited leisurely until the observation had thoroughly
penetrated to his brain, and then replying, ‘No offence as YET,’ applied
a light to his pipe and smoked in placid silence; now and then casting
a sidelong look at a man wrapped in a loose riding-coat with huge cuffs
ornamented with tarnished silver lace and large metal buttons, who
sat apart from the regular frequenters of the house, and wearing a hat
flapped over his face, which was still further shaded by the hand on
which his forehead rested, looked unsociable enough.

There was another guest, who sat, booted and spurred, at some distance
from the fire also, and whose thoughts--to judge from his folded
arms and knitted brows, and from the untasted liquor before him--were
occupied with other matters than the topics under discussion or
the persons who discussed them. This was a young man of about
eight-and-twenty, rather above the middle height, and though of somewhat
slight figure, gracefully and strongly made. He wore his own dark hair,
and was accoutred in a riding dress, which together with his large boots
(resembling in shape and fashion those worn by our Life Guardsmen at
the present day), showed indisputable traces of the bad condition of
the roads. But travel-stained though he was, he was well and even richly
attired, and without being overdressed looked a gallant gentleman.

Lying upon the table beside him, as he had carelessly thrown them down,
were a heavy riding-whip and a slouched hat, the latter worn no doubt as
being best suited to the inclemency of the weather. There, too, were a
pair of pistols in a holster-case, and a short riding-cloak. Little of
his face was visible, except the long dark lashes which concealed his
downcast eyes, but an air of careless ease and natural gracefulness
of demeanour pervaded the figure, and seemed to comprehend even those
slight accessories, which were all handsome, and in good keeping.

Towards this young gentleman the eyes of Mr Willet wandered but once,
and then as if in mute inquiry whether he had observed his silent
neighbour. It was plain that John and the young gentleman had often met
before. Finding that his look was not returned, or indeed observed by
the person to whom it was addressed, John gradually concentrated the
whole power of his eyes into one focus, and brought it to bear upon the
man in the flapped hat, at whom he came to stare in course of time with
an intensity so remarkable, that it affected his fireside cronies, who
all, as with one accord, took their pipes from their lips, and stared
with open mouths at the stranger likewise.

The sturdy landlord had a large pair of dull fish-like eyes, and the
little man who had hazarded the remark about the moon (and who was the
parish-clerk and bell-ringer of Chigwell, a village hard by) had little
round black shiny eyes like beads; moreover this little man wore at the
knees of his rusty black breeches, and on his rusty black coat, and
all down his long flapped waistcoat, little queer buttons like nothing
except his eyes; but so like them, that as they twinkled and glistened
in the light of the fire, which shone too in his bright shoe-buckles,
he seemed all eyes from head to foot, and to be gazing with every one of
them at the unknown customer. No wonder that a man should grow restless
under such an inspection as this, to say nothing of the eyes belonging
to short Tom Cobb the general chandler and post-office keeper, and long
Phil Parkes the ranger, both of whom, infected by the example of their
companions, regarded him of the flapped hat no less attentively.

The stranger became restless; perhaps from being exposed to this raking
fire of eyes, perhaps from the nature of his previous meditations--most
probably from the latter cause, for as he changed his position and
looked hastily round, he started to find himself the object of such keen
regard, and darted an angry and suspicious glance at the fireside group.
It had the effect of immediately diverting all eyes to the chimney,
except those of John Willet, who finding himself as it were, caught in
the fact, and not being (as has been already observed) of a very ready
nature, remained staring at his guest in a particularly awkward and
disconcerted manner.

‘Well?’ said the stranger.

Well. There was not much in well. It was not a long speech. ‘I thought
you gave an order,’ said the landlord, after a pause of two or three
minutes for consideration.

The stranger took off his hat, and disclosed the hard features of a man
of sixty or thereabouts, much weatherbeaten and worn by time, and
the naturally harsh expression of which was not improved by a dark
handkerchief which was bound tightly round his head, and, while it
served the purpose of a wig, shaded his forehead, and almost hid his
eyebrows. If it were intended to conceal or divert attention from a deep
gash, now healed into an ugly seam, which when it was first inflicted
must have laid bare his cheekbone, the object was but indifferently
attained, for it could scarcely fail to be noted at a glance. His
complexion was of a cadaverous hue, and he had a grizzly jagged beard
of some three weeks’ date. Such was the figure (very meanly and poorly
clad) that now rose from the seat, and stalking across the room sat down
in a corner of the chimney, which the politeness or fears of the little
clerk very readily assigned to him.

‘A highwayman!’ whispered Tom Cobb to Parkes the ranger.

‘Do you suppose highwaymen don’t dress handsomer than that?’ replied
Parkes. ‘It’s a better business than you think for, Tom, and highwaymen
don’t need or use to be shabby, take my word for it.’

Meanwhile the subject of their speculations had done due honour to the
house by calling for some drink, which was promptly supplied by the
landlord’s son Joe, a broad-shouldered strapping young fellow of twenty,
whom it pleased his father still to consider a little boy, and to treat
accordingly. Stretching out his hands to warm them by the blazing fire,
the man turned his head towards the company, and after running his eye
sharply over them, said in a voice well suited to his appearance:

‘What house is that which stands a mile or so from here?’

‘Public-house?’ said the landlord, with his usual deliberation.

‘Public-house, father!’ exclaimed Joe, ‘where’s the public-house
within a mile or so of the Maypole? He means the great house--the
Warren--naturally and of course. The old red brick house, sir, that
stands in its own grounds--?’

‘Aye,’ said the stranger.

‘And that fifteen or twenty years ago stood in a park five times as
broad, which with other and richer property has bit by bit changed hands
and dwindled away--more’s the pity!’ pursued the young man.

‘Maybe,’ was the reply. ‘But my question related to the owner. What it
has been I don’t care to know, and what it is I can see for myself.’

The heir-apparent to the Maypole pressed his finger on his lips, and
glancing at the young gentleman already noticed, who had changed his
attitude when the house was first mentioned, replied in a lower tone:

‘The owner’s name is Haredale, Mr Geoffrey Haredale, and’--again
he glanced in the same direction as before--‘and a worthy gentleman
too--hem!’

Paying as little regard to this admonitory cough, as to the significant
gesture that had preceded it, the stranger pursued his questioning.

‘I turned out of my way coming here, and took the footpath that crosses
the grounds. Who was the young lady that I saw entering a carriage? His
daughter?’

‘Why, how should I know, honest man?’ replied Joe, contriving in the
course of some arrangements about the hearth, to advance close to his
questioner and pluck him by the sleeve, ‘I didn’t see the young lady,
you know. Whew! There’s the wind again--AND rain--well it IS a night!’

Rough weather indeed!’ observed the strange man.

‘You’re used to it?’ said Joe, catching at anything which seemed to
promise a diversion of the subject.

‘Pretty well,’ returned the other. ‘About the young lady--has Mr
Haredale a daughter?’

‘No, no,’ said the young fellow fretfully, ‘he’s a single
gentleman--he’s--be quiet, can’t you, man? Don’t you see this talk is
not relished yonder?’

Regardless of this whispered remonstrance, and affecting not to hear it,
his tormentor provokingly continued:

‘Single men have had daughters before now. Perhaps she may be his
daughter, though he is not married.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Joe, adding in an undertone as he approached
him again, ‘You’ll come in for it presently, I know you will!’

‘I mean no harm’--returned the traveller boldly, ‘and have said none
that I know of. I ask a few questions--as any stranger may, and not
unnaturally--about the inmates of a remarkable house in a neighbourhood
which is new to me, and you are as aghast and disturbed as if I were
talking treason against King George. Perhaps you can tell me why, sir,
for (as I say) I am a stranger, and this is Greek to me?’

The latter observation was addressed to the obvious cause of Joe
Willet’s discomposure, who had risen and was adjusting his riding-cloak
preparatory to sallying abroad. Briefly replying that he could give him
no information, the young man beckoned to Joe, and handing him a piece
of money in payment of his reckoning, hurried out attended by young
Willet himself, who taking up a candle followed to light him to the
house-door.

While Joe was absent on this errand, the elder Willet and his three
companions continued to smoke with profound gravity, and in a deep
silence, each having his eyes fixed on a huge copper boiler that was
suspended over the fire. After some time John Willet slowly shook his
head, and thereupon his friends slowly shook theirs; but no man withdrew
his eyes from the boiler, or altered the solemn expression of his
countenance in the slightest degree.

At length Joe returned--very talkative and conciliatory, as though with
a strong presentiment that he was going to be found fault with.

‘Such a thing as love is!’ he said, drawing a chair near the fire, and
looking round for sympathy. ‘He has set off to walk to London,--all
the way to London. His nag gone lame in riding out here this blessed
afternoon, and comfortably littered down in our stable at this minute;
and he giving up a good hot supper and our best bed, because Miss
Haredale has gone to a masquerade up in town, and he has set his heart
upon seeing her! I don’t think I could persuade myself to do that,
beautiful as she is,--but then I’m not in love (at least I don’t think I
am) and that’s the whole difference.’

‘He is in love then?’ said the stranger.

‘Rather,’ replied Joe. ‘He’ll never be more in love, and may very easily
be less.’

‘Silence, sir!’ cried his father.

‘What a chap you are, Joe!’ said Long Parkes.

‘Such a inconsiderate lad!’ murmured Tom Cobb.

‘Putting himself forward and wringing the very nose off his own father’s
face!’ exclaimed the parish-clerk, metaphorically.

‘What HAVE I done?’ reasoned poor Joe.

‘Silence, sir!’ returned his father, ‘what do you mean by talking, when
you see people that are more than two or three times your age, sitting
still and silent and not dreaming of saying a word?’

‘Why that’s the proper time for me to talk, isn’t it?’ said Joe
rebelliously.

‘The proper time, sir!’ retorted his father, ‘the proper time’s no
time.’

‘Ah to be sure!’ muttered Parkes, nodding gravely to the other two who
nodded likewise, observing under their breaths that that was the point.

‘The proper time’s no time, sir,’ repeated John Willet; ‘when I was
your age I never talked, I never wanted to talk. I listened and improved
myself that’s what I did.’

‘And you’d find your father rather a tough customer in argeyment, Joe,
if anybody was to try and tackle him,’ said Parkes.

‘For the matter o’ that, Phil!’ observed Mr Willet, blowing a long,
thin, spiral cloud of smoke out of the corner of his mouth, and staring
at it abstractedly as it floated away; ‘For the matter o’ that, Phil,
argeyment is a gift of Natur. If Natur has gifted a man with powers
of argeyment, a man has a right to make the best of ‘em, and has not
a right to stand on false delicacy, and deny that he is so gifted; for
that is a turning of his back on Natur, a flouting of her, a slighting
of her precious caskets, and a proving of one’s self to be a swine that
isn’t worth her scattering pearls before.’

The landlord pausing here for a very long time, Mr Parkes naturally
concluded that he had brought his discourse to an end; and therefore,
turning to the young man with some austerity, exclaimed:

‘You hear what your father says, Joe? You wouldn’t much like to tackle
him in argeyment, I’m thinking, sir.’

‘IF,’ said John Willet, turning his eyes from the ceiling to the face of
his interrupter, and uttering the monosyllable in capitals, to apprise
him that he had put in his oar, as the vulgar say, with unbecoming
and irreverent haste; ‘IF, sir, Natur has fixed upon me the gift of
argeyment, why should I not own to it, and rather glory in the same?
Yes, sir, I AM a tough customer that way. You are right, sir. My
toughness has been proved, sir, in this room many and many a time, as I
think you know; and if you don’t know,’ added John, putting his pipe in
his mouth again, ‘so much the better, for I an’t proud and am not going
to tell you.’

A general murmur from his three cronies, and a general shaking of
heads at the copper boiler, assured John Willet that they had had good
experience of his powers and needed no further evidence to assure them
of his superiority. John smoked with a little more dignity and surveyed
them in silence.

‘It’s all very fine talking,’ muttered Joe, who had been fidgeting in
his chair with divers uneasy gestures. ‘But if you mean to tell me that
I’m never to open my lips--’

‘Silence, sir!’ roared his father. ‘No, you never are. When your
opinion’s wanted, you give it. When you’re spoke to, you speak. When
your opinion’s not wanted and you’re not spoke to, don’t you give an
opinion and don’t you speak. The world’s undergone a nice alteration
since my time, certainly. My belief is that there an’t any boys
left--that there isn’t such a thing as a boy--that there’s nothing now
between a male baby and a man--and that all the boys went out with his
blessed Majesty King George the Second.’

‘That’s a very true observation, always excepting the young princes,’
said the parish-clerk, who, as the representative of church and state in
that company, held himself bound to the nicest loyalty. ‘If it’s godly
and righteous for boys, being of the ages of boys, to behave themselves
like boys, then the young princes must be boys and cannot be otherwise.’

‘Did you ever hear tell of mermaids, sir?’ said Mr Willet.

‘Certainly I have,’ replied the clerk.

‘Very good,’ said Mr Willet. ‘According to the constitution of mermaids,
so much of a mermaid as is not a woman must be a fish. According to the
constitution of young princes, so much of a young prince (if anything)
as is not actually an angel, must be godly and righteous. Therefore if
it’s becoming and godly and righteous in the young princes (as it is
at their ages) that they should be boys, they are and must be boys, and
cannot by possibility be anything else.’

This elucidation of a knotty point being received with such marks of
approval as to put John Willet into a good humour, he contented himself
with repeating to his son his command of silence, and addressing the
stranger, said:

‘If you had asked your questions of a grown-up person--of me or any of
these gentlemen--you’d have had some satisfaction, and wouldn’t have
wasted breath. Miss Haredale is Mr Geoffrey Haredale’s niece.’

‘Is her father alive?’ said the man, carelessly.

‘No,’ rejoined the landlord, ‘he is not alive, and he is not dead--’

‘Not dead!’ cried the other.

‘Not dead in a common sort of way,’ said the landlord.

The cronies nodded to each other, and Mr Parkes remarked in an
undertone, shaking his head meanwhile as who should say, ‘let no man
contradict me, for I won’t believe him,’ that John Willet was in amazing
force to-night, and fit to tackle a Chief Justice.

The stranger suffered a short pause to elapse, and then asked abruptly,
‘What do you mean?’

‘More than you think for, friend,’ returned John Willet. ‘Perhaps
there’s more meaning in them words than you suspect.’

‘Perhaps there is,’ said the strange man, gruffly; ‘but what the devil
do you speak in such mysteries for? You tell me, first, that a man is
not alive, nor yet dead--then, that he’s not dead in a common sort of
way--then, that you mean a great deal more than I think for. To tell
you the truth, you may do that easily; for so far as I can make out, you
mean nothing. What DO you mean, I ask again?’

‘That,’ returned the landlord, a little brought down from his dignity
by the stranger’s surliness, ‘is a Maypole story, and has been any time
these four-and-twenty years. That story is Solomon Daisy’s story. It
belongs to the house; and nobody but Solomon Daisy has ever told it
under this roof, or ever shall--that’s more.’

The man glanced at the parish-clerk, whose air of consciousness and
importance plainly betokened him to be the person referred to, and,
observing that he had taken his pipe from his lips, after a very long
whiff to keep it alight, and was evidently about to tell his story
without further solicitation, gathered his large coat about him, and
shrinking further back was almost lost in the gloom of the spacious
chimney-corner, except when the flame, struggling from under a great
faggot, whose weight almost crushed it for the time, shot upward with a
strong and sudden glare, and illumining his figure for a moment, seemed
afterwards to cast it into deeper obscurity than before.

By this flickering light, which made the old room, with its heavy
timbers and panelled walls, look as if it were built of polished
ebony--the wind roaring and howling without, now rattling the latch
and creaking the hinges of the stout oaken door, and now driving at
the casement as though it would beat it in--by this light, and under
circumstances so auspicious, Solomon Daisy began his tale:

‘It was Mr Reuben Haredale, Mr Geoffrey’s elder brother--’

Here he came to a dead stop, and made so long a pause that even John
Willet grew impatient and asked why he did not proceed.

‘Cobb,’ said Solomon Daisy, dropping his voice and appealing to the
post-office keeper; ‘what day of the month is this?’

‘The nineteenth.’

‘Of March,’ said the clerk, bending forward, ‘the nineteenth of March;
that’s very strange.’

In a low voice they all acquiesced, and Solomon went on:

‘It was Mr Reuben Haredale, Mr Geoffrey’s elder brother, that twenty-two
years ago was the owner of the Warren, which, as Joe has said--not that
you remember it, Joe, for a boy like you can’t do that, but because you
have often heard me say so--was then a much larger and better place, and
a much more valuable property than it is now. His lady was lately
dead, and he was left with one child--the Miss Haredale you have been
inquiring about--who was then scarcely a year old.’

Although the speaker addressed himself to the man who had shown so much
curiosity about this same family, and made a pause here as if expecting
some exclamation of surprise or encouragement, the latter made no
remark, nor gave any indication that he heard or was interested in what
was said. Solomon therefore turned to his old companions, whose noses
were brightly illuminated by the deep red glow from the bowls of their
pipes; assured, by long experience, of their attention, and resolved to
show his sense of such indecent behaviour.

‘Mr Haredale,’ said Solomon, turning his back upon the strange man,
‘left this place when his lady died, feeling it lonely like, and went
up to London, where he stopped some months; but finding that place as
lonely as this--as I suppose and have always heard say--he suddenly
came back again with his little girl to the Warren, bringing with him
besides, that day, only two women servants, and his steward, and a
gardener.’

Mr Daisy stopped to take a whiff at his pipe, which was going out,
and then proceeded--at first in a snuffling tone, occasioned by keen
enjoyment of the tobacco and strong pulling at the pipe, and afterwards
with increasing distinctness:

‘--Bringing with him two women servants, and his steward, and a
gardener. The rest stopped behind up in London, and were to follow next
day. It happened that that night, an old gentleman who lived at Chigwell
Row, and had long been poorly, deceased, and an order came to me at half
after twelve o’clock at night to go and toll the passing-bell.’

There was a movement in the little group of listeners, sufficiently
indicative of the strong repugnance any one of them would have felt to
have turned out at such a time upon such an errand. The clerk felt and
understood it, and pursued his theme accordingly.

‘It WAS a dreary thing, especially as the grave-digger was laid up in
his bed, from long working in a damp soil and sitting down to take his
dinner on cold tombstones, and I was consequently under obligation to go
alone, for it was too late to hope to get any other companion. However,
I wasn’t unprepared for it; as the old gentleman had often made it a
request that the bell should be tolled as soon as possible after the
breath was out of his body, and he had been expected to go for some
days. I put as good a face upon it as I could, and muffling myself up
(for it was mortal cold), started out with a lighted lantern in one hand
and the key of the church in the other.’

At this point of the narrative, the dress of the strange man rustled as
if he had turned himself to hear more distinctly. Slightly pointing over
his shoulder, Solomon elevated his eyebrows and nodded a silent inquiry
to Joe whether this was the case. Joe shaded his eyes with his hand and
peered into the corner, but could make out nothing, and so shook his
head.

‘It was just such a night as this; blowing a hurricane, raining heavily,
and very dark--I often think now, darker than I ever saw it before or
since; that may be my fancy, but the houses were all close shut and the
folks in doors, and perhaps there is only one other man who knows how
dark it really was. I got into the church, chained the door back so that
it should keep ajar--for, to tell the truth, I didn’t like to be shut
in there alone--and putting my lantern on the stone seat in the little
corner where the bell-rope is, sat down beside it to trim the candle.

‘I sat down to trim the candle, and when I had done so I could not
persuade myself to get up again, and go about my work. I don’t know how
it was, but I thought of all the ghost stories I had ever heard, even
those that I had heard when I was a boy at school, and had forgotten
long ago; and they didn’t come into my mind one after another, but
all crowding at once, like. I recollected one story there was in the
village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very
night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground
and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning. This made me
think how many people I had known, were buried between the church-door
and the churchyard gate, and what a dreadful thing it would be to have
to pass among them and know them again, so earthy and unlike themselves.
I had known all the niches and arches in the church from a child; still,
I couldn’t persuade myself that those were their natural shadows which
I saw on the pavement, but felt sure there were some ugly figures hiding
among ‘em and peeping out. Thinking on in this way, I began to think of
the old gentleman who was just dead, and I could have sworn, as I looked
up the dark chancel, that I saw him in his usual place, wrapping his
shroud about him and shivering as if he felt it cold. All this time I
sat listening and listening, and hardly dared to breathe. At length
I started up and took the bell-rope in my hands. At that minute there
rang--not that bell, for I had hardly touched the rope--but another!

‘I heard the ringing of another bell, and a deep bell too, plainly. It
was only for an instant, and even then the wind carried the sound away,
but I heard it. I listened for a long time, but it rang no more. I had
heard of corpse candles, and at last I persuaded myself that this must
be a corpse bell tolling of itself at midnight for the dead. I tolled my
bell--how, or how long, I don’t know--and ran home to bed as fast as I
could touch the ground.

‘I was up early next morning after a restless night, and told the story
to my neighbours. Some were serious and some made light of it; I don’t
think anybody believed it real. But, that morning, Mr Reuben Haredale
was found murdered in his bedchamber; and in his hand was a piece of the
cord attached to an alarm-bell outside the roof, which hung in his room
and had been cut asunder, no doubt by the murderer, when he seized it.

‘That was the bell I heard.

‘A bureau was found opened, and a cash-box, which Mr Haredale had
brought down that day, and was supposed to contain a large sum of money,
was gone. The steward and gardener were both missing and both suspected
for a long time, but they were never found, though hunted far and wide.
And far enough they might have looked for poor Mr Rudge the steward,
whose body--scarcely to be recognised by his clothes and the watch and
ring he wore--was found, months afterwards, at the bottom of a piece of
water in the grounds, with a deep gash in the breast where he had been
stabbed with a knife. He was only partly dressed; and people all agreed
that he had been sitting up reading in his own room, where there were
many traces of blood, and was suddenly fallen upon and killed before his
master.

Everybody now knew that the gardener must be the murderer, and though
he has never been heard of from that day to this, he will be, mark my
words. The crime was committed this day two-and-twenty years--on the
nineteenth of March, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three. On the
nineteenth of March in some year--no matter when--I know it, I am sure
of it, for we have always, in some strange way or other, been brought
back to the subject on that day ever since--on the nineteenth of March
in some year, sooner or later, that man will be discovered.’



Chapter 2


‘A strange story!’ said the man who had been the cause of the
narration.--‘Stranger still if it comes about as you predict. Is that
all?’

A question so unexpected, nettled Solomon Daisy not a little. By dint of
relating the story very often, and ornamenting it (according to village
report) with a few flourishes suggested by the various hearers from time
to time, he had come by degrees to tell it with great effect; and ‘Is
that all?’ after the climax, was not what he was accustomed to.

‘Is that all?’ he repeated, ‘yes, that’s all, sir. And enough too, I
think.’

‘I think so too. My horse, young man! He is but a hack hired from a
roadside posting house, but he must carry me to London to-night.’

‘To-night!’ said Joe.

‘To-night,’ returned the other. ‘What do you stare at? This tavern
would seem to be a house of call for all the gaping idlers of the
neighbourhood!’

At this remark, which evidently had reference to the scrutiny he had
undergone, as mentioned in the foregoing chapter, the eyes of John
Willet and his friends were diverted with marvellous rapidity to the
copper boiler again. Not so with Joe, who, being a mettlesome fellow,
returned the stranger’s angry glance with a steady look, and rejoined:

‘It is not a very bold thing to wonder at your going on to-night. Surely
you have been asked such a harmless question in an inn before, and in
better weather than this. I thought you mightn’t know the way, as you
seem strange to this part.’

‘The way--’ repeated the other, irritably.

‘Yes. DO you know it?’

‘I’ll--humph!--I’ll find it,’ replied the man, waving his hand and
turning on his heel. ‘Landlord, take the reckoning here.’

John Willet did as he was desired; for on that point he was seldom slow,
except in the particulars of giving change, and testing the goodness of
any piece of coin that was proffered to him, by the application of his
teeth or his tongue, or some other test, or in doubtful cases, by a long
series of tests terminating in its rejection. The guest then wrapped his
garments about him so as to shelter himself as effectually as he could
from the rough weather, and without any word or sign of farewell betook
himself to the stableyard. Here Joe (who had left the room on the
conclusion of their short dialogue) was protecting himself and the horse
from the rain under the shelter of an old penthouse roof.

‘He’s pretty much of my opinion,’ said Joe, patting the horse upon the
neck. ‘I’ll wager that your stopping here to-night would please him
better than it would please me.’

‘He and I are of different opinions, as we have been more than once on
our way here,’ was the short reply.

‘So I was thinking before you came out, for he has felt your spurs, poor
beast.’

The stranger adjusted his coat-collar about his face, and made no
answer.

‘You’ll know me again, I see,’ he said, marking the young fellow’s
earnest gaze, when he had sprung into the saddle.

‘The man’s worth knowing, master, who travels a road he don’t know,
mounted on a jaded horse, and leaves good quarters to do it on such a
night as this.’

‘You have sharp eyes and a sharp tongue, I find.’

‘Both I hope by nature, but the last grows rusty sometimes for want of
using.’

‘Use the first less too, and keep their sharpness for your sweethearts,
boy,’ said the man.

So saying he shook his hand from the bridle, struck him roughly on the
head with the butt end of his whip, and galloped away; dashing through
the mud and darkness with a headlong speed, which few badly mounted
horsemen would have cared to venture, even had they been thoroughly
acquainted with the country; and which, to one who knew nothing of the
way he rode, was attended at every step with great hazard and danger.

The roads, even within twelve miles of London, were at that time
ill paved, seldom repaired, and very badly made. The way this rider
traversed had been ploughed up by the wheels of heavy waggons, and
rendered rotten by the frosts and thaws of the preceding winter, or
possibly of many winters. Great holes and gaps had been worn into the
soil, which, being now filled with water from the late rains, were not
easily distinguishable even by day; and a plunge into any one of them
might have brought down a surer-footed horse than the poor beast now
urged forward to the utmost extent of his powers. Sharp flints and
stones rolled from under his hoofs continually; the rider could scarcely
see beyond the animal’s head, or farther on either side than his own
arm would have extended. At that time, too, all the roads in the
neighbourhood of the metropolis were infested by footpads or highwaymen,
and it was a night, of all others, in which any evil-disposed person of
this class might have pursued his unlawful calling with little fear of
detection.

Still, the traveller dashed forward at the same reckless pace,
regardless alike of the dirt and wet which flew about his head, the
profound darkness of the night, and the probability of encountering
some desperate characters abroad. At every turn and angle, even where
a deviation from the direct course might have been least expected, and
could not possibly be seen until he was close upon it, he guided the
bridle with an unerring hand, and kept the middle of the road. Thus he
sped onward, raising himself in the stirrups, leaning his body forward
until it almost touched the horse’s neck, and flourishing his heavy whip
above his head with the fervour of a madman.

There are times when, the elements being in unusual commotion, those who
are bent on daring enterprises, or agitated by great thoughts, whether
of good or evil, feel a mysterious sympathy with the tumult of nature,
and are roused into corresponding violence. In the midst of thunder,
lightning, and storm, many tremendous deeds have been committed; men,
self-possessed before, have given a sudden loose to passions they could
no longer control. The demons of wrath and despair have striven to
emulate those who ride the whirlwind and direct the storm; and man,
lashed into madness with the roaring winds and boiling waters, has
become for the time as wild and merciless as the elements themselves.

Whether the traveller was possessed by thoughts which the fury of the
night had heated and stimulated into a quicker current, or was merely
impelled by some strong motive to reach his journey’s end, on he swept
more like a hunted phantom than a man, nor checked his pace until,
arriving at some cross roads, one of which led by a longer route to
the place whence he had lately started, he bore down so suddenly upon a
vehicle which was coming towards him, that in the effort to avoid it he
well-nigh pulled his horse upon his haunches, and narrowly escaped being
thrown.

‘Yoho!’ cried the voice of a man. ‘What’s that? Who goes there?’

‘A friend!’ replied the traveller.

‘A friend!’ repeated the voice. ‘Who calls himself a friend and rides
like that, abusing Heaven’s gifts in the shape of horseflesh, and
endangering, not only his own neck (which might be no great matter) but
the necks of other people?’

‘You have a lantern there, I see,’ said the traveller dismounting, ‘lend
it me for a moment. You have wounded my horse, I think, with your shaft
or wheel.’

‘Wounded him!’ cried the other, ‘if I haven’t killed him, it’s no fault
of yours. What do you mean by galloping along the king’s highway like
that, eh?’

‘Give me the light,’ returned the traveller, snatching it from his hand,
‘and don’t ask idle questions of a man who is in no mood for talking.’

‘If you had said you were in no mood for talking before, I should
perhaps have been in no mood for lighting,’ said the voice. ‘Hows’ever
as it’s the poor horse that’s damaged and not you, one of you is welcome
to the light at all events--but it’s not the crusty one.’

The traveller returned no answer to this speech, but holding the light
near to his panting and reeking beast, examined him in limb and carcass.
Meanwhile, the other man sat very composedly in his vehicle, which was
a kind of chaise with a depository for a large bag of tools, and watched
his proceedings with a careful eye.

The looker-on was a round, red-faced, sturdy yeoman, with a double chin,
and a voice husky with good living, good sleeping, good humour, and good
health. He was past the prime of life, but Father Time is not always a
hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays
his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men
and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young
and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression
of the old fellow’s hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle
but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life.

The person whom the traveller had so abruptly encountered was of
this kind: bluff, hale, hearty, and in a green old age: at peace with
himself, and evidently disposed to be so with all the world. Although
muffled up in divers coats and handkerchiefs--one of which, passed over
his crown, and tied in a convenient crease of his double chin, secured
his three-cornered hat and bob-wig from blowing off his head--there
was no disguising his plump and comfortable figure; neither did certain
dirty finger-marks upon his face give it any other than an odd and
comical expression, through which its natural good humour shone with
undiminished lustre.

‘He is not hurt,’ said the traveller at length, raising his head and the
lantern together.

‘You have found that out at last, have you?’ rejoined the old man. ‘My
eyes have seen more light than yours, but I wouldn’t change with you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Mean! I could have told you he wasn’t hurt, five minutes ago. Give me
the light, friend; ride forward at a gentler pace; and good night.’

In handing up the lantern, the man necessarily cast its rays full on the
speaker’s face. Their eyes met at the instant. He suddenly dropped it
and crushed it with his foot.

‘Did you never see a locksmith before, that you start as if you had come
upon a ghost?’ cried the old man in the chaise, ‘or is this,’ he added
hastily, thrusting his hand into the tool basket and drawing out a
hammer, ‘a scheme for robbing me? I know these roads, friend. When I
travel them, I carry nothing but a few shillings, and not a crown’s
worth of them. I tell you plainly, to save us both trouble, that there’s
nothing to be got from me but a pretty stout arm considering my years,
and this tool, which, mayhap from long acquaintance with, I can use
pretty briskly. You shall not have it all your own way, I promise you,
if you play at that game. With these words he stood upon the defensive.

‘I am not what you take me for, Gabriel Varden,’ replied the other.

‘Then what and who are you?’ returned the locksmith. ‘You know my name,
it seems. Let me know yours.’

‘I have not gained the information from any confidence of yours, but
from the inscription on your cart which tells it to all the town,’
replied the traveller.

‘You have better eyes for that than you had for your horse, then,’ said
Varden, descending nimbly from his chaise; ‘who are you? Let me see your
face.’

While the locksmith alighted, the traveller had regained his saddle,
from which he now confronted the old man, who, moving as the horse moved
in chafing under the tightened rein, kept close beside him.

‘Let me see your face, I say.’

‘Stand off!’

‘No masquerading tricks,’ said the locksmith, ‘and tales at the club
to-morrow, how Gabriel Varden was frightened by a surly voice and a dark
night. Stand--let me see your face.’

Finding that further resistance would only involve him in a personal
struggle with an antagonist by no means to be despised, the traveller
threw back his coat, and stooping down looked steadily at the locksmith.

Perhaps two men more powerfully contrasted, never opposed each other
face to face. The ruddy features of the locksmith so set off and
heightened the excessive paleness of the man on horseback, that he
looked like a bloodless ghost, while the moisture, which hard riding had
brought out upon his skin, hung there in dark and heavy drops, like dews
of agony and death. The countenance of the old locksmith lighted up with
the smile of one expecting to detect in this unpromising stranger some
latent roguery of eye or lip, which should reveal a familiar person in
that arch disguise, and spoil his jest. The face of the other, sullen
and fierce, but shrinking too, was that of a man who stood at bay; while
his firmly closed jaws, his puckered mouth, and more than all a certain
stealthy motion of the hand within his breast, seemed to announce a
desperate purpose very foreign to acting, or child’s play.

Thus they regarded each other for some time, in silence.

‘Humph!’ he said when he had scanned his features; ‘I don’t know you.’

‘Don’t desire to?’--returned the other, muffling himself as before.

‘I don’t,’ said Gabriel; ‘to be plain with you, friend, you don’t carry
in your countenance a letter of recommendation.’

‘It’s not my wish,’ said the traveller. ‘My humour is to be avoided.’

‘Well,’ said the locksmith bluntly, ‘I think you’ll have your humour.’

‘I will, at any cost,’ rejoined the traveller. ‘In proof of it, lay this
to heart--that you were never in such peril of your life as you have
been within these few moments; when you are within five minutes of
breathing your last, you will not be nearer death than you have been
to-night!’

‘Aye!’ said the sturdy locksmith.

‘Aye! and a violent death.’

‘From whose hand?’

‘From mine,’ replied the traveller.

With that he put spurs to his horse, and rode away; at first plashing
heavily through the mire at a smart trot, but gradually increasing in
speed until the last sound of his horse’s hoofs died away upon the wind;
when he was again hurrying on at the same furious gallop, which had been
his pace when the locksmith first encountered him.

Gabriel Varden remained standing in the road with the broken lantern in
his hand, listening in stupefied silence until no sound reached his ear
but the moaning of the wind, and the fast-falling rain; when he struck
himself one or two smart blows in the breast by way of rousing himself,
and broke into an exclamation of surprise.

‘What in the name of wonder can this fellow be! a madman? a highwayman?
a cut-throat? If he had not scoured off so fast, we’d have seen who was
in most danger, he or I. I never nearer death than I have been to-night!
I hope I may be no nearer to it for a score of years to come--if so,
I’ll be content to be no farther from it. My stars!--a pretty brag this
to a stout man--pooh, pooh!’

Gabriel resumed his seat, and looked wistfully up the road by which the
traveller had come; murmuring in a half whisper:

‘The Maypole--two miles to the Maypole. I came the other road from the
Warren after a long day’s work at locks and bells, on purpose that I
should not come by the Maypole and break my promise to Martha by looking
in--there’s resolution! It would be dangerous to go on to London without
a light; and it’s four miles, and a good half mile besides, to the
Halfway-House; and between this and that is the very place where one
needs a light most. Two miles to the Maypole! I told Martha I wouldn’t;
I said I wouldn’t, and I didn’t--there’s resolution!’

Repeating these two last words very often, as if to compensate for the
little resolution he was going to show by piquing himself on the great
resolution he had shown, Gabriel Varden quietly turned back, determining
to get a light at the Maypole, and to take nothing but a light.

When he got to the Maypole, however, and Joe, responding to his
well-known hail, came running out to the horse’s head, leaving the door
open behind him, and disclosing a delicious perspective of warmth and
brightness--when the ruddy gleam of the fire, streaming through the old
red curtains of the common room, seemed to bring with it, as part of
itself, a pleasant hum of voices, and a fragrant odour of steaming grog
and rare tobacco, all steeped as it were in the cheerful glow--when the
shadows, flitting across the curtain, showed that those inside had risen
from their snug seats, and were making room in the snuggest corner (how
well he knew that corner!) for the honest locksmith, and a broad glare,
suddenly streaming up, bespoke the goodness of the crackling log from
which a brilliant train of sparks was doubtless at that moment whirling
up the chimney in honour of his coming--when, superadded to these
enticements, there stole upon him from the distant kitchen a gentle
sound of frying, with a musical clatter of plates and dishes, and a
savoury smell that made even the boisterous wind a perfume--Gabriel
felt his firmness oozing rapidly away. He tried to look stoically at the
tavern, but his features would relax into a look of fondness. He turned
his head the other way, and the cold black country seemed to frown him
off, and drive him for a refuge into its hospitable arms.

‘The merciful man, Joe,’ said the locksmith, ‘is merciful to his beast.
I’ll get out for a little while.’

And how natural it was to get out! And how unnatural it seemed for a
sober man to be plodding wearily along through miry roads, encountering
the rude buffets of the wind and pelting of the rain, when there was
a clean floor covered with crisp white sand, a well swept hearth, a
blazing fire, a table decorated with white cloth, bright pewter flagons,
and other tempting preparations for a well-cooked meal--when there were
these things, and company disposed to make the most of them, all ready
to his hand, and entreating him to enjoyment!



Chapter 3


Such were the locksmith’s thoughts when first seated in the snug corner,
and slowly recovering from a pleasant defect of vision--pleasant,
because occasioned by the wind blowing in his eyes--which made it a
matter of sound policy and duty to himself, that he should take refuge
from the weather, and tempted him, for the same reason, to aggravate
a slight cough, and declare he felt but poorly. Such were still his
thoughts more than a full hour afterwards, when, supper over, he still
sat with shining jovial face in the same warm nook, listening to the
cricket-like chirrup of little Solomon Daisy, and bearing no unimportant
or slightly respected part in the social gossip round the Maypole fire.

‘I wish he may be an honest man, that’s all,’ said Solomon, winding up
a variety of speculations relative to the stranger, concerning whom
Gabriel had compared notes with the company, and so raised a grave
discussion; ‘I wish he may be an honest man.’

‘So we all do, I suppose, don’t we?’ observed the locksmith.

‘I don’t,’ said Joe.

‘No!’ cried Gabriel.

‘No. He struck me with his whip, the coward, when he was mounted and I
afoot, and I should be better pleased that he turned out what I think
him.’

‘And what may that be, Joe?’

‘No good, Mr Varden. You may shake your head, father, but I say no good,
and will say no good, and I would say no good a hundred times over, if
that would bring him back to have the drubbing he deserves.’

‘Hold your tongue, sir,’ said John Willet.

‘I won’t, father. It’s all along of you that he ventured to do what he
did. Seeing me treated like a child, and put down like a fool, HE plucks
up a heart and has a fling at a fellow that he thinks--and may well
think too--hasn’t a grain of spirit. But he’s mistaken, as I’ll show
him, and as I’ll show all of you before long.’

‘Does the boy know what he’s a saying of!’ cried the astonished John
Willet.

‘Father,’ returned Joe, ‘I know what I say and mean, well--better than
you do when you hear me. I can bear with you, but I cannot bear the
contempt that your treating me in the way you do, brings upon me from
others every day. Look at other young men of my age. Have they no
liberty, no will, no right to speak? Are they obliged to sit mumchance,
and to be ordered about till they are the laughing-stock of young and
old? I am a bye-word all over Chigwell, and I say--and it’s fairer
my saying so now, than waiting till you are dead, and I have got your
money--I say, that before long I shall be driven to break such bounds,
and that when I do, it won’t be me that you’ll have to blame, but your
own self, and no other.’

John Willet was so amazed by the exasperation and boldness of his
hopeful son, that he sat as one bewildered, staring in a ludicrous
manner at the boiler, and endeavouring, but quite ineffectually, to
collect his tardy thoughts, and invent an answer. The guests, scarcely
less disturbed, were equally at a loss; and at length, with a variety
of muttered, half-expressed condolences, and pieces of advice, rose to
depart; being at the same time slightly muddled with liquor.

The honest locksmith alone addressed a few words of coherent and
sensible advice to both parties, urging John Willet to remember that
Joe was nearly arrived at man’s estate, and should not be ruled with
too tight a hand, and exhorting Joe himself to bear with his father’s
caprices, and rather endeavour to turn them aside by temperate
remonstrance than by ill-timed rebellion. This advice was received as
such advice usually is. On John Willet it made almost as much impression
as on the sign outside the door, while Joe, who took it in the best
part, avowed himself more obliged than he could well express, but
politely intimated his intention nevertheless of taking his own course
uninfluenced by anybody.

‘You have always been a very good friend to me, Mr Varden,’ he said,
as they stood without, in the porch, and the locksmith was equipping
himself for his journey home; ‘I take it very kind of you to say all
this, but the time’s nearly come when the Maypole and I must part
company.’

‘Roving stones gather no moss, Joe,’ said Gabriel.

‘Nor milestones much,’ replied Joe. ‘I’m little better than one here,
and see as much of the world.’

‘Then, what would you do, Joe?’ pursued the locksmith, stroking his chin
reflectively. ‘What could you be? Where could you go, you see?’

‘I must trust to chance, Mr Varden.’

‘A bad thing to trust to, Joe. I don’t like it. I always tell my girl
when we talk about a husband for her, never to trust to chance, but to
make sure beforehand that she has a good man and true, and then chance
will neither make her nor break her. What are you fidgeting about there,
Joe? Nothing gone in the harness, I hope?’

‘No no,’ said Joe--finding, however, something very engrossing to do in
the way of strapping and buckling--‘Miss Dolly quite well?’

‘Hearty, thankye. She looks pretty enough to be well, and good too.’

‘She’s always both, sir’--

‘So she is, thank God!’

‘I hope,’ said Joe after some hesitation, ‘that you won’t tell this
story against me--this of my having been beat like the boy they’d make
of me--at all events, till I have met this man again and settled the
account. It’ll be a better story then.’

‘Why who should I tell it to?’ returned Gabriel. ‘They know it here, and
I’m not likely to come across anybody else who would care about it.’

‘That’s true enough,’ said the young fellow with a sigh. ‘I quite forgot
that. Yes, that’s true!’

So saying, he raised his face, which was very red,--no doubt from the
exertion of strapping and buckling as aforesaid,--and giving the reins
to the old man, who had by this time taken his seat, sighed again and
bade him good night.

‘Good night!’ cried Gabriel. ‘Now think better of what we have just
been speaking of; and don’t be rash, there’s a good fellow! I have an
interest in you, and wouldn’t have you cast yourself away. Good night!’

Returning his cheery farewell with cordial goodwill, Joe Willet lingered
until the sound of wheels ceased to vibrate in his ears, and then,
shaking his head mournfully, re-entered the house.

Gabriel Varden went his way towards London, thinking of a great
many things, and most of all of flaming terms in which to relate his
adventure, and so account satisfactorily to Mrs Varden for visiting the
Maypole, despite certain solemn covenants between himself and that lady.
Thinking begets, not only thought, but drowsiness occasionally, and the
more the locksmith thought, the more sleepy he became.

A man may be very sober--or at least firmly set upon his legs on that
neutral ground which lies between the confines of perfect sobriety and
slight tipsiness--and yet feel a strong tendency to mingle up present
circumstances with others which have no manner of connection with them;
to confound all consideration of persons, things, times, and places;
and to jumble his disjointed thoughts together in a kind of mental
kaleidoscope, producing combinations as unexpected as they are
transitory. This was Gabriel Varden’s state, as, nodding in his dog
sleep, and leaving his horse to pursue a road with which he was well
acquainted, he got over the ground unconsciously, and drew nearer and
nearer home. He had roused himself once, when the horse stopped until
the turnpike gate was opened, and had cried a lusty ‘good night!’ to the
toll-keeper; but then he awoke out of a dream about picking a lock in
the stomach of the Great Mogul, and even when he did wake, mixed up the
turnpike man with his mother-in-law who had been dead twenty years. It
is not surprising, therefore, that he soon relapsed, and jogged heavily
along, quite insensible to his progress.

And, now, he approached the great city, which lay outstretched before
him like a dark shadow on the ground, reddening the sluggish air with a
deep dull light, that told of labyrinths of public ways and shops, and
swarms of busy people. Approaching nearer and nearer yet, this halo
began to fade, and the causes which produced it slowly to develop
themselves. Long lines of poorly lighted streets might be faintly
traced, with here and there a lighter spot, where lamps were clustered
round a square or market, or round some great building; after a time
these grew more distinct, and the lamps themselves were visible; slight
yellow specks, that seemed to be rapidly snuffed out, one by one, as
intervening obstacles hid them from the sight. Then, sounds arose--the
striking of church clocks, the distant bark of dogs, the hum of traffic
in the streets; then outlines might be traced--tall steeples looming
in the air, and piles of unequal roofs oppressed by chimneys; then,
the noise swelled into a louder sound, and forms grew more distinct and
numerous still, and London--visible in the darkness by its own faint
light, and not by that of Heaven--was at hand.

The locksmith, however, all unconscious of its near vicinity, still
jogged on, half sleeping and half waking, when a loud cry at no great
distance ahead, roused him with a start.

For a moment or two he looked about him like a man who had been
transported to some strange country in his sleep, but soon recognising
familiar objects, rubbed his eyes lazily and might have relapsed again,
but that the cry was repeated--not once or twice or thrice, but many
times, and each time, if possible, with increased vehemence. Thoroughly
aroused, Gabriel, who was a bold man and not easily daunted, made
straight to the spot, urging on his stout little horse as if for life or
death.

The matter indeed looked sufficiently serious, for, coming to the place
whence the cries had proceeded, he descried the figure of a man extended
in an apparently lifeless state upon the pathway, and, hovering round
him, another person with a torch in his hand, which he waved in the air
with a wild impatience, redoubling meanwhile those cries for help which
had brought the locksmith to the spot.

‘What’s here to do?’ said the old man, alighting. ‘How’s
this--what--Barnaby?’

The bearer of the torch shook his long loose hair back from his eyes,
and thrusting his face eagerly into that of the locksmith, fixed upon
him a look which told his history at once.

‘You know me, Barnaby?’ said Varden.

He nodded--not once or twice, but a score of times, and that with a
fantastic exaggeration which would have kept his head in motion for
an hour, but that the locksmith held up his finger, and fixing his eye
sternly upon him caused him to desist; then pointed to the body with an
inquiring look.

‘There’s blood upon him,’ said Barnaby with a shudder. ‘It makes me
sick!’

‘How came it there?’ demanded Varden.

‘Steel, steel, steel!’ he replied fiercely, imitating with his hand the
thrust of a sword.

‘Is he robbed?’ said the locksmith.

Barnaby caught him by the arm, and nodded ‘Yes;’ then pointed towards
the city.

‘Oh!’ said the old man, bending over the body and looking round as he
spoke into Barnaby’s pale face, strangely lighted up by something that
was NOT intellect. ‘The robber made off that way, did he? Well, well,
never mind that just now. Hold your torch this way--a little farther
off--so. Now stand quiet, while I try to see what harm is done.’

With these words, he applied himself to a closer examination of
the prostrate form, while Barnaby, holding the torch as he had been
directed, looked on in silence, fascinated by interest or curiosity, but
repelled nevertheless by some strong and secret horror which convulsed
him in every nerve.

As he stood, at that moment, half shrinking back and half bending
forward, both his face and figure were full in the strong glare of the
link, and as distinctly revealed as though it had been broad day. He
was about three-and-twenty years old, and though rather spare, of a fair
height and strong make. His hair, of which he had a great profusion, was
red, and hanging in disorder about his face and shoulders, gave to his
restless looks an expression quite unearthly--enhanced by the paleness
of his complexion, and the glassy lustre of his large protruding eyes.
Startling as his aspect was, the features were good, and there was
something even plaintive in his wan and haggard aspect. But, the absence
of the soul is far more terrible in a living man than in a dead one; and
in this unfortunate being its noblest powers were wanting.

His dress was of green, clumsily trimmed here and there--apparently by
his own hands--with gaudy lace; brightest where the cloth was most
worn and soiled, and poorest where it was at the best. A pair of tawdry
ruffles dangled at his wrists, while his throat was nearly bare. He had
ornamented his hat with a cluster of peacock’s feathers, but they were
limp and broken, and now trailed negligently down his back. Girt to his
side was the steel hilt of an old sword without blade or scabbard; and
some particoloured ends of ribands and poor glass toys completed the
ornamental portion of his attire. The fluttered and confused disposition
of all the motley scraps that formed his dress, bespoke, in a scarcely
less degree than his eager and unsettled manner, the disorder of his
mind, and by a grotesque contrast set off and heightened the more
impressive wildness of his face.

‘Barnaby,’ said the locksmith, after a hasty but careful inspection,
‘this man is not dead, but he has a wound in his side, and is in a
fainting-fit.’

‘I know him, I know him!’ cried Barnaby, clapping his hands.

‘Know him?’ repeated the locksmith.

‘Hush!’ said Barnaby, laying his fingers upon his lips. ‘He went out
to-day a wooing. I wouldn’t for a light guinea that he should never go
a wooing again, for, if he did, some eyes would grow dim that are now as
bright as--see, when I talk of eyes, the stars come out! Whose eyes are
they? If they are angels’ eyes, why do they look down here and see good
men hurt, and only wink and sparkle all the night?’

‘Now Heaven help this silly fellow,’ murmured the perplexed locksmith;
‘can he know this gentleman? His mother’s house is not far off; I had
better see if she can tell me who he is. Barnaby, my man, help me to put
him in the chaise, and we’ll ride home together.’

‘I can’t touch him!’ cried the idiot falling back, and shuddering as
with a strong spasm; ‘he’s bloody!’

‘It’s in his nature, I know,’ muttered the locksmith, ‘it’s cruel to ask
him, but I must have help. Barnaby--good Barnaby--dear Barnaby--if you
know this gentleman, for the sake of his life and everybody’s life that
loves him, help me to raise him and lay him down.’

‘Cover him then, wrap him close--don’t let me see it--smell it--hear the
word. Don’t speak the word--don’t!’

‘No, no, I’ll not. There, you see he’s covered now. Gently. Well done,
well done!’

They placed him in the carriage with great ease, for Barnaby was strong
and active, but all the time they were so occupied he shivered from head
to foot, and evidently experienced an ecstasy of terror.

This accomplished, and the wounded man being covered with Varden’s own
greatcoat which he took off for the purpose, they proceeded onward at
a brisk pace: Barnaby gaily counting the stars upon his fingers, and
Gabriel inwardly congratulating himself upon having an adventure now,
which would silence Mrs Varden on the subject of the Maypole, for that
night, or there was no faith in woman.



Chapter 4


In the venerable suburb--it was a suburb once--of Clerkenwell, towards
that part of its confines which is nearest to the Charter House, and in
one of those cool, shady streets, of which a few, widely scattered
and dispersed, yet remain in such old parts of the metropolis,--each
tenement quietly vegetating like an ancient citizen who long ago retired
from business, and dozing on in its infirmity until in course of time it
tumbles down, and is replaced by some extravagant young heir, flaunting
in stucco and ornamental work, and all the vanities of modern days,--in
this quarter, and in a street of this description, the business of the
present chapter lies.

At the time of which it treats, though only six-and-sixty years ago,
a very large part of what is London now had no existence. Even in the
brains of the wildest speculators, there had sprung up no long rows of
streets connecting Highgate with Whitechapel, no assemblages of palaces
in the swampy levels, nor little cities in the open fields. Although
this part of town was then, as now, parcelled out in streets, and
plentifully peopled, it wore a different aspect. There were gardens
to many of the houses, and trees by the pavement side; with an air of
freshness breathing up and down, which in these days would be sought
in vain. Fields were nigh at hand, through which the New River took its
winding course, and where there was merry haymaking in the summer time.
Nature was not so far removed, or hard to get at, as in these days; and
although there were busy trades in Clerkenwell, and working jewellers
by scores, it was a purer place, with farm-houses nearer to it than many
modern Londoners would readily believe, and lovers’ walks at no great
distance, which turned into squalid courts, long before the lovers of
this age were born, or, as the phrase goes, thought of.

In one of these streets, the cleanest of them all, and on the shady
side of the way--for good housewives know that sunlight damages their
cherished furniture, and so choose the shade rather than its intrusive
glare--there stood the house with which we have to deal. It was a modest
building, not very straight, not large, not tall; not bold-faced, with
great staring windows, but a shy, blinking house, with a conical roof
going up into a peak over its garret window of four small panes of
glass, like a cocked hat on the head of an elderly gentleman with one
eye. It was not built of brick or lofty stone, but of wood and plaster;
it was not planned with a dull and wearisome regard to regularity,
for no one window matched the other, or seemed to have the slightest
reference to anything besides itself.

The shop--for it had a shop--was, with reference to the first floor,
where shops usually are; and there all resemblance between it and any
other shop stopped short and ceased. People who went in and out didn’t
go up a flight of steps to it, or walk easily in upon a level with the
street, but dived down three steep stairs, as into a cellar. Its floor
was paved with stone and brick, as that of any other cellar might be;
and in lieu of window framed and glazed it had a great black wooden flap
or shutter, nearly breast high from the ground, which turned back in
the day-time, admitting as much cold air as light, and very often more.
Behind this shop was a wainscoted parlour, looking first into a paved
yard, and beyond that again into a little terrace garden, raised some
feet above it. Any stranger would have supposed that this wainscoted
parlour, saving for the door of communication by which he had entered,
was cut off and detached from all the world; and indeed most strangers
on their first entrance were observed to grow extremely thoughtful, as
weighing and pondering in their minds whether the upper rooms were only
approachable by ladders from without; never suspecting that two of
the most unassuming and unlikely doors in existence, which the most
ingenious mechanician on earth must of necessity have supposed to be
the doors of closets, opened out of this room--each without the smallest
preparation, or so much as a quarter of an inch of passage--upon two
dark winding flights of stairs, the one upward, the other downward,
which were the sole means of communication between that chamber and the
other portions of the house.

With all these oddities, there was not a neater, more scrupulously tidy,
or more punctiliously ordered house, in Clerkenwell, in London, in all
England. There were not cleaner windows, or whiter floors, or brighter
Stoves, or more highly shining articles of furniture in old mahogany;
there was not more rubbing, scrubbing, burnishing and polishing, in the
whole street put together. Nor was this excellence attained without some
cost and trouble and great expenditure of voice, as the neighbours
were frequently reminded when the good lady of the house overlooked and
assisted in its being put to rights on cleaning days--which were usually
from Monday morning till Saturday night, both days inclusive.

Leaning against the door-post of this, his dwelling, the locksmith
stood early on the morning after he had met with the wounded man, gazing
disconsolately at a great wooden emblem of a key, painted in vivid
yellow to resemble gold, which dangled from the house-front, and swung
to and fro with a mournful creaking noise, as if complaining that it had
nothing to unlock. Sometimes, he looked over his shoulder into the shop,
which was so dark and dingy with numerous tokens of his trade, and so
blackened by the smoke of a little forge, near which his ‘prentice
was at work, that it would have been difficult for one unused to such
espials to have distinguished anything but various tools of uncouth make
and shape, great bunches of rusty keys, fragments of iron, half-finished
locks, and such like things, which garnished the walls and hung in
clusters from the ceiling.

After a long and patient contemplation of the golden key, and many such
backward glances, Gabriel stepped into the road, and stole a look at the
upper windows. One of them chanced to be thrown open at the moment,
and a roguish face met his; a face lighted up by the loveliest pair of
sparkling eyes that ever locksmith looked upon; the face of a pretty,
laughing, girl; dimpled and fresh, and healthful--the very impersonation
of good-humour and blooming beauty.

‘Hush!’ she whispered, bending forward and pointing archly to the window
underneath. ‘Mother is still asleep.’

‘Still, my dear,’ returned the locksmith in the same tone. ‘You talk as
if she had been asleep all night, instead of little more than half an
hour. But I’m very thankful. Sleep’s a blessing--no doubt about it.’ The
last few words he muttered to himself.

‘How cruel of you to keep us up so late this morning, and never tell us
where you were, or send us word!’ said the girl.

‘Ah Dolly, Dolly!’ returned the locksmith, shaking his head, and
smiling, ‘how cruel of you to run upstairs to bed! Come down to
breakfast, madcap, and come down lightly, or you’ll wake your mother.
She must be tired, I am sure--I am.’

Keeping these latter words to himself, and returning his daughter’s nod,
he was passing into the workshop, with the smile she had awakened still
beaming on his face, when he just caught sight of his ‘prentice’s brown
paper cap ducking down to avoid observation, and shrinking from the
window back to its former place, which the wearer no sooner reached than
he began to hammer lustily.

‘Listening again, Simon!’ said Gabriel to himself. ‘That’s bad. What in
the name of wonder does he expect the girl to say, that I always catch
him listening when SHE speaks, and never at any other time! A bad habit,
Sim, a sneaking, underhanded way. Ah! you may hammer, but you won’t beat
that out of me, if you work at it till your time’s up!’

So saying, and shaking his head gravely, he re-entered the workshop, and
confronted the subject of these remarks.

‘There’s enough of that just now,’ said the locksmith. ‘You needn’t make
any more of that confounded clatter. Breakfast’s ready.’

‘Sir,’ said Sim, looking up with amazing politeness, and a peculiar
little bow cut short off at the neck, ‘I shall attend you immediately.’

‘I suppose,’ muttered Gabriel, ‘that’s out of the ‘Prentice’s Garland or
the ‘Prentice’s Delight, or the ‘Prentice’s Warbler, or the Prentice’s
Guide to the Gallows, or some such improving textbook. Now he’s going to
beautify himself--here’s a precious locksmith!’

Quite unconscious that his master was looking on from the dark corner by
the parlour door, Sim threw off the paper cap, sprang from his seat,
and in two extraordinary steps, something between skating and minuet
dancing, bounded to a washing place at the other end of the shop,
and there removed from his face and hands all traces of his previous
work--practising the same step all the time with the utmost gravity.
This done, he drew from some concealed place a little scrap of
looking-glass, and with its assistance arranged his hair, and
ascertained the exact state of a little carbuncle on his nose. Having
now completed his toilet, he placed the fragment of mirror on a low
bench, and looked over his shoulder at so much of his legs as could be
reflected in that small compass, with the greatest possible complacency
and satisfaction.

Sim, as he was called in the locksmith’s family, or Mr Simon Tappertit,
as he called himself, and required all men to style him out of doors,
on holidays, and Sundays out,--was an old-fashioned, thin-faced,
sleek-haired, sharp-nosed, small-eyed little fellow, very little more
than five feet high, and thoroughly convinced in his own mind that he
was above the middle size; rather tall, in fact, than otherwise. Of his
figure, which was well enough formed, though somewhat of the leanest,
he entertained the highest admiration; and with his legs, which, in
knee-breeches, were perfect curiosities of littleness, he was enraptured
to a degree amounting to enthusiasm. He also had some majestic, shadowy
ideas, which had never been quite fathomed by his intimate friends,
concerning the power of his eye. Indeed he had been known to go so far
as to boast that he could utterly quell and subdue the haughtiest beauty
by a simple process, which he termed ‘eyeing her over;’ but it must
be added, that neither of this faculty, nor of the power he claimed
to have, through the same gift, of vanquishing and heaving down dumb
animals, even in a rabid state, had he ever furnished evidence which
could be deemed quite satisfactory and conclusive.

It may be inferred from these premises, that in the small body of Mr
Tappertit there was locked up an ambitious and aspiring soul. As
certain liquors, confined in casks too cramped in their dimensions, will
ferment, and fret, and chafe in their imprisonment, so the spiritual
essence or soul of Mr Tappertit would sometimes fume within that
precious cask, his body, until, with great foam and froth and splutter,
it would force a vent, and carry all before it. It was his custom to
remark, in reference to any one of these occasions, that his soul had
got into his head; and in this novel kind of intoxication many scrapes
and mishaps befell him, which he had frequently concealed with no small
difficulty from his worthy master.

Sim Tappertit, among the other fancies upon which his before-mentioned
soul was for ever feasting and regaling itself (and which fancies,
like the liver of Prometheus, grew as they were fed upon), had a mighty
notion of his order; and had been heard by the servant-maid openly
expressing his regret that the ‘prentices no longer carried clubs
wherewith to mace the citizens: that was his strong expression. He was
likewise reported to have said that in former times a stigma had been
cast upon the body by the execution of George Barnwell, to which they
should not have basely submitted, but should have demanded him of
the legislature--temperately at first; then by an appeal to arms, if
necessary--to be dealt with as they in their wisdom might think fit.
These thoughts always led him to consider what a glorious engine the
‘prentices might yet become if they had but a master spirit at their
head; and then he would darkly, and to the terror of his hearers, hint
at certain reckless fellows that he knew of, and at a certain Lion Heart
ready to become their captain, who, once afoot, would make the Lord
Mayor tremble on his throne.

In respect of dress and personal decoration, Sim Tappertit was no less
of an adventurous and enterprising character. He had been seen, beyond
dispute, to pull off ruffles of the finest quality at the corner of the
street on Sunday nights, and to put them carefully in his pocket before
returning home; and it was quite notorious that on all great holiday
occasions it was his habit to exchange his plain steel knee-buckles for
a pair of glittering paste, under cover of a friendly post, planted most
conveniently in that same spot. Add to this that he was in years just
twenty, in his looks much older, and in conceit at least two hundred;
that he had no objection to be jested with, touching his admiration
of his master’s daughter; and had even, when called upon at a certain
obscure tavern to pledge the lady whom he honoured with his love,
toasted, with many winks and leers, a fair creature whose Christian
name, he said, began with a D--;--and as much is known of Sim Tappertit,
who has by this time followed the locksmith in to breakfast, as is
necessary to be known in making his acquaintance.

It was a substantial meal; for, over and above the ordinary tea
equipage, the board creaked beneath the weight of a jolly round of beef,
a ham of the first magnitude, and sundry towers of buttered Yorkshire
cake, piled slice upon slice in most alluring order. There was also
a goodly jug of well-browned clay, fashioned into the form of an old
gentleman, not by any means unlike the locksmith, atop of whose bald
head was a fine white froth answering to his wig, indicative, beyond
dispute, of sparkling home-brewed ale. But, better far than fair
home-brewed, or Yorkshire cake, or ham, or beef, or anything to eat or
drink that earth or air or water can supply, there sat, presiding over
all, the locksmith’s rosy daughter, before whose dark eyes even beef
grew insignificant, and malt became as nothing.

Fathers should never kiss their daughters when young men are by. It’s
too much. There are bounds to human endurance. So thought Sim Tappertit
when Gabriel drew those rosy lips to his--those lips within Sim’s reach
from day to day, and yet so far off. He had a respect for his master,
but he wished the Yorkshire cake might choke him.

‘Father,’ said the locksmith’s daughter, when this salute was over, and
they took their seats at table, ‘what is this I hear about last night?’

‘All true, my dear; true as the Gospel, Doll.’

‘Young Mr Chester robbed, and lying wounded in the road, when you came
up!’

‘Ay--Mr Edward. And beside him, Barnaby, calling for help with all his
might. It was well it happened as it did; for the road’s a lonely one,
the hour was late, and, the night being cold, and poor Barnaby even less
sensible than usual from surprise and fright, the young gentleman might
have met his death in a very short time.’

‘I dread to think of it!’ cried his daughter with a shudder. ‘How did
you know him?’

‘Know him!’ returned the locksmith. ‘I didn’t know him--how could I? I
had never seen him, often as I had heard and spoken of him. I took him
to Mrs Rudge’s; and she no sooner saw him than the truth came out.’

‘Miss Emma, father--If this news should reach her, enlarged upon as it
is sure to be, she will go distracted.’

‘Why, lookye there again, how a man suffers for being good-natured,’
said the locksmith. ‘Miss Emma was with her uncle at the masquerade at
Carlisle House, where she had gone, as the people at the Warren told me,
sorely against her will. What does your blockhead father when he and Mrs
Rudge have laid their heads together, but goes there when he ought to be
abed, makes interest with his friend the doorkeeper, slips him on a mask
and domino, and mixes with the masquers.’

‘And like himself to do so!’ cried the girl, putting her fair arm round
his neck, and giving him a most enthusiastic kiss.

‘Like himself!’ repeated Gabriel, affecting to grumble, but evidently
delighted with the part he had taken, and with her praise. ‘Very like
himself--so your mother said. However, he mingled with the crowd,
and prettily worried and badgered he was, I warrant you, with people
squeaking, “Don’t you know me?” and “I’ve found you out,” and all that
kind of nonsense in his ears. He might have wandered on till now, but
in a little room there was a young lady who had taken off her mask, on
account of the place being very warm, and was sitting there alone.’

‘And that was she?’ said his daughter hastily.

‘And that was she,’ replied the locksmith; ‘and I no sooner whispered to
her what the matter was--as softly, Doll, and with nearly as much art as
you could have used yourself--than she gives a kind of scream and faints
away.’

‘What did you do--what happened next?’ asked his daughter. ‘Why, the
masks came flocking round, with a general noise and hubbub, and I
thought myself in luck to get clear off, that’s all,’ rejoined the
locksmith. ‘What happened when I reached home you may guess, if you
didn’t hear it. Ah! Well, it’s a poor heart that never rejoices.--Put
Toby this way, my dear.’

This Toby was the brown jug of which previous mention has been made.
Applying his lips to the worthy old gentleman’s benevolent forehead, the
locksmith, who had all this time been ravaging among the eatables, kept
them there so long, at the same time raising the vessel slowly in
the air, that at length Toby stood on his head upon his nose, when he
smacked his lips, and set him on the table again with fond reluctance.

Although Sim Tappertit had taken no share in this conversation, no part
of it being addressed to him, he had not been wanting in such silent
manifestations of astonishment, as he deemed most compatible with the
favourable display of his eyes. Regarding the pause which now ensued, as
a particularly advantageous opportunity for doing great execution with
them upon the locksmith’s daughter (who he had no doubt was looking
at him in mute admiration), he began to screw and twist his face,
and especially those features, into such extraordinary, hideous, and
unparalleled contortions, that Gabriel, who happened to look towards
him, was stricken with amazement.

‘Why, what the devil’s the matter with the lad?’ cried the locksmith.
‘Is he choking?’

‘Who?’ demanded Sim, with some disdain.

‘Who? Why, you,’ returned his master. ‘What do you mean by making those
horrible faces over your breakfast?’

‘Faces are matters of taste, sir,’ said Mr Tappertit, rather
discomfited; not the less so because he saw the locksmith’s daughter
smiling.

‘Sim,’ rejoined Gabriel, laughing heartily. ‘Don’t be a fool, for I’d
rather see you in your senses. These young fellows,’ he added, turning
to his daughter, ‘are always committing some folly or another. There was
a quarrel between Joe Willet and old John last night though I can’t say
Joe was much in fault either. He’ll be missing one of these mornings,
and will have gone away upon some wild-goose errand, seeking his
fortune.--Why, what’s the matter, Doll? YOU are making faces now. The
girls are as bad as the boys every bit!’

‘It’s the tea,’ said Dolly, turning alternately very red and very white,
which is no doubt the effect of a slight scald--‘so very hot.’

Mr Tappertit looked immensely big at a quartern loaf on the table, and
breathed hard.

‘Is that all?’ returned the locksmith. ‘Put some more milk in it.--Yes,
I am sorry for Joe, because he is a likely young fellow, and gains upon
one every time one sees him. But he’ll start off, you’ll find. Indeed he
told me as much himself!’

‘Indeed!’ cried Dolly in a faint voice. ‘In-deed!’

‘Is the tea tickling your throat still, my dear?’ said the locksmith.

But, before his daughter could make him any answer, she was taken with
a troublesome cough, and it was such a very unpleasant cough, that,
when she left off, the tears were starting in her bright eyes. The
good-natured locksmith was still patting her on the back and applying
such gentle restoratives, when a message arrived from Mrs Varden, making
known to all whom it might concern, that she felt too much indisposed
to rise after her great agitation and anxiety of the previous night; and
therefore desired to be immediately accommodated with the little black
teapot of strong mixed tea, a couple of rounds of buttered toast, a
middling-sized dish of beef and ham cut thin, and the Protestant Manual
in two volumes post octavo. Like some other ladies who in remote
ages flourished upon this globe, Mrs Varden was most devout when most
ill-tempered. Whenever she and her husband were at unusual variance,
then the Protestant Manual was in high feather.

Knowing from experience what these requests portended, the triumvirate
broke up; Dolly, to see the orders executed with all despatch; Gabriel,
to some out-of-door work in his little chaise; and Sim, to his daily
duty in the workshop, to which retreat he carried the big look, although
the loaf remained behind.

Indeed the big look increased immensely, and when he had tied his apron
on, became quite gigantic. It was not until he had several times walked
up and down with folded arms, and the longest strides he could take,
and had kicked a great many small articles out of his way, that his lip
began to curl. At length, a gloomy derision came upon his features, and
he smiled; uttering meanwhile with supreme contempt the monosyllable
‘Joe!’

‘I eyed her over, while he talked about the fellow,’ he said, ‘and that
was of course the reason of her being confused. Joe!’

He walked up and down again much quicker than before, and if possible
with longer strides; sometimes stopping to take a glance at his legs,
and sometimes to jerk out, and cast from him, another ‘Joe!’ In the
course of a quarter of an hour or so he again assumed the paper cap and
tried to work. No. It could not be done.

‘I’ll do nothing to-day,’ said Mr Tappertit, dashing it down again, ‘but
grind. I’ll grind up all the tools. Grinding will suit my present humour
well. Joe!’

Whirr-r-r-r. The grindstone was soon in motion; the sparks were flying
off in showers. This was the occupation for his heated spirit.

Whirr-r-r-r-r-r-r.

‘Something will come of this!’ said Mr Tappertit, pausing as if in
triumph, and wiping his heated face upon his sleeve. ‘Something will
come of this. I hope it mayn’t be human gore!’

Whirr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.



Chapter 5


As soon as the business of the day was over, the locksmith sallied
forth, alone, to visit the wounded gentleman and ascertain the progress
of his recovery. The house where he had left him was in a by-street
in Southwark, not far from London Bridge; and thither he hied with all
speed, bent upon returning with as little delay as might be, and getting
to bed betimes.

The evening was boisterous--scarcely better than the previous night had
been. It was not easy for a stout man like Gabriel to keep his legs at
the street corners, or to make head against the high wind, which often
fairly got the better of him, and drove him back some paces, or, in
defiance of all his energy, forced him to take shelter in an arch or
doorway until the fury of the gust was spent. Occasionally a hat or wig,
or both, came spinning and trundling past him, like a mad thing; while
the more serious spectacle of falling tiles and slates, or of masses of
brick and mortar or fragments of stone-coping rattling upon the pavement
near at hand, and splitting into fragments, did not increase the
pleasure of the journey, or make the way less dreary.

‘A trying night for a man like me to walk in!’ said the locksmith, as
he knocked softly at the widow’s door. ‘I’d rather be in old John’s
chimney-corner, faith!’

‘Who’s there?’ demanded a woman’s voice from within. Being answered, it
added a hasty word of welcome, and the door was quickly opened.

She was about forty--perhaps two or three years older--with a cheerful
aspect, and a face that had once been pretty. It bore traces of
affliction and care, but they were of an old date, and Time had smoothed
them. Any one who had bestowed but a casual glance on Barnaby might
have known that this was his mother, from the strong resemblance between
them; but where in his face there was wildness and vacancy, in hers
there was the patient composure of long effort and quiet resignation.

One thing about this face was very strange and startling. You could not
look upon it in its most cheerful mood without feeling that it had some
extraordinary capacity of expressing terror. It was not on the surface.
It was in no one feature that it lingered. You could not take the
eyes or mouth, or lines upon the cheek, and say, if this or that were
otherwise, it would not be so. Yet there it always lurked--something for
ever dimly seen, but ever there, and never absent for a moment. It was
the faintest, palest shadow of some look, to which an instant of intense
and most unutterable horror only could have given birth; but indistinct
and feeble as it was, it did suggest what that look must have been, and
fixed it in the mind as if it had had existence in a dream.

More faintly imaged, and wanting force and purpose, as it were, because
of his darkened intellect, there was this same stamp upon the son.
Seen in a picture, it must have had some legend with it, and would have
haunted those who looked upon the canvas. They who knew the Maypole
story, and could remember what the widow was, before her husband’s and
his master’s murder, understood it well. They recollected how the change
had come, and could call to mind that when her son was born, upon the
very day the deed was known, he bore upon his wrist what seemed a smear
of blood but half washed out.

‘God save you, neighbour!’ said the locksmith, as he followed her, with
the air of an old friend, into a little parlour where a cheerful fire
was burning.

‘And you,’ she answered smiling. ‘Your kind heart has brought you
here again. Nothing will keep you at home, I know of old, if there are
friends to serve or comfort, out of doors.’

‘Tut, tut,’ returned the locksmith, rubbing his hands and warming them.
‘You women are such talkers. What of the patient, neighbour?’

‘He is sleeping now. He was very restless towards daylight, and for
some hours tossed and tumbled sadly. But the fever has left him, and the
doctor says he will soon mend. He must not be removed until to-morrow.’

‘He has had visitors to-day--humph?’ said Gabriel, slyly.

‘Yes. Old Mr Chester has been here ever since we sent for him, and had
not been gone many minutes when you knocked.’

‘No ladies?’ said Gabriel, elevating his eyebrows and looking
disappointed.

‘A letter,’ replied the widow.

‘Come. That’s better than nothing!’ replied the locksmith. ‘Who was the
bearer?’

‘Barnaby, of course.’

‘Barnaby’s a jewel!’ said Varden; ‘and comes and goes with ease where we
who think ourselves much wiser would make but a poor hand of it. He is
not out wandering, again, I hope?’

‘Thank Heaven he is in his bed; having been up all night, as you know,
and on his feet all day. He was quite tired out. Ah, neighbour, if I
could but see him oftener so--if I could but tame down that terrible
restlessness--’

‘In good time,’ said the locksmith, kindly, ‘in good time--don’t be
down-hearted. To my mind he grows wiser every day.’

The widow shook her head. And yet, though she knew the locksmith sought
to cheer her, and spoke from no conviction of his own, she was glad to
hear even this praise of her poor benighted son.

‘He will be a ‘cute man yet,’ resumed the locksmith. ‘Take care, when we
are growing old and foolish, Barnaby doesn’t put us to the blush, that’s
all. But our other friend,’ he added, looking under the table and
about the floor--‘sharpest and cunningest of all the sharp and cunning
ones--where’s he?’

‘In Barnaby’s room,’ rejoined the widow, with a faint smile.

‘Ah! He’s a knowing blade!’ said Varden, shaking his head. ‘I should
be sorry to talk secrets before him. Oh! He’s a deep customer. I’ve no
doubt he can read, and write, and cast accounts if he chooses. What was
that? Him tapping at the door?’

‘No,’ returned the widow. ‘It was in the street, I think. Hark! Yes.
There again! ‘Tis some one knocking softly at the shutter. Who can it
be!’

They had been speaking in a low tone, for the invalid lay overhead, and
the walls and ceilings being thin and poorly built, the sound of their
voices might otherwise have disturbed his slumber. The party without,
whoever it was, could have stood close to the shutter without hearing
anything spoken; and, seeing the light through the chinks and finding
all so quiet, might have been persuaded that only one person was there.

‘Some thief or ruffian maybe,’ said the locksmith. ‘Give me the light.’

‘No, no,’ she returned hastily. ‘Such visitors have never come to this
poor dwelling. Do you stay here. You’re within call, at the worst. I
would rather go myself--alone.’

‘Why?’ said the locksmith, unwillingly relinquishing the candle he had
caught up from the table.

‘Because--I don’t know why--because the wish is so strong upon me,’ she
rejoined. ‘There again--do not detain me, I beg of you!’

Gabriel looked at her, in great surprise to see one who was usually so
mild and quiet thus agitated, and with so little cause. She left the
room and closed the door behind her. She stood for a moment as if
hesitating, with her hand upon the lock. In this short interval the
knocking came again, and a voice close to the window--a voice the
locksmith seemed to recollect, and to have some disagreeable association
with--whispered ‘Make haste.’

The words were uttered in that low distinct voice which finds its way so
readily to sleepers’ ears, and wakes them in a fright. For a moment
it startled even the locksmith; who involuntarily drew back from the
window, and listened.

The wind rumbling in the chimney made it difficult to hear what passed,
but he could tell that the door was opened, that there was the tread of
a man upon the creaking boards, and then a moment’s silence--broken by a
suppressed something which was not a shriek, or groan, or cry for help,
and yet might have been either or all three; and the words ‘My God!’
uttered in a voice it chilled him to hear.

He rushed out upon the instant. There, at last, was that dreadful
look--the very one he seemed to know so well and yet had never seen
before--upon her face. There she stood, frozen to the ground, gazing
with starting eyes, and livid cheeks, and every feature fixed and
ghastly, upon the man he had encountered in the dark last night. His
eyes met those of the locksmith. It was but a flash, an instant, a
breath upon a polished glass, and he was gone.

The locksmith was upon him--had the skirts of his streaming garment
almost in his grasp--when his arms were tightly clutched, and the widow
flung herself upon the ground before him.

‘The other way--the other way,’ she cried. ‘He went the other way.
Turn--turn!’

‘The other way! I see him now,’ rejoined the locksmith,
pointing--‘yonder--there--there is his shadow passing by that light.
What--who is this? Let me go.’

‘Come back, come back!’ exclaimed the woman, clasping him; ‘Do not
touch him on your life. I charge you, come back. He carries other lives
besides his own. Come back!’

‘What does this mean?’ cried the locksmith.

‘No matter what it means, don’t ask, don’t speak, don’t think about it.
He is not to be followed, checked, or stopped. Come back!’

The old man looked at her in wonder, as she writhed and clung about him;
and, borne down by her passion, suffered her to drag him into the house.
It was not until she had chained and double-locked the door, fastened
every bolt and bar with the heat and fury of a maniac, and drawn him
back into the room, that she turned upon him, once again, that stony
look of horror, and, sinking down into a chair, covered her face, and
shuddered, as though the hand of death were on her.



Chapter 6


Beyond all measure astonished by the strange occurrences which had
passed with so much violence and rapidity, the locksmith gazed upon the
shuddering figure in the chair like one half stupefied, and would have
gazed much longer, had not his tongue been loosened by compassion and
humanity.

‘You are ill,’ said Gabriel. ‘Let me call some neighbour in.’

‘Not for the world,’ she rejoined, motioning to him with her trembling
hand, and holding her face averted. ‘It is enough that you have been by,
to see this.’

‘Nay, more than enough--or less,’ said Gabriel.

‘Be it so,’ she returned. ‘As you like. Ask me no questions, I entreat
you.’

‘Neighbour,’ said the locksmith, after a pause. ‘Is this fair, or
reasonable, or just to yourself? Is it like you, who have known me so
long and sought my advice in all matters--like you, who from a girl have
had a strong mind and a staunch heart?’

‘I have need of them,’ she replied. ‘I am growing old, both in years and
care. Perhaps that, and too much trial, have made them weaker than they
used to be. Do not speak to me.’

‘How can I see what I have seen, and hold my peace!’ returned the
locksmith. ‘Who was that man, and why has his coming made this change in
you?’

She was silent, but held to the chair as though to save herself from
falling on the ground.

‘I take the licence of an old acquaintance, Mary,’ said the locksmith,
‘who has ever had a warm regard for you, and maybe has tried to prove it
when he could. Who is this ill-favoured man, and what has he to do with
you? Who is this ghost, that is only seen in the black nights and bad
weather? How does he know, and why does he haunt this house, whispering
through chinks and crevices, as if there was that between him and you,
which neither durst so much as speak aloud of? Who is he?’

‘You do well to say he haunts this house,’ returned the widow, faintly.
‘His shadow has been upon it and me, in light and darkness, at noonday
and midnight. And now, at last, he has come in the body!’

‘But he wouldn’t have gone in the body,’ returned the locksmith with
some irritation, ‘if you had left my arms and legs at liberty. What
riddle is this?’

‘It is one,’ she answered, rising as she spoke, ‘that must remain for
ever as it is. I dare not say more than that.’

‘Dare not!’ repeated the wondering locksmith.

‘Do not press me,’ she replied. ‘I am sick and faint, and every faculty
of life seems dead within me.--No!--Do not touch me, either.’

Gabriel, who had stepped forward to render her assistance, fell back as
she made this hasty exclamation, and regarded her in silent wonder.

‘Let me go my way alone,’ she said in a low voice, ‘and let the hands of
no honest man touch mine to-night.’ When she had tottered to the door,
she turned, and added with a stronger effort, ‘This is a secret, which,
of necessity, I trust to you. You are a true man. As you have ever been
good and kind to me,--keep it. If any noise was heard above, make some
excuse--say anything but what you really saw, and never let a word or
look between us, recall this circumstance. I trust to you. Mind, I trust
to you. How much I trust, you never can conceive.’

Casting her eyes upon him for an instant, she withdrew, and left him
there alone.

Gabriel, not knowing what to think, stood staring at the door with a
countenance full of surprise and dismay. The more he pondered on
what had passed, the less able he was to give it any favourable
interpretation. To find this widow woman, whose life for so many years
had been supposed to be one of solitude and retirement, and who, in her
quiet suffering character, had gained the good opinion and respect of
all who knew her--to find her linked mysteriously with an ill-omened
man, alarmed at his appearance, and yet favouring his escape, was a
discovery that pained as much as startled him. Her reliance on his
secrecy, and his tacit acquiescence, increased his distress of mind. If
he had spoken boldly, persisted in questioning her, detained her
when she rose to leave the room, made any kind of protest, instead of
silently compromising himself, as he felt he had done, he would have
been more at ease.

‘Why did I let her say it was a secret, and she trusted it to me!’ said
Gabriel, putting his wig on one side to scratch his head with greater
ease, and looking ruefully at the fire. ‘I have no more readiness than
old John himself. Why didn’t I say firmly, “You have no right to such
secrets, and I demand of you to tell me what this means,” instead of
standing gaping at her, like an old moon-calf as I am! But there’s my
weakness. I can be obstinate enough with men if need be, but women may
twist me round their fingers at their pleasure.’

He took his wig off outright as he made this reflection, and, warming
his handkerchief at the fire began to rub and polish his bald head with
it, until it glistened again.

‘And yet,’ said the locksmith, softening under this soothing process,
and stopping to smile, ‘it MAY be nothing. Any drunken brawler trying to
make his way into the house, would have alarmed a quiet soul like her.
But then’--and here was the vexation--‘how came it to be that man; how
comes he to have this influence over her; how came she to favour his
getting away from me; and, more than all, how came she not to say it
was a sudden fright, and nothing more? It’s a sad thing to have, in one
minute, reason to mistrust a person I have known so long, and an old
sweetheart into the bargain; but what else can I do, with all this upon
my mind!--Is that Barnaby outside there?’

‘Ay!’ he cried, looking in and nodding. ‘Sure enough it’s Barnaby--how
did you guess?’

‘By your shadow,’ said the locksmith.

‘Oho!’ cried Barnaby, glancing over his shoulder, ‘He’s a merry fellow,
that shadow, and keeps close to me, though I AM silly. We have such
pranks, such walks, such runs, such gambols on the grass! Sometimes
he’ll be half as tall as a church steeple, and sometimes no bigger
than a dwarf. Now, he goes on before, and now behind, and anon he’ll
be stealing on, on this side, or on that, stopping whenever I stop, and
thinking I can’t see him, though I have my eye on him sharp enough. Oh!
he’s a merry fellow. Tell me--is he silly too? I think he is.’

‘Why?’ asked Gabriel.

‘Because he never tires of mocking me, but does it all day long.--Why
don’t you come?’

‘Where?’

‘Upstairs. He wants you. Stay--where’s HIS shadow? Come. You’re a wise
man; tell me that.’

‘Beside him, Barnaby; beside him, I suppose,’ returned the locksmith.

‘No!’ he replied, shaking his head. ‘Guess again.’

‘Gone out a walking, maybe?’

‘He has changed shadows with a woman,’ the idiot whispered in his ear,
and then fell back with a look of triumph. ‘Her shadow’s always with
him, and his with her. That’s sport I think, eh?’

‘Barnaby,’ said the locksmith, with a grave look; ‘come hither, lad.’

‘I know what you want to say. I know!’ he replied, keeping away from
him. ‘But I’m cunning, I’m silent. I only say so much to you--are you
ready?’ As he spoke, he caught up the light, and waved it with a wild
laugh above his head.

‘Softly--gently,’ said the locksmith, exerting all his influence to keep
him calm and quiet. ‘I thought you had been asleep.’

‘So I HAVE been asleep,’ he rejoined, with widely-opened eyes. ‘There
have been great faces coming and going--close to my face, and then a
mile away--low places to creep through, whether I would or no--high
churches to fall down from--strange creatures crowded up together neck
and heels, to sit upon the bed--that’s sleep, eh?’

‘Dreams, Barnaby, dreams,’ said the locksmith.

‘Dreams!’ he echoed softly, drawing closer to him. ‘Those are not
dreams.’

‘What are,’ replied the locksmith, ‘if they are not?’

‘I dreamed,’ said Barnaby, passing his arm through Varden’s, and peering
close into his face as he answered in a whisper, ‘I dreamed just now
that something--it was in the shape of a man--followed me--came softly
after me--wouldn’t let me be--but was always hiding and crouching, like
a cat in dark corners, waiting till I should pass; when it crept out and
came softly after me.--Did you ever see me run?’

‘Many a time, you know.’

‘You never saw me run as I did in this dream. Still it came creeping on
to worry me. Nearer, nearer, nearer--I ran faster--leaped--sprung out
of bed, and to the window--and there, in the street below--but he is
waiting for us. Are you coming?’

‘What in the street below, Barnaby?’ said Varden, imagining that
he traced some connection between this vision and what had actually
occurred.

Barnaby looked into his face, muttered incoherently, waved the light
above his head again, laughed, and drawing the locksmith’s arm more
tightly through his own, led him up the stairs in silence.

They entered a homely bedchamber, garnished in a scanty way with chairs,
whose spindle-shanks bespoke their age, and other furniture of very
little worth; but clean and neatly kept. Reclining in an easy-chair
before the fire, pale and weak from waste of blood, was Edward Chester,
the young gentleman who had been the first to quit the Maypole on the
previous night, and who, extending his hand to the locksmith, welcomed
him as his preserver and friend.

‘Say no more, sir, say no more,’ said Gabriel. ‘I hope I would have done
at least as much for any man in such a strait, and most of all for you,
sir. A certain young lady,’ he added, with some hesitation, ‘has done us
many a kind turn, and we naturally feel--I hope I give you no offence in
saying this, sir?’

The young man smiled and shook his head; at the same time moving in his
chair as if in pain.

‘It’s no great matter,’ he said, in answer to the locksmith’s
sympathising look, ‘a mere uneasiness arising at least as much from
being cooped up here, as from the slight wound I have, or from the loss
of blood. Be seated, Mr Varden.’

‘If I may make so bold, Mr Edward, as to lean upon your chair,’ returned
the locksmith, accommodating his action to his speech, and bending over
him, ‘I’ll stand here for the convenience of speaking low. Barnaby is
not in his quietest humour to-night, and at such times talking never
does him good.’

They both glanced at the subject of this remark, who had taken a seat on
the other side of the fire, and, smiling vacantly, was making puzzles on
his fingers with a skein of string.

‘Pray, tell me, sir,’ said Varden, dropping his voice still lower,
‘exactly what happened last night. I have my reason for inquiring. You
left the Maypole, alone?’

‘And walked homeward alone, until I had nearly reached the place where
you found me, when I heard the gallop of a horse.’

‘Behind you?’ said the locksmith.

‘Indeed, yes--behind me. It was a single rider, who soon overtook me,
and checking his horse, inquired the way to London.’

‘You were on the alert, sir, knowing how many highwaymen there are,
scouring the roads in all directions?’ said Varden.

‘I was, but I had only a stick, having imprudently left my pistols
in their holster-case with the landlord’s son. I directed him as he
desired. Before the words had passed my lips, he rode upon me furiously,
as if bent on trampling me down beneath his horse’s hoofs. In starting
aside, I slipped and fell. You found me with this stab and an ugly
bruise or two, and without my purse--in which he found little enough for
his pains. And now, Mr Varden,’ he added, shaking the locksmith by the
hand, ‘saving the extent of my gratitude to you, you know as much as I.’

‘Except,’ said Gabriel, bending down yet more, and looking cautiously
towards their silent neighhour, ‘except in respect of the robber
himself. What like was he, sir? Speak low, if you please. Barnaby means
no harm, but I have watched him oftener than you, and I know, little as
you would think it, that he’s listening now.’

It required a strong confidence in the locksmith’s veracity to lead any
one to this belief, for every sense and faculty that Barnaby possessed,
seemed to be fixed upon his game, to the exclusion of all other things.
Something in the young man’s face expressed this opinion, for Gabriel
repeated what he had just said, more earnestly than before, and with
another glance towards Barnaby, again asked what like the man was.

‘The night was so dark,’ said Edward, ‘the attack so sudden, and he so
wrapped and muffled up, that I can hardly say. It seems that--’

‘Don’t mention his name, sir,’ returned the locksmith, following his
look towards Barnaby; ‘I know HE saw him. I want to know what YOU saw.’

‘All I remember is,’ said Edward, ‘that as he checked his horse his
hat was blown off. He caught it, and replaced it on his head, which
I observed was bound with a dark handkerchief. A stranger entered the
Maypole while I was there, whom I had not seen--for I had sat apart for
reasons of my own--and when I rose to leave the room and glanced round,
he was in the shadow of the chimney and hidden from my sight. But, if he
and the robber were two different persons, their voices were strangely
and most remarkably alike; for directly the man addressed me in the
road, I recognised his speech again.’

‘It is as I feared. The very man was here to-night,’ thought the
locksmith, changing colour. ‘What dark history is this!’

‘Halloa!’ cried a hoarse voice in his ear. ‘Halloa, halloa, halloa! Bow
wow wow. What’s the matter here! Hal-loa!’

The speaker--who made the locksmith start as if he had been some
supernatural agent--was a large raven, who had perched upon the top of
the easy-chair, unseen by him and Edward, and listened with a polite
attention and a most extraordinary appearance of comprehending every
word, to all they had said up to this point; turning his head from one
to the other, as if his office were to judge between them, and it were
of the very last importance that he should not lose a word.

‘Look at him!’ said Varden, divided between admiration of the bird and a
kind of fear of him. ‘Was there ever such a knowing imp as that! Oh he’s
a dreadful fellow!’

The raven, with his head very much on one side, and his bright eye
shining like a diamond, preserved a thoughtful silence for a few
seconds, and then replied in a voice so hoarse and distant, that it
seemed to come through his thick feathers rather than out of his mouth.

‘Halloa, halloa, halloa! What’s the matter here! Keep up your spirits.
Never say die. Bow wow wow. I’m a devil, I’m a devil, I’m a devil.
Hurrah!’--And then, as if exulting in his infernal character, he began
to whistle.

‘I more than half believe he speaks the truth. Upon my word I do,’
said Varden. ‘Do you see how he looks at me, as if he knew what I was
saying?’

To which the bird, balancing himself on tiptoe, as it were, and moving
his body up and down in a sort of grave dance, rejoined, ‘I’m a devil,
I’m a devil, I’m a devil,’ and flapped his wings against his sides as
if he were bursting with laughter. Barnaby clapped his hands, and fairly
rolled upon the ground in an ecstasy of delight.

‘Strange companions, sir,’ said the locksmith, shaking his head, and
looking from one to the other. ‘The bird has all the wit.’

‘Strange indeed!’ said Edward, holding out his forefinger to the raven,
who, in acknowledgment of the attention, made a dive at it immediately
with his iron bill. ‘Is he old?’

‘A mere boy, sir,’ replied the locksmith. ‘A hundred and twenty, or
thereabouts. Call him down, Barnaby, my man.’

‘Call him!’ echoed Barnaby, sitting upright upon the floor, and staring
vacantly at Gabriel, as he thrust his hair back from his face. ‘But who
can make him come! He calls me, and makes me go where he will. He goes
on before, and I follow. He’s the master, and I’m the man. Is that the
truth, Grip?’

The raven gave a short, comfortable, confidential kind of croak;--a most
expressive croak, which seemed to say, ‘You needn’t let these fellows
into our secrets. We understand each other. It’s all right.’

‘I make HIM come?’ cried Barnaby, pointing to the bird. ‘Him, who never
goes to sleep, or so much as winks!--Why, any time of night, you may see
his eyes in my dark room, shining like two sparks. And every night, and
all night too, he’s broad awake, talking to himself, thinking what he
shall do to-morrow, where we shall go, and what he shall steal, and
hide, and bury. I make HIM come! Ha ha ha!’

On second thoughts, the bird appeared disposed to come of himself. After
a short survey of the ground, and a few sidelong looks at the ceiling
and at everybody present in turn, he fluttered to the floor, and went
to Barnaby--not in a hop, or walk, or run, but in a pace like that of
a very particular gentleman with exceedingly tight boots on, trying to
walk fast over loose pebbles. Then, stepping into his extended hand,
and condescending to be held out at arm’s length, he gave vent to a
succession of sounds, not unlike the drawing of some eight or ten dozen
of long corks, and again asserted his brimstone birth and parentage with
great distinctness.

The locksmith shook his head--perhaps in some doubt of the creature’s
being really nothing but a bird--perhaps in pity for Barnaby, who by
this time had him in his arms, and was rolling about, with him, on the
ground. As he raised his eyes from the poor fellow he encountered those
of his mother, who had entered the room, and was looking on in silence.

She was quite white in the face, even to her lips, but had wholly
subdued her emotion, and wore her usual quiet look. Varden fancied as he
glanced at her that she shrunk from his eye; and that she busied herself
about the wounded gentleman to avoid him the better.

It was time he went to bed, she said. He was to be removed to his own
home on the morrow, and he had already exceeded his time for sitting up,
by a full hour. Acting on this hint, the locksmith prepared to take his
leave.

‘By the bye,’ said Edward, as he shook him by the hand, and looked from
him to Mrs Rudge and back again, ‘what noise was that below? I heard
your voice in the midst of it, and should have inquired before, but our
other conversation drove it from my memory. What was it?’

The locksmith looked towards her, and bit his lip. She leant against the
chair, and bent her eyes upon the ground. Barnaby too--he was listening.

--‘Some mad or drunken fellow, sir,’ Varden at length made answer,
looking steadily at the widow as he spoke. ‘He mistook the house, and
tried to force an entrance.’

She breathed more freely, but stood quite motionless. As the locksmith
said ‘Good night,’ and Barnaby caught up the candle to light him down
the stairs, she took it from him, and charged him--with more haste and
earnestness than so slight an occasion appeared to warrant--not to stir.
The raven followed them to satisfy himself that all was right below,
and when they reached the street-door, stood on the bottom stair drawing
corks out of number.

With a trembling hand she unfastened the chain and bolts, and turned
the key. As she had her hand upon the latch, the locksmith said in a low
voice,

‘I have told a lie to-night, for your sake, Mary, and for the sake of
bygone times and old acquaintance, when I would scorn to do so for my
own. I hope I may have done no harm, or led to none. I can’t help the
suspicions you have forced upon me, and I am loth, I tell you plainly,
to leave Mr Edward here. Take care he comes to no hurt. I doubt the
safety of this roof, and am glad he leaves it so soon. Now, let me go.’

For a moment she hid her face in her hands and wept; but resisting the
strong impulse which evidently moved her to reply, opened the door--no
wider than was sufficient for the passage of his body--and motioned him
away. As the locksmith stood upon the step, it was chained and locked
behind him, and the raven, in furtherance of these precautions, barked
like a lusty house-dog.

‘In league with that ill-looking figure that might have fallen from a
gibbet--he listening and hiding here--Barnaby first upon the spot last
night--can she who has always borne so fair a name be guilty of such
crimes in secret!’ said the locksmith, musing. ‘Heaven forgive me if I
am wrong, and send me just thoughts; but she is poor, the temptation
may be great, and we daily hear of things as strange.--Ay, bark away, my
friend. If there’s any wickedness going on, that raven’s in it, I’ll be
sworn.’



Chapter 7


Mrs Varden was a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper--a
phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to
make everybody more or less uncomfortable. Thus it generally happened,
that when other people were merry, Mrs Varden was dull; and that
when other people were dull, Mrs Varden was disposed to be amazingly
cheerful. Indeed the worthy housewife was of such a capricious nature,
that she not only attained a higher pitch of genius than Macbeth, in
respect of her ability to be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
loyal and neutral in an instant, but would sometimes ring the changes
backwards and forwards on all possible moods and flights in one short
quarter of an hour; performing, as it were, a kind of triple bob major
on the peal of instruments in the female belfry, with a skilfulness and
rapidity of execution that astonished all who heard her.

It had been observed in this good lady (who did not want for personal
attractions, being plump and buxom to look at, though like her
fair daughter, somewhat short in stature) that this uncertainty of
disposition strengthened and increased with her temporal prosperity; and
divers wise men and matrons, on friendly terms with the locksmith and
his family, even went so far as to assert, that a tumble down some
half-dozen rounds in the world’s ladder--such as the breaking of the
bank in which her husband kept his money, or some little fall of that
kind--would be the making of her, and could hardly fail to render her
one of the most agreeable companions in existence. Whether they were
right or wrong in this conjecture, certain it is that minds, like
bodies, will often fall into a pimpled ill-conditioned state from
mere excess of comfort, and like them, are often successfully cured by
remedies in themselves very nauseous and unpalatable.

Mrs Varden’s chief aider and abettor, and at the same time her principal
victim and object of wrath, was her single domestic servant, one Miss
Miggs; or as she was called, in conformity with those prejudices of
society which lop and top from poor hand-maidens all such genteel
excrescences--Miggs. This Miggs was a tall young lady, very much
addicted to pattens in private life; slender and shrewish, of a rather
uncomfortable figure, and though not absolutely ill-looking, of a sharp
and acid visage. As a general principle and abstract proposition, Miggs
held the male sex to be utterly contemptible and unworthy of notice;
to be fickle, false, base, sottish, inclined to perjury, and wholly
undeserving. When particularly exasperated against them (which, scandal
said, was when Sim Tappertit slighted her most) she was accustomed to
wish with great emphasis that the whole race of women could but die off,
in order that the men might be brought to know the real value of the
blessings by which they set so little store; nay, her feeling for her
order ran so high, that she sometimes declared, if she could only have
good security for a fair, round number--say ten thousand--of young
virgins following her example, she would, to spite mankind, hang, drown,
stab, or poison herself, with a joy past all expression.

It was the voice of Miggs that greeted the locksmith, when he knocked at
his own house, with a shrill cry of ‘Who’s there?’

‘Me, girl, me,’ returned Gabriel.

What, already, sir!’ said Miggs, opening the door with a look of
surprise. ‘We were just getting on our nightcaps to sit up,--me and
mistress. Oh, she has been SO bad!’

Miggs said this with an air of uncommon candour and concern; but the
parlour-door was standing open, and as Gabriel very well knew for whose
ears it was designed, he regarded her with anything but an approving
look as he passed in.

‘Master’s come home, mim,’ cried Miggs, running before him into the
parlour. ‘You was wrong, mim, and I was right. I thought he wouldn’t
keep us up so late, two nights running, mim. Master’s always considerate
so far. I’m so glad, mim, on your account. I’m a little’--here Miggs
simpered--‘a little sleepy myself; I’ll own it now, mim, though I said I
wasn’t when you asked me. It ain’t of no consequence, mim, of course.’

‘You had better,’ said the locksmith, who most devoutly wished that
Barnaby’s raven was at Miggs’s ankles, ‘you had better get to bed at
once then.’

‘Thanking you kindly, sir,’ returned Miggs, ‘I couldn’t take my rest in
peace, nor fix my thoughts upon my prayers, otherways than that I knew
mistress was comfortable in her bed this night; by rights she ought to
have been there, hours ago.’

‘You’re talkative, mistress,’ said Varden, pulling off his greatcoat,
and looking at her askew.

‘Taking the hint, sir,’ cried Miggs, with a flushed face, ‘and thanking
you for it most kindly, I will make bold to say, that if I give offence
by having consideration for my mistress, I do not ask your pardon, but
am content to get myself into trouble and to be in suffering.’

Here Mrs Varden, who, with her countenance shrouded in a large nightcap,
had been all this time intent upon the Protestant Manual, looked round,
and acknowledged Miggs’s championship by commanding her to hold her
tongue.

Every little bone in Miggs’s throat and neck developed itself with a
spitefulness quite alarming, as she replied, ‘Yes, mim, I will.’

‘How do you find yourself now, my dear?’ said the locksmith, taking a
chair near his wife (who had resumed her book), and rubbing his knees
hard as he made the inquiry.

‘You’re very anxious to know, an’t you?’ returned Mrs Varden, with
her eyes upon the print. ‘You, that have not been near me all day, and
wouldn’t have been if I was dying!’

‘My dear Martha--’ said Gabriel.

Mrs Varden turned over to the next page; then went back again to the
bottom line over leaf to be quite sure of the last words; and then went
on reading with an appearance of the deepest interest and study.

‘My dear Martha,’ said the locksmith, ‘how can you say such things,
when you know you don’t mean them? If you were dying! Why, if there was
anything serious the matter with you, Martha, shouldn’t I be in constant
attendance upon you?’

‘Yes!’ cried Mrs Varden, bursting into tears, ‘yes, you would. I don’t
doubt it, Varden. Certainly you would. That’s as much as to tell me that
you would be hovering round me like a vulture, waiting till the breath
was out of my body, that you might go and marry somebody else.’

Miggs groaned in sympathy--a little short groan, checked in its birth,
and changed into a cough. It seemed to say, ‘I can’t help it. It’s wrung
from me by the dreadful brutality of that monster master.’

‘But you’ll break my heart one of these days,’ added Mrs Varden, with
more resignation, ‘and then we shall both be happy. My only desire is
to see Dolly comfortably settled, and when she is, you may settle ME as
soon as you like.’

‘Ah!’ cried Miggs--and coughed again.

Poor Gabriel twisted his wig about in silence for a long time, and then
said mildly, ‘Has Dolly gone to bed?’

‘Your master speaks to you,’ said Mrs Varden, looking sternly over her
shoulder at Miss Miggs in waiting.

‘No, my dear, I spoke to you,’ suggested the locksmith.

‘Did you hear me, Miggs?’ cried the obdurate lady, stamping her foot
upon the ground. ‘YOU are beginning to despise me now, are you? But this
is example!’

At this cruel rebuke, Miggs, whose tears were always ready, for large
or small parties, on the shortest notice and the most reasonable terms,
fell a crying violently; holding both her hands tight upon her heart
meanwhile, as if nothing less would prevent its splitting into small
fragments. Mrs Varden, who likewise possessed that faculty in high
perfection, wept too, against Miggs; and with such effect that Miggs
gave in after a time, and, except for an occasional sob, which seemed to
threaten some remote intention of breaking out again, left her mistress
in possession of the field. Her superiority being thoroughly asserted,
that lady soon desisted likewise, and fell into a quiet melancholy.

The relief was so great, and the fatiguing occurrences of last night so
completely overpowered the locksmith, that he nodded in his chair, and
would doubtless have slept there all night, but for the voice of Mrs
Varden, which, after a pause of some five minutes, awoke him with a
start.

‘If I am ever,’ said Mrs V.--not scolding, but in a sort of monotonous
remonstrance--‘in spirits, if I am ever cheerful, if I am ever more than
usually disposed to be talkative and comfortable, this is the way I am
treated.’

‘Such spirits as you was in too, mim, but half an hour ago!’ cried
Miggs. ‘I never see such company!’

‘Because,’ said Mrs Varden, ‘because I never interfere or interrupt;
because I never question where anybody comes or goes; because my whole
mind and soul is bent on saving where I can save, and labouring in this
house;--therefore, they try me as they do.’

‘Martha,’ urged the locksmith, endeavouring to look as wakeful as
possible, ‘what is it you complain of? I really came home with every
wish and desire to be happy. I did, indeed.’

‘What do I complain of!’ retorted his wife. ‘Is it a chilling thing to
have one’s husband sulking and falling asleep directly he comes home--to
have him freezing all one’s warm-heartedness, and throwing cold water
over the fireside? Is it natural, when I know he went out upon a matter
in which I am as much interested as anybody can be, that I should wish
to know all that has happened, or that he should tell me without my
begging and praying him to do it? Is that natural, or is it not?’

‘I am very sorry, Martha,’ said the good-natured locksmith. ‘I was
really afraid you were not disposed to talk pleasantly; I’ll tell you
everything; I shall only be too glad, my dear.’

‘No, Varden,’ returned his wife, rising with dignity. ‘I dare say--thank
you! I’m not a child to be corrected one minute and petted the next--I’m
a little too old for that, Varden. Miggs, carry the light.--YOU can be
cheerful, Miggs, at least.’

Miggs, who, to this moment, had been in the very depths of compassionate
despondency, passed instantly into the liveliest state conceivable,
and tossing her head as she glanced towards the locksmith, bore off her
mistress and the light together.

‘Now, who would think,’ thought Varden, shrugging his shoulders and
drawing his chair nearer to the fire, ‘that that woman could ever be
pleasant and agreeable? And yet she can be. Well, well, all of us have
our faults. I’ll not be hard upon hers. We have been man and wife too
long for that.’

He dozed again--not the less pleasantly, perhaps, for his hearty temper.
While his eyes were closed, the door leading to the upper stairs was
partially opened; and a head appeared, which, at sight of him, hastily
drew back again.

‘I wish,’ murmured Gabriel, waking at the noise, and looking round
the room, ‘I wish somebody would marry Miggs. But that’s impossible! I
wonder whether there’s any madman alive, who would marry Miggs!’

This was such a vast speculation that he fell into a doze again, and
slept until the fire was quite burnt out. At last he roused himself; and
having double-locked the street-door according to custom, and put the
key in his pocket, went off to bed.

He had not left the room in darkness many minutes, when the head again
appeared, and Sim Tappertit entered, bearing in his hand a little lamp.

‘What the devil business has he to stop up so late!’ muttered Sim,
passing into the workshop, and setting it down upon the forge. ‘Here’s
half the night gone already. There’s only one good that has ever come to
me, out of this cursed old rusty mechanical trade, and that’s this piece
of ironmongery, upon my soul!’

As he spoke, he drew from the right hand, or rather right leg pocket of
his smalls, a clumsy large-sized key, which he inserted cautiously in
the lock his master had secured, and softly opened the door. That done,
he replaced his piece of secret workmanship in his pocket; and leaving
the lamp burning, and closing the door carefully and without noise,
stole out into the street--as little suspected by the locksmith in his
sound deep sleep, as by Barnaby himself in his phantom-haunted dreams.



Chapter 8


Clear of the locksmith’s house, Sim Tappertit laid aside his cautious
manner, and assuming in its stead that of a ruffling, swaggering, roving
blade, who would rather kill a man than otherwise, and eat him too if
needful, made the best of his way along the darkened streets.

Half pausing for an instant now and then to smite his pocket and assure
himself of the safety of his master key, he hurried on to Barbican, and
turning into one of the narrowest of the narrow streets which diverged
from that centre, slackened his pace and wiped his heated brow, as if
the termination of his walk were near at hand.

It was not a very choice spot for midnight expeditions, being in truth
one of more than questionable character, and of an appearance by no
means inviting. From the main street he had entered, itself little
better than an alley, a low-browed doorway led into a blind court, or
yard, profoundly dark, unpaved, and reeking with stagnant odours. Into
this ill-favoured pit, the locksmith’s vagrant ‘prentice groped his way;
and stopping at a house from whose defaced and rotten front the rude
effigy of a bottle swung to and fro like some gibbeted malefactor,
struck thrice upon an iron grating with his foot. After listening in
vain for some response to his signal, Mr Tappertit became impatient, and
struck the grating thrice again.

A further delay ensued, but it was not of long duration. The ground
seemed to open at his feet, and a ragged head appeared.

‘Is that the captain?’ said a voice as ragged as the head.

‘Yes,’ replied Mr Tappertit haughtily, descending as he spoke, ‘who
should it be?’

‘It’s so late, we gave you up,’ returned the voice, as its owner stopped
to shut and fasten the grating. ‘You’re late, sir.’

‘Lead on,’ said Mr Tappertit, with a gloomy majesty, ‘and make remarks
when I require you. Forward!’

This latter word of command was perhaps somewhat theatrical and
unnecessary, inasmuch as the descent was by a very narrow, steep, and
slippery flight of steps, and any rashness or departure from the beaten
track must have ended in a yawning water-butt. But Mr Tappertit being,
like some other great commanders, favourable to strong effects, and
personal display, cried ‘Forward!’ again, in the hoarsest voice he could
assume; and led the way, with folded arms and knitted brows, to the
cellar down below, where there was a small copper fixed in one corner,
a chair or two, a form and table, a glimmering fire, and a truckle-bed,
covered with a ragged patchwork rug.

‘Welcome, noble captain!’ cried a lanky figure, rising as from a nap.

The captain nodded. Then, throwing off his outer coat, he stood composed
in all his dignity, and eyed his follower over.

‘What news to-night?’ he asked, when he had looked into his very soul.

‘Nothing particular,’ replied the other, stretching himself--and he was
so long already that it was quite alarming to see him do it--‘how come
you to be so late?’

‘No matter,’ was all the captain deigned to say in answer. ‘Is the room
prepared?’

‘It is,’ replied the follower.

‘The comrade--is he here?’

‘Yes. And a sprinkling of the others--you hear ‘em?’

‘Playing skittles!’ said the captain moodily. ‘Light-hearted revellers!’

There was no doubt respecting the particular amusement in which these
heedless spirits were indulging, for even in the close and stifling
atmosphere of the vault, the noise sounded like distant thunder. It
certainly appeared, at first sight, a singular spot to choose, for that
or any other purpose of relaxation, if the other cellars answered to
the one in which this brief colloquy took place; for the floors were of
sodden earth, the walls and roof of damp bare brick tapestried with
the tracks of snails and slugs; the air was sickening, tainted, and
offensive. It seemed, from one strong flavour which was uppermost among
the various odours of the place, that it had, at no very distant period,
been used as a storehouse for cheeses; a circumstance which, while it
accounted for the greasy moisture that hung about it, was agreeably
suggestive of rats. It was naturally damp besides, and little trees of
fungus sprung from every mouldering corner.

The proprietor of this charming retreat, and owner of the ragged head
before mentioned--for he wore an old tie-wig as bare and frowzy as a
stunted hearth-broom--had by this time joined them; and stood a little
apart, rubbing his hands, wagging his hoary bristled chin, and smiling
in silence. His eyes were closed; but had they been wide open, it would
have been easy to tell, from the attentive expression of the face he
turned towards them--pale and unwholesome as might be expected in one
of his underground existence--and from a certain anxious raising and
quivering of the lids, that he was blind.

‘Even Stagg hath been asleep,’ said the long comrade, nodding towards
this person.

‘Sound, captain, sound!’ cried the blind man; ‘what does my noble
captain drink--is it brandy, rum, usquebaugh? Is it soaked gunpowder, or
blazing oil? Give it a name, heart of oak, and we’d get it for you, if
it was wine from a bishop’s cellar, or melted gold from King George’s
mint.’

‘See,’ said Mr Tappertit haughtily, ‘that it’s something strong, and
comes quick; and so long as you take care of that, you may bring it from
the devil’s cellar, if you like.’

‘Boldly said, noble captain!’ rejoined the blind man. ‘Spoken like the
‘Prentices’ Glory. Ha, ha! From the devil’s cellar! A brave joke! The
captain joketh. Ha, ha, ha!’

‘I’ll tell you what, my fine feller,’ said Mr Tappertit, eyeing the
host over as he walked to a closet, and took out a bottle and glass as
carelessly as if he had been in full possession of his sight, ‘if you
make that row, you’ll find that the captain’s very far from joking, and
so I tell you.’

‘He’s got his eyes on me!’ cried Stagg, stopping short on his way back,
and affecting to screen his face with the bottle. ‘I feel ‘em though I
can’t see ‘em. Take ‘em off, noble captain. Remove ‘em, for they pierce
like gimlets.’

Mr Tappertit smiled grimly at his comrade; and twisting out one more
look--a kind of ocular screw--under the influence of which the blind man
feigned to undergo great anguish and torture, bade him, in a softened
tone, approach, and hold his peace.

‘I obey you, captain,’ cried Stagg, drawing close to him and filling
out a bumper without spilling a drop, by reason that he held his little
finger at the brim of the glass, and stopped at the instant the liquor
touched it, ‘drink, noble governor. Death to all masters, life to all
‘prentices, and love to all fair damsels. Drink, brave general, and warm
your gallant heart!’

Mr Tappertit condescended to take the glass from his outstretched hand.
Stagg then dropped on one knee, and gently smoothed the calves of his
legs, with an air of humble admiration.

‘That I had but eyes!’ he cried, ‘to behold my captain’s symmetrical
proportions! That I had but eyes, to look upon these twin invaders of
domestic peace!’

‘Get out!’ said Mr Tappertit, glancing downward at his favourite limbs.
‘Go along, will you, Stagg!’

‘When I touch my own afterwards,’ cried the host, smiting them
reproachfully, ‘I hate ‘em. Comparatively speaking, they’ve no more
shape than wooden legs, beside these models of my noble captain’s.’

‘Yours!’ exclaimed Mr Tappertit. ‘No, I should think not. Don’t talk
about those precious old toothpicks in the same breath with mine; that’s
rather too much. Here. Take the glass. Benjamin. Lead on. To business!’

With these words, he folded his arms again; and frowning with a sullen
majesty, passed with his companion through a little door at the upper
end of the cellar, and disappeared; leaving Stagg to his private
meditations.

The vault they entered, strewn with sawdust and dimly lighted, was
between the outer one from which they had just come, and that in which
the skittle-players were diverting themselves; as was manifested by
the increased noise and clamour of tongues, which was suddenly stopped,
however, and replaced by a dead silence, at a signal from the long
comrade. Then, this young gentleman, going to a little cupboard,
returned with a thigh-bone, which in former times must have been part
and parcel of some individual at least as long as himself, and placed
the same in the hands of Mr Tappertit; who, receiving it as a sceptre
and staff of authority, cocked his three-cornered hat fiercely on the
top of his head, and mounted a large table, whereon a chair of state,
cheerfully ornamented with a couple of skulls, was placed ready for his
reception.

He had no sooner assumed this position, than another young gentleman
appeared, bearing in his arms a huge clasped book, who made him a
profound obeisance, and delivering it to the long comrade, advanced to
the table, and turning his back upon it, stood there Atlas-wise. Then,
the long comrade got upon the table too; and seating himself in a lower
chair than Mr Tappertit’s, with much state and ceremony, placed the
large book on the shoulders of their mute companion as deliberately as
if he had been a wooden desk, and prepared to make entries therein with
a pen of corresponding size.

When the long comrade had made these preparations, he looked towards Mr
Tappertit; and Mr Tappertit, flourishing the bone, knocked nine times
therewith upon one of the skulls. At the ninth stroke, a third young
gentleman emerged from the door leading to the skittle ground, and
bowing low, awaited his commands.

‘Prentice!’ said the mighty captain, ‘who waits without?’

The ‘prentice made answer that a stranger was in attendance, who claimed
admission into that secret society of ‘Prentice Knights, and a free
participation in their rights, privileges, and immunities. Thereupon
Mr Tappertit flourished the bone again, and giving the other skull a
prodigious rap on the nose, exclaimed ‘Admit him!’ At these dread words
the ‘prentice bowed once more, and so withdrew as he had come.

There soon appeared at the same door, two other ‘prentices, having
between them a third, whose eyes were bandaged, and who was attired in a
bag-wig, and a broad-skirted coat, trimmed with tarnished lace; and who
was girded with a sword, in compliance with the laws of the Institution
regulating the introduction of candidates, which required them to
assume this courtly dress, and kept it constantly in lavender, for
their convenience. One of the conductors of this novice held a rusty
blunderbuss pointed towards his ear, and the other a very ancient
sabre, with which he carved imaginary offenders as he came along in a
sanguinary and anatomical manner.

As this silent group advanced, Mr Tappertit fixed his hat upon his head.
The novice then laid his hand upon his breast and bent before him. When
he had humbled himself sufficiently, the captain ordered the bandage to
be removed, and proceeded to eye him over.

‘Ha!’ said the captain, thoughtfully, when he had concluded this ordeal.
‘Proceed.’

The long comrade read aloud as follows:--‘Mark Gilbert. Age, nineteen.
Bound to Thomas Curzon, hosier, Golden Fleece, Aldgate. Loves Curzon’s
daughter. Cannot say that Curzon’s daughter loves him. Should think it
probable. Curzon pulled his ears last Tuesday week.’

‘How!’ cried the captain, starting.

‘For looking at his daughter, please you,’ said the novice.

‘Write Curzon down, Denounced,’ said the captain. ‘Put a black cross
against the name of Curzon.’

‘So please you,’ said the novice, ‘that’s not the worst--he calls his
‘prentice idle dog, and stops his beer unless he works to his liking. He
gives Dutch cheese, too, eating Cheshire, sir, himself; and Sundays out,
are only once a month.’

‘This,’ said Mr Tappert gravely, ‘is a flagrant case. Put two black
crosses to the name of Curzon.’

‘If the society,’ said the novice, who was an ill-looking, one-sided,
shambling lad, with sunken eyes set close together in his head--‘if the
society would burn his house down--for he’s not insured--or beat him
as he comes home from his club at night, or help me to carry off his
daughter, and marry her at the Fleet, whether she gave consent or no--’

Mr Tappertit waved his grizzly truncheon as an admonition to him not to
interrupt, and ordered three black crosses to the name of Curzon.

‘Which means,’ he said in gracious explanation, ‘vengeance, complete and
terrible. ‘Prentice, do you love the Constitution?’

To which the novice (being to that end instructed by his attendant
sponsors) replied ‘I do!’

‘The Church, the State, and everything established--but the masters?’
quoth the captain.

Again the novice said ‘I do.’

Having said it, he listened meekly to the captain, who in an address
prepared for such occasions, told him how that under that same
Constitution (which was kept in a strong box somewhere, but where
exactly he could not find out, or he would have endeavoured to procure a
copy of it), the ‘prentices had, in times gone by, had frequent holidays
of right, broken people’s heads by scores, defied their masters, nay,
even achieved some glorious murders in the streets, which privileges
had gradually been wrested from them, and in all which noble aspirations
they were now restrained; how the degrading checks imposed upon them
were unquestionably attributable to the innovating spirit of the times,
and how they united therefore to resist all change, except such change
as would restore those good old English customs, by which they would
stand or fall. After illustrating the wisdom of going backward, by
reference to that sagacious fish, the crab, and the not unfrequent
practice of the mule and donkey, he described their general objects;
which were briefly vengeance on their Tyrant Masters (of whose grievous
and insupportable oppression no ‘prentice could entertain a moment’s
doubt) and the restoration, as aforesaid, of their ancient rights and
holidays; for neither of which objects were they now quite ripe, being
barely twenty strong, but which they pledged themselves to pursue with
fire and sword when needful. Then he described the oath which every
member of that small remnant of a noble body took, and which was of a
dreadful and impressive kind; binding him, at the bidding of his chief,
to resist and obstruct the Lord Mayor, sword-bearer, and chaplain; to
despise the authority of the sheriffs; and to hold the court of aldermen
as nought; but not on any account, in case the fulness of time should
bring a general rising of ‘prentices, to damage or in any way disfigure
Temple Bar, which was strictly constitutional and always to be
approached with reverence. Having gone over these several heads with
great eloquence and force, and having further informed the novice that
this society had its origin in his own teeming brain, stimulated by a
swelling sense of wrong and outrage, Mr Tappertit demanded whether he
had strength of heart to take the mighty pledge required, or whether he
would withdraw while retreat was yet in his power.

To this the novice made rejoinder, that he would take the vow, though
it should choke him; and it was accordingly administered with many
impressive circumstances, among which the lighting up of the two skulls
with a candle-end inside of each, and a great many flourishes with
the bone, were chiefly conspicuous; not to mention a variety of grave
exercises with the blunderbuss and sabre, and some dismal groaning by
unseen ‘prentices without. All these dark and direful ceremonies
being at length completed, the table was put aside, the chair of state
removed, the sceptre locked up in its usual cupboard, the doors of
communication between the three cellars thrown freely open, and the
‘Prentice Knights resigned themselves to merriment.

But Mr Tappertit, who had a soul above the vulgar herd, and who, on
account of his greatness, could only afford to be merry now and then,
threw himself on a bench with the air of a man who was faint with
dignity. He looked with an indifferent eye, alike on skittles, cards,
and dice, thinking only of the locksmith’s daughter, and the base
degenerate days on which he had fallen.

‘My noble captain neither games, nor sings, nor dances,’ said his host,
taking a seat beside him. ‘Drink, gallant general!’

Mr Tappertit drained the proffered goblet to the dregs; then thrust
his hands into his pockets, and with a lowering visage walked among the
skittles, while his followers (such is the influence of superior genius)
restrained the ardent ball, and held his little shins in dumb respect.

‘If I had been born a corsair or a pirate, a brigand, genteel highwayman
or patriot--and they’re the same thing,’ thought Mr Tappertit, musing
among the nine-pins, ‘I should have been all right. But to drag out a
ignoble existence unbeknown to mankind in general--patience! I will be
famous yet. A voice within me keeps on whispering Greatness. I shall
burst out one of these days, and when I do, what power can keep me down?
I feel my soul getting into my head at the idea. More drink there!’

‘The novice,’ pursued Mr Tappertit, not exactly in a voice of thunder,
for his tones, to say the truth were rather cracked and shrill--but very
impressively, notwithstanding--‘where is he?’

‘Here, noble captain!’ cried Stagg. ‘One stands beside me who I feel is
a stranger.’

‘Have you,’ said Mr Tappertit, letting his gaze fall on the party
indicated, who was indeed the new knight, by this time restored to his
own apparel; ‘Have you the impression of your street-door key in wax?’

The long comrade anticipated the reply, by producing it from the shelf
on which it had been deposited.

‘Good,’ said Mr Tappertit, scrutinising it attentively, while a
breathless silence reigned around; for he had constructed secret
door-keys for the whole society, and perhaps owed something of his
influence to that mean and trivial circumstance--on such slight
accidents do even men of mind depend!--‘This is easily made. Come
hither, friend.’

With that, he beckoned the new knight apart, and putting the pattern in
his pocket, motioned to him to walk by his side.

‘And so,’ he said, when they had taken a few turns up and down, you--you
love your master’s daughter?’

‘I do,’ said the ‘prentice. ‘Honour bright. No chaff, you know.’

‘Have you,’ rejoined Mr Tappertit, catching him by the wrist, and
giving him a look which would have been expressive of the most deadly
malevolence, but for an accidental hiccup that rather interfered with
it; ‘have you a--a rival?’

‘Not as I know on,’ replied the ‘prentice.

‘If you had now--’ said Mr Tappertit--‘what would you--eh?--’

The ‘prentice looked fierce and clenched his fists.

‘It is enough,’ cried Mr Tappertit hastily, ‘we understand each other.
We are observed. I thank you.’

So saying, he cast him off again; and calling the long comrade aside
after taking a few hasty turns by himself, bade him immediately write
and post against the wall, a notice, proscribing one Joseph Willet
(commonly known as Joe) of Chigwell; forbidding all ‘Prentice Knights
to succour, comfort, or hold communion with him; and requiring them,
on pain of excommunication, to molest, hurt, wrong, annoy, and pick
quarrels with the said Joseph, whensoever and wheresoever they, or any
of them, should happen to encounter him.

Having relieved his mind by this energetic proceeding, he condescended
to approach the festive board, and warming by degrees, at length deigned
to preside, and even to enchant the company with a song. After this,
he rose to such a pitch as to consent to regale the society with a
hornpipe, which he actually performed to the music of a fiddle (played
by an ingenious member) with such surpassing agility and brilliancy of
execution, that the spectators could not be sufficiently enthusiastic in
their admiration; and their host protested, with tears in his eyes, that
he had never truly felt his blindness until that moment.

But the host withdrawing--probably to weep in secret--soon returned with
the information that it wanted little more than an hour of day, and that
all the cocks in Barbican had already begun to crow, as if their lives
depended on it. At this intelligence, the ‘Prentice Knights arose in
haste, and marshalling into a line, filed off one by one and dispersed
with all speed to their several homes, leaving their leader to pass the
grating last.

‘Good night, noble captain,’ whispered the blind man as he held it open
for his passage out; ‘Farewell, brave general. Bye, bye, illustrious
commander. Good luck go with you for a--conceited, bragging,
empty-headed, duck-legged idiot.’

With which parting words, coolly added as he listened to his receding
footsteps and locked the grate upon himself, he descended the steps,
and lighting the fire below the little copper, prepared, without
any assistance, for his daily occupation; which was to retail at the
area-head above pennyworths of broth and soup, and savoury puddings,
compounded of such scraps as were to be bought in the heap for the least
money at Fleet Market in the evening time; and for the sale of which
he had need to have depended chiefly on his private connection, for the
court had no thoroughfare, and was not that kind of place in which
many people were likely to take the air, or to frequent as an agreeable
promenade.



Chapter 9


Chronicler’s are privileged to enter where they list, to come and go
through keyholes, to ride upon the wind, to overcome, in their soarings
up and down, all obstacles of distance, time, and place. Thrice blessed
be this last consideration, since it enables us to follow the disdainful
Miggs even into the sanctity of her chamber, and to hold her in sweet
companionship through the dreary watches of the night!

Miss Miggs, having undone her mistress, as she phrased it (which means,
assisted to undress her), and having seen her comfortably to bed in
the back room on the first floor, withdrew to her own apartment, in
the attic story. Notwithstanding her declaration in the locksmith’s
presence, she was in no mood for sleep; so, putting her light upon the
table and withdrawing the little window curtain, she gazed out pensively
at the wild night sky.

Perhaps she wondered what star was destined for her habitation when
she had run her little course below; perhaps speculated which of those
glimmering spheres might be the natal orb of Mr Tappertit; perhaps
marvelled how they could gaze down on that perfidious creature, man, and
not sicken and turn green as chemists’ lamps; perhaps thought of nothing
in particular. Whatever she thought about, there she sat, until her
attention, alive to anything connected with the insinuating ‘prentice,
was attracted by a noise in the next room to her own--his room; the room
in which he slept, and dreamed--it might be, sometimes dreamed of her.

That he was not dreaming now, unless he was taking a walk in his sleep,
was clear, for every now and then there came a shuffling noise, as
though he were engaged in polishing the whitewashed wall; then a gentle
creaking of his door; then the faintest indication of his stealthy
footsteps on the landing-place outside. Noting this latter circumstance,
Miss Miggs turned pale and shuddered, as mistrusting his intentions; and
more than once exclaimed, below her breath, ‘Oh! what a Providence it
is, as I am bolted in!’--which, owing doubtless to her alarm, was a
confusion of ideas on her part between a bolt and its use; for though
there was one on the door, it was not fastened.

Miss Miggs’s sense of hearing, however, having as sharp an edge as her
temper, and being of the same snappish and suspicious kind, very soon
informed her that the footsteps passed her door, and appeared to have
some object quite separate and disconnected from herself. At this
discovery she became more alarmed than ever, and was about to give
utterance to those cries of ‘Thieves!’ and ‘Murder!’ which she had
hitherto restrained, when it occurred to her to look softly out, and see
that her fears had some good palpable foundation.

Looking out accordingly, and stretching her neck over the handrail,
she descried, to her great amazement, Mr Tappertit completely dressed,
stealing downstairs, one step at a time, with his shoes in one hand
and a lamp in the other. Following him with her eyes, and going down a
little way herself to get the better of an intervening angle, she beheld
him thrust his head in at the parlour-door, draw it back again with
great swiftness, and immediately begin a retreat upstairs with all
possible expedition.

‘Here’s mysteries!’ said the damsel, when she was safe in her own room
again, quite out of breath. ‘Oh, gracious, here’s mysteries!’

The prospect of finding anybody out in anything, would have kept Miss
Miggs awake under the influence of henbane. Presently, she heard the
step again, as she would have done if it had been that of a feather
endowed with motion and walking down on tiptoe. Then gliding out as
before, she again beheld the retreating figure of the ‘prentice; again
he looked cautiously in at the parlour-door, but this time instead of
retreating, he passed in and disappeared.

Miggs was back in her room, and had her head out of the window, before
an elderly gentleman could have winked and recovered from it. Out he
came at the street-door, shut it carefully behind him, tried it with
his knee, and swaggered off, putting something in his pocket as he
went along. At this spectacle Miggs cried ‘Gracious!’ again, and then
‘Goodness gracious!’ and then ‘Goodness gracious me!’ and then, candle
in hand, went downstairs as he had done. Coming to the workshop, she saw
the lamp burning on the forge, and everything as Sim had left it.

‘Why I wish I may only have a walking funeral, and never be buried
decent with a mourning-coach and feathers, if the boy hasn’t been and
made a key for his own self!’ cried Miggs. ‘Oh the little villain!’

This conclusion was not arrived at without consideration, and much
peeping and peering about; nor was it unassisted by the recollection
that she had on several occasions come upon the ‘prentice suddenly,
and found him busy at some mysterious occupation. Lest the fact of Miss
Miggs calling him, on whom she stooped to cast a favourable eye, a
boy, should create surprise in any breast, it may be observed that she
invariably affected to regard all male bipeds under thirty as mere chits
and infants; which phenomenon is not unusual in ladies of Miss Miggs’s
temper, and is indeed generally found to be the associate of such
indomitable and savage virtue.

Miss Miggs deliberated within herself for some little time, looking hard
at the shop-door while she did so, as though her eyes and thoughts were
both upon it; and then, taking a sheet of paper from a drawer, twisted
it into a long thin spiral tube. Having filled this instrument with a
quantity of small coal-dust from the forge, she approached the door,
and dropping on one knee before it, dexterously blew into the keyhole as
much of these fine ashes as the lock would hold. When she had filled it
to the brim in a very workmanlike and skilful manner, she crept upstairs
again, and chuckled as she went.

‘There!’ cried Miggs, rubbing her hands, ‘now let’s see whether you
won’t be glad to take some notice of me, mister. He, he, he! You’ll have
eyes for somebody besides Miss Dolly now, I think. A fat-faced puss she
is, as ever I come across!’

As she uttered this criticism, she glanced approvingly at her small
mirror, as who should say, I thank my stars that can’t be said of
me!--as it certainly could not; for Miss Miggs’s style of beauty was of
that kind which Mr Tappertit himself had not inaptly termed, in private,
‘scraggy.’

‘I don’t go to bed this night!’ said Miggs, wrapping herself in a shawl,
and drawing a couple of chairs near the window, flouncing down upon
one, and putting her feet upon the other, ‘till you come home, my lad. I
wouldn’t,’ said Miggs viciously, ‘no, not for five-and-forty pound!’

With that, and with an expression of face in which a great number of
opposite ingredients, such as mischief, cunning, malice, triumph,
and patient expectation, were all mixed up together in a kind of
physiognomical punch, Miss Miggs composed herself to wait and listen,
like some fair ogress who had set a trap and was watching for a nibble
from a plump young traveller.

She sat there, with perfect composure, all night. At length, just upon
break of day, there was a footstep in the street, and presently she
could hear Mr Tappertit stop at the door. Then she could make out that
he tried his key--that he was blowing into it--that he knocked it on the
nearest post to beat the dust out--that he took it under a lamp to look
at it--that he poked bits of stick into the lock to clear it--that
he peeped into the keyhole, first with one eye, and then with the
other--that he tried the key again--that he couldn’t turn it, and what
was worse, couldn’t get it out--that he bent it--that then it was much
less disposed to come out than before--that he gave it a mighty twist
and a great pull, and then it came out so suddenly that he staggered
backwards--that he kicked the door--that he shook it--finally, that he
smote his forehead, and sat down on the step in despair.

When this crisis had arrived, Miss Miggs, affecting to be exhausted
with terror, and to cling to the window-sill for support, put out her
nightcap, and demanded in a faint voice who was there.

Mr Tappertit cried ‘Hush!’ and, backing to the road, exhorted her in
frenzied pantomime to secrecy and silence.

‘Tell me one thing,’ said Miggs. ‘Is it thieves?’

‘No--no--no!’ cried Mr Tappertit.

‘Then,’ said Miggs, more faintly than before, ‘it’s fire. Where is it,
sir? It’s near this room, I know. I’ve a good conscience, sir, and would
much rather die than go down a ladder. All I wish is, respecting my love
to my married sister, Golden Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, second
bell-handle on the right-hand door-post.’

‘Miggs!’ cried Mr Tappertit, ‘don’t you know me? Sim, you know--Sim--’

‘Oh! what about him!’ cried Miggs, clasping her hands. ‘Is he in any
danger? Is he in the midst of flames and blazes! Oh gracious, gracious!’

‘Why I’m here, an’t I?’ rejoined Mr Tappertit, knocking himself on the
breast. ‘Don’t you see me? What a fool you are, Miggs!’

‘There!’ cried Miggs, unmindful of this compliment. ‘Why--so
it--Goodness, what is the meaning of--If you please, mim, here’s--’

‘No, no!’ cried Mr Tappertit, standing on tiptoe, as if by that means
he, in the street, were any nearer being able to stop the mouth of Miggs
in the garret. ‘Don’t!--I’ve been out without leave, and something or
another’s the matter with the lock. Come down, and undo the shop window,
that I may get in that way.’

‘I dursn’t do it, Simmun,’ cried Miggs--for that was her pronunciation
of his Christian name. ‘I dursn’t do it, indeed. You know as well as
anybody, how particular I am. And to come down in the dead of night,
when the house is wrapped in slumbers and weiled in obscurity.’ And
there she stopped and shivered, for her modesty caught cold at the very
thought.

‘But Miggs,’ cried Mr Tappertit, getting under the lamp, that she might
see his eyes. ‘My darling Miggs--’

Miggs screamed slightly.

‘--That I love so much, and never can help thinking of,’ and it
is impossible to describe the use he made of his eyes when he said
this--‘do--for my sake, do.’

‘Oh Simmun,’ cried Miggs, ‘this is worse than all. I know if I come
down, you’ll go, and--’

‘And what, my precious?’ said Mr Tappertit.

‘And try,’ said Miggs, hysterically, ‘to kiss me, or some such
dreadfulness; I know you will!’

‘I swear I won’t,’ said Mr Tappertit, with remarkable earnestness. ‘Upon
my soul I won’t. It’s getting broad day, and the watchman’s waking
up. Angelic Miggs! If you’ll only come and let me in, I promise you
faithfully and truly I won’t.’

Miss Miggs, whose gentle heart was touched, did not wait for the oath
(knowing how strong the temptation was, and fearing he might forswear
himself), but tripped lightly down the stairs, and with her own fair
hands drew back the rough fastenings of the workshop window. Having
helped the wayward ‘prentice in, she faintly articulated the words
‘Simmun is safe!’ and yielding to her woman’s nature, immediately became
insensible.

‘I knew I should quench her,’ said Sim, rather embarrassed by this
circumstance. ‘Of course I was certain it would come to this, but there
was nothing else to be done--if I hadn’t eyed her over, she wouldn’t
have come down. Here. Keep up a minute, Miggs. What a slippery figure
she is! There’s no holding her, comfortably. Do keep up a minute, Miggs,
will you?’

As Miggs, however, was deaf to all entreaties, Mr Tappertit leant her
against the wall as one might dispose of a walking-stick or umbrella,
until he had secured the window, when he took her in his arms again,
and, in short stages and with great difficulty--arising from her being
tall and his being short, and perhaps in some degree from that peculiar
physical conformation on which he had already remarked--carried her
upstairs, and planting her, in the same umbrella and walking-stick
fashion, just inside her own door, left her to her repose.

‘He may be as cool as he likes,’ said Miss Miggs, recovering as soon
as she was left alone; ‘but I’m in his confidence and he can’t help
himself, nor couldn’t if he was twenty Simmunses!’



Chapter 10


It was on one of those mornings, common in early spring, when the year,
fickle and changeable in its youth like all other created things, is
undecided whether to step backward into winter or forward into summer,
and in its uncertainty inclines now to the one and now to the other, and
now to both at once--wooing summer in the sunshine, and lingering still
with winter in the shade--it was, in short, on one of those mornings,
when it is hot and cold, wet and dry, bright and lowering, sad and
cheerful, withering and genial, in the compass of one short hour, that
old John Willet, who was dropping asleep over the copper boiler, was
roused by the sound of a horse’s feet, and glancing out at window,
beheld a traveller of goodly promise, checking his bridle at the Maypole
door.

He was none of your flippant young fellows, who would call for a tankard
of mulled ale, and make themselves as much at home as if they had
ordered a hogshead of wine; none of your audacious young swaggerers, who
would even penetrate into the bar--that solemn sanctuary--and, smiting
old John upon the back, inquire if there was never a pretty girl in the
house, and where he hid his little chambermaids, with a hundred other
impertinences of that nature; none of your free-and-easy companions, who
would scrape their boots upon the firedogs in the common room, and
be not at all particular on the subject of spittoons; none of your
unconscionable blades, requiring impossible chops, and taking unheard-of
pickles for granted. He was a staid, grave, placid gentleman, something
past the prime of life, yet upright in his carriage, for all that, and
slim as a greyhound. He was well-mounted upon a sturdy chestnut cob, and
had the graceful seat of an experienced horseman; while his riding gear,
though free from such fopperies as were then in vogue, was handsome and
well chosen. He wore a riding-coat of a somewhat brighter green than
might have been expected to suit the taste of a gentleman of his years,
with a short, black velvet cape, and laced pocket-holes and cuffs, all
of a jaunty fashion; his linen, too, was of the finest kind, worked in a
rich pattern at the wrists and throat, and scrupulously white. Although
he seemed, judging from the mud he had picked up on the way, to have
come from London, his horse was as smooth and cool as his own iron-grey
periwig and pigtail. Neither man nor beast had turned a single hair; and
saving for his soiled skirts and spatter-dashes, this gentleman, with
his blooming face, white teeth, exactly-ordered dress, and perfect
calmness, might have come from making an elaborate and leisurely toilet,
to sit for an equestrian portrait at old John Willet’s gate.

It must not be supposed that John observed these several characteristics
by other than very slow degrees, or that he took in more than half a one
at a time, or that he even made up his mind upon that, without a great
deal of very serious consideration. Indeed, if he had been distracted in
the first instance by questionings and orders, it would have taken him
at the least a fortnight to have noted what is here set down; but it
happened that the gentleman, being struck with the old house, or with
the plump pigeons which were skimming and curtseying about it, or with
the tall maypole, on the top of which a weathercock, which had been out
of order for fifteen years, performed a perpetual walk to the music of
its own creaking, sat for some little time looking round in silence.
Hence John, standing with his hand upon the horse’s bridle, and
his great eyes on the rider, and with nothing passing to divert his
thoughts, had really got some of these little circumstances into his
brain by the time he was called upon to speak.

‘A quaint place this,’ said the gentleman--and his voice was as rich as
his dress. ‘Are you the landlord?’

‘At your service, sir,’ replied John Willet.

‘You can give my horse good stabling, can you, and me an early dinner (I
am not particular what, so that it be cleanly served), and a decent
room of which there seems to be no lack in this great mansion,’ said the
stranger, again running his eyes over the exterior.

‘You can have, sir,’ returned John with a readiness quite surprising,
‘anything you please.’

‘It’s well I am easily satisfied,’ returned the other with a smile,
‘or that might prove a hardy pledge, my friend.’ And saying so, he
dismounted, with the aid of the block before the door, in a twinkling.

‘Halloa there! Hugh!’ roared John. ‘I ask your pardon, sir, for keeping
you standing in the porch; but my son has gone to town on business, and
the boy being, as I may say, of a kind of use to me, I’m rather put
out when he’s away. Hugh!--a dreadful idle vagrant fellow, sir, half
a gipsy, as I think--always sleeping in the sun in summer, and in
the straw in winter time, sir--Hugh! Dear Lord, to keep a gentleman
a waiting here through him!--Hugh! I wish that chap was dead, I do
indeed.’

‘Possibly he is,’ returned the other. ‘I should think if he were living,
he would have heard you by this time.’

‘In his fits of laziness, he sleeps so desperate hard,’ said the
distracted host, ‘that if you were to fire off cannon-balls into his
ears, it wouldn’t wake him, sir.’

The guest made no remark upon this novel cure for drowsiness, and recipe
for making people lively, but, with his hands clasped behind him, stood
in the porch, very much amused to see old John, with the bridle in his
hand, wavering between a strong impulse to abandon the animal to his
fate, and a half disposition to lead him into the house, and shut him up
in the parlour, while he waited on his master.

‘Pillory the fellow, here he is at last!’ cried John, in the very height
and zenith of his distress. ‘Did you hear me a calling, villain?’

The figure he addressed made no answer, but putting his hand upon the
saddle, sprung into it at a bound, turned the horse’s head towards the
stable, and was gone in an instant.

‘Brisk enough when he is awake,’ said the guest.

‘Brisk enough, sir!’ replied John, looking at the place where the horse
had been, as if not yet understanding quite, what had become of him. ‘He
melts, I think. He goes like a drop of froth. You look at him, and there
he is. You look at him again, and--there he isn’t.’

Having, in the absence of any more words, put this sudden climax to what
he had faintly intended should be a long explanation of the whole life
and character of his man, the oracular John Willet led the gentleman up
his wide dismantled staircase into the Maypole’s best apartment.

It was spacious enough in all conscience, occupying the whole depth of
the house, and having at either end a great bay window, as large as many
modern rooms; in which some few panes of stained glass, emblazoned
with fragments of armorial bearings, though cracked, and patched, and
shattered, yet remained; attesting, by their presence, that the former
owner had made the very light subservient to his state, and pressed the
sun itself into his list of flatterers; bidding it, when it shone into
his chamber, reflect the badges of his ancient family, and take new hues
and colours from their pride.

But those were old days, and now every little ray came and went as it
would; telling the plain, bare, searching truth. Although the best room
of the inn, it had the melancholy aspect of grandeur in decay, and was
much too vast for comfort. Rich rustling hangings, waving on the walls;
and, better far, the rustling of youth and beauty’s dress; the light of
women’s eyes, outshining the tapers and their own rich jewels; the sound
of gentle tongues, and music, and the tread of maiden feet, had once
been there, and filled it with delight. But they were gone, and with
them all its gladness. It was no longer a home; children were never born
and bred there; the fireside had become mercenary--a something to be
bought and sold--a very courtezan: let who would die, or sit beside, or
leave it, it was still the same--it missed nobody, cared for nobody,
had equal warmth and smiles for all. God help the man whose heart ever
changes with the world, as an old mansion when it becomes an inn!

No effort had been made to furnish this chilly waste, but before the
broad chimney a colony of chairs and tables had been planted on a square
of carpet, flanked by a ghostly screen, enriched with figures, grinning
and grotesque. After lighting with his own hands the faggots which were
heaped upon the hearth, old John withdrew to hold grave council with his
cook, touching the stranger’s entertainment; while the guest himself,
seeing small comfort in the yet unkindled wood, opened a lattice in the
distant window, and basked in a sickly gleam of cold March sun.

Leaving the window now and then, to rake the crackling logs together,
or pace the echoing room from end to end, he closed it when the fire was
quite burnt up, and having wheeled the easiest chair into the warmest
corner, summoned John Willet.

‘Sir,’ said John.

He wanted pen, ink, and paper. There was an old standish on the
mantelshelf containing a dusty apology for all three. Having set this
before him, the landlord was retiring, when he motioned him to stay.

‘There’s a house not far from here,’ said the guest when he had written
a few lines, ‘which you call the Warren, I believe?’

As this was said in the tone of one who knew the fact, and asked the
question as a thing of course, John contented himself with nodding his
head in the affirmative; at the same time taking one hand out of his
pockets to cough behind, and then putting it in again.

‘I want this note’--said the guest, glancing on what he had written, and
folding it, ‘conveyed there without loss of time, and an answer brought
back here. Have you a messenger at hand?’

John was thoughtful for a minute or thereabouts, and then said Yes.

‘Let me see him,’ said the guest.

This was disconcerting; for Joe being out, and Hugh engaged in rubbing
down the chestnut cob, he designed sending on the errand, Barnaby, who
had just then arrived in one of his rambles, and who, so that he thought
himself employed on a grave and serious business, would go anywhere.

‘Why the truth is,’ said John after a long pause, ‘that the person who’d
go quickest, is a sort of natural, as one may say, sir; and though quick
of foot, and as much to be trusted as the post itself, he’s not good at
talking, being touched and flighty, sir.’

‘You don’t,’ said the guest, raising his eyes to John’s fat face, ‘you
don’t mean--what’s the fellow’s name--you don’t mean Barnaby?’

‘Yes, I do,’ returned the landlord, his features turning quite
expressive with surprise.

‘How comes he to be here?’ inquired the guest, leaning back in his
chair; speaking in the bland, even tone, from which he never varied; and
with the same soft, courteous, never-changing smile upon his face. ‘I
saw him in London last night.’

‘He’s, for ever, here one hour, and there the next,’ returned old John,
after the usual pause to get the question in his mind. ‘Sometimes he
walks, and sometimes runs. He’s known along the road by everybody, and
sometimes comes here in a cart or chaise, and sometimes riding double.
He comes and goes, through wind, rain, snow, and hail, and on the
darkest nights. Nothing hurts HIM.’

‘He goes often to the Warren, does he not?’ said the guest carelessly.
‘I seem to remember his mother telling me something to that effect
yesterday. But I was not attending to the good woman much.’

‘You’re right, sir,’ John made answer, ‘he does. His father, sir, was
murdered in that house.’

‘So I have heard,’ returned the guest, taking a gold toothpick from his
pocket with the same sweet smile. ‘A very disagreeable circumstance for
the family.’

‘Very,’ said John with a puzzled look, as if it occurred to him, dimly
and afar off, that this might by possibility be a cool way of treating
the subject.

‘All the circumstances after a murder,’ said the guest soliloquising,
‘must be dreadfully unpleasant--so much bustle and disturbance--no
repose--a constant dwelling upon one subject--and the running in and
out, and up and down stairs, intolerable. I wouldn’t have such a thing
happen to anybody I was nearly interested in, on any account. ‘Twould
be enough to wear one’s life out.--You were going to say, friend--’ he
added, turning to John again.

‘Only that Mrs Rudge lives on a little pension from the family, and that
Barnaby’s as free of the house as any cat or dog about it,’ answered
John. ‘Shall he do your errand, sir?’

‘Oh yes,’ replied the guest. ‘Oh certainly. Let him do it by all means.
Please to bring him here that I may charge him to be quick. If he
objects to come you may tell him it’s Mr Chester. He will remember my
name, I dare say.’

John was so very much astonished to find who his visitor was, that he
could express no astonishment at all, by looks or otherwise, but left
the room as if he were in the most placid and imperturbable of all
possible conditions. It has been reported that when he got downstairs,
he looked steadily at the boiler for ten minutes by the clock, and all
that time never once left off shaking his head; for which statement
there would seem to be some ground of truth and feasibility, inasmuch
as that interval of time did certainly elapse, before he returned with
Barnaby to the guest’s apartment.

‘Come hither, lad,’ said Mr Chester. ‘You know Mr Geoffrey Haredale?’

Barnaby laughed, and looked at the landlord as though he would say,
‘You hear him?’ John, who was greatly shocked at this breach of decorum,
clapped his finger to his nose, and shook his head in mute remonstrance.

‘He knows him, sir,’ said John, frowning aside at Barnaby, ‘as well as
you or I do.’

‘I haven’t the pleasure of much acquaintance with the gentleman,’
returned his guest. ‘YOU may have. Limit the comparison to yourself, my
friend.’

Although this was said with the same easy affability, and the same
smile, John felt himself put down, and laying the indignity at Barnaby’s
door, determined to kick his raven, on the very first opportunity.

‘Give that,’ said the guest, who had by this time sealed the note, and
who beckoned his messenger towards him as he spoke, ‘into Mr Haredale’s
own hands. Wait for an answer, and bring it back to me here. If you
should find that Mr Haredale is engaged just now, tell him--can he
remember a message, landlord?’

‘When he chooses, sir,’ replied John. ‘He won’t forget this one.’

‘How are you sure of that?’

John merely pointed to him as he stood with his head bent forward, and
his earnest gaze fixed closely on his questioner’s face; and nodded
sagely.

‘Tell him then, Barnaby, should he be engaged,’ said Mr Chester, ‘that
I shall be glad to wait his convenience here, and to see him (if he will
call) at any time this evening.--At the worst I can have a bed here,
Willet, I suppose?’

Old John, immensely flattered by the personal notoriety implied in this
familiar form of address, answered, with something like a knowing look,
‘I should believe you could, sir,’ and was turning over in his mind
various forms of eulogium, with the view of selecting one appropriate to
the qualities of his best bed, when his ideas were put to flight by Mr
Chester giving Barnaby the letter, and bidding him make all speed away.

‘Speed!’ said Barnaby, folding the little packet in his breast, ‘Speed!
If you want to see hurry and mystery, come here. Here!’

With that, he put his hand, very much to John Willet’s horror, on the
guest’s fine broadcloth sleeve, and led him stealthily to the back
window.

‘Look down there,’ he said softly; ‘do you mark how they whisper in each
other’s ears; then dance and leap, to make believe they are in sport?
Do you see how they stop for a moment, when they think there is no one
looking, and mutter among themselves again; and then how they roll and
gambol, delighted with the mischief they’ve been plotting? Look at
‘em now. See how they whirl and plunge. And now they stop again, and
whisper, cautiously together--little thinking, mind, how often I have
lain upon the grass and watched them. I say what is it that they plot
and hatch? Do you know?’

‘They are only clothes,’ returned the guest, ‘such as we wear; hanging
on those lines to dry, and fluttering in the wind.’

‘Clothes!’ echoed Barnaby, looking close into his face, and falling
quickly back. ‘Ha ha! Why, how much better to be silly, than as wise
as you! You don’t see shadowy people there, like those that live in
sleep--not you. Nor eyes in the knotted panes of glass, nor swift ghosts
when it blows hard, nor do you hear voices in the air, nor see men
stalking in the sky--not you! I lead a merrier life than you, with all
your cleverness. You’re the dull men. We’re the bright ones. Ha! ha!
I’ll not change with you, clever as you are,--not I!’

With that, he waved his hat above his head, and darted off.

‘A strange creature, upon my word!’ said the guest, pulling out a
handsome box, and taking a pinch of snuff.

‘He wants imagination,’ said Mr Willet, very slowly, and after a long
silence; ‘that’s what he wants. I’ve tried to instil it into him, many
and many’s the time; but’--John added this in confidence--‘he an’t made
for it; that’s the fact.’

To record that Mr Chester smiled at John’s remark would be little to the
purpose, for he preserved the same conciliatory and pleasant look at all
times. He drew his chair nearer to the fire though, as a kind of hint
that he would prefer to be alone, and John, having no reasonable excuse
for remaining, left him to himself.

Very thoughtful old John Willet was, while the dinner was preparing; and
if his brain were ever less clear at one time than another, it is but
reasonable to suppose that he addled it in no slight degree by shaking
his head so much that day. That Mr Chester, between whom and Mr
Haredale, it was notorious to all the neighbourhood, a deep and bitter
animosity existed, should come down there for the sole purpose, as it
seemed, of seeing him, and should choose the Maypole for their place
of meeting, and should send to him express, were stumbling blocks John
could not overcome. The only resource he had, was to consult the boiler,
and wait impatiently for Barnaby’s return.

But Barnaby delayed beyond all precedent. The visitor’s dinner was
served, removed, his wine was set, the fire replenished, the hearth
clean swept; the light waned without, it grew dusk, became quite dark,
and still no Barnaby appeared. Yet, though John Willet was full of
wonder and misgiving, his guest sat cross-legged in the easy-chair, to
all appearance as little ruffled in his thoughts as in his dress--the
same calm, easy, cool gentleman, without a care or thought beyond his
golden toothpick.

‘Barnaby’s late,’ John ventured to observe, as he placed a pair of
tarnished candlesticks, some three feet high, upon the table, and
snuffed the lights they held.

‘He is rather so,’ replied the guest, sipping his wine. ‘He will not be
much longer, I dare say.’

John coughed and raked the fire together.

‘As your roads bear no very good character, if I may judge from my son’s
mishap, though,’ said Mr Chester, ‘and as I have no fancy to be knocked
on the head--which is not only disconcerting at the moment, but places
one, besides, in a ridiculous position with respect to the people who
chance to pick one up--I shall stop here to-night. I think you said you
had a bed to spare.’

‘Such a bed, sir,’ returned John Willet; ‘ay, such a bed as few, even
of the gentry’s houses, own. A fixter here, sir. I’ve heard say that
bedstead is nigh two hundred years of age. Your noble son--a fine young
gentleman--slept in it last, sir, half a year ago.’

‘Upon my life, a recommendation!’ said the guest, shrugging his
shoulders and wheeling his chair nearer to the fire. ‘See that it be
well aired, Mr Willet, and let a blazing fire be lighted there at once.
This house is something damp and chilly.’

John raked the faggots up again, more from habit than presence of mind,
or any reference to this remark, and was about to withdraw, when a
bounding step was heard upon the stair, and Barnaby came panting in.

‘He’ll have his foot in the stirrup in an hour’s time,’ he cried,
advancing. ‘He has been riding hard all day--has just come home--but
will be in the saddle again as soon as he has eat and drank, to meet his
loving friend.’

‘Was that his message?’ asked the visitor, looking up, but without the
smallest discomposure--or at least without the show of any.

‘All but the last words,’ Barnaby rejoined. ‘He meant those. I saw that,
in his face.’

‘This for your pains,’ said the other, putting money in his hand, and
glancing at him steadfastly.’This for your pains, sharp Barnaby.’

‘For Grip, and me, and Hugh, to share among us,’ he rejoined, putting
it up, and nodding, as he counted it on his fingers. ‘Grip one, me two,
Hugh three; the dog, the goat, the cats--well, we shall spend it pretty
soon, I warn you. Stay.--Look. Do you wise men see nothing there, now?’

He bent eagerly down on one knee, and gazed intently at the smoke, which
was rolling up the chimney in a thick black cloud. John Willet, who
appeared to consider himself particularly and chiefly referred to under
the term wise men, looked that way likewise, and with great solidity of
feature.

‘Now, where do they go to, when they spring so fast up there,’ asked
Barnaby; ‘eh? Why do they tread so closely on each other’s heels, and
why are they always in a hurry--which is what you blame me for, when I
only take pattern by these busy folk about me? More of ‘em! catching to
each other’s skirts; and as fast as they go, others come! What a merry
dance it is! I would that Grip and I could frisk like that!’

‘What has he in that basket at his back?’ asked the guest after a few
moments, during which Barnaby was still bending down to look higher up
the chimney, and earnestly watching the smoke.

‘In this?’ he answered, jumping up, before John Willet could
reply--shaking it as he spoke, and stooping his head to listen. ‘In
this! What is there here? Tell him!’

‘A devil, a devil, a devil!’ cried a hoarse voice.

‘Here’s money!’ said Barnaby, chinking it in his hand, ‘money for a
treat, Grip!’

‘Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!’ replied the raven, ‘keep up your spirits.
Never say die. Bow, wow, wow!’

Mr Willet, who appeared to entertain strong doubts whether a customer in
a laced coat and fine linen could be supposed to have any acquaintance
even with the existence of such unpolite gentry as the bird claimed
to belong to, took Barnaby off at this juncture, with the view of
preventing any other improper declarations, and quitted the room with
his very best bow.



Chapter 11


There was great news that night for the regular Maypole customers, to
each of whom, as he straggled in to occupy his allotted seat in the
chimney-corner, John, with a most impressive slowness of delivery, and
in an apoplectic whisper, communicated the fact that Mr Chester was
alone in the large room upstairs, and was waiting the arrival of
Mr Geoffrey Haredale, to whom he had sent a letter (doubtless of a
threatening nature) by the hands of Barnaby, then and there present.

For a little knot of smokers and solemn gossips, who had seldom any
new topics of discussion, this was a perfect Godsend. Here was a good,
dark-looking mystery progressing under that very roof--brought home to
the fireside, as it were, and enjoyable without the smallest pains
or trouble. It is extraordinary what a zest and relish it gave to the
drink, and how it heightened the flavour of the tobacco. Every man
smoked his pipe with a face of grave and serious delight, and looked at
his neighbour with a sort of quiet congratulation. Nay, it was felt
to be such a holiday and special night, that, on the motion of little
Solomon Daisy, every man (including John himself) put down his sixpence
for a can of flip, which grateful beverage was brewed with all despatch,
and set down in the midst of them on the brick floor; both that it might
simmer and stew before the fire, and that its fragrant steam, rising
up among them, and mixing with the wreaths of vapour from their pipes,
might shroud them in a delicious atmosphere of their own, and shut
out all the world. The very furniture of the room seemed to mellow and
deepen in its tone; the ceiling and walls looked blacker and more highly
polished, the curtains of a ruddier red; the fire burnt clear and high,
and the crickets in the hearthstone chirped with a more than wonted
satisfaction.

There were present two, however, who showed but little interest in the
general contentment. Of these, one was Barnaby himself, who slept,
or, to avoid being beset with questions, feigned to sleep, in the
chimney-corner; the other, Hugh, who, sleeping too, lay stretched upon
the bench on the opposite side, in the full glare of the blazing fire.

The light that fell upon this slumbering form, showed it in all its
muscular and handsome proportions. It was that of a young man, of a hale
athletic figure, and a giant’s strength, whose sunburnt face and swarthy
throat, overgrown with jet black hair, might have served a painter for
a model. Loosely attired, in the coarsest and roughest garb, with scraps
of straw and hay--his usual bed--clinging here and there, and mingling
with his uncombed locks, he had fallen asleep in a posture as careless
as his dress. The negligence and disorder of the whole man, with
something fierce and sullen in his features, gave him a picturesque
appearance, that attracted the regards even of the Maypole customers who
knew him well, and caused Long Parkes to say that Hugh looked more like
a poaching rascal to-night than ever he had seen him yet.

‘He’s waiting here, I suppose,’ said Solomon, ‘to take Mr Haredale’s
horse.’

‘That’s it, sir,’ replied John Willet. ‘He’s not often in the house, you
know. He’s more at his ease among horses than men. I look upon him as a
animal himself.’

Following up this opinion with a shrug that seemed meant to say, ‘we
can’t expect everybody to be like us,’ John put his pipe into his mouth
again, and smoked like one who felt his superiority over the general run
of mankind.

‘That chap, sir,’ said John, taking it out again after a time, and
pointing at him with the stem, ‘though he’s got all his faculties
about him--bottled up and corked down, if I may say so, somewheres or
another--’

‘Very good!’ said Parkes, nodding his head. ‘A very good expression,
Johnny. You’ll be a tackling somebody presently. You’re in twig
to-night, I see.’

‘Take care,’ said Mr Willet, not at all grateful for the compliment,
‘that I don’t tackle you, sir, which I shall certainly endeavour to do,
if you interrupt me when I’m making observations.--That chap, I was
a saying, though he has all his faculties about him, somewheres or
another, bottled up and corked down, has no more imagination than
Barnaby has. And why hasn’t he?’

The three friends shook their heads at each other; saying by that
action, without the trouble of opening their lips, ‘Do you observe what
a philosophical mind our friend has?’

‘Why hasn’t he?’ said John, gently striking the table with his open
hand. ‘Because they was never drawed out of him when he was a boy.
That’s why. What would any of us have been, if our fathers hadn’t drawed
our faculties out of us? What would my boy Joe have been, if I hadn’t
drawed his faculties out of him?--Do you mind what I’m a saying of,
gentlemen?’

‘Ah! we mind you,’ cried Parkes. ‘Go on improving of us, Johnny.’

‘Consequently, then,’ said Mr Willet, ‘that chap, whose mother was
hung when he was a little boy, along with six others, for passing bad
notes--and it’s a blessed thing to think how many people are hung in
batches every six weeks for that, and such like offences, as showing how
wide awake our government is--that chap that was then turned loose, and
had to mind cows, and frighten birds away, and what not, for a few pence
to live on, and so got on by degrees to mind horses, and to sleep in
course of time in lofts and litter, instead of under haystacks and
hedges, till at last he come to be hostler at the Maypole for his board
and lodging and a annual trifle--that chap that can’t read nor write,
and has never had much to do with anything but animals, and has never
lived in any way but like the animals he has lived among, IS a animal.
And,’ said Mr Willet, arriving at his logical conclusion, ‘is to be
treated accordingly.’

‘Willet,’ said Solomon Daisy, who had exhibited some impatience at the
intrusion of so unworthy a subject on their more interesting theme,
‘when Mr Chester come this morning, did he order the large room?’

‘He signified, sir,’ said John, ‘that he wanted a large apartment. Yes.
Certainly.’

‘Why then, I’ll tell you what,’ said Solomon, speaking softly and with
an earnest look. ‘He and Mr Haredale are going to fight a duel in it.’

Everybody looked at Mr Willet, after this alarming suggestion. Mr Willet
looked at the fire, weighing in his own mind the effect which such an
occurrence would be likely to have on the establishment.

‘Well,’ said John, ‘I don’t know--I am sure--I remember that when I went
up last, he HAD put the lights upon the mantel-shelf.’

‘It’s as plain,’ returned Solomon, ‘as the nose on Parkes’s face’--Mr
Parkes, who had a large nose, rubbed it, and looked as if he considered
this a personal allusion--‘they’ll fight in that room. You know by
the newspapers what a common thing it is for gentlemen to fight in
coffee-houses without seconds. One of ‘em will be wounded or perhaps
killed in this house.’

‘That was a challenge that Barnaby took then, eh?’ said John.

‘--Inclosing a slip of paper with the measure of his sword upon it, I’ll
bet a guinea,’ answered the little man. ‘We know what sort of gentleman
Mr Haredale is. You have told us what Barnaby said about his looks, when
he came back. Depend upon it, I’m right. Now, mind.’

The flip had had no flavour till now. The tobacco had been of mere
English growth, compared with its present taste. A duel in that great
old rambling room upstairs, and the best bed ordered already for the
wounded man!

‘Would it be swords or pistols, now?’ said John.

‘Heaven knows. Perhaps both,’ returned Solomon. ‘The gentlemen wear
swords, and may easily have pistols in their pockets--most likely have,
indeed. If they fire at each other without effect, then they’ll draw,
and go to work in earnest.’

A shade passed over Mr Willet’s face as he thought of broken windows and
disabled furniture, but bethinking himself that one of the parties would
probably be left alive to pay the damage, he brightened up again.

‘And then,’ said Solomon, looking from face to face, ‘then we shall have
one of those stains upon the floor that never come out. If Mr Haredale
wins, depend upon it, it’ll be a deep one; or if he loses, it will
perhaps be deeper still, for he’ll never give in unless he’s beaten
down. We know him better, eh?’

‘Better indeed!’ they whispered all together.

‘As to its ever being got out again,’ said Solomon, ‘I tell you it never
will, or can be. Why, do you know that it has been tried, at a certain
house we are acquainted with?’

‘The Warren!’ cried John. ‘No, sure!’

‘Yes, sure--yes. It’s only known by very few. It has been whispered
about though, for all that. They planed the board away, but there it
was. They went deep, but it went deeper. They put new boards down, but
there was one great spot that came through still, and showed itself in
the old place. And--harkye--draw nearer--Mr Geoffrey made that room his
study, and sits there, always, with his foot (as I have heard) upon it;
and he believes, through thinking of it long and very much, that it will
never fade until he finds the man who did the deed.’

As this recital ended, and they all drew closer round the fire, the
tramp of a horse was heard without.

‘The very man!’ cried John, starting up. ‘Hugh! Hugh!’

The sleeper staggered to his feet, and hurried after him. John quickly
returned, ushering in with great attention and deference (for Mr
Haredale was his landlord) the long-expected visitor, who strode into
the room clanking his heavy boots upon the floor; and looking keenly
round upon the bowing group, raised his hat in acknowledgment of their
profound respect.

‘You have a stranger here, Willet, who sent to me,’ he said, in a voice
which sounded naturally stern and deep. ‘Where is he?’

‘In the great room upstairs, sir,’ answered John.

‘Show the way. Your staircase is dark, I know. Gentlemen, good night.’

With that, he signed to the landlord to go on before; and went clanking
out, and up the stairs; old John, in his agitation, ingeniously lighting
everything but the way, and making a stumble at every second step.

‘Stop!’ he said, when they reached the landing. ‘I can announce myself.
Don’t wait.’

He laid his hand upon the door, entered, and shut it heavily. Mr Willet
was by no means disposed to stand there listening by himself, especially
as the walls were very thick; so descended, with much greater alacrity
than he had come up, and joined his friends below.



Chapter 12


There was a brief pause in the state-room of the Maypole, as Mr Haredale
tried the lock to satisfy himself that he had shut the door securely,
and, striding up the dark chamber to where the screen inclosed a little
patch of light and warmth, presented himself, abruptly and in silence,
before the smiling guest.

If the two had no greater sympathy in their inward thoughts than in
their outward bearing and appearance, the meeting did not seem likely to
prove a very calm or pleasant one. With no great disparity between them
in point of years, they were, in every other respect, as unlike and
far removed from each other as two men could well be. The one was
soft-spoken, delicately made, precise, and elegant; the other, a burly
square-built man, negligently dressed, rough and abrupt in manner,
stern, and, in his present mood, forbidding both in look and speech. The
one preserved a calm and placid smile; the other, a distrustful frown.
The new-comer, indeed, appeared bent on showing by his every tone and
gesture his determined opposition and hostility to the man he had come
to meet. The guest who received him, on the other hand, seemed to feel
that the contrast between them was all in his favour, and to derive a
quiet exultation from it which put him more at his ease than ever.

‘Haredale,’ said this gentleman, without the least appearance of
embarrassment or reserve, ‘I am very glad to see you.’

‘Let us dispense with compliments. They are misplaced between us,’
returned the other, waving his hand, ‘and say plainly what we have to
say. You have asked me to meet you. I am here. Why do we stand face to
face again?’

‘Still the same frank and sturdy character, I see!’

‘Good or bad, sir, I am,’ returned the other, leaning his arm upon
the chimney-piece, and turning a haughty look upon the occupant of
the easy-chair, ‘the man I used to be. I have lost no old likings or
dislikings; my memory has not failed me by a hair’s-breadth. You ask me
to give you a meeting. I say, I am here.’

‘Our meeting, Haredale,’ said Mr Chester, tapping his snuff-box, and
following with a smile the impatient gesture he had made--perhaps
unconsciously--towards his sword, ‘is one of conference and peace, I
hope?’

‘I have come here,’ returned the other, ‘at your desire, holding myself
bound to meet you, when and where you would. I have not come to bandy
pleasant speeches, or hollow professions. You are a smooth man of the
world, sir, and at such play have me at a disadvantage. The very last
man on this earth with whom I would enter the lists to combat with
gentle compliments and masked faces, is Mr Chester, I do assure you. I
am not his match at such weapons, and have reason to believe that few
men are.’

‘You do me a great deal of honour Haredale,’ returned the other, most
composedly, ‘and I thank you. I will be frank with you--’

‘I beg your pardon--will be what?’

‘Frank--open--perfectly candid.’

‘Hah!’ cried Mr Haredale, drawing his breath. ‘But don’t let me
interrupt you.’

‘So resolved am I to hold this course,’ returned the other, tasting his
wine with great deliberation; ‘that I have determined not to quarrel
with you, and not to be betrayed into a warm expression or a hasty
word.’

‘There again,’ said Mr Haredale, ‘you have me at a great advantage. Your
self-command--’

‘Is not to be disturbed, when it will serve my purpose, you would
say’--rejoined the other, interrupting him with the same complacency.
‘Granted. I allow it. And I have a purpose to serve now. So have you. I
am sure our object is the same. Let us attain it like sensible men, who
have ceased to be boys some time.--Do you drink?’

‘With my friends,’ returned the other.

‘At least,’ said Mr Chester, ‘you will be seated?’

‘I will stand,’ returned Mr Haredale impatiently, ‘on this dismantled,
beggared hearth, and not pollute it, fallen as it is, with mockeries. Go
on.’

‘You are wrong, Haredale,’ said the other, crossing his legs, and
smiling as he held his glass up in the bright glow of the fire. ‘You are
really very wrong. The world is a lively place enough, in which we must
accommodate ourselves to circumstances, sail with the stream as glibly
as we can, be content to take froth for substance, the surface for the
depth, the counterfeit for the real coin. I wonder no philosopher has
ever established that our globe itself is hollow. It should be, if
Nature is consistent in her works.’

‘YOU think it is, perhaps?’

‘I should say,’ he returned, sipping his wine, ‘there could be no doubt
about it. Well; we, in trifling with this jingling toy, have had
the ill-luck to jostle and fall out. We are not what the world calls
friends; but we are as good and true and loving friends for all that, as
nine out of every ten of those on whom it bestows the title. You have a
niece, and I a son--a fine lad, Haredale, but foolish. They fall in
love with each other, and form what this same world calls an attachment;
meaning a something fanciful and false like the rest, which, if it took
its own free time, would break like any other bubble. But it may not
have its own free time--will not, if they are left alone--and the
question is, shall we two, because society calls us enemies, stand
aloof, and let them rush into each other’s arms, when, by approaching
each other sensibly, as we do now, we can prevent it, and part them?’

‘I love my niece,’ said Mr Haredale, after a short silence. ‘It may
sound strangely in your ears; but I love her.’

‘Strangely, my good fellow!’ cried Mr Chester, lazily filling his glass
again, and pulling out his toothpick. ‘Not at all. I like Ned too--or,
as you say, love him--that’s the word among such near relations.
I’m very fond of Ned. He’s an amazingly good fellow, and a handsome
fellow--foolish and weak as yet; that’s all. But the thing
is, Haredale--for I’ll be very frank, as I told you I would at
first--independently of any dislike that you and I might have to being
related to each other, and independently of the religious differences
between us--and damn it, that’s important--I couldn’t afford a match of
this description. Ned and I couldn’t do it. It’s impossible.’

‘Curb your tongue, in God’s name, if this conversation is to last,’
retorted Mr Haredale fiercely. ‘I have said I love my niece. Do you
think that, loving her, I would have her fling her heart away on any man
who had your blood in his veins?’

‘You see,’ said the other, not at all disturbed, ‘the advantage of being
so frank and open. Just what I was about to add, upon my honour! I am
amazingly attached to Ned--quite doat upon him, indeed--and even if we
could afford to throw ourselves away, that very objection would be quite
insuperable.--I wish you’d take some wine?’

‘Mark me,’ said Mr Haredale, striding to the table, and laying his hand
upon it heavily. ‘If any man believes--presumes to think--that I, in
word or deed, or in the wildest dream, ever entertained remotely the
idea of Emma Haredale’s favouring the suit of any one who was akin to
you--in any way--I care not what--he lies. He lies, and does me grievous
wrong, in the mere thought.’

‘Haredale,’ returned the other, rocking himself to and fro as in assent,
and nodding at the fire, ‘it’s extremely manly, and really very generous
in you, to meet me in this unreserved and handsome way. Upon my word,
those are exactly my sentiments, only expressed with much more force and
power than I could use--you know my sluggish nature, and will forgive
me, I am sure.’

‘While I would restrain her from all correspondence with your son, and
sever their intercourse here, though it should cause her death,’ said
Mr Haredale, who had been pacing to and fro, ‘I would do it kindly and
tenderly if I can. I have a trust to discharge, which my nature is not
formed to understand, and, for this reason, the bare fact of there
being any love between them comes upon me to-night, almost for the first
time.’

‘I am more delighted than I can possibly tell you,’ rejoined Mr Chester
with the utmost blandness, ‘to find my own impression so confirmed. You
see the advantage of our having met. We understand each other. We quite
agree. We have a most complete and thorough explanation, and we know
what course to take.--Why don’t you taste your tenant’s wine? It’s
really very good.’

‘Pray who,’ said Mr Haredale, ‘have aided Emma, or your son? Who are
their go-betweens, and agents--do you know?’

‘All the good people hereabouts--the neighbourhood in general, I think,’
returned the other, with his most affable smile. ‘The messenger I sent
to you to-day, foremost among them all.’

‘The idiot? Barnaby?’

‘You are surprised? I am glad of that, for I was rather so myself. Yes.
I wrung that from his mother--a very decent sort of woman--from whom,
indeed, I chiefly learnt how serious the matter had become, and so
determined to ride out here to-day, and hold a parley with you on this
neutral ground.--You’re stouter than you used to be, Haredale, but you
look extremely well.’

‘Our business, I presume, is nearly at an end,’ said Mr Haredale, with
an expression of impatience he was at no pains to conceal. ‘Trust me, Mr
Chester, my niece shall change from this time. I will appeal,’ he added
in a lower tone, ‘to her woman’s heart, her dignity, her pride, her
duty--’

‘I shall do the same by Ned,’ said Mr Chester, restoring some errant
faggots to their places in the grate with the toe of his boot. ‘If there
is anything real in this world, it is those amazingly fine feelings and
those natural obligations which must subsist between father and son. I
shall put it to him on every ground of moral and religious feeling. I
shall represent to him that we cannot possibly afford it--that I have
always looked forward to his marrying well, for a genteel provision for
myself in the autumn of life--that there are a great many clamorous dogs
to pay, whose claims are perfectly just and right, and who must be paid
out of his wife’s fortune. In short, that the very highest and most
honourable feelings of our nature, with every consideration of filial
duty and affection, and all that sort of thing, imperatively demand that
he should run away with an heiress.’

‘And break her heart as speedily as possible?’ said Mr Haredale, drawing
on his glove.

‘There Ned will act exactly as he pleases,’ returned the other,
sipping his wine; ‘that’s entirely his affair. I wouldn’t for the
world interfere with my son, Haredale, beyond a certain point. The
relationship between father and son, you know, is positively quite a
holy kind of bond.--WON’T you let me persuade you to take one glass of
wine? Well! as you please, as you please,’ he added, helping himself
again.

‘Chester,’ said Mr Haredale, after a short silence, during which he had
eyed his smiling face from time to time intently, ‘you have the head and
heart of an evil spirit in all matters of deception.’

‘Your health!’ said the other, with a nod. ‘But I have interrupted
you--’

‘If now,’ pursued Mr Haredale, ‘we should find it difficult to separate
these young people, and break off their intercourse--if, for instance,
you find it difficult on your side, what course do you intend to take?’

‘Nothing plainer, my good fellow, nothing easier,’ returned the other,
shrugging his shoulders and stretching himself more comfortably before
the fire. ‘I shall then exert those powers on which you flatter me so
highly--though, upon my word, I don’t deserve your compliments to their
full extent--and resort to a few little trivial subterfuges for rousing
jealousy and resentment. You see?’

‘In short, justifying the means by the end, we are, as a last resource
for tearing them asunder, to resort to treachery and--and lying,’ said
Mr Haredale.

‘Oh dear no. Fie, fie!’ returned the other, relishing a pinch of snuff
extremely. ‘Not lying. Only a little management, a little diplomacy, a
little--intriguing, that’s the word.’

‘I wish,’ said Mr Haredale, moving to and fro, and stopping, and moving
on again, like one who was ill at ease, ‘that this could have been
foreseen or prevented. But as it has gone so far, and it is necessary
for us to act, it is of no use shrinking or regretting. Well! I shall
second your endeavours to the utmost of my power. There is one topic in
the whole wide range of human thoughts on which we both agree. We shall
act in concert, but apart. There will be no need, I hope, for us to meet
again.’

‘Are you going?’ said Mr Chester, rising with a graceful indolence. ‘Let
me light you down the stairs.’

‘Pray keep your seat,’ returned the other drily, ‘I know the way.’ So,
waving his hand slightly, and putting on his hat as he turned upon his
heel, he went clanking out as he had come, shut the door behind him, and
tramped down the echoing stairs.

‘Pah! A very coarse animal, indeed!’ said Mr Chester, composing himself
in the easy-chair again. ‘A rough brute. Quite a human badger!’

John Willet and his friends, who had been listening intently for the
clash of swords, or firing of pistols in the great room, and had indeed
settled the order in which they should rush in when summoned--in which
procession old John had carefully arranged that he should bring up the
rear--were very much astonished to see Mr Haredale come down without a
scratch, call for his horse, and ride away thoughtfully at a footpace.
After some consideration, it was decided that he had left the gentleman
above, for dead, and had adopted this stratagem to divert suspicion or
pursuit.

As this conclusion involved the necessity of their going upstairs
forthwith, they were about to ascend in the order they had agreed
upon, when a smart ringing at the guest’s bell, as if he had pulled it
vigorously, overthrew all their speculations, and involved them in
great uncertainty and doubt. At length Mr Willet agreed to go upstairs
himself, escorted by Hugh and Barnaby, as the strongest and stoutest
fellows on the premises, who were to make their appearance under
pretence of clearing away the glasses.

Under this protection, the brave and broad-faced John boldly entered
the room, half a foot in advance, and received an order for a boot-jack
without trembling. But when it was brought, and he leant his sturdy
shoulder to the guest, Mr Willet was observed to look very hard into his
boots as he pulled them off, and, by opening his eyes much wider than
usual, to appear to express some surprise and disappointment at not
finding them full of blood. He took occasion, too, to examine the
gentleman as closely as he could, expecting to discover sundry loopholes
in his person, pierced by his adversary’s sword. Finding none,
however, and observing in course of time that his guest was as cool and
unruffled, both in his dress and temper, as he had been all day, old
John at last heaved a deep sigh, and began to think no duel had been
fought that night.

‘And now, Willet,’ said Mr Chester, ‘if the room’s well aired, I’ll try
the merits of that famous bed.’

‘The room, sir,’ returned John, taking up a candle, and nudging Barnaby
and Hugh to accompany them, in case the gentleman should unexpectedly
drop down faint or dead from some internal wound, ‘the room’s as warm as
any toast in a tankard. Barnaby, take you that other candle, and go on
before. Hugh! Follow up, sir, with the easy-chair.’

In this order--and still, in his earnest inspection, holding his candle
very close to the guest; now making him feel extremely warm about the
legs, now threatening to set his wig on fire, and constantly begging his
pardon with great awkwardness and embarrassment--John led the party to
the best bedroom, which was nearly as large as the chamber from which
they had come, and held, drawn out near the fire for warmth, a great old
spectral bedstead, hung with faded brocade, and ornamented, at the top
of each carved post, with a plume of feathers that had once been white,
but with dust and age had now grown hearse-like and funereal.

‘Good night, my friends,’ said Mr Chester with a sweet smile, seating
himself, when he had surveyed the room from end to end, in the
easy-chair which his attendants wheeled before the fire. ‘Good night!
Barnaby, my good fellow, you say some prayers before you go to bed, I
hope?’

Barnaby nodded. ‘He has some nonsense that he calls his prayers, sir,’
returned old John, officiously. ‘I’m afraid there an’t much good in em.’

‘And Hugh?’ said Mr Chester, turning to him.

‘Not I,’ he answered. ‘I know his’--pointing to Barnaby--‘they’re well
enough. He sings ‘em sometimes in the straw. I listen.’

‘He’s quite a animal, sir,’ John whispered in his ear with dignity.
‘You’ll excuse him, I’m sure. If he has any soul at all, sir, it must be
such a very small one, that it don’t signify what he does or doesn’t in
that way. Good night, sir!’

The guest rejoined ‘God bless you!’ with a fervour that was quite
affecting; and John, beckoning his guards to go before, bowed himself
out of the room, and left him to his rest in the Maypole’s ancient bed.



Chapter 13


If Joseph Willet, the denounced and proscribed of ‘prentices, had
happened to be at home when his father’s courtly guest presented himself
before the Maypole door--that is, if it had not perversely chanced to be
one of the half-dozen days in the whole year on which he was at liberty
to absent himself for as many hours without question or reproach--he
would have contrived, by hook or crook, to dive to the very bottom of Mr
Chester’s mystery, and to come at his purpose with as much certainty as
though he had been his confidential adviser. In that fortunate case, the
lovers would have had quick warning of the ills that threatened them,
and the aid of various timely and wise suggestions to boot; for all
Joe’s readiness of thought and action, and all his sympathies and good
wishes, were enlisted in favour of the young people, and were staunch in
devotion to their cause. Whether this disposition arose out of his old
prepossessions in favour of the young lady, whose history had surrounded
her in his mind, almost from his cradle, with circumstances of unusual
interest; or from his attachment towards the young gentleman, into
whose confidence he had, through his shrewdness and alacrity, and the
rendering of sundry important services as a spy and messenger, almost
imperceptibly glided; whether they had their origin in either of these
sources, or in the habit natural to youth, or in the constant badgering
and worrying of his venerable parent, or in any hidden little love
affair of his own which gave him something of a fellow-feeling in the
matter, it is needless to inquire--especially as Joe was out of the way,
and had no opportunity on that particular occasion of testifying to his
sentiments either on one side or the other.

It was, in fact, the twenty-fifth of March, which, as most people
know to their cost, is, and has been time out of mind, one of those
unpleasant epochs termed quarter-days. On this twenty-fifth of March,
it was John Willet’s pride annually to settle, in hard cash, his account
with a certain vintner and distiller in the city of London; to give into
whose hands a canvas bag containing its exact amount, and not a penny
more or less, was the end and object of a journey for Joe, so surely as
the year and day came round.

This journey was performed upon an old grey mare, concerning whom John
had an indistinct set of ideas hovering about him, to the effect that
she could win a plate or cup if she tried. She never had tried, and
probably never would now, being some fourteen or fifteen years of age,
short in wind, long in body, and rather the worse for wear in respect of
her mane and tail. Notwithstanding these slight defects, John perfectly
gloried in the animal; and when she was brought round to the door by
Hugh, actually retired into the bar, and there, in a secret grove of
lemons, laughed with pride.

‘There’s a bit of horseflesh, Hugh!’ said John, when he had recovered
enough self-command to appear at the door again. ‘There’s a comely
creature! There’s high mettle! There’s bone!’

There was bone enough beyond all doubt; and so Hugh seemed to think, as
he sat sideways in the saddle, lazily doubled up with his chin nearly
touching his knees; and heedless of the dangling stirrups and loose
bridle-rein, sauntered up and down on the little green before the door.

‘Mind you take good care of her, sir,’ said John, appealing from this
insensible person to his son and heir, who now appeared, fully equipped
and ready. ‘Don’t you ride hard.’

‘I should be puzzled to do that, I think, father,’ Joe replied, casting
a disconsolate look at the animal.

‘None of your impudence, sir, if you please,’ retorted old John. ‘What
would you ride, sir? A wild ass or zebra would be too tame for you,
wouldn’t he, eh sir? You’d like to ride a roaring lion, wouldn’t you,
sir, eh sir? Hold your tongue, sir.’ When Mr Willet, in his differences
with his son, had exhausted all the questions that occurred to him, and
Joe had said nothing at all in answer, he generally wound up by bidding
him hold his tongue.

‘And what does the boy mean,’ added Mr Willet, after he had stared at
him for a little time, in a species of stupefaction, ‘by cocking his
hat, to such an extent! Are you going to kill the wintner, sir?’

‘No,’ said Joe, tartly; ‘I’m not. Now your mind’s at ease, father.’

‘With a milintary air, too!’ said Mr Willet, surveying him from top to
toe; ‘with a swaggering, fire-eating, biling-water drinking sort of way
with him! And what do you mean by pulling up the crocuses and snowdrops,
eh sir?’

‘It’s only a little nosegay,’ said Joe, reddening. ‘There’s no harm in
that, I hope?’

‘You’re a boy of business, you are, sir!’ said Mr Willet, disdainfully,
‘to go supposing that wintners care for nosegays.’

‘I don’t suppose anything of the kind,’ returned Joe. ‘Let them keep
their red noses for bottles and tankards. These are going to Mr Varden’s
house.’

‘And do you suppose HE minds such things as crocuses?’ demanded John.

‘I don’t know, and to say the truth, I don’t care,’ said Joe. ‘Come,
father, give me the money, and in the name of patience let me go.’

‘There it is, sir,’ replied John; ‘and take care of it; and mind you
don’t make too much haste back, but give the mare a long rest.--Do you
mind?’

‘Ay, I mind,’ returned Joe. ‘She’ll need it, Heaven knows.’

‘And don’t you score up too much at the Black Lion,’ said John. ‘Mind
that too.’

‘Then why don’t you let me have some money of my own?’ retorted Joe,
sorrowfully; ‘why don’t you, father? What do you send me into London
for, giving me only the right to call for my dinner at the Black Lion,
which you’re to pay for next time you go, as if I was not to be trusted
with a few shillings? Why do you use me like this? It’s not right of
you. You can’t expect me to be quiet under it.’

‘Let him have money!’ cried John, in a drowsy reverie. ‘What does he
call money--guineas? Hasn’t he got money? Over and above the tolls,
hasn’t he one and sixpence?’

‘One and sixpence!’ repeated his son contemptuously.

‘Yes, sir,’ returned John, ‘one and sixpence. When I was your age, I
had never seen so much money, in a heap. A shilling of it is in case
of accidents--the mare casting a shoe, or the like of that. The other
sixpence is to spend in the diversions of London; and the diversion
I recommend is going to the top of the Monument, and sitting there.
There’s no temptation there, sir--no drink--no young women--no bad
characters of any sort--nothing but imagination. That’s the way I
enjoyed myself when I was your age, sir.’

To this, Joe made no answer, but beckoning Hugh, leaped into the saddle
and rode away; and a very stalwart, manly horseman he looked, deserving
a better charger than it was his fortune to bestride. John stood staring
after him, or rather after the grey mare (for he had no eyes for her
rider), until man and beast had been out of sight some twenty minutes,
when he began to think they were gone, and slowly re-entering the house,
fell into a gentle doze.

The unfortunate grey mare, who was the agony of Joe’s life, floundered
along at her own will and pleasure until the Maypole was no longer
visible, and then, contracting her legs into what in a puppet would have
been looked upon as a clumsy and awkward imitation of a canter, mended
her pace all at once, and did it of her own accord. The acquaintance
with her rider’s usual mode of proceeding, which suggested this
improvement in hers, impelled her likewise to turn up a bye-way,
leading--not to London, but through lanes running parallel with the road
they had come, and passing within a few hundred yards of the Maypole,
which led finally to an inclosure surrounding a large, old, red-brick
mansion--the same of which mention was made as the Warren in the
first chapter of this history. Coming to a dead stop in a little copse
thereabout, she suffered her rider to dismount with right goodwill, and
to tie her to the trunk of a tree.

‘Stay there, old girl,’ said Joe, ‘and let us see whether there’s any
little commission for me to-day.’ So saying, he left her to browze upon
such stunted grass and weeds as happened to grow within the length of
her tether, and passing through a wicket gate, entered the grounds on
foot.

The pathway, after a very few minutes’ walking, brought him close to the
house, towards which, and especially towards one particular window, he
directed many covert glances. It was a dreary, silent building, with
echoing courtyards, desolated turret-chambers, and whole suites of rooms
shut up and mouldering to ruin.

The terrace-garden, dark with the shade of overhanging trees, had an air
of melancholy that was quite oppressive. Great iron gates, disused for
many years, and red with rust, drooping on their hinges and overgrown
with long rank grass, seemed as though they tried to sink into the
ground, and hide their fallen state among the friendly weeds. The
fantastic monsters on the walls, green with age and damp, and covered
here and there with moss, looked grim and desolate. There was a sombre
aspect even on that part of the mansion which was inhabited and kept
in good repair, that struck the beholder with a sense of sadness; of
something forlorn and failing, whence cheerfulness was banished. It
would have been difficult to imagine a bright fire blazing in the dull
and darkened rooms, or to picture any gaiety of heart or revelry that
the frowning walls shut in. It seemed a place where such things had
been, but could be no more--the very ghost of a house, haunting the old
spot in its old outward form, and that was all.

Much of this decayed and sombre look was attributable, no doubt, to the
death of its former master, and the temper of its present occupant;
but remembering the tale connected with the mansion, it seemed the very
place for such a deed, and one that might have been its predestined
theatre years upon years ago. Viewed with reference to this legend, the
sheet of water where the steward’s body had been found appeared to wear
a black and sullen character, such as no other pool might own; the bell
upon the roof that had told the tale of murder to the midnight wind,
became a very phantom whose voice would raise the listener’s hair on
end; and every leafless bough that nodded to another, had its stealthy
whispering of the crime.

Joe paced up and down the path, sometimes stopping in affected
contemplation of the building or the prospect, sometimes leaning against
a tree with an assumed air of idleness and indifference, but always
keeping an eye upon the window he had singled out at first. After some
quarter of an hour’s delay, a small white hand was waved to him for an
instant from this casement, and the young man, with a respectful bow,
departed; saying under his breath as he crossed his horse again, ‘No
errand for me to-day!’

But the air of smartness, the cock of the hat to which John Willet had
objected, and the spring nosegay, all betokened some little errand
of his own, having a more interesting object than a vintner or even a
locksmith. So, indeed, it turned out; for when he had settled with the
vintner--whose place of business was down in some deep cellars hard by
Thames Street, and who was as purple-faced an old gentleman as if he
had all his life supported their arched roof on his head--when he had
settled the account, and taken the receipt, and declined tasting more
than three glasses of old sherry, to the unbounded astonishment of the
purple-faced vintner, who, gimlet in hand, had projected an attack upon
at least a score of dusty casks, and who stood transfixed, or morally
gimleted as it were, to his own wall--when he had done all this, and
disposed besides of a frugal dinner at the Black Lion in Whitechapel;
spurning the Monument and John’s advice, he turned his steps towards the
locksmith’s house, attracted by the eyes of blooming Dolly Varden.

Joe was by no means a sheepish fellow, but, for all that, when he got
to the corner of the street in which the locksmith lived, he could by no
means make up his mind to walk straight to the house. First, he resolved
to stroll up another street for five minutes, then up another street for
five minutes more, and so on until he had lost full half an hour, when
he made a bold plunge and found himself with a red face and a beating
heart in the smoky workshop.

‘Joe Willet, or his ghost?’ said Varden, rising from the desk at which
he was busy with his books, and looking at him under his spectacles.
‘Which is it? Joe in the flesh, eh? That’s hearty. And how are all the
Chigwell company, Joe?’

‘Much as usual, sir--they and I agree as well as ever.’

‘Well, well!’ said the locksmith. ‘We must be patient, Joe, and bear
with old folks’ foibles. How’s the mare, Joe? Does she do the four miles
an hour as easily as ever? Ha, ha, ha! Does she, Joe? Eh!--What have we
there, Joe--a nosegay!’

‘A very poor one, sir--I thought Miss Dolly--’

‘No, no,’ said Gabriel, dropping his voice, and shaking his head, ‘not
Dolly. Give ‘em to her mother, Joe. A great deal better give ‘em to her
mother. Would you mind giving ‘em to Mrs Varden, Joe?’

‘Oh no, sir,’ Joe replied, and endeavouring, but not with the greatest
possible success, to hide his disappointment. ‘I shall be very glad, I’m
sure.’

‘That’s right,’ said the locksmith, patting him on the back. ‘It don’t
matter who has ‘em, Joe?’

‘Not a bit, sir.’--Dear heart, how the words stuck in his throat!

‘Come in,’ said Gabriel. ‘I have just been called to tea. She’s in the
parlour.’

‘She,’ thought Joe. ‘Which of ‘em I wonder--Mrs or Miss?’ The locksmith
settled the doubt as neatly as if it had been expressed aloud, by
leading him to the door, and saying, ‘Martha, my dear, here’s young Mr
Willet.’

Now, Mrs Varden, regarding the Maypole as a sort of human mantrap,
or decoy for husbands; viewing its proprietor, and all who aided and
abetted him, in the light of so many poachers among Christian men; and
believing, moreover, that the publicans coupled with sinners in Holy
Writ were veritable licensed victuallers; was far from being favourably
disposed towards her visitor. Wherefore she was taken faint directly;
and being duly presented with the crocuses and snowdrops, divined on
further consideration that they were the occasion of the languor which
had seized upon her spirits. ‘I’m afraid I couldn’t bear the room
another minute,’ said the good lady, ‘if they remained here. WOULD you
excuse my putting them out of window?’

Joe begged she wouldn’t mention it on any account, and smiled feebly as
he saw them deposited on the sill outside. If anybody could have known
the pains he had taken to make up that despised and misused bunch of
flowers!--

‘I feel it quite a relief to get rid of them, I assure you,’ said Mrs
Varden. ‘I’m better already.’ And indeed she did appear to have plucked
up her spirits.

Joe expressed his gratitude to Providence for this favourable
dispensation, and tried to look as if he didn’t wonder where Dolly was.

‘You’re sad people at Chigwell, Mr Joseph,’ said Mrs V.

‘I hope not, ma’am,’ returned Joe.

‘You’re the cruellest and most inconsiderate people in the world,’ said
Mrs Varden, bridling. ‘I wonder old Mr Willet, having been a married
man himself, doesn’t know better than to conduct himself as he does. His
doing it for profit is no excuse. I would rather pay the money twenty
times over, and have Varden come home like a respectable and sober
tradesman. If there is one character,’ said Mrs Varden with great
emphasis, ‘that offends and disgusts me more than another, it is a sot.’

‘Come, Martha, my dear,’ said the locksmith cheerily, ‘let us have tea,
and don’t let us talk about sots. There are none here, and Joe don’t
want to hear about them, I dare say.’

At this crisis, Miggs appeared with toast.

‘I dare say he does not,’ said Mrs Varden; ‘and I dare say you do not,
Varden. It’s a very unpleasant subject, I have no doubt, though I
won’t say it’s personal’--Miggs coughed--‘whatever I may be forced to
think’--Miggs sneezed expressively. ‘You never will know, Varden, and
nobody at young Mr Willet’s age--you’ll excuse me, sir--can be expected
to know, what a woman suffers when she is waiting at home under such
circumstances. If you don’t believe me, as I know you don’t, here’s
Miggs, who is only too often a witness of it--ask her.’

‘Oh! she were very bad the other night, sir, indeed she were, said
Miggs. ‘If you hadn’t the sweetness of an angel in you, mim, I don’t
think you could abear it, I raly don’t.’

‘Miggs,’ said Mrs Varden, ‘you’re profane.’

‘Begging your pardon, mim,’ returned Miggs, with shrill rapidity, ‘such
was not my intentions, and such I hope is not my character, though I am
but a servant.’

‘Answering me, Miggs, and providing yourself,’ retorted her mistress,
looking round with dignity, ‘is one and the same thing. How
dare you speak of angels in connection with your sinful
fellow-beings--mere’--said Mrs Varden, glancing at herself in a
neighbouring mirror, and arranging the ribbon of her cap in a more
becoming fashion--‘mere worms and grovellers as we are!’

‘I did not intend, mim, if you please, to give offence,’ said Miggs,
confident in the strength of her compliment, and developing strongly in
the throat as usual, ‘and I did not expect it would be took as such. I
hope I know my own unworthiness, and that I hate and despise myself and
all my fellow-creatures as every practicable Christian should.’

‘You’ll have the goodness, if you please,’ said Mrs Varden, loftily, ‘to
step upstairs and see if Dolly has finished dressing, and to tell her
that the chair that was ordered for her will be here in a minute, and
that if she keeps it waiting, I shall send it away that instant.--I’m
sorry to see that you don’t take your tea, Varden, and that you don’t
take yours, Mr Joseph; though of course it would be foolish of me to
expect that anything that can be had at home, and in the company of
females, would please YOU.’

This pronoun was understood in the plural sense, and included both
gentlemen, upon both of whom it was rather hard and undeserved, for
Gabriel had applied himself to the meal with a very promising appetite,
until it was spoilt by Mrs Varden herself, and Joe had as great a liking
for the female society of the locksmith’s house--or for a part of it at
all events--as man could well entertain.

But he had no opportunity to say anything in his own defence, for at
that moment Dolly herself appeared, and struck him quite dumb with her
beauty. Never had Dolly looked so handsome as she did then, in all the
glow and grace of youth, with all her charms increased a hundredfold by
a most becoming dress, by a thousand little coquettish ways which nobody
could assume with a better grace, and all the sparkling expectation of
that accursed party. It is impossible to tell how Joe hated that party
wherever it was, and all the other people who were going to it, whoever
they were.

And she hardly looked at him--no, hardly looked at him. And when
the chair was seen through the open door coming blundering into the
workshop, she actually clapped her hands and seemed glad to go. But Joe
gave her his arm--there was some comfort in that--and handed her into
it. To see her seat herself inside, with her laughing eyes brighter
than diamonds, and her hand--surely she had the prettiest hand in
the world--on the ledge of the open window, and her little finger
provokingly and pertly tilted up, as if it wondered why Joe didn’t
squeeze or kiss it! To think how well one or two of the modest snowdrops
would have become that delicate bodice, and how they were lying
neglected outside the parlour window! To see how Miggs looked on with
a face expressive of knowing how all this loveliness was got up, and
of being in the secret of every string and pin and hook and eye, and
of saying it ain’t half as real as you think, and I could look quite as
well myself if I took the pains! To hear that provoking precious little
scream when the chair was hoisted on its poles, and to catch that
transient but not-to-be-forgotten vision of the happy face within--what
torments and aggravations, and yet what delights were these! The very
chairmen seemed favoured rivals as they bore her down the street.

There never was such an alteration in a small room in a small time as in
that parlour when they went back to finish tea. So dark, so deserted,
so perfectly disenchanted. It seemed such sheer nonsense to be sitting
tamely there, when she was at a dance with more lovers than man could
calculate fluttering about her--with the whole party doting on and
adoring her, and wanting to marry her. Miggs was hovering about too; and
the fact of her existence, the mere circumstance of her ever having been
born, appeared, after Dolly, such an unaccountable practical joke. It
was impossible to talk. It couldn’t be done. He had nothing left for it
but to stir his tea round, and round, and round, and ruminate on all the
fascinations of the locksmith’s lovely daughter.

Gabriel was dull too. It was a part of the certain uncertainty of Mrs
Varden’s temper, that when they were in this condition, she should be
gay and sprightly.

‘I need have a cheerful disposition, I am sure,’ said the smiling
housewife, ‘to preserve any spirits at all; and how I do it I can
scarcely tell.’

‘Ah, mim,’ sighed Miggs, ‘begging your pardon for the interruption,
there an’t a many like you.’

‘Take away, Miggs,’ said Mrs Varden, rising, ‘take away, pray. I know
I’m a restraint here, and as I wish everybody to enjoy themselves as
they best can, I feel I had better go.’

‘No, no, Martha,’ cried the locksmith. ‘Stop here. I’m sure we shall be
very sorry to lose you, eh Joe!’ Joe started, and said ‘Certainly.’

‘Thank you, Varden, my dear,’ returned his wife; ‘but I know your wishes
better. Tobacco and beer, or spirits, have much greater attractions than
any I can boast of, and therefore I shall go and sit upstairs and look
out of window, my love. Good night, Mr Joseph. I’m very glad to have
seen you, and I only wish I could have provided something more suitable
to your taste. Remember me very kindly if you please to old Mr Willet,
and tell him that whenever he comes here I have a crow to pluck with
him. Good night!’

Having uttered these words with great sweetness of manner, the good
lady dropped a curtsey remarkable for its condescension, and serenely
withdrew.

And it was for this Joe had looked forward to the twenty-fifth of March
for weeks and weeks, and had gathered the flowers with so much care, and
had cocked his hat, and made himself so smart! This was the end of all
his bold determination, resolved upon for the hundredth time, to speak
out to Dolly and tell her how he loved her! To see her for a minute--for
but a minute--to find her going out to a party and glad to go; to be
looked upon as a common pipe-smoker, beer-bibber, spirit-guzzler, and
tosspot! He bade farewell to his friend the locksmith, and hastened to
take horse at the Black Lion, thinking as he turned towards home, as
many another Joe has thought before and since, that here was an end to
all his hopes--that the thing was impossible and never could be--that
she didn’t care for him--that he was wretched for life--and that the
only congenial prospect left him, was to go for a soldier or a sailor,
and get some obliging enemy to knock his brains out as soon as possible.



Chapter 14


Joe Willet rode leisurely along in his desponding mood, picturing the
locksmith’s daughter going down long country-dances, and poussetting
dreadfully with bold strangers--which was almost too much to bear--when
he heard the tramp of a horse’s feet behind him, and looking back, saw
a well-mounted gentleman advancing at a smart canter. As this rider
passed, he checked his steed, and called him of the Maypole by his name.
Joe set spurs to the grey mare, and was at his side directly.

‘I thought it was you, sir,’ he said, touching his hat. ‘A fair evening,
sir. Glad to see you out of doors again.’

The gentleman smiled and nodded. ‘What gay doings have been going on
to-day, Joe? Is she as pretty as ever? Nay, don’t blush, man.’

‘If I coloured at all, Mr Edward,’ said Joe, ‘which I didn’t know I did,
it was to think I should have been such a fool as ever to have any hope
of her. She’s as far out of my reach as--as Heaven is.’

‘Well, Joe, I hope that’s not altogether beyond it,’ said Edward,
good-humouredly. ‘Eh?’

‘Ah!’ sighed Joe. ‘It’s all very fine talking, sir. Proverbs are easily
made in cold blood. But it can’t be helped. Are you bound for our house,
sir?’

‘Yes. As I am not quite strong yet, I shall stay there to-night, and
ride home coolly in the morning.’

‘If you’re in no particular hurry,’ said Joe after a short silence, ‘and
will bear with the pace of this poor jade, I shall be glad to ride on
with you to the Warren, sir, and hold your horse when you dismount.
It’ll save you having to walk from the Maypole, there and back again. I
can spare the time well, sir, for I am too soon.’

‘And so am I,’ returned Edward, ‘though I was unconsciously riding fast
just now, in compliment I suppose to the pace of my thoughts, which were
travelling post. We will keep together, Joe, willingly, and be as good
company as may be. And cheer up, cheer up, think of the locksmith’s
daughter with a stout heart, and you shall win her yet.’

Joe shook his head; but there was something so cheery in the buoyant
hopeful manner of this speech, that his spirits rose under its
influence, and communicated as it would seem some new impulse even to
the grey mare, who, breaking from her sober amble into a gentle trot,
emulated the pace of Edward Chester’s horse, and appeared to flatter
herself that he was doing his very best.

It was a fine dry night, and the light of a young moon, which was then
just rising, shed around that peace and tranquillity which gives to
evening time its most delicious charm. The lengthened shadows of the
trees, softened as if reflected in still water, threw their carpet on
the path the travellers pursued, and the light wind stirred yet more
softly than before, as though it were soothing Nature in her sleep. By
little and little they ceased talking, and rode on side by side in a
pleasant silence.

‘The Maypole lights are brilliant to-night,’ said Edward, as they rode
along the lane from which, while the intervening trees were bare of
leaves, that hostelry was visible.

‘Brilliant indeed, sir,’ returned Joe, rising in his stirrups to get
a better view. ‘Lights in the large room, and a fire glimmering in the
best bedchamber? Why, what company can this be for, I wonder!’

‘Some benighted horseman wending towards London, and deterred from
going on to-night by the marvellous tales of my friend the highwayman, I
suppose,’ said Edward.

‘He must be a horseman of good quality to have such accommodations. Your
bed too, sir--!’

‘No matter, Joe. Any other room will do for me. But come--there’s nine
striking. We may push on.’

They cantered forward at as brisk a pace as Joe’s charger could attain,
and presently stopped in the little copse where he had left her in the
morning. Edward dismounted, gave his bridle to his companion, and walked
with a light step towards the house.

A female servant was waiting at a side gate in the garden-wall, and
admitted him without delay. He hurried along the terrace-walk, and
darted up a flight of broad steps leading into an old and gloomy hall,
whose walls were ornamented with rusty suits of armour, antlers, weapons
of the chase, and suchlike garniture. Here he paused, but not long; for
as he looked round, as if expecting the attendant to have followed, and
wondering she had not done so, a lovely girl appeared, whose dark hair
next moment rested on his breast. Almost at the same instant a heavy
hand was laid upon her arm, Edward felt himself thrust away, and Mr
Haredale stood between them.

He regarded the young man sternly without removing his hat; with
one hand clasped his niece, and with the other, in which he held his
riding-whip, motioned him towards the door. The young man drew himself
up, and returned his gaze.

‘This is well done of you, sir, to corrupt my servants, and enter my
house unbidden and in secret, like a thief!’ said Mr Haredale. ‘Leave
it, sir, and return no more.’

‘Miss Haredale’s presence,’ returned the young man, ‘and your
relationship to her, give you a licence which, if you are a brave man,
you will not abuse. You have compelled me to this course, and the fault
is yours--not mine.’

‘It is neither generous, nor honourable, nor the act of a true man,
sir,’ retorted the other, ‘to tamper with the affections of a weak,
trusting girl, while you shrink, in your unworthiness, from her guardian
and protector, and dare not meet the light of day. More than this I will
not say to you, save that I forbid you this house, and require you to be
gone.’

‘It is neither generous, nor honourable, nor the act of a true man to
play the spy,’ said Edward. ‘Your words imply dishonour, and I reject
them with the scorn they merit.’

‘You will find,’ said Mr Haredale, calmly, ‘your trusty go-between in
waiting at the gate by which you entered. I have played no spy’s part,
sir. I chanced to see you pass the gate, and followed. You might have
heard me knocking for admission, had you been less swift of foot,
or lingered in the garden. Please to withdraw. Your presence here is
offensive to me and distressful to my niece.’ As he said these words,
he passed his arm about the waist of the terrified and weeping girl, and
drew her closer to him; and though the habitual severity of his manner
was scarcely changed, there was yet apparent in the action an air of
kindness and sympathy for her distress.

‘Mr Haredale,’ said Edward, ‘your arm encircles her on whom I have set
my every hope and thought, and to purchase one minute’s happiness for
whom I would gladly lay down my life; this house is the casket that
holds the precious jewel of my existence. Your niece has plighted her
faith to me, and I have plighted mine to her. What have I done that
you should hold me in this light esteem, and give me these discourteous
words?’

‘You have done that, sir,’ answered Mr Haredale, ‘which must be undone.
You have tied a lover’s-knot here which must be cut asunder. Take good
heed of what I say. Must. I cancel the bond between ye. I reject you,
and all of your kith and kin--all the false, hollow, heartless stock.’

‘High words, sir,’ said Edward, scornfully.

‘Words of purpose and meaning, as you will find,’ replied the other.
‘Lay them to heart.’

‘Lay you then, these,’ said Edward. ‘Your cold and sullen temper, which
chills every breast about you, which turns affection into fear, and
changes duty into dread, has forced us on this secret course, repugnant
to our nature and our wish, and far more foreign, sir, to us than you.
I am not a false, a hollow, or a heartless man; the character is yours,
who poorly venture on these injurious terms, against the truth, and
under the shelter whereof I reminded you just now. You shall not cancel
the bond between us. I will not abandon this pursuit. I rely upon your
niece’s truth and honour, and set your influence at nought. I leave her
with a confidence in her pure faith, which you will never weaken, and
with no concern but that I do not leave her in some gentler care.’

With that, he pressed her cold hand to his lips, and once more
encountering and returning Mr Haredale’s steady look, withdrew.

A few words to Joe as he mounted his horse sufficiently explained what
had passed, and renewed all that young gentleman’s despondency with
tenfold aggravation. They rode back to the Maypole without exchanging a
syllable, and arrived at the door with heavy hearts.

Old John, who had peeped from behind the red curtain as they rode up
shouting for Hugh, was out directly, and said with great importance as
he held the young man’s stirrup,

‘He’s comfortable in bed--the best bed. A thorough gentleman; the
smilingest, affablest gentleman I ever had to do with.’

‘Who, Willet?’ said Edward carelessly, as he dismounted.

‘Your worthy father, sir,’ replied John. ‘Your honourable, venerable
father.’

‘What does he mean?’ said Edward, looking with a mixture of alarm and
doubt, at Joe.

‘What DO you mean?’ said Joe. ‘Don’t you see Mr Edward doesn’t
understand, father?’

‘Why, didn’t you know of it, sir?’ said John, opening his eyes wide.
‘How very singular! Bless you, he’s been here ever since noon to-day,
and Mr Haredale has been having a long talk with him, and hasn’t been
gone an hour.’

‘My father, Willet!’

‘Yes, sir, he told me so--a handsome, slim, upright gentleman, in
green-and-gold. In your old room up yonder, sir. No doubt you can go in,
sir,’ said John, walking backwards into the road and looking up at the
window. ‘He hasn’t put out his candles yet, I see.’

Edward glanced at the window also, and hastily murmuring that he had
changed his mind--forgotten something--and must return to London,
mounted his horse again and rode away; leaving the Willets, father and
son, looking at each other in mute astonishment.



Chapter 15


At noon next day, John Willet’s guest sat lingering over his breakfast
in his own home, surrounded by a variety of comforts, which left the
Maypole’s highest flight and utmost stretch of accommodation at an
infinite distance behind, and suggested comparisons very much to the
disadvantage and disfavour of that venerable tavern.

In the broad old-fashioned window-seat--as capacious as many modern
sofas, and cushioned to serve the purpose of a luxurious settee--in the
broad old-fashioned window-seat of a roomy chamber, Mr Chester lounged,
very much at his ease, over a well-furnished breakfast-table. He had
exchanged his riding-coat for a handsome morning-gown, his boots for
slippers; had been at great pains to atone for the having been obliged
to make his toilet when he rose without the aid of dressing-case and
tiring equipage; and, having gradually forgotten through these means the
discomforts of an indifferent night and an early ride, was in a state of
perfect complacency, indolence, and satisfaction.

The situation in which he found himself, indeed, was particularly
favourable to the growth of these feelings; for, not to mention the lazy
influence of a late and lonely breakfast, with the additional sedative
of a newspaper, there was an air of repose about his place of residence
peculiar to itself, and which hangs about it, even in these times, when
it is more bustling and busy than it was in days of yore.

There are, still, worse places than the Temple, on a sultry day,
for basking in the sun, or resting idly in the shade. There is yet a
drowsiness in its courts, and a dreamy dulness in its trees and gardens;
those who pace its lanes and squares may yet hear the echoes of their
footsteps on the sounding stones, and read upon its gates, in passing
from the tumult of the Strand or Fleet Street, ‘Who enters here leaves
noise behind.’ There is still the plash of falling water in fair
Fountain Court, and there are yet nooks and corners where dun-haunted
students may look down from their dusty garrets, on a vagrant ray of
sunlight patching the shade of the tall houses, and seldom troubled
to reflect a passing stranger’s form. There is yet, in the Temple,
something of a clerkly monkish atmosphere, which public offices of law
have not disturbed, and even legal firms have failed to scare away. In
summer time, its pumps suggest to thirsty idlers, springs cooler, and
more sparkling, and deeper than other wells; and as they trace the
spillings of full pitchers on the heated ground, they snuff the
freshness, and, sighing, cast sad looks towards the Thames, and think of
baths and boats, and saunter on, despondent.

It was in a room in Paper Buildings--a row of goodly tenements, shaded
in front by ancient trees, and looking, at the back, upon the Temple
Gardens--that this, our idler, lounged; now taking up again the paper
he had laid down a hundred times; now trifling with the fragments of
his meal; now pulling forth his golden toothpick, and glancing leisurely
about the room, or out at window into the trim garden walks, where a few
early loiterers were already pacing to and fro. Here a pair of lovers
met to quarrel and make up; there a dark-eyed nursery-maid had better
eyes for Templars than her charge; on this hand an ancient spinster,
with her lapdog in a string, regarded both enormities with scornful
sidelong looks; on that a weazen old gentleman, ogling the nursery-maid,
looked with like scorn upon the spinster, and wondered she didn’t know
she was no longer young. Apart from all these, on the river’s margin two
or three couple of business-talkers walked slowly up and down in earnest
conversation; and one young man sat thoughtfully on a bench, alone.

‘Ned is amazingly patient!’ said Mr Chester, glancing at this last-named
person as he set down his teacup and plied the golden toothpick,
‘immensely patient! He was sitting yonder when I began to dress, and has
scarcely changed his posture since. A most eccentric dog!’

As he spoke, the figure rose, and came towards him with a rapid pace.

‘Really, as if he had heard me,’ said the father, resuming his newspaper
with a yawn. ‘Dear Ned!’

Presently the room-door opened, and the young man entered; to whom his
father gently waved his hand, and smiled.

‘Are you at leisure for a little conversation, sir?’ said Edward.

‘Surely, Ned. I am always at leisure. You know my constitution.--Have
you breakfasted?’

‘Three hours ago.’

‘What a very early dog!’ cried his father, contemplating him from behind
the toothpick, with a languid smile.

‘The truth is,’ said Edward, bringing a chair forward, and seating
himself near the table, ‘that I slept but ill last night, and was glad
to rise. The cause of my uneasiness cannot but be known to you, sir; and
it is upon that I wish to speak.’

‘My dear boy,’ returned his father, ‘confide in me, I beg. But you know
my constitution--don’t be prosy, Ned.’

‘I will be plain, and brief,’ said Edward.

‘Don’t say you will, my good fellow,’ returned his father, crossing his
legs, ‘or you certainly will not. You are going to tell me’--

‘Plainly this, then,’ said the son, with an air of great concern, ‘that
I know where you were last night--from being on the spot, indeed--and
whom you saw, and what your purpose was.’

‘You don’t say so!’ cried his father. ‘I am delighted to hear it. It
saves us the worry, and terrible wear and tear of a long explanation,
and is a great relief for both. At the very house! Why didn’t you come
up? I should have been charmed to see you.’

‘I knew that what I had to say would be better said after a night’s
reflection, when both of us were cool,’ returned the son.

‘’Fore Gad, Ned,’ rejoined the father, ‘I was cool enough last night.
That detestable Maypole! By some infernal contrivance of the builder,
it holds the wind, and keeps it fresh. You remember the sharp east wind
that blew so hard five weeks ago? I give you my honour it was rampant
in that old house last night, though out of doors there was a dead calm.
But you were saying’--

‘I was about to say, Heaven knows how seriously and earnestly, that you
have made me wretched, sir. Will you hear me gravely for a moment?’

‘My dear Ned,’ said his father, ‘I will hear you with the patience of an
anchorite. Oblige me with the milk.’

‘I saw Miss Haredale last night,’ Edward resumed, when he had complied
with this request; ‘her uncle, in her presence, immediately after your
interview, and, as of course I know, in consequence of it, forbade
me the house, and, with circumstances of indignity which are of your
creation I am sure, commanded me to leave it on the instant.’

‘For his manner of doing so, I give you my honour, Ned, I am not
accountable,’ said his father. ‘That you must excuse. He is a mere boor,
a log, a brute, with no address in life.--Positively a fly in the jug.
The first I have seen this year.’

Edward rose, and paced the room. His imperturbable parent sipped his
tea.

‘Father,’ said the young man, stopping at length before him, ‘we must
not trifle in this matter. We must not deceive each other, or ourselves.
Let me pursue the manly open part I wish to take, and do not repel me by
this unkind indifference.’

‘Whether I am indifferent or no,’ returned the other, ‘I leave you, my
dear boy, to judge. A ride of twenty-five or thirty miles, through miry
roads--a Maypole dinner--a tete-a-tete with Haredale, which, vanity
apart, was quite a Valentine and Orson business--a Maypole bed--a
Maypole landlord, and a Maypole retinue of idiots and centaurs;--whether
the voluntary endurance of these things looks like indifference, dear
Ned, or like the excessive anxiety, and devotion, and all that sort of
thing, of a parent, you shall determine for yourself.’

‘I wish you to consider, sir,’ said Edward, ‘in what a cruel situation I
am placed. Loving Miss Haredale as I do’--

‘My dear fellow,’ interrupted his father with a compassionate smile,
‘you do nothing of the kind. You don’t know anything about it. There’s
no such thing, I assure you. Now, do take my word for it. You have good
sense, Ned,--great good sense. I wonder you should be guilty of such
amazing absurdities. You really surprise me.’

‘I repeat,’ said his son firmly, ‘that I love her. You have interposed
to part us, and have, to the extent I have just now told you of,
succeeded. May I induce you, sir, in time, to think more favourably of
our attachment, or is it your intention and your fixed design to hold us
asunder if you can?’

‘My dear Ned,’ returned his father, taking a pinch of snuff and pushing
his box towards him, ‘that is my purpose most undoubtedly.’

‘The time that has elapsed,’ rejoined his son, ‘since I began to know
her worth, has flown in such a dream that until now I have hardly once
paused to reflect upon my true position. What is it? From my childhood
I have been accustomed to luxury and idleness, and have been bred as
though my fortune were large, and my expectations almost without a
limit. The idea of wealth has been familiarised to me from my cradle. I
have been taught to look upon those means, by which men raise themselves
to riches and distinction, as being beyond my heeding, and beneath my
care. I have been, as the phrase is, liberally educated, and am fit
for nothing. I find myself at last wholly dependent upon you, with no
resource but in your favour. In this momentous question of my life we do
not, and it would seem we never can, agree. I have shrunk instinctively
alike from those to whom you have urged me to pay court, and from the
motives of interest and gain which have rendered them in your eyes
visible objects for my suit. If there never has been thus much
plain-speaking between us before, sir, the fault has not been mine,
indeed. If I seem to speak too plainly now, it is, believe me father, in
the hope that there may be a franker spirit, a worthier reliance, and a
kinder confidence between us in time to come.’

‘My good fellow,’ said his smiling father, ‘you quite affect me. Go
on, my dear Edward, I beg. But remember your promise. There is great
earnestness, vast candour, a manifest sincerity in all you say, but I
fear I observe the faintest indications of a tendency to prose.’

‘I am very sorry, sir.’

‘I am very sorry, too, Ned, but you know that I cannot fix my mind for
any long period upon one subject. If you’ll come to the point at once,
I’ll imagine all that ought to go before, and conclude it said. Oblige
me with the milk again. Listening, invariably makes me feverish.’

‘What I would say then, tends to this,’ said Edward. ‘I cannot bear
this absolute dependence, sir, even upon you. Time has been lost and
opportunity thrown away, but I am yet a young man, and may retrieve it.
Will you give me the means of devoting such abilities and energies as I
possess, to some worthy pursuit? Will you let me try to make for myself
an honourable path in life? For any term you please to name--say for
five years if you will--I will pledge myself to move no further in the
matter of our difference without your full concurrence. During that
period, I will endeavour earnestly and patiently, if ever man did, to
open some prospect for myself, and free you from the burden you fear
I should become if I married one whose worth and beauty are her chief
endowments. Will you do this, sir? At the expiration of the term we
agree upon, let us discuss this subject again. Till then, unless it is
revived by you, let it never be renewed between us.’

‘My dear Ned,’ returned his father, laying down the newspaper at which
he had been glancing carelessly, and throwing himself back in the
window-seat, ‘I believe you know how very much I dislike what are called
family affairs, which are only fit for plebeian Christmas days, and
have no manner of business with people of our condition. But as you
are proceeding upon a mistake, Ned--altogether upon a mistake--I will
conquer my repugnance to entering on such matters, and give you a
perfectly plain and candid answer, if you will do me the favour to shut
the door.’

Edward having obeyed him, he took an elegant little knife from his
pocket, and paring his nails, continued:

‘You have to thank me, Ned, for being of good family; for your mother,
charming person as she was, and almost broken-hearted, and so forth, as
she left me, when she was prematurely compelled to become immortal--had
nothing to boast of in that respect.’

‘Her father was at least an eminent lawyer, sir,’ said Edward.

‘Quite right, Ned; perfectly so. He stood high at the bar, had a great
name and great wealth, but having risen from nothing--I have
always closed my eyes to the circumstance and steadily resisted its
contemplation, but I fear his father dealt in pork, and that his
business did once involve cow-heel and sausages--he wished to marry his
daughter into a good family. He had his heart’s desire, Ned. I was a
younger son’s younger son, and I married her. We each had our object,
and gained it. She stepped at once into the politest and best circles,
and I stepped into a fortune which I assure you was very necessary to my
comfort--quite indispensable. Now, my good fellow, that fortune is among
the things that have been. It is gone, Ned, and has been gone--how old
are you? I always forget.’

‘Seven-and-twenty, sir.’

‘Are you indeed?’ cried his father, raising his eyelids in a languishing
surprise. ‘So much! Then I should say, Ned, that as nearly as I
remember, its skirts vanished from human knowledge, about eighteen or
nineteen years ago. It was about that time when I came to live in these
chambers (once your grandfather’s, and bequeathed by that extremely
respectable person to me), and commenced to live upon an inconsiderable
annuity and my past reputation.’

‘You are jesting with me, sir,’ said Edward.

‘Not in the slightest degree, I assure you,’ returned his father with
great composure. ‘These family topics are so extremely dry, that I am
sorry to say they don’t admit of any such relief. It is for that reason,
and because they have an appearance of business, that I dislike them so
very much. Well! You know the rest. A son, Ned, unless he is old enough
to be a companion--that is to say, unless he is some two or three and
twenty--is not the kind of thing to have about one. He is a restraint
upon his father, his father is a restraint upon him, and they make each
other mutually uncomfortable. Therefore, until within the last four
years or so--I have a poor memory for dates, and if I mistake, you will
correct me in your own mind--you pursued your studies at a distance, and
picked up a great variety of accomplishments. Occasionally we passed a
week or two together here, and disconcerted each other as only such near
relations can. At last you came home. I candidly tell you, my dear boy,
that if you had been awkward and overgrown, I should have exported you
to some distant part of the world.’

‘I wish with all my soul you had, sir,’ said Edward.

‘No you don’t, Ned,’ said his father coolly; ‘you are mistaken, I assure
you. I found you a handsome, prepossessing, elegant fellow, and I threw
you into the society I can still command. Having done that, my dear
fellow, I consider that I have provided for you in life, and rely upon
your doing something to provide for me in return.’

‘I do not understand your meaning, sir.’

‘My meaning, Ned, is obvious--I observe another fly in the cream-jug,
but have the goodness not to take it out as you did the first, for
their walk when their legs are milky, is extremely ungraceful and
disagreeable--my meaning is, that you must do as I did; that you must
marry well and make the most of yourself.’

‘A mere fortune-hunter!’ cried the son, indignantly.

‘What in the devil’s name, Ned, would you be!’ returned the father. ‘All
men are fortune-hunters, are they not? The law, the church, the court,
the camp--see how they are all crowded with fortune-hunters, jostling
each other in the pursuit. The stock-exchange, the pulpit, the
counting-house, the royal drawing-room, the senate,--what but
fortune-hunters are they filled with? A fortune-hunter! Yes. You
ARE one; and you would be nothing else, my dear Ned, if you were
the greatest courtier, lawyer, legislator, prelate, or merchant, in
existence. If you are squeamish and moral, Ned, console yourself with
the reflection that at the very worst your fortune-hunting can make but
one person miserable or unhappy. How many people do you suppose these
other kinds of huntsmen crush in following their sport--hundreds at a
step? Or thousands?’

The young man leant his head upon his hand, and made no answer.

‘I am quite charmed,’ said the father rising, and walking slowly to and
fro--stopping now and then to glance at himself in the mirror, or survey
a picture through his glass, with the air of a connoisseur, ‘that we
have had this conversation, Ned, unpromising as it was. It establishes
a confidence between us which is quite delightful, and was certainly
necessary, though how you can ever have mistaken our positions and
designs, I confess I cannot understand. I conceived, until I found your
fancy for this girl, that all these points were tacitly agreed upon
between us.’

‘I knew you were embarrassed, sir,’ returned the son, raising his head
for a moment, and then falling into his former attitude, ‘but I had no
idea we were the beggared wretches you describe. How could I suppose it,
bred as I have been; witnessing the life you have always led; and the
appearance you have always made?’

‘My dear child,’ said the father--‘for you really talk so like a child
that I must call you one--you were bred upon a careful principle;
the very manner of your education, I assure you, maintained my credit
surprisingly. As to the life I lead, I must lead it, Ned. I must have
these little refinements about me. I have always been used to them, and
I cannot exist without them. They must surround me, you observe, and
therefore they are here. With regard to our circumstances, Ned, you
may set your mind at rest upon that score. They are desperate. Your own
appearance is by no means despicable, and our joint pocket-money alone
devours our income. That’s the truth.’

‘Why have I never known this before? Why have you encouraged me, sir, to
an expenditure and mode of life to which we have no right or title?’

‘My good fellow,’ returned his father more compassionately than ever,
‘if you made no appearance, how could you possibly succeed in the
pursuit for which I destined you? As to our mode of life, every man
has a right to live in the best way he can; and to make himself as
comfortable as he can, or he is an unnatural scoundrel. Our debts, I
grant, are very great, and therefore it the more behoves you, as a young
man of principle and honour, to pay them off as speedily as possible.’

‘The villain’s part,’ muttered Edward, ‘that I have unconsciously
played! I to win the heart of Emma Haredale! I would, for her sake, I
had died first!’

‘I am glad you see, Ned,’ returned his father, ‘how perfectly
self-evident it is, that nothing can be done in that quarter. But apart
from this, and the necessity of your speedily bestowing yourself on
another (as you know you could to-morrow, if you chose), I wish you’d
look upon it pleasantly. In a religious point of view alone, how
could you ever think of uniting yourself to a Catholic, unless she was
amazingly rich? You ought to be so very Protestant, coming of such a
Protestant family as you do. Let us be moral, Ned, or we are nothing.
Even if one could set that objection aside, which is impossible, we come
to another which is quite conclusive. The very idea of marrying a girl
whose father was killed, like meat! Good God, Ned, how disagreeable!
Consider the impossibility of having any respect for your father-in-law
under such unpleasant circumstances--think of his having been “viewed”
 by jurors, and “sat upon” by coroners, and of his very doubtful position
in the family ever afterwards. It seems to me such an indelicate sort
of thing that I really think the girl ought to have been put to death by
the state to prevent its happening. But I tease you perhaps. You would
rather be alone? My dear Ned, most willingly. God bless you. I shall
be going out presently, but we shall meet to-night, or if not to-night,
certainly to-morrow. Take care of yourself in the mean time, for both
our sakes. You are a person of great consequence to me, Ned--of vast
consequence indeed. God bless you!’

With these words, the father, who had been arranging his cravat in
the glass, while he uttered them in a disconnected careless manner,
withdrew, humming a tune as he went. The son, who had appeared so lost
in thought as not to hear or understand them, remained quite still and
silent. After the lapse of half an hour or so, the elder Chester, gaily
dressed, went out. The younger still sat with his head resting on his
hands, in what appeared to be a kind of stupor.



Chapter 16


A series of pictures representing the streets of London in the night,
even at the comparatively recent date of this tale, would present to the
eye something so very different in character from the reality which is
witnessed in these times, that it would be difficult for the beholder to
recognise his most familiar walks in the altered aspect of little more
than half a century ago.

They were, one and all, from the broadest and best to the narrowest and
least frequented, very dark. The oil and cotton lamps, though regularly
trimmed twice or thrice in the long winter nights, burnt feebly at the
best; and at a late hour, when they were unassisted by the lamps and
candles in the shops, cast but a narrow track of doubtful light upon the
footway, leaving the projecting doors and house-fronts in the deepest
gloom. Many of the courts and lanes were left in total darkness; those
of the meaner sort, where one glimmering light twinkled for a score of
houses, being favoured in no slight degree. Even in these places, the
inhabitants had often good reason for extinguishing their lamp as soon
as it was lighted; and the watch being utterly inefficient and powerless
to prevent them, they did so at their pleasure. Thus, in the lightest
thoroughfares, there was at every turn some obscure and dangerous spot
whither a thief might fly or shelter, and few would care to follow; and
the city being belted round by fields, green lanes, waste grounds, and
lonely roads, dividing it at that time from the suburbs that have joined
it since, escape, even where the pursuit was hot, was rendered easy.

It is no wonder that with these favouring circumstances in full and
constant operation, street robberies, often accompanied by cruel wounds,
and not unfrequently by loss of life, should have been of nightly
occurrence in the very heart of London, or that quiet folks should have
had great dread of traversing its streets after the shops were closed.
It was not unusual for those who wended home alone at midnight, to
keep the middle of the road, the better to guard against surprise from
lurking footpads; few would venture to repair at a late hour to Kentish
Town or Hampstead, or even to Kensington or Chelsea, unarmed and
unattended; while he who had been loudest and most valiant at the
supper-table or the tavern, and had but a mile or so to go, was glad to
fee a link-boy to escort him home.

There were many other characteristics--not quite so disagreeable--about
the thoroughfares of London then, with which they had been long
familiar. Some of the shops, especially those to the eastward of Temple
Bar, still adhered to the old practice of hanging out a sign; and the
creaking and swinging of these boards in their iron frames on windy
nights, formed a strange and mournful concert for the ears of those
who lay awake in bed or hurried through the streets. Long stands of
hackney-chairs and groups of chairmen, compared with whom the coachmen
of our day are gentle and polite, obstructed the way and filled the
air with clamour; night-cellars, indicated by a little stream of light
crossing the pavement, and stretching out half-way into the road, and
by the stifled roar of voices from below, yawned for the reception and
entertainment of the most abandoned of both sexes; under every shed and
bulk small groups of link-boys gamed away the earnings of the day; or
one more weary than the rest, gave way to sleep, and let the fragment of
his torch fall hissing on the puddled ground.

Then there was the watch with staff and lantern crying the hour, and
the kind of weather; and those who woke up at his voice and turned them
round in bed, were glad to hear it rained, or snowed, or blew, or froze,
for very comfort’s sake. The solitary passenger was startled by the
chairmen’s cry of ‘By your leave there!’ as two came trotting past
him with their empty vehicle--carried backwards to show its being
disengaged--and hurried to the nearest stand. Many a private chair,
too, inclosing some fine lady, monstrously hooped and furbelowed, and
preceded by running-footmen bearing flambeaux--for which extinguishers
are yet suspended before the doors of a few houses of the better
sort--made the way gay and light as it danced along, and darker and more
dismal when it had passed. It was not unusual for these running gentry,
who carried it with a very high hand, to quarrel in the servants’ hall
while waiting for their masters and mistresses; and, falling to blows
either there or in the street without, to strew the place of skirmish
with hair-powder, fragments of bag-wigs, and scattered nosegays. Gaming,
the vice which ran so high among all classes (the fashion being of
course set by the upper), was generally the cause of these disputes;
for cards and dice were as openly used, and worked as much mischief, and
yielded as much excitement below stairs, as above. While incidents like
these, arising out of drums and masquerades and parties at quadrille,
were passing at the west end of the town, heavy stagecoaches and scarce
heavier waggons were lumbering slowly towards the city, the coachmen,
guard, and passengers, armed to the teeth, and the coach--a day or so
perhaps behind its time, but that was nothing--despoiled by highwaymen;
who made no scruple to attack, alone and single-handed, a whole caravan
of goods and men, and sometimes shot a passenger or two, and were
sometimes shot themselves, as the case might be. On the morrow, rumours
of this new act of daring on the road yielded matter for a few hours’
conversation through the town, and a Public Progress of some fine
gentleman (half-drunk) to Tyburn, dressed in the newest fashion, and
damning the ordinary with unspeakable gallantry and grace, furnished to
the populace, at once a pleasant excitement and a wholesome and profound
example.

Among all the dangerous characters who, in such a state of society,
prowled and skulked in the metropolis at night, there was one man from
whom many as uncouth and fierce as he, shrunk with an involuntary dread.
Who he was, or whence he came, was a question often asked, but which
none could answer. His name was unknown, he had never been seen until
within about eight days or thereabouts, and was equally a stranger to
the old ruffians, upon whose haunts he ventured fearlessly, as to the
young. He could be no spy, for he never removed his slouched hat to look
about him, entered into conversation with no man, heeded nothing that
passed, listened to no discourse, regarded nobody that came or went.
But so surely as the dead of night set in, so surely this man was in the
midst of the loose concourse in the night-cellar where outcasts of every
grade resorted; and there he sat till morning.

He was not only a spectre at their licentious feasts; a something in the
midst of their revelry and riot that chilled and haunted them; but out
of doors he was the same. Directly it was dark, he was abroad--never in
company with any one, but always alone; never lingering or loitering,
but always walking swiftly; and looking (so they said who had seen him)
over his shoulder from time to time, and as he did so quickening his
pace. In the fields, the lanes, the roads, in all quarters of the
town--east, west, north, and south--that man was seen gliding on like a
shadow. He was always hurrying away. Those who encountered him, saw him
steal past, caught sight of the backward glance, and so lost him in the
darkness.

This constant restlessness, and flitting to and fro, gave rise to
strange stories. He was seen in such distant and remote places, at times
so nearly tallying with each other, that some doubted whether there were
not two of them, or more--some, whether he had not unearthly means of
travelling from spot to spot. The footpad hiding in a ditch had marked
him passing like a ghost along its brink; the vagrant had met him on the
dark high-road; the beggar had seen him pause upon the bridge to look
down at the water, and then sweep on again; they who dealt in bodies
with the surgeons could swear he slept in churchyards, and that they
had beheld him glide away among the tombs on their approach. And as they
told these stories to each other, one who had looked about him would
pull his neighbour by the sleeve, and there he would be among them.

At last, one man--he was one of those whose commerce lay among the
graves--resolved to question this strange companion. Next night, when
he had eat his poor meal voraciously (he was accustomed to do that, they
had observed, as though he had no other in the day), this fellow sat
down at his elbow.

‘A black night, master!’

‘It is a black night.’

‘Blacker than last, though that was pitchy too. Didn’t I pass you near
the turnpike in the Oxford Road?’

‘It’s like you may. I don’t know.’

‘Come, come, master,’ cried the fellow, urged on by the looks of his
comrades, and slapping him on the shoulder; ‘be more companionable and
communicative. Be more the gentleman in this good company. There are
tales among us that you have sold yourself to the devil, and I know not
what.’

‘We all have, have we not?’ returned the stranger, looking up. ‘If we
were fewer in number, perhaps he would give better wages.’

‘It goes rather hard with you, indeed,’ said the fellow, as the stranger
disclosed his haggard unwashed face, and torn clothes. ‘What of that? Be
merry, master. A stave of a roaring song now’--

‘Sing you, if you desire to hear one,’ replied the other, shaking him
roughly off; ‘and don’t touch me if you’re a prudent man; I carry
arms which go off easily--they have done so, before now--and make it
dangerous for strangers who don’t know the trick of them, to lay hands
upon me.’

‘Do you threaten?’ said the fellow.

‘Yes,’ returned the other, rising and turning upon him, and looking
fiercely round as if in apprehension of a general attack.

His voice, and look, and bearing--all expressive of the wildest
recklessness and desperation--daunted while they repelled the
bystanders. Although in a very different sphere of action now, they were
not without much of the effect they had wrought at the Maypole Inn.

‘I am what you all are, and live as you all do,’ said the man sternly,
after a short silence. ‘I am in hiding here like the rest, and if we
were surprised would perhaps do my part with the best of ye. If it’s my
humour to be left to myself, let me have it. Otherwise,’--and here
he swore a tremendous oath--‘there’ll be mischief done in this place,
though there ARE odds of a score against me.’

A low murmur, having its origin perhaps in a dread of the man and the
mystery that surrounded him, or perhaps in a sincere opinion on the part
of some of those present, that it would be an inconvenient precedent to
meddle too curiously with a gentleman’s private affairs if he saw reason
to conceal them, warned the fellow who had occasioned this discussion
that he had best pursue it no further. After a short time the strange
man lay down upon a bench to sleep, and when they thought of him again,
they found he was gone.

Next night, as soon as it was dark, he was abroad again and traversing
the streets; he was before the locksmith’s house more than once, but
the family were out, and it was close shut. This night he crossed London
Bridge and passed into Southwark. As he glided down a bye street, a
woman with a little basket on her arm, turned into it at the other end.
Directly he observed her, he sought the shelter of an archway, and
stood aside until she had passed. Then he emerged cautiously from his
hiding-place, and followed.

She went into several shops to purchase various kinds of household
necessaries, and round every place at which she stopped he hovered like
her evil spirit; following her when she reappeared. It was nigh eleven
o’clock, and the passengers in the streets were thinning fast, when she
turned, doubtless to go home. The phantom still followed her.

She turned into the same bye street in which he had seen her first,
which, being free from shops, and narrow, was extremely dark. She
quickened her pace here, as though distrustful of being stopped, and
robbed of such trifling property as she carried with her. He crept along
on the other side of the road. Had she been gifted with the speed of
wind, it seemed as if his terrible shadow would have tracked her down.

At length the widow--for she it was--reached her own door, and, panting
for breath, paused to take the key from her basket. In a flush and glow,
with the haste she had made, and the pleasure of being safe at home,
she stooped to draw it out, when, raising her head, she saw him standing
silently beside her: the apparition of a dream.

His hand was on her mouth, but that was needless, for her tongue clove
to its roof, and her power of utterance was gone. ‘I have been looking
for you many nights. Is the house empty? Answer me. Is any one inside?’

She could only answer by a rattle in her throat.

‘Make me a sign.’

She seemed to indicate that there was no one there. He took the key,
unlocked the door, carried her in, and secured it carefully behind them.



Chapter 17


It was a chilly night, and the fire in the widow’s parlour had burnt
low. Her strange companion placed her in a chair, and stooping down
before the half-extinguished ashes, raked them together and fanned them
with his hat. From time to time he glanced at her over his shoulder, as
though to assure himself of her remaining quiet and making no effort to
depart; and that done, busied himself about the fire again.

It was not without reason that he took these pains, for his dress was
dank and drenched with wet, his jaws rattled with cold, and he shivered
from head to foot. It had rained hard during the previous night and for
some hours in the morning, but since noon it had been fine. Wheresoever
he had passed the hours of darkness, his condition sufficiently
betokened that many of them had been spent beneath the open sky.
Besmeared with mire; his saturated clothes clinging with a damp embrace
about his limbs; his beard unshaven, his face unwashed, his meagre
cheeks worn into deep hollows,--a more miserable wretch could hardly be,
than this man who now cowered down upon the widow’s hearth, and watched
the struggling flame with bloodshot eyes.

She had covered her face with her hands, fearing, as it seemed, to look
towards him. So they remained for some short time in silence. Glancing
round again, he asked at length:

‘Is this your house?’

‘It is. Why, in the name of Heaven, do you darken it?’

‘Give me meat and drink,’ he answered sullenly, ‘or I dare do more than
that. The very marrow in my bones is cold, with wet and hunger. I must
have warmth and food, and I will have them here.’

‘You were the robber on the Chigwell road.’

‘I was.’

‘And nearly a murderer then.’

‘The will was not wanting. There was one came upon me and raised the
hue-and-cry, that it would have gone hard with, but for his nimbleness.
I made a thrust at him.’

‘You thrust your sword at HIM!’ cried the widow, looking upwards. ‘You
hear this man! you hear and saw!’

He looked at her, as, with her head thrown back, and her hands tight
clenched together, she uttered these words in an agony of appeal. Then,
starting to his feet as she had done, he advanced towards her.

‘Beware!’ she cried in a suppressed voice, whose firmness stopped him
midway. ‘Do not so much as touch me with a finger, or you are lost; body
and soul, you are lost.’

‘Hear me,’ he replied, menacing her with his hand. ‘I, that in the form
of a man live the life of a hunted beast; that in the body am a spirit,
a ghost upon the earth, a thing from which all creatures shrink, save
those curst beings of another world, who will not leave me;--I am, in my
desperation of this night, past all fear but that of the hell in which I
exist from day to day. Give the alarm, cry out, refuse to shelter me. I
will not hurt you. But I will not be taken alive; and so surely as you
threaten me above your breath, I fall a dead man on this floor. The
blood with which I sprinkle it, be on you and yours, in the name of the
Evil Spirit that tempts men to their ruin!’

As he spoke, he took a pistol from his breast, and firmly clutched it in
his hand.

‘Remove this man from me, good Heaven!’ cried the widow. ‘In thy grace
and mercy, give him one minute’s penitence, and strike him dead!’

‘It has no such purpose,’ he said, confronting her. ‘It is deaf. Give me
to eat and drink, lest I do that it cannot help my doing, and will not
do for you.’

‘Will you leave me, if I do thus much? Will you leave me and return no
more?’

‘I will promise nothing,’ he rejoined, seating himself at the table,
‘nothing but this--I will execute my threat if you betray me.’

She rose at length, and going to a closet or pantry in the room, brought
out some fragments of cold meat and bread and put them on the table. He
asked for brandy, and for water. These she produced likewise; and he ate
and drank with the voracity of a famished hound. All the time he was so
engaged she kept at the uttermost distance of the chamber, and sat there
shuddering, but with her face towards him. She never turned her back
upon him once; and although when she passed him (as she was obliged to
do in going to and from the cupboard) she gathered the skirts of her
garment about her, as if even its touching his by chance were horrible
to think of, still, in the midst of all this dread and terror, she kept
her face towards his own, and watched his every movement.

His repast ended--if that can be called one, which was a mere ravenous
satisfying of the calls of hunger--he moved his chair towards the
fire again, and warming himself before the blaze which had now sprung
brightly up, accosted her once more.

‘I am an outcast, to whom a roof above his head is often an uncommon
luxury, and the food a beggar would reject is delicate fare. You live
here at your ease. Do you live alone?’

‘I do not,’ she made answer with an effort.

‘Who dwells here besides?’

‘One--it is no matter who. You had best begone, or he may find you here.
Why do you linger?’

‘For warmth,’ he replied, spreading out his hands before the fire. ‘For
warmth. You are rich, perhaps?’

‘Very,’ she said faintly. ‘Very rich. No doubt I am very rich.’

‘At least you are not penniless. You have some money. You were making
purchases to-night.’

‘I have a little left. It is but a few shillings.’

‘Give me your purse. You had it in your hand at the door. Give it to
me.’

She stepped to the table and laid it down. He reached across, took it
up, and told the contents into his hand. As he was counting them, she
listened for a moment, and sprung towards him.

‘Take what there is, take all, take more if more were there, but go
before it is too late. I have heard a wayward step without, I know full
well. It will return directly. Begone.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Do not stop to ask. I will not answer. Much as I dread to touch you, I
would drag you to the door if I possessed the strength, rather than you
should lose an instant. Miserable wretch! fly from this place.’

‘If there are spies without, I am safer here,’ replied the man, standing
aghast. ‘I will remain here, and will not fly till the danger is past.’

‘It is too late!’ cried the widow, who had listened for the step, and
not to him. ‘Hark to that foot upon the ground. Do you tremble to hear
it! It is my son, my idiot son!’

As she said this wildly, there came a heavy knocking at the door. He
looked at her, and she at him.

‘Let him come in,’ said the man, hoarsely. ‘I fear him less than the
dark, houseless night. He knocks again. Let him come in!’

‘The dread of this hour,’ returned the widow, ‘has been upon me all my
life, and I will not. Evil will fall upon him, if you stand eye to eye.
My blighted boy! Oh! all good angels who know the truth--hear a poor
mother’s prayer, and spare my boy from knowledge of this man!’

‘He rattles at the shutters!’ cried the man. ‘He calls you. That voice
and cry! It was he who grappled with me in the road. Was it he?’

She had sunk upon her knees, and so knelt down, moving her lips, but
uttering no sound. As he gazed upon her, uncertain what to do or where
to turn, the shutters flew open. He had barely time to catch a knife
from the table, sheathe it in the loose sleeve of his coat, hide in the
closet, and do all with the lightning’s speed, when Barnaby tapped at
the bare glass, and raised the sash exultingly.

‘Why, who can keep out Grip and me!’ he cried, thrusting in his head,
and staring round the room. ‘Are you there, mother? How long you keep us
from the fire and light.’

She stammered some excuse and tendered him her hand. But Barnaby sprung
lightly in without assistance, and putting his arms about her neck,
kissed her a hundred times.

‘We have been afield, mother--leaping ditches, scrambling through
hedges, running down steep banks, up and away, and hurrying on. The wind
has been blowing, and the rushes and young plants bowing and bending to
it, lest it should do them harm, the cowards--and Grip--ha ha ha!--brave
Grip, who cares for nothing, and when the wind rolls him over in the
dust, turns manfully to bite it--Grip, bold Grip, has quarrelled with
every little bowing twig--thinking, he told me, that it mocked him--and
has worried it like a bulldog. Ha ha ha!’

The raven, in his little basket at his master’s back, hearing this
frequent mention of his name in a tone of exultation, expressed his
sympathy by crowing like a cock, and afterwards running over his various
phrases of speech with such rapidity, and in so many varieties of
hoarseness, that they sounded like the murmurs of a crowd of people.

‘He takes such care of me besides!’ said Barnaby. ‘Such care, mother! He
watches all the time I sleep, and when I shut my eyes and make-believe
to slumber, he practises new learning softly; but he keeps his eye on
me the while, and if he sees me laugh, though never so little, stops
directly. He won’t surprise me till he’s perfect.’

The raven crowed again in a rapturous manner which plainly said, ‘Those
are certainly some of my characteristics, and I glory in them.’ In the
meantime, Barnaby closed the window and secured it, and coming to the
fireplace, prepared to sit down with his face to the closet. But
his mother prevented this, by hastily taking that side herself, and
motioning him towards the other.

‘How pale you are to-night!’ said Barnaby, leaning on his stick. ‘We
have been cruel, Grip, and made her anxious!’

Anxious in good truth, and sick at heart! The listener held the door
of his hiding-place open with his hand, and closely watched her son.
Grip--alive to everything his master was unconscious of--had his head
out of the basket, and in return was watching him intently with his
glistening eye.

‘He flaps his wings,’ said Barnaby, turning almost quickly enough to
catch the retreating form and closing door, ‘as if there were strangers
here, but Grip is wiser than to fancy that. Jump then!’

Accepting this invitation with a dignity peculiar to himself, the bird
hopped up on his master’s shoulder, from that to his extended hand, and
so to the ground. Barnaby unstrapping the basket and putting it down in
a corner with the lid open, Grip’s first care was to shut it down with
all possible despatch, and then to stand upon it. Believing, no doubt,
that he had now rendered it utterly impossible, and beyond the power of
mortal man, to shut him up in it any more, he drew a great many corks in
triumph, and uttered a corresponding number of hurrahs.

‘Mother!’ said Barnaby, laying aside his hat and stick, and returning
to the chair from which he had risen, ‘I’ll tell you where we have been
to-day, and what we have been doing,--shall I?’

She took his hand in hers, and holding it, nodded the word she could not
speak.

‘You mustn’t tell,’ said Barnaby, holding up his finger, ‘for it’s a
secret, mind, and only known to me, and Grip, and Hugh. We had the dog
with us, but he’s not like Grip, clever as he is, and doesn’t guess it
yet, I’ll wager.--Why do you look behind me so?’

‘Did I?’ she answered faintly. ‘I didn’t know I did. Come nearer me.’

‘You are frightened!’ said Barnaby, changing colour. ‘Mother--you don’t
see’--

‘See what?’

‘There’s--there’s none of this about, is there?’ he answered in a
whisper, drawing closer to her and clasping the mark upon his wrist.
‘I am afraid there is, somewhere. You make my hair stand on end, and my
flesh creep. Why do you look like that? Is it in the room as I have seen
it in my dreams, dashing the ceiling and the walls with red? Tell me. Is
it?’

He fell into a shivering fit as he put the question, and shutting out
the light with his hands, sat shaking in every limb until it had passed
away. After a time, he raised his head and looked about him.

‘Is it gone?’

‘There has been nothing here,’ rejoined his mother, soothing him.
‘Nothing indeed, dear Barnaby. Look! You see there are but you and me.’

He gazed at her vacantly, and, becoming reassured by degrees, burst into
a wild laugh.

‘But let us see,’ he said, thoughtfully. ‘Were we talking? Was it you
and me? Where have we been?’

‘Nowhere but here.’

‘Aye, but Hugh, and I,’ said Barnaby,--‘that’s it. Maypole Hugh, and
I, you know, and Grip--we have been lying in the forest, and among the
trees by the road side, with a dark lantern after night came on, and the
dog in a noose ready to slip him when the man came by.’

‘What man?’

‘The robber; him that the stars winked at. We have waited for him
after dark these many nights, and we shall have him. I’d know him in a
thousand. Mother, see here! This is the man. Look!’

He twisted his handkerchief round his head, pulled his hat upon his
brow, wrapped his coat about him, and stood up before her: so like the
original he counterfeited, that the dark figure peering out behind him
might have passed for his own shadow.

‘Ha ha ha! We shall have him,’ he cried, ridding himself of the
semblance as hastily as he had assumed it. ‘You shall see him, mother,
bound hand and foot, and brought to London at a saddle-girth; and you
shall hear of him at Tyburn Tree if we have luck. So Hugh says. You’re
pale again, and trembling. And why DO you look behind me so?’

‘It is nothing,’ she answered. ‘I am not quite well. Go you to bed,
dear, and leave me here.’

‘To bed!’ he answered. ‘I don’t like bed. I like to lie before the fire,
watching the prospects in the burning coals--the rivers, hills, and
dells, in the deep, red sunset, and the wild faces. I am hungry too,
and Grip has eaten nothing since broad noon. Let us to supper. Grip! To
supper, lad!’

The raven flapped his wings, and, croaking his satisfaction, hopped to
the feet of his master, and there held his bill open, ready for snapping
up such lumps of meat as he should throw him. Of these he received about
a score in rapid succession, without the smallest discomposure.

‘That’s all,’ said Barnaby.

‘More!’ cried Grip. ‘More!’

But it appearing for a certainty that no more was to be had, he
retreated with his store; and disgorging the morsels one by one from his
pouch, hid them in various corners--taking particular care, however, to
avoid the closet, as being doubtful of the hidden man’s propensities and
power of resisting temptation. When he had concluded these arrangements,
he took a turn or two across the room with an elaborate assumption of
having nothing on his mind (but with one eye hard upon his treasure all
the time), and then, and not till then, began to drag it out, piece by
piece, and eat it with the utmost relish.

Barnaby, for his part, having pressed his mother to eat in vain, made a
hearty supper too. Once during the progress of his meal, he wanted more
bread from the closet and rose to get it. She hurriedly interposed to
prevent him, and summoning her utmost fortitude, passed into the recess,
and brought it out herself.

‘Mother,’ said Barnaby, looking at her steadfastly as she sat down
beside him after doing so; ‘is to-day my birthday?’

‘To-day!’ she answered. ‘Don’t you recollect it was but a week or so
ago, and that summer, autumn, and winter have to pass before it comes
again?’

‘I remember that it has been so till now,’ said Barnaby. ‘But I think
to-day must be my birthday too, for all that.’

She asked him why? ‘I’ll tell you why,’ he said. ‘I have always seen
you--I didn’t let you know it, but I have--on the evening of that day
grow very sad. I have seen you cry when Grip and I were most glad; and
look frightened with no reason; and I have touched your hand, and felt
that it was cold--as it is now. Once, mother (on a birthday that was,
also), Grip and I thought of this after we went upstairs to bed, and
when it was midnight, striking one o’clock, we came down to your door to
see if you were well. You were on your knees. I forget what it was you
said. Grip, what was it we heard her say that night?’

‘I’m a devil!’ rejoined the raven promptly.

‘No, no,’ said Barnaby. ‘But you said something in a prayer; and when
you rose and walked about, you looked (as you have done ever since,
mother, towards night on my birthday) just as you do now. I have found
that out, you see, though I am silly. So I say you’re wrong; and this
must be my birthday--my birthday, Grip!’

The bird received this information with a crow of such duration as a
cock, gifted with intelligence beyond all others of his kind, might
usher in the longest day with. Then, as if he had well considered the
sentiment, and regarded it as apposite to birthdays, he cried, ‘Never
say die!’ a great many times, and flapped his wings for emphasis.

The widow tried to make light of Barnaby’s remark, and endeavoured to
divert his attention to some new subject; too easy a task at all times,
as she knew. His supper done, Barnaby, regardless of her entreaties,
stretched himself on the mat before the fire; Grip perched upon his
leg, and divided his time between dozing in the grateful warmth, and
endeavouring (as it presently appeared) to recall a new accomplishment
he had been studying all day.

A long and profound silence ensued, broken only by some change of
position on the part of Barnaby, whose eyes were still wide open and
intently fixed upon the fire; or by an effort of recollection on the
part of Grip, who would cry in a low voice from time to time, ‘Polly put
the ket--’ and there stop short, forgetting the remainder, and go off in
a doze again.

After a long interval, Barnaby’s breathing grew more deep and regular,
and his eyes were closed. But even then the unquiet spirit of the raven
interposed. ‘Polly put the ket--’ cried Grip, and his master was broad
awake again.

At length Barnaby slept soundly, and the bird with his bill sunk
upon his breast, his breast itself puffed out into a comfortable
alderman-like form, and his bright eye growing smaller and smaller,
really seemed to be subsiding into a state of repose. Now and then he
muttered in a sepulchral voice, ‘Polly put the ket--’ but very drowsily,
and more like a drunken man than a reflecting raven.

The widow, scarcely venturing to breathe, rose from her seat. The man
glided from the closet, and extinguished the candle.

‘--tle on,’ cried Grip, suddenly struck with an idea and very much
excited. ‘--tle on. Hurrah! Polly put the ket-tle on, we’ll all have
tea; Polly put the ket-tle on, we’ll all have tea. Hurrah, hurrah,
hurrah! I’m a devil, I’m a devil, I’m a ket-tle on, Keep up your
spirits, Never say die, Bow, wow, wow, I’m a devil, I’m a ket-tle, I’m
a--Polly put the ket-tle on, we’ll all have tea.’

They stood rooted to the ground, as though it had been a voice from the
grave.

But even this failed to awaken the sleeper. He turned over towards the
fire, his arm fell to the ground, and his head drooped heavily upon it.
The widow and her unwelcome visitor gazed at him and at each other for a
moment, and then she motioned him towards the door.

‘Stay,’ he whispered. ‘You teach your son well.’

‘I have taught him nothing that you heard to-night. Depart instantly, or
I will rouse him.’

‘You are free to do so. Shall I rouse him?’

‘You dare not do that.’

‘I dare do anything, I have told you. He knows me well, it seems. At
least I will know him.’

‘Would you kill him in his sleep?’ cried the widow, throwing herself
between them.

‘Woman,’ he returned between his teeth, as he motioned her aside, ‘I
would see him nearer, and I will. If you want one of us to kill the
other, wake him.’

With that he advanced, and bending down over the prostrate form, softly
turned back the head and looked into the face. The light of the fire
was upon it, and its every lineament was revealed distinctly. He
contemplated it for a brief space, and hastily uprose.

‘Observe,’ he whispered in the widow’s ear: ‘In him, of whose existence
I was ignorant until to-night, I have you in my power. Be careful how
you use me. Be careful how you use me. I am destitute and starving, and
a wanderer upon the earth. I may take a sure and slow revenge.’

‘There is some dreadful meaning in your words. I do not fathom it.’

‘There is a meaning in them, and I see you fathom it to its very depth.
You have anticipated it for years; you have told me as much. I leave you
to digest it. Do not forget my warning.’

He pointed, as he left her, to the slumbering form, and stealthily
withdrawing, made his way into the street. She fell on her knees beside
the sleeper, and remained like one stricken into stone, until the tears
which fear had frozen so long, came tenderly to her relief.

‘Oh Thou,’ she cried, ‘who hast taught me such deep love for this one
remnant of the promise of a happy life, out of whose affliction, even,
perhaps the comfort springs that he is ever a relying, loving child to
me--never growing old or cold at heart, but needing my care and duty in
his manly strength as in his cradle-time--help him, in his darkened walk
through this sad world, or he is doomed, and my poor heart is broken!’



Chapter 18


Gliding along the silent streets, and holding his course where they were
darkest and most gloomy, the man who had left the widow’s house crossed
London Bridge, and arriving in the City, plunged into the backways,
lanes, and courts, between Cornhill and Smithfield; with no more
fixedness of purpose than to lose himself among their windings, and
baffle pursuit, if any one were dogging his steps.

It was the dead time of the night, and all was quiet. Now and then a
drowsy watchman’s footsteps sounded on the pavement, or the lamplighter
on his rounds went flashing past, leaving behind a little track of smoke
mingled with glowing morsels of his hot red link. He hid himself even
from these partakers of his lonely walk, and, shrinking in some arch or
doorway while they passed, issued forth again when they were gone and so
pursued his solitary way.

To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan
and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to
the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old
barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things--but not
so dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and
sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature. To pace
the echoing stones from hour to hour, counting the dull chimes of the
clocks; to watch the lights twinkling in chamber windows, to think what
happy forgetfulness each house shuts in; that here are children coiled
together in their beds, here youth, here age, here poverty, here wealth,
all equal in their sleep, and all at rest; to have nothing in common
with the slumbering world around, not even sleep, Heaven’s gift to
all its creatures, and be akin to nothing but despair; to feel, by the
wretched contrast with everything on every hand, more utterly alone and
cast away than in a trackless desert; this is a kind of suffering, on
which the rivers of great cities close full many a time, and which the
solitude in crowds alone awakens.

The miserable man paced up and down the streets--so long, so wearisome,
so like each other--and often cast a wistful look towards the east,
hoping to see the first faint streaks of day. But obdurate night had
yet possession of the sky, and his disturbed and restless walk found no
relief.

One house in a back street was bright with the cheerful glare of lights;
there was the sound of music in it too, and the tread of dancers,
and there were cheerful voices, and many a burst of laughter. To this
place--to be near something that was awake and glad--he returned again
and again; and more than one of those who left it when the merriment
was at its height, felt it a check upon their mirthful mood to see him
flitting to and fro like an uneasy ghost. At last the guests departed,
one and all; and then the house was close shut up, and became as dull
and silent as the rest.

His wanderings brought him at one time to the city jail. Instead of
hastening from it as a place of ill omen, and one he had cause to shun,
he sat down on some steps hard by, and resting his chin upon his hand,
gazed upon its rough and frowning walls as though even they became a
refuge in his jaded eyes. He paced it round and round, came back to the
same spot, and sat down again. He did this often, and once, with a hasty
movement, crossed to where some men were watching in the prison lodge,
and had his foot upon the steps as though determined to accost them. But
looking round, he saw that the day began to break, and failing in his
purpose, turned and fled.

He was soon in the quarter he had lately traversed, and pacing to and
fro again as he had done before. He was passing down a mean street, when
from an alley close at hand some shouts of revelry arose, and there came
straggling forth a dozen madcaps, whooping and calling to each other,
who, parting noisily, took different ways and dispersed in smaller
groups.

Hoping that some low place of entertainment which would afford him a
safe refuge might be near at hand, he turned into this court when they
were all gone, and looked about for a half-opened door, or lighted
window, or other indication of the place whence they had come. It was
so profoundly dark, however, and so ill-favoured, that he concluded they
had but turned up there, missing their way, and were pouring out again
when he observed them. With this impression, and finding there was no
outlet but that by which he had entered, he was about to turn, when from
a grating near his feet a sudden stream of light appeared, and the sound
of talking came. He retreated into a doorway to see who these talkers
were, and to listen to them.

The light came to the level of the pavement as he did this, and a man
ascended, bearing in his hand a torch. This figure unlocked and held
open the grating as for the passage of another, who presently
appeared, in the form of a young man of small stature and uncommon
self-importance, dressed in an obsolete and very gaudy fashion.

‘Good night, noble captain,’ said he with the torch. ‘Farewell,
commander. Good luck, illustrious general!’

In return to these compliments the other bade him hold his tongue, and
keep his noise to himself, and laid upon him many similar injunctions,
with great fluency of speech and sternness of manner.

‘Commend me, captain, to the stricken Miggs,’ returned the torch-bearer
in a lower voice. ‘My captain flies at higher game than Miggses. Ha, ha,
ha! My captain is an eagle, both as respects his eye and soaring wings.
My captain breaketh hearts as other bachelors break eggs at breakfast.’

‘What a fool you are, Stagg!’ said Mr Tappertit, stepping on the
pavement of the court, and brushing from his legs the dust he had
contracted in his passage upward.

‘His precious limbs!’ cried Stagg, clasping one of his ankles. ‘Shall a
Miggs aspire to these proportions! No, no, my captain. We will inveigle
ladies fair, and wed them in our secret cavern. We will unite ourselves
with blooming beauties, captain.’

‘I’ll tell you what, my buck,’ said Mr Tappertit, releasing his leg;
‘I’ll trouble you not to take liberties, and not to broach certain
questions unless certain questions are broached to you. Speak when
you’re spoke to on particular subjects, and not otherways. Hold
the torch up till I’ve got to the end of the court, and then kennel
yourself, do you hear?’

‘I hear you, noble captain.’

‘Obey then,’ said Mr Tappertit haughtily. ‘Gentlemen, lead on!’ With
which word of command (addressed to an imaginary staff or retinue) he
folded his arms, and walked with surpassing dignity down the court.

His obsequious follower stood holding the torch above his head, and then
the observer saw for the first time, from his place of concealment, that
he was blind. Some involuntary motion on his part caught the quick
ear of the blind man, before he was conscious of having moved an inch
towards him, for he turned suddenly and cried, ‘Who’s there?’

‘A man,’ said the other, advancing. ‘A friend.’

‘A stranger!’ rejoined the blind man. ‘Strangers are not my friends.
What do you do there?’

‘I saw your company come out, and waited here till they were gone. I
want a lodging.’

‘A lodging at this time!’ returned Stagg, pointing towards the dawn as
though he saw it. ‘Do you know the day is breaking?’

‘I know it,’ rejoined the other, ‘to my cost. I have been traversing
this iron-hearted town all night.’

‘You had better traverse it again,’ said the blind man, preparing to
descend, ‘till you find some lodgings suitable to your taste. I don’t
let any.’

‘Stay!’ cried the other, holding him by the arm.

‘I’ll beat this light about that hangdog face of yours (for hangdog it
is, if it answers to your voice), and rouse the neighbourhood besides,
if you detain me,’ said the blind man. ‘Let me go. Do you hear?’

‘Do YOU hear!’ returned the other, chinking a few shillings together,
and hurriedly pressing them into his hand. ‘I beg nothing of you. I will
pay for the shelter you give me. Death! Is it much to ask of such as
you! I have come from the country, and desire to rest where there are
none to question me. I am faint, exhausted, worn out, almost dead. Let
me lie down, like a dog, before your fire. I ask no more than that. If
you would be rid of me, I will depart to-morrow.’

‘If a gentleman has been unfortunate on the road,’ muttered Stagg,
yielding to the other, who, pressing on him, had already gained a
footing on the steps--‘and can pay for his accommodation--’

‘I will pay you with all I have. I am just now past the want of food,
God knows, and wish but to purchase shelter. What companion have you
below?’

‘None.’

‘Then fasten your grate there, and show me the way. Quick!’

The blind man complied after a moment’s hesitation, and they descended
together. The dialogue had passed as hurriedly as the words could be
spoken, and they stood in his wretched room before he had had time to
recover from his first surprise.

‘May I see where that door leads to, and what is beyond?’ said the man,
glancing keenly round. ‘You will not mind that?’

‘I will show you myself. Follow me, or go before. Take your choice.’

He bade him lead the way, and, by the light of the torch which his
conductor held up for the purpose, inspected all three cellars narrowly.
Assured that the blind man had spoken truth, and that he lived there
alone, the visitor returned with him to the first, in which a fire was
burning, and flung himself with a deep groan upon the ground before it.

His host pursued his usual occupation without seeming to heed him any
further. But directly he fell asleep--and he noted his falling into a
slumber, as readily as the keenest-sighted man could have done--he knelt
down beside him, and passed his hand lightly but carefully over his face
and person.

His sleep was checkered with starts and moans, and sometimes with a
muttered word or two. His hands were clenched, his brow bent, and his
mouth firmly set. All this, the blind man accurately marked; and as if
his curiosity were strongly awakened, and he had already some inkling
of his mystery, he sat watching him, if the expression may be used, and
listening, until it was broad day.



Chapter 19


Dolly Varden’s pretty little head was yet bewildered by various
recollections of the party, and her bright eyes were yet dazzled by a
crowd of images, dancing before them like motes in the sunbeams, among
which the effigy of one partner in particular did especially figure, the
same being a young coachmaker (a master in his own right) who had given
her to understand, when he handed her into the chair at parting, that
it was his fixed resolve to neglect his business from that time, and die
slowly for the love of her--Dolly’s head, and eyes, and thoughts, and
seven senses, were all in a state of flutter and confusion for which the
party was accountable, although it was now three days old, when, as
she was sitting listlessly at breakfast, reading all manner of fortunes
(that is to say, of married and flourishing fortunes) in the grounds of
her teacup, a step was heard in the workshop, and Mr Edward Chester
was descried through the glass door, standing among the rusty locks and
keys, like love among the roses--for which apt comparison the historian
may by no means take any credit to himself, the same being the
invention, in a sentimental mood, of the chaste and modest Miggs, who,
beholding him from the doorsteps she was then cleaning, did, in her
maiden meditation, give utterance to the simile.

The locksmith, who happened at the moment to have his eyes thrown upward
and his head backward, in an intense communing with Toby, did not see
his visitor, until Mrs Varden, more watchful than the rest, had desired
Sim Tappertit to open the glass door and give him admission--from which
untoward circumstance the good lady argued (for she could deduce a
precious moral from the most trifling event) that to take a draught of
small ale in the morning was to observe a pernicious, irreligious, and
Pagan custom, the relish whereof should be left to swine, and Satan, or
at least to Popish persons, and should be shunned by the righteous as
a work of sin and evil. She would no doubt have pursued her admonition
much further, and would have founded on it a long list of precious
precepts of inestimable value, but that the young gentleman standing by
in a somewhat uncomfortable and discomfited manner while she read
her spouse this lecture, occasioned her to bring it to a premature
conclusion.

‘I’m sure you’ll excuse me, sir,’ said Mrs Varden, rising and
curtseying. ‘Varden is so very thoughtless, and needs so much
reminding--Sim, bring a chair here.’

Mr Tappertit obeyed, with a flourish implying that he did so, under
protest.

‘And you can go, Sim,’ said the locksmith.

Mr Tappertit obeyed again, still under protest; and betaking himself to
the workshop, began seriously to fear that he might find it necessary to
poison his master, before his time was out.

In the meantime, Edward returned suitable replies to Mrs Varden’s
courtesies, and that lady brightened up very much; so that when he
accepted a dish of tea from the fair hands of Dolly, she was perfectly
agreeable.

‘I am sure if there’s anything we can do,--Varden, or I, or Dolly
either,--to serve you, sir, at any time, you have only to say it, and it
shall be done,’ said Mrs V.

‘I am much obliged to you, I am sure,’ returned Edward. ‘You encourage
me to say that I have come here now, to beg your good offices.’

Mrs Varden was delighted beyond measure.

‘It occurred to me that probably your fair daughter might be going to
the Warren, either to-day or to-morrow,’ said Edward, glancing at Dolly;
‘and if so, and you will allow her to take charge of this letter, ma’am,
you will oblige me more than I can tell you. The truth is, that while
I am very anxious it should reach its destination, I have particular
reasons for not trusting it to any other conveyance; so that without
your help, I am wholly at a loss.’

‘She was not going that way, sir, either to-day, or to-morrow, nor
indeed all next week,’ the lady graciously rejoined, ‘but we shall be
very glad to put ourselves out of the way on your account, and if you
wish it, you may depend upon its going to-day. You might suppose,’ said
Mrs Varden, frowning at her husband, ‘from Varden’s sitting there so
glum and silent, that he objected to this arrangement; but you must not
mind that, sir, if you please. It’s his way at home. Out of doors, he
can be cheerful and talkative enough.’

Now, the fact was, that the unfortunate locksmith, blessing his stars to
find his helpmate in such good humour, had been sitting with a beaming
face, hearing this discourse with a joy past all expression. Wherefore
this sudden attack quite took him by surprise.

‘My dear Martha--’ he said.

‘Oh yes, I dare say,’ interrupted Mrs Varden, with a smile of mingled
scorn and pleasantry. ‘Very dear! We all know that.’

‘No, but my good soul,’ said Gabriel, ‘you are quite mistaken. You are
indeed. I was delighted to find you so kind and ready. I waited, my
dear, anxiously, I assure you, to hear what you would say.’

‘You waited anxiously,’ repeated Mrs V. ‘Yes! Thank you, Varden. You
waited, as you always do, that I might bear the blame, if any came of
it. But I am used to it,’ said the lady with a kind of solemn titter,
‘and that’s my comfort!’

‘I give you my word, Martha--’ said Gabriel.

‘Let me give you MY word, my dear,’ interposed his wife with a Christian
smile, ‘that such discussions as these between married people, are much
better left alone. Therefore, if you please, Varden, we’ll drop the
subject. I have no wish to pursue it. I could. I might say a great deal.
But I would rather not. Pray don’t say any more.’

‘I don’t want to say any more,’ rejoined the goaded locksmith.

‘Well then, don’t,’ said Mrs Varden.

‘Nor did I begin it, Martha,’ added the locksmith, good-humouredly, ‘I
must say that.’

‘You did not begin it, Varden!’ exclaimed his wife, opening her eyes
very wide and looking round upon the company, as though she would say,
You hear this man! ‘You did not begin it, Varden! But you shall not say
I was out of temper. No, you did not begin it, oh dear no, not you, my
dear!’

‘Well, well,’ said the locksmith. ‘That’s settled then.’

‘Oh yes,’ rejoined his wife, ‘quite. If you like to say Dolly began it,
my dear, I shall not contradict you. I know my duty. I need know it,
I am sure. I am often obliged to bear it in mind, when my inclination
perhaps would be for the moment to forget it. Thank you, Varden.’ And
so, with a mighty show of humility and forgiveness, she folded her
hands, and looked round again, with a smile which plainly said, ‘If you
desire to see the first and foremost among female martyrs, here she is,
on view!’

This little incident, illustrative though it was of Mrs Varden’s
extraordinary sweetness and amiability, had so strong a tendency to
check the conversation and to disconcert all parties but that excellent
lady, that only a few monosyllables were uttered until Edward withdrew;
which he presently did, thanking the lady of the house a great many
times for her condescension, and whispering in Dolly’s ear that he would
call on the morrow, in case there should happen to be an answer to the
note--which, indeed, she knew without his telling, as Barnaby and his
friend Grip had dropped in on the previous night to prepare her for the
visit which was then terminating.

Gabriel, who had attended Edward to the door, came back with his hands
in his pockets; and, after fidgeting about the room in a very uneasy
manner, and casting a great many sidelong looks at Mrs Varden (who
with the calmest countenance in the world was five fathoms deep in
the Protestant Manual), inquired of Dolly how she meant to go. Dolly
supposed by the stage-coach, and looked at her lady mother, who finding
herself silently appealed to, dived down at least another fathom into
the Manual, and became unconscious of all earthly things.

‘Martha--’ said the locksmith.

‘I hear you, Varden,’ said his wife, without rising to the surface.

‘I am sorry, my dear, you have such an objection to the Maypole and old
John, for otherways as it’s a very fine morning, and Saturday’s not
a busy day with us, we might have all three gone to Chigwell in the
chaise, and had quite a happy day of it.’

Mrs Varden immediately closed the Manual, and bursting into tears,
requested to be led upstairs.

‘What is the matter now, Martha?’ inquired the locksmith.

To which Martha rejoined, ‘Oh! don’t speak to me,’ and protested in
agony that if anybody had told her so, she wouldn’t have believed it.

‘But, Martha,’ said Gabriel, putting himself in the way as she was
moving off with the aid of Dolly’s shoulder, ‘wouldn’t have believed
what? Tell me what’s wrong now. Do tell me. Upon my soul I don’t know.
Do YOU know, child? Damme!’ cried the locksmith, plucking at his wig in
a kind of frenzy, ‘nobody does know, I verily believe, but Miggs!’

‘Miggs,’ said Mrs Varden faintly, and with symptoms of approaching
incoherence, ‘is attached to me, and that is sufficient to draw down
hatred upon her in this house. She is a comfort to me, whatever she may
be to others.’

‘She’s no comfort to me,’ cried Gabriel, made bold by despair. ‘She’s
the misery of my life. She’s all the plagues of Egypt in one.’

‘She’s considered so, I have no doubt,’ said Mrs Varden. ‘I was prepared
for that; it’s natural; it’s of a piece with the rest. When you taunt
me as you do to my face, how can I wonder that you taunt her behind her
back!’ And here the incoherence coming on very strong, Mrs Varden wept,
and laughed, and sobbed, and shivered, and hiccoughed, and choked; and
said she knew it was very foolish but she couldn’t help it; and that
when she was dead and gone, perhaps they would be sorry for it--which
really under the circumstances did not appear quite so probable as she
seemed to think--with a great deal more to the same effect. In a word,
she passed with great decency through all the ceremonies incidental to
such occasions; and being supported upstairs, was deposited in a highly
spasmodic state on her own bed, where Miss Miggs shortly afterwards
flung herself upon the body.

The philosophy of all this was, that Mrs Varden wanted to go to
Chigwell; that she did not want to make any concession or explanation;
that she would only go on being implored and entreated so to do; and
that she would accept no other terms. Accordingly, after a vast amount
of moaning and crying upstairs, and much damping of foreheads, and
vinegaring of temples, and hartshorning of noses, and so forth;
and after most pathetic adjurations from Miggs, assisted by warm
brandy-and-water not over-weak, and divers other cordials, also of
a stimulating quality, administered at first in teaspoonfuls and
afterwards in increasing doses, and of which Miss Miggs herself partook
as a preventive measure (for fainting is infectious); after all these
remedies, and many more too numerous to mention, but not to take,
had been applied; and many verbal consolations, moral, religious, and
miscellaneous, had been super-added thereto; the locksmith humbled
himself, and the end was gained.

‘If it’s only for the sake of peace and quietness, father,’ said Dolly,
urging him to go upstairs.

‘Oh, Doll, Doll,’ said her good-natured father. ‘If you ever have a
husband of your own--’

Dolly glanced at the glass.

‘--Well, WHEN you have,’ said the locksmith, ‘never faint, my darling.
More domestic unhappiness has come of easy fainting, Doll, than from all
the greater passions put together. Remember that, my dear, if you would
be really happy, which you never can be, if your husband isn’t. And a
word in your ear, my precious. Never have a Miggs about you!’

With this advice he kissed his blooming daughter on the cheek, and
slowly repaired to Mrs Varden’s room; where that lady, lying all pale
and languid on her couch, was refreshing herself with a sight of her
last new bonnet, which Miggs, as a means of calming her scattered
spirits, displayed to the best advantage at her bedside.

‘Here’s master, mim,’ said Miggs. ‘Oh, what a happiness it is when man
and wife come round again! Oh gracious, to think that him and her should
ever have a word together!’ In the energy of these sentiments, which
were uttered as an apostrophe to the Heavens in general, Miss Miggs
perched the bonnet on the top of her own head, and folding her hands,
turned on her tears.

‘I can’t help it,’ cried Miggs. ‘I couldn’t, if I was to be drownded in
‘em. She has such a forgiving spirit! She’ll forget all that has passed,
and go along with you, sir--Oh, if it was to the world’s end, she’d go
along with you.’

Mrs Varden with a faint smile gently reproved her attendant for this
enthusiasm, and reminded her at the same time that she was far too
unwell to venture out that day.

‘Oh no, you’re not, mim, indeed you’re not,’ said Miggs; ‘I repeal to
master; master knows you’re not, mim. The hair, and motion of the shay,
will do you good, mim, and you must not give way, you must not raly. She
must keep up, mustn’t she, sir, for all our sakes? I was a telling
her that, just now. She must remember us, even if she forgets herself.
Master will persuade you, mim, I’m sure. There’s Miss Dolly’s a-going
you know, and master, and you, and all so happy and so comfortable. Oh!’
cried Miggs, turning on the tears again, previous to quitting the room
in great emotion, ‘I never see such a blessed one as she is for the
forgiveness of her spirit, I never, never, never did. Not more did
master neither; no, nor no one--never!’

For five minutes or thereabouts, Mrs Varden remained mildly opposed to
all her husband’s prayers that she would oblige him by taking a day’s
pleasure, but relenting at length, she suffered herself to be persuaded,
and granting him her free forgiveness (the merit whereof, she meekly
said, rested with the Manual and not with her), desired that Miggs might
come and help her dress. The handmaid attended promptly, and it is but
justice to their joint exertions to record that, when the good lady came
downstairs in course of time, completely decked out for the journey, she
really looked as if nothing had happened, and appeared in the very best
health imaginable.

As to Dolly, there she was again, the very pink and pattern of good
looks, in a smart little cherry-coloured mantle, with a hood of the same
drawn over her head, and upon the top of that hood, a little straw hat
trimmed with cherry-coloured ribbons, and worn the merest trifle on one
side--just enough in short to make it the wickedest and most provoking
head-dress that ever malicious milliner devised. And not to speak of the
manner in which these cherry-coloured decorations brightened her eyes,
or vied with her lips, or shed a new bloom on her face, she wore such
a cruel little muff, and such a heart-rending pair of shoes, and was so
surrounded and hemmed in, as it were, by aggravations of all kinds, that
when Mr Tappettit, holding the horse’s head, saw her come out of the
house alone, such impulses came over him to decoy her into the chaise
and drive off like mad, that he would unquestionably have done it, but
for certain uneasy doubts besetting him as to the shortest way to
Gretna Green; whether it was up the street or down, or up the right-hand
turning or the left; and whether, supposing all the turnpikes to be
carried by storm, the blacksmith in the end would marry them on credit;
which by reason of his clerical office appeared, even to his excited
imagination, so unlikely, that he hesitated. And while he stood
hesitating, and looking post-chaises-and-six at Dolly, out came his
master and his mistress, and the constant Miggs, and the opportunity
was gone for ever. For now the chaise creaked upon its springs, and Mrs
Varden was inside; and now it creaked again, and more than ever, and
the locksmith was inside; and now it bounded once, as if its heart beat
lightly, and Dolly was inside; and now it was gone and its place
was empty, and he and that dreary Miggs were standing in the street
together.

The hearty locksmith was in as good a humour as if nothing had occurred
for the last twelve months to put him out of his way, Dolly was all
smiles and graces, and Mrs Varden was agreeable beyond all precedent. As
they jogged through the streets talking of this thing and of that, who
should be descried upon the pavement but that very coachmaker, looking
so genteel that nobody would have believed he had ever had anything to
do with a coach but riding in it, and bowing like any nobleman. To
be sure Dolly was confused when she bowed again, and to be sure the
cherry-coloured ribbons trembled a little when she met his mournful eye,
which seemed to say, ‘I have kept my word, I have begun, the business is
going to the devil, and you’re the cause of it.’ There he stood, rooted
to the ground: as Dolly said, like a statue; and as Mrs Varden said,
like a pump; till they turned the corner: and when her father thought
it was like his impudence, and her mother wondered what he meant by it,
Dolly blushed again till her very hood was pale.

But on they went, not the less merrily for this, and there was the
locksmith in the incautious fulness of his heart ‘pulling-up’ at all
manner of places, and evincing a most intimate acquaintance with all the
taverns on the road, and all the landlords and all the landladies, with
whom, indeed, the little horse was on equally friendly terms, for he
kept on stopping of his own accord. Never were people so glad to see
other people as these landlords and landladies were to behold Mr Varden
and Mrs Varden and Miss Varden; and wouldn’t they get out, said one; and
they really must walk upstairs, said another; and she would take it
ill and be quite certain they were proud if they wouldn’t have a little
taste of something, said a third; and so on, that it was really quite a
Progress rather than a ride, and one continued scene of hospitality from
beginning to end. It was pleasant enough to be held in such esteem, not
to mention the refreshments; so Mrs Varden said nothing at the time,
and was all affability and delight--but such a body of evidence as
she collected against the unfortunate locksmith that day, to be used
thereafter as occasion might require, never was got together for
matrimonial purposes.

In course of time--and in course of a pretty long time too, for these
agreeable interruptions delayed them not a little,--they arrived upon
the skirts of the Forest, and riding pleasantly on among the trees, came
at last to the Maypole, where the locksmith’s cheerful ‘Yoho!’ speedily
brought to the porch old John, and after him young Joe, both of whom
were so transfixed at sight of the ladies, that for a moment they were
perfectly unable to give them any welcome, and could do nothing but
stare.

It was only for a moment, however, that Joe forgot himself, for speedily
reviving he thrust his drowsy father aside--to Mr Willet’s mighty and
inexpressible indignation--and darting out, stood ready to help them to
alight. It was necessary for Dolly to get out first. Joe had her in his
arms;--yes, though for a space of time no longer than you could count
one in, Joe had her in his arms. Here was a glimpse of happiness!

It would be difficult to describe what a flat and commonplace affair the
helping Mrs Varden out afterwards was, but Joe did it, and did it too
with the best grace in the world. Then old John, who, entertaining a
dull and foggy sort of idea that Mrs Varden wasn’t fond of him, had been
in some doubt whether she might not have come for purposes of assault
and battery, took courage, hoped she was well, and offered to conduct
her into the house. This tender being amicably received, they marched
in together; Joe and Dolly followed, arm-in-arm, (happiness again!) and
Varden brought up the rear.

Old John would have it that they must sit in the bar, and nobody
objecting, into the bar they went. All bars are snug places, but the
Maypole’s was the very snuggest, cosiest, and completest bar, that ever
the wit of man devised. Such amazing bottles in old oaken pigeon-holes;
such gleaming tankards dangling from pegs at about the same inclination
as thirsty men would hold them to their lips; such sturdy little Dutch
kegs ranged in rows on shelves; so many lemons hanging in separate nets,
and forming the fragrant grove already mentioned in this chronicle,
suggestive, with goodly loaves of snowy sugar stowed away hard by,
of punch, idealised beyond all mortal knowledge; such closets, such
presses, such drawers full of pipes, such places for putting things
away in hollow window-seats, all crammed to the throat with eatables,
drinkables, or savoury condiments; lastly, and to crown all, as typical
of the immense resources of the establishment, and its defiances to all
visitors to cut and come again, such a stupendous cheese!

It is a poor heart that never rejoices--it must have been the poorest,
weakest, and most watery heart that ever beat, which would not have
warmed towards the Maypole bar. Mrs Varden’s did directly. She could no
more have reproached John Willet among those household gods, the kegs
and bottles, lemons, pipes, and cheese, than she could have stabbed him
with his own bright carving-knife. The order for dinner too--it might
have soothed a savage. ‘A bit of fish,’ said John to the cook, ‘and some
lamb chops (breaded, with plenty of ketchup), and a good salad, and a
roast spring chicken, with a dish of sausages and mashed potatoes, or
something of that sort.’ Something of that sort! The resources of
these inns! To talk carelessly about dishes, which in themselves were
a first-rate holiday kind of dinner, suitable to one’s wedding-day, as
something of that sort: meaning, if you can’t get a spring chicken, any
other trifle in the way of poultry will do--such as a peacock, perhaps!
The kitchen too, with its great broad cavernous chimney; the kitchen,
where nothing in the way of cookery seemed impossible; where you could
believe in anything to eat, they chose to tell you of. Mrs Varden
returned from the contemplation of these wonders to the bar again, with
a head quite dizzy and bewildered. Her housekeeping capacity was not
large enough to comprehend them. She was obliged to go to sleep. Waking
was pain, in the midst of such immensity.

Dolly in the meanwhile, whose gay heart and head ran upon other matters,
passed out at the garden door, and glancing back now and then (but of
course not wondering whether Joe saw her), tripped away by a path across
the fields with which she was well acquainted, to discharge her mission
at the Warren; and this deponent hath been informed and verily
believes, that you might have seen many less pleasant objects than the
cherry-coloured mantle and ribbons, as they went fluttering along the
green meadows in the bright light of the day, like giddy things as they
were.



Chapter 20


The proud consciousness of her trust, and the great importance she
derived from it, might have advertised it to all the house if she had
had to run the gauntlet of its inhabitants; but as Dolly had played in
every dull room and passage many and many a time, when a child, and had
ever since been the humble friend of Miss Haredale, whose foster-sister
she was, she was as free of the building as the young lady herself.
So, using no greater precaution than holding her breath and walking on
tiptoe as she passed the library door, she went straight to Emma’s room
as a privileged visitor.

It was the liveliest room in the building. The chamber was sombre like
the rest for the matter of that, but the presence of youth and beauty
would make a prison cheerful (saving alas! that confinement withers
them), and lend some charms of their own to the gloomiest scene. Birds,
flowers, books, drawing, music, and a hundred such graceful tokens of
feminine loves and cares, filled it with more of life and human sympathy
than the whole house besides seemed made to hold. There was heart in
the room; and who that has a heart, ever fails to recognise the silent
presence of another!

Dolly had one undoubtedly, and it was not a tough one either, though
there was a little mist of coquettishness about it, such as sometimes
surrounds that sun of life in its morning, and slightly dims its lustre.
Thus, when Emma rose to greet her, and kissing her affectionately on the
cheek, told her, in her quiet way, that she had been very unhappy, the
tears stood in Dolly’s eyes, and she felt more sorry than she could
tell; but next moment she happened to raise them to the glass, and
really there was something there so exceedingly agreeable, that as she
sighed, she smiled, and felt surprisingly consoled.

‘I have heard about it, miss,’ said Dolly, ‘and it’s very sad indeed,
but when things are at the worst they are sure to mend.’

‘But are you sure they are at the worst?’ asked Emma with a smile.

‘Why, I don’t see how they can very well be more unpromising than they
are; I really don’t,’ said Dolly. ‘And I bring something to begin with.’

‘Not from Edward?’

Dolly nodded and smiled, and feeling in her pockets (there were pockets
in those days) with an affectation of not being able to find what she
wanted, which greatly enhanced her importance, at length produced
the letter. As Emma hastily broke the seal and became absorbed in its
contents, Dolly’s eyes, by one of those strange accidents for which
there is no accounting, wandered to the glass again. She could not help
wondering whether the coach-maker suffered very much, and quite pitied
the poor man.

It was a long letter--a very long letter, written close on all four
sides of the sheet of paper, and crossed afterwards; but it was not a
consolatory letter, for as Emma read it she stopped from time to time to
put her handkerchief to her eyes. To be sure Dolly marvelled greatly to
see her in so much distress, for to her thinking a love affair ought
to be one of the best jokes, and the slyest, merriest kind of thing in
life. But she set it down in her own mind that all this came from Miss
Haredale’s being so constant, and that if she would only take on with
some other young gentleman--just in the most innocent way possible,
to keep her first lover up to the mark--she would find herself
inexpressibly comforted.

‘I am sure that’s what I should do if it was me,’ thought Dolly. ‘To
make one’s sweetheart miserable is well enough and quite right, but to
be made miserable one’s self is a little too much!’

However it wouldn’t do to say so, and therefore she sat looking on in
silence. She needed a pretty considerable stretch of patience, for when
the long letter had been read once all through it was read again, and
when it had been read twice all through it was read again. During this
tedious process, Dolly beguiled the time in the most improving manner
that occurred to her, by curling her hair on her fingers, with the
aid of the looking-glass before mentioned, and giving it some killing
twists.

Everything has an end. Even young ladies in love cannot read their
letters for ever. In course of time the packet was folded up, and it
only remained to write the answer.

But as this promised to be a work of time likewise, Emma said she would
put it off until after dinner, and that Dolly must dine with her. As
Dolly had made up her mind to do so beforehand, she required very little
pressing; and when they had settled this point, they went to walk in the
garden.

They strolled up and down the terrace walks, talking incessantly--at
least, Dolly never left off once--and making that quarter of the sad and
mournful house quite gay. Not that they talked loudly or laughed much,
but they were both so very handsome, and it was such a breezy day, and
their light dresses and dark curls appeared so free and joyous in
their abandonment, and Emma was so fair, and Dolly so rosy, and Emma
so delicately shaped, and Dolly so plump, and--in short, there are no
flowers for any garden like such flowers, let horticulturists say what
they may, and both house and garden seemed to know it, and to brighten
up sensibly.

After this, came the dinner and the letter writing, and some more
talking, in the course of which Miss Haredale took occasion to
charge upon Dolly certain flirtish and inconstant propensities, which
accusations Dolly seemed to think very complimentary indeed, and to be
mightily amused with. Finding her quite incorrigible in this respect,
Emma suffered her to depart; but not before she had confided to her that
important and never-sufficiently-to-be-taken-care-of answer, and endowed
her moreover with a pretty little bracelet as a keepsake. Having clasped
it on her arm, and again advised her half in jest and half in earnest to
amend her roguish ways, for she knew she was fond of Joe at heart (which
Dolly stoutly denied, with a great many haughty protestations that she
hoped she could do better than that indeed! and so forth), she bade
her farewell; and after calling her back to give her more supplementary
messages for Edward, than anybody with tenfold the gravity of Dolly
Varden could be reasonably expected to remember, at length dismissed
her.

Dolly bade her good bye, and tripping lightly down the stairs arrived at
the dreaded library door, and was about to pass it again on tiptoe, when
it opened, and behold! there stood Mr Haredale. Now, Dolly had from her
childhood associated with this gentleman the idea of something grim and
ghostly, and being at the moment conscience-stricken besides, the sight
of him threw her into such a flurry that she could neither acknowledge
his presence nor run away, so she gave a great start, and then with
downcast eyes stood still and trembled.

‘Come here, girl,’ said Mr Haredale, taking her by the hand. ‘I want to
speak to you.’

‘If you please, sir, I’m in a hurry,’ faltered Dolly, ‘and--you have
frightened me by coming so suddenly upon me, sir--I would rather go,
sir, if you’ll be so good as to let me.’

‘Immediately,’ said Mr Haredale, who had by this time led her into the
room and closed the door. ‘You shall go directly. You have just left
Emma?’

‘Yes, sir, just this minute.--Father’s waiting for me, sir, if you’ll
please to have the goodness--’

‘I know. I know,’ said Mr Haredale. ‘Answer me a question. What did you
bring here to-day?’

‘Bring here, sir?’ faltered Dolly.

‘You will tell me the truth, I am sure. Yes.’

Dolly hesitated for a little while, and somewhat emboldened by his
manner, said at last, ‘Well then, sir. It was a letter.’

‘From Mr Edward Chester, of course. And you are the bearer of the
answer?’

Dolly hesitated again, and not being able to decide upon any other
course of action, burst into tears.

‘You alarm yourself without cause,’ said Mr Haredale. ‘Why are you so
foolish? Surely you can answer me. You know that I have but to put the
question to Emma and learn the truth directly. Have you the answer with
you?’

Dolly had what is popularly called a spirit of her own, and being now
fairly at bay, made the best of it.

‘Yes, sir,’ she rejoined, trembling and frightened as she was. ‘Yes,
sir, I have. You may kill me if you please, sir, but I won’t give it up.
I’m very sorry,--but I won’t. There, sir.’

‘I commend your firmness and your plain-speaking,’ said Mr Haredale.
‘Rest assured that I have as little desire to take your letter as your
life. You are a very discreet messenger and a good girl.’

Not feeling quite certain, as she afterwards said, whether he might not
be ‘coming over her’ with these compliments, Dolly kept as far from him
as she could, cried again, and resolved to defend her pocket (for the
letter was there) to the last extremity.

‘I have some design,’ said Mr Haredale after a short silence, during
which a smile, as he regarded her, had struggled through the gloom and
melancholy that was natural to his face, ‘of providing a companion for
my niece; for her life is a very lonely one. Would you like the office?
You are the oldest friend she has, and the best entitled to it.’

‘I don’t know, sir,’ answered Dolly, not sure but he was bantering her;
‘I can’t say. I don’t know what they might wish at home. I couldn’t give
an opinion, sir.’

‘If your friends had no objection, would you have any?’ said Mr
Haredale. ‘Come. There’s a plain question; and easy to answer.’

‘None at all that I know of sir,’ replied Dolly. ‘I should be very glad
to be near Miss Emma of course, and always am.’

‘That’s well,’ said Mr Haredale. ‘That is all I had to say. You are
anxious to go. Don’t let me detain you.’

Dolly didn’t let him, nor did she wait for him to try, for the words
had no sooner passed his lips than she was out of the room, out of the
house, and in the fields again.

The first thing to be done, of course, when she came to herself and
considered what a flurry she had been in, was to cry afresh; and the
next thing, when she reflected how well she had got over it, was to
laugh heartily. The tears once banished gave place to the smiles, and at
last Dolly laughed so much that she was fain to lean against a tree,
and give vent to her exultation. When she could laugh no longer, and was
quite tired, she put her head-dress to rights, dried her eyes, looked
back very merrily and triumphantly at the Warren chimneys, which were
just visible, and resumed her walk.

The twilight had come on, and it was quickly growing dusk, but the path
was so familiar to her from frequent traversing that she hardly thought
of this, and certainly felt no uneasiness at being left alone. Moreover,
there was the bracelet to admire; and when she had given it a good
rub, and held it out at arm’s length, it sparkled and glittered so
beautifully on her wrist, that to look at it in every point of view and
with every possible turn of the arm, was quite an absorbing business.
There was the letter too, and it looked so mysterious and knowing, when
she took it out of her pocket, and it held, as she knew, so much inside,
that to turn it over and over, and think about it, and wonder how it
began, and how it ended, and what it said all through, was another
matter of constant occupation. Between the bracelet and the letter,
there was quite enough to do without thinking of anything else; and
admiring each by turns, Dolly went on gaily.

As she passed through a wicket-gate to where the path was narrow, and
lay between two hedges garnished here and there with trees, she heard
a rustling close at hand, which brought her to a sudden stop. She
listened. All was very quiet, and she went on again--not absolutely
frightened, but a little quicker than before perhaps, and possibly not
quite so much at her ease, for a check of that kind is startling.

She had no sooner moved on again, than she was conscious of the same
sound, which was like that of a person tramping stealthily among bushes
and brushwood. Looking towards the spot whence it appeared to come, she
almost fancied she could make out a crouching figure. She stopped
again. All was quiet as before. On she went once more--decidedly faster
now--and tried to sing softly to herself. It must be the wind.

But how came the wind to blow only when she walked, and cease when she
stood still? She stopped involuntarily as she made the reflection, and
the rustling noise stopped likewise. She was really frightened now, and
was yet hesitating what to do, when the bushes crackled and snapped, and
a man came plunging through them, close before her.



Chapter 21


It was for the moment an inexpressible relief to Dolly, to recognise in
the person who forced himself into the path so abruptly, and now stood
directly in her way, Hugh of the Maypole, whose name she uttered in a
tone of delighted surprise that came from her heart.

‘Was it you?’ she said, ‘how glad I am to see you! and how could you
terrify me so!’

In answer to which, he said nothing at all, but stood quite still,
looking at her.

‘Did you come to meet me?’ asked Dolly.

Hugh nodded, and muttered something to the effect that he had been
waiting for her, and had expected her sooner.

‘I thought it likely they would send,’ said Dolly, greatly reassured by
this.

‘Nobody sent me,’ was his sullen answer. ‘I came of my own accord.’

The rough bearing of this fellow, and his wild, uncouth appearance, had
often filled the girl with a vague apprehension even when other people
were by, and had occasioned her to shrink from him involuntarily. The
having him for an unbidden companion in so solitary a place, with the
darkness fast gathering about them, renewed and even increased the alarm
she had felt at first.

If his manner had been merely dogged and passively fierce, as usual,
she would have had no greater dislike to his company than she always
felt--perhaps, indeed, would have been rather glad to have had him at
hand. But there was something of coarse bold admiration in his look,
which terrified her very much. She glanced timidly towards him,
uncertain whether to go forward or retreat, and he stood gazing at her
like a handsome satyr; and so they remained for some short time without
stirring or breaking silence. At length Dolly took courage, shot past
him, and hurried on.

‘Why do you spend so much breath in avoiding me?’ said Hugh,
accommodating his pace to hers, and keeping close at her side.

‘I wish to get back as quickly as I can, and you walk too near me,
answered Dolly.’

‘Too near!’ said Hugh, stooping over her so that she could feel his
breath upon her forehead. ‘Why too near? You’re always proud to ME,
mistress.’

‘I am proud to no one. You mistake me,’ answered Dolly. ‘Fall back, if
you please, or go on.’

‘Nay, mistress,’ he rejoined, endeavouring to draw her arm through his,
‘I’ll walk with you.’

She released herself and clenching her little hand, struck him with
right good will. At this, Maypole Hugh burst into a roar of laughter,
and passing his arm about her waist, held her in his strong grasp as
easily as if she had been a bird.

‘Ha ha ha! Well done, mistress! Strike again. You shall beat my face,
and tear my hair, and pluck my beard up by the roots, and welcome, for
the sake of your bright eyes. Strike again, mistress. Do. Ha ha ha! I
like it.’

‘Let me go,’ she cried, endeavouring with both her hands to push him
off. ‘Let me go this moment.’

‘You had as good be kinder to me, Sweetlips,’ said Hugh. ‘You had,
indeed. Come. Tell me now. Why are you always so proud? I don’t quarrel
with you for it. I love you when you’re proud. Ha ha ha! You can’t hide
your beauty from a poor fellow; that’s a comfort!’

She gave him no answer, but as he had not yet checked her progress,
continued to press forward as rapidly as she could. At length, between
the hurry she had made, her terror, and the tightness of his embrace,
her strength failed her, and she could go no further.

‘Hugh,’ cried the panting girl, ‘good Hugh; if you will leave me I will
give you anything--everything I have--and never tell one word of this to
any living creature.’

‘You had best not,’ he answered. ‘Harkye, little dove, you had best not.
All about here know me, and what I dare do if I have a mind. If ever you
are going to tell, stop when the words are on your lips, and think of
the mischief you’ll bring, if you do, upon some innocent heads that you
wouldn’t wish to hurt a hair of. Bring trouble on me, and I’ll bring
trouble and something more on them in return. I care no more for them
than for so many dogs; not so much--why should I? I’d sooner kill a man
than a dog any day. I’ve never been sorry for a man’s death in all my
life, and I have for a dog’s.’

There was something so thoroughly savage in the manner of these
expressions, and the looks and gestures by which they were accompanied,
that her great fear of him gave her new strength, and enabled her by a
sudden effort to extricate herself and run fleetly from him. But Hugh
was as nimble, strong, and swift of foot, as any man in broad England,
and it was but a fruitless expenditure of energy, for he had her in his
encircling arms again before she had gone a hundred yards.

‘Softly, darling--gently--would you fly from rough Hugh, that loves you
as well as any drawing-room gallant?’

‘I would,’ she answered, struggling to free herself again. ‘I will.
Help!’

‘A fine for crying out,’ said Hugh. ‘Ha ha ha! A fine, pretty one, from
your lips. I pay myself! Ha ha ha!’

‘Help! help! help!’ As she shrieked with the utmost violence she could
exert, a shout was heard in answer, and another, and another.

‘Thank Heaven!’ cried the girl in an ecstasy. ‘Joe, dear Joe, this way.
Help!’

Her assailant paused, and stood irresolute for a moment, but the shouts
drawing nearer and coming quick upon them, forced him to a speedy
decision. He released her, whispered with a menacing look, ‘Tell HIM:
and see what follows!’ and leaping the hedge, was gone in an instant.
Dolly darted off, and fairly ran into Joe Willet’s open arms.

‘What is the matter? are you hurt? what was it? who was it? where is
he? what was he like?’ with a great many encouraging expressions and
assurances of safety, were the first words Joe poured forth. But poor
little Dolly was so breathless and terrified that for some time she
was quite unable to answer him, and hung upon his shoulder, sobbing and
crying as if her heart would break.

Joe had not the smallest objection to have her hanging on his shoulder;
no, not the least, though it crushed the cherry-coloured ribbons sadly,
and put the smart little hat out of all shape. But he couldn’t bear to
see her cry; it went to his very heart. He tried to console her, bent
over her, whispered to her--some say kissed her, but that’s a fable. At
any rate he said all the kind and tender things he could think of and
Dolly let him go on and didn’t interrupt him once, and it was a good ten
minutes before she was able to raise her head and thank him.

‘What was it that frightened you?’ said Joe.

A man whose person was unknown to her had followed her, she answered; he
began by begging, and went on to threats of robbery, which he was on the
point of carrying into execution, and would have executed, but for Joe’s
timely aid. The hesitation and confusion with which she said this, Joe
attributed to the fright she had sustained, and no suspicion of the
truth occurred to him for a moment.

‘Stop when the words are on your lips.’ A hundred times that night, and
very often afterwards, when the disclosure was rising to her tongue,
Dolly thought of that, and repressed it. A deeply rooted dread of the
man; the conviction that his ferocious nature, once roused, would stop
at nothing; and the strong assurance that if she impeached him, the
full measure of his wrath and vengeance would be wreaked on Joe, who
had preserved her; these were considerations she had not the courage to
overcome, and inducements to secrecy too powerful for her to surmount.

Joe, for his part, was a great deal too happy to inquire very curiously
into the matter; and Dolly being yet too tremulous to walk without
assistance, they went forward very slowly, and in his mind very
pleasantly, until the Maypole lights were near at hand, twinkling their
cheerful welcome, when Dolly stopped suddenly and with a half scream
exclaimed,

‘The letter!’

‘What letter?’ cried Joe.

‘That I was carrying--I had it in my hand. My bracelet too,’ she said,
clasping her wrist. ‘I have lost them both.’

‘Do you mean just now?’ said Joe.

‘Either I dropped them then, or they were taken from me,’ answered
Dolly, vainly searching her pocket and rustling her dress. ‘They are
gone, both gone. What an unhappy girl I am!’ With these words poor
Dolly, who to do her justice was quite as sorry for the loss of the
letter as for her bracelet, fell a-crying again, and bemoaned her fate
most movingly.

Joe tried to comfort her with the assurance that directly he had housed
her in the Maypole, he would return to the spot with a lantern (for it
was now quite dark) and make strict search for the missing articles,
which there was great probability of his finding, as it was not likely
that anybody had passed that way since, and she was not conscious that
they had been forcibly taken from her. Dolly thanked him very heartily
for this offer, though with no great hope of his quest being successful;
and so with many lamentations on her side, and many hopeful words on
his, and much weakness on the part of Dolly and much tender supporting
on the part of Joe, they reached the Maypole bar at last, where the
locksmith and his wife and old John were yet keeping high festival.

Mr Willet received the intelligence of Dolly’s trouble with that
surprising presence of mind and readiness of speech for which he was so
eminently distinguished above all other men. Mrs Varden expressed her
sympathy for her daughter’s distress by scolding her roundly for being
so late; and the honest locksmith divided himself between condoling with
and kissing Dolly, and shaking hands heartily with Joe, whom he could
not sufficiently praise or thank.

In reference to this latter point, old John was far from agreeing with
his friend; for besides that he by no means approved of an adventurous
spirit in the abstract, it occurred to him that if his son and heir had
been seriously damaged in a scuffle, the consequences would assuredly
have been expensive and inconvenient, and might perhaps have proved
detrimental to the Maypole business. Wherefore, and because he looked
with no favourable eye upon young girls, but rather considered that they
and the whole female sex were a kind of nonsensical mistake on the part
of Nature, he took occasion to retire and shake his head in private at
the boiler; inspired by which silent oracle, he was moved to give Joe
various stealthy nudges with his elbow, as a parental reproof and gentle
admonition to mind his own business and not make a fool of himself.

Joe, however, took down the lantern and lighted it; and arming himself
with a stout stick, asked whether Hugh was in the stable.

‘He’s lying asleep before the kitchen fire, sir,’ said Mr Willet. ‘What
do you want him for?’

‘I want him to come with me to look after this bracelet and letter,’
answered Joe. ‘Halloa there! Hugh!’

Dolly turned pale as death, and felt as if she must faint forthwith.
After a few moments, Hugh came staggering in, stretching himself and
yawning according to custom, and presenting every appearance of having
been roused from a sound nap.

‘Here, sleepy-head,’ said Joe, giving him the lantern. ‘Carry this, and
bring the dog, and that small cudgel of yours. And woe betide the fellow
if we come upon him.’

‘What fellow?’ growled Hugh, rubbing his eyes and shaking himself.

‘What fellow?’ returned Joe, who was in a state of great valour and
bustle; ‘a fellow you ought to know of and be more alive about. It’s
well for the like of you, lazy giant that you are, to be snoring your
time away in chimney-corners, when honest men’s daughters can’t cross
even our quiet meadows at nightfall without being set upon by footpads,
and frightened out of their precious lives.’

‘They never rob me,’ cried Hugh with a laugh. ‘I have got nothing to
lose. But I’d as lief knock them at head as any other men. How many are
there?’

‘Only one,’ said Dolly faintly, for everybody looked at her.

‘And what was he like, mistress?’ said Hugh with a glance at young
Willet, so slight and momentary that the scowl it conveyed was lost on
all but her. ‘About my height?’

‘Not--not so tall,’ Dolly replied, scarce knowing what she said.

‘His dress,’ said Hugh, looking at her keenly, ‘like--like any of ours
now? I know all the people hereabouts, and maybe could give a guess at
the man, if I had anything to guide me.’

Dolly faltered and turned paler yet; then answered that he was wrapped
in a loose coat and had his face hidden by a handkerchief and that she
could give no other description of him.

‘You wouldn’t know him if you saw him then, belike?’ said Hugh with a
malicious grin.

‘I should not,’ answered Dolly, bursting into tears again. ‘I don’t wish
to see him. I can’t bear to think of him. I can’t talk about him any
more. Don’t go to look for these things, Mr Joe, pray don’t. I entreat
you not to go with that man.’

‘Not to go with me!’ cried Hugh. ‘I’m too rough for them all. They’re
all afraid of me. Why, bless you mistress, I’ve the tenderest heart
alive. I love all the ladies, ma’am,’ said Hugh, turning to the
locksmith’s wife.

Mrs Varden opined that if he did, he ought to be ashamed of himself;
such sentiments being more consistent (so she argued) with a benighted
Mussulman or wild Islander than with a stanch Protestant. Arguing from
this imperfect state of his morals, Mrs Varden further opined that he
had never studied the Manual. Hugh admitting that he never had, and
moreover that he couldn’t read, Mrs Varden declared with much severity,
that he ought to be even more ashamed of himself than before, and
strongly recommended him to save up his pocket-money for the purchase
of one, and further to teach himself the contents with all convenient
diligence. She was still pursuing this train of discourse, when Hugh,
somewhat unceremoniously and irreverently, followed his young master
out, and left her to edify the rest of the company. This she proceeded
to do, and finding that Mr Willet’s eyes were fixed upon her with an
appearance of deep attention, gradually addressed the whole of her
discourse to him, whom she entertained with a moral and theological
lecture of considerable length, in the conviction that great workings
were taking place in his spirit. The simple truth was, however, that Mr
Willet, although his eyes were wide open and he saw a woman before
him whose head by long and steady looking at seemed to grow bigger
and bigger until it filled the whole bar, was to all other intents and
purposes fast asleep; and so sat leaning back in his chair with his
hands in his pockets until his son’s return caused him to wake up with
a deep sigh, and a faint impression that he had been dreaming about
pickled pork and greens--a vision of his slumbers which was no doubt
referable to the circumstance of Mrs Varden’s having frequently
pronounced the word ‘Grace’ with much emphasis; which word, entering
the portals of Mr Willet’s brain as they stood ajar, and coupling itself
with the words ‘before meat,’ which were there ranging about, did in
time suggest a particular kind of meat together with that description of
vegetable which is usually its companion.

The search was wholly unsuccessful. Joe had groped along the path a
dozen times, and among the grass, and in the dry ditch, and in the
hedge, but all in vain. Dolly, who was quite inconsolable for her loss,
wrote a note to Miss Haredale giving her the same account of it that she
had given at the Maypole, which Joe undertook to deliver as soon as the
family were stirring next day. That done, they sat down to tea in the
bar, where there was an uncommon display of buttered toast, and--in
order that they might not grow faint for want of sustenance, and
might have a decent halting-place or halfway house between dinner and
supper--a few savoury trifles in the shape of great rashers of broiled
ham, which being well cured, done to a turn, and smoking hot, sent forth
a tempting and delicious fragrance.

Mrs Varden was seldom very Protestant at meals, unless it happened that
they were underdone, or overdone, or indeed that anything occurred to
put her out of humour. Her spirits rose considerably on beholding these
goodly preparations, and from the nothingness of good works, she passed
to the somethingness of ham and toast with great cheerfulness. Nay,
under the influence of these wholesome stimulants, she sharply reproved
her daughter for being low and despondent (which she considered an
unacceptable frame of mind), and remarked, as she held her own plate for
a fresh supply, that it would be well for Dolly, who pined over the loss
of a toy and a sheet of paper, if she would reflect upon the voluntary
sacrifices of the missionaries in foreign parts who lived chiefly on
salads.

The proceedings of such a day occasion various fluctuations in the human
thermometer, and especially in instruments so sensitively and delicately
constructed as Mrs Varden. Thus, at dinner Mrs V. stood at summer heat;
genial, smiling, and delightful. After dinner, in the sunshine of the
wine, she went up at least half-a-dozen degrees, and was perfectly
enchanting. As its effect subsided, she fell rapidly, went to sleep for
an hour or so at temperate, and woke at something below freezing. Now
she was at summer heat again, in the shade; and when tea was over, and
old John, producing a bottle of cordial from one of the oaken cases,
insisted on her sipping two glasses thereof in slow succession, she
stood steadily at ninety for one hour and a quarter. Profiting by
experience, the locksmith took advantage of this genial weather to smoke
his pipe in the porch, and in consequence of this prudent management, he
was fully prepared, when the glass went down again, to start homewards
directly.

The horse was accordingly put in, and the chaise brought round to the
door. Joe, who would on no account be dissuaded from escorting them
until they had passed the most dreary and solitary part of the road,
led out the grey mare at the same time; and having helped Dolly into her
seat (more happiness!) sprung gaily into the saddle. Then, after many
good nights, and admonitions to wrap up, and glancing of lights, and
handing in of cloaks and shawls, the chaise rolled away, and Joe trotted
beside it--on Dolly’s side, no doubt, and pretty close to the wheel too.



Chapter 22


It was a fine bright night, and for all her lowness of spirits Dolly
kept looking up at the stars in a manner so bewitching (and SHE knew
it!) that Joe was clean out of his senses, and plainly showed that if
ever a man were--not to say over head and ears, but over the Monument
and the top of Saint Paul’s in love, that man was himself. The road was
a very good one; not at all a jolting road, or an uneven one; and yet
Dolly held the side of the chaise with one little hand, all the way. If
there had been an executioner behind him with an uplifted axe ready
to chop off his head if he touched that hand, Joe couldn’t have helped
doing it. From putting his own hand upon it as if by chance, and taking
it away again after a minute or so, he got to riding along without
taking it off at all; as if he, the escort, were bound to do that as an
important part of his duty, and had come out for the purpose. The most
curious circumstance about this little incident was, that Dolly didn’t
seem to know of it. She looked so innocent and unconscious when she
turned her eyes on Joe, that it was quite provoking.

She talked though; talked about her fright, and about Joe’s coming up to
rescue her, and about her gratitude, and about her fear that she might
not have thanked him enough, and about their always being friends from
that time forth--and about all that sort of thing. And when Joe said,
not friends he hoped, Dolly was quite surprised, and said not enemies
she hoped; and when Joe said, couldn’t they be something much better
than either, Dolly all of a sudden found out a star which was brighter
than all the other stars, and begged to call his attention to the same,
and was ten thousand times more innocent and unconscious than ever.

In this manner they travelled along, talking very little above a
whisper, and wishing the road could be stretched out to some dozen times
its natural length--at least that was Joe’s desire--when, as they were
getting clear of the forest and emerging on the more frequented road,
they heard behind them the sound of a horse’s feet at a round trot,
which growing rapidly louder as it drew nearer, elicited a scream from
Mrs Varden, and the cry ‘a friend!’ from the rider, who now came panting
up, and checked his horse beside them.

‘This man again!’ cried Dolly, shuddering.

‘Hugh!’ said Joe. ‘What errand are you upon?’

‘I come to ride back with you,’ he answered, glancing covertly at the
locksmith’s daughter. ‘HE sent me.’

‘My father!’ said poor Joe; adding under his breath, with a very
unfilial apostrophe, ‘Will he never think me man enough to take care of
myself!’

‘Aye!’ returned Hugh to the first part of the inquiry. ‘The roads are
not safe just now, he says, and you’d better have a companion.’

‘Ride on then,’ said Joe. ‘I’m not going to turn yet.’

Hugh complied, and they went on again. It was his whim or humour to
ride immediately before the chaise, and from this position he constantly
turned his head, and looked back. Dolly felt that he looked at her, but
she averted her eyes and feared to raise them once, so great was the
dread with which he had inspired her.

This interruption, and the consequent wakefulness of Mrs Varden, who had
been nodding in her sleep up to this point, except for a minute or
two at a time, when she roused herself to scold the locksmith for
audaciously taking hold of her to prevent her nodding herself out of
the chaise, put a restraint upon the whispered conversation, and made
it difficult of resumption. Indeed, before they had gone another mile,
Gabriel stopped at his wife’s desire, and that good lady protested she
would not hear of Joe’s going a step further on any account whatever. It
was in vain for Joe to protest on the other hand that he was by no means
tired, and would turn back presently, and would see them safely past
such a point, and so forth. Mrs Varden was obdurate, and being so was
not to be overcome by mortal agency.

‘Good night--if I must say it,’ said Joe, sorrowfully.

‘Good night,’ said Dolly. She would have added, ‘Take care of that man,
and pray don’t trust him,’ but he had turned his horse’s head, and was
standing close to them. She had therefore nothing for it but to suffer
Joe to give her hand a gentle squeeze, and when the chaise had gone on
for some distance, to look back and wave it, as he still lingered on
the spot where they had parted, with the tall dark figure of Hugh beside
him.

What she thought about, going home; and whether the coach-maker held as
favourable a place in her meditations as he had occupied in the morning,
is unknown. They reached home at last--at last, for it was a long way,
made none the shorter by Mrs Varden’s grumbling. Miggs hearing the sound
of wheels was at the door immediately.

‘Here they are, Simmun! Here they are!’ cried Miggs, clapping her
hands, and issuing forth to help her mistress to alight. ‘Bring a
chair, Simmun. Now, an’t you the better for it, mim? Don’t you feel more
yourself than you would have done if you’d have stopped at home? Oh,
gracious! how cold you are! Goodness me, sir, she’s a perfect heap of
ice.’

‘I can’t help it, my good girl. You had better take her in to the fire,’
said the locksmith.

‘Master sounds unfeeling, mim,’ said Miggs, in a tone of commiseration,
‘but such is not his intentions, I’m sure. After what he has seen of you
this day, I never will believe but that he has a deal more affection
in his heart than to speak unkind. Come in and sit yourself down by the
fire; there’s a good dear--do.’

Mrs Varden complied. The locksmith followed with his hands in his
pockets, and Mr Tappertit trundled off with the chaise to a neighbouring
stable.

‘Martha, my dear,’ said the locksmith, when they reached the parlour,
‘if you’ll look to Dolly yourself or let somebody else do it, perhaps it
will be only kind and reasonable. She has been frightened, you know, and
is not at all well to-night.’

In fact, Dolly had thrown herself upon the sofa, quite regardless of
all the little finery of which she had been so proud in the morning, and
with her face buried in her hands was crying very much.

At first sight of this phenomenon (for Dolly was by no means accustomed
to displays of this sort, rather learning from her mother’s example to
avoid them as much as possible) Mrs Varden expressed her belief that
never was any woman so beset as she; that her life was a continued scene
of trial; that whenever she was disposed to be well and cheerful, so
sure were the people around her to throw, by some means or other, a damp
upon her spirits; and that, as she had enjoyed herself that day, and
Heaven knew it was very seldom she did enjoy herself so she was now to
pay the penalty. To all such propositions Miggs assented freely. Poor
Dolly, however, grew none the better for these restoratives, but rather
worse, indeed; and seeing that she was really ill, both Mrs Varden and
Miggs were moved to compassion, and tended her in earnest.

But even then, their very kindness shaped itself into their usual course
of policy, and though Dolly was in a swoon, it was rendered clear to
the meanest capacity, that Mrs Varden was the sufferer. Thus when
Dolly began to get a little better, and passed into that stage in which
matrons hold that remonstrance and argument may be successfully applied,
her mother represented to her, with tears in her eyes, that if she had
been flurried and worried that day, she must remember it was the common
lot of humanity, and in especial of womankind, who through the whole
of their existence must expect no less, and were bound to make up their
minds to meek endurance and patient resignation. Mrs Varden entreated
her to remember that one of these days she would, in all probability,
have to do violence to her feelings so far as to be married; and that
marriage, as she might see every day of her life (and truly she did) was
a state requiring great fortitude and forbearance. She represented to
her in lively colours, that if she (Mrs V.) had not, in steering her
course through this vale of tears, been supported by a strong principle
of duty which alone upheld and prevented her from drooping, she must
have been in her grave many years ago; in which case she desired to know
what would have become of that errant spirit (meaning the locksmith), of
whose eye she was the very apple, and in whose path she was, as it were,
a shining light and guiding star?

Miss Miggs also put in her word to the same effect. She said that indeed
and indeed Miss Dolly might take pattern by her blessed mother, who,
she always had said, and always would say, though she were to be hanged,
drawn, and quartered for it next minute, was the mildest, amiablest,
forgivingest-spirited, longest-sufferingest female as ever she could
have believed; the mere narration of whose excellencies had worked such
a wholesome change in the mind of her own sister-in-law, that, whereas,
before, she and her husband lived like cat and dog, and were in the
habit of exchanging brass candlesticks, pot-lids, flat-irons, and other
such strong resentments, they were now the happiest and affectionatest
couple upon earth; as could be proved any day on application at Golden
Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, second bell-handle on the right-hand
doorpost. After glancing at herself as a comparatively worthless vessel,
but still as one of some desert, she besought her to bear in mind that
her aforesaid dear and only mother was of a weakly constitution and
excitable temperament, who had constantly to sustain afflictions in
domestic life, compared with which thieves and robbers were as nothing,
and yet never sunk down or gave way to despair or wrath, but, in
prize-fighting phraseology, always came up to time with a cheerful
countenance, and went in to win as if nothing had happened. When Miggs
finished her solo, her mistress struck in again, and the two together
performed a duet to the same purpose; the burden being, that Mrs Varden
was persecuted perfection, and Mr Varden, as the representative of
mankind in that apartment, a creature of vicious and brutal habits,
utterly insensible to the blessings he enjoyed. Of so refined a
character, indeed, was their talent of assault under the mask of
sympathy, that when Dolly, recovering, embraced her father tenderly,
as in vindication of his goodness, Mrs Varden expressed her solemn hope
that this would be a lesson to him for the remainder of his life,
and that he would do some little justice to a woman’s nature ever
afterwards--in which aspiration Miss Miggs, by divers sniffs and
coughs, more significant than the longest oration, expressed her entire
concurrence.

But the great joy of Miggs’s heart was, that she not only picked up
a full account of what had happened, but had the exquisite delight of
conveying it to Mr Tappertit for his jealousy and torture. For that
gentleman, on account of Dolly’s indisposition, had been requested to
take his supper in the workshop, and it was conveyed thither by Miss
Miggs’s own fair hands.

‘Oh Simmun!’ said the young lady, ‘such goings on to-day! Oh, gracious
me, Simmun!’

Mr Tappertit, who was not in the best of humours, and who disliked Miss
Miggs more when she laid her hand on her heart and panted for breath
than at any other time, as her deficiency of outline was most apparent
under such circumstances, eyed her over in his loftiest style, and
deigned to express no curiosity whatever.

‘I never heard the like, nor nobody else,’ pursued Miggs. ‘The idea of
interfering with HER. What people can see in her to make it worth their
while to do so, that’s the joke--he he he!’

Finding there was a lady in the case, Mr Tappertit haughtily requested
his fair friend to be more explicit, and demanded to know what she meant
by ‘her.’

‘Why, that Dolly,’ said Miggs, with an extremely sharp emphasis on the
name. ‘But, oh upon my word and honour, young Joseph Willet is a brave
one; and he do deserve her, that he do.’

‘Woman!’ said Mr Tappertit, jumping off the counter on which he was
seated; ‘beware!’

‘My stars, Simmun!’ cried Miggs, in affected astonishment. ‘You frighten
me to death! What’s the matter?’

‘There are strings,’ said Mr Tappertit, flourishing his bread-and-cheese
knife in the air, ‘in the human heart that had better not be wibrated.
That’s what’s the matter.’

‘Oh, very well--if you’re in a huff,’ cried Miggs, turning away.

‘Huff or no huff,’ said Mr Tappertit, detaining her by the wrist. ‘What
do you mean, Jezebel? What were you going to say? Answer me!’

Notwithstanding this uncivil exhortation, Miggs gladly did as she was
required; and told him how that their young mistress, being alone in
the meadows after dark, had been attacked by three or four tall men, who
would have certainly borne her away and perhaps murdered her, but for
the timely arrival of Joseph Willet, who with his own single hand put
them all to flight, and rescued her; to the lasting admiration of his
fellow-creatures generally, and to the eternal love and gratitude of
Dolly Varden.

‘Very good,’ said Mr Tappertit, fetching a long breath when the tale was
told, and rubbing his hair up till it stood stiff and straight on end
all over his head. ‘His days are numbered.’

‘Oh, Simmun!’

‘I tell you,’ said the ‘prentice, ‘his days are numbered. Leave me. Get
along with you.’

Miggs departed at his bidding, but less because of his bidding than
because she desired to chuckle in secret. When she had given vent to
her satisfaction, she returned to the parlour; where the locksmith,
stimulated by quietness and Toby, had become talkative, and was disposed
to take a cheerful review of the occurrences of the day. But Mrs
Varden, whose practical religion (as is not uncommon) was usually of the
retrospective order, cut him short by declaiming on the sinfulness of
such junketings, and holding that it was high time to go to bed. To bed
therefore she withdrew, with an aspect as grim and gloomy as that of the
Maypole’s own state couch; and to bed the rest of the establishment soon
afterwards repaired.



Chapter 23


Twilight had given place to night some hours, and it was high noon
in those quarters of the town in which ‘the world’ condescended to
dwell--the world being then, as now, of very limited dimensions and
easily lodged--when Mr Chester reclined upon a sofa in his dressing-room
in the Temple, entertaining himself with a book.

He was dressing, as it seemed, by easy stages, and having performed half
the journey was taking a long rest. Completely attired as to his legs
and feet in the trimmest fashion of the day, he had yet the remainder of
his toilet to perform. The coat was stretched, like a refined scarecrow,
on its separate horse; the waistcoat was displayed to the best
advantage; the various ornamental articles of dress were severally set
out in most alluring order; and yet he lay dangling his legs between the
sofa and the ground, as intent upon his book as if there were nothing
but bed before him.

‘Upon my honour,’ he said, at length raising his eyes to the ceiling
with the air of a man who was reflecting seriously on what he had
read; ‘upon my honour, the most masterly composition, the most delicate
thoughts, the finest code of morality, and the most gentlemanly
sentiments in the universe! Ah Ned, Ned, if you would but form your mind
by such precepts, we should have but one common feeling on every subject
that could possibly arise between us!’

This apostrophe was addressed, like the rest of his remarks, to empty
air: for Edward was not present, and the father was quite alone.

‘My Lord Chesterfield,’ he said, pressing his hand tenderly upon the
book as he laid it down, ‘if I could but have profited by your genius
soon enough to have formed my son on the model you have left to all
wise fathers, both he and I would have been rich men. Shakespeare was
undoubtedly very fine in his way; Milton good, though prosy; Lord Bacon
deep, and decidedly knowing; but the writer who should be his country’s
pride, is my Lord Chesterfield.’

He became thoughtful again, and the toothpick was in requisition.

‘I thought I was tolerably accomplished as a man of the world,’ he
continued, ‘I flattered myself that I was pretty well versed in all
those little arts and graces which distinguish men of the world from
boors and peasants, and separate their character from those intensely
vulgar sentiments which are called the national character. Apart from
any natural prepossession in my own favour, I believed I was. Still, in
every page of this enlightened writer, I find some captivating hypocrisy
which has never occurred to me before, or some superlative piece of
selfishness to which I was utterly a stranger. I should quite blush for
myself before this stupendous creature, if remembering his precepts, one
might blush at anything. An amazing man! a nobleman indeed! any King or
Queen may make a Lord, but only the Devil himself--and the Graces--can
make a Chesterfield.’

Men who are thoroughly false and hollow, seldom try to hide those vices
from themselves; and yet in the very act of avowing them, they lay claim
to the virtues they feign most to despise. ‘For,’ say they, ‘this is
honesty, this is truth. All mankind are like us, but they have not the
candour to avow it.’ The more they affect to deny the existence of any
sincerity in the world, the more they would be thought to possess it in
its boldest shape; and this is an unconscious compliment to Truth on the
part of these philosophers, which will turn the laugh against them to
the Day of Judgment.

Mr Chester, having extolled his favourite author, as above recited,
took up the book again in the excess of his admiration and was composing
himself for a further perusal of its sublime morality, when he was
disturbed by a noise at the outer door; occasioned as it seemed by the
endeavours of his servant to obstruct the entrance of some unwelcome
visitor.

‘A late hour for an importunate creditor,’ he said, raising his eyebrows
with as indolent an expression of wonder as if the noise were in the
street, and one with which he had not the smallest possible concern.
‘Much after their accustomed time. The usual pretence I suppose. No
doubt a heavy payment to make up tomorrow. Poor fellow, he loses time,
and time is money as the good proverb says--I never found it out though.
Well. What now? You know I am not at home.’

‘A man, sir,’ replied the servant, who was to the full as cool and
negligent in his way as his master, ‘has brought home the riding-whip
you lost the other day. I told him you were out, but he said he was to
wait while I brought it in, and wouldn’t go till I did.’

‘He was quite right,’ returned his master, ‘and you’re a blockhead,
possessing no judgment or discretion whatever. Tell him to come in, and
see that he rubs his shoes for exactly five minutes first.’

The man laid the whip on a chair, and withdrew. The master, who had only
heard his foot upon the ground and had not taken the trouble to turn
round and look at him, shut his book, and pursued the train of ideas his
entrance had disturbed.

‘If time were money,’ he said, handling his snuff-box, ‘I would compound
with my creditors, and give them--let me see--how much a day? There’s
my nap after dinner--an hour--they’re extremely welcome to that, and to
make the most of it. In the morning, between my breakfast and the
paper, I could spare them another hour; in the evening before dinner
say another. Three hours a day. They might pay themselves in calls, with
interest, in twelve months. I think I shall propose it to them. Ah, my
centaur, are you there?’

‘Here I am,’ replied Hugh, striding in, followed by a dog, as rough and
sullen as himself; ‘and trouble enough I’ve had to get here. What do you
ask me to come for, and keep me out when I DO come?’

‘My good fellow,’ returned the other, raising his head a little from the
cushion and carelessly surveying him from top to toe, ‘I am delighted to
see you, and to have, in your being here, the very best proof that you
are not kept out. How are you?’

‘I’m well enough,’ said Hugh impatiently.

‘You look a perfect marvel of health. Sit down.’

‘I’d rather stand,’ said Hugh.

‘Please yourself my good fellow,’ returned Mr Chester rising, slowly
pulling off the loose robe he wore, and sitting down before the
dressing-glass. ‘Please yourself by all means.’

Having said this in the politest and blandest tone possible, he went on
dressing, and took no further notice of his guest, who stood in the same
spot as uncertain what to do next, eyeing him sulkily from time to time.

‘Are you going to speak to me, master?’ he said, after a long silence.

‘My worthy creature,’ returned Mr Chester, ‘you are a little ruffled and
out of humour. I’ll wait till you’re quite yourself again. I am in no
hurry.’

This behaviour had its intended effect. It humbled and abashed the man,
and made him still more irresolute and uncertain. Hard words he could
have returned, violence he would have repaid with interest; but this
cool, complacent, contemptuous, self-possessed reception, caused him to
feel his inferiority more completely than the most elaborate arguments.
Everything contributed to this effect. His own rough speech, contrasted
with the soft persuasive accents of the other; his rude bearing, and
Mr Chester’s polished manner; the disorder and negligence of his
ragged dress, and the elegant attire he saw before him; with all the
unaccustomed luxuries and comforts of the room, and the silence that
gave him leisure to observe these things, and feel how ill at ease they
made him; all these influences, which have too often some effect on
tutored minds and become of almost resistless power when brought to bear
on such a mind as his, quelled Hugh completely. He moved by little and
little nearer to Mr Chester’s chair, and glancing over his shoulder
at the reflection of his face in the glass, as if seeking for some
encouragement in its expression, said at length, with a rough attempt at
conciliation,

‘ARE you going to speak to me, master, or am I to go away?’

‘Speak you,’ said Mr Chester, ‘speak you, good fellow. I have spoken,
have I not? I am waiting for you.’

‘Why, look’ee, sir,’ returned Hugh with increased embarrassment, ‘am I
the man that you privately left your whip with before you rode away from
the Maypole, and told to bring it back whenever he might want to see you
on a certain subject?’

‘No doubt the same, or you have a twin brother,’ said Mr Chester,
glancing at the reflection of his anxious face; ‘which is not probable,
I should say.’

‘Then I have come, sir,’ said Hugh, ‘and I have brought it back, and
something else along with it. A letter, sir, it is, that I took from
the person who had charge of it.’ As he spoke, he laid upon the
dressing-table, Dolly’s lost epistle. The very letter that had cost her
so much trouble.

‘Did you obtain this by force, my good fellow?’ said Mr Chester, casting
his eye upon it without the least perceptible surprise or pleasure.

‘Not quite,’ said Hugh. ‘Partly.’

‘Who was the messenger from whom you took it?’

‘A woman. One Varden’s daughter.’

‘Oh indeed!’ said Mr Chester gaily. ‘What else did you take from her?’

‘What else?’

‘Yes,’ said the other, in a drawling manner, for he was fixing a very
small patch of sticking plaster on a very small pimple near the corner
of his mouth. ‘What else?’

‘Well a kiss,’ replied Hugh, after some hesitation.

‘And what else?’

‘Nothing.’

‘I think,’ said Mr Chester, in the same easy tone, and smiling twice or
thrice to try if the patch adhered--‘I think there was something else.
I have heard a trifle of jewellery spoken of--a mere trifle--a thing
of such little value, indeed, that you may have forgotten it. Do you
remember anything of the kind--such as a bracelet now, for instance?’

Hugh with a muttered oath thrust his hand into his breast, and drawing
the bracelet forth, wrapped in a scrap of hay, was about to lay it on
the table likewise, when his patron stopped his hand and bade him put it
up again.

‘You took that for yourself my excellent friend,’ he said, ‘and may keep
it. I am neither a thief nor a receiver. Don’t show it to me. You had
better hide it again, and lose no time. Don’t let me see where you put
it either,’ he added, turning away his head.

‘You’re not a receiver!’ said Hugh bluntly, despite the increasing awe
in which he held him. ‘What do you call THAT, master?’ striking the
letter with his heavy hand.

‘I call that quite another thing,’ said Mr Chester coolly. ‘I shall
prove it presently, as you will see. You are thirsty, I suppose?’

Hugh drew his sleeve across his lips, and gruffly answered yes.

‘Step to that closet and bring me a bottle you will see there, and a
glass.’

He obeyed. His patron followed him with his eyes, and when his back was
turned, smiled as he had never done when he stood beside the mirror.
On his return he filled the glass, and bade him drink. That dram
despatched, he poured him out another, and another.

‘How many can you bear?’ he said, filling the glass again.

‘As many as you like to give me. Pour on. Fill high. A bumper with a
bead in the middle! Give me enough of this,’ he added, as he tossed it
down his hairy throat, ‘and I’ll do murder if you ask me!’

‘As I don’t mean to ask you, and you might possibly do it without
being invited if you went on much further,’ said Mr Chester with great
composure, ‘we will stop, if agreeable to you, my good friend, at the
next glass. You were drinking before you came here.’

‘I always am when I can get it,’ cried Hugh boisterously, waving the
empty glass above his head, and throwing himself into a rude dancing
attitude. ‘I always am. Why not? Ha ha ha! What’s so good to me as this?
What ever has been? What else has kept away the cold on bitter nights,
and driven hunger off in starving times? What else has given me the
strength and courage of a man, when men would have left me to die, a
puny child? I should never have had a man’s heart but for this. I
should have died in a ditch. Where’s he who when I was a weak and sickly
wretch, with trembling legs and fading sight, bade me cheer up, as this
did? I never knew him; not I. I drink to the drink, master. Ha ha ha!’

‘You are an exceedingly cheerful young man,’ said Mr Chester, putting
on his cravat with great deliberation, and slightly moving his head
from side to side to settle his chin in its proper place. ‘Quite a boon
companion.’

‘Do you see this hand, master,’ said Hugh, ‘and this arm?’ baring the
brawny limb to the elbow. ‘It was once mere skin and bone, and would
have been dust in some poor churchyard by this time, but for the drink.’

‘You may cover it,’ said Mr Chester, ‘it’s sufficiently real in your
sleeve.’

‘I should never have been spirited up to take a kiss from the proud
little beauty, master, but for the drink,’ cried Hugh. ‘Ha ha ha! It was
a good one. As sweet as honeysuckle, I warrant you. I thank the drink
for it. I’ll drink to the drink again, master. Fill me one more. Come.
One more!’

‘You are such a promising fellow,’ said his patron, putting on his
waistcoat with great nicety, and taking no heed of this request, ‘that
I must caution you against having too many impulses from the drink, and
getting hung before your time. What’s your age?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘At any rate,’ said Mr Chester, ‘you are young enough to escape what
I may call a natural death for some years to come. How can you trust
yourself in my hands on so short an acquaintance, with a halter round
your neck? What a confiding nature yours must be!’

Hugh fell back a pace or two and surveyed him with a look of mingled
terror, indignation, and surprise. Regarding himself in the glass with
the same complacency as before, and speaking as smoothly as if he were
discussing some pleasant chit-chat of the town, his patron went on:

‘Robbery on the king’s highway, my young friend, is a very dangerous and
ticklish occupation. It is pleasant, I have no doubt, while it lasts;
but like many other pleasures in this transitory world, it seldom lasts
long. And really if in the ingenuousness of youth, you open your heart
so readily on the subject, I am afraid your career will be an extremely
short one.’

‘How’s this?’ said Hugh. ‘What do you talk of master? Who was it set me
on?’

‘Who?’ said Mr Chester, wheeling sharply round, and looking full at him
for the first time. ‘I didn’t hear you. Who was it?’

Hugh faltered, and muttered something which was not audible.

‘Who was it? I am curious to know,’ said Mr Chester, with surpassing
affability. ‘Some rustic beauty perhaps? But be cautious, my good
friend. They are not always to be trusted. Do take my advice now, and be
careful of yourself.’ With these words he turned to the glass again, and
went on with his toilet.

Hugh would have answered him that he, the questioner himself had set him
on, but the words stuck in his throat. The consummate art with which his
patron had led him to this point, and managed the whole conversation,
perfectly baffled him. He did not doubt that if he had made the retort
which was on his lips when Mr Chester turned round and questioned him
so keenly, he would straightway have given him into custody and had him
dragged before a justice with the stolen property upon him; in which
case it was as certain he would have been hung as it was that he had
been born. The ascendency which it was the purpose of the man of the
world to establish over this savage instrument, was gained from that
time. Hugh’s submission was complete. He dreaded him beyond description;
and felt that accident and artifice had spun a web about him, which at a
touch from such a master-hand as his, would bind him to the gallows.

With these thoughts passing through his mind, and yet wondering at the
very same time how he who came there rioting in the confidence of this
man (as he thought), should be so soon and so thoroughly subdued, Hugh
stood cowering before him, regarding him uneasily from time to time,
while he finished dressing. When he had done so, he took up the
letter, broke the seal, and throwing himself back in his chair, read it
leisurely through.

‘Very neatly worded upon my life! Quite a woman’s letter, full of what
people call tenderness, and disinterestedness, and heart, and all that
sort of thing!’

As he spoke, he twisted it up, and glancing lazily round at Hugh as
though he would say ‘You see this?’ held it in the flame of the candle.
When it was in a full blaze, he tossed it into the grate, and there it
smouldered away.

‘It was directed to my son,’ he said, turning to Hugh, ‘and you did
quite right to bring it here. I opened it on my own responsibility, and
you see what I have done with it. Take this, for your trouble.’

Hugh stepped forward to receive the piece of money he held out to him.
As he put it in his hand, he added:

‘If you should happen to find anything else of this sort, or to pick
up any kind of information you may think I would like to have, bring it
here, will you, my good fellow?’

This was said with a smile which implied--or Hugh thought it did--‘fail
to do so at your peril!’ He answered that he would.

‘And don’t,’ said his patron, with an air of the very kindest patronage,
‘don’t be at all downcast or uneasy respecting that little rashness we
have been speaking of. Your neck is as safe in my hands, my good fellow,
as though a baby’s fingers clasped it, I assure you.--Take another
glass. You are quieter now.’

Hugh accepted it from his hand, and looking stealthily at his smiling
face, drank the contents in silence.

‘Don’t you--ha, ha!--don’t you drink to the drink any more?’ said Mr
Chester, in his most winning manner.

‘To you, sir,’ was the sullen answer, with something approaching to a
bow. ‘I drink to you.’

‘Thank you. God bless you. By the bye, what is your name, my good soul?
You are called Hugh, I know, of course--your other name?’

‘I have no other name.’

‘A very strange fellow! Do you mean that you never knew one, or that you
don’t choose to tell it? Which?’

‘I’d tell it if I could,’ said Hugh, quickly. ‘I can’t. I have been
always called Hugh; nothing more. I never knew, nor saw, nor thought
about a father; and I was a boy of six--that’s not very old--when they
hung my mother up at Tyburn for a couple of thousand men to stare at.
They might have let her live. She was poor enough.’

‘How very sad!’ exclaimed his patron, with a condescending smile. ‘I
have no doubt she was an exceedingly fine woman.’

‘You see that dog of mine?’ said Hugh, abruptly.

‘Faithful, I dare say?’ rejoined his patron, looking at him through his
glass; ‘and immensely clever? Virtuous and gifted animals, whether man
or beast, always are so very hideous.’

‘Such a dog as that, and one of the same breed, was the only living
thing except me that howled that day,’ said Hugh. ‘Out of the two
thousand odd--there was a larger crowd for its being a woman--the dog
and I alone had any pity. If he’d have been a man, he’d have been
glad to be quit of her, for she had been forced to keep him lean and
half-starved; but being a dog, and not having a man’s sense, he was
sorry.’

‘It was dull of the brute, certainly,’ said Mr Chester, ‘and very like a
brute.’

Hugh made no rejoinder, but whistling to his dog, who sprung up at the
sound and came jumping and sporting about him, bade his sympathising
friend good night.

‘Good night,’ he returned. ‘Remember; you’re safe with me--quite safe. So
long as you deserve it, my good fellow, as I hope you always will, you
have a friend in me, on whose silence you may rely. Now do be careful of
yourself, pray do, and consider what jeopardy you might have stood in.
Good night! bless you!’

Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words as much as such
a being could, and crept out of the door so submissively and
subserviently--with an air, in short, so different from that with which
he had entered--that his patron on being left alone, smiled more than
ever.

‘And yet,’ he said, as he took a pinch of snuff, ‘I do not like their
having hanged his mother. The fellow has a fine eye, and I am sure she
was handsome. But very probably she was coarse--red-nosed perhaps, and
had clumsy feet. Aye, it was all for the best, no doubt.’

With this comforting reflection, he put on his coat, took a farewell
glance at the glass, and summoned his man, who promptly attended,
followed by a chair and its two bearers.

‘Foh!’ said Mr Chester. ‘The very atmosphere that centaur has breathed,
seems tainted with the cart and ladder. Here, Peak. Bring some scent and
sprinkle the floor; and take away the chair he sat upon, and air it; and
dash a little of that mixture upon me. I am stifled!’

The man obeyed; and the room and its master being both purified, nothing
remained for Mr Chester but to demand his hat, to fold it jauntily under
his arm, to take his seat in the chair and be carried off; humming a
fashionable tune.



Chapter 24


How the accomplished gentleman spent the evening in the midst of a
dazzling and brilliant circle; how he enchanted all those with whom he
mingled by the grace of his deportment, the politeness of his manner,
the vivacity of his conversation, and the sweetness of his voice; how
it was observed in every corner, that Chester was a man of that happy
disposition that nothing ruffled him, that he was one on whom the
world’s cares and errors sat lightly as his dress, and in whose smiling
face a calm and tranquil mind was constantly reflected; how honest men,
who by instinct knew him better, bowed down before him nevertheless,
deferred to his every word, and courted his favourable notice; how
people, who really had good in them, went with the stream, and fawned
and flattered, and approved, and despised themselves while they did
so, and yet had not the courage to resist; how, in short, he was one of
those who are received and cherished in society (as the phrase is) by
scores who individually would shrink from and be repelled by the
object of their lavish regard; are things of course, which will suggest
themselves. Matter so commonplace needs but a passing glance, and there
an end.

The despisers of mankind--apart from the mere fools and mimics, of that
creed--are of two sorts. They who believe their merit neglected and
unappreciated, make up one class; they who receive adulation and
flattery, knowing their own worthlessness, compose the other. Be sure
that the coldest-hearted misanthropes are ever of this last order.

Mr Chester sat up in bed next morning, sipping his coffee, and
remembering with a kind of contemptuous satisfaction how he had shone
last night, and how he had been caressed and courted, when his servant
brought in a very small scrap of dirty paper, tightly sealed in two
places, on the inside whereof was inscribed in pretty large text these
words: ‘A friend. Desiring of a conference. Immediate. Private. Burn it
when you’ve read it.’

‘Where in the name of the Gunpowder Plot did you pick up this?’ said his
master.

It was given him by a person then waiting at the door, the man replied.

‘With a cloak and dagger?’ said Mr Chester.

With nothing more threatening about him, it appeared, than a leather
apron and a dirty face. ‘Let him come in.’ In he came--Mr Tappertit;
with his hair still on end, and a great lock in his hand, which he put
down on the floor in the middle of the chamber as if he were about to go
through some performances in which it was a necessary agent.

‘Sir,’ said Mr Tappertit with a low bow, ‘I thank you for this
condescension, and am glad to see you. Pardon the menial office in which
I am engaged, sir, and extend your sympathies to one, who, humble as his
appearance is, has inn’ard workings far above his station.’

Mr Chester held the bed-curtain farther back, and looked at him with a
vague impression that he was some maniac, who had not only broken open
the door of his place of confinement, but had brought away the lock. Mr
Tappertit bowed again, and displayed his legs to the best advantage.

‘You have heard, sir,’ said Mr Tappertit, laying his hand upon his
breast, ‘of G. Varden Locksmith and bell-hanger and repairs neatly
executed in town and country, Clerkenwell, London?’

‘What then?’ asked Mr Chester.

‘I’m his ‘prentice, sir.’

‘What THEN?’

‘Ahem!’ said Mr Tappertit. ‘Would you permit me to shut the door, sir,
and will you further, sir, give me your honour bright, that what passes
between us is in the strictest confidence?’

Mr Chester laid himself calmly down in bed again, and turning a
perfectly undisturbed face towards the strange apparition, which had
by this time closed the door, begged him to speak out, and to be as
rational as he could, without putting himself to any very great personal
inconvenience.

‘In the first place, sir,’ said Mr Tappertit, producing a small
pocket-handkerchief and shaking it out of the folds, ‘as I have not
a card about me (for the envy of masters debases us below that level)
allow me to offer the best substitute that circumstances will admit of.
If you will take that in your own hand, sir, and cast your eye on the
right-hand corner,’ said Mr Tappertit, offering it with a graceful air,
‘you will meet with my credentials.’

‘Thank you,’ answered Mr Chester, politely accepting it, and turning to
some blood-red characters at one end. ‘“Four. Simon Tappertit. One.” Is
that the--’

‘Without the numbers, sir, that is my name,’ replied the ‘prentice.
‘They are merely intended as directions to the washerwoman, and have no
connection with myself or family. YOUR name, sir,’ said Mr Tappertit,
looking very hard at his nightcap, ‘is Chester, I suppose? You needn’t
pull it off, sir, thank you. I observe E. C. from here. We will take the
rest for granted.’

‘Pray, Mr Tappertit,’ said Mr Chester, ‘has that complicated piece of
ironmongery which you have done me the favour to bring with you, any
immediate connection with the business we are to discuss?’

‘It has not, sir,’ rejoined the ‘prentice. ‘It’s going to be fitted on a
ware’us-door in Thames Street.’

‘Perhaps, as that is the case,’ said Mr Chester, ‘and as it has a
stronger flavour of oil than I usually refresh my bedroom with, you will
oblige me so far as to put it outside the door?’

‘By all means, sir,’ said Mr Tappertit, suiting the action to the word.

‘You’ll excuse my mentioning it, I hope?’

‘Don’t apologise, sir, I beg. And now, if you please, to business.’

During the whole of this dialogue, Mr Chester had suffered nothing but
his smile of unvarying serenity and politeness to appear upon his face.
Sim Tappertit, who had far too good an opinion of himself to suspect
that anybody could be playing upon him, thought within himself that
this was something like the respect to which he was entitled, and drew
a comparison from this courteous demeanour of a stranger, by no means
favourable to the worthy locksmith.

‘From what passes in our house,’ said Mr Tappertit, ‘I am aware, sir,
that your son keeps company with a young lady against your inclinations.
Sir, your son has not used me well.’

‘Mr Tappertit,’ said the other, ‘you grieve me beyond description.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ replied the ‘prentice. ‘I’m glad to hear you say so.
He’s very proud, sir, is your son; very haughty.’

‘I am afraid he IS haughty,’ said Mr Chester. ‘Do you know I was really
afraid of that before; and you confirm me?’

‘To recount the menial offices I’ve had to do for your son, sir,’ said
Mr Tappertit; ‘the chairs I’ve had to hand him, the coaches I’ve had to
call for him, the numerous degrading duties, wholly unconnected with
my indenters, that I’ve had to do for him, would fill a family Bible.
Besides which, sir, he is but a young man himself and I do not consider
“thank’ee Sim,” a proper form of address on those occasions.’

‘Mr Tappertit, your wisdom is beyond your years. Pray go on.’

‘I thank you for your good opinion, sir,’ said Sim, much gratified,
‘and will endeavour so to do. Now sir, on this account (and perhaps for
another reason or two which I needn’t go into) I am on your side. And
what I tell you is this--that as long as our people go backwards and
forwards, to and fro, up and down, to that there jolly old Maypole,
lettering, and messaging, and fetching and carrying, you couldn’t help
your son keeping company with that young lady by deputy,--not if he was
minded night and day by all the Horse Guards, and every man of ‘em in
the very fullest uniform.’

Mr Tappertit stopped to take breath after this, and then started fresh
again.

‘Now, sir, I am a coming to the point. You will inquire of me, “how is
this to be prevented?” I’ll tell you how. If an honest, civil, smiling
gentleman like you--’

‘Mr Tappertit--really--’

‘No, no, I’m serious,’ rejoined the ‘prentice, ‘I am, upon my soul.
If an honest, civil, smiling gentleman like you, was to talk but ten
minutes to our old woman--that’s Mrs Varden--and flatter her up a bit,
you’d gain her over for ever. Then there’s this point got--that her
daughter Dolly,’--here a flush came over Mr Tappertit’s face--‘wouldn’t
be allowed to be a go-between from that time forward; and till that
point’s got, there’s nothing ever will prevent her. Mind that.’

‘Mr Tappertit, your knowledge of human nature--’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Sim, folding his arms with a dreadful calmness.
‘Now I come to THE point. Sir, there is a villain at that Maypole, a
monster in human shape, a vagabond of the deepest dye, that unless you
get rid of and have kidnapped and carried off at the very least--nothing
less will do--will marry your son to that young woman, as certainly and
as surely as if he was the Archbishop of Canterbury himself. He will,
sir, for the hatred and malice that he bears to you; let alone the
pleasure of doing a bad action, which to him is its own reward. If you
knew how this chap, this Joseph Willet--that’s his name--comes backwards
and forwards to our house, libelling, and denouncing, and threatening
you, and how I shudder when I hear him, you’d hate him worse than I
do,--worse than I do, sir,’ said Mr Tappertit wildly, putting his hair
up straighter, and making a crunching noise with his teeth; ‘if sich a
thing is possible.’

‘A little private vengeance in this, Mr Tappertit?’

‘Private vengeance, sir, or public sentiment, or both combined--destroy
him,’ said Mr Tappertit. ‘Miggs says so too. Miggs and me both say so.
We can’t bear the plotting and undermining that takes place. Our souls
recoil from it. Barnaby Rudge and Mrs Rudge are in it likewise; but the
villain, Joseph Willet, is the ringleader. Their plottings and schemes
are known to me and Miggs. If you want information of ‘em, apply to us.
Put Joseph Willet down, sir. Destroy him. Crush him. And be happy.’

With these words, Mr Tappertit, who seemed to expect no reply, and to
hold it as a necessary consequence of his eloquence that his hearer
should be utterly stunned, dumbfoundered, and overwhelmed, folded his
arms so that the palm of each hand rested on the opposite shoulder, and
disappeared after the manner of those mysterious warners of whom he had
read in cheap story-books.

‘That fellow,’ said Mr Chester, relaxing his face when he was fairly
gone, ‘is good practice. I HAVE some command of my features, beyond all
doubt. He fully confirms what I suspected, though; and blunt tools are
sometimes found of use, where sharper instruments would fail. I fear
I may be obliged to make great havoc among these worthy people. A
troublesome necessity! I quite feel for them.’

With that he fell into a quiet slumber:--subsided into such a gentle,
pleasant sleep, that it was quite infantine.



Chapter 25


Leaving the favoured, and well-received, and flattered of the world;
him of the world most worldly, who never compromised himself by an
ungentlemanly action, and never was guilty of a manly one; to lie
smilingly asleep--for even sleep, working but little change in his
dissembling face, became with him a piece of cold, conventional
hypocrisy--we follow in the steps of two slow travellers on foot, making
towards Chigwell.

Barnaby and his mother. Grip in their company, of course.

The widow, to whom each painful mile seemed longer than the last, toiled
wearily along; while Barnaby, yielding to every inconstant impulse,
fluttered here and there, now leaving her far behind, now lingering far
behind himself, now darting into some by-lane or path and leaving her
to pursue her way alone, until he stealthily emerged again and came upon
her with a wild shout of merriment, as his wayward and capricious nature
prompted. Now he would call to her from the topmost branch of some high
tree by the roadside; now using his tall staff as a leaping-pole, come
flying over ditch or hedge or five-barred gate; now run with surprising
swiftness for a mile or more on the straight road, and halting, sport
upon a patch of grass with Grip till she came up. These were his
delights; and when his patient mother heard his merry voice, or looked
into his flushed and healthy face, she would not have abated them by one
sad word or murmur, though each had been to her a source of suffering in
the same degree as it was to him of pleasure.

It is something to look upon enjoyment, so that it be free and wild and
in the face of nature, though it is but the enjoyment of an idiot. It is
something to know that Heaven has left the capacity of gladness in such
a creature’s breast; it is something to be assured that, however lightly
men may crush that faculty in their fellows, the Great Creator of
mankind imparts it even to his despised and slighted work. Who would not
rather see a poor idiot happy in the sunlight, than a wise man pining in
a darkened jail!

Ye men of gloom and austerity, who paint the face of Infinite
Benevolence with an eternal frown; read in the Everlasting Book, wide
open to your view, the lesson it would teach. Its pictures are not in
black and sombre hues, but bright and glowing tints; its music--save
when ye drown it--is not in sighs and groans, but songs and cheerful
sounds. Listen to the million voices in the summer air, and find one
dismal as your own. Remember, if ye can, the sense of hope and pleasure
which every glad return of day awakens in the breast of all your kind
who have not changed their nature; and learn some wisdom even from the
witless, when their hearts are lifted up they know not why, by all the
mirth and happiness it brings.

The widow’s breast was full of care, was laden heavily with secret dread
and sorrow; but her boy’s gaiety of heart gladdened her, and beguiled
the long journey. Sometimes he would bid her lean upon his arm, and
would keep beside her steadily for a short distance; but it was more his
nature to be rambling to and fro, and she better liked to see him free
and happy, even than to have him near her, because she loved him better
than herself.

She had quitted the place to which they were travelling, directly after
the event which had changed her whole existence; and for two-and-twenty
years had never had courage to revisit it. It was her native village.
How many recollections crowded on her mind when it appeared in sight!

Two-and-twenty years. Her boy’s whole life and history. The last time
she looked back upon those roofs among the trees, she carried him in her
arms, an infant. How often since that time had she sat beside him night
and day, watching for the dawn of mind that never came; how had she
feared, and doubted, and yet hoped, long after conviction forced itself
upon her! The little stratagems she had devised to try him, the little
tokens he had given in his childish way--not of dulness but of something
infinitely worse, so ghastly and unchildlike in its cunning--came back
as vividly as if but yesterday had intervened. The room in which they
used to be; the spot in which his cradle stood; he, old and elfin-like
in face, but ever dear to her, gazing at her with a wild and vacant
eye, and crooning some uncouth song as she sat by and rocked him; every
circumstance of his infancy came thronging back, and the most trivial,
perhaps, the most distinctly.

His older childhood, too; the strange imaginings he had; his terror of
certain senseless things--familiar objects he endowed with life; the
slow and gradual breaking out of that one horror, in which, before his
birth, his darkened intellect began; how, in the midst of all, she had
found some hope and comfort in his being unlike another child, and had
gone on almost believing in the slow development of his mind until he
grew a man, and then his childhood was complete and lasting; one after
another, all these old thoughts sprung up within her, strong after their
long slumber and bitterer than ever.

She took his arm and they hurried through the village street. It was
the same as it was wont to be in old times, yet different too, and wore
another air. The change was in herself, not it; but she never thought of
that, and wondered at its alteration, and where it lay, and what it was.

The people all knew Barnaby, and the children of the place came flocking
round him--as she remembered to have done with their fathers and mothers
round some silly beggarman, when a child herself. None of them knew her;
they passed each well-remembered house, and yard, and homestead; and
striking into the fields, were soon alone again.

The Warren was the end of their journey. Mr Haredale was walking in the
garden, and seeing them as they passed the iron gate, unlocked it, and
bade them enter that way.

‘At length you have mustered heart to visit the old place,’ he said to
the widow. ‘I am glad you have.’

‘For the first time, and the last, sir,’ she replied.

‘The first for many years, but not the last?’

‘The very last.’

‘You mean,’ said Mr Haredale, regarding her with some surprise, ‘that
having made this effort, you are resolved not to persevere and are
determined to relapse? This is unworthy of you. I have often told you,
you should return here. You would be happier here than elsewhere, I
know. As to Barnaby, it’s quite his home.’

‘And Grip’s,’ said Barnaby, holding the basket open. The raven hopped
gravely out, and perching on his shoulder and addressing himself to Mr
Haredale, cried--as a hint, perhaps, that some temperate refreshment
would be acceptable--‘Polly put the ket-tle on, we’ll all have tea!’

‘Hear me, Mary,’ said Mr Haredale kindly, as he motioned her to walk
with him towards the house. ‘Your life has been an example of patience
and fortitude, except in this one particular which has often given me
great pain. It is enough to know that you were cruelly involved in the
calamity which deprived me of an only brother, and Emma of her father,
without being obliged to suppose (as I sometimes am) that you associate
us with the author of our joint misfortunes.’

‘Associate you with him, sir!’ she cried.

‘Indeed,’ said Mr Haredale, ‘I think you do. I almost believe that
because your husband was bound by so many ties to our relation, and died
in his service and defence, you have come in some sort to connect us
with his murder.’

‘Alas!’ she answered. ‘You little know my heart, sir. You little know
the truth!’

‘It is natural you should do so; it is very probable you may, without
being conscious of it,’ said Mr Haredale, speaking more to himself than
her. ‘We are a fallen house. Money, dispensed with the most lavish
hand, would be a poor recompense for sufferings like yours; and thinly
scattered by hands so pinched and tied as ours, it becomes a miserable
mockery. I feel it so, God knows,’ he added, hastily. ‘Why should I
wonder if she does!’

‘You do me wrong, dear sir, indeed,’ she rejoined with great
earnestness; ‘and yet when you come to hear what I desire your leave to
say--’

‘I shall find my doubts confirmed?’ he said, observing that she faltered
and became confused. ‘Well!’

He quickened his pace for a few steps, but fell back again to her side,
and said:

‘And have you come all this way at last, solely to speak to me?’

She answered, ‘Yes.’

‘A curse,’ he muttered, ‘upon the wretched state of us proud beggars,
from whom the poor and rich are equally at a distance; the one being
forced to treat us with a show of cold respect; the other condescending
to us in their every deed and word, and keeping more aloof, the nearer
they approach us.--Why, if it were pain to you (as it must have been)
to break for this slight purpose the chain of habit forged through
two-and-twenty years, could you not let me know your wish, and beg me to
come to you?’

‘There was not time, sir,’ she rejoined. ‘I took my resolution but
last night, and taking it, felt that I must not lose a day--a day! an
hour--in having speech with you.’

They had by this time reached the house. Mr Haredale paused for a
moment, and looked at her as if surprised by the energy of her manner.
Observing, however, that she took no heed of him, but glanced up,
shuddering, at the old walls with which such horrors were connected in
her mind, he led her by a private stair into his library, where Emma was
seated in a window, reading.

The young lady, seeing who approached, hastily rose and laid aside her
book, and with many kind words, and not without tears, gave her a warm
and earnest welcome. But the widow shrunk from her embrace as though she
feared her, and sunk down trembling on a chair.

‘It is the return to this place after so long an absence,’ said Emma
gently. ‘Pray ring, dear uncle--or stay--Barnaby will run himself and
ask for wine--’

‘Not for the world,’ she cried. ‘It would have another taste--I could
not touch it. I want but a minute’s rest. Nothing but that.’

Miss Haredale stood beside her chair, regarding her with silent pity.
She remained for a little time quite still; then rose and turned to Mr
Haredale, who had sat down in his easy chair, and was contemplating her
with fixed attention.

The tale connected with the mansion borne in mind, it seemed, as has
been already said, the chosen theatre for such a deed as it had known.
The room in which this group were now assembled--hard by the very
chamber where the act was done--dull, dark, and sombre; heavy with
worm-eaten books; deadened and shut in by faded hangings, muffling every
sound; shadowed mournfully by trees whose rustling boughs gave ever and
anon a spectral knocking at the glass; wore, beyond all others in
the house, a ghostly, gloomy air. Nor were the group assembled there,
unfitting tenants of the spot. The widow, with her marked and startling
face and downcast eyes; Mr Haredale stern and despondent ever; his niece
beside him, like, yet most unlike, the picture of her father, which
gazed reproachfully down upon them from the blackened wall; Barnaby,
with his vacant look and restless eye; were all in keeping with the
place, and actors in the legend. Nay, the very raven, who had hopped
upon the table and with the air of some old necromancer appeared to be
profoundly studying a great folio volume that lay open on a desk, was
strictly in unison with the rest, and looked like the embodied spirit of
evil biding his time of mischief.

‘I scarcely know,’ said the widow, breaking silence, ‘how to begin. You
will think my mind disordered.’

‘The whole tenor of your quiet and reproachless life since you were last
here,’ returned Mr Haredale, mildly, ‘shall bear witness for you. Why do
you fear to awaken such a suspicion? You do not speak to strangers. You
have not to claim our interest or consideration for the first time. Be
more yourself. Take heart. Any advice or assistance that I can give you,
you know is yours of right, and freely yours.’

‘What if I came, sir,’ she rejoined, ‘I who have but one other friend on
earth, to reject your aid from this moment, and to say that henceforth
I launch myself upon the world, alone and unassisted, to sink or swim as
Heaven may decree!’

‘You would have, if you came to me for such a purpose,’ said Mr Haredale
calmly, ‘some reason to assign for conduct so extraordinary, which--if
one may entertain the possibility of anything so wild and strange--would
have its weight, of course.’

‘That, sir,’ she answered, ‘is the misery of my distress. I can give
no reason whatever. My own bare word is all that I can offer. It is
my duty, my imperative and bounden duty. If I did not discharge it,
I should be a base and guilty wretch. Having said that, my lips are
sealed, and I can say no more.’

As though she felt relieved at having said so much, and had nerved
herself to the remainder of her task, she spoke from this time with a
firmer voice and heightened courage.

‘Heaven is my witness, as my own heart is--and yours, dear young lady,
will speak for me, I know--that I have lived, since that time we all
have bitter reason to remember, in unchanging devotion, and gratitude to
this family. Heaven is my witness that go where I may, I shall preserve
those feelings unimpaired. And it is my witness, too, that they alone
impel me to the course I must take, and from which nothing now shall
turn me, as I hope for mercy.’

‘These are strange riddles,’ said Mr Haredale.

‘In this world, sir,’ she replied, ‘they may, perhaps, never be
explained. In another, the Truth will be discovered in its own good
time. And may that time,’ she added in a low voice, ‘be far distant!’

‘Let me be sure,’ said Mr Haredale, ‘that I understand you, for I am
doubtful of my own senses. Do you mean that you are resolved voluntarily
to deprive yourself of those means of support you have received from us
so long--that you are determined to resign the annuity we settled on you
twenty years ago--to leave house, and home, and goods, and begin life
anew--and this, for some secret reason or monstrous fancy which is
incapable of explanation, which only now exists, and has been dormant
all this time? In the name of God, under what delusion are you
labouring?’

‘As I am deeply thankful,’ she made answer, ‘for the kindness of those,
alive and dead, who have owned this house; and as I would not have its
roof fall down and crush me, or its very walls drip blood, my name being
spoken in their hearing; I never will again subsist upon their bounty,
or let it help me to subsistence. You do not know,’ she added, suddenly,
‘to what uses it may be applied; into what hands it may pass. I do, and
I renounce it.’

‘Surely,’ said Mr Haredale, ‘its uses rest with you.’

‘They did. They rest with me no longer. It may be--it IS--devoted to
purposes that mock the dead in their graves. It never can prosper with
me. It will bring some other heavy judgement on the head of my dear son,
whose innocence will suffer for his mother’s guilt.’

‘What words are these!’ cried Mr Haredale, regarding her with wonder.
‘Among what associates have you fallen? Into what guilt have you ever
been betrayed?’

‘I am guilty, and yet innocent; wrong, yet right; good in intention,
though constrained to shield and aid the bad. Ask me no more questions,
sir; but believe that I am rather to be pitied than condemned. I must
leave my house to-morrow, for while I stay there, it is haunted. My
future dwelling, if I am to live in peace, must be a secret. If my poor
boy should ever stray this way, do not tempt him to disclose it or have
him watched when he returns; for if we are hunted, we must fly again.
And now this load is off my mind, I beseech you--and you, dear Miss
Haredale, too--to trust me if you can, and think of me kindly as you
have been used to do. If I die and cannot tell my secret even then (for
that may come to pass), it will sit the lighter on my breast in that
hour for this day’s work; and on that day, and every day until it comes,
I will pray for and thank you both, and trouble you no more.’

With that, she would have left them, but they detained her, and with
many soothing words and kind entreaties, besought her to consider what
she did, and above all to repose more freely upon them, and say what
weighed so sorely on her mind. Finding her deaf to their persuasions, Mr
Haredale suggested, as a last resource, that she should confide in Emma,
of whom, as a young person and one of her own sex, she might stand in
less dread than of himself. From this proposal, however, she recoiled
with the same indescribable repugnance she had manifested when they met.
The utmost that could be wrung from her was, a promise that she would
receive Mr Haredale at her own house next evening, and in the mean time
reconsider her determination and their dissuasions--though any change on
her part, as she told them, was quite hopeless. This condition made at
last, they reluctantly suffered her to depart, since she would neither
eat nor drink within the house; and she, and Barnaby, and Grip,
accordingly went out as they had come, by the private stair and
garden-gate; seeing and being seen of no one by the way.

It was remarkable in the raven that during the whole interview he
had kept his eye on his book with exactly the air of a very sly human
rascal, who, under the mask of pretending to read hard, was listening to
everything. He still appeared to have the conversation very strongly in
his mind, for although, when they were alone again, he issued orders for
the instant preparation of innumerable kettles for purposes of tea, he
was thoughtful, and rather seemed to do so from an abstract sense of
duty, than with any regard to making himself agreeable, or being what is
commonly called good company.

They were to return by the coach. As there was an interval of full two
hours before it started, and they needed rest and some refreshment,
Barnaby begged hard for a visit to the Maypole. But his mother, who had
no wish to be recognised by any of those who had known her long ago, and
who feared besides that Mr Haredale might, on second thoughts, despatch
some messenger to that place of entertainment in quest of her, proposed
to wait in the churchyard instead. As it was easy for Barnaby to buy
and carry thither such humble viands as they required, he cheerfully
assented, and in the churchyard they sat down to take their frugal
dinner.

Here again, the raven was in a highly reflective state; walking up and
down when he had dined, with an air of elderly complacency which was
strongly suggestive of his having his hands under his coat-tails; and
appearing to read the tombstones with a very critical taste. Sometimes,
after a long inspection of an epitaph, he would strop his beak upon the
grave to which it referred, and cry in his hoarse tones, ‘I’m a devil,
I’m a devil, I’m a devil!’ but whether he addressed his observations to
any supposed person below, or merely threw them off as a general remark,
is matter of uncertainty.

It was a quiet pretty spot, but a sad one for Barnaby’s mother; for Mr
Reuben Haredale lay there, and near the vault in which his ashes rested,
was a stone to the memory of her own husband, with a brief inscription
recording how and when he had lost his life. She sat here, thoughtful
and apart, until their time was out, and the distant horn told that the
coach was coming.

Barnaby, who had been sleeping on the grass, sprung up quickly at the
sound; and Grip, who appeared to understand it equally well, walked
into his basket straightway, entreating society in general (as though
he intended a kind of satire upon them in connection with churchyards)
never to say die on any terms. They were soon on the coach-top and
rolling along the road.

It went round by the Maypole, and stopped at the door. Joe was from
home, and Hugh came sluggishly out to hand up the parcel that it called
for. There was no fear of old John coming out. They could see him from
the coach-roof fast asleep in his cosy bar. It was a part of John’s
character. He made a point of going to sleep at the coach’s time. He
despised gadding about; he looked upon coaches as things that ought
to be indicted; as disturbers of the peace of mankind; as restless,
bustling, busy, horn-blowing contrivances, quite beneath the dignity of
men, and only suited to giddy girls that did nothing but chatter and go
a-shopping. ‘We know nothing about coaches here, sir,’ John would say,
if any unlucky stranger made inquiry touching the offensive vehicles;
‘we don’t book for ‘em; we’d rather not; they’re more trouble than
they’re worth, with their noise and rattle. If you like to wait for ‘em
you can; but we don’t know anything about ‘em; they may call and they
may not--there’s a carrier--he was looked upon as quite good enough for
us, when I was a boy.’

She dropped her veil as Hugh climbed up, and while he hung behind, and
talked to Barnaby in whispers. But neither he nor any other person
spoke to her, or noticed her, or had any curiosity about her; and so, an
alien, she visited and left the village where she had been born, and had
lived a merry child, a comely girl, a happy wife--where she had known
all her enjoyment of life, and had entered on its hardest sorrows.



Chapter 26


‘And you’re not surprised to hear this, Varden?’ said Mr Haredale.
‘Well! You and she have always been the best friends, and you should
understand her if anybody does.’

‘I ask your pardon, sir,’ rejoined the locksmith. ‘I didn’t say I
understood her. I wouldn’t have the presumption to say that of any
woman. It’s not so easily done. But I am not so much surprised, sir, as
you expected me to be, certainly.’

‘May I ask why not, my good friend?’

‘I have seen, sir,’ returned the locksmith with evident reluctance,
‘I have seen in connection with her, something that has filled me with
distrust and uneasiness. She has made bad friends, how, or when, I don’t
know; but that her house is a refuge for one robber and cut-throat at
least, I am certain. There, sir! Now it’s out.’

‘Varden!’

‘My own eyes, sir, are my witnesses, and for her sake I would be
willingly half-blind, if I could but have the pleasure of mistrusting
‘em. I have kept the secret till now, and it will go no further than
yourself, I know; but I tell you that with my own eyes--broad awake--I
saw, in the passage of her house one evening after dark, the highwayman
who robbed and wounded Mr Edward Chester, and on the same night
threatened me.’

‘And you made no effort to detain him?’ said Mr Haredale quickly.

‘Sir,’ returned the locksmith, ‘she herself prevented me--held me, with
all her strength, and hung about me until he had got clear off.’ And
having gone so far, he related circumstantially all that had passed upon
the night in question.

This dialogue was held in a low tone in the locksmith’s little parlour,
into which honest Gabriel had shown his visitor on his arrival. Mr
Haredale had called upon him to entreat his company to the widow’s, that
he might have the assistance of his persuasion and influence; and out of
this circumstance the conversation had arisen.

‘I forbore,’ said Gabriel, ‘from repeating one word of this to anybody,
as it could do her no good and might do her great harm. I thought and
hoped, to say the truth, that she would come to me, and talk to me about
it, and tell me how it was; but though I have purposely put myself
in her way more than once or twice, she has never touched upon the
subject--except by a look. And indeed,’ said the good-natured locksmith,
‘there was a good deal in the look, more than could have been put into a
great many words. It said among other matters “Don’t ask me anything”
 so imploringly, that I didn’t ask her anything. You’ll think me an old
fool, I know, sir. If it’s any relief to call me one, pray do.’

‘I am greatly disturbed by what you tell me,’ said Mr Haredale, after a
silence. ‘What meaning do you attach to it?’

The locksmith shook his head, and looked doubtfully out of window at the
failing light.

‘She cannot have married again,’ said Mr Haredale.

‘Not without our knowledge surely, sir.’

‘She may have done so, in the fear that it would lead, if known, to some
objection or estrangement. Suppose she married incautiously--it is not
improbable, for her existence has been a lonely and monotonous one for
many years--and the man turned out a ruffian, she would be anxious to
screen him, and yet would revolt from his crimes. This might be. It
bears strongly on the whole drift of her discourse yesterday, and would
quite explain her conduct. Do you suppose Barnaby is privy to these
circumstances?’

‘Quite impossible to say, sir,’ returned the locksmith, shaking his head
again: ‘and next to impossible to find out from him. If what you suppose
is really the case, I tremble for the lad--a notable person, sir, to put
to bad uses--’

‘It is not possible, Varden,’ said Mr Haredale, in a still lower tone of
voice than he had spoken yet, ‘that we have been blinded and deceived by
this woman from the beginning? It is not possible that this connection
was formed in her husband’s lifetime, and led to his and my brother’s--’

‘Good God, sir,’ cried Gabriel, interrupting him, ‘don’t entertain such
dark thoughts for a moment. Five-and-twenty years ago, where was there a
girl like her? A gay, handsome, laughing, bright-eyed damsel! Think what
she was, sir. It makes my heart ache now, even now, though I’m an old
man, with a woman for a daughter, to think what she was and what she is.
We all change, but that’s with Time; Time does his work honestly, and
I don’t mind him. A fig for Time, sir. Use him well, and he’s a hearty
fellow, and scorns to have you at a disadvantage. But care and suffering
(and those have changed her) are devils, sir--secret, stealthy,
undermining devils--who tread down the brightest flowers in Eden, and do
more havoc in a month than Time does in a year. Picture to yourself for
one minute what Mary was before they went to work with her fresh
heart and face--do her that justice--and say whether such a thing is
possible.’

‘You’re a good fellow, Varden,’ said Mr Haredale, ‘and are quite right.
I have brooded on that subject so long, that every breath of suspicion
carries me back to it. You are quite right.’

‘It isn’t, sir,’ cried the locksmith with brightened eyes, and sturdy,
honest voice; ‘it isn’t because I courted her before Rudge, and failed,
that I say she was too good for him. She would have been as much too
good for me. But she WAS too good for him; he wasn’t free and frank
enough for her. I don’t reproach his memory with it, poor fellow; I only
want to put her before you as she really was. For myself, I’ll keep her
old picture in my mind; and thinking of that, and what has altered her,
I’ll stand her friend, and try to win her back to peace. And damme,
sir,’ cried Gabriel, ‘with your pardon for the word, I’d do the same if
she had married fifty highwaymen in a twelvemonth; and think it in the
Protestant Manual too, though Martha said it wasn’t, tooth and nail,
till doomsday!’

If the dark little parlour had been filled with a dense fog, which,
clearing away in an instant, left it all radiance and brightness, it
could not have been more suddenly cheered than by this outbreak on the
part of the hearty locksmith. In a voice nearly as full and round as his
own, Mr Haredale cried ‘Well said!’ and bade him come away without more
parley. The locksmith complied right willingly; and both getting into a
hackney coach which was waiting at the door, drove off straightway.

They alighted at the street corner, and dismissing their conveyance,
walked to the house. To their first knock at the door there was no
response. A second met with the like result. But in answer to the third,
which was of a more vigorous kind, the parlour window-sash was gently
raised, and a musical voice cried:

‘Haredale, my dear fellow, I am extremely glad to see you. How very much
you have improved in your appearance since our last meeting! I never saw
you looking better. HOW do you do?’

Mr Haredale turned his eyes towards the casement whence the voice
proceeded, though there was no need to do so, to recognise the speaker,
and Mr Chester waved his hand, and smiled a courteous welcome.

‘The door will be opened immediately,’ he said. ‘There is nobody but
a very dilapidated female to perform such offices. You will excuse her
infirmities? If she were in a more elevated station of society, she
would be gouty. Being but a hewer of wood and drawer of water, she
is rheumatic. My dear Haredale, these are natural class distinctions,
depend upon it.’

Mr Haredale, whose face resumed its lowering and distrustful look the
moment he heard the voice, inclined his head stiffly, and turned his
back upon the speaker.

‘Not opened yet,’ said Mr Chester. ‘Dear me! I hope the aged soul has
not caught her foot in some unlucky cobweb by the way. She is there at
last! Come in, I beg!’

Mr Haredale entered, followed by the locksmith. Turning with a look of
great astonishment to the old woman who had opened the door, he inquired
for Mrs Rudge--for Barnaby. They were both gone, she replied, wagging
her ancient head, for good. There was a gentleman in the parlour, who
perhaps could tell them more. That was all SHE knew.

‘Pray, sir,’ said Mr Haredale, presenting himself before this new
tenant, ‘where is the person whom I came here to see?’

‘My dear friend,’ he returned, ‘I have not the least idea.’

‘Your trifling is ill-timed,’ retorted the other in a suppressed tone
and voice, ‘and its subject ill-chosen. Reserve it for those who
are your friends, and do not expend it on me. I lay no claim to the
distinction, and have the self-denial to reject it.’

‘My dear, good sir,’ said Mr Chester, ‘you are heated with walking. Sit
down, I beg. Our friend is--’

‘Is but a plain honest man,’ returned Mr Haredale, ‘and quite unworthy
of your notice.’

‘Gabriel Varden by name, sir,’ said the locksmith bluntly.

‘A worthy English yeoman!’ said Mr Chester. ‘A most worthy yeoman, of
whom I have frequently heard my son Ned--darling fellow--speak, and have
often wished to see. Varden, my good friend, I am glad to know you. You
wonder now,’ he said, turning languidly to Mr Haredale, ‘to see me here.
Now, I am sure you do.’

Mr Haredale glanced at him--not fondly or admiringly--smiled, and held
his peace.

‘The mystery is solved in a moment,’ said Mr Chester; ‘in a moment. Will
you step aside with me one instant. You remember our little compact in
reference to Ned, and your dear niece, Haredale? You remember the list
of assistants in their innocent intrigue? You remember these two people
being among them? My dear fellow, congratulate yourself, and me. I have
bought them off.’

‘You have done what?’ said Mr Haredale.

‘Bought them off,’ returned his smiling friend. ‘I have found it
necessary to take some active steps towards setting this boy and girl
attachment quite at rest, and have begun by removing these two agents.
You are surprised? Who CAN withstand the influence of a little money!
They wanted it, and have been bought off. We have nothing more to fear
from them. They are gone.’

‘Gone!’ echoed Mr Haredale. ‘Where?’

‘My dear fellow--and you must permit me to say again, that you never
looked so young; so positively boyish as you do to-night--the Lord knows
where; I believe Columbus himself wouldn’t find them. Between you and
me they have their hidden reasons, but upon that point I have pledged
myself to secrecy. She appointed to see you here to-night, I know, but
found it inconvenient, and couldn’t wait. Here is the key of the door.
I am afraid you’ll find it inconveniently large; but as the tenement is
yours, your good-nature will excuse that, Haredale, I am certain!’



Chapter 27


Mr Haredale stood in the widow’s parlour with the door-key in his hand,
gazing by turns at Mr Chester and at Gabriel Varden, and occasionally
glancing downward at the key as in the hope that of its own accord
it would unlock the mystery; until Mr Chester, putting on his hat and
gloves, and sweetly inquiring whether they were walking in the same
direction, recalled him to himself.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Our roads diverge--widely, as you know. For the present,
I shall remain here.’

‘You will be hipped, Haredale; you will be miserable, melancholy,
utterly wretched,’ returned the other. ‘It’s a place of the very last
description for a man of your temper. I know it will make you very
miserable.’

‘Let it,’ said Mr Haredale, sitting down; ‘and thrive upon the thought.
Good night!’

Feigning to be wholly unconscious of the abrupt wave of the hand which
rendered this farewell tantamount to a dismissal, Mr Chester retorted
with a bland and heartfelt benediction, and inquired of Gabriel in what
direction HE was going.

‘Yours, sir, would be too much honour for the like of me,’ replied the
locksmith, hesitating.

‘I wish you to remain here a little while, Varden,’ said Mr Haredale,
without looking towards them. ‘I have a word or two to say to you.’

‘I will not intrude upon your conference another moment,’ said Mr
Chester with inconceivable politeness. ‘May it be satisfactory to you
both! God bless you!’ So saying, and bestowing upon the locksmith a most
refulgent smile, he left them.

‘A deplorably constituted creature, that rugged person,’ he said, as
he walked along the street; ‘he is an atrocity that carries its own
punishment along with it--a bear that gnaws himself. And here is one
of the inestimable advantages of having a perfect command over one’s
inclinations. I have been tempted in these two short interviews, to draw
upon that fellow, fifty times. Five men in six would have yielded to the
impulse. By suppressing mine, I wound him deeper and more keenly than if
I were the best swordsman in all Europe, and he the worst. You are the
wise man’s very last resource,’ he said, tapping the hilt of his weapon;
‘we can but appeal to you when all else is said and done. To come to you
before, and thereby spare our adversaries so much, is a barbarian mode
of warfare, quite unworthy of any man with the remotest pretensions to
delicacy of feeling, or refinement.’

He smiled so very pleasantly as he communed with himself after this
manner, that a beggar was emboldened to follow for alms, and to dog
his footsteps for some distance. He was gratified by the circumstance,
feeling it complimentary to his power of feature, and as a reward
suffered the man to follow him until he called a chair, when he
graciously dismissed him with a fervent blessing.

‘Which is as easy as cursing,’ he wisely added, as he took his seat,
‘and more becoming to the face.--To Clerkenwell, my good creatures, if
you please!’ The chairmen were rendered quite vivacious by having such a
courteous burden, and to Clerkenwell they went at a fair round trot.

Alighting at a certain point he had indicated to them upon the road, and
paying them something less than they expected from a fare of such gentle
speech, he turned into the street in which the locksmith dwelt, and
presently stood beneath the shadow of the Golden Key. Mr Tappertit, who
was hard at work by lamplight, in a corner of the workshop, remained
unconscious of his presence until a hand upon his shoulder made him
start and turn his head.

‘Industry,’ said Mr Chester, ‘is the soul of business, and the keystone
of prosperity. Mr Tappertit, I shall expect you to invite me to dinner
when you are Lord Mayor of London.’

‘Sir,’ returned the ‘prentice, laying down his hammer, and rubbing
his nose on the back of a very sooty hand, ‘I scorn the Lord Mayor and
everything that belongs to him. We must have another state of society,
sir, before you catch me being Lord Mayor. How de do, sir?’

‘The better, Mr Tappertit, for looking into your ingenuous face once
more. I hope you are well.’

‘I am as well, sir,’ said Sim, standing up to get nearer to his ear, and
whispering hoarsely, ‘as any man can be under the aggrawations to which
I am exposed. My life’s a burden to me. If it wasn’t for wengeance, I’d
play at pitch and toss with it on the losing hazard.’

‘Is Mrs Varden at home?’ said Mr Chester.

‘Sir,’ returned Sim, eyeing him over with a look of concentrated
expression,--‘she is. Did you wish to see her?’

Mr Chester nodded.

‘Then come this way, sir,’ said Sim, wiping his face upon his apron.
‘Follow me, sir.--Would you permit me to whisper in your ear, one half a
second?’

‘By all means.’

Mr Tappertit raised himself on tiptoe, applied his lips to Mr Chester’s
ear, drew back his head without saying anything, looked hard at
him, applied them to his ear again, again drew back, and finally
whispered--‘The name is Joseph Willet. Hush! I say no more.’

Having said that much, he beckoned the visitor with a mysterious aspect
to follow him to the parlour-door, where he announced him in the voice
of a gentleman-usher. ‘Mr Chester.’

‘And not Mr Ed’dard, mind,’ said Sim, looking into the door again, and
adding this by way of postscript in his own person; ‘it’s his father.’

‘But do not let his father,’ said Mr Chester, advancing hat in hand, as
he observed the effect of this last explanatory announcement, ‘do not
let his father be any check or restraint on your domestic occupations,
Miss Varden.’

‘Oh! Now! There! An’t I always a-saying it!’ exclaimed Miggs, clapping
her hands. ‘If he an’t been and took Missis for her own daughter. Well,
she DO look like it, that she do. Only think of that, mim!’

‘Is it possible,’ said Mr Chester in his softest tones, ‘that this is
Mrs Varden! I am amazed. That is not your daughter, Mrs Varden? No, no.
Your sister.’

‘My daughter, indeed, sir,’ returned Mrs V., blushing with great
juvenility.

‘Ah, Mrs Varden!’ cried the visitor. ‘Ah, ma’am--humanity is indeed a
happy lot, when we can repeat ourselves in others, and still be young
as they. You must allow me to salute you--the custom of the country, my
dear madam--your daughter too.’

Dolly showed some reluctance to perform this ceremony, but was sharply
reproved by Mrs Varden, who insisted on her undergoing it that minute.
For pride, she said with great severity, was one of the seven deadly
sins, and humility and lowliness of heart were virtues. Wherefore she
desired that Dolly would be kissed immediately, on pain of her just
displeasure; at the same time giving her to understand that whatever
she saw her mother do, she might safely do herself, without being at the
trouble of any reasoning or reflection on the subject--which, indeed,
was offensive and undutiful, and in direct contravention of the church
catechism.

Thus admonished, Dolly complied, though by no means willingly; for there
was a broad, bold look of admiration in Mr Chester’s face, refined and
polished though it sought to be, which distressed her very much. As she
stood with downcast eyes, not liking to look up and meet his, he gazed
upon her with an approving air, and then turned to her mother.

‘My friend Gabriel (whose acquaintance I only made this very evening)
should be a happy man, Mrs Varden.’

‘Ah!’ sighed Mrs V., shaking her head.

‘Ah!’ echoed Miggs.

‘Is that the case?’ said Mr Chester, compassionately. ‘Dear me!’

‘Master has no intentions, sir,’ murmured Miggs as she sidled up to him,
‘but to be as grateful as his natur will let him, for everythink he owns
which it is in his powers to appreciate. But we never, sir’--said Miggs,
looking sideways at Mrs Varden, and interlarding her discourse with a
sigh--‘we never know the full value of SOME wines and fig-trees till we
lose ‘em. So much the worse, sir, for them as has the slighting of ‘em
on their consciences when they’re gone to be in full blow elsewhere.’
And Miss Miggs cast up her eyes to signify where that might be.

As Mrs Varden distinctly heard, and was intended to hear, all that Miggs
said, and as these words appeared to convey in metaphorical terms a
presage or foreboding that she would at some early period droop beneath
her trials and take an easy flight towards the stars, she immediately
began to languish, and taking a volume of the Manual from a neighbouring
table, leant her arm upon it as though she were Hope and that her
Anchor. Mr Chester perceiving this, and seeing how the volume was
lettered on the back, took it gently from her hand, and turned the
fluttering leaves.

‘My favourite book, dear madam. How often, how very often in his early
life--before he can remember’--(this clause was strictly true) ‘have I
deduced little easy moral lessons from its pages, for my dear son Ned!
You know Ned?’

Mrs Varden had that honour, and a fine affable young gentleman he was.

‘You’re a mother, Mrs Varden,’ said Mr Chester, taking a pinch of snuff,
‘and you know what I, as a father, feel, when he is praised. He gives me
some uneasiness--much uneasiness--he’s of a roving nature, ma’am--from
flower to flower--from sweet to sweet--but his is the butterfly time of
life, and we must not be hard upon such trifling.’

He glanced at Dolly. She was attending evidently to what he said. Just
what he desired!

‘The only thing I object to in this little trait of Ned’s, is,’ said Mr
Chester, ‘--and the mention of his name reminds me, by the way, that I
am about to beg the favour of a minute’s talk with you alone--the only
thing I object to in it, is, that it DOES partake of insincerity. Now,
however I may attempt to disguise the fact from myself in my affection
for Ned, still I always revert to this--that if we are not sincere, we
are nothing. Nothing upon earth. Let us be sincere, my dear madam--’

‘--and Protestant,’ murmured Mrs Varden.

‘--and Protestant above all things. Let us be sincere and Protestant,
strictly moral, strictly just (though always with a leaning towards
mercy), strictly honest, and strictly true, and we gain--it is a slight
point, certainly, but still it is something tangible; we throw up a
groundwork and foundation, so to speak, of goodness, on which we may
afterwards erect some worthy superstructure.’

Now, to be sure, Mrs Varden thought, here is a perfect character. Here
is a meek, righteous, thoroughgoing Christian, who, having mastered all
these qualities, so difficult of attainment; who, having dropped a pinch
of salt on the tails of all the cardinal virtues, and caught them every
one; makes light of their possession, and pants for more morality. For
the good woman never doubted (as many good men and women never do), that
this slighting kind of profession, this setting so little store by great
matters, this seeming to say, ‘I am not proud, I am what you hear, but I
consider myself no better than other people; let us change the subject,
pray’--was perfectly genuine and true. He so contrived it, and said
it in that way that it appeared to have been forced from him, and its
effect was marvellous.

Aware of the impression he had made--few men were quicker than he at
such discoveries--Mr Chester followed up the blow by propounding certain
virtuous maxims, somewhat vague and general in their nature, doubtless,
and occasionally partaking of the character of truisms, worn a little
out at elbow, but delivered in so charming a voice and with such
uncommon serenity and peace of mind, that they answered as well as the
best. Nor is this to be wondered at; for as hollow vessels produce a far
more musical sound in falling than those which are substantial, so it
will oftentimes be found that sentiments which have nothing in them make
the loudest ringing in the world, and are the most relished.

Mr Chester, with the volume gently extended in one hand, and with
the other planted lightly on his breast, talked to them in the most
delicious manner possible; and quite enchanted all his hearers,
notwithstanding their conflicting interests and thoughts. Even Dolly,
who, between his keen regards and her eyeing over by Mr Tappertit, was
put quite out of countenance, could not help owning within herself that
he was the sweetest-spoken gentleman she had ever seen. Even Miss Miggs,
who was divided between admiration of Mr Chester and a mortal jealousy
of her young mistress, had sufficient leisure to be propitiated. Even
Mr Tappertit, though occupied as we have seen in gazing at his heart’s
delight, could not wholly divert his thoughts from the voice of the
other charmer. Mrs Varden, to her own private thinking, had never been
so improved in all her life; and when Mr Chester, rising and craving
permission to speak with her apart, took her by the hand and led her at
arm’s length upstairs to the best sitting-room, she almost deemed him
something more than human.

‘Dear madam,’ he said, pressing her hand delicately to his lips; ‘be
seated.’

Mrs Varden called up quite a courtly air, and became seated.

‘You guess my object?’ said Mr Chester, drawing a chair towards her.
‘You divine my purpose? I am an affectionate parent, my dear Mrs
Varden.’

‘That I am sure you are, sir,’ said Mrs V.

‘Thank you,’ returned Mr Chester, tapping his snuff-box lid. ‘Heavy
moral responsibilities rest with parents, Mrs Varden.’

Mrs Varden slightly raised her hands, shook her head, and looked at the
ground as though she saw straight through the globe, out at the other
end, and into the immensity of space beyond.

‘I may confide in you,’ said Mr Chester, ‘without reserve. I love
my son, ma’am, dearly; and loving him as I do, I would save him from
working certain misery. You know of his attachment to Miss Haredale.
You have abetted him in it, and very kind of you it was to do so. I am
deeply obliged to you--most deeply obliged to you--for your interest in
his behalf; but my dear ma’am, it is a mistaken one, I do assure you.’

Mrs Varden stammered that she was sorry--

‘Sorry, my dear ma’am,’ he interposed. ‘Never be sorry for what is so
very amiable, so very good in intention, so perfectly like yourself. But
there are grave and weighty reasons, pressing family considerations, and
apart even from these, points of religious difference, which interpose
themselves, and render their union impossible; utterly im-possible.
I should have mentioned these circumstances to your husband; but he
has--you will excuse my saying this so freely--he has NOT your quickness
of apprehension or depth of moral sense. What an extremely airy house
this is, and how beautifully kept! For one like myself--a widower so
long--these tokens of female care and superintendence have inexpressible
charms.’

Mrs Varden began to think (she scarcely knew why) that the young Mr
Chester must be in the wrong and the old Mr Chester must be in the
right.

‘My son Ned,’ resumed her tempter with his most winning air, ‘has had, I
am told, your lovely daughter’s aid, and your open-hearted husband’s.’

‘--Much more than mine, sir,’ said Mrs Varden; ‘a great deal more. I
have often had my doubts. It’s a--’

‘A bad example,’ suggested Mr Chester. ‘It is. No doubt it is. Your
daughter is at that age when to set before her an encouragement for
young persons to rebel against their parents on this most important
point, is particularly injudicious. You are quite right. I ought to have
thought of that myself, but it escaped me, I confess--so far superior
are your sex to ours, dear madam, in point of penetration and sagacity.’

Mrs Varden looked as wise as if she had really said something to deserve
this compliment--firmly believed she had, in short--and her faith in her
own shrewdness increased considerably.

‘My dear ma’am,’ said Mr Chester, ‘you embolden me to be plain with
you. My son and I are at variance on this point. The young lady and her
natural guardian differ upon it, also. And the closing point is, that my
son is bound by his duty to me, by his honour, by every solemn tie and
obligation, to marry some one else.’

‘Engaged to marry another lady!’ quoth Mrs Varden, holding up her hands.

‘My dear madam, brought up, educated, and trained, expressly for that
purpose. Expressly for that purpose.--Miss Haredale, I am told, is a
very charming creature.’

‘I am her foster-mother, and should know--the best young lady in the
world,’ said Mrs Varden.

‘I have not the smallest doubt of it. I am sure she is. And you, who
have stood in that tender relation towards her, are bound to consult her
happiness. Now, can I--as I have said to Haredale, who quite agrees--can
I possibly stand by, and suffer her to throw herself away (although she
IS of a Catholic family), upon a young fellow who, as yet, has no heart
at all? It is no imputation upon him to say he has not, because young
men who have plunged deeply into the frivolities and conventionalities
of society, very seldom have. Their hearts never grow, my dear ma’am,
till after thirty. I don’t believe, no, I do NOT believe, that I had any
heart myself when I was Ned’s age.’

‘Oh sir,’ said Mrs Varden, ‘I think you must have had. It’s impossible
that you, who have so much now, can ever have been without any.’

‘I hope,’ he answered, shrugging his shoulders meekly, ‘I have a little;
I hope, a very little--Heaven knows! But to return to Ned; I have no
doubt you thought, and therefore interfered benevolently in his behalf,
that I objected to Miss Haredale. How very natural! My dear madam, I
object to him--to him--emphatically to Ned himself.’

Mrs Varden was perfectly aghast at the disclosure.

‘He has, if he honourably fulfils this solemn obligation of which I have
told you--and he must be honourable, dear Mrs Varden, or he is no son
of mine--a fortune within his reach. He is of most expensive, ruinously
expensive habits; and if, in a moment of caprice and wilfulness, he
were to marry this young lady, and so deprive himself of the means
of gratifying the tastes to which he has been so long accustomed, he
would--my dear madam, he would break the gentle creature’s heart. Mrs
Varden, my good lady, my dear soul, I put it to you--is such a sacrifice
to be endured? Is the female heart a thing to be trifled with in this
way? Ask your own, my dear madam. Ask your own, I beseech you.’

‘Truly,’ thought Mrs Varden, ‘this gentleman is a saint. But,’ she added
aloud, and not unnaturally, ‘if you take Miss Emma’s lover away, sir,
what becomes of the poor thing’s heart then?’

‘The very point,’ said Mr Chester, not at all abashed, ‘to which I
wished to lead you. A marriage with my son, whom I should be compelled
to disown, would be followed by years of misery; they would be
separated, my dear madam, in a twelvemonth. To break off this
attachment, which is more fancied than real, as you and I know very
well, will cost the dear girl but a few tears, and she is happy again.
Take the case of your own daughter, the young lady downstairs, who is
your breathing image’--Mrs Varden coughed and simpered--‘there is a
young man (I am sorry to say, a dissolute fellow, of very
indifferent character) of whom I have heard Ned speak--Bullet was
it--Pullet--Mullet--’

‘There is a young man of the name of Joseph Willet, sir,’ said Mrs
Varden, folding her hands loftily.

‘That’s he,’ cried Mr Chester. ‘Suppose this Joseph Willet now, were to
aspire to the affections of your charming daughter, and were to engage
them.’

‘It would be like his impudence,’ interposed Mrs Varden, bridling, ‘to
dare to think of such a thing!’

‘My dear madam, that’s the whole case. I know it would be like his
impudence. It is like Ned’s impudence to do as he has done; but you
would not on that account, or because of a few tears from your beautiful
daughter, refrain from checking their inclinations in their birth. I
meant to have reasoned thus with your husband when I saw him at Mrs
Rudge’s this evening--’

‘My husband,’ said Mrs Varden, interposing with emotion, ‘would be a
great deal better at home than going to Mrs Rudge’s so often. I don’t
know what he does there. I don’t see what occasion he has to busy
himself in her affairs at all, sir.’

‘If I don’t appear to express my concurrence in those last sentiments of
yours,’ returned Mr Chester, ‘quite so strongly as you might desire,
it is because his being there, my dear madam, and not proving
conversational, led me hither, and procured me the happiness of
this interview with one, in whom the whole management, conduct, and
prosperity of her family are centred, I perceive.’

With that he took Mrs Varden’s hand again, and having pressed it to his
lips with the highflown gallantry of the day--a little burlesqued
to render it the more striking in the good lady’s unaccustomed
eyes--proceeded in the same strain of mingled sophistry, cajolery,
and flattery, to entreat that her utmost influence might be exerted to
restrain her husband and daughter from any further promotion of Edward’s
suit to Miss Haredale, and from aiding or abetting either party in any
way. Mrs Varden was but a woman, and had her share of vanity, obstinacy,
and love of power. She entered into a secret treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive, with her insinuating visitor; and really did
believe, as many others would have done who saw and heard him, that in
so doing she furthered the ends of truth, justice, and morality, in a
very uncommon degree.

Overjoyed by the success of his negotiation, and mightily amused within
himself, Mr Chester conducted her downstairs in the same state as
before; and having repeated the previous ceremony of salutation, which
also as before comprehended Dolly, took his leave; first completing the
conquest of Miss Miggs’s heart, by inquiring if ‘this young lady’ would
light him to the door.

‘Oh, mim,’ said Miggs, returning with the candle. ‘Oh gracious me, mim,
there’s a gentleman! Was there ever such an angel to talk as he is--and
such a sweet-looking man! So upright and noble, that he seems to despise
the very ground he walks on; and yet so mild and condescending, that
he seems to say “but I will take notice on it too.” And to think of
his taking you for Miss Dolly, and Miss Dolly for your sister--Oh, my
goodness me, if I was master wouldn’t I be jealous of him!’

Mrs Varden reproved her handmaid for this vain-speaking; but very gently
and mildly--quite smilingly indeed--remarking that she was a foolish,
giddy, light-headed girl, whose spirits carried her beyond all bounds,
and who didn’t mean half she said, or she would be quite angry with her.

‘For my part,’ said Dolly, in a thoughtful manner, ‘I half believe Mr
Chester is something like Miggs in that respect. For all his politeness
and pleasant speaking, I am pretty sure he was making game of us, more
than once.’

‘If you venture to say such a thing again, and to speak ill of people
behind their backs in my presence, miss,’ said Mrs Varden, ‘I shall
insist upon your taking a candle and going to bed directly. How dare
you, Dolly? I’m astonished at you. The rudeness of your whole behaviour
this evening has been disgraceful. Did anybody ever hear,’ cried the
enraged matron, bursting into tears, ‘of a daughter telling her own
mother she has been made game of!’

What a very uncertain temper Mrs Varden’s was!



Chapter 28


Repairing to a noted coffee-house in Covent Garden when he left the
locksmith’s, Mr Chester sat long over a late dinner, entertaining
himself exceedingly with the whimsical recollection of his recent
proceedings, and congratulating himself very much on his great
cleverness. Influenced by these thoughts, his face wore an expression
so benign and tranquil, that the waiter in immediate attendance upon him
felt he could almost have died in his defence, and settled in his own
mind (until the receipt of the bill, and a very small fee for very great
trouble disabused it of the idea) that such an apostolic customer was
worth half-a-dozen of the ordinary run of visitors, at least.

A visit to the gaming-table--not as a heated, anxious venturer, but
one whom it was quite a treat to see staking his two or three pieces in
deference to the follies of society, and smiling with equal benevolence
on winners and losers--made it late before he reached home. It was his
custom to bid his servant go to bed at his own time unless he had orders
to the contrary, and to leave a candle on the common stair. There was a
lamp on the landing by which he could always light it when he came home
late, and having a key of the door about him he could enter and go to
bed at his pleasure.

He opened the glass of the dull lamp, whose wick, burnt up and swollen
like a drunkard’s nose, came flying off in little carbuncles at the
candle’s touch, and scattering hot sparks about, rendered it matter
of some difficulty to kindle the lazy taper; when a noise, as of a man
snoring deeply some steps higher up, caused him to pause and listen.
It was the heavy breathing of a sleeper, close at hand. Some fellow
had lain down on the open staircase, and was slumbering soundly.
Having lighted the candle at length and opened his own door, he softly
ascended, holding the taper high above his head, and peering cautiously
about; curious to see what kind of man had chosen so comfortless a
shelter for his lodging.

With his head upon the landing and his great limbs flung over
half-a-dozen stairs, as carelessly as though he were a dead man
whom drunken bearers had thrown down by chance, there lay Hugh, face
uppermost, his long hair drooping like some wild weed upon his wooden
pillow, and his huge chest heaving with the sounds which so unwontedly
disturbed the place and hour.

He who came upon him so unexpectedly was about to break his rest by
thrusting him with his foot, when, glancing at his upturned face, he
arrested himself in the very action, and stooping down and shading the
candle with his hand, examined his features closely. Close as his first
inspection was, it did not suffice, for he passed the light, still
carefully shaded as before, across and across his face, and yet observed
him with a searching eye.

While he was thus engaged, the sleeper, without any starting or turning
round, awoke. There was a kind of fascination in meeting his steady gaze
so suddenly, which took from the other the presence of mind to withdraw
his eyes, and forced him, as it were, to meet his look. So they remained
staring at each other, until Mr Chester at last broke silence, and asked
him in a low voice, why he lay sleeping there.

‘I thought,’ said Hugh, struggling into a sitting posture and gazing at
him intently, still, ‘that you were a part of my dream. It was a curious
one. I hope it may never come true, master.’

‘What makes you shiver?’

‘The--the cold, I suppose,’ he growled, as he shook himself and rose. ‘I
hardly know where I am yet.’

‘Do you know me?’ said Mr Chester.

‘Ay, I know you,’ he answered. ‘I was dreaming of you--we’re not where I
thought we were. That’s a comfort.’

He looked round him as he spoke, and in particular looked above his
head, as though he half expected to be standing under some object
which had had existence in his dream. Then he rubbed his eyes and shook
himself again, and followed his conductor into his own rooms.

Mr Chester lighted the candles which stood upon his dressing-table, and
wheeling an easy-chair towards the fire, which was yet burning, stirred
up a cheerful blaze, sat down before it, and bade his uncouth visitor
‘Come here,’ and draw his boots off.

‘You have been drinking again, my fine fellow,’ he said, as Hugh went
down on one knee, and did as he was told.

‘As I’m alive, master, I’ve walked the twelve long miles, and waited
here I don’t know how long, and had no drink between my lips since
dinner-time at noon.’

‘And can you do nothing better, my pleasant friend, than fall asleep,
and shake the very building with your snores?’ said Mr Chester. ‘Can’t
you dream in your straw at home, dull dog as you are, that you need come
here to do it?--Reach me those slippers, and tread softly.’

Hugh obeyed in silence.

‘And harkee, my dear young gentleman,’ said Mr Chester, as he put them
on, ‘the next time you dream, don’t let it be of me, but of some dog or
horse with whom you are better acquainted. Fill the glass once--you’ll
find it and the bottle in the same place--and empty it to keep yourself
awake.’

Hugh obeyed again even more zealously--and having done so, presented
himself before his patron.

‘Now,’ said Mr Chester, ‘what do you want with me?’

‘There was news to-day,’ returned Hugh. ‘Your son was at our house--came
down on horseback. He tried to see the young woman, but couldn’t get
sight of her. He left some letter or some message which our Joe had
charge of, but he and the old one quarrelled about it when your son had
gone, and the old one wouldn’t let it be delivered. He says (that’s the
old one does) that none of his people shall interfere and get him into
trouble. He’s a landlord, he says, and lives on everybody’s custom.’

‘He’s a jewel,’ smiled Mr Chester, ‘and the better for being a dull
one.--Well?’

‘Varden’s daughter--that’s the girl I kissed--’

‘--and stole the bracelet from upon the king’s highway,’ said Mr
Chester, composedly. ‘Yes; what of her?’

‘She wrote a note at our house to the young woman, saying she lost the
letter I brought to you, and you burnt. Our Joe was to carry it, but
the old one kept him at home all next day, on purpose that he shouldn’t.
Next morning he gave it to me to take; and here it is.’

‘You didn’t deliver it then, my good friend?’ said Mr Chester, twirling
Dolly’s note between his finger and thumb, and feigning to be surprised.

‘I supposed you’d want to have it,’ retorted Hugh. ‘Burn one, burn all,
I thought.’

‘My devil-may-care acquaintance,’ said Mr Chester--‘really if you do not
draw some nicer distinctions, your career will be cut short with most
surprising suddenness. Don’t you know that the letter you brought to
me, was directed to my son who resides in this very place? And can you
descry no difference between his letters and those addressed to other
people?’

‘If you don’t want it,’ said Hugh, disconcerted by this reproof, for he
had expected high praise, ‘give it me back, and I’ll deliver it. I don’t
know how to please you, master.’

‘I shall deliver it,’ returned his patron, putting it away after a
moment’s consideration, ‘myself. Does the young lady walk out, on fine
mornings?’

‘Mostly--about noon is her usual time.’

‘Alone?’

‘Yes, alone.’

‘Where?’

‘In the grounds before the house.--Them that the footpath crosses.’

‘If the weather should be fine, I may throw myself in her way to-morrow,
perhaps,’ said Mr Chester, as coolly as if she were one of his ordinary
acquaintance. ‘Mr Hugh, if I should ride up to the Maypole door, you
will do me the favour only to have seen me once. You must suppress your
gratitude, and endeavour to forget my forbearance in the matter of the
bracelet. It is natural it should break out, and it does you honour; but
when other folks are by, you must, for your own sake and safety, be as
like your usual self as though you owed me no obligation whatever, and
had never stood within these walls. You comprehend me?’

Hugh understood him perfectly. After a pause he muttered that he hoped
his patron would involve him in no trouble about this last letter;
for he had kept it back solely with the view of pleasing him. He was
continuing in this strain, when Mr Chester with a most beneficent and
patronising air cut him short by saying:

‘My good fellow, you have my promise, my word, my sealed bond (for a
verbal pledge with me is quite as good), that I will always protect you
so long as you deserve it. Now, do set your mind at rest. Keep it at
ease, I beg of you. When a man puts himself in my power so thoroughly as
you have done, I really feel as though he had a kind of claim upon me. I
am more disposed to mercy and forbearance under such circumstances
than I can tell you, Hugh. Do look upon me as your protector, and rest
assured, I entreat you, that on the subject of that indiscretion, you
may preserve, as long as you and I are friends, the lightest heart that
ever beat within a human breast. Fill that glass once more to cheer you
on your road homewards--I am really quite ashamed to think how far you
have to go--and then God bless you for the night.’

‘They think,’ said Hugh, when he had tossed the liquor down, ‘that I am
sleeping soundly in the stable. Ha ha ha! The stable door is shut, but
the steed’s gone, master.’

‘You are a most convivial fellow,’ returned his friend, ‘and I love your
humour of all things. Good night! Take the greatest possible care of
yourself, for my sake!’

It was remarkable that during the whole interview, each had endeavoured
to catch stolen glances of the other’s face, and had never looked full
at it. They interchanged one brief and hasty glance as Hugh went out,
averted their eyes directly, and so separated. Hugh closed the double
doors behind him, carefully and without noise; and Mr Chester remained
in his easy-chair, with his gaze intently fixed upon the fire.

‘Well!’ he said, after meditating for a long time--and said with a deep
sigh and an uneasy shifting of his attitude, as though he dismissed some
other subject from his thoughts, and returned to that which had held
possession of them all the day--‘the plot thickens; I have thrown the
shell; it will explode, I think, in eight-and-forty hours, and should
scatter these good folks amazingly. We shall see!’

He went to bed and fell asleep, but had not slept long when he started
up and thought that Hugh was at the outer door, calling in a strange
voice, very different from his own, to be admitted. The delusion was so
strong upon him, and was so full of that vague terror of the night
in which such visions have their being, that he rose, and taking his
sheathed sword in his hand, opened the door, and looked out upon the
staircase, and towards the spot where Hugh had lain asleep; and even
spoke to him by name. But all was dark and quiet, and creeping back
to bed again, he fell, after an hour’s uneasy watching, into a second
sleep, and woke no more till morning.



Chapter 29


The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of
gravitation, which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. The
bright glory of day, and the silent wonders of a starlit night, appeal
to their minds in vain. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon,
or in the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who,
learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten
such small heavenly constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal
Love, and Mercy, although they shine by night and day so brightly that
the blind may see them; and who, looking upward at the spangled sky,
see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and
book-learning.

It is curious to imagine these people of the world, busy in thought,
turning their eyes towards the countless spheres that shine above us,
and making them reflect the only images their minds contain. The man who
lives but in the breath of princes, has nothing in his sight but stars for
courtiers’ breasts. The envious man beholds his neighbours’ honours
even in the sky; to the money-hoarder, and the mass of worldly folk, the
whole great universe above glitters with sterling coin--fresh from the
mint--stamped with the sovereign’s head--coming always between them and
heaven, turn where they may. So do the shadows of our own desires stand
between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed.

Everything was fresh and gay, as though the world were but that morning
made, when Mr Chester rode at a tranquil pace along the Forest road.
Though early in the season, it was warm and genial weather; the trees
were budding into leaf, the hedges and the grass were green, the air was
musical with songs of birds, and high above them all the lark poured
out her richest melody. In shady spots, the morning dew sparkled on
each young leaf and blade of grass; and where the sun was shining, some
diamond drops yet glistened brightly, as in unwillingness to leave so
fair a world, and have such brief existence. Even the light wind, whose
rustling was as gentle to the ear as softly-falling water, had its hope
and promise; and, leaving a pleasant fragrance in its track as it went
fluttering by, whispered of its intercourse with Summer, and of his
happy coming.

The solitary rider went glancing on among the trees, from sunlight
into shade and back again, at the same even pace--looking about him,
certainly, from time to time, but with no greater thought of the day
or the scene through which he moved, than that he was fortunate (being
choicely dressed) to have such favourable weather. He smiled very
complacently at such times, but rather as if he were satisfied with
himself than with anything else: and so went riding on, upon his
chestnut cob, as pleasant to look upon as his own horse, and probably
far less sensitive to the many cheerful influences by which he was
surrounded.

In the course of time, the Maypole’s massive chimneys rose upon his
view: but he quickened not his pace one jot, and with the same cool
gravity rode up to the tavern porch. John Willet, who was toasting
his red face before a great fire in the bar, and who, with surpassing
foresight and quickness of apprehension, had been thinking, as he looked
at the blue sky, that if that state of things lasted much longer, it
might ultimately become necessary to leave off fires and throw the
windows open, issued forth to hold his stirrup; calling lustily for
Hugh.

‘Oh, you’re here, are you, sir?’ said John, rather surprised by the
quickness with which he appeared. ‘Take this here valuable animal into
the stable, and have more than particular care of him if you want to
keep your place. A mortal lazy fellow, sir; he needs a deal of looking
after.’

‘But you have a son,’ returned Mr Chester, giving his bridle to Hugh as
he dismounted, and acknowledging his salute by a careless motion of his
hand towards his hat. ‘Why don’t you make HIM useful?’

‘Why, the truth is, sir,’ replied John with great importance, ‘that my
son--what, you’re a-listening are you, villain?’

‘Who’s listening?’ returned Hugh angrily. ‘A treat, indeed, to hear YOU
speak! Would you have me take him in till he’s cool?’

‘Walk him up and down further off then, sir,’ cried old John, ‘and when
you see me and a noble gentleman entertaining ourselves with talk, keep
your distance. If you don’t know your distance, sir,’ added Mr Willet,
after an enormously long pause, during which he fixed his great dull
eyes on Hugh, and waited with exemplary patience for any little property
in the way of ideas that might come to him, ‘we’ll find a way to teach
you, pretty soon.’

Hugh shrugged his shoulders scornfully, and in his reckless swaggering
way, crossed to the other side of the little green, and there, with
the bridle slung loosely over his shoulder, led the horse to and fro,
glancing at his master every now and then from under his bushy eyebrows,
with as sinister an aspect as one would desire to see.

Mr Chester, who, without appearing to do so, had eyed him attentively
during this brief dispute, stepped into the porch, and turning abruptly
to Mr Willet, said,

‘You keep strange servants, John.’

‘Strange enough to look at, sir, certainly,’ answered the host; ‘but out
of doors; for horses, dogs, and the likes of that; there an’t a better
man in England than is that Maypole Hugh yonder. He an’t fit for
indoors,’ added Mr Willet, with the confidential air of a man who felt
his own superior nature. ‘I do that; but if that chap had only a little
imagination, sir--’

‘He’s an active fellow now, I dare swear,’ said Mr Chester, in a musing
tone, which seemed to suggest that he would have said the same had there
been nobody to hear him.

‘Active, sir!’ retorted John, with quite an expression in his face;
‘that chap! Hallo there! You, sir! Bring that horse here, and go and
hang my wig on the weathercock, to show this gentleman whether you’re
one of the lively sort or not.’

Hugh made no answer, but throwing the bridle to his master, and
snatching his wig from his head, in a manner so unceremonious and hasty
that the action discomposed Mr Willet not a little, though performed at
his own special desire, climbed nimbly to the very summit of the maypole
before the house, and hanging the wig upon the weathercock, sent it
twirling round like a roasting jack. Having achieved this performance,
he cast it on the ground, and sliding down the pole with inconceivable
rapidity, alighted on his feet almost as soon as it had touched the
earth.

‘There, sir,’ said John, relapsing into his usual stolid state, ‘you
won’t see that at many houses, besides the Maypole, where there’s good
accommodation for man and beast--nor that neither, though that with him
is nothing.’

This last remark bore reference to his vaulting on horseback, as upon Mr
Chester’s first visit, and quickly disappearing by the stable gate.

‘That with him is nothing,’ repeated Mr Willet, brushing his wig with
his wrist, and inwardly resolving to distribute a small charge for dust
and damage to that article of dress, through the various items of his
guest’s bill; ‘he’ll get out of a’most any winder in the house. There
never was such a chap for flinging himself about and never hurting his
bones. It’s my opinion, sir, that it’s pretty nearly allowing to his
not having any imagination; and that if imagination could be (which it
can’t) knocked into him, he’d never be able to do it any more. But we
was a-talking, sir, about my son.’

‘True, Willet, true,’ said his visitor, turning again towards the
landlord with his accustomed serenity of face. ‘My good friend, what
about him?’

It has been reported that Mr Willet, previously to making answer,
winked. But as he was never known to be guilty of such lightness of
conduct either before or afterwards, this may be looked upon as
a malicious invention of his enemies--founded, perhaps, upon the
undisputed circumstance of his taking his guest by the third breast
button of his coat, counting downwards from the chin, and pouring his
reply into his ear:

‘Sir,’ whispered John, with dignity, ‘I know my duty. We want no
love-making here, sir, unbeknown to parents. I respect a certain young
gentleman, taking him in the light of a young gentleman; I respect a
certain young lady, taking her in the light of a young lady; but of the
two as a couple, I have no knowledge, sir, none whatever. My son, sir,
is upon his patrole.’

‘I thought I saw him looking through the corner window but this moment,’
said Mr Chester, who naturally thought that being on patrole, implied
walking about somewhere.

‘No doubt you did, sir,’ returned John. ‘He is upon his patrole of
honour, sir, not to leave the premises. Me and some friends of mine that
use the Maypole of an evening, sir, considered what was best to be done
with him, to prevent his doing anything unpleasant in opposing your
desires; and we’ve put him on his patrole. And what’s more, sir, he
won’t be off his patrole for a pretty long time to come, I can tell you
that.’

When he had communicated this bright idea, which had its origin in the
perusal by the village cronies of a newspaper, containing, among other
matters, an account of how some officer pending the sentence of some
court-martial had been enlarged on parole, Mr Willet drew back from his
guest’s ear, and without any visible alteration of feature, chuckled
thrice audibly. This nearest approach to a laugh in which he ever
indulged (and that but seldom and only on extreme occasions), never even
curled his lip or effected the smallest change in--no, not so much as a
slight wagging of--his great, fat, double chin, which at these times, as
at all others, remained a perfect desert in the broad map of his face;
one changeless, dull, tremendous blank.

Lest it should be matter of surprise to any, that Mr Willet adopted this
bold course in opposition to one whom he had often entertained, and who
had always paid his way at the Maypole gallantly, it may be remarked
that it was his very penetration and sagacity in this respect, which
occasioned him to indulge in those unusual demonstrations of jocularity,
just now recorded. For Mr Willet, after carefully balancing father and
son in his mental scales, had arrived at the distinct conclusion that
the old gentleman was a better sort of a customer than the young one.
Throwing his landlord into the same scale, which was already turned by
this consideration, and heaping upon him, again, his strong desires
to run counter to the unfortunate Joe, and his opposition as a general
principle to all matters of love and matrimony, it went down to the very
ground straightway, and sent the light cause of the younger gentleman
flying upwards to the ceiling. Mr Chester was not the kind of man to be
by any means dim-sighted to Mr Willet’s motives, but he thanked him as
graciously as if he had been one of the most disinterested martyrs that
ever shone on earth; and leaving him, with many complimentary reliances
on his great taste and judgment, to prepare whatever dinner he might
deem most fitting the occasion, bent his steps towards the Warren.

Dressed with more than his usual elegance; assuming a gracefulness of
manner, which, though it was the result of long study, sat easily upon
him and became him well; composing his features into their most serene
and prepossessing expression; and setting in short that guard upon
himself, at every point, which denoted that he attached no slight
importance to the impression he was about to make; he entered the bounds
of Miss Haredale’s usual walk. He had not gone far, or looked about him
long, when he descried coming towards him, a female figure. A glimpse
of the form and dress as she crossed a little wooden bridge which lay
between them, satisfied him that he had found her whom he desired to
see. He threw himself in her way, and a very few paces brought them
close together.

He raised his hat from his head, and yielding the path, suffered her to
pass him. Then, as if the idea had but that moment occurred to him, he
turned hastily back and said in an agitated voice:

‘I beg pardon--do I address Miss Haredale?’

She stopped in some confusion at being so unexpectedly accosted by a
stranger; and answered ‘Yes.’

‘Something told me,’ he said, LOOKING a compliment to her beauty, ‘that
it could be no other. Miss Haredale, I bear a name which is not unknown
to you--which it is a pride, and yet a pain to me to know, sounds
pleasantly in your ears. I am a man advanced in life, as you see. I am
the father of him whom you honour and distinguish above all other
men. May I for weighty reasons which fill me with distress, beg but a
minute’s conversation with you here?’

Who that was inexperienced in deceit, and had a frank and youthful
heart, could doubt the speaker’s truth--could doubt it too, when the
voice that spoke, was like the faint echo of one she knew so well, and
so much loved to hear? She inclined her head, and stopping, cast her
eyes upon the ground.

‘A little more apart--among these trees. It is an old man’s hand, Miss
Haredale; an honest one, believe me.’

She put hers in it as he said these words, and suffered him to lead her
to a neighbouring seat.

‘You alarm me, sir,’ she said in a low voice. ‘You are not the bearer of
any ill news, I hope?’

‘Of none that you anticipate,’ he answered, sitting down beside her.
‘Edward is well--quite well. It is of him I wish to speak, certainly;
but I have no misfortune to communicate.’

She bowed her head again, and made as though she would have begged him
to proceed; but said nothing.

‘I am sensible that I speak to you at a disadvantage, dear Miss
Haredale. Believe me that I am not so forgetful of the feelings of my
younger days as not to know that you are little disposed to view me
with favour. You have heard me described as cold-hearted, calculating,
selfish--’

‘I have never, sir,’--she interposed with an altered manner and a firmer
voice; ‘I have never heard you spoken of in harsh or disrespectful
terms. You do a great wrong to Edward’s nature if you believe him
capable of any mean or base proceeding.’

‘Pardon me, my sweet young lady, but your uncle--’

‘Nor is it my uncle’s nature either,’ she replied, with a heightened
colour in her cheek. ‘It is not his nature to stab in the dark, nor is
it mine to love such deeds.’

She rose as she spoke, and would have left him; but he detained her with
a gentle hand, and besought her in such persuasive accents to hear him
but another minute, that she was easily prevailed upon to comply, and so
sat down again.

‘And it is,’ said Mr Chester, looking upward, and apostrophising the
air; ‘it is this frank, ingenuous, noble nature, Ned, that you can wound
so lightly. Shame--shame upon you, boy!’

She turned towards him quickly, and with a scornful look and flashing
eyes. There were tears in Mr Chester’s eyes, but he dashed them
hurriedly away, as though unwilling that his weakness should be known,
and regarded her with mingled admiration and compassion.

‘I never until now,’ he said, ‘believed, that the frivolous actions of a
young man could move me like these of my own son. I never knew till now,
the worth of a woman’s heart, which boys so lightly win, and lightly
fling away. Trust me, dear young lady, that I never until now did
know your worth; and though an abhorrence of deceit and falsehood has
impelled me to seek you out, and would have done so had you been the
poorest and least gifted of your sex, I should have lacked the fortitude
to sustain this interview could I have pictured you to my imagination as
you really are.’

Oh! If Mrs Varden could have seen the virtuous gentleman as he said
these words, with indignation sparkling from his eyes--if she could have
heard his broken, quavering voice--if she could have beheld him as he
stood bareheaded in the sunlight, and with unwonted energy poured forth
his eloquence!

With a haughty face, but pale and trembling too, Emma regarded him in
silence. She neither spoke nor moved, but gazed upon him as though she
would look into his heart.

‘I throw off,’ said Mr Chester, ‘the restraint which natural affection
would impose on some men, and reject all bonds but those of truth and
duty. Miss Haredale, you are deceived; you are deceived by your unworthy
lover, and my unworthy son.’

Still she looked at him steadily, and still said not one word.

‘I have ever opposed his professions of love for you; you will do me
the justice, dear Miss Haredale, to remember that. Your uncle and myself
were enemies in early life, and if I had sought retaliation, I might
have found it here. But as we grow older, we grow wiser--bitter, I would
fain hope--and from the first, I have opposed him in this attempt. I
foresaw the end, and would have spared you, if I could.’

‘Speak plainly, sir,’ she faltered. ‘You deceive me, or are deceived
yourself. I do not believe you--I cannot--I should not.’

‘First,’ said Mr Chester, soothingly, ‘for there may be in your mind
some latent angry feeling to which I would not appeal, pray take this
letter. It reached my hands by chance, and by mistake, and should have
accounted to you (as I am told) for my son’s not answering some other
note of yours. God forbid, Miss Haredale,’ said the good gentleman, with
great emotion, ‘that there should be in your gentle breast one causeless
ground of quarrel with him. You should know, and you will see, that he
was in no fault here.’

There appeared something so very candid, so scrupulously honourable,
so very truthful and just in this course--something which rendered the
upright person who resorted to it, so worthy of belief--that Emma’s
heart, for the first time, sunk within her. She turned away and burst
into tears.

‘I would,’ said Mr Chester, leaning over her, and speaking in mild and
quite venerable accents; ‘I would, dear girl, it were my task to banish,
not increase, those tokens of your grief. My son, my erring son,--I will
not call him deliberately criminal in this, for men so young, who have
been inconstant twice or thrice before, act without reflection, almost
without a knowledge of the wrong they do,--will break his plighted faith
to you; has broken it even now. Shall I stop here, and having given you
this warning, leave it to be fulfilled; or shall I go on?’

‘You will go on, sir,’ she answered, ‘and speak more plainly yet, in
justice both to him and me.’

‘My dear girl,’ said Mr Chester, bending over her more affectionately
still; ‘whom I would call my daughter, but the Fates forbid, Edward
seeks to break with you upon a false and most unwarrantable pretence. I
have it on his own showing; in his own hand. Forgive me, if I have had
a watch upon his conduct; I am his father; I had a regard for your peace
and his honour, and no better resource was left me. There lies on his
desk at this present moment, ready for transmission to you, a letter,
in which he tells you that our poverty--our poverty; his and mine, Miss
Haredale--forbids him to pursue his claim upon your hand; in which he
offers, voluntarily proposes, to free you from your pledge; and talks
magnanimously (men do so, very commonly, in such cases) of being in
time more worthy of your regard--and so forth. A letter, to be plain, in
which he not only jilts you--pardon the word; I would summon to your
aid your pride and dignity--not only jilts you, I fear, in favour of the
object whose slighting treatment first inspired his brief passion for
yourself and gave it birth in wounded vanity, but affects to make a
merit and a virtue of the act.’

She glanced proudly at him once more, as by an involuntary impulse, and
with a swelling breast rejoined, ‘If what you say be true, he takes much
needless trouble, sir, to compass his design. He’s very tender of my
peace of mind. I quite thank him.’

‘The truth of what I tell you, dear young lady,’ he replied, ‘you will
test by the receipt or non-receipt of the letter of which I speak.
Haredale, my dear fellow, I am delighted to see you, although we meet
under singular circumstances, and upon a melancholy occasion. I hope you
are very well.’

At these words the young lady raised her eyes, which were filled with
tears; and seeing that her uncle indeed stood before them, and being
quite unequal to the trial of hearing or of speaking one word more,
hurriedly withdrew, and left them. They stood looking at each other, and
at her retreating figure, and for a long time neither of them spoke.

‘What does this mean? Explain it,’ said Mr Haredale at length. ‘Why are
you here, and why with her?’

‘My dear friend,’ rejoined the other, resuming his accustomed manner
with infinite readiness, and throwing himself upon the bench with a
weary air, ‘you told me not very long ago, at that delightful old
tavern of which you are the esteemed proprietor (and a most charming
establishment it is for persons of rural pursuits and in robust health,
who are not liable to take cold), that I had the head and heart of an
evil spirit in all matters of deception. I thought at the time; I
really did think; you flattered me. But now I begin to wonder at your
discernment, and vanity apart, do honestly believe you spoke the truth.
Did you ever counterfeit extreme ingenuousness and honest indignation?
My dear fellow, you have no conception, if you never did, how faint the
effort makes one.’

Mr Haredale surveyed him with a look of cold contempt. ‘You may evade an
explanation, I know,’ he said, folding his arms. ‘But I must have it. I
can wait.’

‘Not at all. Not at all, my good fellow. You shall not wait a moment,’
returned his friend, as he lazily crossed his legs. ‘The simplest thing
in the world. It lies in a nutshell. Ned has written her a letter--a
boyish, honest, sentimental composition, which remains as yet in
his desk, because he hasn’t had the heart to send it. I have taken a
liberty, for which my parental affection and anxiety are a sufficient
excuse, and possessed myself of the contents. I have described them
to your niece (a most enchanting person, Haredale; quite an angelic
creature), with a little colouring and description adapted to our
purpose. It’s done. You may be quite easy. It’s all over. Deprived of
their adherents and mediators; her pride and jealousy roused to the
utmost; with nobody to undeceive her, and you to confirm me; you will
find that their intercourse will close with her answer. If she receives
Ned’s letter by to-morrow noon, you may date their parting from
to-morrow night. No thanks, I beg; you owe me none. I have acted for
myself; and if I have forwarded our compact with all the ardour even you
could have desired, I have done so selfishly, indeed.’

‘I curse the compact, as you call it, with my whole heart and soul,’
returned the other. ‘It was made in an evil hour. I have bound myself
to a lie; I have leagued myself with you; and though I did so with a
righteous motive, and though it cost me such an effort as haply few men
know, I hate and despise myself for the deed.’

‘You are very warm,’ said Mr Chester with a languid smile.

‘I AM warm. I am maddened by your coldness. ‘Death, Chester, if your
blood ran warmer in your veins, and there were no restraints upon me,
such as those that hold and drag me back--well; it is done; you tell me
so, and on such a point I may believe you. When I am most remorseful
for this treachery, I will think of you and your marriage, and try to
justify myself in such remembrances, for having torn asunder Emma and
your son, at any cost. Our bond is cancelled now, and we may part.’

Mr Chester kissed his hand gracefully; and with the same tranquil face
he had preserved throughout--even when he had seen his companion
so tortured and transported by his passion that his whole frame was
shaken--lay in his lounging posture on the seat and watched him as he
walked away.

‘My scapegoat and my drudge at school,’ he said, raising his head
to look after him; ‘my friend of later days, who could not keep his
mistress when he had won her, and threw me in her way to carry off the
prize; I triumph in the present and the past. Bark on, ill-favoured,
ill-conditioned cur; fortune has ever been with me--I like to hear you.’

The spot where they had met, was in an avenue of trees. Mr Haredale not
passing out on either hand, had walked straight on. He chanced to turn
his head when at some considerable distance, and seeing that his late
companion had by that time risen and was looking after him, stood still
as though he half expected him to follow and waited for his coming up.

‘It MAY come to that one day, but not yet,’ said Mr Chester, waving his
hand, as though they were the best of friends, and turning away. ‘Not
yet, Haredale. Life is pleasant enough to me; dull and full of heaviness
to you. No. To cross swords with such a man--to indulge his humour
unless upon extremity--would be weak indeed.’

For all that, he drew his sword as he walked along, and in an
absent humour ran his eye from hilt to point full twenty times. But
thoughtfulness begets wrinkles; remembering this, he soon put it up,
smoothed his contracted brow, hummed a gay tune with greater gaiety of
manner, and was his unruffled self again.



Chapter 30


A homely proverb recognises the existence of a troublesome class of
persons who, having an inch conceded them, will take an ell. Not to
quote the illustrious examples of those heroic scourges of mankind,
whose amiable path in life has been from birth to death through blood,
and fire, and ruin, and who would seem to have existed for no better
purpose than to teach mankind that as the absence of pain is pleasure,
so the earth, purged of their presence, may be deemed a blessed
place--not to quote such mighty instances, it will be sufficient to
refer to old John Willet.

Old John having long encroached a good standard inch, full measure, on
the liberty of Joe, and having snipped off a Flemish ell in the matter
of the parole, grew so despotic and so great, that his thirst for
conquest knew no bounds. The more young Joe submitted, the more absolute
old John became. The ell soon faded into nothing. Yards, furlongs, miles
arose; and on went old John in the pleasantest manner possible, trimming
off an exuberance in this place, shearing away some liberty of speech
or action in that, and conducting himself in his small way with as much
high mightiness and majesty, as the most glorious tyrant that ever had
his statue reared in the public ways, of ancient or of modern times.

As great men are urged on to the abuse of power (when they need urging,
which is not often), by their flatterers and dependents, so old John was
impelled to these exercises of authority by the applause and admiration
of his Maypole cronies, who, in the intervals of their nightly pipes and
pots, would shake their heads and say that Mr Willet was a father of the
good old English sort; that there were no new-fangled notions or modern
ways in him; that he put them in mind of what their fathers were when
they were boys; that there was no mistake about him; that it would be
well for the country if there were more like him, and more was the pity
that there were not; with many other original remarks of that nature.
Then they would condescendingly give Joe to understand that it was
all for his good, and he would be thankful for it one day; and in
particular, Mr Cobb would acquaint him, that when he was his age, his
father thought no more of giving him a parental kick, or a box on the
ears, or a cuff on the head, or some little admonition of that sort,
than he did of any other ordinary duty of life; and he would further
remark, with looks of great significance, that but for this judicious
bringing up, he might have never been the man he was at that present
speaking; which was probable enough, as he was, beyond all question,
the dullest dog of the party. In short, between old John and old
John’s friends, there never was an unfortunate young fellow so bullied,
badgered, worried, fretted, and brow-beaten; so constantly beset, or
made so tired of his life, as poor Joe Willet.

This had come to be the recognised and established state of things; but
as John was very anxious to flourish his supremacy before the eyes of Mr
Chester, he did that day exceed himself, and did so goad and chafe his
son and heir, that but for Joe’s having made a solemn vow to keep
his hands in his pockets when they were not otherwise engaged, it is
impossible to say what he might have done with them. But the longest day
has an end, and at length Mr Chester came downstairs to mount his horse,
which was ready at the door.

As old John was not in the way at the moment, Joe, who was sitting in
the bar ruminating on his dismal fate and the manifold perfections of
Dolly Varden, ran out to hold the guest’s stirrup and assist him to
mount. Mr Chester was scarcely in the saddle, and Joe was in the very
act of making him a graceful bow, when old John came diving out of the
porch, and collared him.

‘None of that, sir,’ said John, ‘none of that, sir. No breaking of
patroles. How dare you come out of the door, sir, without leave? You’re
trying to get away, sir, are you, and to make a traitor of yourself
again? What do you mean, sir?’

‘Let me go, father,’ said Joe, imploringly, as he marked the smile upon
their visitor’s face, and observed the pleasure his disgrace afforded
him. ‘This is too bad. Who wants to get away?’

‘Who wants to get away!’ cried John, shaking him. ‘Why you do, sir,
you do. You’re the boy, sir,’ added John, collaring with one hand, and
aiding the effect of a farewell bow to the visitor with the other,
‘that wants to sneak into houses, and stir up differences between noble
gentlemen and their sons, are you, eh? Hold your tongue, sir.’

Joe made no effort to reply. It was the crowning circumstance of his
degradation. He extricated himself from his father’s grasp, darted an
angry look at the departing guest, and returned into the house.

‘But for her,’ thought Joe, as he threw his arms upon a table in the
common room, and laid his head upon them, ‘but for Dolly, who I couldn’t
bear should think me the rascal they would make me out to be if I ran
away, this house and I should part to-night.’

It being evening by this time, Solomon Daisy, Tom Cobb, and Long Parkes,
were all in the common room too, and had from the window been witnesses
of what had just occurred. Mr Willet joining them soon afterwards,
received the compliments of the company with great composure, and
lighting his pipe, sat down among them.

‘We’ll see, gentlemen,’ said John, after a long pause, ‘who’s the master
of this house, and who isn’t. We’ll see whether boys are to govern men,
or men are to govern boys.’

‘And quite right too,’ assented Solomon Daisy with some approving nods;
‘quite right, Johnny. Very good, Johnny. Well said, Mr Willet. Brayvo,
sir.’

John slowly brought his eyes to bear upon him, looked at him for a long
time, and finally made answer, to the unspeakable consternation of his
hearers, ‘When I want encouragement from you, sir, I’ll ask you for
it. You let me alone, sir. I can get on without you, I hope. Don’t you
tackle me, sir, if you please.’

‘Don’t take it ill, Johnny; I didn’t mean any harm,’ pleaded the little
man.

‘Very good, sir,’ said John, more than usually obstinate after his late
success. ‘Never mind, sir. I can stand pretty firm of myself, sir, I
believe, without being shored up by you.’ And having given utterance to
this retort, Mr Willet fixed his eyes upon the boiler, and fell into a
kind of tobacco-trance.

The spirits of the company being somewhat damped by this embarrassing
line of conduct on the part of their host, nothing more was said for a
long time; but at length Mr Cobb took upon himself to remark, as he rose
to knock the ashes out of his pipe, that he hoped Joe would thenceforth
learn to obey his father in all things; that he had found, that day, he
was not one of the sort of men who were to be trifled with; and that
he would recommend him, poetically speaking, to mind his eye for the
future.

‘I’d recommend you, in return,’ said Joe, looking up with a flushed
face, ‘not to talk to me.’

‘Hold your tongue, sir,’ cried Mr Willet, suddenly rousing himself, and
turning round.

‘I won’t, father,’ cried Joe, smiting the table with his fist, so that
the jugs and glasses rung again; ‘these things are hard enough to bear
from you; from anybody else I never will endure them any more. Therefore
I say, Mr Cobb, don’t talk to me.’

‘Why, who are you,’ said Mr Cobb, sneeringly, ‘that you’re not to be
talked to, eh, Joe?’

To which Joe returned no answer, but with a very ominous shake of the
head, resumed his old position, which he would have peacefully preserved
until the house shut up at night, but that Mr Cobb, stimulated by the
wonder of the company at the young man’s presumption, retorted with
sundry taunts, which proved too much for flesh and blood to bear.
Crowding into one moment the vexation and the wrath of years, Joe
started up, overturned the table, fell upon his long enemy, pummelled
him with all his might and main, and finished by driving him with
surprising swiftness against a heap of spittoons in one corner; plunging
into which, head foremost, with a tremendous crash, he lay at full
length among the ruins, stunned and motionless. Then, without waiting to
receive the compliments of the bystanders on the victory he had won, he
retreated to his own bedchamber, and considering himself in a state
of siege, piled all the portable furniture against the door by way of
barricade.

‘I have done it now,’ said Joe, as he sat down upon his bedstead and
wiped his heated face. ‘I knew it would come at last. The Maypole and
I must part company. I’m a roving vagabond--she hates me for
evermore--it’s all over!’



Chapter 31


Pondering on his unhappy lot, Joe sat and listened for a long time,
expecting every moment to hear their creaking footsteps on the stairs,
or to be greeted by his worthy father with a summons to capitulate
unconditionally, and deliver himself up straightway. But neither voice
nor footstep came; and though some distant echoes, as of closing doors
and people hurrying in and out of rooms, resounding from time to time
through the great passages, and penetrating to his remote seclusion,
gave note of unusual commotion downstairs, no nearer sound disturbed his
place of retreat, which seemed the quieter for these far-off noises, and
was as dull and full of gloom as any hermit’s cell.

It came on darker and darker. The old-fashioned furniture of the
chamber, which was a kind of hospital for all the invalided movables in
the house, grew indistinct and shadowy in its many shapes; chairs and
tables, which by day were as honest cripples as need be, assumed a
doubtful and mysterious character; and one old leprous screen of faded
India leather and gold binding, which had kept out many a cold breath of
air in days of yore and shut in many a jolly face, frowned on him with
a spectral aspect, and stood at full height in its allotted corner, like
some gaunt ghost who waited to be questioned. A portrait opposite the
window--a queer, old grey-eyed general, in an oval frame--seemed to
wink and doze as the light decayed, and at length, when the last faint
glimmering speck of day went out, to shut its eyes in good earnest, and
fall sound asleep. There was such a hush and mystery about everything,
that Joe could not help following its example; and so went off into
a slumber likewise, and dreamed of Dolly, till the clock of Chigwell
church struck two.

Still nobody came. The distant noises in the house had ceased, and
out of doors all was quiet; save for the occasional barking of some
deep-mouthed dog, and the shaking of the branches by the night wind.
He gazed mournfully out of window at each well-known object as it lay
sleeping in the dim light of the moon; and creeping back to his former
seat, thought about the late uproar, until, with long thinking of, it
seemed to have occurred a month ago. Thus, between dozing, and thinking,
and walking to the window and looking out, the night wore away; the grim
old screen, and the kindred chairs and tables, began slowly to reveal
themselves in their accustomed forms; the grey-eyed general seemed to
wink and yawn and rouse himself; and at last he was broad awake again,
and very uncomfortable and cold and haggard he looked, in the dull grey
light of morning.

The sun had begun to peep above the forest trees, and already flung
across the curling mist bright bars of gold, when Joe dropped from his
window on the ground below, a little bundle and his trusty stick, and
prepared to descend himself.

It was not a very difficult task; for there were so many projections and
gable ends in the way, that they formed a series of clumsy steps, with
no greater obstacle than a jump of some few feet at last. Joe, with his
stick and bundle on his shoulder, quickly stood on the firm earth, and
looked up at the old Maypole, it might be for the last time.

He didn’t apostrophise it, for he was no great scholar. He didn’t curse
it, for he had little ill-will to give to anything on earth. He felt
more affectionate and kind to it than ever he had done in all his life
before, so said with all his heart, ‘God bless you!’ as a parting wish,
and turned away.

He walked along at a brisk pace, big with great thoughts of going for
a soldier and dying in some foreign country where it was very hot and
sandy, and leaving God knows what unheard-of wealth in prize-money to
Dolly, who would be very much affected when she came to know of it;
and full of such youthful visions, which were sometimes sanguine and
sometimes melancholy, but always had her for their main point and
centre, pushed on vigorously until the noise of London sounded in his
ears, and the Black Lion hove in sight.

It was only eight o’clock then, and very much astonished the Black Lion
was, to see him come walking in with dust upon his feet at that early
hour, with no grey mare to bear him company. But as he ordered breakfast
to be got ready with all speed, and on its being set before him gave
indisputable tokens of a hearty appetite, the Lion received him, as
usual, with a hospitable welcome; and treated him with those marks
of distinction, which, as a regular customer, and one within the
freemasonry of the trade, he had a right to claim.

This Lion or landlord,--for he was called both man and beast, by reason
of his having instructed the artist who painted his sign, to convey
into the features of the lordly brute whose effigy it bore, as near a
counterpart of his own face as his skill could compass and devise,--was
a gentleman almost as quick of apprehension, and of almost as subtle a
wit, as the mighty John himself. But the difference between them lay in
this: that whereas Mr Willet’s extreme sagacity and acuteness were
the efforts of unassisted nature, the Lion stood indebted, in no small
amount, to beer; of which he swigged such copious draughts, that most of
his faculties were utterly drowned and washed away, except the one
great faculty of sleep, which he retained in surprising perfection.
The creaking Lion over the house-door was, therefore, to say the
truth, rather a drowsy, tame, and feeble lion; and as these social
representatives of a savage class are usually of a conventional
character (being depicted, for the most part, in impossible attitudes
and of unearthly colours), he was frequently supposed by the more
ignorant and uninformed among the neighbours, to be the veritable
portrait of the host as he appeared on the occasion of some great
funeral ceremony or public mourning.

‘What noisy fellow is that in the next room?’ said Joe, when he had
disposed of his breakfast, and had washed and brushed himself.

‘A recruiting serjeant,’ replied the Lion.

Joe started involuntarily. Here was the very thing he had been dreaming
of, all the way along.

‘And I wish,’ said the Lion, ‘he was anywhere else but here. The party
make noise enough, but don’t call for much. There’s great cry there, Mr
Willet, but very little wool. Your father wouldn’t like ‘em, I know.’

Perhaps not much under any circumstances. Perhaps if he could have known
what was passing at that moment in Joe’s mind, he would have liked them
still less.

‘Is he recruiting for a--for a fine regiment?’ said Joe, glancing at a
little round mirror that hung in the bar.

‘I believe he is,’ replied the host. ‘It’s much the same thing, whatever
regiment he’s recruiting for. I’m told there an’t a deal of difference
between a fine man and another one, when they’re shot through and
through.’

‘They’re not all shot,’ said Joe.

‘No,’ the Lion answered, ‘not all. Those that are--supposing it’s done
easy--are the best off in my opinion.’

‘Ah!’ retorted Joe, ‘but you don’t care for glory.’

‘For what?’ said the Lion.

‘Glory.’

‘No,’ returned the Lion, with supreme indifference. ‘I don’t. You’re
right in that, Mr Willet. When Glory comes here, and calls for anything
to drink and changes a guinea to pay for it, I’ll give it him for
nothing. It’s my belief, sir, that the Glory’s arms wouldn’t do a very
strong business.’

These remarks were not at all comforting. Joe walked out, stopped at
the door of the next room, and listened. The serjeant was describing
a military life. It was all drinking, he said, except that there were
frequent intervals of eating and love-making. A battle was the finest
thing in the world--when your side won it--and Englishmen always did
that. ‘Supposing you should be killed, sir?’ said a timid voice in one
corner. ‘Well, sir, supposing you should be,’ said the serjeant, ‘what
then? Your country loves you, sir; his Majesty King George the Third
loves you; your memory is honoured, revered, respected; everybody’s fond
of you, and grateful to you; your name’s wrote down at full length in a
book in the War Office. Damme, gentlemen, we must all die some time, or
another, eh?’

The voice coughed, and said no more.

Joe walked into the room. A group of half-a-dozen fellows had gathered
together in the taproom, and were listening with greedy ears. One of
them, a carter in a smockfrock, seemed wavering and disposed to enlist.
The rest, who were by no means disposed, strongly urged him to do so
(according to the custom of mankind), backed the serjeant’s arguments,
and grinned among themselves. ‘I say nothing, boys,’ said the serjeant,
who sat a little apart, drinking his liquor. ‘For lads of spirit’--here
he cast an eye on Joe--‘this is the time. I don’t want to inveigle you.
The king’s not come to that, I hope. Brisk young blood is what we
want; not milk and water. We won’t take five men out of six. We want
top-sawyers, we do. I’m not a-going to tell tales out of school, but,
damme, if every gentleman’s son that carries arms in our corps, through
being under a cloud and having little differences with his relations,
was counted up’--here his eye fell on Joe again, and so good-naturedly,
that Joe beckoned him out. He came directly.

‘You’re a gentleman, by G--!’ was his first remark, as he slapped him
on the back. ‘You’re a gentleman in disguise. So am I. Let’s swear a
friendship.’

Joe didn’t exactly do that, but he shook hands with him, and thanked him
for his good opinion.

‘You want to serve,’ said his new friend. ‘You shall. You were made for
it. You’re one of us by nature. What’ll you take to drink?’

‘Nothing just now,’ replied Joe, smiling faintly. ‘I haven’t quite made
up my mind.’

‘A mettlesome fellow like you, and not made up his mind!’ cried the
serjeant. ‘Here--let me give the bell a pull, and you’ll make up your
mind in half a minute, I know.’

‘You’re right so far’--answered Joe, ‘for if you pull the bell here,
where I’m known, there’ll be an end of my soldiering inclinations in no
time. Look in my face. You see me, do you?’

‘I do,’ replied the serjeant with an oath, ‘and a finer young fellow or
one better qualified to serve his king and country, I never set my--’ he
used an adjective in this place--‘eyes on.’

‘Thank you,’ said Joe, ‘I didn’t ask you for want of a compliment, but
thank you all the same. Do I look like a sneaking fellow or a liar?’

The serjeant rejoined with many choice asseverations that he didn’t; and
that if his (the serjeant’s) own father were to say he did, he would
run the old gentleman through the body cheerfully, and consider it a
meritorious action.

Joe expressed his obligations, and continued, ‘You can trust me then,
and credit what I say. I believe I shall enlist in your regiment
to-night. The reason I don’t do so now is, because I don’t want until
to-night, to do what I can’t recall. Where shall I find you, this
evening?’

His friend replied with some unwillingness, and after much ineffectual
entreaty having for its object the immediate settlement of the business,
that his quarters would be at the Crooked Billet in Tower Street; where
he would be found waking until midnight, and sleeping until breakfast
time to-morrow.

‘And if I do come--which it’s a million to one, I shall--when will you
take me out of London?’ demanded Joe.

‘To-morrow morning, at half after eight o’clock,’ replied the serjeant.
‘You’ll go abroad--a country where it’s all sunshine and plunder--the
finest climate in the world.’

‘To go abroad,’ said Joe, shaking hands with him, ‘is the very thing I
want. You may expect me.’

‘You’re the kind of lad for us,’ cried the serjeant, holding Joe’s hand
in his, in the excess of his admiration. ‘You’re the boy to push your
fortune. I don’t say it because I bear you any envy, or would take away
from the credit of the rise you’ll make, but if I had been bred and
taught like you, I’d have been a colonel by this time.’

‘Tush, man!’ said Joe, ‘I’m not so young as that. Needs must when the
devil drives; and the devil that drives me is an empty pocket and an
unhappy home. For the present, good-bye.’

‘For king and country!’ cried the serjeant, flourishing his cap.

‘For bread and meat!’ cried Joe, snapping his fingers. And so they
parted.

He had very little money in his pocket; so little indeed, that after
paying for his breakfast (which he was too honest and perhaps too proud
to score up to his father’s charge) he had but a penny left. He had
courage, notwithstanding, to resist all the affectionate importunities
of the serjeant, who waylaid him at the door with many protestations of
eternal friendship, and did in particular request that he would do him
the favour to accept of only one shilling as a temporary accommodation.
Rejecting his offers both of cash and credit, Joe walked away with
stick and bundle as before, bent upon getting through the day as he best
could, and going down to the locksmith’s in the dusk of the evening;
for it should go hard, he had resolved, but he would have a parting word
with charming Dolly Varden.

He went out by Islington and so on to Highgate, and sat on many stones
and gates, but there were no voices in the bells to bid him turn. Since
the time of noble Whittington, fair flower of merchants, bells have come
to have less sympathy with humankind. They only ring for money and on
state occasions. Wanderers have increased in number; ships leave the
Thames for distant regions, carrying from stem to stern no other cargo;
the bells are silent; they ring out no entreaties or regrets; they are
used to it and have grown worldly.

Joe bought a roll, and reduced his purse to the condition (with a
difference) of that celebrated purse of Fortunatus, which, whatever were
its favoured owner’s necessities, had one unvarying amount in it. In
these real times, when all the Fairies are dead and buried, there are
still a great many purses which possess that quality. The sum-total they
contain is expressed in arithmetic by a circle, and whether it be added
to or multiplied by its own amount, the result of the problem is more
easily stated than any known in figures.

Evening drew on at last. With the desolate and solitary feeling of one
who had no home or shelter, and was alone utterly in the world for the
first time, he bent his steps towards the locksmith’s house. He had
delayed till now, knowing that Mrs Varden sometimes went out alone,
or with Miggs for her sole attendant, to lectures in the evening; and
devoutly hoping that this might be one of her nights of moral culture.

He had walked up and down before the house, on the opposite side of the
way, two or three times, when as he returned to it again, he caught a
glimpse of a fluttering skirt at the door. It was Dolly’s--to whom else
could it belong? no dress but hers had such a flow as that. He plucked
up his spirits, and followed it into the workshop of the Golden Key.

His darkening the door caused her to look round. Oh that face! ‘If it
hadn’t been for that,’ thought Joe, ‘I should never have walked into
poor Tom Cobb. She’s twenty times handsomer than ever. She might marry a
Lord!’

He didn’t say this. He only thought it--perhaps looked it also. Dolly
was glad to see him, and was SO sorry her father and mother were away
from home. Joe begged she wouldn’t mention it on any account.

Dolly hesitated to lead the way into the parlour, for there it was
nearly dark; at the same time she hesitated to stand talking in the
workshop, which was yet light and open to the street. They had got by
some means, too, before the little forge; and Joe having her hand in his
(which he had no right to have, for Dolly only gave it him to shake), it
was so like standing before some homely altar being married, that it was
the most embarrassing state of things in the world.

‘I have come,’ said Joe, ‘to say good-bye--to say good-bye for I don’t
know how many years; perhaps for ever. I am going abroad.’

Now this was exactly what he should not have said. Here he was, talking
like a gentleman at large who was free to come and go and roam about the
world at pleasure, when that gallant coachmaker had vowed but the night
before that Miss Varden held him bound in adamantine chains; and had
positively stated in so many words that she was killing him by inches,
and that in a fortnight more or thereabouts he expected to make a decent
end and leave the business to his mother.

Dolly released her hand and said ‘Indeed!’ She remarked in the same
breath that it was a fine night, and in short, betrayed no more emotion
than the forge itself.

‘I couldn’t go,’ said Joe, ‘without coming to see you. I hadn’t the
heart to.’

Dolly was more sorry than she could tell, that he should have taken so
much trouble. It was such a long way, and he must have such a deal to
do. And how WAS Mr Willet--that dear old gentleman--

‘Is this all you say!’ cried Joe.

All! Good gracious, what did the man expect! She was obliged to take her
apron in her hand and run her eyes along the hem from corner to corner,
to keep herself from laughing in his face;--not because his gaze
confused her--not at all.

Joe had small experience in love affairs, and had no notion how
different young ladies are at different times; he had expected to
take Dolly up again at the very point where he had left her after that
delicious evening ride, and was no more prepared for such an alteration
than to see the sun and moon change places. He had buoyed himself up all
day with an indistinct idea that she would certainly say ‘Don’t go,’ or
‘Don’t leave us,’ or ‘Why do you go?’ or ‘Why do you leave us?’ or would
give him some little encouragement of that sort; he had even entertained
the possibility of her bursting into tears, of her throwing herself into
his arms, of her falling down in a fainting fit without previous word
or sign; but any approach to such a line of conduct as this, had been so
far from his thoughts that he could only look at her in silent wonder.

Dolly in the meanwhile, turned to the corners of her apron, and measured
the sides, and smoothed out the wrinkles, and was as silent as he. At
last after a long pause, Joe said good-bye. ‘Good-bye’--said Dolly--with
as pleasant a smile as if he were going into the next street, and were
coming back to supper; ‘good-bye.’

‘Come,’ said Joe, putting out both hands, ‘Dolly, dear Dolly, don’t let
us part like this. I love you dearly, with all my heart and soul; with
as much truth and earnestness as ever man loved woman in this world, I
do believe. I am a poor fellow, as you know--poorer now than ever, for
I have fled from home, not being able to bear it any longer, and must
fight my own way without help. You are beautiful, admired, are loved by
everybody, are well off and happy; and may you ever be so! Heaven forbid
I should ever make you otherwise; but give me a word of comfort. Say
something kind to me. I have no right to expect it of you, I know, but
I ask it because I love you, and shall treasure the slightest word from
you all through my life. Dolly, dearest, have you nothing to say to me?’

No. Nothing. Dolly was a coquette by nature, and a spoilt child. She had
no notion of being carried by storm in this way. The coachmaker would
have been dissolved in tears, and would have knelt down, and called
himself names, and clasped his hands, and beat his breast, and tugged
wildly at his cravat, and done all kinds of poetry. Joe had no business
to be going abroad. He had no right to be able to do it. If he was in
adamantine chains, he couldn’t.

‘I have said good-bye,’ said Dolly, ‘twice. Take your arm away directly,
Mr Joseph, or I’ll call Miggs.’

‘I’ll not reproach you,’ answered Joe, ‘it’s my fault, no doubt. I have
thought sometimes that you didn’t quite despise me, but I was a fool to
think so. Every one must, who has seen the life I have led--you most of
all. God bless you!’

He was gone, actually gone. Dolly waited a little while, thinking he
would return, peeped out at the door, looked up the street and down as
well as the increasing darkness would allow, came in again, waited a
little longer, went upstairs humming a tune, bolted herself in, laid
her head down on her bed, and cried as if her heart would break. And yet
such natures are made up of so many contradictions, that if Joe Willet
had come back that night, next day, next week, next month, the odds are
a hundred to one she would have treated him in the very same manner, and
have wept for it afterwards with the very same distress.

She had no sooner left the workshop than there cautiously peered out
from behind the chimney of the forge, a face which had already emerged
from the same concealment twice or thrice, unseen, and which, after
satisfying itself that it was now alone, was followed by a leg, a
shoulder, and so on by degrees, until the form of Mr Tappertit stood
confessed, with a brown-paper cap stuck negligently on one side of its
head, and its arms very much a-kimbo.

‘Have my ears deceived me,’ said the ‘prentice, ‘or do I dream! am I to
thank thee, Fortun’, or to cus thee--which?’

He gravely descended from his elevation, took down his piece of
looking-glass, planted it against the wall upon the usual bench, twisted
his head round, and looked closely at his legs.

‘If they’re a dream,’ said Sim, ‘let sculptures have such wisions, and
chisel ‘em out when they wake. This is reality. Sleep has no such limbs
as them. Tremble, Willet, and despair. She’s mine! She’s mine!’

With these triumphant expressions, he seized a hammer and dealt a heavy
blow at a vice, which in his mind’s eye represented the sconce or head
of Joseph Willet. That done, he burst into a peal of laughter which
startled Miss Miggs even in her distant kitchen, and dipping his head
into a bowl of water, had recourse to a jack-towel inside the closet
door, which served the double purpose of smothering his feelings and
drying his face.

Joe, disconsolate and down-hearted, but full of courage too, on leaving
the locksmith’s house made the best of his way to the Crooked Billet,
and there inquired for his friend the serjeant, who, expecting no man
less, received him with open arms. In the course of five minutes after
his arrival at that house of entertainment, he was enrolled among the
gallant defenders of his native land; and within half an hour, was
regaled with a steaming supper of boiled tripe and onions, prepared,
as his friend assured him more than once, at the express command of his
most Sacred Majesty the King. To this meal, which tasted very savoury
after his long fasting, he did ample justice; and when he had followed
it up, or down, with a variety of loyal and patriotic toasts, he was
conducted to a straw mattress in a loft over the stable, and locked in
there for the night.

The next morning, he found that the obliging care of his martial friend
had decorated his hat with sundry particoloured streamers, which made
a very lively appearance; and in company with that officer, and three
other military gentlemen newly enrolled, who were under a cloud so dense
that it only left three shoes, a boot, and a coat and a half visible
among them, repaired to the riverside. Here they were joined by a
corporal and four more heroes, of whom two were drunk and daring, and
two sober and penitent, but each of whom, like Joe, had his dusty stick
and bundle. The party embarked in a passage-boat bound for Gravesend,
whence they were to proceed on foot to Chatham; the wind was in their
favour, and they soon left London behind them, a mere dark mist--a giant
phantom in the air.



Chapter 32


Misfortunes, saith the adage, never come singly. There is little doubt
that troubles are exceedingly gregarious in their nature, and flying
in flocks, are apt to perch capriciously; crowding on the heads of some
poor wights until there is not an inch of room left on their unlucky
crowns, and taking no more notice of others who offer as good
resting-places for the soles of their feet, than if they had no
existence. It may have happened that a flight of troubles brooding over
London, and looking out for Joseph Willet, whom they couldn’t find,
darted down haphazard on the first young man that caught their fancy,
and settled on him instead. However this may be, certain it is that on
the very day of Joe’s departure they swarmed about the ears of Edward
Chester, and did so buzz and flap their wings, and persecute him, that
he was most profoundly wretched.

It was evening, and just eight o’clock, when he and his father, having
wine and dessert set before them, were left to themselves for the first
time that day. They had dined together, but a third person had been
present during the meal, and until they met at table they had not seen
each other since the previous night.

Edward was reserved and silent. Mr Chester was more than usually gay;
but not caring, as it seemed, to open a conversation with one whose
humour was so different, he vented the lightness of his spirit in smiles
and sparkling looks, and made no effort to awaken his attention. So they
remained for some time: the father lying on a sofa with his accustomed
air of graceful negligence; the son seated opposite to him with downcast
eyes, busied, it was plain, with painful and uneasy thoughts.

‘My dear Edward,’ said Mr Chester at length, with a most engaging laugh,
‘do not extend your drowsy influence to the decanter. Suffer THAT to
circulate, let your spirits be never so stagnant.’

Edward begged his pardon, passed it, and relapsed into his former state.

‘You do wrong not to fill your glass,’ said Mr Chester, holding up his
own before the light. ‘Wine in moderation--not in excess, for that makes
men ugly--has a thousand pleasant influences. It brightens the eye,
improves the voice, imparts a new vivacity to one’s thoughts and
conversation: you should try it, Ned.’

‘Ah father!’ cried his son, ‘if--’

‘My good fellow,’ interposed the parent hastily, as he set down his
glass, and raised his eyebrows with a startled and horrified expression,
‘for Heaven’s sake don’t call me by that obsolete and ancient name. Have
some regard for delicacy. Am I grey, or wrinkled, do I go on crutches,
have I lost my teeth, that you adopt such a mode of address? Good God,
how very coarse!’

‘I was about to speak to you from my heart, sir,’ returned Edward, ‘in
the confidence which should subsist between us; and you check me in the
outset.’

‘Now DO, Ned, DO not,’ said Mr Chester, raising his delicate hand
imploringly, ‘talk in that monstrous manner. About to speak from
your heart. Don’t you know that the heart is an ingenious part of
our formation--the centre of the blood-vessels and all that sort of
thing--which has no more to do with what you say or think, than your
knees have? How can you be so very vulgar and absurd? These anatomical
allusions should be left to gentlemen of the medical profession. They
are really not agreeable in society. You quite surprise me, Ned.’

‘Well! there are no such things to wound, or heal, or have regard for. I
know your creed, sir, and will say no more,’ returned his son.

‘There again,’ said Mr Chester, sipping his wine, ‘you are wrong. I
distinctly say there are such things. We know there are. The hearts of
animals--of bullocks, sheep, and so forth--are cooked and devoured, as
I am told, by the lower classes, with a vast deal of relish. Men are
sometimes stabbed to the heart, shot to the heart; but as to speaking
from the heart, or to the heart, or being warm-hearted, or cold-hearted,
or broken-hearted, or being all heart, or having no heart--pah! these
things are nonsense, Ned.’

‘No doubt, sir,’ returned his son, seeing that he paused for him to
speak. ‘No doubt.’

‘There’s Haredale’s niece, your late flame,’ said Mr Chester, as a
careless illustration of his meaning. ‘No doubt in your mind she was all
heart once. Now she has none at all. Yet she is the same person, Ned,
exactly.’

‘She is a changed person, sir,’ cried Edward, reddening; ‘and changed by
vile means, I believe.’

‘You have had a cool dismissal, have you?’ said his father. ‘Poor Ned!
I told you last night what would happen.--May I ask you for the
nutcrackers?’

‘She has been tampered with, and most treacherously deceived,’ cried
Edward, rising from his seat. ‘I never will believe that the knowledge
of my real position, given her by myself, has worked this change. I know
she is beset and tortured. But though our contract is at an end, and
broken past all redemption; though I charge upon her want of firmness
and want of truth, both to herself and me; I do not now, and never will
believe, that any sordid motive, or her own unbiassed will, has led her
to this course--never!’

‘You make me blush,’ returned his father gaily, ‘for the folly of your
nature, in which--but we never know ourselves--I devoutly hope there is
no reflection of my own. With regard to the young lady herself, she has
done what is very natural and proper, my dear fellow; what you yourself
proposed, as I learn from Haredale; and what I predicted--with no great
exercise of sagacity--she would do. She supposed you to be rich, or
at least quite rich enough; and found you poor. Marriage is a civil
contract; people marry to better their worldly condition and improve
appearances; it is an affair of house and furniture, of liveries,
servants, equipage, and so forth. The lady being poor and you poor
also, there is an end of the matter. You cannot enter upon these
considerations, and have no manner of business with the ceremony. I
drink her health in this glass, and respect and honour her for her
extreme good sense. It is a lesson to you. Fill yours, Ned.’

‘It is a lesson,’ returned his son, ‘by which I hope I may never profit,
and if years and experience impress it on--’

‘Don’t say on the heart,’ interposed his father.

‘On men whom the world and its hypocrisy have spoiled,’ said Edward
warmly, ‘Heaven keep me from its knowledge.’

‘Come, sir,’ returned his father, raising himself a little on the sofa,
and looking straight towards him; ‘we have had enough of this. Remember,
if you please, your interest, your duty, your moral obligations, your
filial affections, and all that sort of thing, which it is so very
delightful and charming to reflect upon; or you will repent it.’

‘I shall never repent the preservation of my self-respect, sir,’ said
Edward. ‘Forgive me if I say that I will not sacrifice it at your
bidding, and that I will not pursue the track which you would have me
take, and to which the secret share you have had in this late separation
tends.’

His father rose a little higher still, and looking at him as though
curious to know if he were quite resolved and earnest, dropped gently
down again, and said in the calmest voice--eating his nuts meanwhile,

‘Edward, my father had a son, who being a fool like you, and, like you,
entertaining low and disobedient sentiments, he disinherited and cursed
one morning after breakfast. The circumstance occurs to me with a
singular clearness of recollection this evening. I remember eating
muffins at the time, with marmalade. He led a miserable life (the son,
I mean) and died early; it was a happy release on all accounts; he
degraded the family very much. It is a sad circumstance, Edward, when a
father finds it necessary to resort to such strong measures.

‘It is,’ replied Edward, ‘and it is sad when a son, proffering him his
love and duty in their best and truest sense, finds himself repelled
at every turn, and forced to disobey. Dear father,’ he added, more
earnestly though in a gentler tone, ‘I have reflected many times on what
occurred between us when we first discussed this subject. Let there be
a confidence between us; not in terms, but truth. Hear what I have to
say.’

‘As I anticipate what it is, and cannot fail to do so, Edward,’ returned
his father coldly, ‘I decline. I couldn’t possibly. I am sure it would
put me out of temper, which is a state of mind I can’t endure. If
you intend to mar my plans for your establishment in life, and the
preservation of that gentility and becoming pride, which our family
have so long sustained--if, in short, you are resolved to take your own
course, you must take it, and my curse with it. I am very sorry, but
there’s really no alternative.’

‘The curse may pass your lips,’ said Edward, ‘but it will be but empty
breath. I do not believe that any man on earth has greater power to call
one down upon his fellow--least of all, upon his own child--than he has
to make one drop of rain or flake of snow fall from the clouds above us
at his impious bidding. Beware, sir, what you do.’

‘You are so very irreligious, so exceedingly undutiful, so horribly
profane,’ rejoined his father, turning his face lazily towards him, and
cracking another nut, ‘that I positively must interrupt you here. It is
quite impossible we can continue to go on, upon such terms as these. If
you will do me the favour to ring the bell, the servant will show you
to the door. Return to this roof no more, I beg you. Go, sir, since
you have no moral sense remaining; and go to the Devil, at my express
desire. Good day.’

Edward left the room without another word or look, and turned his back
upon the house for ever.

The father’s face was slightly flushed and heated, but his manner was
quite unchanged, as he rang the bell again, and addressed the servant on
his entrance.

‘Peak--if that gentleman who has just gone out--’

‘I beg your pardon, sir, Mr Edward?’

‘Were there more than one, dolt, that you ask the question?--If that
gentleman should send here for his wardrobe, let him have it, do you
hear? If he should call himself at any time, I’m not at home. You’ll
tell him so, and shut the door.’


So, it soon got whispered about, that Mr Chester was very unfortunate
in his son, who had occasioned him great grief and sorrow. And the
good people who heard this and told it again, marvelled the more at his
equanimity and even temper, and said what an amiable nature that man
must have, who, having undergone so much, could be so placid and so
calm. And when Edward’s name was spoken, Society shook its head, and
laid its finger on its lip, and sighed, and looked very grave; and those
who had sons about his age, waxed wrathful and indignant, and hoped, for
Virtue’s sake, that he was dead. And the world went on turning round, as
usual, for five years, concerning which this Narrative is silent.



Chapter 33


One wintry evening, early in the year of our Lord one thousand seven
hundred and eighty, a keen north wind arose as it grew dark, and night
came on with black and dismal looks. A bitter storm of sleet, sharp,
dense, and icy-cold, swept the wet streets, and rattled on the trembling
windows. Signboards, shaken past endurance in their creaking frames,
fell crashing on the pavement; old tottering chimneys reeled and
staggered in the blast; and many a steeple rocked again that night, as
though the earth were troubled.

It was not a time for those who could by any means get light and warmth,
to brave the fury of the weather. In coffee-houses of the better sort,
guests crowded round the fire, forgot to be political, and told each
other with a secret gladness that the blast grew fiercer every minute.
Each humble tavern by the water-side, had its group of uncouth figures
round the hearth, who talked of vessels foundering at sea, and all hands
lost; related many a dismal tale of shipwreck and drowned men, and
hoped that some they knew were safe, and shook their heads in doubt.
In private dwellings, children clustered near the blaze; listening with
timid pleasure to tales of ghosts and goblins, and tall figures clad
in white standing by bed-sides, and people who had gone to sleep in old
churches and being overlooked had found themselves alone there at the
dead hour of the night: until they shuddered at the thought of the dark
rooms upstairs, yet loved to hear the wind moan too, and hoped it would
continue bravely. From time to time these happy indoor people stopped to
listen, or one held up his finger and cried ‘Hark!’ and then, above the
rumbling in the chimney, and the fast pattering on the glass, was heard
a wailing, rushing sound, which shook the walls as though a giant’s hand
were on them; then a hoarse roar as if the sea had risen; then such a
whirl and tumult that the air seemed mad; and then, with a lengthened
howl, the waves of wind swept on, and left a moment’s interval of rest.

Cheerily, though there were none abroad to see it, shone the Maypole
light that evening. Blessings on the red--deep, ruby, glowing red--old
curtain of the window; blending into one rich stream of brightness, fire
and candle, meat, drink, and company, and gleaming like a jovial
eye upon the bleak waste out of doors! Within, what carpet like its
crunching sand, what music merry as its crackling logs, what perfume
like its kitchen’s dainty breath, what weather genial as its hearty
warmth! Blessings on the old house, how sturdily it stood! How did the
vexed wind chafe and roar about its stalwart roof; how did it pant
and strive with its wide chimneys, which still poured forth from their
hospitable throats, great clouds of smoke, and puffed defiance in its
face; how, above all, did it drive and rattle at the casement, emulous
to extinguish that cheerful glow, which would not be put down and seemed
the brighter for the conflict!

The profusion too, the rich and lavish bounty, of that goodly tavern! It
was not enough that one fire roared and sparkled on its spacious hearth;
in the tiles which paved and compassed it, five hundred flickering fires
burnt brightly also. It was not enough that one red curtain shut the
wild night out, and shed its cheerful influence on the room. In every
saucepan lid, and candlestick, and vessel of copper, brass, or tin
that hung upon the walls, were countless ruddy hangings, flashing and
gleaming with every motion of the blaze, and offering, let the eye
wander where it might, interminable vistas of the same rich colour. The
old oak wainscoting, the beams, the chairs, the seats, reflected it in
a deep, dull glimmer. There were fires and red curtains in the very eyes
of the drinkers, in their buttons, in their liquor, in the pipes they
smoked.

Mr Willet sat in what had been his accustomed place five years before,
with his eyes on the eternal boiler; and had sat there since the clock
struck eight, giving no other signs of life than breathing with a loud
and constant snore (though he was wide awake), and from time to time
putting his glass to his lips, or knocking the ashes out of his pipe,
and filling it anew. It was now half-past ten. Mr Cobb and long Phil
Parkes were his companions, as of old, and for two mortal hours and a
half, none of the company had pronounced one word.

Whether people, by dint of sitting together in the same place and the
same relative positions, and doing exactly the same things for a great
many years, acquire a sixth sense, or some unknown power of influencing
each other which serves them in its stead, is a question for philosophy
to settle. But certain it is that old John Willet, Mr Parkes, and Mr
Cobb, were one and all firmly of opinion that they were very jolly
companions--rather choice spirits than otherwise; that they looked at
each other every now and then as if there were a perpetual interchange
of ideas going on among them; that no man considered himself or his
neighbour by any means silent; and that each of them nodded occasionally
when he caught the eye of another, as if he would say, ‘You have
expressed yourself extremely well, sir, in relation to that sentiment,
and I quite agree with you.’

The room was so very warm, the tobacco so very good, and the fire so
very soothing, that Mr Willet by degrees began to doze; but as he had
perfectly acquired, by dint of long habit, the art of smoking in his
sleep, and as his breathing was pretty much the same, awake or asleep,
saving that in the latter case he sometimes experienced a slight
difficulty in respiration (such as a carpenter meets with when he is
planing and comes to a knot), neither of his companions was aware of the
circumstance, until he met with one of these impediments and was obliged
to try again.

‘Johnny’s dropped off,’ said Mr Parkes in a whisper.

‘Fast as a top,’ said Mr Cobb.

Neither of them said any more until Mr Willet came to another knot--one
of surpassing obduracy--which bade fair to throw him into convulsions,
but which he got over at last without waking, by an effort quite
superhuman.

‘He sleeps uncommon hard,’ said Mr Cobb.

Mr Parkes, who was possibly a hard-sleeper himself, replied with some
disdain, ‘Not a bit on it;’ and directed his eyes towards a handbill
pasted over the chimney-piece, which was decorated at the top with a
woodcut representing a youth of tender years running away very fast,
with a bundle over his shoulder at the end of a stick, and--to carry
out the idea--a finger-post and a milestone beside him. Mr Cobb likewise
turned his eyes in the same direction, and surveyed the placard as if
that were the first time he had ever beheld it. Now, this was a document
which Mr Willet had himself indited on the disappearance of his son
Joseph, acquainting the nobility and gentry and the public in general
with the circumstances of his having left his home; describing his dress
and appearance; and offering a reward of five pounds to any person or
persons who would pack him up and return him safely to the Maypole at
Chigwell, or lodge him in any of his Majesty’s jails until such time as
his father should come and claim him. In this advertisement Mr Willet
had obstinately persisted, despite the advice and entreaties of his
friends, in describing his son as a ‘young boy;’ and furthermore as
being from eighteen inches to a couple of feet shorter than he really
was; two circumstances which perhaps accounted, in some degree, for its
never having been productive of any other effect than the transmission
to Chigwell at various times and at a vast expense, of some
five-and-forty runaways varying from six years old to twelve.

Mr Cobb and Mr Parkes looked mysteriously at this composition, at each
other, and at old John. From the time he had pasted it up with his own
hands, Mr Willet had never by word or sign alluded to the subject, or
encouraged any one else to do so. Nobody had the least notion what his
thoughts or opinions were, connected with it; whether he remembered it
or forgot it; whether he had any idea that such an event had ever taken
place. Therefore, even while he slept, no one ventured to refer to it in
his presence; and for such sufficient reasons, these his chosen friends
were silent now.

Mr Willet had got by this time into such a complication of knots,
that it was perfectly clear he must wake or die. He chose the former
alternative, and opened his eyes.

‘If he don’t come in five minutes,’ said John, ‘I shall have supper
without him.’

The antecedent of this pronoun had been mentioned for the last time
at eight o’clock. Messrs Parkes and Cobb being used to this style of
conversation, replied without difficulty that to be sure Solomon was
very late, and they wondered what had happened to detain him.

‘He an’t blown away, I suppose,’ said Parkes. ‘It’s enough to carry a
man of his figure off his legs, and easy too. Do you hear it? It blows
great guns, indeed. There’ll be many a crash in the Forest to-night, I
reckon, and many a broken branch upon the ground to-morrow.’

‘It won’t break anything in the Maypole, I take it, sir,’ returned old
John. ‘Let it try. I give it leave--what’s that?’

‘The wind,’ cried Parkes. ‘It’s howling like a Christian, and has been
all night long.’

‘Did you ever, sir,’ asked John, after a minute’s contemplation, ‘hear
the wind say “Maypole”?’

‘Why, what man ever did?’ said Parkes.

‘Nor “ahoy,” perhaps?’ added John.

‘No. Nor that neither.’

‘Very good, sir,’ said Mr Willet, perfectly unmoved; ‘then if that
was the wind just now, and you’ll wait a little time without speaking,
you’ll hear it say both words very plain.’

Mr Willet was right. After listening for a few moments, they could
clearly hear, above the roar and tumult out of doors, this shout
repeated; and that with a shrillness and energy, which denoted that it
came from some person in great distress or terror. They looked at each
other, turned pale, and held their breath. No man stirred.

It was in this emergency that Mr Willet displayed something of that
strength of mind and plenitude of mental resource, which rendered him
the admiration of all his friends and neighbours. After looking at
Messrs Parkes and Cobb for some time in silence, he clapped his two
hands to his cheeks, and sent forth a roar which made the glasses dance
and rafters ring--a long-sustained, discordant bellow, that rolled
onward with the wind, and startling every echo, made the night a hundred
times more boisterous--a deep, loud, dismal bray, that sounded like a
human gong. Then, with every vein in his head and face swollen with the
great exertion, and his countenance suffused with a lively purple, he
drew a little nearer to the fire, and turning his back upon it, said
with dignity:

‘If that’s any comfort to anybody, they’re welcome to it. If it an’t,
I’m sorry for ‘em. If either of you two gentlemen likes to go out and
see what’s the matter, you can. I’m not curious, myself.’

While he spoke the cry drew nearer and nearer, footsteps passed the
window, the latch of the door was raised, it opened, was violently shut
again, and Solomon Daisy, with a lighted lantern in his hand, and the
rain streaming from his disordered dress, dashed into the room.

A more complete picture of terror than the little man presented, it
would be difficult to imagine. The perspiration stood in beads upon his
face, his knees knocked together, his every limb trembled, the power
of articulation was quite gone; and there he stood, panting for breath,
gazing on them with such livid ashy looks, that they were infected with
his fear, though ignorant of its occasion, and, reflecting his dismayed
and horror-stricken visage, stared back again without venturing to
question him; until old John Willet, in a fit of temporary insanity,
made a dive at his cravat, and, seizing him by that portion of his
dress, shook him to and fro until his very teeth appeared to rattle in
his head.

‘Tell us what’s the matter, sir,’ said John, ‘or I’ll kill you. Tell us
what’s the matter, sir, or in another second I’ll have your head under
the biler. How dare you look like that? Is anybody a-following of you?
What do you mean? Say something, or I’ll be the death of you, I will.’

Mr Willet, in his frenzy, was so near keeping his word to the very
letter (Solomon Daisy’s eyes already beginning to roll in an alarming
manner, and certain guttural sounds, as of a choking man, to issue from
his throat), that the two bystanders, recovering in some degree,
plucked him off his victim by main force, and placed the little clerk
of Chigwell in a chair. Directing a fearful gaze all round the room, he
implored them in a faint voice to give him some drink; and above all to
lock the house-door and close and bar the shutters of the room, without
a moment’s loss of time. The latter request did not tend to reassure
his hearers, or to fill them with the most comfortable sensations; they
complied with it, however, with the greatest expedition; and having
handed him a bumper of brandy-and-water, nearly boiling hot, waited to
hear what he might have to tell them.

‘Oh, Johnny,’ said Solomon, shaking him by the hand. ‘Oh, Parkes. Oh,
Tommy Cobb. Why did I leave this house to-night! On the nineteenth of
March--of all nights in the year, on the nineteenth of March!’

They all drew closer to the fire. Parkes, who was nearest to the door,
started and looked over his shoulder. Mr Willet, with great indignation,
inquired what the devil he meant by that--and then said, ‘God forgive
me,’ and glanced over his own shoulder, and came a little nearer.

‘When I left here to-night,’ said Solomon Daisy, ‘I little thought what
day of the month it was. I have never gone alone into the church after
dark on this day, for seven-and-twenty years. I have heard it said
that as we keep our birthdays when we are alive, so the ghosts of
dead people, who are not easy in their graves, keep the day they died
upon.--How the wind roars!’

Nobody spoke. All eyes were fastened on Solomon.

‘I might have known,’ he said, ‘what night it was, by the foul weather.
There’s no such night in the whole year round as this is, always. I
never sleep quietly in my bed on the nineteenth of March.’

‘Go on,’ said Tom Cobb, in a low voice. ‘Nor I neither.’

Solomon Daisy raised his glass to his lips; put it down upon the floor
with such a trembling hand that the spoon tinkled in it like a little
bell; and continued thus:

‘Have I ever said that we are always brought back to this subject in
some strange way, when the nineteenth of this month comes round? Do
you suppose it was by accident, I forgot to wind up the church-clock? I
never forgot it at any other time, though it’s such a clumsy thing that
it has to be wound up every day. Why should it escape my memory on this
day of all others?

‘I made as much haste down there as I could when I went from here, but
I had to go home first for the keys; and the wind and rain being dead
against me all the way, it was pretty well as much as I could do at
times to keep my legs. I got there at last, opened the church-door, and
went in. I had not met a soul all the way, and you may judge whether it
was dull or not. Neither of you would bear me company. If you could have
known what was to come, you’d have been in the right.

‘The wind was so strong, that it was as much as I could do to shut the
church-door by putting my whole weight against it; and even as it was,
it burst wide open twice, with such strength that any of you would have
sworn, if you had been leaning against it, as I was, that somebody was
pushing on the other side. However, I got the key turned, went into the
belfry, and wound up the clock--which was very near run down, and would
have stood stock-still in half an hour.

‘As I took up my lantern again to leave the church, it came upon me all
at once that this was the nineteenth of March. It came upon me with a
kind of shock, as if a hand had struck the thought upon my forehead;
at the very same moment, I heard a voice outside the tower--rising from
among the graves.’

Here old John precipitately interrupted the speaker, and begged that if
Mr Parkes (who was seated opposite to him and was staring directly over
his head) saw anything, he would have the goodness to mention it. Mr
Parkes apologised, and remarked that he was only listening; to which Mr
Willet angrily retorted, that his listening with that kind of expression
in his face was not agreeable, and that if he couldn’t look like other
people, he had better put his pocket-handkerchief over his head.
Mr Parkes with great submission pledged himself to do so, if again
required, and John Willet turning to Solomon desired him to proceed.
After waiting until a violent gust of wind and rain, which seemed to
shake even that sturdy house to its foundation, had passed away, the
little man complied:

‘Never tell me that it was my fancy, or that it was any other sound
which I mistook for that I tell you of. I heard the wind whistle through
the arches of the church. I heard the steeple strain and creak. I heard
the rain as it came driving against the walls. I felt the bells shake. I
saw the ropes sway to and fro. And I heard that voice.’

‘What did it say?’ asked Tom Cobb.

‘I don’t know what; I don’t know that it spoke. It gave a kind of cry,
as any one of us might do, if something dreadful followed us in a dream,
and came upon us unawares; and then it died off: seeming to pass quite
round the church.’

‘I don’t see much in that,’ said John, drawing a long breath, and
looking round him like a man who felt relieved.

‘Perhaps not,’ returned his friend, ‘but that’s not all.’

‘What more do you mean to say, sir, is to come?’ asked John, pausing in
the act of wiping his face upon his apron. ‘What are you a-going to tell
us of next?’

‘What I saw.’

‘Saw!’ echoed all three, bending forward.

‘When I opened the church-door to come out,’ said the little man, with
an expression of face which bore ample testimony to the sincerity of
his conviction, ‘when I opened the church-door to come out, which I did
suddenly, for I wanted to get it shut again before another gust of wind
came up, there crossed me--so close, that by stretching out my finger
I could have touched it--something in the likeness of a man. It was
bare-headed to the storm. It turned its face without stopping, and fixed
its eyes on mine. It was a ghost--a spirit.’

‘Whose?’ they all three cried together.

In the excess of his emotion (for he fell back trembling in his chair,
and waved his hand as if entreating them to question him no further),
his answer was lost on all but old John Willet, who happened to be
seated close beside him.

‘Who!’ cried Parkes and Tom Cobb, looking eagerly by turns at Solomon
Daisy and at Mr Willet. ‘Who was it?’

‘Gentlemen,’ said Mr Willet after a long pause, ‘you needn’t ask. The
likeness of a murdered man. This is the nineteenth of March.’

A profound silence ensued.

‘If you’ll take my advice,’ said John, ‘we had better, one and all, keep
this a secret. Such tales would not be liked at the Warren. Let us keep
it to ourselves for the present time at all events, or we may get into
trouble, and Solomon may lose his place. Whether it was really as he
says, or whether it wasn’t, is no matter. Right or wrong, nobody would
believe him. As to the probabilities, I don’t myself think,’ said Mr
Willet, eyeing the corners of the room in a manner which showed that,
like some other philosophers, he was not quite easy in his theory,
‘that a ghost as had been a man of sense in his lifetime, would be out
a-walking in such weather--I only know that I wouldn’t, if I was one.’

But this heretical doctrine was strongly opposed by the other three,
who quoted a great many precedents to show that bad weather was the very
time for such appearances; and Mr Parkes (who had had a ghost in his
family, by the mother’s side) argued the matter with so much ingenuity
and force of illustration, that John was only saved from having to
retract his opinion by the opportune appearance of supper, to which they
applied themselves with a dreadful relish. Even Solomon Daisy himself,
by dint of the elevating influences of fire, lights, brandy, and good
company, so far recovered as to handle his knife and fork in a highly
creditable manner, and to display a capacity both of eating and
drinking, such as banished all fear of his having sustained any lasting
injury from his fright.

Supper done, they crowded round the fire again, and, as is common on
such occasions, propounded all manner of leading questions calculated
to surround the story with new horrors and surprises. But Solomon Daisy,
notwithstanding these temptations, adhered so steadily to his original
account, and repeated it so often, with such slight variations, and with
such solemn asseverations of its truth and reality, that his hearers
were (with good reason) more astonished than at first. As he took John
Willet’s view of the matter in regard to the propriety of not bruiting
the tale abroad, unless the spirit should appear to him again, in which
case it would be necessary to take immediate counsel with the clergyman,
it was solemnly resolved that it should be hushed up and kept quiet.
And as most men like to have a secret to tell which may exalt their own
importance, they arrived at this conclusion with perfect unanimity.

As it was by this time growing late, and was long past their usual hour
of separating, the cronies parted for the night. Solomon Daisy, with a
fresh candle in his lantern, repaired homewards under the escort of long
Phil Parkes and Mr Cobb, who were rather more nervous than himself. Mr
Willet, after seeing them to the door, returned to collect his thoughts
with the assistance of the boiler, and to listen to the storm of wind
and rain, which had not yet abated one jot of its fury.



Chapter 34


Before old John had looked at the boiler quite twenty minutes, he got
his ideas into a focus, and brought them to bear upon Solomon Daisy’s
story. The more he thought of it, the more impressed he became with
a sense of his own wisdom, and a desire that Mr Haredale should be
impressed with it likewise. At length, to the end that he might sustain
a principal and important character in the affair; and might have the
start of Solomon and his two friends, through whose means he knew the
adventure, with a variety of exaggerations, would be known to at least
a score of people, and most likely to Mr Haredale himself, by
breakfast-time to-morrow; he determined to repair to the Warren before
going to bed.

‘He’s my landlord,’ thought John, as he took a candle in his hand, and
setting it down in a corner out of the wind’s way, opened a casement in
the rear of the house, looking towards the stables. ‘We haven’t met of
late years so often as we used to do--changes are taking place in the
family--it’s desirable that I should stand as well with them, in point
of dignity, as possible--the whispering about of this here tale will
anger him--it’s good to have confidences with a gentleman of his natur’,
and set one’s-self right besides. Halloa there! Hugh--Hugh. Hal-loa!’

When he had repeated this shout a dozen times, and startled every pigeon
from its slumbers, a door in one of the ruinous old buildings opened,
and a rough voice demanded what was amiss now, that a man couldn’t even
have his sleep in quiet.

‘What! Haven’t you sleep enough, growler, that you’re not to be knocked
up for once?’ said John.

‘No,’ replied the voice, as the speaker yawned and shook himself. ‘Not
half enough.’

‘I don’t know how you CAN sleep, with the wind a bellowsing and roaring
about you, making the tiles fly like a pack of cards,’ said John; ‘but
no matter for that. Wrap yourself up in something or another, and come
here, for you must go as far as the Warren with me. And look sharp about
it.’

Hugh, with much low growling and muttering, went back into his lair;
and presently reappeared, carrying a lantern and a cudgel, and enveloped
from head to foot in an old, frowzy, slouching horse-cloth. Mr Willet
received this figure at the back-door, and ushered him into the bar,
while he wrapped himself in sundry greatcoats and capes, and so tied and
knotted his face in shawls and handkerchiefs, that how he breathed was a
mystery.

‘You don’t take a man out of doors at near midnight in such weather,
without putting some heart into him, do you, master?’ said Hugh.

‘Yes I do, sir,’ returned Mr Willet. ‘I put the heart (as you call it)
into him when he has brought me safe home again, and his standing steady
on his legs an’t of so much consequence. So hold that light up, if you
please, and go on a step or two before, to show the way.’

Hugh obeyed with a very indifferent grace, and a longing glance at the
bottles. Old John, laying strict injunctions on his cook to keep the
doors locked in his absence, and to open to nobody but himself on pain
of dismissal, followed him into the blustering darkness out of doors.

The way was wet and dismal, and the night so black, that if Mr Willet
had been his own pilot, he would have walked into a deep horsepond
within a few hundred yards of his own house, and would certainly have
terminated his career in that ignoble sphere of action. But Hugh, who
had a sight as keen as any hawk’s, and, apart from that endowment, could
have found his way blindfold to any place within a dozen miles, dragged
old John along, quite deaf to his remonstrances, and took his own course
without the slightest reference to, or notice of, his master. So they
made head against the wind as they best could; Hugh crushing the wet
grass beneath his heavy tread, and stalking on after his ordinary savage
fashion; John Willet following at arm’s length, picking his steps, and
looking about him, now for bogs and ditches, and now for such stray
ghosts as might be wandering abroad, with looks of as much dismay and
uneasiness as his immovable face was capable of expressing.

At length they stood upon the broad gravel-walk before the Warren-house.
The building was profoundly dark, and none were moving near it save
themselves. From one solitary turret-chamber, however, there shone a
ray of light; and towards this speck of comfort in the cold, cheerless,
silent scene, Mr Willet bade his pilot lead him.

‘The old room,’ said John, looking timidly upward; ‘Mr Reuben’s own
apartment, God be with us! I wonder his brother likes to sit there, so
late at night--on this night too.’

‘Why, where else should he sit?’ asked Hugh, holding the lantern to his
breast, to keep the candle from the wind, while he trimmed it with his
fingers. ‘It’s snug enough, an’t it?’

‘Snug!’ said John indignantly. ‘You have a comfortable idea of snugness,
you have, sir. Do you know what was done in that room, you ruffian?’

‘Why, what is it the worse for that!’ cried Hugh, looking into John’s
fat face. ‘Does it keep out the rain, and snow, and wind, the less for
that? Is it less warm or dry, because a man was killed there? Ha, ha,
ha! Never believe it, master. One man’s no such matter as that comes
to.’

Mr Willet fixed his dull eyes on his follower, and began--by a species
of inspiration--to think it just barely possible that he was something
of a dangerous character, and that it might be advisable to get rid
of him one of these days. He was too prudent to say anything, with the
journey home before him; and therefore turned to the iron gate before
which this brief dialogue had passed, and pulled the handle of the bell
that hung beside it. The turret in which the light appeared being at
one corner of the building, and only divided from the path by one of
the garden-walks, upon which this gate opened, Mr Haredale threw up the
window directly, and demanded who was there.

‘Begging pardon, sir,’ said John, ‘I knew you sat up late, and made bold
to come round, having a word to say to you.’

‘Willet--is it not?’

‘Of the Maypole--at your service, sir.’

Mr Haredale closed the window, and withdrew. He presently appeared at
a door in the bottom of the turret, and coming across the garden-walk,
unlocked the gate and let them in.

‘You are a late visitor, Willet. What is the matter?’

‘Nothing to speak of, sir,’ said John; ‘an idle tale, I thought you
ought to know of; nothing more.’

‘Let your man go forward with the lantern, and give me your hand. The
stairs are crooked and narrow. Gently with your light, friend. You swing
it like a censer.’

Hugh, who had already reached the turret, held it more steadily, and
ascended first, turning round from time to time to shed his light
downward on the steps. Mr Haredale following next, eyed his lowering
face with no great favour; and Hugh, looking down on him, returned his
glances with interest, as they climbed the winding stairs.

It terminated in a little ante-room adjoining that from which they had
seen the light. Mr Haredale entered first, and led the way through it
into the latter chamber, where he seated himself at a writing-table from
which he had risen when they had rung the bell.

‘Come in,’ he said, beckoning to old John, who remained bowing at the
door. ‘Not you, friend,’ he added hastily to Hugh, who entered also.
‘Willet, why do you bring that fellow here?’

‘Why, sir,’ returned John, elevating his eyebrows, and lowering his
voice to the tone in which the question had been asked him, ‘he’s a good
guard, you see.’

‘Don’t be too sure of that,’ said Mr Haredale, looking towards him as he
spoke. ‘I doubt it. He has an evil eye.’

‘There’s no imagination in his eye,’ returned Mr Willet, glancing over
his shoulder at the organ in question, ‘certainly.’

‘There is no good there, be assured,’ said Mr Haredale. ‘Wait in that
little room, friend, and close the door between us.’

Hugh shrugged his shoulders, and with a disdainful look, which showed,
either that he had overheard, or that he guessed the purport of their
whispering, did as he was told. When he was shut out, Mr Haredale turned
to John, and bade him go on with what he had to say, but not to speak
too loud, for there were quick ears yonder.

Thus cautioned, Mr Willet, in an oily whisper, recited all that he
had heard and said that night; laying particular stress upon his own
sagacity, upon his great regard for the family, and upon his solicitude
for their peace of mind and happiness. The story moved his auditor much
more than he had expected. Mr Haredale often changed his attitude, rose
and paced the room, returned again, desired him to repeat, as nearly as
he could, the very words that Solomon had used, and gave so many other
signs of being disturbed and ill at ease, that even Mr Willet was
surprised.

‘You did quite right,’ he said, at the end of a long conversation, ‘to
bid them keep this story secret. It is a foolish fancy on the part of
this weak-brained man, bred in his fears and superstition. But Miss
Haredale, though she would know it to be so, would be disturbed by it
if it reached her ears; it is too nearly connected with a subject very
painful to us all, to be heard with indifference. You were most prudent,
and have laid me under a great obligation. I thank you very much.’

This was equal to John’s most sanguine expectations; but he would have
preferred Mr Haredale’s looking at him when he spoke, as if he really
did thank him, to his walking up and down, speaking by fits and starts,
often stopping with his eyes fixed on the ground, moving hurriedly on
again, like one distracted, and seeming almost unconscious of what he
said or did.

This, however, was his manner; and it was so embarrassing to John that
he sat quite passive for a long time, not knowing what to do. At length
he rose. Mr Haredale stared at him for a moment as though he had quite
forgotten his being present, then shook hands with him, and opened the
door. Hugh, who was, or feigned to be, fast asleep on the ante-chamber
floor, sprang up on their entrance, and throwing his cloak about him,
grasped his stick and lantern, and prepared to descend the stairs.

‘Stay,’ said Mr Haredale. ‘Will this man drink?’

‘Drink! He’d drink the Thames up, if it was strong enough, sir,’ replied
John Willet. ‘He’ll have something when he gets home. He’s better
without it, now, sir.’

‘Nay. Half the distance is done,’ said Hugh. ‘What a hard master you
are! I shall go home the better for one glassful, halfway. Come!’

As John made no reply, Mr Haredale brought out a glass of liquor, and
gave it to Hugh, who, as he took it in his hand, threw part of it upon
the floor.

‘What do you mean by splashing your drink about a gentleman’s house,
sir?’ said John.

‘I’m drinking a toast,’ Hugh rejoined, holding the glass above his head,
and fixing his eyes on Mr Haredale’s face; ‘a toast to this house and
its master.’ With that he muttered something to himself, and drank the
rest, and setting down the glass, preceded them without another word.

John was a good deal scandalised by this observance, but seeing that
Mr Haredale took little heed of what Hugh said or did, and that his
thoughts were otherwise employed, he offered no apology, and went in
silence down the stairs, across the walk, and through the garden-gate.
They stopped upon the outer side for Hugh to hold the light while Mr
Haredale locked it on the inner; and then John saw with wonder (as he
often afterwards related), that he was very pale, and that his face
had changed so much and grown so haggard since their entrance, that he
almost seemed another man.

They were in the open road again, and John Willet was walking on behind
his escort, as he had come, thinking very steadily of what he had just
now seen, when Hugh drew him suddenly aside, and almost at the same
instant three horsemen swept past--the nearest brushed his shoulder even
then--who, checking their steeds as suddenly as they could, stood still,
and waited for their coming up.



Chapter 35


When John Willet saw that the horsemen wheeled smartly round, and drew
up three abreast in the narrow road, waiting for him and his man to join
them, it occurred to him with unusual precipitation that they must be
highwaymen; and had Hugh been armed with a blunderbuss, in place of his
stout cudgel, he would certainly have ordered him to fire it off at a
venture, and would, while the word of command was obeyed, have consulted
his own personal safety in immediate flight. Under the circumstances of
disadvantage, however, in which he and his guard were placed, he deemed
it prudent to adopt a different style of generalship, and therefore
whispered his attendant to address them in the most peaceable and
courteous terms. By way of acting up to the spirit and letter of this
instruction, Hugh stepped forward, and flourishing his staff before the
very eyes of the rider nearest to him, demanded roughly what he and his
fellows meant by so nearly galloping over them, and why they scoured the
king’s highway at that late hour of night.

The man whom he addressed was beginning an angry reply in the same
strain, when he was checked by the horseman in the centre, who,
interposing with an air of authority, inquired in a somewhat loud but
not harsh or unpleasant voice:

‘Pray, is this the London road?’

‘If you follow it right, it is,’ replied Hugh roughly.

‘Nay, brother,’ said the same person, ‘you’re but a churlish Englishman,
if Englishman you be--which I should much doubt but for your tongue.
Your companion, I am sure, will answer me more civilly. How say you,
friend?’

‘I say it IS the London road, sir,’ answered John. ‘And I wish,’ he
added in a subdued voice, as he turned to Hugh, ‘that you was in any
other road, you vagabond. Are you tired of your life, sir, that you go
a-trying to provoke three great neck-or-nothing chaps, that could keep
on running over us, back’ards and for’ards, till we was dead, and then
take our bodies up behind ‘em, and drown us ten miles off?’

‘How far is it to London?’ inquired the same speaker.

‘Why, from here, sir,’ answered John, persuasively, ‘it’s thirteen very
easy mile.’

The adjective was thrown in, as an inducement to the travellers to
ride away with all speed; but instead of having the desired effect, it
elicited from the same person, the remark, ‘Thirteen miles! That’s a
long distance!’ which was followed by a short pause of indecision.

‘Pray,’ said the gentleman, ‘are there any inns hereabouts?’ At the word
‘inns,’ John plucked up his spirit in a surprising manner; his fears
rolled off like smoke; all the landlord stirred within him.

‘There are no inns,’ rejoined Mr Willet, with a strong emphasis on the
plural number; ‘but there’s a Inn--one Inn--the Maypole Inn. That’s a
Inn indeed. You won’t see the like of that Inn often.’

‘You keep it, perhaps?’ said the horseman, smiling.

‘I do, sir,’ replied John, greatly wondering how he had found this out.

‘And how far is the Maypole from here?’

‘About a mile’--John was going to add that it was the easiest mile in
all the world, when the third rider, who had hitherto kept a little in
the rear, suddenly interposed:

‘And have you one excellent bed, landlord? Hem! A bed that you can
recommend--a bed that you are sure is well aired--a bed that has been
slept in by some perfectly respectable and unexceptionable person?’

‘We don’t take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house, sir,’ answered
John. ‘And as to the bed itself--’

‘Say, as to three beds,’ interposed the gentleman who had spoken before;
‘for we shall want three if we stay, though my friend only speaks of
one.’

‘No, no, my lord; you are too good, you are too kind; but your life is
of far too much importance to the nation in these portentous times, to
be placed upon a level with one so useless and so poor as mine. A great
cause, my lord, a mighty cause, depends on you. You are its leader and
its champion, its advanced guard and its van. It is the cause of our
altars and our homes, our country and our faith. Let ME sleep on a
chair--the carpet--anywhere. No one will repine if I take cold or fever.
Let John Grueby pass the night beneath the open sky--no one will
repine for HIM. But forty thousand men of this our island in the wave
(exclusive of women and children) rivet their eyes and thoughts on Lord
George Gordon; and every day, from the rising up of the sun to the going
down of the same, pray for his health and vigour. My lord,’ said the
speaker, rising in his stirrups, ‘it is a glorious cause, and must not
be forgotten. My lord, it is a mighty cause, and must not be endangered.
My lord, it is a holy cause, and must not be deserted.’

‘It IS a holy cause,’ exclaimed his lordship, lifting up his hat with
great solemnity. ‘Amen.’

‘John Grueby,’ said the long-winded gentleman, in a tone of mild
reproof, ‘his lordship said Amen.’

‘I heard my lord, sir,’ said the man, sitting like a statue on his
horse.

‘And do not YOU say Amen, likewise?’

To which John Grueby made no reply at all, but sat looking straight
before him.

‘You surprise me, Grueby,’ said the gentleman. ‘At a crisis like the
present, when Queen Elizabeth, that maiden monarch, weeps within
her tomb, and Bloody Mary, with a brow of gloom and shadow, stalks
triumphant--’

‘Oh, sir,’ cried the man, gruffly, ‘where’s the use of talking of Bloody
Mary, under such circumstances as the present, when my lord’s wet
through, and tired with hard riding? Let’s either go on to London, sir,
or put up at once; or that unfort’nate Bloody Mary will have more to
answer for--and she’s done a deal more harm in her grave than she ever
did in her lifetime, I believe.’

By this time Mr Willet, who had never heard so many words spoken
together at one time, or delivered with such volubility and emphasis as
by the long-winded gentleman; and whose brain, being wholly unable to
sustain or compass them, had quite given itself up for lost; recovered
so far as to observe that there was ample accommodation at the Maypole
for all the party: good beds; neat wines; excellent entertainment
for man and beast; private rooms for large and small parties; dinners
dressed upon the shortest notice; choice stabling, and a lock-up
coach-house; and, in short, to run over such recommendatory scraps of
language as were painted up on various portions of the building, and
which in the course of some forty years he had learnt to repeat with
tolerable correctness. He was considering whether it was at all possible
to insert any novel sentences to the same purpose, when the gentleman
who had spoken first, turning to him of the long wind, exclaimed, ‘What
say you, Gashford? Shall we tarry at this house he speaks of, or press
forward? You shall decide.’

‘I would submit, my lord, then,’ returned the person he appealed to,
in a silky tone, ‘that your health and spirits--so important, under
Providence, to our great cause, our pure and truthful cause’--here his
lordship pulled off his hat again, though it was raining hard--‘require
refreshment and repose.’

‘Go on before, landlord, and show the way,’ said Lord George Gordon; ‘we
will follow at a footpace.’

‘If you’ll give me leave, my lord,’ said John Grueby, in a low voice,
‘I’ll change my proper place, and ride before you. The looks of the
landlord’s friend are not over honest, and it may be as well to be
cautious with him.’

‘John Grueby is quite right,’ interposed Mr Gashford, falling back
hastily. ‘My lord, a life so precious as yours must not be put in peril.
Go forward, John, by all means. If you have any reason to suspect the
fellow, blow his brains out.’

John made no answer, but looking straight before him, as his custom
seemed to be when the secretary spoke, bade Hugh push on, and followed
close behind him. Then came his lordship, with Mr Willet at his bridle
rein; and, last of all, his lordship’s secretary--for that, it seemed,
was Gashford’s office.

Hugh strode briskly on, often looking back at the servant, whose horse
was close upon his heels, and glancing with a leer at his holster
case of pistols, by which he seemed to set great store. He was a
square-built, strong-made, bull-necked fellow, of the true English
breed; and as Hugh measured him with his eye, he measured Hugh,
regarding him meanwhile with a look of bluff disdain. He was much older
than the Maypole man, being to all appearance five-and-forty; but was
one of those self-possessed, hard-headed, imperturbable fellows, who, if
they are ever beaten at fisticuffs, or other kind of warfare, never know
it, and go on coolly till they win.

‘If I led you wrong now,’ said Hugh, tauntingly, ‘you’d--ha ha
ha!--you’d shoot me through the head, I suppose.’

John Grueby took no more notice of this remark than if he had been deaf
and Hugh dumb; but kept riding on quite comfortably, with his eyes fixed
on the horizon.

‘Did you ever try a fall with a man when you were young, master?’ said
Hugh. ‘Can you make any play at single-stick?’

John Grueby looked at him sideways with the same contented air, but
deigned not a word in answer.

‘--Like this?’ said Hugh, giving his cudgel one of those skilful
flourishes, in which the rustic of that time delighted. ‘Whoop!’

‘--Or that,’ returned John Grueby, beating down his guard with his whip,
and striking him on the head with its butt end. ‘Yes, I played a little
once. You wear your hair too long; I should have cracked your crown if
it had been a little shorter.’

It was a pretty smart, loud-sounding rap, as it was, and evidently
astonished Hugh; who, for the moment, seemed disposed to drag his new
acquaintance from his saddle. But his face betokening neither malice,
triumph, rage, nor any lingering idea that he had given him offence;
his eyes gazing steadily in the old direction, and his manner being as
careless and composed as if he had merely brushed away a fly; Hugh was
so puzzled, and so disposed to look upon him as a customer of almost
supernatural toughness, that he merely laughed, and cried ‘Well done!’
then, sheering off a little, led the way in silence.

Before the lapse of many minutes the party halted at the Maypole door.
Lord George and his secretary quickly dismounting, gave their horses to
their servant, who, under the guidance of Hugh, repaired to the stables.
Right glad to escape from the inclemency of the night, they followed
Mr Willet into the common room, and stood warming themselves and drying
their clothes before the cheerful fire, while he busied himself with
such orders and preparations as his guest’s high quality required.

As he bustled in and out of the room, intent on these arrangements, he
had an opportunity of observing the two travellers, of whom, as yet, he
knew nothing but the voice. The lord, the great personage who did the
Maypole so much honour, was about the middle height, of a slender make,
and sallow complexion, with an aquiline nose, and long hair of a reddish
brown, combed perfectly straight and smooth about his ears, and slightly
powdered, but without the faintest vestige of a curl. He was attired,
under his greatcoat, in a full suit of black, quite free from any
ornament, and of the most precise and sober cut. The gravity of his
dress, together with a certain lankness of cheek and stiffness of
deportment, added nearly ten years to his age, but his figure was that
of one not yet past thirty. As he stood musing in the red glow of
the fire, it was striking to observe his very bright large eye, which
betrayed a restlessness of thought and purpose, singularly at variance
with the studied composure and sobriety of his mien, and with his
quaint and sad apparel. It had nothing harsh or cruel in its expression;
neither had his face, which was thin and mild, and wore an air of
melancholy; but it was suggestive of an indefinable uneasiness; which
infected those who looked upon him, and filled them with a kind of pity
for the man: though why it did so, they would have had some trouble to
explain.

Gashford, the secretary, was taller, angularly made, high-shouldered,
bony, and ungraceful. His dress, in imitation of his superior, was
demure and staid in the extreme; his manner, formal and constrained.
This gentleman had an overhanging brow, great hands and feet and ears,
and a pair of eyes that seemed to have made an unnatural retreat into
his head, and to have dug themselves a cave to hide in. His manner was
smooth and humble, but very sly and slinking. He wore the aspect of a
man who was always lying in wait for something that WOULDN’T come to
pass; but he looked patient--very patient--and fawned like a spaniel
dog. Even now, while he warmed and rubbed his hands before the blaze,
he had the air of one who only presumed to enjoy it in his degree as a
commoner; and though he knew his lord was not regarding him, he looked
into his face from time to time, and with a meek and deferential manner,
smiled as if for practice.

Such were the guests whom old John Willet, with a fixed and leaden
eye, surveyed a hundred times, and to whom he now advanced with a state
candlestick in each hand, beseeching them to follow him into a worthier
chamber. ‘For my lord,’ said John--it is odd enough, but certain people
seem to have as great a pleasure in pronouncing titles as their owners
have in wearing them--‘this room, my lord, isn’t at all the sort of
place for your lordship, and I have to beg your lordship’s pardon for
keeping you here, my lord, one minute.’

With this address, John ushered them upstairs into the state apartment,
which, like many other things of state, was cold and comfortless. Their
own footsteps, reverberating through the spacious room, struck upon
their hearing with a hollow sound; and its damp and chilly atmosphere
was rendered doubly cheerless by contrast with the homely warmth they
had deserted.

It was of no use, however, to propose a return to the place they had
quitted, for the preparations went on so briskly that there was no time
to stop them. John, with the tall candlesticks in his hands, bowed them
up to the fireplace; Hugh, striding in with a lighted brand and pile
of firewood, cast it down upon the hearth, and set it in a blaze; John
Grueby (who had a great blue cockade in his hat, which he appeared
to despise mightily) brought in the portmanteau he had carried on his
horse, and placed it on the floor; and presently all three were busily
engaged in drawing out the screen, laying the cloth, inspecting the
beds, lighting fires in the bedrooms, expediting the supper, and making
everything as cosy and as snug as might be, on so short a notice. In
less than an hour’s time, supper had been served, and ate, and cleared
away; and Lord George and his secretary, with slippered feet, and legs
stretched out before the fire, sat over some hot mulled wine together.

‘So ends, my lord,’ said Gashford, filling his glass with great
complacency, ‘the blessed work of a most blessed day.’

‘And of a blessed yesterday,’ said his lordship, raising his head.

‘Ah!’--and here the secretary clasped his hands--‘a blessed yesterday
indeed! The Protestants of Suffolk are godly men and true. Though others
of our countrymen have lost their way in darkness, even as we, my lord,
did lose our road to-night, theirs is the light and glory.’

‘Did I move them, Gashford?’ said Lord George.

‘Move them, my lord! Move them! They cried to be led on against the
Papists, they vowed a dreadful vengeance on their heads, they roared
like men possessed--’

‘But not by devils,’ said his lord.

‘By devils! my lord! By angels.’

‘Yes--oh surely--by angels, no doubt,’ said Lord George, thrusting his
hands into his pockets, taking them out again to bite his nails, and
looking uncomfortably at the fire. ‘Of course by angels--eh Gashford?’

‘You do not doubt it, my lord?’ said the secretary.

‘No--No,’ returned his lord. ‘No. Why should I? I suppose it would be
decidedly irreligious to doubt it--wouldn’t it, Gashford? Though there
certainly were,’ he added, without waiting for an answer, ‘some plaguy
ill-looking characters among them.’

‘When you warmed,’ said the secretary, looking sharply at the other’s
downcast eyes, which brightened slowly as he spoke; ‘when you warmed
into that noble outbreak; when you told them that you were never of
the lukewarm or the timid tribe, and bade them take heed that they were
prepared to follow one who would lead them on, though to the very death;
when you spoke of a hundred and twenty thousand men across the Scottish
border who would take their own redress at any time, if it were not
conceded; when you cried “Perish the Pope and all his base adherents;
the penal laws against them shall never be repealed while Englishmen
have hearts and hands”--and waved your own and touched your sword; and
when they cried “No Popery!” and you cried “No; not even if we wade in
blood,” and they threw up their hats and cried “Hurrah! not even if we
wade in blood; No Popery! Lord George! Down with the Papists--Vengeance
on their heads:” when this was said and done, and a word from you, my
lord, could raise or still the tumult--ah! then I felt what greatness
was indeed, and thought, When was there ever power like this of Lord
George Gordon’s!’

‘It’s a great power. You’re right. It is a great power!’ he cried with
sparkling eyes. ‘But--dear Gashford--did I really say all that?’

‘And how much more!’ cried the secretary, looking upwards. ‘Ah! how much
more!’

‘And I told them what you say, about the one hundred and forty thousand
men in Scotland, did I!’ he asked with evident delight. ‘That was bold.’

‘Our cause is boldness. Truth is always bold.’

‘Certainly. So is religion. She’s bold, Gashford?’

‘The true religion is, my lord.’

‘And that’s ours,’ he rejoined, moving uneasily in his seat, and biting
his nails as though he would pare them to the quick. ‘There can be no
doubt of ours being the true one. You feel as certain of that as I do,
Gashford, don’t you?’

‘Does my lord ask ME,’ whined Gashford, drawing his chair nearer with
an injured air, and laying his broad flat hand upon the table; ‘ME,’
he repeated, bending the dark hollows of his eyes upon him with an
unwholesome smile, ‘who, stricken by the magic of his eloquence in
Scotland but a year ago, abjured the errors of the Romish church, and
clung to him as one whose timely hand had plucked me from a pit?’

‘True. No--No. I--I didn’t mean it,’ replied the other, shaking him by
the hand, rising from his seat, and pacing restlessly about the room.
‘It’s a proud thing to lead the people, Gashford,’ he added as he made a
sudden halt.

‘By force of reason too,’ returned the pliant secretary.

‘Ay, to be sure. They may cough and jeer, and groan in Parliament, and
call me fool and madman, but which of them can raise this human sea and
make it swell and roar at pleasure? Not one.’

‘Not one,’ repeated Gashford.

‘Which of them can say for his honesty, what I can say for mine; which
of them has refused a minister’s bribe of one thousand pounds a year, to
resign his seat in favour of another? Not one.’

‘Not one,’ repeated Gashford again--taking the lion’s share of the
mulled wine between whiles.

‘And as we are honest, true, and in a sacred cause, Gashford,’ said Lord
George with a heightened colour and in a louder voice, as he laid his
fevered hand upon his shoulder, ‘and are the only men who regard the
mass of people out of doors, or are regarded by them, we will uphold
them to the last; and will raise a cry against these un-English Papists
which shall re-echo through the country, and roll with a noise like
thunder. I will be worthy of the motto on my coat of arms, “Called and
chosen and faithful.”’

‘Called,’ said the secretary, ‘by Heaven.’

‘I am.’

‘Chosen by the people.’

‘Yes.’

‘Faithful to both.’

‘To the block!’

It would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the excited manner
in which he gave these answers to the secretary’s promptings; of the
rapidity of his utterance, or the violence of his tone and gesture; in
which, struggling through his Puritan’s demeanour, was something wild
and ungovernable which broke through all restraint. For some minutes he
walked rapidly up and down the room, then stopping suddenly, exclaimed,

‘Gashford--YOU moved them yesterday too. Oh yes! You did.’

‘I shone with a reflected light, my lord,’ replied the humble secretary,
laying his hand upon his heart. ‘I did my best.’

‘You did well,’ said his master, ‘and are a great and worthy instrument.
If you will ring for John Grueby to carry the portmanteau into my room,
and will wait here while I undress, we will dispose of business as
usual, if you’re not too tired.’

‘Too tired, my lord!--But this is his consideration! Christian from head
to foot.’ With which soliloquy, the secretary tilted the jug, and looked
very hard into the mulled wine, to see how much remained.

John Willet and John Grueby appeared together. The one bearing the great
candlesticks, and the other the portmanteau, showed the deluded lord
into his chamber; and left the secretary alone, to yawn and shake
himself, and finally to fall asleep before the fire.

‘Now, Mr Gashford sir,’ said John Grueby in his ear, after what appeared
to him a moment of unconsciousness; ‘my lord’s abed.’

‘Oh. Very good, John,’ was his mild reply. ‘Thank you, John. Nobody need
sit up. I know my room.’

‘I hope you’re not a-going to trouble your head to-night, or my lord’s
head neither, with anything more about Bloody Mary,’ said John. ‘I wish
the blessed old creetur had never been born.’

‘I said you might go to bed, John,’ returned the secretary. ‘You didn’t
hear me, I think.’

‘Between Bloody Marys, and blue cockades, and glorious Queen Besses,
and no Poperys, and Protestant associations, and making of speeches,’
pursued John Grueby, looking, as usual, a long way off, and taking no
notice of this hint, ‘my lord’s half off his head. When we go out o’
doors, such a set of ragamuffins comes a-shouting after us, “Gordon
forever!” that I’m ashamed of myself and don’t know where to look. When
we’re indoors, they come a-roaring and screaming about the house like so
many devils; and my lord instead of ordering them to be drove away, goes
out into the balcony and demeans himself by making speeches to ‘em, and
calls ‘em “Men of England,” and “Fellow-countrymen,” as if he was fond
of ‘em and thanked ‘em for coming. I can’t make it out, but they’re all
mixed up somehow or another with that unfort’nate Bloody Mary, and call
her name out till they’re hoarse. They’re all Protestants too--every man
and boy among ‘em: and Protestants are very fond of spoons, I find, and
silver-plate in general, whenever area-gates is left open accidentally.
I wish that was the worst of it, and that no more harm might be to come;
but if you don’t stop these ugly customers in time, Mr Gashford (and I
know you; you’re the man that blows the fire), you’ll find ‘em grow a
little bit too strong for you. One of these evenings, when the weather
gets warmer and Protestants are thirsty, they’ll be pulling London
down,--and I never heard that Bloody Mary went as far as THAT.’

Gashford had vanished long ago, and these remarks had been bestowed on
empty air. Not at all discomposed by the discovery, John Grueby fixed
his hat on, wrongside foremost that he might be unconscious of the
shadow of the obnoxious cockade, and withdrew to bed; shaking his head
in a very gloomy and prophetic manner until he reached his chamber.



Chapter 36


Gashford, with a smiling face, but still with looks of profound
deference and humility, betook himself towards his master’s room,
smoothing his hair down as he went, and humming a psalm tune. As he
approached Lord George’s door, he cleared his throat and hummed more
vigorously.

There was a remarkable contrast between this man’s occupation at the
moment, and the expression of his countenance, which was singularly
repulsive and malicious. His beetling brow almost obscured his eyes;
his lip was curled contemptuously; his very shoulders seemed to sneer in
stealthy whisperings with his great flapped ears.

‘Hush!’ he muttered softly, as he peeped in at the chamber-door. ‘He
seems to be asleep. Pray Heaven he is! Too much watching, too much care,
too much thought--ah! Lord preserve him for a martyr! He is a saint, if
ever saint drew breath on this bad earth.’

Placing his light upon a table, he walked on tiptoe to the fire, and
sitting in a chair before it with his back towards the bed, went on
communing with himself like one who thought aloud:

‘The saviour of his country and his country’s religion, the friend of
his poor countrymen, the enemy of the proud and harsh; beloved of the
rejected and oppressed, adored by forty thousand bold and loyal English
hearts--what happy slumbers his should be!’ And here he sighed, and
warmed his hands, and shook his head as men do when their hearts are
full, and heaved another sigh, and warmed his hands again.

‘Why, Gashford?’ said Lord George, who was lying broad awake, upon his
side, and had been staring at him from his entrance.

‘My--my lord,’ said Gashford, starting and looking round as though in
great surprise. ‘I have disturbed you!’

‘I have not been sleeping.’

‘Not sleeping!’ he repeated, with assumed confusion. ‘What can I say
for having in your presence given utterance to thoughts--but they were
sincere--they were sincere!’ exclaimed the secretary, drawing his sleeve
in a hasty way across his eyes; ‘and why should I regret your having
heard them?’

‘Gashford,’ said the poor lord, stretching out his hand with manifest
emotion. ‘Do not regret it. You love me well, I know--too well. I don’t
deserve such homage.’

Gashford made no reply, but grasped the hand and pressed it to his lips.
Then rising, and taking from the trunk a little desk, he placed it on
a table near the fire, unlocked it with a key he carried in his pocket,
sat down before it, took out a pen, and, before dipping it in the
inkstand, sucked it--to compose the fashion of his mouth perhaps, on
which a smile was hovering yet.

‘How do our numbers stand since last enrolling-night?’ inquired Lord
George. ‘Are we really forty thousand strong, or do we still speak in
round numbers when we take the Association at that amount?’

‘Our total now exceeds that number by a score and three,’ Gashford
replied, casting his eyes upon his papers.

‘The funds?’

‘Not VERY improving; but there is some manna in the wilderness, my lord.
Hem! On Friday night the widows’ mites dropped in. “Forty scavengers,
three and fourpence. An aged pew-opener of St Martin’s parish, sixpence.
A bell-ringer of the established church, sixpence. A Protestant infant,
newly born, one halfpenny. The United Link Boys, three shillings--one
bad. The anti-popish prisoners in Newgate, five and fourpence. A friend
in Bedlam, half-a-crown. Dennis the hangman, one shilling.”’

‘That Dennis,’ said his lordship, ‘is an earnest man. I marked him in
the crowd in Welbeck Street, last Friday.’

‘A good man,’ rejoined the secretary, ‘a staunch, sincere, and truly
zealous man.’

‘He should be encouraged,’ said Lord George. ‘Make a note of Dennis.
I’ll talk with him.’

Gashford obeyed, and went on reading from his list:

‘“The Friends of Reason, half-a-guinea. The Friends of Liberty,
half-a-guinea. The Friends of Peace, half-a-guinea. The Friends of
Charity, half-a-guinea. The Friends of Mercy, half-a-guinea. The
Associated Rememberers of Bloody Mary, half-a-guinea. The United
Bulldogs, half-a-guinea.”’

‘The United Bulldogs,’ said Lord George, biting his nails most horribly,
‘are a new society, are they not?’

‘Formerly the ‘Prentice Knights, my lord. The indentures of the old
members expiring by degrees, they changed their name, it seems, though
they still have ‘prentices among them, as well as workmen.’

‘What is their president’s name?’ inquired Lord George.

‘President,’ said Gashford, reading, ‘Mr Simon Tappertit.’

‘I remember him. The little man, who sometimes brings an elderly sister
to our meetings, and sometimes another female too, who is conscientious,
I have no doubt, but not well-favoured?’

‘The very same, my lord.’

‘Tappertit is an earnest man,’ said Lord George, thoughtfully. ‘Eh,
Gashford?’

‘One of the foremost among them all, my lord. He snuffs the battle from
afar, like the war-horse. He throws his hat up in the street as if he
were inspired, and makes most stirring speeches from the shoulders of
his friends.’

‘Make a note of Tappertit,’ said Lord George Gordon. ‘We may advance him
to a place of trust.’

‘That,’ rejoined the secretary, doing as he was told, ‘is all--except
Mrs Varden’s box (fourteenth time of opening), seven shillings and
sixpence in silver and copper, and half-a-guinea in gold; and Miggs
(being the saving of a quarter’s wages), one-and-threepence.’

‘Miggs,’ said Lord George. ‘Is that a man?’

‘The name is entered on the list as a woman,’ replied the secretary. ‘I
think she is the tall spare female of whom you spoke just now, my
lord, as not being well-favoured, who sometimes comes to hear the
speeches--along with Tappertit and Mrs Varden.’

‘Mrs Varden is the elderly lady then, is she?’

The secretary nodded, and rubbed the bridge of his nose with the feather
of his pen.

‘She is a zealous sister,’ said Lord George. ‘Her collection goes on
prosperously, and is pursued with fervour. Has her husband joined?’

‘A malignant,’ returned the secretary, folding up his papers. ‘Unworthy
such a wife. He remains in outer darkness and steadily refuses.’

‘The consequences be upon his own head!--Gashford!’

‘My lord!’

‘You don’t think,’ he turned restlessly in his bed as he spoke, ‘these
people will desert me, when the hour arrives? I have spoken boldly for
them, ventured much, suppressed nothing. They’ll not fall off, will
they?’

‘No fear of that, my lord,’ said Gashford, with a meaning look, which
was rather the involuntary expression of his own thoughts than intended
as any confirmation of his words, for the other’s face was turned away.
‘Be sure there is no fear of that.’

‘Nor,’ he said with a more restless motion than before, ‘of their--but
they CAN sustain no harm from leaguing for this purpose. Right is on
our side, though Might may be against us. You feel as sure of that as
I--honestly, you do?’

The secretary was beginning with ‘You do not doubt,’ when the other
interrupted him, and impatiently rejoined:

‘Doubt. No. Who says I doubt? If I doubted, should I cast away
relatives, friends, everything, for this unhappy country’s sake; this
unhappy country,’ he cried, springing up in bed, after repeating the
phrase ‘unhappy country’s sake’ to himself, at least a dozen times,
‘forsaken of God and man, delivered over to a dangerous confederacy of
Popish powers; the prey of corruption, idolatry, and despotism! Who says
I doubt? Am I called, and chosen, and faithful? Tell me. Am I, or am I
not?’

‘To God, the country, and yourself,’ cried Gashford.

‘I am. I will be. I say again, I will be: to the block. Who says as
much! Do you? Does any man alive?’

The secretary drooped his head with an expression of perfect
acquiescence in anything that had been said or might be; and Lord George
gradually sinking down upon his pillow, fell asleep.

Although there was something very ludicrous in his vehement manner,
taken in conjunction with his meagre aspect and ungraceful presence, it
would scarcely have provoked a smile in any man of kindly feeling; or
even if it had, he would have felt sorry and almost angry with himself
next moment, for yielding to the impulse. This lord was sincere in his
violence and in his wavering. A nature prone to false enthusiasm, and
the vanity of being a leader, were the worst qualities apparent in his
composition. All the rest was weakness--sheer weakness; and it is
the unhappy lot of thoroughly weak men, that their very sympathies,
affections, confidences--all the qualities which in better constituted
minds are virtues--dwindle into foibles, or turn into downright vices.

Gashford, with many a sly look towards the bed, sat chuckling at his
master’s folly, until his deep and heavy breathing warned him that he
might retire. Locking his desk, and replacing it within the trunk (but
not before he had taken from a secret lining two printed handbills), he
cautiously withdrew; looking back, as he went, at the pale face of
the slumbering man, above whose head the dusty plumes that crowned the
Maypole couch, waved drearily and sadly as though it were a bier.

Stopping on the staircase to listen that all was quiet, and to take off
his shoes lest his footsteps should alarm any light sleeper who might
be near at hand, he descended to the ground floor, and thrust one of his
bills beneath the great door of the house. That done, he crept softly
back to his own chamber, and from the window let another fall--carefully
wrapt round a stone to save it from the wind--into the yard below.

They were addressed on the back ‘To every Protestant into whose hands
this shall come,’ and bore within what follows:

‘Men and Brethren. Whoever shall find this letter, will take it as a
warning to join, without delay, the friends of Lord George Gordon. There
are great events at hand; and the times are dangerous and troubled. Read
this carefully, keep it clean, and drop it somewhere else. For King and
Country. Union.’

‘More seed, more seed,’ said Gashford as he closed the window. ‘When
will the harvest come!’



Chapter 37


To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air of
mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power of attraction
which to the crowd is irresistible. False priests, false prophets, false
doctors, false patriots, false prodigies of every kind, veiling their
proceedings in mystery, have always addressed themselves at an immense
advantage to the popular credulity, and have been, perhaps, more
indebted to that resource in gaining and keeping for a time the upper
hand of Truth and Common Sense, than to any half-dozen items in the
whole catalogue of imposture. Curiosity is, and has been from the
creation of the world, a master-passion. To awaken it, to gratify it
by slight degrees, and yet leave something always in suspense, is to
establish the surest hold that can be had, in wrong, on the unthinking
portion of mankind.

If a man had stood on London Bridge, calling till he was hoarse, upon
the passers-by, to join with Lord George Gordon, although for an object
which no man understood, and which in that very incident had a charm of
its own,--the probability is, that he might have influenced a score of
people in a month. If all zealous Protestants had been publicly urged
to join an association for the avowed purpose of singing a hymn or two
occasionally, and hearing some indifferent speeches made, and ultimately
of petitioning Parliament not to pass an act for abolishing the
penal laws against Roman Catholic priests, the penalty of perpetual
imprisonment denounced against those who educated children in that
persuasion, and the disqualification of all members of the Romish church
to inherit real property in the United Kingdom by right of purchase or
descent,--matters so far removed from the business and bosoms of the
mass, might perhaps have called together a hundred people. But when
vague rumours got abroad, that in this Protestant association a secret
power was mustering against the government for undefined and mighty
purposes; when the air was filled with whispers of a confederacy
among the Popish powers to degrade and enslave England, establish an
inquisition in London, and turn the pens of Smithfield market into
stakes and cauldrons; when terrors and alarms which no man understood
were perpetually broached, both in and out of Parliament, by one
enthusiast who did not understand himself, and bygone bugbears which had
lain quietly in their graves for centuries, were raised again to haunt
the ignorant and credulous; when all this was done, as it were, in the
dark, and secret invitations to join the Great Protestant Association in
defence of religion, life, and liberty, were dropped in the public ways,
thrust under the house-doors, tossed in at windows, and pressed into
the hands of those who trod the streets by night; when they glared
from every wall, and shone on every post and pillar, so that stocks and
stones appeared infected with the common fear, urging all men to join
together blindfold in resistance of they knew not what, they knew not
why;--then the mania spread indeed, and the body, still increasing every
day, grew forty thousand strong.

So said, at least, in this month of March, 1780, Lord George Gordon, the
Association’s president. Whether it was the fact or otherwise, few men
knew or cared to ascertain. It had never made any public demonstration;
had scarcely ever been heard of, save through him; had never been seen;
and was supposed by many to be the mere creature of his disordered
brain. He was accustomed to talk largely about numbers of
men--stimulated, as it was inferred, by certain successful disturbances,
arising out of the same subject, which had occurred in Scotland in the
previous year; was looked upon as a cracked-brained member of the lower
house, who attacked all parties and sided with none, and was very little
regarded. It was known that there was discontent abroad--there always
is; he had been accustomed to address the people by placard, speech,
and pamphlet, upon other questions; nothing had come, in England, of his
past exertions, and nothing was apprehended from his present. Just as
he has come upon the reader, he had come, from time to time, upon the
public, and been forgotten in a day; as suddenly as he appears in these
pages, after a blank of five long years, did he and his proceedings
begin to force themselves, about this period, upon the notice of
thousands of people, who had mingled in active life during the whole
interval, and who, without being deaf or blind to passing events, had
scarcely ever thought of him before.

‘My lord,’ said Gashford in his ear, as he drew the curtains of his bed
betimes; ‘my lord!’

‘Yes--who’s that? What is it?’

‘The clock has struck nine,’ returned the secretary, with meekly folded
hands. ‘You have slept well? I hope you have slept well? If my prayers
are heard, you are refreshed indeed.’

‘To say the truth, I have slept so soundly,’ said Lord George, rubbing
his eyes and looking round the room, ‘that I don’t remember quite--what
place is this?’

‘My lord!’ cried Gashford, with a smile.

‘Oh!’ returned his superior. ‘Yes. You’re not a Jew then?’

‘A Jew!’ exclaimed the pious secretary, recoiling.

‘I dreamed that we were Jews, Gashford. You and I--both of us--Jews with
long beards.’

‘Heaven forbid, my lord! We might as well be Papists.’

‘I suppose we might,’ returned the other, very quickly. ‘Eh? You really
think so, Gashford?’

‘Surely I do,’ the secretary cried, with looks of great surprise.

‘Humph!’ he muttered. ‘Yes, that seems reasonable.’

‘I hope my lord--’ the secretary began.

‘Hope!’ he echoed, interrupting him. ‘Why do you say, you hope? There’s
no harm in thinking of such things.’

‘Not in dreams,’ returned the Secretary.

‘In dreams! No, nor waking either.’

--‘“Called, and chosen, and faithful,”’ said Gashford, taking up
Lord George’s watch which lay upon a chair, and seeming to read the
inscription on the seal, abstractedly.

It was the slightest action possible, not obtruded on his notice, and
apparently the result of a moment’s absence of mind, not worth remark.
But as the words were uttered, Lord George, who had been going on
impetuously, stopped short, reddened, and was silent. Apparently quite
unconscious of this change in his demeanour, the wily Secretary stepped
a little apart, under pretence of pulling up the window-blind, and
returning when the other had had time to recover, said:

‘The holy cause goes bravely on, my lord. I was not idle, even last
night. I dropped two of the handbills before I went to bed, and both are
gone this morning. Nobody in the house has mentioned the circumstance
of finding them, though I have been downstairs full half-an-hour. One or
two recruits will be their first fruit, I predict; and who shall say how
many more, with Heaven’s blessing on your inspired exertions!’

‘It was a famous device in the beginning,’ replied Lord George; ‘an
excellent device, and did good service in Scotland. It was quite worthy
of you. You remind me not to be a sluggard, Gashford, when the vineyard
is menaced with destruction, and may be trodden down by Papist feet. Let
the horses be saddled in half-an-hour. We must be up and doing!’

He said this with a heightened colour, and in a tone of such enthusiasm,
that the secretary deemed all further prompting needless, and withdrew.

--‘Dreamed he was a Jew,’ he said thoughtfully, as he closed the bedroom
door. ‘He may come to that before he dies. It’s like enough. Well! After
a time, and provided I lost nothing by it, I don’t see why that religion
shouldn’t suit me as well as any other. There are rich men among the
Jews; shaving is very troublesome;--yes, it would suit me well enough.
For the present, though, we must be Christian to the core. Our prophetic
motto will suit all creeds in their turn, that’s a comfort.’ Reflecting
on this source of consolation, he reached the sitting-room, and rang the
bell for breakfast.

Lord George was quickly dressed (for his plain toilet was easily made),
and as he was no less frugal in his repasts than in his Puritan attire,
his share of the meal was soon dispatched. The secretary, however, more
devoted to the good things of this world, or more intent on sustaining
his strength and spirits for the sake of the Protestant cause, ate
and drank to the last minute, and required indeed some three or four
reminders from John Grueby, before he could resolve to tear himself away
from Mr Willet’s plentiful providing.

At length he came downstairs, wiping his greasy mouth, and having paid
John Willet’s bill, climbed into his saddle. Lord George, who had been
walking up and down before the house talking to himself with earnest
gestures, mounted his horse; and returning old John Willet’s stately
bow, as well as the parting salutation of a dozen idlers whom the rumour
of a live lord being about to leave the Maypole had gathered round the
porch, they rode away, with stout John Grueby in the rear.

If Lord George Gordon had appeared in the eyes of Mr Willet, overnight,
a nobleman of somewhat quaint and odd exterior, the impression was
confirmed this morning, and increased a hundredfold. Sitting bolt
upright upon his bony steed, with his long, straight hair, dangling
about his face and fluttering in the wind; his limbs all angular and
rigid, his elbows stuck out on either side ungracefully, and his whole
frame jogged and shaken at every motion of his horse’s feet; a more
grotesque or more ungainly figure can hardly be conceived. In lieu of
whip, he carried in his hand a great gold-headed cane, as large as any
footman carries in these days, and his various modes of holding this
unwieldy weapon--now upright before his face like the sabre of a
horse-soldier, now over his shoulder like a musket, now between
his finger and thumb, but always in some uncouth and awkward
fashion--contributed in no small degree to the absurdity of his
appearance. Stiff, lank, and solemn, dressed in an unusual manner,
and ostentatiously exhibiting--whether by design or accident--all his
peculiarities of carriage, gesture, and conduct, all the qualities,
natural and artificial, in which he differed from other men; he might
have moved the sternest looker-on to laughter, and fully provoked the
smiles and whispered jests which greeted his departure from the Maypole
inn.

Quite unconscious, however, of the effect he produced, he trotted on
beside his secretary, talking to himself nearly all the way, until they
came within a mile or two of London, when now and then some passenger
went by who knew him by sight, and pointed him out to some one else, and
perhaps stood looking after him, or cried in jest or earnest as it might
be, ‘Hurrah Geordie! No Popery!’ At which he would gravely pull off his
hat, and bow. When they reached the town and rode along the streets,
these notices became more frequent; some laughed, some hissed, some
turned their heads and smiled, some wondered who he was, some ran along
the pavement by his side and cheered. When this happened in a crush of
carts and chairs and coaches, he would make a dead stop, and pulling
off his hat, cry, ‘Gentlemen, No Popery!’ to which the gentlemen would
respond with lusty voices, and with three times three; and then, on he
would go again with a score or so of the raggedest, following at his
horse’s heels, and shouting till their throats were parched.

The old ladies too--there were a great many old ladies in the streets,
and these all knew him. Some of them--not those of the highest rank,
but such as sold fruit from baskets and carried burdens--clapped their
shrivelled hands, and raised a weazen, piping, shrill ‘Hurrah, my
lord.’ Others waved their hands or handkerchiefs, or shook their fans
or parasols, or threw up windows and called in haste to those within,
to come and see. All these marks of popular esteem, he received with
profound gravity and respect; bowing very low, and so frequently that
his hat was more off his head than on; and looking up at the houses as
he passed along, with the air of one who was making a public entry, and
yet was not puffed up or proud.

So they rode (to the deep and unspeakable disgust of John Grueby) the
whole length of Whitechapel, Leadenhall Street, and Cheapside, and into
St Paul’s Churchyard. Arriving close to the cathedral, he halted; spoke
to Gashford; and looking upward at its lofty dome, shook his head, as
though he said, ‘The Church in Danger!’ Then to be sure, the bystanders
stretched their throats indeed; and he went on again with mighty
acclamations from the mob, and lower bows than ever.

So along the Strand, up Swallow Street, into the Oxford Road, and thence
to his house in Welbeck Street, near Cavendish Square, whither he was
attended by a few dozen idlers; of whom he took leave on the steps with
this brief parting, ‘Gentlemen, No Popery. Good day. God bless you.’
This being rather a shorter address than they expected, was received
with some displeasure, and cries of ‘A speech! a speech!’ which might
have been complied with, but that John Grueby, making a mad charge upon
them with all three horses, on his way to the stables, caused them to
disperse into the adjoining fields, where they presently fell to
pitch and toss, chuck-farthing, odd or even, dog-fighting, and other
Protestant recreations.

In the afternoon Lord George came forth again, dressed in a black velvet
coat, and trousers and waistcoat of the Gordon plaid, all of the same
Quaker cut; and in this costume, which made him look a dozen times more
strange and singular than before, went down on foot to Westminster.
Gashford, meanwhile, bestirred himself in business matters; with which
he was still engaged when, shortly after dusk, John Grueby entered and
announced a visitor.

‘Let him come in,’ said Gashford.

‘Here! come in!’ growled John to somebody without; ‘You’re a Protestant,
an’t you?’

‘I should think so,’ replied a deep, gruff voice.

‘You’ve the looks of it,’ said John Grueby. ‘I’d have known you for one,
anywhere.’ With which remark he gave the visitor admission, retired, and
shut the door.

The man who now confronted Gashford, was a squat, thickset personage,
with a low, retreating forehead, a coarse shock head of hair, and eyes
so small and near together, that his broken nose alone seemed to
prevent their meeting and fusing into one of the usual size. A dingy
handkerchief twisted like a cord about his neck, left its great veins
exposed to view, and they were swollen and starting, as though with
gulping down strong passions, malice, and ill-will. His dress was of
threadbare velveteen--a faded, rusty, whitened black, like the ashes
of a pipe or a coal fire after a day’s extinction; discoloured with the
soils of many a stale debauch, and reeking yet with pot-house odours. In
lieu of buckles at his knees, he wore unequal loops of packthread; and
in his grimy hands he held a knotted stick, the knob of which was carved
into a rough likeness of his own vile face. Such was the visitor who
doffed his three-cornered hat in Gashford’s presence, and waited,
leering, for his notice.

‘Ah! Dennis!’ cried the secretary. ‘Sit down.’

‘I see my lord down yonder--’ cried the man, with a jerk of his thumb
towards the quarter that he spoke of, ‘and he says to me, says my lord,
“If you’ve nothing to do, Dennis, go up to my house and talk with Muster
Gashford.” Of course I’d nothing to do, you know. These an’t my working
hours. Ha ha! I was a-taking the air when I see my lord, that’s what
I was doing. I takes the air by night, as the howls does, Muster
Gashford.’

And sometimes in the day-time, eh?’ said the secretary--‘when you go out
in state, you know.’

‘Ha ha!’ roared the fellow, smiting his leg; ‘for a gentleman as ‘ull
say a pleasant thing in a pleasant way, give me Muster Gashford agin’
all London and Westminster! My lord an’t a bad ‘un at that, but he’s a
fool to you. Ah to be sure,--when I go out in state.’

‘And have your carriage,’ said the secretary; ‘and your chaplain, eh?
and all the rest of it?’

‘You’ll be the death of me,’ cried Dennis, with another roar, ‘you will.
But what’s in the wind now, Muster Gashford,’ he asked hoarsely, ‘Eh?
Are we to be under orders to pull down one of them Popish chapels--or
what?’

‘Hush!’ said the secretary, suffering the faintest smile to play upon
his face. ‘Hush! God bless me, Dennis! We associate, you know, for
strictly peaceable and lawful purposes.’

‘I know, bless you,’ returned the man, thrusting his tongue into his
cheek; ‘I entered a’ purpose, didn’t I!’

‘No doubt,’ said Gashford, smiling as before. And when he said so,
Dennis roared again, and smote his leg still harder, and falling into
fits of laughter, wiped his eyes with the corner of his neckerchief, and
cried, ‘Muster Gashford agin’ all England hollow!’

‘Lord George and I were talking of you last night,’ said Gashford, after
a pause. ‘He says you are a very earnest fellow.’

‘So I am,’ returned the hangman.

‘And that you truly hate the Papists.’

‘So I do,’ and he confirmed it with a good round oath. ‘Lookye here,
Muster Gashford,’ said the fellow, laying his hat and stick upon the
floor, and slowly beating the palm of one hand with the fingers of the
other; ‘Ob-serve. I’m a constitutional officer that works for my living,
and does my work creditable. Do I, or do I not?’

‘Unquestionably.’

‘Very good. Stop a minute. My work, is sound, Protestant,
constitutional, English work. Is it, or is it not?’

‘No man alive can doubt it.’

‘Nor dead neither. Parliament says this here--says Parliament, “If any
man, woman, or child, does anything which goes again a certain number
of our acts”--how many hanging laws may there be at this present time,
Muster Gashford? Fifty?’

‘I don’t exactly know how many,’ replied Gashford, leaning back in his
chair and yawning; ‘a great number though.’

‘Well, say fifty. Parliament says, “If any man, woman, or child, does
anything again any one of them fifty acts, that man, woman, or child,
shall be worked off by Dennis.” George the Third steps in when they
number very strong at the end of a sessions, and says, “These are too
many for Dennis. I’ll have half for myself and Dennis shall have half
for himself;” and sometimes he throws me in one over that I don’t
expect, as he did three year ago, when I got Mary Jones, a young woman
of nineteen who come up to Tyburn with a infant at her breast, and was
worked off for taking a piece of cloth off the counter of a shop in
Ludgate Hill, and putting it down again when the shopman see her;
and who had never done any harm before, and only tried to do that, in
consequence of her husband having been pressed three weeks previous, and
she being left to beg, with two young children--as was proved upon the
trial. Ha ha!--Well! That being the law and the practice of England, is
the glory of England, an’t it, Muster Gashford?’

‘Certainly,’ said the secretary.

‘And in times to come,’ pursued the hangman, ‘if our grandsons should
think of their grandfathers’ times, and find these things altered,
they’ll say, “Those were days indeed, and we’ve been going down hill
ever since.” Won’t they, Muster Gashford?’

‘I have no doubt they will,’ said the secretary.

‘Well then, look here,’ said the hangman. ‘If these Papists gets into
power, and begins to boil and roast instead of hang, what becomes of my
work! If they touch my work that’s a part of so many laws, what becomes
of the laws in general, what becomes of the religion, what becomes of
the country!--Did you ever go to church, Muster Gashford?’

‘Ever!’ repeated the secretary with some indignation; ‘of course.’

‘Well,’ said the ruffian, ‘I’ve been once--twice, counting the time I
was christened--and when I heard the Parliament prayed for, and thought
how many new hanging laws they made every sessions, I considered that I
was prayed for. Now mind, Muster Gashford,’ said the fellow, taking
up his stick and shaking it with a ferocious air, ‘I mustn’t have
my Protestant work touched, nor this here Protestant state of things
altered in no degree, if I can help it; I mustn’t have no Papists
interfering with me, unless they come to be worked off in course of law;
I mustn’t have no biling, no roasting, no frying--nothing but hanging.
My lord may well call me an earnest fellow. In support of the great
Protestant principle of having plenty of that, I’ll,’ and here he beat
his club upon the ground, ‘burn, fight, kill--do anything you bid me, so
that it’s bold and devilish--though the end of it was, that I got hung
myself.--There, Muster Gashford!’

He appropriately followed up this frequent prostitution of a noble word
to the vilest purposes, by pouring out in a kind of ecstasy at least
a score of most tremendous oaths; then wiped his heated face upon his
neckerchief, and cried, ‘No Popery! I’m a religious man, by G--!’

Gashford had leant back in his chair, regarding him with eyes so sunken,
and so shadowed by his heavy brows, that for aught the hangman saw of
them, he might have been stone blind. He remained smiling in silence for
a short time longer, and then said, slowly and distinctly:

‘You are indeed an earnest fellow, Dennis--a most valuable fellow--the
staunchest man I know of in our ranks. But you must calm yourself;
you must be peaceful, lawful, mild as any lamb. I am sure you will be
though.’

‘Ay, ay, we shall see, Muster Gashford, we shall see. You won’t have to
complain of me,’ returned the other, shaking his head.

‘I am sure I shall not,’ said the secretary in the same mild tone, and
with the same emphasis. ‘We shall have, we think, about next month, or
May, when this Papist relief bill comes before the house, to convene our
whole body for the first time. My lord has thoughts of our walking
in procession through the streets--just as an innocent display of
strength--and accompanying our petition down to the door of the House of
Commons.’

‘The sooner the better,’ said Dennis, with another oath.

‘We shall have to draw up in divisions, our numbers being so large; and,
I believe I may venture to say,’ resumed Gashford, affecting not to
hear the interruption, ‘though I have no direct instructions to that
effect--that Lord George has thought of you as an excellent leader for
one of these parties. I have no doubt you would be an admirable one.’

‘Try me,’ said the fellow, with an ugly wink.

‘You would be cool, I know,’ pursued the secretary, still smiling, and
still managing his eyes so that he could watch him closely, and really
not be seen in turn, ‘obedient to orders, and perfectly temperate. You
would lead your party into no danger, I am certain.’

‘I’d lead them, Muster Gashford,’--the hangman was beginning in a
reckless way, when Gashford started forward, laid his finger on his
lips, and feigned to write, just as the door was opened by John Grueby.

‘Oh!’ said John, looking in; ‘here’s another Protestant.’

‘Some other room, John,’ cried Gashford in his blandest voice. ‘I am
engaged just now.’

But John had brought this new visitor to the door, and he walked
in unbidden, as the words were uttered; giving to view the form and
features, rough attire, and reckless air, of Hugh.



Chapter 38


The secretary put his hand before his eyes to shade them from the glare
of the lamp, and for some moments looked at Hugh with a frowning brow,
as if he remembered to have seen him lately, but could not call to mind
where, or on what occasion. His uncertainty was very brief, for before
Hugh had spoken a word, he said, as his countenance cleared up:

‘Ay, ay, I recollect. It’s quite right, John, you needn’t wait. Don’t
go, Dennis.’

‘Your servant, master,’ said Hugh, as Grueby disappeared.

‘Yours, friend,’ returned the secretary in his smoothest manner. ‘What
brings YOU here? We left nothing behind us, I hope?’

Hugh gave a short laugh, and thrusting his hand into his breast,
produced one of the handbills, soiled and dirty from lying out of doors
all night, which he laid upon the secretary’s desk after flattening it
upon his knee, and smoothing out the wrinkles with his heavy palm.

‘Nothing but that, master. It fell into good hands, you see.’

‘What is this!’ said Gashford, turning it over with an air of perfectly
natural surprise. ‘Where did you get it from, my good fellow; what does
it mean? I don’t understand this at all.’

A little disconcerted by this reception, Hugh looked from the secretary
to Dennis, who had risen and was standing at the table too, observing
the stranger by stealth, and seeming to derive the utmost satisfaction
from his manners and appearance. Considering himself silently appealed
to by this action, Mr Dennis shook his head thrice, as if to say of
Gashford, ‘No. He don’t know anything at all about it. I know he don’t.
I’ll take my oath he don’t;’ and hiding his profile from Hugh with one
long end of his frowzy neckerchief, nodded and chuckled behind this
screen in extreme approval of the secretary’s proceedings.

‘It tells the man that finds it, to come here, don’t it?’ asked Hugh.
‘I’m no scholar, myself, but I showed it to a friend, and he said it
did.’

‘It certainly does,’ said Gashford, opening his eyes to their utmost
width; ‘really this is the most remarkable circumstance I have ever
known. How did you come by this piece of paper, my good friend?’

‘Muster Gashford,’ wheezed the hangman under his breath, ‘agin’ all
Newgate!’

Whether Hugh heard him, or saw by his manner that he was being played
upon, or perceived the secretary’s drift of himself, he came in his
blunt way to the point at once.

‘Here!’ he said, stretching out his hand and taking it back; ‘never mind
the bill, or what it says, or what it don’t say. You don’t know anything
about it, master,--no more do I,--no more does he,’ glancing at Dennis.
‘None of us know what it means, or where it comes from: there’s an end
of that. Now I want to make one against the Catholics, I’m a No-Popery
man, and ready to be sworn in. That’s what I’ve come here for.’

‘Put him down on the roll, Muster Gashford,’ said Dennis approvingly.
‘That’s the way to go to work--right to the end at once, and no
palaver.’

‘What’s the use of shooting wide of the mark, eh, old boy!’ cried Hugh.

‘My sentiments all over!’ rejoined the hangman. ‘This is the sort of
chap for my division, Muster Gashford. Down with him, sir. Put him on
the roll. I’d stand godfather to him, if he was to be christened in a
bonfire, made of the ruins of the Bank of England.’

With these and other expressions of confidence of the like flattering
kind, Mr Dennis gave him a hearty slap on the back, which Hugh was not
slow to return.

‘No Popery, brother!’ cried the hangman.

‘No Property, brother!’ responded Hugh.

‘Popery, Popery,’ said the secretary with his usual mildness.

‘It’s all the same!’ cried Dennis. ‘It’s all right. Down with him,
Muster Gashford. Down with everybody, down with everything! Hurrah for
the Protestant religion! That’s the time of day, Muster Gashford!’

The secretary regarded them both with a very favourable expression of
countenance, while they gave loose to these and other demonstrations of
their patriotic purpose; and was about to make some remark aloud, when
Dennis, stepping up to him, and shading his mouth with his hand, said,
in a hoarse whisper, as he nudged him with his elbow:

‘Don’t split upon a constitutional officer’s profession, Muster
Gashford. There are popular prejudices, you know, and he mightn’t like
it. Wait till he comes to be more intimate with me. He’s a fine-built
chap, an’t he?’

‘A powerful fellow indeed!’

‘Did you ever, Muster Gashford,’ whispered Dennis, with a horrible
kind of admiration, such as that with which a cannibal might regard his
intimate friend, when hungry,--‘did you ever--and here he drew still
closer to his ear, and fenced his mouth with both his open hands--‘see
such a throat as his? Do but cast your eye upon it. There’s a neck for
stretching, Muster Gashford!’

The secretary assented to this proposition with the best grace he could
assume--it is difficult to feign a true professional relish: which is
eccentric sometimes--and after asking the candidate a few unimportant
questions, proceeded to enrol him a member of the Great Protestant
Association of England. If anything could have exceeded Mr Dennis’s joy
on the happy conclusion of this ceremony, it would have been the rapture
with which he received the announcement that the new member could
neither read nor write: those two arts being (as Mr Dennis swore) the
greatest possible curse a civilised community could know, and militating
more against the professional emoluments and usefulness of the great
constitutional office he had the honour to hold, than any adverse
circumstances that could present themselves to his imagination.

The enrolment being completed, and Hugh having been informed by
Gashford, in his peculiar manner, of the peaceful and strictly lawful
objects contemplated by the body to which he now belonged--during which
recital Mr Dennis nudged him very much with his elbow, and made divers
remarkable faces--the secretary gave them both to understand that he
desired to be alone. Therefore they took their leaves without delay, and
came out of the house together.

‘Are you walking, brother?’ said Dennis.

‘Ay!’ returned Hugh. ‘Where you will.’

‘That’s social,’ said his new friend. ‘Which way shall we take? Shall we
go and have a look at doors that we shall make a pretty good clattering
at, before long--eh, brother?’

Hugh answering in the affirmative, they went slowly down to Westminster,
where both houses of Parliament were then sitting. Mingling in the crowd
of carriages, horses, servants, chairmen, link-boys, porters, and idlers
of all kinds, they lounged about; while Hugh’s new friend pointed out to
him significantly the weak parts of the building, how easy it was to get
into the lobby, and so to the very door of the House of Commons; and how
plainly, when they marched down there in grand array, their roars and
shouts would be heard by the members inside; with a great deal more to
the same purpose, all of which Hugh received with manifest delight.

He told him, too, who some of the Lords and Commons were, by name,
as they came in and out; whether they were friendly to the Papists or
otherwise; and bade him take notice of their liveries and equipages,
that he might be sure of them, in case of need. Sometimes he drew
him close to the windows of a passing carriage, that he might see its
master’s face by the light of the lamps; and, both in respect of people
and localities, he showed so much acquaintance with everything around,
that it was plain he had often studied there before; as indeed, when
they grew a little more confidential, he confessed he had.

Perhaps the most striking part of all this was, the number of
people--never in groups of more than two or three together--who seemed
to be skulking about the crowd for the same purpose. To the greater part
of these, a slight nod or a look from Hugh’s companion was sufficient
greeting; but, now and then, some man would come and stand beside him
in the throng, and, without turning his head or appearing to communicate
with him, would say a word or two in a low voice, which he would answer
in the same cautious manner. Then they would part, like strangers. Some
of these men often reappeared again unexpectedly in the crowd close to
Hugh, and, as they passed by, pressed his hand, or looked him sternly in
the face; but they never spoke to him, nor he to them; no, not a word.

It was remarkable, too, that whenever they happened to stand where there
was any press of people, and Hugh chanced to be looking downward, he
was sure to see an arm stretched out--under his own perhaps, or perhaps
across him--which thrust some paper into the hand or pocket of a
bystander, and was so suddenly withdrawn that it was impossible to tell
from whom it came; nor could he see in any face, on glancing quickly
round, the least confusion or surprise. They often trod upon a paper
like the one he carried in his breast, but his companion whispered him
not to touch it or to take it up,--not even to look towards it,--so
there they let them lie, and passed on.

When they had paraded the street and all the avenues of the building in
this manner for near two hours, they turned away, and his friend asked
him what he thought of what he had seen, and whether he was prepared
for a good hot piece of work if it should come to that. ‘The hotter the
better,’ said Hugh, ‘I’m prepared for anything.’--‘So am I,’ said his
friend, ‘and so are many of us; and they shook hands upon it with a
great oath, and with many terrible imprecations on the Papists.

As they were thirsty by this time, Dennis proposed that they should
repair together to The Boot, where there was good company and strong
liquor. Hugh yielding a ready assent, they bent their steps that way
with no loss of time.

This Boot was a lone house of public entertainment, situated in the
fields at the back of the Foundling Hospital; a very solitary spot at
that period, and quite deserted after dark. The tavern stood at some
distance from any high road, and was approachable only by a dark and
narrow lane; so that Hugh was much surprised to find several people
drinking there, and great merriment going on. He was still more
surprised to find among them almost every face that had caught his
attention in the crowd; but his companion having whispered him outside
the door, that it was not considered good manners at The Boot to appear
at all curious about the company, he kept his own counsel, and made no
show of recognition.

Before putting his lips to the liquor which was brought for them, Dennis
drank in a loud voice the health of Lord George Gordon, President of the
Great Protestant Association; which toast Hugh pledged likewise, with
corresponding enthusiasm. A fiddler who was present, and who appeared
to act as the appointed minstrel of the company, forthwith struck up a
Scotch reel; and that in tones so invigorating, that Hugh and his friend
(who had both been drinking before) rose from their seats as by previous
concert, and, to the great admiration of the assembled guests, performed
an extemporaneous No-Popery Dance.



Chapter 39


The applause which the performance of Hugh and his new friend elicited
from the company at The Boot, had not yet subsided, and the two dancers
were still panting from their exertions, which had been of a rather
extreme and violent character, when the party was reinforced by the
arrival of some more guests, who, being a detachment of United Bulldogs,
were received with very flattering marks of distinction and respect.

The leader of this small party--for, including himself, they were but
three in number--was our old acquaintance, Mr Tappertit, who seemed,
physically speaking, to have grown smaller with years (particularly as
to his legs, which were stupendously little), but who, in a moral point
of view, in personal dignity and self-esteem, had swelled into a giant.
Nor was it by any means difficult for the most unobservant person to
detect this state of feeling in the quondam ‘prentice, for it not only
proclaimed itself impressively and beyond mistake in his majestic
walk and kindling eye, but found a striking means of revelation in his
turned-up nose, which scouted all things of earth with deep disdain, and
sought communion with its kindred skies.

Mr Tappertit, as chief or captain of the Bulldogs, was attended by his
two lieutenants; one, the tall comrade of his younger life; the other, a
‘Prentice Knight in days of yore--Mark Gilbert, bound in the olden time
to Thomas Curzon of the Golden Fleece. These gentlemen, like himself,
were now emancipated from their ‘prentice thraldom, and served as
journeymen; but they were, in humble emulation of his great example,
bold and daring spirits, and aspired to a distinguished state in great
political events. Hence their connection with the Protestant Association
of England, sanctioned by the name of Lord George Gordon; and hence
their present visit to The Boot.

‘Gentlemen!’ said Mr Tappertit, taking off his hat as a great general
might in addressing his troops. ‘Well met. My lord does me and you the
honour to send his compliments per self.’

‘You’ve seen my lord too, have you?’ said Dennis. ‘I see him this
afternoon.’

‘My duty called me to the Lobby when our shop shut up; and I saw him
there, sir,’ Mr Tappertit replied, as he and his lieutenants took their
seats. ‘How do YOU do?’

‘Lively, master, lively,’ said the fellow. ‘Here’s a new brother,
regularly put down in black and white by Muster Gashford; a credit to
the cause; one of the stick-at-nothing sort; one arter my own heart.
D’ye see him? Has he got the looks of a man that’ll do, do you think?’
he cried, as he slapped Hugh on the back.

‘Looks or no looks,’ said Hugh, with a drunken flourish of his arm, ‘I’m
the man you want. I hate the Papists, every one of ‘em. They hate me and
I hate them. They do me all the harm they can, and I’ll do them all the
harm I can. Hurrah!’

‘Was there ever,’ said Dennis, looking round the room, when the echo
of his boisterous voice had died away; ‘was there ever such a game boy!
Why, I mean to say, brothers, that if Muster Gashford had gone a hundred
mile and got together fifty men of the common run, they wouldn’t have
been worth this one.’

The greater part of the company implicitly subscribed to this
opinion, and testified their faith in Hugh by nods and looks of great
significance. Mr Tappertit sat and contemplated him for a long time in
silence, as if he suspended his judgment; then drew a little nearer to
him, and eyed him over more carefully; then went close up to him, and
took him apart into a dark corner.

‘I say,’ he began, with a thoughtful brow, ‘haven’t I seen you before?’

‘It’s like you may,’ said Hugh, in his careless way. ‘I don’t know;
shouldn’t wonder.’

‘No, but it’s very easily settled,’ returned Sim. ‘Look at me. Did you
ever see ME before? You wouldn’t be likely to forget it, you know, if
you ever did. Look at me. Don’t be afraid; I won’t do you any harm. Take
a good look--steady now.’

The encouraging way in which Mr Tappertit made this request, and
coupled it with an assurance that he needn’t be frightened, amused Hugh
mightily--so much indeed, that he saw nothing at all of the small man
before him, through closing his eyes in a fit of hearty laughter, which
shook his great broad sides until they ached again.

‘Come!’ said Mr Tappertit, growing a little impatient under this
disrespectful treatment. ‘Do you know me, feller?’

‘Not I,’ cried Hugh. ‘Ha ha ha! Not I! But I should like to.’

‘And yet I’d have wagered a seven-shilling piece,’ said Mr Tappertit,
folding his arms, and confronting him with his legs wide apart and
firmly planted on the ground, ‘that you once were hostler at the
Maypole.’

Hugh opened his eyes on hearing this, and looked at him in great
surprise.

‘--And so you were, too,’ said Mr Tappertit, pushing him away with a
condescending playfulness. ‘When did MY eyes ever deceive--unless it was
a young woman! Don’t you know me now?’

‘Why it an’t--’ Hugh faltered.

‘An’t it?’ said Mr Tappertit. ‘Are you sure of that? You remember G.
Varden, don’t you?’

Certainly Hugh did, and he remembered D. Varden too; but that he didn’t
tell him.

‘You remember coming down there, before I was out of my time, to ask
after a vagabond that had bolted off, and left his disconsolate father a
prey to the bitterest emotions, and all the rest of it--don’t you?’ said
Mr Tappertit.

‘Of course I do!’ cried Hugh. ‘And I saw you there.’

‘Saw me there!’ said Mr Tappertit. ‘Yes, I should think you did see
me there. The place would be troubled to go on without me. Don’t you
remember my thinking you liked the vagabond, and on that account going
to quarrel with you; and then finding you detested him worse than
poison, going to drink with you? Don’t you remember that?’

‘To be sure!’ cried Hugh.

‘Well! and are you in the same mind now?’ said Mr Tappertit.

‘Yes!’ roared Hugh.

‘You speak like a man,’ said Mr Tappertit, ‘and I’ll shake hands with
you.’ With these conciliatory expressions he suited the action to the
word; and Hugh meeting his advances readily, they performed the ceremony
with a show of great heartiness.

‘I find,’ said Mr Tappertit, looking round on the assembled guests,
‘that brother What’s-his-name and I are old acquaintance.--You never
heard anything more of that rascal, I suppose, eh?’

‘Not a syllable,’ replied Hugh. ‘I never want to. I don’t believe I ever
shall. He’s dead long ago, I hope.’

‘It’s to be hoped, for the sake of mankind in general and the happiness
of society, that he is,’ said Mr Tappertit, rubbing his palm upon his
legs, and looking at it between whiles. ‘Is your other hand at all
cleaner? Much the same. Well, I’ll owe you another shake. We’ll suppose
it done, if you’ve no objection.’

Hugh laughed again, and with such thorough abandonment to his mad
humour, that his limbs seemed dislocated, and his whole frame in danger
of tumbling to pieces; but Mr Tappertit, so far from receiving this
extreme merriment with any irritation, was pleased to regard it with the
utmost favour, and even to join in it, so far as one of his gravity and
station could, with any regard to that decency and decorum which men in
high places are expected to maintain.

Mr Tappertit did not stop here, as many public characters might have
done, but calling up his brace of lieutenants, introduced Hugh to them
with high commendation; declaring him to be a man who, at such times as
those in which they lived, could not be too much cherished. Further, he
did him the honour to remark, that he would be an acquisition of which
even the United Bulldogs might be proud; and finding, upon sounding him,
that he was quite ready and willing to enter the society (for he was
not at all particular, and would have leagued himself that night with
anything, or anybody, for any purpose whatsoever), caused the necessary
preliminaries to be gone into upon the spot. This tribute to his great
merit delighted no man more than Mr Dennis, as he himself proclaimed
with several rare and surprising oaths; and indeed it gave unmingled
satisfaction to the whole assembly.

‘Make anything you like of me!’ cried Hugh, flourishing the can he had
emptied more than once. ‘Put me on any duty you please. I’m your man.
I’ll do it. Here’s my captain--here’s my leader. Ha ha ha! Let him
give me the word of command, and I’ll fight the whole Parliament House
single-handed, or set a lighted torch to the King’s Throne itself!’ With
that, he smote Mr Tappertit on the back, with such violence that his
little body seemed to shrink into a mere nothing; and roared again until
the very foundlings near at hand were startled in their beds.

In fact, a sense of something whimsical in their companionship seemed to
have taken entire possession of his rude brain. The bare fact of being
patronised by a great man whom he could have crushed with one hand,
appeared in his eyes so eccentric and humorous, that a kind of ferocious
merriment gained the mastery over him, and quite subdued his brutal
nature. He roared and roared again; toasted Mr Tappertit a hundred
times; declared himself a Bulldog to the core; and vowed to be faithful
to him to the last drop of blood in his veins.

All these compliments Mr Tappertit received as matters of
course--flattering enough in their way, but entirely attributable to his
vast superiority. His dignified self-possession only delighted Hugh the
more; and in a word, this giant and dwarf struck up a friendship which
bade fair to be of long continuance, as the one held it to be his right
to command, and the other considered it an exquisite pleasantry to
obey. Nor was Hugh by any means a passive follower, who scrupled to act
without precise and definite orders; for when Mr Tappertit mounted on an
empty cask which stood by way of rostrum in the room, and volunteered a
speech upon the alarming crisis then at hand, he placed himself beside
the orator, and though he grinned from ear to ear at every word he said,
threw out such expressive hints to scoffers in the management of his
cudgel, that those who were at first the most disposed to interrupt,
became remarkably attentive, and were the loudest in their approbation.

It was not all noise and jest, however, at The Boot, nor were the whole
party listeners to the speech. There were some men at the other end of
the room (which was a long, low-roofed chamber) in earnest conversation
all the time; and when any of this group went out, fresh people were
sure to come in soon afterwards and sit down in their places, as though
the others had relieved them on some watch or duty; which it was pretty
clear they did, for these changes took place by the clock, at intervals
of half an hour. These persons whispered very much among themselves,
and kept aloof, and often looked round, as jealous of their speech being
overheard; some two or three among them entered in books what seemed
to be reports from the others; when they were not thus employed one of
them would turn to the newspapers which were strewn upon the table,
and from the St James’s Chronicle, the Herald, Chronicle, or Public
Advertiser, would read to the rest in a low voice some passage having
reference to the topic in which they were all so deeply interested. But
the great attraction was a pamphlet called The Thunderer, which espoused
their own opinions, and was supposed at that time to emanate directly
from the Association. This was always in request; and whether read
aloud, to an eager knot of listeners, or by some solitary man, was
certain to be followed by stormy talking and excited looks.

In the midst of all his merriment, and admiration of his captain, Hugh
was made sensible by these and other tokens, of the presence of an air
of mystery, akin to that which had so much impressed him out of doors.
It was impossible to discard a sense that something serious was going
on, and that under the noisy revel of the public-house, there lurked
unseen and dangerous matter. Little affected by this, however, he was
perfectly satisfied with his quarters and would have remained there till
morning, but that his conductor rose soon after midnight, to go home; Mr
Tappertit following his example, left him no excuse to stay. So they all
three left the house together: roaring a No-Popery song until the fields
resounded with the dismal noise.

‘Cheer up, captain!’ cried Hugh, when they had roared themselves out of
breath. ‘Another stave!’

Mr Tappertit, nothing loath, began again; and so the three went
staggering on, arm-in-arm, shouting like madmen, and defying the watch
with great valour. Indeed this did not require any unusual bravery or
boldness, as the watchmen of that time, being selected for the office
on account of excessive age and extraordinary infirmity, had a custom
of shutting themselves up tight in their boxes on the first symptoms
of disturbance, and remaining there until they disappeared. In these
proceedings, Mr Dennis, who had a gruff voice and lungs of considerable
power, distinguished himself very much, and acquired great credit with
his two companions.

‘What a queer fellow you are!’ said Mr Tappertit. ‘You’re so precious
sly and close. Why don’t you ever tell what trade you’re of?’

‘Answer the captain instantly,’ cried Hugh, beating his hat down on his
head; ‘why don’t you ever tell what trade you’re of?’

‘I’m of as gen-teel a calling, brother, as any man in England--as light
a business as any gentleman could desire.’

‘Was you ‘prenticed to it?’ asked Mr Tappertit.

‘No. Natural genius,’ said Mr Dennis. ‘No ‘prenticing. It come
by natur’. Muster Gashford knows my calling. Look at that hand of
mine--many and many a job that hand has done, with a neatness and
dexterity, never known afore. When I look at that hand,’ said Mr
Dennis, shaking it in the air, ‘and remember the helegant bits of work
it has turned off, I feel quite molloncholy to think it should ever grow
old and feeble. But sich is life!’

He heaved a deep sigh as he indulged in these reflections, and putting
his fingers with an absent air on Hugh’s throat, and particularly under
his left ear, as if he were studying the anatomical development of that
part of his frame, shook his head in a despondent manner and actually
shed tears.

‘You’re a kind of artist, I suppose--eh!’ said Mr Tappertit.

‘Yes,’ rejoined Dennis; ‘yes--I may call myself a artist--a fancy
workman--art improves natur’--that’s my motto.’

‘And what do you call this?’ said Mr Tappertit taking his stick out of
his hand.

‘That’s my portrait atop,’ Dennis replied; ‘d’ye think it’s like?’

‘Why--it’s a little too handsome,’ said Mr Tappertit. ‘Who did it? You?’

‘I!’ repeated Dennis, gazing fondly on his image. ‘I wish I had the
talent. That was carved by a friend of mine, as is now no more. The very
day afore he died, he cut that with his pocket-knife from memory! “I’ll
die game,” says my friend, “and my last moments shall be dewoted to
making Dennis’s picter.” That’s it.’

‘That was a queer fancy, wasn’t it?’ said Mr Tappertit.

‘It WAS a queer fancy,’ rejoined the other, breathing on his fictitious
nose, and polishing it with the cuff of his coat, ‘but he was a queer
subject altogether--a kind of gipsy--one of the finest, stand-up men,
you ever see. Ah! He told me some things that would startle you a bit,
did that friend of mine, on the morning when he died.’

‘You were with him at the time, were you?’ said Mr Tappertit.

‘Yes,’ he answered with a curious look, ‘I was there. Oh! yes certainly,
I was there. He wouldn’t have gone off half as comfortable without me. I
had been with three or four of his family under the same circumstances.
They were all fine fellows.’

‘They must have been fond of you,’ remarked Mr Tappertit, looking at him
sideways.

‘I don’t know that they was exactly fond of me,’ said Dennis, with a
little hesitation, ‘but they all had me near ‘em when they departed. I
come in for their wardrobes too. This very handkecher that you see round
my neck, belonged to him that I’ve been speaking of--him as did that
likeness.’

Mr Tappertit glanced at the article referred to, and appeared to think
that the deceased’s ideas of dress were of a peculiar and by no means an
expensive kind. He made no remark upon the point, however, and suffered
his mysterious companion to proceed without interruption.

‘These smalls,’ said Dennis, rubbing his legs; ‘these very smalls--they
belonged to a friend of mine that’s left off sich incumbrances for ever:
this coat too--I’ve often walked behind this coat, in the street, and
wondered whether it would ever come to me: this pair of shoes have
danced a hornpipe for another man, afore my eyes, full half-a-dozen
times at least: and as to my hat,’ he said, taking it off, and whirling
it round upon his fist--‘Lord! I’ve seen this hat go up Holborn on the
box of a hackney-coach--ah, many and many a day!’

‘You don’t mean to say their old wearers are ALL dead, I hope?’ said Mr
Tappertit, falling a little distance from him as he spoke.

‘Every one of ‘em,’ replied Dennis. ‘Every man Jack!’

There was something so very ghastly in this circumstance, and it
appeared to account, in such a very strange and dismal manner, for his
faded dress--which, in this new aspect, seemed discoloured by the earth
from graves--that Mr Tappertit abruptly found he was going another way,
and, stopping short, bade him good night with the utmost heartiness. As
they happened to be near the Old Bailey, and Mr Dennis knew there were
turnkeys in the lodge with whom he could pass the night, and discuss
professional subjects of common interest among them before a rousing
fire, and over a social glass, he separated from his companions without
any great regret, and warmly shaking hands with Hugh, and making an
early appointment for their meeting at The Boot, left them to pursue
their road.

‘That’s a strange sort of man,’ said Mr Tappertit, watching the
hackney-coachman’s hat as it went bobbing down the street. ‘I don’t know
what to make of him. Why can’t he have his smalls made to order, or wear
live clothes at any rate?’

‘He’s a lucky man, captain,’ cried Hugh. ‘I should like to have such
friends as his.’

‘I hope he don’t get ‘em to make their wills, and then knock ‘em on the
head,’ said Mr Tappertit, musing. ‘But come. The United B.’s expect me.
On!--What’s the matter?’

‘I quite forgot,’ said Hugh, who had started at the striking of a
neighbouring clock. ‘I have somebody to see to-night--I must turn back
directly. The drinking and singing put it out of my head. It’s well I
remembered it!’

Mr Tappertit looked at him as though he were about to give utterance to
some very majestic sentiments in reference to this act of desertion, but
as it was clear, from Hugh’s hasty manner, that the engagement was one
of a pressing nature, he graciously forbore, and gave him his permission
to depart immediately, which Hugh acknowledged with a roar of laughter.

‘Good night, captain!’ he cried. ‘I am yours to the death, remember!’

‘Farewell!’ said Mr Tappertit, waving his hand. ‘Be bold and vigilant!’

‘No Popery, captain!’ roared Hugh.

‘England in blood first!’ cried his desperate leader. Whereat Hugh
cheered and laughed, and ran off like a greyhound.

‘That man will prove a credit to my corps,’ said Simon, turning
thoughtfully upon his heel. ‘And let me see. In an altered state of
society--which must ensue if we break out and are victorious--when the
locksmith’s child is mine, Miggs must be got rid of somehow, or she’ll
poison the tea-kettle one evening when I’m out. He might marry Miggs, if
he was drunk enough. It shall be done. I’ll make a note of it.’



Chapter 40


Little thinking of the plan for his happy settlement in life which had
suggested itself to the teeming brain of his provident commander, Hugh
made no pause until Saint Dunstan’s giants struck the hour above him,
when he worked the handle of a pump which stood hard by, with great
vigour, and thrusting his head under the spout, let the water gush upon
him until a little stream ran down from every uncombed hair, and he was
wet to the waist. Considerably refreshed by this ablution, both in mind
and body, and almost sobered for the time, he dried himself as he best
could; then crossed the road, and plied the knocker of the Middle Temple
gate.

The night-porter looked through a small grating in the portal with a
surly eye, and cried ‘Halloa!’ which greeting Hugh returned in kind, and
bade him open quickly.

‘We don’t sell beer here,’ cried the man; ‘what else do you want?’

‘To come in,’ Hugh replied, with a kick at the door.

‘Where to go?’

‘Paper Buildings.’

‘Whose chambers?’

‘Sir John Chester’s.’ Each of which answers, he emphasised with another
kick.

After a little growling on the other side, the gate was opened, and he
passed in: undergoing a close inspection from the porter as he did so.

‘YOU wanting Sir John, at this time of night!’ said the man.

‘Ay!’ said Hugh. ‘I! What of that?’

‘Why, I must go with you and see that you do, for I don’t believe it.’

‘Come along then.’

Eyeing him with suspicious looks, the man, with key and lantern, walked
on at his side, and attended him to Sir John Chester’s door, at which
Hugh gave one knock, that echoed through the dark staircase like a
ghostly summons, and made the dull light tremble in the drowsy lamp.

‘Do you think he wants me now?’ said Hugh.

Before the man had time to answer, a footstep was heard within, a light
appeared, and Sir John, in his dressing-gown and slippers, opened the
door.

‘I ask your pardon, Sir John,’ said the porter, pulling off his hat.
‘Here’s a young man says he wants to speak to you. It’s late for
strangers. I thought it best to see that all was right.’

‘Aha!’ cried Sir John, raising his eyebrows. ‘It’s you, messenger, is
it? Go in. Quite right, friend. I commend your prudence highly. Thank
you. God bless you. Good night.’

To be commended, thanked, God-blessed, and bade good night by one who
carried ‘Sir’ before his name, and wrote himself M.P. to boot, was
something for a porter. He withdrew with much humility and reverence.
Sir John followed his late visitor into the dressing-room, and sitting
in his easy-chair before the fire, and moving it so that he could see
him as he stood, hat in hand, beside the door, looked at him from head
to foot.

The old face, calm and pleasant as ever; the complexion, quite juvenile
in its bloom and clearness; the same smile; the wonted precision and
elegance of dress; the white, well-ordered teeth; the delicate hands;
the composed and quiet manner; everything as it used to be: no mark of
age or passion, envy, hate, or discontent: all unruffled and serene, and
quite delightful to behold.

He wrote himself M.P.--but how? Why, thus. It was a proud family--more
proud, indeed, than wealthy. He had stood in danger of arrest; of
bailiffs, and a jail--a vulgar jail, to which the common people with
small incomes went. Gentlemen of ancient houses have no privilege of
exemption from such cruel laws--unless they are of one great house, and
then they have. A proud man of his stock and kindred had the means of
sending him there. He offered--not indeed to pay his debts, but to let
him sit for a close borough until his own son came of age, which, if he
lived, would come to pass in twenty years. It was quite as good as an
Insolvent Act, and infinitely more genteel. So Sir John Chester was a
member of Parliament.

But how Sir John? Nothing so simple, or so easy. One touch with a sword
of state, and the transformation was effected. John Chester, Esquire,
M.P., attended court--went up with an address--headed a deputation.
Such elegance of manner, so many graces of deportment, such powers of
conversation, could never pass unnoticed. Mr was too common for
such merit. A man so gentlemanly should have been--but Fortune is
capricious--born a Duke: just as some dukes should have been born
labourers. He caught the fancy of the king, knelt down a grub, and rose
a butterfly. John Chester, Esquire, was knighted and became Sir John.

‘I thought when you left me this evening, my esteemed acquaintance,’
said Sir John after a pretty long silence, ‘that you intended to return
with all despatch?’

‘So I did, master.’

‘And so you have?’ he retorted, glancing at his watch. ‘Is that what you
would say?’

Instead of replying, Hugh changed the leg on which he leant, shuffled
his cap from one hand to the other, looked at the ground, the wall, the
ceiling, and finally at Sir John himself; before whose pleasant face he
lowered his eyes again, and fixed them on the floor.

‘And how have you been employing yourself in the meanwhile?’ quoth Sir
John, lazily crossing his legs. ‘Where have you been? what harm have you
been doing?’

‘No harm at all, master,’ growled Hugh, with humility. ‘I have only done
as you ordered.’

‘As I WHAT?’ returned Sir John.

‘Well then,’ said Hugh uneasily, ‘as you advised, or said I ought, or
said I might, or said that you would do, if you was me. Don’t be so hard
upon me, master.’

Something like an expression of triumph in the perfect control he had
established over this rough instrument appeared in the knight’s face for
an instant; but it vanished directly, as he said--paring his nails while
speaking:

‘When you say I ordered you, my good fellow, you imply that I directed
you to do something for me--something I wanted done--something for my
own ends and purposes--you see? Now I am sure I needn’t enlarge upon the
extreme absurdity of such an idea, however unintentional; so please--’
and here he turned his eyes upon him--‘to be more guarded. Will you?’

‘I meant to give you no offence,’ said Hugh. ‘I don’t know what to say.
You catch me up so very short.’

‘You will be caught up much shorter, my good friend--infinitely
shorter--one of these days, depend upon it,’ replied his patron calmly.
‘By-the-bye, instead of wondering why you have been so long, my wonder
should be why you came at all. Why did you?’

‘You know, master,’ said Hugh, ‘that I couldn’t read the bill I found,
and that supposing it to be something particular from the way it was
wrapped up, I brought it here.’

‘And could you ask no one else to read it, Bruin?’ said Sir John.

‘No one that I could trust with secrets, master. Since Barnaby Rudge
was lost sight of for good and all--and that’s five years ago--I haven’t
talked with any one but you.’

‘You have done me honour, I am sure.’

‘I have come to and fro, master, all through that time, when there was
anything to tell, because I knew that you’d be angry with me if I stayed
away,’ said Hugh, blurting the words out, after an embarrassed silence;
‘and because I wished to please you if I could, and not to have you go
against me. There. That’s the true reason why I came to-night. You know
that, master, I am sure.’

‘You are a specious fellow,’ returned Sir John, fixing his eyes upon
him, ‘and carry two faces under your hood, as well as the best. Didn’t
you give me in this room, this evening, any other reason; no dislike
of anybody who has slighted you lately, on all occasions, abused you,
treated you with rudeness; acted towards you, more as if you were a
mongrel dog than a man like himself?’

‘To be sure I did!’ cried Hugh, his passion rising, as the other meant
it should; ‘and I say it all over now, again. I’d do anything to have
some revenge on him--anything. And when you told me that he and all
the Catholics would suffer from those who joined together under that
handbill, I said I’d make one of ‘em, if their master was the devil
himself. I AM one of ‘em. See whether I am as good as my word and turn
out to be among the foremost, or no. I mayn’t have much head, master,
but I’ve head enough to remember those that use me ill. You shall see,
and so shall he, and so shall hundreds more, how my spirit backs me
when the time comes. My bark is nothing to my bite. Some that I know had
better have a wild lion among ‘em than me, when I am fairly loose--they
had!’

The knight looked at him with a smile of far deeper meaning than
ordinary; and pointing to the old cupboard, followed him with his eyes
while he filled and drank a glass of liquor; and smiled when his back
was turned, with deeper meaning yet.

‘You are in a blustering mood, my friend,’ he said, when Hugh confronted
him again.

‘Not I, master!’ cried Hugh. ‘I don’t say half I mean. I can’t. I
haven’t got the gift. There are talkers enough among us; I’ll be one of
the doers.’

‘Oh! you have joined those fellows then?’ said Sir John, with an air of
most profound indifference.

‘Yes. I went up to the house you told me of; and got put down upon the
muster. There was another man there, named Dennis--’

‘Dennis, eh!’ cried Sir John, laughing. ‘Ay, ay! a pleasant fellow, I
believe?’

‘A roaring dog, master--one after my own heart--hot upon the matter
too--red hot.’

‘So I have heard,’ replied Sir John, carelessly. ‘You don’t happen to
know his trade, do you?’

‘He wouldn’t say,’ cried Hugh. ‘He keeps it secret.’

‘Ha ha!’ laughed Sir John. ‘A strange fancy--a weakness with some
persons--you’ll know it one day, I dare swear.’

‘We’re intimate already,’ said Hugh.

‘Quite natural! And have been drinking together, eh?’ pursued Sir John.
‘Did you say what place you went to in company, when you left Lord
George’s?’

Hugh had not said or thought of saying, but he told him; and this
inquiry being followed by a long train of questions, he related all that
had passed both in and out of doors, the kind of people he had seen,
their numbers, state of feeling, mode of conversation, apparent
expectations and intentions. His questioning was so artfully contrived,
that he seemed even in his own eyes to volunteer all this information
rather than to have it wrested from him; and he was brought to this
state of feeling so naturally, that when Mr Chester yawned at length and
declared himself quite wearied out, he made a rough kind of excuse for
having talked so much.

‘There--get you gone,’ said Sir John, holding the door open in his hand.
‘You have made a pretty evening’s work. I told you not to do this. You
may get into trouble. You’ll have an opportunity of revenging yourself
on your proud friend Haredale, though, and for that, you’d hazard
anything, I suppose?’

‘I would,’ retorted Hugh, stopping in his passage out and looking
back; ‘but what do I risk! What do I stand a chance of losing, master?
Friends, home? A fig for ‘em all; I have none; they are nothing to me.
Give me a good scuffle; let me pay off old scores in a bold riot where
there are men to stand by me; and then use me as you like--it don’t
matter much to me what the end is!’

‘What have you done with that paper?’ said Sir John.

‘I have it here, master.’

‘Drop it again as you go along; it’s as well not to keep such things
about you.’

Hugh nodded, and touching his cap with an air of as much respect as he
could summon up, departed.

Sir John, fastening the doors behind him, went back to his
dressing-room, and sat down once again before the fire, at which he
gazed for a long time, in earnest meditation.

‘This happens fortunately,’ he said, breaking into a smile, ‘and
promises well. Let me see. My relative and I, who are the most
Protestant fellows in the world, give our worst wishes to the Roman
Catholic cause; and to Saville, who introduces their bill, I have a
personal objection besides; but as each of us has himself for the first
article in his creed, we cannot commit ourselves by joining with a very
extravagant madman, such as this Gordon most undoubtedly is. Now really,
to foment his disturbances in secret, through the medium of such a very
apt instrument as my savage friend here, may further our real ends;
and to express at all becoming seasons, in moderate and polite terms,
a disapprobation of his proceedings, though we agree with him in
principle, will certainly be to gain a character for honesty and
uprightness of purpose, which cannot fail to do us infinite service, and
to raise us into some importance. Good! So much for public grounds. As
to private considerations, I confess that if these vagabonds WOULD make
some riotous demonstration (which does not appear impossible), and WOULD
inflict some little chastisement on Haredale as a not inactive man among
his sect, it would be extremely agreeable to my feelings, and would
amuse me beyond measure. Good again! Perhaps better!’

When he came to this point, he took a pinch of snuff; then beginning
slowly to undress, he resumed his meditations, by saying with a smile:

‘I fear, I DO fear exceedingly, that my friend is following fast in the
footsteps of his mother. His intimacy with Mr Dennis is very ominous.
But I have no doubt he must have come to that end any way. If I lend
him a helping hand, the only difference is, that he may, upon the whole,
possibly drink a few gallons, or puncheons, or hogsheads, less in this
life than he otherwise would. It’s no business of mine. It’s a matter of
very small importance!’

So he took another pinch of snuff, and went to bed.



Chapter 41


From the workshop of the Golden Key, there issued forth a tinkling
sound, so merry and good-humoured, that it suggested the idea of some
one working blithely, and made quite pleasant music. No man who hammered
on at a dull monotonous duty, could have brought such cheerful notes
from steel and iron; none but a chirping, healthy, honest-hearted
fellow, who made the best of everything, and felt kindly towards
everybody, could have done it for an instant. He might have been a
coppersmith, and still been musical. If he had sat in a jolting waggon,
full of rods of iron, it seemed as if he would have brought some harmony
out of it.

Tink, tink, tink--clear as a silver bell, and audible at every pause of
the streets’ harsher noises, as though it said, ‘I don’t care; nothing
puts me out; I am resolved to be happy.’ Women scolded, children
squalled, heavy carts went rumbling by, horrible cries proceeded from
the lungs of hawkers; still it struck in again, no higher, no lower,
no louder, no softer; not thrusting itself on people’s notice a bit the
more for having been outdone by louder sounds--tink, tink, tink, tink,
tink.

It was a perfect embodiment of the still small voice, free from
all cold, hoarseness, huskiness, or unhealthiness of any kind;
foot-passengers slackened their pace, and were disposed to linger near
it; neighbours who had got up splenetic that morning, felt good-humour
stealing on them as they heard it, and by degrees became quite
sprightly; mothers danced their babies to its ringing; still the same
magical tink, tink, tink, came gaily from the workshop of the Golden
Key.

Who but the locksmith could have made such music! A gleam of sun shining
through the unsashed window, and chequering the dark workshop with a
broad patch of light, fell full upon him, as though attracted by his
sunny heart. There he stood working at his anvil, his face all radiant
with exercise and gladness, his sleeves turned up, his wig pushed off
his shining forehead--the easiest, freest, happiest man in all the
world. Beside him sat a sleek cat, purring and winking in the light, and
falling every now and then into an idle doze, as from excess of comfort.
Toby looked on from a tall bench hard by; one beaming smile, from his
broad nut-brown face down to the slack-baked buckles in his shoes. The
very locks that hung around had something jovial in their rust, and
seemed like gouty gentlemen of hearty natures, disposed to joke on their
infirmities. There was nothing surly or severe in the whole scene.
It seemed impossible that any one of the innumerable keys could fit a
churlish strong-box or a prison-door. Cellars of beer and wine, rooms
where there were fires, books, gossip, and cheering laughter--these
were their proper sphere of action. Places of distrust and cruelty, and
restraint, they would have left quadruple-locked for ever.

Tink, tink, tink. The locksmith paused at last, and wiped his brow. The
silence roused the cat, who, jumping softly down, crept to the door,
and watched with tiger eyes a bird-cage in an opposite window. Gabriel
lifted Toby to his mouth, and took a hearty draught.

Then, as he stood upright, with his head flung back, and his portly
chest thrown out, you would have seen that Gabriel’s lower man was
clothed in military gear. Glancing at the wall beyond, there might
have been espied, hanging on their several pegs, a cap and feather,
broadsword, sash, and coat of scarlet; which any man learned in such
matters would have known from their make and pattern to be the uniform
of a serjeant in the Royal East London Volunteers.

As the locksmith put his mug down, empty, on the bench whence it had
smiled on him before, he glanced at these articles with a laughing eye,
and looking at them with his head a little on one side, as though he
would get them all into a focus, said, leaning on his hammer:

‘Time was, now, I remember, when I was like to run mad with the desire
to wear a coat of that colour. If any one (except my father) had called
me a fool for my pains, how I should have fired and fumed! But what a
fool I must have been, sure-ly!’

‘Ah!’ sighed Mrs Varden, who had entered unobserved. ‘A fool indeed. A
man at your time of life, Varden, should know better now.’

‘Why, what a ridiculous woman you are, Martha,’ said the locksmith,
turning round with a smile.

‘Certainly,’ replied Mrs V. with great demureness. ‘Of course I am. I
know that, Varden. Thank you.’

‘I mean--’ began the locksmith.

‘Yes,’ said his wife, ‘I know what you mean. You speak quite plain
enough to be understood, Varden. It’s very kind of you to adapt yourself
to my capacity, I am sure.’

‘Tut, tut, Martha,’ rejoined the locksmith; ‘don’t take offence at
nothing. I mean, how strange it is of you to run down volunteering, when
it’s done to defend you and all the other women, and our own fireside
and everybody else’s, in case of need.’

‘It’s unchristian,’ cried Mrs Varden, shaking her head.

‘Unchristian!’ said the locksmith. ‘Why, what the devil--’

Mrs Varden looked at the ceiling, as in expectation that the consequence
of this profanity would be the immediate descent of the four-post
bedstead on the second floor, together with the best sitting-room on the
first; but no visible judgment occurring, she heaved a deep sigh, and
begged her husband, in a tone of resignation, to go on, and by all means
to blaspheme as much as possible, because he knew she liked it.

The locksmith did for a moment seem disposed to gratify her, but he gave
a great gulp, and mildly rejoined:

‘I was going to say, what on earth do you call it unchristian for?
Which would be most unchristian, Martha--to sit quietly down and let our
houses be sacked by a foreign army, or to turn out like men and drive
‘em off? Shouldn’t I be a nice sort of a Christian, if I crept into
a corner of my own chimney and looked on while a parcel of whiskered
savages bore off Dolly--or you?’

When he said ‘or you,’ Mrs Varden, despite herself, relaxed into a
smile. There was something complimentary in the idea. ‘In such a state
of things as that, indeed--’ she simpered.

‘As that!’ repeated the locksmith. ‘Well, that would be the state of
things directly. Even Miggs would go. Some black tambourine-player,
with a great turban on, would be bearing HER off, and, unless the
tambourine-player was proof against kicking and scratching, it’s
my belief he’d have the worst of it. Ha ha ha! I’d forgive the
tambourine-player. I wouldn’t have him interfered with on any account,
poor fellow.’ And here the locksmith laughed again so heartily, that
tears came into his eyes--much to Mrs Varden’s indignation, who thought
the capture of so sound a Protestant and estimable a private character
as Miggs by a pagan negro, a circumstance too shocking and awful for
contemplation.

The picture Gabriel had drawn, indeed, threatened serious consequences,
and would indubitably have led to them, but luckily at that moment a
light footstep crossed the threshold, and Dolly, running in, threw her
arms round her old father’s neck and hugged him tight.

‘Here she is at last!’ cried Gabriel. ‘And how well you look, Doll, and
how late you are, my darling!’

How well she looked? Well? Why, if he had exhausted every laudatory
adjective in the dictionary, it wouldn’t have been praise enough. When
and where was there ever such a plump, roguish, comely, bright-eyed,
enticing, bewitching, captivating, maddening little puss in all this
world, as Dolly! What was the Dolly of five years ago, to the Dolly of
that day! How many coachmakers, saddlers, cabinet-makers, and professors
of other useful arts, had deserted their fathers, mothers, sisters,
brothers, and, most of all, their cousins, for the love of her! How many
unknown gentlemen--supposed to be of mighty fortunes, if not titles--had
waited round the corner after dark, and tempted Miggs the incorruptible,
with golden guineas, to deliver offers of marriage folded up in
love-letters! How many disconsolate fathers and substantial tradesmen
had waited on the locksmith for the same purpose, with dismal tales of
how their sons had lost their appetites, and taken to shut themselves up
in dark bedrooms, and wandering in desolate suburbs with pale faces,
and all because of Dolly Varden’s loveliness and cruelty! How many
young men, in all previous times of unprecedented steadiness, had turned
suddenly wild and wicked for the same reason, and, in an ecstasy of
unrequited love, taken to wrench off door-knockers, and invert the boxes
of rheumatic watchmen! How had she recruited the king’s service, both
by sea and land, through rendering desperate his loving subjects between
the ages of eighteen and twenty-five! How many young ladies had publicly
professed, with tears in their eyes, that for their tastes she was much
too short, too tall, too bold, too cold, too stout, too thin, too fair,
too dark--too everything but handsome! How many old ladies, taking
counsel together, had thanked Heaven their daughters were not like her,
and had hoped she might come to no harm, and had thought she would come
to no good, and had wondered what people saw in her, and had arrived at
the conclusion that she was ‘going off’ in her looks, or had never
come on in them, and that she was a thorough imposition and a popular
mistake!

And yet here was this same Dolly Varden, so whimsical and hard to please
that she was Dolly Varden still, all smiles and dimples and pleasant
looks, and caring no more for the fifty or sixty young fellows who at
that very moment were breaking their hearts to marry her, than if so
many oysters had been crossed in love and opened afterwards.

Dolly hugged her father as has been already stated, and having hugged
her mother also, accompanied both into the little parlour where the
cloth was already laid for dinner, and where Miss Miggs--a trifle more
rigid and bony than of yore--received her with a sort of hysterical
gasp, intended for a smile. Into the hands of that young virgin, she
delivered her bonnet and walking dress (all of a dreadful, artful,
and designing kind), and then said with a laugh, which rivalled the
locksmith’s music, ‘How glad I always am to be at home again!’

‘And how glad we always are, Doll,’ said her father, putting back the
dark hair from her sparkling eyes, ‘to have you at home. Give me a
kiss.’

If there had been anybody of the male kind there to see her do it--but
there was not--it was a mercy.

‘I don’t like your being at the Warren,’ said the locksmith, ‘I can’t
bear to have you out of my sight. And what is the news over yonder,
Doll?’

‘What news there is, I think you know already,’ replied his daughter. ‘I
am sure you do though.’

‘Ay?’ cried the locksmith. ‘What’s that?’

‘Come, come,’ said Dolly, ‘you know very well. I want you to tell me why
Mr Haredale--oh, how gruff he is again, to be sure!--has been away from
home for some days past, and why he is travelling about (we know he IS
travelling, because of his letters) without telling his own niece why or
wherefore.’

‘Miss Emma doesn’t want to know, I’ll swear,’ returned the locksmith.

‘I don’t know that,’ said Dolly; ‘but I do, at any rate. Do tell me. Why
is he so secret, and what is this ghost story, which nobody is to tell
Miss Emma, and which seems to be mixed up with his going away? Now I see
you know by your colouring so.’

‘What the story means, or is, or has to do with it, I know no more than
you, my dear,’ returned the locksmith, ‘except that it’s some foolish
fear of little Solomon’s--which has, indeed, no meaning in it, I
suppose. As to Mr Haredale’s journey, he goes, as I believe--’

‘Yes,’ said Dolly.

‘As I believe,’ resumed the locksmith, pinching her cheek, ‘on business,
Doll. What it may be, is quite another matter. Read Blue Beard, and
don’t be too curious, pet; it’s no business of yours or mine, depend
upon that; and here’s dinner, which is much more to the purpose.’

Dolly might have remonstrated against this summary dismissal of the
subject, notwithstanding the appearance of dinner, but at the mention
of Blue Beard Mrs Varden interposed, protesting she could not find it
in her conscience to sit tamely by, and hear her child recommended to
peruse the adventures of a Turk and Mussulman--far less of a fabulous
Turk, which she considered that potentate to be. She held that, in such
stirring and tremendous times as those in which they lived, it would
be much more to the purpose if Dolly became a regular subscriber to the
Thunderer, where she would have an opportunity of reading Lord George
Gordon’s speeches word for word, which would be a greater comfort and
solace to her, than a hundred and fifty Blue Beards ever could impart.
She appealed in support of this proposition to Miss Miggs, then in
waiting, who said that indeed the peace of mind she had derived from the
perusal of that paper generally, but especially of one article of the
very last week as ever was, entitled ‘Great Britain drenched in gore,’
exceeded all belief; the same composition, she added, had also wrought
such a comforting effect on the mind of a married sister of hers, then
resident at Golden Lion Court, number twenty-sivin, second bell-handle
on the right-hand door-post, that, being in a delicate state of health,
and in fact expecting an addition to her family, she had been seized
with fits directly after its perusal, and had raved of the Inquisition
ever since; to the great improvement of her husband and friends. Miss
Miggs went on to say that she would recommend all those whose hearts
were hardened to hear Lord George themselves, whom she commended first,
in respect of his steady Protestantism, then of his oratory, then of
his eyes, then of his nose, then of his legs, and lastly of his figure
generally, which she looked upon as fit for any statue, prince, or
angel, to which sentiment Mrs Varden fully subscribed.

Mrs Varden having cut in, looked at a box upon the mantelshelf, painted
in imitation of a very red-brick dwelling-house, with a yellow roof;
having at top a real chimney, down which voluntary subscribers dropped
their silver, gold, or pence, into the parlour; and on the door the
counterfeit presentment of a brass plate, whereon was legibly inscribed
‘Protestant Association:’--and looking at it, said, that it was to her
a source of poignant misery to think that Varden never had, of all his
substance, dropped anything into that temple, save once in secret--as
she afterwards discovered--two fragments of tobacco-pipe, which she
hoped would not be put down to his last account. That Dolly, she was
grieved to say, was no less backward in her contributions, better
loving, as it seemed, to purchase ribbons and such gauds, than to
encourage the great cause, then in such heavy tribulation; and that she
did entreat her (her father she much feared could not be moved) not to
despise, but imitate, the bright example of Miss Miggs, who flung her
wages, as it were, into the very countenance of the Pope, and bruised
his features with her quarter’s money.

‘Oh, mim,’ said Miggs, ‘don’t relude to that. I had no intentions, mim,
that nobody should know. Such sacrifices as I can make, are quite a
widder’s mite. It’s all I have,’ cried Miggs with a great burst of
tears--for with her they never came on by degrees--‘but it’s made up to
me in other ways; it’s well made up.’

This was quite true, though not perhaps in the sense that Miggs
intended. As she never failed to keep her self-denial full in Mrs
Varden’s view, it drew forth so many gifts of caps and gowns and other
articles of dress, that upon the whole the red-brick house was perhaps
the best investment for her small capital she could possibly have hit
upon; returning her interest, at the rate of seven or eight per cent in
money, and fifty at least in personal repute and credit.

‘You needn’t cry, Miggs,’ said Mrs Varden, herself in tears; ‘you
needn’t be ashamed of it, though your poor mistress IS on the same
side.’

Miggs howled at this remark, in a peculiarly dismal way, and said she
knowed that master hated her. That it was a dreadful thing to live in
families and have dislikes, and not give satisfactions. That to make
divisions was a thing she could not abear to think of, neither could her
feelings let her do it. That if it was master’s wishes as she and him
should part, it was best they should part, and she hoped he might be
the happier for it, and always wished him well, and that he might find
somebody as would meet his dispositions. It would be a hard trial, she
said, to part from such a missis, but she could meet any suffering when
her conscience told her she was in the rights, and therefore she was
willing even to go that lengths. She did not think, she added, that she
could long survive the separations, but, as she was hated and looked
upon unpleasant, perhaps her dying as soon as possible would be the best
endings for all parties. With this affecting conclusion, Miss Miggs shed
more tears, and sobbed abundantly.

‘Can you bear this, Varden?’ said his wife in a solemn voice, laying
down her knife and fork.

‘Why, not very well, my dear,’ rejoined the locksmith, ‘but I try to
keep my temper.’

‘Don’t let there be words on my account, mim,’ sobbed Miggs. ‘It’s much
the best that we should part. I wouldn’t stay--oh, gracious me!--and
make dissensions, not for a annual gold mine, and found in tea and
sugar.’

Lest the reader should be at any loss to discover the cause of Miss
Miggs’s deep emotion, it may be whispered apart that, happening to
be listening, as her custom sometimes was, when Gabriel and his wife
conversed together, she had heard the locksmith’s joke relative to the
foreign black who played the tambourine, and bursting with the spiteful
feelings which the taunt awoke in her fair breast, exploded in the
manner we have witnessed. Matters having now arrived at a crisis, the
locksmith, as usual, and for the sake of peace and quietness, gave in.

‘What are you crying for, girl?’ he said. ‘What’s the matter with you?
What are you talking about hatred for? I don’t hate you; I don’t hate
anybody. Dry your eyes and make yourself agreeable, in Heaven’s name,
and let us all be happy while we can.’

The allied powers deeming it good generalship to consider this a
sufficient apology on the part of the enemy, and confession of having
been in the wrong, did dry their eyes and take it in good part. Miss
Miggs observed that she bore no malice, no not to her greatest foe, whom
she rather loved the more indeed, the greater persecution she sustained.
Mrs Varden approved of this meek and forgiving spirit in high terms,
and incidentally declared as a closing article of agreement, that Dolly
should accompany her to the Clerkenwell branch of the association, that
very night. This was an extraordinary instance of her great prudence and
policy; having had this end in view from the first, and entertaining
a secret misgiving that the locksmith (who was bold when Dolly was in
question) would object, she had backed Miss Miggs up to this point, in
order that she might have him at a disadvantage. The manoeuvre succeeded
so well that Gabriel only made a wry face, and with the warning he had
just had, fresh in his mind, did not dare to say one word.

The difference ended, therefore, in Miggs being presented with a gown
by Mrs Varden and half-a-crown by Dolly, as if she had eminently
distinguished herself in the paths of morality and goodness. Mrs V.,
according to custom, expressed her hope that Varden would take a lesson
from what had passed and learn more generous conduct for the time to
come; and the dinner being now cold and nobody’s appetite very much
improved by what had passed, they went on with it, as Mrs Varden said,
‘like Christians.’

As there was to be a grand parade of the Royal East London Volunteers
that afternoon, the locksmith did no more work; but sat down comfortably
with his pipe in his mouth, and his arm round his pretty daughter’s
waist, looking lovingly on Mrs V., from time to time, and exhibiting
from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, one smiling surface
of good humour. And to be sure, when it was time to dress him in his
regimentals, and Dolly, hanging about him in all kinds of graceful
winning ways, helped to button and buckle and brush him up and get him
into one of the tightest coats that ever was made by mortal tailor, he
was the proudest father in all England.

‘What a handy jade it is!’ said the locksmith to Mrs Varden, who stood
by with folded hands--rather proud of her husband too--while Miggs held
his cap and sword at arm’s length, as if mistrusting that the latter
might run some one through the body of its own accord; ‘but never marry
a soldier, Doll, my dear.’

Dolly didn’t ask why not, or say a word, indeed, but stooped her head
down very low to tie his sash.

‘I never wear this dress,’ said honest Gabriel, ‘but I think of poor Joe
Willet. I loved Joe; he was always a favourite of mine. Poor Joe!--Dear
heart, my girl, don’t tie me in so tight.’

Dolly laughed--not like herself at all--the strangest little laugh that
could be--and held her head down lower still.

‘Poor Joe!’ resumed the locksmith, muttering to himself; ‘I always wish
he had come to me. I might have made it up between them, if he had. Ah!
old John made a great mistake in his way of acting by that lad--a great
mistake.--Have you nearly tied that sash, my dear?’

What an ill-made sash it was! There it was, loose again and trailing
on the ground. Dolly was obliged to kneel down, and recommence at the
beginning.

‘Never mind young Willet, Varden,’ said his wife frowning; ‘you might
find some one more deserving to talk about, I think.’

Miss Miggs gave a great sniff to the same effect.

‘Nay, Martha,’ cried the locksmith, ‘don’t let us bear too hard upon
him.