Chapter Seven.An Exciting End to a Dull Day.Horace meanwhile had wended his way with some trepidation and curiosity to the manager’s sanctum. He felt uncomfortable in being separated from Reginald at all, especially when the latter was left single-handed in such an uncongenial atmosphere as that breathed by Mr Durfy and Barber. He could only hope for the best, and, meanwhile, what fate was in store for himself?He knocked at the manager’s door doubtfully and obeyed the summons to enter.Brusque man as the manager was, there was nothing disagreeable about his face as he looked up and said, “Oh—you’re the youngster Mr Richmond put in here?”“Yes, sir, my brother and I are.”“Yes, and I hear you’re both fools. Is that the case?”“Reginald isn’t, whatever I am,” said Horace, boldly.“Isn’t he? I’m told he’s the bigger fool of the two. Never mind that, though—”“I assure you,” began Horace, but the manager stopped him.“Yes, yes. I know all about that. Now, listen to me. I dare say you’re both well-meaning boys, and Mr Richmond is interested in you. So I’ve promised to make room for you here, though it’s not convenient, and the wages you are to get are out of all proportion to your value—so far.”Horace was glad at least that the manager dropped in those last two words.“If your brother is clever and picks up his work soon and doesn’t give himself airs he’ll get on faster than you. I can’t put you at case, but they want a lad in the sub-editor’s room. Do you know where that is?”“Yes, sir,” said Horace, “I took some proofs there yesterday. But, sir—”“Well, what?” said the manager, sharply.“Is there no possibility of Reginald and me being together?” faltered the boy.“Yes—outside if you’re discontented,” said the manager.It was evidently no use, and Horace walked dismally to the door.The manager looked after him.“Take my advice,” said he, rather more kindly than he had hitherto spoken; “make the best of what you’ve got, young fellow, and it’ll be better still in time. Shut the door after you.”The sub-editor’s room—or rooms, for there was an inner and an outer sanctum—was in a remote dark corner of the building, so dark that gas was generally burning in it all day long, giving its occupants generally the washed-out pallid appearance of men who do not know when day ends or night begins. The chief sub-editor was a young, bald-headed, spectacled man of meek appearance, who received Horace in a resigned way, and referred him to the clerks in the outer room, who would show him how he could make himself useful.Feeling that, so far as he was concerned, he had fallen on his feet, and secretly wishing poor Reginald was in his shoes, Horace obeyed and retired to the outer room.The occupants of that apartment were two young gentlemen of from eighteen to twenty years of age, who, it was evident at a glance, were not brothers. One was short and fair and chubby, the other was lank and lean and cadaverous; one was sorrowful and lugubrious in countenance; the other seemed to be spending his time in trying hard not to smile, and not succeeding. The only thing they did appear to share in common was hard work, and in this they were so fully engrossed that Horace had to stand a full minute at the table before they had leisure to look up and notice him.“The gentleman in there,” said Horace, addressing the lugubrious youth as being the more imposing of the two, “said if I came to you you could set me to work.”The sad one gave a sort of groan and said,—“Ah, he was right there. Itiswork.”“I say,” said the other youth, looking up, “don’t frighten the kid, Booms; you’ll make him run away.”“I wishIcould run away,” said Booms, in an audible soliloquy.“So you can if you like, you old crocodile. I say, young ’un, have you got a chair?”Horace had to confess he had not a chair about him.“That’s a go; we’ve only two here. We shall have to take turns on them. Booms will stand first, won’t you, Booms?”“Oh, of course,” said Booms, rising and pushing his chair towards Horace.“Thanks,” said Horace, “but I’d sooner stand, really.”“No, no,” said Booms, resignedly; “I’m to stand, Waterford says so.”“Sit down, young ’un,” said Waterford, “and don’t mind him. He won’t say so, but he’s awfully glad to stand up for a bit and stretch his legs. Now, do you see this lot of morning papers—you’ll see a lot of paragraphs marked at the side with a blue pencil. You’ve got to cut them out. Mind you don’t miss any. Sure you understand?”Horace expressed himself equal to this enormous task, and set to work busily with his scissors.If he had had no one but himself to consider he would have felt comparatively happy. He found himself in a department of work which he liked, and which, though at first not very exciting, promised some day to become interesting. His chief was a gentleman not likely to interfere with him as long as he did his work steadily, and his companions were not only friendly but entertaining. If only Reginald could have a seat at this table too, Horace felt he could face the future cheerily. How, he wondered, was the poor fellow getting on that moment in his distant uncongenial work?“You’re not obliged to read all the paragraphs, you know,” said Waterford, as Horace’s hand slackened amid these musings. “It’s a close shave to get done as it is, and he’s marked a frightful lot this morning.”He was right. All the cuttings had to be taken out and pasted on sheets before twelve o’clock, and it took the three of them, hard at work with scissors and paste, to get the task accomplished. They talked very little, and joked still less; but when it was all done, like three honest men, they felt pleased with themselves, and decidedly amiable towards one another.“Now Booms is going out for the grub, aren’t you, Booms? He’ll get some for you too, young ’un, if you like.”“No, thanks; I’d be very glad, but I promised to have dinner with my brother—he’s a compositor here.”“Lucky man!” groaned Booms. “Think of having nothing to do but pick up types instead of slaving like this every day!”“See the sausages are hot this time, won’t you, Booms? And look alive, there’s a dear fellow.”Booms retired sadly.“Good-natured chap, Booms,” said Waterford; “rather a risk of imposing on him if one isn’t careful. He’s an awfully decent fellow, but it’s a sad pity he’s such a masher.”“A what?” asked Horace.“A masher. He mayn’t look it, but he goes it rather strong in that line after hours. He doesn’t mean it, poor soul; but he’s mixed up with some of our reporters, and tries to go the pace with them. I don’t care for that sort of thing myself, but if you do, he’s just your man. You wouldn’t think it to look at him, would you?”“Certainly not,” replied Horace, much impressed by this confidence and the revelation it afforded.As Booms re-entered shortly afterwards, looking very gloomy, burdened with two plates, two mugs, and a sheaf of knives and forks under his arm, he certainly did not give one the impression of a very rakish character, and Horace could scarcely refrain from smiling as he tried to picture him in his after-hours character.He left the couple to their sausages, and went out, in the vain hope of finding Reginald somewhere. But there was no sign of workmen anywhere, and, to his disgust, he ascertained from a passing boy that the compositors’ dinner-hour did not begin till he was due back at his work. Everything seemed to conspire to sever the two brothers, and Horace dejectedly took a solitary and frugal repast. He determined, at all hazards, to wait a minute after the bell summoning him back to work had ceased pealing, and was rewarded by a hasty glimpse of his brother, and the exchange of a few hurried sentences. It was better than nothing, and he rushed back to his room just in time to save his reputation for punctuality.The afternoon passed scarcely less busily than the morning. They sat—and Booms had contrived to raise a third chair somewhere—with a pile of work in front of them which at first seemed hopeless to expect to overtake.There were effusions to “decline with thanks,” and others to enter in a book and send up to the composing-room; there were some letters to write and others to answer; there were reporters’ notes to string together and telegrams to transcribe. And all the while a dropping fire of proofs and revises and messages was kept up at them from without, which they had to carry to their chief and deal with according to his orders.Horace, being inexperienced, was only able to take up the simpler portions of this miscellaneous work, but these kept him busy, “hammer and tongs,” with scarcely time to sneeze till well on in the afternoon.TheRocket, unlike most evening papers, waited till the evening before it appeared, and did not go to press till five o’clock. After that it issued later editions once an hour till eight o’clock, and on special occasions even as late as ten.The great rush of the day, therefore, as Horace soon discovered, was over at five o’clock, but between that hour and seven there was always plenty to do in connection with the late editions and the following day’s work. At seven o’clock every one left except a sub-editor and one of the clerks, and one or two compositors, to see after the eight o’clock and any possible later edition.“As soon as you get your hand in, young ’un, you’ll have to take your turn at late work. Booms and I take every other night now.”Horace could say nothing against this arrangement, though it meant more separation from Reginald. At present, however, his hand not being in, he had nothing to keep him after the seven o’clock bell, and he eagerly escaped at its first sound to look for Reginald.Not, however, till he had witnessed a strange sight.About a quarter to seven Booms, whose early evening it was, showed signs of uneasiness. He glanced sorrowfully once or twice at the clock, then at Horace, then at Waterford. Then he got up and put his papers away. Finally he mused on a washhand basin in a corner of the room, and said dolefully,—“I must dress, I think, Waterford.”“All serene,” said Waterford, briskly, “the young ’un and I will finish up here.” Then nudging Horace, he added in a whisper, “He’s going to rig up now. Don’t pretend to notice him, that’s all.”Booms proceeded to divest himself of his office coat and waistcoat and collar, and to roll up the sleeves of his flannel shirt, preparatory to an energetic wash. He then opened a small box in a corner of the room, from which he produced, first a clothes-brush, with which he carefully removed all traces of dust from his nether garments; after that came a pair of light-coloured “pats,” which he fitted on to his boots; then came a bottle of hair-oil, and afterwards a highly-starched “dicky,” or shirt-front, with a stud in it, which by a complicated series of strings the owner contrived to fasten round his neck so as to conceal effectually the flannel shirt-front underneath. Once more he dived, and this time the magic box yielded up what seemed to Horace’s uninitiated eyes to be a broad strip of stiff cardboard, but which turned out to be a collar of fearful and wonderful proportions, which, when once adjusted, fully explained the wisdom displayed by the wearer in not deferring the brushing of his trousers and the donning of his “pats” to a later stage of the proceedings. For nothing, not even a pickpocket at his gilt watch-chain with its pendant “charms,” could lower his chin a quarter of an inch till bed-time. But more was yet to come. There were cuffs to put on, which left one to guess what had become of Mr Booms’s knuckles, and a light jaunty necktie to embellish the “dicky.” Then, with a plaintive sigh, he produced a blue figured waistcoat, and after it a coat shaped like the coat of a robin to cover all. Finally there appeared a hat, broad-brimmed, low-crowned, and dazzling in its glossiness, a pair of gay dogskin gloves, a crutch walking-stick, a pink silk handkerchief, and then this joint work of art and nature was complete!“All right?” said he, in melancholy tones, as he set his hat a little on one side of his head, and, with his stick under his arm, began with his gloves.Waterford got up and walked slowly and critically round him, giving a few touches here and there, and brushing a little stray dust from his collar.“All right, dear boy. Mind how you go, and—”“Oh!” groaned Booms, in tones of dire distress, “I knew I should forget something. Would you mind, Waterford?”“What is it?”“My glass—it’s in the box, and—and I should have got it out before I put the collar on. Thanks; I should have been lost without it. Oh! if Ihadforgotten it!”With this awful reflection in his mind he bade a sorrowful good-night and walked off, with his head very erect, his elbows high up, and one hand fondling the nearly-neglected eyeglass.“Pretty, isn’t it?” said Waterford, as he disappeared.“It is—rot,” said Horace, emphatically. “Why ever don’t you laugh him out of it?”“My dear boy, you might as well try to laugh the hair off his head. I’ve tried it a dozen times. After all, the poor dear fellow means no harm.”“But what does he do now?”“Oh, don’t ask me. According to his own account he’s the fastest man about town—goes to all the shows, hobnobs with all the swells, smokes furious cigars, and generally ‘mashes.’ But my private notion is he moons about the streets with the handle of his stick in his mouth and looks in a few shop windows, and gets half a dozen oysters for supper, and then goes home to bed. You see he couldn’t well get into much mischief with that collar on. If he went in for turn-downs I’d be afraid of him.”The bell cut further conversation short, and in another minute Horace and Reginald were walking arm-in-arm in the street outside.There was much to talk about, much to lament over, and a little to rejoice over. Horace felt half guilty as he told his brother of his good fortune, and the easy quarters into which he had fallen. But Reginald was in too defiant a mood to share these regrets as much as he would have done at any other time. As long as Durfy wanted to get rid of him, so long was he determined to stay where he was, and meanwhile in young Gedge he had some one to look after, which would make the drudgery of his daily work tolerable.Horace did not altogether like it, but he knew it was no use arguing then on the subject. They mutually agreed to put the best face on everything before their mother. She was there to meet them at the door, and it rejoiced her heart to hear their brave talk and the cheery story of their day’s adventures. All day long her heart had gone out to them in yearnings of prayer and hope and love, and it repaid her a hundred-fold, this hour of happy meeting, with the sunlight of their faces and the music of their voices filling her soul.As soon as supper was over Reginald suggested a precipitate retreat into the streets, for fear of another neighbourly incursion. Mrs Cruden laughingly yielded, and the trio had a long walk, heedless where they went, so long as they were together. They wandered as far as Oxford Street, looking into what shops were open, and interested still more in the ever-changing stream of people who even at ten o’clock at night crowded the pavements. They met no one they knew, not even Booms. But it mattered little to them that no one noticed them. They had one another, and there was a sense of security and comfort in that which before these last few weeks they had never dreamed of.They were about to turn out of Oxford Street on their homeward journey when a loud shout close by arrested their attention. Looking round, they saw a boy with disordered dress and unsteady gait attempting to cross the road just as a hansom cab was bearing down at full speed on the place where he stood. They only saw his back, but it was evident he was either ill or dazed, for he stood stupidly where he was, with the peril in full-view, but somehow helpless to avoid it. The cabman shouted and pulled at his horse’s head. But to the horrified onlookers it was only too clear that nothing could stop his career in time. He was already within a yard or two of the luckless boy when Reginald made a sudden dash into the road, charging at him with a violence that sent him staggering forward two paces and then brought him to the earth. Reginald fell too, on the top of him, and as the cab dashed past it just grazed the sole of his boot where he lay.It was all the work of a moment—the shout, the vision of the boy, and the rescue—so sudden, indeed, that Mrs Cruden had barely time to clutch Horace by the arm before Reginald lay prone in the middle of the road. In another moment Horace was beside his brother, helping him up out of the mud.“Are you hurt, old man?”“Not a bit,” said Reginald, very pale and breathless, but rising to his feet without help. “Look out—there’s a crowd—take mother home, and I’ll come on as soon as I’ve seen this fellow safe. I’m not damaged a bit.”With this assurance Horace darted back to his mother in time to extricate her from the crowd which, whatever happens, is sure to collect in the streets of London at a minute’s warning.“He’s all right,” said Horace—“not hurt a bit. Come on, mother, out of this; he’ll probably catch us up before we’re home. I say,” said he, and his voice trembled with excitement and brotherly pride as he spoke, “wasn’t it splendid?”Mrs Cruden would fain have stayed near, but the crowd made it impossible to be of any use. So she let Horace lead her home, trembling, but with a heart full of thankfulness and pride and love for her young hero.Reginald, meanwhile, with the coolness of an old football captain, proceeded to pick up his man, and appealed to the crowd to stand back and give the fellow room.The boy lay half-stunned with his fall, his face covered with mud, but to Reginald’s delight he was able to move and with a little help stand on his feet. As he did so the light from the lamp of the cab fell on his face, and caused Reginald to utter an exclamation of surprise and horror.“Young Gedge!”The boy looked at him for a moment in a stupid bewildered way, and then gave a short startled cry.“Are you hurt?” said Reginald, putting his arm round him.“No—I—I don’t think—let’s get away.”Reginald called to the crowd to stand back and let them out, an order which the crowd obeyed surlily and with a disappointed grunt. Not even a broken leg! not even the cabman’s number taken down! One or two who had seen the accident patted Reginald on the back as he went by, but he hurried past them as quickly as he could, and presently stood in the seclusion of a by-street, still supporting his companion on his arm.“Are you hurt?” he inquired again.“No,” said Gedge; “I can walk.”The two stood facing one another for a moment in silence, breathless still, and trembling with the excitement of the last few minutes.“Oh, Cruden!” cried the boy at last, seizing Reginald’s arm, “what will you think of me? I was—I—I’d been drinking—I’m sober now, but—”Reginald cut him short gently but firmly.“I know,” said he. “You’d better go home now, young ’un.”Gedge made no answer, but walked on, with his arm still in that of his protector.Reginald saw him into an omnibus, and then returned sadly and thoughtfully homeward.“Humph!” said he to himself, as he reached Dull Street, “I suppose I shall have to stick on at theRocketafter all.”
Horace meanwhile had wended his way with some trepidation and curiosity to the manager’s sanctum. He felt uncomfortable in being separated from Reginald at all, especially when the latter was left single-handed in such an uncongenial atmosphere as that breathed by Mr Durfy and Barber. He could only hope for the best, and, meanwhile, what fate was in store for himself?
He knocked at the manager’s door doubtfully and obeyed the summons to enter.
Brusque man as the manager was, there was nothing disagreeable about his face as he looked up and said, “Oh—you’re the youngster Mr Richmond put in here?”
“Yes, sir, my brother and I are.”
“Yes, and I hear you’re both fools. Is that the case?”
“Reginald isn’t, whatever I am,” said Horace, boldly.
“Isn’t he? I’m told he’s the bigger fool of the two. Never mind that, though—”
“I assure you,” began Horace, but the manager stopped him.
“Yes, yes. I know all about that. Now, listen to me. I dare say you’re both well-meaning boys, and Mr Richmond is interested in you. So I’ve promised to make room for you here, though it’s not convenient, and the wages you are to get are out of all proportion to your value—so far.”
Horace was glad at least that the manager dropped in those last two words.
“If your brother is clever and picks up his work soon and doesn’t give himself airs he’ll get on faster than you. I can’t put you at case, but they want a lad in the sub-editor’s room. Do you know where that is?”
“Yes, sir,” said Horace, “I took some proofs there yesterday. But, sir—”
“Well, what?” said the manager, sharply.
“Is there no possibility of Reginald and me being together?” faltered the boy.
“Yes—outside if you’re discontented,” said the manager.
It was evidently no use, and Horace walked dismally to the door.
The manager looked after him.
“Take my advice,” said he, rather more kindly than he had hitherto spoken; “make the best of what you’ve got, young fellow, and it’ll be better still in time. Shut the door after you.”
The sub-editor’s room—or rooms, for there was an inner and an outer sanctum—was in a remote dark corner of the building, so dark that gas was generally burning in it all day long, giving its occupants generally the washed-out pallid appearance of men who do not know when day ends or night begins. The chief sub-editor was a young, bald-headed, spectacled man of meek appearance, who received Horace in a resigned way, and referred him to the clerks in the outer room, who would show him how he could make himself useful.
Feeling that, so far as he was concerned, he had fallen on his feet, and secretly wishing poor Reginald was in his shoes, Horace obeyed and retired to the outer room.
The occupants of that apartment were two young gentlemen of from eighteen to twenty years of age, who, it was evident at a glance, were not brothers. One was short and fair and chubby, the other was lank and lean and cadaverous; one was sorrowful and lugubrious in countenance; the other seemed to be spending his time in trying hard not to smile, and not succeeding. The only thing they did appear to share in common was hard work, and in this they were so fully engrossed that Horace had to stand a full minute at the table before they had leisure to look up and notice him.
“The gentleman in there,” said Horace, addressing the lugubrious youth as being the more imposing of the two, “said if I came to you you could set me to work.”
The sad one gave a sort of groan and said,—
“Ah, he was right there. Itiswork.”
“I say,” said the other youth, looking up, “don’t frighten the kid, Booms; you’ll make him run away.”
“I wishIcould run away,” said Booms, in an audible soliloquy.
“So you can if you like, you old crocodile. I say, young ’un, have you got a chair?”
Horace had to confess he had not a chair about him.
“That’s a go; we’ve only two here. We shall have to take turns on them. Booms will stand first, won’t you, Booms?”
“Oh, of course,” said Booms, rising and pushing his chair towards Horace.
“Thanks,” said Horace, “but I’d sooner stand, really.”
“No, no,” said Booms, resignedly; “I’m to stand, Waterford says so.”
“Sit down, young ’un,” said Waterford, “and don’t mind him. He won’t say so, but he’s awfully glad to stand up for a bit and stretch his legs. Now, do you see this lot of morning papers—you’ll see a lot of paragraphs marked at the side with a blue pencil. You’ve got to cut them out. Mind you don’t miss any. Sure you understand?”
Horace expressed himself equal to this enormous task, and set to work busily with his scissors.
If he had had no one but himself to consider he would have felt comparatively happy. He found himself in a department of work which he liked, and which, though at first not very exciting, promised some day to become interesting. His chief was a gentleman not likely to interfere with him as long as he did his work steadily, and his companions were not only friendly but entertaining. If only Reginald could have a seat at this table too, Horace felt he could face the future cheerily. How, he wondered, was the poor fellow getting on that moment in his distant uncongenial work?
“You’re not obliged to read all the paragraphs, you know,” said Waterford, as Horace’s hand slackened amid these musings. “It’s a close shave to get done as it is, and he’s marked a frightful lot this morning.”
He was right. All the cuttings had to be taken out and pasted on sheets before twelve o’clock, and it took the three of them, hard at work with scissors and paste, to get the task accomplished. They talked very little, and joked still less; but when it was all done, like three honest men, they felt pleased with themselves, and decidedly amiable towards one another.
“Now Booms is going out for the grub, aren’t you, Booms? He’ll get some for you too, young ’un, if you like.”
“No, thanks; I’d be very glad, but I promised to have dinner with my brother—he’s a compositor here.”
“Lucky man!” groaned Booms. “Think of having nothing to do but pick up types instead of slaving like this every day!”
“See the sausages are hot this time, won’t you, Booms? And look alive, there’s a dear fellow.”
Booms retired sadly.
“Good-natured chap, Booms,” said Waterford; “rather a risk of imposing on him if one isn’t careful. He’s an awfully decent fellow, but it’s a sad pity he’s such a masher.”
“A what?” asked Horace.
“A masher. He mayn’t look it, but he goes it rather strong in that line after hours. He doesn’t mean it, poor soul; but he’s mixed up with some of our reporters, and tries to go the pace with them. I don’t care for that sort of thing myself, but if you do, he’s just your man. You wouldn’t think it to look at him, would you?”
“Certainly not,” replied Horace, much impressed by this confidence and the revelation it afforded.
As Booms re-entered shortly afterwards, looking very gloomy, burdened with two plates, two mugs, and a sheaf of knives and forks under his arm, he certainly did not give one the impression of a very rakish character, and Horace could scarcely refrain from smiling as he tried to picture him in his after-hours character.
He left the couple to their sausages, and went out, in the vain hope of finding Reginald somewhere. But there was no sign of workmen anywhere, and, to his disgust, he ascertained from a passing boy that the compositors’ dinner-hour did not begin till he was due back at his work. Everything seemed to conspire to sever the two brothers, and Horace dejectedly took a solitary and frugal repast. He determined, at all hazards, to wait a minute after the bell summoning him back to work had ceased pealing, and was rewarded by a hasty glimpse of his brother, and the exchange of a few hurried sentences. It was better than nothing, and he rushed back to his room just in time to save his reputation for punctuality.
The afternoon passed scarcely less busily than the morning. They sat—and Booms had contrived to raise a third chair somewhere—with a pile of work in front of them which at first seemed hopeless to expect to overtake.
There were effusions to “decline with thanks,” and others to enter in a book and send up to the composing-room; there were some letters to write and others to answer; there were reporters’ notes to string together and telegrams to transcribe. And all the while a dropping fire of proofs and revises and messages was kept up at them from without, which they had to carry to their chief and deal with according to his orders.
Horace, being inexperienced, was only able to take up the simpler portions of this miscellaneous work, but these kept him busy, “hammer and tongs,” with scarcely time to sneeze till well on in the afternoon.
TheRocket, unlike most evening papers, waited till the evening before it appeared, and did not go to press till five o’clock. After that it issued later editions once an hour till eight o’clock, and on special occasions even as late as ten.
The great rush of the day, therefore, as Horace soon discovered, was over at five o’clock, but between that hour and seven there was always plenty to do in connection with the late editions and the following day’s work. At seven o’clock every one left except a sub-editor and one of the clerks, and one or two compositors, to see after the eight o’clock and any possible later edition.
“As soon as you get your hand in, young ’un, you’ll have to take your turn at late work. Booms and I take every other night now.”
Horace could say nothing against this arrangement, though it meant more separation from Reginald. At present, however, his hand not being in, he had nothing to keep him after the seven o’clock bell, and he eagerly escaped at its first sound to look for Reginald.
Not, however, till he had witnessed a strange sight.
About a quarter to seven Booms, whose early evening it was, showed signs of uneasiness. He glanced sorrowfully once or twice at the clock, then at Horace, then at Waterford. Then he got up and put his papers away. Finally he mused on a washhand basin in a corner of the room, and said dolefully,—
“I must dress, I think, Waterford.”
“All serene,” said Waterford, briskly, “the young ’un and I will finish up here.” Then nudging Horace, he added in a whisper, “He’s going to rig up now. Don’t pretend to notice him, that’s all.”
Booms proceeded to divest himself of his office coat and waistcoat and collar, and to roll up the sleeves of his flannel shirt, preparatory to an energetic wash. He then opened a small box in a corner of the room, from which he produced, first a clothes-brush, with which he carefully removed all traces of dust from his nether garments; after that came a pair of light-coloured “pats,” which he fitted on to his boots; then came a bottle of hair-oil, and afterwards a highly-starched “dicky,” or shirt-front, with a stud in it, which by a complicated series of strings the owner contrived to fasten round his neck so as to conceal effectually the flannel shirt-front underneath. Once more he dived, and this time the magic box yielded up what seemed to Horace’s uninitiated eyes to be a broad strip of stiff cardboard, but which turned out to be a collar of fearful and wonderful proportions, which, when once adjusted, fully explained the wisdom displayed by the wearer in not deferring the brushing of his trousers and the donning of his “pats” to a later stage of the proceedings. For nothing, not even a pickpocket at his gilt watch-chain with its pendant “charms,” could lower his chin a quarter of an inch till bed-time. But more was yet to come. There were cuffs to put on, which left one to guess what had become of Mr Booms’s knuckles, and a light jaunty necktie to embellish the “dicky.” Then, with a plaintive sigh, he produced a blue figured waistcoat, and after it a coat shaped like the coat of a robin to cover all. Finally there appeared a hat, broad-brimmed, low-crowned, and dazzling in its glossiness, a pair of gay dogskin gloves, a crutch walking-stick, a pink silk handkerchief, and then this joint work of art and nature was complete!
“All right?” said he, in melancholy tones, as he set his hat a little on one side of his head, and, with his stick under his arm, began with his gloves.
Waterford got up and walked slowly and critically round him, giving a few touches here and there, and brushing a little stray dust from his collar.
“All right, dear boy. Mind how you go, and—”
“Oh!” groaned Booms, in tones of dire distress, “I knew I should forget something. Would you mind, Waterford?”
“What is it?”
“My glass—it’s in the box, and—and I should have got it out before I put the collar on. Thanks; I should have been lost without it. Oh! if Ihadforgotten it!”
With this awful reflection in his mind he bade a sorrowful good-night and walked off, with his head very erect, his elbows high up, and one hand fondling the nearly-neglected eyeglass.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” said Waterford, as he disappeared.
“It is—rot,” said Horace, emphatically. “Why ever don’t you laugh him out of it?”
“My dear boy, you might as well try to laugh the hair off his head. I’ve tried it a dozen times. After all, the poor dear fellow means no harm.”
“But what does he do now?”
“Oh, don’t ask me. According to his own account he’s the fastest man about town—goes to all the shows, hobnobs with all the swells, smokes furious cigars, and generally ‘mashes.’ But my private notion is he moons about the streets with the handle of his stick in his mouth and looks in a few shop windows, and gets half a dozen oysters for supper, and then goes home to bed. You see he couldn’t well get into much mischief with that collar on. If he went in for turn-downs I’d be afraid of him.”
The bell cut further conversation short, and in another minute Horace and Reginald were walking arm-in-arm in the street outside.
There was much to talk about, much to lament over, and a little to rejoice over. Horace felt half guilty as he told his brother of his good fortune, and the easy quarters into which he had fallen. But Reginald was in too defiant a mood to share these regrets as much as he would have done at any other time. As long as Durfy wanted to get rid of him, so long was he determined to stay where he was, and meanwhile in young Gedge he had some one to look after, which would make the drudgery of his daily work tolerable.
Horace did not altogether like it, but he knew it was no use arguing then on the subject. They mutually agreed to put the best face on everything before their mother. She was there to meet them at the door, and it rejoiced her heart to hear their brave talk and the cheery story of their day’s adventures. All day long her heart had gone out to them in yearnings of prayer and hope and love, and it repaid her a hundred-fold, this hour of happy meeting, with the sunlight of their faces and the music of their voices filling her soul.
As soon as supper was over Reginald suggested a precipitate retreat into the streets, for fear of another neighbourly incursion. Mrs Cruden laughingly yielded, and the trio had a long walk, heedless where they went, so long as they were together. They wandered as far as Oxford Street, looking into what shops were open, and interested still more in the ever-changing stream of people who even at ten o’clock at night crowded the pavements. They met no one they knew, not even Booms. But it mattered little to them that no one noticed them. They had one another, and there was a sense of security and comfort in that which before these last few weeks they had never dreamed of.
They were about to turn out of Oxford Street on their homeward journey when a loud shout close by arrested their attention. Looking round, they saw a boy with disordered dress and unsteady gait attempting to cross the road just as a hansom cab was bearing down at full speed on the place where he stood. They only saw his back, but it was evident he was either ill or dazed, for he stood stupidly where he was, with the peril in full-view, but somehow helpless to avoid it. The cabman shouted and pulled at his horse’s head. But to the horrified onlookers it was only too clear that nothing could stop his career in time. He was already within a yard or two of the luckless boy when Reginald made a sudden dash into the road, charging at him with a violence that sent him staggering forward two paces and then brought him to the earth. Reginald fell too, on the top of him, and as the cab dashed past it just grazed the sole of his boot where he lay.
It was all the work of a moment—the shout, the vision of the boy, and the rescue—so sudden, indeed, that Mrs Cruden had barely time to clutch Horace by the arm before Reginald lay prone in the middle of the road. In another moment Horace was beside his brother, helping him up out of the mud.
“Are you hurt, old man?”
“Not a bit,” said Reginald, very pale and breathless, but rising to his feet without help. “Look out—there’s a crowd—take mother home, and I’ll come on as soon as I’ve seen this fellow safe. I’m not damaged a bit.”
With this assurance Horace darted back to his mother in time to extricate her from the crowd which, whatever happens, is sure to collect in the streets of London at a minute’s warning.
“He’s all right,” said Horace—“not hurt a bit. Come on, mother, out of this; he’ll probably catch us up before we’re home. I say,” said he, and his voice trembled with excitement and brotherly pride as he spoke, “wasn’t it splendid?”
Mrs Cruden would fain have stayed near, but the crowd made it impossible to be of any use. So she let Horace lead her home, trembling, but with a heart full of thankfulness and pride and love for her young hero.
Reginald, meanwhile, with the coolness of an old football captain, proceeded to pick up his man, and appealed to the crowd to stand back and give the fellow room.
The boy lay half-stunned with his fall, his face covered with mud, but to Reginald’s delight he was able to move and with a little help stand on his feet. As he did so the light from the lamp of the cab fell on his face, and caused Reginald to utter an exclamation of surprise and horror.
“Young Gedge!”
The boy looked at him for a moment in a stupid bewildered way, and then gave a short startled cry.
“Are you hurt?” said Reginald, putting his arm round him.
“No—I—I don’t think—let’s get away.”
Reginald called to the crowd to stand back and let them out, an order which the crowd obeyed surlily and with a disappointed grunt. Not even a broken leg! not even the cabman’s number taken down! One or two who had seen the accident patted Reginald on the back as he went by, but he hurried past them as quickly as he could, and presently stood in the seclusion of a by-street, still supporting his companion on his arm.
“Are you hurt?” he inquired again.
“No,” said Gedge; “I can walk.”
The two stood facing one another for a moment in silence, breathless still, and trembling with the excitement of the last few minutes.
“Oh, Cruden!” cried the boy at last, seizing Reginald’s arm, “what will you think of me? I was—I—I’d been drinking—I’m sober now, but—”
Reginald cut him short gently but firmly.
“I know,” said he. “You’d better go home now, young ’un.”
Gedge made no answer, but walked on, with his arm still in that of his protector.
Reginald saw him into an omnibus, and then returned sadly and thoughtfully homeward.
“Humph!” said he to himself, as he reached Dull Street, “I suppose I shall have to stick on at theRocketafter all.”
Chapter Eight.Mr Durfy gives Reginald a Testimonial.Reginald Cruden was a young man who took life hard and seriously. He was not brilliant—indeed, he was not clever. He lacked both the good sense and the good-humour which would have enabled him, like Horace, to accept and make the best of his present lot. He felt aggrieved by the family calamity, and just enough ashamed of his poverty to make him touchy and intractable to a degree which, as we have seen already, amounted sometimes almost to stupidity.Still Reginald was honest. He made no pretence of enjoying life when he did not enjoy it. He disliked Mr Durfy, and therefore he flared up if Mr Durfy so much as looked at him. He liked young Gedge, and therefore it was impossible to leave the youngster to his fate and let him ruin himself without an effort at rescue.It is one thing to snatch a heedless one from under the hoofs of a cab-horse and another to pick him up from the slippery path of vice and set him firmly on his feet. Reginald had thought nothing of the one, but he looked forward with considerable trepidation to meeting the boy next morning and attempting the other.Gedge was there when he arrived, working very busily, and looking rather troubled. He flushed up as Reginald approached, and put down his composing-stick to shake hands with him. Reginald looked and felt by a long way the more uncomfortable and guilty of the two, and he was at least thankful that Gedge spared him the trouble of beginning.“Oh! Cruden,” said the boy, “I know exactly what you’re going to say. You’re going to tell me you’re deceived in me, and that I’m a young fool and going to the dogs as hard as I can. I don’t wonder you think so.”“I wasn’t going to say that,” said Reginald. “I was going to ask you how you were.”“Oh, I’m all right; but I know you’re going to lecture me, Cruden, and I’m sure you may. There’s nothing you can say I don’t deserve. I only wish I could make you believe I’ll never be such a fool again. I’ve been making resolutions all night, and now you’ve come here I’m sure I shall be able to break it off. If you will only stand by me, Cruden! I owe you such a lot. If you only knew how grateful I was!”“Perhaps we’d better not talk about it now,” said Reginald, feeling very uncomfortable and rather disconcerted at this glib flow of penitence.But young Gedge was full of it yet, and went on,—“I’m going to turn over a new leaf this very day, Cruden. I’ve told the errand-boy he’s not to get me any beer, and I’m determined next time that beast Durfy asks me to go—”“What!” exclaimed Reginald; “was it with him you used to go?”“Yes. I know you’ll think all the worse of me for it, after the blackguard way he’s got on to you. You see, before you came I didn’t like—that is, I couldn’t well refuse him; he’d have made it so hot for me here. I fancy he found out I had some pocket-money of my own, for he generally picked on me to come and have drinks with him, and of course I had to pay. Why, only last night—look out, here he comes!”Sure enough he was, and in his usual amiable frame of mind.“Oh, there you are, are you?” he said to Reginald, with a sneer. “Do you know where the lower-case ‘x’ is now, eh?”Reginald, swelling with the indignation Gedge’s story had roused in him, turned his back and made no answer.Nothing, as he might have known by this time, could have irritated Mr Durfy more.“Look here, young gentleman,” said the latter, coming close up to Reginald’s side and hissing the words very disagreeably in his ear, “when I ask a question in this shop I expect to get an answer; mind that. And what’s more, I’ll have one, or you leave this place in five minutes. Come, now, give me a lower-case ‘x.’”Reginald hesitated a moment. Suppose Mr Durfy had it in him to be as good as his word. What then about young Gedge?He picked up an “x” sullenly, and tossed it at the overseer’s feet.“That’s not giving it to me,” said the latter, with a sneer of triumph already on his face. “Pick it up directly, do you hear? and give it to me.”Reginald stood and glared first at Mr Durfy, then at the type.Yesterday he would have defiantly told him to pick it up himself, caring little what the cost might be. But things had changed since then. Humiliating as it was to own it, he could not afford to be turned off. His pride could not afford it, his care for young Gedge could not afford it, the slender family purse could not afford it. Why ever did he not think of it all before, and spare himself this double indignity?With a groan which represented as much inward misery and humiliation as could well be compressed into a single action, he stooped down and picked up the type and handed it to Mr Durfy.It was well for him he did not raise his eyes to see the smile with which that gentleman received it.“Next time it’ll save you trouble to do what you’re told at once, Mr Puppy,” he said. “Get on with your work, and don’t let me catch you idling your time any more.”And he walked off crowned with victory and as happy in his mind as if he had just heard of the decease of his enemy the manager.It was a bad beginning to the day for Reginald. He had come to work that morning in a virtuous frame of mind, determined, if possible, to do his duty peaceably and to hold out a helping hand to young Gedge. It was hard enough now to think of anything but his own indignities and the wretch to whom he owed them.He turned to his work almost viciously, and for an hour buried himself in it, without saying a word or lifting his eyes from his case. Then young Gedge, stealing a nervous glance at his face, ventured to say,—“I say, Cruden, I wish I could stand things like you. I don’t know what I should have done if that blackguard had treated me like that.”“What’s the use?” said Reginald. “He wants to get rid of me, and I’m not going to let him.”“I’m jolly glad of it for my sake. I wish I could pay him out for you.”“So you can.”“How?”“Next time he wants you to go and drink, say No,” said Reginald.“Upon my word I will,” said Gedge; “and I don’t care how hot he makes it for me, if you stick by me, Cruden.”“You know I’ll stick by you, young ’un,” said Reginald; “but that won’t do you much good, unless you stick by yourself. Suppose Durfy managed to get rid of me after all—”“Then I should go to—to the dogs,” said Gedge, emphatically.“You’re a greater fool than I took you for, then,” said Reginald. “If you only knew,” he added more gently, “what a job it is to do what’s right myself, and how often I don’t do it, you’d see it’s no use expecting me to be good for you and myself both.”“What on earth am I to do, then? I’m certain I can’t keep square myself; I never could. Who’s to look after me if you don’t?”Like a brave man, Reginald, shy and reserved as he was, told him.I need not repeat what was said that morning over the type cases. It was not a sermon, nor a catechism; only a few stammering laboured words spoken by a boy who felt himself half a hypocrite as he said them, and who yet, for the affection he bore his friend, had the courage to go through with a task which cost him twenty times the effort of rescuing the boy yesterday from his bodily peril.Little good, you will say, such a sermon from such a perverse, bad-humoured preacher as Reginald Cruden, could do! Very likely, reader; but, after all, who are you or I to say so? Had any one told Reginald a week ago what would be taking place to-day, he would have coloured up indignantly and hoped he was not quite such a prig as all that. As it was, when it was all over, it was with no self-satisfied smile or inward gratulation that he returned to his work, but rather with the nervous uncomfortable misgivings of one who says to himself,—“After all I may have done more harm than good.”By the end of a fortnight Reginald, greatly to Mr Durfy’s dissatisfaction, was an accomplished compositor. He could set-up almost as quickly as Gedge, and his “proofs” showed far fewer corrections. Moreover, as he was punctual in his hours, and diligent at his work, it was extremely difficult for the overseer or any one else to find any pretext for abusing him.It is true, Mr Barber, who had not yet given up the idea of asserting his moral and intellectual superiority, continued by the ingenious device of “squabbling” his case, and tampering with the screw of his composing-stick, and other such pleasing jokes not unknown to printers, to disconcert the new beginner on one or two occasions. But ever since Reginald one morning, catching him in the act of mixing up his e’s with his a’s, had carried him by the collar of his coat and the belt of his breeches to the water tank and dipped his head therein three times with no interval for refreshment between, Mr Barber had moderated his attentions and become less exuberant in his humour.With the exception of Gedge, now his fast ally, Reginald’s other fellow-workmen concerned themselves very little with his proceedings. One or two, indeed, noticing his proficiency, hinted to him that he was a fool to work for the wages he was getting, and some went so far as to say he had no right to do so, and had better join the “chapel” to save trouble.What the “chapel” was Reginald did not trouble even to inquire, and replied curtly that it was no business of any one else what his wages were.“Wasn’t it?” said the deputation. “What was to become of them if fellows did their work for half wages, they should like to know?”“Are you going off, or must I make you?” demanded Reginald, feeling he had had enough of it.And the deputation, remembering Barber’s head and the water tank, withdrew, very much perplexed what to do to uphold the dignity of the “chapel.”They decided to keep their “eye” on him, and as they were able to do this at a distance, Reginald had no objection at all to their decision.He meanwhile was keeping his eye on Gedge and Mr Durfy, and about a fortnight after his arrival at theRocket, a passage of arms occurred which, slight as it was, had a serious influence on the future of all three parties concerned.The seven o’clock bell had rung, and this being one of Horace’s late evenings, Reginald proposed to Gedge to stroll home with him and call and see Mrs Cruden.The boy accepted readily, and the two were starting off arm in arm when Mr Durfy confronted them. Reginald, who had never met his adversary beyond the precincts of theRocketbefore, did not for a moment recognise the vulgar, loudly dressed little man, sucking his big cigar and wearing his pot hat ostentatiously on one side; but when he did he turned contemptuously aside and said,—“Come on, young ’un.”“Come on, young ’un!” echoed Mr Durfy, taking his cigar from his mouth and flicking the ashes in Reginald’s direction, “that’s just what I was going to say. Young Gedge, you’re coming with me to-night. I’ve got orders for the Alhambra, my boy, and supper afterwards.”“Thank you,” said Gedge, rather uncomfortably, “it’s very kind of you, Mr Durfy, but I’ve promised Cruden to go with him.”“Promised Cruden! What do you mean? Cruden’ll keep till to-morrow; the orders won’t.”“I’m afraid I can’t,” said Gedge.“Afraid! I tell you I don’t mean to stand here all night begging you. Just come along and no more nonsense. We’ll have a night of it.”“You must excuse me,” said the boy, torn between Reginald on the one hand and the fear of offending Durfy on the other.The latter began to take in the position of affairs, and his temper evaporated accordingly.“I won’t excuse you; that’s all about it,” he said; “let go that snivelling lout’s arm and do what you’re told. Let the boy alone, do you hear?” added he, addressing Reginald, “and take yourself off. Come along, Gedge.”“Gedge is not going with you,” said Reginald, keeping the boy’s arm in his; “he’s coming with me, aren’t you, young ’un?”The boy pressed his arm gratefully, but made no reply.This was all Mr Durfy wanted to fill up the vials of his wrath.“You miserable young hound you,” said he, with an oath; “let go the boy this moment, or I’ll turn you out of the place—and him too.”Reginald made no reply. His face was pale, but he kept the boy’s arm still fast in his own.“Going with you, indeed?” shouted Mr Durfy; “going with you, is he? to learn how to cant and sing psalms! Not if I know it—or if he does, you and he and your brother and your old fool of a mother—”Mr Durfy never got to the end of that sentence. A blow straight from the shoulder of the Wilderham captain sent him sprawling on the pavement before the word was well out of his mouth.It had come now. It had been bound to come sooner or later, and Reginald, as he drew the boy’s arm once more under his own, felt almost a sense of relief as he stood and watched Mr Durfy slowly pick himself up and collect his scattered wardrobe.It was some time before the operation was complete, and even then Mr Durfy’s powers of speech had not returned. With a malignant scowl he stepped up to his enemy and hissed the one menace,—“All right!” and then walked away.Reginald waited till he had disappeared round the corner, and then, turning to his companion, took a long breath and said,—“Come along, young ’un; it can’t be helped.”The reader must forgive me if I ask him to leave the two lads to walk to Dull Street by themselves, while he accompanies me in the wake of the outraged and mud-stained Mr Durfy.That gentleman was far more wounded in his mind than in his person. He may have been knocked down before in his life, but he had never, as far as he could recollect, been quite so summarily routed by a boy half his age earning only eighteen shillings a week! And the conviction that some people would think he had only got his deserts in what he had suffered, pained him very much indeed.He did not go to the Alhambra. His clothes were too dirty, and his spirits were far too low. He did, in the thriftiness of his soul, attempt to sell his orders in the crowd at the theatre door. But no one rose to the bait, so he had to put them back in his pocket on the chance of being able to “doctor up” the date and crush in with them some other day. Then he mooned listlessly up and down the streets for an hour till his clothes were dry, and then turned into a public-house to get a brush down and while away another hour.Still the vision of Reginald standing where he had last seen him with young Gedge at his side haunted him and spoiled his pleasure. He wandered forth again, feeling quite lonely, and wishing some one or something would turn up to comfort him. Nor was he disappointed.“The very chap,” said a voice suddenly at his side when he was beginning to despair of any diversion.“So it is. How are you, my man? We were talking of you not two minutes ago.”Durfy pulled up and found himself confronted by two gentlemen, one about forty and the other a fashionable young man of twenty-five.“How are you, Mr Medlock?” said he to the elder in as familiar a tone as he could assume; “glad to see you, sir. How are you, too, Mr Shanklin, pretty well?”“Pretty fair,” said Mr Shanklin. “Come and have a drink, Durfy. You look all in the blues. Gone in love, I suppose, eh? or been speculating on the Stock Exchange? You shouldn’t, you know, a respectable man like you.”“He looks as if he’d been speculating in mud,” said Mr Medlock, pointing to the unfortunate overseer’s collar and hat, which still bore traces of his recent calamity. “Never mind; we’ll wash it off in the Bodega. Come along.”Durfy felt rather shy at first in his grand company, especially with the consciousness of his muddy collar. But after about half an hour in the Bodega he recovered his self-possession, and felt himself at home.“By the way,” said Mr Medlock, filling up his visitor’s glass, “last time we saw you you did us nicely over that tip for the Park Races, my boy! If Alf and I hadn’t been hedged close up, we should have lost a pot of money.”“I’m very sorry,” said Durfy. “You see, another telegram came after the one I showed you, that I never saw; that’s how it happened. I really did my best for you.”“But it’s a bad job, if we pay you to get hold of theRocket’stelegrams and then lose our money over it,” said Mr Medlock. “Never mind this time, but you’d better look a little sharper, my boy. There’s the Brummagem Cup next week, you know, and we shall want to know the latest scratches on the night before. It’ll be worth a fiver to you if you work it well, Durfy. Fill up your glass.”Mr Durfy obeyed, glad enough to turn the conversation from the miscarriage of his last attempt to filch his employers’ telegrams for the benefit of his betting friends’ and his own pocket.“By the way,” said Mr Shanklin, presently, “Moses and I have got a little Company on hand just now, Durfy. What do you think of that?”“A company?” said Mr Durfy; “I’ll wager it’s not a limited one, if you’re at the bottom of it! What’s your little game now?”“It’s a little idea of Alf’s,” said Mr Medlock, whose Christian name was Moses, “and it ought to come off too. This is something the way of it. Suppose you were a young greenhorn, Durfy—which I’m afraid you aren’t—and saw an advertisement in theRocketsaying you could make two hundred and fifty pounds a year easy without interfering with your business, eh? what would you do?”“If I was a greenhorn,” said Durfy, “I’d answer the advertisement and enclose a stamped envelope for a reply.”“To be sure you would! And the reply would be, we’d like to have a look at you, and if you looked as green as we took you for, we’d ask for a deposit, and then allow you to sell wines and cigars and that sort of fancy goods to your friends. You’d sell a dozen of port at sixty shillings, do you see? half the cash down and half on delivery. We’d send your friend a dozen at twelve and six, and if he didn’t shell out the other thirty bob on delivery, we’d still have the thirty bob he paid down to cover our loss. Do you twig?”Durfy laughed. “Do you dream all these things,” he said, “or how do you ever think of them?”“Genius, my boy; genius,” said Mr Medlock. “Of course,” he added, “it couldn’t run for long, but we might give it a turn for a month or two.”“The worst of it is,” put in Mr Shanklin, “it’s a ticklish sort of business that some people are uncommon sharp at smelling out; one has to be very careful. There’s the advertisement, for instance. You’ll have to smuggle it into theRocket, my boy. It wouldn’t do for the governors to see it; they’d be up to it. But they’d never see it after it was in, and theRocket’sjust the paper for us.”“I’ll try and manage that,” said Durfy. “You give it me, and I’ll stick it in with a batch of others somehow.”“Alf thinks we’d better do the thing from Liverpool,” continued Mr Medlock, “and all we want is a good secretary—a nice, green, innocent, stupid, honest young fellow—that’s what we want. If we could pick up one of that sort, there’s no doubt of the thing working.”Mr Durfy started and coloured up, and then looked first at Mr Medlock and then at Mr Shanklin.“What’s the matter? Do you thinkyou’dsuit the place?” asked the former, with a laugh.“No; but I know who will!”“You do! Who?”“A young puppy under me at theRocket?” said Durfy, excitedly; “the very man to a T!” And he thereupon launched into a description of Reginald’s character in a way which showed that not only was he a shrewd observer of human nature in his way, but, when it served his purpose, could see the good even in a man he hated.“I tell you,” said he, “he’s born for you, if you can only get him! And if you don’t think so after what I’ve said, perhaps you’ll believe me when I tell you, on the quiet, he knocked me down in the gutter this very evening because I wanted to carry off a young convert of his to make a night of it at the Alhambra. There, what do you think of that? I wouldn’t tell tales of myself like that for fun, I can tell you!”“There’s no mistake about that being the sort of chap we want,” said Mr Medlock.“If only we can get hold of him,” said Mr Shanklin.“Leave that to me,” said Mr Durfy; “only if he comes to you never say a word about me, or he’ll shy off.”Whereupon these three guileless friends finished their glasses and separated in great good spirits and mutual admiration.
Reginald Cruden was a young man who took life hard and seriously. He was not brilliant—indeed, he was not clever. He lacked both the good sense and the good-humour which would have enabled him, like Horace, to accept and make the best of his present lot. He felt aggrieved by the family calamity, and just enough ashamed of his poverty to make him touchy and intractable to a degree which, as we have seen already, amounted sometimes almost to stupidity.
Still Reginald was honest. He made no pretence of enjoying life when he did not enjoy it. He disliked Mr Durfy, and therefore he flared up if Mr Durfy so much as looked at him. He liked young Gedge, and therefore it was impossible to leave the youngster to his fate and let him ruin himself without an effort at rescue.
It is one thing to snatch a heedless one from under the hoofs of a cab-horse and another to pick him up from the slippery path of vice and set him firmly on his feet. Reginald had thought nothing of the one, but he looked forward with considerable trepidation to meeting the boy next morning and attempting the other.
Gedge was there when he arrived, working very busily, and looking rather troubled. He flushed up as Reginald approached, and put down his composing-stick to shake hands with him. Reginald looked and felt by a long way the more uncomfortable and guilty of the two, and he was at least thankful that Gedge spared him the trouble of beginning.
“Oh! Cruden,” said the boy, “I know exactly what you’re going to say. You’re going to tell me you’re deceived in me, and that I’m a young fool and going to the dogs as hard as I can. I don’t wonder you think so.”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” said Reginald. “I was going to ask you how you were.”
“Oh, I’m all right; but I know you’re going to lecture me, Cruden, and I’m sure you may. There’s nothing you can say I don’t deserve. I only wish I could make you believe I’ll never be such a fool again. I’ve been making resolutions all night, and now you’ve come here I’m sure I shall be able to break it off. If you will only stand by me, Cruden! I owe you such a lot. If you only knew how grateful I was!”
“Perhaps we’d better not talk about it now,” said Reginald, feeling very uncomfortable and rather disconcerted at this glib flow of penitence.
But young Gedge was full of it yet, and went on,—
“I’m going to turn over a new leaf this very day, Cruden. I’ve told the errand-boy he’s not to get me any beer, and I’m determined next time that beast Durfy asks me to go—”
“What!” exclaimed Reginald; “was it with him you used to go?”
“Yes. I know you’ll think all the worse of me for it, after the blackguard way he’s got on to you. You see, before you came I didn’t like—that is, I couldn’t well refuse him; he’d have made it so hot for me here. I fancy he found out I had some pocket-money of my own, for he generally picked on me to come and have drinks with him, and of course I had to pay. Why, only last night—look out, here he comes!”
Sure enough he was, and in his usual amiable frame of mind.
“Oh, there you are, are you?” he said to Reginald, with a sneer. “Do you know where the lower-case ‘x’ is now, eh?”
Reginald, swelling with the indignation Gedge’s story had roused in him, turned his back and made no answer.
Nothing, as he might have known by this time, could have irritated Mr Durfy more.
“Look here, young gentleman,” said the latter, coming close up to Reginald’s side and hissing the words very disagreeably in his ear, “when I ask a question in this shop I expect to get an answer; mind that. And what’s more, I’ll have one, or you leave this place in five minutes. Come, now, give me a lower-case ‘x.’”
Reginald hesitated a moment. Suppose Mr Durfy had it in him to be as good as his word. What then about young Gedge?
He picked up an “x” sullenly, and tossed it at the overseer’s feet.
“That’s not giving it to me,” said the latter, with a sneer of triumph already on his face. “Pick it up directly, do you hear? and give it to me.”
Reginald stood and glared first at Mr Durfy, then at the type.
Yesterday he would have defiantly told him to pick it up himself, caring little what the cost might be. But things had changed since then. Humiliating as it was to own it, he could not afford to be turned off. His pride could not afford it, his care for young Gedge could not afford it, the slender family purse could not afford it. Why ever did he not think of it all before, and spare himself this double indignity?
With a groan which represented as much inward misery and humiliation as could well be compressed into a single action, he stooped down and picked up the type and handed it to Mr Durfy.
It was well for him he did not raise his eyes to see the smile with which that gentleman received it.
“Next time it’ll save you trouble to do what you’re told at once, Mr Puppy,” he said. “Get on with your work, and don’t let me catch you idling your time any more.”
And he walked off crowned with victory and as happy in his mind as if he had just heard of the decease of his enemy the manager.
It was a bad beginning to the day for Reginald. He had come to work that morning in a virtuous frame of mind, determined, if possible, to do his duty peaceably and to hold out a helping hand to young Gedge. It was hard enough now to think of anything but his own indignities and the wretch to whom he owed them.
He turned to his work almost viciously, and for an hour buried himself in it, without saying a word or lifting his eyes from his case. Then young Gedge, stealing a nervous glance at his face, ventured to say,—
“I say, Cruden, I wish I could stand things like you. I don’t know what I should have done if that blackguard had treated me like that.”
“What’s the use?” said Reginald. “He wants to get rid of me, and I’m not going to let him.”
“I’m jolly glad of it for my sake. I wish I could pay him out for you.”
“So you can.”
“How?”
“Next time he wants you to go and drink, say No,” said Reginald.
“Upon my word I will,” said Gedge; “and I don’t care how hot he makes it for me, if you stick by me, Cruden.”
“You know I’ll stick by you, young ’un,” said Reginald; “but that won’t do you much good, unless you stick by yourself. Suppose Durfy managed to get rid of me after all—”
“Then I should go to—to the dogs,” said Gedge, emphatically.
“You’re a greater fool than I took you for, then,” said Reginald. “If you only knew,” he added more gently, “what a job it is to do what’s right myself, and how often I don’t do it, you’d see it’s no use expecting me to be good for you and myself both.”
“What on earth am I to do, then? I’m certain I can’t keep square myself; I never could. Who’s to look after me if you don’t?”
Like a brave man, Reginald, shy and reserved as he was, told him.
I need not repeat what was said that morning over the type cases. It was not a sermon, nor a catechism; only a few stammering laboured words spoken by a boy who felt himself half a hypocrite as he said them, and who yet, for the affection he bore his friend, had the courage to go through with a task which cost him twenty times the effort of rescuing the boy yesterday from his bodily peril.
Little good, you will say, such a sermon from such a perverse, bad-humoured preacher as Reginald Cruden, could do! Very likely, reader; but, after all, who are you or I to say so? Had any one told Reginald a week ago what would be taking place to-day, he would have coloured up indignantly and hoped he was not quite such a prig as all that. As it was, when it was all over, it was with no self-satisfied smile or inward gratulation that he returned to his work, but rather with the nervous uncomfortable misgivings of one who says to himself,—
“After all I may have done more harm than good.”
By the end of a fortnight Reginald, greatly to Mr Durfy’s dissatisfaction, was an accomplished compositor. He could set-up almost as quickly as Gedge, and his “proofs” showed far fewer corrections. Moreover, as he was punctual in his hours, and diligent at his work, it was extremely difficult for the overseer or any one else to find any pretext for abusing him.
It is true, Mr Barber, who had not yet given up the idea of asserting his moral and intellectual superiority, continued by the ingenious device of “squabbling” his case, and tampering with the screw of his composing-stick, and other such pleasing jokes not unknown to printers, to disconcert the new beginner on one or two occasions. But ever since Reginald one morning, catching him in the act of mixing up his e’s with his a’s, had carried him by the collar of his coat and the belt of his breeches to the water tank and dipped his head therein three times with no interval for refreshment between, Mr Barber had moderated his attentions and become less exuberant in his humour.
With the exception of Gedge, now his fast ally, Reginald’s other fellow-workmen concerned themselves very little with his proceedings. One or two, indeed, noticing his proficiency, hinted to him that he was a fool to work for the wages he was getting, and some went so far as to say he had no right to do so, and had better join the “chapel” to save trouble.
What the “chapel” was Reginald did not trouble even to inquire, and replied curtly that it was no business of any one else what his wages were.
“Wasn’t it?” said the deputation. “What was to become of them if fellows did their work for half wages, they should like to know?”
“Are you going off, or must I make you?” demanded Reginald, feeling he had had enough of it.
And the deputation, remembering Barber’s head and the water tank, withdrew, very much perplexed what to do to uphold the dignity of the “chapel.”
They decided to keep their “eye” on him, and as they were able to do this at a distance, Reginald had no objection at all to their decision.
He meanwhile was keeping his eye on Gedge and Mr Durfy, and about a fortnight after his arrival at theRocket, a passage of arms occurred which, slight as it was, had a serious influence on the future of all three parties concerned.
The seven o’clock bell had rung, and this being one of Horace’s late evenings, Reginald proposed to Gedge to stroll home with him and call and see Mrs Cruden.
The boy accepted readily, and the two were starting off arm in arm when Mr Durfy confronted them. Reginald, who had never met his adversary beyond the precincts of theRocketbefore, did not for a moment recognise the vulgar, loudly dressed little man, sucking his big cigar and wearing his pot hat ostentatiously on one side; but when he did he turned contemptuously aside and said,—
“Come on, young ’un.”
“Come on, young ’un!” echoed Mr Durfy, taking his cigar from his mouth and flicking the ashes in Reginald’s direction, “that’s just what I was going to say. Young Gedge, you’re coming with me to-night. I’ve got orders for the Alhambra, my boy, and supper afterwards.”
“Thank you,” said Gedge, rather uncomfortably, “it’s very kind of you, Mr Durfy, but I’ve promised Cruden to go with him.”
“Promised Cruden! What do you mean? Cruden’ll keep till to-morrow; the orders won’t.”
“I’m afraid I can’t,” said Gedge.
“Afraid! I tell you I don’t mean to stand here all night begging you. Just come along and no more nonsense. We’ll have a night of it.”
“You must excuse me,” said the boy, torn between Reginald on the one hand and the fear of offending Durfy on the other.
The latter began to take in the position of affairs, and his temper evaporated accordingly.
“I won’t excuse you; that’s all about it,” he said; “let go that snivelling lout’s arm and do what you’re told. Let the boy alone, do you hear?” added he, addressing Reginald, “and take yourself off. Come along, Gedge.”
“Gedge is not going with you,” said Reginald, keeping the boy’s arm in his; “he’s coming with me, aren’t you, young ’un?”
The boy pressed his arm gratefully, but made no reply.
This was all Mr Durfy wanted to fill up the vials of his wrath.
“You miserable young hound you,” said he, with an oath; “let go the boy this moment, or I’ll turn you out of the place—and him too.”
Reginald made no reply. His face was pale, but he kept the boy’s arm still fast in his own.
“Going with you, indeed?” shouted Mr Durfy; “going with you, is he? to learn how to cant and sing psalms! Not if I know it—or if he does, you and he and your brother and your old fool of a mother—”
Mr Durfy never got to the end of that sentence. A blow straight from the shoulder of the Wilderham captain sent him sprawling on the pavement before the word was well out of his mouth.
It had come now. It had been bound to come sooner or later, and Reginald, as he drew the boy’s arm once more under his own, felt almost a sense of relief as he stood and watched Mr Durfy slowly pick himself up and collect his scattered wardrobe.
It was some time before the operation was complete, and even then Mr Durfy’s powers of speech had not returned. With a malignant scowl he stepped up to his enemy and hissed the one menace,—
“All right!” and then walked away.
Reginald waited till he had disappeared round the corner, and then, turning to his companion, took a long breath and said,—
“Come along, young ’un; it can’t be helped.”
The reader must forgive me if I ask him to leave the two lads to walk to Dull Street by themselves, while he accompanies me in the wake of the outraged and mud-stained Mr Durfy.
That gentleman was far more wounded in his mind than in his person. He may have been knocked down before in his life, but he had never, as far as he could recollect, been quite so summarily routed by a boy half his age earning only eighteen shillings a week! And the conviction that some people would think he had only got his deserts in what he had suffered, pained him very much indeed.
He did not go to the Alhambra. His clothes were too dirty, and his spirits were far too low. He did, in the thriftiness of his soul, attempt to sell his orders in the crowd at the theatre door. But no one rose to the bait, so he had to put them back in his pocket on the chance of being able to “doctor up” the date and crush in with them some other day. Then he mooned listlessly up and down the streets for an hour till his clothes were dry, and then turned into a public-house to get a brush down and while away another hour.
Still the vision of Reginald standing where he had last seen him with young Gedge at his side haunted him and spoiled his pleasure. He wandered forth again, feeling quite lonely, and wishing some one or something would turn up to comfort him. Nor was he disappointed.
“The very chap,” said a voice suddenly at his side when he was beginning to despair of any diversion.
“So it is. How are you, my man? We were talking of you not two minutes ago.”
Durfy pulled up and found himself confronted by two gentlemen, one about forty and the other a fashionable young man of twenty-five.
“How are you, Mr Medlock?” said he to the elder in as familiar a tone as he could assume; “glad to see you, sir. How are you, too, Mr Shanklin, pretty well?”
“Pretty fair,” said Mr Shanklin. “Come and have a drink, Durfy. You look all in the blues. Gone in love, I suppose, eh? or been speculating on the Stock Exchange? You shouldn’t, you know, a respectable man like you.”
“He looks as if he’d been speculating in mud,” said Mr Medlock, pointing to the unfortunate overseer’s collar and hat, which still bore traces of his recent calamity. “Never mind; we’ll wash it off in the Bodega. Come along.”
Durfy felt rather shy at first in his grand company, especially with the consciousness of his muddy collar. But after about half an hour in the Bodega he recovered his self-possession, and felt himself at home.
“By the way,” said Mr Medlock, filling up his visitor’s glass, “last time we saw you you did us nicely over that tip for the Park Races, my boy! If Alf and I hadn’t been hedged close up, we should have lost a pot of money.”
“I’m very sorry,” said Durfy. “You see, another telegram came after the one I showed you, that I never saw; that’s how it happened. I really did my best for you.”
“But it’s a bad job, if we pay you to get hold of theRocket’stelegrams and then lose our money over it,” said Mr Medlock. “Never mind this time, but you’d better look a little sharper, my boy. There’s the Brummagem Cup next week, you know, and we shall want to know the latest scratches on the night before. It’ll be worth a fiver to you if you work it well, Durfy. Fill up your glass.”
Mr Durfy obeyed, glad enough to turn the conversation from the miscarriage of his last attempt to filch his employers’ telegrams for the benefit of his betting friends’ and his own pocket.
“By the way,” said Mr Shanklin, presently, “Moses and I have got a little Company on hand just now, Durfy. What do you think of that?”
“A company?” said Mr Durfy; “I’ll wager it’s not a limited one, if you’re at the bottom of it! What’s your little game now?”
“It’s a little idea of Alf’s,” said Mr Medlock, whose Christian name was Moses, “and it ought to come off too. This is something the way of it. Suppose you were a young greenhorn, Durfy—which I’m afraid you aren’t—and saw an advertisement in theRocketsaying you could make two hundred and fifty pounds a year easy without interfering with your business, eh? what would you do?”
“If I was a greenhorn,” said Durfy, “I’d answer the advertisement and enclose a stamped envelope for a reply.”
“To be sure you would! And the reply would be, we’d like to have a look at you, and if you looked as green as we took you for, we’d ask for a deposit, and then allow you to sell wines and cigars and that sort of fancy goods to your friends. You’d sell a dozen of port at sixty shillings, do you see? half the cash down and half on delivery. We’d send your friend a dozen at twelve and six, and if he didn’t shell out the other thirty bob on delivery, we’d still have the thirty bob he paid down to cover our loss. Do you twig?”
Durfy laughed. “Do you dream all these things,” he said, “or how do you ever think of them?”
“Genius, my boy; genius,” said Mr Medlock. “Of course,” he added, “it couldn’t run for long, but we might give it a turn for a month or two.”
“The worst of it is,” put in Mr Shanklin, “it’s a ticklish sort of business that some people are uncommon sharp at smelling out; one has to be very careful. There’s the advertisement, for instance. You’ll have to smuggle it into theRocket, my boy. It wouldn’t do for the governors to see it; they’d be up to it. But they’d never see it after it was in, and theRocket’sjust the paper for us.”
“I’ll try and manage that,” said Durfy. “You give it me, and I’ll stick it in with a batch of others somehow.”
“Alf thinks we’d better do the thing from Liverpool,” continued Mr Medlock, “and all we want is a good secretary—a nice, green, innocent, stupid, honest young fellow—that’s what we want. If we could pick up one of that sort, there’s no doubt of the thing working.”
Mr Durfy started and coloured up, and then looked first at Mr Medlock and then at Mr Shanklin.
“What’s the matter? Do you thinkyou’dsuit the place?” asked the former, with a laugh.
“No; but I know who will!”
“You do! Who?”
“A young puppy under me at theRocket?” said Durfy, excitedly; “the very man to a T!” And he thereupon launched into a description of Reginald’s character in a way which showed that not only was he a shrewd observer of human nature in his way, but, when it served his purpose, could see the good even in a man he hated.
“I tell you,” said he, “he’s born for you, if you can only get him! And if you don’t think so after what I’ve said, perhaps you’ll believe me when I tell you, on the quiet, he knocked me down in the gutter this very evening because I wanted to carry off a young convert of his to make a night of it at the Alhambra. There, what do you think of that? I wouldn’t tell tales of myself like that for fun, I can tell you!”
“There’s no mistake about that being the sort of chap we want,” said Mr Medlock.
“If only we can get hold of him,” said Mr Shanklin.
“Leave that to me,” said Mr Durfy; “only if he comes to you never say a word about me, or he’ll shy off.”
Whereupon these three guileless friends finished their glasses and separated in great good spirits and mutual admiration.
Chapter Nine.Samuel Shuckleford comes of Age.Reginald, meanwhile, blissfully unconscious of the arrangements which were being made for him, spent as comfortable an evening as he could in the conviction that to-morrow would witness his dismissal from theRocket, and see him a waif on the great ocean of London life. To his mother, and even to young Gedge, he said nothing of his misgivings, but to Horace, as the two lay awake that night, he made a clean breast of all.“You’ll call me a fool, I suppose,” he said; “but how could I help it?”“A fool! Why, Reg, I know I should have done the same. But for all that, itisunlucky.”“It is. Even eighteen shillings a week is better than nothing,” said Reginald, with a groan. “Poor mother was saying only yesterday we were just paying for our keep, and nothing more. What will she do now?”“Oh, you’ll get into something, I’m certain,” said Horace; “and meanwhile—”“Meanwhile I’ll do anything rather than live on you and mother, Horrors; I’ve made up my mind to that. Why,” continued he, “you wouldn’t believe what a sneak I’ve been already. You know what Bland said about the football club in his letter? No, I didn’t show it to you. He said it would go down awfully well if I sent the fellows my usual subscription. I couldn’t bear not to do it after that, and I—I sold my tennis-bat for five shillings, and took another five shillings out of my last two weeks’ wages, and sent them half a sov. the other day.”Horace gave an involuntary whistle of dismay, but added, quickly,—“I hope the fellows will be grateful for it, old man; they ought to be. Never mind, I’m certain we shall pull through it some day. We must hope for the best, anyhow.”And with a brotherly grip of the hand they turned over and went to sleep.Reginald presented himself at theRocketnext morning in an unusual state of trepidation. He had half made up his mind to march straight to the manager’s room and tell him boldly what had happened, and take his discharge from him. But Horace dissuaded him.“After all,” he said, “Durfy may think better of it.”“Upon my word I hardly know whether I want him to,” said Reginald, “except for young Gedge’s sake and mother’s. Anyhow, I’ll wait and see, if you like.”Mr Durfy was there when he arrived, bearing no traces of last night’sfracas, except a scowl and a sneer, which deepened as he caught sight of his adversary. Reginald passed close to his table, in order to give him an opportunity of coming to the point at once; but to his surprise the overseer took no apparent notice of him, and allowed him to go to his place and begin work as usual.“I’d sooner see him tearing his hair than grinning like that,” said young Gedge, in a whisper. “You may be sure there’s something in the wind.”Whatever it was, Mr Durfy kept his own counsel, and though Reginald looked up now and then and caught him scowling viciously in his direction, he made no attempt at hostilities, and rather appeared to ignore him altogether.Even when he was giving out the “copy” he sent Reginald his by a boy, instead of, as was usually his practice, calling him up to the table to receive it. Reginald’s copy on this occasion consisted of a number of advertisements, a class of work not nearly as easy and far less interesting than the paragraphs of news which generally fell to his share. However, he attacked them boldly, and, unattractive as they were, contrived to get some occupation from them for his mind as well as his hand.Here, for instance, was some one who wanted “a groom, young, good-looking, and used to horses.” How would that suit him? And why need he be good-looking? And what was the use of saying he must be used to horses? Who ever heard of a groom that wasn’t? The man who put in that advertisement was a muff. Here was another of a different sort:“J.S. Come back to your afflicted mother and all shall be forgiven.”Heigho! suppose “J.S.” had got a mother like Mrs Cruden, what a brute he must be to cut away. What had he been doing to her? robbing her? or bullying her? or what? Reginald worked himself into a state of wrath over the prodigal, and very nearly persuaded himself to leave out the promise of forgiveness altogether.“If the young gentleman who dropped an envelope in the Putney omnibus on the evening of the 6th instant will apply to B, at 16, Grip Street, he may hear of something to his advantage.”How some people were born to luck! Think of making your fortune by dropping an envelope in a Putney omnibus. How gladly he would pave the floor of every omnibus he rode in with envelopes if only he could thereby hear anything to his advantage! He had a great mind to stroll round by Number 16, Grip Street that evening to see who this mysterious “B” could be.“To intelligent young men in business.—Add £50 a year to your income without any risk or hindrance whatever to ordinary work.—Apply confidentially to Omega, 13, Shy Street, Liverpool, with stamp for reply. None but respectable intelligent young men need apply.”Hullo! Reginald laid down his composing-stick and read the advertisement over again: and after that he read it again, word by word, most carefully. £50 a year! Why, that was as much again as his present income, and without risk or interfering with his present work too! Well, his present work might be his past work to-morrow; but even so, with £50 a year he would be no worse off, and of course he could get something else to do as well by way of ordinary work. If only he could bring in £100 a year to the meagre family store! What little luxuries might it not procure for his mother! What a difference it might make in that dreary, poky Dull Street parlour, where she sat all day! Or if they decided not to spend it, but save it up, think of a pound a week ready against a rainy day! Reginald used to have loose enough ideas of the value of money; but the last few weeks had taught him lessons, and one of them was that a pound a week could work wonders.“Apply confidentially.” Yes, of course, or else any duffer might snatch at the prize. It was considerate, too, to put it that way, for of course it would be awkward for any one in a situation to apply unless he could do it confidentially—and quite right too to enclose a stamp for a reply. No one who wasn’t in earnest would do so, and thus it would keep out fellows who applied out of mere idle curiosity. “None but respectable intelligent young men need apply.” Humph! Reginald’s conscience told him he was respectable, and he hoped he was also moderately intelligent, though opinions might differ on that point. “Omega”—that sounded well! The man knew Greek—possibly he was a classical scholar, and therefore sure to be a gentleman. Oh, what a contrast to the cad Durfy! “Liverpool.” Ah, there was the one drawback; and yet of course it did not follow the £50 a year was to be earned in Liverpool, otherwise how could it fail to interfere with ordinary business? Besides, why should he advertise in theRocketunless he meant to get applications from Londoners?Altogether Reginald was pleased with the advertisement. He liked the way it was put, and the conditions it imposed, and, indeed, was so much taken up with the study of it that he almost forgot to set it up in type.“Whatever are you dreaming about?” said young Gedge. “You’ve stood like that for a quarter of an hour at least. You’ll have Durfy after you if you don’t mind.”The name startled Reginald into industry, and he set the advertisement up very clearly and carefully, and re-read it once or twice in the type before he could make up his mind to go on to the next.The thought of it haunted him all day. Should he tell Horace, or Gedge, or his mother of it? Should he go and give Durfy notice then and there? No, he would reply to it before he told any one; and then, if the answerwasunsatisfactory—which he could not think possible—then no one would be the wiser or the worse for it.The day flew on leaden wings. Gedge put his friend’s silence down to anxiety as to the consequences of yesterday’s adventure and did and said what he could to express his sympathy. Mr Durfy alone, sitting at his table, and directing sharp glances every now and then in his direction, could guess the real meaning of his pre-occupation, and chuckled to himself as he saw it.Reginald spent threepence on his way home that evening—one in procuring a copy of theRocket, and two on a couple of postage-stamps. Armed with these he walked rapidly home with Horace, giving him in an absent sort of way a chronicle of the day’s doings, but breathing not a word to him or his mother subsequently about the advertisement.After supper he excused himself from joining in the usual walk by saying he had a letter to write, and for the first time in his life felt relieved to see his mother and brother go and leave him behind them.Then he pulled out the newspaper and eagerly read the advertisement once more in print. There it was, not a bit changed! Lots of fellows had seen it by this time, and some of them very likely were at this moment answering it. They shouldn’t get the start of him, though!He sat down and wrote—“Sir,—Having seen your advertisement in theRocket, I beg to apply for particulars. I am respectable and fairly intelligent, and am at present employed as compositor in theRocketnewspaper-office. I shall be glad to increase my income. I am 18 years of age, and beg to enclose stamp for a reply to this address.“Yours truly,—“Reginald Cruden.”He was not altogether pleased with this letter, but it would have to do. If he had had any idea what the advertiser wanted intelligent young men for, he might have been able to state his qualifications better. But what was the use of saying “I think I shall suit you,” when possibly he might not suit after all?He addressed the letter carefully, and wrote “private and confidential” on the envelope; and then walked out to post it, just in time, after doing so, to meet his mother and Horace returning from their excursion.“Well, Reg, have you written your letter?” said his mother, cheerily. “Was it to some old schoolfellow?”“No, mother,” said Reginald, in a tone which meant, “I would rather you did not ask me.” And Mrs Cruden did not ask.“I think,” said she, as they stopped at their door—“I almost think, boys, we ought to return the Shucklefords’ call. It’s only nine o’clock. We might go in for a few minutes. I know you don’t care about it; but we must not be rude, you know. What do you think, Reg?”Reg sighed and groaned and said, “If we must we must”; and so, instead of going in at their own door, they knocked at the next.The tinkle of a piano upstairs, and the sound of Sam’s voice, audible even in the street, announced only too unmistakably that the family was at home, and a collection of pot hats and shawls in the hall betrayed the appalling fact, when it wastoolate to retreat, that the Shucklefords had visitors! Mrs Shuckleford came out and received them with open arms.“’Ow ’appy I am to see you and the boys,” said she. “I suppose you saw the extra lights and came in. Very neighbourly it was. We thought about sending you an invite, but didn’t like while you was in black for your ’usband. But it’s all the same now you’re here. Very ’appy to see you. Jemima, my dear, come and tell Mrs Cruden and the boys you’re ’appy to see them; Sam too—it’s Sam’s majority, Mrs Cruden; twenty-one he is to-day, and his pa all over—oh, ’ow ’appy I am you’ve come.”“We had no idea you had friends,” said Mrs Cruden, nervously. “We’ll call again, please.”“No you don’t, Mrs Cruden,” said the effusive Mrs Shuckleford; “’ere you are, and ’ere you stays—I am so ’appy to see you. You and I can ’ave a cosy chat in the corner while the young folk enjoy theirselves. Jemima, put a chair for Mrs C. alongside o’ mine; and, Sam, take the boys and see they have some one to talk to ’em.”The dutiful Sam, who appeared entirely to share his mother’s jubilation at the arrival of these new visitors, obeyed the order with alacrity.“Come on, young fellows,” said he; “just in time for shouting proverbs. You go and sit down by Miss Tomkins, Horace, her in the green frock; and you had better go next Jemima, Cruden. When I say ‘three and away’ you’ve got to shout. Anything’ll do, so long as you make a noise.”“No, they must shout their right word,” said Miss Tomkins, a vivacious-looking young person of thirty.“Come close,” said she to Horace, “and I’ll whisper what you’ve got to shout. Whisper, ‘Dog,’ that’s your word.”Horace seated himself dreamily where he was told, and received the confidential communication of his partner with pathetic resignation. He only wished the signal to shout might soon arrive. As for Reginald, when he felt himself once more in the clutches of the captivating Jemima, and heard her whisper in his ear the mysterious monosyllable “love,” his heart became as ice within him, and he sat like a statue in his chair, looking straight before him. Oh, how he hoped “Omega” would give him some occupation for his evenings that would save him from this sort of thing!“Now call them in,” said Sam.A signal was accordingly given at the door, and in marched a young lady, really a pleasant, sensible-looking young person, accompanied by a magnificently-attired young gentleman, who, to Horace’s amazement, proved to be no other than the melancholy Booms.There was, however, no time just now for an exchange of greetings.Mr Booms and his partner were placed standing in the middle of the floor, and the rest of the company were seated in a crescent round them. There was a pause, and you might have heard a pin drop as Samuel slowly lifted his hand and said in a stage whisper,—“Now then, mind what you’re at. When I say ‘away.’ One, two, three, and a—”At the last syllable there arose a sudden and terrific shout which sent Mrs Cruden nearly into a fit, and made the loosely-hung windows rattle as if an infernal machine had just exploded on the premises.The shout was immediately followed by a loud chorus of laughter, and cries of,—“Well, have you guessed it?”“Yes, I know what it is,” said the pleasant young lady. “Do you know, Mr Booms?”“No,” he said, sadly; “how could I guess? What is it, Miss Crisp?”“Why, ‘Love me,lovemy dog,’ isn’t it?”“Right. Well guessed!” cried every one; and amid the general felicitation that ensued the successful proverb-guessers were made room for in the magic circle, and Horace had a chance of exchanging “How d’ye do?” with Mr Booms.“Who’d have thought of meeting you here?” said he, in a whisper.“I didn’t expect to meet you,” said the melancholy one. “I say, Cruden, please don’t mention—her.”“Her? Whom?” said Horace, bewildered.Booms’s reply was a mournful inclination of the head in the direction of Miss Crisp.“Oh, I see. All right, old man. You’re a lucky fellow, I think. She looks a jolly sort of girl.”“Lucky! Jolly! Oh, Cruden,” ejaculated his depressed friend.“Why, what’s wrong?” said Horace. “Don’t you think she’s nice?”“She is; but Shuckleford, Cruden, is not.”“Hullo, you two,” said the voice of the gentleman in question at this moment; “you seem jolly thick. Oh, of course, shopmates; I forgot; both in the news line. Eh? Now, who’s for musical chairs? Don’t all speak at once.”“I shall have to play the piano now, Mr Reginald,” said Miss Jemima, making a last effort to get a word out of her silent companion. “I’m afraid you’re not enjoying yourself a bit.”Reginald rose instinctively as she did, and offered her his arm. He was half dreaming as he did so, and fancying himself back at Garden Vale. It was to his credit that when he discovered what he was doing he did not withdraw his arm, but conducted his partner gallantly to the piano, and said,—“I’m afraid I’m a bad hand at games.”“Musical chairs is great fun,” said Miss Jemima. “I wish I could play it and the piano both. You have to run round and round, and then, when the music stops, you flop down on the nearest chair, and there’s always one left out, and the last one wins the game. Do try it.”Reginald gave a scared glance at the chairs being arranged back to back in a long line down the room, and said,—“May I play the piano instead? and then you can join in the game.”“What! doyouplay the piano?” exclaimed the young lady, forgetting her dignity and clapping her hands. “Oh, my eye, what a novelty! Ma, Mr Reginald’s going to play for musical chairs! Sam, do you hear? Mr Cruden plays the piano! Isn’t it fun?”Reginald flung himself with a sigh down on the cracked music-stool. Music was his one passion, and the last few months had been bitter to him for want of it. He would go out of his way even to hear a street piano, and the brightest moments of his Sundays were often those spent within sound of the roll of the organ.It was like a snatch of the old life to find his fingers once more laid caressingly on the notes of a piano; and as he touched them and began to play, the Shucklefords, theRocket, “Omega,” all faded from his thoughts, and he was lost in his music.What a piano it was! Tinny and cracked and out of tune. The music was in the boy’s soul, and it mattered comparatively little. He began with Weber’s “last waltz,” and dreamed off from it into a gavotte of Corelli’s, and from that into something else, calling up favourite after favourite to suit the passing moods of his spirit, and feeling happier than he had felt for months.But Weber’s “last waltz” and Corelli’s gavottes are not the music one would naturally select for musical chairs; and when the strains continue uninterrupted for five or ten-minutes, during the whole of which time the company is perambulating round and round an array of empty chairs, the effect is somewhat monotonous. Mrs Shuckleford’s guests trotted round good-humouredly for some time, then they got a little tired, then a little impatient, and finally Samuel, as he passed close behind the music-stool, gave the performer a dig in the back, which had the desired effect of stopping the music suddenly. Whereupon everybody flopped down on the seat nearest within reach. Some found vacancies at once, others had to scamper frantically round in search of them, and finally, as the chairs were one fewer in number than the company, one luckless player was left out to enjoy the fun of those who remained in.“All right,” said Samuel, when the first round was decided, and a chair withdrawn in anticipation of the next; “I only nudged you to stop a bit sooner, Cruden. The game will last till midnight if you give us such long doses.”Doses! Reginald turned again to the piano and tried once more to lose himself in its comforting music. He played a short German air of only four lines, which ended in a plaintive, wailing cadence. Again the moment the music ceased he heard the scuffling and scampering and laughter behind him, and shouts of,—“Polly’s out! Polly’s out!”“I say,” said Shuckleford, as they stood ready for the next round, “give us a jingle, Cruden; ‘Pop goes the Weasel,’ or something of that sort. That last was like the tune the cow died of. And stop short in the middle of a line, anyhow.”Reginald rose from the piano with flushed cheeks, and said,—“I’m afraid I’m not used to this sort of music. Perhaps Miss Shuckleford—”“Yes, Jim, you play. You know the way. You change places with Jim, Cruden, and come and run round.”But Reginald declined the invitation with thanks, and took up a comic paper, in which he attempted to bury himself, while Miss Shuckleford hammered out the latest polka on the piano, stopping abruptly and frequently enough to finish half a dozen rounds in the time it had taken him to dispose of two.Fresh games followed, and to all except the Crudens the evening passed merrily and happily. Even Horace felt the infection of the prevalent good-humour, and threw off the reserve he had at first been tempted to wear in an effort to make himself generally agreeable. Mrs Cruden, cooped up in a corner with her loquacious hostess, did her best too not to be a damper on the general festivity. But Reginald made no effort to be other than he felt himself. He could not have done it if he had tried. But as scarcely any one seemed afflicted on his account, even his unsociability failed to make Samuel Shuckleford’s majority party anything but a brilliant success.In due time supper appeared to crown the evening’s delights. And after supper a gentleman got up and proposed a toast, which of course was the health of the hero of the occasion.Samuel replied in a facetious County Court address, in which he expressed himself “jolly pleased to see so many friends around him, and hoping they’d all enjoyed their evening, and that if there were any of them still to come of age—(laughter)—they’d have as high an old time of it as he had had to-night. He was sure ma and Jim said ditto to all he said. And before he sat down he was very glad to see their new next-door neighbours. (Hear, hear.) They’d had their troubles, but they could reckon on friends in that room. The young fellows were bound to get on if they stuck to their shop, and he’d like to drink the health of them and their ma.” (Cheers.)The health was drunk. Mrs Cruden looked at Reginald, Horace looked at Reginald, but Reginald looked straight before him and bit his lips and breathed hard. Whereupon Horace rose and said,—“We think it very kind of you to drink our healths; and I am sure we are much obliged to you all for doing so.”Which said, the Shucklefords’ party broke up, and the Crudens went home.
Reginald, meanwhile, blissfully unconscious of the arrangements which were being made for him, spent as comfortable an evening as he could in the conviction that to-morrow would witness his dismissal from theRocket, and see him a waif on the great ocean of London life. To his mother, and even to young Gedge, he said nothing of his misgivings, but to Horace, as the two lay awake that night, he made a clean breast of all.
“You’ll call me a fool, I suppose,” he said; “but how could I help it?”
“A fool! Why, Reg, I know I should have done the same. But for all that, itisunlucky.”
“It is. Even eighteen shillings a week is better than nothing,” said Reginald, with a groan. “Poor mother was saying only yesterday we were just paying for our keep, and nothing more. What will she do now?”
“Oh, you’ll get into something, I’m certain,” said Horace; “and meanwhile—”
“Meanwhile I’ll do anything rather than live on you and mother, Horrors; I’ve made up my mind to that. Why,” continued he, “you wouldn’t believe what a sneak I’ve been already. You know what Bland said about the football club in his letter? No, I didn’t show it to you. He said it would go down awfully well if I sent the fellows my usual subscription. I couldn’t bear not to do it after that, and I—I sold my tennis-bat for five shillings, and took another five shillings out of my last two weeks’ wages, and sent them half a sov. the other day.”
Horace gave an involuntary whistle of dismay, but added, quickly,—
“I hope the fellows will be grateful for it, old man; they ought to be. Never mind, I’m certain we shall pull through it some day. We must hope for the best, anyhow.”
And with a brotherly grip of the hand they turned over and went to sleep.
Reginald presented himself at theRocketnext morning in an unusual state of trepidation. He had half made up his mind to march straight to the manager’s room and tell him boldly what had happened, and take his discharge from him. But Horace dissuaded him.
“After all,” he said, “Durfy may think better of it.”
“Upon my word I hardly know whether I want him to,” said Reginald, “except for young Gedge’s sake and mother’s. Anyhow, I’ll wait and see, if you like.”
Mr Durfy was there when he arrived, bearing no traces of last night’sfracas, except a scowl and a sneer, which deepened as he caught sight of his adversary. Reginald passed close to his table, in order to give him an opportunity of coming to the point at once; but to his surprise the overseer took no apparent notice of him, and allowed him to go to his place and begin work as usual.
“I’d sooner see him tearing his hair than grinning like that,” said young Gedge, in a whisper. “You may be sure there’s something in the wind.”
Whatever it was, Mr Durfy kept his own counsel, and though Reginald looked up now and then and caught him scowling viciously in his direction, he made no attempt at hostilities, and rather appeared to ignore him altogether.
Even when he was giving out the “copy” he sent Reginald his by a boy, instead of, as was usually his practice, calling him up to the table to receive it. Reginald’s copy on this occasion consisted of a number of advertisements, a class of work not nearly as easy and far less interesting than the paragraphs of news which generally fell to his share. However, he attacked them boldly, and, unattractive as they were, contrived to get some occupation from them for his mind as well as his hand.
Here, for instance, was some one who wanted “a groom, young, good-looking, and used to horses.” How would that suit him? And why need he be good-looking? And what was the use of saying he must be used to horses? Who ever heard of a groom that wasn’t? The man who put in that advertisement was a muff. Here was another of a different sort:
“J.S. Come back to your afflicted mother and all shall be forgiven.”
Heigho! suppose “J.S.” had got a mother like Mrs Cruden, what a brute he must be to cut away. What had he been doing to her? robbing her? or bullying her? or what? Reginald worked himself into a state of wrath over the prodigal, and very nearly persuaded himself to leave out the promise of forgiveness altogether.
“If the young gentleman who dropped an envelope in the Putney omnibus on the evening of the 6th instant will apply to B, at 16, Grip Street, he may hear of something to his advantage.”
How some people were born to luck! Think of making your fortune by dropping an envelope in a Putney omnibus. How gladly he would pave the floor of every omnibus he rode in with envelopes if only he could thereby hear anything to his advantage! He had a great mind to stroll round by Number 16, Grip Street that evening to see who this mysterious “B” could be.
“To intelligent young men in business.—Add £50 a year to your income without any risk or hindrance whatever to ordinary work.—Apply confidentially to Omega, 13, Shy Street, Liverpool, with stamp for reply. None but respectable intelligent young men need apply.”
Hullo! Reginald laid down his composing-stick and read the advertisement over again: and after that he read it again, word by word, most carefully. £50 a year! Why, that was as much again as his present income, and without risk or interfering with his present work too! Well, his present work might be his past work to-morrow; but even so, with £50 a year he would be no worse off, and of course he could get something else to do as well by way of ordinary work. If only he could bring in £100 a year to the meagre family store! What little luxuries might it not procure for his mother! What a difference it might make in that dreary, poky Dull Street parlour, where she sat all day! Or if they decided not to spend it, but save it up, think of a pound a week ready against a rainy day! Reginald used to have loose enough ideas of the value of money; but the last few weeks had taught him lessons, and one of them was that a pound a week could work wonders.
“Apply confidentially.” Yes, of course, or else any duffer might snatch at the prize. It was considerate, too, to put it that way, for of course it would be awkward for any one in a situation to apply unless he could do it confidentially—and quite right too to enclose a stamp for a reply. No one who wasn’t in earnest would do so, and thus it would keep out fellows who applied out of mere idle curiosity. “None but respectable intelligent young men need apply.” Humph! Reginald’s conscience told him he was respectable, and he hoped he was also moderately intelligent, though opinions might differ on that point. “Omega”—that sounded well! The man knew Greek—possibly he was a classical scholar, and therefore sure to be a gentleman. Oh, what a contrast to the cad Durfy! “Liverpool.” Ah, there was the one drawback; and yet of course it did not follow the £50 a year was to be earned in Liverpool, otherwise how could it fail to interfere with ordinary business? Besides, why should he advertise in theRocketunless he meant to get applications from Londoners?
Altogether Reginald was pleased with the advertisement. He liked the way it was put, and the conditions it imposed, and, indeed, was so much taken up with the study of it that he almost forgot to set it up in type.
“Whatever are you dreaming about?” said young Gedge. “You’ve stood like that for a quarter of an hour at least. You’ll have Durfy after you if you don’t mind.”
The name startled Reginald into industry, and he set the advertisement up very clearly and carefully, and re-read it once or twice in the type before he could make up his mind to go on to the next.
The thought of it haunted him all day. Should he tell Horace, or Gedge, or his mother of it? Should he go and give Durfy notice then and there? No, he would reply to it before he told any one; and then, if the answerwasunsatisfactory—which he could not think possible—then no one would be the wiser or the worse for it.
The day flew on leaden wings. Gedge put his friend’s silence down to anxiety as to the consequences of yesterday’s adventure and did and said what he could to express his sympathy. Mr Durfy alone, sitting at his table, and directing sharp glances every now and then in his direction, could guess the real meaning of his pre-occupation, and chuckled to himself as he saw it.
Reginald spent threepence on his way home that evening—one in procuring a copy of theRocket, and two on a couple of postage-stamps. Armed with these he walked rapidly home with Horace, giving him in an absent sort of way a chronicle of the day’s doings, but breathing not a word to him or his mother subsequently about the advertisement.
After supper he excused himself from joining in the usual walk by saying he had a letter to write, and for the first time in his life felt relieved to see his mother and brother go and leave him behind them.
Then he pulled out the newspaper and eagerly read the advertisement once more in print. There it was, not a bit changed! Lots of fellows had seen it by this time, and some of them very likely were at this moment answering it. They shouldn’t get the start of him, though!
He sat down and wrote—
“Sir,—Having seen your advertisement in theRocket, I beg to apply for particulars. I am respectable and fairly intelligent, and am at present employed as compositor in theRocketnewspaper-office. I shall be glad to increase my income. I am 18 years of age, and beg to enclose stamp for a reply to this address.
“Yours truly,—
“Reginald Cruden.”
He was not altogether pleased with this letter, but it would have to do. If he had had any idea what the advertiser wanted intelligent young men for, he might have been able to state his qualifications better. But what was the use of saying “I think I shall suit you,” when possibly he might not suit after all?
He addressed the letter carefully, and wrote “private and confidential” on the envelope; and then walked out to post it, just in time, after doing so, to meet his mother and Horace returning from their excursion.
“Well, Reg, have you written your letter?” said his mother, cheerily. “Was it to some old schoolfellow?”
“No, mother,” said Reginald, in a tone which meant, “I would rather you did not ask me.” And Mrs Cruden did not ask.
“I think,” said she, as they stopped at their door—“I almost think, boys, we ought to return the Shucklefords’ call. It’s only nine o’clock. We might go in for a few minutes. I know you don’t care about it; but we must not be rude, you know. What do you think, Reg?”
Reg sighed and groaned and said, “If we must we must”; and so, instead of going in at their own door, they knocked at the next.
The tinkle of a piano upstairs, and the sound of Sam’s voice, audible even in the street, announced only too unmistakably that the family was at home, and a collection of pot hats and shawls in the hall betrayed the appalling fact, when it wastoolate to retreat, that the Shucklefords had visitors! Mrs Shuckleford came out and received them with open arms.
“’Ow ’appy I am to see you and the boys,” said she. “I suppose you saw the extra lights and came in. Very neighbourly it was. We thought about sending you an invite, but didn’t like while you was in black for your ’usband. But it’s all the same now you’re here. Very ’appy to see you. Jemima, my dear, come and tell Mrs Cruden and the boys you’re ’appy to see them; Sam too—it’s Sam’s majority, Mrs Cruden; twenty-one he is to-day, and his pa all over—oh, ’ow ’appy I am you’ve come.”
“We had no idea you had friends,” said Mrs Cruden, nervously. “We’ll call again, please.”
“No you don’t, Mrs Cruden,” said the effusive Mrs Shuckleford; “’ere you are, and ’ere you stays—I am so ’appy to see you. You and I can ’ave a cosy chat in the corner while the young folk enjoy theirselves. Jemima, put a chair for Mrs C. alongside o’ mine; and, Sam, take the boys and see they have some one to talk to ’em.”
The dutiful Sam, who appeared entirely to share his mother’s jubilation at the arrival of these new visitors, obeyed the order with alacrity.
“Come on, young fellows,” said he; “just in time for shouting proverbs. You go and sit down by Miss Tomkins, Horace, her in the green frock; and you had better go next Jemima, Cruden. When I say ‘three and away’ you’ve got to shout. Anything’ll do, so long as you make a noise.”
“No, they must shout their right word,” said Miss Tomkins, a vivacious-looking young person of thirty.
“Come close,” said she to Horace, “and I’ll whisper what you’ve got to shout. Whisper, ‘Dog,’ that’s your word.”
Horace seated himself dreamily where he was told, and received the confidential communication of his partner with pathetic resignation. He only wished the signal to shout might soon arrive. As for Reginald, when he felt himself once more in the clutches of the captivating Jemima, and heard her whisper in his ear the mysterious monosyllable “love,” his heart became as ice within him, and he sat like a statue in his chair, looking straight before him. Oh, how he hoped “Omega” would give him some occupation for his evenings that would save him from this sort of thing!
“Now call them in,” said Sam.
A signal was accordingly given at the door, and in marched a young lady, really a pleasant, sensible-looking young person, accompanied by a magnificently-attired young gentleman, who, to Horace’s amazement, proved to be no other than the melancholy Booms.
There was, however, no time just now for an exchange of greetings.
Mr Booms and his partner were placed standing in the middle of the floor, and the rest of the company were seated in a crescent round them. There was a pause, and you might have heard a pin drop as Samuel slowly lifted his hand and said in a stage whisper,—
“Now then, mind what you’re at. When I say ‘away.’ One, two, three, and a—”
At the last syllable there arose a sudden and terrific shout which sent Mrs Cruden nearly into a fit, and made the loosely-hung windows rattle as if an infernal machine had just exploded on the premises.
The shout was immediately followed by a loud chorus of laughter, and cries of,—
“Well, have you guessed it?”
“Yes, I know what it is,” said the pleasant young lady. “Do you know, Mr Booms?”
“No,” he said, sadly; “how could I guess? What is it, Miss Crisp?”
“Why, ‘Love me,lovemy dog,’ isn’t it?”
“Right. Well guessed!” cried every one; and amid the general felicitation that ensued the successful proverb-guessers were made room for in the magic circle, and Horace had a chance of exchanging “How d’ye do?” with Mr Booms.
“Who’d have thought of meeting you here?” said he, in a whisper.
“I didn’t expect to meet you,” said the melancholy one. “I say, Cruden, please don’t mention—her.”
“Her? Whom?” said Horace, bewildered.
Booms’s reply was a mournful inclination of the head in the direction of Miss Crisp.
“Oh, I see. All right, old man. You’re a lucky fellow, I think. She looks a jolly sort of girl.”
“Lucky! Jolly! Oh, Cruden,” ejaculated his depressed friend.
“Why, what’s wrong?” said Horace. “Don’t you think she’s nice?”
“She is; but Shuckleford, Cruden, is not.”
“Hullo, you two,” said the voice of the gentleman in question at this moment; “you seem jolly thick. Oh, of course, shopmates; I forgot; both in the news line. Eh? Now, who’s for musical chairs? Don’t all speak at once.”
“I shall have to play the piano now, Mr Reginald,” said Miss Jemima, making a last effort to get a word out of her silent companion. “I’m afraid you’re not enjoying yourself a bit.”
Reginald rose instinctively as she did, and offered her his arm. He was half dreaming as he did so, and fancying himself back at Garden Vale. It was to his credit that when he discovered what he was doing he did not withdraw his arm, but conducted his partner gallantly to the piano, and said,—
“I’m afraid I’m a bad hand at games.”
“Musical chairs is great fun,” said Miss Jemima. “I wish I could play it and the piano both. You have to run round and round, and then, when the music stops, you flop down on the nearest chair, and there’s always one left out, and the last one wins the game. Do try it.”
Reginald gave a scared glance at the chairs being arranged back to back in a long line down the room, and said,—
“May I play the piano instead? and then you can join in the game.”
“What! doyouplay the piano?” exclaimed the young lady, forgetting her dignity and clapping her hands. “Oh, my eye, what a novelty! Ma, Mr Reginald’s going to play for musical chairs! Sam, do you hear? Mr Cruden plays the piano! Isn’t it fun?”
Reginald flung himself with a sigh down on the cracked music-stool. Music was his one passion, and the last few months had been bitter to him for want of it. He would go out of his way even to hear a street piano, and the brightest moments of his Sundays were often those spent within sound of the roll of the organ.
It was like a snatch of the old life to find his fingers once more laid caressingly on the notes of a piano; and as he touched them and began to play, the Shucklefords, theRocket, “Omega,” all faded from his thoughts, and he was lost in his music.
What a piano it was! Tinny and cracked and out of tune. The music was in the boy’s soul, and it mattered comparatively little. He began with Weber’s “last waltz,” and dreamed off from it into a gavotte of Corelli’s, and from that into something else, calling up favourite after favourite to suit the passing moods of his spirit, and feeling happier than he had felt for months.
But Weber’s “last waltz” and Corelli’s gavottes are not the music one would naturally select for musical chairs; and when the strains continue uninterrupted for five or ten-minutes, during the whole of which time the company is perambulating round and round an array of empty chairs, the effect is somewhat monotonous. Mrs Shuckleford’s guests trotted round good-humouredly for some time, then they got a little tired, then a little impatient, and finally Samuel, as he passed close behind the music-stool, gave the performer a dig in the back, which had the desired effect of stopping the music suddenly. Whereupon everybody flopped down on the seat nearest within reach. Some found vacancies at once, others had to scamper frantically round in search of them, and finally, as the chairs were one fewer in number than the company, one luckless player was left out to enjoy the fun of those who remained in.
“All right,” said Samuel, when the first round was decided, and a chair withdrawn in anticipation of the next; “I only nudged you to stop a bit sooner, Cruden. The game will last till midnight if you give us such long doses.”
Doses! Reginald turned again to the piano and tried once more to lose himself in its comforting music. He played a short German air of only four lines, which ended in a plaintive, wailing cadence. Again the moment the music ceased he heard the scuffling and scampering and laughter behind him, and shouts of,—
“Polly’s out! Polly’s out!”
“I say,” said Shuckleford, as they stood ready for the next round, “give us a jingle, Cruden; ‘Pop goes the Weasel,’ or something of that sort. That last was like the tune the cow died of. And stop short in the middle of a line, anyhow.”
Reginald rose from the piano with flushed cheeks, and said,—“I’m afraid I’m not used to this sort of music. Perhaps Miss Shuckleford—”
“Yes, Jim, you play. You know the way. You change places with Jim, Cruden, and come and run round.”
But Reginald declined the invitation with thanks, and took up a comic paper, in which he attempted to bury himself, while Miss Shuckleford hammered out the latest polka on the piano, stopping abruptly and frequently enough to finish half a dozen rounds in the time it had taken him to dispose of two.
Fresh games followed, and to all except the Crudens the evening passed merrily and happily. Even Horace felt the infection of the prevalent good-humour, and threw off the reserve he had at first been tempted to wear in an effort to make himself generally agreeable. Mrs Cruden, cooped up in a corner with her loquacious hostess, did her best too not to be a damper on the general festivity. But Reginald made no effort to be other than he felt himself. He could not have done it if he had tried. But as scarcely any one seemed afflicted on his account, even his unsociability failed to make Samuel Shuckleford’s majority party anything but a brilliant success.
In due time supper appeared to crown the evening’s delights. And after supper a gentleman got up and proposed a toast, which of course was the health of the hero of the occasion.
Samuel replied in a facetious County Court address, in which he expressed himself “jolly pleased to see so many friends around him, and hoping they’d all enjoyed their evening, and that if there were any of them still to come of age—(laughter)—they’d have as high an old time of it as he had had to-night. He was sure ma and Jim said ditto to all he said. And before he sat down he was very glad to see their new next-door neighbours. (Hear, hear.) They’d had their troubles, but they could reckon on friends in that room. The young fellows were bound to get on if they stuck to their shop, and he’d like to drink the health of them and their ma.” (Cheers.)
The health was drunk. Mrs Cruden looked at Reginald, Horace looked at Reginald, but Reginald looked straight before him and bit his lips and breathed hard. Whereupon Horace rose and said,—
“We think it very kind of you to drink our healths; and I am sure we are much obliged to you all for doing so.”
Which said, the Shucklefords’ party broke up, and the Crudens went home.