The Three Clerks Part 38

Mrs. Woodward saw that if the story was to be read, the sooner they began it the better.

'Come, Charley,' said she, 'now for the romance. Katie, come and sit by me.' But Katie had already taken her seat, a little behind Charley, quite in the shade, and she was not to be moved.

'But I won't read it myself,' said Charley; 'you must read it, Mrs. Woodward.'

'O yes, Mrs. Woodward, you are to read it,' said Norman.

'O yes, do read it, manna,' said Linda.

Katie said nothing, but she would have preferred that Charley should have read it himself.

'Well, if I can,' said Mrs. Woodward.

'Snape says I write the worst hand in all Somerset House,' said Charley; 'but still I think you'll be able to manage it.'

'I hate that Mr. Snape,' said Katie, _sotto voce_. And then Mrs. Woodward unrolled the ma.n.u.script and began her task.

CHAPTER XXII

CRINOLINE AND MACa.s.sAR; OR, MY AUNT'S WILL

'Well, Linda was right,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'it does begin with poetry.'

'It's only a song,' said Charley, apologetically--'and after all there is only one verse of that'--and then Mrs. Woodward began

"CRINOLINE AND MACa.s.sAR."

'Ladies and gentlemen, that is the name of Mr. Charles Tudor's new novel.'

'Crinoline and Maca.s.sar!' said Uncle Bat. 'Are they intended for human beings' names?'

'They are the heroine and the hero, as I take it,' said Mrs.

Woodward, 'and I presume them to be human, unless they turn out to be celestial.'

'I never heard such names in my life,' said the captain.

'At any rate, uncle, they are as good as Sir Jib Boom and Captain Hardaport,' said Katie, pertly.

'We won't mind about that,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I'm going to begin, and I beg I may not be interrupted.'

"CRINOLINE AND MACa.s.sAR."

"The lovely Crinoline was sitting alone at a lattice window on a summer morning, and as she sat she sang with melancholy cadence the first part of the now celebrated song which had then lately appeared, from the distinguished pen of Sir G-- H--,"

'Who is Sir G-- H--, Charley?'

'Oh, it wouldn't do for me to tell that,' said Charley. 'That must be left to the tact and intelligence of my readers.'

'Oh, very well,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'we will abstain from all impertinent questions'--'from the distinguished pen of Sir G-- H--.

The ditty which she sang ran as follows:--

My heart's at my office, my heart is always there-- My heart's at my office, docketing with care; Docketing the papers, and copying all day, My heart's at my office, though I be far away.

"'Ah me!' said the Lady Crinoline--"

'What--is she a peer's daughter?' said Uncle Bat.

'Not exactly,' said Charley, 'it's only a sort of semi-poetic way one has of speaking of one's heroine.'

"'Ah me!' said the Lady Crinoline--'his heart! his heart!--I wonder whether he has got a heart;' and then she sang again in low plaintive voice the first line of the song, suiting the cadence to her own case:--

His heart is at his office, his heart is _always_ there.

"'It was evident that the Lady Crinoline did not repeat the words in the feeling of their great author, who when he wrote them had intended to excite to high deeds of exalted merit that portion of the British youth which is employed in the Civil Service of the country.

"Crinoline laid down her lute--it was in fact an accordion--and gazing listlessly over the rails of the balcony, looked out at the green foliage which adorned the enclosure of the square below.

"It was Tavistock Square. The winds of March and the showers of April had been successful in producing the buds of May."

'Ah, Charley, that's taken from the old song,' said Katie, 'only you've put buds instead of flowers.'

'That's quite allowable,' said Mrs. Woodward--"successful in producing the buds of May. The sparrows chirped sweetly on the house-top, and the coming summer gladdened the hearts of all--of all except poor Crinoline.

"'I wonder whether he has a heart, said she; 'and if he has, I wonder whether it is at his office.'

"As she thus soliloquized, the door was opened by a youthful page, on whose well-formed breast, b.u.t.tons seemed to grow like mushrooms in the meadows in August.

"'Mr. Maca.s.sar Jones,' said the page; and having so said, he discreetly disappeared. He was in his line of life a valuable member of society. He had brought from his last place a twelvemonth's character that was creditable alike to his head and heart; he was now found to be a trustworthy a.s.sistant in the household of the Lady Crinoline's mother, and was the delight of his aged parents, to whom he regularly remitted no inconsiderable portion of his wages. Let it always be remembered that the life even of a page may be glorious. All honour to the true and brave!"

'Goodness, Charley--how very moral you are!' said Linda.

'Yes,' said he; 'that's indispensable. It's the intention of the _Daily Delight_ always to hold up a career of virtue to the lower orders as the thing that pays. Honesty, high wages, and hot dinners. Those are our principles.'

'You'll have a deal to do before you'll bring the lower orders to agree with you,' said Uncle Bat.

'We have a deal to do,' said Charley, 'and we'll do it. The power of the cheap press is unbounded.'

"As the page closed the door, a light, low, melancholy step was heard to make its way across the drawing-room. Crinoline's heart had given one start when she had heard the announcement of the well-known name. She had once glanced with eager inquiring eye towards the door. But not in vain to her had an excellent mother taught the proprieties of elegant life. Long before Maca.s.sar Jones was present in the chamber she had s.n.a.t.c.hed up the tambour-frame that lay beside her, and when he entered she was zealously engaged on the fox's head that was to ornament the toe of a left-foot slipper. Who shall dare to say that those slippers were intended to grace the feet of Maca.s.sar Jones?"

'But I suppose they were,' said Katie.

'You must wait and see,' said her mother; 'for my part I am not at all so sure of that.'

'Oh, but I know they must be; for she's in love with him,' said Katie.