The Three Clerks Part 42

"And so Maca.s.sar hastened towards Tavistock Square, all too quickly; for, as he made his way across Great Russell Street, he found that he was very hot. He leant against the rail, and, taking off his hat and gloves, began to cool himself, and wipe away the dust with his pocket-handkerchief. 'I wouldn't have minded the expense of a cab,' said he to himself, 'only the chances are so much against me: seven to one!'

"But he had no time to lose. He had had but two precious hours at his disposal, and thirty minutes were already gone. He hurried on to Tavistock Square, and soon found that well-known door open before him.

"'The Lady Crinoline sits upstairs alone,' said the page, 'and is a-thinking of you.' Then he added in a whisper, 'Do you go at her straight, Mr. Maca.s.sar; slip-slap, and no mistake.'

"All honour to the true and brave!

"CHAPTER V

"As Maca.s.sar walked across the drawing-room, Crinoline failed to perceive his presence, although his boots did creak rather loudly. Such at least must be presumed to have been the case, for she made no immediate sign of having noticed him. She was sitting at the open window, with her lute in hand, gazing into the vacancy of the square below; and as Maca.s.sar walked across the room, a deep sigh escaped from her bosom. The page closed the door, and at the same moment Crinoline touched her lute, or rather pulled it at the top and bottom, and threw one wild witch note to the wind. As she did so, a line of a song escaped from her lips with a low, melancholy, but still rapturous cadence--

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

"'Oh, Mr. Maca.s.sar, is that you?' she exclaimed. She struggled to rise, but, finding herself unequal to the effort, she sank back again on a chair, dropped her lute on a soft footstool, and then buried her face in her hands. It was dreadful for Maca.s.sar to witness such agony.

"'Is anything the matter?' said he.

"'The matter!' said she. 'Ah! ah!'

"'I hope you are not sick?' said he.

"'Sick!' said she. 'Well, I fear I am very sick.'

"'What is it?' said he. 'Perhaps only bilious,' he suggested.

"'Oh! oh! oh!' said she.

"'I see I'm in the way; and I think I had better go,' and so he prepared to depart. 'No! no! no!' said she, jumping up from her chair. 'Oh! Mr. Maca.s.sar, don't be so cruel. Do you wish to see me sink on the carpet before your feet?'

"Maca.s.sar denied the existence of any such wish; and said that he humbly begged her pardon if he gave any offence.

"'Offence!' said she, smiling sweetly on him; sweetly, but yet sadly. 'Offence! no--no offence. Indeed, I don't know how you could--but never mind--I am such a silly thing. One's feelings will sometimes get the better of one; don't you often find it so?'

"'O yes! quite so,' said Maca.s.sar. 'I think it's the heat.'

"'He's a downright noodle,' said Crinoline's mamma to her sister-in-law, who lived with them. The two were standing behind a c.h.i.n.k in the door, which separated the drawing-room from a chamber behind it.

"'Won't you sit down, Mr. Maca.s.sar?' Maca.s.sar sat down. 'Mamma will be so sorry to miss you again. She's calling somewhere in Grosvenor Square, I believe. She wanted me to go with her; but I could not bring myself to go with her to-day. It's useless for the body to go out, when the heart still remains at home. Don't you find it so?'

"'Oh, quite so,' said Maca.s.sar. The cherry-brandy had already evaporated before the blaze of all that beauty, and he was bethinking himself how he might best take himself off. Let the hospital have the filthy lucre! He would let the money go, and would show the world that he loved for the sake of love alone! He looked at his watch, and found that it was already past two.

"Crinoline, when she saw that watch, knew that something must be done at once. She appreciated more fully than her lover did the value of this world's goods; and much as she doubtless sympathized with the wants of the hospital in question, she felt that charity should begin at home. So she fairly burst out into a flood of tears.

"Maca.s.sar was quite beside himself. He had seen her weep before, but never with such frightful violence. She rushed up from her chair, and pa.s.sing so close to him as nearly to upset him by the waft of her petticoats, threw herself on to an ottoman, and hiding her face on the stump in the middle of it, sobbed and screeched, till Maca.s.sar feared that the b.u.t.tons behind her dress would crack and fly off.

"'Oh! oh! oh!' sobbed Crinoline.

"'It must be the heat,' said Maca.s.sar, knocking down a flower-pot in his attempt to open the window a little wider. 'O dear, what have I done?' said he. 'I think I'd better go.'

"'Never mind the flower-pot,' said Crinoline, looking up through her tears. 'Oh! oh! oh! oh! me. Oh! my heart.'

"Maca.s.sar looked at his watch. He had only forty-five minutes left for everything. The expense of a cab would, to be sure, be nothing if he were successful; but then, what chance was there of that?

"'Can I do anything for you in the Strand?' said he. 'I must be at my office at three.'

"'In the Strand!' she screeched. 'What could he do for me in the Strand? Heartless--heartless--heartless! Well, go--go--go to your office, Mr. Maca.s.sar; your heart is there, I know. It is always there. Go--don't let me stand between you and your duties--between you and Sir Gregory. Oh! how I hate that man! Go! why should I wish to prevent you? Of course I have no such wish. To me it is quite indifferent; only, mamma will be so sorry to miss you. You don't know how mamma loves you. She loves you almost as a son.

But go--go; pray go!'

"And then Crinoline looked at him. Oh! how she looked at him! It was as though all the G.o.ddesses of heaven were inviting him to come and eat ambrosia with them on a rosy-tinted cloud. All the G.o.ddesses, did we say? No, but one G.o.ddess, the most beautiful of them all. His heart beat violently against his ribs, and he felt that he was almost man enough for anything. Instinctively his hand went again to his waistcoat pocket.

"'You shan't look at your watch so often,' said she, putting up her delicate hand and stopping his. 'There, I'll look at it for you. It's only just two, and you needn't go to your office for this hour;' and as she squeezed it back into his pocket, he felt her fingers pressing against his heart, and felt her hair--done all _a l'imperatrice_--in sweet contact with his cheek. 'There, I shall hold it there,' said she, 'so that you shan't look at it again.'

"'Will you stay till I bid you go?' said Crinoline.

"Maca.s.sar declared that he did not care a straw for the senior clerk, or for Sir Gregory either. He would stay there for ever, he said.

"'What! for ever in mamma's drawing-room?' said Crinoline, opening wide her lovely eyes with surprise.

"'For ever near to you,' said Maca.s.sar.

"'Oh, Mr. Maca.s.sar,' said Crinoline, dropping her hand from his waistcoat, and looking bashfully towards the ground, 'what can you mean?'

"Down went Maca.s.sar on his knees, and down went Crinoline into her chair. There was perhaps rather too much distance between them, but that did not much matter now. There he was on both knees, with his hands clasped together as they were wont to be when he said his prayers, with his umbrella beside him on one side, and his hat on the other, making his declaration in full and unmistakable terms. A yard or two of floor, more or less, between them, was neither here nor there. At first the bashful Crinoline could not bring herself to utter a distinct consent, and Maca.s.sar was very nearly up and away, in a returning fit of despair. But her good-nature came to his aid; and as she quickly said, 'I will, I will, I will,' he returned to his posture in somewhat nearer quarters, and was transported into the seventh heaven by the bliss of kissing her hand.

"'Oh, Maca.s.sar!' said she.

"'Oh, Crinoline!' said he.

"'You must come and tell papa to-morrow,' said she.

"He readily promised to do so.

"'You had better come to breakfast; before he goes into the city,' said she.

"And so the matter was arranged, and the lovely Lady Crinoline became the affianced bride of the happy Maca.s.sar.

"It was past three when he left the house, but what did he care for that? He was so mad with joy that he did not even know whither he was going. He went on straight ahead, and came to no check, till he found himself waving his hat over his head in the New Road. He then began to conceive that his conduct must have been rather wild, for he was brought to a stand-still in a crossing by four or five cabmen, who were rival candidates for his custom.

"'Somerset House, old brick!' he shouted out, as he jumped into a hansom, and as he did so he poked one of the other cabbies playfully in the ribs with his umbrella.

"'Is mamma don't know as 'ow 'e's hout, I shouldn't vonder,' said the cabman--and away went Maca.s.sar, singing at the top of his voice as he sat in the cab--

'The loveliest lady that ever was seen Is the lovely Lady Crinoline.'

"The cab pa.s.sed through Covent Garden on its way. 'Stop at the pastry-cook's at the corner,' said Maca.s.sar up through the little trap-door. The cab drew up suddenly. 'She's mine, she's mine!'

shouted Maca.s.sar, rus.h.i.+ng into the shop, and disregarding in the ecstasy of the moment the various customers who were quietly eating their ices. 'She's mine, she's mine!

With her hair done all _a l'imperatrice_, Sweetly done with the best of grease.