Ten Thousand a-Year Volume I Part 21

"Have _who_, dear Tag?" inquired Mrs. Tag-rag, impatiently.

"Who? why whom but my t.i.ttlebat t.i.tmouse!! You've seen him, and heard me speak of him often, you know"----

"What!--_that_ odious, nasty"----

"Hush, hus.h.!.+" involuntarily exclaimed Tag-rag, with an apprehensive air--"That's all past and gone--I was always a little too hard on him.

Well, anyhow, he's turned up all of a sudden master of ten thousand a-year. He has indeed--may this piece of toast choke me if he hasn't!"

Mrs. Tag-rag and her daughter sat in speechless wonder.

"Where did he see Tab, Taggy?" inquired at length Mrs. Tag-rag.

"Oh--I--I--why--you see--I don't exactly think _that_ signifies so much--he _will_ see her, you know, next Sunday."

"So, then, he's positively coming?" inquired Mrs. Tag-rag, with a fluttered air.

"Y--e--s--I've no doubt."--(I'll discharge Lutestring to-morrow, thought Tag-rag, with a sharp inward spasm.)

"But aren't we counting our chickens, Taggy, before they're hatched? If t.i.tmouse is all of a sudden become such a catch, he'll be snapped up in a minute, you know, of course"----

"Why, you see, Dolly--we're first in the market, I'm sure of that--his attorney tells me he's to be kept quite snug and quiet under my care for months, and see no one"----

"My gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Tag-rag, holding up both her hands--"if _that_ don't look like a special interposition of Providence, now"----

"So _I_ thought, Tabby, while Mr. Gammon was telling me!" replied her husband.

"Ah, Tag, there are many of 'em, if we were only to be on the look-out for them!" said Mrs. Tag-rag, excitedly.

"I _do_ see it all! It's designed by Providence to get them soon together! When once Mr. t.i.tmouse gets sight of Tabby, and gets into her company--eh! Tab, lovey! _you'll_ do the rest, hem!" said Tag-rag, fondly.

"La, pa! how you _do_ go on!" simpered Miss Tag-rag.

"You must do your part, Tab," said her father--"we'll do ours. He'll bite, you may depend on it, if you manage well!"

"What sort of a looking young man is he, dear pa?" inquired Miss Tag-rag, blus.h.i.+ng, and her heart fluttering very fast.

"Oh, you _must_ have seen him, sweetest"----

"How should I ever notice any one of the lots of young men at the shop, pa?--I don't at all know him."

"Well--he's the handsomest, most genteel-looking young fellow I ever came across; he's long been an ornament to my establishment, for his good looks and civil and obliging manners--quite a treasure! You should have seen how he _took_ with the ladies of rank always!"----

"Dear me," interrupted Mrs. Tag-rag, anxiously addressing her daughter, "I hope, Tabby, that Miss Nix will send home your lilac-colored frock by next Sunday!"

"If she _don't_, ma, I'll take care she never makes anything more for _me_, that's poz!" replied Miss Tag-rag, earnestly.

"We'll call there to-morrow, love, and hurry her on," said her mother; and from that moment until eleven o'clock, when the amiable and interesting trio retired to rest, nothing was talked of but the charming t.i.tmouse, and the good fortune he so richly deserved, and how long the courts.h.i.+p was likely to last. Mrs. Tag-rag, who, for the last month or so, had always remained on her knees before getting into bed, for at least ten minutes, on this eventful evening compressed her prayers, I regret to say, into one minute and a half's time, (as for Tag-rag, a hardened heathen, for all he had taken to hearing Mr. Horror, he always tumbled prayerless into bed, the moment he was undressed;) while, for once in a way, Miss Tag-rag, having taken only five minutes to put her hair into papers, popped into bed directly she had blown the candle out, without saying _any_ prayers--or even thinking of finis.h.i.+ng the novel which lay under her pillow, and which she had got on the sly from the circulating library of the late Miss Snooks. For several hours she lay in a delicious revery, imagining herself become Mrs. t.i.ttlebat t.i.tmouse, riding about Clapham in a handsome carriage, going to the play every night; and what would the three Miss Knippses say when they heard of it?--they'd burst. And such a handsome man, too!

She sank, at length, into unconsciousness, amid a soft confusion of glistening white satin--favors--bridesmaids--Mrs. t.i.ttlebat t.i.t--t.i.t--t.i.t--t.i.t--mouse.

t.i.tmouse, about half-past nine o'clock on the ensuing morning, was sitting in his little room in a somewhat troubled humor, musing on many things, and little imagining the intense interest he had excited in the feelings of the amiable occupants of Satin Lodge, when a knock at his door startled him out of his revery. Guess his amazement to see, on opening it, Mr. Tag-rag!

"Your most obedient, sir," commenced that gentleman, in a subdued and obsequious manner, plucking off his hat the instant that he saw t.i.tmouse. "I hope you're better, sir!--Been very uneasy, sir, about you."

"Please to walk in, sir," replied t.i.tmouse, not a little fl.u.s.tered--"I'm better, sir, thank you."

"Happy to hear it, sir?--But am also come to offer humble apologies for the rudeness of that upstart that was so rude to you yesterday, at my premises--know whom I mean, eh?--Lutestring--I shall get rid of him, I do think"----

"Thank you, sir---- But--but--when I was in your employ"----

"_Was_ in my employ!" interrupted Tag-rag, with a sigh, gazing earnestly at him--"It's no use trying to hide it any longer! I've all along seen you was a world too good for--in fact, quite above your situation in _my_ poor shop! I _may_ have been wrong, Mr. t.i.tmouse," he continued diffidently, as he placed himself on what seemed the only chair in the room, (t.i.tmouse sitting on a common wooden stool)--"but I did it for the best--eh?--don't you understand me, Mr. t.i.tmouse?" t.i.tmouse continued looking on the floor incredulously, sheepishly, and somewhat sullenly.

"Very much obliged, sir," at length he answered--"but must say you've rather a funny way of showing it, sir. Look at the sort of life you've led me for this"----

"Ah! knew you'd say so! But I can lay my hand on my heart, Mr. t.i.tmouse, and declare to G.o.d--I can, indeed, Mr. t.i.tmouse"---- t.i.tmouse preserved a very embarra.s.sing silence.--"_See_ I'm out of your good books--But--won't you forget and forgive, Mr. t.i.tmouse? I _meant_ well.

Nay, I humbly beg forgiveness for everything you've not liked in me. Can I say more? Come, Mr. t.i.tmouse, you've a n.o.ble nature, and I ask forgiveness!" cried Tag-rag, softly and earnestly: you would have thought that his life depended on his success in what he was doing!

"You--you ought to do it before the whole shop, if you're in earnest,"

replied t.i.tmouse, a little relenting--"for they've all seen your goings on."

"Them!--the brutes!--the vulgar fellows, eugh!--you and I, Mr. t.i.tmouse, are a _leetle_ above such cattle as them! D' ye think we ought to mind what _servants_ say?--Only you say the word, and I make a clean sweep of 'em all; you shall have the premises to yourself, Mr. t.i.tmouse, within an hour after any of those chaps shows you the least glimmer of disrespect."

"Ah! I don't know--you've used me most uncommon bad, 'pon my soul!--far worse than they have--you've nearly broke my heart, sir! You have!"

"Well, my womankind at home are right, after all! They told me all along I was going the wrong way to work, when I said how I tried to keep your pride down, and prevent you from having your head turned by knowing your good looks! Over and over again, my little girl has said, with tears in her dear eyes, 'you'll break his spirit, dear papa--if he _is_ handsome, wasn't it G.o.d that made him so?'" The little frostwork which t.i.tmouse had thrown around his heart, began to melt like snow under sunbeams.

"Ah, Mr. t.i.tmouse, Mr. t.i.tmouse! the women are always right, and _we're_ always wrong," continued Tag-rag, earnestly, perceiving his advantage.

"Upon my soul I could kick myself for my stupidity, and cruelty too!"

"Ah, I should think so! No one knows what I've suffered! And now," added t.i.tmouse, suddenly, "that I'm--I suppose you've heard it all, sir?--what's in the wind--and all that?"

"Yes, sir--Mr. Gammon (that most respectable gentleman) and I have had a long talk yesterday about you, in which he did certainly tell me everything--nothing like confidence, Mr. t.i.tmouse, when gentleman meets gentleman, you know! Oh, Lord! the news is really delightful!

delightful!"

"_Isn't_ it, sir?" eagerly interrupted t.i.tmouse, his eyes glistening with sudden rapture.

"Ah! ten thous--I _must_ shake hands with you, my dear Mr. t.i.tmouse;"

quoth Tag-rag, with affectionate excitement--and, for the first time in their lives, their hands touched, Tag-rag squeezing that of t.i.tmouse with energetic cordiality; while he added, with a little emotion in his tone--"Thomas Tag-rag may be a plain-spoken and wrong-headed man, Mr.

t.i.tmouse--but he's a warm heart, I a.s.sure you!"

"And did Mr. Gammon tell you _all_, sir?" eagerly interrupted t.i.tmouse.

"Everything--everything; quite confidential, I a.s.sure you, for he saw the interest I felt in you!"

"And did he say about my--hem!--eh? my stopping a few weeks longer with you?" inquired t.i.tmouse, chagrin overspreading his features.

"I think he did, indeed, Mr. t.i.tmouse! He's quite bent on it, sir! And so would any true friend of yours be--because you see!"--here he dropped his voice, and looked very mysteriously at t.i.tmouse--"in short I quite agree with Mr. Gammon!"

"Do you indeed, sir?" exclaimed t.i.tmouse, with rather an uneasy look.