Ten Thousand a-Year Volume Ii Part 21

Aubrey; who had been throughout cautious, watchful, and courteously _distrustful_. He had afforded occasional glimpses of the unapproachable pride of his nature--and Gammon had crouched! Was there anything in their interview--thought he, walking thoughtfully to and fro in his room--which, when Aubrey came to reflect upon--for instance--had Gammon disclosed too much concerning the extent of his influence over t.i.tmouse?

His cheek slightly flushed; a sigh of fatigue and excitement escaped him; and gathering together his papers, he began to prepare for quitting the office for the day.

Mr. Aubrey left Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap's office with feelings of mingled exhaustion and despondency. As he walked down Saffron Hill--a dismal neighborhood!--what scenes did he witness! Poverty and profligacy revelling, in all their wild and revolting excesses! _Here_, was an Irishman, half-stupefied with liquor and bathed in blood, having just been rescued from a savage fight in a low underground public-house cellar, by his squalid wife, with dishevelled hair and a filthy infant in her arms--who walked beside him cursing, pinching, and striking him--reproaching him with the knowledge that she and her seven children were lying starving at home. Presently he stumbled; she with her wretched infant falling down with him; and she lay striking, and scratching, and abusing him till some one interfered.

_There_, was a woman--as it were a bloated ma.s.s of filth steeped in gin--standing with a drunken smile at an old-clothes stall, p.a.w.ning a dirty little s.h.i.+rt, which she had a few minutes before stripped from the back of one of her four half-naked children!

A little farther on, was a noisy excited crowd round two men carrying a shutter, on which was strapped the bleeding body (a handkerchief spread over the face) of a poor bricklayer, who had fallen a few minutes before from the top of some scaffolding in the neighborhood, and was at that instant in the agonies of death--leaving behind him a wife and nine children, for whom the poor fellow had long slaved from morning to night, and who were now ignorant of the frightful fate which had befallen him, and that they were left utterly dest.i.tute.

_There_, was a skinny little terrified urchin, about eight years old, with nothing to conceal his dirty, half-starved body, but a tattered man's coat, pinned round him; dying with hunger, he had stolen a villanous-looking bare bone--scarce a halfpenny worth of meat upon it; and a brawny constable, his knuckles fiercely dug into the poor little offender's neck, (with his tight grasp,) was leading him off, followed by his shrieking mother, to the police-office, whence he would be committed to Newgate; and thence, after two or three months'

imprisonment, and being flogged--miserable little wretch!--by the common hangman, (who had hanged the child's father some six months before,) he would be discharged--to return probably several times and undergo a similar process; then to be transported; and finally be hanged, as had been his father before him.

These startling scenes pa.s.sed before Mr. Aubrey, in the course of a five minutes' walk down Saffron Hill--during which period he now and then paused, and gazed around him with feelings of pity, of astonishment, of disgust, which presently blended and deepened into a dark sense of horror. These scenes, to some so fatally familiar--_fatally_, I mean, on account of the INDIFFERENCE which familiarity is apt to induce--to Mr.

Aubrey, had on them all the frightful glare of _novelty_. He had never witnessed anything of the sort before; and had no notion of its existence. The people residing on each side of the Hill, however, seemed accustomed to such scenes; which they appeared to view with the same dreadful indifference with which a _lamb led to the slaughter_ is beheld by one who has spent his life next door to the slaughter-house. The Jew clothesman, before whose shop-window, arrested by the horrifying spectacle of the bleeding wretch borne along to the hospital--Mr. Aubrey had remained standing for a second or two--took the opportunity to a.s.sail him, with insolent and pertinacious importunities to purchase some articles of clothing! A fat baker, and a greasy eating-house keeper, stood each at his door, one with folded arms, the other with his hands thrust into his pockets--both of them gazing with a grin at two curs fighting in the middle of the street--oh, how utterly insensible to the ravenous want around them! The pallid spectres haunting the gin-shop--a large splendid building at the corner--gazed with sunken lack-l.u.s.tre eye, and drunken apathy, at the shattered man who was being borne by.

Ah, G.o.d! what scenes were these! And of what other hidden wretchedness and horror did they not indicate the existence! "Gracious mercy!"

thought Aubrey, "what a world have I been living in! And this dismal aspect of it exposed to me just when I have lost all power of relieving its wretchedness!"--here a thrill of anguish pa.s.sed through his heart--"but woe, woe is me! if at this moment I had a thousand times ten thousand a-year, how far would it go amid the scenes similar to this, _abounding_ in this one city? Oh G.o.d! what unutterable horror must be in store for those who, intrusted by Thee with an overflowing abundance, disregard the misery around them in guilty selfishness and indolence, or"--he shuddered--"expend it in sensuality and profligacy! Will DIVES become sensible of his misconduct, only when he shall have entered upon his next stage of existence, and of punishment? Oh, merciful Creator!

how is my heart wrung by the sight of horrors such as these? Awful and mysterious Author of our existence, _Father of the spirits of all flesh_, are these states of being which Thou hast ordained? Are these Thy children? Are these my fellow-creatures? Oh, help me! help me! my weak heart faints; my clouded understanding is confounded! I cannot--insect that I am!--discern the scope and end of Thy economy, of Thy dread government of the world; yet blessed be the name of my G.o.d!--I KNOW that _thou reignest!_ though _clouds and darkness are around thee!_ _righteousness and judgment are the habitation of thy throne!_ _with righteousness shalt thou judge the world_, AND THE PEOPLE WITH EQUITY!"

Like as the lesser light is lost in the greater, so, in Aubrey's case, was the lesser misery he suffered, merged in his sense of the greater misery he witnessed. What, after all, was his position, in comparison with that of those now before and around him? What cause of thankfulness had he not, for the merciful mildness of even the dispensations of Providence towards him? Such were his thoughts and feelings, as he stood gazing at the objects which had called them forth, when his eye lit on the figure of Mr. Gammon approaching him. He was threading his way, apparently lost in thought, through the scenes which had so powerfully affected Mr. Aubrey; who stood eying him with a sort of unconscious intensity, as if secure from his observation, till he was actually addressed by him.

"Mr. Aubrey!" exclaimed Gammon, courteously saluting him. Each took off his hat to the other. Though Aubrey hardly intended it, he found himself engaged in conversation with Gammon, who, in a remarkably feeling tone, and with a happy flattering deference of manner, intimated that he could guess the subject of Mr. Aubrey's thoughts, namely, the absorbing matters which they had been discussing together.

"No, it is not so," said Mr. Aubrey, with a sigh, as he walked on--Gammon keeping easily beside him--"I have been profoundly affected by scenes which I have witnessed in the immediate neighborhood of your office, since quitting it; what misery! what horror!"

"Ah, Mr. Aubrey!"--exclaimed Gammon, echoing the sigh of his companion, as they slowly ascended Holborn Hill, separate, but side by side--"what a checkered scene is life! Guilt and innocence--happiness and misery--wealth and poverty--disease and health--wisdom and folly--sensuality and refinement--piety and irreligion--how strangely intermingled we behold them, wherever we look on life--and how difficult, to the philosopher, to detect the principle"----

"Difficult?--Impossible! Impossible! G.o.d alone can do so!"--exclaimed Mr. Aubrey, thoughtfully.

"Comparison, I have often thought," said Gammon, after a pause--"of one's own troubles with the greater misfortunes endured by others, is beneficial or prejudicial--consolatory or disheartening--according as the mind of him who makes the comparison is well or ill regulated--possessed or dest.i.tute, of moral and religious principle!"

"It is so, indeed," said Mr. Aubrey. Though not particularly inclined to enter into or prolong conversation, he was pleased with the tone of his companion's remark.

"As for me," proceeded Gammon, with a slight sigh--"the absorbing anxieties of professional life; and, too, in a line of professional life which, infinitely to my distaste, brings me constantly into scenes such as you have been observing, have contributed to render me, I fear, less sensible of their real character; yet can I vividly conceive the effect they must, when first seen, produce upon the mind and heart of a compa.s.sionate, an observant, a reflecting man, Mr. Aubrey!"

Gammon looked a gentleman; his address was easy and insinuating, full of delicate deference, without the slightest tendency to cant or sycophancy; his countenance was an intellectual and expressive one; his conversation that of an educated and thinking man. He was striving his utmost to produce a favorable impression on Mr. Aubrey; and, as is very little to be wondered at, he succeeded. By the time that they had got about twenty yards beyond Fetter Lane, they might have been seen walking together, arm-in-arm. As they approached Oxford Street, they suddenly encountered Mr. Runnington.

"G.o.d bless me, Mr. Aubrey!" said he, surprisedly--"and Mr. Gammon? How do you do, Mr. Gammon?"--he continued, taking off his hat with a little formality, and speaking in a corresponding tone; but he was encountered by Gammon with greatly superior ease and distance, and was not a little nettled at it; for he was so palpably foiled with his own weapons.

"Well--I shall now resign you to your legitimate adviser, Mr. Aubrey,"

said Gammon, with a smile; then, addressing Mr. Runnington, in whose countenance pique and pride were abundantly visible--"Mr. Aubrey has favored me with a call to-day, and we have had some little discussion on a matter which he will explain to you. As for me, Mr. Aubrey, I ought to have turned off two streets ago--so I wish you good-evening."

Mr. Aubrey and he shook hands as they exchanged adieus: Mr. Runnington and he simply raised each his hat, and bowed to the other with cold politeness. As Mr. Runnington and Mr. Aubrey walked westward together, the former, who was a very cautious man, did not think fit to express the uneasiness he felt at Mr. Aubrey's having entered into anything like confidential intercourse with one whom he believed to be so subtle and dangerous a person as Mr. Gammon. He was, however, very greatly surprised when he came to hear of the proposal which had been made by Mr. Gammon, concerning the mesne profits; which, he said, was so unaccountably reasonable and liberal, considering the parties by whom it was made, that he feared Mr. Aubrey must be lying under some mistake. He would, however, turn it anxiously over in his mind, and consult with his partners; and, in short, do whatever they conceived best for Mr.

Aubrey--that he might depend upon. "And, in the mean time, my dear sir,"

added Mr. Runnington, with a smile designed to disguise considerable anxiety, "it may be as well for you not to have any further personal communication with these parties, whom you do not know as well as we do; but let _us_ negotiate with them in everything, even the very least!"

Thus they parted; and Mr. Aubrey entered Vivian Street with a considerably lighter heart than he had ever before carried into it. A vivid recollection of the scenes which he had witnessed at Saffron Hill, caused him exquisitely to appreciate the comforts of his little home, and to return the welcomes and caresses which he received, with a kind of trembling tenderness and energy. As he folded his still blooming but somewhat anxious wife fondly to his bosom, kissed his high-spirited and lovely sister, and fondled the prattling innocents who came clambering up upon his lap, he forgot, for a while, the difficulties but remembered the _lessons_, of the day.

We must, however, now return to Yatton, where some matters had transpired which are not unworthy of being recorded. Though Mr. Yahoo paid rather anxious court to Mr. Gammon, who was very far too much for him in every way, 'twas plain that he dreaded and disliked, as much as he was despised by, that gentleman. Mr. Gammon had easily extracted from t.i.tmouse evidence that Yahoo was endeavoring, from time to time, artfully to set him against his protector, Mr. Gammon. This was _something_; but more than this--Yahoo, a reckless rollicking villain, was obtaining a growing ascendency over t.i.tmouse, whom he was rapidly initiating into all kinds of vile habits and practices; and, in short, completely corrupting him. But, above all, Gammon ascertained that Yahoo had already commenced, with great success, his experiments upon the purse of t.i.tmouse. Before they had been a week at Yatton, down came a splendid billiard-table with its appendages from London, accompanied by a man to fix it--as he did--in the library, which he quickly denuded of all traces of its former character; and here Yahoo, t.i.tmouse, and Fitz-Snooks would pa.s.s a good deal of their time. Then they would have tables and chairs, with cards, cigars, and brandy and water, placed upon the beautiful "soft, smooth-shaven lawn," and sit there playing _ecarte_, at once pleasantly soothed and stimulated by their cigars and brandy and water, for half a day together. Then Yahoo got up frequent excursions to Grilston, and even to York; where, together with his two companions, he had "great sport," as the newspapers began to intimate with growing frequency and distinctness. Actuated by that execrable licentiousness with reference to the female s.e.x, by which he was peculiarly distinguished, and of which he boasted, he had got into several curious adventures with farmers' girls, and others in the vicinity of Yatton, and even among the female members of the establishment at the Hall; in which latter quarter Fitz-Snooks and t.i.tmouse began to imitate his example. Mr. Gammon had conceived a horrid loathing and disgust for the miscreant leader into these enormities; and, but for certain consequences, would have despatched him with as much indifference as he would have laid a.r.s.enic in the way of a bold voracious rat, or killed a snake. As it was, he secretly caused him to experience, on one or two occasions, the effects of his good-will towards him. Yahoo had offered certain atrocious indignities to the sweetheart of a strapping young farmer; whose furious complaints coming to Mr. Gammon's ears, that gentleman, under a pledge of secrecy, gave him two guineas to be on the look-out for Yahoo, and give him the best taste he could of a pair of Yorks.h.i.+re fists. A day or two afterwards, the Satyr fell in with his unsuspected enemy. Yahoo was a strongly-built man, and an excellent bruiser; but was at first disposed to s.h.i.+rk the fight, on glancing at the prodigious proportions of Hazel, and the fury flaming in his eyes. The instant, however, that he saw the fighting att.i.tude into which poor Hazel had thrown himself, Yahoo smiled, stripped, and set to. I am sorry to say that it was a good while before Hazel could get one single blow at his accomplished opponent; whom, however, he at length began to wear out. Then he gave the Yahoo a miserable pommelling, to be sure; and finished by knocking out five of his front teeth, viz. three in the upper, and two in the under jaw--beautifully white and regular they certainly had been; and the loss of them caused him great affliction on the score of his appearance, and also, not a little interfered with the process of cigar-smoking. It would, besides, have debarred him, had he been so disposed, from enlisting as a soldier, inasmuch as he could not bite off the end of his cartridge: wherefore, it would seem, that Hazel had committed the offence of _Mayhem_.[17] Mr. Gammon condoled heartily with Mr. Yahoo, on hearing of the brutal attack which had been made upon him; and as the a.s.sault had not been committed in the presence of a witness, strongly recommended him to bring an action of trespa.s.s _vi et armis_ against Hazel, which Gammon undertook to conduct to--a nonsuit. While they were conversing in this friendly way together, it suddenly occurred to Gammon that there was another service which he could render to Mr. Yahoo, and with equally strict observance of the injunction, _not to let his left hand know what his right hand did_; for he loved the character of a secret benefactor. So he wrote up a letter to Snap, (whom he knew to have been treated very insolently by Yahoo,) desiring him to go to two or three Jew bill-brokers and money-lenders, and ascertain whether they had any paper by them with the name of "Yahoo" upon it:--and in the event of such being discovered, he was to act in the manner pointed out by Gammon. Off went Snap like a shot, on receiving this letter; and the very first gentleman he applied to, viz. a Mr. SUCK'EM DRY, proved to be possessed of an acceptance of Yahoo's for 200, for which Dry had given only twenty-five pounds, on speculation. He readily yielded to Snap's offer, to give him a shy at Mr. Yahoo _gratis_--and put the doc.u.ment into the hands of Snap; who forthwith delivered it, confidentially, to Swinddle Shark, gent., one &c., a little Jew attorney in Chancery Lane, into whose office the dirty work of Quirk, Gammon, and Snap was swept--in cases where they did not choose to appear. I wish the mutilated Yahoo could have seen the mouthful of glittering teeth that were displayed by the hungry Jew, on receiving the above commission. His duties, though of a painful, were of a brief and simple description.

'Twas a plain case of _Indorsee_ v. _Acceptor_. The affidavit of debt was sworn the same afternoon; and within an hour's time afterwards, a thin slip of paper was delivered into the hands of the under-sheriff of Yorks.h.i.+re, commanding him to take the body[18] of Pimp Yahoo, if he should be found in his bailiwick, and him safely keep--out of harm's way--to enable him to pay 200 _debt_ to Suck'em Dry, and 24, 6s. 10d.

_costs_ to Swindle Shark. Down went that little "infernal machine" to Yorks.h.i.+re by that night's post.

Nothing could exceed the astonishment and concern with which Mr. Gammon, the evening but one afterwards, on returning to the Hall from a ride to Grilston, heard t.i.tmouse and Fitz-Snooks--deserted beings!--tell him how, an hour before, two big vulgar fellows, one of them with a long slip of paper in his hands, had called at the Hall, asked for the innocent unsuspecting Yahoo, just as he had made an admirable _coup_--and insisted on his accompanying them to the house of one of the aforesaid bailiffs, and then on to York Castle. They had brought a tax-cart with them for his convenience; and into it, between his two new friends, was forced to get the astounded Yahoo--smoking, as well as he could, a cigar, with some score or two of which he had filled all his pockets, and swearing oaths enough to have lasted the whole neighborhood for a fortnight at least. Mr. Gammon was quite shocked at the indignity which had been perpetrated, and asked why the villains had not been kept till he could have been sent for. Then, leaving the melancholy t.i.tmouse and Fitz-Snooks to themselves for a little while, he took a solitary walk in the elm avenue, where--grief has different modes of expressing itself--he relieved his excited feelings by reiterated little bursts of gentle laughter. As soon as the _York True Blue_ had, among other intimations of fas.h.i.+onable movements, informed the public that "_The Hon._ Pimp Yahoo" had quitted Yatton Hall for York Castle, where he intended to remain and receive a large party of friends--it was gratifying to see how soon, and in what force, they began to muster and rally round him. "_Detainers_"[19]--so that species of visiting cards is called--came fluttering in like snow; and in short, there was no end of the messages of civility and congratulation which he received from those whom, in the season of his prosperity, he had obliged with his valuable countenance and custom.

Ah me, poor Yahoo, completely done! Oft is it, in this infernal world of ours, that the best concerted schemes are thus suddenly defeated by the envious and capricious fates! Thus were thy arms suddenly held back from behind, just as they were encircling as pretty, plump a pigeon as ever nestled in them with pert and playful confidence, to be plucked! Alas, alas! And didst thou behold the danger to which it was exposed, as it fluttered upward unconsciously into the region where thine affectionate eye detected the keen hawk in deadly poise? Ah me! Oh dear! What shall I do? What can I say? How vent my grief for the Prematurely Caged?

Poor t.i.tmouse was very dull for some little time after this sudden abduction of this bold and brilliant spirit, and spoke of bringing an action, at the suggestion of Fitz-Snooks, against the miscreant who had dared to set the law in motion at Yatton, under the very nose of its lord and master. As soon, however, as Gammon intimated to him that all those who had lent Yahoo money, might now rely upon that gentleman's honor, and whistle back their cash at their leisure, t.i.tmouse burst out into a great rage; telling Gammon that he, t.i.tmouse, had only a day or two before lent Yahoo 150!! and that he was a "cursed scamp," who had known, when he borrowed, that he could not repay; and a Detainer, at the suit of "t.i.ttlebat t.i.tmouse, Esq.," was one of the very earliest that found its way into the sheriff's office; this new creditor becoming one of the very bitterest and most relentless against the fallen Yahoo, except, perhaps, Mr. Fitz-Snooks. That gentleman having lent the amiable Yahoo no less a sum than thirteen hundred pounds, remained easy all the while, under the impression that certain precious doc.u.ments called "I.O.U.'s" of the said Yahoo were as good as cash. He was horribly dismayed on discovering that it was otherwise; that _he_ was not to be paid before all other creditors, and immediately; so he also sent a very special message in the shape of a Detainer, backed by a great number of curses.

In process of time Mr. Yahoo bethought himself of getting "_white-washed_;" but when he came to be inspected, it was considered that he was not properly _seasoned_; so the operation was delayed for two years, under a very arbitrary statute, which enacted, "that if it should appear that the said prisoner had contracted any of his debts _fraudulently_, or by means of _false pretences_, or _without having had any reasonable or probable expectation, at the time when contracted, of paying the same_," &c. &c. &c., "or should be indebted for damages recovered in any _action for criminal conversation_, or _seduction_, or for _malicious injuries_, &c. &c., such prisoner should be discharged as to such debts and damages, so soon only as he should have been in custody at the suit of such creditors for a period or periods not exceeding two years." Such is the odious restraint upon the liberty of the subject, which at this day, in the nineteenth century, is suffered to disgrace the statute law of England; for, in order to put _other Yahoos_ upon their guard against the cruel and iniquitous designs upon them, I here inform them that the laws under which Mr. Yahoo suffered his two years' incarceration, (every one of his debts, &c., coming under one or other of the descriptions above mentioned,) are, _proh pudor_!

re-enacted and at this moment in force, and in augmented stringency,[20]

as several most respectable gentlemen, if you could only get access to them, would tell you.

Yahoo having been thus adroitly disposed of, Mr. Gammon had the gratification of finding that mischievous simpleton, Fitz-Snooks, very soon afterwards take his departure. He pined for the pleasures of the town, which he had money enough to enjoy for about three years longer, with economy; after which he might go abroad, or to _the dogs_--wherever they were to be found. 'Twas indeed monstrous dull at Yatton; the game which Yahoo had given him a taste for was so very _strictly preserved_ there! and the birds so uncommon shy and wild, and strong on the wing!

Besides, Gammon's presence was a terrible pressure upon him; overawing and benumbing him, in spite of several attempts which he had made, when charged with the requisite quant.i.ty of wine, to exhibit an impertinent familiarity, or even defiance. As soon as poor t.i.tmouse had bade Fitz-Snooks good-by, shaken hands with him, and lost sight of him--t.i.tmouse was at Yatton, _alone with Gammon_, and felt as if a spell were upon him.--He was completely cowed and prostrate. Yet Gammon laid himself out to the very uttermost, to please him, and rea.s.sure his drooping spirits. t.i.tmouse had got into his head that the mysterious and dreadful Gammon had, in some deep way or other, been at the bottom of Yahoo's abduction, and of the disappearance of Fitz-Snooks, and would, by-and-by, do as much for _him_! He had no feeling of _owners.h.i.+p_ of Yatton; but of being, as it were, only tenant-at-will thereof to Mr.

Gammon. Whenever he tried to rea.s.sure himself, by repeating that it did not signify--for Yatton was his own--and he might do as he liked; his feelings might be compared to a balloon, which, with the eyes of eager and anxious thousands upon it, yet cannot get inflated sufficiently to rise one inch from the ground. How was it? Mr. Gammon's manner towards him was most uncommonly respectful; what else could he wish for? Yet he would have given a thousand pounds to that gentleman to take himself off, and never show his nose again at Yatton! It annoyed him, too, more than he could express, to perceive the deference and respect which every one at the Hall manifested towards Mr. Gammon. t.i.tmouse would sometimes stamp his foot, when alone, with childish fury on the ground, when he thought of it. When at dinner, and sitting together afterwards, Gammon would rack his invention for jokes and anecdotes to amuse t.i.tmouse--who would certainly give a kind of laugh; exclaim, "Bravo! Ha, ha! 'Pon my life!--capital!--By Jove! Most uncommon good! you don't say so?"--and go on, drinking gla.s.s after gla.s.s of wine, or brandy and water, and smoking cigar after cigar, till he felt fuddled and sick, in which condition he would retire to bed, and leave Gammon, clear and serene in head and temper, to his meditations. When, at length, he broached the subject of _their bill_--a frightful amount it was; of the moneys advanced by Mr.

Quirk, for his support for eight or nine months on a liberal scale, and which mounted up to a sum infinitely larger than could have been supposed; and lastly, of the bond for ten thousand pounds, as the just reward to the firm for their long-continued, most anxious, and successful exertions on their client's behalf--t.i.tmouse mustered up all his resolution, as for a last desperate struggle; swore they were robbing him; and added, with a furious snap of the fingers, "they had better take the estate themselves--allow him a pound a-week, and send him back to Tag-rag's." Then he burst into tears, and cried like a child, long and bitterly.

"Well, sir," said Gammon, after remaining silent for some time, looking at t.i.tmouse calmly, but with an expression of face which frightened him out of his wits, "if this is to be really the way in which I am to be treated by you--I, the only _real disinterested_ friend you have in the world, (as you have had hundreds of opportunities of ascertaining;) if my advice is to be spurned, and my motives suspected; if your first and deliberate engagements to our firm are to be wantonly broken"----

"Ah, but, 'pon my soul, I was humbugged into making them," said t.i.tmouse, pa.s.sionately.

"Why, you little miscreant!" exclaimed Gammon, starting up in his chair, and gazing at him as if he would have scorched him with his eye, "Do you DARE to say so? If you have no grat.i.tude--have you lost your _memory_?

What were you when I dug you out of your filthy hole at Closet Court?

Did you not repeatedly go down on your knees to us? Did you not promise, a thousand times, to do infinitely more than you are now called upon to do? And is this, you insolent--despicable little insect!--is _this_ the return you make us for putting you, a beggar--and very nearly too, an idiot"----

"You're most uncommon polite," said t.i.tmouse, suddenly and bitterly.

"Silence, sir! I am in no humor for trifling!" interrupted Gammon, sternly. "I say, is _this_ the return you think of making us; not only to insult us, but refuse to pay money actually advanced by us to save you from starvation--money, and days and nights, and weeks and months, and _many_ months of intense anxiety, expended in discovering how to put you in possession of a splendid fortune?--Poh! you miserable little trifler!--why should I trouble myself thus? Remember--remember, t.i.ttlebat t.i.tmouse," continued Gammon, in a low tone, and extending towards him threateningly his thin forefinger, "I who made you, will in one day--one single day--unmake you--will blow you away like a bit of froth; you shall never be seen, or heard of, or thought of, except by some small draper whose unhappy shopman you may be!"

"Ah!--'pon my life! Dare say you think I'm uncommon frightened! Ah, ha!

Monstrous--particular good!" said t.i.tmouse, desperately.

Gammon perceived that he trembled in every limb; and the smile which he tried to throw into his face was so wretched, that, had you seen him at that moment, and considered his position, much and justly as you now despise him, you must have pitied him. "You're always now going on in this way!--It's all so very likely!" continued he. "Why, 'pon my soul, am not I to be A LORD one of these days? Can you help that? Can you send a lord behind a draper's counter? 'Pon my soul, what do you say to that?

I like that, uncommon"----

"What do I say?" replied Gammon, calmly, "why, that I've a great mind to say and do something that would make you--would dispose you to--jump head foremost into the first sewer you came near!"

t.i.tmouse's heart was lying fluttering at his throat.

"t.i.ttlebat, t.i.ttlebat!" continued Gammon, dropping his voice, and speaking in a very kind and earnest manner, "if you did but know the extent to which an accident has placed you in my power! at this moment in my power! Really I almost tremble, myself, to think of it!" He rose, brought his chamber-candlestick out of the hall--lit it--bade t.i.tmouse good-night, sadly but sternly--and shook him by the hand--"I may rid you of my presence to-morrow morning, Mr. t.i.tmouse. I shall leave you to _try to enjoy Yatton_! May you find a _truer_--a more powerful friend than you will have lost in me!" t.i.tmouse never shrank more helplessly under the eye of Mr. Gammon than he did at that moment.

"You--you--_won't_ stop and smoke another cigar with a poor devil, will you, Mr. Gammon?" he inquired faintly. "It's somehow--most uncommon lonely in this queer, large, old-fas.h.i.+oned"----

"No, sir," replied Gammon, peremptorily--and withdrew, leaving t.i.tmouse in a state of mingled alarm and anger--the former, however, predominating.

"By jingo!" he at length exclaimed with a heavy sigh, after a revery of about three minutes, gulping down the remainder of his brandy and water, "If that same gent, Mr. Gammon, a'n't the--the--devil--he's the very best imitation of him that ever I heard tell of!" Here he glanced furtively round the room; then he got a little fl.u.s.tered; rang his bell quickly for his valet, and, followed by him, retired to his dressing-room.

The next morning the storm had entirely blown over. When they met at breakfast, t.i.tmouse, as Gammon had known would be the case, was all submission and respect; in fact, it was evident that he was thoroughly frightened by what had fallen from Gammon, but infinitely more so by the _manner_ in which he had spoken over-night. Gammon, however, preserved for some little time the haughty air with which he had met t.i.tmouse; but a few words of the latter, expressing deep regret for what he had said through having drunk too much--poor little soul!--over-night, and his unqualifyingly submitting to every one of the requisitions which had been insisted on by Mr. Gammon--quickly dispersed the cloud settled on that gentleman's brow, when he entered the breakfast-room.

"_Now_, my dear Mr. t.i.tmouse," said he, very graciously, "you show yourself the gentleman I always took you for--and I forget, forever, all that pa.s.sed between us, so unpleasantly, last night. I am sure it will never be so again: for now we _entirely_ understand each other?"