Mrs. Plaskwith breathed more easily when he was gone. I never seed a more odd, fierce, ill-bred-looking young man! I declare I am quite afraid of him. What an eye he has!
Uncommonly dark; what I may say gipsy-like, said Mr. Plimmins.
He! he! You always do say such good things, Plimmins. Gipsy-like, he! he! So he is! I wonder if he can tell fortunes?
Hell be long before he has a fortune of his own to tell. Ha! ha! said Plimmins.
He! he! how very good! you are so pleasant, Plimmins.
While these strictures on his appearance were still going on, Philip had already ascended the roof of the coach; and, waving his hand, with the condescension of old times, to his future master, was carried away by the Express in a whirlwind of dust.
A very warm evening, sir, said a passenger seated at his right; puffing, while he spoke, from a short German pipe, a volume of smoke in Philips face.
Very warm. Be so good as to smoke into the face of the gentleman on the other side of you, returned Philip, petulantly.
Ho, ho! replied the passenger, with a loud, powerful laughthe laugh of a strong man. You dont take to the pipe yet; you will by and by, when you have known the cares and anxieties that I have gone through. A pipe!it is a great soother!a pleasant comforter! Blue devils fly before its honest breath! It ripens the brainit opens the heart; and the man who smokes thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan!
Roused from his reverie by this quaint and unexpected declamation, Philip turned his quick glance at his neighbour. He saw a man of great bulk and immense physical powerbroad-shouldereddeep-chestednot corpulent, but taking the same girth from bone and muscle that a corpulent man does from flesh. He wore a blue coatfrogged, braided, and buttoned to the throat. A broad-brimmed straw hat, set on one side, gave a jaunty appearance to a countenance which, notwithstanding its jovial complexion and smiling mouth, had, in repose, a bold and decided character. It was a face well suited to the frame, inasmuch as it betokened a mind capable of wielding and mastering the brute physical force of body;light eyes of piercing intelligence; rough, but resolute and striking features, and a jaw of iron. There was thought, there was power, there was passion in the shaggy brow, the deep-ploughed lines, the dilated, nostril and the restless play of the lips. Philip looked hard and grave, and the man returned his look.
What do you think of me, young gentleman? asked the passenger, as he replaced the pipe in his mouth. I am a fine-looking man, am I not?
You seem a strange one.
Strange!Ay, I puzzle you, as I have done, and shall do, many. You cannot read me as easily as I can read you. Come, shall I guess at your character and circumstances? You are a gentleman, or something like it, by birth;that the tone of your voice tells me. You are poor, devilish poor;that the hole in your coat assures me. You are proud, fiery, discontented, and unhappy;all that I see in your face. It was because I saw those signs that I spoke to you. I volunteer no acquaintance with the happy.
I dare say not; for if you know all the unhappy you must have a sufficiently large acquaintance, returned Philip.
Your wit is beyond your years! What is your calling, if the question does not offend you?
I have none as yet, said Philip, with a slight sigh, and a deep blush.
Mores the pity! grunted the smoker, with a long emphatic nasal intonation. I should have judged that you were a raw recruit in the camp of the enemy.
Enemy! I dont understand you.
In other words, a plant growing out of a lawyers desk. I will explain. There is one class of spiders, industrious, hard-working octopedes, who, out of the sweat of their brains (I take it, by the by, that a spider must have a fine craniological development), make their own webs and catch their flies. There is another class of spiders who have no stuff in them wherewith to make webs; they, therefore, wander about, looking out for food provided by the toil of their neighbours. Whenever they come to the web of a smaller spider, whose larder seems well supplied, they rush upon his domainpursue him to his holeeat him up if they canreject him if he is too tough for their maws, and quietly possess themselves of all the legs and wings they find dangling in his meshes: these spiders I call enemiesthe world calls them lawyers!
Philip laughed: And who are the first class of spiders?
Honest creatures who openly confess that they live upon flies. Lawyers fall foul upon them, under pretence of delivering flies from their clutches. They are wonderful blood-suckers, these lawyers, in spite of all their hypocrisy. Ha! ha! ho! ho!
And with a loud, rough chuckle, more expressive of malignity than mirth, the man turned himself round, applied vigorously to his pipe, and sank into a silence which, as mile after mile glided past the wheels, he did not seem disposed to break. Neither was Philip inclined to be communicative. Considerations for his own state and prospects swallowed up the curiosity he might otherwise have felt as to his singular neighbour. He had not touched food since the early morning. Anxiety had made him insensible to hunger, till he arrived at Mr. Plaskwiths; and then, feverish, sore, and sick at heart, the sight of the luxuries gracing the tea-table only revolted him. He did not now feel hunger, but he was fatigued and faint. For several nights the sleep which youth can so ill dispense with had been broken and disturbed; and now, the rapid motion of the coach, and the free current of a fresher and more exhausting air than he had been accustomed to for many months, began to operate on his nerves like the intoxication of a narcotic. His eyes grew heavy; indistinct mists, through which there seemed to glare the various squints of the female Plaskwiths, succeeded the gliding road and the dancing trees. His head fell on his bosom; and thence, instinctively seeking the strongest support at hand, inclined towards the stout smoker, and finally nestled itself composedly on that gentlemans shoulder. The passenger, feeling this unwelcome and unsolicited weight, took the pipe, which he had already thrice refilled, from his lips, and emitted an angry and impatient snort; finding that this produced no effect, and that the load grew heavier as the boys sleep grew deeper, he cried, in a loud voice, Holla! I did not pay my fare to be your bolster, young man! and shook himself lustily. Philip started, and would have fallen sidelong from the coach, if his neighbour had not griped him hard with a hand that could have kept a young oak from falling.
Rouse yourself!you might have had an ugly tumble. Philip muttered something inaudible, between sleeping and waking, and turned his dark eyes towards the man; in that glance there was so much unconscious, but sad and deep reproach, that the passenger felt touched and ashamed. Before however, he could say anything in apology or conciliation, Philip had again fallen asleep. But this time, as if he had felt and resented the rebuff he had received, he inclined his head away from his neighbour, against the edge of a box on the roofa dangerous pillow, from which any sudden jolt might transfer him to the road below.
Poor lad!he looks pale! muttered the man, and he knocked the weed from his pipe, which he placed gently in his pocket. Perhaps the smoke was too much for himhe seems ill and thin, and he took the boys long lean fingers in his own. His cheek is hollow!what do I know but it may be with fasting? Pooh! I was a brute. Hush, coachee, hush! dont talk so loud, and be dd to youhe will certainly be off! and the man softly and creepingly encircled the boys waist with his huge arm.
Now, then, to shift his head; so-so,thats right. Philips sallow cheek and long hair were now tenderly lapped on the soliloquists bosom. Poor wretch! he smiles; perhaps he is thinking of home, and the butterflies he ran after when he was an urchinthey never come back, those days;nevernevernever! I think the wind veers to the east; he may catch cold;and with that, the man, sliding the head for a moment, and with the tenderness of a woman, from his breast to his shoulder, unbuttoned his coat (as he replaced the weight, no longer unwelcomed, in its former part), and drew the lappets closely round the slender frame of the sleeper, exposing his own sturdy breastfor he wore no waistcoatto the sharpening air. Thus cradled on that strangers bosom, wrapped from the present and dreaming perhapswhile a heart scorched by fierce and terrible struggles with life and sin made his pillowof a fair and unsullied future, slept the fatherless and friendless boy.
CHAPTER VII
Constance. My life, my joy, my food, my all the world,
My widow-comfort.
Amidst the glare of lampsthe rattle of carriagesthe lumbering of carts and waggonsthe throng, the clamour, the reeking life and dissonant roar of London, Philip woke from his happy sleep. He woke uncertain and confused, and saw strange eyes bent on him kindly and watchfully.
You have slept well, my lad! said the passenger, in the deep ringing voice which made itself heard above all the noises around.
And you have suffered me to incommode you thus! said Philip, with more gratitude in his voice and look than, perhaps, he had shown to any one out of his own family since his birth.
You have had but little kindness shown you, my poor boy, if you think so much of this.
Noall people were very kind to me once. I did not value it then. Here the coach rolled heavily down the dark arch of the inn-yard.
Take care of yourself, my boy! You look ill; and in the dark the man slipped a sovereign into Philips hand.
I dont want money. Though I thank you heartily all the same; it would be a shame at my age to be a beggar. But can you think of an employment where I can make something?what they offer me is so trifling. I have a mother and a brothera mere child, sirat home.
Employment! repeated the man; and as the coach now stopped at the tavern door, the light of the lamp fell full on his marked face. Ay, I know of employment; but you should apply to some one else to obtain it for you! As for me, it is not likely that we shall meet again!
I am sorry for that!What and who are you? asked Philip, with a rude and blunt curiosity.
Me! returned the passenger, with his deep laugh. Oh! I know some people who call me an honest fellow. Take the employment offered you, no matter how trifling the wageskeep out of harms way. Good night to you!
So saying, he quickly descended from the roof, and, as he was directing the coachman where to look for his carpetbag, Philip saw three or four well-dressed men make up to him, shake him heartily by the hand, and welcome him with great seeming cordiality.
Philip sighed. He has friends, he muttered to himself; and, paying his fare, he turned from the bustling yard, and took his solitary way home.
A week after his visit to R, Philip was settled on his probation at Mr. Plaskwiths, and Mrs. Mortons health was so decidedly worse, that she resolved to know her fate, and consult a physician. The oracle was at first ambiguous in its response. But when Mrs. Morton said firmly, I have duties to perform; upon your candid answer rest my Plans with respect to my childrenleft, if I die suddenly, destitute in the world,the doctor looked hard in her face, saw its calm resolution, and replied frankly:
Lose no time, then, in arranging your plans; life is uncertain with allwith you, especially; you may live some time yet, but your constitution is much shakenI fear there is water on the chest. No, maamno fee. I will see you again.
The physician turned to Sidney, who played with his watch-chain, and smiled up in his face.
And that child, sir? said the mother, wistfully, forgetting the dread fiat pronounced against herself,he is so delicate!
Not at all, maam,a very fine little fellow; and the doctor patted the boys head, and abruptly vanished.
Ah! mamma, I wish you would rideI wish you would take the white pony!
Poor boy! poor boy! muttered the mother; I must not be selfish. She covered her face with her hands, and began to think!
Could she, thus doomed, resolve on declining her brothers offer? Did it not, at least, secure bread and shelter to her child? When she was dead, might not a tie, between the uncle and nephew, be snapped asunder? Would he be as kind to the boy as now when she could commend him with her own lips to his carewhen she could place that precious charge into his hands? With these thoughts, she formed one of those resolutions which have all the strength of self-sacrificing love. She would put the boy from her, her last solace and comfort; she would die alone,alone!
CHAPTER VIII
Constance. When I shall meet him in the court of heaven, I shall not know him.King John.
One evening, the shop closed and the business done, Mr. Roger Morton and his family sat in that snug and comfortable retreat which generally backs the warerooms of an English tradesman. Happy often, and indeed happy, is that little sanctuary, near to, and yet remote from, the toil and care of the busy mart from which its homely ease and peaceful security are drawn. Glance down those rows of silenced shops in a town at night, and picture the glad and quiet groups gathered within, over that nightly and social meal which custom has banished from the more indolent tribes who neither toil nor spin. Placed between the two extremes of life, the tradesman, who ventures not beyond his means, and sees clear books and sure gains, with enough of occupation to give healthful excitement, enough of fortune to greet each new-born child without a sigh, might be envied alike by those above and those below his stateif the restless heart of men ever envied Content!
And so the little boy is not to come? said Mrs. Morton as she crossed her knife and fork, and pushed away her plate, in token that she had done supper.
I dont know.Children, go to bed; theretherethat will do. Good night!Catherine does not say either yes or no. She wants time to consider.
It was a very handsome offer on our part; some folks never know when they are well off.
That is very true, my dear, and you are a very sensible person. Kate herself might have been an honest woman, and, what is more, a very rich woman, by this time. She might have married Spencer, the young breweran excellent man, and well to do!
Spencer! I dont remember him.
No: after she went off, he retired from business, and left the place. I dont know whats become of him. He was mightily taken with her, to be sure. She was uncommonly handsome, my sister Catherine.
Handsome is as handsome does, Mr. Morton, said the wife, who was very much marked with the small-pox. We all have our temptations and trials; this is a vale of tears, and without grace we are whited sepulchers.
Mr. Morton mixed his brandy and water, and moved his chair into its customary corner.
You saw your brothers letter, said he, after a pause; he gives young Philip a very good character.