The Small House at Allington
At these Sunday dinners the mistress of the house never went away
into the drawing-room, and the tea was always brought into them at
the table on which they had dined. It was another little step towards
keeping holy the first day of the week. When Lady Rosina was there,
she was indulged with the sight of six or seven solid good books
which were laid upon the mahogany as soon as the bottles were taken
off it. At her first prolonged visit she had obtained for herself
the privilege of reading a sermon; but as on such occasions both
Lady Amelia and Mr. Gazebee would go to sleep,--and as the footman
had also once shown a tendency that way,--the sermon had been
abandoned. But the master of the house, on these evenings, when his
sister-in-law was present, was doomed to sit in idleness, or else to
find solace in one of the solid good books. But Lady Rosina just now
was in the country, and therefore the table was left unfurnished.
"And what am I to say to my mother?" said Lady Amelia, when they were
alone.
"Give her my kindest regards," said Crosbie. It was quite clear, both
to the husband and to the wife, that he was preparing himself for
rebellion against authority.
For some ten minutes there was nothing said. Crosbie amused himself
by playing with the boy whom he called Dicksey, by way of a nickname
for De Courcy.
"Mamma, he calls me Dicksey. Am I Dicksey? I'll call 'oo old Cross,
and then aunt Dina 'on't like 'oo."
"I wish you would not call the child nicknames, Adolphus. It seems as
though you would wish to cast a slur upon the one which he bears."
"I should hardly think that he would feel disposed to do that," said
Mr. Gazebee.
"Hardly, indeed," said Crosbie.
"It has never yet been disgraced in the annals of our country by
being made into a nickname," said the proud daughter of the house.
She was probably unaware that among many of his associates her father
had been called Lord De Curse'ye, from the occasional energy of
his language. "And any such attempt is painful in my ears. I think
something of my family, I can assure you, Adolphus, and so does my
husband."
"A very great deal," said Mr. Gazebee.
"So do I of mine," said Crosbie. "That's natural to all of us. One of
my ancestors came over with William the Conqueror. I think he was one
of the assistant cooks in the king's tent."
"A cook!" said young De Courcy.
"Yes, my boy, a cook. That was the way most of our old families were
made noble. They were cooks, or butlers to the kings--or sometimes
something worse."
"But your family isn't noble?"
"No--I'll tell you how that was. The king wanted this cook to poison
half-a-dozen of his officers who wished to have a way of their
own; but the cook said, 'No, my Lord King; I am a cook, not an
executioner.' So they sent him into the scullery, and when they
called all the other servants barons and lords, they only called him
Cookey. They've changed the name to Crosbie since that, by degrees."
Mr. Gazebee was awestruck, and the face of the Lady Amelia became
very dark. Was it not evident that this snake, when taken into their
innermost bosoms that they might there warm him, was becoming an
adder, and preparing to sting them? There was very little more
conversation that evening, and soon after the story of the cook,
Crosbie got up and went away to his own home.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
"SEE, THE CONQUERING HERO COMES."
John Eames had reached his office precisely at twelve o'clock,
but when he did so he hardly knew whether he was standing on his
heels or his head. The whole morning had been to him one of intense
excitement, and latterly, to a certain extent, one of triumph. But
he did not at all know what might be the results. Would he be taken
before a magistrate and locked up? Would there be a row at the
office? Would Crosbie call him out, and, if so, would it be incumbent
on him to fight a duel with pistols? What would Lord De Guest
say--Lord De Guest, who had specially warned him not to take upon
himself the duty of avenging Lily's wrongs? What would all the Dale
family say of his conduct? And, above all, what would Lily say and
think? Nevertheless, the feeling of triumph was predominant; and now,
at this interval of time, he was beginning to remember with pleasure
the sensation of his fist as it went into Crosbie's eye.
During his first day at the office he heard nothing about the affair,
nor did he say a word of it to any one. It was known in his room that
he had gone down to spend his Christmas holiday with Lord De Guest,
and he was treated with some increased consideration accordingly.
And, moreover, I must explain, in order that I may give Johnny Eames
his due, he was gradually acquiring for himself a good footing
among the Income-tax officials. He knew his work, and did it with
some manly confidence in his own powers, and also with some manly
indifference to the occasional frowns of the mighty men of the
department. He was, moreover, popular--being somewhat of a radical
in his official demeanour, and holding by his own rights, even
though mighty men should frown. In truth, he was emerging from his
hobbledehoyhood and entering upon his young manhood, having probably
to go through much folly and some false sentiment in that period of
his existence, but still with fair promise of true manliness beyond,
to those who were able to read the signs of his character.
Many questions on that first day were asked him about the glories of
his Christmas, but he had very little to say on the subject. Indeed
nothing could have been much more commonplace than his Christmas
visit, had it not been for the one great object which had taken him
down to that part of the country, and for the circumstance with which
his holiday had been ended. On neither of these subjects was he
disposed to speak openly; but as he walked home to Burton Crescent
with Cradell, he did tell him of the affair with Crosbie.
"And you went in at him on the station?" asked Cradell, with admiring
doubt.
[ILLUSTRATION: "And you went in at him on the station?"]
"Yes, I did. If I didn't do it there, where was I to do it? I'd
said I would, and therefore when I saw him I did it." Then the
whole affair was told as to the black eye, the police, and the
superintendent. "And what's to come next?" asked our hero.
"Well, he'll put it in the hands of a friend, of course; as I did
with Fisher in that affair with Lupex. And, upon my word, Johnny, I
shall have to do something of the kind again. His conduct last night
was outrageous; would you believe it--"
"Oh, he's a fool."
"He's a fool you wouldn't like to meet when he's in one of his mad
fits, I can tell you that. I absolutely had to sit up in my own
bedroom all last night. Mother Roper told me that if I remained in
the drawing-room she would feel herself obliged to have a policeman
in the house. What could I do, you know? I made her have a fire for
me, of course."
"And then you went to bed."
"I waited ever so long, because I thought that Maria would want to
see me. At last she sent me a note. Maria is so imprudent, you know.
If he had found anything in her writing, it would have been terrible,
you know,--quite terrible. And who can say whether Jemima mayn't
tell?"
"And what did she say?"
"Come; that's tellings, Master Johnny. I took very good care to take
it with me to the office this morning, for fear of accidents."
But Eames was not so widely awake to the importance of his friend's
adventures as he might have been had he not been weighted with
adventures of his own.
"I shouldn't care so much," said he, "about that fellow Crosbie going
to a friend, as I should about his going to a police magistrate."
"He'll put it in a friend's hands, of course," said Cradell, with the
air of a man who from experience was well up in such matters. "And I
suppose you'll naturally come to me. It's a deuced bore to a man in a
public office, and all that kind of thing, of course. But I'm not the
man to desert my friend. I'll stand by you, Johnny, my boy."
"Oh, thank you," said Eames, "I don't think that I shall want that."
"You must be ready with a friend, you know."
"I should write down to a man I know in the country, and ask his
advice," said Eames; "an older sort of friend, you know."
"By Jove, old fellow, take care what you're about. Don't let them say
of you that you show the white feather. Upon my honour, I'd sooner
have anything said of me than that. I would, indeed,--anything."
"I'm not afraid of that," said Eames, with a touch of scorn
in his voice. "There isn't much thought about white feathers
now-a-days,--not in the way of fighting duels."
After that, Cradell managed to carry back the conversation to Mrs.
Lupex and his own peculiar position, and as Eames did not care to ask
from his companion further advice in his own matters, he listened
nearly in silence till they reached Burton Crescent.
"I hope you found the noble earl well," said Mrs. Roper to him, as
soon as they were all seated at dinner.
"I found the noble earl pretty well, thank you," said Johnny.
It had become plainly understood by all the Roperites that Eames's
position was quite altered since he had been honoured with the
friendship of Lord De Guest. Mrs. Lupex, next to whom he always
sat at dinner, with a view to protecting her as it were from the
dangerous neighbourhood of Cradell, treated him with a marked
courtesy. Miss Spruce always called him "sir." Mrs. Roper helped him
the first of the gentlemen, and was mindful about his fat and gravy,
and Amelia felt less able than she was before to insist upon the
possession of his heart and affections. It must not be supposed that
Amelia intended to abandon the fight, and allow the enemy to walk off
with his forces; but she felt herself constrained to treat him with a
deference that was hardly compatible with the perfect equality which
should attend any union of hearts.
"It is such a privilege to be on visiting terms with the nobility,"
said Mrs. Lupex. "When I was a girl, I used to be very intimate--"
"You ain't a girl any longer, and so you'd better not talk about it,"
said Lupex. Mr. Lupex had been at that little shop in Drury Lane
after he came down from his scene-painting.
"My dear, you needn't be a brute to me before all Mrs. Roper's
company. If, led away by feelings which I will not now describe, I
left my proper circles in marrying you, you need not before all the
world teach me how much I have to regret." And Mrs. Lupex, putting
down her knife and fork, applied her handkerchief to her eyes.
"That's pleasant for a man over his meals, isn't it?" said Lupex,
appealing to Miss Spruce. "I have plenty of that kind of thing, and
you can't think how I like it."
"Them whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder," said
Miss Spruce. "As for me myself, I'm only an old woman."
This little ebullition threw a gloom over the dinner-table, and
nothing more was said on the occasion as to the glories of Eames's
career. But, in the course of the evening, Amelia heard of the
encounter which had taken place at the railway station, and at once
perceived that she might use the occasion for her own purposes.
"John," she whispered to her victim, finding an opportunity for
coming upon him when almost alone, "what is this I hear? I insist
upon knowing. Are you going to fight a duel?"
"Nonsense," said Johnny.
"But it is not nonsense. You don't know what my feelings will be, if
I think that such a thing is going to happen. But then you are so
hard-hearted!"
"I ain't hard-hearted a bit, and I'm not going to fight a duel."
"But is it true that you beat Mr. Crosbie at the station?"
"It is true. I did beat him."
"Oh, John! not that I mean to say you were wrong, and indeed I honour