CHAPTER TEN.
A DISAPPOINTMENT, AN ACCIDENT, AND A PERPLEXING RETURN.
But the trip to York produced no fruit! Some of the tradespeople did,indeed, remember old Mrs Willis and her granddaughter, but had neitherseen nor heard of them since they left. They knew very little aboutthem personally, and nothing whatever of their previous history, as theyhad stayed only a short time in the town, and had been remarkably shyand uncommunicative--the result, it was thought, of their having "comedown" in life.
Much disappointed, Slidder and I returned to London.
"It is fortunate that we did not tell granny the object of our trip, sothat she will be spared the disappointment that we have met with," saidI, as the train neared the metropolis.
My companion made no reply; he had evidently taken the matter much toheart.
We were passing rapidly through the gradually thickening groups ofstreets and houses which besprinkle the circumference of the great city,and sat gazing contemplatively on back yards, chimney cans, unfinishedsuburban residences, pieces of waste ground, back windows, internaldomestic arrangements, etcetera, as they flew past in rapid succession.
"Robin," said I, breaking silence again, and using the name which had bythat time grown familiar, "have you made up your mind yet about takingservice with Dr McTougall? Now that we have got Mrs Jones engaged andpaid to look after granny, she will be able to get on pretty wellwithout you, and you shall have time to run over and see herfrequently."
"H'm! I don't quite see my way," returned the boy, with a solemn look."You see, sir, if it was a page-in-buttons I was to be, to attend on_my_ young lady the guv'ness, I might take it into consideration; but togo into buttons an' blue merely to open a door an' do the purlite towisitors, an' mix up things with bad smells by way of a change--why,d'ee see, the prospec' ain't temptin'. Besides, I hate blue. Thebuttons is all well enough, but blue reminds me so of the bobbies that Idon't think I could surwive it long--indeed I don't!"
"Robin," said I reproachfully, "I'm grieved at your indifference tofriendship."
"'Ow so, sir?"
"Have you not mentioned merely your objections and the disadvantages,without once weighing against them the advantages?"
"Vich is--?"
"Which are," said I, "being under the same roof with _me_ and withPunch, to say nothing of your young lady!"
"Ah, to be sure! Vell, but I did think of all that, only, don't yousee, I'll come to be under the same roof with you all in course o' timew'en you've got spliced an' set up for--"
"Slidder," said I sternly, and losing patience under the boy'spresumption, "you must never again dare to speak of such a thing. Youknow very well that it is quite out of the question, and--and--you'llget into a careless way of referring to such a possibility amongservants or--"
"No; honour bright!" exclaimed Slidder, with, for the first time, asomewhat abashed look in his face; "I wouldn't for the wealth of theInjies say a word to nobody wotsomever. It's only atween ourselves thatI wentur's to--"
"Well, well; enough," said I; "don't in future venture to do it evenbetween ourselves, if you care to retain my friendship. Now. Robin," Iadded, as the train slowed, "of course you'll not let a hint of ourreason for going north pass your lips to poor granny or any one; andgive her the old message, that I'll be along to see her soon."
It was pleasant to return to such a hearty reception as I met with fromthe doctor's family. Although my absence had been but for a few days,the children came crowding and clinging round me, declaring that itseemed like weeks since I left them. The doctor himself was, as usual,exuberant, and his wife extremely kind. Miss Blythe, I found, had notyet returned, and was not expected for some time.
But the reception accorded me by the doctor and his family was asnothing to the wild welcome lavished upon me by Dumps. That lovingcreature came more nearly to the bursting-point than I had ever seen himbefore. His spirit was obviously much too large for his body. He wasromping with the McTougall baby when I entered. The instant he heard myvoice in the hall he uttered a squeal--almost a yell--of delight, andcame down the two flights of stairs in a wriggling heap, his legs takingcomparatively little part in the movement. His paws, when first appliedto the wax-cloth of the nursery floor, slipped as if on ice, withoutcommunicating motion. On the stairs, his ears, tail, head, hair, heart,and tongue conspired to convulse him. Only when he had fairly reachedme did the hind-legs do their duty, as he bounced and wriggled high intoair. Powers of description are futile; vision alone is of any avail insuch a case. Are dogs mortal? Is such overflowing wealth of affectionextinguished at death? Pshaw! thought I, the man who thinks so showsthat he is utterly void of the merest rudiments of common sense!
I did not mention the object of my visit to York to the doctor or hiswife. Indeed, that natural shyness and reticence which I have found itimpossible to shake off--except when writing to you, good reader--wouldin any case have prevented my communicating much of my private affairsto them, but particularly in a case like this, which seemed to beassuming the aspect of a wildly romantic hunt after a lost young girl,more like the plot of a sensational novel than an occurrence inevery-day life.
It may be remarked here that the doctor had indeed understood from MrsWillis that she had somehow lost a granddaughter; but being rather fussyin his desires and efforts to comfort people in distress, he had failedto rouse the sympathy which would have drawn out details from the oldwoman. I therefore merely gave him to understand that the businesswhich had called me to the north of England had been unsuccessful, andthen changed the subject.
Meanwhile Dumps returned to the nursery to resume the game of rompswhich I had interrupted.
After a general "scrimmage," in which the five chips of the elderMcTougall had joined, without regard to any concerted plan, Dollysuddenly shouted "'Top!"
"What are we to stop for?" demanded Harry, whose powers ofself-restraint were not strong.
"Want a 'est!" said Dolly, sitting down on a stool with a resoluteplump.
"Rest quick, then, and let's go on again," said Harry, throwing himselfinto a small chair, while Job and Jenny sprawled on an ottoman in thewindow.
Seeing that her troops appeared to be exhausted, and that a period ofrepose had set in, the tall nurse thought this a fitting opportunity toretire for a short recreative talk with the servants in the kitchen.
"Now be good, child'n," she said, in passing out, "and don't 'urt poorlittle Dumps."
"Oh no," chorused the five, while, with faces of intense and realsolemnity, they assured nurse that they would not hurt Dumps for theworld.
"We'll be _so_ dood!" remarked Dolly, as the door closed--and she reallymeant it.
"What'll we do to him now?" asked Harry, whose patience was exhausted.
"Tut off him's head," cried Dolly, clapping her fat little hands.
"No, burn him for a witch," said Jenny.
"Oh no! ve'll skeese him flat till he's bu'sted," suggested Job.
But Jenny thought that would be too cruel, and Harry said it would betoo tame.
It must not be supposed that these and several other appalling tortureswere meant to be really attempted. As Job afterwards said, it was onlyplay.
"Oh! I'll tell you what we'll do," said Jack, who was considerably inadvance of the others in regard to education, "we'll turn him into Joanof Arc."
"What's Joan of Arc?" asked Job.
"It isn't a what--it's a who," cried Jack, laughing.
"Is it like Noah's Ark?" inquired Dolly.
"No, no; it's a lady who lived in France, an' thought she was sent todeliver her country from--from--I don't know all what, an' put on men'sclo'es an' armour, an' went out to battle, an' was burnt."
"Bu'nt!" shouted Dolly, with sparkling eyes; "oh, what fun!--We're goin'to bu'n you, Pompey." They called him by Lilly Blythe's name.
Dumps, who sat in a confused heap in a corner, panting, seemedregardless of the fate that awaited him.
"But where shall we f
ind armour?" said Harry.
"_I_ know," exclaimed Job, going to the fireplace, and seizing the lidof a saucepan which stood on the hearth near enough to the tall fenderto be within reach, "here's somethin'."
"Capital--a breastplate! Just the thing!" cried Jack, seizing it, andwhistling to Dumps.
"And here's a first-rate helmet," said Harry, producing a toy drum withthe heads out.
The strong contrast between my doggie's conditions of grigginess andhumiliation has already been referred to. Aware that something unusualwas pending, he crawled towards Jack with every hair trailing in lowlysubmission. Poor Joan of Arc might have had a happier fate if she hadbeen influenced by a similar spirit!
"Now, sir, stand up on your hind-legs."
The already well-trained and obedient creature obeyed.
"There," he said, tying the lid to his hairy bosom; "and there," hecontinued, thrusting the drum on his meek head, which it fitted exactly;"now, Madame Joan, come away--the fagots are ready."
With Harry's aid, and to the ineffable joy of Jenny, Job, and Dolly, thelittle dog was carefully bound to the leg of a small table, and bits ofbroken toys--of which there were heaps--were piled round it for fagots.
"Don't be c'uel," said Dolly tenderly.
"Oh no, we won't be cruel," said Jack, who was really anxious toaccomplish the whole execution without giving pain to the victim. Thebetter to arrange some of the fastenings he clambered on the table.Dolly, always anxious to observe what was being done, attempted to dothe same. Jenny, trying to prevent her, pulled at her skirts, and amongthem they pulled the table over on themselves. It fell with a direcrash.
Of course there were cries and shouts from the children, but these wereovertopped and quickly silenced by the hideous yellings of Dumps. Fullmany a time had the poor dog given yelp and yell in that nursery whenaccidentally hurt, and as often had it wagged its forgiving tail andlicked the patting hands of sympathy; but now the yells were loud andcontinuous, the patting hands were snapped at, and Dumps refused to becomforted. His piercing cries reached my study. I sprang up-stairs anddashed into the nursery, where the eccentric five were standing in agroup, with looks of self-condemning horror in their ten round eyes, andalmost equally expressive round mouths.
The reason was soon discovered--poor Dumps had got a hind-leg broken!
Having ascertained the fact, alleviated the pain as well as I could, andbandaged the limb, I laid my doggie tenderly in the toy bed belonging toJenny's largest doll, which was quickly and heartily given up for theoccasion, the dispossessed doll being callously laid on a shelf in themeantime.
It was really quite interesting to observe the effect of this accidenton the tender-hearted five. They wept over Dumps most genuine tears.They begged his pardon--implored his forgiveness--in the most earnesttones and touching terms. They took turn about in watching by hissick-bed. They held lint and lotion with superhuman solemnity while Idressed his wounded limb, and they fed him with the most tendersolicitude. In short, they came out quite in a new and sympatheticlight, and soon began to play at sick-nursing with each other. Thisinvolved a good deal of pretended sickness, and for a long time afterthat it was no uncommon thing for visitors to the nursery to find threeof the five down with measles, whooping-cough, or fever, while thefourth acted doctor, and the fifth nurse.
The event however, gave them a lesson in gentleness to dumb animalswhich they never afterwards forgot, and which some of my boy readerswould do well to remember. With a laudable effort to improve theoccasion, Mrs McTougall carefully printed in huge letters, andelaborately illuminated the sentence, "Be kind to Doggie," and hung itup in the nursery. Thereupon cardboard, pencils, paints, and scissorswere in immediate demand, and soon after there appeared on the walls inhideously bad but highly ornamental letters, the words "Be kind toCattie." This was followed by "Be kind to Polly," which instantlysuggested "Be kind to Dolly." And so, by one means or another, thelesson of kindness was driven home.
Soon after this event Dr McTougall moved into a new house in the samestreet; I became regularly established as his partner, and Robin Slidderentered on his duties as page in buttons. It is right to observe herethat, in deference to his prejudices, the material of his garments wasnot blue, but dark grey.
It was distinctly arranged, however, that Robin was to go home, as hecalled it, to be with Mrs Willis at nights. On no other conditionwould he agree to enter the doctor's service; and I found, on talkingover the subject with Mrs Willis herself, that she had become so fondof the boy that it would have been sheer cruelty to part them. Inshort, it was a case of mutual love at first sight! No two individualsseemed more unlikely to draw together than the meek, gentle old lady andthe dashing, harum-scarum boy. Yet so it was.
"My dear,"--she always spoke to me now as if I had been her son--"this`waif,' as people would call him, has clearly been sent to me as acomfort in the midst of all but overwhelming sorrow; and I believe, too,that I have been sent to draw the dear boy to Jesus. You should hearwhat long and pleasant talks we have about Him, and the Bible, and the`better land' sometimes."
"Indeed! I am glad to hear you say so, granny, and also surprised,because, although I believe the boy to be well disposed, I have seldombeen able to get him to open his lips to me on religious subjects."
"Ah! but he opens his dear lips to me, doctor, and reads to me many along chapter out of the blessed Word!"
"Reads! Can he read?"
"Ay can he!--not so badly, considering that I only began to teach himtwo or three months ago. But he knew his letters when we began, andcould spell out a few words. He's very quick, you see, and a dear boy!"
Soon afterwards we made this arrangement with Robin more convenient forall parties, by bringing Mrs Willis over to a better lodging in one ofthe small back streets not far from the doctor's new residence.
I now began to devote much of my time to the study of chemistry, notonly because it suited Dr McTougall that I should do so, but because Ihad conceived a great liking for that science, and entertained somethoughts of devoting myself to it almost exclusively.
In the various experiments connected therewith I was most ably, and, Imay add, delightedly, assisted by Robin Slidder. I was also greatlyamused by, and induced to philosophise not a little on the peculiar castof the boy's mind. The pleasure obviously afforded to him by theuncertainty as to results in experiments was very great. Theprobability of a miscarriage created in him intense interest--I will notsay hope! The ignorance of what was coming kept him in a constantflutter of subdued excitement, and the astounding results (evensometimes to myself) of some of my combinations, kept him in a perpetualsimmer of expectation. But after long observation, I have come to thedeliberate conclusion that nothing whatever gave Robin such ineffablejoy as an explosion! A crash, a burst, a general reduction of anythingto instantaneous and elemental ruin, was so dear to him that I verilybelieve he would have taken his chance, and stood by, if I had proposedto blow the roof off Dr McTougall's mansion. Nay, I almost think thatif that remarkable waif had been set on a bombshell and blown to atoms,he would have retired from this life in a state of supreme satisfaction.
While my mind was thus agreeably concentrated on the pursuit of science,it received a rude, but pleasing, yet particularly distracting shock, bythe return of Lilly Blythe. The extent to which this governess wasworshipped by the whole household was wonderful--almost idolatrous.Need I say that I joined in the worship, and that Dumps and Robinfollowed suit? I think not. And yet--there was something strange,something peculiar, something unaccountable, about Miss Blythe's mannerwhich I could by no means understand.