CHAPTER EIGHT.
LITTLE SLIDDER RESISTS TEMPTATION SUCCESSFULLY, AND I BECOME ENSLAVED.
"Pompey," said I, one afternoon, while reclining on the sofa in Dobson'sdrawing-room, my leg being not yet sufficiently restored to admit of mygoing out--"Pompey, I've got news for you."
To my surprise my doggie would not answer to that name at all when Iused it, though he did so when it was used by Miss Blythe.
"Dumps!" I said, in a somewhat injured tone.
Ears and tail at once replied.
"Come now, Punch," I said, rather sternly; "I'll call you what Iplease--Punch, Dumps, or Pompey--because you are _my_ dog still, atleast as long as your mistress and I live under the same roof; so, sir,if you take the Dumps when I call you Pompey, I'll punch your head foryou."
Evidently the dog thought this a very flat jest, for he paid noattention to it whatever.
"Now, Dumps, come here and let's be friends. Who do you think is comingto stay with us--to stay altogether? You'll never guess. Your oldfriend and first master, little Slidder, no less. Think of that!"
Dumps wagged his tail vigorously; whether at the news, or because ofpleasure at my brushing the hair off his soft brown eyes, and lookinginto them, I cannot tell.
"Yes," I continued, "it's quite true. This fire will apparently be themaking of little Slidder, as well as you and me, for we are all going tolive and work together. Isn't that nice? Evidently Dr McTougall is atrump, and so is his friend Dobson, who puts this fine mansion at hisdisposal until another home can be got ready for us."
I was interrupted at this point by an uproarious burst of laughter fromthe doctor himself, who had entered by the open door unobserved by me.I joined in the laugh against myself, but blushed, nevertheless, for mandoes not like, as a rule, to be caught talking earnestly either tohimself or to a dumb creature.
"Why, Mellon," he said, sitting down beside me, and patting my dog, "Iimagined from your tones, as I entered, that you were having someserious conversation with my wife."
"No; Mrs McTougall has not yet returned from her drive. I was merelyhaving a chat with Dumps. I had of late, in my lodgings, got into a wayof thinking aloud, as it were, while talking to my dog. I suppose itwas with an unconscious desire to break the silence of my room."
"No doubt, no doubt," replied the doctor, with a touch of sympathy inhis tone. "You must have been rather lonely in that attic of yours.And yet do you know, I sometimes sigh for the quiet of such an attic!Perhaps when you've been some months under the same roof with theseminiature thunderstorms, Jack, Harry, Job, Jenny, and Dolly, you'll longto go back to the attic."
A tremendous thump on the floor overhead, followed by a wild uproar,sent the doctor upstairs--three steps at a stride. I sat prudentlystill till he returned, which he did in a few minutes, laughing.
"What d'you think it was?" he cried, panting. "Only my Dolly tumblingoff the chest of drawers. My babes have many pleasant little games.Among others, cutting off the heads of dreadful traitors is a greatfavourite. They roll up a sheet into a ball for the head. Then each ofthem is led in turn to the scaffold, which is the top of a chest ofdrawers. One holds the ball against the criminal's shoulders, anothercuts it off with a wooden knife, a basket receives it below, then one ofthem takes it out, and, holding it aloft shouts `Behold the head of atraitor!' It seems that four criminals had been safely decapitated, andDolly was being led to the fatal block, when she slipped her foot andfell to the ground, overturning Harry and a chair in her descent. Thatwas all."
"Not hurt, I hope?"
"Oh no! They never get hurt--seriously hurt, I mean. As toblack-and-blue shins, scratches, cuts, and bumps, they may be said toexist in a perpetually maimed condition."
"Strange!" said I musingly, "that they should like to play at such adisagreeable subject."
"Disagreeable!" exclaimed my friend, "pooh! that's nothing. You shouldsee them playing at the horrors of the Inquisition. My poor wifesometimes shudders at the idea that we have been gifted with fivemonsters of cruelty, but any one can see with half an eye that it is afine sense of the propriety of retributive justice that influencesthem."
"Any one who chooses to go and look at the five innocent faces when theyare asleep," said I, laughing, "can see with a _quarter_ of an eye thatyou and Mrs McTougall are to be congratulated on the nature of yourlittle ones."
"Of course we are, my dear fellow," returned the doctor with enthusiasm."But--to change the subject--has little Slidder been here to-day?"
"Not that I know of."
"Ah! there he is" said the doctor, as, at that instant, the door-bellrang; "there is insolence in the very tone of his ring. He has pulledthe visitor's bell, too, and there goes the knocker! Of all the impsthat walk, a London street-boy is--" The sentence was cut short by theopening of the door and the entrance of my little _protege_. He hadevidently got himself up for the occasion, for his shoeblack uniform hadbeen well brushed, his hands and face severely washed, and his hairplastered well down with soap-and-water.
"Come in, Slidder--that's your name, isn't it?" said the doctor.
"It is, sir--Robin Slidder, at your sarvice," replied the urchin, givingme a familiar nod. "'Ope your leg ain't so cranky as it wos, sir.Gittin' all square, eh?"
I repressed a smile with difficulty as I replied--"It is much better,thank you. Attend to what Dr McTougall has to say to you."
"Hall serene," he replied, looking with cool urbanity in the doctor'sface, "fire away!"
"You're a shoeblack, I see," said the doctor.
"That's my purfession."
"Do you like it?"
"Vell, w'en it's dirty weather, with lots o' mud, an' coppers goin', Idoes. W'en it's all sunshine an' starwation, I doesn't."
"My friend Mr Mellon tells me that you're a very good boy."
Little Slidder looked at me with a solemn, reproachful air.
"Oh! _what_ a wopper!" he said.
We both laughed at this.
"Come, Slidder," said I, "you must learn to treat us with more respect,else I shall have to change my opinion of you."
"Wery good, sir, that's _your_ business, not mine. I wos inwited here,an' here I am. Now, wot 'ave you got to say to me?--that's the p'int."
"Can you read and write?" resumed the doctor.
"Cern'ly not," replied the boy, with the air of one who had beeninsulted; "wot d'you take me for? D'you think I'm a genius as can readan' write without 'avin' bin taught or d'you think I'm a monster as wosborn readin' an' writin'? I've 'ad no school to go to nor nobody toputt me there."
"I thought the School Board looked after such as you."
"So they does, sir; but I've been too many for the school-boarders."
"Then it's your own fault that you've not been taught?" said the doctor,somewhat severely.
"Not at all," returned the urchin, with quiet assurance. "It's thedooty o' the school-boarders to ketch me, an' they can't ketch me.That's not my fault. It's my superiority."
My friend looked at the little creature before him with much surprise.After a few seconds' contemplation and thought, he continued--"Well,Slidder, as my friend here says you are a good sort of boy, I am boundto believe him, though appearances are somewhat against you. Now, I amin want of a smart boy at present, to attend to the hall-door, showpatients into my consulting-room, run messages--in short, make himselfgenerally useful about the house. How would such a situation suit you?"
"W'y, doctor," said the boy, ignoring the question, "how could any boyattend on your 'all-door w'en it's burnt to hashes?"
"We will manage to have another door," replied Dr McTougall, with aforbearing smile; "meanwhile you could practise on the door of thishouse.--But that is not answering my question, boy. How would you likethe place? You'd have light work, a good salary, pleasant society belowstairs, and a blue uniform. In short, I'd make a page-in-buttons ofyou."
"Wot about the wittles?" demanded this remarkable boy.
"Of course yo
u'd fare as well as the other servants," returned thedoctor, rather testily, for his opinion of my little friend was rapidlyfalling; I could see that, to my regret.
"Now give me an answer at once," he continued sharply. "Would you liketo come?"
"Not by no manner of means," replied Slidder promptly.
We both looked at him in amazement.
"Why, Slidder, you stupid fellow!" said I, "what possesses you to refuseso good an offer?"
"Dr Mellon," he replied, turning on me with a flush of unwontedearnestness, "d'you think I'd be so shabby, so low, so mean, as to goan' forsake Granny Willis for all the light work an' good salaries andpleasant society an' blue-uniforms-with-buttons in London? Who'd make'er gruel? Who'd polish 'er shoes every mornin' till you could see toshave in 'em, though she don't never put 'em on? Who'd make 'er bed an'light 'er fires an' fetch 'er odd bits o' coal? An' who'd read the noosto 'er, an'--"
"Why, Slidder," interrupted Dr McTougall, "you said just now that youcould not read."
"No more I can, sir but I takes in a old newspaper to 'er everymorning', an' sets myself down by the fire with it before me an'pretends to read. I inwents the noos as I goes along; an you should seethat old lady's face, an' the way 'er eyes opens we'n I'm a tapin' offthe murders an' the 'ighway robberies, an' the burglaries an' the firesat 'ome, an' the wars an' earthquakes an' other scrimmages abroad. Itdo cheer 'er up most wonderful. Of course, I stick in any hodd bits o'real noos I 'appens to git hold of, but I ain't partickler."
"Apparently not," said the doctor, laughing. "Well, I see it's of nouse tempting you to forsake your present position--indeed, I would notwish you to leave it. Some day I may find means to have old Mrs Willistaken better care of, and then--well, we shall see. Meanwhile, Irespect your feelings. Good-bye, and give my regards to granny. SayI'll be over to see her soon."
"Stay," said I, as the boy turned to leave, "you never told me that oneof your names was Robin."
"'Cause it wasn't w'en I saw you last; I only got it a few days ago."
"Indeed! From whom?"
"From Granny Willis. She gave me the name, an' I likes it, an' mean tostick by it--Good arternoon, gen'lemen. Ta, ta, Punch."
At the word my doggie bounced from under my hand and began to leapjoyfully round the boy.
"I say," said Robin, pausing at the door and looking back, "_she's_ allright I 'ope. Gittin' better?"
"Who do you mean?"
"W'y, the guv'ness, in course--my young lady."
"Oh, yes! I am happy to say she is better," said the doctor, muchamused by the anxious look of the face, which had hitherto been thequintessence of cool self-possession. "But she has had a great shake,and will have to be sent to the country for change of air when we canventure to move her."
I confess that I was much surprised, but not a little gratified, by thevery decided manner in which Slidder avowed his determination to standfast by the poor old woman in whom I had been led to take so strong aninterest. Hitherto I had felt some uncertainty as to how far I coulddepend on the boy's affection for Mrs Willis, and his steadiness ofpurpose; now I felt quite sure of him.
Dr McTougall felt as I did in the matter, and so did his friend theCity man. I had half expected that Dobson would have laughed at us forwhat he sometimes styled our softness, because he had so much to do withsharpers and sharp practice, but I was mistaken. He quite agreed withus in our opinion of my little waif, and spoke admiringly of those whosought, through evil and good report, to rescue our "City Arabs" fromdestruction. And Dobson did more than speak: he gave liberally out ofhis ample fortune to the good cause.
That evening, just after the gas was lighted, while I was lying on thesofa thinking of these things, and toying with Dumps's ears, the dooropened and Mrs McTougall entered, with Miss Blythe leaning on her arm.It was the first time she had come down to the drawing-room since herillness. She was thin, and pale, but to my mind more beautiful thanever, for her brown eyes seemed to grow larger and more lustrous as theybeamed upon me.
I leaped up, sending an agonising shoot of pain through my leg, andhastened to meet her. Dumps, as if jealous of me, sprang wildly onbefore, and danced round his mistress in a whirlwind of delight.
"I am so glad to see you, Miss Blythe," I stammered; "I had feared theconsequences of that terrible night--that rude descent. You--you--arebetter, I--"
"Thank you; _very_ much better," she replied, with a sweet smile; "andhow shall I ever express my debt of gratitude to you, Mr Mellon?"
She extended her delicate hand. I grasped it; she shook mine heartily.
That shake fixed my fate. No doubt it was the simple and naturalexpression of a grateful heart for a really important service; but Icared nothing about that. She blushed as I looked at her, and stoopedto pat the jealous and impatient Dumps.
"Sit here, darling, on this easy-chair," said Mrs McTougall; "you knowthe doctor allows you only half an hour--or an hour at most--to-night;you may be up longer to-morrow. There; and you are not to speak much,remember.--Mr Mellon, you must address yourself to me. Lilly is onlyallowed to listen.
"Yes, as you truly said, Mr Mellon," continued the good lady, who wassomewhat garrulous, "her descent was rough, and indeed, so was mine.Oh! I shall never forget that rough monster into whose arms you thrustme that awful night; but he was a brave and strong monster too. He justgathered me up like a bundle of clothes, and went crashing down theblazing stair, through fire and smoke--and through bricks and mortartoo, it seemed to me, from the noise and shocks. But we came out safe,thank God, and I had not a scratch, though I noticed that my monster'shair and beard were on fire, and his face was cut and bleeding. I can'tthink how he carried me so safely."
"Ah! the firemen have a knack of doing that sort of thing," said I,speaking to Mrs McTougall, but looking at Lilly Blythe.
"So I have heard. The brave, noble men," said Lilly, speaking to MrsMcTougall, but looking at me.
I know not what we conversed about during the remainder of that hour.Whether I talked sense or nonsense I cannot tell. The only thing I amquite sure of is that I talked incessantly, enthusiastically, to MrsMcTougall, but kept my eyes fixed on Lilly Blythe all the time; and Iknow that Lilly blushed a good deal, and bent her pretty head frequentlyover her "darling Pompey," and fondled him to his heart's content.
That night my leg violently resented the treatment it had received.When I slept I dreamed that I was on the rack, and that Miss Blythe,strange to say, was the chief tormentor, while Dumps quietly looked onand laughed--yes, deliberately laughed--at my sufferings.