"I've enough to reproach myself with one."
These words, spoken by Mr. Chester in the course of his late domestic
difference with his wife, brought with them a feeling of deep remorse.
He had another child, a son, now a man, and a sharp pain shot through
the hearts of husband and wife as the words were uttered. But Mr.
Chester, once more at the Royal George, did his best to drown
uncomfortable reminiscences. His new tenant, who accompanied him to
the gin-palace, scarcely opened his lips except to drink. His manner
of taking his liquor was not attractive; he raised his glass to his
lips with a sly furtive air, and conducted himself throughout in so
objectionable and jarring a spirit, that when, within half-an-hour of
midnight, he said, churlishly: "I think I may as well get home;" Mr.
Chester replied: "All right; you'll not be missed in _this_ company."
Thereupon, the stranger, with another sly watchful look around took
his leave, to everyone's satisfaction.
Within a few moments of his departure, Mr. Chester, in the act of
drinking, suddenly held up his hand. His attitude of attention was
magnetically repeated in the attitudes of the persons around him. As
when a person in the street stands still, and points at nothing in the
sky, he speedily draws about him a throng of interested ones, who all
look up, and point at nothing also.
What had arrested Mr. Chester's attention was the faint sound of music
from without. Only half-a-dozen notes reached his ears, and they were
softly borne to him from a wind instrument.
The glass which he held trembled in his hand, and, had he not placed
it on the counter, would have fallen to the ground.
He walked slowly to the door, and looked out in the street for the
musician. He could not see him, and the sound had died away. Returning
to his companions, he abruptly asked:
"Did any of you observe whether that man"--referring, with a backward
pointing of his thumb, to his new tenant--"had anything in his breast
pocket?"
Two or three answered, No, they had not observed any thing particular;
but one said he thought, now Mr. Chester mentioned it, that the
stranger _did_ have something in his breast pocket.
"Something that stuck out," suggested Mr. Chester vivaciously.
Perceiving that he had made a hit, the man replied that he thought it
_was_ something that stuck out.
"Might have been a stick?" proceeded Mr. Chester.
"Yes, it might have been a stick."
"Or a flute?"
"Yes, it might have been a flute."
"Or," asked Mr. Chester, coming now to his climax, "a penny tin
whistle?"
Yes, the man thought it might decidedly have been penny tin whistle;
which so satisfied Mr. Chester, that he inhaled a long breath of
relief, and asked the man what he would take to drink.