"Sarvant, sir--sarvant, sir!" exclaimed D. Wragg, flourishing his hat
first at Sir Francis, and then at Harry Clayton, while he worked and
jerked himself about in a way that was perfectly frightful to
contemplate. "Just give me a minute. I won't keep you both more than
that, only I couldn't rest without coming in to tell you as it does us
at home so much good 'cos that young gent's found, as you can't tell."
Sir Francis knit his brow as he listened, for he could not help
associating the man before him with the cause of Lionel's disappearance;
but he did not speak.
"Ah! I see you're cross about it," said D. Wragg, who caught the frown;
"but never mind if you are; we're glad all the same. You thought we had
to do with it?"
"My good fellow, yes!" exclaimed Sir Francis, hastily; for this touched
him upon a tender point--he had been unjust. "Yes; we did think so, and
I beg your pardon for it most heartily. It was a gross piece of
injustice, and I beg that you will forgive it. If--"
"You're a reg'lar, thorough-bred, game gentleman! that's what you are,"
said D. Wragg; "and I respect you, sir, that I do. And if you're sorry
for having my place searched, why, there's an end of it; and as to
forgiving you, why, we won't say any more about that."
"But if money--" continued Sir Francis.
"No; money ain't got nothing to do with it," said D. Wragg, gruffly;
"and yet it has too, something. You see, sir, I got hold of Sergeant
Falkner, and he's put me up to it all--how you found the young gent in
the orspital and all; and so I wanted to come on about it. But what did
I say to you when you came to me to search my place? Why, don't you
make no mistake, I says, and now I says it again. Don't you make no
mistake; I ain't come after money; but just to say as I'm sorry as the
young gent should have got into such trouble through coming to my place;
and as to his getting better, all I've got to say now is, as he shan't
never come inside the shop again. I did have some of his money for
different things; but there, lor' bless you, I put it to you, Mr
Clayton, sir, if I hadn't had it to do me good, wouldn't he have spent
it in organ-grinders, or brass bands, or something? 'Pon my soul, sir,
I never see a young gent as knowed so little of what money was worth."
"And do you mean," said Sir Francis, "that if my son gets well, and
comes to your place again, you will not admit him?"
"Course I do. Don't you make no mistake, sir. I'm in real earnest, I
am; and if at any time you want a dorg, or a score o'--Blow it! hold
your tongue, will you," he said, breaking off short in his speech, this
portion of which was born of constant repetition. "But don't you make
no mistake, sir--he shan't come no more; and as to the place being
searched, that wasn't your doing; that was spite, that was, and Mr Jack
Screwby--an ugly cuss! But they've got him for 'sault and violence, and
he'll get it hot, and no mistake, sir. And now my sarvice to you both,
gents, and I'm off; but I thought I'd come to say as I was sorry and
glad too, and you understands me, I knows."
As he turned to go, Sir Francis crossed the room, and tried to thrust a
five-pound note into his hands; but D. Wragg waved him off.
"No, sir; I promised 'em at home, if you wanted to do anything of that
kind, as I wouldn't take it--and I won't--so there now. But look here!
don't you make no mistake; I ain't proud, and if you says to me, `Mr D.
Wragg, will you take a glass of wine to drink my son back again to
health?'--why, hang me if I don't."
Crash went D. Wragg's hat down upon the floor as he spoke, and after his
arms had flown about at all manner of angles with his body, he folded
them tightly, and stood gazing from one to the other.
"You shall drink his health, indeed, Mr Wragg," said Sir Francis,
smiling; and the decanters being produced, D. Wragg did drink Lionel's
health, and then in another glass that of Sir Francis, then took another
to drink Harry Clayton's, and yet one more for the benefit of all absent
friends, when he stumped off, evidently wonderfully steadied in his
action by what he had imbibed.
Volume 3, Chapter XIX.