THE SOFTNESS OF SIR RAFFLE BUFFLE.
We have seen that John Eames was prepared to start on his journey in
search of the Arabins, and have seen him after he had taken farewell
of his office and of his master there, previous to his departure; but
that matter of his departure had not been arranged altogether with
comfort as far as his official interests were concerned. He had been
perhaps a little abrupt in his mode of informing Sir Raffle Buffle
that there was a pressing cause for his official absence, and Sir
Raffle had replied to him that no private pressure could be allowed
to interfere with his public duties. "I must go, Sir Raffle, at any
rate," Johnny had said; "it is a matter affecting my family, and must
not be neglected." "If you intend to go without leave," said Sir
Raffle, "I presume you will first put your resignation into the hands
of Mr. Kissing." Now, Mr. Kissing was the secretary to the Board.
This had been serious undoubtedly. John Eames was not specially
anxious to keep his present position as private secretary to Sir
Raffle, but he certainly had no desire to give up his profession
altogether. He said nothing more to the great man on that occasion,
but before he left the office he wrote a private note to the chairman
expressing the extreme importance of his business, and begging that
he might have leave of absence. On the next morning he received it
back with a very few words written across it. "It can't be done,"
were the very few words which Sir Raffle Buffle had written across
the note from his private secretary. Here was a difficulty which
Johnny had not anticipated, and which seemed to be insuperable. Sir
Raffle would not have answered him in that strain if he had not been
very much in earnest.
"I should send him a medical certificate," said Cradell, his friend
of old.
"Nonsense," said Eames.
"I don't see that it's nonsense at all. They can't get over a medical
certificate from a respectable man; and everybody has got something
the matter with him of some kind."
"I should go and let him do his worst," said Fisher, who was another
clerk. "It wouldn't be more than putting you down a place or two.
As to losing your present berth you don't mind that, and they would
never think of dismissing you."
"But I do mind being put down a place or two," said Johnny, who could
not forget that were he so put down his friend Fisher would gain the
step which he would lose.
"I should give him a barrel of oysters, and talk to him about the
Chancellor of the Exchequer," said FitzHoward, who had been private
secretary to Sir Raffle before Eames, and might therefore be supposed
to know the man.
"That might have done very well if I had not asked him and been
refused first," said John Eames. "I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll
write a long letter on a sheet of foolscap paper, with a regular
margin, so that it must come before the Board, and perhaps that will
frighten him."
When he mentioned his difficulty on that evening to Mr. Toogood, the
lawyer begged him to give up the journey. "It will only be sending a
clerk, and it won't cost so very much after all," said Toogood. But
Johnny's pride could not allow him to give way. "I'm not going to be
done about it," said he. "I'm not going to resign, but I will go even
though they may dismiss me. I don't think it will come to that, but
if it does it must." His uncle begged of him not to think of such
an alternative; but this discussion took place after dinner, and
away from the office, and Eames would not submit to bow his neck to
authority. "If it comes to that," said he, "a fellow might as well
be a slave at once. And what is the use of a fellow having a little
money if it does not make him independent? You may be sure of one
thing, I shall go; and that on the day fixed."
On the next morning John Eames was very silent when he went into Sir
Raffle's room at the office. There was now only this day and another
before that fixed for his departure, and it was of course very
necessary that matters should be arranged. But he said nothing to Sir
Raffle during the morning. The great man himself was condescending
and endeavoured to be kind. He knew that his stern refusal had
greatly irritated his private secretary, and was anxious to show
that, though in the cause of public duty he was obliged to be stern,
he was quite willing to forget his sternness when the necessity for
it had passed away. On this morning, therefore, he was very cheery.
But to all his cheery good-humour John Eames would make no response.
Late in the afternoon, when most of the men had left the office,
Johnny appeared before the chairman for the last time that day with a
very long face. He was dressed in black, and had changed his ordinary
morning coat for a frock, which gave him an appearance altogether
unlike that which was customary to him. And he spoke almost in a
whisper, very slowly; and when Sir Raffle joked,--and Sir Raffle
often would joke,--he not only did not laugh, but he absolutely
sighed. "Is there anything the matter with you, Eames?" asked Sir
Raffle.
"I am in great trouble," said John Eames.
"And what is your trouble?"
"It is essential for the honour of one of my family that I should be
at Florence by this day week. I cannot make up my mind what I ought
to do. I do not wish to lose my position in the public service, to
which, as you know, I am warmly attached; but I cannot submit to see
the honour of my family sacrificed!"
"Eames," said Sir Raffle, "that must be nonsense;--that must be
nonsense. There can be no reason why you should always expect to have
your own way in everything."
"Of course if I go without leave I shall be dismissed."
"Of course you will. It is out of the question that a young man
should take the bit between his teeth in that way."
"As for taking the bit between his teeth, Sir Raffle, I do not
think that any man was ever more obedient, perhaps I should say
more submissive, than I have been. But there must be a limit to
everything."
"What do you mean by that, Mr. Eames?" said Sir Raffle, turning in
anger upon his private secretary. But Johnny disregarded his anger.
Johnny, indeed, had made up his mind that Sir Raffle should be very
angry. "What do you mean, Mr. Eames, by saying that there must be
a limit? I know nothing about limits. One would suppose that you
intended to make an accusation against me."
"So I do. I think, Sir Raffle, that you are treating me with great
cruelty. I have explained to you that family circumstances--"
"You have explained nothing, Mr. Eames."
"Yes, I have, Sir Raffle. I have explained to you that matters
relating to my family, which materially affect the honour of a
certain one of its members, demand that I should go at once to
Florence. You tell me that if I go I shall be dismissed."
"Of course you must not go without leave. I never heard of such a
thing in all my life." And Sir Raffle lifted up his hands towards
heaven, almost in dismay.
"So I have drawn up a short statement of the circumstances, which I
hope may be read at the Board when the question of my dismissal comes
before it."
"You mean to go, then?"
"Yes, Sir Raffle; I must go. The honour of a certain branch of my
family demands that I should do so. As I have for some time been so
especially under you, I thought it would be proper to show you what
I have said before I send my letter in, and therefore I have brought
it with me. Here it is." And Johnny handed to Sir Raffle an official
document of large dimensions.
Sir Raffle began to be uncomfortable. He had acquired a character
for tyranny in the public service of which he was aware, though
he thought that he knew well that he had never deserved it. Some
official big-wig,--perhaps that Chancellor of the Exchequer of whom
he was so fond,--had on one occasion hinted to him that a little
softness of usage would be compatible with the prejudices of the
age. Softness was impossible to Sir Raffle; but his temper was
sufficiently under his control to enable him to encounter the rebuke,
and to pull himself up from time to time when he found himself
tempted to speak loud and to take things with a high hand. He knew
that a clerk should not be dismissed for leaving his office, who
could show that his absence had been caused by some matter really
affecting the interest of his family; and that were he to drive Eames
to go on this occasion without leave, Eames would be simply called
in to state what was this matter of moment which had taken him away.
Probably he had stated that matter of moment in this very document
which Sir Raffle was holding in his hand. But Sir Raffle was not
willing to be conquered by the document. If it was necessary that he
should give way, he would much prefer to give way,--out of his own
good-nature, let us say,--without looking at the document at all.
"I must, under the circumstances, decline to read this," said he,
"unless it should come before me officially," and he handed back the
paper.
"I thought it best to let you see it if you pleased," said John
Eames. Then he turned round as though he were going to leave the
room; but suddenly he turned back again. "I don't like to leave you,
Sir Raffle, without saying good-by. I do not suppose we shall meet
again. Of course you must do your duty, and I do not wish you to
think that I have any personal ill-will against you." So saying, he
put out his hand to Sir Raffle as though to take a final farewell.
Sir Raffle looked at him in amazement. He was dressed, as has been
said, in black, and did not look like the John Eames of every day to
whom Sir Raffle was accustomed.
"I don't understand this at all," said Sir Raffle.
"I was afraid that it was only too plain," said John Eames.
"And you must go?"
"Oh, yes;--that's certain. I have pledged myself to go."
"Of course I don't know anything of this matter that is so important
to your family."
"No; you do not," said Johnny.
"Can't you explain it to me, then? so that I may have some
reason,--if there is any reason."
Then John told the story of Mr. Crawley,--a considerable portion of
the story; and in his telling of it, I think it probable that he
put more weight upon the necessity of his mission to Italy than it
could have fairly been made to bear. In the course of the narration
Sir Raffle did once contrive to suggest that a lawyer by going to
Florence might do the business at any rate as well as John Eames.
But Johnny denied this. "No, Sir Raffle, it is impossible; quite
impossible," he said. "If you saw the lawyer who is acting in the
matter, Mr. Toogood, who is also my uncle, he would tell you the
same." Sir Raffle had already heard something of the story of Mr.
Crawley, and was now willing to accept the sad tragedy of that case
as an excuse for his private secretary's somewhat insubordinate
conduct. "Under the circumstances, Eames, I suppose you must go; but
I think you should have told me all about it before."
"I did not like to trouble you, Sir Raffle, with private business."
"It is always best to tell the whole of a story," said Sir Raffle.
Johnny being quite content with the upshot of the negotiations
accepted this gentle rebuke in silence, and withdrew. On the next day
he appeared again at the office in his ordinary costume, and an idea
crossed Sir Raffle's brain that he had been partly "done" by the
affectation of a costume. "I'll be even with him some day yet," said
Sir Raffle to himself.
"I've got my leave, boys," said Eames when he went out into the room
in which his three friends sat.
"No!" said Cradell.
"But I have," said Johnny.
"You don't mean that old Huffle Scuffle has given it out of his own
head?" said Fisher.
"Indeed he has," said Johnny; "and bade God bless me into the
bargain."
"And you didn't give him the oysters?" said FitzHoward. "Not a
shell," said Johnny.
"I'm blessed if you don't beat cock-fighting," said Cradell, lost in
admiration at his friend's adroitness.
We know how John passed his evening after that. He went first to see
Lily Dale at her uncle's lodgings in Sackville Street, from thence
he was taken to the presence of the charming Madalina in Porchester
Terrace, and then wound up the night with his friend Conway
Dalrymple. When he got to his bed he felt himself to have been
triumphant, but in spite of his triumph he was ashamed of himself.
Why had he left Lily to go to Madalina? As he thought of this he
quoted to himself against himself Hamlet's often-quoted appeal to the
two portraits. How could he not despise himself in that he could find
any pleasure with Madalina, having a Lily Dale to fill his thoughts?
"But she is not fair for me," he said to himself,--thinking thus to
comfort himself. But he did not comfort himself.
On the next morning early his uncle, Mr. Toogood, met him at the
Dover Railway Station. "Upon my word, Johnny, you're a clever
fellow," said he. "I never thought that you'd make it all right with
Sir Raffle."
"As right as a trivet, uncle. There are some people, if you can only
get to learn the length of their feet, you can always fit them with
shoes afterwards."
[Illustration: "As right as a trivet, Uncle."]
"You'll go on direct to Florence, Johnny?"
"Yes; I think so. From what we have heard, Mrs. Arabin must be either
there or at Venice, and I don't suppose I could learn from any one at
Paris at which town she is staying at this moment."
"Her address is Florence;--poste restante, Florence. You will be sure
to find out at any of the hotels where she is staying, or where she
has been staying."
"But when I have found her, I don't suppose she can tell me
anything," said Johnny.
"Who can tell? She may or she may not. My belief is that the money
was her present altogether, and not his. It seems that they don't mix
their moneys. He has always had some scruple about it because of her
son by a former marriage, and they always have different accounts at
their bankers'. I found that out when I was at Barchester."
"But Crawley was his friend."
"Yes, Crawley was his friend; but I don't know that fifty-pound notes
have always been so very plentiful with him. Deans' incomes ain't
what they were, you know."
"I don't know anything about that," said Johnny.
"Well; they are not. And he has nothing of his own, as far as I can
learn. It would be just the thing for her to do,--to give the money
to his friend. At any rate she will tell you whether it was so or
not."
"And then I will go on to Jerusalem, after him."
"Should you find it necessary. He will probably be on his way back,
and she will know where you can hit him on the road. You must make
him understand that it is essential that he should be here some
little time before the trial. You can understand, Johnny,"--and as he
spoke Mr. Toogood lowered his voice to a whisper, though they were
walking together on the platform of the railway station, and could
not possibly have been overheard by any one. "You can understand that
it may be necessary to prove that he is not exactly compos mentis,
and if so it will be essential that he should have some influential
friend near him. Otherwise that bishop will trample him into dust."
If Mr. Toogood could have seen the bishop at this time and have read
the troubles of the poor man's heart, he would hardly have spoken of
him as being so terrible a tyrant.
"I understand all that," said Johnny.
"So that, in fact, I shall expect to see you both together," said
Toogood.
"I hope the dean is a good fellow."
"They tell me he is a very good fellow."
"I never did see much of bishops or deans as yet," said Johnny, "and
I should feel rather awe-struck travelling with one."
"I should fancy that a dean is very much like anybody else."
"But the man's hat would cow me."
"I daresay you'll find him walking about Jerusalem with a wide-awake
on, and a big stick in his hand, probably smoking a cigar. Deans
contrive to get out of their armour sometimes, as the knights of old
used to do. Bishops, I fancy, find it more difficult. Well;--good-by,
old fellow. I'm very much obliged to you for going,--I am, indeed. I
don't doubt but what we shall pull through, somehow."
Then Mr. Toogood went home to breakfast, and from his own house he
proceeded to his office. When he had been there an hour or two, there
came to him a messenger from the Income-tax Office, with an official
note addressed to himself by Sir Raffle Buffle,--a note which looked
to be very official. Sir Raffle Buffle presented his compliments to
Mr. Toogood, and could Mr. Toogood favour Sir R. B. with the present
address of Mr. John Eames. "Old fox," said Mr. Toogood;--"but then
such a stupid old fox! As if it was likely that I should have peached
on Johnny if anything was wrong." So Mr. Toogood sent his compliments
to Sir Raffle Buffle, and begged to inform Sir R. B. that Mr. John
Eames was away on very particular family business, which would take
him in the first instance to Florence;--but that from Florence he
would probably have to go on to Jerusalem without the loss of an
hour. "Stupid old fool!" said Mr. Toogood, as he sent off his reply
by the messenger.