Smith and I had a good deal more than dinner to discuss that morning as
we rested for twenty minutes from our office labours.
He was very much in earnest about his new work, I could see; and I felt,
as I listened to him, that my own aspirations for success were not
nearly as deep-seated as his. He didn't brag, or build absurd castles
in the air; but he made no secret of the fact that now he was once in
the business he meant to get on, and expected pretty confidently that he
would do so.
I wished I could feel half as sure of myself. At any rate, I was
encouraged by Jack Smith's enthusiasm, and returned at the end of my
twenty minutes to my desk with every intention of distinguishing myself
at my work.
But somehow everything was so novel, and I was so curiously disposed,
that I could not prevent my thoughts wandering a good deal, or listening
to the constant running fire of small talk that was going on among my
fellow-clerks. And this was all the less to be wondered at, since I
myself was a prominent topic of conversation.
Mr Doubleday was a most curious mixture of humour, pomposity, and
business, which made it very hard to know how exactly to take him. If I
dared to laugh at a joke, he fired up, and ordered me angrily to get on
with my work. And if I did become engrossed in the figures and entries
before me, he was sure to trip me up with some act or speech of
pleasantry.
"Why don't you stick a nib on the end of your nose and write with it?"
he inquired, as I was poring over an account-book in front of me, trying
to make out the rather minute hieroglyphics contained therein.
I withdrew my nose, blushingly, to a more moderate distance, a motion
which appeared greatly to entertain my fellow-clerks, whose amusement
only added to my confusion.
"Hullo! I say," said Doubleday, "no blushing allowed here, is there,
Wallop?"
"Rather not. No one ever saw _you_ blush," replied Mr Wallop.
This turned the laugh against Doubleday, and I, despite my bashfulness,
was indiscreet enough to join in it.
Mr Doubleday was greatly incensed.
"Get on with your work, do you hear? you young cad!" he cried. "Do you
suppose we pay you eight bob a week to sit there and grin? How many
accounts have you checked, I'd like to know?"
"Six," I said, nervously, quite uneasy at Mr Doubleday's sudden
seriousness.
"Six in two hours--that's three an hour."
"Quite right; not bad for Dubbs, that, is it, Crow?" put in Wallop.
"No. He's reckoned it up right this time."
"I wish _you'd_ reckon it up right now and then," retorted Doubleday.
"How about the change out of those two handkerchiefs?"
"There is no change," said Crow, sulkily; "they were sixpence each."
"What's the use of saying that, when they are stuck up fourpence-
halfpenny each in the window, you young thief?"
"You can get them yourself, then," replied the injured Crow. "I'll go
no more jobs for you--there! I'm not the junior now, and I'm hanged if
I'll put up with it."
"You'll probably be hanged, whether you put up with it or not," was Mr
Doubleday's retort, who, apparently desirous to change the conversation,
suddenly rounded on me, as I was looking up and listening to the
edifying dialogue.
"Now then, young Batchelor, dawdling again. Upon my word I'll speak to
Mr Barnacle about you. Mind, I mean what I say."
"You'd better look-out, young turnip-top, I can tell you," growled Crow;
"when Dubbs means what he says, it's no joke, I can tell you."
On the whole my first afternoon's work at Merrett, Barnacle, and
Company's was somewhat distracting, and by the time half-past six
arrived I felt I had not accomplished quite as much as I had intended.
My first care on rejoining Jack was to sound him as to the possibility
of his coming to lodge at Mrs Nash's. To my delight he anticipated me
by inquiring, "Have you got any place to lodge, Fred?"
"Yes," said I, "and I only wish you'd come there too, Jack."
"Whereabouts is it?" he asked.
"Mrs Nash's, at Beadle Square. But you will come, won't you?"
"Perhaps there's not room."
"Oh yes," said I, taking upon myself to assert what I did not know,
"there is. Come along, old man, it'll make all the difference if we get
together."
"How much is it?" asked Jack, doubtfully.
"Come along, and we'll ask," said I, dragging him along.
He came, and together we bearded Mrs Nash in her den.
"I say, Mrs Nash," said I, "my friend's coming to lodge here, please."