The upshot might have been serious for me in my present weak condition,
and being one against two. But before my blow could be returned
Hawkesbury, who had so far been a silent witness to the scene, sprang
from his place and pulled me away. I struggled to get free, but he held
me firm, as he said, "Batchelor, don't be foolish. You two, be quiet,
will you, or I must report you to my uncle. Fighting is not allowed in
here."
"I didn't want to fight," said Wallop, putting up his hand to his
smarting cheek, "but I'll have it out with him."
"Young prig!" growled Crow, savagely.
"You hear what I say," said Hawkesbury. "I won't allow it to go any
further. Here, Batchelor, go to your seat, and don't be absurd."
This tone of authority and his unasked-for interference irritated me as
much as ever the language of my two adversaries had done. Hawkesbury
was always getting the pull of me in ways like this.
I retired sulkily to my seat, saying I would thrash any one who insulted
Smith in my presence, at which the others sneered.
"All I can say is," said Wallop, with his hand still up to his face, "if
I don't get that thirty shillings he owes me to-morrow, I'll show him up
in a way that will astonish him--that's all."
With which threat he took up his hat and went out, leaving me in a very
agitated and uncomfortable frame of mind, as the reader may guess.
I would far sooner have been thrashed out and out by Wallop than be left
thus under what Hawkesbury would certainly consider an obligation to
him.
"I thought it best," said he, in his insinuating way, "to interfere.
You are really not well enough for that sort of thing, Batchelor."
During the rest of the day my mind was too uneasy to permit me to make
much progress with my work, and I was glad when evening came and I could
escape with my friend.
"You look fagged," said he, as I took his arm.
"I am rather," said I, "and worried too, Jack."
"What about?" he asked.
Then I told him all about my debts; and we spent the rest of the evening
in a sort of committee of ways and means.
Taken separately my debts were none of them very large, but added all
together their total was something appalling. Ten pounds would scarcely
cover them, and that did not include what I owed the doctor.
It was a serious business, without doubt.
Wallop's threat to insist on immediate payment, or else "show me up"
before the partners and my other creditors, may have been mere bounce;
but it may equally well have been in earnest, in which case I was
ruined.
Jack's one solicitude that evening was to keep me from fretting too
much. But it is all very well to say, "Don't fret," and another thing
to remove the cause of fretting. And that we could neither of us do.
Jack had no money. What little he had saved he had spent on books or
sent home to Mrs Shield. As for Mr Smith, senior, even if I had cared
to ask him to help me, I knew he had barely enough to keep body and soul
together. The idea of borrowing from Doubleday occurred to me, but
Smith promptly discouraged it. Besides, I had once asked him for a
loan, and he had refused it, on the ground he never lent money to
anybody.
"The only thing," said Jack, "is to write home to your uncle."
I could scarcely help smiling at the idea. I knew my uncle better than
Jack Smith did, and I might as well hope to get blood out of a stone as
expect him to pay for my extravagances in London.
However, Jack was so sure it was the right and only thing to do that I
finally consented to sit down and make a clean breast of it, which I did
in the following note:--
"Dear Uncle,--I am better now, and back at work. I am sorry to say,
however, I am in a good deal of difficulty about money. Before my
illness I had got into extravagant ways and run into debt. I enclose a
list of what I believe I owe at the present moment. You will see--not
including the doctor's bill--it comes to £10 2 shillings 4 pence. The
names marked with a star are clerks at the office who have lent me
money, I am sorry to say, for gambling and other purposes. I don't know
what to do about paying them back. I thought if you wouldn't mind
advancing the amount I could pay you back so much a week out of my
salary. I hope and trust you will help me in my difficulty. I need
hardly say I have seen the folly of my old ways, and am determined to
live carefully and economically in future. Do please write by return
and help me.
"Your affect. nephew,--
"Fred. Batchelor."
Jack approved of this effusion as businesslike and to the point.
"You haven't gone out of the way to excuse yourself," said he, "and I
dare say it will go down all the better for that. If he doesn't write
and send up the money I shall be surprised."
Poor Jack! A lot he knew about uncles of my sort!
However, I felt more comfortable to have written the letter, and if I
could only have been sure Wallop's threat was mere idle bluster I should
have slept easily.
As it was, I had had rather a stirring day for my first one out, and at
the end of it felt a good deal less game for work than at the beginning.
Nothing could exceed Jack's tenderness and anxiety to relieve me of as
much worry as possible. When I was in bed he came and read aloud to me.
It was Virgil he read--which he was working at for his examination.
And I remember that evening lying half awake, half asleep, listening now
to him, thinking now of my debts, mixing up Aeneas with Wallop, and Mr
Shoddy with Laocoon, and poor old Priam with my uncle.
The following morning I rose only half refreshed, and made my way
anxiously to the office. One of the first fellows I met was Wallop, who
greeted my approach with a surly grin.
I felt sure at that moment he had meant what he threatened yesterday,
and my heart quailed within me at the prospect.
"Well, young prig," said he, "I suppose you've brought my money?"
"No," said I; "I'm afraid I must ask you to wait a little longer. I
hope you won't do anything for a day or two, at any rate. I will do my
best to get it by then."
He laughed in my face, and evidently enjoyed my distress.
"You sung a different tune yesterday, my boy, when you hit me. Do you
remember? That wasn't the payment I wanted!"
"I'm sorry I lost my temper," said I.
"Well, I mean to show you I pay my debts more punctually than you do,"
said he; and with that he gave me a cuff on my head which sent me
reeling half across the office.