"Can you tell me, please, which is the overseer's office?" I said, cap
in hand.
"Folio forty-seven--who's got folio forty-seven?" he said aloud.
"Here!" cried a voice close by.
"Make even.--Get out; don't bother me."
I shrank away, confused and perplexed, and a dark, curly-haired man on
the other side turned upon me a pair of deeply set stern eyes, as he
rattled some little square pieces of lead into something he held in his
hand.
"What is it, boy?" he said in a deep, low voice.
"Can you direct me to the overseer's office, sir?"
"That's it, boy, where that gentleman in spectacles is talking."
"Wigging old Morgan," said another man, laughing.
"Ah!" said the first speaker, "that's the place, boy;" and he turned his
eyes upon a slip of paper in front of his desk.
I said, "Thank you!" and went on along the passage between two rows of
the frame desks to where the fierce-looking bald man was still
gesticulating, and as I drew near I could hear what he said.
"I've spoken till I'm tired of speaking; your slips are as foul as a
ditch. Confound you, sir, you're a perfect disgrace to the whole
chapel. Do you think your employers keep readers to do nothing else but
correct your confounded mistakes? Read your stick, sir--read your
stick!"
"Very sorry," grumbled the man, "but it was two o'clock this morning,
and I was tired as a dog."
"Don't talk to me, sir; I don't care if it was two o'clock, or twelve
o'clock, or twenty-four o'clock. I say that slip's a disgrace to you;
and for two pins, sir--for two pins I'd have it framed and stuck up for
the men to see. Be off and correct it.--Now, then, what do you want?"
This was to me, and I was terribly awe-stricken at the fierce aspect of
the speaker, whose forehead was now of a lively pink.
"If you please, sir, I saw that you wanted boys, and--"
"No; I don't want boys," he raved. "I'm sick of the young monkeys; but
I'm obliged to have them."
"I am sorry, sir--" I faltered.
"Oh yes; of course. Here, stop! where are you going?"
"Please, sir, you said you didn't want any boys."
"You're very sharp, ain't you? Now hold your tongue, and then answer
what I ask and no more. What are you--a machine boy or reader?"
"If you please, sir, I--I don't know--I thought--I want--"
"Confound you; hold your tongue!" he roared. "Where did you work last?"
"At--at Mr Blakeford's," I faltered, feeling bound to speak the truth.
"Blakeford's! Blakeford's!--I know no Blakeford's. At machine?"
"No, sir! I wrote all day."
"Wrote? What, wasn't it a printing-office?"
"No, sir."
"How dare you come wasting my time like this, you insolent young
scoundrel! Be off! Get out with you! I never knew such insolence in
my life."
I shrank away, trembling, and began to retreat down the avenue, this
time with the men's faces towards me, ready to gaze in my red and guilty
countenance, for I felt as if I had been guilty of some insult to the
majesty of the printing-office. To my great relief, though, the men
were too busy to notice me; but I heard one say to another, "Old
Brimstone's hot this morning." Then I passed on, and saw the dark man
looking at me silently from beneath his overhanging brows; and the next
moment, heartsick and choking with the effects of this rebuff, the
swing-door was thrown open by the fat-headed boy coming in, and as I
passed out, unaccustomed to its spring, the boy contrived that it would
strike me full in the back, just as if the overseer had given me a rude
push to drive me away.
I descended the stairs with the spirit for the moment crushed out of me;
and with my eyes dim with disappointment, I was passing along the
passage, when, as I came to the open door of the carpeted room, a man's
voice exclaimed--
"No, no, Miss Carr, you really shall not. We'll send it on by one of
the boys."
"Oh, nonsense, Mr Lister; I can carry it."
"Yes, yes; of course you can, but I shall not let you. Here, boy, come
here."
I entered the room nervously, to find myself in presence of a handsome,
well-dressed man, another who was stout and elderly, and two young
ladies, while upon the table lay a parcel of books, probably the subject
of the remark.
"Hallo! what boy are you?" said the younger man. "Oh! one of the new
ones, I suppose."
"No, sir," I said, with voice trembling and my face working, for I was
unnerved by the treatment I had just received and the dashing of my
hopes; "I came to be engaged, but--but the gentleman upstairs turned me
away."
"Why?" said the elder man sharply.
"Because I had not been in the printing-office, sir."
"Oh, of course!" he said, nodding. "Of course. We want lads accustomed
to the trade, my man."
"You should teach him the trade, Mr Ruddle," said one of the young
ladies quickly, and I darted a look of gratitude at her.
"Too busy, Miss Carr," he said, smiling at her. "We don't keep a
printer's school."
"I'll teach him," whispered the young man eagerly, though I heard him;
"I'll teach him anything, if you'll promise not to be so cruel."
"What a bargain!" she replied, laughing; and she turned away.
"I don't think we need keep you, my lad," said the young man bitterly.
"Indeed!" said the other young lady; "why, I thought he was to carry our
parcel of books?"
"But he is a strange boy, my dear young ladies," said the elder man;
"I'll ring for one from the office."
"No; don't, pray!" said the lady addressed as Miss Carr quickly. "I
don't think we will carry the parcel. You will carry it for us, will
you not?"
"Oh, yes, indeed I will!" I cried eagerly; and I stepped forward, for
there was something very winning in the speakers voice.
"Stop a moment, my man," said the elder gentleman rather sternly, while
the younger stood biting his lips; "where do your father and mother
live?"
Those words made something rise in my throat, and I looked wildly at
him, but could not speak.
He did not see my face, for he had taken up a pen and drawn a memorandum
slip towards him.
"Well; why don't you speak?" he said sharply, and as he raised his eyes
I tried, but could not get out a word, only pointed mutely to the shabby
band of crape upon my cap.
"Ah!"
There was a deep sigh close by me, and I saw that the young lady
addressed as Miss Carr was deadly pale, and for the first time I noticed
that she was in deep mourning.
"My dear Miss Carr!" whispered the young man earnestly.
"Don't speak to me for a minute," she said in the same tone; and then I
saw her face working and lip quivering as she gazed wistfully at me.
"Poor lad!" said the elder man abruptly. Then, "Your friends, my boy,
your relatives?"
"I have none, sir," I said huskily, "only an uncle, and I don't know for
certain where he lives."
"But you don't mean that you are alone in the world?" said the young man
quickly, and he glanced at the lady as he spoke.
"Yes, sir," I said quietly, for I had now recovered myself, "I am quite
alone, and I want to get a situation to earn my living."
The elder gentleman turned upon me and seemed to look me through and
through.
"Now, look here, young fellow," he said, "you are either a very
unfortunate boy or a designing young impostor."
"Mr Ruddle!" exclaimed Miss Carr indignantly; and I saw the young man's
eyes glitter as he gazed at her sweet, sad face, twenty times more
attractive now than when she was speaking lightly a minute before.
"I don't want to be harsh, my dear, but here we are obliged to be firm
and business-like. Now, boy, answer me; have you been to a good
school?"
"No, sir," I said, speaking sharply now, for his use of the word
"impostor" stung me; "I was educated at home."
"Humph! where do you come from?"
"Rowford, sir."
"Town on a tall hill?"
"No, sir," I said in surprise; "Rowford is quite in a hole; but we lived
four miles from Rowford, sir, on the Cawleigh road."
"Then you know Leydon Wood."
"Oh yes, sir! that's where papa used to take me to collect specimens."
"Humph! Don't say _papa_, my boy. Boys who go into the world to get
their living don't speak of their papas. John Lister!"
"Wait a minute, Ruddle," said the younger man, whose back was towards
us; and I saw that he was leaning over Miss Carr and holding her hand.
"If you wish it," he whispered softly, "it shall be done."
"I do wish it," she said with an earnest look in her large eyes as she
gazed kindly at me; and the young man turned round, flushed and excited.
I was shrinking away towards the door, pained and troubled, for I felt
that I had no business there, when Mr Lister motioned me to stop, and
said something to the elder gentleman.
He in turn screwed up his face, and gave the younger a comical look.
"Your father would not have done so, John Lister," he said. "What am I
to say, Miss Carr?"
For answer the young lady rose and went and laid her hands in one of
his.
"If you please, Mr Ruddle," she said in a low musical voice, "it will
be a kindly act."
"God bless you, my dear," he said tenderly. "I believe if I were with
you long you'd make me as much your slave as you have John Lister."
"Then you will?"
"Yes, my dear, yes, if it is really as he says."
She darted an intelligent look at me, and then hastily pulled down her
crape veil as Mr Lister followed her to her chair.
"Come here, my lad," said Mr Ruddle, in quiet business-like tones. "We
want boys here, but boys used to the printing trade, for it does not
answer our purpose to teach them; we have no time. But as you seem a
sharp, respectable boy, and pretty well educated, you might, perhaps, be
willing to try."
"Oh, if you'll try me, I'll strive so hard to learn, sir!" I cried
excitedly.
"I hope you will, my boy," he said drily, "but don't profess too much;
and mind this, you are not coming here as a young gentleman, but as a
reading-boy--to work."
"Yes, sir. I want to work," I said earnestly.
"That's well. Now, look here. I want to know a little more about you.
If, as you say, you came from near Rowford, you can tell me the names of
some of the principal people there?"
"Yes, sir; there's Doctor Heston, and the Reverend James Wyatt, and Mr
Elton."
"Exactly," he said gruffly; and he opened a large book and turned over a
number of pages. "Humph! here it is," he said to himself, and he seemed
to check off the names. "Now, look here, my man. What is the name of
the principal solicitor at Rowford?"
"Mr Blakeford, sir," I said with a shiver, lest he should want to write
to him about me.
"Oh, you know him?" he said sharply.
"Yes, sir. He managed papa's--my father's--affairs," I said, correcting
myself.
"Then I'm sorry for your poor father's affairs," he said, tightening his
lips. "That will do, my lad. You can come to work here. Be honest and
industrious, and you'll get on. Never mind about having been a
gentleman, but learn to be a true man. Go and wait outside."
I tried to speak. I wanted to catch his hands in mine. I wanted to
fling my arms round Miss Carr, and kiss and bless her for her goodness.
I was so weak and sentimental a boy then. But I had to fight it all
down, and satisfy myself by casting a grateful glance at her as I went
out to wait.
I was no listener, but I heard every word that passed as the ladies rose
to go.
"Are you satisfied, my dear?" said Mr Ruddle.
"God bless you?" she said; and I saw her raise her veil and kiss him.
"God bless you, my dear!" he said softly. "So this little affair has
regularly settled it all, eh? And you are to be John's wife. Well,
well, well, my dear, I'm glad of it, very glad of it. John, my boy, I
would my old partner were alive to see your choice; and as for you, my
child, you've won a good man, and I hope your sister will be as
fortunate."
"I hope I shall, Mr Ruddle," said the other lady softly.
"If I were not sixty, and you nineteen, my dear, I'd propose for you
myself," he went on laughingly. "But come, come, I can't have you giddy
girls coming to our works to settle your affairs. There, be off with
you, and you dine with us on Tuesday next. The old lady says you are to
come early. I'm afraid John Lister here won't be able to leave the
office till twelve o'clock; but we can do without him, eh?"
"Don't you mind what he says, Miriam," said Mr Lister. "But stop,
here's the parcel. I'll send it on."
"No, no. Please let that youth carry it for us," said Miss Carr.
"Anything you wish," he whispered earnestly; and the next moment he was
at the door.
"You'll carry this parcel for these ladies," he said; "and to-morrow
morning be here at ten o'clock, and we'll find you something to do."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," I said eagerly; and taking the parcel, I
followed the ladies into Holborn, and then along Oxford Street to a
substantial row of houses near Cavendish Square, where the one I looked
upon as my friend paused at a large door and held out her hand to me.
"I shall hope to hear from Mr Lister that you have got on well at the
office," she said in her sweet musical voice. "Recollect that you are
my _protege_, and I hope you will do me credit. I shall not forget to
ask about you. You will try, will you not?"
"Oh yes," I said hoarsely, "so hard--so very hard!"
"I believe you will," she said, taking the parcel from my hand; "and now
good-bye."
The next moment I was standing alone upon the pavement, feeling as if a
cloudiness had come over the day, while, as I looked down into my hand,
it was to see there a bright new sovereign.