"Well, then, lookye here," he continued, as he took great pains with his
hair and whiskers before the glass, and then put on and buttoned up his
uniform coat, to stand before me a frank, manly fellow of about thirty,
"you're my company this week, and after that you shall put so much of
your salary into the stock to pay for living, and we shall both be free
and independent, and what's left you can shove in the bank."
"In the bank?"
"Yes, savings-bank. I don't mind telling you as an old friend I've got
forty-four pun ten there."
"Mary has thirty-seven pounds in a savings-bank," I said.
"Now there's for you!" he said.
"Yes, she told me so; but perhaps I oughtn't to have told you."
"Well," he said seriously, "I s'pose you oughtn't, because it was told
you in confidence, but I'm glad you did. She never told me."
"Did you ever tell her how much you had saved?"
"No, that I didn't, only as I was saving, so it's all fair. Look here,
youngster--I mean Antony," he said, after standing staring in the glass
for a few minutes, "I tell you what it is, you coming up has about
brought matters to a head."
"Has it, Bill?"
"Yes, it hayve, my boy. Do you know, I don't for the life of me know
why we two have been waiting; do you?"
"No," I said shaking my head.
"No, nor more don't Mary, I'll bet a sixpence. We got engaged to one
another, and then we said as it wouldn't be sensible, to get married at
once, as we might both see some one we liked better, don't you see?"
"Yes," I said, feeling puzzled all the same, "it was very prudent."
"I could have got married lots o' times since, but I've never seen a
girl as I liked so well, and I s'pose Mary hasn't seen a chap, for she
keeps on writing."
"Oh yes; and she thinks a deal of you. She's very proud of you."
"Is she, though?" he said, with a satisfied smile, and giving his head a
shake in his stock. "Well, then, I tell you what: I'll write and ask
Mary to say the day, and then meet her at the station. We'll take a
little bigger place, and she'll come up and make us both comfortable.
What do you say to that?"
I clapped my hands, and he stood smiling in an exceedingly simple way,
and looking like a very big overgrown boy, for a few moments, before
turning himself round to me.
"See that," he said, in a quiet business-like way. "I was laughing at
you for being soft and green just now, and I'm blessed if I don't feel
as if I was ten times worse. Come along, company, it's ever so late,
and my report says hot mutton chop, a cup of tea, and some bread and
butter."
That evening, after a hearty meal, for which Revitts insisted upon
paying, there was just time to make the purchases he proposed, which
almost melted the whole of my sovereign, and then it was time for him to
go on duty.
"They've cost a deal," he said thoughtfully, "but then you've still got
the money, only in another shape. Now, you get back home and take in
the things when they come, and then sit and read a bit, and afterwards
go to bed. I wouldn't go out, if I was you."
We parted, and I followed out his directions, being shrewd enough to see
that he thought me hardly fit to be trusted alone.
The next morning I woke to find it was half-past six, and that Revitts
had come home and was preparing for bed. He looked tired out, and was
very black and dirty, having been, he said, at a fire; but he was not
too much fatigued to give me a friendly bit or two of advice as to
getting my breakfast and going down to the office.
"Have a good breakfast before you start, my boy, and get some bread and
cheese for your lunch--that's twopence. When you come back you'll find
the tea-things out, and you can make dinner and tea too."
In good time I started, leaving Revitts sleeping off his night's
fatigue, and about ten minutes to ten I was at the door of the great
printing-office, flushed with exercise and dread, but eager all the same
to make a beginning.
I hesitated as to whether I should go in at once or wait till it struck
ten, but I thought that perhaps I might be some time before I saw Mr
Ruddle, so I walked straight in, and the man reading the paper in his
gloss case looked up at me in a very ill-used way as I stopped at his
window.
"You again?" he said gruffly. "Well, what is it?"
"If you please, I've come to work," I said.
"Work? Why, it's ten o'clock. Why weren't you here at eight?"
"Mr Ruddle said ten o'clock, sir, and I want to see him."
"Oh!" he said gruffly, as if he were the gatekeeper of an earthly
paradise. "Well, I s'pose you must pass in. Go on."
I went on into the passage, feeling as if the doorkeeper was the most
important personage there, and as if the proprietors must make a
practice of asking permission to go into their own place.
I went, then, nervously down the passage till I came to the door of the
room where I had seen Messrs. Ruddle and Lister. It was ajar, and there
were loud voices talking, and though I knocked they went on.
"Stern firmness is one thing, Grimstone," I heard Mr Ruddle saying,
"and bullying another."
"But you don't consider, sir, that I bully the men, do you?" said
another voice which was quite familiar to me.
"You may call it what you like, Grimstone. There, I'm busy now."
There was a sharp step, and the door was flung wide open and closed,
when my friend the overseer, who had been so rough to me on the previous
day, came out and pretty nearly knocked me down.