TWENTIFOLD TOWERS.
Although I had seen the Tower of London,--when our van went to a wharf
close by,--and even the new City prison, and several magnificent houses
built by brewers, all these were nothing but dirt in my eyes, when they
lit upon "Twentifold Towers." This grand building was too long for a
far-sighted man to see it all at once, and too high for me to think of
flying over it, and the depth that it went to, below the ground, was
enough to make one giddy. And the number of servants, and the way they
did things, and the little they thought about money, was amazing.
But in spite of all this, I was sad in my heart to stop behind, even in
so grand a place, when my father and mother were gone back home. For I
thought of all the corners that I knew so well, and the places in the
cinders, where the wind blew warm, and the holes where you might roast a
big potato, (if you watched the proper time for clinkering,) and the
grassy remainders of great green fields, where the lark, after warbling
in the sky so long, shut both his wings, and shot down in silence, to
run about, and feel the land, where he felt that he had been an egg. And
then I thought of several fellows, by no means grand in trousers, or in
manners--such as Joe Grimes, the blacksmith's boy, and Charley Turps,
son of the carpenter--who could enter into my views, and let me into
theirs, without a bit of language wasted, and who had forgiven me by
this time, for being what they called a "Latin Tea-kettle;" and of whom,
by this time, there could not be one, without a long tale of his own to
unfold, and a long one of mine to feel for. Moreover, I am not ashamed
to own--for the true shame ought to be upon the other side--that fat
Polly Windsor had promised now, for more than five years, to be my
bride; and I wanted to amaze her with a true account of the things I saw
the girls do down here. And as I thought of all these delights, I did
not care twopence to be a great man, if my greatness would rob me of
half of them.
But before going further, I am bound to stop, and do justice to a man,
who was not so very great--any more than I shall ever be--but that which
is tenfold rarer now, a truthful, honest, and courageous man.
It was not the loss of two Sunday hats, which changed my father's
politics, but the running away of the man who stole them, without
leaving his name in the lining. My father began to look beneath the
surface, having taken all he heard on trust, till now; and as soon as he
hit upon facts, he found that he must not find fault with this man, for
running. For now, he was enabled to perceive that the essence of the
Liberal is--to run. To run with the current of opinion first, judging
from the froth which way it goes; and to run away from his own
principles next, because they are bad, while his conscience still is
good; to run, with all speed, from the voice of reason; and above all
to put his best foot foremost, in running for his pocket from the
enemies of England.
Having set his mind, and heart, against that style of going, my father
discovered that his own life grew more honest, and open, in little
dealings, from a firmer standard in larger ones. And though he was here,
to some extent, with a view to smooth the way for a Government contract,
and test the true value of Billy Barlow's tricks; the sterling weight of
his principles never fell into the scale of his interests.
"How Tommy may turn out, is more than I can say," he exclaimed, after
reading Lady Twentifold's letter, in which she apologised most
gracefully, for the liberty she had been tempted to take, in begging
them to spare their dear bright boy, for a few days' visit at the
Towers, though she had been prevented by absence from calling upon
Admiral, and Mrs. Upmore; but her dear son, Roland, who would bring this
note, would explain that she had only just been told of their sudden
return to London, etc., etc., all most pleasing, and put in the kindest
and prettiest way--"whether Tommy will stick to the business," said
father, "and make it pay better than his poor governor--as he calls me,
when my back is turned--and be able, by the time he is fifty years old,
to pay his way into Parliament, and represent the boiling interest,
which is abominably treated there--it lies in the doom of the future to
bring forth. But after all the years, I have lived in the world,
although I have only been on committees, and never more than
vice-chairman, I know too well what Statesmen are. If they can fish up,
against one another, so much as the passing of a bad penny-piece, when
they were at school together, the man at the top of the tree will never
hear the last of it. If our Tommy goes on, as his schooling shows, he
may happen to be heard of by and by, though there's nothing wonderful
about him yet, except these lies about his flying; and none the Rads, if
he turns out a Tory, and none of the Tories, if he turns into a Rad,
shall ever be able to say of him then, that he started under false
colours. Hand me one of my invoice-slips; there are three, or four, over
in that pocket-book. I'll be as straight-forward as Bill Chumps was,
with the Earl, according to Tommy's tale."
"Oh, what are you going to do?" cried mother; "after all the lecture I
gave Tommy, and all I have done on the sands, oh dear! It is flying in
the face of Providence."
"The Lord--if you mean Him by 'Providence'--loves the men He has made,
to tell the truth; and the women likewise, to the extent of their
powers, though not so much insisted on. Sir Roland is gone to the beach
with his pony, to wait for your answer, I believe. Tommy shall take it
down to him. Read it as you go, my son, and then put it in this
envelope."
What I had to read, and deliver, to my affable, yet rather arrogant
friend, ran as nearly as may be to this effect:
"Bucephalus Upmore, Son and Successor to the late S. Upmore, of the
old-established Boiling and Refining Works, etc., etc.," in large type;
and then in good round hand this--"presents his respects to Lady
Towers-Twentifold, and begs to thank her, on behalf of self and wife,
for your kind invitation to our son, Thomas. The same is a good boy,
and well brought up, so far as can be seen to; and his schoolmaster
ready to answer for him, and will never do any disgrace to the business,
unless he gets into bad company. But from experience of the world, B. U.
expects to hear no more from your ladyship, as soon as she knows all
about our Tommy. He can't fly, no more than his father can, and he goes
from Happystowe by Railway-bus, as soon as all of us has had our dinner,
which was a great mistake in coming down, to start with breakfast only.
Offering your ladyship all good wishes, from a happy stay here at
Happystowe, remain your obedient servant to command, Bucephalus Upmore,
of address above."
Now, it went very much against my grain, to deliver this letter to my
friend Roly--for my friend I may call him, by this time, after the
things we had done, and enjoyed, together. For I had taught him several
ingenuities, such as a London boy can show, of clogging the wheels of
the bathing-waggons, and pouring a little tar into the shoes left on the
beach by paddlers, and other devices even better; so that we had made
rare larks together, and he would find it dull without me.
"All up now," I cried, as he came, at full gallop, for his answer; "the
governor has done for all my chance of ever going up to your place. Look
what he says! And not half of it is true. We are boilers; but we don't
make dips like that."
Sir Roland was looking at a bunch of rushlights, very well done, but
much older than I was--for night-lights had long superseded them--and he
could not help laughing, though he tried severely. And I had talked
rather largely about commerce, once or twice, when we got into abstract
subjects, as we used, when the last chance of a lark was gone. "He has
done it on purpose," I said, "to pull me down. Why, he might have used
his new bill-heading, quite like a picture you can look at, with a palm
in the middle, and an olive full of oil, and two great cannons made into
candlesticks, for his Virgin-honey patent that burns like bees, and
land-steam on one side, and sea-steam on the other, to show the extent
of his transactions. Tell my dear lady, that wretched old thing came
down, I am sure, from my grandfather. Oh, what was mother about, to let
him?"
"Admirals are wilful men," replied Sir Roland, seriously regarding that
vile bill-head; "and they won't always listen to their wives."
"Did I ever call him an Admiral? Did he ever say he was an Admiral? Did
any of us ever tell a single lie, about it?"
"Tommy, my boy, don't be excited," Sir Roland said, as gravely as he
could contrive; "I have seen a great deal of the world, though I am
young; and of course I was aware, from the very first moment, that you
belonged to the commercial classes; which (as I read the other day) are
rapidly becoming the mainstay of England, against the wild inrush of
anarchy. You know, I told you that, the other night, after we had cut
the mooring-ropes of the three machines of the Radical. Very well, if
you are in trade, where is the difference between big and little? The
retail dealers are the loftier class, because they make less profit. I
have thought about these things, for several hours, and I am not misled
by what I read. And the conclusion I have come to is just this--that
the retail man is of a higher class, in every way, than the wholesale
one."
"But," I said, as firmly as I could say it, and proudly repressing all
tendency to tears, "we are wholesale, wholesale all over. Even father
can't say less than that, when he wants to run down all of us, to keep
our ideas from spending."
"Never mind, Tommy, what you are," Sir Roland replied, as he buttoned up
his coat; "you may be a gentleman, in any calling, if you don't run
other people down. That is the surest sign of a cad; and I've never seen
any sign of that, in you. Now, I must be off, like the wind, for home;
because I am resolved to come back in time for you. We shall want you,
all the more for this, friend Tommy."
"I won't come now, if you ask me;" I called out, as he stuck his legs
round his pony; "because I shall know, you are thinking about the dips."
"Keep out your things from the rest, and have them ready. The
Station-bus goes at two o'clock. I shall come with a light trap, at
half-past one; and nobody will ask you about coming."
By this he meant, that I should have to come _nolens volens_, as we said
at school; but having more faith in my father's knowledge of the world,
I did not expect it. However, with mother's consent, my clothes and
books were packed in my own little box, while father laughed, and said,
"Please yourselves; so long as they go safe to Maiden Lane." But soon he
was obliged to confess his mistake, and let mother triumph over him. For
while the bus was standing at the door, and our luggage was going down
heavily, and my father, in the window, was taking his last look at a
great ship in the distance, a quick light sound of wheels came up the
staircase; and running out that way, I saw a horse with his forehead
pulled up right against the forehead of the bus-horse, as if they were
playing at "conquerors." The new horse was beautiful, and full of pride;
and the bus-horse looked at him, with mild reproach, between his shabby
blinkers, as if he were saying--"Wait till you grow old, and you won't
come flustering a poor horse-brother, with your dash, and frippery, and
self-conceit."
"This for you, ma'am!" cried the Boots to my mother, running up as if he
had no breath left, from the labour and peril of our boxes, "and young
Master Roland, ma'am,--please, ma'am, his compliments, and he is waiting
for Master Tommy, ma'am."
"Most polite, and most kind of her ladyship indeed! Bucephalus, what do
you say to that? Which of us understands good society best; if you
please, my dear, if you please to answer me? What did I tell you, on
Monday week, Tommy, about what had been in my family? It requires that
kind of preparation, to understand these things, my dear. But he can't
go, with less than a guinea in his pocket. Pull out, Mr. Upmore."
My father was obliged to do all that, except that he took five per
cent., as the style of the age is, from the beauty of the guinea; and
dear mother, (bearing a tear of pride in one eye, and a bigger one of
sorrow in the other) went to the bag that her purse was locked in, and
got out half a sovereign, and looked at it.
"Don't change it, Tommy," she said, "until you don't know at all how to
help it. You are going to be with great people, my pet, and you will
have to do things handsomely. But they won't expect a little boy, like
you, to stand treat, or tip the maids, or anything of that sort; and if
you bring this back to me, you shall have it all to go to school with."
Thus, with more money than I ever had before, or ever could have dreamed
of owning, I sat by the side of Sir Roland Towers-Twentifold, and
watched him drive his horse, which he did, as he did everything, with
the greatest vigour, and capacity. We seemed to go as fast as I could
fly--with science, and a strong breeze after me--and _Grip_ had to use
all his legs to keep up; and I looked back sadly at the poor old bus,
with father, and his German pipe, upon the box, and mother with her
handkerchief waving from the window; and Roly would not stop, for me to
say another word to them.
Now, I need not have told all this, except for the mean charge brought
against me, that I got into Twentifold Towers, and thence into public
life, by trickery, by false pretences, and imposture on the part of all
of us, having conspired among strangers to present my father as an
Admiral--"The Admiral of the Fleet-ditch" those unprincipled jokers have
dared to call him, because the old Fleet-stream comes down our valley.
Possibly, if the general public (and especially the Inn) at Happystowe
had not endowed my father with that Naval rank, and therein confirmed
him (in spite of all protest), I might not have got my first invitation,
which he cast away like a true Briton. But I leave the world at large,
to judge the merits; for I have always found it waste of time to reason
with malicious persons.
Have I patience to think of such small fry, when I speak of the
greatness of everything at Twentifold Towers, and for miles around? Not
a cold, rigid, and stuck-up greatness, such as you must fold your arms
to look at, and thank the Lord, in private, that you are not like it;
but a warmth of beauty and of kindness shed abroad, which set me on the
flutter, when I came to feel it; though my mother had provided me with
fifteen pounds of lead, in the hollow at the bottom of my chest. But, at
first I was frightened, as you may suppose, and kept asking myself what
good would be my best clothes, even to play in, at such a place? Then
Lady Twentifold came out, and kissed me, and looked at the tears in my
eyes with love--because she had lost a little boy like me--and my heart
went to her, so that I saw nothing of the height or size of anything, so
long as I could see her, and think about her, and feel how good she was
to me.
"You will see a great friend, by and by," she said. "What a
distinguished boy you are, to have formed such lofty friendships! And
chiefly because of your bodily gift of weighing less than you ought to
weigh. Why, a boy, with the mind of a Shakespeare to come, might pour
forth poem after poem, and nobody care to inquire into him. Even
Professor Megalow, universal as he is, might never even chance to hear
of him."
"Oh, is it Professor Megalow?" I asked, with glad excitement. "I am not
afraid of any place, when I know that he is near it."
"Ariel, how unkind of you! If we ill-treat you, spread your wings. But I
have not even seen your great friend yet. He will not be here, till
dinner-time. He is carving, what he cares for more than anything we can
offer--a poor dead whale at Crowton Naze."
Now, behold the reward of virtue--for in the present state of this
wicked world, it may be taken as a high reward to escape the pains of
punishment! If I had gone, as an Admiral's son, to Twentifold Towers,
how should I have looked, when Professor Megalow, knowing all about us,
and having smelled our works afar--which probably helped to draw him
towards us, for congenial nutriment--now came up, with that large sweet
smile, which spreads all over his face and body, and said, "My dear
little friend, how are you?"
This was the first time I ever beheld him in evening dress, and he
astonished me; because a very old hat had always been part of his
equipment. He may have contrived to leave it somewhere, for he cannot
have come with a good one. Neither was that the only thing in his
present appearance amazing; for he had put himself into a black velvet
coat, as the smartest thing he could find in his trunk; and grand, I can
tell you, he looked in it. From daybreak until he had to go and wash, he
had been at work at that great whale, not only directing a mob of
clod-hoppers, how to hop about upon a whale, but also, with his own iron
arms, performing all work that called for skill and strength. And yet,
there was no sign of work about him; neither any talk, or thought of
work; and he would not be made (though Lady Twentifold tried her best to
make him, and so did Sir Roland with downright "fishers"--as we used to
call tapping a master at school, to do a hard sentence for us), by no
manner of means could he be brought to speak, as if he wanted to be
listened to.
This was the very thing that I had known, ever since he first came,
with the other four Professors. Of them there was not one that would
leave off talking, for the sake of the public, or of one another, or
even for his own sake; neither would they breathe enough, to let another
voice in; but the measure of every man's mind was his lungs. And to
countervail this, it has been laid down by nature, that the men who have
something to say don't say it.
But, though this Professor, in his leisure time, would play round the
edge of his learning, rather than plunge other people into it; it was
quite impossible for even me (a careless, and light-headed boy) to be
with him, without learning something. And my firm belief is, that
although I know very little, at this time of writing, whatever I have
learned of larger things than little human creatures, was gained upon
that whale, where the great mind came to study the great body.