"Do you mean to ask whether I am the new pupil for Dr Hellyer's
establishment?" I said--with some dignity, I flatter myself.
But that horrible porter was not a bit abashed!
"Yees," he drawled out in his cracked accents, with an intonation that
clearly evinced the fact of his having been born in Sussex. "Hellyer's
school i' the village, b'y, that's wat I mean! Y'er to come along o'
me. Poot yer box on yer shoulder and crass the line, young maister, an'
I'll shoo yer way down."
This was not to be borne.
I had been treated like a menial in my uncle's household, and had
perforce to bear it, but I had made up my mind on leaving Tapioca Villa
that I should never be so degraded again if I could possibly help it.
It wasn't likely, therefore, that I was now going to be at the beck and
call of a railway porter, after all my boastful resolves--not quite!
I flew into a passion at once: I felt inclined to kill the unfortunate
man.
"Come over and take up my box yourself, porter," I cried angrily, my
face flaring up furiously as I spoke, I have no doubt. "I shall not
forget, either, to complain to Dr Hellyer about your insolence."
"Ho, ho, ho, the-at be a good un," laughed the old man from his vantage-
ground on the opposite platform. "I thinks I say un neow, an' you a-
talkin' 'bout I!"
However, as I stamped my foot and repeated my order in a tone of
command, he, evidently much surprised and obeying from the force of
habit in one accustomed to yield to others, crossed over the line, the
broad country yokel grin with which he had received my first reply,
giving place to a surly look.
"Y'er a foine young bantam," he muttered grumblingly in his wheezy
cracked voice, as he stooped to raise my precious box, "but I specs,
young maister, yer'll soon ha' yer comb cut, sure-ly!"
I said nothing further to this sally, my anger having by this time
evaporated; and the old man, poising the light load easily on one
shoulder, walked leisurely out of the station without uttering another
word, I following him also in silence.
Proceeding along a straggling street, which was more like a country lane
than anything else, with a few shops scattered about here and there at
intervals, for more than half a mile or more--he in front with my box, I
closely stepping in the rear--after turning sharp round to the right and
then to the left, past a little corner building which seemed to be a
wayside inn, but was triumphantly lettered "hotel" along the top of its
gable end, we at length debouched on to a solitary-looking semi-deserted
row of red-brick houses that occupied one side of a wild-looking, furze-
grown common, which I could perceive faced the sea; the sound of the low
murmurs of the waves on the beach alone breaking the stillness of the
desolate scene.
This terrace apparently consisted entirely of lodging houses, and it
being the month of November, and the "season" of the little watering-
place having closed, bills with "Apartments to Let" were exposed in the
windows of almost all; almost, but not quite all, for my crack-voiced
friend when he arrived about the middle of the row stopped in front of
one of the most unprepossessing habitations of the lot, without any
notice displayed like the others. Here, putting down my box on the
steps, he rang a side-bell that gave out a melancholy clang for a
moment, and caused quite a bustle of excitement in the two adjacent
houses, heads being popped out to see who the unexpected new-comers
might be.
"Here be un," said the old porter, taking off his leathern cap, and
wiping his forehead with what looked like a tattered "Danger" flag that
had been used up on the line and discarded from further service.
"Oh!" I ejaculated, having nothing further to say, for, on seeing the
grand establishment I had anticipated dwarfed to such very humble
proportions, I felt terribly small and contemptible in my own sight.
The dignity that I had so recently aired at the old man's expense shrank
into nothingness, and I was quite relieved that he did not take
advantage of the opportunity to "put me down a peg or two."
As a sort of sop to Cerberus, and in order to try and maintain my
position of independence a few moments longer, I drew out the odd
sixpence which Uncle George had put into my hand along with the two
shillings of my tip, giving it to the old porter with the air of one
with whom such trifling coins were as plentiful as blackberries!
"Take that, my good man," said I, "for your trouble in showing me the
way."
"H'm!" he grunted between his teeth, but whether meaning to thank me or
not, I could not say; and then, without waiting for the door to be
opened, as I naturally imagined, he turned on his heel, and made off
back again towards the station.
I had to ring a second time at the side-bell before any person appeared
to answer my summons; and then, sad be it to relate, the portal of the
mansion was opened by a dirty, down-at-heels, draggle-tailed old woman
instead of the staid, respectable man-servant who should have officiated
as janitor to be in proper keeping with the brilliant prospectus before
mentioned.
"Oh, it's you, is it!" exclaimed the old woman, who had drawn back the
door gingerly as if she had expected some one else on possibly a hostile
mission, for an expression of relief came over her face when she saw
only me; and then, ushering me into a little room leading out of the
hall, she left me there, telling me to sit down. I had brought my box
in with me, you may be sure, otherwise this feat would have been
impossible, as there was not a single chair in the apartment, the major
portion of the furniture of the house, as I subsequently learnt, having
been seized by the sheriff's officers for rent.
My first interview with Doctor Hellyer did not last very long; but it
certainly was to the point, so far as it went towards impressing me with
his ponderous personality, for he was a big, smooth-faced, fat, oily
man, with a crafty look in his little twinkling eyes.
"Ah, Leigh--ah," said he on coming, presently, into the room, "you've
come at last--ah?"
This "ah-ing" of his was a confirmed habit, for he never seemed able to
begin or end a sentence without dragging in the ejaculation.
"Yes, sir," I replied, rising up from my box, and taking off my cap
politely.
"Ah--I've had a nice character of you from your aunt, my dear young
gentleman," he proceeded, blinking his little ferret-like eyes
furiously, and with a dubious sort of grin expanding his wide mouth,
which was furnished with a set of teeth like a shark's. "She tells me--
ah--Master Leigh, that you are rude, and bold, and bad, and
disobedient--ah--and that I shall have to keep a strict watch over your
conduct; but I think--ah--you will find yourself in good hands here, my
dee-er boy, really in good hands at last--ah!" and, smiling an ogreish
smile, he rubbed the palms of the said members together up and down and
over one another in a circular way as if he were kneading up a little
ball of putty within them, and I was that ball!