A LITTLE PARTY IN CAPTAIN ABLEWHITE'S ROOMS.
In his vague allusions to a future carriage, and to his becoming, in
course of time, as rich as the Rothschilds, Jeremiah Pamflett built, as
he supposed, upon a very solid foundation. So have other men--for
instance, Mr. Lethbridge; but in the indulgence of his day-dreams Uncle
Leth built his castles in the air, and extracted nothing but pure
pleasure from them; intangible as they were, they invariably left a
sweet taste in the mouth. It is to be doubted whether he really ever
seriously inquired into their composition; he simply built them as he
walked along, blind and deaf to the sterner realities of life by which
he was surrounded, saw them grow under his magic touch, filled them with
fair forms, and smiled gratefully and pensively as they faded away. He
was, of course, a most unpractical being, otherwise he would
occasionally have built a castle of terrors, peopled by unpleasant
creatures, upon whose faces reigned frowns instead of smiles. Wise men,
becoming acquainted with his imaginings, would have shaken their heads
and cast pitying looks upon him; some even would have questioned his
sanity; but it is by no means certain whether Uncle Leth was not wiser
than they. Life is short, and, granted that a man performs his duties
with a fair amount of conscientiousness, the next and altogether the
wisest thing is to extract from life as much innocent enjoyment of one's
days as opportunity affords. And whether that opportunity be upon the
surface, for all men to see and understand, or be delved for in airy
depths, or climbed up to in airy heights, is of little matter so that
the good end is reached.
From these brief speculations it may be inferred that Jeremiah Pamflett
had his day-dreams as well as Uncle Leth, and from our knowledge of
their characters it may be judged that between the day-dreams of the one
and the other there was a wide gulf. Uncle Leth's day-dreams brought
happiness to all, and his best sense of enjoyment was derived from the
blessings he shed around him. Jeremiah's day-dreams brought happiness to
one--himself; and his best sense of enjoyment was derived from the
wretchedness and misery the result he aimed at and the road he was
treading could not fail to produce.
That is, supposing him to be successful; but it has happened that in
digging pits for others, men have fallen into their own graves. Whether
this was to be the case with Jeremiah Pamflett remained to be proved. He
was altogether so sharp a fellow, so extraordinarily astute, such a "dab
at figures," as he had declared, so completely "up" to every move on the
board, so thoroughly conversant with the game of spiders and flies, that
men of the world would have backed him to come out triumphant from any
scheme upon which, after mature consideration, he had resolved to put a
great stake. Consideration the most mature, study the most profound,
calculations the most careful and precise, had led Jeremiah to the
conclusion that he had discovered a means of making a great and rapid
fortune. Those who are about to be let into the secret, and who have not
had favourable opportunities of studying human nature from a
sufficiently comprehensive panorama, will perhaps be surprised at the
vulgarity of Jeremiah's discovery; and more surprised, may be, because
it is neither novel nor original.
To lead intelligently up to the disclosure, it may be mentioned that
some short time before Jeremiah Pamflett had conceived the ambitious
idea of becoming Miser Farebrother's son-in-law, a business transaction
introduced him to scenes altogether new to him. Of course it was a
money-lending transaction, and the debtor, to whom in the first instance
he had lent thirty pounds out of his own pocket, was a certain Captain
Ablewhite. It may not have been his rightful name, but into this we will
not too curiously inquire, nor into his antecedents; and yet he was
undoubtedly well connected. He knew and mixed with a great number of
"swells," and his name might occasionally be seen in some of the
"society" papers; he dressed in most perfect taste, and was seldom seen
without an expensive exotic in his button-hole; you would judge him from
outward observance to be a man of good-breeding; he had had a sufficient
education; his manners were easy, confident, smiling; he seemed to know
everything and everybody--all of which did not prevent him from being
chronically hard up. It may not have troubled him much, he was so
accustomed to it; and although he met with many obstacles in his career
of continual borrowing and seldom paying, there was never seen upon his
face any but the pleasantest of smiling expressions. He was a
good-looking man, with a handsome moustache and blue eyes, and he
carried himself like a soldier; hence, maybe, his "captainship," though
how captain, or captain of what, was never inquired into. Misery, it is
said, makes us acquainted with strange bed-fellows; so does such a
career as Captain Ablewhite's. It was a career the successful steering
of which required peculiar ingenuity, and the waters upon which it
floated were not of the sweetest. One day Captain Ablewhite presented
himself with his smiling face and his choice exotic at the office over
which Jeremiah Pamflett presided. He came with the intention of
borrowing a large sum of money, some three or four hundred pounds, upon
a bill backed by half a dozen names. Miser Farebrother did not do an
advertising business; you did not read in the papers that he was
prepared to advance, immediately upon application, any amount of money,
from ten pounds to ten thousand, without security, to noblemen and
gentlemen; his connection was a private one, and new clients presented
themselves at the office of their own accord, or through private
recommendation. However it came about, there was Captain Ablewhite,
ready and willing to confer an obligation upon Jeremiah
Pamflett--believing him to be the principal, and Farebrother an assumed
name, as is generally the case with money-lenders, either from being
ashamed of their own, or from a wish to do their dirty work in the dark.
Jeremiah, who was launching out for himself, and who, by fraudulently
trading on his own account with his master's funds, was already making
money, never contradicted a client upon this point when he scented some
personal advantage; and he scented it in Captain Ablewhite. Here was an
opportunity of worming himself into the society of swells, where pigeons
most do congregate, and it was not to be thrown away. Jeremiah played
with Captain Ablewhite, who was the soul of candour; he was a new kind
of client for Jeremiah's study and observation, and the cunning young
money-thirster saw a grand prospect of the future, through Captain
Ablewhite's introduction, dotted by sons of peers and suckling young
fools sowing their oats.
Now, out of this encounter, which came the victor, the man who desired
to borrow the money, or the man who had to lend?
Nothing was done on the first day, but on the second Jeremiah was the
possessor of a three-months' bill, well backed, for fifty pounds, and
Captain Ablewhite walked out of the office with seven five-pound notes
in his pocket. Instead of landing a large fish, Captain Ablewhite had
landed a very small one, but there was a satisfied smile on his face as
he strolled away. It was not bad interest--fifty pounds for thirty-five,
at three months; but Captain Ablewhite was content, even though upon
Jeremiah Pamflett's table lay six of the gallant Captain's finest
Havanas, which Jeremiah wrapped carefully in paper and put into a
drawer.
This was the commencement of the business transactions of Jeremiah
Pamflett and Captain Ablewhite, a recountal of the details of which is
not necessary. Say, for general purposes, that their course was the
usual course, and all is said that need be said. What it is important to
mention is that one evening Jeremiah Pamflett found himself at the door
of Captain Ablewhite's chambers in Piccadilly.
Strictly speaking, it was night, the hour being eleven. Captain
Ablewhite had been giving a little dinner to a few friends, and when
Jeremiah's name was announced the men were beginning to play. There were
two card-tables, five playing poker at one, six playing baccarat at
another. Captain Ablewhite was at the baccarat table.
Jeremiah's visit was the result of a bargain. There had been a bill to
be renewed, and Jeremiah had indirectly bid for the invitation.
"All right," said Captain Ablewhite; "come at eleven or twelve. Evening
dress you know."
He received his visitor with a smiling "How d'ye do?" and waved a
general introduction by saying "Mr. Pamflett," his guests having been
previously informed that "a fellow might drop in who finances for me."
This was received with a laugh and some slight show of interest,
"fellows who finance" for fellows who require it being very necessary
joints in the society machine upon which Captain Ablewhite and most of
his chums rode.
"He's a cub," said Captain Ablewhite; "but that's neither here nor
there."
"The main point is," observed a middle-aged punter, "that he'll do a
bill."
"Yes, that's it," said Captain Ablewhite.
Therefore Jeremiah Pamflett was not unexpected. The party, however, were
too interested in their game to take much notice of him. "Make yourself
at home," said Captain Ablewhite, pointing to a corner of the room,
where there was a buffet, with drinks and cigars. All the men were
smoking, and Jeremiah with an assumption of ease by no means successful,
helped himself. He knew the quality of Captain Ablewhite's cigars, and
appreciated them. That he put a handful in his pocket on the sly was, as
Captain Ablewhite had said, "neither here nor there."
With his cigar in his mouth, Jeremiah stood at the tables and looked on.
The game of "poker" he did not understand, but his eyes glittered as he
saw the free flowing of notes and gold, and the easy way in which money
was lost and won. By close peering and study he soon mastered the
rudiments of the game, and followed the play. It was a ten-pound limit,
the minimum "ante" half a sovereign. At first he was confused at the
"bluffing" which took place, but what he learned convinced him that
money was to be won by cool heads, and his heart beat more quickly than
usual when he saw a player with nothing in his hand take a large pool.
He stood for some time at the baccarat table, and watched the game
there. It was much more easily mastered than poker, and in a very few
moments he understood it fairly well.
"You don't play?" said Captain Ablewhite to him, who held the bank at
that moment.
"No," said Jeremiah; "not to-night."
At each table there was a player who profited by the indifferent play of
his comrades, and who, according to Jeremiah's just calculation, was
bound to rise a winner. "It is easy enough," said Jeremiah mentally;
"only what they win they don't keep. _I_ would!" A new world seemed to
be opening out to this young man--a new world filled with fools emptying
their purses into his. Why not? He did not disturb or interfere with the
players, and although one superstitious man fidgeted about uneasily when
Jeremiah stood at his back looking over his cards, Jeremiah's conduct
was sufficiently unobtrusive and quiet not to excite displeasure.
At about two o'clock there was a kind of informal supper, of which
Jeremiah freely partook, amazed at the profusion of good things handed
about by the waiters. The liberality was a revelation to him, but he was
discreet enough to betray no outward surprise. He was taking a lesson
which he meant to profit by. Most men would have drunk too much, and
most of the men in Captain Ablewhite's rooms did, but not Jeremiah
Pamflett; still the two or three glasses of champagne he drank (the
glasses being goblets) had a slight effect upon him. He maintained his
equilibrium, however, physically and mentally. The fortunes of the night
had pretty well declared themselves: three men had lost each some
hundreds of pounds, and were desperately striving to get it back by
plunging; others had lost in a lesser degree; the only winners were
Captain Ablewhite and the two cool-headed players, one at each table,
who continued playing their steady game. Jeremiah thought he would try
his luck, and he took a sovereign from his pocket, and followed in the
wake of the cool-headed gamester at the baccarat table. He won, and
staked it again, and won. No one took any notice of his winnings, which
were pushed across to him quite carelessly. At half-past four in the
morning Jeremiah walked out of Captain Ablewhite's rooms with forty odd
sovereigns winning money in his pocket. He walked along in a high state
of elation, with his hand in his trousers pocket, clutching the gold and
counting it. Forty-one, forty-two, forty-three, forty-four. Yes;
forty-four sovereigns. And so easily won!
He felt quite fresh, although it was his habit to be in bed before
midnight. He reviewed the scene at which he had been present, recalled
different hands of cards he had seen dealt out, and the course of the
play, and calculated how much he might have won had he done this or
that. That he would have done the right thing always he was sure; and it
is likely he was correct, because it was a simple matter of calculation
of odds and chances. One of the cool-headed players had won six hundred
pounds; the other, four hundred. "I might have done the same," thought
Jeremiah.
Captain Ablewhite had said something to him before he left.
"I wonder you don't play a bit. With your head for figures you would win
a fortune."
That was it--with his head for figures. "I could snuff them all out," he
thought.
Captain Ablewhite had also said, "Drop in to-morrow at two or three."
In compliance with this invitation, Jeremiah walked up the stairs of the
house in Piccadilly at half-past two o'clock on the following day. In
this--the being master of his time, left entirely to himself to do as he
pleased--lay the great value of his situation with Miser Farebrother. He
was his own master. With the miser eternally at the office looking over
him, niggling and naggling at this and that, Jeremiah would have had but
scant opportunities for attending to Number One.
At the door of the outer of Captain Ablewhite's rooms stood a
man-servant, who asked Jeremiah's name.
"Mr. Pamflett," said Jeremiah. "Captain Ablewhite expects me."
"If you will wait here a moment," said the man, "I will tell Captain
Ablewhite."
He returned very quickly, and Captain Ablewhite with him.
"Ah, Mr. Pamflett," said the Captain. "Just one word." He drew Jeremiah
aside: "What you see inside is private."
"Not to be spoken of?" said Jeremiah rather mystified.
"Not to a soul," said Captain Ablewhite. "Is that settled?"
"Yes."
"Come along, then."
The rooms had undergone a transformation. There was an air of serious
business about them and the twenty or thirty men assembled there. Every
one of the men had a little book, which he consulted, and in which he
was making calculations. At two tables sat two clerks with
account-books. There was a "tape" in the room, and a man standing by it,
reading the messages aloud.
"False start," this man said aloud as Jeremiah Pamflett entered.
"Go and help yourself," said Captain Ablewhite, pointing to the buffet,
which was in its accustomed corner, crowded with bottles, glasses,
cigars and sandwiches.