IN BISHOP STREET POLICE STATION.
Availing itself of the privilege to creep through every chink and
crevice, to steal up backstairs and take advantage of every keyhole,
and to make its dismal presence felt equally within the habitations of
man as without, the white fog had insinuated itself into the Bishop
Street Police Station, where it lay in the form of a semi-transparent
shroud, and where Inspector Robson looked more like the ghost of a man
than the man himself. In the brightest of weather the office was not a
cheerful apartment; under the thrall of the white fog, an hour after
midnight, it assumed a funereal aspect inexpressibly depressing.
Busily employed in making out the charge sheet for the following day,
Inspector Robson still found time to cast an occasional eye upon
another ghostly form who, with one foot resting on the end of a wooden
bench, was leaning against the wall in a negligent attitude, engaged
in the insubstantial occupation of chewing a ghostly straw. The
Inspector wrote a fine copperplate hand, and his steel pen neither
scratched nor spluttered. On the present occasion he was taking
extraordinary care over his task, as though more than usually
important issues hung upon the perfect outlines of his pothooks and
hangers. The absence of sound within the office and the shroud which
lay upon it, rendering objects within a few yards of him indistinct,
imparted so strong an air of unreality to the scene, that his slow and
measured movements bore some resemblance to the movements of an
automaton. The other ghostly person in the office chewed his straw and
moved his lips with so regular and unintelligent a motion that _his_
movements, also, bore some resemblance to the movements of an
automaton. But for the difference in their ages these two men might
have been posing to an invisible artist for a picture of the
Industrious and the Idle Apprentices.
That there was something in the negligent figure that discomposed the
Inspector was evident from the expression on his face when he raised
his head from the charge sheet and glanced in that direction, and it
was quite as evident that his discomposure was powerless to arouse the
cause of it from his apparent insensibility to all external objects
and impressions. He was young and good-looking, his age probably
twenty-four or five; Inspector Robson was old enough to be his father,
and on his features were stamped the effects of long years of official
responsibilities and steady application to duty. In this relation of
the Idle and the Industrious Apprentices the marked contrast they
presented was capable of a dramatic interpretation.
"Do you intend to remain much longer?" inquired the Inspector, goaded
at length into breaking the oppressive silence. "Because I'd like you
to know I'm pretty well tired of you."
"I'm pretty well tired of myself," replied the young man, in a
listless tone. "As to remaining much longer I can't exactly say."
"You have no right to be in this place, you know, unless you are here
upon business. Now, the question is, are you here upon business? If
you are, I'm ready to take it down."
The young man turned the straw in his mouth, and appeared to reflect.
Coming to a conclusion he languidly said, "I can't think of any
particular business."
"That's a pity," said the Inspector.
"That's a pity," echoed the young man, with distinct indifference.
"Well, then," said the Inspector, bracing himself up for a great
effort, "as you have no business to be here unless you have business
to be here----" This was so involved that it brought him to a full
stop; scratching his head with whimsical perplexity he extricated
himself from the difficulty by adding, "The best thing you can do is
to clear out."
The young man, deciding that he had sufficiently rested one foot,
lowered it, and lifted the other upon the bench. This was the only
movement he made.
The Inspector resumed his writing with the manner of a man driven to a
helpless pass. A peculiar feature of the defeat he had met with was
that it did not seem to anger him. Presently he spoke again.
"I don't often get into a temper, Dick."
"Not often."
"But when I do," said the Inspector, with an anticipatory chuckle,
"it's a thing to remember."
"When you do, uncle, I'll remember it."
The Inspector finished the charge sheet, tidied up his papers, and
looking over his shoulder at Dick, suddenly burst out laughing.
Dick's face cleared; a light stole into his eyes; his lips quivered.
These tokens of serious emotion were like the passing of a cloud. The
next moment he joined the Inspector in the laugh, and the storm was at
an end.
"Where are you going to sleep, Dick?"
"Let me see," Dick answered. "Buckingham Palace sounds tempting; there
must be several beds unoccupied there. Could a fellow get between the
sheets of one? Do you think it might be managed? I hope they keep a
fire in the rooms and the sheets well aired."
"Don't be a fool."
"Can I help it?"
"No, Dick, no," said the inspector, advancing and laying his hand
kindly upon Dick's shoulder. "Upon my soul I don't believe you can."
Dick lifted his eyes, with an implied suggestion that the Inspector,
by the barest possibility, might be mistaken; but he did not put this
into words.
"I can't take you home with me," said the Inspector. "Aunt Rob won't
have it. She's put her foot down, and when she puts her foot down,
why, there it is."
The comic helplessness expressed in this obvious statement seemed to
amuse Dick, but he said, gravely enough, "Yes, there it is."
"And there's Florence."
At the introduction of this name a look of sad tenderness stole into
Dick's eyes, but he said calmly, "Ah, and there's Florence."
"Now, Dick, let us have this out, once and for all."
"I'm agreeable."
"It's altogether too bad," exclaimed the Inspector. "What with you and
Florence, bless her! _and_ Aunt Rob, I haven't a moment's peace of my
life. What Aunt Rob says is this. 'Here's Dick Remington,' she says,
'that you've behaved as a father to, and that I've behaved as a mother
to. Ever since he was left an orphan, having lost his father, then his
mother--you were three years old when my poor sister died--he's lived
with us as one of our own, and so we've treated him. He had a claim
upon us, and that claim we've met.' And she says--her foot being
down--'It's time Dick looked after himself.' She gave you a hint,
which you took pretty quick. I'll say that of you; you took it almost
too quick."
"What else could I do?"
"It was a mistake, Dick, to get into a huff as you did. The minute she
began to speak you took her up sharp--and if there's one thing more
than another that puts her back up it is to be took up sharp. You see,
Dick, it's a delicate matter. Aunt Rob says, 'We must think of
Florence. She comes first.' And she's right, Dick."
"She is, uncle. Florence comes first--always first!"
"'Here's Dick,' says Aunt Rob, 'that I'm as fond of as if he was my
own son, what is he good for? What prospects has he got? He's been in
one situation and another, and never keeps to one thing for more than
a few weeks at a time. Here he is, a grown man, and here is Florence,
almost a grown woman.' To think of it!" said Inspector Robson,
pensively, breaking off. "It was only yesterday that she was in short
frocks, going backward and forward to school, and climbing up on my
knee to pull my whiskers, and cuddling up in my arms, and singing her
little songs in a voice as sweet as music. And now! a grown woman! To
think of it--to think of it!"
"Loving you no less as a woman, uncle, than she did as a child."
"I know it, my lad, I know it, but it sets a man on the think."
And Inspector Robson fell forthwith into a brown study which lasted
quite five minutes, during which the image of his only child, most
tenderly and dearly beloved, presented itself to him in its sweetest
and most engaging aspects.