So another ten years had slipped away; and the house opposite, which had
been empty for two years, was getting in very bad condition--I mean as
to paper and paint.
"Nobody will take it as it is, Sir John," the agent said to him in my
presence.
"Then it can be left alone," he says, very gruffly. "Good-morning."
"Well, Mr Burdon," said the agent, as I gave him a glass of wine in my
pantry, "it's a good thing he's so well off; but it's poison to my mind
to see houses lying empty." Which no doubt it was, seeing he had five
per cent on the rents of all he let.
Then Mr Barclay spoke to his father, and he had to go out with a flea
in his ear; and when, two days later, Miss Virginia said something about
the house opposite looking so miserable, and that it was a pity there
were no bills up to say it was to let, Sir John flew out at her, and
that was the only time I ever heard him speak to her cross.
But he was so sorry for it, that he sent me to the bank with a cheque
directly after, and I was to bring back a new fifty-pound note; and I
know that was in the letter I had to give Miss Virginia, and orders to
have the carriage round, so that she might go shopping.
Now, I'm afraid you'll say that Mr Barclay Drinkwater was right in
calling me Polonius, and saying I was as prosy as a college don; but if
I don't tell you what brought all the trouble about, how are you to
understand what followed? Old men have their own ways; and though I'm
not very old, I've got mine, and if I don't tell my story my way, I'm
done.
Well, it wasn't a week after Mr Bodkin & Co, the agent, had that glass
of wine in the pantry, that he came in all of a bustle, as he always
was, just as if he must get everything done before dark, and says he has
let the house, if Sir John approves.
Not so easily done as you'd think, for Sir John wasn't, he said, going
to have anybody for an opposite neighbour; but the people might come and
see him if they liked.
I remember it as well as if it was yesterday. Sir John was in a bad
temper with a touch of gout--bin 27--'25 port, being rather an acid
wine, but a great favourite of his. Miss Virginia had been crying. The
trouble had been about Mr Barclay going away. He'd finished his
schooling at college, and was now twenty-seven and a fine strong
handsome fellow, as wanted to be off and see the world; but Sir John
told him he couldn't spare him.
"No, Bar," he says in my presence, for I was bathing his foot--"if you
go away--I know you, you dog--you'll be falling in love with some
smooth-faced girl, and then there'll be trouble. You'll stop at home,
sir, and eat and drink like a gentleman, and court Virginia like a
gentleman; and when she's twenty-one, you'll marry her; and you can both
take care of me till I die, and then you can do as you like."
Then Mr Barclay, looking as much like his father as he could with his
face turned red, said what he ought not to have said, and refused to
marry Miss Virginia; and he flung out of the room; while Miss Virginia--
bless her for an angel!--must have known something of the cause of the
trouble--I'm afraid, do you know, it was from me, but I forget--and she
was in tears, when there was a knock and ring, and a lady's card was
sent in for Sir John: "Miss Adela Mimpriss."
It was about the house; and I had to show her in--a little, slight,
elegantly dressed lady of about three-and-twenty, with big dark eyes,
and a great deal of wavy hair.
Sir John sent for Mr Barclay and Miss Virginia, to see if they approved
of her; and it was settled that she and her three maiden sisters were to
have the opposite house; and when the bell rang for me to show her out,
Mr Barclay came and took the job out of my hands.
"I'm very glad," I heard him say, "and I hope we shall be the best of
neighbours;" and his face was flushed, and he looked very handsome;
while, when they shook hands on the door-mat, I could see the
bright-eyed thing smiling in his face and looking pleased; and that
shaking of the hands took a deal longer than it ought, while she gave
him a look that made me think if I'd had a daughter like that, she'd
have had bread-and-water for a week.
Then the door was shut, and Mr Barclay stood on the mat, smiling
stupid-like, not knowing as I was noticing him; and then he turned
sharply round and saw Miss Virginia on the stairs, and his face changed.
"James Burdon," I said to myself, "these are girls and boys no longer,
but grown-up folk, and there's the beginning of trouble here."