MR. MANYLODES
Alaric Tudor was very much surprised. Had he seen Sir Gregory himself,
or Captain Cuttwater, walking up the street of Tavistock, he could not
have been more startled. It first occurred to him that Scott must have
been sent down as a third Commissioner to assist at the investigation;
and he would have been right glad to have known that this was the case,
for he found that the management of Mr. Neverbend was no pastime. But he
soon learnt that such relief was not at hand for him.
'Well, Tudor, my boy,' said he, 'and how do you like the clotted cream
and the thick ankles of the stout Devonshire lasses?'
'I have neither tasted the one, nor seen the other,' said Alaric. 'As
yet I have encountered nothing but the not very civil tongues, and not
very clear brains of Cornish roughs.'
'A Boeotian crew! but, nevertheless, they know on which side their bread
is buttered--and in general it goes hard with them but they butter it on
both sides. And how does the faithful Neverbend conduct himself? Talk of
Boeotians, if any man ever was born in a foggy air, it must have been my
friend Fidus.'
Alaric merely shrugged his shoulders, and laughed slightly. 'But what on
earth brings you down to Tavistock?' said he.
'Oh! I am a denizen of the place, naturalized, and all but settled; have
vast interests here, and a future constituency. Let the Russells look
well to themselves. The time is quickly coming when you will address
me in the House with bitter sarcasm as the honourable but inconsistent
member for Tavistock; egad, who knows but you may have to say Right
Honourable?'
'Oh! I did not know the wind blew in that quarter,' said Alaric, not
ill-pleased at the suggestion that he also, on some future day, might
have a seat among the faithful Commons.
'The wind blows from all quarters with me,' said Undy; 'but in the
meantime I am looking out for shares.'
'Will you come in and breakfast?' asked the other.
'What, with friend Fidus? no, thank'ee; I am not, by many degrees,
honest enough to suit his book. He would be down on some little public
peccadillo of mine before I had swallowed my first egg. Besides, I would
not for worlds break the pleasure of your _tête-à-tête_.'
'Will you come down after dinner?'
'No; neither after dinner, nor before breakfast; not all the coffee, nor
all the claret of the Bedford shall tempt me. Remember, my friend, you
are paid for it; I am not.'
'Well, then, good morning,' said Alaric. 'I must go in and face my fate,
like a Briton.'
Undy went on for a few steps, and then returned, as though a sudden
thought had struck him. 'But, Tudor, I have bowels of compassion within
me, though no pluck. I am willing to rescue you from your misery, though
I will not partake it. Come up to me this evening, and I will give you
a glass of brandy-punch. Your true miners never drink less generous
tipple.'
'How on earth am I to shake off this incubus of the Woods and Works?'
'Shake him off? Why, make him drunk and put him to bed; or tell him at
once that the natural iniquity of your disposition makes it necessary
that you should spend a few hours of the day in the company of a sinner
like myself. Tell him that his virtue is too heavy for the digestive
organs of your unpractised stomach. Tell him what you will, but come. I
myself am getting sick of those mining Vandals, though I am so used to
dealing with them.'
Alaric promised that he would come, and then went in to breakfast. Undy
also returned to his breakfast, well pleased with this first success in
the little scheme which at present occupied his mind. The innocent young
Commissioner little dreamt that the Honourable Mr. Scott had come all
the way to Tavistock on purpose to ask him to drink brandy-punch at the
Blue Dragon!
Another day went wearily and slowly on with Alaric and Mr. Neverbend.
Tedious, never-ending statements had to be taken down in writing;
the same things were repeated over and over again, and were as often
contradicted; men who might have said in five words all that they had to
say, would not be constrained to say it in less than five thousand, and
each one seemed to think, or pretended to seem to think, that all the
outer world and the Government were leagued together to defraud the
interest to which he himself was specially attached. But this was not
the worst of it. There were points which were as clear as daylight; but
Tudor could not declare them to be so, as by doing so he was sure to
elicit a different opinion from Mr. Neverbend.
'I am not quite so clear on that point, Mr. Tudor,' he would say.
Alaric, till experience made him wise, would attempt to argue it.
'That is all very well, but I am not quite so sure of it. We will
reserve the point, if you please,' and so affairs went on darkly, no ray
of light being permitted to shine in on the matter in dispute.
It was settled, however, before dinner, that they should both go down
the Wheal Mary Jane on the following day. Neverbend had done what he
could to keep this crowning honour of the inquiry altogether in his own
hands, but he had found that in this respect Tudor was much too much for
him.
Immediately after dinner Alaric announced that he was going to spend the
evening with a friend.
'A friend!' said Neverbend, somewhat startled; 'I did not know that you
had any friends in Tavistock.'
'Not a great many; but it so happened that I did meet a man I know, this
morning, and promised to go to him in the evening. I hope you'll excuse
my leaving you?'
'Oh! I don't mind for myself,' said Neverbend, 'though, when men are
together, it's as well for them to keep together. But, Mr. Tudor----'
'Well?' said Alaric, who felt growing within him a determination to put
down at once anything like interference with his private hours.
'Perhaps I ought not to mention it,' said Neverbend, 'but I do hope
you'll not get among mining people. Only think what our position here
is.'
'What on earth do you mean?' said Alaric. 'Do you think I shall be
bribed over by either side because I choose to drink a glass of wine
with a friend at another hotel?'
'Bribed! No, I don't think you'll be bribed; but I think we should both
keep ourselves absolutely free from all chance of being talked to on
the subject, except before each other and before witnesses. I would
not drink brandy-and-water at the Blue Dragon, before this report be
written, even if my brother were there.'
'Well, Mr. Neverbend, I am not so much afraid of myself. But wherever
there are two men, there will be two opinions. So good night, if it so
chance that you are in bed before my return.'
So Tudor went out, and Neverbend prepared himself to sit up for him. He
would sooner have remained up all night than have gone to bed before his
colleague came back.
Three days Alaric Tudor had now passed with Mr. Neverbend, and not only
three days but three evenings also! A man may endure to be bored in the
course of business through the day, but it becomes dreadful when the
infliction is extended to post-prandial hours. It does not often occur
that one is doomed to bear the same bore both by day and night; any
change gives some ease; but poor Alaric for three days had had no
change. He felt like a liberated convict as he stepped freely forth
into the sweet evening air, and made his way through the town to the
opposition inn.
Here he found Undy on the door-steps with a cigar in his mouth. 'Here
I am, waiting for you,' said he. 'You are fagged to death, I know, and
we'll get a mouthful of fresh air before we go upstairs,'--and so saying
he put his arm through Alaric's, and they strolled off through the
suburbs of the town.
'You don't smoke,' said Undy, with his cigar-case in his hand. 'Well--I
believe you are right--cigars cost a great deal of money, and can't well
do a man any real good. God Almighty could never have intended us to
make chimneys of our mouths and noses. Does Fidus ever indulge in a
weed?'
'He never indulges in anything,' said Alaric.
'Except honesty,' said the other, 'and in that he is a beastly glutton.
He gorges himself with it till all his faculties are overpowered and his
mind becomes torpid. It's twice worse than drinking. I wonder whether
he'll do a bit of speculation before he goes back to town.'
'Who, Neverbend?--he never speculates!'
'Why not? Ah, my fine fellow, you don't know the world yet. Those sort
of men, dull drones like Neverbend, are just the fellows who go the
deepest. I'll be bound he will not return without a few Mary Janes in
his pocket-book. He'll be a fool if he does, I know.'
'Why, that's the very mine we are down here about.'
'And that's the very reason why he'll purchase Mary Janes. He has an
opportunity of knowing their value. Oh, let Neverbend alone. He is not
so young as you are, my dear fellow.'
'Young or old, I think you mistake his character.'
'Why, Tudor, what would you think now if he not only bought for himself,
but was commissioned to buy by the very men who sent him down here?'
'It would be hard to make me believe it.'
'Ah! faith is a beautiful thing; what a pity that it never survives the
thirtieth year;--except with women and fools.'
'And have you no faith, Scott?'
'Yes--much in myself--some little in Lord Palmerston, that is, in his
luck; and a good deal in a bank-note. But I have none at all in Fidus
Neverbend. What! have faith in a man merely because he tells me to have
it! His method of obtaining it is far too easy.'
'I trust neither his wit nor his judgement; but I don't believe him to
be a thief.'
'Thief! I said nothing of thieves. He may, for aught I know, be just as
good as the rest of the world; all I say is, that I believe him to be no
better. But come, we must go back to the inn; there is an ally of
mine coming to me; a perfect specimen of a sharp Cornish mining
stock-jobber--as vulgar a fellow as you ever met, and as shrewd. He won't
stay very long, so you need not be afraid of him.'
Alaric began to feel uneasy, and to think that there might by
possibility be something in what Neverbend had said to him. He did not
like the idea of meeting a Cornish stock-jobber in a familiar way
over his brandy-punch, while engaged, as he now was, on the part of
Government; he felt that there might be impropriety in it, and he would
have been glad to get off if he could. But he felt ashamed to break his
engagement, and thus followed Undy into the hotel.
'Has Mr. Manylodes been here?' said Scott, as he walked upstairs.
'He's in the bar now, sir,' said the waiter.
'Beg him to come up, then. In the bar! why, that man must have a bar
within himself--the alcohol he consumes every day would be a tidy sale
for a small public-house.'
Up they went, and Mr. Manylodes was not long in following them. He was
a small man, more like an American in appearance than an Englishman.
He had on a common black hat, a black coat, black waistcoat, and black
trousers, thick boots, a coloured shirt, and very dirty hands. Though
every article he wore was good, and most of them such as gentlemen wear,
no man alive could have mistaken him for a gentleman. No man, conversant
with the species to which he belonged, could have taken him for anything
but what he was. As he entered the room, a faint, sickly, second-hand
smell of alcohol pervaded the atmosphere.
'Well, Manylodes,' said Scott, 'I'm glad to see you again. This is my
friend, Mr. Tudor.'
'Your servant, sir,' said Manylodes, just touching his hat, without
moving it from his head. 'And how are you, Mr. Scott? I am glad to see
you again in these parts, sir.'
'And how's trade? Come, Tudor, what will you drink? Manylodes, I know,
takes brandy; their sherry is vile, and their claret worse; maybe they
may have a fairish glass of port. And how is trade, Manylodes?'
'We're all as brisk as bees at present. I never knew things sharper. If
you've brought a little money with you, now's your time. But I tell you
this, you'll find it sharp work for the eyesight.'
'Quick's the word, I suppose.'
'Lord love you! Quick! Why, a fellow must shave himself before he goes
to bed if he wants to be up in time these days.'
'I suppose so.'
'Lord love you! why there was old Sam Weazle; never caught napping
yet--why at Truro, last Monday, he bought up to 450 New Friendships, and
before he was a-bed they weren't worth, not this bottle of brandy. Well,
old Sam was just bit by those Cambourne lads.'
'And how did that happen?'
'Why, the New Friendships certainly was very good while they lasted;
just for three months they was the thing certainly. Why, it came
up, sir, as if there weren't no end of it, and just as clean as that
half-crown--but I know'd there was an end coming.'
'Water, I suppose,' said Undy, sipping his toddy.
'Them clean takes, Mr. Scott, they never lasts. There was water, but
that weren't the worst. Old Weazle knew of that; he calculated he'd
back the metal agin the water, and so he bought all up he could lay his
finger on. But the stuff was run out. Them Cambourne boys--what did they
do? Why, they let the water in on purpose. By Monday night old Weazle
knew it all, and then you may say it was as good as a play.'
'And how did you do in the matter?'
'Oh, I sold. I did very well--bought at £7 2s. 3d. and sold at £6 19s.
10 1/2d., and got my seven per cent, for the four months. But, Lord love
you, them clean takes never lasts. I worn't going to hang on. Here's
your health, Mr. Scott. Yours, Mr.---, I didn't just catch the
gen'leman's name;' and without waiting for further information on the
point, he finished his brandy-and-water.
'So it's all up with the New Friendships, is it?' said Undy.
'Up and down, Mr. Scott; every dog has his day; these Mary Janes will be
going the same way some of them days. We're all mortal;' and with
this moral comparison between the uncertainty of human life and the
vicissitudes of the shares in which he trafficked, Mr. Manylodes
proceeded to put some more sugar and brandy into his tumbler.
'True, true--we are all mortal--Manylodes and Mary Janes; old
friendships and New Friendships: while they last we must make the most
we can of them; buy them cheap and sell them dear; and above all things
get a good percentage.'
'That's the game, Mr. Scott; and I will say no man understands it better
than yourself--keep the ball a-running--that's your maxim. Are you going
it deep in Mary Jane, Mr. Scott?'
'Who? I! O no--she's a cut above me now, I fear. The shares are worth
any money now, I suppose.'
'Worth any money! I think they are, Mr. Scott, but I believe----' and
then bringing his chair close up to that of his aristocratic friend,
resting his hands, one on Mr. Scott's knee, and the other on his elbow,
and breathing brandy into his ear, he whispered to him words of great
significance.
'I'll leave you, Scott,' said Alaric, who did not enjoy the society of
Mr. Manylodes, and to whom the nature of the conversation was, in his
present position, extremely irksome; 'I must be back at the Bedford
early.'
'Early--why early? surely our honest friend can get himself to bed
without your interference. Come, you don't like the brandy toddy, nor
I either. We'll see what sort of a hand they are at making a bowl of
bishop.'
'Not for me, Scott.'
'Yes, for you, man; surely you are not tied to that fellow's
apron-strings,' he said, removing himself from the close contiguity of
Mr. Manylodes, and speaking under his voice; 'take my advice; if you
once let that man think you fear him, you'll never get the better of
him.'
Alaric allowed himself to be persuaded and stayed.
'I have just ten words of business to say to this fellow,' continued
Scott, 'and then we will be alone.'
It was a lovely autumn evening, early in September, and Alaric sat
himself at an open window, looking out from the back of the hotel on to
the Brentor, with its singular parish church, built on its highest apex,
while Undy held deep council with his friend of the mines. But from time
to time, some word of moment found its way to Alaric's ears, and made
him also unconsciously fix his mind on the _irritamenta malorum_, which
are dug from the bowels of the earth in those western regions.
'Minting money, sir; it's just minting money. There's been no chance
like it in my days. £4 12s. 6d. paid up; and they'll be at £25 in Truro
before sun sets on Saturday, Lord love you, Mr. Scott, now's your
time. If, as I hear, they--' and then there was a very low whisper,
and Alaric, who could not keep his eye altogether from Mr. Manylodes'
countenance, saw plainly that that worthy gentleman was talking of
himself; and in spite of his better instincts, a desire came over him
to know more of what they were discussing, and he could not keep from
thinking that shares bought at £4 12s. 6d., and realizing £25, must be
very nice property.
'Well, I'll manage it,' said Scott, still in a sort of whisper, but
audibly enough for Alaric to hear. 'Forty, you say? I'll take them at
£5 1s. 1d.--very well;' and he took out his pocket-book and made a
memorandum. 'Come, Tudor, here's the bishop. We have done our business,
so now we'll enjoy ourselves. What, Manylodes, are you off?'
'Lord love you, Mr. Scott, I've a deal to do before I get to my downy;
and I don't like those doctored tipples. Good night, Mr. Scott. I wishes
you good night, sir;' and making another slight reference to his hat,
which had not been removed from his head during the whole interview, Mr.
Manylodes took himself off.
'There, now, is a specimen of a species of the _genus homo_, class
Englishman, which is, I believe, known nowhere but in Cornwall.'
'Cornwall and Devonshire, I suppose,' said Alaric.
'No; he is out of his true element here. If you want to see him in all
the glory of his native county you should go west of Truro. From Truro
to Hayle is the land of the Manylodes. And a singular species it is.
But, Tudor, you'll be surprised, I suppose, if I tell you that I have
made a purchase for you.'
'A purchase for me!'
'Yes; I could not very well consult you before that fellow, and yet as
the chance came in my way, I did not like to lose it. Come, the bishop
ain't so bad, is it, though it is doctored tipple?' and he refilled
Alaric's glass.
'But what have you purchased for me, Scott?'
'Forty shares in the Mary Jane.'
'Then you may undo the bargain again, for I don't want them, and shall
not take them.'
'You need not be a bit uneasy, my dear fellow. I've bought them at
a little over £5, and they'll be saleable to-morrow at double the
money--or at any rate to-morrow week. But what's your objection to
them?'
'In the first place, I've got no money to buy shares.'
'That's just the reason why you should buy them; having no money, you
can't but want some; and here's your way to make it. You can have no
difficulty in raising £200.'
'And in the next place, I should not think of buying mining shares, and
more especially these, while I am engaged as I now am.'
'Fal de ral, de ral, de ral! That's all very fine, Mr. Commissioner;
only you mistake your man; you think you are talking to Mr. Neverbend.'
'Well, Scott, I shan't have them.'
'Just as you please, my dear fellow; there's no compulsion. Only mark
this; the ball is at your foot now, but it won't remain there. 'There is
a tide in the affairs of men'--you know the rest; and you know also that
'tide and time wait for no man.' If you are contented with your two
or three hundred a year in the Weights and Measures, God forbid that I
should tempt you to higher thoughts--only in that case I have mistaken
my man.'
'I must be contented with it, if I can get nothing better,' said Tudor,
weakly.
'Exactly; you must be contented--or rather you must put up with it--if
you can get nothing better. That's the meaning of contentment all the
world over. You argue in a circle. You must be a mere clerk if you
cannot do better than other mere clerks. But the fact of your having
such an offer as that I now make you, is proof that you can do better
than others; proves, in fact, that you need not be a mere clerk, unless
you choose to remain so.'
'Buying these shares might lose me all that I have got, and could not do
more than put a hundred pounds or so in my pocket.'
'Gammon--'
'Could I go back and tell Sir Gregory openly that I had bought them?'
'Why, Tudor, you are the youngest fish I ever met, sent out to swim
alone in this wicked world of ours. Who the deuce talks openly of his
speculations? Will Sir Gregory tell you what shares he buys? Is not
every member of the House, every man in the Government, every barrister,
parson, and doctor, that can collect a hundred pounds, are not all of
them at the work? And do they talk openly of the matter? Does the bishop
put it into his charge, or the parson into his sermon?'
'But they would not be ashamed to tell their friends.'
'Would not they? Oh! the Rev. Mr. Pickabit, of St. Judas Without, would
not be ashamed to tell his bishop! But the long and the short of the
thing is this; most men circumstanced as you are have no chance of doing
anything good till they are forty or fifty, and then their energies are
worn out. You have had tact enough to push yourself up early, and yet it
seems you have not pluck enough to take the goods the gods provide you.'
'The gods!--you mean the devils rather,' said Alaric, who sat listening
and drinking, almost unconsciously, his doctored tipple.
'Call them what you will for me. Fortune has generally been esteemed
a goddess, but misfortune a very devil. But, Tudor, you don't know the
world. Here is a chance in your way. Of course that keg of brandy who
went out just now understands very well who you are. He wants to be
civil to me, and he thinks it wise to be civil to you also. He has a
hat full of these shares, and he tells me that, knowing my weakness, and
presuming that you have the same, he bought a few extra this morning,
thinking we might like them. Now, I have no hesitation in saying there
is not a single man whom the Government could send down here, from Sir
Gregory downwards, who could refuse the chance.'
'I am quite sure that Neverbend----'
'Oh! for Heaven's sake don't choke me with Neverbend; the fools are
fools, and will be so; they are used for their folly. I speak of men
with brains. How do you think that such men as Hardlines, Vigil, and Mr.
Estimate have got up in the world? Would they be where they are now, had
they been contented with their salaries?'
'They had private fortunes.'
'Very private they must have been--I never heard of them. No; what
fortunes they have they made. Two of them are in Parliament, and the
other has a Government situation of £2,000 a year, with little or
nothing to do. But they began life early, and never lost a chance.'
'It is quite clear that that blackguard who was here just now thinks
that he can influence my opinion by inducing me to have an interest in
the matter.'
'He had no such idea--nor have I. Do you think I would persuade you to
such villany? Do you think I do not know you too well? Of course the
possession of these shares can have no possible effect on your report,
and is not expected to have any. But when men like you and me become of
any note in the world, others, such as Manylodes, like to know that we
are embarked in the same speculation with themselves. Why are members
of Parliament asked to be directors, and vice-governors, and presidents,
and guardians, of all the joint-stock societies that are now set agoing?
Not because of their capital, for they generally have none; not for
their votes, because one vote can be but of little use in any emergency.
It is because the names of men of note are worth money. Men of note
understand this, and enjoy the fat of the land accordingly. I want to
see you among the number.'
'Twas thus the devil pleaded for the soul of Alaric Tudor; and, alas!
he did not plead in vain. Let him but have a fair hearing, and he seldom
does. 'Tis in this way that the truth of that awful mystery, the fall of
man, comes home to us; that we cannot hear the devil plead, and resist
the charm of his eloquence. To listen is to be lost. 'Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil!' Let that petition come forth from
a man's heart, a true and earnest prayer, and he will be so led that he
shall not hear the charmer, let him charm ever so wisely.
'Twas but a thin veil that the Hon. Undecimus Scott threw over the
bait with which he fished for the honesty of Alaric Tudor, and yet
it sufficed. One would say that a young man, fortified with such
aspirations as those which glowed in Alaric's breast, should have stood
a longer siege; should have been able to look with clearer eyesight on
the landmarks which divide honour from dishonour, integrity from fraud,
and truth from falsehood. But he had never prayed to be delivered from
evil. His desire had rather been that he might be led into temptation.
He had never so prayed--yet had he daily said his prayers at fitting
intervals. On every returning Sunday had he gone through, with all the
fitting forms, the ordinary worship of a Christian. Nor had he done this
as a hypocrite. With due attention and a full belief he had weekly knelt
at God's temple, and given, if not his mind, at least his heart, to
the service of his church. But the inner truth of the prayer which he
repeated so often had not come home to him. Alas! how many of us from
week to week call ourselves worms and dust and miserable sinners,
describe ourselves as chaff for the winds, grass for the burning,
stubble for the plough, as dirt and filth fit only to be trodden under
foot, and yet in all our doings before the world cannot bring home to
ourselves the conviction that we require other guidance than our own!
Alaric Tudor had sighed for permission to go forth among worldlings and
there fight the world's battle. Power, station, rank, wealth, all the
good things which men earn by tact, diligence, and fortune combined, and
which were so far from him at his outset in life, became daily more dear
to his heart. And now his honourable friend twitted him with being a
mere clerk! No, he was not, never had been, never would be such. Had he
not already, in five or six short years, distanced his competitors, and
made himself the favourite and friend of men infinitely above him in
station? Was he not now here in Tavistock on a mission which proved that
he was no mere clerk? Was not the fact of his drinking bishop in the
familiar society of a lord's son, and an ex-M.P., a proof of it?
It would be calumny on him to say that he had allowed Scott to make him
tipsy on this occasion. He was far from being tipsy; but yet the mixture
which he had been drinking had told upon his brain.
'But, Undy,' said he--he had never before called his honourable friend
by his Christian name--'but, Undy, if I take these shares, where am I to
get the money to pay for them?
'The chances are you may part with them before you leave Tavistock. If
so, you will not have to pay for them. You will only have to pocket the
difference.'
'Or pay the loss.'
'Or pay the loss. But there's no chance of that. I'll guarantee you
against that.'
'But I shan't like to sell them. I shan't choose to be trafficking
in shares. Buying a few as an investment may, perhaps, be a different
thing.'
'Oh, Alaric, Alaric, to what a pass had your conscience come, when it
could be so silenced!'
'Well, I suppose you can raise a couple of hundred--£205 will cover the
whole thing, commission and all; but, mind, I don't advise you to keep
them long--I shall take two months' dividends, and then sell.'
'Two hundred and five pounds,' said Tudor, to whom the sum seemed
anything but trifling; 'and when must it be paid?'
'Well, I can give Manylodes a cheque for the whole, dated this day
week. You'll be back in town before that. We must allow him £5 for the
accommodation. I suppose you can pay the money in at my banker's by that
day?'
Alaric had some portion of the amount himself, and he knew that Norman
had money by him; he felt also a half-drunken conviction that if Norman
failed him, Captain Cuttwater would not let him want such a sum; and so
he said that he could, and the bargain was completed.
As he went downstairs whistling with an affected ease, and a gaiety
which, he by no means felt, Undy Scott leant back in his chair,
and began to speculate whether his new purchase was worth the
purchase-money. 'He's a sharp fellow; certainly, in some things, and may
do well yet; but he's uncommonly green. That, however, will wear off.
I should not be surprised if he told Neverbend the whole transaction
before this time to-morrow.' And then Mr. Scott finished his cigar and
went to bed.
When Alaric entered the sitting-room at the Bedford, he found Neverbend
still seated at a table covered with official books and huge bundles of
official papers. An enormous report was open before him, from which he
was culling the latent sweets, and extracting them with a pencil. He
glowered at Alaric with a severe suspicious eye, which seemed to accuse
him at once of the deed which he had done.
'You are very late,' said Neverbend, 'but I have not been sorry to be
alone. I believe I have been able to embody in a rough draft the various
points which we have hitherto discussed. I have just been five hours
and a half at it;' and Fidus looked at his watch; 'five hours and forty
minutes. To-morrow, perhaps, that is, if you are not going to your
friend again, you'll not object to make a fair copy----'
'Copy!' shouted Alaric, in whose brain the open air had not diminished
the effect of the bishop, and who remembered, with all the energy of pot
valour, that he was not a mere clerk; 'copy--bother; I'm going to bed,
old fellow; and I advise you to do the same.'
And then, taking up a candlestick and stumbling somewhat awkwardly
against a chair, Tudor went off to his room, waiting no further reply
from his colleague.
Mr. Neverbend slowly put up his papers and followed him. 'He is
decidedly the worse for drink--decidedly so,' said he to himself, as he
pulled off his clothes. 'What a disgrace to the Woods and Works--what a
disgrace!'
And he resolved in his mind that he would be very early at the pit's
mouth. He would not be kept from his duty while a dissipated colleague
collected his senses by the aid of soda-water.