CONCERNING A LITTLE REHEARSAL IN CAPTAIN CLUFFE'S, LODGING, AND A
CERTAIN CONFIDENCE BETWEEN DR. STURK AND MR. DANGERFIELD.
Mrs. Sturk, though very quiet, was an active little body, with a gentle,
anxious face. She was up and about very early, and ran down to the
King's House, to ask Mrs. Colonel Stafford, who was very kind to her,
and a patroness of Sturk's, to execute a little commission for her in
Dublin, as she understood she was going into town that day, and the
doctor's horse had gone lame, and was in the hands of the farrier. So
the good lady undertook it, and offered a seat in her carriage to Dr.
Sturk, should his business call him to town. The carriage would be at
the door at half-past eleven.
And as she trotted home--for her Barney's breakfast-hour was drawing
nigh--whom should she encounter upon the road, just outside the town,
but their grim spectacled benefactor, Dangerfield, accompanied by, and
talking in his usual short way to Nutter, the arch enemy, who, to say
truth, looked confoundedly black and she heard the silver spectacles
say, ''Tis, you understand, my own thoughts _only_ I speak, Mr. Nutter.'
The fright and the shock of seeing Nutter so near her, made her
salutation a little awkward; and she had, besides, an instinctive
consciousness that they were talking about the terrible affair of
yesterday. Dangerfield, on meeting her, bid Nutter good-morning
suddenly, and turned about with Mrs. Sturk, who had to slacken her pace
a little, for the potent agent chose to walk rather slowly.
'A fine morning after all the rain, Madam. How well the hills look,' and
he pointed across the Liffey with his cane; 'and the view down the
river,' and he turned about, pointing towards Inchicore.
I believe he wanted to see how far Nutter was behind them. He was
walking in the opposite direction, looking down on the kerb-stones of
the footpath, and touching them with his cane, as if counting them as he
proceeded. Dangerfield nodded, and his spectacles in the morning sun
seemed to flash two sudden gleams of lightning after him.
'I've been giving Nutter a bit of my mind, Madam, about that procedure
of his. He's very angry with me, but a great deal more so with your
husband, who has my sympathies with him; and I think I'm safe in saying
he's likely soon to have an offer of employment under my Lord
Castlemallard, if it suits him.
And he walked on, and talked of other things in short sentences, and
parted with Mrs. Sturk with a grim brief kindness at the door, and so
walked with his wiry step away towards the Brass Castle, where his
breakfast awaited him, and he disappeared round the corner of Martin's
Row.
'And which way was he going when you met him and that--that _Nutter_?'
demanded Sturk, who was talking in high excitement, and not being able
to find an epithet worthy of Nutter, made it up by his emphasis and his
scowl. She told him.
'H'm! then, he can't have got my note yet!'
She looked at him in a way that plainly said, 'what note?' but Sturk
said no more, and he had trained her to govern her curiosity.
As Dangerfield passed Captain Cluffe's lodgings, he heard the gay tinkle
of a guitar, and an amorous duet, not altogether untunefully sung to
that accompaniment; and he beheld little Lieutenant Puddock's back, with
a broad scarlet and gold ribbon across it, supporting the instrument on
which he was industriously thrumming, at the window, while Cluffe, who
was emitting a high note, with all the tenderness he could throw into
his robust countenance, and one of those involuntary distortions which
in amateurs will sometimes accompany a vocal effort, caught the eye of
the cynical wayfarer, and stopped short with a disconcerted little cough
and a shake of his chops, and a grim, rather red nod, and 'Good-morning,
Mr. Dangerfield.' Puddock also saluted, still thrumming a low chord or
two as he did so, for he was not ashamed, like his stout playmate, and
saw nothing incongruous in their early minstrelsy.
The fact is, these gallant officers were rehearsing a pretty little
entertainment they designed for the ladies at Belmont. It was a
serenade, in short, and they had been compelled to postpone it in
consequence of the broken weather; and though both gentlemen were, of
course, romantically devoted to their respective objects, yet there were
no two officers in his Majesty's service more bent upon making love with
a due regard to health and comfort than our friends Cluffe and Puddock.
Puddock, indeed, was disposed to conduct it in the true masquerading
spirit, leaving the ladies to guess at the authors of that concord of
sweet sounds with which the amorous air of night was to quiver round the
walls and groves of Belmont; and Cluffe, externally acquiescing, had yet
made up his mind, if a decent opportunity presented, to be detected and
made prisoner, and that the honest troubadours should sup on a hot
broil, and sip some of the absent general's curious Madeira at the feet
of their respective mistresses, with all the advantage which a situation
so romantic and so private would offer.
So 'tinkle, tinkle, twang, twang, THRUM!' went the industrious and
accomplished Puddock's guitar; and the voices of the enamoured swains
kept tolerable tune and time; and Puddock would say, 'Don't you think,
Captain Cluffe, 'twould perhapth go better if we weren't to try that
shake upon A. Do let's try the last two barth without it;' and 'I'm
thorry to trouble you, but jutht wonth more, if you pleathe--
'"But hard ith the chathe my thad heart mutht purthue,
While Daphne, thweet Daphne, thtill flieth from my view."'
Puddock, indeed, had strict notions about rehearsing, and, on occasions
like this, assumed managerial airs, and in a very courteous way took the
absolute command of Captain Cluffe, who sang till he was purple, and his
belts and braces cracked again, not venturing to mutiny, though he
grumbled a little aside.
So when Dangerfield passed Cluffe's lodging again, returning on his way
into Chapelizod, the songsters were at it still. And he smiled his
pleasant smile once more, and nodded at poor old Cluffe, who this time
was very seriously put out, and flushed up quite fiercely, and said,
almost in a mutiny--
'Hang it, Puddock, I believe you'd keep a fellow singing ballads over
the street all day. Didn't you see that cursed fellow, Dangerfield,
sneering at us--curse him--I suppose he never heard a gentleman sing
before; and, by Jove, Puddock, you know you do make a fellow go over the
same thing so often it's enough to make a dog laugh.'
A minute after Dangerfield had mounted Sturk's door-steps, and asked to
see the doctor. He was ushered up stairs and into that back drawing-room
which we know so well. Sturk rose as he entered.
'Your most obedient, Mr. Dangerfield,' said the doctor, with an anxious
bow.
'Good-morning, Sir,' said Dangerfield. 'I've got your note, and am here
in consequence; what can I do?'
Sturk glanced at the door, to see it was shut, and then said--
'Mr. Dangerfield, I've recollected a--_something_.'
'You _have_? ho! Well, my good Sir?'
'You, I know, were acquainted with--with _Charles Archer_?'
Sturk looked for a moment on the spectacles, and then dropped his eyes.
'Charles Archer,' answered Dangerfield promptly, 'yes, to be sure. But,
Charles, you know, got into trouble, and 'tis not an acquaintance you or
I can boast of; and, in fact, we must not mention him; and I have long
ceased to know anything of him.'
'But, I've just remembered his address; and there's something about his
private history which I very well know, and which gives me a claim upon
his kind feeling, and he's now in a position to do me a material
service; and there's no man living, Mr. Dangerfield, has so powerful an
influence with him as yourself. Will you use it in my behalf, and
attach me to you by lasting gratitude?'
Sturk looked straight at Dangerfield; and Dangerfield looked at him,
quizzically, perhaps a little ashamed, in return; after a short pause--
'I _will_,' said Dangerfield, with a sprightly decision. '_But_, you
know, Charles is not a fellow to be trifled with--hey? and we must not
mention his name--you understand--or hint where he lives, or anything
about him, in short.'
'That's plain,' answered Sturk.
'You're going into town, Mrs. Sturk tells me, in Mrs. Strafford's
carriage. Well, when you return this evening, put down in writing what
you think Charles can do for you, and I'll take care he considers it.'
'I thank you, Sir,' said Sturk, solemnly.
'And hark ye, you'd better go about your business in town--do you
see--just as usual; 'twill excite enquiry if you don't; so you must in
this and other things proceed exactly as I direct you,' said
Dangerfield.
'Exactly, Sir, depend on't,' answered Sturk.
'Good-day,' said Dangerfield.
'Adieu,' said the doctor; and they shook hands, gravely.
On the lobby Dangerfield encountered Mrs. Sturk, and had a few pleasant
words with her, patting the bull-heads of the children, and went down
stairs smiling and nodding; and Mrs. Sturk popped quietly into the
study, and found her husband leaning on the chimney piece, and swabbing
his face with his handkerchief--strangely pale--and looking, as the good
lady afterwards said, for all the world as if he had seen a ghost.