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 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
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 SEP 119B8 
 
 
 I 
 
 L u-. Jfc .
 
 THE APOTHEOSIS 
 
 OF 
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 BY 
 
 E. LIVINGSTON PRESCOTT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 1896
 
 Copyright, 1895, by HARPER & BROTHERS. 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PACK 
 
 I. A MAN OF SIN I 
 
 II. HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND II 
 
 III. A SORT OF ISHMAEL 21 
 
 IV. A STRANGE INSPIRATION 31 
 
 V. THE PLEASURES OF RESPECTABILITY . .> . . 41 
 
 vi. THE DOCTOR'S ADMONITION 53 
 
 VII. THE HAWK IN THE DOVE'S NEST 62 
 
 VIII. A RANK IMPOSTOR 72 
 
 IX. AN UNPLEASANT EXODUS 82 
 
 X. ADRIFT 93 
 
 XI. SONG OF THE SIRENS IOI 
 
 XII. IT WAS THE BODY OF A MAN 112 
 
 xiii. "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC" 121 
 
 XIV. "I INTEND TO DISAPPEAR" 139 
 
 XV. THE FIRST PLUNGE 146 
 
 xvi. MR. TYRAWLEY'S MENTOR 158 
 
 xvii. "THE COVE TO SOAP 'EM DOWN" .... 169 
 
 XVIII. THE HERO OF A STREET FIGHT 187 
 
 XIX. A BUSINESS BANQUET 193 
 
 XX. HUNTED DOWN 2O7 
 
 XXI. THAT LITTLE VIPER 2ig 
 
 XXII. NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 232 
 
 20463S3
 
 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 A MAN OF SIN 
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY was down on his luck. He 
 wore beautiful clothes; he was peculiarly hand- 
 some, having a pure Greek profile, deep blue 
 eyes, which expressed sentiments at present 
 unknown to their possessor, a heavy chestnut 
 mustache and chestnut hair, whose hyacinthine 
 waves conventional cropping could not alto- 
 gether efface; the figure of an athlete of six 
 feet, and the complexion of a delicate girl. 
 But all these advantages had so far failed to 
 assure to their owner any prospect of dinner, 
 and his breakfast had been slight. So he was 
 depressed, bit his mustache in the absence 
 of any thing else to bite, and envied a stout 
 artisan who sat eating hot beefsteak-pudding 
 out of a yellow basin, just brought him by 
 his wife, and flinging bits of bread to the sea- 
 gulls flying round. 
 
 The place was the pier at Claretown, on a 
 stormy, sunny, breezy day; the hour 12.30, the 
 season autumn. There was the usual crowd of
 
 2 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 promenaders on the esplanade and pier; and a 
 very few benighted individuals, leaving the gay 
 throng, had descended among the timbers at the 
 lower end of the ladder, with lines and bait, and 
 an impression that they could catch fish. 
 
 Now, Mr. Tyrawley had outlived all illusions; 
 therefore, when he descended among these 
 dreamers, it was only that he might escape at 
 once from the beefsteak-pudding and his own 
 large circle of unprofitable acquaintances. 
 
 He leaned in an ill-tempered way against a 
 great black beam and smoked; for people will 
 give you tobacco who will not ask you to dinner; 
 and tobacco deadens one sort of sickness, if it 
 causes another. Near him sat a small boy in 
 sailor costume of a fancy and aristocratic char- 
 acter, dangling a pair of short, blue silk legs, 
 and a line big enough to catch a dolphin, 
 toward the swirling green water, and absently 
 munching a bun, which Tyrawley felt to be 
 aggravating. He noticed with languid curiosity 
 that the small boy's sister was fishing too, but in 
 a half-hearted, feminine way, her eyes strained 
 to the distant horizon, where the black purple 
 clouds were drifting up, or to the deep brown 
 fringe of seaweed sweeping down on the timbers. 
 He was not much interested in girls; his ac- 
 quaintance with women, though vast, was super- 
 ficial, and confined chiefly to married ladies 
 dowagers for choice as more worth cultivation. 
 So he only casually remarked that her eyes were
 
 A MAN OF SIN 3 
 
 dark and large, and her cheek of that warm pale- 
 ness on which red-rose crimson easily flashes and 
 fades; that she had a stream of fair hair, not 
 unlike seaweed, with which the wind played wild 
 tricks; and that she would be pretty some day. 
 
 Suddenly something happened it was the 
 abrupt and unintentional descent of the small 
 boy into the water, bun, line, and all; and this 
 incident was immediately followed by a further 
 development, namely, a flying of female skirts 
 into the green, bubbling whirlpool he had 
 created. 
 
 "By Jove! little fool," said Mr. Tyrawley 
 between his clenched teeth. " I think I'll go 
 too; " and he swung himself over the edge with 
 a cool and wary calculation of exactly where to 
 drop. 
 
 The girl was actually trying to swim, though 
 the water kept dashing her rather alarmingly 
 against the beams, but she saw Tyrawley's inten- 
 tion, and managed to gasp: 
 
 "Not me Bertie." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley peevishly changed his course, 
 secured the sailor, who appeared little at home 
 in his native element, and chucked him into the 
 arms of a lad who had been fishing near; while 
 he snatched up, just in time, a limp, white figure 
 that was drifting under the pier, and managed, 
 with the help of excited spectators, to scramble 
 up the slippery steps on to the safe ground. 
 
 '-'Give me the young lady, sir," said the pro-
 
 4 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 prietor of the beefsteak-pudding. " You don't 
 look over grand yourself." 
 
 But Mr. Tyrawley had a feeling that he was 
 much more likely to collapse without his slight 
 burden than with it. So he shook his head and 
 climbed the upper stairs. 
 
 Here he was greeted by a frantic, flushed, 
 sobbing, laughing woman in velvet and furs, who 
 announced herself "Her mother," and embraced 
 him and her child alternately. 
 
 He put her gently aside, and, laying the girl 
 down on a couch of shawls which had been 
 hastily provided, put his hand on her heart. As 
 he did so, and felt a feeble flutter, like a dying 
 bird's wing, her large dark eyes opened languidly, 
 and fixed on his a look of childish awe and grati- 
 tude. It was a look that a sinking soul might 
 cast on a rescuing angel, and it went to the 
 marrow of Mr. Tyrawley's bones, and had the 
 effect of making him feel more than usually 
 unangelic. So he said, in a voice of studied 
 coolness, still rather panting from his immersion: 
 
 "She's all right, but you had better get her 
 home. Let one of these beggars run for a fly." 
 
 He could not remove his hat, because the sea 
 had saved him that trouble. He bowed his hand- 
 some head, with that graceful and distinguished 
 courtesy which caused the colonel of the local 
 volunteers to say that Tyrawley was the finest 
 gentleman, as well as the biggest rascal, going; 
 and, turning away, pushed through the crowd,
 
 A MAN OF SIN 5 
 
 who were admiring his valor and pitying his wet- 
 ness. But a man, deputed by the girl's mother, 
 rushed after him and caught him by the arm. 
 
 "I say, Mrs. St. Just that's the mother of the 
 young lady you saved wants your card, that she 
 may write and thank you." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley murmured something like an 
 oath, as the admiring crowd swarmed round him 
 afresh, but even in that trying moment habitual 
 prudence triumphed, and he extricated a soppy 
 piece of pasteboard from a damp pocket-book, 
 and once more shaking off his admirers, pro- 
 ceeded on his way with a rapid though not very 
 assured step. 
 
 The spectacle of a gentleman in fashionable 
 morning costume, bareheaded, ajnd dripping like 
 a sea-god, being unusual even in Claretown, 
 which is accustomed to eccentricities, Mr. Tyraw- 
 ley had some difficulty in eluding public esteem, 
 but eventually, getting rid of the last small boy 
 by a scowl of peculiar atrocity, he made his way 
 through back- and by-streets, ever upward, till 
 he attained a small and desolate terrace, the very 
 ragged fringe of the meanest suburb of Clare- 
 town, where the wind, sweeping from the downs, 
 cut like a knife, and the autumn mists lay low 
 and chill a terrace whose immediate outlook 
 was a patch of turnips and a brickfield. 
 
 Stopping at No. 17 (at Nos. 18, 19, 20 the 
 builder had lost heart, and left them to moulder 
 unconcluded), Mr. Tyrawley applied a latch-key
 
 6 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 and entered a very narrow, oil-clothed passage, 
 where he was confronted by his landlady a short, 
 pale, middle-aged woman in black, with a figure 
 like a packing-case, and a pair of strange, vision- 
 ary gray eyes. She emerged, however, from her 
 vision sufficiently to glance from her drenched 
 lodger to the stair-carpet which looked as if any 
 sort of water would have benefited it and re- 
 marked that he was wet. 
 
 "Yes, Mrs. Higson," he replied. " The sea 
 is wet, and I have been there." 
 
 " 'The wicked,'" said Mrs. Higson, " 'flee when 
 no man pursueth.'" 
 
 "In this case," said he, "the wicked was 
 pursuing, not fleeing. I went after a young 
 lady." 
 
 She shut her lips with a short nod, condemna- 
 tory but acquiescent. 
 
 "Poor thing !" 
 
 " Oh, it was for her good," said he. " Unless 
 you consider it a good thing to be drowned." 
 
 " That," she replied, "depends on the person, 
 and their state." 
 
 " For a man of sin like me, I suppose, it would 
 be very bad, as hastening the inevitable." 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Tyrawley." 
 
 "But how about your respected husband, 
 Mrs. Higson, who has been, to my knowledge, 
 drunk for two nights, and yet is a Little Elijah?" 
 
 "Mr. Higson," said she with decision, "is 
 selected ; therefore, he is all right."
 
 A MAN OF SIN 
 
 "Our choice selected, three a penny," mur- 
 mured the lodger, whose teeth were beginning to 
 chatter with cold. " Now, my dear woman, even 
 men of sin catch cold. Let me go upstairs, will 
 you ? " 
 
 "If you don't mind," said she, "going into 
 the back-kitchen, I'll bring you a change there. 
 Salt water spoils the carpets." 
 
 Even the boldest scoffer, with a consciousness 
 of unpaid rent, shrinks from the wrath of his 
 landlady. Tyrawley went meekly to the dank 
 and stony little retreat prescribed, and there 
 made a shivering toilet, and looked thereafter so 
 blue and pinched that Mrs. Higson, with a touch 
 of human feeling, invited him to come and warm 
 himself by the kitchen fire, while she hung his 
 drenched clothes at a prudent distance from it, 
 and he looked ruefully on. 
 
 "Awful nuisance!" said he. "Bother saving 
 one's fellow-creatures ! " 
 
 Then he thought of the little fluttering pulse 
 under his hand, and the big, dark blue eyes, 
 which looked such adoring reverence on his most 
 unworthy self, and his heart smote him, and he 
 added: 
 
 " But she was only a child, and probably, Mrs. 
 Higson, not selected." 
 
 "Most likely not," said Mrs. Higson, spread- 
 ing his coat on the back of a chair; "the Little 
 Latter End Elijahs are few and feeble as yet." 
 
 "Mr. Higson," murmured the incorrigible
 
 8 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Tyrawley, "is certainly the latter; but I gather 
 that, if you are a Little Latter End Elijah, you 
 may excuse a worldly proverb jump over gates 
 of sobriety, and so on, without any unpleasant 
 results; whereas, if you're not, you must not 
 even look through them." 
 
 "Just so," she replied composedly. "But I 
 ought to tell you, Mr. Tyrawley, that that shirt 
 I have just brought you is the only one you 
 now have that is not ragged, and the man called 
 to-day for the money for new-soling your boots 
 which you promised him last week, and " 
 
 Poor Tyrawley writhed a little at this piece of 
 feminine retaliation. 
 
 "All right. I know," he said peevishly. 
 " Now I'm dry enough for that carpet, I think 
 I'll go upstairs. My ducking, or something, has 
 given me a racking headache." 
 
 He rose, but the landlady's back being turned 
 for a moment, his eye it was the eye of the 
 falcon or the fox, or any creature that lives by 
 preying on its fellows, soft and languid as it 
 appeared perceived something twisted round a 
 button of the wet coat. It was two or three 
 long, fair hairs, so fine that only such an eye 
 could have detected them. 
 
 What part of this reprobate's schemes was it 
 that necessitated the rapid and secret seizure of 
 that sentimental memento by those long, taper 
 fingers of gentlemanly whiteness and predatory 
 flexibility ?
 
 A MAN OF SIN 9 
 
 When he was alone upstairs, he wound his prize 
 round his finger, placed it in an envelope, append- 
 ing the date methodically, and put it away in the 
 secret drawer of a much-battered Russia leather 
 writing-case; having done which, he flung him- 
 self back in a low chair, as luxurious as could be 
 expected for four shillings and sixpence a week, 
 and laughed a bitter, silent laugh ; then took a 
 hard pull at his pipe, and, after a restless turn or 
 two in his narrow den, went down stairs again 
 and out. 
 
 " Mr. Tyrawley," said Mrs. Higson, hearing 
 his step, and perhaps smitten with womanly re- 
 morse, to which even the Little Latter End 
 Elijahs, albeit a self-justifying sect, are not alto- 
 gether impervious, "you've got a little tea left 
 in the cupboard, and I have water on the boil. 
 Won't you have a cup before you go out ? " 
 
 " No, thanks. One advantage being half 
 drowned has, in common with the complete proc- 
 ess, is that you don't want any thing to eat or 
 drink afterward. And the exchequer is low, 
 Mrs. Higson; I'm going out to fill it." 
 
 She watched him from the kitchen window as 
 he lounged down the street. 
 
 "And what you do to fill it," she said, "passes 
 me. And as to how you got half-drowned it may 
 be true, or it may not. If you're like Saul, 
 higher by the head and shoulders in stature than 
 most, it strikes me you're uncommonly like him 
 in being lower than most in your principles."
 
 10 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 It is a just retribution on a scoundrel that 
 when, by chance, he does a good thing, peculiarly 
 bad designs are sure to be attributed to him, just 
 as a good man who makes a slip is usually for- 
 given on the score of previous good character. 
 It is only in the eighteenth chapter of the Book 
 of the Prophet Ezekiel, and similar pages, that 
 the way of judging is "equal."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND 
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY'S destination was a certain 
 public-house and billiard-room in the nasty part 
 of Claretown. He entered the bar, imbibed the 
 very cheapest form of liquid refreshment with 
 an unconcealed grimace, and, nodding his head 
 toward the first floor, enquired : 
 
 " Any one up there ? " 
 
 The landlord grinned, as landlords do grin at 
 the discomfiture of customers whose taste for 
 liquor is limited. "Nobody," said he. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley mounted the dingy stair with a 
 slow and disgusted step. Further discomfiture 
 met him in the person of a strange marker, for 
 with the last one he had had a friendly under- 
 standing. 
 
 "Oh, new face," said he, coolly looking the 
 marker over. "Where's the other fellow, then ? " 
 
 "Sloped, sir, with some cash. They're after 
 him, I believe." 
 
 " Poor devil ! " said Mr. Tyrawley thought- 
 fully, as he slowly removed his coat, selected a 
 cue, and chalked it. 
 
 The new marker stood watching him as he
 
 12 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 knocked about the balls, making some brilliant 
 strokes and missing others. - Presently the man 
 turned his back to rub a cloth over the dusty 
 window, and then Mr. Tyrawley began to play 
 with more purpose, finally settling down to 
 patient practice of a difficult cannon. 
 
 As he stood up for a moment to rest, he caught 
 the marker's eye fixed keenly upon him. They 
 looked hard at each other for a moment. The 
 faintest ghost of a smile stole across the man's 
 countenance, but Tyrawley remained quite un- 
 moved. 
 
 "Play on this table pretty often, I reckon; 
 don't you, sir?" said the man very civilly. 
 
 " Pretty often," said Tyrawley. " Why ? " 
 
 "Seem to know it, that's all." 
 
 Their eyes met again. The marker strolled to 
 the window, whistling under his breath, and Mr. 
 Tyrawley stroked his mustache and deliberated. 
 He played a little more, and then began to put 
 on his coat The marker came obsequiously to 
 help him, during which operation Tyrawley re- 
 marked casually: 
 
 " D'ye know, that last man was really a good 
 fellow. I often come here, and I always remem- 
 bered him" a slight pause "when I was in 
 funds. Thanks." 
 
 " Thank you, sir." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley departed, viewed not without 
 admiration by the marker. 
 
 "You're a cool hand, and no mistake," he
 
 HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND 13 
 
 muttered. "A real toff, got into trouble and 
 cast off by your friends, I expect. Play a pretty 
 game, too oh, a pretty, pretty game." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley now made his way to his Club in 
 the more fashionable part of Claretown. It was 
 not the Club he was wont to laugh and say that 
 the company there was too expensive for a 
 beggar but it was sufficiently fashionable, and 
 more than sufficiently fast. Careful fathers 
 objected to their sons becoming members, and 
 mothers deprecated it as a haunt of detrimentals, 
 and Mr. Tyrawley was one of the best-known 
 figures there. There were hawks for company, 
 and pigeons to be plucked in a strictly gentle- 
 manly manner. Tyrawley was a popular man 
 because he was always languidly amiable and 
 humorous, however low his exchequer. 
 
 On his way there he stopped at a small baker's 
 shop, where stale rolls at a halfpenny tempted 
 the hungry, and, after plumbing his pocket, 
 bought one and ate it, leaning against the 
 counter, to the puzzled admiration of the woman 
 in charge. 
 
 The last crust was between that delicate, 
 predatory finger and thumb, when a stray street 
 dog pattered in and looked up ^whimpering in his 
 face. 
 
 "Are you hungry, old chap ?" said Tyrawley. 
 
 The dog replied that he was, rather, which he 
 meant in a slang sense. So Tyrawley flipped the 
 morsel to him, and left the shop. The wind
 
 14 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 seemed a shade less bitter, and the memory 
 of the beefsteak-pudding less intrusive, after 
 that. 
 
 As soon as he entered the Club, young Poyntz 
 (Poyntz & Co., Bacon Merchants) challenged 
 him to a game of billiards. Poyntz was an 
 obnoxious sandy-haired youngster, plump as his 
 sire's pigs, whose boast was that he could make 
 himself at home anywhere, and whose manners 
 and customs aggravated the calmest tempers. 
 
 But a fox must eat a crow if he cannot procure 
 a pheasant; so Tyrawley smiled resignation, 
 which Poyntz interpreted as rapture, and they 
 took off their coats and played, presenting as 
 striking a contrast as a thoroughbred plater and 
 a useful mule. 
 
 But the spectators, who knew Tyrawley's 
 form, there were a good many men in the room, 
 for the afternoon was wettish, began to open 
 their eyes as the latter missed stroke after stroke, 
 and only saved the game through the fatuous 
 idiocy of Poyntz's play. 
 
 " Have another game, dear boy," said the 
 latter. " Nearly had you, eh ? About equal, I 
 think; " and he poked Tyrawley in the side with 
 his cue with elegant facetiousness. 
 
 Every one was surprised when the latter hesi- 
 tated a little. Perhaps Poyntz poked too hard, 
 or perhaps a ducking in the sea and a halfpenny 
 roll are not the best preparations for cool and 
 scientific play.
 
 HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND 15 
 
 " Come, I say, give a man his revenge," urged 
 Poyntz. 
 
 The lookers-on chuckled as he rushed on his 
 doom; and Tyrawley, taking up his cue with a 
 slight effort, drawled : 
 
 "All right." 
 
 He played a stroke or two, failed. in the simplest 
 of cannons, laughed faintly, and dropped on one 
 of the red leather settees. 
 
 " Wait a minute, young man," he said. " I've 
 got a stitch in my side indigestion or something." 
 
 " Been lunching ? " suggested somebody. 
 
 "Just so," said Tyrawley, with a sarcasm of 
 which his hearers were not aware. 
 
 Poyntz swelled out his chest, and remarked 
 that he was just getting into good form, and he 
 did not like to see fellows backing out of things. 
 
 " If Tyrawley doesn't murder that fellow, I 
 shall," said Waters, adjutant of the local volun- 
 teers. " He's really too much of a cad." 
 
 But to murder the goose, or gander, which 
 produces golden eggs is not the habit of gentle- 
 men of Mr. Tyrawley's profession, so he said 
 with meekness: 
 
 "I'll go on presently, old man," and held his 
 side hard. 
 
 Here, however, a man, who had been standing 
 in the background, taking in the scene with pro- 
 fessional keenness, intervened. He was a sport- 
 ing doctor, named MacAdam. 
 
 "No, you won't," he said, seating himself on
 
 l6 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 the settee, blighting Poyntz parenthetically with 
 a growl, " Shut up ! No, you won't," he re- 
 peated. 
 
 "Why?" enquired Tyrawley, with a weak 
 defiance. 
 
 "Because," said the doctor deliberately, 
 "you've got cold shivers, a touch of fever, and 
 unless I am much mistaken a threatening of 
 pleurisy. You'll go home to bed like a decent 
 chap, in a cab which I shall send for, and send 
 for your family physician. Here, Poyntz, hand 
 over what you owe, and we'll pack him off." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley's face lengthened. 
 
 " Sha'n't go," he said, writhing peevishly. "I 
 don't believe in physicians." 
 
 Then he looked up with a smile into Mac- 
 Adam's face, to take out the sting of his remark. 
 He was an amiable person, and would have loved 
 his kind-instead of preying on them, had circum- 
 stances permitted. Even a Bengal tiger, when 
 fully and regularly fed, has been known to be- 
 come sweet-tempered. 
 
 "I'm not joking," said MacAdam, as Poyntz 
 sulkily placed in his outstretched palm sundry 
 half-crowns, whose chink filled Mr. Tyrawley 
 with most unheroic satisfaction. 
 
 "Here you are, old man. Now, Joe," turning 
 to the marker, " order a cab, will you ? " 
 
 " No," said Tyrawley, with gasping decision, 
 getting on his feet. "I shall walk. The air will 
 do me good."
 
 HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND 17 
 
 "You can't, man," said MacAdam. "Air! 
 an east wind like a Pathan's knife. But," he 
 added, another aspect of the case striking him 
 as he observed Tyrawley's welcome of Poyntz's 
 half-crowns, "my trap's at the door, and I'm 
 going your way [which was a fiction], I'll drive 
 you, if you like." 
 
 Tyrawley would fain have refused. He had no 
 wish that anybody at the Club should become 
 acquainted with Alonzo Terrace and the ameni- 
 ties of his landlady. But he felt he couldn't walk, 
 and a fly was out of the question with the possible 
 expense of illness before him; so he murmured, 
 " Thanks," and subsided on the settee. 
 
 As MacAdam turned from the window to 
 announce that the trap would be round as soon 
 as the mare could be persuaded to trot on four 
 legs, instead of standing on two, a waiter brought 
 in a note to Tyrawley. It had a large blue 
 and red monogram, and was addressed in a wild 
 female hand. 
 
 "Messenger waits, please sir," said the waiter. 
 His eye was benignant as it rested on Tyrawley, 
 who never swore at him or chaffed him as the 
 eye of one who conveys good tidings. He knew 
 the look of a hungry man and the outward aspect 
 of an invitation to dinner. 
 
 It was, indeed, a fervid petition from " M. A. 
 
 St. Just" that he would come and dine with them 
 
 quietly that evening, to be thanked, "though he 
 
 could never be thanked enough," etc., etc., "and 
 
 2
 
 l8 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 if not that evening, would he name any evening, 
 and she was ever gratefully his." 
 
 A little note was enclosed, written in a school- 
 girl hand : 
 
 "DEAR MR. TYRAWLEY: 
 
 " Mother says I must write and thank you for 
 perilling your life to save Bertie's and mine; but 
 I can never, never do that properly. Only, if 
 there is ever any thing I can do to show you what 
 I feel about it, please let me know. 
 
 "I am, 
 "Your affectionate friend, 
 
 "NINA ST. JUST." 
 
 Now, Mr. Tyrawley had various interested 
 friends, and admiring friends, and had had even 
 impassioned friends; but he had never had an 
 affectionate friend. That adjective belongs to 
 home and tenderness, and other things with 
 which a polite adventurer has nothing to do; 
 and it went through him with a sense of sudden 
 need and yearning. 
 
 But a man with pleurisy hanging over him can- 
 not accept dinner invitations; so he disgustedly 
 asked for pen and paper, and wrote : 
 
 "DEAR MRS. ST. JUST: 
 
 "I am very sorry I cannot avail myself of 
 your kind invitation, as I am leaving Claretown 
 for a few days. On my return I shall hope to 
 do myself the pleasure of calling to see that your
 
 HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND 19 
 
 daughter and Master Bertie are none the worse 
 for their dip. Pray thank Miss St. Just for her 
 note. I am quite overwhelmed at her gratitude 
 for such a trifle. 
 
 "Yours sincerely, 
 
 "I. TYRAWLEY." 
 
 "Ready, my son?" said the doctor, who had 
 watched his rather faltering scrawl. 
 
 "Oh, yes! bother you thank you," said 
 Tyrawley, following the little short, stout doctor 
 down stairs. "A man ought never to be seedy 
 who has nobody to coddle him; he becomes such 
 a nuisance to himself and his chums." 
 
 "Where to, old man ?" said MacAdam, as the 
 mare executed her usual prologue. He had 
 lowered his voice. Tyrawley felt grateful. 
 
 " 17 Alonzo Terrace. It is beyond Down 
 Road, on the extreme edge of nowhere." 
 
 " All right," said the doctor cheerily. " Miss 
 Fireworks will have you there in no time; there's 
 nothing she adores like a long spin." 
 
 It was a long spin. Much conversation was 
 impossible, between the eccentricities of Fire- 
 works and the breathlessness of her passenger, 
 who sat with a very pale face, grasping his side 
 at every bound of the trap. Little MacAdam 
 tucked the rug round his legs once or twice, and, 
 as the mare at last slackened her pace, looked at 
 him with good-natured pity. 
 
 "Now, look here," he said, "you go straight
 
 20 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 to bed, and let somebody clap you on a big 
 mustard-plaster, and another after that till the 
 pain abates. Keep warm and quiet, and take 
 slops, and then you'll be all right. I'll come 
 round and see you to-morrow. What's amiss?" 
 
 " Mac Adam, I can't." 
 
 " Can't what ? Take slops ? You must, man, 
 or you'll be in a regular fever." 
 
 " Oh, I can take any thing I can get; but, 
 MacAdam, I'm not in a position " 
 
 "Oh, hang that! " said the doctor hastily. "I 
 come as a friend that's understood." 
 
 The helplessness of illness was upon Tyrawley, 
 and he could not fight, so he said faintly: 
 
 " Thanks, old man," and collapsed on the seat. 
 
 He got down with difficulty when Fireworks 
 permitted it, and was presently absorbed into 
 the dark passage of No. 17, and was coldly met 
 by the stony and reproachful glance of Mrs. Hig- 
 son, who foresaw much trouble and small profit. 
 
 "It seems," he said meekly, when, later on, 
 he was experiencing the tortures of an ill-made 
 and ill-applied mustard-plaster at her hands, 
 "almost a pity I wasn't drowned this morning, 
 Mrs. Higson, doesn't it ? We should both have 
 been spared this annoyance." 
 
 " Every thing is a mystery," she retorted tartly, 
 " including who's to pay for all you'll want while 
 you are ill." 
 
 Tyrawley bit his lip, and felt unequal to further 
 witticisms after this snub.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 A SORT OF ISHMAEL 
 
 MACADAM came next day, and found his patient 
 hollow-eyed and quiescent from pain, bound 
 hand and foot in the iron thrall of Mrs. Higson, 
 whose nursing was of a distinctly penal character. 
 
 She resented his faint jokes; and the insinuat- 
 ing gaze of those eloquent, deep-blue eyes, which 
 had wheedled so many middle-aged female hearts 
 out of their better judgment, merely aggravated 
 her. She would have preferred him to bewail 
 and even to blaspheme, as more in accordance 
 with his character; but want of pluck was not 
 among his sins, though Mrs. Higson, armed with 
 a raging mustard-plaster, might have appalled the 
 bravest. 
 
 So things went on for a day or two. Then 
 came a faint change for the better. Finally, one 
 bitter afternoon, MacAdam, coming in, found his 
 patient up, shivering over a very small cindery 
 fire, clad in an ancient silk dressing-gown, the 
 remnant of some day of extravagant sunshine. 
 
 It was a wretched little room, imperfectly 
 carpeted, curtainless, and visited from the turnip- 
 field by the four winds. The bed was unmade,
 
 22 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 the furniture undusted, and last night's basin of 
 gruel standing congealed on the mantelpiece. 
 
 The doctor made a face when he saw it. 
 "Hallo !" he said, "is this that woman's idea 
 of nourishment ? No wonder you look all eyes 
 and bones." 
 
 "Her one idea," said Tyrawley. "Oh," he 
 added fervently, "it's a mercy to be up! She 
 always puts every thing just out of my reach. I 
 believe she wanted to make me swear, that she 
 might institute unfavorable comparisons between 
 me and her husband, who is always drunk, and 
 in that state talks Scripture in a way that makes 
 even a reprobate like me sick." 
 
 "What are they?" said MacAdam, drawing 
 a chair to the fire, and poking it recklessly. 
 "Hardshell Baptists, Ranters what?" 
 
 "No, neither. They have a tea-caddy which 
 they call a chapel, in which nine persons, I think, 
 meet to discuss the faults of their neighbors, and 
 call themselves ' Little Elijahs,' because that 
 prophet was, I believe, a reformer. I had a 
 Baptist landlady once," said Tyrawley pen- 
 sively, "but she was a decent woman, though I 
 didn't treat her well; and I lived eight months 
 with Ranters, who were rea|ly awfully good folks. 
 The husband used to talk to me quite paternally 
 about my sins, and the wife made me puddings 
 which she could ill afford, having five olive- 
 branches, because, she said, I looked as if I 
 didn't get enough to eat,"
 
 A SORT OF ISHMAEL 23 
 
 "Did you?" said the doctor. "Excuse my 
 curiosity; it's professional." 
 
 "Well, perhaps I didn't; fellows like me alter- 
 nately fast and feast. But I was going to tell 
 you about my Methodist landlady. She was a 
 good soul. She nursed me through an attack 
 like this, and absolutely wept when I was in 
 danger. She and I actually ran the house 
 together for six weeks- after her husband had 
 died and left her with five small children." 
 
 "How was that?" said the doctor. He was 
 observing, unobserved, sundry small details of 
 his patient's condition. 
 
 " It was this way. She had an offer of work 
 at the house of some people she had been servant 
 to, I think, and could not leave the children, 
 although the eldest was a little mother of eleven. 
 So I looked after matters, under the little 
 mother's superintendence. I did, upon my 
 honor ! I sometimes even performed their toi- 
 lets, more or less incorrectly, and it was quite 
 an edifying spectacle to see me pack them off to 
 Sunday-school, and then go indoors and cook 
 the dinner." 
 
 "You must tell me some more another time," 
 said the doctor. "But now I want to tell you 
 something." 
 
 "Something unpleasant, I suppose," said 
 Tyrawley. " Fire away ! " and he looked him in 
 the eyes with a faint defiance. 
 
 "You need not get your temper up, old
 
 24 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 chap," said MacAdam. "It's no offence, but 
 rather a pity, as things are. Are you aware 
 that your lungs are slightly affected ? I don't 
 mean this present attack, but the trouble is of 
 some standing." 
 
 "Dangerous ? " asked the other quickly. 
 
 "No, not at present, but you'll have to look 
 after yourself, or it may become so." 
 
 Tyrawley looked rather forlorn. "That 
 means, I suppose," said he sulkily, "that I 
 shall eventually gravitate to the workhouse 
 ' Rattle his bones over the stones, a trouble- 
 some pauper whom nobody owns.' Eh ?" 
 
 "Oh, bosh! nonsense! Don't be an ass; 'tis 
 nothing like that," said the doctor hastily. 
 " Go abroad, if you can, for the winter." 
 
 "What would you think," enquired Tyrawley, 
 "of a two-hundred-guinea steam yacht and a 
 villa in the Riviera ?" 
 
 MacAdam grunted. 
 
 "Seriously," continued Tyrawley, "I know 
 I'm a bit touched in the wind, in consequence of 
 hardships I underwent in my interesting infancy." 
 
 "Parents died young?" 
 
 "My mother," replied Tyrawley, "was so 
 disgusted, poor thing, at the first sight she had 
 of me, that she left the world immediately I 
 entered it, having furnished me with an appro- 
 priate name. What do you think it was ? " 
 
 " Isaac, or Ishmael ? " said the doctor. " I've 
 noticed you've signed an 'I.''
 
 A SORT OF ISHMAEL 25 
 
 "Infelix. There was a cheerful welcome for 
 a youngster; but, inasmuch as nobody in partic- 
 ular ever called me by my Christian name, it 
 does not matter. Well, I was carted about from 
 lodging to lodging by my father, who was an 
 airy rover, and experienced some startling transi- 
 tions from being set on a dinner-table in blue 
 velvet raiment to sing music-hall songs, to 
 cleaning knives and boots in a back kitchen, as 
 some equivalent for my board." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 "Then, at the ripe age of seven, I was sent 
 to a cheap school, where I improved myself con- 
 siderably in the art of pitch-and-toss, in which 
 I had already attained some proficiency at street 
 corners." 
 
 "Oh," said MacAdam dryly, "you begun it 
 then, did you ?" 
 
 "Yes," said Tyrawley coolly, "I begun it 
 then. There was nothing else to do; I'd no 
 pocket-money." 
 
 There was a slight pause. The two men 
 looked hard at one another. 
 
 "Well," said the doctor, "I've always said I 
 admired your play never saw any thing that 
 wasn't perfectly fair and square." 
 
 " You never did." 
 
 MacAdam turned his gaze on the fire and 
 whistled. "Go on," he presently said, " though, 
 'pon my soul! I don't know why you tell me all 
 this; it's no business of mine."
 
 26 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "A dog," said Tyrawley, "that has been 
 much kicked seldom forgets any kind hand 
 that has patted him. That's why, old man." 
 He laid his white, thin fingers on MacAdam's 
 knee. 
 
 "Oh, bother stow that! What else on earth 
 could a man do ? But continue you stopped at 
 the cheap school " 
 
 "Where my schooling was paid for by an 
 uncle, who was a bigoted Catholic, and an 
 uncommonly sharp business man. When I was 
 fourteen he gave me two alternatives one, to 
 turn Catholic, and errand-boy in his office; the 
 other, two years' more schooling at a better 
 school, and then to be cast adrift. I chose the 
 latter. On leaving school I got a clerkship, and 
 might have drudged my way up, I think, if my 
 sire had not been seized with a sudden fit of 
 paternal yearning, or struck with my possible 
 usefulness; for I was, I am told, a very picture 
 of youth and innocence. He took me out with 
 him to his haunts every night." 
 
 "What was his profession?" asked Mac- 
 Adam. 
 
 "My own," said Tyrawley, with a shrug. 
 "But," he added impartially, "I think he was 
 a shade worse than I am. However, after mak- 
 ing my youthful ideas shoot most luxuriantly, 
 there was one day a most awful smash." He 
 paused and looked gloomily into the embers. 
 " I lost my clerkship and very nearly my
 
 A SORT OF ISHMAEL 27 
 
 character, and in future I resolved to go to the 
 dogs my own way. Shortly after, my father 
 married a West Indian widow, who endowed 
 him with fifty thousand pounds on the condition 
 that he should part with that young villain his 
 son. I needn't say he sacrificed me at once, and 
 since then " 
 
 Tyrawley raised his eyebrows and shrugged 
 his shoulders expressively. 
 
 " You have looked after yourself ? " said Mac- 
 Adam. 
 
 "With more or less success, for sixteen 
 years." 
 
 " You don't seem to have any chums ? " 
 
 "No; I'm a sort of Ishmael, under the surface. 
 Fellows like Jack Lark I can't stand. He and his 
 set would be friendly enough with me, but some- 
 how I can't stick them, though I know it's 
 absurd; and, of course, I know well enough 
 the best men at the Club would fight shy of me 
 as a friend. Of course, in your profession, 
 old man, it doesn't matter what sort of queer 
 characters you pick up with. Well, there's 
 my interesting narrative. This," said Mr. 
 Tyrawley, looking round, "supplies the moral." 
 
 Dr. MacAdam was sorry for the reckless 
 sinner, who looked so ill, and coughed so hard, 
 but he could offer no improving comments. He 
 was too conscious of the need of improvement 
 in himself. 
 
 "Mean to do this always?" he enquired,
 
 28 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 after a short silence, during which Tyrawley 
 coughed. 
 
 "I suppose so, till I end in the hospital, or 
 make a hole in the water, or get hurt in a 
 drunken row, or something." 
 
 " But you don't drink ? " said the doctor 
 quickly. 
 
 " No, and I swear very little, and I don't go in 
 for other things much, unless I get wild, once in 
 a way. Oh, it's a wretched business all through ! " 
 
 "Come, you mustn't get down in the mouth, 
 or you'll interfere with your convalescence." 
 
 "Don't want to convalesce," said the other, 
 leaning his head on his hand, "except for one 
 reason, which Mrs. Higson would very distinctly 
 explain to you." 
 
 " You look at things in that way because you're 
 weak; you'll be as jolly as ever in a day or two." 
 
 "Oh, yes! jolly enough," replied Tyrawley 
 sarcastically. "But I say," he added, with some 
 earnestness, and a momentary glance toward his 
 writing-case, where reposed in safety a little 
 note, signed "Your affectionate friend," "how 
 soon shall I be able to go out and make a call or 
 two ? " 
 
 "I should think in about a week," said Mac- 
 Adam "if you don't die of that hag's gruel 
 meanwhile. I'll speak to her." 
 
 " No, don't, pray. It's bad enough as it is, and 
 I can eat any thing that comes to hand now." 
 
 "All right," said MacAdam. "I'll look in
 
 A SORT OF ISHMAEL 29 
 
 again in a day or two, and my old housekeeper, 
 who is a genius at kickshaws, shall bring you 
 something round," 
 
 "No, no!" said Tyrawley; but the doctor 
 merely said "Bosh ! " and departed. 
 
 The week passed, and three days tacked on to 
 it, in consequence, MacAdam said, of " want of 
 rallying power," then Mr. Tyrawley found him- 
 self, one cold and sunny afternoon, knocking at 
 the door of one of the biggest houses in the 
 biggest square in Claretown. 
 
 "People evidently well off," he said inwardly, 
 as a white-waistcoated and solemn butler admit- 
 ted him. " Good for dinners and lunches, 
 but scarcely worth that confounded attack of 
 pleurisy." 
 
 He was pretending very hard that he was act- 
 ing on an entirely sordid motive, for he well 
 knew that a man of prey has no right to emo- 
 tions. Nevertheless, no eighteen-year-old victim 
 of calf-love ever felt a more sickening pang of 
 disappointment than did this polite impostor 
 when, being ushered into the big drawing-room, 
 he found Mrs. St. Just alone. She .overwhelmed 
 him with renewed thanks, assured him tt^at he 
 was looking frightfully ill, and deplored it as the 
 result of his " heroism " (all in a breath). An 
 "h" or two escaped her in the process, but 
 there were signs of some refinement, as well as 
 unlimited wealth, about the room, and he began 
 to persuade himself for your thoroughbred
 
 30 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 blackguard has a character to keep up as well as 
 the righteous that he had known what he was 
 doing all along. 
 
 Mrs. St. Just was, he gathered, a widow with 
 two children, to whom she was devoted. He 
 also learned that her husband was of "high 
 family," the " very image of my Nina, whom you 
 so nobly," etc., etc., and that she herself had 
 if it takes three generations to make a lady 
 scarcely attained the second stage. Allusions to 
 " my butler," " my carriage," to her daughter as 
 "Miss St. Just," and to a relative of whom she 
 appeared to stand in awe as "My dear man's 
 nephew," strengthened this impression. But 
 Tyrawley welcomed it as being rather in favor of 
 future intimacy. 
 
 Mrs. St. Just evidently did not connaitre > son 
 monde. He had the manners of society, with a 
 shade of soft deference superadded, and " Such 
 charmin' looks, my child, and his voice is as 
 sweet as a bell. But he's coming to dinner to- 
 morrow, and you'll see for yourself." 
 
 "I remember, mother," said the tall, fair- 
 haired Nina, in a low voice, while her large eyes 
 saw once more that dazzle of whirling green 
 water among the black piers, and the face that 
 stooped over her, and seemed to give her her 
 young life back.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 A STRANGE INSPIRATION 
 
 AFTER that call Mr. Tyrawley paused on the 
 parade, looked at the sea, and took thought, as a 
 result of which he proceeded to the billiard-room 
 at the Club, cast a thoughtful glance around, and 
 finally in dulcet accents invited Poyntz to have 
 his revenge, which that blatant youth accepting, 
 they presently played. 
 
 It was a sad, yet a lovely sight, to see how 
 gently Tyrawley conducted the victim to his 
 doom, as if, like Isaac Walton's angler putting a 
 worm on a fish-hook, he loved him. 
 
 Soothed by judicious flattery, and stimulated 
 by faintly veiled sarcasm, Poyntz played and 
 played; won, and lost, and lost, and lost. Men 
 stood round, admiring, though one or two ele- 
 vated their eyebrows at the unequal strife. If 
 they and Poyntz had known how loud the heart 
 whose will impelled that white, skilful hand was 
 thumping, how anxiously hope and fear strove 
 under that cool exterior, they would have been 
 beyond measure astonished. 
 
 When at last Poyntz sulkily announced that he 
 had had enough, his antagonist, declining other
 
 32 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 invitations, went smilingly away; but as he 
 threaded a maze of back streets, he remarked to 
 that inner self which receives so many confes- 
 sions of weakness, " If that little beggar had only 
 known what an awful funk I was in all the 
 time ! " 
 
 Then he entered a small corner shop, and gave 
 back, to an accommodating friend a square paste- 
 board ticket, supplemented with the spoils of 
 Poyntz; receiving in return, with a light heart, 
 the dress-clothes which were meant to open the 
 doors of Cupola Square to him the next evening. 
 That evening was like a wild dream to Tyrawley, 
 in retrospect, though it began very quietly; a 
 piece out of somebody else's life not his own. 
 
 He arrived cool, polished, perfectly got up, as 
 if he had not had a three miles' walk from the 
 bleak heights of Alonzo Terrace. He found his 
 hostess rather overdressed; Master Bertie, who 
 dined late in his honor; Nina, a grave, shy, beau- 
 tiful statue in soft, sheeny gray; and a harmless 
 married couple, prepared by the St. Justs to view 
 him as the lion of the evening. 
 
 He, of course, took his hostess down, but he 
 sat between her and Nina, and managed, with 
 that swiftness of eye which belonged at once to 
 his ordinary pursuits and his present condition of 
 mind, while he talked to the one, to look at the 
 other, collecting as much material as possible for 
 his own after discomfort. That delicate yet 
 decided profile, the young, proud curves of the
 
 A STRANGE INSPIRATION 33 
 
 crimson lip, the fine paleness of the changing 
 cheek, on which the velvet bloom of childhood 
 still lingered; even the plaits of fair satin hair 
 circling the small, stately head were not visions 
 conducive to philosophical endurance of Mrs. 
 Higson and Poyntz. 
 
 When he learned accidentally that she was but 
 sixteen, and understood thereby the wide, inno- 
 cent gaze of her large dark eyes, it did not make 
 things any better. However, he showed no out- 
 ward sign his apprenticeship to the world had 
 been too severe for that; he talked to her a little 
 in a half paternal, half chivalrous way he had 
 found that this method of addressing their daugh- 
 ters went down well with desirable mothers and 
 he joked Bertie about the big fish that had nearly 
 drowned three people; and generally interested 
 himself politely in all that was said by every- 
 body and this is a valuable habit. 
 
 Dinner was over; the gentlemen rejoined the 
 ladies; the hands of the blue Sevres clock on the 
 mantelpiece went round, and Tyrawley began to 
 breathe bitter inward congratulations that he had 
 not made a fool of himself but he was a little too 
 soon. 
 
 Mrs. St. Just proposed music. " Did Mr. 
 Tyrawley sing ? " He did, and he would, without 
 pressing; he was quite aware that he had a par- 
 ticularly sweet tenor voice, and he felt a fierce 
 desire to do something that he could do well and 
 yet honestly, like other men. So he sang one or 
 3
 
 34 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 two songs, Italian and English, and a little reck- 
 less German love-song he had picked up some- 
 where, and felt as if the tension were a little 
 relieved. 
 
 Then Mrs. St. Just summoned her daughter to 
 the piano. "My child," she said, " never will 
 sing any thing but such grave songs. It doesn't 
 seem natural for a young girl, though I must own 
 nothing comes up to them. Sing that Bible 
 thing, dear, you were singing last night." 
 
 So Nina, looking straight before her, sang, 
 with that simplicity which is in itself the utmost 
 pathos, and more pathetic still in combination 
 with such words of complex sorrow, ''He was 
 despised and rejected of men." 
 
 Tyrawley said a mechanical " Thank you," and 
 as mechanically asked for another. He showed 
 no feeling, but the storm was wild enough within. 
 Of course, he took the words to himself people 
 always do in supreme moments and so made 
 them poison instead of healing. 
 
 The soft iteration, "Despised, despised, 
 rejected," seemed like a finger incessantly touch- 
 ing a wound; he could have groaned and cursed. 
 The fine, gentlemanly Tyrawley, who could talk 
 intellectually on every subject, was really so 
 ignorant a heathen that he did not apprehend the 
 true meaning of the words; but he was so afraid 
 of himself under this new aspect that he was 
 about to take his leave when Mrs. St. Just ex- 
 claimed :
 
 A STRANGE INSPIRATION 35 
 
 " Oh! before you go you must see these hardy 
 orchids my gardener has sent from my country 
 house. Nina, child, take him into the con- 
 servatory." 
 
 He followed the slight gray figure into the 
 soft, scented half-light, and looked almost in 
 silence at the strange blooms, which mock insect 
 and reptile. He did not know whether it was 
 Paradise or Hades. They were standing be- 
 neath a softly burning lamp. The tempest 
 within had made him white to his very lips, and 
 his heart beat pitiably. The girl, looking up 
 from where she was kneeling to inspect a purple 
 gloxinia, saw it and started; the hidden fervor of 
 her nature, still but intense, rushed into her dark 
 eyes, her voice melted unconsciously into child- 
 like tenderness, as she said: 
 
 "Oh, how pale you look ! You are ill." 
 
 "It's nothing," said he, speaking fast, as men 
 do to keep themselves under. " I've been a little 
 ill a touch of pleurisy that's all." 
 
 She gazed into his face. "Pleurisy? People 
 get that from catching cold. You got it in sav- 
 ing me and Bertie. Oh, Mr. Tyrawley ! " and 
 then he felt, light as a butterfly's wing, the touch 
 of two warm young lips on his hand as it rested 
 on the staging. 
 
 He took it away, he wrung it in the other, he 
 cried in a stifled voice, "Oh, my God ! dorit ! 
 You don't know what I am." 
 
 And she, rising to her feet, stood, forgetting
 
 36 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 to blush, forgetting herself, in this sudden 
 glimpse of an agony she could not comprehend. 
 He might have said or done something mad, but 
 the habit of years conquered. 
 
 "You honor me too much," he said, with a 
 return to that half-paternal manner which had 
 been such a success hitherto. Then, as he saw 
 her lip quiver, her eyes fill, her cheek crimson, 
 passion conquered policy once more; he knelt on 
 the stone floor, and pressed his lips to the dusty 
 outer hem of her gray dress with a muttered, 
 "This is my place, only too near." 
 
 Then he rose rather unsteadily he was still 
 weak. There was a strange darkness round his 
 eyes, and his lips were white, as he said, with 
 tender coldness: 
 
 " Now, forgive me my momentary aberration, 
 and forget all this. Let us go and tell Mrs. St. 
 Just we have seen the orchids, and then I'll say 
 good-night." 
 
 He stood aside to allow her to precede him. 
 That wild and humble caress had somehow been 
 balm to the smart of the sudden wave of shame 
 which had swept over her; and then he looked 
 physically so unfit for further strain that she 
 could not but second him. So she drew up her 
 head and walked quietly into the drawing-room, 
 where Mrs. St. Just only remarked, as Mr. 
 Tyrawley made his adieux, that he looked fright- 
 fully ill, and ought to go home to bed. 
 
 He loathed the idea of Alonzo Terrace and its
 
 A STRANGE INSPIRATION 37 
 
 associations so much that, when he was clear of 
 Cupola Square, he went and stood dreamily on 
 the parade, and looked across the waste of toss- 
 ing waters, solemnly restless in the moonlight. 
 His mind was like that tossing sea: in the new 
 light that had risen upon him he was like two 
 men, and they fought fiercely; though no one 
 would have guessed it from that statuesque 
 countenance and figure, motionless save for the 
 slow stroking of his mustache. 
 
 A voice behind him suddenly remarked with 
 emphasis : 
 
 " You're a fool a confounded fool ! " 
 
 It was MacAdam, come to blow off the effects 
 of club whiskey and whist. 
 
 " I quite agree. I am a fool, and also am con- 
 founded, but I wasn't aware that I looked it." 
 
 "You do," said the doctor didactically. 
 "Come, let's be moving," he added, putting his 
 arm into Tyrawley's. "A man is a fool who, 
 after a sharp attack of pleurisy, stands star- 
 gazing in a summer greatcoat. I'll walk a bit of 
 the way home with you, you lunatic." 
 
 " Thanks, do. I wasn't star-gazing either, 
 rather the reverse. I was wondering," said he, 
 looking straight into MacAdam's little keen gray 
 eyes, " if I were to jump off the pier, whether a 
 natural but idiotic instinct of self-preservation 
 would make me strike out, or whether reason 
 would triumph, and make me keep my arms close 
 to my sides, and go down in a decent manner."
 
 38 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "Oh, reason!" snorted the doctor. "But I 
 can tell you that you'd struggle like any thing." 
 
 " For what ? " said Tyrawley. 
 
 ''Your life, man." 
 
 Tyrawley whistled softly. 
 
 "What's amiss?" said MacAdam. "Dinner 
 disagreed with you, luck bad what ? " 
 
 "Both; but neither in the way you mean. 
 I've some thoughts," he said deliberately, "of 
 going and getting ineffably drunk; only the 
 worst of it is, I don't know the precise effect. It 
 might be temporary oblivion " 
 
 "Or," interrupted MacAdam, "it might be 
 the police-station don't be an ass. I ask you 
 again, what's amiss ? " 
 
 "Oh, every thing, I think," said Tyrawley, a 
 little wildly; "and I wish," he added peevishly, 
 "you wouldn't take me up like this, MacAdam. 
 Nobody ever did before." 
 
 " I have odd fancies sometimes," returned he 
 composedly. "Suppose you tell me the case? 
 and I'll give you a professional opinion in strict 
 confidence." 
 
 Tyrawley looked on the ground, and was silent 
 for some time as they walked on; then he 
 said, in an altered and less reckless tone the 
 most real perhaps MacAdam had ever heard 
 him use: 
 
 " Perhaps I will, some time, if you don't change 
 your mind." 
 
 "Come up to my diggings to-morrow," said
 
 A STRANGE INSPIRATION 39 
 
 the doctor, "and dine with me. My sister is 
 going out to tea and scandal." 
 
 Tyrawley hesitated. 
 
 "Don't do it in the warmth of your heart," 
 said he, " after the Club whiskey, and say to- 
 morrow morning, ' Hang that rascal! I wish I 
 hadn't asked him.' ' 
 
 "Oh, I sha'n't do that! Besides, whiskey 
 doesn't affect me. Now here's your turning. 
 Shoot home, there's a sensible chap, and leave 
 drunks and drownings alone for to-night." 
 
 They shook hands and parted. 
 
 "Poor beggar! " thought Mac Adam, turning 
 to look after him, "seems miserable enough. 
 Nobody would ever think he had this sort of 
 thing in him, to see him among the fellows at the 
 Club. I wonder what has stirred it up to-night ? " 
 
 When he announced to his sister, an elderly 
 spinster of rigid views, who was his guest for 
 next day's dinner, she opened her eyes and pursed 
 up her mouth disapprovingly. 
 
 "But isn't that person a regular gambler, a 
 sort of impostor?" she enquired. "Dear Mrs. 
 Gascoigne told me he had won ever so much of 
 her boy Nathaniel's money at that Club of yours." 
 
 "There you go, you women ! " he was rather 
 vexed with himself for the interest he could not 
 help feeling in the questionable Tyrawley. " Old 
 Mother Gascoigne is a gossip, and her sweet Nat 
 as arrant a young rip as ever handled a cue; it 
 will teach him to respect his elders if he is bled a
 
 4O THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 little. But that's the way; when a chap's down 
 in the world nobody will ever let him get up. 
 Tyrawley is a publican and a sinner, I grant you; 
 but there are Pharisees as well," and he walked 
 off in a huff, not, however, without hearing Miss 
 Mac Adam's parting observation: 
 
 "Apparently the man is clever enough to take 
 you in."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE PLEASURES OF RESPECTABILITY 
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY turned up at the doctor's next 
 evening, looking rather fagged, half diffident, 
 half defiant in manner. 
 
 He had slept but little the night before, and 
 had spent the morning in hanging about Cupola 
 Square, to see if he could catch a glimpse of Mrs. 
 St. Just or her daughter, to remove or confirm a 
 deep misgiving which had risen in his mind as he 
 stared at the gray dawn. He thought it but too 
 probable that Nina St. Just would, on thinking 
 his outbreak over, cut him, as the best way of 
 escaping an awkward memory. However, he 
 was lucky enough to meet her eye as a member 
 of one of those regiments of fair equestrians for 
 which Claretown is famous she turned the 
 corner into the parade. It was only one look, 
 and rather a timid one; but there was a touch of 
 pity, and even of anxiety, in it, which, by some 
 strange alchemy of the affections, confirmed 
 certain half-formed resolutions. The idea of 
 Tyrawley making resolutions would have been 
 too utter a joke a week ago, even to himself, but 
 it took place all the same.
 
 42 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Still he rather shrank from his interview with 
 MacAdam. When you have never opened your 
 mind to any body for sixteen years, the hinges 
 have got stiff; and the two men talked on ordi- 
 nary topics, till a dinner, which Miss MacAdam 
 pronounced far too good for " that adventurer," 
 but which the doctor had positively insisted on, 
 had been discussed, and they were sitting in the 
 latter's smoking-room, with a blazing fire within, 
 and a howling wind without; both circumstances, 
 I think, favorable to confidence. 
 
 " Now," said MacAdam, breaking the silence, 
 " have another cigar, and let us hear what the 
 case is." 
 
 Tyrawley stroked his mustache with a nervous 
 hand, and looked rather haggardly into the fire. 
 
 "Well, it is not exactly a case. It's your 
 opinion I want." 
 
 "You mayn't like it," said the doctor, " when 
 you get it." 
 
 " Very likely not, but it can't make things 
 look any blacker than they do. Well, this is it. 
 Can a man who was born to go on the wrong 
 side of the post bred and trained to go on the 
 wrong side, and has always taken a pride in 
 going on the wrong side have any hope at all of 
 ever going straight ? " 
 
 He held his breath when he had asked the 
 question, and looked a trifle wistful as MacAdam 
 replied, with the sententiousness of his country: 
 
 " It would depend on the man, and his age."
 
 THE PLEASURES OF RESPECTABILITY 43 
 
 "The man," ,said Tyrawley doggedly, "is 
 habitually more or less of a swindler and a vaga- 
 bond. He has come one or two muckers so 
 tremendous that he runs the risk of being 
 kicked out of all decent company, if they were 
 known." 
 
 " Muckers of what sort ? " enquired Mac Adam' 
 judicially. 
 
 "Monetary transactions," said the other, in a 
 tone in which shame and defiance were oddly 
 blended. "It may, however, be said for him 
 that he never got drunk from choice, and is con- 
 stitutionally averse to any thing but mild and in- 
 terested flirtations with dowagers." 
 
 " Funny, if true." 
 
 "It is true; the man in this respect is better 
 than some much better fellows. He has lived 
 thirty-three years under more or less general 
 censure, and his name is Tyrawley, as you prob- 
 ably guess." 
 
 " I did," said the doctor, and there was a some- 
 what prolonged silence. 
 
 "Is there," said Tyrawley at last, rather 
 huskily, " the ghost of a chance ? " 
 
 The doctor fidgeted uneasily. "Oh, my dear 
 chap," said he, "why on earth should you ask 
 me?" 
 
 "Because I have only a formal acquaintance 
 with any but individuals of my own species, ex- 
 cept you." 
 
 " Well," sajd the doctor presently, "I'm not
 
 44 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 much of a judge of morals, God knows; but I 
 had a good mother, and I'll speak according to 
 my light, I promise you, old man," he added, 
 laying his little pudgy hand kindly on the other's 
 knee. "What's the meaning of this sudden 
 convulsion ? You always seemed so jolly." 
 
 Here a wonderful thing occurred. Mr. 
 Tyrawley blushed actually blushed; a faint red 
 spot touched the cheek which sickness had left 
 hollow, and a faint sigh escaped him. 
 
 "Oh, "said the doctor, "you needn't tell me 
 any more; it's not a dowager this time. Well, I 
 won't ask any questions. I'll give you that 
 opinion instead. It is possible, but awfully 
 hard. Facilis descensus Averni but the ascent 
 is steep, and every now and then somebody will 
 give you a push down again." 
 
 " Of course, I'm prepared for that." 
 
 " Yes," continued the doctor, " the law of con- 
 sequences is rigid enough. If you've never 
 worked in addition to the internal difficulty, 
 which is considerable you'll find, when you try 
 it, that, if you work harder than others, they'll 
 say it's for show; and if you go the ordinary 
 pace, you're lazy. Then if you have an honest 
 love, or even friendship, they will say you have 
 an object to gain. You mustn't be too pleasant, 
 or they'll call you a humbug; and if you speak 
 straight, they'll say it's uncommon cheek. If 
 you think you can face it, and if the motive is 
 sufficient, it's all right; but if not, I shouldn't
 
 THE PLEASURES OF RESPECTABILITY 45 
 
 begin. A false start takes the courage out of 
 the best horse." 
 
 " I think," said Tyrawley, "I have no motive, 
 but something has happened which has made 
 what I am doing now perfectly intolerable." 
 
 The doctor studied him as he leaned his chin 
 on his open palms. Tyrawley stared into the 
 fire. 
 
 "More spirit than stamina, physically," he 
 thought. " Poor chap ! I'm afraid he'll make a 
 bad fist of it ; he has no more idea of what he's 
 in for than Fireworks, if I were to put her in a 
 brick-cart. Must keep my patient's heart up, 
 however." So he said, quite gently, "Well, I'll 
 quote to you a saying of my mother's, who is in 
 heaven, if any body ever went there. She used 
 to tell me that there were two phrases which 
 would carry a man through any difficulty " 
 
 Tyrawley looked at him with the mute, teach- 
 able enquiry of a child, which touched the little 
 doctor. 
 
 "And those were," he continued seriously, 
 "'I will God help me.' She said one was no 
 good without the other." 
 
 Tyrawley opened his lips to speak once or 
 twice, but no sound came. At last he put his 
 head down on his hands, and whispered, rather 
 than spoke, with a long pause between the two 
 phrases, " I will God help me ! " 
 
 That gentle Presbyterian lady little thought 
 how the simple words spoken to her small, flaxen-
 
 46 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 headed son, in a Highland manse, would make 
 anchorage years after for a sinking soul. 
 
 "Amen," said little MacAdam solemnly; and 
 it seemed to him that for a second he saw his 
 dead mother's face again. "Now," said he 
 cheerily, after a moment, " what is the first step 
 on this straight road ? " 
 
 " I've been thinking that over," said the other. 
 "Work is, of course, the thing. Clerking, I 
 suppose; but who would take a man at my age, 
 and without a character? I can't very well be 
 a laborer, and I'm too old to learn a trade. 
 There's only one opening I can see at present. 
 I think I could be a billiard-marker. I can play, 
 as Poyntz knows ; address and appearance good, 
 as advertisements say; and lots of fellows I know 
 would give me a reference for that'' 
 
 "Not a bad idea for a start; but stop a bit. 
 What sort of hand do you write ? I forget." 
 
 Tyrawley took out pocket-book and pencil, 
 scribbled a few lines, and handed them over. 
 
 "Come, that's fine. I think, as it happens, I 
 can get you a job for a week or so. There's a 
 brother medico of mine, a learned professor, who 
 is writing a book, and wants it copied by some- 
 body with two grains of sense, who knows the 
 difference between psychical and physical." 
 
 "MacAdam," said the other falteringly, "I 
 don't know what to say to you except 'thanks.' 
 But if there were more men like you, there would 
 be fewer blackguards like me."
 
 THE PLEASURES OF RESPECTABILITY 47 
 
 " Oh, you weren't meant for a blackguard ! 
 We shall see you county magistrate, or some- 
 thing yet." 
 
 " From the dock to the bench eh ! " said 
 Tyrawley, with the ghost of a smile, " I believe 
 if I go straight I shall actually disappoint my 
 worthy landlady, who has made up her mind I'm 
 a ' vessel of wrath. ' ' 
 
 " I should show up at the Club, if I were you," 
 said Mac Adam, "and go about as usual. You 
 can do your work early in the day ; and I don't 
 think I should try marker till every thing else 
 failed. This friend of mine might recommend 
 you on." 
 
 "Well, if I go to the Club, I needn't play 
 duffers like Poyntz any more needn't play at 
 all, in fact, for I can't afford to lose." 
 
 "Play whist at penny points ; science comes 
 out there. Now, if you like, I'll take you round 
 and introduce you to my brother-sawbones 
 straight away." 
 
 A few days later MacAdam was smitten with 
 curiosity to see how Tyrawley worked in harness; 
 so he took Fireworks a spin up the parade to 
 Greytown, which is on the sea-front, but at the 
 extreme end of Claretown proper. Here the 
 streets are wide and windy, the houses good, but 
 gray and chilly, trees there are none, and pas- 
 sengers are few; it is intensely respectable and 
 hopelessly dull. MacAdam cast the reins to his 
 groom at the dullest house in the dullest square,
 
 48 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 and was presently confronted by a dingy maid, 
 who admitted him with a reluctant proviso that 
 Dr. Grenfell would be in in a minute. 
 
 "I say," said MacAdam, " there's a gentleman, 
 a friend of mine, doing some work for Dr. Grenfell 
 here ; I'll go and talk to him meanwhile." 
 
 He was accordingly shown into a dismal study 
 at the back of the house, whose outlook was a 
 strip of pebbly garden, decorated with a few 
 stunted marigolds. The walls were covered with 
 bookcases, the furniture generally with pamphlets 
 and papers ; shelves held sundry strange and 
 grisly preparations, the fire was dead in the grate, 
 and the atmosphere distinctly chilly. Tyrawley, 
 seated at a table to catch the last light of the 
 autumn evening, was writing, with all the pains- 
 taking accuracy of a new hand. 
 
 He started up, looking cold and stupefied when 
 MacAdam, leaning over his shoulder, said: 
 
 "Hallo, old man ' pthisis ' that's not the 
 way to spell ' phthisis ' ! He took the pen from 
 the other's hand and altered the word. 
 
 " No, I suppose not. I'm always making mis- 
 takes ; but I'm rather cold, and I get thick- 
 headed when I've been at it a long time." 
 
 " I dare say; can't shake down to it all at once. 
 There's a difference between this and playing 
 billiards at the Club and knocking about the 
 parade." 
 
 "I should think there was," said Tyrawley, 
 getting up and stretching himself.
 
 THE PLEASURES OF RESPECTABILITY 49 
 
 "Oh, Mac Adam," he added earnestly, lay- 
 ing his hand on the little man's shoulder, " you 
 don't know the pleasures of respectability ! " 
 
 " Thank you for the compliment," said the 
 doctor, with a dry chuckle. 
 
 "Bosh ! I mean for a beggar like me, who 
 has never earned an honest penny. I assure 
 you, when the professor handed over the first 
 few shillings I could have worshipped it like a 
 fetich." 
 
 " More fool you. And I don't understand, 
 because I know you've been flush enough some- 
 times thanks to Poyntz & Co." 
 
 " That's just like it. Robbing children and 
 idiots ! But that half-sovereign was fair pay 
 for fair work." 
 
 " How many hours a day," said the doctor, 
 " may I ask you, do you work in this well of a 
 place ? " 
 
 "About seven; but pray don't say any thing 
 to Grenfell," in alarm, "or he will think I have 
 been growling, and shunt me." 
 
 He had seen MacAdam's elevated eyebrows. 
 
 "H'm, ten shillings for forty-two hours not 
 twopence-halfpenny an hour. The British work- 
 ing-man would turn up his nose to the skies; but 
 old Grenfell always was a stingy customer. Does 
 he give you a decent lunch ? " enquired the doc- 
 tor, casting his eyes suspiciously on a rather 
 unpromising-looking luncheon-tray. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! all right, when he doesn't forget it 
 4
 
 50 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 altogether in the pursuit of science," said Tyraw- 
 ley, with rather an awkward laugh. " I can see 
 he despises me awfully if I venture to hint at the 
 discomforts inseparable from matter, even when 
 mind is in question." 
 
 "Yes," said MacAdam ; "he's a chap with 
 one idea. Outside that, and a faint respect for 
 conventionalities, he is the most selfish beggar 
 that ever lived. Get on with him all right ? " 
 
 "Perfectly on the principle of the little 
 hymn, 'If I never speaks to him (except on his 
 'ology), He never speaks to me.' I say here 
 he comes." 
 
 And Tyrawley sat down in a hurry at his table, 
 while the doctor, amused at his unexpected dis- 
 play of simplicity, went to meet his friend. 
 
 Professor Otho Grenfell was bald, spectacled, 
 gray, and mouldy ; he looked fifty, and was 
 thirty-eight ; he was unclean as to his linen, and 
 fragments of unpleasant substances contracted 
 in his researches were apt to bestrew his gar- 
 ments. He looked dreamily at MacAdam, gave 
 him a pale nod and three fishy fingers, then 
 turned watchfully on his secretary. 
 
 "I hope, Mr. Tyrawley," he said, "you've 
 recopied those forty paragraphs. They were 
 quite illegible." 
 
 "Oh, he's been working like a nigger," said 
 the mendacious MacAdam. "Takes a deep 
 interest " with a faint emphasis on the noun 
 "in your discoveries. But, my dear fellow," he
 
 THE PLEASURES OF RESPECTABILITY 51 
 
 added, speaking in an undertone, and drawing 
 the professor to the further window, "you look 
 seedy been fagging too hard in this cold room. 
 Give that poor chap a chance, too ; he's got 
 lungs, and he's getting to look like a plant grown 
 in a cellar. You scientists forget you're doctors ; 
 but he is a patient of mine." 
 
 " Oh, he's well enough," returned the pro- 
 fessor snappishly. "Of course, I'm obliged to 
 you for recommending him ; but he is a very 
 slow writer, and misspells every technical word." 
 
 " I dare say, poor wretch," said MacAdam 
 " makes his head buzz, I expect, if it's all like 
 what I saw just now." 
 
 " Do you think it unintelligible?" said Gren- 
 fell, awakened to anxiety. " Do you think the 
 profession " 
 
 "Oh, they'll understand it," said MacAdam 
 disrespectfully, cutting him short. "By Jove !" 
 he added, rubbing his hands, and turning to the 
 empty fireplace, " it is cold. Have a fire, there's 
 a good chap, and let's have a cup of coffee all 
 round. Fireworks has nearly pulled my arms 
 off, and that poor beggar looks blue. Let him 
 off for ten minutes to get his circulation back, 
 and I'll tell you what I've got for you." 
 
 "Very well," responded the other ungra- 
 ciously ; but his eye brightened when MacAdam 
 enumerated sundry grisly objects connected 
 with his studies, and he became quite human and 
 conversible over the coffee, and even, in the
 
 52 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TVRAWLEY 
 
 warmth of his friendship, went with MacAdam to 
 the hall-door. 
 
 "I say," said the little doctor, buttonholing 
 him mysteriously, " if I were you, I should give 
 Tyrawley rather a bigger salary say fifteen 
 shillings or perhaps you'll lose his services; 
 somebody else might outbid you." 
 
 "It's quite enough," said the professor 
 warmly. "Any schoolboy, or a clerk in his 
 spare hours " 
 
 "Yes; but they would talk, and this fellow 
 won't he's a gentleman." 
 
 So Grenfell, who feared above all things that 
 his great work should be anticipated, ungraciously 
 made the proposed change, to the immense sur- 
 prise of his secretary. 
 
 Lest Mr. Tyrawley's contentment with his 
 new lot should appear unnatural, it may be re- 
 marked that a virgin soil is usually fertile, and 
 the department of honest labor in his char- 
 acter had been hitherto uncultivated. Your 
 adventurer often displays a childlike simplicity 
 when entirely outside his own business.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE DOCTOR'S ADMONITION 
 
 "I SAY, old fellow," said Tyrawley, meeting 
 MacAdam a few evenings later at the Club, "I 
 wonder if you'd do me a great favor another, 
 I mean." 
 
 He looked so sheepish that the doctor imme- 
 diately became suspicious. 
 
 "Want another berth? Chucked up quill- 
 driving?" 
 
 "Good gracious, no!" said Tyrawley. "On 
 the contrary, even the professor owns I'm get- 
 ting useful. No, old man, I want your opinion 
 about a horse I've been asked to choose for 
 a friend." 
 
 "I thought you knew all about gee-gees," said 
 MacAdam. "I can testify you know how to 
 ride them, anyhow." 
 
 "It's one of my large stock of useless accom- 
 plishments; but this is a much more important 
 business, though it is not a purchase, only a job. 
 It's not my neck that is in question, but a lady's." 
 
 "Fat, fair, and forty," said the doctor mali- 
 ciously. "You stated, I think, that mild, mid- 
 dle-aged flirtations were your line."
 
 54 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 The usually suave Tyrawley bit his lip and 
 looked rather black. "No," said he, with con- 
 straint, "rather the other way. A young lady, 
 almost a child." 
 
 Sincere emotions equalize character. The 
 polished cynic, inured to self-control, failed to 
 keep the tenderness out of his voice. Mac- 
 Adam was amused, yet sorry, for he foresaw 
 complications. 
 
 "It must be something quite safe," his friend 
 continued impressively, "with good manners, 
 and good-looking." 
 
 "People can pay, I suppose?" asked Mac- 
 Adam, looking at him keenly. Even he could 
 not expand to the idea of any sort of disinter- 
 ested affection in the breast of Mr. Tyrawley. 
 The latter perceived this, and replied rather 
 gloomily in the affirmative. But gratitude and 
 need alike prescribed meekness, and he pres- 
 ently added with considerable diffidence, and 
 a rather entreating glance into MacAdam's little 
 twinkling eyes: 
 
 "And if you'll let me, old man, I should like 
 to introduce you, that you may make your report 
 in person. They are nice people not the least 
 my sort and I've told them you are no end of 
 a judge, and and I should like them to know 
 I have one friend who isn't rowdy." 
 
 "Rather negative praise," laughed MacAdam. 
 "Do you want me to report on the man as well 
 as the horse ?"
 
 THE DOCTOR S ADMONITION 55 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley shook his head emphatically. 
 "It would be a case of unsound all round," 
 said he. "But," in extreme deprecation, "you 
 might, if you would, say a good word for a 
 fellow; nobody else will, if you don't." 
 
 MacAdam screwed up his lips in a whistle, 
 half dubious, half compassionate, but he did not 
 say no perhaps he was curious and an appoint- 
 ment was made for the morrow. 
 
 Tyrawley having got a holiday, the two men 
 inspected the usual array of broken knees, 
 broken wind, and queer tempers presented by 
 Claretown livery stables. At last, however, 
 a tolerably good-looking bay mare, with good 
 manners and decent forelegs, a little touched 
 in the wind (which was, MacAdam remarked, 
 rather a comfort than otherwise, as it accounted 
 for her being there), was selected, and it was 
 arranged that she should be sent round to 
 Cupola Square to be viewed. 
 
 " I'll send my man upon another horse, and 
 the lady can try the mare at once, if one of you 
 gentlemen can take her out," said the proprietor. 
 
 " You had better," said Tyrawley, rather 
 faintly. 
 
 "Not I," said MacAdam, "I'm not a lady's 
 man; besides, my dear chap, it wouldn't be 
 friendly in me to cut you out." 
 
 The other smiled mournfully, but made no 
 comment. 
 
 MacAdam soon made himself at home with
 
 56 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Mrs. St. Just, who afterward pronounced him 
 "a charming man." He looked covertly at 
 Nina and then at Tyrawley, both of whom had 
 particularly little to say, and was somewhat 
 puzzled. She was certainly pretty, but insipid 
 and young surely not sufficiently striking to 
 account for the embarrassment of the usually 
 fertile Tyrawley. 
 
 "If it were the money," reasoned the sage 
 physician, "the fellow would have his wits 
 more about him. If it's the other thing, poor 
 chap, he's a perfect lunatic to think any thing 
 can come of it." 
 
 The lunatic in question was of MacAdam's 
 opinion, but he had not strength of mind to 
 own it to himself. 
 
 Nina appeared in her riding-habit just as the 
 horses were brought round, and the whole party 
 adjourned to the hall-door to see the bay mare 
 trotted up and down. Then Tyrawley, pulling 
 himself together, deferentially suggested that 
 he might have the honor of taking care of Miss 
 St. Just while she tried the mare. Nina looked 
 at her mother, received assent, and was presently 
 put in her saddle by the doctor, while Tyrawley 
 stood at the mare's head. 
 
 It was a brief and rather bewildered ride on 
 both sides, though Tyrawley took care of her 
 like father, lover, and riding-master rolled into 
 one. 
 
 They exchanged scarcely a word or look, and
 
 THE DOCTOR S ADMONITION 57 
 
 yet, when they dismounted at Cupola Square, 
 there was a tinge of color on Nina's pale cheek, 
 and an aspect of abstracted happiness on 
 Tyrawley's countenance, which made the good- 
 natured doctor uncomfortable, and prevented 
 his enjoying the late St. Just's champagne as he 
 would otherwise have done. 
 
 Tyrawley got into sad disgrace with the 
 worthy professor that afternoon ; and as the 
 morning's beatitude gradually wore off, felt 
 rather down, without daring to ask himself why. 
 But love is like alcohol or sedatives ; the only 
 remedy for immediate inconvenience is more of 
 it, and yet more. So he managed, with the 
 instinct which is part of this form of madness, 
 to obtain many stray interviews ; on the parade, 
 on the Downs, when Parsons, the riding-master, 
 took out Miss St. Just and Bertie, in the public 
 gardens, and elsewhere. Mrs. St. Just was very 
 kind to him, because he looked ill, and some- 
 times sad. Bertie regarded him with admiring 
 awe; and Nina, when under her mother's wing, 
 talked to him with childlike freedom, but when 
 alone scarcely spoke. MacAdam observed it all 
 and became so uneasy in his mind that at last, 
 after many misgivings, he made up his mind to 
 broach the subject. 
 
 That we love those we benefit is true, but we 
 also feel that we have a right to reprove them, if 
 necessary; therefore, when Dr. MacAdam invited 
 Tyrawley to his rooms one keen November night,
 
 58 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 he did so with authority; and when Tyrawley 
 obeyed, he came somewhat with the air your dog 
 assumes when he knows that a thrashing is in 
 store for him, and has not quite made up his 
 mind whether to resent it or not. 
 
 He declined MacAdam's whiskey, perhaps that 
 he might keep cool, a professional gambler dare 
 not be a hard drinker, and he endeavored to 
 look unconscious, as MacAdam, not much liking 
 his job, began bluntly: 
 
 " I say, old man, how is this to end ? " 
 
 " My work at the professor's shows no signs 
 of ending, I am thankful to say." 
 
 "Oh, it's no good fencing; you know well 
 enough what I mean." 
 
 "What?" said Tyrawley, drawing his eye- 
 brows together, and looking rather wicked. 
 "What's the row?" 
 
 "Don't get your head down to kick," rejoined 
 MacAdam coolly. " It's no good with me." 
 
 "No," said the other, with a melancholy sneer. 
 "To carry out the simile, you've got the pull 
 over me; go ahead, stick in the persuaders." 
 
 " Don't be an ass ! What I want to know is, 
 are you going in for Miss St. Just ? " 
 
 It was a home thrust. Tyrawley turned white 
 and red, and gnawed his mustache, and Mac- 
 Adam's professional eye noted the rapid, uneven 
 rise of his coat at the left side. 
 
 "Poor chap! palpitations. It's a bad busi- 
 ness," he thought to himself, but continued, with
 
 THE DOCTOR S ADMONITION 59 
 
 Spartan firmness, "That's what I want to 
 know." 
 
 There was a long pause. At last Tyrawley 
 said deliberately, in a low voice: 
 
 "I suppose I know what you mean. No." 
 He looked MacAdam full in the eyes as he 
 spoke. 
 
 "I mean," said the latter, rather indignant at 
 what he considered a tolerably direct lie, "do 
 you intend marrying that girl if you can ? " 
 
 " The proviso is necessary, if only out of re- 
 spect to the lady, who may be supposed to have 
 some voice in the matter. Am I in a position to 
 marry any body ? " 
 
 " That's an equivocation," said the persistent 
 Scot. " Fellows do all sorts of things they didn't 
 ought. What is the meaning, then, of your hang- 
 ing about Cupola Square, and prowling up and 
 down the parade ? What is it all coming to ? 
 People are beginning to notice it, I tell you, and 
 it isn't fair to the girl. " He was standing up now 
 in a denunciatory attitude, like a small, secular 
 John Knox. 
 
 Poor Tyrawley writhed under this direct 
 attack. "Oh, MacAdam,"Jie said a little wildly, 
 " do let me alone. I've never been happy in my 
 life, and never really known a good girl till now. 
 I'm doing her no harm; she's only a child. Be- 
 sides, it will soon be over; they are going away 
 next week, and it's a hundred to one if I ever see 
 them again."
 
 60 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 " But, man alive, she'll expect to see you ! " 
 
 "No, she'll forget all about me, I I hope; 
 worse luck for me ! Oh, you don't know how I 
 feel when I'm with her. I feel as though I were 
 in church, in heaven anywhere holy. One look 
 at her takes all the wickedness out of me. I 
 begin to understand that God is somewhere near; 
 I've even begun to pray, in a sort of way. Don't 
 laugh, Mac Adam, you had a good mother." 
 
 " I'm very far from laughing," said MacAdam, 
 half touched, half disapproving, "but it's a 
 beastly tangle. I'm hanged if I see a way out." 
 And he walked to and fro in the room, while 
 Tyrawley sat motionless, with his hand over his 
 eyes; and again there was a long silence. 
 
 At last the doctor stopped, and laid his hand 
 gently on the other's shoulder. Perhaps some 
 vision of youth an old, disappointed dream 
 crossed his mind, for his tone was kind as he 
 said: 
 
 "Well, it's beyond me. I'm sorry for you, 
 Tyrawley on my soul I am; but I can say no 
 more except, don't entangle her in any corre- 
 spondence, or ask her for any thing decided till 
 she's a year or two older, and you're differently 
 situated." 
 
 Tyrawley held out his hand silently, and a brief 
 grip was exchanged. But alas! for the weak- 
 ness of man's best resolves. 
 
 The excellent MacAdam was dismayed when, 
 accompanying Tyrawley some days later to see
 
 THE DOCTOR'S ADMONITION 61 
 
 the St. Justs off from the Claretown station, he 
 heard the latter give an eager and decided assent 
 to an invitation to spend his Christmas quietly 
 with them at Rooksholm, their place in Berkshire. 
 
 "And I'm sure," said Mrs. St. Just, "we shall 
 be so glad to see Dr. Mac Adam for a few days. " 
 
 Tyrawley's face fell. He dreaded those little, 
 quick gray eyes, and that officiously candid 
 tongue. His heart was too strong for his honor, 
 and he could not help a long retention of Nina's 
 slender hand, and a yet longer look, wistful, with 
 all the wistfulness of uncertainty, into her large 
 grave eyes. He shook himself petulantly free of 
 MacAdam's admonishing consolation, and moped 
 about the dull end of the parade till it was time 
 to immure himself in the professor's study.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE HAWK IN THE DOVE'S NEST 
 
 Dr. Mac Adam to Mr. Tyrawley 
 
 11 FAIROAKS, ESSEX. 
 " DEAR TYRAWLEY : 
 
 " Will you take enclosed note to my sister, get 
 from her the key specified, get out the gun 
 (which she, dear old girl, dare not touch to save 
 her life), see that my man cleans it properly, and 
 pack it off to me as soon as you can. 
 
 "Be sober and civil in your ways to Bess, for 
 she and her old tabbies shake their heads over 
 such as you, and she's a good old soul. The 
 gun is not my only reason for writing; this is 
 another : A cousin of mine, Mrs. Lane, is just 
 returning to Claretown with her son. She is 
 almost crazy because she has found out that this 
 young cub of sixteen has been taken about by a 
 late manservant of hers to billiard-rooms and low 
 pubs, where he has got a taste for cue, balls, and 
 beer; but, as she cannot bear to cross her darling 
 child, and the darling child is as obstinate as a 
 pig, she is fitting him up a billiard-room in their 
 own house on the parade; and she wants to know 
 if I could find any decent fellow who would come 
 there and give her cub lessons in billiards as
 
 THE HAWK IN THE DOVE'S NEST 63 
 
 played by gentlemen. So I have told her I know 
 a person of unimpeachable morals and manners, 
 who would, as a favor to me, do the needful 
 coaching. She is rolling in money, and can 
 afford to pay well, and is a good soul, not a screw 
 like old Grenfell. Her number is twenty-five, 
 and you can go and arrange with her any day 
 after Tuesday. 
 
 "I want to hear how you are getting on 
 generally, being a species of godfather to you 
 in the path of humdrum respectability. Does 
 Grenfell still keep your nose to the grindstone as 
 much as ever ? Tell me if, and what, you have 
 heard from our friends of Cupola Square; like- 
 wise if you have written, which I hope you haven't, 
 because it would certainly be the act of a fool, or 
 something worse. 
 
 ''This remark you must put up with; it is 
 for your own good all unpleasant things are. 
 Weather and people here all that they should be; 
 lots of hunting and shooting, and a tiptop cook. 
 Let me have a long yarn, and don't shy off 
 awkward subjects, or I'll disown you. 
 "Yours, 
 
 "ALEX. MACADAM." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley to Dr. Mac Adam 
 
 "ALONZO TERRACE, CLARETOWN. 
 "DEAR MACADAM : 
 
 "Thanks awfully for your letter. I can't 
 think why you should befriend me like this. I
 
 64 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 took the note at once to your sister, who certainly 
 seemed rather alarmed; but I looked as good a 
 boy as is in me, and was allowed to carry out 
 your wishes under strict supervision. I cleaned 
 the gun myself, so I know it is all right, and I 
 hope you have got it before now. I have given 
 my first lesson to young Lane, who is not nearly 
 so much of a cub as the celebrated Poyntz, and 
 treats me with a respect to which I am totally 
 unaccustomed; but I don't think the boy is chaff- 
 ing. His mother is awfully nice with me, and 
 insists on far too high pay. Mrs. Higson is quite 
 indignant at the punctuality with which I pay my 
 rent, as falsifying her views Of me; she stated 
 that I had waxed fat and kicked. I asked if that 
 was not scriptural. She replied patronizingly 
 that it might be, but gave me to understand that 
 the Little Elijahs had got considerably in advance 
 of the Bible. The professor is much as usual. 
 The day before yesterday he was so wrapped up 
 in the book that he entirely omitted the trivial 
 matter of lunch. He occasionally demands frag- 
 ments of the skin of my arm, to which he seems 
 to think he has a lawful claim. I asked what they 
 were for, but the explanation was worse than the 
 pinch. Still, from interested motives, I love and 
 revere him. 
 
 "You ask me some home questions, old man, 
 but I admit you have the right. I have not 
 written to the St. Justs, perhaps for the reason 
 you state, but Mrs. St. Just has written to me,
 
 THE HAWK IN THE DOVE'S NEST 65 
 
 and I certainly mean to answer her letter, and I 
 must abide the consequences. 
 
 " I also intend to go there at Christmas, for I 
 never in my vagabond life spent a family Christ- 
 mas, and I want to know what it is like. I don't 
 see that it is any body's business if I like to burn 
 my own fingers; there are some things so pure 
 they can touch pitch and not be defiled; and if I 
 do cry for the moon, the moon will be none the 
 worse, and shine just as well for some worthier 
 worshipper; which is a parable. Don't think 
 this is impudent cheek. I shall never forget 
 your kindness to such a ruffian; but even a ruf- 
 fian may have a touch of feeling, or sentiment, 
 or whatever you may like to call it. I have got 
 into an awkward hole by refusing to introduce one 
 of my old chums and a wife he has lately taken 
 to himself to the few decentish people I know 
 here. She is all right, but he is such a rip, and 
 such a howling cad as well, that I could not find 
 it in the embryo I dignify by the name of 
 conscience. 
 
 " Mrs. Warner (;//<? heiress of Sawyer's Hard- 
 water Soap) and a shattered constitution having 
 put a stop to Warner's evil courses, she thinks he 
 ought to be received with open arms by all, and 
 bears me considerable malice for viewing things 
 otherwise; but I must put up with results, if any, 
 as part of my deservings. 
 
 "Claretown looks awfully sick to me, without 
 Fireworks and her master. Old chap, forgive me 
 5
 
 66 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 if I have said any thing wrong, or left out any 
 thing right, and give me something else to do for 
 you. 
 
 " Yours gratefully, 
 
 "I. TYRAWLEY." 
 
 " Most potent, grave, and reverend 
 lapius ! " said Tyrawley, removing his hat with 
 exaggerated deference before the little doctor, as 
 he appeared in the ticket-office, red and breath- 
 less from the struggle necessary for the trans- 
 ferring of Fireworks from one box to another. 
 
 "Oh, bother you! how are you? By Jove ! 
 that mare will be the death of somebody some 
 day ; we've been the centre of the admiring popu- 
 lace for the last half-hour ; listen to her now." 
 And sounds, as it were of the trumpetings of a 
 lunatic elephant, floated down the platform. 
 
 "I wish I'd come sooner," said Tyrawley. " I 
 could have hung on somewhere ; but it has given 
 you a lovely color, old chap." 
 
 "You're as great a fool as she is, it seems to 
 me, to-day," said the doctor, as he looked over 
 Tyrawley's shining face and admirable travelling 
 costume. "Quite hymeneal. " 
 
 " Who wouldn't be gay with a whole fortnight's 
 holiday from that ogre Grenfell, and the prospect 
 of his first real Christmas ? " 
 
 MacAdam looked at him curiously. "Well, I 
 hope you'll enjoy it," he said, in a tone not devoid 
 of misgiving. " It will be slowish, I expect."
 
 THE HAWK IN THE DOVE'S NEST 67 
 
 " To you, perhaps ; but as I have usually spent 
 the festive season in lodgings, or with other 
 stray wretches who had been kicked out of their 
 family circles at a club, it will be all new to me." 
 
 They proceeded on to the platform to await 
 their train ; and there, and thereafter, Mr. Ty- 
 rawley's conduct rivalled, in a mild way, the 
 lunacy of Fireworks, or of a boy set free from 
 school. 
 
 He chaffed the porters, the guard, Mac- 
 Adam's servants, MacAdam himself most of all ; 
 he snatched the cigar from that worthy's lips, 
 and transferred it to his own; exchanged travel- 
 ling-caps, which had the result of bonneting the 
 doctor, who was a small man with a conical head, 
 and, opening MacAdam's travelling-bag, pro- 
 ceeded to lay out its contents symmetrically on 
 the opposite seat, with appropriate comments 
 and quotations. 
 
 This last stroke was too much for MacAdam's 
 patience. 
 
 "Here! stop that conjuring, you egregious 
 idiot," he said, tumbling his property into the 
 bag, and aiming a blow at the exhibitor's ear. 
 " What on earth," he added, "is the meaning of 
 all this tomfoolery?" 
 
 "I'm unusually jolly, that's all," said Tyraw- 
 ley with a smile and a sigh, and rather a look of 
 appeal in those handsome, heavy-lidded eyes, 
 which, MacAdam noted, had that peculiar clear- 
 ness which is no index of health.
 
 68 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "If you were a Scotchman," said he grimly, 
 "you'd know the meaning of being ' fey.' ' 
 
 A gambler is always superstitious. " Oh, for 
 goodness' sake, don't croak, you raven, and I'll 
 check my indecent mirth, though you might give 
 a poor beggar a chance. It's impossible to laugh 
 at Grenfell's, except hysterically, or under the 
 gas he administers." 
 
 "Has he been giving you that?" said Mac- 
 Adam hastily. 
 
 "Yes, once or twice; he wanted to experi- 
 ment, and I didn't want to put him out," rejoined 
 the other carelessly. " Made me feel awfully ill, 
 though, afterward ; but I suppose it's harmless, 
 isn't it ? " 
 
 "Don't let him do it again. The old lizard 
 would dissect his own mother in the interests of 
 science. I told you, old man, that your heart 
 wasn't very grand." 
 
 "Yes, "said the other, sobered. "I suppose 
 a fellow who has led my sort of life always 
 has that organ in his mouth, more or less. You 
 see your dinner and other necessaries approach- 
 ing or receding, which is exciting, and yet 
 you mustn't show it ; though, thanks to you, 
 old chap, I'm grazing in peacefuller pastures 
 now." 
 
 "Well, keep yourself as quiet as you can, 
 whether jolly or otherwise, and you'll prolong 
 your days." 
 
 " I want to prolong them for a fortnight," said
 
 THE HAWK IN THE DOVE'S NEST 69 
 
 Tyrawley gayly. "And after that I don't much 
 care. " 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense," said the doctor testily. 
 " One would think this train was taking us direct 
 to Paradise." 
 
 "It is me, I know," said Tyrawley quite 
 seriously. 
 
 "You're a sentimental mooncalf, and even 
 more of an ass than when you were larking," 
 said the doctor, getting quite angry; but he was 
 mollified by the other's replying mildly: 
 
 "Put up with me, old man; it's safe not to 
 last," and the conversation turned into more 
 general channels till the train stopped at the 
 Rooksholm station. 
 
 A smart brougham and a pair of chestnut cobs 
 soon bowled them over the four miles of road 
 which intervened between the station and the 
 house. 
 
 Rooksholm was a big, comfortable, ugly 
 mansion, from whose tall windows welcoming 
 lights streamed through the early dusk of the 
 winter evening; and when the open hall-door let 
 out a further blaze of firelight, the figures of Mrs. 
 St. Just and her children were revealed in the 
 red glow, hospitably ready to receive the guests 
 as they alighted. 
 
 " Poor beggar ! your heart's doing a brisk bit 
 of trade all to itself now, I expect," the doctor 
 moralized inly, as Tyrawley scrambled out of 
 the brougham, and, having greeted Mrs. St. Just,
 
 70 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 held her daughter's hand for perhaps one second 
 longer than courtesy demanded. 
 
 To MacAdam the warmth of the welcome, 
 moral and physical, was a very ordinary business; 
 but to the social brigand, who had hitherto only 
 been received with suspicion, or the scant cere- 
 mony accorded to a doubtful detrimental, it was 
 a perfectly new experience. 
 
 The country houses he had stayed in were 
 mostly bachelor, or, at any rate, sporting 
 quarters. At Rooksholm it was the simplest, 
 kindliest home life; no show, no scheming, 
 no flattery; the servants seemed to make the 
 guests part of the family; even a mongrel ter- 
 rier, rescued by Nina from untimely drowning 
 by the village boys, and a big gray cat, once a 
 stray kitten, fawned and purred their welcome. 
 There were only two other guests an elderly 
 young lady of neutral character, and a school 
 companion of Bertie's. 
 
 "We expect my nephew, Mr. John Paget," 
 said Mrs. St. Just, in a tone of some^awe. " He 
 is a very superior young man, quite the head 
 of the family now my dear Matthew is gone, 
 and we all look up to him very much, don't we, 
 Nina?" 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley instantly conceived an unreason- 
 able dislike to the person indicated, which was, 
 however, toned down by Nina's dissentient 
 silence, and the very slightest curl of her deli- 
 cate lip.
 
 THE HAWK IN THE DOVE'S NEST 71 
 
 Mrs. St. Just personally conducted the two 
 men to their rooms, to cast a last glance of 
 supervision as to warmth and general comfort. 
 There was a door of communication between the 
 two, at which Tyrawley rejoiced, but MacAdam 
 groaned, foreseeing thinly veiled lover's raptures, 
 protracted into the small hours of the morning. 
 
 The dinner, and the conversation thereat, 
 were, like the welcome, homely and profuse : 
 plans were made for the Christmas entertainment 
 of the villagers, including the special delectation 
 of Nina's Sunday-school classes of big lads and 
 little girls, and "her sick," as Mrs. St. Just said, 
 adding: 
 
 " That child will take up the very people that 
 no one else will have any thing to say to the bad 
 boys and the poachers. Look at Tip," indicat- 
 ing the disreputable terrier; " that dog is a born 
 thief; and the cat she brought up that thing 
 with a teaspoon." 
 
 "They want me most, mother," said Nina 
 quietly, but with a faint color rising in her cheek, 
 and a soft, steady light in her dark eyes. Those 
 eyes met others, truthfully eloquent for once, 
 and did not droop, but rather dilated, which 
 MacAdam perceived and regretted.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 A RANK IMPOSTOR 
 
 DAYS of bright, still winter followed bright 
 and still without and within ; walks, and rides 
 when the frost was not too hard. Bertie pos- 
 sessed two miniature Shetlands, small and mis- 
 chievous as himself; his sister owned a big dark 
 chestnut a lion in the field, a lamb in the stable 
 whom only her light hand and familiar voice 
 could subdue, but which would trot after her all 
 over the grounds like a dog. Every-body rode 
 except Mrs. St. Just, who plainly stated herself 
 to be too fat ; and naturally, the four grown-ups 
 divided into twos, the doctor soothing the alarms 
 of Miss Hewlett, and Tyrawley schooling, at 
 Nina's side, a fine bay colt, which was to be her 
 hunter next year. To be with a woman who did 
 not know how to flirt, to chaff, to speak lightly 
 of right or wrong, or laugh at a careless joke, 
 was a further new experience to Mr. Tyrawley. 
 Nina was schooling him, without her own knowl- 
 edge or his, quite as much as he schooled the colt, 
 but with less harmless results, though neither 
 pupil nor teacher was at fault. When riding was 
 impossible, there was skating on the private lake
 
 A RANK IMPOSTOR 73 
 
 in the grounds; and here Mr. Tyrawley came to 
 the front, for he was a master of the art, as, 
 indeed, he was of most social accomplishments. 
 He enjoyed his own proficiency for the first time 
 when Mrs. St. Just urged him, in moving terms, 
 from the bank, not to let go her child's hands. 
 
 "Not for a minute; for, you know," she re- 
 marked to MacAdam, "she must marry well 
 some day, and no man would like a wife with a 
 broken nose." 
 
 " But Miss Nina can please herself, surely," 
 said the doctor. " It's only tocherless lassies, as 
 we Scots say, who go a-begging." 
 
 "Oh, Nina has no money to speak of," she 
 returned. " It all goes to Bertie, with Rooks- 
 holm." 
 
 The doctor communicated the fact abruptly to 
 Tyrawley, looking at him with a keen eye mean- 
 while. At first he received it quite blankly, 
 then a slight, tender, melancholy smile touched 
 his lips. 
 
 " What's the grin for ? " said the doctor, 
 puzzled. 
 
 " Nothing. Of course, it's ridiculous in any 
 case; but if there were a chance " 
 
 After which fragmentary eloquence he broke 
 away from his mentor. Later, there were long 
 country walks on sunny mornings, and in early 
 twilight; sometimes through solemn pine-woods, 
 when the soft susurrus of the wind murmured 
 an accompaniment to simple, quiet talk; some-
 
 74 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 times across a brown moor, to a low, thatched 
 bird's-nest of a cottage, where an old deaf shep- 
 herd, a special friend of Nina's, was bedridden. 
 
 Tyrawley carried a somewhat heavy basket, 
 from which even the good-natured doctor re- 
 volted, with servile joy, and sat with untiring 
 patience in the little cold parlor, while Nina 
 chatted with her invalid, and read by turns Bible 
 and newspaper. She had to read loud, and Mr. 
 Tyrawley heard her ; and some of that Bible 
 astonished him quite as much as it might have 
 done a native of the Caribbee Islands ; for both 
 Mrs. Higson and his former landlady had relied 
 rather on their own eloquence than on inspiration. 
 His naif remarks rather amazed MacAdam, who 
 had been scripturally brought up, and was at first 
 inclined to think that Tyrawley was poking fun 
 at him, when he made such an observation as, 
 "It seems to me sinners have a much better 
 chance in the Bible than out of it," etc. 
 
 He never spoke to her thus, for he well knew 
 she would think far better of him than he would 
 deserve, if he did ; and she had roused in him an 
 honest shame, if nothing else. In one of these 
 walks he caught a slight chill, and being there- 
 after heard to cough suggestively, was immedi- 
 ately taken in hand by his comfortable hostess, 
 and made a glorious invalid of, being installed in 
 the softest arm-chair beside the fire in the morn- 
 ing-room, where Nina did her village accounts 
 and kept up Bertie's lessons ; and being waited
 
 A RANK IMPOSTOR 75 
 
 on, and read and sung to, by the family generally, 
 to whom, as to most nice people, an invalid was 
 a sovereign, pro tern. 
 
 The doctor sniffed scornfully as he looked on 
 from afar, and gave his friend a bit of his mind 
 after they retired for the night, standing with a 
 hairbrush in his hand in the open doorway which 
 separated their rooms. 
 
 "You're a nice fellow!" he said. "A rank 
 impostor ! " 
 
 "True," murmured Tyrawley. 
 
 " Sitting, turning up your eyes," continued 
 the doctor, "because you've sneezed twice in 
 twenty-four hours, and letting those dear women 
 coddle you like a baby." 
 
 " I enjoy it," said the other, leaning back with 
 a lazy smile. " I never was coddled before." 
 
 " Why," said the doctor, coming in and lean- 
 ing on the mantelpiece, " instead of being seedy, 
 I believe you've actually put on flesh since you've 
 been here." 
 
 "I'm sure I have ; I never felt so well, or was 
 so happy in my life." 
 
 " It may agree with your constitution to be 
 happy," said the doctor, "but it certainly doesn't 
 improve your brains. Such a perfect fool at 
 whist I never saw ; you used to play a good game. 
 And as to billiards, it's disgusting, and an insult 
 to a man's common-sense, to do so much as look 
 at you now. Look at that game last night. 
 Why, you let Miss Nina lick you to fits."
 
 76 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "Do you think I could beat her?" said 
 Tyrawley. 
 
 "Well, a lady; but Bertie, he's a boy, and a 
 cheeky young dog." 
 
 "Her brother ; and she wanted him to win." 
 
 "Oh, you fool! You double-dyed, unmiti- 
 gated fool ! " cried the doctor, rendered quite 
 desperate by the other's look of dreamy satisfac- 
 tion. " What is it all coming to ? Are you mak- 
 ing up to the girl, or what do you expect ? " 
 
 "I expect," said he, with a rather melancholy 
 smile, "to leave here in ten days, worse luck." 
 
 " If it were my house," said MacAdam, " I'd 
 kick you out to-morrow." 
 
 " Thanks. What for ? Omitting to swindle 
 my hostess's children, as I've swindled every-body 
 else ? " He spoke quite amiably and seriously. 
 
 "Yes," growled MacAdam, "because the 
 omission is swindling in you; looking so precious 
 innocent, when I believe you were born with 
 a cue in your hand and a card up your sleeve 
 and for making love to your hostess's daughter." 
 
 The stray shot told. There was a fiery spot 
 on Tyrawley's cheek, and his indifference van- 
 ished as he answered, staring up doggedly in the 
 doctor's face, "I don't make love." 
 
 "Looks uncommonly like it, hanging over her 
 at the piano, and howling sentimental songs in 
 that confounded tenor that sounds like honey 
 and butter." 
 
 " MacAdam," said Tyrawley, suddenly stand-
 
 A RANK IMPOSTOR 77 
 
 ing upright and looking with considerable earnest- 
 ness in the other's perturbed face, "I give you 
 my solemn word, if you'll take the word of 
 such a disreputable rascal, that I haven't said 
 a syllable to her I couldn't have shouted across 
 the dinner-table and, what is more, I won't." 
 
 "Well," rejoined MacAdam slowly, rather 
 mollified, " I'll take it, as far as the past is con- 
 cerned; but as to the future " and he 
 
 shrugged his shoulders. "Besides," he added, 
 "you're rather a good-looking scoundrel, with 
 a fallen-angel, ' Lucifer-son-of-the-Morning ' sort 
 of look girls admire, and love comes without 
 making, sometimes." 
 
 "She looks upon me as an old man, and 
 a superior species of poacher." 
 
 "Superior humbug! " 
 
 "And as to me, it's 
 
 " ' The desire of the moth for the star, 
 
 Of the night for the morrow, 
 The longing for something afar 
 From the sphere of our sorrow.' " 
 
 "Oh! good Lord, poetry now," groaned Mac- 
 Adam. "I've heard of the devil quoting Scrip- 
 ture, but when it comes to poetry! " 
 
 "Poor devil!" said Tyrawley bitterly. 
 "Well, let him alone; in ten days he'll return 
 to Hades." 
 
 "Well, I'm no party to it, remember. Good- 
 night," said the doctor shortly, and he went
 
 78 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 away muttering, divided between pity and 
 wrath. 
 
 That same evening Mrs. St. Just called her 
 daughter into her room, with a disturbed 
 countenance. 
 
 "Nina," she said, "just listen to this. I've 
 had a letter from your cousin John. I told him 
 about the two gentlemen we had staying here, 
 and what a charming man Mr. Tyrawley is in 
 a house, and this is what he says." And she read, 
 as the Mrs. St. Justs of earth do read, without 
 punctuation : 
 
 "'I am somewhat sorry, my dear aunt, you 
 should have two men, with whom I am quite 
 unacquainted, staying in the house, on such a 
 necessarily intimate footing with yourself and 
 my cousin Nina. However, some friends of 
 mine know this Dr. MacAdam, and I find there is 
 nothing against his character. The other name 
 you mention occasions some slight uneasiness, 
 for I have a faint impression that I have heard 
 it mentioned in any thing but favorable terms 
 by a Mr. and Mrs. Warner, with whom I became 
 acquainted at a Conference of the National 
 Reform Society, and a Breakfast for Bettering 
 Ballet-girls without Religion, in both of which 
 excellent undertakings I am interested. I have 
 written to them begging for any particulars they 
 can give or gather, and hope to be able to report 
 the result personally on my approaching arrival
 
 A RANK IMPOSTOR 79 
 
 at Rooksholm. Meantime, my dear aunt, I 
 need scarcely point out the necessity of extreme 
 caution, especially as my dear cousin is now ' 
 
 "H'm yes, dear, that's all. Oh, what an 
 excellent young man he is ! " 
 
 Nina was silent a moment. Then she looked 
 up, a bright flush on her usually pale cheek, and 
 a very distinct flash of indignation in those eyes 
 which had generally a rather angelic aspect 
 ''radiant and grave, as pitying man's decline "; 
 though, indeed, as angels, we are told, rejoice 
 over repenting sinners, they may be supposed to 
 feel a celestial wrath at any discouragement of 
 a sinner's repentance. 
 
 "I don't think it is excellent to try and hunt 
 up things behind a person's back," said she, in a 
 very mortal manner; "and I don't believe any 
 of it is true." 
 
 Now, this might have been alarming in an 
 ordinary girl; but Nina's little foible for all 
 things weak or attacked was recognized in her 
 family. That slim, white hand had been known 
 to descend with no uncertain sound on Bertie's 
 ears when he had tied a cocoa-tin to Tip's tail; 
 and it was still narrated with admiration in the 
 kitchen how Miss Nina, at five years old, had got 
 on a chair to slap the cook for skinning eels. A 
 remembrance of these episodes reassured Mrs. 
 St. Just, and she merely said, in mild remon- 
 strance :
 
 80 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 " Oh, my child, your cousin John knows best." 
 
 Mr. John Paget's name was proudly men- 
 tioned by his aunt at lunch next day, and his 
 photograph was produced for the inspection of 
 the unconscious Tyrawley, who, nevertheless, 
 conceived an instant and warm aversion to the 
 original. He was a long-bodied and short- 
 legged young man, with a high and narrow head, 
 deep-set eyes, and insignificant features. 
 
 "John," said Mrs. St. Just, pensively contem- 
 plating his interesting physiognomy, "is too 
 proud to wear a mustache." 
 
 "Where does the pride come in ? " said Tyraw- 
 ley, with a laugh. 
 
 "He is proud," said she gravely, "of the St. 
 Justs' mouth. Bertie has it too." 
 
 "I haver! t" said that young gentleman de- 
 fiantly "have I, Nin ? Mine ain't a button-hole 
 like that !" 
 
 "No, darling, you haven't," said she, impress- 
 ing a kiss on the feature in question, as he hung 
 over her shoulder. 
 
 "But my nephew John," said Mrs. St. Just, 
 " is quite unlike all other young men; so beauti- 
 fully steady, and interested in the welfare of the 
 working-classes. " 
 
 "Does he take your class in Sunday-school, 
 Miss Nina?" said the doctor hastily. He saw 
 a wicked look in Tyrawley's eyes. 
 
 " No," said she sedately. " I'm not sure that 
 John believes in Sunday-school, except as the
 
 A RANK IMPOSTOR 8l 
 
 proper thing for girls to do in the country. The 
 ' proper thing ' is John's religion." 
 
 Mrs. St. Just paused aghast, with a fragment 
 of cutlet on her fork. 
 
 "My dear child," she cried, "what are you 
 talking about ? But there, you'll appreciate 
 John better when you're older, and so will 
 Bertie." 
 
 " I hate him now," said that young gentleman 
 candidly. "He wanted Tip drowned, but Nina 
 got in such a wax, and I said I would keep on 
 sending him dead rats by post if it was done, so 
 he gave in. Oh, I say, mother, give me a lot of 
 that apricot tart."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AN UNPLEASANT EXODUS 
 
 CHRISTMAS EVE was a busy time indeed at 
 Rooksholm ; there were church decorations, in 
 which Mr. Tyrawley, with the deft and flexible 
 fingers of a chevalier d'industrie, excelled himself, 
 but wherein he still found time to wait upon 
 Nina hand and foot, and undertake all the hard 
 and disagreeable bits for her. 
 
 There were mysterious parcels to be tied up 
 in dark and secret corners, more open prepara- 
 tions for village gifts. There was a pleasant half 
 tea, half supper, after all the work was done, in 
 the big dining-room, at which every-body sat 
 down just as he was ; and, lastly, there were 
 the carol-singers, who were quite an institution 
 at Rooksholm, and among whom Nina's boys 
 figured prominently. When their heavy feet 
 were heard tramping on the gravel of the drive, 
 and they arranged themselves in a half-circle 
 round the hall-door, Nina went and stood there, 
 in the keen, frosty starlight, with all the impru- 
 dence of seventeen ; and Tyrawley, with all the 
 imprudence of first love at three-and-thirty, fol- 
 lowed her, while the others were content to listen 
 from the side of the great wood fire.
 
 AN UNPLEASANT EXODUS 83 
 
 It was one of those magical nights of winter 
 when every star seems like a diamond-point 
 piercing the vault of blue. No breeze stirred 
 the trees, silvered by frost ; only the breath of 
 the singers melted in soft clouds into the trans- 
 parent air ; every thing was silent, except for the 
 singing. Even Tip, sitting on his tail at his 
 mistress's feet, only protested by an occasional 
 shiver, and an expressive upward look. The 
 Rooksholm choir was rich in treble those sweet 
 trebles, whose unconscious, sexless sweetness 
 must surely come nearest to the first Christmas 
 song. By day they were apple-cheeked, and in 
 some cases apple-stealing, boys, but in the dim 
 glow of the Christmas starlight they were muffled 
 seraphs. Nina heard them, as she had so often 
 heard them before, with a soft sense of love and 
 peace, intensified this Christmas Eve by a new 
 touch of what was it pain, pathos, pity ? 
 
 But to the civilized heathen, standing a little 
 behind her in the shadow, it came almost with 
 the force of a Divine revelation. The new 
 thoughts and desires, the stray notes of hope 
 and love, long floating through heart and brain, 
 crystallized into faith, almost into resolution. 
 His heart beat fast, his eyes filled. 
 
 " Peace on earth and mercy mild, 
 God and sinners reconciled," 
 
 seemed an individual proclamation to him; and, 
 as the carol-singers tramped round to the back
 
 84 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 entrance to receive substantial reward, he turned 
 with a strange and child-like simplicity to his 
 companion, and whispered low, scarcely knowing 
 that he spoke it, the reply of his heart, "I will 
 try to be good." 
 
 She held out her hand. He took it, paused 
 but that vow seemed in some sort to have puri- 
 fied his lips, so that they might venture the 
 lightest and most reverent touch as the seal of 
 the pledge. Then they returned to the fireside 
 circle, surrounded by a heavenly starlight of 
 their own a half-divine, half-human tender- 
 ness which nobody else saw. 
 
 "Your cold," said the doctor by and by 
 sarcastically, to Tyrawley, "seems decidedly 
 better, or you couldn't stand outside at midnight 
 with the thermometer down to zero." 
 
 "Don't chaff me to-night, old man, please," 
 said he, with meekness. " I don't feel like it." 
 
 The doctor took a long look at him, nodded 
 sagely, and retired. What was his unbounded 
 astonishment when, coming in later to borrow 
 some toilet appendage, he found the gentlemanly 
 billiard-sharper of Claretown on his knees. He 
 retired hastily. 
 
 " Bless us and save us ! " he muttered, for his 
 own relief. "Honesty, Bible, poetry, and now 
 prayers ! and all for the sake of a girl of seventeen, 
 who scarcely opens her lips; and, 'pon my soul, 
 I believe the poor chap is in deadly earnest ! " 
 
 There was a Christmas sun of pale gold on the
 
 AN UNPLEASANT EXODUS 85 
 
 Rooksholm breakfast-table next morning, and, 
 beside the appropriate decoration of china bowls 
 of Christmas roses and holly, sundry parcels 
 adorned every plate. Their contents, save in 
 one or two instances, need not be particularized. 
 Every-body gave every-body something. Tyraw- 
 ley, in the gladness of his heart, divested himself 
 of almost all his limited portable property in the 
 way of sticks and riding-crops, in favor of Mac- 
 Adam, Bertie, and Bertie's chum; reserving his 
 spare cash for the box of lilies of the valley, 
 white rosebuds, and Neapolitan violets, which 
 were his offering to Nina to tell the story he 
 dared not speak. On his own plate lay "Hymns 
 Ancient and Modern," bound in white vellum, 
 strewn with gold stars of Bethlehem, with one 
 line inside surely a harmless inscription "Mr. 
 Tyrawley, with Nina and Bertie's grateful love." 
 Some instinct made him turn to the Christmas 
 pages, and somehow he was not in the least sur- 
 prised, though touched and thrilled, to see a faint 
 pencil-mark and a date against " Peace on earth." 
 
 No one but Mrs. St. Just was glad to hear 
 that Mr. John Paget was due about lunch- 
 time. 
 
 There was a pleasant progress of Christmas 
 greeting through the village, and then church, 
 to which every-body went. There was one per- 
 son who felt as if he had never been in church 
 before he had not very often. Last night's 
 carols seemed to float like angels about the dark
 
 86 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 arches of the old oak roof, and all was bathed in 
 a still, snowy, ineffably pure radiance, of which 
 Nina, in soft white stuff like new-fallen snow, 
 with a little swansdown hat crowning her fair 
 hair, seemed the very font and centre. They 
 sang together from that new book of his, and 
 consecrated it forever. Her voice partook of 
 that soft and quiet strength which was her pecu- 
 liar characteristic. They prayed shoulder to 
 shoulder; they listened side by side to the old, 
 old message, that yet falls like dewy balm newly 
 dropped from heaven on the heart of every sinful, 
 sorrowful mortal who is willing to receive it. 
 
 Tyrawley, for his part, soul, hands, eyes, 
 could only repeat the rudimentary prayer of the 
 night before. He looked it so much that Mac- 
 Adam had not the heart to chaff him, as they 
 stood together among the graves in the quiet, 
 green churchyard, where drifts of snow still lin- 
 gered in shady corners, and where the large white 
 clouds cast fleeting shadows as they sailed over- 
 head. A robin was singing on a tombstone, so 
 close that they could have touched it, and the 
 last notes of the organ dismissing the worshippers 
 pealed gently out on the still air. Then the St. 
 Justs, who had been exchanging greetings with 
 neighbors, came out and joined them, and they 
 walked quietly back, as people generally do to 
 catastrophes. 
 
 Nina was stopped to receive some rustic Christ- 
 mas gift from her scholars, and Tyrawley stayed
 
 AN UNPLEASANT EXODUS 87 
 
 with her; so the rest of the party got home ten 
 minutes earlier, and were greeted in the hall by 
 Mr. John Paget, who, after receiving introduc- 
 tions to the doctor and Miss Hewlett, rather 
 abruptly announced to his aunt, in an undertone, 
 that he must see her at once on important busi- 
 ness, and she accordingly led him, looking rather 
 scared, to the morning-room. 
 
 Ten minutes later they entered the drawing- 
 room, where MacAdam and Miss Hewlett were, 
 in a sort of procession; Mrs. St. Just, much 
 flushed and disorganized, leading the way, carry- 
 ing an open letter in her hand; Mr. John Paget 
 following, with high head and protruded under- 
 lip, and a photograph, face downward, in his 
 hand. The two seated themselves with a judicial 
 aspect on a broad, red silk sofa, and the aunt 
 heaved a fat sigh, and cast a half-imploring glance 
 at her nephew. 
 
 At this juncture Nina appeared, and had 
 scarcely met her cousin with a cool handshake, 
 before Tyrawley, his usual sarcastic suavity 
 softened by his new happiness, followed her. 
 
 No introduction was performed between the 
 two men; instead, John Paget looked meaningly 
 in his aunt's face, and muttered: 
 
 "Better get it over at once." 
 
 "Nina, come here! " said her mother. Then, 
 as the girl obeyed mechanically, she added, the 
 color on her plump cheeks dying in red streaks, 
 "Mr. Tyrawley "
 
 88 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 She tried to speak further, but her voice failed 
 her. 
 
 Tyrawley, who had risen when she spoke, and 
 was standing suave and cool awaiting her plea- 
 sure, saw that glance, and, with the instinct of an 
 animal that has been hunted before, stood at bay. 
 His features were expressionless, except for that 
 courteous smile; but MacAdam's sharp eye saw a 
 slight distention of the nostril, and a faint blue- 
 ness round the mouth, which told of the rapid 
 throbbing of his heart. 
 
 Mr. John Paget cleared his throat. "Well," 
 said he, in a cold, monotonous voice, looking up 
 in the other's face from where he sat, "of course, 
 this is a most unpleasant business, Mr. er 
 Tyrawley; but it has to be done, and I suppose, 
 as the only man of the family, it falls on me." 
 
 "I don't quite understand," said Tyrawley, 
 stroking his mustache. "Perhaps you'll ex- 
 plain?" 
 
 "I'm going to. My aunt, Mrs. St. Just, has 
 just been informed, on undeniable authority, that 
 you are not a proper person to be received as a 
 guest under her roof, and she wishes me " 
 
 "A moment," said Tyrawley, speaking with 
 his usual languid coolness, and turning with a 
 smile to his hostess. "Is Mr. Paget authorized 
 by you to deal with this matter? " 
 
 She nodded, avoiding his gaze. 
 
 "I presume, then," he continued, staring full 
 in his enemy's face, "the information has been
 
 AN UNPLEASANT EXODUS 89 
 
 obtained and brought by you, probably in that 
 letter. May I ask if that photograph is another 
 piece of evidence against me ? " 
 
 Now Mr. Paget had expected bluster, con- 
 fusion, possibly servility, over which he should 
 loftily triumph; and he was annoyed by the calm- 
 ness of the criminal; so he retorted with a more 
 offensive accent than before: 
 
 " Precisely. The letter tells us the truth about 
 you, and we identify you by this photograph." 
 
 Nina rose mechanically to her feet, but her 
 mother put her arm round her waist, and drew 
 her down with an angry " Be quiet, child! " 
 
 Two burning spots began to appear on Ty- 
 rawley's cheeks, and his eyes flashed; but he 
 spoke with even exaggerated languor. 
 
 " Thanks," said he. "Now be good enough 
 to tell me who are my accusers, and of what I 
 am accused, before Mrs. St. Just turns me out." 
 
 That lady murmured, "Dear, dear; this is 
 distressing ! " 
 
 Her nephew responded with a sneer: 
 
 " Look here, my good fellow; it's of no use 
 coming this sort of thing with a man of the 
 world. Of course, ladies are tender-hearted, and 
 get taken advantage of in consequence by adven- 
 turers. Your accusers, as you call them, are 
 Mr. and Mrs. Warner of Pirley Park; and the 
 accusation is that you are a card-sharper, play 
 too good a game at billiards, and get your living 
 by your wits and the follies of others."
 
 90 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "May I ask," said Tyrawley, "if you know 
 the character of one at least of your informants 
 I mean Warner ? " 
 
 "I know that he belonged, in some measure, 
 to your own set, but he has reformed; besides, 
 there's such a thing as king's evidence." 
 
 "Yes; his wife's fifty thousand pounds has 
 reformed Jack wonderfully. I suppose it has not 
 struck you, when you were digging up my ba'd 
 past, that I might reform too?" A touch of 
 melancholy softened his bravado. 
 
 " Oh, don't let's have any of this rubbish! I've 
 got proofs ! " 
 
 " Produce them," said Tyrawley. 
 
 "I will," said the other. "Mind, it's your 
 own doing." He took the letter from his aunt's 
 shaking hand and read aloud: 
 
 " 'The man I mean was years ago caught cheat- 
 ing at cards in a gambling-house; the affair was 
 so bad that even they kicked him out. I enclose 
 his photograph, and you will know it is the same 
 scoundrel by his having a scar on his right wrist, 
 caused by a scald from some boiling water from 
 a kettle over a spirit lamp there was liquor 
 going on as well as play which somebody threw 
 on his hand to make him drop the card he was 
 concealing.' 
 
 "Would you," said Mr. Paget, with a slight 
 smile, "mind showing us your right wrist?"
 
 AN UNEXPECTED EXODUS 91 
 
 Tyrawley hesitated, looked round as a hunted 
 animal looks for escape, then, with a laugh, 
 stretched out his hand, where, at the wrist, a 
 slight discoloration and contraction appeared. 
 There was a pause. The doctor fidgeted un- 
 easily. Bertie sat open-mouthed and rather tear- 
 ful; his sister like a statue of ice. 
 
 "Well," said Paget, "this is all very disagree- 
 able. Hadn't you better go ? " 
 
 "In case you send for a constable? Yes," 
 said Tyrawley. His eyes turned for a single 
 instant on Nina, and he added, moistening his 
 dry lips with his tongue, " There's one fact my 
 kind friend did not mention. Every one here 
 has been awfully good to me till now, and it 
 might go for something. I was only a boy of 
 seventeen when that affair happened, and my 
 own father's catspaw. That's all." 
 
 He drew himself up to his full height, looked 
 round, without looking at any body in particular, 
 bowed with a rather spasmodic smile of general 
 adieu, and taking from a vase, as if absently, a 
 lily spray he had given Nina that morning, 
 quitted the room. 
 
 "I say," Mr. Paget called after him, "you 
 can pack your things up, you know, and I dare 
 say my aunt will send you to the inn in the pony- 
 cart." 
 
 "Thanks," returned a faint sarcastic voice. 
 " I'll manage my own exodus." 
 
 The company looked at one another. Mr.
 
 92 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Paget said it was particularly unpleasant; Miss 
 Hewlett and Bertie sniffed a duet; Mrs. St. Just 
 wept, still clutching her daughter, who sat as if 
 petrified; the doctor gave a long, low whistle, 
 walked about the room aimlessly, muttered, 
 " Hang me if I can stand this," and departed to 
 seek Tyrawley.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 AbRIFT 
 
 HE found him in his room; he had evidently 
 begun to pack, and a portmanteau, half-filled, 
 was on the ground; but when MacAdam en- 
 tered, he was leaning his arms on the mantel- 
 piece, and his forehead upon it. 
 
 He tried to resume operations when he heard 
 a footstep, but his shaking hands refused their 
 office. He turned round, however, and said, 
 with attempted formality : 
 
 " Dr. MacAdam, I hardly expected " 
 
 "Oh, confound it all!" said the doctor; 
 "don't 'doctor' me. Bless my life and soul, 
 man, do you suppose I'm going to turn the cold 
 shoulder on you for what you as good as told me 
 months ago ? If that Pharisee is perfect, I'm 
 not. Might have been a lot worse than you if I 
 hadn't had a good mother. More shame to me 
 for doing her so little credit. Hold up, old man, 
 you'll live it down if you keep a stiff upper lip." 
 
 But the performance inculcated was quite 
 beyond Mr. Tyrawley. The revulsion of feel- 
 ing was too utter. His eyes strained, his lip 
 trembled, and he caught the mantelpiece for 
 support.
 
 94 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 " Hallo ! " said MacAdam, whose eye detected 
 certain physical symptoms. "Steady there, 
 steady! If you don't hold your tongue and sit 
 down quietly for two or three minutes, you'll 
 have as pretty an attack of palpitation and syn- 
 cope as ever I saw; "and he guided him to a 
 chair, put him gently in it, and after a hurried 
 plunge into a drawer in his own room, produced 
 certain drops, which he administered with a re- 
 mark that they would help Tyrawley to leave the 
 house without loss of dignity. 
 
 The latter was for the moment mercifully past 
 such considerations, for he lay faintly gasping, 
 while the doctor watched him with a kind, anx- 
 ious look. 
 
 "Yes, poor chap; I know it's bad, but you 
 ain't going to die. You'll be better presently, 
 and a seat behind Fireworks in this blessed east 
 wind will set you all right. Yes," said he, in 
 answer to the other's enquiring and grateful 
 glance, "I'm going to drive you to the station 
 myself, for I expect you won't want to hang 
 about the village, waiting for the pony-cart. 
 That's the worst of these new people; they must 
 do a disagreeable thing in the nastiest way. I 
 should like to punch Cousin John's head. Now 
 I'll send to my man to bring the mare round, 
 and I'll pack your traps meanwhile. Couldn't 
 give me the trouble ? Oh, bosh ! you're too ill, 
 man. Keep your strength to make a good exit." 
 
 Forbidden to speak, Tyrawley pressed the
 
 ADRIFT 95 
 
 other's hand, and looked up in his face in a way 
 which made the good-natured little doctor blink 
 and state that he had a touch of catarrh. 
 
 "Feel better, old chap?" said Mac Adam, as 
 he snapped the key in the lock of the last port- 
 manteau. 
 
 "Oh, yes, thanks; all right," said the other 
 
 languidly. "But " A look of dull misery 
 
 settled down on his face. 
 
 "But what?" 
 
 Tyrawley hesitated. "I shouldn't mind so 
 much," he said, "if any one had said a word, 
 or seemed to mind. Doesn't really matter, of 
 course. It's only a sentiment." 
 
 He was trying to harden himself, but this is 
 most difficult when you are physically down. 
 
 "You fool," said MacAdam, easily reading 
 between the lines; "do you expect a girl of 
 her age to throw herself into your arms, and 
 vow to live and die for you ? Don't you know a 
 nice girl never does those things ? You wait. 
 I'm very much mistaken in that young lady if 
 she lets you go away without a word or a sign. 
 And if she does by Jove ! old man, I'll tell 
 her when I'm writing to you, and ask her for a 
 message." 
 
 " My dear chap," said the other, " you're too 
 awfully kind." 
 
 They saw nothing further of the inhabitants of 
 Rooksholm except the footman, who opened the 
 door and helped to put in Tyrawley's portman-
 
 96 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 teaus; and who, being a country-bred footman, 
 showed emotion, and wished Mr. Tyrawley a 
 happy Christmas in return for his parting tip. 
 
 "Precious happy!" said that unlucky person, 
 as they drove off through the mists and chill of 
 the early winter evening. " My Christmas has 
 been knocked on the head, after all," he added 
 bitterly. "What's the good of trying to do 
 better ? ' Once a rip, always a rip.' ' 
 
 "Nonsense!" said the doctor. " Every-body 
 isn't as cantankerous as that young squaretoes. 
 Don't give up." 
 
 "I don't know," said Tyrawley gloomily. 
 "'Peace on earth and mercy mild.' The mild- 
 ness and the mercy don't seem to come my way 
 much." 
 
 They drove on through the gathering shadows; 
 but, a little way further, the doctor suddenly 
 uttered a low whistle, and pulled Fireworks up 
 short; a slim, white shape, ghostly in the twi- 
 light, stood on the turf under the trees. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley did not need the doctor's "I 
 told you so," to quicken his perceptions; he 
 leaped out before Fireworks stopped prancing, 
 and was at Nina's side, breathless. 
 
 She spoke first. 
 
 " I came," she whispered, lifting her large 
 eyes, full of unshed tears, to his, "to tell you 
 that if that and the other things they say are 
 true, I am only very, very sorry; and and 
 will you please try as you promised yesterday?"
 
 ADRIFT 97 
 
 He hesitated an instant; he knew well what 
 that promise would mean, smarting from the 
 shame of his expulsion from Rooksholm; not the 
 heroic victory the inexperienced girl pictured, but 
 a sore, sordid struggle against small slights and 
 privations; scorned by the bad, shunned by the 
 good. Still that upward look, the half-pitying, 
 half-proud tremble of that sweet mouth, the 
 very perfume of the lilies he had given her, were 
 inspiration. 
 
 "Yes," he said, though it was not without a 
 sigh; " I don't go back from it." 
 
 "And I, "she whispered, coloring faintly, "will 
 ask God to help you. I shall never, never forget 
 you, because you saved my life." 
 
 "Only for that reason?" said he. Forgive 
 him he was weakened by the prospect of instant 
 parting from the only human creature who had 
 ever shown him a particle of love. 
 
 " Not only" she answered. Then the voice 
 of MacAdam made itself known, with a remark 
 that the only train possible left in half an hour, 
 and Fireworks could not do it in less. 
 
 So Tyrawley took that slender hand, which 
 had lifted him at any rate one step out of the 
 miry clay of sin, held it a moment, dropped it 
 gently, and turned away. But the sound of a 
 faint sob conquered his prudence; he returned, 
 took it prisoner again, murmured passionately, 
 with wet eyes: 
 
 " Do you know what I shall ask you for in 
 7
 
 98 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 heaven? I shall ask you for my heart! " Then 
 he found himself, he hardly knew how, by Mac- 
 Adam's side in the trap, assenting vaguely to 
 that worthy's remark of sage sympathy, that 
 " Life was not all beer and skittles." 
 
 "You'll be sure and write, won't you, old 
 man ? " said he, as they stood together on the 
 platform, after the doctor had insisted, with pro- 
 fessional obstinacy, on regaling him with coffee 
 and sandwiches from the hands of a peevish 
 Hebe who felt it hard that people should travel 
 on Christmas Day. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I'll write; and I shall take particular 
 pleasure in sitting on that prig at every available 
 chance. I'll take him out," said the doctor, with 
 a chuckle, "for a spin behind Fireworks, and 
 tickle her a bit. If he don't know the fear of 
 man, he'll know the fear of horse from that 
 day." 
 
 Tyrawley's heart was too sick for amusement, 
 or even for the delight of vengeance; and he re- 
 plied to MacAdam's question of "What will you 
 do with yourself when you get to Claretown ? " 
 with a heavy, " Go to bed, for want of any thing 
 better; and tell old Grenfell to-morrow that I 
 have come round to his opinion that holidays are 
 waste of time, and I am ready to get into the 
 collar again." 
 
 "I must say it's a beast of a Christmas for you, 
 poor chap," said MacAdam; "but let us hope 
 things will brighten." Then the train steamed
 
 ADRIFT 99 
 
 away, and the doctor went back to Rooksholm in 
 a very unholy temper. 
 
 He was, however, much sustained and com- 
 forted by Nina's demeanor toward her cousin 
 during the evening; of which he immediately 
 wrote off an account to Tyrawley; which, un- 
 luckily, owing to Christmas postal disarrange- 
 ments did not reach him for some days. It may, 
 however, be given here : 
 
 "I had an awful lark this evening, in seeing 
 Miss Nina extinguish her cousin finely. During 
 the afternoon she turned her shoulder to him 
 whenever he addressed her, and answered him, 
 when fairly obliged to speak, with the extreme 
 tip of her upper lip and the top of her eyebrows, 
 as scornful young ladies can when they choose. 
 After dinner in the drawing-room, when only he 
 and I were present, he had, I suppose, had enough 
 of it, for he walked up to her with a patronizing 
 air (for which I could have kicked him, only it 
 was needless) and said, 'Come, come, Nina ; you 
 should have sense enough to thank me for ridding 
 
 your mother's house of a ' My word, but 
 
 my lady blazed out in a white fury; I never saw 
 her look so handsome before. She looked him 
 straight in the eyes and said, as if she were stab- 
 bing him, ' John, I hate you; and if I had been a 
 man instead of a girl, it's you who would have 
 been turned out of Rooksholm, not he. If you 
 say one word more against him, I'll never speak
 
 IOO THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 to you again.' Most girls would have cried, or 
 been hysterical after that outburst; but, bless 
 you, there wasn't a tremble of a nerve; and I 
 don't think, old chap, you'll need a champion 
 when that damsel is anywhere round. Mrs. St. 
 Just is not half bad, if she wasn't cowed by that 
 ass. She has been dissolved in fat tears at inter- 
 vals during the evening, and told me she hoped 
 some clergyman or missionary society might take 
 you up and send you abroad."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 SONG OF THE SIRENS 
 
 THE Little Elijahs of Alonzo Terrace, having 
 got, in spiritual things, quite beyond the old- 
 world faith of keeping Christmas, Mr. Tyrawley, 
 arriving cold and famished at half-past eleven, 
 p. M., found the house dark and silent, save for 
 the sleepy blasphemies of his landlord, who had 
 enlivened the general gloom by getting roaring 
 drunk early in the day. No refreshment was, 
 therefore, possible; so the lodger carried out his 
 own programme, and went to bed. 
 
 His last waking thought, as the first cold gray 
 of the winter dawn struggled in, was that, 
 although God and sinners might be reconciled 
 with a simplicity which he had thought im- 
 possible, it was altogether a different case with a 
 sinner and his fellow-man. He awoke in alarm, 
 rather late, with a hot head, shivering limbs, and 
 an ominous tightness about the chest, but ac- 
 counted to himself for these symptoms by his 
 long, cold journey; and started with a resolved, 
 if sad, heart for the professor's, at his usual hour. 
 
 A damp sea-fog made that dull abode at Grey- 
 town even duller than usual ; nevertheless, it
 
 102 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 seemed something like entering a haven of refuge 
 after a storm, when he found himself seated once 
 more at his table, with the'tfamiliar prospect of 
 the pebbly strip of garden before him, and the 
 professor's strident voice dictating scientific 
 terms with monotonous rapidity. 
 
 Grenfell had received him with cold satisfac- 
 tion, as a man might welcome the unexpected re- 
 turn of a useful machine ; but, whether from the 
 fact that Tyrawley had come away without break- 
 fast, because he feared to be late ; or that love 
 and leisure had impaired his brain-power, the 
 human machine worked ill, and the professor got 
 very cross. 
 
 "Really," he said, as Tyrawley looked at him 
 with a hopeless, "I beg your pardon" the third 
 in five minutes "you're very dense to-day. 
 Any boarding-school boy could spell 'epidermis,' 
 I should think. You have been all the morning 
 over one short chapter, and now it must be full 
 of erasures. 
 
 "I'm awfully sorry, I'm sure," said Tyrawley, 
 in alarm. He was prepared to be hectored to 
 any extent rather than lose his footing on this 
 one solid stone of honest work in his storm- 
 tossed ocean. "I have a beastly headache, 
 that's it ; but, if you like, sir, I can make up for 
 my stupidity by coming for an hour or two in the 
 evening." 
 
 The professor accepted ungraciously, and 
 presently set his ama,nu.ensis to recopy half the
 
 SONG OF THE SIRENS 103 
 
 chapter, while he smoked reflectively at the fire- 
 side. A letter was presently brought to him, 
 which he opened and read. Tyrawley heard him 
 fluttering its pages, and muttering to himself. 
 Then he looked up, and said, in an aggrieved 
 voice, " Mr. Tyrawley." 
 
 "Sir." 
 
 "I want to speak to you." Tyrawley stood 
 up, and turned with respectful meekness ; he 
 felt that his situation was precarious. "This let- 
 ter is about you. It's most extraordinary that 
 MacAdam should have deceived me so." 
 
 Tyrawley's color rose. "I'm sure," he said, 
 with warmth, "Dr. MacAdam never deceived 
 any body willingly. Kindly tell me to what you 
 allude." 
 
 "To his recommending you." 
 
 " Thank you, sir," said Tyrawley, with a laugh. 
 He began to see how things were going, and was 
 trying to harden himself, but he felt sick at heart. 
 
 "Oh, it's useless taking that tone," said the 
 professor angrily, "when this letter, from a 
 gentleman I am well acquainted with, tells me 
 you are an unfit person to have in my house, or 
 trust with valuable secrets ; that you are known 
 to be in the habit of cheating fools at cards, and 
 pigeoning young men of property." 
 
 "I know who that gentleman is," said Tyraw- 
 ley. " Mr. John Paget. I thank him for his kind 
 offices." 
 
 "That's not the question," retorted the pro-
 
 104 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 fessor peevishly. "I suppose what he says is 
 true ; but I think it's very hard that a scientist 
 should have his studies interrupted by such 
 trifles." 
 
 Tyrawley had grown pale with mingled shame 
 and indignation ; but a thought of the eyes which 
 had looked so pleadingly into his, through the 
 winter twilight at Rooksholm, nerved him to a 
 last effort. It was possible there might be a man 
 somewhere under the professor ; so he said, 
 almost with entreaty : 
 
 " Suppose I say it is true, or rather, has been, 
 but that I'm struggling now to earn an honest 
 living ? Suppose I ask you, Dr. Grenfell, as man 
 to man, if you won't give me another chance, by 
 keeping me on a month, at a reduced salary?" 
 His heart beat fast, and his head swam, for the 
 professor hesitated. He tried to push his advan- 
 tage. " I have done nothing to be ashamed of 
 here, at any rate; it has been faithful service, 
 though I dare say I have been stupid enough. 
 MacAdam knows all about me, and he would 
 speak for me as to that." 
 
 "Well," said the professor, slowly rubbing his 
 bald head, "it's very disagreeable, and highly in- 
 convenient to me, and sadly interrupts the calm 
 of scientific research; but I think, Mr. Tyrawley, 
 you had best go. I shouldn't feel that confi- 
 dence let me see, I only owe you for to-day 
 that's about two shillings and three halfpence," 
 he fumbled in his pocket. Tyrawley's spirit was
 
 SONG OF THE SIRENS 105 
 
 broken by despair, but the professor's tendered 
 sixpences and coppers were too much for him. 
 He said under his breath : 
 
 "All right, sir. Perhaps you'll explain to Dr. 
 MacAdam that I didn't discharge myself. Good- 
 afternoon," and left the room and the house. 
 
 It was dusk; the sea-fog had been driven away 
 by a bitter north-easter; the streets and squares 
 were almost deserted; people were hurrying 
 home to fireside and afternoon tea; but he no 
 longer had any desire for food. His head felt 
 rather wild now and then, as he tramped wearily 
 along the wind-swept streets. Curious fancies, 
 from Heaven knows where, of a fireside and a 
 home awaiting him, lifted the leaden weight of 
 despair from his mind. They were so curious 
 that he shook them off in alarm, and resolved on 
 a course of action, in pursuance of which he 
 swallowed a cup of coffee at a cheap back-street 
 restaurant to steady his nerves; and thence 
 made his way to the big house on Claretown 
 Parade tenanted by the mother of his boy-pupil 
 in billiards. 
 
 It seemed to him when the radiance and warmth 
 of the well-lit hall burst upon his chilled senses, 
 and the footman, with a look half of curiosity, 
 half of pity, said, " Mrs. Lane is not at home, 
 sir, but here is a note for you," and tendered it, 
 that he had known all along what was going to 
 happen. 
 
 It contained a check and a polite dismissal.
 
 106 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 It swam before his eyes, and he looked so ashy 
 pale that William the footman (Mr. Tyrawley was 
 always popular with domestics, because of a cer- 
 tain easy royalty of manner) asked him if he 
 would not sit down in the study for a minute and 
 rest. 
 
 " I've got another note for you, sir," he added, 
 lowering his voice, as Tyrawley shook his head, 
 and sank on a hall chair. " Mr. Harry told me 
 to give it to you, but his ma don't know." 
 
 "DEAR TYRAWLEY [it ran], I think it is a 
 beastly shame of the Mater to stop my billiard 
 lessons, just when I was getting on so well with 
 the spot stroke, because that duffer Paget, who 
 doesn't know a billiard-ball from a marble, has 
 told her a lot of confounded crams about you. I 
 told her you talked to me like an archbishop 
 about swearing and barmaids, but it was no go. 
 I have tipped William half a dollar to give you 
 this, so that you should know I ain't in the swim, 
 but am, your affectionate pupil, 
 
 " HARRY LANE." 
 
 It was a good thing that Tyrawley's heavy 
 mustache hid the trembling of his lips; though 
 William was a sympathetic witness. He got up 
 with effort, declining the offer of a glass of wine. 
 
 "Say to Mr. Harry, 'Thanks and good-by,' 
 for me, will you ?" said he, putting on his hat, 
 and he passed out into the darkness.
 
 SONG OF THE SIRENS 107 
 
 It was very dark now, and colder than ever, 
 but he made his way down to the parade, and 
 sat down on a seat close to the edge of the low 
 sea-wall. The white fringe of foam of the out- 
 going tide was indistinctly visible in the gather- 
 ing night shadows ; but the rattling of the small 
 pebbles, drawn back by each retiring wave, was 
 audible enough. Though the sirens of the sea 
 no longer appear in human shape to fascinate 
 men, their voices are still audible to mortals, 
 under certain conditions, and lure them to their 
 doom. They had cast their fascinations over 
 Mr. Tyrawley, and he could scarcely tear him- 
 self away from that dark gray shield, with its 
 ragged edge of silver, and low, moaning invi- 
 tation. 
 
 Rooksholm and Nina, even MacAdam and 
 Fireworks, seemed very far off and dim, in com- 
 parison with that sight, and life a most wearying 
 and foolish struggle. 
 
 " I shall come back," he whispered to the 
 sirens, but there were things to be done first. 
 He dragged his aching limbs up from the seat, 
 and fought his way through the wind to Alonzo 
 Terrace, making plans as he went or, rather, 
 a plan, for it was simple to a fault. The song 
 of the sea was in his ears when, surprising 
 Mrs. Higson by the levity of his demeanor, he 
 stumbled upstairs, requesting her, from the land- 
 ing, not to disturb him for a time, as he was 
 going away that night, and had to pack.
 
 I08 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "Is any thing the matter?" said she, eying 
 him severely. 
 
 "Far from it, my dear lady : I'm sure you'll 
 agree that all is unusually well when I turn over 
 this check to you, and request you to expend the 
 change, after taking what I owe you, in sweets 
 for Higson, junior, and the healing soda-water for 
 your husband." And Mrs. Higson smiled grimly. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley entered his room, and his pro- 
 ceedings were somewhat curious. He first 
 opened a writing-case, and destroyed its contents 
 with the exception of a small envelope with a not 
 very remote date on it, which he placed in his 
 breast pocket. He then took one of the port- 
 manteaus he had brought from Rooksholm to 
 the nearest pawnbroker's and, with a lightsome 
 air, pledged it and its contents. He returned 
 for the other, and repeated the performance. 
 He now spent all the money he had just obtained, 
 at the same shop, in the purchase of a malacca 
 cane of price and a small ring of singular design 
 a black enamel heart with a small diamond in the 
 centre which had taken his fancy. Then he 
 again returned to Alonzo Terrace, asked for 
 candles, and sat down to write. He paused long 
 over his first epistle, which was very short, and 
 in which he enclosed the ring, directing it to 
 "Miss Nina St. Just." He attached a label to 
 the malacca cane, with MacAdam's name, and 
 wrote a longish letter, to be hereafter chronicled. 
 As to the first one, it only said :
 
 SONG OF THE SIRENS 109 
 
 " I have failed, but not because I have not 
 tried. I am not worth praying for any more. 
 Accept this, it is black enough to be my heart. 
 Perhaps you can guess what the diamond might 
 have represented. I shall never ask you for any 
 thing in earth or heaven, except to forget that 
 there was ever such a person as 
 
 "INFELIX TYRAWLEY." 
 
 He held his head hard, and occasionally 
 laughed as he finished his letter, and Mrs. Hig- 
 son was very much astonished, and rather 
 scandalized, to hear him singing a fragment of a 
 Christmas hymn as he ran down stairs. 
 
 "Oblige me," said he, "by allowing your son 
 and heir to register and post this letter, and take 
 the other to Dr. MacAdam, Corunna Place, after 
 school to-morrow morning. Impart this six- 
 pence to him, and assure him from me that his 
 copy-book is correct in stating that honesty is 
 the best policy. Did you hear me singing, Mrs. 
 Higson ?" 
 
 He was certainly queer in manner. 
 
 "I heard," said she doubtfully, "'Peace on 
 earth and mercy mild.' ' 
 
 "Well, I'm going to test that theology. The 
 second line may be an improvement on the first. 
 Good-night." 
 
 She looked after his retreating figure. The 
 Little Elijahs are neither a very sympathetic nor a 
 particularly intelligent body, but they are human.
 
 110 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "I think," she said to herself, "I'll post one 
 letter, and take the other myself to-night. 
 There's no peace for the wicked, and perhaps 
 they feel it themselves at times." 
 
 So, half an hour later, she assumed a rigid 
 bonnet, and went out on her errand. Meantime 
 Mr. Tyrawley had proceeded to Cupola Square. 
 Here he stood for a few minutes, looking up at a 
 dark and silent house tenanted only by a care- 
 taker; then struck across the parade, down on to 
 the solitary beach. 
 
 All along the sea-front lights were flashing 
 from the great terraces dinner parties, home 
 circles, gatherings, carriages rattling along the 
 wind-swept road; for winter is the season at 
 Claretown. There was not another soul on the 
 beach as far as he could see; a few faint stars 
 glimmered overhead, but the moon cast only a 
 dim, gray gleam through the masses of cloud 
 driving fast overhead; the sirens were singing 
 far out, and very softly, for the tide was still 
 receding across the sand. 
 
 Before Mr. Tyrawley followed it he did a 
 strange thing : he selected a number of biggish 
 pebbles from the strand, and dropped them into 
 his pockets. Then he strolled out across the 
 wet flat, and climbed over the low rocks to their 
 extreme point near the tide, just on the turn. 
 
 He found a convenient spot, a few feet of sand 
 hidden from the beach and parade by a weedy 
 reef, and here he took off his hat as if he were in
 
 SONG OF THE SIRENS III 
 
 church perhaps he was, in fancy and knelt 
 down. In that posture he took a hymn-book, 
 bound in white and gold, from his pocket, laid it 
 on a ledge of rock, rested his cheek upon it, and 
 waited. Perhaps he prayed; perhaps he only 
 wondered; sometimes a wonder may be a prayer. 
 The tide began to come up, and the first cold 
 swish of it on the sand sent a mortal shiver 
 through him, although the sirens were singing 
 their loudest. 
 
 Wave after wave drifted up. It was not so 
 cold now. He put his hand on the hymn-book 
 to keep it dry as long as possible; the stars came 
 out gently overhead; the wind murmured in a 
 softer key. It was, he thought, a great deal 
 better than the infirmary, and perhaps, as he had 
 known so little of these matters, the One who 
 knew so much all about him even that affair 
 which had left the scar on his hand when he 
 was seventeen would consider that, and other 
 things. 
 
 The moon came out with sudden brightness, 
 sailing in a great blue space overhead; it shone 
 on his face, calm, wide-eyed, smiling, for he was 
 no longer on the Claretown beach, under the 
 cold night sky, but in a country church, in the 
 fair sunlight of a Christmas morning. Mercy ! 
 Yes, there was Mercy.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 IT WAS THE BODY OF A MAN 
 
 "BROTHER, a person named Higson wants to 
 see you. Rather a rude woman. She says she 
 has a letter for you from that Mr. Tyrawley," 
 said Miss MacAdam, pinching her lips. 
 
 " By Jove ! how did the beggar know that I 
 had been sent for to attend to that old ass 
 Methuen's tenth fatal attack of gout ? Send 
 her in." 
 
 She came, and remarked, without formal greet- 
 ing, "He said it was for to-morrow, but he 
 seemed in a strange way, and I thought it best 
 the Little Elijahs having Special Intimations to 
 bring it to you to-night." 
 
 "And you were uncommonly prudent, ma'am," 
 said the doctor. "Oh, bless my soul!" he 
 groaned, as he ran his eye quickly over the last 
 incoherent lines. "This is a serious matter. 
 Which way did he go ? " 
 
 " Down toward the sea," said Mrs. Higson, 
 with a gasp. 
 
 "Oh, Lord ! " said the doctor, "I hope we sha'n't 
 be too late." He snatched his hat, and tore out 
 like a madman down the parade, tossing the letter
 
 IT WAS THE BODY OF A MAN 113 
 
 to his sister as he passed her, with a fierce, 
 "There, that's what your gossips, male and 
 female, have done. Get hot water, blankets, and 
 a roaring fire, will you ? Though, confound it ! 
 I'm afraid it will be too late." 
 
 She replied with many dismayed ejaculations. 
 This was the letter: 
 
 "DEAR MACADAM: 
 
 " It is all up with me. Paget has written to 
 the professor, and he has dismissed me; and to 
 your cousin, and got me kicked out there too. I 
 don't know why he should hunt me down like 
 this. I never hurt him. 
 
 " It's no good, old man. All your kindness 
 will never do any thing for such a poor, unlucky 
 wretch as I am; but I know you won't give me 
 up, so I am going to give you up. That's funny, 
 isn't it ? I do feel awfully funny. I have written 
 
 the same in a few words to Miss ; but, mind, 
 
 I don't want her to understand all you will under- 
 stand when you have read on. 
 
 " Make her think me a rogue, there's a dear, 
 dear chap, or she might grieve her sweet little 
 heart too much over my troubles the rogue I 
 am, in every thing but my love for her and grati- 
 tude to you. Keep the malacca in remembrance 
 of the cur with a bad name you tried, in vain, to 
 save from the social gibbet. 
 
 "I suppose it is all right. I deserve my fate, 
 but I did not choose the wrong road. I was pitch- 
 8
 
 114 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 forked into it before I knew the right one; and 
 now I want to get out of it, nobody but she and 
 you will let me. 
 
 " What can I do ? I cannot get the only job I 
 am fit for, without a character; and if you give 
 me one, you only get in a hole with your friends 
 for taking up a blackguard like me. I would try 
 being a laborer, but it would land me in my bug- 
 bear, the workhouse infirmary, in three days. I 
 suppose a diet of alternate pheasant, Perigord, 
 and champagne, and penny cocoa and stale rolls 
 is not exactly the thing to build up a robust con- 
 stitution upon; particularly when you live with 
 your heart in your mouth, on the turn of a card, 
 or the roll of a ball, and sleep by turns in Alonzo 
 Terrace and swell hotels or, as the French say, 
 a la belle e'toile. 
 
 " No, old chum, I have faced it out. I can't 
 go back to the old life; I hate it so. Slow 
 starvation is the only alternative. There is no 
 room among decent people for me, and I have 
 done with my own set forever. 
 
 " Excuse blots; my hand won't do what I want 
 it, and I am getting to feel wonderfully light 
 about the head. To continue my fellow-crea- 
 tures evidently won't hear what I have to say for 
 myself, because, I suppose, they have never been 
 in my place. There was a song or a hymn I 
 
 heard Miss sing, which keeps running into 
 
 my head ' Despised rejected a Man of sor- 
 rows we hid as it were our faces from Him.' I
 
 IT WAS THE BODY OF A MAN 115 
 
 thought at the time that it was I. T., but it has 
 been slowly dawning on me of late that it means 
 something quite different, and far above my 
 comprehension. If I were talking to you, I 
 might ask you to try and remember what your 
 mother said about it ; but as it is, I think I will 
 go and see for myself, and ascertain if He will 
 not give me a hearing, if nothing else. 
 
 "I remember something to that effect being 
 said at Rooksholm church on Christmas Day, 
 and also something which she read to that old 
 shepherd across the moor, about a fellow's sins 
 not being so much as mentioned to him if he 
 gave them up. 
 
 "The beginning of the Church Service was 
 always a source of astonishment to my mind 
 'When the wicked man turneth away from his 
 wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth 
 that which is lawful and right, he shall save his 
 soul alive.' 
 
 "The wind and the sea seem to be repeating 
 these things, and it is so cool and still out there 
 when one's head and heart burn. 
 
 " If I am doing the wrong thing it will be of a 
 piece with the rest of my life; but don't, DON'T 
 let her know. I think I have courage or 
 cowardice, whichever you like to call it to 
 wait till the tide of death comes up and blots 
 me out a very poor inscription. I have taken 
 precautions against reappearing involuntarily or 
 causing a scandal. I know the currents about
 
 Il6 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Claretown pretty well, and the sands will be 
 better than a pauper's coffin, and who knows ? 
 God kinder than men, except you. 
 
 "If she should question you, tell her I have 
 emigrated to a new country, which is no lie. I 
 would have lived and tried to do you credit, but 
 Paget won't let me. Good-by, God bless you, 
 dear old man. When you get this there will be 
 nothing else left of, 
 
 "Yours affectionately, 
 
 "INFELIX TYRAWLEY." 
 
 As MacAdam hurried, scarcely knowing which 
 way to go, along the parade, through the fitful 
 wind and the cloudy moonlight, a man, running 
 rapidly from the opposite direction, cannoned 
 against him. 
 
 "Hallo!" said the doctor, disengaging him- 
 self. "Seem to be in a hurry." 
 
 "I want the nearest doctor," said the man 
 breathlessly. 
 
 "Well, you've caught him," said MacAdam, 
 a wild hope flashing across his mind. "What's 
 it for ? " 
 
 " I'll tell you as we go." 
 
 "Keep on running, then," said MacAdam. 
 "Though I'm fat, I've sound lungs." 
 
 "Quick, then," said the other, "for God's 
 sake, or we shall be too late. They think there's 
 life in him. It's a gentleman. Two fishermen 
 had been out to see that their groundnets were
 
 IT WAS THE BODY OF A MAN 117 
 
 all right, and found him lying on the rocks, the 
 sea washing over him." 
 
 "Tall, fair, good-looking?" asked the doctor. 
 
 " You've got him, sir." 
 
 " I believe I have," said MacAdam. " Thank 
 God ! Let's put on a spurt." 
 
 They were pulled up short by the appearance 
 of four fishermen stumbling up the sea-wall 
 steps, with something in a sail, which they laid 
 on the esplanade when they saw the messenger 
 had returned. It was the body of a man, cold, 
 drenched, and with the still features set in a 
 calmer, sweeter peace than Mr. Tyrawley's face 
 had ever worn in his life. 
 
 The doctor was down on his knees on the 
 gravel beside him in an instant, with his hand 
 on heart and pulse, using violent language to 
 the crowd who had instantly swarmed round. 
 He uttered a sound of relief his practised ear 
 and finger detected the feeblest flutter of life. 
 
 " We give him brandy, sir," said a bystander, 
 "but it run out of his mouth again." 
 
 "Of course it did," said MacAdam; "might 
 have choked the man. Give me the flask." 
 
 He rubbed a little on the lips and temples, 
 explaining to the spectators that his patient was 
 not drowned, but fainting; borrowed all possible 
 wraps, sent a boy for a fly, and anxiously watched 
 the effect of restorative measures. 
 
 They were successful. There was a slight 
 flutter of the eyelids, the eyes opened widely,
 
 Il8 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 and met MacAdam's with a gaze of blank dis- 
 appointment. A faint, weary smile touched the 
 white lips. 
 
 "It's too bad of you," Mr. Tyrawley whis- 
 pered, as the other stooped lower. "I wish 
 you wouldn't." Then he relapsed into uncon- 
 sciousness. 
 
 The fly drove up, Tyrawley was tenderly trans- 
 ferred to it, and MacAdam, with instructions to 
 the coachman to drive like mad, carried his 
 patient home. 
 
 Miss MacAdam was tearful, but practical. One 
 perusal of that letter had converted her from dis- 
 trust to entire sympathy, and Tyrawley was soon 
 ensconced in the best bedroom, with every heat- 
 producing appliance in the way of blankets and 
 hot bottles, and MacAdam sitting by him with a 
 finger on his pulse; while Miss MacAdam hovered 
 round with propitiatory offerings of beef-tea or 
 jelly. 
 
 "Yes, old girl," said MacAdam, "we'll pour 
 in the nourishment like one o'clock when we get 
 the chance, but we've got to proceed gently. 
 The poor chap's dead-beat, body and mind, and, 
 if I'm not mistaken, in for pneumonia, and per- 
 haps for rheumatic fever as well." 
 
 "You'll keep him here, of course," said she 
 anxiously. 
 
 "Will you?" said the doctor grimly. "Re- 
 member his character." 
 
 " I wonder at you, brother, when the poor
 
 IT WAS THE BODY OF A MAN lip 
 
 young man is so ill. If he were the very 
 worst " 
 
 " There's the hospital," said the doctor. 
 
 " I'm ashamed of you, Alec ! " 
 
 "God bless you, Bess," said the doctor, with 
 a chuckle. " He's coming to in earnest now, 
 and so is fever. All right, old man, lie still." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley made several incoherent remarks 
 to the effect that he didn't know where he was, 
 and it didn't matter so long as he was out of the 
 way; and he couldn't spell "epidermis," because 
 his head ached; and would the professor [excuse 
 him till to-morrow, or stop people from singing 
 Christmas carols in his ears, and chucking 
 billiard-balls over his chest, because it hurt; and 
 it was impossible to teach the game that way; 
 and it was a great pity to bring him ashore, 
 because heaven was ever so much nearer on sea 
 than on land, and the seagulls paid no attention to 
 Paget, and he was despised despised; and where 
 was his hymn-book, and he wanted, wanted 7 with 
 his voice rising to a pathetic cry. 
 
 " Steady, steady ! " said the doctor, laying a 
 kind hand on his hot head. " The hymn-book is 
 all right, and you're at my diggings; and I'll 
 punch Paget's head, if he comes within a mile of 
 you; but you're going to be rather ill, so you 
 must just resign yourself to be looked after by 
 Bess here, and me, for a week or two, and not 
 bother your head about any thing. Eh, Bess ? " 
 
 Miss MacAdam stroked the long, white hand
 
 120 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 that lay passive on the down quilt, in token of 
 amity. Tyrawley looked from one to the other 
 gratefully, and accepted the prescription without 
 further protestation than a faint, " Oh ! it's 
 
 too " which collapsed in the saying; and 
 
 closed his eyes with a long, broken sigh of 
 relief.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC" 
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY'S mind had overruled his body 
 tyrannically for some time, conducting it with 
 bewildering rapidity from the heated idleness of 
 the Club billiard-room to the chilly drudgery of 
 the professor's study; had starved it and feasted 
 it; indulged and enslaved it. Now, that ill- 
 used body rebelled, in the form of a sharp attack 
 of pneumonia and a slight touch of rheumatic 
 fever. He lay wandering in the anxious mazes 
 of delirium, with burning spots in his fallen 
 cheeks, and eyes, as the doctor said, as big as 
 saucers. His ravings were the piteous, ridicu- 
 lous realities not often reported in print past, 
 present, future, jumbled up. 
 
 But through all there ran a thread of pathetic 
 protest against the world's bitter charity, and 
 a continual plaintive refrain, that nobody cared 
 for him, or would have any thing to say to him, 
 except MacAdam, whom he always knew after 
 a minute, and to whom he would cling like a 
 child to its mother, when an imaginary army of 
 Pagets stood pointing the finger of scorn at him 
 round the bed; or when, in the night watches,
 
 122 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 that "conscience toward sin," which all men 
 have, took dark and visible shape, and made him 
 tremble and cry imploringly for a light and a 
 hand. 
 
 "Alec," said Miss MacAdam one day, in a 
 perplexed tone, as they met at lunch, having left 
 the housekeeper (MacAdam had a most unpro- 
 fessional disbelief in hired nurses) in charge of 
 the patient. "Alec, it's a most extraordinary 
 thing, seeing what he has been, but I can keep 
 that poor man quiet with the Bible when nothing 
 else will do it." 
 
 " It is odd," said the doctor. "I do believe 
 myself, if the poor lad had had a mother and 
 sisters, and a decent home, he would have 
 turned out a Sunday-school teacher or a 
 parson." 
 
 "He may yet," said Miss MacAdam oracularly. 
 
 The doctor sighed and looked serious. "If 
 the delirium keeps on, and we can't get in any 
 more nourishment," he said, "I'm afraid he 
 won't turn his hand to any thing more in this 
 world. I think I shall get Keir to come and 
 look at him. I want another opinion, and he's 
 great on pneumonia." 
 
 Miss MacAdam wiped her eyes. "I really 
 can't help getting fond of him," she said apolo- 
 getically. "If he is so bad as that, I don't 
 think I shall go to bed to-night. He is so gentle 
 and patient, and you never hear a wrong word 
 from him."
 
 "I AM DR. MACADAMS TONIC 123 
 
 "Yes," said the doctor, "the agreeable good- 
 for-nothings generally make far better patients 
 than your solid, reputable men of business. 
 They've learned to put up with things." 
 
 Late that evening Mr. Tyrawley was not bet- 
 ter, but worse, and MacAdam, coming out of his 
 room looking very careworn, said to his sister, 
 " Stop in there a bit, while I send round a line 
 to Keir." 
 
 "Is he so very ill ?" 
 
 The doctor nodded gloomily, and ran down 
 stairs. Dr. Keir soon appeared. He was a 
 student of the same year at St. Matthew's as 
 MacAdam, and at the top of his profession in 
 Claretown. He screwed his lips up when he 
 saw Tyrawley, with eyes half closed, and moan- 
 ing very quietly under his breath. A long 
 medical council was held, which ended in Mac- 
 Adam turning away with a very red face, and 
 saying in a whisper, with a choke in it, "Oh, 
 you tell him; I can't." But a faint murmur from 
 the bed, a dim smile, and two wide-open eyes 
 of sunken brightness greeted them as they 
 approached. Miss MacAdam had slipped gently 
 in, and stood there too. 
 
 "I know," he whispered. "Far best God's 
 kindness awfully undeserved but I didn't know 
 such a sin this is so much gentler than the 
 sea or the workhouse Friends," putting his 
 long, bony fingers weakly toward MacAdam. 
 " Bible ! " with a glance at his sister. "I should
 
 124 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 like," he added more strongly, "somebody to 
 pray." 
 
 They looked at one another. "I'll get a 
 Prayer-book," said Miss MacAdam; but the 
 doctor shook his head, and, kneeling down with 
 Tyrawley's hand in his, began, "Our Father," in 
 a husky voice. 
 
 Those great and tender words, first taught by 
 the Man of love and sorrow to His fellow-men, 
 fell like dew on that stray and wounded sheep. 
 He followed inaudibly till they came to the 
 clause, "as we forgive them," paused, glanced 
 with a faint smile in MacAdam's face, said half 
 to himself, as if answering a question " Paget 
 yes," and concluded the prayer; then released 
 his clasp of MacAdam's fingers, murmured a 
 gentle "Thank you," to the three standing by, 
 and relapsed into unconsciousness. 
 
 It was morning. The cold, gray dawn was 
 widening when MacAdam, looking haggard but 
 relieved, met his sister, who had just risen from 
 a snatch of perturbed sleep in the passage. " I 
 think he'll do now. I'll go and have a shave and 
 a cup of coffee, if you'll watch him; and keep 
 pouring in the beef-tea as fast as you can get 
 him to take it. Give him a crack over the head 
 if he says a word." And the little man ran into 
 his room jubilantly. 
 
 Tyrawley was out of danger; but some weary 
 weeks followed, trying both to himself and to his 
 friends. He received the announcement that
 
 "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC" 125 
 
 "he was not going to die this time," with a 
 mournful elevation of the eyebrows, and a mut- 
 tered "It seems a pity," which earned him a 
 lecture from Miss MacAdam, which he received 
 with meekness, but an evident absence of con- 
 viction. He was not irritable, unthankful, dis- 
 obedient; but he was hopelessly depressed. 
 Scolding, planning, cheering alike failed to rouse 
 him, and he seemed, after the first, really to gain 
 no further strength. He .lay all day with his 
 wasted hands straight out on the coverlet; star- 
 ing with dull eyes, and anxious lines on his fore- 
 head, at the same spot on the wall. His weak 
 voice had but one level note of sadness; his very 
 cough was tired and hopeless. The doctor lost 
 his temper at last " Rouse yourself swear, do 
 something, for goodness' sake; for I've done all I 
 know." 
 
 Tyrawley turned languidly toward him, not 
 appearing in the least vexed, or even hurt, "Yes, 
 old man," he said. "I know I'm an awful dead 
 weight ; I was going to speak to you about that, 
 only, I suppose, I hadn't pluck." 
 
 "Well ?" said MacAdam hopefully. 
 
 "Well," said the other deliberately, "I think 
 you had better tell the workhouse people you've 
 got a sick pauper you want them to take off your 
 hands. I mean it, MacAdam. I can't go on 
 living on you any longer; you'd better do it. 
 You'll come and see me sometimes, I know." 
 
 "I'll be blowed if I do," said MacAdam.
 
 126 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "Why, you idiot, you'd be dead in a week, and 
 all Bess's nursing and my professional services 
 thrown away. You have patience, and you'll 
 come round." 
 
 "No, I sha'n't," said Tyrawley peevishly, put- 
 ting his hand over his eyes; and MacAdam went 
 out quite desperate. He happened to meet 
 Grenfell, and relieved himself by pouring the 
 vials of his wrath on that scientist, who blinked 
 at his diatribes like an astonished owl. Then he 
 betook himself to his friend Keir's consulting- 
 room, and they talked the matter over profession- 
 ally and unprofessionally. 
 
 " The only thing," said the latter, stroking his 
 beard reflectively, "that I can see, is to give 
 him an agreeable shock. Has the poor chap 
 got any relations who have sent him to Coven- 
 try, whom we could persuade to take him up 
 now?" 
 
 MacAdam shook his head, considered frown- 
 ingly, then slapped his knee. "By Jove! I'll do 
 it. It isn't fair, I suppose, but, hang it ! we 
 can't let the fellow go on like this. There's 
 no relation," he added, "but there are friends 
 who, if I were to bring them suddenly into his 
 room, I believe he'd " 
 
 "Who," said Keir, with a gentle sneer, "is 
 she ? " 
 
 " Never mind," said MacAdam. " I'll do it, see 
 if I don't, if all Claretown turns its back upon 
 me. I know she is in the place, because my man,
 
 "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC " 127 
 
 who was staying at her people's with me, saw 
 her." And he bustled off. 
 
 Some weeks earlier, on a wild, dull December 
 morning, Nina St. Just was starting for an early 
 visit to a sick child in the village, when she en- 
 countered the postman and received from that 
 functionary, who had perhaps some inkling of 
 how matters stood, Tyrawley's packet and let- 
 ter. She knew the hand, and some intuition of 
 trouble made her turn aside into a quiet spot 
 among the trees, where she read that brief and 
 sad epistle, which was her first love-letter. With 
 the extravagance of youth she made a silent vow 
 it should also be her last, accepting the farewell 
 as final, in her young ignorance of the uncer- 
 tainty of all things ; and learning the alphabet of 
 a woman's lesson, to sit still and face a sorrow. 
 Hers was not a nature to go down under a blow, 
 but rather to take up the burden in steadfast 
 pain ; so, when she had put the letter in her 
 pocket, with a thought of a narrow gold chain 
 which she had, which should sustain the ring 
 round her neck, and so closed her love story, she 
 went, all the same, to pay her visit. She was, if 
 any thing, more tender and thoughtful than usual, 
 though a little pale, and with a touch of strange, 
 sad light, which blotted the childishness out of 
 her eyes. She went straight into the morning- 
 room on her return, with her head rather high. 
 
 "Mother," she said, in that low voice which
 
 128 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 betrays a deeper wound than the wildest scream, 
 " Mr. Tyrawley has written to me to say that he's 
 going quite away, and to wish me ' Good-by. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, thank goodness ! " exclaimed Mrs. St. 
 Just piously. " For what between such a charm- 
 ing man turning out so, and John making me do 
 my duty, and you looking like a martyr at your 
 mother, and like a tiger-cat at your cousin, I've had 
 no peace nor rest. Let me see his letter, child." 
 
 "I'd rather not, dear ; but it is put just as I 
 tell you ; " and Nina retired. 
 
 "That girl is the picture of my man," said 
 Mrs. St. Just; "and, gracious knows, I never 
 understood him to his dying day." 
 
 Nina took her sorrow with perfect calmness, 
 but grew even paler and stiller than before, and 
 acquired a habit of paying stolen visits on week- 
 days to the little church which Tyrawley had 
 helped her to decorate, and where they had 
 knelt side by side. The melancholy light of his 
 presence seemed to linger there, enshrined by 
 her prayers for him. But memory without hope 
 is not a robust diet, and about this period the 
 local doctor remarked, when attending Bertie 
 for some childish ailment, that his sister seemed 
 to have outgrown her strength, and that their 
 return to Claretown for a month or so would be 
 desirable for both. 
 
 Mrs. St. Just was annoyed, for she was just 
 engaged in gorgeously redecorating the draw- 
 ing-room, according to the latest aesthetic prin-
 
 "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC" 129 
 
 ciples. So she finally decided, the dangerous 
 Tyrawley having been driven clean out of Clare- 
 town by the judicious tactics of Mr. Paget, to 
 send the children to Cupola Square in charge of 
 an old nurse of Nina's who lived in the village, 
 following them herself in a week or two. 
 
 And thus it happened that MacAdam's groom 
 had seen Nina and imparted the fact to his 
 master. 
 
 "Bess," said the doctor, with a twinkle in his 
 eye, and an instrument-case in his hand, " I'm 
 going to experiment on our patient." 
 
 " Not with those horrid things, I hope?" said 
 she. "You and Dr. Keir are always saying he 
 has no rallying power whatever." 
 
 MacAdam left the room with a mysterious air, 
 and returned in two minutes in high glee. 
 
 " I think we've hit it now," he exclaimed. 
 "That was only my preliminary gallop." 
 
 "What did you do to him ?" asked she dis- 
 trustfully. 
 
 "I inserted," said the doctor, "a small instru- 
 ment through the ear to the heart, and it sent his 
 pulse up twenty per cent., and made him look as 
 if he had some red blood in him somewhere, after 
 all. I'll tell you what it was," seeing her hope- 
 less bewilderment, "I mentioned a young 
 woman's name, and I'm going to exhibit her as 
 a powerful stimulant get her in to see him. It 
 will be all right and proper, as you're here, Bess." 
 9
 
 130 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "Miss St. Just, I suppose?" said she; but 
 she offered no opposition. 
 
 " Dr. Mac Adam would be glad," said a tempo- 
 rary domestic, appearing at the drawing-room 
 door in Cupola Square, "if you could see him 
 for a few minutes, miss." 
 
 Miss St. Just was not supposed to receive 
 male visitors in her mother's absence; but a 
 middle-aged doctor, a former guest at Rooks- 
 holm, might be considered a safe exception, so 
 he was admitted. He eyed Nina rather curi- 
 ously, for he saw a subtle change in her: a shade 
 of higher sorrow had replaced the cloudless, 
 child-like peace of her countenance. 
 
 "I suppose," said he abruptly, after a casual 
 remark or two, "you've forgotten that poor 
 scamp Tyrawley ? " 
 
 He noticed with satisfaction the indignant 
 curve of her lip, a slight drawing together of her 
 delicate brows, as she answered, "Mr. Tyrawley 
 was not a scamp, and I remember him perfectly." 
 
 The doctor chuckled inwardly, and contra- 
 dicted himself without shame. "No; he was a 
 nice fellow, in spite of what he had done wrong. 
 You wouldn't, I suppose, care to see him ?" 
 
 Nina thrilled a little, and fixed her large eyes 
 with earnest enquiry on his. " But Mr. Tyraw- 
 ley has left Claretown." 
 
 "He must have been uncommonly quick about 
 it, if he has," said the doctor dryly, "for I left
 
 "I AM DR. MACADAMS TONIC 131 
 
 him at my house an hour ago." She looked at 
 him with parted lips and a slight, proud entreaty. 
 "Yes," said the doctor, leaning back in his 
 chair, and staring at the ceiling, "he has been 
 through a lot, poor beggar, since your cousin 
 turned him out pneumonia, rheumatic fever, 
 
 nervous prostration What, Miss St. Just?" 
 
 She was standing beside him, her slender fingers 
 on his arm. 
 
 " Oh, tell me is he is he dying?" 
 
 "Oh, no," said the doctor, rising and patting 
 her hand gently, " the danger's all over; Sut the 
 poor chap is terribly down, and we can't pick 
 him up anyhow; and I think if a certain young 
 lady would look round at my house for half an 
 hour some afternoon, it would do more than all 
 my physic." 
 
 A deep blush stole over her cheek, up to the 
 roots of her fair hair, but she looked full in his 
 face as she said, "Shall I come now?" 
 
 "You're a good girl," said he. "God bless 
 you ! No, I think to-morrow will be best. I 
 must get him up a little, in mind and body, to 
 receive visitors. Of course," he added kindly, 
 "you'll find him a good deal changed, and as 
 thin as a whipping-post. All eyes and bones, 
 and not a word to say for himself ; so you'll have 
 to do the talking." 
 
 "I can do any thing that will do him good. 
 And I don't care, Dr. MacAdam," she added 
 proudly, "what any body says."
 
 132 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 " I was going to ask you," said he, " if you did. 
 Your mother " 
 
 "Mother is my step-mother, you know," said 
 she ; "and she does not understand." 
 
 "Well, my dear girl," said the doctor, rather 
 moved, "if you'll come to my house to-morrow 
 at three o'clock, I think you'll save a man's life. 
 Bring Master Bertie with you, as a sacrifice to 
 propriety, and Bess will amuse him, while I look 
 after you and the patient. No, I sha'n't stop, be- 
 cause I've given you plenty to think of. Three, 
 to-morrow." And he took his leave. 
 
 Next day the doctor appeared to his passive 
 patient to have gone out of his senses. He 
 hunted the maid to and fro, as she "did" the 
 room, whistled Scotch reels with the greatest 
 energy, and even executed a step or two. He in- 
 sisted on bringing a barber to shave Tyrawley, 
 and cut his locks. 
 
 " Those ambrosial moustachios of yours," said 
 he, "are awfully run to seed; and there's a 
 velvet Coat of mine, I think, we could get you 
 into. Any thing will fit a skeleton." 
 
 Tyrawley groaned and submitted, as he sub- 
 mitted to every thing. He would have allowed 
 himself to be carted off to the infirmary with 
 equal indifference. When, however, he was 
 finally let alone, he enquired, with languid curi- 
 osity, more as a concession to the doctor's excite- 
 ment than because he felt any interest in the 
 matter himself, "What is it all for?"
 
 "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC" 133 
 
 "Wouldn't you like to see old Grenfel! ?" said 
 the doctor mendaciously. "I think a visitor or 
 two would do you good." 
 
 "It would tire me awfully," said the sick man. 
 "But it's as you like. They'll find me a precious 
 interesting invalid." 
 
 "Your society is not enlivening, I must own," 
 said Mac Adam ; "but there's no accounting for 
 tastes. Look at the shocking manner in which' 
 you've wormed your way into poor Bessie's affec- 
 tions. You humbug ! She looks upon you now 
 as an injured martyr, and lectures me if I suggest 
 that your conduct is in any respect whatever 
 short of angelic." 
 
 "Yes, I am an awful trouble, old man. If 
 you'll let me " 
 
 "Dry up now," said the doctor, "and eat 
 your dinner like a Christian for once, instead of 
 picking at it like a canary bird. No wonder 
 you're such an object, now you're shaved." 
 
 "Please, I eat all I can." 
 
 The doctor grunted, and retired to complete 
 his plans, while Miss MacAdam administered 
 chicken and jelly with feminine patience. 
 
 Later on, MacAdam entered with a medicine 
 glass in his hand, whose contents he gave Tyraw- 
 ley, answering his languid "What, an extra 
 dose ? " with a sarcastic, " Yes ; I want to tone 
 down those lovely cerulean hues in your com- 
 plexion." 
 
 "Grenfell won't mind; except that he's always
 
 134 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Interested in any body's cuticle," said the sick 
 man. But the doctor had disappeared again, 
 after taking a long look round, and saying care- 
 lessly to his sister : 
 
 " Bess, I want you for a minute," while Tyraw- 
 ley relapsed into his normal state of quiescence. 
 
 Half an hour elapsed. There was a ring at the 
 front door, and, shortly after, MacAdam appeared, 
 with an air of exaggerated indifference, which his 
 friend was too spiritless to do more than observe. 
 
 "Are you prepared for the professor?" en- 
 quired the doctor. 
 
 Tyrawley turned his half-closed eyes toward 
 the door in weary assent. 
 
 " Get a welcoming smile ready then. Here he 
 is." And the doctor retired hastily, and Nina 
 stood in his place. Tyrawley gasped heavily, 
 gazed, and put his shaking hands over his eyes, 
 withdrew them, gazed again; then, with an in- 
 articulate cry, half unbelief, half tenderness, 
 stretched them out toward her as a child stretches 
 toward its mother. It was with something of a 
 mother's gesture that she came to him, took those 
 faltering fingers, and drew his sinking head 
 against her slight, firm shoulder, and, feeling how 
 faintly and wildly his heart throbbed, whispered, 
 half playfully, though her voice was full of tears : 
 
 "/am Dr. MacAdam's tonic." 
 
 "The Elixir of Life," he murmured. "But 
 this is madness ! Grenfell turned me out, and 
 your mother, and MacAdam's cousin, and the
 
 "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC 135 
 
 very -sea wouldn't have me. There's no place in 
 the world for me. Why do you come ? Out of 
 pity?" 
 
 It was a hard thing to say, but those big, fever- 
 ish eyes, those hollow cheeks, with a faint, burn- 
 ing spot in each, that fragile, hopeless wreck, 
 which was all that remained of the gay and 
 gallant Tyrawley, pleaded more eloquently to a 
 nature like hers than all the music of the poets. 
 She stooped gently down. 
 
 "No, not pity." 
 
 " What, then ? Say it, because I can't believe 
 it." 
 
 She answered his appeal, lifting her head and 
 looking him straight in the eyes. 
 
 "Out of love" she said. 
 
 There was a pause. He drew her hands to his 
 lips with a certain consecrating solemnity, and 
 said, though his breath was scant, and joy almost 
 choked him: 
 
 "Then I will live to thank you, and God, and 
 be a better man." 
 
 Perhaps the next half hour is best left un- 
 chronicled. To people who have never known 
 any thing like it, and the sacredness of love that 
 has trembled on the verge of parting and death, 
 it might appear tedious; and those who have 
 known it can realize it better by their own heart's 
 memory than by another's pen. 
 
 It is enough to say that they understood each 
 other, without explanations or vows.
 
 136 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Mac Adam presently put his head in at the- door 
 with a keen look at his patient, which was fol- 
 lowed by a broad, satirical smile, which put 
 Tyrawley out of countenance. 
 
 " Well," said he, " will you go to the infirmary 
 now?" 
 
 "Yes," said the other, "if Miss St. Just will 
 come and see me there there or anywhere." 
 
 "Can you have patience with this sentimental 
 idiot, Miss Nina?" said MacAdam. "But I 
 know you will. There's a sort of provision of 
 nature, or Providence rather, for fellows like 
 him. A well-conducted person like myself stands 
 no chance. Now, I'll allow you," said he, tak- 
 ing out his watch, "in my professional capacity, 
 half an hour not a minute longer. So, during 
 that time, you had best be practical." 
 
 "Yes," said Tyrawley his eye was bright and 
 his voice firm "we will." 
 
 "Got your plan ? " said the doctor sceptically. 
 
 " I have, if Miss St. Just approves." 
 
 "Well, then, I'll leave you to discuss it. Mind, 
 only half an hour. I dare say your heart's half 
 over the place as it is." 
 
 "No," said Tyrawley; " it's where it has been 
 since last September." 
 
 "Oh, good-afternoon ! " said the doctor. 
 
 A very serious talk followed, in which Mr. 
 Tyrawley displayed a rather unexpected degree 
 of firmness, which even Nina's mournful looks 
 and anxious objections failed to shake.
 
 "i AM DR. MACADAM'S TONIC" 137 
 
 "No," said he finally, though it was with a 
 heavy sigh and a wistful look, " you shall promise 
 me nothing you shall hold yourself free as air. 
 I sha'n't be anywhere near to trouble you; but 
 you will know that nothing shall daunt, or de- 
 press, or dishearten me; and no power on earth 
 shall send me back to the old, bad life. I am 
 your humble servant, your rescued castaway 
 that's all." 
 
 ''Am I to be nothing to you?" said she 
 timidly. 
 
 "My queen and my patron saint; my friend 
 for a year at any rate," said he. "And then and 
 then, if what I am thinking of succeeds, I shall 
 ask you to see me once if you haven't forgotten 
 all about me and, if you can and will, to give 
 me a hope to work for but no promise ? " 
 
 " But, if I choose to promise ? " 
 
 "No," said he, almost with sternness. "I 
 know I'm too awfully selfish and presumptuous 
 even in saying so much, but I tried to die out of 
 your way, Nina; and, as that dear old chap down 
 stairs wouldn't let me, the only other thing I 
 can do is to rise to a better life, by God's help, 
 for your sake and / will ! " 
 
 "The half hour," said the doctor, entering, 
 " has unfeelingly run out, and Bertie is getting 
 fractious. I shall be down stairs." 
 
 "When shall I come and see you again?" 
 asked she. 
 
 " That," said Tyrawley, with a sigh, " I suppose
 
 138 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 you had better arrange with Mac. He'll know 
 what is right. But" with excessive meekness 
 "you'll let a fellow see you once more, at any 
 rate, before that year of probation ?" 
 
 Then they parted. Theirs was not love of a 
 nature that needs many caresses for its suste- 
 nance; the few that occur are almost sacramen- 
 tal, and only mark supreme moments of joy or 
 pain; but there are caresses of look, and tone, 
 and even thought, which mean perhaps more. 
 
 MacAdam gave it as his opinion that Nina might 
 come again in about a week. "And after that," 
 he added, with the national prudence which had 
 temporarily deserted him, "you must manage 
 your own affairs. In fact, I think of taking him 
 into the country. I've got a horse or two I want 
 to look after on a farm in the next county, and 
 the change will do him good. The winds get so 
 bitter here in spring." 
 
 Nina breathed low and earnest thanks, and 
 went away with Bertie, who opined that she had 
 been blubbering over Tyrawley; but he didn't 
 mind, as he was a jolly fellow, and it would put 
 that beast John in no end of a wax if he knew 
 it. "And you understand, Nin, I'm not going 
 to tell any body," the young gentleman concluded 
 sagely.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 "i INTEND TO DISAPPEAR" 
 
 " THAT'S the third time I've been up in three 
 hours," said the doctor gleefully, as he entered 
 Miss MacAdam's prim drawing-room, guiltless of 
 aesthetic vanities, "and I'm blessed if he hasn't 
 been as fast asleep as a baby all the while. Love 
 beats sleeping-draughts, and no mistake. Keir's 
 agreeable shock was an inspiration. Hallo! 
 there's his bell. I must overhaul him now he's 
 awake, in case of reaction." 
 
 But there was no reaction, and the doctor's 
 abrupt question, " Now, which of Bess's invalid 
 fallals will you have as a pick-me-up ? " elicited 
 a modest, " I don't want any invalid fallals, 
 thank you. I should like a chop, if you don't 
 mind." 
 
 " Oh, Strephon, Strephon ! what an anticlimax. 
 Perhaps you could eat two ? " 
 
 "I'll try," said the other composedly. "I 
 mean to get well, MacAdam, and not lie here 
 like a wet blanket; and oh! I want to tell you 
 my plans." His cheek flushed, his eye light- 
 ened. 
 
 "Steady, steady, old man! I don't want to
 
 140 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 hear a word till that chop has gone down. Shut 
 up, or you won't be able to digest it." 
 
 Tyrawley meekly obeyed, discussed his chops 
 with appetite, and resigned himself afterward to 
 the doctor's orders of another rest. 
 
 "In fact," said the latter, "you had better 
 not talk any more to-night. We'll have a long 
 jaw to-morrow, if you like, but that pulse is a bit 
 rackety still. Lie quiet, and let Bess come and 
 read you a stupid novel." 
 
 Next day the improvement in Tyrawley was 
 more marked than ever; and after Mac Adam 
 had, in the morning, thoroughly snubbed him, 
 and made him consume a mighty square meal, 
 that good physician, in the afternoon, resignedly 
 drew a chair to the bedside, and said: 
 
 " Now, old man, for this scheme of yours. I 
 expect it's too romantic to stand my rough hand- 
 ling." 
 
 "It's very far from being romantic," said 
 Tyrawley, looking straight in his face, "though 
 it sounds rather peculiar at first. I intend to 
 disappear for a year." 
 
 " Bless us and save us! What does this lunatic 
 mean?" 
 
 " I'm perfectly sober, and rather sad. I want 
 to disappear for a year from the knowledge of 
 all mankind; to go right down under the surface 
 of society, by my own free will, instead of being 
 kicked there; and " he added, his face kindling 
 with a sterner light than those graceful and easy
 
 "i INTEND TO DISAPPEAR" 141 
 
 features had ever worn before " to rise again 
 by my own efforts. But I must have a start, I'm 
 afraid." 
 
 " Old Grenfell " began MacAdam. 
 
 "No," said the other, with a smile and a 
 frown. "And no more recommendations, to get 
 my only friend in trouble; but you see, old man, 
 when I started to perform that piece of cowardice 
 on the rocks, I got rid of all my worldly posses- 
 sions except those clothes on the chair! So" 
 He stopped. The words seemed to stick in his 
 throat, but he forced them out "I want to 
 know if you'll put the finishing-touch to all your 
 kindness; and, sink or swim, I'll never trouble 
 you again, except to report myself and thank 
 you in a year from the day I say ' good-by. ' 
 
 " Well, what's the damage ? " said MacAdam. 
 
 "Will you lend me three pounds for six 
 months? If I don't pay it then, you'll never see 
 me again." 
 
 "No, I will not," said the doctor violently. 
 " I won't be a party to any cracked-brain scheme 
 that I'm to be kept in the dark about. Nice 
 chap you are to go under the surface,' and ex- 
 pect to come up like a jack-in-the-box, with a 
 chest like yours, and just out of a dangerous 
 illness ! " 
 
 "But listen," pleaded Tyrawley, who looked 
 considerably diminished. " Upon my honor ! 
 I've thought it all out in the most practical " 
 
 "Practical fiddlestick! Oh, I see through-
 
 142 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 you ! Starvation board and lodging, while you're 
 seeking some twopenny-ha'penny clerkship, in 
 some hole where they're not particular as to 
 character, at boy's wages. Stew yourself up in 
 some back office, full of carbonic acid gas, for 
 twelve hours a day ! " 
 
 Tyrawley shook his head. "No," said he. 
 "I should want some recommendation even for 
 that. I know the sort of thing, for I had an 
 acquaintance who tried it, in a spasm of disgust 
 at the other thing. You answer an advertise- 
 ment, you find a hundred lads fresh from school, 
 and two dozen ne'er-do-weels like yourself, in 
 various stages of seediness, looking daggers 
 at each other. Say I'm early in the field, and 
 my coat has not begun to turn green, I get 
 the favor of an interview with the manager, who 
 looks me over, and more or less civilly puts the 
 inevitable question of, ' Then, may I ask how 
 a man of your appearance and education offers 
 to do a boy's work at boy's wages ? ' If I say 
 'Because I can't get any other,' he h'm's and 
 ha's, and enquires for my character, and when I 
 
 reply with 'Unluckily, I haven't got one, but 
 
 he dismisses me with a pitying shake of the 
 head or a ' just-what-I-expected ' sort of laugh. 
 I know," he concluded, with plaintive simplicity, 
 " that my appearance is against me, for that sort 
 of thing. Somehow I can't look business-like; 
 though I can't tell where the failure lies." 
 
 MacAdam gave a short, scornful laugh. " No,
 
 "I INTEND TO DISAPPEAR 143 
 
 my dear fellow; it's all out of your line, clerk- 
 ing is." 
 
 "But wait," said the other eagerly. " I give 
 you my word that I'm not going in for that sort 
 of thing at all. Quite the opposite." 
 
 "Oh, the opposite!" said Dr. MacAdam, 
 still sarcastic. " Navvying, perhaps. A pick-axe 
 would look well in this mighty grasp." And he 
 took up slightingly a white and wasted member 
 which lay on the coverlet. 
 
 "Don't!" said the other ruefully. "You 
 make a beggar feel so small. You said I should 
 get my biceps back again. Besides, it isn't nav- 
 vying; it's something where manners and inches 
 count, and you always say," insinuatingly, "that 
 I'm a civil customer." 
 
 "Oh, yes! you've a smooth, carneying tongue, 
 and a way of making eyes, when you choose, that 
 would wheedle the bit out of a horse's mouth; 
 but " 
 
 "Thanks, old man," said Tyrawley, who, far 
 from being insulted, seemed inspirited by this 
 remark. "Then," he added, offering the best 
 illustration in his power of its truth, by fixing his 
 eyes imploringly on the doctor's, "will you lend 
 me that three pound ? It's quite true that I want 
 it to live on till I can turn round; and for one 
 other thing." 
 
 " I hate mysteries," said MacAdam peevishly. 
 " And I'm sure this Utopian idea of yours is 
 some bosh. You'd tell me about it fast enough,
 
 144 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 if it wasn't. I know you. No, I sha'n't lend it 
 you." 
 
 Tyrawley reflected, sighed, pulled his mustache, 
 looked at MacAdam to detect any sign of yield- 
 ing, and proposed a compromise. " If you know 
 what the show is in a month from the time I start, 
 will that do ? " 
 
 "No," snorted the doctor, "it won't. I 
 sha'n't give my consent to a new form of suicide, 
 any more than I did to the old one." 
 
 "Very well," said Tyrawley, "then I won't 
 ask you any more. God knows, you've done 
 more than a brother would do, already. I'll 
 stick to my plan, even if I sweep a crossing and 
 sleep in a doorway for a start." 
 
 The 'doctor flung himself back in his chair, 
 plucked his purse out of his pocket, extracted 
 three sovereigns, and dropped them on the 
 coverlet. 
 
 "There, you pig-headed ass; have your way, 
 and much good may it do you. Nice start you'll 
 make on three pounds ! But mind, that inter- 
 view after a month is a part of the bargain, if 
 only for a medical inspection, and you'll have to 
 pass the doctor before I let you out." 
 
 Tyrawley wrung his hand, in spite of his resist- 
 ance, fingered the sovereigns with more affection 
 than he had ever displayed toward ten times that 
 amount, come by chance or chicanery, and whis- 
 pered, because the struggle had been rather a 
 hard one under present conditions, and perhaps
 
 "i INTEND TO DISAPPEAR" 145 
 
 because he did not in his secret heart feel sure of 
 success, " Thank you, old man. I'll thank you 
 better some day." 
 
 "All right," said the doctor, rubbing his nose 
 irritably. "I suppose now I've got to build you 
 up, so that you don't get run down when this 
 mighty project is in the a, b, c stage ? But I 
 know how it "11 end ; not with a doctor, but an 
 undertaker; or, at the best, that precious infirm- 
 ary of yours." 
 
 "No," said Tyrawley doggedly. "If it 
 conies to that, I can creep into a ditch or a wood 
 like any other hunted animal, and make a decent 
 end there; but I'm going to live and work, old 
 chap," he added, recovering his spirits, " so that 
 you and she mayn't be ashamed of me, after all."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE FIRST PLUNGE 
 
 HOPE is a great medicine, and from that hour 
 Mr. Tyrawley's recovery was rapid. He was 
 soon up, dressed, occupying the invalid arm-chair 
 by the drawing-room fire, and had just begun to 
 creep out on the sunny side of the street, looking 
 large-eyed and haggard, but cheerful, when one 
 day a note was brought him, which made the 
 color rush to his cheek and his hand tremble. 
 
 "Mv DEAREST FRIEND [It was not a very 
 lover-like beginning, but it was characteristic]: 
 We are going abroad the day after to-morrow. 
 Mother has heard I think my cousin must have 
 found it out that I came to see you at Dr. Mac- 
 Adam's, and, of course, when she asked me about 
 it, I told her the truth. She is very much vexed, 
 and I am sorry to vex her, for she has always 
 been kind, though of course she cannot under- 
 stand as my own mother would have done. She 
 thinks if she takes me away I shall forget you ; 
 but I never shall, nor have a word said against 
 you. In a year, I hope, we shall meet again, and 
 have a long, long talk. Meanwhile, perhaps, I 
 shall hear from Dr. MacAdam how you are get-
 
 THE FIRST PLUNGE 147 
 
 ting on, as mother says we must not write to one 
 another; but that will not make any difference 
 in our remembrance, will it ? I have persuaded 
 mother to let me see you for five minutes in the 
 Octagon Gardens to-morrow, at three o'clock, to 
 say 'good-by.' It will not be a nice 'good-by'; 
 for there is always such a crowd when the band 
 plays; but it will be better than nothing. 
 
 "First, however, ask Dr. MacAdam if he is 
 sure it is quite, quite safe for you to come out, 
 and send back word ' yes ' or ' no ' by old nurse, 
 who brings this. If it is ' no,' write me one letter 
 to say 'good-by' for the present, mother says 
 I may receive it, and believe me, 
 
 " Always yours, 
 
 "NINA." 
 
 Of course "yes "was the reply, and anxious 
 were the looks cast by those two unprosperous 
 lovers at the evening sky; but fortune smiled, 
 and the sun was bright when Tyrawley started 
 (naturally too soon) for his limited interview. 
 
 " I shall be somewhere on the ground," said the 
 doctor, "with smelling salts and a stretcher. 
 You're still a trifle shaky for rapturous adieus." 
 
 It was, indeed, a brief and poor farewell to give 
 him heart for twelve months such as lay before 
 him, but a heart that has known starvation can 
 live on very little; and as to Nina, she was sus- 
 tained by that unreasoning faith in the future 
 which belongs to extreme youth.
 
 148 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 They stood in the quietest corner they could 
 find, looking into one another's faces; two big 
 tears stood on Nina's eyelashes, and there was a 
 quiver of the muscles round Tyrawley's mouth, 
 not altogether attributable to physical weakness. 
 The gay crowd, in winter furs and velvets, 
 drifted past them like a dream. The band of 
 the Lancers, discoursing elaborate music, might 
 have been the wind in the trees for aught they 
 cared. 
 
 "A year is such a long time," said she, in a 
 voice like the moan of a wounded dove. 
 
 "Yes," said he; " but think what it will be to 
 meet, after all; and I shall be working and learn- 
 ing to love you better I suppose that's possible, 
 though I can't at present see how it can be; and, 
 whatever I am, it shall be something honest and 
 honorable that you, anyhow, won't be ashamed 
 of. I'll keep my queen's white rose unstained, 
 and her colors out of the mire." 
 
 "And I shall be always asking God to help 
 you. You'll go to church, won't you ?" 
 
 "I will," said he emphatically; "and though 
 perhaps you would be rather shocked, or inclined 
 to laugh, if you knew what your knight was going 
 to do, you would understand, if nobody else does, 
 that it is an awful lot better than my wretched 
 past. " 
 
 "Yes, I am sure it will be good; but is it any 
 thing very hard ? " 
 
 " Nin, mother says the five minutes are up,"
 
 THE FIRST PLUNGE 149 
 
 remarked Bertie, with reluctance. "I said I 
 didn't know where you were, but she pointed you 
 out, so I had to come. But I shouldn't mind her, 
 if I were you. She can't do more than scold, so 
 you might as well have a minute or two more 
 spooning. Don't mind me," and he stuck his 
 hands in his pockets, and elaborately turned his 
 back. 
 
 " I must not set your mother more against me, 
 however," said Tyrawley reluctantly. 
 
 He held out his hand, took hers, stooped his 
 head over it for a single instant, with a whispered 
 " God bless you! " which her faltering lips could 
 scarcely echo. Then they walked back silently, 
 side by side, to Mrs. St. Just, who looked par- 
 ticularly fat and flurried, and by no means happy 
 in the character of a stern parent, especially when 
 her feminine eyes noticed the very distinct signs 
 of recent illness in Tyrawley, as he removed his 
 hat in farewell. 
 
 " Goodness' sake ! Don't stop about here," 
 she said, half irritably, half compassionately. 
 " Go home, and get to bed, there's a good man, 
 and forget all this this nonsense." 
 
 He smiled faintly, cast a long, expressive look 
 at Nina, and left the gardens. 
 
 MacAdam was hovering outside, and pounced 
 upon him. For once, however, he abstained 
 from chaff, and merely said : 
 
 "Come along, old man ; you don't look par- 
 ticularly grand. Come and have a cup of Bess's
 
 150 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 tea, and lie down, and consider your mad plans 
 at leisure." 
 
 Tyrawley thanked him mournfully, but had not 
 a word to say just then; for thirty-four knows 
 more of the painfulness of life than eighteen. 
 
 It was a raw, bleak morning. A chill, heavy 
 fog hung over Claretown ; sea and sky were 
 leaden gray. A small and shabby bag, contain- 
 ing all Mr. Tyrawley's earthly possessions, 
 stood ready in MacAdam's hall, and the owner 
 sat facing his host, for the last time, at a well- 
 laden breakfast table, to which a certain sickness 
 of heart, of which he was half ashamed, had pre- 
 vented his doing any justice whatever. Miss 
 MacAdam had departed, rather tearful, to see to 
 the packing of a small luncheon-basket, and even 
 the little doctor was sober and taciturn at the 
 prospect of turning the wild hawk his kindness had 
 tamed into the social desert once more. Tyraw- 
 ley tried to pull himself together, breaking the 
 silence with a laugh which thinly disguised a sigh. 
 
 "I feel," he said, "precisely like a small child 
 going to school for the first time. I've got aw- 
 fully soft. No matter; a few kicks and cold-shoul- 
 ders will soon bring me into hard condition again. " 
 
 " Funking ? " said the doctor. " Mighty enter- 
 prise doesn't look so brilliant on a nearer view ? 
 Say the word, like a sensible chap, and I'll un- 
 pack that bag." 
 
 "I am a sensible chap, I hope, though I have
 
 THE FIRST PLUNGE 151 
 
 been a mixture of knave and fool ; but I don't 
 funk, and that bag and I are going to sow our- 
 selves as the seed of a glorious crop." 
 
 " You're a maniac," said the doctor. "But I 
 know it's no good talking." 
 
 " Only in one way." 
 
 " What's that ? " 
 
 "It shows me," said Tyrawley, coming over 
 and standing by him, "more and more, how 
 awfully kind and good you are to a poor beggar 
 who has absolutely no claim on you, except that 
 every-body else is down on him." 
 
 " Oh, dry up that ! " said MacAdam. " Better 
 do as I tell you than sentimentalize." 
 
 Tyrawley looked rather hurt, but veiled it 
 with a laugh. " Fancy my being accused of 
 sentiment ; every-body would tell you it was to 
 get something out of you." 
 
 " Stow that also," said MacAdam. "I know 
 a fool when I see one." 
 
 "Please don't abuse me the last morning," 
 entreated the other meekly. "I'm taking away 
 my sentiment and my folly to a more bracing 
 atmosphere. You'll come and see me off, won't 
 you, old chap ? " 
 
 "Yes," said the doctor decidedly. "'The 
 unhappy criminal was attended to the scaffold 
 by '" 
 
 " I say, don't ! " cried the other super- 
 stitiously. " In a month, I hope, I shall write 
 and tell you every thing."
 
 152 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "That's a bargain ; and if that chest of yours 
 gives you any trouble, you'll send for your physi- 
 cian, remember." 
 
 Then Miss MacAdam appeared, with pro- 
 visions, and much anxious counsel as to flannels 
 and steadiness. Tyrawley kissed her hand with 
 moist eyes, and promised to remember every 
 thing; then he was driven to the station by 
 MacAdam, and got into a third-class carriage, 
 while the other stood at the door. The bell 
 rang, there was a last grip of the hand two 
 hands so unlike; a rather husky "Good-by 
 God bless you!" was exchanged; the doctor 
 turned away, muttering "Confounded idiot!" to 
 hide his emotion from himself, and Mr. Tyrawley 
 was borne off to make his new start alone. 
 
 The fog had settled down into its proper 
 London orange when he got out at London 
 Bridge station, and made his way along the 
 greasy roads to that thickly populated and 
 malodorous district which is known as the 
 Township. He paused at the corner of High 
 Street, drew a long breath, took a long look 
 round, and finally, crossing the road, plunged 
 into a labyrinth of dingy streets, rich in the 
 commonest of common lodging-houses. These 
 retreats not being very obvious to the unused 
 eye, he paused at a corner and addressed him- 
 self to a female native, who, caparisoned with 
 the usual baby, with a small shawl as head-gear, 
 stood there, airing herself. Perhaps she was
 
 THE FIRST PLUNGE 153 
 
 waiting for somebody inside the low-browed 
 public-house, where the gas was just beginning 
 to flicker through the red curtains. 
 
 "Can you tell me," said Mr. Tyrawley, raising 
 his hat with his usual politeness, "where there 
 is a common lodging-house ? I want to get a 
 night's lodging cheap! " 
 
 She looked him all over with a long stare, 
 first of amazement, then of suspicion, and simply 
 replied, in the native vocabulary, "Gar'on ! " 
 
 Divining this as an expression of incredulity, 
 he added, "I should really be awfully obliged, 
 for I'm a stranger here." 
 
 She took another look. "Are you sure you 
 ain't chaffing ?" 
 
 " Is there any chaff in wanting a night's 
 lodging ?" 
 
 "Toffs like you," said she, "don't want lodg- 
 ings in Rose and Key Street, unless " Here 
 
 her eye fell eloquently on the bag. 
 
 "Nothing wrong there, I assure you, and I'm 
 not a toff, and really, my dear lady, you'd do me 
 no end of a favor if you could suggest a tolerably 
 clean place." 
 
 " What can yer go ? " 
 
 "Threepence." 
 
 She began to take a womanly interest in him. 
 Gentlemanly strangers, who lift their hats and 
 address strangers at street corners as "my dear 
 lady," not in derision, are uncommon in Rose 
 and Key Street.
 
 154 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TVRAWLEY 
 
 "You take my tip," said she; "you go the 
 other brown, and cross the High Street to St. 
 Cuthbert's Chambers. I've heard of toffs under 
 a cloud there; but in the kens just round 
 here " and she entered into sundry entomologi- 
 cal and other particulars too painful to transcribe. 
 
 He thanked her with becoming sincerity and 
 went away; while, rough but womanly, she 
 shouted after him, "Wish you luck ! " at which he 
 turned and lifted his hat again. 
 
 He found a big corner building with "St. 
 Cuthbert's Chambers " cut in a tablet over the 
 door, mounted the flight of stone steps, stated 
 his object rather shamefacedly at the window 
 of the little entrance-lodge, where he was en- 
 countered by the "Deputy" (the generic title 
 of the gentleman who admits and declines 
 admission). He was past surprises, and briefly 
 replied, "Fourpence," and, on receiving that 
 sum, presented Tyrawley with a bone ticket and 
 the gratuitous advice that he had better be there 
 early if he wanted to pick his bed. 
 
 "Could I," said the latter, looking rather 
 wildly round him, "leave my bag in the kitchen 
 or anywhere ? " 
 
 The deputy laughed compassionately. " Bless 
 you, it would be sold by auction before your 
 back had been turned half a minute. But I can 
 put it in one of the lockers, if you like, : and if it's 
 all square. We don't want more ' coppers ' than 
 we can help coming about the Chambers."
 
 THE FIRST PLUNGE 155 
 
 " Perfectly square, I give you my word. I'm 
 much obliged to you." 
 
 The man took the bag with a gruff " All right, 
 sir," and turning to his wife, who sat within, in 
 front of the narrow shelves occupied by plates of 
 sliced brawn, German sausage, and other delica- 
 cies, communicated the fact that they had another 
 swell down on his luck. 
 
 At this moment Tyrawley returned. " Is 
 there," he enquired, "such a thing as getting 
 some supper here by and by?" 
 
 "You can get it cold from me, or you can 
 bring your own grub and cook it at the kitchen 
 fire, if the pans ain't all in use. Crockery pro- 
 vided, and all conveniences if you want a wash." 
 
 "And all," said Tyrawley, "for fourpence ? 
 By Jove ! it is cheap ! " 
 
 "So," said the deputy, looking at him im- 
 pressively, " is the company ; and sometimes 
 nasty." 
 
 "Beggars," replied he, "cannot be choosers. 
 Thanks. See you again." 
 
 " Jolly bird, if he is under a cloud," remarked 
 the deputy, as Tyrawley ran down the steps a 
 second time. 
 
 After a critical inspection of shops he entered 
 a temple of local fashion, where corduroys 
 flapped in his face, and men's boots of portentous 
 thickness garlanded the doorway, and, lounging 
 against th"e counter, remarked, in his gentlemanly 
 drawl, " I say, I want a proper coster's jersey."
 
 156 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 The proprietor, a little fat man, grinned and 
 stared, but with a brief, " There you are, then," 
 fished out an armful sailor blue, Salvation Army 
 red, startling stripes of orange and purple and 
 cast them on the counter; investigating curiously 
 the white taper fingers and thumb which turned 
 them delicately over. 
 
 "H'm these," said Mr. Tyrawley, putting 
 aside the stripes, "are perhaps a little violent ; 
 this " curiously examining a dark-blue one 
 "would do, I should think. How much?" 
 
 " Two-and-eleven, your size. You ain't ever 
 wore one before, I suppose ? " he added, with 
 scorn and pity, observing his customer's ignorant 
 handling of the selected woollen strait-waistcoat. 
 
 " Never," he replied, putting aside his hat and 
 coat, and eying it doubtfully. " Which is the 
 way in ? " 
 
 The proprietor indicated it, but observed sar- 
 castically that he had better take off that flash 
 collar and tie, if he wanted to look any thing like. 
 
 When Tyrawley had agreed, and writhed him- 
 self into his new garment, to the great disar- 
 rangement of his satiny locks, a small glass was, 
 with a slight chuckle, handed to him, in which he 
 gravely studied himself a moment, then laid it 
 down, with a calmly convinced, " I do look an 
 awful ruffian ! Humiliating discovery, how the 
 absence of two inches of starched linen levels 
 things ! " 
 
 However, he paid for the jersey, which he
 
 THE FIRST PLUNGE 157 
 
 kept on, and gratefully acceding to the man's 
 offer to make a parcel of his other belongings, 
 sallied forth again, bending his steps this time 
 to a certain public-house known as the Apple 
 Tree, and much frequented by costers.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 MR. TYRAWLEY'S MENTOR 
 
 PUBLIC-HOUSES, of a kind, were no unknown 
 ground to Mr. Tyrawley, though neither the 
 drink nor the society there had ever attracted 
 him, except as means to an end. But this was a 
 house of a different character; no bejewelled 
 barmaid, but a stout landlady, with a swelled 
 face, suggesting an unregenerate Mrs. Higson, 
 presided, and enquired, not without suspicion, in 
 spite of the jersey, " What's for you ? " 
 
 "A lemonade, please," said the insinuating 
 Tyrawley, and showing her a leaf torn out of his 
 pocket-book, inscribed "Jim Naylor, enquire at 
 the Apple Tree." "Can you tell me where I am 
 likely to drop on this gentleman ?" She read it, 
 and her suspicions deepened. 
 
 "What can the likes of you want with the 
 Little 'un ? " said she. "He ain't been up to 
 any thing this long while. I tell you straight and 
 plain, my master don't want no detectives coming 
 round the house, which the police has never had 
 nothing against." 
 
 " I assure yon," said he plaintively, " I'm not 
 a detective; but I have had a very close acquaint-
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY'S MENTOR 159 
 
 ance with Jim Naylor in times past, and he told 
 me to look him up here." 
 
 "Oh! that's different," said she, mollified. 
 " I dare say he'll be round presently. He conies 
 here most days this time, now he's got a pitch in 
 the High. You can wait if you've a mind to ; 
 though I don't know what a gentleman like you 
 can have to do with the Little *un." 
 
 " Does this look like a swell ? " asked he, with 
 a laugh, smiting his breast. 
 
 "Oh, get along! " said she; "togs ain't men. 
 I ain't been in the public line all my blessed 
 days, not to know a West End toff when I see 
 * one!" 
 
 "Is Jim doing well ?" enquired Tyrawley. 
 
 There was a shade of anxiety in his tone which 
 puzzled the landlady. 
 
 " Uncommon, I hear. But there, Jim always 
 does, when he don't get conjuring about with 
 rough company. Here he is. Here's somebody 
 wants you ! " 
 
 Here Mr. Jim Naylor was, arrayed in a waist- 
 coat of true coster cut, with about five hundred 
 iridescent pearl buttons; trousers, profuse over 
 the instep and tight at the knee, and a scarlet 
 comforter. He was only an inch or two shorter 
 than Tyrawley himself, but of heavier build, run- 
 ning a good deal to flesh, round-shouldered, in- 
 kneed, with a large ocean of hairless red face, 
 sparsely islanded by two small, fierce, light-blue 
 eyes, the fragment of a nose, and a wide mouth,
 
 l6o THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 revealing two rows of teeth, white and pointed 
 as a young dog's; the whole surmounted by a 
 thatch of tiny close curls, yellow as corn. 
 
 At the landlady's address he stopped short, 
 and turned on Tyrawley that warning scowl, 
 equivalent to the visible stiffening of your dog's 
 body when introduced to strangers of his own 
 sex, which is considered the thing by the British 
 rough. 
 
 It changed, however, with absurd rapidity, 
 into a broad grin of the warmest welcome as he 
 exclaimed, in a voice husky from professional 
 shouting, "Well, this beats all! Slowed if it 
 ain't my gentleman guv'nor, my aristocratic tip- 
 topper, come to look up Jim Naylor, according 
 to promise." And he extended a great leg-of- 
 mutton fist, which Tyrawley accepted with the 
 satisfaction of a man who has not invariably been 
 made welcome. 
 
 "Now," continued Mr. Naylor, before the 
 other could speak, "the next question is, my 
 noble colonel, what's the name you'll put to it ? 
 I don't care if it's fizz at ten shillings a bottle." 
 And t he slapped his pocket, which resounded 
 agreeably. 
 
 " I'm really awfully glad to see you, old chap, 
 and uncommonly obliged," said Tyrawley 
 gently. " But I don't drink, and I've just had 
 a lemonade. What I do want " 
 
 "Say the word," interpolated the ardent 
 Naylor. " If it was hot-house pines, and they
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY S MENTOR l6l 
 
 could be got in the Township Market, you 
 should have 'em." 
 
 " Thanks, awfully. No, it's only a walk and a 
 little advice that I want." 
 
 Disappointment and gratification struggled in 
 Mr. Naylor's breast. " Hear him," he said, half 
 proudly, half pathetically. " Wants advice from 
 me ! Comes to the Apple Tree in the Township 
 for nothing but that, and a dry walk with Jim 
 Naylor. Blessed if he ain't got a jersey on, to 
 look like my mate; not as he does, though oh, 
 no, no ! " wagging his head eloquently. " Well, 
 come along, sir. Anywhere in particular?" 
 
 "Anywhere where we can have a quiet jaw," 
 said Tyrawley, taking him by the arm as they 
 left the Apple Tree; at which Jim swelled and 
 strutted with pride, and insisted on carrying 
 Tyrawley's parcel as they walked down the quiet- 
 est street available. 
 
 The subject of their conversation, which 
 seemed engrossing, will be dealt with later on. 
 Its fragments were enigmatical. 
 
 " 714*8 is the thing, though in some districts 
 420*5. 'Ware specks. Best stand in the S. E. 
 Pay a bob or two more for a bit o' brass and 
 paint. Them smiling ways o' yours ay, and 
 that there bundle o' white fives, that can hold its 
 own against my big reddishes. Get on like a 
 house afire, you will. Coach you ? Won't I ! 
 Back you through fire and water, that I will; 
 and through sickness and health, and here-unto," 
 ii
 
 l62 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 said Mr. Naylor, who had assisted at numerous 
 coster weddings, with an indistinct reminis- 
 cence of the marriage service, "I plight yer my 
 truth." And he slapped his hand into Tyraw- 
 ley's with a smack that echoed down the street. 
 "And now," said he, "you won't have some 
 lush; it must be grub instead. The only point, 
 what grub ? " 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley modestly suggested that he had 
 seen in an eating-house window beefsteak-pud- 
 dings for threepence; but Mr. Naylor waived the 
 suggestion aside with a derisive : 
 
 " Bally cow-beef for thrippence ! Not you ! 
 No, Jim and his guv'nor ain't going to do the 
 thing so shabby as that. Tiptop restoront it is, 
 in the High, or nothing." 
 
 Tyrawley submitted. After a plentiful meal 
 a further conversation followed; an appointment 
 was made for the next morning, and, finally, 
 Mr. Naylor escorted his "gentleman guv'nor," 
 as he insisted on calling him, to St. Cuthbert's 
 Chambers, where, after looking round the 
 kitchen, and deploring its unsuitability to that 
 illustrious stranger, he bade him good-night, 
 with a cheery and emphatic : 
 
 " Take yer all round, and show yer every 
 blessed dodge I know myself; blowed if I won't, 
 to-morrer." 
 
 On the first night in a common lodging-house, 
 however decently conducted, the fancy can 
 hardly dwell agreeably. This side of hardship
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY'S MENTOR 163 
 
 was new to Tyrawley, and touched his idiosyn- 
 crasy where it was not callous; he was very 
 nearly making a bolt for the street, and he put 
 away from him, as sacrilege in such surround- 
 ings, all thought of Nina. 
 
 He was one of the first inmates down and out; 
 and, mindful of a promise of Jim's to introduce 
 him to a "widder" woman, a friend of Jim's 
 missis, who would let him have a decent little 
 crib for three shillings a week, he turned his 
 back on St. Cuthbert's Chambers, devoutly thank- 
 ful at the prospect of re-entering them no 
 more. 
 
 A windy spring day. Heaped-up masses of 
 dark-gray cloud, with pale, yellow gleams be- 
 tween, looked down on a broadish street steep, 
 busy, muddy with the tramp of thousands of 
 feet; showing a glimpse of a yet busier thorough- 
 fare at the top, and a glimmer of steel-gray river 
 at the bottom. Up and down near the doors of 
 some big sale-rooms were rows of vehicles, from 
 the shabbiest coster's barrow to the smartest 
 of painted and gilt-lettered vans. Within was 
 collected a motley crowd, no less various, of 
 men and lads ragged jackets and striped 
 jerseys elbowing Melton great-coats and smart 
 morning suits with republican impartiality, amid 
 great wooden cases and barrels. A strange 
 aromatic odor, almost stifling to the uninitiated, 
 mingled with corduroys, tobacco, and that pecu- 
 liar, subtle smell of man, only absent where a
 
 164 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 tub is a diurnal necessity. At the lower end of 
 the room, this gale of Araby the unblest was dis- 
 tinctly present; so were rough, even ragged, 
 coats; so also a tendency to extremes of color 
 in mufflers, and an exuberance in buttons; and 
 among their possessors stood that ill-matched 
 yet friendly pair, Jim Naylor and his "gentle- 
 man guv'nor" as he persisted in calling him. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley looked rather bewildered and 
 a little pale, possibly because the breezes of 
 St. Cuthbert's Chambers and River Street are 
 scarcely so bracing as Claretown; but he was 
 amiable and polite as ever, and his mild and 
 grave jocularity at once awed and tickled his 
 rougher neighbors; whose humor, more rudi- 
 mentary and personal, he received with perfect 
 calmness, while his height and breadth of 
 shoulders tended to keep it within limits. 
 
 "Now, guv'nor," said Jim, as the auctioneer 
 mounted his rostrum, " here's the lot you've got 
 to be in with; " and he presented him to three 
 or four individuals rather less prosperous look- 
 ing than their brethren. " That is, till you can 
 do without it." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley nodded agreeably to the fore- 
 most and remarked that it was awfully windy, 
 which the other received \Vith a stare, and a 
 sulky, " Oh, blow the wind! " not because he was 
 out of temper, but because a hand-to-mouth 
 struggle for existence is apt to efface small 
 courtesies.
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY'S MENTOR 165 
 
 Then arose the steady hubbub of rapid and 
 business-like putting up and knocking down, 
 which is as unlike as possible to the verbal 
 embroidery of a West End auction-room. Here, 
 time is money, every-body has much the same 
 chance, and the few jokes going are strictly pro- 
 fessional or personal. All possessed, however, 
 so keen an interest for Tyrawley, and he showed 
 so ready a grasp of the situation, that his mentor 
 was quite unable, when all was satisfactorily over, 
 to resist giving him a violent blow of approval, 
 coupled with the remark: 
 
 "Why, you takes to it like a duck to water ! 
 Never see such a thing. I thought you'd be as 
 awkord as a young moke, that I did." 
 
 " My dear Jim, I'm delighted you're gratified, 
 but I'm afraid it's all bunkum," said Mr. Tyraw- 
 ley, looking vaguely to the four points of the 
 compass. "Shall we get the things home?" 
 
 Mr. Naylor laughed benevolently. "You 
 come along o' me," he said. "You can manage 
 a bit o' lifting, I suppose ? " 
 
 "In this blessed garment," said Mr. Tyrawley, 
 stretching out a pair of long, indigo arms, "I 
 feel I can lift tons!" 
 
 "All right," said the exultant Naylor; then, 
 calling a seedy youth in charge of a pair of 
 Russian ponies to his side, " Here, minder, will 
 your guv'nor stop much longer in the Fox, 
 d'ye think ?" 
 
 It was early evening when the two got out at
 
 l66 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Plebham Station. It is not a plate-glass and gilt 
 station; its refreshment-room is sordid, its book- 
 stall offers only the cheapest literature, and Pleb- 
 ham itself is neither aristocratic nor picturesque, 
 but, in the main, a good, honest, working-class 
 neighborhood; where fortunes are not to be 
 made in big coups, but are possible to plodders. 
 Tyrawley looked with affection and interest he 
 had never felt for West End and watering-place 
 mansions, at the bustling shops of the main 
 roads, the mean side-streets, and the efforts at 
 villas and terraces where dwell the higher ten of 
 Plebham. He looked as the general looks at a 
 map of the seat of war; and his possible rewards 
 were things even more impalpable than a bit of 
 bronze metal or a few capitals after a name a 
 fleeting smile, the touch of a hand, a glance of 
 tender understanding of the stress of the fight. 
 But his pensive, inward look was mistaken by 
 the worthy Naylor for depression. 
 
 "Buck up a bit, guv'nor," said he. " I know 
 Plebham ain't much of a place, after what you've 
 been used to, but there's money to be made if 
 you knows how to go about it." 
 
 " Oh, I'm all right. Jolly tired," said Tyraw- 
 ley, stretching his arms over his head, with a 
 laugh. "But I say advisedly 'jolly.' I'm in awful 
 spirits." 
 
 "Tired ?" repeated Mr. Naylor; "and so you 
 will be if you are goin' to play the same game you 
 was up to to-day, doin' them other blokes' work
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY'S MENTOR 167 
 
 as well as your own, and only get laughed at for 
 your pains. They giv' you a name," he added, 
 with a broader grin, "in consequence of what 
 you did along o' them specks in your lot." 
 
 "Well, what is it?" said Tyrawley. . Coster's 
 chaff, he felt, would cut much less than Paget's 
 virtuous rebuke, or the contempt of society for 
 its outcast members. 
 
 " 'The Honest Man,' " replied Jim dryly, for 
 excessive honesty is regarded with mingled feel- 
 ings by his class. "Like it?" he added, curi- 
 ously regarding the change in the other's coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 " Of course I do. I consider it to be what 
 that gentleman in the sky-blue and orange jersey 
 characterizes as a 'bang-up ' title." 
 
 "Oh! you'll get on first-rate with the boys, if 
 you ain't too soft and easy with "em." 
 
 "My dear fellow," said the other, "I assure 
 you I'm not half so soft and easy as I appear." 
 
 "No," replied Jim, with a meaning glance, 
 "I found that out pretty early. Them hands of 
 yours ain't as lady-like as they look, if a bloke 
 chances to run agin them. Well, now, I'll take 
 you to that there widder's house as I told 
 you of. Unless," persuasively, "you'll wet the 
 bargain ? " 
 
 " On no account," replied Tyrawley gayly, as 
 he drew the wistful Naylor past certain hospi- 
 table swing-doors. 
 
 The cleanliness of the widow woman's house
 
 l68 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 was a matter of opinion ; the room, a tiny attic, 
 at whose highest point only Tyrawley could 
 stand upright; the bed, full six inches too short 
 for him, and mysteriously knobby. He ached in 
 every limb from the ardor with which he had 
 carried heavy cases of merchandise, he had 
 knocked pieces of skin off his hands against stray 
 splinters and nails, and he was beyond expression 
 tired; but no Sybarite on his couch of down ever 
 rested so sweetly, or woke so cheerfully, as he 
 amid the fog which hangs more or less peren- 
 nially over Plebham.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 " THE COVE TO SOAP *EM DOWN " 
 
 "HERE'S a thing," said Dr. MacAdam "two 
 unfortunate lovers expecting me to act as a Deus 
 ex machina." He was sitting at dessert with his 
 sister, and tossed a letter, which had arrived by 
 the last post, across the table to her : 
 
 "DEAR DR. MACADAM: 
 
 "Will you please give or send the enclosed 
 photograph to Mr. Tyrawley, as I think he has a 
 right to it, though mother doesn't like my send- 
 ing it ? Will you kindly write and tell me if he is 
 well and happy ? My kindest regards to your 
 sister and yourself, and my love to him. 
 "Yours gratefully, 
 
 "N. ST. JUST." 
 
 On the back of the photograph was written, 
 with more than Nina's usual firmness, "Yours 
 ever, Nina." 
 
 "Poor things!" said Miss MacAdam, shaking 
 her head. " How can such an affair end ? " 
 
 "That young lady," said MacAdam, "mayn't 
 have much go in her, but she has an amount of 
 stay which makes me think something ma- come
 
 170 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 of it, after all. But how can I send her lunatic 
 this treasure, when there isn't even a bubble on 
 the surface to show where he has gone down?" 
 And he scratched his head perplexedly. 
 
 But the first post next morning solved the dif- 
 ficulty. The little doctor came in jocund, with 
 a letter in his hand. 
 
 "Listen," said he, and read it aloud, chuck- 
 ling: 
 
 " DEAREST MACADAM : 
 
 "The enterprise is prospering, thank God and 
 you and somebody else, whom I hardly dare to 
 think of ; and yet, but for that thought, I don't 
 suppose it would have prospered at all. Now, I 
 want you, if you don't mind, to come and see it 
 all for yourself, and tell me whether I am a 
 greater or less fool than you give me credit for 
 being. I am well, and oceans happier, and, I 
 think, more of a man than Poyntz's adversary at 
 billiards, or even the professor's hack ; but you 
 shall judge, only you must prepare yourself to be 
 flabbergasted out of all conventional ideas of ' the 
 thing'; otherwise you might, on the impulse of 
 the moment, turn your back forever on your 
 affectionate and grateful, 
 
 "I. T. 
 
 " (alias 'Gentleman Lee,' or wonders will 
 never cease ' The Honest Man /') 
 
 "P. S. The idea of seeing you has scattered 
 my few brains. Will you meet me to-morrow,
 
 " THE COVE TO SOAP *EM DOWN" 171 
 
 between twelve and one, at the corner of High 
 Street and Gregory Street, Plebham, S. W. ? 
 Trains every ten minutes from London Bridge. 
 Do come ! " 
 
 "What on earth does a man like Tyrawley find 
 to do here?" said the doctor, as he emerged 
 from under the railway-arch into Plebham High 
 Street, which even the illusory sweetness of the 
 spring sunshine failed to poetize : " 'Our Men's 
 Boots at 4s. ud. /' 'Apples, a penny a pound ! ' 
 Three fried-fish shops, and butchers glorying in 
 New Zealand meat ! What does it all mean ? " 
 
 The butcher caught his eye, and, mistaking its 
 import, offered him, with the cheerful civility of 
 Plebham, "Prime cuts at 6y 2 d." 
 
 MacAdam sadly shook his head, and, enquiring 
 his way to Gregory Street, was informed that 
 he would know it by the Fox and Grapes at 
 one corner, and a ham-and-beef shop at the 
 other. 
 
 "Gracious Heavens!" muttered the doctor, 
 transposing nouns in his bewilderment, "Fox 
 and ham and beef and grapes ! Has my lunatic 
 become a potman ? " 
 
 He trotted on, his smart morning get-up for 
 the doctor was a dandy in his own style rather 
 admired by the fair sex of Plebham, outdoing its 
 shopping, with useful baskets or shiny black bags 
 grasped by hands whose index finger was inserted 
 in a doorkey, or which propelled basinettes,
 
 172 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 which served the double purpose of baby- and 
 luggage-cart. 
 
 He reached the corner. A group of coster- 
 mongers stood round a barrow, tastefully ar- 
 ranged with oranges and nuts, vouched by pla- 
 cards to be the "Finest in Plebham." Trade 
 was slack at the moment; but, as he looked, an 
 excellent female, with a brow furrowed by house- 
 hold cares, was dragged by a rebellious urchin 
 up to the tempting fruit, and one of the group 
 detached himself to serve. His back was toward 
 MacAdam, but there was something uncosterlike 
 and strangely familiar in the unusual height and 
 powerful grace of the figure; and when he touched 
 the child's cheek with his finger as he took the 
 mother's penny, MacAdam recognized anatomic- 
 ally the peculiar slenderness and flexibility of the 
 hand; though it was by no means as white as 
 that which used to handle a cue with such fatal 
 dexterity. 
 
 "By all that's wonderful ! " muttered the doc- 
 tor, "it is that mad chap!" He approached 
 Tyrawley, and, tapping him on the shoulder, 
 enquired dryly, to hide his mingled emotions, 
 "What is this masquerade for?" Both his 
 hands were seized and wrung in a grip which 
 denoted considerable improvement in muscle. 
 
 "My dear old chap! I'm so awfully glad to 
 see you, I can't say. I was afraid you wouldn't 
 come to these remote regions. Don't look at a 
 fellow so," for the doctor was eying him up
 
 "THE COVE TO SOAP 'EM DOWN" 173 
 
 and down, " I'm not masquerading. I wear the 
 costume of my class, and I'm not ashamed of it, 
 nor of my trade. You understand what the 
 enterprise is, now ? " 
 
 "I do," said MacAdam emphatically, "and it's 
 even madder than I thought, though I must own 
 it seems to agree with you look thinnish, and a 
 bit weather-beaten, but in hard condition." 
 
 "I haven't felt so well for years; but don't 
 let's stand jawing here. Perhaps, though, it may 
 amuse you to see me as the British coster for 
 half an hour or so; after that trade will be slack 
 for a bit, and I'll take a holiday. I've engaged 
 one of my brethren to look after the barrow for 
 me. I told him a patron of mine, a benevolent 
 physician, was coming to look me up. He asked 
 if you were a 'medical mission,' and I replied 
 ' Extremely so.' I'll tell you all about him 
 presently; he's a fine fellow, and has done me a 
 lot of good turns. Meanwhile I'll introduce you 
 to him. Here, Jim," he added, "this is Dr. 
 MacAdam, who saved my life." 
 
 The British coster is no sycophant. Mr. 
 Naylor ducked his head, cast a suspicious glance 
 at the doctor, grinned away the suspicion, and 
 extended a big, red, grimy fist, with the remark: 
 
 "And you done a good job when you done that, 
 mister." 
 
 "So I think," said MacAdam. " Might I ask 
 if you are our friend's mentor ? " 
 
 " Dunno about mentor blow that ! But I
 
 174 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 teached him all he knows in the fruit line, if you 
 mean that." 
 
 " Did he take to it quickly ? " 
 
 "I believe you like a fish to water. He's 
 got," said Mr. Naylor, regarding his protege with 
 benevolent criticism, " some finniking ways as I 
 don't hold with, and some odd pranks about fair 
 dealing which ain't business; but I must admit 
 as he makes 'em answer. It's quite surprising " 
 added Mr. Naylor, waxing eloquent under the 
 doctor's amused approval, "the trade he does, 
 when other blokes is standing with their hands in 
 their pockets. Females especially he does get 
 round, talking to them, like the toff he is, till 
 they makes believe to be ladies, just for company. " 
 
 The doctor shook his head at Tyrawley, who 
 blushed and protested eagerly that it was only 
 common politeness. 
 
 "Ain't common at a barrer, though," rejoined 
 Mr. Naylor. " And there's one thing," he added, 
 observing Tyrawley's uneasiness, "he's alike 
 with old 'uns and young 'uns. Ain't got such a 
 thing as a ' tart ' himself. Won't look at 'em." 
 
 Tyrawley was palpably relieved, and laughed. 
 "Thank you, Jim," said he, as Mr. Naylor, re- 
 marking that he would be inside the Fox with a 
 pint of four ale when wanted, politely retired. 
 " Now, Mac Adam, can I offer you a seat on an 
 orange-box and a taste of my stock which is as 
 good as you would get in East Street, in Clare- 
 town, for double the money or would you rather
 
 "THE COVE TO SOAP 'EM DOWN" 175 
 
 walk about till I've cleared off my usual morning 
 customers ? " 
 
 The doctor elected rather to stand and smoke, 
 with his back against some railings, and Tyrawley 
 himself sat astride on the orange-box and grate- 
 fully accepted a cigar, a luxury to which he had 
 been a stranger for a month. The doctor was 
 intensely amused at the spectacle of the impassive 
 chevalier of Claretown Parade under the new 
 aspect of a street salesman; and his fixed gaze 
 and occasional chuckle rather put his friend out 
 of countenance, especially as most of his custom- 
 ers were of the gentler sex. Now, as in Pleb- 
 ham the masculine half of a sentimental couple 
 may frequently be observed to lean on the arm 
 of his feminine counterpart; so it is also not 
 infrequently a habit for the latter to do the lion's 
 share of the courting, and Mr. Tyrawley was, 
 unfortunately, much better looking and better 
 mannered than the average male of Plebham; 
 where, moreover, what passes for ordinary polite- 
 ness in Park Lane and Grosvenor Square is apt 
 to be viewed as something personally compli- 
 mentary. 
 
 MacAdam, looking on at a dropping fire of cus- 
 tomers, chiefly shopping matrons, with an occa- 
 sional small slavey, a knot of school children, and 
 a working-man or two in the dinner hour, pres- 
 ently saw his friend's eyebrows take an upward 
 curve of protest, and his color heighten, as a 
 damsel, in a large hat decorated with a field of
 
 176 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 nodding flowers, the extremest fashions of the 
 West End last year, caricatured to suit Plebham, 
 pulled up short, with an affected start, and 
 coquettishly remarked: 
 
 "Oh!" which she pronounced "aow" "I 
 am 'ot ! Don't I look as if I wanted a horange? " 
 
 " I'm not aware," said he, with a martyred air, 
 "that the need of an orange expresses itself 
 legibly on the human countenance." 
 
 "You do talk a lot of rubbish, Mr. Gentleman 
 Lee, or whatever they call you, "said she, picking 
 one up, and beginning to peel it with a long, dirty 
 nail. " Well, don't I look as if I wanted a young 
 man?" 
 
 Tyrawley shrank from the very pointed ogle 
 which accompanied this query, and replied, with 
 formal politeness, that on that point he was even 
 less a judge. 
 
 " Supposing I were to say that I do ? " giggled 
 she. 
 
 " In that case," replied he, " I should venture 
 to suggest that your parents have, doubtless, 
 among their circle some one who would fill the 
 void." 
 
 " Well, you are a nice one to answer a girl like 
 that. I suppose you think that you wouldn't 
 do?" 
 
 "I'm quite sure of it," said Tyrawley, in a 
 hurry, casting a piteous side-glance at MacAdam. 
 
 She tossed her head with an angry, "Well, 
 that's plain enough."
 
 "THE COVE TO SOAP 'EM DOWN" 177 
 
 "My dear young lady," he replied composedly, 
 " that is precisely what I intended it to be." 
 
 " Oh, all serene ! " said she, throwing down a 
 ha'penny. " There you are, Mr. Two-a-penny. 
 I'm off to your betters ! " And she departed in a 
 huff, to his intense relief. 
 
 He went across to MacAdam for comfort, but 
 that worthy gave him chaff, pretending to think 
 that his polite coldness was assumed to blind him, 
 MacAdam, lest he should tell tales. 
 
 A discreet mother, purchasing two dozen for a 
 household down with fever; a party of board- 
 school boys, whom the swell coster had somehow 
 fascinated, so that they hung admiringly round 
 the stall, and were extravagant in ha'porths; and 
 an elderly housekeeper, who had seen better days, 
 and at each visit solemnly urged upon him that 
 he was too good for this place, soothed his feel- 
 ings; and a lull coming in business, and Mr. 
 Naylor emerging from the Fox with the remark 
 that he was full up, and could look after the 
 barrow as soon and as long as his guv'nor liked 
 that gentleman proposed to MacAdam that they 
 should go and get some dinner somewhere. 
 
 The doctor looked unhappy. 
 
 "Eh? Dinner at two o'clock? And what? 
 I've seen tripe, and, I think, whelks, and horse 
 stated to be ham and beef." 
 
 "In the wilds of Plebham," replied the other 
 gayly, "two is an upper-ten dinner hour. Ham 
 and beef is a correct statement, but probably you 
 12
 
 178 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 wouldn't like it. But there's a little Italian shop 
 where I go in moments of extravagance, where 
 you can get a decent steak and omelette, and, I'm 
 told, a fair glass of claret; there '11 be nobody 
 there at this hour, and we can have a long jaw." 
 
 Shortly afterward they found themselves com- 
 fortably accommodated on a red velvet settee in 
 the inner sanctum half gay, half faded of one 
 of those small Italian restaurants which few Lon- 
 don suburbs lack. 
 
 ''But now," said the doctor, and speaking 
 quite seriously, " let me ask you three questions. 
 Do you really mean you can stand this sort of 
 thing every day, and all day ? Can you make it 
 pay ? And does it present a reasonable prospect 
 of leading to something better better suited to 
 you ?" 
 
 Tyrawley answered him with equal delibera- 
 tion. " I stand it perfectly," said he. " Physical 
 discomforts never bothered me much, you know; 
 and, as a rule, it rather amuses me. I do make 
 it pay as advertisements say, ' by strict honesty 
 and personal attention to business, I. T. hopes to 
 merit, etc.' Something better? Yes. I don't 
 mean to be a coster all my days. I'm already 
 considered a rising man in the fraternity." 
 
 "I observed," said the doctor, "the admiring 
 and respectful manner in which your muscular 
 friend addressed you." 
 
 "He is really," said Tyrawley, "more my 
 'guv'nor' than I am his. This is his pitch.
 
 "THE COVE TO SOAP 'EM DOWN" 179 
 
 though I hire the barrow at a shilling a week; we 
 go halves in stock and profits; he supplies the 
 greater part of the knowledge and the shouting, 
 at which I'm not good yet, while I, he informs 
 me, am the ' cove to soap 'em down.' ' 
 
 "You didn't soap the damsel in the botanical 
 hat much," said the doctor grimly. 
 
 " She and her kind," replied the other, with 
 elevated eyebrows, "are one of my few trials. 
 You've no idea how hard it is, in the esteemed 
 Naylor's phrase, to give them the complete 
 ' choke off. ' They don't understand sarcasm, and 
 you can't knock a woman down, whatever her 
 impudence." 
 
 "It's all very well," said the doctor, "but I'm 
 sadly afraid that, when my back is turned, you 
 make havoc in the female hearts of Plebham. 
 What would Miss " 
 
 "Don't!" said the other. "Don't mention 
 that name in such company." 
 He was so serious that the doctor forbore, and 
 invited him instead to give an outline of his 
 adventures since they met. It was not a very 
 exciting narrative, after the first incongruity of 
 the idea wore off; for Tyrawley made light of 
 small disagreeables and discomforts, of hard 
 fare, long hours, and the sundry pains and weak- 
 nesses which take some time to wear out after 
 a long illness; of the first vague suspicions his 
 brother merchants entertained of the toff who 
 had settled down so strangely among them, and
 
 l8o THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 of the barrenness of such a life to an educated 
 man. 
 
 "Well,". said MacAdam, "you have more pig- 
 headedness, and also more pluck, than I gave 
 you credit for ; and if only you can stand 
 it morally and physically, you may do some- 
 thing." 
 
 "If I could stick it out the first month," said 
 Tyrawley, " I can stick it out altogether." 
 
 "What on earth put it in your head, I should 
 like to know ?" 
 
 "Despair, and Jim Naylor's address in an old 
 pocket-book." 
 
 "Ah ! by the way, how came you to be hand 
 and glove with that delectable individual ? " 
 
 "Because we had been fist to fist previously," 
 laughed Tyrawley " or, rather, knuckles to 
 nose." 
 
 "Pray explain." 
 
 " It's simple enough. I had been to see a 
 man I knew in Guy's Hospital, and in a back 
 street, somewhere in that region, I came across 
 Master Jim who is, as you see, nearly as long 
 as your humble servant, and a trifle heavier 
 'bashing,' as he described it, a much smaller 
 animal of his own species, whom Jim alternately 
 knocked down and kicked up, while an admiring 
 crowd stood round to see fair play. After look- 
 ing on a minute I ventured to suggest that 
 things were getting monotonous, not to say dis- 
 gusting. Jim replied by irrelevant personal
 
 " THE COVE TO SOAP *EM DOWN " l8l 
 
 remarks. I persisted. He then suggested, as a 
 joke, that perhaps if I wasn't such an adjective, 
 adjective, adjective got-up toff, I might have a 
 round with him myself, but he would lay I had 
 no stomach for fighting. 
 
 "The other poor little brute looked so awfully 
 done that it got my blood up ; and, much to 
 Jim's surprise and satisfaction, I took off my 
 coat, hat, and gloves, confided them to the most 
 decent-looking person present, and 'went for' 
 Mr. Naylor. We weren't badly matched, but I 
 was fresh and he was tired, and I have had," said 
 Mr. Tyrawley, a momentary shade of the past 
 crossing his brow, "to hold my own. So I very 
 soon had him on his back, in which position he 
 grunted, with that manliness which is a trait of 
 his, ' All right, my gentleman guv'nor. I gives 
 in. I won't lay another finger on little Perkins, 
 for your sake. Blow me if I ever see a prettier 
 touch than that last of yours.' " 
 
 I thanked him, with my usual politeness, 
 which I had recovered by this time, and offered 
 him liquid refreshment, which he accepted on 
 the condition of my first shaking hands with him. 
 When, after a considerable conversation, we 
 parted, he insisted on writing his address in my 
 pocket-book, and telling me that, if ever I 
 wanted any thing in Jim Naylor's line, from a 
 gooseberry to a cocoanut, I'd only got to name 
 it. You know the rest. I'm sure the poor chap 
 has been a good friend and a good chum to me,
 
 182 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 and he would be a fruiterer with a big shop by 
 now, if it wasn't for that fatal beer. 
 
 "I do seem to fall on my legs in a most 
 remarkable and wholly undeserved manner, as 
 to other fellows taking me up. Don't I ? " he 
 added, laying his hand caressingly on the other's 
 shoulder. "You first, old man, a long way 
 ahead ; and now poor Jim." 
 
 " Oh! you're such a soft ass," said the doctor, 
 "one has to take you up. But now we've had 
 the solids in the discussion of trade and beef- 
 steak, what do you say to a touch of romance by 
 way of dessert? " And he put his hand slowly 
 into his breast-pocket, with a twinkle in his eye. 
 Tyrawley looked at him with restless eagerness. 
 "Wait a bit," said he, extracting the papers. 
 " Let me see. This is information respecting 
 the next Derby winner you're not a sporting 
 character. This is a prescription for colic, a 
 disease you're more likely to cause your cus- 
 tomers to experience than to suffer from your- 
 self. Oh! this is it: portrait of a lady, fair, fat, 
 and forty you told me once, you know, that 
 was your special line presented to me the day 
 before yesterday." 
 
 Tyrawley held out his hand; his htfpe seemed 
 too good to be true, and the doctor yielded the 
 little envelope to him with a sardonic, " Be sure 
 you give it me back." 
 
 The other drew out the photo, and, instantly 
 turning his back, was absorbed in its contempla-
 
 "THE COVE TO SOAP 'EM DOWN" 183 
 
 tion for some minutes. Then he turned round, 
 with a flushed cheek and look of extravagant 
 rapture, and said gently, "You heartless villain! 
 This is for me. Why didn't you give it me at 
 once ?" 
 
 " Don't abuse your superiors. Besides, would 
 you have liked your fellow-coster's opinion on 
 it?" 
 
 "No, no! of course not. I was only joking. 
 Tell me all about it. Did she really send it? 
 How is she ? Did she say any thing about me ? 
 Is there " 
 
 "Oh, dry up there! That's all I know about 
 it. I've no further use for it." 
 
 And the doctor handed over Nina's letter, 
 with which, and the photo, Mr. Tyrawley 
 plunged into an abyss of unreasoning happiness 
 for the next ten minutes; while the waiter, a 
 romantic Swiss, scented a love affair from afar. 
 
 "When you've returned to this sublunary 
 sphere," said the doctor, "I have a question to 
 ask. I have to answer that letter. Have you 
 any thing particular for me to say ? " 
 
 Now, if Mr. Tyrawley had been twenty, he 
 
 would have replied, " Tell her " and added a 
 
 string of blissful asseveration; but he was thirty- 
 four, and broken in by experience, and he knew 
 that. Nina, for all her high spirit, was in her 
 mother's power. So he looked down and thought, 
 and then said, in a low voice, for he was half 
 moved and half uneasy under MacAdam's twink-
 
 184 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 ling eye, " Say that I am quite well, and as happy 
 as I can be away from her; that I prize what she 
 has sent me unspeakably, and I'll try to deserve 
 it by keeping my promise, and and " it rather 
 choked him to say it out "my humble and 
 faithful love." 
 
 Little MacAdam was moved, too. " All right, 
 old man," he said cheerily, " I'll remember every 
 word, and I'll say from myself that it's a correct 
 statement, and that you are the very pink of 
 costers, and a perfect Sir Galahad with regard to 
 the fair sex of Plebham." 
 
 " Pray, pray don't ! " said Tyrawley, in horror. 
 " She wouldn't understand that there's absolutely 
 no real hardship in this life; and the other thing 
 wouldn't occur to her at all. You won't, will 
 you ? " 
 
 "Very well," said MacAdam. "I'll merely 
 say that you're absorbed in semi-commercial 
 pursuits, and on the high-road to be a merchant 
 prince." 
 
 "That reminds me," said Tyrawley, and he 
 produced a small white paper packet, which he 
 placed, with an air of solemn triumph, in Mac- 
 Adam's hand. 
 
 "What's this?" said he, with a stare of sur- 
 prise as he opened it and found two florins. 
 " Fee testimonial to my merits ?" 
 
 " The first instalment of that three pounds 
 you threw at my head two months ago." 
 
 "You're a good chap," said MacAdam, with
 
 "THE COVE TO SOAP 'EM DOWN" 185 
 
 feeling. " You deserve to get on, and, by Jove ! 
 I'm sure you will." 
 
 There was a little more talk, and a promise 
 that when Tyrawley had a photo taken Mac- 
 Adam would send it on; then he tipped the 
 waiter royally, a proceeding highly appreciated 
 by these mountaineers, and returned to look at 
 Mr. Naylor, who was shouting conscientiously 
 without moving a muscle of his purple counte- 
 nance, " Here you are, ladies ! Best in Pleb- 
 ham," etc. 
 
 While Tyrawley was engaged with a special 
 customer a feeble old woman to whom he had 
 done some small favor, and who insisted on stop- 
 ping to talk of her family troubles the doctor 
 drew Naylor aside, presented him with one of 
 Mr. Tyrawley's florins, and requested a candid 
 opinion of the latter's prospects as a trader. 
 
 " Guv'nor," replied the latter, laying a great 
 knobbly forefinger staggeringly on the doctor's 
 breast, "he'll do! You'll see that there swell 
 pardner of mine in his own shop in the West End 
 yet. Yes, and driving in his own carriage, with 
 a bang-up pair of steppers from his country 
 willa. See if you don't. And some young lady 
 sitting beside him; but she must be a oner, she 
 must, to be up to my mark for my gentleman 
 guv'nor; " and Mr. Naylor snorted triumphantly. 
 
 Then the doctor looked at his watch, and 
 found his train was almost due, and Tyrawley 
 went with him to the station and saw him off,
 
 1 86 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 with many grateful messages to his sister, a 
 promise to write soon and fully, and an entreaty 
 that MacAdam would answer "her" letter at 
 once. 
 
 "He's a jolly sort enough, that medical mis- 
 sion is," was Mr. Naylor's comment on the 
 doctor. " But," he added, rather depreciatingly, 
 " he didn't give me a track, nor so much as take 
 me up for swearing; and I could lick him with 
 one hand tied behind me." 
 
 From which remark it may be opined that Mr. 
 Naylor had his own standards for the measure- 
 ment of his fellow-creatures, and objected as 
 much as do more enlightened persons when the 
 latter fall short of them.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE HERO OF A STREET FIGHT 
 
 MR. JOHN PAGET, who lived by rule and meas- 
 ure, an unusual and scarcely endearing trait at 
 twenty-seven, being concerned about his liver 
 and requiring exercise, and being engaged to a 
 heavy luncheon at the house of some City friends 
 in the plutocratic suburb of Grasswich, elected 
 to get out at the humble Plebham, and walk 
 across for his stomach's sake. As he was pro- 
 ceeding along the High Street, he saw a crowd, 
 and was about, with his usual absence of ordinary 
 human weakness, to skirt it, when its central 
 figure caught his eye and checked his well-regu- 
 lated steps. Now, a crowd collects for nothing in 
 Plebham; but here there was a remarkable spec- 
 tacle. It was no less than Mr. Tyrawley, rather 
 muddy as to his garments, dishevelled as to his 
 hair, very pale, hatless, with the blood running 
 down his cheek from a cut on his forehead, and 
 his breath coming in short gasps. 
 
 To his left arm clung a very little woman, 
 weeping hysterically and muddier than himself, 
 while his right hand had enough to do in repel- 
 ling the attacks of an undersized coster of the 
 lowest pattern, just drunk enough to be reckless,
 
 l88 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 both as to fists and epithets. A black eye and 
 a slightly ensanguined nose, which bore witness 
 to the length and purpose of his- antagonist's 
 arm, had not yet cooled his ardor; and, as he 
 varied his amusements by throwing mud and 
 stones from the road, Mr. Tyrawley became 
 tired, and gave his adhesion to the remark of a 
 woman in the crowd that "it was a shame, and 
 should her little boy fetch the copper ? " with a 
 breathless, though cool, "Yes, please, I'm get- 
 ting a trifle warm." He added, in a momentary 
 lull, to the occupier of his left arm : " No, my 
 good woman, I won't hurt him much; but I'm 
 afraid he'll hurt you." 
 
 At this juncture, however, a large figure in a 
 sleeved waistcoat, adorned with quite an erup- 
 tion of pearl buttons, shouldered its way through 
 the crowd, which gave way with extreme polite- 
 ness, shot out a ponderous arm, and, without 
 more ado than the utterance of a gruff, " Come 
 along, you," dragged Tyrawley's antagonist by 
 the collar, his heels scraping uncomfortably on 
 the road, through the spectators, and administer- 
 ing a few boxes on the ear, sent him flying, by a 
 parting shove, down a steepish side-street. Mr. 
 Naylor, for it was he, then returned, with a view 
 of rebuking his gentleman guv'nor for "getting 
 in with that low lot"; but, seeing him standing 
 on the pavement in conversation with another 
 swell, he modestly withdrew. 
 
 What had happened meanwhile was this : The
 
 THE HERO OF A STREET FIGHT 189 
 
 woman whom Tyrawley had rescued from the 
 brutality of her husband still hung around, cry- 
 ing, "Oh, my dear ! you meant it kind to me, 
 and you have a pretty face to go home with ; but 
 you did hit my master cruel, and you're always 
 at it, from what I hears, fighting other blokes 
 and protecting females ! " 
 
 These words reached the ears of Mr. Paget, 
 and brought a cold sneer to his lips. He strolled 
 up to the unlucky Tyrawley, who, endeavoring 
 to wipe the blood and mud from his face, had 
 only succeeded in making himself look more dis- 
 reputable than ever, and said : 
 
 " A most admirable character ! " 
 
 They faced one another the respectable 
 Pharisee in spotless linen and broadcloth; the 
 unhappy publican, with the torn fragment of his 
 jersey hanging off a whiter shirt-sleeve than usu- 
 ally belongs to the British coster, with that aspect 
 of ruffianism which is imparted by hair over the 
 eyes, and a countenance variegated by cuts and 
 bruises; with dilated nostrils and galloping heart. 
 
 For once Tyrawley was not cool, for he saw 
 the fabric of that castle in the air he had reared 
 with so much pain, falling upon and crushing him. 
 
 "Are you going," he panted, "to tell her 
 this ? " 
 
 "Which the fight, or the female ? If I do, I 
 shall not ask your permission, my good man. 
 The hero of a street brawl must expect to be 
 public property."
 
 190 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TVRAWLEY 
 
 Tyrawley's fingers twitched longingly. Mr. 
 Paget's immaculate turned-down collar pre- 
 sented for the moment an almost irresistible 
 temptation. They glared at one another like 
 two stags about to charge. Then Tyrawley 
 thought better of it, forced a laugh, and a short 
 "Thanks, I only wanted to know," from 
 between his clenched teeth, and turned on his 
 heel with white lips and a moral and physical 
 heart-sinking hard to hear; while Mr. Paget 
 proceeded jauntily on his way. But the hero of 
 this ignoble battle pulled himself together dog- 
 gedly after a moment, remembering the high 
 courage and tender trust of which he had had 
 some proof already. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley leaned his head on his hands 
 and looked rather careworn when he reached 
 his eyrie. He had borrowed a bottle of half- 
 dried ink from his landlady, and purchased a 
 pennyworth of stationery on his way, but now 
 he sat with it before him, and found the letter 
 hard to write, because he wanted to say so 
 much and could say so little. He wrote it at 
 last, however; the self-restraint to which he 
 was inured by past and present standing him in 
 good stead : 
 
 "Mv DEAR Miss ST. JUST: 
 
 "Your cousin, Mr. Paget, has seen me under 
 circumstances which tell so much against me 
 that I feel I have a right to give some explana-
 
 THE HERO .OF A STREET FIGHT IQI 
 
 tion ; especially, as he not only gave me no chance 
 of doing so, but declared his purpose of telling 
 you what he saw. 
 
 " I know it looked awfully bad, and my appear- 
 ance must have been very disreputable; but you 
 will understand it all when I explain what I have 
 only kept from you because I was afraid you 
 would overrate the hardships of my present life. 
 I am earning my living honestly, for the first 
 time, by selling fruit at a street-stall. Pray 
 don't be too much shocked, or in the least 
 grieved; I am much more comfortable than you 
 can possibly imagine. The life is healthy and 
 clean, though a little rough; my fellow-mer- 
 chants are civil and jolly, and I am getting on 
 well. I go to church every Sunday, and, by 
 God's grace, I have kept and improved on my 
 promises. 
 
 " As to the row in which your cousin saw me 
 engaged, I was defending a poor little woman 
 from a murderous attack, and, if only for your 
 sake, I could do no less, and would do it again, 
 for I am sure of your approval. So please for- 
 give appearances, and believe this is the whole 
 truth. You and your mother will understand 
 why I don't write what I long to write. I hope 
 you will honor me by accepting my photo in full 
 costume. Yours no eye has ever seen since 
 dear old MacAdam gave it to me. I hope you 
 are enjoying yourself. Let no thought of me 
 bother you, or make you in the least anxious.
 
 IQ2 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 All is well. Do not trouble to answer this, if 
 Mrs. St. Just objects. I never want to be a 
 sorrow to you again. God bless you. 
 "Always believe me, 
 
 "Your humble servant, 
 
 j T "
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 A BUSINESS BANQUET 
 
 THE St. Justs had encamped on the seashore; 
 the blue waves of the Mediterranean, crystal- 
 edged, lipped lazily on the golden sand; the 
 violet hills lay behind them; the white villas 
 glittered like mother-of-pearl in the meridian 
 sunlight. 
 
 Mrs. St. Just dozed in the shadow of a rock; 
 Bertie prospected for shells and bits of coral, 
 southern languor failing to tame his national 
 restlessness; Nina read and dreamed by turns. 
 
 A small Italian boy, son of one of their 
 servants, darted like a brown butterfly across 
 the rocks and sands with a letter for the 
 signorina, to which he added the information, 
 scarcely heard and altogether unrealized, that 
 an English lord was on his way from the Villa 
 Perla, to throw himself at the feet of the ladies. 
 
 The attention of one of the latter was at the 
 moment far too much occupied with the fortunes 
 or misfortunes of one British costermonger to be 
 diverted by a whole House of Lords, and it was 
 perhaps scarcely a propitious hour for the arrival 
 of Mr. John Paget ; which, nevertheless, took 
 13
 
 194 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 place just as Nina had read Tyrawley's letter for 
 the second time. 
 
 Under her still aspect there was a tempest of 
 powerless pain and indignation, which the heroism 
 of careless cheerfulness, which made light of his 
 own hardships, and tenderly guarded her from 
 annoyance, even his reticence from open expres- 
 sions of devotion, rather increased than abated. 
 
 It is, therefore, not surprising that Paget's 
 offered hand met no response save a frozen 
 glance. 
 
 "My child," cried Mrs. St. Just, " don't you 
 see your cousin ? " 
 
 "Yes, I see him," said Miss Nina, with the tip 
 of her lips. Then she averted her eyes, as some 
 people do from toads or lizards. 
 
 His fell on the letter in her hand, and he 
 divined the truth, and developed a chilly spite- 
 fulness, not unlike that of some smaller reptiles. 
 "My dear aunt," he said, "my cousin is not to 
 blame for her pleasant demeanor; for I think I am 
 right in supposing that that very objectionable 
 person Tyrawley, who caused us such annoyance 
 last autumn, has thrust on her a garbled account 
 of a certain discreditable affair, of which he knew 
 I should give you a true version on my arrival. 
 Come and shake hands, Bertie." 
 
 But Bertie stood afar off, with folded arms, like 
 an infant Napoleon, and said, " Sha'n't !" 
 
 "Oh, dear me, John!" said Mrs. St. Just, 
 collapsing on her cushions and shawls. " I do
 
 A BUSINESS BANQUET 195 
 
 wish, I'm sure, we had never set eyes on that 
 man ; for his manners were certainly lovely, 
 though, no doubt, a take-in." 
 
 " Mr. Tyrawley was perfectly sincere," said 
 her step-daughter. " When we are alone I'll read 
 you his letter," and she flashed a glance of defi- 
 ance like summer lightning at Mr. Paget, who 
 merely elevated his chin, spread a silk pocket- 
 handkerchief on a smooth rock, and seated him- 
 self calmly upon it. 
 
 " Oh, show the letter to your cousin John, my 
 dear; he is a far better judge than I am, and 
 quarrels in families are so dreadful," sighed Mrs. 
 St. Just. 
 
 But Nina drew her slender brows together, and 
 shook her small head with a gesture which needed 
 no verbal confirmation. 
 
 "Well, my dear aunt," said Mr. Paget, "I 
 don't like to speak of these things- before girls, 
 but my cousin needs to be made aware of the 
 real pursuits of the person whose cause she takes 
 up so ardently." 
 
 "Then, for Heaven's sake, tell us the truth, 
 John," said his aunt. 
 
 "I only stay," remarked Miss Nina pleas- 
 antly, "to hear what falsehoods Mr. Paget will 
 tell." 
 
 Bertie encouraged his sister after the fashion 
 of small boys applauding one another at cricket 
 "Good old Nina!" and Mr. Paget began his 
 narrative with the air of a superior martyr.
 
 196 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "I was going," said he, "to lunch with my 
 friends the Thirlbys at Grasswich, and as I have 
 had a touch of liver complaint of late, I walked 
 across from a place which you, my dear aunt, 
 have probably never heard of a low, working- 
 man sort of a place called Plebham. In the main 
 street I found a most disreputable crowd col- 
 lected, and as I took a circuit, to avoid being 
 shouldered by cads, my eye fell on two men and 
 a woman, who were engaged in a drunken brawl, 
 at which even some of the low people standing 
 by cried 'Shame ! ' for a big man was knocking 
 about a little one, because, apparently, the latter 
 had objected to the endearments the former was 
 offering to his wife. 
 
 "I could not pollute your ears or my cousin's 
 with the expressions they used, the vilest lan- 
 guage of the slums, of course, but you may 
 imagine my dismay when I recognized in the big 
 bully, who was in rags, covered with mud and 
 blood, and evidently intoxicated, a man who had 
 the impudence to force himself on your acquaint- 
 ance the swindler Tyrawley. " 
 
 At this juncture Mr. Paget uttered a natural 
 cry of pain, for a small pebble, winged by the 
 unerring hand of Master Bertie, had smitten him 
 on the nose. 
 
 " For shame, Bertie ! " said his mother. 
 
 "He sha'n't tell such bally lies about my 
 friends," cried he, collecting fresh ammunition. 
 
 Nina called him to her fondly. " Come here,
 
 A BUSINESS BANQUET 197 
 
 darling," said she. "You can't do him any good 
 by that; but we believe in him, don't we ? " 
 
 "Rather ! " said he. " I mean sticking to him 
 through thick and thin. I know if Tyrawley was 
 knocking about a littler chap than himself, he 
 must have been sneaking, or beating a woman, or 
 something." 
 
 Nina kissed him admiringly, and Mrs. St. Just, 
 though murmuring that he was only a child, and 
 could not know as well as his dear cousin, looked 
 rather uncertain. 
 
 " I spoke to the fellow," said Mr. John Paget, 
 much aggravated, "and he scarcely denied it; 
 and I found on enquiry that he is, in fact, one of 
 a gang of common costermongers, and that he, 
 and a bosom friend of his, as big a ruffian as him- 
 self, are the terror of the neighborhood. After 
 this painful occurrence, my dear aunt," he added, 
 "can it be your wish that my cousin should be in 
 touch with him in the slightest degree ? " 
 
 Nina rose up, tall and stately, with a fierce 
 color in her usually pale qheeks, and, standing by 
 her mother's shoulder, held the letter she had 
 just received under her eyes. 
 
 She puzzled it out, with muttered " Dear me's," 
 and a suspicious dimness of her eye-glasses, and 
 looked helplessly from her daughter to her 
 nephew. " He certainly explains it beautifully," 
 said she. "And he always was most gentle- 
 manly, and, of course, we know a man may rise 
 from sixpence in his pocket to millions. I'm sure
 
 198 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 I don't know what to think, for John has only 
 your interests at heart, have you, John, and the 
 honor of the family ? " 
 
 " Exactly, my dear aunt. I feel certain my 
 cousin will see her folly some day." 
 
 " She does now," said Miss Nina, " in listening 
 to another word iromyou. Thank you, mother, 
 for speaking so kindly of Mr. Tyrawley." 
 
 Then she took back the letter, and walked 
 away with Bertie's arm round her waist, allow- 
 ing that young gentleman to read it, much to his 
 satisfaction and importance. 
 
 "I say, Nin," said he presently, looking up 
 into her face, "are you going to marry Tyraw- 
 ley ? " 
 
 " Perhaps he won't ask me." 
 
 "Yes, he does sing precious small, doesn't he? 
 My eye! I wouldn't be any girl's 'humble 
 servant.' Well, if he shouldn't, I'll tell you what 
 you must do I've read of lots of princesses and 
 swells like that doing it you must ask him to 
 marry you ! " 
 
 "I think," said she, with a blush, "I had 
 better wait a little while for that." 
 
 "Oh, yes!" said he, giving her a hug. 
 "There's no hurry; I ain't tired of you yet." 
 
 Mr. Paget's visit was scarcely an agreeable 
 episode to any of the party, except, perhaps, 
 Bertie, who, like the stormy petrel, enjoyed 
 troubled waves. Mrs. St. Just, who was, above 
 all things, good-natured, and who could not for r
 
 A BUSINESS BANQUET 199 
 
 get the agreeable courtesies of Mr. Tyrawley, 
 had been considerably touched by his letter; 
 which Mr. Paget perceiving, his hatred for that 
 unlucky individual naturally waxed much 
 stronger. Nina, except in public, sent him 
 virtually to Coventry, while Bertie went the 
 length of brushes in his bed and pins in his chair. 
 So, after a very short visit, he departed in a huff, 
 with a cold, inner resolution, scarcely perhaps 
 owned to himself, that Tyrawley should stand 
 between him and his relatives no more. 
 
 Mrs. St. Just to Mr. Tyrawley 
 
 "DEAR MR. TYRAWLEY: 
 
 " I cannot see what business it is of my Nina's 
 whether you were fighting or not; but she is so 
 headstrong for all the world like my poor dear 
 man that she says she or I must answer your 
 letter. She will have me say that she thinks you 
 were perfectly right; but, of course, at my age 
 I think you ought to have given him in charge 
 of the police, instead of mixing yourself up with 
 such horrid people; for though I don't hold with 
 you in most things, I don't think you would hurt 
 any body in that way, and I do think that dear 
 John, although he is such an excellent young 
 man, may have made a mistake, because he 
 never fights himself, and doesn't know what 
 vice is. I am glad to hear you have given up 
 billiards and all that, but it is a pity you did not
 
 200 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 drive a hansom cab, or something of that sort, 
 as most fast young men who have lost their 
 money do. 
 
 " My children send their love, and I am still 
 grateful to you for saving their lives, though I 
 am sure we have had no peace in our family 
 since we knew you. 
 
 "With kind regards, 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 " M. A. ST. JUST. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley read this epistle with mingled 
 feelings. The touch of kindness toward him- 
 self was cheering; but, though unselfish, he 
 was human, and longed for a word from Nina 
 herself. 
 
 The novelty of his position having worn off, 
 its comic side became less apparent and its mo 
 notony settled heavily upon him. Mr. Naylor, 
 though most friendly, had a bounded horizon, 
 and he had no other companions. However, he 
 worked early and late, solacing himself by an 
 occasional visit to the free library, where his 
 fellow-visitors were much edified by the spectacle 
 of a coster reading Homer and Dante, in the 
 original; and yet more by his going to church on 
 Sundays, where he always felt nearer Nina than 
 anywhere else, and whence he always came with 
 a light on his face which astonished Mr. Naylor, 
 who regarded church-going merely as a function 
 calculated at the best to produce a wholesome
 
 A BUSINESS BANQUET 2OI 
 
 depression and thoughts of a man's latter end; 
 nor could Tyrawley induce him to accompany 
 him thither. 
 
 "If I go anywhere," he remarked, "it'll be 
 among them Salvationists. I might take a sort 
 of fancy to them, being used to shouting; but 
 my missis, she don't approve of slips of girls 
 setting up to teach their grandmothers, so I 
 ain't on at present." 
 
 In a few weeks a shade of unaccountable 
 mystery was visible in Mr. Naylor. He gave 
 his gentleman guv'nor less advice and more 
 compliments, observed him cautiously during 
 business hours, and hinted at some vast but dim 
 project. Finally, he one day abruptly invited 
 him to tea at his own residence. 
 
 It was by no means the first time Mr. Tyraw- 
 ley had tasted his hospitality, but there was 
 something formal and ceremonial in his manner, 
 and that of his little threadpaper of a partner, 
 on whose forehead Mr. Naylor's " goings on " at 
 intervals had imprinted many anxious wrinkles. 
 
 She was attired in a stiff and crackling silk, 
 an apocryphal lace collar, and a brooch like 
 an heraldic shield; while tea was laid, not in 
 the cosey little kitchen, but in the tiny par- 
 lor, gaudy and chill, whose glories increased 
 the solemn pomp of Mr. Naylor's demeanor. 
 Every Plebham delicacy in season was spread 
 on the board; the toothsome whelk, the allur- 
 ing mussel, the modest cockle, were flanked by
 
 202 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 tinned lobster and odoriferous bloater. Fruit, 
 as too commonplace, was at a discount, and 
 intoxicants were omitted out of compliment to 
 Mr. Tyrawley's presence. 
 
 Mrs. Naylor's tea was, however, as black as 
 ink, and tasted strongly of a new and glittering 
 plated teapot. 
 
 " Piper's best," remarked Mr. Naylor, doing 
 the honors with a graceful wave of the hand. 
 " His fresh butter likewise no margarine there; 
 and I'll answer for it them herrin's don't hum. 
 I should have liked," he added pensively, "just 
 a drop to make a cove a bit balmy. There's 
 some would go the length of a 'tin hat,' * or 
 even a ' brass helmet,' * on such an event ; but I 
 know it ain't your way, so it's no good." 
 
 Mrs. Naylor, shedding at the door a large 
 white apron, now took her place behind the tea- 
 tray, while her husband, after breathing hard for 
 a moment, ducked his head and muttered "For 
 which be thankful," with an indistinct idea of 
 consummating matters by the rites of religion. 
 He then, with an air of much relief and light- 
 ness of heart, concentrated all the dishes on the 
 table round his guest's plate, and invited him to 
 "fall to." 
 
 It is difficult to acquire, late in life, a taste for 
 the smaller shell-fish, and Tyrawley's small appe- 
 tite was an ever fresh disappointment to the 
 Naylors, for which his extreme courtesy could 
 * Plebham idioms for stages of intoxication.
 
 A BUSINESS BANQUET 203 
 
 hardly make up. However, the meal was fin- 
 ished at last, and Mrs. Naylor, at a wink from 
 her lord, quitted the room. 
 
 The latter then cleared a space for his elbows 
 on the table, and propping his large hairless chin 
 on his horny palms, said ponderously : 
 
 "My gentleman guv'nor, you and I have been 
 pardners in the barrow trade these sixteen weeks, 
 and never a wrong word betwixt us ; and you 
 done wonderful, wonderful, considering what you 
 are, and what I and t'other blokes is; but" 
 and he laid his knobbly forefinger impressively 
 on the other's arm "you're too good for us, 
 and that's no lie, for there's many says it besides 
 me. You want something genteel and tiptop, 
 you do ; and Jim Naylor's the chap, unless I'm 
 most uncommonly mistaken, to p'int out that 
 very thing to you." 
 
 "My dear Jim, you're awfully kind, I'm sure; 
 but there's a trifling obstacle which, perhaps, 
 you've overlooked ; but I haven't, because " 
 with a slight sigh, and a vision of something 
 very different to Mr. Naylor's parlor "it is 
 always getting in my way. Genteel and tiptop 
 things cost money, old fellow ; and I haven't 
 got it." 
 
 " Got a little, ain't you, in the savings bank ?" 
 pleaded Mr. Naylor. "What might it run to 
 now ? Excuse my asking." 
 
 "Certainly," said the polite Tyrawley. "It 
 runs," he added accurately, "to three pounds,
 
 204 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 seventeen shillings, and twopence three far- 
 things." 
 
 "A-a-h!" said Mr. Naylor. "I pretty well 
 knew, 'cos, you see, you don't spend nothing, 
 'cept on grub and soap and water. But why," 
 he added persuasively, "shouldn't you and Jim, 
 what you knocked down like a skittle, and picked 
 up and treated like a nobleman, go pardners in 
 something better than a barrow?" Here his 
 persuasiveness changed suddenly into triumph, 
 and he shouted at the top of his voice, "It's a 
 shop, my gentleman guv'nor. There you are ! " 
 and pushed under Mr. Tyrawley's nose a simple 
 but formal agreement for the occupation and 
 tenancy of No. i Gregory Street, High Street, 
 
 Plebham, by and on the one side, and 
 
 William Smith on the other. Tyrawley was a 
 little taken aback at the suddenness of the sug- 
 gestion ; but perceiving that Jim was no more 
 excited than was natural at the crisis of his care- 
 fully prepared drama, gave full and earnest 
 attention to that worthy's explanations. 
 
 " It ain't big," said he, " nor fashionable at 
 present, nor decorated. It '11 lay with you to 
 make it that last, and have all the best in Pleb- 
 ham coming in their one-horse shays to buy. 
 It '11 come cheap, 'cos there ain't no good-will nor 
 fixtures to pay for, seeing as the last bloke that 
 had it was on the loose continual, and let it run 
 down to nothing, and ripped up the counter for 
 firewood to bile his grog, and then made a moon-
 
 A BUSINESS BANQUET 205 
 
 light flitting. Still, I ain't sorry, for I do hear 
 as the landlord is the nearest old file going, 
 though rolling in wealth. If you can put that 
 there three pound in, and I puts five to it, we can 
 do it to start with stock, fixtures, and every 
 thing. Not as / shall be there. Oh, no ! " and 
 Mr. Naylor smiled elaborately. "Me! I don't 
 know nothing about shopkeeping. I'm a coster, 
 I am. I can shout and blarney, and bully-rag 
 my own sort. ' But you go round the corner, 
 mum, and you'll find at the fruiterer's shop a toff 
 as can talk to you in your own way, and sell you 
 a pen'orth 'o tummuts as if he was spouting 
 poetry out of a book, which he done me, a pore 
 coster, several good turns, an' I'll do him one 
 in return, if I can.' Which," said Mr. Naylor, 
 dropping his tone of affected artlessness, "is 
 true, you may take your oath of it." 
 
 "It appears to me," said Tyrawley, rather 
 moved, "that the good turns are all on your 
 side." 
 
 "No, they ain't. You just ast the missis if 
 I've ever gone on the straight long enough to 
 buy her a silk gownd before, and a brooch as 
 big as a cheese-plate, and ain't hit her well, I 
 don't know when" said Mr. Naylor, in deep 
 self-admiration. 
 
 Then he took Mr. Tyrawley to look at the out- 
 side of the shop, which was a sort of excrescence 
 on the front of a fair-sized house. Its dingy 
 and battered shutters were closed, and the name
 
 206 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 of the last possessor, Caleb Collier, was scarcely 
 visible for the mud with which the youth of 
 Plebham had bespattered the shop-front. But 
 it seemed to possess capabilities; and then the 
 rent eight shillings a week sounded so very 
 low; and a start could be made at once, at the 
 best season for cheap foreign fruit; and Mr. 
 Tyrawley felt, with some justifiable pride, that he 
 had mastered a considerable amount of useful 
 knowledge of the trade. 
 
 " Them young rascals won't come annoying 
 you here, nor no young women either, wanting 
 to know if you're suited with a 'tart,' " remarked 
 Jim. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley blushed. 
 
 " And you won't take no notice of me, nor me 
 of you, except passing the time of day, as my 
 barrow being near your shop, and me" and he 
 chuckled immensely "a decent kind of a chap, 
 for a coster." 
 
 So the matter was virtually settled, and in due 
 time Mr. Tyrawley found himself part owner of 
 the Fruit Stores, i Gregory Street, Plebham. 
 He would have put his name over the door, but 
 for one very, very distant and utterly dream-like 
 possibility.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 H UNTED DOWN 
 
 THE business prospered, though with that 
 slow and infinitesimal success which is the lot of 
 those whose capital is small, and who, therefore, 
 can neither risk nor gain much. Rates and 
 taxes, and the numerous small outgoings which 
 beset even the tenant of twelve feet by ten, 
 made the work much more anxious than that at 
 the barrow had been; and Mr. Tyrawley was, 
 strange to say, far more nervous and scrupulous 
 about small debts, and what are called " busi- 
 ness practices," than the ordinary run of petty 
 traders. Then he became rather uneasy about 
 his own health; because sickness meant beggary. 
 The long hours in the little gas-heated shop, 
 and the cold market mornings, did not suit him 
 so well as the open air. He caught cold upon 
 cold; grew thin and hollow-eyed, and had a 
 settled, hacking cough; all of which facts he 
 scrupulously kept from MacAdam, lest that 
 worthy physician should place before him the 
 alternative of taking a fortnight's rest, or having 
 his physical condition reported to Miss St. Just. 
 Indeed, just because he felt ill and had a super-
 
 208 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 stitious notion that she would somehow divine it, 
 he ventured, having his promised photograph to 
 send, to write to her mother, and wrote very 
 cheerfully; drawing such a bright picture of his 
 daily existence that the proud, sensitive girl, 
 conscious of the slightness of the tie between 
 them, felt he was almost too happy without her. 
 He did not look ill in his photo, and having on 
 reflection eschewed the jersey for that occasion, 
 not wishing to pose as a martyr, rather overdid 
 things. So she wrote very cheerfully and rather 
 conventionally in return; and the unfortunate 
 lover felt proportionately snubbed and downcast. 
 However, he worked on fiercely, early and late, 
 in spite of the remonstrances of the faithful Jim, 
 and was in a very fair way to cut the Gordian 
 knot of his difficulties by working himself to death, 
 when a new and serious complication arose. 
 
 A restlessness, quite foreign to Mr. J. Paget's 
 well-regulated mind, had beset that gentleman 
 since his return from abroad; it carried him 
 once or twice into High Street, Plebham; but, of 
 course, he never saw the object of his visit, who 
 was safely ensconced behind his own counter in 
 Gregory Street. 
 
 At last he took a resolution to question the 
 first costermonger he should see, and chanced on 
 Mr. Naylor, who, trade being slack and the morn- 
 ing warm, was leaning in an attitude of agreeable 
 languor against a lamp-post near his barrow. 
 
 " Good-morning," said Mr. Paget. Mr. Naylor,
 
 HUNTED DOWN 209 
 
 whose manners were primitive, merely stared. 
 He was apt to attach an undue importance to 
 muscular development in the male of his own 
 species, and Mr. Paget's five foot six of long 
 body and short legs, surmounted by a rather 
 mean head, did not impress him. "I think," 
 said Paget, endeavoring to be amiably patroniz- 
 ing, " I think I've seen you about here before." 
 
 " Might," said Jim, not removing his pipe, 
 " or, similarly, mightn't. What d'yer want ? " 
 
 Mr. Paget had not expected so pointed a 
 query. "I er should be so much obliged, my 
 good man " he began. 
 
 "No," said Jim, expectorating with a sudden- 
 ness which caused his questioner to retire pre- 
 cipitately. " Don't yer come that, my jolly 
 toff; I ain't a good man, but a bad 'un, as cuts 
 up rough when 'he's aggrawated wi' questions." 
 
 Mr. Paget was not without courage; few peo- 
 ple whose self-esteem is high are; moreover, he 
 was animated by two feelings which make even 
 cowards bold love and hatred. So, accommo- 
 dating himself, as far as he knew how, to Jim's 
 humor, he said, "Ah! rough and ready, I see. 
 Pray can you tell me any thing about a a per- 
 son named Tyrawley, who, I think, followed the 
 same calling as yourself somewhere here?" 
 
 Mr. Naylor stiffened, and glowered down with 
 his small, fierce blue eyes at the other, taking 
 in, with the instinct of a mischievous child, what 
 would be the most annoying reply to make. 
 14
 
 210 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "Him?" said he deliberately. "You mean 
 'Gentleman Lee'? He ain't in my line now. 
 Not he; should say he was a big swell, what 
 only took to it for a lark or a wager not as you 
 or me might. He's got a stores now, he has; 
 and before long he'll have 'em in all parts of 
 London. Making a pot of money, he is ! " 
 
 "He's a sharp man of business, is he, then?" 
 enquired Mr. Paget, with a sickly grin. 
 
 "Sharp ? " said Mr. Naylor. " I should think 
 he was. Sharp! Cuts 'em all out, he does. 
 Top o' the tree, he'll be. And I know," added 
 he, with the air of one strictly understating the 
 truth, "his landlord thinks so, too. Means to 
 offer him the whole block of shops. He's a 
 downy cove, Smith of Grasswich is; made his 
 own pile in trade, and knows a clever bloke 
 when he sees one." 
 
 "An upright man?" said Paget carelessly. 
 
 "Dun'no* about upright," returned Jim, with 
 a stare; "must be getting on in life a bit 
 stooped in the shoulders." 
 
 "I mean," said Mr. Paget, "fair, honorable?" 
 
 " Fair and square, and likes other people fair 
 and square, too. Turns his tenants out, if they 
 ain't." 
 
 Mr. Paget's chill eye lightened, and his heart 
 was uplifted within him. He saw light at the 
 end of the very humbling underground path he 
 had been treading. 
 
 "Indeed ! " said he, with an indifference poor
 
 HUNTED DOWN 211 
 
 Jim quite failed to penetrate. " I think, now you 
 mention his name, some friends of mine at Grass- 
 wich know him. A large house, has he not ? " 
 
 "I believe yer. And two matched parlor- 
 maids like a pair of ponies, 'cos he can't abear 
 flunkeys, and only one 'oss for his brougham; 
 but he is a 'oss. And a cob that's up to fifteen 
 stone, and yet as good bred as a Derby winner. 
 Ah, he is a man, he is ! " And Mr. Naylor 
 smacked his lips and spat admiringly. 
 
 "A kind man?" suggested Mr. Paget inno- 
 cently. "As he rose from small beginnings 
 himself, would take a servant without a charac- 
 ter, and so on ?" 
 
 "Well, you are a soft!" replied the scornful 
 Naylor, " not to know them sort's always the 
 'ardest over any little bit of a slip. Why, he's 
 down on 'em like a cartload o' bricks, in course, 
 and says justice comes afore mercy." 
 
 Mr. Paget sang a little tune in the gayety of 
 his heart, and remarked that doubtless this side 
 of Mr. W. Smith's character would not concern 
 Mr. Mr. T. Rawley. 
 
 "Not it," said the exultant Jim. " He's all 
 right, he is. If he weren't, would all the ladies 
 take to him like they do ? " 
 
 " Do they, indeed ? " 
 
 Mr. Naylor, nettled by what he thought 
 scepticism, asseverated, even with blasphemies, 
 that they did; and related real and imaginary 
 instances of the effects of Mr. Tyrawley's looks
 
 212 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 and ways, which Mr. Paget took in with an 
 amount of faith quite touching in so clear-headed 
 a gentleman. 
 
 "And where," said he, as he casually tendered 
 Mr. Naylor a small coin, and thanked him for 
 his agreeable conversation, "is this accom- 
 plished gentleman's business residence?" 
 
 Perhaps it was the smallness of the coin, per- 
 haps a touch of eagerness in the tone, which 
 suddenly, and late, aroused Mr. Naylor's suspi- 
 cions, for he replied, with a gloomy brow and 
 considerable rudeness : 
 
 "That ain't no business of yours. And look 
 here, my fine feller, I don't know whether you're 
 a 'torney's clerk, or what, but I do know if you 
 
 jabbers to me any more " And he exhibited, 
 
 close to Mr. Paget's nose, four grimy and 
 powerful knuckles, which caused his instant 
 retreat. 
 
 F6rtune, however, favored him; for, turning 
 down the next street, and happening to glance 
 in at a shop window, he beheld the very object 
 of his search. He drew himself together for a 
 moment, with the fixed eye of an animal catching 
 sight of its natural prey, then strode supercil- 
 iously in. 
 
 It was a warm morning, one of those mornings 
 which are pleasant for idling, but fatiguing for 
 work, and Mr. Tyrawley was in his shirt-sleeves 
 which were colored, because washing is expen- 
 sive perspiring at every pore, because he was
 
 HUNTED DOWN 213 
 
 weak, and with his hair in damp masses on his fore- 
 head, because even hair-cutting costs something. 
 
 He looked, moreover, haggard and grimy ; 
 lifting heavy fruit-hampers being incompatible 
 with gentlemanly ease and the more delicate 
 extremes of cleanliness. He was speeding two 
 rough boys on their morning errands; serving 
 two fat women with onions and turnips, and 
 hurriedly jotting down accounts with a hand that 
 trembled from overstrain of mind and body, 
 while he replied, in a rather faint and sickly 
 manner, to the witty remarks of a neighbor and 
 customer, who was leaning on the little counter, 
 eating a squashy banana. 
 
 Mr. Paget glanced round the dingy little shop, 
 which all the scrubbing in the world would not 
 brighten; observed the patches on Tyrawley's 
 shirt, the shabbiness of his professional blue 
 apron; how much the homely onion and orange 
 predominated over more aristocratic matters in 
 his modest stock, and perceived that Mr. Naylor's 
 account had been highly colored. 
 
 He saw also, however, with a grudging admira- 
 tion, how desperately and not altogether unsuc- 
 cessfully his rival was struggling ; and a des- 
 perate rival is dangerous. 
 
 Their eyes met, as they had met in the road 
 after Tyrawley's fight; but there was no greet- 
 ing beyond that look. Tyrawley was haughtily, 
 and the other spitefully, silent. At last he said 
 patronizingly:
 
 214 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 " Come, this is better than gambling or street- 
 fighting. But you do not appear to improve in 
 health, Mr. Tyrawley." 
 
 Now, Tyrawley was fagged out of self-control, 
 and acutely conscious of his own disadvantages 
 as to appearance, and of the fact of Paget being 
 more than usually cool, smug, and speckless. 
 Moreover, people whose hearts are weak are 
 physically inclined to irritability. So he turned 
 white with passion, and panted under his breath: 
 
 "Leave this place, please!" 
 
 "I want," said Mr. Paget calmly, "six 
 bananas, if they are good." 
 
 One of the fat women smiled amiably. She 
 had not caught Mr. Tyrawley's angry whisper, 
 and was congratulating him on a new and well- 
 dressed customer; but she was undeceived next 
 moment. A scarlet danger-spot appeared on Mr. 
 Tyrawley's cheek. 
 
 "If you don't go " he exclaimed aloud 
 
 this time. A long arm shot across the counter 
 pointed the observation. 
 
 The prudent enemy backed a step or two. 
 "You must be mad, or drunk, to speak so to a 
 gentleman," he said. "However," and he turned 
 away, " I'll see you again." 
 
 The fat woman went away too, sorrowing and 
 puzzled, and Tyrawley sat down, dejected. 
 
 " That beggar was bitter enough against me 
 already," said he, "and, like a fool, I've made 
 him ten thousand times worse by my cheek as 
 

 
 HUNTED DOWN 215 
 
 he no doubt considers it. He means me some 
 ill, I can see plainly enough, but I don't know 
 what he can do that he hasn't done. I've got a 
 clean sheet here, that's one comfort, whoever he 
 may ask." 
 
 A few minutes later Mr. Naylor, with the 
 stealthy tread and backward glance of the stage 
 villain, appeared on the threshold, and, closing 
 the door elaborately behind him, pointed with 
 his thumb over his shoulder and enquired 
 hoarsely. 
 
 "Pal of yourn?" 
 
 " Quite on the contrary," said Mr. Tyrawley. 
 " My greatest enemy, Jim, except myself." 
 
 Jim smote his large thigh penitently. " Busted 
 if I didn't think so ! And here have I been talk- 
 ing to him like a brother for the best half of ten 
 minutes." 
 
 "What about ? " said Tyrawley dejectedly. 
 
 ' Why, the big trade you was doing cracked 
 it up like one o'clock, I did. But why the p'lice- 
 man should he want to know if your landlord 
 was a hard 'un or a soft 'un ?" 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley's eyes widened hopelessly. " Oh, 
 I see ! " said he very gently. 
 
 " See what, my gentleman guv'nor ? Tell us," 
 entreated the penitent Naylor. " Ain't been and 
 upset your apple-cart, have I ?" 
 
 " I'm afraid, my dear Jim, it's just what you 
 have done. But never mind, old chap. That 
 swell has resolved to hunt me down, sooner or
 
 2l6 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 later," said Tyrawley bitterly. "What he will 
 do now is to find out my landlord, and give him 
 a dramatized version of my past career, which I 
 have sketched for you." 
 
 "But," objected Mr. Naylor feebly, "what's 
 a trick or two with cards, or a pea and thimble, 
 or that ? " 
 
 "Enough to spoil me, I'm afraid. I may as 
 well shut up shop before I bring my ill-luck on 
 you, my esteemed partner." And he sat down 
 on a pile of baskets and stared doggedly into 
 vacancy. 
 
 Mr. Naylor whistled and stuck his thumbs into 
 his trousers pockets, and there was silence for 
 a minute or two within the shop; while without, 
 in the sunshine, the usual workaday noises 
 of a London suburb sounds rather languidly 
 through the warm air. It seemed to Mr. Tyraw- 
 ley that the small footing he had gained with 
 such labor and pain on Fortune's slippery ladder 
 was sliding away. A gleam and a waft of light, 
 color, perfume, from a far-off Italian seashore ; 
 its purple hills, its flowery fields, its silver sea, 
 seemed to drift toward him and then be blotted 
 out by a black cloud of despair. His body was 
 sick and aching, and his soul faint. 
 
 " Old man," said he wearily, looking up at 
 Mr. Naylor, "there's nothing doing, and I don't 
 feel over well. I think I'll go to my diggings 
 and get to bed." 
 
 Jim stared with unmeasured surprise, slightly
 
 HUNTED DOWN 217 
 
 tinged with reproach. " Guv'nor," he exclaimed 
 pathetically, "you ain't never funking 'cos of 
 that whipper-snapper ?" 
 
 "You don't understand," said Tyrawley, 
 rather stung by the touch of scorn he thought 
 he detected in Mr. Naylor's wonder. "Fists 
 ain't every thing, Jim." 
 
 " I should like to show him they was sumfin, 
 though," said Naylor. "Why," he added plead- 
 ingly, "you could tackle him with your eyes shut, 
 and one hand tied behind you." 
 
 " I'm afraid," replied Tyrawley, smiling faintly, 
 " he's more likely to tackle me. I'm about tired 
 of fighting, to tell the truth." 
 
 "What have you done to him?" demanded 
 Mr. Naylor. "Took his tart away, or what ? " 
 
 "He hasn't got a 'tart' that I'm aware of," 
 replied Tyrawley evasively (he had not confided his 
 love-story to Jim), "but he hates me like poison." 
 
 "Well," muttered Jim, "if him and me ever 
 
 comes across one another " An ugly look 
 
 finished that part of the sentence; then he 
 resumed, with forced cheerfulness, " Look here, 
 my gentleman guv'nor, you brace up a bit and 
 stick to the shop, and I'll send the lad round to 
 tell my missis to bring you a cup of tea and a bit 
 of toast, which is the only thing as I can take 
 when I've got the bile. She can keep shop while 
 you're having it, which she's good at, through 
 having been akitching-maid in high families, and 
 learned manners, which I never could."
 
 2l8 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Tyrawley assented with languid gratitude, too 
 much cast down to combat any thing, and Mr. 
 Naylor retired. When clear of the shop he went 
 through a remarkable pantomime. He placed 
 himself in an approved position of attack, rather 
 than defence, danced a short, grave war-dance on 
 the pavement, to the delight of several small 
 boys, remarked to one of them, "Yes, my game- 
 chick, that '11 do," took a coin from his pocket, 
 spat on it, and, looking in the direction in which 
 Mr. Paget had retired, sang fervently, but with- 
 out any intention of profanity for he did not 
 know from whence it came two lines of a 
 popular hymn: 
 
 " Will you meet me at the fountain ? 
 I should love to have you there ! " 
 
 and, calmed by these semi-religious exercises, 
 returned to his barrow.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 THAT LITTLE VIPER 
 
 THAT same afternoon Mr. Paget, having paid 
 a polite visit to his friends the Thirlbys, at Grass- 
 wich, casually asked Mrs. Thirlby, at its close, if 
 she would mind giving him a line of introduction 
 to her neighbor, Mr. William Smith of The 
 Oaks. "I hear he owns a large amount of house 
 property at Plebham," said he, "and I have a 
 small sum I had some thought of investing in 
 that direction. I've no doubt he could give me 
 most valuable advice. Would it be out of place, 
 do you think, if I were to call there now ? " 
 
 Mrs. Thirlby opined that business was never 
 out of place with Mr. Smith. "Business is 
 every thing to that dear man," said she, with 
 that attempt at fashionable flippancy noticeable 
 in City ladies. " He was, you know, a Catholic, 
 but somebody of his own religion cheated him 
 egregiously, and now, though he has not made 
 any profession of being a Protestant, he has with- 
 drawn every penny of support from Catholic 
 institutions." 
 
 The note was given, and Mr. Paget departed, 
 quietly exultant. 
 
 The Oaks was ponderously handsome and
 
 220 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 studiously plain in every particular of house and 
 garden. The study was no cosey male boudoir, 
 littered with pipes and novels, or curios and 
 Editions de luxe, but, as Mr. Smith delighted to 
 call it, an office, with piles of papers and ledgers. 
 This further inspirited Mr. Paget. Here was 
 soil ready for the seed he proposed to sow. He 
 sent in Mrs. Thirlby's note, and Mr. Smith 
 shortly appeared. He was tall, stout, erect; his 
 countenance obstinate, but not mean; his eye 
 cold and penetrating, but straightforward; a 
 solid nose, broadish in the bridge, but not fleshy; 
 a long upper lip. 
 
 "Well, sir," he said, nodding to his visitor, 
 " what can I do for you ?" 
 
 Mr. Paget returned the greeting with agree- 
 able respect, and entered at some length into the 
 object of his visit. 
 
 Now Mr. Smith had a mania, strictly con- 
 trolled by caution and acuteness, for investments 
 his own or his friends'. He would invest in a 
 business, a man, a horse, which appeared unre- 
 munerative to others, but which rarely failed to 
 justify his fancy. So he listened complacently 
 to his visitor's statements, and was specially 
 interested on learning that his desires tended 
 toward house property in Plebham. 
 
 " I have a considerable amount there myself," 
 he remarked, "chiefly managed by my agent, 
 though I occasionally run over. Nothing like 
 personal supervision, sir."
 
 THAT LITTLE VIPER 221 
 
 "I am a careful man myself," replied Mr. 
 Paget modestly, " but a mere tyro in investment; 
 that is why I sought this favor." 
 
 A discussion on the merits of Plebham as a 
 rising suburb followed, and for a moment Mr. 
 Paget had a golden vision of becoming the land- 
 lord of his enemy and instantly turning him out; 
 but this choice prospect vanished when Mr. 
 Smith remarked that some of the smaller streets 
 of Plebham, notably, Manor, Hazel, and Gregory, 
 would be gold-mines some day. 
 
 " Two of them, I may say," he added, " I own 
 entirely." 
 
 " Indeed!" said Mr. Paget with flattering in- 
 terest. "Why, my dear sir, I think I happen 
 to know something about one of your tenants. I 
 was passing through Plebham to-day, and, very 
 much to my surprise, saw him, apparently at 
 home, behind the counter of a most respectable 
 little shop in one of the streets you mention." 
 
 " I hope that what you know is to the man's 
 credit," said Mr. Smith, with a grim smile. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Paget, as if the avowal were 
 forced out of him, " scarcely. I'm very reluc- 
 tant to speak evil of any body, but after your 
 extreme kindness, sir, in placing your valuable 
 experience at the disposal of a stranger, I feel it 
 my duty to tell you what I know." 
 
 Smith was too keen a man not to see that this 
 virtuous reluctance was in some measure assumed, 
 so he very calmly said, " Would you object
 
 222 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 to stating facts and name ? " and waited for 
 more. 
 
 "The place I saw him in," replied Mr. Paget, 
 "was called, I think, the Fruit Stores; and I 
 may mention, in passing, that it looked extremely 
 dirty. His customers seemed to be of the lowest 
 class, chiefly women, and when I proposed to 
 purchase a little fruit, his manner was most 
 abusive indeed, the fellow actually had the im- 
 pudence to order me out of the shop, with a 
 threatening gesture. But I think," he added, 
 with an air of strict impartiality, "from his ap- 
 pearance, which was most slovenly and disreput- 
 able, that he had been drinking, and scarcely 
 knew what he was doing. I was informed that 
 he is a great man among the lowest order of 
 costermongers there quite their hero and the 
 name he goes by is, I am told, ' Gentleman 
 Lee.'" 
 
 "You inferred," said Mr. Smith, with a grim- 
 ness which boded ill for the proprietor of the 
 Fruit Stores, "that you had known the man 
 previously. May I ask his character and cir- 
 cumstances then?" 
 
 " Distinctly shady, I regret to say," answered 
 Mr. Paget, with gusto. "He was, in fact, a 
 thorough sharper, a chevalier d' Industrie quite a 
 notorious character at Claretown, where he had 
 the insolence to force his acquaintance on some 
 relatives of my own a widowed aunt and her 
 children. They were simple enough to invite
 
 THAT LITTLE VIPER 223 
 
 him to their country-house (for the fellow's 
 manners are plausible, and even gentlemanly), 
 but I soon detected the imposture and expelled 
 him at once. The name he went by there no 
 doubt another alias was Tyrawley." 
 
 Had Mr. Paget not been too much occupied 
 with his own passions, he would here have per- 
 ceived a phenomenon most uncommon in Mr. 
 Smith. He started. It was the very slightest 
 of starts a lifting of the eyelid, a tightening of 
 the lip no more. 
 
 "Indeed," he said, with even more than his 
 usual deliberation, "I thank you for the infor- 
 mation, which tallies with something which has 
 reached me. I shall make a point of seeing the 
 man and his shop the next time I visit Plebham, 
 and shall probably get rid of him." 
 
 " He is a dangerous, insolent person," said Mr. 
 Paget, with a little too much warmth ; "and I 
 am sure you would do well." 
 
 Mr. Smith made no further remark on the sub- 
 ject till ten minutes later, when Mr. Paget was 
 taking his leave, who, feeling he could not bear 
 to be ignorant of the probable downfall of his 
 enemy, asked, with much humility : 
 
 "Will you allow me the honor of calling on 
 you again, should I be in the neighborhood ?" 
 
 "Certainly," said the other; "and I shall 
 hope to tell you that your friend has left it." 
 
 A quicker ear than Mr. Paget's might have 
 discerned a certain tinge of distaste in Mr.
 
 224 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 Smith's manner ; but Mr. Paget saw it not, and 
 went away cheerful. 
 
 The proceedings of Mr. Smith were now, for a 
 person of his character, very remarkable. He 
 stood for full two minutes where his visitor had 
 left him, without moving a muscle ; then he 
 slowly and thoughtfully ascended the broad oak 
 staircase to his bedroom, locked the door, 
 opened the secret drawer of a mahogany secre- 
 taire, and extracted therefrom a small, faded 
 water-color sketch, representing a big, pale boy 
 with a thick nose, and a tiny, blue-eyed girl, 
 hand in hand, in the ungraceful dress of forty or 
 fifty years back. He looked at this work of art 
 for a long time, shaded his eyes with his hand, 
 sighed, looked at it again. A stern and ugly 
 look passed across his face ; a soft and even 
 wistful one replaced it ; finally, he put back the 
 drawing and made an appointment with himself 
 in his pocket-book for the morrow: "Plebham, 
 Tyrawley, Gregory Street, 2.30." 
 
 Next day an elderly gentleman of commanding 
 presence, in speckless broadcloth, with a watch- 
 chain and seal-ring whose weight and worth 
 commanded the deepest reverence of the shop- 
 men, walked into Brass's, the watchmaker's, in 
 High Street, Plebham, and requesting that some 
 small repair might be done straightway to the ring 
 of his watch, conversed affably with the assistant 
 meanwhile. After a few casual questions, he en- 
 quired if the jeweller had good neighbors.
 
 THAT LITTLE VIPER 225 
 
 "Oh, yes, sir; most respectable! Marks & 
 Jones, across the road, have been established 
 forty years ; Mr. Hewlet, next door, thirty. 
 Our left-hand neighbor, in the ham-and-beef line, 
 isn't much ; but beyond him, round the corner, 
 there is a little fruit-shop, and, though you 
 mightn't think it, the proprietor, Mr. Tyrawley, 
 is quite the gentleman." 
 
 " Indeed ! Idle and fine and so on, I suppose ? " 
 
 "Oh, no, sir; far from it!" said Mr. Brass's 
 assistant, who knew Tyrawley, and was half fas- 
 cinated by his easy, yet lofty, courtesy. "He 
 works like a brick," he added, his youthful ardor 
 making him forget to choose his words. "And 
 he's really getting a capital business together, in 
 a small way. And if ever a man deserved it he 
 does : up early and late, always most gentlemanly 
 to every-body. His two lads would lie down for 
 him to tread on them. Never drinks a drop, nor 
 wastes a penny, nor says a bad word ; church 
 every Sunday, morning and evening." 
 
 He was encouraged by his customer's marked 
 attention. 
 
 "You give him a good character," he now said. 
 " I suppose he's a friend of yours ? " 
 
 " Not more of mine than of the rest of his 
 neighbors. You can ask where you like round 
 here; we all say the same except, perhaps, at 
 the Fox over yonder. He's too teetotal for 
 them, and has influenced one or two of our 
 costers hereabouts to be the same." 
 15
 
 226 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 "Friendly with costers, then, also? Rather 
 strange for a respectable tradesman ! " 
 
 "Only with one, sir; a big chap they call the 
 ' Little 'un,' who they say took a fancy for him 
 because he knocked him down for ill-using a 
 cripple." 
 
 "Good-looking man ?" enquired the stranger 
 carelessly. His heart contracted, with a sudden 
 wrathful memory of a good-looking good-for- 
 nothing, who had robbed him first of the love, 
 then of the life, of the one human creature he 
 cherished. 
 
 "He is," said the assistant, "a picture of a 
 man, in his Sunday clothes or even in his 
 colored shirt." 
 
 "Quite a paragon," said Mr. Smith leisurely. 
 "I think, while you finish that job, I'll go and 
 taste his stock and have a look at him." 
 
 He made a few further enquiries, on the excuse 
 of small purchases, in other shops, and finally pro- 
 ceeded to the Fruit Stores. He found matters 
 in some confusion; a scavenger's cart had col- 
 lapsed just outside, and had bespattered Mr. 
 Tyrawley's windows with its liquid contents. 
 Tyrawley, with his sleeves rolled up, displaying 
 arms in which there was certainly more muscle 
 than flesh, was cleaning them assiduously, pale 
 and perspiring with the effort, for it was a heavy 
 day, and casting anxious glances at his shop- 
 door from time to time, to see that he did not 
 miss a customer.
 
 THAT LITTLE VIPER 227 
 
 Mr. Smith drew near and watched him nar- 
 rowly, then said, "Warm work, eh ?" 
 
 Tyrawley turned round with rather a weary 
 smile, but remarked that it was all in the day's 
 work. He was rather surprised at the intentness 
 with which Mr. Smith regarded him, and still 
 more so when the latter followed him into the 
 shop and gave him a liberal, but rather peculiar, 
 order, which took time and trouble to carry out, 
 consisting, as it did, of small quantities of every 
 thing he had in stock. 
 
 "I'll give you the address presently," said his 
 visitor carelessly. "Thanks, "as Mr. Tyrawley 
 lifted over the counter a high stool, the only 
 seat he possessed, and covered it with a clean 
 brown-paper bag. 
 
 "Awfully poor apology for a cushion, I'm 
 afraid, sir; but I haven't time to be a Sybarite." 
 
 Mr. Smith continued to observe him with a 
 keenness strangely touched from time to time 
 with melancholy, and even softness. He took 
 in every detail the traces of care and pain on 
 his tenant's face, his frequent cough, the slight 
 hectic on his cheek, his well-mended clothes, 
 contrasting with the undefinable polish of every 
 word and action. 
 
 "Does your business pay here ?" he asked. 
 
 "Fairly," said Mr. Tyrawley, repressing a 
 sigh. " Unluckily I have no capital, and a 
 fellow needs that before he can safely launch 
 out. I hate debt."
 
 228 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 " Been in the trade long ? " 
 
 "Only a few months, sir. I started," said he, 
 with a laugh, " as a coster's assistant ; so I've 
 risen in the world." 
 
 " May I ask what you were in before ? " 
 
 The other's forehead clouded, and he looked 
 his visitor straight in the eyes, and answered, 
 "Something much less respectable, though, I 
 suppose, more aristocratic." 
 
 " What ?" said Mr. Smith bluntly. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley rather elevated his eyebrows at 
 this catechism, but replied, with calm candor, 
 picking a handful of onions out of a basket : 
 
 " Since you honor me, sir, by taking an interest 
 in me, I may reply billiards, cards, and their 
 concomitants. But it was a beastly life ! " he 
 added, wiping his brow; "and, thank Heaven, 
 it's done with forever." 
 
 "Excuse my questions. I take some interest 
 in beginners in trade. Do you like this, com- 
 pared to the other ? " 
 
 "Yes, though it's a hardish struggle." He 
 leaned against the counter for a moment and 
 coughed, as a man does whom coughing hurts. 
 
 "Chest weak ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir, and heart too, I'm afraid; but I can 
 get along, I think, all right, now summer is here. 
 At least, I hope so, for if not " 
 
 " What,, if not?" 
 
 "The workhouse, I'm afraid," said Tyrawley 
 dejectedly.
 
 THAT LITTLE VIPER 22Q 
 
 "But surely you might find some friend or 
 relative who would help you a little, and make 
 a pecuniary advance ? " 
 
 " The only friend I have who could do that has 
 done too much already nursed me back from 
 death's door, and a great deal besides that, which 
 I couldn't bother a stranger with. Here's your 
 parcel, sir. Where shall I send it ? " 
 
 Mr. Smith seemed not to hear the question. 
 He thought a moment, then said deliberately, 
 "I sometimes help forward a deserving man, 
 kept back for want of capital, myself. I suppose 
 the friend you were speaking of could be referred 
 to ? If you like to trust me with his name, I'll 
 think the matter over and communicate with you 
 further." 
 
 Tyrawley was surprised. Strangers who offer 
 loans without security are rare in Plebham, as 
 elsewhere ; but there was a plutocratic solemnity 
 about Mr. Smith which forbade suspicion. He 
 therefore scribbled down MacAdam's name and 
 address on a billhead, with the observation that 
 the doctor knew the best and the worst of him, if 
 there was a best. 
 
 "You've forgotten to ask my name," said 
 Mr. Smith. 
 
 " I concluded, sir, you would have told me, if 
 you had wished me to know it." 
 
 " Unbusiness-like, but honorable, young man. 
 Well, I wish you good-afternoon, and good trade." 
 
 Then Mr. Smith produced his purse, counted
 
 230 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 his change with accuracy, gave his address The 
 Oaks, Grasswich but no name, and departed, 
 with a strange, long, wistful look in the other's 
 face. He got his watch from the jeweller's with- 
 out a needless word, and left Plebham straight- 
 way, and before that afternoon's post wrote to 
 MacAdam a letter marked "private," which 
 caused that worthy instantaneously to execute 
 a portion of a Scotch reel before he sat down to 
 answer it promptly and fully. 
 
 The excitement of the stranger's visit, and the 
 faint hope it had created in Mr. Tyrawley's 
 breast, had scarcely subsided before Mr. Jim 
 Naylor bounced in, looking quite pale for him. 
 He bolted the shop-door. 
 
 "Do you know who you've had here, guv'nor?" 
 said he tragically. 
 
 Tyrawley shook his head. 
 
 " Why, Mr. William Smith, your landlord ! and 
 I'll lay a tenpun' note to a tanner that it's that 
 hound brought him down upon yer. Did he say 
 you would hear from him further, or summat of 
 that natur' ? " 
 
 His breathlessness communicated itself to Mr. 
 Tyrawley, who became, moreover, much whiter 
 than Jim himself. 
 
 "Yes, Jim, he did. What then ?" 
 
 "Why, that's his way. That comes before the 
 kick-out. Here's an awful go ! But," said Mr. 
 Naylor, with a forlorn satisfaction, "blowed and 
 blessed if I don't square accounts with that there
 
 THAT LITTLE VIPER 231 
 
 little viper. Come, cheer up, my gentleman 
 guv'nor. There's lots of other cribs besides this; 
 or you could go foreman at the West End, now 
 you knows the trade. Why, they'll jump at you, 
 just for to wheedle the young ladies into buying 
 bokays orbukkets which is the French? Never 
 say die ! " 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley did rather say it in his heart, 
 for he feared that Jim's theory was but too likely 
 to be correct. However, he forced a smile and, 
 being presently called upon to serve three small 
 boys with apples, Mr. Naylor retired, leaving his 
 sting behind him.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 
 
 MR. TYRAWLEY struggled through the next 
 five days with an anxious heart and a weary 
 body, for he began to feel that he was an 
 Ishmael indeed. He almost made up his mind 
 that, if expelled from Gregory Street, he would 
 take his place among the hopeless swarm who 
 gather round the dock gates, like the drift on the 
 river outside, write a farewell note to MacAdam 
 and Nina, and disappear, this time irrevocably. 
 
 Things did not look much brighter when, on 
 the sixth morning, as he was sweeping out his 
 shop in the teeth of a bitter wind (for summer) 
 and cold rain, the early postman delivered to him 
 the following letter : 
 
 " SIR : Mr. Smith requests that you will call 
 upon him at The Oaks, Grasswich, at 3.30 to- 
 morrow, Friday afternoon, in re your tenancy of 
 No. i Gregory Street, Plebham. 
 "Yours, etc., 
 
 "S. ROBINSON, Agent." 
 
 Tyrawley laid aside the note, finished his 
 sweeping in a half-hearted fashion, and sum-
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 233 
 
 moned Mr. Naylor to a council. That gentle- 
 man could only shake his head very gloomily, 
 and comfort himself by threats of condign 
 vengeance on Mr. John Paget. 
 
 " But you'd best go, because you may talk him 
 into giving you time to turn around and look 
 about you," he remarked. 
 
 Tyrawley's heart contracted as he looked 
 around the little shop which had been the founda- 
 tion stone of so many air-castles. A sort of 
 dogged pride prevented his taking tram or train 
 or putting on his Sunday clothes, as Jim sug- 
 gested; so he arrived, after a long walk, drenched 
 and exhausted, and feeling as if all the fight were 
 gone out of him. He was not sorry to be con- 
 ducted through the solemn splendors of the hall 
 into a small back office looking on the stable- 
 yard, the domain of Mr. Smith's agent when his 
 services were required there. A post-card lay 
 on the desk close to the chair placed for him, 
 on which he could scarcely help seeing this 
 inscription : 
 
 " DEAR MR. SMITH: 
 
 "It will give me great pleasure to call upon 
 you at four o'clock on Friday. 
 
 "Yours faithfully, 
 
 " JOHN PAGET." 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley wiped his forehead, and for the 
 moment shared Naylor's feelings. After he had
 
 234 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 cooled his heels, and his small remaining stock of 
 courage, for about a quarter of an hour, he was 
 conducted to Mr. Smith's own office, where that 
 gentleman sat reading some legal documents, in 
 company with a friend as legal looking as the 
 documents. He nodded to Tyrawley, without 
 asking him to be seated. 
 
 "This, Mr. Sharp," said he, " is the person I 
 was telling you about." 
 
 Mr. Sharp's countenance was professionally 
 blank, but he took a very long look at the new- 
 comer, taking in, the latter felt, his jersey, and 
 then bowed to him with considerable politeness, 
 at which a faint, grim smile flickered on Mr. 
 Smith's lips, which was slightly and ruefully 
 reflected on Mr. Tyrawley's. 
 
 "Well," said the former, "we'll proceed to 
 business. I presume you can guess why I sent 
 for you? " 
 
 "I suppose," said Tyrawley, rather doggedly, 
 " it was to give me notice that you don't require 
 me as a tenant any longer." 
 
 His heart beat quick; he could not help a 
 slight touch of appeal in his tone; but Mr. Smith 
 replied deliberately, " Precisely. I mean no 
 reflection on you, but you are not the sort of 
 tenant I want." 
 
 "A week's notice, I conclude? " said Tyrawley, 
 hardening himself. 
 
 "We'll talk of that presently. I suppose you 
 intend going on with the business elsewhere?"
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 235 
 
 "No, I don't think so," said Tyrawley. A 
 beaten feeling was coming over him. 
 
 " Oh! Going back to the other pursuits ? " 
 
 " No," answered the ejected tenant, drawing 
 up his head defiantly, but speaking with attempted 
 lightness. " I think I shall go in for agricul- 
 ture; it will be pleasant, now the autumn is 
 coming on." 
 
 "Farmer?" enquired Mr. Smith, elevating his 
 eyebrows. 
 
 "No; laborer," was the curt reply. 
 
 Mr. Tyrawley did not see why he should be 
 further cross-questioned by a landlord who was 
 evicting him. So he looked at the door sugges- 
 tively. At his answer, Mr. Smith had exchanged 
 an approving look with his solicitor, who now 
 began to finger the documents on the table. 
 
 "A moment," said Mr. Smith. " Before you 
 leave, just cast your eye over those papers and 
 give me your opinion. Show them to him, 
 Sharp." 
 
 " You had better sit down, sir," said the polite 
 Sharp. 
 
 Bewildered and annoyed, Tyrawley sat down 
 and cast his eye carelessly over the papers. But 
 it was with a widened gaze of unspeakable amaze- 
 ment that he gathered, from the by-ways of 
 legal phraseology, the fact that certain large fruit 
 and floral businesses, and large nurseries in the 
 suburbs, were conveyed, for his exclusive use 
 and benefit from this day forth, to Infelix Tyraw-
 
 236 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 ley. His nostrils quivered, his hand trembled, 
 his breath came quick almost too quick for the 
 faint question which his white lips could hardly 
 form: "What what can this mean? It is a 
 cruel joke ! " 
 
 Then Mr. Smith rose up and came to him, and, 
 with rather a shaking hand on his shoulder and a 
 husky voice, said: "No, it's no joke, my fine fel- 
 low for you are a fine fellow! I've turned you 
 out of Gregory Street, but I've put you in there 
 instead, for two reasons : First, because you're a 
 son of my poor dead Felicia, my little sister, and 
 blood is thicker than water, after all; and, sec- 
 ond, because, if you have had a bad past, you 
 have shaken yourself free of it, and worked your 
 way up from it like a man, and made me feel 
 proud that you belong to me." 
 
 Tyrawley tried to rise to answer, but the strain 
 and the reaction were too great. A deadly white- 
 ness swept over his face, a black mist before his 
 eyes, and he collapsed in a helpless heap on the 
 floor. 
 
 Mr. Sharp jumped up, and the two men lifted 
 the long, limp figure on to a leather couch, while 
 the matched parlor-maids were summoned in a 
 hurry with restoratives. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, but you were too hard on the 
 poor fellow," said Mr. Sharp, reproachfully to his 
 client, as he stood, in the background "after 
 such very creditable conduct on his part, too." 
 
 "Oh, he'll come round, poor lad!" said the
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 237 
 
 latter; "and, bless my soul, Sharp! you don't 
 expect a fellow as big as a Life Guardsman to 
 faint like a young lady." 
 
 At this juncture Tyrawley opened his eyes, and 
 opined faintly that his heart was making an awful 
 row about something. 
 
 Mr. Smith took the bottles of salts and sal- 
 volatile from the maids' hands, and promptly 
 ordered them to retire, with the remark that the 
 gentleman, his nephew, would dine and sleep at 
 The Oaks. 
 
 "I think," said Mr. Tyrawley, in an uncertain 
 voice, and staring wildly about him, "I must be 
 mad. What am I doing here ? I ought to be at 
 the shop." 
 
 Here his newly discovered uncle bade him hold 
 his tongue, nearly choked him with the salts, and 
 inconsistently asked him what wine he would 
 take. 
 
 "I don't drink, sir, thank you. I shall be all 
 right presently. I have done this sort of folly 
 before. But I should be awfully obliged," he 
 added entreatingly, " if you wouldn't mind giving 
 me some explanation." 
 
 Mr. Smith cleared his throat, but words seemed 
 hard to find; so Mr. Sharp stepped into the 
 breach, with a clear and agreeable statement of 
 the whole matter, and concluded by reading an 
 abstract of the documents. 
 
 "You have shown that you like work," said 
 Mr. Smith, "and have none of your rascally
 
 238 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 father's ideas nothing of him that I can see, 
 except his good looks. But you look no more fit 
 for business than that candle." 
 
 His nephew now managed sufficient breath and 
 comprehension to express his thanks; and a 
 pleasant conversation followed, in which Mr. 
 Tyrawley's manners produced their usual effect 
 on Mr. Sharp, who cast congratulatory glances at 
 intervals on his client. 
 
 "By the way," said the latter, "there's that 
 little whipper-snapper Page, or Paget, or what- 
 ever his name is." That name had lost its terrors 
 for Mr. Tyrawley now; he could laugh when Mr. 
 Smith rang the bell, and said to the parlor-maid: 
 "Ask Mr. Paget to step here." 
 
 Now the hope of perfected vengeance had kept 
 Mr. Paget in good humor through protracted 
 waiting, and he entered with his usual well- 
 assured jauntiness. It was of brief duration. 
 His eye had scarcely fallen on Tyrawley before 
 Mr. Smith remarked: "This, sir, is my tenant, 
 whom I have turned out in compliance with your 
 wishes, and whom your officious ill-nature has 
 been the means of introducing to me as my 
 nephew and my heir." 
 
 Mr. Paget turned pale-green, and sneered and 
 spluttered, " I I I'm at a loss " 
 
 "I should think so," said Smith. "If the 
 man had been a stranger, I should feel it my 
 duty to honor and help him." 
 
 Here the amiable Tyrawley, pitying his foe's
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 239 
 
 discomfiture, and possibly with a thought of 
 after family union, held out his hand. "I say, 
 Paget," said he, "we'll forget the past, if you 
 like. I suppose you thought you were doing 
 right; only you did hit so hard, and always on 
 the sore place." 
 
 But Mr. Paget would not see the hand. " I 
 dare say," he replied, "such forgetfulness is con- 
 venient to you. However, I will not interrupt this 
 interesting family drama, and will take my leave, 
 expressing a hope, sir, that you and your legal 
 adviser will not have cause bitterly to regret 
 your precipitate generosity." And he quitted 
 the room rather ingloriously. 
 
 It was growing dusk. Some parts of Grass- 
 wich are lonely, with a suburban loneliness, and 
 Mr. Paget thought he would take a short cut, 
 and get out of it as quickly as possible. So he 
 chose a narrow lane which led, he knew, to a 
 tram terminus. He got about half-way when he 
 suddenly felt a choking sensation caused by the 
 insertion of some large knuckles between his 
 neck and his collar; and the next moment found 
 himself laid on his back in the muddy gutter, 
 while a hoarse voice remarked : 
 
 "Now, you've got to do one of two things: 
 lay there and let me kick you, or get up and 
 lick me, if you can. It ain't no good calling the 
 blessed copper, for he's a mile away." 
 
 Mr. Paget made no verbal reply, but merely 
 scrambled up, aimed a feeble blow at his enemy's
 
 240 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 stomach, which the latter characterized as "a 
 foul," and then attempted to run away. 
 
 "No, yer don't," said Mr. Naylor, for it was 
 he; catching hold casually of a handful of coat- 
 tail, and bringing him back. "You've got to 
 be punished, you have. And I'm the judge, and 
 the jury, and the prison warder, and, so to speak, 
 the hangman." 
 
 His grip was so strong, and his large form so 
 magnified by just wrath, the dusk, and a vast red 
 comforter, which covered his face up to the eyes, 
 that Mr. Paget's spirit quailed, and he begged 
 for mercy. 
 
 "No," said Mr. Naylor calmly. " You're a 
 merciful character, ain't you ? You don't hit 
 a chap when he's made a slip, and black him all 
 you can behind his back. Yah ! you hit me ! 
 only fair this time, mind, or I'll hit you." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Mr. Paget made a futile 
 and desperate dab at Mr. Naylor's large expanse 
 of chin, and that gentleman, ducking his head 
 carelessly aside, proceeded to administer a neat 
 and complete thrashing. It was, however, 
 strictly judicial, such, he afterward remarked 
 to an intimate friend, as he would have adminis- 
 tered to a nipper of his own, if he had had one. 
 He slightly blackened Mr. Paget's eyes, grazed 
 the tip of his nose, tore his clothes with a 
 vengeful remembrance of Mr. Tyrawley's jersey 
 threw his hat down and trampled on it, 
 replaced it on his head with a bang; and con-
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 241 
 
 eluded with a general drubbing, which, in point 
 of making every bone proclaim its existence, left 
 nothing to be desired. 
 
 " There!" he said, conducting his victim by 
 the collar with enforced rapidity and high action 
 to a dead wall, and propping him against it like 
 a weak-kneed doll, "you stop there, and don't 
 you venture to move nor call out for a blessed 
 hour by that ticker of yourn, or, chance the 
 ducks, I'll come back and finish my job 
 complete." 
 
 Mr. Paget had never come across the rough 
 side of life before, and he was completely cowed, 
 and in his terror more than obeyed Jim's in- 
 junction. It was full two hours before he crept 
 timorously back to the main road. Then, 
 indeed, he sought the police station, and made 
 an angry complaint; but he looked so terribly 
 disreputable, blustered so feebly, and so abused 
 the local police, that it was treated in the coldest 
 and slightest manner; especially as he could not 
 state either the name or the probable object of 
 his assailant. It might, however, have been a 
 consolation to Jim to learn that the chastisement 
 he had administered implanted in Paget's mind 
 the first rudimentary idea of the painfulness of 
 punishment. 
 
 When Mr. Tyrawley came down to breakfast 
 next morning, white and languid, much be- 
 wildered by the luxury around him, but with a 
 sense of a weight lifted off, many surprises 
 16
 
 242 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 awaited him. He was informed, in the first 
 place, that Gregory Street would know him no 
 more, and that his destination for the next fort- 
 night was the best suite of rooms in the best 
 hotel in his old haunt of Claretown. 
 
 "It's awfully kind," he said, looking up from 
 the depths of an easy chair at the solid figure 
 of Mr. Smith, who smiled a smile of benevolent 
 possession down on him. "Awfully! But, in 
 the first place, I don't need rest; I'm only a little 
 done from bother. And, in the second why, 
 really, my clothes aren't fit for such a swell place. 
 Let me put it off, please, sir," he added persua- 
 sively, "till I can do you a little more credit." 
 
 "Clothes," said Mr. Smith sententiously, "do 
 not make a man, nor a gentleman, which is less. 
 Still, I've ordered somebody from Poole's to be 
 here shortly, to supply what is needed." 
 
 "Poole!" gasped Tyrawley. "But that was 
 quite unnecessary. You're much too good to 
 me. You make me afraid I shall never turn out 
 well enough even to show that I'm grateful, much 
 less to repay you." 
 
 "Your friend, Dr. MacAdam, seems to think 
 otherwise. And if he didn't, it's something, my 
 dear lad, to have somebody of one's own " and 
 he laid his hand on his nephew's shoulder "and 
 so, so like my poor little Fel." 
 
 "I'm glad you think so, sir. I'm afraid," said 
 Tyrawley apologetically, "I'm too much like 
 my father to be pleasant."
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 243 
 
 "His features," said Mr. Smith, "but her 
 eyes. Poor girl! this would make her happy." 
 
 A day or two later MacAdam's groom was 
 controlling the impatience of Fireworks outside 
 the Claretown Station. Dr. MacAdam himself 
 waited on the platform to seize Tyrawley by 
 both hands and nearly shake those members off. 
 He was introduced) to Mr. Smith, and then 
 exclaimed characteristically : 
 
 "Look at this idiot! Writing to me that 
 he was all right, but a trifling cold ! and look- 
 ing as thin as a lath and as white as my 
 shirt." 
 
 Tyrawley protested that he was only a little 
 run down. MacAdam walked him and his uncle 
 off, to get up behind Fireworks and have lunch 
 at his house. The little doctor chaffed all the 
 way, but there was a suspicion of tears in his 
 eyes, and he managed to take Mr. Smith aside 
 and whisper anxiously : 
 
 " I don't like his looks. Awfully phthisical. 
 Make him coddle himself, or I'll be hanged if 
 I don't think he'll give us the slip. Got that 
 nasty bright look about his eyes." 
 
 And the doctor hurried upstairs to introduce 
 Mr. Smith to his sister. 
 
 The afternoon, which was already well on 
 when they rose from the luncheon-table, was 
 spent in the discussion of Tyrawley's business 
 prospects for the future, and of the humor and 
 hardships of the last few months. Then uncle
 
 244 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 and nephew dined tete-a-tete but sumptuously at 
 their hotel, and shortly after Mr. Smith evinced 
 a remarkable restlessness, looking often at a 
 mighty gold chronometer, a fac-simile of which 
 he had presented to Tyrawley, whom its ponder- 
 ous glories almost overawed. 
 
 " Why, a fellow," he said, with a half-awkward, 
 half-comic retrospect, "could live handsomely on 
 this for a fortnight ! " 
 
 Mr. Smith smiled grimly, and remarked that he 
 had another "uncle" now. "But," he added, 
 "I have an engagement, which I must keep, on 
 the West Cliff." 
 
 "I'll come with you, if I may, sir, and have a 
 stroll on the beach meanwhile." 
 
 He had an inward thought of how fitting it 
 would be that he, who had been led, like Israel, 
 through deep waters, should stand in the moon- 
 light by the great sea which had so nearly been 
 his grave, and give silent thanksgiving to his 
 mighty Guide. So he parted with Mr. Smith on 
 the stretch of turf above the beach, and then 
 went dreamily down across the glistening 
 pebbles, and seating himself on a rock like a rude 
 arm-chair, leaned his head back on his arm and 
 mused. The moon was making her glorious 
 silver highway across the deep-blue ripples that 
 murmured gently in the evening stillness, sliding 
 back across the gleaming sand, a few yards 
 further away. Under those whispering waves 
 were the rocks among which he had knelt to die,
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 245 
 
 with the sirens' song in his ears, alternating with 
 the Christmas carol of Rooksholm. 
 
 The sirens were powerless now; that higher 
 song had silenced them. He looked up into the 
 great vault of azure, with its star jewels over- 
 head, and his soul seemed to mount on eagles' 
 wings of wonder and praise. 
 
 "Yes," he murmured, "it has been, indeed, 
 ' Peace on earth, and mercy mild.' Thank 
 God ! " 
 
 A light step neared his rocky seat, but he was 
 too wrapped in visions of the past to hear it. 
 He thought of how he had been used to save his 
 own best treasure, the earthly instrument of his 
 salvation; of that strange moment when first he 
 held that dearest friend in his friendless arms 
 and loved her; of that yet stranger moment 
 when the magical touch of her young lips on his 
 hand had shown him to what base use that hand 
 had been given. He remembered it so keenly 
 that he felt it there once more. 
 
 And lo ! it was no vision. On that hand, 
 which had hot yet lost the roughness of the 
 workaday world he had moved in, a light and 
 tender kiss fell like a rose-leaf. He rose to his 
 feet and turned slowly round, like a man under a 
 spell. A tall and slender figure, with pale and 
 shining hair, radiant eyes, and a tremulous smile, 
 stood in the moon's white glory before him. 
 Not a word was spoken till, her arm round his 
 neck, her head on his shoulder, and his lips
 
 246 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 fondly and reverently touching, now that shining 
 hair, now that half-hidden brow, he whispered : 
 " Oh, my heart's darling ! Thank God ! " 
 Mr. Smith's errand has probably been guessed. 
 While Tyrawley and Nina were arranging matters 
 to their own satisfaction, though without the 
 least definite plan, their elders in Cupola Square, 
 where the St. Justs had arrived three days be- 
 fore, were settling more mundane things; Mrs. 
 St. Just opining, with a fat sigh of relief, that 
 she had always said Mr. Tyrawley was a charm- 
 ing man, though poor dear John Paget so dis- 
 liked him. 
 
 "Laws, Jim! you'll be in plenty of time. 
 Why, it ain't gone half-past nine yet." 
 
 "I'll tell you what, old lady; if you don't sew 
 them busted buttons on, I'm blowed if I don't go 
 in nothing but them mawleys that my gentleman 
 guv'nor put out of court so tidily first time as 
 ever I seed him." 
 
 Mr. Naylor was attired in a perfectly new 
 sleeved waistcoat, so festively be-buttoned that 
 it appeared to be trimmed with moonlight, and 
 clattered like castanets as he moved. His hair, 
 cut to half an inch all over his head, positively 
 distilled hair oil, and his large face was shaved to 
 quite an agonizing cleanness. 
 
 On the table, close to where his wife was sew- 
 ing on buttons for dear life to a pair of vast white 
 kid gloves, reposed a marketing basket contain-
 
 NEMESIS AND EXCELSIOR 247 
 
 ing a small sack of rice, a smaller basket of 
 orange-blossoms, and a pair of the very largest- 
 sized and newest white satin shoes. Mr. Nay- 
 lor's face beamed with placid triumph as his eye 
 fell on these. 
 
 " I'm doing it handsome," he said, " and quite 
 the cheese, according to all aristocratic ways. 
 There's the sating shoes, which means, I sup- 
 pose, as they ain't no call to do nothin' but ride 
 in their carriage all day long; and the orange 
 blossoms, which, as you may say, cuts two ways, 
 as being the usual thing, and also meaning a 
 ' suffineer,' as you may say, of what trade he was 
 in; and there's the rice, which signifies, I sup- 
 pose, that there's plenty of rice-puddings when 
 the babbies come." 
 
 "Now, Jim," said Mrs. Naylor, shocked, 
 "don't you go and say that to the young lady, 
 pretty dear ! " 
 
 " What do you take me for ? " replied Jim, 
 with fine scorn; " me that's going to drive a pair 
 of tiptop bay spankers, in a dark green wan, 
 with gold letters ' The Flower and Fruit 
 Stores ' as large as life, and see my gentleman 
 guv'nor and his young duchess once a week 
 reg'lar ? " 
 
 "You might," said Mrs. Naylor reproachfully, 
 " have done as they asted, and gone to the 
 weddin' in the church, and took me." 
 
 " Not me ! " said Jim. " I should have blowed 
 my old nose through tears 1 of joy when the swell
 
 248 THE APOTHEOSIS OF MR. TYRAWLEY 
 
 parson was asking him if he was downright sure 
 he'd have her, or shouted out ' Hooroar,' when I 
 should have said 'Amen.' No, old gal, you can 
 go in the gallery, as being the right place for 
 you not but what I've seen as many boys as 
 gals there most times but I stops outside to 
 give 'em a proper rattler with these 'ere fancy 
 concerns." 
 
 Mr. Naylor's programme was duly carried out, 
 though Mr. Tyrawley was nearly bonneted by 
 one of the large satin shoes, as he assisted his 
 bride into the carriage; and Nina discovered 
 that even orange-blossoms, when launched by 
 a powerful and excited arm from the edge of the 
 pavement, hurt a little; while the passers-by, 
 whose eyes and ears he saluted with the best 
 Patna rice, rose against Jim in a body. 
 
 The last sight bridegroom and bride saw, as 
 they rolled away, was Mr. Naylor splitting the 
 neat gray glove of little Dr. MacAdam, with a 
 grip of agonizing friendship, as these two faith- 
 ful architects of their fortunes saw them depart. 
 
 Sorrow and disaster come naturally enough 
 to a human narrator, but happiness is hard to 
 describe. That marriage had been a sacrament 
 indeed, but it was, after all, not more so than 
 that plunge into the green depths under Clare- 
 town pier which was the first step in the Apoth- 
 eosis of Mr. Tyrawley. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES 
 OF A HOUSE-BOAT. Ill'd. 
 
 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES 
 OF A PHAETON. 
 
 THREE FEATHERS. 
 
 A DAUGHTER OF HETH. 
 
 A PRINCESS OF THULE. 
 
 DONALD ROSS OF HEIMRA. 
 
 GREEN PASTURES AND PIC- 
 CADILLY. 
 
 IN FAR LOCIIABER. 
 
 IN SILK ATTIRE. 
 
 JUDITH SHAKESPEARE. Il- 
 lustrated. 
 
 KILMENY. 
 
 MACLEOD OF DARE. Ill'd. 
 
 MADCAP VIOLET. 
 
 PRINCE FORTUNATUS. Ill'd. 
 
 SABINA ZEMBRA. 
 
 SHANDON BELLS. Illustrated. 
 
 WHITE HEATHER. 
 WHITE WINGS. Illustrated. 
 YOLANDE. Illustrated. 
 12mo, Cloth, $1 25 per volume. 
 WOLFENBERG. THE HANDSOME HUMES. 
 Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 per volume. 
 
 HIGHLAND COUSINS. 
 
 Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 75. 
 
 Complete Sets, 20 volumes, Cloth, $30 00 ; Half Calf, $57 00. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. 
 
 43T The above works are for sale by all booksellers, 'or will be sent by 
 the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or 
 Mexico, on receipt of the price.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 JAN 2
 
 id) II II 
 
 1 V-' \ / <" t A r 
 
 3 1158 00955 6910 
 
 A 000027795 4