ia
Kwm^fm^r?
rivjofc.^ A-'^^-rfff^V^isgo^
BEKTRAND
ACRES OH L -
14 MkCirtC AV1NU1
UONO BEACH. CALfF.
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388
Return this material to the library
from which it was borrowed.
ttVU
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.
THE WORKS OF
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
MY LITERARY PASSIONS. 12mo, Cloth, $1 60.
STOPS OF VARIOUS QUILLS. Poems. Illustrated by
HOWARD PYLE. 4to, Cloth, Ornamental, Uncut Edges and
Gilt Top, $2 50.
THE DAY OF THEIR WEDDING. A Story. Illustrated
by T. DE THULSTRUP. 12mo, Cloth. (/ Press.)
A TRAVELER FROM ALTRURIA. A Romance. 12mo,
Cloth, $1 60 ; Paper, 50 cents.
THE COAST OF BOHEMIA. A Novel. Illustrated. 12mo,
Cloth, $1 50.
THE WORLD OF CHANCE. A Novel. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50;
Paper, 60 cents.
THE QUALITY OF MERCY. A Novel. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50;
Paper, 75 cents.
AN IMPERATIVE DUTY. A Novel. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00;
Paper, 50 cents.
A HAZARD OF NEW FORTUNES. A Novel. Two Vol-
umes. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00; Illustrated, 12mo, Paper, $1 00.
THE SHADOW OF A DREAM. A Story. 12mo, Cloth,
$1 00; Paper, 50 cents.
The Works of William Dean Howells
ANNIE KILBURN. A Novel. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50; Paper,
75 cents.
APRIL HOPES. A Novel. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50; Paper, 75
cents.
CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY, AND OTHER STORIES. Illustrated.
Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25.
A BOY'S TOWN. Described for HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25.
CRITICISM AND FICTION. With Portrait. 16rao, Cloth,
$1 00. (In the Series " Harper's American Essayists.")
MODERN ITALIAN POETS. Essays and Versions. With
Portraits. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
THE MOUSE-TRAP, AND OTHER FARCES. Illustrated. 12mo,
Cloth, $1 00.
FARCES : A LIKELY STORY THE MOUSE-TRAP FIVE O'CLOCK
TEA EVENING DRESS THE UNEXPECTED GUESTS A LETTER
OF INTRODUCTION THE ALBANY DEPOT THE GARROTERS.
In Uniform Style : Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth, 50 cents each.
(" Harper's Black and White Series.")
A LITTLE SWISS SOJOURN. Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth,
50 cents. (" Harper's Black and White Series.")
MY YEAR IN A LOG CABIN. Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth,
50 cents. (" Harper's Black and White Series.")
PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
&g" The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be mailed by
the publishers, postage prepaid, on receipt of the vrice.
SIR WALTER BESAOT'S WORKS.
BEYOND THE DREAMS OF AVARICE. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth,
$1 60.
ALL IN A GARDEN FAIR. 4to, Paper, 20 cents.
ARMOREL OF LYONESSE. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25 ; 8vo,
Paper, 50 cents.
DOROTHY FORSTER. 4to, Paper, 20 cents.
ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN. Illustrated. 12mo,
Cloth, $1 25 ; 8vo, Paper, 60 cents.
LIFE OF COLIGNY. 16mo, Cloth, 30 cents.
CHILDREN OF GIBBON. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25; 8vo, Paper, 50
cents.
FIFTY YEARS AGO. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50.
HERR PAULCS. 8vo, Paper, 35 cents.
FOR FAITH AND FREEDOM. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25;
8vo, Paper, 50 cents.
KATHERIXE REGINA. 4to, Paper, 15 cents.
SELF OR BEARER. 4to, Paper, 15 cents.
LONDON. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $3 00.
ST. KATHARINE'S BY THE TOWER. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth,
$1 25 ; Paper, 50 cents.
THE BELL OF ST. PAUL'S. 8vo, Paper, 35 cents.
THE HOLY ROSE. 4to, Paper, 20 cents.
THE IVORY GATE. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25.
THE REBEL QUEEN. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
THE WORLD WENT VERY WELL THEN. Illustrated. 12mo,
Cloth, $1 25 ; 4to, Paper, 25 cents.
THE INNER HOUSE. 8vo, Paper, 30 cents.
To CALL HER MINE. Illustrated. 4to, Paper, 20 cents.
UNCLE JACK AND OTHER STORIES. 12mo, Paper, 25 cents.
PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
f3f~ The above works are for tale by all booksellers, or will be sent
by thf publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States
Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.
WILLIAM BLACK'S NOVELS
LIBRARY EDITION
Mr. Black knows so well just what to describe, and to what
length, that the scenery of his novels by comparison with that
of many we are obliged to read seems to have been freshened
by soft, spring rains. His painting of character, his conversa-
tions and situations, are never strongly dramatic and exciting,
but they are thoroughly good. -He never gives us a tame or a
tiresome chapter, and this is something for which readers will
be profoundly grateful. iV. Y. Tribune.
STAND FAST, CRAIG -ROYS-
TON 1 Illustrated.
SUNRISE.
THAT BEAUTIFUL WRETCH.
Illustrated.
THE MAGIC INK, AND OTH-
ER STORIES. Illustrated.
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