Part 24 (1/2)
Only think of my carrying off the man's cane, Ned! Ha, ha!”
”Absent indeed!” grunted a knowing chairman, watching the receding figures of the three gentlemen; ”body o' me! but it was the cane that was about to be absent!”
CHAPTER XVI.
Whack.u.m. My dear rogues, dear boys, Bl.u.s.ter and Dingboy! you are the bravest fellows that ever scoured yet!--SUADWELL: Scourers.
Cato, the Thessalian, was wont to say that some things may be done unjustly, that many things may be done justly.--LORD BACON (being a justification of every rascality).
Although our three worthies had taken unto themselves a splendid lodging in Milsom Street, which, to please Ned, was over a hairdresser's shop, yet, instead of returning thither, or repairing to such taverns as might seem best befitting their fas.h.i.+on and garb, they struck at once from the gay parts of the town, and tarried not till they reached a mean-looking alehouse in a remote suburb.
The door was opened to them by an elderly lady; and Clifford, stalking before his companions into an apartment at the back of the house, asked if the other gentlemen were come yet.
”No,” returned the dame. ”Old Mr. Bags came in about ten minutes ago; but hearing more work might be done, he went out again.”
”Bring the lush and the pipes, old blone!” cried Ned, throwing himself on a bench; ”we are never at a loss for company!”
”You, indeed, never can be, who are always inseparably connected with the object of your admiration,” said Tomlin, son, dryly, and taking up an old newspaper. Ned, who, though choleric, was a capital fellow, and could bear a joke on himself, smiled, and drawing forth a little pair of scissors, began tr.i.m.m.i.n.g his nails.
”Curse me,” said he, after a momentary silence, ”if this is not a devilish deal pleasanter than playing the fine gentleman in that great room, with a rose in one's b.u.t.ton-hole! What say you, Master Lovett?”
Clifford (as henceforth, despite his other aliases, we shall denominate our hero), who had thrown himself at full length on a bench at the far end of the room, and who seemed plunged into a sullen revery, now looked up for a moment, and then, turning round and presenting the dorsal part of his body to Long Ned, muttered, ”Fis.h.!.+”
”Harkye, Master Lovett!” said Long Ned, colouring. ”I don't know what has come over you of late; but I would have you to learn that gentlemen are ent.i.tled to courtesy and polite behaviour; and so, d' ye see, if you ride your high horse upon me, splice my extremities if I won't have satisfaction!”
”Hist, man! be quiet,” said Tomlinson, philosophically, snuffing the candles,--
”'For companions to quarrel, Is extremely immoral.'
”Don't you see that the captain is in a revery? What good man ever loves to be interrupted in his meditations? Even Alfred the Great could not bear it! Perhaps at this moment, with the true anxiety of a worthy chief, the captain is designing something for our welfare!”
”Captain indeed!” muttered Long Ned, darting a wrathful look at Clifford, who had not deigned to pay any attention to Mr. Pepper's threat; ”for my part I cannot conceive what was the matter with us when we chose this green slip of the gallows-tree for our captain of the district. To be sure, he did very well at first, and that robbery of the old lord was not ill-planned; but lately--”
”Nay, nay,” quoth Augustus, interrupting the gigantic grumbler; ”the nature of man is p.r.o.ne to discontent. Allow that our present design of setting up the gay Lothario, and trying our chances at Bath for an heiress, is owing as much to Lovett's prompt.i.tude as to our invention.”
”And what good will come of it?” returned Ned, as he lighted his pipe; ”answer me that. Was I not dressed as fine as a lord, and did not I walk three times up and down that great room without being a jot the better for it?”
”Ah! but you know not how many secret conquests you may have made. You cannot win a prize by looking upon it.”
”Humph!” grunted Ned, applying himself discontentedly to the young existence of his pipe.
”As for the captain's partner,” renewed Tomlinson, who maliciously delighted in exciting the jealousy of the handsome ”tax-collector,”--for that was the designation by which Augustus thought proper to style himself and companions,--”I will turn Tory if she be not already half in love with him; and did you hear the old gentleman who cut into our rubber say what a fine fortune she had? Faith, Ned, it is lucky for us two that we all agreed to go shares in our marriage speculations; I fancy the worthy captain will think it a bad bargain for himself.”
”I am not so sure of that, Mr. Tomlinson,” said Long Ned, sourly eying his comrade. ”Some women may be caught by a smooth skin and a showy manner; but real masculine beauty,--eyes, colour, and hair,--Mr.
Tomlinson, must ultimately make its way; so hand me the brandy, and cease your jaw.”
”Well, well,” said Tomlinson, ”I'll give you a toast,--'The prettiest girl in England,' and that's Miss Brandon!”
”You shall give no such toast, sir!” said Clifford, starting from the bench. ”What the devil is Miss Brandon to you? And now, Ned,” seeing that the tall hero looked on him with an unfavourable aspect, ”here's my hand; forgive me if I was uncivil. Tomlinson will tell you, in a maxim, men are changeable. Here's to your health; and it shall not be my fault, gentlemen, if we have not a merry evening!”
This speech, short as it was, met with great applause from the two friends; and Clifford, as president, stationed himself in a huge chair at the head of the table. Scarcely had he a.s.sumed this dignity, before the door opened, and half-a-dozen of the gentlemen confederates trooped somewhat noisily into the apartment.