Part 93 (1/2)

The stranger, who during all this time was on the lookout for poor Fenton, as was old Corbet, could observe n.o.body who resembled him in the least.

”Have you females in your establishment?” he asked.

”No, sir,” replied the gentleman; ”but we are about to open an asylum for them in a detached building, which is in the course of being erected. Would you wish to hear any further details of these unhappy beings,” he asked.

”No, sir,” replied the stranger. ”You are very kind and obliging, but I have heard enough for the present. Have you a person named Fenton in your establishment?”

”Not, sir, that I know of; he may be here, though; but you had better inquire from the proprietor himself, who--mark me, sir--I say--harkee--you have humanity in your face--will probably refuse to tell you whether he is here or not, or deny him altogether. Harkee, again, sir--the fellow is a villain--that is, _entre nous_, but mum's the word between us.”

”I am sorry,” replied the stranger, ”to hear such a character of him from you, who should know him.”

”Well, sir,” replied the other, ”let that pa.s.s--_verb.u.m sap_. And now tell me, when have you been at the theater?”

”Not for some months,” returned the other.

”Have you ever heard Catalani shake?”

”Yes,” replied the stranger. ”I have had that pleasure.”

”Well, sir, I'm delighted that you have heard her, for there is but one man living who can rival her in the shake; and, sir, you have the honor of addressing that man.”

This was said so mildly, calmly, rationally, and with that gentlemanlike air of undoubted respectability, which gives to an a.s.sertion such an impress of truth, that the stranger, confused as he was by what he had seen, felt it rather difficult to draw the line at the moment, especially in such society, between a sane man and an insane one.

”Would you wish, sir,” said the guide, ”to hear a specimen of my powers?”

”If you please,” replied the stranger, ”provided you will confine yourself to the shake.”

The other then commenced a squall, so tuneless, wild, jarring, and unmusical, that the stranger could not avoid smiling at the monomaniac, for such he at once perceived him to be.

”You seem to like that,” observed the other, apparently much gratified; ”but I thought as much, sir--you are a man of taste.”

”I am decidedly of opinion,” said the stranger, ”that Catalani, in her best days, could not give such a specimen of the shake as that.”

”Thank you sir,” replied the singer, taking off his hat and bowing. ”We shall have another shake in honor of your excellent judgment, but it will be a shake of the hand. Sir, you are a polished and most accomplished gentleman.”

As they sauntered up and down the room, other symptoms reached them besides those that were then subjected to their sight. As a door opened, a peal of wild laughter might be heard--sometimes groaning--and occasionally the most awful blasphemies. Ambition contributed a large number to its dreary cells. In fact, one would imagine that the house had been converted into a temple of justice, and contained within its walls most of the crowned heads and generals of Europe, both living and dead, together with a fair sample of the saints. The Emperor of Russia was strapped down to a chair that had been screwed into the floor, with the additional security of a strait-waistcoat to keep his majesty quiet.

The Pope challenged Henry the Eighth to box, and St. Peter, as the cell door opened, asked Anthony Corbet for a gla.s.s of whiskey. Napoleon Bonaparte, in the person of a heroic tailor, was singing ”Bob and Joan;” and the Archbishop of Dublin said he would pledge his mitre for a good cigar and a pot of porter. Sometimes a frightful yell would-reach their ears; then a furious set of howlings, followed again by peals of maniac laughter, as before. Altogether, the stranger was glad to withdraw, which he did, in order to prosecute his searches for Fenton.

”Well, sir,” said the doctor, whom he found again in the parlor, ”you have seen that melancholy sight?”

”I have, sir, and a melancholy one indeed it is; but as I came on a matter of business, doctor, I think we had better come to the point at once. You have a young man named Fenton in your establishment?”

”No, sir, we have no person of that name here.”

”A wrong name may have been purposely given you, sir; but the person I speak of is here. And you had better understand me at once,” he continued. ”I am furnished with such authority as will force you to produce him.”

”If he is not here, sir, no authority on earth can force me to produce him.”

”We shall see that presently. Corbet, bring in the officers. Here, sir, is a warrant, by which I am empowered to search for his body; and, when found, to secure him, in order that he may be restored to his just rights, from which he has been debarred by a course of villany worthy of being concocted in h.e.l.l itself.”