Part 6 (1/2)
”Yell, that _is_ a rum go!” exclaimed my little companion, as we walked slowly away. ”Don't it seem to you, now, as if it wor all a dream?”
”It does, indeed,” I replied, half inclined to laugh, yet with a feeling of sadness at my heart, for I knew that my doggie and I were parted for ever! Even if the young lady should insist on my keeping the dog, I felt that I could not agree to do so. No! I had committed myself, and the thing was done; for it was clear that, with the mutual affection existing between the lady and the dog, they would not willingly consent to be parted--it would be cruelty even to suggest a separation.
”Pshaw!” thought I, ”why should the loss of a miserable dog--a mere ma.s.s of shapeless hair--affect me so much? Pooh! I will brush the subject away.”
So I brushed it away, but back it came again in spite of all my brus.h.i.+ng, and insisted on remaining to trouble me.
Short though our friends.h.i.+p had been, it had, I found, become very warm and strong. I recalled a good many pleasant evenings when, seated alone in my room with a favourite author, I had read and tickled Dumps under the chin and behind the ears to such an extent that I had thoroughly gained his heart; and as ”love begets love,” I had been drawn insensibly yet powerfully towards him. In short, Dumps and I understood each other.
While I was meditating on these things my companion, who had walked along in silence, suddenly said--
”You needn't take on so, sir, about Punch.”
”How d'you know I'm taking on so?”
”'Cause you look so awful solemncholy. An' there's no occasion to do so. You can get the critter back again.”
”I fear not Slidder, for I have already given it to the young lady, and you have seen how fond she is of it; and the dog evidently likes her better than it likes me.”
”Yell, I ain't surprised at _that_. It on'y proves it to be a dog of good taste; but you can get it back for all that.”
”How so?” I asked, much amused by the decision and self-sufficiency of the boy's manner.
”Vy, you've on'y got to go and marry the young lady, w'en, of course, all her property becomes yours, Punch included, don't you see?”
”True, Slidder; it had not occurred to me in that light,” said I, laughing heartily, as much at the cool and quiet insolence of the waif's manner as at his suggestion. ”But then, you see, there are difficulties in the way. Young ladies who dwell in fine mansions are not fond of marrying penniless doctors.”
”Pooh!” replied the urchin; ”that 'as nuffin' to do with it. You've on'y got to set up in a 'ouse close alongside, with a big gold mortar over the door an' a one-'oss broom, an' you'll 'ave 'er in six months-- or eight if she's got contrairy parents. Then you'll want a tiger, of course, to 'old the 'oss; an' I knows a smart young feller whose name begins with a S, as would just suit. So, you see, you've nothing to do but to go in an win.”
The precocious waif looked up in my face with such an expression of satisfaction as he finished this audacious speech, that I could not help gazing at him in blank amazement. What I should have replied I know not, for we arrived just then at the abode of old Mrs Willis.
The poor old lady was suffering from a severe attack of influenza, which, coupled with age and the depression caused by her heavy sorrow, had reduced her physical powers in an alarming degree. It was obvious that she urgently required good food and careful nursing. I never before felt so keenly my lack of money. My means barely sufficed to keep myself, educational expenses being heavy. I was a shy man, too, and had never made friends--at least among the rich--to whom I could apply on occasions like this.
”Dear granny,” I said, ”you would get along nicely if you would consent to go to a hospital.”
”Never!” said the old lady, in a tone of decision that surprised me.
”I a.s.sure you, granny, that you would be much better cared for and fed there than you can be here, and it would not be necessary to give up your room. I would look after it until you are better.”
Still the old lady shook her head, which was shaking badly enough from age as it was.
Going to the corner cupboard, in which Mrs Willis kept her little store of food and physic, I stood there pondering what I should do.
”Please, sir,” said Slidder, sidling up to me, ”if you wants mutton-chops, or steaks, or port wine, or anythink o' that sort, just say the word and I'll get 'em.”
”You, boy--how?”
”Vy, ain't the shops full of 'em? I'd go an help myself, spite of all the bobbies that valks in blue.”
”Oh, Slidder,” said I, really grieved, for I saw by his earnest face that he meant it, ”would you go and steal after all I have said to you about that sin?”