Part 13 (2/2)
”Bowling is the lay for me,” said he; ”you get money for that, and you only bruise the gents a bit and break their thumbs: you can't put their vital sparks out as you can at this work.”
By a striking coincidence the most influential member of the cricket club pa.s.sed while d.i.c.k was in this quandary.
”Oh, Mr. Halfred, you was always very good to me on the ground--you couldn't have me hired by the club, could ye? For I am sick of this trade; I wants to bowl.”
”You little duffer!” said Alfred, ”cricket is a recreation, not a business. Besides, it only lasts five months. Unless you adjourn to the anitipodes. Stick to the shop like a man, and make your fortune.”
”Oh, Mr. Halfred,” said d.i.c.k sorrowfully, ”how can I find fortune here?
Jenner don't pay. And the crowner declares he will not have it; and the Barton _Chronicle_ says us young gents ought all to be given a holiday to go and see one of us hanged by lot. But this is what have broke this camel's back at last; here's a dalled thing to come smiling and smirking in with, and put it across a counter in a poor boy's hand. Oh! oh! oh!”
”d.i.c.k,” said Alfred, ”if you blubber, I'll give you a hiding. You have stumbled on a pa.s.sage you can't construe. Well, who has not? But we don't shed the briny about it. Here, let me have a go at it.”
”Ah! I've heard you are a scholard,” said d.i.c.k, ”but you won't make out this; there's some new preparation of mercury, and there's musk, and there's h.o.r.ehound, and there's a neutral salt: and dal his old head that wrote it!”
”Hold your jaw, and listen, while I construe it to you. _'Die Mercurii,_ on Wednesday--_decima hora vespertina,_ at ten o'clock at night--_eat in Musca:'_ what does that mean? _'Eat in Musca?'_ I see! this is modern Latin with a vengeance. 'Let him go in a fly to the Towns-hall.
_Saltet,_ let him jump--_c.u.m tredecim caniculis,_ with thirteen little dogs--_praesertim meo,_ especially with my little dog.' d.i.c.ky, this prescription emanates from Bedlam direct. _'Domum reddita'_--hallo! it is a woman, then. 'Let _her_ go in a fly to the--Town-hall, eh?' 'Let _her_ jump, no, dance, with thirteen whelps, especially mine.' Ha! ha!
ha! And who is the woman that is to do all this I wonder?”
”Woman, indeed!” said a treble at the door! ”no more than I am; it's for a young lady. O jiminy!”
This polite e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n was drawn out by the speaker's sudden recognition of Alfred, who had raised his head at her remonstrance, and now started in his turn; for it was the black-eyed servant of Albion Villa. They looked at one another in expressive silence.
”Yes, sir, it is for my young lady. Is it ready, young man?”
”No, it ain't: and never will,” squealed d.i.c.k angrily ”It's a vile 'oax; and you ought to be ashamed of yourself bringing it into a respectable shop.”
Alfred silenced him, and told Sarah he thought Miss Dodd ought to know the nature of this prescription before it went round the chemists.
He borrowed paper of d.i.c.k and wrote:
”Mr. Alfred Hardie presents his compliments to Miss Dodd, and begs leave to inform her that he has, by the merest accident, intercepted the enclosed prescription. As it seems rather a sorry jest, and tends to attract attention to Miss Dodd and her movements, he has ventured with some misgivings to send it back with a literal translation, on reading which it will be for Miss Dodd to decide whether it is to circulate.
”'On Wednesday, at ten P.M., let her go in a fly to the Town-hall, and dance with thirteen little {little dogs, puppies, whelps,} especially with mine: return home at six A.M. and sleep till dinner, and repeat the folly as occasion serves.'”
”Suppose I could get it into Miss's hands when she's alone?” whispered Sarah.
”You would earn my warmest grat.i.tude.”
”'Warmest grat.i.tude!' Is that a warm gownd, or a warm clock, I wonder?”
”It is both, when the man is a gentleman, and a pretty, dark-eyed girl pities him and stands his friend.”
Sarah smiled, and whispered, ”Give it me; I'll do my best.”
Alfred enclosed the prescription and his note in one cover, handed them to her, and slipped a sovereign into her hand. He whispered, ”Be prudent.”
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