Part 5 (1/2)
”What you please, sir,” replied Smithson, bowing.
”On the old terms, I suppose?” observed c.u.mberland.
”All right,” answered Smithson; ”stay, I can leave it with you now,”
added he, drawing out a leather case; ”oblige me by writing your name here--thank you.”
So saying, he handed some bank-notes to c.u.mberland, carefully replaced the paper he had received from him in his pocket-book, and withdrew.
-32--”Smithey was in great force to-night,” observed Lawless, as the door closed behind him--”nicely they are bleeding that young a.s.s Robarts among them--he has got into good hands to help him to get rid of his money, at all events. I don't believe Snaffles gave forty pounds for that bay horse; he has got a decided curb on the off hock, if I ever saw one, and I fancy he's a little touched in the wind, too and there's another thing I should say----”
What other failing might be attributed to Mr. Robarts' bay steed we were, however, not destined to learn, as tea was at this moment announced. In due time followed evening prayers, after which we retired for the night. Being very sleepy I threw off my clothes, and jumped hastily into bed, by which act I became painfully aware of the presence of what a surgeon would term ”certain foreign bodies”--i.e., not, as might be imagined, sundry French, German, and Italian corpses, but various hard substances, totally opposed to one's preconceived ideas of the component parts of a feather-bed. Sleep being out of the question on a couch so const.i.tuted, I immediately commenced an active search, in the course of which I succeeded in bringing to light two clothes-brushes, a boot-jack, a pair of spurs, Lempriere's _Cla.s.sical Dictionary_ and a brick-bat. Having freed myself from these undesirable bed-fellows I soon fell asleep, and pa.s.sed (as it seemed to me) the whole night in dreaming that I was a pigeon, or thereabouts, and that Smithson, mounted on the top-booted Sphinx, was inciting Lawless to shoot at me with a red-hot poker.
As Coleman and I were standing at the window of the pupils' room, about ten o'clock on the following morning, watching the vehicle destined to convey Dr. Mildman to the coach-office, Lawless made his appearance, prepared for his expedition, with his hunting-costume effectually concealed under the new Macintosh.
”Isn't Mildman gone yet? Deuce take it, what a time he is! I ought to be off--I'm too late already!”
”They have not even put his carpet-bag in yet,” said I.
”Well, I shall make a bolt, and chance it about his seeing me,”
exclaimed Lawless; ”he'll only think I'm going out for a walk rather earlier than usual, if he does catch a glimpse of me, so here's off.”
Thus saying, he placed his hat upon his head, with the air of a man determined to do or die, and vanished.
Fortune is currently reported to favour the brave, and so, to do her justice, she generally does; still, at the best of times, she is but a fickle jade, at all events she appeared determined to prove herself so in the present instance; for -33--scarcely had Lawless got a dozen paces from the house, before Dr. Mildman appeared at the front door with his great coat and hat on, followed by Thomas bearing a carpet-bag and umbrella, and, his attention being attracted by footsteps, he turned his head, and beheld Lawless. As soon as he perceived him he gave a start of surprise, and, pulling out his eye-gla.s.s (he was rather short-sighted), gazed long and fixedly after the retreating figure. At length, having apparently satisfied himself as to the ident.i.ty of the person he was examining, he replaced his gla.s.s, stood for a moment as if confounded by what he had seen, and then turning, abruptly re-entered the house, and shut his study-door behind him with a bang, leaving Thomas and the fly-driver mute with astonishment. In about five minutes he re-appeared, and saying to Thomas, in a stern tone, ”Let that note be given to Mr.
Lawless the moment he returns,” got into the fly and drove off.
”There's a precious go,” observed Coleman; ”I wonder what's in the wind now. I have not seen old Sam get up the steam like that since I have been here. He was not half so angry when I put Thomas's hat on the peg where he hangs his own, and he, never noticing the difference, put it on, and walked to church in it, gold band and all.”
”I wouldn't be Lawless for something,” observed I; ”I wonder what the note's about?”
”That's just what puzzles me,” said Coleman. ”I should have thought he had seen the sporting togs, but that's impossible; he must have a penetrating glance indeed if he could see through that Macintosh.”
”Lawless was too impatient,” said c.u.mberland; ”he should have waited a few minutes longer, and then Mildman would have gone off without knowing anything about him. Depend upon it, the grand rule of life is to take things coolly, and wait for an opportunity: you have the game in your own hands then, and can take advantage of the follies and pa.s.sions of others, instead of allowing them to avail themselves of yours.”
”In plain English, cheat instead of being cheated,” put in Coleman.
”You're not far wrong there, Freddy; the world is made up of knaves and fools--those who cheat, and those who are cheated--and I, for one, have no taste for being a fool,” said c.u.mberland.
”Nor I,” said Mullins; ”I should not like to be a fool at all; I had rather be----”
”A b.u.t.terfly,” interrupted Coleman, thereby astonis.h.i.+ng Mullins to such a degree that he remained silent for -34--some moments, with his mouth wide open as if in the act of speaking.
”You cannot mean what you say; you surely would not wish to cheat people,” said I to c.u.mberland; ”if it were really true that one must be either a knave or a fool, I'd rather be a fool by far--I'm sure you could never be happy if you cheated any one,” continued I. ”What does the Bible say about doing to others as you would have others do to you?”
”There, don't preach to me, you canting young prig,” said c.u.mberland angrily, and immediately left the room.
”You hit him pretty hard then,” whispered Coleman; ”a very bad piece of business happened just before I came, about his winning a lot of tin from a young fellow here, at billiards, and they do say that c.u.mberland did not play fairly. It was rather unlucky your saying it; he will be your enemy from henceforth, depend upon it. He never forgets nor forgives a thing of that sort.”