F. J. Randall

“ In Regent Street, every other vehicle bears the stamp of wealth, with its spotless coachmen, and horses better groomed than half the men in the City. Languid young lords stroll by arm in arm, displaying a dazzling amount of shirt-front; elaborately coiffured ladies, fresh from some Park Lane boudoir, trip across the pavement, and dive into gorgeous restaurants. Now and again a son of toil passes, but his poverty is swamped by the surrounding glitter.
George looked on at this everyday scene with a comfortable feeling that for the time being he was one of the élite. ”

“ Busby gave him a pitying glance, and uttered these amazing words—
"She won't know anything about it."
George looked at him incredulously. "You don't mean to say you'll tell her you won?"
"Shan't tell her anything," said Busby. "She thinks I'm in the Free Library."
He was rewarded with a severe look from George, who said, in a serious tone—
"It isn't right, old chap; no man ought to deceive his wife. Tell the truth and shame the devil. That's my motto."
"Keep your motto," said Busby, rudely. "I don't want it. I bet you'd do the same if you were married." ”

“ Parrott fumed as he took note of George Early's dress through a crack of the door. His patent boots were new, and he wore an expensive tie; sprays of flowers worked in silk adorned his waistcoat; his gloves were a fashionable grey, and on the little finger of his left hand a ring glittered.
These articles of dress were not lost upon Mrs. Carey, who took advantage of George's affability to stand a moment and comment on the weather. Their pleasant chat was interrupted by another ring at the front-door bell.
"Hang it!" muttered the wretched Parrott. ”

“ Here were three men who might have been led away from faults that were eating into the soul of each, had not an impudent blackmailer stepped in at the beginning and torn from their clutches the healing medicine. Who knows but that they now might be well on the way to reform; that Parrott might be cheerfully handing crisp bank-notes to needy friends, Busby speaking the clarion voice of truth, and Gray quaffing copious draughts of bright sparkling water in place of the noxious intoxicant of his habit? ”

“ All his life George had been accustomed to equivocation, and to bind himself to speaking the whole truth and nothing but the truth was like asking him to keep his eyes shut for the rest of his life. He regretted the afternoons he had stayed away from Sunday School. He was positive that he would fail. And the third legacy would be even more appalling than the other two, for there was no doubt that the secret would get out. Gray, Busby, and Parrott would be sure to get news of all three, and Heaven knows how many more people besides, and then he would be simply besieged for money. ”

“ George looked round the old-fashioned room in which he sat, and deplored the fact that it lacked those useful secret exits so convenient in old days to a man in a tight corner. Such an aid would have enabled him to vanish cleverly. There was not even a panel or a family picture to swing generously forward and disclose a yawning hole.
A fanlight of modern construction gaped in one corner, but it was doubtful if a grown man could have squeezed himself through this. It looked into a small parlour, where the landlord's buxom wife sat and superintended the affairs of the household. ”

“ Gray, firmly.
"I shouldn't let him know that I've been here," said George. "He'll only worry himself, thinking there's something wrong with his work."
"Who's Flora?" asked Mrs. Gray, the fierce light of jealousy kindling in her eye.
"Don't you bother about her. She won't come down here."
"She'd better not," said Mrs. Gray, with compressed lips. "I'd give her Flora—or May—or Chrissy, if she came here!"
"I believe you would," said George, with admiration.
"I'll smash every whisky-bottle in the place," said Mrs. Gray, whose indignation was now rising to fever pitch. ”

“ The brawny fist again appeared from the cupboard door.
"I think I'll go now," said Miss Perkins, apparently aware at last that a flirtation was in progress, and that the landlady had ears.
"If there is anybody concealed here," said George, lifting up a corner of the tablecloth again, "I pity him when Mr. Parrott comes in. If there's one thing that he can't bear, it's deception of any sort. Goodness knows what he'd do to anybody who deceived him! I believe he'd kill him."
Miss Perkins put on her hat in silence, and with some haste. If her lover came in, matters might be awkward. ”

“ Having disposed of the truth-telling business, and being desirous of paying off old scores to the last fraction, George would often take customers in hand himself, and, followed by Gray with a note-book, tax his imagination to the utmost over such prosaic things as cooking-ranges, gulley-pipes, and girders. To all this fiction Gray would listen, conscious that much of the elaboration was at his expense. ”

“ This home-thrust sent the colour rushing to the face of the head clerk, and the blood of his ancestors prompted him to get up and say—
"Really, sir, I——"
"All right, all right," interrupted his master, "this is just between ourselves. I don't say that you are all to blame. These things are sometimes born in us, and we are not always able to root them out. Now, don't you interrupt me, but listen to what I've got to say.
"You are a mean man, Parrott; but I am of opinion that you are mean by habit, and not by nature. Habits are things that we can get rid of if we choose. ”

“ Those who had imagined him lolling in the armchairs, smoking expensive cigars, and telling his employés not to bother him but to look after the orders themselves, were more than astonished, and at once came to the conclusion that George Early had reformed.
The three legatees were among those who watched this business activity with satisfaction. If George Early had decided to throw all his energies into the business it was certain that he would give no thought to trivial questions of blackmail, nor waste his time in bothering about the reform of men in whom he was not interested. ”

“ You know that's not my way."
"Of course I do," said Gray; "you wouldn't think of such a thing."
"All I want, Gray," said George, "is to see you on the right path. You've got a good wife, a good home, and a good income. Stick fast to your business, and you'll be a successful man. Punctuality, perseverance, and temperance are the three rules for success, as you've heard me say many times. You have seen me climb the ladder step by step, until I have reached my present position. How has it been done? I need not tell you, Gray." ”

“ It's a pity that he hasn't got a few more to tackle him harder than you do."
"So it is," said George.
"He ought to have me!" said Busby. "Why, if I knew—but, of course, it's no business of mine. It would be a spree to get at him. It'd be a picnic to let him see that I knew all about it. He'd have a fit."
The thought of Gray writhing under the knowledge that a second man possessed his secret pleased Busby immensely, and his merriment only subsided on his observing that George was not enjoying the joke.
"Don't you be afraid, old chap," he said. ”

“ Aunt Phœbe prepared to serve tea, and said curiously—
"I wonder that the habit of truth was not grounded in you when you were a Sunday School teacher. May I ask how many scholars you had?"
"You may not," replied her nephew, irritably. Why the devil did she want to remind him of that bit of polite fiction!
Aunt Phœbe looked meaningly at her niece. "Were you ever a Sunday School teacher?" she said, boldly continuing the attack.
"No!" blurted out George.
"There!" She folded her arms and looked again at her niece, whose sobs began afresh. ”

“ George at once became so modest and so concerned about the inside lining of his hat, that Miss Fairbrother looked up, and added quickly—
"You have; I'm sure you have. Do tell me about it! Oh, I should like to know!"
George took out his handkerchief and rubbed his nose very hard, a performance that may have been actuated by emotion or equivocation.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said, with a suspicion of huskiness in his throat.
"Perhaps they were very ungrateful," Miss Fairbrother observed sympathetically.
"That's it," said George; "some people don't deserve to be saved." ”

“ Having embraced his friend, he rolled into a cab, and trundled off to the suburbs.
"He's too clever for me," said George, facetiously, with a smile, as the cab rolled off—"they all are. But I dare say I shall pull through. Now for a small select hotel, and bed."
Instead of seeking the small hotel straight away, he stood for a full five minutes gazing absently across Trafalgar Square. Busby and the smoking concert were entirely forgotten, and George stood again in the middle of Regent Street, with one arm round his employer's waist. ”

“ Finding in its music no solution to the problems confronting him, he turned out of the gate and strolled along Piccadilly.
"It was in this neighbourhood that I did the heroic act and let myself in for this," thought George. "I only wish I could find a way out of it here."
Food was necessary to keep up his strength, so he entered the Café Royal and ordered a sumptuous dinner. The indefatigable sleuth-hound did likewise at a respectful distance.
"Now," thought George, as he emerged with the satisfied feeling that only a good dinner can give, "now I must try to think it out. ”

“ Mr. Dawkins had guessed aright in supposing that George Early felt safe on the temperance question; his old confidence returned at once. He started to enjoy life in real earnest. When at business, he stuck fast to the firm's affairs, and when away, as was not infrequent now, he went everywhere and saw everything as people with health and money do.
Mrs. Early enjoyed herself immensely, and even Aunt Phœbe, who had once felt she could never forgive her nephew for his recklessness, began to assume a placid air, and agreed to prolong her visit to Brunswick Terrace. ”

“ Carey's puddings followed them, and throughout the evening they seasoned each course with a natural good humour.
George was in the best of spirits. He praised the cooking, compared the sparkling wine to Miss Perkins' eyes, and attacked the food with a relish that only comes to a man when he is feasting at another man's expense.
"You may smoke," said Miss Perkins, graciously, settling herself in an armchair.
George did so, borrowing for the time one of the head clerk's cigars, with the permission of that gentleman's fiancée. ”

“ When he's had a glass he's a different man, and isn't responsible for his actions."
"Does it—does it make him look at other girls?" asked Mrs. Gray, tremblingly.
"It does," said George. "You've guessed it at once. It makes him terribly affectionate, too. Why, when Alice—you see, it's a very peculiar disease, very common in Turkey. As soon as you begin to drink, you get an idea that every girl's in love with you. And the worst of it is that a man might propose without knowing it. Now, Flora—well, the only thing for him to do is to sign the pledge and keep it." ”

“ If George Early had only known the qualities of the new head of Dibbs and Dubbs, things might have been different. That energetic young man, intent upon earning the fees due to him, and with a keen eye to future business, shadowed the legatees everywhere. George found it a comparatively easy matter to keep to temperance with so much at stake, but Busby, conscious of his own defects and the pernicious results of habit, hardly dared to open his mouth. Parrott, too, was sorely tried by the constant demands on his purse, and the mind-raking trials of sorting out spies from "hard-ups." ”

“ George looked hurt. "It's your company I want, Jimmy," he said meekly. "A bachelor wants a cheerful pal. You ought to know that, you've been a bachelor yourself."
"You'll have to clear out," said Gray, darkly. "I won't have you in my house, I tell you straight."
There was an absence of sprightliness in Gray's manner at the office that day. He sat in gloomy solitude at his desk, nursing his wrath. All efforts on the part of Busby to draw him into conversation were useless. ”

“ The last thought was sufficiently good for George for the rest of the journey, and it was still strong upon him as he looked round the magnificent room he occupied at Fairbrothers'.
"Big and roomy," said he, standing with his back to the fire; "warm, cosy, and comfortable. Easy-chairs, cigars, drinks, and amusement in the shape of work. After work, a gorgeous house in Kensington, a good dinner, and a charming wife to talk to. What more could a man wish for?" ”