Lenny

“ When years have passed over us both, Lenny, and when time begins to set his mark on me, you will not say to yourself, 'My Rosamond is beginning to fade; she grows less and less like what she was when I married her.' I shall never grow old, love, for you! The bright young picture in your mind will still be my picture when my cheeks are wrinkled and my hair is gray. ”

“ He was a pet pupil of Ethel’s, this wee boy Lenny, or Leonard Mudge by name, as being one of those rare learners who seem to thirst after the fountains of knowledge towards which others have to be cajoled or driven. Day after day had the new school-mistress seen Lenny in class, the readiest to come, the least eager to leave, his bright large eyes intent upon the face of his instructress. ”

“ Of all who suffered from the abduction of little Lenny, Clarence Everage, the abductor, suffered the most. Every night he was drawn by some irresistible influence to look upon his little victim.
381He was himself a very loving father, and he had a little girl of Lenny’s age, who was his favorite child, named Clara, after himself; and when he saw poor Lenny fading in the close confinement of that dark, damp attic, and for the want of sunshine, and weeping and wailing for his mother, the sinner’s remorse was intensified to agony. ”

“ Parson.—“Come hither, Lenny. You know the benefit of school, I see: it can teach you nothing better than to be a support to your mother.”
Lenny, looking down sheepishly, and with a heightened glow over his face.—“Please, sir, that may come one of these days.”
Parson—“That's right Lenny. Let me see! why, you must be nearly a man. How old are you?”
Lenny looks up inquiringly at his mother.
Parson.—“You ought to know, Lenny; speak for yourself. ”

“ Still, not trusting himself to speak, he walked away, and sat down at a distance. "I don't see," thought he, "why there should be rich and poor, master and servant." Lenny, be it remembered, had not heard the Parson's Political Sermon.
An hour after, having composed himself, Lenny returned to his work. Jackeymo was no longer in the garden; he had gone to the fields; but Riccabocca was standing by the celery-bed, and holding the red silk umbrella over Violante as she sat on the ground, looking up at her father with those eyes already so full of intelligence, and love, and soul. ”

“ And here, Dick, let us put the gipsy’s powers to a test. You come in and sit down by me—then take little Lenny in your arms and play papa. Little Lenny being fair and flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, with all the Lyon features, is much more like me than like his own mother whom in truth he does not at all resemble, and he will easily be taken for ours. And the more easily because you and I look as if we had reached years of discretion, while Drusilla 151seems but a child. ”

“ Old kettles to mend! Vy, you makes me forgit the Sabbath! Sarvent, my lad, and wish you well out of it; 'specks to your mother, and say we can deal for the pan and shovel all the same for your misfortin."
The tinker went his way. Lenny's eye followed him with the sullenness of despair. The tinker, like all the tribe of human comforters, had only watered the brambles to invigorate the prick of the horns. Yes, if Lenny had been caught breaking the stocks, some at least would have pitied him; but to be incarcerated for defending them! ”

“ The parson then conducted his wife home, and went up to the Hall to report Lenny's safe return; for the squire was very uneasy about him, and had even in person shared the search. As soon as he heard Lenny was safe—"Well," said the squire," let him go the first thing in the morning to Rood Hall, to ask Master Leslie's pardon, and all will be right and smooth again."
"A young villain!" cried Frank, with his cheeks the colour of scarlet; "to strike a gentleman and an Etonian, who had just been to call on me! ”

“ Lenny waved a hand aimlessly. "All this scientific guff. I'm an artist, not a scientist. If Rafe can get me a clear picture of something, I can copy it, but when he tries to explain something scientific, he might as well be thinking in Russian or Old Upper Middle High Martian or something."
"I know," said Colonel Spaulding, looking almost as glum as Lenny. "Did you get anything at all that would help Dr. Davenport figure out what those drawings mean?" ”

“ And he began to picture to himself the arrival of all [Pg 415] the villagers from church, the sad gaze of the Parson, the bent brow of the Squire, the idle, ill-suppressed titter of all the boys, jealous of his unblotted character—character of which the original whiteness could never, never be restored! He would always be the boy who had sat in the stocks! And the words uttered by the Squire came back on his soul, like the voice of conscience in the ears of some doomed Macbeth. "A sad disgrace, Lenny—you'll never be in such a quandary." ”

“ And the stranger seemed aware of them; for his pale face grew more pale, and his sullen eye more fixed and more vigilant.
"You get off them Stocks," said Lenny, disdaining to reply to the coarse expressions bestowed on him; and, suiting the action to the word, he gave the intruder what he meant for a shove, but which Randal took for a blow. The Etonian sprang up, and the quickness of his movement, aided but by a slight touch of his hand, made Lenny lose his balance, and sent him neck-and-crop over the Stocks. ”

“ One tore off his pearl and turquoise necklace; another seized his hat and feather; another his sash; another his jeweled armlets. What a prize!
CHAPTER XXXII.
LITTLE LENNY’S ADVENTURES.
Oh! ’tis a peerless boy,
Fearless, ingenuous, courteous, capable:
He’s all the mother’s, from the top to toe.—Shakespeare. Was little Lenny frightened when he woke up and found himself in that strange and wretched garret, closely surrounded by new and terrible faces?
Not at all. Neither by nature nor by training was the baby-boy a coward. The child of many generations of heroes had inherited no craven fears ”

“ Lenny murmured something not very distinguishable about serving the squire, and doing as he was bid.
"Oh, I sees, Lenny," interrupted the tinker, in a tone of great contempt, "you be one of those who would rayther 'unt with the 'ounds than run with the 'are! You be's the good pattern boy, and would peach agin your own border to curry favour with the grand folks. Fie, lad! you be sarved right; stick by your border, then you'll be 'spected when you gets into trouble, and not be 'varsally 'spised,—as you'll be arter church-time! ”

“ Noble and generous spirits are ye, who, with small care for fame, and little reward from pelf, have opened to the intellects of the poor the portals of wisdom! I honour and revere ye; only do not think ye have done all that is needful. Consider, I pray ye, whether so good a choice from the Tinker's bag would have been made by a boy whom religion had not scared from the Pestilent, and genius had not led to the Self-improving. And Lenny did not wholly escape from the mephitic portions of the motley elements from which his awakening mind drew its nurture. ”

“ And now will you look at little Lenny? He has come to bid you good-night, and to ask you to come and take tea with his mamma,” said Drusilla, seating the boy on the old man’s knee.
By no manner of baby-babble could little Leonard possibly bid his godfather good-night, or invite him to tea; but he would put his little arms around the veteran’s neck, and press his lips to the veteran’s mouth, and laugh, and own his love and joy. ”

“ With what pride he taught her to distinguish between celery and weeds—and how proud too was she when she learned that she was useful! There is not a greater pleasure you can give to children, especially female children, than to make them feel they are already of value in the world, and serviceable as well as protected. Weeks and months rolled away, and Lenny still read, not only the books lent him by the Doctor, but those he bought of Mr Sprott. As for the bombs and shells against religion which the Tinker carried in his bag, Lenny was not induced to blow himself up with them. ”

“ He was too occupied with the subject most at his own heart to think then of what was in Lenny Fairfield's.
"Yes; a kind, English, domestic family. Did you see much of Miss Hazeldean?"
"Not so much as of the Lady."
"Is she liked in the village, think you?"
"Miss Jemima? Yes. She never did harm. Her little dog bit me once—she did not ask me to beg its pardon, she asked mine! She's a very nice young lady; the girls say she's very affable: and," added Lenny with a smile, "there are always more weddings going on when she's down at the Hall."
"Oh!" said Riccabocca. ”

“ Well done, Billy,” shouted the man who had tried to be funny before.
“Thank you, my lads,” said Sir John, “and I hope you will have to run no more risks.”
“Don’t you say that, sir,” cried Lenny; “we likes a bit o’ fun sometimes; it’s like pickles and hot sauce to our reg’lar meat.”
“Ay, ay, mate, that’s so,” cried another, and there was another cheer, followed by the joking man stepping out before his companions to say quite seriously—
“And some on us, sir, think as you might hoist the British colours atop o’ the mountain, and when we go back for you to go and give the island to the Queen.” ”

“ Lenny, looking up with a beam of intelligence.—"Fifteen year and more!"
Widow sighs and nods her head.
"That's what we call putting two and two together," said the Parson. "Or, in other words," and here be raised his eyes majestically toward the haymakers—"in other words—thanks to his love for his book—simple as he stands here, Lenny Fairfield has shown himself capable of INDUCTIVE RATIOCINATION."
At those words, delivered ore rotundo, the haymakers ceased laughing. For even in lay matters they held the Parson to be an oracle, and words so long must have a great deal in them. ”

“ Who's Quentin?—not Quentin Lowe?"
[Pg 232]
"Yes—Quentin Lowe. Lenny, Lenny—he doesn't love me any more."
Leonard kissed her smoke-grimed face repeatedly. He was utterly bewildered.
"He doesn't love me any more," she continued, gasping. "He loves Tony Strife—he's going to marry her. Lenny, he's a devil."
"My darling, can't you tell me what it is? Did you ever love him?"
"Oh, I loved him! I loved him! I gave up all I had to him. Lenny, he thinks my love was his ruin ... he wants to be happy and good, and he thinks he can't be either if he loves me ... ”

“ Lenny jerked his head around to his right and looked up to see a largish man who had "cop" written all over him. Another such individual crowded past Lenny on his left to flash a badge on the man in the betting window, so that he would know that this wasn't a holdup.
"Hey!" said Lenny. His mind was thinking fast. He decided to play his favorite role, that of the indignant Italian. "Whatsa da matta with you, hah? Thisa no a free country? A man gotta no rights?" ”

“ But what pleased Master Lenny most was the costermongers’ little carts, piled with green vegetables and ripe fruit, and drawn by little donkeys. Master Lenny took them to be toy-carts for little boys to play with, and insisted upon being accommodated with one immediately; nor was he to be quieted until his mamma promised him a mysterious pleasure in a donkey-ride at Greenwich.
It is a long drive from Euston Square station to the Morley House, Trafalgar Square, which had been selected as their hotel by General Lyon, at the recommendation of a fellow passenger on board the Hurona. ”

“ Unluckily, Lenny's apprehensions of the mockery that awaited him in the merciless world of his village were realized. Though Stirn at first kept his own counsel the tinker blabbed the whole affair. And after the search instituted for Lenny on the fatal night, all attempt to hush up what had passed would have been impossible. So then Stirn told his story, as the tinker had told his own; both tales were very unfavourable to Leonard Fairfield. The pattern-boy had broken the Sabbath, fought with his betters, and been well mauled into the bargain ”

“ Dromore crossed the room, drew back the curtain of the picture, and in a muffled voice, said:
“My God, Lenny! Life's unfair. Nell's coming killed her mother. I'd rather it had been me—bar chaff! Women have no luck.”
Lennan got up from his comfortable chair. ”

“ They shall be very fond of each other—as fond as we are, Lenny—and they shall be in our rank of life. After they have been happily married some time, and when they have got one child to make them love each other more dearly than ever, a terrible discovery shall fall upon them like a thunderbolt. The husband shall have chosen for his wife a young lady bearing as ancient a family name as—"
"As your name?" suggested Leonard.
"As the name of the Treverton family," she continued, after a pause, during which her hand had been restlessly moving the letter to and fro on the table. ”

“ Lenny had a keen thirst for knowledge, and through all the disadvantages of birth and circumstance, there were the indications of that natural genius which converts disadvantages themselves into stimulants. Still, with the germs of good qualities lay the embryos of those which, difficult to separate, and hard to destroy, often mar the produce of the soil. With a remarkable and generous pride in self-repute, there was some stubbornness; with great sensibility to kindness, there was also strong reluctance to forgive affront. ”

“ Lenny stopped short, choked by rage and humiliation.
"Augh," said the tinker, staring, "you fit with a young gentleman, did you? Sorry to hear you confess that, my lad! Sit there, and be thankful you ha' got off so cheap. 'Tis salt and battery to fit with your betters, and a Lunnon justice o' peace would have given you two months o' the treadmill. But vy should you fit 'cause he trespassed on the stocks? It ben't your natural side for fitting, I takes it." ”