Huckster

“ But in answer the mite only harked back to his old refrain.
“I want do d’an’ma,” he said with stolid defiance, unmoved alike by his shaking or the nurse’s expostulation.
“There, that’s jest it,” cried she, addressing Jupp the porter again, seeing that he was a fine handsome fellow and well-proportioned out of the corner of her eye without looking at him directly, in that unconscious and highly diplomatic way in which women folk are able to reckon up each other on the sly and take mental stock of mankind. “Ain’t he aggravating? It’s all that granma of his that spoils him ”

“ Fate is an abominable trickster; loves to tease us. With one hand it gave Miss Porter a delectable male; with the other prevented her enjoying him. Furthermore, it prematurely deprived her of a fine sweet.
Reappearing and holding the door ajar: “Miss Ram will see you,” she murmured. Tears were in this girl's eyes; the bolted sweet was still paining her very much indeed.
IV.
In two clever bows Miss Ram without a word greeted George; indicated a chair.
George sat down. “I want,” he began—“that is, my uncle wants, a lady-help—”
“Name, please,” rapped Miss Ram, opening the ledger. ”

“ The “us,” whom I had “left—ah,” referred, of course, to officialdom; but, it was kind, wasn’t it?
There was old Shuffler, too.
“You ain’t a goin’ to Amerikey, sir, is you?” he asked me just before my departure, meeting me in the street.
“Yes, I am, Shuffler,” I replied, “and pretty soon, too!”
“Lor! Mister Lorton; but I’m right loth to ’ear it! I’ve got a brother myself over in Amerikey; s’pose now, sir, I was to give you a letter to ’im? It might, you know, some’ow or hother, be o’ service, hay?”
“America is a large place, Shuffler,” I answered.—“Whereabouts is he over there, eh?” ”

“ Huxter seems to be a good sort of a woman, and it must be hard on her."
"It would be hard for any woman to have such a husband. I don't know Mrs. Huxter much, but I [182] never heard anything against her. I've a great mind to tell you," said the boy, looking at John to judge whether he appeared as if he might be trusted with a secret, "a trick that one or two of the fellows played on Mr. Huxter once when he was drunk. ”

“ You must require something hearty."
"It's my praising Ben that fetched her," said Mr. Huxter, when, being left to himself, he began to reflect upon the cause of his sister's sudden and agreeable change of manners. "I shall have to flatter up the young rascal, I expect, though I'd a good deal rather give him a taste of a horsewhip. So he turns up his nose at me, does he? He forgets the time when he'd have been obliged to beg from house to house but for me. Maybe he won't always be prosperous. The race isn't always to the strong, nor the battle to the swift." ”

“ In another minute or two we were in the middle of a wild romp, wherein little Miss Pimpernell and the vicar were the most active participants—they showing themselves to be quite as active as the younger hands; while Miss Spight and Lady Dasher were the only idle spectators. Min at first did not join in, as she was not accustomed to the ways of us old habitués, but she presently participated, being soon as gay and noisy as any. What fun we had in blindfolding Horner, and manoeuvring so that he should rush into the arms of Miss Spight! ”

“ Huxter remarked the same thing. He stopped at the foot of the Coach and Horses steps, and, according to Mr. Huxter, appeared to undergo a severe internal struggle before he could induce himself to enter the house. Finally he marched up the steps, and was seen by Mr. Huxter to turn to the left and open the door of the parlour. Mr. Huxter heard voices from within the room and from the bar apprising the man of his error. "That room's private!" said Hall, and the stranger shut the door clumsily and went into the bar. ”

“ The stranger ran his arm down his waistcoat, and as if by a miracle the buttons to which his empty sleeve pointed became undone. Then he said something about his shin, and stooped down. He seemed to be fumbling with his shoes and socks.
“Why!” said Huxter, suddenly, “that’s not a man at all. It’s just empty clothes. Look! You can see down his collar and the linings of his clothes. ”

“ These three were Lyell, Hooker, and Huxley. If these three came round, partly through the book, partly through their own reflections, he could feel that the subject was safe. "No one," writes Darwin on November 13, "has read it, except Lyell, with whom I have had much correspondence. Hooker thinks him a complete convert, but he does not seem so in his letters to me; but is evidently deeply interested in the subject." And again: "I think I told you before that Hooker is a complete convert. If I can convert Huxley I shall be content." ("Life" volume 2 page 221.) ”

“ Huxter would only make matters worse.
Meanwhile Mr. Huxter, on his bed below, cherished thoughts the reverse of agreeable concerning our hero.
"I'll come up with the young rascal," he muttered. [235] "He'll find it's a bad day's work he's done for himself."
"It wasn't his fault, Mr. Huxter," said his wife, who wanted justice done.
"Why isn't it his fault?" said her husband, looking at her with a frown.
"He didn't know you would slip into the tub."
"And I shouldn't wonder if you put it there, Mrs. Huxter. It was a regular trap." ”

“ Fritz was silent, only half convinced, for the send of the sea appeared to be rolling their unhappy boat further and further from the island, which, only a bare speck on the horizon, could be but very faintly seen astern, low down on the water.
“It means,” said Eric, answering his own question, without waiting longer for his brother’s reply, “that the same wind which bore us away from our dear little bay is about to waft us back again to it; still, we must look out sharply to help ourselves and not neglect a chance. Oars out, old fellow!” ”

“ My nieces are good girls, but I have failed to make them see reason, and I must leave it now to these two lovers of theirs to do what they can."
"And do you think they will succeed? That the young ladies will be influenced by them to break up their old habits?"
This was what Huckins did think, and what was driving him to extremity, but he veiled his real feelings very successfully under a doleful shake of the head.
[311] "I do not know," said he. "I fear not. The Cavanagh blood is very obstinate, very obstinate indeed." ”

“ I saw Mr Shuffler yesterday, and asked if that house which he has to let in The Terrace were yet taken, but he said, ‘not that he knew of;’ he had ‘heard of nobody coming’—had I? I assure you he was quite impertinent about it. He would not have spoken to me so uncivilly had poor dear papa been alive, I know! But it is always the way with that class of people:—they only look upon you in the light of how much you are worth!”
“Oh, ma!” said Bessie Dasher, “I think Mr Shuffler very civil and polite. He always makes me quite a low bow whenever he sees me.” ”

“ Huxter. "Did he buy anything?"
"Only two sheets of paper and two envelopes."
A light began to dawn upon Mr. Huxter. John wanted to make trouble by writing home.
"Look here," said he; "if the boy brings in a letter you needn't send it. Keep it, and hand it to me."
The clerk looked surprised. Mr. Huxter, finding some explanation necessary, continued:—
"He's a very troublesome boy. He's almost broken his poor mother's heart,—she's my sister,—and I've agreed to take charge of him for a time. It takes a man to manage him. But it won't do for him to be writing home and making a fuss. ”

“ Huggo took, “to start with,” as he said, a tiny furnished flat in Bayswater. Rosalie installed him and his bride therein and left him, on their first night there, ever so gay, so confident, so happy. Her Huggo!
In two months it all came out. Lawyers are notoriously lax in making their own wills. Harry, who could master a case quicker than any man at the Bar, and could see to the soul and beyond it of a hostile witness a minute after getting on his feet to cross-examine, was fooled blind by the syndicate that was going to put the absolutely first-class article on the market. ”

“ When he reached his boarding-place, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Huxter had come home just drunk enough to be ugly. He had inquired of his wife where John was. She couldn't tell him.
"What business has he to leave the house without permission?" he growled.
"He is old enough for that, surely," said Mrs. Huxter.
"Shut up, Mrs. Huxter! What do you know [230] about it?" said her husband. "The boy needs a good flogging."
"I'm sure he's a very good boy," said Mrs. Huxter. "He is quite a young gentleman."
"He is altogether too much of a young gentleman," said Mr. Huxter. ”

“ So the afternoon passed. Twice more Mr. Huxter got out of the stage, and entered a wayside tavern, on the same mysterious errand. Each time he reappeared with his nose redder, and his eyes more inflamed. The liquor which he had drunk made him quarrelsome, and so disagreeable to his fellow-passengers. Finally one of them called to the driver in an authoritative voice to stop, and insisted that Mr. Huxter should travel outside for the remainder of the way. With some difficulty he was induced to make the change, and from that time John had the pleasure of his society. ”

“ Ah, it’s a wise proverb that, dear son, which reminds us that ‘man proposes, but God disposes!’”
“It is so,” murmured Fritz, more to himself than to her; “still, I trust we’ll all meet again beneath the old roof-tree.”
“And I the same, from the bottom of my heart!” said his mother, in cordial sympathy with his wish, as she began to ascend the steps leading up to her dwelling; while Fritz returned to the counting-house of his employer, Herr Grosschnapper, to finish those duties which had been interrupted by his having to see Eric off. ”

“ Most retentive to her, as it had passed, of Huggo’s share in all that episode had been that she from her expostulation with Huggo had not come away with the same satisfaction as seemingly had Harry. She put before the boy how terribly his father had felt the shame of it, how almost broken-hearted he had been. “He idolises you, Huggo. You’re always his eldest son. He thinks the world of you.” ”

“ Huxter and the Siddermorton carter coming to the rescue of law and order. At the same moment down came three or four bottles from the chiffonnier and shot a web of pungency into the air of the room.
"I'll surrender," cried the stranger, though he had Jaffers down, and in another moment he stood up panting, a strange figure, headless and handless,—for he had pulled off his right glove now as well as his left. "It's no good," he said, as if sobbing for breath. ”

“ Look sharp, old fellow, and get some of the light ballast out of her! I see a light scud creeping up from leeward, behind us, with the waves fringing up into a curl before it. The wind has chopped round at last and we’ll have to cut and run as soon as it reaches us.”
Fritz baled away with the tin pannikin for dear life.
“Now, brother,” cried Eric, a moment later, “get your knife ready, and go forwards into the bows. I want you, the instant I sing out, to give a slash across the painter holding us to our moorings.” ”

“ In the Gulden Strasse again.
That was all.
“Sail ho!” shouted Eric in stentorian tones, his voice penetrating through the entire valley, and reaching probably the remotest extent of the island.
The shout was quite enough for Fritz; for, hardly taking time to dress, he at once rushed down to join his brother on the beach.
“Where is she?” he cried out anxiously, when yet some distance off. He panted out the question as he ran.
“Right off the bay!” sang out Eric, in quite as great a state of frenzied excitement. “She’s hull down to windward now; but she’s rising every moment on the horizon.” ”

“ However, ‘it is an ill wind that blows nobody good,’ for the good baroness being here has been seized with a freak for looking after the wounded, because the Princess of Alten-Schlossen goes in for that sort of thing; and thus it is, doggie, that I’m now attending to this poor fellow here. Though, how on earth Armand parted with you, and you became attached to this new master, whom you seem to love with such affection, I’m sure I cannot tell!”
Fritz at this moment turned in the little pallet bed on which he was lying, and in an instant the girl was up from her seat and bending over him. ”

“ Etheridge now ventured, determined not to be outmatched in cunning, "you say she was penurious, too penurious to live comfortably or to let you do so."
Huckins shrugged his shoulders and for a moment looked balked; then he cried: "The closest women have their whims. If she had known any such folks to have been living as you have named, she would have sent for them."
"If you had let her," suggested Frank.
Huckins turned upon him and his eye flashed. But he very soon cringed again and attempted a sickly smile, which completed the disgust the young lawyer felt for him. ”

“ The vicar overheard her remark.
“Hullo, Frank!” said he; “what is it, that Sally and you are conspiring together? Can I do anything for you, my boy?”—he continued, in his nice kind way,—“if so, only ask me; and if it is in my power, you know that I will do it.”
“He wishes to get into a Government office; don’t you think you could help him?” said Miss Pimpernell.
“You want to be in harness, my boy, eh?”—said the vicar, turning to me.—“That’s right, Frank. Literature will come on, in due course, all in good time. There’s nothing like having regular work to do, however trifling. ”