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LI B R^AFLY OF THE UN IVERSITY or ILLI NOI5 823 Sa3r Ve52 ^^^ ^1^. /r ■~\r^ >^ -# * ..^>rni^^^ The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN iiJimiNG USE ONLY N0V26IS73 L161 — O-1096 Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2010 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/reubenmedlicotto01sava REUBEN MEDLICOTT; THE COMING MAN. BY M. W. SAVAGE, Esq. Author of "The Bachelor of the Albany," "The Falcon Family. " My Uncle the Curate,' ' &c. " II est propre h, tout, disent ses amis ; ce qui signifie toujonrs qu'il n'a pas plus de talent pour une chose que pour une autre; ou, en autres termes, qu'il n'est propre h rien." — La Brityere. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I, LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1852. LONDON : BRAHBtTRT AXD EVANS, PRINTERS, WHTTEFRIARS. CONTENTS TO Y0LI3IE T. BOOK THE FIRST. CHAPTER I. BIETH AND EARLY EDUCATION OF REUBEN Page 4 CHAPTER II. k IN -WHICH SEVERAL FRIENDS OF THE FAMLY ARE INTRODUCED -^ TO THE READER -^ CHAPTER III. THE NIGHT BEFORE REUBEN WENT TO SCHOOL : HOW HIS HAIR WAS CUT, AND WHO WAS THE HAIR-CUTTER ... 32 -^^^^ CHAPTER IT. ^ MRS. MEDLICOTT BORROWS MRS. WINNINGS FRENCH MAID. Xj REUBEN LEAVES HOME, AND OTHER IMPORTANT INCIDENTS . 53 4 CONTENTS. BOOK THE SECOND. CHAPTER I. Page THE SCHOOL AT HEREFORD. REUBEN RENEWS AN OLD INTIMACY AND MAKES SEVERAL NEW ACQUAINTANCES . . .70 CHAPTER 11. MRS. BARSAC'S BALL 83 CHAPTER III. MORE FESTIVITY AT MRS. BARSAC's 96 CHAPTER IV. THE vicar's ACCOUNT OF THE BARSACS. REUBEN SHOWS A TALENT FOR MUSIC. HIS FIRST AND HIS LAST PUGILISTIC CONTEST 112 CHAPTER V. A CHAPTER OF GOOD ADVICE AND OF GOOD INTENTIONS . .130 CHAPTER VI. CHIEFLY OCCUPIED W7TH THE ILL BEHAVIOUR OF AN OLD GENTLEMAN AND THE DISCOMFORT IT OCCASIONED A YOUNG ONE 138 CHAPTER VII. REUBEN SPENDS A MEMORABLE SUNDAY WITH HIS GRANDFATHER, AND ALL THE BARSACS 148 CONTENTS. ' vii CHAPTER VIII. Page REUBEN SITS TO A FAIR ARTIST FOR HIS PICTURE. WHO INTER- RUPTED THE SITTINGS 168 CHAPTER IX. AN AFFLICTING DISCOVERY, WHICH OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN MADE SOONER 177 CHAPTER X. REUBEN GETS AN INSIGHT INTO THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HIS GRANDFATHER 182 CHAPTER XI. UOW REUBEN CELEBRATED HIS GRANDFATHER'S MARRIAGE , .202 BOOK THE THIED. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER OF RETROSPECTS. REUBEN IS BORED : HIS PARENTS ARE PIGWIDGEONED 216 CHAPTER II. REUBEN'S RECOVERY AND THE JOY IT OCCASIONED . . . 234 CHAPTER III. A BOLD STROKE FOR A DINNER. HOW THE APOTHECARY GOT BACK TO THE VICARAGE, AND HOW HE TURNED THE VICAR OUT OF IT 247 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Page A FEW PLEASANT DAYS "WITH THE DOCTOR. REUBEN RECEIVES THE HONOURS OF A PRIMA DONNA, AND THE WHOLE PARTY SET OUT ON A TOUR . 261 CHAPTER V. THE MEDLICOTTS ON THEIR TRAVELS. REUBEN BUYS A WELCH GRAMMAR, MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A WELCH BARD, AND FALLS IN WITH SOME FAIR FRIENDS .... 269 CHAPTER YI. HENRY WINNING AND HYACINTH PRIMROSE JOIN THE EXPEDI- TION 283 REUBEX MEDLICOTT, OB THE COMING MAX. BOOK THE FIEST. " Uno ore omnes omnia Bona dicere, et laudare fominas meas Qui gnatum haberem tali ingenio praeditum." Terence. Andr. Act i. Sc. 1. All the world AVith one accord said all kind things, and praised My happy fortune, to possess a son So good, so liberally disposed.' ' Colmana Translation. TOL. I. AEGUMENT. If tiie world is a stage, and liuman life a drama, a prefatory- chapter to a biography must be as proper as a prologue to a play. The object in both cases is much the same ; to establish a fair undei^tanding between the author and his audience ; in other words, by a little ai't and gentle preparation, to bring the spectator, or the reader, into a state of mind akin to what professors of mesmerism mean by being en rapport with their patients. In the opera, this is accomplished by the device of the overture, which gives a sort of musical abstract of the sentiments and passions of the coming performance ; now melting in harmony with the amorous scenes of the story, again swelling into unison with its sterner passages ; then, with a full orchestral crash, vaguely foreboding a certain catastrophe, either of a tragic or a comic nature. Upon the same princif)le of composition, the overture or preface to a human life ought to aim at representing, in some allusive, slight, rapid, and sketchy way, its leading vicissitudes and characteristics. Adopting the idea of an overture, we should request the reader of the following pages to imagine the orchestra thronged with a greater variety of instruments, of all sorts, than Nebuchadnezzar had in his band : — harps, dulcimers, flutes, sackbuts, psalteries, and all kinds of music, ancient and modern, which must farther be conceived to play to the mind's ear as miscellaneous a concerto as was ever composed, consisting of snatches of very many tunes, with a profusion of variations. Should this illustration not be suffi- ciently illustrative, let a pantomime be supposed to foUow and harlequin perform his series of Christmas tricks and transformations. The motley necromancer himself typifies perpetual motion and endless variety; let the freaks of character and the changes of fortune be ever so numerous, he is knight of the shu-e, and represents them all. Or the reader may, if he please, or thinks it worth the ARGUMENT. 3 trouble, summon up and cause to pass in procession before him, all the innumerable images, types, and figures of versa- tility and mutability, such as chameleons, rainbows, weather- cocks, kaleidoscopes, Joseph's coat, or a herald's tabard, the clime of England, the constitutions of France, a Brougham, an opal, a woman, or the moon. He may spin out the pageant, if he like, until it is tedious as my Lord Mayor's show ; only let it be equally noisy, with plenty of drums and trumpets, especially siDeaking-trumpets ; for, as Montaigne saith truly, " this is a world of babble," and our Coming Man had more than his fair share of it. By way of argument to our first book, let it sufliice to say, that the subject of our story (whom we deliberately refrain from styling its hero) is born herein ; nor can there be a doubt that he made a speech upon the occasion, and one that was exceedingly well received by the audience, although it was altogether unpremeditated, and no report of it has been preserved. Escaping all the fatalities that often cut the mysterious thread of life while it is yet a short one, he graduates in the nursery with eclat, and, arriving at the gi-een age of thirteen or fourteen, is sent to a public school, to him a momentous event, though, in itself, no startling or extrar- ordinary occurrence. Among our earliest acquaintances, as well as his, will be a reverend father and an accomplished mother ; we shall pop upon the gentleman cultivating his cabbages, and surprise the lady in her white dimity, green spectacles, and blue stockings. Possibly, if the father had cultivated his cabbages less, and his son more, the latter might have succeeded as well as the early York did, or the brocoli. Possibly, too, if the mother's hose had been of another hue, it might have changed the complexion of the boy's fortunes. But a truce to possibilities. It is time for our overture, or prologue, to end, and the curtain rise upon the performance, such as it is ; for we know not well how to describe it, imless in the words of Polonius : " Comedy, history, pastoral, pas- toral-comical, comical historical-pastoral, scene undividable, or poem imlimited." b2 CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION" OF REUBEN. Mr. Heuben Medlicott, whose variegated life we are about to relate in the following pages, was the only son of a clergyman in the neigh- bourhood of Chichester, who, neither possessing powerful connexions, parhamentar}'' interest, or any higher talents than some classical taste, and a modicum of dry humour, enjoyed no richer preferment in the Church than the vicarage of Underwood, worth about three hundred pounds a-year, including the value of the glebe, and a small, but pretty and comfortable house upon it. The Vicar was a better gardener than theologian, and more a respecter of learning than a learned man himself He considered himself, however, a good, plain, classical scholar, and was disposed to prize that species of erudition more than any other. His wife, indeed, had the advantage over OR THE COMIXG MAX. 5 him in point of variety of attainments. She was the daughter of Doctor Wyndham, an eminent dignitary of the Chmxh, who had been distinguished when a young man at Cambridge among men of science, but having subsequently deserted the serene study of mathematics for the more exciting pursuits of controversial divinity, was supposed to have been making a push for the mitre ; and some people thought he had not yet withdrawn his eyes from that captivating and brilliant object. Dean Wynd- ham, however, had not been very unsuccessful in his professional career, even as tilings were, for besides the deanery of a cathedral town in the north of England, he was incumbent of a good living near Hereford ; and the additional possession of a fair sinecure in the diocese of Chichester completed his resemblance to those prosperous sons of the Church, who are described by Dryden as " bearing on their shield, Three steeples argent on a sable field," The veteran pluralist was now a widower, and led a sort of vagrant hfe, to and fro among his various preferments, something like the wander- ing shepherds we read of in Arabia, or the steppes of Tartary. When he was supposed to 6 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, be at Hereford, he Avas away in Northumberland, and when a letter was addressed to him in Northumberland, an answer was returned from Chichester. Besides he kept up his ancient connexion with the Uniyersity, where he generally spent a month or two in the height of the academic season, with one or other of his old cronies. But to return to the mother of our Reuben : she had erudition on both sides of the house, for her mother had been one of the femmes sav antes of her day ; she had written a work on education, corresponded with Hannah More, and left an unfinished treatise behind her on the Academic Institutions of the Spartans. It was surprising ^^fr. Medlicott made the choice he did between Catherine and EHnor Wyndham, the two daughters of the Dean by this learned lady ; for Catherine was more suited to him, and better qualified in every respect for the wife of a simple country clergyman ; but the fact was, that Catherine Wyndham, having nothing to recom- mend her but her good looks and sweet dispo- sition, was neglected by her mother, or rather systematically kept in the background, while Elinor, who walked in the maternal footsteps, and resembled her both in mind and person, OR THE COMIXG MAX. 7 Tvas trotted out and trumpeted upon all occa- sions. However, she made a bad hit after all in the matrimonial way ; for with her literary j)retensions, she ought at least to have netted a senior wrangler, or trapped a regius professor, and she was therefore considered to have actually thrown herself away upon Mr. Medlicott, who had neither university reputation, nor interest in the Church. She married him, too, against the wishes of both her parents ; by her mother she was never forgiven, and her father did not relent until her husband obtained his small living through the influence of a patrician schoolfellow, which did not happen until after he had been married for several years. Catherine Wyndham remained single until she was no longer in her premiere jeunesse, and then she married Mr. Mountjoy, a man of considerable fortune, who dying in the tliird year of their union, (which had not been blessed with offspring) left her blooming and inde- pendent, in the possession of a handsome income, which no woman in the kingdom deserved better, for no woman could have made a more amiable and liberal use of it. But poor Mrs. Mountjoy was, in hterary attainments, a mere nobody ; she knew a good 8 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, deal about men, but little or nothing about books. It was here that her sister outshone her. The difficulty is to say what Elinor Wyndham, or Mrs. Medlicott, did not either know, try to know, or wish to seem to know. She knew twenty times as many things, or something about them, as the Vicar, her husband; but so far was this superiority on her part from impressing him with due admiration of the female faculties, that he began to entertain something approaching to contempt for them, before he was many years a married man. He was particularly disposed to this way of thinking when he found his wife meddhng with the ancient authors, and used to say sarcastically to his intimate friends, that to see a woman reading Greek or Latin, filled him with spite and envy ; *' for it was evident she must have exhausted all the stores of knowledge and entertainment to be found in the living languages, before she was reduced to the necessity of resorting to the dead ones." The Vicar divided his time, for the most part, between his parish, his garden, and his small collection of books ; a few standard works on divinity, from which there is reason to think he purloined his sermons, and now and then a OR THE COMING MAX. 9 play of Terence, or a dialogue of Lucian, to keep up his knowledge for the benefit of his son. Horticulture was perhaps his favourite occupa- tion, and he did not addict himself to it the less because his wife considered it beneath her at- tention. In spite of the diversity of their tastes however, and a certain quiet conjugal contempt for one another, they did not live inharmoniously together. Sometimes Mrs. Medlicott would even relent from her stern pursuits and take a transitory interest in the flowers, or stoop to pick a strawberry ; and again, as a meet return for her complaisance, the Vicar would sit for a quarter of an hour hearkening, with more patience and gravity, than admiration or profit, to his wife's far from luminous elucidations of the secrets of the universe, such as polarised light, or the process by which a nebula developes itself into a world. It was very provoking, however, that he himself never was tempted to plunge into any of the dazzling abysses, into which Mrs. Medlicott led the way, for his encouragement. Such occasional seances gene- rally ended by the Vicar's quoting a verse of the nineteenth psalm, and taking up his hoe to earth his kidney beans. The Vicarage was as charming a spot as you 10 ' EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, could wish to be born and bred in, if you had a voice in the matter. It had that modest, sequestered, pastoral character, which agrees so Trell ^ith the notions we form in the guileless and unsuspecting days of our youth, of the life of a Christian shepherd. If it was not very ancient, there was an air of antiquity about it which made you think of the beautiful old times, when architecture was a province of the kingdom of poetry, and they knew how to build cottages as well as cathedrals. You mio-ht have assioned the incumbency of Chaucer's " good parson " as the probable date of its erection; or, if belonging to a much later period, at least have guessed it to have been planned by Milton and built expressly for Lycidas. It stood close to the roadside, not one of your broad, level, dusty, glaring cause- ways, but a zigzag, up-and-down, primrosed by-road, always surprising you with some new picturesque peep at every rapid turn. The house in its structure was a very jewel of irregularity, with such fantastic gables, such quaint grey chimneys, and windows, such a curious jumble of wood, brick, and stone, mossed over in one place, ivied in another, matted with roses in another, and upon one flank quite over- hung with a wilderness of laurels, chestnuts, OR THE COMING MAN. 11 hawthorns, and laburnums, that had a company of young poets and painters, in the hey-day of their imagination, turned masons and carpenters in a freak of fancy, they could scarcely have produced anything more exquisite in the Anglo- Arcadian style. It was just the sort of house which youthful couples, newly united by Holy Church, heigh-ho'd for as they passed, and Yowed they preferred a thousand times to any castle, hall, or mansion in the land. Older people, weary of the world, coveted precisely such a peaceful nook to close their days in. The veteran soldier desired no better fortune than to recline in his old age under those superb laurels ; nay, even the passing lawyer in the height of his business and reputation, mused with himself, and doubted whether he would not have had a happier lot as Vicar of Underwood, and the humble tenant of so sweet an abode. When Master Reuben came into the world you may imagine with what intense anxiety a woman like Mrs. Medlicott must have watched the growth of his little faculties. To prepare herself to preside properly over his early in- struction, she went through a course of study that would frighten many a hard-working scholar of the Universities ; and she laid down a course 12 KEUBEN- MEDLICOTT, of reading for her husband also, but she might as well have spared herself the trouble, for the Vicar had no original views whatever upon the subject of education, and thought John Locke had said every thing that was to be said about it. There was, however, one point in which the parents were agreed, namely, in pra^^ng that Reuben, when arrived at years of maturity, would take after his grandfather rather than his father. The Yicar had an extraordinary and almost servile veneration for Dean Wyndham, who was in his eyes the greatest divine and almost the greatest man in England. He had written profoundly when a very young man upon some abstruse mathematical subjects ; later in life he had published a learned commentary on the Dia- logues of Plato ; and he was now, in his green and vigorous old age, hurling his thunder- bolts at the Church of Rome, and rousing the Protestant spirit of the country to resist the admission of Roman Catholics into the legislature. Nor ought it perhaps to be left altogether out of account that the Dean was supposed, (as we have already intimated,) to have pretty fair prospects of advancement to a bishopric, which could not but be a joyful event to all his kindred and connexions in holy orders. OE THE COMIXG :MAX. 13 Happy it unquestionably ^ould have been for the Vicar's son, had some hard-headed man Hke Doctor Wyndliam been the director of his studies and the moulder of his character. For the early education of our hero ^as a curious hash of all conceivable methods, systems, theories and regimes. In short there was no system in it at all, or it had the defects and inconveniences of all systems. This misfortune would probably not have befallen him, had either the Vicar, or his wife ruled the roast, for then the ideas of one or the other would have prevailed, and something like a system, right or wrong, would have been the result ; but the energies of this respectable couple were so nearly balanced that neither had the ascendancy for any considerable length of time ; now the father was supreme, now the mother had her way ; in fact the scale of authority and influence went up and down hke a game of see-saw played by two urchins in a saw-pit. When Mr. Medlicott was up, Latin and Greek went up with him, grammar and prosody, Alexander, Scipio, Scylla and Charyb- dis. When the mother's end of the beam was aloft, came the turn of modern languages and what she called the arts and sciences ; a splash of French, an occasional twist at German, some- i4 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, times even a bout of geology and astronomy, and every now and then a great liullabulloo for a few days about arithmetic. Mrs. MedHcott had a crotchet in her head, (which she got from the phrenologists, who w^ere great oracles with her,) that as the organs or the faculties were many in number, the provisions or exercises for them ought to be equally numerous : in fact that the best system of instruction was the most diffused and multifarious. Mr. Medlicott on the other hand was all for concentration ; and each had a copious collection of authorities and dogmas, " wise saws and modern instances," in support of the doctrine that each held. Thus the boy was in fact pulled backwards and for- wards, from one parent to the other, the lessons of neither making an impression of much value or permanence ; except that between them both he early laid in a wonderful stock of words and phrases, the foundation of the character he sub- sequently acquired as a talker of the first magnitude. And there was just the same regular irregularity in hours and habits. In the dark months, Mrs. Medlicott would some- times conceive a sudden and irresistible passion for early rising, and the maids were called up at cock-crow of frosty mornings, to kindle the OR THE COMING ilAX. 15 school-room fire, or a fire in some other part of the house, for not even the room where Reuben received his education was a settled place. He remembered having learned his Latin grammar in all manner of chambers, and he recollected having once been lectured on geography in the kitchen, the cook asking his father to show her one of the West Indian islands on the globe, where her son who was a soldier, was serving in his regiment. On the other hand, in the middle of summer, the business of the day would often not commence until the dew was off the grass. Then, there was a continual shifting of Reuben's meal-times ; the hours that suited the mother's convenience never accommodating the father, and the regulations insisted on by him during his brief period of authority, being invariably reversed the moment the next coun- ter-revolution placed the dynasty in her hands. The effect of all this was that to the eye of a visitor in the house for a short period, it seemed the very model of order and disciphne, so that people who were not deep in the secrets of the Vicarage used to leave it mightily pleased ; extol Mr. and Mrs. Medlicott highly, and wish they could manage things with half the regu- larity in their own houses. 16 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, But the education of Eeuben was at the mercy of other influences besides those ah-ead}^ mentioned, and still "with the same unlucky tendency to distraction. At certain intervals his parents would both suddenly discover that neither one or the other was the proper person to conduct his education, and that he ought to go to school, or have a tutor or governess. Between eight and nine he was the scholar of an old Quaker schoolmistress, named Hannah Hopkins, who kept an infant seminary in Chichester, where she taught small children of both sexes to knit and sit upon forms, as mute as if they were at meeting. She may have taught Reuben the former art, but as to silence, he never was very proficient at it, either under her or any of his other instructors. Then Mrs. Winning, of Sunbury, a lady of considerable fortune in the parish, had a tutor at one time for her nephew, Henry Winning, and she was glad to allow Eeuben to join him in his studies, partly out of friendship for the Vicar, and partly to afford her nephew the advantage of a com- panion, although Reuben was his junior by two or three years. This was a very desirable ar- rangement (particularly as Henry Winning was a boy of great promise,) but it did not last many OR THE COMIXG MAX. 17 months ; Mrs. Medlicott interfered in the course of tuition in a Tvaj that Mrs. Winning dis- approved, and the wind also happening to shift to the rainy point, Reuben caught a cold one day, returning from Sudbury, and domestic education was resumed again. Had there been coercion in any of these diversified processes, our hero would probably have hated books of all kinds, and disliked all his teachers in turn : but his love of learnino; escaped this very common danger. He was of so teachable and ductile a disposition that he profited to some extent by all the lessons he received, and bent like an osier to all the shifting breezes to which parental vacillation exposed him. It was equal to Reuben whether the parlour was his study, or the pantry ; he got up cheerfully at six, and he got up cheerfully at nine ; he could conjugate amo, or decline musa, with Nelly churning at his elbow, or copy a French exercise while Mopsa was making his mother's bed. In truth, he had a strong natural appetite for knowledge, which made it the more deplorable that the craving was not satisfied with method and judgment. The system of variety and diffusion was unquestionably that for which the 18 REUBEX MEDLICOTT, boy himself would have voted, for even his mother's range was not wide enough for his taste, or his ambition ; he read, or dipped into every book within his reach, not positively interdicted ; and as to interdicts in such a disorderly place as the Yicarage, they were too often revoked, or modified, to be much respected, or very punctiliously obeyed. In short, there was not a branch, or a twig, of the tree of knowledge, within the reach of his feeble wino- on which Reuben Medlicott had not perched and prattled long before he was flilly fledo-ed. Far from needino- the stimulus of the least severity, he outran every expectation of dili- gence entertained by his friends. A still tem- perament and a delicate frame inclined him to prefer even a task by the fireside to almost any amusement out of doors. He made toys and bedfellows of his books, and, except to force him to take exercise absolutely necessary for his health, his parents had never occasion to say a cross word to him. The sweetness and phability of character which are so graceful in a child, and often so much commended, are virtues leaning to the side of faults, and beauties with a principle of weakness in them. There was visible early in OR THE COMIKG MAN. 19 Reuben's life a deficiency of the spirit, and daring so proper and so promising in boyhood ; there was more of the female than the masculine type in his constitution ; his tongue was the most active of his members ; he might rival his grandfather in his stores of learning, but, unless some signal revolution took place, there seemed very little prospect of his equalling either the mental energies, or the physical strength of Doctor Wyndham. In person the boy, who was now in his thirteenth year, had not taken very decidedly after either of his parents. His mother was a tall woman, with a pretentious carriage, a high colour, and regular, though somewhat hard features, to which the blue spectacles she always wore gave a didactic, and decidedly masculine expression. The Vicar was a short, thick man, of a florid complexion, and slightly inclined to corpulence, both probably the effects of the healthy, but inactive life he led — a life in which it was hard to say whether his pastoral labours, his classical studies, or his gardening relaxations, were the most or the least fatiguing. Reuben, at the age we speak of, was disposed to be tall ; but he had none of the father's or mother's florid complexion in his cheeks : he was pale, c 2 20 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, though the hue was not sickly ; his face was long, and almost preternaturally placid ; for, instead of the hard expression which he might have taken from the female side of the house, Eeuhen's physiognomy had inherited a certain tone of indecision from his father's features, and particularly about the mouth, which was large and pendent. His hair was fair and abundant, still permitted to fall in girlish profusion on his shoulders : and his eyes were of his mother's speculative azure, with a touch there, too, of the Vicar's too quiet and indeterminate character. OE THE COMING MAX. 21 CHAPTER II. IX WHICH SEVERAL FPJEXDS OF THE FA^HLY ARE INTRODUCED TO THE READER. It was not until Reuben had reached the age Tvhen. according to the custom of England, bojs of his position in life are sent from home to receive the benefits, and run the risks of a pubhc school, that his grandfather began to manifest any interest, either in Mrs. Medlicott, or her son. The Dean had, indeed, been gradually softening for some years, but it was a slow process ; he sometimes invited the Vicar and his wife to spend a dull Christmas or Easter with him, and occasionally paid them an abrupt visit, when his business brought him to Chichester and it suited his convenience to quarter himself somewhere in the vicinity. Latterly, however, the parties had been on more cordial terms. The Dean had the feehngs of a father au fond, 22 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, and he was also won by the simplicity of the Vicar's character, though he despised his abiUties most heartily. What, however, had probably the greatest effect in reconcihng him to Mr. Medlicott, was the veneration in which the latter held him. It was the delight of Doctor Wynd- ham to receive homage, and inspire awe ; he was never very fond of anybody who did not either fear or flatter him, and the Vicar possessed the two passports to his favour. The first concern the Dean showed in his grandson's welfare, betrayed itself in the curt postscript to a letter which the Vicar received from him on some indifferent matter of business. *' So you have not sent your son to school yet, how long do you mean to coddle him at the fire-side 1 Send him to school at once, or you'll be sorry for it. There is a very good school at Hereford — kept by Mr. Brough, related to my friends the Barsacs — at least it is as good as any other I know." The Dean's word was law, and it happened that the Hereford school was just the one liis parents would probably have selected for Reuben, had they been left to themselves. It was not as expensive as the great seminaries, such as Eton and Winchester ; the Dean had a living OR THE COMING MAX. 23 within ten miles of Hereford, which he had latterly favoured with his presence more than his other preferments ; and, moreover, Mrs. Winning's nephew, who has been already men- tioned, was a pupil of Mr. Brough's at present, and was considered a creditable specimen of that gentleman's efficiency as a tutor. The Medlicotts knew something already of the Barsacs, (the family mentioned by the Dean,) through Mrs. Mountjoy, who was connected with them by marriage. They were wealthy people in the wine-trade, resident at Hereford, and would probably be civil and perhaps useful to Reuben, for the sake of the Dean. The expense, however, was a grave con- sideration, for the Yicar's mode of hving was of the simplest, and there was no very large margin for retrenchment. However, every practicable reduction was resolved on, and a variety of presents, (marking the interest which his friends took in him,) materially diminished the cost of the boy's outfit. Mrs. Mountjoy would gladly have contributed handsomely to so important an object as her nephew's edu- cation, but Mrs. Medhcott was always averse to receiving assistance from her more prosperous sister, with whom she was not indeed upon the 24 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, most cordial terms. As to the Dean, he was generous enough of his advice, which he tendered, as we have seen, with much more freedom than dehcacv ; but though he had a large income, as good as that of some bishoprics, and was also a widower with his children disposed of, he was the last person in the world to whom the Medlicotts would have applied, even in a case of serious embarrassment. Not that he was a grasping, or illiberal man either, for he liad done bountiful things in his time, though apt to diminish the effect of a kindness, by an inconsi- derate and harsh manner of doing it. But the fact was that Doctor Wvndham was one instance, among a thousand others, of a rich man who was always more or less involved in pecuniary difficulties. He was afflicted with an ungovern- able mania for building, which, perhaps, has involved more men in embarrassed circumstances than any other passion, except gaming. His propensities in this way were well known to his relations and friends, but not the extent to which he indulged them. Commencing with villas he advanced to terraces, and from terraces his passion was beginning to transport him to more spacious projects of crescents and squares. As to the houses in his own immediate possession, OR THE COMIKG MAN. 25 of which he had several, besides his ecclesiastical residences, he was always altering, enlarging, or entirely remodelling them. Indeed he never could pass a night in any house, whether his own or a friend's, without planning its re- construction, or alterations still more expensive. Bricks and mortar, in short, never left him the command of a fifty-pound note, and wdien his pockets w^ere drained to the last shilling, he borrowed wdth as much spirit as he engaged in his other enterprises. At the very moment when Mr. Medlicott was wdiat is termed " hard up " for a small sum of money to meet the first expense of his son's schooling, his seemingly opulent father-in-law was actually in the neighbourhood, without the knowledge of his relations, negotiating a loan of several thousand pounds from a wealthy citizen of Chichester. The Medlicotts discovered this by the merest accident only a few days before Reuben left home for Hereford. The Vicar, in fact, wanted a sum of twenty pounds at the moment. " Probably," said Mrs. Medlicott, *' Mr. Cox could accommodate you." " With much less difficulty," said the Vicar, " than I shall have in asking him." 26 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, Matthew Cox was a remarkable man of bis class, and a steady friend of Mr. Medbcott, as he was of many a worthy man besides in bis city and neighbourhood. He bad carried on the trade of a tobacconist in Chichester for many a year, until having made a considerable fortune there, he extended bis business to London, where his shop in the Poultry was well known in the early part of the present century. At a later period of our story we shall make the acquaintance of this fine specimen of the British tradesman ; it is sufficient to add here that he was wealthy, influential, benevolent, and liberal. As a tobacconist he was chiefly celebrated for his snufl", with which the bishop of the diocese filled his box weekly, and which it was even said had made his Majesty George III. sneeze upon the throne. Matthew had married a quakeress, a relation of Hannah Hopkins, the schoolmistress already mentioned ; this, indeed, was the origin of his acquaintance with the Vicar, and of his early knowledge of Reuben, who had few older recollections than his infant sports with Mary Hopkins, Hannah's daughter, among the canisters. " I have a mind to ride into town this evening," said the Vicar. OR THE COMIXG MAN". " 27 He mounted a steady mare he had, and Reuben, (who had weighty business in town with his trunkmaker and his tailor,) mounted his small pony, and rode into Chichester with his father. It was a charming zig-zag ride, alternately sunny and shady, from the Vicarage to the part of Chichester where Mr. Medhcott's affairs led him. There is probably now a much straighter road ; nay, in all likelihood a railway, which if the present incumbent of Underwood prefers to a succession of green lanes, he would probably also prefer a station-house for his residence to the picturesque parsonage described in the fore- going chapter. Mr. Cox was in London. This the Yicar learned, without entering his shop, from another devoted friend of his, Mr. Broad, the cutler, who was in his usual place at that hour of the evening, on a stone bench, under a canopy of laburnums, immediately opposite to the tobac- conist's, and not far from his own house. " This very afternoon, to Lunnun, sir," said the cutler, jumping up to salute Mr. Medhcott and his son, which he did in a manner which nobody could see for the first time without being extremely diverted. He was a httle fellow. 28 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, about fifty, of a dry yellow complexion, and as brisk as a bee. He wore a white hat, an enormous mass of white cravat, a swallow-tailed blue body coat, the skirts of which almost touched the ground, and breeches of nankeen, with long strings of buff ribbon dangling at the knees. His stockings were white, and his shoes had steel buckles, so that altogether it was a neat costume, although a queer one. When he saluted the Vicar, he twitched off his hat with one hand, revealing a powdered head of hair, carefully brushed up into a peak, like the top of the Jungfrau ; whilst at the same time, with the other hand under the skirts of his coat, he performed the oddest possible antic by way of a bow. For so small a rate in aid as the Vicar wanted, Mr. Broad suited his purpose as well as any- body else ; so while E-euben trotted off to the places where his little affairs led him, Mr. Med- licott transacted his business with the cutler, and that having been settled, the Vicar desired to know what news was stirring in Chichester. " I presume," said Mr. Broad, " your reverence knows that the Dean is in the neighbour- hood." " 'No, indeed, I did not," said the Vicar ; " we OR THE COMING MAN". 29 know very little of the Dean's motions ; lie comes and goes like the wind, I think. He is staying, I presume, with Oldport as usual."^ Mr. Oldport was a Canon of Chichester, and an old chum and crony of Dean Wyndham's. "So I am informed,'' said Mr. Broad. "Have you seen the Dean f'said Mr. Medlicott. "I saw him no later than yesterday, sir, at Mat Cox's ; they were transacting business toge- ther, and I was called in to witness the signing of the papers." "Building is not to be carried on without money," said the Vicar, with a smile and a sagacious nod to Mr. Broad. " I'm afraid the Dean is very deep in the mortar," said the cutler. " Do you say so V said Mr. Medlicott. " Matthew has advanced him five thousand pounds, sir ; — a large sum, sir, five thousand pounds." It appeared even larger to the Vicar than it did to the cutler, but he made no remark, and changed the subject of conversation by asking Mr. Broad whether he had had any argument with the Dean on politics, or anything of that kind. Reuben had now rejoined them, being just in time to hear a curious illustration of his 80 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, grandfather's character, rendered still more singular by the oddity of the narrator s appear- ance and gestures. " The Dean had no argument with me, sir," said Mr. Broad ; " but he had a grand one with Matthew Cox ; they had a battle royal in Mat's shop, sir." " Were you present 1 " " Aye, that I was, sir ; and so was old Hannah Hopkins ; it was all about the coronation oath : the Dean said that if the King was to consent to an act for admitting Roman Catholics to sit in Parliament, he would be guilty of flat perjury, and ought to lose his ears, sir, as well as forfeit his throne. He thumped the counter, sir, till the snuff flew out of the canisters, and made Mrs. Hopkins and her daughter sneeze and run out of the shop; but they were frightened, too, I believe, by the Dean's loud voice and the way he thumped the counter." " Well," said the Vicar, " and what did Matthew say 1 " " Mat was very respectful, sir, as he always is to people above him, and to the clergy parti- cularly ; but he w^as very firm also, and stood up for his own opinions like an honest man ; he kept his temper, sir, which I am sorry to say OR THE COMIXG MAI^. -31 the Dean did not ; for he ended with calling Mat a Papist, and went away without so much as wishing him a civil good morning.'" " Was this before the pecuniary transaction, or after it ? " inquired Mr. Medlicott, with his modicum of dry humour t^ankling in his eye. " After it, sir, after it ; the Dean, sir, had the five thousand pounds, (or the order for the money, which was just as good,) in his pocket, sir, at the moment he was abusing Mat, and calling him twenty Papists." " That was too bad," said Mr. ]\Iedhcott, looking at his watch, and extending his hand to Mr. Broad to bid him a good evening. The sun had set before the Yicar and Reuben were on the road home again through the winding lanes. The Vicar mused, the greater part of the way, upon the strange peculiarities and contrasts of his father-in-law's character, while Reuben, trotting by his side speculated on the capacity of his new trunk for holding his clothes and his books, and packed and repacked it twenty times over in his busy imagination. 32 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER III. THE XIGHT BEFORE REUBEX WEXT TO SCHOOL : HOAV HIS HAIR WAS CUT, AND WHO WAS THE HAIR- CUTTER. The Dean was indeed the guest of Canon Oldport at the thne, as Mr. Broad and the Yicar supposed. The Canon was an okl bachelor, who had a tolerably good library, and kept only too good a table ; for, between the sedentary habits of the student and the hon-vivant, he had generally two fits of the gout in the year ; while, in the intervals, he was so afflicted with corns, that, in fact, he might be said to pass his whole life in his elbow-chair. Accordingly, being passionately fond of gossip and conver- sation, he was always delighted when a neigh- bour, or old college acquaintance dropped in to dine, or spend a few days with him. His greatest friend was Wyndbam, and yet the Dean was so troublesome a guest, that the Canon OR THE COMIXG MAX. 33 was generally as well pleased when he left liis house as when he came to it. The Dean turned every house he entered topsy-turvy ; but he provoked Oldport most by his unceremonious way of tumbhng about his books, which kept the Canon in a continual fret, particularly as the Dean never restored a volume to its place, so that his friend was continually hobbling after him, to keep his library in order. One evening, while the Dean continued Old- port's guest, it suddenly occurred to him to pay the Medhcotts a visit ; and accordingly, leaving the Canon to drink his wine alone, (the thing of all others least agreeable to him,) Dr. Wyndham took up his huge gold-headed cane, and strode across the fields to the Vicarage. He was a man of huge frame and gladiatorial muscle. Xature seemed to have designed him for physical, as well as polemical conflicts. He valued himself, indeed, on his personal strength as much as upon his prowess in controversy, and was particularly proud of his pedestrian powers. He had such a pair of legs as Hogarth would have given to an Irish chairman, or Wilkie to one of the swarthy demon-like coal- whippers to be seen issuing from those black arches in the Strand, which might well be 34 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, imagined to form the regular communications between London and the nether world. The Vicar was watering his plants, apparently screened from public observation by a close hedge of beech, nearly six feet high, which separated his garden from the road, when he heard a well-known rough stentorian voice call out — " Medlicott, you know no more of gardening than you do of Newton's Principia. I'll show you how to water, when you think proper to let me in/' The Yicar looked up, and beheld the broad pugnacious face of his wife's father, with an immense aquiline nose, and an acre of well- shaven skin, the whole overshadowed by a shovel-hat with a particularly intolerant cock, peering at him over the hedge, which he was well able to do without standing on tip-toe. Having hospitably welcomed his distinguished relative and visitor, he ventured to observe, good-humouredly, that he did presume to know something of a garden, though he was an humble vicar, and had all his life been ready to receive instruction from any one who was so competent to afford it, on most subjects, as the Dean. As he spoke, he hastened to open a OE THE COMIXG MAX. 35 small wicket-door in the hedge to admit the dignitary, who instantly thrust himself in, stooping more than was necessary, and ob- serving that it would not have cost five shillings more to have made the door a couple of inches higher. The Vicar again meekly smiled, and excused the door by observing, that there was not such a tall man as Dr. Wyndham in the parish of Underwood, or, he beheved, in the diocese. " Give me the watering-pot,'' cried the Doctor, without noticing the Vicar's apology, although so flattering to his person, " and go you in and tell Ehnor I am come to take tea." " My wife is somewhere about the garden," said the Vicar. " Go and find her," said the Dean. The Vicar obeyed, and in a few minutes returned with his wife and son, who were fol- lowed at a cautious distance by Hannah Hopkins, the Quakeress, and her daughter Mary, a fair, round, cosy girl, mtli a most unquakerlike expression of mirth in her eye, and a trick of laughing equally unbecoming of her solemn sect. Hannah Hopkins, who had already (as we have seen) met the Dean in Matthew Cox's shop, and d2 36 REUBEIT MEDLICOTT, been so frightened by his violent deportment, felt very much inclined to make her retreat when she heard his name mentioned, but the Yicar had overruled her, as she had had a long walk and come expressly to take tea. Mrs. Medlicott, with Eeuben, hastened forward to welcome her father, whose arrival was not entirely unexpected, as it was known he was in the neighbourhood. Both mother and son were proud to excess of the Dean^s talents and reputation. You could see it in their faces ; but you might also have perceived that they were fluttered as well as gratified by his visit. They found him, however, a little crest-fallen, and somewhat in the state that is called a pickle. He had got himself into a scrape by his conceited meddling, for stooping too low to replenish the watering-pot in the well, his shovel-hat had fallen into it, and he was now fishing for it with a rake. Mary Hopkins laughed most irreverently. Old Hannah shook her head at her. She was a tall, gaunt, elderly woman, with the parched brown complexion of an ancient gipsy ; she wore steel spectacles on her nose, and her bony hands were furnished with knitting-needles, which were never idle, making or mending some garter, mitten, or worsted stocking. OR THE COMIXG MAX. 37 She shook her head at her daughter when she laughed, and it was an awfal sight to her scholars when Hannah Hopkins shook her head, though by no means an infalhble cure for laughter in other cases. The Dean, however, took no notice of either mother or daughter, but having recovered his hat commenced wliirhng and swinging it about, without thinking much of the sprinlding he gave any of the party. As to poor Mrs. Medlicott, she got so much of the cold spray, that she was forced to cry out for mercy, and cover her face and bosom with her hands. !Mary Hopkins caught some of it too, and it set her laughing again, though she did her best to repress it. "The hat's not much the worse,'"* he said, bluffl}" shaking hands with his daughter and grandson ; he was evidently quieted by his little mishap, and said no more of wateriiig or of gardening that evening. The room where the tea was prepared was a small one, and the table where it was spread was small likewise. When the great churchman was seated, it seemed as if there were no room for any body else. Yet two of the part}^ had disappeared. What had become of the Quakeresses '? " What has become of Hannah and Mary 1 " 88 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, asked the Yicar, looking all round about him. " They were just behind us/' said Mrs. Med- licott. " They came to tea," said Reuben. Eeuben was greatly concerned, and, running in all directions, searched the garden for them, but he searched in vain ; for the timorous Qua- keresses had slipped away unperceived through the wicket in the hedge ; Hannah Hopkins dreading another untimely explosion of mirth on the part of the fair fat Mary, and not knowing what awful consequences might follow, should the formidable Dean suspect that he was the subject of it. " Gone mthout their tea !'' said the Yicar, when his son returned from his unavaiHng search. " And without their flowers,'^ said Reuben, who had gathered an immense nosegay for his old schoolmistress and her daughter. The Dean now, addressing himself to nobody in particular, launched out into a philippic on the Quakers, their habits, and their doctrines, bela- bouring Fox and Penn without mercy, and promising to administer a still more elaborate castigation to the whole Society of Friends upon OR THE COMIXG MAX. 39 some future occasion — a promise Tvhicli he lived to redeem. Poor Medlicott had generally a good word to say for the Quakers, but he rarely ventured to controvert any opinion of Dr. Wyndham's, and upon the present occasion he observed a most servile silence. Some time elapsed before Mrs. MedKcott suc- ceeded in drawing her father's attention to Reuben, and to the interesting fact that the very next day was fixed for his departure for school, " So you are taking my advice at last ; ^^ou ought to have taken it long ago," he cried, addressing both parents, but looking at neither, which was no deviation from his ordinary manners in society. He then fell upon the eatables on the table, as if his friend the Canon had given him no dinner, talking loudly and volubly on the subject of pubHc schools in the necessary intervals of eating, and sometimes during the process, relating his own exploits at Harrow, and furtlier, to encourage Reuben, giving lively and forcible descriptions of the discipline which, at that period, was in vogue in most English seminaries of any notoriety. " Quorum pars magna fui," said the Doctor. " It was through the birch I made my way 40 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, to the laurel. It was whipped into me." Reuben blushed, and felt excessively uncom- fortable all over. His mother felt uneasy also ; yet she could not but reflect with pleasure that her son's passion for study would necessarily enable him to reach the laurel without passing through the other grove alluded to by his grandfather. " I was a Goth when I was a boy/' continued the Doctor, still stuffing himself "I hated books ; I was a foe to learning ; I was a Goth and a Visigoth. It was whipped out of me." " But Reuben does not hate books, or learn- ing, father," said Mrs. Medlicott with a sort of nervous playfulness, for she was alwa^^s timid in her father's presence, and spoke in a subdued way, which she was not so much in the habit of using with her husband. " Perhaps it would be better if he did : boys are boys ; a learned boy is as great a monster as an ignorant man. I am afraid, Ehnor, you have been stuffing your son's head with too many things. I have known men ruined by cleverness, but I never knew a man ruined by dulness." The Yicar shrugged his shoulders and expressed his full concurrence in this opinion. OR THE COMIXG MAX. 41 Mrs. Medlicott was now moved : slie took off her blue spectacles, as she always did when she was about to do or say anything with particular energy or seriousness, (probably lest they should fall from her nose,) and laid them beside her on the tea-table. This done, she remarked with some spirit, and even a little irritation, " that it was rather hard she should now be blamed for misdirecting her son's studies, as she had never acted on her sole responsibility, and particularly as Reuben was quite as forward as other boys in his Greek and Latin, while over most children of his age he had a decided advantage in many other branches of knowledge, which she had often heard her father himself say, were too much neglected in public schools." " The boy will do well enough, I dare say," cried the Dean, cutting his daughter short. Then turning to Reuben, he added — '•' you must do your grandfather credit, sir." "That's what I often tell him," said the Yicar. " I trust, father, he ivill do you credit," said Mrs. Medlicott more emphatically ; " it is my prayer that he may, and I believe it is his own earnest wish. Is it not, Reuben \ " 42 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, '' It is, mother/' answered her son very frankly and handsomel}^ His manner pleased even the rugged dignitary, who called the tall basliM boy over to him, patted his fair head, and gave him a great many valuable pieces of advice for his conduct at school, both in his behaviour to his teachers and his fellow-scholars, ending by reminding him that he had nothing but his talents and industry to depend on for his advancement in life. "What can your father do for you — a poor church-mouse of a vicar '? " " He can leave you only his blessing and the family Bible," added the Vicar humbly. " We must rely upon Providence,'^ said Mrs. Medhcott, with a sigh, but at the same time with a complacent smile on her son, as if she had not much doubt of his success in life. " Very right," said the Dean, " but Providence only provides for the provident ; never forget that." " Very true," said the Vicar. " Very striking," said his wife. "I'll have another cup of tea," said Dr. Wyndham, pushing his cup towards his daugh- ter. He drank tea like Dr. Johnson when the tea-drinlving fit was on him, but he was sometimes equally violent in his love of coffee. OE THE COMIXG MAX. 43 " TTell/^ said the Yicar cheerily after a moment's halt in the conversation, " if Reuben goes into the Church, which he probably will, he won't want a friend there to give him a push in the world.'' "Let nobody expect to rise by holding my skirts," said the Dean drily and pompously ; " my head is as hard to be fitted with a mitre as parson Yorick's." "Xothing is impossible," said the Vicar, somewhat maladroitly. " Notliing's impossible, of course," rejoined the Dean ; " if you go to possibility, you may be a bishop yourself one of these days." The Yicar laughed at this rude speech, as if it was a capital joke, while the old gentleman began abruptly to talk a great deal about his friends the Barsacs, abusing their house and their society, but extoUing the people them- selves, especially one of the Miss Barsacs, whose name was Blanche, and whom the Dean called a sensible good girl twenty times over, and more than once an angel. The Barsacs, he said, were only too attentive to the Finchley boys : they would be kind to Reuben as a matter of course. The sun was now setting behind a row of 44 great old yews which stood at the top of the sloping garden of the Vicarage, separating it from the church-yard, and as the level beams fell on the fair hair of young Reuben, they attracted the attention of his grandfather to its feminine beauty and abundance. "Come, Elinor,'' he cried to his daughter, "you are not going to send the boy to school with this ridiculous head of hair; why, his school-fellows will use him for a Pope's head." "It is too long," said the Yicar. Mrs. Medlicott herself could not dispute it. The hair was the colour of her own to the nicest shade, which perhaps was one of the causes of the favour in which she held, and the care with wdiich she had cherished it. " Is there no hair-cutter in the village, eh V pursued the Doctor, looking furiously at the golden locks. " Not nearer than Chichester," said Mrs. Medlicott, " indeed I should have had it cut before, but now it is too late." " Too late, fudge I why don't you cut it yourself?" "Oh, father," said Mrs. Medhcott, laughing, " I should be a very awkward coiffeuse : I wouldn't undertake it for the world." OR THE COMIXG MAN. 45 " Undertake it ! there's the difficulty '? hand me a pair of scissors ; I'm a capital hair-cutter ; I always cut my own at College — hand me those scissors, boy." Imagine a Roman dic- tator, Furius Camiilus for instance, issuing his orders. Reuben smiled, coloured, glanced at his mother, then looked fearfully at his grand- father, and finally handed the scissors. It was the affair of a moment. You know the sound that sharp steel makes passing through masses of crisp curls. " Now don't, dear father ; don't," cried ^Irs. Medlicott, jumping up and running round the table. "I'll do it myself, — don't father, don't, — you might have allowed me." The bright hair was tumbling on the floor in bunches, while the mother was thus inter- ceding for it idly, for her father's huge hands wielded the sheers as ruthlessly as those of Atropos. The Vicar was pleased, but he enjoyed his satisfaction in silence. As to Reuben, he was man enough to have borne the loss of his superfluous ringlets, for in truth they were an incumbrance and inconvenience to him ; but when he saw that his mother was really 46 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, agitated and vexed at his grandfather's violent proceedings, the tears stood in his eyes, and it was with some difficulty he prevented them from joining his hair on the carpet. The Vicar accompanied the dignitary for about a mile of the way back to the house where he was quartered, the latter walking with immense strides, talking volubly and vehemently all the time ; and the former a short-winded pursy little man, trying ineffec- tually to keep the pace, and equally unsuc- cessful in his efforts to take part in the conversation. At length they came to a point where the Dean was to cross a stile to take a short cut through the fields ; and here he suddenly missed some papers, no less import- ant than a sermon which he was to preach in the Cathedral of Chichester the following Sunday. The papers ought to have been in his hat, and as they were not there, the probability was that they were in the pond, or well, in the Vicar's garden! "Have you ducks'?" cried the Dean, astride on the stile. "No," said the Vicar laughing; "it's not a pond, only a well." "Well, there's one well in the world," said OR THE COMING MAN. 47 the Dean ; " one at least that reahses the old proverb, and you may now boast, MedUcott, that you have got it in your garden." " 111 recover the sermon," said the Vicar ; " it won't be a dry discourse at all events." " I make you a present of it," said the Dean. '• Preach it to the people of Underwood." "I'll take you at your word, sir," said the Vicar, " and the present is very acceptable, for I have been so engrossed by sending Reuben to school, that I have had no time to compose a sermon of my own for next Sunday." Mrs. MedHcott and her son had strolled forth also to enjoy the remnant of a beautiful evening more agreeably in the fresh air, and neighbour- ing fields, than in the feverish atmosphere of a room, which had been twice heated by the steam of the tea-kettle, and the presence of a great controversial divine. Mrs. Mecllicott had of course many prudent maternal cautions to impress, and many sage injunctions to impose upon the young adventurer who was about to quit her side for the first time ; and Reuben, on his part, had promises to make, resolutions to form, and projects, enterprises, visions, speculations, hopes, and dreams to commu- nicate. One of the pledges now exacted by 48 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, Mrs. Medlicott, with the greatest earnestness, was that the boy woukl not over-tax his strength by too much anxiety to improve himself, or even to 23lease his parents ; he was young, and there was time enough before him for all the purposes of life ; he was highly intellectual — she might venture now to tell him so — and the drudgery, which with inferior faculties might be indispensable, was in his case not only needless, but was calculated to defeat the very object of stud3^ " But there will be time enough for every thing," said Reuben ; " I need not forget my French, or my German, or my geology, or my botany, or anything you have taught me, mother ; although I promise you I will attend chiefly to my school business, and not neglect my health.'^ " That is all that I ask, my love,'' said the tall matron, looking down with maternal pride upon her son through her blue spectacles, and bitterly sighing when she missed his hyacinthine curls. ''1 should not be happy, mother," pursued Reuben, "if I were to feel myself forgetting an^^thing you have had^ the trouble of teach- ing me." OB THE COMIXG MAX. 49 ^ M J dear boy," said his mother, after a pause, during which she collected herself for one of her speeches, *'' now that I am satisfied you will be prudent, beheve me I do not want to disguise from you the immeasurable extent of the field of human knowledge, and the innumerable provinces of the mind, (for really the}' are innumerable,) in which the triumphs of literature and science are to be won. I haye often told you — have I not ? — I think I have — the opinion I entertain of the vast capacity of our intellects, and my conviction that there is infinitely more than enough room in your brain, for example, Reuben, or in mine, for all the learning that ever was acquired, and all the sciences that ever were invented. Our minds, my dear, you must never forget, are not only immortal, but infinite. When you have read Locke's Essays and Browne's Philosophy of the 31ind, you will have clearer notions of what immortahty and infinity mean. There is notliing so important, dear Reuben, as to have clear and precise ideas upon every subject ; but to return to what I was saying, I am inclined to beheve that Plato, the divine Plato, held pretty much the same opinions that I have expressed, or tried to express, on the vastness and variety of the 50 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, human capacity. I have really sometimes thought of comparing the human mind to an infinite kaleidoscope/' " I Ions: to read Plato," said Reuben. " He is a glorious writer and philosopher," said the blue lady ; " you will study him at College." " Not till then," said Reuben, with a sigh ; " but tell me, mother," he added, " was my grandfather so very dull at school as he says he was '? Was he a Goth and a Visigoth 1 " " Your grandfather, my dear," said Mrs. Medlicott, smiling, "like most very energetic men, sometimes speaks in a strain of exaggera- tion ; you must receive his statements, therefore, cumgrano, or with a grain of allowance for this peculiar feature in his idiosyncracy ; — no, my dear, he was, I believe, one of the very cleverest boys at Harrow, though idle and refractory perhaps at times, which accounts for the experi- ence he told you he had of the severities of academic discipline." Here a winged beetle gave Mrs. Medhcott a bob in the face, and brought her prematurely to a stop. " I will make it my study, mother, to resemble him," said Reuben, solemnly. " Not in being idle and refractory, I hope," OR THE COMING MAN. 51 said Mrs. Medlicott, smiling ; — she was seldom so jocular — " but who is this approaching us ? it has grown so dark that we shall scarcely have light to get home. Those coleopterous insects are exceedingly annoying : it is owing, you may remember, to *the peculiar structure of their visual organs/' The personage thus dimly descried in the twilight, was the Vicar, who, while he accom- panied them back to the glebe, informed them of the watery doom of the Doctor's papers. Mrs. Medlicott was greatly excited at the thought of the possible loss of any production of her father's, and her excitement was caught by Reuben, who ran forward Avith impetuosity to procure a lantern from the kitchen, to guide them to the well, where indeed the papers were found floating, as was anticipated, just where they had tumbled out of the shovel -hat. Mrs. Medlicott, herself, took possession of them, and dried them carefully with her handkerchief, and afterwards at the kitchen fire, before she went to bed. The Vicar entertained a momentary design of sitting up to read the sermon, of which he was now the owner, but whether it was the reflection that it was his own property, or that he was unaccustomed to reading by E 2 UNIVERSITY OP 52 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, candlelight, he gave up the task after nodding over it for a few minutes, and retired to his pillow likewise. We shall not hear of this sermon again for some years. When it came to the point, the Yicar found it no easy matter to reconcile it with his conscience to palm his father-in-law's learning and eloquence upon his parishioners as his own. OR THE COMING MAX. 53 CHAPTER IV. MRS. MEDLICOTT BORROWS MRS. WINNING'S FRENCH MAID. REUBEN LEAVES HOME, AND OTHER IMPORTANT INCIDENTS. All the incidents of that evening made a deep impression on the mind of young Reuben, — the sudden panic flight of the old Quaker and her daughter, — the cutting of his hair by his rude and eccentric grandfather, — the rescue of the sermon from drowning, but his last walk and conversation with his mother more than all the rest. The boy loved his mother with more than ordinary tenderness ; they had indeed been fellow-students more than pupil and preceptress, and his attachment to her was almost identi- fied with his ardour for the various studies into which she had not very discreetly initiated him. The worst of such instruction was that his lights were taken upon most subjects from 54 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, one whose own mind was far from being lumi- nous enough to undertake the enhghtenment of others. Mrs. Medhcott was not at all more logical in her habits of reasoning, or precise in her notions, than the large majority of woman- kind, although the range of her reading was so general and so ambitious. Her understanding at the brightest was but a sort of shining mist. The knowledge she possessed, or what she called knowledge, was nine parts out of ten either an affair of the memory, or the imagination. These were also, of course, the provinces of Reuben's intellect, which had been most industriously cultivated ; so that in his case, unquestionably, it would have been better if the old routine of instruction had been adhered to, and if the white paper, to which Locke compares the human mind before the reception of ideas, had not been so extensively scrawled over with hiero- glyphics, by the hand of a vain self-opinionated woman. Let a woman, however, be ever so blue, she is still a woman. She does not put off her own sex, when she encroaches on the prerogatives and pursuits of ours. Of this Reuben's mother now afforded a remarkable example. Among many other subjects of maternal solicitude which harassed the mind OR THE COMIXG MAX. 55 of Mrs. Medlicott that night, the rape of her son's locks was not forgotten, and the uncouth figure he now made haunted her imagination, and even disturbed her rest. She was appre- hensive of making matters worse if she tried with her own hands to mend them, but was there no other resource ? Must Reuben actu- ally go to school with that shocking head of hair, looking as if he had been trimmed with a hatchet, as Charon in Lucian was accustomed to trim the beards of the philosophers 1 Reuben's departure stood fixed for a late hour on the following day, so there was time left for a httle management, if she could only think what to do. There is nothing hke thinking perseveringly and doggedly when you are in a dilemma. Things are very desperate when nothing comes of persevering dogged thinking. Mrs. Medlicott thought so long that she thought at length of her neighbour, Mrs. Winning of Sunburv, and recollected that she had lately retm-ned fi-om a continental tour, bringing with her to Eno-land a treasure of a youno; French femme-de-chamhre, who was already celebrated in the neighbourhood, both for her cleverness and her beauty. Mrs. Medhcott jumped out of bed in the morning long before the Vicar had 56 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, given any signs of life, and wrote a long note to her friend, detailing the misfortune that had befallen Eeuben, and begging a loan of her maid for a few hours to help her out of the difficulty, for Mademoiselle was of course an expert coiffeuse. This note was entrusted to an out-door servant, who was ordered to take the Vicar's mare to convey it, and to furnish the animal with a side-saddle for the accommo- dation of the French maid, the distance being something too much for a walk. The clock of Underwood Church, (the tower of which was just visible above the line of the old yews,) had just gone seven, when the servant with the mare and side-saddle set out on his odd com- mission. There was great excitement that morning at the Vicarage, and it commenced at an early hour, many of Reuben's old friends coming to bid him adieu, and present him with little tokens of affection, to keep themselves green in his memory when he was far away. First to arrive were the simple Quaker school- mistress and her cosy daughter, no longer daunted — poor timid hares — by the overbearing Dean, with his thundering voice, and church-militant manners. As they came early and stayed long. OR THE COMIXG MAX. o7 we liave time to observe them better than when we met them last. One was never seen without the other ; thev were inseparable even in thought, like chicken and tong-ue. Two bees were never more industrious. Their business was teaching, their relaxation needle-work. If they had a passion, it was for flowers, grasses, and peacocks' feathers. If Marv had a fault, it was that she was too merry for her sect, and too plump for her stature. If Hannah had her imperfections, they leaned to the side of literature, like Mrs. Medhcott's. Mary was plain in her attire only ; the mother was plain in every sense, including plain-speaking and plain-dealing. Her school, in the management of which Mary now bore her part, was her principal means of subsistence ; it yielded them but a scanty income, for they were extremely modest in their terms, and taught the children of people who were as poor as themselves, for almost nothing at all. What she taught would not be important enough to mention, if she had not been one of Eeuben Medhcott's early teachers. Her course included reading, writing, and arithmetic as far as long division ; she never puzzled her pupils with the rule of three, or maddened them with fractions. Her svstem ot 5S geography was much shorter and simpler than Humboldt's. In histor}^ she taught how Alfred burned the cake, how Clarence was drowned in the malmsey, and who founded the state of Penn- sylvania. In short, she taught many things superficially, and stocking-knitting profoundly. But she was perhaps more in repute as a moralist, than for merely enlightening the mind. In ethics she taught that honesty is the best policy, that wilful waste makes woful want, that idleness is the mother of mischief, and that there is a time for all things under the sun. There is reason to think she considered this last maxim the corner- stone of the edifice of virtue, she repeated and insisted on it so very frequently. Neither of the Quakeresses came empty-handed. Mary brought a silken purse, of her own manufacture, in which she had curiously inwoven Reuben's name, and very tenderly, as well as a little nervously, did she present him with it, whispering, while she placed it in his hands, that she trusted he would be happy where he was going, which . appeared to be very far away. Hannah had her gift also, a large segment of a certain economical species of plum-cake, made with her own hands from a receipt handed down in her family for generations. It was called the " cut-and-come- OR THE COMING MAN. 59 again cake,'^ and was particularly in demand for the quarterly and yearly meetings. There now appeared another visitor, one, how- ever, who came to take rather than to give, as the w^orld is divided between people of the two propensities. The new comer was a tall, awkward, heavy animal of a boy, somewhat senior to Reuben, the son of Mr. Pigwidgeon, the family apothecary, who, not being able to come himself, sent his son Theodore with a present of a box of stomachic pills, and a commission to say what was proper on his part, which perhaps the lad would have tried to do, had not the sight of the cake driven all other thoughts out of his mind. His arrival was evidently a bore to Reuben, wdio had to request him to keep his intrusive hands out of his trunk, which was packed, but still open, while he willingly accepted Mary Hopkins's offer to put the things in order again which had been deranged by such unmannerly meddling. Master Pigwidgeon then kept hovering, like a great fly, about the " cut-and-come-again,'' and at last ventured to pick at the enamelled sugar with which it was overlaid. In all probability he would soon have taken much greater freedom with it, if old Hannah had not suddenly laid hands on him, and, drawing herself up to her 60 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, full heiglit, addressed him with a severity which not more appalled the object of it, than it vastly entertained the Vicar. " Go thy ■ways,"' she cried, shaking her head, and shaking the delinquent at the same time, " the cake is not for thee ; hadst thou been a scholar of mine, I would have taught thee betimes to keep thy hands from that which is not thine." The tall lubberly youth slunk away from the table where the cake lay, and looked so abashed and frightened that Mrs. Medlicott pitied him, and gave Reuben a hint to offer him a piece of the cake, which the generous boy did in the promptest and most good-natured manner. ]^or was Master Theodore Pigwidgeon too proud to be appeased in this way, though he preferred enjoying his share of the cake in private, and stole away home, scarcely bidding his benefactor a good-bye, and utterly forgetting the pills, for which Reuben perhaps had no reason to be seriously offended with him. Among the hours and half-hours that are most irksome to pass in this world, (such as the half-hour before dinner, or before the rising of the curtain at the play,) must cer- tainly be enumerated the interval that elapses OR THE COMIXG MAX. 61 between the completion of the preKminaries of a journey and the moment of the last embraces and adieus. It is an interval which cannot be too much abridged for the comfort of all parties ; for the tenderest leave-takings do not admit of being protracted for more than a few minutes ; sighs cannot be drawn out beyond a hmited length, and the tenderest eyes will not secrete tears at discretion. The visits of even common acquaintances therefore, have their value on these occasions, provided they do not come to pry into our boxes and eat up our plum-cakes. Mrs. Medlicott never- theless was not sorry when the considerate quakeresses gave Reuben the last proofs of their affection — Hannah with Idsses which he woidd gladly have dispensed with, and a parting speech containing the cream of her proverbial philosophy — and went their way in s^mipathy and silence. In fact Mrs. Medlicott had for some time been extremely fidgetty, looking out for the arrival of the French maid, and not wishing her to come until the Hopkinses had departed. It happened exactly as she wished. The quakeresses were not gone five minutes when Mademoiselle arrived, not on the Yicar's mare, (for she shuddered at the notion 62 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, of riding,) but in a little phaeton of Mrs. Winning's. Louise, (so she was called.) was very young, extremely pretty, exceedingly well- dressed, thoroughly Parisian, and the most lively, ardent, and obliging creature in the world. In a neat basket, which hung from her arm, she carried her scissors and her tongs, her oils, marrows, and pomatums, in short all the instruments and appliances of that luxurious and ornamental art in which her compatriots of both sexes leave the rest of the world immeasurably behind them. The exquisite arrangement of her own hair was enough of itself to prove her capacity for the delicate mission she came to execute. In a word, she seemed a very sylph of the toilet, an actual Crispissa, as she alighted from the carriage and tripped into the Yicar's parlour. What a contrast, except in being obliging and good-natured, she presented to poor 3Iary Hopkins ! " Ah, mon Dieu ; ah, mon Dieu,"' Made- moiselle exclaimed, when the state of poor Reiiben's tresses was shown her, " que les pretres Anglais sont des ignorans !" as if she had expected to find the ecclesiastics of England particularly expert at hair-cutting. OR THE COMIXG MAX. 63 Mrs. Mecllicott talked French reasonably well for an English- woman who had never been abroad ; but Reuben had not yet reached that degree of proficiency, so that Mademoiselle, who spoke English prettily, employed that tongue chiefly during her yisit. She had a nice operation to perform, but she executed it with such dexterity that, although she could not replace the lost curls, she soon left little or no trace of the Dean's clumsy hands behind her. Mrs. Medlicott stood by delighted and thankful, rewarding every clever touch with a profusion of acknowledgments and a mint of smiles. Reuben himself had no words to express what he felt ; gratitude was the least of it. Though but a boy of thirteen, he was far from insensible to the prodigious difference between the small tapering rosy fingers of the pretty sparkhng young French woman, and those of his last hair-dresser. She touched him so dehcately, so playfully, made such a number of artless flattering little speeches, had such bright eyes, and such a musical voice, seemed so happy to please his mother, and every now and then came out with such pretty little exclamations, and adjurations, (which were always in her own language,) 64 EETJBEX MEDLICOTT, that the boy was utterly confused and bewil- dered, and experienced emotions which poor Mary Hopkins had never inspired. In fact it was fortunate he had so many other occu- pations for his thoughts at the moment, for otherwise he might have actually fallen in love. AVhen Mademoiselle heard that he was on the point of starting for school, she cried out that he was too young, too fragile, and began to implore his parents to change their purpose. She even offered to come over herself twice a week from Sunbury, and teach him French. His clever father and mother could teach him every thing else ; " voila mon projet d'instruc- tion pour Monsieur Reuben." Mrs. Medlicott could not but laugh, while in the most courteous terms she thanked Mademoiselle Louise for her project and all her civilities. "C'est mon projet," she repeated curtseying, while she sheathed her scissors, and prepared to take leave, which she was not permitted to do without luncheon. While that was pre- paring, she tripped over to a piano, which happened to be open, and without sitting down, played and sang one little hvely air after another, with such grace and sweetness that the Vicar himself was greatly taken with her. OE THE COMING MAX. 63 "I Tvill come encore, and pay you a visit, when you come back for de holidays, Monsieur Reuben,^' she said, when luncheon was over, " and remember, if your mechant grandpapa cut your beautiful hair again, you always send for Mademoiselle Louise.'^ Before she went, she gave him several admirable precepts for the care of his hair and the improvement of his person generally, and presented him with a flask of Eau-de- Cologne by way of an impromptu souvenir ; so that Reuben carried ^dth him to school substantial pledges of regard from a great « many friends and acquaintances. At length the parents were alone with their son, and now many a maternal caress was repeated, many a paternal counsel reinforced ; many a time Mrs. Medlicott was sure she had left something unsaid of the utmost conse- quence, and, with her hands clasped over her eyes, laboured in vain to recollect herself, for in fact she had said everything important and unimportant ten times over. The Vicar had all along confined his instructions to but a few points, but to these he had returned frequently, and even now at the eleventh hour, he inculcated once more the few short moral lessons into b6 REUBE>^ MEDLICOTT. which he tersely divided what he called the whole duty of a school-boy. The final tendernesses may be left to the reader's imagination — who has not either expe- rienced or witnessed them 1 " Tears have streamed through every age'' for this com- monest of causes, but fortunately though such tears are natural, we "wipe them soon," as our first parents did, after a scene of more bitter leave-taking. The Vicar's resource in every grief was his garden. He pulled his hat down over his face, and went forth to commune with an old raven he had of the name of Sirach. Mrs. Medlicott hurried to her room. Reuben mounted the top of the stage-coach with his eyes still red with weep- ing. The precise number of hours his journey occupied is not recorded ; all that is certain is, that on the third day after leaving home he was duly enrolled as a scholar at Hereford, having in the course of the journey met with the usual varieties of ups and downs, rough and smooth, according as nature had diversified the country he travelled through, or the over- seers of the roads had performed or neglected their duties. BOOK THE SECOND. ' Jli perdonate, gentle master mine, I am in all affected as yourself; Glad that you thus continue your resolve To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy. Only good master, while we do admire This virtue, and this moral discipline, Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray ; Or so devote to Aristotle's checks As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured." Taming of the Shrei f2 AEOUMENT. A MAN on first coming into the world is very mueli in the position of a minor whose affairs are altogether in the hands of his guardians and his lawyers ; he has nothing at all to do with what he is most concerned in, but is entirely at the disposal and mercy of other people. We are not at liberty to choose our owni fathers and mothers, or even our pastors and masters ; and perhaps, on the whole it is so much the better — it is easy to imagine what would happen were such a privilege accorded us. Mr. Hudson, for instance, would probably have more sons than Priam of Troy ; the Duke of Wellington would have a prodigious Christmas party at Strathfieldsay ; and our gracious Queen would soon find herself in the same domestic difliculty with the notorious little old woman, who, whilom, lived in the shoe. Cobblers and curates would be childless, and infants of the most moderate ambition would be bom with silver spoons in their mouths. These points are settled for us ; and not only are we provided with ready-made parents, but with complete sets of relations, friends, and acquaintances, — not made to any order of our's, and with respect to whom we have not so much as the melancholy choice of Hobson. Tiiere is no help for this state of things any more than there is for our not being nearer neighbours to the sun than we are, or qualified to promenade our ceilings like the flies. It is the common law of the world as much as gravitation : we are free to grumble, but not at liberty to disobey. Fortune is but another name for the infinite mass of circumstances in the midst of which we seem to be flung, like Bligh's boat on the Pacific, or the infant Moses in his cradle of rushes upon the flood of Nile. An imseen Providence steers the ark ; but as far as regards the little crew himself, he is absolutely at the mercy of the current and the crocodiles. Or we may be said td be as molten metal poured into the mould of ten thousand pre-existing facts and relationships, all influencing us, and more or less, determining what manner of men we shall be. We take their form and pressure most submissively. There is no option but to take it. ARGUMENT. 69 Circumstance is like a she- bear who licks her cubs into shape. Some are licked too roughly, some too delicately ; a few receive the proper moderate licking which forpis the fine animal. After a certain period we come to be old enough to take a part in the process, and lick or educate oui'selves ; one energetic man in a hundi^ed will recast himself altogether ; the majority continue to the end of the story much what nurseries, schools and colleges, parents, pedagogues and priests, conspii^edtomake them in life's introductory chapters. The second book of our " poem unlimited," contains some- thing about learning, but a great deal more about love. More than one personage will Ije transported by that passion who ought to be thinking of gi-aver things. When grand- fathers fall in love, grandsons may well " sigh like a fiuTiace." "We shall presently (to employ again a former illustration) be spectatoi-s of some of the jDantomimic changes of real life. With oiu' eyes fixed on a grammar-school, we shall see it turned into a di^awing-room ; and the study of a grizzly old divine will be transformed with equal suddenness into a myrtle-bower. Our Eeuben is here advanced a stage on his journey nowhither ; he extends his acquaintance with authors, adds largely to his stock of words, and commences an inti- macy with a young lady, and to all other books prefers the Book of Beauty. The good old people of Chichester have a very imperfect notion of the sayings and doings of the gay young people at Hereford, or, indeed_, of the gay old folk either. While one sort of instruction is liberally • paid for, another is generously afforded gratis ; for all that influences a man is part of his education ; oui' friends and companions are unsalaried tutors ; the houses we frequent are so many academies of easy discipline ; the girl we dance with imparts a great many new ideas ; — in short, what is the wide world but a seminary, where the youth of both sexes are pro- miscuously educated by mistresses as well as masters, and under the fan as well as the ferula. In short, for a model-school (taking the world as it is), commend us to that kept by Professor Biron in the park of Navarre, where the scholars foreswore theii' books when they took a vow of study. A man, however, may, like Eeuben Medlicott, be at once amorous of books and studious of beauty. It would not be amiss if the sculptors of gems would sometimes give Cupid the beard of Plato, and transfer the wings and arrows of the profligate little god to the founder of the Academy. 70 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER I. THE SCHOOL AT HEREFORD. REUBEN RENEWS AN OLD INTIMACY AND MAKES SEVERAL NEW ACQUAINT- ANCES. There was a modified system of fagging esta- blished, or permitted, in the school at Hereford where Reuben Medlicott was now a pupil. The aim of Mr. Brough, the principal, (a pompous, but kind man,) was to preserve the system itself without permitting the gross abuses usually attending it, and in the main he was successful in effecting this object. Mr. Brough was a good schoolmaster, had some natural gift for teaching, and considerable sagacity in discovering the characters and measuring the capacities of his boys, taking their altitudes and sounding their depths, as he used to call it. He was not long in taking the measure of Reuben, with tolerable accuracy, and finding him a clever boy, rather deficient in force, and at OR THE COMIXG iMAX. 71 the same time not of a very robust physical conformation, he considerately assigned him as vassal to his old friend Henry Winning — an arrangement very pleasant for Reuben, and one that gratified his parents extremely when they heard of it. Henry Winning was not only clever, but remarkable for steadiness and perseverance. He was also a brave generous fellow, so that all apprehension of tyranny was soon banished from the mind of his new subject. Heuben was on his knees unpacking his box of books the morning after his arrival, and Winning was standing over him, wondering in silence what the boy could want with so many more volumes than he had ever possessed him- self. As Reuben placed them one after another on the floor, the other stooped and looked at their titles in succession. The first was a Latin Grammar, which was quite right ; next came a Delectus, also indispensable. Then there ap- peared the Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds. ••'The Bodleian in a box," said Winning : "come we don't learn that at Finchley ; " and he pitched the Discourses aside. " I read it with my mother," said Reuben, looking up timidly, and colouring. " An Arithmetic \ — no harm." 72 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, " This is the History of France." " It will be no use here," said Winning, " we only read Roman and Grecian History. Heuben coloured again, — "It's only to keep up my knowledge," he said : "I learned it at home." " And it appears you learned Geology at home, too, Medlicott. Your mother must be omniscient. — What is Geology '? — pray enlighten me." Winning was holding the book in his hand, turning the pages rather disdainfully, and smiling while he asked the question. The smile and expression of ridicule confused poor Reuben, and he gave a very confused account of the objects of Geology, very like one of his mother's precise definitions. "It seems much the same as Geography," said the elder, " by your account of it. We do not neglect that at Finchley ; but, of course, we have nothing to do with anything but the ancient world — Attica, Asia Minor, the Islands in the ^gean Sea ; we learn all about them of course." " And nothing about America," cried Eeuben, with subdued amazement, " or the British dominions in India 1 " "This is not a mercantile school, Medlicott; OR THE COMING MAN. 73 it's a classical school. We have nothing to do with America or India. I suppose thej read about India in the East India College." " That's very odd," said Reuben. " I thought every part of the world was equally deserving of study." "And perhaps you may be right in the abstract, Medlicott/' said Winning, looking in- tently at his new acquaintance, and struck at once by his modesty and precocious enlarge- ment of views ; "but we cannot learn every- thing at school, or anywhere else. Certain studies are appointed here, and it is expected that we shall devote ourselves to them, not perhaps exclusively, but at least so closely, that I can tell you, Medhcott, there is not much time to do a great deal besides, unless we could manage to do without food, sleep, and cricket." " Not much time, I dare say,'' said Reuben, " but you admit there is some : when I have a leisure moment I suppose I may read any of my books I please." "Under my rule you may. — Now that's magnanimous, is it not '? " said Winning, " for I can tell you, Medhcott, there are some men here, who, while I have been quietly looking 74 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, over 3^our motley library, would have weeded it without the least compunction, and consigned your French History, Botany, and Geology, Veneris marito, — do you know who that is V " Vulcan,'^ repHed Reuben, promptly. Winning now clapped him good-naturedly on the back, called him a promising fellow, only a little too desultory in his habits of reading, and ended by telling him that he might read what he liked, on condition only that he did not neglect the business of the school, or defraud himself of the time necessary for sleep and exercise. "But did you come from Underwood and bring me no letters, messages, or anything ? '' "Oh, I quite forgot, — I haye a parcel for you," said Reuben, greatly fluttered, and ran- sacking the bottom of the box. " Stupid : and why did you not give it to me the first thing you did '? — from whom is it '? " From your aunt Winning, of course." " And did she send me nothino; else 1 " " Nothing but a letter." " Do you call that nothing 1 — you are a fine fellow, — as to the letter, I presume you hare lost it — come, let me try — if it is in the box, 111 soon ferret it out." OE THE COMIXG MAX. 75 "Permit me/' said Reuben, eagerly but humbly. He was uneasy lest TVinning should discover the silk purse, and still more afraid of his finding the plum-cake, which he felt quite ashamed of, and had onlv carried with him out of his affection and respect for old Mrs. Hopkins. But Winning was resolved to search for himself, and he soon found the letter, for he tossed about Reuben's shirts and other things, without much ceremony, but he lighted at the same time, not on the plum-cake, but upon Mademoiselle's httle present of the flask of Eau-de-Cologne. " "What have we got herel " he cried, holding it up to the hght : " eh, what is this % — is it wme \ " Eau-de-Cologne — a scent," said poor Reuben, in wonderful trepidation. " Oh, a scent, is it \ — do you know what we do with scents at Finch] ey % " " Xo,'' said Reuben. " Come to the window, and I'll show ^^ou what luxurious fellows we are.'' Winning walked over to the window, followed by Reuben, very curious to see the use his friend was going to apply the Eau-de- Coloo-ne to. 76 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, The room was on the third story, and there was a paved court beneath the window. Winning desired Reuben to look at a particular stone, and then holding the flask between his finger and thumb, he dropped it critically over the spot, where, of course, it was shattered in some thousand pieces, sprinkling the court for some yards round with that agreeable per- fume to which a thousand flowers are said to contribute. " Are we not luxurious fellows, eh ? — to water our pavement with Eau-de-Cologne ! " Reuben looked extremely chagrined. " My dear fellow," said "Winning, patting him on the back, " the scent is much better there than in your box. If the fellows here were to find out that you scented yourself, or had scents in your possession, you would never hear the end of it. Now go and put your things in order — I must read my good aunt's letter." The boys soon became cordial friends ; Henry Winning exercising a mild j)rotective despotism, and Reuben reasonably abstemious from supernumerary pursuits, for which in truth the routine of the seminary, (its amuse- ments as well as its business,) left him but little leisure. The examjDle and influence of OR THE COMmG MAX. 77 Winning Tvere signally useful to young Mecl- licott, who not only prosecuted his classical studies with almost uninterrupted assiduity for the greater part of a year under the auspices of his judicious and spirited friend, but following his footsteps also in other things, began to take pleasure in gymnastic exercises, which materially improved his health and added to the attraction of his person. Winning stimulated his ambition upon these points by dwelling on the vast importance attached to them by the ancient Greeks, who were at the same time the most literary and intellectual people in the world. This was a view of the matter which seized hold of Reuben's imagi- nation powerfully. In conjunction with two boys named Primrose and Vigors, aided by a few admiring followers, he projected a revival of the Olympic games on the play- ground of Finchley, and they actually com- menced putting the design experimentally into execution by hiring two donkey-carts belonging to a coster-monger in the vicinity, and starting them against each other, by way of a chariot-race. Reuben dubbed himself Phaeton ; Vigors was Salmoneus. The donkeys were named after the horses of the Sun. This 78 KEUBE]S" MEDLICOTT, aspiring piece of puerility ended in tlie two charioteers being left sprawling in the dust of the mock hippodrome ; Salmoneus getting a broken nose, and Phaeton coming still worse off with a violent sprain of his ancle. Primrose took no very active part in this Olympic experiment, but he composed a Pindaric ode in celebration of it, the concluding stanza of which, with a serio-comic allusion to the catastrophe, obtained the applause of Mr. Brough himself. But Reuben's social experiences are perhaps better worth relating than his experiences as a schoolboy ; the acquaintances he made, and the connexions he formed at Hereford, had full as much influence upon his future career as the Latin and Greek he learned, and the nonsense verses he composed. He heard a great deal of the Barsacs from Winning and other boys, but for one reason or another, much to his disappointment, a considerable time elapsed before he received any of that civility and attention from them which his grandfather's talk had led him to expect. At length, as if they had suddenly heard of him for the first time (which may have been actually the case) he was included in a very general invitation of Mr. Brough's OR THE COmXG ^IA^^ 79 scholars to a juvenile fete, or ball ; the event excited him gi'eatly : he recollected accui*aielj every word of what the Dean had said about the Bai-sacs, in praise or abuse of them : and in Blanche, whom his grandfather had so repeatedly and energetically pronounced "an angeL' Reuben almost expected to find that flattering description true to the letter. The elements of dancing he had learned, as such things are to be learned in a place hke Chichester ; but he had brought no dancing shoes with him from home, so he consulted his chief, and was strongly recommended by him to a Httle shop kept by a Frenchman, who sold wonderful nice shoes, and wonderfully cheap. • You and I. Medhcott," added Winning, " must look sharp to economy ; neither of us have very splendid allowances ; indeed I beheve neither will have much but his industry and talents to depend on through hfe." "So I have heard mv father often sav," said Eeubem • WeU," said Winning, "you wiU find Mon- sieur Adolphe's shoes excellent and dog-cheap ; the shop is at the corner of one of the closes — I for2:et the name — but it is on the east 80 EEUBEiS- MEDLICOTT, side of the Cathedral, between a pastry-cook's shop and a cutler's : remember the name is Adolphe." It was a fine summer evening, and the shadow of the great square tower of the Cathedral of Hereford was throw^n like a broad sombre mantle over the cluster of lanes and buildings to which Reuben had been directed by his friend. This shop was easily ascertained, for the name of Adolphe was freshly painted in sufficiently large letters over the door. Reuben entered and found a pale handsome young man, with shining black moustache, sitting without his coat on the little counter, and playing the flageolet. He had heard the air before : it was certainl}^ one of those charming ones which Mrs. Winning's obliging French maid had sung at the Vicarage on the day he left home. The young man jumped down, bowed with his national grace and politeness, and in very good Enghsh ten- dered his services and manufactures to his customer. The shoes seemed to justify Win- ning's eulogies, and Reuben was soon fitted with a pair which promised both in shape and polish to make a pretty figure at Mrs. Barsac s ball. While M. Adolphe was putting OR THE COMIXG MAX. 81 them up in paper, Reuben took up the flageolet to examine it, for he had never seen one before. " Did Monsieur play the flageolet V " No, but it seemed a very sweet instrument."" '•' It is very eas}^" said Adolphe : and taking it up again, played another little air, which was also one of those which Mademoiselle Louise had played and sung at Underwood. The musical shoe-maker saw that his customer was very much pleased with the performance. '•' Ah ! but I cannot sing, Monsieur ; it is the voice that makes the little romances of my country charmant ; I have a sister who sings them like a nightingale. ' Reuben lost no time in informing the shoe- maker that he had heard the very same airs sung by a countrywoman of his at a house in the country near Chichester. " Ah, oui ! Chichester — Madame Winning — sans dotite c' etoit mademoiselle ma soeur : — elle chante ces petits romans la a ravir.^^ Our hero thought he had made some won- derful discovery in finding that Mrs. Winning s French maid was the shoemaker's sister, and he communicated the fact to Winning with the utmost gravity. VOL. I, G 82- EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, " Is it not very singular l" said Reuben. "Why/' said Winning, smiling at liis sim- plicity, "if a Frenchman and his sister live in England at all, and do not live in the same place, I see nothing prodigious in one living at Hereford and the other at Underwood." " Why no," said Eeuben, " I see there is not, on reflection." But the occasion for wearing the shoes soon put the maker of them, and all connected with him, out of Reuben's head for the time being. OK THE COMIXG MAX. 83 CHAPTER 11. SIRS. BAESAC'S BALL. The long-expected evening came at last, and Reuben found himself transported into the midst of a tumultuous assembly of ^ell-dressed people, in the gay house of which he had so long desired to penetrate the interior. Except his school-fellows, he was acquainted with no- body. There was nobody to tell him the name of any one. Which of the company were the Barsacs, or whether they were present or not, he was in their house for an hour, without knowing more than the man in the moon, as the saying is. He knew the ball had commenced by hearing the music, feeling the floors vibrate, and finding himself swayed to and fro occa- sionally by the movements of the dancers, though he could scarcely see them. He wondered what had become of Winning, and paid close attention to the ladies in white dresses, among G 2 84 I^EUBEN- >rEPLICOTT, whom alone lie expected to find 3Iiss Blanche Barsac. so strongly had his grandiather's de- scription of her atfected his imagination. Suddenly his shoulder was tapped behind. He turned about and found Winning at his elbow. •• Whv are vou not dancins: 1 " said his friend. Reuben replied, with a fakering voice, that he would rather not dance : he knew little more than the steps — had scarcely a notion of a figure. '• Xot dance ■ — then why did you buy the dancing-shoes 1 " "Besides. I have no partner. I know nobody — at least, no lady." •• Oh. I '11 soon settle that : — come, will you dance with brown sherry, pale sherry, or dry sherry t " " You are joking." said Eeuben. his gravity overcome by his friend's question. •* Xo, — don't you know that those are oiu- names for the three Mis? Barsa cs ■ There is Brown Sherry, the prettiest, dancing with the officer : that cross-lookino- o-iil talkiuir to 3Ir. Broiigh yonder, is Dry Sherry ; and. stay. there's Pale Sherry actually looking at us. asking us with her eyes. You shall honour her with your hand/' OR THE COMIXG MAX. 85 " What is lier name 1 " asked Reuben, in great excitement. '• Blanche," repHed Winning, httle guessing Reuben's interest in the answer. Pale Sherry was pale ; but, at the same time, very pretty ; she was what people commonly called an interesting girh She had soft grey eyes, which had a particularly earnest and devoted expression in them, when she was talking to you, which was very flattering and very fascinating. Besides, she had a nice figure, and a demure and composed manner, which corresponded admirably with her pale com- plexion and soft eyes. None of the Barsac girls were mere girls : the eldest was probably twenty-seven, and there was not more than three or four years' difference in standing between the eldest and the youngest. Of course it was condescending of the angelic Blanche to dance with a boy of thirteen ; but he was tall for his age, and she acted her part with perfect good-humour and good-nature, keeping him right in the figure as far as she could, and trying to put him as much at his ease as possible. Both were difficult things to do ; not only was Reuben's nervous ambition to excel of itself sufficient to lead him astray, but every 86 EEFBEK MEDLICOTT, time his partner's mild, earnest eyes encomiterecl his, he experienced the strangest sensations, and felt himself blushing, he knew not why or wherefore ; in fact, he was in love with Blanche before the second part of the dance was over. " Medlicott dancing ! — I should as soon have thought to see Xenophon in a quadrille," said De Tabley, — one of the senior boys, — who, being a noodle himself, took a special pleasure in tormenting Reuben for being too wise. "An ignoramus made that remark," said Winning in his ear ; " you ought to know that Xenophon was one of the gayest cavahers of his time, as well as one of the ablest men." De Tabley was extinguished, and skulked off to the refreshment-room to console himself with the sandwiclies and jellies, for which his capacity was first-rate. Winning had given Reuben one direction at starting, which was just to observe his partner, and do whatever she did. This rule answered pretty well to a certain extent ; but when it was pushed too far, it was not so successful ; for whenever Blanche danced, Reuben, being quite bewildered, insisted upon dancing also, and, when she checked him, he was utterly at a loss what to do, and, consequently stood stock- OR THE COMIXG MAX. 87 still when it came to his turn to more. This, however, was of no great consequence ; but there came a period in the course of the figure, when it was Miss Barsac's cue to advance to him, which she did most graciously and en- couragingly, holding her frock with the tips of her fingers on each side in the usual manner of ladies dancing alone. It was unnecessary for Reuben to imitate this part of the action, but he was too confused to make very nice distinc- tions, and, accordingly^, when his turn came, he seized his trousers at the hips with both hands, and holding them out as far as he could make them go, advanced in this unusual manner to meet the lady, who found it very hard, of course, to refrain from smiling, particularly as he kept his e^^es intently fixed upon her all the time. Others, however, were not so well able or so well disposed to refrain as Blanche was ; so that there was a good deal of laughing at poor Reuben's expense, though some of the company thought he had done it out of pleasantry, and gave him credit for being a grave-faced, waggish little fellow. Happy fellow he was when that quadrille was over, and Miss Barsac suffered him to lead her to a seat. Then Reuben, being more at his 88 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, ease, thought it his duty to ask her a series of questions, though he could scarcely muster up the courage to do it, or indeed to address her at all. Did she play the piano 1 She did. Did she sing 1 Pale Sherry did not sing. Did she draw'? Yes. Landscape? No. Flowers? No, no — how could he suspect her of drawing flowers ? and she looked at him in that peculiar way of hers, which incontinently brought the foolish rose to his cheeks, as he apologised for such an unlucky guess, and, trying again, hit upon portrait- painting, which could not well have been anything but right. It was then the lady's turn to ask questions, and she was still more catechetical ; for she commenced by asking his name, and being a better adept at the art of conversation by queries than he Avas, she soon distilled from him a multitude of particulars and details about his parents and his early education, in which she certainly seemed to take a great interest, whether she felt it or not. He was drawing her a picture of the Parsonage, and beginning to recover his fluency and feel tolerably comfortable, when Winning came up and asked Pale Sherry to dance. She left Reuben with a smile, and he saw no more of her the whole evening. It was not a house for books, though in other OE THE COMIXG MAX. 89 respects amply and even luxuriantly furnished, or he would have known how to dispose of himself in a corner, while everybody else was thinking of nothing less than reading. After sitting for a while just where Blanche Barsac left him, with his hands before him, just in the way his old Quaker mistress considered the perfection of good manners, he took courage to creep into a room adjoining the ball-room, where there was a whist-party made up ; Mr. Brough, his master, and Mrs. Barsac, against Mr. Barsac and an old lady whom he did not know. That whist-party would have made a good picture. Mr. Brough was a tall man, with regular features, florid complexion, powdered hair, a solemn manner, and, though not a clergy- man, dressed like one — in the glossiest black suit and the whitest cambric. Opposite to him was a very old lady in black velvet, with a profusion of old lace hanging about her, and as intent upon the points of the game as if her eternal welfare depended upon the two by honours, which she had just marked with old guineas of the reign of George the First. Barsac, who was now shuffling the cards in canary-coloured gloves, looked social and good- 90 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, naturecl, but unmistakeablj purse-proud ; he carried his head consequentially, with his chin cocked up almost in advance of his nose ; dis- played a superb bouquet in his button-hole, and wore a jet-black wig, which was intended to pass for his own hair, but the fraud was too palpable to impose upon anybody. His wife was a mellow, motherly, brisk, and shrewd woman, with sparkling eyes, showy and bustling manners, and worldly all over ; you saw at a glance that a ball with her was a business ; even a jurenile fete had its ulterior practical objects ; indeed, Mrs. Barsac was fertile in every sense — she had' lots of sons and daughters, of all sizes and ages, and as many projects for every one of them as any mother in Mrs. Gore's novels. She was superbly dressed, like her husband ; a diamond star blazed on her forehead, and the rustling of her wide-spread amber brocade was like a breeze in a shrubbery. Keuben had not been standing there very long, watching the fortunes of the game, of which he was not entirely ignorant, when Mrs. Barsac noticed him, asked him had he been in the refreshment room, and recommended him to go there. He went very obediently, although he did not want refreshment ; took OR THE COMIXG MAN. 91 something because he thought he v^sls under some sort of obhgation to do so, and then returned to the ball-room, where a new dance had in the meantime formed, which included everybody he knew, and left him again to his own meditations. He soon felt himself growing sleepy, and was rubbing his eyes to keep himself awake, when the eldest Miss Barsac — a tall girl, with a supercihous and austere coun- tenance, justifying the nickname the boys had given her, — observed him in passing with another lady, and said, in a tone perfectly audible — "That child ought to have been in bed an hour ago.'' This remark piqued Reuben exceedingly, and had the same effect as if Dry Sherry had thrown a glass of cold water in his face. Determined to show that he was not in the state Miss Barsac supposed, he went immediately and took his place behind Henry Winning, who was now dancino; with the bustlino- and rustlino; Mrs. Barsac herself, though she protested her dancing days were over. She probably noticed him again, for Reuben could perceive that she put a question to his friend, in reply to which he was near enough to hear Winning say — 92 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, " He is a very clever fellow, and has a wonderful fund of knowledge for liis age.'' " He knows Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Persian ; Botany, Zoology, Mathe- matics, Conchology, Phrenology, and Syntax," said De Tabley, volubly, just returned from stuffing himself with the jellies. Mrs. Barsac was amused and said — " You boys are so funny and so ill-natured." Winning looked thunderbolts at De Tabley ; but out of consideration for the lady of the house, repressed the indignant repartee that was on his lips. Reuben could not but suspect that it was for him all these compliments were intended, and not liking his present position, he went off again to the refreshment-room, merely because he might as well go there as anywhere else. Be- fore he had been there two minutes, Mr. Brough, his master, perceived him, and concluding that* Reuben had been refreshing himself ever since Mrs. Barsac sent him from the card-table, he beckoned him to follow him into a quiet corner, where he read him a severe and solemn lecture upon intemperance, which Reuben endeavoured in vain to save him the trouble of delivering, by trying to explain that he had taken nothing OR THE COMING MAN. 93 the whole evening but some tea and a Naples biscuit. Mr. Brough never liked to be interrupted in the course of his admonitions, which were very grave and pompous. Every time that Eeuben attempted to speak, he was silenced by the lifted finger and austere regard of the glossy pedagogue, wdio, when his harangue was over, immediately rose and went back to the whist- table. As Mr. Brough left the room, he met De Tabley returning to it. Mr. Brough patted him playfully on the head, — presumed he had been dancing all the evening, — and told him to go and have some refreshment, — an order which the young gourmand received with profound respect, and proceeded to obey implicitly ; but as soon as the schoolmaster was out of hearing he burst out laughing, and told Reuben that this was his fourth visit to the jellies and sandwiches. But on this occasion there was a formal supper at an early hour, to suit the habits of the juniors, who were the principal part of the company. Reuben had never before seen anything so gorgeous as Mrs. Barsac's supper-table. The plate — the lights — the variety of dishes, sub- stantial and unsubstantial — the piles of fruit 94 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, — the multiplicity of wines of all colours and vintages — the miracles of pastry — the wonders of confectionary — towers, castles, pyramids, and pagodas — a profusion and splendour which he had never seen in the quiet parish of Underwood — astonished, dazzled, and confused him. At the head of the table presided Mr. Barsac, standing up with a dish of roast ducks before him, which he carved with ostentatious dexterity, still wearing his canary gloves, and pausing at intervals to take wine with this person or that, making little jocular prepared speeches, suggesting madeira to one, hock to another, champagne to a third, and sometimes recom- mending one of his sherries, which invariably set Mr. Brough's pupils tittering, winking, and nudging each other, for they generally herded together ujDon these festive occasions, getting as far beyond the ken of the master as they could. Reuben, however, still attached himself to the side of Winning, wdio had no object in avoiding Mr. Brough's neighbourhood, and the consequence was, that when Reuben was seated he found himself close to his master, who ruled the roast at the foot of the table, as pompously, but not so rhetorically, as Mr. Barsac at the OR THE COMIXG MAX. 95 other end. He was not the boj to eat a surrep- titious supper, or he might have managed it easily ; so that, to avoid again attracting Mr. Brough's unjust suspicions, he affected to have no appetite, and went to bed supperless that festive night, although, in truth, the poor fellow was verj hungry. I^or did he sleep the better for having nothing but his wrongs to digest, but occupied himself alternately with concocting twent}^ little speeches which he felt he ought to have made to Miss Barsac, and framing a spirited retort to demoHsh De Tabley the next time he should renew his impertinences. These were probably his earliest efforts in elo- quence, and it is not unlikely that his model- orator that night was Mr. Barsac with his canary gloves. 96 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER III. MOKE FESTIVITY AT MRS. BARSAC'S. "Reuben," said Winning, the next morning, "a ball is thrown away on you; you can't expect Mrs. Barsac ever to invite you again." "Why so V said Reuben. " Why, you neither danced nor eat supper ; Mrs. Barsac keeps a list of the men who don't dance, and Mr. Barsac takes a note of those who despise his suppers." " I shall dance more," said Reuben, " when I am familiar with the figures ; I think I shall soon understand the principle at all events." Winning laughed at the principle of a quadrille ; and Reuben said he thought there was a principle in everything, to which Winning assented, though he laughed again. " But you surely had no difficulty in catching the principle of supper. What have you to say for yourself on that head V OR THE COMING MAN. 97 Reuben then related what took place the preceding evening between himself and Mr. Brough ; how he had been lectured and repri- manded for goiirmandise, when in fact he had taken next to nothing. "Winning was distressed at this story, and undertook to set his friend right in Mr. Brough's opinion. This he took an opportunity of doing that very day, and Mr. Brough sent for Reuben and very handsomely expressed his regret at having hastily misjudged him, adding some profound common-place remarks on the hazards of circumstantial evidence, by which the safety of innocence had often been compromised, even under the direction of the ablest men that ever adorned the bench. Reuben went his way ^ith a high opinion of his preceptor's magna- nimity and enlightenment. Mrs. Barsac's ball gave him a great many new ideas ; he had only heard of balls before as young Xorval had heard of battles ; in a long letter to his mother he gave her as minute an account of the fete as if it had been the first thing of the kind ever known in England ; and amused her exceedingly by his innocent remarks on the ladies' dresses, his mistakes in dancing, and the absurd names of the three Miss Barsacs. Of 98 EEUBEN^ MEDLICOTT, Blanche he said wonderfully little, only observ- ing that in his opinion she seemed to justify all that his grandfather had said about her. There was good reason to think that he had originally intended to say much more, for there was an extensive erasure in this part of his letter, as if he had not found words suitable to express certain ideas in his mind. In fact, the entire letter was written altogether to gratify his mother, because she had expressly requested him to give her a full account of his first introduction to the Barsacs ; no doubt he had tried to convey the feelings uppermost in his mind in connection with the ball, and had either failed to do so, or clothed them in language only too forcible. The Barsacs had another gay party shortly after, but it was not especially juvenile, and the only boys formally invited of Mr. Brough's school were Winning, Vigors, and De Tabley. Reuben was seriously afraid his name had been inserted in those awful lists of w^iicli Winning had told him : he received an invitation, however, at the eleventh hour, for which he was accidentally indebted to the interest he took in Gothic architecture, and a smattering he had of draw- ing. On the evening of the party, to console OR THE COMIXG MAX. 99 himself for Mrs. Barsac's omission to include him in her select hst, he determined to execute a design he had formed some time before, to make a sketch of the cathedral for his mother ; so taking his portfoho and pencil, he posted off to that venerable pile, and having chosen what he considered the best point of view, he was so busily engaged at his work that he took very little notice of the circle of urchins, which the oddity of his employment in so public a place gathered about him in a few moments. How- ever, before his sketch was quite finished, another class of spectators were amongst the observers of his artistic enthusiasm, for hearing some female voices close by him, and one or two pleasant tittering laughs, he looked up and found the whole family of the Barsacs (at least the female portion of them) standing within a yard of his elbow. Fortunately his sketch was nearly complete, for to have put another touch to it that evening would have been utterly impossible. He put up his pencils in a hurry, not without some blushing, and answered con- fusedly the numerous little questions with which the ladies overwhelmed him, without indeed giving him much time to reply, had he been ever so self-possessed. Mrs. Barsac was TOO EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, gracious and encouraging ; her daughter, the brunette, was good-natured too, but it was her laugh which had originally attracted Reuben's attention, and she had scarcely done laughing yet. The eldest girl said very little, but what she did say was supercihous and unpleasant. Blanche alone of the sisters re- garded the young artist and his work with interest ; she commended his drawing highly, said it was executed with spirit and cleverness ; and induced her mother and her good-humoured sister to concur in the same opinion. Reuben soon revived in the warmth of this agreeable approbation, and he was completely set up again when Mrs. Barsac invited him to join her party, politely apologizing for not having asked him before. He walked palpitating by the side of Blanche, discovering new fascinations in her every moment, and did not recollect in the first happy flutter of his spirits that she was an artist as well as himself; but this community of tastes, soon became a fertile topic of conversation, and Reuben was soon so deep in tlie subject of the fine arts as to ask if Miss Barsac had read Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses. She smiled very sweetly, as she frankly owned she had never even heard of the work, upon which Reuben OR THE COMING MAN. lUl with empressement, offered to lend them to her, — an offer she graciously accepted just as they reached the house. Reuben went back to Finchley to put himself in ball costume, and there he found a letter from home awaiting him, which, impatient as he was to be at Blanche's side again, he read conscientiously to the last syllable. The read- ing of his letters, and the making of his toilette, occupied a considerable time, and when both operations were performed, he had to hunt for Sir Joshua Eeynolds's Discourses, which detained him a good deal longer, for he was not in the habit of keeping his things very methodically. The result was that he found the festivities already commenced when he returned to Mrs. Barsac's : one dance had already taken place ; another had just been arranged, and when Reuben entered he made a great sensation, greater indeed than he was ambitious of making, for with his books in his hands he had to traverse the whole circle, (hemmed in by the dancers awaiting the signal to move,) in order to find the fair lady for whom so unusual a ball-room offering was intended. He probably did not observe the smiles of which he was the occasion, but he could hardly 102 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, have failed to hear some of the Httle jocular remarks which accompanied them ; however, his enthusiasm, and singleness of purpose, car- ried him through all, and he presented Blanche with the volumes, under a perfect conviction that no bouquet of the most rare and exquisite flowers would have been half so acceptable to her. While she was depositing the books in a corner, sedulously attended by Reuben, Mrs. Barsac happening to pass at the moment in- quired what books they were, and when Reuben told her they contained Reynolds's Discourses, she probably mistook Reynolds for a divine ; for " I doubt very much,'' she observed, with a gracious smile on Reuben, " if they are to be compared with the discourses of your grandpapa." Reuben would have enjoyed this second party much more than he did, if there had not been a whisper in the room that the Dean was expected in the course of the evening. None of his school-fellows were fond of meeting his grandfather at Mrs. Barsac's. The Dean in a drawing-room was always like an eagle in a dove-cot ; he looked at a ball like a clerical magistrate about to disperse a mob ; but it was not to the dancing he objected particularly. OR THE COMING MAX. 103 for he was rather in favour of all such inno- cent pastimes ; the music was what he hated, because it prevented him from holding forth, or drowned his voice when he raised it. If there could have been dancing without music, he was wiUing to let the young people dance till morning, provided he was satisfied of the strength of the rafters, and not jostled by the waltzers, which made him furious. The Dean was rough with most people, some- times even with women, but he was invariably rough with school-boys ; he knocked them about without ceremony, examined and catechised them in all companies, and in the middle of dinner, or at a tea-table, would question them in the Horatian metres. When he saw any of the scholars of Finchley at Mrs. Barsac's, talking to one of her daughters, for instance, and par- ticularly ambitious to shine and to play the man, he was sure to flout him ; and above all if the poor boy happened to wear white gloves and was asking a lady to dance. Then the Dean would make the most unpleasant observations, sometimes turn upon Mrs. Barsac, abuse her roundly, and declare that she was destroying the discipline of Mr. Brough^s school and ruin- ing the rising generation. 104 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, But the gaieties of the present occasion were not interrupted by his grandfather, further than the damp which the continual apprehension of his appearance threw oyer some of the company. Mrs. Barsac herself seemed nervous. Blanche declined to dance, but she permitted and even encouraged Reuben to sit beside her and talk about books, which she seemed to like to talk about ; or rather to hear him expatiating on, for in truth her share in the conversation was little more than that of an attentive and flatter- ing listener. Sometimes, however, she appeared to have little short fits of abstraction, and now and then glanced like her mother anxiously at the door. Reuben easily guessed who the ogre was, whose expected arrival alarmed the fair Blanche as it did other people. He felt extremely vexed at his grandfather ; yet some- times he was almost half inclined to allay Blanche's apprehensions, by apprising her of the high opinion the rough old gentleman had of her. Wanting the courage to do this, he asked her in what part of the house the library was ; he had not yet seen it. Blanche smiled at the notion of a library, and said, " her papa had very few books indeed." OR THE COMING MAX. 105 Reuben did not conceal his surprise at this confession as well as it would have been polite to do. " I feared it would shock you," continued his fair friend, "but we are not at all intellectual or reading people in this house : — of course you have a nice Hbrary at home.'^ '•AYell, indeed/" said Eeuben, "I cannot exactly say we have any particular library, but we have a great many books in one place or another ; there are some in the parlour, some in the hall, and a good many in my mother's room. But my grandfather has a superb library at West- bury ;" and then he asked Blanche had she ever been there. She had been at Westbury, and expressed her surprise that Reuben had not. " Mv o;randfather has been makino; extensive alterations," he said. '•' So I am told," said Blanche absently. Reuben desired to know the nature of the improvements the Dean was making. " I understand very little about building," said Blanche, rising, " but here comes papa who will tell you all about it ;" and so sa^^ing she rather abruptly handed Reuben over to Mr. Barsac, who, with great pomposity, led him into 106 reube:n^ medlicott, a room called the music-room, where there were lying on a table a set of maps and plans, not only of the Dean's improvements at Westburj, but also of the more extensive projects in which he was engaged jointly with the rich wine- merchant. Reuben surveyed these charts with the utmost astonishment and curiosity. He had heard vague statements of his grandfather's connection with Barsac in building speculations, but he had no notion of the extent of them. The Hereford plans included a terrace called Wyndham terrace after the Dean, and a square not yet named, which Mr. Barsac said he hoped would be called Wyndham likewise. " I hope so too," said Reuben. " At all events, I trust il> will not be called Barsac Square : that would never answer," added the merchant, pronouncing the words "Barsac Square," with an evident relish and enjoyment which showed that he coveted nothins: so much as the honour and glory which he professed himself so anxious to avoid. " I trust so, too. Sir," said Reuben, " But I trust it will," said De Tabley, coming up : " Barsac Square sounds a thousand times better than Wyndham Square, but Medlicott would call everything Wyndham, Wyndham OR THE COMING MAX. 107 Square, Wyndliam Terrace, AVyndliam Lane, and Wvndham everytliin£c." " Xo, indeed," said Reuben, mildly, " I should do no such thing ; I am not so foolish." "I must say I agree with Mr. Medlicott in this instance," said Barsae ; but though he agreed with Medlicott, he smiled upon De Tabley, and graciously conducted him to the refreshment-room, leaving the too candid Reuben to shift for himself. " What will YOU have '? " asked the merchant. " What do you recommend '? " said De Tabley. " AVell, suppose we begin with that pate de Perigord." And he helped him handsomely. "A very good pie," said De Tabley; ''I should think Perigord must be a delightful place to live in, wherever it is." " Near Bordeaux," said Mr. Barsae ; " you have heard of the celebrated Talleyrand, Prince of Perigord. — So a glass of claret will be very proper along with it. That's the comet vintage ; by-the-by I should be glad if your uncle knew we had some of it left ; it is a great favourite of his." " I shall be writing to him to-morrow,*" said De Tabley ; " I'll take care to mention it." 108 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, '•Some ham and chicken T' said the mer- chant ; " I shall have some myself : and now, if you please, let us take a glass of champagne together/' " A very good notion," said De Tabley ; and when he had dispatched the ham and chicken, he returned the compliment, and proposed a glass of champagne to the merchant. " You take champagne," said Barsac ; '*' 111 join you in a glass of dry sherry." De Tabley laughed, and looked about him for Winning or Vigors to wink at. Barsac thought he was amused by the epithet " dry" applied to the sherry, and gave him a little lecture upon wines, to which the promising young gourmand listened with the gravest attention, — helping himself meanwhile, however, to a lobster salad within his reach. Hearing that there was such a wine as dry champagne as well as dry sherry, he was curious to taste it, but there happened to be none upon the table. "I dare say you have some in the cellar," said De Tabley; and he pressed Barsac to such a degree, that he actually went to his cellars and brought forth a flask of dry champagne to gratify the curiosity of his impertinent guest, whose vanity made him pronounce a high pane- OR THE COMING MAN. 109 gyric upon it, though in truth he hked the sweet wine better. Barsac soon saw the necessity of drawing De Tabley away from the temptations into which he had led him ; and this was no easy matter to accomphsh. At length he effected it, but not until the incorrigible young gourmand had returned to the sweet champagne, and was beginning again to ogle the Perigord. " See what you lost by your simplicity, and I must say by your rudeness," he whispered Reuben, whom he immediately went in search of. "I thought Barsac Square just as absurd as you did, but I had the wit and good manners not to say so." " What did I lose T asked Reuben. " Dry champagne," said De Tabley, with an air of great importance, "though I confess I think the other pleasanter stuff; but the best of it was that I made the old cock go down to the cellar for it : he brought up a flask expressly for me. At the same time, I know very well he wanted me to recommend the wine to my uncle, who gets the house immense custom in the clubs he belongs to in London." " Then all I lost was the dry champagne V said Reuben. liO ' REUBEN MEDLICOTT, " Old Barsac gave me such a magnificent supper. I had ham and chicken, lobster salad, two goes at a Perigord pie. Perigord is a place in Bordeaux, famous for its pies ; thej are made by a celebrated fellow of the name ol Tally — something : Tally ho, or Talleyrand, a prince — you may laugh, but Mr. Barsac himself told me so. I had a magnificent supper ; I haye got a capital head." " For wine," said Reuben. "Yes, for wine, as every great man ought to have," replied De Tabley. " I have heard my uncle often say so ; I wish you could hear the anecdotes he tells of Pitt, and Fox, and Lord Eldon, and all the most celebrated cha- racters in English history." " Not all," said Reuben. " All the jolly fellows," said De Tabley. Reuben said something disparaging of the pleasures of the bottle. " Don't abuse wine in this house," said De Tabley, " or perhaps you will never be invited again ; the Barsacs have an eye to the main chance, let me tell you, every one of them, even pale Sherry herself, sentimental as she looks." Reuben boiled with indignation. " I can tell you more," said the other, excited OR THE COMING MAN. Ill by the wine he had drunk ; " you made a mon- strous ass of yourself to-night, coming here with your hands full of books, as if it was the Philosophical Society. Everybody laughed at you, even pale Sherry herself — I saw her ; she would have preferred a bouquet of roses and pinks, I can tell you." Reuben was greatly provoked by these re- marks, and would perhaps not have controlled his feelings sufficiently, if Winning had not fortunately approached at the moment, con- ducting Blanche to the refreshment-room. As Winning passed, he good-naturedly proposed to Eeuben to join them, remembering the Lent he had kept on a former occasion, and deter- mined he now should have compensation. Seated betw^een his considerate friend and the young lady he so greatly admired, Medlicott was in high spirits, and ended his evening with a good supper. 112 REUBEX MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER ly. THE VICAR'S ACCOUNT OF THE BARSACS. REUBEN SHOWS A TALEXT FOR MUSIC. HIS FIRST AND HIS LAST PUGILISTIC CONTEST. The following day, another chronicle of the gay doings at Mrs. Barsac's was faithfully dispatched to the Vicarage. Mrs. Medlicott was charmed by the attention paid to her son ; but the Vicar recollected the Dean's obser- vations, and wanted to know how balls and suppers were to be reconciled with the business of the school. Mrs. Medlicott wished her son to receive the education of a man of the world ; her husband shrugged his shoulders, and said he had sent his son to school to Mr. Brough, not to Mrs. Barsac. Reuben's correspondence with his mother recals us for a few moments to Underwood opportunely, for we shall hear the Vicar giving old Hannah Hopkins an account of the Barsacs, OR THE COMIMG MAN. 113 which will help us to a better acquaintance with that worthy family. The reading of Reuben's letters was not always an affair of the strictest domestic privacy, which may serve as his excuse if he did not upon every occasion unbosom himself on paper, even to his father and mother. Sometimes Mr. Pigwidgeon, the aj)othecary, was invited to the reading of a letter from Hereford ; sometimes it was only Hannah and Mary Hopkins, or old Matthew Cox, the tobacconist. The Quakeresses were present when the letter arrived with the account of Mrs. Barsac's second fete, and Hannah was interested and inquisitive about the people who were so good to her old pupil. Possibly, though belonging to such an unworldly sect as the Quakers professedly are, and a woman who had even been a minister, and lifted up her voice in the Meeting, old Hannah had not thoroughly divested herself of all human sympathy and womanly concern in its gay doings and wicked ways. There will still cling some little portion of earth about us all, even about the disciples of Fox and sisters of Mrs. Fry. " I'll tell thee all I know, Hannah, and it's not much," said the Vicar. He had fallen into the habit of thee-and-thou-ing it with his 114 KEUBEN MEDLICOTT, Quaker friends, without the least approach to mockery of their personal pronouns. Hannah Hopkins was sitting rigicll}^ perpen- dicular on a rustic seat in the garden, beneath a walnut-tree, knitting, as usual, most indus- triously. It was an employment she seldom intermitted during the day, except when she was eating her meals, or collecting flowers and grasses. Mary was not far off, knitting also. There was a little table near Hannah, with a plate of strawberries upon it, and Eeuben's letter, which his mother had just been reading. " I am ready to hear thee, friend Thomas/' said the Quaker mother ; " thou art always in- structive or entertaining." " Generally both, mother," said Mary, who was burning in secret to hear the promised revelations, notwithstanding the plainness of her bonnet. The Yicar, thus complimented and encou- raged, proceeded to say that the Barsacs were the people who understood the art so well of making pleasure and profit go hand in hand. " Merry and wise," said Hannah. Mrs. Barsac's system, the Yicar went on to state, was (as far as he understood it) to give balls to marry her daughters, while her husband OR THE COMING MAN. 115 gave sumptuous dinners to advertise and recommend his wines. What would be extra- vagance with other people was thrift with the wine-merchant of Hereford. For every glass of champagne that sparkled at his board (here the Vicar digressed on the subject of cham- pagne, to explain it to the Quakeresses), Mr. Barsac sold a flask, or perhaps a case of it. People had a decided interest in dealing with a wine-merchant who gave them handsome enter- tainments ; it was an abatement in the price of the wines ; in fact, a dinner was both an advertisement and a description of discount. The balls were more to advertise the daughters, an article of which Mrs. Barsac had a large stock on her hands, as her husband had wine in his vaults ; but there was a great difference, said the Vicar, between the two commodities, for the older the wine grew it was the more in demand, whereas with the girls it was not precisely the same thing. Here Mary Hopkins laughed. I believe it was the cautious way in which Mr. Medlicott put the distinction between women and wine that overset her gravity, but it was never very difficult to do it. " Laugh and be fat," said old Hannah, an I 2 116 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, injunction which she repeated a dozen times a day, and very superfluously, inasmuch as her daughter had already very dutifully compUed with it. ''Well, Hannah," said the Yicar, "I have now told you what the world says of Mr. and Mrs. Barsac." " There are wheels within wheels," said the old Quakeress, shaking her head horizontally several times. "Dost thee beheve all the world says, friend Thomas V said Mary, recovering her sobriety. " The world, Mary, has a very lively fancy, and a very busy tongue," said the Vicar. " My private opinion is that the Barsacs are very good- natured people, and if their good-nature and gaiety make them richer instead of poorer, I don't see that any body has a right to complain. For my own part, theirs is just the house where I should feel myself most comfortable, for I never could enjoy myself anywhere, when I had reason to think that my friends were committing a folly, or involving themselves in difficulties to entertain me." " And I am sure," added Mrs. Medlicott, " it is the purest good-nature to invite the boys. OE THE COMING MAX. 117 who neither biij Mr. Barsac's T\'ine, nor are likely to propose for his daughters/'' The truth was, however, that the attentions paid to Mr. Brough's scholars were chiefly in furtherance of the system which the world very justly imputed to the wine-merchant and his wife. Their invitations were by no means indiscriminate, but confined to those boys whose fathers were customers of the firm, or with whose families the managing Mrs.Barsac thought it would promote her interests to be acquainted or connected. Thus De Tabley was never omitted, because he was nephew to Sir John De Tabley, a beau and bon-vivant of the old school, whose influence procured for Barsac the profitable custom of Xoodle's, and Boodle's, and one or two other London clubs. lr\^inning was nearly related to a Mr. St. Stephen, who was a bencher of the Inner Temple, through whom it was not impossible but that Barsac might some day or other be appointed wine-merchant to that honourable and learned society. Several of the lads (Vigors for instance) were sons of beneficed clergymen in the neighbourhood ; and as to Reuben, he had the double claim of being nephew to Mrs. Mountjoy, connected with the Barsacs by marriage, and grandson of Dean Wyndliam, who 118 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, besides being actually a customer, was from his rank in the Church a man whom Mrs. Barsac would have probably courted upon that account alone. Of course if any young man was par- ticularly handsome, amusing, or recommended by Mr. Brough, he was noticed by Mrs. Barsac without reference to the mercantile interest. Winning would probably have been a favourite under any circumstances. There was Hyacinth Primrose too, who had nothing to support him but his good looks and his flow of spirits. There was only one class of boys who were seldom or ever countenanced by Mrs. Barsac, and these were the sons of families who were in any trade which she considered less dignified than traffic in wine. The Yicar understood the Barsacs very imperfectly, although he undertook to give Mrs. Hopkins an account of them. A shower now began to patter among the leaves of the walnut tree, which served the purposes of a green umbrella for some time tolerably well, but when the drops began to increase in weight and number they forced their way through the canopy, and one at length falhng on Mrs. Hopkins's knitting, and another with a splash on Reuben's letter, the seance was broken up, and the party retreated OR THE COMIKG MAX. 119 into the house as fast as they could, Mary run- ning with the plate of strawberries and laughing- all the time. Let us take the same opportunity of returning to Hereford, where we shall find Reuben increasing the number of his accom- phshments by picking up a few notes of music. Meeting the French shoemaker in the streets one day, Adolphe gracefully saluted him, hoped his shoes gave him contentment, and asked when he would do him the honour of calling again and listening to an air on the flageolet. Reuben said he would call the next day. He kept his engage- ment, and the result was that from a listener he became a learner, and commenced flageolet- playing himself After a few clandestine les- sons, during which he improved his knowledge of French also, our hero began to reproach himself with conceahng his new accomplishment from Winning, and also with occupying the time of a poor tradesman without reward ; but when he mentioned the latter scruple to Adol^Dhe, there was an end of it ; he professed shoe- making, not music ; but even if it had been otherwise, the glory of having so promising a scholar would pay him for his pains twenty times over ; besides Monsieur Reuben would recommend his shoes ; and through him and 120 REUBEN" MEDLICOTT, M. Yinning, the custom of all the school would be secured for his little commerce. The first intimation Winning had of Keuben's flageolet -playing was unfortunately not from his, friend and protege himself. De Tabley was jeering at Medlicott one morning on the now threadbare topic of his multifarious acquire- ments, when Winning came up and told him impetuously that he would suffer no more of his impertinence upon that point ; that Medli- cott was under his protection, and protect him he was resolved to do. It would be long enough before any one would taunt De Tabley with knowing too many things, or knowing any one thing decently. "By the by," he added, "I recollect your insolence at Mrs. Barsac's ball ; if I had not had a lady on my arm I would have called you then to a severe account." " I only said what was true," said De Tabley, moving to some little distance from Winning, for his courage was of the kind that is commonly called pot-valiant. " It was not true," said Winning, drily. " It was," repeated De Tabley, " and I might have added music into the bargain." " You would then have added another false- hood," said Winning. OR THE COMIXG MAN. 121 "Why Medlicott is taking lessons on the flute," retorted the other. "De Tabley, I shall be obliged to thrash you." De Tabley moved a Httle further off, mutter- ing, — " It's true nevertheless, and you know it as well as I do." Winning heard the muttered speech and dashed at him ; but he had only given him one blow, which merely knocked his hat down over his eyes, when Reuben Medhcott rushing forward caught his arm, crying — "Stop, Winning, — let him alone — what he says is true — at least nearly true — only it's the flageolet, not the flute." Winning turned round amazed upon Medli- cott, and glaring on him like a tiger. " Flute or flageolet, how do you come to be learning it without my knowledge and permission, — who's your music -master 1 answer this moment — the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, or I'll give you what I was going to give De Tabley, whose pardon I beg most humbly." " Hear me patiently," said Reuben, " and I'll tell you all about it ; I was going to tell you all, when I was anticipated." " Don't make your case worse than it is," said 12iJ REUBEN MEDLICOTT, Winning ; " it's bad enough as it stands, — follow me, I'll examine you in private." De Tabley had heard of our hero's proceedings from the very best authority, namely, Adolphe himself, from whom Winning would have heard the same story himself, had he chanced to have wanted a pair of shoes. Winning was very much disposed, upon the whole of the matter, to give Reuben a drubbing for want of straightforwardness and candour. However, he was as merciful as he was strong, and spared his delinquent subject ; ordering him, however, either to give up the flageolet forthwith, or obtain the prin- cipal's sanction for continuing the shoe-maker's pupil. Reuben chose the latter side of the alternative, and obtained the permission without much difficulty, no other conditions being im- posed than an inquiry into the moral character of M. Adolphe, and the equally proper step of applying for the consent of his parents. His acquaintance with the French shoemaker occasioned a ludicrous mistake, and involved him in one of the few personal rencontres he was ever so unlucky as to be engaged in. A group of boys were standing talking under a colonnade one showery morning, waiting for the weather OR THE COMING MAN. 123 to clear up. Thej first talked of their fathers, and then of their grandfathers — at least as many as had grandfathers to talk of De Tabley said his grandfather had been a judge. Vigors said his TV' as a physician, and other boys made similar statements. The light-hearted Primrose said his father was a painter, and his grandfather a poet. " Is a poet a profession V said another. "It's a bad trade, I believe,'^ said Primrose laughing ; '' at least my grandsire found it so, for he left my father nothing but his poems, which with my father's pallet will descend to me ; so that at all events I shall have two estates, such as they are." After the boys had laughed at this speech, one of them, named Peters, looked excessively knowing and said there was a boy in the school whose grandfather was a barber. Some laughed doubtingly, and some cried, " name, name." Peters at first refused, but upon being taunted w^ith being afraid to speak out, for fear of being thrashed by the barber's descendant ; he de- clared that he meant Medlicott. De Tabley called instantly to Peuben, only too happy to tell him of the. serious charge brought against him by Peters. 124 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, Reuben laughed, and said he thought they all knew that Dean AYyndham was his grand- father. " That we know very well," said De Tabley ; " but I presume you sport two grandfathers ; — ., at least I do." " So do I," said several boys, chuckUng at De Tabley 's wit. Now it happened that Reuben knew very Httle of his j^aternal grandfather, except that he had been in trade ; so when he was pressed to say what station in life that vener- able gentleman had filled, the only answer he could think of was that he had been in business. " Then Peters is right enough, I have no doubt," said De Tabley insolently. " He is not," said Reuben, glowing like a live coal. Peters repeated his assertion ; Reuben repeated his contradiction. " Give him the lie," said a friendly boy at his elbow. Reuben, altogether unused to rude language, hesitated. " He has the barber's blood in him, for a thousand pounds," said De Tabley. OR THE COMING MAF. 125 Eeuhen was now stung to the quick, and instantly pronounced the decisive monosyllable. They fought three awkward rounds, Heuben with the disadvantage of being new to such encounters, and having only one boy to back him ; while Peters, with little more experience in pugilism, had the advantage of being the general favourite. In the second round one of Reuben's blue eyes was metamorphosed into a black one, but Peters in return received a ran- dom salutation on the nose, which was a fair exchange for the damage he had inflicted. Winning came up just as the third commenced. There was no time to inquire how the quarrel originated. Winning merely took his place among the spectators, but that was a great point for Reuben, who, being now supported by the presence of his patron, as well as by the justice of his quarrel, speedily vanquished his antagonist, who had no great stomach for blows "Now," said Winning, "what has all this been about V De Tabley told him the whole story, and Peters said that his authority was Adolphe, the French shoe-maker. " I think,'' said Winning, " Medlicott himself 120 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, is a better authority on a matter of the kind than Aclolphe or any one else can possibly be. The whole affair is supremely ridiculous ; let us go to Adolphe, and find out how the mistake arose." The matter was easily explained. It arose out of a confused account the shoemaker had received from his sister Louise, of the hair- cutting scene at the Vicarage the night before Reuben left home for school. Adolphe was so profuse of apologies for having retailed the story to Peters, and in such an abyss of affliction at the consequences of his indiscretion, particularly when he saw his pupil's black eye, that Reuben's resentment lasted a very short time indeed. Yet his black eye was a serious disaster, for while his face was still disfigured with it, the Barsacs invited Winning and him to a family dinner. Reuben repined bitterly at not being in a condition to accept an invitation which flattered him more than any he had yet re- ceived, and over and over repeated his injunc- tions to his friend to assure both Mr. and Mrs. Barsac that the written excuse he had sent, pleading the effects of an accident, was a bond fide one. What he secretly dreaded most was OR THE COMIKG MAK". 127 that Blanche Bar sac should think he preferred any pleasure in the world to the hght of her sweet eves, which would, indeed, have been doing him great injustice ; for the saint in the song was not more dihgent to shun the eyes of the hapless Kathleen than Reuben had been to pursue Blanche's, ever since he had first basked in their lustre. He had not, indeed, been often successful. The hours of business seemed often to have been expressly arranged to cross his more agreeable occupations ; nay, even those of recreation were unaccommodating enough; for he was as much at Winning's disposal as Mr. Brouo-h's, and the two taskmasters appeared on some occasions in a conspiracy to thwart him. Since the second ball at Mrs. Barsac's, he had never seen Blanche but twice, — once in the dusk of the evening, walking with a bevy of ladies and an old gentleman, very like his grandfather ; and again, coming out of the Cathedral after divine service, when he even touched her dress, though in the crowd she was not aware of his presence. Kothing provoked Eeuben more than the stupid sj^stem Mr. Brough had of taking his bo^^s to the Church of All Saints instead of the Cathedra], where the service was so much more solemnlv 128 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, performed, and where the Barsacs invariably went. Misfortune, indeed, may be said to have per- secuted Reuben at this epoch ; for when the next festivit}^ took place at the wine-merchant's, and there was no black eve to prevent him from sharing it, Blanche was from home, on some visit to relations, as she had often been when poor Reuben was running in all directions to catch a glimpse of her. It was most probably about tliis period that Reuben's young brain, excited by the action ot his susceptible heart, began first to secrete that particular humour called poetry, a certain quan- tity of which (be the quality what it may) is supposed by some philosophers to exist in the head of every man born of woman. It is not very clear, however, whether he wrote poetry before he wrote prose, or whether the produc- tions came forth in the reverse order. Probably the two fountains within him began to flow much about the same time; for Hj^acinth Prim- rose had unquestionably commenced distin- guishing himself both in prose and rhyme, and it was not likely that the versatile and imitative Reuben was far behind him in the one accom- phshment more than the other. Reuben and OR THE COSnXG MAX. ]29 Primrose fraternised earlj. Among other enter- prises, they estabUshed a manuscript magazine, of which they were joint editors, and almost the sole contributors ; so that, between the business of the school and the business they made for themselves, they had work enough on their hands for their leisure hours, especially Reuben, who had his flageolet to practise and Blanche to think of into the bargain. The business of the school, however, was not neglected, for both Reuben and Hyacinth loved the classics. Reuben's first essay of any length in verse was a translation of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which, in point of merit, challenged comparison with the drama of the same name, enacted by Mr. Bottom and his company, — a drama which is behoved, upon valid grounds, to be the work of Shakspeare himself Neither Mr. Brough nor Henry Winning, therefore, had any ground for complaint, and neither of them did complain, — Mr. Brough because he knew nothing about the hterary labours in question, and Winning because he was extremely busy himself, and his good sense pointed out the folly of interfering too much in the character of a Mentor, even with a boy whom he loved as he did Reuben. 130 REUBEI^ ^lEDLICOTT, CHAPTER V. A CHAPTER OF GOOD ADVICE AND OF GOOD INTENTIONS. The time, indeed, soon came for Henry Winning to leave school for college. A brilliant career "Was evidently before him ; for to talent he united industry, and to both high principle and frank popular manners. He had a manly person, moreover, a good constitution, and a good voice, so that he possessed the physical as well as the intellectual qualities -which the bar requires ; for that was tlie profession upon which, no less by his own inclination than by the advice of his relative and guardian, Mr. St. Stephen, he had fixed his choice. Winning was sorry to part with Reuben, appreciating his amiable disposi- tion, and recognising his abihties, while he per- ceived the radical faults of his character, and had done all in his power to correct them. " You are too versatile and too squeezable, my OR THE COMING MAK 131 dear fellow," he said, as thej strolled in the fields together the day before their separation ; " those are your defects, if it is not presumptuous in me to tell you of them." With the greatest sincerity, Reuben thanked him for taking so friendly a Hberty. "You take impressions too readily, and pursue too many objects, not reflecting that life is so short that there is no more than time for a fair degree of success in some one leading pursuit. Ars longa, vita brevis — you remem- ber that pregnant aphorism of Hippocrates. "What I now say to you is not any wisdom of my own, for I possess none and I pretend to none ; it is what my guardian, Mr. St. Stephen, one of the ablest and most successful men of the day, has always impressed upon my mind, and, firmly believing in its truth and importance, I would be glad, my dear fellow, to impress it in turn upon yours. I have observed, although I have said very little to you on the subject, how Primrose has been influencing you of late ; you have been writing essays and making verses because he does so, just as you took up the flageolet because your shoemaker played it ; in fact, you possess a great many talents, a facility for picking up almost everything that you see k2 13:2 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, done by anybody; and pardon me if I add, that you seem more disposed to hearken to the praises of shallow people who call you a clever fellow for all this, than to believe me, for example, when I try to show you the dangers of it." Reuben pleaded guilty to every charge but that of swallowing the sort of compliments alluded to by his friend ; but probably his con- science smote him that there was something even in that accusation not altogether un- founded in truth. Eeuben had as yet scarcely thought of a profession. The Church had always been his father's plan for him, but the subject had not received mature consideration, either from him- self or his parents. There seemed time enough to discuss the question in the case of a boy under sixteen. Winning, however, now spoke of it in his direct practical way, wishing to dis- cover whether Medhcott had any strong leaning towards any particular vocation, and hoping that, like himself, he would decide in favour of the Law. But neither law, physic, nor divinity had as yet seized hold of Reuben s imagination. He thought it likely that the Church would eventually be his destiny ; but he was equally OR THE COMIXG MAK. 133 disposed to the bar, and he had no decided disUke to the notion of physic. Such ideas of a career as Reuben had were of the most confused, but most high-flown and disinterested character. He had no notion of emolument at all, or of prosecuting any pursuit with a view to make money by it. Winning, although his character was ingenuous, and had even a noble strain, had already caught the worldly spirit, without which worldly success is not very easily attained ; but Medlicott had not a conception of lucre. In his pure romantic mind, divinity was indeed divine, and every other calling was almost as ethereal as divinity : when he thought of the law, it was only as the science of justice, unpolluted by the notion of a fee ; and when medicine took its turn in his cogitations, the notion he had of a physician's hfe was a sort of Quixotic ramble through the world, tilting with disease and pes- tilence, out of mere unadulterated philanthropy. It was very clear that the time was not yet come for coupling the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove in young Medli- cott's understanding. Winning, however, was far from ridiculing or despising him for this. On the contrary, he could not help thinking to himself how few boys he had ever met with 134 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, who were not more or less infected prematurely with the sordid spirit of life ; and though he would have wished Reuben's head a little harder, he found an attraction in his rare sim- phcitj, and parted from him with a feeling of strong and tender attachment. "Well, Reuben," was his last observation, "as to the profession, you have lost no time ; it is a subject on which the minds of most people waver a considerable time before they fix ; your present business is the knowledge and prepara- tion equally necessary for all professions. Mind that steadily. Hoc age — another pregnant maxim ; let me hear from you ; I shall be back- wards and forwards a good deal between Cam- bridge and Lincoln's Inn." The young men parted affectionately, in a few hours after the preceding conversation, and the next day, in the same place, Reuben was sauntering with Hyacinth Primrose, the poet's grandson, repeating to him the sage counsels he had received from his friend ; resolving himself to be guided by them rigidly and unswervingly for the future, and deeply impressed with the duty of making Primrose a convert to them also. Hyacinth was, indeed, profoundly im- pressed for a minute or two with the sound OR THE COMING MAN. 135 wisdom of Winning's remonstrances, and, pulling out a pocket Shakspeare, introduced Reuben to that splendid passage in " Troilus and Cressida," where Ulysses, in a strain so wise and eloquent, recommends the virtue of perseverance : *' Perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright. To have done is to hang Quite out of fashion. Take the instant way, For honour travels in a strait so naiTow, Where one but goes abreast. Keep the path, For emulation has a thousand sons That one by one pursue : if you give way, Or hedge aside from the direct forthright, Like to an entered tide they all rush by, And leave you hindmost." Reuben, to whom the works of the great dramatist were yet an un worked mine, was dehghted with the aptness of this quotation, and borrowed the book from Primrose to make him- self master of the entire of the play containing it. Hyacinth was enthusiastic on the subject of Shakspeare, and had a rhapsody in his praise at his fingers' ends : how he was an encyclopaedia of poetry, an armoury of philosophy, a library of knowledge, a magazine of thought, a body of divinity. Reuben soon fell into the same trans- ports. Primrose and he were proofs that a man may be mad about wisdom without being wise, 136 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, just as he may be wild about poetry and wit, without being either a wit or a poet. As an invaHd, when he dismisses one doctor, usually sends for another, or as a sultan, having bow-stringed his vizier, promotes some one else to the post, so did Eeuben Medlicott, after the loss of Winning, finding a bosom friend and bookmate indispensable, select the hght-hearted and literary Hyacinth Primrose to fill those im- portant offices about his person ; an unfortunate choice, but a very excusable one, as Primrose was one of the most intellectual boys in the school, — in fact, the only boy of abilities and tastes akin to Reuben's, after Winning had left Finchley. The volatility of the new minister was of a livelier description than Reuben's, who at this period of his life was rather a penseroso, and except when he was in his loquacious mood, enjoyed the mirth of his companions in a sort of passive melancholy way, that was partly his temperament, but not altogether, perhaps, free from affectation. Primrose was always gay, always riaiit ; fall of pleasantry, sometimes malicious, generally good-natured ; he saw every object in a rose-coloured light; and was determined to prosecute Hterature to please OR THE COMINiS MA^^. 137 liimself, while he studied the law to please his relations. " I'll read law/' he said. " Til make myself a law^'er, a black -letter lawyer ; I don't at all despair of being a judge ; but I don't pretend that I have any love for the profession. How- ever, a profession is necessary, and a profession I must have. I'll make my bread by the bar and my character by the pen. That's my plan, MedKcott ; is it not a good one '? " " Eemember Winning's maxim," Reuben would say gravely ; " remember the wise aphorism of Hippocrates." "But, Medlicott, I have been reading about Hippocrates lately, and I find he was not a mere physician, but a briUiant and almost universal genius. I shall probably write his life one of these days." 138 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER VI. CHIEFLY OCCUPIED WITH THE ILL BEHAVIOUR OF AN OLD GENTLEMAN AND THE DISCOMFORT IT OCCA- SIONED A YOUNG ONE. The school at Hereford had been selected for Reuben partly on account of the benefice which his grandfather had in the neighbourhood ; but of so little use to him was this circumstance, that he had now been nearly three years at Finchley without seeing his venerable relative scarcely the same number of times. Dean Wyndham appeared there occasionally, just as he did at Chichester and other places, arriving unexpectedly and departing abruptly, as comets were wont to do before the astronomers got their motions under proper control. When the Dean did show himself in this part of his orbit, he did not altogether neglect his grandchild, but his attentions were little more than a chuck under the chin at one visit, and a question in prosody OE THE COMI]N^G MAX. 139 or Roman antiquities at another. About the period of Winning's departure, however, the old gentleman was beginning to be seen at Hereford more frequently; the new squares and terraces were making rapid progress ; and a report now began to prevail (greatly to the annoyance of the Dean's relatives) that he was not indisposed to marry for the third time, if he could induce one of the Barsac girls (the eldest, of course) to assist him in so extraordinary and promising an undertaking. Nobody gave this rumour so little credit as Reuben ; at the same time, he could not but observe that his grandfather was daily becoming more and more intimate and absolute in the Barsac family. He dictated theu^ dinners, regulated their hours, selected their society, dis- countenanced their pleasant evening parties ; in fact, he appeared to be turning their once agreeable house topsy-turvy. Reuben's special grievance was, of course, that he was no longer invited there himself as often as before. It was mostly by hearsay he was aware of the un- exampled tyranny exercised by his despotic ancestor over the household of a free-born British merchant. He saw, however, quite enough to make all accounts that reached him only too worth}^ of credit. On several occasions, 140 for instance, he observed the Barsacs going about shopping, or walking of an evening, with the Dean ; nor was it to Mrs. Barsac the pre- posterous old dignitary seemed to be paying his attentions : he preferred the daughters to the mother, and generally had one upon each arm, though once or twice it happened that but one of the girls was of the party, and this hard lot fell upon Blanche. Reuben marvelled that he had never heard her complain of being forced to perambulate the streets and precincts of Hereford with so extraordinary an escort ; but when he recollected in what a near relation the Dean stood to himself, he admired the delicacy that dictated her reserve. The only wonder, indeed, was that the design of the Dean upon one of the three sherries had not been suspected sooner, — he lived so much and so openly with the Barsacs, and was so notoriously connected in large speculations with the father of the family. It soon became current enough. The gossips of Hereford had not had so rich a subject of discussion for a great many years. It set a great many heads shaking, tongues wagging, and eyes winking ; caused infinite nodding, whispering, tittering, giggling ; and if it did not occasion much wit, OR THE COMING MAN. 141 it had certainly a decided tendency to promote the consumption of tea. The boys of Finchley shared in the general excitement ; and Reuben was exposed to so much annoyance on the sub- ject, particularly among his school- fellows, that he was beginning to think his grandfather was destined to be the plague of his life, instead of being a comfort and a blessing to him, as a respectable grandfather ought surely to be. The rumour of the Dean's matrimonial views was treated at the Vicarage as utterly unworthy of attention ; but Mrs. Medlicott was seriously displeased when she found that Mrs. Barsac was beo'innino; to be so nep;lectful of Reuben's educa- tion for a man of the world. The Vicar, on the contrary, was gratified ; for he thought the cricket-ground became boys better than the ball-room, and hoped Reuben would relax him- self with a little regular study, now that he had a good speU of vacation from balls and parties. And indeed his son was not idle at this period, although the business of the school was by no means sufficient to occupy the time he now had on his hands. He stood in the same rank in point of scholarship with Hyacinth Primrose ; they topped the school in the classics without the least drudgery, and had ample leisure for a 143 EEUBEIS^ MEDLICOTT, course of tlie English poets, into whose distin- guished society Primrose introduced Reuben, who found in their charming circle some httle consolation for the exile to which he was doomed from the sweet bright eyes of Blanche. De Tabley, although his strongest tastes were for the table, discovered some taste for poetry also ; and, having ceased to sneer at Reuben's accomplishments, he was occasionally the com- panion of him and Primrose in their rambles on the banks of the Wye, when they repeated their favourite passages alternately, and discussed, with the rash criticism of boys, the beauties and the blemishes of the poets. Now and then, in these literary walks, De Tabley's ruhng passion would come out amusingly in connection with some sublime or sentimental quotation. One day that some doves were heard plaining in a grove of trees hard by, Reuben repeated the hackneyed lines of Shenstone — " I have found out a gift for my fair, I have found where the wood-pigeons breed." De Tabley, after a few minutes' silence, diverted his friends exceedingly by gravely observing that he did not much fancy pigeons, except in a pie. It was a standing joke against him with Primrose all his Hfe. OPv THE COMIXG :MAX. 143 The tender verses of Shenstone, and amorous and elegiac verse generally, pleased Reuben most in these early days. He had Prior's " Henry and Emma," no short poem of its class, every line by heart, and probably often wished the heroine had been a blonde like Blanche, in- stead of a brunette like her sister. But the time came when Primrose followed Winning to college. De Tabley left school about the same time. Reuben was virtually left alone, for his only remaioing friend was Vigors ; but Vigors had no more poetry in him than a Master in Chancery : his heart and soul were in gymnastic exercises ; he was a good fellow and a good boxer, but no companion for an intellectual and sentimental youth like Medhcott. This was a dreary, melancholy time. The golden days of our youth have many a leaden hour. Reuben, in fact, ought to have been removed from Hereford along with his friends whom he had kept pace with in his studies. The Barsacs were not designedly in- attentive to him, but they had not recovered their hospitable habits. Even when the Dean was absent they lived in the quietest way. Barsac himself was said to be in London much of his time, and his wife and daughters were 144 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, frequently from home whole weeks together on excursions or visits. Our poor Reuben had but two resources — the library of the Cathedral, where he moped a great deal among the old books, and his flageolet, which he con- tinued to practise with the French shoemaker occasionally. Suddenly, however, he was deprived of this resource also, though fortune soon made him handsome amends. Dropping into Adolphe's little shop one even- ing, he observed a pink satin shoe lying on the counter, and, taking it up, he complimented the maker on its shape and workmanship. "Ah!'' cried Adolphe, "that is beautiful; but do not admire the shoe, although it is my chef- d'oeuvre — that is nothing ; admire the foot, it is the foot that is beautiful : it is the foot of a lady of your connaissance, Mademoiselle Blanche Barsac.'' Reuben acknowledged that he knew her, with a degree of confusion and a quantity of carmine that would have disclosed the foolish state of his mind, had Adolphe been the obtusest of human beings. "Ah! Old; you know the foot itself I am a judge of feet ; it is my profession .; there is no foot so beautifril as hers in this town ; it is OK THE COMIXG MAX. 14:5 perfection. I have a theory on feet, Monsieur Reuben : when the foot is pretty, all is pretty. I reason from the foot, up, up, up to the crown of the head : it is my philosophy of feet ; I have studied, I have approfondi this subject. In the foot there is character, esprit, talent, heart, soul, genius, everything. When it walks it is eloquence; when it dances it is poetry; when it stamps it is power. What do you think of my theory? Ah, that foot is the foot of an angel !" A few days elapsed. Reuben heard a rumour in the school that, notwithstanding the custom it afforded Adolphe, he was not very flourishing in his trade, or hkely long to find Hereford an ehgible place for carrying it on. With a generous instinct Reuben flew to him directly this report reached his ears, resolving to raise money to assist him, either by the sale of his superfluous books, or the mortgage of his flageolet, for other sources of wealth were not very abundant with him. But it was too late ; the little shop was shut up. Reuben knocked repeatedly, but there was no reply save the hollow echo of the sound he made with his knuckles, and when he applied at the cutler's, next door, for an explanation of these facts, he heard quite enough to satisfy anybody, whose VOL. L L 146 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, mind had not been completely prepossessed with admiration and sympathy, that the French shoemaker had not been particularly attentive to his landlord's interests before he made up his mind to abandon Hereford. Reuben went his way melancholy, his thoughts full of the poetry of bankruptcy ; and, connect- ing the misfortunes of Adolphe with his talents and accomphshments — his genius shown even in his humble trade, his philosophy of feet and his sister Louise — he formed a most romantic picture in his mind of the struggles and calamities of an ambitious French shoemaker. The next day was a holiday ; I think it was the martyrdom of Charles the First. While the rest of the scholars amused themselves with the soaring kite, the bounding ball, or the rolling marbles, Reuben recreated himself with his pen, collecting all the cases and anecdotes he could find of laureate shoemakers and cobblers of immortal genius, such as Bun^^an, Gifford, Hans Sachs, "the cobler-bard " of Nuremberg, and others, ending with a sketch of his friend Adolphe, whom his enthusiasm placed in the same memorable class. The poor artist's mys- terious fate gave a melancholy interest to this part of the essay, and Reuben ended his OR THE COMING MAN. 147 speculations with suggesting suicide bj charcoal, under most poetical circumstances, as the too probable close of his career. The simple truth was, that Adolphe had not prospered in his trade, because he did not mind his business. He was too fond of talking, theorising, and playing the flageolet. The very shoes upon which he had built his philosophy of feet had been returned to him by Miss Barsac as a misfit. In point of probity, however, he was not more unjust to his landlord than he had been to himself, for he absconded without taldno; the trouble of collecting a number of small sums that were due to him. Mrs. Barsac, among others, owed him some money, and, thinking that Beuben might be able to inform her what had become of him, she wrote him a note requesting to see him one morning. Wings could scarcely have borne him swifter than he flew in obedience to this summons. The nature of Mrs. Barsac's business with him was a sad disappointment, but that was forgotten before he left the house. Mrs. Barsac was par- ticularly gracious, told him that his grandfather was to preach in the Cathedral the follo'^dng Sunday, and ofiered him a seat in her pew, if he desired to hear him. L 2 148 REUBEIT MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER YIL REUBEN" SPENDS A MEMORABLE SUNDAY WITH HIS GRANDFATHER, AND ALL THE BARSACS. The Barsacs, who were what is commonly called a fine family, never looked so fine as when they were assembled together in their spacious and prominent pew on a Sunday morning. The spectator had then an opportunity of seeing several junior members of the firm, whom he did not commonly see at their parties, except when a juvenile ball was given, or round about a Christmas tree, dropping bon-bons. Though their pew was the largest in the church, it was not more roomy than they required, particularly as the ladies occupied much more space with their spreading silks and muslins than their mere persons required. As to Mrs. Barsac and her eldest daughter, they took up room enough for four reasonable women. Perhaps it was to do due honour to Dean Wyndham's discourse OE THE COMING MAX. 149 that they were atth'ed with more than usual splendour upon the present occasion, but cer- tainly poor slender Reuben, whose lot it was to get wedged in between them, almost disappeared between the gorgeous shawls, floating yeils, and pompous petticoats, that hemmed him in upon either side. Mrs. Barsac vouchsafed him some attention, and extended her superb prayer-book now and then to .accommodate him, but her daughter seemed unconscious of his proximity, arranging her dress when she sat down, without the slightest reference to his existence, and when she stood up, echpsing him altogether. Opposite to him sat the fair Blanche and her brown sister, divided by their purse-proud and pompous father, dressed in a hght blue frock, with a forest of geraniums in his button-hole. It was a goodly sight to see Barsac at his devotions ; he performed them in such an exemplary, de- termined, imposing manner ; so loud in his share of the responses, that the services of a clerk might have been dispensed with in whatever parish he resided, and ostentatiously observant of every little ceremony and genuflexion which usage or the rubric required. The grandest thing of all was his bow at a certain passage in the creed. Mr. Barsac always prepared himself for 150 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, this solemn act bj a previous arrangement of his countenance and disposition of his person ; he drew himself up to his full height, threw back the breast of his coat with the enormous bouquet, and bowed in the manner of a man who seemed to feel that he was conferring an honour upon the Christian religion, rather than humbly expressing his reverence for its truths. But even Barsac sank into insignificance, when the principal actor of the day, the mighty Dean, marched from his stall to the pulpit, preceded by the officious verger, perspiring under the weight of a huge silver mace. If Dr. Wyndham was a giant in his ordinary clothes, you may fancy what a man-mountain he was in his canonical raiment. It needed no great effort of fancy to conceive that there was not only a dean but a whole chapter beneath a surplice which might certainly have made a set of shirts for the entire corporation, down to the minor canons. This huge body of divinity had no sooner mounted the pulpit than Mrs. Barsac requested Reuben to change places with Blanche, in order that she might have a better view of the preacher. Barsac made a like exchange with two of his younger children, and similar move- ments took place all over the cathedral, proving OR THE COMING MAN. 151 the great interest excited by the expectation of a sermon from a theologian of such renown. Reuben would have mllingly made a much greater sacrifice for the gratification or con- venience of Blanche, but, in fact, although it would have pleased him to see as well as hear his grandfather preaching, he was glad to emerge from the ladies' dresses, and by the new arrangement he had Blanche opposite to him still, which was a very fair compensation for the face of old Dr. Wyndham. A pin might have been heard to drop as the Dean in his loud, dry, grating voice gave out his text, and com- menced his discourse, which was, in fact, a pamphlet more than a sermon, consisting of an undoubtedly eloquent, but unnecessarily violent, denunciation of the doctrine of political expe- diency, the fiercest anathemas against the states- men of the day, who were supposed to be governed by it, and tremendous warnings to the nation to beware of permitting the corner-stone of its Protestant constitution to be removed a single inch from its place, out of any false complaisance to Romish errors or sophistical ideas of toleration. The only change the Dean's harsh, monotonous voice underwent was when he came to utter these awful comminations, when it fell into a 15:^ REUBEI!^ MEDLICOTT, kind of hoarse growl, like that of a bear appre- hensive of a design against her cubs, or a mastiff prepared to defend his bone. ]\Iany parts of the sermon at ere ablj and acutely reasoned, supporting the Dean's reputation thoroughly; but the contrast of argument, sometimes as fine as Mechlin lace, with language often as coarse as Norwich drugget, was exceedingly curious and occasionally almost diverting. In fact he kept his audience alternately admiring the force of his positions, and scandalised by the scurrility of his language ; they would, indeed, have been divided in their judgments of the discourse upon the whole, had he not wound it all up with a peroration upon the value and dignity of prin- ciple, as opposed to expediency, so beautiful, as well as vehement, that all the previous blemishes of his composition were forgotten, and he dis- missed his hearers, not only with the highest possible opinion of his ability in the pulpit, but with a profound and consolatory conviction that there was at least one man in the Church whom no temptation of wealth or rank could seduce from the path of duty. The Barsacs were variously affected throughout the sermon, or rather expressed in a variety of ways the feel- ings with which it impressed them. ]\Irs. OR THE COMING MAX. 153 Barsac intimated by numerous little gestures, intended to be critical, sometimes to ber busband, sometimes to one or otber of ber daugbters, tbat sbe bad never in ber life beard a discourse tbat so entranced ber. Barsac kept nodding at tbe preacber at tbe close of every passage, to testify bis approbation of every syllable. Miss Barsac looked particularly cross, wbicb was perbaps a mood ratber in unison witb tbe general tone of the Dean's observations. Tbe brunette paid tbe usual respectful attention, but notbing more ; in fact sbe was not mucb of a tbeologian, and notbing of a politician at all ; very few brunettes are, and not many blondes eitber. Blancbe seemed to be an exception, for sbe kept ber deep, quiet, devout eyes rivetted on tbe pulpit from first to last, never suffering tbem to wander to any object nearer tbe eartb, not even once upon Eeuben, wbo sat directly over against ber, marvelling at ber intense interest in subjects wbicb bad but little interest for bimself, and of wbicb be bad indeed at tbat period but very imperfect and confused notions. After tbe service, as tbey stood in a group at one of tbe doors, waiting for tbe Dean, wbo bad some. ecclesiastical business to transact, and to disencumber bimself of bis robes, wben every- 154 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, body had said every thing that was to be said in admiration of the sermon, Mr. Barsac said some- thing aside to Mrs. Barsac, who immediately addressed Reuben, and made him as happy as a king by inviting him to their family dinner. They still waited for the Dean ; not im- patiently, however, for he was a man whom the Barsacs considered it an honour to dance attend- ance on, which was fortunate, as he was not likely to hurry himself upon their account. There was no carriage waiting for them, for it was a rule with the Barsacs to walk to church when the weather was propitious. The distance was nothing, and they managed to go to church on foot with as much parade and ostentation, as if they had gone in a coach-and-six. At length the Dean joined them; he instantly seized Mrs. Barsac's arm, and commenced walk- ing at his usual great pace, taking no more notice of Reuben than of the sparrows that were hopping in the streets. Barsac and his daughter Blanche fell into the second line, followed by the rest of the party in open order, Reuben not very well knowing to which division to attach himself, but keeping as near Blanche as he possibly could. Mrs. Barsac would have said OR THE COMTXG MAX. 155 twenty handsome things of the sermon, if the Dean had allowed her to speak at all, but he knew j^erfectly well what she had got to say, so that his vanity was no loser ; and having just as httle doubt on his mind that Barsac was heaping on incense as fast as he could behind his back, he gave himself just as little trouble to catch the precise words in which the consequential mer- chant was expressing his sentiments. " It is commonly remarked," said the Dean, after he had said more than enough in commen- dation of his own discourse, " that an author is not the best judge of his own compositions ; I don't know how it may be with other men, but the remark does not hold in mv case. I was never yet wrong in my opinion of any work of my own. When I write a good book, or com- pose a good sermon, I know it ; when I write a bad thing, or a weak thing, I know it also. Xo critic can criticise me better than I can criticise myself Xo living author has been the subject of such ridiculous criticism as I have. My best works have been abused by the reviewers, and, on the other hand, there are some of those fellows always ready to tell the public that any trash bearing my name is worthy of being written in cuneiform characters on pyramids/' 156 KEUBEX MEDLICOTT, " I believe, sir," said Barsac, " you have written very little, if anything, that is not." " I have written trash in my time," said the Dean, " like other men ; not so much, perhaps, as , or , or my Lord Bishop of , but I have written trash in my time, as arrant trash as ever was printed." " AYhat you call trash, Dean, would make the character and the fortune of any other man in the Church '? " " Perhaps you are not very wrong in that," said the Dean ; " I know very well there's a difference between my trash and other men's trash. What is your dinner hour ^ " " Five, sir, on Sundays," rephed ]\Irs. Barsac, blandly and obsequiously, to this abrupt question. " Why five '? " demanded the Dean. " Dinner shall be at any hour you please. Dean," cried Barsac, who was even more supple than his wife. " Would you prefer six, or shall we say seven ? " " As you have named five to your company, let it be five," answered the Dean; " don't con- sider me in your domestic arrangements. Never change your hour to please anybody. It's unfair to your cook, and it's unjust to your company." OR THE COMING MAN. 157 " I am sorry to say," said Barsac nervously, " we liave no company to meet you to-day, sir, only our own family, with the exception of our young friend here, and, possibly, my brother-in- law, Mr. Brough.'' " Where was Brough to-day ? — where was your master '? " demanded the Dean, turning sharply round upon Reuben, whom he now honoured with his notice for the first time. Nothing was more usual with Dr. Wyndham than to put a question like this, and instantly change the conversation, without caring, or seeming to care, whether it was answered or not. While Reuben was endeavouring to explain or excuse the absence of his school- master, by stating that it was not the custom of the school to attend divine service at the cathedral, the Dean was proposing a visit to the buildino's in which he and Mr. Barsac were concerned, by way of filling up the interval between luncheon and dinner. The walk was too much for Mrs. Barsac and her eldest daughter. The rest of the party, however, as soon as luncheon was over, salhed forth again, and had not proceeded far before they were joined by the glossy Mr. Brough, who approached the Dean with something almost servile in his 158 KEUBEN" MEDLICOTT, manner. The Dean, ^Yho had now taken Blanche under his arm, never looked at him, or, rather, he looked through him, as if he had been a ghost. This was to punish Mr. Brough for not having been at the cathedral to hear his sermon, and it evidently did punish him, for he was visibly abashed, and falhng into the rear, began to converse in a very sub- dued tone with Barsac, who increased his brother-in-law's confusion by telling him aloud all he had lost, and assuring him that the loss was totally irreparable, as it was out of all human probability that so splendid a specimen of pulpit eloquence would ever again be heard in England. Possibly the Dean did not hear this flourish- ing speech of the merchant, although it was intended that he should, for he was now mounted on one of his favourite hobbies, and talking at a prodigious rate of granite and lime- stone, the timber of different countries, and building materials of every kind. He seemed to Reuben to be boring Blanche excessively. They were now arrived at Wyndham Terrace, which was in a state of considerable forward- ness. The square, not yet named, was adjacent to it. The ground was laid out, the foundations OR THE COMING MAN. 159 of the houses laid, but only one house had been erected, and even that was little more than a skeleton of wood and brick. The ground all round about was strewed over with blocks of stone, piles of bricks, timber, iron railings, and a thousand other things of the same kind ; but none of these obstructions impeded the Dean's progress ; he strode over and through them all, making Blanche follow, or rather pulHng her along after him, without the least consideration either for her shoes or her ankles, the latter of which were really now and then in danger from the spikes of the railings, and the points of pickaxes. Reuben was very angry, but could do nothing to help her, though he showed by his looks amusingly enough how eager he was to do so. But Blanche herself was very good- humoured about it, and so was her sister the brunette, who was compelled to traverse every inch of the same rough ground in company with her father and uncle, whose complaisance to the Dean would have supported them through much more dirt and many more difficulties than they actually had to go through. Their trials, however, were only commenced, for as soon as Dr. Wyndham reached the house which was in a comparatively advanced state, he insisted on 160 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, the merchant and the schoolmaster accom- panying him through it from top to bottom, a journey which was one of not a httle hazard, as a great deal of it had to be performed along rafters over which the flooring w^as not complete, and up and down inclined planes formed of loose boards, which at present represented the stair-cases. The Dean's activity was surprising ; none of the masons or carpenters could have done what he did with more self-possession, and he never ceased talking the wdiole time, alter- nately lecturing upon the principles of ventilation and sewerage, and ridiculing Barsac and Mr. Brough, w^ho were scrambling reluctantl}^ after him, with imminent risk to their limbs at every step. When, at length, this perilous survey was over, it was diverting to observe the annoyance of both at the state in which their clothes were with the mortar, dust, and w^hitewash ; Mr. Brough was in the worst pickle, for he was the awkwardest climber, and besides he was dressed, as usual, in a complete suit of the newest and glossiest black, looking as if he had been polished all over with Day and Martin. Reuben good- naturedly assisted in restoring his preceptor to his original lustre, and Blanche performed the same little service for the Dean wlien he came OR THE COMING MAN. 161 forth, but he had suffered much less than the others, because he had been so much more agile. He now seated himself on a square block of Portland stone, and the rest followed his example, some sitting on other blocks, Mr. Brough on an inverted wheelbarrow, which he first carefully dusted with his handkerchief. " This will be the finest square in England,'' said the Dean, " when it is finished." *' That it will, sir," said Barsac. " That it certainly will," said Mr. Brough. '' Of course I don't include London," said the Dean. " Of course not," said Barsac and his brother- in-law together. " Barsac," said the Dean, " this square was my idea, not yours." " For which reason," said the merchant, " it must be called after you, sir." " No," said the Dean ; " and to prevent any more argument on that point, I now christen it Barsac Square, and we must consider how to adorn the centre of it. What is your opinion f This was addressed to Blanche, who sat on the next block to him. "A fountain, sir, would be pretty," she rephed. 162 KEUBEN MEDLICOTT, " Fountains are very well in some climates/' said the Dean, " but the skies of ours afford us water enough without artificial supplies." "A just and happy observation/' said the schoolmaster on the wheelbarrow, in a timid tone, but hoping to be heard by the object of his slavish veneration. " The square, sir, was your idea," said Barsac, "and therefore I don't think anything would be so appropriate, if I might venture to offer a suggestion, as a statue of the Very Eeverend Dean Wyndham." " Colossal," added Mr. Brough as before. " Mr. Brough," said the Dean abruptly, now that the schoolmaster had forced himself on his notice, " you were not at church to-day. That was wrong, Mr. Brough ; doubly wrong, for as an individual you neglected the duty of attend- ing divine service, and, as a preceptor, you set an example of the same neglect to your scholars ; you, of all men, are bound to be scrupulous in these matters ; you are in loco parentis ; you should not only have been present yourself, but you should have come at the head of all your pupils and assistants. You must not be offended with me for speaking to you plainly on a subject so important. I hope and trust you do not OE THE COMING :MaX. 163 make a practice of turning your back upon the Church." Mr. Brough was in the greatest state of ex- citement during tliis speech, wrigghng on the wheelbarrow as if he was frying, and every moment jumping u]) and endeavouring, but all in vain, to get in a smgle word ; for a single word would have shown the Dean that his accusation was most unjust, and his lecture most uncalled-for. The Dean's loud, fluent, and com- manding mode of speaking overbore all attempts at interruption, so that the pedagogue was exactly in the same predicament in which he had formerly put Eeuben, by haranguing him on intemperance at the ball, while the poor fellow was actually supperless. And when at last the Dean came to a pause, and Mr. Brough was allowed to defend himself, the former made him very shght amends for the wrong he had done him. " I am very glad to hear it,'"' he said, in the driest way, as again he took Blanche under his mighty wing, and announced that it was time to return to dinner. At dinner Reuben sat next to Blanche, but his grandfather sat on the other side, and, as usual, kept the conversation exclusively to u 2 184. EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, himself. When at the second course Mrs. Barsac recommended some dish to Reuben, the Dean said she was cockering him too much ; when he was a boy he never had such dehcacies. Mr. Barsac shortly after asked Reuben to take wine. " Wine, too ! what does a schoolboy want with wine 1 " " One glass of sherry. Dean, will do no harm. Pale or brown, Master Medlicott '? " Reuben was crimson ; he fancied it was an indirect way Mr. Barsac took to discover which of his daughters he preferred. In his confusion, however, he made the wrong answer, and said brown, when he meant pale. This utterly dis- comforted .him, and he sat silent and abashed the rest of the dinner. Barsac was carving a duck. The Dean told him he knew nothing of carving fowl ; that few people did but himself, and ordered a servant to bring the dish to him. He certainly carved better than Barsac, as far as it depended on strength ; but he lopped the wings and legs from the duck with so much energy, that he sprinkled Blanche's dress all over with gravy. Blanche bore it with great equanimity, but Reuben was very much incensed, and again had OR THE COMING MAN. 165 occasion to admire the delicacy with which she refrained from appearing annoyed by any part of his grandfather's behaviour. When the ladies had retired, Reuben did not wait for one of his grandfather's hints, but fol- lowed them ver}^ soon. He was now com- pensated for his annoyances at dinner, and had more discourse with Blanche than he had ever yet had an opportunity of enjoying. Mrs. Barsac and her other daughters were present, but they were reading, and took little part in the con- versation. After some time Blanche fixed her earnest eyes on Reuben, and smiling said she had a great favour to ask him ; but she hoped he would not hesitate to refuse her if she was going to trespass upon him too much. " I know so well what Blanche is going to say," said one of her sisters aside to the other, looking up from her book. " So do I," said Mrs. Barsac, also aside. How Reuben was agitated at the thought of Blanche asking him to do her a favour ! What would he not do for those persuasive eyes 1 The favour was this, — to sit for his picture. Blanche, as we have already mentioned, was an amateur portrait painter ; she took pretty good hkenesses in water-colours, and when a face 166 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, particularly pleased her, she felt an irresistible inclination to reproduce its features with her pencil. " Now you must be very candid with me," she repeated, looking intently into the face of the handsome bashful boy, studying its lines and favours with the licence of an artist, to whom beauty is only a theory. "Blanche,'' said Mrs. Barsac, beckoning to her daughter. Blanche went to her mother. " Are you sure, my dear, the Dean will be pleased '? I very much question it.'' Eeuben only imperfectly caught what was said. Blanche returned to him ^nith a thought- ful expression, and, after sitting silent for a moment, with the tip of her finger to her lips, she suddenly brightened again, and said, with the air of a woman setthng a point which she has authority to settle — " The Dean shall know nothing at all about it.'' " It is very kind of Mr. Medhcott to sit for you/' said Mrs. Barsac ; " I hope he has not promised out of mere politeness." Blanche had no doubt that Reuben was deal- ing sincerely with her ; and as to Reuben OR THE COMING MAN. 167 himself, his protestations to the same effect were amusingly eager. In fact he was dehrious with joy, which nothing happened to interrupt for the remainder of the evening. 168 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER VIII. — ♦ — EEUBEN SITS TO A FAIR ARTIST FOR HIS PICTURE.— WHO INTERRUPTED THE SITTINGS. The first sitting took place the very next day. There cannot be a more delicate or perilous situation, — one trembles to think of it. Boyhood sitting to Beauty for his picture! The proximity, the artistic license we spoke of just now, the opportunities of conversing both with the lips and the eyes, the necessity the fair painter is under of continually settling and resettling her patient's attitude and position, often the tie of his handkerchief, the fall of his collar, or the arrangement of his hair ; all these, and twenty more httle circumstances and incidents of amateur portrait-painting, have a manifest tendency to promote that relative state of the sentiments and feelings, which possibly may yet be brought under the dominion of science, and proved to be nothing more than OR THE COMING MAN". 169 an invisible play of some species of galvanic fluid, between a pair of liearts under certain conditions of Papbian electricity. • Of the two, however, Blanche was the most practical and business-like upon an occasion when the temptations to be sentimental are so very numerous. Nothing could be cooler or more professional than the liberties she took with Reuben to place him in the proper light, to dispose his draperies for picturesque effect, and establish that sort of animated repose and speaking silence in his features, which she hoped to succeed in transferring to the carton before her. The subject himself was all in a tumult during the preliminaries, which the artist arranged without the slightest flutter of the pulse or loss of self-possession. Reuben often wondered afterwards how Blanche Barsac made such a good likeness of him as she managed to do in a few sittings ; so difficult a task it must have been to catch the hues of a face, the owner of which was all the time in a state of such nervous excitement, and whose colour was for ever coming and going, with a decided tendency, however, to settle into a perpetual blush. Conversation is of enormous service on such occasions. Blanche never talked so much as 170 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, when she was painting, and she forced Reuben to talk too, asking him a thousand questions about his mother, his friends, his studies, his plans, and many a thing besides. They had been so long without seeing him ; where had he been ? Was it his fault, or was it theirs "? When had he heard from Mr. Winning and his friend with the pretty na?ne, Mr. Hyacinth Primrose, w^ho w^as always so hvely and entertaining'? She knew he had been studying very hard, he was so pale. Had he any time for drawing 1 Had he 'taken any more views of the cathedral '? And she hoped he had not given up the pleasant mao'azine of which she had seen one or two o specimens. Had he been writing at all lately ? He was not long in confessing his latest pro- duction, the essay on shoemakers of genius, and modestly yielded to the strong wish she expressed to read it, though stipulating that nobody should see it but herself Then she went on painting in silence for a few minutes, examining the lines of his coun- tenance between the touches, as if it was but the statue of a boy that sat before her ; then suddenly she paused and feared she was detaining him too long, but she would soon release him. He had no wish to be released ; but Blanche OR THE COMl^-G MAX. 171 had probably other engagements, for she now looked at her watch, rose hastily, wondered what had become of her sisters, and fixing a day for the next sitting, terminated the present one almost abruptly. Reuben was extremely dissatisfied with him- self for his behaviour upon this occasion. He had been so sheepish, so stupid, while Blanche had been so agreeable, so encouraging, so every way charming. He determined to act a more manly and gallant part the next time. But the next sitting was not a tete-a-tete like the former. The sisters were provokingiy pre- sent. Blanche was in her walking-dress, all but her parasol and gloves, which lay on a sofa beside her. Nothing could be more uncomfort- able ; and at last in bustled Mrs. Barsac herself, richly shawled and bonneted, nodded to Reuben, glanced at the picture, and swept away Blanche along with her so rapidly, as scarcely to give her time to put up her brushes and appoint a time for the third seance. He had brought his essay with him, but had no opportunity of placing it in her hands unobserved by the other members of the family. The third sitting was pleasanter than the second, though not so private as the first. He 172 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, presented her with his MS. She was now painting his hair. " I wish," she exclaimed, "it were not cropped so very close, it is so beautiful ; it would look so well suffered to fall down upon your shoulders, like mine ;" and as she spoke she touched her own hair, which was light brown and very bright and abundant. The comphment and the comparison together damasked Reuben's cheek very deeply indeed. With the sHghtest con- ceivable smile upon her lip, Blanche withdrew her eyes from him and fixed them again upon her work. After a few touches she spoke again. " Did you never wear it long V Reuben now made an effort to tell her the tale of the outrage which his grandfather had perpetrated with the scissors the day before he went to school. Blanche was evidently diverted, though she said she could perfectly understand how provoked his mother must have been. He must have looked a positive fright. This extracted the sequel of the tale, all about Mademoiselle Louise, which Reuben told in so confused a way, and with so much stammering and blushing, that Blanche could not help raising her finger, shaking her head, looking mysterious, and then apologising for having OR THE COMIXG MAIN". 173 betrayed him into making her the confidante of what was evidently a sentimental business. He was seriously parrying this attack, when a maid entered the room and put a little slip of paper into Blanche's hand, which seemed to have an electrical effect upon her. She jumped up, hastily covered the unfinished portrait, and was running out of her studio, ^"ithout fixing a day for Reuben to sit again, but he followed, and, overtaking her at the door of the drawing- room, with throbbing nerves reminded her of what she had probably only forgotten in her hurry. She was forced to stop, and was rapidly running over on her fingers her engagements for the few following days, when the door opened behind them, and forth came Mrs. Barsac, her eldest daughter, and his grandfather. The Dean blew a terrific gale when he saw Reuben, although he had not a notion that he was there for any purpose but to pay an idle morning visit. That, however, was enough to raise the tempest, with the ideas he had of schools and schoolboys. He scolded Reuben, scolded Mr. Brough, and so abused Mrs. Barsac that she became quite disconcerted, and in her perplexity made matters worse by assuring the Dean that his grandson was not so much 174 REUBEN" MEDLICOTT, to blame as he seemed to be, and that she would explain every thing presently. On hear- ing this, the Dean blustered again, puffed his cheeks like ^olus, and after frowning like night upon everybody in succession, but most upon Reuben, returned with Mrs. Barsac into the drawing-room. The three girls remained for a moment outside, the two eldest whispering and laughing together in a subdued tone, while Blanche, sincerely pitying Reuben's humiliation, shook his hand with the utmost good -nature, and even accompanied him part of the way to the hall-door. The Dean's anger on trifling occasions like this was a very " short madness" indeed. Even when he heard from Mrs. Barsac how Reuben had been sitting for his picture to Blanche, he merely called them all a pack of fools two or three times over, desired to have no more such nonsense, and appeared to have forgotten all about it before dinner. But Reuben did not so soon recover his com- posure. He had a more serious cause for anxiety than the humiliation he had met with from his choleric and eccentric relative. He had placed more that day in the hands of Blanche than one of his literary efforts — he had OR THE COMING MAX. 175 slipped into the folds of the MS. a full con- fession of the resistless poTver of her charms Tvith a frank and honourable declaration of love. He was not long without a reply, under her own hand and seal. The lessons of the following day were dis- posed of, and Reuben was hurrying to regain his room, and bury himself in solitude, when he saw a servant of the Barsacs, and observed him inquiring for somebody or something. Reuben ran over to the man, who put a note and small paper parcel into his hand, touched his hat, and went away. In an instant Reuben was in his closet, and had already torn the parcel open. It was his MS., with a few hues from Blanche, to the effect that she had read it with the greatest pleasure, and thought it exceed- ingly clever and interesting. With respect to a detached paper which she had found enclosed, she had read that also, but not with the same satisfaction ; she begged him to excuse her for observing that it did not appear to her to be as well considered as his other essay. The other note was from Mrs. Barsac, suggesting the expediency of discontinuing the sittings to her daughter, at least for the present; 176 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, indeed, she Tvas happy to acquaint him that Blanche was in hopes of even finishing it without gi^dng him any further trouble, and was very thankful to him for the sittings with which he had favoured her. OR THE COMIKG MAN. 177 CHAPTER IX. 4 AX AFFLICTING DISCOVERY, WHICH OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN MADE SOONER. E-EiiBEisr was not long in ignorance of the over- whelming truth which the sagacious reader has prohahly already divined. Schoolboys are great proficients in the art of ingeniously tormenting. The very next day, while the smart was fresh of the wounds received in the last chapter, Reuben overheard the following dialogue, which had in all probabihty been concerted expressly to be overheard by him. " Think of dry sherry,^' said one, " being MedHcott's grandmamma ! She will keep him in precious order, won't she V' " That she will, and no mistake," re23lied another. " I hear it's not dry sherry at all ; it's brown," said a third. "Pale, I say." VOL. I. N 178 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, " So do I. The pdle one, for a bottle of pop." " Done/' said the backer of one of the other ladies. " Why, it's pale sherry he is in love with ; to be in love with his grandmother would be capital fun." This was the first hint. Confirmation followed quickly enough, and in only too great an abun- dance. Reuben often laughed, in his maturer years, at the follies and miseries of this period of his life. It seemed to him, as it has done to most men, hardly credible that his puerile infatuation should have carried him to such preposterous lengths, and still harder to understand how he could have made himself so wretched as he did by his incomparable absurdities. The notion of that grim old grandfather marrying the fair young Blanche, with those sweet, calm, bewitching eyes, almost overset his reason. The principal fact was so horrible, that he took little or no interest in the subordinate events connected with it. The marriage, although decided on, was not to take place for some time; there were delays and dijficulties, as usual in hymeneal transactions, and rumour ascribed them to various causes, among others to the true OE THE COMIXG MAX. 179 one, the embarrassed state of the Dean's private cii'cumstances, notwithstanding his rich prefer- ments in the Church. Blanche Barsac went on a visit at this time to friends in London, and Reuben knew nothing of it for several weeks, during which interval his correspondence with his parents, and the letters he received from his aunt Mountjoy, and his friends Winning and Primrose, helped to familiarise his mind, in some measure, with the subject that was most painful to reflect on, and gradually to extract the sting of his anguish. Primrose wi'ote him a very pleasant letter, in which he paralleled the Dean and his bride with Tithonus and Aurora, and discussed in a most amusing manner the singular passion which young women sometimes conceive for men who might be their fathers. Neither Hyacinth nor Winnirfg had the slightest notion of their friend Reuben's competition with his grandfather for the lady's affections ; and as they had both met Blanche in town, it was perfectly plain she had kept his secret with the most amiable fidelity. The truth, indeed, was that Blanche was very fond of Reuben, and had the sincerest regard for him, which she afterwards showed upon many an occasion, as the com'se of this history will prove. ^' 2 ISO EEUBEN" MEDLICOTT, Meanwhile his schoolboy days were nearly numbered. He was actually now within three months of the period which had been fixed upon for his leaving Finchley, where he had learned as much as his preceptors professed to teach, and more a great deal than was necessary as preparation for either of the universities. The period of his departure, however, was precipi- tated by the good-nature of Mr. Brough, who, having noticed that Reuben was looking ill, mentioned it one morning to his grandfather, whom he chanced to meet, adding that change of air and relaxation for a week or two would (with deference to the Dean's better judgment) be of the greatest service to him. "You think so," said the Dean, who was propitious at the moment, *"' very well, let it be so, — Chichester is a great way off, but Tm going down to-night to see how the alterations are going on in my house at Westbury, and FU take him with me. He shall have a gun to shoot the rabbits, and Mrs. Reeves, my house- keeper, will make dandehon tea for him.'' " No plan can be better," said Mr. Brough. " But you had better," said the Dean, " give him a book of Virgil to get by heart ; he can't shoot rabbits all the day long." OR THE COMIls'G MAX. 181 " With great respect, sir," said the complaisant but humane schoolmaster, Mrs. Reeves and the rabbits will do him more good just now than a book of Virgil." " Perhaps you are right,'' said the Dean, " and as the coach office is at hand, Til book the boy now and secure his place.'' So Reuben was booked like a parcel, without haying a voice in the matter, and he went down that night with the Dean to his place at Westbury. 182 EEUBEN IMEDLICOTT, CHAPTER X. REUBEJ^ GETS AX IXSIGHT INTO THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HIS GRANDFATHER. While the following morning was yet grey, Reuben's sleep was broken by an infinit}^ of discordant sounds, produced by carpenters, bricklayers, glaziers, and cliimney-doctors, dis- persed over all parts of the house, and all in turn occasionally drowned by the harsh thunder- ing voice of his grandfather, dictating to the several tradesmen, and informing them all in rotation, that they were scandalously ignorant of their business ; that he knew more of masonry himself than half the masons in England ; that painters ought to know something of mixing colours, but he never saw a painter who did ; that it was more noise than work with the carpenters ; and as to the chimney-doctors, they were a pack of charlatans. Reuben, after rubbing his eyes, stole out of bed, and peeped over a OE THE COMING MAX. 183 balustrade close to the door of his bed-room, from whence he obtained a view of the Dean in a loose old trailing dressing-gown, alternately lecturing and abusing the mechanics, some of whom were quietly going on with their work without taking much notice of their eccentric employer, while others were suspending their hammers, their brushes, or their diamonds, and receiving his observations with affected gratitude and respect. Reuben stole back again to his bed, for it was still early; but he had scarcely laid his head on his pillow, when his door was thrown open with a clatter, and in stalked the Dean, followed by a couple of glaziers, to whom he was giving a torrent of instructions, in compliance with the first of which the only window in the room was chucked in a trice out of the frame ; so that Eeuben might as well have had to make his toilet alfresco. He dressed himself in presence of his grandfather and the glaziers, while the former commenced ransacking an old bookcase, the contents of which he had quite forgotten, mixing up running commentaries on the books, as he tumbled them out, with odds and ends of advice to Reuben on the subject of rabbit- shooting and other similar sports, which natu- 184. REUBEN MEDLICOTT, rally led him to his own exploits with the gun, some of them not much less amazing than the exploits of Baron Munchausen. Then he held forth on the various breeds of rabbits and their extraordinary fecundity, and told anecdotes of rabbits that made the mechanics grin, and even E,euben laugh, who had not laughed for weeks. He told them Bacon's story of the simple school- boy who was astounded when the rabbits scam- pered off on his shouting in Latin to his comrade, never dreaming that rabbits were acquainted with the dead languages ; and how Hobbes, when he lived at Old Sarum, humorously con- cluded, that a burgess in the English language was synonymous with a cony, as the conies were the only constituency which even in his time that ancient borough had to boast of The glaziers thought the Dean omniscient, particu- larly when he made some just remarks on matters connected with their own trade. How- ever, as he went down to breakfast he forfeited their good opinion to a certain extent ; for, taking a hammer out of the hand of one of the car- penters' apprentices, to show him how to drive a nail with precision, he missed his aim by a quarter of an inch, and gave himself a smart rap on the thumb. He pretended it was OR THE COMIXG MAX. 185 nothing, but the apprentice knew very well what a sore thing it was, and quoted a famihar adage as soon as the old gentleman was out of hearing. The Dean only remained a day or two, passing the time between odd discussions with his workmen, and researches in his library, chiefly among the fathers, to support some theological dogma or another which he was shortly about to propound to the world either in a sermon or a tract. Engaged in this latter occupation, he utterly forgot his engagement to Keuben to give him the gun, and set him down to copy long passages from Eusebius and Bellarmine, which filled up the interval between a stragghng breakfast and a dinner of the same character. The house being in such confusion, everything w^as done in the library, which was, of course, not much behind the other ajjartments in point of disorder. The books lay on the floor in heaps, for the shelves had been just painted, and the Dean sat at his breakfast amidst a chaos of classics and divinity, simul- taneously eating and reading with equal vora- city ; now and then striding to the door to shout directions to the painters, and bellowing to ]\Irs. Reeves for hot water to shave. He always used 186 REUBEIs^ MEDLICOTT, his library or study as his dressing-room, -wherever he resided. In the present state of his house, his toilet was in perfect keeping with the general disorder of the establishment. He shaved himself in a little shattered looking- glass, which he set upon the mantel-piece, not even waiting until he had quite finished his meal, but travelling backwards and forwards between the breakfast-table and the hearth-stone, utter- ing all manner of strange noises and internal rumblings, to the consternation of his gentle grandson, who had never seen or heard so much of the private life of his maternal ancestor before. Mingled, however, with the inarticulate sounds elicited partly by the difficulty of eating and shaving at the Same time, partly by the embar- rassment of seeing more chins than one in the mirror, came forth at intervals a multitude of sound, hard-headed maxims and receipts for success in life, intended for Reuben's use, and probably more likel}^ to remain impressed on his memory, delivered as they were, than if they had been imparted with more dignity in any portico or academic shade. " Aim at being a great man ; there is some- thing great in even failing to become great. OR THE COMING MAK 187 Encourage the passions that lead to greatness ; there are three of them ; love of business, love of reputation, and love of power. But if you would be a good man, which is better than being a great one, you must love two things besides ; you must love truth and you must love mankind. I put truth foremost ; God forbid I should give man the precedence ; nine men out of ten are scoundrels, not that we ought not to love scoundrels, or try to love them ; but it is a difficult thing to do, — the cutler who made this razor was an arrant scoundrel." The Dean had prepared Reuben for this last remark by a series of grunts with which he had interpolated the latter part of his speech. He gulped down some coffee, soaping the edge of the cup in doing so, and resumed in a new track of observation, while Reuben sat imbibing his counsels, and gazing almost with terror at the bloody harvest which the bad razor was reaping. "•Preserve due order among the objects of your respect and veneration. Place them in your mind as you do pounds, shillings, and pence in your arithmetic. Respect piety and virtue first ; genius and learning in the second place ; rank and authority in the third, when they are 188 not disgraced in the persons of their possessors — they often are/' Here he finished his operations on one side of his face and refreshed himself with some coffee and toast, before he proceeded to the other moiety. " Wealth, and what is called blood, have no claims upon yom' reyerence at all. Birth is an accident. Wealth is odious when it is acquired by sordid methods, and when it is obtained by talent and industr}^ the industry and talent command our homage, not the fortune obtained by them. Before good men be reverent ; before the wise be diffident ; before the great be discreet ; but never bow your knee, or bait your breath in the presence of the mere millionnairey or the mere patrician." He cut himself again, interpolated another attack on the cutler, and resumed — " I never did. My ' learned pate' — if there is any learning in it — never ' ducked to the golden fool,' as Shakspeare has it. Hand me that towel. Eeuben obeyed, and in doing so took courage to say that he recollected another passage in Shakspeare, breathing the spirit of his grand- father's observations. OE THE COMIXG MAN. 189 " I held it ever, " Virtue and wisdom were endowments greater Than nobleness and riches." " Well said and well remembered : who is the speaker V asked the Dean, looking down with grim approbation upon his youthful com- panion, as he wiped his razor, having concluded his sanguinary work. " The Ephesian lord, sir, in the play of ' Pericles,' " said Reuben, blushing at his httle success. "Shakspeare knew,'' said the Dean, "that there are lords as well as commoners who understand in what true greatness consists, and who draw honour from its proper fountains. Men cannot help being lords ; they are neither to be respected for it, nor despised for it. Hand me that coat on the back of the chair yonder.'' While Reuben was handing the coat, his grandfather was disemboweUing the huge pockets of his dressing gown ; and unquestion- ably it was a strange miscellany that he produced from those receptacles ; letters, invitations, soiled handkerchiefs, odd gloves, keys, memo- randums, notes of sermons, builders' estimates, a heap of copper coins, with here and there a 190 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, sixpence shining among them, a great many bills, and very few receipts. All these articles he now thrust into the pockets of the coat, in doing which he dropped one of the notes and nodded to Reuben to pick it up. Our poor Reuben ! in picking up the note he glanced at the writing, and recognised the hand of Blanche. Down it went, however, crushed among the other things, with no more ceremony or sentiment than if it had been a tavern reckoning. The heart of the susceptible boy felt crushed along with it, but, fortunately for him just at present, his grandfather's society was perfectly incompatible with the indulgence of tender thoughts. The Dean was no sooner dressed than he took Reuben with him to inspect the stables and offices, thence hurried him through the garden, over the farm, and round about the neighbourhood for a couple of hours, after which he returned to a lusty luncheon, had another altercation with the contractor, and sitting down to Eusebius himself, set Reuben to copy pages of Bellarmine until dinner. At dinner he was equally instructive, though perhaps more vain-glorious. " Keep doing, always doing, and whatever you do, do it with all your heart, soul, and OR THE COMIXG MAX. 191 strength. Wishing, dreaming, intending, mur- muring, talking, sighing, and repining, are all idle and profitless employments. The only manly occupation is to keep doing. I have been often told by wiseacres that building was a ruinous taste, but it is true of one kind of building, ot castles in the air — a sort of castle that I never built. If I am a good example for anything, it is for energy ; I study with energy, I exercise with energy, I sleep and I eat with energy." Reuben had the proof of the latter assertion before his eyes, in the rapid consumption of the beef and mustard which his grandsire was making, while he had scarcely disposed of the first slice he had been helped to. The Dean at length observed his descendant's inefficiency with the knife and fork. " Dine like a man, sir," he said, helping him a second time; "1 dont approve of your dainty dastardly eaters ; I dont like the man who does not like his dinner ; that's one of my maxims ; he may be honest but I am not sure of it. When I don't see a good appetite I am apt to suspect there is a bad digestion ; and I cannot help connecting that with something amiss in the moral organisation. We are compound bein^i-s : we are not all bodv, neither are we all lOa REUBEIT MEDLICOTT, mincl. The stomach and the conscience have a close affinity, take my word for it." The Dean paused, took a glass of port, pushed the water to Reuhen, and hoped he was careful in the choice of his friends. " Have you many V he inquired. *' A good many, sir," said Eeuben. " You are a fortunate fellow," said his grand- father sneeringly; " Achilles had only Patroclus; Pylades only Orestes, and you have a troop it seems. Who are they V^ " Henry Winning." " I have heard of him ; a promising young man." " Hyacinth Primrose." " Anybody else '? — you have not come to the end of the list." " Well, indeed, sir," said Reuben, " I had no notion how few friends I had, until I counted them." " There is an important difference," said the Dean, " between friendships and intimacies. Inti- macies are not friendships, but the tests of friendships. It is, unfortunately, only through intimacies we can discover how unworthy men are of possessing our friendship. We think we are deceived by our friends, when we have only OR THE COMING MAX. 193 discovered that they never were true friends at all." Two or three days passed in this manner, and then the Dean left Westhury as abruptly as he came there. One morning after breakfast, having curtly recommended Eeuben to the care of Mrs. Heeves, he thrust all his pajoers and things (that his pockets did not hold) into a carpet bag, grasped it by the lug, as a constable might do a thief, and strode away with the steps of Homer's Poseidon, to meet the coach for Here- ford, which passed his gate at a certain well- known hour. Few ever deepty regretted the departure of Dean Wyndham. He usually left behind him the kind of feelings that people are conscious of when a storm has ceased which threatened to pull down their chimnej^s, and kept them awake the livelong night. The workmen were decidedly the happier when he was gone. Old Mrs. Reeves alwaj^s tried to persuade herself that she was distressed upon such occasions, but in truth she was more comfortable in her master's absence, just because she was quieter ; she expressed the exact state of her mind when she said that she ''missed him ver}' much," for we miss many a thing that we have no wish to have back again in a hurry — 194 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, a truth well known to widows in particular. Reuben alone would have been better pleased if his grandfather had protracted his stay. The Dean's company had the singular effect of banishing from his thoughts the very subject which it might have been supposed it was particularly calculated to encourage. Reuben was carried away and interested in spite of himself, by a force and originality of character which, indeed, produced upon most people a very strong impression. He was won too by the substantial kindness of the old gentleman's behaviour. In short he was more inclined upon the whole to gratitude than to resentment ; he was probably too young to be furiously jealous; or perhaps it is not very easy or natural to be jealous of a man's grandfather. In the way of rabbit shooting, our hero did as little as it was possible for him to do, for which there were several reasons, but the principal one was this, — his grandfather went away without giving him the gun he had promised him. This was a matter of less concern to the rabbits probably than it was to Reuben ; but even to him it was of no great consequence, for he never had much enjoyment in any out-of-door occu- pation in which he had no associates. Had he OR THE COMIXG MAX. 195 made war upon the rabbits, therefore, it would probably have been over in a single campaign, and it is questionable if he would have killed a sufficient number of the enemy to entitle himself to the honours of a triumph. Faihng the sports of the field, the resources at his command were the hbrary, the workmen, and the society of the housekeeper. He was rather successful with Mrs. Eeeves, because it was easy to be so, if you allowed her to be kind and attentive to vou in her own fashion, tasted her gooseberry jams, pretended to give her dandehon tea a trial, and allowed her to go in and out and fidget about you, without snarling, or looking thunder at her. But Mrs. Reeves was not an Egeria vdth whom you could five in a cave or a desert. The silent library was more fascinating to Reuben, so he established himself there, and after some hours' deliberation commenced making a catalogue, and he laboured so incessantly at this undertaking for several days, scarcely affording himself time for food and exercise, that Mrs. Reeves con- cluded it was a task set him by his grandfather, and never approached his table without heaving audible sighs and uttering various little ejacula- tions of a compassionate nature. At last he noticed these symptoms of mental uneasiness, o2 196 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, and it was easy to bring the old lady to an explanation. " It was a pity, so it was, to see so young a gentleman tied to the desk from morning till night, when it would do him so much more good to be diverting himself in the fields, or even assisting the haymakers in making the hay ; she had heard stories of students growing double from moping too long over their books, and though her master was so old a man, few young men of the present day could do what he could do/' " There is a great deal of sense in what you say,'^ said Reuben, " and I'll take your advice this instant. I have been working unnecessarily hard, but from this day forth, while I remain here, I will be ruled by you and divide my time more equally between business and relaxation." If you want to win an old woman's heart, let her advise you, and either take her advice, or leave her under the impression that you will take it. The latter will do nearly as well. Reuben, however, actually followed Mrs. Reeves's suggestions, so that he was soon in the highest favour. The works going on in the house now began to engage his attention, particularly when the OR THE COMI^^G MAN. 197 weather was unfavourable for walking. It was not only amusing but instructive to watch the processes of the different mechanics, who were employed in the extensive alterations going forward. The first acquaintance he made was with the young carpenter, whom the Dean had taught to drive a nail at the cost of bruising one of his own. From this intelligent lad he picked up nearly as much of the trade as he could have done in the greater part of a seven years' apprenticeship. He gained the carpenter's affections by playing the flageolet, and he was repaid for his strains by being instructed in the use of the saw and the chisel. Indeed, the flageolet soon became a great source of enjoy- ment to all the workmen, without at all hindering their labours, and Reuben was often prevailed upon to station himself in a central position on the principal staircase, perched on the bannisters, or on one of the painter's ladders, so that the music might be distributed as equally as possible over the whole house. The most popular airs were the cheerful ones, but there was one of the glaziers, a palhd pensive young man, who always begged for something sentimental, and Eeuben afterwards found the name of Fanny in stragghng letters upon a pane in his bed-chamber, 198 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, which had most probably been scratched there with his diamond by the love-lorn artisan. One evening, after he had done a good day's work at the catalogue, while Mrs. Reeves was making his tea — not the dandelion — the 3"oung carpenter came with an humble petition to Eeuben. There was dancing going on in the farm-yard, but the lads and lasses had no music except the whistling of one of the ploughmen, and if Master Medlicott would come down with his flageolet, and jDlay them a few tunes, he would make the assembly happy and grateful beyond all expression. Reuben was easily per- suaded to do a good-natured thing, so he very cheerfully consented to improve the rustic orchestra. Mrs. Reeves was at first adverse, but she was soon brought round, and would even have gone to the ball herself, only for certain infirmities connected with her feet, which always indisposed her to walking. The farm-yard presented a gay sight, and there never was a happier throng assembled in any ball-room, than was assembled there that evening under a full moon, which mth the rosy remains of daylight afforded tlie revellers as much illumination as they cared to have. The excitement was at its heidit when Reuben OR THE COMIXG MAX. 199 appeared Tvith his instrument, and the home- stead rang through all the sheds and offices with the praises of his good-nature, cleverness, and condescension. It is not very common to wit- ness so harmonious a union of husbandry and handicraft as was witnessed on the occasion of this impromptu festivity, for the masons, painters, plumbers, and other workmen employed in the house, were mingled with the ploughboys, dairy- maids, and haymakers ; the ball was opened by Reuben's friend, the carpenter, and Dorothy, the gardener's daughter, a full-blown rose of a girl, well able to dance down all the rest of the com- pany, particularly the mechanical portion of it. Jenu}^, who held an office in the dairy, and was fan' and mild as her own milk, danced with the chief of the masons ; Molly, the under hen- wife, was led off by a plumber ; [Maria and Rebecca, two of the housemaids, consented to be the partners of a bell-hanger and a j)ainter ; the rest paired off as they best could, and whether it was a reel, a jig, a countrj^ dance, or a fan- dango, there never tripped a merrier group on the best chalked floor in London, than our hero put into motion by the first breath of his flageolet, just as if it had been an electric machine with a system of wires attached to the heels of the 200 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, dancers. Eeuben climbed by a ladder to the flat summit of an unfinished hay-rick, and seating himself in that commanding position, shed his toe-inspiring melody upon the animated crowd beneath him. The love-lorn glazier, who would not dance because his Fanny w^as far away, was a pensive spectator of the scene from the top- most step of a wooden staircase which led to a granary ; and various urchins about the farm, who were either too untaught, or too unclad, to be admitted into the circle (for there are exclu- sives even in the farm-yard), climbed into the boughs of a great tree, where, concealed from view by the foliage, they nevertheless managed to make their presence sufficiently known by the shouts and loud laughter wdth which they hailed all the little mischances and fatalities, liberties and necessities, incidental to rustic gaiety and moonlight mirth. In short, the jollity was of the most exuberant description ; nor, though the dance was not tipsy, was there wanting a supply of cider and brown ale from the neighbouring village to refresh the company, for the farm-people had clubbed half-a-crown to treat the tradesmen, and Reuben graciously contributed the same sum from the residue of his pocket-money, so OR THE COMING MAX. 201 that there Tvas quite enough of the t^o beverages to promote innocent exhilaration, and not enough to stimulate it beyond the bounds of propriety. The first tankard was voted unanimously to the obliging Orpheus of the evening, who, after a moderate libation, descended from the rick, and graciously bowing to the revellers, and making them a dainty little speech, but quite long- enough for the occasion, with something in it to please everybody, lads and lasses, rustics and mechanics, withdrew from the yard amidst loud plaudits, and carrying all hearts along with him. 202 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, CHAPTER XL HOW REUBEX CELEBRATED HIS GRANDFATHER'S MARRIAGE. It was a great step towards Eeuben^s complete recovery, when he became composed enough to converse with Mrs. Reeves upon his grand- father's singular marriage. Mrs. Reeves had long been anxious to have a palaver with him on the subject, but she did not know how an allusion to it by her might be taken, and this considera- tion had kept her silent. But it was not in the nature of woman to endure such restraint for ever, so when the housekeeper found that Reuben would not take the initiative, she determined to take it herself, and when she once began it was a task beyond the power of Reuben to stop her. " Well, wonders,'' she thought, " would never cease, and she did not know what the world would come to at last, for she remembered the time when gentlemen who were stricken in OR THE COMIXG MAX. 203 years, like her master, used to tliink of the burial-service more than the marriage-service. To be sure the Dean ^as hale and hearty, and a stout comely man for his years, but he was an old man nevertheless ; for she was not a young creature herself, but she remembered the first day she ever laid eyes upon him, when she was only a giddy girl, and he was not a young man at that time. She had served two mistresses, and she never thought to be called on to serve a third, but if it was the will of Heaven, she was prepared to submit.'' Reuben approved of the spirit evinced by Mrs. Reeves. It was necessary to say some- thing, and this answered the purpose. Mrs. Reeves then proceeded to say, that " she didn't see much use in sense and learning, since all the learning her master had in his head didn't make him wiser than other people after all ; it was bad enough to marry at all, but if marry he must, he might have chosen some respectable elderly person, not a giddy, gay, inexperienced young lady, and handsome, she was informed, into the bargain." This was painful to Reuben's ears, and he would have put an end to it, if he had been able. 20i EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, " I suppose/^ he said, again in doubt what he ought to say, " ray grandfather ^ranted a com- panion, somebody to manage his house for him." This was rather a maladroit remark. " His house was not so ill-managed as all that,'' returned Mrs. Reeves, drily ; " though she said it that should not say it : and as to companions, he had his books, he had his own writings and sermons ; had he not as much company as he chose to invite 1 — and was not she always willing, when he was lonely, to bring in her knitting, or her ironing, or whatever little thing she was doing, if it was only an apple -dumpling she was making, and sit anywhere he pleased^ — he might talk to her, or let it alone, just as he liked ; but he never was, to say, an affable sort of a gentle- man at any period of his life ; and since he began to dabble in mortar, it had not sweetened his temper. Then she hoped and trusted his new wife would prove a better match for him than the two who were in heaven ; but perhaps Master Reuben could tell her something about the young lady, as he had come from Hereford where she lived." Reuben had been apprehensive it would come to this, but there was no help for it, so he did his best to command his emotions, and being OE THE COMIXG MAX. 205 once compelled to speak of Blanche, he could not do so except in terms the most laudatory, and even enthusiastic. In short, he was warmed by the theme, and ended by leaving Mrs. Reeves under the satisfactory conviction that if her new mistress laboured under the disadvanta2:e of beino' vouno; and handsome, she made some amends for those defects by being at the same time one of the most angelic of her sex. The Dean's house presented now the edifying picture of a most diligent community ; the workmen busy from morn to night at the repairs ; Reuben labouring at his catalogue ; Mrs, Reeves manufacturing the fruits of the season into jams and conserves ; in short, the bees were not a more industrious commonwealth. Catalogue-making pleased Reuben, because it not only exercised his ingenuity, but augmented his knowledge of the resources of literature. Reuben found numerous works in his grandfather's col- lection, of the very existence of which he had been ignorant ; nay, he scarcely knew that there were such subjects as they treated of Among others he found some curious old treatises on astrology, which seduced him for a day or two from his immediate pursuit. While interested in this idle study, he covered whole sheets of 206 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, paper, and all the backs of his letters with diagrams, horoscopes, and calculations of imagi- nary nativities according to the rules "which he found in the books. At length, having exhausted his paper, and ^^^anting a more extended space for the working of a greater problem than he had yet encountered, he cleared the centre ot the floor, drew his figures and circles with chalk, and began to realize to himself the actual opera- tions of a cunning man of the middle ages. While he was occupied thus, his friend the carpenter came to liim to solicit another favour, but it w^as a favour for the glazier, not for him- self; in fact, the glazier w^anted to send his Fanny a love letter, and washing the letter to be a finer composition than he felt himself equal to produce, the idea had occurred to him of prevaihng on our hero to compose one for him. The carpenter was indeed instructed to say, that there w^as little doubt of the heart of Fanny yielding to the pen of Master Reuben Medlicott, if he would kindly lend his genius for the occasion, and write the billet doux with a crow-- quill. Reuben was interrupted and disturbed, but he was also flattered by this request. The crow-quill was easily found ; the glazier, wdth his friend the carpenter, attended in the library OR THE COMIXG MAX. 207 after the work of the day, aud an epistle was written, which (as Reuben long afterwards con- fessed) consisted for the most part of the identical tender thoughts and sentimental similes, which, arrayed in nearly the same words, had formed the materials of his letter to Blanche Barsac. '* The fact was," he used to say, in his own excuse, " I was so engrossed by the astrology that original composition at the moment was out of the question." The gratitude of the glazier was unbounded ; but give most men an inch and they will take an ell if they can get it. The car- penter re-appeared when Reuben was at break- fast the next morning, and glancing knowingly at the figures and spheres with which the floor of the library was covered, he ventured to hint, after some circumlocution, that Mr. Medhcott could, if he pleased, form a tolerably shre^rd guess as to the future fortunes of the glazier and his love. Though Reuben declined to pry into the book of fate, even for the sake of comforting an affliction with which he could not but pro- foundly sympathise, it did not prevent his fame from spreading abroad for fortune-telling as well as letter- writing. Kot many days elapsed before our magician, malgre lid, had two applications 2 OS REUBEX MEDLICOTT, made to liim, one for the discover}^ of a cow which had been stolen from a poor farmer, and the second, m another love case, to divine the success of a joung man in the neighbourhood with Dorothy, the gardener's daughter. In the middle of all this, and in strict keeping with the abruptness of everything connected with the life and movements of Dean Wjndham., down came the news of his wedding. As it was to be, it was well it was over. Eeuben's love was now his grandmother. " After alV he said sensibly to himself, at the end of a solitary walk which he took to compose his spirits, " I am only eighteen, and Blanche is twenty-seven ; she is certainly too 3^oung to be my grandmother, but she is also too old to be my wife." The same evening brought him a letter from home. Blanche had written his mother a charming letter a few days before her marriage, and sent her the picture she had drawn of Reuben, which had actually only required a few finishing touches, and those she had given from memory. The picture pleased Mrs. Medlicott extremely, and it was already placed over the chimney-piece of the dining-parlour, in a frame much too costly for what it contained, considered as a work of art. OR THE COMING MAN. 209 When the Dean's wedding was noised abroad, it caused prodigious excitement, and as he had sent Mrs. Reeves a sum of money, to promote a Httle gaiety on the occasion among his people at Westbury, what form that gaiety ought to take became an immediate subject of dehbera- tion. Another rustic ball was resolved on, and as the moon was no longer auspicious, the barn was selected for the scene of festivity. A box of candles was ordered from the nearest town, and the carpenters with a few hoops made some capital substitutes for chandeliers, all under Reuben's directions ; for, without any formal appointment, or any ambition to obtain it, he found himself installed in the office of master ot the revels. The walls had their nakedness handsomely clothed with festoons of evergreens and flowers ; the floor was well rolled and made as smooth as it was possible to make it ; a substantial supper was prepared ; a hogshead of cider stood ready to be broached ; all the fiddlers and pipers within reach were retained specially, and a Welsh harper, who was on his way to a meeting of the bards, was induced to sojourn for the night, and add his contribution to the music. The Dean had no idea of such doings, or he would never have sent the donation, VOL. I. P 210 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, for there was an end of all labour on the farm, and all work within doors for the two days preceding \hQ fete. The greatest excitement of all, however, was among the girls, w^ondering and discussing wdiich of them would be honoured with Reuben's hand, for the ball would, of course, be opened by him ; and whether it was a nymph of the dairy, the garden, or the bed- rooms, it w'as certain that the honour of being his partner would fall to the lot of somebody. All w^ould have gone well if they had been content with the dancing, but Reuben unluckily knew something about making fire-works, and the moment the w^ord was mentioned, it became clear to everybody that without fire-works, the celebration of the nuptials might as w^ell be abandoned altogether. Accordingly to work he w^ent at the pyrotechnics, and, aided by the carpenter and glazier, wdio were now his most devoted servants, a quantity of rockets, squibs, crackers, and a few more ingenious devices, were produced in a wonderfully short time, as there w^as no difficulty about procuring gunpowder. It was arranged that the fire-works should precede the ball and supper ; had it been other- wise, they might have secured the latter enjoy- ments at all events ; but the fireworks had the OR THE COMING MAX. 211 precedence, and the beginning of the display was most successful. Reuben let off the rockets with his o^Yn hands, and the wonder and dehght of everj^bodj -^ as at the height, when an excla- mation was heard that the great hay-rick had caught fire. Consternation soon took the place of mirth. The rick was in a blaze before the nimblest could reach the yard. All that could be done to extinguish the flames, by putting up ladders and carr^^ing up buckets of water, was done with as much expedition and activity as possible, but in spite of every effort the fire continued to rage, and soon extending to other ricks and some stacks of corn, threatened the entire of Dean Wyndham's farm-property with destruction. Reuben behaved now hke a hero, if he had not acted before like a philosopher. His exertions were beyond those of anybody else, except perhaps his friends, the mechanics, who supported him as well as men could do. The utmost, however, that could be efiected was to save the buildings and the cattle. All the hay and corn in the yard, with many of the agricultural implements, were a heap of ashes before the sun rose the following morning ; and as to Reuben, who considered himself the responsible person for the calamity, between the p 2 212 KEUBEN MEDLICOTT. toil he underwent, the drenching of his clothes, and his mental sufferings, when poor Mrs. Reeves (herself in a pitiable situation) put him to bed at four o'clock in the morning, he was in the first stage of a high fever. BOOK THE THIED. " Tis the Philosoplier, the Orator, the Poet, whom we may compare to some first-rate vessel, which launches out into the wide sea, and with a proud motion insults the encountering surges. TTe are of the small-craft, or galley kind. We move chiefly by starts and bounds, according as our motion is by frequent intervals renewed. We have no great adventure in view, nor can tell certainly whither we are bound. "We undertake no mighty voyage by help of stars or compass, but row from creek to creek, keep up a coasting trade, and are fitted only for fair weather and the summer season." — SMftesbury' s Characteristics. AEGUMENT. This brief book is an interlude between school and college. Eeturned to quiet Underwood, we stall make the acquaint- ance of some very disagreeable, impertinent, meddling and unconscionable people, haj^py in the name of Pigwidgeon, the only pleasant thing about them. They were none of Eeuben's friends : his parents brought them upon him — his mother by being so clever a woman, his father by being so easy a man. In short the Medlicotts were Pigwidgeoned, and we are not to pity them, for they brought the Pigwidgeoning on them- selves. Pigwidgeoning will prove to be a social usage, nearly akin to spunging, although you will hardly find the word in the books of synonymes. Much is to be said against the practice, much also in its defence and favour ; in particular how it leads to the development of numerous Christian graces and excellencies of the human character. Doth it not put into daily practice the noble \artue of self-abasement 1 Is not the spirit of martyrdom as much evinced in suffering the snubs and rubs, and all the thousand ills that sponging is heir to, as in roasting like Latimer, or being fried like St. Lawrence 1 There are men of such exemplary fortitude as to submit to be roasted themselves for the sake of a roast sirloin, and make themselves the butt of the company for a glass or two of wine. What infinite mortifications abroad does not such a man endure, nay court, which he might easily escape by dining selfishly at home upon a mutton chop 1 Can the spirit of self-devotion descend lower, or should we not rather ask, can this noble spirit be conceived to soar higher than this ? To enter ungreeted, to depart amidst general satisfaction, to feel that he is the guest by sufierance of one who is a host of necessity, to know that an evil eye follows every motion of his fork, to feel that a bailiff or tax-gatherer would receive a more cordial welcome, would make ambrosia itself bitter, and turn a very cup of nectar AEGUME^'T. 215 sour. How then shall we ever enough admire the brave race which encounters these manifold evils undismayed. How strong must be their social yearnings ? How gi-eat the warmth within, that counteracts the fiigid look, the wintry reception, the cold shoulder ? How genial the glow of that self-hos- pitality which sustains them in the arctic regions abroaf. 247 CHAPTER III. A BOLD STROKE FOR A DIXNER.— HOW THE APOTHECARY GOT BACK TO THE VICARAGE, AND HOW HE TURNED THE VICAR OUT OF IT. Mrs. Medlicott had very little notion of the state of things at the Vicarage when she was inviting Dr. Page to pay her a visit. The Pig- widgeons seemed to have been placed by Provi- dence in the parish of Underwood to be the plague of the Vicar's life ; for as to his wife she was no more to be pitied than people in general are who bring their own troubles on themselves. For a considerable time after his wife left him the Vicar saw little or nothing of his friend the apothecary. In nourishing his resentment so long, ]\rr. Pigwidgeon was probably not more influenced by his wounded feelings, than by the consideration that during the serious illness of Reuben, and the absence of the mother of the family, there was likely to be a suspension, 248 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, or at least a marked diminution of the good cheer which no man loved better than he * did, when it was not at his own expense. Once or twice during this period, Mr. Medhcott met Pigwidgeon about the neighbourhood accom- panied by two dumpy red-faced daughters of his, treasures which the Vicar knew the apothecary possessed, for he had christened them, but he had scarcely ever seen them since that ceremony, the young ladies having been at an economical school in Yorkshire, from which they were now just returned. Nothing could well be colder than Mr. Pigwidgeon was upon these occasions ; his voice was husky when he enquired for Reuben, and he looked as bitter as if it would have been a satisfaction to him to have heard of some serious mistake made by Dr. Page in his treatment of the case. The Vicar was, indeed, beginning to think that the breach was irreparable ; sometimes he would reproach himself with having unnecessarily wounded the self-love of an old acquaintance ; then again he would sum up, as he worked in his garden, or sat at his solitary meals, the advantages and disadvantages of Mr. Pigwidgeon's friendship, the balance being always of a nature to console him under the OE THE COMIXG MAX. 249 apprehension of having offended past recon- ciliation. While he was musing on this very point one morning after his breakfast, walking about his garden, he heard a smart tap at the green door in the hedge. Opening it with reasonable haste, he found that his visitor was the Rural Dean of his district, who was on his tour of inspection, and who made it a rule to dine at Underwood whenever he came there — a rule which Mr. Barber extended to most of the parsonages which he visited in his peregrinations. The Vicar was a hospitable httle fellow to the extent of his means, even when he was in mental trouble, as he was at present ; accordingly, after the trans- action of some trifling business with Mr. Barber, he went through the usual and expected formality of inviting him to dinner, adding that there was a bed for him also, if it would suit his conve- nience to accept it. These preliminaries settled, Mr. Medhcott begged his guest to excuse him during a short absence, and after warning his cook-maid that increased activity would be necessary that day in her province, he sallied forth into the village to provide the things needful, and to pick up, if he could, a couple more guests to make the party a square one. 250 EEUBEI^ MEDLICOTT, He had not gone far before he met one of the churchwardens, a farmer of the better class, with whom he was on friendly terms, and he booked him without much difficulty, for the farmer having a termagant w^ife never spent an evening at home when he could avoid it. Now, if only a fourth could be found, all would be right. The Yicar first called on the law^^er of the village, but he was engaged to an election dinner at Chichester. " That's unlucky," said Mr. Medlicott. " Very unlucky for me," said the lawyer, " I woukl a thousand times rather dine with your reverence upon bacon and beans than with those noisy fellows in Chichester upon turtle and venison." The Yicar was a simple man, but he did not implicitly believe this strong assertion neverthe- less. However, he thanked the lawyer for the civil speech, and proceeded elsewhere in search of what he wanted. It is highly probable there were several people that morning in the parish who w^ould gladly have profited by Mr. Medlicott' s hospitable intentions, had it pleased Providence to throw them in his way, but it was otherwise ordered ; so that the Vicar at length made up his mind for an odd number. OR THE COMING MAX. 251 and turned his attention to the necessary provi- sion for them. Attended by a boy carrying a hand-basket, he went to and fro in the village, until the basket was nearly as full as it could conveniently hold of the various articles which he considered proper for a plain, substantial, pastoral dinner, and which his own small farm did not supply. During these marketing trans- actions he had to pass and repass the apothe- cary's house repeatedly, but the numerous phials in the windows, with the coloured globes, would have prevented him from distinguishing anybody in the shop, had he been ever so desirous to do so. The same obstructions, however, did not prevent Mr. Pigwidgeon from accurately ob- serving every motion of the Vicar ; and he observed them the more accurately on account of the contents of the basket, which became more interesting every moment, as they increased in variety and bulk. The basket, indeed, was of such a construction as to afford too clear a view of the good things deposited in it, amongst which a fat goose and a leg of Southdown mutton fascinated the apothecary particularly. There must certainly be something in good cheer and hospitable preparations, which melts the human heart and disposes it to kindly 252 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, feelings, for unquestionably the good Yicar with his basket of provisions had not passed more than two or three times before Mr. Pig widgeon's windows, when his breast began wonderfully to relent towards his old friend, and he commenced examining himself for the first time, whether he had not been too hasty in taking huff at a hasty word, uttered too at a moment when the poor Vicar was agitated by the news of his only child's dangerous illness. In a very few moments, (so rapidly did the ice melt when the thaw had once set in,) the apothecary had so far got the better of the paltry little grudge wdiich he had been cherishing towards the Medlicotts, that he felt not only prepared to resume convivial relations with them, but ac- tually conceived the idea of seizing the earliest opportunity of putting that truly Christian prin- ciple into practice. In short, he figured to himself a charming little love-feast, consisting of the fat goose and the joint of Southdow^n which he had seen, eked out w4th other toothsome additions which he was well able to fancy. In this tender frame of mind he made the circuit of his counter, displayed his slovenly person at his shop-door just as the Yicar went out of sight, returning home after completing his OR THE COMING MAX. 253 puiThases. There the apothecary stood musiDg for nearly a quarter of an hour, leaning against one of the posts, debating with him- self what steps he should take, and also whe- ther the dinner in contemplation was to be given that very day, or on some succeeding one. At length a sudden thought seemed to seize him, for he withdrew hastily, and appeared instantly again with his broad-brimmed, slouched white hat on. Beyond a doubt (judging from his well-known habits) he was going to the butcher's or the poulterer's to file a bill of dis- cover}^ to ascertain the day fixed for the cooking of the goose and the mutton. But a certain phenomenon of a meteoric kind, partly terrestrial and partly celestial, saved liim the trouble of making the inquir3\ This was a spiral column of deep blue smoke which began at that very moment to ascend over the trees in the direc- tion of the Vicarage, the bearings of which the apothecary knew as well as if he had taken an Ordnance survey of the parish. Xay. he knew the smoke at once to be that of the kitchen chimney, so nice an observer was he, for this was not the first time that similar indications over the same trees had determined his course of proceedings for the day. Xo time was to be 254 KEUBEN MEDLICOTT, lost. Mr. Pig\yidgeon struck a bold stroke for a dinner. The Yicar's dinner-hour was five o'clock and at a little before four, as he and his brother parson were sauntering about, talking of tithes and dilapidations, and sometimes of better things, he was not a little surprised by the arrival of Mr. Pigwidgeon's apprentice with a present of a fresh trout from that gentleman, accompanied with a message to the effect that he had been prevented by his professional engagements from calhng at the Vicarage for some time, but he would look in the first evening he had an hour to spare, as he was most anxious to hear from Mr. Medlicott's own lips the latest account of his son. The Vicar was trapped. There seemed to him no alternative but to accept the present, or come to actual daggers-drawn ; and to have eaten the trout without inviting the giver to partake of it would have been against all Mr. Medlicott's notions of the fitness of things. Besides, he bore no ill-will . to the apothecary, although inclined to despise him, and finally he wanted somebody to make the fourth at dinner, a point which was the more important in his eyes, as his table was a square one. OE THE COMING MAN. 255 Mr. Pio'Tvido-eon was invited, after wliicli it is needless to say that Mr. Pigwidgeon came ; and it was something like gettmg in the end of a wedge, for the apothecar}^ had no sooner arrived and re-established himself in his old position at the Vicarage, than he made a push and a suc- cessful one to introduce his dumpy daughters, the pretext being that in Mrs. Medlicott's absence they would be useful in the evening to make tea for the party. In yielding this point the Vicar made a mistake which he very soon deeply regretted, yet what else could he well have done '? The Misses Pigwidgeon were sent for, and ere the dinner was half over they were seen waddling up the principal walk of the garden, approaching the house in muslin frocks, prettily spotted with peonies, and every now and then dropping into the form of cheeses, or rounds of beef, to pick the gooseberries or currants, just as a pair of ducks, though bent on a journey to the pond, will halt every now and then to gobble up a snail in the grass. " My poor girls," cried the apothecary with paternal rapture ; he was seated so as to have a full view of the corpulent nymphs to whom he was so nearly related. The churchwarden, who was the gayest of the party, paid broad compliments to their personal charms, 256 REUBE^^ MEDLICOTT, altliougli he could only see them over his shoulder. As to the Vicar and the Rural Dean, they were content with the side-long prospects their places afforded them, and took a glass of port together while the apothecary was recount- ing to the farmer the gifts and accomplishments of his girls. After all, it was the churchwarden and Mr. Pigwidgeon who redeemed the dinner from stupidity ; for though neither was a pleasant fellow himself, the collision between them, as it often happens, proved a source of some little amusement. The conversation having casually turned upon domestic arrangements, the farmer began talking of his house, and the apothecary must do the same. " You know my house," said Mr. Pigwidgeon. " I know the outside of it,'' said the church- warden. The Vicar and the Rural Dean looked at one another, and both enjoyed the visible elongation of the apothecary's already sufficiently long face. " Well, Pigwidgeon," continued the church- warden, " now your daughters are come home to take care of you, you will be showing your friends the inside of your house some of these days." "Aye," said Pigwidgeon, wriggling in his chair, OR THE COMIXG MAX. 257 and making a vigorous effort to look good- humoured, " we must soon be thinking of doing something to keep the house warm.'' " The best way of doing that is by keeping good fires in the kitchen/' said Mr. Barber ; " I look upon the kitchen as the heart of the house, and I need not tell a gentleman of Mr. Pigwidgeon's profession the importance of keeping up the caloric in that region." " Pigwidgeon," said the farmer, " you must not let it be said you have a cold heart, which you see his reverence considers as bad as a cold kitchen." The apothecary again tried to laugh, but made the worst attempt possible. " There is not a more hospitable fellow alive than I am," he said, " or one that loves more to have his friends about him, but the misfortune of my profession is, that it leaves a man no time to think of hospitality ; sometimes not a moment even to get a comfortable bit of dinner." " That's a ver}^ hard case," said the church- warden, with affected commiseration. " There is no doubt," said Mr. Barber, benevo- lently coming to Mr. Pigwidgeon's rescue, " there are many men so situated, either professionally or domestically, that they are not in a position 253 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, to be as social and conyiyial in their own houses as they would wish to be. Sometimes a man is very hosi^itable and generous himself, but is cursed with an unsocial or stingy wife/^ " Or he may have a sickly family," added the Vicar, thinking of the apothecary's vigorous brood of children. *' However," pursued Mr. Barber, " what I was coming to is this, that there are two ways fortu- nately of being social and convivial ; one is being convivial at home, which means giving dinners, and the other is being convivial abroad, which means accepting them." " A just view of hospitality," said the Vicar, smihng, " and a classical one, being strictly in harmony with the two senses of the Latin word Jiospes, which signifies guest as well as host." " I don't understand Latin and Greek," said the blunt churchwarden, " but I hope I under- stand plain EngHsh, and my notion is that a man ought not to dine with his friends and neighbours if he can't or won't entertain them in return." Here Mr. Barber, observing that the farmer's tone was serious, while himself and the Vicar had been only jocular, and remarking also that Mr. Pig-widoeon was sore at the turn the OR THE COMmO MAX. 259 conversation had taken, rose from the table and gave Mr. ]\Iedlicott's proposition of another bottle a decided negative. The Yicar himself was relieved by the adjourn- ment to the tea-table. Only one of the fair Pigwidgeons was there. The other, it appeared, had been taken suddenly ill, and had retired to another room. The apothecary hastened to see her, and soon returned, saying that it was nothing serious ; she would be well presently and able to walk home. When tea was over, Mr. Pig- widgeon went up again, and the other sister with him. He now was absent for about a quarter of an hour, and when he came back it was to announce that his daughter was rather seriously indisposed, and that he feared he must trespass on the Vicar's goodness to allow her to remain where she was just for the night. It was only common humanity to accede to such a request, but the consciousness of that virtue was Mr. Medlicott's only reward, for before he was out of bed the next morning, Mr. Pigwid- geon came to inform him that his poor girl was in a very bad way, though whether it would end in scarlatina or small- pox he had not yet formed a decisive opinion. It proved to be malignant scarletina, and no sooner did one sister begin to s2 260 KEUBEN MEDLICOTT, recover than the other thought proper to catch the same complaint ; nor was this all, for the young doctor, who had been absent for some days previous, quartered himself at the Vicarage on his return in the capacity of resident physi- cian, so that the Vicar now saw his house in the absolute possession of the Pigwidgeons, and turned into a regular infirmary. Luckily, this unpleasant occurrence took place just at the moment when it was proper for him to set out for Westbury, but he must have gone on his travels under any circumstances, for he was nervous on the score of infection, and to have remained at home would probably have endangered his life. OR THE COMING MAX. 261 CHAPTER IV. A FETV PLEASANT DAYS WITH THE DOCTOE.— REUBEN" RECEIVES THE HOXOURS OF A PRIMA DOXXA, AXD THE WHOLE PARTY SET OUT OX A TOUR. " It will cost jou a barrel of vinegar and a ton of potash, at the very least/' said Dr. Page ; "I recollect that Pigwidgeon well. When I commenced life as physician to one of the London hospitals, he was the manager and resident apothecary there. We quarrelled originally on the subjects of ventilation and ablution. The governors sided with me ; and the cause of cleanliness triumphed in my person over Pigwidgeon and the opposite principle. There was a case of moral dirt against him also — jobbing in drugs and wine for the patients — you understand me — I might have pressed the charge if I had wished to ruin him, but I was as merciful as I was strong ; so I gave the poor devil the alternative of 262 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, resigning his place, or being exposed and probably prosecuted ; he resigned and settled in jour neighbourhood, it seems ; probably because he heard your larders and cellars well spoken of." '•' That accounts," said the Vicar, " for the feeling he displayed when he heard your name mentioned." " Oh, he hates me as he hates soap and water," said the Doctor. " He has turned us out of our house at all events," said the Vicar ; " I don't expect to be settled there again for three weeks." "Xot for twice that time," said Dr. Page, "independently of the fear of infection. By Jove, a wise man in your circumstances would burn the house down ; there's a young gentle- man yonder would do it in no time." This was a pleasant hit at Reuben, who was lying reading on a sofa at some distance, after returning from one of his first walks. " What are you reading, my dear 1" asked his mother, who had just finished a letter to Mrs. Wyndham, to acquaint her with the improvement in Reuben's health. " Shakspeare, or the Pharmacopoeia V added the Doctor. "'I do remember an apothecary,'" said OR THE CO^riXG MAX. 263 Reuben, smiling and folding up the play of " Romeo and Juliet." " I believe," said the Yicar, " there is some- thing in Shakspeare pat to every subject one can talk of." " A very just observation," said the Doctor ; " I have often made it myself; only the other day I prescribed for a patient out of Henry the Fourth, ril tell you about it. An old lady, a neighbour and patient of mine, was plaguing me lately about her complaints (all imagination, you must know) : Well, madam, said I, how do you feel to-day ? She said she felt — she didn't know how she felt — at last she said she felt hurt inside. Try parmaceti, ma'am, said I. Spermaceti ! said she ; sure that's only applied externally. Then you know better than Dr. Shakspeare, said I, for he tells you, ' there's nought like parmaceti for an inward bruise.' " "Very pleasant," said the Yicar, "if you didn't lose your patient by your joke." " No great loss, if I did lose her," rephed the Doctor ; " she was a bad patient ; she had none of the virtues of a patient, not a single one of them." " I never before heard of those virtues," said Mr. Medlicott ; " pray enumerate them." 264 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, " If you consider a moment," said the Doctor, " you ^Yill see that several excellent qualities are necessary to make a good patient ; candour in the first place, — a patient must be perfectly candid with his physician, or how can the physician understand his case '? Then obedience ; he must be thoroughly obedient, or what is the use of prescribing for him ? Faith comes next, unbounded confidence in his doctor's skill, or the pills and potions won't do their duty, for medicine works morally as well as physically, let me tell you. The moment I find a patient either deceiving me, disobeying me, or doubting me, I leave him to the quacks and Pigwidgeons." " Your Hst of virtues is far from complete," said the Vicar ; " methinks you have omitted two very important ones — gratitude and gene- rosity/' " As to gratitude," said the Doctor, " I hold that to be a virtue as incumbent on the physician in a great many cases, as on the patient, — if my young friend here (for example) is grateful to me for doing my best to bring him round, I am no less grateful to him for the opportunity of making his acquaintance, and renewing my old friendship with his worthy father." With this civil speech on his hps, the Doctor OR THE COMIXG MAX. 265 went to his cellar, to bring up an old bottle of wine to treat his old friend with, for it was near dinner-time. " I am indined to think," said the Yicar to his wife, " though the doctor and patient may divide the gratitude, the former will insist upon ha^^ng the virtue of generosity all to himself." " What do 3^ou propose to do V said Mrs. Medlicott ; " I suppose ^^ou will offer him a suit- able sum of money.' ^ " I'll follow the golden rule," rephed the Vicar, after a moment's deliberation. " I would not like to have money offered me by an old friend myself, and I'll treat Page as I should wish to be treated by him." " It would be a golden rule, indeed, father," said Reuben, " if we could often make such advantageous ajDplications of it." I think so, Reuben," said his mother, highly pleased at her son's acute observation. The following morning came letters to every body from every body else. Reuben had three, one from Hyacinth Primrose, another from his aunt, Mrs. Mountjoy, who was in Scotland, and a third from Mrs. Wyndham, at Geneva, pla}^- fully subscribed " his loving grandmamma." Mrs. Medlicott had a very long letter from her 266 EEUBEIT MEDLICOTT, friend Theodore, and her husband a communi- cation from the apothecary, both coolly dated from the Vicarage, and giving the minutest details of the progress of the interesting patients, what medicines they were taking, how many bUsters had been applied to each, how the father and son had differed once or twice on questions between the leech and the lancet, and how Rose was expected to be the first of the two ladies to leave her chamber. " The apothecary's Rose," said the Vicar. "I think," said Dr. Page, "the other girl might appropriately be called Scarletina." Reuben smiled ; he never made a pun himself, but he sometimes graciously encouraged that weakness in others. Breakfast over, the Doctor went about his professional avocations, which were very exten- sive, and left his friends to dispose of themselves at their pleasure until evening. The Medlicotts had business to transact also. A very important matter was settled that morning, namely, Reuben's preferment to Cambridge in the autumn, and that having been agreed on, the Vicar thought a quiet economical tour in Wales would for the present be the best thing they could do. "Let us hear what the Doctor says," said OR THE COMING MAX. 267 Mrs. Medlicott, when the dinner -hour came round again. " The Doctor thinks very well of it," said Page, "if he cannot induce you to stay where you are, but there must be no long marches, and no climbing after Cadwallader and his goats.'' " We shall only creep," said the Vicar ; " is there any chanee of your creeping with usV " I have a mind to join you," said the Doctor ; " I think my young friend is not strong enough yet to travel without his physician, and by-the- bye, I have got a little carriage, which I think will hold us all comfortably, four inside and one on the box.'' An early day was fixed, and the interval was agreeably spent ; Reuben took his father over to Westbury, to pay his respects to Mrs. Reeves, and to show him the place where the great hay-rick stood no longer. The Vicar had now an opportunity of hearing repeated all the flattering things of his son, which Mrs. Medlicott had heard before, and though he was not so fondly credulous as his wife, it would be underrating paternal vanity to suppose that he was not pleased on the whole with the vo^popuH. "When it was announced that Reuben 286 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, was on the point of starting on a "Welch tour, the effect produced was nearly as electric as if he had heen going up in a balloon, or out in the " Hecla" with Captain Varrj. The great proof, however, of the popularity which our hero had earned by his music, his astrology, and his good-nature, was reserved for the day which was fixed for leaving the neigh- bourhood. The Doctor's carriage, as it stood at his door, was surrounded with the people from Westbury, all waiting to see Reuben for the last time, and give him and his parents a parting cheer, Nor were some of them content with that easy mode of testifying applause and grati- tude. The tradesmen had all joined in the expense of a neat box of carpenter's tools, which he was entreated to accept, as a token of their feehngs towards him. The blushing Dolly stood there with a basket of fruit as ripe and glowing as her own rustic charms, and as the carriage drove off amidst general hurrahs, she and the other maidens threw bouquets into it, and pelted him with flowers like a Prima Donna. '' This is too absurd," said the Vicar, receiving a volley of cabbage roses upon one of his ears. OR THE COMING MA:N-. 269 CHAPTER Y. THE MEDLICOTTS ON THEIR TRAVELS.— REUBEN BUYS A WELCH GRAMMAR, MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A WELCH BARD, AND FALLS IN WITH SOME FAIR FRIENDS. The tour in the Principality was a very agree- able one, though not so easy and comfortable in point of travelling as it is at present. When Reuben Medlicott first visited North Wales, that mountainous region was not quite as easily traversible as the fens of Lincolnshire or Salisbury Plain. The roads climbed the hills and ran down again into the valleys : for one mile of dull straight route there were twenty of charming zig-zag. Far from shrinking from the edges of ravines and precipices, the wild Cambrian engineers seemed to delight in con- ducting travellers to them. As to the bye- svsijs, they appeared to have been constructed by the goats and sheep; and there were numerous glens, gorges, hollows, and passes, 270 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, which jou may now penetrate in a Bath chair, if you please, but through which you must then have travelled on horse-back or on foot, if you were not content to imagine their beauties. The Yicar and the Doctor, being both advanced on the shady side of fifty, affected to have very hvely fancies when they came to romantic places of this description ; but neither Mrs. Medlicott nor her son were so imaginative. It was easy to say that mountains have all a family likeness, and that one valley must bear a striking resemblance to another, as the elements of all mountain scenery must generally be pretty much the same : Reuben had no notion of travelhng through Wales without actually and thoroughly seeing it; and his mother took the same view of the matter, modified only by her prudent consideration for her son's health and her respect for Doctor Page's advice. On the score of health, however, there soon ceased to be any reasonable ground of anxiety, for the mountain air, with the novel excitement and delight of travelling, had such a beneficial effect on our hero, that after about a week's easy progress, at the rate of about twenty miles a day, he felt and looked as strong as ever he OR THE COMIXG MAX. 271 had been in his hfe, while, as to his appetite, it was such as to gratify his father and mother more than the Cambrian inn-keepers, whose interest in the subject was the reverse of parental. But no host or hostess with a grain of amiability could look at Reuben MedKcott and harbour a hostile feeling towards him, because he picked a leg or shoulder of small mutton almost bare for his dinner. He was the incarnation of good-humour, and con- tinued to make himself popular wherever he came, without the slightest ambition or thought of popularity, for you may suppose he had no sinister object in winning the hearts of the ancient Britons. But everything amused and interested him, and his countenance faithfully reflected the happiness which he enjoyed from morning to night, and which increased with every new scene he visited and every additional mile he travelled. There was no occasion to " bid him discourse.'' He was always ready to " enchant the ear." He talked to the Welch people, when they happened to be able to converse in Enghsh, as if he felt under personal obligations to them for having such a picturesque country, — such fine lakes, streams, and waterfalls. When conversation was impossible, he looked at 272 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, them so talkativelj, particularly at the women, and paid such a number of sincere little silent compliments to their faces when they w^ere fair, and when it was otherwise, to their costumes, their cottages, their children, or the scenery of their neighbourhood, always to something or another interesting to them, that had the whole Principality been one borough, and had Reuben aspired to represent it, his success would have been highly probable, at least if universal suffrage had been the system established. Mrs. MedHcott would gladly have understood the remarks which were made on her son in return for his various amenities, but her leash of tongues, unfortunately, did not comprehend the ancient one in which those remarks were generally uttered, and she was, therefore, under the necessity of interpreting them by the looks and smiles of the speakers, wdiich were in general quite a sufficient key to the meaning. They travelled for some days without falling in with anybody of wdiom they had the slightest knowledge, although Reuben turned over the pages of the travellers' books at every inn where they stopped ; volumes, by-the-bye, which amused the Doctor and the Vicar greatly, and which they generally perused in the evenings OE THE COMIXG MAN. 2/3 over their wine or negus. At Aberystwitli, however, among the very latest entries, in the freshest ink, the party found, to their great satisfaction and no small surprise, the names of Hannah and Mary Hopkins, both evidently written by the hand of the latter, but in so hasty and scratchy a way that the Yicar had no doubt she was laughing heartily while she wrote them. " Hannah Hopkins in Wales at last !" cried Mrs. Medhcott. A trip to Wales had for many a long year been to the Quakeresses the great desire of their hearts, but one which they had scarcely dared to dream would ever be gratified. "Are they not happy 1" cried Reuben. " They will not leave a sprig of heath or fox- glove behind them in the Principality," said the Vicar. The Quakeresses were wild about flowers, and the wilder the flowers were the wilder were the Quakeresses about them : wherever they rambled (for they had lived all their lives in the country) they gathered brooms of them, which were, indeed, the only orna- ments of their humble apartments, except the feathers of peacocks and other domestic birds, of which Hannah especially was a zealous collector. VOL. L T 274 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, Reuben made enquiries, and it turned out that the Hopkinses had left the inn only that morning; their destination was not certain, but it was in the direction which the Medhcotts were taking, so that there was a fair chance of a happy reunion at some point or another, — the more unexpected the more agreeable. We have already mentioned how kind the Vicar always was to old Mrs. Hopkins. Mrs. Medlicott had a sincere regard for her also ; and as to the cosy, laughter- loving j\Iary, she was a favourite every- where except at meeting, not being half grave enough for the Obadiahs and Rachaels, though she was always dressed as sadly and severely as any of them, which perhaps, however, only made the incorrigible gaiety of her nature the more conspicuous. Reuben was not long content to be ignorant of the language of the country he was tra- versing. At Aberystwith he bought a Welch grammar and vocabulary, in a neat little shop on the skirts of the town, at the door of which, overhung by an elm of great age, was a wooden bench, upon which the old bookseller, a seedy but venerable man, was taking his ease ; and Mr. Medhcott got into chat with him, while his wife and son were bargaining for the grammar. OR THE COMIXG MAN. 21 o He proved to be the parson of the parish as Tvell as the librarian. The Vicar, httle suspect- ing this, had been asking him questions about the state of the clergy in Wales, of which he had heard surprising accounts, and among other inquiries had asked what might be the value of the parish they were then in. " Twenty pounds a year," said the old man. " A small living for a man of education and a gentleman," said the Vicar. ^ " There are smaller in the Principality,'^ said the bookseller. " SelHng books must be a more profitable profession," said Mr. Medlicott. " My shop is the best part of my benefice," said the old man. The Vicar went into the shop and communi- cated to his wife and Reuben the strange dis- covery he had made, for such it appeared to him. The purchase of the grammar had been effected, but they could not leave the reverend bookseller abruptly, and accordingly, as there was room enough on the bench, they sat down, at his courteous invitation, and passed an inte- resting half-hour in conversation with him. They found that he was an author and a poet, in addition to his other kindred vocations ; he T 2 276 was too simple a man to hide any chapter of his history, and when Reuben questioned him about the bards and their lyric rhapsodies, it soon elicited the confession that in his greener days he had attempted a poetical translation of some of the wildest. Being greatly struck with Reuben, and flattered by the interest he felt in the bards, a member of whose sacred corpora- tion he considered himself, he rose from the bench, when h« saw his customers about to take leave, and, hobbling into his shop (for he was infirm, though not gouty), hunted out a copy of his " Cambrian Garland," and, with a trembhng hand and a bad pen, wrote on the title-page — " The gift of the Reverend Hugh Evans, an old poet, " he paused for our hero to tell him what he should add. "To Reuben Medhcott, a lover of poetry,'' said Reuben ; and the inscription was completed accordingly. " Very neat and very modest," said the old man, as he laid down the pen. " Modest on Reuben's part," said the Yicar, when they were at some distance from the shop. '•' I cannot say so much for the modesty of Mr. Evans, in dubbing himself a poet so confidently." OR THE COMIXG MAN. 277 *' Yet he published anonymously, you observe/'' said Mrs. Medlicott. "Probably/' said Reuben, "when he published this volume of poems, he dreamed of afterwards producing something very superior, and never reahsed his expectations. But why, sir, did you not let the poor old gentleman know that you were a clergyman, like himself?" " Because he had told me his income, and he might have desired to know mine." " You need not have been ashamed of it, father." " Ko," said the Vicar, smihng, " two hundred a year is nothing to be ashamed of, but the Reverend Hugh Evans would have concluded me to be a second Dives, and the report might have reached the inn, and influenced the landlord in drawing out his bill." Before he left Aberystwith, Reuben took a very good sketch of the little book-shop, the ancient tree, and the group under it, the old man himself being, of course, the principal figure. The union of the pastoral and poetical character with the humble though congenial business of bookseller was skilfully managed; at least, so thought those eminently impartial judges, the father and mother of the artist. 278 BEUBEN MEDLICOTT, But, indeed, Mrs. Hopkins and her daughter recognised the hkeness the moment they saw the drawing, for at Barmouth the Medhcotts overtook them. The Doctor, who had been visiting an hospital, while the Medlicotts were visiting the bookseller, was not pleased when he saw the Welch grammar : he thought study of any kind unseasonable on an excursion of pleasure. But the name of the bookseller pleased him excessively when he heard it, for he was the first of the party to remember the pedagogue in "The Merry Wives of Windsor." " By Jove,'' said Doctor Page, in great glee, " if the bookseller is so very old as you say, perhaps he is the very man who taught a distinguished ancestor of mine his hig, hag, liogr " Aye," said the Vicar, " you bear a* Shaks- pearian name also.'' " And very proud I am of it, I assure you," said the Doctor. Proceeding from Aberystwith to the Goat Inn at Barmouth, they were at breakfast the morning after their arrival, in a little room, looking out upon the sands, and adjoining another with the same aspect, but separated from them by too thin a partition to render it safe to speak in a loud tone, particularly if you OR THE COMING MAJ^. 279 were maligniug your neighbours, or speaking ill of the powers that be. Voices were audible in the next apartment, which gave rise to some speculation as to the speakers, but presently rang out the merry laugh of the young Quakeress, which removed all doubt upon the subject. In five minutes the two breakfasts were consolidated, and Hannah Hopkins was telling the Vicar a long story to explain how the great object of her life, an excursion in North Wales, came to be realised, just when she and Mary were beginning to despair of ever accom- plishing it. The tourists, now a party of six, were not long without concerting a very nice plan of operations, for that day and several to follow it. But when breakfast was over, it was raining, and it rained very doggedly for several successive da^^s. The Vicar and his friend sat down equally doggedly to backgammon, Mrs. Medlicott had brought a volume of metaphysical sermons with her from her father's library ; Hannah Hopkinl was soon engrossed by her everlasting knitting ; Reuben and Mary had no resource but the Welch grammar, and to it they went spiritedly in a corner. 2 so REUBEN MEDLICOTT, "The climate is in your favour/' said the Doctor to Iveuben, during a pause in the game, upon the third day of the captivity at the Goat. "Is the grammar difficult ?" asked the Vicar, — " vowels scarce, consonants plenty, eh !" " Now don't set Mary Hopkins going," said Mrs. Medlicott. " Friend Thomas always makes my Mary laugh," said old Hannah, looking gravely up from her needle. " Not to say difficult, not as difficult as some other languages," said Reuben, replying to his father's question. " At least there is no difficulty to stop us." '' It would be too bad to be stopped by the elements both indoors and out of doors," said the Vicar. Mary laughed again, — and again the old woman raised her eyes solemnly from her work, but this time she addressed the Doctor. "Dost thou consider laughing wholesome, friend Page '?" she inquired. 'I never had a patient that died of it," replied Page, rattling the dice. Mrs. Medlicott now pretended that she could not read, her husband and the Doctor were so OR THE COMrXG KAX, 281 facetious, but the fact was (and her husband suspected it shrewdly) that the sermon was beyond her depth, and she was glad of an excuse to lay it down. The back-gammon ceased soon after they had played two-and- twenty hits ; it was time to think of luncheon. The name of Jones was on the spoons. Mary Hopkins had been laughing all through the Principality, at the fertility of the race of Jones. "What a remarkable nam^ it is," said the Vicar, — " There is Inigo, the great architect ; Sir William Jones, the orientalist ; Paul, the celebrated pirate ; Tom, the hero of the great novel." " Don't forget Davy," said the Doctor. ** Davy, of the navy," said the Vicar. " But Tom and Davy are ideal personages," said Mrs. Medlicott. " Davy an ideal personage !" cried the Doctor, " I am sorry to hear a clergyman's wife broach such a heresy." " Heresy reminds me of fire," said the Vicar, " go, Reuben, and order one to be lighted." While Reuben was absent, there was a little dry altercation between Mr. and Mrs. Medlicott about the necessity for the fire. 282 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, " The fire would not be lighted half-an-hour before he would wish it extinguished again, and then, a fire at midsummer was so ridiculous." " It was better to be too warm than too cold," was the Vicar's rejoinder. " It was like madness ordering a fire at that season of the year." " The thermometer, my dear, ought to decide the question, and not the almanack." For once he had the last word. Mrs. Medlicott, however, rose from her seat, which was near the fire-place, and removed with great state and dignity to a chair at the window, where, after trying to no purpose to penetrate the mystery of the hills through the clouds of vapour that shrouded them, she put on her spectacles, and made a similar effort at the Welch grammar, with not much greater success. As a last resource, she undertook a phreno- logical survey of the heads of the company, which occupied a considerable time, and would have occupied more, if the Doctor had nob adroitly slipped out of the room, before his turn came, and, wet as it was, set out to explore the medical institutions. OR THE COMING MAN. 283 CHAPTER YL HEXRY WINNING AND HYACINTH PRIMROSE JOIN THE EXPEDITION. Meanwhile Reuben gave the order to a smil- ing maid at the bar, who passed it to a maid in the kitchen, where a numerous group, composed of travellers, servants, postboys, harpers, and miscellaneous hangers-on were collected in a confused circle round a capital fire ; the travellers desirous of drying their clothes, and all clearly of opinion (in direct opposition to Mrs. Medlicott) that the heat of the dog-days in Great Britain occasionally stands in need of some artificial reinforcement. " A fire for No. 3," said Peggy Roberts. " His reverence is chill}^," said somebody from the chimney corner. "One of your country parsons, I suppose," said a young man, one of those who were trying to dry themselves. 284 EEUBEN" MEDLICOTT " No, sir, an English gentleman,'^ said Peggy Roberts. " Parson Medligoat,'"' said a post-boy. " Medlicott ! '' cried the young man who spoke before to another who was at his side ; " can it possibly be our Medlicott V " Not very likely.'' " Is the parson travelling alone '?" " No, sir, he has an elderly lady and a young- gentleman with him." " That tallys." " The young gentleman, what is he like V' A dozen voices burst forth immediately with as many commendations of Reuben. He was the nicest young gentleman Peggy Roberts had ever seen. " And the civilest,'' said the post-boy. Jenny Jones had seen as handsome, but he was as handsome as any young man need be, and had the beautifulest head of hair in the world. A third damsel vouched for his scholarship, for she was the chambermaid, and had found his room strewed over with books. " Our friend, to a certainty,"' said the young man who spoke first ; " I wonder what can have brought the Medhcotts here ; one would OE THE COMIXG MAX. 2S5 as soon have expected to have met the Greenwich pensioners mountaineering it."' " Come away,'^ said the other. " We are pretty Avell roasted, and so I think is that quarter of mutton which I suspect is designed for our dinner." " I wish they had roasted the whole sheep ; the higher I rise above the level of the sea, the more voracious I become. I think I could take the altitudes of the mountains by my appetite." "Do so, then, while I dine,'' said Henry "Winning, taking his seat at the table spread for them in a httle room which Peggy Eoberts assured them commanded a magnificent prospect of a dozen hills, with names unpronounceable, save by Cambrian hps. " On the contrary, dining is the basis of the calculation," said Hyacinth Primrose, separating as he spoke the leg from the loin of the roast quarter of mutton. "Gulliver," he added, "must have brought this breed from LiUiput. Shall I send you the leg '? — the mutton gets smaller as we get hungrier." " No, help me to the loin ; when I have disposed of that, if you want any assistance to manage the leg, let me know, and I shall be ready to support you." 286 EEUBEX MEDLICOTT, The loin sufficed Winning, and Primrose left Yerj little of the leg to adorn the side-board the next morning. Cheese and a glass of ale completed the repast. " In fact/' said Hyacinth, '' the Welch sheep seem to be all lambs." " Perhaps it is with mutton as with men. There are men who continue children all their hves.'^ " Since we grow philosophical we may as well go and face Mrs. MedUcott, for I suppose it must be done." " It must,'' said Winning, rising reluctantly ; " but after what I said in the coach that un- lucky night, I have nothing to expect but the coldest reception." " You compared her to Minerva," said Prim- rose ; " why the woman must be unreasonable, if she was not flattered by that." " I thought you knew the sex better," said Winning ; " let a woman resemble Minerva ever so much, she will infinitely prefer an allusion to Venus or Juno. However, as you say, the thing must be done, so we may as well do it at once." Winning wrote his own name and his friend's on a card, and desired Peggy Roberts to hand it to young Mr. MedHcott. OR THE COMING MAN. 287 In a moment Reuben ^as in their arms, and the next moment the two Cambridge men were introduced to the Vicar and his party, with the least possible form and ceremony. Mr. and Mrs. Medhcott now saw Mr. Primrose for the first time, though they had heard a great deal about him from Reuben, who never erred on the side of undervaluing his friends, or praising them peuuriously. Winning saw at a glance that his unlucky remarks in the coach had not yet faded from the memory of Mrs. Medlicott, although recol- lecting his friendship for Reuben, she was not deficient in any of the civilities, which the occasion required. She took no pro- minent part, however, for some time in the conversation of the evenino;, oreatlv to the disappointment of Primrose. He had only, however, to look round the room to see that there was no lack of subjects for curious obser- vation. He fastened his eye upon the gaunt old Quakeress in an instant ; an acquaintaince with her fair fat daughter promised infinite satisfaction, even before he heard her laugh ; and when he heard the gentleman in the green coat, white buckskins, and red cravat, addressed by the title of Doctor, it completed 288 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, his enjoyment, and gave him the notion of a cjclopsedia of entertainment. Mary Hopkins made good tea ; or if it was not good it was the fault of Jones, Roberts, or Wilhams, or whatever was the name of the landlord of the Goat. The Vicar talked, and so did the rest, except the Doctor, who was dead tired after his rambles to escape the phre- nological lecture, but nobody talked so much as Primrose. He was as lively as Mercutio, or Gratiano, who " talked more nonsense than any man of Venice" of his time. He first tried to draw Mrs. Medlicott out, by touching upon the scientific topics of the day, but failing in that, he laid himself out to be generally amusing, which he had the knack of being, even when he talked of himself, which indeed was the subject upon which he was generally most fluent. The Vicar desired to know whether either of the Cantabs were weather-seers ; three days in the Goat had contented him, and he had had enough of the wiry music of the old harper in the hall, towards whom he was beginning to cherish the feelings that actuated the '*' ruthless king." Primrose affirmed that he was superior to the OR THE COMING MAX. 289 skyey influences ; he Tvas above the clouds, and looked down upon the weather. In fact he preferred wet weather on a tour, particularly when he travelled with Winning, because Win- ning was too fond of the tops of the mountains for his taste. Another thing was that his luck in travelling was extraordinary. He was always sure to fall in with a charming intellectual party at every inn, and there was nothing like a long dismal wet day for enjoying their company. The Vicar smiled, (well knowing for whom the word "intellectual" had been thrown in,) and said that fortune had, at least, been equally kind to himself and his friends in that respect. Nothing escaped the keen, comic eye of Primrose, which rolled about the room, and penetrated every corner, taking in every object, no matter how minute, that was at all charac- teristic or illustrative of the company. There was Mary Hopkins's enormous broom of wild flowers, containing so much of the fox- glove, or digitalis, that Hyacinth thought it must have been collected by the Doctor for his medical uses. Near it lay an equally large truss of dried grasses. Reuben saw Primrose VOL. I. • U 290 KEUBEN MEDLICOTT, surveying it with intense curiosity, and informed him aside that it was a whim of Mrs. Hopkins, who was a collector of grasses. " Is she graminivorous V whispered Hyacinth. " I can tell you what that is," said the Doctor, pointing to the bundle, " it is the hay that was saved from Dean Wyndham's haggard on the night it was burned down by our clever young- friend here." " My poor Reuben," said his mother, " that will be a standing joke against him as long as he lives." " It made us very merry in London," said Winning. " And at Cambridge it kept us in good spirits for a week," said Primrose, who had now come to a table piled with books, and was turning over the Welch Grammar, the Hand-book to Botany, the Outhnes of Geology, the Metaphysical Dis- courses, and the rest of the rather extensive travelling library. " We have brought a good many books, you see, with us on our journey, Mr. Primrose," said Mrs. Medlicott. " You are tolerably well provided," replied Hyacinth. "Winning travels with his law library. For my own part, I respect the law OR THE COMING MAN. 291 too much not to draw the proper distinction between term and vacation." " Hare you made much progress in your Life of Hippocrates '? " asked Reuben, slyly. " Not very much," said Primrose laughing, — " but I have not forgotten it, I assure you. I shall certainly buckle to it some of these days, and it will be a great work let me tell you. I am a very hard-working fellow, but I hate labour mortally, — that I admit." " You have the more credit for being labo- rious," said Mrs. Medlicott. " I work because I hate work," continued Primrose, " to have it all over early in hfe, and be in a position to devote the rest of it to the delicious far-nie7ite. Labour was a curse from the beginning." " A curse," said the Vicar, " with a blessing in it, as there is in all the divine judgments, if we apprehend them aright." " Thou hast well spoken, friend Thomas," said Hannah Hopkins, who had all this time been sitting as mute as if she had been at her silent devotions, but hearkening to all that was said with amusingly earnest and profound attention. An argument that subsequently took place on the old question of concentration and diffusion u 2 292 EEUBEN MEDLICOTT, particularly charmed her. Reuben and his mother, supported bj Mr. Primrose, were pitted against the Vicar and Winning, the Doctor taking no part, nor even opening his hps, until Winning, overpowered by the fluency of his antagonists, pretended to want his support, on which Doctor Page shook himself and said he was "a physician, not a metaphysician," a pleasantry which put an end to the controversy, not before it was much to be desired. Mrs. Medlicott, before she retired, invited the Can tabs to breakfast the following morning. Primrose would have accepted the invitation unconditionally ; but Winning, more steady to the plan of their journey, made his acceptance conditional upon the state of the weather in the morning, for if it was possible to travel it was necessary to proceed another stage. " I almost hope for another wet day," said Primrose, when he and Winning were together again in the double-bedded room they occupied. " I have almost fallen in love with that merry Quakeress." " Falling in love is a bad way to rise in the world," said Winning, " so for your sake, as well as my own, I trust to-morrow will be fair." " Falling asleep is the wisest course just at OR THE COMIXG MAX. 293 present," said Primrose, and lie was soon steeped in slumber. Winning sat down to a volume of Coke's Institutes, and read until he could read no longer with the discordant music of a harp, which somebody was scraping most barbarously under his windows, converting it into an instru- ment of actual torture. Going to a window, and looking oui, he very soon discovered to whom he was indebted for the interruption of his studies. Keuben was taking a lesson in the national music of Wales from the old harper of the inn. Another wet day at the Goat — Primrose proposed, at breakfast, to change the sign of the inn from Capricornus to Aquarius. The Doctor wanted to know why Mrs. Hopkins had not given her opinion on the subject of last evening's conversation. Hannah shook her head, and told friend Page that she loved to hear clever men and clever women aro-uino-, and she did her best to understand what they were arguing about, but they were often too deep for her and her Mar}^, and this was the case, she confessed, with the argument of the preceding night. " Thy faculties, Hannah," said the Yicar, •' are finite like my own and the Doctor's." " My Mary and I," said Hannah, '' have many 294 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, an argument together, and we are sometimes not much wiser when we leave off than when we begin." " A common case in controversies," said the Vicar. A bee humming in the window set Primrose again going on the subject of himself and his views of study. "There is no toil," he persisted, '-'lovely in my sight but the toil of the bee which works among the flowers, or of the man of letters (I mean the belles lettres, not the black letters) who resembles the bee both in the varied field of his exertions and the nectared sweetness of their results." " You have certainly taken a very exemplary insect for your model," said the Yicar. " I observed a bee one day last summer in the Temple Gardens," said Winning, "he seemed very busy for a moment or two, but I suppose he had no great taste for the bitter sweets of the law, for he soon flew away up the river towards Richmond and I never saw him in the Temple Gardens again. That was Primrose's model bee, I suspect." " Mary, can'st thou repeat Letitia Barbauld's hnes on the bee '? " said Hannah Hopkins. OR THE COMIXG MAX. 295 Mary obeyed and repeated the stanzas, happily not very numerous, with tolerable accuracy, all but one in which Reuben most good-naturedl} and condescendingly assisted her. The Cambridge men were exceedingly diverted. " Thou and Marv used to learn them too:e- ther, when thou wert my scholar,'^ said Hannah Hopkins, addressing Reuben. " He learned many a useful lesson fi'om thee, Hannah,^' said the Vicar. " That I did sir," said Reuben. " Thank thee for saying so," said Hannah, " thou more than rewardest all my trouble, — why dost thou laugh, !Mary 1 " ^lary Hopkins had burst out into one of her constitutional and infectious fits of most un- quakerly mirth. Primrose was in raptures with her. " Because, mother, thou talkest of the trouble that Reuben Medhcott gave thee, as if he had been one of thy refractory scholars." " Great men," said Primrose, " have been formed under the tuition of the fair sex ; the great poet Pindar for example, was the pupil of the charming poetess Corinna." Winning now saw a fair opportunity for 296 REUBEN MEDLICOTT, regaining the lost paradise of Mrs. Medlicott's favour, and adroitly availed himself of it. " And the Gracchi/' he said, " they were still more fortunate in having a woman of learn- ing and genius for their mother.'' " In these dull days Cornelia would have been called a blue-stocking," said Primrose. " The Romans understood some things much better than we do," said Winning, with consum- mate gravity. Mary Hopkins, however, turned laughing to Reuben. " Thou see'st," she said, " all that is expected from thee, thou shouldest be both a Pindar and a Gracchus, according to what thy friends say." " Thou art thy mother's jewel at all events," said old Hannah. The Yicar laughed heartily at the speeches of both mother and daughter, but what chiefly amused him was the notion of his wife being com- pared to the celebrated Roman matron, and Mrs. Hopkins bearing the laurelled name of Corinna. Winning stood almost as high after this dialogue in Mrs. Medlicott's favour as H^^acinth Primrose. The rest of the day passed as plea- santly as any wet day, perhaps, that was ever spent at an inn. Winning had some private OR THE COMING MAX. 297 conversation with Reuben about the University, in the course of which he soon discovered that his friend seemed already to have almost made up his mind to devote himself there to anything but a definite course of study, either with a view to mere academic distinction, or to the main busi- ness of hfe. In fact, if a desultory career can be properly called a career at all, Reuben MedH- cott appeared bent upon pursuing one, and Henry Winning was confirmed in the opinion he had hazarded more than once before, that his friend was much too clever, or at least had too many friends about him, whose faith in his genius was too implicit. The following morning at five o'clock, Prim- rose opening his eyes and drawing the curtains, saw Winning at the window speculating on the prospects of the weather, in a dress very similar to that formerly worn in acts of public penance. " Well," he said drowsily, " how does it look 1 — anv sioTi of amendment 1 " " Every promise of a glorious morning," said Winning. " Then I suppose we must leave that dear merry Quakeress behind us," said Primrose, with an afifected sigh. When the Vicar's party met at breakfast, the 298 EETJBEX MEDLICOTT, Cambridge students were already some leagues from Barmouth, for the day had kept the under- taking which the dawn had given, and was all the loveher, for the contrast with the gloomy weather which had kept the tourists in confine- ment. The Yicar would have been happy, had his plans been consistent with those of his son's friends, but that was not the case ; and indeed it suited the Medlicotts better on many accounts to jog quietly along with the Quakers ; and this accordingly they did in a very enjoyable manner ; the only drawback being that the same vehicle was not large enough to carry them all. This was remedied by the hiring of two rough sure- footed ponies, upon which the Doctor and Eeuben rode generally, but now and then they picked up a side-saddle for Mary Hopkins, who was probably the first Quakeress who was ever seen on horseback in England. We cannot afford to travel at the tardy rate which they found rapid enough for their pleasure and convenience. Slow, however, as their pro- gress was, the tour was completed, or at least they had all returned to the house of Dr. Page, before Mrs. Medlicott had fathomed the transcen- dental sermons, or Reuben perfectly mastered the Welch harp and the language of the Llewelyns OR THE COMIXG MAX. 299 and Caclwalladers. The Doctor made them all comfortable for near a week, (during which Reuben preserved a strict incognito,) and the worthy son of Esculapius would have willingly detained them much longer, pretending that at least a month's fumigation was indispensable to purify a house after the Pigwidgeons. But the Vicar argued that unless he was actually on the spot, the apothecary and his brood would never give up possession ; and Hannah Hopkins, whose oft-repeated rule it was to be " merry and wise," had already exceeded the limits of the longest vacation she had ever enjoyed, and was inflexible in her resolve to return to her school with the greatest possible expedition. Everybody was sorry to part with the kind Doctor, but nobody so much as Keuben, who would indeed have been ungrateful if he had not been attached to a man who had shown him so much hearty friendship. The last thing Dr. Page said to him was in a tone of good-humoured warning — " Beware of that laughing Quakeress." EXD OF TOL. I. LOXDOK : ADBUEY AXO EVANS, PKIXTER?, WHITEFRIAi UNIVERSfTY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 078028518