The Chaplain of the Fleet

by Walter Besant

  CHAPTER V.

  HOW KITTY WITNESSED A FLEET WEDDING.

  Then I pulled out my father's letter, and gave it to him to read.

  He took it, read it carefully, nodding gravely over each sentence, andthen returned it to me.

  "Lawrence, then," he said softly, "Lawrence is dead! Lawrence Pleydellis dead! And I am living. Lawrence! He hath, without reasonable doubt,passed away in full assurance. He hath exchanged this world for abetter. He hath gone to happiness. Nay, if such as he die not in faith,what hope remains for such sinners as ourselves? Then would it bebetter for those who dwell in the Liberties of the Fleet if they hadnever been born. So. My sister's child. Hold up thy face, my dear."He kissed me as he spoke, and held his hand under my chin so that hecould look at me well. "There is more Pleydell than Shovel here. Thatis well, because the Pleydells are of gentle blood. And the daughterdoth ever favour the father more than the mother. Favour him in thylife, child, as well as in thy features.

  "Lawrence is dead!" he went on. "The gentlest soul, the most pious andreligious creature that the world has ever seen. He, for one, couldthink upon his Maker without the terror of a rebellious and prodigalson. The world and the flesh had no temptations for him. A good man,indeed. It is long since I saw him, and he knew not where I live, norhow. Yet he, who knew me when I was young, trusted still in me--whom noone else will trust. This it is to start in life with goodly promise ofvirtue, scholarship, and religion."

  He cleared his throat, and was silent awhile.

  "Thy father did well, child. I will treat thee as my own daughter. YetI know not, indeed, where to bestow thee, for this house is not fit forgirls, and I have none other. Still, I would fain take thy father'splace, so far as in me lies. He, good man, lived in the country, wherevirtue, like fresh butter and new-laid eggs, flourishes easily and atthe cost of a little husbandry in the way of prayer and meditation.As for us who live in great cities, and especially in the Rules orLiberties of the Fleet, we may say with the Psalmist, having examplesto the contrary continually before us, with temptations such asdwellers in the fields wot not of, 'He that keepeth the Law, happy ishe!' I have neither wife nor child to greet thee, Kitty. I must bestowthee somewhere. What shall we do?"

  He paused to think.

  "I might find a lodging----but no, that would not do. Or in----butthe house is full of men. There is the clerk of St. Sepulchre's, whosewife would take thee; but the rector bears me a heavy grudge. Ho!ho!" he laughed low down in his chest. "There is not a parish roundLondon, from Limehouse to Westminster, and from Southwark to Highgate,where the niece of Dr. Shovel would not find herself flouted, out ofthe singular hatred which the clergy bear to me. For I undersell themall. And if they pass an Act to prevent my marrying, then will I buryfor nothing and undersell them still. Well, I must take order in thismatter. And who are you, my good woman?" He asked this of Mrs. Gambit.

  "Jane Gambit, sir," she replied, "at your service, and the wife ofSamuel Gambit, foreman of works. And my charge is not to leave MissKitty until she is safe in your reverence's hands. There are the hands,to be sure; but as for safety----"

  She paused, and sniffed violently, looking round the room with ameaning air.

  "Why, woman, you would not think the child in danger with me?"

  "I know not, sir. But Miss Kitty has been brought up among gentlefolk,and the room is not one to which she has been accustomed to live in, orto eat in, or to sleep in, either at the Vicarage or the Hall. Tobaccoand the smell of rum may be very well--in their place, which, I humblysubmit, is in a tavern, not a gentlewoman's parlour."

  "The woman speaks reason," he growled, laying his great hand upon thetable. "See, my dear, my brother-in-law thought me holding a richbenefice in the Church. Those get rich benefices who have rich friendsand patrons. I had none; therefore I hold no benefice. And as for myresidence, why, truly, I have little choice except between this placeand the Fleet Prison, or perhaps the King's Bench. Else might I welcomethee in a better and more convenient lodging. Know, therefore, Kitty,without any concealment, that I live here secluded in the Liberties ofthe Fleet in order that my creditors, of whom I have as many as mostmen and more importunate, may no longer molest me when I take my walksabroad; that I am in this place outside the authority of the bishop;and that my occupation is to marry, with all safety and despatchwithout license, or asking of banns, or any of the usual delays, thosegood people who wish to be married secretly and quickly, and canafford at least one guinea fee for the ceremony."

  I stared in amazement. To be sure, every clergyman can marry, but for aclergyman to do naught else seemed strange indeed.

  He saw my amazement; and, drawing his tall and burly figure upright,he began to deliver an oration--I call it an oration, because he sopuffed his cheeks, rolled his sentences, and swelled himself out whilehe spoke, that it was more like a sermon or oration than a mere speech.In it he seemed to be trying at once to justify himself in my eyes, toassert his own self-respect, and to magnify his office.

  "It is not likely, child," he said, "that thou hast been told ofthese marriages in the Fleet. Know, therefore, that in this asylum,called the Rules of the Fleet, where debtors find some semblance offreedom and creditors cease to dun, there has grown up a custom oflate years by which marriages are here rapidly performed (for thegood of the country), which the beneficed clergy would not undertakewithout great expense, trouble, delay, and the vexation of gettingparents' and guardians' consent, to say nothing of the prodigalityand wasteful expense of feasting which follows what is called aregular marriage. Therefore, finding myself some years ago comfortablysettled in the place, after contracting a greater debt than is usuallypossible for an unbeneficed clergyman, I undertook this trade, whichis lucrative, honourable, and easy. There are indeed," he added, "bothin the Prison and the Rules, but more especially the latter, manyFleet parsons"--here he rolled his great head with complacency--"butnone, my child, so great and celebrated as myself. Some, indeed, aremere common cheats, whose marriages--call them, rather, sacrilegiousimpostures--are not worth the paper of their pretended certificates.Some are perhaps what they profess to be, regularly ordained clergymenof the Church of England and Ireland as by law established, the supremehead of which is his gracious Majesty. But even these are tipplers, andbeggars, and paupers--men who drink gin of an evening and small beerin the morning, whose gowns are as ragged as their reputations, andwho take their fees in shillings, with a dram thrown in, and herd withthe common offscourings of the town, whom they marry. Illiterate, too:not a Greek verse or a Latin hexameter among them all. Go not into thecompany of such, lest thou be corrupted by their talk. In the words ofKing Lemuel: 'Let them drink and forget their poverty, and remembertheir misery no more.'" Here he paused and adjusted his gown, as if hewere in a pulpit. Indeed, for the moment, he imagined, perhaps, thathe was preaching. "As for me, Gregory Shovel, my marriages are whatthey pretend to be, as tight as any of the archbishop's own tying,conducted with due decorum by a member of the University of Cambridge,a man whose orders are beyond dispute, whose history is known to all,an approved and honoured scholar. Yes, my niece, behold in me one whohas borne off University and College medals for Latin verse. My Latinverses, wherein I have been said to touch Horace, and even to excelOvid, whether in the tender elegiac, the stately alcaic, the meltingsapphic, or the easy-flowing hendecasyllabic loved of Martial, haveconferred upon my head the bays of fame. Other Fleet parsons? Letthem hide their ignorant heads in their second-hand peruques! By thethunders of Jupiter!"--his powerful voice rose and rolled about theroom like the thunder by which he swore--"By the thunders of Jupiter,I am their Bishop! Let them acknowledge that I, and I alone, am THECHAPLAIN OF THE FLEET!"

  During this speech he swelled himself out so enormously, and soflourished his long gown, that he seemed to fill the whole room. Ishrank into a corner, and clasped Mrs. Gambit's hand.

  This kind of terror I have always felt since, whenever, which is rare,I have heard a man speak in such a full, rich, manliness of
voice. Itwas a voice with which he might have led thousands to follow him anddo his bidding. When I read of any great orator at whose speeches thepeople went mad, so that they did what he told them were it but to rushalong the road to certain death, I think of the Reverend Dr. Shovel.I am sure that Peter the Hermit, or St. Bernard, must have had such avoice. While he spoke, though the words were not noble, the air wassuch, the voice was such, the eloquence was such, that my senses werecarried away, and I felt that in the hands of such a man no one wasmaster of himself. His demeanour was so majestic, that even the shabby,dirty room in which he spoke became for the time a temple fit for thesacred rites conducted by so great and good a man: the noise of carts,the voices of men and women, were drowned and stilled beneath therolling music of his voice. I was rapt and astonished and terrified.

  Mrs. Gambit was so far impressed when the Doctor began this oration,that she instantly assumed that attitude of mind and body in whichcountry people always listen to a sermon: that is to say, she stoodwith her chin up, her eyes fixed on the ceiling (fie! how blackit was!), her hands crossed, and her thoughts wandering freelywhithersoever they listed. It is a practice which sometimes producesgood effects, save when the preacher, which is seldom, hath in his ownmind a clear message to deliver from the Revealed Word. For it preventsa congregation from discerning the poverty of the discourse; and inthese latter days of Whitfield, Wesley, and the sad schisms which dailywe witness, it checks the progress of Dissent.

  The Doctor, after a short pause, swept back his flowing gown witha significant gesture of his left hand, and resumed the defenceor apology for his profession. It was remarkable that he spoke asearnestly, and with as much force, eloquence, and justness in thisaddress to two women--or to one and a half, because Mrs. Gambit,thinking herself in church, was only half a listener--as if he had beenaddressing a great congregation beneath the vast dome of St. Paul's.The Doctor, I afterwards found, was always great; no mean or littleways were his: he lived, he spoke, he moved, he thought like a bishop.Had he been actually a bishop, I am sure that his stateliness, dignity,and pomp would have been worthy of that exalted position, and thathe would have graced the bench by the exhibition of every Christianvirtue, except perhaps that of meekness. For the Doctor was never meek.

  "Let us," said the Doctor, "argue the question. What is there contraryto the Rubric in my calling? The Church hath wisely ordered thatmarriage is a state to be entered upon only after sanctification by herministers or priests; I am one of those ministers. She hath providedand strictly enjoined a rule of service; I read that service. She hathrecommended the faithful to marry as if to enter a holy and blessedcondition of life; I encourage and exhort the people to come to me withthe design of obeying the Church and entering upon that condition.She hath, in deference to the laws of the land, required a stampedcertificate (at five shillings); I find that certificate in obedienceto the law. Further, for the credit of the cloth, and because peoplemust not think the ministers of the Church to be, like common hackneycoachmen, messengers, running lackeys, and such varlets, at the beckand call of every prentice boy and ragamuffin wench with a yard-measureand a dishclout for all their fortune; and because, further, it iswell to remind people of thrift, especially this common people ofLondon, who are grievously given to waste, prodigality, gluttony,fine clothes, drinking, and all such extravagances--nay, how exceptby thrift will they find money to pay their lawful tithes to MotherChurch?--wherefore it is my custom--nay, my undeviating rule--to chargea fee of one guinea at least for every pair, with half-a-crown for theservices of the clerk. More may be given; more, I say, is generallygiven by those who have money in pocket, and generous, grateful hearts.What, indeed, is a present of ten guineas in return for such servicesas mine? Child, know that I am a public benefactor; behold in me onewho promotes the happiness of his species; but for me maids wouldlanguish, lovers groan, and cruel guardians triumph. I ask not if therebe any impediment; I inquire not if there be some to forbid the banns;I do not concern myself with the lover's rent-roll; I care not whathis profession--I have even married a lady to her footman, since shedesired it, and a nobleman to his cook, since that was his lordship'swill. I ask not for consent of parents; the maiden leaves my doors awife: when she goes home, no parents or guardians can undo the knotthat I have tied. Doctors, learned in theology, casuistry, science,and philosophy, have been called by divers names; there have been theSubtle Doctor, the Golden Doctor, the Eloquent Doctor. For me there hasbeen reserved the title of the Benevolent Doctor; of me let it be saidthat he loved even beyond his respect towards his diocesan, even beyondobedience to his ecclesiastical superiors, even beyond consideration tothe parish clergy, who by his means were deprived of their fees, thehappiness of his fellow men and women."

  His voice had dropped to the lower notes, and his last words werespoken in deep but gentle thunder. When he had finished, Mrs. Gambitdropped her chin and returned to practical business.

  "And pray, sir, what will Miss Kitty do?"

  Recalled to the facts of the case, the Doctor paused. His cheeksretracted, his breadth and height became perceptibly smaller.

  "What will she do? That is, indeed, a difficulty."

  "If," said Mrs. Gambit, "your honour is a prisoner----"

  "Woman!" he roared, "I enjoy the Liberties of the Fleet--the Liberties,do you hear? Prate not to me of prisoners. Is Dr. Shovel a man, thinkye, to clap in a prison?"

  "Well, then, is Miss Kitty to live here?" She looked round in disgust."Why, what a place is this for a young lady virtuously and godlilyreared! Your ceiling is black with smoke; the windows are black withdirt; the walls are streaked with dirt; the floor is as thick with mudas the road--faugh! If your honour is a bishop, as you say you are,you can doubtless put the poor young lady, who is used to sweet airand clean floors, where she will get such--and that without profaneswearing."

  The last remark was caused by language used at that moment outside thewindow by a man wheeling a barrow full of cabbages, which upset. Whilepicking up the vegetables, he swore loudly, administering rebuke in acouple of oaths at least, and in some cases more, to every head ofcabbage in turn. An unreflecting wretch indeed, to break a commandmentupon a senseless vegetable!

  "Nay," I said, "my uncle will do what is best for me."

  "I will do for thee," he said, "what I can. This place is not fit fora young girl. All the morning it is wanted for my occupation. In theevening I am visited by gentlemen who seek me for certain merits,graces, or beauties of conversation in which I am said (although Iboast not) to be endowed with gifts beyond those allotted to most men.No, child, thou must not stay here."

  While we stood waiting for his decision, we became aware of a mostdreadful noise outside. Men were shouting, women were screaming; ofcourse bad language and cursing formed a large part of what was said.The air about the Fleet was always heavy with oaths, so that at lastthe ear grew accustomed to them, and we noticed them no more than inthe quiet fields one notices the buzzing of the insects. But thesepeople, whoever they were, congregated outside the door of the house;and after more oaths and loud talk, the door was opened and they alltramped noisily into the room--a party of men and women, twelve inall--and drew up in some sort of order, every man leading a woman bythe hand. As for the men, though I had never seen the sea, I knewat once that monsters so uncouth and rough could be none other thansailors. They were all dressed alike, and wore blue jackets withflannel shirts and coloured silk neckties: every man carried round hiswaist a rope, at the end of which was a knife; they wore three-corneredhats without lace or any kind of trimming; they had no wigs, but woretheir own hair plastered with tallow, rolled up tightly and tiedbehind; and one bore a great and grisly beard most terrible to behold.Great boots covered their feet; their hands were smeared with tar;their faces were weather-beaten, being burnt by the sun and blown bythe breeze; their eyes were clear and bright, but their cheeks werebruised as if they had been fighting: they were all laughing, and theircountenances betokened the greatest satisfaction with ever
ything.As for the women, they were young, and some of them, I suppose,were handsome, but they looked bold and rough. They were very finelydressed, their frocks being of silk and satin, with flowered shawls,and hats of a grandeur I had never before seen; immense hoops and greatpatches. But the fight outside had torn their finery, and more than onenymph had a black eye. However, these accidents had not diminished thegeneral joy, and they were laughing with the men.

  "Why--why!" roared the Doctor, as he called them to attention bybanging the table with his fist, so that the windows rattled, the womenshrieked, and the plaster fell from the wall. "What is this? Who areye?"

  The impudent fellow with the white apron who had brought us to theplace, here stepped in, bringing with him another couple. He, too,had been fighting, for his face was bleeding and bruised. Fighting, Ipresently found, was too common in Fleet Market to call for any notice.

  "What is this, Roger?" repeated the Doctor. "These tarpaulins areno cattle for my handling. Let them go to the Pen and Hand, or someother pigsty where they can be irregularly and illegally married foreighteenpence and a glass of rum."

  "Please your reverence," said Roger, handling his nose, which wasswollen, tenderly, "they are honest gentlemen of the sea, paid off atWapping but yesternight, still in their sea-going clothes by reasonof their having as yet no time to buy long-shore rigging; not commonsailors, but mates by rating in the ship's books, and anxious to bemarried by none other than your reverence."

  "Ay--ay! honest Roger." The Doctor's voice dropped and became soft andencouraging. "Ay--ay! this is as it should be. Know they of the fee?"

  "They wish me to offer your reverence," said the clerk, "a guineaapiece, and five guineas extra for your honour's trouble, if so be sosmall a gift is worth your acceptance; with half-a-crown apiece for theclerk, and a guinea for his nose, which I verily believe is broken inthe bridge. I have had great trouble, your reverence, in conveying solarge a party safe. And indeed I thought, at one time, the Rev. Mr.Arkwell would have had them all. But the gallant gentlemen knew whatwas best for them; and so, your honour, with a nose----"

  The Doctor shook his head and interrupted any further explanation.

  "That would indeed have been a misfortune for these brave fellows.Come, Roger, collect the fees, and to business with what speed we may."

  "Now then," said Roger roughly, "money first, business afterwards. Nofee, no marriage. Pay up, my lads!"

  The men lugged out handfuls of gold from their pockets, and paidwithout hesitation what they were told. But the women grumbled, sayingthat for half-a-crown and a dram they would have been married quite aswell, and so much more to spend. When the Doctor had put the fees inhis pocket, he advanced to the table and took up the Prayer-book. Whatwould my father have said had he witnessed this sight?

  Then Roger pulled out his greasy book, and put himself in place readyto say the responses. All being ready, the Doctor again banged thetable with his fist so that they all jumped, and the women screamedagain, and more plaster fell off the wall.

  "Now, all of you!" he roared, "listen to me. The first man whointerrupts, the first woman who laughs, the first who giggles, thefirst who dares to misbehave or to bring contempt on this religiousceremony, I will with my own clerical hands pitch headforemost into thestreet. And _he shall remain unmarried_!"

  Whether they were awed by his great voice and terrible aspect, themen being short of stature as all sailors seem to be, or whether theyfeared to be pitched through the window, or whether they trembled atthe prospect of remaining unmarried (perhaps for life) if the Doctorrefused to perform the ceremony, I know not. What is quite certain isthat they one and all, men and women, became suddenly as mute as mice,and perfectly obedient to the commands of Roger the clerk, who toldthem where to stand, when to kneel, what to say, and what to do. Acurtain ring acted as wedding-ring for all.

  The Doctor would omit nothing from the service, which he read frombeginning to end in his loud musical voice. When he had married thewhole six, he shut the Prayer-book, produced six stamped certificates,rapidly filled in the names and dates, which he also entered in his"Register," a great book with parchment cover. Roger acted as witness.Then the brides were presented by the Doctor with the certificates oftheir marriage. The ceremony lasted altogether about half-an-hour.

  "You are now, ladies and gentlemen," he said, smiling pleasantly,"married fast and firm, one to the other. I congratulate you. Marriagein the case of sailors and sailors' wives is a condition of peculiarhappiness, as you will all of you presently discover. The husband, atthe outset, is liable for the debts of his wife"--here the men lookedsheepishly at each other--"this no doubt will be brought home to all ofyou. There are several brave gentlemen of the sea now languishing inthe Fleet Prison through inability to pay off these encumbrances. Theywill continue to lie there for the whole term of their lives, theseunfortunate men. Husbands are also liable for the debts incurred bytheir wives while they are abroad"--here one or two of the men murmuredsomething about London Port and giving it a wide berth, which I did notunderstand. "As for the wives of seafaring men, their blessings andprivileges are also peculiar and numerous. They will have to remain athome and pray for the safety of the husbands whom they will see perhapsonce every five years or so: they will, in this widowed state, be ableto practise many Christian virtues which those who enjoy the constantpresence of a husband are less often called upon to illustrate: suchare patience under privation, resignation, and hope. Most of them willfind the allowance made to them by their husbands insufficient orirregularly paid. If any of them marry again, or be already married,it is, let me tell you, a hanging matter. Yea, there are already inNewgate hard by, several unfortunate women cast for execution whohave married again while their husbands were at sea. Lying in thecells they are, waiting for the cart and the gallows!" Here the womenlooked at one another and trembled, while their cheeks grew pale. "Itis too late now. Should there be any woman here who has committed thecrime of bigamy, let that woman know that it is too late for aught butrepentance. The gallows awaits her. You are now therefore, my friends,bound to each other. I trust and hope that these marriages have notbeen hastily or lightly entered upon. You have heard the duties ofhusband to wife and wife to husband, in the words of the service dulyread to you by a clergyman of the Church of England. Go now, performthose duties: be bright and shining examples of temperance, fidelity,and virtue. Should any man among you find that his marriage hath ledhim, through such a cause as I have indicated, to the King's Bench,or the Fleet, or the Compter; should he have to exchange, against hiswill, the free air of the sea for the confinement of a gaol, and therolling deck for the narrow courtyard; should he see himself reduced(having never learned any handicraft or trade) to starvation throughthese liabilities of his wife, or should any woman among you havehereafter to stand her trial for bigamy either for this work newlyaccomplished or for any future crime of the same nature, it will thenbe your comfort to reflect that you were not married by an irregular,self-constituted, self-styled Fleet parson, but by an ordainedclergyman and a Doctor of Divinity. Wherefore, I wish you well. Now go,less noisily than you came. But the noise I impute to your ignorance,as not knowing the quality of the man into whose presence you so rudelypushed. As for the marriage feast, see that you enjoy it in moderation.Above all, let your liquors be good. To which end--I speak it purelyout of my benevolence and for the good of head and stomach--you willfind the rum at the Bishop Blaize cheap and wholesome. Be not temptedto prefer the Rainbow or the Naked Boy, where the liquor is deplorable;and perhaps, in an hour or so, I may look in and drink your healths.Roger, turn them out."

  They went away sheepish and crestfallen, who had come noisy andtriumphant. I was ashamed, thinking of my father, and yet lost inwonder, looking at my uncle who had so easily tamed this savage crew.

  "I am glad," said the Doctor, when they had gone, "that this chance didnot become the windfall of an irregular and unlicensed practitioner.They cannot say that I warned them not. Well, let them have the
ir way.A few days more and the men will be afloat again, all their money gone;and the women----"

  "Will they starve, sir?" I asked.

  "I doubt it much," he replied. "Come, child, I have a thought of a planfor thee. Follow me. And you, good woman, come with us that you may seeyour charge in safety."

  The thing that I had seen was like a dream--the appearance of thedisorderly sailors and the women whom they married; the words of theservice read solemnly in this unhallowed room; the exaction of themoney beforehand; the bleeding faces and marks of the recent fight;the exhortation of the Doctor; the disappearance of the actors; theswollen nose, black eye, and the importance of the clerk reading theresponses--what strange place was this whereunto I had been led? Onepitied, too, the poor fellows on whom Fate had bestowed such wives. Ithought, child as I was, how terrible must be life encumbered with suchwomen! Womanlike, I was harder on the women than the men. Yet truly,women are what men make them.

  "Follow me, child."

  He led us out of the house, turning to the right. In the market was alot of country people who were standing about a stall. And we heard avoice: "There's the Doctor--there goes the great Dr. Shovel."

  My uncle drew himself up to his full height, and stalked grandly alongwith the eyes of the people upon him. "See," he seemed to say, by theswelling folds of his gown, "see my fame, how widespread it is--myreputation, how great!"

  He stopped at the corner of Fleet Lane, where the houses were nolonger taverns, and announcements of marriages were no longer to beseen. It was a house of three stories high, with a door which, like allthe doors in that neighbourhood, stood ever open.

  Here the Doctor stopped and addressed Mrs. Gambit--

  "You spoke of safety. I am about to confide this child to the care oftwo gentlewomen, poor, but of good birth and character, whom unjustlaws and the wickedness of men have condemned to imprisonment. I knowof no better guardians; but you shall satisfy yourself before you goaway. Wait a moment while I confer with the ladies."

  We stayed below for ten minutes. Then my uncle came down the stairs,and bade me return with him to be presented to the ladies, who hadkindly accepted the charge, on condition, he said, of my good conduct.

  I followed him, Mrs. Gambit keeping close to me. We stopped at a dooron the first floor. The room was poor and shabby: the furniture, ofwhich there was not much, was old and worn: there was no carpet: awhite blind was half drawn over the window: the place, to judge bythe presence of a saucepan, a kettle, and a gridiron, was apparentlya kitchen as well as a sitting-room: all, except a great portrait ofa gentleman, in majestic wig and splendid gown, which hung over thefireplace, was mean and pinched. Two ladies, of fifty or thereabouts,stood before me, holding out hands of welcome.

  They were both exactly alike, being small and thin, with hollow cheeks,bright eyes, and pointed features like a pair of birds: they worewhite caps, a sort of grey frock in cheap stuff: their hair was white:their hands were thin, with delicate fingers, transparent like thefingers of those who have been long in bed with sickness: they were ofthe same height, and appeared to be of the same age--namely, fifty orthereabouts. My first thought, as I looked at them, was that they hadnot enough to eat--which, indeed, like all first thoughts, was correct,because that had generally been the case with these poor creatures.

  "Kitty," said the Doctor, taking me by the hand, "I present you toMrs. Esther Pimpernel"--here the lady on the left dipped and curtsied,and I also, mighty grave--"and to Mrs. Deborah Pimpernel"--here thesame ceremony with the lady on the right. "Ladies, this is my nieceKitty Pleydell, daughter of my deceased sister Barbara and her husbandLawrence Pleydell of pious memory. I trust that in consenting thusgenerously to receive this child in your ward and keeping, you willfind a reward for your benevolence in her obedience, docility, andgratitude."

  "Doctor," murmured Mrs. Esther, in a voice like a turtledove's forsoftness, "I am sure that a niece of yours must be all sensibility andgoodness."

  "Goodness at least," said her sister, in sharper tones.

  I saw that the difference between the sisters lay chiefly in theirvoices.

  "She will, I trust, be serviceable to you," said the Doctor, wavinghis hand. "She hath been well and piously brought up to obedient ways.Under your care, ladies, I look for a good account of her."

  "Dear and reverend sir," Mrs. Esther cooed, "we are pleased and happyto be of use to you in this matter. No doubt little miss, who is wellgrown of her years, will repay your kindness with her prayers. As forus, the memory of your past and present goodness----"

  "Tut, tut!" he replied, shaking his great head till his cheeks waggled,"let us hear no more of that. In this place"--here he laid his righthand upon his heart, elevating his left, and leaning his head to oneside--"in this place, where infamy and well-deserved misery attend mostof those who dwell in it, it is yours, as it should be mine, to keepburning continually the pure flame of a Christian life."

  "How sweet! how noble!" murmured the sisters.

  Was it possible? The man whom we had just seen reading the service ofMother Church, which my father had taught me to regard as little lesssacred than the words of the Bible itself, in a squalid room, reekingwith the fumes of rum and stale tobacco, before a gang of half-drunkensailors, assumed naturally and easily, as if _it belonged to him_, theattitude and language of one devoted entirely to the contemplation andpractice of virtue and good works. Why, his face glowed with goodnesslike the sun at noonday, or the sun after a shower, or, say, the sunafter a good action. The Doctor, indeed, as I learned later, couldassume almost any character he pleased. It pleased him, not out ofhypocrisy, but because for a time it was a return to the promise of hisyouth, to be with these ladies the devout Christian priest. In thatcharacter he felt, I am convinced, the words which came spontaneouslyto his lips: for the moment he _was_ that character. Outside, in theFleet Market, he was the great Dr. Shovel--great, because among theFleet parsons he was the most successful, the most learned, the mosteloquent, the most important. In his own room he married all comers,after the manner we have seen; and it raised the envy of his rivalsto see how the crowd flocked to him. But in the evening he receivedhis friends, and drank and talked with them in such fashion as Inever saw, but of which I have heard. Again, it raised their envy towitness how men came from all quarters to drink with the Doctor. Atthat time he was no longer the Christian advocate, nor the clergyman;he was a rollicking, jovial, boon companion, who delighted to tellbetter stories, sing better songs, and hold better talk--meaning morewitty, not more spiritual talk--than any of those who sat with him. Ihave never been able to comprehend what pleasure men, especially menof mature years, can find in telling stories, and laughing, drinking,smoking tobacco, and singing with one another. Women find theirpleasures in more sober guise: they may lie in small things, but theyare innocent. Think what this world would be were the women to livelike the men, as disorderly, as wastefully, as noisily!

  "Now, good woman," said my uncle to Mrs. Gambit, "are you satisfiedthat my niece is in safe hands?"

  "The hands are good enough," replied the woman, looking round her; "butthe place----"

  "The place is what it is," said the Doctor sharply; "we cannot alterthe place."

  "Then I will go, sir."

  With that she gave me my parcel of money, kissed me and bade mefarewell, curtsied to the ladies, and left us.

  "I shall send up, ladies," said the Doctor, "a few trifles ofadditional furniture: a couple of chairs, one of them an arm-chair--butnot for this great, strong girl, if you please--a bed, a shelf forbooks; some cups and saucers we shall provide for you. And now, ladies,I wish you good-morning. And for your present wants--I mean the wantsof this hungry country maid, who looks as if mutton hung in toothsomelegs on every verdant hedge--this will, I think, suffice;" he placedmoney in Mrs. Esther's hand--I could not but think how he had earnedthat money--and left us.

  When he was gone the two ladies looked at each other with a strange,sad, and wistful expression, and Mrs. Esth
er, with the guineas in herhand, burst into tears.