The Master of the Ceremonies
Page 26
helping of me. Do you know, it wasjust like a scene in a piece we--er--saw once at the Lane."
"Oh, it was nothing ma'am, what I did. Miss Dean, there, she took offall the honours. No cold, I hope."
Cora did not answer.
"Plucky fellow, young Linnell; but poor, you know, poor."
"So I've heard," said Mrs Dean maliciously. "I was thinking of sendinghim ten guineas."
"Oh, I wouldn't do that, ma'am," said Barclay.
"Oh, well, I must say _thankye_ some other way. Very kind of you tocall. I said to my daughter, `There's Mr Barclay come for his rent,'but I was wrong."
"Not you, ma'am," said Barclay, whose eyes were rapidly taking in thestate of the room. "Business is business, you know," and he tookanother glance at the rich furniture and handsome mirrors of the place.
"Oh, it's all right, Mr Barclay. We're taking the greatest care of itall, and your rent's all ready for you, and always will be, of course."
"Yes, yes, I know that, ma'am. I've brought you a little receipt.Saves trouble. Pen and ink not always ready. I keep to my days. Somuch pleasanter for everybody. Nice rooms, ain't they?" he added,turning to Cora.
"Yes, Mr Barclay, the rooms are very nice," she said coldly andthoughtfully.
"Anything the matter with her?" said Mr Barclay, leaning forward toMrs Dean, and taking the money she handed in exchange for a receipt."Not in love, is she?"
Mrs Dean and her visitor exchanged glances, and smiled as Cora rose andwalked to the window to gaze out at the sea, merely turning her head tobow distantly when the landlord rose to leave.
"I'm a regular scoundrel, 'pon my soul I am," said Josiah Barclay,rubbing his nose with the edge of a memorandum book; "but they pay veryhandsomely, and if I were to refuse to let a part of a house that Ifurnish on purpose for letting, without having the highest moralcertificates of character with the people who want the rooms, I'm afraidI should never let them at all. Bah! it's no business of mine."
He went back to the front door and knocked, to be shown in directlyafter to where Colonel Mellersh was sitting back in his chair, havingevidently just thrown down the pack of cards.
"Morning, Shylock," he said, showing his white teeth. "Want your poundof flesh again?"
"No, thank ye, Colonel; rather have the ducats. I say, though, I wishyou wouldn't call me Shylock. I'm not one of the chosen, you know."
"That I'll take oath you're not, Barclay," said the Colonel, looking athis visitor with a very amused smile. "Your future is thoroughlyassured. I'm sorry for you, Barclay, for I don't think you're the worstscoundrel that ever breathed."
"I say, you know, Colonel, this is too bad, you know. Come, come,come."
"Oh, I always speak plainly to you, Barclay. Let me see; can you let mehave a hundred?"
"A hundred, Colonel?" said the other, looking up sharply; "well, yes, Ithink I can."
"Ah, well, I don't want it, Barclay. I know you'd be only too glad toget a good hold of me."
"Wrong, Colonel, wrong," said Barclay, chuckling as he glanced at thecards. "You do me too much good for that."
"Do I?" said the Colonel, smiling in a peculiarly cynical way. "Well,perhaps I do influence your market a little. There," he said, takingsome notes from his little pocket-book, and handing them to his visitor,"now we are free once more."
"Thankye, Colonel, thankye. You're a capital tenant. I say, by theway, after all these years, I shouldn't like to do anything to annoyyou: I hope you don't mind the actors upstairs."
"No," said the Colonel, staring at him.
"Because if you did complain, and were not satisfied, I'd make a change,you know."
"Don't trouble the women for my sake," said the Colonel gruffly. "Lookhere, Barclay, how would you play this hand?"
He took up the cards as he spoke, shuffled them with an easy, gracefulmovement, the pieces of pasteboard flying rapidly through his hands,before dealing them lightly out upon the table, face upwards, andselecting four thirteens.
"Now," he said, "look here. Your partner holds two trumps--six, nine;your adversaries right and left have knave and ace; B on your rightleads trumps--what would you do?"
Barclay knit his brow and took the Colonel's hand, gazing from one tothe other thoughtfully, and then, without a word, played the hand, theColonel selecting those cards that would be played by the others tillthe hand was half through, when Barclay hesitated for a moment, and thenseemed to throw away a trick.
"Why did you do that?" said the Colonel sharply.
"Because by losing that I should get the next two."
"Exactly!" cried the Colonel with his eyes flashing. "That endorses myopinion. Barclay, I shan't play against you if I can help myself.Money-lending seems to sharpen the wits wonderfully. What a clever oldfox you are!"
"One's obliged to be clever now a days, Colonel, if one wants to get on.Well, I must go. I have to see your neighbours. Rents are very bad toget in."
"I suppose so," said the Colonel drily. "Good-morning."
"I wonder what he makes a year by his play," said Barclay to himself, ashe went back to the front door to knock for the third time. "I believehe plays square, too, but he has a wonderful head, and he's practisingnight and day. Now for old Linnell."
He was shown into Mr Linnell's room the next minute, to find that hewas expected, and that he was gravely and courteously received, and hisrent paid, so that there was nothing for him to do but say"Good-morning." But Josiah Barclay's conscience was a little uneasy,and in spite of the fact that his tenant was far from being a rich man,there was something in his grave refined manner that won his respect.
"Wish you'd come and see us sometimes, Mr Linnell, just in a friendlyway, you know. Chop and glass o' sherry with Mrs Barclay and me; andyou'd join us too, Mr Richard, eh?"
"Thank you, Mr Barclay, no," said Richard's father; "I never go out.Richard, my son, here, would, I dare say, accept your invitation."
"Oh, but can't you too, eh? Look here, you know, you're a man who lovesbits of old china, and I've quite a lot. Really good. Come: when shallit be?"
"Don't press me now, Mr Barclay," said his tenant gravely. "Perhapssome other time."
"Then you're offended, Mr Linnell. You're a bit hipped because of theother lodgers, you know."
"Mr Barclay, I have made no complaints," said the elder Linnellquietly.
"No, you've made no complaints, but you show it in your way, don't yousee. It wasn't for me to be too strict in my inquiries about people,Mr Linnell. I'm sorry I offended you; but what can I do?"
"Mr Barclay has a perfect right to do what he pleases with his ownhouse," replied the elder Linnell with dignity. "Good-day."
"Now I could buy that man up a hundred times over," grumbled Barclay ashe walked away, richer by many pounds than when he started on hisjourney that morning; "but he always seems to set me down; to look uponme with contempt; and young Richard is as high and mighty as can be.Ah, well, wait a bit!--`Can you oblige me with fifty pounds, MrBarclay, on my note of hand?'--and then p'raps they'll be more civil.
"Things ain't pleasant though, just now. One house made notorious by amurder, and me letting a couple of actresses lodge in another. Well,they pay regular, and I dare say she'll make a good match somewherebefore long; but I'm afraid, when the old lady gets to know they'restage people, there'll be a bit of a breeze."
Volume One, Chapter XXI.
DICK CATCHES SHRIMPS.
There was quite a little crowd at the end of the pier to see FishermanDick and some others busy with boathooks searching for the fragments ofCora Dean's pony carriage, and for want of something better to stare at,the fastening of a rope to first one pair of wheels and then to theother, and the hauling ashore, formed thrilling incidents.
Two rich carriage-cloaks were cast ashore by the tide, miles away, andthe rug was found right under the pier, but there were several articlesstill missing. Cora's reticule, containing her purse and cut-glassscent-bottle; a little carriage-cloc
k used by Mrs Dean, who was alwaysvery particular about the lapse of time, and that lady's reticule andpurse.
It was Fisherman Dick's special task to search for them when the tidewas low, and this he did by going to work as a setter does in a field,quartering the ground and hunting it all over to and fro.
But Fisherman Dick did his work with a