CHAPTER VIII.
A FIRST PROFESSIONAL.
Within a few weeks of his recovery from his accident Tom Dimsdale was togo up for his first professional examination, and his father, who hadnow retired from practice with a fair fortune, remained in Edinburghuntil that event should come off. There had been some difficulty inpersuading Girdlestone to give his consent to this prolongation of hisward's leave, but the old merchant was very much engrossed with his ownaffairs about that time, which made him more amenable than he mightotherwise have been. The two travellers continued, therefore, to residein their Princes Street hotel, but the student held on to his lodgingsin Howe Street, where he used to read during the morning and afternoon.Every evening, however, he managed to dine at the _Royal_, and wouldstay there until his father packed him off to his books once more.It was in vain for him to protest and to plead for another half-hour.The physician was inexorable. When the fated hour came round theunhappy youth slowly gathered together his hat, his gloves, and hisstick, spreading out that operation over the greatest possible extent oftime which it could by any means be made to occupy. He would thenruefully bid his kinsfolk adieu, and retire rebelliously to his books.
Very soon, however, he made a discovery. From a certain seat in thePrinces Street Gardens it was possible to see the interior of thesitting-room in which the visitors remained after dinner. From the timewhen this fact dawned upon him, his rooms in the evening knew him nomore. The gardens were locked at night, but that was a mere trifle.He used to scramble over the railings like a cat, and then, plantinghimself upon the particular seat, he would keep a watch upon the hotelwindow until the occupants of the room retired to rest. It might happenthat his cousin remained invisible. Then he would return to his roomsin a highly dissatisfied state, and sit up half the night protestingagainst fate and smoking strong black tobacco. On the other hand, if hehad the good luck to see the graceful figure of his old playfellow, hefelt that that was the next best thing to being actually in her company,and departed eventually in a more contented frame of mind. Thus, whenDr. Dimsdale fondly imagined his son to be a mile away grappling withthe mysteries of science, that undutiful lad was in reality perchedwithin sixty yards of him, with his thoughts engrossed by very differentmatters.
Kate could not fail to understand what was going on. However young andinnocent a girl may be, there is always some subtle feminine instinctwhich warns her that she is loved. Then first she realizes that she haspassed the shadowy frontier line which divides the child-life from thatof the woman. Kate felt uneasy and perplexed, and half involuntarilyshe changed her manner towards him.
It had been frank and sisterly; now it became more distant andconstrained. He was quick to observe the change, and in private ravedand raged at it. He even made the mistake of showing his pique to her,upon which she became still more retiring and conventional. Then bebemoaned himself in the sleepless watches of the night, and confided tohis bed-post that in his belief such a case had never occurred before inthe history of the world, and never by any chance could or would happenagain. He also broke out into an eruption of bad verses, which werefound by his landlady during her daily examination of his privatepapers, and were read aloud to a select audience of neighbours, who wereall much impressed, and cackled sympathetically among themselves.
By degrees Tom developed other symptoms of the distemper which had comeupon him so suddenly. He had always been remarkable for a certaintowsiness of appearance and carelessness of dress which harmonized withhis Bohemian habits. All this he suddenly abjured. One fine morning hepaid successive visits to his tailor, his boot-maker, his hatter, andhis hosier, which left all those worthy tradesmen rubbing their handswith satisfaction. About a week afterwards he emerged from his rooms ina state of gorgeousness which impressed his landlady and amazed hisfriends. His old college companions hardly recognized Tom's honest phizas it looked out above the most fashionable of coats and under theglossiest of hats.
His father was anything but edified by the change.
"I don't know what's coming over the lad, Kate," he remarked after oneof his visits. "If I thought he was going to turn to a fop, by the LordHarry I'd disown him! Don't you notice a change in him yourself?"
Kate managed to evade the question, but her bright blush might haveopened the old man's eyes had he observed it. He hardly realized yetthat his son really was a man, and still less did he think of JohnHarston's little girl as a woman. It is generally some comparativestranger who first makes that discovery and brings it home to friendsand relatives.
Love has an awkward way of intruding itself at inconvenient times, butit never came more inopportunely than when it smote one who was readingfor his first professional examination. During these weeks, when Tomwas stumping about in boots which were two sizes too small for him, inthe hope of making his muscular, well-formed foot a trifle more elegant,and was splitting gloves in a way which surprised his glover, all hisenergies ought by rights to have been concentrated upon the mysteries ofbotany, chemistry, and zoology. During the precious hours that shouldhave been devoted to the mastering of the sub-divisions of thecelenterata or the natural orders of endogenous plants, he was expendinghis energies in endeavouring to recall the words of the song which hiscousin had sung the evening before, or to recollect the exact intonationwith which she remarked to him that it had been a fine day, or someother equally momentous observation. It follows that, as the day of theexamination came round, the student, in his lucid intervals, began tofeel anxious for the result. He had known his work fairly well,however, at one time, and with luck he might pull through. He made anenergetic attempt to compress a month's reading into a week, and whenthe day for the written examination came round he had recovered some ofhis lost ground. The papers suited him fairly well, and he felt as heleft the hall that he had had better fortune than he deserved. The_viva voce_ ordeal was the one, however, which he knew would be mostdangerous to him, and he dreaded it accordingly.
It was a raw spring morning when his turn came to go up. His father andKate drove round with him to the University gates.
"Keep up your pluck, Tom," the old gentleman said. "Be cool, and haveall your wits about you. Don't lose your head, whatever you do."
"I seem to have forgotten the little I ever knew," Tom said dolefully,as he trudged up the steps. As he looked back he saw Kate wave her handto him cheerily, and it gave him fresh heart.
"We shall hope to see you at lunch time," his father shouted after him."Mind you bring us good news." As he spoke the carriage rattled awaydown the Bridges, and Tom joined the knot of expectant students who werewaiting at the door of the great hall.
A melancholy group they were, sallow-faced, long-visaged and dolorous,partly from the effects of a long course of study and partly from theirpresent trepidation. It was painful to observe their attempts to appearconfident and unconcerned as they glanced round the heavens, as if toobserve the state of the weather, or examined with well-feignedarchaeological fervour the inscriptions upon the old University walls.Most painful of all was it, when some one, plucking up courage, wouldventure upon a tiny joke, at which the whole company would gibber in anostentatious way, as though to show that even in this dire pass theappreciation of humour still remained with them. At times, when any oftheir number alluded to the examination or detailed the questions whichhad been propounded to Brown or Baker the day before, the mask ofunconcern would be dropped, and the whole assembly would glare eagerlyand silently at the speaker. Generally on such occasions matters aremade infinitely worse by some Job's comforter, who creeps aboutsuggesting abstruse questions, and hinting that they represent someexaminer's particular hobby. Such a one came to Dimsdale's elbow, andquenched the last ray of hope which lingered in the young man's bosom.
"What do you know about cacodyl?" was his impressive question.
"Cacodyl?" Tom cried aghast. "It's some sort of antediluvian reptile,isn't it?"
The questioner broke into a sickly smile. "
No," he said. "It's anorganic explosive chemical compound. You're sure to be asked aboutcacodyl. Tester's dead on it. He asks every one how it is prepared."
Tom, much perturbed at these tidings, was feverishly endeavouring toextract some little information from his companion concerning thecompound, when a bell rang abruptly inside the room and a janitor with ared face and a blue slip of paper appeared at the door.
"Dillon, Dimsdale, Douglas," this functionary shouted in a very pompousvoice, and three unhappy young men filed through the half-opened doorinto the solemn hall beyond.
The scene inside was not calculated to put them at their ease. Threetables, half a dozen yards from each other, were littered with variousspecimens and scientific instruments, and behind each sat two elderlygentlemen, stern-faced and critical. At one side were stuffed specimensof various small beasts, numerous skeletons and skulls, large jarscontaining fish and reptiles preserved in spirits of wine, jawbones withgreat teeth which grinned savagely at the unfortunate candidate, andnumerous other zoological relics. The second table was heaped over witha blaze of gorgeous orchids and tropical plants, which looked strangelyout of place in the great bleak room. A row of microscopes bristledalong the edge. The third was the most appalling of all, for it wasbare with the exception of several sheets of paper and a pencil.Chemistry was the most dangerous of the many traps set to ensnare theunwary student.
"Dillon--botany; Dimsdale--zoology; Douglas--chemistry," the janitorshouted once more, and the candidates moved in front of the respectivetables. Tom found himself facing a great spider crab, which appeared tobe regarding him with a most malignant expression upon its crustaceanfeatures. Behind the crab sat a little professor, whose projecting eyesand crooked arms gave him such a resemblance to the creature in frontthat the student could not help smiling.
"Sir," said a tall, clean-shaven man at the other end of the table, "beserious. This is no time for levity."
Tom's expression after that would have made the fortune of a mute.
"What is this?" asked the little professor, handing a small round objectto the candidate.
"It is an echinus--a sea-urchin," Tom said triumphantly.
"Have they any circulation?" asked the other examiner.
"A water vascular system."
"Describe it."
Tom started off fluently, but it was no part of the policy of theexaminers to allow him to waste the fifteen minutes allotted them inexpatiating upon what he knew well. They interrupted him after a fewsentences.
"How does this creature walk?" asked the crab-like one.
"By means of long tubes which it projects at pleasure."
"How do the tubes enable the creature to walk?"
"They have suckers on them."
"What are the suckers like?"
"They are round hollow discs."
"Are you sure they are round?" asked the other sharply.
"Yes," said Tom stoutly, though his ideas on the subject were rathervague."
"And how does this sucker act?" asked the taller examiner.
Tom began to feel that these two men were exhibiting a very unseemlycuriosity. There seemed to be no satiating their desire forinformation. "It creates a vacuum," he cried desperately.
"How does it create a vacuum?"
"By the contraction of a muscular pimple in the centre," said Tom, in amoment of inspiration.
"And what makes this pimple contract?"
Tom lost his head, and was about to say "electricity," when he happilychecked himself and substituted "muscular action."
"Very good," said the examiners, and the student breathed again. Thetaller one returned to the charge, however, with, "And this muscle--isit composed of striped fibres or non-striped?"
"Non-striped," shrieked Tom at a venture, and both examiners rubbedtheir hands and murmured, "Very good, indeed!" at which Tom's hair beganto lie a little flatter, and he ceased to feel as if he were in aTurkish bath.
"How many teeth has a rabbit?" the tall man asked suddenly.
"I don't know," the student answered with candour.
The two looked triumphantly at one another.
"He doesn't know!" cried the goggle-eyed one decisively.
"I should recommend you to count them the next time you have one fordinner," the other remarked. As this was evidently meant for a joke,Tom had the tact to laugh, and a very gruesome and awe-inspiring laughit was too.
Then the candidate was badgered about the pterodactyl, and concerningthe difference in anatomy between a bat and a bird, and about thelamprey, and the cartilaginous fishes, and the amphioxus. All thesequestions he answered more or less to the satisfaction of theexaminers--generally less. When at last the little bell tinkled whichwas the sign for candidates to move on to other tables, the taller manleaned over a list in front of him and marked down upon it the followinghieroglyphic:--
"S. B.--."
This Tom's sharp eye at once detected, and he departed well pleased, forhe knew that the "S. B." meant _satis bene_, and as to the minus signafter it, it mattered little to him whether he had done rather more thanwell or rather less. He had passed in zoology, and that was all whichconcerned him at present.
The Firm of Girdlestone Page 8