LITMIR.BIZ

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to the table and do as I did, if he liked.

      “But I don’t like in the least,” said he, and therewith he summoned the servant by a fresh pull of the bell-rope, and intimated a desire to have a glass of toast-and-water. “And some more coal,” he added; “Mr. Crimsworth shall keep a good fire while I stay.”

      His orders being executed, he wheeled his chair round to the table, so as to be opposite me.

      “Well,” he proceeded. “You are out of work, I suppose.”

      “Yes,” said I; and not disposed to show the satisfaction I felt on this point, I, yielding to the whim of the moment, took up the subject as though I considered myself aggrieved rather than benefited by what had been done. “Yes – thanks to you, I am. Crimsworth turned me off at a minute’s notice[81], owing to some interference of yours at a public meeting, I understand.”

      “Ah! what! he mentioned that? He observed me signalling the lads, did he? What had he to say about his friend Hunsden – anything sweet?”

      “He called you a treacherous villain.”

      “Oh, he hardly knows me yet! I’m one of those shy people who don’t come out all at once, and he is only just beginning to make my acquaintance, but he’ll find I’ve some good qualities – excellent ones! The Hunsdens were always unrivalled at tracking a rascal; a downright, dis-honourable villain is their natural prey – they could not keep off him wherever they met him; you used the word pragmatical just now – that word is the property of our family; it has been applied to us from generation to generation; we have fine noses for abuses; we scent a scoundrel a mile off; we are reformers born, radical reformers; and it was impossible for me to live in the same town with Crimsworth, to come into weekly contact with him, to witness some of his conduct to you (for whom personally I care nothing; I only consider the brutal injustice with which he violated your natural claim to equality) – I say it was impossible for me to be thus situated and not feel the angel or the demon of my race at work within me. I followed my instinct, opposed a tyrant, and broke a chain.”

      Now this speech interested me much, both because it brought out Hunsden’s character, and because it explained his motives; it interested me so much that I forgot to reply to it, and sat silent, pondering over a throng of ideas it had suggested.

      “Are you grateful to me?” he asked, presently.

      In fact I was grateful, or almost so, and I believe I half-liked him at the moment, notwithstanding his proviso[82] that what he had done was not out of regard for me. But human nature is perverse. Impossible to answer his blunt question in the affirmative, so I disclaimed all tendency to gratitude, and advised him if he expected any reward for his championship, to look for it in a better world, as he was not likely to meet with it here. In reply he termed me “a dry-hearted aristocratic scamp,” whereupon I again charged him with having taken the bread out of my mouth.

      “Your bread was dirty, man!” cried Hunsden – “dirty and unwholesome! It came through the hands of a tyrant, for I tell you Crimsworth is a tyrant, – a tyrant to his workpeople, a tyrant to his clerks, and will some day be a tyrant to his wife.”

      “Nonsense! bread is bread, and a salary is a salary. I’ve lost mine, and through your means[83].”

      “There’s sense in what you say, after all,” rejoined Hunsden. “I must say I am rather agreeably surprised to hear you make so practical an observation as that last. I had imagined now, from my previous observation of your character, that the sentimental delight you would have taken in your newly regained liberty would, for a while at least, have effaced all ideas of forethought and prudence. I think better of you for looking steadily to the needful.”

      “Looking steadily to the needful! How can I do otherwise? I must live, and to live I must have what you call ‘the needful,’ which I can only get by working. I repeat it, you have taken my work from me.”

      “What do you mean to do?” pursued Hunsden coolly. “You have influential relations; I suppose they’ll soon provide you with another place.”

      “Influential relations? Who? I should like to know their names.”

      “The Seacombes.”

      “Stuff! I have cut them.[84]”

      Hunsden looked at me incredulously. “I have,” said I, “and that definitively.”

      “You must mean they have cut you, William.”

      “As you please. They offered me their patronage on condition of my entering the Church[85]; I declined both the terms and the recompence; I withdrew from my cold uncles, and preferred throwing myself into my elder brother’s arms, from whose affectionate embrace I am now torn by the cruel intermeddling of a stranger – of yourself, in short.”

      I could not repress a half-smile as I said this; a similar demi-manifestation of feeling appeared at the same moment on Hunsden’s lips.

      “Oh, I see!” said he, looking into my eyes, and it was evident he did see right down into my heart. Having sat a minute or two with his chin resting on his hand, diligently occupied in the continued perusal of my countenance, he went on:

      “Seriously, have you then nothing to expect from the Seacombes?”

      “Yes, rejection and repulsion. Why do you ask me twice? How can hands stained with the ink of a counting-house, soiled with the grease of a wool-warehouse, ever again be permitted to come into contact with aristocratic palms?”

      “There would be a difficulty, no doubt; still you are such a complete Seacombe in appearance, feature, language, almost manner, I wonder they should disown you.”

      “They have disowned me; so talk no more about it.”

      “Do you regret it, William?”

      “No.”

      “Why not, lad?”

      “Because they are not people with whom I could ever have had any sympathy.”

      “I say you are one of them.”

      “That merely proves that you know nothing at all about it; I am my mother’s son, but not my uncles’ nephew.”

      “Still – one of your uncles is a lord, though rather an obscure and not a very wealthy one, and the other a right honourable: you should consider worldly interest[86].”

      “Nonsense, Mr. Hunsden. You know or may know that even had I desired to be submissive to my uncles, I could not have stooped with a good enough grace ever to have won their favour. I should have sacrificed my own comfort and not have gained their patronage in return.”

      “Very likely – so you calculated your wisest plan was to follow your own devices at once?”

      “Exactly. I must follow my own devices[87] – I must, till the day of my death; because I can neither comprehend, adopt, nor work out those of other people.”

      Hunsden yawned. “Well,” said he, “in all this, I see but one thing clearly – that is, that the whole affair is no business of mine.” He stretched himself and again yawned. “I wonder what time it is,” he went on: “I have an appointment for seven o’clock.”

      “Three quarters past six by my watch.”

      “Well, then I’ll go.” He got up. “You’ll not meddle with trade again?” said he, leaning his elbow on the mantelpiece.

      “No; I think not.”

      “You would be a fool if you did. Probably, after all, you’ll think better of your uncles’ proposal and go into the Church.”

      “A singular regeneration must take place in my whole inner and outer man before I do that. A good clergyman

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