The History of Samuel Titmarsh, and The Great Hoggarty Diamond"But not a common clerk, Miss Belinda,--so, if you please, we will have none of your aristocratic airs with him. He is a nephew of the Countess of Drum; and I hope he will soon be very high in our establishment, and in the city of London."
At the name of Countess (I had a dozen times rectified the error about our relationship), Miss Belinda made a low curtsey, and stared at me very hard, and said she would try and make the Rookery pleasant to any friend of Papa's. "We have not much _monde_ to-day," continued Miss Brough, "and are only in _pet.i.t comite_; but I hope before you leave us you will see some _societe_ that will make your _sejour_ agreeable."
I saw at once that she was a fashionable girl, from her using the French language in this way.
"Isn't she a fine girl?" said Brough, whispering to me, and evidently as proud of her as a man could be. "Isn't she a fine girl--eh, you dog? Do you see breeding like that in Somersetshire?"
"No, sir, upon my word!" answered I, rather slily; for I was thinking all the while how "Somebody" was a thousand times more beautiful, simple, and ladylike.
"And what has my dearest love been doing all day?" said her papa.
"Oh, Pa! I have _pinced_ the harp a little to Captain Fizgig's flute.
Didn't I, Captain Fizgig?"
Captain the Honourable Francis Fizgig said, "Yes, Brough, your fair daughter _pinced_ the harp, and _touched_ the piano, and _egratigned_ the guitar, and _ecorched_ a song or two; and we had the pleasure of a _promenade a l'eau_,--of a walk upon the water."
"Law, Captain!" cries Mrs. Brough, "walk on the water?"
"Hush, Mamma, you don't understand French!" says Miss Belinda, with a sneer.
"It's a sad disadvantage, madam," says Fizgig, gravely; "and I recommend you and Brough here, who are coming out in the great world, to have some lessons; or at least get up a couple of dozen phrases, and introduce them into your conversation here and there. I suppose, sir, you speak it commonly at the office, Mr. What you call it?" And Mr. Fizgig put his gla.s.s into his eye and looked at me.
"We speak English, sir," says I, "knowing it better than French."
"Everybody has not had your opportunities," Miss Brough, continued the gentleman. "Everybody has not _voyage_ like _nous autres_, hey? _Mais que voulez-vous_, my good sir? you must stick to your cursed ledgers and things. What's the French for ledger, Miss Belinda?"
"How can you ask? _Je n'en scais rien_, I'm sure."
"You should learn, Miss Brough," said her father. "The daughter of a British merchant need not be ashamed of the means by which her father gets his bread. _I'm_ not ashamed--I'm not proud. Those who know John Brough, know that ten years ago he was a poor clerk like my friend t.i.tmarsh here, and is now worth half-a-million. Is there any man in the House better listened to than John Brough? Is there any duke in the land that can give a better dinner than John Brough; or a larger fortune to his daughter than John Brough? Why, sir, the humble person now speaking to you could buy out many a German duke! But I'm not proud--no, no, not proud. There's my daughter--look at her--when I die, she will be mistress of my fortune; but am I proud? No! Let him who can win her, marry her, that's what I say. Be it you, Mr. Fizgig, son of a peer of the realm; or you, Bill Tidd. Be it a duke or a s...o...b..ack, what do I care, hey?--what do I care?"
"O-o-oh!" sighed the gent who went by the name of Bill Tidd: a very pale young man, with a black riband round his neck instead of a handkerchief, and his collars turned down like Lord Byron. He was leaning against the mantelpiece, and with a pair of great green eyes ogling Miss Brough with all his might.
"Oh, John--my dear John!" cried Mrs. Brough, seizing her husband's hand and kissing it, "you are an angel, that you are!"
"Isabella, don't flatter me; I'm a _man_,--a plain downright citizen of London, without a particle of pride, except in you and my daughter here--my two Bells, as I call them! This is the way that we live, t.i.tmarsh my boy: ours is a happy, humble, Christian home, and that's all.
Isabella, leave go my hand!"
"Mamma, you mustn't do so before company; it's odious!" shrieked Miss B.; and Mamma quietly let the hand fall, and heaved from her ample bosom a great large sigh. I felt a liking for that simple woman, and a respect for Brough too. He couldn't be a bad man, whose wife loved him so.
Dinner was soon announced, and I had the honour of leading in Miss B., who looked back rather angrily, I thought, at Captain Fizgig, because that gentleman had offered his arm to Mrs. Brough. He sat on the right of Mrs. Brough, and Miss flounced down on the seat next to him, leaving me and Mr. Tidd to take our places at the opposite side of the table.
At dinner there was turbot and soup first, and boiled turkey afterwards of course. How is it that at all the great dinners they have this perpetual boiled turkey? It was real turtle-soup: the first time I had ever tasted it; and I remarked how Mrs. B., who insisted on helping it, gave all the green lumps of fat to her husband, and put several slices of the breast of the bird under the body, until it came to his turn to be helped.
"I'm a plain man," says John, "and eat a plain dinner. I hate your kickshaws, though I keep a French cook for those who are not of my way of thinking. I'm no egotist, look you; I've no prejudices; and Miss there has her bechamels and fallals according to her taste. Captain, try the _volly-vong_."
We had plenty of champagne and old madeira with dinner, and great silver tankards of porter, which those might take who chose. Brough made especially a boast of drinking beer; and, when the ladies retired, said, "Gentlemen, Tiggins will give you an unlimited supply of wine: there's no stinting here;" and then laid himself down in his easy-chair and fell asleep.
"He always does so," whispered Mr. Tidd to me.
"Get some of that yellow-sealed wine, Tiggins," says the Captain. "That other claret we had yesterday is loaded, and disagrees with me infernally!"
I must say I liked the yellow seal much better than Aunt Hoggarty's Rosolio.
I soon found out what Mr. Tidd was, and what he was longing for.
"Isn't she a glorious creature?" says he to me.
"Who, sir?" says I.
"Miss Belinda, to be sure!" cried Tidd. "Did mortal ever look upon eyes like hers, or view a more sylph-like figure?"
"She might have a little more flesh, Mr. Tidd," says the Captain, "and a little less eyebrow. They look vicious, those scowling eyebrows, in a girl. _Qu'en dites-vous_, Mr. t.i.tmarsh, as Miss Brough would say?"
"I think it remarkably good claret, sir," says I.
"Egad, you're the right sort of fellow!" says the Captain. "_Volto sciolto_, eh? You respect our sleeping host yonder?"
"That I do, sir, as the first man in the city of London, and my managing director."
"And so do I," says Tidd; "and this day fortnight, when I'm of age, I'll prove my confidence too."
"As how?" says I.
"Why, sir, you must know that I come into--ahem--a considerable property, sir, on the 14th of July, which my father made--in business."
"Say at once he was a tailor, Tidd."
"He _was_ a tailor, sir,--but what of that? I've had a University education, and have the feelings of a gentleman; as much--ay, perhaps, and more, than some members of an effete aristocracy."
"Tidd, don't be severe!" says the Captain, drinking a tenth gla.s.s.
"Well, Mr. t.i.tmarsh, when of age I come into a considerable property; and Mr. Brough has been so good as to say he can get me twelve hundred a year for my twenty thousand pounds, and I have promised to invest them."
"In the West Diddles.e.x, sir?" says I--"in our office?"
"No, in another company, of which Mr. Brough is director, and quite as good a thing. Mr. Brough is a very old friend of my family, sir, and he has taken a great liking to me; and he says that with my talents I ought to get into Parliament; and then--and then! after I have laid out my patrimony, I may look to _matrimony_, you see!"
"Oh, you designing dog!" said the Captain. "When I used to lick you at school, who ever would have thought that I was thrashing a sucking statesman?"
"Talk away, boys!" said Brough, waking out of his sleep; "I only sleep with half an eye, and hear you all. Yes, you shall get into Parliament, Tidd my man, or my name's not Brough! You shall have six per cent. for your money, or never believe me! But as for my daughter--ask _her_, and not me. You, or the Captain, or t.i.tmarsh, may have her, if you can get her. All I ask in a son-in-law is, that he should be, as every one of you is, an honourable and high-minded man!"
Tidd at this looked very knowing; and as our host sank off to sleep again, pointed archly at his eyebrows, and wagged his head at the Captain.
"Bah!" says the Captain. "I say what I think; and you may tell Miss Brough if you like." And so presently this conversation ended, and we were summoned in to coffee. After which the Captain sang songs with Miss Brough; Tidd looked at her and said nothing; I looked at prints, and Mrs.
Brough sat knitting stockings for the poor. The Captain was sneering openly at Miss Brough and her affected ways and talk; but in spite of his bullying contemptuous way I thought she seemed to have a great regard for him, and to bear his scorn very meekly.
At twelve Captain Fizgig went off to his barracks at Knightsbridge, and Tidd and I to our rooms. Next day being Sunday, a great bell woke us at eight, and at nine we all a.s.sembled in the breakfast-room, where Mr.
Brough read prayers, a chapter, and made an exhortation afterwards, to us and all the members of the household; except the French cook, Monsieur Nontong-paw, whom I could see, from my chair, walking about in the shrubberies in his white night-cap, smoking a cigar.