CHAPTER I

TWO BREAKFASTS IN CLOISTERHAM

Servise is over the early morning service in the old Cathedral of the ancient city of Cloisterham, and the few who have composed the small congregation are rapidly dispersing in various directions, when one of the Minor Canons, Mr. Crisparkle, stumbles over something lying crouched upon the ground at his feet; and saving himself with a start from the imminent danger of falling forward on his face, nearly goes to the other extreme of falling on his back.

Now for one who prides himself and with reason on the keenness of his vision, such a mishap, barely averted, is trying, to say the least; and when further aggravated by the cause, which grins up at you, delighted at your discomfiture, raising, at the same time, a stone threateningly, is very trying. The Minor Canon has a fine temper, but he says, sternly

"What are you doing here, and what do you mean by lying right in my way like that?"

"What I’m a doin here?" says the ragged urchin, who calls himself Deputy; "a purty question that, for a clergyman and a minor canon! Hain’t I as much right to go to the Kinfreederal as you yourself? What do you mean by a falling over me, and a kickin my shins, without so much as a widdy warning? I’m manservant in attendance on Her Royal Ighness, the Princess Puffer, and I’m a waiting here fur to conduct her ome."

And Deputy, sharp-eyed and fleet of foot, slips past Mr. Crisparkle, and disappears round a corner, where a miserably-attired and trembling old woman has preceded him.

Mr. Crisparkle, in the course of a few minutes, arrives at the cosy home, upon the threshold of which he is accustomed to throw away all disagreeable thoughts. There he calls up a smile to his lips, assumes his usually elastic tread, and, humming a portion of the anthem so beautifully sung that morning by Mr. Jasper, the choir-master, and his choir, softly opens the dining-room door, whereupon his nose is welcomed by a mixture of Mocha, rasher and chop perfume, deliciously blended; and he himself by a charming little old lady, daintily attired as a china shepherdess, and radiant to behold. After an affectionate saluta tion of her, he sits down and attacks his breakfast with a good appetite. She watches him for a while, and then says

"Septimus, tell me what has happened to vex you; for that something has, even my old eyes are still sharp enough to see. You brought a load upon your heart home from London. You took that load with you to the Cathedral, and you haven’t left it there, in spite of your singing and your brisk step. From your earliest infancy, your mind was always an open book for me; don’t, don’t shut it now."

Here the old lady’s voice falters, and the tears rise to her bright eyes. A short pause, and the son slowly and hesitatingly speaks

"You may be sure that you would be the first I should open my heart to on any and every occasion; and if on this one point I have kept it closed, it is because, unfortunately, you and I differ very much about it." The old lady rises, rings the bell, paces up and down the room in a hurried and nervous manner while the neat maid-servant clears away the things. Then, drawing a chair close to her son, and seating herself, she fixes her bright eyes keenly upon his troubled face, and speaks to this effect

"Now that the plunge is made, and the ice broken, Sept, let me hear the whole. I don’t agree with you, and I tell you so beforehand; I do differ from you, and you may as well know it to begin with; but your troubles are my troubles, and your fears and anxieties must be mine, too. You have been to see Mr. Neville?"

"I have, ma."

"And you visit him every time you go to London? "

"Certainly I do," says the Minor Canon, and his troubled face becomes suddenly illuminated with a proud, exultant smile, which vanishes, however, immediately, though not before the anxious, scrutinis ing eyes of his mother have seized upon it and stored it up for future and careful examination. "Certainly, ma; it is all I can do for him now, poor fellow! But you must not imagine that my troubled thoughts came from him. It would, indeed, be impossible to meet him and his sister unmoved; to see how patiently they bear an affliction, so great, so terrible, that it would be no wonder if they sank under it. I often preach them patience and endurance, but I do not believe, put to the proof, I myself should practise the half of it. To think of their being driven away, outcasts from the only friends who love them; watched, and harassed, and threatened darkly by a foe, who will not meet them face to face. And to bear all this and be innocent -for, upon my soul, the lad is innocent! is it not enough to drive them to despair? And yet, all the gold in that boy’s nature is being ten times refined in the fiery furnace of affliction, and as for his sister—"

Here a radiant smile appears on the lips of the Minor Canon, and brightens his eyes; but it is lost on his mother, whose own eyes are cast down and clouded by thickly-falling tears. She quickly wipes them away, and not to expose herself to the bare supposition of having changed her mind, says

"Then what is the reason of your being so sad and troubled and so unlike yourself, since it is not that?"

"A horrible suspicion has sprung up in my mind; a suspicion so horrible that, without proof to confirm it, it would be a sin to utter it, even to you. It seems a sin to have conceived it, and yet it suddenly came to me, almost like an inspiration, and having come, seemed to be the result of reasoning, which my mind had been carrying on unconsciously for months. God grant I may be wrong," adds the Minor Canon, rising and shaking himself, as if to be rid of these melancholy thoughts. Then, catching a glimpse of his mother’s anxious face "I must take a run in the fresh air. You see I have my fits, as well as other people; but I know a cure a fresh air cure. I shall come back in half an hour as fresh as a bee, gathering honey from every opening flower."

Humming cheerfully, to complete the metaphor, the Rev. Septimus is in full trot, leaving her looking wistfully after him from the doorstep.

The Very Revd. the Dean was both surprised and perplexed, though, as he declared to Mrs. Dean "Not quite so surprised, as perplexed, perplexed. For, my dear, how are we in so short a time, to find a substitute? And even with time before us, such a choir-master is not so easily to be found again; such voice! such expression! so attentive too, and punctual in attendance in short, in every respect so unexcep tional. A sad calamity for a man, though, a very sad calamity! "

Now that the Dean comes to think of it, he is not surprised at all that Mr. Jasper should wish to give up his situation as choir-master, and go to London, He had declared that he could not remain any longer in Cloisterham; the very air he breathed there, every note he sung there, every corner in the town, and every nook in the Cathedral, reminded him here he had choked and become deadly pale; but the Dean had understood him; yes, the Dean had understood him perfectly, and had felt for him deeply; poor man! poor man! His salary was not the object to him it had been; the lawyer from London had communicated with him, and informed him that certain moneys, which would have been handed over to his lost nephew on his coming of age the words brought out in a spasmodic way, and with the same deadly paleness were at his disposal, as the only near relative. He had begged the Dean as a personal favour to supply his place as soon as possible, and of course the Dean could not refuse him; though, as he said before, "he was grieved to part with him, grieved and perplexed."

Thus the Dean, sitting cosily with Mrs. Dean, in the cool of the evening, in the verandah at the back of the Deanery, and speaking in that tone of lazy, cheerful discontent, becoming and natural to an afterdinner Dean; with such a glorious vista before him of sunny peaches and apricots, and mellowing plums, and blushing apples, in such quantity and quality as only were to be found in that Deanery garden, hidden from profane eyes by high walls, and only accessible to the favoured few, who were honoured in Cloisterham by the general and significant title of "those who visited at the Deanery." Thus the Dean, and the opinions expressed by him on this occa sion, were echoed that same evening through all Cloisterham. Every one related it to somebody else, and though occasional variations were observable, the echo remained pretty faithful to its original. All had felt sure that he would not and could not remain. He had taken the loss of his nephew too much to heart, poor fellow! he was quite an altered man since then. Always still and reserved, he had become so much stiller, and so much more reserved, that his voice was seldom heard except in the choir.

"He had grown as thin as a skeleton," said tearful Mrs. Tope, relating the news to her lodger, Mr. Datchery, who took little notice of it, remarking indifferently

"What did it matter to a buffer, whether this or that master led the choir," but supper being over, and Mrs. Tope departed, he added one thick stroke to his reckoning behind the door, and then taking up his hat, strolled out into the Cathedral Close. It was already dark, and light was shining out from the Gate House window, so that Mr. Datchery could distinctly see the figure of a man passing to and fro inside, Mr. Jasper, doubtless, perhaps already making preparations for departure. With a perplexed face, Mr. Datchery watched him, until aroused by feeling something hit him from behind. Turning round sharply, he became aware of Deputy, who was dancing behind him in great glee, and exclaimed, angrily "Ah, you young vagabond, are you going to make a mark for your stones of me. You had better leave off that game, I can tell you."

"Ere’s a row," said Deputy, "just because I give you one as a widdy warning. I want’s to speak to you, and I don’t want for im to hear," shaking his fist angrily in the direction of the shadow on the blind. "I ve been a watchin of im for the last arf-a-hour, while I ve been a waitin for you, and now you comes a rowin and a scandalizin of me like that. It’s arrowin to the feelin’s of a chap," said Deputy, rubbing both dirty eyes with his dirty fists, and pretending to be bitterly hurt, while all the while, he sharply scanned Mr. Datchery between his fingers, and mentally calculated how much he might get out of him.

"Come, come," said Mr. Datchery, good-humouredly, "out with it, Winks, what have you got to tell me? A shilling will make us good friends again, will it not?"

"A arf-a-crown," whimpered Deputy, "I ve injered my ealth a findin of it out. Er Royal Ighness is confounded hard to badger. I d tried every dodge and a most given it up. I told her she reminded me of my dead and gone mother, who died o whisky, after avin nearly broke every bone of my body (this for the private information of Mr. Datchery) and that I d come and see her in London. She didn’t rise to that fly at all. I didn’t remind her of her dead and gone son, and she didn’t receive no wisitors, except in a business way."

"Well, well," put in Mr. Datchery, impatiently, "did you find it out at last?"

"Wait a bit," continued Winks, "you re a comin to it a deal faster than I did. I was dead beat, and, af eared you d come too short this time, Dick, but when she set out to walk back to the station, all mumblin and totterin, I made up my mind not to lose the last chance, and follered her."

"Hoping to hitch it out of her on the road, eh, Winks?"

"At a conwenient distance," went on Deputy, gravely, " lookin out for the chance of pickin of it up; a mindful of my promise and a reckonin on your gratitood."

"Not in vain, Winks, old boy!" said Mr. Datchery with a laugh, "I’m an inquisitive old buffer, and I ve got the means of gratifying my curiosity; the woman interests me; I ve a notion of making a call upon her, when I go up to town; she seems one of the right sort for mixing the opium pipe, and for a buffer who’s nothing on earth to do, anything that turns up is a godsend."

Winks, who during these few remarks had been profusely illustrating his name, now put his thumb to his nose, and widened his fingers towards his friend, with every sign of contempt and derision; then, with a laugh, which seemed to proceed from his stomach, his mouth being totally unaffected by it, he replied "Don’t take no trouble to waste none of your chaff on me, Dick, for I sees through yer as through a winder-pane."

"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Mr. Datchery, angrily, "what an offshoot of the devil it is! Why don’t you tell me what I want to know? I know you found out at last, and it don’t matter to you why I want to know."

"She got so tottery on her pins," pursued Winks, with immovable gravity, "that at last she broke down on a stone by the road, and began to cough and to spit quite dreadful; then she closed her eyes and fell to mumblin. Creepin up to her, I says, soft like, where am I to come to, mother dear, when I wants a pipe? You ve clean forgot to tell me that, and without it, you know, I shall have to go to Jack Chinaman. I d heer d her mumblin some at about Jack Chinaman, and so I said it at a wenture. Lor! she were quite lively in a moment. Don’t go to Jack Chinaman, deary, she says, cause he’s much dearer than I am, and he don’t know neither the right mixin of it as I do; come to me, deary; to Mother Coombs in Purgatory Court, No. 162, down by the river. She kept on a mumblin and a coughin, but I didn’t wait to hear no more, and there’s your answer, Dick, and now fork out my arf-a-crown."

"There it is, and now be off with you," said Mr. Datchery. "I ve something to do before night, and I must have time to do it in. Stay," he added sud denly, "you may still help me. Watch that man there till I come back, and if he leaves the house, you follow him, and find out where he goes. You may earn another shilling to-night, Winks, if you are sharp, and more shillings in the future; you understand?"

Deputy gave a significant and quick sign of comprehension and assent, and shook one dirty fist again in the direction of the shadow. In the other was closely clenched his half-a-crown; yet, between his defiant growls for Mr. Jasper, and his congratulatory chuckles for himself, he did not fail to observe that Mr. Datchery, behind him, was copying his actions with even increased vehemence. Indeed, this latter gentleman seemed, for some unaccountable reason, to be stepping completely out of his role of easy-going buffer, and to take a keen and curious interest in the actions of the shadow, who, in bodily form, called himself John Jasper, choir master.

And John Jasper, the threatened; John Jasper, the regretted; John Jasper, the indispensable late professor of music in the ancient city of Cloisterham, and leader of the Cathedral choir what of him? If the devil had not been dancing before his house that evening, he had most surely been present in its interior, standing in almost palpable form beside its wretched inmate, and pointing, with a shadowy hand, to the reckoning that would not balance. Had he not been trying to add it up all that evening, and many a weary evening and day before, and yet, when it seemed nearly finished, only one figure or so more, something had turned it all wrong, and he must begin again at the beginning How weary he was! How heavy his head! How heavy his heart! Ha! was that the devil who laughed? He had a heart; how it throbbed and beat passionately for love of her or hatred, which was it? Once he had loved her, how well he remem bered that. How, all the week, he had but one thought, one longing, for the hour when he could sit by her side, touch her hand, sometimes even her little foot. How often it came upon the wrong pedal, and then, was it not his duty to put it right? Such a careless little thing, and he such a careful master! He could praise her, correct her, scold her; any thing, everything, to make her lift her bright eyes, whether in anger or content. How long he had cherished the hope that she returned his love, when the saucy naughtiness with which she treated her music-master Eddy’s uncle had changed into a steady, childish gravity, not unmixed with fear. How often he had seen her meet his eyes with a look of recognition in them recognition of what? of his love, or of her acknowledgment of it? How, at this time, when he touched her hand by accident, or in performance of his duty as her music-master, instead of the pretty, naughty pettishness she had formerly shown, she would draw it away with a shudder, as if in fear, and the bright colour would flush her face, even to the roots of her waving hair. Was not that the working of the troubled conscience that reproached her for treachery to her betrothed? Was not that almost a proof that she returned his love? And, even though the last interview he had had with her had shown him his error in this respect, had revealed to him, so distinctly that miscomprehension was impossible, her shuddering abhorrence of him, could he give her up? No! a thousand times, No! a million times, No! No devil in hell, no God in heaven, should make him leave her to another!

Smiting himself upon the breast, anon cursing himself and cursing her, anon pressing her picture passionately to his heart, so the wretched man passed the slow hours of the weary night.

Deputy and Mr. Datchery, always on the watch, saw the light, the steady light, ever burning in the Gate House. The grey morning peeping in, revealed a motionless form, haggard and worn out with watching and passion. Finally, Mrs. Tope, all bustle and broom and duster, coming in, was "that shocked" at beholding her honoured Mr. Jasper so prostrate, that, as she afterwards said, you might have knocked her down with a feather.

"Lord, ha mercy on us!" was her first terrified exclamation, then, prompt in action, she had assisted Mr. Jasper to his easy chair, and was moistening his pale forehead with water, before he had time to become fully conscious of her presence.

"There, there!" said the good woman, patting him as if he were a baby, "you are coming round nicely now; a few drops of wine will set you all right again," and hastening to a small sideboard behind the door, she poured out a glass of strong wine and held it to his lips. A faint colour flushed his face, and, with a slight motion of his hand, he indicated the open boxes and things scattered about, as if to account for his condition.

But Mrs. Tope bless her heart! knew all about it, and her busy woman’s tongue was already supplying all deficiencies in his explanation.

"Lord bless you, sir, I know! what with a packin up, and what with a thinkin of Mr. Edwin, it’s been too much for you. Tope, he ll bear me witness, that only last night I said to him, Tope, says I, I ll bet you all the money in the parish boxes, and some thing more for there ain’t much in em that not one-half an eye does Mr. Jasper close this live-long night. It ain’t no wonder either, for a sweeter young gentleman, or a kinder, never lived, and many’s the tear I ve shed, as Tope will certify to, for him and for you, sir; but, if you ll excuse my takin the liberty for to say it, we must all try not to fret and worry ourselves too much, even when the trouble’s very hard to bear. It ain’t no mortal use, the grave will never give up its dead."

What was that, glancing out sinister from the half-closed eyes of the pale occupant of the easy chair? What devil was that, hissingly and triumphantly repeating her last words, "the grave will never give up its dead?" Whatever it was, it was gone again in a moment, sinking back into the darkness whence it had sprung, and leaving no trace of its presence behind. Mrs. Tope could have sworn she had seen and heard it one moment, and the next, almost doubted her own senses. It stopped her chatter, however, and left her staring with foolish, wide-open eyes at the motionless figure opposite her.

"You are very kind and sympathising," said the choir-master feebly, "and I trust and rely on your affection and fidelity to me in all things; but this is a topic upon which I cannot trust myself to speak; the wound is still too new; it hurts too much," and, covering his eyes with his long, thin hand, he sank back in his easy chair, while Mrs. Tope, a little rebuffed and a little piqued at first, speedily recovered her spirits in the exercise of her household duties.

The room became brighter, healthier, freer. Even Mr. Jasper, not insensible to the cheerful influence, let fall the hand shadowing his eyes, and smiled grateful acknowledgment at the verger’s wife.

Presently, out of the small kitchen below, issued a savoury odour; coffee perfumed the atmosphere; a snowy cloth decked the table; plate and cup and saucer, and brightly polished knives contributed their part to the completion of a cheerful whole. In a word, and in an incredibly short time, breakfast, neat and dainty, was laid. Before beginning on it, he motioned Mrs. Tope to take the vacant chair beside him.

"Just this once," he pleaded, as she modestly hesitated, "for the first and perhaps the last time, good Mrs. Tope. You have waited upon me so often, and now that the place which has known me so well will soon know me no more, I cannot take my last meal alone. You have a few minutes to spare, have you not?"

"As for that," said Mrs. Tope, "nothing should have induced me to go, sir, until I had seen you take a few mouthfuls; for it frightened me terrible when I first came in, to see you lying there so still and white; and I couldn’t answer it to my conscience to go away and you not fully restored; so if you wishes it, and orders me to sit myself beside you, then I will take the liberty, sir, and many thanks for your goodness; and I hope, after all, that you will change your mind and come back to us; for it’s a lone place is London, sir, for a lone man, and we shall miss you here sorely, particularly in the Cathedral."

Thus the verger’s wife, casting anxious glances from time to time at the choir-master, who, reviving a little under the influence of the warm and savoury morsels, smiled back at her.

Meanwhile, Mr. Datchery, packed and ready, awaited impatiently the return of Mrs. Tope, in order to inform her that a letter he had received that morning summoned him peremptorily to London; a distant relation, lying dangerously ill, having demanded, in terms impossible to refuse, his presence there; and to pour into her sympathising ears his bitter complaint of what a fatality it was for a single buffer, who denied and utterly abjured all family ties, and who had so completely found his nook in life, where he could hang up his hat for the remainder of his days and live in peace and quietude, to be compelled, positively compelled, again to face the world he hated, and to bore himself with matters which could be of no possible interest to him.

Meanwhile, Deputy, munching a crust, his frugal breakfast, in a corner, and occasionally, with half an eye, making a mark of some early passer by, watched with keen intelligence the door of the Gate House, ready on the faintest sign of movement on the part of its inmate, to report to his friend and ally. Breakfast over in the Gate House the two having eaten little, Mr. Jasper being still too feeble and too engrossed with anxious thought, while Mrs. Tope’s modesty prevented her doing justice to her usually healthy appetite the verger’s wife packed the port manteau, which the choir-master had decided on taking with him, and received his instructions concerning the rest of his worldly goods in Cloisterham. Then the two sallied forth, Mr. Jasper propping himself on Mrs. Tope’s strong arm, and proceeded in the direction of the coach which was to convey him to the station. Mr. Crisparkle, having said good-bye to his mother, and heartily saluted her on both rosy cheeks, soon overtook them, and releasing Mrs. Tope, good-naturedly offered his arm to Jasper; but he avoided all unnecessary conversation with him, and fell into so meditative a mood, that the choir-master, furtively watching him, became every moment stiller and sterner.

Finally, Mr. Datchery, with his hat in his hand, his snowy locks waving in the gentle breeze, and accom panied by Winks, brought up the rear; but at a convenient distance, where they could neither be seen nor heard by the two before them. Thus the three arrived at the omnibus and took their places. Jasper first, kindly assisted by Mr. Crisparkle, who, however, did not take the seat beside him but at the other end of the vehicle; then, Mr. Datchery, cunningly assisted by Deputy, who, with a volley of oaths and a volley of stones, thrown indiscriminately in every direction, let him slip unobserved into the seat by the driver, Joe, who nodded his honest head in comprehension of the situation. Then a mild expostulation from Mr. Crisparkle, a half muttered curse between Jasper’s clenched teeth, a crack of Joe’s whip, a strong pull from the horses, a cloud of dust Deputy becoming gradually a mere speck in the distance and rattle, rattle towards the great city, whither they were all bound.

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