‘No, I will not stop at Plymouth,’ he
said, as he passed by Taunton; and on reaching Exeter
he declared that he had fully made up his mind on
the subject.
‘We’ll get a chaise at Plymouth,’
said Alaric.
‘I think there will be a public conveyance,’
said Neverbend.
‘But a chaise will be the quickest,’ said
the one.
‘And much the dearest,’ said the other.
‘That won’t signify much to us,’
said Alaric; ’we shan’t pay the bill.’
‘It will signify a great deal to me,’
said Neverbend, with a look of ferocious honesty;
and so they reached Plymouth.
On getting out of the railway carriage, Alaric at
once hired a carriage with a pair of horses; the luggage
was strapped on, and Mr. Neverbend, before his time
for expostulation had fairly come, found himself posting
down the road to Tavistock, followed at a respectful
distance by two coaches and an omnibus.
They were soon drinking tea together at the Bedford
Hotel, and I beg to assure any travelling readers
that they might have drunk tea in a much worse place.
Mr. Neverbend, though he made a great struggle to
protect his dignity, and maintain the superiority of
his higher rank, felt the ground sinking from beneath
his feet from hour to hour. He could not at all
understand how it was, but even the servants at the
hotel seemed to pay more deference to Tudor than to
him; and before the evening was over he absolutely
found himself drinking port wine negus, because his
colleague had ordered it for him.
‘And now,’ said Neverbend, who was tired
with his long journey, ‘I think I’ll go
to bed.’
‘Do,’ said Alaric, who was not at all
tired, ’and I’ll go through this infernal
mass of papers. I have hardly looked at them yet.
Now that I am in the neighbourhood I shall better understand
the strange names.’
So Alaric went to work, and studied the dry subject
that was before him. It will luckily not be necessary
for us to do so also. It will be sufficient for
us to know that Wheal Mary Jane was at that moment
the richest of all the rich mines that had then been
opened in that district; that the, or its, or her
shares (which is the proper way of speaking of them
I am shamefully ignorant) were at an enormous premium;
that these two Commissioners would have to see and
talk to some scores of loud and angry men, deeply
interested in their success or failure, and that that
success or failure might probably in part depend on
the view which these two Commissioners might take.
THE HON. UNDECIMUS SCOTT
The Hon. Undecimus Scott was the eleventh son of the
Lord Gaberlunzie. Lord Gaberlunzie was the representative
of a very old and very noble race, more conspicuous,
however, at the present time for its age and nobility
than for its wealth. The Hon. Undecimus, therefore,
learnt, on arriving at manhood, that he was heir only
to the common lot of mortality, and that he had to
earn his own bread. This, however, could not have
surprised him much, as nine of his brethren had previously
found themselves in the same condition.
