‘Faithful, I dare say?’ rejoined his patron,
looking at him through his glass; ’and immensely
clever? Virtuous and gifted animals, whether man
or beast, always are so very hideous.’
’Such a dog as that, and one of the same breed,
was the only living thing except me that howled that
day,’ said Hugh. ’Out of the two
thousand odd—there was a larger crowd for
its being a woman—the dog and I alone had
any pity. If he’d have been a man, he’d
have been glad to be quit of her, for she had been
forced to keep him lean and half-starved; but being
a dog, and not having a man’s sense, he was
sorry.’
‘It was dull of the brute, certainly,’
said Mr Chester, ’and very like a brute.’
Hugh made no rejoinder, but whistling to his dog,
who sprung up at the sound and came jumping and sporting
about him, bade his sympathising friend good night.
’Good night; he returned. ’Remember;
you’re safe with me—quite safe.
So long as you deserve it, my good fellow, as I hope
you always will, you have a friend in me, on whose
silence you may rely. Now do be careful of yourself,
pray do, and consider what jeopardy you might have
stood in. Good night! bless you!’
Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words
as much as such a being could, and crept out of the
door so submissively and subserviently—with
an air, in short, so different from that with which
he had entered—that his patron on being
left alone, smiled more than ever.
‘And yet,’ he said, as he took a pinch
of snuff, ’I do not like their having hanged
his mother. The fellow has a fine eye, and I am
sure she was handsome. But very probably she
was coarse—red-nosed perhaps, and had clumsy
feet. Aye, it was all for the best, no doubt.’
With this comforting reflection, he put on his coat,
took a farewell glance at the glass, and summoned
his man, who promptly attended, followed by a chair
and its two bearers.
‘Foh!’ said Mr Chester. ’The
very atmosphere that centaur has breathed, seems tainted
with the cart and ladder. Here, Peak. Bring
some scent and sprinkle the floor; and take away the
chair he sat upon, and air it; and dash a little of
that mixture upon me. I am stifled!’
The man obeyed; and the room and its master being
both purified, nothing remained for Mr Chester but
to demand his hat, to fold it jauntily under his arm,
to take his seat in the chair and be carried off; humming
a fashionable tune.
How the accomplished gentleman spent the evening in
the midst of a dazzling and brilliant circle; how
he enchanted all those with whom he mingled by the
grace of his deportment, the politeness of his manner,
the vivacity of his conversation, and the sweetness
of his voice; how it was observed in every corner,
that Chester was a man of that happy disposition that
nothing ruffled him, that he was one on whom the world’s
