English fiction -- 19th century; Tailors -- Fiction
Jonathan bowed; but his aspect betrayed perplexity, and that perplexity
was soon shared by the landlady for Jonathan said, he was convinced the
old gentleman intended to pay for sixteen days, and the landlady could
not bring her hand to charge him for more than two. Here was the
dilemma foreseen by the old gentleman, and it added vastly to the
flavour of the Port.
Pleasantly tickled, he sat gazing at his glass, and let the minutes
fly. He knew the part he would act in his little farce. If charged for
the whole month, he would peruse the bill deliberately, and perhaps cry
out “Hulloa?” and then snap at Jonathan for the interposition of a
remark. But if charged for two days, he would wish to be told whether
they were demented, those people outside, and scornfully return the
bill to Jonathan.
A slap on the shoulder, and a voice: “Found you at last, Tom!”
violently shattered the excellent plot, and made the old gentleman
start. He beheld Mr. Andrew Cogglesby.
“Drinking Port, Tom?” said Mr. Andrew. “I’ll join you”: and he sat down
opposite to him, rubbing his hands and pushing back his hair.
Jonathan entering briskly with the bill, fell back a step, in alarm.
The old gentleman, whose inviolacy was thus rudely assailed, sat
staring at the intruder, his mouth compressed, and three fingers round
his glass, which it was doubtful whether he was not going to hurl at
him.
“Waiter!” Mr. Andrew carelessly hailed, “a pint of this Port, if you
please.”
Jonathan sought the countenance of the old gentleman.
“Do you hear, sir?” cried the latter, turning his wrath on him.
“Another pint!” He added: “Take back the bill”; and away went Jonathan
to relate fresh marvels to his mistress.
Mr. Andrew then addressed the old gentleman in the most audacious
manner.
“Astonished to see me here, Tom? Dare say you are. I knew you came
somewhere in this neighbourhood, and, as I wanted to speak to you very
particularly, and you wouldn’t be visible till Monday, why, I spied
into two or three places, and here I am.”
You might see they were brothers. They had the same bushy eyebrows, the
same healthy colour in their cheeks, the same thick shoulders, and
brisk way of speaking, and clear, sharp, though kindly, eyes; only Tom
was cast in larger proportions than Andrew, and had gotten the grey
furniture of Time for his natural wear. Perhaps, too, a cross in early
life had a little twisted him, and set his mouth in a rueful bunch, out
of which occasionally came biting things. Mr. Andrew carried his head
up, and eyed every man living with the benevolence of a patriarch,
dashed with the impudence of a London sparrow. Tom had a nagging air,
and a trifle of acridity on his broad features. Still, any one at a
glance could have sworn they were brothers, and Jonathan unhesitatingly
proclaimed it at the Aurora bar.
Mr. Andrew’s hands were working together, and at them, and at his face,
the old gentleman continued to look with a firmly interrogating air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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