And the church bells sent him back to the school he was at now! They
were more mellow and sedate then the chapel bells there, that rang you
down the hill at the double if you were late and not too asthmatical;
and Pocket saw and heard himself puffing up the opposite hill to take
his place for chapel call-over in the school quad. The fellows would be
forming in squads there now, all in their Sunday tails or Eton jackets
as the case might be; of course Pocket was in tails, though still
rather proud of them. The masters, in their silk hoods or their
rabbit-skins were prominent in his mind’s eye. Then came the cool and
spacious chapel, with its marble pulpit and its brazen candelabra, and
rows of chastened chapel faces, that he knew better than his own,
giving a swing to chants which ran in his head at the very thought. How
real it all was to him, and how unreal this Sunday morning, in the
sunny room with the battle engravings over the book-cases, and the
walnut chairs in front of them, and Dr. Baumgartner in and out in his
alpaca coat! After chapel he would have gone for a walk with Blundell
minor, most probably, or else written his letter home and got it over.
And that chapter would have ended with cold boiled beef and apple-pie
with cloves in it at Spearman’s.
The Italian restaurant which sent in Dr. Baumgartner’s meals certainly
provided richer fare than that. There was a top-floor of soup in the
portable contrivance, and before the meat a risotto, which the doctor
praised without a single patriotic reservation.
“Italy is a country where one can live,” said he. “Not that you must
understand me to be altogether down on your own fatherland, my young
fellow; there is something to be said for London, especially on a
Sunday. No organs from my dear Italy, none of those so-called German
bands which we in Germany would not tolerate for a moment; no postman
every hour of the day, and no gaolbirds crying false news down the
streets.”
Pocket looked for a grim twinkle in the speaker’s eye, but found it
fixed on Phillida, who had not looked up. Instinct prompted Pocket to
say something quickly; that he had not seen a postman there, was the
actual remark.
“That is because I conduct my correspondence at my club,” explained the
doctor. “I give out no other address; then you only get your letters
when you want them.”
“Do you often go there?” the boy ventured to inquire, devoutly wishing
he would go that afternoon.
“Not when I have visitors,” replied Baumgartner, with a smiling bow.
“And I look upon my patients in that light,” he added, with benevolent
but futile hypocrisy, embarrassing enough to Phillida, but not more so
than if she had still believed it to be the truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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