England -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction; Runaway children -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
"Look here, youngster," he said, throwing himself upon the bed, "I
dessay you're tired, so don't you get up. Have another nap, and then
call me at ten, and we'll have some breakfast. How--how--" he said,
yawning.
"What did you say, sir?"
"How--Mary look?"
"Very well indeed, sir. She has looked much better lately, and--"
I stopped short, for a long-drawn breath from where Mr Revitts had
thrown himself upon the bed told me plainly enough that he was asleep.
I was too wakeful now to follow his example, and raising myself softly
upon my elbow, I had a good look at my new friend, to see that he did
not look so big and burly without his greatcoat, but all the same he was
a stoutly built, fine-looking man, with a bluff, honest expression of
countenance.
I stayed there for some minutes, thinking about him, and then about
Mary, and Mr Blakeford, and Hetty, and I wondered how the lawyer had
got on before the magistrates without me. Then, rising as quietly as I
could, I washed and finished dressing myself before sitting down to wait
patiently for my host's awakening.
The first hour passed very tediously, for there was nothing to see from
the window but chimney-pots, and though it was early I began to feel
that I had not breakfasted, and three hours or so was a long time to
wait. The room was clean, but shabbily furnished, and as I glanced
round offered little in the way of recreation, till my eyes lit on a set
of hanging shelves with a few books thereon, and going on tiptoe across
the room, I began to read their backs, considering which I should
choose.
There was the "Farmer of Inglewood Forest," close by the "Old English
Baron," with the "Children of the Abbey," and "Robinson Crusoe." Side
by side with them was a gilt-edged Prayer-book, upon opening which I
found that it was the property of "Mr William Revitts, a present from
his effectinat friend Mary Bloxam." On the opposite leaf was the
following verse:--
"When this yu see, remember me,
And bare me in yure mind;
And don't forget old Ingerland,
And the lass yu lef behind."
The Bible on the shelf was from the same source. Besides these were
several books in shabby covers--Bogatsky's "Golden Treasury," the
"Pilgrim's Progress," and the "Young Man's Best Companion."
I stood looking at them for a few minutes, and then reached down poor
old "Robinson Crusoe," bore it to the window, and for the fourth time in
my life began its perusal.
In a very short time my past troubles, my precarious future, and my
present hunger were all forgotten, and I was far away from the attic in
North London, watching the proceedings of Robinson in that wonderful
island, having skipped over a good many of the early adventures for the
sake of getting as soon as possible into that far-away home of mystery
and romance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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