第2章

"Did the boy messenger say he delivered my note?""He said so, sir, on his Bible oath, sir.""And do you believe him?"

"Oh, sir!" responded Mr.Ferdinand, in a shocked voice, "surely a London lad would not be found to tell a lie!""I hope not, Mr.Ferdinand.Still--did he look a nervous sort of lad?""He was a trifle pale, sir, about the gills--but a heart of gold, sir, I feel sure.He wore four medals, sir.""Four medals! Nevertheless, he may have been frightened to go to Mr.

Malkiel's door.That will do, Mr.Ferdinand."Mr.Ferdinand was about to bow and retire when the Prophet, after a moment of hesitation, added,--"Stay, Mr.Ferdinand.Mrs.Merillia has gone to the Gaiety Theatre to-night.I expect her back at half-past eleven.She may need assistance on her return.""Assistance, sir! Mrs.Merillia, sir!"

Mr.Ferdinand's luminous eyes shone with amazement.

"She may--I say she /may/--have to be carried to bed."Mr.Ferdinand's jaw dropped.He gave at the knees and was obliged to cling to a Chippendale cabinet for support.

"Have an armchair ready in the hall in case of necessity and tell Gustavus to sit up.Mrs.Merillia must not be dropped.You understand.

That will do, Mr.Ferdinand."

Mr.Ferdinand endeavoured to bow, and ultimately succeeded in retiring.

When his tremulous shoulders were no longer visible, the Prophet opened Marcus Aurelius, and, seating himself in a corner of the big couch by the fire, crossed his legs one over the other and began to read that timid Ancient's consolatory, but unconvincing, remarks.Occasionally he paused, however, murmured doubtfully, "Will she have to be carried to bed?" shook his head mournfully and then resumed his reading.

While he thus employs his time, we must say a word or two about him.

Mr.Hennessey Vivian was now a man of thirty-eight, of excellent fortune, of fine connections, and of admirable disposition.He had become an orphan as soon as it was in his power to do so, having lost his father--Captain Vivian of Her Majesty's Tenth Lancers--some months before, and his mother--who had been a Merillia of Chipping Sudbury--a few minutes after his birth.In these unfortunate circumstances, over which he, poor infant, had absolutely no control--whatever unkind people might say!--he devolved upon his mother's mother, the handsome and popular Mrs.Merillia, who assumed his charge with the rosy alacrity characteristic of her in all her undertakings.With her the little Hennessey had passed his infantine years, blowing happy bubbles, presiding over the voyages of his own private Noah--from the Army and Navy Stores, with two hundred animals of both sexes!--eating pap prepared by Mrs.Merillia's own /chef/, and sleeping in a cot hung with sunny silk that might have curtained Venus or have shaken about Aurora as she rose in the first morning of the world.From her he had acquired the alphabet and many a ginger-nut and decorative bonbon.And from her, too, he had set forth, with tears, in his new Eton jacket and broad white collar, to go to Mr.Chapman's preparatory school for little boys at Slough.Here he remained for several years, acquiring a respect for the poet Gray and a love of Slough peppermint that could only cease with life.Here too he made friends with Robert Green, son of Lord Churchmore, who was afterwards to be a certain influence in his life.

His existence at Slough was happy.Indeed, so great was his affection for the place that his removal to Eton cost him suffering scarcely less acute than that which presently attended his departure from Eton to Christchurch.Over his sensations on leaving Oxford we prefer to draw a veil, only saying that his last outlook--as an undergraduate--over her immemorial towers was as hazy as the average Cabinet Minister's outlook over the events of the day and the desires of the community.

But if the moisture of the Prophet did him credit at that painful period of his life, it must be allowed that his behaviour on being formally introduced into London Society showed no puling regret, no backward longings after echoing colleges, lost dons and the scouts that are no more.He was quite at his ease, and displayed none of the high-pitched contempt of Piccadilly that is often so amusingly characteristic of the young gentlemen accustomed to "the High."Mrs.Merillia, who had been a widow ever since she could remember, possessed the lease of the house in Berkeley Square in which the Prophet was now sitting.It was an excellent mansion, with everything comfortable about it, a duke on one side, a Chancellor of the Exchequer on the other, electric light, several bathrooms and the gramophone.

There was never any question of the Prophet setting up house by himself.On leaving Oxford he joined his ample fortune to Mrs.

Merillia's as a matter of course, and they settled down together with the greatest alacrity and hopefulness.Nor were their pleasant relations once disturbed during the fifteen years that elapsed before the Prophet applied his eye to the telescope in the bow window and gave Mr.Ferdinand the instructions which have just been recorded.