LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1908, 6 April 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

IN HARD STRAITS. ‘ Nine o’clock, sor, an’ the hot wather, an’ is it the rest ot the bacon ye’d be after hovin’ for breakfast. ‘ Will it not be too much, Bridget V ‘ Sorra a bit, sor.’ ‘ Very well.’ And with a half groan, I Basil Hathaway, sprang out of bed, and proceeded to array myself in unexceptional costume—trousers, vest and frock-coat. My only ones, alas an accommodating relative some twenty doors off had taken charge of shabbier garments, one by one, kindly advancing sundry moneys thereon. Three of us were in the same plight—old school draws and old chums, now thrown together in manhood by the caprice of Dame Fortune; and lighting shoulder to shoulder the great battle of life in the great city. As I dressed, one of the trio, Hal Trevor, came bounding by three at a time up the worm-eaten stairs. He was fresh from the morning lecture at the hospital, and hungry as a hunter, I thought, with a shudder. I heard his cheerful greeting of Jack Hornsey, hard at work since daylight on “ Coke on Littelton.” ‘ Well, old bookworm, ready for breakfast. Where is the captain ?’ ‘ The captain!’ How the old title, bestowed still in honor of my three years seniority, set mo dreaming. I was roused by the dull thuds cf a poker hammering vie lently at the intervening wall. 1 all right!’ I shouted. ‘ Bing for the bacon.’

In a minute we were gazing with rueful looks at the breakfast arrangement. A loaf of stale bread, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and tiny rashers, that either could have put out of sight with ease.

* Is that all, Bridget ?’ Every line of the girl’s honest Irish face face was eloquent with sympathy, ‘ Not a bit more, sot.’

Hal laughed. ‘ Turn out your pockets, lads. There is my last coin.’ And he produced an exceedingly shiny sixpence. Jack, after much rummaging, showed a quantity of fluff and a brace button. I had threepence halfpenny in coppers. ‘ Odd man out for the bacon,’ quoth Hal.

‘Ho ; divide It between you,’ said I, ‘A man has been rash enough to invite me to dinner. Hand over the loaf,’

Jack gave me one keen glance, I think he suspected the pious falsehood. Hal—bless the boy!—was quite unconscious, as happy as though we had not a care. The frugal meal had just been disposed of, when we heard a great puffing and blowing on the third floor. That had but one possible meaning—a creditor. ‘ Whoso turn ?’ asked Jack, laconically.

It was an ancient arrangement now that on the advent of a dun only one of ns should receive him, the others being in the city—that is, in the adjacent bedroom. ‘ X our own.' cried Hal, as we decamped, leaving the door ajar to watch the course of events.

‘ I wish you joy, Jack ; it is old Blundersan, snorting like a grampus, as usual.’

Old Blunderson was a general provision merchant, who had let himself be beguiled into supplying sundry miscellaneous goods until his bills really frightened me. He was the exception that proved that old rule, ‘Laugh and grow fat;’ as crusty, illconditioned a wretch as ever read one particular portion of the Lord’s Prayer backward. A modern Falstaff, minus the wit, he always ascended slowly, resting on each stair.

We were safe for about five minutes. Jack employed them in preparing for his reception, and we watched proceedings with amused curiosity. The first was to produce a huge tobacco pouch, taking from it about half an ounce of tobacco. From this he filled a long clay pipe—Jack’s meerschaum had preceded our clothes to the pawnbroker’s—depositing the remainder carefully upon the table.

‘ An alarming sacrifice !’ murmured Jack, shaking his head over it with a regretful sigh. The next was to grasp the fire shovel and tongs. * Weapons of offence,’ whispered Harry. 1 He meditates assault and battery—’

He stopped abruptly In sheer amazement. Jack was deliberately removing live coals from the fire to the shovel, and upon these he swept his cherished tobacco. Then he placed the shovel upon the bottom ledges of two chairs at the farther corner of the room, threw himself into the one nearest the fire, aud complacently lighted his long clay. Of course the room filled fast with smoke aud a most pungent odor. «Old Blunderson hates tobacco as a certain personage hates holy water 1 ’ grinned Hal. « Bad policy, though to irritate him,’ grumbled I. By this time our enemy was in the doorway, gasping for breath, and shaking a great hairy fist at Jack by way of filling the interval till speech returned. * You abandoned young profligate ! ’ Jack removed his pipe, nodded, and quietly resumed it. ‘ Where—are—the—other—scamps ? ‘ One gone for the doctor ; the other—’ and a jerk of the speaker’s thumb toward the door behind which we stood completed the sentence. Old Blunderson made two nnwieldly steps toward us.

‘ Better not,’ said Jack, * Eh ? ’ 1 Typhoid fever—had case—contagious, fibbed Jack between his puffs. We saw old Blunderaon’s face turn a ghastly green with fear. Still he looked incredulous ; we had played so many tricks before. ‘ Gammon ! * he gasped at length. Jack rose slowly, walked to the corner, and produced his shovel. < Fumigating the room,’ said he. ‘ Better have a pipe.' _ And old Blnnderson fairly turned and fled with such celerity that he gained the next floor in seconds instead of minutes. We were laughing over his discomfiture, when Bridget’s head appeared at the door. ‘ 1 thought I’d tell ye, gintlaman, the , mistress is just cornin’. The saint purtect ye, for she has been lampagin’ like a heayIhen all this blessed morin’ ! ’ Our faces fell. Mrs I allaghan, our worthy landlady, was not a foe to be so readily dislodged, and her powers of invective were simply unrivalled. Hal was the only one who could soothe her, and he came to the rescue.

■ My turn, ’ he said, with a look of comic disgust. * Yon fellows get into my room and clear out of the house as seen as she is seated.’

As we did, seeing Hal hand a chair (as •wo glided by) with the deepest of mock reverences, and an expression of extreme devotion on his handsome features. ‘ Making violent love to the old beast ! ’ as he would have elegantly expressed it. * * * * *

It was evening of the same day—a dull November evening, much in harm, ny with my thoughts, as I leaned against the door post cf our house, and recalled the good old times when life was a merry farce for us all.

I had no heart to work. All that day 1 had hawked my manuscripts from one publisher to another, vainly hoping to get a loan upon them. My threepence halfpenny [had been carefully invested at a dirty cook shop, and I was glad to think there must have been just enough cold meat to satisfy the boys at dinner and tea. .Presently I would go in and hunt for any fragments that remained, for I was desperately hungry. Through the fog came a slender female figure disguised in a waterproof. She did not notice me until qnite abreast, when the light fell upon her face. Then as she gave one frightened glance, I saw two things —how pale and beautiful it was, and what a depth of misery Jay in the startled eyes. It was a low neigt boorhood in which we lived, though separated by bnt a long alley from a fashionable West End street—a dangerous locality for a young girl at that hour, I crossed the road in order to accompany her unobserved, and had hardly done so ere I saw jher brought up by some man, looming unsteadily in the mist. ‘ Come here, my pretty dear!’ said he. She gave a faint scream and tried to a'ip by him, but the drunken wretch caught her by the loose waterproof. In another second he measured his length on the pavement; bnt, strange to say, she sank down also insensible, dropping something that looked like a jewel case. My prostrate friend was relieving his feelings by a round volley of obscene abuse. Not daring to await the arrival of a policeman, I caught up his victim and her case, and made a hasty retreat. At the foot of the dilapidated stairs I hesitated Should I carry my fair burden into Mrs Callaghan’s little parlor? The sight of Bridget in full flight, pursued by shrill invective, decided the point?’ ‘ Bridget,’ said I, ‘ this lady has fainted. Come and help me.’ ‘ Ah, sure, sor! Poor dear!’

We carried the stranger to the common sitting-room, and essayed to bring her round. Presently she opened her eyes, and began to speak incoherently. • Delirious !’ said I. It was a great relief to hear Hal’s springing step. He gave a low whistle of astonishment as he entered, and felt the patient’s pulse, while I gave a brief explanation. • Feverish—very. She must be put to bed at once. Where does she live ?’ ‘ I have not an idea. Search her pockets. ’

But the search was fruitless. * Call a cab, and I will take her to the hospital,’ suggested Harry. I looked at the flushed face and the bright, beautiful eyes, and my heart gave a great senseless throb of disapproval. ‘No ; we cannot turn her away. Fetch a nurse, Hal, and she shall have my room. You will take me in for a night or two ?’ ‘ Of course, old man,’ and Hal flew off.

Then I thought of our landlady. * Bridget,’ said I, ‘ how about Mrs Callaghan ?' •I am the mistress, sor! Sure, I’ll tell her you’ve got the faver, an’ devil a bit will she come nigh ye.’ One more difficulty remained, and that the greatest—the money problem. Well, my coat and vest might go. So for three days I patted about the apartment iu an old tattered dressing-gown, being supposed to be down with fever ; meanwhile, the real patient had careful attention and strengthening nourishment. The third day a notable event happened. A high-class monthly cent me a guinea for a contribution, and requested a similar one. I worked cheerfully after that till the crisis came, and the nurse gleefully reported that the young lady was conscious, and asking for her father. ‘ May I see her ? ’ said I, eagerly.

‘Dear, dear —no sir. The excitement would throw her back. Besides she must not talk. Her father is Mr Bullion, of street.’

Bullion, the great foreign banker! What brought his daughter, unattended, into this vile side street ? Time would explain, perhaps. Meanwhile Jack put on his hat, and departed in quest of the great man. In an hour he was with us, his usual imposing air and magisterial demeanor lost in the agitation of the moment. He shook me warmly by the hand.

‘ Your friend has explained all, Mr Hathaway. lam deeply grateful to you. Where is my child f ’ The moat renowned physician in town was quickly summoned, but in vain. Mr Bullion begged him to devise means to remove Ula daughter. At present sne mwi not leave her bed. In a few days, perhaps, with re. turning strength, she might lie for two or three hours at a time on a sofa in our sitting room. Further change was imperatively forbidden.

So Mr Bullion, with many apologies, begged that some of his daughter’s favorite pictures, and a few chairs, Ac., from her boudoir, might be brought, and we could not refuse. A few hours transformed our bachelor den into a kind of fairy palace. Mr Bullion was naturally a constant visitor, and I had to receive him in the tattered dressing-gown. Twice he found me writing with manuscripts littered around. 4 You are an author?” he queried with a smile. ‘ A would-be one.’

'Pray do not desist from writing on my account. May I amuse myself for a time with your papers ? He borrowed a bulky one at leaving—to submit it, he said, to a publisher he knew. Next day I received a letter from a wellknown firm, offering 250d015. ft r the copyright, and an additional 2aodols. if a second edition was called for. In my youth and inexperience, it did not occur to me for months the money came from the banker’s pocket. Of course I eagerly assented, and took my coat and vest out of pawn—not a day too soon, for Miss Bullion was pronounced convalescent, and that afternoon her father s strong arms conveyed her from one room to another. I lived in fairyland for a week, till our guests departed. She explained the visit to our obscure street—it was to pawn jewellery for her brother’s benefit, a wild lad, whose excesses had driven him from home, and who had recently been writing her letter after letter hinting at frightful consequences if she could not furnish him with money. ‘Mr Hathaway,’ she said, ‘ will you be my friend, and try to reclaim him ?’_ She put a transparent little hand in mine, as she spoke, and I promised. Her “friend” I would have promised anything for such a title. Then an eventful conversation took place between me and the banker. 1 You have abandoned the idea of becoming a barrister, Mr Hathaway, and the profession of an author is a precarious one. Unite it with another pursuit. You are a good linguist, and I badly need a foreign correspondent; cast in yonr lot with me— I will take care you have no cause to regret it.’ ‘I thought of my “friend” and assented. The firm is Bullion and Hathaway now, the junior partner having married the senior’s daughter. John Hornsey is their lawyer, a man much respected in the profession. Hal Trevor is just beginning to make a stir as a fashionable physician.