第46章 PART I(45)

CHAPTER XXIII

Circumstances had obliged my aunt to perform the last stage of her journey to Frankfort by the night mail.She had only stopped at our house on her way to the hotel;being unwilling to trespass on the hospitality of her partners,while she was accompanied by such a half-witted fellow as Jack.Mr.Keller,however,refused even to hear of the head partner in the business being reduced to accept a mercenary welcome at an hotel.One whole side of the house,situated immediately over the offices,had been already put in order in anticipation of Mrs.Wagner's arrival.The luggage was then and there taken off the carriage;and my aunt was obliged,by all the laws of courtesy and good fellowship,to submit.

This information was communicated to me by Joseph,on my return from an early visit to one of our warehouses at the riverside.When I asked if Icould see my aunt,I was informed that she had already retired to rest in her room,after the fatigue of a seven hours'journey by night.

"And where is Jack Straw?"I asked.

"Playing the devil already,sir,with the rules of the house,"Joseph answered.

Fritz's voice hailed me from the lower regions.

"Come down,David;here's something worth seeing!"I descended at once to the servants'offices.There,crouched up in a corner of the cold stone corridor which formed the medium of communication between the kitchen and the stairs,I saw Jack Straw again--in the very position in which I had found him at Bedlam;excepting the prison,the chains,and the straw.

But for his prematurely gray hair and the strange yellow pallor of his complexion,I doubt if I should have recognized him again.He looked fat and happy;he was neatly and becomingly dressed,with a flower in his button-hole and rosettes on his shoes.In one word,so far as his costume was concerned,he might have been taken for a lady's page,dressed under the superintendence of his mistress herself.

"There he is!"said Fritz,"and there he means to remain,till your aunt wakes and sends for him.""Upsetting the women servants,on their way to their work,"Joseph added,with an air of supreme disgust--"and freezing in that cold corner,when he might be sitting comfortably by the kitchen fire!"Jack listened to this with an ironical expression of approval."That's very well said,Joseph,"he remarked."Come here;I want to speak to you.

Do you see that bell?"He pointed to a row of bells running along the upper wall of the corridor,and singled out one of them which was numbered ten."They tell me that's the bell of Mistress's bedroom,"he resumed,still speaking of my aunt by the name which he had first given to her on the day when they met in the madhouse."Very well,Joseph!Idon't want to be in anybody's way;but no person in the house must see that bell ring before me.Here I stay till Mistress rings--and then you will get rid of me;I shall move to the mat outside her door,and wait till she whistles for me.Now you may go.That's a poor half-witted creature,"he said as Joseph retired."Lord!what a lot of them there are in this world!"Fritz burst out laughing."I'm afraid you're another of them,"said Jack,looking at him with an expression of the sincerest compassion.

"Do you remember me?"I asked.

Jack nodded his head in a patronizing way."Oh,yes--Mistress has been talking of you.I know you both.You're David,and he's Fritz.All right!all right!"

"What sort of journey from London have you had?"I inquired next.

He stretched out his shapely little arms and legs,and yawned."Oh,a pretty good journey.We should have been better without the courier and the maid.The courier is a tall man.I have no opinion of tall men.I am a man myself of five foot--that's the right height for a courier.I could have done all the work,and saved Mistress the money.Her maid is another tall person;clumsy with her fingers.I could dress Mistress's hair a deal better than the maid,if she would only let me.The fact is,I want to do everything for her myself.I shall never be quite happy till I'm the only servant she has about her.""Ah,yes,"said Fritz,good-naturedly sympathizing with him."You're a grateful little man;you remember what Mrs.Wagner has done for you.""Remember?"Jack reported scornfully."I say,if you can't talk more sensibly than that,you had better hold your tongue."He turned and appealed to me."Did you ever hear anything like Fritz?He seems to think it wonderful that I remember the day when she took me out of Bedlam!""Ah,Jack,that was a great day in your life,wasn't it?""A great day?Oh,good Lord in Heaven!where are there words that are big enough to speak about it?"He sprang to his feet,wild with the sudden tumult of his own recollections."The sun--the warm,golden,glorious,beautiful sun--met us when we came out of the gates,and all but drove me stark-staring-mad with the joy of it!Forty thousand devils--little straw-colored,lively,tempting devils--(mind,I counted them!)--all crawled over me together.They sat on my shoulders--and they tickled my hands--and they scrambled in my hair--and they were all in one cry at me like a pack of dogs.'Now,Jack!we are waiting for you;your chains are off,and the sun's shining,and Mistress's carriage is at the gate--join us,Jack,in a good yell;a fine,tearing,screeching,terrifying,mad yell!'I dropped on my knees,down in the bottom of the carriage;and Iheld on by the skirts of Mistress's dress.'Look at me!'I said;'I won't burst out;I won't frighten you,if I die for it.Only help me with your eyes!only look at me!'And she put me on the front seat of the carriage,opposite her,and she never took her eyes off me all the way through the streets till we got to the house.'I believe in you,Jack,'she said.And I wouldn't even open my lips to answer her--I was so determined to be quiet.Ha!ha!how you two fellows would have yelled,in my place!"He sat down again in his corner,delighted with his own picture of the two fellows who would have yelled in his place.