Hugh stepped forward to receive the piece of money he held out tohim. As he put it in his hand, he added:
"If you should happen to find anything else of this sort, or topick up any kind of information you may think I would like to have,bring it here, will you, my good fellow?"
This was said with a smile which implied--or Hugh thought it did-"
fail to do so at your peril!" He answered that he would.
"And don"t," said his patron, with an air of the very kindestpatronage, "don"t be at all downcast or uneasy respecting thatlittle rashness we have been speaking of. Your neck is as safe inmy hands, my good fellow, as though a baby"s fingers clasped it, Iassure you.--Take another glass. You are quieter now."
Hugh accepted it from his hand, and looking stealthily at hissmiling face, drank the contents in silence.
"Don"t you--ha, ha!--don"t you drink to the drink any more?" saidMr Chester, in his most winning manner.
"To you, sir," was the sullen answer, with something approaching toa bow. "I drink to you."
"Thank you. God bless you. By the bye, what is your name, my good soul? You are called Hugh, I know, of course--your other name?"
"I have no other name."
"A very strange fellow! Do you mean that you never knew one, orthat you don"t choose to tell it? Which?"
"I"d tell it if I could," said Hugh, quickly. "I can"t. I havebeen always called Hugh; nothing more. I never knew, nor saw, northought about a father; and I was a boy of six--that"s not veryold--when they hung my mother up at Tyburn for a couple of thousandmen to stare at. They might have let her live. She was poorenough."
"How very sad!" exclaimed his patron, with a condescending smile.
"I have no doubt she was an exceedingly fine woman."
"You see that dog of mine?" said Hugh, abruptly.
"Faithful, I dare say?" rejoined his patron, looking at him throughhis glass; "and immensely clever? Virtuous and gifted animals,whether man or beast, always are so very hideous."
"Such a dog as that, and one of the same breed, was the only livingthing except me that howled that day," said Hugh. "Out of the twothousand odd--there was a larger crowd for its being a woman--thedog and I alone had any pity. If he"d have been a man, he"d havebeen glad to be quit of her, for she had been forced to keep himlean and half-starved; but being a dog, and not having a man"ssense, he was sorry."
"It was dull of the brute, certainly," said Mr Chester, "and verylike a brute."
Hugh made no rejoinder, but whistling to his dog, who sprung up atthe sound and came jumping and sporting about him, bade hissympathising friend good night.
"Good night; he returned. "Remember; you"re safe with me--quitesafe. So long as you deserve it, my good fellow, as I hope youalways will, you have a friend in me, on whose silence you mayrely. Now do be careful of yourself, pray do, and consider whatjeopardy you might have stood in. Good night! bless you!"
Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words as much assuch a being could, and crept out of the door so submissively and subserviently--with an air, in short, so different from that withwhich he had entered--that his patron on being left alone, smiledmore than ever.
"And yet," he said, as he took a pinch of snuff, "I do not liketheir having hanged his mother. The fellow has a fine eye, and Iam sure she was handsome. But very probably she was coarse--rednosedperhaps, and had clumsy feet. Aye, it was all for the best,no doubt."
With this comforting reflection, he put on his coat, took afarewell glance at the glass, and summoned his man, who promptlyattended, followed by a chair and its two bearers.
"Foh!" said Mr Chester. "The very atmosphere that centaur hasbreathed, seems tainted with the cart and ladder. Here, Peak.
Bring some scent and sprinkle the floor; and take away the chair hesat upon, and air it; and dash a little of that mixture upon me. Iam stifled!"
The man obeyed; and the room and its master being both purified,nothing remained for Mr Chester but to demand his hat, to fold itjauntily under his arm, to take his seat in the chair and be carried off; humming a fashionable tune.
