Chapter 14
"Eh? Oh yes, very near! This is the part of London where all the wits, beaux, and clever men meet for conversation. You learn more in one night listening than you do in a month's reading. You'll like it, I promise you."
Frank was silent, and in spite of his companion's promise felt a little doubtful.
"Have you known Mr Selby very long?" he asked.
"Depends upon what you call long."
"Do you like him?"
"Oh yes, he's a splendid fellow. So are his friends splendid fellows.
You'll like them too. Thorough gentlemen. Most of them of good birth."
Frank was silent again; but he was becoming very observant now, as he noticed that, though they were going by a different way, they were tending toward the scene of their adventure, and the fight rose vividly before his imagination. But all was perfectly quiet and orderly around.
There were plenty of people about, but all apparently engaged in business matters, though all disposed to turn and look after the well-dressed youths, who seemed foreign to their surroundings.
It was a relief to Frank to find that there were no signs of an idling crowd, and he was congratulating himself upon that fact when, after increasing his pace as if annoyed at being noticed, Andrew said sharply:
"Walk a bit faster. How the oafs do stare!"
"Why, Drew!" cried Frank, suddenly checking himself, as his companion, who had led him to the spot from the opposite side, suddenly turned into the court where they had been wedged in the crowd.
"What is it?" said his companion impatiently. "Come along, quick!"
"But this is the place where they were fighting."
"Of course; I know it is. What of it? They're not fighting now."
As he spoke he was glancing rapidly up and down the court, and with his arm well through that of Frank he urged him on toward the door of the large house.
Frank was annoyed at having, as he felt, been deceived as to their destination, and ready to hang back. But he felt that it would seem cowardly, and that Andrew's silence had been from a feeling that if he had said where they were coming he would have met with a refusal, while the next moment the boy found himself in the pa.s.sage of the house.
A burly man, in a big snuff-coloured coat, confronted them, arranging a very curly wig as he came, but smiled, bowed, and drew back to allow the visitors to pa.s.s; and with a supercilious nod Andrew led on, apparently quite familiar with the place, and turned up a broad, well-worn staircase, quite half of whose bal.u.s.ters were perfectly new and unpainted, evidently replacing those broken out for weapons during the fight.
The sight of these and their suggestions did not increase Frank's desire to be there, but he went on up.
"For this time only," he said to himself; "but I'm not going to let him cheat me again."
A buzz of voices issued from a partly opened door on the first floor, and Andrew walked straight in without hesitation, Frank finding himself in the presence of about twenty gentlemen, standing at one end of a long room, along whose sides were arranged small tables laid for dinner.
The conversation stopped on the instant, and every eye was turned toward the new-comers, who doffed their hats with the customary formal bows, when, to the great relief of Frank, one gentleman detached himself from
"How are you, Mr Selby?" said Andrew loudly.
"The happier for seeing you keep your engagement," said their friend the feeder of ducks, smiling. "Mr Gowan, I am delighted to find my prayer has not been vain. Let me introduce you to our friends here of the club. We look upon this as a home, where we are all perfectly at our ease; and we wish our visitors--our neophytes--to feel the same.
Gentlemen, let me introduce my guest, Mr Frank Gowan. I think some of you have heard his father's--Sir Robert Gowan's--name."
There was a warm murmur of a.s.sent, and to a man the party a.s.sembled pressed forward to bid the visitors welcome. So pleasantly warm was the reception given to him, and so genuine the efforts made to set him at his ease, that the lad's feeling of diffidence and confusion soon began to pa.s.s away, and with it the feeling of uneasiness; for the boy felt that these gentlemen could not have been of the party engaged in the riot, and he had nearly persuaded himself that, as this was evidently a public tavern, quite another cla.s.s of people had occupied the room on his previous visit to the place, only he could not make this explanation fit with Andrew's excitement and desire to join in the fight.
But he had little time for thought. His bland and pleasant-spoken host took up too much of his attention, chatting fluently about the most matter-of-fact occurrences, political business being entirely excluded, and cleverly drawing the lads out in turn to talk about themselves and their aspirations, so ably, indeed, that before the agreeable little dinner served to these three at a table close to the window was half over, Frank found that he was relating some of his country life and school adventures to his host, and that the gentlemen at the tables on either side were listening.
The knowledge that he was being overheard acted as an extinguisher to the light of the boy's oratory, and he stopped short.
"Well?" said his host, with a pleasant smile; while Andrew leaned back, apparently quite satisfied with the impression his companion was making.
"Pray go on. You drew the great trout close to the river-bank. Don't say you lost it after all."
"Oh no, I caught it," said Frank, colouring; "but I am talking too much."
"My dear boy," said Mr Selby, "believe me, your fresh, young experiences are delightful to us weary men of the town. Cannot you feel how they revive our recollections of our own boyish days? There, pray don't think we are tired of anecdotes like this. Forbes here used to be fond of the country; but he has grown such a lover of town life and the court that he hardly mentions it now."
He went on playfully bantering Andrew, till quite a little pa.s.sage of give-and-take ensued, which made Frank think of what a strange mixture of clever, vain boy and thoughtful man his fellow-page seemed to be, while his own heart sank as he began to make comparisons, and he felt how thoroughly young he seemed to be amongst the clever men by whom he was surrounded.
But all the time his ears were active, and he listened for remarks that would endorse his suspicions of the principles of the members. Still, not a word reached him save such as strengthened Andrew's a.s.surance that Mr Selby was one of a party of clever men who liked to meet for social intercourse. The fight must have been with other people who occupied the room, he thought, and in all probability had nothing to do with this club at all.
The evening pa.s.sed rapidly away, and before Frank realised that it was near the time when they ought to be back at Saint James's Mr Selby turned to him.
"We are early birds here," he said; "so pray excuse what I am about to say, and believe that I am delighted to have made your acquaintance, one which is the beginning, I feel, of a life friends.h.i.+p. Gentlemen," he said, rising, "it is time to part till our next meeting. Hands round, please, and then adieu."
He turned to Frank, and held out his hand with a smile.
"Our little parting ceremony," he said.
The boy involuntarily held out his, ready to say good-bye; but it was clasped warmly by Selby in his left and retained, while Andrew with a quick, eager look took his other.
Frank stared, for the rest, who had increased by degrees to nearly forty, all joined hands till they had formed a ring facing inward.
What did it mean? For a moment the boy felt ready to s.n.a.t.c.h his hands away; but as he thought of so doing, he felt the clasp on either side grow firmer, and in a clear, low voice their host said:
"Across the water."
"Across the water," was echoed in a low, deep murmur by every one but Frank.
Then hand ceased to clasp hand, people began to leave, and Mr Selby went quickly to the other end of the room.
"All over," said Andrew, in a quick whisper. "Now then off, or we shall get into trouble for being late."
"Yes, let's go," said Frank, in a bewildered way; and he went downstairs with his companion, and out into the cool, pleasant night air of the street.
"We shall have to walk," said Andrew, "so step out."
Frank obeyed in silence, and nothing more was said till, without thinking of where they were, they saw Temple Bar before them.
"What did they mean by that?" said Frank suddenly.
"By what?"
"Joining hands together and saying 'Across the water.'"
"Oh, nothing. A way of saying good-bye if you live in Surrey."