The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope

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'There now, sir,' said the guide; 'no more of them ugly buckets,
Mr. Neverbend; we can trust to our own arms and legs for the rest
of it, and so saying, he pointed out to Mr. Neverbend's horror-
stricken eyes a perpendicular iron ladder fixed firmly against
the upright side of a shaft, and leading--for aught Mr. Neverbend
could see--direct to hell itself.

'Down here, is it?' said Alaric peeping over.

'I'll go first,' said the guide; and down he went, down, down,
down, till Neverbend looking over, could barely see the glimmer
of his disappearing head light. Was it absolutely intended that
he should disappear in the same way? Had he bound himself to go
down that fiendish upright ladder? And were he to go down it,
what then? Would it be possible that a man of his weight should
ever come up again?

'Shall it be you or I next?' said Alaric very civilly. Neverbend
could only pant and grunt, and Alaric, with a courteous nod,
placed himself on the ladder, and went down, down, down, till of
him also nothing was left but the faintest glimmer. Mr. Neverbend
remained above with one of the mining authorities; one attendant
miner also remained with them.

'Now, Sir,' said the authority, 'if you are ready, the ladder is
quite free.'

Free! What would not Neverbend have given to be free also
himself! He looked down the free ladder, and the very look made
him sink. It seemed to him as though nothing but a spider could
creep down that perpendicular abyss. And then a sound, slow,
sharp, and continuous, as of drops falling through infinite space
on to deep water, came upon his ear; and he saw that the sides of
the abyss were covered with slime; and the damp air made him
cough, and the cap had got over his spectacles and nearly blinded
him; and he was perspiring with a cold, clammy sweat.

'Well, sir, shall we be going on?' said the authority. 'Mr.
Tooder'll be at the foot of the next set before this.'

Mr. Neverbend wished that Mr. Tudor's journey might still be
down, and down, and down, till he reached the globe's centre, in
which conflicting attractions might keep him for ever fixed. In
his despair he essayed to put one foot upon the ladder, and then
looked piteously up to the guide's face. Even in that dark, dingy
atmosphere the light of the farthing candle on his head revealed
the agony of his heart. His companions, though they were miners,
were still men. They saw his misery, and relented.

'Maybe thee be afeared?' said the working miner, 'and if so be
thee bee'st, thee'd better bide.'

'I am sure I should never come up again,' said Neverbend, with a
voice pleading for mercy, but with all the submission of one
prepared to suffer without resistance if mercy should not be
forthcoming.

'Thee bee'st for sartan too thick and weazy like for them
stairs,' said the miner.

'I am, I am,' said Neverbend, turning on the man a look of the
warmest affection, and shoving the horrid, heavy, encumbered cap
from off his spectacles; 'yes, I am too fat.' How would he have
answered, with what aspect would he have annihilated the sinner,
had such a man dared to call him weazy up above, on _terra
firma_, under the canopy of heaven?

His troubles, however, or at any rate his dangers, were brought
to an end. As soon as it became plainly manifest that his zeal in
the public service would carry him no lower, and would hardly
suffice to keep life throbbing in his bosom much longer, even in
his present level, preparations were made for his ascent. A bell
was rung; hoarse voices were again heard speaking and answering
in sounds quite unintelligible to a Cockney's ears; chains
rattled, the windlass whirled, and the huge bucket came tumbling
down, nearly on their heads. Poor Neverbend was all but lifted
into it. Where now was all the pride of the morn that had seen
him go forth the great dictator of the mines? Where was that
towering spirit with which he had ordered his tea and toast, and
rebuked the slowness of his charioteer? Where the ambition that
had soared so high over the pet of the Weights and Measures?
Alas, alas! how few of us there are who have within us the
courage to be great in adversity. _'Aequam memento'_--&c.,
&c.!--if thou couldst but have thought of it, O Neverbend, who
need'st must some day die.

But Neverbend did not think of it. How few of us do remember such
lessons at those moments in which they ought to be of use to us!
He was all but lifted into the tub, and then out of it, and then
again into another, till he reached the upper world, a sight
piteous to behold. His spectacles had gone from him, his cap
covered his eyes, his lamp had reversed itself, and soft globules
of grease had fallen on his nose, he was bathed in perspiration,
and was nevertheless chilled through to his very bones, his
whiskers were fringed with mud, and his black cravat had been
pulled from his neck and lost in some infernal struggle.
Nevertheless, the moment in which he seated himself on a hard
stool in that rough shed was perhaps the happiest in his life;
some Christian brought him beer; had it been nectar from the
brewery of the gods, he could not have drunk it with greater
avidity.

By slow degrees he made such toilet as circumstances allowed, and
then had himself driven back to Tavistock, being no more willing
to wait for Tudor now than he had been in the early morning. But
Jehu found him much more reasonable on his return; and as that
respectable functionary pocketed his half-crown, he fully
understood the spirit in which it was given. Poor Neverbend had
not now enough pluck left in him to combat the hostility of a
postboy.

Alaric, who of course contrived to see all that was to be seen,
and learn all that was to be learnt, in the dark passages of the
tin mine, was careful on his return to use his triumph with the
greatest moderation. His conscience was, alas, burdened with the
guilty knowledge of Undy's shares. When he came to think of the
transaction as he rode leisurely back to Tavistock, he knew how
wrong he had been, and yet he felt a kind of triumph at the spoil
which he held; for he had heard among the miners that the shares
of Mary Jane were already going up to some incredible standard of
value. In this manner, so said he to himself, had all the great
minds of the present day made their money, and kept themselves
afloat. 'Twas thus he tried to comfort himself; but not as yet
successfully.

There were no more squabbles between Mr. Neverbend and Mr. Tudor;
each knew that of himself, which made him bear and forbear; and
so the two Commissioners returned to town on good terms with each
other, and Alaric wrote a report, which delighted the heart of
Sir Gregory Hardlines, ruined the opponents of the great tin
mine, and sent the Mary Jane shares up, and up, and up, till
speculating men thought that they could not give too high a price
to secure them.

Alaric returned to town on Friday. It had been arranged that he,
and Charley, and Norman, should all go down to Hampton on the
Saturday; and then, on the following week, the competitive
examination was to take place. But Alaric's first anxiety after
his return was to procure the L206, which he had to pay for the
shares which he held in his pocket-book. He all but regretted, as
he journeyed up to town, with the now tame Fidus seated opposite
to him, that he had not disposed of them at Tavistock even at
half their present value, so that he might have saved himself the
necessity of being a borrower, and have wiped his hands of the
whole affair.

He and Norman dined together at their club in Waterloo Place, the
Pythagorean, a much humbler establishment than that patronized by
Scott, and one that was dignified by no politics. After dinner,
as they sat over their pint of sherry, Alaric made his request.

'Harry,' said he, suddenly, 'you are always full of money--I want
you to lend me L150.'

Norman was much less quick in his mode of speaking than his
friend, and at the present moment was inclined to be somewhat
slower than usual. This affair of the examination pressed upon
his spirits, and made him dull and unhappy. During the whole of
dinner he had said little or nothing, and had since been sitting
listlessly gazing at vacancy, and balancing himself on the hind-
legs of his chair.

'O yes--certainly,' said he; but he said it without the eagerness
with which Alaric thought that he should have answered his
request.

'If it's inconvenient, or if you don't like it,' said Alaric, the
blood mounting to his forehead, 'it does not signify. I can do
without it.'

'I can lend it you without any inconvenience,' said Harry. 'When
do you want it--not to-night, I suppose?'

'No--not to-night--I should like to have it early to-morrow
morning; but I see you don't like it, so I'll manage it some
other way.'

'I don't know what you mean by not liking it. I have not the
slightest objection to lending you any money I can spare. I don't
think you'll find any other of your friends who will like it
better. You can have it by eleven o'clock to-morrow.'

Intimate as the two men were, there had hitherto been very little
borrowing or lending between them; and now Alaric felt as though
he owed it to his intimacy with his friend to explain to him why
he wanted so large a sum in so short a time. He felt, moreover,
that he would not himself be so much ashamed of what he had done
if he could confess it to some one else. He could then solace
himself with the reflection that he had done nothing secret.
Norman, he supposed, would be displeased; but then Norman's
displeasure could not injure him, and with Norman there would be
no danger that the affair would go any further.

'You must think it very strange,' said he, 'that I should want
such a sum; but the truth is I have bought some shares.'

'Railway shares?' said Norman, in a tone that certainly did not
signify approval. He disliked speculation altogether, and had an
old-fashioned idea that men who do speculate, should have money
wherewith to do it.

'No--not railway shares exactly.'

'Canal?' suggested Norman.

'No--not canal.'

'Gas?'

'Mines,' said Alaric, bringing out the dread truth at last.

Harry Norman's brow grew very black. 'Not that mine that you've
been down about, I hope,' said he.

'Yes--that very identical Mary Jane that I went down, and down
about,' said Alaric, trying to joke on the subject. 'Don't look
so very black, my dear fellow. I know all that you have to say
upon the matter. I did what was very foolish, I dare say; but the
idea never occurred to me till it was too late, that I might be
suspected of making a false report on the subject, because I had
embarked a hundred pounds in it.'

'Alaric, if it were known--'

'Then it mustn't be known,' said Tudor. 'I am sorry for it; but,
as I told you, the idea didn't occur to me till it was too late.
The shares are bought now, and must be paid for to-morrow. I
shall sell them the moment I can, and you shall have the money in
three or four days.'

'I don't care one straw about the money,' said Norman, now quick
enough, but still in great displeasure; 'I would give double the
amount that you had not done this.'

'Don't be so suspicious, Harry,' said the other--'don't try to
think the worst of your friend. By others, by Sir Gregory
Hardlines, Neverbend, and such men, I might expect to be judged
harshly in such a matter. But I have a right to expect that you
will believe me. I tell you that I did this inadvertently, and am
sorry for it; surely that ought to be sufficient.'

Norman said nothing more; but he felt that Tudor had done that
which, if known, would disgrace him for ever. It might, however,
very probably never be known; and it might also be that Tudor
would never act so dishonestly again. On the following morning
the money was paid; and in the course of the next week the shares
were resold, and the money repaid, and Alaric Tudor, for the
first time in his life, found himself to be the possessor of over
three hundred pounds.

Such was the price which Scott, Manylodes, & Co., had found it
worth their while to pay him for his good report on Mary Jane.

CHAPTER XI

THE THREE KINGS

And now came the all-important week. On the Saturday the three
young men went down to Hampton. Charley had lately been leading a
very mixed sort of life. One week he would consort mainly with
the houri of the Norfolk Street beer-shop, and the next he would
be on his good behaviour, and live as respectably as circumstances
permitted him to do. His scope in this respect was not large. The
greatest respectability which his unassisted efforts could possibly
achieve was to dine at a cheap eating-house, and spend his
evenings, at a cigar divan. He belonged to no club, and his circle
of friends, except in the houri and navvy line, was very limited. Who
could expect that a young man from the Internal Navigation would
sit for hours and hours alone in a dull London lodging, over his book
and tea-cup? Who should expect that any young man will do so?
And yet mothers, and aunts, and anxious friends, do expect it--very
much in vain.

During Alaric's absence at Tavistock, Norman had taken Charley by
the hand and been with him a good deal. He had therefore spent an
uncommonly respectable week, and the Norfolk Street houri would
have been _au desespoir_, but that she had other Charleys to
her bow. When he found himself getting into a first-class
carriage at the Waterloo-bridge station with his two comrades, he
began to appreciate the comfort of decency, and almost wished
that he also had been brought up among the stern morals and hard
work of the Weights and Measures.

Nothing special occurred at Surbiton Cottage. It might have been
evident to a watchful bystander that Alaric was growing in favour
with all the party, excepting Mrs. Woodward, and that, as he did
so, Harry was more and more cherished by her.

This was specially shown in one little scene. Alaric had brought
down with him to Hampton the documents necessary to enable him to
draw out his report on Mary Jane. Indeed, it was all but
necessary that he should do so, as his coming examination would
leave him but little time for other business during the week. On
Saturday night he sat up at his inn over the papers, and on
Sunday morning, when Mrs. Woodward and the girls came down, ready
bonneted, for church, he signified his intention of remaining at
his work.

'I certainly think he might have gone to church,' said Mrs.
Woodward, when the hall-door closed behind the party, as they
started to their place of worship.

'Oh! mamma, think how much he has to do,' said Gertrude.

'Nonsense,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'it's all affectation, and he
ought to go to church. Government clerks are not worked so hard
as all that; are they, Harry?'

'Alaric is certainly very busy, but I think he should go to
church all the same,' said Harry, who himself never omitted
divine worship.

'But surely this is a work of necessity?' said Linda.

'Fiddle-de-de,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'I hate affectation, my dear.
It's very grand, I dare say, for a young man's services to be in
such request that he cannot find time to say his prayers. He'll
find plenty of time for gossiping by and by, I don't doubt.'

Linda could say nothing further, for an unbidden tear moistened
her eyelid as she heard her mother speak so harshly of her lover.
Gertrude, however, took up the cudgels for him, and so did
Captain Cuttwater.

'I think you are a little hard upon him, mamma,' said Gertrude,
'particularly when you know that, as a rule, he always goes to
church. I have heard you say yourself what an excellent churchman
he is.'

'Young men change sometimes,' said Mrs. Woodward.

'Upon my word, Bessie, I think you are very uncharitable this fine
Sunday morning,' said the captain. 'I wonder how you'll feel if
we have that chapter about the beam and the mote.'

Mrs. Woodward did not quite like being scolded by her uncle
before her daughters, but she said nothing further. Katie,
however, looked daggers at the old man from out her big bright
eyes. What right had any man, were he ever so old, ever so much
an uncle, to scold her mamma? Katie was inclined to join her
mother and take Harry Norman's side, for it was Harry Norman who
owned the boat.

They were now at the church door, and they entered without saying
anything further. Let us hope that charity, which surpasseth all
other virtues, guided their prayers while they were there, and
filled their hearts. In the meantime Alaric, unconscious how he
had been attacked and how defended, worked hard at his Tavistock
notes.

Mrs. Woodward was quite right in this, that the Commissioner of
the Mines, though he was unable to find time to go to church, did
find time to saunter about with the girls before dinner. Was it
to be expected that he should not do so? for what other purpose
was he there at Hampton?

They were all very serious this Sunday afternoon, and Katie could
make nothing of them. She and Charley, indeed, went off by
themselves to a desert island, or a place that would have been a
desert island had the water run round it, and there built
stupendous palaces and laid out glorious gardens. Charley was the
most good-natured of men, and could he have only brought a boat
with him, as Harry so often did, he would soon have been first
favourite with Katie.

'It shan't be at all like Hampton Court,' said Katie, speaking of
the new abode which Charley was to build for her.

'Not at all,' said Charley.

'Nor yet Buckingham Palace.'

'No,' said Charley, 'I think we'll have it Gothic.'

'Gothic!' said Katie, looking up at him with all her eyes. 'Will
Gothic be most grand? What's Gothic?'

Charley began to consider. 'Westminster Abbey,' said he at last.

'Oh--but Charley, I don't want a church. Is the Alhambra Gothic?'

Charley was not quite sure, but thought it probably was. They
decided, therefore, that the new palace should be built after the
model of the Alhambra.

The afternoon was but dull and lugubrious to the remainder of the
party. The girls seemed to feel that there was something solemn
about the coming competition between two such dear friends, which
prevented and should prevent them all from being merry. Harry
perfectly sympathized in the feeling; and even Alaric, though
depressed himself by no melancholy forebodings, was at any rate
conscious that he should refrain from any apparent anticipation
of a triumph. They all went to church in the evening; but even
this amendment in Alaric's conduct hardly reconciled him to Mrs.
Woodward.

'I suppose we shall all be very clever before long,' said she,
after tea; 'but really I don't know that we shall be any the
better for it. Now in this office of yours, by the end of next
week, there will be three or four men with broken hearts, and
there will be one triumphant jackanapes, so conceited and proud,
that he'll never bring himself to do another good ordinary day's
work as long as he lives. Nothing will persuade me but that it is
not only very bad, but very unjust also.'

'The jackanapes must learn to put up with ordinary work,' said
Alaric, 'or he'll soon find himself reduced to his former
insignificance.'

'And the men with the broken hearts; they, I suppose, must put up
with their wretchedness too,' said Mrs. Woodward; 'and their
wives, also, and children, who have been looking forward for
years to this vacancy as the period of their lives at which they
are to begin to be comfortable. I hate such heartlessness. I hate
the very name of Sir Gregory Hardlines.'

'But, mamma, won't the general effect be to produce a much higher
class of education among the men?' said Gertrude.

'In the army and navy the best men get on the best,' said Linda.

'Do they, by jingo!' said Uncle Bat. 'It's very little you know
about the navy, Miss Linda.'

'Well, then, at any rate they ought,' said Linda.

'I would have a competitive examination in every service,' said
Gertrude. 'It would make young men ambitious. They would not be
so idle and empty as they now are, if they had to contend in this
way for every step upwards in the world.'

'The world,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'will soon be like a fishpond,
very full of fish, but with very little food for them. Every one
is scrambling for the others' prey, and they will end at last by
eating one another. If Harry gets this situation, will not that
unfortunate Jones, who for years has been waiting for it, always
regard him as a robber?'

'My maxim is this,' said Uncle Bat; 'if a youngster goes into any
service, say the navy, and does his duty by his country like a
man, why, he shouldn't be passed over. Now look at me; I was
on the books of the _Catamaran_, one of the old seventy-fours,
in '96; I did my duty then and always; was never in the black
book or laid up sick; was always rough and ready for any work
that came to hand; and when I went into the _Mudlark_ as lieutenant
in year '9, little Bobby Howard had just joined the old _Cat._ as a
young middy. And where am I now? and where is Bobby Howard?
Why, d----e, I'm on the shelf, craving the ladies' pardon; and he's
a Lord of the Admiralty, if you please, and a Member of Parliament.
Now I say Cuttwater's as good a name as Howard for going to sea
with any day; and if there'd been a competitive examination for
Admiralty Lords five years ago, Bobby Howard would never have
been where he is now, and somebody else who knows more
about his profession than all the Howards put together, might
perhaps have been in his place. And so, my lads, here's to you,
and I hope the best man will win.'

Whether Uncle Bat agreed with his niece or with his grandnieces
was not very apparent from the line of his argument; but they all
laughed at his eagerness, and nothing more was said that evening
about the matter.

Alaric, Harry, and Charley, of course returned to town on the
following day. Breakfast on Monday morning at Surbiton Cottage
was an early affair when the young men were there; so early, that
Captain Cuttwater did not make his appearance. Since his arrival
at the cottage, Mrs. Woodward had found an excuse for a later
breakfast in the necessity of taking it with her uncle; so that
the young people were generally left alone. Linda was the family
tea-maker, and was, therefore, earliest down; and Alaric being
the first on this morning to leave the hotel, found her alone in
the dining-room.

He had never renewed the disclosure of his passion; but Linda had
thought that whenever he shook hands with her since that
memorable walk, she had always felt a more than ordinary
pressure. This she had been careful not to return, but she had
not the heart to rebuke it. Now, when he bade her good morning,
he certainly held her hand in his longer than he need have done.
He looked at her too, as though his looks meant something more
than ordinary looking; at least so Linda thought; but yet he said
nothing, and so Linda, slightly trembling, went on with the
adjustment of her tea-tray.

'It will be all over, Linda, when we meet again,' said Alaric.
His mind she found was intent on his examination, not on his
love. But this was natural, was as it should be. If--and she was
certain in her heart that it would be so--if he should be
successful, then he might speak of love without having to speak
in the same breath of poverty as well. 'It will be all over when
we meet again,' he said.

'I suppose it will,' said Linda.

'I don't at all like it; it seems so unnatural having to contend
against one's friend. And yet one cannot help it; one cannot
allow one's self to go to the wall'

'I'm sure Harry doesn't mind it,' said Linda.

'I'm sure I do,' said he. 'If I fail I shall be unhappy, and if I
succeed I shall be equally so. I shall set all the world against
me. I know what your mother meant when she talked of a jackanapes
yesterday. If I get the promotion I may wish good-bye to Surbiton
Cottage.'

'Oh, Alaric!'

'Harry would forgive me; but Harry's friends would never do so.'

'How can you say so? I am sure mamma has no such feeling, nor yet
even Gertrude; I mean that none of us have.'

'It is very natural all of you should, for he is your cousin.'

'You are just the same as our cousin. I am sure we think quite as
much of you as of Harry. Even Gertrude said she hoped that you
would get it.'

'Dear Gertrude!'

'Because, you know, Harry does not want it so much as you do. I
am sure I wish you success with all my heart. Perhaps it's wicked
to wish for either of you over the other; but you can't both get
it at once, you know.'

At this moment Katie came in, and soon afterwards Gertrude and
the two other young men, and so nothing further was said on the
subject.

Charley parted with the competitors at the corner of Waterloo
Bridge. He turned into Somerset House, being there regarded on
these Monday mornings as a prodigy of punctuality; and Alaric and
Harry walked back along the Strand, arm-in-arm, toward their own
office.

'Well, lads, I hope you'll both win,' said Charley. 'And
whichever wins most, why of course he'll stand an uncommon good
dinner.'

'Oh! that's of course,' said Alaric. 'We'll have it at the
Trafalgar.'