The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope

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The sixth in order was our friend Norman. The Secretary and the
two Assistant-Secretaries, when they first put their heads
together on the matter, declared that he was the most useful man
in the office.

There was a seventh, named Alphabet Precis. Mr. Precis' peculiar
forte was a singular happiness in official phraseology. Much that
he wrote would doubtless have been considered in the purlieus of
Paternoster Row as ungrammatical, if not unintelligible; but
according to the syntax of Downing Street, it was equal to
Macaulay, and superior to Gibbon. He had frequently said to his
intimate friends, that in official writing, style was everything;
and of his writing it certainly did form a very prominent part.
He knew well, none perhaps so well, when to beg leave to lay
before the Board--and when simply to submit to the Commissioners.
He understood exactly to whom it behoved the secretary 'to have
the honour of being a very humble servant,' and to whom the more
simple 'I am, sir,' was a sufficiently civil declaration. These
are qualifications great in official life, but were not quite so
much esteemed at the time of which we are speaking as they had
been some few years previously.

There was but one other named as likely to stand with any
probability of success, and he was Alaric Tudor. Among the very
juniors of the office he was regarded as the great star of the
office. There was a dash about him and a quick readiness for any
work that came to hand in which, perhaps, he was not equalled by
any of his compeers. Then, too, he was the special friend of Sir
Gregory.

But no one had yet heard Tudor say that he intended to compete
with his seven seniors--none yet knew whether he would put
himself forward as an adversary to his own especial friend,
Norman. That Norman would be a candidate had been prominently
stated. For some few days not a word was spoken, even between the
friends themselves, as to Tudor's intention.

On the Sunday they were as usual at Hampton, and then the subject
was mooted by no less a person than Captain Cuttwater.

So you young gentlemen up in London are all going to be examined,
are you?' said he; 'what is it to be about? Who's to be first
lieutenant of the ship, is that it?'

'Oh no,' said Alaric, 'nothing half so high as that. Boatswain's
mate would be nearer the mark.'

'And who is to be the successful man?'

'Oh, Harry Norman, here. He was far the first favourite in
yesterday's betting.'

And how do you stand yourself?' said Uncle Bat.

'Oh! I'm only an outsider,' said Alaric. 'They put my name down
just to swell the number, but I shall be scratched before the
running begins.'

'Indeed he won't,' said Harry. 'He'll run and distance us all.
There is no one who has a chance with him. Why, he is Sir
Gregory's own pet.'

There was nothing more said on the subject at Surbiton Cottage.
The ladies seemed instinctively to perceive that it was a matter
which they had better leave alone. Not only were the two young
men to be pitted against each other, but Gertrude and Linda were
as divided in their wishes on the subject as the two candidates
could be themselves.

On the following morning, however, Norman introduced the subject.
'I suppose you were only jesting yesterday,' said he, 'when you
told the captain that you were not going to be a candidate?'

'Indeed I can hardly say that I was in jest or in earnest,' said
Alaric. 'I simply meant to decline to discuss the subject with
Uncle Bat.'

'But of course you do mean to stand?' said Harry. Alaric made no
answer.

'Perhaps you would rather decline to discuss the matter with me
also?' said Harry.

'Not at all; I would much prefer discussing it openly and
honestly. My own impression is, that I had better leave it
alone.'

'And why so?' said Harry.

'Why so?' repeated Alaric. 'Well, there are so many reasons. In
the first place, there would be seven to one against me; and I
must confess that if I did stand I should not like to be beaten.'

'The same argument might keep us all back,' said Norman.

'That's true; but one man will be more sensitive, more cowardly,
if you will, than another; and then I think no one should stand
who does not believe himself to have a fair chance. His doing so
might probably mar his future prospects. How can I put myself in
competition with such men as Uppinall and Minuses?'

Harry laughed slightly, for he knew it had been asked by many how
such men as Uppinall and Minusex could think of putting
themselves in competition with Alaric Tudor.

'That is something like mock-modesty, is it not, Alaric?'

'No, by heaven, it is not! I know well what those men are made
of; and I know, or think I know, my own abilities. I will own
that I rank myself as a human creature much higher than I rank
them. But they have that which I have not, and that which they
have is that which these examiners will chiefly require.'

'If you have no other reason,' said Norman, 'I would strongly
advise you to send in your name.'

'Well, Harry, I have another reason; and, though last, it is by
no means the least. You will be a candidate, and probably the
successful one. To tell you the truth, I have no inclination to
stand against you.'

Norman turned very red, and then answered somewhat gravely: 'I
would advise you to lay aside that objection. I fairly tell you
that I consider your chance better than my own.'

'And suppose it be so, which I am sure it is not--but suppose it
be so, what then?'

'Why, you will do right to take advantage of it.'

'Yes, and so gain a step and lose a friend!' said Alaric. 'No;
there can be no heartburn to me in your being selected, for
though I am older than you, you are my senior in the office. But
were I to be put over your head, it would in the course of nature
make a division between us; and if it were possible that you
should forgive it, it would be quite impossible that Gertrude
should do so. I value your friendship and that of the Woodwards
too highly to risk it.'

Norman instantly fired up with true generous energy. 'I should be
wretched,' said he, 'if I thought that such a consideration
weighed with you; I would rather withdraw myself than allow such
a feeling to interfere with your prospects. Indeed, after what
you have said, I shall not send in my own name unless you also
send in yours.'

'I shall only be creating fuel for a feud,' said Alaric. 'To put
you out of the question, no promotion could compensate to me for
what I should lose at Hampton.'

'Nonsense, man; you would lose nothing. Faith, I don't know
whether it is not I that should lose, if I were successful at
your expense.'

'How would Gertrude receive me?' said Alaric, pushing the matter
further than he perhaps should have done.

'We won't mind Gertrude,' said Norman, with a little shade of
black upon his brow. 'You are an older man than I, and therefore
promotion is to you of more importance than to me. You are also a
poorer man. I have some means besides that drawn from my office,
which, if I marry, I can settle on my wife; you have none such. I
should consider myself to be worse than wicked if I allowed any
consideration of such a nature to stand in the way of your best
interests. Believe me, Alaric, that though I shall, as others, be
anxious for success myself, I should, in failing, be much
consoled by knowing that you had succeeded.' And as he finished
speaking he grasped his friend's hand warmly in token of the
truth of his assertion.

Alaric brushed a tear from his eye, and ended by promising to be
guided by his friend's advice. Harry Norman, as he walked into
the office, felt a glow of triumph as he reflected that he had
done his duty by his friend with true disinterested honesty. And
Alaric, he also felt a glow of triumph as he reflected that, come
what might, there would be now no necessity for him to break with
Norman or with the Woodwards. Norman must now always remember
that it was at his own instigation that he, Alaric, had consented
to be a candidate.

As regarded the real fact of the candidature, the prize was too
great to allow of his throwing away such a chance. Alaric's
present income was L200; that which he hoped to gain was L600!

CHAPTER VII

MR. FIDUS NEVERBEND

Immediately on entering the office, Tudor gave it to be
understood that he intended to give in his name as a candidate;
but he had hardly done so when his attention was called off from
the coming examinations by another circumstance, which was
ultimately of great importance to him. One of the Assistant-
Secretaries sent for him, and told him that his services having
been required by Sir Gregory Hardlines for a week or so, he was
at once to go over to that gentleman's office; and Alaric could
perceive that, as Sir Gregory's name was mentioned, the
Assistant-Secretary smiled on him with no aspect of benign
solicitude.

He went over accordingly, and found that Sir Gregory, having been
desired to select a man for a special service in the country, had
named him. He was to go down to Tavistock with another gentleman
from the Woods and Forests, for the purpose of settling some
disputed point as to the boundaries and privileges of certain
mines situated there on Crown property.

'You know nothing about mining, I presume?' said Sir Gregory.

'Nothing whatever,' said Alaric.

'I thought not; that was one reason why I selected you. What is
wanted is a man of sharp intelligence and plain common sense, and
one also who can write English; for it will fall to your lot to
draw up the report on the matter. Mr. Neverbend, who is to be
your colleague, cannot put two words together.'

'Mr. Neverbend!' said Alaric.

'Yes, Fidus Neverbend, of the Woods and Forests; a very excellent
public servant, and one in whom the fullest confidence can be
placed. But between you and me, he will never set the Thames on
fire.'

'Does he understand mining?' asked Alaric.

'He understands Government properties, and will take care that
the Crown be not wronged; but, Tudor, the Government will look to
you to get the true common-sense view of the case. I trust--I
mean that I really do trust, that you will not disgrace my
choice.'

Alaric of course promised that he would do his best, expressed
the deepest gratitude to his patron, and went off to put himself
into communication with Mr. Neverbend at the Woods and Forests,
having received an assurance that the examination in his own
office should not take place till after his return from
Tavistock. He was not slow to perceive that if he could manage to
come back with all the _eclat_ of a successful mission, the
prestige of such a journey would go far to assist him on his
coming trial.

Mr. Fidus Neverbend was an absolute dragon of honesty. His
integrity was of such an all-pervading nature, that he bristled
with it as a porcupine does with its quills. He had theories and
axioms as to a man's conduct, and the conduct especially of a man
in the Queen's Civil Service, up to which no man but himself
could live. Consequently no one but himself appeared to himself
to be true and just in all his dealings.

A quarter of an hour spent over a newspaper was in his eyes a
downright robbery. If he saw a man so employed, he would divide
out the total of salary into hourly portions, and tell him to a
fraction of how much he was defrauding the public. If he ate a
biscuit in the middle of the day, he did so with his eyes firmly
fixed on some document, and he had never been known to be absent
from his office after ten or before four.

When Sir Gregory Hardlines declared that Mr. Fidus Neverbend
would never set the Thames on fire, he meant to express his
opinion that that gentleman was a fool; and that those persons
who were responsible for sending Mr. Neverbend on the mission now
about to be undertaken, were little better than fools themselves
for so sending him. But Mr. Neverbend was no fool. He was not a
disciple of Sir Gregory's school. He had never sat in that
philosopher's porch, or listened to the high doctrines prevalent
at the Weights and Measures. He could not write with all Mr.
Precis' conventional correctness, or dispose of any subject at a
moment's notice as would Mr. Uppinall; but, nevertheless, he was
no fool. Sir Gregory, like many other wise men, thought that
there were no swans but of his own hatching, and would ask, with
all the pompous conceit of Pharisees in another age, whether good
could come out of the Woods and Forests?

Sir Gregory, however, perfectly succeeded in his object of
imbuing Tudor with a very indifferent opinion of his new
colleague's abilities. It was his object that Tudor should
altogether take the upper hand in the piece of work which was to
be done between them, and that it should be clearly proved how
very incapable the Woods and Forests were of doing their own
business.

Mr. Fidus Neverbend, however, whatever others in the outer world
might think of him, had a high character in his own office, and
did not under-estimate himself. He, when he was told that a young
clerk named Tudor was to accompany him, conceived that he might
look on his companion rather in the light of a temporary private
secretary than an equal partner, and imagined that new glory was
added to him by his being so treated. The two men therefore met
each other with very different views.

But though Mr. Neverbend was no fool, he was not an equal either
in tact or ability to Alaric Tudor. Alaric had his interview with
him, and was not slow to perceive the sort of man with whom he
had to act. Of course, on this occasion, little more than
grimaces and civility passed between them; but Mr. Neverbend,
even in his grimaces and civility, managed to show that he
regarded himself as decidedly No. 1 upon the occasion.

'Well, Mr. Tudor,' said he, 'I think of starting on Tuesday.
Tuesday will not, I suppose, be inconvenient to you?'

'Sir Gregory has already told me that we are expected to be at
Tavistock on Tuesday evening.'

'Ah! I don't know about that,' said Neverbend; 'that may be all
very well for Sir Gregory, but I rather think I shall stay the
night at Plymouth.'

'It will be the same to me,' said Tudor; 'I haven't looked at the
papers yet, so I can hardly say what may be necessary.'

'No, no; of course not. As to the papers, I don't know that there
is much with which you need trouble yourself. I believe I am
pretty well up in the case. But, Mr. Tudor, there will be a good
deal of writing to do when we are there.'

'We are both used to that, I fancy,' said Tudor, 'so it won't
kill us.'

'No, of course not. I understand that there will be a good many
people for me to see, a great many conflicting interests for me
to reconcile; and probably I may find myself obliged to go down
two or three of these mines.'

'Well, that will be good fun,' said Alaric.

Neverbend drew himself up. The idea of having fun at the cost of
Government was painful to him; however, he spared the stranger
his reproaches, and merely remarked that the work he surmised
would be heavy enough both for the man who went below ground, and
for the one who remained above.

The only point settled between them was that of their starting by
an early train on the Tuesday named; and then Alaric returned to
Sir Gregory's office, there to read through and digest an immense
bulk of papers all bearing on the question at issue. There had,
it appeared, been lately opened between the Tamar and the Tavy a
new mine, which had become exceedingly prosperous--outrageously
prosperous, as shareholders and directors of neighbouring mines
taught themselves to believe. Some question had arisen as to the
limits to which the happy possessors of this new tin El Dorado
were entitled to go; squabbles, of course, had been the result,
and miners and masters had fought and bled, each side in defence
of its own rights. As a portion of these mines were on Crown
property it became necessary that the matter should be looked to,
and as the local inspector was accused of having been bribed and
bought, and of being, in fact, an absolute official Judas, it
became necessary to send some one to inspect the inspector. Hence
had come Alaric's mission. The name of the mine in question was
Wheal Mary Jane, and Alaric had read the denomination half a
score of times before he learnt that there was no real female in
the case.

The Sunday before he went was of course passed at Hampton, and
there he received the full glory of his special appointment. He
received glory, and Norman in an equal degree fell into the
background. Mrs. Woodward stuck kindly to Harry, and endeavoured,
in her gentle way, to quiz the projected trip to Devonshire. But
the other party was too strong, and her raillery failed to have
the intended effect. Gertrude especially expressed her opinion
that it was a great thing for so young a man to have been
selected for such employment by such a person; and Linda, though
she said less, could not prevent her tell-tale face from saying
more. Katie predicted that Alaric would certainly marry Mary Jane
Wheal, and bring her to Surbiton Cottage, and Captain Cuttwater
offered to the hero introductions to all the old naval officers
at Devonport.

'By jingo! I should like to go with you,' said the captain.

'I fear the pleasure would not repay the trouble,' said Alaric,
laughing.

'Upon my word I think I'll do it,' said the captain. 'It would be
of the greatest possible service to you as an officer of the
Crown. It would give you so much weight there. I could make you
known, you know----'

'I could not hear of such a thing,' said Alaric, trembling at the
idea which Uncle Bat had conjured up.

'There is Admiral Starbod, and Captain Focassel, and old
Hardaport, and Sir Jib Boom--why, d--n me, they would all do
anything for me--craving the ladies' pardon.'

Alaric, in his own defence, was obliged to declare that the rules
of the service especially required that he should hold no
friendly communication with any one during the time that he was
employed on this special service. Poor Captain Cuttwater, grieved
to have his good nature checked, was obliged to put up with this
excuse, and consoled himself with abusing the Government which
could condescend to give so absurd an order.

This was on the Saturday. On the Sunday, going to church, the
captain suggested that Alaric might, at any rate, just call upon
Sir Jib on the sly. 'It would be a great thing for you,' said
Uncle Bat. 'I'll write a note to-night, and you can take it with
you. Sir Jib is a rising man, and you'll regret it for ever if
you miss the opportunity.' Now Sir Jib Boom was between seventy
and eighty, and he and Captain Cuttwater had met each other
nearly every day for the last twenty years, and had never met
without a squabble.

After church they had their usual walk, and Linda's heart
palpitated as she thought that she might have to undergo another
_tete-a-tete_ with her lover. But it palpitated in vain. It
so turned out that Alaric either avoided, or, at any rate, did
not use the privilege, and Linda returned home with an undefined
feeling of gentle disappointment. She had fully made up her mind
to be very staid, very discreet, and very collected; to take a
leaf out of her sister's book, and give him no encouragement
whatever; she would not absolutely swear to him that she did not
now, and never could, return his passion; but she would point out
how very imprudent any engagement between two young persons,
situated as they were, must be--how foolish it would be for them
to bind themselves, for any number of years, to a marriage which
must be postponed; she would tell Alaric all this, and make him
understand that he was not to regard himself as affianced to her;
but she with a woman's faith would nevertheless remain true to
him. This was Linda's great resolve, and the strong hope, that in
a very few weeks, Alaric would be promoted to a marrying income
of L600 per annum, made the prospect of the task not so painful
as it might otherwise have been. Fate, however, robbed her of the
pleasure, if it would have been a pleasure, of sacrificing her
love to her duty; and 'dear Linda, dearest Linda,' was not again
whispered into her ear.

'And what on earth is it that you are to do down in the mines?'
asked Mrs. Woodward as they sat together in the evening.

'Nothing on the earth, Mrs. Woodward--it is to be all below the
surface, forty fathom deep,' said Alaric.

'Take care that you ever come up again,' said she.

'They say the mine is exceedingly rich--perhaps I may be tempted
to stay down there.'

'Then you'll be like the gloomy gnome, that lives in dark, cold
mines,' said Katie.

'Isn't it very dangerous, going down into those places?' asked
Linda.

'Men go down and come up again every day of their lives, and what
other men can do, I can, I suppose.'

'That doesn't follow at all,' said Captain Cuttwater, 'What sort
of a figure would you make on a yard-arm, reefing a sail in a
gale of wind?'

'Pray do take care of yourself,' said Gertrude.

Norman's brow grew black. 'I thought that it was settled that Mr.
Neverbend was to go down, and that you were to stay above
ground,' said he.

'So Mr. Neverbend settled it; but that arrangement may, perhaps,
be unsettled again,' said Alaric, with a certain feeling of
confidence in his own strong will.

'I don't at all doubt,' said Mrs. Woodward, 'that if we were to
get a sly peep at you, we should find you both sitting comfortably
at your inn all the time, and that neither of you will go a foot below
the ground.'

'Very likely. All I mean to say is, that if Neverbend goes down
I'll go too.'

'But mind, you gloomy gnome, mind you bring up a bit of gold for
me,' said Katie.

On the Monday morning he started with the often-expressed good
wishes of all the party, and with a note for Sir Jib Boom, which
the captain made him promise that he would deliver, and which
Alaric fully determined to lose long before he got to Plymouth.

That evening he and Norman passed together. As soon as their
office hours were over, they went into the London Exhibition,
which was then open; and there, walking up and down the long
centre aisle, they talked with something like mutual confidence
of their future prospects. This was a favourite resort with
Norman, who had schooled himself to feel an interest in works of
art. Alaric's mind was of a different cast; he panted rather for
the great than the beautiful; and was inclined to ridicule the
growing taste of the day for torsos, Palissy ware, and Assyrian
monsters.

There was then some mutual confidence between the two young men.
Norman, who was apt to examine himself and his own motives more
strictly than Alaric ever did, had felt that something like
suspicion as to his friend had crept over him; and he had felt
also that there was no ground for such suspicion. He had
determined to throw it off, and to be again cordial with his
companion. He had resolved so to do before his last visit at
Hampton; but it was at Hampton that the suspicion had been
engendered, and there he found himself unable to be genial,
kindly, and contented. Surbiton Cottage was becoming to him
anything but the abode of happiness that it had once been. A year
ago he had been the hero of the Hampton Sundays; he could not but
now feel that Alaric had, as it were, supplanted him with his own
friends. The arrival even of so insignificant a person as Captain
Cuttwater--and Captain Cuttwater was very insignificant in
Norman's mind--had done much to produce this state of things. He
had been turned out of his bedroom at the cottage, and had
therefore lost those last, loving, lingering words, sometimes
protracted to so late an hour, which had been customary after
Alaric's departure to his inn--those last lingering words which
had been so sweet because their sweetness had not been shared
with his friend.

He could not be genial and happy at Surbiton Cottage; but he was
by no means satisfied with himself that he should not have been
so. When he found that he had been surly with Alaric, he was much
more angry with himself than Alaric was with him. Alaric, indeed,
was indifferent about it. He had no wish to triumph over Harry,
but he had an object to pursue, and he was not the man to allow
himself to be diverted from it by any one's caprice.

'This trip is a great thing for you,' said Harry.

'Well, I really don't know. Of course I could not decline it; but
on the whole I should be just as well pleased to have been
spared. If I get through it well, why it will be well. But even
that cannot help me at this examination.'

'I don't know that.'

'Why--a week passed in the slush of a Cornish mine won't teach a
man algebra.'

'It will give you _prestige_.'

'Then you mean to say the examiners won't examine fairly; well,
perhaps so. But what will be the effect on me if I fail? I know
nothing of mines. I have a colleague with me of whom I can only
learn that he is not weak enough to be led, or wise enough to
lead; who is so self-opinionated that he thinks he is to do the
whole work himself, and yet so jealous that he fears I shall take
the very bread out of his mouth. What am I to do with such a
man?'